Guild Wars 2

JOKe.3597:

Snip

The thing is though… well, no two things:

A) I’m a really casual gamer – “challenge” is in my life all day long and I like to chill with GW2, not fight it. However, I can’t really comment as

B) I don’t have the expac ergo I cannot leave it.

I appreciate your enthusiasm about it though so good luck to you; reading through the posts here is not encouraging me to purchase it I’m afraid.

Flatley.1620:

reading through the posts here is not encouraging me to purchase it I’m afraid.

Well, what do you expect a few days into the expansion? I know I wouldn’t be posting if I had access to my game atm, I would be out in Maguuma enjoying myself instead .

Naevius.3185 like 40% of the hero points are solo-able. like other 40% are doable by 2 persons… and you should have at least 1 friend right ? and yes for the other 20% you need a party or even more… but even without them you have unlocked your specializations fully so you are making them only for 100% map completion.

Chicho Gosho.6507:

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.

That’s an assumption – I remember my time when I tried to get map completition in Orr (pre-nerf) with the not so easy to play chars … Cursed Shore – no worries … tons of people there. Malchor’s … la-la – depending a bit on the temple metas, Sea of Sorrows … empty … “Hello, can anyone help me … me … me … me” …. so empty, it leaves an echo.

If HoT remains populated on all maps, you’re right. If not … big problem!

Rasimir.6239:

Flatley.1620:

reading through the posts here is not encouraging me to purchase it I’m afraid.

Well, what do you expect a few days into the expansion? I know I wouldn’t be posting if I had access to my game atm, I would be out in Maguuma enjoying myself instead .

This is true, it’s always better to wait until new releases calm down a bit. However, I wouldn’t posting here either if I had access to the game – I’m at work at the moment (well, technically,; I’m working from home cough cough) – I’d be out in Tyria enjoying myself

Thankfully, there is no monthly fee with GW2 and I can park the account until things get better. I had high hopes for the expansion, but it is not designed for solo players. I detest content that forces me to rely on others to accomplish. Why? Here’s just ONE example: To get a Hero Point that was surrounded by 3 veterans frogs and deadly brambles, I had to sit above it and wait for hours to get help using all the options described in previous posts.

sonicsix.5713:

Thankfully, there is no monthly fee with GW2 and I can park the account until things get better. I had high hopes for the expansion, but it is not designed for solo players. I detest content that forces me to rely on others to accomplish. Why? Here’s just ONE example: To get a Hero Point that was surrounded by 3 veterans frogs and deadly brambles, I had to sit above it and wait for hours to get help using all the options described in previous posts.

Well – solo player is a very broad term. I am one myself. I am almost through the story on one char and am starting now with another (to get a bit more XP for the masteries). Getting the needed masteries (Gliding I and II, Mushroom Jumping, etc.) is OK if you run with the pack, do the story, do some escort missions (those are soloable).

The legendary bosses are not really a solo thing (surprise) and some camp defense missions would require a second or third player if you have the wrong class – build because they’re quite manageable if you can do tons of heavy hitting AoE. If you’re single target built … well … get a 2nd player

Is it enjoyable? Absolutely – I LOVE the new maps! Sole issue I have is with the elite spec unlocking and the way the hero points work. NPE all over again. Should they decide to fix that it’ll be a blast.

I did the entire story and zone unlocks on my Necro/Reaper. Only issues I had were when events wiped out 6+ people and I was left alone with 2+ Elites, or that champ.

I went back and started all over again on my Mesmer and Guardian, the guard survives a lot better due to the passive healing. So it really depends on your play style, skill level, and what class you choose to play with. also, There are some class+build combos that are just not solo friendly.

I agree with OP that the developers should have advertised that the content would be challenging. It sure misled a lot of us casuals.

I feel really silly because I actually went on a couple of betas and the last one saw me in the jungle testing the advanced classes.

I totally disregarded the difficulty of the game play as I was so focused on trying to get to grips with the different class specializations.

