Difficulty in final POF fights

[Gehenna.3625]

@OrbitalButt.5708 said:For a game which is spectacularly easy i think it was kinda nice to have some challenges

This is all just my opinion of course but I feel like it should be valued more than other people's because I am so handsome and good at everything and humble too

I think it's good to have challenge in a game, but more for group content. So fractals, raids and world bosses would be good for having some challenge to it. I do not however understand them doing that in story missions.

You call the game spectacularly easy but I think you underestimate your own abilities there. Sure, when you've played a while and have all the mounts and know what's what, then this game is certainly easy. However, most people are not like that in MMOs today. There are a lot more casual and solo players that look for a satisfying experience while doing the story and going through the general open world.

What makes sense is that the game appeals to enough players to keep itself populated and going. Now I'm not personally saying that the game is too hard myself but I do understand it when people feel that way. For me, the game's combat is simply too one-sided and annoying in many cases because the fights are mostly about dodging out of stuff and just persisting for longer periods of time because enemies have too much HP which is just an artificial way of lengthening the fight.

That I do have an issue with, because it's not about mechanics but about getting bored with a fight and realizing the boss is still at 64% health. Sometimes I just feel like logging out during a boss fight because I'm bored to tears.

The problem is of course that in a game where dodge has such a prominent role and is basically the same size fits all of defense for every single class, that defensive stats are trivialized and offensive stats are narrowed to one or two options. Currently I guess power is king and so that makes it all a bit bland to me.

I know that for example in the meta event of Domain of Kourna where you go into the inquest base, the boss inside spawns a golem when he's down to 10% health. That Golem has a ton of HP. I just find a nice spot and let the auto-attack do the rest. I'd rather get a drink than have to deal with all those hit points. But story bosses you can't do that cause you're own your own. I think one of the worst fights for me was Gruffy 2.0 or whatever it's called. Aside from it proving to me that the damn droid has more powerful attacks than I do as dragon/god slayer, once you get the idea of the fight it's just again a yawn fest with regards to the hit points.

You see, apparently there is an achievement for surviving that final barrage. Now I wasn't prepared for it, so I was dead in 2 seconds, but I'm also not going back to try it out cause it's just boring to me.

So there is difficulty but also annoyance or boredom because of the lengthy fights. I think that the hit points on a lot of bosses can be reduced greatly without messing with the mechanics but making it more exciting because it's not a lengthy slug fest anymore.

[Klowdy.3126]

@AliamRationem.5172 said:

@"Shauma.5470" said:I think the last fight against Balthazar was a reason to rage-quit the game - almost. I just gave up trying to do anything. I'd die, re-spawn, target him, click 2 to charge, and then any other ability that was active before I died again. Oh, and when he went into that shield that makes him invulnerable, how are you supposed to even get to him? I saw people getting in and damaging him on you tube videos, but I tried every ability I had and couldn't do it. I just gave up and accepted dying every sixty seconds and just charging in over and over and over and attritoning him to death. Worst fight I've seen in this game. Awful. I read about the "stand on this bubble to coordinate your attack with Aurene". Tried that, most of the time it didn't activate. I did get it to activate - twice? Dodging, seemingly disabled, as it was seemingly disabled in most of the personal story. In an earlier fight I dodged someones attack, my character rolled outta the way before they popped it, and when the did pop it, it "magically" pulled me back into the area of affect. Oh, that seems fair. :# Some real messed-up mechanics. PoF has been fun, but that last fight in the Personal Story was just torture.

And I know, someone's gonna read this and say "get good noob, hur hur hur". Why not explain what I did wrong instead? I haven't seen one youtube video yet where someone is doing the fight, beating Balthazar, and

explaining

what they're doing.

Sure. If you're the sort of player who "rage quits" when they can't defeat an enemy in a video game the very first time they encounter it. I like to think most players have a little more patience than that.

In answer to your question, I expect players aren't explaining the mechanics in their videos because they are very straightforward and you are prompted during the fight on what to do. When Balthazar goes into his bubble, you're supposed to coordinate an attack with Aurene. You do this by standing in the blue circle that appears opposite Aurene, on the other side of Balthazar's bubble. You probably need to use a special action or interact to activate it when it becomes available. If Aurene is chained up, you need to break her out first, then get to the blue circle. The rest is a standard fight: kill the bad guy and don't stand in fire.

