Guild Wars 2

Seriously…4 hearts a day and you are whinning? Go play a Korean MMO. You don’t even understand the word grind until you’ve had to do the same quest 1000 times in order to get a weapon.
By comparison, this isn’t even a blip on the radar.

Sure it isn’t “fun” for many, but it also isn’t “fun” for a short period than it is done.

IndigoSundown.5419:

While I can see that it might be frustrating to see a mob which has a skill we cannot use, sometimes they need such advantages. After all, they cannot switch weapons, traits and utilities to counter particular player builds, while players can do so to counter mob builds.

This is irrelevant, you can’t swap on the fly in PvP either yet people do just fine with what they have.

Named or not the named classes NEED to be 100% confined to the EXACT skills the players have access to. If they can’t create a challenging encounter with those skills, it is time to take a hard look at the class as to why this is.

Linken, you can only equip one elite at a time.

The wierd part is if they keep making elite=new weapon, we will begin seeing some rather strange combinations, and downright rediculous ones. It is already strange to see warriors not being the best at the large two handed weapons (GS and Hammer) and guardians not being the best with a shield (seeing as blocking is kinda their whole playstyle).

Rauderi.8706:

Aeolus.3615:

Rauderi.8706:

Best fix: Ban all Champion+ encounters.

There, no more trains. Everyone wins.

u want to end one of the principal points of the game???

I left off the /s for a reason.
I don’t consider group content for personal character growth to be a principle point of the game. That’s been debated, at length, on the boards pretty much since the release of HoT.
While some very kind players have been awesome enough to lead the charge in zones to do HP trains, many players resent being forced into group content that way. I can remember quite a few times during my HoT experience where I got blindsided by an overpowered champion (thus negating most of my ability to CC or defend like in the rest of open world), and it really put me off of the game.
I was determined to get through it, but I guarantee some players looked at that and stopped logging in. They didn’t bother going to the forums to complain, they just quit.

I know of MANY people that quit the game pretty fast because of this. Personal growth should be just that, personal.
Forced grouping is a long dead aspect of MMO’s as the main audience for MMO’s now work jobs, take care of their houses, kids, etc…
Heck the lack of an in game automated group finder for dungeons and such is a notable lacking point considering it is now an industry standard.

I rather enjoy the game, and keep coming back to it with breaks in between. It has it’s failings, but they all do. Just hope they keep working on QoL improvements.

People always say a harder timein PvP but it is relative, core classes can still compete though it is dependant on your willingness to learn every class and play to your class strengths in a huge way.
Base Necromancers are still contenders (and in some instances are actually preferable) as an example.

PvE? You have all of core Tyria to play in and it will be enjoyable. HoT brings a few maps and some QoL improvements but the base game is a lot of fun without it.

The LS3 maps are a perfect balance IMO.

Ashen.2907:

morrolan.9608:

Ashen.2907:

To be honest, you might want to spend some time learning your preferred profession a bit better before moving on to HoT. The content in the core game doesnt really teach you much about playing well. HoT is supposed to be more challenging for play by those who have a better handle on their characters.

If 80 levels doesn’t teach you how to play your class properly then ‘Houston we have a problem’!

I disagree, to an extent.

Pre-endgame leveling, in any game, doesn’t necessarily teach you how to perform at your fullest potential. That comes with practice and experience while operating in the new, more challenging environment.

Living season 2 helps with this learning curve, but most new people won’t ever do it. Or even see it as an option due to how it is tucked away or requires an additional purchase for them.

flog.3485:

Runiir.6425:

I love it when everyone jumps on me. Usually means I am pushing the right buttons.

Sarcasm aside. Every attack was over the top, however every weapon should have an attack on it, somewhere, that effects that bar.

As for the person that goes “you choose not to use those utilities” everyone’s playstyle is different. Many people prefer tankier builds which means your utilities are all for self defense/cleanses/etc, not for attack purposes. As I’ve said before, forcing that change without recompense is bad design.

Yes I’ve beaten the story without any breakbar skills. Not what I would consider fun though heh.

There just has to be a better way to handle this.

If you completed it without breakbar skills why do you complain about needing one ?

I do not always take positions I personally feel in discussions. This is a forum, it’s purpose is for discussions, preferably with emotion removed from the equation and neither side feeling anything personal.
Breakbars are also a thing I see in mapchats that people complain about. The Patriarch meta boss I see a lot of complaining about the breakbar…or rather lack of people trying to break it to stun it.

Remove emotion, remove any personal attachment, feelings that ‘you can do it with this’, and simply look at the merits. Can this be changed to open up more builds, or to reduce the lack of non-involement with it?

TorsoReaper.8530:

Vayne.8563:

TorsoReaper.8530:

Generally when you come on here people are going to say they love HOT maps because the people who hated HOT maps quit the game. It’s called “survivorship bias”.

I didn’t think the mobs in HOT are that hard at all, I just got annoyed because the 2D minimap is completely useless for a 3D map and there’s a lot of routes that involve backtracking. Dry Top is 3D but when you want to go up, there’s almost always a thing that gives you the jump ability.

In HOT when you want to go up, you can be sure the bouncing mushroom was 400 yards in the opposite direction and you have to backtrack until you find it, take the mushroom, then an updraft, then a ley line, to get to where you want to go.

Offset by the fact that more people are likely to complain when they don’t like something than say nice things when they do. That’s a bias too.

Forums of every MMORPG are filled with people complaining. They go to forums TOO complain. I have well over 200 people in my guild playing and enjoying the game. I think 3 of us post on forums. The other 197 are playing and having a good time.

