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

[DarthFurby.3970]

@battledrone.8315 said:

@derd.6413 said:

@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

gw2 is the dark souls of MMORPGs

yea, that would explain it all..i wish they would say so in the ads

Except, it really isn't. This game is no where near as demanding as some of these comments are making it out to be. Comparing to some of the battles in realm reborn where if you weren't literally standing in the right tiny section of floor which is not identifiable you get thrown to your death with no way of coming back, this game is much more forgiving; ignoring sab tribulation mode.

Up to this point I haven't seen any actual pve content that made me think this requires a very high skill level, or made me frustrated to the point of bashing my head in the wall in the way content in realm reborn or Aion made me want to do.

Just because some fights demand you to think doesn't make it a hardcore game. There are much more demanding games out there which is where the comparison is drawn.

[Hypatia.3160]

@Endless Soul.5178 said: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.

That fight? No. The instance OTOH.... I've never been in there and was exploring. Seems like there's a collection (or at least some lore) attached to that particular instance. Unfortunately I hadn't killed all the bandits and critters. I did manage to get through most of them but there were still enough left when I was down to my skivvies and a sword so I reluctantly decided to depart.

Frankly that fight was boring. Basically run around until you find the mcguffin to make him vulnerable, take a couple shots, start running again. Bloody tedious.

[Ardid.7203]

"Living Story is the Single Worst Gaming Experience So Far in my Entire Life"

So young, so lucky, so innocent...If I could say that, I would be so happy...

[ReaverKane.7598]

Was Caudecus that bad? I barely remember the fight, and i'm pretty sure i finished it first try...

[GrubySzymek.1362]

@ReaverKane.7598 said:Was Caudecus that bad? I barely remember the fight, and i'm pretty sure i finished it first try...

The only mechanic was CC + burst and avoid being hit.

[ReaverKane.7598]

@"Kheldorn.5123" said:

@ReaverKane.7598 said:Was Caudecus that bad? I barely remember the fight, and i'm pretty sure i finished it first try...

The only mechanic was CC + burst and avoid being hit.

So, why are people that nasty about it? Honestly the Golem from the last episode left more of a mark than Caudecus, and even then i finished it first try, the only boss i remember getting defeated by and having to start over was the Underworld guy you have to fight after Balthazar kills you. And it was a matter of just switching gears and playing more defensively with ranged attacks and CC (also switched from bow to scepter on guardian).

[EpicName.4523]

@"Kheldorn.5123" said:

@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?

Take the final boss in Bitterfrost story. Champion Ice Beast or something. There you have stand behind some mobs so he charges and kills them. This is a gimmick.

[GrubySzymek.1362]

@EpicName.4523 said:

@"Kheldorn.5123" said:

@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?

Take the final boss in Bitterfrost story. Champion Ice Beast or something. There you have stand behind some mobs so he charges and kills them. This is a gimmick.

Okay, this one is indeed not well explained. Anything else?

[GrubySzymek.1362]

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@"Kheldorn.5123" said:

@ReaverKane.7598 said:Was Caudecus that bad? I barely remember the fight, and i'm pretty sure i finished it first try...

The only mechanic was CC + burst and avoid being hit.

So, why are people that nasty about it? Honestly the Golem from the last episode left more of a mark than Caudecus, and even then i finished it first try, the only boss i remember getting defeated by and having to start over was the Underworld guy you have to fight after Balthazar kills you. And it was a matter of just switching gears and playing more defensively with ranged attacks and CC (also switched from bow to scepter on guardian).

Same reason people wanted Soul Eater in PoF to be nerfed. Same reason to this day some struggle with Archon Iberu in story instance.

[ReaverKane.7598]

@"Kheldorn.5123" said:

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@"Kheldorn.5123" said:

@ReaverKane.7598 said:Was Caudecus that bad? I barely remember the fight, and i'm pretty sure i finished it first try...

The only mechanic was CC + burst and avoid being hit.

So, why are people that nasty about it? Honestly the Golem from the last episode left more of a mark than Caudecus, and even then i finished it first try, the only boss i remember getting defeated by and having to start over was the Underworld guy you have to fight after Balthazar kills you. And it was a matter of just switching gears and playing more defensively with ranged attacks and CC (also switched from bow to scepter on guardian).

Same reason people wanted Soul Eater in PoF to be nerfed. Same reason to this day some struggle with Archon Iberu in story instance.

That's the one! Yeah he was tough, well the first go... But i realized what i was doing wrong, and breezed through him at the second try. I guess the core of these complaints is the same that people complain about elitism. They set their build and their ways to a specific routine and find it hard to adapt.Myself i have no such qualms. Since launch i've always had a copy of each weapon for my class on my inventory at all times, i still do that, i would (and some times still do) change skills and weapons every single fight to suit what was needed. To me that is as natural as breathing, and i have no problems in learning and adapting, and it's actually part of the fun for me to get knocked out, change gears, and then defeat the obstacle that felled me before.

