castlemanic.3198

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.

"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.

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

I don't understand the leap in logic here. GW2 is mostly unconventional because it didn't become free to play until the first expansion released, had a cash shop since release (when it was buy to play, not free to play), and has made it's cash shop mostly cosmetic, with some quality of life enhancers. So the unconventional route taken means that GW2 must suddenly jump on a ccg bandwagon? And not only that, having a gw2 ccg have it's on development team by default means resources are taken away from GW2, because any devs working on the ccg could be devs working on GW2. We also have a real world case of the devs abandoning a side feature, polymock, in favour of the main game. It's not about being able to afford it, it's about what makes the most sense to put resources into. With the recent shift in development focus from the devs to bring path of fire between season 3 and 4 within a very short interval of time means that things are going at a pace that shouldn't be shaken for the sake of a ccg that the devs don't really have enough experience to make, nor have the data to ensure that it's something popular enough to warrant development on. Besides, other games have already filled the niche and have most of the ccg audience taken, what would make GW2 so unique in what it offers that others havent innovated on already. The biggest innovative shift was already made with hearthstone, in that it was completely online and as such has the freedom to make choice based cards and results that would be otherwise impossible in real world ccgs. The market has already been taken up, mostly by hearthstone but others have places too, so why would arenanet use up resources on a not sure market that already is being catered to by other products?

Collecting Card Game (someone help pls). Basically magic the gathering but somehow thematically tied to guild wars 2. You take cards, play them against another person who has cards, and whoever knocks down the health of the card owner to zero first wins.

I'd rather not take development time away from GW2 in order to make a ccg that would need it's own constant developer team. I also don't believe that just because other games have ccgs that gw2 needs to hop on the bandwagon. Considering the abandoned polymock, it's doubtful anything like this will happen.

I mean, scourges are from a desert region, which has actual mirages (no not the elite spec, the real life phenomena), so it kinda fits. Also, considering that the elite reaches into the realm of torment, which was where abaddon was once trapped, and how many who are tormented by extreme circumstances can go insane, i'd say it fits. While it is a bit odd that charr would say it, they would have been taught by those native to the region, so i dunno. Torment is also a condition heavily used. I know i'm reaching with this post, but I also think it's not the most key thing to analyse.

The first time i played this, I was trying to kill the sentries before they reached the torches, got halfway through the sentries before half the enemies on the map aggroed me, during which, canach was halfway across the playable area, triggered the sentry and then all hell broke loose. The issues i had weren't with enemy aggro, but with canach and rytlock choosing to fight from the opposite ends of the map from me. So yes, i'd appreciate it if the encounter was looked at in some form. I may not have had as hard of a time as some on this thread, but i think just even having the devs look at this encounter and see what's happening with a response would be great.

ahem ahem What did the priory scholar say while studying insects?Grub-a-dub-dub What organisation are tourist guides a part of?Grant a vista foundation. Thieves are always off performing stunts.Those daredevils. I love aurene, especially because of the glint in here eyes. If grenth styles your hair, does that mean you had a brush with death? Oh that dwayna, she breathes life into me. Lion's arch has a storage problem.Too many kraits. A guardian taught me the secret to happiness. Meditation. "Well well well" said the necromancer, killing his enemies. A ghost was screaming in agony, it was experiencing phantom pain. And last but not least, my absolute favourite pun ever, is not however one of my own making, but by someone who's character name is Mea Nauova. What's Tyria's favourite card game? Charr against humanity. EDIT: to clarify, me and Mea were throwing puns back and forth and i loved the convo so much i screenshot it. Otherwise i'd never have remembered that person's character name XD

Lol at that second part. This boss isn't accommodating to as many people as possible and that's why it needs to be nerfed. You were the one who suggested to bring along friends. The reality of that instance is that whoever doesn't own the instance doesn't have access to their skillbar, they're given a completely useless skillbar in which they can't actually help participate in the instance. Maybe that wasn't clear before, but that should be clearer now. "Everything". Lol. You can't even use your inventory in this instance. This instance is far from a normal scenario, and having one minor change, extending the breakbar from half a second to two seconds (no, not the life steal vortex, the half a second jump right before it) would make it playable to all while making sure the boss still has challenge. While you may refuse to believe it, the objective truth is that there's a balance issue that needs fixing. I love the irony of these two statements being right next to each other, especially with the sarcasm just dripping from both.

