So GW2 is casual friendly?

[Mohawkward.7530]

Hello,
Beware spoiler ahead for LW content.

First post because it is 2:37 am and I just defeated Caudecus in LW S3.

So, here is a feedback, I finished Vanilla content with my personal story and I was so amazed and charmed by the content GW2 has to offer that I wanted to go deeper. I bought all extensions and I even got the LW unlocked.
When I entered S2 it was cool and all and then I got into HoT.

Oh my, where is the warning saying: "You'll die from small raptors"? or anything like: "Ok here is the real stuff and dark souls is a joke".

Honestly, the difficulty gap is so insane I just wanted to go through HoT fast to get to PoF because it appears to be more 'solo-friendly'.
And here is the issue, this difficulty is going up in LW S3. The Bronze Jade archer is able to lock you permantly in small areas (like caves and hallway). Manor Caudecus is a nightmare, zones with events are packed with mobs locking you like you were the number one threat since they are born.

 

What I see in GW2 is that everything revolves around the dodge, stunbreak and shield break mechanism. Yet, it is the hardest feature I have ever seen in any MMO.
In LW S3, there are so many mobs that could stunlock you forever (I am engineer and even the belt stun break is not enough, I need like a invicibility frame of 3 sec to have a chance to survive).
So yes , I did succeed killing Caudecus, after dying 6 times. That, after the small raptors banging me 7 of them at a time, now replaced by a fine mix of, either carnival mambo jumbo fanatics coordinating every spells to one shot me or Jade armors having shields and stuns and life like it was an Ancestral Dragon, I wonder...

 

Is PoF any better? I know it is an MMO but getting a full group running LW stories like I wanted to go for a mid level fractal is not easy.

[Dunroy.1058]

It sounds like you're relatively new to the game, and just need to get some of the basics down more consistently. I've been rerunning the LW stuff with the return to event and haven't downed in any of the instances. Granted I'm running on a Renegade which is the easiest solo PvE class, but the fundamentals are still the same.

 

You need to not only combine dodging, with stun breaks and heals, but also use your own hard and soft CCs to lock enemies down to further reduce their threat. The game does have a difficulty curve that jumps quite significantly with HoT, and reduces again for PoF, but groups are never required for any of the story content. If you understand your class, combo fields, and bring a suitable build, you can easily solo all story/LW content without issue.

 

I recommend looking up a strong solo build for Engi/Scrapper/Holo to use for these instances. I'm afraid Engineer is my least played class so I can't offer any specific support for a viable build, but you shouldn't have too much trouble finding one if you take to Google.

 

This isn't intended to be a "git gud" post, so I hope you don't take it as criticism. GW2 is just deceptive with it's complexities. Combat isn't just watching your cooldowns and dodging at the right time, like it presents on the surface. You need to learn how to combo your utilities and weapon skills to apply additional effects if you want to be able to more efficiently run solo content.

[mikansei.5742]

I hated the Caudecus fight for the same reason, lol. If you're not really quick to use the special action key when it pops up he bashes your face in. Even on my mesmer with 3 jaunts, a blink AND another stunbreak, I ate dirt a few times...

The good news: there's no more white mantle mobs in season 3 after Lake Doric!
The bad news: next up is Draconis Mons, a.k.a. "Heart of Maguuma 2: Pocket Raptor Boogaloo"

IMO Pof story isn't quite as annoying combat-wise. There's more AoE spam but less CC spam (with the notable exception of Awakened Canids 💀). Swap out a stunbreak for some condi cleanse, though, because everybody and their brother wants to set you on fire.

Metabattle has "open world" build guides for every class that are also nice for soloing story. Here's their engi builds (scroll down a little to the open world category). I dunno whether you're power/condi or scrapper/holo, but I run their barrier scrapper build on my engi and it feels pretty durable. All their guides have explanations for the skills/traits they take and their gear sections all have variants listed for if the recommended setup is too expensive, not defensive enough, etc. etc. (My engi runs mostly the Berserker stats from the barrier scrapper build but I use Pack runes from the gear variant listed underneath.)

[Talan Ondar.4150]

Oh. Pocket Raptors. Somtimes i wake up screaming in the middle of the night 🙂 If you went through HoT you are through the worst. PoF is much more solo friendly. There are still some bad mobs, but not everybody is looking for your life. As a mediocre player i just encourage you to enjoy the game. When i survived it, you will do for sure too!

[LuRkEr.9462]

Not sure what build your playing but as many mention it can make the difference, especially in the harder story content. 

Being casual doesn't equate to a game being easy. There are basics to learn (stun breaks, CC bars, class builds, dodging) that will make the content easier, but there is nothing wrong with a challenge.

[Goettel.4389]

It's the most casual friendly MMO I've played.

Casual doesn't equal solo though.

[Obtena.7952]

Actually, OP has a reasonable complaint ... it's just 7 years too late. It's the same complaints MANY of the first adopters of the game had when HoT and LS2 was released. 

Fortunately for you OP, things do tone back a bit after LS2. 

