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HoT = Dark Souls ? Casual Gamer perspective.


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@"Raknar.4735" said:GW2 is harder than Soulsborne games. There, I said it!

Except for very few bosses, Dark Souls games and Bloodborne aren't even hard.On the other hand, if it wasn't for the rampant AoE spam of way-too-may bosses and their inflated HP bars, GW2 wouldn't be hard either.It's just sad that the mechanically interesting bosses are generally the easier ones, while the "hard" ones just dominate players with cheapness.

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@whoeverxwins.1279 said:One thing HoT does do is demand you remember that dodge you learn at level 4, then rarely use. When there are AOE marks and sniper trails on the ground it means MOVE. Not many professions can stand there and just take it, if any.

even those line trails that the flying wyverns leave behind on the islands at the last part of DS meta can easily down any profession if they were caught unaware

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@Astyrah.4015 said:

@whoeverxwins.1279 said:One thing HoT does do is demand you remember that dodge you learn at level 4, then rarely use. When there are AOE marks and sniper trails on the ground it means MOVE. Not many professions can stand there and just take it, if any.

even those line trails that the flying wyverns leave behind on the islands at the last part of DS meta can easily down any profession if they were caught unaware

Wyvern pee, look out!

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@Fueki.4753 said:

@"Raknar.4735" said:GW2 is harder than Soulsborne games. There, I said it!

Except for very few bosses, Dark Souls games and Bloodborne aren't even hard.On the other hand, if it wasn't for the rampant AoE spam of
way-too-may
bosses and their inflated HP bars, GW2 wouldn't be hard either.It's just sad that the mechanically interesting bosses are generally the easier ones, while the "hard" ones just dominate players with cheapness.

Yep. There aren‘t many bosses I would consider hard, and it also depends on weapon choice.If I had to list the hardest ones for me from all FromSoftware Soulsborne games they would be (in no order):

OrphanMariaFriede (not really hard, just long)Nameless KingRaimeArtorias (debatable, just personal beef)OnS (Patience game)Manaeaters

Compared to them GW2 has more of a bullet hell approach in boss design. You also don‘t find many „one-shot“ mechanics in Soulsborne bossfights and most of them are extremely telegraphed (unless it‘s gravity like Bed of Chaos).

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The enemies in HoT are not overpowered, you are just too weak. Buff yourself with boons, apply conditions like blindness, weakness on enemies, use cc, get proper gear so you can do damage (berserker or marauder gear for power), read your abilities, dodge attacks and much more. It's expansion level content that requires you to know how the game works.

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@"AdamWarlord.6782" said:Edit: This post is to voice a percentage of player base's opinion(may it be a minority, majority, or even just me) on HoT including mine. I have nothing less than love for the game Devs and the community. I have been playing for 2-3 years atleast, and have played some GW1 back in the day. Im not just throwing shade on the HoT content. I am trying to voice my opinion and my experience in a straightforward manner.

Alright, so i just finished up my online classes and studies for my upcoming third year exams and I sit to do my daily completion of a legendary, going on for weeks now. As you can understand, i don't have more than maybe 2-3 hours to play at best. Completion of Eternity and other core legendary weapons took time, but atleast it was doable without frustration and having "fun". When it comes to HoT, I don't know what i am even doing. I am trying to go around the map 90% of the time trying not to die because the floor minion mobs are so OVERPOWERED. I have been playing the game for 2 years, and i have avoided HoT every chance i got because of the same exact reasons i am about to mention.

  1. Its very hard to see, hate the map design and how dark it is in 70% of the places.
  2. Lags way too much on my mid end laptop.
  3. Floor mobs are wayy too overpowered and feel like boss mobs.
  4. Hence because of the same reason above, VERY hard to level up the masteries.
  5. Why do masteries you ask? Because there are wayy too many hero points and other aspects of the completion of HoT, which require doing them. Which sucks.
  6. I can't Solo 50% of the hero points, being a max reaper.
  7. WAIT, I NEED TO DO A ADRENALINE MASTERY TO DO A HERO POINT WHICH CONSUMES MY LIFE WHEN I EAT BACON? WHEN MY LIFE POOL IS 22k??
  8. I actually start to rage(sorry for caps above) playing guild wars 2, which is 90% of the time fun, except when i play HoT.
  9. And due to the above reasons i mentioned above, I actually can feel better playing DARK SOULS than HoT.