I've played and beaten the encounter, and as such understand the mechanics of it. And i'm telling you, as someone who isn't having a problem with it, there's a problem, a legitimate balance problem that needs to be addressed and a relevant nerf needs to be put in place. Are there cases where people simply are refusing to learn how to play? Yes, I wholly acknowledge that can and probably is happening to a certain extent. But there's no doubt in my mind that the vast majority of players who are having issues and can't beat the boss are doing it at their maximum capacity. If this was an optional side boss, I wouldn't be here having this discussion, because i understand the need for difficult and challenging content. And i've already suggested a nerf that fixes the issue while keeping the mechanics in place and doing very little to change the mechanics of the fight itself. As someone who isn't struggling with the boss and can defeat it easily, I'm saying there's a legitimate area of concern and that the boss needs to be nerfed. You also can't help people in this fight because party members are turned into useless spirits. You again keep ignoring an issue that I keep mentioning, some don't look outside of their own personal playspace and enjoy the game that way. Some people don't use discord, some don't look at the forums or reddit, some people don't look up guides. Explain how those people are supposed to cope with a fight they don't understand.I know you don't consider the unwillingness to learn to play a "game" issue. This is the biggest divide we have in our arguments, because there are people who do know how to play the game who are struggling on this boss because it's not properly balanced. I'm not talking about people refusing to learn to play the game, I never have. I am only talking about people who have a legitimate difficulty in defeating this required boss to progress through the personal story. If you don't believe those people exist, then we're done talking here because I have no time for people who don't care about others. I had to explain a poorly implemented mechanic (seriously, a half second breakbar? and no, i'm not talking about the swirling vortex of life steal, i'm talking about the one that happens right as/before it jumps) that I happened to come across by accident, that's the entire issue. A crucial mechanic that was poorly implemented makes the fight a lot harder than it necessarily needs to be. The rest you addressed partially below so I'll save it for then. Holy slippery slope fallacy. But at last, we finally get to the core of the issue. You truly believe that fractals and raids will get nerfed eventually because this one legitimate problem in the personal story needs to be fixed? It's called a slippery slope fallacy for a reason. Side note: I mentioned above that I have no time for people who can't think of others, I refuse to change that response because I believe in keeping the integrity of the comment and not trying to alter it to make it look better (apart from necessary edits like the last post where i kept failing with quote editing), even though I'm writing this before i post it. I get the fear of the slippery slope you suggest will happen, so much so I won't address the last point because this is your primary concern and everything you've posted has been in relation to this. Considering that, I'd like to apologise for the sarcasm and rudeness. I completely misinterpreted what you were trying to get at, and as much as i'd like to pull out excuses about why those happened, your intention is absolutely clear to me now (and probably should have been clearer before, my bad). My mistake was that I'd interpreted your responses as the elitist jerk attitude of "nothing should ever change because I like it the way it is", where your actual concern was "if this is changed, what next". I feel there's a legitimate enough difference in those two stances, because I absolutely do not hold back with elitist jerks who only want "the privilege of accessing all the content there is, casuals be sent to the realm of torment and they should never have