Guild Wars 2

So got HOT the other day and I’m sick with the game play i really hate it its the worst, and i find myself going to other games now and just not playing

Maguma is all team based nothing solo all team based join a team maybe survive don’t join a team and you die.

Maguma is so OP you have mordrem snipers who can take out a whole team with one shot you might as well be canon fodder, then you have mushroom kings and vets they explode poison and again can take out a whole team in one go, giant beetles small beetles, pocket raptors huge monsters way to many Op bosses and monsters and stuff for anyone to solo.

Bosses respawn too fast you manage to kill some monsters and you turn around and there back again and before you know it you are swarmed and mobbed yet again the.

The mastery system is awesome the way it is designed to work is awesome but the xp is way too much first mastery is pretty easy next mastery is 1 mill+ xp you get very little xp for any events you do i mean 11k xp when your training mastery that needs 1mill + xp is nothing and bearly adds anything to the xp bar its more of a grind you have to grind grind grind there for its no fun.

You have to learn mastery to continue with your story again the rewards and too little for the grinding you have to do, am i the only one who genuinely feels that HOT content is really annoying and bad and over powered in maguma I for one don’t have time to spend 10-15 hours a day grinding for xp.

Every character I have I have done the hard way to get to 80 done the story lines so I’m not new to having to work for what you want but I thought it might be a bit easier and better and a better experience, for me I just think the way the xp is laid out for the amount of grinding you have to do is not worth it.

I thought the first expansion would be a bit better and more aimed towards the community and not such a bore to play needless to say I’m very disappointed.

It’s not hard….

Also, who would have thought an MMORPG would have co-operative elements in its open world ? It’s almost like they want you to play with other people in their themepark MMO.

Maguuma is harder than the rest of the world, kinda, but since it’s meant to expand the “endgame” I believe it was to be expected.

I main Ele, I ran on zerker gear on all but the last few bits, and didnt have much problem, but one needs to be smart, skills that reflect projectiles are good, as much stability as you can get is also encouraged. I soloed all of it and it was at a casual pace, a few hours every other day and finished last night.

Yes, the masteries take a bit, but they are account based and you only need like 6 points to complete the story, next time you do so it wont be gated.

If you need ideas regarding how your class can survive Maguuma better I’m sure we got people willing to help.

TexZero.7910:

It’s not hard….

Also, who would have thought an MMORPG would have co-operative elements in its open world ? It’s almost like they want you to play with other people in their themepark MMO.

Since GW2 wasn’t like that before HOT (world bosses excepted) why are you here if you like 1990s group-or-die MMOs?

Kraggy.4169:

TexZero.7910:

It’s not hard….

Also, who would have thought an MMORPG would have co-operative elements in its open world ? It’s almost like they want you to play with other people in their themepark MMO.

Since GW2 wasn’t like that before HOT (world bosses excepted) why are you here if you like 1990s group-or-die MMOs?

It’s honestly only like that if you’re trying to solo hero points. Other than that (and trying to solo meta events- please, if you’re doing that and complaining…), it’s not actually that hard. You just can’t go in to HoT with the “1 Spam” mentality. You have to be aware, and you may have to slot in skills other than your (most likely berserkers) build. You get used to it, just give it time and practice. And if everything was as face roll easy as the original game open world, it would be extremely boring (which is not really what veteran players of the game want). If you want face roll easy, core game stuff is for you.

You don’t need to join groups at all, you just need people around you.
If you are just doing the HoT story then you really don’t need others, if you are playing to push the map meta events then you need a map with many players but you don’t need to be partied or communicating with anyone.
By the way, before HoT the story and PvE in general is extremely easy, a very few things could be considered hard, like some LS2 achievements.
Have you tried to not go full zerk/glass cannon build? Also use the LFG tool and join an organized map, there are plenty of taxi when the map is starting.
If the map isn’t near to reset and you want to do a Hero Challenge, that is the only thing that I can imagine that can require you to look for help, but still there are several Challenges that can be soloed.

I don’t think it’s that hard, although it is definitely more difficult than the base Tyria areas. Also, some classes are much easier than others. Reapers laugh at mini raptors and most other threats. I actually found that my ranger can breeze through – a tanky pet is a huge asset.

I suggest looking over your build carefully – figure out what kills you and try to find a countermeasure. For example, Muddy Terrain is super useful on my ranger – slows enemies from getting to me, smashes breakbars, has a low cooldown.

I’ve soloed most of the content in Maguuma. It’s rough – and most of it is by dying frequently and readjusting my builds for each situation through trial and error – by it’s all totally possible. There are some events that are balanced towards groups, but even those can be done solo if played smart.

Hmm…. I’ve soloed almost all of HoT… And I’m a Daredevil. I changed the way I thought and played as a thief, I have to stay on my toes, stay mobile, Dodge accurately. I can’t breathe or relax and letting up the pace means death and waypoint. I love it.

