Guild Wars 2

Ohoni.6057:

flog.3485:

Really you are comparing this fight to a raid encounter ?

No.

We are playing a game in which all classes to some extent can dodge, block, blind targets, become invulnerable or passively get boons.

Blind is a big part of my character’s defense. The dogs were immune to Blind. My defensive options were dodge, iframes, and run away. It’s also fairly unlikely to rally when downed by those dogs, even if one of them is fairly near death at the time. It’s actually faster to just teleport into a flame patch and retry from checkpoint.

You really believe this boss fight is still too high tuned after all the benefits we can proc as a player ?

Yes, that’s the entire point of this thread. Did you not understand that?

Azoqu.8917:

. Therefore to get the double crit, it will only happen once every 400 pulls. You just got unlucky.

Fair enough, then all they need to do is remove that extremely unlucky chance.

The hardest part of this entire instance was finding the final excess energy. Probably took me 20 minutes just for that last one.

Took me only a few minutes, I must be super awesome. Git gud.

If you are having a hard time playing melee, why not go double-pistols ? I personally didn’t go melee because I figured it would be too hard for me to escape both the hounds attacks and the aoe fire fields. I went full ranged weapons and everything was alright. It was so alright that I didn’t have to equip condi cleanses. Edit: spellcheck

Mickey Frogeater.1470:

I suspect Mr. E was watching out for Balthazar making an attempt at the Elder Dragons’ Magic and Balthazar didn’t want to tip him off out of fear that he would interfere with his plans.

I also suspect Melandru and Lyssa are in on this due to a vine capturing the guy with the tracker to Taimi’s device and Balthazar having Lyssa’s mirror.

As for where those two are hiding:

1. Melandru is likely posing as the Avatar of the Pale Tree and trying to throw the Sylvari(which she connected to her Realm of the Gods AKA the Dream) at the Elder Dragons in order to gain the Dragons’ Magic. Her attempts to keep Scarlet and us from The All is due to her not wanting anyone to interfere with the Gods’ plan to steal the Elder Dragons’ Magic due to morals.

2. Lyssa’s location is hard to decipher yet most fans assume she’s Jenna and Anise.

Personally I kinda believe E has been working in collusion with Balthazar all along. He could have been infiltrating the white-mantle long before the explosion in bloodstone fen just so that Balthazar regained a bit of power in order to pass off as Lazarus. Some wild theory about the loss of power from Balthazar: what if he lost his power because he helped Rytock getting his revenant power in order to get out of the mist ?

Ohoni.6057:

OriOri.8724:

That’s not fun for a lot of people. Most people don’t want stupidly easy fights where you just go hitting 1 and you win.

Then they shouldn’t play it that way. If it’s not fun with a lot of people, then don’t bring a lot of people. Story mode is meant to be soloed. If they don’t enjoy not dying, then they should play with a Challenge mote active that would result in a tougher fight, one better suited for multiple players. Going into the story version solo should not be tuned for a group full of skilled players.

And like I said, I’m not talking about a fight where you just go in and hit once and win. NOBODY IS TALKING ABOUT THAT. The fight would still take time, it would still have mechanics, you would still need to complete those mechanics, the only difference is that you would have a very, very low chance of ever getting downed in the process of completing those mechanics. Think of it like a race. The race may not be easy, and it may take a weaker runner longer to complete than a stronger runner, but the changes of getting killed during the race is fairly low, and that doesn’t mean that the race is effortless or has no meaning.

martin.1653:

Played same build (d/p) thief of Ep4 and Ep5. Ep4 before the fix was unplayable but this fight was pretty easy compared to Ep4 disaster. I’d dare to say i was maybe a bit too easy considering the enemy(ies) we fight this time.

“in before “I play a Thief and I did fine, git gub”, not useful, thank you.”

zealex.9410:

there it is doesnt matter if its a god, a plane, a mursaat or lord Faren himself we should be able to kill it with just 1 finger and no need to ever move lul

If it’s something that’s placed in the single player story campaign, then yes, it should be an encounter for players of all skill levels, classes, and builds. This is not raiding, and should not be held to any sort of standard of challenge.

Really you are comparing this fight to a raid encounter ? We are playing a game in which all classes to some extent can dodge, block, blind targets, become invulnerable or passively get boons. We can also rally on death and we now have a fifth down skill added with lake Doric update. You really believe this boss fight is still too high tuned after all the benefits we can proc as a player ?

You offer a mini-map and revealed so that players know where the events spawn and alternatively you want a revealed so that you can 100% a map. Simple as that.

OP, I think it is only a matter of role playing as a puppet master. He used both party (us and the white mantle) just to gain his powers back.

Dashingsteel.3410:

I would think that misleading map indicators causing more confusion than help is very different than achieving a vista that you have already located.

The problem with HoT is the minimap which I assume is to help you navigate often ends up misleading you as to the location of a particular area.

You used the example of the breached wall blitz vista. This is a platforming activity. The problem I have with HoT is one of navigation. The minimaps just don’t perform well with the multitiered maps.

I don’t enjoy my time being wasted. I wish the minimap instead of giving you up and down arrows would simply have a 1, 2 or 3 so you knew which tier of the map the area was in.

But what you are referring to already exists. you just have to press “,”. And it displays the different levels of a map on the right corner.

Displaying this sort of information on the mini-map will just make it even more messy and unusable. The think is if you really want to know at which level things are, you should really use the map and no only the mini-map. Personally, even in core tyria at the beginning of the game, I had a hard time figuring out where some things were by only using the mini-map. I now only use the mini-map because I have learned where things were. It is exactly the same process.