existed". A legitimate fear that nerfs here will eventually lead to nerfs everywhere, while a logical fallacy, is understandable. However, I wholly do not believe that nerfing this one single boss will lead to the trend of ruining fractals and raids. Mostly because of how the developers work on everything. As far as my knowledge goes, the devs responsible for raids and fractals balance and the devs responsible for personal story balance are two separate teams, with some overlap in perhaps art and lore (art being extremely broad termed, simplified for the sake of this convo). I truly believe that the devs won't make raids and fractals easier, because their intention from the very beginning of GW2 development was to have more difficult content. It started with dungeons. Obviously, those turned out to be a failure with people soloing explorable paths after a while, but the design intention from the beginning was to have dungeons be super difficult. So they introduced scalable fractals. Even T4 fractals weren't enough, so raids became a feature, and as far as I know, raids have really hit the mark in terms of appropriate difficulty and challenging mechanics that the hardcore community have been desiring. But fractals were still lacking, and as such they started adding challenge motes to the newest three fractals (or was it four, can't remember) to compensate for people who prefer fractals. While they've almost abandoned dungeons in terms of development, they've been focused on giving a hardcore experience in PvE alongside more casual experiences in open world and personal story, with some challenge for larger groups in terms of metas, and now bounties. Bounty tuning needs to happen, both in rewards and in the difficulty of the challenge as well, but in general metas have been made sort of as a bridge between casual and hardcore in terms of open world. Yes, they may not be map-wide metas, but they still are meta events, a chain of events that requires a large number of players to complete. To me, the devs have, through their actions, lived up to their intention of carving out a space for both casual and hardcore players, barring tuning that will definitely happen. I understand the fear that everything is going to get nerfed to hell, but so far it hasn't happened, in fact, with the newest fractals and their challenge motes, it seems they're completely aware and trying to get more difficult content in the game. So they are listening, they are making sure there's a space for all, and I think this will keep happening into the future. But this one nerf in the personal story, I think it's necessary. You pointed out that if these complaints popped up a couple of months from now, they'd be legitimate, but I actually believe they're just as legitimate now, because the vast majority of players who have purchased path of fire would have been playing since launch, and the vast majority of players experiencing the personal story would have run into this issue now, not months from now. For some, I agree it's a learn to play issue, and that they just need to give it another shot after looking up a guide or somewhat, but to most, I think there's a legitimate issue of balance and tuning here. The fight is manageable up until the half a second jump, the vortex is horrible and i'll forever have issues with it, but that half a second breakbar jump is key to stopping the whole thing. Many won't notice it. I didn't even notice it until i accidentally broke the breakbar, and then knew what to do. It's not entirely fair to assess this as just a learn to play issue, there's a degree of the devs messing up here, up to and including the fact that some are using exploits to finish the fight (having the boss get stuck in terrain or using necro minions to kill him while he stands and does nothing). While yes, some will always seek exploits to use, most won't unless they feel it's their only option. There's a necessary issue here, but I don't believe that it will explode into nerfing raids and 100 cm fractals to be soloable with autoattacks, since those are from different teams who have different goals.

