Eater of Souls fight is too difficult.

[usnedward.9023]

Think it was to fast of a nerf imo. Too hard...ok learn the cycle... again...imo

[Evolute.6239]

Took me one death to kill this thing in exotic gear. Whatever, it's nerfed now. It was a clear L2P issue but it doesn't effect me. Enjoy the faceroll boss I guess. Hope the final boss encounter isn't the next thing complained about.

[Airwolf.7382]

@Vanive.3804 said:Yeah this fight as a thief is pissing me off. This is the first time in all the years (since pre-launch) I have played this game that I actually had to leave a quest for a breather. I can dodge all day, which builds, which weapons, but some how he zeroes in on me within seconds of getting his bar below 80% leaving me with no way to escape. Currently I'm looking for a way to get him stuck in the scenery so I can finish it. If that considered an exploit, so be it. This fight is obviously built for specific classes which may have an easier time with it. Most of the posts I have read where they stated it was "easy" aren't playing on a thief. You can't even access your inventory to get to your bank to grab different gear. If you go in with the wrong stuff, you just wasted 45min of your life.

To those spewing their toxic BS about L2P, realize not every class is the same, not all classes are geared the same. Based on some of the help posts i have seen some of you folks post; you may have to exploit the game to get the quest completed. Regardless of what you think any developer would say this is a broken mechanic; I don't GAF if you agree or not. If you can not use a boost/buff, the help of others and need to break the game to finish what is considered solo content, then it is broken.

I think Thiefs should be able to use sword and then jump at him with sword 2 when he jumps at you so the immobilize breaks his breakbar. Wanted to do the story on Thief soon anyway so guess I'll find out when I reach that point.

[Ahlen.7591]

You don't have to actually break the bar you know, just roll away. Also do more than 1000 DPS and you'll be fine.

[Airwolf.7382]

@Vyrulisse.1246 said:Well it's been nerfed. A real shame I think as such things only promote people not learning to play or learning mechanics. It's okay for story content to be challenging. Just because it's story mode doesn't mean you should faceroll everything on the first try. Some of the responses in this thread are truly disheartening to see.

They did? aww.

Sucks that people got stuck on it. but I loved how getting to know his pattern and noticing his breakbar opening up for a split second gave me a great feeling of accomplishment.

[pah.4931]

Story Chapter—The Departing: Drastically decreased the amount of health the Eater of Souls can steal.Story Chapter—The Departing: Increased the duration the defiance bar is vulnerable on the Eater of Souls's leap attack.Story Chapter—The Departing: Removed the Eater of Souls's ability to steal health from pets and minions.

I think that bolded line (emphasis my own) was absolutely necessary. It prevented people from playing builds they may have been playing since launch ... and it was confusing as to why the EoS was still life stealing even when the player was dodging correctly.

[Malediktus.9250]

The nerf is lame and unnecessary. A story about godlike enemies (be it balthasar or the elder dragons) can never be truly epic without difficult encounters. If they are easy you think "Why did not just any of the NPCs in the game world do this before me?"It is beyond me why Anet keeps wasting resources on story instances that make you nearly fall asleep (read: tab out of the game frequently).

[Rauderi.8706]

@pah.4931 said:Story Chapter—The Departing: Drastically decreased the amount of health the Eater of Souls can steal.Story Chapter—The Departing: Increased the duration the defiance bar is vulnerable on the Eater of Souls's leap attack.Story Chapter—The Departing: Removed the Eater of Souls's ability to steal health from pets and minions.

I think that bolded line (emphasis my own) was absolutely necessary. It prevented people from playing builds they may have been playing since launch ... and it was confusing as to why the EoS was still life stealing even when the player was dodging correctly.

Glad to see they fixed the fight. Especially that last part.

[James.1032]

no tea no shade, but this boss melted on my zerker weaver ele pre-nerf so judging by how many people struggled on this boss (who I completely forgot about because it was so easy) I must be amazing at this game

[Stephen.1207]

just use ranged weopen at max rang don't get near him all classes have a ranged weopen

[Dante.1763]

@Stephen.1207 said:just use ranged weopen at max rang don't get near him all classes have a ranged weopen

Not all of them are decent however, and even using ranger shortbow he is able to jump to you, so his leap is pretty long.

