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Is PoF story soloable?


Kovac.4372

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Because I got to the part at the beginning where you went to Balthazar's camp (he wasn't there) and fought a bunch of bosses with the big machine dude at the end - and well I died quite a lot there.

 

I was playing my main warrior (core, no elite spec) with full exotic berserker gear and a couple ascended trinkets .... the same toon I used for anything else, dungeons are a breeze, so I was confused what was going on here now.

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All story instances are scaled to 1 player. They are soloable. However if you bring friends along, the instances don't scale up, therefore becoming easier.

 

The most important thing in the instance you're in is not to aggro too many mobs at once. Sneak around and kill all forged you can find one by one before killing the last boss and starting the fight against the big machine. During the fight against the big machine make sure to clear snipers so you don't get overwhelmed.

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> @"Kovac.4372" said:

> Because I got to the part at the beginning where you went to Balthazar's camp (he wasn't there) and fought a bunch of bosses with the big machine dude at the end - and well I died quite a lot there.

>

> I was playing my main warrior (core, no elite spec) with full exotic berserker gear and a couple ascended trinkets .... the same toon I used for anything else, dungeons are a breeze, so I was confused what was going on here now.

 

i solo it with my elementalist.. you just got be tactical and play slow... takes times but take a bit of. fight and separate the enemies.. lure them with ur range

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Yes, it's soloable. You may be a little too glass to pull it off in full zerker's. Mob management, positioning, dodging, and condition cleanse will help, and you can also try swapping out a few pieces of gear with something to add a little more toughness or vitality to buy yourself a little more time against the big group at the end. Sometimes having a friend or four along is the best option, though.

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> @"Kovac.4372" said:

> Because I got to the part at the beginning where you went to Balthazar's camp (he wasn't there) and fought a bunch of bosses with the big machine dude at the end - and well I died quite a lot there.

>

> I was playing my main warrior (core, no elite spec) with full exotic berserker gear and a couple ascended trinkets .... the same toon I used for anything else, dungeons are a breeze, so I was confused what was going on here now.

 

I find the story missions to be very uneven in difficulty - they range from easy to feeling like I'm soloing a RAID boss. They are supposed to be soloable, but you are not alone in questioning the difficulty levels of some of these missions.

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For that particular fight there is something to keep in mind. Either you bring enough damage+snare/CC to kill the Bastion before it reaches the platform in the middle or you make sure you have a ranged weapon because the platform itself will deal damage to you. The bombs they are lying around can also do a decent amount of damage.

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It really depends on the player.

 

Marathons are literally solable, but that doesn't mean every solo runner can manage them without adjusting their technique.

 

In many story instances (but not all), there's often a trick or special mechanic that makes it easier to play alone than it might seem at first. It's worth asking for suggestions for any specific spot you run into difficulties. At other times, it might require adjusting a build or rethinking one's approach. And again, asking for ideas is a good way to start.

 

And finally, there are often people around (who can be found via LFG or the _Players Helping Players_ subforum here) who would be glad to assist. There's no shame in running the story with more than one person, especially in an MMO.

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> @"BunjiKugashira.9754" said:

> All story instances are scaled to 1 player. They are soloable. However if you bring friends along, the instances don't scale up, therefore becoming easier.

>

While they're scaled to one player by default, and I'm not sure about *this* instance there are differences with more players in at least *some* instances.

 

The sniper instance in the latest story has a drastically reduced delay from targeting to shot when more than one person plays it, confirmed to be deliberate by the dev that designed it.

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I just finished the PoF main story solo on my Elementalist main for the first (I tend to purchase expansions about a year after release).

 

My thoughts on it...

 

Well, it's doable. It's not half as frustrating as the difficulty level in HoT was. The final boss fight in PoF wasn't half as frustrating as the final boss fight in HoT with Mordremoth. Mordremoth was full of one-shot-kill mechanics that would insta-kill you if you made even one error. The fights were long and exhausting and were just overtuned for casual players using squishy characters. If you played with friends and died, you got stuck in a cage for the rest of the fight watching your friends and being useless. Of course, if you died and tried again, Mordremoth would respawn with full HP, like you did nothing at all. So even grinding away at him was impossible. And there was no anvil in the instance. So if you died enough times, you'd lose all your gear, killing all your damage and defense stats. The only thing you could do was blow items you paid money for like repair cannisters, or just quit the instance and try again later.

 

On my ele - it proved an impossible fight and I had to beg guildmates to come in and bail out my sorry butt.

 

Some of the Living World fights following HoT proved equally overtuned, non-fun, and frustrating. Caudecus in Lake Doric was impossible and I had to get bailed out of that one too. Same problems. No anvil, respawns with full health, one-shot mechanics, overtuned for squishier classes.

 

The last boss on PoF has the same problems actually. It's fairly overtuned, even when you comprehend the mechanics with Aurene. You get frustratingly one-shot constantly, and it just isn't a fun fight. No anvil again. I really don't get why Arenanet doesn't put stupid anvils in these instances. BUT - the boss's health doesn't respawn each time you die and try again! Using this fact, I was able to wear him down slowly - and it only took me dying 20 times.

 

So... yay, I guess...

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> @"BunjiKugashira.9754" said:

> All story instances are scaled to 1 player. They are soloable. However if you bring friends along, the instances don't scale up, therefore becoming easier.

>

> The most important thing in the instance you're in is not to aggro too many mobs at once. Sneak around and kill all forged you can find one by one before killing the last boss and starting the fight against the big machine. During the fight against the big machine make sure to clear snipers so you don't get overwhelmed.

 

Stories do scale, they just don't scale that much. For example, there are some stories where you'd normally get a creature, but when you have more players with you you get extra creatures. Source: I play solo a lot but I also help guildies through stories a lot. In other words, the scaling ends up with you having a net gain in relative power, but it still scales.

 

The one that comes to mind, where it's easy to see, is the HoT story City of Hope. In the first test room you usually get one of each creature, but you get more when you have other people with you. Two people get two of each creature.

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did it on ele and rev. Ele first, wasn't always fun, but all of PoF was doable. Had to adjust build and gear a couple of times. Rev on marauder was just a walk in the park.

 

but really, you are playing glass and then complain that you are going down? How about changing gear and build? In my experience, wvw builds work very well for all kind of story/lw content.

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While I didn't do PoF story on it (But I did HoT), I find warrior to be the most forgiving profession to run zerker without having issues... If anything, you can run Str/Def/Dis traits and triple stances so you have a huge sustain while still retaining good damage.

I only run full zerker on warrior and never really felt the need to change it for PvE

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> @"VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig.3618" said:

> did it on ele and rev. Ele first, wasn't always fun, but all of PoF was doable. Had to adjust build and gear a couple of times. Rev on marauder was just a walk in the park.

>

> but really, you are playing glass and then complain that you are going down? How about changing gear and build? In my experience, wvw builds work very well for all kind of story/lw content.

 

I carry a full set of Knight's gear in my bag for that reason. It doesn't seem to make much difference in this kind of content.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I did all my story with my zerker staff ele, as that is my commander, and it more comes down to strategy than anything else. Feel free to be extra squishy squish as that is no issue. Story wise I find having ranged weapons in solo better than melee simply because there might just be moments where you need to separate mobs or just politely run back a bit to regenerate while still keeping them busy. So get a bow on your war for the convenience and don't forget that divide and conquer actually works.

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