I also get why they would be reluctant to nerf the mobs more and bring some player driven balance , but atleast 50% if not more gamers are casual on gw2 and want to play not to rage but to have a good time, i don't mind taking months to get my legendary, BUT ATLEAST let the process be fun. I don't want to get grabbed by a rip off stegosaurus while i'm on my raptor and get 2 shot with 22k health. Any balance, related to player level, or player-online time based balance on mobs, a bit more lighting in HoT maps, a bit more of anything. I get HoT is a very old expansion and that Cantha is coming. But atleast respect your players who are trying their hardest to stick to the game and trying to voice their opinions for a change. And of-course please try providing it. Alright! Back to returning to a checkpoint which takes me halfway across the map from the hero point i just died on, and try to re attempt it with broken armor, because there is no repair station nearby, and i don't have a million repair canisters because i'm a casual.

Edit: I realized they have nerfed the difficulty once, i can't imagine what the mobs were like.Edit: I get where most of you all are coming from, But as i said, its my opinion and many other casual gamers opinion on the content. Leading to a player driven balance, not a balance for everyone.

I'm not going to read through everyone's comment on this matter, too lazy.

Upon my returning to Guild Wars 2 a few months ago, and I myself never delved into the expansions, other than Path of Fire's first mission in order to get a mount, I made a new character (Necromancer), bought all the living stories, and set a goal in mind to complete the base game/expansions in order. I mention this in particular, because it gave me a fair grasp on how to better play the Necromancer, which skills/weapons to mess around, I even asked around in the forums, and tested a multiple variety of weapons/styles, until I actually found one, most Necromancers don't even touch, but it suited my playstyle, and I eventually got fairly good at it, to the point I could solo most anything.

That point aside, I soon found myself diving into Heart of Thorns for the first time, trying to obtain Hero Points/Mastery Points. My goal this time was to become, or at the very least test out the Reaper Sub Class. As such, I did so, and thought I had a fairly good grasp on how to play the class until I did get into Heart of Thorns (HoT). I got my ass handed to me so much so, that I actually came to the forums to ask for help, and see what I was doing wrong. Again people told me to use certain builds, weapons, etc, etc. I honestly didn't find them too much fun, and thought I could further enhance the style I was already used to, only this time, it would take actually getting to learn the Reaper Skills better.

I noticed one of my biggest issues when transitioning to Heart of Thorns, was that I wasn't "Weapon Swapping" nearly as much as I should have been, and this was one of, if not my biggest issue. Unlike Heart of Thorns, everything else can pretty much be done using one hotbar of skills, or so I find. Heart of Thorns definitely pushed, and tested my limitations, but once I got into the habit of swapping my hotbars, every chance I could, making use of multiple heal/buffs, etc etc. Heart of Thorns honestly posed no challenge for me at all. I was able to sustain myself, I went through other people's suggestions, and found my own particular build that I messed around with, and enjoy. I was able to solo pretty much ALL of the Hero points, if not all of them because I kept trying to improve upon the build I liked, with a few tweaks here and there.

Honestly, if you're a Reaper sub class, and trying ONLY to make Reaper skills work, that's where it's going to bite you the hardest I think. Tons of people told me to go "Staff/Greatsword" with my Reaper, but I just couldn't make that work myself. Instead my build consists of Dagger/Ward, and Great Sword. This allows for some great crippling moves on enemies, to help sustain my health over the period of time it takes for the CD's to wear-off. I also still run with Minions to tank/sustain my health as well with each of their hits giving me health. Anyways, topic for Class forums. Point is, try optimizing a playstyle suited for yourself, and if you're not making use of weapon swapping/hotbar swapping, again was one of my biggest issue's. Also as mentioned, don't just try too make use of ONLY your Reaper skills. Base Necro skills are very much still a thing.

I do however agree on some Hero Points being absolute trash to obtain. Like the "Bacon" Hero point you mentioned. I actually had to look up, and do some research on that myself, which boiled down to eating food for buffs. It took me a few attempts to actually do it even with food buffs, and while I think the concept of obtaining a Hero point through draining your life is interesting, probably could be a little more lenient.