It sounds to me like you just need to temper your expectations. So, you struggled with a fight the first time through because you couldn't figure out what to do? So what? That's normal! And you still managed to complete the encounter somehow! Failed a dodge because it was your first time encountering an attack and you dodged too early? Again, so what? Timing dodges takes practice. It's supposed to work that way!

Exactly. If I walked away from the controls every time I died playing the new god of war, I'd probably still be in the first world. People see this is an MMO, and think all solo content should be faceroll, but this is basically a single player game with online multiplayer options. There are raids, dungeons, and fractals, open world groups events, world bosses, and PvP, but the biggest chunk of endgame content is collections, and living world stuff.

[Ashantara.8731]

@"AliamRationem.5172" said:It sounds to me like you just need to temper your expectations. So, you struggled with a fight the first time through because you couldn't figure out what to do? So what? That's normal! And you still managed to complete the encounter somehow! Failed a dodge because it was your first time encountering an attack and you dodged too early? Again, so what? Timing dodges takes practice. It's supposed to work that way!

This, exactly. Many boss fights require you getting acquainted with their mechanics first to become good at thm and to (more or less) easily defeat the boss. No one goes into a new boss fight "100% flawlessly" the first time - that's an unrealistic expectation.

[SunTzu.4513]

Imo Balthi is just an AoE fiesta. The mechaniks are fairly easy to get and Aurene supports the player. Just get some movement utillity skills into your bar and you will be fine most of the time. Compared to a lot of LS fights this is really a more relaxed one.

[Algreg.3629]

@"etsubmariner.4690" said:It was very much like a raid. Not a solo instance. A raid.

So I, a mediocre player, can solo GW2 raids basically. That makes me proud in the tiny degree a computer game can offer.

In a more serious approach: What makes a raid? I doubt there is an accepted official definition, but I'd say a "quest" that has special mechanics aimed at a coordinated group of people. On the other hand, there is no official rule solo quests have to be easy or not include special mechanics.

[Dante.1763]

@Algreg.3629 said:

@"etsubmariner.4690" said:It was very much like a raid. Not a solo instance. A raid.

So I, a mediocre player, can solo GW2 raids basically. That makes me proud in the tiny degree a computer game can offer.

In a more serious approach: What makes a raid? I doubt there is an accepted official definition, but I'd say a "quest" that has special mechanics aimed at a coordinated group of people. On the other hand, there is no official rule solo quests have to be easy or not include special mechanics.

Ive always defined raids as needing more than 5 players, having never played WoW which i know have larger numbers there.

And this instance was not like a raid at all. The first boss melts with the sword you just have to avoid his AOES which are telegraphed in large red floor markers, and for balth its absurdly easy to stand on him and walk in a circle around him and never get hit, i think i died to him once on my sword weaver just by doing that because i missed a dodge on one of his large attacks :(

Aw well

[Teratus.2859]

I didn't find any of the story difficult tbh..Even that souleater boss everyone was complaining about I took down on my first try with barely any effort.

Only reason I can think of that people might struggle is if they're typically the charge in and stab everything to death type and all their weapons are melee based.

[Sartorius.3716]

"pls anet let me one-shot the god of war"Some people really hate fun.

[Kal Spiro.9745]

I've been playing the same main since early access, and short of where it was changed due to necessity by physical changes to game mechanics my build has been basically the same the whole time. Ranger with almost exclusive use of LB and an Eagle for main pet. The point being I haven't tweaked my build all to hell, and I'm hardly using a build I think anyone would call ideal. I had next to no difficulty in this fight, it just took a while. It was very well choreographed, and honestly very simple. I never died, I doubt I even got hit very hard if at all. I have a hard time believing I'm especially skilled, I assume I'm at a moderate level cause I just don't care enough to be/get better. This all suggests to me that it's primarily skill that is hurting people. It's possible that some of it is gear and some of it may be build, but the most important thing is to know what you're doing. If you don't know what you're doing you're gonna have a bad time.

[ugrakarma.9416]

i had 1 alt from each profession... i noticed that final encounters on PoF are very hard for melee only, is a old design problem the melee hate on GW2 bosses.