There are people I know who USED to post on the forums, who still like the game and stopped because of the negativity here. It affected their enjoyment of the game. It was too much work to say they liked something. They were attacked as fan bois or Anet shills or white knights.

Saying more people are saying they like it because those who didn’t have left the game is only a small part of the story. I think the people who don’t like it are going to talk a lot louder than the people who do.

I actually agree with you but that is kind of my point. The complaints of HOT maps has gone down a ton over the last year and I think your point is very right: Generally, people complain louder than they praise. Therefore, the fact that the complaining has subsided means these people have given up and left. =)

NEVER be happy with people leaving an MMO. As numbers drop, so does revinue. Also, people only complain when they CARE. Less complaints usually means less people, and less people caring anymore. Both signify bad futures for MMOs.

I’d rather see 50 new complaint threads a week than 3, if only because it meant people were interested, invested, and care about the game.

You have to get to that point on another character. Also just look at what skins you have available in your wardrobe for backpacks. You’ll see quickly if you grabbed the vigil or whispers backpack then.

I love it when everyone jumps on me. Usually means I am pushing the right buttons.

Sarcasm aside. Every attack was over the top, however every weapon should have an attack on it, somewhere, that effects that bar.

As for the person that goes “you choose not to use those utilities” everyone’s playstyle is different. Many people prefer tankier builds which means your utilities are all for self defense/cleanses/etc, not for attack purposes. As I’ve said before, forcing that change without recompense is bad design.

Yes I’ve beaten the story without any breakbar skills. Not what I would consider fun though heh.

There just has to be a better way to handle this.

Vayne.8563:

Runiir.6425:

You know, a huge problem in HOT was shown to me a few days ago when a bunch of us were talking about it in a map chat after a successful meta. The reliance of the devs on break bars SEVERELY hampers build diversity to the point they really just need to make any/all attacks effect the break bar to bring back some diverse builds. A lot of the problems in soloing things are 100% the break bar and it is a mechanic completely ignored untill HOT with NO EXPLINATION OF IT ANYWHERE.

Seriously, play through the story of HOT without a single skill on your bars that effects a break bar, or only one skill that isn’t spamable that effects it, and you have a lot of weapon/build combinations people enjoy playing (typically these are the medic builds or pure self survival builds). Now try to solo it all. Emphasis on solo, no bringing in anyone else, ever. I’ve been trying this and, frankly, HOT looks like a giant kick tot he nethers if you despize some of the build changes it forces on you.

If you force people to change builds to fit content, you failed at building your content. Every build should be viable, thus the break bar mechanic is a failure that needs retooled. Seeing as an entire map chat on a meta agreed with this, almost all of us having solod the story and most of the maps, there could very well be something here as to why HOT is so hated. As the vast majority of people despize any reason to alter their build. They built it to suit their gameplay style, there should be no reason to alter it just because of a kitten mechanic.

Every single MMO I’ve ever played has forced people to change builds to clear content, even Guild Wars 1 did. I dare you to take your normal build into Slaver’s Exile in Guild Wars 1 without changing your build.

Builds weren’t made for you take take any random skill you want to succeed. That was never the intended design. They were made to make builds to solve problems. Anyone who thinks one build in this game will do everything they want, probably isn’t familiar with Guild Wars 1.

Guild Wars 1 was called build wars for a reason. They toned it down a lot in this game, but it’s still there…and it should be. Saying I shouldn’t have to change my build is an opinion.

I disagree. Changing your build is how you learn and grow with the game.

You choose GW1, when the devs themselves routinely said THIS game would not be like the old one. You said you played many MMOs yet failed to ever use one that wasn’t GW1…which the devs themselves said they would not build this game to be like that one. The actual tag line for GW2, and it is STILL used in their promotional material is to “play your way” not their way. In otherwords, you were not supposed to be forced to change your build to fit with specific content.
I mean seriously, you didn’t consider it anoying in GW1 to change your build several times a run? I sure did. I played it for PvP though so didn’t need to shift my build much personally.

Try a different one. How often did you change your Ranger build in DAoC? You know, the premier and highest ranked RvR game of all time? The Chanters of Aion? Tanks in literally almost every game ever?
Traditionally you changed your equipment to match things, NOT your build in MMOs. Your build was your build, and traditionally cost you serious coin to change. Thus you changed your gear to change your defenses. This has been industry standard for a long time, most people coming tot he game expect it to stay.

Now you say to change your gear. Now, if breakbars never go anywhere or change…how will weapons that do not effect the breakbars ever become viable? They won’t. This limits build viability which is a bad direction to go in a game you still advertise as “play your way”.

Some answers, though I am too lazy to quote the various questions asked.

The multiplayer in MMO does not stand for grouping, it simply means that multiple people are playing on the same server/map/etc. Originally this was only 4 or so people in the original usage of the term in the industry and by gamers. It also was almost universally meaning you were playing AGAINST those other people. So using it as an excuse for things to not be soloable? Yeah, long debunked. MMO means what it has always meant, that you will see others playing in the same areas as you and no grouping is required. Grouping came about as a reaction to things devs were doing, not because of a term for a game. So anyone still using the statement that x game is an MMO and thus you should be grouping…you are showing your ignorance and lack of understanding on what MMO means, and are in fact defaulting to a farcical base argument because you lack a good one.

As for where people who want a challenge should go? Open world and story content should be soloable. If you want a challenge…that is what veteran modes, dungeons, raids, and instanced off areas are for. The meta bosses fit this description as well. Just getting around a map should never be challenging. Apparently enough people consider HoT maps too challenging to just explore. We might not see it that way but it is a completely valid concern. I hear most of the problems though are related to the fact the minimap is of almost no help in getting around HoT maps. If they could fix this people might stop complaining about the vertical map complaints.

