Help Me Not Quit: I Despise Story Content "Raids." TRULY Despise.

[RhGh.8413]

First off, I don't suck at MMO's. I have full Ascended gear & a good build. Soloing most champs is not a problem. Solo'd group stuff. Been MMOing since 1999, done plenty of hard raids.

I just absolutely DESPISE "content" like A: Season 3, chapter 5, Volcano event with Taimi. I get down to the bottom & fly around blowing up hounds but can never get the last bit to trigger. I quit. F it. It's the exact opposite of fun. And takes > an hour.

B: Season 4, end of Chapter 2. Big inquest facility where you come in on an airship. After about 30m-45m of red circles I just quit. Just not up for another half-hour plus of "fun," ie the exact opposite of fun. Taimi screaming at me for 1 hour 30 of red circles? No thanks. Nah.

 

All kinds of good fun & useful stuff is locked behind that garbage game design. I don't mind running around for the story. Enjoy it in fact. But those garbage "one man raids?" They're just the exact opposite of fun. Fiddly mechanic crap & 2-hour solo red-circlefests? Does anyone enjoy that? Someone no doubt... but I'm thinking of giving up GW2. Rest of the game is good to great, but that "one man raid" "content" is just AWFUL. Some I beat despite how awful it is (end of Personal Story, end of HoT.) Some I just quit because how crappy it is. Some a I hang up on a mechanic.

 

And I know I'll need to keep doin it. I'm just not paying to have a bad time. If I wanted to do that I'd play WoW. Unless someone has a workaround?

[Danikat.8537]

You don't have to play any part of the story solo if you don't want to. It can all be completed solo, but can also be done in groups of up to 5, so if you're having trouble with it or don't enjoy playing solo you can ask friends, guild members or anyone else to do it with you.

[Ariurotl.3718]

There is a baffling contradiction in your post between professing to be a good player and yet being unable to clear relatively easy story content. I am a relatively crap player and I certainly never took nowhere close to an hour in either of the instances you referenced.

 

I don't even know what to tell you, man. Maybe you're not as good as you think you are? That's my best guess.

EDIT: That was a bit harsh on re-reading, I'm not trying to say you're bad at the game or anything, I'm just baffled. How does a good player who raided and stuff take ages to clear content that a skill-clicking, RMB-targeting scrub like myself clears in 20 minutes tops with no issues most of the time?

Edited March 19, 2023 by Ariurotl.3718

[RhGh.8413]

I was understating. I'm pretty good at MMO. I was in server leaders in EQ, WoW, & the #1 guild in the game in DAoC. I've beat content you aren't supposed to be able to beat in GW2, stuff where you get instakilled if you win. Granted I'm older now, but even at 60 there's no video game I can't beat on normal (give Dark Souls a try when you're 59. Ain't easy 8)

I figured I'd get a response or two like yours pre-edit, certainly not offended. If you close read you see I bounced off a mechanic & rage quit a couple times on a longer dodgefest. LWCS4 chapter 2 finale is >30m btw. Wasn't having a problem, just hated the content. 3 times so far.

Been thinking about it this afternoon on & off. My conclusion: I should quit. 

This is likely my subconscious picking a sticking point as a fulcrum. It's happened before. As you can see I've played WAY too many MMO hours. A similar sort of block happened in WoW & I haven't played any MMO in a group since. Quite a few years. Nor do I join guilds. Not because I dislike guilds--I love em--but because I value being able to quit for anything RL w/o letting down internet friends more

This, I think, is the next step. I have too much free time, sufficient money to live on, and 3 or 4 hours a day of GW2 is a waste of precious time instead of relaxation. I don't need a solution. I need a cessation.

Thanks to you & Danikat.8537 for helping me think it through (if only subconsciously.) 

 

 

Edited March 19, 2023 by RhGh.8413

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

Its not your skill or your build, you're just not doing the mechanics.

