Guild Wars 2

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.

Put yourself in a solo persons mindset for 2 minutes. You go through HoT trying to get map completion and complete about 90% of it purely solo. Another 5% may be possible with alot of effort (which is fine). Then there is 5% that is utterly unsoloable (eg. a few champ HPs).

So you find folks to help with those. Great, you have all the maps completed. Now what? Everything at that point on requires a group to advance anything. You want to work towards a legendary? Great! But they soul bound enough components and place these behind group content. Okay, maybe you can work towards a private guild hall? Nope, they took that away to, large guilds only. So what does a solo person have to work towards after map completion? Anything they do from that point on does not contribute to anything, unless they group up. Even skins dont drop from mobs unless your in a group instance.

I’m not saying they need more solo content. They just need to work in an angle so solo folks can attain the same goals as group oriented folks. But gold farmers pretty much destroyed this, as well as the cry babies that kitten and complain that someone got the same shiny as them and diminished the value of their item, at least in their eyes.

mulzi.8273:

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.

Put yourself in a solo persons mindset for 2 minutes. You go through HoT trying to get map completion and complete about 90% of it purely solo. Another 5% may be possible with alot of effort (which is fine). Then there is 5% that is utterly unsoloable (eg. a few champ HPs).

So you find folks to help with those. Great, you have all the maps completed. Now what? Everything at that point on requires a group to advance anything. You want to work towards a legendary? Great! But they soul bound enough components and place these behind group content. Okay, maybe you can work towards a private guild hall? Nope, they took that away to, large guilds only. So what does a solo person have to work towards after map completion? Anything they do from that point on does not contribute to anything, unless they group up. Even skins dont drop from mobs unless your in a group instance.

I’m not saying they need more solo content. They just need to work in an angle so solo folks can attain the same goals as group oriented folks. But gold farmers pretty much destroyed this, as well as the cry babies that kitten and complain that someone got the same shiny as them and diminished the value of their item, at least in their eyes.

I don’t know, I think they’ve been pretty straight forward in the lead-up to HoT. They always claimed that Guild Halls for example would be group content. They said it would be accessible to small guilds, but never said that about personal guilds (in fact they even said that in multiple interviews). They always said Raids would be group content.

I am largely a solo player mostly because I often am multitasking as a father and a gamer so rarely group up in anything other than a random PUG for a fractal or two. I completed the story completely solo just fine. I did 100% map completion fine on my own (though as you mention it was tough at parts and I had to ask for help in map chat for some HPs). I have completed 1 legend (The Juggernaught) completely through crafting and did it solo with the exception of a few low level Fractals which I did with a PUG from LFG and never even had to talk to them. I am almost done with my second legendary (Nevermore) just need to finish a few mastery lines for the gift.

In the end, I don’t see how HoT isn’t soloable for any content they didn’t explicitly say wasn’t supposed to be. Is it more challenging? Absolutely. Does it require adaptation over what was done in core? Almost certainly. Is it nonsoloable or even misleading? Simply no!

TexZero.7910 and maddoctor.2738 you are both right the game is not for me, thats why i quit. The time for a refund has past so i can’t claim it, my bad. Don’t get me wrong i do not hate the game, it’s solid and beautiful and the sound is outstanding. For you people who enjoy the game that’s awsome at least there are many mmo’s to choose from.

mulzi.8273:

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.

Put yourself in a solo persons mindset for 2 minutes. You go through HoT trying to get map completion and complete about 90% of it purely solo. Another 5% may be possible with alot of effort (which is fine). Then there is 5% that is utterly unsoloable (eg. a few champ HPs).

So you find folks to help with those. Great, you have all the maps completed. Now what? Everything at that point on requires a group to advance anything. You want to work towards a legendary? Great! But they soul bound enough components and place these behind group content. Okay, maybe you can work towards a private guild hall? Nope, they took that away to, large guilds only. So what does a solo person have to work towards after map completion? Anything they do from that point on does not contribute to anything, unless they group up. Even skins dont drop from mobs unless your in a group instance.

