Unrealistic Difficulty!!!!

I know how to select a skillbar im going for vanquisher of tyria with my Paragon my point is with the powerfull bosses at the end of dungeons its not obviouse your build is not cut out for the quest untill youve invested a substantial amount of time getting to the boss.

With dungeons taking 2+ the current system IMO is too harsh.

I realise people arnt agreeing and find it easier to brand me 'n00b' so forget it. As I said, try not to take it personally. I find the term noob to be entirely self reflecting so I wouldn't worry if people are being idiots about this.

Let me put it to you this way: you wouldn't expect to walk into other elite areas in the game with just any old set up and win, right? Unless you want to risk having to play through once first to get an understanding of an area (which is what e all have to do), then you'll need to do a little research to provide yourself with the skill sets for the job.

all u guys who say u find EotN too easy, i advise u to go there with ur monk and use h/h only.

good luck at the heart of the shiverpeaks quest, where someone has to crack that worms armor due to barrels.

Easy? yes, for a mending wammo it may be. Doing that. I'm even smiting. /yawn

Hit good old Willa(monk) and say a necromancer or elemental and it was often party wipe time... Arrrrgh, I had to resign once when we found out we didn't have the damage to kill them, mursaat bosses are tough as nails ^^.

As for difficulty, I never, ever leave home without good defense and enough interrupts. I had lots of success with using 2 necro's more or les set up like this:

[skill]insidious parasite[/skill][skill]enfeebling blood[/skill][skill]barbs[/skill][skill]mark of pain[/skill][skill]signet of lost souls[/skill][skill]spiteful spirit[/skill][skill]blood ritual[/skill][skill]resurrection signet[/skill]

[skill]price of failure[/skill][skill]reckless haste[/skill][skill]corrupt enchantment[/skill][skill]defile enchantments[/skill][skill]desecrate enchantments[/skill][skill]signet of lost souls[/skill][skill]blood ritual[/skill][skill]resurrection signet[/skill]

I used Dunkoro as a LOD monk and either olias, magrid or koss depending on the situation. As hench i used Zho and the two warriors + prot monk mostly. Mark of Pain needs a lot of physical damage to trigger often, and that skill is the main killer in this build together with SS.

Youve never had to resign and barely had to heal, even on Frostmaws ?

Is your MM Grenth by any chance ? Roflcopter.

Seriously though, people who find GWEN difficult need to realize that this isn't presearing, and sometimes (like every other video/arcade game you've ever played) you have to try things more than once, twice, or even ten times. I remember the first time I played Ninja Gaiden on xbox, I died at least 20 times on the first boss (what's her name) before getting a working strategy and finally killing her. After I got better at the game, I could smoke her w/o getting hit in Hard difficulty. Don't expect yourself to roll through everything, especially if you're new at the game. When it's all said and done -> Challenge = fun. Handouts are not.

Roflcopter.

Seriously though, people who find GWEN difficult need to realize that this isn't presearing, and sometimes (like every other video/arcade game you've ever played) you have to try things more than once, twice, or even ten times. I remember the first time I played Ninja Gaiden on xbox, I died at least 20 times on the first boss (what's her name) before getting a working strategy and finally killing her. After I got better at the game, I could smoke her w/o getting hit in Hard difficulty. Don't expect yourself to roll through everything, especially if you're new at the game. When it's all said and done -> Challenge = fun. Handouts are not. I guess it's really how and why people are playing this game. For the most part, I think the majority here are casual players and don't have a lot of time to spend experimenting with builds and all of that just to try to get past some areas. Granted, anyone pretty much can get through the primary quests and missions in any of the campaigns with relatively little difficulty, especially when using Heroes, and some of the outside upper level content, like Sorrow's Furnace, Faction's and Nightfall's Elite Missions, and the Dungeons are geared more towards the hard core player, but should we really discount the casual player's desire to play the content they paid for? After all, their money is just as green as the hardcore GWer.

Most of us play games because we enjoy them, and want to escape reality for a little while. How appealing would a game be if it felt like work every step of the way. A long time ago, I picked up a game called Timeslip for the SNES. It was a shooter type game, and I had a blast once I got the hang of it. Unfortunately, I was never able to figure out how to get past the Second or Third Level Boss (can't remember which now). I literally played that game every day for a solid year trying to figure out how to beat him, and never could. After that, I just gave up and have never played the game since. It was just too frustrating to waste so much time getting no where, and even though I really like playing the game, it just got to be too much of a grind. On occassion, I'll troll the 'Net looking to see if someone posted a guide for the game, but have yet to find one, which is too bad, because I'd go back to that game in a second to play it again now if I could get past that boss.