Another often seen complaint is the fact so many of the hero challenges in HoT require a group. These things should only spawn champs if they sense 4+ people within range, like 1200 of the challenge. Otherwise, just spawn a dang vet or silver and call it done. They are supposed to be hero challenges, not group challenges. Otherwise I expect group reward (IE drop dungeon loot/tokens/map currency).

Break bars are another issue of contention as they negate many fun builds from being playable. As I have seen and used myself as an example, sword/sword – rifle warrior is a popular and fun build that is nigh unplayable in HoT. Because of the breakbar and reliance on AoE damage to survive encounters in the new maps. This is a dev issue as it is bad game design to allow any POSSIBLE build to be kitten in such a way. Every weapon should be capable of breaking a break bar, just add an effect to one of the attacks so the weapons can continue to be viable.

These being just some of the issues I see brought up in map chats, and here.

In 4 days you shouldn’t even be lookign at or CARING about the market. You should be learning the game

Uh you CAN turn off auto loot, it adds the option to turn it on or off in the esc menus.

Healix.5819:

Runiir.6425:

and Orr changed back to what it was originally (worse than HOT originally).

Reverting Orr to how it was would actually be a pretty big nerf to it. The original major nerfs were toning down the amount of enemies and changing some of the CC, most notably the Putrifier’s anchor pull. After that however, they buffed enemies by giving them new, far stronger attacks and Dwayna and Grenth were reworked and made much stronger. As a sample of the new attacks, abominations didn’t originally charge and nobles didn’t have marks. Basically every AoE attack didn’t exist at the start, as they were added to counter the zergs.

It only feels easier today because everyone’s geared, whereas back then, it was common to reach Orr in level 60-75 fine/masterworks with no accessories, since they were crafted, and backpacks didn’t exist.

Well I meant more for the density. In many places it feels as though only half the mobs are there that used to be there.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Runiir.6425:

Breakbars need to die and be stripped entirely from the kitten game. They are the reason so many builds are no longer viable (BAD game design)

What exactly don’t you like about breakbars? What builds aren’t viable because of breakbars? Did you prefer the old defiance system, in which you had to count how many times the target was hit with a hard CC?

And what does this have to do with whether the HoT metas need to be nerfed?

Break bars are bad design. A relatively popular and well loved build for warrior used to be sword/sword and a rifle. Goodluck surviving in HOT that way. You have no aoe, you also have nothing that reliably effects the break bars. Most of your utilities will not be breakers in such a build, they will be cleanses, sigils, shouts more likely than anything. Now play through the story, or play a meta that way. You are a leech in meta unable to help the break bar, and in any solo content you are a sitting duck because of that bar being so central a part of the game now for boss fights including metas.

EVERY attack should effect that bar so that every build can be viable. If you have no breaker skills (and not every build has them people, stop thinking how YOU play and start thinking about every possible combination) you are more or less a waste of space in the boss fights of a meta. In fact you not being there makes it easier as the boss will have less health and the break bar will be smaller.

In short, if you have to change your weapon choices and build to accomodate a mechanic…then you have built your game wrong. Part of GOOD game design is making every build you have allowed to be built by players into viable ones. At the very least viable for open world/story content.
Also, I prefered stability the original way of it being blanket immunity for 3-4 seconds. We had too many ways of gaining stability back then though which was the problem with it, making it the stacks you had to count (IE like PvP now) works just fine too. The better way is to simply trash break bars and put the weakeness that happens when the bar pops into the phases itself naturally. This allows every build to be viable again.

For example, the eir/garm fight. you drop garm she runs to revive him, if you smack her from behind even just once while she is reviving it pops her break bar and she goes into the stun phase, comes out of stun normally and finishes revive fight continues. BAM all builds viable that fast. No need to force people to change weapon choices/build just for a single mechanic that is too dang central to the game. Like Patriarch wyvern breakbar stun being integral to that meta boss fight. You have too many slug builds and you will never stun him, sure the fight is doable that way but congratulations for making a mechanic that requires specific weapons/builds to even be available for use.

LouWolfskin.3492:

Healix.5819:

LouWolfskin.3492:

Have been saying things along this line since the new player experience was put into the game and literally made the core game a joke.

It was already a joke. The core game was blanket nerfed in the original beta, basically halving everything. Enemy damage was originally a lot like HoT, even a little higher in some cases with dodge or die special attacks.

Most players simply do not want a challenge and attempting to force change will only come at a great loss, as they’ll simply go somewhere else. Look at any other MMO and solo content is usually a joke. ArenaNet has always been for the gamers however, rather than the majority. If they have no plans to continue supporting that audience, they really should revert the core game, simply to not mislead people early on.

Oh, i know that the game was nerfed during the beta because People were screaming about the oh so high difficulty.
But the new player experience turned the game into an even greater joke for me.

HoT is what Lvl 80 content should be..
And i’m not saying the entire Level curve should be like that but let’s be honest, when you Level your character, gain your first Utility Slot and gain a skill that you will most likely ignore because it’s a condi counter and most low level mobs had their conditions removed… yeah..

Events should scale better, Veterans should have better builds than normal enemies, Elites should have better builds than Veterans (not just more HP) and, let’s say for example, every 10 or so Levels the Areas should add something for you to learn, CC, Conditions, Breakbars and so forth.