I totally didn’t expect the problems I have had since release.

I am pretty sure there will be a lot of adjustments to be made to the expansion yet though and that eventually I will be able to return and complete my tasks more easily

NB.
I never group if I don’t have to, I have 99% completed my personal story on at least ten characters and never done the final story just because I hate the stress of playing in a group.

tracysilva.7231:

I agree with OP that the developers should have advertised that the content would be challenging. It sure misled a lot of us casuals.

I feel really silly because I actually went on a couple of betas and the last one saw me in the jungle testing the advanced classes.

I totally disregarded the difficulty of the game play as I was so focused on trying to get to grips with the different class specializations.

I totally didn’t expect the problems I have had since release.

I am pretty sure there will be a lot of adjustments to be made to the expansion yet though and that eventually I will be able to return and complete my tasks more easily

NB.
I never group if I don’t have to, I have 99% completed my personal story on at least ten characters and never done the final story just because I hate the stress of playing in a group.

The last mission is now solo-able, they retuned it specifically because it was impossible to find people to do it. Quoted you so you’d have a better chance of catching the reply/info.

As for all of this…yes they bait and switched. Wanna know WHY people hated BW3 tuning? Everyone was stuck in one map with a hundred + other players…the enemies needed to be stronger to deal with the zerg. Here is the problem though…at week 2 there won’t be much of a zerg left…and the megaserver algorithym is total crap right now too with a lot of people being stuck on empty maps. HPs with any kind of fight against anything more than a single vet need to go away, everything int he open world should be solo-able outside of HUGE meta events and world bosses.

Your group content? oh, right, meta events, world bosses, dungeons, fractals, raids, wvw, spvp (high tier). Open World belongs to the soloer, keep the dang over tuned crap out of it.

Wow!! Thanks for the information Runiir! This is the best news ever!! I am off to play that last mission on my characters, Im going to be busy quite a while! Yay!

I find some places that will hand me my butt and other places that I slaughter easily. I think is just learning where is safe to traverse and places you need to find another path around.

I’m playing an guardian class so not sure how it is with, say an Ele. But I’m doing fine on my own so far.

Runiir.6425:

Your group content? oh, right, meta events, world bosses, dungeons, fractals, raids, wvw, spvp (high tier). Open World belongs to the soloer, keep the dang over tuned crap out of it.

Thanks for the info, i won’t even bother with new stuff then! Cheers Anet!

it’s really bad, grind my XP to get updraft and realize oh snap the Vamp hero challenge boss is very hard, you need at least 5 players to help ya, don’t bother soloing this game, HoT and GW2 is night and day if you are solo player..

Nemesis.2019:

it’s really bad, grind my XP to get updraft and realize oh snap the Vamp hero challenge boss is very hard, you need at least 5 players to help ya, don’t bother soloing this game, HoT and GW2 is night and day if you are solo player..

Well – seriously … you throw the word grind about but getting the first few mastery levels is not a grind. Do personal story (on more than one char if you can) – do a few events, do a bit of exploring and … yay, unlocked. If you call that grind I wonder how you ever managed to get to level 80.

Not all HP are truly bad but, yes, I still think that the HP should not be group events. As for the night and day … well – I came back afet a year break and stumbled into the Silverwastes. Took me a day or two to adjust myself to not be constantly eating dust. Learn the mechanics, win. I’m at Rata Novus now with three characters … the first was tough – after I learned what each monster did and how it did that it was easy mode + quite a bit of running away when I knew I couldn’t do this. But that is no different from being the only player in Orr when Melandru kicks in …

ShaelynSnow.2395:

Drivrius.6159:

I’m giving up, this is more like Dark Souls online then GW2, it’s a horrible experience to try and play this solo.

The shift in game style from the core game is like day and night, you go from a fun, solo casual, game to hardcore, group only in a second.

