Guild Wars 2

amiia.8139:

You realize that You just insulted 100% of MMO game community? I highly disgrace this attitude in MMO because it kills this genre. For solo games probably You should go back to Baldurs Gate times. Games are meant to be played together.

I wasn’t insulted in the slightest so your wrong.

Also…..

Anet

Will Guild Wars 2 be solo-able?
Yes. You will be able to advance your character to the maximum level without ever joining a group, if you so desire. Most content will be designed in a solo-friendly way, though often with mechanisms for scaling up in difficulty when more players are involved. This will give players the option to experience the game however they prefer.

..taken from the official FAQ at the time of GW2 initial release.

Now you can like, loath or disagree with this play-style and these players all you want. You will never change the fact that the core game was intentionally and directly marketed at solo players. It’s indisputable the game encouraged and embraced this type of play both in intent and mechanics.

One could argue this is not the case anymore, "That was the core game, this expansion is geared at “hardcore” players who love grouping" but you can’t change the fact solo players were enticed to purchase the original game by the game makers themselves.

This may have changed, Anet have done this kind of thing before (the transition in GW1 from a nice PvE/PvP balance to pretty much exclusively PvE focused expansions and focus effectively killing the PvP community through neglect) but you can’t expect to intentionally entice and market your product to a subset of customers, have them invest over 3 years of game time, progression and in many cases a lot of cash, then alienate them when you finally release your first expansion.

It’s just horrible business practice, more so when they made no mention of this before release and cleverly hid it behind having the elite spec fully unlocked in the BWE’s.

It’s just deceptive and dishonest business practice in a genre where people are far more invested in their game and characters.

I’m as much against it as I would be if the game released was “easymode” but the scales of balance have shifted way to far towards the 24/7 every day player here.

JOKe.3597:

This is MMO you should not play solo.. if you want to play solo go play witcher.

Answering with “But MMO’s are’nt meant to be played solo, gtfo and go play offline” completely ignores the fact GW2 was designed exactly for this play style, and actively encouraged players who enjoy that.

Go play a moba.

JOKe.3597:

This is MMO you should not play solo.. if you want to play solo go play witcher.

A short post – probably the result of a short thought – and a wrong one

I’d suggest trying google or wikipedia to read up what MMO actually means.

Then I’d ponder REAL hard why ANet decided (still a big yay for that) decided to go away from the classic party and role oriented playstyle (tank, damage dealer, healer and hybrids) and created self-sufficient classes.

And throughout GW2 and its history (including the living story updates) most of the game was solo-able, fractals, dungeons and big meta events being the exception (although you CAN do a few meta or group events solo or with a duo).

With HoT, though, that design has changed:

You need XP to unlock masteries which you need to progress in the PERSONAL story and to unlock YOUR elite skill. Most events on the map, though, are group-based. This is not a problem NOW but it will be a problem for players joining GW2 in a year or so. Especially since the XP gain per event is pretty low and the personal story (which gives nice XP) will only take you so far before you hit mastery-gated content.

You also have to do the hero points to unlock your elite spec (unless you play WvW a lot). This requires masteries (to get there) AND many of those hero points are group based contenbt – a design flaw that will become apparent once the maps are a bit more empty.

Reminds me a bit of EoTN … first it was level 20 only, then they lowered it to level 10. An expansion does not sell well when it is only accessible for players who are already at max level with optimized gear. Someone starting out on GW2 (and buying HoT) already has to get to level 80 first before they can use HoT – your first char does take a bit unless you have a superfriendly guild. Once they are in HoT they can work for the masteries but the promised elite spec will be a long way away from them (most current players do not notice this because they probably have a favourite class that has a lot of surplus points).

Wow, I cant believe im seeing all this complaining about grouping up in an MMO. Isn’t that the point? I was coming here just to say how much i enjoy it and i see this thread.
Every time I play the new content im excited that it so hard you have to group up. It actually feels like an accomplishment when you finish something. Also its a good reason to run around with your guild/friends. You do have friends, right?
Anyways, thanks Anet for some quality content. Please don’t downgrade the difficulty. There already plenty of easy content in the game. My guild and I are having a blast.

The problem is becoming more of a MMORPG problem, apparently.

People complain about the content being too easy or not challenging. So what do developer’s do? They make the content more difficult and challenging, forcing players to band together and party up in order to complete the content.

Unfortunately, players like me, who like to either solo part-time or all the time, are at a serious disadvantage. Because we can’t play the game they way we want to play it. It forces us to play into a grind.

When Guild Wars 2 was advertising its game before release, the best quality I liked being pitched was “We don’t want players to feel like they need to grind.” This was never the case with Guild Wars 2. But I don’t blame the game too much, its more the community itself, Guild Wars 2 has a very large grinding community. And if you are not apart of the grind when the content comes out, you get left behind in the dust. Either your stuck doing content by yourself, unable to complete it because people won’t help you do old content and the content is too difficult to complete solo. so you just quit and don’t do the content at all.

It’s the biggest reason why I stop doing PvE. I’ve played the game since beta, but I didn’t really get into it until after the holidays, and by that time I found myself going through the storyline solo, by the time I got to Orr though, it was right in the thick of Flame and Frost and no one wanted to do or help with final story. To this day, I’ve never finished the main storyline. Same thing goes with Living World, I still don’t have everything done, but no one does it anymore.

Give it about a year, no one is going to be doing HoT. They will move on and demand more content. Leaving people who are taking a break or trying other games in the dust, and they won’t get this new content.

