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

[Elva.6372]

@zealex.9410 said:

@battledrone.8315 said:yea, it was one of the reasons i quit playing this game tooi would return in a heartbeat, if they decided to make more casual contenti play for fun and relaxation, this is neither

The bulk of the content they make is casual content tho.

Yes, but ANet has it backwards, open world should get beefed up, - it's been nerfed too much (newer HOT and POF areas are about right) but the STORY MODE needs to tone down the tedious nature of their encounters/challenges.

The STORY MODE is currently inconsistent, it has huge spikes of difficulty, this needs to be smoothed out.

[Opopanax.1803]

Not going to lie, I hate the bosses in LS where the whole floor is red. It doesn't even make sense...

[Sajuuk Khar.1509]

@Opopanax.1803 said:Not going to lie, I hate the bosses in LS where the whole floor is red. It doesn't even make sense...This is one of the greatest problems Anet has in general, the thought that mass spamming AOE to the point you cant even tell which AOE circles came first = good difficulty.

[Oneira.7691]

@"DoctorOverlord.8620" said:T

1. Offer the ability to choose difficulty levels for Story Missions

ArenaNet has already shown they can offer the same content with different levels of difficulty through the dungeon Story Modes and Explorer Modes. The same thing should be done for Story Missions.

Naturally, there should be better rewards for those who choose to play at the higher difficulty settings. The people saying how easy the Story Missions currently are can try them at harder levels and get rewarded for it. This would allow for additional replayability.

But for those who simply want to relax and see the kittening story and not die, there should be a less lethal setting. I always play RPGs on the easier modes in my first run to see the story, then I replay them at harder settings if I like the gameplay.

Another solution ArenaNet can offer is more radical for MMOs but I think it might be possible.

2. Manual save points in the Story Mission instances.

This means saving at ANY point in the mission (outside of combat), not just saving at the end of a chapter. This would make the Story Instances much more player friendly and also address the recurring problem of disconnections causing players to lose all of their progress (There are numerous threads regarding this issue).https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/486535https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/479342https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/471995

Being able to manually save is a standard feature in most modern, single player RPGs. Each game may vary the ability to save, but they offer this convenience for their players because it is imporant. I may be wrong, but I would think this is technically possible to implement in single player instances of an MMO. Single player games are already so connected online, it seems like it would be something that could be done.

Story Mission are vital for everyone to do. You need them to truly advance your character and even access new zones. More importantly, the story and lore are what unites a game's community. The lore is a common background and the familiar foundation that all players can share. It is vital for the health of a game's community that this background is accessible for every player regardless of the level of difficulty they want to experience.

Most games rely on comics or cinematics or such to share their community-binding lore. Guild Wars 2 has decided to do it solely through the Story Missions and so these should be offered to customers with as much flexibility as possible.

I agree wholeheartedly with both of your points. I like the LS for the story, I usually hate the final boss. Having multiple difficulty levels would encourage me to do the LS several times rather than once, and as for saving, I find that I crash to desktop more in LS than in any other game mode, which irritates me to no end.

[IndigoSundown.5419]

Story in GW2 has gone downhill for me the longer the game has been around. The Living Story was not bad. I especially liked missions like Claw Island, which felt like a GW mission.

• Then, they nerfed LS into the ground. What challenge there was before now seems gone -- and it isn't that I've gotten that much better.
• LS S1 had its high points (Invasions were not as good as they could have been, but better than a lot that's hit since; Marionette, Fall of LA), but too much of the tasks were, "Go here and click X," or "Click Y 15+ times in different places."
• LS2 saw the instancing of missions, and the start of me ending up looking up fights' gimmicky mechanics on Dulfy.
• LS2 also saw the arrival of the new crop of NPC's. I didn't care for the way they were our assumed subordinates, nor the assumption I already cared about them. GW NPC's earned my respect (or disgust) over time. These jerks, the "respect" was built in.
• HoT started the DC fest. Over, and over, and over, and over. It was at this point that I stopped regular story playing.
• LS3 continued the DC fest. I managed to complete Episode's 1 and 3, got DC'd after the dreadful slog that was the egg chamber battle, managed to at least get into Lake Doric and did most of One Path Ends.
• PoF... multiple DC's at Night of Fires; eventually got it on the 4th or 5th try. DC'd on the next step, haven't gone back, nor have I done any of Season 4.