This x1000, they draw us in with the fun, solo, casual game then drop this bomb on us and we are all like WTF…

Game companies need to get use to the fact that these days most gamers are casual gamers and that little group of hardcore people will speak up, then they change it for them and lose their biggest player base.

The Dark Souls series is wildly popular, critically acclaimed and sold over 8.5 million copies. What an ironic quote to choose for such a comment.

(The base game of Guild Wars 2 sold around 7 Million Copies worldwide, to put this into perspective.)

Once again, I would 100% love to see where all you statisticians get your metrics re: the 99% of the gamer community that is 100% casual.

Seriously, this makes me laugh. I’m running zerker and can solo a large portion of the new content. Sure, some HPs require more people, but that’s where the “Massively Multiplayer Online Game” comes in. That’s why Guilds exist in game, and why we have the map chat capability.

Dovienya.6597:

The Dark Souls series is wildly popular, critically acclaimed and sold over 8.5 million copies. What an ironic quote to choose for such a comment.

(The base game of Guild Wars 2 sold around 7 Million Copies worldwide, to put this into perspective.)

Once again, I would 100% love to see where all you statisticians get your metrics re: the 99% of the gamer community that is 100% casual.

It’s 7 million accounts not copies of GW2. Also something silly like 42% of the U.S. play video games 3 or more hours a week, which is more than 130 million people. So we have 130 million potential players in the U.S. alone. I’d say casual would be the majority if we are doing the base line of 8.5 million players world wide being interesting in a difficult game.

Core game best mmo i ever player, by far

this expansion totally different then i expected. Where are the hearths, the new skins etc. After intro story i was really surpriced

Coyote.7031:

Dovienya.6597:

The Dark Souls series is wildly popular, critically acclaimed and sold over 8.5 million copies. What an ironic quote to choose for such a comment.

(The base game of Guild Wars 2 sold around 7 Million Copies worldwide, to put this into perspective.)

Once again, I would 100% love to see where all you statisticians get your metrics re: the 99% of the gamer community that is 100% casual.

It’s 7 million accounts not copies of GW2. Also something silly like 42% of the U.S. play video games 3 or more hours a week, which is more than 130 million people. So we have 130 million potential players in the U.S. alone. I’d say casual would be the majority if we are doing the base line of 8.5 million players world wide being interesting in a difficult game.

You are right, I added box sales from China to Euro and America, when they should have been included in the entire price- so box sales are actually half.

My point was that as many people are interested in buying a game like Dark Souls as in buying a game like Guild Wars 2. It is actually a lot less, so thank you for helping to prove my point.

As for your presumption that most gamers are casual. I openly admit I have no idea what portion of video gamers play casually or otherwise, but I would hazard a guess that a great many fall into a middle ground and don’t rigidly define themselves as casual or hardcore. (Nor allow definition to define who, what, when or where they’re going to play.) Most of the people in most of the guilds I’ve belonged to, save for guild with specific agendas, are full of people from the middle ground with the occasional outlier.

Dovienya.6597:

ShaelynSnow.2395:

Drivrius.6159:

I’m giving up, this is more like Dark Souls online then GW2, it’s a horrible experience to try and play this solo.

The shift in game style from the core game is like day and night, you go from a fun, solo casual, game to hardcore, group only in a second.

This x1000, they draw us in with the fun, solo, casual game then drop this bomb on us and we are all like WTF…

Game companies need to get use to the fact that these days most gamers are casual gamers and that little group of hardcore people will speak up, then they change it for them and lose their biggest player base.

The Dark Souls series is wildly popular, critically acclaimed and sold over 8.5 million copies. What an ironic quote to choose for such a comment.

(The base game of Guild Wars 2 sold around 7 Million Copies worldwide, to put this into perspective.)

Once again, I would 100% love to see where all you statisticians get your metrics re: the 99% of the gamer community that is 100% casual.

DS series saw huge drop in sales from 1 -> 2 (5m vs <2m), and they confirmed 3 will be last.