[stormemperor.3745]

3 hours ago, RhGh.8413 said:

And I know I'll need to keep doin it. I'm just not paying to have a bad time. If I wanted to do that I'd play WoW. Unless someone has a workaround?

I understand, I hated those story missions just like you. I hated all those missions and maps when doing legendary achievements as well. Content itself, map, events everything in lw1, lw2, lw3, pof and lw4 simply made me hate it. Only exception in lw4 6 is Dragonfall map events, I liked it as content. But really hated all lw1,2,3,pof, 4 and 5 stories. 

Hot story was okay, missions okay not best but some progress. 

Lets talk about lw5, as I mentioned I don't like the story of lw5 but I liked those maps, especially Bjora Marches. I like the snowfall and mystery in forest(if you pay attention you will see the shadow of giant, long gone species of tyria), events are okay not the best kinda letdown. Moving on to DWC story, its ok charr was interesting. DWC south and north meta very fun and dynamic, I like it. We don't talk about drms and whatever happens afterwards. Duck DS and drm to eternity.

EOD, I hated every single part of story, events, characters and maps, did everything in 1-2 weeks and never visited there again for 6 months. Yeah, nothing at all, no meta events, achievements and kitten. Except eod strikes because duck li. Turtle is handy and skiff... we need more skiff events, like 3x in every map. Put some race something.

 

Lets talk about legendaries too because duck... had to craft transcendence because conflux was only 1 side, my ducking OCD couldn't handle it and had to pvp several months against toxic builds.

 

TLDR: Bite the bullet, do every kitten and never return to those contents again. Do the content you enjoy. Lets not talk about the several missions I had to redo because of failing achievement, getting dc etc.

[Buran.3796]

   You don't need to play parts of tghe game that you don't enjoy. At the end the goal is having fun, not doing a second job. I ended the EoD campaign this evening, almost 14 months after the EoD release. Why? Because usually I don't find the story mode very interesting in this game.

   There's have been exceptions (I liked PoF the best in that sense), but usually the pace is a bit sluggish and some episodes have weird mechanics or some puzzles which aren't present in the normal combat system, and I'm not fan of that. So I focus on the parts of the game that enjoy and delay the ones which not. In EoD delaying the story mode was particulary easy since ANet chose to make the masteries character-bound, so I had no much interest in bringing up alts to Cantha outsiude my main. 

[FriendlyHougen.9120]

There are some parts in instances where I get confused, but typically I pull up the wiki once I get into a relatively safe spot. For example I was confused with the orbs in the last quest of season 4 episode 1 and I figured it out on the wiki and completed it just fine, and I'm in exotics and working on ascended, and I'm still kind of unfamiliar with the game (I'm used to MMOs like WoW and FFXIV).

 

The wiki is your friend, it has info on all the instances.

[Khisanth.2948]

Pretty sure the game does explain the mechanics since I couldn't possibly have magically known all the mechanics otherwise. If you were already so disinterested in the content before the encounter that you zoned out and didn't bother paying attention then yeah it is time to quit. Anet's Deus Ex Taimi approach doesn't help but ultimately that is just an excuse.

Could be an aging thing but the "hard raids" and "soloing champions" leads me to think it is more of a hubris issue. For the hard raids, that experience and knowledge isn't really transferable unless someone is making a clone of your previous game. For the champions, most are mechanically simple. Some have one or two mechanic but even when they have mechanics it is generally simpler. Most of them are "hit them hard and don't get hit by them". It is a different skill set.

[Gibson.4036]

Add me to the list of people surprised that you can solo champs but list The Charge and Heart of the Volcano as your problematic story instances.

I can get it with Heart of the Volcano, if it's just a "I can't get the hang of gliding and using skills", maybe?

But neither of these instances would top my list of annoying story content.

I'm thinking that maybe taking a break and coming back would help a lot. There's a lot of noise, both visual and audio during The Charge, with fire and klaxons and running and shouting. Maybe just turning off the music and ambient sounds would help? Or maybe switching to a range build so you can concentrate on positioning out of those overlapping red circles that are driving you crazy?

