Guild Wars 2

The mobs in this BW2 went back to standard Ai…
except the crazy teragriff champ hat killed me with one charge all the rest seems so easy…
Most of the hyleks just stand there soaking in damage, they don’t dodge or avoid being completely surrounded, some good pet rock syndrome the have exactly the same as Husk in Silver Wastes.

There is something wrong with the AI, the boss Diamond something (amazing artwork and design) simply stayed still while 15 toons where dropping massive bursts.Didn’t try to attack or negate some damage just stayed there holding its massive great sword.

Bosses of this importance should have some Ai for when there are many players zerging and stacking, some AoE dissuading arguments wold be welcome, so the players disperse and try to use all the skills.

The hayleks except the one that has shadow-step and are able to disengage have simply bad AI. They sure seems random enough which is good, but they aren’t changeling like the ones in BW1.
The design is amazing and some skills like the one that kick you in the air to kick you again half way down are great and really visual. I let myself be kicked a couple of times just to see it.
The one that throw out the tongue i would add slow as condi if it hits you.
But they stay there. soaking in damage not trying to avoid anything so actually any burst build would have i t really easy, like the actual content right now in tyria.

The map is really nice but seems too small for a weekend.
The old enemies are too disperse now, the only times i have to do some thinkiing with the skills is when i drop of in the middle of mordrem cavalier with the tendrils and all.

I think the scaling is wrong also. it does scale fine with small numbers but when there is a big group like 15-20 it doesn’t drop enough trash mobs and stack them instead coming from everywhere what makes even easier to kill’em all in half a second. Also because the hyleks like to soak in damage dropping champs doesn’t solve the issue.

Resuming: in 3 hours i got bored of the map already to the point that i don’t feel like to try with another professions. Simply the events aren’t changeling enough to keep me interested.
And that having in mind that i was playing with a reaper with a suboptimal set for me (i use a sinister hybrid build).

I almost forgot.
The Wyverns need a lot of work. The fire ones are too scripted:
You attack them and then they fly and fire up a big area with flames. You jus wait outside and then just kill them. Of the four i fought the followed exactly the same sequence. The evade with the flying is nice, but if they always do the same is bad.

The electric ones do nothing really. Just shoot out the laser and die because of your burst. This mobs need somehow to be able to avoid or negate damage when needed.
Actually all of them need it.

I BW1 the silvary kicked and dodge. The small raptors dispersed, The smokedogs have those cool skills. The mushrooms were difficult because of they numbers and skills that combined made nice encounters.

I haven’t see any of the sorts today. Let’s see tomorrow.

anduriell.6280:

I BW1 the silvary kicked and dodge. The small raptors dispersed, The smokedogs have those cool skills. The mushrooms were difficult because of they numbers and skills that combined made nice encounters.

I haven’t see any of the sorts today. Let’s see tomorrow.

Havent seen most of the other mobs except the Hylek, but these guys you mention in this part are still the same as far as i can tell in the new area. Ive seen and experienced enough challenging battles.

Whilst there is likely some valid feedback to your post, the area needs to be kept in balance. It needs to be challenging but not so much that most of the playerbase cant get past. Thats what the raid is for. I like the difficulty as it is…but im under no illusions many are not happy with how hard it is and any harder will alienate too many players.

I’ve heard from friends, who were decimated by the previous beta’s trash mobs, that they can comfortably deal with them now. I can’t really play until Sunday, but having found the original incarnations balanced and engaging… I’m really worried about what kind of easy mode I’ll be facing.

Randulf.7614:

It needs to be challenging but not so much that most of the playerbase cant get past. Thats what the raid is for.

Or most of the playerbase could sacrifice some of their 100% offence and use some defensive skills? Or move every now and then instead of mashing number keys? Or look for their mistakes in defeat, learn from them and improve? I’m not trying to be horrible, but stuff like not standing in the Mordrem Snipers’ projectile trail for several ticks is a simple way to encourage players to be more active in combat. If you just stand there, yes you’ll die.

As for the raid part… even without the holy trinity, raids bar a lot of players simply by design. Time constraints, larger group size requirements, etc will likely make raids impossible for me. So far, the only content I’ve faced with the right balance of difficulty, accessibility and fun have been the gauntlet (without using cheese builds for each fight) and the previous betas. I’m not asking for everything in every part of the game to be like those, but I wouldn’t mind content that I can both access and enjoy.

