Guild Wars 2

One Prarie Outpost.4860:

And to point to the mantra that you “can play how you want” – that was for the CORE game – which you still can – play how you want. This is an expansion pack, not core game.

Are you guessing or do you have written evidence that ANet decided to deviate from that philosophy in the expansion? I think I read pretty much all offical statements but I cannot recall they invalidated this philosophy for HoT.

jheryn.8390:

What you may see as “constructive” (mostly because I believe you agree with them), I see as unwarranted complaining and crying.

I have no problem with someone laying out their case and why they think something is not good. It is another to rant and rave over not having things the way you personally want them as many here have done.

And it doesn’t seem strange to you that they create a completely new machanism for HoT – one they completely forgot to mention while they touted out other things aloud?

What would have been logical is something akin to WxP. A flat experience bar that gives you a HP when it is completed. ANet knows how much XP you can get from the events so they could tune it so that this process takes as long as they feel “ok”.

Actual HP challenges … just like in the base game … a bypass mechanism to normal levelling by getting a few HP faster – IF you can handle them. Apart from that a means for map completiton.

Masteries – filled parallel to the MxP (Maguma xPerience) and requiriing a more solid fill the higher the mastery’s tier is.

There – if they had done that I bet there’d be a lot less complaints – because it would have been with what GW 2 is instead creating a new, alien-feeling mechanism.

Kulvar.1239:

@HtFde :
No, EU do not let you ask for a refund because something do not match the hype around it.
Actually in EU, it’s very hard to get a refund for video games.
Some example with Steam refunds:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/03/sorry-europe-you-still-cant-get-refunds-on-your-steam-game-purchases/

I’ve gotten a refund every time I needed one (not often required, though) – of course companies/resellers say “No” usually … once you get the legal machine officially started, though, they come around.. I wonder if Steam’s policy has ever been legally challenged … my one and only Steam product is Skyrim and there is NO NEED at all to ask for a refund on that

sonicsix.5713:

Thankfully, there is no monthly fee with GW2 and I can park the account until things get better. I had high hopes for the expansion, but it is not designed for solo players. I detest content that forces me to rely on others to accomplish. Why? Here’s just ONE example: To get a Hero Point that was surrounded by 3 veterans frogs and deadly brambles, I had to sit above it and wait for hours to get help using all the options described in previous posts.

Well – solo player is a very broad term. I am one myself. I am almost through the story on one char and am starting now with another (to get a bit more XP for the masteries). Getting the needed masteries (Gliding I and II, Mushroom Jumping, etc.) is OK if you run with the pack, do the story, do some escort missions (those are soloable).

The legendary bosses are not really a solo thing (surprise) and some camp defense missions would require a second or third player if you have the wrong class – build because they’re quite manageable if you can do tons of heavy hitting AoE. If you’re single target built … well … get a 2nd player

Is it enjoyable? Absolutely – I LOVE the new maps! Sole issue I have is with the elite spec unlocking and the way the hero points work. NPE all over again. Should they decide to fix that it’ll be a blast.

Xillllix.3485:

This has probably been said 100 times, but the WvW proof of heroic needs to be made account bound. Really sucks to have to farm for dozen of hours a class that isn’t your main class just to try out something.

Nods – but it is in line with: Go play with your old build so you can get your new build so that when you have your new build you can go play old content with it …

One Prarie Outpost.4860:

People really complaining about grinding?
You grind for loot.
You grind for crafting materials.
You grind dungeons for tokens.
Oct. 23rd and the highly anticipated HoT release – within hours people complain about grinding.
smh

That’s not quite the issue here – and the “storm” here in the forum is mainly based on not revealing important things before pre-purchase even started. Namely:

(1) Massive change in the personal story that is no longer more or less linear but requires you to get certain masteries – which forces you to get them in HoT because you cannot raise HoTM masterie sby any other means. The level gated personal story (also a late addition) didn’t care where and how you got your levels.

(2) People expected the elite spec to be available more or less from the start – instead they are hit with double gated content AND a huge HP cost. Get almost all HP from HoT – to get those, get a lot of masteries first.

So it’s not the grinding as such (or rather, not JUST the grinding) but it’s the way things turned out to be – which is a rather radical change from how GW 2 was before HoT and which was nowhere announced.

People (from my point of view rightly so) expected to be able to play their Chronomancer, Reaper, whatnot a few hours into the game and to enjoy HoT WITH the new elite spec. Instead they have to go through HoT with their old build do unlock the elite spec to then … er … have nothing really new to try it out with.

