Guild Wars 2

IndigoSundown.5419:

The whole “group events” for Hero Challenges sounds like a mistake. HC’s are “one-and-done” content, unlike repeatable content fueled by random desirable drops or incremental rewards. Once the initial burst of players have their HC’s done, what happens to the late adopters, the people working on their 3rd alt, and those who took their time for whatever reason? One-and-done content that gates mechanics needs to be accessible throughout its lifespan.

I’ll tell you: they devised a new system where re-doing event hero points grants loot, XP, and Karma. I ALWAYS offer to help on the coztic Itzel champion on VB (for instance) even when I no longer need that HP. Same with other “once per game” events-I love re-doing them for fun and to help random players, so avoid judging every player by such a measure.

I still feel that these maps aren’t too hard for casual play, and that they positively encourage team play, which doesn’t even need you being close friends with people you team up with in map (I am a strong introvert, so I do relate with solo and “loner” players.)

Tharen.6087:

@Raven. You can’t even open the story line till lvl 80.

That doesn’t really matter because you don’t have to do the story to get into Verdant Brink, you can just run through Silverwastes and get in through the portal.

Arlee.7038:

Tharen.6087:

@Raven. You can’t even open the story line till lvl 80.

That doesn’t really matter because you don’t have to do the story to get into Verdant Brink, you can just run through Silverwastes and get in through the portal.

Or use the guild hall. Or a teleport to friend stone.

Star Ace.5207:

IndigoSundown.5419:

The whole “group events” for Hero Challenges sounds like a mistake. HC’s are “one-and-done” content, unlike repeatable content fueled by random desirable drops or incremental rewards. Once the initial burst of players have their HC’s done, what happens to the late adopters, the people working on their 3rd alt, and those who took their time for whatever reason? One-and-done content that gates mechanics needs to be accessible throughout its lifespan.

I’ll tell you: they devised a new system where re-doing event hero points grants loot, XP, and Karma. I ALWAYS offer to help on the coztic Itzel champion on VB (for instance) even when I no longer need that HP. Same with other “once per game” events-I love re-doing them for fun and to help random players, so avoid judging every player by such a measure.

I still feel that these maps aren’t too hard for casual play, and that they positively encourage team play, which doesn’t even need you being close friends with people you team up with in map (I am a strong introvert, so I do relate with solo and “loner” players.)

Logged in to +1 this.

I am a pretty casual player. I have played quite a lot of hours since the original GW2 pre weekend but as an old-ish guy with a troublesome left hand due to a prior injury I am not a particularly good player. Not very good at the twitchy stuff. I still even click skills quite a bit. I also don’t like having to party up or even bother guildies to help me with stuff so I just do a lot of it solo. Despite the above, I have maxed elite specs for every class except revenant and engineer. I lack only the 25 point elite skill to max herald and am halfway to scrapper. I did all the personal story completely solo (albeit on a reaper) and am halfway through it on several other toons. I did all of those without joining parties or actively seeking help in map chat.

And it was not very hard. Completing HoT HPs is not a big deal. They take a little time, but are worth 10 points compared to Tyrian HPs. Just getting to ten of those takes longer. A lot of them are also soloable, even those requiring fighting champs. Obviously if you are determined to do them all in order in a particular zone at a particular time, you will encounter problems as some do require help and people aren’t always doing them. But if you are willing to hop maps and just pay attention to map chat, you can do many without even asking for help. For example, at least three different times when no one was around I kicked off the security console HP and started fighting the golem and was joined by other people before getting the golem halfway down even without asking for help in map chat. On most maps people are asking for help and other people are joining in. In Auric Basin it is common to see messages in map chat like “anybody else for Balthazar HP?” People will also usually put it in map chat when they have finished that HP to let everyone know that it is open. So not only do you not have to ask for help but you don’t even have to fight that boss. A LOT of the HP are like that.

Like Star Ace, I tend to be an introvert and prefer solo-ish play, but I find it quite enjoyable how folks just sort of organically come together in open world and complete tasks as a team. I did the DS meta for the first time yesterday by looking in LFG and joining a DS taxi and then leaving the party. I just went to the nearest tag and followed it. The commander asked people doing the meta to join his squad so I did. I just followed the very few simple, basic, helpful commands (like “if you need to kill the boss for the HP, please move your icon to squad channel 3”) and had a blast killing stuff and beating the meta.

I don’t really care for the direction ANet is moving with the raids and such, but the game is certainly not unplayable solo. It is still as solo playable as the original GW was with heroes, which is how I generally liked to play GW. Some content requires much more organized grouping and interaction, but that is to be expected, right? Some people want and like that kind of play. As long as ANet doesn’t start putting the majority of its development resources towards that and as long as items or materials that affect how much a player can achieve in game (like ascended armor, etc.) is not obtainable only through that kind of play, I am okay with it. This game stills seems pretty casual friendly. I hope it stays that way.

Btw, as a side note for those who are like me and struggle sometimes with playing well enough to beat certain stuff, let me recommend playing a little bit of WvW or even PvP. Not everybody likes WvW. I am not a huge fan of it as PvP play is not my bag, but I started hopping up into the borderlands a long while back to do simple dailies when I didn’t like the PvE choices. Stuff like Master of Ruins, Land Claimer, or Caravan Disruptor are usually extremely easy and quick. Run to a spot and stand on it for a few secs. Kill a veteran NPC and stand on a spot. Kill a dolyak and maybe a guard. I could often hop up there and do the daily in less than 10 minutes and go back to doing what I wanted.

Usually. Sometime I would get ambushed by another player. But that is how playing WvW helps with playing better. Getting ambushed helped me learn to pay attention and watch my surroundings to keep some roamer from ganking me. I learned how to kite and run by getting ambushed in WvW. That helps with PvE play. I am still truly terrible at WvW but learned to pay more attention to what enemies are doing and what is going on around me and how to use skills by dying there. I started noticing myself having less trouble in PvE. After doing a few of the simple dailies in WvW, I also found myself following the zerg and participating in taking towers or keeps. Eventually I actually even became mildly useful with my necro or ele or warrior. Like with PvE, I typically don’t join a squad or party. But I sometimes get an invite and follow someone around. Yes, in “PvP” play, there are going to be some obnoxious people. But most of the folks in WvW try to be helpful. They are patient with noobs and try to help them improve. It benefits the server. And some of the map chat can be pretty amusing. I am still not even a good PvE player, much less good at WvW, but I have been getting less bad and some of that is from playing a bit of WvW. And I enjoyed a lot of the time doing it. Suggesting WvW play may not be very timely right now as the HoT changes to the borderlands seem to have been unpopular and it isn’t being played as much. But most of the above still applies. Folks should try it and see what they think. It is really a glorified, more dynamic PvE to some degree.

