Game feels really Solo unfiendly

[Abisha.9028]

Like the title says the game feels really solo unfriendly while the main game is playable solo the Heart of Thorns on the other hand ain't even remote funny to play.

even the most simple trash mobs are dangers and taken the fun for me in playing guild wars 2 away. and makes me regret buying the DLCs all together.

so this topic serves are warning to those thinking about buying the DLC's without enough knowledge about the game in general.

[Ameepa.6793]

HoT indeed is group oriented, but PoF returns to roots and is again solo friendly like the vanilla game.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

Each mob is a danger, but none of them are impossible. The only events in HoT that aren't expected to be solo'd are the hero points, and even then if you're good you can solo them.

[Plautze.6290]

I ventured into Verdant Brink yesterday to grab a part of a collection and I have to say that HoT is indeed harder than PoF. I greatly enjoyed PoF, doing most stuff on my own. But fighting those Mordrem Tormentors who create huge, ever-lasting AoEs which reduce your health by 25% per tick is just insane. Something definitely went wrong with the damage scaling.

[Faaris.8013]

> @"Abisha.9028" said:

> Like the title says the game feels really solo unfriendly while the main game is playable solo the Heart of Thorns on the other hand ain't even remote funny to play.

> even the most simple trash mobs are dangers and taken the fun for me in playing guild wars 2 away. and makes me regret buying the DLCs all together.

> so this topic serves are warning to those thinking about buying the DLC's without enough knowledge about the game in general.

 

Stay with the game, there is more difficulty in HoT, but you have room for improvement. You are not experienced enough to handle the mobs there yet, that's normal and good. We all died in the jungle lots of times before we got the hang of it, and many still do after months. However, once you know the drill, it's not hard anymore. The jungle teaches you awareness of your surroundings, ways to avoid mobs instead of charging through them. With mounts, that's much easier than before. I can navigate a level 15 character through HoT maps, get hero points by communing and unlock waypoints without bothering to fight anything.

 

And remember, The Jungle Provides.

[Vayne.8563]

I've soloed most of HOT on every single profession. There is indeed a step up in difficulty in HOT. But with the exception of a handful of hero points, and the metas, everything in HoT can be soloed on any profession.

 

This is a matter of learning the game, nothing more.

[Oldirtbeard.9834]

Play a Reaper, that solved all my problems.

[tomaxamot.2683]

HoT is definitely annoying as hell with the crazy Mordrem Snipers n Mounted Cavalier n the stupid insane frogs that evades your projectile attack half of the time n go stealth :( u just have to know which mob get 1st priority to get kill/cc/blinded or u can just switch to a running on the fly beforehand n run past them :) the glider is stupid since u cant even attack while on it n the mobs can still hit u n kill u from the ground if u r in range; the big bosses can instantly down/kill u :( HoT is like GW1 chapter 2: Factions; the Mordrem is like the Infected... yada yada... they r to be hated n avoided if possible. PoF is like GW1 chapter 3: Nightfalls... going back to be able to solo some stuffs n the mobs is not that crazy tough but they can still kill u if u r not careful. at least the mounts have their own attacking skills n returns u to yourself if the mount's hp goes to zero, which is much better than the glider :)

[Abisha.9028]

> @"Vayne.8563" said:

> I've soloed most of HOT on every single profession. There is indeed a step up in difficulty in HOT. But with the exception of a handful of hero points, and the metas, everything in HoT can be soloed on any profession.

>

> This is a matter of learning the game, nothing more.

 

I not like play GW2 for months only a few weeks but encountered mods that fade out of thin air which also evade 90% of my attacks not sure what i can do to be better then.

or Mobs that constant keep rolling which is like freaking hard to attack, veterans that almost 1 hit kill players etc.

[Plautze.6290]

This is about to become yet another "Core game is too easy" thread.

OP, most of the HoT mobs have an initial burst which you "only" have to survive and then, you can retaliate. Those ninja-frogs start by jumping back and shooting arrows from their shortbows. You can evade or block those shots while giving chase to them. Once you're in their face, use hard cc to root them and then burst them down. The problem is that in core, you run up to an enemy and unload your damage rotation. When your health drops, you disengage, rinse and repeat. In HoT, you have to be ready to mitigate the mob's burst before you can start doing your own damage.

