Guild Wars 2

Anet tried to keep people as much as she can by doing maps that take more time than usual to explore add masteries and difficult skill points that cannot be solo it. The people that try to keep longer are the people that devour game contend in a few hours- days and then they say that this game has nothing to give and go away. These people will not be late to finish the game despite Anet try. But all these things make solo and casual player life very difficult!!!! And i believe that these people are more important to Anet. GW(1,2) was always 80% solo in pve .And that is why have so many dedicated players . By doing this in HoT there is a serious chance many of them to give up cause they can’t play. Not many people like to depend from the charity of the other players to find a descent group for doing events and skill points.

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.

Replace your berserker gear then, you cannot solo dry top or SW either which were the initial zones

Do you play Silverwaste or Dry top solo? Its the same concept. I’m solo player and I’m doing fine.

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.

Ask Carbine how that worked out for them.

Ooops, you dont need to ask them, just look at financial reports.

Ajax of Telamona.6974:

Anet tried to keep people as much as she can by doing maps that take more time than usual to explore add masteries and difficult skill points that cannot be solo it. The people that try to keep longer are the people that devour game contend in a few hours- days and then they say that this game has nothing to give and go away. These people will not be late to finish the game despite Anet try. But all these things make solo and casual player life very difficult!!!! And i believe that these people are more important to Anet. GW(1,2) was always 80% solo in pve .And that is why have so many dedicated players . By doing this in HoT there is a serious chance many of them to give up cause they can’t play. Not many people like to depend from the charity of the other players to find a descent group for doing events and skill points.

This. Catering to “hardcore” crowd….well, theyll reap what they sow.

I’ve soloed all the content so far, just fine. All Story missions can be soloed. You can go to events solo perfectly fine, there’s bound to be people there, or they will come eventually. You can explore the maps solo just fine. Certain Hero Points can be grabbed solo, but it’s not harder than to use /map and say “Doing the Hero Points <insert direction> of <insert Waypoint> in a short bit, gather up if you need it or just want the XP.”—if nobody shows up, do a different one, chances are people will show though, because you said you are doing it. That’s just basic psychology, as you are stating you are doing something, not asking if anyone wants to do it. You take charge, and people follow. Most people are content with being followers of those that dare lead. As long as you’re not being overly controlling, people have no problems with that.

So.. that’s one single aspect of the expansion that you can’t play through solo. And it’s rather easy to get people to come for those too. If you can’t solo the other content, it’s time to look at your own build. Chances are, you need to update it to be a bit more defensive. There’s nothing wrong with asking you to do that.

To be honest the elite unlocks are not the problem .
Its the other unlocks that screw over .
I went back to the vanilla game as i way to often was alone because i either could not fly long enough or could not do that jump

Also ;
I would like AN to rethink what meaningful is.
Only a minority want EVERYTHING to be hardcore.
You should really rethink the design as you split the community
Tune it back to GW2 Vanilla standards please !!!

May i remind you that its 2015 and the average gamer is a working adult ….

So for the love of the GW franchise let us ALL have a slice the way we want 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.

playing solo since HoT Release – L2P !

Slowpokeking.8720:

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

That´s not true for GW2 anymore since they introduced champs and elite-mobs to ordinary camp-defend-events in Orr.

And even more since SilverWastes: you can´t succeed on that map without some kind of organisation or atleast a good amount of other players.

Ordinary HoT-events are even clearly easier and downscaling better than defending a fort in SW.

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.

^This so much.

Sick of the repetitive use of “it’s a mmo…go play insert any offline game if you don’t want to play” as valid rebuttal or justification for forced grouping from people who clearly have no understanding of what the term means or what the genre actually is.

To put this tired mantra to bed once and for all I present the universally accepted definition of MMO:

An MMO, or massively multiplayer online game, is a game that is capable of supporting a large numbers of players who can play simultaneously over the internet.

The main selling point for a lot of people originally was that Guild Wars 2 had dynamic events as opposed to the traditional questing structure, and that it had a casual flair. The casual flair doesn’t exist in this expansion when it comes to PvE, and I think that might be something that comes back to bite ArenaNet in the kitten . I honestly don’t think I’ve seen anything like this before… a game that was so painfully casual and easy, then do a complete 180° and become totally hardcore. I just wish there was some middle ground between the overtly simple original content and the full-on hardcore new stuff.