I voted tengu because it seems like largos are never going to happen. Since the introduction of those wings in the gemstore, it's a very clear sign the devs are saying largos will never become playable. Same with the kodan combat tonic.

except i pointed out there were people who don't read the forums at all, and your response was to talk about the people who do?See my confusion? ???? how did i make any argument here? Considered the problem, heavily, after talking to a few people about it. Still came to the forums because that was the most logical thing to do instead of leaving people to be unable to finish the story. You never talked about a minority of people, but regardless, while the point may stand with regards to other games, it doesn't stand for this instance. That. Which I quoted. And you missed. The point is there, being willfully blind to it is the issue i'm having with your arguments. ??? I was talking about the disrespect towards people suggesting difficulty modes. Like, that was clear. Sharing a mentality doesn't mean you've shown disrespect. Yes, those people exist, but this conversation was never about them. Those people existing doesn't erase the toxic attitude some in the community have shown to sensible ideas, and vice versa. Dark souls? Hellblade? Games with permadeath? Battlegrounds? Risk of Rain? The entire rogue-like and rogue-lite genres? Darkest Dungeon? Clearly that's not the case, many games are being targeted towards players who prefer challenge, and there are upcoming mmos who are doing that as well. On top of that, raids and fractals exist within this game, meaning you are being catered to. What's really baffling is that you're I mean, have you seen some of the stuff you've said? Especially when you'd rather assume that people are lazy rather than having an actual difficulty with the game. That, right there, is insulting people. Oh and just in case you think i'm making that up: Do you see the irony in your statement? It's not a done battle, the discussion is still going, aka it's not finished, and no, just because some people managed to beat it doesn't mean everyone is capable of it as the fight is in it's current format. It's impossible to move on with the story mission without beating this boss. Why should we demand players be able to follow a guide for their class in order to beat this boss? The OP and several people who responded, saying they find the fight unfair or that they couldn't finish it? Having issues with a boss is normal. Having a personal story boss that's unbeatable for some people is not. That's the very core of this discussion. It absolutely is honest, lets look at those two quotes together. EDIT: formatting the quotes below. EDIT: How can i mess this up so badly? EDIT: Oh for the love of god. While I was talking about this one specific bossfight in this one specific story instance, you went on to talk about the broad aspect of players wanting to take on personal story instances and those preferences. It does entirely miss the point of the argument because it talks about another matter entirely. That's actually a reasonable suggestion. it would eliminate most of the issues that revolve around harder story instances and gameplay in the open world, fractals and raids. Also having some sort of mechanic to train players about which builds/traits and weapons go well together would be a huge benefit to the community as a whole, vets would of course not need it, but new players would because this game is absolutely terrible at teaching players the finer points of buildcraft. It would not, however, eliminate the issues with this specific story instance. Extending the breakbar by two seconds would. The point is we need to nerf this one specific boss because it's become unplayable to the point where multiple players on this very thread, including the OP, have mentioned how difficult it was for them, how some of them have given up as well, and this one specific boss is too difficult for some players. Had a guildie nearly quit the game before i told them how i beat that boss because it wasn't designed well. that's the issue. That guildie isn't on these forums, but they absolutely had a horrible time until i told them how to do it, and considering the earlier point about how people exist who don't go to the forums, reddit or read guides, it just seems the logic falls in place. You'll notice with the sous-chef mastery point, I actually commented on that thread and instead of suggesting it should be nerfed, I told everyone how i beat it and how there are other mastery points to be obtained and that there's also a surplus of mastery points within Path of Fire. I understand the nuance between 'something that's difficult and fine as it is' and 'something that is unfairly difficult and should be changed'. The optional sous-chef mastery point which i spent nearly an hour on before finally obtaining it, I never asked to nerf it. This boss, I am asking because it's not optional for the personal story, it's mandatory. But having the breakbars extended by a couple of seconds still leaves the challenge in place. This is what I don't understand, the challenge is there, the path to making a player understand the mechanics is there, since the boss still needs to be interrupted before doing it's life stealing vortex, the amount the boss heals is still a ton, the amount of damage the boss does is the same. The fight isn't changed dramatically, everything is almost the same as it currently is, except there's more opportunity for players to use their ccs, something the game doesn't do enough to encourage players to deal with through personal story instances. It teaches players new things because the mechanics are the same, even as a veteran casual player, I see the value in this boss fight not being wholly redesigned, but this one change can bring a strong incentive for people to learn the mechanics because it helps encourage people by showing them a flashy bright blue bar for far longer than it currently is, and demands that the player asks "what is that and how do I deal with it?" The challenge would remain, but it becomes much more fair to all players. Never have I called you apathetic for simply enjoying a game with more challenge, I called you apathetic because you resist the very idea that other players can have a legitimately hard time with this one aspect of challenge and don't want the game to accommodate those players, instead calling them lazy. Twice. Here's the second time you used it btw.

First, they can make efforts to accommodate as many people as possible, currently they aren't doing that with this design iteration. I also love how you skipped analysing the suggestion and went straight into misinformed talking points. Second, as above, any friends you have join are useless spirits that can't help you in the souleater fight. Thirdly, I beat the fight on the first try and I have the mental capacity and empathy to realise many people won't be able to beat the boss at all as is and that needs to change.