Axe not great ?! Oh come on we would then get to wield astralaria

Labjax.2465:

flog.3485:

I understand your reasons, but I disagree so much with your perception of what the game should be. First of all, HoT was never supposed to be the core experience that you describe. They marketed the expansion as being challenging, they provided beta weekends for it and they always said that HoT was supposed to be end game content that the game didn’t have before. And quite frankly, do you really believe that they would create only 4 for maps that you can breeze through as easily as core tyria maps? Maybe you like that perspective, but to me it would have felt like a rip-off. Imo the easy nature of core maps only work because there is plenty of those. Second of all they have always pushed for more difficult mobs and content. You don’t breeze through karkas and silverwaste mobs the same way you breeze through core levelling maps. The thing is, even in core levelling maps there is content that require players to know more about skills, traits and weapons. These are called current events such as the anomaly, the bandits and the bloodstone crazed creatures. Even defending the colony of ascalon in gendarran fields is quite hard with no people around you (and to be honest I have already failed twice at it though I need it for a collection). Let’s not forget that Orr maps was harder at release also. And seriously, to conclude, what is the point of having this fantastic combat system if we can just breeze through easy content without having to take notice of what we need to do ?

Again though, it’s not just about breezing through or not breezing through. It’s about how the maps are designed. You can have a map that has difficult content in it, without arranging it in a way that makes it an exercise in frustration for casual exploration.

Part of this has to do with waypoints and them being contested or not contested. It ends up with the meta taking priority over getting around. Frankly, you should be able to waypoint into a contested waypoint if you want, just with the risk of dying and that’s your choice to take that risk. Even if it’s on a cooldown, so you can’t just zerg an event. It should at least be an option, for those who just want to get around the map and don’t want to wait for meta progress, or take the long route.

And again, there’s a difference between punishing design and challenging design. Punishing design can be challenging, but challenging doesn’t have to be punishing.

I think back to some of the old maps and what I remember is dangerous areas, but also a lot of open space where you aren’t going to get immediately attacked by anything. Maps can be challenging, without being too crowded by mobs. It doesn’t have to be one or the other. Some of the old maps did it fine; you would have areas that were dangerous, some of which you’d have to go into to complete certain parts of exploration. And you’d have large spaces that were not dangerous at all and which you could just stand in with ease, while you planned your next move.

I get that HoT maps are supposed to create a sense of danger because you are going straight into mordy’s domain, but at a certain point, prioritizing story immersion can damage the gameplay experience, if done the wrong way. It’s like the example of a repeated dialogue phrase from a companion in a single-player game; you have to be careful about choosing something that isn’t going to drive the player crazy.

Similarly, designing maps in such a way that they can quickly exhaust people seems wrong-footed to me.

I don’t really time to write a long elaborated response because I am running out of time so I am gonna sum up my thoughts on your reponse into one question: how hard is it to follow a chain of events that spawn in the beginning of the map and the story that guides through the map ? That’s how I learned how to navigate these maps in the first place personally. I will also agree with what AliamRationem wrote in response.

Labjax.2465:

Vayne.8563:

Except that if you get hits on an event, and you can’t get back to it, most of the time you still get credit anyway. It’s just not as punishing as you say.

In fact, I often get credit for events I’ve barely touched in HOT, just as I’m passing by.

Event credit isn’t really the issue. Though ironically, you’re describing tagging events and getting credit, but some of them in HoT are structured with such gaps in things happening that it’s easy to have participating credit lapse even though you’re actively trying to contribute.

But that’s not what I was referring to anyway. I’m more referring to the fact that if you are roaming solo, mobs are merciless and there’s no way around it but to group or be very reactive and prepared. I feel like I remember reading that they nerfed them a little bit at some point and they were even worse than they are now, at release.

One of the things I remember enjoying about this game in the past was exploring maps and completing them on my own, at my own pace. It was kind of relaxing and gently fulfilling in an entertaining way. HoT maps, you can barely stand still without aggroing a group of mobs that will quickly kill you (if you aren’t sufficiently reactive/prepared). There’s just no room on those maps for relaxed exploration. When I paid for HoT, on some level, I thought I would be getting more of the thing I liked and I didn’t. And that was upsetting.

And it doesn’t help that with how the maps are laid out, I have to pull my map out a lot to figure out where I am and where I need to go, which means I now have to “pause” and stand still. I did some maneuvering around a map tonight in Tangled Depths and was spending half my time checking for a “safe space” or taking a 1-2 second peep at the map, like I was in a warzone and expecting to be shot at any moment. It was tense and frustrating, and I felt relived when I logged out.

I am not what I’d call a “casual gamer” either. I used to be very hardcore in one game and my first instinct is to look for the depth in game systems. But I never played this particular game for that. I played it for the more relaxed, flowing experience. And HoT did not provide that.

I understand your reasons, but I disagree so much with your perception of what the game should be. First of all, HoT was never supposed to be the core experience that you describe. They marketed the expansion as being challenging, they provided beta weekends for it and they always said that HoT was supposed to be end game content that the game didn’t have before. And quite frankly, do you really believe that they would create only 4 for maps that you can breeze through as easily as core tyria maps? Maybe you like that perspective, but to me it would have felt like a rip-off. Imo the easy nature of core maps only work because there is plenty of those. Second of all they have always pushed for more difficult mobs and content. You don’t breeze through karkas and silverwaste mobs the same way you breeze through core levelling maps. The thing is, even in core levelling maps there is content that require players to know more about skills, traits and weapons. These are called current events such as the anomaly, the bandits and the bloodstone crazed creatures. Even defending the colony of ascalon in gendarran fields is quite hard with no people around you (and to be honest I have already failed twice at it though I need it for a collection). Let’s not forget that Orr maps was harder at release also. And seriously, to conclude, what is the point of having this fantastic combat system if we can just breeze through easy content without having to take notice of what we need to do ?

Whitworth.7259:

As a long time GW1 fan I was super disappointed when GW2 released with attacks bound to weapons with only certain professions being able to only use certain weapons. But as I played more I came to realise when playing GW1 the majority of players would use the same weapons and the same skills over and over anyway. Simply because some were more useful than others and the top skills were always on the skill bar.

