Guild Wars 2

I haven’t done it yet, and that’s because all of a sudden I need a group for it. Why isn’t there solo option for this? I find it extremely strange that the personal story was solo for 80 levels and then all of a sudden I have to group. Why? I mean, the battle for claw island was pretty epic solo. I don’t see why you guys did this, because I really don’t want to do this with random people and it’s going to take a while for my friends to reach this point.

I’m really gutted by this and it’s put a downer on the whole game for me. I have no interest in doing a dungeon so now I won’t see the end of the story, huge disappointment. After getting so much right I just don’t understand why ArenaNet would do this.

I just got to the last quest and I’m really disappointed as well. It really shattered my perception of the game being about how you want to play. After 80 levels of epic solo quests, I have no idea why they thought they had to tie the final quest to a dungeon. Oh well, I guess the developers aren’t entirely free from that old MMO mindset.

Edit: It wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t call it your “personal story” in all the hype/promotion while building your expectations over many hours and 80 levels.

While I am not surprised that this last quest is not soloable, I am disheartened by the way that you are faced with this reality.

At the very least there should be a short mission where you go in and meet with the major story players, perhaps with a shot of Zhaitan in the distance, menacing and waiting. With a clear sequence of dialogue that provides a measure of closure to the personal part of the storyline while making the case for the neccesity of a team to complete it.

Then at least the shock of marching all the way to the map point to find that you can’t do anything would be less disappointing.

This is a pretty big issue in my guild, since only one person so far has got to that level in their PS. They’re stuck waiting for the rest of us to catch up. Plenty of us are level 80, but stuck on various portions of the PS/ bugged out/etc.

Not to mention you have to team up just to unlock the last dungeon.

Oh and not to mention, the risen abomination is invulnerable bug and the anchorage waypoint retaking is also bugged which are pretty important to getting to the last quest. The servers need to be restarted.

agreed entirely. Although I will get around to it i’m sure, a lot of my guild are not 80 yet and i prefer to run dungeons with friends.

I was like others very disappointed, and as the rest is entirely solo-able it doesn’t make sense imo.

Agreed.
I was also surprised when I heard it required a group to complete the last part of the personal story – a couple of my Guildies got to this point earlier this week and were also surprised to see it was dungeon. They have very kindly chosen to wait for us to reach that point, so we can all do it together… but we all thought in some way it was disappointing turn to the personal storyline mode. Particually for players who prefer to solo as they will be disheartened with not being able to complete their own ‘personal’ story.

I’m glad I’m not the only one disappointed by this.
There are reasons I can’t group with other people which have nothing to do with the game, and now I’m being punished for it. Somehow, I thought that the personal story would actually be personal, and that I’d get to see the final story mission without being forced into an uncomfortable situation…

I’m sorry, I’m slightly bitter about this.

Its Zhaitan… If you could solo him that would be great, but really stupid. I havn’t made it to 80 yet so Idk what NPCs are actually with you the instance, but it doesn’t matter he is the Elder Dragon. If you could even in theory solo him it would ruin the immersion for so many people.

Dasenthal.6520:

Its Zhaitan… If you could solo him that would be great, but really stupid. I havn’t made it to 80 yet so Idk what NPCs are actually with you the instance, but it doesn’t matter he is the Elder Dragon. If you could even in theory solo him it would ruin the immersion for so many people.

Trust me the encounter itself ruins the immersion enough. Having it be soloable like the rest of the Personal Story content wouldn’t effect it much.

Honestly the biggest thing I hated about it being a 5 man is some random party member has a chance to represent you in the cutscenes. So not only did I have to deal with the story becoming Trehearne’s near the end, but it literally became someone elses story that you just came a long for because of the cutscenes in the dungeon. THAT is immersion breaking…

I fully agree with the OP, I might do it one day but I don’t want to group with people since I can’t give my full dedication to an instance (young bub etc). My problem is what happens in 6months etc with alts where you won’t be able to find 4 others to do the story mode

Zhaitan actually is soloable. Only the dungeon leading up to him needs a group. You could kill Zhaitan one-handed while having your eyes gouged out by a midget luchadore.