Please stop! Stop nerf this game right now! Everything is soloable. If somebody can solo lupicus, we can solo anything. I was waiting for HoT because I want challenging content. That’s the reason why I give them my money!! Because they tell me, that I will get chalenging content. But after launch it is just nerf after nerf after nerf. When we will get some really hard content? Will it be some raid? Or it will be nerfed after launch as well? I expect some new character progress with HOT, but my fun is ruined because of hero points reduction and people who just cry. I don’t want finish all new content in less then week. Thanks.

Honestly, it’s not that overly hardcore. You just need to keep in mind that certain enemies are more dangerous than others and take those out first. If you ever played Guild Wars, you are well aware of that concept. You want to take out Snipers, Tormentors and such first as an example. Smokescales, you make sure you kite them out of their mist and don’t stupidly stand in it whacking away at something that evades everything you do. Interrupts are invaluable, and everyone has some form of interrupts, use them. Control makes things far more easier. The Breakbar can often be broken by one person in most cases (still can’t trigger my Traits, Sigils and Runes though, ArenaNet!)—so interrupt when you can and/or when the Breakbar unlocks.

And just change your build already, if you’re dying over and over. This is like my friend who I even offered to make a build for, as she doesn’t enjoy/understand how to do so herself, who refused to change anything and just kept dying, saying the new areas were kitten and too hard. Then she finally let me make her a build (after guilt tripping her as I had bought her HoT) which takes into consideration the dangers of the jungle, and she’s far more capable of traversing on her own now. It’s fine to not be full glass cannon you know. You can use cheap Exotics to bolster your defenses a bit and make yourself all the more capable of survival. I rarely die, it’s extremely rare. Sure, I don’t consider myself casual either, but that is besides the point. The content is just right when it comes to challenge. Casual or not, you should be able to deal with it just fine if you can just adapt a bit on how you play. You want interrupt(s). Optionally you want reflects. Blocks/Evades are good. To name a few things.

Oh, the crying.. from people who couldn’t finish a solo game without a cheat code.

MikaHR.1978:

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.

What sort of nonsense are you spouting now? Everything I said is a fact. You being clueless doesn’t change it one bit.

Just because you’re not good enough to solo most of the things doesn’t mean other players are at your level.

I’m a casual player and have no problems with the content what so ever. It seems like you want everything handed on a golden plate, with no challenge at all.

I’m not a casual player. I’m terrible at this game. I get lost, trapped, stunned and crippled all through out these zones. However, after a few days of feeling like I was getting nowhere, I really wish I had some friends who wanted to chill and play with me. People to run with consistently would make this a lot more bearable.

My 2 cents.

Bandrell.4357:

I’m not a casual player. I’m terrible at this game. I get lost, trapped, stunned and crippled all through out these zones. However, after a few days of feeling like I was getting nowhere, I really wish I had some friends who wanted to chill and play with me. People to run with consistently would make this a lot more bearable.

My 2 cents.

Try a guild? If you drop a post in the looking for section making sure to include exactly what you’re looking for then people with a similar mindset will approach you (you may need to filter them a little bit).

Bandrell.4357:

I’m not a casual player. I’m terrible at this game. I get lost, trapped, stunned and crippled all through out these zones. However, after a few days of feeling like I was getting nowhere, I really wish I had some friends who wanted to chill and play with me. People to run with consistently would make this a lot more bearable.

My 2 cents.

It’s cool to play with someone. When I could I would sit on TeamSpeak with guildie from WoW and we would explore maps and look for every nook and cranny.

Definitely makes it more enjoyable. Call out to people on the map and see if there is anyone who wants to run with you.

I play 90% of this game solo, 10% with others including large events e.g. TT with community guilds. HoT maps in general (getting around, map completing) are perfectly soloable just harder because the mobs have more soft cc and hit a lot harder.

That being said, it’s more a case of know which mobs to run past and which ones to run through.

With regards to things like hero challenges, I currently have 38/40, will finish the last couple in Dragon Stand later. I have almost map completed and if I find a boss I can’t kill, I use map chat – there’s nothing wrong with that. They have also made it easy now to get your elite that I got my druid in 2 hours from scratch.

