Guild Wars 2

Like the title says, the teragriff boss is way unfair to melee players. As a melee, I had to wait to attack him until he gets stunned for a couple of seconds, and me being in clerics gear, it took forever. And partway through the fight, the moments where he is open for attack stop coming, so I am forced to hit him one time when we charges past me, but I have to be just far away enough so he doesn’t run me over, but just close enough so that I can hit him. But if I was ranged, I could just ignore adds completely and burn him down as he runs around the room.

The miniboss before that, too, the thresher, is the same way. As a melee, I have to stun him when he is about to heal himself (which is the intended mechanic I think), but I run out of stuns too fast and then he heals to full after I blow all my cooldowns. But if you get out of melee range, he stops healing himself. So if I was ranged, I could just stand away and ranged attack him without him healing himself. Instead, I had to stand back and just let the NPCs kill him while I waited doing nothing

Start carrying a ranged weapon then? There are no melee classes, everyone can range attack well too.

I totally could buy a scepter, and I probably will, but they shouldn’t make two bosses that discriminates against people that use a certain type of weapon. Builds are one thing. It shouldn’t be easy for me to quickly kill a boss in clerics gear, but I shouldn’t be forced to use a scepter

I bet you didn’t see the mesmer talk about one of the bosses from the last patch?

The didn’t fix it, and I’m sure they wont “fix” this either. Get a ranged weapon.

I’ve never had issues fighting them in melee.

Well, as a D/D Elementalist, you are kind of stuck at melee range >>wink<<
I did both Echoes and Paths with the Ele and a LB/GS Ranger and it is IMO undoubtedly easier to do with a ranged weapon.
e.g. my Ranger could just stand in the middle of the room when the unshakeable Mordrem ran around in a circle and keep hitting him.

It would have been nice if they had not pulled the “get a ranged weapon” mechanic again in this patch, especially since you can’t CC champs to catch up.

Also, I am not saying “Make boss easier” im more leaning towards the solution of making him invulnerable while he runs around so the window of opportunity to hit the boss is the same for Both ranged and melee

Every class HAS a ranged weapon, so its no problem making you use it.

The problem is that if you go in without a melee weapon, there’s no way to drop out of combat and switch to one. Your only options at that point are to let yourself get killed so you can respawn outside the battle area (which may or may not even work thanks to the Zephyrites reviving you, though if you let yourself get stuck in the vines left behind after one of the charges it can usually outpace the heals) or just go suck it up and do it melee, which is very slow.

Also, even when the boss gets “stunned” and stops for a bit during his “charge phase”, you can still take hits from the vines at melee range from certain angles (I wasn’t able to figure out where the safe spots were, sometimes I’d be taking constant hits and other times I wouldn’t). So that only adds to the factor of it being annoying in melee.

As for the Thresher… meh. No problems with that even melee. Yes, you’re forced to get out of melee range briefly when it does its AoE health steal pool, but that only lasts a couple seconds, and it has long periods of time where it does nothing to allow for plenty of time to DPS it. Especially if you stay at range for a bit and make it use the vine attack instead.

All PvE guardians should be carrying a scepter anyway.

Btw, for the instace with the thresher and the roots, there’s a flamethrower nearby that you can pick up and use to kill them all with a couple passes of the autoattack. You need to do this for one of the after-story achievements. I’m not sure if the flamethrower is available when doing the story itself though.

Don’t worry, as a ranged class instead you get to deal with instant one shot kill charges with no telegraph that have an absurdly wide hitbox.

I think people don’t play eles and don’t even realize that you can’t change weapons as an ele. Only way to switch to a ranged weapon is to redo the instance.

I’m not sure “unfair” is the word. I mean, the “zerker meta” has been basically “forcing” ranged professions to go melee since the dawn of time. Perhaps it’s time that some fights benefit players who prefer range.

As far as the Thrashers go, they’re ok. If I can’t stun and I’m full melee them I step out of their AoE for 2 seconds.

