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| AC splash screen. Be afraid! |
It is Ascalonian Catacombs, the first dungeon you an enter at level 30.
I really wanted to put "hate" in the title, but I chose to say "don't like" as hate is a pretty strong word. However, I did have an extreme strong dislike for AC when I tried it for the first time a couple days ago. It totally BLEW.
I have spent a few days mulling this over and trying to gain perspective. I've chatted with a bunch of guildies and browsed the forums and been reassured that I'm not the only one who feels that AC is a PITA. I thought for a bit that maybe I was being a big, whiney baby who was crying because she couldn't plow through the dungeon on the first go. Afterall, I'm uber! I am an amazing mesmer and an MMO slut!
But no, I don't really feel that way. I don't have a leet complex. I fully expected to die in the dungeon.
What I didn't expect was to die on the first trash mob. And to die over and over and over.
It was mental.
It was discouraging.
It was a blow to my ego.
And it made me hate GW2 just a little bit.
I was so excited to go try the dungeon. I was thrilled to go in with some good friends too: Majyst, Warmad, Lia and Tenvaras. I thought we were a solid group with a great variety of classes to balance the fights: a mesmer, two warriors, a ranger and an ele. I figured we would struggle to learn the boss fights, but never did I imagine that just GETTING to a boss fight was going to be such a struggle.
In fact, after the whole thing was done, most of us agreed that the trash mobs seemed way harder to defeat than the bosses. How is that okay? At one point in the torturous time, I commented that we should just assume every mob is a boss and congratulate ourselves for taking down 23 bosses! Woot!
I did try my best to remain positive and upbeat, but I could hear the frustration in my own voice coming through on Raidcall. I felt cranky and peevish. Majyst said that it is always that bad. Tab came in RC and reassured us that it sucked for him too. Hartak said his PUG couldn't even finish the damn thing, so we should be proud that we perservered.
But I just felt crappy. Being a self-conscious female, I assumed it was my fault. I wasn't good enough. I did something wrong. Others thought that the game was borked. Others thought it was just a challenge and a learning experience. I tried to adjust my thinking to believe the last statement. We came, we didn't quite conquer but we survived, and we learned.
I'm not sure that I'll ever go back to AC. I found the drops to be meh. The boss fights were mostly tank-n-spank with very few fascinating mechanics to keep you on your toes. (The lovers was the hardest but War figured out he could chuck boulders at their heads to stun them and keep them apart, so it was smooth after that.) As far as I know, you only get one yellow from the King at the end so what's the point of doing it again? There seems to be tons of folks hanging about asking to go into AC all the time, but I fail to see the point. Feel free to enlighten me if you find AC appealing or rewarding. I'd love to hear why it's so popular. I think Explorer mode has some different rewards and such, so maybe that's it, or maybe it's just that it's so challenging that those hard-core uber gamers who are bored with regular PvE are in there reveling in the madness.
For me, it was honestly the least fun I've had in the game since I started. I'm disappointed and a bit sad, because I was looking forward to running instances with my guildies, but for now I'm going to stay outside and happily murder creatures in the wide world. Besides, there are no blueberries in the dungeons!
I really wanted to put "hate" in the title, but I chose to say "don't like" as hate is a pretty strong word. However, I did have an extreme strong dislike for AC when I tried it for the first time a couple days ago. It totally BLEW.
I have spent a few days mulling this over and trying to gain perspective. I've chatted with a bunch of guildies and browsed the forums and been reassured that I'm not the only one who feels that AC is a PITA. I thought for a bit that maybe I was being a big, whiney baby who was crying because she couldn't plow through the dungeon on the first go. Afterall, I'm uber! I am an amazing mesmer and an MMO slut!
 |
| Tenvaras, Lia, me and Majyst |
What I didn't expect was to die on the first trash mob. And to die over and over and over.
It was mental.
It was discouraging.
It was a blow to my ego.
And it made me hate GW2 just a little bit.
I was so excited to go try the dungeon. I was thrilled to go in with some good friends too: Majyst, Warmad, Lia and Tenvaras. I thought we were a solid group with a great variety of classes to balance the fights: a mesmer, two warriors, a ranger and an ele. I figured we would struggle to learn the boss fights, but never did I imagine that just GETTING to a boss fight was going to be such a struggle.
In fact, after the whole thing was done, most of us agreed that the trash mobs seemed way harder to defeat than the bosses. How is that okay? At one point in the torturous time, I commented that we should just assume every mob is a boss and congratulate ourselves for taking down 23 bosses! Woot!
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| "A study in depth perception and size." ;) Teeny little Majyst in the back wearing lovely Humiliation Pink. Warmad the huge Norn, looking not so huge behind Lia. Tenvaras and Lia, humans. Me, Sylvari at the front, looking large! |
I did try my best to remain positive and upbeat, but I could hear the frustration in my own voice coming through on Raidcall. I felt cranky and peevish. Majyst said that it is always that bad. Tab came in RC and reassured us that it sucked for him too. Hartak said his PUG couldn't even finish the damn thing, so we should be proud that we perservered.
But I just felt crappy. Being a self-conscious female, I assumed it was my fault. I wasn't good enough. I did something wrong. Others thought that the game was borked. Others thought it was just a challenge and a learning experience. I tried to adjust my thinking to believe the last statement. We came, we didn't quite conquer but we survived, and we learned.
I'm not sure that I'll ever go back to AC. I found the drops to be meh. The boss fights were mostly tank-n-spank with very few fascinating mechanics to keep you on your toes. (The lovers was the hardest but War figured out he could chuck boulders at their heads to stun them and keep them apart, so it was smooth after that.) As far as I know, you only get one yellow from the King at the end so what's the point of doing it again? There seems to be tons of folks hanging about asking to go into AC all the time, but I fail to see the point. Feel free to enlighten me if you find AC appealing or rewarding. I'd love to hear why it's so popular. I think Explorer mode has some different rewards and such, so maybe that's it, or maybe it's just that it's so challenging that those hard-core uber gamers who are bored with regular PvE are in there reveling in the madness.
For me, it was honestly the least fun I've had in the game since I started. I'm disappointed and a bit sad, because I was looking forward to running instances with my guildies, but for now I'm going to stay outside and happily murder creatures in the wide world. Besides, there are no blueberries in the dungeons!
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| I was downed in the lovers fight and Majyst's bear came over and started humping me! |
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