[Gehenna.3625]

@"Sartorius.3716" said:"pls anet let me one-shot the god of war"Some people really hate fun.

And some people think they're the template for mankind or rather the lowest common denominator. People should really stop thinking that just because they can do something easily that everybody else must be able to do the same. It's really not nice to yourself to think so lowly of yourself.

And what is fun? That really depends on the person.

[Overlord RainyDay.2084]

My only complaint about the fight is that when you recover from downed, you re-equip Sohothin. I went down at the last 10% of Balth's HP, rallied and accidentally connected with an autoattack, losing my achievement.

[ReaverKane.7598]

@Aessinia.3740 said:

Getting to the beast : it was rather difficult to figure out the correct path. I eventually did but not before dying a few times because I fell in the blue stuff. Also needing to clear all the mobs near each of the shield was tough as I was playing as a Soulbeast with LB and D/WH thus have next to no aoe abilities.

And there's a hint for the reason why you had so much trouble!If your weapons are those, i wonder how poorly built your character is overal...I mean LB = Power build...Dagger = Condi build.So basically your choice of weapons alone tells me you probably didn't even think about what you're equipping in your character.As far as the fight... Well you're fighting a god... ALONE. What did you expect?The fight is fairly easy... On my DH i think i got downed once, maybe... Not sure was a while ago.But as far as your complaints...

You have plenty aoe if you know what you're doing... Sure there's a ton of classes with a ton more, but you have piercing arrows, that's 3-5 targets per shot, provided you play properly. Then longbow has a pretty nifty aoe, so do some pets, and some of BM's skills. Then there's a few more from utilities. You should have no real problem killing groups of things, actually.

You're quite correct in saying that the pet turns the ranger into a class that can easily solo any content. I've been hunting champions for sport since the game launched, even before they actually had champion bags dropping from them. It's one of the, if not the easiest profession for solo PvE. And you go and pick that one to complain about...Boy.I mean if it was ele, with all it's glass cannoness, i'd give you a pass. But Soulbeast?Clearly a Learn to Play, but a big time learn to play, issue. Maybe spend more time learning the game, and a bit less complaining here?

[Gehenna.3625]

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@"Aessinia.3740" said:

Getting to the beast : it was rather difficult to figure out the correct path. I eventually did but not before dying a few times because I fell in the blue stuff. Also needing to clear all the mobs near each of the shield was tough as I was playing as a

Soulbeast with LB and D/WH

thus have next to no aoe abilities.

And there's a hint for the reason why you had so much trouble!If your weapons are those, i wonder how poorly built your character is overal...I mean LB = Power build...Dagger = Condi build.So basically your choice of weapons alone tells me you probably didn't even think about what you're equipping in your character.As far as the fight... Well you're fighting a god... ALONE. What did you expect?The fight is fairly easy... On my DH i think i got downed once, maybe... Not sure was a while ago.But as far as your complaints...

You have plenty aoe if you know what you're doing... Sure there's a ton of classes with a ton more, but you have piercing arrows, that's 3-5 targets per shot, provided you play properly. Then longbow has a pretty nifty aoe, so do some pets, and some of BM's skills. Then there's a few more from utilities. You should have no real problem killing groups of things, actually.

You're quite correct in saying that the pet turns the ranger into a class that can easily solo any content. I've been hunting champions for sport since the game launched, even before they actually had champion bags dropping from them. It's one of the, if not the easiest profession for solo PvE. And you go and pick that one to complain about...Boy.I mean if it was ele, with all it's glass cannoness, i'd give you a pass. But Soulbeast?Clearly a Learn to Play, but a big time learn to play, issue. Maybe spend more time learning the game, and a bit less complaining here?

You know, this is the issue. Not all people have the same interests and not everybody really cares or understand how that works. They're called casual players for a reason. They do want to play an online game but not have all that stuff to worry about. You may have an attitude about that but the point is that that's a large part of the player base. And it's the more casual players that like to do mostly stories and open world stuff like map completion and the occasional "zerg the world boss".

You may feel it's a learn to play issue but these people aren't here for that. There are lots of people who just like to have their cosmetics and pick the weapons they like, rather than getting the correct build. Now you may never understand people like that but I'm telling you there are plenty of them, they are paying customers and they aren't interested in what you propose.

