Hardcore Character Option

It would be cool to see hardcore (1 life) characters added, where they can only group with other hardcore players in dungeons/fractals/raids, and cant receive items from softcore players. It could create a different meta for pve, add some replayability to the game, and provide more challenging & meaningful end game progression. Since leveing to 80 and grinding gold/currency wouldnt really be the challenge of it, hardcore players would still play with regular characters in open world to avoid dividing the playerbase too much. Griefing probably wouldnt be much of a problem because of how mob aggro works and how easy it is to get out of combat.

Jumping puzzles would become the most elite and daring activity there is. Completing the story missions would feel like a huge accomplishment. Legendaries would become a status symbol again. Hardcore guilds would become known for reaching high fractal levels or completing CM's and all the raids. Even if you didnt ever make a hardcore character yourself it would still create a new (hopefully supportive) community of players that you could interact with. I personally never really play hardcore in games but I like the idea of the gamemode and think it can add a lot of positive things to a game.

I'll bite. What's a 'hard core character'?

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:I'll bite. What's a 'hard core character'?

One with 1 life. If you die, your character is deleted along with their equipment and inventory.

Basically Ironman Mode in a game full of 1 shot mechanics. Have fun with that.

such thing will not fit in with MMO genre, nor will be economically feasible because Anet would need to run at least another copy of every single map server for the low populations it has

Please play a proper RPG if you seek challenges like that. A casual action MMO like GW2 isn't the right place for such a mechanic.

@Paradoxoglanis.1904 said:It would be cool to see hardcore (1 life) characters added, where they can only group with other hardcore players in dungeons/fractals/raids, and cant receive items from softcore players. It could create a different meta for pve, add some replayability to the game, and provide more challenging & meaningful end game progression. Since leveing to 80 and grinding gold/currency wouldnt really be the challenge of it, hardcore players would still play with regular characters in open world to avoid dividing the playerbase too much. Griefing probably wouldnt be much of a problem because of how mob aggro works and how easy it is to get out of combat.

Jumping puzzles would become the most elite and daring activity there is. Completing the story missions would feel like a huge accomplishment. Legendaries would become a status symbol again. Hardcore guilds would become known for reaching high fractal levels or completing CM's and all the raids. Even if you didnt ever make a hardcore character yourself it would still create a new (hopefully supportive) community of players that you could interact with. I personally never really play hardcore in games but I like the idea of the gamemode and think it can add a lot of positive things to a game.

Delete your characters after they die once. There ya go!

What is a huge accomplishment? Is it something you feel after completing content you feel was challenging, regardless of the number of other people who are able to complete the content, irrespective of whether they feel they’ve accomplished something huge?

@"crepuscular.9047" said:such thing will not fit in with MMO genre, nor will be economically feasible because Anet would need to run at least another copy of every single map server for the low populations it has

"Since leveing to 80 and grinding gold/currency wouldnt really be the challenge of it, hardcore players would still play with regular characters in open world to avoid dividing the playerbase too much." from my original post.

@Bassdeff.1895 said:Basically Ironman Mode in a game full of 1 shot mechanics. Have fun with that.

Most things arent a 1 shot with toughness and vit gear! Some people find metas other than maximum dps to be fun.

@notebene.3190 said:What is a huge accomplishment? Is it something you feel after completing content you feel was challenging, regardless of the number of other people who are able to complete the content, irrespective of whether they feel they’ve accomplished something huge?

To some people, yes. Completing a set of challenges on a hardcore character can feel more rewarding.

Ironman won't work in Gw2.

Encounters are not designed to be solo'd so yur gonna severely limit the content yu can clear as a solo player.Asking or suggesting for Ironman is basically asking the Devs to build an entirely new experience revolving around a solo player and I doubt they have that in priority.

Only reason games like RS can have an Ironman mode is because it is a game which allows the player to potentially max out every single aspect of their character, which makes Ironman viable because they can switch up what they play as on the fly.

Gw2 has players softlocked into Professions before anything else, and there won't ever be a super op Do-it-all profession, even if all professions can branch into different aspects.

I would like to see some hardcore character mechanic, but not as you describe it. A permadeath mechanic doesnt make the game itself harder, but just punishes a mistake made harder.

I'd rather have something like the following for Hardcore Chars:

• All your stats are taken x0.7
• In places where lvl-scaling is active, you are scaled down 2 more levels than the default
• Amount of exp required for lvl-ups increased, tomes of knowledge disabled
• Locked out of WvW (so noone can complain about people with lower stats running with the zerg)

Rest could stay the same. Now that would actually make the game more challenging than on a normal character.

@Yasai.3549 said:Ironman won't work in Gw2.

Encounters are not designed to be solo'd so yur gonna severely limit the content yu can clear as a solo player.Asking or suggesting for Ironman is basically asking the Devs to build an entirely new experience revolving around a solo player and I doubt they have that in priority.

Only reason games like RS can have an Ironman mode is because it is a game which allows the player to potentially max out every single aspect of their character, which makes Ironman viable because they can switch up what they play as on the fly.

Gw2 has players softlocked into Professions before anything else, and there won't ever be a super op Do-it-all profession, even if all professions can branch into different aspects.

Most of the game is soloable. Almost all open world content is solo friendly, most events, champs/hero points are soloable. Many dungeons and fractals are soloable, even some raid bosses are soloable. And you wouldnt have to solo any of it. Play with other hardcore players.

I feel like you could run this as a personal challenge, but on the other hand it's unfair to team mates who will have to hardcarry.