I find it hard to play even though I want to, because everything is time gated and/or group gated. In the old content, you could always do dungeons as and when you wanted to, do silverwastes and basically everything as and when you wanted to. LFG still worked for dungeons. but the content in Maguuma is heavily inaccessible.

When Arenanet announced Guild Wars 2 they really emphasised the fact they wanted to expand upon what players did at the endgame. They spoke about wanting to get more out of the combat system and challenge players in ways that, until then, only other players had been able to do. I’m honestly shocked by how many people are surprised by the upped difficulty in the jungle.

Now you have to pay attention, especially with certain mobs. You need to know what they do and how you can counter them. I personally have unlocked seven of the Elite specialisations, meaning I’ve taken seven classes into the jungle and while some have had an easier time than others, even my poorly equipped Elementalist and my Beserker Thief made it through. You absolutely can solo through the jungle, you just have to be more careful than in Core Tyria.

It can be faceroll or hard to solo depending on the class you play. Necro/Reaper is super easy while ele/tempest is harder. The real problem doesn’t really lie there though. If you run glass builds solo and die, it’s not weird.
First check your traits/skills. You can probably swap out something to make you survive longer.
If that doesn’t help change the gear. If you feel you need more defence swap individual pieces one at the time until it works for you. There is no need to go all out on one stat combo. If you are full Zerk, mix in a few Mauraders, soldiers or cele.

You might think that the masteries take time but they aren’t really except the later ones which I think is fair. There are ways to boost xp gain that ain’t boosters. Like food and Amulet utility infusion. Also there are very few requirements for the story. Sure you can’t just rush through it but that is good. The Maguuma maps have story in their events that is connected to the personal story.

I pretty much explore HoT exclusively solo. Haven’t had any problems. Have I died? Yep. But if I died it’s because a) It’s a new mob that I didn’t really understand what their mechanics were, b) I pulled far too many mobs, or c) I engaged a Champion alone.

The longer I’ve spent out there the less I die (it’s rare these days) because a) I’ve learned what each mob does now and can avoid their big attacks/prepare for them, b) am more aware of my surroundings so I don’t pull too many, and c) stopped engaging HoT Champions alone.

Also I don’t run around Maguuma in full zerker gear like a fool…

I have soloed most of HoT on all 9 classes. Most of them even without optimal gear.

I think the main problem is not that HoT is even remotely hard. The problem is that the rest of GW2 is so easy that you could play it while being totally brain afk. Many players are not used to content they have to pay at least a little bit of attention to and not brainlessly farm while watching a tv series.

HoT has a few flaws but being hard is none of them.

I think HoT is a first step away from boredom and I hope that raids get another step in this direction too.

Kraggy.4169:

TexZero.7910:

It’s not hard….

Also, who would have thought an MMORPG would have co-operative elements in its open world ? It’s almost like they want you to play with other people in their themepark MMO.

Since GW2 wasn’t like that before HOT (world bosses excepted) why are you here if you like 1990s group-or-die MMOs?

Maybe since you’ve been around.

Ask anyone whose stuck with the game the full three years and they can tell you how much more lively the community aspect used to be (see pre-nerf Orr). Then the same sorta crying about difficulty or annoying mobs came about and turned what was an amazing multiplayer experience into a we press autocast 1 while watching movies.

As far as my gear goes its listed below i am a ranger class with a tanky pet also

Armor
Berserker’s Noble Mask of the Ranger,Berserker’s Noble Shoulders of the Ranger,Berserker’s Noble Coat of the Ranger,Berserker’s Noble Gloves of the Ranger,Berserker’s Noble Pants of the Ranger,Berserker’s Noble Boots of the Ranger all of these have superior rune of the ranger these are rare equipment not exotic rare for the moment till I can afford exotic
Longbow

Assassin’s Pearl Stinger of Accuracy with superior of accuracy and superior sigil or night

Rings/Amulets
Berserker’s Ring,Berserker’s Ring,Berserker’s Amulet,Cavalier’s Field Guide,Cavalier’s Field Guide Rare rings and amulets not Exotic

I can run dungeons, fractals, PvE world bosses, WvW hold my own and enjoy the aspect of the game soon as I go to maguma I get mobbed and killed.

Here is an example ok walking along got attacked by a mushroom started to kill him then 3 more came then a vet mushroom, dodged back and was met with mordrem and also Beatles no matter how good you are or anything there is no way you can solo them

Its not as much about the combat my post is not directed towards that its more directed towards how hard the mobs are for the little xp you get its not worth the grind and its not nice to have to grind trough masteries to get to your next story its not a enjoyable experience at all with how difficult it is.