Anyways these are just my thoughts, dunno if it helps any, or if someone else mentioned something like this or not, as I said, not reading through every comment here.

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@Humor.5763 said:

@"AdamWarlord.6782" said:Edit: This post is to voice a percentage of player base's opinion(may it be a minority, majority, or even just me) on HoT including mine.
I have nothing less than love for the game Devs and the community
. I have been playing for 2-3 years atleast, and have played some GW1 back in the day. Im not just throwing shade on the HoT content.
I am trying to voice my opinion and my experience in a straightforward manner.

Alright, so i just finished up my online classes and studies for my upcoming third year exams and I sit to do my daily completion of a legendary, going on for weeks now. As you can understand, i don't have more than maybe 2-3 hours to play at best. Completion of Eternity and other core legendary weapons took time, but atleast it was doable without frustration and having "fun". When it comes to HoT, I don't know what i am even doing. I am trying to go around the map 90% of the time trying not to die because the floor minion mobs are so OVERPOWERED. I have been playing the game for 2 years, and i have avoided HoT every chance i got because of the same exact reasons i am about to mention.
  1. Its very hard to see, hate the map design and how dark it is in 70% of the places.
  2. Lags way too much on my mid end laptop.
  3. Floor mobs are wayy too overpowered and feel like boss mobs.
  4. Hence because of the same reason above, VERY hard to level up the masteries.
  5. Why do masteries you ask? Because there are wayy too many hero points and other aspects of the completion of HoT, which require doing them. Which sucks.
  6. I can't Solo 50% of the hero points, being a max reaper.
  7. WAIT, I NEED TO DO A ADRENALINE MASTERY TO DO A HERO POINT WHICH CONSUMES MY LIFE WHEN I EAT BACON? WHEN MY LIFE POOL IS 22k??
  8. I actually start to rage(sorry for caps above) playing guild wars 2, which is 90% of the time fun, except when i play HoT.
  9. And due to the above reasons i mentioned above, I actually can feel better playing DARK SOULS than HoT.

I also get why they would be reluctant to nerf the mobs more and bring some player driven balance , but atleast 50% if not more gamers are casual on gw2 and want to play not to rage but to have a good time, i don't mind taking months to get my legendary, BUT ATLEAST let the process be fun. I don't want to get grabbed by a rip off stegosaurus while i'm on my raptor and get 2 shot with 22k health. Any balance, related to player level, or player-online time based balance on mobs, a bit more lighting in HoT maps, a bit more of anything. I get HoT is a very old expansion and that Cantha is coming. But atleast respect your players who are trying their hardest to stick to the game and trying to voice their opinions for a change. And of-course please try providing it. Alright! Back to returning to a checkpoint which takes me halfway across the map from the hero point i just died on, and try to re attempt it with broken armor, because there is no repair station nearby, and i don't have a million repair canisters because i'm a casual.

Edit: I realized they have nerfed the difficulty once, i can't imagine what the mobs were like.Edit: I get where most of you all are coming from, But as i said, its my opinion and many other casual gamers opinion on the content. Leading to a player driven balance, not a balance for everyone.

I'm not going to read through everyone's comment on this matter, too lazy.

Upon my returning to Guild Wars 2 a few months ago, and I myself never delved into the expansions, other than Path of Fire's first mission in order to get a mount, I made a new character (Necromancer), bought all the living stories, and set a goal in mind to complete the base game/expansions in order. I mention this in particular, because it gave me a fair grasp on how to better play the Necromancer, which skills/weapons to mess around, I even asked around in the forums, and tested a multiple variety of weapons/styles, until I actually found one, most Necromancers don't even touch, but it suited my playstyle, and I eventually got fairly good at it, to the point I could solo most anything.

That point aside, I soon found myself diving into Heart of Thorns for the first time, trying to obtain Hero Points/Mastery Points. My goal this time was to become, or at the very least test out the Reaper Sub Class. As such, I did so, and thought I had a fairly good grasp on how to play the class until I did get into Heart of Thorns (HoT). I got my kitten handed to me so much so, that I actually came to the forums to ask for help, and see what I was doing wrong. Again people told me to use certain builds, weapons, etc, etc. I honestly didn't find them too much fun, and thought I could further enhance the style I was already used to, only this time, it would take actually getting to learn the Reaper Skills better.