As a supported experience, a permadeath option would help gather likeminded individuals who are tired of the dps meta (permadead players obviously can't just wp after death). It would change the game from a fundimental level, which certainly sounds exciting.

@Jojo.6140 said:

• Locked out of WvW (so noone can complain about people with lower stats running with the zerg)

WvW meta already uses gear like trailblazers and Minstrels for front/midline. Dead people deal no dps, they always say - so what's the problem here?

@Ashantara.8731 said:Please play a proper RPG if you seek challenges like that. A casual action MMO like GW2 isn't the right place for such a mechanic.

No need for you to play it then. Just because something isnt fun for you doesnt mean others cant enjoy it.

I mean it would be pretty sadistic but besides that, i don't see much problem with it. It would have to be played in maps along with normal players, else it would be ghostland coz so so few would ever play this. Biggest downside is i wouldn't find use of resources to make any hardcore specific content worthwhile, but if anyone wanted to be tagged hardcore and play what everyone else plays. Fine with me.

Just would be almost nothing to indicate how long youve played and what stuff youve been able to do on hardcore, would need a seperate set of achievement titles for that and i can't see them hosting another auction house either so items would be mixed up.

It's already possible to do this. Just make a character, tell yourself it's a 'hardcore' character or 'iron man' or whatever you want to call it, and if they die delete them. People do it all the time, often with other rules like only wearing white quality armour, or no armour, no trinkets, no mounts, have to 100% complete a map before moving on or whatever else you think would add an interesting challenge.

I think the only thing you can't do is say you have to solo everything, because that's not practical in a game with no kill stealing where anyone who happens to be passing won't think twice about joining in the fight. (Although a friend of mine was involved in a late night Dragon's Stand run organised by a couple of guilds where everyone started off naked and could only use items they picked up during the meta and apparently almost everyone in the map did go along with it, but that took a lot more coordination to get started.)

And yes of course you should tell other people how you're artificially limiting your character before grouping with them so they can decide if they're ok with that and you can decide if you trust them to respect your rules. I did once take a no-death character (with no other restrictions, so normal equipment etc.) into a dungeon, with a guild group who agreed to respect that and to follow the same rule themselves. But it needs to be people you trust not to ignore it, or worse troll you and deliberately try to get you killed.

This kinda system fits a solo orientated game. It fits a multiplayer game that allows you to group up for solo content with appropriate boss scaling and all that. Loved it in Diablo 2 to spice things up.

But does it fit content which requires a certain number of players to stay alive till the end to be able to complete mechanics or to kill bosses in time? Many mistakes done by your allies are far more punishing here than just losing a single person's damage or support. Quite a few mechanics require you to rely on a single person to complete a task that might insta wipe you otherwise like Dhuum greens. There are mechanics which make your staying alive depend entirely on your allies and their performances like Samarog and Matthias CC phases.

Such a hardcore system would be a team effort more than anything else. Not to mention downstate and it's effects on how content is balanced. Would we allow ressing before full death or would people die instantly?

@Paradoxoglanis.1904 said:

@Ashantara.8731 said:Please play a proper RPG if you seek challenges like that. A casual action MMO like GW2 isn't the right place for such a mechanic.

No need for the developers to waste their time and resources in building this for a game that isn't really designed to do it. There are other games, more RPG centric, that are better suited for this type of content. Just because something isn't fun for you doesn't mean that the game needs to make radical changes to suit your desired game-play.

There have been few threads about this game mode, like this or this survey. But I'm not sure there are enough players to justify some change for ArenaNet.Probably the best option so far would be to create a guild/small community, like @"Manpag.6421" tried to do time ago..

Playing always trying to stay alive is difficult in GW2, but maybe ANet could add an achievement if you are able to level up to 80 without never die, so you can show off that title (if OP wanted some badge/icon to distinguish hardcore players from softcore players, as he called them). Better 1 single achievement than a new game mode for few players.

Wasnt there a title/achievement in GW1 fro this? Survival-something.

It could just be some sort of title, meta-achievement. Not a new server or special mode.More like:

• new char has this meta-flag
• you break the rule, meta-flag is gone
• but thats it, nothing else changes

@Paradoxoglanis.1904 said:

@Ashantara.8731 said:Please play a proper RPG if you seek challenges like that. A casual action MMO like GW2 isn't the right place for such a mechanic.

Well, you can start deleting your characters after they die, we don’t need Anet to waste dev time and money on it. Solution is in your hands, so be happy that your request is already doable! Let us know how it goes! Enjoy!

Problem is that lag can kill you, so bad luck with a connection can cost you all your progress. Also to make it viable enough to put resources into it they'll need to make it worthwhile to play it so that means rewards you can only get this way...which will tick off all the other players.

Dunno, I have a bad feeling about this...

@kharmin.7683 said:

@Paradoxoglanis.1904 said:

@"Ashantara.8731" said:Please play a proper RPG if you seek challenges like that. A casual action MMO like GW2 isn't the right place for such a mechanic.

How much time and resources is too much? For all you know 1 dev could create a working hardcore build in a couple weeks. Besides, I could make the same argument about LW. In a game designed with active, skill based combat, why waste time making unrelated content? Trivial story missions, cutscenes & dialogue, gimmicky fights with brand new special action skills, animations and effects. Why waste so much time designing new zones that the majority of players try once then never return? There are other games much better suited to story based content. Honestly when people make arguments like this it just sounds like you are saying "I wouldnt have fun with this content so no one should be able to".