I tried to do the achievements Rock Dodger and Shrubsplosives in the LW2 Shadow of the Dragon fight a few nights ago and ended my play session feeling defeated. The instance has a rather annoyingingly long lead up to the fight, but the fight itself can be long, too, and it has the frustration of asking you to stand still and do a channel multiple times while getting directly targeted by a big CC and attack.

Sure enough, there are plenty of old discusssions on the internet about how annoying those achievements are. Someone suggested cheasing Shrubsplosives with mist form, so I went back last night with on my tempest to try it again.

After enduring the escort and a story beat I find terrible, I entered the fight only to get hit by a rock and trigger a shrub very early, disqualifying me from both achievements. My first reaction was "stupid cheesy mechanics!!!!" and I logged out of the instance. Even with the challenge mote, I would have had to do the rest of the long fight just to try again.

After a sec, I calmed down. Switched to rifle mechanist. Ran through all the shrubs and avoided every rock the first time through.

It's amazing what settling my emotions and thinking a moment can do.

Edited March 20, 2023 by Gibson.4036

[FriendlyHougen.9120]

2 hours ago, Khisanth.2948 said:

Pretty sure the game does explain the mechanics since I couldn't possibly have magically known all the mechanics otherwise.

There are plenty I can figure out myself, but some are vaguely explained like the one I mentioned, for me at least. Part of me thought it was the platforms, but for whatever reason I never bothered jumping over there until I read the wiki.

[Khisanth.2948]

23 minutes ago, FriendlyHougen.9120 said:

There are plenty I can figure out myself, but some are vaguely explained like the one I mentioned, for me at least. Part of me thought it was the platforms, but for whatever reason I never bothered jumping over there until I read the wiki.

They are marked on the mini map when that phase starts.

Vague? Maybe but that is the game telling you "here is some stuff you should check!".

[Krexen.9057]

On 3/19/2023 at 4:42 PM, RhGh.8413 said:

I'm just not paying to have a bad time. If I wanted to do that I'd play WoW.

You're paying?

 

I wonder if your instance is bugged. Would you mind posting a screenshot, if you happen to be in the volcano again?

[Sobx.1758]

On 3/19/2023 at 10:42 PM, RhGh.8413 said:

First off, I don't suck at MMO's. I have full Ascended gear & a good build. Soloing most champs is not a problem. Solo'd group stuff. Been MMOing since 1999, done plenty of hard raids.

On 3/20/2023 at 12:48 AM, RhGh.8413 said:

I was understating. I'm pretty good at MMO. I was in server leaders in EQ, WoW, & the #1 guild in the game in DAoC.

I can't be sure, but I think this right here might be the main issue. Seeing how often you try to "prove your capabilities" by listing what/when you've played can be pointing at inability to accept that playing other games (and completing their content) doesn't really matter here. This game isn't those games. xx years playing another mmorpg doesn't make anyone good at this mmorpg. I can fairly certainly tell you that if you spend 1,5h at a story step struggling with circles, you're missing something substantial here. Look for the problematic areas/mechanics and try to improve at them instead of saying "it can't be me, I played all those other mmos!".

 

On 3/20/2023 at 12:48 AM, RhGh.8413 said:

I've beat content you aren't supposed to be able to beat in GW2, stuff where you get instakilled if you win.

Out of curiosity: what content exactly is this referring to?

Edited March 21, 2023 by Sobx.1758

[yLoon.5289]

There are tons of guides that you can find on youtube. 😪

[Dondarrion.2748]

In the end, isn't this just another "I'm quitting topic" and against the TOS, isn't it...?

OP has clearly stopped responding having come to their conclusion to quit, so maybe just lock the discussion.

 

For someone soloing champs and beating content you're not supposed to beat to be stuck on a living story mission and quitting the entire MMO over it... sounds suspiciously like a troll post.