[Juan.6124]

@elrin.4750 said:Unfortunately, hard content/mechanic will always benefits the hardcore player or the casual who are natually good at games. I don't understand why ArenaNet just not use different modes:

• Easy mode for those who just wants to go through the story
• Normal mode for the way Anet designed it
• Hard mode for those who live their life in GW2 (and award a cool gear, title or something )

I bet this is not hard to implement, so why not just go with this.

Or use your brain and think about what the boss is doing. He charges you so dodge. He heals himself from enemies at close range so go range.

@Sonic the Hedgehog.5169 said:

If this soul Eater was a request by the community to add a Broodmother Mechanic from that Hero Point in this story as a good idea I say it was the worst idea, They kitten over Guardians as all we have is a wimpy staff to stay at long range from getting too close, Melee is a death sentence.

Dragonhunters have access to a ranged weapon called longbow. It is good to keep distance to enemies fighting at close range. Scepter has the same benefits.

[Safire.1736]

I think this fight should be changed for a couple of reasons.

1. By removing friends from the story by polymorphing them and preventing them from aiding you, it goes against the fundamental theme of the game, which is cooperative play. I only ever play with my spouse and best friends,m and in a long, epic story instance like this, it's frustrating when only one of us can do something. Friends need to be able to participate. When they can't it lessens the fun for everyone.
2. The Balthazaar fight was fun and epic and complex. This was punishing and simple. The former is a blast (literally), but the latter isn't fun on any level. At some point, all your gear breaks and the self-healing outweighs the damage you can do. In a fight where others can't participate, you shouldn't have to be super well geared to get past it, ESPECIALLY in the main story. Additionally, the story is decent, but the chapters should be broken up, because it drags. I don't have hours on end to dedicate to a single chapter of gameplay, and what little I can dedicate I want to spend with my friends. This fight is punishing, overly difficult, and plain not fun. I like the mechanics behind it, but some changes need to be made. Otherwise, I may just drop the story altogether, which is a tragedy, because I brag all over this game to people irl about the story and the gameplay and accessibility.In short, this fight goes against everything the game's story mode should be, and that's why I hate it.

[castlemanic.3198]

@Safire.1736 said:I think this fight should be changed for a couple of reasons.

1. By removing friends from the story by polymorphing them and preventing them from aiding you, it goes against the fundamental theme of the game, which is cooperative play. I only ever play with my spouse and best friends,m and in a long, epic story instance like this, it's frustrating when only one of us can do something. Friends need to be able to participate. When they can't it lessens the fun for everyone.
2. The Balthazaar fight was fun and epic and complex. This was punishing and simple. The former is a blast (literally), but the latter isn't fun on any level. At some point, all your gear breaks and the self-healing outweighs the damage you can do. In a fight where others can't participate, you shouldn't have to be super well geared to get past it, ESPECIALLY in the main story. Additionally, the story is decent, but the chapters should be broken up, because it drags. I don't have hours on end to dedicate to a single chapter of gameplay, and what little I can dedicate I want to spend with my friends. This fight is punishing, overly difficult, and plain not fun. I like the mechanics behind it, but some changes need to be made. Otherwise, I may just drop the story altogether, which is a tragedy, because I brag all over this game to people irl about the story and the gameplay and accessibility.In short, this fight goes against everything the game's story mode should be, and that's why I hate it.

Have you tried it post nerf? It's much more reasonable now.

[battledrone.8315]

@Vyrulisse.1246 said:Well it's been nerfed. A real shame I think as such things only promote people not learning to play or learning mechanics. It's okay for story content to be challenging. Just because it's story mode doesn't mean you should faceroll everything on the first try. Some of the responses in this thread are truly disheartening to see.

2 simple questions:what is the purpose of a STORY?how do you measure the success/failure of said story?drowning the story in annoying mechanics/mobs actually makes the story less effective, as it diverts attention from said storyif i want story , i go to the media that were made for them..books , movies etcfurthermore , the story is so far out, that the cheesiest star trek episode would blush

[flog.3485]

@battledrone.8315 said:

@Vyrulisse.1246 said:Well it's been nerfed. A real shame I think as such things only promote people not learning to play or learning mechanics. It's okay for story content to be challenging. Just because it's story mode doesn't mean you should faceroll everything on the first try. Some of the responses in this thread are truly disheartening to see.

2 simple questions:what is the purpose of a STORY?how do you measure the success/failure of said story?drowning the story in annoying mechanics/mobs actually makes the story less effective, as it diverts attention from said storyif i want story , i go to the media that were made for them..books , movies etcfurthermore , the story is so far out, that the cheesiest star trek episode would blush

Easy answer: if the boss fight is too easy then the story being the player character fighting his way back to become alive becomes irrelevant.