What would fix things for me.

• Give bosses more than 3 attack moves. The annoying ones come too often (CC for instance, can easily occur way faster than stability can CD) because the boss just cycles through the same three moves, over and over.
• Less hit points. Too many battles are long, drawn-out fights of attrition. Tedious and boring.
• Some mechanics are tedious and not fun. Make the bosses attacks dangerous rather than relying on gimmicks like, "Jump on mushroom or updraft to avoid massive death floor," or "use environmental stuff to make boss vulnerable."
• Less massive AoE.
• Less long-winded exposition by NPC's.
• Retroactively put save points into the story instances. Nothing is worse than slogging through a tedious fight than DCing near the end while the NPC's are emoting and the game is putting words in my character's mouth.

I get that difficulty is a major part of the OP's complaint. It isn't much of an issue for me, but there are other issues that have effectively ruined the game for me. The only thing keeping me here is that I cannot play 1PS games due to vertigo issues and other MMO's are trash (to me, ommv).

[EpicName.4523]

@"Laila Lightness.8742" said:I guess you loved zhaitan fight

I think you repeat the statement someone else already made. Do I love the Zhaitan fight? Nope. No more than I did any of the LW bosses.You know why? I cared just as much about Zhaitan as I did for any of those bosses. That is none at all. Just wanted the fight to end so I can get the mastery point and in the case of the LW - visit the next map.

For those that say the story isn't shallow, I'll humor you. Have you played WoW? Has any of you fought Illidan or the Lich King? I admit, those are raid bosses yet they had great personal story DESPITE in the end being used as a loot boxes.They were interwoven with other important characters' storylines and had huge impact on the world. The devs managed to make every step of the journey, every time you encountered them feel meaningful and interesting. Like the Battle of the Wrath gate cinematic when Bolvar seemingly died. Or when you found Frostmourne sitting on the pedestal with Uther's spirit trapped inside. Even when Bolvar took the crown you still wonder "Hey, is he truly benevolent or is there something more?"

Arthas and Illidan are just the two most prominent examples imho, yet there are many other interesting characters in WoW before they ran out of ideas and the game turned to pandas...

This is how you make a great story. But this isn't WoW, is it? It is entirely different game, yet those LW episodes are story driven. Some of us even paid for them (for the ascended trinkets and nothing else) so while it may be free content for some, it is not quite for all. And in a story driven content you need a great story, because this is what is supposed to drive you forward.

Here, instead of interesting villains you get just another bad guy willing to do everything to get what he wants. Zhaitan who wants to eat magic, Scarlet who wants to cause chaos, Mordremoth who also wants to eat magic, Caudecus who wants to rule Kryta, Balthazar who wants to restore his power while killing a dragon, Joko who wants everybody to worship his bony behind. No deep motivation, no inner conflict, no asking the question "But what if ...?"

This has been seen a thousand times over. You also have to tolerate completely obnoxious "allies" like Braham. You have to endure Ksmeer explaining how she cares about the necro chick. Is this a soap opera? It would be nice if you were at least given a choice to get rid of some unwanted companions. Nope.

So, when all you want is to unlock the next map and grind the currency for whatever it is you are after better not overcomplicate things.

[Xanctus The Dragonslayer.2]

the living world is doable imo.

puzzles sure, jumping puzzles, sure, Whining Braham, sure. Deus Ex Machina tami sure? I actually am capable of enjoying all of that.

But what I absolutely hated was the caudecus fight, I appreciate an good boss fight like every other player hence i have no complains about everything else. but caudecus was just retarded, the fucking camera was fucked up, and it bassically was just a fuckton of AOE spam in an small area while hoping u can see what is going on.

