Guild Wars 2

The problem is that the Living Story is supposed to be telling a story. The point of the LS is not to provide a drop for precursors or loot, the point isn’t the extraneous, tacked-on titles and achievements, the point of the Living Story is to tell the kitten-ing story.

Nothing destroys the dramatic pacing of a decent story than an annoying slough through a tediously designed boss encounter. EVERY, single boss fight in the Living Story I have seen has been just that. I’ll grant the boss fights have provided variety, but you can figure out the different mechanics in a minute or so, then after that it’s a long, needlessly drawn out encounter that makes you sick of it long before it is over.

You can grit your teeth and grind through these encounters, but they are not anything close to what would be called entertainment. This content design makes getting to the end of the plot a wretched chore, and that destroys any enjoyment in seeing the story. Which is shame because the story does seem worthwhile, but by the time I finish these boss fights I just want to shut off my computer and walk away.

Now I understand that there are those who like sloughing through a long, drawn-out encounter because they consider it ‘challenging’. It’s a long tradition in MMOs and I don’t expect that to change. The baffling thing is that ArenaNet has shown they understood the importance not letting tedious ‘challenges’ get in the way of storytelling. They showed this with the excellent concept of Story and Explorer modes for the dungeons. People who wanted to see the story were allowed to experience that and those who have the time to spend on tedious grind can do that for rewards.

If anything needed this concept applied to it, the Living Story would be it. The writing of the story deserves better treatment than what the content designers are doing to it.

I’ve held off from really commenting in this thread (though I did snark a little earlier). Until now!

When I first did this boss, I had just been told my grandad had died a few hours previously, and in an attempt to numb that news, I decided to continue the Living Story into the wee small hours and just get it done. This decision was likely not the wisest in hindsight, and certainly coloured how the boss went for me.

Normally I can range from haphazard "Leeroooooy Jennnkins!!" to Really Rather Good! and on to Fingers-Refuse-to-Hit-the-Right-Keys-Because-Crappy-Genetics. That first attempt ended up with being heavy portions of the latter, with some actual tears and some stupid fails, but frankly, I don’t think the fight was entirely to blame. Then I went out of the country to attend my grandad’s funeral, and came back a couple of days ago, ready to give the LS season 2 finale another go.

So today I did went with my actual main character for a go against the dragon. This time it was personal (my main’s a Sylvari), and thanks to this thread, I didn’t die once. I had one downed state incident which was a bit tedious because of the rocks in the centre, but I managed to get out of it eventually with mesmer downed skill 2 now working without a target (at long last!!). I was even muttering out loud, "Come on, Rox, need the fire now!" and for the love of Cheeze Doodles, I’d swear she heard me were that not rather impossible. Braham more or less played ball this time, and the overall fight - though still a little annoying because of lighting and camera (but that may well be the PSE talking, and the lighting has certainly been problematic for me this season) - went so well I applauded myself at the end.

So, in a roundabout way, my grandad’s clan slogan ("Stand Fast Craigellachie!") came true and good, and thus I gave that dragon a good old smack on the nose. I now feel rather attached to this fight and am happy to have given it another go.

Now if I can make a request Anet for the Black Watch tartan to feature in the game and it succeeds, I know there’ll be a crazy Scottish chap laughing himself silly somewhere.

EDIT: OOPS!! Forgot to thank everyone in the thread for giving helpful tips and advice! Thank you!

The buffs not lasting long, the dragon often is hitting me with one kitten kills, i am knocked over and “bandage” takes too long, I keep getting disrupted and running around trying kill shadows isn’t helping. Soon as I am knocked over, the dragons attacks knock me over and then wow all the fires are out. But for the love of all things, the battle takes far too long, regen too low, damage too high and please make it far easier. So many battles taking far too long. It is not entertaining at all to keep getting killed with one hit or having dragon hit you and put out the fires. It is not fun, fair or reasonable. What you want me spend two hours one ONE mission?