To be honest I hadn’t noticed them be markedly easier, but it’s hard to judge; I was playing Reaper for the first time and having so much fun cleaving down all those elite bosses and feeling godlike, so maybe I’m not in a great position to make good comparisons lol XD

The problem is complicated by a number of factors:

1. How many players were playing a new class last beta vs this beta? If you played a new class last beta but not this beta, that could be part of why it seems easier.

2. Are they testing in a different area? Maybe this area is supposed to be an easier area than last week’s beta.

3. What one player says is hard is another’s easy.

Needs to be changed back, was way better before. Anet loves berserker meta

Greyhound.2058:

To be honest I hadn’t noticed them be markedly easier, but it’s hard to judge; I was playing Reaper for the first time and having so much fun cleaving down all those elite bosses and feeling godlike, so maybe I’m not in a great position to make good comparisons lol XD

Reaper is op in PvE is my feeling. Running a straight up glass cannon build with strength runes and the Reaper destroys everything.

When I tried a glass Daredevil I came back to earth. Partly due to learning the profession and the new mob abilities. But those veteran thief frogs hit pretty hard and if I slip up or there are two of them they can be very challenging.

I do agree with the OP that the champ with the greatsword was unimpressive but I did find the other mobs to be well balanced so far. Still need to see more and the weekend is young!

Go do raids and fractals when they come out. That’s what is designed for you. Leave casual open world pve as is

I do agree with OP. Especially on the wyvern and events here.

During my fights against the wyvern, the wyvern just stood there and attacked every 10 seconds. It never once allowed the opportunity to empty the Break Bar, so I think it’s a bit broken.

I believe that the events are way too short, when we completed the 2 outpost daytime events we had 30 minutes of leftover time. We literally stomp rolled all the events, while some do require a bit of thinking and coordination, they’re all too easy, and will feel old and mundane as time goes by.

Simply, I believe the solution is to make the mobs harder by increasing their damage and attack speed, I think the health of the mobs are fine. I know the giant frogs have a giant AOE knockback attack occasionally, but it doesn’t change things enough to make the mechanics seriously engaging.

I do love some of the mob mechanics though, like the Diarmuid’s mechanics of jump rope and shred attacks that will most likely instantly kill you. I’m not saying make all mobs require to instantly down you, but more coordination to work together and kill the boss by following the mechanics.

I know there are mechanics in each mob, but most of them don’t stand out at all that requires a different strategy, making the content all too easy and shred through all of the content. Heck, I managed to get all the achievements for the beta event in 3 hours.

TL;DR: Make the mob mechanics stand out more, create strategies to efficiently kill mobs and bosses. Increase mobs’ attack speed. Special attacks should do a lot of damage. 20+ man zergs makes all the content too easy, have scaling increase damage and attack speed significantly.

Azure.8670:

Needs to be changed back, was way better before. Anet loves berserker meta

I’m not sure what you mean by “changed back” this beta is testing an entirely different area with never before seen mobs.

There is no overlap between these beta weekends.

Also judging by the number of people i’ve rezzed so far this test I think people are having a pretty tough time.

I have to agree with you OP. Last beta had more challenging mobs and I feel like they have been nerf shroom and smokescale in particular.
But I also enjoy those ninjafrog. Tankfrogs on another hand are… well boring, all you have to do is stay dehind them and it’s done.
Wyvern, I found them really beautiful but so easy to kill.

But the overall feeling that the map is easier than the previous beta may be link to the fact that they fix several point on the reaper. The only point I’m sure they have nerf are shroom and smokescales and I find it quite disapointing.

Sooooo. Mobs seems good to me, even though I wouldn’t mind if they were harder^^. But as long as they become harder and harder while you go deeper and deeper in the jungle I don’t mind at all if this map stay that way.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Azure.8670:

Needs to be changed back, was way better before. Anet loves berserker meta

I’m not sure what you mean by “changed back” this beta is testing an entirely different area with never before seen mobs.

There is no overlap between these beta weekends.

Also judging by the number of people i’ve rezzed so far this test I think people are having a pretty tough time.