[voltaicbore.8012]

1 hour ago, Dondarrion.2748 said:

For someone soloing champs and beating content you're not supposed to beat to be stuck on a living story mission and quitting the entire MMO over it... sounds suspiciously like a troll post.

I don't think it's a troll, just yet another person unduly impressed with their own abilities. I mean, OP mentions ascended gear as if it's a marker of "I can do GW2 combat." I wholeheartedly and unironically think OP made the right choice to quit (perhaps temporarily, or perhaps forever). It just doesn't sound like they're engaging with the game on some basic level, despite being able to kill some things.

[SinisterSeven.2781]

sometimes it's just best to give up.

 

having a lot of equipment or a lot of time gaming does not mean you'll be good at guild wars 2.

 

the workaround is learning to solo balth's champ in auric basin. if you can do that i think you can pretty much do anything.

[AliamRationem.5172]

I think that particular story instance just has bugs.  I had that same problem multiple times.  I'm a little confused about the whole "raid" thing.   It's an annoying bug.  There's no particular skill required there. 

[Khisanth.2948]

3 hours ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

I'm a little confused about the whole "raid" thing. 

Maybe a translation will help: "It's not me, it's the game."

[eXruina.4956]

for me i've had difficulty finding a group to raid with, i am not a very social person and anything i can't PUG i just hadn't gotten into. same with you not lacking in gear or skill just not worth my time chasing people around for.

 

the only person worth chasing after in the world is my wife.

 

another thing for me is repeating map completion and story. i've always wanted a new main with everything unlocked.

 

doing everything once was perfect, it is a wonderful game and i played through all of it, but having to do them all over again, to unlock them for a new main, is not only tedious, but very unrewarding for the time and effort.

 

i am very unmotivated to do so and would just rather invest that effort developing a character in another game.

 

re-buying bag slots, equipment templates, build templates, etc i'm more open to, since i view it as supporting the game, and i really love this game. so i don't mind splurging every so often.

 

i feel you, its a great game i would argue better than anything thats out there, but its not perfect. if you're getting frustrated try to take a breather. bet you'll enjoy the game still after coming back after a short break. we all do.

[Xperiment.6923]

I understand the OP. 

 

Been gaming just as long on same MMO's. The thing about GW2 it doesn't follow traditional holy trinity. Every class can heal/tank, and DPS. Builds have so much to do with everything! But it sux to always go for the meta build. If I math it correctly each class can has 27 variations of specializations ..then variations within those traits. then of course weapons and utilities. There are so many ways to build! But not all build are made equal, so were back at the meta.

 

I main Warrior. I've struggled alot in story mode on especially those1 man raid fights. 

 

FFIV does a way better job moving players through the story with auto group queuing. Unfortunately the focus on GW2 seems to be more on Meta events/Fractals. 

 

Even though there is so much to do in GW2 seems for more I play the closer I get to hitting the wall again.

[Khisanth.2948]

14 hours ago, Xperiment.6923 said:

I understand the OP. 

 

Been gaming just as long on same MMO's. The thing about GW2 it doesn't follow traditional holy trinity. Every class can heal/tank, and DPS. Builds have so much to do with everything! But it sux to always go for the meta build. If I math it correctly each class can has 27 variations of specializations ..then variations within those traits. then of course weapons and utilities. There are so many ways to build! But not all build are made equal, so were back at the meta.

 

I main Warrior. I've struggled alot in story mode on especially those1 man raid fights. 

 

FFIV does a way better job moving players through the story with auto group queuing. Unfortunately the focus on GW2 seems to be more on Meta events/Fractals. 

 

Even though there is so much to do in GW2 seems for more I play the closer I get to hitting the wall again.

Except OP is failing at encounter mechanics which has nothing to do with builds. You can have the super duper most meta build ever and still fail if the encounter requires doing specific things and you don't do it because you weren't paying attention.

Never had issue with story even on "mediocre at best" build that only does around 2k DPS. meta build should be able to hit around 10k+. That is solo, single target, and in real world situations not on the golem.