Returning Player Feedback

[Aphex.9782]

So i tried to get into the game again and so far i am having a great time except when i'm not. Here are several issues:

 

World Bosses

While leveling they are very frustrating. Everything oneshots you and since there is no trinity i don't know how this is supposed to work. Every World Boss i.e. Golden/Purple mob gets defeated the same way: Someone stays in combat so the mob doesn't reset and the other players just ressurect and rush back. If there are mechanics to avoid they are obscured by visual clutter wich brings me to my next point:

 

Visual Clutter

So there is this mob "Ketsurak" at Gendarran-Fields. I have tried him with 3 classes: Engineer, Guardian and my level 80 Reaper. The Guardian with sword and torch was my most successfull attempt simply because there is the least visual clutter. Engineer is just useless since you never get to use your ranged advantage, he is just on top of you at all times and the dodgy hitboxes make trying to dodge at range inconsistent. Reaver dies instantly because i simply can't see anything going on especially in wraith form. The whole screen becomes blurry, effects flying off left and right and there is no indication on where he hits. Sometimes i dodge, sometimes he hits me while i'm behind him and that's enough to oneshot me. It's just bad. There is another issue wich is limited dodge.

 

Limited Dodge

Frankly i don't see the point. Mobs hit more frequently than your dodge is up, golden mobs in particular and since this game loves oneshot mechanics this is plain unfair.

Now you might say "Well if you have unlimited dodges you will never get hit", yeah but you do no damage either.

 

Oneshot Mechanics

I suspect this is more of a balance issue. You need to provide a challange to max level characters in low level zones for some reason but if you do that you need to make those mobs scale not only with level but also with unlocks i.e. traits, abilities and stats IF you want those mobs to be accessable by everyone, wich is kinda dumb anyway. See, you put those mobs in low level zones so i think i am supposed to be able to fight them at low level but you balanced them for max level characters, WHY? It makes for a very inconsistent game expiereince at the very least if not frustrating/infuriating. Distinct visual indicators would go a long way here.

 

GCD:

Why is this in the game? When i am on my Engineer and i want to switch to my grenades while trying to dodge mechanics and stay alive, WHY do i have to wait one second to get access to my abilities? Why do i have to wait one second between throwing my grenades or using my abilities? I thought you are supposed to be an action combat oriented MMO.  Yes even Dark Souls has delay in attacks/abilities but it doesn't limit your dodge to two rolls so you can get some distance/breathing room. This is another inconsistency...i am beginning to see a pattern here.

 

Inventory Management

This is a constant annoyance. Kill few mobs -> dissaseble items -> send materials to bank...every 10 Minutes. It really doesn't help that you have a billion different materials. This isn't deep or exiting it's just clutter. You also constantly need to buy tools to dissasemble those items and there are various versions of those too. Want to gather ressources? Buy a stack of tools wich also have various versions. I don't understand why this isn't streamlined yet.

Solution:

•  one tool for every profession
•  no more tools for dissasembling
•  materials go straight to the bank
•  no more 100 different pouches with materials, mobs die, you loot, straight to the bank
•  remove 90% of materials???
•  

And don't let me get started on currencies...This is Warframe levels of bad. It is the result of system after system being implemented over the years without going back, cleaning up the old systems.

Well that's it for now, idk if i will stick arround for long since the more i play the more issues is see but underneeth all that this was and still is a solid game.

If i had to sum up the most pressing issues it would be visual indicators, removal of dodge-restrictions and unf****** the clusterf*** of materials, currencies and systems.

Edited December 21, 2021 by Aphex.9782

[Noah Salazar.5430]

Quote

While leveling they are very frustrating. Everything oneshots you and since there is no trinity i don't know how this is supposed to work.