This zone is only a step up in skill for most solo players, not an impossible obstacle. When it comes to map events, obviously you will need people but even then, some can be soloed like defending camps (if you pick the right ones) or escorts.

Bottom line, there’s is nothing for AN to fix with regards to difficulty, you either get better or find friends to run with.

Kulvar.1239:

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.

Pretty much this. The majority of the time I’ve been running around alone and it’s fine. I just have to you know, actually pay attention to what I’m doing. It’s actually a nice change from the rest of the zones where it’s extremely boring because nothing is ever a threat.

so you want to solo kill a elder dragon….erm….
u shld play f2p aka p2w game with imbal gears.

SkyShroud.2865:

so you want to solo kill a elder dragon….erm….

You can do that to Zhaitan now.

SkyShroud.2865:

so you want to solo kill a elder dragon…

I already did. That’s besides the point of the topic. They are saying the zones are too difficult, and I for one disagree. It just requires you to pay a bit more attention, and possibly to change your build to be a tiny bit more defensive for a change (and you can use cheap Exotics just fine).

WeedyZeGreedy.8635:

you cannot solo dry top or SW either which were the initial zones

But you dont have to in order to unlock traits, weapon skills and utility skills.

So there’s that.

I guess my question regarding both sides of this discussion is “What happened to the Scale Event by number of folks participating”?

Could this not apply to Hero Challenges as well?

Scrub of all Scrubs here. The content is fine leave it alone. Got a necro started a month ago still running green and yellow jewelry and I get by just fine. When I run into a rough area that on my mesmer I can blink and dodge my way past, I have a 50 /50 shot of getting through on my necro. If I die, I respawn, brush myself off and try another approach. I also run solo and group up when necessary. I have yet to hit a hc without plenty of folks already there, lots of help when needed.
The hp adjustment was a pleasant development as I thought 400 was a bit extreme but everything else is just fine. I finally made it to the second map and OMG it is as breathtaking visually as everyone said. For me, this was money well spent.

deadrazer.4035:

To be honest the elite unlocks are not the problem .
Its the other unlocks that screw over .
I went back to the vanilla game as i way to often was alone because i either could not fly long enough or could not do that jump

Also ;
I would like AN to rethink what meaningful is.
Only a minority want EVERYTHING to be hardcore.
You should really rethink the design as you split the community
Tune it back to GW2 Vanilla standards please !!!

May i remind you that its 2015 and the average gamer is a working adult ….

So for the love of the GW franchise let us ALL have a slice the way we want it .

What does being a working adult have anything to do with making a video game interactive (meaning the player has to be a bit responsive to their surroundings) compared to making it faceroll easy. Playing 1-2 hours a night [if that] shouldn’t make everything tuned to super easy because you don’t have 4-6 hours. Progression speed will be different that than of people with more time on hand and that is not a fact of the game but a simple fact of life (someone with more time dedicated to something with progress further with it than someone who does has less time).

The reason that core vs HoT is night-and-day different is because the tuning for HoT is around level 80 players with Exotic gear while core is tuned for the character level/gear zones that they’re respective towards. Players have been in level 80 Exotic gear being down leveled into a zone, which still makes them far more powerful than said zone. It is simply that they’re used to facerolling the content.

There is nothing “split” about the community so long as you actively are a part of the community. Working with other players in your area for a Dynamic Event boss fight instead of trying to solo it, which just is not going to happen no matter how much you beg A.Net to change that to.

Champion Hero Points are really easy to find players in the area to help with: “/m LFM Champion South of [Map location]” and players will come. This is a matter of communicating. It is no different than if you don’t see a dungeon group for a dungeon you want to do, then you start a group yourself and look for players instead of complaining “dungeons are too hard, so hard that nobody does them!”.

And the Mastery unlocks for both gliding and mushrooms are super easy to obtain in less than 40min-1.5hrs in the jungle. To say that those are too hard to obtain and should be nerfed is absurd, to say the least. This shows a complete lack of effort towards any of the new content and instead wanting instant unlocks for your character; a counter point to the Mastery system being a form of end-game progression.

Terrahero.9358:

WeedyZeGreedy.8635:

you cannot solo dry top or SW either which were the initial zones

But you dont have to in order to unlock traits, weapon skills and utility skills.

So there’s that.

