PvE ... a bit too easy?

Ok, sorry long post.

Just getting to the end of Prophecies with a couple of my friends. We're on the last mission. We completed Abbadon's mouth last night. Went in with PuG ... disorganized ... someone aggroed whole map ... my friend got called noob for not going all healing on his monk. Left ... came back with henchies.

We then proceeded through the entire mission ... we don't have the best builds, we're not that good (I don't think). Our Monk is built for half smiting =). We pretty much aced it no problem. I'm not bragging by the way ... it isn't us, I don't think. The mission just wasn't very hard. The final mob ... the titan ... I think died in like 5 secs ... if that.

Now, I'm comparing this to WoW where I remember even the first few instances potentionally being really really hard. Bosses could kill you in like 3 hits. If you made a mistake, even in epic gear, you could die to a miniboss and not be surprised.

In GW, it seems like a group of good players, with good builds, that know what they're doing can pretty much stumble through most of the missions even taking a shot of vodka between groups of mobs. It's just that I go into these missions talking about strategies and what we should do and it doesn't matter as we can get through stuff just by taking ok skills and fumbling through it. Not that there aren't hard missions ... they're just few and far between.

Is hard mode a lot different?

Hard mode is less forgiving of mistakes, but you can wreck pretty much everything in the game with minimal effort with the right setup. You get bosses that can one-shot 6 members of your party at once, but prot spirit+good pull and it does 50 damage total before it dies.

Obvious statement I know, but PvE is only as easy as you make it really.

Hard Mode end game propheicies is much more of a challenge than NM, but if you know your enemies, and put together a decent team... it is relatively simple, yes.

HM is far harder, especially some stuff in the start of the game when you only have 4 party members. Now that you have beaten the game, give it a try. Also keep in mind that Prophecies is the first game. The next 3 games are significantly more challenging, even in normal mode.

I don't know that I would add "significantly" in there for Factions. I thought it was easier than Prophecies. NF, maybe. Some areas of NF can be quite tricky the first time through (dzagonur bastion anyone?).

Anyway, try vanquishing Lornar's Pass and Majesty's Rest. They're far less forgiving of unprepared teams. HM is where it's at though. When it first came out, I was thinking "why would anyone want the game to be harder?". Now, I don't want to have anything to do with nm.

Certain things have become easier because of new mechanics and skills introduced by the other campaigns and more experienced players hanging around.

I still remember how annoyingly difficult Thunderhead Keep was at the very beginning. there was no general team build running back then, as long as you had some monks. Because of the limited (well not limited but you know what i mean) skills available, you would only be awarded if you pulled off some good team work.

Yes, HM is much less forgiving and people will have to learn quick about luring and team builds. There are now gimmick builds that will bulldoze all areas even in HM as well.

Plus there are no more secrets or confusing missions which required the team of players to figure out or find themselves. Everything is now on Wiki.

All Good Gw Players Have A Handy Bottle Of Vodka

Most Of Prophicies Is Stupidly Easy.. Try Starting A Char In Factions The Learning Curve Is Alot Steeper.

And Yes....Hardmode Is... Harder

Markus.

In the update that added hard mode, they also made normal mode easier:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Game_updates/20070419

I think that the jungle in proph is harder than end game lol, especially in HM because your down 2 players.

I think Factions has the hardest missions even in NM some can be a pain (Eternal grove).

once you get to HM you will have to be a lot more careful with aggro and take off the smiting of the monk lol

you will find out later

Prophecies difficulty raise is extremely forgiving. The low experience quests are basically useless thanks to other campaigns. Once you turn on hard mode it's the hardest campaign to vanquish or finish for that matter. The low level enemies you roll past before will put up a good fight.

It's almost vise-versa for factions, nightfall and eye of the north. Yes, hard mode is harder but it's nothing compared to prophecies. With the Titles that boost damage/energy in eye of the north and nightfall makes fighting easier. Factions HM difference is almost not there. You can easily vanquish most factions with just heroes and henchmen.

Instances has nothing to do with GW story lines , they are meant to be a "tutorial" of each continent world . Things changed a lot from 4 years ago ; there were some last missions that you had to do without pve skills , heroes , stupid hench IA ( yes , far worse than now ), no henches flags and ofc , no NF , eotn or Factions skills .

That happens because of things i said before and the fact that those missions are old , any good player with 2+ years ingame can roll easy thru them in NM.

Now try HM .... some places are just the same but with 2-3 more lvl mob and ofc 33% IAS , cast and IMS but some old missions and dungeons .......

storyline missions are meant to be easy. try elite missions like underworld, fissure of woh, etc, and you mite not say the same. or even just wait until u get into eye of the north dungeons.

Now theres a fun idea for a competition... first person to vanq the area wins...gonna have to suggest that to my guild :P


But yeah pretty much at this point even hm isn't hard. It's all pretty much a joke if you have a coordinated team build and a clue about what your comming up against...

Over the years, ArenaNet has altered skills (which affects both player and foes) and the AI (which affects both henchmen, heroes and foes). These changes have tended, in most cases, to make the game easier. They have also nerfed a few bosses in the last two years.

There have been a lot of complaints on guru about making the game too easy.

EDIT: My mistake. I think the difference between NM/HM still stands, though.

HM kind of turns things around a bit; I found that vanquishing and doing missions in the Ring of Fire chain was actually easier than vanquishing the earlier areas, with their lower caps on party members. All those little level 6 and level 8 things you faced in Ascalon will be level 20+, and you'll still be in a party of 4. They'll also still pop up and try to eat your face.

Your experience will probably change depending on skill changes from Anet - any PvE change made will also affect monsters too, which can make things easier or harder to go through depending on how they made the change. The different campaigns also tend to have different levels of difficulty - Prophecies and Cantha are easier for me than Nightfall, and GWEN was scary when it first came out.

Just add some Discord heroes and it'll become even easier. Too bad you can't go afk while ur heroes vanquish the areas/missions...

normal mode = original game
hard mode = brand new mode introduced in 2007

so no... nm isn't any easier than the original, because it is the original

Try Domain of Anguish, hard mode, the Deep or Urgoz then say pve is easy, or try pvp but PLEASE keep the smiting skills far far away from pvp

Well if pugs tend to be pugs, good ones are hard and few to find. Go try hardmode before coming back and saying Nm is easy. Also if you want an added challenge don't bring any pve skills, those made the game way to easy. Even though though discord/spirit/gimmick team builts can roll through an entire area without use of those. So if you want somewhat of a challegen don't bring those either.

PvE is extremely easy if the group has decent builds and basic co-ordination. That's all there is to it, really.