Solo?

[Ardenwolfe.8590]

@sephiroth.4217 said:Solo in this game is very easy you just need the right traits/gear.

This. Though some content is pretty much impossible without the zerg if you want certain achievements.

[Katoomba.6905]

I got all my chars to level 80 solo. but here it kind of stops. Even the beginning part is heaps of mobs and you die but hey, you wake up with full strength and carry on, except that does not give you the feeling of being a 'winner', rather a 'loser'.But then the first major quest (after being sent back and forth on long long repetitive conversations) is "Investigate forged camps for signs of Balthazar", speak to cavalier eastern and northern camp. ok. fine. but then you "sabotage cannon emplacements with explosives" oh yea, camps full of enemies, but you guys are all so great and do it with your left hand!(BTW I have made sure my chars are up to date, investigated at lengths all builds on internet etc., hence the disappointment that you cannot reset your points)Anyway, good luck to all the diehards. The only reason I still keep trying is that presently I cannot afford to spend my money on something else.

[Katoomba.6905]

And I forget to mention, ONLY THREE WAYPOINTS for the whole are, to make sure that when you die you spend fifteen minutes at least getting back to where you died, but then, the game has to be stretched out as much as possible, old old MMO trick. Some really go into that, some less, and some not at all.

[Holykitten.3064]

@Katoomba.6905 said:I got all my chars to level 80 solo. but here it kind of stops. Even the beginning part is heaps of mobs and you die but hey, you wake up with full strength and carry on, except that does not give you the feeling of being a 'winner', rather a 'loser'.

Don't run in all Leroy Jenkins and think about positioning?

But then the first major quest (after being sent back and forth on long long repetitive conversations) is "Investigate forged camps for signs of Balthazar", speak to cavalier eastern and northern camp. ok. fine. but then you "sabotage cannon emplacements with explosives" oh yea, camps full of enemies, but you guys are all so great and do it with your left hand!

Don't run in all Leroy Jenkins and think about positioning? Think about dodging, blocking, evasive weapon skills, Aegis, Regen, Skill slot 6, Stealth, using 'tankier' traits/stats?

(BTW I have made sure my chars are up to date, investigated at lengths all builds on internet etc., hence the disappointment that you cannot reset your points)

At level 80, you have all core traits regardless of how many HPs you've done. The game is definitely playable with core traits. If you can not do the content with whatever meta build you're running, you shouldn't be running the meta build. Most are built as 'glass cannoning' the content, which means unless you can mitigate damage else where (By the points I made above) you will die. A lot.

@Katoomba.6905 said:And I forget to mention, ONLY THREE WAYPOINTS for the whole are, to make sure that when you die you spend fifteen minutes at least getting back to where you died, but then, the game has to be stretched out as much as possible, old old MMO trick. Some really go into that, some less, and some not at all.

Pretty sure a lot of players like the 'less waypoints' thing, it means you explore more. Since Repair costs were removed too, it balances out the death punishment. With mounts and Gliding, it definitly does NOT take you 15 minutes to get back to where you were on any map.

Do I do Open world/Story content solo? Yes, all the time, it doesn't frustrate me at all.

Hate to ring the old bell, but this is totally Learn to play. You can always spot people who rushed through to the Expansion content and wonder why they die a lot.

[vesica tempestas.1563]

@Katoomba.6905 said:And I forget to mention, ONLY THREE WAYPOINTS for the whole are, to make sure that when you die you spend fifteen minutes at least getting back to where you died, but then, the game has to be stretched out as much as possible, old old MMO trick. Some really go into that, some less, and some not at all.

your looking for a lot of reasons to explain why you are struggling in the game, but the reality is that you just need to either research or practice more. This isn't a 'die hard' thing the vast majority of players can and do solo content. As I said earlier, use food (-10% dmg for example) and utility (>100 power boost etc), use defensive skills and don't leeroy jenkins the groups (i.e actually think about what mobs you are taking on and where the patrols are)

More importantly, difficult content that you know many many others have solo'd is a good thing - it means you have meaningful content that you can enjoy and master - thats a good thing in mmorpg, otherwise we would all be simple aoeing maps to death from the get go which is dull dull dull.

[JVJD.4912]

Grouping is not mandatory in this game., Its a choice

[Westenev.5289]

I rarely have trouble finding people to group with - it really depends on what you're looking for on the LFG and what you type. For example, if you type "explorable" in dungeons LFG, players will know you're not experienced with dungeons in general and may avoid your group. Also, if you're going for specific personal achievements or stories, people may also choose to ignore you. For such situations, it might be worth joining a newbie-friendly guild.

