Guild Wars 2

They just either add something annoying, or scale whatever’s there to just be over the top.

Shadow of the Dragon: Pods spawn that heal the boss, and those vine things that try to grab you from that one mission in Iron Marches are back. You need the Mordrem pheromones (also from a mission in Iron Marches) to damage the pods.

Problem is, the only way to get the pheromone buff is to let the vines grab you. Apparently getting the pheromone from killing the vines or other Mordrem out at the time made too much sense, despite that being how it worked in the mission that originally introduced this mechanic.

Between that, breaking loose to attack the pods, and avoiding everything else, the boss is healing, and there can be to four pods out at a time, and they respawn faster than you can destroy them alone.

As a result, the boss is nigh unkillable alone. The only answer is seemingly to get a group. Bad design. Living Story acheivements should be something that can be soloed with enough skill or know how. Throwing together a bunch of cheap gimmicks that force me to need a party is stupid.

While I can’t remember the others well so far, the other one that’s stuck out to me is the latest one in No Refuge, where the boss’s sand pools and wind walls constantly pass by, more often than one can dodge, and do ridiculous damage. Oh, and if you’re playing as Caithe, you don’t even get downed. You just die.

And all those mobs at the beginning are just excessive.

You might as well rename it Cheap Gimmick mode: No fun here.

I’d have to disagree. The Dragon fight from what I remember was not hard at all. I didnt go down once with the challenge mote up. The no refuge fight is tough if you rush it. How you want to go about fighting this boss is, stay away from him so the elemental will run towards you when it spawns. That stops the boss from standing in a pile of quicksand. The fire walls are really easy to avoid. All you have to do is stand away from the boss and watch your surroundings as you kill the elemental which does no dmg. The 5 skill is good for killing the elemental and getting away from the quicksand when it drops.

Overall these fights can be tough but not close to impossible to solo. Maybe you need to work on your awareness and game mechanics before talking down about the content.

FYI, you can run around the fire walls, no need to dodge everyone.

I found the “don’t get hit by whirlpools and walls” harder than both challenge modes….stupid RNG…

At least it’s a form of hard mode.

So you are saying that because you’re not able to beat the challenge, it must be removed?
For the records, I’ve soloed the hardmode in the Grove and I’m going to solo the next hardmodes if I feel like it.

The only challenge mode left for me to do is the centaur one, and only because if I hear or see the cut scenes one more time, I’ll throw up. Gotta wait for bad storytelling resistance to build up before I get it.

So not impossible. Just annoying to get to due to having to rerun the whole thing to get there.

Beast Sos.1457:

I’d have to disagree. The Dragon fight from what I remember was not hard at all. I didnt go down once with the challenge mote up.

My issue isn’t dying. It’s that I can’t do any lasting damage to the boss, for reasons I’ve already explained.

HHR LostProphet.4801:

So you are saying that because you’re not able to beat the challenge, it must be removed?

No. I’m saying these should not be cheap gimmick “get in a party or you have no chance” challenges.

Simple solution to the Shadow of the Dragon one: Make it so players can get the pheromones by being near a Mordrem or Tendril as it dies.

Togonn Windmane: Don’t make so many cheap wind walls of death. Then again, Caithe having a better skill set and not being as fragile as she is might help too.

For the records, I’ve soloed the hardmode in the Grove and I’m going to solo the next hardmodes if I feel like it.

Then I’m sure you won’t mind me asking for a link to a video of you soloing that Challenge Mode to prove it.

The challenges can be done solo.

Mote Master Solo from Part 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB2wqrtcxg8

Nilkemia.8507:

As a result, the boss is nigh unkillable alone.

So how did I nuke it then on the first try without even caring for the healing pods?

Obvious cause of l2p. Heck, even if he heals so that he’s back over 25/50/75%, you can just keep nuking him because the invulnerability one triggers once. You could basically burn him down from 100% to 0% in one go if you once had him below 25%.

The only thing I agree with is that it is stupid that you have to get caught by the vines to get the buff.

Didn’t play the new parts of the story yet, so I’m not gonna comment on that.

No. I’m saying these should not be cheap gimmick “get in a party or you have no chance”

Have solo’d every challenge mode. Even gone back multiple times to redo them just for fun. And if your best argument is “pics or it didn’t happen” (which another lovely poster above me has already posted for your “viewing pleasure”) then you’re arguing from a weak place to begin with.

These challenge fights are one of the few things that I find genuinely, viscerally fun in this game, and I’m gunna be super peeved if all you whiners (and I absolutely hate that that’s what it’s come down to, but that’s what this is, whining) get this type of content pulled from the game.

1) Achievements are not mandatory, some are easy, some are difficult, some are just stupidly tedious. It’s 100% your choice whether you choose to participate in these activities (which, in this case, Arena Net has already made a million times easier to do by removing time limits on these things; have we already forgotten how the LS content used to disappear after two weeks?)

2) If you want the achievement but it’s just too hard/you don’t have the time, patience, or whatever to do it? Anet has already given you an out, and yes that out is doing it with a party. Seriously, the fight is too hard? Trivialize it by bringing 2-5 other people (I mean kittenbags, people have already trivialized the dodging achievements by finding a safe place to stand and having their friends do all the work).

So far all I’m hearing is “meh, meh, meh, absolutely every piece of content in this game designed for millions of people has to cater to my specific tastes and preferences, meeeeh!”

Sorry to come up so short with you, but people have been mewling about these fights being “overtuned” since the Malevolent Memory, and that wasn’t even a fight, it was a glorified puzzle that you’d already solved twice before you ever meet him.

Arena Net is finally taking steps away from two years of “stand here, press 1 to win” content (albeit tiny, baby steps but hey, progress is progress). After years of complaining about that, why is everyone suddenly so quick and eager to stomp them into the dirt?

Look, I am genuinely, sincerely sorry that you lack the time to keep retrying these fights, the patience to learn their mechanics, or the friends to help you through them. Really I am. But I’m not hearing anything that sounds like a content design problem.

Balancing for challenge is difficult. Players want a challenge so ANet adds some challenging content, however given the variety of players it seems only natural that some might find content more challenging and other less challenging. ANet can’t possible make content that is equally challenging to everyone. This is simply the reality of the situation. You find it difficult someone else doesn’t. I do think ANet needs to balance difficulty for the majority however, but unfortunately only ANet has stats on how may players have those achievements, or how many tries it takes, or how long it takes to get those achievements.

I don’t mind the cheap gimmicks. Especially in content that is not meant to be repeated like this.

I do mind repeating the entire level including all dialogue when I get hit by a a cheap 1 hit == lose gimmick.

The glint mission got this right, none of the others have.

nekretaal.6485:

I don’t mind the cheap gimmicks. Especially in content that is not meant to be repeated like this.

I do mind repeating the entire level including all dialogue when I get hit by a a cheap 1 hit == lose gimmick.

The glint mission got this right, none of the others have.

Yup. +1.

Welcome to Hard Mode. People have been begging for it.

But… But… Hard mode is too hard.

I did the No Refuge Challenge Mote today with 2 guildies. We died the first two times due to underestimating the number of wind walls, but we made it in the third try. I can see how it could be solo’ed by someone with decent skill and a bit of practice.

The other achievements can also be done solo, although I agree it’s much easier in a group because you can have one guy be the bait while others stand off to the sides so there’s less chance of being hit.