Guild Wars 2

Well, if you acknowledge it’s a shame…. couldn’t you do something to change that? I mean, unless you like living with a shame :P.

Ghostface Killah.3658:

i love the gangam style video, but please, dont put it in the game, while were at it we may as well get biebers stupid purple hat, or lady gagaskitten clothing

What are you talking about? These are great ideas!

Ahwoo.8029:

It would be so nice, if there were an option that would allow me to stay signed in to the forums. As it stands now, I often find myself reading an interesting topic, and feel the need to chime in; as I attempt to do so, I find myself needing to sign in, which redirects me to the main forum directory, and in the process, I’ve now lost my place in the topic.

BY all means. I’d love to have access to your GW2 account.

Anonymous.6935:

Pmiles that’s not really a constructive comment. If i’m missing out on the fun that this game has to offer now i’m level 80, please do share! That’ll be more helpful than just saying i’m wrong with nothing to suggest otherwise. I’m sure there are plenty of other people besides myself that would like these enjoyable fun things to do. Cheers.

The problem is, the amount of fun you’ll derive from what someone else (such as pmiles or myself) might deem fun in endgame is going to vary. Judging from your post, vary WILDLY.
You can’t be constructive when someone else refuses to accept your constructive comments. I’m not saying that as a knock to you, it’s just true: I like dungeons, you don’t. I like exploring, you don’t. I like PvP, you don’t. So if I told you to try all those things, it wouldn’t be constructive; I’m telling you to try things that you’ve ALREADY TRIED and didn’t like.

Birdy.4816:

Hieronumous.3541:

Birdy.4816:

DusK.3849:

Birdy.4816:

Yes, Don’t listen to the majority of MMO players

But you’re not. You think you are, but considering over twice as many people are on this game right now than WoW…

Lmao, I would like to see your source for claim.

If that’s the game you’re going to play: where’s your source? Verification goes both ways; this isn’t a legal system, where one side has a burden of proof and one doesn’t. You’re making a claim that has to be numerically verified.

Oh for gods sake mine is common sense, every mmo has an end game, most people only remain playing for the end-game, most people like a sense of character progression past leveling zones.

…. its so tiresome putting up with these nonsense excuses.

He made a statistical claim that in no way could even be an accurate guesstimate or logical fact.

Hes lying.

My point is you made an identical statistical claim, with no verification. And then, in your rebuttal, you did it AGAIN.

Birdy.4816:

DusK.3849:

Birdy.4816:

Yes, Don’t listen to the majority of MMO players

But you’re not. You think you are, but considering over twice as many people are on this game right now than WoW…

Lmao, I would like to see your source for claim.

If that’s the game you’re going to play: where’s your source? Verification goes both ways; this isn’t a legal system, where one side has a burden of proof and one doesn’t. You’re making a claim that has to be numerically verified.

Nodrog.7458:

Because resorting to personal attacks is the best way to contribute to a discussion

It seems to have worked pretty well so far in this thread.
Besides, there’s really no reason to ‘contribute’ to this thread when both sides completely refuse to listen to anyone except their cheerleaders. And let’s be honest here, you’re probably one of the biggest perpetrators of this, since you’re telling everyone, including people who already have 80’s, that they’re going to hate endgame and get bored.

Tigger.8035:

the content we have isn’t the end of the game. Updates Updates Updates.

you’re crying about a game that’s still new… are you guys really adults?

There are probably 2 adults that have commented in this thread.
Hint: One of them is not the OP.

I’ll be sure to let every female officer I worked with in the fleet know they should have chewed mykitten for calling them ‘sir’ after I was explicitly told to, Josh.
Now, maybe some are more lax; most of the ones I met didn’t care: ‘Sir is fine.’ Maybe you found some hardasses or something. I don’t know.

Look, Vin, we all know Birdy’s opinion IS fact.

Max Lexandre.6279:

Writing Force us to stop playing, also messes a bit our play, if we are writing and from nothing get attacked and write the skills. (as you can see some WWWWWWWWWW messages in chat for some reason)

I’m guilty of the WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW in map chat. Hell, even when whispering a friend, I’ve done it.

I don’t see this as a game-breaker, or even really something I would have thought of, but I think it might be a good addition.

Elysian Rose.5283:

Agreed nearly 100%, except maybe add Tybalt Lightbringer to your list of good voice actors and interesting storylines. :P

The skill system is … just yuck. What have you done, anet?