Posting from ranger perspective. I did it after many tries but did not have the “yea that was fun and rewarding” feeling. it was more like “I am so freaking glad that is over.” So yes, it can be completed by a Ranger, solo but it was not fun and resulted in many deaths and close to rage quitting moments for me.

I just finished this last night. The following sums up my feelings “I ‘was’ excited about the expansion, but if the LS personal content is going to be like this maybe I should just pass on it.” That was after my 3rd frustrating death on this.

I kept dying on round 2 or 3 i think. I had already lit the fires at least once and damaged the dragon.

So first it took me a while to note that the shadows were putting my fires out (my issue not Arenanet’s). But I finally got that and adjusted for it. My true frustration came with the following, recurring sequence –
1. No divine fire circle (Rox was real slow with throwing that flame in).
2. I am running around waiting for her to throw that in and being destroyed by attacks – my screen seemed to always have telegraph circles everywhere. so dodging that was not an option. I actually tried just jumping up and down.
3. divine fire thrown in on….the explosive plant thing – what the? i have to use that to kill the shadow and light the wall but it is right on top of a bomb. i tried twice to get in there hoping there was timed delay. nope. boom then bam from dragon then more boom then death.
4. Braham was slow on the blue bubble. And it sometimes seemed like the palm smack was still interrupting me. When I finally finished this fight, I had lit some of the fires without that blue shield.

Basically, i was being knocked down and around so much, some of the time I could not even reach the divine fire- the only real tool I had to complete the fight.

Dodging is key but will not help when you are on your back, slammed against the thorn wall or being bounced around.

I think the types of attacks were creative and fitting for the fight. But why do they all have to happen at once.

Also, why oh why did I not have the torch in the first place. It still would have been challenging – Rox’s timing of throw-ins was off and made it frustrating. I just felt like the success for that fight was out of my control for the most part. The key things depended upon NPC behavior not mine.

DoctorOverlord.8620:

The problem is that the Living Story is supposed to be telling a story. The point of the LS is not to provide a drop for precursors or loot, the point isn’t the extraneous, tacked-on titles and achievements, the point of the Living Story is to tell the kitten-ing story.

Nothing destroys the dramatic pacing of a decent story than an annoying slough through a tediously designed boss encounter. EVERY, single boss fight in the Living Story I have seen has been just that. I’ll grant the boss fights have provided variety, but you can figure out the different mechanics in a minute or so, then after that it’s a long, needlessly drawn out encounter that makes you sick of it long before it is over.

You can grit your teeth and grind through these encounters, but they are not anything close to what would be called entertainment. This content design makes getting to the end of the plot a wretched chore, and that destroys any enjoyment in seeing the story. Which is shame because the story does seem worthwhile, but by the time I finish these boss fights I just want to shut off my computer and walk away.

Now I understand that there are those who like sloughing through a long, drawn-out encounter because they consider it ‘challenging’. It’s a long tradition in MMOs and I don’t expect that to change. The baffling thing is that ArenaNet has shown they understood the importance not letting tedious ‘challenges’ get in the way of storytelling. They showed this with the excellent concept of Story and Explorer modes for the dungeons. People who wanted to see the story were allowed to experience that and those who have the time to spend on tedious grind can do that for rewards.

If anything needed this concept applied to it, the Living Story would be it. The writing of the story deserves better treatment than what the content designers are doing to it.

So much this,
the first run through should be easier, whatever about the achieves or challenge mode.

