Guild Wars 2

Verdant Brink – Over powered Enemies and Mastery Points.
I have finally Leveled up a Human ranger 80 and have begun the Arduous Trek to Hero hood.
The Mastery points are laid out in such a way as to Preclued any hope of Success. I cannot even follow the Storyline to the next section. What??! you say? The 3rd Chapter in the Heart of Thorns Story line states I must speak with Scout______. I have died multiple times and in frustration am ready to Stop playing the Game. I guess it doesn’t matter to Arenanet or GW2 staff. I need certain Masteries to complete the Story line. And I am mostly a Solo Player even in the Guild Simply because of Work and other Schedules. I cannot Get to the instance or Waypoint due to the Overpowerd NPC’s . The Red Frogs are waay to OP for the 80 Ranger and even one with Best gear and Trinkets. I do not like groups much and I would hate to think that GW2 " Requires Groups" just to complete Story line. I understand PVP or WvW but I am very Very Frustrated by this! And I doubt after all this time things will change.
FRUSTRATED, Angry, and ready to Quit GW2

I’m not here to comfort you … but try playing with tank bear, they can keep aggro while you standing behind. Chose the Beastmastery traitline and go with ‘Go for the eyes’ and ‘Beastly warden’. If you still can’t do it get a friend or two to help you out.

I hate to break it to you, but HoT is very much group oriented. The wast majority of hot hero points requires goruping to get it down. And the hot mainly relies on large, map wide meta events.

LucianDK.8615:

I hate to break it to you, but HoT is very much group oriented. The wast majority of hot hero points requires goruping to get it down. And the hot mainly relies on large, map wide meta events.

They require people not grouping. So do temples in Orr.

Many of the mobs in HoT feel strong the first time you fight them. But keep at it and learn what each mob does. Usually each mob has 2-3 skills it can use as well as a clear theme.

Learning the characteristics of an enemy mob grp is gonna be one of your best tools going into HoT. Each “type” of mob is clearly defined from the others both in attack pattern and visuals so you won’t have to worry about confusing them.

If its your first time fighting them you aren’t gonna wanna run in guns blazing. Think about what that specific mob does. What its pattern is (youl learn it pretty quick) and slot skills that let you deal with it. As a fellow ranger I PROMISE you you have the tools to stop it.

I got through HoT almost entirely solo. I got all the masteries I needed without other players to guide me along. It IS possible.

People saying that HoT is group or zerg only are quite frankly wrong. Its just EASIER in a zerg or group. But then so is everything else in life.

Some things you can do.

If your running around in zerk gear try swapping to marauders. Marauders inscriptions are very easy to make. And that extra health does make a difference.

Make sure your build has some defensive methods included. I typically run a shout ranger with trooper runes using NM BM and Druid. But before I had druid unlocked I ran NM WK BM to just as much success. WK and NM especially have great defensive options. And NM can boost your offense quite alot as well as giving you Natures Ward to mitigate getting hit. WK will improve your endurance regen as well as giving you protection on dodge.

Shouts give you two very good defensive utilities as well as a powerful offensive one. And the ability to self might to an extreme degree as well as a source of stability. All of which help keep you alive and make sure you deal the damage you need.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATRnUqA9Ci1CCuCCctgBMh6vhGoi9DfBe8eZL8AoknlG-TRRWAB3oEEg9HqV9niV+VquAA-e

something like this is a well rounded power build. Enough damage to get the job done. And plenty of cooldowns to cover you when things go kittens up.

If you don’t have those two pets you can look up online how to get them. But pretty much any pet that has a mixture of CC and damage (like canines or spiders) that won’t die super fast are good ideas.

I get your frustrated but it really does just take practice and a bit of dynamic thinking. Even just changing how you engage the enemy can make sure that most of them die. (start the fight by CC Locking them to keep from acting against you).

LucianDK.8615:

I hate to break it to you, but HoT is very much group oriented.

You can do it easily solo. Nowadays many people know the mechanics, so if someone pop a commander most of the times everything works smooth.

LucianDK.8615:

The wast majority of hot hero points requires goruping to get it down.

It is easier in a group but not required. I have done all 40 HoT HP on all classes and have done everyone at least on one class solo. Some are easier or harder on the different classes but normally you can solo them.

LucianDK.8615:

And the hot mainly relies on large, map wide meta events.

That’s true for the meta but you can solo event chains. For example you can solo the event chain of a camp in VB or TD. I have done this for a couple of achievements.

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.

Just out of curiosity what’s the highest level map in central tyria you explored?