Edited September 13, 2021 by Obtena.7952

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

I've solo'd all the story content sans dungeons. You can solo it all trust me, just learn your class, play with the traitlines, experiment with different stats and rune combos, and find the build that works best for you even if it isn't 'META', because if the META builds don't work for you then they are not meta for you.

[Dadnir.5038]

The game is casual friendly as long as you are ready to adapt.

To be honest, pocket raptor quickly become an afterthought as you become used to them (The mordrem snipers and the chaks are the real pain in the...)

Dungeon paths are relatively hard content, they are classified as "casual" content by players, only because veterans players ran them so much that they don't see any challenge in them anymore (caudecus is relatively easy as long as you got someone to provide stealth to the group and some projectile hate). If you don't like Caudecus Manor, you'll hate Sorrow Embrace and Arah who are a lot worse in my opinion (especially Arah. It took so much time to find the right strats when half the boss were buged in the first years of the game...).

[Mohawkward.7530]

I appreciate all your answers but you have to admit that GW2 is not really casual friendly. I have seen a lot of players playing the game on and off with several months of pause sometimes year.

 

The game is insanely good when you have people around. Lake Doric when people are doing the events is quite enjoyable. It is just that as an MMO player, I was not prepared being banged like helll against basic mobs.

E.G., Lake Doric white mantle mambo jambo combo, 2x Mesmer 1 cleric 1 knight is ok but the mesmer just wont die and do insane damage for basic mobs.

I am running a power scrapper build full berserker equipment with stunbreak on but you have to admit that GW2 is pretty strict with its dodge/Stunbreak mechanics and some combos from time to time can be really irritating.

Now I do not know how you could simply power through Caudecus fight for instance. I mean knowing the fight now would be easier but remember, this content is hardly group material now. Soloing LW S3 was really a nightmare and it was only because of this dodge mechanic which can, sometimes, require near perfect reaction (I do not think Casual players can get there).

As mentioned Veteran players who are playing cool not pushing too much but really playing consistantly are better off than players going back to it once in a while.

I am not complaining about the game which I found enjoyable and I am having a blast running it. My post is more a feedback on the difficulty gap there is between the "Chapter" and the mechanics are way easier in groups which can become rare the later you go back to that said content;

Anyway, thanks for the answers and cheering me back up I am at Chapter 5 of S3 so PoF is near.

Edited September 14, 2021 by Mohawkward.7530

[Randulf.7614]

There is no mmo as close to being as casual friendly as gw2. The confusion is trying to equate casual with easy which do not mean the same thing. There are difficulty spikes and the game often does a poor job of teaching it, but the devs need to balance the game for a skill set of players that ranges massively (and the average player skill is likely improving over time making the job of balancing harder)

What makes it casual friendly is the account wide unlocks, the no vertical treadmill, the sandbox open world, the “dip in and out” at leisure, the wide variety of things to do, the low number of skills for accessibility and so forth.

Id argue Berserker builds are not the best if you are struggling. Excellent dps is traded for little defence mitigation - something you need while you get used to dodge and breakbar mechanics

Edited September 14, 2021 by Randulf.7614

[Obtena.7952]

12 hours ago, Mohawkward.7530 said:

I appreciate all your answers but you have to admit that GW2 is not really casual friendly. I have seen a lot of players playing the game on and off with several months of pause sometimes year.

 

I'm not sure what your point is ... but that play pattern is typical of how casual players interact with games ... 

[Goettel.4389]

Like all the (good) open world content, the HoT zones were designed for group play.

Use LFG and you'll find most of it very casual.

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

Casual friendly doesn't mean the game's easy (and to be fair, there's something like 40 maps that are super easy). Casual friendly means you don't have to hardcore grind for gear, you aren't forced to do raids, etc.

Edited September 15, 2021 by Hannelore.8153

[Ultramex.1506]

Combat does not make gw2 casual, things that Randulf.7614 mentioned are. If you r having problems, buy Dire sets (they r quite cheap) or get vitality on your stats, you deal less damage but can easily stay alive

[ASP.8093]

I mean, it's "casual-friendly" because you could, in fact, complete that story solo while dying six times. You didn't have to restart the mission from scratch, you didn't have to go out and farm the previous zone for 20 hours to get better gear, you didn't lose an hour worth of loot because you couldn't beat the boss flawlessly. It was probably frustrating in the moment but you got through it, you're done with the annoying thing and you don't need to revisit it again unless you want a few AP points or need to go back for the special cat.

A "casual-friendly" MMOG needs to both respect your time (otherwise most people aren't going to be able to enjoy it) and respect your ability (otherwise it's not actually interesting to play). Sometimes that means you'll run into sections that you'll fail at a few times, especially since there's a bit of a conflict between presenting you with diverse encounters in the solo story vs. the variety of capabilities a player could have depending on their class and build.

(If I recall it correctly, I do think that encounter could be improved by making the Bloodstone Shards stick around a bit longer. There's several situations in Bloodstone Fen where you'll move around some to avoid attacks, reach for the Shard, and then have it despawn mid-animation. And IIRC both Bloodstone Maulers and Caduceus have a very high breakbar to force you to use Shards instead of attacking their defiance normally.)