I'm a proponent of fair but hard content. if the fucking camera and shit becomes hardly vissable. that's just shitty design.

[Arkaile.5604]

@battledrone.8315 said:

@lokh.2695 said:

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...

I seem to be a bit late to this party. Wow, did you even comprehend what lokh typed there before responding or were you just that triggered? He didn't say anything about gear being required. He poked at you, suggesting you want to be rewarded generously for doing the absolute bare minimum (mashing 1). That is the case in this game, btw. There are many places in open world content which allow you to just mash 1 while vacuuming up stupid amounts of loot, more than the tougher end-game content, which you can then sell to work on getting best in slot gear. Hardly any effort is needed and there are no requirements to understand mechanics. If that's what you want, you're welcome to farm Istan, Auric Basin, the Silverwastes, whatever suits you, and you'll have all the gold you need to get whatever you may want, no use of the cash shop required. Just be aware, and this goes for everyone wanting a more casual experience, that it's your fault if you don't make even the smallest effort to become better and thus end up having trouble with comparatively tougher content. Even then, couldn't you just, idk, take a few minutes to use lfg to find a party to carry you through?

[Lonami.2987]

@"Scrivs.4501" said:I wholeheartedly agree. I absolutely despise the story missions. All of them.

They drag on way too long ("thank god, took me half an hour but I finally killed that boss ... oh, I'm only halfway there, gotta kill another one"), the fights are horribly tedious and gimmicky, and on top of that you're dealing with the constant stress of possibly getting disconnected after a cutscene and having to do it all over again.

It's a good thing I really wanted to play PoF, because I barely had any hair left after Season 3.

Though I now find myself, once again, having lost complete interest in the PoF story and just logging in to do my daylies.Actually gave one of the Vabbi missions another go yesterday but out of frustration I just instantly exited to desktop after I died in another one of those impossible battles.

The worst part about them dragging on, is that they're linear. In GW1, cooperative missions were pretty long, but you could approach them in pretty different ways, they happened in huge semi-open world areas, and they weren't full of pointless dialogue.

@"samo.1054" said: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.

I don't think they are hard, but they sure are an annoying chore full of bad mechanics and aoe spam.

They are not fun. They desperately need more attention, and maybe an easy/hard mode distinction so that we can get cool fights without scaring the newbies away. I'm fine with someone facerolling the story if they just want to experience the plot.

Most of the problems with the story would be solved if they started making them be dungeons instead. See the LW3-4 final story mission, that should have been a dungeon, with a soloable easy mode, and a 5-man normal mode.

@"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.

Yeah, the story makes no effing sense. Suddenly Lazarus is in Siren's Landing, inside the closed Abaddon's reliquary, with the pieces ready for the ritual. Suddenly Joko has found an Inquest installation and found portals to invade us and also stole a nuclear-tier plague, what a coincidence. And there's dozens of moments like that.

I just stopped caring about it long ago. It's a soap opera, and a pretty bad one for that matter. I miss the days of serious adult storytelling, like the ones we had during GW1, and not the cringe of the Marvel-esque approach used for GW2. I'm tired of having the same recurrent cast too, I wish we got different characters with each expansion.

@Elva.6372 said:

@"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.

Yeah, open world bosses are a joke most of the time, but story bosses are a pain. It makes no sense.

[Mahou.3924]

I don't hate the living story, but I understand the issue. I can't decided, though, if I'd call the main issue the "gimmicky" boss battles or the increasingly AoE/Visual Noise spam (which is not limited to LS instances, of course). Despite what most wanna-be posers here think, this is not limited to "difficulty" or the need/lack of it, but also - as mentiond by others - a feeling of tediousness (e.g. Hearts and Minds).Now I'm the first to admit that I'm a pretty bad players and had to finish, for example, the PoF final battle in underwear, but I also undertand that without gimmicks and/or AoE/CC spam most bosses would be nothing but big HP sponges which wouldn't be interesting either (I think). The last Balthy fight was much more annyoing and "chaotic" than Caucadeus, though. Even I was surprised that I didn't die against Caucadeus that much.