Sorry for the rambling. This is a lot longer post than I intended.

William Bradley Knight.2609:

Sorry for the rambling. This is a lot longer post than I intended.

Refreshing and enjoyable nonetheless.

qbalrog.8017:

It is called Guld wars after all

It is?

Rasimir.6239:

Kraggy.4169:

Ayrilana.1396:

Kraggy.4169:

TexZero.7910:

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

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?

It’s more logical than coming on a forum to complain that a game built upon playing with a large number of people is somehow, not upto your standards of playing solo.

Honestly, it’s pretty sad how many players do not fundamentally realize that MMO’s at their core are about co-operative play. This includes the open world. If it was meant to be a single player experience you’d be in instances scaled for exactly 1 person.

Except you’re posting on a forum of a game that before the exansion WAS JUST THAT TYPE OF GAME, where instances were side-issues and totally avoidable if you chose and group event were likewise.

HOT changed GW2 into a group-or-die game where simply progressing one’s character by unlocking skills is no longer doable without HAVING to ‘group up’, GW2 pre-HOT WAS NOT LIKE THAT!

ANET took our money without ever telling us they were changing it from a solo-friendly, group optional game, to a solo-hostile 1990s group-or-die one.

GW2 after HOT is really GW3, a throwback to the last century’s idea of what ‘playing other people’ means.

You can still progress your character (unlocking elite spec) without needing anyone.

Unlocking and capping are two different things, I have it unlocked, I’m nowhere near capping it and need HPs only doable with groups, either to do the challenge itself or simply to unlock access to the challenge in the first place.

Sounds like an interesting challenge: Unlock your elite spec in HoT only -> do 25 HoT hero challenges.

I’ve actually got a lvl 80 ranger who has done nothing beyond unlocking all core tyria waypoints (to see how long it would take -> slightly less than 10 hours) and full core personal story (again to see the length -> again around 10 hours, although that was just before the latest story revision, so I’d expect it to take a bit longer nowadays). I might just take her into HoT next weekend to see how far I’ll get with her druid spec playing solo. Does showing up at hero points others are calling out in map chat count as “solo”?

I would say no, solo denotes a lack of other people.

I’ll say upfront that I enjoyed the added difficulties & challenges in HoT. But with that said, it’s a fine line between challenging and tedious. Verdant Brink & Auric Basin are pretty well designed maps. They added challenging content without being overly tedious. The meta are also puggable. Tangled Depths & Dragon’s Stand are just tedious. I don’t really call these zones challenging, they’re just tedious to go through, tedious to do the meta, tedious to accomplish hero challenges, and they generally take a lot of your time with small rewards.

Anet kind of gambled with their playerbase. Normally a MMO can’t afford to lose their large, high paying, casual/solo playerbase. I hope Anet knows what they’re doing because they did launch an expansion that’s fairly solo/casual unfriendly. I’d say half of the expansion is pretty solo/casual unfriendly, while the other half (first half) was rather enjoyable. It’s too bad. And to think unlocking elite specs initially required almost twice as many hero points, you just know Anet went a bit too far there with their expansion design.

These days I’m still unlocking elite specs for my alts. But I find myself doing the first 2 maps and skipping the last 2. I gladly do the personal story because it’s actually fun, doable, and you can do it solo or with friends. I wish the personal story could be extended. But a lot of the other things are just tedious, not fun at all to do. I did join the long Dragon’s Stand meta many times, tried to like it but I just found them to be way too long and not worth the time. One boss event I stood there for over an hour waiting for the other groups to get “ready” because apparently everything had to be synchronized. It was the most boring time I’ve ever spent in this game and I never went back and did it again.

Oh yeah raids, I’m glad raids are ingame and some are enjoying it. But raids have already created cliques within guilds and friends. Guild Wars 2 to me was always about being inclusive, like everybody join in the fight, no matter what guild, group, build, or who you’ve bribed. But HoT expansion have made this game more towards being exclusive. By doing so you lose your large chunk of casual/solo playerbase. Big gamble, I don’t know if it’ll payoff for Anet, but MMO’s usually can’t afford to lose this segment of the playerbase.

the power of an mmorpg means you play with others to achieve certain goals. solo play is also a great challenge and i’ll admit in the jungle its way harder than in regular tyria.
But I saw it as a challenge and tried it and only at certain points I asked my friends to help out!

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.

I’ve soloed the new Heart of Thorns story with my Ele and my Thief just fine. And those are the two characters I have the hardest time soloing with.

Even having a few more waypoints would be amazing. It’s frustrating to get halfway across the new maps, die, and have to go all the way back because there’s no WPs anywhere. I know that Silverwastes and Dry Top were similar but those are very small compared to the sheer size of the HoT maps. Not to mention you can run straight through SW or DT relatively easily.

Perhaps it is just about learning the new content, or grouping up more…but as a solo player who enjoys joining groups when I can, the challenge in that is FINDING a group.

Kraggy.4169:

Ayrilana.1396:

Kraggy.4169:

TexZero.7910:

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

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?

It’s more logical than coming on a forum to complain that a game built upon playing with a large number of people is somehow, not upto your standards of playing solo.

Honestly, it’s pretty sad how many players do not fundamentally realize that MMO’s at their core are about co-operative play. This includes the open world. If it was meant to be a single player experience you’d be in instances scaled for exactly 1 person.

Except you’re posting on a forum of a game that before the exansion WAS JUST THAT TYPE OF GAME, where instances were side-issues and totally avoidable if you chose and group event were likewise.

HOT changed GW2 into a group-or-die game where simply progressing one’s character by unlocking skills is no longer doable without HAVING to ‘group up’, GW2 pre-HOT WAS NOT LIKE THAT!

ANET took our money without ever telling us they were changing it from a solo-friendly, group optional game, to a solo-hostile 1990s group-or-die one.

GW2 after HOT is really GW3, a throwback to the last century’s idea of what ‘playing other people’ means.

