Living story is the single worst gaming experience so far in my entire life.

[battledrone.8315]

@lokh.2695 said:

@battledrone.8315 said:

@lokh.2695 said:

@battledrone.8315 said:

@lokh.2695 said:Well, to be fair, I had encounters with the old grumpy man where I ended up half naked and exhausted.

Having said that, since most bosses in story instances don't regain health/reset, even if an encounter is hard or your struggling at any given point you can attrition it out, not the most fancy thing to do, but it works. Then there's also, you know, all the other ppl playing this MMorpg. If you struggle at something, chances are high, others are as well. Team up and you'll be fine.MMOs don't get more casual than GW2 open world. It's casual to the point where you can play for hundreds of hours in the open world w/o knowing what the cc skills of your class are, how to effectively dodge AoEs or what the point of melee weapons is. Open world PvE asks next to nothing from the players which not only prevents players from learning a few tricks about the game but also gives most players a sense of false security/badassnes when they encounter slightly harder content. So when they go into an encounter that is slightly more demanding and fail it can't possibly be because they have missed something about the encounter or failed to use basic in-game mechanics, it's because the game is bad and not casual friendly enough. There is only truth in that statement in the sense that the open world fails to teach ppl about mechanics by not demanding it.

sooo...its not the wrong product, its the wrong customers?

no, this was sold as a casual mmo

more like: the product is flawed in that it doesn't demand more of the players on a regular basis which leads to players to being overwhelmed when the game actually wants them to do something.it is a casual mmo

and if the game demanded more of the players, then it wouldnt be CASUAL, would it?

If the game demanded more in the open world, ppl would learn and thus know more about the game and its mechanics which would make them struggle less. What do you want, press 1 to receive your selection of BiS gear and a Legendary?

no, i want new casual content, that doesnt REQUIRE me to have good gearbut, i know they can make more money with grind content to bolster the CC so...

[battledrone.8315]

@Lankybrit.4598 said:I haven't even finished the generic Personal Story on any character yet. Some of the stuff is really horrible.

you should try zaitan, its so bad, that its hilarious

[Blocki.4931]

Yeah. I also complain when the game stops being really easy and actually challenges me for once.

Try killing Mordremoth solo on challenge mode, going for the achievements and then talk about a hard and annoying fight (and it takes a while too)

All of these fights are so incredibly simple and easy if you just took a minute to understand the mechanics. Oh and trust me. I died a dozen times in that fight as well, my armor completely broken and essentially just spamming downstate 5. The second time playing it I didn't die once. Why are learning curves your "worst gaming experience" ?

[SunTzu.4513]

Imo the story bosses are not hard at all, they are just anoying. The whole aoe carpet on the ground thing went way to far since LS2. Pair this with such wonderfull thinks like flymechaniks or protecting a suicidal npc, this could be pretty frustrating. Also the length of the parts you play should be better portioned. The next thing is, that open world is so pretty easy and faceroll, even on most of the worldbosses you can play the autoattack game. All this teaches a lot of ''bad'' habbits to a lot of players. Beginning with no knowledge about things like breakbars, missile reflect or situational usefull utillity skills. Often you just need to make a simple trait or skill change to adapt to the situation, but a lot of players a unable or unwilling to do this.Someone remembers about the eater of souls? There were a lot of people on topics about this who didn't want to change a trait or just a skill for more cc because in their opinon every build should breeze trough evertyhing totally ez.I never played an MMO with such a great skillgab between the players like GW2. I can see it everytime a new LS Part is released in my guild. Half of the player breezing trough it the other half play the naked man dying game.

Edit:

Op what class are you playing? How are you traited? From what where you dying the most time? Maybe we can give some advices if wanted.

[Samnang.1879]

Me when ppl complain about the difficulty of non-raid things...

Just put 500 or more toughness and you literally become immortal in most game modes... why do u need npc to res u? also u can just click retry and the kill the thing :/ jesus do u want anet to personally spoonfeed u too?

