Guild Wars 2

Wow, I cant believe im seeing all this complaining about grouping up in an MMO. Isn’t that the point? I was coming here just to say how much i enjoy it and i see this thread.
Every time I play the new content im excited that it so hard you have to group up. It actually feels like an accomplishment when you finish something. Also its a good reason to run around with your guild/friends. You do have friends, right?
Anyways, thanks Anet for some quality content. Please don’t downgrade the difficulty. There already plenty of easy content in the game. My guild and I are having a blast.

They created GW2 with alot of soloable content (I initially soloed whole game with Necro, prenerf) and people screamed that this is too easy. They added group required content (like it was always in since GuildWars1) and people scream that it is too hard. Oh boy, oh boy. Who the hell devs need to listen?

I have advice for You. Find Guild and do content with it. This game is meant to be played together since GuildWars1. Without my friends I woudn’t even look at GW2. So get Your back pieces togeher and stop whining about not be able to do it alone like forever alone guy.

I find it very funny that a few names in this thread were, before the launch of HoT, promoting the increase in difficulty of the open world and encouraging Anet to do it. Now that they got what they wanted they cry wolf and run back home.

I’ll be frank here. I have been playing the game solo for a few months after I left my main guild. From playing HoT, it is definitely difficult playing solo. But why is it so difficult? The simple answer is that mobs are actually a threat. I could walk through 5 normal mobs in Orr and easy kill all of them. Not so in HoT. If there are pocket raptors I sure as hell better pop defensive abilities when they swarm me. Snipers? Kill them first.

The content isn’t unplayable solo. It is possible solo but more challenging and a bit slower. To be completely honest, I love this change. Because you know what it’s promoted me to do? Actually talk with people in the map and group up and form parties. It reminds me so much of Maplestory (prior Big-Bang). THAT was a game where you had to pretty much party with others late game and just grind mobs over and over. The upside to that game was that it forced you to get social with people and make connections. These maps are promoting that and anyone who is crying how “hardcore” it is has never even touched something hardcore. Difficult content is not hardcore. Hardcore in MMO’s are when you invest a large chunck of play time towards a specific goal or set of goals.

The one thing they could help is make it so that the HP are more solo-friendly but otherwise leave the rest of the open world alone please.
Anet, please for the love of god don’t nerf the open world.

ShaelynSnow.2395:

Drivrius.6159:

I’m giving up, this is more like Dark Souls online then GW2, it’s a horrible experience to try and play this solo.

The shift in game style from the core game is like day and night, you go from a fun, solo casual, game to hardcore, group only in a second.

This x1000, they draw us in with the fun, solo, casual game then drop this bomb on us and we are all like WTF…

Game companies need to get use to the fact that these days most gamers are casual gamers and that little group of hardcore people will speak up, then they change it for them and lose their biggest player base.

Ack, I am a casual too – so what WOULD you like? Have your elite spec done in 2 hours? Get all masteries in 4 hours? And THEN complain, that there is nothing new to do …

It needs tweaking (especially so the XP needed for unlocking the low level masteries) and the hero point concept but apart from that I am having a blast with all the chars I have played the new maps with (PU Mesmer, Power Necro, Condi Necro, Hybrid Revenant, Condi/Trap Ranger).

My thief is struggling a bit – probably need to go for condi, engineer will ne next.

I’m sorry, that you are disappointed about the new content. I find it great. I mostly hated old PvE content because it was all soloable while facerolling on the keyboard. There was no challenge at all. When I did map completion I hated the hearts, because it was such a wast of time doing easy content over and over again to get the achievement.

Now on the new map I finally get a challenge. When I run around, I can choose what I want to do next and I am not forced to spam autoattack to finish off unchallenging content.
I ran around in WvW with one class for years, because I didn’t want to repeat the PvE content with another class once again to level up.

In my opinion the new content is casual friendly and mostly soloable, but there are some points you have to keep in mind, if you want to run solo.

1. New enemies, new mechanics: You have to adjust your playstyle on the enemies you are about to meet. You can no longer run full berserker damage builds all the time and you have to learn the skills of the new enemies. Look at the enemies you are facing. What are they doing? Which ones are the most dangerous for you and therefore need to be eliminated first. What is the best way to kill them.