If you had all that during leveling not only would you feel more accomplished in the higher areas, given a decent rework, it would also make lvl 80 characters scaled down less of a powerhouse in the lower areas because they had to look out too.

Challenge can be done gradually so that it doesn’t feel too hard but just that amount that would make you learn something.
Know enough people who quit the game because the easy mode that is core tyria is too boring for them.

Breakbars need to die and be stripped entirely from the kitten game. They are the reason so many builds are no longer viable (BAD game design) otherwise I agree with you that every 10 levels or so in core Tyria the enemies need to have something extra…and Orr changed back to what it was originally (worse than HOT originally).

You will be required to get your character through to at least picking which of the 3 orders you join before you fight mordy in the last HOT mission or it can glitch on you during the fight.

Khisanth.2948:

felincyriac.5981:

I had more trouble with that fat dude in episode 4 of ls3, mostly coz I didn’t know wtf was going on. I went in to the fight in a full set of Armour, came out butt naked, but then again I’m using a necro…

Only died with the gliding part, wasn’t expecting him to start chucking rocks at me.

Necro should be easiest of any class though ultimately build matters more than class. I’ve only done that fight with my necro and I doubt any of my other characters will have an easier time even though those characters will have the benefit of prior experience.

Necro is also the only character where I can sorta brute force my way through the “gliding” with shroud. :P

I helped someone get through this fight and they boggled at how when the gliding phase came up I just stayed on the ground beating on Mordy. Makes the fight go faster. That was a WHILE ago though…I think he is invulnerable now in that phase.

You know, a huge problem in HOT was shown to me a few days ago when a bunch of us were talking about it in a map chat after a successful meta. The reliance of the devs on break bars SEVERELY hampers build diversity to the point they really just need to make any/all attacks effect the break bar to bring back some diverse builds. A lot of the problems in soloing things are 100% the break bar and it is a mechanic completely ignored untill HOT with NO EXPLINATION OF IT ANYWHERE.

Seriously, play through the story of HOT without a single skill on your bars that effects a break bar, or only one skill that isn’t spamable that effects it, and you have a lot of weapon/build combinations people enjoy playing (typically these are the medic builds or pure self survival builds). Now try to solo it all. Emphasis on solo, no bringing in anyone else, ever. I’ve been trying this and, frankly, HOT looks like a giant kick tot he nethers if you despize some of the build changes it forces on you.

If you force people to change builds to fit content, you failed at building your content. Every build should be viable, thus the break bar mechanic is a failure that needs retooled. Seeing as an entire map chat on a meta agreed with this, almost all of us having solod the story and most of the maps, there could very well be something here as to why HOT is so hated. As the vast majority of people despize any reason to alter their build. They built it to suit their gameplay style, there should be no reason to alter it just because of a kitten mechanic.

Yeah…in Beta and at release…most everyone were GW1 vets or people who had played GW1 a little.
You didn’t see the huge group from other games show up till a month later.

Also the whiners about difficulty in the beginning? Mostly GW1 vets.

Remember when you had to use a weapon repeatedly to learn the skills on it?
If your weapon skill wasn’t maxed out you couldn’t use your full power for damage either.
How about the way skills worked and the fact you essentially had to level to 160 in order to buy every skill? For those who don’t know you used to continue to re-ding lvl 80 and get a skill point every level.
How about when vets were known more for being able to 1 shot squishies and 2 shot everyone else (3 shot necros, even back then they were health sponges)?
The elites (silvers) just had more hp, they didn’t hit any harder and dungeons were filled with elites and vets mixed together, vets had the same hp as a normal mob and just hit harder.
Armor weight also used to matter a lot more, with the exact same stats an elementalist would take 3k damage while a war or guard would only take 1.5k. Remember this is with the exact same stats.

All things the GW1 crowd got changed from beta to live, or shortly after live. Because all of those changes happened long before the influx of other gamers. Ironically enough those other gamers seemed to stick around more too, I haven’t ran into many who have played GW1 in a long while. A LOT this was their first MMO and they just return to it ocassionally or never left it entirely.

All of the LFG is meant for one simple thing. you are forming the group at the time of advertising, to run the content.
If you are selling for a later date? LFG is the wrong place.
Trying to form a group to chat about, anything? LFG is the wrong place.
Trying to pre-arange a group that isn’t a run sell for a later date? LFG is the wrong place.

ALL LFG adverts should be to run the game at that time. IE, the second you get a full group you are running the content. If you don’t want to run it right away, or won’t be ready to do so right away? Do not go into LFG!

Note: I am talking, of course, about the raid and dungeon LFGs.

SlippyCheeze.5483:

So glad to have personal representation in game. #BarefootLife

A large percentage of norn npc’s don’t wear shoes, some look to not even be wearing pants.

It irks me that so much time has passed and we still don’t see a change from cleansing Orr. For a game that prides itself on maps changing because of the story…this one not reclaiming…or at least a new map showing a reclaimed PART of Orr…is horrible.

fluidmonolith.3584:

Sister Saxifrage.7361:

THIS GAME has both story mode (in dungeons) and challenge switches. They just don’t use them all the time, and they absolutely could.

I agree completely. That ANet adjusted the final boss fight in LS3E4 was great, since I think everyone should be able to complete it and some people were having trouble. However, some people also enjoyed the challenge. In open world content it is not feasible to have difficulty settings, but personal story is the perfect place for it, and they already have the challenge mote system developed. I completely think it could be used much more often.

I would like to see every single personal story mission have optional challenge motes that make the content much more difficult and reward the player with achievement points and maybe in a few occasions, skins or titles.