Kulvar.1239:

HtFde.3856:

Your reasoning is wrong – if I have to play the base game before I can actually use the Expansion why then should I buy the expansion right off instead of just the base game and then see if I like it and get the expansion …

Guess why they changed the deal for new players ….

And now they have to deal with people asking why they bought something that they cannot use right off. It does not make sense.

Are you really suggesting to cripple HoT content so that you can go to Verdant Brink from level 2 fresh new character? o_O

You’re not forced to play the core game, but do not complain it’s hard to directly jump on HoT then.
You do school before university.
You need to be high level with good gear before going to the Heart of Maguuma.
Heart of Thorns is the continuation of Central Tyria, not a replacement.

You can choose between unlocking Elite from a mix of HoT and CT or full HoT.
Pick what you want.

You do not have to watch Star Wars I if you want to watch Star Wars VI

The reasoning behind the GW1 campaings (each independant, playable from 0 and playable for existing level 20 chars) was good – they sold well. EoTM was a bit … la la because it required you to get to level 20 before you could use it. And the bundle – Prophecies + EoTM was a horrible one because I can level from 0-20 in about 4h in Factions, 6h in Nightfall but it takes WAAAAY longer in Prophecies.

EoTM became more popular once they lowered the level cap to 10 and gave you a boost instead.

Never mind your school/university “analogy” – that’s not the issue here. For ANet the issue is if HoT is a financial success or not. And players who get the game + extension but quit before they actually reach the extension or quit soon after they reach the extension is not a good thing – existing players not buying the extension is not a good thing, existing players who bought the extension but aren’t playing it anymore is a bad thing.

Reminding people how real life works is nice but has nothing to do with how a game works and if you recall those “happy” days in school … and/or university … you’re forced to go through that in real life – you’re not forced, however, to do this in a game you purchased for entertainment.

snarfrificus.4230:

The new content is more then 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 and jeej loot.

It is? Not that I noticed – the scaling is better than in Orr but not much. Get enough people and it is exactly that … 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 …. loooooot. The sole exception I found so far is this harpy thing with the shield mechanism you have to break by throwing eggs … that was a welcome surprise.

The content is challenging for regular parties size 5, I agree – but as soon as you get a zerg it is just like Orr … except that the loot in Orr is better

Kulvar.1239:

jozefka.7256:

what if i have like 5% map completion and a level 80 character and i want to try the elite in HoT? I first have to collect enough points to even activate the elite and after that i won’t be nearly as powerful as to play HoT with it. it doesn’t help that all hero points in HoT require multiple people.. what happened to “we want you to play the game the way you want to”?

It amaze me how many people consider that Central Tyria is rubbish, leftovers, a waste.
You only did 5% of Central Tyria and want to go to the Heart of Maguuma now?
It’s not because a new content is available that the old one is disposable.
You have a whole world to discover, to explore, to conquer, to learn from.

Heart of Maguuma is amazing, but there still places of Central Tyria that are amazing, wonderful, dangerous.
Central Tyria is still part of the game. If you don’t want to do it, it’s up to you.
Do not stain the game with your laziness, crying for things to be delivered in an express silver plate.
There are already many ways to obtain elite skills. Central Tyria solo challenges, Heart of Maguuma non-fighting challenges, Heart of Maguuma boss fighting.

You had to play at the game, making your character levels to 80 and unlock its full potential before Heart of Thorns.
Now, you have to play at the game, making your character unlock masteries and elite specialisation.

Same thing! And it is not longer! It’s even less time costly. Less crying, more playing.
While you were here, complaining on not having everything instantly, people already unlocked the last elite skill of their specialisation.
Yes, you can play the way you want. But, you’re not playing, you’re crying!

Your reasoning is wrong (and it has the same logic fault as EoTN had) – if I have to play the base game before I can actually use the Expansion why then should I buy the expansion right off instead of just the base game and then see if I like it and get the expansion …

Guess why they changed the deal for new players ….

And now – as with EoTN – they have to deal with people asking why they bought something that they cannot use right off. It does not make sense. In EoTN they got it right by lowering the level to 10 and offering an upsacling which made the content acsessible much faster. I am a tad surprised to see them fall back into old habits …

Chicho Gosho.6507:

I know it’s repeating but this is a MMO. If you can’t do something solo just ask in /m, people will come and you don’t have to create a party. Just do your thing and part ways after.