Yes, the new maps are mind racking at first and can still be even after a few months. But all 4 of them are level 80 and there’s very few places to stop and take a drink of water or a breath without an enemy appearing to pounce on you.

The only places I can think of in central Tyria that ALMOST prepare you for the level of death and dismemberment you’ll experience in any HOT map the first few times are Straights and Cursed Shore.

LucianDK.8615:

I hate to break it to you, but HoT is very much group oriented. The wast majority of hot hero points requires goruping to get it down. And the hot mainly relies on large, map wide meta events.

and that is one of the major problems with HoT. Thank goodness they are going to fix it (and other things) in April.

i was quite happily soloing camps last week with my 5 hours a wek casual elementalist in a mix of gear, so im not quite sure whats so difficult here. asside from that, GW2 has 32 zones, 28 of them can be solo’d with no effort, then the others increase slightly in difficulty so you need to do more than roll your face over the keyboard. The underlying problems is not difficulty, its attitude to mmorpg, some people cannot comprehend that the game cannot revolve arounf everyone at the same time, especially in a game designed for oeple to play together.

If all else fails, reroll condi mesmer. I didn’t encounter a hero challenge I couldn’t solo. I think it is the best solo class for doing the hero challenges. It is disgustingly easy at times. Since doing them on thief was so difficult. Ranger should be easy, but without good stealth some will be much harder. Reaper also made short work of most, but some were hard too.

Probably need to find a new game… One easier than GW2…. So this excludes all other MMO’s in existence… You need a game that requires zero thought… Any ideas people?

I beat the entire story in two days on my ranger which is the easiest class to solo content IMO without talking to anyone. Read some guides. Optimize your gear. Figure out how this mmo works. Sorry you can’t faceroll through it without putting in some common sense.

You literally don’t even need to associate with anyone unless you plan on running group content… Want a meta? Just show up. Want a hero point that requires soloing a champ? Wait around for a couple minutes. I got 100% HoT map completion within a week of purchase. I bought HoT a little over two weeks ago. Zero help from friends.

Those guys hurt but there’s plenty ways to deal with them. They have very little health and can be bursted down very quickly. Thing is, they can evade ranged attacks so run up close, hit them with pointblank shot and then rapidfire, if they’re still alive switch to greatsword and finish them of with a maul. Maybe stun them before that for good mesure so they don’t stealth/shadowstep away.

They have attacks that you need to avoid, 2 in particular. So watch for their animations! The first is when they hold their bow side ways, this fires 3 arrows and does a heap of damage if all of them hit . If you can’t dodge you can use signet of stone, protect me, block on GS#4 or any of your evade skills. Or just stand behind your pet, if it’s in the line of fire it should absorb the arrows. The second one is when they jump into the air, just dodge/evade/absorb it.

HoT mobs play more like a single player game, they don’t let you win like the ones in central Tyria. You need to pay attention to what they are doing and what their skills look like, then you can learn what you need to avoid/counter and how.
Try different weapons,pets and skills, you have a lot to choose from and see what works/fits your play style.

All HoT content seems very powerful to a solo guy in berserker gear…

RedBaron.6058:

All HoT content seems very powerful to a solo guy in berserker gear…

I find that HoT content is much easier in Berserker gear if you are solo, provided you are careful and don’t take on more mobs than you can handle. Why? Because HoT mobs have less hit points than most other core tyria mobs.

Understanding how to fight HoT mobs is more important than gear, then you know what to expect and fight them properly. I think that’s working as intended, but apparently a lot of people don’t want to think and come up with ways to deal with an encounter and prefer mobs to be afkable like every single release tyria mob.

If you are longbow/greatsword(or power oriented) ranger try running half zerk/half soldiers gear…. use signet of the wild and possibly use peach pies or mango pies as food

Avarice.2791:

Probably need to find a new game… One easier than GW2…. So this excludes all other MMO’s in existence… You need a game that requires zero thought… Any ideas people?

In terms of the solo play through experience, and I mean with no one else around whatsoever, a lot of MMOs are by far easier than GW2, especially when gear is usually the dominant factor. WoW and the like for example. Their solo/open world content is always balanced for the most casual of players, like Queensdale-level of difficulty, because people with the same opinion as the op make up the casual majority.

Also, MMOs aren’t exactly strategy games and reactionary combat doesn’t require thought. If you can /follow a target and press a 1 button macro, you can be a hardcore raider in WoW.

HoT currently is very class specific. My reaper is barely challenged while im honestly scared to go there with my warrior.

