Sinistral.5309

Was gonna make a seperate thread asking if challenge mode is actually broken, because this really doesnt make sense. Eir is fine, despite garm being a root-spamming annoyance, canach however?...as soon as he hits the 50% phase, his invuln buff wears off after the dialog, and he continues to take exactly 0 damage, and be seemingly immune to conditions...how is this even a thing? no way can a single person break his bar so...yeah, guess thats 1 mastery achieve i won't be getting :'( inb4: I've soloed this before but gave up on last fight (mordremoth) because i had to go out, but that was years ago when there were even more bugs in there.

I wasn't going to reply, but seeing as my last post was made in absolute frustration/anger, i felt i probably should.I didn't mean to be rude or anything and outright dismiss your offer, but people seem to keep on the same thought-train here, "its not that hard" etc etc, tell me, has anyone even tried soloing challenge mode lately? Looking at the video cyninja posted, and others, it's obvious something changed (and by changed, i mean got completely broken), intentional or not. I am however a little confused, what is there for me to "not understand"? I can do the mechanics fine, hell, i can even stay alive while doing them, but let me clarify:First, this is challenge mode, NOT the regular story instance, which is fine. Blighted Canach: Bugs out and becomes undamageable at the next phase-shift if you ignore his breakbar (Specifically ignoring the first one). Mordremoth: Hits far too hard, far too fast, and that white ring he does it far too small, i don't know a single class who can facetank that (except maybe engi, seeing as they can throw nades behind/to the side of them and not have to strafe), but anyway, just nitpicking i suppose, would be doable eventually if it weren't for the horrid gear-breakage mechanic, since all stats come from gear, it's like every time you make a mistake/die, you're punished by being made even weaker, and since it's free to repair, why even leave the mechanic in anymore? It's pointless, and incredibly silly considering there is no way to repair in-the-field unless you were lucky enough to grab a permanent repair thing, which i see isn't even available anymore, gg on that btw. Anyhow, my point is NOT that this should be balanced around possibly being soloed, not at all (although arguments could be made for it being story-related etc etc), but it should absolutely be possible given enough time/effort, and as it currently stands, due to the above reasons, it is not.

I don't know what happened, but i was sat thinking "maybe it's a bug? kind of odd for damage to suddenly go to zero like that", so gave it one more shot with the intention of taking screenshots and possible filing a bug report etc, however i was on necro, so his first breakbar inevitably broke quite quickly, second was same deal, impossible to break, but carried on anyway with a measly 500dps or so. Now something weird happened, it got to the 25% phase where canach drops his shield, and the boss half-bugged out, his breakbar went invuln, and this time time he still took damage (albeit the same ~90% reduction)....i thought oh well...maybe this is finally it? Sure enough, 3 hours later he dropped! Luck maybe? I dunno, i needn't have bothered though, i was NOT expecting mordremoth to hit so stupidly hard as he does, (and rytlock, marjory etc hit even friggin harder). rapid fire auto-attacks that deal insane damage, and im not talking about his telegraphed stuff either, im talking about the swipes he does in-between...so not possible to avoid those as he just turns on the spot, gear starting to get seriously broken so i thought ok, viper gear back on and back to condi, kite his ass....Yeah....nope. That stupid ring of whatever-the-hell-it-is all but makes it impossible to stay at any range, wouldn't be so bad, except it casts right on top of you and immediately knockdown/knockback locks you to death. At that point, 3 pieces of gear in the red (completely broken) and a yellow message telling me the game is gonna restart in an hour....Yeah, Alt+F4. Been playing for about a month + half i think, and not even past Bloodstone Fen (because i grew to hate necro, so rolled a new class, then another, then another...)Hell, i was kind of gonna leave the achievement alone and just classify as "will never get", but then i saw the price of the LWS3 accessories....

Well the plot thickens, took some advice from the video and just powered through ignoring his breakbar, but guess what, now he takes 0 damage from everything after his 50% phase, for some reason (Yes, i mean literally, all damage numbers are '0'), ANet's idea of a bad joke? probably. I give up. You can keep your mordrem loop, and your AP.