But there's a lot of people that resist change, and think it's "their right" to play however they like, and that things should conform to their way, instead of the other way around.

[EpicName.4523]

@"Kheldorn.5123" said:

@EpicName.4523 said:

@"Kheldorn.5123" said:

@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?

Take the final boss in Bitterfrost story. Champion Ice Beast or something. There you have stand behind some mobs so he charges and kills them. This is a gimmick.

Okay, this one is indeed not well explained. Anything else?

Literally every boss at the end of an episode. They would require what most people would call a "unique mechanic" to defeat them and I call gimmick. Pointed the beast out because it was particularly annoying and badly explained as you said.

[Elva.6372]

The LW stuff is becoming just like the dungeon runs and jumping puzzle stuff that I detested from game release, annoying mechanics for arcade players who like dodging red circles and doing non-rpg type challenges.

Personal stories/solo play needs to not be a tedious frustrating series of hoops, I want to follow and lay through a story, not an increasingly headache inducing mess of insane over the top encounters. Save that for those "hardcore" types with their raids and fractals.

Or better yet, allow for a "story mode" that leaves out the twitch gaming-fest.

ALSO:

The difficulty level is sporadic and chaotic, I don't think the flow is right, too many incongruities in the "challenges and demands".

Like I said, story mode needs to be story mode. I don't do jumping puzzles, I don't do raids, I don't do dungeons, I don't do fractals:

Please stop mucking up story mode with the stuff I have been avoiding since 2012.

[Elva.6372]

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

Actually, open world NEEDS TO BE MORE CHALLENGING and the personal/solo story easier. The open world has been nerfed to face rolling, I remember dying a lot in 2012 in the starter zones...but the game has been more and more dumbed down.

But I want the story mode to be STORY MODE, if I have to be a prisoner of it and wade through the telling of the long drawn out story, I don't want the grief...I like free form play -but I will admit to somewhat liking/being interested in the game's story.

In open world, I can mostly AVOID things I don't like to contend with...not so in story mode. It's do it or don't.

[Blocki.4931]

@EpicName.4523 said:

@"Kheldorn.5123" said:

@EpicName.4523 said:

@"Kheldorn.5123" said:

@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?

Take the final boss in Bitterfrost story. Champion Ice Beast or something. There you have stand behind some mobs so he charges and kills them. This is a gimmick.

Okay, this one is indeed not well explained. Anything else?

Literally every boss at the end of an episode. They would require what most people would call a "unique mechanic" to defeat them and I call gimmick. Pointed the beast out because it was particularly annoying and badly explained as you said.

You only have one example and it is the boss the general public agreed on is terrible. That's weak. If you call pressing a button wtih some timing a gimmick then God help you. Dodging giant red circles and putting some CC on a boss turns it into a gimmick.. I've seen it all now. They are so unbelievably forgiving, I don't understand how this can be an argument. Most of the time they even give you either a special action that can CC or the enemy themselves drop things you can pick up and throw at them (Looking at you Caudecus) to instantly stun

Beyond that it's literally attacking something until it dies. Bad design indeed. Why can't we hug it out

[Einlanzer.1627]

@Raigai.4218 said:NPC's not resurrecting while standing right next to me, boss fights that are cheap & chaotic and occasionally in a very tight space so that you cannot see anything. Occasional story missions dragging on and on.. It's been nothing but frustration for me. The last boss fight in living story season 3 in episode 4 was godawful. Really forcing myself to do this. I guess I should probably just stop and watch the story from somewhere else because actually playing it is an unbelievable chore. And to think I actually paid for a few chapters too. Stupid of me.

Actually I always had the same experience of the PS and LW. It's not well done.

[Dust Errant.3081]

Living world can get tedious at times. The difficulty of some specific encounters could be tuned down. "Single worst gaming experience so far" though? Either straight hyperbole, or you don't have a whole lot of gaming experiences to go by.

[Ardenwolfe.8590]

@Brother.1504 said:Got hustled for $200 bucks playing mahjong with some lil old lady Chinese seniors while volunteering at a community centre. That definitely sucked more then the gw2 story.

LOL No doubt. ?

[Elva.6372]

@"Dreamy Lu.3865" said: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.

And, therein lies the rub.

If one wants to have their characters maintain any continuity as they move throughout the game's world, they are in need of progressing through the game's story arc. Sure, one could avoid it by not doing it, but since EXPACS that one pays for are tied and intricately interwoven with the "story" -mandatory is as good a word as any to use here.

Open world needs to be buffed to AT LEAST release date levels and story modes need to become story modes.

[Rauderi.8706]

@"Theros.1390" said:I just regret that the title is just SO negative, and the op post so unconstructive.