I also fully agree!
Is not good at all that we can do all the story alone and in the end to fight a “not so formidable” enemy we are forced to group!
I don’t even mind to do a “dungeon” for six hours, but one that i can do alone!
Please devs make something about this.

I think that all Story Mode Dungeons must be soloable, because this mode is more for the story, like the name said, than for dungeon and because you have to do all the Story Mode Dungeons to understand the story.

I don’t have a problem with soloing it, but it seemed more epic with 5 team members.

The most disappointing thing that I found was that only one person got the cinematic. Even GW1 gave the cinematic to everyone, as the last mission was a team effort. It’s just wrong of the developer to think that people will want to run this multiple times just to get the cinematic experience.

I also agree that pushing “2 2 2 2 2 2” is not the best way to battle the dragon. Though it was kind of nice to get a bit of a break after battling wave after wave after wave of risen by only using the cannons. My general feeling was that this whole mission/quest was too long and drawn out. Taking over 2 hours to complete. It probably could have been broken down into smaller chapters, with the final chapter being Zaitan; but that would not make it as “epic.”

The last story left a bad taste in my mouth. Nothing was a real deal breaker but first I need a group of 5 then I cut scene makes it someone elses story then how you fiannly kill him.

What I would have love to seen is the dragon give good to great loot and if you need a group I would want a bigger group of 10+. If the dragon gave decent loot then player would be looking to join your personal story just to get a shot at more loot and grouping would not be an issue. Oh that and a real dragon fight not what it was

The entire mission cannot be completed solo and I think that is the real problem. I was underwhelmed by the experience and that was even after hearing about the letdown from others. The only way to make this a solo experience is to change the entire design.

There is no way that you and a few NPCs can kill the waves of undead. You really need human players to successfully navigate through the stages.

I was hoping for something like Dragon Age Origins. You attack the dragon and some of its adds. You have equipment scattered throughout that can weaken the dragon. Then for the final blow, you get this awesome cinematic of you killing him. If the encounter was similar to this with strong NPCS, then yes, you could solo it.

I’m having a hard time accepting the fact that “My personal” story isn’t a personal story. This really makes absolutely no sense at all.

BTW: The reward for the quest prior to Victory or Death is pure rubbish. I’m glad you have cross server stuff working, it seems. Because people are going to need it after so many others leave the game.

It’s a MMORPG. In other games, you were “forced” to group/raid to complete your epic quest lines. So too here, but only the last step.

I’m actually rather disappointed at the LACK of reasons to interact or behave like a community in GW2. This tiny bit of social engineering, I think you can deal with it.

“personal story” is better labeled “The Saga of Trahearne,” so yeah, you really are a replaceable cog in his war machine…

I was about to post about this today until I saw this thread. I’m so glad I’m not the only one that feels this way and in total agreement with OP.

Last night I finally got to the stage where I now need to do the last mission Victory or Death. It really disappointed me to find out I was going to need a group to finish my personal story. After having done every mission up until this point solo; after overcoming the difficulties of some of the story imbalance in missions and lots of deaths; after going to Orr and racking up repair bills trying to make it to my story instances; and after doing the long battle with the eye – I totally assumed they would keep the pattern and I would end up in an epic single story mission battle involving me and the NPC’s that have fought (and died) with me along the way in a final confrontation against Zhaitan.

[EPIC FAIL BUZZER]

My favorite aspect of the game thus far has been the personal story; it’s what I have focused on for the most part and has been my overall goal along with getting map complete. I’m a medium to casual gamer (maybe 2-3 hours each night) and the primary reason I liked doing the personal story is that I felt it was one of the few things I could actually complete in this game without having to rely on tons of grinding or being dependant others to finish. I thought it was something I could take my own time with since it was a “personal story”. I actually like listening to the NPC’s and click on some of them between dialog cut-scenes just to see what they have to say and get into the story. I looked forward to trying the story on different alts after this one as well to see what the possibilities were with different factions and paths.