I noticed one of my biggest issues when transitioning to Heart of Thorns, was that I wasn't "Weapon Swapping" nearly as much as I should have been, and this was one of, if not my biggest issue. Unlike Heart of Thorns, everything else can pretty much be done using one hotbar of skills, or so I find. Heart of Thorns definitely pushed, and tested my limitations, but once I got into the habit of swapping my hotbars, every chance I could, making use of multiple heal/buffs, etc etc. Heart of Thorns honestly posed no challenge for me at all. I was able to sustain myself, I went through other people's suggestions, and found my own particular build that I messed around with, and enjoy. I was able to solo pretty much ALL of the Hero points, if not all of them because I kept trying to improve upon the build I liked, with a few tweaks here and there.

Honestly, if you're a Reaper sub class, and trying ONLY to make Reaper skills work, that's where it's going to bite you the hardest I think. Tons of people told me to go "Staff/Greatsword" with my Reaper, but I just couldn't make that work myself. Instead my build consists of Dagger/Ward, and Great Sword. This allows for some great crippling moves on enemies, to help sustain my health over the period of time it takes for the CD's to wear-off. I also still run with Minions to tank/sustain my health as well with each of their hits giving me health. Anyways, topic for Class forums. Point is, try optimizing a playstyle suited for yourself, and if you're not making use of weapon swapping/hotbar swapping, again was one of my biggest issue's. Also as mentioned, don't just try too make use of ONLY your Reaper skills. Base Necro skills are very much still a thing.

I do however agree on some Hero Points being absolute trash to obtain. Like the "Bacon" Hero point you mentioned. I actually had to look up, and do some research on that myself, which boiled down to eating food for buffs. It took me a few attempts to actually do it even with food buffs, and while I think the concept of obtaining a Hero point through draining your life is interesting, probably could be a little more lenient.

Anyways these are just my thoughts, dunno if it helps any, or if someone else mentioned something like this or not, as I said, not reading through every comment here.

LoL @ "I'm not going to read anything you guys wrote, so please enjoy this rendition of "The Wheel of Time!"

I did read your life story, though, and my experience with HoT matches yours. I find it challenges me to practice and tweak my build to find solutions where the core game really never did. Every time I take a new character to HoT it's the same way. I get wrecked at first and I have to practice and tweak things to get to the point where I feel comfortable. Once I find what works for me, I can do just about anything! It's unusual, in my experience, to feel challenged this way in solo open world play, but it's one of the things I absolutely love about GW2!

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As with every kind of post like this:

  1. What is your build/class?
  2. You have been playing for 2-3 years, are you good at dodging and using active defense? If you cant get the hang of it then play builds/classes with more passive defense.
  3. Spend time practicing your class in challenging content. If you just play the trivial core content you wont really learn anything.
  4. If you really cant complete the content even with fool proof cookie cutter builds, then play with other people.

The majority of people who complain about solo pve difficulty havent spent enough time learning the game. Explore different build options and gear stats. Learn mob movesets and abilities. Practice kiting and sustaining yourself. Read over your skills and traits and test exactly how they function.

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I'm solo player and I like HoT so much but for new player I understand the frustration. I think when we look at HoT difficult we have to remind the time when we still lack of mastery specialize gliding.

I have to suicide my character so many time because I can't use updraft.

Smoke scale and that mini raptor so terrify me consider at the time mount is not exist.

Mordrem that hit hard like a truck with half screen attack radius.

Invisible frog that can teleport and one shot me from nowhere, Giant frog that simply not die , Chak Lobber that spray deadly acid so powerful even for tanky warrior but most of all that annoy mushroom family.... (even now I still hate them.)

But higher mastery I have easier HoT become and now with mount even make some HoT mastery become useless like jump mushroom and layline gliding.

And because it's difficult make HoT so remembered for me and very satisfy when I manage to finish it.

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It's not wrong to ask for help if you can't handle the combat and navigation of HoT maps on your own.

For the bacon hero point, you can ask a Chrono or an renegade to give you alacrity so you can eat the bacon to gain health more frequently.

Objectively, the AI of mobs in HoT maps is one step above the rest in core maps. It may come as a shock to a new player but it does a good job prepare you for the annoyance coming with later maps.