PS: still dont forget that HoT is grindy trash

I absolutely understand the OP, because I went through the exact same frustration myself. I think the maps are too crowded with NPCs, which makes traveling around much more difficult. I also think they are too strong, especially the non-vet versions (a trash mob in VB is tougher than many of the old Tyria Hero point mobs). It does take a shift of thinking from old Tyria, and my personal opinion is they overdid it, but I am slowly getting used to it now.

Uzzar.7390:

I also think they are too strong, especially the non-vet versions (a trash mob in VB is tougher than many of the old Tyria Hero point mobs). It does take a shift of thinking from old Tyria, and my personal opinion is they overdid it, but I am slowly getting used to it now.

VB trash mobs tougher than old tyria hero points? In what way? Although they hit harder they die in 2-3 hits while the old tyria hero point mobs (called Veterans) take a much longer time to kill. I’d rather fight a mob that dies in less than 5 seconds (and kills fast too) than play the boring game of hitting while afk. And all old tyria hero point mobs can be killed while afk spamming only 1.

maddoctor.2738:

VB trash mobs tougher than old tyria hero points? In what way? Although they hit harder they die in 2-3 hits while the old tyria hero point mobs (called Veterans) take a much longer time to kill. I’d rather fight a mob that dies in less than 5 seconds (and kills fast too) than play the boring game of hitting while afk. And all old tyria hero point mobs can be killed while afk spamming only 1.

Ok maybe a slight exaggeration, but my elementalist (usually staff) with only exotic mismatched gear takes much more than 2-3 hits to kill a little vine. Maybe not quite hero point level, but still very difficult compared to “normal” Tyria level 80 trash.

The AMA basically confirmed that HoT will be nerfed. Too much focus on group content, for example. Most of the current group events will likely be rebalanced to be regular events.

They may or may not nerf the enemies themselves however, but they likely will. Removing the anti-ranged on shadowleapers for example seems like something they’d do, like how they removed the frontal defense on the spinners.

The problem ArenaNet will always face, is that due to the lack of gear progression, people like the op will eventually hit a brick wall. In WoW for example, if you’re not good enough, you simply get better gear to compensate. GW2’s equivalent is actually bringing more people since the content doesn’t scale 1:1. That however requires a heavily active population, which they can’t keep up forever, plus the majority plays solo, and if they can’t complete the story solo, they’ll simply quit. They can’t appeal to both sides at the same time, and there’s a reason why almost all MMOs balance for the casual audience – it’s safer and more profitable.

maddoctor.2738:

And all old tyria hero point mobs can be killed while afk spamming only 1.

Only equip what is given to you through the personal story/leveling rewards and only play in +3 level areas. Starting at level ~15, you’re now playing the game on normal mode at a similar difficulty as what was seen in the original, pre-nerf beta, where all special attacks would 1 shot you. From my perspective, leveling through old Tyria is more challenging than playing through HoT at cap.

OUTLAWMECH.9214:

Verdant Brink – Over powered Enemies and Mastery Points.
I have finally Leveled up a Human ranger 80 and have begun the Arduous Trek to Hero hood.
The Mastery points are laid out in such a way as to Preclued any hope of Success. I cannot even follow the Storyline to the next section. What??! you say? The 3rd Chapter in the Heart of Thorns Story line states I must speak with Scout______. I have died multiple times and in frustration am ready to Stop playing the Game. I guess it doesn’t matter to Arenanet or GW2 staff. I need certain Masteries to complete the Story line. And I am mostly a Solo Player even in the Guild Simply because of Work and other Schedules. I cannot Get to the instance or Waypoint due to the Overpowerd NPC’s . The Red Frogs are waay to OP for the 80 Ranger and even one with Best gear and Trinkets. I do not like groups much and I would hate to think that GW2 " Requires Groups" just to complete Story line. I understand PVP or WvW but I am very Very Frustrated by this! And I doubt after all this time things will change.
FRUSTRATED, Angry, and ready to Quit GW2

How much of Mastery track for Maguuma (those green stars) have you already gained and can now use?

With Advanced Gliding and "Mushroom"https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bouncing_Mushrooms to jump from place to place (often used to get higher up or to cross open space), you can then access more of VB without the need to fight each time.

Make it your goal to first reach Pact Encampment in the centre of map. Here you will find several events to start (and also get some AP, if you look into your Hero Panel) and during some stage of event chains you will find a chopper with ladder above that river. Interact with it and pick the option to go up to Canopy and there you will find some Mastery Points which you only have to glide to (might need updraft and mushroom to jump from one point up to a ship). There are also Hero Challenges here, some which you can do solo or just wait there and you will other who also want to get that HC done after finishing Kill the wyvern matriarch!