I think we can look at GW the same way. Why should we deny players the ability to play through all content in the game just because they don't want to get better - they're just looking for a good, fun experience. We don't have to as long as we have a system that allows people to play the way they want to. We have Hard Mode for the hard core - now let's get a system that let's us choose our challenge level in Normal Mode. Those just looking to kill a few hours can go with the safer route, but sacrifice the drop quality and amount, and those of us looking to ramp up the challenge without going into Hard Mode, can choose the more dangerous route, and be properly awarded for our successes.

Hanok Odbrook
Real Millennium Group Guild
Truth * Knowledge * Peace

all u guys who say u find EotN too easy, i advise u to go there with ur monk and use h/h only.

good luck at the heart of the shiverpeaks quest, where someone has to crack that worms armor due to barrels.

Easy? yes, for a mending wammo it may be. Did the worm without using the barrels.
Hero mesmer interrupts ftw.
You know, it is possible to control your hero skills manually.

Learn to not be a jackass

Personally if you want to offer useless comments such as 'you're doing it wrong' at least offer some reasons why you feel this. Considering you're not playing WITH the OP I dount you know why he's having issues.

Many of you assume he just sucks, well I hate to tell you but everyone that plays does so differently. Thus, some people will find different areas harder or easier than others. Casual players that end up getting their ass kicked end up frutsrated and angry, thus tada this type of thread. Instead of trying to help said person too many of you offer no constructive critism; just blantant 'you suck' comments that do nothing but piss people off more.

That being said, wsper me in game some time Nw, I'll help you on any dungeon I have open. Thanks for the productive comments & positive support. One thing I noticed was the power-stones in the EON outpost. That has seemed to help. I added you to my friends list & I appreciate the offer of help!

I think we can look at GW the same way. Why should we deny players the ability to play through all content in the game just because they don't want to get better - they're just looking for a good, fun experience. We don't have to as long as we have a system that allows people to play the way they want to. We have Hard Mode for the hard core - now let's get a system that let's us choose our challenge level in Normal Mode. Those just looking to kill a few hours can go with the safer route, but sacrifice the drop quality and amount, and those of us looking to ramp up the challenge without going into Hard Mode, can choose the more dangerous route, and be properly awarded for our successes. As I've stated before, this comes down to how much you want to divide your playerbase. You could divide the game into Easy, Normal, and Hard modes. Or you could do Braindead Easy, Easy, Normal, and Hard. Or Braindead Easy, Easy, Normal, Hard, and Super-Extra Hard. Or we could just have Normal and Hard.

Your argument is basically that normal mode isn't easy enough, and we need an even easier mode for casual players. I'd wager that EoTN is hard for casual players now because EoTN lacks a Hard Mode. Therefore, I think that once HM is implemented, NM EoTN will be toned down like the other campaigns, and people can be happy again.

You also need to recognize that some content is always going to be out of reach of casual players. Most hardcore players find DoA pretty easy, but it's clearly not designed for casual players. Similarly, some levels or secret dungeons/bosses in other games are out of reach of casual players, because they're designed as a reward and challenge for the hardcore players. At some point, the fact that someone sucks at the game is going to prevent them from enjoying everything that a better player could - which is as it should be, otherwise there wouldn't be any reason to get better, and the game stagnates.

You also need to recognize that some content is always going to be out of reach of casual players. Most hardcore players find DoA pretty easy, but it's clearly not designed for casual players. Similarly, some levels or secret dungeons/bosses in other games are out of reach of casual players, because they're designed as a reward and challenge for the hardcore players. At some point, the fact that someone sucks at the game is going to prevent them from enjoying everything that a better player could - which is as it should be, otherwise there wouldn't be any reason to get better, and the game stagnates. The fact that many players find the elite content like DoA, UW, or FoW easy is part of the problem. HM or not, the fact that many players, casual included, find a lot of the game too easy is a problem remedied by adjusting the combat system and not necessarily creating separate modes of play. A system that reduces the offensive capabilities of mobs, but ramps up their defenses and that rewards your choice of party formation, skill sets, attack chains, tactics in taking those mobs down can not only minimize the easy/hard complaints but can also be used to eliminate the solo bot farming problem and complaints about drop quality.