That’s because the players just stack mindlessly against the champ.
The hyleks champs are really really dumbs but they hit hard. So if you are in a glass cannon build and only spam 1-2-3-4-5 you are going to die. Same as any champ.

About the overlap, even the sylvary archers are nerfed, in BW1 they negated more damaged, moved more and used their skills more.
Today i could jump in the middle of a mordrem silvary zerg on my own and only see the target icon twice.
Neither they moved much now.

I don’t think they need to hit harder, they hit pretty hard. They need to go back to the old AI, this one sucks bad. Having in mind that HoT is supposed to be highest level content in game i find it easier than silverwastes.
You get there from SilverWastes that is a 80+ level zone. you do not begin in that zone and there is a need of progression somewhere, if i get from level 80+ map to HoT and the difficulty is the same as Queensdale (level 1-15) i think there is something really wrong there.

Reaper is almost the same as the BW1. The dev tweaked some numbers but nothing really game changing. In Bw1 you had o be careful and every encounter was engaging with any class. Because i couldn’t believe i had hard time with the trash mobs i made a ranger like i use in Tyria. The mobs were really engaging and interesting, i had the same hard time. Now seems OP because you know the class and the mobs are really easy, meta zerker 80 exp type for the spam of 1.
If you play with a class you know nothing about obviously is going to be really difficult, i could not pass the living world part with the chronomancer for example. But that’s not a fine metric to define id the game is actually changeling.

Also raids are supposed to be the end game. But HoT is supposed to be changeling at easiest becoming really hard as deep as you get in.
Right now i don’t like what i see, i find it really boring and unappealing.

we don’t need any more farming maps in game.

Last beta was awesome. This one’s mobs and events feel like such easy mode. I’m super disappointed. Even the story demo was kitten to 0 challenge. I am sad :C

anduriell.6280:

If you play with a class you know nothing about obviously is going to be really difficult

Yay, you figured out your own answer. Please stop complaining as this isn’t the final content. This content is to test (aka beta) and for new players to get their feet wet. Most players are trying something “new” to them.

DeWolfe.2174:

anduriell.6280:

If you play with a class you know nothing about obviously is going to be really difficult

Yay, you figured out your own answer. Please stop complaining as this isn’t the final content. This content is to test (aka beta) and for new players to get their feet wet. Most players are trying something “new” to them.

You didn’t read my answer completely, please don’t do transversal reading that you miss some very important points in it and my english is not good enough to be always enlightening and easy to understand.

As i pointed out in the comment above, i tried in the BW1 also with a ranger and he content was even more changeling and interesting than it was with the reaper

So again please stop telling the people to shut up because you feel the need of an easy mode expansion to have new maps to farm events/gold from ( no other reason i could think why on heavens would someone wants more dumb easy maps with all the casual content he game has to offer already)

Dumbing the AI down made this map boring, repetitive and unappealing, so much that is tiresome and almost a chore to run thru it.

I thought we were promised improved AI… well, i must be blind then. Keep nuking those mobs while they stand still …

DeWolfe.2174:

anduriell.6280:

If you play with a class you know nothing about obviously is going to be really difficult

Yay, you figured out your own answer. Please stop complaining as this isn’t the final content. This content is to test (aka beta) and for new players to get their feet wet. Most players are trying something “new” to them.

It’s warranted feedback.

I feel so ashamed, i convinced some of my friends to buy the expansion because the BW1 was so much fun and more challenging than the current core game. They logged out an hour after playing because it was not that fun, don’t get me wrong, the map looks amazing, but nerfing the mobs is not the way to go.

I just hope my friends don’t refund the Expansion

Emtiarbi.3281:

I feel so ashamed, i convinced some of my friends to buy the expansion because the BW1 was so much fun and more challenging than the current core game. They logged out an hour after playing because it was not that fun, don’t get me wrong, the map looks amazing, but nerfing the mobs is not the way to go.

I just hope my friends don’t refund the Expansion

Remind them that it is a beta and if they provide their feedback, they may have changes down that they’ll like.

NekotTheBrave.2013:

DeWolfe.2174:

anduriell.6280:

If you play with a class you know nothing about obviously is going to be really difficult

Yay, you figured out your own answer. Please stop complaining as this isn’t the final content. This content is to test (aka beta) and for new players to get their feet wet. Most players are trying something “new” to them.