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@Raknar.4735 said:

@Raknar.4735 said:GW2 is harder than Soulsborne games. There, I said it!

Except for very few bosses, Dark Souls games and Bloodborne aren't even hard.On the other hand, if it wasn't for the rampant AoE spam of
way-too-may
bosses and their inflated HP bars, GW2 wouldn't be hard either.It's just sad that the mechanically interesting bosses are generally the easier ones, while the "hard" ones just dominate players with cheapness.

Yep. There aren‘t many bosses I would consider hard, and it also depends on weapon choice.If I had to list the hardest ones for me from all FromSoftware Soulsborne games they would be (in no order):

OrphanMariaFriede (not really hard, just long)Nameless KingRaimeArtorias (debatable, just personal beef)OnS (Patience game)Manaeaters

Compared to them GW2 has more of a bullet hell approach in boss design. You also don‘t find many „one-shot“ mechanics in Soulsborne bossfights and most of them are extremely telegraphed (unless it‘s gravity like Bed of Chaos).

The orphan of kos wouldn't be even half as bad if it wasn't pumped full of health. I can't say what boss was the most difficult, but the most annoying was all the bosses that summon enemies and the worst of them was Elana, squalid queen. Not really a one-shot when you get gangbanged to death against a wall, but close enough.

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@Yggranya.5201 said:

@Raknar.4735 said:GW2 is harder than Soulsborne games. There, I said it!

Except for very few bosses, Dark Souls games and Bloodborne aren't even hard.On the other hand, if it wasn't for the rampant AoE spam of
way-too-may
bosses and their inflated HP bars, GW2 wouldn't be hard either.It's just sad that the mechanically interesting bosses are generally the easier ones, while the "hard" ones just dominate players with cheapness.

Yep. There aren‘t many bosses I would consider hard, and it also depends on weapon choice.If I had to list the hardest ones for me from all FromSoftware Soulsborne games they would be (in no order):

OrphanMariaFriede (not really hard, just long)Nameless KingRaimeArtorias (debatable, just personal beef)OnS (Patience game)Manaeaters

Compared to them GW2 has more of a bullet hell approach in boss design. You also don‘t find many „one-shot“ mechanics in Soulsborne bossfights and most of them are extremely telegraphed (unless it‘s gravity like Bed of Chaos).

The orphan of kos wouldn't be even half as bad if it wasn't pumped full of health. I can't say what boss was the most difficult, but the most annoying was all the bosses that summon enemies and the worst of them was Elana, squalid queen. Not really a one-shot when you get gangbanged to death against a wall, but close enough.

Pumped full of health is a good description for every BB boss :DYeah, Elana was annoying, but I didn't mind the 3 skele-summon. Velstadt summon hovewer was pretty annoying!

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Here's a tip for HOT: Do NOT run berzerker/assassin.

Run Soldier or Marauder gear for vitality/toughness. I can't overstate this, HOT becomes significantly more forgiving when you are running damage reduction on your gear.

If you run glass cannon, prepare to be 2-shot.

On my zerker Ele, HOT was a nightmare. Going through again on my Warrior running soldier stats, soloing around HOT was much, much easier and the difficulty was more even.

These days I'm running Zerker on my warrior with Defense traited along with Dolyak signet to make up for lost defense, but I'm also just a better player now skill-wise and can avoid a lot more damage.

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@Yggranya.5201 said:

@Raknar.4735 said:GW2 is harder than Soulsborne games. There, I said it!

Except for very few bosses, Dark Souls games and Bloodborne aren't even hard.On the other hand, if it wasn't for the rampant AoE spam of
way-too-may
bosses and their inflated HP bars, GW2 wouldn't be hard either.It's just sad that the mechanically interesting bosses are generally the easier ones, while the "hard" ones just dominate players with cheapness.

Yep. There aren‘t many bosses I would consider hard, and it also depends on weapon choice.If I had to list the hardest ones for me from all FromSoftware Soulsborne games they would be (in no order):

OrphanMariaFriede (not really hard, just long)Nameless KingRaimeArtorias (debatable, just personal beef)OnS (Patience game)Manaeaters

Compared to them GW2 has more of a bullet hell approach in boss design. You also don‘t find many „one-shot“ mechanics in Soulsborne bossfights and most of them are extremely telegraphed (unless it‘s gravity like Bed of Chaos).