Skye.2038:

Wow, I cant believe im seeing all this complaining about grouping up in an MMO. Isn’t that the point? I was coming here just to say how much i enjoy it and i see this thread.
Every time I play the new content im excited that it so hard you have to group up. It actually feels like an accomplishment when you finish something. Also its a good reason to run around with your guild/friends. You do have friends, right?
Anyways, thanks Anet for some quality content. Please don’t downgrade the difficulty. There already plenty of easy content in the game. My guild and I are having a blast.

With all respect, people are different from one another. Some do exactly as you do and that’s fine. Others prefer solo play and that’s fine too. Some prefer a mixture and so on and so forth.

MMO doesn’t mean forced to group

I think we’ll see the difficulty level in HoT adjusted downwards.
These games need to cater for the averagely-geared majority rather than the elitist minority because they need to make money. No money = no game.

And, like it or not, solo play is a BIG part of these games now.

I’ve been playing most of this expansion so far as a solo ranger, and I’ve gotten into the 3rd map and the corresponding story steps just fine. I don’t have all the hero points yet, but I didn’t explicitely go out of my way to get each one either, they’ll still be there when I get back to them later.

And no, I’m not a twiching no-life gamer. I’m in my late 40s, mom of two special young ladies, wife, with a fulltime job and (due to medical issues) less than stellar reflexes, but I’m not in a hurry to get anywhere in this game, and I find if I take my time, look at everything around me, and try to react (if necessary even by switching up pets, skills, and gear) to it, advancing through this expansion is very much doable solo.

I’ve still got a ton of alts and thoroughly enjoy playing this game with other people, too, so if you’re in EU and want to try the new maps with a traveling companion, feel free to send me a pm (I’m mostly online with my other account these days as my main characters are over there). I’m usually on for a couple of hours each evening.

MMO means “Massively Multiplayer Online”.
I agree that it do not means you should not play solo, but it’s not meant to make solo playing as “easy and rewarding” than group content.
Group content must be challenging to be interesting.
And the game must promote group content over soloing.

If you can do anything alone, it’s not a MMO.

The new content is pretty well balanced.
You can do things solo :
Some challenges, gathering mats, some events (gathering provisions), going from a place to an other if you’re paying attention to avoid foes and cliffs (do not work if you auto-walk while looking YouTube)

You have mild solo/mild group content :
Events/Bosses/Trains you can join casually and benefit from others players on site without having to coordinate with.
Good players can fully solo them or use trick to solo them. Depends on player skills and class abilities.

You have group content :
Events/Bosses/Trains needing organisation and coordination.

To me, MMO means all play styles. A MMO should cater to all different playstyles, whether its large groups, small groups, solo, whatever. It should be enjoyable for all. Guild Wars 2 doesn’t have a good balance of that. It caters heavily towards grouping up. Is that wrong for Guild Wars 2? No, its their game they developed, they create it however they feel. I think the point is that HoT has made it apparent Anet’s position to make their game more group-based rather than all playstyles like other MMO’s.

I’ve already made up my mind that I am not playing the HoT PvE, that I am training my Reaper and then logging into Guild Wars 2 purely for WvW. Because the other components of this game, just don’t suit me or what I like. Kind of bummed because I loved Guild Wars 1, but unfortunately I couldn’t find the same passion for Guild Wars 2.

Kulvar.1239:

MMO means “Massively Multiplayer Online”.
I agree that it do not means you should not play solo, but it’s not meant to make solo playing as “easy and rewarding” than group content.
Group content must be challenging to be interesting.
And the game must promote group content over soloing.

If you can do anything alone, it’s not a MMO.

I’d agree to a certain extent but perhaps scale the difficulty if there is a solo player and reward as applicable.

When you say " the game must promote group content over soloing." I’d have to disagree with you there. Given there are a lot of people who solo, there’s a danger of alienating a big percentage of the player base.

I keep seeing this “people wont want to help out with old content” but the champions from the new Hero Point challenges seem to drop some good loot once a day if you’ve already unlocked it for you character. Am i wrong about that?
Seems like a really good incentive for helping out people who don’t have it already.

HtFde.3856:

Er – you say “lack of population” I say “lack of players” yet you go aggressive on me … take a shower, a cold one, and look up “politeness” before you post again.

As a GW1 player I know how many Zones we had (and still have) on festivities. Now you can go to the boss maps in GW2 and see how often you get the “leave map” message and also how easy it is to force a new map by mass zoning.

Time has moved on and ALL MMOs have a population problem. That is why GW2 decided to do self-sufficient classes in the first place – so that people would not be forced to look for party members to do content. They still added party only content but about 90% – 95% of the game can be played solo without the need of henchmen or heroes.

So – where’s the contradiction to anything I said except being rather rude? Had a bad day and just wanted to vent off some steam?

HoT, though, did change all that – most players and classes will be hard pressed to solo the most important parts of HoT (for getting XP to unlock masteries and getting the HP to unlock their elite spec) once the maps get less population. And, yes, that is a failed design – especially as the loot is not really overwhelming so people will (at the moment) probably still grind Silverwastes because it gives better rewards per hours spent.

And – as someone working in quality assurance – I meet developer swho so totally do not get it every day. It’s not a matter of being a loudmouth, it’s a matter of trying to avoid boxed thinking and trying to see where things lead to. Developers have a rather focused point of view – that’s needed to get their things done (and not redesign 10 times while coding) but the drawback of this is, that they sometimes tend to not see consequences outside of their current view.