With this change to 250 HP (which I appreciate) you could also get more than 210 without even setting a foot into HoT-maps – and the remaining 4 Hero challenges in HoT can easily be cherrypicked without much fighting at all.

Here’s a thought: why not give hero points an additional option, “ask for help”? Players who don’t feel like taking it on solo can click that option and it’ll send out a pulse and chat message indicating that help is requested at that location. Maybe even let players teleport instantly to that location if they double-click the chat message link. Or at least if they click the link let the player who’s looking for help know that help is coming. Something like that. People can be shy about asking for help, or confused about what to write in map chat. Let’s make it easier to bring people together.

Killyox.3950:

MikaHR.1978:

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.

What sort of nonsense are you spouting now? Everything I said is a fact. You being clueless doesn’t change it one bit.

Just because you’re not good enough to solo most of the things doesn’t mean other players are at your level.

“Oh look how awseome I am compared to those other mouth breathers. And if I, the mighty and awesome Killyox can do it, there’s no need to ever do content differently. Hohoho”

I did my story solo on my glass ele. It is doable. You just have to be more careful of how you engage the enemy.

kitten no one told me that MMO stands for Massive Multiplayer Online. This is crazy!!

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.

Untrue. They said they wanted maps that require people to work together. They said they want them to take about 8 hours to fully complete and they even said some Hero Points will require groups. Not everything is Soloable. They said they’re making it more challenging before it released yet everyone expects more of the same content. Challenging is the key word.

Raven.1524:

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.

Er… Why do people keep having issues with the solo run? I didn’t have problems at all, and think I can even manage to clear the personal story without dying on my 2nd run if I do so. o_O

Ditto
I’ve been soloing on a Zerk Staff Ele and been getting around just fine, despite the fact that many Champions can one shot me and I’d say I’m pretty average, skillwise. If you can’t manage on your current build, change it up and build more for survival.
I’d die inside of they rebalanced the PvE for the lowest common denominator.

WeedyZeGreedy.8635:

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.

Replace your berserker gear then, you cannot solo dry top or SW either which were the initial zones

Depends a bit on what “to solo” means. For most solo players it means 100% map completition and what is needed for it. And that you can get in DT or SW “easily”. You cannot in HoT because of the way the HP are coded – i.e. about 50% of them are group content.

People sometimes mistake the aim of solo players to be able to handle every event solo – that is usually not the case.

Sirbeaumerdier.3740:

I did my story solo on my glass ele. It is doable. You just have to be more careful of how you engage the enemy.

That’s only part of it, though. The traditional solo player wants to get his PERSONAL story done (check), explore and roam around (check, though difficult), harvest materials (check, more difficult than Tyria but very doable) – have a couple of events they can do solo or with a few people who happen to be at the same location (check, though difficulty depends a lot on your class and build – my condi necro and condi mesmer can even solo camp defense, my guardian …. struggles …) and map completition (oops, no check here because of the HP design).

Making the HP about 50% a group thing is (my opinion) a bad decision as it really goes against solo players – making the elite spec unlockable by HP and by making HP challenges the only source of HP was another very bad decision – never mind the actual amount you need.

They could, instead, have offered croup and solo adventures along with solo HP challenges. Solo play giving less HP than in group but enough to unlock your elite spec. This would also have made map completition possible.

HtFde.3856:

Sirbeaumerdier.3740:

I did my story solo on my glass ele. It is doable. You just have to be more careful of how you engage the enemy.

That’s only part of it, though. The traditional solo player wants to get his PERSONAL story done (check), explore and roam around (check, though difficult), harvest materials (check, more difficult than Tyria but very doable) – have a couple of events they can do solo or with a few people who happen to be at the same location (check, though difficulty depends a lot on your class and build – my condi necro and condi mesmer can even solo camp defense, my guardian …. struggles …) and map completition (oops, no check here because of the HP design).

Making the HP about 50% a group thing is (my opinion) a bad decision as it really goes against solo players – making the elite spec unlockable by HP and by making HP challenges the only source of HP was another very bad decision – never mind the actual amount you need.

They could, instead, have offered croup and solo adventures along with solo HP challenges. Solo play giving less HP than in group but enough to unlock your elite spec. This would also have made map completition possible.

Is it really big problem for you? It is group content. You can just do this 10 Hero Points events with some people. Right?