I’m not saying they need more solo content. They just need to work in an angle so solo folks can attain the same goals as group oriented folks. But gold farmers pretty much destroyed this, as well as the cry babies that kitten and complain that someone got the same shiny as them and diminished the value of their item, at least in their eyes.

Legendaries always required group content. unless you were good enough to solo dungeons. Most people aren’t. They also needed, for a long long time, getting world completely in WvW, which they no longer need. I found that harder than anything in HoT.

The game has always had content you can’t solo including Temples in Orr or big world bosses. Solo players don’t complain about those.

So meta events with people running around are also things solo players shouldn’t complain about.

Do solo players solo the Silverwastes? No. Because you need people at each fort. You need people in each lane with Vinewrath. Solo players don’t complain about this.

The only possibly legit complaint is that you can’t solo getting from one place to another, because everything else was already in the game.

Solo players have always needed other people. They just don’t want to have to group up. And they don’t.

In early GW2, 90% (or more) of what could be done in zones could be done solo or in twos. In Orr, this shifted, but not all that much. Since DT/SW, GW2 zones have been all about the zone meta and precious little else. Anything else is an afterthought. There are some things to do, but very little, especially in comparison to early GW2.

So, why the change? Since launch, there have been consistent complaints about lack of stuff to pursue. So, Anet made more rewards, starting with Ascended. Where did they put these rewards? Other than in fractals, PvE rewards went into larger-scale content, like Champion bags (with scaled-up events being the best source) and the meta bosses.

So, what happens is that that stuff is what’s getting repeated. The other stuff is still there, but it gets ignored for the most part. There are even (many) complaints about having to level alts through the same “boring” content. Metrics say that large group events are a hit and regular events and exploration are a miss as far as player retention and replay-ability go.

Then, we get to HoT. Rather than design 90% or so of HoT as solo content and 10% large-group stuff, ANet decides not to bother. Vets by-and-large demonstrate daily they don’t care about the solo stuff. Why waste the resources on large swaths of content that will be done once (if at all) then ignored in favor of the Loot Pinata of the Moment?

Meanwhile, expansions from other games (including GW) provided a lot of solo content, with some group stuff also. In most cases, this accompanied a level rise, but Eye of the North demonstrated it didn’t have to. However, HoT is a departure from that method, and is going to be a disappointment to anyone who had expectations that a GW2 XPac would be like other games’ XPacs in that regard.

IndigoSundown.5419:

In early GW2, 90% (or more) of what could be done in zones could be done solo or in twos. In Orr, this shifted, but not all that much. Since DT/SW, GW2 zones have been all about the zone meta and precious little else. Anything else is an afterthought. There are some things to do, but very little, especially in comparison to early GW2.

So, why the change? Since launch, there have been consistent complaints about lack of stuff to pursue. So, Anet made more rewards, starting with Ascended. Where did they put these rewards? Other than in fractals, PvE rewards went into larger-scale content, like Champion bags (with scaled-up events being the best source) and the meta bosses.

So, what happens is that that stuff is what’s getting repeated. The other stuff is still there, but it gets ignored for the most part. There are even (many) complaints about having to level alts through the same “boring” content. Metrics say that large group events are a hit and regular events and exploration are a miss as far as player retention and replay-ability go.

Then, we get to HoT. Rather than design 90% or so of HoT as solo content and 10% large-group stuff, ANet decides not to bother. Vets by-and-large demonstrate daily they don’t care about the solo stuff. Why waste the resources on large swaths of content that will be done once (if at all) then ignored in favor of the Loot Pinata of the Moment?

Meanwhile, expansions from other games (including GW) provided a lot of solo content, with some group stuff also. In most cases, this accompanied a level rise, but Eye of the North demonstrated it didn’t have to. However, HoT is a departure from that method, and is going to be a disappointment to anyone who had expectations that a GW2 XPac would be like other games’ XPacs in that regard.

This is a fair assessment but in my opinion it’s also missing something.

I don’t think that Anet went to this harder stuff just because so many people were asking for it. I think they went with harder stuff because it was almost completely absent from the open world. That is it was kitten in their offering. That doesn’t mean this is a change in direction. It means they were filling in what’s missing.