Edited September 15, 2021 by ASP.8093

[Aeolus.3615]

Just tried Pocket raptor and felt like they were nerfed 200%..  HoT content was actually scaled down from a challenge into boring content... and i play zerker/assassin stats in pve.

one dodge and 1 autos atacks and 50%-70% of the raptors are dead...

Edited September 15, 2021 by Aeolus.3615

[DeanBB.4268]

Pocket raptor difficulty entirely depends on your aoe ability. Single-shot specs can have great difficulty, while those that can pump out aoe's can breeze through them. Of course player skill and experience matters as well.

[Justine.6351]

On 9/13/2021 at 12:20 PM, Obtena.7952 said:

Actually, OP has a reasonable complaint ... it's just 7 years too late. It's the same complaints MANY of the first adopters of the game had when HoT and LS2 was released. 

Fortunately for you OP, things do tone back a bit after LS2. 

Yeah and we had op specs to blast through hot as well. And then the same for pof.

[Obtena.7952]

32 minutes ago, Justine.6351 said:

Yeah and we had op specs to blast through hot as well. And then the same for pof.

Well, not really, because you had to play much of HoT to release those OP specs. So no, we really didn't have OP'ed specs to blast through HoT. 

Edited September 15, 2021 by Obtena.7952

[mindcircus.1506]

On 9/12/2021 at 8:51 PM, Mohawkward.7530 said:

What I see in GW2 is that everything revolves around the dodge, stunbreak and shield break mechanism. Yet, it is the hardest feature I have ever seen in any MMO.
 

What you are pointing to here is a big part of the "casual" appeal.

 

In many/most other MMOs, challenge is mitigated only via hours/days/months of gear grind. If you are having a hard time with a mob/mechanic you simply grind for a very long time to outgear it.

In GW2. provided you have a few basics down,  you need only need to develop simple muscle memory in order to mitigate challenge.

 

One of these takes days/weels/months per challenge.

The other depends on a small skillset that can be applied to most every encounter in the game.

The respect of your time in not making you grind out a new tier of gear every few weeks is what define's the game's "casual" appeal.

Edited September 15, 2021 by mindcircus.1506

[Justine.6351]

3 hours ago, Obtena.7952 said:

Well, not really, because you had to play much of HoT to release those OP specs. So no, we really didn't have OP'ed specs to blast through HoT. 

Oh I think I had wvw tokens or maybe those came later I don't remember.

[voltaicbore.8012]

4 hours ago, mindcircus.1506 said:

What you are pointing to here is a big part of the "casual" appeal.

 

In many/most other MMOs, challenge is mitigated only via hours/days/months of gear grind. If you are having a hard time with a mob/mechanic you simply grind for a very long time to outgear it.

In GW2. provided you have a few basics down,  you need only need to develop simple muscle memory in order to mitigate challenge.

 

Excellent point, I agree wholeheartedly.

 

What I consider the most "casual" aspect of GW2 is the durability of improvements you make to your characters and accounts, which includes gear and the things that gear doesn't do. Everyone can dodge, and everyone has active countermeasures like blocks and stunbreaks. These are tied to your class, you choosing to run X number of these countermeasures, and you learning when to best use them to suit your playstyle.

 

A big part of adapting to the threats in HoT involve you just getting more comfortable with those specific mobs, and how your class can deal with them. It's analogous to why I ended up playing so much more ranger in spvp - I just learned faster on ranger how low I could let myself get on HP with a certain number of conditions, so I wasn't always running off at the first sign of trouble. Instead I could stay in combat for slightly longer to counterpressure my targets, then know the best time to break off and run to survive. Same thing with stuff like mordrem snipers and pocket raptor groups. I know I can kill them easily when I'm topped up, but if I was just fighting something else and am low on cd's and not at full health, I am much more careful before fully committing to those fights. Of course the problem still exists where I get sloppy and don't realize how close the troublesome mobs are to the flax node I'm tunnel visioning, so when I get jumped I'm starting off on the back foot. That said, a lot of the mobs either use a voice line (in the case of raptors, they chitter a little) before landing the hit - so if I'm keyed into the game audio, I have a small window of warning as to incoming damage.

 

All in all, players get much easier access in GW2 to all the tools they need to make it, and that's what I consider "casual" about this experience. The commitment required to get to a level where you're breezing through the open world is comparatively low.

[Cyninja.2954]

11 hours ago, Obtena.7952 said:

Well, not really, because you had to play much of HoT to release those OP specs. So no, we really didn't have OP'ed specs to blast through HoT. 

That was changed rather early after HoT's release.

In fact, the system it was replaced with allowed players to get full access to their elite specialization with a minimum of 7 hero points from HoT and that remains to this day.

Edited September 16, 2021 by Cyninja.2954

[Obtena.7952]

6 hours ago, Cyninja.2954 said:

That was changed rather early after HoT's release.

In fact, the system it was replaced with allowed players to get full access to their elite specialization with a minimum of 7 hero points from HoT and that remains to this day.

You only need 7 HP's to unlock an espec? How does that work? Recently I unlocked an espec on an alt ... still needed the full 200+ points to do it. Am I missing something?