I say no additional rewards other than bragging rights. Those who say they want challenging content should do the challenge without any additional reward. After all the challenge IS the reward right? Otherwise why ask for it? Oh, that’s right…so you can have exclusives. You don’t want challenging content, you just want shinnies other people can’t get.

I enjoy hard modes in games. However, I firmly believe doing something in hard mode should recieve NOTHING. I do hard mode for the challenge. If you need any other reason beyond the challenge, then you do not actually want the challenge you just want shinier loot that others cannot get. It really is that simple of a fact, if you crave a challenge you will do it without expecting more loot/achievements/etc, you would do it simply because you claim you want the challenge. If you need a carrot to do it, you don’t actually want it.

DoctorDing.5890:

However you look at it the fact is that many players will buy the expansion expecting “more of the same” and that’s not what they get. Not everyone wants an ever increasing challenge.

This pretty much sums up the feelings of everyone I have talked to that hasn’t liked HoT.

Yes, I’ve enjoyed the increased difficulty…but I have also noticed the maps lacking in population because of it. You should ‘never’ have to rely on shuttling people into a map in order to complete it. That is HORRIBLE game design. If that means you need to lower the difficulty, then you do so. People begging for more difficult things…you give them areas for it. They do not need unique rewards (if all they want is a challenge then the challenge itself is the carrot, otherwise they are lying and simply want more exclusivity).

Korneliy.8617:

i’m ok with nerfing multiloot, it’s not ok to loot many instances. but now player can loot ONE grand chest or large chest PER DAY, not per event. i think, it’s totally not cool. i love Tarir, i need aurilium, but now i am forced to do meta just once per day. that’s frustrating.

This is going to hurt meta events in the long run, why put int he effort for them when you already got your one chest right?

LouWolfskin.3492:

Zenith.7301:

LouWolfskin.3492:

HoT enemies are not hard, you just have to learn mechanics.

Threads like this are the reason we need a better core game -.-

Don’t exaggerate. Some enemies like veteran frogs can wreck some classes.

Making it through the karka infested tunnels during map exploration can be a pain in the kitten as well.

And Balthazar’s HP is pretty much impossible to solo for most people.

Problem isn’t the enemies themselves, but the event and mob density scaling when a map is completely abandoned and a player has to sift through instant respawn times of veteran mobs by himself.

These are ultimately maps designed for groups of people, not solo players like the vanilla maps.

So? We have stuff that you can’t do solo in core tyria as well.
Thing is, HoT was marketed as group content, and people are surprised it’s harder for solo how?
A lot of the stuff, not everything, is still possible to do and for the rest you can ask in mapchat or your guild for help.
The best way to enjoy the content though is: Play with a friend.
Because at the core of it this is an MMO “massive multiplayer online” you see one thing there? Multiplayer, it’s a key word.

Addendum: A lot of it is learning mechanics, mechanics that the core game should teach you but doesn’t.

Not that I disagree with you but I will point this out;
MMO only has the word multiplayer in it…meaning multiple players on the same map. That does NOT mean they are grouping with you or even helping you.

MMO=/=group content it simply means multiple people all playing ont he same servers/maps. That is all.

Spiritz Wamphryi.8316:

Ok tell me whats more fulfilling – kicking a vets kitten whilst having and enjoyable fight – using your skills,dodging etc or just walking to the vet and 1shot him ? In real life we count on our abilities to get us thru situations – im sure this applies to any of the armed forces so the same applies within the game . Last week i was helping a few players get hp in vb/ab and i was using a mes ( one of my least used chrs and im not that gd with ) and the whole experience was totally enjoyable – i had fun and at the end of the run i actually felt i had achieved something and learnt a few new tricks. We Learn and we Adapt . Hot foes are harder but after some time they become easier as you recognise little traits the foes have – spotting the foe getting rdy to charge or pull off his aoe so you get rdy to dodge etc. All players at some stage ( tho not all will admit ) can feel overwhelmed by foes when first encountered – hell several guildies hated pocket raptors at the start because of their swarm mechanics and now they dont bat an eyelid when coming up against them.

There is a bit of irony here, as in RL as you alluded to in your example, you DO one shot people. Nearly all melee combat is one shotting people. Most people died in melee combat without even being able to block or parry a single attack. Note also that “heavy armor” all of our soldier classes wear? most soldiers never actually got to wear true heavy armor…they made do with leather armor because it was cheaper and easier to mass produce. So relying on armor to protect you was a luxury most couldn’t afford.

I love spear weapons and it has always been sad that none are in the game.
It is also sad there are no great axes when the warrior image used in all product information regarding gw2 shows the image of a large armored warrior with a great axe hanging off his shoulder.

I soloed the story on most of the classes already, but I fully see the OPs point. The story mode dungeons and the story mode quests seriously need a bump to your companions. They need to be able to tank hits, dodge, and anihilate enemies just as well as any player playing at PEAK efficiency. IE…if you can solo the content without companions, the companions should be able to solo it without you. This is STORY content, if you want a challenge you don’t look for it int he story…ever. The story should be enjoyed by everyone regardless of skill level. As it is story. If you want a challenge you should be looking for it in non-story areas of any game.

Honestly if you want to be damage absorbtion tanky in PvE and just be capable of absorbing monstrous amounts of hurt…Necro is your best bet, especially reaper. Assuming you take various chilling options and the -damage on chill.

Dravyn.4671:

I only play turret or gyro engineer. I hate kits.

