Guild Wars 2

I’d love to have my own house in-game. Give my inner packrat someplace to fill with junk and mementos of my travels.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Akhellan.4180:

Line of sight doesn’t seem to be this game’s strong suit.

This line makes me pine for the days when I used to be interested in wargaming until I watched dice being thrown over “line of sight” disagreements followed by “fine, take your roll” . . . and the target getting obliterated.

Honestly, I just wonder if I’m instinctively moving away from instances where this might trigger. Though as I’d said, mobs with ranged attacks seem less likely to have this sort of thing happen.

Hehe, indeed. It may just be some glitchiness in the AI that’s hard to nail down. I really do not envy the devs job when it comes to things like this.

I think part of the difficulty in documenting this “bug” is that its behaviour was very subtly modified a patch or two ago. Whereas before, these pathing/targeting issues would manifest with a clear “Invulnerable” message flashing on the screen; now what seems to happen is that the afflicted NPC will suddenly begin regenerating its health at a greatly accelerated rate.

It is entirely possible that this is occuring due to some NPC’s having an unusually short/bugged “leash” distance. However, sometimes it happens for no obvious reason, usually in response to a ranged player attack.

Mayhap there is some correlation between this and the bizarre “obstructed” and “out of range” glitches that will occur during ranged combat + the sometimes bizarre ways autotargeting will select unwanted targets.

Line of sight doesn’t seem to be this game’s strong suit.

Calae.1738:

Of coarse, what was I thinking? Lets make this as easy as possible. No one needs to be challenged. Especially not in a video game. Of all places.

I apologize for my earlier remarks. I was out of line. Clearly our perspectives are too different to see eye to eye. However, it is very clear to me that you haven’t read most of what I’ve written. I do not want there to be no challenge in the game. I just don’t want it slathered over the entire game like a coat of paint… please leave someplace in the game for folks like me. That is all I ask.

In the end though this is all completely academic: the devs will decide what they will do and players will choose how to respond. I will say no more.

StormageddonBK.9842:

I’m an older retired soldier as well… :P

I remember having lots of fun playing ridiculously difficult games in the 80’s and 90’s, but they were consistent. I think consistency is the issue, I never know if the mob is going to be a cakewalk or if they are the 1 in 100 than massacre me in less than 1 second…

This is one of the reasons I play 95% of GW2 in WvW, because even though the skill levels of players vary there is never a 1 hit kill unless culling has you running into the middle of a zurg.

I really, really enjoyed WvW when the game was new but I found it far too fast paced for my difficulties with the game controls. It was much more interesting than bashing NPCs… But bashing NPCs to get them out of the way so I can explore seems to be the best I can manage with my messed up reflexes and the like.

I used to be pretty athletic and my idea of challenge was pretty physical: long hikes and the like. Roaming the pretty open-world is a poor substitute but when you’re home-bound, you take what you can get.

The fact I’m memory-impaired means that the world of Tyria is always somewhat new to me… By the time I’m done exploring one corner, I’ve forgotten the other corner so I get to enjoy the journey all over again. :P

Anyways, meh — Didn’t mean to snap at the other person… Missus says I’m a cantankerous old crab for a reason though. And I’m new to forums and what not. I should probably go back to lurking before I get in trouble.

Raine.1394:

I too find the change more frustrating than ‘entertaining’ or ‘interesting’. Challenge is an interesting concept in games. One distinction I’ve learned to make is true challenge and artificial challenge. Of course, I’m using ‘true’ here in terms of what represents challenge to me. I find in good challenging games like, say, Dark Souls, the challenge is seldom questioned. Why? Because, if you do a postmortem of the fight, you can usually understand where you went wrong and what you need to do to avoid a similar outcome in the future. I find GW2 provides more of the artificial variety than any true challenge. That is, one minute you are alive fighting and one second later you are dead and you don’t have the slightest clue as to why. You look at the combat log and see that some mob hit you with two quick shots that took half your health each, but there was no real reaction called for in the combat itself. You know, you see the attack coming and you evade? This happens often enough that it characterizes GW2 combat. It’s not satisfying. At least not in the sense that Dark Souls is satisfying.

So, this is another take on the frustration and challenge. I’m ok with challenge. I don’t think the MMO is about crushing challenge in open world PvE though, or in entry level dungeons for that matter. I think the current frustration with the 2/26 changes is more about developer inexperience than anything to do with the player base, one way or the other.