That’s an assumption – I remember my time when I tried to get map completition in Orr (pre-nerf) with the not so easy to play chars … Cursed Shore – no worries … tons of people there. Malchor’s … la-la – depending a bit on the temple metas, Sea of Sorrows … empty … “Hello, can anyone help me … me … me … me” …. so empty, it leaves an echo.

If HoT remains populated on all maps, you’re right. If not … big problem!

Decado.9304:

[…] lets be honest eotm is a cheesefest of kittenness, i play to fight players not doors

Even in normal WvW you usually have to fight a door (or wall) to get at the players

JOKe.3597:

Also wait for it… I run thief.. whaat ?? THIEF ! yup not warrior or guardian or some other pve easy guy … I run as thief … not kidding I run thief and I don’t die at all…. I die only when I fall

I can’t resist … what was the fastest class I did map completition with … thief. What was the 2nd fastest … Mesmer.

Stealth goes a looong way in this game when you can just skip fights.

Warrior is PvE easy, yes, but not much more so than thief. Guardian takes skill in certain areas because they have less life than a warrior, not even close to a warrior’s healing and they can’t stealth when things get hairy.

But in PvE easy mode classes thief ranks pretty high if not highest.

Decado.9304:

Crunk n monkey.3749:

I don’t get the argument here. If you completed map comp, like I did on several characters before HoT came out. You already had around 200 extra hero points saved up. So when HoT came out, you had a 200 point lead to blow on the specialization. So all you really needed was 200 more. I started on Reaper with only 4 HP, and in 4 days I’ve gotten up to 85% done and have 75 HP more until Elite Specialization, and truthfully I feel I can have that before Halloween. Doesn’t feel like that terrible of a grind considering the grind for XP with the mastery system and it certainly isn’t going to take a long time.

I don’t know why I said map comp, all you really needed was all the Hero Challenges done in the game.

The only class/specialization I feel sorry for is the Revanant/Herald. They have to start out crisp and from the beginning, unlike the other classes that could have an early jump on the specialization.

And those who dont or very rarely pve?

Well – that leaves PvP or WvW, doesn’kitten

In PvP the elite specs are unlocked – no hassle.

In WvW you get those little tokens you can trade – I ran around EoTM for a bit with my revenant to get a few levels and I made 12 tokens in that time = 12 hero points I can use for that,

Actually it might be faster via WvW than via HoT unless you already have the masteries unlocked to get to the HPs.

Crunk n monkey.3749:

I don’t get the argument here. If you completed map comp, like I did on several characters before HoT came out. You already had around 200 extra hero points saved up. So when HoT came out, you had a 200 point lead to blow on the specialization. So all you really needed was 200 more. I started on Reaper with only 4 HP, and in 4 days I’ve gotten up to 85% done and have 75 HP more until Elite Specialization, and truthfully I feel I can have that before Halloween. Doesn’t feel like that terrible of a grind considering the grind for XP with the mastery system and it certainly isn’t going to take a long time.

I don’t know why I said map comp, all you really needed was all the Hero Challenges done in the game.

The only class/specialization I feel sorry for is the Revanant/Herald. They have to start out crisp and from the beginning, unlike the other classes that could have an early jump on the specialization.

Well – no WvW player, are you? Because we used the surplus skill points for crafting superior siege weapons … doh, silly us.

Skye.2038:

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

Nods – some of us, however, also have a RL which keeps interrupting game play. How would you feel if 2 group members went afk every 10 minutes or so for 20 minutes? Kick them? Probably.

And that’s how my playtime is … usually a phone call every 30 to 40 minutes requiring my attention for 15+ minutes. And that’s why I play solo most of the time … and yes, we’re already talking after-work hours.

JOKe.3597:

This is MMO you should not play solo.. if you want to play solo go play witcher.

A short post – probably the result of a short thought – and a wrong one

I’d suggest trying google or wikipedia to read up what MMO actually means.

Then I’d ponder REAL hard why ANet decided (still a big yay for that) decided to go away from the classic party and role oriented playstyle (tank, damage dealer, healer and hybrids) and created self-sufficient classes.

And throughout GW2 and its history (including the living story updates) most of the game was solo-able, fractals, dungeons and big meta events being the exception (although you CAN do a few meta or group events solo or with a duo).

With HoT, though, that design has changed:

You need XP to unlock masteries which you need to progress in the PERSONAL story and to unlock YOUR elite skill. Most events on the map, though, are group-based. This is not a problem NOW but it will be a problem for players joining GW2 in a year or so. Especially since the XP gain per event is pretty low and the personal story (which gives nice XP) will only take you so far before you hit mastery-gated content.