With GW2 now there’s almost more variation available and still be viable (certain profs excluded). So I see no need to change how this game operates in that department.

Straying a little off topic, I’m just hoping the next set of elite specs don’t outshine the ones we have now, if there’s a definite reason to swap from one to another depending on scenarios then we will have a real ‘build system’ to please the pickiest of players.

There is a difference though if we compare GW1 to GW2. Some skills were overused just as of now. However I think GW1 did it better anyway PvP wise because, speaking only as of warrior for example; no matter what weapon you used you had a meta build attached to it. For axe, you had the meta frenzy build, for hammer you had the double knock down hammer skills. And now in GW2, we don’t see much people playing with these weapons since the elite spec. I hope the next elite specs increases the use of other meta weapons in the future for all classes.

Astralporing.1957:

zealex.9410:

The concept of fun doesnt strike you huh?

It does, but it’s in no way impacted by existence of different level of difficulty modes. Or rewards being available by other means.
So, my point still stands. If it’s really about that, why such a strong opposition to other mode suggestions? Are some players’ fun really going to be so much negatively impacted if other players will be able to have fun as well?

Except that you seem to forget one very important thing: the game has never been a raid centric game. Never ever. If that happens, that is when the shift of identity of the game will happen. Mo, after suspending the legendaries said he wanted to focus on creating a living world. I don’t want them to divert resources to the point it will impede the development of this living world nor do I think creating this modes will benefit the already created raiding community.

Astralporing.1957:

flog.3485:

Amaimon.7823:

Astralporing.1957:

zealex.9410:

good think they mainly dont focus on raids then eh? ^^

If only that were true.

Good thing it is

Hmmm let’s see: 4 raid wing versus 5 LS updates and many fractal updates + 2 new fractals + caladbolg update. Yes good thing it is

So, a single side content meant for a small subgroup of players gets comparable rate of updates as everything else in this game together.
Yeah, they surely don’t focus on it at all [/sarcasm].

Comparable? What are you on about. Nine months separate wing 3 from wing 4 lol

Amaimon.7823:

Astralporing.1957:

zealex.9410:

good think they mainly dont focus on raids then eh? ^^

If only that were true.

Good thing it is

Hmmm let’s see: 4 raid wing versus 5 LS updates and many fractal updates + 2 new fractals + caladbolg update. Yes good thing it is

Jski.6180:

So what your saying is raids do not fit in a casual game by design?

That is exactly what the game is about for me. A casual gamer that has been getting his ascended tier in any way he wants is equal in stats to a raider that has been farming raids to get his legendary gear. Nothing more, nothing less.

WarHawk.1892:

Josh Davis.6015:

Would you want to see any changes to Courtyard before it came back? A new mechanic, perhaps?

I’d prefer a few straight “deathmatch” maps. All I feel like Courtyard itself needed was better options for exiting the base (farther apart) since essentially either direction could be hit by a single players range skill. If I had to suggest an exit I’d say leave an opening at base of course and then: 1 exit right side of map for Blue, and 1 exit left side of map for Red. Add in base-only superspeed/swiftness so u can exit quickly when getting camped on one side before they chase to the other.

You shouldn’t try to answer to this post because he is gone from Anet now. Why the necro btw ?!

Nole.3017:

I bought recently HoT and i am still doing first zone and i have to say i love it! As far as difficulty goes its absolutely perfect you cant just spam attack button and watch TV anymore though it was harder at launch from my understanding? I really love zone design it may be a bit confusing but i feel like zones are huge and they are great for exploring.

I think people are hating HoT not because it is bad in itself but because its so much different from original game. For me this is a good thing because MMOs are supposed to evolve not remain same otherwise how can devs improve it?

If i had to complain about something it is price tag (sure its 30 bucks now but it was more at release) and short lenght accoding to reviews.

To me it feels like more people were complaining about difficulty because they suddenly realized they were bad at the game. Their ego took a big hit as they realized they never learned to use traits, what weapons to use and what stats existed besides zerk. That is not really surprising when you could just constantly fail plixx event for fat loot by pressing 1 or just run a zerg of WB. Agree with you evolution is needed at some point.

I don’t know…Maybe the stealthed spy that has been following Logan all along in lake Doric ?

Feanor.2358:

Feanor.2358:

vier.1327:

Scarlet Briar!

And the forum burns!

There’s certain appeal to that idea. “The lies, the willingness to kill to get what he wants” – definitely matches. But Scarlet was basically a minion of Mordremoth. Now that he’s gone, I can’t imagine a good story reason for Scarlet to reappear. Her story had a good closure, it doesn’t make sense to reopen it for something as trivial as revenge.

flog.3485:

Here we go, Lazarus is kormir and she has an army of margonites she can use to overrule the world, hence the purple/violet glow of Lazarus in the trailer. No it is not a tin foil hat theory, Colin told me about it

Then how does Kasmeer recognise her? When did she have any interaction with the human gods? I don’t think works of art can be a reliable enough source to the looks of characters gone for 250 years.

Yeah no I was actually joking around….To be more serious, I think Lazarus is E, E has been pulling the strings in both side aka white mantle vs krytians in order to become more powerful just like spoilers ahead Palpatine in Star Wars. Another wild tin foil hat theory: what if Caudescus has beeen manipulated the same way in that he was subdued to join the white mantle as a successful attempt to weaken the white mantle from the inside ? Now who would have enough powers to do that ? I am leaning toward Livia with the scepter of Orr so that she could be powerful enough to absorb the explosion in episode 1 or just Anise. Edit: I meant the Queen Jennah

Feldorn.9564:

OnizukaBR.8537:

Itss a margonite. Abaddon is coming.
https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Margonite
Look at the purple aura at the trailer match the purple from margonites, and abadon is the god of secrets.

Abaddon is gone for good because Kormir overtook all his power in the final Nightfall mission. So if Lazarus is some kind of “god”, he is most likely not Abaddon.