It’s warranted feedback.

Exactly!

Seera.5916:

Emtiarbi.3281:

I feel so ashamed, i convinced some of my friends to buy the expansion because the BW1 was so much fun and more challenging than the current core game. They logged out an hour after playing because it was not that fun, don’t get me wrong, the map looks amazing, but nerfing the mobs is not the way to go.

I just hope my friends don’t refund the Expansion

Remind them that it is a beta and if they provide their feedback, they may have changes down that they’ll like.

Unfortunately this has proven Anet has tendency to turn always to become more casual instead interesting long lasting content. Here in Bw1 to Bw2 but this hasn’t being the only cases.
with all the feedback they had asking them to not to dumb down the enemies they did exactly the opposite.

I’ve also noticed that everything seems way easier this time around. Very disappointing. It should be a challenging, dangerous experience going into the deep dark jungle!

Chameleon Dude.1564:

I’ve heard from friends, who were decimated by the previous beta’s trash mobs, that they can comfortably deal with them now. I can’t really play until Sunday, but having found the original incarnations balanced and engaging… I’m really worried about what kind of easy mode I’ll be facing.

Randulf.7614:

It needs to be challenging but not so much that most of the playerbase cant get past. Thats what the raid is for.

Or most of the playerbase could sacrifice some of their 100% offence and use some defensive skills? Or move every now and then instead of mashing number keys? Or look for their mistakes in defeat, learn from them and improve? I’m not trying to be horrible, but stuff like not standing in the Mordrem Snipers’ projectile trail for several ticks is a simple way to encourage players to be more active in combat. If you just stand there, yes you’ll die.

As for the raid part… even without the holy trinity, raids bar a lot of players simply by design. Time constraints, larger group size requirements, etc will likely make raids impossible for me. So far, the only content I’ve faced with the right balance of difficulty, accessibility and fun have been the gauntlet (without using cheese builds for each fight) and the previous betas. I’m not asking for everything in every part of the game to be like those, but I wouldn’t mind content that I can both access and enjoy.

You are right in part, people must adapt their builds, although it will be a very steep and sudden learning curve for some. What im saying is, they dont need to make it harder…it is at the right level now.

You will see when you play yourself tomorrow, but these are not the same mobs for the most part and the density isnt a case of bouncing from one veteran smokescale, to another and then into a giant dinosaur and then some mordrem.

Also, skilled players learn quick, and will have adapted faster than the rest of us and naturally will find things easier. But the game still needs to take the wider view and find the middle ground where it can for open world.

BW2 kind of sucks. Most enemy just have too much hp and this stupid second bar is up like all the time.

PLEASE Anet reduce AI dmg, reduce AI hp and remove AI blocks. Right now the Beta map is just boring grind and hitting enemys for “hours”!

Hmm, fought some Snipers, they were still the same. Kicked me whenever possible and tried to get to distance whenever possible. Also The Target Icon was still there and the Trail nearly killed me.

@ Bomber: Can’t tell if serious

anduriell.6280:

There is something wrong with the AI, the boss Diamond something (amazing artwork and design) simply stayed still while 15 toons where dropping massive bursts.Didn’t try to attack or negate some damage just stayed there holding its massive great sword.

I think this is a bug. The first time I encountered him he wiped the whole zerg with that ultra LB barrage attack. I was highly impressed… but the next time I fought him, what you posted happened…. he just stood there and melted, he started walking slowly at one point, but he never attacked back.

As far as enemies being easier, I don’t think that is the case. It has more to do with the enemy types. The Hylek or whatever they are just different, they still hit hard, but they are slow and clunky. There are far less smokescales on this map. The mushroom thingys still hit hard. There were dead bodies everywhere during the metal scrap section of the Faren event chain where mushrooms were everywhere. The Mordrem snipers still hit really hard… there are just a lot less of those enemy types this BWE.

The Diarmid is weird. Looking really cool, and his first Phase with his SPin to Win Attack is really fun. I saw an entire Zerg going down to this Boss because nobody dodged^^, but the Second Phase with his Greatsword is meh. Attack is still hard hitting but he Attacks with his Greatsword every…. 20 Seconds? Too slow.