Most Mastery Points are a place where you channel to gain that MP, so you don’t have to do any fighting when you first find them, but might have to fight your way up to get there. Make sure that you consume that MP (green star in right corner of screen), so you will see on map that you already have fund it (changes from grey mark to green mark).

Power build isn’t working very well on enemies with high toughness (which prevent direct damage to have any effect). On those enemies you might have better use of a condition build or wait for someone to show up and help you while you instead use your soft CC (slow, chill and immobile – even without condition damage those will have an effect) or hard CC like stun and daze as those will damage break bar on those kind of enemies.

Without any toughness or vitality, if you use berserker gear, you will probably get more often one shot at first, but you will still be able to solo or join PUGs during events and with evades, dodge, blocks etc you can still manage on power build to survive.

You can call out in map chat for help, if you feel like there is a Hero Challenge that is a bit too demanding for you to solo or you can make use of Looking for Group tool in game.

Verdant Brink can be hard to solo when still haven’t build up your Maguuma Mastery track some basic level to travel around, don’t forget to also learn language as is needed for getting access to the local vendors for map and to get token/keys to open chests.

(1) Find out which kind of build your Ranger (or Druid) will best for how you play and don’t be discouraged by getting killed when you first enter a new map or zone. Join other people on map doing events or help out with Hero Challenges (there are people which have already gained HC that helps out) and make use of tools in game for joining party or squads. Look for tags on map and ask to join in!

LFG is necessary for some maps which can be hard to find enough people to complete events in. Use LFG to get taxi into active maps with people.

Finding the “perfect build” isn’t necessary, but it helps to change traits when you solo things vs when you join a group (many elite specialization seem to have been designed for providing tools during grouped content as Druid have several healing and condition removal which also work for allied.)

My first time entering VB was frustrating getting killed over and over again, but now even on my berserker Chronomancer I can still manage to stay alive, but naturally I can not handle everything alone. When there is too many mobs spawning at the same time or getting into too many crossfire from snipers at the same time while my skills or endurance are on recharge will still get me killed.

Adjusting traits help a bit (need to be OOC) and be on the move all the time while there is a lot of fast moving frogs/snipers around helps a lot, but you will still meet a limit for how much you can do without a group around you or other solo player helping out. You need to use LFG for some maps as those can be rather empty and even impossible to finish with success like those event chains in The Forgotten City in AB. Open up your map and look for “Mentor tags”https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Pact_Mentor (looks like Apples above head) on map or commander tags and ask to join in. In most cases there will be people with the same goal as you happy to help each other to obtain the same thing.

(2) Try to first get Gliding (at least up the ability of Updraft which you need when you want to glide up in the Canopy. With each Updraft (swirling wind) you can now recharge your endurance which deplete as you glide. Later with Advanced Gliding you don’t need to think about endurance as long you only will be gliding in normal speed (release forward movement key as otherwise you will make use of endurance for faster gliding).

(3) Get Bouncing Mushroom and Itzel lore. With Mushroom you can get out of tricky situations (maybe an event chain starts which you don’t want to get involved into), find a mushroom and get away or up from ground level to a safe place.

Itzel lore is necessary for crowbars (token to open Air cargo which you will find during Nights or when you have participated in event above Canopy and get reward). Make sure when you go to AB or any other map that you also make sure to have access to that token you will be in need for getting a chest to open for that map, otherwise you will feel like you now have been wasting your time in that event.

In AB it took me some time before I had enough MP to unlock Exalted Acceptance, so I know how you might feel after putting some time and effort into that event chain for Battle in Tarir only to realise that Grand Chest will not open as you didn’t have access to that vendor yet or that you forgot to buy enough with tokens to open that chest.

In this thread you have been given several pieces of good advice (and ignore those that only talk about how “easy” they find even those new maps to do solo or whatever they now talk about that isn’t helping you).

Make use of Dulfy’s guide as she/he have made pretty good guides and look at YT video [better video quality then using player on Dulfy sites sometimes] when you don’t understand how to get to some MP/HC, on how to reach those places. You might even be able to combine AP+MP+HC (or HP) if you read through Dulfy’s guides. Here is one link, but I am sure you can find more if you google for it!