Since GW2 needs sustained business it cant go off on 1 hit wonder like DS.

Dovienya.6597:

You are right, I added box sales from China to Euro and America, when they should have been included in the entire price- so box sales are actually half.

My point was that as many people are interested in buying a game like Dark Souls as in buying a game like Guild Wars 2. It is actually a lot less, so thank you for helping to prove my point.

As for your presumption that most gamers are casual. I openly admit I have no idea what portion of video gamers play casually or otherwise, but I would hazard a guess that a great many fall into a middle ground and don’t rigidly define themselves as casual or hardcore. (Nor allow definition to define who, what, when or where they’re going to play.) Most of the people in most of the guilds I’ve belonged to, save for guild with specific agendas, are full of people from the middle ground with the occasional outlier.

I’d say if you are on the forums, you are more devoted to the game than your average player. You actually care enough about the game to post, leave feedback, and discuss the game.

Most games go out of their way to hide actual populations, but if we look at games with public character information you can make some estimates on “casualness” in other games. Someone did a post about 6 months ago on FFXIV which has the lodestone allowing you to publicly view characters and their achievements. Out of 1.7 million characters surveyed only 255k had completed the most recent story campaign. And only 36k had completed the Final Coil of Bahamut, which is/was the progression raid. Only 4200 had the Kirin mount which is a reward from getting all the mounts that drop in Primal – Extreme fights. This is all pre-expansion numbers.

Sites like GuildOx and WowProgress take a look a raiding data for guilds and the numbers are still a bit pitiful, and they cherry pick their raiding guild data. If we look at the data for who can access flying available on GuildOx, which are tasks you can solo to unlock flying in WoD, servers often have as few a 200-300 people with the achievement, and over 20k players at level 100. For active players it’s only 1 in 4 who have unlocked flying.

Hope no changes will be made

what gonna happen after Anet listen to these players?

solo raids?
solo world bosses?

its not that hard to find players on the same map and yes they can help you
all you need to do is ask on map chat (hope you know what is it)

Aytheist.9476:

Solo players cannot advance in the new content wearing only berserker gear.

Fixed this for you. It is not impossible but extremely difficult to zerker blast your way through HoT. You need more defensive stats if you want to progress solo. And dodging is an absolute must.

Initially I was frustrated too with the difficulty curve. However, instead of raging at Anet I chose to take a look at my build and play style to adapt and rise to the challenge. Now both HoT and old Tyria content is fairly easy. There are a few events in HoT and a few mob types that can overwhelm me still if I’m not careful but when that happens it’s typically because I made a mistake and missed a Dodge or went melee when I should have swapped to range.

It takes some getting used to, but believe me when I say it does get easier with a few tweaks for survival.

Hero points completely screw solo players. Did they really have to make them champs if theres just one person at the hero point? (vet or elite would be at least doable I think) Makes them pretty much undoable now, and will be even worse later when people slowly spread out of the new maps.

As a solo player of middling ability (former long time WoW player, got tired of the grind), everything I am reading tells me to wait to purchase HoT, which is a shame, as I am looking forward to it. I have a solo guild (none of my former WoW guild-mates made the transition) and would like to have a guild hall to park my toons (3 80s and another on the way). I think I get where Arena is going and hope they throw some bones out for a more or less casual player like me. I want the expansion to succeed, as GW2 has been, on the whole, an excellent experience for me and I want to both see it succeed and contribute financially by purchasing the expansion, but I don’t see anything that suits my style of play. I should note that I don’t want Nerf Central, but I also don’t want (yet another) more or less full time responsibility, which is the reason I left the other MMO that I won’t again mention. I hope that those who have suggested that Arena will adjust things to a more favorable balance are right. If so, then I’m all “shut up and take my money”. If not, well, I’ll figure something out. Thanks all for the comments. They help.