=> Follow hearts on your lv, also buy gear from hearts for karma, that way your gear will be always updated to chalange, if you still strugilng buy some gear from auctionhouse, dont rush hearts 2-5lv highter then you

=> when you press v, you can perform evade that negates all dmg for 1,5s 

=> if you move around enemy by "orbwalking" alot skills that mob casting will miss you

=> don't use gear with mixed stats if posible (go focus condi dmg (viper) or power dmg (berserker), some vitality/armor parts  for more defense is also good if your not gamer (maruder/knight/solider) to compenstate your lack of skill

Quote

So there is this mob "Ketsurak" at Gendarran-Fields

It's group event, until your not advanced player, solo is not sugested

Quote

 Engineer is just useless since you never get to use your ranged advantage, he is just on top of you at all times and the dodgy hitboxes make trying to dodge at range inconsistent

take http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PeTAQlFwqYdMLWJW+SfA-e and use orbawlking then you schold be fine

Quote

there is no indication on where he hits

before he hit, his rising his arm, then bam after 0,5s

Same with charge, he throws his hammer first, then 0,8s after he charge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RiEZZxpu1w&ab_channel=VPK

Edited December 21, 2021 by Noah Salazar.5430

[Rasimir.6239]

31 minutes ago, Aphex.9782 said:

Solution:

•  one tool for every profession
•  no more tools for dissasembling
•  materials go straight to the bank
•  no more 100 different pouches with materials, mobs die, you loot, straight to the bank
•  remove 90% of materials???
•  

I think what you meant to say was:

Solution:

•  create a different game

 

This game's loot system may not be perfect, and it may not be everybody's cup of tea, but there's good reasons for the different materials and currencies. The materials you get are the base of a reward system that does a pretty good job at rewarding everyone comparably for the time they spend in game, no matter what content you like to play, or what level you are at. You don't have to hope for the right drop, or grind the same content over and over. You can just trade what you get for what you want.

 

As for dodging and combat in general, this is really a learn to play issue. This game's combat system is complex, and it requires skill and experience to master it. There's really no way to shortcut this process. Memorizing a rotation won't help you, but instead you need to gain a feeling for what defensive tools your character has, and when to use them. This includes switching traits, utility skills, or weapons for different enemies (e.g. melee vs. long range, extra stun breaks, condition cleanses, or breakbar damage, and more), and even such basic things as movement in combat.

 

GW2 is a great game, but you need to meet it with an open mind. Much of what might look similar to other MMOs is intricately different. If you try to play this like it's a different game, no matter if it's about combat or loot, you probably won't find it enjoyable.

[Noah Salazar.5430]

Quote

This is a constant annoyance. Kill few mobs -> dissaseble items -> send materials to bank...every 10 Minutes. It really doesn't help that you have a billion different materials. This isn't deep or exiting it's just clutter. You also constantly need to buy tools to dissasemble those items and there are various versions of those too. Want to gather ressources? Buy a stack of tools wich also have various versions. I don't understand why this isn't streamlined yet.

buy 18slot bags from auction house thay cost around 3g, and you can buy them even as f2p

tools are ok once you new to have few silvers more, later on ghatering is mehh, cuz all mats your geting doing meta events in drizzlewood map, or you buy them for gold from doing other activitis

Quote

GCD:

Why is this in the game? When i am on my Engineer and i want to switch to my grenades while trying to dodge mechanics and stay alive, WHY do i have to wait one second to get access to my abilities? Why do i have to wait one second between throwing my grenades or using my abilities? I thought you are supposed to be an action combat oriented MMO

try use quickness boon, it's makes you cast+perform actions 50% faster

for engineer it's Elixir U, and https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Sigil_of_Celerity once you use 4 on rifle or 3 on flamethrower

i not recomend using granades/bombs on erly lvs when you missing quickness

Flamethrower+https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Juggernaut makes you immune for cc on erly lvs thx to stability

Also have aoe blind on 5

Edited December 21, 2021 by Noah Salazar.5430

[Mungrul.9358]

GW2's inventory system may not be the best out there, but it's better than the majority of others I've come across in similar titles.

Take Path of Exile for example, where so much loot drops, you're porting back to town every couple of minutes to manage your inventory.

It feels like it's been designed to encourage you to buy inventory and bank expansions, but they don't sell them.

Of course, the argument is that you shouldn't be picking up absolutely everything, but when you're new to the game, it's very hard to discern what's important and what's not.

 

By contrast, GW2's relatively easy access to large bags and being able to remotely send materials to your storage for no cost are a godsend.

 

But that does come with a couple of caveats: infinite salvage and gathering tools are a must to make the inventory experience as frictionless as possible, and that they're paywalled is a bit sleazy.

I would be very surprised if there's anyone who's been playing the game for more than a year that hasn't bought infinite salvage and gathering tools.