Good luck and have fun!

http://dulfy.net/2015/10/25/gw2-verdant-brinks-hero-points-guide/

Healix.5819:

maddoctor.2738:

And all old tyria hero point mobs can be killed while afk spamming only 1.

Only equip what is given to you through the personal story/leveling rewards and only play in +3 level areas. Starting at level ~15, you’re now playing the game on normal mode at a similar difficulty as what was seen in the original, pre-nerf beta, where all special attacks would 1 shot you. From my perspective, leveling through old Tyria is more challenging than playing through HoT at cap.

Not quite. Even with low quality gear and items old tyria is still afkable. Just stand still, set your auto attack on skill 1 and go away, when you are back any “normal” mob will be dead and you will be at full health.

Ok maybe a slight exaggeration, but my elementalist (usually staff) with only exotic mismatched gear takes much more than 2-3 hits to kill a little vine. Maybe not quite hero point level, but still very difficult compared to “normal” Tyria level 80 trash.

The vines are not HoT mobs they are core tyria mobs as they appeared in SW and DT so they have increased HP. But still old tyria trash mobs take longer to kill, they just don’t hurt at all and you can afk kill them but for HoT mobs you can’t go afk to kill them. That’s the only difference

While I find that difficulty increases as you progress through the maps, I don’t find that’s an unreasonable approach because very little of the content is intended to be soloed in the first place. That wasn’t the intention, it’s reflected in the design and it is demonstrated by the interaction with players. Players have options to deal with this. Clearly, the OP has excluded himself from many of those options; that is not a game design problem. That’s a player created issue.

I don’t see people complaining you can’t solo raids … same thing. Raids weren’t designed that way and neither was OW HoT events and even some roaming mobs, unless you’re REALLY clever or willing to go to extremes to deal with those instances.

Healix.5819:

Also, MMOs aren’t exactly strategy games and reactionary combat doesn’t require thought. If you can /follow a target and press a 1 button macro, you can be a hardcore raider in WoW.

It’s pretty clear you’ve never played WoW, or you’re exaggerating to make some strange point. One button, really? Are you sure you aren’t describing this game in the particular situation the OP is describing? If you’re capable of following a target and pressing 1 in GW2 you’ll be just fine in the Zerg mentality. The OP is complaining about open world content in this game as a Ranger. I was able to solo most of the champ HP’s as a Ranger.

It’s also clear you didn’t play GW1. That game was solid gold and entirely strategic, as is this game… as is every game. Strategic you ask? Well look at your build, your gear, what rotation you’re using. You strategize what you want to accomplish then you execute. If you’re running around as a zerk ranger with melee weapons against this open world content…. you’re going to have a bad time. Sorry, I completely disagree with you when you state MMO’s aren’t strategic.

Sorry I don’t want this game nerfed into the ground because a couple of people are struggling…. with easy mobs…. You don’t even need so associate with people to get credit for meta content… Just show up and do the right thing…

Healix.5819:

In WoW for example, if you’re not good enough, you simply get better gear to compensate. GW2’s equivalent is actually bringing more people since the content doesn’t scale 1:1.

You do realize they buff up new zones to accommodate for the next tier of gear given, right? You don’t scale in that game so eventually content becomes outdated while competitive content remains fresh.

I really don’t understand this. I bought the expac, and completed the entire living story without associating with one person. Sure, there were hundreds of other players present while I was completing objectives, but I wasn’t forced to group up and talk with them.

Don’t nerf a game when it isn’t broken. I will continue to fight for this because I don’t want to see the game I love transformed into some hello kitty island adventure. Look, if you don’t want to associate with others, why are you playing a MMO? That makes no sense to me.

Is the expectation here that you can pull 10 mobs and instantly solo all of them? Or, like most MMO’s do you have to be strategic about how you clear content, pulling the least amount (Or however much you can handle) of mobs at a time.

Lastly, I agree that if no one is around then soloing some content is near impossible in this game, but the good news is that this will pretty much never happen unless you are attempting to complete something that isn’t worth working on. The servers are flooding with people. Some content in MMO’s is simply not meant to be solo’d. I would recommend finding a good RPG if you can not cope with this.

As another new player who recently reached the jungle, I have a different take on HoT. I will admit that at times I felt a little lost, and a bit frustrated trying to navigate from one point to another (particularly for timed events!). On the other hand, it’s difficult to look at the jungle maps and not appreciate what they did with them. The artwork is incredible, the layouts complex, and it makes exploring them an amazing (albeit sometimes frustrating!) experience. Plus how cool is gliding in an environment like that?