You also have to do the hero points to unlock your elite spec (unless you play WvW a lot). This requires masteries (to get there) AND many of those hero points are group based contenbt – a design flaw that will become apparent once the maps are a bit more empty.

Reminds me a bit of EoTN … first it was level 20 only, then they lowered it to level 10. An expansion does not sell well when it is only accessible for players who are already at max level with optimized gear. Someone starting out on GW2 (and buying HoT) already has to get to level 80 first before they can use HoT – your first char does take a bit unless you have a superfriendly guild. Once they are in HoT they can work for the masteries but the promised elite spec will be a long way away from them (most current players do not notice this because they probably have a favourite class that has a lot of surplus points).

Chemical Rush.2569:

amiia.8139:

Curunen.8729:

The problem is what happens in 6 months time? When players return to wvw, pvp, fractals, raids, or whatever their preference is and these maps and up mostly empty? I don’t think the meta events in any of these maps will be attractive enough to draw a significant population by this time next year.

I have no problem with the difficulty of content in HoT. My problem is that elite specs should not be locked behind content that is contrived and has nothing thematic in common with the spec itself (no npc trainers, no elite specific quests, etc…). Therefore I find the hero point challenges and requirement excessive and a potential problem for players in the future once the map population declines.

And what happend in GuildWars1 when new xpacs were shipped? Sooner or later players will be in less quantity. Ask Yourself – You have our community for dumb guys that don’t have brain and will try to force solo everything? Or they are smart to team up or use map chat to ask for help? I never rejected player that was asking for help when I was near because this is not a reason to shame. Helping makes community stronger.

Getting together with people doesn’t make you smart, it means you like being lazy on average. And this game just so happens to reward lazy.

Aw, that’s a bit over-generalized. What you describe is zerg-mentality. But “getting together” on a party level is indeed a smart thing – just watch youtube and high level fractals or speed dungeons – these guys know what they do, they’re NOT lazy and they play pretty smart.

amiia.8139:

HtFde.3856:

amiia.8139:

HtFde.3856:

Ah yes – and because this worked out so well in GW1 they added those nice heroes an upped their number and functionality and absolutely because of that they made the classes in GW2 self sufficient …

Sue whoever tried to teach you logic ….

They added it later on as there was lesser players to end content. Have You played pre-nightfall? There was no heroes till second xpansion and everything was working fine.

GW2 is suffering from a lack of players (hence the mega servers) …. so GW2 is where GW1 was after nightfall, population wise …

Any proof in real data, loudmouth? Megaservers were a fix for lack of population. You really thing that Devs didn’t calculated this? You feel smarter than Devs? Go ahead and create game like GW, I dare You. Until then don’t spread bullkitten about game development and my logic, Mister Dotter..

Er – you say “lack of population” I say “lack of players” yet you go aggressive on me … take a shower, a cold one, and look up “politeness” before you post again.

As a GW1 player I know how many Zones we had (and still have) on festivities. Now you can go to the boss maps in GW2 and see how often you get the “leave map” message and also how easy it is to force a new map by mass zoning.

Time has moved on and ALL MMOs have a population problem. That is why GW2 decided to do self-sufficient classes in the first place – so that people would not be forced to look for party members to do content. They still added party only content but about 90% – 95% of the game can be played solo without the need of henchmen or heroes.

So – where’s the contradiction to anything I said except being rather rude? Had a bad day and just wanted to vent off some steam?

HoT, though, did change all that – most players and classes will be hard pressed to solo the most important parts of HoT (for getting XP to unlock masteries and getting the HP to unlock their elite spec) once the maps get less population. And, yes, that is a failed design – especially as the loot is not really overwhelming so people will (at the moment) probably still grind Silverwastes because it gives better rewards per hours spent.

And – as someone working in quality assurance – I meet developer swho so totally do not get it every day. It’s not a matter of being a loudmouth, it’s a matter of trying to avoid boxed thinking and trying to see where things lead to. Developers have a rather focused point of view – that’s needed to get their things done (and not redesign 10 times while coding) but the drawback of this is, that they sometimes tend to not see consequences outside of their current view.

And – think the trait system that was introduced with the NPE – sometimes they can be HORRIBLY wrong in predicting the consequences of their coding.