It’s better than having a list of static skills for everykittenweapon. I honestly don’t see, nor can I understand, these alleged problems with the skill system.

My brother and I kind of tossed this around last night; since some people don’t have Skype/Vent/Teamspeak etc, or lack the technical knowledge to actually operate those programs in tandem with the game (trust me, sad as it is, those people exist), maybe they could implement an in-game voice chat; it could either be proximity or channel based.

That being said, I have no REAL concept of how difficult that would be to implement, or even if other people would even use thekittenfunction. What say you, fellow players?

Battle Rifles.2965:

You still haven’t answered my question, and I guess nobody but ANet can.

Only time will tell. Later guys.

You have about 40 answers. You just don’t like them.

Algreg.3629:

Ethos.3902:

Hieronumous.3541:

Ethos.3902:

DusK.3849:

Ethos.3902:

DusK.3849:

Ethos.3902:

Your character progression completely stagnates

Like ArenaNet told us years ago. Dear God, what is up with you people buying games you know nothing about?

Who said I didn’t already know this? Please point me in the direction of them stating that all of the level 80 content would be a complete joke of a difficulty and grind. I also wasn’t aware of them removing the whole concept of mobs in boss fights that you think they apparently stated years ago.

I’ve linked this 3 times already, but I’ll do it again, just for you.

Here’s a blog someone wrote touching on all of ArenaNet’s previously-available information regarding their philosophy on “endgame”, written several months before this game was released.

There is no endgame. There is only a game. We knew this before we bought the game. Why didn’t you?

Maybe you should read that yourself and realize that their entire design is faulty due to the way events, rewards, and stats scale.

I’m pretty sure it bears repeating:
Just because you have an opinion and a keyboard doesn’t make your opinion valid.
IF, in a purely factual and unbiased way, you can prove your statement, THEN it’s a valid fact. Until then, it’s an opinion. And one I really don’t agree with or understand.

So you find it balanced to be able to go back to lower level areas as part of “endgame” and kill elites in a few hits? Of course it’s my opinion and my opinion is that the game is incredibly easy and thus no progression. The real question is why you have to take such a stance when anyone gives their opinion on the system yet give no rebuttal or argument nor examples.

that is not only an opinion, but also includes a blatantly wrong fact.

This. Ethos, the reason no one is refuting your opinion is because it’s based on a horribly inaccurate fact.

Ethos.3902:

DusK.3849:

Ethos.3902:

DusK.3849:

Ethos.3902:

Your character progression completely stagnates

Like ArenaNet told us years ago. Dear God, what is up with you people buying games you know nothing about?

Who said I didn’t already know this? Please point me in the direction of them stating that all of the level 80 content would be a complete joke of a difficulty and grind. I also wasn’t aware of them removing the whole concept of mobs in boss fights that you think they apparently stated years ago.

I’ve linked this 3 times already, but I’ll do it again, just for you.

Here’s a blog someone wrote touching on all of ArenaNet’s previously-available information regarding their philosophy on “endgame”, written several months before this game was released.

There is no endgame. There is only a game. We knew this before we bought the game. Why didn’t you?

Maybe you should read that yourself and realize that their entire design is faulty due to the way events, rewards, and stats scale.

I’m pretty sure it bears repeating:
Just because you have an opinion and a keyboard doesn’t make your opinion valid.
IF, in a purely factual and unbiased way, you can prove your statement, THEN it’s a valid fact. Until then, it’s an opinion. And one I really don’t agree with or understand.

Birdy.4816:

pmiles.3489:

Rift… was too much like WoW. Stopped playing it.
SWTOR… was too much like WoW. Stopped playing it.
TERA and TSW… didn’t bother, I could already tell it was going to be too much like WoW. Saved my money.

GW2… totally unlike WoW. Finally, a game developer that gets it. Too bad it didn’t hit the scene 5 years ago… I would have had 5 years of GW2 under my belt by now.

Rift is still going strong, the only real wow clone to work, because they pump out more content than WoW does.

Guild Wars 2 is different and screams quality in engine and design. BUT IT LACKS ANY LASTING CONTENT.

So no, they havn’t proved anything yet.

Disagree.

See, I can make completely subjective points and use them as fact, too!

Well, you’d get arrested.

So you’d kind of get banned IRL.