 

And the other problem GW2 has is that almost all loot that drops will have no immediate impact on your gameplay at endgame, but will instead contribute a minuscule percentage towards something of actual value. It's positively laughable how low drop rates are on decent gear.

[Aphex.9782]

Small update, i beat Ketsurak solo on my lvl 35 Guardian without getting hit once !

[Kathkere.3068]

I'll bandwagon on your thread and share some of my thoughts as a returning player as well! I do share some of your grievances. Particlarly about the amount of crafting materials. It has always bothered me and it kept me from even trying to engage in crafting. Last time I played I did actually level a profession to max level but it felt like I had to look every ingredient up on the GW2 wiki. I don't think the crafting system is good in that respect. I don't really feel as though it's intuitive. But I can live with it!

My #1 grievance in this game has to do with keybinds. First of all, I dislike that I can't move the abilities around on my weapons, although I understand why it is this way and I could forgive it... but I can't forgive that they do not allow you to have separate keybinds for different characters. Especially considering how different classes "F1" abilities can be! I used to main a guardian and my keybinds wholly revolves around that character and specialization. I am now levelling a mesmer and I've not wanted to adapt the keybinds yet in case I want to play my guardian again. So I am playing worse than I would have, had I been allowed to change the bindings without affecting my guardian.

I also feel like there's a lot of clutter in the game. This may largely be a L2P issue, but as someone uninitiated it can be very hard to understand what's going on. In World of Warcraft the classes and what they can do is quite intuitive, and you will learn early on the "main dangers" of the classes. A mage's frost nova, a warrior's charge, a rogue's stealth etc. In GW2 it feels like most classes can gain access to most things through specializations and utilities. What a class can and can't do there's no way to intuit when you're relatively new to the game, although I'm sure veterans will be able to distinguish what someone can do based on their choice of weapons and passive buffs. My point is: the skill floor is incredibly high in this game. Much more so than other games, I'd say.

With this all said, there are many things I really like about GW2. Things that, when I play other MMORPGs, I often think "why couldn't these games do these things like GW2 does?". For example, the horizontal scaling in pvp. It is fantastic. GW2s approach to expansions is also fantastic. The overall flow of the game -- traversing the world and exploring new places -- it's great! But I think I would actually have preferred a "dumber" design when it comes to crafting and combat. I prefer the "easy to learn, difficult to master" approach. I don't think GW2 is easy to learn.

Edited December 23, 2021 by Kathkere.3068

[Aphex.9782]

So the only class that was able to beat Ketsurak was the Guardian with a Sword/Torch build since i went full fire damage and melted his face. Other classes i can't seem to do it. Power builds in general seem useless against champions. The other mob Lenner is plain and simply impossible. I kited him a bit with ranged abilities and could propably do it solo but it just takes too long and one mistake is certain death.

 

Another thing is dungeons aka wipefests. I went into this dungeon with what seem to be expierienced players and we must have died at least 50 times to plain oneshot mechanics.  Most fights are over in a second, either you kill them in a second or they kill you in a second. No tactics, no gameplay just nuking your way through until you get nuked. You basically implemented fights and bosses suited for a classic trinity but now instead every character has to be tank, healer and dd all in one. The mobs across the board in this game are inconsistent. The golden circle means nothing since some are easy and some are just oneshotting you, VERY inconsistent. Most of the time though you just get oneshot wich is very frustrating.

[Randulf.7614]

I can honestly say I’ve encountered extremely few one shot mechanics - they are used sparingly and are usually telegraphed by the mechanic used. Arah is a bit of an exception to that mind you as it is hard for even experienced players which is why most skip the trash mobs.
One shot tactics by players on bosses do not exist.

Champions and Legendary mobs do wildly differ (a positive thing of course), but there many factors to take into account - player skills, mob mechanics and most importantly in core areas, scaling of the enemy depending on number of players and level range of the area.

Champions and Legendaries are not designed to be soloable. Some are because of various factors, but if you are unable to kill one (and they become significantly harder in expac maps), that is working as intended. Things are designated as champs and legendaries as rough guides to group numbers and has worked just fine in that regard.
 

Visual clutter is an issue and actually gets worse as the game goes on and more visual noise was added. At this point, most of us gave up on feeding it back. It’s not going to change - the devs like it as it is.

 Currency overload is somewhat of an issue too,  but it does at least keep players on an even start each new episode. I am on the fence as to whether it is a good or bad thing, but ultimately it hasn’t really harmed the game too much and kept the economy of the game otherwise from being out of control.

