Guild Wars 2

So I killed some destroyers on the new zone, and to my surprise, these destroyers who were induced with increased magic (death and plant), were actually weaker than the plants they took their power from. So.. 1+1 =/= 2 —> 1+1=0.8 apparantly
What worried me the most was that no veteran destroyer I ran into was even able to force me to use my heal skill. They just had a slightly larger healthpool meaning they survived the initial Hundred Blades, taking 2 or 3 more hits after that before they dropped dead.

What was with Taimi’s simulation? There I had a period of ‘oh kitten, oh kitten, oh kitten’
Then I went to the ember island, and.. to my surprise, these destroyers weren’t even half of what the simulation promised I would fight.

What gives anet? Dragon Minions are supposed to get stronger along the way, not weaker!

I really hope ANet hasn’t resorted to Core mob design, since those were horrible enough, leaving only berserker builds as most viable, while others lacked functionality and failed to deal damage if there were other players on full berserker.

Well, once I reach the place that is, then I know for sure.
Well, I now reached it and I’m abit disappointed on lack of boon usage once more, and mobs seem to be mostly condition heavy (condition manipulation isn’t out of the consideration atleast) but still the baseline core game destroyers with few rather uninspired upgrades…

Yeah… the destroyers are incredibly underwhelming this time around. My warrior just shredded them without thought or pause (The only time I was threatened was when 5-6 were attacking me when I came back from AFK. THey did manage to down me… but I rallied again from downstate damage)

That said – my guildmates seemed to struggle significantly more against them.

It’s open world and it should be easy. Do I have to remind you of all the whining in the forum of ‘too hard’ mobs in HOT? It’s fine like this. We will get harder enemies in instances (hopefully). Oh and the Jade Armors/Bows are on the right spot. Especially if you ignore the Ether Seals :-)

ProtoGunner.4953:

It’s open world and it should be easy. Do I have to remind you of all the whining in the forum of ‘too hard’ mobs in HOT? It’s fine like this. We will get harder enemies in instances (hopefully). Oh and the Jade Armors/Bows are on the right spot. Especially if you ignore the Ether Seals :-)

HoT Mobs are fine, they’re not too weak nor too strong. These destroyers are actually WEAKER than the average HoT mob. this is a decline, not a maintaining of force. The people who whined that HOT was too difficult should’ve adapted by now to that level

ProtoGunner.4953:

It’s open world and it should be easy. Do I have to remind you of all the whining in the forum of ‘too hard’ mobs in HOT? It’s fine like this. We will get harder enemies in instances (hopefully). Oh and the Jade Armors/Bows are on the right spot. Especially if you ignore the Ether Seals :-)

But the mobs should never be like what the core mobs are:

1. Low Armor.
2. High HP.
3. Generic skills with almost no effects.
4. Super easy to defeat with full berserker and “stand-spam” tactic.
5. Due to lack of effects, most game mechanics were mostly useless and players tend to not learn the game mechanics unless they play PvP.

PvE should reflect some of player capabilities, as to give different builds viability, thus increasing the replay value.

As stated before, HoT did a good job on making the combat more engaging, rather than making it “full berserker stand-spam”. Anyone could play Support and Control builds there without being useless during group events, and these builds alsop had impact on solo roaming, when Direct dmg DPS wasn’t able to kill mobs with “stand-spam” tactic.

FrostSpectre.4198:

ProtoGunner.4953:

It’s open world and it should be easy. Do I have to remind you of all the whining in the forum of ‘too hard’ mobs in HOT? It’s fine like this. We will get harder enemies in instances (hopefully). Oh and the Jade Armors/Bows are on the right spot. Especially if you ignore the Ether Seals :-)

But the mobs should never be like what the core mobs are:

1. Low Armor.
2. High HP.
3. Generic skills with almost no effects.
4. Super easy to defeat with full berserker and “stand-spam” tactic.
5. Due to lack of effects, most game mechanics were mostly useless and players tend to not learn the game mechanics unless they play PvP.

PvE should reflect some of player capabilities, as to give different builds viability, thus increasing the replay value.

As stated before, HoT did a good job on making the combat more engaging, rather than making it “full berserker stand-spam”. Anyone could play Support and Control builds there without being useless during group events, and these builds alsop had impact on solo roaming, when Direct dmg DPS wasn’t able to kill mobs with “stand-spam” tactic.

As it currently stands, these are copy-paste destroyers from the core game. Propably the ones sotuh of kessex hills. With a little green light reskin

I have a weird feeling that we are playing different games ya know

I mean it is not like that poisonous aura around upgraded harpies were not bothersome, especially if there are 3 or 4 of these stacked up on you…..

also burning
in 1-1 ratio maybe indeed they are not much threat but they tend to swarm you… and then they gets not so easy to kill….

