HM made Guild Wars so boring

Anyone else feel this way? (Refer to post title). But wait! There's something that was supposed to make HM interesting and make it a fresh, fun new challenging experience,....*drum roll*....... PvE Skills!

Don't get me wrong now, I'm not looking to make hard mode into easy mode through overpowered gimp PvE skills, but they were supposed to make HM somewhat fun, and they aren't doing so for everyone.



(Allow me to elaborate)

Back when HM didn't exist, i had a lot of fun on my elementalist. I blew stuff up and set things on fire, or I hammered people into the pavement with my lightning. (some stuff got hammered with my earth magic too). Now lets roll forward into the present again: I'm spamming blinding surge with epidemic and laying down Ward against melee for a living (unless i want a team of 6~7 charr warriors to rick roll my team).



Clearly the first scenario sounds more fun than the second. Why is that? Well... is there anyway that i can keep blowing stuff up in HM like i did in NM? No....I can't. My damage is pathetic in HM, and frankly things like maxed out vanguard assasin support and CoP don't seem like blowing stuff up to me.



Let's see what my options are now. Hmmm, [Intensity]<----- This is clearly a sliver farming skill and nothing more, so what else do we have......[elemental lord] <---- You mean to tell me that I'm supposed to grind allegiance to make this skill LAST LONGER? That's really useful when its still an enchantment, will always only be +1, and the recharge will always be 45s. (I can imagine having SO much fun against multiple charr dominators).



A lot of us aren't having fun in HM because we were screwed over PvE skill wise. HM Frostmaws on my ele was not fun. Not fun at all. It wasn't the "fun" type of challenging, it was "so impossible that it's boring" challenging. A ranger helping me with triple shot, and SY! however made Frostmaws HM a TON of fun though. Why? Because it was still a challenge, (a hero died here and there), but I got to blow stuff up again, or at least try to, since yet again my damage is pitiful in HM, but at least I got to live and try. And this isn't just an Elementalist QQ thread. How's [vampirism] working out for you ritualists in HM?
And of course to those that start pointing out all the other neat PvE skills to me once again like CoP, vanguard sin support, pain inverter, etc, I'm already sporting those on my bar all the time BECAUSE there's no real viable regular skills for an elementalist to take as damage.



To conclude, some of us were screwed over with HM by being given sub-par PvE skills and also not being compensated in any way for making our former “profession” like jobs not viable any more.

-As an Elementalist, I’d like to nuke things again. Plz give me viable HM “elementalist-like” nukes.

-I’m sure Ritualists would like to spam spirits again. Give them viable HM worthy skills to allow them to be useful and powerful spirit spammers.

-I’m sure Necros get jealous of Olias sometimes, and would like to be Minion Masters again. Plz give necros viable HM minion master skills, that would make being an MM fun again.

(Anyone else want to add something in the name of their favorite profession, please do so).


Thanks for taking the time to read my blocks of text

Sincerely,

Crescent

I don't see connection between you failing and game being boring.

Is the word you are looking for 'Frustrating'?

I agree that some elements of Hard Mode make certain classes more or less viable than others.

I also agree that some aspects of certain classes, including PvE skill selection and basic functionality, make them more or less viable in Hard Mode.

However, consider that a LOT of classes have limitations placed upon them by the changes that occur in HM versus NM. My primary class is Assassin, and, though I wouldn't do it now, I used to love [Aura of Displacement] in PvE. In my opinion, that is the absolute most *fun* skill in the entire game. Now, I'm limited to a Critscythe, Moebius Blossom, or occasionally Critical Barrage, all sporting [Critical Agility] as the lifeblood of the build. I'm lucky in that I have one awesome PvE skill, but it still limits the playability of my class. An AoD spike with low recharge that used to be able to mow through enemies one by one is now criminally inefficient. Of course, this is just an example. There are many other builds that are "fun" and somewhat effective in Normal Mode that just don't cut it when the helmet turns red.

Still, I enjoy Hard Mode. The trick is to understand that some things will work, others will not, whereas in NM you have more flexibility while remaining in the realm of the effective. Know what you have to do, finish your HM business or don't play in HM using the builds you have to use, and use the fun builds elsewhere or at another time.

Disclaimer: I do still believe that the weaker PvE skills should be made stronger to compensate for this gap in the power of some professions and their abilities in HM.

so basically the game got boring because you can't hero/hench everything in Hard Mode with your ele?

Join a decent guild or play with friends and you'll see that it's fun again.

so you're bad at gw, you want it to be easier/you're pissed that eles aren't big domage dealers, and you want to pretend your QQing is different than the other scrubs QQing about the same thing.
did i miss anything?

Tonight at 11, see this breaking news:

Normal Mode still exists!

Hard Mode is hard?

Who'da thunk it?

I don't see the connection between you being bad at HM and it being boring. HM is easy, just get better at GW.

