Guild Wars 2

Hello and thanks for reading.

I recently created a post inquiring what to do at end game, since three of the eight (yes, all eight professions) characters I’m leveling just hit 80 (my first time at cap). And I got a good number of well-considered responses with a variety of options.

The one that resonated with me most was “master each profession.” I may be playing all eight professions, but I’ll readily admit that I haven’t mastered any one of them. And since I’m particularly attracted to what I see as arguably the more complex professions in the game (engineer, elementalist, mesmer), I have a long ways to go before I know them inside-out and can play them to their potential.

Which raises the question of challenge. I think we all know that what I’ll call open-world PvE leveling combat (hearts, non-Champion dynamic events, etc.) isn’t terribly challenging. It just doesn’t require either expert play or top gear to succeed (even to succeed rather well).

So, where do players find the greatest combat challenge — the content that really forces you to be at the top of your game and well geared? Here are my guesses (because I have limited-to-no experience in the following):

Note, these are not in order of difficulty (but I encourage you to order your response that way):
- Champion dynamic events
- Dungeons
- Fractals
- Speed dungeon/fractal runs (even harder)
- Solo dungeon/fractal runs (even harder)
- WvW
- sPvP

Please know that while I included PvP content in the above, I’m not especially interested/curious about PvP at this time. Perhaps once I feel that I’ve really got a profession down I’ll feel ready to take on other players. Frankly, at present I’d be a button-mashing mess.

Any insight into GW2 combat challenge would be greatly appreciated! And feel free to mention non-combat challenges that keep you going as well (though I’m pretty sure it’s going to be combat/gameplay that drives me, more than, say, loot or, for example, gaining ascended/legendary gear…unless there is combat challenge involved in that).

Knowing what challenges await will help greatly to provide me with incentive to continue GW2 at L80.

Thanks!

You could also add the Activities to the list, as some can be quite a challenge to win (and most of the time incredibly fun) such as Southsun Survival (Hunger-Games styled mini-game) and Sanctum Sprint (Mario Kart in Tyria).

Another that is not preferred by a lot is actually Commanding. As in, using a commander tag to organize large events such as Tequatl and Vinewrath or WvW zergs which can be both intense, and a challenge. But of course, that depends on whether or not you enjoy leading other players.

I might also point out that with Heart of Thorns, there will be a new specific mode of the game that is currently known as “Challenging Group Content”. We will find out all of the details as to what this is on 29th August, but I presume it will be a form of challenge that you might like.

Otherwise, good luck, and enjoy the gameplay!

PvE
- Trio fractals 50 (some of them can’t be done with less than 3)
- Near records dungeon run (speed run is easy)
- Solo/Duo dungeons

PvP
- WvW Roaming
- WvW Zerg bursting
- sPvP

Pretty impossible to rank PvP since it depend on the level of your team and the opposite team. For PvE, it’s hard to rank them up. I would say that Trio Fractal is the easiest. Near record dungeon run have some situation that are challenging, but the difficulty is more about achieve specific tactics, training, RNG and not really encounter themselves. Solo dungeon is for me the most challenging thing you can do PvE wise.

Trible Trouble is also hard, but it’s hard to organized, not really to execute. Everybody have simple task, it’s just hard to organized so that everybody do the right task at the right moment.

Thanks for the feedback, guys. Much appreciated.

Recognizing that some will say this is a crap idea, but it seems something of a shame that there isn’t an option to play through the 1-80 content on an expert or “infernal” mode similar to Diablo’s torment levels (FYI, I’m not a Diablo player, just read about them).

The 1-80 is very good and easily repeatable, at least a few times. Yes, you can do it with new characters (as I have, since I’m leveling eight, as I said in my OP), but it would really change the feel if the difficulty were amped up radically. With some modest tweaks, different rewards and a few surprises, ANet could recycle this content relatively easily, one would think.

Of course, that’d run counter to their “your character’s epic journey” approach/philosophy, dragging it down to a meta experience. But I still think it’d be cool.