solo open world play and how it gets worse and worse the higher level areas become, with eod and it's breakbar madness being the worst so far.

[Gibson.4036]

4 hours ago, Pinkeh.4207 said:

I found it very difficult to solo on my thief. Not having as much trouble on the guardian. The overall enemies in EoD feel spongier than the previous expansions and cc seems to be more important. 

You didn't say how you're playing your thief. I play staff daredevil, with pistol/pistol as my back up in case I need to get some distance. Head shot (pistol 4) will take out the breakbar of those common EoD elites in two hits. Dust strike (staff 4) also eats away significantly.

[wayneericgouin.9371]

The site is called "meta battle" it's designed specifically to showcase meta builds. It's not that complicated

[Hollowhisper.1093]

We need hero team ups like back in Guild Wars 1. 😄

[AliamRationem.5172]

51 minutes ago, wayneericgouin.9371 said:

The site is called "meta battle" it's designed specifically to showcase meta builds. It's not that complicated

It would be pretty easy to stop looking foolish at this point and just go see for yourself.  Here's a link: https://metabattle.com/wiki/Open_World 

According to the link, this section is for: "Builds meant for general open world. Useful for general open world and story-mode play, such as events, zerging, map completion, and random shenanigans."

They're really pushing the random shenanigans meta, huh?  Watch out!

[Labjax.2465]

Breakbars are an awful, awful mechanic that are inherently going to be easier to handle for some classes and builds more than others (and who wants to design their build around soloing breakbars, jebus) and they scale to an obnoxious degree in groups. One of the worst things added to this game.

Edit: And part of the reason they're so awful is because it encourages clueless devs to create champs that have the most obnoxious attacks in the universe that you can only stall if you take out their breakbar. Like the Axemaster and spinning swordsman mob in HoT.

Edited March 9, 2022 by Labjax.2465

[AliamRationem.5172]

48 minutes ago, Labjax.2465 said:

Breakbars are an awful, awful mechanic that are inherently going to be easier to handle for some classes and builds more than others (and who wants to design their build around soloing breakbars, jebus) and they scale to an obnoxious degree in groups. One of the worst things added to this game.

Edit: And part of the reason they're so awful is because it encourages clueless devs to create champs that have the most obnoxious attacks in the universe that you can only stall if you take out their breakbar. Like the Axemaster and spinning swordsman mob in HoT.

It's group content.  Naturally the bar scales with more players present or you'd just auto break the bar through incidental CC.  It's simply restoring an interactive tool that is available in normal units but not against bosses.  Obviously, it wouldn't be feasible to have bosses chain stunned for an entire fight by 50 players mobbing them.  Breakbars offer a way to make these skills useful in boss fights.

Also, you're exaggerating how difficult these bars are to break.  I previously demonstrated how little CC is required to break veteran/elite bars.  Champions take a little more work, but as they're intended for group play that's not unexpected and most builds are still more than capable of handling these breakbars without adjusting their build for CC.  There's also the aforementioned mastery skills which will allow you to break bars on literally any build.

For instance, axemaster.  As with all of the VB bosses except Patriarch (due to the egg phase), Axemaster can be done solo.   Just use the available mastery skills and even a meta boss like this can have his bar broken quite easily by a single player with no additional CC.  You can also do it without the waystation with normal CC and you don't even have to worry about cooldowns because every teleport point the boss uses has a conveniently placed adrenal mushroom next to it to refresh your cooldowns for this very purpose. 

[Labjax.2465]

54 minutes ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

It's group content.  Naturally the bar scales with more players present or you'd just auto break the bar through incidental CC.  It's simply restoring an interactive tool that is available in normal units but not against bosses.  Obviously, it wouldn't be feasible to have bosses chain stunned for an entire fight by 50 players mobbing them.  Breakbars offer a way to make these skills useful in boss fights.

Also, you're exaggerating how difficult these bars are to break.  I previously demonstrated how little CC is required to break veteran/elite bars.  Champions take a little more work, but as they're intended for group play that's not unexpected and most builds are still more than capable of handling these breakbars without adjusting their build for CC.  There's also the aforementioned mastery skills which will allow you to break bars on literally any build.

For instance, axemaster.  As with all of the VB bosses except Patriarch (due to the egg phase), Axemaster can be done solo.   Just use the available mastery skills and even a meta boss like this can have his bar broken quite easily by a single player with no additional CC.  You can also do it without the waystation with normal CC and you don't even have to worry about cooldowns because every teleport point the boss uses has a conveniently placed adrenal mushroom next to it to refresh your cooldowns for this very purpose. 

I am exaggerating some and am not taking into account masteries. I haven't even unlocked waystations, I'm just catching up to some of the newer stuff. As for adrenals, never considered those, though that's only HoT zones. It's useful to know spazmaster can be done solo.

I don't necessarily disagree with the points you've made here. Like the stuff about making skills useful and tactical.

But in practice, I take major issue with the way it plays out in reality and I don't think I'm wrong that some builds will naturally be built to handle breakbars better and it would be silly to expect people to design their builds around breakbars.