[and those frikking spiderlings that they spawn en masse does not count for rally >.>]

Amaimon.7823:

As it currently stands, these are copy-paste destroyers from the core game. Propably the ones sotuh of kessex hills. With a little green light reskin

FrostSpectre.4198:

…but still the baseline core game destroyers with few rather uninspired upgrades…

That’s what saddens me.

Indeed, they seemed like mobs in a low level map. Have to add that Sloth was a bad surprise too. Four of us killed it in about 30 seconds, so fast that I didn’t see any mechanics at all. The karka boss was much tougher due to the retaliation it has.

Dream Shake.8741:

Indeed, they seemed like mobs in a low level map. Have to add that Sloth was a bad surprise too. Four of us killed it in about 30 seconds, so fast that I didn’t see any mechanics at all. The karka boss was much tougher due to the retaliation it has.

I had there 6 people and we nearly ran out of those slothlings or whatever it was…..

I don’t think the open-world destroyers are necessarily indicative of how powerful they’re all going to be. A lot of the random open world destroyers in Ember Bay seem to appear in areas where they infinitely spawn (especially the areas around the Skritt camp and the Asura research camp) and the player needs to get around said area. Like, I’ve literally killed destroyers in those areas only to watch them spawn again a few feet away (and those don’t give experience either). So they have to be weak enough to plow through or run past.

Most of Mordremoth’s early minions aren’t that threatening on their own either. You can shred a lone Modrem Wolf or Husk with little trouble. And they haven’t even used any of the abilities from the first story instance, namely leaving behind fire explosions when they die. I don’t think Anet put those in that instance for nothing, so I’m assuming we’re going to be getting stronger Destroyers at some point.

They’re still plenty threatening in groups as well, just like the early Modrem. The Dragon’s Vigil instance illustrates that well enough, since its just the same Destroyers yet its still tough to survive because they come in groups.

FrostSpectre.4198:

PvE should reflect some of player capabilities, as to give different builds viability, thus increasing the replay value.

As stated before, HoT did a good job on making the combat more engaging, rather than making it “full berserker stand-spam”. Anyone could play Support and Control builds there without being useless during group events, and these builds alsop had impact on solo roaming, when Direct dmg DPS wasn’t able to kill mobs with “stand-spam” tactic.

We did get a good dose of enemy-as-player in HoT, and for the most part, the ones that reflected it best I still find to be the most interesting and a benchmark for what enemy design should aim for. I have my arguments with some of them, but only because of specific issues in their design. Not quite relevant to explain it all here.

What I’m seeing from last night’s jaunt into Ember Bay is that HP pools seem lower, condition damage is prevalent, and some critters (Jade things, lava pool boss) still carry ANet’s traditional excessive-CC fetish. I’m waiting to hold judgment until I have more time in the zone, but the fist encounter proved easier than I expected, especially after the exploding destroyer swarms from the simulation.
And I’ll admit, those were cool. In the simulation, I had to rethink the battlefield, often guiding destroyers into kill spots so their lava fonts would overlap instead of smearing them all over the field. They weren’t hazardous on their own, but if you ignored strategy, they got much harder.
Is it wrong that I want to see Destroyer Pocket Raptor swarms now? It feels wrong, and yet it feels squee.

Probably weak because of their dna being rewritten by the magic But i like it, open world mobs shouldn’t be hard. Its fun to just smash.

Amaimon.7823:

ProtoGunner.4953:

It’s open world and it should be easy. Do I have to remind you of all the whining in the forum of ‘too hard’ mobs in HOT? It’s fine like this. We will get harder enemies in instances (hopefully). Oh and the Jade Armors/Bows are on the right spot. Especially if you ignore the Ether Seals :-)

HoT Mobs are fine, they’re not too weak nor too strong. These destroyers are actually WEAKER than the average HoT mob. this is a decline, not a maintaining of force. The people who whined that HOT was too difficult should’ve adapted by now to that level

More likely they left, that’s why we had that long content drought; they spent months hot fixing HoT so that they could get people to come back. Fortunately I found a good guild willing to walk me through the HoT zones and get me acclimated. Personally I think that 99% of the content that’s been released for open world requires others to be around to handle it, for example the Blood Crazed loony tunes on the ground are almost impossible to solo because they come in packs. However most of Ember Bay’s mobs are a joke except for that Mursat fortress which I’ll never approach again unless I’m in a Zerg.