The fact that the last mission is in Arah, a place that needs a specific chain of events to unlock and basically a zerg and thus requiring me to be on at just the right time when the door is open for a few moments to access – is not the biggest letdown (though that in and of itself will likely lock out the truly casual gamers who may not have that kind of luck or time to finish their personal story). No, as the OP said the main issue is that even if I managed to get to the door and it happens to be unlocked then I need to immediately get a group to proceed since the final mission is a DUNGEON.

I have to ask the Anet team – why? Not only does it break the immersion, but it also means my success is not based on my personal ability or choices, but on how I perform in a group setting with other players who may have different play styles, story history, and egos. It’s not personal anymore. It’s not about me or the NPC’s anymore. It’s a PUG. And that means dealing with the PUG mentality. The last thing I want to do is sit in front of the Arah gates when I have time to play and spam “Can someone please group with me so I can complete my story mission? Please?” and have to say stuff like “What? Um no I haven’t studied the boss fights online, I like to discover things.”, and hear “LTP ur class newb!” from kids too young to have actually played with an Atari or know why “Go for the eyes Boo!” is funny.

After the focus that I’ve put into my personal story thus far I feel cheated I can’t cross the finish line on my own. Yes, it’s my fault for assuming the final mission would continue to be a soloable process. But how could I assume otherwise since every required mission thus far has been that way? If you wanted to make the final part of the personal story challenging and hard to complete I can completely understand that. I would be fine with dying a dozen times trying to finish the final battle with just me and the NPC’s. Even if it was only by luck or chance I would be ok so long as it was through my doing and my actions and thus my failure or my success alone. But giving no other option to finish my story other than finding a PUG? Sorry, I just don’t get that. It’s like scaling a tall mountain all by yourself only to get right near the top and find a sign that says “Sorry but you can’t climb any further. Please throw away you’re climbing tools and wait here until four other climbers arrive, then use that funky helicopter over there that requires five people to control, and fly yourselves to the top together. PS – it might be a good idea if you all know how to fly helicopters.”

mulch.2586:

It’s a MMORPG. In other games, you were “forced” to group/raid to complete your epic quest lines. So too here, but only the last step.

ok I am not picking on mulch, it is just using this quote to make the point. as shown above this is a MMORPG and in other games you had to group is a sentiment that many have.

I want to change this a bit.

This game is a game with micro transactions. In other games with such transactions you have to pay for content. So image if the last story you had to pay $5.00 to play it. You would not be so accepting of “Hey this is a Micro Transaction game” line. This is how I feel about being force to group at the end. It was like they charged money just so you could get a ticket to get into the mission.

I’m thoroughly unhappy and disgusted as well. After getting to 80 with my engineer I was very excited to finish the player storyline. I didn’t see any indication that it was a group mission, but seeing it was a zone in to Arah confused me but I figured it was just a solo player instance of the dungeon. First step, gather up your friends. Joining me were all the heroes from my storyline. Duh? Does this not scream solo play, why would I need a group of players if I had a group of heroes with me?

So dolt that I am I’m still in solo player mode. We kill mobs to the first room, they seem to have a lot of hp and hit hard but engineer is kind of overpowered when he has a group to take the hits so I’m not really thinking anything of it. First room where you have to find the first power core the mobs are serious tanks with nifty throwing weapons that turn 90 degrees around corners and guardian mobs who pull you in, stun you, put on a force field that traps you inside, then wail on you stunning you more. Fun. But in fact I did find it fun, I love challenges. I pulled them out 2 at a time and was able to kill them, but apparently they respawn so I could never clear the room.

So that’s where I left off. I know it’s a MMO, I know it’s supposed to be a social game. Hey I’m coming from being a very hardcore raider in another MMO. But to dump us into a dungeon with no warning that needs a group is bogus to the max on the personal storyline. Many many players enjoy just getting on with free time (hello 6 month old baby and job) and not spending 3 hours in a dungeon with a group who has a good chance of not completing it.

Much as it’s a MMO, I still think it was a poor design decision and quite offputting to much of the population.

i have done whole s troy alone and nwo same problem am waitng wiht the last one

Yea, I’m a bit disappointed in forced grouping at the last stage too. A fight doesn’t need a party to be truly epic. It could be just as good with better NPC characters, great mechanics, interesting stages, and a lot of build up. Maybe it’s just me, but finding a party for any of the dungeons has proven to be hard. :(

Nepocrates.3642:

mulch.2586:

It’s a MMORPG. In other games, you were “forced” to group/raid to complete your epic quest lines. So too here, but only the last step.

ok I am not picking on mulch, it is just using this quote to make the point. as shown above this is a MMORPG and in other games you had to group is a sentiment that many have.