[Healix.5819]

@Lonami.2987 said:Yeah, open world bosses are a joke most of the time, but story bosses are a pain. It makes no sense.

The open world is balanced for random players, group events are generally balanced for 3+ and scaling is only intended to keep the content relevant. If they actually scaled the open world fairly, the usual zerg would likely always fail. With such a large gap between a group of individuals and a group of zerkers with boons, scaling will never be fair.

Story content is balanced for 1 person, so they can design it around the idea that no one else is holding the group back. It usually is the opposite, since the obvious problem is that everyone should be able to do it, so most MMOs tend to make solo content a joke. This is why group content is generally considered the challenging content, since it's balanced for a group of average players, whereas solo content is for everyone. In GW2 however, if you can't handle it, you're expected to group up or quit.

[otto.5684]

The title of this thread is he worst title I have seen in my entire life ?

[zealex.9410]

@Elva.6372 said:

@zealex.9410 said:

@battledrone.8315 said:yea, it was one of the reasons i quit playing this game tooi would return in a heartbeat, if they decided to make more casual contenti play for fun and relaxation, this is neither

The bulk of the content they make is casual content tho.

Yes, but ANet has it backwards, open world should get beefed up, - it's been nerfed too much (newer HOT and POF areas are about right) but the STORY MODE needs to tone down the tedious nature of their encounters/challenges.

The STORY MODE is currently inconsistent, it has huge spikes of difficulty, this needs to be smoothed out.

Idk i find it equally easy with open world. It really depends on the build you run.

[Lord Kreegan.8123]

I suspect ANet uses the SyFy channel's writers... completely disjointed storytelling. Ever watch "The Magicians"? Talk about bad writing... Anyway, that's off the subject, but ANet's storylines always remind me of that mess.I like to send one character through a story line and then follow that with another one of my characters. The first one finds out all of the stupidity so the second one can play it through more easily. Quite honestly, I only do story mode for the mastery points.

[Leo G.4501]

To keep things in perspective of someone overseeing possible improvements to the game, this thread is extremely contradictory thus most of the feedback from this is likely going to be brushed off. You have some saying this or that is dumb while another says it's fine, or this and that is too hard while another says its easy. It's taking personal opinion multiple steps out of bounds that it's difficult to distill any semblance of direction from what should be discussed (and coming from a poster who often times plays devil's advocate in topics, it's pretty split to the extreme).

This all just seems like spinning wheels in mud if neither end of the conversation is either willing to put down the hyperbole stick or give some metric to gauge their perspective from.

[TheOrlyFactor.8341]

@Leo G.4501 said:This all just seems like spinning wheels in mud if neither end of the conversation is either willing to put down the hyperbole stick or give some metric to gauge their perspective from.

So an average day on the forums? :V

[Elva.6372]

@"Leo G.4501" said:To keep things in perspective of someone overseeing possible improvements to the game, this thread is extremely contradictory thus most of the feedback from this is likely going to be brushed off. You have some saying this or that is dumb while another says it's fine, or this and that is too hard while another says its easy. It's taking personal opinion multiple steps out of bounds that it's difficult to distill any semblance of direction from what should be discussed (and coming from a poster who often times plays devil's advocate in topics, it's pretty split to the extreme).

This all just seems like spinning wheels in mud if neither end of the conversation is either willing to put down the hyperbole stick or give some metric to gauge their perspective from.

Perhaps spinning wheels if one doesn't understand the distinct difference between open world,/raids/ dungeons and story content, and why "story mode" (LW/PS) is not the proper place to put in these type challenges -it exists to propel and progress the game's story. Lengthy boss fights, aggravating mechanics and long drawn out encounters are notconducive to moving the story forward for ALL PLAYERS.

So, the solution is simple:

Make a story mode for story mode...

Or stop locking "bought and paid for" game content behind story mode ordeals.

[Deihnyx.6318]

I wish we could go back in time where people could see what games were back then.GW2 story content is insanely casual as it is, and it still gets nerfed from time to time.