I’m beginning to ponder some interesting questions for myself. I’m a long time computer user but only very recently began playing computer games for the first time. Part of the reason is that prior to retiring due to disability I was never able to take these games seriously or develop an interest in them.

To some degree I had and still have a prejudice towards regarding anything in a passive entertainment medium as a “real” challenge. The end result is that I end up seeing the “challenge” in these games as artificial and purely a source of irritation/frustration.

The life experience that “feels” most analogous to this vs. other players experience of “challenge” is culture shock.

Becoming a computer game player late in life is certainly proving to be an eye-opening experience in many regards, particularly when I see how my generation has negatively potrayed this new art form in the media and whatnot. Lots of food for thought.

I’ve tried everything the game has to offer and found roaming/exploring solo to be most enjoyable. Mercifully, leveling up can be done fairly quickly in this game; at that point the entire world is available to explore.

If you are the sort that thrives on challenge, you can ignore the levels and just go where you will… Just be aware of the consequences.

So far as I can recall, the dungeons are the only places that have a minimum level requirement for access.

As others have pointed out, it is difficult to fully answer your question without knowing what you are specifically interested in doing.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Was this a group event? If so, the mob difficulty may have been intended. Also, what efforts did you make to avoid the attack or mitigate it? How often did the Vet use this particular attack? Was there a tell for the heavy hitting attack?

A friend of mine said earlier this week, “One of the things I like about GW2 is that if I play smart and well, I can come through a fight taking no damage.” With that kind of option built into the game’s combat mechanics, harder hitting creatures — especially for events — make sense. I won’t say this particular mob is balanced properly or not without knowing more than I know now.

These mobs are unfortunately not appearing only in group events… They are appearing in the open world when I’m all by my lonesome and away from any event, they are even appearing in storyline missions and making them hellish experiences: swarm summoning veteran Risen Acolytes and certain Krait come to mind.

As I’ve said before, my concern is that these changes are being painted with a broad brush all over the place and may just be an initial “experimental” deployment of such changes. I never have posted in a game forum until recently because of these changes. I could not remain silent any longer.

Celtic Lady.3729:

I’ve been wondering if the addition of more “challenging” mobs is a way to try and get more players to upgrade their gear rather than be satisfied with “good enough.” If they think we’re not grinding gear enough, an easy way to get people to go for top-level gear would be to make the landscape much more difficult for someone using masterwork gear, so that they felt they couldn’t survive well without exotics or, someday when more is added, a full line of ascended.

I hope for the game’s sake that this is not the case. Judging by all the uproar over “vertical progression” being added to the game… This would be exceedingly unwise.

The irony here is that, using myself as an example, I’m a very easy player to keep happy. I don’t care about loot, progression, PvP, dungeons, WvWvW. Tried all of it and didn’t care for any of it except roaming about the open world aimlessly doing my own thing while using whatever equipment I can obtain without any major hassle. And I’m generous with my real-life money so long as I’m happy… I think I’ve spent more on this game then on any other game I’ve ever played before.

Thus far I’ve had no difficulty outfitting all 8 of my characters sufficiently well to do what I like by doing what I like. And I don’t care for large-scale “chest” events and whatnot so my income is quite likely on the extreme low-end of the scale…. So much so that I never waypoint unless I get killed. In point of fact, needless armor repair and waypoint fees sting quite a bit; hence my distaste for getting killed by “death by respawn” or “cheap shot” mechanics.

Harak.8397:

I play solo 99% of the time and I’ve been having a BLAST with the more challenging creatures. At 80, I actually get decent fights in some lower level areas.

Of course, I’m not implying that you should enjoy it too. Just writing this to say that there are some of us out there who enjoy the upgraded challenge.

Outstanding! — I have no doubts that there are folks who enjoy an increased challenge.

My concern is thus: that this “challenge” will be painted over all content with too broad a brush and begin to alienate those who only wish to explore and roam… not fight tooth and claw just to see what lies on the other side of that interesting looking hill.

From my perspective, the devs seem to mostly perceive “challenge” as being generated by ludicrous respawn rates, over-inflated NPC health pools, and “cheap shot” combat mechanics. All things that are, perhaps too easily, overcome by player numbers but strongly impact someone operating solo.

Don’t get me wrong, I do on occasion enjoy challenging myself by taking on vets/champs by myself and whatnot. However, I play mostly to relax as I find the real world provides me with all the challenge I care to stomach. In this context the “entertaining” new abilities granted to some hostile NPCs are a bit over-the-top as it were and a very unpleasant surprise.