Here we go, Lazarus is kormir and she has an army of margonites she can use to overrule the world, hence the purple/violet glow of Lazarus in the trailer. No it is not a tin foil hat theory, Colin told me about it

Dawdler.8521:

flog.3485:

Then that is exactly what I am thinking. Just propose your ideas for WvW maps, there is plenty of space for that. No need to use pve maps.

I fail to see the need to suggest it for WvW maps. Guild banners already show on claimed objectives.

Oh right, my mistake. I don’t spend much time in WvW.

tzervo.3754:

flog.3485:

This sort of feature you propose is something that could very well work in WvW. I think you got in the wrong subforum.

Exactly! As an afterthought, it might be better to start off there. I did put it to my OP as a suggestion, as a hint to ANet that this might need moving.

The only difference this has from WvW mechanics, is that I would seriously think some sort of “prestige” oriented effect to motivate gaming around that. The most obvious example of guild banners of the victorious guild for example flying over Fort Salma, visible to the rest of open world.

I can foresee people not liking it because that might give rise to ridiculous/trollish banners flying all over Tyria, but it does not have to be so intrusive. Ideas and feedback are welcome. Heck, even just using maps from Open World in WvW could be a nice first step.

Then that is exactly what I am thinking. Just propose your ideas for WvW maps, there is plenty of space for that. No need to use pve maps.

This sort of feature you propose is something that could very well work in WvW. I think you got in the wrong subforum.

@OP what class do you main? You are gonna have to accept at some point that some class with some build counters another class with another build. As a mesmer main, I would certainly not want to target the DH first, unless I +1 one of my team mate or I have portal up to make the DH loose some time on a point. Daze on traps were pretty dumb and OP though before.

Hmm I mostly play open world and I have been using the same builds with the same stats for more than three years now (minus the elite spec ofc) on mesmer.

zealex.9410:

flog.3485:

Blaeys.3102:

Amaimon.7823:

There is already so much casual content in the game, let us have something challenging on the side that won’t affect the rest of the game_"

except it is possible to add in that challenging content without denying that same content to more casual players. Fractals are the best example of this – and there is a mechanic in raids now that could be utilized for this (challenge motes, which could just as easily be story motes).

Amaimon.7823:

Don’t get me wrong, you are right to some extent. It’s a shame that not everyone can experience the closure of Saul d’Alessio. However, the devs have made their position clear on the subject and for a very good reason (in my opinion) namely that raids can now be used to tell the darker, and sometimes downright morbid aspects of history that they cannot insert into the living story because the living story needs to remain friendly for all audiences. Saul was exposed to great torture, and they wanted us to get into that vibe. A vibe that simply cannot be experienced in a world as `family friendly´ as the Living Story. That said, I do agree with some semantics that it would be great for raids to have a `story´ mode without the legendary rewards so people can practice mechanics and casuals can experience the story._"

They actually said on reddit that there is nothing inherent in raids that restrict darker storylines to that content. Difficulty doesn’t magically make a difference in the kind of stories people want to experience. These same storylines could easily be done in living story (or better yet, in tiered difficulty raids).

Amaimon.7823:

But then again, the casual playerbase has access to 95% of the game, so it really a war worth fighting?_"

Of course it is worth fighting for. Raids are going to be a bigger and bigger part of the game moving forward – even moreso than they are in other raiding MMOs simply because there is no gear/level treadmill. The gulf between players, the split in the story, the angst over accessibility – these will only grow worse with time. They need to address it now before it does greater damage to the game and its community.

Just chiming in and wondering. If unlike any other raids in other games there is no gear/level treadmill, why is it so hard for people to get into raids in this game ? Because of social skills ? There is not much Anet can do about that. Because of no story mode ? This doesn’t change the fact that when story mode is introduced, people will just play the story mode and never look back because they no have interest in doing content that is perceived as difficult. And when this happens, then it means that Anet has to cater to another subset of players who will then complain that story mode is not enough rewarding. That is where you hit another problem, what other rewards you add to the game if the game doesn’t need that much reward in the first place to be considered endgame geared because there is no gear treadmill ? No thx I would rather have these skins released in a current event or LS update.

Anet described their game back before release as the mmo where you run around on your own pace alone or with friends. You can do stuff alone alot of stuff bit for eventa you will have to group had. Ppl seem to forget that the devs always had in mind that ppl will have to socialise and communicate for various things world bosses meta events and now raids. Also ppl forget that anet always wanted gw2 instnaced end game to be hard and for coordinated groups and just because dungeons didnt hit the mark that doesnt mean devs forgot about it.

100% agree with you. I am not a raider but I certainly don’t want them to divert resources into creating another game mode that will never get enough repeatable prospect in terms of rewards and fun.

Blaeys.3102:

Amaimon.7823:

There is already so much casual content in the game, let us have something challenging on the side that won’t affect the rest of the game_"

except it is possible to add in that challenging content without denying that same content to more casual players. Fractals are the best example of this – and there is a mechanic in raids now that could be utilized for this (challenge motes, which could just as easily be story motes).

Amaimon.7823:

Don’t get me wrong, you are right to some extent. It’s a shame that not everyone can experience the closure of Saul d’Alessio. However, the devs have made their position clear on the subject and for a very good reason (in my opinion) namely that raids can now be used to tell the darker, and sometimes downright morbid aspects of history that they cannot insert into the living story because the living story needs to remain friendly for all audiences. Saul was exposed to great torture, and they wanted us to get into that vibe. A vibe that simply cannot be experienced in a world as `family friendly´ as the Living Story. That said, I do agree with some semantics that it would be great for raids to have a `story´ mode without the legendary rewards so people can practice mechanics and casuals can experience the story._"

They actually said on reddit that there is nothing inherent in raids that restrict darker storylines to that content. Difficulty doesn’t magically make a difference in the kind of stories people want to experience. These same storylines could easily be done in living story (or better yet, in tiered difficulty raids).