I learned it by going full defensive and watching the mobs. After that learning phase, I gradually went more offensive as I got used to their "rotations".

It may be frustrating but given enough time, you will conquer those obstacles.

[Zedek.8932]

> @"Vayne.8563" said:

> I've soloed most of HOT on every single profession. There is indeed a step up in difficulty in HOT. But with the exception of a handful of hero points, and the metas, everything in HoT can be soloed on any profession.

>

> This is a matter of learning the game, nothing more.

 

Not quite. You have to mention all the bugs and glitches.

 

I also have severe problems from time to time when I am ganged up by several enemies that have a bad design or the terrain is bugged/glitched and other things that killed me "unfairly".

 

* ... steep cliffs, narrow bridges and walkways I could jump off - unable to use Thief/Daredevil skills, e.g. while playing Dual Daggers

* ... random health regeneration for no reason - I see a mordrem and snipe him down as Deadeye. He gets health regeneration, as in: Out of combat. The next one to him, even farther away, gets hit and I can fight him.

* ... blocking projectile enemies that are ranged themselves - that is not a bug, but I think it's unecessary hard to fight 2 frog guys with such abilities (stealth, projectile blocking, mobility) while I, as Daredevil, start that fight with 50% health because I have to come close - or, in case of ranged weapons - get my projectiles blocked. Now add just ONE enemy to it and I have to retreat. Not much about "learning the game in this". [No need to latch on this example here, it is just a substitute of problems. I have learned the game so far in that matter that I just try to avoid them, but is this really the point?]

* ... I use a lot of ShadowStepping and Stealing (with ShadowStep) - "no valid path to target". When you press skills and rely on them, and you get flooded with error messages in the middle of the screen like this for no reason, then, again it's not "a matter of learning the game". There was NOTHING on the ground there, just a decorative root that I clipped through, so not even a solid object, but maybe, during game design, there is something that breaks the calculation of what is valid or not. (I wonder what the clutter is when opened in aNets map editor). Sometimes even a small gap of 30cm is not enough (e.g. a little boulder), sometimes easily just possible. This inconsistency is not in the hand of the players.

* Same with Deadeye Rilfe #4 - even when there is enough room behind you, it often will consume your initiative and plays that "beeeeooowwwwww" sound but does not move you. You try again in the heat of the action, same thing, and you are out of initiative, auto attacking a bunch of HoT mobs, good luck, mate.

* Bad enemy placement. When I was doing the night shift often, there is a valley and on top a charrcopter. However, to get to the top you gotta take a very small stairwell. Sometimes, there are Smokescales on it. Now what? You can't fight them properly, if you get knocked over you can't glide and fall to your death, if I play DareDevil I can at least glide, but not fight, etc. etc. Or that spiral walkway up to a rock that you need to glide off to another place: 5 beetles knocking you back and forth as if they play PingPong with you. Wow, that is fun!! I hopefully can shadowstep through them - it it's not bugged of course.

 

One thing I personally have no problem with, but see others being downed is:

 

* Some zones have NO safezones. Ya ya, dangerous jungle, I know. But when I waypoint somewhere and see a couple of dead bodies, I think that's not cool, waypoints should be safe.

 

 

I could go on and on, but I skipped HoT all over for now (and maybe forever).

It's indeed doable, but as the "Angry Video Game Nerds" says in, I think, the Simspons games episode, then I can not leave such things as "git gud" without mention some obvious problems some professions face. AVGN said something along the lines of: "If the game is only challenging by how broken the controls are, then it's not a good game".

 

Excelsior.

[Vayne.8563]

> @"Abisha.9028" said:

> > @"Vayne.8563" said:

> > I've soloed most of HOT on every single profession. There is indeed a step up in difficulty in HOT. But with the exception of a handful of hero points, and the metas, everything in HoT can be soloed on any profession.

> >

> > This is a matter of learning the game, nothing more.

>

> I not like play GW2 for months only a few weeks but encountered mods that fade out of thin air which also evade 90% of my attacks not sure what i can do to be better then.

> or Mobs that constant keep rolling which is like freaking hard to attack, veterans that almost 1 hit kill players etc.