The orphan of kos wouldn't be even half as bad if it wasn't pumped full of health. I can't say what boss was the most difficult, but the most annoying was all the bosses that summon enemies and the worst of them was Elana, squalid queen. Not really a one-shot when you get gangbanged to death against a wall, but close enough.

OoK is actually my favourite Boss in the game.And I don't think it's actually hard. But I'm a Strength player mostly using Hunting Axe, Boomhammer and Pizza Cutter.Lady Maria with her invisible hit boxes and attacks that hit you, even though they didn't actually connect, on the other hand were terribly unfair.Blackflame Friede felt almost exactly like Lady Maria, you are just slower.

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@Raknar.4735 said:

@Raknar.4735 said:GW2 is harder than Soulsborne games. There, I said it!

Except for very few bosses, Dark Souls games and Bloodborne aren't even hard.On the other hand, if it wasn't for the rampant AoE spam of
way-too-may
bosses and their inflated HP bars, GW2 wouldn't be hard either.It's just sad that the mechanically interesting bosses are generally the easier ones, while the "hard" ones just dominate players with cheapness.

Yep. There aren‘t many bosses I would consider hard, and it also depends on weapon choice.If I had to list the hardest ones for me from all FromSoftware Soulsborne games they would be (in no order):

OrphanMariaFriede (not really hard, just long)Nameless KingRaimeArtorias (debatable, just personal beef)OnS (Patience game)Manaeaters

Compared to them GW2 has more of a bullet hell approach in boss design. You also don‘t find many „one-shot“ mechanics in Soulsborne bossfights and most of them are extremely telegraphed (unless it‘s gravity like Bed of Chaos).

The orphan of kos wouldn't be even half as bad if it wasn't pumped full of health. I can't say what boss was the most difficult, but the most annoying was all the bosses that summon enemies and the worst of them was Elana, squalid queen. Not really a one-shot when you get gangbanged to death against a wall, but close enough.

Pumped full of health is a good description for every BB boss :DYeah, Elana was annoying, but I didn't mind the 3 skele-summon. Velstadt summon hovewer was pretty annoying!

The endless jumping and raging around propably made it seem tougher. Ludwig wasn't so bad as you can just keep hitting him, but this thing really doesn't like standing still. Elana wouldn't have been so bad, if its entire thing was staying back and summoning enemies, but when it's a boss WITH the enemy summoning (not to mention the teleporting next to you for a swing) it just gets ridiculous. Not to mention having skeletons and velstadts ghost or whatever it is on you and then it teleports behind you. Horrible, horrible designing.

@Fueki.4753 said:

@Raknar.4735 said:GW2 is harder than Soulsborne games. There, I said it!

Except for very few bosses, Dark Souls games and Bloodborne aren't even hard.On the other hand, if it wasn't for the rampant AoE spam of
way-too-may
bosses and their inflated HP bars, GW2 wouldn't be hard either.It's just sad that the mechanically interesting bosses are generally the easier ones, while the "hard" ones just dominate players with cheapness.

Yep. There aren‘t many bosses I would consider hard, and it also depends on weapon choice.If I had to list the hardest ones for me from all FromSoftware Soulsborne games they would be (in no order):

OrphanMariaFriede (not really hard, just long)Nameless KingRaimeArtorias (debatable, just personal beef)OnS (Patience game)Manaeaters

Compared to them GW2 has more of a bullet hell approach in boss design. You also don‘t find many „one-shot“ mechanics in Soulsborne bossfights and most of them are extremely telegraphed (unless it‘s gravity like Bed of Chaos).

The orphan of kos wouldn't be even half as bad if it wasn't pumped full of health. I can't say what boss was the most difficult, but the most annoying was all the bosses that summon enemies and the worst of them was Elana, squalid queen. Not really a one-shot when you get gangbanged to death against a wall, but close enough.

OoK is actually my favourite Boss in the game.And I don't think it's actually hard. But I'm a Strength player mostly using Hunting Axe, Boomhammer and Pizza Cutter.Lady Maria with her invisible hit boxes and attacks that hit you, even though they didn't actually connect, on the other hand were terribly unfair.Blackflame Friede felt almost exactly like Lady Maria, you are just slower.

