Guild Wars 2

Tarasicodissa.7084:

Chaotic.9760:

I’ve put hundreds of hours into GW2 and have never stepped foot into a dungeon or fractal. Generally I play GW2 as if it were a single player RPG and I never care for situations where I’m forced to use a specific build and party up with others that simply want to rush through to get loot. I want to try them with my Mesmer that I’ve built through PvE and I don’t want to have to change my set up.

I would love to try one on my own, but it doesn’t really seem possible. Am I out of luck here? Do I have to continue ignoring Dungeons/Fractals or else deal with having to team up with four strangers?

First of all, soloing dungeons is an extremely ineffective and unrewarding strategy. Most of the people you see doing this are bored with the game (lack of new challenging instanced content) and do this just to test their skills. If this is what you seek, be my guest. But if you want to make money, be prepared that it takes a significant amount of time to both learn to solo and execute it. Running with other people (even if they’re inexperienced) is still way more efficient, since content in dungeons doesn’t scale.
Second, are you really sure you want to solo dungeons if you haven’t finished one before, not even with other people? A lot of dungeons can be a challenge for a newbie even if he’s part of a 5-man team, let alone doing them on his own. I’d highly suggest you to pracice a lot in groups to understand general dungeon strategy, get an idea of where you have to go and what you have to do. Then you might have a chance at completing some of the easier dungeons (some story modes as suggested above).
Now about that “I don’t want to change my setup” part. If that’s true, you can forget about ever soloing a dungeon. Imagine that even with full offensive spec, it takes several times longer to finish a path solo than it would with a group. That means with bad gear you might even have to spend half a day in a dungeon just to be able to finish it. Some parts of dungeons will physically require you to wear full offensive set because they’re a DPS race. It is also hugely recommended that you get all the basic consumables (food, potions, feathers, ele powder,…) as they will often make things easier.
It all comes down to what you’re after. If you’re a Sandy-level skill player who seeks challenge, soloing dungeons might be your thing. However, if you just want to get things done, you should do them normally.

My main reasoning for wanting to solo the dungeons is simply because I’ve run out of other single player content, but still want to get enjoyment out of my Mesmer. It sounds like grouping is my only option then as I’m not one to seek out challenge just for the sake of it. Thanks for the input.

Thanks for the comments guys, I appreciate it.

GummiBear.2756:

Chaotic.9760:

Here’s another way to look at the situation… I can get behind the “Dry Top style” maps from here on out as they do have waypoints, hero points, vista’s, etc, however why then don’t they have 100% completion based on that alone (with no hearts)? If we want to compare them to Orr, then lets look at the three maps in Orr…..all three are missing Hearts, but they still all have a 100% completion bar. Just give me that and I’ll be satisfied enough.

And where do you get this info that there wont be completion like that in the jungle? again what we see is a beta, and is supposed 25% of one of the jungle maps, so would be pretty pointless to implement such a thing yet, as you wouldn’t be able to get close to even 100% of one map let alone the whole jungle, and it would likely distract ppl from doing what they actually want us to test

Excluding a 100% completion because it’s not possible in the beta does make sense, I’ll give you that. But honestly all this “It’s just a beta, thus we shouldn’t judge or assume” is getting a bit out of hand. I can do that to a point, but after a while we’re simply defending Anet for no reason other than to blindly defend them.

Again, your point makes logical sense, however all I can do is go based on evidence that I am presented with. I’ve already purchased HoT and plan to enjoy it fully, so I’m not trying to start a mob against Anet here, I’m just concerned that I won’t enjoy it as much as I had hoped if my assumptions are correct. But they’re still just my assumptions, not facts.

I’ve put hundreds of hours into GW2 and have never stepped foot into a dungeon or fractal. Generally I play GW2 as if it were a single player RPG and I never care for situations where I’m forced to use a specific build and party up with others that simply want to rush through to get loot. I want to try them with my Mesmer that I’ve built through PvE and I don’t want to have to change my set up.

I would love to try one on my own, but it doesn’t really seem possible. Am I out of luck here? Do I have to continue ignoring Dungeons/Fractals or else deal with having to team up with four strangers?

Here’s another way to look at the situation… I can get behind the “Dry Top style” maps from here on out as they do have waypoints, hero points, vista’s, etc, however why then don’t they have 100% completion based on that alone (with no hearts)? If we want to compare them to Orr, then lets look at the three maps in Orr…..all three are missing Hearts, but they still all have a 100% completion bar. Just give me that and I’ll be satisfied enough.

glehmann.9586:

Chaotic.9760:

Wwefan.4982:

Stop comparing the beta to the end product we aren’t seeing every map in the betas how many times do devs need to state this we are seeing 25% of Verdant brink for betas to stop Anet ruining the story.

People really have a problem with reading posts it seems….I don’t care about the size of Verdant Brink or any other map section. I simply want the sections to be more like the 100% completion zones rather that the simple locations like Dry Top. Also I’m not comparing the beta to the end product, but the beta should give me an idea of what to expect. From what I’m seeing in the beta I no longer expect to get the zones I want.

…Your first few posts were about how much other games increased the world map size and how many maps they added, as well as how many maps were in other zones in GW2 and complaining about “small season areas”. If people think you care about map size, it’s because of the things you’ve said in this thread.