You can still progress your character (unlocking elite spec) without needing anyone.

Unlocking and capping are two different things, I have it unlocked, I’m nowhere near capping it and need HPs only doable with groups, either to do the challenge itself or simply to unlock access to the challenge in the first place.

You were never able solo Teq. You were never able to solo a temple in Orr. And you sure as hell couldn’t solo the Silverwastes. Not if you want to get through the meta.

If you really want to max out all the Hero Points in Core Tyria, you’d only need to do 4-5 hero points in HoT to max out your spec. This is fact.

So, I can think of five hero points that are simply communes, off the top of my head. You don’t need to party to get to or use those hero points.

As for leveling your masteries, all you have to do is find a group and run around with them like you did in Orr or the Silverwastes or at a temple event chain.

You don’t have to party.

Not to mention there are hero point chains almost every day in the new areas, you can just join and run with anyway.

It’s one thing to say the new area is hard and you don’t like it. It’s another thing to say you can’t progress.

WOW. You need to be with people for doing events? In a MMOrpg? OMG. It’s so unfair! Why I can’t solo every content???

Tired of these threads with non-sense these days…

+1 the OP.

This game was fun and so I thought the expansion would be too, but instead its just become a tedious grind. Anet took the easy out for difficulty, instead of challenging AI, everything just had its damage output jacked way the hell up, so you get one shot by everything on the maps. I can only beat my head against the wall for so long before its just not any fun at all, and that is my overall impression of this expansion. The story isn’t bad, but it isn’t particularly good either. I can only honestly say I wish I hadn’t bought heart of thorns.

I’ll probably keep at for a few more days, because I don’t have money to burn so I will make every effort to redeem this game for myself and the value of my dollar, but its been a week or so and I am just hating it, its a slog, not fun. Someone called it Dark Souls MMO, but honestly Dark Souls was tough but fair for the most part, this crap is just cheap with mobs that hit like trucks, and require no special skill to defeat, just have to get the jump on them & hit them harder first, otherwise they destroy you in a single hit, or if you are really lucky 2 hits.

Dark Savior.7589:

+1 the OP.

This game was fun and so I thought the expansion would be too, but instead its just become a tedious grind. Anet took the easy out for difficulty, instead of challenging AI, everything just had its damage output jacked way the hell up, so you get one shot by everything on the maps. I can only beat my head against the wall for so long before its just not any fun at all, and that is my overall impression of this expansion. The story isn’t bad, but it isn’t particularly good either. I can only honestly say I wish I hadn’t bought heart of thorns.

I’ll probably keep at for a few more days, because I don’t have money to burn so I will make every effort to redeem this game for myself and the value of my dollar, but its been a week or so and I am just hating it, its a slog, not fun. Someone called it Dark Souls MMO, but honestly Dark Souls was tough but fair for the most part, this crap is just cheap with mobs that hit like trucks, and require no special skill to defeat, just have to get the jump on them & hit them harder first, otherwise they destroy you in a single hit, or if you are really lucky 2 hits.

This is just not true. Everything’s damage isn’t just jacked, they have special abilities that you need to dodge, block,interrupt or otherwise mitigate with protection or whatever. Besides that their damage is normal. The only mobs that don’t have an obvious tell what attack they are going to do are the frogs with bows but they are also very vulnurable to brute force and knock downs since they only have something like 10k hp.
If you’re getting one shot it means you weren’t paying attention, and if you keep getting one shot maby wear defensive gear and use a defensive build until you learn how to deal with them? Other gear than berserker is actually very handy when learning the new maps and mobs, and a full set of exotics is still very cheap. Hell you can get a full exotic soldiers set in Orr for just karma.

Things that are completely useless in regular open world Tyria is extremely useful in HoT like stuns, blinds, knock downs, chill,dodging, actually being present at the computer…

Petrol.9086:

Dark Savior.7589:

+1 the OP.

This game was fun and so I thought the expansion would be too, but instead its just become a tedious grind. Anet took the easy out for difficulty, instead of challenging AI, everything just had its damage output jacked way the hell up, so you get one shot by everything on the maps. I can only beat my head against the wall for so long before its just not any fun at all, and that is my overall impression of this expansion. The story isn’t bad, but it isn’t particularly good either. I can only honestly say I wish I hadn’t bought heart of thorns.

I’ll probably keep at for a few more days, because I don’t have money to burn so I will make every effort to redeem this game for myself and the value of my dollar, but its been a week or so and I am just hating it, its a slog, not fun. Someone called it Dark Souls MMO, but honestly Dark Souls was tough but fair for the most part, this crap is just cheap with mobs that hit like trucks, and require no special skill to defeat, just have to get the jump on them & hit them harder first, otherwise they destroy you in a single hit, or if you are really lucky 2 hits.

This is just not true. Everything’s damage isn’t just jacked, they have special abilities that you need to dodge, block,interrupt or otherwise mitigate with protection or whatever. Besides that their damage is normal. The only mobs that don’t have an obvious tell what attack they are going to do are the frogs with bows but they are also very vulnurable to brute force and knock downs since they only have something like 10k hp.
If you’re getting one shot it means you weren’t paying attention, and if you keep getting one shot maby wear defensive gear and use a defensive build until you learn how to deal with them? Other gear than berserker is actually very handy when learning the new maps and mobs, and a full set of exotics is still very cheap. Hell you can get a full exotic soldiers set in Orr for just karma.

Things that are completely useless in regular open world Tyria is extremely useful in HoT like stuns, blinds, knock downs, chill,dodging, actually being present at the computer…

Sounds good and well. But you forgot to mention the fact that half of HoT mobs are vet-s. And they are like a HP sponge. Many of them make the tone of damage. And most of them also have a strip of defiance. Most classes haven’t such count of the control to overcome it. You can’t deny that most of HoT mobs are literally super-annoying.
Smokescales, for example. One is rather easy. But try to kill 2 veterans. I have necro. Necro have pets on some skills. One one of them attacking me with his teleport skill, another puts the smoke and continues to kick my pets within it. Right after this the second does the same thing. I can not control pets – I just have to wait until they die. So at the time they dies I have almost no HP but smokescales, on the contrary, are completely healthy.
Is it assumed that I have to completely change the build for each mob? Or what?
Two vet-s frogs with bows kill my pets and me for a few seconds. I can hardly take half of their HP. And I could kill many champions solo. kitten , I tank raids, m8! But some frogs with bows easily killing me.
Mushroom(!) humiliates killer of elder dragons. Mushroom defender, for example. Uncontrolable. Ton of hp. Ton of damage. Ton of cc. I’m jumping like a clown, a last effort trying to finish some mushroom… The thickest class in the game. Full ascended. Doing 15k crits. Killed by mushroom. Awesome…

And what about these hero challanges shoved somewhere, where no sunlight reaches? Half an hour of searching, to die in a couple of seconds. Cool!

