Enough, constant death isn't fun!

[Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921]

Of all the story instance garbage that's absolutely frustrating beyond no fun is the Balthazaar fire trap, so what do they do add it in with two new additions chill which basically means you're screwed if you get hit and a signet with a cooldown necessary to see the second part. The lasers are bugged and can block you from progress even when they're not supposed to. I failed the not getting hit because reasons? They were fazed out but somehow to leap over the bottom laser anything but a running jump my character would hit a invisible wall and then get hit by the bottom laser. The trap does way too much damage to be anything other than a character killer. I'm so sick of every living story being about how much can a solo player die...

[slayerking.3581]

> @"Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921" said:

> I'm so sick of every living story being about how much can a solo player die...

Amen to that! It's no fun at all half the time, The story a crack in the ice really got on my nerves when walking through the cave with Braham and every 10 steps we got gangked by 20-30 elites.

 

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

That part with the fire grate and the lasers is the only part of the story where they went way too far overboard with the difficulty. Since I was on a toon with no blinks, I had to manually jump through the whole thing. Gotta say, being forced to stand on a damage patch for 20 seconds was not the highlight of the run. In fact, it was so bad it ruined the entire episode for me.

[Dreamy Lu.3865]

Personally, I do not agree with the above.

 

This part of the story is a puzzle with a timing factor to be solved. It needs to understand how it works. If we take time and observe, we see the solution for each step.

 

For example, to watch it in peace for some seconds helps identifying that there are several locations along the path that are safe (floor square without fire trap) between the main intermediate break locations. There are enough of those to prevent death between two break locations. To observe also helps to see how works the barriers. And last but not least, how it combines in term of timing. From there, the trick is then to adjust going from one safe location to the next safe location, what is a shorter mini-step than trying to do in one go the full path of the current step.

When I first tried it, I did not understand it immediately and tended to try to do it full step by full step. I keep badly failing because I am not good at managing with time pressure on me. So, I decided there must be another way: I calmed down, and took my time to observe properly and then saw how it works. And it worked. That although I am very far from being a good player.

 

Beside, what I find very good is that:

- There are intermediate checkpoints: We do not restart from beginning of the path.

- Globally in this instance, progress gets saved.

- It is not mandatory to do it solo. We can call friends to carry us if we struggle or simply if we don't want the bother. Many of my friends just call for someone good at it to help them through.

 

Good luck :)

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

The whole problem is that none of what you've said is true. If you fail the achievement, you have to go back and do all of the lasers all over again, and it is bisected by an odiously long fight against slowly spawning enemies, so you might as well just front load a cutscene before every attempt. Against the impassable laser wall (blocked by a corner, so you can't see the pattern) with the longest time in the game, there are no safe points to rest. You are forced to stand in the damage patches. Also, there is no safe grates in the room. Standing in one place for too long causes the grate you are standing on to activate. In one particular corner, this just leads to eventually being boxed in while waiting for the finicky lasers on an obscenely long timer to deactivate. Bringing a friend along accomplishes precisely jack squat when all they'll do is die over and over in the same place anyway, because the traps don't care how many people are there.

[Rezzet.3614]

> @"Blood Red Arachnid.2493" said:

> The whole problem is that none of what you've said is true. If you fail the achievement, you have to go back and do all of the lasers all over again, and it is bisected by an odiously long fight against slowly spawning enemies, so you might as well just front load a cutscene before every attempt. Against the impassable laser wall (blocked by a corner, so you can't see the pattern) with the longest time in the game, there are no safe points to rest. You are forced to stand in the damage patches. Also, there is no safe grates in the room. Standing in one place for too long causes the grate you are standing on to activate. In one particular corner, this just leads to eventually being boxed in while waiting for the finicky lasers on an obscenely long timer to deactivate. Bringing a friend along accomplishes precisely jack squat when all they'll do is die over and over in the same place anyway, because the traps don't care how many people are there.

 

well theres a diference in an objective being unclearable and clearing a challenge

 

but i do agree the trap hallway was annoying as heck the signet cooldown was the problem to be fair as well as the instability of the game after LS release

[Dreamy Lu.3865]

> @"Blood Red Arachnid.2493" said:

> The whole problem is that none of what you've said is true. If you fail the achievement, you have to go back and do all of the lasers all over again, and it is bisected by an odiously long fight against slowly spawning enemies, so you might as well just front load a cutscene before every attempt. Against the impassable laser wall (blocked by a corner, so you can't see the pattern) with the longest time in the game, there are no safe points to rest. You are forced to stand in the damage patches. Also, there is no safe grates in the room. Standing in one place for too long causes the grate you are standing on to activate. In one particular corner, this just leads to eventually being boxed in while waiting for the finicky lasers on an obscenely long timer to deactivate. Bringing a friend along accomplishes precisely jack squat when all they'll do is die over and over in the same place anyway, because the traps don't care how many people are there.

