Guild Wars 2

If you did that badly on this fight then it’s a skill issue. The area-wide attack tell intensifies and brightens in color until it hits you, watch for it to get brighter and then dodge. The other tells were clearly marked out. Each of the various monsters are weaker or tougher against certain attacks and we’ve been fighting them long enough to know them by now.

Many weapons have movement skills and/or evades or even blocks built into their abilities. Learn to use them. In many cases you didn’t need to dodge or evade, just move out of the circles.

Instead of blindly charging back in with the exact same traits and weapons after you die, take a moment to think about what will get you through the fight. Getting knocked down? Stability. Getting poisoned? Condition removal. Heal can’t keep up? Try a different heal skill. Did you use food and a consumable utility item? Some players even have multiple sets of armor with different stats for different situations.

Long story short, when you’re clearly in the minority about the difficulty of the content, it’s YOU. Some people can’t say that without also trying to make you feel bad about it, and that’s unfortunate. There’s no reason to feel bad. Everyone is at a certain point in their skills. Everyone gets better with practice. You start to see the monsters’ “tells” and you know the timing so your dodge/block works. You create a build (or copy one from someone else) that does more damage or takes less damage.

Ain’t nothing practice and some effort won’t fix.

I too am one of those less experienced players that has repeatedly found myself completely bereft of clothes and self esteem ! I can only empathise with those out there like me and hope that the tips from the uber lords of GW2 can assist !

Labjax.2465:

Something clicked for me when you mentioned FPS. That’s what this GW2 combat is most like (that is, these boss fights – I’m not confident in saying that all GW2 combat is FPS-like). MMOs have traditionally been about strategic, turn-based combat (albeit at a faster pace than tabletop games) but the pace of these fights and the breadth of their mechanics makes the challenge less about intellect and more about reflexes.

Which is fine, depending on your preferences, but I can easily see how the traditional MMO crowd (particularly the ones who just “play for fun”) would get incredibly frustrated.

The FPSishness of this game is what I really like. I can’t even imagine a “proper” game without jumping or dodging. And I still miss my wall-dodges a lot

My friend and I always do instances together. We also did the World Summit.

Both our main characters are staff elementalists. We did all the DR Pt. 2 achievements.
He has full berserker’s armor (don’t know what stats he has on his accessories or backpack) and I have 3 pieces of Berserkers and 3 pieces of Assassin’s armour. So technically we’re also very squishy. :P Also our weapons are berserker’s. And we did the Challenge Mode without dying even once. We got downed a couple of times, but that’s it. The only trouble I had was the Can’t Knock Me Down achievements where I just couldn’t always dodge (let alone jump) at the right time due to my having 9-11 FPS at most during the fight (even dodging Subject Alpha’s countless circles was easier to me). But, there’s a way around it by using blocking skills (I used Obsidian Flesh, Mist Form and Arcane Shield for that sole achievement, which means switching to Scepter/Dagger :P).

Also, what I’m saying isn’t that it’s so easy everyone should solo it with berserker’s gear. far from that, especially since skills differ from player to player, but not only that, the issue might also be computer lag, body reaction time and so on. What I’m saying is, that it should at least be more or less easily doable with two people. So you don’t have to search for a whole group even if you think you’re not skillful enough (like me).

So if anyone wants to give up because they just can’t manage to defeat the Dragon, don’t. Just try asking a friend to help you first, or try searching for one player first who would be willing enough to assist you. Don’t just give up. ^^

I literally fail to understand how anyone could find this boss even remotely difficult. Let alone dying so many times that you run around naked.

BIG RED SHAPE UNDER YOU, telegraphed 2-3 seconds in advance. Don’t stand in it. Win.

Heck, the dragon barely has any hp either.

Unless you play with 2000ms and 5fps, I honestly don’t know how anyone could fail. If this makes me an “elitist” then so be it.
This boss fight is on the same difficulty level as crossing the street in real life. How are you people still alive?

Evermore.5649:

I literally fail to understand how anyone could find this boss even remotely difficult. Let alone dying so many times that you run around naked.

BIG RED SHAPE UNDER YOU, telegraphed 2-3 seconds in advance. Don’t stand in it. Win.

Heck, the dragon barely has any hp either.

Unless you play with 2000ms and 5fps, I honestly don’t know how anyone could fail. If this makes me an “elitist” then so be it.
This boss fight is on the same difficulty level as crossing the street in real life. How are you people still alive?