Sharpshooters with 15k execution when you fly past on glider or fight with 2-3 of them. Pew! You’r dead. Great!

Chaks with unavoidable rays. Pew-pew-pew form all directions you didn’t see. You’r dead. Super!

Ok… In a few words: the game has become incredibly irritating when playing solo. Impossible in some places. On the one hand increasing difficulty – it’s good. On the other – you can relax just in boring mindless zergs now. Want to try content solo – lose a lot of nerves. Not good thing, I believe.

(sorry for bad eng, btw)

MeGaZlo.9516:

Petrol.9086:

Dark Savior.7589:

+1 the OP.

This game was fun and so I thought the expansion would be too, but instead its just become a tedious grind. Anet took the easy out for difficulty, instead of challenging AI, everything just had its damage output jacked way the hell up, so you get one shot by everything on the maps. I can only beat my head against the wall for so long before its just not any fun at all, and that is my overall impression of this expansion. The story isn’t bad, but it isn’t particularly good either. I can only honestly say I wish I hadn’t bought heart of thorns.

I’ll probably keep at for a few more days, because I don’t have money to burn so I will make every effort to redeem this game for myself and the value of my dollar, but its been a week or so and I am just hating it, its a slog, not fun. Someone called it Dark Souls MMO, but honestly Dark Souls was tough but fair for the most part, this crap is just cheap with mobs that hit like trucks, and require no special skill to defeat, just have to get the jump on them & hit them harder first, otherwise they destroy you in a single hit, or if you are really lucky 2 hits.

This is just not true. Everything’s damage isn’t just jacked, they have special abilities that you need to dodge, block,interrupt or otherwise mitigate with protection or whatever. Besides that their damage is normal. The only mobs that don’t have an obvious tell what attack they are going to do are the frogs with bows but they are also very vulnurable to brute force and knock downs since they only have something like 10k hp.
If you’re getting one shot it means you weren’t paying attention, and if you keep getting one shot maby wear defensive gear and use a defensive build until you learn how to deal with them? Other gear than berserker is actually very handy when learning the new maps and mobs, and a full set of exotics is still very cheap. Hell you can get a full exotic soldiers set in Orr for just karma.

Things that are completely useless in regular open world Tyria is extremely useful in HoT like stuns, blinds, knock downs, chill,dodging, actually being present at the computer…

Sounds good and well. But you forgot to mention the fact that half of HoT mobs are vet-s. And they are like a HP sponge. Many of them make the tone of damage. And most of them also have a strip of defiance. Most classes haven’t such count of the control to overcome it. You can’t deny that most of HoT mobs are literally super-annoying.
Smokescales, for example. One is rather easy. But try to kill 2 veterans. I have necro. Necro have pets on some skills. One one of them attacking me with his teleport skill, another puts the smoke and continues to kick my pets within it. Right after this the second does the same thing. I can not control pets – I just have to wait until they die. So at the time they dies I have almost no HP but smokescales, on the contrary, are completely healthy.
Is it assumed that I have to completely change the build for each mob? Or what?
Two vet-s frogs with bows kill my pets and me for a few seconds. I can hardly take half of their HP. And I could kill many champions solo. kitten , I tank raids, m8! But some frogs with bows easily killing me.
Mushroom(!) humiliates killer of elder dragons. Mushroom defender, for example. Uncontrolable. Ton of hp. Ton of damage. Ton of cc. I’m jumping like a clown, a last effort trying to finish some mushroom… The thickest class in the game. Full ascended. Doing 15k crits. Killed by mushroom. Awesome…

And what about these hero challanges shoved somewhere, where no sunlight reaches? Half an hour of searching, to die in a couple of seconds. Cool!

Sharpshooters with 15k execution when you fly past on glider or fight with 2-3 of them. Pew! You’r dead. Great!

Chaks with unavoidable rays. Pew-pew-pew form all directions you didn’t see. You’r dead. Super!

Ok… In a few words: the game has become incredibly irritating when playing solo. Impossible in some places. On the one hand increasing difficulty – it’s good. On the other – you can relax just in boring mindless zergs now. Want to try content solo – lose a lot of nerves. Not good thing, I believe.

(sorry for bad eng, btw)

Well it’s certainly not soloable if you insist on bringing minions. Bad bad choice for most end game PvE content. Necros have other options.

I can solo a whole bunch of stuff on my necro in HoT. But I don’t bring minions. In fact, necro is probably one of the easier professions to solo hot on, because it not only has a lot of health, but it has soul reaping. And once you unlock the reaper, forget it.

Also a lot of mobs in hot die very quickly.

That doesn’t mean you’re never going to die. But if you’re relatively careful and you don’t insist on using a build that probably won’t work, you’ll do much better.

This thread is moot since its evident that a huge amount of players can quite happily play solo and enjoy it. Go to Tyria for some slaughter, go to the new zones for more challenging mobs. win win.

The first map VB is never empty, i did manage quite ok to move through it, yet i did die at some times, but not a big deal. Dying in GW1 was waaay more frustrating and punishing.

The game is not fluid anymore. Too much waiting around doing nothing for timers. In GW1, you could jump in and do almost anything, grouped or solo (take heroes) immediately. In GW1 the only rewards that were group specific were skins.

Now in GW2 we have morphed into:
1. we wait for boss timers.
2. we wait for regular event timers. Heaven forbid you come in just after the beginning of a DS. You’ll have to wait hours to get into the next map thats populated.

3. we wait for timers to craft ascended/legnedary gear.
4. If you want to PvP, you have to wait in the stupid lobby doing absolutely nothing.
They couldn’t even put a forge in there to give us something to do.

6. massive WvW maps and make you waste time walking for 5-10 minutes to get anywhere.

7. Then, after all that waiting, you get folks on that run around like chickens with their heads cut off, making that long awaited event a waste of time.