The Boss… yea… I found him irritating on Guardian, even with a Scepter equipped. Dem slow moving orbs…. The thing that particularly annoyed me was the Zephyrites in that instance. The boss would stop and they’d shout “Now’s the time to get close TROLOLOLOLOL—-LOL—LOL—LOL—LOL”. So you get close, and it activates one of those skills that deals silly damage from graspers out of the floor. Dodging out as fast as I could only left me with about 100 HP and a disinclination to take any advice from Zephyrites ever again.

All in all the most irritating thing about both boss fights in this patch (Terragriff and Predator) is the sheer volume of hit points they seem to have. I have to confess I got pretty bored waiting for the Terragriff to stop running around, and whilst chipping away at the Predator’s HP pool.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I think people don’t play eles and don’t even realize that you can’t change weapons as an ele. Only way to switch to a ranged weapon is to redo the instance.

This… I use a staff (wvwer by nature) so I am actually ranged but once in, there is no simple weapon set flip for ele unless out of combat…

Give guardians a bow and a pet, reduce their armor and heals , remove burn and give them a hat with a feather! TIC

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I think people don’t play eles and don’t even realize that you can’t change weapons as an ele. Only way to switch to a ranged weapon is to redo the instance.

Or don’t engage with the wrong weapon equipped..

I managed fine with my GS/Axe zerker warrior. You just have to hit him with high dps when you are able. All of his attacks are telegraphed so you know when to get back out of the way, and you have more than half the fight to work them out before he stops going stunned. As for the stun if you get in behind him you won’t take any damage.

The Thrasher is very simple. Just leave the heal field until it goes away. then jump back in

I just finished the teragriff fight on my D/D elementalist and I can safely say that was one of the least fun things I have ever done in this game.

Don’t design a fight that leaves a melee character helpless for large stretches of it when your game contains a class/weapon setup that cannot change weapons in combat.

Coulter.2315:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I think people don’t play eles and don’t even realize that you can’t change weapons as an ele. Only way to switch to a ranged weapon is to redo the instance.

Or don’t engage with the wrong weapon equipped..

Because everyone knows the correct weapon to have equipped before engaging. /facepalm

Seriously though, that answer is either ignoring or completing missing the point. We shouldn’t have to look up on the forums what weapon we need to use before going in to a fight like this. With my weapon swapping classes I always carry a melee and long-range weapon “just in case”, but that does nothing to help out elementalists.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I think people don’t play eles and don’t even realize that you can’t change weapons as an ele. Only way to switch to a ranged weapon is to redo the instance.

Water attunement gives you a decent 600 range. It’s not great, but it’s a ranged attack.

Actually, you can easily beat it regardless of weapon. I did that boss both with D/D and D/F on my ele. Focus is quite nice to reflect/block the pull projectiles of the vines.

And if you want to prevent the problem of not having anything ranged if you are running with dagger in main hand, then just equip Ice Bow as a utility skill – this thing eats the HP bar of the boss alive in the burn phases anyway.

zallis.2138:

I totally could buy a scepter, and I probably will, but they shouldn’t make two bosses that discriminates against people that use a certain type of weapon. Builds are one thing. It shouldn’t be easy for me to quickly kill a boss in clerics gear, but I shouldn’t be forced to use a scepter

wrong thinking, they shouldnt balance bosses for people which only use certain weapons.

DragonflyDusk.6582:

Coulter.2315:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I think people don’t play eles and don’t even realize that you can’t change weapons as an ele. Only way to switch to a ranged weapon is to redo the instance.

Or don’t engage with the wrong weapon equipped..

Because everyone knows the correct weapon to have equipped before engaging. /facepalm

Best i can tell, Arenanet’s definition of “casual” is that you can respawn scum your way through the story…

That is all well and good, if the game didn’t do armor damage on respawns.

digiowl.9620:

That is all well and good, if the game didn’t do armor damage on respawns.

Yeah, that is unfair because repairing that can ruin you financially.