Perhaps the worst offenders are the new veteran NPCs that “summon” swarms of reinforcements which might make an encounter more interesting to a group of players but can constitute a death sentence to a solo roamer particularly when coupled with the drastically reduced “combat” movement speed granted to the player and multiple repeated applications of “CC” abilities by said swarms rapidly exhausting dodge/stun break countermeasures.

Raine.1394:

The last patch was an attempt to make the game more “interesting”. There were changes to Orr, dungeons, DE’s, various NPC races to make the game more challenging. This is, of course, a step in the wrong direction in terms of open world PvE in an MMO which is not about crushing challenge. Anet seems intent upon learning lessons the hard way and sadly the players are along for the ride.

Indeed… I do not believe anything was broken with regard to “entertaining” mechanics in the last patch. I firmly believe these unreasonable difficulty spikes are “working as intended” and may signify a troubling change in audience focus for the game.

I cannot help but wonder if the devs are incorrectly assuming that most open world PvE players operate as part of large zergs/guilds. Witness the vaunted guild missions which were clearly aimed squarely at large organized groups.

My personal experience as a solo roamer/explorer has been that there seem to be many, many other players who have been enjoying the game in a manner similar to my own.

This is the first MMO I’ve found that has provided me with a niche which made me consider a long-time commitment. If changes such as these are harbingers of things to come, I fear that niche and my commitment may soon become a thing of the past.

Vayne.8563:

I don’t think that this game is made for a very narrow audience at all. I think this game is made for an audience most people don’t realize is as large as it is. Let me give you a couple of examples.

Games like Skyrim or Dragon Age or The Witcher are all popular games. They’re games about people who like RPGs. MMORPGs have had the letters in the name for a long time, but the love of exploring and the world detail have largely been ignored by companies. Very few companies really wanted to make a living world. That’s why everything in WoW ends up in dungeons and raids, and people standing around cities.

But when you actually poll the WoW playerbase, you end up with a whole lot more people who solo than anyone expected and a whole lot less raiders. More to the point, Scott Hartsman, the lead developer of Rift, said (and I’m paraphrasing here, it was a long time ago), no MMO developer in his right mind could possibly ignore those who play MMOs solo because it’s such a large percentage of the playerbase. Even the Guild Wars 2 FAQ has a question about being able to solo.

The thing is, since the people who play games for immersion often do solo, no one knows what they think. They don’t have to come to forums to exchange builds, or group with people, or find out about dungeon runs, or the best min/max builds. They just play the game.

There’s a whole lot of us out here. No one knows how many. Why? Because when you’re a raider there’s a very specific activity you do, and you KNOW you’re a raider. When you’re a PvPer there’s a very specific activity you’re into. But when you’re an immersion player, just enjoying the open world exploring and having fun, there’s no real name for that. So many people I’ve talked to share my play style, but there’s no word for it, because you’re not really doing any specific activity.

I believe that Guild Wars 2 is popular for players like me, because other MMOs don’t even take us into account most of the time.

+1 from me as well — I play as a solo/roamer explorer. I love the wide-open spaces of GW2. It is the only MMO I’ve found that includes a “niche” for me.

Like any game, there are features I don’t care for: dungeons, PvP, etc. These are of no concern to me so long as the niche I prefer continues to exist.

I very rarely choose to “speak up” in forums and the like. Loot and other similar motivations hold no meaning for me so I find the latest uproar over large scale events with chests difficult to relate to. I actually go out of my way to avoid them.

I play the game in “full immersion mode” with all NPC labels off and any other extraneous info sources minimized as much as possible… Really wish I could turn off the numerical combat damage floaters even :P

I suppose GW2 is for me.

I find interesting to note that most folks who’ve commented on the “new” krait have only mentioned their effect on events. Events that might be expected to attract groups.

The “new” krait are also irritating for folks like me: solo roamer/explorers who also have to contend with the “death by respawn” mechanics caused by ludicrous respawn rates in various places throughout the game.

They are yet another example of “cheap shot” mechanics serving as a means to artificially increase the level of “challenge” in gameplay while appearing to be poorly thought out. I can only hope this is some sort of experiment on the dev’s part and not a vision of things to come.