I want to change this a bit.

This game is a game with micro transactions. In other games with such transactions you have to pay for content. So image if the last story you had to pay $5.00 to play it. You would not be so accepting of “Hey this is a Micro Transaction game” line. This is how I feel about being force to group at the end. It was like they charged money just so you could get a ticket to get into the mission.

I think we’ll agree to disagree. If it were a pay-for-DLC game, yes, I’d expect to pay for DLC. But it’s not, we don’t, and this was advertised as part of the game. I never saw that it was advertised as a purely solo game or that story-mode was a solo feature.

I did 3 epic quests (and parts of a couple others) in EQ1. They required groups and raids, and were effective in getting people together to accomplish goals of individuals. I loved it, and still love that aspect in MMOGs. Same thing with the big quests in other games as well — did the epic lines in Rift most recently.

There are single-player games. The stories in them are 10-times better than GW2’s, too.

Having to attempt dungeon content is hard the first time. I could totally see that as a valid complaint. But getting tweaked cuz a MMO requires you to group to accomplish the pinnacle achievement in a basic aspect of the game — I think it’s misguided.

Completing my personal story is something I’d like to do. But it is not enough to make me group up and do a dungeon.

I play this game as opposed to other MMOs because its social aspect is completely different (everyone can take part in the same content without grouping up or communicating and it’s not a zero-sum game.) I have no interest in dungeons. So personal story will remain unfinished for all of my characters.

The uncommitted, non-verbal (other than “thanks for the rez”) interaction with others that this game provides is something I enjoy. Anything more involved than that and, man, I can just think of a hundred things I find more compelling that I could do instead. The only use the chat window is to me is to get instructions during WvW.

the end missions were ok to solo, fior me anyway, but what does my head in now, on an alt, getting dropped into a level “15-25” zone and facing lvl20+ mobs at level 15-16.
i had to bail off to another races starter area, got 100% there, effectively making that zone a snoozefest repeat mode if i want to start that race later, and it still isnt enough to handle the zone im ‘expected’ to be in.
i have over 1500 points on my acc, i know how to stay alive and kill but that level disparity is a bit ridiculous

+1 to OP. It would be nice to be able to solo the last mission.

Couple responses to your last mulch…

“I never saw that it was advertised as a purely solo game or that story-mode was a solo feature.”

You’re right, they did not specifically advertise story-mode as a solo-feature, but they also didn’t advertise that it WASN’T a solo feature either. Keep in mind – they named this feature of the game a “personal” story. The word personal does indeed imply solo. This idea was also further reinforced by the first 1-80 story missions where no group is required.

“I did 3 epic quests (and parts of a couple others) in EQ1. They required groups and raids, and were effective in getting people together to accomplish goals of individuals. I loved it, and still love that aspect in MMOGs. Same thing with the big quests in other games as well — did the epic lines in Rift most recently.”

I can understand and respect if you’re the type that enjoys grouping up to complete parts of quests that you need. It’s totally up to you – I personally don’t like to have grouping forced on me to move forward, but whatever. The problem however is one of precedence, which (respectfully) I don’t think you are grasping. All the story mission quests up to the last did not require you to do any of the dungeons related to the story along the way. What occurred is that you got emails at certain points from your original contact showing you the various dungeon and location on the map, and asking you to check it out, but it was NOT mandatory or required to move forward. You could move right on to the next story part and do the dungeon when you felt like it. The fact that they started off in this pattern and kept it almost the entire way sets a precedent and assumption by the player that dungeons and grouping are indeed not required to move forward. If they had made those other dungeons required as well throughout the story mission process, well then we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation.