I know those who find the Maguma easy are those who either have full zerk gear and ascended weapons trinkets etc etc with very high stats, or those who saved their tomes boosted to level 80 got tons and tons of points to train specs then had allot left over to train there elite spec to full dragon hunter etc etc which added allot of abilities other players still grinding don’t have.

I think they need to include more events that are not as challenging for those who can’t afford the huge elite gear and to walk trough maguma like gods, and to also reduce the boss scale slightly so there not so dam hard.

Its really not that hard. You just have to be competent.

The base game is designed very plainly. After a couple of NPE updates, it became so easy that you win by default. No, really, try it. Go to Cursed Shore, walk up to any mob, and only use auto attacks. Don’t even move. You’ll win, no matter what gear you are wearing. Add on all the various abilities that come with the class, and the enemies aren’t even remotely close to a threat.

In HoT, that is only true sometimes. There are enemies who will beat you if they ambush you, or simply outright. Because of this, you need to take advantage of all of the little goodies that your class comes with. Things ranged weapons, CC, situational awareness, and defensive utilities/traits.

Mordrem snipers get a lot of flak for being OP, but they’re actually pretty easy.
-They’re utter glass, and die very quickly to counterburst
-You can juke their regular attacks
-Their damaging attack has a gigantic windup with a target over your head followed by a gigantic bright glowing trail on the ground. You can CC them, kill them first, juke the hit, walk sideways and wait it out.
-Reflection shreds them.

The only way to die to a sniper is if you just sit there and take it. This is an enemy you can defeat by walking.

martin.8271:

I think they need to include more events that are not as challenging for those who can’t afford the huge elite gear and to walk trough maguma like gods, and to also reduce the boss scale slightly so there not so dam hard.

Go back to core tyria, gear up appropriately. Come back.

Just because you don’t have something, or are unwilling to work toward it is no justification for nerfing content that is meant to provide a challenge.

Do not confuse challenging and interesting with “hard”.
Central Tyria is boringly easy because the game mechanics were all pristine new and there were not any MMORPG with these game mechanics before (no holy trinity).

Now that they’re more used to the gameplay of the game, they’re able to make monsters that you can’t kill while watching lolcats on YouTube.
That’s what we see in Magus Falls, and it was requested for years.

martin.8271:

As far as my gear goes its listed below i am a ranger class with a tanky pet also

Armor
Berserker’s Noble Mask of the Ranger,Berserker’s Noble Shoulders of the Ranger,Berserker’s Noble Coat of the Ranger,Berserker’s Noble Gloves of the Ranger,Berserker’s Noble Pants of the Ranger,Berserker’s Noble Boots of the Ranger all of these have superior rune of the ranger these are rare equipment not exotic rare for the moment till I can afford exotic (snip)

If you can’t afford exotic Beserkers, look into getting Karma temple gear. Grenth has Beserkers. The other temples have other stats if you want to mix in something different from full glass. The main problem is it can’t be salvaged to get runes back out but it’s an option for those gold poor.

TexZero.7910:

martin.8271:

I think they need to include more events that are not as challenging for those who can’t afford the huge elite gear and to walk trough maguma like gods, and to also reduce the boss scale slightly so there not so dam hard.

Go back to core tyria, gear up appropriately. Come back.

Just because you don’t have something, or are unwilling to work toward it is no justification for nerfing content that is meant to provide a challenge.

I’m hardly nerfing it you really think ArenaNet are going to change anything in the game for what I say I’m just speaking my mind like most also I’ve worked for everything I have and for the characters I have never used tomes boosts nothing all hard grind 100% its hard work in maguma granted but would be more enjoyable for more rewards better xp faster masteries.

Also when you say gear properly I’m presuming your running full zerk gear ascended weapons with all masteries fully completed or at least a mastery rank of above 50 have all your elite spec compleated and spend tons of gold on items which would make you think Maguma is not challenging and easy for you.

I will go back to core Tyria and continue doing as i was doing HOT can sit as it is

So many people here have solo’d HoT it is obviously too easy.

Maybe solo’d means not in a party.

And no I don’t have too many problems because there is usually other people about.

@OP. The brutal answer to your question is “because a vocal minority campaigned hard for it and ANet listened to them”. They’ll nerf it eventually to make it more inclusive.

martin.8271:

Also when you say gear properly I’m presuming your running full zerk gear ascended weapons with all masteries fully completed or at least a mastery rank of above 50 have all your elite spec compleated and spend tons of gold on items which would make you think Maguma is not challenging and easy for you.

Why yes all of that is done. It was done through playing the game, putting in time and effort and playing various forms of content. I finished unlocking my 9th elite spec today and hit mastery rank 161.

Here’s the thing, this could be you as well. If you put in the time to do so instead of ranting here asking for a nerf.

martin.8271:

TexZero.7910:

martin.8271:

I think they need to include more events that are not as challenging for those who can’t afford the huge elite gear and to walk trough maguma like gods, and to also reduce the boss scale slightly so there not so dam hard.