StormageddonBK.9842:

I think the issue here is (because I suffer from it myself) the OP appears to solo the game and roam. After 6 months of trying myself I don’t think the game was designed to be played like this. I bet those who say this game is too easy don’t play solo and/or don’t care if they die here and there (how many of them would have a zero death count?).

Your impression is correct — I operate primarily as a lone wolf. I only group on a casual basis with individuals I’ll come across as I roam. I prefer not to join a party for the most part, although I will sometimes do so briefly to assist other players having difficulty with skillpoints or vistas and whatnot.

I only rarely participate in large scale events as they are not something I care to do more than once or twice.

I seek immersion in my gameplay so I keep all NPC names off. I engage in combat only when necessary to get to where I’m going or fill an objective.

So yes, I agree that I’m most probably playing the game in a pretty peculiar fashion and this accounts for my point of view.

Hence why I detest “cheap-shot” mechanics and AI “cheating”.

And yet, I feel like I’ve found a niche in this game – perhaps not one the devs intended but there nonetheless.

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

Akhellan.4180:

I really am new to this forum thing.

In any case thank you for your comments. I am finding the discussion it has generated fascinating.

No worries, i like people who are new to forums. It means they usually still have innocence. xD

I’m an older person and as such it has been a very long time since anyone accused me of “innocence”.

As for the quote you added to your edit of your post… I am thoroughly enjoying the irony of the fact that real life becoming harder is what finally got me to try computer games in the first place. Well, that and a li’l nephew who worried about his homebound uncle’s sanity I suppose. XD

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

Akhellan.4180:

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

So let me get this straight… your saying you realise that different folks need different strokes, yet your complaining about that very thing, that the game is trying to become relevant to hardcore players as much as casual????

Anyways, while i boggle my brain on what your trying to say… Remember that these event scaling changes are just being tested at the minute. Its very likely to change again before they implement it globally. If they even do to the lower zones. Id assume they are looking at either leaving the scaling in lowbie zones or perhaps using a less harsh scaling curve. After all it would be silly to have an event thats next to impossible in a lvl 1-15 zone. But its equally as silly having bosses and/or mobs that dont even last long enough for me to target and damage with a massive grp in higher levelled areas.

If a challenge and difficulty wasnt your cup of tea, then im sorry for that but unfortunately, we cant have everything. My suggestion is dont play high level zones and meta events when the change is introduced globally. Itd be the same as hardcore players saying the whole game needs to be 10 times as difficult all round. Id say that argument was equally as ridiculous as this one for the same reason you have admitted yourself. Different strokes for different folks.

It would seem you didn’t actually read what I wrote. Or my language skills in English are worse than I thought.

Oh apoligies, i actually didnt read your post to the end. I thought this was a complaining thread, rather than a opinion and discussion one. As you can prob see we get far too much of the former in these forums. Kind of sticks me on auto-pilot when i reply.

Anyways, it is a good discussion. I will stick to my points though as i feel its something all gamers need to learn.
There are also other options though. the change doesnt have to be global when its introduced and there could easily be a middle-ground that anet is going for.
Like the dungeons, they said they brought the difficulty down in some and up in others to balance them in the long term. You need data to make changes after all and that data needs benchmarks to adjust the game further down the road.
This is why only two events have been affected. There will be developers currently pouring through this new data, seeing how many people succeed or fail etc. There will be new adjustments in accordance to this new data. The beautiful thing about MMOs is nothing is set in stone.

Also, the fact that they can seem to apply different systems of scaling to different events is looking very hopeful for everyone generally. With different systems for scale you can create different difficulties very easily. As we have seen. This is great as better rewarding or harder to find events could be very challenging – which would match up with he kind of people playing those events , similar to this you could have all non chained events and smaller, unpopular events be more easy. Catering for casual players.
Anert haver stated multiple times that they want to cater for every type of player. I wouldnt lose faith in this so easy when were seeing changes that live up to this statement entirely.

Not a problem — I suppose part of the misunderstanding is due to the fact I couldn’t quite figure out how to create a title for the thread that would fit within the character limits. The title it now has is actually supposed to have had a question mark at the end but it disappeared somehow.

I really am new to this forum thing.

In any case thank you for your comments. I am finding the discussion it has generated fascinating.

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

So let me get this straight… your saying you realise that different folks need different strokes, yet your complaining about that very thing, that the game is trying to become relevant to hardcore players as much as casual????