I realize they wanted to make time sinks. But for the love of god, couldn’t they make them somewhat enjoyable than sitting around doing nothing?

So much wasted time doing nothing, when I want to be playing towards a goal. Only now when you play solo its a huge waste of time, as solo play does not contribute to any end game goals anymore.

HoT is easily possible to “solo” – in the sense you can run around and progress. Even with a staff elementalist. But realize you will have to join in for the meta events. You don’t have to party up for them until you hit Dragon’s Stand — but then you will be invited to party to do the big runs. As for HoT personal story you can do that solo right up to the very end…where for most players you will need help.

BellatorDeus.2310:

HoT is easily possible to “solo” – in the sense you can run around and progress. Even with a staff elementalist. But realize you will have to join in for the meta events. You don’t have to party up for them until you hit Dragon’s Stand — but then you will be invited to party to do the big runs. As for HoT personal story you can do that solo right up to the very end…where for most players you will need help.

Easily soloable even with a staff elementalist? I would love to see that done easily because I tried that. It is not easy and is barely possible at all. Sure, I ran from point to point and survived, some of the time.

I agree that the story is soloable until the end though.

whizkid.6194:

BellatorDeus.2310:

HoT is easily possible to “solo” – in the sense you can run around and progress. Even with a staff elementalist. But realize you will have to join in for the meta events. You don’t have to party up for them until you hit Dragon’s Stand — but then you will be invited to party to do the big runs. As for HoT personal story you can do that solo right up to the very end…where for most players you will need help.

Easily soloable even with a staff elementalist? I would love to see that done easily because I tried that. It is not easy and is barely possible at all. Sure, I ran from point to point and survived, some of the time.

I agree that the story is soloable until the end though.

I’ve done it with every class and in glass armor. The final story instance can easily be done solo.

BellatorDeus.2310:

HoT is easily possible to “solo” – in the sense you can run around and progress. Even with a staff elementalist. But realize you will have to join in for the meta events. You don’t have to party up for them until you hit Dragon’s Stand — but then you will be invited to party to do the big runs. As for HoT personal story you can do that solo right up to the very end…where for most players you will need help.

Run around with zerg, mb? Or run from one personal instance to another?
Try to kill some veterans near 1st WP in Auric Basin solo.
I just tried with my GS\Hammer warrior. You know, “full ascended” kind of warrior. 1.5k of 8k hours played by this one, 20k AP, TA and Lupi solo and other pathos… And what do you think?
I can’t. Just can’t kill this toad on the beetle. Or two frogs on the bridge. I wonder what should I do. “Special build for veterans”? But why the hell I need it? I’ll better just glide down and join any zerg.
Hardcore is good and wonderful of course. But what I see is absolute nonsense.

So I realy want to see how you will deal with some veterans with your staff ele, or 3 pocket raptors packs near maguuma shallows

I only play staff ele and I destroyed packs and have no problems with vets, the trick is the ol
d basics, crowd control, dodge and healing (this is counter balanced with my zerk build)

MeGaZlo.9516:

BellatorDeus.2310:

HoT is easily possible to “solo” – in the sense you can run around and progress. Even with a staff elementalist. But realize you will have to join in for the meta events. You don’t have to party up for them until you hit Dragon’s Stand — but then you will be invited to party to do the big runs. As for HoT personal story you can do that solo right up to the very end…where for most players you will need help.

Run around with zerg, mb? Or run from one personal instance to another?
Try to kill some veterans near 1st WP in Auric Basin solo.
I just tried with my GS\Hammer warrior. You know, “full ascended” kind of warrior. 1.5k of 8k hours played by this one, 20k AP, TA and Lupi solo and other pathos… And what do you think?
I can’t. Just can’t kill this toad on the beetle. Or two frogs on the bridge. I wonder what should I do. “Special build for veterans”? But why the hell I need it? I’ll better just glide down and join any zerg.
Hardcore is good and wonderful of course. But what I see is absolute nonsense.

So I realy want to see how you will deal with some veterans with your staff ele, or 3 pocket raptors packs near maguuma shallows

So you don’t think it’s reasonable to change your build because of harder content, even though you can’t kill things? HoT is not nonsense because you don’t feel you should adapt to the difficulty. Appeals to your AP and hours played only go to show that you have gotten used to the mind numbly easy content Core GW2 has given over the last 3 years.

Frankly, a staff ele has everything they need to kill pocket raptors and veterans. Don’t believe for a second that the thousands of hours you have and AP points has shown you anything you need to know how to play your class because it hasn’t.

MeGaZlo.9516:

BellatorDeus.2310:

HoT is easily possible to “solo” – in the sense you can run around and progress. Even with a staff elementalist. But realize you will have to join in for the meta events. You don’t have to party up for them until you hit Dragon’s Stand — but then you will be invited to party to do the big runs. As for HoT personal story you can do that solo right up to the very end…where for most players you will need help.

Run around with zerg, mb? Or run from one personal instance to another?
Try to kill some veterans near 1st WP in Auric Basin solo.
I just tried with my GS\Hammer warrior. You know, “full ascended” kind of warrior. 1.5k of 8k hours played by this one, 20k AP, TA and Lupi solo and other pathos… And what do you think?
I can’t. Just can’t kill this toad on the beetle. Or two frogs on the bridge. I wonder what should I do. “Special build for veterans”? But why the hell I need it? I’ll better just glide down and join any zerg.
Hardcore is good and wonderful of course. But what I see is absolute nonsense.

So I realy want to see how you will deal with some veterans with your staff ele, or 3 pocket raptors packs near maguuma shallows

The awnser to both of these is: Equipt a Rifle or Longbow. And don’t go full offense, CC is so valuable i use Mighty Blow/Endure Pain/Stomp and Rampage with GS/Rifle(<3 gunflame, they have low hp and are vulnerable to burst). That elite just makes minced meat out of the frogs and the trick to them is: when they’re ranged melee them, watch out for when they leap or hold their bow side ways. If they take out their dagger, kite them witth the rifle or use Rampage. They can’t stun you because of stab and they can’t hit you when you’re repeatedly introducing their face to the ground.Hard.

And the beatle frog? Uhm, you just don’t stand in the poison. Use ranged when you can’t get in melee.

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.

I have played through all the new PvE zones solo. Therefore, your statement is pure opinion, and Anet owes no such discloser.

/thread.