I like HoT – but it has a few drawbacks that need to be worked on/thought over before too many frustrated players have left (do you read the feedback threads – not an ideal situation) and the extension get’s an (undeserved) bad rating because of a few (but important) bad design choices.

amiia.8139:

HtFde.3856:

Ah yes – and because this worked out so well in GW1 they added those nice heroes an upped their number and functionality and absolutely because of that they made the classes in GW2 self sufficient …

Sue whoever tried to teach you logic ….

They added it later on as there was lesser players to end content. Have You played pre-nightfall? There was no heroes till second xpansion and everything was working fine.

GW2 is suffering from a lack of players (hence the mega servers) …. so GW2 is where GW1 was after nightfall, population wise …

Curunen.8729:

Zetsumei.4975:

Just get rid of the cheese timers.. that’s all I ask.

This might be the best solution here.

Or at least increase the time.

Well – Balthazar does not have a timer ….

amiia.8139:

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

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

Ah yes – and because this worked out so well in GW1 they added those nice heroes an upped their number and functionality and absolutely because of that they made the classes in GW2 self sufficient …

Sue whoever tried to teach you logic ….

Thegreatninjaman.5891:

why would you play an MMO solo? i mean the game is called GUILD Wars.

And I’d advise you to look up the meaning of instead of assuming

Hero Point feedback:

Horrible!

Elite Specialization:

Horrible!

Let me elaborate: I see a few problems with the way this has been implemented:

(a) A logical thing. If the game requires you to play through it (more or less completely) to unlock your elite spec to such a degree that it is actually useful – what are you going to do then? You’re done … do you want to redo the content to see how much it makes a difference with the elite spec? Oh – the harcore dungeon runners might find a use for one or more elite specs but since dungeons haven’t changed those elite specs better be REALLY good or else why bother to spend a month or so outside of your dungeons to get a spec that cuts a few seconds off a dungeon run? It would make way more sense to unlock the new spec as you go along so that maybe at the 50% mark you’re done with your new spec and can use it.

(b) The way hero points are done is plain stupid. Almost all of those I encounter are group event points. At the moment it is ok – have you ever considered what will happen to a new player in half a year or so? When the maps are pretty empty? Tell them: Well son, you should have bought this game a year or so ago? It’s a design that is bound to fail even mid term and I cannot understand why it was implemented … did NOONE really see that this led to people being unable to get their elite spec once the game has aged a bit? It is as bad as the NPE thing was ….

© Alts … I have tons of them … Yes, I do not have to grind for the masteries – I “inherit them” which means I can use the mushrooms and glider and whatnot right from the start. But I still have to grind the hero points – and I have to do this FAST because in a few months I will probably not be able to find people to do the group points. Does this motivate me? Well – not very much so!

Generally map completition was a thing you could solo – in GW1 and in GW2 – right until HoT hit. With all those group based hero points you cannot do this anymore – a truly bad design decision!

YOUR elite spec (it is a personal thing) should also be unlockable by YOU – not being a reaper (or whatnot) thanks to the co-operation of others. This fails hard because it takes way too many points to unlock it und most of those points are group content, not solo content.

I like the new expansion – in an overall-ish sense. But I despise the way the HP have been implemented and the gated content is poorly made as well – imagine a new player in half a year … with more or less empty maps … how long will it take for them to get the XP needed to unlock the essential masteries? Will they persever or will they quit …

tico.9814:

Can we hardcore players enjoy our content? You casuals already had your fun for 3 years, now that content is challenging let me enjoy it, too many selfish whiners. Anet better not nerf anything but instead they should mimic darksouls playstyle. Let me ask a question to all the whiners why have a good combat if the content is not challenging? What is the whole point of an excellent combat system if players don’t use it to it’s full potential, hell they even gave us action crosshair mode, I am glad content is challenging now, combat makes more sense now.

Impress me – go solo and do the Balthazar skill point. Map completition was a SOLO thing – and you cannot do that anymore. Never mind combat and whatnot – the way they implemented the hero points is lousy!

azizul.8469:

basically some people complain because their full zerker gear set is now obsolete in HoT map….

OK – invite me in and I watch you do the Balthazar skill point solo …

Basket of Boxes.1976:

Take away the time limits on hero point champs and it will be fine. If there is going to be a time limit the champions that spawn at least need their health to scale better. It isnt too hard to fight them solo but to do enough damage to beat them in the short time limit is near impossible.

Remember those lines when you meet a few of those you do not have encountered, yet. There are at least 2 I know of that spawn 2 Vets along with the boss – no room to maneuvre (one is in kitten in the tree) – all of them ranged, attack evading + stealth type heavy hitters. One came out of stealth behind me and unloaded – down – full vit + toughness gear.