Anyways, while i boggle my brain on what your trying to say… Remember that these event scaling changes are just being tested at the minute. Its very likely to change again before they implement it globally. If they even do to the lower zones. Id assume they are looking at either leaving the scaling in lowbie zones or perhaps using a less harsh scaling curve. After all it would be silly to have an event thats next to impossible in a lvl 1-15 zone. But its equally as silly having bosses and/or mobs that dont even last long enough for me to target and damage with a massive grp in higher levelled areas.

If a challenge and difficulty wasnt your cup of tea, then im sorry for that but unfortunately, we cant have everything. My suggestion is dont play high level zones and meta events when the change is introduced globally. Itd be the same as hardcore players saying the whole game needs to be 10 times as difficult all round. Id say that argument was equally as ridiculous as this one for the same reason you have admitted yourself. Different strokes for different folks.

It would seem you didn’t actually read what I wrote. Or my language skills in English are worse than I thought.

Tuomir.1830:

Much of the perceived difference in seriousness between GW1 and GW2 is caused simply by the fact that most dialog in GW2 is voice acted, whereas in GW1 most dialogue was in text. A written joke seems always more dignified than one spoken aloud.

Interesting thought: How many of those who dislike Trahearne would still dislike him as vehemently had he had no voice, just text? How many would have looked upon Tybalt differently in the same scenario?

Culling has gotten so bad recently — maybe the areas aren’t dead. Maybe you just can’t see anyone.

This is not an attempt at sarcasm.

Avatar.1923:

@akhellan

anyway.

we are changing subject now!

Lol, sorry about that. Leave it up to the OP to go offtopic in the very same thread he started, eh?

I’m new to the whole forum thing and can get lost on tangents as a result :P — There is only so much one can learn by “lurking” after all.

Avatar.1923:

definitely,
you can have an hello kitty game and a dota 2 game..

very different in challenge level.

in most games today, you have the option to adjust the difficulty.
with mmos, you cannot really do that.

if they want to put that game on an esport level… it means thry want good players.
AND if they want to entertain these good players, they need to give them challenging pve stuff.
afterall its a pvprpg, but its still an rpg, otherwise these player will go play dota or a shooter…

to me the best business move would be to catter to good players for the long run.
less quick players have a lot of challenges to overcome before having 100% map completion and all dungeon done. if they like that type of content then they have a lot to do at their speed… + the living story should be the kind of difficulty youre looking for, and anet said they will expend a lot on that.

now its time for challenging content if they ever want to be taken seriously as an esport pvp game for fans of rpgs.

and they can.. but they need to understand the playerbase..

Do you think, then that maybe the devs have made a mistake in perhaps “casting their net too widely” as it were?

What do the creators of this content regard as a “good” player?

My youngest nephew was right when he recommended I start playing computer games as a means to gain access to something more interactive than watching television or reading — If nothing else, it makes interesting conversations such as this possible.

rizzo.1079:

Karizee.8076:

Finished Tequatl and heading back to the lab when suddenly BOOM!

Yeah the champs that spawn there now have some kind of one shot thing that you can’t even see…maybe because of the horrible lag that they nicely added on most open world events.

Shootsfoot.9276:

I just don’t understand what fun people find in just wandering around a world and being able to kill things with absolutely zero threat of dying themselves.

Kinda like playing PacMan without any of the goblins in the maze, if you ask me.

Different strokes for different folks. Some of us got burned out on really challenging video games in the 80’s when it was a major event if you could beat any game.

From my perspective, I’m beginning to understand why computer games never appealed to me before I was forced into retirement by age/disability.

Unfortunately, these very same real-life circumstances required a re-evaluation of available choices of entertainment. Becoming homebound and no longer being able to hike and explore the real world, seek what I saw as “real” challenges has been an interesting experience.

I did not take the concept of “difficulty” in an electronic entertainment product seriously. As a result, where other players see “challenge”, I just see aggravation beyond a certain point… Very different perspectives. Very interesting.

Mayhap the devs never quite realized just how wide of an audience their entertainment product might attract. And I feel like a stranger in a very strange land when I read some of the responses my post has generated.

Vayne.8563:

Actually OP, I can now see, based on your response what you want, and I think that it’s not a bad thing. The problem of course is how much is “enough” for either side and how do you divide open world content into easy (cakewalk) stuff and harder more challenging content without breaking immersion completely.

See, I’m like you a lot of the time. I need to relax and just run around and coast…but I also want a challenge, and not just a dungeon challenge. Sometimes I want to find something in the open world I need to tackle. Even in an easy zone, I’d like to be challenged some of the time. I think it’s reasonable that that can happen.