And – think the trait system that was introduced with the NPE – sometimes they can be HORRIBLY wrong in predicting the consequences of their coding.

I like HoT – but it has a few drawbacks that need to be worked on/thought over before too many frustrated players have left (do you read the feedback threads – not an ideal situation) and the extension get’s an (undeserved) bad rating because of a few (but important) bad design choices.

Now this makes real point so please forgive me past rude behaviour. Just got distracted and didn’t get whole point of Your view (honestly I sometimes feel like monster that I’m trying to fight with – but that is another looong story to chat with a glass of whisky along).

For me they should focus on group content. As I played GW1 had always fun with friends and tried many various attempts thru all encounters (both pve and pvp). In GuildWars2 i felt lack of unique style of GW1. I just steamrolled over campaing with no problem at all with my Necro. Since few days in expansion I felt that I may require to ressurect my friends from other games to mess around and check if it is doable with simple party containing pack of friends. I had no problem at all so far to progress alone but I’m still waiting for my comrades to say about fun in xpac. You never can say about fun in MMO games when playing alone. Why when someone want to play alone want to look at massive multiplayer genre? To be mainstream? Because it is “cool”? There are tons of other singleplayer oriented games out there that are ten times better than GuildWars.

For good and bad design just compare design of ArcheAge to GuildWars2. People still play this trash – yet it is poorly designed to be grindcore festival and credit cash drainer. Of course You can’t compare these to games because these are two diffrent types of MMO but when You compare design of GW2 it is still pretty good afterall. Atleast more friendly to new users.

We – as community – shoudn’t see in “money glass”. As I see most of people pay and demand. They feel like kings in the castle after they spent a cash. Everything is connected to “I buy and I demand”. This is not how it is working. People shoudn’t be buying things that they don’t like and they should only things that they like. This only can force change in game genre.
So we can’t buy and demand to fix something is broken. We can buy and give advice – feedback. But please don’t turn it into complains and demands. Feedback is something that helps game grow but not with front sentence like “I bought game and it is broken, fix blablabla”.
Anyone who don’t like – don’t buy. Anyone who like – buy. Everyone give positive feedback and not complains nor throw away grief.

Skye.2038:

I keep seeing this “people wont want to help out with old content” but the champions from the new Hero Point challenges seem to drop some good loot once a day if you’ve already unlocked it for you character. Am i wrong about that?
Seems like a really good incentive for helping out people who don’t have it already.

If that is true, that is a step in the right direction. The biggest problem with doing old content (i.e. Orr, Living Story) the don’t make it rewarding for people who have already done it.

Skye.2038:

Wow, I cant believe im seeing all this complaining about grouping up in an MMO. Isn’t that the point? I was coming here just to say how much i enjoy it and i see this thread.
Every time I play the new content im excited that it so hard you have to group up. It actually feels like an accomplishment when you finish something. Also its a good reason to run around with your guild/friends. You do have friends, right?
Anyways, thanks Anet for some quality content. Please don’t downgrade the difficulty. There already plenty of easy content in the game. My guild and I are having a blast.

Nods – some of us, however, also have a RL which keeps interrupting game play. How would you feel if 2 group members went afk every 10 minutes or so for 20 minutes? Kick them? Probably.

And that’s how my playtime is … usually a phone call every 30 to 40 minutes requiring my attention for 15+ minutes. And that’s why I play solo most of the time … and yes, we’re already talking after-work hours.

Crunk n monkey.3749:

Skye.2038:

I keep seeing this “people wont want to help out with old content” but the champions from the new Hero Point challenges seem to drop some good loot once a day if you’ve already unlocked it for you character. Am i wrong about that?
Seems like a really good incentive for helping out people who don’t have it already.

If that is true, that is a step in the right direction. The biggest problem with doing old content (i.e. Orr, Living Story) the don’t make it rewarding for people who have already done it.

Yes it is. The hero challenge champ events give champion bags, map currency, experience, and map event participation once a day. The hero point itself is kind of the icing of the cake for first-time participation .

I’m fully expecting “hero point champ trains” to be a thing in the future.

Flatley.1620:

Kulvar.1239:

MMO means “Massively Multiplayer Online”.
I agree that it do not means you should not play solo, but it’s not meant to make solo playing as “easy and rewarding” than group content.
Group content must be challenging to be interesting.
And the game must promote group content over soloing.

If you can do anything alone, it’s not a MMO.

I’d agree to a certain extent but perhaps scale the difficulty if there is a solo player and reward as applicable.

When you say " the game must promote group content over soloing." I’d have to disagree with you there. Given there are a lot of people who solo, there’s a danger of alienating a big percentage of the player base.

You know that it is impossible to create content that is balanced, doable and enjoyable by all types of players? Mass/Raid, Group, Duos and Solo? They all focus on diffrent things to succeed. There should be solid part of game for all these groups but not common. It is like racial or man/woman issues. We shoudn’t be disgracing them but why they should be prirorized? They should be equal but not in favour.
But MMO games are ment and designed to be multiplayer. So promoting solo content over group content is like making loan but instead of cashout – You put that money in bank. In the end You get your money back but minus % of loan.

HtFde.3856:

Skye.2038:

Wow, I cant believe im seeing all this complaining about grouping up in an MMO. Isn’t that the point? I was coming here just to say how much i enjoy it and i see this thread.
Every time I play the new content im excited that it so hard you have to group up. It actually feels like an accomplishment when you finish something. Also its a good reason to run around with your guild/friends. You do have friends, right?
Anyways, thanks Anet for some quality content. Please don’t downgrade the difficulty. There already plenty of easy content in the game. My guild and I are having a blast.