The new shatterer fight isn’t as hard as the Tech fight and a lot of people seem to like it. It’s just that there was so little hard content in the game, that Anet needed to make something for players who like that too.

It doesn’t mean they’ve abandoned casuals. It means the development cycle takes so long that they can’t do everything all at once.

mulzi.8273:

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.

Put yourself in a solo persons mindset for 2 minutes. <snipped>.

I’ve been there done that and have the Liadri title to show for it. I understand how awesome solo content can be. I often run through the world doing events solo.
That doesn’t at all mean i feel like im forced to “Group or Die”, or “Group or Fail”…..That’s just absurd hyperbole aimed at getting someone to feel sympathetic for the wrong reasons.

MeGaZlo.9516:

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?

Because you keep dying to them…

As I’m mentioning in another tread. The mobs are not even interesting or great AI.

As mentioned in another tread. I just feel missing soem basic skills that I see in other games like: stun, cancel mob casting, reset agro, agroing a single mob in a pack, lowering enemy defences, etc.

I’m not saying. I need all those skills in one built but we should be able to pick 2.

I’m playing this game since day one, with couple breaks. I did not complain about this before cause the game was easy but now that lack of these skills are very evident if you want to play solo.

The hero points need to be brought down to veteran level (just have them scale if more people get involved, I don’t care), they’re way out of line with the rest of the hero points in the game (yes, they’re worth more points, but let’s not pretend that was anything but an attempt by Anet to devalue the ones we’d already acquired pre-HoT), they make map completion a lot more tedious than it really needs to be, and is by far the least solo-friendly part of the expansion that’s not a meta event.

Having to beg map chat for help getting personal map completion isn’t interesting or fun or sustainable in the long term.

HoT has really sucked out a LOT of the fun of GW2. I’m really getting sick of gliding everywhere and still have the POI, vista, WP, HP, MP, or whatever I’m trying to get to listed at Above me. I finally get it below me and while flying to where it is, BAM I land and its above me again.

Come on Anet! Your creative department can do better than this! How about a better map! I’ve always hated the map as you zoom out a bit so as to maybe get a better idea of what is what elevation-wise and BAM it all blurs out into a painterly adstraction. Especially with HoT zones, you guys really need to work on have a 3D map of some sort. I don’t want to be given some arrow that says “go here” but what you have right now isn’t enough.

I love the idea of a jungle, but it is like you all forget this is a game, not some puzzle where we all log in so we can try to find the right path, stairs, jumping mushroom, vine, way point, inclined or declined path, or area to maybe fly too via a network of wind patterns so we can MAYBE complete something while we are logged in. After 2 hours tonight of trying to get to one POI, I gave up and logged off. I’m sitting thinking what the hell reason is there for me to long in tomorrow, or ever!?

i recently went into another flaw of HoT when i grinded HPs for my alt mesmer (taking the solo HPs and the ones where i could find other people around).
VB and AB went very smoothly. i was even able to do the meta in AB. those maps are at least accessible and populated.
then i entered TD and ran into a big problem. from the entering point there are only 2 ways out of the starting area. both are very tight and heavily populated by groups of 3 mobs and several veterans standing near each other and patrolling the area. when i entered TD with my first char there were people around and we could fight our way thru. but as soon as one have access to the further waypoints no one uses the wp in the entering zone.
new chars/players have to solo their way thru, which is really hard with the mob density, the patrolling veterans and fast respawns. my mesmer ended up with agroing multiple groups making it impossible to advance to more populated areas.
nearly all content (if you call high mob density content) is group oriented or favours some classes (my ranger could fight his way thru without to much troubles where my mesmer has runs into problems).

rojoka.5976:

i recently went into another flaw of HoT when i grinded HPs for my alt mesmer (taking the solo HPs and the ones where i could find other people around).
VB and AB went very smoothly. i was even able to do the meta in AB. those maps are at least accessible and populated.
then i entered TD and ran into a big problem. from the entering point there are only 2 ways out of the starting area. both are very tight and heavily populated by groups of 3 mobs and several veterans standing near each other and patrolling the area. when i entered TD with my first char there were people around and we could fight our way thru. but as soon as one have access to the further waypoints no one uses the wp in the entering zone.
new chars/players have to solo their way thru, which is really hard with the mob density, the patrolling veterans and fast respawns. my mesmer ended up with agroing multiple groups making it impossible to advance to more populated areas.
nearly all content (if you call high mob density content) is group oriented or favours some classes (my ranger could fight his way thru without to much troubles where my mesmer has runs into problems).