This is where the issue lies. And I think that it would be wise for ArenaNet to ease up on map and story difficulty and leave the challenging stuff elsewhere. Cause the game also needs challenging stuff.

To me the combat system is one of the least interesting parts of GW2. I do look at it and see what sort of things make sense and I do manage the boss fights in stories (I just feel they're too long and tedious rather than too hard), but if you can think meta in a game, try to think meta about the player base for once. I'm telling you, there are quite a few players who don't get the combat system, either because it's too complex or uninteresting to them. But you need these players also to make enough money.

You can shout "learn to play" all you want, but I'm telling you, it falls on deaf ears. From a business point of view it just makes more sense to have a core experience that's more casual oriented and then specialized content like the daily areas, raids and world bosses that can really test your ability, build and skill. But ArenaNet does have to deal with a lot of players that will never get better than this but do like this game for all the other stuff.

[ReaverKane.7598]

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@"Aessinia.3740" said:

Getting to the beast : it was rather difficult to figure out the correct path. I eventually did but not before dying a few times because I fell in the blue stuff. Also needing to clear all the mobs near each of the shield was tough as I was playing as a

Soulbeast with LB and D/WH

thus have next to no aoe abilities.

And there's a hint for the reason why you had so much trouble!If your weapons are those, i wonder how poorly built your character is overal...I mean LB = Power build...Dagger = Condi build.So basically your choice of weapons alone tells me you probably didn't even think about what you're equipping in your character.As far as the fight... Well you're fighting a god... ALONE. What did you expect?The fight is fairly easy... On my DH i think i got downed once, maybe... Not sure was a while ago.But as far as your complaints...

You have plenty aoe if you know what you're doing... Sure there's a ton of classes with a ton more, but you have piercing arrows, that's 3-5 targets per shot, provided you play properly. Then longbow has a pretty nifty aoe, so do some pets, and some of BM's skills. Then there's a few more from utilities. You should have no real problem killing groups of things, actually.

You're quite correct in saying that the pet turns the ranger into a class that can easily solo any content. I've been hunting champions for sport since the game launched, even before they actually had champion bags dropping from them. It's one of the, if not the easiest profession for solo PvE. And you go and pick that one to complain about...Boy.I mean if it was ele, with all it's glass cannoness, i'd give you a pass. But Soulbeast?Clearly a Learn to Play, but a big time learn to play, issue. Maybe spend more time learning the game, and a bit less complaining here?

You know, this is the issue. Not all people have the same interests and not everybody really cares or understand how that works. They're called casual players for a reason. They do want to play an online game but not have all that stuff to worry about. You may have an attitude about that but the point is that that's a large part of the player base. And it's the more casual players that like to do mostly stories and open world stuff like map completion and the occasional "zerg the world boss".

You may feel it's a learn to play issue but these people aren't here for that. There are lots of people who just like to have their cosmetics and pick the weapons they like, rather than getting the correct build. Now you may never understand people like that but I'm telling you there are plenty of them, they are paying customers and they aren't interested in what you propose.

This is where the issue lies. And I think that it would be wise for ArenaNet to ease up on map and story difficulty and leave the challenging stuff elsewhere. Cause the game also needs challenging stuff.

To me the combat system is one of the least interesting parts of GW2. I do look at it and see what sort of things make sense and I do manage the boss fights in stories (I just feel they're too long and tedious rather than too hard), but if you can think meta in a game, try to think meta about the player base for once. I'm telling you, there are quite a few players who don't get the combat system, either because it's too complex or uninteresting to them. But you need these players also to make enough money.

You can shout "learn to play" all you want, but I'm telling you, it falls on deaf ears. From a business point of view it just makes more sense to have a core experience that's more casual oriented and then specialized content like the daily areas, raids and world bosses that can really test your ability, build and skill. But ArenaNet does have to deal with a lot of players that will never get better than this but do like this game for all the other stuff.

I'm sorry... But if you're not interested in playing the game... Even the very easy personal story. Why should the game dumb down further for your sake.That's a different issue, it's called entitlement.

