Changes to Normal Mode [Renamed]

So, I just played the Gate of Pain and the Gate of Madness and I did not notice anything different. It is still extremely hard for me. Did I miss understand that the normal mode was supposed to be a little easier? If I did, personally I feel that it should be a little easier. I did however notice that the monsters did not run away at all. That was helpful. However, for me, I play with henchmen and the game is STILL freakishly hard.

Normal mode is now designed for a single tank, 6 nukers, a monk, and everything going boom. They even stated directly in the update that monsters AI is meant to stick to one character and they run away from AOE less often. GG Anet.

I was running around outside Piken Square on my level 10 Monk with some Henchies, and it seems like normal mode was only tweaked slightly, which I'm happy about. Things still ran away from AoE, but after a delay, and they still spread out and attacked the henchmen, even when I flagged them away and ran in and beat on the mobs a bit before fully engaging.

Personally, I found normal mode to be perfectly fine, and I'd hate for it to turn into a mindless snore fest like every other online RPG out there. Especially since from the sound of it, I don't know that I'll be that interested in hard mode, due to my intense dislike of enemies who operate under radically different rules than me.

I'd be curious to hear what other people's experiences with the normal mode changes have been.

EDIT: Samurai, have you actually tested it? I thought that would be the case too from reading the patch notes, but I haven't seen it play out that badly in game. If it is as bad as you make it out to be, well... I guess I'm not going to finish the story mode anytime soon, am I?

I thought they would have toned down a bit in the troubled areas, I mean it is normal mode after all and certain areas can use that word “balance” that they seem to over look when it comes nerf time.

Thanks for the replies and thoughts. Like I previously stated for those that misunderstood, I read what GW put up. I know what they said but I thought that the more difficult areas might have been toned down a little so that more people could play through the storyline and then from there, they can play hard mode. That is my bigger thought and concern is that since there is now a hard mode, I feel that the normal mode she be a little easier that way there is a mode for both types of players: those that want the game to be fun and free going (Normal Mode) AND those that want the true challenge and test of their skill (Hard Mode).
I just wish I could talk to the GW people personally because I think that having this option is amazing and such a great idea, however; I think that there should be a little more of a difference though between each modes. This is kind of like having the choice of Easy, Normal, and Hard. I am not asking for there to be three choices, but I would like the two offered to be a little more distinctive.
I know that I am not the only person that feels this way either. GW is the best game I feel for reaching out to different types of players and encouraging diversity. They have reached out to those that want to be in a group and play PvP or PvE, those that want to do PvP by themselves, and what I am hoping is that they will now increase the capability for those that want to do PvE without the group.

Folks, welcome to open beta. It may not be called that, but that's what it is. I would say currently it is a month or two from being as intended. You can test and test in private, but any programmer knows, the best way to find bugs is to upload and go live.

My brother and I heroway'd through Gate of Madness and Abaddon's Gate the other night (before supposed neutering of Normal Mode) and had zero problems. In fact, we spent 10 minutes trying to figure out why it was so easy this time through.
Our build for Gate of Madness was my SS necro, Olias (MM), Talkhora (ZB prot), Dunakroo (Word Healer), my brother (Lyssa Dervish with Wild Blow), Koss (Cripple Slash/Gash), Talkhora (Life Sheath prot), and Olias (Spoil Victor/Blood). Everything fell really quickly, and even with a few really crappy pulls, we had zero deaths, and almost killed Shiro before capping the last god shrine. I'm not sure about a hench/hero setup, but I bet it can be done with an Spoil Victor blood necro, an MM, a couple monks, and some interrupters.

Anyway, not trying to brag, but some of these areas need to retain a certain degree of difficulty, even in Normal Mode. It is end-game, after all.

Mack

I wanted to boot this back to the front page for a bit, to see if anyone else had tested the changes to Normal Mode.

There seems to be about a 3-4 second delay before mobs run out of AoE, not enough to kill them but it's a pretty big chance to damage them. They seem to still scatter around the group from character to character, but we weren't really putting a lot of effort into tanking, just killin' stuff.

Anyone else have any experiences with the new 'easy' mode? I'm disappointed, being new to the game and now having a less challenging campaign ahead of me... I feel like I'd rather have the mechanics of mob behavior in place for my first run through, so I just have to learn how to deal with stronger mobs when I progress to hard mode - as it is now, when it's time to move on from normal mode, I'll have to completely relearn how mobs react.

And I'm worried it'll be boring as sin to get through the missions against standard RPG idiot monsters. I suppose it's too much to ask for normal mode to be put back in and what we have currently to be called 'easy'? Yeah, I thought so.