Guild Wars 2

Svarty.8019:

Ayrilana.1396:

Yannir.4132:

Ayrilana.1396:

Yannir.4132:

Ayrilana.1396:

Yannir.4132:

Behellagh.1468:

DeWolfe.2174:

Ok I Did It.2854:

DeWolfe.2174:

idk, the leather farm did nothing and isn’t very good. Think I’ll spend today farming and see what can be done about leather.

This is not true, the leather farm works great, the problem is ppl still want things handed to them, and don’t want to put any effort into farming themselves, they want Anet to step in and nerf it.

Price of T6 leather sections since farm released…..

Nice cherry picking of the graph. Here’s a better one.

Fear grips casual hoarders who sell to speculators. “Word” spreads that the farm is “too hard” and “isn’t worth it” so prices slowly recover back to where they were after a few weeks. Speculators win!

And when you look at the graph, the result is still the same. The price is now higher than before the leather farm came. It’s marginal, but it’s there. What does that tell you?

Look at the full graph over time and don’t just cherry pick two points in time. Where it sits at now is the normal level when there isn’t as many players playing. Notice how there’s always a sharp decrease in price with each living story episode? There was also the speculation that the leather farm would dramatically increase supply that drove prices down a bit.

There are 2 spikes in January that rise over 34 s, and the Leather Farm hadn’t been announced yet. Now, in March there are 4 spikes over 34 s, now that most people know it’s there and we’re barely 3 weeks into the month. Statistically we can predict an additional spike towards the midway of the week. That’s more than double the amount of price spikes. I’m not cherrypicking certain moments, I’m looking at the monthly average.

The prices dropping in February can be accounted for by the announcement/release of LWS3E4. It’s a statistical anomaly created by marketing, basically.

That’s cherry picking again. Prices fluctuate but the price level as remained relatively flat outside of the impacts of the LS and leather farm announcement.

You have a really weird idea of what cherrypicking is.

It’s cherry picking because you’re picking specific spikes that crossed a price point that you picked and are using them to predict a trend.

Yeah… eh.. That’s how the pros do it.

Except the poster isn’t doing it correctly and the way they’re doing it is essentially cherry picking.

Yannir.4132:

Ayrilana.1396:

Yannir.4132:

Ayrilana.1396:

Yannir.4132:

Behellagh.1468:

DeWolfe.2174:

Ok I Did It.2854:

DeWolfe.2174:

idk, the leather farm did nothing and isn’t very good. Think I’ll spend today farming and see what can be done about leather.

This is not true, the leather farm works great, the problem is ppl still want things handed to them, and don’t want to put any effort into farming themselves, they want Anet to step in and nerf it.

Price of T6 leather sections since farm released…..

Nice cherry picking of the graph. Here’s a better one.

Fear grips casual hoarders who sell to speculators. “Word” spreads that the farm is “too hard” and “isn’t worth it” so prices slowly recover back to where they were after a few weeks. Speculators win!

And when you look at the graph, the result is still the same. The price is now higher than before the leather farm came. It’s marginal, but it’s there. What does that tell you?

Look at the full graph over time and don’t just cherry pick two points in time. Where it sits at now is the normal level when there isn’t as many players playing. Notice how there’s always a sharp decrease in price with each living story episode? There was also the speculation that the leather farm would dramatically increase supply that drove prices down a bit.

There are 2 spikes in January that rise over 34 s, and the Leather Farm hadn’t been announced yet. Now, in March there are 4 spikes over 34 s, now that most people know it’s there and we’re barely 3 weeks into the month. Statistically we can predict an additional spike towards the midway of the week. That’s more than double the amount of price spikes. I’m not cherrypicking certain moments, I’m looking at the monthly average.

The prices dropping in February can be accounted for by the announcement/release of LWS3E4. It’s a statistical anomaly created by marketing, basically.

That’s cherry picking again. Prices fluctuate but the price level as remained relatively flat outside of the impacts of the LS and leather farm announcement.

You have a really weird idea of what cherrypicking is.

It’s cherry picking because you’re picking specific spikes that crossed a price point that you picked and are using them to predict a trend.

Yannir.4132:

Ayrilana.1396:

Yannir.4132:

Behellagh.1468:

DeWolfe.2174:

Ok I Did It.2854:

DeWolfe.2174:

idk, the leather farm did nothing and isn’t very good. Think I’ll spend today farming and see what can be done about leather.

This is not true, the leather farm works great, the problem is ppl still want things handed to them, and don’t want to put any effort into farming themselves, they want Anet to step in and nerf it.

Price of T6 leather sections since farm released…..

Nice cherry picking of the graph. Here’s a better one.

Fear grips casual hoarders who sell to speculators. “Word” spreads that the farm is “too hard” and “isn’t worth it” so prices slowly recover back to where they were after a few weeks. Speculators win!

And when you look at the graph, the result is still the same. The price is now higher than before the leather farm came. It’s marginal, but it’s there. What does that tell you?

Look at the full graph over time and don’t just cherry pick two points in time. Where it sits at now is the normal level when there isn’t as many players playing. Notice how there’s always a sharp decrease in price with each living story episode? There was also the speculation that the leather farm would dramatically increase supply that drove prices down a bit.

There are 2 spikes in January that rise over 34 s, and the Leather Farm hadn’t been announced yet. Now, in March there are 4 spikes over 34 s, now that most people know it’s there and we’re barely 3 weeks into the month. Statistically we can predict an additional spike towards the midway of the week. That’s more than double the amount of price spikes. I’m not cherrypicking certain moments, I’m looking at the monthly average.

The prices dropping in February can be accounted for by the announcement/release of LWS3E4. It’s a statistical anomaly created by marketing, basically.

That’s cherry picking again. Comparing spikes is not the best way. Prices fluctuate but the price level has remained relatively flat outside of the impacts of the LS and leather farm announcement.

Svarty.8019:

Hitman.5829:

[Leather price] When are you fixing…

John Smith does nothing at work:

To address this, we’re taking a step back from the standard amount of economy balancing we’re doing; in fact, we’ve actually already started doing that.

He does more than babysit the economy

Mortifera.6138:

HoT fans don’t know what traditional fantasy is, which is why it got away with being an fps.

And yet you cannot describe what is “traditional fantasy”. I reallly hope by “fps” you don’t mean first person shooter.

Mortifera.6138:

Ardid.7203:

Big lush jungles populated with gigantic trees aren’t fantasy. Big lush jungles populated with gigantic trees and all kind of dinosaur-like animals, multiple tribes of religious frogmen, sentient monster-plants connected through a hive mind and magic eating superbugs… those are fantasy at it’s finest.