I know, right! It’s like playing guitar – why is it so hard for some people to play the guitar solo in ‘Highway Star’ by Deep Purple? Or do the Travis picking/banjo roll stuff in ‘Never Going Back Again’ by Fleetwood Mac? It’s just moving your fingers around. Nothing to it! Easy as falling off a log. Come on, people! Step it up already.

And writing – I hear people all the time saying, “Oh, I wish I could write!” And I say to them, I say, "Well, gee, why don’t ya grab a pencil and some paper and have at it! " It’s not hard. Anybody can write! You just put words on a piece of paper! Voila! “It was the best of times, it was a dark and stormy night of the lepus!” See? I just wrote something. That’s all there is to it. Now where’s my big fat paycheck and 7-season multi-million dollar deal with HBO?

And that acting business – hah! “Oh, I would love to be an actor! But I just can’t act!” Bah! You’re just pretending to be somebody else. That’s something little kids and people at job interviews do all the time. Nothing to it. Anybody who says they can’t act – is acting! Because it’s that easy!

And ‘pro’ sports wannabes – don’t get me started. “Oh, if only I was good at basketball, baseball, football, soccer, golf, water polo, whatever…” Get real. There’s nothing to be ‘good’ at. It’s just people running around knocking balls of various shapes and sizes back and forth. Again, it’s something little kids do – little kids! – for fun!

Seriously! How do some people even manage to breathe? If I didn’t know better I’d think maybe some people are just not as good at some things as others, and for some reason some of those who are good at some things, like, oh, I don’t know, video games, like to crow about how good they are on video game forums in some inexplicable attempt at making others feel bad about themselves for not being as good.

Or something. Now excuse me while I go put my left foot in, take my left foot out, put my left foot in and shake it all about.

Tachenon.5270:

Evermore.5649:

I literally fail to understand how anyone could find this boss even remotely difficult. Let alone dying so many times that you run around naked.

BIG RED SHAPE UNDER YOU, telegraphed 2-3 seconds in advance. Don’t stand in it. Win.

Heck, the dragon barely has any hp either.

Unless you play with 2000ms and 5fps, I honestly don’t know how anyone could fail. If this makes me an “elitist” then so be it.
This boss fight is on the same difficulty level as crossing the street in real life. How are you people still alive?

I know, right! It’s like playing guitar – why is it so hard for some people to play the guitar solo in ‘Highway Star’ by Deep Purple? Or do the Travis picking/banjo roll stuff in ‘Never Going Back Again’ by Fleetwood Mac? It’s just moving your fingers around. Nothing to it! Easy as falling off a log. Come on, people! Step it up already.

And writing – I hear people all the time saying, “Oh, I wish I could write!” And I say to them, I say, "Well, gee, why don’t ya grab a pencil and some paper and have at it! " It’s not hard. Anybody can write! You just put words on a piece of paper! Voila! “It was the best of times, it was a dark and stormy night of the lepus!” See? I just wrote something. That’s all there is to it. Now where’s my big fat paycheck and 7-season multi-million dollar deal with HBO?

And that acting business – hah! “Oh, I would love to be an actor! But I just can’t act!” Bah! You’re just pretending to be somebody else. That’s something little kids and people at job interviews do all the time. Nothing to it. Anybody who says they can’t act – is acting! Because it’s that easy!

And ‘pro’ sports wannabes – don’t get me started. “Oh, if only I was good at basketball, baseball, football, soccer, golf, water polo, whatever…” Get real. There’s nothing to be ‘good’ at. It’s just people running around knocking balls of various shapes and sizes back and forth. Again, it’s something little kids do – little kids! – for fun!

Seriously! How do some people even manage to breathe? If I didn’t know better I’d think maybe some people are just not as good at some things as others, and for some reason some of those who are good at some things, like, oh, I don’t know, video games, like to crow about how good they are on video game forums in some inexplicable attempt at making others feel bad about themselves for not being as good.

Or something. Now excuse me while I go put my left foot in, take my left foot out, put my left foot in and shake it all about.

but if i know that i am not good basketball player I dont go to world championship and I dont cry over it on forums that they should lower hoops to make it easier for me . I just realise that I can practice more to win or just understand it that it is not for me . Some people here think that if they bought game it means that they deserve everything what is inside , no it is not . Switch sport or dont expect reaching every reward , this thing is called life , sometimes it is brutal sorry

RashanDale.3609:

the only thing you really have to dodge is the glowing-ground-stomp and when youre targetted for that plant-cocoon-prison. everything else you can avoid just by running.