Nods – some of us, however, also have a RL which keeps interrupting game play. How would you feel if 2 group members went afk every 10 minutes or so for 20 minutes? Kick them? Probably.

And that’s how my playtime is … usually a phone call every 30 to 40 minutes requiring my attention for 15+ minutes. And that’s why I play solo most of the time … and yes, we’re already talking after-work hours.

I would wait for them like always I do. First of all I don’t need to rush and I always have fun with my gaming buddies since long years now. We had this kind of situations over and over. This is not a problem afterall for thinking people with real life.

amiia.8139:

Flatley.1620:

Kulvar.1239:

MMO means “Massively Multiplayer Online”.
I agree that it do not means you should not play solo, but it’s not meant to make solo playing as “easy and rewarding” than group content.
Group content must be challenging to be interesting.
And the game must promote group content over soloing.

If you can do anything alone, it’s not a MMO.

I’d agree to a certain extent but perhaps scale the difficulty if there is a solo player and reward as applicable.

When you say " the game must promote group content over soloing." I’d have to disagree with you there. Given there are a lot of people who solo, there’s a danger of alienating a big percentage of the player base.

You know that it is impossible to create content that is balanced, doable and enjoyable by all types of players? Mass/Raid, Group, Duos and Solo? They all focus on diffrent things to succeed. There should be solid part of game for all these groups but not common. It is like racial or man/woman issues. We shoudn’t be disgracing them but why they should be prirorized? They should be equal but not in favour.
But MMO games are ment and designed to be multiplayer. So promoting solo content over group content is like making loan but instead of cashout – You put that money in bank. In the end You get your money back but minus % of loan.

I’m not saying content should be created for all types of player, but rather scale – let’s say some kind of boss type thing – so that a solo player doesn’t need the skills of 20 other players to handle the encounter. I’m pretty sure the Champion Risen Giant in Orr works this way to a certain extent.

On the grouping thing, I’ll think we’ll have to agree to disagree hehe

Rasimir.6239:

Crunk n monkey.3749:

Skye.2038:

I keep seeing this “people wont want to help out with old content” but the champions from the new Hero Point challenges seem to drop some good loot once a day if you’ve already unlocked it for you character. Am i wrong about that?
Seems like a really good incentive for helping out people who don’t have it already.

If that is true, that is a step in the right direction. The biggest problem with doing old content (i.e. Orr, Living Story) the don’t make it rewarding for people who have already done it.

Yes it is. The hero challenge champ events give champion bags, map currency, experience, and map event participation once a day. The hero point itself is kind of the icing of the cake for first-time participation .

I’m fully expecting “hero point champ trains” to be a thing in the future.

Right…

What’s going to be the motivation to do these hero point champ trains, when people have nothing to put their hero points into? (i.e. they finish their specialization)?

Crunk n monkey.3749:

Rasimir.6239:

Crunk n monkey.3749:

Skye.2038:

I keep seeing this “people wont want to help out with old content” but the champions from the new Hero Point challenges seem to drop some good loot once a day if you’ve already unlocked it for you character. Am i wrong about that?
Seems like a really good incentive for helping out people who don’t have it already.

If that is true, that is a step in the right direction. The biggest problem with doing old content (i.e. Orr, Living Story) the don’t make it rewarding for people who have already done it.

Yes it is. The hero challenge champ events give champion bags, map currency, experience, and map event participation once a day. The hero point itself is kind of the icing of the cake for first-time participation .

I’m fully expecting “hero point champ trains” to be a thing in the future.

Right…

What’s going to be the motivation to do these hero point champ trains, when people have nothing to put their hero points into? (i.e. they finish their specialization)?

Nice reading comprehension. This is why people are having trouble with the content.

Skye.2038:

Crunk n monkey.3749:

Rasimir.6239:

Crunk n monkey.3749:

Skye.2038:

I keep seeing this “people wont want to help out with old content” but the champions from the new Hero Point challenges seem to drop some good loot once a day if you’ve already unlocked it for you character. Am i wrong about that?
Seems like a really good incentive for helping out people who don’t have it already.

If that is true, that is a step in the right direction. The biggest problem with doing old content (i.e. Orr, Living Story) the don’t make it rewarding for people who have already done it.

Yes it is. The hero challenge champ events give champion bags, map currency, experience, and map event participation once a day. The hero point itself is kind of the icing of the cake for first-time participation .

I’m fully expecting “hero point champ trains” to be a thing in the future.

Right…

What’s going to be the motivation to do these hero point champ trains, when people have nothing to put their hero points into? (i.e. they finish their specialization)?

Nice reading comprehension. This is why people are having trouble with the content.

There has to be stupid people in this world so smart people don’t get depressed and commit suicide.

I think the emphasis should be summed up to Guild Wars original concept of “Play how you want”.

OK some content is going to need a few players to complete, that doesn’t always mean you have to be in a party, just a group of players, ie. more that one.

I’m pretty much a solo player, small guild 3 people, I have no aversion to being in a party.

I have solo’d everything in HoT so far, I have never even had a party invite in HoT, although I generally get some on the original maps.

Some people just like to be in a party, wherever they are on a map or whatever they might be doing, quite often you will see people looking for a party, any party as soon as they join a map.

As for me, I just go with the flow, if somethings hard I just wait until other people turn up.