This is a theme amung MANY who try engineer. Swapping kits to be effective is NOT FUN for the majority of people, and is a total pain to balance.
Frankly they need to rethink this whole idea and make the kits f-skills and just remove the toolbelt. Removal of the toolbelt means our skills can then be buffed to one degree or another. The Irony here is this would allow for easier balancing, and thus better inclusion into meta and finding a niche for engineer to fill, but the current rabid engineer player base would throw a tantrum of epic proportions if you did anything this radical.

Kits should NEVER have been made the engineer’s “thing” IMO…they should have stuck with direct grenade skills, land mines, rocket skills, and turrets. Keep the toolbelt skills, give the engineer some more weapons (dual axes should have always been a thing for engi), maybe an offhand focus/dagger but it just acts as a grenade holster or something.
I say this as someone that LOVES the flamethrower.

The kits have never been a uniquely engineer thing anyway, elementalists have them as well on a cooldown (elemental weapon conjuring) and they can share there kits with other players! Warriors also have kits purely for buff purposes but they have them (banners) and other players can again make use of them. What has been unique to engineers has always been the TURRETS and the focus on explosives/mines/grenades.

We really just need a proper answer to our mobility, like perminant cripple/snare immunity in our shroud. It isn’t like we would suddenly get any faster, and frankly it creates a proper movie monster feel which they have always been going for with the necro in GW2. You can’t slow us, you can’t stop us, thus the only answer is to make yourself faster if you want to kite us. Besides, plenty of knockbacks and knockdowns in the game we would still be vulnerable too.

This also makes our shroud a tad more useful than treating it as temporary damage kit or defensive.

Swagger.1459:

Wintermute.5408:

Swagger.1459:

Please explain how faster melee attacks, melee skills that track targets and a teleport attack hurt a Necro in pve???

Are these skills bad for pve? Ranger GS 3? Guard GS 3? Guard Wings of Resolve? Guard Judge’s Intervention? War Earthshaker? Thief Dagger 2?

Go run around in wvw and spvp with your GS and come back to tell me it doesn’t need some utility to it… Better yet, maybe go stream your Necro GS build in these pvp modes and show us it’s fine?

Unless I misunderstood you, you are offering to replace current GS2 functionality with leap skill. Now, you can’t kill what’s already dead and all that, but GS2 is huge part of PVE power kit. Removing it will make necro sink to brand-new rock bottom.

What are you taking about? Please explain what in my suggestions “will make necro sink to a brand new rock bottom”?

Necro GS 2 becomes like Guard GS 3 and tracks the target…

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Leap_of_Faith

Necro GS 3 becomes like Ranger GS 3 and tracks the target…

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Swoop

Necro GS 4 becomes like Guard “Judge’s Intervention” but you can aim where you want to port…

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Judge's_Intervention

Please take your GS power build in wvw and spvp then come back to tell me how awesome it is…

Did you ever stop and think, that maybe you just aren’t that good at using it in PvP how it is designed? I use the GS in sPvP and work out fine, yes…I use it situationally, I do not live on the GS as trying to only use a single weapon at all times is a death knell in true PvP for this game.
Use the GS well and people FEAR YOU. Because it is slow and can hit like a mack truck. However you have to be skillful and plan your use, be methodical. Going by what you want to change it to, you aren’t a methodical person and just want to charge in and “wreck face”. Necro has always been the slow march of classes. Not fast, but more like a tidal wave of death. Only way to survive is to fight it from afar and keep running. Back when full zerk 100 blades wars were killing everything in sPvP and WvW even THEY knew that if the necro survived (which happened more often than not) they had to run like scared chickens or get slaughtered once the necro started in on them.
Condi builds (which are still a huge part of PvP) know better than to 1v1 any necro as we have so many ways of screwing them over, and buff bots never stand against a necro and survive as we corrupt everything they do.

If you want to be super mobile, necro is NOT the class for you man.

Do I think GS needs improved? Hell yes, gs5 needs a faster CD and gravedigger needs a faster animation.
If we are changing things then the GS needs to bring enemies to the necro or every single skill needs a cripple or chill added to it. The slowness and lack of gap closer however is part of the theme for necro in general.

On weapon skill use spread blindness? Our auto attack is considered a weapon skill use by the game (notice you take confusion damage on auto attack? confusion is based on when you use a skill…same wording). You would be spreading blindness way too easily, the balance issues on timing for that would have to limit it to things like the necromancer blind well timers and even then the skill could easily be too powerful as you would be a moving blind spam bot.

Amaimon.7823:

Full Verdant Brink + Auric Basin should net you about 80-90% of the progress. usually when I fully mapped those two I need 2 or so more points for the finishing touches.

But you don’t need to be a full fledges elite spec at the get go. Just build it up as you get along. There’s no hurry, there’s no rush. Just play at your pace and the points will come.

The problem is people have the normal specs already and had them all through the old world Tyria…most wanted to jump straight into HoT with the elite spec. It is rather annoying you have to earn it after the fact IMO.

I love the idea of removing weapon restrictions from traits as there are various weapons I prefer to use depending on what is in front of me and trying to swap trees to maximize it constantly just is such a pain I usually just equip from my bag and just deal with the crappy efficiency.

However, you will never get the skill level requirement to be the same. Being support and doing well is more challenging than just straight up DPS that only worries about themselves. Melee will always require a higher skill level than range, especially with the many bosses and abilities that heavily favor ranged play. Actively tanking something also requires higher skill.

That said, I believe they use the weapon traits to refine what the weapons were designed for. For example, warrior ax is designed for charging your adrenaline fast and for a focus on critical hits, the sword is designed for steady damage, and the mace is slower and designed more for spiked damage. The traits specifically for them enhance this, with the ax for example the specific traits increase critical chance/damage.
Now this could be continued in a weapon specific trait line but then you would need new traits in the current lines to keep weapon flavor or whatever they are going for.