I think I’m going to park HoT for now also. I can say I had one great hour of fun with a guild mate doing events for experience but the way you have to play this expansion doesn’t compel me to want to play it :-(

I mean, empty maps mean I’m only halfway to glider 2. Story takes a few goes at working out where u need to be regarding above or below. Fail and your quite a way from nearest waypoint so have to do the same thing over and over until you get it.

I got as far as prized possessions and due to one wrong skill being used and throwing me off the ledge I now have lethal pustules to deal with that we’re not there on my first attempt. Have a boss chasing me and died about 20 times. NOT FUN at all.

It’s painful, but I fear it is so painful, it will put me off playing the game altogether, even core game.

I was so looking forward to HoT but I’ve never been a fan of jumping puzzles and I can’t stand platform games and this feels more like a platform game in HoT.

No guide, no starter area to introduce you to stuff, gates story and those mastery points are a nightmare with empty maps. You need to do 56 successful events to get 1 million xp. Not possible if no one else is doing them.

Maybe I’ll just take a break from HoT and see how it goes. Sad days, sad days indeed :-(

Tipper.6973:

Massively
Multiplayer

Means nothing if everyone is doing something else…

saurus.8290:

all you need to do is ask on map chat (hope you know what is it)

I’ll ignore your condescension, but the simple fact is, asking for something in map chat is not a guarantee of getting help. It’s not even a guarantee of getting a response.

Gustave.9170:

As a solo player of middling ability (former long time WoW player, got tired of the grind), everything I am reading tells me to wait to purchase HoT, which is a shame, as I am looking forward to it. I have a solo guild (none of my former WoW guild-mates made the transition) and would like to have a guild hall to park my toons (3 80s and another on the way). I think I get where Arena is going and hope they throw some bones out for a more or less casual player like me. I want the expansion to succeed, as GW2 has been, on the whole, an excellent experience for me and I want to both see it succeed and contribute financially by purchasing the expansion, but I don’t see anything that suits my style of play. I should note that I don’t want Nerf Central, but I also don’t want (yet another) more or less full time responsibility, which is the reason I left the other MMO that I won’t again mention. I hope that those who have suggested that Arena will adjust things to a more favorable balance are right. If so, then I’m all “shut up and take my money”. If not, well, I’ll figure something out. Thanks all for the comments. They help.

As a former long-term WoW player (End of Vanilla to very End of WotLK) I’ll give you as much of an…objective view of the current, right now HoT, excluding my feelings about various things.

As you walk into the new content fresh, the very map will be chaotic and extremely different than what you are used to. A lot of it, with special mention to the first map, is elevated at different heights and has death falls at explorable ends. Essentially, provided you do the introductionary prologue you will start ‘leveling again’ with masteries. Some masteries early on are required to progress your story, and for story purposes there are quite a few chapters they put into the expansion.

Aside from the maps being completely different than what you might be used to, the mobs are unique and rather deadly in comparision to normal Tyria. The weakest of mobs will likely have a mechanic that will do a lot of damage and require you to observe fast on how to avoid it, and deal damage appropriately to it/them. These mobs you give you the same amount of credit as normal level 80 mobs did in other parts of Tyria, which might seem off given that they are a better menace but there are reasons behind this.

Once you start ramping up your masteries, you gain perks which only contribute to how you approach fights and traverse the Magumma Jungle. Gliding is such a convenience you will likely attempt to glide at least once in the normal core game only to splat on the ground, gliding is just that good. Most encounters won’t require you to use these mechanics, but they can help you during the fight to make it more manageable but if you are very good you won’t need them.

Ultimately, what I can tell you is this:
- Forget anything you know about challenge in the core game right now, Magumma Mobs introduce so many new ways to fight you might end up revising what you were doing before in GW2 PvE.
- Massive Meta-Events and Regular events everywhere, Horizontal Progression-vendors add something to work towards for a long time.
- NO NEED for full-time responsibilities. Despite what everyone has said on these forums for the past few days, the Expansion is still GW2, meaning you can’t possibly fall behind, everything is open world and every person helps!