It’s not traditional fantasy, just gimmicks designed to keep you busy while you glide.

Exactly what is “traditional fantasy”? It just seems like you’re moving the goalposts.

Yannir.4132:

Hardened leather prices are a bit ridiculous atm. A square costs over a 1 g, whereas you can get an Orichalcum Ingot for a bit under 6 s. So they cost about 20x more. I don’t think they were even this expensive before, so what happened? We got a leather farm and the prices went up?

And what’s with Gossamer Patches requiring 10 Hardened Leather Sections but only 4 Bolts of Gossamer? That should really be the other way around, as they are GOSSAMER Patches. Not Leather Patches.

They’ve been like this the last five or so months. The only times the price have dipped down in when a LS episode was released and when the announcement of the leather farm was made that it’d be included in the next update.

Yannir.4132:

Behellagh.1468:

DeWolfe.2174:

Ok I Did It.2854:

DeWolfe.2174:

idk, the leather farm did nothing and isn’t very good. Think I’ll spend today farming and see what can be done about leather.

This is not true, the leather farm works great, the problem is ppl still want things handed to them, and don’t want to put any effort into farming themselves, they want Anet to step in and nerf it.

Price of T6 leather sections since farm released…..

Nice cherry picking of the graph. Here’s a better one.

Fear grips casual hoarders who sell to speculators. “Word” spreads that the farm is “too hard” and “isn’t worth it” so prices slowly recover back to where they were after a few weeks. Speculators win!

And when you look at the graph, the result is still the same. The price is now higher than before the leather farm came. It’s marginal, but it’s there. What does that tell you?

Look at the full graph over time and don’t just cherry pick two points in time. Where it sits at now is the normal level when there isn’t as many players playing. Notice how there’s always a sharp decrease in price with each living story episode? There was also the speculation that the leather farm would dramatically increase supply that drove prices down a bit.

Have you done the story? Like at all?

Ajun.3102:

This fight is still ridiculous. If you can make it without dying – great for you, but I’m a filthy casual and just had to fight the final boss naked from all the wipes thouse jade constructs cost me (still no anvil in the entire instance, great). Nothing fun about this fight, honestly – previous boss fights in LW S3 were difficult, but mostly in a good way. This is just BS, a story instance I will never touch again, not event for a milion AP.

There’s only one jade.

Scipio.3204:

Ayrilana.1396:

So you’re saying that creating weapon skins takes up as much, if not more, resources that developing the entirety of a living story episode? I don’t recall them giving out that timeline for armor and you’re also not taking into consideration of how many staff were a part of it.

For example two staff members working on weapons for nine months is not the same as four staff working on the LS for six months. I don’t know the number of staff that work on a single weapon set but I’m pretty sure it’s considerably less than what they have working on the LS.

Also realize that whether or not raids is accessible has nothing to do with me saying comparing rewards across two areas of the games didn’t matter. I even explained why.

There you go, https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/4urm84/out_of_the_shadows_developer_ama_summary/

You can find it in the Misc, section. Funnily enough, it took them only 5 month to create a fractal, compared to the 9 month of one armor set.

I didn’t count in the amount of staff members, because I can’t count with something I have no information about, and you shouldn’t either. What actually matters is, how much of their resources raids are taking, and we are back to square one.

Thanks for the link.

They had more staff working on the fractal. Also keep in mind that the only armor set(s) they released post expansion were for raids and these were being worked on prior to launch. They were even announced well before launch.

And rewards is not the way to measure or estimate that.

Scipio.3204:

Ayrilana.1396:

Then ask for some grindy achievements or collections?

I could, but remember what you had to collect in Dry Top and SW for those collections & achievements?

Yes. What are you trying to get at?

Scipio.3204:

Ayrilana.1396:

You’re so focused on rewards which have nothing to do with the resources being spent on content such as the LS and raids.

But don’t tell me rewards don’t affect the replayability of said content, no matter which one we are talking about. I’m focused on rewards because that is the topic at hand, but oh, believe me, the current system bleeds from several wounds, not just one.

Anyway, I think we reached the point when we are replying for just the sake of replying, so I’ll stop here. If you choose to believe the existence of raids doesn’t affect the rest of the game or the non-raider playerbase, you are free to do so.

Rewards only affect replayability for as long as it takes for players to earn them and for the rewards that they actually care about. The replayability of LS maps is mainly from farming the map currencies to get ascended trinkets as they’re a quick way to earn them.

Scipio.3204:

Ayrilana.1396:

It doesn’t matter because the resources spent on rewards pales considerably to the resources spent on actual content. This is why trying to compare quantities of rewards between raids and elsewhere in the game is pointless.

How do you know? Anet explicitly said making an armor set takes around 9 month, much longer for a legendary. And we have no idea how long it takes to make a weapon set. And again, maybe pointless for you, because the accessibility of said rewards didn’t change for you.

So you’re saying that creating weapon skins takes up as much, if not more, resources that developing the entirety of a living story episode? I don’t recall them giving out that timeline for armor and you’re also not taking into consideration of how many staff were a part of it.

For example two staff members working on weapons for nine months is not the same as four staff working on the LS for six months. I don’t know the number of staff that work on a single weapon set but I’m pretty sure it’s considerably less than what they have working on the LS.

Also realize that whether or not raids is accessible has nothing to do with me saying comparing rewards across two areas of the games didn’t matter. I even explained why.

Scipio.3204:

Ayrilana.1396:

SW and DT have grindy achievements and collections which kept players coming to those maps. You also earn those currencies at a much slower rate compared to all other maps with map currencies. The time spent in those maps to accomplish goals takes longer than it would in other maps with comparable goals.

And the new maps have close to nothing to grind for. Exactly my point.

Then ask for some grindy achievements or collections?

Scipio.3204:

Ayrilana.1396:

makes absolutely no sense. The same reasons to play a map were going to exist whether or not raids existed. Raids have little impact on whether someone finds any of the LS maps desirable to play on.

Reason a.k.a. rewards? Do you think the same amount of people were raiding if it had no uniques? The same can be said for the new maps. I can’t even count it how many of my friends stopped caring about the new maps , because they asked “What can you earn?” and the answer was 1 armor piece and a backpack.

You’re so focused on rewards which have nothing to do with the resources being spent on content such as the LS and raids.

DeWolfe.2174:

Ok I Did It.2854:

DeWolfe.2174:

idk, the leather farm did nothing and isn’t very good. Think I’ll spend today farming and see what can be done about leather.

This is not true, the leather farm works great, the problem is ppl still want things handed to them, and don’t want to put any effort into farming themselves, they want Anet to step in and nerf it.