There will always be zealots who will say the same stuff about it’s called “Guild Wars for a reason” or it’s “An MMO your supposed to be in a party”, but none of that’s really true.

Just let people play as they want, not how you think they should be playing “According to you”.

Most have all, however you decide to play…………… Have fun, be nice !

Crunk n monkey.3749:

Rasimir.6239:

Crunk n monkey.3749:

Skye.2038:

I keep seeing this “people wont want to help out with old content” but the champions from the new Hero Point challenges seem to drop some good loot once a day if you’ve already unlocked it for you character. Am i wrong about that?
Seems like a really good incentive for helping out people who don’t have it already.

If that is true, that is a step in the right direction. The biggest problem with doing old content (i.e. Orr, Living Story) the don’t make it rewarding for people who have already done it.

Yes it is. The hero challenge champ events give champion bags, map currency, experience, and map event participation once a day. The hero point itself is kind of the icing of the cake for first-time participation .

I’m fully expecting “hero point champ trains” to be a thing in the future.

Right…

What’s going to be the motivation to do these hero point champ trains, when people have nothing to put their hero points into? (i.e. they finish their specialization)?

???

Correct me if I’m wrong, but we were just talking about those champ events giving champion bags, map currency, experience, and map event participation once a day, right? If that’s not enough motivation for you, don’t do them, but many of these are quick and easy to do with a few players, and I fully expect people working on map rewards to take advantage of them.

Rasimir.6239:

Crunk n monkey.3749:

Rasimir.6239:

Crunk n monkey.3749:

Skye.2038:

I keep seeing this “people wont want to help out with old content” but the champions from the new Hero Point challenges seem to drop some good loot once a day if you’ve already unlocked it for you character. Am i wrong about that?
Seems like a really good incentive for helping out people who don’t have it already.

If that is true, that is a step in the right direction. The biggest problem with doing old content (i.e. Orr, Living Story) the don’t make it rewarding for people who have already done it.

Yes it is. The hero challenge champ events give champion bags, map currency, experience, and map event participation once a day. The hero point itself is kind of the icing of the cake for first-time participation .

I’m fully expecting “hero point champ trains” to be a thing in the future.

Right…

What’s going to be the motivation to do these hero point champ trains, when people have nothing to put their hero points into? (i.e. they finish their specialization)?

???

Correct me if I’m wrong, but we were just talking about those champ events giving champion bags, map currency, experience, and map event participation once a day, right? If that’s not enough motivation for you, don’t do them, but many of these are quick and easy to do with a few players, and I fully expect people working on map rewards to take advantage of them.

My mistake, I read it as you were saying that the point of the champ train would be farming hero points from the challenge once everyday.

Flatley.1620:

I’d agree to a certain extent but perhaps scale the difficulty if there is a solo player and reward as applicable.

When you say " the game must promote group content over soloing." I’d have to disagree with you there. Given there are a lot of people who solo, there’s a danger of alienating a big percentage of the player base.

I said “promote grouping over soloing”, not “kill soloing” ;)
But crippling the challenge so that the worst players can solo things is worse than making them into improving their skills or asking them to team with others.

There are “four” main players interest types (not exclusive of the others).

Competitors : are PvP-oriented so it’s not a concern for the Heart of Maguuma.
They’re mostly PvP, maybe WvW for Competitors/Socializers.

Explorers : They like to go everywhere, talk to NPC, learn things, know where things are… Danger gives thrills and taste to exploring. With masteries and especially gliders, explorers are enjoying the content. If you want to go somewhere, ask to an explorer.

Socializers : They enjoy the game by playing with others and chating. Even when doing nothing, if they can talk with someone, … they’ll be happy. You want help to do something, ask a socializer.

Achievers : They want to collect everything. Every minis, every achievement, every skin. They like to see the UI full of 100% and one missing number is seen as an annoyance.

It’s for “achievers” than we have split :
- Achievers + Socializers don’t bother helping and being help
- Achievers + Explorers may be mildly annoyed having to delay some goals needing help.
- Achievers + Competitors want to be over everyone else and all by themselves.

Of course, you can be any of the combination of types and have a nice and kind heart or be the worst moron/“behind part hole” of the world. :D

Hi guys.

I’m a new player. Came to GW2 from another (cash hungry, p2w) game. I choosed to buy GW2 (before it went f2p), after reading forum oppinions. I liked a game after few hours of game play, it was hard to get used to a combat mechanism. But after that first time, I started to have amazing fun.

I read this topic and started to think about replying to it.

I think that many ppl here have tried another games, and we could find only one game such as GW2.
Gods, playing in Tyria is an amazing thing! Free, do what u want, go to a place where, there is a singing Quagan, smoke and listen to her songs till u have enough. I loved it from first time Then go to a World Boss, team up? If u want. Team up and do dungs, socialize, talk. Sure, if u want. Or go solo to a singing Quagan and sit alone. Sure, if u want. Want sth challenging? Go to Hirathi Hinterlands alone or with one another player, and fight that Big Giant monster, with your GS warrior with 3 evades:P Sure, if u want to. I hope that u get my point.

Last thing. I’m a working person, i dont have much time for a game, so all i am looking for is fun without frustration. Core GW hited my taste. Stressless, free play. Beautiful, amazing views. Solo? Not-solo? Its up to me, my mood and free time.

Now, no need to hate HoT if it realy demand ppl to team up. I think that we all have free choice. I tried HoT, sure. Was harder. I choosed to come back to core maps, for now, or forever. My choice. My point is. Ppl will evaluate HoT, as worth to spend a time there or not.
Just remember, when ppl get older, start working, start a family life, then they have less time for frustrating, demanding play.