Also the Snipers aren’t that much of a Problem now because they seemed to be focused down as first Target but if they are ignored they can still do great Damage to the Zerg. And I thin the Dodge behavior has changed. In the first BWE the kicked and dodged every time I got near. Now some of them just waited until my Big Attack nearly hit them and then they dodged in the last Second. Was impressed.

Nothing changed? Are you blind?

Ok, I can’t say that I have seen yet yesterday al enemies I saw from BWE1, but i can clearly say that the enemies in the first part of the map have clearly become more challenging and strogner between BWE1 and BW2

Also anethas massively increased in certain parts the density of the enemie,s so that the fights are alot more troublesome now than they were under my impression from BEW1.
Also those mount enemies deal now for my impression alot more damage and are alot more dangerous to deal with, than they were in BWE1.
also due to the condition changes, all the stuff that deals alot of conditions feels now alot more dangerous, than they were in BWE1 that was pre condition change patch.
if you get spammed full with torment/burning now, you are alot quicker eating dust, than in BEW1.

Playtested Daredevill yesterday and beside of beign a medium armor class, it felt alot more squishier, than any of the low armor classes with similar health that i tested in BWE1, simply due to the enemies and conditions dealong now significantly more damage and often also more enemies beign all around now, than last time..

it gave me devenitely the feeling, that the hot maps aren#t a place, where you actually want to run solo around to have a smooth and fun gameplay, but where you actually want to stay packed in a group, cause of the enemies beign now so challenging, that they can overwehlm you quicker, than you like easily.

and the teragrifd charge attack is in general way too overpowered and the best tactic you can use agaisnt them is to keep them always crippled, so that if they try to use that stupid attack, that they fall over their own crippled legs and get knocked downed (what is in fact an AWESOME GAME MECHANIC that I’d love to see more often in this game, that conditions actually have nice side effects like this in combat, so that you can use them out outplay your enemies, this mechanic should work for PvP/WvW too, that crippled foe that try to use movement skills get knocked downed xD How awesoem woudl that be lol so that for ecxample a heartseeking thief falls on his face, if he uses the skill while being crippled xD )

tbh the skills they use are still op, a mordrem sniper can 2 shots u using rapid fire and I’m talking just 1 sniper, you usually end up facing more than just 1 and that means instant death, healing skill is irrelevant bcuz you’ll be dead b4 you finished casting healing (yes that 1 sec you require to cast healing is all they need to kill you)

let me share what happened this beta weekend:
walking around beta map, suddenly a group of snipers spawned, died b4 I can cast healing, random ppl shows up and res me, got killed again by snipers immediately, the ppl who saved me also died.
Rage quit and went to play other free weekend game.
and that’s all the time you can have from me.

versatile enemies Does not equal to heavy dmg dealing enemies
right now you’re just making contents challenging by adding more dmg enemies can deal to you.
and that kitten me off.

After more testing with different classes i have to say i am partially wrong, The AI is not worst than it was before in BW1.

At least when i roam solo style with the Dungeon Hunter the trash mobs react as expected, yo have to actively avoid attacks and hunt them down. They are not overly difficult, they are fine now if you roam solo.

That’s why i think some players complain about he difficulty here.

However the AI seems to get really dumb when there are more than a very few, in my experience more than 3-4 and the AI begin to behave like in the rest of tyria, like a pet rock.

In this case if you play with a minion master Verdan brink is just a walk in the park. The mobs stay still while your minions eat them alive and you gravedig their final resting place.

Same happens when a group of players are in the same location. It does no happen just to your target, all the mobs in the combat area stop behaving in an smart way.
Seems like the Ai can’t get its priorities right, so when the 5 players burst it down the mob only stay there.

i hope in Anet somebody could check that out. Some behaviors like the pull from the frog and then they try to stomp you stops showing when there are some players fighting. Also the mobs stops avoiding damage and just stay there soaking in numbers.

Even the hammer frog moves around when there is just you, i swear it.

For example the rampaging champion cavalier was so much fun when we confronted between just three pugs. Long fight, and i got downed a lot of times. It didn’t stop moving, and in some moment we end up fighting the champ and some event it was there. SO MUCH FUN!!