My mesmer vanquishing Ferndale with H/H and the following bar:

[Enraged Lunge][Call of Protection][Symbiotic Bond][Never Rampage Alone][Power Drain][Ether Signet][Comfort Animal][Charm Animal]

...says you can do whatever you want in Hard Mode. Experiment with new things and enjoy yourself, just because it's not the most efficient doesn't mean it won't get the job done, and it's usually more fun that way anyway.

Don't like HM, don't play HM. Nuff said

HM is not hard enough,they have more health and nrgy but there just as stupid and predictable.

Everything in HM can be done with heroes and hench where they are available. I know this because I've done it. It's a simple matter of figuring out the proper strategy and counterbuild. If you're stumped, try reading the wiki talk pages of the areas or missions you have trouble with. You'll find a dozen strategies for everything. Nothing in this game is strictly hard any more.

UMMM, stop bitching and go back to Nm, Hm is not the only thing you can do

this game would have been more boring without HM
________
STOCKS TO BUY NOW

...Play NM then?

HM is the only interesting thing to do in pve.

vanquish vanquish vanquishhhhhh

I agree, playing utility can be boring but if you want titles and/or decent drops, you're going to have to learn what works and what doesn't for you. If it's utility, then so be it. Learn to like it or make do without HM.

Rarely I see so much Whining! If you don't like not dealing enough damage on HM Then play NM instead. PvE skills are overpowered? Then don't use them. "So impossible that it's boring" challenge? Then improve your skill and do it in HM or even better: Do it in NM.

Noones forcing you to run around in HM. If you aren't up for it then by all means run around killing low level monsters with Sandstorm or w/e. I think it is ridiculous to say that HM ruined GW since it was put in as an OPTION, not forced onto you.

Geez...

Yes, it is. Really, really, mind-numbingly boring.

Right, lets make this simple... Titles are all there is left to do in GW PVE for most people. To get a sufficient number of titles or even just to max some, requires playing in HM.

So all those "play in NM" people should just get a grip. He's not saying it's too hard, he's saying it's boring. Which it is. Which you would know, if you had Legendary Guardian on a ranger, and had to repeatedly grind HM Handbooks to max silly EoTN titles, since VQ is way too slow.

Believe me, it is. Many of the dungeons in EoTN are either a ) only runable with a gimmick build or b) require mass use of consets. If a decent balanced team can't beat a dungeon reliably, there is a serious, serious issue. Hard Mode should be hard, not virtually impossible. And yes, we could all get a permasin tank and pretty much tank and spank everything. Wow, that's original...and equally boring. But that also requires playing with other people. And, in that case, I think I'd rather play something else. Could always finish FF7 thru 12 (bar 11) again, I suppose..

Try to tell me the Blooming Nettles in Bogroots are balanced in HM, I dare you. On the other hand, if everyone has spotless mind and condition removal, you can just run straight past the entire room of mobs....in HM...

And the fact that a large portion of normal skills are almost totally useless in HM IS a problem.

If you seriously can't see how super stat-pumping was a mindlessly stupid way to implement HM, then that says a lot about you. Giving mobs better builds and balanced teams would have been a better start.

oO and for people who think hM is pointless - PvP says hi!!!

And yeah, casual PVP is a lot more fun than HM anything.

By casual, I mean JQ/FA/AB etc.

Sorry i don't understnad how adding HM whilst keeping the same gw made it boring...I think the games great

HM is definitely boring if you play a certain class. The problem is that everything in HM has pumped armor and HP, so the ele, wars, rangers, paragons, sins, dervishes all have problem dealing any decent damage. So what happens instead is that all ranger/derv gets kicked to the side, paragon is reduced to SY! spam utility bitch, war is kept for the knockdown/splinter spam, ele becomes a blind/ward bot, and sins is exclusively perma tank.

So it becomes a game of every one using utility while sloowwwlllyyy wearing down lvl 24+ monsters, yes it works, but its boring as hell. It mostly becomes monster taking longer to kill rather than "harder" to kill.

So what do people do instead? Migrate to the two classes unaffected thanks to armor ignoring damage, necros and mesmers....hence the popularity of sabway/discordway/cryway. Since CoP and SF and SY will probably be nerfed the options will be even less later.

OP's problem is he expected eles to be big damage dealers, and when it turned out that they make better support chars, he got all pissy. Whoops, too bad; if you want big numbers in HM and that's what makes the game fun for you, run a different class.

I disagree with OP's - it wasn't HM itself that made GW PvE boring - the problem is it became an online Single-Player game.

The only thing HM lacks is a decent Global LFG system. GW sucks as a singleplayer game, Hero+Henching HM vanquishes and stuff IS incredibly boring! Playing with a bunch of other people can be a great fun, but finding a PuG that wants to vanq the same area as you is a horrible pain comparable to just solo H/H'ing it.

A centralized LFG solution is the number 1 need of GW PvE, above extra storage or a trading system.

Back when Prophecies was released there was no hard mode, none needed. Because PvE had not been nerfed. Normal was fairly tough with hench, there being no heroes either. Oh, and loot? Rained from the sky. No hard mode needed.