2. New Options: Some harder content can be more easily managed, if you make use of the new options. I know this is kind of a conflict, because you have to finish new content to be able to use the new options. But there are easy parts in the new content to help you advance in the new options.

3. Go slow: If you have trouble with big enemy groups, then go slow. Take out the mobs one by one while advancing slowly. Try to focus less on damage and more on survival (in build and style of play).

4. Take it easy: Do not envy players who are able to advance faster because they run in organized groups or have adjusted their style of play much faster to the new content. It will probably take another three years until the next add on. So there is plenty of time to explore all the maps. Failure allowed.

5. Have a break: If things get frustrating, try other things. Go back to the old maps. Take a break. Wait for a map with more players on it. Look at the details. Especially in the night things are difficult on the map. Come back later and explore in the daytime of the map.

My advice to players that find the new content too difficult:
Please go slow. Do not try the new content in the same manner as the old. Adjust your build to the new content. Try out other things. You probably have another three years time to finish the new content. Don’t try to do it in three days.

My advice to Arenanet:
Please be patient. Those who are pleased about the new content and enjoy it are playing the game and don’t come to the forums to discuss about the new content. Give it time to get a feedback that is more substantial than what you get by now.

Nerzmuth.7804:

Oh, and please don’t tell me you don’t grind, exploration is done with one character once, do something with several characters to get the xp needed to unlock mastery becomes grinding.

Well, I don’t grind. In fact, I refuse to, been there, done that in other games until they sucked all the fun of playing out of it.

I just like to change things up, play around with a bunch of different characters, and go after a bunch of different playstyles. Maybe I’m just one of those people that’re bored easily and find it hard to focus . But this game is perfect for that.

Go here, do a couple of events, harvest some crafting materials, enjoy the view. Go there with another character, check out that vista over there and the jp on the other side. Grab a third character, do some WvW or sPvP. Hop onto a fourth and play a dungeon/fractal or two.

Time flies when you’re having fun, and even though I don’t have a lot of play time (with family, job, and real life in general) I have plenty of lvl 80s, several with 100% core Tyria completion, and many of the others above 60%, and I’ve never specifically gone for completion except for rare cases of finishing up an almost-completed map.

Yet, I still see the world through different eyes when I’m on a different character. Even in old maps, the experience is almost never the same. There’s often events or characters I haven’t noticed before (or forgotten about), hidden paths and places I’ve missed on the previous characters and lots more.

I fully expect HoT to be the same once I take more characters through the maps seriously, but for now, I’m casually enjoying the maps and story on my main ranger. There’s so much to see and do, I have yet to be seriously stalled by missing masteries.

You are entitled to say “I don’t enjoy that kind of content”, but wanting to have the cake and eat it, too? The story is part of the whole, taking out anything requiring character/account progression tied to the expansion would be like reworking the original personal story so you could play it at level 2 all the way to the Gates of Arah, no character progression required for story progression. Is that really what you want?

gavyne.6847:

Thank you so much for this Dulfy!

If any Anet devs happen to check this out, I just want to say how ridiculous it is that you gate map completion and hero points behind these Masteries and in the case of Auric Basin, you gate map completion there with a hard meta event. Shame on you. It’s almost like you don’t want people to finish map completion despite folks putting in the time to play them thoroughly.

Saying shame on you because you don’t like something. Shame on you.

YOU have a problem with it. I’m sure some other people do. But you clearly don’t know as much as you think about game design.

It’s an end game map. There are four of them. If everyone could just run through them and get anything, in a week people would be saying they had nothing to do.

Don’t shame the devs because you personally don’t liked something. That’s a borderline personal attack.

If you dont’ like something, say you don’t like it, but this level of hyperbole helps no one.

Every MMO gates stuff, because no MMO can create content faster than content locusts can consume it. If you want map completion play the game. Shame on Anet for making people play the game to get achievements.

Shakes head.

Hey everyone, for those who are having trouble find the Hero Points in the new Heart of Thorns maps I have wrote up several guides for them. Right now I have Verdant Brink, Auric Basin, and Tangled Depths finished and hoping to have the final map done sometime tomorrow.

• Verdant Brink: http://dulfy.net/2015/10/25/gw2-verdant-brinks-hero-points-guide/
• Auric Basin: http://dulfy.net/2015/10/26/gw2-auric-basin-hero-points-guide/
• Tangled Depths: http://dulfy.net/2015/10/27/gw2-tangled-depths-hero-points-guide/

Enjoy!