Or not.

digiowl.9620:

DragonflyDusk.6582:

Coulter.2315:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I think people don’t play eles and don’t even realize that you can’t change weapons as an ele. Only way to switch to a ranged weapon is to redo the instance.

Or don’t engage with the wrong weapon equipped..

Because everyone knows the correct weapon to have equipped before engaging. /facepalm

Best i can tell, Arenanet’s definition of “casual” is that you can respawn scum your way through the story…

That is all well and good, if the game didn’t do armor damage on respawns.

Seriously? They even removed the repair costs and people still complain about armor damage?

Ameepa.6793:

digiowl.9620:

DragonflyDusk.6582:

Coulter.2315:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I think people don’t play eles and don’t even realize that you can’t change weapons as an ele. Only way to switch to a ranged weapon is to redo the instance.

Or don’t engage with the wrong weapon equipped..

Because everyone knows the correct weapon to have equipped before engaging. /facepalm

Best i can tell, Arenanet’s definition of “casual” is that you can respawn scum your way through the story…

That is all well and good, if the game didn’t do armor damage on respawns.

Seriously? They even removed the repair costs and people still complain about armor damage?

I think the issue isn’t cost but that after 6 tries, you have to start the instance over from the beginning.

Devildoc.6721:

Ameepa.6793:

digiowl.9620:

DragonflyDusk.6582:

Coulter.2315:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I think people don’t play eles and don’t even realize that you can’t change weapons as an ele. Only way to switch to a ranged weapon is to redo the instance.

Or don’t engage with the wrong weapon equipped..

Because everyone knows the correct weapon to have equipped before engaging. /facepalm

Best i can tell, Arenanet’s definition of “casual” is that you can respawn scum your way through the story…

That is all well and good, if the game didn’t do armor damage on respawns.

Seriously? They even removed the repair costs and people still complain about armor damage?

I think the issue isn’t cost but that after 6 tries, you have to start the instance over from the beginning.

Honestly that didn’t even cross my mind that it would go so far for anyone, but you are right, it does make more sense.

They seem to be playing around with how they structure boss battles, trying new things and all that. I ranged the entire thing so can’t comment much about how it was in melee but in the same way that ranging it or being condition heavy isn’t always optimal (read “just about never optimal”), why should melee? Admittedly I’m not exactly unbiased but whereas power melee generally works well in much of the content across all game modes, having situations where it still works but not quite as well as it normally does isn’t a bad thing.

I melee’d the boss on my warrior w/o stability. I didn’t really have an idea of what I was getting into at first, but luckily I was able to catch on quickly enough. The massive tells help a lot. It’s probably easier ranged, but definitely doable in melee.

Ok, it seems i need to crank up my graphics settings, as clearly they must be doing tells via some subsystem i have disabled most of the time because i find it distracting.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I think people don’t play eles and don’t even realize that you can’t change weapons as an ele. Only way to switch to a ranged weapon is to redo the instance.

1. Let the boss kill you. It’s not a problem if you understood you had the wrong weapon at 95% boss HP.
2. Change the weapon.
3. Win.

There are way too many enemies in this game that are difficult to melee but offer no problems for ranged. They need to have more attacks that target everyone at a distance but leave an “eye” alone in melee range.

Also, I am not saying “Make boss easier” im more leaning towards the solution of making him invulnerable while he runs around so the window of opportunity to hit the boss is the same for Both ranged and melee

Yeah, or do things like when he has that “don’t get into melee range” field up, give him Reflect too, or even Retaliation, so that if melee can’t hit him, nobody can.

And this is a slightly separate vector, but there are also issues with the more recent bosses verses non-zerker builds. My Guardian has little trouble surviving the fights, but they seem to take much longer than I think is reasonable, and typically take 4-5 “burn phases” when good design would follow the “rule of threes.”

