Raids, fractals, strike missions & autistic troubles

[Jolanda.1568]

Hi Dobbs and everyone else,

 

Since I am suspected to have ASD I am currently on the waiting list to get diagnosed (or not). I started playing GW2 2 weeks after launch and had only a break of more or less a year. Even after all these years I too and still get overwhelmed in "harder" content, like Fractals, Raids and PvP. I see too many things and my brain can't progress them all at the same time. I am either doing rotation OR following instructions OR watching the screen, see what is happening and put on ''fight or flight'' mode (and lost rotation). Oh, and shinies (no jokes, shiny/cool looking characters do distract me). It took me years to realize I am not able to progress all these at the same time. I have done some Fractals, as in I got the legendary backpack and did Tier 4 for some weeks in a row, but it was always mentally tiring me after the Fractal dailies were done. And almost always my anxiety kicked in when I did them and yes many ''rage quits'' have happened, not because I raged, but because my brain shuts as it was simply too much for me to handle. I am not even trying Raids and PvP anymore, which leaves me to do more predictable content like Meta events/World bosses and such.

 

Since OP was wondering if more people share the same problems.. Well, here are my two cents. I am not diagnosed (yet) with ASD, so can't tell for 100% these problems are related with ASD, but hey, I am suspected and I am waiting to get the test, so chances are there is ASD involved.

 

I am wondering if there is any guild with players with ASD and do content like Raids. That could possibly help with people understanding the problem, and take these content more slow. (and feel free to whisper me if you have ASD or if you are in such guild! 🙂 )

Edited June 11, 2021 by Jolanda.1568

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

I know this is a necro'd thread, but..

 

I have severe autism as well as some other stuff going on.

 

I found the only way around stimulation sickness in this game is to deliberately expose yourself to it--not the opposite. Turn on all the names, make the chat log permanently visible, etc. Turn on loud noisy music while you're playing, too.

 

How could this possibly help? Well, its immensely painful and confusing at first. But it helps you develop a resistance/tolerance, because your mind has to learn how to filter out what isn't useful to you. Its hard, and its work, but it is possible.

 

If you instead reduce details and limit stimulation, it could have its own negative effects. Like losing track of things even more often, starting to zone out during play, etc.

 

The simple truth is the game is designed for neurotypicals and you can't avoid it.

Edited June 13, 2021 by Hannelore.8153

[Tiilimon.6094]

Play a healer support for a while, it gives you a broader perspective of everything in the game.

When you get used to tracking 5 health bars while dodging stuff, playing a DPS class feels very easy in comparison.

 

Works in any MMO btw 😄

[ButcherofMalakir.4067]

Littlebit late but I relised how I am doing the filtering.

I am looking at my skillbar. It is constant so no flashes. 

I have it at maximum size.

And I do all mechanics based on sound. 

 

Never relised why big skillbar was helping me till now. 

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

On 7/13/2021 at 11:18 PM, ButcherofMalakir.4067 said:

Littlebit late but I relised how I am doing the filtering.

I am looking at my skillbar. It is constant so no flashes. 

I have it at maximum size.

And I do all mechanics based on sound. 

 

Never relised why big skillbar was helping me till now. 

The irony is I came here to post this, only to find that somebody else has said it.

 

-----

 

I did Sabetha for the first time recently.  And also the second, third, fourth... mostly unsuccessfully.  It hurt.  That is no exaggeration.  By the time I won I felt dizzy, light-headed, I couldn't focus my eyes on anything, and I had a strange headache that has not left me yet.  It is painful, but there's a reason why Sabetha hurt and the other two bosses didn't, and that was memory overload.  I had far more to keep track of:

 

-Sapper Bombs

-Cannon Team Rotation

-Cannon Rotation

-Orange Bomb

-Player locations

-Timer

-DPS rotation (I was on stm chrono)

-Health

-Adds

-Endurance

-Flak locations

-Mortar Fire

-Clone Count

 

It was a nightmare.  On vale and gorseval I played a minstrel tank.  It's a role that everyone dreads, but I embraced openly.  I do it because it is secretly really easy to tank.  You just have to stay alive, and know what the boss does.  For Vale Guardian, all you do is this:

 

-dodge/block the blue energy field

-use greatsword to knock back the red circles

-at 33% you drag vale in circles with the charged floor.

 

That's it.  Well, that's all the special stuff.  You still have to do things like shatter clones and break the defiance bar, but that is all rote.  When I tank vale, I barely look at the screen.  My eyes are mostly on my bar, and it is through timing and peripheral vision that I do most of the fighting.  Gorseval is even easier to tank:

 

-Use stability mantra on his slam attack

-Focus pull the adds

 

Gorsy's got a lot of mechanics, but as the tank I don't need to care about it.  I tell all my teammates what the mechanics are, and then they take care of it while I leisurely take blows and give my teammates quickness.  I'm considering spending more gold to make a hand-kiter revenant, because it means in Bastion I can ignore nearly all of the fight and just sit on grabby hands.  

 

-----

 

That, in so many words, is my advice.  I've found the support builds (alacrigade, healbrand, chronotank, auramancer in particular) to be far easier to play than anything else.  Their goals are really simple, and they remain the same from one fight to the next.  Sometimes you'll be tasked with handling the mechanics, but really all that means is you do one or two obvious things on top of some rote rotation.  Half the time that special thing is "break the defiance bar."