Amaimon.7823:

But then again, the casual playerbase has access to 95% of the game, so it really a war worth fighting?_"

Of course it is worth fighting for. Raids are going to be a bigger and bigger part of the game moving forward – even moreso than they are in other raiding MMOs simply because there is no gear/level treadmill. The gulf between players, the split in the story, the angst over accessibility – these will only grow worse with time. They need to address it now before it does greater damage to the game and its community.

Just chiming in and wondering. If unlike any other raids in other games there is no gear/level treadmill, why is it so hard for people to get into raids in this game ? Because of social skills ? There is not much Anet can do about that. Because of no story mode ? This doesn’t change the fact that when story mode is introduced, people will just play the story mode and never look back because they no have interest in doing content that is perceived as difficult. And when this happens, then it means that Anet has to cater to another subset of players who will then complain that story mode is not enough rewarding. That is where you hit another problem, what other rewards you add to the game if the game doesn’t need that much reward in the first place to be considered endgame geared because there is no gear treadmill ? No thx I would rather have these skins released in a current event or LS update.

Ananeos.4587:

I don’t main my mesmer anymore for the sole fact that Anet has no idea what they want mesmer to do anymore. It’s permanently stationed in the mists now. No point in playing pve with mesmer since it makes no sense to spam half my skillbar to kill 1 or 2 trash mobs when I can hop on my Ele and spam staff 2 every few seconds or go to my necro and spin in one of my poison fields for 16 aoe poison stacks just with 2 skills.

There is no good power build for mesmer. Best way is to run full stealth to get the HPs while using staff 3 phantasm to do actual damage on bosses based on other people’s conditions.

I’m sorry for the bad vibes but when a solo ranger pet is doing more physical damage than a mesmer and 3 phantasms something went wrong somewhere.

Guess it is a matter of taste. I personally hate the fact that elementalist can make huge damages just by pressing one skill just like rangers can do the same with their pets or their longbow, hence why I never bothered to level these classes.

The best way to do some damages with mesmers is to get yourself some nice amount of quickness I would say. I go do dom/duel/chrono with MoD with sword/focus and GS. Chronophantasma, IR and alacrity on wells for chrono; blind on shatters, fury on illusions and mantra x3 for dueling; +15% damages on illusion, quickness on interrupt and double damage on disabled foes when shattering for domi. You maintain as much as you can a constant flow of quickness to be used both defensively and offensively. And you keep shattering to make sure you are not being interrupting when casting your mantra. As for utilities blink (for a safe mantra casting if you run out of shatters), MoD, and quickness well. Elite well to get more chance of interrupting a foe. Speaking of the latter, I have a question: does the quickness you gain from domination trait apply per foe or not ?

insaneseagull.7063:

flog.3485:

Simple solution: make unranked 5v5 team queue only.

But then the casual aspect of unranked disappears even more. Unranked should stay as it is now imo.

That is the thing though. The casual aspect of PvP could be preserved with hotjoins. I know what is like, that is the PvP game mode that I have personally played the most. I just think it would be best for players who want really want to dwelve deeper into real PvP to be able to play as teams fighting other teams. In that way players would know better about what to do in conquest (i.e. What to play, what to focus, how to rotate, What build to play and in another extent what class to switch to in case of really unfavorable matchup). Overall I also think it could give better feedback to devs as it promotes a fair environment of gameplay.

Simple solution: make unranked 5v5 team queue only.

What would be cool is to unlock a mastery themed glider for the next expansion and further released mastery tracks.

nsleep.7839:

flog.3485:

As for the lack of hype due to the fact that we do not have constant release of new stuff, I don’t really agree with this sort of feedback. I mean, we are just getting off a period of time of four consecutive festival updates. We all know that the team in charge of these current events are also in charge in reviving these festivals. Before there was no festivals, we did get a good chunck of regular updates in the world that worked off as premises for the next release of living story update or closure to said updates like the event chain that lead off to ember bay with the primordius weapon collection, the rifts in core tyria (that came after first episode if I recall correctly), the champion bandits before the reveal of episode (please correct me if I am wrong). And even with these festivals they did find a way to add the caladbolg quest after the dragons ball luck events and before lake Doric. Now that they are no upcoming festivals to look for in the near future I am pretty sure they will go back to releasing these events and if they don’t then I would agree that the game really lacks some hype.

The current events with the bandits were mostly added with the big pactches before the living world season started.

And about the festivals, aren’t those just recycled content? I mean, I see no reason at all for me to do SAB this year just for a recolor skin… Chinese New Year was mostly recycled, so was Wintersday and Shadow of the Mad King. Doing these at the moment shouldn’t be taking much effort from the company.

It is true festivals are recycled but the thing is we don’t know what is required for them to do in order to bring them back up. And the fact is, you can be dissastisfied about the festivals but I am pretty much a lot will be even more salty if they don’t bring these festivals back (e. g. the SAB). Festivals aren’t just a content that they switch on and off by implementing them back into the game without having to resolve many bugs due to previous patches.

As for the lack of hype due to the fact that we do not have constant release of new stuff, I don’t really agree with this sort of feedback. I mean, we are just getting off a period of time of four consecutive festival updates. We all know that the team in charge of these current events are also in charge in reviving these festivals. Before there was no festivals, we did get a good chunck of regular updates in the world that worked off as premises for the next release of living story update or closure to said updates like the event chain that lead off to ember bay with the primordius weapon collection, the rifts in core tyria (that came after first episode if I recall correctly), the champion bandits before the reveal of episode (please correct me if I am wrong). And even with these festivals they did find a way to add the caladbolg quest after the dragons ball luck events and before lake Doric. Now that they are no upcoming festivals to look for in the near future I am pretty sure they will go back to releasing these events and if they don’t then I would agree that the game really lacks some hype.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

nsleep.7839:

I don’t think the issue is the lack of communication or lack of hype. This game, with its current content release schedule, is just not working.