[Imperadordf.2687]

@battledrone.8315 said:

@"Imperadordf.2687" said:"Oh look, something that is slightly harder than open world, let me complain about it with godly over-exaggeration."

how many would buy a casual mmo for HARDCORE STORY CONTENT? lol

You think GW2 is hardcore? lol

Living story requires you to press something else than your autoattack button.

[samo.1054]

Wait, am I reading this right? People are complaining that LS fights are too difficult? Thought I've seen it all.

This right here is the reason why modern games are dumbed down to the core. Kids aren't willing to put even 5% effort into beating something. Guess it's the "mobile games" generation, where you click and your character autofollows and autokills everything.

I can't really remember the Caudecus fight appart from the fact that I was really quite happy with how they made it. If you can't beat something use the energy that you would use to go and cry on the forums to figure out why you got rekt, instead of spamming the forums with nonsense.

[FyzE.3472]

I had the brain to go there with 2 of my characters full bereserker gear. Both times I ended the boss fight with only my weapons on me :D fighting a boss with half health while you're naked is fun

[Ashen.2907]

@battledrone.8315 said:

@lokh.2695 said:Well, to be fair, I had encounters with the old grumpy man where I ended up half naked and exhausted.

Having said that, since most bosses in story instances don't regain health/reset, even if an encounter is hard or your struggling at any given point you can attrition it out, not the most fancy thing to do, but it works. Then there's also, you know, all the other ppl playing this MMorpg. If you struggle at something, chances are high, others are as well. Team up and you'll be fine.MMOs don't get more casual than GW2 open world. It's casual to the point where you can play for hundreds of hours in the open world w/o knowing what the cc skills of your class are, how to effectively dodge AoEs or what the point of melee weapons is. Open world PvE asks next to nothing from the players which not only prevents players from learning a few tricks about the game but also gives most players a sense of false security/badassnes when they encounter slightly harder content. So when they go into an encounter that is slightly more demanding and fail it can't possibly be because they have missed something about the encounter or failed to use basic in-game mechanics, it's because the game is bad and not casual friendly enough. There is only truth in that statement in the sense that the open world fails to teach ppl about mechanics by not demanding it.

sooo...its not the wrong product, its the wrong customers?

no, this was sold as a casual mmo

Citation needed.

[Plautze.6290]

@FyzE.3472 said:I had the brain to go there with 2 of my characters full bereserker gear. Both times I ended the boss fight with only my weapons on me :D fighting a boss with half health while you're naked is fun

Naked runs are the thing in dark souls :#

[FyzE.3472]

@Plautze.6290 said:

@FyzE.3472 said:I had the brain to go there with 2 of my characters full bereserker gear. Both times I ended the boss fight with only my weapons on me :D fighting a boss with half health while you're naked is fun

Naked runs are the thing in dark souls :#

I'm a newb. That is what I was saying. Also, I don't think my IKEA PC will handle dark souls

[GrubySzymek.1362]

After 6 years people still don't understand why GW2 is a casual friendly game. It's not about game being easy (core Tyria though is a joke and should be reworked). It means that game doesn't require endless grind from you and offers you QoL solutions to bypass entry gates. There is no gear treadmill and the only place with hard gear gate are higher level fractals.

Hard or easy, these terms are subjective and can't be used universally for all players. However what Anet managed to do with HoT and after is finally offering engaging gameplay. Caudecus feels more like a boss than Zhaitan. Game requires you to understand and use what your profession has to offer instead of mindless smashing loot pinatas and witnessing Trahearne's voice actor slapping himself not to die of boredom.

[Plautze.6290]

@FyzE.3472 said:

@Plautze.6290 said:

@FyzE.3472 said:I had the brain to go there with 2 of my characters full bereserker gear. Both times I ended the boss fight with only my weapons on me :D fighting a boss with half health while you're naked is fun

Naked runs are the thing in dark souls :#

I'm a newb. That is what I was saying. Also, I don't think my IKEA PC will handle dark souls

I was referring to "GW2 is the dark souls of MMORPG" statement. After playing DS1 to 3, I gladly came back to GW2. If felt like vacation because a) GW2 holds not the slightest difficulty when compared to dark souls and b) playing dark souls for prolonged time has honed my dodging skills.You could at least try DS1, it's from 2012, as is GW2.