You said it yourself, if you want story you are going out of your way to watch a movie or whatever. Here we are not watching a movie, we are playing a game with active combat and specific mechanics that are soooo easy to execute because every professions share the same core mechanics and utilities that are necessary to kill the death eater.

Furthermore, I am wondering. If it is not in open world (HoT complains), nor in fractal (fractal observatory complains), nor in raids to some extent (easy mode requests), nor in personal story, at what point should a solo player get accustomed to simple mechanics to make fights more interesting than easy core gameplay ?

[Liewec.2896]

the only trouble i had was with that darn sucky attack were he gains back pretty much all of his HP,as a reaper MM i found that killing both elder dragons and the god of war was easy peasy,killing this guy took me about 20 minutes and a few near deaths!

[GWMO.4785]

@Bloodtau.4672 said:Can you perhaps tone it down a little? not to mention it being at the end of a painfully long story mission so I can't exactly quit tom get a party formed as it will take me another hour to get to this point.

I first tought that you where being sarcastic here, but reading further more comments.. people are quite serious.... how even? This is literately the same mob: the mouth of zhaitan from the main story, and mechanics are more less the same. His attacks are slow and does low/decent damage. How can you struggle with that? I was dancing circles around him.

[Ashantara.8731]

@castlemanic.3198 said:Have you tried it post nerf? It's much more reasonable now.

"Reasonable"? It's lame, and it's making me a bit angry that people rather have it that simple than learn to play their profession(s) properly. :(

P.S. It's not even the profession play, it's GW2's gameplay basics that seem to cause some people difficulty, which is completely beyond me.

[castlemanic.3198]

@Ashantara.8731 said:

@castlemanic.3198 said:Have you tried it post nerf? It's much more reasonable now.

"Reasonable"? It's lame, and it's making me a bit angry that people rather have it that simple than learn to play their profession(s) properly. :(

P.S. It's not even the profession play, it's GW2's gameplay basics that seem to cause some people difficulty, which is completely beyond me.

It is reasonable now, because before the life steal would steal health from minions, pets, illusions etc. which you can't control directly. While minionmancer is simply one build, all non-soulbeast ranger builds have pets (and every pet is melee I think) and every mesmer build involves illusions and is more efficient with illusions, not only that, but shatters force illusions to run into melee of the target, so even if you're loaded out with greatsword or staff illusions, they'll still run face first into eater of souls which would steal their health.

Secondly, it's reasonable now because one of the key mechanics in preventing the eater of souls from life stealing was a half second leap with a breakbar on it that barely registers on the screen. That leap is now maybe 2 seconds long with the breakbar lasting 3, maybe 4. While three thousand people have mentioned simply running away and dodging, the eater of souls still does a pull that if you're not super far away or are using a mid ranged weapon, you get pulled into the area of effect for what will become the lifesteal. Not enough enemies really make being CCed super dangerous enough to warrant carrying a stunbreak or stability at all times so it's understandable that some people simply won't carry one. However the eater of souls does multiple pulls so even if you did have a stunbreak and used it, you could immediately be pulled again.

I don't agree with how much the lifesteal was reduced by, I think it would have worked better to keep the lifesteal amount high, but regardless that's the change now.

But yes, it went from being unfair to reasonable, because now it actually has room to let people learn the mechanics instead of banging their head against a wall about not even knowing that the leap can be interrupted, preventing the life steal from happening in the first place, and even if they messed up the life steal, their minions/pets/illusions etc. wouldn't superheal the eater of souls like it could previously. For those not using meta builds/gear or those new(er) to the game, it's now manageable and reasonable to ask them to tackle this boss. Just cause you run around super effective against everything doesn't mean every player is.

[Zaltys.7649]

@GWMO.4785 said:I first tought that you where being sarcastic here, but reading further more comments.. people are quite serious.... how even? This is literately the same mob: the mouth of zhaitan from the main story, and mechanics are more less the same. His attacks are slow and does low/decent damage. How can you struggle with that? I was dancing circles around him.The Eater was majorly nerfed in recent patches, so you should probably ignore the first six pages of this thread.

Personally, I think they made it too easy now. Not leeching health from pets and such anymore is good, but they didn't need to lower the drain so much. It's barely noticeable now even if you facetank him, definitely easier than any of the primeval bosses.

