PvE needs some renewing project

Boogz

Boogz

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Feb 2008

Variable Speed Farmers[VsF]

Mo/

PvE content needs to be reworked, specially the overall prophecies campaign.

Let's face it, there's absolutely no difficult in doing all mission/bonus except for a very few ones;

the whole Tyria, whithout EotN content, can be vanquished with simply facerolling over keyboard, requires only patience and time (except for a few places at ascalon, where charr mesmer spam power block like hell)
Cantha and Elone requires no mention whatsover, both are simply easy to vanquish, with no "dificult area" or special mention.

War In Kryta gave life again to the Prophecies campaign, where you actually have some challenge and need to think before rushing into 4 mobs, instead of waiting your heroes to kill them.

Elona and Cantha need more love. I don't know if we're going to have a "WiK"-like at those continents, but I'd like to see at least more difficulty on them, like better skillbars for mobs at both NM and HM. right now a few mobs on those continents have good bars, most of them are pure crap.

right now, the activies that keep PvE alive are zaishen quests and title farm. There's absolutely no reason to do anything besides those things right now. I have people in my current guild that basically only play GW to farm, they haven't even completed a single campaign.
Things need to be more attractive, more challeging, or whatever - they just need to change, otherwise, as soon as GW2 launches, the GW PvE will be as active as PvP

FengShuiDove

FengShuiDove

Forge Runner

Join Date: Sep 2007

Trinity of the Ascended [ToA]

A/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Boogz View Post
Elona and Cantha need more love. I don't know if we're going to have a "WiK"-like at those continents, but I'd like to see at least more difficulty on them, like better skillbars for mobs at both NM and HM. right now a few mobs on those continents have good bars, most of them are pure crap.
See Cantha: Winds of Change.

Crom The Pale

Crom The Pale

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Nov 2006

Ageis Ascending

W/

It is getting rather tiresome reading "I facerolled this!" posts. If you want a challenge go to an elite zone or do some PvP.

The main PvE content is for story and learning and yes a bit of fun too. It was never meant to be a real challenge, though Hard Mode did give some a bit to think over it is still just a simple area not meant to be overly challenging.

RedDog91

RedDog91

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Oct 2007

Farming for Nick gifts

R/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Boogz View Post
right now, the activies that keep PvE alive are zaishen quests and title farm
to be fair, thats also all thats keeping pvp alive too.

Boogz

Boogz

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Feb 2008

Variable Speed Farmers[VsF]

Mo/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Crom The Pale View Post
It is getting rather tiresome reading "I facerolled this!" posts. If you want a challenge go to an elite zone or do some PvP.

The main PvE content is for story and learning and yes a bit of fun too. It was never meant to be a real challenge, though Hard Mode did give some a bit to think over it is still just a simple area not meant to be overly challenging.
that's exactly the problem. Even the elite zones are easily facerolled now, and that's what I intend to discuss at this thread: everything can be facerolled and thus it's losing its "magic"

Quote:
Originally Posted by FengShuiDove View Post
See Cantha: Winds of Change.
thanks, didn't know the existance of that. Now we only have to hope that Elona gets included on the package.

RedDog91

RedDog91

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Oct 2007

Farming for Nick gifts

R/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Boogz View Post
that's exactly the problem. Even the elite zones are easily facerolled now, and that's what I intend to discuss at this thread: everything can be facerolled and thus it's losing its "magic"
then try VQ-ing elite areas with just 3 heros and no wiki builds.

honestly, the reason its easy is because people just use the same tired builds that are purposefully designed TO DO SOMETHING EXTREMELY WELL.

Xiaquin

Xiaquin

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jun 2010

[aRIN]

R/

This is ridiculous. Why try to build up when power creep broke down the difficulty? Any semblance of "challenge" is met with Discordway, Spiritway, Imbagon, Infuser, Perma, etc. or layers of cons and DP remover.

There's plenty of challenge in the game and new content coming, the difficulty is just buried under easy buttons. Either play without them or don't complain.