Teleport utility has 1200 range, and you have access to multiple invisibilities, cc’s, ports, blocks, invisibilities, aegises and invoulnerabilities.

Whether you are gs zerky, set-it-and-forget-it phantasm or condi mesmer doesn’t really matter with the amount of options you have.

If you pulled more then you can handle mesmer is probably one of the easiest classes to lose aggro on.

@rojoka You do realize as a mesmer that can you can use a torch, that you a have Pu, that you have mass invisibility, that you have decoy and that you can blink, right? If it impossible to you to traverse the map, why not use these abilities ? (Also I forgot, you can also have distorsion with signets, and you can trait stability on shatters).

I went into Dragon’s Stand for the first time last night; There’s 70 hero points there that are essentially do the event and they’re handed to you. There are at LEAST another 140 points (14 more) that can be done the same way. There are multiple champs that are right by waypoints and I’ve never had problems getting them.

Now, HoT maps cannot be traversed like EVERY other map in the game (that’s a problem) since you have to be really careful with pulls and can easily be murdered and have to start all over again.

Map completion should be difficult for an 80 map. (look at Orr)

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.

Wrong! I’m going thru HoT right now mostly solo. Sure, sure, there are times being a in a group(organized or not) is pretty much mandatory(such as the events) but if I can solo much of HoT then anyone can.

teufeldritch.7691:

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.

Wrong! I’m going thru HoT right now mostly solo. Sure, sure, there are times being a in a group(organized or not) is pretty much mandatory(such as the events) but if I can solo much of HoT then anyone can.

QFT:

The story steps can be done solo (mordremoth fight is a bit tough but doable); hero points are just a “Hey anyone want to do X hero challenge?” away from done; Mastery gates are pretty low and can easily be gotten for the few early adventures that you get at the beginning.

Saying that meta events require people is a bit of a “no duh” moment honestly. No level 80 map has EVER been a reliable solo experience. Not Orr, not FGS, not Dry Top, not Silverwastes. All of them needed a good amount of people on the map to make the whole thing work.

Sengel.7801:

Saying that meta events require people is a bit of a “no duh” moment honestly. No level 80 map has EVER been a reliable solo experience. Not Orr, not FGS, not Dry Top, not Silverwastes. All of them needed a good amount of people on the map to make the whole thing work.

Everything that players actually do for rewards require more people, just like HoT, yet people complain about it. I think they should complain about the chest farms, world boss trains, champion trains, event farming in Orr / Dry Top and so on, things they’ve been doing forever and are impossible to solo either. The “Unplayable Solo” argument isn’t about that, it’s a disguised “HoT difficulty is too hard for me” argument, but if that’s the case they should say so.

I’ve managed to navigate all the HoT maps pretty easily. Just finished the story, which I managed to do solo. Never grouped up for any of the missions, not even for Mordremoth.

The mobs are more challenging, but I’ve not really had that much trouble dealing with them, as long as you don’t go running into a big group of enemies. Also I’m playing a condi Mesmer build.

I was reluctant to buy the expansion, because of all the negative comments about it on the forums. I finally took the plunge and bought it, and I’ve actually been really enjoying 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.

I’ve been soloing just fine. Already beat the personal story and unlocked my elite spec in about 20 hours of play time.

I’m also running Pvt gear so I’m gratuitously casual.

rojoka.5976:

i entered TD with my first char there were people around and we could fight our way thru.

rojoka.5976:

(my ranger could fight his way thru without to much troubles where my mesmer has runs into problems)

It seems as you think you have to fight each and every enemy on your way. That’s not true you can just run through them and as a Mesmer you have multiple invisibilities which make that much easier.