Go back to core tyria, gear up appropriately. Come back.

Just because you don’t have something, or are unwilling to work toward it is no justification for nerfing content that is meant to provide a challenge.

I’m hardly nerfing it you really think ArenaNet are going to change anything in the game for what I say I’m just speaking my mind like most also I’ve worked for everything I have and for the characters I have never used tomes boosts nothing all hard grind 100% its hard work in maguma granted but would be more enjoyable for more rewards better xp faster masteries.

Also when you say gear properly I’m presuming your running full zerk gear ascended weapons with all masteries fully completed or at least a mastery rank of above 50 have all your elite spec compleated and spend tons of gold on items which would make you think Maguma is not challenging and easy for you.

I will go back to core Tyria and continue doing as i was doing HOT can sit as it is

Please start map completing in wvw.

Signed,

Guild Wars 2 Community

martin.8271:

As far as my gear goes its listed below i am a ranger class with a tanky pet also

Armor
all of these have superior rune of the ranger these are rare equipment not exotic rare for the moment till I can afford exotic
Longbow
Assassin’s Pearl Stinger of Accuracy with superior of accuracy and superior sigil or night
Rings/Amulets
Berserker’s Ring,Berserker’s Ring,Berserker’s Amulet,Cavalier’s Field Guide,Cavalier’s Field Guide Rare rings and amulets not Exotic
I can run dungeons, fractals, PvE world bosses, WvW hold my own and enjoy the aspect of the game soon as I go to maguma I get mobbed and killed.
Here is an example ok walking along got attacked by a mushroom started to kill him then 3 more came then a vet mushroom, dodged back and was met with mordrem and also Beatles no matter how good you are or anything there is no way you can solo them
Its not as much about the combat my post is not directed towards that its more directed towards how hard the mobs are for the little xp you get its not worth the grind and its not nice to have to grind trough masteries to get to your next story its not a enjoyable experience at all with how difficult it is.
I know those who find the Maguma easy are those who either have full zerk gear and ascended weapons trinkets etc etc with very high stats, or those who saved their tomes boosted to level 80 got tons and tons of points to train specs then had allot left over to train there elite spec to full dragon hunter etc etc which added allot of abilities other players still grinding don’t have.
I think they need to include more events that are not as challenging for those who can’t afford the huge elite gear and to walk trough maguma like gods.

Ok. 1: you run around in rare zerker gear. Exotics are very cheap right now and you should have at least that. Don’t blame this on ascended gear when that ain’t much of an upgrade from exotics. Rare to exotics is a bigger upgrade and it’s not wrong for the game to assume you have at least that in endgame zones.

2. We have no clue to what build you run. Your build might be bad for a full glass ranger. We also don’t know if you have a secondary weapon or what pet you use.

3. Learn what your enemies do and how to counter it. Easy to read below their healthbar when targeted. Learn what attacks that needs to be dodged/cc’ed. Most of them have obvious animations.

4. mobs never really gave tons of xp. The only way to make that happens is to stack boosters and things like food where lots of enemies respawn for you to kill. Events is the easiest way to get xp without boosters which shouldn’t be a surprise as it’s also what most people recommend for levelling without tomes. Try doing a full meta event and you’ll see that levelling masteries ain’t that hard. And as I said in a previous post. The meta events contain story that’s connected to the Personal story in HoT.

5. Tomes only gets you to 80. That means you can ONLY unlock all CORE specs. They do not give an advantage in any way except saving time for those who don’t want to level. Getting all Hp’s from core tyria is also very easy and doesn’t take that much time if you only do the Hero challenges and nothing else.

6. “dungeons, fractals, PvE world bosses, WvW” All these are very easy to do and says nothing about skill. WvW can sure be hard but I’ll assume you just run around with tons of people in a zerg(which is easy and what most people seems to do). I’ll also assume(which is most likely correct) that you only do fractal 1-10ish as you can’t have any AR for higher fractals. Please correct me if I’m wrong with those assumptions. All of these things rarely requires you to even dodge and doesn’t say anything about you.

I’m sorry but based on the information you’ve given us it doesn’t seem know how to play the game very well. Not saying that you lack skill but lack knowledge of how the game works. To be fair, that’s not your fault as the game is terrible at explaining it to you.

martin.8271:

I know those who find the Maguma easy are those who either have full zerk gear and ascended weapons trinkets etc etc with very high stats, or those who saved their tomes boosted to level 80 got tons and tons of points to train specs then had allot left over to train there elite spec to full dragon hunter etc etc which added allot of abilities other players still grinding don’t have.

I think they need to include more events that are not as challenging for those who can’t afford the huge elite gear and to walk trough maguma like gods, and to also reduce the boss scale slightly so there not so dam hard.