The dodge mechanic works fine. Unlimited dodge means groups with aggro could trivialise content instead of using it strategically or utilising the vigor mechanics correctly. Whilst a lot of content still benefits from player stacking, utilising dodge later in the correct way becomes important.

[Shuzuru.3651]

On 12/21/2021 at 9:23 AM, Aphex.9782 said:

GCD:

Why is this in the game? When i am on my Engineer and i want to switch to my grenades while trying to dodge mechanics and stay alive, WHY do i have to wait one second to get access to my abilities? Why do i have to wait one second between throwing my grenades or using my abilities? I thought you are supposed to be an action combat oriented MMO.  Yes even Dark Souls has delay in attacks/abilities but it doesn't limit your dodge to two rolls so you can get some distance/breathing room. This is another inconsistency...i am beginning to see a pattern here.

What are you talking about ? Except for some super rare exception (like siege weapons like arrowcart), GCD don't exist in gw2, it's an action combat game. 

And btw, Dark Souls also limit your roll to stamina, sure, you can do more than 2 but your attacks also depends on it, so you can't spam it too.

[Rogue.8235]

22 hours ago, Aphex.9782 said:

So the only class that was able to beat Ketsurak was the Guardian with a Sword/Torch build since i went full fire damage and melted his face. Other classes i can't seem to do it. Power builds in general seem useless against champions. The other mob Lenner is plain and simply impossible. I kited him a bit with ranged abilities and could propably do it solo but it just takes too long and one mistake is certain death.

 

That champion is one of my early skill check champs.  Basically, I use open-world champions to see where I'm at with a profession, skill-wise.  The others I use on that map are the warbeast and the centaur in the cave

Champions on this map are far from the hardest in the open world, and are soloable on every profession.  If you struggle with a champion in pre-80 maps (with the exception of champion bandits)  ,  it is an indication that you are not yet comfortable with the profession you are currently playing.  Either you aren't using it to its strength, the playstyle doesn't mesh well with your personal playstyle, the build is bad, etc.  

Infinite dodge would trivialize the game to the point of being boringly mindless.  I enjoy the gameplay, and do not require infinite get out of jail free cards.  Each profession can handle these low0level champions in their own way, you just have to learn how to play it.

It seems that guardian is the profession that closest matches your playstyle.  I'd just master the guardian first (as in be able to play it in every game mode in any way you want).  You'll learn the nuances of the game mechanics through the guardian, and later, you'll be able to start mastering the other professions.

For me, it was Thief and Warrior that I had mastered first.

 

 

[Aphex.9782]

I'm level 80 now and things haven't gotten better, in fact new annoyances have surfaced. I am still working on the main quest right now and the zones seem to have only one purpose: waste my time. Waypoints are constantly under siege and they are obstructed and hidden in the first place. The whole design philosophy behind those zones is wasting time. Example: There is this quest where you have to gather with your crew before a battle and after a brief cutscene you start inside a village. Your crew is on a rock just in sight of the camp so one would assume there is a straight path from the camp to those rocks, but no. You have to backtrack from where the game put you outside the camp and all the way arround it. I really enjoyed the story so far but now i just skip through the whole thing since i am not in the mood for story after seeing the obvious intent behind these design descisions. It is an insult to my intelligence and in utter disrespect of my time.

Trying to do an event to free up those waypoints i encountered a golden mob...ofc he oneshot me so i gave up on that. I spent all my gold on some lvl 80 gear and i STILL get oneshot. Every single boss event i have enountered was just the same pattern i mentioned in my initial post -> fight -> get oneshot -> revive -> rush back...that's not just me, that is EVERYONE i have seen. This game is just a zergfest. Tried some bounties -> instantly got oneshot again so not doing them either.

 

Looked into gearing a bit but that seems to be a massive grindfest. If i had boosted my character i would have started with my desired gearset and i still have a boost but i'm refusing to use pay to win mechanics.

Edited December 26, 2021 by Aphex.9782

[Rogue.8235]

8 minutes ago, Aphex.9782 said:

I'm level 80 now and things haven't gotten better, in fact new annoyances have surfaced. I am still working on the main quest right now and the zones seem to have only one purpose: waste my time. Waypoints are constantly under siege and they are obstructed and hidden in the first place. The whole design philosophy behind those zones is wasting time. With new xpacs you would assume that they'd go back and fix these things but no...too much work.