Price of T6 leather sections since farm released…..

They had declined from that level several weeks before when people were speculating on getting large amounts of T6 leather. All that’s really happened is the price going back to normal, which for a lot of people that need it, is unfortunate.

Put in a support ticket to customer service explaining the issue with as much detail as possible. Also, if you happen to kill the golem again and still don’t get it, report it within game as a bug before leaving the map.

Scipio.3204:

Ayrilana.1396:

Scipio.3204:

Ayrilana.1396:

Scipio.3204:

Ayrilana.1396:

It did have at least as many rewards.

Sigh…. raids so far released the white mantle weapon set (16 piece) and the experimental envoy armor set (18 unique piece). Outside of these every boss has an average 2 unique item associated with it excluding trio and escort ( 2*11= 22 piece). That is 56 altogether +/- one or two.

LS episode one like I said released two unique piece. Rising flames gave us three, with an additional shoulder. The third one has 2 ,and like I said the last one has around 5. That is 12 altogether.

Even if we add the Clown weapon set , which has nothing to do with the new content outside of location, that is 28.

Calculating with this, the 4 raid wing has around twice as much reward compared to the 4 episodes released so far.

And you’re ignoring everything that the heart vendors sell. You’re ignoring the items you get from completing certain achievements. There’s the rewards from the recent current event. There’s also the backpacks, aquatic breathers, and home instance nodes.

I did not actually. Only two new heart vendors sell any kind of new equipment. I factored the few achievements that gives rewards like the Meta achievements. I did forget the new current event, fair enough, but as far as I can remember CE only gave us one headpiece and 7 new weapons, doesn’t really change the outcome.

I did not count in home instance nodes, accessories, tonics, miniatures and other similar items like the Portal Stone or infusions. The only thing that I did count are the ones Anet is known having problems in producing. E.g. things you actually wear. That includes Weapons, Armors and the back slot.

If you think I’m wrong you’re free to do your own list.

Rewards are not just weapon/armor skins. I’m not going to spend an hour making a list because it doesn’t matter one way or another.

For you maybe it doesn’t matter, but you know I’ve been playing a lot less on the new maps compared to how much I played on Dry Top and Silverwastes. But overall my playtime hasn’t decreased because I’ve made up the difference by playing raids instead.

However those who don’t play raids, they have a lot less reason to play the new content compared to when raids didn’t exist.

It doesn’t matter because the resources spent on rewards pales considerably to the resources spent on actual content. This is why trying to compare quantities of rewards between raids and elsewhere in the game is pointless.

SW and DT have grindy achievements and collections which kept players coming to those maps. You also earn those currencies at a much slower rate compared to all other maps with map currencies. The time spent in those maps to accomplish goals takes longer than it would in other maps with comparable goals.

And this:

However those who don’t play raids, they have a lot less reason to play the new content compared to when raids didn’t exist.

makes absolutely no sense. The same reasons to play a map were going to exist whether or not raids existed. Raids have little impact on whether someone finds any of the LS maps desirable to play on.

Have you gotten any of the other items for that collection?

Daddicus.6128:

Ayrilana.1396:

Checkpoints between phases would be a bit too much.

I strongly disagree.

The fight isn’t that long and it would make the achievements very easy to get.

Ever see the Tom Cruise movie Edge of Tomorrow where he could go back to a certain point of time (i.e. Checkpoint) after dying. Imagine if instead of that certain checkpoint it would instead have been after certain sequences. This would remove the struggle and any effort as you could brute force yourself to the next checkpoint.

Imagine SAB trib mode if you could have a checkpoint after every obstacle. Same thing.

vgomes.7380:

Ayrilana.1396:

vgomes.7380:

Been sitting around the camp and nothing. Contested Waypoint no event…this should be fixed if 6 months ago the problem was spotted… :x it’s not really enough that it just works sometimes out of RNG luck.

I just went to the camp and within five minutes the defend event popped up.

Are you EU or NA?! I’ve been logging all day to the same overflow with no luck
I’m EU on Far Shiverpeaks…

NA. Just logged in and saw the champ up.

vgomes.7380:

Been sitting around the camp and nothing. Contested Waypoint no event…this should be fixed if 6 months ago the problem was spotted… :x it’s not really enough that it just works sometimes out of RNG luck.

I just went to the camp and within five minutes the defend event popped up.

Scipio.3204:

Ayrilana.1396:

Scipio.3204:

Ayrilana.1396:

It did have at least as many rewards.

Sigh…. raids so far released the white mantle weapon set (16 piece) and the experimental envoy armor set (18 unique piece). Outside of these every boss has an average 2 unique item associated with it excluding trio and escort ( 2*11= 22 piece). That is 56 altogether +/- one or two.

LS episode one like I said released two unique piece. Rising flames gave us three, with an additional shoulder. The third one has 2 ,and like I said the last one has around 5. That is 12 altogether.

Even if we add the Clown weapon set , which has nothing to do with the new content outside of location, that is 28.

Calculating with this, the 4 raid wing has around twice as much reward compared to the 4 episodes released so far.

And you’re ignoring everything that the heart vendors sell. You’re ignoring the items you get from completing certain achievements. There’s the rewards from the recent current event. There’s also the backpacks, aquatic breathers, and home instance nodes.

I did not actually. Only two new heart vendors sell any kind of new equipment. I factored the few achievements that gives rewards like the Meta achievements. I did forget the new current event, fair enough, but as far as I can remember CE only gave us one headpiece and 7 new weapons, doesn’t really change the outcome.

I did not count in home instance nodes, accessories, tonics, miniatures and other similar items like the Portal Stone or infusions. The only thing that I did count are the ones Anet is known having problems in producing. E.g. things you actually wear. That includes Weapons, Armors and the back slot.

If you think I’m wrong you’re free to do your own list.

Rewards are not just weapon/armor skins. I’m not going to spend an hour making a list because it doesn’t matter one way or another.

Scipio.3204:

Ayrilana.1396:

It did have at least as many rewards.

Sigh…. raids so far released the white mantle weapon set (16 piece) and the experimental envoy armor set (18 unique piece). Outside of these every boss has an average 2 unique item associated with it excluding trio and escort ( 2*11= 22 piece). That is 56 altogether +/- one or two.

LS episode one like I said released two unique piece. Rising flames gave us three, with an additional shoulder. The third one has 2 ,and like I said the last one has around 5. That is 12 altogether.

Even if we add the Clown weapon set , which has nothing to do with the new content outside of location, that is 28.

Calculating with this, the 4 raid wing has around twice as much reward compared to the 4 episodes released so far.