I am also not exaggerating totally. It can become harder to break for the scaling of more people, which doesn't balance well for the same reason DPS checks don't. A lot of people either don't know how to handle breakbars or their builds are poor for putting out CC or their CC abilities are on cooldown and they didn't plan it out well or whatever the reason, so their contribution to it is nil and it's on a handful of players to put out disproportionate amount of CC to break it.

[Erise.5614]

11 hours ago, Sobx.1758 said:

Gw2 is already solo friendly, which doesn't mean every bit of content should be easly soloable.

Exactly. That's why we have fractals, strikes and raids. Explicit group content.

Edited March 9, 2022 by Erise.5614

[Izzy.2951]

14 hours ago, kharny.3284 said:

So I enjoy playing mostly solo and just doing heropoints and gathering/map completes with my army of alts.

This used to be very doable with really any basically somewhat logically constructed build in berserker gear without too much issues all the way up to orr and even mosty doable in the later expansions with some issues with hero points being hard to solo especially in HoT.

Now though with so many things practically requiring to break the shield, it gets really difficult to do as a lot of "basic/easy" specs might not have enough to break a bar before it regens.

Not to mention that both HP and damage of mobs seems to have scaled up more than before, so some less durable builds(deadeye thief and some mesmer/ele builds) die even if you pull a mob or 2 too much, let alone elites.... It's kind of sad that my ranger can solo practically anything below a champion and even some champions easily, while my elementalist might as well be called "downed rotation build"...why is so much time spent on massive metas in every map, but small individual events that can be solo'd/duo'd and balance of specs to be useable in open world is taking such a backseat?

 

You can have like 2,4k more vitality with any characteer. I didnt notice the power scale in mob to be at all. Actually i finished the story and loads of events pretty easily.

[suialthor.7164]

The focus on breakbars has limited some of the flexibility in my open world builds.  This is largely due to weapons having different levels of crowd control.  So it forces my use of other skills to compensate instead of adding flexibility in fighting style.

I wish they would rebalance weapons with breakbars in mind.  And it would be nice to see the damage boosted in some of the ones that underperform.  

[Fuchslein.8639]

3 hours ago, Erise.5614 said:

Exactly. That's why we have fractals, strikes and raids. Explicit group content.

Do you compare hard-OW-content to fractal, strikes and raids?

I really try to understand this "solo-play" is dead-theme, while i see everywhere in OW the solo-players just enjoying there time. But this ... i have no words. Thats on the same level as people who compare gw2 to dark souls...

[kazamatzuri.6081]

interestingly enough I actually enjoy EOD a lot. I also mostly solo (as ele) and find the new content fairly straightforward. Maybe it's because I've been soloing going on 10 years, but I haven't had any issues with soloing mobs on any of the maps. Sure, the dragon's end meta is a bit iffy still, but it seems people are picking up on mechanics and each run gets better. I think in a few weeks people will stop complaining about it and it will be run as part of regular meta trains. 

And if you're struggling with your zerk build, have a look at metabattle (or any of the other build sites) for a more modern build. Condi tempest does really well atm. 

 just my 2cents 

Cheers

[Bobajob.7136]

I love that they've made the game harder. I hate easy grinding. I like a challenge! Spending a week perfecting a build so I can solo a HoT hero point was so much fun. 

Keep it up anet!!!

[sanferic.7259]

14 hours ago, Peterson.5172 said:

actually i've found eod enemies easier than pof, but they apply a lot of conditions which is annoying, especially weakening.

HP mobs are a bit harder than pof but since it's all channel, you can skip them using stealth.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ash_Legion_Spy_Kit

I'm glad I'm not the only one who saw this. I now have Bear stance as my heal instead of we heal as one because of this.

[The Boz.2038]

59 minutes ago, suialthor.7164 said:

So it forces my use of other skills to compensate instead of adding flexibility in fighting style.

This is literally adding flexibility to your fighting style.

Instead of, you know, more of the big hit deeps skillz.

[suialthor.7164]

15 minutes ago, The Boz.2038 said:

This is literally adding flexibility to your fighting style.

Instead of, you know, more of the big hit deeps skillz.

You do realize there are skills that help with mobility and defense?  Even if adding "deeps" you should consider your weapons and decide on AoE, single target, etc...  But if I have to dedicate 1 or 2 for breakbars (due to low cc on weapons) then the third is usually a stun break that doesn't sound very flexible to me.  

[Cuks.8241]

8 hours ago, wayneericgouin.9371 said:

The site is called "meta battle" it's designed specifically to showcase meta builds. It's not that complicated

I dont think you understand what meta means. But dont take this in a bad way because many, especially new players, dont. And lately people have been using the term "most effective tactic available" or something similar. This is not the original definition or at least it's not the only one (I have only heard it lately and I play games for decades) and in my opinion its a very narrow definition. 