No – it is not “just the timer” …

Yeah – third attempt now … sucks

SamTheGuardian.2938:

The fact that you have to be wearing zerker gear is kittening ridiculous. The community finds an optimal armor config and the publisher decides to make the new content so in order to solo you have to wear the config instead of just nerfing zerker gear. Yeah, that makes so much sense.

It does make sense as it will not require respeccing outside of HoT. So if you have a problem pack a piece or two Soldier’s for HoT but your usual dungeon/fractal runs will be unaltered. Had they nerfed Zerker gear … the outcry would have been HUGE by the speed runners.

KingClash.3186:

Omega Zoa.3859:

Heh, i play 100% solo and reached dragon’s stand or whatever the last zone is, only needed help on a few hero points, but other then that i soloed 100%, i am a berserker glass cannon warrior.

Same here my main is a zerker zerker warrior and with 3 dodges (1 on GS) and double endure pain most things are pretty much face roll. But maybe it’s just the class carrying us and not skill right? lol

Hehe – don’t forget 25% movement speed, ignore incoming cc when using a “movement skill” and a superb healing via signet. If you add a horn and trait for cc conversion … oh my

Yes, warriors are a bit easy mode – but they still require skill. Many “casuals” (this is such a broad term for a highly inhomogeneous crowd) rely on the damage output and the healing and never bother with positioning and dodging never mind non-damage skills on the bar. And those WILL have a problem in HoT.

My little condi necro is doing quite fine so far – especially the story is a piece of cake yet (just found Rata Novus). Given the huge XP bonus from the story I’d really recommend hauling 2 or 3 chars through the story using the XP to unlock the basic traits.

The hero challenges still suck big time, imo!

Lucubration.8361:

Pharazon.3095:

What really annoys the hell out of me is how unbalanced the damage output is. Smoke pooches and frog archers can pretty much 2 shot you without you having time to retaliate. Now I don’t mind a challenge, but it has to be fair, learn the abilities and how to dodge and avoid them. In most cases I’ve been able to adapt and learn to avoid certain one hitters, but the frog archers and smoke pooches seems to be impossible to predict and avoid.

I’m annoyed at going 3 steps forward and getting shot 6 steps back because I was killed by a frog or a dog and the spawn point is far away. Even more annoying when the nearest is contested and you have to travel even further.

Yeah. As a grenade-focused Engineer running ascended zerker/knights, I simply, literally cannot kill a solo frog archer. There are other enemies that are challenging (like the smoke dogs) which are a real struggle even just one-on-one, but my only options when I run into a frog archer are to flee or to die.

I can dodge several single attacks in a fight, but a spammable chain of GETWRECKED that does 70% of my health is pretty ludicrous.

Also, the innate 75% or whatever chance to be missed by ranged attacks… do I seriously have to respec Scrapper just to be able to hit the kitten ed things? There’s no other way I can see to possibly handle them.

You are aware that running P/S you have (with toolkit) 2 great options against ranged opponents – 3 actually ….

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

As for events, some of them need to be scaled for groups. But right now all of them are, it needs to be like the events in Orr and other central tyria zones. There need to be both normal events (defend outpost, escort npc) and group events (kill wyvern boss, assault mordrem stronghold). And they should be scaled accordingly.

Well, you can easily solo the escort missions on map #1. Defending an outpost during night is depending on your class and build. Condi Necro did just fine solo there. But I agree that the content for CASUAL/LAZY solo players is low on the new maps.

On map #2 I soloed quite a few escort events – they do, however, sooner or later run into a problem where solo won’t do (vine keeper respawns, etc.). It’s not that they’re too difficult – it’s just that you cannot be at two places at the same time and thus you reach a point, where you have a standstill in the event.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Yargesh.4965:

JayAction.9056:

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

Pretty much this.

Except that group content should be content that begs repeating, which means incremental, updated, or RNG rewards. This creates a longer-term pool of players who want to do the content. When such content is for one-and-done rewards like Hero Points, you’ve got a situation where anyone who is not in on the initial wave-front of players doing them is behind the eight ball. Group content is fine, but developers ought to be selective about what they use it for. A system that unlocks a key feature of your expansion should be accessible to all, regardless of when they play it.

Excellently phrased! I remember well the time when I was doing world completition on a newly made toon about 4 months ago. Getting the skill points in Malchor’s was a nightmare – almost no players and usually a group event parked right in front of it. That’s when the design backfires – and a few months from now people will (probably) concentrate on one map and on elocation and when you’re somewhere else you have the fun of soloing one champ + 2 vets in confined quarters and with a 4 minute timer … bad design!