EVERY mastery int he gliding line should have been granted immediately. Mechanics that are…quite frankly, needed to just get around everywhere should never be hidden behind a grind.

Dawdler.8521:

Teratus.2859:

Players should not have to rely on other players to complete such a simple personal goal..

Thats not a simple personal goal. Its an MMO, you are meant to work together in the field. Getting to 80, crafting an exotic weapon, finding Lions Arch, thats simple goals. Taking on champion group event mobs is not supposed to be that. Its a group even for a reason.

With your argument, I could say that the Dragons Stand meta should be soloable. Its a simple goal to me. I dont want to play PvE, I only play WvW. Why isnt Dragons Stand soloable in 5 minutes?

Cherry picking this for a HUGE fallacy in yoru argument. MMO does not = must need to group. All MMO means is that the game world is huge, other people are running around in the game world, and that you need to be online to play. That is it mate. Nowhere does it say grouping, partying, relying on others.

The idea that MMO=grouping was pretty much destroyed back when WoW started albiet there were other MMOs before WoW that were starting that trend already. WoW simply made it industry standard and people realized how much happier they are to not be forced to group 24/7 to do things.

Chaos.5072:

The complete lack of dungeon love is what turned me off

This killed large swaths of the community. Too much verticality did a good chunk. The maze-like design hit a huge chunk too.
Then there is the extremely simple and OBVIOUS problem the devs failed at. People want to play THE ENTIRE EXPANSION with the elite spec. Not earn it as they go. They failed hugely on that part. Earning your elite near the end of the story is rather, blah. We had our normal specs long before the end of the first story…we know them…our elite specs should have come around pretty much at the point Rytlock returns. Any later and you failed a huge point of the expansion.

I’ve always found the thief boring. You never have any ‘big’ moments…just constant dodging then hitting the enemy with all you got before you have to dodge away. It gets boring fast for me…or perhaps tedious is a better word.

My favorite is the reaper, no one else can go “where are there 8+ mobs?” and your first thought is to charge into the very middle of them all…AND STAY THERE. That is fun to me, constantly having to dodge every few seconds gets old fast. Being able to take the biggest hits several enemies have all at the same time…and just laugh it off without having to even use a defensive? THAT is fun. But then I prefer tanks in traditional MMOs so…to be expected.

Ayrilana.1396:

Runiir.6425:

Ayrilana.1396:

Runiir.6425:

Ayrilana.1396:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Ayrilana.1396:

What wrong with there being a different playstyle than the main game? Many of the activities in core are vastly different. The same goes for SAB.

What significant rewards are behind adventures? There’s the specialization weapon collections but other than that I can’t think of anything. Yes, you do need to do some to cap masteries but you only need 5 MP from them if you get MP from all other available sources.

SAB isn’t needed for anything other than SAB items. Adventures are required for various collections, for some mastery points, and obviously, whatever time ANet spent on adventures was time they didn’t spend on something else. For those of us who play MMOs to avoid the sort of gaming that adventures bring, it’s lose-lose.

I accept that adventures are here to stay and that I have to deal with them. I only ask that those that enjoy (or don’t mind) them accept that they aren’t easy, quick, or fun for some of us …and yet they are required to access the full breadth of the expansion.

And as I stated in the second paragraph, they’re only necessary for the specialization collections and you only need at most 5 MP from them if you get the rest from all other available sources.

Many MMO’s have mini-games. GW1 had polymock. They could have not done polymock and instead focused on other parts of the game. Clearly those that enjoyed polymock would have been disappointed.

There are people that enjoy adventures, there are people that do not, and there are those that don’t care either way. There will always be content in a game that some people do not like doing. The thing with adventures, and getting MP, is that you only have to do it once.

Than accept that they really REALLY need to remove anything from adventures required for the weapon collections/legendary/HP. Such things should stick to the type of gameplay that the game focuses on, not the mini games that diverge widely from it.

Why do they need to? Not everything in a game will be enjoyed by everyone.

Which is exactly the point. The collections for the class specific weapons and the legendaries should be removed from the minigames for a simple reason…they are minigames. They aren’t the actual game and the skill sets they require is NEVER USED in the actual game. Thus, they shouldn’t be included for those things.

Giving them MPs? Hey, you don’t NEED those MPs to finish off everything so…sure…keep them.

Now if you say they need something special…I ask why? It is a minigame…the joy is supposed to be found in simply doing the minigame. They should not need to be bound up in every little thing, or even need a special thing. I would not be averse to them making skins you can only get from them however like the 8bit pixel weapons were made for another minigame.

I disagree with that as being a reason for the collection items to be removed. They are as much a part of the game as anything else. Just because you dislike them doesn’t change that.

I personally don’t mind them, so your thinking is already flawed.

It is just simply a matter of the fact these minigames need to be handled as consistently as every other minigame has been handled in this game. It is isolated and everything it rewards is only usable for things related to only it.
Thus people who want things that are in no way related tot he minigame that hate them, can actually get what they need in a manner that fits with the game.

Ayrilana.1396:

Runiir.6425:

Ayrilana.1396:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Ayrilana.1396:

What wrong with there being a different playstyle than the main game? Many of the activities in core are vastly different. The same goes for SAB.

What significant rewards are behind adventures? There’s the specialization weapon collections but other than that I can’t think of anything. Yes, you do need to do some to cap masteries but you only need 5 MP from them if you get MP from all other available sources.