Boomhammer = best weapon. Of course, the bloodletter is the most hilarious weapon. All the bosses in the old hunters had something in them that made them worse than they could have been. Like the first vicar, damn fire field. Not difficult, just mildly annoying, like most bosses.

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@Mackdose.6504 said:Here's a tip for HOT: Do NOT run berzerker/assassin.

Run Soldier or Marauder gear for vitality/toughness. I can't overstate this, HOT becomes significantly more forgiving when you are running damage reduction on your gear.Absolutely AWFUL advice.While Marauder's is indeed a good choice, telling someone to run Soldier's in PvE leads to a unfun, underperforming and terrible experience for the player.Telling anyone running a power based build to run a stat set without Prec and to neuter their own damage this way leaves them taking far too many hits while trash mobs take forever to kill.It leaves them with the same problem. Things take forever to kill, they just end up taking more hits from the mobs and the value of the stats are wasted.

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If you are struggling in open world, here are a few questions you can ask yourself:

Does my build provide perma self 25 Might or close to it?Does my build provide perma 25 Vulnerability or close to it?Does my build provide me with 100% Critical Chance or close to it?

If the answer to any of those is no, fix it. Every profession is capable of it and it completely trivialises > 95% of open world content by allowing you to nuke it from orbit before ever getting hit by anything.If you are still struggling solo after that, especially in more sustained fights - be it champion hero points and such, you can look into more sustain, getting a source of Protection, Vigor, etc., as long as it doesn't come at the expense of oneshotting almost everything in OW. Anything beyond that is learn to play (and dodge).

Marauder, Diviner's or Berserker's are usually the best gear sets to choose from or mix and match for OW, and Runes like Firework's do wonders for the extra Might, Fury and Vigor, as well as the base movement speed for convenience. If that's not needed Runes like Durability provide nice alternatives with some Protection.

And I will say it again and again, the problem is not that HoT is difficult (it isn't), it's that everything else is so incredibly easy that players never have to learn even the most basics of build craft or gameplay skill, which causes them to then struggle with even easy to moderate content.If 1-80 can be played blind and naked, soloed by a Ranger Pet, it's no surprise people struggle when HoT suddenly is an actual video game you need to play and think in to learn and overcome, both in terms of your own setup and skill, as well as enemy abilities.

I know it's never going to happen, but I truly wish Anet would have another look at the core experience again someday and progressively scale the difficulty up as zone levels progress, so players can naturally improve and learn in a fun bit by bit way without hitting a frustrating wall afterwards.

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@mindcircus.1506 said:

@"Mackdose.6504" said:Here's a tip for HOT: Do NOT run berzerker/assassin.

Run
Soldier
or Marauder gear for vitality/toughness. I can't overstate this, HOT becomes significantly more forgiving when you are running damage reduction on your gear.Absolutely AWFUL advice.While Marauder's is indeed a good choice, telling someone to run Soldier's in PvE leads to a unfun, underperforming and terrible experience for the player.Telling anyone running a power based build to run a stat set without Prec and to neuter their own damage this way leaves them taking far too many hits while trash mobs take forever to kill.It leaves them with the same problem. Things take forever to kill, they just end up taking more hits from the mobs and the value of the stats are wasted.

I don't agree with the blanket statement that Soldier's gear is useless in PvE. While it's true that it's not good for the majority of builds, there are also some where it makes sense. Speccing precision is not the only way in the game to increase damage.

I know that all the veteran players will scoff now, but: my main is a core (imagine that!) melee Guardian in full Soldier's gear and she plays absolutely fantastic in all solo open world and story content. Tough as nails and still does enough damage to comfortably get through everything. But more importantly, the build allows for a lazy, fluent and straightforward playstyle that I prefer. With her I played the whole game from Wayfarer Foothills through Drizzlewood Coast including all story content. I also play a Reaper in full Berserker gear, so I have a bit of perspective on what a high damage build can do in open world.

I absolutely agree with Mackdose that recommending anyone who asks for build advice to run full berserker/assassin (i.e. glasscannon) is very bad advice (exception: necro). If he is skilled and experienced enough to handle the game with a glasscannon build he does not need build advice anyway. If he is not, it will just lead to endless deaths and frustration.

