Anet: We have "Easy Mode" and "Hard Mode". Nothing in between...

First of all, lemme say I love Guild Wars.

I'm a casual to hobby-level player. I play anywhere from 5-10 hours per week of PvE, and another 2 of PvP (mostly just ABs and RA). I've finished Prophecies and NF.

I'm not comfortable playing GW at this point in time. Hard mode is certainly enjoyable for what it is, and I'm thankful for it. I prefer to play it maybe 10% of the time, as I'm not really one for the associated titles. It's a really nice option to have in the game and breathes new life into the old low-level missions.

The new, dumbed-down normal mode is what bothers me. It's just far too easy and, well, simple. For example, I was able to beat the D'Alessio Seaboard by just sitting back and letting henchmen do all the work. I didn't even use heroes. I tried a chest run in the Mirror of Lyss with a hench/hero combination with a 7-character party and was able to sit back and let them kill all the monsters there as well.

It's just so boring in many areas now. It really feels like I'm going back to kill level 6 Char. It's not very fun, and it really doesn't feel like the same game. I miss the old normal mode The only thing I can do to make it at all entertaining is to not bring any AoE skills and make it artificially challenging.

My request to Anet is to please, please bring back the old normal mode. Thank you for listening.

Christina Hamilton

/Signed

"Normal" mode has become "Easy" mode, Bring it back!

/Not Signed

There are still areas of normal mode that can wipe you out easy enough. If you want more of a challenge, go to hard mode, that is why it was introduced.
We dont have 'easy' and 'hard', but normal and hard modes.

Another reason i think some areas of normal mode were made easier is that it is not actually easy for everyone and with a lot of the experienced player base going off to hard mode, it allowed those that were left behind to still accomplish the missions and areas, etc.

The two areas you mentioned were never that difficult in the first place, so yes, they will be easier now, but more difficult areas that often wiped parties are now more managable to the newer, less experienced player base (which was the general idea of the changes).

I havent played normal mode since they supposedly "dumped it down", after adding HM.

I cant really comment on whether the normal mode has been made easier.

But from the changes Ive read about, it sounds like they basically removed the "running away from AOE" in the creatures. Now remind me if im wrong, but wasnt that something they only added about 6 months ago?

Normal Mode is basically just the game as it was a year ago. It was fun then, so it must still be fun now.

And so far, from the experience I've had of Hard Mode, its not even that hard. I've done about 14 Prophercies HM missions in a week, with one PUG or another.

You'l never please everyone, and there will always be someone who doesnt like either NM or HM and wants something inbetween or something harder.

What is Anet meant to do? add another 5 modes? Enjoy what they gave us.

Ever since the introduction of HM I haven't really touched normal mode.. I left my warrior in the Echovald Forest, and when I logged on with him again I decided to do a few unfinished quests there in normal mode to see what it's like. It sucked.

I know warriors usually just do "c" and then "spacebar", but honestly.. this was really too easy. I think Hello Kitty Island Adventure might be more challenging. And yea, ppl will ask "why did you play normal mode? Why not just stick to HM if normal is too easy?" It's because HM isn't as cool as ppl make it out to be.

There are countless threads already regarding the problems with Hench and Hero AI in HM. Also the fact that there aren't that many ppl playing in HM all the time. It isn't fun spamming mission outpost for about the same amount of time it will take to do the mission with LFG Mission HM, and LFG to Vanquish "x" area is unheard of.

I used to play GW at least 3 hours a day. I haven't logged on since the birthday event, and don't really have any motivation to log on any time soon.

Sticking to what the OP is about....Normal mode is too easy, it should be changed back imo. Please change noob mode back to old-school normal mode.

I don't think there is any place left for the casual gamer to play. Normal mode is too easy, and Hard mode can be too challenging.

/signed

Most areas of the game can be beaten in normal mode by typing /sit and watching your henchmen play the mission for you. All it takes is Orion or Cynn casting a spell and the monsters will just wait around in it until they die. Sure there are high-level areas, but I'm referring to the majority of the game.

Bring two AoE elementalists in some of the higher level areas of the game and you can go back to /sit though. Especially if you use reasonably well designed heroes instead of henchmen.

Hard mode is too hard for me if I have to play it all the time. The gap betwen normal (aka easy mode now) and hard is just so big. I miss the regular level of challenge.

/Not Signed

If Guild Wars were just Prophesies and Prophesies did not have the Ring of Fire I would be on board to agree. But, the Ring of Fire in Proph can still easily whipe a party out if you agro bad or just have bad players. Both Factions and Nightfall offer areas mid-story and on that can end a partys run as well.