You do not have to dodge the glowing-ground , just jump.
And another dodge saved. ^^

Greetings.

Tachenon.5270:

Evermore.5649:

I literally fail to understand how anyone could find this boss even remotely difficult. Let alone dying so many times that you run around naked.

BIG RED SHAPE UNDER YOU, telegraphed 2-3 seconds in advance. Don’t stand in it. Win.

Heck, the dragon barely has any hp either.

Unless you play with 2000ms and 5fps, I honestly don’t know how anyone could fail. If this makes me an “elitist” then so be it.
This boss fight is on the same difficulty level as crossing the street in real life. How are you people still alive?

I know, right! It’s like playing guitar – why is it so hard for some people to play the guitar solo in ‘Highway Star’ by Deep Purple? Or do the Travis picking/banjo roll stuff in ‘Never Going Back Again’ by Fleetwood Mac? It’s just moving your fingers around. Nothing to it! Easy as falling off a log. Come on, people! Step it up already.

And writing – I hear people all the time saying, “Oh, I wish I could write!” And I say to them, I say, "Well, gee, why don’t ya grab a pencil and some paper and have at it! " It’s not hard. Anybody can write! You just put words on a piece of paper! Voila! “It was the best of times, it was a dark and stormy night of the lepus!” See? I just wrote something. That’s all there is to it. Now where’s my big fat paycheck and 7-season multi-million dollar deal with HBO?

And that acting business – hah! “Oh, I would love to be an actor! But I just can’t act!” Bah! You’re just pretending to be somebody else. That’s something little kids and people at job interviews do all the time. Nothing to it. Anybody who says they can’t act – is acting! Because it’s that easy!

And ‘pro’ sports wannabes – don’t get me started. “Oh, if only I was good at basketball, baseball, football, soccer, golf, water polo, whatever…” Get real. There’s nothing to be ‘good’ at. It’s just people running around knocking balls of various shapes and sizes back and forth. Again, it’s something little kids do – little kids! – for fun!

Seriously! How do some people even manage to breathe? If I didn’t know better I’d think maybe some people are just not as good at some things as others, and for some reason some of those who are good at some things, like, oh, I don’t know, video games, like to crow about how good they are on video game forums in some inexplicable attempt at making others feel bad about themselves for not being as good.

Or something. Now excuse me while I go put my left foot in, take my left foot out, put my left foot in and shake it all about.

Well, you have completely missed the point and decided to wrap it in a sarcastic rant-trip, but that’s ok, it was a nice read.

Anyway, just to address your… errr… critique:

To be able to play a guitar to that high standard requires years of learning and an excellent muscle memory, plus a million genetic traits that simply make some people better at playing musical instruments. Talent, I think it’s called.

Creative writing, acting and being a professional sport player, again, require a unique mix of talent and years of training. No wonder if you want to do any of your four example fields at a ‘professional’ level, you have to devote your whole life to it.
You couldn’t have picked worse examples.

The general combat play system of Guild Wars 2 on the other hand is incredibly BINARY. It operates on a basic “IF-THEN” level, from the first moment of the game up till now. It’s a lot less complex than many other MMOs out there, and the essence of the game can be mastered in a matter of hours.

The entire game is about dodging / moving out of red circles. The. Whole. Game.
That, and strafing.

Now, since we’re talking about the Living Story, which is only available to lvl80 characters, one would assume that the players got to this point somehow. They managed to get to lvl80 AND managed to get this far in the LS.

So I ask again: what EXACTLY was the difficult part in the dragon boss fight? What caused some people to die so many times all their gear broke?
This boss has absolutely no added difficulty, it operates with the exact same gameplay rules as literally EVERYTHING ELSE up to this point.

I see some people in this thread complain about having to dodge too much, so classes with access to Vigor have it much easier.
I just want to point out that you don’t even need to dodge at all during the whole boss fight, unless you get unlucky once or twice and/or position yourself badly.
So maybe it’s due to people not understanding the fight in general? Regardless, it’s not the fight itself that’s difficult.

Evermore.5649:

I literally fail to understand how anyone could find this boss even remotely difficult. Let alone dying so many times that you run around naked.

BIG RED SHAPE UNDER YOU, telegraphed 2-3 seconds in advance. Don’t stand in it. Win.

Heck, the dragon barely has any hp either.

Unless you play with 2000ms and 5fps, I honestly don’t know how anyone could fail. If this makes me an “elitist” then so be it.
This boss fight is on the same difficulty level as crossing the street in real life. How are you people still alive?