For me, I’ll take the good with the bad on this one. A+ map design! The “Verdant Brink” gets my vote for best map of all time in an MMO! More please! I don’t even care if I have to pay for it.

On difficulty, there’s no denying that HoT is a big step up from the original content. I think if you’re a new player, it’s likely that the original content will not have prepared you for it. That’s unfortunate, as many players will experience unnecessary frustration as a result of their expectations suddenly being shattered as they slam into that wall.

Still, I think this combat system is just too good to exist in a game with a “do whatever feels good” mentality. Old world content has that feel. It rarely forces you to reconsider your strategy to accomplish a goal. You can more or less do whatever you like and be assured of success.

HoT is different. You have to pay attention to enemy attacks and develop strategies to deal with them. Rolling your face across the keyboard to initiate attacks at random isn’t going to cut it here. But as I dove into the mechanics of the game I found that it has a very diverse toolkit that, at least for my thief, allowed me to develop fun and effective strategies to survive and thrive in the jungle.

I’m still running around in my wet paper bag berserker gear with 12k health, but no longer having any trouble surviving!

Obtena.7952:

While I find that difficulty increases as you progress through the maps, I don’t find that’s an unreasonable approach because very little of the content is intended to be soloed in the first place. That wasn’t the intention, it’s reflected in the design and it is demonstrated by the interaction with players. Players have options to deal with this. Clearly, the OP has excluded himself from many of those options; that is not a game design problem. That’s a player created issue.

Well, it is a design flaw when the entire game creates the impression you can solo open world stuff and when the only maps the XPac offers are geared mostly for group play, despite the presented idea that HoT is now the game going forward for everyone. I’m not personally complaining, but that’s more because I’ve half given up on the game rather than that I like the map design in HoT. If the next XPac offers the same, I’ll be buying at an even lower price than I got this one, or not at all.

Good thing Anet never gave us the impression that HoT was easy to solo OW … they told us otherwise as a matter of fact. Maybe players should be aligning their expectations to what they have been told … and at this point can read on the forums from other players experiences with ‘hard’ HoT content instead of just making really kittenumptions, especially after 6 months HoT was released.

Obtena.7952:

Good thing Anet never gave us the impression that HoT was easy to solo OW … they told us otherwise as a matter of fact. Maybe players should be aligning their expectations to what they have been told … and at this point can read on the forums from other players experiences with ‘hard’ HoT content instead of just making really kittenumptions, especially after 6 months HoT was released.

Sure, ANet said what they said. Sure, people who didn’t want hard should not have bought the XPac. There’s a flaw there, still, from a marketing standpoint. I bet you can figure it out.

No, I really don’t see it … Anet didn’t ‘mismarket’ the game. In fact, they marketed HoT as challenging content compared to Core. I’m not sure what you are trying to imply here but that’s not lying and I don’t see how someone could misunderstand that at all. Core was a joke … if core convinced a person they were ‘really good’, they were just deluding themselves to think HoT was something they could handle. That’s not flawed marketing, that’s just bad players thinking they are good.

You might think that putting an expansion out at that difficulty level was a mistake given the players the core game appeals to you; if so, I’m inclined to agree with you. That’s not the discussion here and we are way past that. Bottomline is that Anet warned people; if they didn’t listen or convinced themselves otherwise, that’s the players at fault there.

Furthermore, I still don’t see where people get off denying themselves the option of roaming with a group, teaming, asking for help … in an MMO of all places. Yes, yes, we know … some people don’t feel it’s appropriate to have multi player content that is hard to solo or not at all soloable in MMO’s. That’s just unreasonable.

HoT is the game going forward. Access to LS3 relies on HoT ownership. Rewards players had paid for access to were removed and put behind the HoT pay wall. That’s a pretty strong marketing push to get everyone to buy. I find it hard to believe ANet would not have liked to sell it to everyone who plays. But they didn’t make HoT content for everyone who plays. You’re free to think that’s not a flaw. I don’t think that those who are feeling disenfranchised would agree, though.

IndigoSundown.5419:

I find it hard to believe ANet would not have liked to sell it to everyone who plays. But they didn’t make HoT content for everyone who plays. You’re free to think that’s not a flaw. I don’t think that those who are feeling disenfranchised would agree, though.

Well what caused the problem with HoT was the Living World concept. If they kept every piece of content since release alive then now nobody in their right mind would complain about HoT difficulty. Because most LS content was much much harder than release Tyria and yet we didn’t get the amount of complaints we get for HoT.