As someone else said, it feels like the last solo-able mission with the Eye was probably originally intended to be the last story mission overall (it sure felt that way given the cut-scenes and build up and long battle), and just like the other missions afterwards you would have received an email giving you the location to Arah dungeon and option to kill Zhaitan (if you wanted), but in regards to your personal story it would have ended there. But it seems like they decided the Eye battle was not a fitting enough conclusion and added going to the Zhaitan dungeon afterwards as a requirement (or they ran out of time and couldn’t make another solo-able instance to kill Zhaitain). This can also explain some of the problems I have been reading about regarding odd behavior for the personal story in the Arah dungeon (too easy to kill Zhaitan with mashing single button but everything before that difficult, only one person being able to see their own final dialog and story conclusion, etc), since it was probably first built to be a standard dungeon but then had to bolt on the story conclusion part when it was never really intended to have that element. It sounds like they did the best they could trying to jam the two different streams together, but doing so came at a cost.

“There are single-player games. The stories in them are 10-times better than GW2’s, too.”

Totally agree there are single player games that may have better stories. I’ve played quite a few. But there are also now MMO’s (swtor being the prime example, and this one another) that are adding more of a personal solo story aspect. Trying to say an MMO is not a single story game is not a valid excuse anymore for finding a place to introduce a good solo story feature, since it’s been done already and was done in this game on missions 1-80.

“Having to attempt dungeon content is hard the first time. I could totally see that as a valid complaint. But getting tweaked cuz a MMO requires you to group to accomplish the pinnacle achievement in a basic aspect of the game — I think it’s misguided.”

Actually dungeon difficulty is not the core complaint here, nor have I seen anyone say that. Finding a group and being forced to group to complete your personal story when every mission before it did not follow that pattern is the core complaint.

The bottom line is this is an issue of choice and expectation. Anet set the expectation with calling it a “personal” story and gave choice with solo-able missions from 1-80. Then the choice and expectation was suddenly taken away at the very end of the cycle. Maybe you think we are “misguided” for feeling that way, but I don’t think as an experienced MMO player that I’m in the minority by feeling something went wrong with the design here. As more and more of the medium to casual players get to this point in their personal stories I think you are going to hear more complaints regarding this.

I am sort of stuck at this part with both of my 80’s currently. I am not looking forward to it, and this method of completing the ‘my story’ feels just like a rehash of Lord of the Rings Online. If anyone has every played LOTRO they will understand that both GW2 and LOTRO have far to much in common to be coincidence.

I agree, and don’t understand why. There SHOULD be a way to solo the main quests from the beginning to the very end.

I don’t play with friends, or any other for that matter, and find some random players to play with just to finish the last mission is something I’m not gonna bother with.

Would be better if the story-mission and the dungeon mission was separate. (For those who would like to finish the boss solo or with friends)

Yeah, I wish I could solo it as well. It’s not that I’m against playing with other people, but I’d like to actually see my character in the cutscenes. :-/ It’s not as big a deal for me as for some others, but I would prefer it if only the exploration parts of the dungeons required a group.

This is a problem with all dungeons: I never pay attention to the story while playing in a group. So far, I’ve always played with members of my guild and it was a blast, but I have a hard time recalling what was going on. We were chatting via ventrilo so I only remember bits and pieces. Let alone the fact that once only the party leader could see the cutscenes and no-one else could.
I guess you could say that’s my fault, but I thought being forced into groups was meant to encourage communication.

+1 to OP.
+1 to Ghostwind.

I haven’t been there yet but that’s all I will be saying when I were to face it.

Agreeing with the OP! I was planning to solo my way to max level, and enjoy the story while doing so. After finishing that I was planning, if I had the time, to do some dungeons with my hubby. Now I find out that to finish my personal story I must, I repeat -must- group up with people I don’t know?

ArenaNet’s aim was to make a game that is fun. Forcing something on people is -not- fun. Being forced to group up when you don’t want to do it is not fun.

Having a choice is fun. Being able to choose between soloing and grouping is fun. You already did this by giving us the choice to get the best gear by soloing (crafting etc), or by grouping (dungeons). Why not give us the same choice in Personal Story as well?

I agree it’s a little odd that the last act of Trahearne’s personal story is a group mission, when every other act of Trahearne’s personal story was solo content.