Yeah...condi engi in full ascended vipers lol, and he just powers through the damage reduction and ignores the breakbar...which kind of proves my point doesn't it. Also im pretty sure that video is before all the nerfs (2015), as 5k bleed ticks through all his damage reduction? Not gonna happen.My trailblazers mirage couldn't even hit 1k ticks, if i remember correctly, ArcDPS had something like ~540dps....lol. Although some of that could be to do with the fact i was forced to go staff/staff due to him knockback spamming me everytime i go near him, making axe/torch/pistol a no-go. Also tried power chrono, slightly better due to ranged GS, but same deal with the stupid damage reduction (as if GS wasn't terrible enough already), and with all his stun-spam and way overpowered insta-20-stacks-of-burn grenades, anyone would literally fall asleep before he hit 40%. I should also note, i am not in a guild, nor do i even have a single person on the ol' friends list. Besides, it's not exactly easy for some people to even ask for anyones help, i myself have social anxiety, so i probably wouldn't even answer if anyone offered/asked for a party in-game. The only other character i have that has access to that instance is a necro, and im not even going to try, he has no cc breaks at all, and no way to shed aggro from garm, so wouldn't even be able to get past Eir (Yeah i've actually tried with him, once).Funny thing is, i do have an engi, with holosmith unlocked, but hasn't even started the HoT story, i'm actually still doing his personal story, finding the willpower to sit through the second half a 5th? time is....draining. It's not just this instance either, every single MMO i've ever played i go out of my way to do the "undoable", simply because i have no other way of enjoying the true end-game stuff (outside of raiding etc, which is expected, and totally fine), usually my late goal is solo every single dungeon, except here...that's pointless as they're abandoned, so i looked at fractals... did the first one, ok, boss was....tiresome, completed simply because of mesmer clones helping to break his shield, 2nd and 3rd were easy once you know how, then came the swamp...found out its mechanically impossible, even though i've seen videos of people "soloing" the boss, how they managed to get past the whisps is beyond me, be in 3 places at once? speed-hacking? hell if i know, so said ok, can't do those either, guess i'll just go achievement hunting...and here i am, another brick wall. Hopefully that last paragraph sums up my frustration a little, But now its 6am so im going to bed.

I got lost half way down the first page with all the derailments, but is most of this thread about challenge mode? Because if it is, i think something gotta be done about canach, i mean, normal mode is easy as hell, but this? To explain: in his 2nd immunity phase at 50%, his breakbar is like 5x the size from 1st stage, instantly refills back to full the second you stop CC, and is IMPOSSIBLE to break solo.Tried for at least 5 hours today, Eir went down easy once i remembered to actually cc break when garm roots you, but no matter what i tried, there is just no breaking Canach's cc bar, which btw is required, as he takes something like 90% less damage until you do (Which in itself is absolute BS). Tried everything i could think of on my mesmer, even something as insane as double sword #4 + double gs #5 + triple Signet of Midnight, + signet of Inspiration/Gravity Well (using continuum split and mimic trickery) only shaves 75% off it, which of course then just instantly refills....Nothing else left to throw at it, apprently slows have zero effect on it, cant use F3 because its used/needed for split, so out of ideas. Considering this instance is in dragon's stand, probably the most loathed map in HoT, and also the most desolate, getting a group for this achiev is nigh impossible to be honest, so...having the dedication/patience to attempt it solo, get half way, then be rewarded with failure, in a damn STORY instance, is utter kitten. Honestly trying to decide if i should even keep playing right now, i mean it seems everything is just so solo unfriendly, once you step out of open-world stuff, which gets old really fast.

If you're aiming to PvE and you think that the Necro lacks damage you should check the last video of Lord Hizen (3 days ago) in Youtube just soloing almost everything in the game with a Scourge build from that class. (Warning: Opinion based stuff incoming) I am of the unpopular opinion that necro should be avoided, especially by anyone new (i know you're not, but anyhow...). Yes, it can be strong for soloing content, but it's also excrutiatingly boring and slow. Literally zero mobility skills/cc breaks, and if you get into a fight you don't want...you're screwed.People love reaper for some reason, maybe the aesthetic? i dunno, but necro with a GS is just so damn slow and clunky, however both elite specs function pretty decent as a bleed-based condi specs, but thats condi...trying to level/kill trash in open world will make you want to hang yourself by the toe nails eventually :persevere: And that's without mentioning the fact the class teaches you so many bad habbits.(Source: My first 80 character was a necro, and i regretted it) As for warrior, not much to say, except surprisingly enough it stays pretty fun even well past 80 + expansions, while still pretty simplistic you really can't go wrong with it. Pretty sure group-play is strictly based on keeping strong banners up, havn't played too much endgame with mine so can't really say. Guardian: I levelled one to 80, then deleted it out of pure frustration/hatred. The whole class is just so many levels of wrong, heavy armour wearing tissue paper class based around blocks that are just way too short. Sounded way better on paper than it actually is. Mesmer: So far my favourite class, only downside is their sheer lack of any aoe skills (Chrono Wells don't count, they last a few seconds, do pitiful damage, and long cd's). As far as i'm aware boon chrono's are still wanted in both open-world/fractals, and they're more than capable of facerolling open-world :) If it's fun, engaging stuff you're looking for, then probably mesmer/engineer would be better for you? Both have the utility to adapt on a per-fight basis (engi more so) and can require more than a "spam 1 to succeed" playstyle to be effective :)

Was just thinking about making this exact post, so im gonna necro instead, don't care, sue me. People just LOVE to blaze through on their necro/ranger and then seem to think anyone can do it, no they can't. I've done AC on all my characters except mesmer, she just gets blown up and can do kitten all about it. Manor?...don't even bother trying. Also, i'm pretty sure the level scaling is just plain broken in there too, for instance, how does a level 65 (scaled to 45) have an easier time than an 80 espec (scaled to 45)? and im not the only one that's noticed either. For a game based around its lore/story, ANet sure as hell don't seem too concerned with this rather large "hole" in it do they. Seems everything core is just abandoned, i mean really, there's NPC's in beetletun "gardening" without any tools, event NPC's without walking animations, the list goes on, but all they care about is updating gem store and adding new raids that less than 1% of the playerbase even do.... #logic.