I love when Anet makes this game more difficult

I just played monk in fow for the first time in a couple of months. I hadn't in a while, and I noticed that monking in fow was considerably more challenging. The mosters were leaving their targets after they agro'd and hitting the soft targets in the back.

My goodness, it was chaos. What a difference. It actually made the game more challenging.

The reason I post this is to thank Anet, I've played a few mmogs before, and the usual pattern is this:

1. Game comes out
2. Farmers build bots
3. Farmers petition by posts to make the game easier for them to farm (some use game to make money)
4. Game gets ruined

GW is doing the unbelievable. They are ignoring the farmer/bot makers and are making the game harder. I can't wait for the next nerf. I hope they make the monsters intelligent enough to pick out the softest targets and concentrate all the fire on them. I hope they give more monsters interrupts to make monking more challenging. I hope they continue in their current direction, which will keep the game going. imho - well done - bravo - keep it up. The more posts I see about how a popular, no-brain build is ruined - the better.

/agree completely

nothing more to say, really...

Meh, I don't agree with everything you've said there, but a friend and I were discussing the AoE change and how that could have been avoided. Like, for example, the desert griffons in Prophet's Path ... Anet could have stopped invincimonking cold by just moving the Storm Kin over a bit. One Mesmer monster = no invincimonks.

The AoE patch makes the game more challanging in my opion and is gives it a much more real feel.

Every player worth a bit moves when he's hit by a meteor shower / firestorm / chaos storm, actually quite good to see the monsters do the same.

I admit i was shocked at first playing with my ele, but after some adjusting, my ele again kicks ass and i actually have to think now

Prophet's Path nerfed - Keys introduced
Protective Bond Nerfed - Nightmares added - AoE Nerf

Rewards - weakened? Seems kinda odd in that sense. Denravi sword removed, unconditional weapons removed but the current copies stayed within the game. The only beneficial change to the drops were that purples and golds could no longer spawn with no mods on them.

And whether or not drops were entirely nerfed (aka, smites) is a matter of opinion it seems. Kinda odd how Anet seems strict on players' abilities to gather gold when it usefulness in this game is limited. If you wanna look pretty, you need gold. If you care about gameplay, you can be poor.

Personally I would like to see the total distruction of the 55build.

I like the way Anet are taking the game, and i don't see the AoE as a negative nerf but more as an improvement to gameplay which forced many people to look at other skill combinations.

Anet don't want to get rid of farming but make it more interesting IMO

I second the destruction of the 55 build.....

IMHO two players should never ever be able to enter the UW FOW and be successful at anything more than dying.

I agree with the moves to make the game more challenging. Nice job.

Sorry for being a noob but whats Fow?Im guessing something in Underworld :$?

FoW is not in the underworld(UW).

Fissure of Woe (FoW), is like another UW, but is has another map and other mobs. (sorry, can't tell more as I am not experienced about FoW)

hmmm i agree but dont make it too hard it whill scare some newer players away. or not it depens on what they make harder.

Oftopic: racthoh since when are you a moderator o_O /end oftopic.

the game being harder wont scare off new players, pre searing is just as easy as ever, and so is the areas of old ascalon, you dont really notice anything til northern shiverpeaks and by then they have hopefully got a strong hold of how to play the game

I must unsign the "55hp build nerf".
This build is far from being so "invincible".
Anet made farming zones and induced themselves such builds. When I see so many griffins/minotaurs in Prophet's Path, all being warriors and thus so easily counterable....
You want to nerf farming?
Just put one or two floating eyes in this bunch of griffins, when you take conjure phantasm with only 55hp, plus no more adrenalin for your bonetti's defense, plus clumsiness preventing you to attack, your lifespan is less than 1 sec with all these griffins beating you.
Or just put Jade Scarabs! Enchantment stripping + poisoning + Life steal, all that can't be stopped by the 55hp build....
If only Anets would diversify the monsters in the desert, there would be no farming... Just let all these griffins, and put 2-3 of these monsters mentionned above... It would be a lot more challenging...
Calling for a nerf of this build is nonsense, you have only to mix already-existing monsters to make it worthless...