Sankt Hallvard

Guest

Join Date: Dec 2006

Conquered pve? Pve too easy? Pve boring?

Go PVP.

Servant of Kurama

Servant of Kurama

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Apr 2009

Denizens of the Underdark [Nite]

R/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Xiaquin View Post
This is ridiculous. Why try to build up when power creep broke down the difficulty? Any semblance of "challenge" is met with Discordway, Spiritway, Imbagon, Infuser, Perma, etc. or layers of cons and DP remover.

There's plenty of challenge in the game and new content coming, the difficulty is just buried under easy buttons. Either play without them or don't complain.
This this this this this.

Here, try this: go to your build templates list and delete ALL of them. Now remove all the skills from your skill bar and your heroes' bars. Now make the skillbars yourself. Since you're not copy-pasting from the wiki now, there should be some sort of challenge without the cookie-cutter builds!

Black Metal

Black Metal

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2009

N/

Each campaign introduced a little power creep, and with the increasing crazy amount of skill combos / bar builds, there's something for everything.

If Proph is too easy, go back to how it was originally: core and proph-only skills, no heroes.

As for enemy bars being crap, that's because (unlike you) they didn't copy stuff off PvX, and they can only use that campaign + core skills.

This will only continue if **coughwhen** we get 7 heroes - it's not meant to make facerolling through Pockmark Flats easier.

Fay Vert

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2006

R/

Increasing hte difficulty of an area just means that you are forced to use fewer and fewer optimal builds. Way to make the game boring. If the game is too easy for you then try a different build or smaller party size. The game isn't boring, the way many people chose to play it is.

Shame ANet added the loot nerf to discourage play in smaller parties. That was really stupid, or would be if it worked that way.

LifeInfusion

LifeInfusion

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: May 2005

in the midline

E/Mo

Want a challenge? Try playing HM without necros or Ritualists, PVE skills, cons , and stuff like Shadowform (PvE splits). Or do PvP.

EDIT: and Prophecies skills are crap for the most part, that's why you think it's so easy.

Div

Div

I like yumy food!

Join Date: Jan 2006

Where I can eat yumy food

Dead Alley [dR]

Mo/R

The hard thing for Anet is to balance it both "good" and "veteran" players and "bad" and "casual" players. A good player with optimal skill choice will roll through most areas, with or without consumables. The casual player who doesn't care about what skills they choose or who enjoys going in with "more creative"/subpar bars, henchies, and no consumables will have a very difficult time completing the tasks you deemed so easy. Anet's response is creating elite areas for the more advanced players, but unfortunately there has been enough outcry from the general public that those areas are becoming easier and easier (through consumables, etc.)

It's also really hard when the public calls any good builds "wiki builds." It gives a bad name for making good choices and running optimal (or near-optimal) builds. A good player sees synergies between key skills and uses them, and as a result of it being good, it gets posted to wiki. There's a reason why bad builds don't make it very far. Yes, it's fun to play what people call "creative builds" but the reality of it is that they're nowhere near optimal. Any "creative build" that is any good soon goes on wiki and becomes a "wiki build" again.

AndrewSX

AndrewSX

Jungle Guide

Join Date: May 2010

Italy, Turin

Lake

E/

Quote:
Here, try this: go to your build templates list and delete ALL of them. Now remove all the skills from your skill bar and your heroes' bars. Now make the skillbars yourself. Since you're not copy-pasting from the wiki now, there should be some sort of challenge without the cookie-cutter builds!
Done this for vanquishing Tyria and....it was succesfull, but also a LOT more challenging and funny.

You should also consider as said above the introduction of any sort of easy-mode: Dp remover, overpowerd pve skills and heroes for example.

Finally, i'm not at this point yet but...when you'll beat the whole game in PvE and get your GWAMM, try PvP. It will be a shock imo.

novawhiz

novawhiz

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Mar 2006

A/

The only thing that killed pve was when they added Heroes + retarded pve skills/consumables. That in itself made GW soloable and really ruined the game pve wise. Titles were a genius addition and really are the only thing that allowed this game to not be 100% dead for the past couple of years.