It depends a little bit on the context, is it in context of role playing, competitive gaming or just every day gaming. I would say meta or meta gaming in its broadest term means or encompases theory crafting, strategy and tactic crafting, build crafting with all the information available, ingame experience and all supporting info and metrcis outside of the game.

Any build is a meta build if its been constructed with certain preconceptions and for a certain purpose. It doesnt mean its a good build at all. Offcourse players do this to get to the best or most efective builds so the best builds have been labeled as meta.

[The Boz.2038]

7 minutes ago, suialthor.7164 said:

You do realize there are skills that help with mobility and defense?  Even if adding "deeps" you should consider your weapons and decide on AoE, single target, etc...  But if I have to dedicate 1 or 2 for breakbars (due to low cc on weapons) then the third is usually a stun break that doesn't sound very flexible to me.  

If your weapons do not cover CC, mobility, or defense, it is very front-loaded in the damage department, and you really shouldn't be looking to add more AoE or single target big deeps numbers skillz to your bar until you get your basics covered.

[Ashantara.8731]

On 3/8/2022 at 7:38 PM, AliamRationem.5172 said:

Is there some rule that says you must use berserker gear to solo everything?  If you want to be invincible and still take things down quickly both ele and mes have builds for that.  Maybe it isn't as easy as just slapping on the same set of gear for every purpose, but a lot of players really like that about the open world game here.

Gear doesn't affect your ability to break defiance bars. The OP was complaining that not all professions/elite specs can do this properly in EoD.

Edit: That was me explaining the OP's position, not giving my own opinion. No need to react confused. 😉

Edited March 10, 2022 by Ashantara.8731

[difens.1326]

Kind of stupid that my Bull's Charge or Stomp do not break the bar on their own. I have to use both of them and in case of story bosses it's not enough. Third utility is a stun break, so I can't switch it to another cc skill. I actually missed all story achievements that require defeating the boss in certain time due to weak cc damage I do.

Hammer is not an option, as due to fantastic "balance" patches, all its cc skill don't do any damage. Mace hits like wet noodle too.

 

Bladesworn has even less options due to majority of the spec focus is in the gunblade...

Looks like it's my fault after all. I insist of playing the worst class in the entire game. But I won't give up.

Edited March 9, 2022 by difens.1326

[AliamRationem.5172]

2 minutes ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

Gear doesn't affect your ability to break defiance bars. The OP was complaining that not all professions/elite specs can do this properly in EoD.

There were a couple of complaints in the initial post and we did cover defiance bars later in the thread.  I initially focused on the complaint regarding elementalist downstate meme, as that's sorta my area of focus. 😉 It's also worth noting that elementalist due to its lack of a weapon swap and large skillset, has access to plenty of CC no matter what weapon the build uses.

[AliamRationem.5172]

4 minutes ago, difens.1326 said:

Kind of stupid that my Bull's Charge or Stomp do not break the bar on their own. I have to use both of them and in case of story bosses it's not enough. Third utility is a stun break, so I can't switch it to another cc skill. I actually missed all story achievements that require defeating the boss in certain time due to weak cc damage I do.

Hammer is not an option, as due to fantastic "balance" patches, all its cc skill don't do any damage. Mace hits like wet noodle too.

 

Bladesworn has even less options due to majority of the spec focus is in the gunblade...

Not that I'd recommend "go hammer" as a solution to warrior issues with CC (particularly not in the case of bladesworn), but am I mistaken or were the changes nerfing damage to 0 on CC not specific to PvP/WvW?  Those skills still deal damage in PvE, do they not?

I agree that bladesworn is an issue.  They're sort of in the same boat as ele/engi due to their class mechanic removing the weapon swap.  However, where ele/engi are compensated with a larger skillset via attunements and toolbelt skills, bladesworn is not.  In my opinion, the entire spec is just poorly designed.  The dragon trigger that roots you in place and encourages you to charge up a big hit is antithetical to the action combat system the same way losing weapon swap versatility is to the warrior class.

In my opinion, this is a spec they need to seriously rethink.

[suialthor.7164]

28 minutes ago, The Boz.2038 said:

If your weapons do not cover CC, mobility, or defense, it is very front-loaded in the damage department, and you really shouldn't be looking to add more AoE or single target big deeps numbers skillz to your bar until you get your basics covered.

So we agree that skills should cover the basics.   However, this isn't about raw damage like most people in this thread assume.  Before breakbars the utility skills could offer some flexibility in your fighting style.  Now it feels like utilities (in open world) focus almost exclusively to balance defiance break from your weapons.   It would be nice to change out the utility skills to add some flavor.

Edited March 9, 2022 by suialthor.7164

[JPUlisses.8756]

All breakbars melt with thief pistol 4. No matter the powercreep in the breakbar, well maybe in the 9000th+ expansion.

[Cuks.8241]

Bladesworn can take a crazy CC on burst skills with mayor trait Unyielding Dragon. Youll be breaking every veteran bar in one hit, elites usually require one additional CC as for champs you will need a bit more but if you have your flow going you can break champs bars with 2 x burst + 1 bullcharge.