 

Yes, some mobs do fade, but they don't attack when they fade. So just wait for them to unstealth. Red lines of death are pretty easy to dodge. The hylek tends to do poison circles that are a bit harder to see, so you have to focus to get out of them fast. That doesn't mean you'll never die. Soloing doesn't mean never dying. But I almost never die, on any profession. It's about knowing the enemy.

 

I can't waltz through a zone the first few times through without dying is not saying the zone isn't soloable. It's saying you have yet to learn the zone.

[sigur.9453]

> @"Abisha.9028" said:

> > @"Vayne.8563" said:

> > I've soloed most of HOT on every single profession. There is indeed a step up in difficulty in HOT. But with the exception of a handful of hero points, and the metas, everything in HoT can be soloed on any profession.

> >

> > This is a matter of learning the game, nothing more.

>

> I not like play GW2 for months only a few weeks but encountered mods that fade out of thin air which also evade 90% of my attacks not sure what i can do to be better then.

> or Mobs that constant keep rolling which is like freaking hard to attack, veterans that almost 1 hit kill players etc.

 

IF i am correct you mean the smokescale. If you stand in his red circle aoe field (smokefield) you won´t be able to hit him. just step outside of it, then you can kill it pretty fast.

Unlike vanilla each mob actually has mechanics, which once learnd aren´t a problem any more.

more difficult? yes

hard? no

[Sojourner.4621]

> @"Abisha.9028" said:

> > @"Vayne.8563" said:

> > I've soloed most of HOT on every single profession. There is indeed a step up in difficulty in HOT. But with the exception of a handful of hero points, and the metas, everything in HoT can be soloed on any profession.

> >

> > This is a matter of learning the game, nothing more.

>

> I not like play GW2 for months only a few weeks but encountered mods that fade out of thin air which also evade 90% of my attacks not sure what i can do to be better then.

> or Mobs that constant keep rolling which is like freaking hard to attack, veterans that almost 1 hit kill players etc.

 

> @"Zedek.8932" said:

> > @"Vayne.8563" said:

> > I've soloed most of HOT on every single profession. There is indeed a step up in difficulty in HOT. But with the exception of a handful of hero points, and the metas, everything in HoT can be soloed on any profession.

> >

> > This is a matter of learning the game, nothing more.

>

> Not quite. You have to mention all the bugs and glitches.

>

> I also have severe problems from time to time when I am ganged up by several enemies that have a bad design or the terrain is bugged/glitched and other things that killed me "unfairly".

>

> * ... steep cliffs, narrow bridges and walkways I could jump off - unable to use Thief/Daredevil skills, e.g. while playing Dual Daggers

 

To be honest, and yes it sounds douchey, but this is a learn to play issue... I have mained thief since game launch, and even in core game there are plenty of places where you had to learn when and when not to use things like Withdraw, Roll for Initiative, Heartseeker, Death Blossom... This is the peril of any high mobility class, they are mobile even sometimes when you don't want them to be. Eventually you learn to reign it in a bit and be 100% aware of your surroundings.

 

> * ... random health regeneration for no reason - I see a mordrem and snipe him down as Deadeye. He gets health regeneration, as in: Out of combat. The next one to him, even farther away, gets hit and I can fight him.

 

Deadeye can absolutely out-damage even OOC health regen... easily. When he goes invuln or resets, that's because a) you are at max range, b) He's probably at the edge of his patrol radius and can't come to you at the range you're sniping him at.

 

> * ... blocking projectile enemies that are ranged themselves - that is not a bug, but I think it's unecessary hard to fight 2 frog guys with such abilities (stealth, projectile blocking, mobility) while I, as Daredevil, start that fight with 50% health because I have to come close - or, in case of ranged weapons - get my projectiles blocked. Now add just ONE enemy to it and I have to retreat. Not much about "learning the game in this". [No need to latch on this example here, it is just a substitute of problems. I have learned the game so far in that matter that I just try to avoid them, but is this really the point?]