At this point, id rather they just focus all their energy on getting gw2 released. This little fun mini campaign additions are really nice and all, but dont really add anything substantial to the game. Yay WiK, now i get a couple hours at most of enjoyment from some new quests. then what? doesnt keep people hooked.

Honestly, instead of WiK and new cantha and all that, they should have just made a new End-pve area like UW/fow/doa and let everyone be entertained by that for the next year while they focus on getting gw2 out. At the very least, they should(ve) made the new pve content team based and not just a line of quests you do with your generic hero setup

miskav

miskav

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Jun 2005

None

Mo/

Quote:
Originally Posted by novawhiz View Post
The only thing that killed pve was when they added Heroes + retarded pve skills/consumables. That in itself made GW soloable and really ruined the game pve wise. Titles were a genius addition and really are the only thing that allowed this game to not be 100% dead for the past couple of years.

At this point, id rather they just focus all their energy on getting gw2 released. This little fun mini campaign additions are really nice and all, but dont really add anything substantial to the game. Yay WiK, now i get a couple hours at most of enjoyment from some new quests. then what? doesnt keep people hooked.

Honestly, instead of WiK and new cantha and all that, they should have just made a new End-pve area like UW/fow/doa and let everyone be entertained by that for the next year while they focus on getting gw2 out. At the very least, they should(ve) made the new pve content team based and not just a line of quests you do with your generic hero setup
The people working on gw1 don't work on gw2, your point is invalid.

Black Metal

Black Metal

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2009

N/

novawhiz, you should familiarize yourself with this:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_Beyond

from which I'll pull the operative quote out:

"Guild Wars Beyond is "an ongoing campaign that expands upon the Guild Wars storyline by focusing on key characters and historical events that shape the world in the years leading up to Guild Wars 2."[1] Produced by the Live Team, game updates will be continuously released over the coming year to help "set the stage" for Guild Wars 2. "

Ninja Dude

Academy Page

Join Date: Oct 2010

[TIG]

A/D

PvE doesn't need to be made harder. You can tell 95% of the time if you're party's going to crash and burn or succeed before you even start an area. Putting a variety of enemy builds in the game would just make it frustrating to play through as you may need to spend money to modify heros or create diffirent armor sets for different builds. I like the fact that I only have to switch between 3 builds for myself and several combinations of heros to do vanquishes. I don't want to have to change them constantly. There are already areas in the game that require thought and challenge. PvE title grinding areas don't need this.

/notsigned

novawhiz

novawhiz

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Mar 2006

A/

yeah i understand its supposed to act as a bridge, but its just kinda pointless. They introduce it, everyone logs in all excited, does it in a couple days and then just goes back inactive. If they actually wanted to improve pve life they would add some sort of new content that forces team play, such as a new end game area

gremlin

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Oct 2006

GWAR

Me/Mo

The problem convincing anet to do something is we cannot agree amongst ourselves what they should do.

It seems to me one problem is power creep where we now have access to more powerful skills and builds than a few years back.
Reducing the power is an obvious measure but then there will be an outcry from many players.
Easy to give shiny new toys not so easy to take them away.

To be honest I don't have any answers because what is needed is something easy to impliment

I think new players can still have a pretty good experience, its the older players that are looking for challenges.

Mind you its pretty easy to be challenged just don't take your uber build try something new leave out the consumables maybe even run a smaller party.
Whatever it takes to make the game difficult for you.

drunknzelda

drunknzelda

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jan 2006

Time For Plan B [RUN]

E/Me

Please don't add new PvE content, just spend those resources on making GW2 even more epic.

Boogz

Boogz

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Feb 2008

Variable Speed Farmers[VsF]

Mo/

Quote:
Originally Posted by novawhiz View Post
The only thing that killed pve was when they added Heroes + retarded pve skills/consumables. That in itself made GW soloable and really ruined the game pve wise. Titles were a genius addition and really are the only thing that allowed this game to not be 100% dead for the past couple of years.