 

I can help with this.  It seems your ultimate goal for playing the game is not playing the game itself.  Open-world maps are all part of the gameplay content.  

If you do not enjoy the gameplay itself and seek only rewards, this game will definitely frustrate you.  This game isn't about mindless grinding just to get stuff.  Enjoyment in this game is derived by enjoyment of the gameplay itself.  

Getting annoyed by map exploration and combat in open-world maps is getting annoyed by the gameplay itself, and will never go away.  This just may not be the game for you.

 

11 minutes ago, Aphex.9782 said:

Trying to do an event to free up those waypoints i encountered a golden mob...ofc he oneshot me so i gave up on that. I spent all my gold on some lvl 80 gear and i STILL get oneshot. Every single boss event i have enountered was just the same pattern i mentioned in my initial post -> fight -> get oneshot -> revive -> rush back...that's not just me, that is EVERYONE i have seen. This game is just a zergfest. Tried some bounties -> instantly got oneshot again so not doing them either.

 

Combat in this game is about not taking damage at all  That is why everyone has at least 2 dodges and every class has many skills to:

• Block attacks
• Evade attacks
• Become immune to damage
• quickly reposition away from danger

In addition, combat is supposed to be dynamic.  You never just sit in one place like a 90's-era RPG.  keep moving in combat.

Next, pay attention to the visual and audio cues of major attacks.  This game is based on attentiveness to contextual indications of major threats.  Examples are slow wind-up animations of the enemy, red/orange circles on the ground, etc.

Every profession can solo open world content.  It depends on the skill of the actual player.  Nothing in the game will carry an unskilled player.  Use the tools of your profession and do not focus only on damage output.  You need an adaptable build with defensive tools.

 

18 minutes ago, Aphex.9782 said:

Looked into gearing a bit but that seems to be a massive grindfest. If i had boosted my character i would have started with my desired gearset and i still have a boost but i'm refusing to use pay to win mechanics.

Boosting your character will give you a set of exotic soldier's gear.  That will not help you survive at all.  You are struggling with core combat mechanics.  No amount of gearing will carry you through this lack of familiarity.

Guild Wars 2 places more emphasis on player skill, not character stats.  

I can now solo any open world content with thief, warrior, mesmer, and necromancer.  Still working on mastering the others.

Again, no amount of gearing will make this game soloable for you.  Actual skill of the human player is what counts in this game.    

 

Guardian has access to blocks, movement skills, damage immunity, and self-healing.  It also has ample access to crowd control.  These are the tools you need to learn to use for success.

 

[Gibson.4036]

Great response, but minor correction. Boosts now give celestial equipment. 
 

Doesn’t change the point you were making, but depending on the profession, it’s better than soldiers.

Edited December 26, 2021 by Gibson.4036

[Gibson.4036]

1 hour ago, Aphex.9782 said:

 

 

Looked into gearing a bit but that seems to be a massive grindfest. 

Getting geared in exotics is definitely not a grind fest.

[Aphex.9782]

Currently in Heart of Thornes and about to give up. Everything instakills you. I have hundreds of screenshots of dead bodies oneshot from bosses. This is just trash game design, utter garbage. It is not challanging it is cheap cheap design and plain impossible but hey, just keep throwing bodies at the boss he'll eventually go down. Mindless zergfest.

 

Story is gated behind massive grindfests. Go here watch cutscene now grind for five hours to unlock next cutscene. Every zone has a new currency to grind, every way is blocked, every quest obstructed, every path obscured, oneshot ambushes out of nowhere arround every corner, gotta get those engagement metrics huh?

[Gibson.4036]

Don’t stand on the glowing lines.

[Sigmoid.7082]

Is the game designed poorly or are you just bad at it / misunderstanding the systems / need to improve? "Clearly its designed poorly"...

 

At what point will people ever start taking accountability instead of blaming everything but themselves? *sigh*

Edited December 28, 2021 by Sigmoid.7082

[Linken.6345]

1 hour ago, Sigmoid.7082 said:

Is the game designed poorly or are you just bad at it / misunderstanding the systems / need to improve? "Clearly its designed poorly"...