Just play GW1 and you'll understand. People weren't complaining back then.

So if that's the "worst" experience of your entire life because it's too hard... I'm wondering what games you've played and for how long.

[Elva.6372]

@"Deihnyx.6318" said:I wish we could go back in time where people could see what games were back then.GW2 story content is insanely casual as it is, and it still gets nerfed from time to time.

Just play GW1 and you'll understand. People weren't complaining back then.

So if that's the "worst" experience of your entire life because it's too hard... I'm wondering what games you've played and for how long.

I've played MMO's since the 90's I know what you are saying, but (no offense) so what?

There's a reason why we don't have very many games left that give us perma-death, lost gear, lost levels, no mini map and huge long, arduous grinds to level cap:

It's not fun.

Sure, it WAS FUN back when that's all we had but, yeah, nostalgia aside, what of it?

GW2 is less RPG for me than I would like, there's a tad too much twitchy gaming ...and I am mostly ok with that but the simple fact that story mode is the ONE THING in the game all my alts (ideally) should progress through to fulfill my "RPG" sensibilities.

And, the story, at the risk of being harsh...isn't all THAT good for the trouble I am being put through.

And, what trouble you may ask?

I despise puzzles, jumping, floor is lava and aggravating/repetitive mechanics -tedium.

I just want to follow that faint thread of a story so I can continue to go about my business in Tyria.

[Leo G.4501]

@Elva.6372 said:

@"Leo G.4501" said:To keep things in perspective of someone overseeing possible improvements to the game, this thread is extremely contradictory thus most of the feedback from this is likely going to be brushed off. You have some saying this or that is dumb while another says it's fine, or this and that is too hard while another says its easy. It's taking personal opinion multiple steps out of bounds that it's difficult to distill any semblance of direction from what should be discussed (and coming from a poster who often times plays devil's advocate in topics, it's pretty split to the extreme).

This all just seems like spinning wheels in mud if neither end of the conversation is either willing to put down the hyperbole stick or give some metric to gauge their perspective from.

Perhaps spinning wheels if one doesn't understand the distinct difference between open world,/raids/ dungeons and story content, and why "story mode" (LW/PS) is not the proper place to put in these type challenges -it exists to propel and progress the game's story. Lengthy boss fights, aggravating mechanics and long drawn out encounters are notconducive to moving the story forward for ALL PLAYERS.

So, the solution is simple:

Make a story mode for story mode...

Or stop locking "bought and paid for" game content behind story mode ordeals.

I say spinning wheels because you're looking at the issue from a very particular perspective with a very particular desired outcome while ignoring the preferences of the rest of the players to promote a particular type of playstyle.

For instance, you say the difference between open world, raids, dungeons and story but fail to acknowledge that there already is a difference between them. Dungeons and fractals aren't as easy as the story mode nor is the story mode so difficult it requires a group. Or you say that story progression, lengthy boss fights and so forth do not belong together but fail to acknowledge that it has been an industry standard since the dawn of MMORPS that they have put them together.

This isn't a post calling you out, I'm just saying we cannot identify the issue and suggest a solution when you misrepresent the argument, evidence and grievences to win a forum debate.

[Deihnyx.6318]

@Elva.6372 said:

@"Deihnyx.6318" said:I wish we could go back in time where people could see what games were back then.GW2 story content is insanely casual as it is, and it still gets nerfed from time to time.

Just play GW1 and you'll understand. People weren't complaining back then.

So if that's the "worst" experience of your entire life because it's too hard... I'm wondering what games you've played and for how long.

I've played MMO's since the 90's I know what you are saying, but (no offense) so what?

There's a reason why we don't have very many games left that give us perma-death, lost gear, lost levels, no mini map and huge long, arduous grinds to level cap:

It's not fun.

Sure, it WAS FUN back when that's all we had but, yeah, nostalgia aside, what of it?

