Is EVERY story instance doable alone?

[RatedCforCasual.1426]

Returning player here after 4 years absence. I'm trying to catch up on my Living Story, which I'm really enjoying. But usually, I am playing alone, and every now and then I hit some pretty tough obstacles.I remember one specific story instance in LS3 where the Commander needs to train the newly hatched Aurene (Precocious Aurene). I'm playing as an elementalist this time, and dang, it just never worked. It took almost an hour to get through the first few segments. Trying to defend against mordrem killed me so often. And after dying SO much in the maze, I finally gave up for the day.I'm trying to gauge whether or not I should be able to do these alone, or if I just am really bad at playing. Are all instanced story missions achievable or passable alone? I guess, should they be? I don't always like to use PUGs because sometimes other players can rush everything when I like to take my time and enjoy the story. It would be great if all the story instances would be passable with one player, but I think that would require way better AI on the part of the supporting cast.

[mindcircus.1506]

@RatedCforCasual.1426 said:I'm trying to gauge whether or not I should be able to do these alone, or if I just am really bad at playing. Are all instanced story missions achievable or passable alone?Yes. They most certainly are.The vast majority of story instances are mechanics checks. Some are harder than others.All can absolutely be soloed. They don't require meta builds or ascended gear.None of them require a team.

[Randulf.7614]

There's a few tough fights or at least long fights. Instanced story missions are designed to be soloable though. It's just that the skill base of players are diverse and so some things end up a bit more challenging as many players' skill levels naturally go up over time.

That said, it's an MMO. There is no barrier and no shame in grouping with a friend or Guild mate for example to get things done where struggling

Things change up a little in Visions of the Past and Champions (Icebrood Saga) where public/co-op story instances are introduced, but people are reporting they are soloable.

[Dayra.7405]

I did them all alone on my Ranger, many of them with warrior and revenant. Lastly I starrted redoing all on my Rifle/Staff build-switching thief.I never tried ele, keeping ele alive is either lucky or demanding in my opinion ;)

[Linken.6345]

Maybe check build and go condi tempest with dire equipment if your having problems?

[RatedCforCasual.1426]

@Linken.6345 said:Maybe check build and go condi tempest with dire equipment if your having problems?

Thank you. Hopefully it's not to expensive. I have very little money. But I dont know if anything in my gear is uniform, so that's an option.

[Linken.6345]

@RatedCforCasual.1426 said:

@"Linken.6345" said:Maybe check build and go condi tempest with dire equipment if your having problems?

Thank you. Hopefully it's not to expensive. I have very little money. But I dont know if anything in my gear is uniform, so that's an option.

Its a core stat set so shouldent be that expensive.

If you done events in verdant brink you can buy most of your armor from there with resources you get from that map and select dire or the glassy viper if you feel confident.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bladed_armor

EditMaybe this video can give you some tips

[Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.294]

Also consider your weapons and skills - CC skills are a huge help - sometimes you absolutely MUST break that defiance bar. I used to run staff power tempest. And I died a lot in the HoT maps. Then I switched out to dagger/focus power tempest (modified fresh air tempest build). And I have a much easier time doing everything now. And, IIRC, my ele is still running exotic berserker's armor and a mix of berserker's and marauder's ascended trinkets.

And you mentioned having issues in the maze portion. If I remember correctly, you might be getting caught up in a misunderstanding of some of the mechanics. Read through the instance walkthrough on the wiki to make sure you aren't missing something the mechanics of that instance. I remember I had trouble the first time I did that maze section, but, when I ran it on my alt account it went smooth.

[JekthAvid.1408]

Yep! Only time I did a story instance with another person was because they wanted help with theirs. I played (until recently) a herald with random pieces of gear I got through playing. Tanky enough that I wouldn't die, but it took forever to beat some of those bosses. I didn't have a specific build or anything, I just kinda.... did it xP

[Khisanth.2948]

@"Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.2946" said:And you mentioned having issues in the maze portion. If I remember correctly, you might be getting caught up in a misunderstanding of some of the mechanics. Read through the instance walkthrough on the wiki to make sure you aren't missing something the mechanics of that instance. I remember I had trouble the first time I did that maze section, but, when I ran it on my alt account it went smooth.