Big patches every three months isn’t working, they need to spread the content a bit, like, last big patch we got Caladbolg quest line, Bastion of the Penitent, the fourth episode of the LW3 and everything that came with it, and some fractal changes.

That’s it, they released it all in one big package, people are done with most of that now and now we’re waiting for the next release because there’s nothing fresh or different to do for a few weeks now. I literally only login to do Fractals because I happen to need relics at the moment and raids at reset and maybe when people I know call me to fill a group.

I try to avoid debates and discussions on this forum these days, but I’ll say this . . . you nailed it. The problem isn’t the lack of hype. The problem is the lack of interest. And the sudden change with how the game releases content is also a problem.

If you attracted your audience by doing something one way, and then you suddenly go in another direction . . . a direction other MMOs have done and your audience wanted to avoid? Yeah, you’re going to see your audience leave for other pastures.

The number one reason I’ve stuck with Guild Wars 2 was their ability to continually add new content on a rather frequent basis. I’m not interested in waiting months or years for an expansion much less new content. Been there, done that, and left those games because of it. And once an audience is gone, it’s near impossible to bring them back.

Yes, the lack of hype isn’t helping, but the lack of content in and after the expansion isn’t helping either.

Except that caladbolg quest was not added with lake Doric patch. I do agree that though releasing the living story at the same time as the raid is not a good move.

thrag.9740:

No, what stops the player from getting this reward is sheer stubbornness.

You don’t need to slay a boss, you literally just need to complete escort, which again, is easier than all the other tasks you have to do max your account progression through masteries.

If you really hate the idea of having to use simple teamwork in an mmo to unlock max account progression, and can’t even be bothered to do escort, go earn 100g (open world pve players should have no trouble doing this) and buy a single raid kill. Earning 100g isn’t any more grind than all the stuff you have to do to max your other masteries.

There are many paths to this goal, you can be a serious raider, you can do what is essentially an open world pve event, or you can grind about 100g using your favorite farm spot.

+1 to this. But I don’t think it is only about being stubborn. It also comes to being shy and/or somewhat ashamed. Anyway, it is not like there is absolutely no other way to gain spirit shards. I mean dailies and ToK also give spirit shards. I could gain 500 of these just by standing in LA if I wanted to. Spirit shards also drop occasionally in HoT maps from any chest or random mob. Personally the number of spirit shards I own have been increasing without forcing me to enter raid instances or grinding gold to buy a raid kill.

Except that joining a train is not required. Absolutely not. What you need to do is create a group of 2 or 3 people o get most of these HP’s. As a mesmer main the great majority of my HP’s were done with a maximum of 5 people. The only exception was the mushroom HP in tangled depth next to rata novus.

Djinn.9245:

ArchonWing.9480:

I still think it’d be better just to take some time to deal with it; it may make later chapters easier to do.

One reason I don’t understand Anet’s decision to make Episode End fights challenging (as perceived by me) is that they made this wonderful story and I would think that they would want ALL of their players to be able to participate in / enjoy it. I have limited play time. I do not choose to spend that time doing a fight over and over.

This isn’t a Dungeon, Fractal, or Raid that gives you nice loot (to varying degrees) which would justify making it a challenge. I’m not looking for loot, I just want my character to participate in the story.

Well one main reason for them to make it a bit harder is because we are past level 80 and the game is gonna be 5 years old this year. We are no more in the levelling purpose and the encounters need to be tuned for exotic and need to account for the fact that we have elite specs now. Besides we are playing an action based combat system. If the post level 80 experience provides the same experience as the levelling experience then I would personally call it poor and and badly implemented design. What you personally find hard now could be called easy for other (and no you don’t need to go into raiding to find easy). I will agree though that the very first iteration of Caudescus fights in lake Doric was a bit too much high tuned.

I say we are gonna go to tarnished coast. The last we heard taimi was going to test her theory about how to manipulate the magic of dragons. In that process something must have gone wrong, which made her “flee” Rata sum to the closest non discovered location that would allow her to “interact” with primordius without having to draw too much attention by getting to ember bay.

Carighan.6758:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I’m not seeing a content drought. New content may not be coming out at a rate you want but it’s been a steady release of new maps, story lines, events, achievements and items to get.

Honestly with how thin and quickly forgotten the new throwaway zones are, there is quite a drought. Yeah they’re coming out at a steady (if still slow) pace and omg omg omg new zones, but frankly the zone-modifying events in LS1 felt more “meaty” than the entire new zones we’re getting here.

Buuuut….How can you feel like it is more meaty if you can’t access it anymore ? I mean it is not like if nobody was playing the new zones. Ember bay still people calling up on map chat for the different meta events, bloodstone fen still has players doing justiciar hablion and the anomaly at the end, Bitterfrost frontier still has players defending The kodan torch nodes and the same goes lake Doric. Casual players don’t farm the same map over and over ad nauseam to get it done the fastest way possible I would say.

One thing for sure in this game is that you need to set yourself your own personal goals. If you expect the game to tell you: go do this and that (well that sort of features is of course implemented in the long run as for collections for example), you will never truly find out if it is worth it.

zealex.9410:

flog.3485:

So you want to make every PvPer and WvWer have to own ascended weapon and armor ? WvWer will not be happy because there is no way for them to gain ascended armor in wvw. It feels like a terrible change.

i thought having asc in wvw is a must coz its really good

No way that everyone running around in wvw all have ascended armor and weapons. Even more so when the wvw centric players have no access to ascended
Armor in their preferred mode.

So you want to make every PvPer and WvWer have to own ascended weapon and armor ? WvWer will not be happy because there is no way for them to gain ascended armor in wvw. It feels like a terrible change.