 

At what point will people ever start taking accountability instead of blaming everything but themselves? *sigh*

Never, it is always the neighbors dogs niece fault.

Edited December 28, 2021 by Linken.6345

[AliamRationem.5172]

On 12/21/2021 at 1:23 AM, Aphex.9782 said:

So i tried to get into the game again and so far i am having a great time except when i'm not. Here are several issues:

 

World Bosses

While leveling they are very frustrating. Everything oneshots you and since there is no trinity i don't know how this is supposed to work. Every World Boss i.e. Golden/Purple mob gets defeated the same way: Someone stays in combat so the mob doesn't reset and the other players just ressurect and rush back. If there are mechanics to avoid they are obscured by visual clutter wich brings me to my next point:

 

Visual Clutter

So there is this mob "Ketsurak" at Gendarran-Fields. I have tried him with 3 classes: Engineer, Guardian and my level 80 Reaper. The Guardian with sword and torch was my most successfull attempt simply because there is the least visual clutter. Engineer is just useless since you never get to use your ranged advantage, he is just on top of you at all times and the dodgy hitboxes make trying to dodge at range inconsistent. Reaver dies instantly because i simply can't see anything going on especially in wraith form. The whole screen becomes blurry, effects flying off left and right and there is no indication on where he hits. Sometimes i dodge, sometimes he hits me while i'm behind him and that's enough to oneshot me. It's just bad. There is another issue wich is limited dodge.

 

Limited Dodge

Frankly i don't see the point. Mobs hit more frequently than your dodge is up, golden mobs in particular and since this game loves oneshot mechanics this is plain unfair.

Now you might say "Well if you have unlimited dodges you will never get hit", yeah but you do no damage either.

 

Oneshot Mechanics

I suspect this is more of a balance issue. You need to provide a challange to max level characters in low level zones for some reason but if you do that you need to make those mobs scale not only with level but also with unlocks i.e. traits, abilities and stats IF you want those mobs to be accessable by everyone, wich is kinda dumb anyway. See, you put those mobs in low level zones so i think i am supposed to be able to fight them at low level but you balanced them for max level characters, WHY? It makes for a very inconsistent game expiereince at the very least if not frustrating/infuriating. Distinct visual indicators would go a long way here.

 

GCD:

Why is this in the game? When i am on my Engineer and i want to switch to my grenades while trying to dodge mechanics and stay alive, WHY do i have to wait one second to get access to my abilities? Why do i have to wait one second between throwing my grenades or using my abilities? I thought you are supposed to be an action combat oriented MMO.  Yes even Dark Souls has delay in attacks/abilities but it doesn't limit your dodge to two rolls so you can get some distance/breathing room. This is another inconsistency...i am beginning to see a pattern here.

 

Inventory Management

This is a constant annoyance. Kill few mobs -> dissaseble items -> send materials to bank...every 10 Minutes. It really doesn't help that you have a billion different materials. This isn't deep or exiting it's just clutter. You also constantly need to buy tools to dissasemble those items and there are various versions of those too. Want to gather ressources? Buy a stack of tools wich also have various versions. I don't understand why this isn't streamlined yet.

Solution:

•  one tool for every profession
•  no more tools for dissasembling
•  materials go straight to the bank
•  no more 100 different pouches with materials, mobs die, you loot, straight to the bank
•  remove 90% of materials???
•  

And don't let me get started on currencies...This is Warframe levels of bad. It is the result of system after system being implemented over the years without going back, cleaning up the old systems.

Well that's it for now, idk if i will stick arround for long since the more i play the more issues is see but underneeth all that this was and still is a solid game.

If i had to sum up the most pressing issues it would be visual indicators, removal of dodge-restrictions and unf****** the clusterf*** of materials, currencies and systems.

Maybe get out of the starter area before making these suggestions?  I agree on visual clutter but that's about it.

[Shikaru.7618]

4 hours ago, Aphex.9782 said:

Currently in Heart of Thornes and about to give up. Everything instakills you. I have hundreds of screenshots of dead bodies oneshot from bosses. This is just trash game design, utter garbage. It is not challanging it is cheap cheap design and plain impossible but hey, just keep throwing bodies at the boss he'll eventually go down. Mindless zergfest.