Yeah ... although one time I also had Aurene bug out and refused to move and I ended up having to fight a lot of oozes before realizing I had to reset.

[Ashantara.8731]

99% of story missions are easily soloable, but those who take too much time to solo I usually do in a group. Why waste time doing certain ones (like the last HoT story mission) solo when you can do them a lot faster in a team?

[Deedrick.4372]

@Ashantara.8731 said:99% of story missions are easily soloable, but those who take too much time to solo I usually do in a group. Why waste time doing certain ones (like the last HoT story mission) solo when you can do them a lot faster in a team?

Because its faster to solo than look for a group.....

[kharmin.7683]

@Deedrick.4372 said:

@Ashantara.8731 said:99% of story missions are easily soloable, but those who take too much time to solo I usually do in a group. Why waste time doing certain ones (like the last HoT story mission) solo when you can do them

a lot

faster in a team?

Because its faster to solo than look for a group.....

That's what guilds are for, no?

[Ayrilana.1396]

Every story instance can be done solo with any build. It’ll usually be faster to do them in groups and the vast majority (exception being just DRMs I think) don’t scale.

[Ashantara.8731]

@Deedrick.4372 said:

@Ashantara.8731 said:99% of story missions are easily soloable, but those who take too much time to solo I usually do in a group. Why waste time doing certain ones (like the last HoT story mission) solo when you can do them

a lot

faster in a team?Because its faster to solo than look for a group.....

Not necessarily.

@kharmin.7683 said:

@Deedrick.4372 said:Because its faster to solo than look for a group.....That's what guilds are for, no?

For instance. :)

[kiri.1467]

As people have already said (and I've done myself with a few characters), they can all be solo'd. A party makes it go much faster though. Recently, I've been trying to get a particular achievement (kill a main bad guy under two minutes) and just couldn't pull it off. Two guildies helped me out when I asked and we melted the baddie in less than 30 seconds. Join an active casual guild and work together :)

[Noodle Ant.1605]

id be more understanding if another build was played other than power ele (w/e variant, and maybe power thief for the inexperienced/facetankers); theres nothing remotely good about it playing solo and it makes other classes feel as tho they have the game on easy mode

do yourself a favor and use a condi build instead, or use another class for solo content. power ele is for the masochists who want to put in extra effort for basically no reward

[Cuks.8241]

I've done almost all stories on a power glass staff ele and yeah some fights can be hard. It requires more tactical approaches and being on top of dodging. Far from impossible though.I am assuming you are using some variation of power build. I wouldn't just throw it all in the bin and completely change all the gear. Maybe experiment a bit with what you already have.
Are you using staff? Staff is an artillery weapon with slow casts. I highly recommend power tempest with scepter and warhorn. Some variation of a fresh air build (I prefer air, arcane, tempest). Fresh air is a trait in air tree that resets your air attunement on crit which leads to fast switching of attunements in and out of air enabling overloads every 3-4 secs which triggers a bunch of passive goodies. Very mobile, lot's of superspeed and everything is insta cast or cast on the move. You also have a nice protection and stability uptime and lot's of stun breaks including passive ones (getting stunned and overrun is death on ele). Lot's of healing also, without any healing stats. And not as complicated as a weaver. It's one of the most fun builds I have for open world since it is not a braindead immortal build, you need to be active, but has the potential to solo kill almost anything.

[Luthan.5236]

I think all story instances are supposed to be doable alone (solo) by every player. While some of the harder optional achievements probably are not meant to be soloable bxy most of the players. (Some still can solo them. Often wiki and Dulfy recommended a party.) Except probably the one from the last story step in HoT where it specifically meantions that you'd need a party.

(Played only un to season 4, chapter 3 - so this post does not take nito account stuff after this.)

I even did most of the stuff in S2 (where some stuff is considered hard) solo. Had more trouble in PoF with the kiling 3 elite in 3 mins.

Keep in mind: Jumping straight towards later stuff ... as a new player ... might be harder. If you have less experience and less quality gear (not at least full exotics or ascended) than an experienced player.

• some classes are harder to play. I always found thief and ele (which you play) to be harder. (Squishier if you are not that good at it and higher skill floor cause professional play needs you to change all those attunements a lot. Basically like playing with 4 weapons sets and switching between them constantly.)