Lastly, I want to emphasize the fact that you will have to change your tactics if you hit a wall of a monster that reduces your typical Meta build to nothing. Pick up some CC, an ‘Endure Pain’ kinda skill, anything to keep yourself alive! As of right now, the Magumma Jungle is really dangerous!

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.

Im a solo player and i advanced in new content. L2p.

LeSavage.1359:

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.

Im a solo player and i advanced in new content. L2p.

I like to run around solo too, lending a helping hand here or there but generally going in whatever direction suits me. I was struggling at first and didn’t believe those that said it was possible, but I’m starting to believe. Especially with the tempest, I’m finding myself surviving longer than I thought. But seriously, if they came out and said it wasn’t solo-able, I would still try, just as I try to solo fractals and dungeons. I have people to play with but sometimes you just want to pit yourself against incredible odds, you know?

I’m in shock as to how much players and their attitudes towards content has regressed over the last decade or so. There was a time when if something was soloable, it was considered throw away content no one took seriously. Now if something can’t be done day one with no one else’s help, it’s considered over-tuned or for the no lifers.

I have zero sympathy for anyone that can’t complete content because they refuse to play an MMO like an MMO. Frankly, i’m tired of these people. They’ve ruined this genre with their incessant whining for every little aspect to be turned into some single player game.

What’s wrong with OP’s point? Outworld should be mostly soloable, that’s totally correct. Groups got WvW, Raids, Dungeons, world bosses and a lot of things.

Ald.9418:

I’m in shock as to how much players and their attitudes towards content has regressed over the last decade or so. There was a time when if something was soloable, it was considered throw away content no one took seriously. Now if something can’t be done day one with no one else’s help, it’s considered over-tuned or for the no lifers.

I have zero sympathy for anyone that can’t complete content because they refuse to play an MMO like an MMO. Frankly, i’m tired of these people. They’ve ruined this genre with their incessant whining for every little aspect to be turned into some single player game.

Actually, since WOW, most of the MMO’s open world content is soloable other than some elite missions and bosses.

Want to know how successful making an mmo challenging and not enjoyable turns out? look at wildstar.

Hmm….

You simply have to be more careful at night.

..or reduce your toughness to almost nothing and mobs will run past you to target somebody tougher. At least, I assume that’s what happening, or maybe they just don’t like my smell?

Slowpokeking.8720:

Ald.9418:

I’m in shock as to how much players and their attitudes towards content has regressed over the last decade or so. There was a time when if something was soloable, it was considered throw away content no one took seriously. Now if something can’t be done day one with no one else’s help, it’s considered over-tuned or for the no lifers.

I have zero sympathy for anyone that can’t complete content because they refuse to play an MMO like an MMO. Frankly, i’m tired of these people. They’ve ruined this genre with their incessant whining for every little aspect to be turned into some single player game.

Actually, since WOW, most of the MMO’s open world content is soloable other than some elite missions and bosses.

I rather think that was his point.

Guild Wars 2 is a mmo

Lord Cody.5237:

Guild Wars 2 is a mmo

This means nothing other than massively multiple players are all playing the same game. Doesn’t mean they’re all doing the same things at the same time in the same place.

Revilrad.1962:

RedDeadFred.1256:

Post in map chat or LFG for Hero Points. I’ve done this for several of them and never had to wait that long. Honestly, usually you don’t even have to be the one to post. It’s fairly common to see parties in LFG asking for help with specific HP (the Caustic Itzel East of the Nobles is very common).

True for now, but later on when the hype dies off, people who didnt Exploited CoF to get masteries will be then able to reach the Mastery Locked Points, when no one else will be around.

Of course it is doable, but Anet should have beeen stick to the soloableness of the Map completion

The CoF exploit has absolutely nothing to do with the Heart of Thorns Hero Points…

However, you are right. It will probably be tougher to do in the future. Lucky for you, they’ve already nerfed some of them and in general, made getting them in Verdant Brink a lot easier. To be honest, with the time limits on the Champion enemies increased to 10 minutes, they MIGHT even be doable by yourself now, as long as you’re not building full glass canon. I doubt any of them can’t be done with just one other person.