How do you make the jump that just because some people post on the forums means there absolutely is no one who doesn't read them?Please tell me the logic behind that. Also, laziness is not what we're talking about here, but of course you'd frame it in a matter that has nothing to do with the conversation simply to 'make your point more legitimate'. You missed the point entirely and didn't even quote me correctly since you quoted me quoting you. How does a topic like this arise if it was playable to all? How does that logic work out? How does the fact that some people have griffons means everyone is capable of playing at the same level? You really are making some massively false leaps in logic. How do we keep running in circles, did you miss the section where i specifically pointed out i said to some, as in some people, not every single person on the planet, finds it unplayable. Some, it's a word I have explicitly used, why do you keep pretending like i've made it seem no one on earth can play through this content? It's laughable that you say "all" content being incredible easy and then break your own argument with examples where that isn't the case. I love the leaps in logic you make. Clearly, as you pointed out, not all content is easy, but you're hilariously misguided if you think that "a few new people" are all it is that prefers easier content. The objective fact is that a very large number of players prefer having easy, soloable content when it comes to the personal story. Like, of all things, the personal story is where your gripe is? I don't get it, from the very beginning, the devs have designed the game to be playable by a majority of people who prefer easier content, and then slowly expanded more difficult content, up to and including locking the most useful set of gear (legendary) behind game content that is impossible to the majority of the playerbase. The reality here is that people who prefer difficult content in this game are a much smaller number than those who prefer easier content, but everyone has some content to enjoy. What never stops is that people like you feel so entitled to your content that you don't want anyone else touching it. The utter contempt, disrespect and vitriol pointed at me and others who had the misfortune of suggesting difficulty levels for raids, as in you get to keep your hard content but others get to experience it at easier difficulties, really shows the entitlement that people feel over difficult content. You may not be like that, but you have certainly shown that you share some of that mentality. But there is a legitimate morale in this, in that you apparently can't comprehend the idea that some people may find content legitimately too difficult to complete, that ALONE suggests a lack of empathy, along with much that you've said already. You're also talking in broad strokes, where this entire discussion is centered on a single boss fight in a personal story mission with an extremely simple nerf that makes the fight manageable but still teaches important mechanics. Why do you keep ignoring the suggestion that does everything you wish it to except for making it easier for people to finish the fight? Why is that such a difficult thing for you to address? Lol, way to oversimplify and entirely miss the points that i've made. We're talking about a single boss fight in the personal story, we're not talking about raids and factals and every piece of open world content. I have also demonstrated a solution that makes it easier to many but hits all the important points that fight is supposed to teach, you're acting like i'm suggesting the boss should be killed with a single auto attack. You can disagree, but you also have those numbers hilariously wrong, where the numers are, in actuality, skewed heavily towards players who prefer easy content. Just because they don't post on the forums doesn't mean they don't exist. You also have content tailored to your tastes, fractals and raids, but the majority of the game is designed for people who prefer easier content. No, that is far from the only acceptable case. You seem to misunderstand the design intentions for the personal story, in that they are absolutely made to be easy for the vast majority of the playerbase to be able to finish. Let me quote you from earlier: Guess what the original vision of the entirety of the personal story, including everything in PoF, is? Soloable for everyone. Currently that is not the case. How, please tell me, how does extending the breakbars by a few seconds ruin any of that? How does extending the breakbars existence prevent any of that? You seem to be completely ignoring a suggestion that falls within your established guidelines for how the fight should be, instead attacking the very design intention of the developers for the personal story to be soloable. How does that make sense?

I would love an underwater mount, but i also really want underwater combat to be redone as a whole to be better balanced, managed etc. It's leagues and leagues better than other mmos alternative to underwater combat, but it's nowhere near what it could be as well. I hope underwater mounts and an overhaul of underwater combat is managed at some point.