It still seems a bit willy nilly

Why weren't henchmen improved (if so, not noticeable, and still use nerfed skills like Firestorm - and that still late lol)

Treasure chests with keys - so you stopped bots, you also stopped my wife from pretty much ever using them, isn't inventory a premium enough w/o playing match the keys? And who's buying those things anyways outside of the highest level ones (which usually dont pay off but like a long shot lottery).

Farmers - all they had to do, and the biggest abuse, is do something about protective spirit. They haven't, even though they did with protective bond.

Drops in general bite, which is why players farm (I'm against bots, fine there). GW puts things in game like the greens and the IDS you either PAY FOR or you FARM. How do you pay? Fair chance its FARMING. All from a game against FARMING.

You don't see much, period. Take lottery shots with the keys, go to the 'tougher' areas (SF,FoW,UW,now deep Mineral Springs for IDS) and repeat. Or you find a spot that you pray stays good for a bit but eventually the inevitable happens.

I am disappointed by how things drop - or rather they don't. Oh well. Really hoping the expansion freshens things up, and they remember its the fun of it all. When you've run the game through and you're not PvPing and you like to continue to use your favorite characters to still try to do some tiny optimizations here and there, or even go after the 'uber looks' (as thats all the more expensive armors are in the game for every class) and equipment 'skins', why penalize players for wanting a chance?

IMO they should have had group experience and *item drop bonuses*
Otherwise why WOULDN'T you look to do more with less with your better chances? Even in the tougher areas few want more than 3-4-5, and if they can get away with it, 1 or 2.

Heck I'll admit I did the latter solo for my IDS thanks to some suggestions from a particular warrior in this very thread. Am I farming it continuously for profit? No. Did I want a good shot at getting my one and I'm happy I have it now? Yes.

Should I have been forced to PUG it approximately *8 times I tried soloing it?
Hmm maybe I got off tangent there heh.

I understand fighting bots, but if they want to fight farming, make grouping more compelling and rewarding. A lot of other games did just that.

Because you need to consider PvP.

I'm going to totally agree with the OP ... it does make the game more challenging and fun.

For example, rangers now have a new sport that I like to call "Sand Drake Tennis" simply take ignite arrows outside elona reach, and fire away ... watch them run back and forth willy-nilly. Invite another ranger friend to stand on the other side, and bounce it back to you.

Refrence this thread for a funny video

Now if we could only get hench to run out of maelstroms ....

I personally love every nerf that comes down. I've said it once and I'll say it again...once you get comfortable with your build, forsaking all others, it's time for that build to change.

It keeps innovation in the game and keeps it evolving. IWAY was the FOM, and now it's falling off favor given its limitations. I would not be surprised to see a change or two in the basic skills that run it to weaken the "no-brainer" aspect of that team build.

When are people going to realize that Green items were put in to harness farmers, to give them something to do. Same for IDS.

They have said repeatedly that they are NOT against 'Honorable Farming' and then they gave us 2+ instances just for this. Brilliant work from Anet!

Ckaz, I could not agree more. I personally hate every new nerf that comes down. There are creative ways to fight farmers and bots that are simply not being used. ANet's present tactics are analogous to teachers keeping the whole class in after school because of the misbehaviour of a few.

Make the game more challenging? Sure. I want them to do that! But give players assets, they can use to meet the new challenges. Better henchies would be a start.

And the drops, yes they do stink. I've been playing since retail release, just leveled up a monk over the last two weeks financing him with my other characters, and I don't see how new players just starting out make enough gold to even buy armor.

Same situation in WOW. In the past month, three good friends locally started World of WarCraft, and quit because they could not make enough money to buy the weapons and armor they needed to continue on. Pretty sad.

Yes i hate when people complain oh the hench suck you can't do anything, its to hard to get here or there. I want this game to be hard, the more challenge the better.

Make it rewarding then, challenge is nothing without rewards.