I have a very easy suggestion: make unranked 5v5 only and cut off the PvP dailies in ranked. Unranked should serve as a stepping stone to ranked but it doesn’t feel like it is imo. If players are looking to get some experience in a pure 5v5 format then a game mode should be specifically implemented for that matter. When they feel enough confident in their role and in their rotation (s), then they can move on to ranked in a solo/duo environment or they can learn the hard way by only playing hotjoins if they can’t/don’t want to play in teams.

And in unranked people can go full premade team…..What did expect op ?

IndigoSundown.5419:

flog.3485:

The problem though is that this “pinnacle” is soooo subjective. If I follow your argument then core legendary weapons are also the ultimate weapons to get. And yet you can not say that everyone has farmed for this supposed pinnacle. I can pretty much tell you that personally I prefer the skin of the Anomaly to the Minstrel, order of whisper staff and the centaur skin staff over Bifrost and so on. We don’t even know what these legendaries armor will look like, how can you say it is already perceived as a pinnacle ? And where are these lots of complaints ? HoT release without an additional character slot generated a lot of complaints, here it is pretty much the same 10-15 people arguing over and over whenever raid subjects are brought up. Not every die hard fan of the game are going to play quote wars 2 complaining whether it is Reddit and/or GW 2 forums.

You’d be hard pressed to find agreement about anything across multiple demographics in any MMO player base. That does not mean that Legendary Weapons (and now Armor) are not seen as the pinnacle of the cosmetic endgame in GW2.

Crinn.7864:

IndigoSundown.5419:

The main focus of GW2 is the cosmetic endgame.

No it’s not. Some people might obsess over cosmetics just like people do in literally every rpg ever, but that is not the core focus of the game.

The core focus of the game has always been the unique combat system, dynamic events, and horizontal progression.

Next you’ll be telling us that people don’t repeat raids for the rewards. ANet may have started with some illusions about players repeating content “for fun” before they launched the game. The incessant posts about rewards, the game being unrewarding, and lack of motivation because there is nothing to chase disabused them of those illusions. The fact is that virtual rewards, be they cosmetic or stat-based, fuel endgame repetition in MMO’s. There may be a few other rewards that require as much investment as Legendary items, but they are few and far between.

And yet this “pinnacle” is so easy to ignore. We are not playing a game where most of armors are released in game, skins are rather released through gemstores and you can straight convert gold to gems. Consider this as well: if you design an easy long term farm to obtain the legendary armor, don’t you completely undervalue the other skins that are released because of the uniqueness of having an “animated” armor ? I say it is best to let a player choose the skins he can/wants to grind because even if you make it easy some players will straight feel like a second class citizen due to the fact that they just don’t have enough time to dedicate to the game. Furthermore, I strongly believe that Anet didn’t want the legendary armor to be only an easy grind but rather something that also shows some skill, hence why it took them that long to finally implement it in the game.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Vinceman.4572:

Blaeys.3102:

Doesnt change the fact that a lot of players like him are becoming disillusioned with the game because of this issue (some faster than others).

And, yes, you can be huge fan of the game and still hate the direction is going in. It is important for Anet to see posts like his – and understand the potential long term damage this direction is doing to the game.

Ok, that’s sad if ppl become disillusioned about one single game mode in the game they are not pleased with.
And what specific direction? Raids are not the main focus of GW2, ppl should stop making a drama out of it. Raids are one little part in the game – nothing more, nothing less.

The main focus of GW2 is the cosmetic endgame. The pinnacle of the cosmetic endgame is Legendary Equipment. It’s a pity that ANet couldn’t come up with something sufficiently epic for a raid-exclusive reward without tying the only iteration of Legendary Armor for the foreseeable future behind that “one little part of the game.” I believe we’d have seen a lot less complaints about raids from non-raiders had they done so.

The problem though is that this “pinnacle” is soooo subjective. If I follow your argument then core legendary weapons are also the ultimate weapons to get. And yet you can not say that everyone has farmed for this supposed pinnacle. I can pretty much tell you that personally I prefer the skin of the Anomaly to the Minstrel, order of whisper staff and the centaur skin staff over Bifrost and so on. We don’t even know what these legendaries armor will look like, how can you say it is already perceived as a pinnacle ? And where are these lots of complaints ? HoT release without an additional character slot generated a lot of complaints, here it is pretty much the same 10-15 people arguing over and over whenever raid subjects are brought up. Not every die hard fan of the game are going to play quote wars 2 complaining whether it is Reddit and/or GW 2 forums.

Build templates and no other OP elite specs that will just completely replace the existing elite specs. As for whatever other content we get with the next expansion, I am pretty sure I will be happy about it.

Linken.6345:

flog.3485:

Oldirtbeard.9834:

maddoctor.2738:

Blaeys.3102:

• A story mode would not detract from the difficulty of the experience in regular raid modes.

First, we have a developer response on the topic here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/A-Plea-for-a-Raid-Story-Mode/first
Which says they are discussing it, nothing final, nothing actually being developed, but there is internal discussion about it. I’m sure when they have more to say they will and no amount of asking will make them discuss it faster, especially in threads that ask for an easy mode and stop there. “I want an easier mode” isn’t very constructive, nor useful for the developers. Actual suggestions on how to do it can expedite the process but a simple “I want” isn’t going to do a thing.

Second, the thread topic is about adding an easy mode for story, which means some way for all players to experience the story of Raids, removing Raid specific rewards.
The main issue with a story mode version is that it can become Arah story mode number 2. Worthless to run outside the story, so you run once and forget it even exists, then it gets hard to get people to run it with. I’m sure this is one of the most important problems with a story version, how do you make it not-useless while at the same time allow players of really low skills to complete? It’s a contradiction

There have been multiple suggestions on how to do this without being a waste of time:

Spectator mode

In some HoT instances, when you join another’s story, you fly around as this blue glowing ball since you’re not technically there according to the story.
So maybe similar can be applied here. You can interact with the npcs of the raid but are immune to damage, cant cast anything, and work outside the 10-person limit.