As you put it: “Group content is fine, but developers ought to be selective about what they use it for” – using group content for the hero challenges is a bad idea – especially if you consider the decision in a long term point of view.

pugster.9378:

This is worse than Cursed Shore 2012. But Hey, at least Cursed Shore is the furthest area and Verdant Brink is the first area of HoT. It is like going to Metrica Province, seeing nobody there and dying.

Follow the storyline (quite easy) to take you to the 2nd area. That area is MUCH less complicated in terms of gliding and whatnot.

MrNumnut.2635:

ShaelynSnow.2395:

Drivrius.6159:

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

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

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

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

‘’Cool, a new monster, i’m going to kill it!’’
Runs to the mob, about to do a skill, gets downed… the hell?

The joy of getting 2 hit killed in zerker, ok fine, people told me to go soldier’s set.

‘’Back for revenge, i’ll kill you this time!‘’
*Starts tickling the mob, where’s my dps? or maybe i should… nvm, dead again!*

How to ruin a good game, i don’t want to be forced to group with people, and solo mode is gone.

You can run full zerker My power necro does it – but then I have a nice high life pool and I got my 2nd chance pool via shroud. Question is – what class are you running, what build? And – even with Soldier’s you cannot just stand in place and whack the baddies and hope to survive. Positioning is 50% of survival in HoT and 25% is learning when to use your block or when to evade – the next 25% are aggro control and to learn when to disengage because you have found too many new friends who want to cuddle ….

ShaelynSnow.2395:

Drivrius.6159:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Karmiel.1065:

Maps are already emptying. I sat at a Hero point for 3 hours waiting for people to come do it yesterday. The maps are already losing players. Maybe because some of us don’t have the time to invest like allot of the children posting here do.

Try relogging Usually helps with empty maps – the maps I am at are pretty lively (EU zone, 1st and 2nd map)

Kulvar.1239:

HtFde.3856:

Hero challenges is what gives you your elite spec – and they should be soloable! Not group content!! And they should not be offering this content in that location at all.

There is enough solo challenge in central Tyria and non-fighting challenge in HoT to unlock it fully without other people…

Not enough, I think – even on the chars that i did map completition with I do not have the master trait fully unlocked. And – yes, there are solo hero challenges – problem, though, is – you cannot tell one from the other unless you clicked them. A simple colour code would be a really helpful hint. Green = solo content, blue = group content. So you’d know beforehand which ones you go at.

Oak da Vite.9054:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

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

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

Hm … this does not cover things like “Coztik Itzel Belongings” Hero Challenge. You finally make it up there, see it is a fighting point so you go uh-oh (hardly any space to move) then you have 1 champ (Bladedancer) and 2 vet Shadowleapers – one shot. And I run full tough + vit + condition gear. Not really a great experience. Hero challenges is what gives you your elite spec – and they should be soloable! Not group content!! And they should not be offering this (!) content in that (!!) location at all. So – gonna see if I pop my tag and shout a bit on the map if I can get enough people to join … for this char and again for the next, and – oh – the next as well …

I like the new map – but the hero points are a failure!

Jorrahn.3059:

i agree with the point that the champ hero points are unsoloable. my question is that over ALL of the new maps, are there enough soloable hero point locations to max your elite spec…since the core game is standard you have access to a ton of points already. i used my left overs to unlock and get 40 percent of the way.

If you only play PvE you’ll have to get them (unless you have some in Tyria left) – if you play WvW (or the PvE version of it called EotM) you can quickly get those tokens you can trade in 10 for 1 HoT hero point. As the point unlocked is random I recommend doing the solo friendly ones first.

ski.4927:

I really wish I could see how many of the “It’s too hard” crowd are running bad zerker builds.

If something is too hard in your current set up, reflect, rebuild, retry. As long as we aren’t talking extremes, “too hard” is MUCH better than “too easy”.

It’s not just the builds … I started out in full Zerk gear and quickly switched to my WvW suit. Now I get hit by an AoE, lose about 1/3 of my life and see tons of downed players around me …

And I also see those guys that rush in front of a monster and keep swinging. Monster throws back head and lifts arms – they still stand in front and keep swinging …

What “solo” players (I am one myself) quite often do is to rely on auto attack to finish a monster, never moving once they start hitting. That sure does not work in HoT. As soon as you have a bit of toughness on you, a reflect, something to get rid of conditions, possibly a stunbreaker and pay attention to what monsters do, things become manageable.