[Cragga the Eighty Third.60]

@"Katoomba.6905" said:I got all my chars to level 80 solo. but here it kind of stops. Even the beginning part is heaps of mobs and you die but hey, you wake up with full strength and carry on, except that does not give you the feeling of being a 'winner', rather a 'loser'.But then the first major quest (after being sent back and forth on long long repetitive conversations) is "Investigate forged camps for signs of Balthazar", speak to cavalier eastern and northern camp. ok. fine. but then you "sabotage cannon emplacements with explosives" oh yea, camps full of enemies, but you guys are all so great and do it with your left hand!(BTW I have made sure my chars are up to date, investigated at lengths all builds on internet etc., hence the disappointment that you cannot reset your points)Anyway, good luck to all the diehards. The only reason I still keep trying is that presently I cannot afford to spend my money on something else.

Wait, wait. Just checking. Are you starting out with PoF? Because it really helps if you play out the core story and HoT first. Pretty sure I'd have quit if I started with PoF...it's tough and it helps to have had the practice from the earlier parts.

[STIHL.2489]

I have to agree with you, For reasons I cannot fathom, GW2 development staff opted to make the Personal Dungeons "harder" or I guess making them more "challenging".

Personally I think they failed hard, as for the builds that are strong enough to beat the dungeons they are not challenge or even fun.. they are just drawn out slogs, which in my opinion take away from being able to enjoy the story and dungeon. When using more "exploration" or "whimsical" builds that can't really overcome the mass swam of medium difficulty mobs, it's just this demoralizing zerg fest that swiftly overwhelms them.

I agree with you, it's pretty messed up right now, and I think it really pulls away from just being able to enjoy the story, as there is not much a sense of power or presence.. but more a settling of the the tedious task of beating on a big ugly bag of hit points.

But, it is what it is.

[AliamRationem.5172]

@"Katoomba.6905" said:I got all my chars to level 80 solo. but here it kind of stops. Even the beginning part is heaps of mobs and you die but hey, you wake up with full strength and carry on, except that does not give you the feeling of being a 'winner', rather a 'loser'.But then the first major quest (after being sent back and forth on long long repetitive conversations) is "Investigate forged camps for signs of Balthazar", speak to cavalier eastern and northern camp. ok. fine. but then you "sabotage cannon emplacements with explosives" oh yea, camps full of enemies, but you guys are all so great and do it with your left hand!(BTW I have made sure my chars are up to date, investigated at lengths all builds on internet etc., hence the disappointment that you cannot reset your points)Anyway, good luck to all the diehards. The only reason I still keep trying is that presently I cannot afford to spend my money on something else.

I gather you're still fairly new? Don't take this as an insult, but you still have a lot of room for improvement. Even for a "diehard" former WoW player like myself, experiencing expansion content as a new player meant falling flat on my face. There's a lot to learn in this combat system and leveling to 80 simply doesn't press players enough to do so. I learned over time and eventually became good enough to solo tons of content that was previously seemed impossible. I expect you can improve with time if you want to.

[Khisanth.2948]

There are actually only 2 waypoints on that map because Destiny's Gorge Waypoint is nearly useless besides for going to Destiny's Gorge.

[Torolan.5816]

I finished both HoT and core with a low damage tanky guardian, a high damage but lightly armored thief and a rather lousy condition ranger. I only read one build on metabattle ever, and that was not for one of these classes. For the most time you can basically die your way through the story if you should be unable to overcome your foes by dodging and positioning, as strange as that may sound.

If you would have said that some story instances, especially in season 2 and some in season 3, brutally sucked regarding mechanisms, we would be on the same boat. ;)

[battledrone.8315]

i hear you OP, stories made me quit this gamethey are the worst mmo content i have played in 17 yearscurrently trying out BDO+playing a little EVEthis game has the best levelling experience i ever had, but also the worst end game

[WARIORSCHARGEING.2637]

As a solo player i get op post fully . for me being a solo player and played guild wars since beta well guild wars2 with its meta junk events i tend to not bother with they make the maps laggy and not easy for map completions world boss are ok to a small point but they should have been put into dungeons and not pve maps at all

[ThunderRonn.7615]

I do about 95% of the game by myself and can usually handle about the same amount without having help. Some of the big events and story mishes might kill me ten or twelve times but i can usually finish them. I have played every character solo and it seems ok. I do not have high end gear just regular orange armor.

[Ardid.7203]

The game requires patience and brains. You can't just faceroll everything. Sometimes it does requires to wait for a group or to call one (Map chat). But the personal story in general is absolutely doable solo.Just be calm, don't be afraid to ask people around you, use something more durable than pure zerker, and don't fall in the group of bad players that refuses to learn and blame all in the map, the gear or the profession...