Ranger here.
I enjoyed the fight – in same way I enjoyed earlier encounter of that dragon.
ok I have to agree that some stuff was irritating like f.e. “Rox hurry up with giving fires cause shady is turnind them of as fast as I light them” (5 minutes of constant 2/4 of ring :P) and brahams shield failing – after all I decided that screw where braham puts his shield I will go with rampage as one/sig of the wild for stability

a little lenghty but interesting and chalenging fight – haven’t tried achievement run although I’m quite sure its gonna hurt

Brightneon.8175:

The buffs not lasting long, the dragon often is hitting me with one kitten kills, i am knocked over and “bandage” takes too long, I keep getting disrupted and running around trying kill shadows isn’t helping. Soon as I am knocked over, the dragons attacks knock me over and then wow all the fires are out. But for the love of all things, the battle takes far too long, regen too low, damage too high and please make it far easier. So many battles taking far too long. It is not entertaining at all to keep getting killed with one hit or having dragon hit you and put out the fires. It is not fun, fair or reasonable. What you want me spend two hours one ONE mission?

two advices:
first – don’t go solo on instance on berserk gear – seriously its a bad idea :P
second – it was supposed to be hard – ANe cannot make everything so easy that most of players will solo a fight while sleeping only because some players find it “too hard plz nerf”

and it was not dragon who put that fire off :P

aaaaand…. 2h hours on one mission? phi back in gw1 there were missions that took much more time – thats how challenging they were

DoctorOverlord.8620:

The problem is that the Living Story is supposed to be telling a story. The point of the LS is not to provide a drop for precursors or loot, the point isn’t the extraneous, tacked-on titles and achievements, the point of the Living Story is to tell the kitten-ing story.

Nothing destroys the dramatic pacing of a decent story than an annoying slough through a tediously designed boss encounter. EVERY, single boss fight in the Living Story I have seen has been just that. I’ll grant the boss fights have provided variety, but you can figure out the different mechanics in a minute or so, then after that it’s a long, needlessly drawn out encounter that makes you sick of it long before it is over.

You can grit your teeth and grind through these encounters, but they are not anything close to what would be called entertainment. This content design makes getting to the end of the plot a wretched chore, and that destroys any enjoyment in seeing the story. Which is shame because the story does seem worthwhile, but by the time I finish these boss fights I just want to shut off my computer and walk away.

Now I understand that there are those who like sloughing through a long, drawn-out encounter because they consider it ‘challenging’. It’s a long tradition in MMOs and I don’t expect that to change. The baffling thing is that ArenaNet has shown they understood the importance not letting tedious ‘challenges’ get in the way of storytelling. They showed this with the excellent concept of Story and Explorer modes for the dungeons. People who wanted to see the story were allowed to experience that and those who have the time to spend on tedious grind can do that for rewards.

If anything needed this concept applied to it, the Living Story would be it. The writing of the story deserves better treatment than what the content designers are doing to it.

Exactly this I honestly don’t know how any person could QA this for enjoyment based on AANets own stated principles and have it pass.

You know I just ran through this boss last night, and while in theory it was interesting and varied, a couple things reared up and made me rage.

- During the tendril phase, it was likely to have a tendril knockback you into falling rocks or other damage rings . . . get downed, and then chewed up. I know I specifically had this happen trying to avoid the pattern of circles in the outer area by moving to the center. Once downed in those rings, you die due to having self-healing interrupted.

- During the fire part, it is entirely possible to be bounced around the bomb plants until you die.

- During the vulnerable phase, the head is out of the field of view and auto target will home in on the shadows once they spawned. Blessing? Ranger shortbow shaved half the life bar in one sequence.

Alot of people don’t even know what they want in the game. People don’t want content to be repitive, it should be challenging but it shouldn’t be hard, it should be fun but it shouldn’t be grindy, it should be new but it shouldn’t be finished too quickly. Well, good luck finding this game that has content that is fun but no grindy, hard or repitive and yet it will make you play for a long time.

nGumball.1283:

Alot of people don’t even know what they want in the game. People don’t want content to be repitive, it should be challenging but it shouldn’t be hard, it should be fun but it shouldn’t be grindy, it should be new but it shouldn’t be finished too quickly. Well, good luck finding this game that has content that is fun but no grindy, hard or repitive and yet it will make you play for a long time.

I hear Super Mario Brothers 3 still gets a lot of play for that.

But when it comes to fun, non-repetitive, difficult games? I’ve only got one in my closet.