UNO.4906:

tbh the skills they use are still op, a mordrem sniper can 2 shots u using rapid fire and I’m talking just 1 sniper, you usually end up facing more than just 1 and that means instant death, healing skill is irrelevant bcuz you’ll be dead b4 you finished casting healing (yes that 1 sec you require to cast healing is all they need to kill you)

let me share what happened this beta weekend:
walking around beta map, suddenly a group of snipers spawned, died b4 I can cast healing, random ppl shows up and res me, got killed again by snipers immediately, the ppl who saved me also died.
Rage quit and went to play other free weekend game.
and that’s all the time you can have from me.

versatile enemies Does not equal to heavy dmg dealing enemies
right now you’re just making contents challenging by adding more dmg enemies can deal to you.
and that kitten me off.

Agreed. I would like to see more enemies dodge roll, get out of aoes, dont get stacked in cornes, not more ranged dmg. Now most of the, hylek especially just stand there being hp meats.

I also felt like it was easier than before. It felt strangely way too easy… but then again, Mordrem Snipers seemed to love me, because they always shot me down and while downed, they wouldn’t let me heal up. They changed their target to other players and as soon as I could heal myself, they shot me again just to interrupt. It was like they knew what they were doing to keep me down as much as possible!

Didn’t notice much different in difficulty. The frogs instantly downed me at first because I soaked the 5 arrow shot or didn’t run away when they took the dagger and stabbed me to death. Smokescales still kill people who don’t move away from the aoe (don’t change this!). Mushrooms are certain death in melee.

Emtiarbi.3281:

I feel so ashamed, i convinced some of my friends to buy the expansion because the BW1 was so much fun and more challenging than the current core game. They logged out an hour after playing because it was not that fun, don’t get me wrong, the map looks amazing, but nerfing the mobs is not the way to go.

I just hope my friends don’t refund the Expansion

After playing some more, i notice that the AI is actually fine when there are not big numbers of players. It seems like scaling is wrong? maybe when the map is 100% revealed it will be quite challenging as we will not be able to zerg and hold all the points.

I thought that the AI was similar to the first BWE but that the NPC’s health pools were much lower as they seem to die very quickly.

Those giant veteran frogs are a huge pain to fight though

I agree this edition of Verdant Brink feels too easy (easier than Silverwastes, actually). I don’t know if it’s just mob difficulty, however. The place seems too calm… very easy to just run past the mobs. I think we might need both more mob challenge and a greater feeling of invasion.

The fact that you can finish the event chains well before day/night cycles, and then the entire area goes passive doesn’t help. Unless they add a chest train (just kidding btw!), “Timeout” feels pretty odd. :P

Emtiarbi.3281:

Emtiarbi.3281:

I feel so ashamed, i convinced some of my friends to buy the expansion because the BW1 was so much fun and more challenging than the current core game. They logged out an hour after playing because it was not that fun, don’t get me wrong, the map looks amazing, but nerfing the mobs is not the way to go.

I just hope my friends don’t refund the Expansion

After playing some more, i notice that the AI is actually fine when there are not big numbers of players. It seems like scaling is wrong? maybe when the map is 100% revealed it will be quite challenging as we will not be able to zerg and hold all the points.

This is also what I’ve seen. The AI tends to break when there are too many players and then we see the normal Core Tyria Patterns, like there are too many Choices and the AI can’t really decide what to do. Also doesn’t help that some of the Mobs are Single Target Mobs like the Snipers.

Oh and the Tormentors are again a Joke. The Wells just cripple and its nearly save to stand in them because the Wells are doing nothing else than just grow. Give the Wells a second Condition like Torment and the Tormentors should have bigger Base HP. If the Text is right than they have somne kind of HP Sacrificing Mechanic, but they are too Glassy for this.

Some of them are a little to easy, the mordrem sniper thou…

I felt bored in this beta.
bwe1 was fun and i need to play careful and focus on every mob. And those mob are fair same difficult, no crazy scaling.
bwe2 i can dreaming around and auto attack all the way through. The only challenging is Champion, but too crazy. The most impressive is the Barrage on NE, everyone got one hit kill.
I think easy mob are too easy, hard mob are too hard in this beta.