 

Step 1, equip Dagger/Pistol, Step 2, Daze on steal from trickery traitline (Sleight of Hand grandmaster), step 3 Stun a newly marked target in deadeye traitline (unforgiving), step 4 shadow shot to gap close. a) you are instantly in range, b) the frog is dazed and stunned consecutively long enough for a high damage thief to burst it down in a couple hits, it's also blinded by shadow shot. You also have enough range to do this before they even get a shot off on you. Thief has endless gap closers, but it's on you if you choose not to use them

 

> * ... I use a lot of ShadowStepping and Stealing (with ShadowStep) - "no valid path to target". When you press skills and rely on them, and you get flooded with error messages in the middle of the screen like this for no reason, then, again it's not "a matter of learning the game". There was NOTHING on the ground there, just a decorative root that I clipped through, so not even a solid object, but maybe, during game design, there is something that breaks the calculation of what is valid or not. (I wonder what the clutter is when opened in aNets map editor). Sometimes even a small gap of 30cm is not enough (e.g. a little boulder), sometimes easily just possible. This inconsistency is not in the hand of the players.

 

Shadow step is based on what in Elder Scrolls would be refer to as nav meshes. If the nav of where you are going is connected to the nav of where you are now by simple walking, the shadow step will complete as long as you can get the target on the correct place. This is independent of elevation but you do have to respect LoS rules. I suggest practicing more... it becomes pretty easy to see when you will and won't be able to shadowstep somewhere. And you have said several times you're running deadeye, which very specifically doesn't shadowstep on steal

 

> * Same with Deadeye Rilfe #4 - even when there is enough room behind you, it often will consume your initiative and plays that "beeeeooowwwwww" sound but does not move you. You try again in the heat of the action, same thing, and you are out of initiative, auto attacking a bunch of HoT mobs, good luck, mate.

 

More situational awareness... can take you the same places as shadow step, but you HAVE to look behind you to be sure that's a valid path before using it. Blind usage will result in what you describe but even moreso, especially because it sets the teleport point a fixed distance behind you.

 

> * Bad enemy placement. When I was doing the night shift often, there is a valley and on top a charrcopter. However, to get to the top you gotta take a very small stairwell. Sometimes, there are Smokescales on it. Now what? You can't fight them properly, if you get knocked over you can't glide and fall to your death, if I play DareDevil I can at least glide, but not fight, etc. etc. Or that spiral walkway up to a rock that you need to glide off to another place: 5 beetles knocking you back and forth as if they play PingPong with you. Wow, that is fun!! I hopefully can shadowstep through them - it it's not bugged of course.

 

Some fights you can avoid, some you can't. I guarantee you thief on both elite specs and even core has the tools to handle this... and if you can't win a fight that's incoming in the location it is intended, that's where that situational awareness thing comes in again... you have ranged weapons, pull the enemies away from the choke point then either fight them where it's safe or move past.

 

>

> One thing I personally have no problem with, but see others being downed is:

>

> * Some zones have NO safezones. Ya ya, dangerous jungle, I know. But when I waypoint somewhere and see a couple of dead bodies, I think that's not cool, waypoints should be safe.

 

Even in core game there are plenty of waypoints that come under attack often and are not safe. This has never been a rule.

 

>

>

> I could go on and on, but I skipped HoT all over for now (and maybe forever).

 

I am a moderate/mediocre player. I can't hit top DPS numbers in all the correct gear on the easiest rotation in the game, falling short by 8-10k because of a disability... I am terrible at competitive pvp, and in general can't do anything outside a zerg in wvw, and have only ever killed another player by luck opr accident, HOWEVER, I can solo every HP in the first two maps except Balth on my glass zerk thief... that includes the Coztic champ and the Vamp Beast, that also includes the Chakk at the end of AB. I can solo a number of champs in TD as well, though there are also a number I haven't tried because you have a full specs worth of HPs by the time you hit a third of them in TD. Enemy prioritization, knowing what enemies use what skills and what their particular weaknesses are, using heavy burst combined with heavy CC, knowing how to deal with the burst that enemy mobs have themselves and knowing what your CCs are all make the game easier. My first time through HoT I had a bad time at first, but as I levelled masteries and unlocked Daredevil, which can CC and gap close like nobodies business, and can be very bursty if built correctly, things got easier.

 

> It's indeed doable, but as the "Angry Video Game Nerds" says in, I think, the Simspons games episode, then I can not leave such things as "git gud" without mention some obvious problems some professions face. AVGN said something along the lines of: "If the game is only challenging by how broken the controls are, then it's not a good game".

>

> Excelsior.

 

 

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

> @"Abisha.9028" said:

 

> without enough knowledge about the game in general.