 

Story is gated behind massive grindfests. Go here watch cutscene now grind for five hours to unlock next cutscene. Every zone has a new currency to grind, every way is blocked, every quest obstructed, every path obscured, oneshot ambushes out of nowhere arround every corner, gotta get those engagement metrics huh?

Taking a picture of yourself dead hundreds of times from failing mechanics doesn't qualify as poor design but I'll play along. Record your gameplay on a boss or encounter along with your build that you think is cheap cheap design and I'll tell you what you did wrong.

[AliamRationem.5172]

4 hours ago, Aphex.9782 said:

Currently in Heart of Thornes and about to give up. Everything instakills you. I have hundreds of screenshots of dead bodies oneshot from bosses. This is just trash game design, utter garbage. It is not challanging it is cheap cheap design and plain impossible but hey, just keep throwing bodies at the boss he'll eventually go down. Mindless zergfest.

 

Story is gated behind massive grindfests. Go here watch cutscene now grind for five hours to unlock next cutscene. Every zone has a new currency to grind, every way is blocked, every quest obstructed, every path obscured, oneshot ambushes out of nowhere arround every corner, gotta get those engagement metrics huh?

Just for you: Verdant Brink boss trio solo (weaver)

[Cuks.8241]

Maybe this is different to many other similar games but you are not suppose to just stand there and take hits. Usually just moving out of the dmg is enough but if that's not enough you have dodge and other abilities that help you stay alive. Unlimited dodge would completely trivialize all the content. 

You're never going to really out gear opponents here.  You actually have to beat them in a fight.

There is no GCD in this game. The only limitation is the abilities own CD and animation length.  

[Handsel.2891]

Learn to use your skills while moving. That will save your life more times than anything else. Most of the damage is avoidable by simply stepping out of the way, reserve your dodges for when there is no time to do anything else. Also, find a build that make your gear and traits compliment each other. There are multiple sites offering you long lists of builds if you are not into figuring it out on your own.

GW2 is not a gear based game in the way that most other games are. Success in this one is more dependent on your skills as a player. HoT is a major skill check in that regard. It's not bad game design. It's just a steeper learning curve.

On the other hand, if you are not having fun, why do you keep playing?

I am not sure what games you have played before this if you consider GW2 a grindfest in any sense of the word...

Edited December 29, 2021 by MikeG.6389

[AliamRationem.5172]

45 minutes ago, MikeG.6389 said:

Learn to use your skills while moving. That will save your life more times than anything else. Most of the damage is avoidable by simply stepping out of the way, reserve your dodges for when there is no time to do anything else. Also, find a build that make your gear and traits compliment each other. There are multiple sites offering you long lists of builds if you are not into figuring it out on your own.

GW2 is not a gear based game in the way that most other games are. Success in this one is more dependent on your skills as a player. HoT is a major skill check in that regard. It's not bad game design. It's just a steeper learning curve.

On the other hand, if you are not having fun, why do you keep playing?

I am not sure what games you have played before this if you consider GW2 a grindfest in any sense of the word...

MikeG knows whats up.

Like he says, stay moving.  Many projectile attacks don't track and will miss you if you were already in motion when the attack initiated.  Also, bosses that use directional attacks will have to turn toward you if you keep moving to flank or behind them.  This is especially useful against large, slow enemies as the act of turning is an obvious telegraph.

Keep your eyes on the action (and not on your skill bar!).  It sounds simple, but pay attention to how often your eyes linger on your bar to track cooldowns, etc.  A fraction of a second matters in spotting attacks that could kill you.  You have to see it coming in order to dodge it!

Here's a clip of the vampire broodmother HP.  See how I keep moving behind or to her side, forcing her to turn?

Also, watch for behaviors you can manipulate.  We don't have threat mechanics here, but especially in solo play there are some tricks you can employ if you're savvy.  For example, the champion arrowhead is a 1-shot artist with his frontal attacks, but will almost always choose to use his lateral roll attack if you stand just behind his back leg.  It's a bit counterintuitive, but if you're a ranged caster you might just want to hug this guy's back leg and dodge the roll rather than try to play dodge the 1-shot wave at range!

A lot of this stuff isn't obvious to a new player and/or requires some practice at the same time you're trying to unlock elite specs, masteries, acquire level 80 gear, etc.  It's difficult at first and the game isn't going to provide a means of trivializing it via gear like most other MMOs do.  But you can do this!  There's just a lot to learn, so be patient and ask questions.