Thus far I am quite happy with EotN for the most part, my main complaints are that combat is still too simplified, and there is still that great gap in mob power between the ground level and dungeon level that doesn't necessarily prepare one for what to expect when heading underground. Since an overhaul in the combat system is probably an undertaking too extensive for the current game, I guess we will have to wait to see if HM is implemented for EotN and the NM adjusted accordingly, and hope that new refinements make it into GW2.

Hanok Odbrook
Real Millennium Group Guild
Truth * Knowledge * Peace

The fact that many players find the elite content like DoA, UW, or FoW easy is part of the problem. HM or not, the fact that many players, casual included, find a lot of the game too easy is a problem remedied by adjusting the combat system and not necessarily creating separate modes of play. A system that reduces the offensive capabilities of mobs, but ramps up their defenses and that rewards your choice of party formation, skill sets, attack chains, tactics in taking those mobs down can not only minimize the easy/hard complaints but can also be used to eliminate the solo bot farming problem and complaints about drop quality. You've talked about this at length before, and focusing on defense doesn't solve anything; rather, it actually relaxes any pressure in the game because even the bosses can't really kill you - you can basically take as long as you want to do anything, or hell, just afk in the middle of a pack of monsters with your heroes and henchies because you'll never die. Stalemates are uninteresting in every sense of the word, and that's frankly not where you want a game's equilibrium position to be.

And as I said, your system of set-rewards is just hand-holding and playstyle restriction. This game throws you a set of skills and mechanics and lets you figure out the rest. With your system, you would basically be saying, "Okay, you get reward X if you have these types of skillbars. You get reward Y if you use this type of combo. You get reward Z if you use this particular tactic". All of that already exists in Guild Wars - it's just not explicit. Hiding behind a wall grants you immunity to projectile attacks, which is a very strong reward for using smart tactics. Just because you don't see a giant "Bonus Earned!" somewhere doesn't mean you're not getting something for it.

Giving players a laundry list of bonus conditions and forcing them to meet those conditions or else be locked in stalemate forever with any monster they meet is frankly not my idea of a fun game.

As for solo bot farming - for nearly anything a player can do, a bot can be written to accomplish the same thing. If solo farming is possible, chances are solo bot farming will be also. And if solo farming is not possible, aren't you just restricting styles of gameplay?

You've talked about this at length before, and focusing on defense doesn't solve anything; rather, it actually relaxes any pressure in the game because even the bosses can't really kill you - you can basically take as long as you want to do anything, or hell, just afk in the middle of a pack of monsters with your heroes and henchies because you'll never die. Stalemates are uninteresting in every sense of the word, and that's frankly not where you want a game's equilibrium position to be. Changing to a solely defensive creature is not the be all and end all of the system. There would need to be AI changes to the creatures - a discussion I and another player had several months ago listing what we would like to see changed, but believe me - there would rarely be any stalemates - the mobs will win in the end if a party just goes afk or does not follow proper tactics. The mobs would have inherent offensive capabilites that would eventually kill off a party simply because the healers would end up stretched too thin with little energy left to go around. However, I do want to tone down the massive spikes and AOE of creatures that can take down characters and parties with in a many of a couple dozen seconds. And I don't think we can get much more hand-holding than the Dwarven Rep system that gives us damage/healing bonuses against Destroyers when active.

In a previous post detailing the attack chain system a bit more, I showed how players would need to be very active, very coordinated, and time their chains just right, otherwise they will pay the consequences. I don't know about anyone else, but if was in an 8 player attack chain and knew we had to successfully pull it off, otherwise it would result in a party wipe, and loss of the chance to pick up premium drops - my brow would be sweating just a bit. Now through into the mix a two player party rounded out with heroes who have to not only coordinate their own skills in the chain, but those of their heroes, and I think we have anything but an uninteresting system. The problem now is one that you yourself just stated - I can go afk during any battle and practically have the outcome remain the same - win or loose - we need something more. And the bonus system isn't any more handholding than we have now - say for SF that causes burning or causes extra damage to already burning creatures, or using a weapons mod that increases poison time by 33% or damage by 15%. All the new system does is add these types of bonuses to attacks so that the defenses of mobs can be overcome without ending in stalemate or failure, if the proper tactics are used.

In the current system we already have to choose specific skills in order to successfully vanquish an area, so what difference would the new system make in that case? Well, in the new system you wouldn't have to replace your hydro with a pyro to get an damage bonus against an Ice Elemental - you would simply chain a water skill with another player's attack skill to get the same effect, thus opening up more potential to varying tactics in a battle instead of limiting them.

Hanok Odbrook
Real Millennium Group Guild
Truth * Knowledge * Peace