Here’s my problem with it. I play Ele, and I’m not a dungeon crawler. I don’t have ascended armour (just trinkets from laurels), and frankly, I’m way off them. I just don’t get time to play much, and mostly what I’m doing at the moment is trying to play the story elements.

Do I expect to complete challenge mode at my level? Not really. That game mode? Pretty clearly not for me. Do I expect to cakewalk every boss in the PS? Again, nope. I get that it’s meant to be harder than roaming around the world.

My problem with the fight isn’t that I died, or that I got stuff wrong. It’s not even that I ended up running out in the buff. It’s the sheer frustration and boredom of a fight in which I can’t oneshot enemies, so spend a fair old time taking the tentacles down while dodging the boss attacks, only to get one-shotted myself and know that there’s no hope of reviving myself. So that’s more dead time while my downed bar ticks away, and then I’m gated on how much damage I can deal to the boss before it all starts again.

Is it super duper hard? Well, no. It’s a pattern which I need to get into the groove of. Is it fun? Also no. Because the challenge isn’t in me overcoming the mechanics. It’s in me pounding away at it six times over to stretch it out into something suitably lasting for a final fight. I would far rather the section where you have to rescue the dignitaries lasted longer, or that you had to attack the wings and disable it, or that heck, at least the enemies you faced in each cooldown period weren’t the same three vines, over and over. I’m dreading finishing it not because it’s hard, but because it’s boring. It drags out well past its welcome for “story mode”.

VOLTCIEAGE.3029:

but if i know that i am not good basketball player I dont go to world championship and I dont cry over it on forums that they should lower hoops to make it easier for me . I just realise that I can practice more to win or just understand it that it is not for me . Some people here think that if they bought game it means that they deserve everything what is inside , no it is not . Switch sport or dont expect reaching every reward , this thing is called life , sometimes it is brutal sorry

Analogy fails. It’s actually more like going to a super-mega-large gym built to appeal to all levels of skill and requesting that their hoops and courts are built accordingly.

I mean, if you think the living story quests are an analogy for the world championship, then LOL. They are more like a pick-up game or something. And quite frankly, if it was reversed and I was playing basketball instead of a video game, I’d probably be the guy with his head bent down in the corner in shame because I can’t play for kitten.

But you don’t want people to feel that way in a video game because people who feel that way don’t come back. That’s why you try not to put them in situations where they feel like a moron for not succeeding easily; which is not to say that you hand them victory, but you have to inspire them to desire to keep trying until they succeed and then make them feel like they’re an NBA all-star for pulling it off.

Tedious fights that look like the shell of a raid encounter gone wrong are not the way to go about it.

How to play Gw2:

If you’re getting oneshotted, would you mind posting your build? I’ve seen an elementalist do just fine soloing the boss.

I’m honestly surprised that so many people claim the fight with the Shadow of the Dragon is too difficult. I did it at my first try, getting downed only once (by mordrem wolf) on my sylvari thief. What’s more, I think that this fight is a bit too easy, only a bit but still. The amount of damage you deal to the dragon is too big imo and I’m not running full zerker build.

And to clarify, I am absolutely not a pro player, I think of myself as a casual and I didn’t manage to beat Liadri if someone was interested. Also here is my build if you wonder.

Anyway, I find this fight very well designed, I had a lot of fun doing this instance, especially because I confronted the Shadow of the Dragon almost two years ago after creating my first and main character – sylvari thief. Furthermore as a sylvari I’m all hyped for my Wyld Hunt turning out not only to be defeating Zhaitan but in fact defeating Mordremoth or even all of the Elder Dragons, which would mean it's far from over.
Good job Anet team!

let’s remove bosses and replace them with normal easy minions instead, no point in having bosses if you just want to autoattack them a few times to death without dodging

I think people are misunderstanding what brought us to this point.

The problem isn’t the fight, it’s that guild wars 2 doesn’t properly teach players how to play. If you’ve never entered a dungeon and even if you have most current tactics involve stacking or cheesing your way through every fight. Relying on more knowledgable players to simply carry you through. And when these players are so used to this level of easy success. When they come into a party that doesn’t know how to do the instance. Ragequitting generally ensues, because why learn when you can just reroll for a dungeon team that requires less effort from you?

Theres no personal responability to not suck in guild wars 2. World events? Fall back on the countless players present to prevent you from ever suffering a loss and forcing you to rethink your stratagy, playstyle and ability. And when you do lose you’ve got the excuse that you simply didn’t have enough players.