Exotic Armor and Weapons can be bought with Karma, Dungeon Tokens and Badges of Honor. Ascended trinkets can be bought with Laurels, Badges of Honor and Pristine Fractal Relics.

So even if you have not much gold there are easy ways to get high level gear.

Scaling Maguma to players who have bad gear would mean it would get total boredom for any equivalent geared player.

Solid Gold.9310:

So many people here have solo’d HoT it is obviously too easy.

Maybe solo’d means not in a party.

And no I don’t have too many problems because there is usually other people about.

To be honest, HoT is quite easy. I think anet has tried to find a compromise so that the most players think it is OK and only a few think it is too easy or too hard.

Most of the hero challenges are easy soloable. I would say 70% you can do solo, 20% need 2 players and 10% need 3 players, to do it without much effort. I think of these 30% for 2-3 players most are soloable with more effort (study the tactics, use right utilities and buffs etc.).

HoT is far to be hard.

Some of the map are at the level of Orr pre-nerf : tons of mob swarming. But otherwise, it’s pretty well balanced.

Maguma is all team based nothing solo all team based join a team maybe survive don’t join a team and you die.

Most of the event may be done solo. Only meta event really need cooperation. (That is outside dragon stand which is a big meta event)

Maguma is so OP you have mordrem snipers who can take out a whole team with one shot you might as well be canon fodder, then you have mushroom kings and vets they explode poison and again can take out a whole team in one go, giant beetles small beetles, pocket raptors huge monsters way to many Op bosses and monsters and stuff for anyone to solo

You just need to get used to it.

The mastery system is awesome the way it is designed to work is awesome but the xp is way too much first mastery is pretty easy next mastery is 1 mill+ xp you get very little xp for any events you do i mean 11k xp when your training mastery that needs 1mill + xp is nothing and bearly adds anything to the xp bar its more of a grind you have to grind grind grind there for its no fun.

I agree that this mastery system is awesome but I don’t agree with the fact that it need to much xp. For me the amount feel balanced. It give you an objectif without really crippling you in most of the HoT content since very few masteries are really “needed” to beat the content. Most of the time masteries are QoL and it’s fine like this.

Every character I have I have done the hard way to get to 80 done the story lines so I’m not new to having to work for what you want but I thought it might be a bit easier and better and a better experience, for me I just think the way the xp is laid out for the amount of grinding you have to do is not worth it.

I have 8 professions with everything done (story/season 1/ season 2/map completion) and 5 of them have been through HoT story (entirely solo). I’ve been leveling my mastery by discovering the new map (and belive me it’s ton of free experience) with my 9 character. Doing tyrian map completion with my revenant allowed me to almost finish entirely the tyrian masteries.

Honnestly, I’m not a really good player, I’d probably been rekt by the average player in PvP and still, I think that HoT mobs are easy, story is doable with most of the success done solo. Just try to get used to them and you’ll see that it’s not that hard.

Shylock.4653:

Solid Gold.9310:

So many people here have solo’d HoT it is obviously too easy.

Maybe solo’d means not in a party.

And no I don’t have too many problems because there is usually other people about.

To be honest, HoT is quite easy. I think anet has tried to find a compromise so that the most players think it is OK and only a few think it is too easy or too hard.

Most of the hero challenges are easy soloable. I would say 70% you can do solo, 20% need 2 players and 10% need 3 players, to do it without much effort. I think of these 30% for 2-3 players most are soloable with more effort (study the tactics, use right utilities and buffs etc.).

I didn’t say it was too hard, and you are suggesting I’m having problems, which I’m not.

I’m just saying it’s not 100% solable but there’s always somebody (Generally) around to help out when needed.

Please don’t tell me about tactics, utilities and buffs.

People used to think dungeons were hard, too.

Around 80% of the story was told through the event chains. If you don’t run them with other people, you missed a lot.

Kraggy.4169:

TexZero.7910:

It’s not hard….

Also, who would have thought an MMORPG would have co-operative elements in its open world ? It’s almost like they want you to play with other people in their themepark MMO.

Since GW2 wasn’t like that before HOT (world bosses excepted) why are you here if you like 1990s group-or-die MMOs?

Because the thousands of events titled [Group Event] is not co-operative at all. Because the five-man teams of dungeons and fractals is not co-operative at all. Because the guild missions are not co-operative at all.

“GW2 wasn’t like that before HOT” is a bullkitten lie.

And let’s be frank, the only truly hard part of HoT is the Chak Gerent meta event and getting T4 at Verdant Brink night – but that’s only hard because it requires others not messing up.

Even with my squishy thief, I’ve yet to find an encounter where I cannot solo with a little modification to how I play.

Is it more difficult than core maps? Yeah, until you reach the other level 80 maps. Those are only minutely less challenging than HoT maps.