Everything will be ok if game developers will not start to nerf core game, what apperently they started with dungs.

Take care guys, and have fun above everything else:)

I will admit that the HoT expansion could use some more non-party/guild content. What im really against is them reworking the current content to make it easier. Before the expansion the challenging content was countable on one hand. Now i have a lot more and im loving it. I hate seeing a world full of enemies where i can just set a fire field down, stand in it and the enemies kill themselves.
When they fix the map population issue we should have a lot of these complaints solved. At that point even if you aren’t in a party a lot more random players should be around to help you out.

Skye.2038:

Wow, I cant believe im seeing all this complaining about grouping up in an MMO. Isn’t that the point?

In most MMO’s yes.

What you and many others seem to be unaware of is that the game was originally marketed and designed from the ground up to include solo play and players, even to the extreme of stating one would never have to team up to attain max level as I quoted a while back.

It was entirely optional (in open world content at least) .

So many players purchased it, played largely solo for 3 years and are now being forced to either avoid content or group up to progress in the open world and that’s seemingly the main issue here, the change to the open world content.

I don’t see anyone wanting or expecting to solo raids or fractals.

The communities response in general..

Flatley ok so you want the boring content like the one in ESO or Core tyria or WOW ? well you have plenty of options.

KEEP in mind HOT is END GAME CONTENT… dont think about it as a jurney to learn your skills .. it is a END GAME content .. you cannot run with your zerker gear and do everything solo.

The content is fully doable with 5 peoples party. I mostly run with 4 peoples and everything I encounter, which is not a big champion, also all hero points in the first 3 zones, except the one in the basement of the forgotten city, are doable and I already did.

Also wait for it… I run thief.. whaat ?? THIEF ! yup not warrior or guardian or some other pve easy guy … I run as thief … not kidding I run thief and I don’t die at all…. I die only when I fall cuz I forgot to use my glider. However I play alone like 20% of the time only and usually I am searching for some Hero Point alone otherwise I invite random peoples around me .. since it is an MMO.

SO how .. someone my ask.. how ? solo content ? you dont die ?!? not possible.

Easy .. valkyrie armor + Rune of the Dolyak .. berserker trinkets and maruder staff.

Just .. play with your build forget the old meta.. forget the zerk gear…and yes learn your class.. you played 80 levels with it right ? or you used your sister ? or you ware BOTTING ? tell me .. you.. cheater I knew it otherwise you should know your skills and have no issue.

JOKe.3597:

KEEP in mind HOT is END GAME CONTENT… dont think about it as a jurney to learn your skills .. it is a END GAME content .. you cannot run with your zerker gear and do everything solo.

But I want power! I don’t wanna run necro or mesmer with full dire and condi my way through end game content, even if Guild Wars 2 designed the game for that!

LMAO.

JOKe.3597:

Flatley ok so you want the boring content like the one in ESO or Core tyria or WOW ? well you have plenty of options.

KEEP in mind HOT is END GAME CONTENT… dont think about it as a jurney to learn your skills .. it is a END GAME content .. you cannot run with your zerker gear and do everything solo.

The content is fully doable with 5 peoples party. I mostly run with 4 peoples and everything I encounter, which is not a big champion, also all hero points in the first 3 zones, except the one in the basement of the forgotten city, are doable and I already did.

Also wait for it… I run thief.. whaat ?? THIEF ! yup not warrior or guardian or some other pve easy guy … I run as thief … not kidding I run thief and I don’t die at all…. I die only when I fall cuz I forgot to use my glider. However I play alone like 20% of the time only and usually I am searching for some Hero Point alone otherwise I invite random peoples around me .. since it is an MMO.

SO how .. someone my ask.. how ? solo content ? you dont die ?!? not possible.

Easy .. valkyrie armor + Rune of the Dolyak .. berserker trinkets and maruder staff.

Just .. play with your build forget the old meta.. forget the zerk gear…and yes learn your class.. you played 80 levels with it kitten … dont know your skills ?

A) I said do some research around what MMO means.
B) HoT is end-game is it? Oh OK, I can’t say as I don’t have the expac
C) I like core Tyria and it is not boring.
D) Never played WoW, nor EoS. Was an Everquest player for a while and MUd’s before that
E) Congratulations on being such a l33t gamer. Good luck in your career.
F) I know my skills thanks. And they are absolutely fine for the content I like to run
G) Congratulations on your troll skilz. +1 to you and -1 to me for falling for it.

Aytheist.9476:

Solo players cannot advance in the new content, and any decent publisher would disclose such a fundamental change prior to taking your money.

False.

Why? Because I solo advanced with no problems. Soon to be in Dragon’s Stand. Except few mastery gated things I have almost 100% of verdant brink, auric bastion and ~80% of tangled depths since i went there yday.

Using Zerker gear. Rev shiro/jakis s/s + hamm

If it’s about something else then do specify in the OP next time. You’re very vague.

I also don’t think they intended for people to 100% finish maps during 1st week :P

Then again I soloed 100% Orr pre-nerf (nerf reduced mob count/density by 50%, added certain WPs that became uncontested, reduced CC abilities on mobs and dmg, added more WPs)

posthumecaver.6473:

Zetsumei.4975:

Abimes.9726:

Hello ,

Open world events are quite easy solo. You just have to dodge the obvious animations / use invul / stab.

Champions are quite easy to solo , like any champion solo the key is understand the mech they use and adapt.