[Khisanth.2948]

There is also such a thing as kill priority at least starting with HoT. For example you want to get rid of Mordrem Trolls ASAP or they cover everything in bees but if you don't have sufficient burst for them you'll want to get rid of any menders first.

[Cyninja.2954]

@"Katoomba.6905" said:Just an observation - seems to me that the whole game is from here definitely geared to grouping.. As a solo player, unless you are ueber and then some, you cannot really be expected to do the quests alone. I guess to pass the time with little quest, ignore the main one unless you GROUP, and unless you keep trying solo and die having to go back to a reset point of which I have found but only one up to now, i.e. artificially dragging the game out, I kind of wonder if that is the rason why the game is not only empty, it is EMPTY.Somebody in development should maybe check the original GW or other games to see how a mmorpg is supposed to go.

First off, GW1 was a lot harder than GW2 when played solo. Not only that but until you got access to heroes with Nightfall, parts of the original campaign were considered un-doable with only henchmen (unless the stars aligned correctly, you had a very powerful build and a big chunk of luck). That did improve with heroes and later 7-mann hero parties. Still a lot of GW1 remains to this day far more difficult than GW2 as far as open world content goes.

Second, there is 1-2 bumps in difficulty while playing GW2:

• the first occurs when entering HoT due to most likely lack of exotic gear on new characters and lack of elite specialization or refined build
• the second is during some of the later Living World episodes if done alone

Nothing in this games open world is hard though or impossible to overcome with some rework of traits and utilities. There is a reason why people make fun of open world content as:"afk 1 and loot". If you are having a difficult time, consider getting some in game advice (guild mates, friends who are better at the game or more experienced, a different class) or out of game help in form of guides or videos.

[Embered.5089]

You specifically mentioned quests, by which I'm guessing you mean hearts. Those are entirely soloable. As is the story. I do everything solo except guild missions, fractals, dungeons and raids. If you're having trouble keeping up with mobs of your own level, try looking at your trait build, or changing which armor you use (the stats). Also just for comfort, buy the cheapest weapons available (i.e. in the city) from NPC vendors and try all of the weapons that your class can use to see which one you like best.

[Juelz.8670]

I'm a fairly new player who will be not playing because of this dependency. GW had a good balance solo capable to work on yourself and then group for WvW... there are issues now with both of these things. I had no issues solo up until I purchased the World Live 2... after purchasing this and coming to the part "Cornered" I realized that this game is gearing towards complete reliancy on others and that just is not fun gaming The world I created on seems to only have active guilds that are "Strictly Social"... which also tells me that this game is NOT geared towards Guilds.. Guilds fight guilds help prepare their members for fights guilds do not demand that you ONLY come socialize it's absurd really if you think about it. I'm not going to scrap and recreated on another world just so I can join a truly active in gaming, not socializing, guild, this too is an absurd thing to expect. Cross server guilding is something that within this game is a problem. If WvW is the major thing then why set up guilds to have to fight their own members.... again absurdity. I think too many people cried and to appease them things were changed so poorly that the game just is not worth bothering with. Cant WvW unless you create on only the most highly populated worlds, cant solo anymore cause the epic failure of complete dependency on others. So sad too I was loving this game. :(

[Ashen.2907]

@"Katoomba.6905" said:Just an observation - seems to me that the whole game is from here definitely geared to grouping.. As a solo player, unless you are ueber and then some, you cannot really be expected to do the quests alone. I guess to pass the time with little quest, ignore the main one unless you GROUP, and unless you keep trying solo and die having to go back to a reset point of which I have found but only one up to now, i.e. artificially dragging the game out, I kind of wonder if that is the rason why the game is not only empty, it is EMPTY.Somebody in development should maybe check the original GW or other games to see how a mmorpg is supposed to go.

Almost the entire game is designed for solo play. The main "quests" are all designed for solo play. The only content not intended for solo play is:

DungeonsRaidsFractalsWorld Event BossesSome Champions.

All told those represent less than ten percent of the entire game...and some of them are very doable solo.

If the complaint here is that ONLY 90+% of the game is tailored to your play style, and that you want the other less than 10% to be taken away from others so that everything can center around you....you might want to consider single player games.

EDIT: Sorry, didn't see how old the thread was.