I’m hoping that this is more of an introduction to mechanics, and as we move north in the island chain things get harder, ramping up to HoT levels further on. Despite the relative ease there actually is a good spread of enemy offense types to counter with different utilities. Destroyers apply conditions, constructs have knockbacks, and karka (and some destroyers and constructs) have projectiles. Each are on different parts of the island so it feels more useful than usual to swap traits/utilities based on the area. I like the way it’s going, but want a bit more.

Amaimon.7823:

So I killed some destroyers on the new zone, and to my surprise, these destroyers who were induced with increased magic (death and plant), were actually weaker than the plants they took their power from. So.. 1+1 =/= 2 —> 1+1=0.8 apparantly
What worried me the most was that no veteran destroyer I ran into was even able to force me to use my heal skill. They just had a slightly larger healthpool meaning they survived the initial Hundred Blades, taking 2 or 3 more hits after that before they dropped dead.

What was with Taimi’s simulation? There I had a period of ‘oh kitten, oh kitten, oh kitten’
Then I went to the ember island, and.. to my surprise, these destroyers weren’t even half of what the simulation promised I would fight.

What gives anet? Dragon Minions are supposed to get stronger along the way, not weaker!

The map isn’t about fighting they stated it in the behind the scene it’s about exploring and enjoying the details in the area.

I imagine that this is exactly what it is – an introduction (or tease) of what to expect. Remember LS S2 Episode 1, with the ‘overgrown’ sylvan hounds and husks? they were basically the same enemy but a bit tougher, with the odd vine here and there. I think this is a similar phase for the destroyers. (Remember everyone, we’re only on the second episode thus far. We still have a few more to go.)

Veka.8710:

The map isn’t about fighting they stated it in the behind the scene it’s about exploring and enjoying the details in the area.

Sadly I have to disagree, the combat mechanics of the game are the primary things that make the game playable, map exploration comes after that.

Carlin Sanders.3587:

I imagine that this is exactly what it is – an introduction (or tease) of what to expect. Remember LS S2 Episode 1, with the ‘overgrown’ sylvan hounds and husks? they were basically the same enemy but a bit tougher, with the odd vine here and there. I think this is a similar phase for the destroyers. (Remember everyone, we’re only on the second episode thus far. We still have a few more to go.)

Ye, the part where we went to fight the ghosts in the Fort Salma was a ultimate disappointment, the ghosts were given extreme boost on HP, to make up their broken skills that did almost nothing to player if not given time to activate.

I noticed how the Destroyers have a few powerful attacks.. that they can cast only once in their short lives if they’re lucky.
The harpies for example put all their value in the ‘fly high, swoop and launch fire orbs’ which can be EASILY dodged due to the long animation, resulting in a complete negation of ALL damage. Then it just hangs around flapping its wings until it can do that again, by which time you have full recovered endurance. Meaning that if you know how to dodge, you can even get through a fight without taking any damage AT ALL

King Cephalopod.7942:

I’m hoping that this is more of an introduction to mechanics, and as we move north in the island chain things get harder, ramping up to HoT levels further on. Despite the relative ease there actually is a good spread of enemy offense types to counter with different utilities. Destroyers apply conditions, constructs have knockbacks, and karka (and some destroyers and constructs) have projectiles. Each are on different parts of the island so it feels more useful than usual to swap traits/utilities based on the area. I like the way it’s going, but want a bit more.

I can appreciate this perspective. Rather than wishing for some ultimate, uber-imbued mobs, having sections of the zone where some skills are more useful than others would still encourage build-tweaking as preparation. Note: one of those preparations is bringing your best Stability skill to the NW portion of Ember Bay.

Rauderi.8706:

I can appreciate this perspective. Rather than wishing for some ultimate, uber-imbued mobs, having sections of the zone where some skills are more useful than others would still encourage build-tweaking as preparation. Note: one of those preparations is bringing your best Stability skill to the NW portion of Ember Bay.

I kinda want them to make the destroyers teach people what it’s like to have 10+ bleed/burning/poison stacks. Hoooo boy, smells like wvw.

King Cephalopod.7942:

Rauderi.8706:

I can appreciate this perspective. Rather than wishing for some ultimate, uber-imbued mobs, having sections of the zone where some skills are more useful than others would still encourage build-tweaking as preparation. Note: one of those preparations is bringing your best Stability skill to the NW portion of Ember Bay.

I kinda want them to make the destroyers teach people what it’s like to have 10+ bleed/burning/poison stacks. Hoooo boy, smells like wvw.

I’m heavy on condi clear, but the story instances have insured that I’m never without a red box in my status bar. :P

Random side note, I found a lava cascade on the island and tried to go through it, in case there was some secret behind it. No secret, just 20 stacks of burning. o_O