Group events (skill points)/Champion may take one or 2 – 3 try but are doable solo.

Legendary Champions are the only one i couln’t do solo wich is fine i think.

I’m a Pvp based player and it’s the first time i appreciate the pve content cause i finaly can use the game mechs (dodges , los , damage mitigations , blocks, reflect , burst).

I hope arenanet won’t do the mistake they did with the first gw2 and nerf mob AI into the ground making the game unchallenging.

Nb : To all those who have problems start with a mixed gear : Def/zerk and learn to dodge obvious tells , disengage when they cast huge AOEs, etc… . If you like to play with your feets and your neigbour cat controling your mouse , just don’t play Hot.

I can fight the champions toe to toe just fine, but what are you gonna do when the full cheese 4 minute timer runs out regardless of what gear you use? That’s what I’m annoyed about, if anything I could do with more difficulty.

Isn’t it this golem thing. yeah I fought with him with full berserker gear, I could bring him to %70s and 4 min timer resets. Then I waited to see will somebody else will come so we can do it together, 30 min waited nobody appeared then I go to the Halloween farming instead of wasting my time.

Instead of WAITING for someone to come how about… ASKING someone to come? /m is there for a reason. Ask someone from guild maybe or if no guild then join one ?

Flatley.1620 if you don’t own it don’t say its bad I am not trolling it is different but different in a good way. The core tyria is awesome to learn you how to play to enjoy find friends and then to play the end content with them.

Crunk n monkey.3749 no one said you don’t have power ? right ? Valkyrie armor gives power and I do all berserk trinkets and amulets + weapons I have 2200+ power I think around 2250 which is the soft cap so the damage is nice .. HOWEVER I have to say I lack precision which is true because of that I had to use the precision signet on the thief.

Anyway the point is – you have options … try them .. like 2 years ago everyone was running hybrid builds.. and not full zerker or full tank.. today is kinda the same.

I, for one, think that the new content is very well balanced between challenge and doability . It’s been a while since I actually had to pay that much attention to what regular mobs are doing. And it’s not as much as them being really hard as the mobs in rest of the zones being too easy. Endgame zone finally feels like its actually endgame and so far every single person I’ve had conversations with about this seemed to have similar position. Really surprised to see a thread like this.

Regular mobs aren’t that hard either once you learn their attacks and animations. You can’t steamroll them like its metrica, but they aren’t really a problem. What helped me was switching few pieces of my gear to soldiers and making few adjustments to traits; a friend reached similar results by replacing accessories with celestial. I also know people who took this as a challenge and stayed full berserker.

Didn’t have many problems with the events either, big ones like legendary wyvern always have a lot of people. Defending the pact base or killing some of the champs that spawn can be done with few people, and people do start coming in after a short while. The maps are big after all, there aren’t many way points and events are quite spread out.

Same with hero points, a number of them can be solo’d and for the tougher champion ones a few lines in /map and lfg had a full party in no time. Between that and the evening guild runs we do, the new content is going really smoothly.

Lastly, yeah, you can play the game however you like, but mmo’s are usually centered around the multiplayer part. It’s even in the game title. You’re not supposed to be able to solo everything.

JOKe.3597:

Flatley.1620 if you don’t own it don’t say its bad I am not trolling it is different but different in a good way. The core tyria is awesome to learn you how to play to enjoy find friends and then to play the end content with them.

I didn’t actually say it was bad. I did, however, say in an earlier post that I wouldn’t be buying it given the posts here.

Glad i got refunds on 2 prepurchases, i had a feeling it would turn out like this.

Killyox.3950:

Aytheist.9476:

Solo players cannot advance in the new content, and any decent publisher would disclose such a fundamental change prior to taking your money.

False.

Why? Because I solo advanced with no problems. Soon to be in Dragon’s Stand. Except few mastery gated things I have almost 100% of verdant brink, auric bastion and ~80% of tangled depths since i went there yday.

Using Zerker gear. Rev shiro/jakis s/s + hamm

If it’s about something else then do specify in the OP next time. You’re very vague.

I also don’t think they intended for people to 100% finish maps during 1st week :P

Then again I soloed 100% Orr pre-nerf (nerf reduced mob count/density by 50%, added certain WPs that became uncontested, reduced CC abilities on mobs and dmg, added more WPs)

Uh-huh. You would be more convinving if you actually knew what youre talking about.

JOKe.3597:

Also wait for it… I run thief.. whaat ?? THIEF ! yup not warrior or guardian or some other pve easy guy … I run as thief … not kidding I run thief and I don’t die at all…. I die only when I fall

I can’t resist … what was the fastest class I did map completition with … thief. What was the 2nd fastest … Mesmer.

Stealth goes a looong way in this game when you can just skip fights.

Warrior is PvE easy, yes, but not much more so than thief. Guardian takes skill in certain areas because they have less life than a warrior, not even close to a warrior’s healing and they can’t stealth when things get hairy.

But in PvE easy mode classes thief ranks pretty high if not highest.

I know it’s repeating but this is a MMO. If you can’t do something solo just ask in /m, people will come and you don’t have to create a party. Just do your thing and part ways after.

Skye.2038:

Crunk n monkey.3749:

Rasimir.6239:

Crunk n monkey.3749:

Skye.2038:

I keep seeing this “people wont want to help out with old content” but the champions from the new Hero Point challenges seem to drop some good loot once a day if you’ve already unlocked it for you character. Am i wrong about that?
Seems like a really good incentive for helping out people who don’t have it already.