My big complaint is the slow XP gain for the lower masteries. It would be better if you could get the tier 1 and 2 masteries faster.

Aytheist.9476:

JayAction.9056:

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

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

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

freedomgeass.4756:

I’ve been playing the Xpack solo and with 1 friend for maybe an hour of that time and i have yet to find any content that i am unable to complete with the exception of the maps meta events.

Play more

Once you encountered those escort missions on the third map with 5 veteran Cavaliers you come back and tell me how you soloed that.

Unless you have means of tons of stability you’ll end up being kicked left and right, up and down and then some.

Cheers,

when doing the mushroom chain from the very bottom one mushroom was missed (bad me, possibly moving a tad) and my char kept on doing the spiral animation while I was pummeling down. Space did not deploy the glider and the animation never eneded right until I made an impression on the ground ….

Guess you need a bit of code with a timeout for the animation when the next mushroom is not hit so that players can make use of the glider to survice such an event.

Pino.5209:

Ha, lol. No such thing as grinding? Karma train, zerk train, chest train, shovel train etc … grind grind grind.
We also don’t have attunement. We called it Masteries
No, no kill 10 rats quest. We have Heart system, go kill bunch of skritts fill up a bar on your top right. As if there is much difference.
Dynamic events, revolutionary. Reality, heavily scripted events.
Bottom line, don’t believe everything they tell you.

Well, after playing ESO for a bit now I have come to really, really like the events because the players work on the same goal and you do not have a lot of solo players phasing in and out of the world fighting stuff only they can see … so, yes, evenmts are different to quests and they’re better …

The really sad thing in my opinion is that they continue to make Newbie developer mistakes over and over again. They SHOULD know by now that there will be connection issues with such events … why then do they do YET ANOTHER design that rewards you at the end of a rather large event chain – making it possibly for players with connection issues to come away from them with no rewards if they crash somewhere in between which will lose them all the stacks accumulated so far?

It’s really, really sad …

TJgalon.5012:

Here what I do not get. You do the same thing, day in and day out, everyday, for months on end. So anet decide, lets shake it up, have a event, and i see complaints. No construction on, how is bad, just saying, it bad and it sucks. But why, were you so set in your ways they this is a big change? Why not go out there and have fun. What stoping you from playing as normal? I am just confused by this? On top of this, I notice more players in wvw, take the time to introduce your self to the new WVW, they came for the fun, they may stay after it gone?

Shadow.3475:

Should only been over weekend.

So only people who play during the weekend can enjoy the event, not the people who play during the week?

There’s a casual – run in circles and collect loot – version of WvW – it is called EotM.

Then there is borderlands where – if you have a proper matchup for a change – tactics and strategy comes into play. Cut that keep off supply, attack to drain existing supply, then try to take it …

Now all you need to do is go there with 25+ golems. A door is down in seconds – no amount of siege defense will help you. As all three parties are online and playing it is absolutely impossible to upgrade something. The clever use of supplies … unimportant. Just build golems for free and hammer at doors – who needs to bother about camp control, guarding/pushing Dollies?

It has made borderlands even WORSE than EotM ever was/is …

Blaeys.3102:

I hope they dont take the feedback of people who have played it for all of 10-15 minute too seriously. There will always be people who are resistant to change and refuse to give things even the smallest of chances before going on the attack.

Let’s let the week play out and, if it proves to not be fun, make suggestions on how it could be made so. Saying “it’s horrible” or “it’s pve” (which it definitely isnt unless the golems start controlling themselves) this early isnt really constructive feedback. Its complaining to be complaining.

Hm, you’re management material … seriously … and I do not mean this as a complement, mind.

Oh, so we decided to change your monitors to 10" on your PCs and to lower resolution to 640 by 480. This is a great change because it will save on electricity, the heat emission from the panels is much lower and it’s less strain on the eyes because you can see the whole screen at once … so how can you actually say that this is a bad decision after we have barely begun to change the monitors? Wait a few months and I am sure you will apprechiate what we did for you …

It’s this type of talk I get on a daily base and I have to say … SOME people can see a bad idea when it is presented top them – they do not need WEEKS or MONTHS to see that something isn’t working. Unfortunately most of them do not seem to work in management …

+1 to hover wallet … I miss it as well

… and then some … I was surprised as well but after I unlocked everything I still have 100+ on each character …

Not a general problem, it seems – I tried just that and it worked for me for every colour