At this point, id rather they just focus all their energy on getting gw2 released. This little fun mini campaign additions are really nice and all, but dont really add anything substantial to the game. Yay WiK, now i get a couple hours at most of enjoyment from some new quests. then what? doesnt keep people hooked.

Honestly, instead of WiK and new cantha and all that, they should have just made a new End-pve area like UW/fow/doa and let everyone be entertained by that for the next year while they focus on getting gw2 out. At the very least, they should(ve) made the new pve content team based and not just a line of quests you do with your generic hero setup
I have to agree with most part of your post, except for saying that heroes ruined PvE. Personally I love them, I like the idea of being able to do solo stuff instead of always needing a party.

On a side note,
I'm not a primary sin to abuse shadowform.
I'm near 50% vanquisher title on all 3 continents, most of these vanquishes were done before discordway/sabway even existed, with spirits still 3~5sec cast time.
I do PvP very often, I was primary a TA player, ragequitted for 6 months after they removed it, never had oportunity to HA due to ranked shit. Right now I'm a little away from arenas, since sync teams are destroying the fun in RA (before it was just difficult, now its simply imposible to get even 5 wins whithout a healer)
I never use consumables, I simply give them away to guildies or sell them to players.
PvE skills are, in vast majority, useless for me since I play as healing most of the time, and GolE > selfless spirit.

Probably I think the game is current "too easy" because or I have acess to skills from 3 campaings + EotN and monsters only to the core skills + they're campaign, and being too lazy to finish vanquisher title or cartographer.
At any rate, I do hope that they invest more time on GW2 instead of "renewing the whole PvE". I hope that the canthan content for GW:B comes soon.

Spiritz

Forge Runner

Join Date: Apr 2007

DMFC

If games too easy because you can faceroll it - get rid of the heros and just add any with random builds and no elite and probably run around with no armor on as well.
If its easy then make it harder for yourself like players have said - its you and no1 else thats setting up heros to use discord and you that callin the targets.
I recall the days when players used to do uw with balanced builds and often get a bit annoyed because they died at xx place but they coped - these days its cookie cutter this and sc that and nothing else and if you stand in toa and put lfg uw balanced team - you`ll probably get either ignored or lol`d at.

And a pet hate here - SOLO means just You and no1 else - its what it means and having h/h doesnt make you solo player - no difference if you have 8 humans and you and h/h as drops will be same.Hence on the few SOLO missions in gw its only you.
Sorry but myself and many others hate the term solo used wrongly lol.

Iuris

Iuris

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2006

Crazy ducks from the Forest

W/

You know what? If you want a challenge, just leave the heroes at home and go do stuff with only the henchmen.

Try it. It gets challenging.

Sorry, but I strongly disagree with the idea that for some reason, GW should contain areas that are so hard only a few elite players should be able to pass them. I paid the price of the game, and I want to enjoy all of it, not be relegated to the status of an "unwashed commoner" just so a select few can feel really elite for getting through elite areas or really rich for getting a lucky drop.

Xsiriss

Xsiriss

Jungle Guide

Join Date: May 2008

Many problems with boredom lie in the fact that guildwars is a skills-based game, as in abilities, as a opposed to a skill based one. Thus once a group finds insta win builds/teambuilds that's it, you've as good as compelted said areas. What hopefully embarkment beach and 7heroes with do is allow for some nice teambuilds and creativity outside of whole human teams and gimmicky pve skills.

Saint Scarlet

Saint Scarlet

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jan 2010

Everywhere

Rise of Corruption[RoC]

R/

Here's an idea, although would be very hard to implement i would guess, is that when you enter an area/mission that it refuses entry if there is more than 2 of the same profession in the party. This would get rid of most of the problems with SC builds and cookie cutter builds making everything a faceroll.

I personally never use anything but a balanced party for whatever i'm doing, i spent time creating a perfect 4 man team build that pretty much works everywhere nm/hm(with maybe a few skill tweaks for certain areas). All i have to use is 1 monk, 1 ele(usually fire unless foes are resistant) and 1 mm/prot hybrid hero, my char unless it fills one of those rolls can then run whatever i need to get the job done.