It would have been great to see more sentences like "How can we improve this : ", and less like "This is a whole tr*sh"

To be fair, there's a 50/50 chance that a story boss (or, quite frankly, any creature in open world) will have some utterly cheap mechanic that speaks more of lazy design or "what can I do to the player?" instead of "what can the player do to succeed?", and it can get really frustrating.I say that to point out that with every LW release, the feedback thread goes up, and invariably, the constructive feedback does come in, but ANet continues to ignore it. We still get chain-CC (which still needs addressing in the combat system as a whole), poor tells, excessive damage, and HP sponges that go on way too long.

[Raigai.4218]

@SunTzu.4513 said: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.

I finished that fight. But the way it's designed is trash. The game expects you to die and just let's you respawn and keep at it until the boss is dead. That is the worst kind of gamedesign that exists. It's awful and beyond redemption.

[GrubySzymek.1362]

@EpicName.4523 said:

@"Kheldorn.5123" said:

@EpicName.4523 said:

@"Kheldorn.5123" said:

@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?

Take the final boss in Bitterfrost story. Champion Ice Beast or something. There you have stand behind some mobs so he charges and kills them. This is a gimmick.

Okay, this one is indeed not well explained. Anything else?

Literally every boss at the end of an episode. They would require what most people would call a "unique mechanic" to defeat them and I call gimmick. Pointed the beast out because it was particularly annoying and badly explained as you said.

I was expecting more from you. What you say is wrong for every case but the ice monster from episode 3.

Episode 1: Out of the Shadows - Jade Armor champ: breakbar + bloodstone nodes with special action. Breakbar is nothing new and bloodstone effect with special action is introduced to players earlier in this episode and even if you forget, whole instance is about teaching you how to use special action for this case.

Episode 2: Rising Flames - the pustule mechanic is introduced during final fight and clearly communicated on the screen when it spawns.

Episode 3: A Crack in the Ice - as we agreed, this boss indeed lacks proper mechanic explanation and is all about trial and error.

Episode 4: The Head of the Snake - Caudecus may feel hard because of small room we fight him in but mechanics of the fight are stupidly easy. Breakbar + burst. The rest is surviving. You can break him using your own skills or throwing bloodstone shards at him. Players should know they deal big breakbar damage since Episode 1 already.

Episode 5: Flashpoint - Balthazar fight is all about repeating same mechanic you are being tought to use in this instance. Taimi also clearly communicates what you need to do.

Episode 6: One Path Ends - just like Flashpoint, Eye of Janthir and it's ability to break golem defenses and anomalies is being presented in whole instance so players should understand this easily. The rest is killing Lazarus and avoiding death.

Sorry, but except for episode 3 all mechanics are explained to players in these episodes. So claiming that game is expecting you to guess mechanics is misinformation. At this point it's on player to stay focused on playing the game and executing the knowledge that is provided to them.

[GrubySzymek.1362]

@Raigai.4218 said:

@"Kheldorn.5123" said:When reading title I expected Caudecus fight to be the reason. And OP didn't disappoint.

HoT and LW3 are definitely more complex than the gameplay joke that is core Tyria and personal story. Get used to it as it's for the better that game expects you to be focused more, learn the mechanics and play more actively. Once you understand Caudecus fight it's cakewalk. It may require you to change some utilities, hope it's not too much to ask?

Change utilities? I can just keep dying forever and run back with broken gear until it's over. It's awful design. It's embarrassing. And before anybody here gets cocky, I'm not a bad player. I'm a top player in a known fighting game that is much more complex than this kid's game.

If that was true, you would eat Caudecus with 0 effort. I'm not here to judge you though, read my post above, I explain how game teaches you about the mechanics in every episode (except 3).

[RoseofGilead.8907]

@"Raigai.4218" said:I'm a top player in a known fighting game that is much more complex than this kid's game.

I think the Caudecus fight in Living Story Season 3 has many faults. But come on now. The fact that you're a "top player" in another game doesn't mean anything when it comes to how well you're handling GW2.

[Raigai.4218]

@RoseofGilead.8907 said:

@"Raigai.4218" said:I'm a top player in a known fighting game that is much more complex than this kid's game.

I think the Caudecus fight in Living Story Season 3 has many faults. But come on now. The fact that you're a "top player" in another game doesn't mean anything when it comes to how well you're handling GW2.

This game is easy and barely requires "handling". It just has moments of absolute *** design. Tedious and pointless. Why make a boss "fight" if you can just keep dying and keep running back forever? It's not engaging and has no purpose.

[Cerioth.7062]

@Raigai.4218 said:

@RoseofGilead.8907 said:

@Raigai.4218 said:I'm a top player in a known fighting game that is much more complex than this kid's game.

I think the Caudecus fight in Living Story Season 3 has many faults. But come on now. The fact that you're a "top player" in another game doesn't mean anything when it comes to how well you're handling GW2.

This game is easy and barely requires "handling". It just has moments of absolute *** design. Tedious and pointless. Why make a boss "fight" if you can just keep dying and keep running back forever? It's not engaging and has no purpose.

Well if it is so easy, why is this thread here? I do not die in these encounters, hence I do not have to run back.

And that's with full glass builds and no survival utility, mind you.