Seera.5916:

The problem is complicated by a number of factors:

1. How many players were playing a new class last beta vs this beta? If you played a new class last beta but not this beta, that could be part of why it seems easier.

2. Are they testing in a different area? Maybe this area is supposed to be an easier area than last week’s beta.

3. What one player says is hard is another’s easy.

I actually find this map more difficult than the previous one. It has zero indigenous allied areas, and nothing to do except kill or be killed. There is no respite from survival mode, and no breathing room to just explore. It’s definitely not a solo area (I mostly solo or duo, and sometimes will follow a larger group during events)

The mobs themselves aren’t necessarily easier or harder than the previous map, there just seem to be a LOT more of them, and the overlap + lack of proper gear/build is what ends up killing me. It’s hard to find a spot where I can practice the stuff I come up with, and get used to the new specs to properly learn how to be effective with them enough to experience anything else.

More and more I am missing all that gear I had prepared to use for this BWE. I have spent more time working out builds this weekend, than actually playing
I finally have something that seems to be working ok, and at least I have better survivability than before. I still feel like I can’t really test well, because of so much time just figuring out what build and gear set up works best so I can live long enough to even complete an event.

So far, it’s CleriMonk Armor + Zerker accs/weapons FTW…who’da thunk?

Anyone would think we were all playing on different maps. Personally, I thought the mobs in BW2 were relatively easier than in BW1, which is a good thing in my opinion. Unlike other posters I’d rather have easy fights, which I find more interesting because I feel I’m progressing, whereas I find that the “harder” a fight is the more boring it is.

It’s just a matter of preference though – there is no “sweet spot” that will please everyone. BW1 wasn’t too hard, it was just mildly irritating. BW2 isn’t too easy, just less irritating than the last one.

I also thought that far from there being more mobs there were a lot fewer, which was the best part of the experience. I was playing a zerker staff ele and didn’t have much trouble exploring the full map while staying alive this time. Last time involved a lot of running and dying.

As for mobs not using the AI very well when faced with a large number of players, I don’t see how they can. If they are supposed to ruin away from the person attacking them and 10 people are attacking them from all directions, which way do they run? Whatever clever AI you give them focus fire from a zerg is going to counter it pretty effectively, unless you literally make them harder to kill incrementally as more people damage them – and that would be intensely annoying for everyone.

I didn’t really notice much change other than the Mordrem tormentors being more dangerous now. I don’t remember them hitting that hard and putting out so much torment in the last BWE, they were actually a last priority target before. I did notice there were fewer smoke scales though. (thank kittening god!)

I didn’t notice it being easier as a whole. completely depended on the class I played. Last beta I was running some pretty horrible builds, because I didn’t really pay attention to my traits and armour yet. This beta I was still getting my behind kicked like last beta until I actually paid some attention to what build I was running, then it became challenging but doable.

Also everything becomes shockingly easy if you’re in a zerg, so I hope people will be a bit more spread out over the map’s many events as the full map becomes playable.

Still, if half of the people are complaining it’s too easy and the other is complaining it’s too hard, the difficulty must be in quite a good spot (i’m certainly liking it).

except for the wyvern actually, that guy could really use a buff.

They could make those snipers do 30k auto attacks from 2000 range, where they stand but thats not good AI, thats not fun to play with either.

They should apply boons to themselves, more conditions, dodge, get out of aoe etc. after that snipers etc. needs less damage and Diarmid bosses etc. needs attack speed, now thats more fun.

anduriell.6280:

If you play with a class you know nothing about obviously is going to be really difficult.

I made my very first ever Necromancer yesterday to try out the reaper. For the first 2 hours or so, I was literally just spamming buttons and killing everything. Once I figured out how2reaper things got even easier.

Honestly, it might just be a case of the reaper being really strong. But I don’t feel like it’s overpowered. Long aftercast delays on skills and slow windup animations caused me to spend a lot of time interrupting my own skills. A lot of the reaper’s defenses also don’t work well against champion mobs, which can’t be CC locked.

bananenkip.6317:

I didn’t notice it being easier as a whole. completely depended on the class I played. Last beta I was running some pretty horrible builds, because I didn’t really pay attention to my traits and armour yet. This beta I was still getting my behind kicked like last beta until I actually paid some attention to what build I was running, then it became challenging but doable.