If that is true, that is a step in the right direction. The biggest problem with doing old content (i.e. Orr, Living Story) the don’t make it rewarding for people who have already done it.

Yes it is. The hero challenge champ events give champion bags, map currency, experience, and map event participation once a day. The hero point itself is kind of the icing of the cake for first-time participation .

I’m fully expecting “hero point champ trains” to be a thing in the future.

Right…

What’s going to be the motivation to do these hero point champ trains, when people have nothing to put their hero points into? (i.e. they finish their specialization)?

Nice reading comprehension. This is why people are having trouble with the content.

And you have the manners and attidue of a trash bin. I suggest to look up on reading comprehension for yourself, seeing that you are another simpleton who doesn’t understand the main complaint in each thread you decide to post. Pro tip, it has nothing to do with “Bwa wah everything in GW2 should be soloable” or “QQ Me wants everything for free”.

I’ve been playing solo for the majority of the expansion and I’ve been progressing fine.

There are definitely some hero points and events made for groups, but I’ve never had to actually group up. I hope when the new maps population dies down a bit, they nerf some of them so that they’re more soloable.

Then again, I’ve always played a more tanky build rather than a Zerker, so maybe that helps.

Zomaarwat.3912:

Massive
Multiplayer
Online
Role
Playing
Game

MMO doesnt mean FORCED GROUP ONLINE just leave if you have no idea what you are talking about

I’ve experience most of the content duo or solo and can say at the beginning I was getting rolled on several occasions. I was going in with all out zerker dps with an all out dps related spec and with no range. However upon changing up my spec to a tankier build and putting on some more tanky stats as well as having a ranged weapon I have been having a lot more fun and not getting downed that often at all. Yes the new content is more challenging but with the right stats I think most players will find it is definitely playable solo and not as uncasual friendly as you would think. I think the problem is that many players do not realize that they need to change out there gear and traits if full glass cannon isn’t cutting it as it definitely wasn’t cutting it for me. I highly recommend to all players struggling with the contents difficulty to give a different stat set a try and build more survivability into their spec and gear. I also believe Anet should perhaps put in some kind of pop up or hint letting players know that perhaps a change in build and gear may help before venturing into the new zones.

TL;DR If you find the new content too challenging put some survivability into your build and invest in both range and vitality and/or toughness gear. You will have a much better time.

Flatley.1620 and MikaHR.1978 if you enjoyed the core game you will LOVE the expansion. This is probably the best game I ever played.. not because it is challenging, but the art, the complexity of levels it is so so good. And the PLUS it is an MMO so you can find someone to help you and to play with and to show you trick here and there.

I think you both make a big mistake I would not buy the HOT if there was another option .. but wow is … meh as I said eso is so so bad … and the reason why you leave this game means to me that black desert will NOT like to any of you since it is VERY VERY challenging and NOT user friendly game..

P.S.
What I can say about the 3 out of 4 of the new zones.
Pluses
1) challenging end game
2) big events with many phases
3) very complex maps amazing I am stoping to watch some vista every 15mins.
4) amazing Mobs big and crazy which helps to spot their skills – simply amazing
5) no hearth quests.. I didn’t like the heart thing in core game… here you mostly participate in events or escorting quests.
6) keeping of 80 level but adding masteries which requires experience and hero points is awesome so your gear stays where it was still valuable but there is still progression
7) I didn’t had all hero points before entering HoT I had like .. 50 I think .. with the first 3 zones I unlocked my profession fully but slowly enjoying the slow progression and it was awesome to again become a bad kitten with small steps
8) the complexity of security levels of zone 1 is awesome also the day night cycle is awesome.
9) the satisfaction when you find a mastery or hero point after 15mins of searching cannot be explained its like wining spvp game with 501 by 499

Minus
1) few crashes on zone 2.
2) the zone 2 big meta event looks like is made too hard for randoms but maybe it is just cuz its new .. you have to kill 4 bosses at the same time by 4 groups.

JOKe.3597:

snip

Please tell me more about what i like and dont like after playing MMOs for 14+ years and 3000+ hours in GW2.

If they just made Hero challenges solo-able I’d be super happy. It sucks to finally reach a tricky one and then find out it is a champion.

Revenants are particularly out of luck – they either need every HoT challenge, or they need to go back and do map completion.

Otherwise I thing the grouping requirements, such as they are, seem ok.

lorddarkflare.9186:

I think there may be a bug with the megaserver system and empty maps.

yes it’s called halloween events

Farming Flats.5370:

lorddarkflare.9186:

I think there may be a bug with the megaserver system and empty maps.

yes it’s called halloween events

Well TBH EotM seems to be VERY alive and well this week for some reason rolleyes.

The point is this:

1. If you build it, they will come.
2. If you make it too hard, they will get frustrated and leave. And they’ll tell their friends.

It’s a tricky tightrope to walk.

I just think Hero challenges are CHEAP way to prevent people to jumping straight to specialisation. Especially since 99,9% of people are not able to solo most of champions, and these in HoT are especially kittene point on VB (very hard to reach → only when you want to do that specific HP) spawns lot of veteran frogs and champion frog. It wasn’t easy when we were doing it with 5 people (as boss was able to 1-2 shoot most of the crew).
The best way would be chapter (not much 1 or 2 quests) of PERSONAL story that is personal (depends on your class). Lets be honest after you get to LA in story then it is not personal story, but more like general story. First when they announced specialisations I thought you will have to do some quest to get it… but unfortunately no…