HoT is soloable. I dont get why so many people are having issues with it. The only mobs you cannot outright solo are the Bosses and Champs. If you are a good player you can run around in berserk gear, if you are not then you can’kittens pretty simple.

I think those that are QQ’ing over this need to reflect on their class/build choices and go back to the drawing board to figure out what they are doing wrong.

Hot challenge was fine. Just a bit tuning with mastery gating. Its good to have a good part, also the masteries, as teamwork. Making it easier is a boomerang.
250 HP is OK. Better would have been a per account HP gift like 200 HP coins distributable over all characters. This would allow a fast elite but not superspeed multi elites for the veterans.

I kinda wish HP’s were BoA so you can just farm them on whatever character you wanted and distribute them however you want. But yea, 250HP change is fine. Lets leave the rest of the challenge alone.

Groupthink

The obnoxious, condescending and flagrantly hostile posts directed toward players who simply want to play the game the way they want to play it explain the popularity of soloing far more eloquently than anything else possibly could.

Maybe if more “pro-grouping” players were less antisocial, more players would prefer group play.

While it is true some content only makes sense if it is scaled for groups, most content can be easily scaled to accommodate anything from a single player to a massive zerg. The technology is already widely used in the game, is one of Guild Wars 2’s key selling points and allows the maximum number of players to enjoy the game with a minimum amount of hassle.

If a group of players want a challenge worthy of a group, by all means, they should have one! And if a single player wants a challenge that is worthy of a single skilled player, why not?

So far, not a single credible reason for denying that to players has ever been expressed.

And that’s because there isn’t one.

Majic.4801:

Groupthink

The obnoxious, condescending and flagrantly hostile posts directed toward players who simply want to play the game the way they want to play it explain the popularity of soloing far more eloquently than anything else possibly could.

Maybe if more “pro-grouping” players were less antisocial, more players would prefer group play.

While it is true some content only makes sense if it is scaled for groups, most content can be easily scaled to accommodate anything from a single player to a massive zerg. The technology is already widely used in the game, is one of Guild Wars 2’s key selling points and allows the maximum number of players to enjoy the game with a minimum amount of hassle.

If a group of players want a challenge worthy of a group, by all means, they should have one! And if a single player wants a challenge that is worthy of a single skilled player, why not?

So far, not a single credible reason for denying that to players has ever been expressed.

And that’s because there isn’t one.

But you see, HoT is already mostly soloable. With the exception of a few events, Bosses and Champs. It comes down to the skill level of said player whether or not they are capable. Group play dictation has nothing to do with it.

Like I said, if you cannot solo through HoT (there are Skill challenges that are GEARED for group play, Champs, and Bosses as well) then you need to reflect on what you are doing wrong and fix it. Its really as simple as that.

There was a dev post (may have been on the blog) stating there was a problem with the way the megaservers where distributing players in HoT and you could very easily end up on an empty map. Supposedly this has been fixed.

ShiningSquirrel.3751:

There was a dev post (may have been on the blog) stating there was a problem with the way the megaservers where distributing players in HoT and you could very easily end up on an empty map. Supposedly this has been fixed.

It has NOT been fixed, you still see people landing in the PvP lobby complaining of empty maps regularly.

The difficulty of HoT’s open world is definitely more than what we’re used to but, for the most part, it just takes a little research on some builds, and a little practice learning the mechanics before you’ll be blazing through it in no time. Now Tangled Depths… that zone just needs to DIAF. I can’t stand that place.

It’s pretty simple to solo on any prof (I have played maps on all) … Idk why people constantly complain :/

I tell you what I do if I encounter a champ boss for a hero point: release the champ boss and run and wait for a group of players to come along. I opened a champ boss for a hero point the other night and I ran and the mob paced around the map, didn’t despawn. So, about 6 more players came running up and I jumped back in the fray and got the boss.

That’s kind of solo’g it.

Bhima.9518:

The difficulty of HoT’s open world is definitely more than what we’re used to but, for the most part, it just takes a little research on some builds, and a little practice learning the mechanics before you’ll be blazing through it in no time. Now Tangled Depths… that zone just needs to DIAF. I can’t stand that place.

How come? I’m not judging … just curious what makes Tangled Depths unpleasant for you?

lol this is a hilarious thread. I also hate when I buy a multiplayer game and can’t play it by myself.