Guild Wars 2 pve doesn’t foster an environment that encourages learning to play.

So what happens when a fight is added that requires only the basics of “stay out of the aoe” but is themed so there are no training wheels or crutches during the fight to keep you safe from failure?
See all the negative posts above.

And these players who are so used to success without the risk of failure, their immediate response to something challenging is to rush to the forums and complain that the difficulty was too high or that the fight was too unfair. Because that’s the environment they’ve grown to expect in guild wars 2.

My advise to the players who broke all their armor several times?

Stop wearing the armor, fight until you can beat the boss without it… Then put the armor back on.

Let’s say some minority people who think this is easy boss must be Guardian Elementalist or any class that remove conditions easily (I’m playing Mesmer and I have Disenchanter but even successfully dodge “homing attack”, that phantasmal will not and it will be 1 hit shot for illusions.) Probably that Guardian and Elementalist (or maybe Engineer even thief) can have better plan to dodge and cleanse conditions without having to rely on utility. And the worst is that, after Pale tree being attacked, you have a few seconds to change traits and adjusting trait while “homing attack” is incoming, your chance to change trait to what I want will be so low (due to being attacked.)

Even Null field can solve easily but those tendrills spread too many conditions. You can dodge, yes. But you can’t dodge more than 2. (And did anyone using Mimic on those tendrill attack? It seems to be blockable ranged attack and I hope it works.)

Forgot to say that this is my opinion. I’m not pro like a pro engineer that always use heal turret and explode for healing field and stuff.

learn to play your class. blink, use illusions/phantasms, take advantage of the tendril AI and use stealth

so you might die once at the freaking end boss, so what, that’s when you retrait and learn what u did wrong instead of complaining on forums

sure, I downed twice or thrice, but I don’t consider the boss to be too hard, I think it was just right. People are constantly begging for harder content, and once they get something that makes them put in effort, they complain.. go play hello kitty wonder island adventures if this is too hard for you

I understand now why Anet always gives us easy contents. Because when it becomes a bit harder, people complain… =.=
LS are end-content, optionnal, designed to be harder, it was mentioned at the very beginning of the season 2. And while I find it quite hard-but-not-so-challenging (I was really expecting something like Liadri’s level), I still enjoy it.

Now, if you really can’t finish this boss fight (or find it too boring, or whatever), and still wanna get the reward anyway. Well, you still can ask for help, and group together. I personaly helped some of my guildmates who had a hard time to defeat the boss.
And if you don’t want to learn the mechanics to do it alone, or dont wanna group with players… Just don’t do the content then. The next chapters will still be available to you, so you’re not missing any story content (if this is the only thing you’re interested at).

Here, guys, listen to this while fighting one of these S2 bosses. Doesn’t matter which one.

Vikkela.7261:

learn to play your class. blink, use illusions/phantasms, take advantage of the tendril AI and use stealth

so you might die once at the freaking end boss, so what, that’s when you retrait and learn what u did wrong instead of complaining on forums

Can you show your stats and traits? And how can you re-trait when defeated and how can you do it after revive? And like I said I did not complain I just tell my opinion.
Forgot to mention about Gw2’s network laggy issue too.
Ah nevermind. Forgot to mention that that kind of a guy just use zerker full set and claim themselves to be pro. What a lame.

full berserker set is only one of the sets i carry with me all the time and im far from being pro, dont try to put words in my mouth

i had issues with the weird lagg in that room myself and i agree, that can really destroy your attempt to survive there

I personally enjoyed the boss instances for their mechanics and did not find them too hard.

Now for the “hard/ not hard” topic, if you compare the design of LS2 to GW1, the missions in GW1 were super easy to finish but required a bit more attention to get the best rating and i think they were overall better polished/balanced.

Now for people complaining that its LS2 is hard, i’m just gonna say this, it’s lined up to have happened after Zythan encounter and expects you to have developped a certain understanding of your profession & mechanics of the game by that point. It is only natural to, as you progress further into any game, that content becomes incrementally more challenging.
You are still playing a game and no game gives you the story without you requiring to progress through it (for those that use the lore argument)
Wanna know how “infamous” ends? Youtube the ending. Wanna know the gw2 lore without playing, read it up.
This game (with anet’s excessive focus on [mediocre] story with a big lack in gameplay) feels a lot like a single-player rpg with a pvp mode if you ever want to play it. And for a single-player rpg, it is an easy game specially that you can bring someone to help you into that “single player instance”.