GW2 is less RPG for me than I would like, there's a tad too much twitchy gaming ...and I am mostly ok with that but the simple fact that story mode is the ONE THING in the game all my alts (ideally) should progress through to fulfill my "RPG" sensibilities.

And, the story, at the risk of being harsh...isn't all THAT good for the trouble I am being put through.

And, what trouble you may ask?

I despise puzzles, jumping, floor is lava and aggravating/repetitive mechanics -tedium.

I just want to follow that faint thread of a story so I can continue to go about my business in Tyria.

I like puzzles, I despise grinding, I like new mechanics that requires a brain, I despise spamming f1 or stacking to get through everything. GW2 main campaign was boring as hell to me because it had no challenge, new living stories are better for me, because they do offer some sort of challenge.

I hope you understand, I'm not saying that you are wrong for having your preferences, I am saying that your conception of fun, and what is good or not, is simply "your" opinion. Therefore it doesn't necessarily apply to all of us.

And that's why it's important to keep a mode that has a bit of everything, to be enjoyed by most people. Anet is already doing things to please more people (through CM modes for example) but there's always going to be someone who wants it harder, and always going to be someone who wants it as easy as a telltale game.

[IndigoSundown.5419]

@"Deihnyx.6318" said:I wish we could go back in time where people could see what games were back then.GW2 story content is insanely casual as it is, and it still gets nerfed from time to time.

Just play GW1 and you'll understand. People weren't complaining back then.

So if that's the "worst" experience of your entire life because it's too hard... I'm wondering what games you've played and for how long.

Some of the GW story missions were certainly hard. However, the type of challenge was different and thus it was beaten by different methods.

• GW was group content, whereas GW2 story is solo content. Group content can mean that poor play could be carried by the team, or even by Heroes, once they made it into the game.
• GW difficulty was mastered largely by party and build composition, with some requirement for skilled play. GW2 story challenges are beaten by builds to a much lesser extent.
• GW proceeded at a slower pace. There were cast bars, and longer casting times than most newer boss skills in GW2. This offered more leeway in terms of threat recognition and made GW less dependent on twitch reflexes than GW2.

As to other games, most MMO's that I've played presented solo story content in the open world, in the form of quests. Generally, those quests were no harder than the other open world quests, which means not hard at all. Occasionally, there were quests requiring a duo, or party (dungeons, usually). Most older MMO story content, again, is less twitch-based, with players often out-gearing what little challenge there is.

For me, those other MMO's include WoW, SWtOR (beta only), Tabula Rasa, Rift and Wildstar. I even tried Rappelz, Aion and Last Chaos, but discovered I didn't PvP with zero chance to fight back effectively. Now if you're talking older MMO's, I have no experience with those.

Non-MMO's, though, may be a different story. Single player RPG's, of course, tend to have different difficulty settings. Other types of games, I don't know.

[eldrjth.7384]

I dont even bother with LS, I just play on the maps for loot once Ive done the intro part to get there. The worst LS are the ones that rely heavily on mechanics for challenge rather than combat - which stresses your build. What is the point in skill choices when youre taken to new arbitary combat sequence that neglects your defences or takes your weapon choice away from you?

Another thing I dont like about LS is that they are only available for 'free' for a short time if you log in during the release month. If they do this could they make atleast the LS map accessible for grinding map specific loot? That is the only reason why I play on them anyways.

[Sylvari.2953]

I'm the opposite, I enjoy story missions, especially living world, I've soloed the whole thing (+ map completion) with 4 professions so far. :)

[Zaklex.6308]

@Elva.6372 said:

@"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.

There's no such thing as "story mode" in GW2, the LW seasons are sliced into episodes, look at them as new open world zones that contain a story...but they are not story mode, there has never been a "story mode". People talk about the original dungeons that you are lead to during the PS as having a story mode, when it's really just a narrated dungeon, but not a story mode.

Every boss fight does have an explanation of what to do, either from the NPC's around you or your members of Dragons Watch that are with you, even the Beast at the end of Bitterfrost frontier told you what you should do to beat it...people just don't listen to the surrounding talking that's the biggest problem.