But I also agree that the challenge shouldn’t be painted with, in your words, a broad brush because it would change the entire nature of the game until now.

Changing something like the krait would make certain early zones, or parts of them, very tricky indeed.

I’m also not convinced these new changes indicate a new direction for Anet. I think they’re trying to stuff, and will adjust it as time goes on…this always happens when new changes come in.

I think we should wait for the fine-tuning before we assume anything.

Outstanding!!! Thank you for posting this reply — I think you’re perfectly understanding where I’m coming from and appreciate that you have communicated this in a clearer fashion than I was able to.

-I am not asking for changes to be made to the game.

-I am merely making my perspective known in the same manner that those wishing for greater challenge/difficulty have done.

More challenging content is fine — I am merely stating my personal preferences and the hope that there will remain a niche for me in the free-form open world exploration portion of the game.

HannaDeFreitas.4236:

Akhellan.4180:

I just feel that the “difficult” content should to some degree be segregated and not painted over the entire landscape with a broad brush

So you want us to be segregated into a zone and the rest of the game be made into a cakewalk because you like it this way? Wow.
I’m not sure you realize this but the majority of gamers who play combat-based game love a challenge, if you want a birdwatching MMO buy Skyrim and disable the AI.

No – not a zone – but that difficulty spikes should more appropriately be a part of actual events as opposed to just being casually sprinkled all over the place.

For example: there are areas where hostile creatures are seemingly, literally laid out in a grid pattern. As if their sole purpose is to hinder movement. Instead there should be some logic to their placement and they should also perhaps move in a logical fashion rather than just sitting in one place acting as an obstruction.

However, mayhap you have a point: I did not see this game as one that was specifically supposed to emphasize combat over all other aspects. Mayhap I’m too old to understand the intent of the game.

I submit though that the devs seem to have gone out of their way to create a world that would appeal to a wide variety of tastes and my comments are intended to show what my peculiar tastes are.

You clearly have your tastes, and folks who appear to agree with you have been exceedingly vocal on this forum. I just wish for the devs to be aware that other perspectives exist.

Edit: I will also add that at no moment in time have I asked for combat not to be a part of the game. I enjoy the combat — I even enjoy difficult combat… But in moderation. I just want to be able to choose my battles as it were, rather than be constantly forced into them while just roaming. If I go into a fight then I expect to fight — I’m not asking for there not to be a fight during an event where you are supposed to defend someplace or somesuch.

In any case, I’ve no intention to argue with you or anyone else — If you elect to willfully misunderstand my points then further comment is pointless.

Vayne.8563:

OP, I see what you’re talking about but I have a problem with what you’re saying. The entire game can’t be for anyone one group of people. It can’t be for you and players like you and no one else. Nor can it be for hard core players.

I understand the desire to roam freely but you know, for a lot of people the content is too easy. There has to be balance. That is to say there should be enough hard areas for some people and enough easy areas for others. I don’t think the entire world needs to be easy or hard.

I do think that harder krait should be removed from low level zones though. Those are the places where things should be easy.

I think you may have misunderstood my meaning so I’ll try to clarify – English is not my native language after all.

I never said the entire game should cater solely to folks like me. Nowhere in my post did I mention reducing the difficulty of dungeons, temple events, champion fights, dynamic events, etc.

I just feel that the “difficult” content should to some degree be segregated and not painted over the entire landscape with a broad brush. Challenging content has it’s place but there is no reason why navigating a visually striking region of the game should resemble picking one’s way thru a minefield. I guess if I simply had a way to avoid unwanted and needlessly “hard” encounters while simply wanting to see what is over the next hill then that might suffice. Mayhap some special open-world only escape and evasion skill that would not apply to WvW, PvP, or events but would allow ease of travel for the explorers who just enjoy the artistic beauty of the game.

I also did not say that a warzone like Orr should be “easy” — but at least don’t make casual travel thru the area aggravating.

I would never expect any game, much less an MMO to cater only to my needs and those of likeminded folks – I just ask that “our” playstyle be respected just as much as any other when changes are made.

As always, the final decision lies with the devs as this is their art, and theirs is the artist’s prerogative.

Thank you for completing the restoration of the fountain. It is appreciated.

WreckSC.1835:

Well Skritt are kind of scrawny, not sure you would get much good eating meat off one :P

Besides, look at the amount of weird, toxic, dangerous, exlposive things they collect up due to their ‘shinyness’, you would be lucky to not catch something fatal from eating them.