Well, at least your own story — the ten or so missions that have anything to do with the choices you made at character creation — is a personal, solo effort.

Another reason not to do the personal story anymore…

I have no problem with grouping, but it isn’t really a personal story when you need other players all of a sudden, basically out of the blue. In the future, either require grouping throughout the personal story to build some consistency with that mechanic or just don’t do it at all.

Also not a fan of this. I’m all for optional grouping. I have no problem needing a group for the various story dungeons. I certainly don’t mind other people grouping—the choice is the important thing.

The personal story, however, should be just that—personal.

Good to see that other players think the same as I do. Hopefully Arenanet will change the last mission…

Agree 100% with this thread.

I’m stuck on the last storyline quest with no way to complete it. My guild doesn’t have enough active level 80 members available to accompany me, and I don’t like grouping with strangers. (My experience: if they don’t like your profession, your build, or they don’t think you’re good enough, etc., they boot you from the party or grief you.)

Even if I could find a good PUG capable of doing the dungeon, first we have to do all of the dynamic events to unlock the gate—and that’s not possible because the events are bugged. Let’s say they weren’t bugged, though. I still need a large window of time to organize a group, complete the dynamic events, slay the bosses, and only then start the dungeon. Yikesabee!

But the real salt in the wound is that if I’m not the party leader my character isn’t even the featured player in his final personal storyline cinematics.

The whole concept of this last quest is very dispiriting.

Btw, what happens if you’re lucky enough to find a PUG that wants to do Arah and you get halfway through and someone quits on you? In other dungeons new party members can join in progress, but how does that work in Arah where the gate shuts behind you? You’d have to wait while your new party member starts the event chain over, yes? Oh, gods. What a nightmare.

i can’t understand how this is your problem with personal story. beside the fact that i probably could’ve written the story itself myself, and would be actually ashamed to ever produce dialogue as soulless as what we’re presented with, the personal story offers none of the interesting or clever combat mechanics we see in dungeons. the rewards are abysmal, on the whole, and unless you over-gear them they’re a mediocre source of xp. the only possible advantage is that it allows casual players access to acceptable levelling gear.

on top of all this, many of the major themes of the story are either incoherent or downright offensive. in a story ostensibly about racial tensions, i spent half my time either slaughtering or “civilizing” tribal races. not to mention that when racial themes occur in dialogue, they’re as heavy handed as is humanly possible. the whole thing flies in the face of subtlety and good taste, which the designers have demonstrated elsewhere that they possess in spades.

but your problem is… you have to play with other people… in an mmo..? srsly? i hate personal story, and would advocate to have it removed if it wasn’t overhauled. but this rings a little flat to me

I disagree, five people isn’t epic.
An entire army comprised of every nation, would have been epic. A giant, world wide battle spanning continents would have been epic. Legions of troops, the pact, countless forces, those Charr tanks that never seem to be used.

All of these are worthy of a world wrecking dragon god, but no, we get what every, derivative, uncreative mmorpg developer does. Typical lame kitten boss fight at the end of a dungeon/raid.

I don’t like the forced grouping either. Every part you could solo. Then this finish. Lousy.

Cast my vote with the OP. Very disappointed that I have to PUG to complete my personal story. I will keep trying to reach the Waypoint near the Arah Gate, but will put the entire Storyline on hold after I get the Waypoint. Not in a Guild that can help with the mission, and I’ll be kitten if I’ll suffer through hours of PUG to complete the Personal Story for rewards not equal to the gear I already have.

I was actually disappointed with how Zhaitan was presented in the game, other than expecting him to be much bigger I also wished that he was a world event. It didn’t feel epic enough in a 5 man dungeon and in fact it diminished his impact and presence.

I feel that if he was a massive world event chain with his own area in the Orr zones dedicated to just doing this multi event chain to kill him it would have made it much more fun.

Would it likely end up a zerg? Sure, would it make it less fun? I don’t think so, I mean it certainly can’t be worse than just pelting him with fireworks till he falls over yes?

First you can’t get 100% map completion without being forced to play in a way you don’t want to, now I find out you can’t complete your own storyline!! Forced grouping and forced PVP. Just a poor design decision.
Guess I won’t bother completing either now.