Hard Mode, Heroic Mode, Ect...

Now I know there are harder, more exclusive areas for players who want a challenge and end game play (raids...higher tier fractals?), but those can be exclusive to the casual player who wants a more difficult challenge, especially if they do not have optimal gear and/or dps.

Would it be possible for lvl. 80 players to have an option that they can choose so that when they enter a map, it asks if they would like a hard mode map. The events would have more foes, foes would have higher levels than the players, and have bonus damage. They would also take reduced condi-durations applied to them. Also they would always attack 20-25% faster and move 25-50% faster, and never give up pursuit until dead.

Now this obviously should be an option they have checked, and also doubly agree before entering a map.

Perhaps it may even encourage pug groups, or just regular formations of squads. (if they do form a squad...scale the difficulty even harder...hard mode damn it..for all group sizes)

If it were to ever come about, I might think that new achievements (some say the AP well is dry), and great rewards.

Someone hurry up and shoot my idea down....before i get carried away.

Take off all your armor: Voila. Hardmode.

@Mewcifer.5198 said:Take off all your armor: Voila. Hardmode.

I can still outrun them, and they will drop pursuit...almost had it...almost

@Dyfinz.2348 said:

@Mewcifer.5198 said:Take off all your armor: Voila. Hardmode.

Only ever rp-walk

I really enjoyed the hard mode GW1 maps, would enjoy this in GW2 but sounds like it would need a lot of work to implement. I think best we can hope for it Anet just upping the difficulty in certain areas they produce, which I hope they do (PoF was lacking in difficult content - which is bad for a second expansion).

They dont want to do harm mode maps because it splits the playerbase in 2 and they want to create a sense of community. Also challenging open world content wasnt recieved well in HOT so its pretty unlikely they will spend money making any more difficult content outside of instances. (we already have challenge modes in fractals story)

The reason it worked in GW1 is because every map was instanced, so you could have hard mode, which gave better loot & tougher monsters, and there was no issues. In GW2, you would have to have a different set of maps. For popular maps, this might be OK, but for less popular maps, rather than having 1 relatively full map like now, you might have 2 fairly empty maps.

Here's what would happen: players looking for harder content would flock to the hard mode content on first release. Then, either: the rewards would not meet their expectations, thus the hard mode would be dead to all but a few in short order; or the rewards would meet expectations, so players would form groups, excluding anyone whose builds did not measure up to their expectations so they could farm said rewards.

Hard mode in GW worked because the instances had player caps of 4, 6, 8 or 12. Thus ANet could tune the challenge for those numbers. Outside of dungeons, fractals and raids, ANet has not created content in GW2 hard enough that players could not outnumber it. They may not be able to do so, at least in terms of designing something that does not take a whole map full of players to beat. Any number less than that would struggle in such content. And believe me, if the players really want the rewards from such content, they will outnumber it, while some of them will simultaneously complain that the content isn't hard enough.

I wouldn't mind seeing them add hard mode options, so long as it didn't make more/better loot available.

@Ohoni.6057 said:I wouldn't mind seeing them add hard mode options, so long as it didn't make more/better loot available.

Which would mean "Don't make it whatsoever".

Picture this:Queensdale. Shadow Behemoth. Hard Mode.Now it's going to be the same fight, just harder with maybe new attacks and doing more damage and more HP.Same exact loot like the normal one.Now except for those that's in it just for the challenge, how many people would be interested in really doing a longer battled Shadow Behemoth for the same reward?Already have people who refuse to play with certain people in fractals/raids because it takes too long. Not sure which audience they would be catering to do more work for the same pay as someone who does little work and get the same payment in the end.

@Ayumi Spender.1082 said:

@Ohoni.6057 said:I wouldn't mind seeing them add hard mode options, so long as it didn't make more/better loot available.

Hey, people keep asking for hard mode. If they want hard mode, if there's demand for it, then that's fine, give it to them. If they just want better loot than other people get, then they should ask for that instead, and be refused.

Why do you need a hard mode? Go solo a fractal, solo a dungeon, solo a bounty, solo group events, solo Steve and every boss you can find. Those are all things I've tried, some of which I succeed at, including Steve, and it does require you to be on your toes, and it's not easy, but also not like some sort of crazy meta build thing, and also playing at weird times where not many people are around lol. One of my fav memories was one of the pre events of the AB Tarir chain and no one was around so I solod the group event with swarms of mobs including the heavy hitting snipers, frog thieves, knock down Calvary, for the tower thing to be lit and then solod the mini boss in the underground thing. That was really tough and exhilarating.

If you're looking for hard and fun, you can easily do it by soloing things.

Now if you're talking about you getting crazy good loot, then that is simply self serving and what you want is an easy mode you can do yourself and you should learn and participate in the things where you can get the things you want. Part of the hard mode loot comes from actually working with others, which is perhaps a hard thing in itself

As long as it did not provide anything extra, I would be fine with a hard-mode put in for people that just like to challenge themselves.