Dedish.7923:

I much rather just have a sub fee then have to buy DLC on a monthly basis, kinda ruinns the whole free to play if you are having to constantly buy new content.

Except that they’re giving you free content updates as well.

Not to mention that pretty much all MMOs still have ‘DLC’; what do you think an EXPANSION is?

EyeSeeSound.1348:

I’d never heard of DaoC so I just ent to thir site and looked at their trailer on the homepage. Gotta say it looked like a mickey take south park would do.

It was decent, when it first came out.
Now, not so much.
Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of nostalgia for the game, but my rose-tinted glasses only give the game so much slack. It hasn’t aged well, graphically or otherwise.

Lasica.5068:

Explorable mode should be hard, story mode was supposed to be easy so everyone could do the dungeons.

Instead, all I see from other players in my guild and elsewhere is “I’m never going to do another dungeon again!”

That is a bad thing.

Everyone I talk to, other than a handful of people on these forums (the minority) love dungeons. Everyone I’ve played with says they are a nice challenge, albeit one with a slight reward issue (which I really hope gets fixed, considering that’s really the only complaint I’ve heard); however, they still play them for the sake of doing something that they consider challenging and rewarding.

Your guild is not the entire playerbase. And honestly, I don’t REALLY care that much about their opinion on dungeons; it’s not for them, and that’s fine.. I just hope ArenaNet cares just as much as I do.

AcidicVision.5498:

There are 50+ puzzles in the game that there are achievements for. I doubt the OP has hunted down and completed all of them.

I doubt he has completed the three additional paths for each dungeon. I can buy a bug preventing progress on one, but not three.

I would wager he doesn’t have a legendary weapon, or prestige set of armor.

I would be surprised if his PvP rank was above deer. And extremely surprised if he is a commander or has even held a fort claimed by his guild in WvW.

Leveling 1 character to 80 means you have a character in one of THREE factions in the game. So you haven’t seen nearly a third of the story content.

Maxing out one crafting profession of the eight is dismal.

Congratulations. You hit 80, but in the scheme of things have actually accomplished very very little. But now that you don’t have to worry about leveling any more you can actually enjoy everything the game has to offer.

Well. I mean, the OP said they did everything… And no player has ever been mistaken, right? We should just take him at his word. He’s literally done everything in the game.

\sarcasm.

Hypathia.1049:

Tarque Sinister.9032:

Don’t you get 5 character slots? Play a different toon…

I leveled once and im happy with my char. and replaying again (humans, since i only liek to play a human ^^) has no appeal to me.

Maybe warrior but i dont liek to play 2 weeks again to get to where im now.

So how’d you do on the dungeons?

Columba.9730:

Please god, no forced pve for those of us who love WvWvW. Let the pvers do dungeons to their hearts’ content but don’t ever force me to enter one.

Dark age of Camelot wrecked their game by listening to players like this guy. Ignore him, please.

QFT. DoAC used to be awesome. And then players got a little too much say. Kind of like when a toddler whines incessantly, so the parent just gives them what they want.

Hypathia.1049:

Oh, guys please take your opinions abotu wow, skyrim etc to whee it belongs. THis thread is about Guild Wars 2 end game.

Thanks.

Which we’ve been over, ad nauseum.
Just because you don’t enjoy the endgame content (dungeons, exploration, PvP, alts, whatever) doesn’t mean it’s objectively not there.

Snaylor.2760:

NyghtProwler.9386:

Do you realize how many events are in each zone? How many can fire monthly or weekly or daily? Some won’t even fire if certain situations are not in place.

Do you know that almost all events are chained? and when it finishes you will most likely unlock a vendor that is normally not there?

Simply sprinting through zones are break neck speed looking on the map to plot the most efficient route to the next Poi or waypoint, not fighting mobs if you don’t have to is such a waste of all the time the devs put into this game.

It almost seems like you are racing to end so you can experience end game content now that all the mundane zones are done. Like “ok, done with all the chores! Show me the awesome stuff now and lets have some fun!” the fun IS 1-80, that is the end game – if you rushed through and wasted that away all I can say is you missed out.

There seems to be a lot of people feeling that way around here – and if that is your thoughts as well, I feel like maybe you wasted your cash. That is FAR from what this game is about imo.

Think Skyrim instead of WoW. Just sit back, chill and enjoy the game.

Levels mean nothing here other than restricting your movements on the world map.
Gear means nothing because of scaling so there is no progression.
Dungeons are not mandatory or necessary or to be done after 80.