But is it ‘so hard’? No.

I find it hard. I really enjoyed the first three years, but knowing that the story now, and everything else moving forward is going to be behind this second, harder game, it’s disheartening.

I’m getting my login reward and doing some of the old world bosses I used to like to do and trying to get the daily done (though that’s harder with a few key WvW options being broken, and I … just don’t do dungeons and fractholes, never have, except to get my Mawdrey II, but it was enjoyable), but I’m not entirely sure ‘why’ I’m bothering to do that. Before HoT, it was something to do while awaiting the next big story pieces. Now with HoT not being very enjoyable, it seems like there isn’t a ‘next’ for me.

And, perhaps that is fine.

Plus I gotta get some more tokens for pet furniture and get more cats, so … yeah.

I consider myself a fairly decent player, and I just find it hard. There this one frog person I can’t even fight because he evades all my ranged attacks and I’m a staff elementalist spec’d for water, arcane and air…because I like it, and it’s fun, and that’s what I want to be. It reminds me of the original Orr, which I couldn’t stand, and ran through as fast as I could for map completions and never went back. Orr is a lot better these days, but it’s still a depressing place.

I’m only in that first jungle place in the new world, and it’s just confusing and tedious and bothersome and just not really fun for me.

Not to say there’s anything wrong with it, if everyone is having an awesome time and enjoying it, that’s great, but let’s not pretend it is not a ‘vastly’ different experience than the original game, meandering around from zone to zone care free, completing hearts, stopping on vistas high on peaks to get awesome screen shots from the snowy peak looking down to a town on a lake.

Well, I digress. I think at this point I’m going to knock out bothering with the daily 10 AP points (I mean, they run out at some point, not sure why I’m pushing it every day, and they don’t buy me any masteries or anything) and just get my login. Still looking forward to playing with the holiday stuff, though I don’t suppose there will be any fun outfits to my taste. More money to set aside for outfits where I find myself spending more time these days anyways.

I’d posted in someone’s “are you sad you pre-ordered HoT” thread that I ‘kinda’ was a week or so ago, and now I think I’ll adjust that to maybe ‘pretty much’. I’d love to have some sort of epiphany with HoT, but thus far it’s just not happening for me. Which is sad, because I liked the core game, and will miss my characters, especially my main.

This game has been steadily moving away from relaxing gaming content and becoming increasingly “challenging.” Some of the challenge I would more readily define as “tedious” and not really challenging, but there you go.

That’s why the HoT content is harder than LS2 and LS2 was harder than LS1 and LS1 is harder than the base game. I assume this bar is simply going to keep going up.

And yeah, I don’t like the non-soloable Hero Challenges. Spending time sitting around waiting for help not being fun is something Anet claimed they understood when they created this game. But they seem to have changed theri minds on this.

After all, one of the reasons they didn’t want a trinity was because sitting around waiting for a healer wasn’t “fun.” But apparently sitting around waiting for a group for Hero Challenges no one is doing any longer is “big fun.”

lol No logic.

People wanted more difficult content though they wanted it in a form akin to the Underworld, Deep, FoW, Sorrow, or that place in Torments whose name i forget.

However it’s Anet and instead of making a side map and introducing truly difficult content they decided to go with ruining the game for casuals by forcing the entire GW2 community to to march through what was supposed to be the games equivalent of the underworld.

All I wanted was an underworld like map so I have to agree they shouldn’t force everyone to trudge through harder content for multiple reasons. For starters the map would have been much more difficult if it was placed off the beaten track. Even though it’s not a s difficult as it could have been this maps are simply too much for the feel good mmo crowd this game was known for and in fact this community has gotten so much worse since HoT has launched.

I work and have a life and I’ve probably been on these forums more after the launch of HoT than the entire year. HoT isn’t GW2 and GW2 isn’t GW1 the structure and basic feel of the entire game has changed with HoT and with todays patch is obvious that won’t change and Anet has trough out all of its old ideas and promises in favor of what we have today.

Doam.8305:

People wanted more difficult content though they wanted it in a form akin to the Underworld, Deep, FoW, Sorrow, or that place in Torments whose name i forget.

However it’s Anet and instead of making a side map and introducing truly difficult content they decided to go with ruining the game for casuals by forcing the entire GW2 community to to march through what was supposed to be the games equivalent of the underworld.

I think these side maps with enhanced difficulty are what we know as “dungeons”.

Personally like the difficulty progression as it makes us think outside the box or at least look for ways to improve as players…. I understand it’s difficult AT FIRST for newer players or casual ones, but an easy end game would be boring to those that reached their caps…. hardship isn’t bad, what’s the point of having something that everybody else has?

