Guild Wars 2

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

To repeat what I said in the other thread:

I do think the duration on Howler’s poison can be reduced a bit—it pulses up to 5x for 5s of duration each pulse (so it can apply 25s of poison total) but the 5 pulses appear to take place VERY quickly, making it next to impossible to avoid the whole hit. That being said, I’ve managed to beat this with a L10 thief, elementalist, and engineer, so I don’t think it’s “impossible.” To be fair, I’ve obviously played this game a lot, but I really don’t use any crazy dev tricks or cheats when I test for difficulty. I found Elixer B to be quite helpful for taking Howler down, since it boosts your damage and hurts her every time she hits you.

Not to discard your experience, but there comes a time when enough players are having a really hard time with a LOW-LEVEL quest, and one npc in particular, that there seems to be a suggestion to take a good hard look at this one particular situation and make a slight change.

Of course, if Arenanet only wants to create a game that discourages new players, this particular npc is a great attempt. I realize you did the quest and succeeded, but you DO have many more playing hours than a new level 10 player.

Find a person that hasn’t played MMOs or video games hardcore…have them play a thief and have them run the quest…especially if the sacrificed Quinn. Watch their reaction. Frustration will set in eventually.

GW2 is a fun game…except for Doc. Don’t turn off new players by keeping her hella hard.

just my 2 cents

Apparently there are enough people having real problems with Doc, especially if you decided to sacrifice Quinn. You end up soloing EVERY mob including Doc…Thackary remains hidden. Yes, folks familiar with MMOs might not have a problem with going at her until you find the solution, but I figure most casuals and first-times will eventually say “The heck with this” and leave. At least for the first 10-20 levels you kinda want the experience to be one of “It was a bit of a challenge but doable” rather than “It’s too much time and trouble for just beginning this game and if it’s this hard at lvl 10, it’s gotta be hell at end-game.”.

Not a real good way to get new players to stick around. It may gall some hardcore players and those that took the effort and time to finally find the system to beat her, but she really needs a bit of a nerf .

Doc really needs a slight nerf…. She’s been hitting her steroid supply WAY to hard. ^.-

Quite true. Problem is, in the Wiki, she’s listed as lvl 11. Could be the entire issue. She’s a tad overpowered for a solo quest.