You guys remember that mmo expansion where you didnt have some sort of new leveling type deal going on?

I dont

ITT: People who dont realize that masteries and elite spec is the new form of expansion leveling.

If you think you are grinding you are trying to rush everything and actually do not even know what grinding means.

You want to know what grinding is? Do the same instance over and over again for a chance at a new piece of gear that will make you better.. When you get that piece of gear go back and do the same instance over and over again for yet another chance to get a piece of gear that you need.. Rinse, repeat for months on end till you have a full set.. The catch here is that to even begin your grind for your new stuff you would of had to grind your old stuff in some instance before this one in the same exact way.

There are so many events that I don’t see how you guys consider it grinding. There is no way you should be complaining about doing dynamic events when the entire core game is based around them in every single map. If you think you are grinding now well you’ve been grinding since day one so you should have expected it..

Zaron.1987:

Mo Mo.1947:

The only things that you could argue are grind are optional bonuses and rewards that aren’t necessary. Those are there for the people who want to be hardcore.

.

Okay ty you convinced me

I start HoT now and play the new story.

… oh wait whats this O.o

…. i cant go on playing without grinding 5 mio xp to do the next story episode ( its more than from 0 to 80)

but nice guy at forum told me i only have to grind for optional bonuses and rewards that aren’t necessary.

it must be a bug O.o

until it will be fixed i go on swinging my sword and after that i swing it again cause thats great

You can say the same thing from the beginning. of the game, level 10 story need level 10. You should be level 20 for the level 20 area. can’t equip this awesome shield till I hit level 30. Everything need effort of the player. There no race though, so don’t try to burn your self out also.

Well considering that the first 2 days contained people like “Grind wars 2” “give me my money back” “such a disappointment” “GG Anet”

Id say calling them toxic is well deserved. This one wasn’t necessarily topic but still whined like one.

Just like the mega critic thread. First ten reviews were 0-5 averaging a 2.3. Then the players that actually played the game came to review and now it’s at a 6.5 and it’s still going up.

You can always tell who the spoiled, snob nosed and entitled people are: the ones who whine at every little impediment and quit, while the real mature people play the game through before reviewing regardless of how good or bad the game is.

Games get cheaper over time or even become F2P over time. Get over it. When I bought Skyrim on day 1, it was 60 bucks without any of the DLC. Now, you can buy the GOTY edition for 40 bucks and it has all of the DLC. Should I say that Bethesda needs to give me all the money back that I spend on their DLC plus an extra 40 bucks to make up the difference from the base game? No, because that’s completely ridiculous.

This topic has already been made with people voicing similar complaints. The reality is this is a delusional view to have of how buying things works. Most products go down in price over time in. I bought the original ipod touch when it came out. I can’t even remember how much it cost, but I bet it doesn’t sell for even 20% of what it once was.

You played this game for 3 years. If you feel like the devs somehow owe you something after that time, sorry, but that’s just silly. I honestly am amazed how many people need this simple fact of life explained to them.

“Can I have your stuff?” is the gaming equivalent of “Break a leg.” for stage performers.

Yeah, we need to get this thread back on topic.

@OP.
Bye then.
Can I has your stuffs?

hurrado.2346:

Goatjugsoup.8637:

hurrado.2346:

MatthewMedina.5419:

We’ll take a look at the next step “Sign Cutting” being bugged out, as well as some or all of you having to jump through hoops to get the quest to update correctly. Sorry again for the inconvenience – we’ll have the quest’s designer and QA do a deeper dive on these issues.

Still silence on the larger issue at hand, when is the elite spec grind going to be addressed?

that is a non issue, its not a grind (that would be doing the same thing over and over) and its not that hard

It absolutely is a grind, I HATE world completion content, I have 10 characters that I have to unlock the elite spec on each of them, thus doing the same, boring content that takes forever over and over again. And the WvW way is just a constant, painfully slow ktrain.

If that isn’t grinding I don’t know what is.

You are right. It is a grind. But only because you make it so. “I have to unlock the elite spec on each of them”. Self-imposed behaviour at its finest. Did you also give yourself a deadline? You act like Tony Montana is gonna show up at your door with a baseball bat if you don’t have at least 10 chars with fully unlocked elite specs.