I don’t think DPS should matter much in boss fights, DPS should be for minions, with bosses when you activate the burn phase you should be free to wail on them until you get them to the intended level for that burn phase (usually 1/3 per phase).

zallis.2138:

I totally could buy a scepter, and I probably will, but they shouldn’t make two bosses that discriminates against people that use a certain type of weapon. Builds are one thing. It shouldn’t be easy for me to quickly kill a boss in clerics gear, but I shouldn’t be forced to use a scepter

And why exactly shouldn´t there be different situations in game that favor one type of combat over others?

IIRC, some people (including myself) have been asking Anet to adress the issue of over-dominance of berserker gear and melee combat over more balanced stat combos and ranged combat respectively

Sound like our pleas have been answered. Berserker gear is for the really good players that can dodge everything (note : I am not a good player by a long shot) and you are incentivised to bring both melee and ranged weapons (ele can use FGS or bow or axe as a backup for their dagger/focus build).

While the boss is infuriating to fight without stability, it address a number of issues in the GW2 gameplay. Kudos for that.

And why exactly shouldn´t there be different situations in game that favor one type of combat over others?

I think there’s room for this, but it shouldn’t be in the story. The story should be for every player, every build. Perhaps different builds should have to use different methods, but those methods should all be available and equally viable. For example perhaps a boss might have a “melee burn phase” in which range is worthless, and a “ranged burn phase” in which melee is worthless, or perhaps zerkers would be able to do a ton of damage in a short window but be too squishy to survive attacking during other phases, while tankier builds could deal less damage but constantly.

But however they achieve it, all builds should work for story missions.

Now in open world, they have more flexibility. They have four Mordrem bosses, for example, and it’s ok to have one be weak to range, one to melee, one to condi, etc., so long as each build type has one that they are good at, they can choose to focus on that one boss. But if it’s a linear chain, in which each player is expected to beat each boss, then the onus is on ANet to make each player’s build viable against that boss.

Ohoni.6057:

The story should be for every player, every build.

Why? Because “play how I want”?

I don’t have any problem with that boss at all with my melee-weapons characters. :p
Just learn how to dodge and when it’s the right time to hit that monster hard!

Alga.6498:

I don’t have any problem with that boss at all with my melee-weapons characters. :p
Just learn how to dodge and when it’s the right time to hit that monster hard!

Good for you.

VodCom.6924:

Alga.6498:

I don’t have any problem with that boss at all with my melee-weapons characters. :p
Just learn how to dodge and when it’s the right time to hit that monster hard!

Good for you.

Indeed, and bad for you I assume?

It’s not just that fight, is part of the problem. GW2 routinely favors ranged.
Granted, I carry a bow and rifle and use them quite often, if I can see it coming. If I’d had some kind of conveyance that it would be a heavy-range battle, teragrif would’ve been a much more entertaining fight, and thrasher would’ve been a lol-walk.

But, I can’t re-equip in combat, so I’ll just be content that my D/D Ele friend dropped a spare Ice Bow. =P

I’m irritated at the encounter design, but I think I’ll give it another go sometime soon and have my ranged weapon equipped in advance.

VodCom.6924:

While the boss is infuriating to fight without stability, it address a number of issues in the GW2 gameplay. Kudos for that.

+1 to your comment overall, but I wanted to point out the stability in particular.
I did the fight without it. If you stay close to the center during the flying phase, you can position yourself so that the vines don’t pull and still avoid the teragrif damage zones.

Spending more time chasing the boss than hitting it is not fun. Its stationary phases should be longer and you should be able to CC it.

I keep saying this but might I remind people once more that this is END GAME content. Everybody and their dog should not be able to waltz in wearing green gear with no runes in it and complete the mission easy peasy.
If you struggle to kill the boss then spend some time learning its mechanics, or get yourself a group and do it with other people to help.