If you can’t advance solo in the new maps/story, you should test yourself of movement disorder. Gosh the whole game industry is going down be cause casuals are flooding it.

Obtena.7952:

MeGaZlo.9516:

BellatorDeus.2310:

HoT is easily possible to “solo” – in the sense you can run around and progress. Even with a staff elementalist. But realize you will have to join in for the meta events. You don’t have to party up for them until you hit Dragon’s Stand — but then you will be invited to party to do the big runs. As for HoT personal story you can do that solo right up to the very end…where for most players you will need help.

Run around with zerg, mb? Or run from one personal instance to another?
Try to kill some veterans near 1st WP in Auric Basin solo.
I just tried with my GS\Hammer warrior. You know, “full ascended” kind of warrior. 1.5k of 8k hours played by this one, 20k AP, TA and Lupi solo and other pathos… And what do you think?
I can’t. Just can’t kill this toad on the beetle. Or two frogs on the bridge. I wonder what should I do. “Special build for veterans”? But why the hell I need it? I’ll better just glide down and join any zerg.
Hardcore is good and wonderful of course. But what I see is absolute nonsense.

So I realy want to see how you will deal with some veterans with your staff ele, or 3 pocket raptors packs near maguuma shallows

So you don’t think it’s reasonable to change your build because of harder content, even though you can’t kill things? HoT is not nonsense because you don’t feel you should adapt to the difficulty. Appeals to your AP and hours played only go to show that you have gotten used to the mind numbly easy content Core GW2 has given over the last 3 years.

Frankly, a staff ele has everything they need to kill pocket raptors and veterans. Don’t believe for a second that the thousands of hours you have and AP points has shown you anything you need to know how to play your class because it hasn’t.

Yes, I think so. I believe that solo Lupi – a hard content worthy of special build. Not some veteran mob. Do you know why? Because from Lupi or TA I’ll get a decent reward. From veteran I do not get anything.
May be you can explain me why would anyone do a special build to solo veteran, when it’s much better, easier and more profitable just to join the zerg?
Therefore, no one beats these veterans. That’s why I do not consider this content “harder”. Solo players do not need it. Useless. Content that is so hart that it is impassable solo gives no reasons to solo it and adapt to it. And this is nonsense.

And anyway: in the words everyone strong and skillful. So maybe you will show me how will you solo this http://puu.sh/mIW7z/e9072263df.jpg guy with ele or war? Or this http://puu.sh/mIWdc/73ed34ee42.jpg two?

MeGaZlo.9516:

Obtena.7952:

MeGaZlo.9516:

BellatorDeus.2310:

HoT is easily possible to “solo” – in the sense you can run around and progress. Even with a staff elementalist. But realize you will have to join in for the meta events. You don’t have to party up for them until you hit Dragon’s Stand — but then you will be invited to party to do the big runs. As for HoT personal story you can do that solo right up to the very end…where for most players you will need help.

Run around with zerg, mb? Or run from one personal instance to another?
Try to kill some veterans near 1st WP in Auric Basin solo.
I just tried with my GS\Hammer warrior. You know, “full ascended” kind of warrior. 1.5k of 8k hours played by this one, 20k AP, TA and Lupi solo and other pathos… And what do you think?
I can’t. Just can’t kill this toad on the beetle. Or two frogs on the bridge. I wonder what should I do. “Special build for veterans”? But why the hell I need it? I’ll better just glide down and join any zerg.
Hardcore is good and wonderful of course. But what I see is absolute nonsense.

So I realy want to see how you will deal with some veterans with your staff ele, or 3 pocket raptors packs near maguuma shallows

So you don’t think it’s reasonable to change your build because of harder content, even though you can’t kill things? HoT is not nonsense because you don’t feel you should adapt to the difficulty. Appeals to your AP and hours played only go to show that you have gotten used to the mind numbly easy content Core GW2 has given over the last 3 years.

Frankly, a staff ele has everything they need to kill pocket raptors and veterans. Don’t believe for a second that the thousands of hours you have and AP points has shown you anything you need to know how to play your class because it hasn’t.

Yes, I think so. I believe that solo Lupi – a hard content worthy of special build. Not some veteran mob. Do you know why? Because from Lupi or TA I’ll get a decent reward. From veteran I do not get anything.
May be you can explain me why would anyone do a special build to solo veteran, when it’s much better, easier and more profitable just to join the zerg?
Therefore, no one beats these veterans. That’s why I do not consider this content “harder”. Solo players do not need it. Useless. Content that is so hart that it is impassable solo gives no reasons to solo it and adapt to it. And this is nonsense.

And anyway: in the words everyone strong and skillful. So maybe you will show me how will you solo this http://puu.sh/mIW7z/e9072263df.jpg guy with ele or war? Or this http://puu.sh/mIWdc/73ed34ee42.jpg two?

I already told you how to 2 posts up. If i can do it with my warrior in exotics filled with ruby orbs and a GS that doesn’t even have force you can do it with your gear.

You don’t need any “special build”. But not changing skills or weapons depending on the situation is just gimping yourself. There are so many skills to choose from that were all but worthless in central Tyria that are actually useful now.

Edit: You know what, here you go vids of me soloing those mobs. Sorry for the potato quality.

https://youtu.be/E9sAJ7PNv30

https://youtu.be/JHR8vUJynQk

1 lava + Arcane blast will kill alot of them, from a distance. If you are psychotic like me, I pull as many packs as possible, drop sandstorm, and MS them (with arcane blast and lava as needed). ele staff was one of the easier classes to solo everything for me even most champs, with. I used meta build mostly. My other ele was d/d , and that was challenging, as one hit and your dead from champs on d/d.

I’d just like to remind everyone that GuildWars 2 is an mmo. It’s a multiplayer game. Any mmo that allows you to play all content solo isn’t doing it right.

CadeRG.4508:

I’d just like to remind everyone that GuildWars 2 is an mmo. It’s a multiplayer game. Any mmo that allows you to play all content solo isn’t doing it right.

MMO simply indicated that lots of players are also playing on the same server/map as you. Not that a group-or-die mentality is required as you seem to wrongly imply. I see many players jumping mindlessly around in LA, so it’s also an MMO, even though they and I are not interacting with each other.

Besides, there are fractals, (group) PvP, and raids. They (mostly) need you to interact with others, i. e. not everything is soloable NOR is everyone asking that EVERYTHING should be, thus it’s an MMORPG.