My tip: forget about your 10 alts for a while. Pick the one you want to play first and just play that character. You can worry about elite specs for your 10 other toons later. It doesn’t have to be a chore if you don’t make it one.

hurrado.2346:

Scourge.4317:

psizone.8437:

Scourge.4317:

Do NOT cave on Elite specializations. Everyone already gets access to the new weapon skills that can be used to further unlock the rest of the traits by PLAYING THE GAME. Unlocking your elite traits is no different than how you would progress new characters in other mmos. You get skills every other level by…PLAYING THE GAME. Just like in GW2 you get traits and skills by playing the game. You only need 40 HP…less if you prepared yourself for this expansion. Are you guys new to MMO’s? And once you unlock the mysteries needed to get to the HPs on your first character the rest of your characters won’t have to unlock anything.
.

Using the weapon at that stage leaves you with an empty traitline, for level 80 content (and harder content for HoT) that just doesn’t work.

I don’t mind putting in effort, but I’d rather put that effort into playing the game for masteries, the story and exploration rather than having to go out of my way to farm hero points if I want to play (a viable) elite spec.

It just takes a bit too long, 200 hero points would be more than enough. New characters would need to put in a lot of effort, spending a fair few hours unlocking it and older characters with map completion etc would need to do a little effort to unlock it.

That’s the problem. You want it all now. How does it take to long though when the expansion has only been out for 2 days? Relax and stop trying to rush. HoT’s not going anywhere.

Look if you really want to get it done fast just go do the Mad King instance, or EoTM and just buy all of the HP’s if you are dead set on rushing yourself through everything. But trying to get Anet to get rid of character progression thats been a part of GW since 2005 is just….no.

You only need to get the unlocks on your first character. The others can just go straight to the HP’s ( the ones that don’t involve champ slaying ) without worrying about whether or not you have poison mastery or updraft ect ect.

The problem is it is not progression, it is a flat out grind. Progression was getting to level to 80 in whatever game mode you choose, whether toming up through pvp reward tracks, or smashing zergs in wvw, or PVE content…. etc. While being able to play a class that is new and is viable for the level/area you are at.

Now at level 80 unlocking the new trait line (that is not inherently better, just a new way to play) at an excessively slow pace compared to prior trait lines you are left playing WvW or PVE with an extremely sub-par spec for a VERY long time if you choose to equip that line, thus forcing players to rush through and grind, grind, grind in a Ktrain, or do new zone, and again grind. I have to grit my teeth to do anything out of pvp/wvw/fractals/dungeons/event minigames, and would rather be able to unlock the profession reasonably, in a gamemode I enjoy. Is that too hard to ask? (and no ktraining through EOTM does not count as enjoying WVW)

Remember also many players have to grind on 8+ players, so they have to suffer through content they may not enjoy many, many times. Why not allow progression through just being able to play the game as you want? Because right now doing that you may have one elite spec unlocked by next year at this time if you don’t get bored of playing as the same old spec for that long.

The underlying assumption all the folks that discount the issue have is that: “This pve zone isn’t too bad, just do the long mastery grind once, then grind through the near impossible zone to navigate, do hero challenges, and then do those again on all your characters, don’t you just love this progression? Oh and by the way, screw anyone who doesn’t do the map completion stuff, they don’t belong on guild wars anyway because what I enjoy should be what they enjoy.”

What is a very long time to you? Expansion launched 12:01A.M Friday. Its Sunday. No one is forcing you to rush anything mate. You just wait to have it all unlocked now. I feel like the BETA weekends are the reasons for this; people got to comfortable with instantly having access to the elite specs and now that they added progression to them (just like every mmo in existence) its seen as a problem. Oh and it won’t take a year to unlock one elite spec lol. Im about 70% done with my Scrapper already through playing through one zone that im not even done with yet.

I have 9 level 80s. I only need the mysteries completed on my main. After that my other 8 will have easy access to the 40 HPs. I would never tell someone they don’t belong in GW because they don’t like what i enjoy. But you do realize that other people actually do enjoy seeing their character become stronger as they play through the game unlocking masters and traits? And you guys want to get rid of it so you can have instantly access only 2 days after the expansion released.

There’s some kind of club on reddit who are deliberately spamming that site to lower the score.