PvE is easy but then thats mostly because the people saying it have played the game for a long while. In my alliance we have had several new players to the game recently. They find that PvE is quite a challenge in nm unless they are given special builds as they have to work out for themselves what skills work well. Members of my alliance offer help and advice where it's needed and always try to get them to think and learn rather than copy builds and run rampant without knowing skill synergy.

DarkGanni

DarkGanni

Forge Runner

Join Date: Mar 2006

Malta

[CuTe]

E/

I don't think ANet has the time or funds to revamp the whole game. It's normal for veterans to see the game easy and always wanting a harder challenge but look at it from this point, A game you play for almost 6 years now it's normal to be easy and even harder challenges still make it a joke, for the younger players it can be really hard.

However If you want a harder challenge, a few ideas have already been said here.

Bottom line: If you want a real challenge make your own rules. Keep in mind every game has a limit and GW isn't less, the cow is being milked till the last drop. The golden days are over imo.

LifeInfusion

LifeInfusion

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: May 2005

in the midline

E/Mo

Returning to this thread:

Play without a new UI. No damage monitor, just target monitor (there was none of that back in the day), no spears daggers or scythes.
No PvE Skills or skills with PvE splits. Prophecies only skills.

see Apr 27, 2005 gameplay http://www.ign.com/videos/games/guild-wars-pc-552148

release:http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/guild...s%3Btitle%3B17, http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/guild...os%3Btitle%3B9

or anything from http://www.gamerankings.com/pc/91465...ars/index.html

boon prot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7Cz9zIf_AE

old school monk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFSoYfKs5Xs&feature=fvw

Xenomortis

Xenomortis

Tea Powered

Join Date: May 2008

UK

N/

Erm... what?
Are you saying that the only way to gain challenge in PvE currently is to purposefully gimp yourself?

Perkunas

Perkunas

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Aug 2006

In my own little world, looking at yours

Only Us[NotU]

E/

I am glad there are people that can faceroll this game. I am still looking for the right skill set and hero team to get my Ele started in HM, UW, & FoW. She grew and developed through Prophecies, got protector, cartographer, and capped all the elites. She finally sucked it up and forced her way through Factions with same the achievements. She is perhaps half way through NF and completed EtoN minus several dungeons. WiK is owning her.

In spite of where I am, I can not see making the game easier, making more titles account wide, nor can I see making it more difficult, by nerfing skills. New areas or quest chains for the more advanced people, is fine. Just leave the rest of it as is.

vamp08

vamp08

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Nov 2006

PA, USA

[COPY]

D/

Quote:
Originally Posted by FengShuiDove View Post
See Cantha: Winds of Change.
See ETA to Game Update: Never

Bassma

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Oct 2010

Quote:
Originally Posted by Boogz View Post
PvE content needs to be reworked, specially the overall prophecies campaign.

Let's face it, there's absolutely no difficult in doing all mission/bonus except for a very few ones;

the whole Tyria, whithout EotN content, can be vanquished with simply facerolling over keyboard, requires only patience and time (except for a few places at ascalon, where charr mesmer spam power block like hell)
Cantha and Elone requires no mention whatsover, both are simply easy to vanquish, with no "dificult area" or special mention.

War In Kryta gave life again to the Prophecies campaign, where you actually have some challenge and need to think before rushing into 4 mobs, instead of waiting your heroes to kill them.

Elona and Cantha need more love. I don't know if we're going to have a "WiK"-like at those continents, but I'd like to see at least more difficulty on them, like better skillbars for mobs at both NM and HM. right now a few mobs on those continents have good bars, most of them are pure crap.

right now, the activies that keep PvE alive are zaishen quests and title farm. There's absolutely no reason to do anything besides those things right now. I have people in my current guild that basically only play GW to farm, they haven't even completed a single campaign.
Things need to be more attractive, more challeging, or whatever - they just need to change, otherwise, as soon as GW2 launches, the GW PvE will be as active as PvP
One thing you seem to forget is the game wasn't made specifically for hardcore players. So, you'll never get what you want. It must be more for "casual" players who can easily overrun just about the entire game in "normal" mode and at least 50% of it in "hard mode". When you have thousands of head rollers who are 8-13 years old they don't have much patience for doing things that are hard. They like it easy so they can clap and go look mommy I killed the bad thing, I am the greatest!!