 

This may be the issue.

 

 

[Odinens.5920]

I have to admit, when I 1st went through HoT, a little less than a year ago, I would've totally been on the "this crap is too hard" side of the argument. BUT, I had only been playing the game around a month at that point, and hadn't really learned the combat yet. Now, after playing the game for a year, and having a good grasp of how my main class works, and how the combat system actually plays, all I can say is that HoT really isn't that hard.

 

I just went through yesterday and finished up map complete on ALL HoT maps (for the 1st time), and honestly, even though I still tend to avoid HoT maps unless I need to do something on them, it's not the mob density, or difficulty of them - hell, I even laugh at pocket raptors now, even if I aggro more than 1 or 2 groups of them. My issue with HoT is still the maps in general, which is a personal opnion, as I understand a lot of people actually like the multi-level-mazelike layouts (I do not).

 

Basically, just be patient, take your time, learn your class and how combat works (dodges/interrupts/etc). After some time getting comfortable with the game's mechanics and you feel you know how to play better go back to HoT. You will find it much less stressful, and you might even find yourself on the side of the fence that actually likes hanging out there.

[squallaus.8321]

You should ask the other users on here what build you should go for. HoT content becomes considerably easier if you use the right builds. With experience and time, the content even becomes trivial.

[Raizel.8175]

FFS, I'm getting tired of threads like this. This is a Massively **Multiplayer** Online Role Playing Game. You're supposed to play together with other people! This game already is too solo-friendly. Besides meta-events and some HoT-HPs, you can literally do everything solo in OW-content. This is also why this game - against common belief - is so very casual-unfriendly since it doesn't teach you your own class/mechanics, doesn't force you to socialize, doesn't force you to get better. This is one of the main-reasons why the barriers to endgame-content in this game are so insurmountable high.

[Urud.4925]

The jungle provides... pain.

[Shirlias.8104]

> @"Abisha.9028" said:

> Like the title says the game feels really solo unfriendly while the main game is playable solo the Heart of Thorns on the other hand ain't even remote funny to play.

> even the most simple trash mobs are dangers and taken the fun for me in playing guild wars 2 away. and makes me regret buying the DLCs all together.

> so this topic serves are warning to those thinking about buying the DLC's without enough knowledge about the game in general.

 

1. Are you from other Tab + Castbar ( wow like ) mmo?

2. Or else, were you always used to go with a tanky setup ( like soldier ) instead of a full dps one?

3. How much are you new to the game?

 

HoT could have been difficult for solo in terms of HP ( some could have been difficult with a single class ) because they were meant for more players, as for events, but talking about the single enemy or a group of enemies it's pretty different, and they are not that difficult at after you see their attack patterns.

 

I played with no problem all game long with a berserk thief.

 

* 11k health.

* 1900 armor ( or even less ).

* Use of the dodge/environement/stealth.

 

And, some encounters apart ( which i understimated ) it was all fine.

 

Ps: if you skipped HoT because of PoF and have mounts, then there could really be a problem with your player skills, because of the semplicity which mounts bring.

PPs: if you post your class/setup, maybe some main XXXX could give you advices.

 

[Abisha.9028]

> @"Raizel.8175" said:

> kitten, I'm getting tired of threads like this. This is a Massively **Multiplayer** Online Role Playing Game. You're supposed to play together with other people! This game already is too solo-friendly. Besides meta-events and some HoT-HPs, you can literally do everything solo in OW-content. This is also why this game - against common belief - is so very casual-unfriendly since it doesn't teach you your own class/mechanics, doesn't force you to socialize, doesn't force you to get better. This is one of the main-reasons why the barriers to endgame-content in this game are so insurmountable high.

 

I have absolute nothing against group content, hack i even play tera for the dungeons contents. and it's a lot of fun and was hoping GW2 also have the same level of content for me in the future. but in guildwars 2 the content which is presented is just done wrong in my opinion. if you already need a group to clean common trash mobs because they are to dangers is wrong no matter how you put it.

it also shows why the map teleport people to area's with more people to few people playing on this map and i guess most of them hate HoT.

also wanna point out what really irritates me are the difficultly of gaining hero skill points they are next to impossible to do them solo while you need 30+ points to gain a mastery point.