It would be a bit like eating a beef burger and discovering it was full of drug injected horse meat ……. oh wait….

Mercury is very shiny…

scinder.8315:

Some enemies have been changed but not everything. I know specifically, Krait are quite a different kettle of fish in some zones.

To some degree mayhap I should clarify why I finally have become concerned enough to post in a forum:

Indeed, only a few enemy types have been “empowered” in the recent patch. But I get the feeling that their deployment is part of an experiment on the dev’s part.

If this “experiment” is considered to be a “success”; it is my concern that this “empowerment” will then be extended to many other enemy types throughout the game.

Couple this with recent attempts to increase the harshness of character downscaling and I become truly concerned.

I don’t want open world exploration to become a source of aggravation rather than relaxation… Granted mayhap my position is a minority position with regard to the game’s audience as a whole, but it does not mean that I will continue to withhold comment hoping for the best.

In the end this is all my opinion and the dev’s will do what they will/must. I just choose to no longer remain silent in the hopes that they will be made aware of the diverse audience their work has attracted.

Avatar.1923:

op, do easier regions.

a lot of player need a bit of challenging open world not to fall asleep on their keyboard.

rewards are sexier with a bit of challenge.

I don’t care about rewards — I do, in fact, spend most of my time in low to mid-level areas. I enjoy helping newer players and whatnot… But I like to roam freely.

Sometimes this does include Orr and other “difficult” areas as it were. I’m an older person and my memory isn’t the best so if I stay out of a particular area long enough, I actually thoroughly enjoy “re-exploring” it.

So I need to roam to enjoy myself… The open-world has been very good in this way. I would not like to see it change for the worse (IMHO of course).

Edit: I did have an interesting thought while reading your reply though. I wouldn’t be so bothered by the nastier NPC’s if they would not interfere with my exploring… Unfortunately they cannot always be bypassed or avoided — and given my playstyle, I tend not to make a lot of coin so repairs/waypoints hurt a bit. In point of fact, the only time I waypoint is when I get myself killed :P

I exceedingly rarely choose to post on forums other than to make bug reports as I regard the particulars of game mechanics to be the dev’s prerogative. I simply vote with my pocketbook — if I approve I spend money, if I don’t then I withdraw my financial support.

I am posting my opinion here merely to make my voice heard as the appearance of the “new and improved” nastier Krait and Orrian Risen troubles me. Is the uptick in open world PvE difficulty a manifestation of the dev’s choosing to cater to a different audience?

Whether it is or not is not what troubles me, as aforementioned, I regard this as their prerogative.

I am well aware that part of this game’s audience has been clamoring for increased difficulty while using adjectives such as “faceroll” to describe the current and past difficulty level of open world PvE. I have no problem with this as, after all… “different strokes for different folks”.

I will say this though: I find that real-life provides me with all the “challenge”, “difficulty”, and “hardness” I care to stomach. I pay for entertainment to relax and indeed allow me to “faceroll” as it were to my heart’s content.

Up until now the open world PvE experience in GW2 has been mostly satisfactory from my perspective but I am concerned that this is beginning to change in a manner that I find displeasing. I don’t do dungeons as I don’t find them to be a relaxing and enjoyable experience. I tried PvP and WvW and found them to be likewise not to my taste.

What I do like to do in-game is to roam the open-world exploring all the nooks and crannies. I thoroughly enjoy finding the hidden places in the beautiful world the devs have crafted. For me, the combat is a necessary evil in many ways – I do enjoy it but it is definitely not my primary focus and oftentimes is merely an obstacle to overcome so I can see what is “over there”. I don’t particularly care about loot, and I detest “farming” or “grinding”.

Up until now, GW2 has provided me with a niche that has permitted me to enjoy myself in my own fashion. I wonder if this is coming to an end…

Just so there are no mis-understandings: I am speaking out because I want the devs to know that there are folks like me in the audience for their game that do not care for the “new and improved” Krait or the fiery new Risen Pirates because they make the game less enjoyable for “us”.

The choice of what audience will be favored is for the devs to make. Just be aware that not everyone finds a good “faceroll” displeasing

TL:DR – Not everyone likes more difficult NPC’s in open world PvE. Krait and Risen were already aggravating opponents… They did not need to become more aggravating.