So while you are playing in a fantasy world you are also living in one if you think developers are going to make the game extremely hard or challenging for the few types of you that exist.

Bassma

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Oct 2010

Oh and btw if you really want challenge go back and play all the chapters and EOTN with HENCHIES only and NO HEROES. Let's see how well you faceroll the content then and you MUST PLAY IT ALL IN HARD MODE. I want to see you come back and tell me you face rolled all the content this way. Even if you do I won't believe you though. lol

Edit: I reeeely want to see you faceroll the ETERNAL GROVE mission in Factions with just henchies in HARD MODE!!

mszv

mszv

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Aug 2008

It's plenty hard enough for me, but I admit, I play casually. I'm nowhere near done. As I said before, I love it but I don't play that often.

I love how eventually I'll see it all, and if I want to -- solo. That's amazing. It just doesn't happen with other MMOs.

Xenomortis

Xenomortis

Tea Powered

Join Date: May 2008

UK

N/

So again, I must gimp myself in a very contrived manner that prevents me from making full use of the game mechanics and hence my abilities as a player.
And it doesn't even make sense historically since heroes predate Hard Mode.

Bassma

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Oct 2010

Quote:
Originally Posted by novawhiz View Post
yeah i understand its supposed to act as a bridge, but its just kinda pointless. They introduce it, everyone logs in all excited, does it in a couple days and then just goes back inactive. If they actually wanted to improve pve life they would add some sort of new content that forces team play, such as a new end game area
THat could be easily fixed by just not allowing consumables, heroes or elites to be used in specific end game areas. Take out the morale boosters as well. Then we can get back to some good ole HUMAN TEAM GROUPING play again.

Also make it where it's almost impossible to complete those areas without 1 of each character class excluding Paragons and Assassins. hehe To do it just have gates of passage that an npc will shout out for one particular class it will talk to for it to open the gate or passage. Then you'll have perfectly mixed groups instead of 20 necros using discordway. lol

Bassma

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Oct 2010

Quote:
Originally Posted by Xenomortis View Post
So again, I must gimp myself in a very contrived manner that prevents me from making full use of the game mechanics and hence my abilities as a player.
And it doesn't even make sense historically since heroes predate Hard Mode.
You're the one whinning for challenge. I gave you a challenge and it seems you can't live up to it. Just as I suspected a defeatist even before trying the challenge.

Dre

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Nov 2007

Belgium

Dutch Doom Brigade

W/

Guild wars can be as easy or as hard as you want it to be.

Too easy with heroes? ==> use hench only
Too easy with pve skills? ==> don't use them

Etc,...

Xiaquin

Xiaquin

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jun 2010

[aRIN]

R/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Saint Scarlet View Post
Here's an idea, although would be very hard to implement i would guess, is that when you enter an area/mission that it refuses entry if there is more than 2 of the same profession in the party. This would get rid of most of the problems with SC builds and cookie cutter builds making everything a faceroll.
I'd rather see hard mode disable consumables and elite areas forbid them along with PvE skills. From there, it's an arguably short list of skills to nerf, and then rewards, particularly faction/reputation, should be raised.

Bassma

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Oct 2010

Something else they need to do with these MMO's is create some sort of class population balance/restrictions.

There are entirely too many players that want to play Linfalis or Stridor or that DnD character from Neverwinter Nights and/or Rangers. Then next are too many Conans, then too many Merlins and Lich King Necros. THat's why Mesmers and Paragons and Ritualists and what's that other one? Oh Dervishers aren't so popular in groups for pve. Rangers get neglected because there are just too damn many of them. So when creating characters there should be balance and if you try to create a character that there are already too many of the game will tell you and then even tell you what's available and what the population of the game would prefer. (I bet monks will always be high on the list lol)