[Yamazuki.6073]

> @"Abisha.9028" said:

> > @"Raizel.8175" said:

> > kitten, I'm getting tired of threads like this. This is a Massively **Multiplayer** Online Role Playing Game. You're supposed to play together with other people! This game already is too solo-friendly. Besides meta-events and some HoT-HPs, you can literally do everything solo in OW-content. This is also why this game - against common belief - is so very casual-unfriendly since it doesn't teach you your own class/mechanics, doesn't force you to socialize, doesn't force you to get better. This is one of the main-reasons why the barriers to endgame-content in this game are so insurmountable high.

>

> I have absolute nothing against group content, hack i even play tera for the dungeons contents. and it's a lot of fun and was hoping GW2 also have the same level of content for me in the future. but in guildwars 2 the content which is presented is just done wrong in my opinion. if you already need a group to clean common trash mobs because they are to dangers is wrong no matter how you put it.

> it also shows why the map teleport people to area's with more people to few people playing on this map and i guess most of them hate HoT.

> also wanna point out what really irritates me are the difficultly of gaining hero skill points they are next to impossible to do them solo while you need 30+ points to gain a mastery point.

 

You recently started playing the game, most likely aren't using traits+weapons that go well together or stats that support it. GW2 isn't meant to have brainless open world content where you could afk and still kill things like Tera. Tera is strictly instance focused, where as GW2 tries to provide content for various groups.

[Nogothanc.5014]

HoT was even harder at release as it is now. ANet made already adjustments to make it "easier". Most things can be done solo but it is hard. You just have to adjust your playstyle or even swap your gear. Or simply ask peoples. Usually, there are always peoples around that help.

[Raizel.8175]

> @"Yamazuki.6073" said:

> > @"Abisha.9028" said:

> > > @"Raizel.8175" said:

> > > kitten, I'm getting tired of threads like this. This is a Massively **Multiplayer** Online Role Playing Game. You're supposed to play together with other people! This game already is too solo-friendly. Besides meta-events and some HoT-HPs, you can literally do everything solo in OW-content. This is also why this game - against common belief - is so very casual-unfriendly since it doesn't teach you your own class/mechanics, doesn't force you to socialize, doesn't force you to get better. This is one of the main-reasons why the barriers to endgame-content in this game are so insurmountable high.

> >

> > I have absolute nothing against group content, hack i even play tera for the dungeons contents. and it's a lot of fun and was hoping GW2 also have the same level of content for me in the future. but in guildwars 2 the content which is presented is just done wrong in my opinion. if you already need a group to clean common trash mobs because they are to dangers is wrong no matter how you put it.

> > it also shows why the map teleport people to area's with more people to few people playing on this map and i guess most of them hate HoT.

> > also wanna point out what really irritates me are the difficultly of gaining hero skill points they are next to impossible to do them solo while you need 30+ points to gain a mastery point.

>

> You recently started playing the game, most likely aren't using traits+weapons that go well together or stats that support it. GW2 isn't meant to have brainless open world content where you could afk and still kill things like Tera. Tera is strictly instance focused, where as GW2 tries to provide content for various groups.

 

Erm...

 

When I started playing GW2 (some months before PoF launched), I instantly used the Lv. 80 boost, didn't bother with traits and all and just went into combat with the stuff I got. Core-Tyria was actually pretty braindead and thus not very engaging. HoT on the other hand was pretty fun (especially due to the meta-event-structure). I'm actually quite sad that the game has returned to the braindead path again with PoF, where stuff isn't difficult, but just annoying (I'm talking about those goddamned sniper/projectile-monsters).

[infrequentia.3465]

> @"Abisha.9028" said:

> Like the title says the game feels really solo unfriendly while the main game is playable solo the Heart of Thorns on the other hand ain't even remote funny to play.

> even the most simple trash mobs are dangers and taken the fun for me in playing guild wars 2 away. and makes me regret buying the DLCs all together.

> so this topic serves are warning to those thinking about buying the DLC's without enough knowledge about the game in general.

 

most people buying a MMO expansion to a MMO game wouldn't complain about doing things SOLO in a MMO game.

 

be happy you can even do things SOLO in a MMO game wich is focussed on group content

 

hell even the name of the GUILD wars implies GROUP content