It’s all about the trip, not the destination.

The problem with you’r Skyrim analogy is that Skyrim’s combat was much more enjoyable, it’s world far more funner to explore and its story much much more engaging.

The only thing these game seems to be better in WoW at is PvP.

Wait, what?
Skyrim’s combat was not objectively better. Subjectively, you might have enjoyed it more, but that doesn’t make it so.
Also, I can’t be the only one who didn’t enjoy that story. Basically, because it was utter horsecrap. The game was fun for a few hours, sure, but it definitely wasn’t that story that kept me there.

Issues.2094:

Everyone wants this game to be an alternative to World of Warcraft but then they are complaining because the game isn’t exactly like World of Warcraft? I have a hard time understanding the thought process here?

There isn’t a thought process to it. That’s the problem: eladrox has encapsulated it perfectly, that there’s very little logic to it, just gut reactions. Which is fine, except they proffer these opinions as universally held truths, which they aren’t.
I’ve sunk plenty of time into the game, and I enjoy everything it has to offer. Everyone I know, personally, who has bought the game agrees. The people I know who dislike PvE enjoy PvP, and the people who hate PvP are enjoying the hell out of dungeons.

Sulmith Greysin.5124:

Hypathia.1049:

eladox.3457:

Nothing and apparently people are ok with that since there is no subs fee :P

Yeah, i figured that GW2 is not the holy grail i was looking for

so you expected endless content for people who are technically gaming addicts?

you’ve probably logged what, 150-200 hours in 3 weeks? you’re burned out. you’re not motivated because half of your life the past 3 weeks has been focused on one thing. i’m level 47 with tons of game to go. you turned the game into a job and now you’re sick of it.

endless content will never, ever, ever happen. it’s impossible. you want quantity over quality over quantity, but quantity in any form will never pay a studio’s bills

This.

Stryker.9632:

This isn’t going to change anytime soon my man

That’s right. And it shouldn’t change.

Mercucial.6759:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/Community-opinion-on-the-PvE-endgame/first#post39382

Just wanted to post this here. Pretty much addresses my concerns with the current end game.

Along with the forty thousand different rebuttals.

RageGaming.9450:

Hieronumous.3541:

I’ll get behind a rating system that has no mechanical benefit.
I understand bragging rights; speed runs for Dark Souls, UP character builds, etc. And I really can’t see the problem with including some sort of ranking system.

What I would see a problem with is implementing a system that would give a character a noticeable mechanical benefit over another player.

Exactly! I don’t what the rating to do ANYTHING but show who is good and who is not. Playing to have better numbers is a fun thing. A football team plays to get higher in the league, why do people get so repulsed at the idea of a tournament team doing that?

Tournament teams should be official things that you make, and that team gains rating when they win. There is then a table of every team with there rating. How can that be a bad thing for a game that is supposed to be a “competitive e-sport”.

I think that’s actually a sound, reasonable explanation for what you want, and implementation wouldn’t necessarily hurt anyone. I’ll champion this, not necessarily because I want a ranking system (I am completely apathetic to the entire concept) but because there are people who WOULD want it, and it causes no harm.

eladox.3457:

WE PLAY FOR FUN crowd is the worst thing ever happened to this game.
I hope anet is not taking them serious.

I fail to see how a group of people playing for fun is a detriment to the game.

I’ll get behind a rating system that has no mechanical benefit.
I understand bragging rights; speed runs for Dark Souls, UP character builds, etc. And I really can’t see the problem with including some sort of ranking system.

What I would see a problem with is implementing a system that would give a character a noticeable mechanical benefit over another player.

sparrow.6349:

Thank you [almost] all. I will continue to practice s/d then.

If S/D doesn’t work for you, I’ve had a lot of fun (maybe not so much luck, but fun) with S/P.

BCDragon.5614:

Alright , that’s what I thought. He can kiss my behind because I am going to keep them. Thanks everyone

It’s awesome to see someone who doesn’t bow down to another’s opinion. Good on you, sir.

Yeah. You know, in a thread asking about specific thief features.

Shadow.6018:

eladox.3457:

Get a dagger
smash your head on your keyboard (make sure it would hit “2”)

Some one really has a chip on their shoulder.

It’s not a chip on his shoulder; it’s a learning disability. We should be more understanding of his condition.

