Learn to play? That’s what you have to say? No sympathy for the person who has no time to invest in learning how to tweak their build to squeeze every ounce of damage output balanced with damage mitigation. Anet made it clear from the beginning that the story would be for those who could casual with high end content for those who want challenge. When fights in the story are solo and they are hard challenges it locks the story away from the casual. The challenging content is supposed to be outside the story. Even story mode dungeons are hard enough for the casual who just wants to know what is going on in the story.
I sympathize with Daddicus on the difficulty of the Shadow Dragon fight. I picked up quickly from the animations, object names and hints, and the dialogue of my pact that the glowing spot on the ground was tossed over by them for me and that I should somehow use it to “Light the Fire”. Except that there was never a place I could stand long enough to light the fire that I wasn’t being downed instantly. Even when I only went to the gear that had the protection surrounding it. The first time was okay but the second go around the Shadow Dragon would pop me up, then pound me to the ground, then scrape his claws across the ground, and I was unable to dodge, especially to any place that wasn’t orange circles. I still haven’t completed it.
This isn’t about separating those who can hack it and those who can’t; it separates the players who don’t have the time to invest in detailed builds from those who only ever care about building the absolute most powerful build. Even real money can’t buy this win; besides who would want to pay $600 for a sword or armor that won’t even help because the build doesn’t compliment them. What happened to play my way. It’s more like Play your way – but you should know it will never work.
It reminds me of the days that I stopped playing tabletop D&D because the only “good” players were power gamers interested in building the best stats possible, killing, looting, rinse and repeat.
I love this game. I recognize that I suck as a player. I don’t do WvW or PvP because I hate them. I want story, I want fun, I want to feel like when I hit something with my bow, my sword, that it actually felt my hit. This fight with the Shadow Dragon felt more like Anet was saying, “this dragon could totally eat you alive in one go, but we’re taming it down so you have the feeling like you might actually be able to best it, <chuckle>.”