[Kumiho.2756]

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@"Aessinia.3740" said:

Getting to the beast : it was rather difficult to figure out the correct path. I eventually did but not before dying a few times because I fell in the blue stuff. Also needing to clear all the mobs near each of the shield was tough as I was playing as a

Soulbeast with LB and D/WH

thus have next to no aoe abilities.

And there's a hint for the reason why you had so much trouble!If your weapons are those, i wonder how poorly built your character is overal...I mean LB = Power build...Dagger = Condi build.So basically your choice of weapons alone tells me you probably didn't even think about what you're equipping in your character.As far as the fight... Well you're fighting a god... ALONE. What did you expect?The fight is fairly easy... On my DH i think i got downed once, maybe... Not sure was a while ago.But as far as your complaints...

You have plenty aoe if you know what you're doing... Sure there's a ton of classes with a ton more, but you have piercing arrows, that's 3-5 targets per shot, provided you play properly. Then longbow has a pretty nifty aoe, so do some pets, and some of BM's skills. Then there's a few more from utilities. You should have no real problem killing groups of things, actually.

You're quite correct in saying that the pet turns the ranger into a class that can easily solo any content. I've been hunting champions for sport since the game launched, even before they actually had champion bags dropping from them. It's one of the, if not the easiest profession for solo PvE. And you go and pick that one to complain about...Boy.I mean if it was ele, with all it's glass cannoness, i'd give you a pass. But Soulbeast?Clearly a Learn to Play, but a big time learn to play, issue. Maybe spend more time learning the game, and a bit less complaining here?

You know, this is the issue. Not all people have the same interests and not everybody really cares or understand how that works. They're called casual players for a reason. They do want to play an online game but not have all that stuff to worry about. You may have an attitude about that but the point is that that's a large part of the player base. And it's the more casual players that like to do mostly stories and open world stuff like map completion and the occasional "zerg the world boss".

You may feel it's a learn to play issue but these people aren't here for that. There are lots of people who just like to have their cosmetics and pick the weapons they like, rather than getting the correct build. Now you may never understand people like that but I'm telling you there are plenty of them, they are paying customers and they aren't interested in what you propose.

This is where the issue lies. And I think that it would be wise for ArenaNet to ease up on map and story difficulty and leave the challenging stuff elsewhere. Cause the game also needs challenging stuff.

To me the combat system is one of the least interesting parts of GW2. I do look at it and see what sort of things make sense and I do manage the boss fights in stories (I just feel they're too long and tedious rather than too hard), but if you can think meta in a game, try to think meta about the player base for once. I'm telling you, there are quite a few players who don't get the combat system, either because it's too complex or uninteresting to them. But you need these players also to make enough money.

You can shout "learn to play" all you want, but I'm telling you, it falls on deaf ears. From a business point of view it just makes more sense to have a core experience that's more casual oriented and then specialized content like the daily areas, raids and world bosses that can really test your ability, build and skill. But ArenaNet does have to deal with a lot of players that will never get better than this but do like this game for all the other stuff.

Pratically you are saying that people should get the staff that they want without any effort?Gw2 is a MMO not dressing up game,so if you want to have your staff than work for it and don't expect taking it casually.And also the combat system that YOU consider boring and complex may be not that boring and complex...Maybe you prefer standing on one point and spamming all your skill but GW2 is a different game,you need to move costantly and not as you are saying "evade everything that comes to you",you have only 2 evade and you need to use them wisely otherwise you may be shotted by some strong attack.If you find the game boring than don't play it but if you want to make you character look good than learn the least to be able to get it.This comment is not reffered only to you but to all the people that want the best with the least or no work to get it.In conclusion the game is not really hard,I mean I did all the story alone and I was been playing for only 1 month

[Sartorius.3716]

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@"Sartorius.3716" said:"pls anet let me one-shot the god of war"Some people really hate fun.

And some people think they're the template for mankind or rather the lowest common denominator. People should really stop thinking that just because they can do something easily that everybody else must be able to do the same. It's really not nice to yourself to think so lowly of yourself.

And what is fun? That really depends on the person.