Actually I was completing Protector of Tyria the other day and got the bonus on Hells Precipice(sp?) and almost had a complete part whipe when I accidently pulled two groups.

To me the only notable different in "normal mode" really comes in the Realm of Torment which was at times almost unplayable with all heros/henchmen (especially Domain of Fear). RoT now pretty easy due to mobs being at least half if not 1/3 their former size. Other than that I dont notice much of a decrease in difficulty...

I actually like that not many people are doing HM at this time, as it means the vanquisher and guardian titles will be rare for a short time.

Its a pain to form a party, but once you get one and you complete a HM mission you get a huge feeling of accomplishment. Especially when you know your one of the first to do it.

HM will pick up, and I expect it depends which campaign your in.

I have a feeling factions and NF will have more HM players compared to Prophercies. Its mainly older players who do Prophercies, so it will take time for them to return or for new players to take interest in it.

HM will pick up.

"Normal mode" is for when you play through the game the first time. There's really not much difference, difficulty-wise, from how it's always been, and first time you're playing, it's challenging.

Once you've completed the game, you're supposed to switch to hard mode to get some challenge - and much, much, better loot to keep you motivated.

Seems to work as planned to me.

My biggest beef with hard mode is that you can't take a full team of heroes, and, let's face it, henches are nowhere near as good as heroes due to the skill selection.
This means that hard mode is quite easy if you can get 7 other human players, but very difficult indeed, often too difficult, if you're soloing with heroes&henches.
(Playing normal mode with a human team is *ridiculously* easy if you know what you're doing, but like I said, if you've done it before you should play hard mode)

My opinion is that level of difficulty right now is good, if only you could take a full hero team (and/or heroes and henches were taught to run out of AoE spells).

Actually it's a lot easier than it was back then. I haven't played much Normal Mode since the update but I'm almost certain some of the enemies were hitting for about half the damage they used to. Even henches could probably clear the area alone without your help.

True. Basically it's just more of the same, the enemies hit harder and faster but in the end the same strategies still work because the AI is still exactly the same.

You cannot have normal and hard mode. Since there are only two datas we can compare, they can only be easier compared to the other mode and harder compared to the first mode. Therefore: Easy and hard mode.

I don't care for this idea, since I don't play easy mode anymore. I merely wanted to point out this, what I think, logical error.

-Deleet

/Not Signed Are you ever happy? Hard Mode is fine how it is. Normal mode is fine how it is. That's that.

/notsigned


Numa Pompilius had a good idea though about letting us take 7 heros. Henches are semi-retarded in normal mode, in hard mode then need to wear a helmet to avoid drain bamage. I think the modes are decently balanced. I am also sure there will be some tweaks in the up coming updates. Anet never leaves anything alone for long. (Please Anet fix soul reaping amen)

~the rat~

/notsigned

I like the "easy" mode the way it is right now. Gets me a bit more incentive to actually play through with more then one character. For the challenge I'll just go to hard mode.

I don’t think normal mode is too easy especially if you are new to the game and still without acess to all skills. If I would use the skills I did first time playing GW I guess I would find the normal mode pretty challanging. Hard mode is just a little bit too hard to be fun to paly maybe using 7 heroes would be a way since finding teammates outside tyria is hopeless right now. I still try the hard mode to get my 15th title^^.

Hard mode still needs some balancing! in normal mode there are 4-6 lvl15 scales and then a horde of 20 lvl 2 scales but in hard mode the horde of 20 skales is now lvl26 just like all other groups wich is completely unfair. (third elonian mission) Stuff like that has to be removed from hard mode.

Vanquisher titles are very hard to achieve i think. At least when you have to fight several bosses and already have a death penalty...
You could get the vanquisher titles even for normal mode

As I was totally sure I'd already said here....

If you want inbetween.... check Hard Mode Shing Jea Island.... or Normal Mode Realm of Torment or Fissure of Woe.


Just quit whining because Guild Wars isn't perfectly adapted to your personal wants and needs.

Normal mode has always been this easy. I've c-spaced most of normal mode with just henchmen.

I just thought of something though... what exactly would be in the "middle" difficulity level?

Normal mode has creatures at their normal levels, and hard mode increases their levels by about 4 or 5 ( think).

So what would the middle difficulty be?

It wouldnt be easy to add a middle setting for difficulty because it would result in only increasing creature levels by 1 or 2 points. So what would be the point?

Its alot easier to make things easy and hard, but to find that "middle ground" is harder. You would end up with people complaining the middle hardness was too hard or too easy.

So ofcourse the normal mode is extremely easy and hard mode is hard.

I think maybe he means to buff up the AI a little, not so much the creature levels. Which, I think could be a decent idea, but it makes little difference to me anyway.