Not to mention without LS1 and LS2 a player who moves from core to hot is completely lost story-wise too. The LS was both a way to bridge the gap in terms of story but also in terms of difficulty, now HoT seems like a huge difficulty spike when in reality, it’s not.

And the whole “meta-driven” zones? That’s exactly how the LS was, nothing different. In order to do the LS content you HAD to play in hour-long meta events. And no, those didn’t cause as many complaints as hot did. Remember Marionette? Battle on the Breachmaker? Tower of Nightmares? The ENTIRE Living World was based around map-wide, hour-long, meta events, the exact same system used in hot.

But I guess everyone forgot about that and now they don’t like it in hot.

My take on it is that people didn’t complain as much on marionnette’s fight and other living stories big fight because it was free content :p…But meta-driven content have always been a part of the game: silverwaste, dry top are the most recent of such content. The problem is that some inconsistencies with mega-servers make it hard to commit to, hence the other complaints about the amount currencies you need to get by running the events. Once these inconsistencies are resolved, people complaints will decrease by a large amount. As for the initial topic of this thread, yeah I will disagree completely. Use youy invulnerability, you dodges, your long-ranged weapons, you pets and you will be fine. We have very powerful classes and the game needs to at some challenge us a little bit in what we can do…And dying is part of playing: we have waypoints, we have downstate and every other character is able to rez any other character. Impossible to make the game more casual than it already is

IndigoSundown.5419:

HoT is the game going forward. Access to LS3 relies on HoT ownership. Rewards players had paid for access to were removed and put behind the HoT pay wall. That’s a pretty strong marketing push to get everyone to buy. I find it hard to believe ANet would not have liked to sell it to everyone who plays. But they didn’t make HoT content for everyone who plays. You’re free to think that’s not a flaw. I don’t think that those who are feeling disenfranchised would agree, though.

Maybe, but that’s nothing to do with the HoT content being too hard from what I can see. For the record though, I think there isn’t anything wrong with that model. LS32 is part of HoT and I don’t think anyone can complain about not getting access to content that isn’t free if they didn’t pay. Again, it’s a departure from their old model? Not really. You paid for Core, you got LS1 and 2. You paid for HoT, you get LS3.

maddoctor.2738:

IndigoSundown.5419:

I find it hard to believe ANet would not have liked to sell it to everyone who plays. But they didn’t make HoT content for everyone who plays. You’re free to think that’s not a flaw. I don’t think that those who are feeling disenfranchised would agree, though.

Well what caused the problem with HoT was the Living World concept. If they kept every piece of content since release alive then now nobody in their right mind would complain about HoT difficulty. Because most LS content was much much harder than release Tyria and yet we didn’t get the amount of complaints we get for HoT.

Not to mention without LS1 and LS2 a player who moves from core to hot is completely lost story-wise too. The LS was both a way to bridge the gap in terms of story but also in terms of difficulty, now HoT seems like a huge difficulty spike when in reality, it’s not.

And the whole “meta-driven” zones? That’s exactly how the LS was, nothing different. In order to do the LS content you HAD to play in hour-long meta events. And no, those didn’t cause as many complaints as hot did. Remember Marionette? Battle on the Breachmaker? Tower of Nightmares? The ENTIRE Living World was based around map-wide, hour-long, meta events, the exact same system used in hot.

But I guess everyone forgot about that and now they don’t like it in hot.

I don’t think people have forgotten so much as that the the complaints are that HoT is mostly meta-driven, whereas in the LS, the rest of the world remained solo friendly, even the zone of the update in LS1. While one can run around solo in HoT, it’s kind of a pain to do so, and there’s less one can do. Given that other game XPacs do offer more for solo players, I think that’s the major source of the complaints. Well, that and people not doing due diligence before they purchase.

Fwiw, I wish core Tyria has stayed as hard as it was in BWE1 and 2, or even as hard as it was at release. ANet did themselves no favors with regard to getting everyone to like HoT mobs by nerfing core as much as they did, as many times as they did.

Avarice.2791:

It’s pretty clear you’ve never played WoW, or you’re exaggerating to make some strange point. One button, really?

Some classes are fully capable of playing with a 1 button macro – as in cast sequences, or even easier, “illegal” macros. It might not be min/maxed optimal, but that’s not required. In some cases, 1 button spammers were actually the way to go. I remember arcane mages at one point attaining their highest DPS with a single button, though unsustainable for more than a few minutes. I haven’t played WoW in years, but that comment was from my personal raiding experience. I would have the more casual players /follow me to control their movement, either for ranged or melee. To be clear, this was a mostly geared raid carrying new players, making the content mostly a joke. I did the same thing in Rift at one point, but only played for the first raid. It wasn’t always /follow mind you, I would be marked so they could follow along instead of having to watch their surroundings.