disability, old age, simply not having a fast enough reaction time, ping, slow computer, being in a country with crappy internet, life commitments, injuries, mental illnesses, physical illnesses, temporary issues, unstable/unreliable internet, the list goes onh and on. See above reasons why some people may not have the ability to do so, I don't get how you can be so apathetic to the needs of others. Also not everyone reads the forums, reddit or online guides, seem to have ignored that point, havent you? Unplayable to some. That's the key here, I've always, always, said that it's unplayable to some. For good reason, to make the core story playable to all, how is that a bad thing? EDIT: didn;t read the second half there, so lemme leave my original statement and add to it. Nerfing the personal story is, in and of itself, not the bad idea you think it to be. It is how they have nerfed it that doesn't, in any way, teach the players how to effectively tackle certain scenarios. The nerf i suggest, having the breakbar last longer, still teaches the mechanics of dealing with a breakbar, still shows players that, at times, there will be abilities that need to be interrupted through cc. there are smart ways of nerfing boss fights without crippling or ruining the fight as a whole, simply extending the length of time breakbars exist is smarter than reducing the amount of health regained, the amount of damage done, or removing the unique mechanic all together. Why should path of fire suddenly ask that a solo experience become unplayable to some who have had no issues up to now? And again, some people don't read guides, forums or reddit, so what is their solution? Different game, different mechanics and most important of all, a completely different audience. EDIT: I will wholly admit on flipflopping on this specific argument, you don't need to call me out on it, i messed up and am now taking a different stance. Sometimes an opinion can change mid argument and mine changed here. While it is important to make sure your core audience is still adhered to from a previous game, it's also important to expand that where possible to include more players for the health of the franchise as a whole. I messed up on the flip flop, but feel free to tackle this argument. Oh gee, I wonder why that is. Could it possibly be that the gaming industry has expanded ten thousand fold and now we have hundreds of millions of gamers world wide, each one of them with different tastes and abilities in gaming as a whole? Gosh, it's almost like the human experience is completely dependent on an individuals preferences, and that games like GW2 have expanded to an audience much larger than it previously had in GW1. Who'd have thunk? One fight, one single mechanic. You also seem to have completely missed the entire point of my suggestion, simply make the breakbar last longer. Guess what? That still teaches people about momentary break bars that need to be broken to stop overpowered abilities from happening, that still involves thinking out of the conventional "spam 1 until dead" narrative that l2p commenters constantly degrade others for using, that still does it's job in having that difficult ability need to be dealt with as a whole, it just makes it manageable to all where before, only some could deal with it. Is that, really, at it's core, such a huge ask, to extend the duration of a breakbar from half a second to 2 seconds? Are you really so offended at the idea that something could possibly need tweaking for people who are having a difficult time at a solo experience? Is it such an insult to the GW2 community as a whole that a single boss fight have a single mechanic tweaked slightly to help involve players and allow them to complete the whole Path of Fire personal story where they could not do so beforehand? I don't understand this hostile attitude to anyone who wants something to be manageable at a soloable level. The fight doesn't even need to be wholly redone or balanced, just make the breakbars last longer. The complete lack of ability to think about how someone else may be struggling is absolutely fascinating in ways that they bend over backwards to create arguments out of thin air why something should remain unplayable to some people. Empathy people, think about others who aren't as good/experienced at the game as you are, it's not a huge ask.

There's being flexible and there's being completely unable to do soloable content. Sometimes it's a learn to play issue, this is not a learn to play issue, and I'm speaking as someone who has finished it. There are a thousand reasons why someone isn't as good at the game as you, and 'not being good enough' is only one of them, this needs to get nerfed to accommodate players who enjoy the solo content, because they can't even bring in friends to help, those friends are turned into useless wisps, and they can't even access their inventory as well, making the situation much harder than standard GW2 gameplay, and if i remember, gw1 was all about having a full party to complete everything, whereas this one situation in gw2, the only one like it, is now impossible for some because they can't do things they could regularly do in the rest of the game. While yes, that does require some adapting, you're asking people who are suddenly gimped in a couple of ways to further adapt to a boss that can fully heal itself if someone doesn't have the required cc, and in which having cc is the only solution to the problem, but the window in which to use that cc is extremely small for the maximum benefit. Sounds nothing like GW1 to me. People are having issues in a soloable experience, it needs to be looked at and nerfed. The most tasteful nerf I can think of is having that initial jumps breakbar be extended from a mere half a second to two or three seconds. That's all it would take to make the experience go from unplayable to manageable Because some people just have high ping or low fps based on things out of their control like what country they live in, but there's also things with disabilities too, people who just don't have a fast enough reaction time, and on top of that some classes will have a harder time with it too if they have longer cast times for ccs.

Those strategies work for people who look at the forums, the vast majority of players don't look at the forums or reddit, and that is where the issue lies. People who don't look at the forums, don't look up guides and just play the game. Is it really so important that the personal story, of all things in this game, the purely soloable content of the game, not be nerfed to accommodate the vast majority of the playerbase? Like, this is the thing that baffles me about the people complaining about those asking for nerfs, this isn't open world content, this isn't legendary bounties or metas, we're talking about some of the only soloable content in the game and asking it to become soloable for all people. How is that such a divisive ask that soloable content be made soloable to all players?