I really enjoyed the visual impact of the boss, it was great to see this dragon back as it was one of my favourites from the start of the game and it felt like an utterly wasted dragon to just be in the initial introduction for character creation… So I am glad it is back.

The fight itself, I died a couple times, it wasn’t that I “didn’t know to dodge”, it is just unfortunate circumstances where I would be dodging one AOE and then 3 more would popup in the direction I was running and they hit me immediately, a series of events that would practically 1 shot me (The slimes were doing 5k a pop, so 3-4 of them I’d be dead). Then if you get too close to the vines they knock back and that stalls you for a couple seconds, meaning if AOE is shot at you when that happens, it is likely you will die.

I eventually noticed the pattern and it became easier, the problem I had is it was frustratingly, irritatingly repetitive. I got the head dragon to 50% when he repeated the cycle, then it felt like it was 30%…20%..10% 5%…2% when it kept repeating the cycle, by 5% I was annoyed to have to do all the same crap again and when he went back at 2% and I had to kill the 3 vines AGAIN!, I was not enjoying the fight one bit. It was tedious by then.

Overall, not a bad fight. I didn’t like that it was solo (no AI) (meant when I went down, I pretty much gave up n let myself die), though if friends was with me that would of solved that. I didn’t like the repetitive nature.

A quite fun, and during the first attempt even somewhat challenging fight. Rather repetitive, as I’d expect some more different phases towards the end, but still I had my fun and had the proper ‘final boss’ feeling.

This fight was pretty tricky when I first attempted it (died once, downed a bunch of times but managed to rally), but on my subsequent playthroughs, now that I knew what to expect it went a lot more smoothly.

The key thing seems to be whether or not you have a ranged weapon. Seriously, it’s SO much easier ranged than it is melee. You can position yourself in one of the more isolated corners of the chamber, and then slowly pick off the Tendrils and the Mordrem mobs one by one. Hustle over to the Dragon, burn him down to the next phase, repeat.

<- played tetris while doing World Summit Boss.

Nah, okay … While listen to the npc talk over and over again :P (I’m always dodging to early).

Less NPC talking and less reading would make it more bearable! It’s so boring.

I’m going to make a post that’s neither “it was way too hard.” nor “learnt o play newbs,” and just point out that while the fight was quite good, it could have been tightened up a bit.

I’m not sure if the mechanics of the fight had a time limited “burn phase” or whether it was designed so that the “burn phase” lasted only to a certain HP limit and then ended, but I had to go through about 5-6 total burn phases over the course of the fight. This, I feel, is too much, as by that point you know the mechanics and it’s just repetition and tedium. The Zelda games get it right, you want exactly three burn phases to a good boss fight, no less, because you want to test the player’s ability to learn the tactics, but no more, because if they can manage three then they’ve probably got it and beyond that you’re just wasting time. So just make it so that each phase ends when they get to 34% less HP than they had the last round.

This fight was just right IMO. I’m a thief, I managed to solo this fight with a venom share build (forgot to change it out before I entered). I did it with 0 deaths, but several parts became difficult due to me having to bide my time for my heal to come back off cooldown. The second the head was targettable though, everything became too easy.

Alice.8694:

I think people are misunderstanding what brought us to this point.

The problem isn’t the fight, it’s that guild wars 2 doesn’t properly teach players how to play. If you’ve never entered a dungeon and even if you have most current tactics involve stacking or cheesing your way through every fight. Relying on more knowledgable players to simply carry you through. And when these players are so used to this level of easy success. When they come into a party that doesn’t know how to do the instance. Ragequitting generally ensues, because why learn when you can just reroll for a dungeon team that requires less effort from you?

Theres no personal responability to not suck in guild wars 2. World events? Fall back on the countless players present to prevent you from ever suffering a loss and forcing you to rethink your stratagy, playstyle and ability. And when you do lose you’ve got the excuse that you simply didn’t have enough players.

Guild Wars 2 pve doesn’t foster an environment that encourages learning to play.

So what happens when a fight is added that requires only the basics of “stay out of the aoe” but is themed so there are no training wheels or crutches during the fight to keep you safe from failure?
See all the negative posts above.

And these players who are so used to success without the risk of failure, their immediate response to something challenging is to rush to the forums and complain that the difficulty was too high or that the fight was too unfair. Because that’s the environment they’ve grown to expect in guild wars 2.