Although my view on group content is somewhat a joke, to make it even more clear, not everyone needs to be good. You could stand in the corner for all I care. That is after all how we made money and gold back in the day, by selling carries.

As for GW1, I played it entirely solo with only henchmen, then heroes. I only played for about a month per campaign on release, only truly playing it once the HoM was announced. It became so easy that I could press c-space (aka target nearest, attack), then AFK while the heroes cleared hard mode trash for me. To be fair, at some points I would manually manage their skills and positioning. HoM

Avarice.2791:

You do realize they buff up new zones to accommodate for the next tier of gear given, right? You don’t scale in that game so eventually content becomes outdated while competitive content remains fresh.

I was referring to the standard play through experience. To make it simpler, let’s only focus on the personal story. If you can’t beat it, all you can do to compensate is bring a group. If GW2 was like every other gear based game however, that same story would have been balanced for questing gear, masterwork in this case, with new rares and exotics obtained through endgame play. If you couldn’t handle the story at first, you would simply need to obtain that better gear. Even when it comes to endgame additions, you would simply need to wait for the next gear cycle to be released. That is the problem with making the player’s skill the only factor. Those who can’t currently handle the raid for example may never be able to. As the difficulty increases with new content, more and more people will find themselves hitting that skill wall, as seen with HoT. To counter that, the content itself will be nerfed, rather than releasing new gear to make you more powerful instead.

maddoctor.2738:

Not quite. Even with low quality gear and items old tyria is still afkable. Just stand still, set your auto attack on skill 1 and go away, when you are back any “normal” mob will be dead and you will be at full health.

As a sample, I was playing a thief in timberline and a dredge’s rifle shot (basic attack), at +4 levels I think, was nearly 1/2 my health. As another, not dodging a fire elemental’s explosion barrage (special attack) is a 1 shot. Of course, I was practically naked with a zerker D/D spec. That is my “normal” leveling experience.

Of course I could just AFK, wait for someone to revive me and call it a win, or simply play the game on easy mode with a group or while downscaled.

Healix.5819:

As a sample, I was playing a thief in timberline and a dredge’s rifle shot (basic attack), at +4 levels I think, was nearly 1/2 my health. As another, not dodging a fire elemental’s explosion barrage (special attack) is a 1 shot. Of course, I was practically naked with a zerker D/D spec. That is my “normal” leveling experience.

Of course I could just AFK, wait for someone to revive me and call it a win, or simply play the game on easy mode with a group or while downscaled.

Why do you have to play at +4 levels and naked in order to get a good game experience?

This reminds me of the “if you want challenge, play the game in whites” comments which I ignore completely.

The only issue here is masteries. Yes you just need to run around the zone to get your gliding, jumping shroom, and if you want to your updraft. With those three masteries you can get all the HP’s you want.

Speaking from experience: I already had the above three masteries from another character (they are account wide!) and made a new ranger last month. I leveled him to 80 with tomes only, and bought cheap green gear off AH. Took him straight into HoT with just the pet I had from when I made him. With the above masteries I got 9/11 HP in verdant brink pretty easily (it was actually fun) and same story in auric basin (next zone). The only pain for me was getting the last two HP’s I needed from tangled depths, simply because I’m not that familiar with the zone.

So, masteries aside, what you are describing is actually super easy and fun, there are no issues about ranger that make this hard. The only annoying thing is needing those three masteries, and getting those just involves some time (too much imo) running around verdant brink just doing events over and over until you unlock them. Once those are unlocked you are good to go.

Loboling.5293:

If all else fails, reroll condi mesmer. I didn’t encounter a hero challenge I couldn’t solo. I think it is the best solo class for doing the hero challenges.

I haven’t tried condi Mesmer, maybe I should try that too. On mesmer I used a power shatter build, which was quite easy too. In my opinion necro was the easiest, basically just facetank and kill the mob. This may change after I tried condi Mesmer.

Loboling.5293:

Since doing them on thief was so difficult.

I solod quite many on my thief and didn’t had much problems. Sometimes I changed to p/p for ranged burst.

HoT, while it can get annoying, is about right in terms of difficulty. Just wished the events ran more like SW. If you played GW2 when it first came out, Orr was a nightmare until the devs nerfed the mobs. I remember trying to run past mobs and getting scorpion wired to death.