Kinto.9485:

Looked at this thread yesterday, and set out on a personal quest this morning: Let me try and prove that Ascalon Catacombs Explorable Mode is doable without wipes when people are working together. So, after consulting with some guild mates, we strategized and theory crafted ways to make an ultimate teamwork composition with guildies who volunteered to do Explorable Mode with me.

Lets break this down.
Me a Warrior
A Thief
A Mesmer
A Gaurdian
A Elementalist

We looked at our vastly different profession composition and looked for which weapons for each of us could either support the party, debuff the enemies or even both! We then realized, “Hey, why not throw combo fields into this!? Lets get all hardcore with combo fields!”. We even took it a step further. “Lets trait ourselves to be more supporty!” We all payed no more then 3 silver 50 copper to respect into more supporty traits.

At the end of all this character building, we ended up with:
A supporty Warrior
A supporty Thief
A supporty Mesmer
A supporty Gaurdian
A supporty Elementalist

Dear god. We flew through Catacombs. In fact, each successive run got even faster. So here is how we did it.

Warrior: Mace/Shield &Hammer for swap
Thief: Dagger/Pistol or Sword/Pistol
Mesmer: Staff
Guardian: Hammer
Elementalist: Staff

Warrior, Guardian AND Thief stay front lines. The Thief will constantly use the offhand pistol 5 skill to apply a smoke field in between him/her and the enemy. Now the trick is, to get your Warrior and Guardian into that smokefield and have the warrior spam 1 while the Guardian goes apepoop. Each hit that anyone does to any enemies WHILE in the smokefield will apply blind. Now think for a second: If 3 people are constantly hitting the same enemy with each hit applying blind, how does that enemy hit you? Now, for the off chance that the enemy IS able to hit you, that is what that Warrior applying weakness is there for. Regen Banners is a plus!

Elementalist in Water Attunement: COMBO FIELDS EVERYWHERE!!! No seriously, we were regenerating like crazy!

Mesmer was awesome at applying conditions to our foes while granting boons to our party! We were able to give ourselves 25 stacks of might + the other boons when he copies over his boons to us. His Wall of Reflection was amazing for deflecting the Lieutenants Daggerstorm ability.

Okay, I meant to only type a bit, but this is turning into a full on novel. So instead I’m going to post a recording of one of our runs so you guys can see =].
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
TL:DR: AC Explorable Mode is doable without wipes. Here is video proof: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_zRO2FfSL4
About a 45 min run through the whole thing over 3 parts.

How many tears we got today: http://i.imgur.com/gR9lT.jpg

THREAD OVER

Turtles All The Way Down.5608:

Hieronumous.3541:

amradio.2513:

Turtles All The Way Down.5608:

The swearing policy is a horrible cop-out method of giving the game admins and moderators the power to ban for whatever they desire. They can always say the person in question broke the TOS because everyone breaks the TOS.

For example, the word I was banned for (Anal) is not word filtered on the forum and so is clearly not offensive enough to warrant a ban, yet I was banned for it at the whim of a hypocritical dictator.

How is anal even remotely appropriate?

1. Strong sexual content

or

2. Insulting someone

Jus sayin, you just have to watch your mouth. Its really not that hard to behave yourself.

I sincerely doubt the veracity of Turtle’s claim.

Who cares what you doubt? The events I have described are precisely what happened immediately prior to being kicked from the game server. If you’re actually going to support this system to the point of simply ignoring counter evidence or arguments, then you’re just irrational.

I don’t support the system you’ve described; I just doubt the level of your blamelessness here.

amradio.2513:

Turtles All The Way Down.5608:

The swearing policy is a horrible cop-out method of giving the game admins and moderators the power to ban for whatever they desire. They can always say the person in question broke the TOS because everyone breaks the TOS.

For example, the word I was banned for (Anal) is not word filtered on the forum and so is clearly not offensive enough to warrant a ban, yet I was banned for it at the whim of a hypocritical dictator.

How is anal even remotely appropriate?

1. Strong sexual content

or

2. Insulting someone

Jus sayin, you just have to watch your mouth. Its really not that hard to behave yourself.

I sincerely doubt the veracity of Turtle’s claim.

Here you go.
http://youtu.be/1WdxF1EmADM

JemL.3501:

i dont understand, enlighten the dummies please

The OP had used a swear word, which the forums censor into ‘kitten’; to wit, ‘ANet has worked their ’kitten’ to the bone.’ The second post is a joke on that, referring to animal abuse.