And you’re ignoring everything that the heart vendors sell. You’re ignoring the items you get from completing certain achievements. There’s the rewards from the recent current event. There’s also the backpacks, aquatic breathers, and home instance nodes.

Did it without a problem a couple weeks ago. I got it by doing the defend event.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dredgehaunt_Lynx_Refuge_Sign

Khisanth.2948:

Ayrilana.1396:

Khisanth.2948:

Are you talking about bosses or phases? There are definitely checkpoints after each boss but there isn’t any on the phases except maybe that last phase but since that last phase is the easiest thing in the whole instance there was never a need to check.

I’m referring to the two bosses that you choose to fight at the beginning. Checkpoints between phases would be a bit too much.

Then why would they need to add any checkpoints? The checkpoints are already there.

I originally said that but then someone suggested it was a bug.

Treasure Trove Deposit / Withdraw: This pair of permissions also control access to the Deep Cave segment of the Guild vault.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild

The Deep Cave will expand your treasure trove by another 100 slots.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Deep_Cave

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Favor

Chun.5827:

To Ayrilana.1396,

Its interesting how you equate a “challenge” with group content. You obviously never played any difficult single player games. The “#1 reason people fail” doesn’t apply to people like me. If the raids were designed around challenging a single player, I would have no problems sinking in weeks worth of effort overcoming the challenge. Unlike in group content, in a single player challenge you would have to fill every role by yourself, and understand every facet of your profession. The meta builds wouldn’t be specialist class roles, they would be self-sufficient builds designed to deal with many scenarios. Self-sufficient build take more skill to use, require greater profession knowledge. You need to cover your own cc, cleanse your own conditions, stack your own might, etc. The builds would more closely resemble roamer or duelist builds (which definitely take more skill to use than your rotation memorizing PvE builds).

Challenge and group content can be separate. However, raids are challenging group content. They’re meant to be challenging and done in a group. Something that I have tried repeatedly to stress.

Here’s some reading for you.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/designing-challenging-content/
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/raids-in-guild-wars-2/

Chun.5827:

Its always been the “spirit” of GW1 & GW2, to allow the player to play at their own terms. You can go away for a year, and all the content is easily accessible and easily PUG able without communication. Unlike other MMO’s, Guildwars 1 and 2 is very friendly to solo players, “Group Content” up until now, you never needed to actually deal with other people. The only content that isn’t easily accessible is raids. I’ve soloed dungeons and fractals. Its doable but annoying considering that the bosses have health bars designed around 5 players. Raids, have health bars designed around 10 people. Unless I want to spend hours plinking away, its not an option and not fun.

Always? Dungeons and fractals were not designed to be done solo. Good job that you can but you’re in the minority of players. Anyway, over 90% of GW2 is solo friendly. Not everything has to cater to those that want to treat this like a console game. There will always be some elements of games that not everyone likes. Obviously raids is going to be one of them. It’s unfortunate but you’re insistent that there’s an issue because you cannot solo raids.

Chun.5827:

This quote cannot be more wrong “And raids are meant to be a step above that for those that wanted more of a challenge. So they’re not for you. Not everything in a game will appeal to everyone.” I want challenge, for the pure sake of challenge. Easily accessible content where I rely only on my own skills and abilities. Not a challenge for the Human Resources Department.

Then request that Anet creates challenging solo content for people like you just like how they created challenging group content for people who wanted it.

Chun.5827:

“Group Content” != challenging content. Play Dark Souls 3/Bloodborne No Leveling, All bosses. Come back after 1000hrs of dying and tell me about your “easy” time. No one to rely on but yourself, every mistake is your own, you control all variables that lead to your success or failure. All PvE content in GW1 and GW2 can be done solo or easily done in loosely organized groups, except raids. This greatly affects the accessibility of raids, there are people like myself who want challenging content but can’t because its locked behind 9 other people. I want purely technical challenges, where I can play at my own pace. That focuses exclusively on personal skill and ability.

Again… Read the links that I provided above. The raids were created specifically to be challenging and to be group content. Whatever you managed to accomplish in this game or another solo doesn’t matter.

Fremtid.3528:

The prices went from 20s to 35s a section its insane literally insane.

Which is what it was before the announcement of there being a leather farm. I also noticed that the price went down upon the release of every LS episode. Maybe the issue that not enough players are farming.

Pan Pie.7169:

11 months later

It’s still not fixed.

Just went to the map and saw that the escort event was up. If you had gone further west from your screenshot, it may have been up for you too.

We’ll get more build diversity with the next elite specializations. Just keep in mind that meta is not everything.

Sister Saxifrage.7361:

I really like the idea of mutually exclusive elite specs: ie your third trait line can be Druid or [new ranger elite spec], but not both at once. It sort of hearkens back to the days of GW1 with secondary professions. Just so long as the new elite specs don’t so completely stomp the old ones that the old ones become worthless, I think it could be really good for build diversity.

That’s what I gathered that they were planning on doing with elite specializations.

Chun.5827:

Its interesting how you claim that the only people who should be able to raid are those that have enough “dedication”. And people, who refuse to put in the effort shouldn’t raid. How about people who like challenges, but hate having to socialize and rely on 9 other people. Read my comments on page 3 and 4 of this topic.

You do realize that this is an MMO and raids are group content, right? If you can’t socialize enough to work as a group then the content just isn’t for you. It takes dedication to learn the raid mechanics (the #1 reason people fail). The raid was desigtned to be challenging. If it’s too challenging for you, and you don’t want to do what it takes to overcome that challenge like everyone else, the raid just isn’t for you. It’s unfortunate, and I wish you’d give it another try, but nerfing it down to your level isn’t the answer.

Chun.5827:

Shouldn’t “challenging” content be based only on pure skill and dedication? Raids should be relabeled “Socially Challenging Content” instead, because the true challenge comes from having to deal with people. I am not Human Resources, I want to play the game, not deal with conflicting interests and drama. Yes, there is a major issue with raid accessibility.

Raids are based on skill (following the mechanics and performing well with your class) as well as dedication (learning the mechanics and learning your class) all within a group setting. Over 90% of the game can be done solo. Are you complaining about not being able to solo dungeons and fractals too? This is an MMO so some social interaction is expected and especially so for content designed specially for groups. The only issue with raid accessibility in this case is with someone that doesn’t want to interact with others. This limitation is not the game’s fault.

Chun.5827:

I like how you mentioned GW1, I beaten all elite zones without other players. Some examples being Underworld, Fissure of Woe, Slavers Exile, Domain of Anguish, The Deep, Urgoz, Winds of Change(HM), War in Kryta (HM), all missions and explorable areas(HM). In GW2, I’ve done all PvE areas, events, dungeons, and fractals without needing to socialize or communicate with anyone. The only exception to PvE content released by Anet is…. raids.