Which IMO is a perfect illustration of why sites like that can’t really tell you much. It’s like the ones who assemble lists of the “best” bands, albums etc. by getting people to vote on a web page. All it really tells you is whose fan base is computer literate enough to set up the most bots to spam votes.

pepsis.5384:

“Fade.5904:

Got Master Daredevil yesterday, played 3 days. Spend less time whining and more time playing – because that’s all i did, play the game (not grind)"

How many people in GW2 have that kind of time to spend “playing” ( grinding )? I’m willing to bet the real money spenders are actually the busy, middle class professinals who, you know, spend most of their week working, doing stuff with their loved ones, going out, going to the gym etc. These people are the bread and butter for Anet, the so called casuals who play for an hour at a time most days. When you market your expansion on the back of the Elite spec, make sure you go full disclosure on what exactly it would take to actually play it once it goes live. Anet did not do that and so now folks feel cheated. Pretty simple to uderstand no?

Actually like probably a lot of people i booked Friday off, Saturday was my day off anyway so i’ve had 2 binge days of playing, it’s not an everyday occurrence.
As hero points go, on the first map alone there are 9 hero points you can get with just gliding 1 and mushroom jumping… those take so little time to get if your joining in on events (ie playing) that’s 90 hero points right there out of your 400.
Presuming i don’t have a life or loved ones based on two days is, well…rather presumptuous and rude to be honest.

I guess I am one of the few that actually likes the time that I need to spend to earn the points. The HP hunting and difficulty was the most fun I had in game in a long time.
And I have many alts and still look forward to fight through for them also. With the masteries unlocked its actually much easier even if you do not have map completion.

Personally I think the only valid point is the slow progression in WvW.

I would make easy HP farming in EoTM possible after you have completed the story and maps once. Maybe with an extra vendor in EoTM. Thus people would stop complaining about the non existent grind and everyone would have the option to progress as the like to. Whether they want to challenge themselves ans spend time or want everything unlocked fast (not sure where is the fun on that but each to his own tastes).

Thunderwitch.3672:

I think that empty new maps – this is big proof that HoT has failed. I played all weekend and I’ve never seen so empty maps. And it’s the first weekend of the new expancion! Unbelievably.

Nobody announced that we cannot play like before. Nobody said that HoT is not for us. For what we paid? What we can now do in this game, as a solo players? Almost nothing.
For three years we could play solo – now suddenly cannot. For three years we could create and upgrade our small guilds – now we cannot. For three years we could choose – constantly cooperate with other players or not. Now, someone decided it for us. But we are not foolish children. We are adults and solvent people.

Anet, you should have warned us about the upcoming changes. You had to say – “solo players, you are no longer welcome here”. And then we did not pay to new addon. But we have actually deceived.

As a developers, you should know that hardcore gamers and raiders make tiny percentage of community. All the rest – it’s casual gamers and solo gamers. They are the core of the community. They also make a lot of micro-transactions.

Now look at your empty new maps and think, who filled them before?
You kick larger half of community. Great decision. Congratulations.

Just one question – what for?

I really don’t get comments like this. The Developers have kept us in the loop since day one. There’s been the website, the twitch channel, the Points of Interest episodes, forums and even Guild Chat episodes.

“For three years we could play solo – now suddenly cannot.”.
Am i missing something….did the core GW2 game get deleted when HoT came out???
There is tons of awesome new content which can be enjoyed in the older maps if the new maps are not your thing. If people are only playing the new maps to get the 10 hero points per hero challenge, then ask yourself if you’re up to the challenge to earn 10 hero points at a time, because it shouldn’t be easy to get 10 hero points just like that.

On the topic of small guilds not being able to get Guild Halls, many small guilds, (some even less than 10 members) have unlocked the Guild Hall. My Guild has exactly 10 members and we completed it fairly easily.

To spite all the great new features and content, if you find yourself still not enjoying the game, don’t stress, just find yourself something else to play, after all gaming is about enjoying yourself

I play solo a lot and have had no such issues. Most of the normal events only need one or two players. Player skill and picking and making the right build play a large part out here.

If someone asks for help I come. If I need help I call it out in map chat. Every once in a while I am met with failure but one thing I know is this sure beats the face roll content in most of the base game.