If you don’t try to facetank every enemy or run into zergs of enemies the HoT open world is quite easy it just isn’t faceroll on the keyboard easy as core Tyria.

Shylock.4653:

rojoka.5976:

i entered TD with my first char there were people around and we could fight our way thru.

rojoka.5976:

(my ranger could fight his way thru without to much troubles where my mesmer has runs into problems)

It seems as you think you have to fight each and every enemy on your way. That’s not true you can just run through them and as a Mesmer you have multiple invisibilities which make that much easier.

If you don’t try to facetank every enemy or run into zergs of enemies the HoT open world is quite easy it just isn’t faceroll on the keyboard easy as core Tyria.

Its like he said, mobs are easy as long as you avoid them. Epic journey where you fight powerful monsters and come out victorious you ask? Sorry you cant have that in the jungle, you gotta run for your life there. HoT in a nutshell, move with the players zerg or hide in the bushes… just make sure there isnt a frog waiting for you there.

pepsis.5384:

Shylock.4653:

rojoka.5976:

i entered TD with my first char there were people around and we could fight our way thru.

rojoka.5976:

(my ranger could fight his way thru without to much troubles where my mesmer has runs into problems)

It seems as you think you have to fight each and every enemy on your way. That’s not true you can just run through them and as a Mesmer you have multiple invisibilities which make that much easier.

If you don’t try to facetank every enemy or run into zergs of enemies the HoT open world is quite easy it just isn’t faceroll on the keyboard easy as core Tyria.

Its like he said, mobs are easy as long as you avoid them. Epic journey where you fight powerful monsters and come out victorious you ask? Sorry you cant have that in the jungle, you gotta run for your life there. HoT in a nutshell, move with the players zerg or hide in the bushes… just make sure there isnt a frog waiting for you there.

He didn’t say you couldn’t defeat enemies, he did say don’t try to facetank them and running past is an option.

I know you don’t like the game, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t running through and killing enemies, yes even solo.

pepsis.5384:

Shylock.4653:

rojoka.5976:

i entered TD with my first char there were people around and we could fight our way thru.

rojoka.5976:

(my ranger could fight his way thru without to much troubles where my mesmer has runs into problems)

It seems as you think you have to fight each and every enemy on your way. That’s not true you can just run through them and as a Mesmer you have multiple invisibilities which make that much easier.

If you don’t try to facetank every enemy or run into zergs of enemies the HoT open world is quite easy it just isn’t faceroll on the keyboard easy as core Tyria.

Its like he said, mobs are easy as long as you avoid them. Epic journey where you fight powerful monsters and come out victorious you ask? Sorry you cant have that in the jungle, you gotta run for your life there. HoT in a nutshell, move with the players zerg or hide in the bushes… just make sure there isnt a frog waiting for you there.

Nope. People say “it is so hard to travel the open world”. That just isn’t true, traveling is easy if you don’t do stupid things. That doesn’t mean you can’t fight these enemies, however you shouldn’t do stupid things here either. Don’t try to facetank dangerous enemies, don’t pull to many at once etc.

I have done nearly every HC in HoT and many champions solo. You need good positioning, awareness and knowledge about your class and the enemy mechanics, then nearly everything in the HoT open world is soloable.

pepsis.5384:

Its like he said, mobs are easy as long as you avoid them. Epic journey where you fight powerful monsters and come out victorious you ask? Sorry you cant have that in the jungle, you gotta run for your life there. HoT in a nutshell, move with the players zerg or hide in the bushes… just make sure there isnt a frog waiting for you there.

That’s why I love my soldier reaper build. I just charge into overwhelming odds and then kill everything. Although I am slower at it than all the leet glass builds.

I still beat the story and unlocked my spec within 20 hours, so not that slowly I guess. Now raids are going to take awhile because no one wants to play in someone’s first raid as a tank. Learned that today. First raid boss was not all the interesting. The fail conditions don’t make in-wold sense to me. “Stand 4 players in green circle or big damage” Ok but why?

Also as a reaper I prefer fighting armies not single mobs

pepsis.5384:

Its like he said, mobs are easy as long as you avoid them.