When I stated GW1, I’m referring to when it was still active and new. You know, when you did not have heroes. This was around the time where all of us were learning how to do the elite maps with a lot of people saying they were too difficult.

Chun.5827:

Fractals and dungeons are easy to learn simply by copying the group, no social drama needed when learning. I’ve PUGed thousands of dungeons and fractals. Here is how the runs go, everyone silently plays, at the end everyone says “ty”. To even learn raids, guess what? you have to deal with drama from other people. I can’t learn on my own pace, with my own schedule, and at my own terms. All Gw1 and Gw2 PvE content except raids is easily accessible.

And raids are meant to be a step above that for those that wanted more of a challenge. So they’re not for you. Not everything in a game will appeal to everyone.

Chun.5827:

The “challenge” in challenging content should be because the content itself is actually difficult, not the difficulty of trying to play with 9 other people. I highly suggest you play Dark Souls 3/Bloodborne, No Leveling run, All bosses. Your understand what actual mechanically “challenging content” is. What GW2 needs is challenging content, where the mechanics are challenging, not because its a social challenge.

The content itself is difficult and part of the challenge is learning to function together. What you seem to keep forgetting is that this is a MMO which involves interactions with others and raids are GROUP content.

Scipio.3204:

Ayrilana.1396:

Scipio.3204:

Ayrilana.1396:

Scipio.3204:

Ayrilana.1396:

Whether or not “released” was included, you’re still comparing rewards.

Well, Duh. Maybe because to extract any conclusion regarding the resources we have to look at the products, and since we don’t know the distribution of the reward team amongst game modes, the only thing we can look at is the actual released rewards.

Ayrilana.1396:

Raids are a new game mode so you’re going to see a greater influx of those. It’d be like if you were complaining that fractals at release were getting more rewards than the rest of the game.

There is a huge difference here because of several reasons. One being is fractals are made to be accessible, and two, fractals don’t expand like raids do. One new fractal doesn’t need its own set of rewards to be appealing , unlike in the case of raids.

Ayrilana.1396:

Besides, LS is getting released at a much greater rate so those rewards will soon surpass what was included as raid awards if they haven’t already.

I don’t recall the elite maps from GW1 getting an easy mode such as Underworld. They were meant to be challenging.

Could be a point ,if there weren’t single bosses having more rewards than entire episodes.
On the GW1 argument, I believe Vayne already adressed that a little way back.

Behellagh.1468:

No, the majority of rewards YOU want are behind the raids. And specific gameplay modes should have exclusive rewards. There are rewards I would love but they are behind gameplay modes I’m not willing to invest the time in. Raids are no different.

Context. Perhaps I was misunderstable , I was refering to rewards being released after HoT. Personally I have everything I want from raids including the armor

Then why go and say you weren’t comparing rewards?

Raids are accessible too. Fractals are not on the same level as raids and you can view the rewards as for the entire raid that is unlocked by completing each wing. There isn’t a difference in regards to what I was talking about as what you’re seeing is an influx of rewards to catch up with what other areas of the game provide.

Have you actually counted the rewards that each episode have provided against what each wing has provided?

Because the emphasis isn’t on what has been released, rather on what is currently being worked on and what will be worked on. Or should I say how much resources raids need to take to make them as compelling as they currently are. And as we know, content interest should be increased not kept on the same level.

It wouldn’t be such an issue that raids get this many, but the fact it is exclusive by it’s nature. Every content has exclusive rewards, but they also have a lot of non-exclusive. I’m pretty sure raids took the lead in terms of exclusives in the short period of time they are in-game.

Also yes, I did most , but feel free to do the same. For example Out of Shadows bought us a new Backpack skin and a Helm, which is multi-mode available. The latest one 2 armor piece, 1 back and 2 (?) weapon. Matthias alone has 9 exclusive weapon skin.

The living story inched ahead and even more so when you account for everything released since HoT. I wouldn’t focus too much on rewards since counting them doesn’t mean all that much as we don’t know how much time went into them.

The bulk of the unique rewards for raids are the weapon skins. I guess you could ask how many resources are spent on weapon skins but then we typically don’t get them in PvE anyway but though the BLTC chests. I haven’t seen any new BLTC weapon skins for some time so perhaps one could argue the raid weapon skins were developed by whoever did those skins. That would mean that PvE in the rest of the game didn’t really lose anything. there are some difference but I don’t know if they’re substantial enough to matter.

It has been said several times already: The gemstore team works independently from the others. As far as I can tell, the ticket weapons are coming at a steady state, alongside with the outfits. Also one could argue it would be even worse if the raid took resources from them.

Also, no. LS3 didn’t have as many reward as the raids did.

It did have at least as many rewards.

Behellagh.1468:

Ayrilana.1396:

The living story inched ahead and even more so when you account for everything released since HoT. I wouldn’t focus too much on rewards since counting them doesn’t mean all that much as we don’t know how much time went into them.

The bulk of the unique rewards for raids are the weapon skins. I guess you could ask how many resources are spent on weapon skins but then we typically don’t get them in PvE anyway but though the BLTC chests. I haven’t seen any new BLTC weapon skins for some time so perhaps one could argue the raid weapon skins were developed by whoever did those skins. That would mean that PvE in the rest of the game didn’t really lose anything. there are some difference but I don’t know if they’re substantial enough to matter.

Just since the start of Season 3.

July 26, 2016 – https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Embellished_weapon_skins
August 23, 2016 – https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bloodstone_weapon_skins
October 18, 2016 – https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gargoyle_weapon_skins
December 13, 2016 – https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Frostforged_weapon_skins
February 8, 2016 – https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Devoted_weapon_skins

Average gap, about 7 weeks. Since the last one, 37 days.

Your definition of “in some time” is much shorter than mine.

I missed the devoted ones which is why I said for some time.

Khisanth.2948:

Are you talking about bosses or phases? There are definitely checkpoints after each boss but there isn’t any on the phases except maybe that last phase but since that last phase is the easiest thing in the whole instance there was never a need to check.

I’m referring to the two bosses that you choose to fight at the beginning. Checkpoints between phases would be a bit too much.

Just did the final instance again. It’s in line with other story instance bosses so I don’t see any issue with it.

Scipio.3204:

Ayrilana.1396:

Scipio.3204:

Ayrilana.1396:

Whether or not “released” was included, you’re still comparing rewards.