I am neither a template for mankind nor a dominator. Actually, I have problems, ecc... like everyone.I did not kill balthazar easily, not at all. It actually took me 3-4 tries to do it and i wasn't alone.It is just stupid to think you can easily solo kill the boss of the entire expansion, the god of war himself at the first try without even putting some effort in it.If you don't like that bit of challenge or the challenge is simply too much for you for whatever reason, you can team up with others. If you don't like challenges AND teaming up with others... then you should not play an MMORPG.Also, thinking you can kill everything with ease without help is... thinking you have no limits, thinking you are a god. THIS is thinking lowly.

What is fun? Someone might think killing everything without sweating is fun, but i call it "oh look im so good. I am good, r- right?". I think fun is overcoming an adeguate challenge, and balthazar is well thought to satisfy the majority of the players, those who know their limits.

[Gehenna.3625]

@Sartorius.3716 said:

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@Sartorius.3716 said:"pls anet let me one-shot the god of war"Some people really hate fun.

And some people think they're the template for mankind or rather the lowest common denominator. People should really stop thinking that just because they can do something easily that everybody else must be able to do the same. It's really not nice to yourself to think so lowly of yourself.

And what is fun? That really depends on the person.

I am neither a template for mankind nor a dominator. Actually, I have problems, ecc... like everyone.I did not kill balthazar easily, not at all. It actually took me 3-4 tries to do it and i wasn't alone.It is just stupid to think you can easily solo kill the boss of the entire expansion, the god of war himself at the first try without even putting some effort in it.If you don't like that bit of challenge or the challenge is simply too much for you for whatever reason, you can team up with others. If you don't like challenges AND teaming up with others... then you should not play an MMORPG.Also, thinking you can kill everything with ease without help is... thinking you have no limits, thinking you are a god. THIS is thinking lowly.

What is fun? Someone might think killing everything without sweating is fun, but i call it "oh look im so good. I am good, r- right?". I think fun is overcoming an adeguate challenge, and balthazar is well thought to satisfy the majority of the players, those who know their limits.

I didn't say dominator but denominator. Those are two entirely different things. People tend to assume that because they can do something, anybody can. The reality is that we don't all have the same skills and when you are good at something, it might actually mean exactly that.

The implication of saying that people can learn anything you can is that you actually see yourself as the minimum standard. Maybe you didn't think of it that way, but that's what it means when you say or indicate that what you can do, anybody else can do too. A lot of people can't because they either lack the capacity or interest.

And that leads to fun. If you really don't get this combat stuff but otherwise enjoy the game, then it's fun when the mobs are easy to kill, whereas you might find that boring. So for you to say that some people really hate fun, is complete and utter nonsense, because your definition of fun is not a general definition. That's where you consider yourself the template for mankind because you are basically saying you decide what's fun for everybody.

If that's all not what you meant, then perhaps you need to choose your words more carefully, but perhaps you don't care about that. I could then tell you that you need to learn to write but that wouldn't change your mind, would it?

[Khisanth.2948]

@AliamRationem.5172 said:

@"Shauma.5470" said:I think the last fight against Balthazar was a reason to rage-quit the game - almost. I just gave up trying to do anything. I'd die, re-spawn, target him, click 2 to charge, and then any other ability that was active before I died again. Oh, and when he went into that shield that makes him invulnerable, how are you supposed to even get to him? I saw people getting in and damaging him on you tube videos, but I tried every ability I had and couldn't do it. I just gave up and accepted dying every sixty seconds and just charging in over and over and over and attritoning him to death. Worst fight I've seen in this game. Awful. I read about the "stand on this bubble to coordinate your attack with Aurene". Tried that, most of the time it didn't activate. I did get it to activate - twice? Dodging, seemingly disabled, as it was seemingly disabled in most of the personal story. In an earlier fight I dodged someones attack, my character rolled outta the way before they popped it, and when the did pop it, it "magically" pulled me back into the area of affect. Oh, that seems fair. :# Some real messed-up mechanics. PoF has been fun, but that last fight in the Personal Story was just torture.

And I know, someone's gonna read this and say "get good noob, hur hur hur". Why not explain what I did wrong instead? I haven't seen one youtube video yet where someone is doing the fight, beating Balthazar, and

explaining

what they're doing.

Sure. If you're the sort of player who "rage quits" when they can't defeat an enemy in a video game the very first time they encounter it. I like to think most players have a little more patience than that.