SAB isn’t needed for anything other than SAB items. Adventures are required for various collections, for some mastery points, and obviously, whatever time ANet spent on adventures was time they didn’t spend on something else. For those of us who play MMOs to avoid the sort of gaming that adventures bring, it’s lose-lose.

I accept that adventures are here to stay and that I have to deal with them. I only ask that those that enjoy (or don’t mind) them accept that they aren’t easy, quick, or fun for some of us …and yet they are required to access the full breadth of the expansion.

And as I stated in the second paragraph, they’re only necessary for the specialization collections and you only need at most 5 MP from them if you get the rest from all other available sources.

Many MMO’s have mini-games. GW1 had polymock. They could have not done polymock and instead focused on other parts of the game. Clearly those that enjoyed polymock would have been disappointed.

There are people that enjoy adventures, there are people that do not, and there are those that don’t care either way. There will always be content in a game that some people do not like doing. The thing with adventures, and getting MP, is that you only have to do it once.

Than accept that they really REALLY need to remove anything from adventures required for the weapon collections/legendary/HP. Such things should stick to the type of gameplay that the game focuses on, not the mini games that diverge widely from it.

Why do they need to? Not everything in a game will be enjoyed by everyone.

Which is exactly the point. The collections for the class specific weapons and the legendaries should be removed from the minigames for a simple reason…they are minigames. They aren’t the actual game and the skill sets they require is NEVER USED in the actual game. Thus, they shouldn’t be included for those things.

Giving them MPs? Hey, you don’t NEED those MPs to finish off everything so…sure…keep them.

Now if you say they need something special…I ask why? It is a minigame…the joy is supposed to be found in simply doing the minigame. They should not need to be bound up in every little thing, or even need a special thing. I would not be averse to them making skins you can only get from them however like the 8bit pixel weapons were made for another minigame.

What annoys me is when I got the gems for an armor set I loved…they took it away from the store and it has not made a re-appearance since…and it wasn’t even a seasonal set!

Ayrilana.1396:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Ayrilana.1396:

What wrong with there being a different playstyle than the main game? Many of the activities in core are vastly different. The same goes for SAB.

What significant rewards are behind adventures? There’s the specialization weapon collections but other than that I can’t think of anything. Yes, you do need to do some to cap masteries but you only need 5 MP from them if you get MP from all other available sources.

SAB isn’t needed for anything other than SAB items. Adventures are required for various collections, for some mastery points, and obviously, whatever time ANet spent on adventures was time they didn’t spend on something else. For those of us who play MMOs to avoid the sort of gaming that adventures bring, it’s lose-lose.

I accept that adventures are here to stay and that I have to deal with them. I only ask that those that enjoy (or don’t mind) them accept that they aren’t easy, quick, or fun for some of us …and yet they are required to access the full breadth of the expansion.

And as I stated in the second paragraph, they’re only necessary for the specialization collections and you only need at most 5 MP from them if you get the rest from all other available sources.

Many MMO’s have mini-games. GW1 had polymock. They could have not done polymock and instead focused on other parts of the game. Clearly those that enjoyed polymock would have been disappointed.

There are people that enjoy adventures, there are people that do not, and there are those that don’t care either way. There will always be content in a game that some people do not like doing. The thing with adventures, and getting MP, is that you only have to do it once.

Than accept that they really REALLY need to remove anything from adventures required for the weapon collections/legendary/HP. Such things should stick to the type of gameplay that the game focuses on, not the mini games that diverge widely from it.

If you add in another button or two, and make people earn those by fighting specific bosses (they better be old world Tyria open world bosses however, because screw HoT) you will find the game will start being tuned expecting you to HAVE those, making them no longer optional. At which point people will start yelling and screaming. And they will become buyable like anything else with your HP.

Actually, even before Orr got nerfed on mob density, getting around was NOT hard and several waypoints even though they became contested, only remained contested for all of 5-15 minutes before becoming usable again often. There are 3 waypoints on every Orr map that could never truly be locked for LONG periods of time; the start of the zone, the zone transfer, and the middle. You could reach anything from those 3 points. Would it really have been such a hardship to imagine an army would build staging grounds they would actually hold without player input? I mean, it is supposed to be the pact, 3 orders coming together and half the military strength of the 5 nations combined, holding a few strategic points without the pact commander should NOT be a hardship.

Sir Mad.1092:

Well, let’s try to be a little bit constructive here. Yes, those “empty maps” topics are getting old (you don’t need to post a new one every single day, dudes), but their frequency shows there’s a real problem with the way the different maps are handled by the megaserver. It also shows a lot of people don’t know how taxis work (it’s not hard to find an event map when you do).

So what would the solution be? Districts as often suggested? Something else? Any idea?

I say keep making new topics, make their servers grind to a halt with them all. People understand how taxis work, but taxis SHOULD NOT BE NEEDED!
If a map is “too full” then don’t allow more to join, but they need to get rid of the forced moving entirely.
The mega server is built horribly. It should function like this; only one map exists of Verdant Brink (for example) until it reaches a specific capacity (not max as that only ensures people start crashing like crazy) another map will never be made. When it reaches maximum capacity then, and ONLY then, should a second map be created for people to port into. It should also remember your map. If you crash from the first map, you log back into the first map and continue on with what completion you were doing on any meta event.

Xyonon.3987:

Agreed. Aslong as you don’t go full kitten (never go full kitten) and play with turrets only, you’ll most likely be fine – hell I even healed once with engi at Sabby – WITH MEDKIT Q_Q xD

You get a big cookie for that one. I haven’t seen a medkit get pulled out in a LONG time.