Well, Duh. Maybe because to extract any conclusion regarding the resources we have to look at the products, and since we don’t know the distribution of the reward team amongst game modes, the only thing we can look at is the actual released rewards.

Ayrilana.1396:

Raids are a new game mode so you’re going to see a greater influx of those. It’d be like if you were complaining that fractals at release were getting more rewards than the rest of the game.

There is a huge difference here because of several reasons. One being is fractals are made to be accessible, and two, fractals don’t expand like raids do. One new fractal doesn’t need its own set of rewards to be appealing , unlike in the case of raids.

Ayrilana.1396:

Besides, LS is getting released at a much greater rate so those rewards will soon surpass what was included as raid awards if they haven’t already.

I don’t recall the elite maps from GW1 getting an easy mode such as Underworld. They were meant to be challenging.

Could be a point ,if there weren’t single bosses having more rewards than entire episodes.
On the GW1 argument, I believe Vayne already adressed that a little way back.

Behellagh.1468:

No, the majority of rewards YOU want are behind the raids. And specific gameplay modes should have exclusive rewards. There are rewards I would love but they are behind gameplay modes I’m not willing to invest the time in. Raids are no different.

Context. Perhaps I was misunderstable , I was refering to rewards being released after HoT. Personally I have everything I want from raids including the armor

Then why go and say you weren’t comparing rewards?

Raids are accessible too. Fractals are not on the same level as raids and you can view the rewards as for the entire raid that is unlocked by completing each wing. There isn’t a difference in regards to what I was talking about as what you’re seeing is an influx of rewards to catch up with what other areas of the game provide.

Have you actually counted the rewards that each episode have provided against what each wing has provided?

Because the emphasis isn’t on what has been released, rather on what is currently being worked on and what will be worked on. Or should I say how much resources raids need to take to make them as compelling as they currently are. And as we know, content interest should be increased not kept on the same level.

It wouldn’t be such an issue that raids get this many, but the fact it is exclusive by it’s nature. Every content has exclusive rewards, but they also have a lot of non-exclusive. I’m pretty sure raids took the lead in terms of exclusives in the short period of time they are in-game.

Also yes, I did most , but feel free to do the same. For example Out of Shadows bought us a new Backpack skin and a Helm, which is multi-mode available. The latest one 2 armor piece, 1 back and 2 (?) weapon. Matthias alone has 9 exclusive weapon skin.

The living story inched ahead and even more so when you account for everything released since HoT. I wouldn’t focus too much on rewards since counting them doesn’t mean all that much as we don’t know how much time went into them.

The bulk of the unique rewards for raids are the weapon skins. I guess you could ask how many resources are spent on weapon skins but then we typically don’t get them in PvE anyway but though the BLTC chests. I haven’t seen any new BLTC weapon skins for some time so perhaps one could argue the raid weapon skins were developed by whoever did those skins. That would mean that PvE in the rest of the game didn’t really lose anything. there are some difference but I don’t know if they’re substantial enough to matter.

Sigfodr.9576:

Ayrilana.1396:

Rhiannon.1726:

Escort is really easy, but you need a chrono with the raid mastery unlocked.

For Trio and Mursaat you’ll need an opener and I’m not sure how easy they’re to find for these two bosses.

Cairn may be a good alternative for training. It’s not too difficult and you neither need an opener nor the raid mastery.

If some of you have more time to play (especially your chronos), you should join some training runs or Escort without requirements (preferably not as chrono) to get some additional practice and with some luck the mastery unlock.

There’s a way to avoid the cave entirely assuming it didn’t get patched out.

you can still lightninghammer jump. But might be easyer for 1 chrono to have the raid mastery already.

Maybe. I was only suggesting that in case there’s a group where nobody has beaten a boss or event before and wouldn’t have the mastery line unlocked.

RoseofGilead.8907:

Ayrilana.1396:

Break bars are a game mechanic so should be included.

I seem to remember there being checkpoints as we purposely wiped at the end of when I was the only one with CC skills and couldn’t break the bar on my own with the scaling. We wiped, started the boss over, but it quickly transitioned to the final phase.

I think that’s less of a checkpoint and more of a bug. I had the same thing happen to me once (very abruptly warped from halfway through phase 1 to the last phase); another time, the fight just went through the whole thing again.

Oh. Well I don’t see any issues with adding a checkpoint after the first two bosses. That’ll more or less split the instance in half.

Scipio.3204:

Ayrilana.1396:

Whether or not “released” was included, you’re still comparing rewards.

Well, Duh. Maybe because to extract any conclusion regarding the resources we have to look at the products, and since we don’t know the distribution of the reward team amongst game modes, the only thing we can look at is the actual released rewards.

Ayrilana.1396:

Raids are a new game mode so you’re going to see a greater influx of those. It’d be like if you were complaining that fractals at release were getting more rewards than the rest of the game.

There is a huge difference here because of several reasons. One being is fractals are made to be accessible, and two, fractals don’t expand like raids do. One new fractal doesn’t need its own set of rewards to be appealing , unlike in the case of raids.

Ayrilana.1396:

Besides, LS is getting released at a much greater rate so those rewards will soon surpass what was included as raid awards if they haven’t already.

I don’t recall the elite maps from GW1 getting an easy mode such as Underworld. They were meant to be challenging.

Could be a point ,if there weren’t single bosses having more rewards than entire episodes.
On the GW1 argument, I believe Vayne already adressed that a little way back.

Behellagh.1468:

No, the majority of rewards YOU want are behind the raids. And specific gameplay modes should have exclusive rewards. There are rewards I would love but they are behind gameplay modes I’m not willing to invest the time in. Raids are no different.

Context. Perhaps I was misunderstable , I was refering to rewards being released after HoT. Personally I have everything I want from raids including the armor

Then why go and say you weren’t comparing rewards?

Raids are accessible too. Fractals are not on the same level as raids and you can view the rewards as for the entire raid that is unlocked by completing each wing. There isn’t a difference in regards to what I was talking about as what you’re seeing is an influx of rewards to catch up with what other areas of the game provide.

Have you actually counted the rewards that each episode have provided against what each wing has provided?

Break bars are a game mechanic so should be included.

I seem to remember there being checkpoints as we purposely wiped at the end of when I was the only one with CC skills and couldn’t break the bar on my own with the scaling. We wiped, started the boss over, but it quickly transitioned to the final phase.

Scipio.3204:

Ayrilana.1396:

You’re not trying to compare?

You left out the keyword.

Scipio.3204:

released

Ayrilana.1396:

There’s no way to compare resources for various rewards as we do not know how much was used for each and how much resources they used when compared to the actual content. Your post also gave no indication of resources.