Mahou.3924:

CadeRG.4508:

I’d just like to remind everyone that GuildWars 2 is an mmo. It’s a multiplayer game. Any mmo that allows you to play all content solo isn’t doing it right.

MMO simply indicated that lots of players are also playing on the same server/map as you. Not that a group-or-die mentality is required as you seem to wrongly imply. I see many players jumping mindlessly around in LA, so it’s also an MMO, even though they and I are not interacting with each other.

Besides, there are fractals, (group) PvP, and raids. They (mostly) need you to interact with others, i. e. not everything is soloable NOR is everyone asking that EVERYTHING should be, thus it’s an MMORPG.

With that, I guess, you can’t really argue that an MMO should have solo content either. You can make an argument that it would be nice to have solo content but can’t really make it out as a requirement.

Petrol.9086:

MeGaZlo.9516:

Obtena.7952:

MeGaZlo.9516:

BellatorDeus.2310:

HoT is easily possible to “solo” – in the sense you can run around and progress. Even with a staff elementalist. But realize you will have to join in for the meta events. You don’t have to party up for them until you hit Dragon’s Stand — but then you will be invited to party to do the big runs. As for HoT personal story you can do that solo right up to the very end…where for most players you will need help.

Run around with zerg, mb? Or run from one personal instance to another?
Try to kill some veterans near 1st WP in Auric Basin solo.
I just tried with my GS\Hammer warrior. You know, “full ascended” kind of warrior. 1.5k of 8k hours played by this one, 20k AP, TA and Lupi solo and other pathos… And what do you think?
I can’t. Just can’t kill this toad on the beetle. Or two frogs on the bridge. I wonder what should I do. “Special build for veterans”? But why the hell I need it? I’ll better just glide down and join any zerg.
Hardcore is good and wonderful of course. But what I see is absolute nonsense.

So I realy want to see how you will deal with some veterans with your staff ele, or 3 pocket raptors packs near maguuma shallows

So you don’t think it’s reasonable to change your build because of harder content, even though you can’t kill things? HoT is not nonsense because you don’t feel you should adapt to the difficulty. Appeals to your AP and hours played only go to show that you have gotten used to the mind numbly easy content Core GW2 has given over the last 3 years.

Frankly, a staff ele has everything they need to kill pocket raptors and veterans. Don’t believe for a second that the thousands of hours you have and AP points has shown you anything you need to know how to play your class because it hasn’t.

Yes, I think so. I believe that solo Lupi – a hard content worthy of special build. Not some veteran mob. Do you know why? Because from Lupi or TA I’ll get a decent reward. From veteran I do not get anything.
May be you can explain me why would anyone do a special build to solo veteran, when it’s much better, easier and more profitable just to join the zerg?
Therefore, no one beats these veterans. That’s why I do not consider this content “harder”. Solo players do not need it. Useless. Content that is so hart that it is impassable solo gives no reasons to solo it and adapt to it. And this is nonsense.

And anyway: in the words everyone strong and skillful. So maybe you will show me how will you solo this http://puu.sh/mIW7z/e9072263df.jpg guy with ele or war? Or this http://puu.sh/mIWdc/73ed34ee42.jpg two?

I already told you how to 2 posts up. If i can do it with my warrior in exotics filled with ruby orbs and a GS that doesn’t even have force you can do it with your gear.

You don’t need any “special build”. But not changing skills or weapons depending on the situation is just gimping yourself. There are so many skills to choose from that were all but worthless in central Tyria that are actually useful now.

Edit: You know what, here you go vids of me soloing those mobs. Sorry for the potato quality.

https://youtu.be/E9sAJ7PNv30

https://youtu.be/JHR8vUJynQk

Exactly … so is this a case of poster can’t or not willing to? We know the answer. The fact is that people have been tricked into thinking they are prepared for the challenges they face in HoT because of all the ‘hard things’ they did in core for the thousands of hours played. Those hours and content in Core mean nothing.

Obtena.7952:

Exactly … so is this a case of poster can’t or not willing to? We know the answer. The fact is that people have been tricked into thinking they are prepared for the challenges they face in HoT because of all the ‘hard things’ they did in core for the thousands of hours played. Those hours and content in Core mean nothing.

Not that I agree with the sentiment of the title. But that does sort of show that something is off with the difficulty in HoT. :p Namely the pacing.

That I can agree with … they could have made the difficulty progressive as a player went through HoT, but that would have probably made it a much larger task to create it.

FrizzFreston.5290:

Not that I agree with the sentiment of the title. But that does sort of show that something is off with the difficulty in HoT. :p Namely the pacing.

I agree, that’s exactly the problem. It just went from this: https://youtu.be/lzFx0FEhTdk
to this: https://youtu.be/i9D2mvoMKLE?t=56s

They seem to have kind of a sink or swim approach where they just drop you in the jungle with a box of matches and a scarf at 3am(guessing that was sort of the point?), you either adapt and learn from your mistakes or you don’t get anywhere on your own. It was the same when i played in the beta, mobs were punishing and it felt like a trail by fire. Corpses everywhere, i think i got a level just by ressing people.
I do think it’s healthy for the game though, simply because skills and traits that were only good pvp are actually useful now. Every skill,gear set and trait that isn’t max damage being useless isn’t a good thing. They just need to work on the difficulty curve and maybe teach players better, perhaps through story mode.

I’m guessing they didn’t know how hard they wanted HoT to be when they made Dry Top and Silverwastes but it would’ve made the transition a whole lot smoother.
As much fun as i think the sink or swim style is, a smoother difficulty curve would’ve gone over a lot better. If you ask me they shouldn’t have nerfed entire Tyria to the ground a couple of years earlier. Hitting 1 and then going to get some coffee while your character kills the mob is fine in starting zones, but once you can do that in mid/high level zones something is seriously wrong.

CadeRG.4508:

I’d just like to remind everyone that GuildWars 2 is an mmo. It’s a multiplayer game. Any mmo that allows you to play all content solo isn’t doing it right.

Insisting Guild Wars 2 — a game designed and marketed specifically to be different from other MMOs — should be like “any” MMO, as if it must conform to your standard, cookie-cutter definition of an MMO (which is wrong, by the way), really, really misses the point.