That's not super lucky. That's actually how you're supposed to defeat the boss. It is super lucky because I discovered it by accident. I was getting really frustrated up until that point, because i was too busy trying to dodge roll out of the way during his swirling vortex of life steal to be able to effectively cc him during that period, and finding out i could cc him before he even does the jump with it's half a second breakbar does, in fact, mean I was lucky to discover that method.

I love all the huge improvements over HoT, no more impossible to solo hero challenges, no more masteries tied to gold adventures, no more Metas that block off crucial access to personal story and key exploration areas for progression, no more disastrously implemented pocket raptors or anything of it's ilk, no more metas that spawn ten champions on top of an unsuspecting player, no more thousands of hours of grinding to complete one mastery tree, it's been an amazing experience and a thorough improvement over the mess that was heart of thorns maps. I honestly wish HoT maps could be redesigned to be like PoF maps because i literally quit the game until season 3 came out because it was the worst thing that happened to GW2. You guys learned what's best for the game, and that's really good. My only complaint is the Eater of Souls. Just tweak that initial jump to have the breakbar be up for longer before he finishes the leap and starts the life stealing thing so that it's more manageable for those of us who find it difficult. That one tweak would help a ton of people and not require rebalancing the whole fight, because it was otherwise tuned perfectly.

Except Eater of Souls doesn't allow friends to help fight, nor does it allow you to use inventory and restock on item effects like food as a part of the story in that instance. There is nowhere else in the entire game that has both of those things occuring at the same time. You're forced to solo it because your friends turn into a useless sprite with limited capability. The tuning of the initial jump to allow it to be more easily cced is all i'm asking for. That's not even a major rework of the fight's design, it still leaves the whole life steal vortex thing to happen if players mismanage their ccs, but having a better chance at stopping it from even happening allows more people through that story gate without drastically changing the fight. A bunch of people forget that personal story is supposed to be tuned for a solo, unoptimized build used by a player who's not a pro at the game. Slight tunings like the one i'm suggesting don't drastically redesign the fight, they change it to be more manageable for those having a difficult time. There's plenty of open world experiences to help build up experience for more difficult fights, but this fight is literally impossible to have a friend help because of the design of the instance (not that relying on a friend should even be a considered alternative), so just slightly retuning the fight helps the vast majority of players who go through the story content. It's not even a small ask that the personal story of all things be made easier, why are people taking it like it's a demand for all enemies to be killed in one shot.

Nowhere have I ever seen a fight with an enemy that has a crucial half a second break bar followed by a short breakbar and the ability to heal at least a quarter of it's health, in a fight where you can't open your inventory, have no ability to get a friend to aid you or able to leave and go back to prep for it in an efficient manner. The final three boss fights in Hearts and Minds where if you're even downed the fight restarts and your allies cannot be rezzed either has NO content preparing for it, and NO content similar to it later on, and I doubt we'll ever come across a fight with those exact circumstances again, same with the eater of souls fight. There's very little in the way of traditional gameplay for that mission, and as a result should be adjusted properly to be easier and doable in an efficient manner. Slowing down that initial jump so that the break bar has two seconds to be broken instead of the half a second it is would make all the difference in the fight and would make it that much more manageable for people who can't do it as it is.

maybe it's just me, but I saw the defiance bar easily, and when I noticed it I focused on it. I should clarify i'm talking about the defiance bar when the eater of souls jumps, not when he's doing the health steal vortex. The health steal vortex is obvious, if short, however the one before he jumps barely registers because the skill takes less than a second to complete. I only started noticing it after i accidentally stunned him during the jump, because I knew to look out for it then. Otherwise it's nearly impossible to register. For you, it's easy, for some, it can be unplayable as it is, and Path of Fire is much much much more than just it's personal story steps, much more, meaning that personal story steps can and should be made easier if there's a barrier many can't cross. This is one of those cases.

The eater of souls needs to be reworked, I got super lucky that I managed to beat him on the first try because my build had plenty of cc and I accidentally broke is defiance bar before he jumps (btw, breaking his breakbar right before/as he jumps prevents his health recovery entirely, he will not go into that suck everything in phase right after). Like seriously, how is anyone supposed to figure it out on their own? That defiance bar barely registers on the UI.