My advise to the players who broke all their armor several times?

Stop wearing the armor, fight until you can beat the boss without it… Then put the armor back on.

agree….but i think the bosses in LS2 (and some of the end events of LS1) are Anet’s way to try and rectify the problem. more mobs like the mordrem would also help.

hearing people getting “one-shot”, but also having problem killing the vines quick enough, tells me they have a bad build. fixing that is the first step.

Relshdan.6854:

agree….but i think the bosses in LS2 (and some of the end events of LS1) are Anet’s way to try and rectify the problem. more mobs like the mordrem would also help.

Ultimately I feel this is more the byproduct of salvaging the dungeon team for the living story. Than dilberate intent to move away from the casual slop permeating throughout the game.

As a Engineer, I find the fight easier with Turrets aiding you.

It is mostly due to the multiple enemies you have to fight while soloing the boss.

The turrets can help chip down the HP of those adds when you need time to move away from AoE or attack the boss while it is down.

It wasn’t too difficult and only died a few times. I was playing with my thief which tends to be pretty squishy. All my extra dodges were nice though!

OK here is my take.

I am one of the people that agree these boss fights are getting ridiculous and NOT FUN.

Now to those that completed it on the first try… YAY! go you. congrats. GG good job.

For those that, read this and are thinking I need to L2P. Go pet a kitten. I’ve been here since beta, I know how to play, I know how to dodge, and I can solo a fair amount of the champs with most of my chars. Granted it’s a lot of kiting, and running if I pick up an add. but I can do it.

Now some people would probably say well I’m not speced right, or not geared right. This is a personal story not a dungeon, not PvP, and NOT FotM. However I’ve speced, or armored as long as I have speced and wearing LVL gear should not matter for a personal story. Plain and simple. No more discussion.

Now if we are talking about the challenge nodes, sure gear and spec can be taken into account, after all it is CHALLENGE MODE, you’ve completed it and should have learned how.

But this thread IS NOT talking about challenge mode, it’s talking about Story mode.

Now I’m not saying these should not be difficult, but anything that causes someone to die more then 5 times in a personal story is a bit off for difficulty. I died 27 times yep I finished it naked. I didn’t rage quit, after the 3 death, because I dodge into what turned into the dragons AOE while I was in mid-air on my second dodge. I didn’t rage quit because the RNG hit me with 10 circles after being rooted by the leacher. Nor did I rage quit after being nocked off the platform to my death.

From what I saw this was intended to be a group fight, which would be fine if I was in a group. I wasn’t. I rarely group because, I have sporadic play schedule, play for limited times, and can be called away at anytime.

Personal Story events should always be designed for the solo player, yes even us “Bad” players, and scaled up for a group.

Heck I would even support, ANET adopting something that several of the Korean MMOs have which is a difficulty setting so those players that want it, can ramp up the instanced things like dungeons, and the like.

This way all these people that claim these instance events are way to easy, can have their INSANE mode, or whatever to make them happy, while leaving the general content alone for the casual, slow or “Bad” players.

And please for the Love of kittens everywhere, forget the idea that the wash rinse repeat thing is fun. It isn’t. Repeating get boss down %health, now get beat on by minions and dodge boss attacks, while waiting for boss to reset to the point where you can wail on it, it losing it’s appeal. 1 reset ok, 2 maybe, 6 that the bosses in this phase were is just a time sink, and not good game design.

It took me 10+ tries to finish story mode (yes, I suck big time), but just 3 tries to get all 3 achievements. Yes, I also faced choppy framerates and/or lag.

So, for those who are still struggling with this instance:
i) Prep some condition removal skill/trait, especially for crippling and any other conditions that will affect your mobility;

ii) Move around/strafe a lot, try to refrain from dodging as much as possible – get familiar with the chamber layout, so you will where to go/dodge without falling out of the chamber. Conserve your dodges for the ‘oh kitten! what to do!! what to do!!’ moments;

iii) Familiarize yourself with boss’s AOE fields – each has a distinct area shape and progressing pattern. Try, as much as possible, develop tactics for each of them without resorting to dodge. i.e. for circles ‘donut’ field, I will try to predict where the centre of the ‘donut’ is and move towards there;

iv) Time yourself for avoiding stomp attack – to my best knowledge, timing for stomping is dependent on your ping. For me, I mumbled “lerroy jenkins” twice after the floor glows before I jump/dodge;

v) I prioritize the mobs to be eliminated by the following order:
1) wolf/threshers;
2) (stationary) tendrils that range you with small poison circular fields – only 1 of them will spawn at a time (for solo);
3) healing pods (for challenge mode);
4) small tendrils (dangerous only at melee range);
5) dragon;

Good luck and don’t give up!