Also everything becomes shockingly easy if you’re in a zerg, so I hope people will be a bit more spread out over the map’s many events as the full map becomes playable.

Still, if half of the people are complaining it’s too easy and the other is complaining it’s too hard, the difficulty must be in quite a good spot (i’m certainly liking it).

except for the wyvern actually, that guy could really use a buff.

agree w/ this overall.

i also think round 2 of playing w/ these new specs (many of which got massive buffs to dmg/sustain) makes a difference, as does knowing the mob strategies better.

assuming mobs get harder as we progress, i’m okay w/ the current mobs…………but would really like to see more fast/weak hitting bosses/mobs vs. so many one-shots (that would truely justify some of the more defensive stat gear)…….also hate seeing so many break bars that render my reapers chill null and void.

Agree with the general sentiment here. While a few mobs had interesting abilities, their usage of them was entirely predictable, and the AI seemed exactly the same as in every other zone in the game. It wasn’t challenging, it wasn’t interesting, and it wasn’t anything new. Disappointing, and I hope they fix it.

My opinions:
First, if you’re running with a zerg or small group all the time, your just asking for it to be too easy. Go solo! I think that is what much of this map was meant for. Thats what I did, and I had fun.

Now, with that said, yes, some of the enemies were still a bit too easy. However, simply upping their damage is not the solution. Enemies should not be able to one hit kill light armor/low health classes unless its a very slow attack. Then you just asked for it. For example, I never got hit by those big frogs with the hammers. However, if I did, I would expect it to instant down me.

Second, instead of upping the damage, they should dramatically up the attack speed and skill usage of the enemies. For example, those frogs with bows had way too much time in which they were doing nothing. All enemies should be doing actions at all times. Those frogs needed to shoot their bows more frequently and disengage more frequently.

Third, there needs to be a larger variety of skills used by the enemies. For example, the wyverns should have done a different attack immediately after they landed. Particularly, I would have liked to see them do a charge attack and run after you like the teragriffs at silver wastes do. There should also be more of these wyverns in the areas I saw them at.

Fourth, I liked the damage that both the pocket raptors and mushroom things did in the first beta. Not sure if the damage actually changed. However, it at least felt, to me, that the mushroom things did less damage. This is perhaps also because I ran into larger groups in the first beta. However, I liked my first experience with them better.

Fifth, I think I herd someone say that conditional damage was high in this beta. However, I didn’t feel it. This is particularly true with the spiders. The poison didn’t last very long. I would like to see the poison last longer so I need to use condition removal. I would also like to see swans of these spiders so it feels more like the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.

Sixth, night in the first beta weekend seemed too much in many of the areas I was at if you were running solo. Night in this beta seemed too weak. Lets up the amount of creatures at night. I would like to see it so that some areas at night did not have as many creatures as the first beta. However, I would also like to see it so other areas had the same amount as the first beta or more. There should be a lot of creatures that come out at camps or where there are “group” activities. However, you should still be able to survive at night in non activity areas by trying to get past mobs. You shouldn’t be able to kill all the enemies at night by yourself. However, you should still be able to run past them and survive. Last beta, even when I tried running past hordes at night, I didn’t have a chance.
With that said, yes, there should still be some areas at night that produce so many enemies that you can’t run past them and need to be in a group to survive. However, there should be other areas where you can survive by yourself running past enemies by yourself. I think this is very good as it makes it so you should learn the map better. When you get that night warning, you should go “oh kitten, I should try to get to this area or find a group before it gets dark.” Unfortunately, I didn’t get that feeling at all with this beta.

Last, it seemed like enemies were too “groupy” if that makes any sense. For example, you saw only frogs together, you saw only spiders together, you saw only wyverns together. If you were fighting some pocket raptors, frogs, and wyverns at the same time, this would make the encounter drastically more difficult since you have to worry about a variety of different attack styles at the same time.

I didn’t notice it being any easier than the last beta.

The one thing that was annoying….things were way too easy in a zerg. Stuff just melts like butter. I’m not sure if that’s a scaling issue or what. Solo, on the other hand, I think was fine.

Diarmid was perhaps bugged when I did that fight. He just stood around and didn’t really do anything. Everyone was able to melee him with no problem. I don’t think I even had to dodge once.