SouthernCross.5286:

I understand how this can ruin PvP, but in PvE it doesn’t bothers me since fellow players are not a threat, I mean ideally there would be no culling but if some of it is necessary so I can at least participate in a dragon event even if at 5 fps, or reduce loading times from minutes to seconds then so be it.

Unfortunately it is not only causing friendlies to be invisible. I’ve already run into several situations where hostile NPCs have been completely invisible to me until they initiated combat. These were not respawns out of thin air — they were culled as evidenced by the fact their names/details were visible but the characters themselves were not.

Normally, I play with all character names off except for players to improve immersion but this issue has on occasion forced me to turn the names for NPCs back on to save me unecessary repair bills.

I really hope the devs can do something to curb this seemingly worsening problem.

There are several threads floating around this section of the forum regarding this bug. So far, they haven’t been merged so it would appear they haven’t been noticed.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Finished-pers-story-can-t-exit-solo-instance

As you can see, I have the exact same issue. A temporary workaround is to logoff and log back on with your “trapped” character, as this will return you to the shared worldspace.

I have the exact same issue — Seemed to begin at least several patches ago but I didn’t notice and test it extensively till recently.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Finished-pers-story-can-t-exit-solo-instance

This is a long-standing bug that has existed since before the game was released. Best guess is that it’s a poorly thought out and implemented mechanism designed to prevent players from “exploiting” inherent flaws in AI pathfinding/targeting logic.

In other words, it triggers when the AI “decides” that it cannot obtain LOS on the player… Unfortunately it would appear that the programmers set the tolerance limits far too loosely so it triggers in circumstances where the player has clear LOS but the AI thinks it’s playing peek-a-boo :P

It is one of the more irritating bugs in the game and responsible for countless needless player deaths/repair bills+wp costs.

Please Fix. Thank You.

Update: Following location is also affected

4. Vigil Keep

Additional observations: Decided to visit other instanced maps to see if they were affected. It now appears that any instance that doesn’t have an actual portal to access/exit is bugged. This is why dungeons and the Chantry of Secrets are unaffected.

It appears that in one of the recent patches, the “exit instance” clickable icon usually located above the minimap was inadvertently removed.

Bug doesn’t affect players who still have storyline missions pending as the floating green mission guide object brings up the exit dialog when approached. Bug manifests if player has no missions pending (post Zhaitan defeat) as then there is no mission guide object to interact with.

Addendum: Another workaround appears to be logging off and back on — this moves affected character out of the instance and back into the shared worldspace.

Same bug on my L80 character, and at the same place: “Estate of Decay”.

Never would’ve noticed it except for the fact that completing the personal story seems to have had the bizarre side-effect of trapping my character in any personal map instance with no means to exit except via waypoint or HotM.

Noticed it while trying to figure out the “trap” bug. No idea if there’s a connection.

Seen the following in my travels:

Shark named “Guppy”
Murellow named “Marshmellow”

My L80 character that completed his personal story is no longer able to exit any “personal” instances except via waypoint (expensive) or PvP portal to HotM -> Lion’s Arch.

Locations verified affected:
1. All “Home” instances in all cities
2. Durmand Priory Interior (as that is the order he joined)
3. Caer Aval in Fort Trinity

Observations:
The bug does not affect shared instances such as dungeons, only “personal” instances. The “exit instance” icon that usually would be located above the minimap is missing and there is no exit portal/exit dialog window if the exit location is approached.

Bizarrely, when in a “Home” instance such as Salma District in Divinity’s Reach, all waypoints in the city suddenly require a minimum payment of 1s 39c to use instead of zero. Locations outside cities, such as Caer Aval or the Priory are worse as the instance map is not necessarily anywhere near the exterior location so waypoint costs are much higher. The end result is that the character is “trapped” in the instance and has to pay to exit or must use the PvP HotM portal to bypass.

Alt characters that have not completed their personal stories are unaffected as the floating green mission guide marker does provide an exit dialog prompt.

Personal Note: This bug would not be an issue if waypoint travel was FREE but as it isn’t, other than using the PvP bypass workaround (and having to gate thru Lion’s Arch every time I need to exit such an instance) it becomes an annoyance.

Please Fix. Thank You.

I’ve had the same problem since I first got the game. For me the fix/workaround was to switch the graphics to supersampling in the options menu and live with the fps decrease. I’ve gone through several driver updates for my video card and this hasn’t changed. Incidentally, I have the same video card so mayhap that has something to do with it.