In answer to your question, I expect players aren't explaining the mechanics in their videos because they are very straightforward and you are prompted during the fight on what to do. When Balthazar goes into his bubble, you're supposed to coordinate an attack with Aurene. You do this by standing in the blue circle that appears opposite Aurene, on the other side of Balthazar's bubble. You probably need to use a special action or interact to activate it when it becomes available. If Aurene is chained up, you need to break her out first, then get to the blue circle. The rest is a standard fight: kill the bad guy and don't stand in fire.

The people making the videos are also probably veterans of the game. That is relevant because that mechanic is a duplicate from LS3E3 so it would not seem necessary to bring it up again.

@ugrakarma.9416 said:i had 1 alt from each profession... i noticed that final encounters on PoF are very hard for melee only, is a old design problem the melee hate on GW2 bosses.

EH? Sohothin makes the encounter very easy. That is very much melee. You don't have to use the sword but that might make the whole fight a bit too long depending on build. On a 2k DPS character it took 20 minutes. Doing that achievement on that character is not one of my best decisions ... :cry:

There are some anti melee fights in the game but none of the Balthazar fights are. Most of his attacks don't even need dodging to avoid. Just sidestepping on standing in appropriate area based on the AoE indicator.

[Kaynide.5387]

Just my two cents on game difficulty. Personally just finished the main story last night for the first time, and HoT about...a month ago?

There were a few fights I found very punishing until I figured out what to do, then I could clear pretty easily. For me those were the most rewarding, because it was a kind of puzzle that I figured out. More so when the fight evolved/was multi-phase and got more complicated as the boss hp decreased.

The ones that were less rewarding were not so much mechanically difficult as it was just a slog to get through buckets and buckets of hit points. The final battle with Balthazar was good in that it got more complicated as we fought, but it was really just me getting in a few hits, swapping weapons to unload whatever big DPS abilities were ready then dodge-or-die. Even then getting downed was nothing because the dog adds had so little HP you could just bounce endlessly. All in all, if the fight as it was had only been shorter with other things before it I would have liked it more.

Also, they had some interesting ideas like commanding mummies or the undead mount speed boost just taught a mission earlier... I would have thought those would be incorporated somehow into the final mission.

[ProtoGunner.4953]

I think I went down once, but was easy. You don't even have to restart the whole thing (as I remember, just did it once). So what's the big deal?

[Mahou.3924]

Balthy's last battle was anooying at best and a - for me - chaotic mess in the later part of the battle. The only battle I had to finish naked, but then again my lack of skill is obvious as I only log in to to play the story or in case of x-pack elite specs, so I'm not complaining. There are some quite neat vidoes of fighting Balthy naked (on Weaver) like

, which I could never accomplish as I fail horribly at playing Ele in general.

As for difficulty in general: Challenging and difficulty are fine and dandy by itself, but I find myself more often being just relieved the mess is over, instead of being proud for the "accomplishment". Again that's just my poor low-skill-bob self .

[Einsof.1457]

This is astonishing. POF was incredibly easy...

[Kumiho.2756]

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@Sartorius.3716 said:

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@Sartorius.3716 said:"pls anet let me one-shot the god of war"Some people really hate fun.

And some people think they're the template for mankind or rather the lowest common denominator. People should really stop thinking that just because they can do something easily that everybody else must be able to do the same. It's really not nice to yourself to think so lowly of yourself.

And what is fun? That really depends on the person.

I am neither a template for mankind nor a dominator. Actually, I have problems, ecc... like everyone.I did not kill balthazar easily, not at all. It actually took me 3-4 tries to do it and i wasn't alone.It is just stupid to think you can easily solo kill the boss of the entire expansion, the god of war himself at the first try without even putting some effort in it.If you don't like that bit of challenge or the challenge is simply too much for you for whatever reason, you can team up with others. If you don't like challenges AND teaming up with others... then you should not play an MMORPG.Also, thinking you can kill everything with ease without help is... thinking you have no limits, thinking you are a god. THIS is thinking lowly.

What is fun? Someone might think killing everything without sweating is fun, but i call it "oh look im so good. I am good, r- right?". I think fun is overcoming an adeguate challenge, and balthazar is well thought to satisfy the majority of the players, those who know their limits.