We don’t typically see any new armor sets so it’s not a surprise that we haven’t so far as raid precursor/legendary armor were announced before the expansion released so they’re a part of that even though they’ve been delayed for so long.

That doesn’t really change the way things are. Since the release of HoT majority of the rewards is behind raids compared to other game modes, and yet some claim here they don’t understand how some feel raids are in the spotlight.

We did see an armor set during LS 2 , arguably one of the most fun to get. It’s not a crazy theory we didn’t get one with LS 3 because of raids

Whether or not “released” was included, you’re still comparing rewards.

Raids are a new game mode so you’re going to see a greater influx of those. It’d be like if you were complaining that fractals at release were getting more rewards than the rest of the game. Besides, LS is getting released at a much greater rate so those rewards will soon surpass what was included as raid awards if they haven’t already.

Raids are meant to be challenging content so if players want to do challenging content then they should do them. If not then they don’t. I don’t recall the elite maps from GW1 getting an easy mode such as Underworld. They were meant to be challenging.

Scipio.3204:

I’m not comparing rewards.

Scipio.3204:

To see what I mean, I’d like to ask you to do a research on the following: compare every in-game earnable reward released from the release of HoT to this day. That means every game mode, Raid, WvW, PvP, Fractal, LS. Then calculate how much goes to each part of the game.

You’re not trying to compare?

Scipio.3204:

I’m comparing the resources for rewards divided across all game modes. Take a look at Legendary Armor for example. We have no Idea how many people work on that for how long now , and besides envoy armor variants, we haven’t seen a new armor set released since the expansion.

For veteran players the past is pretty much irrelevant, likely they achieved what they wanted and wait for what will they release next. If the majority of rewards come to a game mode they don’t like at all, how do you think they will feel?

There’s no way to compare resources for various rewards as we do not know how much was used for each and how much resources they used when compared to the actual content. Your post also gave no indication of resources.

We don’t typically see any new armor sets so it’s not a surprise that we haven’t so far as raid precursor/legendary armor were announced before the expansion released so they’re a part of that even though they’ve been delayed for so long.

Pan Pie.7169:

11 months later

It’s still not fixed.

Did you go west from that WP to see if the pre-event was up?

Did you go south to see if the escort was already in progress or the champ was up?

How long were you on the map? The event chain could have a long cool down.

Scipio.3204:

To see what I mean, I’d like to ask you to do a research on the following: compare every in-game earnable reward released from the release of HoT to this day. That means every game mode, Raid, WvW, PvP, Fractal, LS. Then calculate how much goes to each part of the game.

If you’re going to compare rewards between game modes, you should compare the total rewards that they provide up to a given time.

Rhiannon.1726:

Escort is really easy, but you need a chrono with the raid mastery unlocked.

For Trio and Mursaat you’ll need an opener and I’m not sure how easy they’re to find for these two bosses.

Cairn may be a good alternative for training. It’s not too difficult and you neither need an opener nor the raid mastery.

If some of you have more time to play (especially your chronos), you should join some training runs or Escort without requirements (preferably not as chrono) to get some additional practice and with some luck the mastery unlock.

There’s a way to avoid the cave entirely assuming it didn’t get patched out.

Rednik.3809:

Ayrilana.1396:

You can always pick your own way. It’s called creating your own group. It’s a bit hypocritical to complain about not having choices and want to impose a lack of choice in other players. It’s pretty much the same thing we all saw with those threads upset that a lot of dungeon groups preferred berserkers and some players then wanting the stat removed instead of just creating their own group.

Creating your own group will not work for inexperienced people. That’s why modern MMOs have multiple difficulty settings.

Ayrilana.1396:

Getting less attention? They added two two fractals and are currently working on a new one. They’re thinking of redoing jade maw. Fractals have had so much attention since they were released. Just because some of the attention that fractals got is being diverted to raids doesn’t mean that fractals is any less important to Anet.

Sorry, it’s not me who is responsible for creating game population and their interests. People are usually not happy when you are giving less attention to more popular instanced content and divert your resources to not so popular one.

Ayrilana.1396:

Balance changes are made based on all game modes. Some changes were made because there was an issue in one game mode that necessarily wasn’t as apparent in others. Anet has enough problems balancing for just the game itself. Do you really want them to balance for each game mode? Conjured weapons, I’m assuming from an Ele, was because of dungeons and fractals. Are you going to complain about those two game modes affecting players in open world PvE?

I’m just pointing out that Anet is playing favorites, again. You can find million excuses for this, but still this is a fact.

Ayrilana.1396:

Face it. Raids were developed to be challenging content. There’s nothing challenging about giving it an easy mode so players can coast through it with less effort. The easier you make it, the easier it is for players to coast through it while avoid mechanics. Kind of the opposite effect of throwing more players at something to avoid the mechanics when you see in open world PvE.

No one is trying to take challenging content from raiders, but they are still minority that getting a lot of content in content-starved game, and others want to either some decent way to join them via different difficulty levels (not for same loot, but for proper learning curve), or at least level of attention proportional to population.

Will not work for experienced players? What so difficult about getting a bunch of players at your skill level together? Or would you wlrefer to have experienced players to carry those that are not experienced? Face it. Anyone can create a group and do raids.

They have a small raid team that is separate from everything else. You may have people that temporarily move about to help the various teams such as members of their art department. You also have a fractal team that works on fractals designing content. Four content releases in the past 1.5 years for raids is hardly anything compared to what fractals has gotten.

Playing favorites? Fact? Provide your evidence then.

They are getting a lot of attention? There’s only been four content releases for raids. I’m sorry but the entire game doesn’t revolve around what you play. You’ll have to learn to share and understand that other resources will go to game modes that you may not play. Easy mode would not add to the learning curve. Raids were designed for those that wanted a challenge. If you don’t want a challenge then they obviously were not designed for you.

Rednik.3809:

And this is one of most obvious examples how game is changed, from “everything is available to everyone, play how you want” to “meta or gtfo, you are not allowed to pick your way anymore, go away and play something else”. This gone so far that now we even have dps meters in game, and some people are already trying to push them further into non-raids too.

And yet these things are clearly getting less Anet attention despite being more popular and having wider audience.

Ayrilana.1396:

Yes, raids got 4 wings. We also got four living story episodes that each contained a map. So what’s your point? Raids are still a very small part of the game meant for those that wanted a challenge. Yes, raids have unique rewards but what areas of the game don’t?

I’m talking about repeatable instanced content, which is something that keeping people interested and giving them stuff to do. Living story maps gives you only some gear farm after you finished initial story. Its not like people are happy when they see either lack of new content to do in 5ppl format, or brick wall surrounding raids. One of these things should be addressed, though it better be both of them.