I figured it would be hard because look at the games launch from 2012. Orr was tough to navigate back then mainly because people were still learning how to do so. I also chalk it up to the dragon still being alive at the time. After a while, they lessened the threat in Orr and basically the world’s main storyline was that Zhaitan was defeated and everyone was moving forward.

In my opinion, once the worlds main storyline has progressed, they will eventually lessen the influence Mordremoth has by making Maguuma slightly easier for those that say its “too hard”. Personally, I can’t wait to hear the same cries about the Raid from the same people. lol.

Why did they make it so hard? Because you haven’t adapted yet. Consider changing some gear, traits, and utilities.

“And if everything was as face roll easy as the original game open world, it would be extremely boring (which is not really what veteran players of the game want). If you want face roll easy, core game stuff is for you.”

The thing is however our experience with the content combined with at least full exotics, and usually mostly ascended too skews our perception of the difficulty. It’s easy to say something is easy when we mastered it, then we must master something else, even if that something else assumes you’re in exotics at least (so anything less would feel underpowered even if it’s level 80 gear.)

While I’m certainly not a fan of two-hour-long meta event chains, the difficulty of individual mobs in HoT is by design. This design sprang from the desire that players would need to make full use of the build options available to them. That includes changing weapons, traits and maybe even gear depending on what one is facing, and actually using all or at least more of the slots on the action bar. That’s how the game was designed to be played. However, older content does not encourage full use of the game’s combat mechanics.

I’m sorry you’re not enjoying the increased difficulty, but it should not have been a surprise if you’d done any research before buying. Regardless of whether you adapt to ANet’s new approach to content design, I wish you well.

Everything is hard until you adapt to it.

Tequatl used to be impossible when it first came out. Then it became farm mode. Then they made it “harder” and everyone said it was impossible. Now it is farm mode.

HoT is no different. Once you get used to the mobs and their abilities, it is easy.

I think some people got used to rolling through Queensdale (or pretty much any core Tyria zone)on their level 80s and being able to take down giant swarms of enemies and decided to continue that playstyle into HoT, with terrible results.

Agemnon.4608:

Why did they make it so hard? Because you haven’t adapted yet. Consider changing some gear, traits, and utilities.

“And if everything was as face roll easy as the original game open world, it would be extremely boring (which is not really what veteran players of the game want). If you want face roll easy, core game stuff is for you.”

The thing is however our experience with the content combined with at least full exotics, and usually mostly ascended too skews our perception of the difficulty. It’s easy to say something is easy when we mastered it, then we must master something else, even if that something else assumes you’re in exotics at least (so anything less would feel underpowered even if it’s level 80 gear.)

Not even. If you’ve watched WP, you’ve heard of his hardcore challenge. On a charr guardian with no gear other than what he got as drops, as well as the exact same level as the story instance, he beat a veteran molten effigy “boss” in less than ten seconds.

And it’s not very hard to get full exotic- if you have like 25 gold, that’s full exotics and runed and trinkets. So yeah, the core game is pretty easy.

Draknar.5748:

Everything is hard until you adapt to it.

Tequatl used to be impossible when it first came out. Then it became farm mode. Then they made it “harder” and everyone said it was impossible. Now it is farm mode.

HoT is no different. Once you get used to the mobs and their abilities, it is easy.

I think some people got used to rolling through Queensdale (or pretty much any core Tyria zone)on their level 80s and being able to take down giant swarms of enemies and decided to continue that playstyle into HoT, with terrible results.

I think there is a subjective element though to gameplay that GW2 missed for what is “fun” for people, especially for casuals that got used to the base game. Some people love the more meta\elite game play. Some don’t.

Take the flight simulator type game example: Some people just want to jump into the kittenpit, have the bare minimum buttons\controls to push, and fly arcade style blasting away enemies by the score without having to think too much about it. That’s fun to them. Others what to have to do a pre-flight checklist, fuel management, weather check, have to know and master all the mechanical details of the plane, and fly with realistic flight characteristics where your biggest challenge is simply staying in the air, let alone trying to fight someone. Those are two very different kinds of fun, for two very different kinds of people.

The problem with HoT is it was built assuming everyone was like the latter – people who have and are compable of mastering most if not all aspects of the more elite gameplay (understanding build and skill synergies, all the condition types and condition management, identifying mobs telegraph moves – one of the hardest things to see compared to other games that make telegraphs obvious, etc). This makes some sense, since these are lvl 80 maps after all. But by completely excluding the former player base, they turned off quite a few people, particularly those coming back to the game after a break hoping to have some fun but instead found frustration.

They really think they should have made the areas scale in difficulty to make the transition less jarring. There would still be frustration at the final map(s), but at least the whole place wouldn’t be so in your face “you suck, deal with it or leave” right as you enter the area.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Its really not that hard. You just have to be competent.

