Guild Wars 2

Ayrilana.1396:

Half tempted to solo the last instance of HoT without armor and no traits allocated just to prove a point on how soloable it is.

Please do. But be sure to video it with full narration and post it to YouTube, etc., so everyone can see how you did it…..

Would definitely love this since I love playing with different looks for my chars!

I’m not a hoarder by any means, but I’ve maxed out space to the point that I’m using characters as nothing more than packmules – which makes them effectively unplayable. As others have noted, there are a lot of things that are account bound that you don’t want to get just destroy, such as already unlocked premium skins, because that ultimately translates to a cost somewhere down the line. So yes, either more bank tabs or some other reasonable means of opening space is definitely necessary. Personally I’d vote for at least a single tab expansion simply because I have a tab unlock item that I purchased from the gem store only to find out it was unusable because there was no “you’ve reached the max for this item” type warning limit on it and they hadn’t yet officially announced the tab limitations. So it sits in my bank taking up a space in hopes that eventually it will be usable.

Sorry to most of you, but I have to agree with the OP. Yes, I’ve managed to do the LS stories mostly solo, and yes, I’ve gotten through the core story solo (after it was revamped). But I haven’t been able to solo the final for HoT. And even bringing in another person didn’t help because she got so frustrated she quit on me.
Also, if the story instances are supposed to be solo-able no matter what, then the dungeon side-stories to the core story-line should also have an ‘easy’ or ‘solo’ mode – but even entering them through the “story” option still requires the 5 player minimum to complete. As someone who plays for the story, I find it very frustrating to be locked out of content just because I happen to be on my own. And yes, I know they’re dungeons, but they’re also designed to complement the story, so they should still have an option to get through them without needing a full group just like the final core instance does. Note, I said “option”. I’m not saying that there shouldn’t be hard modes for the players that prefer that. I’m just saying that if the story content is built around the player’s solo interaction with the relevant NPCs, then it should be complete-able that way.
Onto the next argument…. Yes, I have a guild. But 98% of the time, my guild-mates aren’t around because they’ve all gotten too frustrated or too busy or whatever, so I end up playing solo. And yes, there’s always the LFG option… but while I have very rarely ended up with some really great assistance that way, I have had far more experiences with very bad players. And by that I mean attitude, not ability. So I tend to be VERY hesitant about trying to group up with strangers.
Finally, just to be clear, for the record, I’m an experienced player who’s been with GW since the very beginning of GW1, and I also play other MMOs. My primary is a Ranger, because I like the pets, but I have at least one of every class and have tried just about every build. So please don’t assume/suggest I’m a newb or someone who just needs to change builds, learn how to play their character, etc. That said, I also don’t assume I know everything, so constructive advice on particular tips and tricks to make soloing more survivable is always welcome.

I’m happy to help other small guilds claim their hall in return for help claiming mine. My guild is only about 7 people and it’s rare that even two are on at the same time these days so nine times out of ten I’m playing solo….

I have at least one of each class, but I also have three rangers and two necros if that helps any. Overall Ranger is my favorite class to play – but that’s partly because I love collecting pets.

Chiming in. I also have a small guild – approximately 7 people at present, but we’ve basically been together since GW1. BUT, nine times out of ten, I’m the only one online at any given time. At best, I occasionally have one other guildmate playing. So effectively, I’m a one person guild the majority of the time. And yes, I want a guild hall. That was one of the things I enjoyed in GW1. Am I willing to group with other small guilds if necessary? Yes. But honestly, while I’ve had the very rare pleasure of running into cooperative and friendly other players, most of my attempts at temporary grouping has been dismally disappointing. So I’m not exactly jumping for joy at the prospect of having to team up with other players just to get my Guild Hall.

In other words, I agree with the main point being made by the OP. I don’t object to the idea of content designed specifically for groups (I also play LotRO and “fellowships” are a major element for a significant amount of its content) but at the same time core elements should be complete-able solo or at most require no more than two people. And then there can be a hard mode or a scaling ‘instance’ that increases difficulty for groups at various size levels…

ROFLMAO…. Honestly, it is so nice to see people having fun with this as opposed to most of the griping we’ve been seeing.