I’m not saying GW2 shouldn’t have group-only content, just pointing out the patent absurdity of arguing it should because some (and not all) other MMOs do.

Majic.4801:

CadeRG.4508:

I’d just like to remind everyone that GuildWars 2 is an mmo. It’s a multiplayer game. Any mmo that allows you to play all content solo isn’t doing it right.

Insisting Guild Wars 2 — a game designed and marketed specifically to be different from other MMOs — should be like “any” MMO, as if it must conform to your standard, cookie-cutter definition of an MMO (which is wrong, by the way), really, really misses the point.

I’m not saying GW2 shouldn’t have group-only content, just pointing out the patent absurdity of arguing it should because some (and not all) other MMOs do.

There is a vast difference between group content in GW2 and group content in other games. You don’t have to wait for that specific role/build to come to play in the open world, in fact you don’t have to wait at all to participate in group content. You don’t have to form an actual party to play, you don’t have to WAIT at all, you jump right in the action and if there are enough players on the map they’ll join up and help.

Yes, sometimes you might have to give a shout on map chat to ask for help, but that’s nothing like advertising a party, or doing a LFG in other MMORPGs.

So Guild Wars 2 does things differently than other MMORPGs, that doesn’t mean it should be only for solo players.

maddoctor.2738:

Majic.4801:

CadeRG.4508:

I’d just like to remind everyone that GuildWars 2 is an mmo. It’s a multiplayer game. Any mmo that allows you to play all content solo isn’t doing it right.

Insisting Guild Wars 2 — a game designed and marketed specifically to be different from other MMOs — should be like “any” MMO, as if it must conform to your standard, cookie-cutter definition of an MMO (which is wrong, by the way), really, really misses the point.

I’m not saying GW2 shouldn’t have group-only content, just pointing out the patent absurdity of arguing it should because some (and not all) other MMOs do.

There is a vast difference between group content in GW2 and group content in other games. You don’t have to wait for that specific role/build to come to play in the open world, in fact you don’t have to wait at all to participate in group content. You don’t have to form an actual party to play, you don’t have to WAIT at all, you jump right in the action and if there are enough players on the map they’ll join up and help.

Yes, sometimes you might have to give a shout on map chat to ask for help, but that’s nothing like advertising a party, or doing a LFG in other MMORPGs.

So Guild Wars 2 does things differently than other MMORPGs, that doesn’t mean it should be only for solo players.

Majic.4801:

I’m not saying GW2 shouldn’t have group-only content, just pointing out the patent absurdity of arguing it should because some (and not all) other MMOs do.

mulzi.8273:

Zomaarwat.3912:

Massive
Multiplayer
Online
Role
Playing
Game

Just because a games is classified as Multiplayer, doesn’t mean you have or need, to play with others. All it means is that people are online at the same time and can interact with the world at the same time.

That is partially irrelevant. It is an MMO, they are meant to be played with people. Even so. I’ve gotten to all the new maps solo on a elementalist zerk build and finished the elite specs for every class with less than 5 people. I’ve beaten the personal story on my mesmer with my girlfriend on her thief and had no problems. Your points are invalid. Sorry but this topic had been made since the expansion was released and the community has shut it down everytime.

:Ps: They advertised HoT as hard content.

I dare to say that those filthy “casuals” are Arenanet’s bread and butter. I don’t have time to master everything, and be “hardcore”. I have to work. But because I work, I have the extra money to buy gems, to feel like I’m getting something unattainable through grind alone. Heart of Thorns is a huge misstep, and leaves at least half the players I have met avoiding the new content, and going back to old Tyria.

The most efficient grind is going to work and buying gems. If you could find a part-time job and do that for a while during the free time you would normally be willing to spend grinding in the game and you’d be making 100’s of gold per hour.

Not everyone has the opportunity, energy, time or ability otherwise to get a job just for grinding, of course. But still it doesn’t change the fact that working IRL is quite an efficient means of getting ascended armor. :P

I’ve done all the new maps on guard, warr, ele, necro, rev and ranger. Can’t say any of these classes gave me much trouble. Mostly everything is extremely easy. In case of warrior, guardian and ranger I found it’s even faceroll to solo all the HP champions (aside from the vampiric dude). So no, you don’t need multiple people for every event, nor to run around the map or even get your hero points. There’s also solo content in the form of adventures.

Grind is something you choose as well. For the most part you don’t even need half the masteries to get around and play the game. I still don’t have all of them and rly couldn’t care less.

Massively Multiplayer Online means that alot of people get into a game to play it, not that you are obligated to play with groups of people. We should have the choice to play solo or with groups of people.

Deotronomio.1962:

Massively Multiplayer Online means that alot of people get into a game to play it, not that you are obligated to play with groups of people. We should have the choice to play solo or with groups of people.

You have the choice to play solo. No one said that you can’t play solo. A lot of of people do solo. That also doesn’t mean there can’t be or shouldn’t be some things in the game you can’t solo.

Deotronomio.1962:

Massively Multiplayer Online means that alot of people get into a game to play it, not that you are obligated to play with groups of people. We should have the choice to play solo or with groups of people.

Show me the gun to your head that’s obligating you play with others ?

Cause lets all be real here….you can do pretty much everything (sans boss killing/100% meta progression) solo in HoT.

Hero challenges, while providing some problems can be done solo. Meta event’s while problematic at first glance all have ways of being completed even by a single player.

So what’s the real issue here ?
Is it a learn to play issue, or the game just really isn’t for you issue ?

TexZero.7910:

Deotronomio.1962:

Massively Multiplayer Online means that alot of people get into a game to play it, not that you are obligated to play with groups of people. We should have the choice to play solo or with groups of people.

Show me the gun to your head that’s obligating you play with others ?

Cause lets all be real here….you can do pretty much everything (sans boss killing/100% meta progression) solo in HoT.

Hero challenges, while providing some problems can be done solo. Meta event’s while problematic at first glance all have ways of being completed even by a single player.

So what’s the real issue here ?
Is it a learn to play issue, or the game just really isn’t for you issue ?

Exactly. Even world boss killing and progressing HoT metas can be done “solo” since you don’t have to say anything, nor join any kind of party to do most of them. For the more complex ones, you can just tag along and let others do the actual event mechanics (like the Octovine events) and just provide some extra dps when needed. When doing group events, you don’t need to be in an actual group to play them, there is no forced grouping in the game, you can come and go as you wish.