[FyzE.3472]

@Plautze.6290 said:

@FyzE.3472 said:

@Plautze.6290 said:

@FyzE.3472 said:I had the brain to go there with 2 of my characters full bereserker gear. Both times I ended the boss fight with only my weapons on me :D fighting a boss with half health while you're naked is fun

Naked runs are the thing in dark souls :#

I'm a newb. That is what I was saying. Also, I don't think my IKEA PC will handle dark souls

I was referring to "GW2 is the dark souls of MMORPG" statement. After playing DS1 to 3, I gladly came back to GW2. If felt like vacation because a) GW2 holds not the slightest difficulty when compared to dark souls and b) playing dark souls for prolonged time has honed my dodging skills.You could at least try DS1, it's from 2012, as is GW2.

Oh, OK then. Thanks for the info, I will check it out! :)

[Plautze.6290]

@FyzE.3472 said:

@Plautze.6290 said:

@FyzE.3472 said:

@Plautze.6290 said:

@FyzE.3472 said:I had the brain to go there with 2 of my characters full bereserker gear. Both times I ended the boss fight with only my weapons on me :D fighting a boss with half health while you're naked is fun

Naked runs are the thing in dark souls :#

I'm a newb. That is what I was saying. Also, I don't think my IKEA PC will handle dark souls

I was referring to "GW2 is the dark souls of MMORPG" statement. After playing DS1 to 3, I gladly came back to GW2. If felt like vacation because a) GW2 holds not the slightest difficulty when compared to dark souls and b) playing dark souls for prolonged time has honed my dodging skills.You could at least try DS1, it's from 2012, as is GW2.

Oh, OK then. Thanks for the info, I will check it out! :)

But be prepared to suffer. A lot.

[EpicName.4523]

I dislike the LW as well and have two problems with it:

1) Most boss fights rely on some gimmick in order to finish them off. It can be quite frustrating before you find what that gimmick is and it isn't always that apparent. To be fair, if those mechanics did not exist the bosses would be just pinjatas you have to dps down. And here is for my second point.

2)The biggest problem I have with the LWS is the writing. It is abysmal. Stop the bad guy. Kill everything that stands in your way. No twists, no deeper plot, nothing. None of the episodes interested me and some of your "allies" are quite annoying to have around.Take Braham, for example. They tried to make him interesting and failed miserably. He is neither badass nor fun to listen to, just a big whiny brat.The only unique thing about the lesbian couple is their relationship and the fact that the blonde chick seems religious. Rox is also quite bland which leaves three characters with some kind of personality - Taimi, Canach and Rytlock. Everything else is meh.

A cool story makes you push forward in the game. It makes you motivated to kill that boss and finally unveil what is next. With the current storytelling, I prefer to have pinjatas for bosses so I can unlock the next map faster.

[Blocki.4931]

@"EpicName.4523" said:I dislike the LW as well and have two problems with it:

1) Most boss fights rely on some gimmick in order to finish them off. It can be quite frustrating before you find what that gimmick is and it isn't always that apparent. To be fair, if those mechanics did not exist the bosses would be just pinjatas you have to dps down. And here is for my second point.

2)The biggest problem I have with the LWS is the writing. It is abysmal. Stop the bad guy. Kill everything that stands in your way. No twists, no deeper plot, nothing. None of the episodes interested me and some of your "allies" are quite annoying to have around.Take Braham, for example. They tried to make him interesting and failed miserably. He is neither kitten nor fun to listen to, just a big whiny brat.The only unique thing about the lesbian couple is their relationship and the fact that the blonde chick seems religious. Rox is also quite bland which leaves three characters with some kind of personality - Taimi, Canach and Rytlock. Everything else is meh.

A cool story makes you push forward in the game. It makes you motivated to kill that boss and finally unveil what is next. With the current storytelling, I prefer to have pinjatas for bosses so I can unlock the next map faster.

Using mechanics the maps and previous enemies taught you is reduced to being a "gimmick"? Come on now...