Vikkela.7261:

let’s remove bosses and replace them with normal easy minions instead, no point in having bosses if you just want to autoattack them a few times to death without dodging

That’s basically what you do do in this fight. Dodging is not really required. AA strafing is more efficient.

Didn’t die even once, tho got downed couple of times.

Haven’t tried the challenge mode tho.

One of the problems the time gating/hiding in fractals of ascended gears and the new trait system has created is that very few casuals, especially newer players or characters levelled up since the trait changes, have any change of gear, and cannot respect traits on the fly as they don’t have either the gold or skill points available to do so. It’s very easy to forget this if you levelled under the old system and have hundreds of spare skill points, several changes of gear and all traits unlocked.

Many of these boss fights are hard for the softer classes. I did with my ele first and she died a lot. I’m not such a good dodger but there is hardly anyplace to dodge to it’s mostly red rings. All of these boss fights are doable but I would say too long and a bit boring once you get the Idea of what to do it’s just a long boring drawn out battle that could be shortened 25%.

My real opinion is they were really intended to so in pairs or small groups. And it’s the devs way of punishing solo play. Like being required to do some fractals to finish the backpiece punishment for solo play.

Myst Dawnbringer.9138:

Many of these boss fights are hard for the softer classes. I did with my ele first and she died a lot. I’m not such a good dodger but there is hardly anyplace to dodge to it’s mostly red rings. All of these boss fights are doable but I would say too long and a bit boring once you get the Idea of what to do it’s just a long boring drawn out battle that could be shortened 25%.

My real opinion is they were really intended to so in pairs or small groups. And it’s the devs way of punishing solo play. Like being required to do some fractals to finish the backpiece punishment for solo play.

Did it on my ele, staff, zerker, solo (first time) challenge mode (second time).

1200 range, mist form, arcane shield makes it loleasy

Hell there are some corners of the room that allow you to avoid everything except that attack that hits the entire room at the same time.

Just range it from the NE corner if you can’t beat it from being in the center.

This fight is seriously easy along with the achievements tied to it.

I did all 3 first time with literally almost no effort on my part.

The mechanics of it are so simple and easy to work around it’s insane for me to grasp that people are legitimately struggling or struggled with it.

You don’t even need to dodge most of the telegraphs, I read comments on how people seem to think that the ones calling it easy are people playing on classes who have access to vigor, well funny, because I pretty much just walked out of the telegraphs, and only really dodged the massive aoe attack for that achievement.

If you are a player who seriously is having a hard time with it, then you should in all honesty consider how skilled you are as a player or with the class you are using, because this should in my opinion take someone no more than a couple tries including warm ups.

I am by no means what is considered a “good” player. But even with my “sub optimal” build I was able to do it and only died twice. Granted it was trying to face tank everything so that didnt help. Was it a bit of a challenge? Yeah, but not to the point where I died so many times I was naked, or felt it was impossible. Taking a second look at your build, or even playstyle would go a long way to help you discover what went wrong and how to correct it.

Sadly, the below than average player in GW2 is now considered an ‘elitist.’

Didn’t die but after 30 minutes of the fight, the boss was still 80% health. Logged off and moved on….

Sehson.2930:

I died 27 times yep I finished it naked.

I’m sorry to laugh at your expense, but I am like full belly laughing and crying. That’s hysterical.

Super easy fight, especially for a ranger. Range 1800 pew pew

So I finally got around to doing this boss fight. I had anticipated needing to avoid red/orange circles and such from the posts in this thread, and figured success would come down to proper use of dodging.

Finished it first try, no deaths, no downs. It 100% came down to proper use (or not use) of dodges. The only reason you would run out of dodges in that fight is if you were using dodges for every little circle that appeared and for that big ground AoE.

Dodge only when you absolutely have to. If you are close to the edge of an aoe attack, just walk out of it, if you are moving slow, use a skill that increases your speed so you can clear the aoe without needing to dodge. Dodging should be used when you are in the center of the orange and there’s no way you can run out in time. Also, jumping that big AoE works. It charges up, so you can time your jump to avoid it every time.

All-in-all an easy fight IMO.

In a fight like this where you need to keep moving and dodge a lot, stick to ranged attacks.
Makes the fight a lot easier.