The base game is designed very plainly. After a couple of NPE updates, it became so easy that you win by default. No, really, try it. Go to Cursed Shore, walk up to any mob, and only use auto attacks. Don’t even move. You’ll win, no matter what gear you are wearing. Add on all the various abilities that come with the class, and the enemies aren’t even remotely close to a threat.

In HoT, that is only true sometimes. There are enemies who will beat you if they ambush you, or simply outright. Because of this, you need to take advantage of all of the little goodies that your class comes with. Things ranged weapons, CC, situational awareness, and defensive utilities/traits.

Mordrem snipers get a lot of flak for being OP, but they’re actually pretty easy.
-They’re utter glass, and die very quickly to counterburst
-You can juke their regular attacks
-Their damaging attack has a gigantic windup with a target over your head followed by a gigantic bright glowing trail on the ground. You can CC them, kill them first, juke the hit, walk sideways and wait it out.
-Reflection shreds them.

The only way to die to a sniper is if you just sit there and take it. This is an enemy you can defeat by walking.

Lisa’s eyebrows go flying into her scalp.

I just read this part——snip——-

Go to Cursed Shore, walk up to any mob, and only use auto attacks. Don’t even move. You’ll win, no matter what gear you are wearing. Add on all the various abilities that come with the class, and the enemies aren’t even remotely close to a threat.——-

What part of Cursed Shore is this????

Almost every time I go to Cursed Shore I find myself rezzing folks….

I think BRA is exaggerating about that part. :P It depends largely on the type of opponent you’re facing, and where. Sure, most of the regular Orrian undead can be facetanked like that, but the trouble is that the Risen travel in packs. Plus, some of them (I’m looking at you, Veteran Risen Subjugators) deal a surprisingly large amount of damage.

Anyway, back to the original topic. I think it’s undeniable that HoT is harder than the base game. Alas, this is all part of the inevitable power creep that comes with expansions. You have gear stats that are better than the original ones in the Core game (sure, on paper maybe Crusader’s stats will hit less hard than Berzerker’s, but on certain professions the difference is minuscule, and you’ll be WAY more survivable), enemies that have a wider array of hard-hitting skills, and then you have the Elite Specs that are all undeniably better (some by just a margin, others by a HUGE amount) than their base counterparts.

I wouldn’t say it is so hard as it is different from the original open-world of Tyria.

I completed the whole story line with nothing but a lone (solo) zerker DH.
In many ways, it forces you to be more mindful of how you play:
positioning, utility skills and when to choose your battles.

play smart and know when you hold or fold and you should be fine.

HoT is clearly designed for one very small part of overall playerbase. The main problem is that it is not very clearly stated, it is sold as simple expansion and players who buy it assume it is very similar to base game. But while Anet may sell more expansions this way, they also get a lot of disappointed, angry customers who expected something completely different.

Its like watching cute romantic comedy, liking it a lot, buying part 2, waiting for more of the same and finding out it has been changed to slashing horror zombie movie.

Gotta take up the cudgels for Anet here: They gave us a new class, nine expansions on class gameplay (one for each), and four new zones that have nice new mechanics.
Admittedly, they are a more challenging than the old zones, especially the first time around there, but they are overall well made.

Some mobs need finetuning (smokescales…) and Tangled Depths might need to be adjusted to be a little less confusing, but overall it is working well as soon as you get the basic masteries (gliding, mushrooms), which you can get REALLY fast.

Fractals are a mess – nothing to add here.

Can’t make a statement about WvW though, as I don’t do that.

Maguma is hard, and I hate that I can’t solo the map. But, I have made a couple friends. I run into players that are struggling like me and they add me to their friends list and we run off together to try to get the hero and mastery points.

No map in Maguma is as hard to get around in as Dry Top. I hate that map for no other reason than it is a pain in the arze to get around in.

What I think is really cool in the HoT maps is how the put those exalted armor sets there for us to play with. It’s like finding a car parked on the side of the road with the keys in it and a tank of gas. Really cool.

Dragon Stand event is a grind, but I like it. I’m not the best at it and I could never command one of those events, but I am getting the idea and helping where I can and getting lots of exp for doing it. But, I buy the hero exp/magic find boosts in the gem shop. They’re worth their weight in gold.

Don’t give up on this map. It’s not meant to be played for hours and hours on end. Some players will play like that. But go in there and do a couple things you can, stumble around a bit, find other players, FIND ME, I’m always looking for friends to play with. I can show players around a little bit and I hope they can show me some things I haven’t seen yet.

I don’t find it hard. It can be a grind though, to get those masters. Especially if you really really want one…it seems to take forever! It could be just taking me awhile because I head towards a quest and get distracted by adventuring around the jungle…seeing where I can jump and get to.

Only thing I have to really complain about is the champions for heroic points. Sometimes it’s hard finding enough people for a point, especially on a dead map.