HoT has brought back the need to have good personal skill/build if you want to solo.

No wonder u cant solo/achieve a god ya know thing cause you are here on the forums complaining all the time instead of playing you cry that mommy wont hold your hand anymore when you go to school .And just as little kids are they want everything now “Please mommy can i open all my santa presents right now?” Its only 3 weeks before his fat belly jumps through the chimney. “But i want it now!!”Then the kid screams and cries.

Agares.6073:

Yargesh.4965:

Never have seen an empty map.

that is so much bs lol
there is a big reddit thread about this too and other sites had this complain too but ok

I, me, this person typing have never seen an empty map. Badly organized absolutely, never empty.

Aytheist.9476:

JayAction.9056:

This is an mmo. Of course some things are going to be “unplayable” solo.

Doh OK. I guess before HoT it wasn’t an mmo?

Doh Doh – how do you fare solo in Dry Top or the Silverwastes? Do you solo Balthazar, Grenth and whatnot?

The game isn’t faceroll anymore and the casuals whine. I die a lot and sometimes I yell at the screen but I wouldn’t complain. This is no mumbo jumbo starter zone content, get used to it or get help from your friends/guild.

Aytheist , Firstly props for “Edmond Dantes”

I understand your point but Guild Wars 2 is 3 years old and people have been dying for something different and to be honest, if ANET didn’t bring something new to the table, the game would die.

I’ve been following all the developer newsfeeds, videos and POI episodes and the developers have been saying for months that the new content will challenge us and it will break the old META style gameplay and require players to explore more build variety.

I’m sorry to hear you feel your hard earned Dollars have been wasted

I think ANET got the difficult just right (for solo and group players).

I play 50% of the time solo and 50% with a few friends.

SOLO:
I will admit, its tough but its fair. The new content keeps the game interesting by making you adapt to new situations. These new situations require you to switch a trait or two, switch gear, switch weapons and understand the enemies mechanics (strengths & weaknesses). Example, the smokescale was really getting the better of me until i realised that if i lure it out of its smoke field its really easy to take down. It took me a few smokescales to learn this but that’s the fun of exploring the new world.
The thought of exploring this new world, not knowing what dangers lie ahead makes it exciting and if i do come into a deadly situation i either run, regroup and figure out how I’m going to beat it, or i fight, die and then learn from the situation and come out better off overall.
I also understand my limitations, i cant expect to always come out on top of every champ I try solo and sometimes going around (or gliding over) the champs is the best option for me. In the end I still achieve what I wanted (heroes points, POI ,etc), I just had to think a little more to get it.

GROUP PLAY:
Not much to say, group events are hard enough and general exploration with 3 or 4 friends makes the new content pretty easy.

If any of you are having trouble soloing the new content, don’t lose heart.
Experiment and try new builds, gear combinations and tactics. Also don’t be ashamed to ask random players for help or advice. I find 95% of the GW2 community is very friendly and open to help.

Best of Luck

Aytheist.9476:

I didnt have to type /y and beg for help before HoT. The change in playability is obvious, and we were mislead by their lack of disclosure.

I love the people saying the old game didn’t train you for the “sudden” increase in difficulty in HoT. Remember Orr at launch? If was good brutal unforgiving fun, then the people who couldn’t be bothered to learn how to move fluidly, to read mobs and time their dodges, or even to chain their own skills got there. And that wonderfully difficult zone got turned into easy mode.

And here we are again. I’ve got insta gibbed and cc chained, I got wtf’d by the raptors. You know what I learned? Snipers die first and fast, don’t fight raptors standing still or in tight spaces, orange/red stuff on the ground is actually painful, your positioning matters A LOT. It’s the most fun I’ve had in PVE since I first got to Orr after launch. I usually have to go to PvP or WvW to be this entertained.

I usually run a sword/dagger shortbow thief with full glass gear, DA/Trickery/Acro traits. The mobs in HoT are great, interesting mechanics and they will kill you if you aren’t paying attention, that is how it should be. I’ve had to go pistol pistol to really drill some of the tougher mobs from range. I’ve had to switch utility’s in and out. Learn, adapt and overcome.

You literally have had, and still have, the entirety of the rest of the PVE game to go mindlessly through easy content and you can’t find the internal fortitude to try it for a week before you cry nerf?
I have other words for that but these forums are PG.