No, they’re easy as long as you learn what attacks to dodge/block/reflect or otherwise mitigate. If you’re unable to learn that they will keep kicking your kitten .

Every single class has a plethora of defensive skills/traits or tactics to fall back on, failing that every class has access to a tank build with tank gear for taking hits to the face.
The people who struggle with HoT mobs are the people who refuse to acknowledge they’re doing something wrong even though it’s not working.

pepsis.5384:

Its like he said, mobs are easy as long as you avoid them. Epic journey where you fight powerful monsters and come out victorious you ask? Sorry you cant have that in the jungle, you gotta run for your life there. HoT in a nutshell, move with the players zerg or hide in the bushes… just make sure there isnt a frog waiting for you there.

Only if you are kittenty at games. In most cases you just can kill the enemies easily. Especially as a reaper. It’s so faceroll, and what the kitten read I about soldier gear on reaper?

Marthkus.4615:

That’s why I love my soldier reaper build. I just charge into overwhelming odds and then kill everything. Although I am slower at it than all the leet glass builds.

LOL you already have a kittenload of HP and survivability on reaper. Anything else than zerker (or viper’s/sinister as condi) gear on a necro is completely out of whack! Only a half braindead-zombie would need that.

ProtoGunner.4953:

pepsis.5384:

Its like he said, mobs are easy as long as you avoid them. Epic journey where you fight powerful monsters and come out victorious you ask? Sorry you cant have that in the jungle, you gotta run for your life there. HoT in a nutshell, move with the players zerg or hide in the bushes… just make sure there isnt a frog waiting for you there.

Only if you are kittenty at games. In most cases you just can kill the enemies easily. Especially as a reaper. It’s so faceroll, and what the kitten read I about soldier gear on reaper?

Marthkus.4615:

That’s why I love my soldier reaper build. I just charge into overwhelming odds and then kill everything. Although I am slower at it than all the leet glass builds.

LOL you already have a kittenload of HP and survivability on reaper. Anything else than zerker (or viper’s/sinister as condi) gear on a necro is completely out of whack! Only a half braindead-zombie would need that.

Im really glad to see how catering to a more hardcore oriented audience has improved the community. Bravo slowclap. Best community in an MMO eh? Right up until HoT was released i guess.

Instead of complain about this and about the game, just accept that you shouldn’t project your own gaming abilities to the rest of the community. This is the superior rule of gaming and gaming forums.

Pezz.4758:

ProtoGunner.4953:

pepsis.5384:

Its like he said, mobs are easy as long as you avoid them. Epic journey where you fight powerful monsters and come out victorious you ask? Sorry you cant have that in the jungle, you gotta run for your life there. HoT in a nutshell, move with the players zerg or hide in the bushes… just make sure there isnt a frog waiting for you there.

Only if you are kittenty at games. In most cases you just can kill the enemies easily. Especially as a reaper. It’s so faceroll, and what the kitten read I about soldier gear on reaper?

Marthkus.4615:

That’s why I love my soldier reaper build. I just charge into overwhelming odds and then kill everything. Although I am slower at it than all the leet glass builds.

LOL you already have a kittenload of HP and survivability on reaper. Anything else than zerker (or viper’s/sinister as condi) gear on a necro is completely out of whack! Only a half braindead-zombie would need that.

Im really glad to see how catering to a more hardcore oriented audience has improved the community. Bravo slowclap. Best community in an MMO eh? Right up until HoT was released i guess.

I only see the awful side in pugs and forums. And they were here long before HoT.

The only problem is they infect everyone else. I was soloing a group event and it got harder when other people came because I had to keep rezing them.

Ive been around a long time as far back as Muds, and played pretty much every MMO up to WoW when I slowed down. I dont like HoT because it isnt just not solo friendly, but it is not even dual player friendly. Its basically a zergfest of the worst kind.

Now here is what I know. Every mmo that catered to the hardcore crowd lost players in droves. This is what killed Everquest 2 and opened the door for WoW. In fact, Everquest started declining with the release of Planes of Power which was basically an elitist expansion that alienated everyone but major guilds. EQ2 was designed to be all group and guild content from the very start. The irony is that if you waited one year, it became more casual than WoW… that is how badly that game did.