Remember end game story mode in GW1. Some of those missions were dead hard… but that’s what made them fun, and replayable. Seriously, the entitlement some people on these forums feel to have everything gifted to them is maddening

Its not hard but its really boring. I get the feeling this is just another test of mechanics. Both fights were easy but really boring/annoying. Thanks to way too much movement and not enough time stationary with the teragriff and just way too much hp and not enough threat from the troll. Last episode had good mechanics but were too focused on puzzles (should of had dps phases).

Rauderi.8706:

VodCom.6924:

While the boss is infuriating to fight without stability, it address a number of issues in the GW2 gameplay. Kudos for that.

+1 to your comment overall, but I wanted to point out the stability in particular.
I did the fight without it. If you stay close to the center during the flying phase, you can position yourself so that the vines don’t pull and still avoid the teragrif damage zones.

Odd, i found that to avoid getting vined i had to be inside the AOE…

Hmm, a lot of people complaining about the fight in the new patch storyline… It’s odd, since I felt it was kind of cool seeing a boss do something else other than sit and get spanked with a zerker mentality. I liked how he moved about in the area, and that he does heavy damage.

I do realize though that some classes may have it worse than others, but rather than come into the forums and post something like “boring fight, anet wth!”, we can specify what parts are not so good and highlight the parts that are. Just saying…

Hooo boy. I remember back when I was playing WoW, I literally had to craft a single expensive armor set for ONE BOSS, just so my guild could progress in the raid. That armor was never used anywhere else but that one single boss.

And now I see people complaining that they need to range a certain enemy.

Alga.6498:

VodCom.6924:

Alga.6498:

I don’t have any problem with that boss at all with my melee-weapons characters. :p
Just learn how to dodge and when it’s the right time to hit that monster hard!

Good for you.

Indeed, and bad for you I assume?

Indeed, it was a pain. Fortunately, the icebow is a little wonder when the boss starts screaming. That saved me a lot of time

Rauderi.8706:

It’s not just that fight, is part of the problem. GW2 routinely favors ranged.

O_O

I just read the PvE class guides on dulfy’s website (they are excellent readings btw) and I’m not exactly certain that the people who wrote them considered “ranged combat” relevant in level 80 PvE.

Otherwise the meta for warriors would be rifle + longbow instead of Axe/mace + GS. Or did I miss something ?

Annnnd double post. Sorry about this.

for the Thresher:

roll backwards twice when he starts to deploy his health steal AoE, this should put you outside the AoE, if not, walk backwards a bit. the animation is pretty easy to spot after a few times. i noticed that either it steals 0 health from Caithe, or such a tiny amount its not worth worrying about. then when the AoE field is gone, go back to melee and continue doing damage and roll out if the thresher deploys it again.

for the the Teragriff:

just use a ranged weapon… sorry…

its going to be pretty hard to switch mid-fight due to you being likely to take lots of hits from the malformed mobs or vines, keeping you in combat. since i didnt have my ranged weapon equipped at the time, i had to wait until the shout phase of the fight. if you make sure to stand outside of the shouting attack AoE you’ll be able to drop out of combat and switch out weapons.

once i equipped my Rifle it was a lot easier since i could just nail the boss as he ran around like a headless chicken. so if you are determined not to leave the instance, try hanging on until the shout attack phase then switch to a ranged weapon.

VodCom.6924:

Rauderi.8706:

It’s not just that fight, is part of the problem. GW2 routinely favors ranged.

O_O

I just read the PvE class guides on dulfy’s website (they are excellent readings btw) and I’m not exactly certain that the people who wrote them considered “ranged combat” relevant in level 80 PvE.

Otherwise the meta for warriors would be rifle + longbow instead of Axe/mace + GS. Or did I miss something ?

Annnnd double post. Sorry about this.

lupi is about the only fight thats as hard at range as in melee, everything else is easier at range. but melee just does more damage and the difficulty increase isnt enough to overcome the active defenses each class has access to.

Why? Because “play how I want”?

Yes, because the story is for everyone, not just the elite. Now the achievements related to the story can be a bit harder, but even those should be completable by anyone so long as they’re willing to team up to do them.