With this one, it will take the minimal amount of work to do (unless it’s hard to port the pvp spectator mode into pve, I don’t know how their coding works) and requires no reward balance at all. Also, some form of training can be achieved here as you watch how other players play in a live environment. This is probably the easiest method but is it worth it compared to watching a video on youtube?

Raid encounters as Fractals
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Fractal-versions-of-the-Raids/first

Lots of re-work to balance the encounters for 5 players, however no balancing of rewards needed at all, the reward system is there. Aside from the serious tweaking of mechanics, this version that requires 5 players will have minimal, if any, kind of training value for the real Raid, as the mechanics would need to be toned down, or require far less things to do at once.

And this is my own suggestion:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/A-Plea-for-a-Raid-Story-Mode/first

The idea is simple: remove later phases from fights. It won’t work on all bosses, some can be problematic, but for the majority it can work really well. It requires a bit of tweaking to make it work well, mostly hit points and enrage timers, but there is little need to change the mechanics, and very little (if any) reward balancing either. Also, in this mode the story mode can work as training too

Thank you for linking my thread, I’m glad that was considered a legitimate option by some one at least.

I’ve read this whole thread and I’ve got to say Blaze championed the positions of my faction quite strongly.

Unfortunately I’ve moved on for the foreseeable future. I can not see my self financially supporting a company that has no place for my Great Sword Reaper in the only End Game that matters now that it’s the only place you can hope to work toward Legendary Armor. ESO is a breath of fresh air, the pace is a bit slower and it’s refreshing to switch to a game controller for a change after almost 20 years of PC MMOs. Well good luck, I’m sure my $50 a month plus I used to spend on this game in gems won’t be missed.

How can you claim that it is the “only end game that matters” if it is not required/necessary to get it done ?

If you had read alittle bit more the poster said why it was the only thing that mattered.

I made it easier and boldend it for you.

And I need to fractals to get the legendary fractal backpack, I need to do PvP to get the legendary PvP backpiece, I need to complete dungeons to get the associated armor pieces, I need to do HoT content extensively to get the legendaries tied to HoT release….My reading skills are fine. All I see is someone unwilling to change his build. Though It is now very easy to do so.

Oldirtbeard.9834:

maddoctor.2738:

Blaeys.3102:

• A story mode would not detract from the difficulty of the experience in regular raid modes.

First, we have a developer response on the topic here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/A-Plea-for-a-Raid-Story-Mode/first
Which says they are discussing it, nothing final, nothing actually being developed, but there is internal discussion about it. I’m sure when they have more to say they will and no amount of asking will make them discuss it faster, especially in threads that ask for an easy mode and stop there. “I want an easier mode” isn’t very constructive, nor useful for the developers. Actual suggestions on how to do it can expedite the process but a simple “I want” isn’t going to do a thing.

Second, the thread topic is about adding an easy mode for story, which means some way for all players to experience the story of Raids, removing Raid specific rewards.
The main issue with a story mode version is that it can become Arah story mode number 2. Worthless to run outside the story, so you run once and forget it even exists, then it gets hard to get people to run it with. I’m sure this is one of the most important problems with a story version, how do you make it not-useless while at the same time allow players of really low skills to complete? It’s a contradiction

There have been multiple suggestions on how to do this without being a waste of time:

Spectator mode

In some HoT instances, when you join another’s story, you fly around as this blue glowing ball since you’re not technically there according to the story.
So maybe similar can be applied here. You can interact with the npcs of the raid but are immune to damage, cant cast anything, and work outside the 10-person limit.

With this one, it will take the minimal amount of work to do (unless it’s hard to port the pvp spectator mode into pve, I don’t know how their coding works) and requires no reward balance at all. Also, some form of training can be achieved here as you watch how other players play in a live environment. This is probably the easiest method but is it worth it compared to watching a video on youtube?

Raid encounters as Fractals
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Fractal-versions-of-the-Raids/first

Lots of re-work to balance the encounters for 5 players, however no balancing of rewards needed at all, the reward system is there. Aside from the serious tweaking of mechanics, this version that requires 5 players will have minimal, if any, kind of training value for the real Raid, as the mechanics would need to be toned down, or require far less things to do at once.

And this is my own suggestion:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/A-Plea-for-a-Raid-Story-Mode/first

The idea is simple: remove later phases from fights. It won’t work on all bosses, some can be problematic, but for the majority it can work really well. It requires a bit of tweaking to make it work well, mostly hit points and enrage timers, but there is little need to change the mechanics, and very little (if any) reward balancing either. Also, in this mode the story mode can work as training too

Thank you for linking my thread, I’m glad that was considered a legitimate option by some one at least.

I’ve read this whole thread and I’ve got to say Blaze championed the positions of my faction quite strongly.

Unfortunately I’ve moved on for the foreseeable future. I can not see my self financially supporting a company that has no place for my Great Sword Reaper in the only End Game that matters now that it’s the only place you can hope to work toward Legendary Armor. ESO is a breath of fresh air, the pace is a bit slower and it’s refreshing to switch to a game controller for a change after almost 20 years of PC MMOs. Well good luck, I’m sure my $50 a month plus I used to spend on this game in gems won’t be missed.

How can you claim that it is the “only end game that matters” if it is not required/necessary to get it done ?

Linken.6345:

flog.3485:

Blude.6812:

flog.3485:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

For all those wishing for an ‘easy’ mode for Raids.

From the latest Patch Notes:

Raids
General

Infantile mode is now available for all raids. Bosses have 50% reduced health and outgoing damage. Loot from the boss chests consists of two blues and a green.

Enjoy. ; )

Yay!!! Can’t wait to participate in infantile mode XD

Fantastic, as long as My EXP bar can progress again!!!!! Too bad it’s APril fools and someone cant read a calendar.

Are you familiar with sarcasm ?

Yes man most are but its hard to convey throught text hence why people usualy ends with /s to indicate it.

Yes sorry about that, my bad