But maybe we can agree that the "default" build recommendation should be Marauder's, not Soldier's and not Berserker's.

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@"AliamRationem.5172" said:A question for the "Go glass or go home!" crowd:

Would you struggle to survive in soldier gear? Why or why not?

Personally I dont care if people run soldiers in open world, as long as they dont bring it into instanced content with me. I do think its a horrible gearset and a noob trap though.

Answering your question, no I would have no issue surviving in soliders, everything would just take 2-3x as long.

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My urge to Math is rising... Soldiers gear is one of the best sets in the game, having a really efficient distribution of stats. If there is somebody who legitimately can't play through PVE in Berserker gear, then Soldiers makes for an excellent alternative. Something I've also found is really helpful is health regeneration food. Mango Pies and the like. That ticking health bonus amounts to a lot over a long duration, and it means you can fight off the champions easier by running around in circles until your health goes back up.

HoT isn't that hard overall. The enemies are actually pretty simple. They have one or two gimmicks, and once you learn to either dodge or walk around that gimmick, then you can beat them with little effort. Assuming you have a decent memory and are paying attention, a new player can quickly learn what each enemy does and how to beat them. There's only two stumbling blocks that a player might have going into HoT:

(1)Learning what CC and break bars are.(2)Learning not to run an RNG build. That is, a build which is whatever gear happened to drop along the way to 80, comprised of random stats with no coherent theme.

Which makes me wonder: has Adam Warlord posted up what build he is using? I know he's recessed into defending this all as just opinion, but I can't help but think there's some unstated set of mistakes on his part that is leading to these difficulties.

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@Croc.1978 said:

@"Mackdose.6504" said:Here's a tip for HOT: Do NOT run berzerker/assassin.

Run
Soldier
or Marauder gear for vitality/toughness. I can't overstate this, HOT becomes significantly more forgiving when you are running damage reduction on your gear.Absolutely AWFUL advice.While Marauder's is indeed a good choice, telling someone to run Soldier's in PvE leads to a unfun, underperforming and terrible experience for the player.Telling anyone running a power based build to run a stat set without Prec and to neuter their own damage this way leaves them taking far too many hits while trash mobs take forever to kill.It leaves them with the same problem. Things take forever to kill, they just end up taking more hits from the mobs and the value of the stats are wasted.

I don't agree with the blanket statement that Soldier's gear is useless in PvE. While it's true that it's not good for the majority of builds, there are also some where it makes sense.What is the most effective way to deal with a Mordrem Sniper?is it to:
  1. Sponge the hits and take 5-6 hits to down the sniper?
  2. Dodge the hit and take it down in 2?Speccing precision is not the only way in the game to increase damage.No but it is the simplest and most effective way for a power build to do so.I know that all the veteran players will scoff now, but: my main is a core (imagine that!) melee Guardian in full Soldier's gear and she plays absolutely fantastic in all solo open world and story content. Tough as nails and still does enough damage to comfortably get through everything. But more importantly, the build allows for a lazy, fluent and straightforward playstyle that I prefer.Weird flex, but ok.I absolutely agree with Mackdose that recommending anyone who asks for build advice to run full berserker/assassin (i.e. glasscannon) is very bad advice (exception: necro).Myopic and untrue.A great newbie friendly thief build is p/p Deadeye. Even with the way it generates it's own fury, it needs Assassin's gear or at least Berserker to get close enough to the crit cap to see it's real value.OW Scrapper is a total beast and with everything in an engineer's kit to leverage, not running Berserker's is just silly.Rev has access to two self heals on seperate cooldowns, why would would Soldier's gear be better than Assassin's for Shiro?And as you mentioned, Reaper has enough innate sustain to really make anything but full damage gear a waste.None if these examples (other than Scrapper perhaps) are high APM playstyles.Wooden Potatoes' "easiest OW build ever shortbow renegade" uses full damage gear.But maybe we can agree that the "default" build recommendation should be Marauder's, not Soldier's and not Berserker's.Nope. The best way to gear power OW will often be Marauders, it will sometimes be Berserker's or Assassin's.It may even occasionally be Diviner's.

It will, however, never be Soldier's

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