Middlebud.7295:

Bruce.4278:

All in all the GW2 team is working theirkitten to the bone for us

And we’re, what? Supposed to applaud this disgusting, obscene abuse just because it’s being done on our behalf? I didn’t ask ArenaNet to do this, which I know because if you did ask my opinion I’d say they should let their kitten go.

I don’t support animal abuse. Supporting ArenaNet is supporting animal abuse.

At first, I was confused. Then, I started to chuckle. Now I can’t stop laughing.

Kerishan.8460:

I think ANet have to balance dungeon with rewards, yesterday from a 2 hours explorable mode of manor i loot only item i can’t equip.

This make me really sad.

See, this is the ONLY valid complaint I’ve heard about dungeons; better rewards (and I still only treat it with a grain of salt).

Difficulty is subjective; enjoyment is subjective; stop treating dungeons like they’re broken just because you don’t like them/can’t stomp through them.

Utena.8052:

Okay i’m coming from Aion and from The GW1 past. Im not a WoW player. Aion is a Korean Grind game. Where everything is HARD that sposta be hard just rolls. But the Dungeons in GW2 are Difficult … They need Work and to be geared to a player base. As they are right now Many people hate them and want to have nothing to do with them. It does seem like a joke when you’re level is scaled down to a point where you can do a instance. But then after going in and getting rolled by one shot and the team wipes.. or dying over and over again… its not fun . Many Guild mates and players that I’ve talked to think there needs to be a balance to this. Yes you can make it hard.. but don’t do it to the point where we take 6K damage and we only have 4k.

We want a Fun Dungeon or experience.. not one where everyone dreads it and wants to rage quit or not do them as a whole.

(to note, yes we have tried different builds, dodging,quick weapon switches and all the things that people say to try …. but the end result is the same)

Thanks

Look, the fact that there’s no consensus on dungeons shows that they aren’t inherently broken. If you can’t do them, that’s fine. They aren’t for everyone. But admit THAT, don’t put it on the game.

kilopy.2173:

shaidyn.4016:

kilopy.2173:

Because the dungeons are ridiculously hard and the horrible loot at the end will guarantee even more people ignore them than are now, to the point where nobody will want to waste the time running dungeons? What kind of dumb comment is that?

There’s a thing called risk vs reward, look it up.

Good. If people who find the dungeons too hard stop doing them, they’ll stop clogging up the forums with their childish whining.

The reward for clearing a dungeon, is the act of getting it done. Of completing something difficult. The loot is just an extra bonus, not the main incentive.

ps: The “risk” of a dungeon drops significantly when you learn to play better. The game’s been out, what, two weeks? In two months people will consider AC boring, because it will be so easy. They’ll know the pulls, the fights, the traps. More importantly, they’ll know how to combo, how to group buff, and how do dodge.

Don’t pull the “I’m more hardcore than you” act, believe me, you won’t win. I’ve had no life since I was 13 years old.

Not something to brag about. And you automatically lose the hardcore war, because you had to quantify your hardcoreness.

kilopy.2173:

shaidyn.4016:

What do you need gear for? There’s no gear grind, no higher level of dungeons. You’re not on a treadmill.

Play the content because you enjoy playing the content, not because you need some digital lollipop at the end of it to make you feel good.

Because the dungeons are ridiculously hard and the horrible loot at the end will guarantee even more people ignore them than are now, to the point where nobody will want to waste the time running dungeons? What kind of dumb comment is that?

There’s a thing called risk vs reward, look it up.

Plenty of people seem to be running dungeons.
Your argument is invalid.

MadMossy.8715:

Actually the OP is right, the risk out weighs the reward and some of the mobs and bosses are not hard they are just ridiculous, making some content become very much not fun and its only through determination that you finally get past it, several hours later.

I dunno, everyone I’ve talked to has had a blast.

The only problem is that I’ve had, and seen people say, the exact opposite experience/opinion as you. No one I’ve talked to has said ‘underwater combat is broken’ and I actually enjoy it.
Such is the problem with completely anecdotal evidence.

Stealth.6971:

Because if you work to level up to give yourself an edge you should not have that taken away at least to a certain extent. This is mainly for quests where you are running solo or with weak npc’s.

It’s not, really. Your gear is your edge. Your traits are your edge. You have advantages that the other characters in that zone don’t. I mean, what is the fun of stomping everything?