[GWMO.4785]

@Zaltys.7649 said:The Eater was majorly nerfed in recent patches, so you should probably ignore the first six pages of this thread.

Personally, I think they made it too easy now. Not leeching health from pets and such anymore is good, but they didn't need to lower the drain so much. It's barely noticeable now even if you facetank him, definitely easier than any of the primeval bosses.

I did that after the first 2 or 3 days after pof release. So before the nerf. Was a piece of cake

[Puma.3645]

--removed-

[Rhanoa.3960]

@castlemanic.3198 said:

@Ashantara.8731 said:

@castlemanic.3198 said:Have you tried it post nerf? It's much more reasonable now.

"Reasonable"? It's lame, and it's making me a bit angry that people rather have it that simple than learn to play their profession(s) properly. :(

P.S. It's not even the profession play, it's GW2's gameplay basics that seem to cause some people difficulty, which is completely beyond me.

It is reasonable now, because before the life steal would steal health from minions, pets, illusions etc. which you can't control directly. While minionmancer is simply one build, all non-soulbeast ranger builds have pets (and every pet is melee I think) and every mesmer build involves illusions and is more efficient with illusions, not only that, but shatters force illusions to run into melee of the target, so even if you're loaded out with greatsword or staff illusions, they'll still run face first into eater of souls which would steal their health.

Secondly, it's reasonable now because one of the

key

mechanics in preventing the eater of souls from life stealing was a half second leap with a breakbar on it that barely registers on the screen. That leap is now maybe 2 seconds long with the breakbar lasting 3, maybe 4. While three thousand people have mentioned simply running away and dodging, the eater of souls still does a pull that if you're not super far away or are using a mid ranged weapon, you get pulled into the area of effect for what will become the lifesteal. Not enough enemies really make being CCed super dangerous enough to warrant carrying a stunbreak or stability at all times so it's understandable that some people simply won't carry one. However the eater of souls does multiple pulls so even if you did have a stunbreak and used it, you could immediately be pulled again.

I don't agree with how much the lifesteal was reduced by, I think it would have worked better to keep the lifesteal amount high, but regardless that's the change now.

But yes, it went from being unfair to reasonable, because now it actually has room to let people learn the mechanics instead of banging their head against a wall about not even knowing that the leap can be interrupted, preventing the life steal from happening in the first place, and even if they messed up the life steal, their minions/pets/illusions etc. wouldn't superheal the eater of souls like it could previously. For those not using meta builds/gear or those new(er) to the game, it's now manageable and reasonable to ask them to tackle this boss. Just cause you run around super effective against everything doesn't mean every player is.

It's nothing more than a situational fight and you had to adjust your playstyle and this is far from being unfair. What is unfair are folks who think they have tried when they actually didn't. The fight was easy at first and a joke now. ANET didn't have to accomidate others when others should make their own accommodation.

The game does not penelize or punish you for adjusting your build as needed.

[castlemanic.3198]

@Rhanoa.3960 said:It's nothing more than a situational fight and you had to adjust your playstyle and this is far from being unfair. What is unfair are folks who think they have tried when they actually didn't. The fight was easy at first and a joke now. ANET didn't have to accomidate others when others should make their own accommodation.

The game does not penelize or punish you for adjusting your build as needed.

First of all, that's entirely not the case, just because you're good at something doesn't mean other people wouldn't have difficulties with it. Get out of the mindset that all players must play like you otherwise "they aren't trying". It is a toxic attitude and the entire gaming community at large needs to drop toxic attitudes such as this.

Secondly, it has become apparent (through my own personal experience etc.) that depending on the game connection and the type of computer played on, The very speed of the game can vary, meaning what's 2 seconds to one player is one second to another player in certain instances. I've been presented a video of a pre-nerf fight, where the eater of souls leap breakbar lats 1.42 seconds. The experience I had was a breakbar that flashed for less than a second, with a leap animation that seemed to have been sped up unnaturally. So there's more elements than simply 'experience' at play here. I only have anecdote to go on at the moment, especially because I no longer have access to the circumstances that I first played the instance in, but there is something that's not making sense about how the same instance can have wildly varying speeds depending on computer spec, ping and i'm sure other aspects. Some sort of experiment is required here, and I believe experimentation beyond simply using a vpn is necessary.

Not ready to file a bug report or anything of the like just yet, as I can't quite go back and forth across two continents to test this out, but it's something that I feel everyone should possibly be aware of, especially with regards to the eater of souls, as that has the most drama at the moment.

EDIT: grammar.