@Balsa – when I got to your list of spell names I almost fell out of my chair I was laughing so hard… I’m also an old-fashioned D&Der and I’m absolutely going to steal those to hit my DM with as ‘new’ spells for my current Shaman character.

Thanks everyone for the giggles… I definitely needed it today. :-)

I agree that this would be a great idea, and would definitely be willing to pay a reasonable amount of gems for it. Yes, I have multiple infinite tools, but because I liked the different skins for different characters. But I basically only have one set of each, and more characters than sets. So it would be nice to be able to, for example, pass the xxx-r-tron between each of my three Asura chars, the creepy set (bone pick, etc) back and forth between my two Necros, and so forth, without having to worry about whether I remembered to hit the bank before running a given character or whether I remembered to stick a bank access in their inventory. Or be able to buy the ‘bulk’ option on things like upgrade extractors (which are too bloody expensive, but that’s a topic for another thread), and not have to worry about splitting them up and then running out on one char because I misjudged the split. After all, there are times when you suddenly get that great piece of gear that you want to immediately use but the superior level upgrade you need to use with it is stuck on something you need an extractor for… And it’s annoying as h#ll to know that you have half a dozen but they’re sitting in your bank, or with another char and you’re in the middle of something/somewhere inconvenient.
Of course, here’s another option… offer a permanent bank access for the home areas. That way, people purchase the home portal stone so they can bounce home, hit the bank, then return to where they were with minimal disruption. It could be a premium gem item like the home crafting nodes, that provides an account wide unlock. Between the cost of the portal stone (900g) per character, and a reasonable cost for the ‘banker’ (say 3000g) ArenaNet still gets a reasonable profit and everyone’s happy…..

I agree that there needs to be a better balance. I only got to play part of Friday and then all day Sunday but I never managed to get to the point of unlocking ANY of the elite specializations and spent the whole time wondering what I was doing wrong/missing…. It made the Beta very disappointing.

Dark Saviour.9410:

Considering all we’ve gotten since launch is the Reef Drake, I don’t have high expectations.

That said, even though it wouldn’t have the utility it did in GW1, I’d like to have a menagerie to see all of our pets in once unlocked. That was an enjoyable place to visit, and the roaming pets are one of the best parts of the HoM in GW2 to me.

I totally agree. I used to love that, and being able to take a ranger into the menagerie to charm something I’d unlocked with a different character was great!

I have to concur with the majority here… I have a small guild that I brought over from GW1, consisting of friends and family. In total we’re about 6 people. But it’s extremely rare to have more than two of us online at the same time. I’ve tried ‘grouping’ with strangers to accomplish something -such as a Fractal mission- and it’s almost always been a disaster. So no, I’m not thrilled with the idea of being forced into ‘alliances’. Yes, I’ve occasionally been lucky and come across some truly helpful individuals, but we’re talking maybe a 2% success rate. The other 98% has been horrible. NOT GOOD ODDS. Am I willing to jump in and help other small groups do their guild hall mission in return for reverse help? Of course. Do I have much faith that this will actually happen? Nope.

I’m a character addict, so I have almost one of every possible variation – some I play with friends, others I tend to solo. And I’ve certainly noticed that the difficulty of personal stories varies depending on race, class, and character choices. There’s been more than a few times where I’ve had to wait a couple of extra levels, or until I could get a friend to run one with me, but one way or another, I’ve made it through pretty much all of them. Except – my highest character so far is a lvl 28 Norn Elementalist and I found most of her personal storyline not easy necessarily but doable with minimal difficulty. Right up until I hit the start of the Order set… Now granted, Silent Warfare is set for lvl 30, but even at that I can’t see how it’s doable without a very large group unless I’m missing something somewhere. The volume of NPCs I could handle (eventually) through attrition but the attacks include catapult-style massive hits – it only takes one and I’m down before I’ve even had a chance to get to the NPCs. And the only support NPCs I seem to have are Eir and her wolf. So either it’s bugged or, as I said, I’m missing something because I just don’t see any way to get through it.

Oh good, it’s not just me… Yeah, I got the same email late yesterday – when I was actually in-game. This is the first time I’ve ever had an issue with any of my game accounts, so I can be a bit patient, but it definitely isn’t something I want to have to worry about.