@STIHL.2489 said:As long as it did not provide anything extra, I would be fine with a hard-mode put in for people that just like to challenge themselves.

Well more mobs would mean more loot ...

@Khisanth.2948 said:

@STIHL.2489 said:As long as it did not provide anything extra, I would be fine with a hard-mode put in for people that just like to challenge themselves.

It would have to be balanced to prevent that, like if there were more mobs, they would drop less loot each or something. Have to keep it fair.

Well I did say "great rewards" in my OP, but I was thinking about those being hidden behind a series of hard-mode achievements. Players getting better loot hidden behind more challenging content and achievements is core to this game, and so I do not think that is a valid reason to shoot the idea down.

If the idea costs money and manpower that could provide better and more desirable content to the general player masses, then obviously it would be a wasted effort.I won't pretend to know what kind of work it would take.

I am thinking of this idea on my own, and even I could shoot the idea down myself, but I am putting out a suggestion mostly to get some positive interaction from the GW2 community.

It is not like if you respond with a good idea that makes the original concept plausible, that the development team is gonna go out tomorrow and change the game.

I propose a challenge for this...or any other thread:

• If you see a problem with the idea, state it plainly, but also try to recommend a solution that could make it work. Now you are also a contributing artist.

They gave us harder open-world content in HoT and people complained until it was made easier, then continued to complain about the things that couldn't be changed (like the map design) whilst focusing almost entirely on farming the most rewarding things.

What makes you think a 2nd attempt at adding harder open-world content would go any differently?

Go to HoT. Solo events. There's some challenge in that, until there isn't one anymore.

Only way for a hard mode to work is in instances.Honestly even if splitting the population wasn't an issue, I wouldn't want a "hard mode" because the vast majority of players in the open world do not have the skill for it.They'd go to this new mode and fail

Splitting upis always a bad idea, have you never seen a horror movie before?

jokes aside, Battle of lion's arch proved that split servers(as an example) doesn't work, had to server hop to even have a chance at defeating scarlet, my server wsa amongst the lowest populated server at the time, just above vabbi (which now has more people i think)

@Danikat.8537 said:They gave us harder open-world content in HoT and people complained until it was made easier, then continued to complain about the things that couldn't be changed (like the map design) whilst focusing almost entirely on farming the most rewarding things.

What makes you think a 2nd attempt at adding harder open-world content would go any differently?

I did say the content would have to be acknowledged twice before entering, and it would be optional of course, and the players should be at least level 80.Maybe make an AP requirement to ensure some experience has been acquired and not just poof insta-80.Players might complain that content is too hard, but I do not think it should be made easier if the content is an optional more challenging mode. Sometimes accomplishments should have prestige that shows skill or at least dedication to a grind...sometimes not everyone can have the trophy, or something like that.

@maddoctor.2738 said:Only way for a hard mode to work is in instances.Honestly even if splitting the population wasn't an issue, I wouldn't want a "hard mode" because the vast majority of players in the open world do not have the skill for it.They'd go to this new mode and fail

@CharterforGw.3149 said:Splitting upis always a bad idea, have you never seen a horror movie before?

jokes aside, Battle of lion's arch proved that split servers(as an example) doesn't work, had to server hop to even have a chance at defeating scarlet, my server wsa amongst the lowest populated server at the time, just above vabbi (which now has more people i think)

For these two, I see them as one problem.Instances could work, but I am not sure how you could have a reasonable population. Would it work like dungeons? What about smaller population server like the mad king maps?Perhaps a hard-mode consolidating server across the game where players are redirected if they choose this mode could be a solution.Is the population so low? There might be a different issue here, without regards to hard-mode existing or not.

I just loved the enemies in the gryphon instance. Every mob had a second ability that put you on your toes. I wished all veterans and up had such an extra ability

If hardmode = better and more unpredictable enemy AI that behaves similar to real players, then hell yes.

If hardmode = bullkitten bullet sponges with millions of hp and predictable but contrived mechanics, then HELL NO. I already hate "high end" instanced pve for this reason.

Hard should = unpredictable and adaptive AI more akin to fps or action rpg npcs, not "bosses" with millions of hp that require endless repetitive rotations of skills to chip away at...

@STIHL.2489 said:As long as it did not provide anything extra, I would be fine with a hard-mode put in for people that just like to challenge themselves.

@Ohoni.6057 said:I wouldn't mind seeing them add hard mode options, so long as it didn't make more/better loot available.

That would be an amazing train-wreck to watch. Not a single game designer would do that of-course but gw2 is special so there is hope.

@Mewcifer.5198 said:Take off all your armor: Voila. Hardmode.Hardmode without incentives? Noone will play it. Just look at PoF. Noone even doing normal mode events because of rewards lacking.