The thing is, hardcore guys are very loud BUT they are the minority by a long stretch. WoW proved that solo players and small groups out number hardcore players by probably 10 to 1. Further, GW and GW2 are both extremely casual games up till now and that is one of the things their client base looks for. The second being no monthly fees.

HoT is far departure from the norm and although I have been able to complete a few maps and finish major quest lines… its simply not fun because everyone is just frantically running through events and insulting anyone who does not seem to know what to do. I had to block two people today and I still have no idea what they were talking about because they never bothered to explain anything and just told people around to go away. Someone should remind hardcore folks that this is just a game. Its not real. You dont get anything for winning. Not even bragging rights because no one cares.

Anyway, I would like to see things a little more solo and small group/guild friendly. And I hate how every map has its own currency… its not fun. Its just a grind.

90% of the maps is solo friendly, with the other 10% for skirmishing group/groups and 1 solitary raid is designed as a highly tuned fight. Even the elite ‘must use meta’ idiots that raid have a right for content designed for them, as long as it is in proportion. 90 % entirely soloable content in 27 or so zones in a mmorpg is a lot lol.

Oh wow yeah I remember that. Whenever I was in a HoT map someone in map chat would be cussing everyone out.

90% of content is perfectly soloable, but u must know your class and use different build setups. the only class that gave me headache is thief as it is super squishy but even then, i managed to solo at least 70% of content with it.

I’m an epic hero. I don’t want to have to run away from a short man dressed as a mushroom.

DoctorDing.5890:

I’m an epic hero. I don’t want to have to run away from a short man dressed as a mushroom.

yep heros cc the mushy and nuke its face off and have fun with the bit of challenge, some others it seems runs away or dies and rushes onto a forum to blame the world for their poor skill choices.

90% (maybe more) of the old content is solo/small group friendly. Everyone was asked to buy HoT, and everyone had the potential to be burned out on the old stuff. That said, HoT isn’t unplayable solo, it’s just not fun to do so.

Welcome to MMO’s you pointless complainers! On that note I was able to roll through all content without partying up. I still used the help of others, obviously but it was effortless. Anyways… MMO… Yeah. If you can’t do it go back to RPGs. All MMOs are casual with the intent that you will work with others. Literally anything in this game can be accomplished without talking/friends/guilds… Which actually makes this game MORE solo friendly than other MMOs…

Returning long time player for over 10 years, for the love of the game there is no comparison nor continuity throughout the game. Perhaps certain PvE story lines, but that is about it. HoT is inplayable to a large extent to me as a solo player, all my 4 x private guilds have been crushed and I can not use/profit from strategic decisions or game play style as it has been removed completely from the game, PvP is a joke with the new profession skills making it a latency contest rather than skill contest. PvE rewards mean near to nothing in the greater scheme of things… What has this game come to. I demand change, or revolt. Anet will not see my 8k+ gem purchase per month if things continue like this.
UpkittenINGSet

Just go play another game, most likely nothing will change and Anet wont even care about your 100 bucks a month with everyone else.

MMO?
MM?
Massively multiplayer?

sounds to me like you should look into something that isn’t multiplayer if you want to play solo.

Massively multiplayer means that more people are playing the game online in same time! Group playing means you play same content tasks with other players.

KeConan.4563:

Massively multiplayer means that more people are playing the game online in same time! Group playing means you play same content tasks with other players.

I too like to split hairs!

It’s inevitable that in an MMO, you will group up. You may not be in a party, but this does not change the fact that the people around you are actual players performing the same task.

Klipso.8653:

MMO?
MM?
Massively multiplayer?

sounds to me like you should look into something that isn’t multiplayer if you want to play solo.

Please define “massive”.

I personally would not define the word massive as equalling 10 people, which is the number required for the “challenging” new raid content. Everquest had 75 person raids, now I would call that massive.
Technically we do have “massive” content, boss fights that scale up to match the zerg, and they can have way more than 75 people, but the sheer number of people often negates the challenge.