[Linken.6345]

@"Juelz.8670" said:I'm a fairly new player who will be not playing because of this dependency. GW had a good balance solo capable to work on yourself and then group for WvW... there are issues now with both of these things. I had no issues solo up until I purchased the World Live 2... after purchasing this and coming to the part "Cornered" I realized that this game is gearing towards complete reliancy on others and that just is not fun gaming The world I created on seems to only have active guilds that are "Strictly Social"... which also tells me that this game is NOT geared towards Guilds.. Guilds fight guilds help prepare their members for fights guilds do not demand that you ONLY come socialize it's absurd really if you think about it. I'm not going to scrap and recreated on another world just so I can join a truly active in gaming, not socializing, guild, this too is an absurd thing to expect. Cross server guilding is something that within this game is a problem. If WvW is the major thing then why set up guilds to have to fight their own members.... again absurdity. I think too many people cried and to appease them things were changed so poorly that the game just is not worth bothering with. Cant WvW unless you create on only the most highly populated worlds, cant solo anymore cause the epic failure of complete dependency on others. So sad too I was loving this game. :(

what part of living world season 2 is unsolable?

[Cyninja.2954]

@"Juelz.8670" said:I'm a fairly new player who will be not playing because of this dependency. GW had a good balance solo capable to work on yourself and then group for WvW... there are issues now with both of these things. I had no issues solo up until I purchased the World Live 2... after purchasing this and coming to the part "Cornered" I realized that this game is gearing towards complete reliancy on others and that just is not fun gaming The world I created on seems to only have active guilds that are "Strictly Social"... which also tells me that this game is NOT geared towards Guilds.. Guilds fight guilds help prepare their members for fights guilds do not demand that you ONLY come socialize it's absurd really if you think about it. I'm not going to scrap and recreated on another world just so I can join a truly active in gaming, not socializing, guild, this too is an absurd thing to expect. Cross server guilding is something that within this game is a problem. If WvW is the major thing then why set up guilds to have to fight their own members.... again absurdity. I think too many people cried and to appease them things were changed so poorly that the game just is not worth bothering with. Cant WvW unless you create on only the most highly populated worlds, cant solo anymore cause the epic failure of complete dependency on others. So sad too I was loving this game. :(

Fist of all, this game is a MMO. Coming into a MMO and complaining that you can't solo is like buying a first person shooter and then complaining you can't garden.

Second, GW2 has over 90% of its content geared towards solo players or no requirement for active grouping content such as:

• the entire story lines are balanced around getting soloed and also will not scale up if you bring up to 4 people to help IF you should have issues on some step
• map events and open world bosses draw a crowd of players all the time (except for Triple Trouble, which requires more organization) and do not require active grouping of any kind
• all mastery tracks are designed to be soloed
• Spvp has auto grouping and requires no interaction what so ever with other people if not desired
• WvW sees PUG commanders tag up regularly and one can simply tag along

If you are having issues with any Living World episodes, consult guides. ALL of them are designed with soloing in mind. There is maybe a handful of achievements (and with a handful, it's literally no more than maybe 5-6) which can be challenging alone (yet still doable).

Your gripe seems to be mostly WvW related. That is the only content where server choice is still of consequence and yes, WvW activity/experience differs greatly from server to server and will occasionally shift if big guilds decide to switch. Then again, if WvW was the only reason for you to play GW2, a game mode which was designed for huge zerg fights aka many players interacting with each other, I have to question why you would want to be anti social there.

Also, this thread was opened in end of 2017 and beginning of 2018.

[Tommo Chocolate.5870]

@"Juelz.8670" said:I'm a fairly new player who will be not playing because of this dependency. GW had a good balance solo capable to work on yourself and then group for WvW... there are issues now with both of these things. I had no issues solo up until I purchased the World Live 2... after purchasing this and coming to the part "Cornered" I realized that this game is gearing towards complete reliancy on others and that just is not fun gaming The world I created on seems to only have active guilds that are "Strictly Social"... which also tells me that this game is NOT geared towards Guilds.. Guilds fight guilds help prepare their members for fights guilds do not demand that you ONLY come socialize it's absurd really if you think about it. I'm not going to scrap and recreated on another world just so I can join a truly active in gaming, not socializing, guild, this too is an absurd thing to expect. Cross server guilding is something that within this game is a problem. If WvW is the major thing then why set up guilds to have to fight their own members.... again absurdity. I think too many people cried and to appease them things were changed so poorly that the game just is not worth bothering with. Cant WvW unless you create on only the most highly populated worlds, cant solo anymore cause the epic failure of complete dependency on others. So sad too I was loving this game. :(

Living World Season 2 is definitely a step up in difficulty from the Personal Story, but it is soloable. All of the main story content is designed to be soloable. Generally you need a coherent build with a decent damage output, and sometimes you need to figure out some mechanics (e.g. for boss battles). For Cornered, it's a long time since I've done it but my recollection is that it's much easier with a ranged weapon - otherwise you have to chase the boss around a lot.

[Khisanth.2948]

Although if people can find Queensdale too challenging on a lv80 I can definitely see how LS2 would be non-soloable ...