I didn't say dominator but denominator. Those are two entirely different things. People tend to assume that because they can do something, anybody can. The reality is that we don't all have the same skills and when you are good at something, it might actually mean exactly that.

The implication of saying that people can learn anything you can is that you actually see yourself as the minimum standard. Maybe you didn't think of it that way, but that's what it means when you say or indicate that what you can do, anybody else can do too. A lot of people can't because they either lack the capacity or interest.

And that leads to fun. If you really don't get this combat stuff but otherwise enjoy the game, then it's fun when the mobs are easy to kill, whereas you might find that boring. So for you to say that some people really hate fun, is complete and utter nonsense, because your definition of fun is not a general definition. That's where you consider yourself the template for mankind because you are basically saying you decide what's fun for everybody.

If that's all not what you meant, then perhaps you need to choose your words more carefully, but perhaps you don't care about that. I could then tell you that you need to learn to write but that wouldn't change your mind, would it?

Press 1 to kill this mob...congratulation here is your legendary for your hard work.That's actually a better and funnier combat system

[ReaverKane.7598]

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@Sartorius.3716 said:

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@Sartorius.3716 said:"pls anet let me one-shot the god of war"Some people really hate fun.

And some people think they're the template for mankind or rather the lowest common denominator. People should really stop thinking that just because they can do something easily that everybody else must be able to do the same. It's really not nice to yourself to think so lowly of yourself.

And what is fun? That really depends on the person.

I am neither a template for mankind nor a dominator. Actually, I have problems, ecc... like everyone.I did not kill balthazar easily, not at all. It actually took me 3-4 tries to do it and i wasn't alone.It is just stupid to think you can easily solo kill the boss of the entire expansion, the god of war himself at the first try without even putting some effort in it.If you don't like that bit of challenge or the challenge is simply too much for you for whatever reason, you can team up with others. If you don't like challenges AND teaming up with others... then you should not play an MMORPG.Also, thinking you can kill everything with ease without help is... thinking you have no limits, thinking you are a god. THIS is thinking lowly.

What is fun? Someone might think killing everything without sweating is fun, but i call it "oh look im so good. I am good, r- right?". I think fun is overcoming an adeguate challenge, and balthazar is well thought to satisfy the majority of the players, those who know their limits.

I didn't say dominator but denominator. Those are two entirely different things. People tend to assume that because they can do something, anybody can. The reality is that we don't all have the same skills and when you are good at something, it might actually mean exactly that.

The implication of saying that people can learn anything you can is that you actually see yourself as the minimum standard. Maybe you didn't think of it that way, but that's what it means when you say or indicate that what you can do, anybody else can do too. A lot of people can't because they either lack the capacity or interest.

And that leads to fun. If you really don't get this combat stuff but otherwise enjoy the game, then it's fun when the mobs are easy to kill, whereas you might find that boring. So for you to say that some people really hate fun, is complete and utter nonsense, because your definition of fun is not a general definition. That's where you consider yourself the template for mankind because you are basically saying you decide what's fun for everybody.

If that's all not what you meant, then perhaps you need to choose your words more carefully, but perhaps you don't care about that. I could then tell you that you need to learn to write but that wouldn't change your mind, would it?

I love how your argument shows an incredible degree of projection. And it borders on hypocrisy, but you don't see it do you?Everyone in the forum is telling you that the difficulty is adequate or even easy. But you, assuming the role of lowest common denominator are stating, that, everyone else is wrong, and you know better, and it's too hard, because you can't do it, on one of the easiest classes to solo content!!Congrats you played yourself.

Again if people lack interest, don't play it, it's not the game's fault, it's their own. You can't fault others for your opinions or feelings.

No one's seeing themselves as the minimum standard. It's the game that sets that as the minimum standard, and if you want to play the game and complete it, then you have to achieve that standard... If every activity would be judged by the lowest standard possible, then we'd be reduced to games being "look in the general direction of the screen, congrats you won everything", and "Who sighs the loudest" would be an Olympic competition. Just because you're lazy, and entitled, doesn't mean that the game should fulfil on that entitlement. Buying a game doesn't give you automatic license to complete it. That's your job, completing it.