However, if we treat the first M in MMO, they way you choose to define the second M, then ALL content in this, and every game of this genre, should require a “massive” number of players to complete; vistas, locations, heart quests, events, exploration… But that would be stupid. The “massively multi player” in MMO implies a very large numbers of players on-line concurrently on the same server.

MMORPG were developed from MUDs, multi user dungeons, that allowed a few players to play single player RPGs on-line together.

Additionally you forgot to include the last 3 letters of this games genre title. RPG. Guild Wars 2 is an MMORPG, not just an MMO. Does this mean that we should all be RPing? talking in middle English, walking everywhere, hanging out in taverns drinking ale… No, RPG implies that we are role-playing, developing a character through gear and skill upgrades, levelling up, playing and fighting fantastic races and creatures. FPS games do not have this.

Further, the use of the phrase MMORPG for this particular genre is unfortunate and inaccurate. A better definition is Virtual Persistent On-line World. A VPOW has content aimed at solo, duo, small group, full group and raid players, in addition to PvP, both co-op and competitive, casual, semi-casual to hardcore. Just as in real life players can socialise, group up, form communities, go it alone, craft, explore……

If someone from Anet wishes to post on the forums to state that soloers “should look into something that isn’t multiplayer if you want to play solo” (your words) then I’ll move on, as I did when I reached the cap in WoW, EQ2 at release and Vanguard Saga of Heroes. Until then I’ll keep playing.

I wish Anet would add some more “challenging” pockets of content to Central Tyria, for those that want it, and some solo/casual content to HoT. But I doubt they will.

TexZero.7910:

KeConan.4563:

Massively multiplayer means that more people are playing the game online in same time! Group playing means you play same content tasks with other players.

I too like to split hairs!

It’s inevitable that in an MMO, you will group up. You may not be in a party, but this does not change the fact that the people around you are actual players performing the same task.

True. If you are “pure” solo there will be very little to in Central Tyria, and much less in HoT. As a solo player I don’t do fractals, dungeons and raids, and do not have a guild. But there is still a lot of content that I can engage in, without committing myself to set play times and groups.

This is why I play GW2. Last few days I’ve been farming SW, certainly not “pure” solo. However on several occasions I’ve had to go AFK to tend to my 1 year old daughter, but the only person let down was myself, because I missed out on a couple of champs.

Drivrius.6159:

Archy.1046:

Drivrius.6159:

This is what I feel as well, its as thou they created a new game rather then continue the old one. From casual solo to hardcore group oriented.

You haven’t seen “hardcore” then. New maps are group oriented casual. If they are too hard for you – get better. Or play older maps, cuz they are easy and designed for solo play. Me, my guild, all my friends – we waited all this time for harder group oriented content. And now we are finally enjoying it!

Compared what the core game prepared me to while doing my personal story? yes, it’s hardcore. I would play older maps if I could get my elite specs from there, but I can’t because of the ridicule amount of HPs needed.

I agree the elitist minority is loving this expansion, the casual players not so much.

Don’t believe me check the HOT Metacritic review, a 3.9 says the majority is not as happy.

Hmm, I went to look at metacritic and it seems to be showing a 7.3 “user score” and an 81 “metascore”, vs. a 7.9 and a 90 score for the core game. So perhaps a little less well-received than the original game. Where did you find the 3.9 score?

selection bias ^^

KeConan.4563:

Massively multiplayer means that more people are playing the game online in same time! Group playing means you play same content tasks with other players.

What are you implying here? I hope it’s not that group playing doesn’t belong in an MMO.

This expansion took all that fun out of the game. It was my fav. MMO ever, but now it has to be near last on the list. Goodbye Anet, you lost a customer.

Harvestr.6052:

This expansion took all that fun out of the game. It was my fav. MMO ever, but now it has to be near last on the list. Goodbye Anet, you lost a customer.

You said a similar thing 2 months ago, but have still been playing up to now, and at the point where they have just applied a massive patch to address a lot of the issues and concerns raised you have decided to remind everynoe that you are leaving again?