Ayrilana.1396:

No, PvE balances are not all based on raids. Some things will be more prone to need to be changed because of how they are in raids but are not a large issue in the rest of the game. It’s really no different than how some things were changed because of their impact in fractals but weren’t a large issue in open world PvE.

Except its not. Even old infamous conjured weapons nerfs were made only after someone used them in sPvP tourney.

Ayrilana.1396:

Raid threads are not really all that more numerous. I’ve actually seen more mounts threads but that doesn’t mean the game needs mounts. There are those that want to experience the story which you can for the most part in cleared instances. Cleared instance isn’t enough because they consider fighting the bosses as part of the experience but they want it brought down to their level. This would also be a waste of resources as players would likely only play the story mode once like for dungeons. Then there are those that want an easy mode because they want the loots but without having to put in the effort to earn them.

Multiple difficulty modes for group content is universal approach for modern game developing, and it works, and that’s why it being requested. “But you should just work harder”, “but you just want rewards for free”, “but its pointless and nobody going to play them” – these arguments are proven wrong in many games already, on tremendous auditory, including all top PvE games. Why Anet is ignoring that experience and pushing 10 years old and outdated raid model is beyond me.

You can always pick your own way. It’s called creating your own group. It’s a bit hypocritical to complain about not having choices and want to impose a lack of choice in other players. It’s pretty much the same thing we all saw with those threads upset that a lot of dungeon groups preferred berserkers and some players then wanting the stat removed instead of just creating their own group.

Getting less attention? They added two two fractals and are currently working on a new one. They’re thinking of redoing jade maw. Fractals have had so much attention since they were released. Just because some of the attention that fractals got is being diverted to raids doesn’t mean that fractals is any less important to Anet.

The last I heard, you could repeat story instances. You don’t need to finish the living story to gear farm on those maps.

Balance changes are made based on all game modes. Some changes were made because there was an issue in one game mode that necessarily wasn’t as apparent in others. Anet has enough problems balancing for just the game itself. Do you really want them to balance for each game mode? Conjured weapons, I’m assuming from an Ele, was because of dungeons and fractals. Are you going to complain about those two game modes affecting players in open world PvE?

Face it. Raids were developed to be challenging content. There’s nothing challenging about giving it an easy mode so players can coast through it with less effort. The easier you make it, the easier it is for players to coast through it while avoid mechanics. Kind of the opposite effect of throwing more players at something to avoid the mechanics when you see in open world PvE.

cadmiumgreen.8712:

Ayrilana.1396:

As far as nobody comparing it to raids, you’re wrong. See quoted post below.

I said the difficulty leads me to believe the encounter is aimed more at a raider audience than at a casual one, not that this is a raid or of raid difficulty. As in one that is more skilled, more knowledgeable, and likely better geared. One that may also be more interested in doing the story as a group and fighting through bugginess.

Mordremoth barely does any damage to you as a glass cannon.

I wasn’t talking about the damage Mordremoth did to me. He actually did plenty when he hit me or I mistakenly stood in the bad. I was talking about the damage I did to him- I hardly touched him during the entire fight. The NPC’s could have handled it while I just ran circles kiting the adds… which is more or less what happened.

Which is you making a comparison between the two. A comparison doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re saying they’re identical.

It’s a a slight grind in some spots of the fight. This drags the fight out longer than what you would expect. I wouldn’t recommend having the NPC’s do all of the damage though as that will just drag it on so it takes over an hour.

felincyriac.5981:

I’ve tried getting into ember bay without having the episode via tele to friend but I got kicked out, I expect bitterfrost to be like that too. Later I just decided to farm some gold and I got 400 gems for about 95 gold, which gave me access to bloodstone as a bonus too (helped me get my last ring).

You have to be online when a new episode comes out to unlock the map.

I’ve seen people claim to not own the episode but be on the map. Of course, they could very well be full of it.

Hevoskuuri.3891:

Ayrilana.1396:

You don’t need ascended for the last chapter. I did just fine with exotics with all classes except for one class which had ascended. People over-estimate just how much ascended actually does for you and especially when it comes to survivability.

The issue with updrafts may have to do with ping.

The last chapter is nowhere near the level of raids. If you think otherwise then your first raid is going to give you a heart attack.

No one has stated you need ascended for it, nor has compared it to raids.

I personally feel like story should offer minimal frustration and challenge. It should be an introduction to the game and its lore and characters, something that new players can complete with minimal teeth grinding, chilling and enjoying. Maybe a little challenge at the end.

Let’s say a new player starts playing the game, decides they like it and then they buy HoT. They will realize that the expansion itself is a challenge; the zones, max-level mobs, meta-events etc. So naturally they want to start things off with the story.

The story itself is also challenging, but within acceptable levels. Nothing, however, prepares you for the final chapter. It’s uncomparable to any other content a new-ish player has experienced so far. It’s challenging for veteran players, and nearly impossible for fresh ones, who don’t fully understand what different stats mean, what skill rotations to use etc. They may not even know when they should be dodging. Throw in a penalty box that resets the fight when you make a mistake, and there you have it: a full-blown nightmare. As I’ve said before: the story already has an extreme mode. I feel like the “casual” mode should indeed be casual: something that can be somewhat easily completed before venturing further into Heart of Thorns.

You were tiptoeing around ascended armor was needed when you said optimal gear.

As far as nobody comparing it to raids, you’re wrong. See quoted post below.

cadmiumgreen.8712:

Aside from the bugs and poor design choices, Hearts and Minds seems to represent a disconnect between the audience that the content is designed for and the difficulty level. Who was your audience for this? Seems like it was made for raiders despite your story generally being billed as casual solo content designed for all players.

I did this as a zerker necro knowing that it’s intended for sturdier characters and expected to die a lot. I was expecting to die because I can’t face tank for long, there’s only so many times you can dodge, and because you’re supposed to have an elite spec, not because I kept getting dropped clear out of the air into AoE because of broken updrafts. In the end the boss fell over of his own accord, seemingly without needing my help to die. What happened, salad-dragon?

The last story instance isn’t any more challenging than the rest of the missions or even the final instance of the personal story. Mordremoth barely does any damage to you as a glass cannon.

Supposedly you can use a teleport to friend stone and get into Bitterfrost without actually having the episode unlocked. All of them are supposed to require the episode to be unlocked.

With the episodes unlocked, your primary means will be by doing the story on each character. Secondary ways are by getting each maps teleport scroll or using a teleport to friend. For Bitterfrost, you can walk into the zone assuming you’ve had at least one character progress past that point in the story.