Then came the farmers with bots. Nerf the loot. Then came the hordes of wimps, "oh ... nooo ... it's ... toooo harrrrrd!" Nerf the game. Then came PvP balance. Nerf skills. So eventually we get to here, which is where nobody, Anet included, wanted to go.

Yeah, I play WoW since it came out. Same sort of thing happened there. Probably most online games. I hope that GW 2 is more immune to all this.

OP isn't complaining HM is too hard, he's saying it's too boring. Nothing wrong with that. Yeah, he shouldn't expect big damage in HM, considering everything's got buffed armor and HP.

This. Eles have more use than just damage, it's true. On the other hand... lots of them are going to want to do damage anyway, and it's kind of tragic that if they want to do so, they have to use a Mesmer spell. (Not that there are that many mezzes in PvE.)

It's easy to say, 'go back to NM'. It's easy to say, "OK, then go play a mez or a necro." But if you've invested time and effort in that ele, that's quite a lot to give up to start a brand new character.

That being said, OP still has to deal with it, and I think you're expecting too much to want the same huge numbers in HM that you do in NM.

I think the OP is trying to say HM limited the variety of builds you can use compared to normal mode. That 1 or 2 builds are the only builds that work for each class.

It's not the case as one of the posters on the first page said. It's possible to use a variety of different builds to do HM, especially outside of missions (missions suck btw). You just have to know how to utilize the skill bar you have.

Go earth AoEs with [Ebon Battle Standard of Honor]. Not bad damage and plenty of KD/blind utility.

[Assassin's Promise] can also make [Intensity] work, though I still find the latter a pain to use.

HM definitely made the game more fun for me...

Imho, what makes Guild Wars such an awesome game is all the different skills to pick and choose from.

The OP states that eles don't deal as much damage in HM - which is true due to the extra armor bonus for monsters. Like the OP, my main too is an ele, and so I can feel a bit of his frustration not being able to use ele-nuke spells in HM as most pug-groups require cryway and such (which is one reason I do a lot with h/h, as I can do whatever I'd like).

However - you just have to experiment with different things, and ultimately you'll find something that works (and in the end, hopefully feel some satisfaction from 'figuring things out on your own').

So I guess it's your mindset. If you want to run the exact same NM builds in HM - then chances are you'll have to adapt and thus be disappointed. But, if you don't mind trying out new things - then you'll definitely find HM more fun than NM...

Get used to it, you aren't anymore special than the rest of us, and sure, after vanquishing half a dozen or so areas, HM is boring.

But none of us complained

What can you do? Cry your eyes out or vent your lungs out? It's really pointless, nothing is gonna change. The best way to avoid this is to quit GW for several months and then come back, you should find something to do.

It's funny that whenever someone complains about anything, everyone automatically says, "so you suck at GW" or "get better at gw". LOL


strong elitist attitude here.

HM sort of saved PvE. Without HM there'd be no reason to play any campaign more than once. Farming is boring after a while and NM farming is like playing with your hands behind your back and blindfolded. GW's problems have more to do with skill and class balancing than the HM PvE experience. HM would be more fun if every fad farming build wasn't nerfed or the runs made impossible. I went to Tomb yesterday to do a run for the fun of it and its all duo farming or noob NM runs. Isn't it sort of sad that GW's beginner dungeon has degenerated to farming when there used to be actual groups doing clears at all hours of the day and night? *sigh* Overcorrection is rampant in this game and that makes it more boring than HM does.

run sabway. any class can do it and it eats everything, except elite areas.

The OP's problem is pretty strictly limited to being abruptly stripped of his/her notion that eles are a damage class intended to walk around blowing stuff up, and coming to terms that playing a support class is boring.

And yet when players think of mesmers in pve are they supposed to think of nukers? Arenanet really did a 360° from what several of their caster professions started out as to what they have become in some cases.

for one thing, ele dmging skills are fire magic, lol. if u think HM is boring because u can't do dmg, then ur running the wrong builds, lol.

Guess what, it's NOT blasphemy to say that certain aspects of GW were NOT THOUGHT OUT!

Since when is it acceptable in an rpg to let the gamer roll his character and then make it impossible to get passed an area WITH that character?!

I have changed my builds. I have rolled different characters, or changed professions. I have gone pug. I know all the ways I have to change my play to beat the hardest areas of this game. But that's not what the op wanted to talk about!

Why is it that certain areas, or missions, or master quests damn near require 3 minion masters, and others it's immediate fail if you bring even 1 mm? Is that what rpgs have become now? And do we just shut up and accept it?

Jeez, sorry Jimbo. I know ranger is your fav class, but for this area we need a whammo, 2 SFers, 2 MMs, 2 Monks, and a good spirit Rit.

There is no single area where what you said is even close to being true.

Not even remotely close.

If someone thinks that there is the one and only 'best' way to beat something in PvE, and can't make anything else work it pretty much equals to not knowing how to play.

My bad, I guess I just haven't learned anything since beta.