I can't believe there really are people who call the story shallow. It has ups and downs, but it's far from being that dumbed down. Maybe if you didn't pay attention to the detail, skipping every time an NPC talks. Since the game is combat focused, it would leave an extremely sour taste if the episodes didn't end in a satisfying boss fight. The last two episodes were a great example for that.

[Eloc Freidon.5692]

Caudecus personally was a literal pain. I broke all my armor fully just in that fight. Everything leading up to it was decent, but tight quarters and room filling AoEs that spam several more times you can dodge is very frustrating.

Didn't make me want to quit as much as Zhaitan's "fight" though.

[Endless Soul.5178]

Was I the only one to leave that Caudecus fight fully clothed? Yes, it was a bit difficult, but somehow my old, fumbly fingers managed to handle it.

~shrugs~

[GrubySzymek.1362]

@EpicName.4523 said:I dislike the LW as well and have two problems with it:

1) Most boss fights rely on some gimmick in order to finish them off. It can be quite frustrating before you find what that gimmick is and it isn't always that apparent. To be fair, if those mechanics did not exist the bosses would be just pinjatas you have to dps down. And here is for my second point.

Could you give some examples?

[Curunen.8729]

Single worst experience?! :open_mouth: I can think of many worse game experiences than gw2 living story.

Sure some of the instances are really long and you can't pause/come back to it later, which can be a bit tedious.

But unless going for some of the achievements (which I agree some achievements are annoying/tricky such that I can't be bothered with them), I can't think of a single one that was on the level of making me pull my hair out. Yes I don't like the gimmicky nature of the features required to beat some of the more recent ones - and I hate the special action button because it's a waste of a keybind that serves no purpose in pvp/wvw but I have to bind it to something useable in pve because they like putting spammable skills on it...

In any case they let you go at them repeatedly so there's no consequence to failing initially. If it helps then be sure to have a good build and solid gear for your class, as well as comfortable keybindings. :)

[Dreamy Lu.3865]

As many opinions and feedback as types of players, with each different tastes and personal criteria re what is fun/no fun, difficult/easy, and so on...

My view is that the game offers many different activities and each can choose what suits him/her better. The only thing with storylines, is that they have a tiny disadvantage compared to other activities: They are mandatory. So, for players who get less fun at storylines, that's a bit annoying. However, this is the support of the game and very much understandable. It is good as it is.For those who don't like storylines - like me by the way - they are different ways to manage without losing the fun at the game. I can share how I deal with it:

• I do it once only and after that, buy the portal scroll to bring more toons to the area (tp to friend is also a possibility).
• I don't solo it (in some rare exceptions, it is mandatory: Well, then, no alternative. Have to go through it, but that's rare enough). There are always friends ready to get me through and in return, I help them at other things where I am the good one.
• I don't return to storylines to do the achievements inside them (unless I have no choice, or unless it is possible without finishing the instance).

That way, I do them because they are needed, but with minimized trouble. :)

[Zedek.8932]

While the regular story instances of the core game are - for some reason - now bugged and glitched, the current instances have me being resurrected by Rytlock and his huge paws. And often when I see a dead NPC, other NPC rush towards him or her. That's so new to me that I am still pleased it finally happens.

[kharmin.7683]

@Dreamy Lu.3865 said:The only thing with storylines, is that they have a tiny disadvantage compared to other activities: They are mandatory.

I don't necessarily agree with this. I've been playing for over 4 years and have not finished the PS on any of my characters. Most of them are stuck at Claw Island because I simply hate that step and don't really care to move on beyond that in the PS. I can still participate in LS and other owPvE and, for me, I don't feel that I'm losing anything by not completing the PS.

YMMV

/me shrugs

[Cerioth.7062]

See I'm the polar opposite. I got sad when they nerfed Caudecus, Eater of Souls and some other story bosses. I enjoyed having to use my brain and swap build to bit different one, or practice my mobility and attack dodging.

The content certainly is not too hard. Not every content in the game is meant for everyone - and that is fine. If core Tyria difficulty is your thing, then stick to core Tyria (and PoF open world which isnt much more demanding). Let us have our dynamic and interesting story experience and enjoy the challenges set before us. It's just the right balance now.