Beyond that you’ve talked about wanting maps you can get 100% completion on, while being very nebulous about what exactly it is you want for that. There are points of interest, waypoints, and mastery points that work like skill challenges. I would assume they plan to add vistas, since even Dry Top and Silverwastes have vistas. I’m guessing there will be rewards for getting 100% map completion in the new zone.

If you want renown hearts to work towards, you’re out of luck. The new zones are going to follow the same model as Orr, where instead of hearts you have lots of dynamic events and event chains.

I compared to GW1 expansions not because of the size of the map in the beta, but what it seemed to represent, which is small “Dry Top like maps”. I want maps that allow me to get 100% completion because if all I can do is events then I’ll get bored really quick. I don’t play PvP and only go into WvW once in a while and Dungeons/Fractals are not my thing. So when I play GW2 I play it like a single player game and having a goal to work towards (100% map completion of zones) is what I look forward to doing. That’s why I enjoyed Factions and Nightfall so much…they had a ton of new areas for single player people to look forward to doing.

Wwefan.4982:

Stop comparing the beta to the end product we aren’t seeing every map in the betas how many times do devs need to state this we are seeing 25% of Verdant brink for betas to stop Anet ruining the story.

People really have a problem with reading posts it seems….I don’t care about the size of Verdant Brink or any other map section. I simply want the sections to be more like the 100% completion zones rather that the simple locations like Dry Top. Also I’m not comparing the beta to the end product, but the beta should give me an idea of what to expect. From what I’m seeing in the beta I no longer expect to get the zones I want.

ketorin.5923:

you realize we are playing 25% of the intro part of verdant brink right?

this map is going to be HUGE.. not to mention the canopy and the underground parts..

I do realize that. Do you realize that I’m not concerned with the size of Verdant Brink, but rather the fact that it’s not a true “zone” as the rest of the world contains. I want vistas, hero points, 100% map completion, etc. From what I’m seeing Verdant Brink is just like Dry Top, which is not what I was hoping the expansion would be.

Nachyochez.9758:

Firstly, we need to temper expectations:
Nightfall and Factions were not expansions. They were standalone Campaigns that could be played alongside the original GW (Later dubbed ’Prophecies) or completely by themselves. Eye of the North was an actual expansion, which opened up far less land but introduced some new mechanics and features tot he game. So, when comparing HoT, it needs to be to that release, no to the campaigns.

Secondly, we have only a few pure level 80 areas:
Cursed Shore, Southsun Cove, Dry Top, and Silver Wastes.
None of these areas have hearts, or behave very much like Bloodtide coast. Instead they chain several events together, focusing on player-invested control of the areas. This is how level 80 zones typically look and work.

That said, to be an effective ‘expansion’ it just needs to have enough content to give players a break from the current game offerings (new dungeons, story modes, and maps to WvW/PvP), add something to the old game modes to refresh them (break bar and Elite Specializations), and all in all be fun.

You bring up a good point about comparing this to Eye of the North rather than Factions and Nightfall. I’ll keep that in mind going forward. I just hope there’s enough PvE for me, because I generally stay away from WvW/PvP and very rarely touch the dungeons.

Well I know there will be more maps (I was reading another post that talked about some confusion there), but I’m talking about full maps, not the Dry Top type stuff. What I mean is, Ascalon has six maps, each with a 100% map completion to work towards. Kryta also has six separate areas. Maguuma Jungle has five. And so on throughout the entire world. So with a fully priced expansion I’m expecting the new area to have roughly 5-6 separate explorable areas that I can get to 100% map completion. Maybe even a brand new city to explore as well, as each of the other sections have cities of their own. From what I can tell, even if there are more areas beyond Verdant Brink, there still not the same areas as the rest of the world.

I was hoping the expansion would bring in more areas like Caledon Forest or Bloodtide Coast, but instead we seem to have yet another Silverwastes/Dry Top area. Factions and Nightfall increased the entire world map of GW1 by 100% each, but these small “Season areas” do nothing exciting for me. I know it’s a beta, but this isn’t giving me hope for what I was expecting out of a huge expansion. It seems more like season three bundled up into what they wanted to call an “expansion”.

They’ve of course mentioned new skills when it comes to the weapons in the specializations, but has there been talk of new Utility, Healing and Elite skills? The ones I have are getting a bit stale and I wouldn’t mind getting a new small set of those and not just new weapon skills.

Or just revisit old areas to collect crafting supplies? I’ve been level 80 for a while now and my Artificer and Tailor levels are still around 175. No matter how slow I do the story or how much time I put into collecting supplies I always seem to barely move the needle and then run out of stuff. And of course none of the equipment I make is useful to my character. I don’t think it ever has been.

If anyone would care to help a guy out, I’m looking for some advice in what my sixth profession should be. So far I’ve used the five available character spots to make a Mesmer, Necromancer, Thief, Engineer and Ranger. I’m not the type that sticks with a single character, but rather I like to jump around and keep everyone around the same level as I play. But I find myself with a ton of Gems and a desire for a sixth character slot, yet no direction with which profession I should try between the remaining three.

So between the Warrior, the Elementalist and the Guardian, can I hear some arguments for and against? My own personally tastes won’t make a difference as I generally play and enjoy all types. I’m more curious what everyone else thinks. Thanks for the help!

Is there a trick to knowing when someone is going to use a certain move? I keep reading and hearing talk from people like you should be able to see a subtle movement that tells you they’re going to Belch. Or is it mostly just luck that you belch at the exact time when they’re drinking water or bluffing?