 

Sorry, my experience was different. I had several intermediate checkpoints. Upon death, I was sent to those, never back to beginning. I had plates that were never on fire, like typically the ones below the wall wheels we have to interact with and the ones where Joko is temporarily standing, that remained safe locations all the time... At the top of it, I had no enemies at all? Now I start to doubt: Are we talking about the same part of the instance? Maybe I have misunderstood what part you are talking about. If it is the case, my bad, I apologize.

[GrubySzymek.1362]

It's simple platformer which requires minimum awareness and watching cooldowns. I think you are able completing it if only you cool down a bit and approach this magnificent piece of content with open mind.

[Khisanth.2948]

> @"Blood Red Arachnid.2493" said:

> That part with the fire grate and the lasers is the only part of the story where they went way too far overboard with the difficulty. Since I was on a toon with no blinks, I had to manually jump through the whole thing. Gotta say, being forced to stand on a damage patch for 20 seconds was not the highlight of the run. In fact, it was so bad it ruined the entire episode for me.

 

On the one hand yes on the other hand it fits with Joko's personality ...

 

The lasers probably suck for anyone with moderately high ping.

[derd.6413]

> @"Blood Red Arachnid.2493" said:

> The whole problem is that none of what you've said is true. If you fail the achievement, you have to go back and do all of the lasers all over again, and it is bisected by an odiously long fight against slowly spawning enemies, so you might as well just front load a cutscene before every attempt. Against the impassable laser wall (blocked by a corner, so you can't see the pattern) with the longest time in the game, there are no safe points to rest. You are forced to stand in the damage patches. Also, there is no safe grates in the room. Standing in one place for too long causes the grate you are standing on to activate. In one particular corner, this just leads to eventually being boxed in while waiting for the finicky lasers on an obscenely long timer to deactivate. Bringing a friend along accomplishes precisely jack squat when all they'll do is die over and over in the same place anyway, because the traps don't care how many people are there.

 

The grates with sparks are safe

[Randulf.7614]

The traps, whilst cute, were largely annoying and poorly implemented. Most of the fire floor i ran through and dodge rolled into the safe spot, quickly healing and condition removing. Im not a big fan of stealthy stuff and given we had a lot of it already, the balance was all out that episode.

 

I did appreciate the checkpoint for every trap though.

[lokh.2695]

Can't agree with the OP here. For me this story was easy to play.

[VanWilder.6923]

May I please know which story is the OP talking about?

From what I read, seem like "Be My Guest" from LS4 episode 3?

I soloed the story with my main Elementalist, I died 2 times at last fight but I cant recall any sort of instant dead as the OP said!

The traps and fire floor were easy to avoid. Were there 10-20 Elite gangs? I dont recall at all.

Did I finish the story on Easy mode? Cause all the said instant dead, gangs of elite etc... did not happen on my run.

[LucianDK.8615]

Might be good to get used to dodge, saves you from a lot of damage.

[kharmin.7683]

> @"VanWilder.6923" said:

> May I please know which story is the OP talking about?

> From what I read, seem like "Be My Guest" from LS4 episode 3?

> I soloed the story with my main Elementalist, I died 2 times at last fight but I cant recall any sort of instant dead as the OP said!

> The traps and fire floor were easy to avoid. Were there 10-20 Elite gangs? I dont recall at all.

> Did I finish the story on Easy mode? Cause all the said instant dead, gangs of elite etc... did not happen on my run.

Yeah, I think that's the instance. I didn't have too much trouble with the laser/fire trap hallway, but did enjoy the checkpoints (good job there, ANet!). However, this was the first final battle where I finished with all of my armor broken. I simply could not avoid all of the dangers in that fight and hadn't brought any canisters with me. Still, the checkpoint in that fight was in a good spot.

 

Contrary to some others, I did like Joko's insults and commentary. Those made me grin when I was respawning for the umpteenth time.

[Strider Pj.2193]

I know this won't be a popular opinion: GW2 was from the start a team/cooperative game mode. Solo activities SHOULD be hard to complete.

 

It CAN be done solo... But with a partner it's much simpler.

 

 

[Zedek.8932]

> @"Strider Pj.2193" said:

> I know this won't be a popular opinion: GW2 was from the start a team/cooperative game mode. Solo activities SHOULD be hard to complete.