Celtic Lady.3729:

Lord Cody.5237:

Guild Wars 2 is a mmo

This means nothing other than massively multiple players are all playing the same game. Doesn’t mean they’re all doing the same things at the same time in the same place.

Most of the Open World shouldn’t be hard to solo players.

Celtic Lady.3729:

Lord Cody.5237:

Guild Wars 2 is a mmo

This means nothing other than massively multiple players are all playing the same game. Doesn’t mean they’re all doing the same things at the same time in the same place.

It does however mean if you want a single player experience you’re better off alt-f4’ing and playing the legendary game of Solitaire instead.

TexZero.7910:

Celtic Lady.3729:

Lord Cody.5237:

Guild Wars 2 is a mmo

This means nothing other than massively multiple players are all playing the same game. Doesn’t mean they’re all doing the same things at the same time in the same place.

It does however mean if you want a single player experience you’re better off alt-f4’ing and playing the legendary game of Solitaire instead.

So, you’re saying those looking for a multiplayer experience would be better off trying Poker or Go Fish?

TexZero.7910:

Celtic Lady.3729:

Lord Cody.5237:

Guild Wars 2 is a mmo

This means nothing other than massively multiple players are all playing the same game. Doesn’t mean they’re all doing the same things at the same time in the same place.

It does however mean if you want a single player experience you’re better off alt-f4’ing and playing the legendary game of Solitaire instead.

No it doesn’t. This comment makes even less sense than the previous one.

Chrono.6928:

where are you at? I’m decently far and so far have solo’ed every story and exploring maps. A couple of skill points have champ bosses but even solo the game allows and usually has players around also doing it. While not as easy as the core game its not impossible either. Just requires some skill.

There may have been players around during the first few days; I’m not finding that to be the case now (6 days afterwards), and getting the Hero points has been close to impossible. For better or worse, that has to change so that average players can still get through the content 12 months from now, if they so wish.

ps2: if still having trouble I would recommend minion type classes. With the 90ish% damage reduction to minions by aoe (unless targeted) they are very strong right now and would help “solo” as they take the pressure off of you.

Good advice in the short term, perhaps, but actually a pointer to the fact that the balance is wrong. It mustn’t be necessary to run a particular profession in order to get through what is supposed to be new, main, PvE content (“We’re so sorry that your thief can’t do the expansion content. ‘You chose… …poorly.’ Why don’t you go roll a whole new character and try again?”). Again – if the average player, with an average character of any profession, can’t get through the content on their own – it needs to change. (It doesn’t need to be easy to do – just not so hard that it becomes undo-able and makes people give up in frustration. They’ve paid for it; they have a right and expectation of being able to get value from it. And if that value isn’t delivered, they are likely to walk away entirely – which is the last thing that ANet, and the GW2 community by extension, actually needs.)

Slowpokeking.8720:

What’s wrong with OP’s point? Outworld should be mostly soloable, that’s totally correct.

It’s mostly soloable, just very challenging. Having other people ease it.
It’s as simple as that.
Central Tyria is only soloable, because it’s so boring noone else want to come with you.

Doghouse.1562:

There may have been players around during the first few days; I’m not finding that to be the case now (6 days afterwards), and getting the Hero points has been close to impossible. For better or worse, that has to change so that average players can still get through the content 12 months from now, if they so wish.

Just wait a bit. Right now many casual players (like myself) play the story and explore the maps. I’m now at the part in Tangled Depths and I see a lot of people there. Once they have finished the most interesting part, aka story, they will probably spread over the maps. I like Verdant Brink and I’ll go back there for sure. But right now I’m more interested in following the story and that takes place on another map right now. Just give it time.

The original game also had always enough people on every lvl80 map at any time.