>

> It CAN be done solo... But with a partner it's much simpler.

>

>

 

But that would mean it'd be **too** easy when playing in a group then? How to counter that? By beefing up the difficulty and thus creating an eternal status quo?

I know where you come from, but as 100% solo player, I often just die'n'try until I am through it, and since it CAN be entered and completed alone, it should also give you non-MegaMan for NES level of difficulty options.

 

Excelsior.

 

[Strider Pj.2193]

> @"Zedek.8932" said:

> > @"Strider Pj.2193" said:

> > I know this won't be a popular opinion: GW2 was from the start a team/cooperative game mode. Solo activities SHOULD be hard to complete.

> >

> > It CAN be done solo... But with a partner it's much simpler.

> >

> >

>

> But that would mean it'd be **too** easy when playing in a group then? How to counter that? By beefing up the difficulty and thus creating an eternal status quo?

> I know where you come from, but as 100% solo player, I often just die'n'try until I am through it, and since it CAN be entered and completed alone, it should also give you non-MegaMan for NES level of difficulty options.

>

> Excelsior.

>

 

Don't really agree on the different difficulty because it can be entered alone. Fractals, dungeons and raids can all be entered alone. Of course the success rate

Of that can be exponentially low, secondary to the difficulty.

 

GW skills were really designed from the start to be corporatized. Unfortunately, we've gotten away from that.

[asterix.9614]

Damn, all you people moaning about difficulty of living story are killing me lol, go play pvp a lot, and I mean a LOT, thats where you truley experience how your profession works, heck maybe you will even find out if a profession is not for you so you switch and find "the right one"......

[kharmin.7683]

Maybe some of us don't like PvP or playing a character to its optimal build? I will agree that taking skills and traits that don't compliment each other is probably not a good recipe for success, but some of us find builds that we enjoy that work well enough for us in the open world. Creating content specifically for solo play should not mean that each profession must be fully traited to an exact build in order to succeed.

 

Yeah, I died a lot in this chapter and I'm sure it's because I haven't the best, most efficient build. It must be very difficult for ANet to design these things for players like you and like me. Still, I'm not complaining (overly much?). I knew how things would go and the battle met my expectations.

 

As for finding the right profession, I would argue that it shouldn't take playing a lot of PvP to discover that. I already know that I'm not a very good engineer/scrapper/holosmith or elementalist/tempest/weaver so I am pretty much left out of playing these chapters as those professions. I don't believe that this is something that ANet should encourage.

[Kal Spiro.9745]

Maybe make a tankier build? It may cut down your damage and make fights take a bit longer, but when you can survive everything as a result, it seems like a worthwhile trade off. I feel like that's the point of these solo missions. ANet is trying to say you can't go full DPS anymore. They don't want that to be the design and they're making environments that will kill you if you do.

 

I died once in this story and that's because I underestimated the damage of those floor traps and let myself burn. Other than that I haven't been defeated in one of these in ages because I have a lot of toughness and heal to keep myself up with.

[joneirikb.7506]

Easiest solution: Mark all story instances as "Group Content", it won't stop people from trying it solo, but at least they have been warned :p

 

Alternatively, once you've died 20 times, replace all mobs with white critter versions, all bosses with queensdale grunts, and make traps and other lazers shoot bubbles that override your clothings dyes channels for 1 hour (Oh hurt you right in the fashion!).

 

/joke

[Ashantara.8731]

> @"Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921" said:

> I failed the not getting hit because reasons?

 

Achievements like those should not be attempted solo, because... reasons? ;)

[Ashabhi.1365]

> @"Strider Pj.2193" said:

> I know this won't be a popular opinion: GW2 was from the start a team/cooperative game mode. Solo activities SHOULD be hard to complete.

>

> It CAN be done solo... But with a partner it's much simpler.

>

>

 

It's kind of funny, but the beginning part of this episode where you have to stealth and kill all the Awakened is actually easier to do when we're solo... as careful as we can be, there is no way to control your party-member's actions.

 

SPOILER: In the hallway with the traps, you can see which spaces do not have traps without using the signet ring. Watch for the little spark on the floor like clicking a cigarette lighter without lighting it. It ONLY happens on the squares without damage. Once you're there, you can safely use the signet to see the lasers. It helps with the cooldowns.

[Eloc Freidon.5692]

The trick is using the broken panels to avoid traps and just be patient. Also the traps don't interrupt your healing ability while in the downed state so its possible to recover.

 

Its just one of those puzzles that really sucks the first few times until you get the hang of it. I like it, but disappointing that the traps weren't worthy of Joko's grandeur.