THIS Is Why Guild Wars 2 ENDED Raiding - FINAL Raid Complete

Well here it is - the goal of project MMO was to complete all of the raids in Guild Wars 2, a strange proposition since they don't make them anymore. Well now Mike has done it, and he totally understands why...
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Displate: displate.com/p...
Gear: preachgaming.c...
Twitter: @Preachgaming
Live Stream - twitch.tv/preachlfw
Website: preachgaming.com/
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Credits:
• [Progress] Sartharion ...
• WoW Classic Kel' Thuza...
• Echo vs. Mythic Sarkar...
• Method VS Mistress Sas...
00:00 - Intro
00:35 - The End of Raiding
02:00 - Wing 5 Boss 1: Soulless Horror
03:42 - Wing 5 Boss 3: Statues of Grenth
06:24 - Wing 5 Boss 4: Dhuum
11:12 - Wing 6 Boss 1: Conjured Amalgamate
14:47 - Wing 6 Boss 3: Twin Largos
16:27 - Wing 6 Boss 4: Qadim
20:52 - Wing 7 Boss 2: Cardinal Adina
23:33 - Wing 7 Boss 3: Cardinal Sabir
24:02 - Wing 7 Boss 4: Qadim the Peerless
28:42 - Conclusion

[@Preachgaming]

The stated goal of Project MMO is complete in Guild Wars 2 - Mike has completed all of the raids. Although he will of course be doing all of the strikes in End of Dragons so don't worry. Today we look at Wings 5 to 7 and why he understands the Raids going the way of the dodo. Where did you stand on the raids, are you happy or sad to see them go? P.S if you need any additional incentive to stick around, there is some cute doggo in parts of this video.

[@Farwind]

Looking forward to your raid cm's and strike cms!

[@AzuraeJades]

Strikes are far better to avoid massive fail. If one strike is not that good it's ok. Because a whole raid that is inconsistent feels weird. Doing IBS5 shows that, there are only two bosses that are a little bit difficult, the rest is forgettable, and not really interesting to do (which is not a big deal as people still farm it everyday compared to W5/6/7). EoD strikes are already far better and more in the idea of bosses from raids. They still need to release strikes that are more creative in the future. As a side note I feel like Mike got a Dark Souls syndrom, where he thinks W7 is super easy while in reality a lot of people are struggling on the first two bosses. After doing hard content it seems obvious that he became better, and as the mechanics are way more intuitive it feels easier. Only the last boss is a real joke imo.

[@Obiwone1234]

I can't wait to see him do Dhuum CM xD

[@lillithsummers8817]

Do try the open world boss Soo-Won blind:) It was pretty interesting to figure out for an open world boss. Much wailing and gnashing of teeth for a while.

[@methanbreather]

The goal is... questionable. Because GW2 unlike WoW and FF14 is not a 'raid' game. You are not playing gw2 if you raid. You raid. You WoW players need to get off the mindset that everything is like WoW. (and get of the mindset that your p2w mess was the first). That every mmorpg revolves around raids and other instanced group content. Because it is just wrong. And skews the view.

[@MuklukYoutube]

Hey Preach! Mukluk here, I don't know if you'll see this but just wanted to say it was a blast watching you work through these raids. You were looking at my guides after each boss you killed to see what mechanics you did right and wrong and it was an absolute joy watching you piece everything together. (Also when you realized things like the fire patch killing the Q2 adds and flipped out XD ) Wishing you the best of luck as you work through the strike missions!

[@ROCKNROLL947]

What are you talking about? Seeing this Brit was painful.

[@XAn0nymousX0]

The elitist gatekeeper attitude is pretty cringe bro. Nothing screams "my life has no meaning outside of this video game" more than that attitude.

[@peen2804]

@@ROCKNROLL947REEEEEEEEEEE* fixed your comment for you

[@shiniestskritt2865]

If the raid fights have a challenge mode, you've got to do the challenge mode. A lot of these raid fights had the challenge mode designed first, then they stripped away some of the mechanics for normal mode - which is why some normal mode fights feel lackluster. After dhuum was launched, there was incredibly low raid participation from the community (less than 1% of players beat a single raid boss). So I think they wanted PoF normal mode raids to be easier while making challenge mode PoF raids feel more like a natural progression from HoT raids.

[@frostdracohardstyle]

It was 10% and it was a number based on GW2 Efficiency. It's not 1%, idk why people keep saying that number. We dont have the data of actual raid participation, but to say its 1% means people didnt even do escort, which is just blatantly false.

[@hanneskarlbom6644]

@@frostdracohardstyle GW2 efficiency only counts those who have added their API to it, since it's a website for mostly hardcore players it stands to reason that the actual number is much lower.

[@dahak2358]

@@frostdracohardstyle Well, everything points out to escort being done succesfully by less players than VG was. Most players do not really look at which boss is the easiest - they start at the beginning. And if they fail there, they won't go further. And the difficulty order of wings (and bosses within wings) is a mess. As such, i wonder what difference there would have been if w4 was the first wing released.

[@frostdracohardstyle]

@hanneskarlbom6644 Gw2 efficiency isnt for hardcore raiders its for invested gw2 players. Can you please just stop saying things that are irrelevant just to prove your non point. The reality is its still the best sample size you have and 1 percent is orders of magnitude smaller than 10. People just say 1 percent to try and make it seem like the amount of people that have ever done a raid is so insignificant that anet shouldnt have ever even touched them. Regardless if that figure is true or not.

[@frostdracohardstyle]

@dahak2358 i completely agree. I mentioned escort because there are a lot of players that did escort only to unlock the raid masteries and never touched them again. Going on what raid sellers have said, it's also a popular raid sell, but that's very anecdotal.

[@TheAquarius87]

Just wanted to say: your journey through gw has been a joy to watch. 🍺

[@MrAndrej20]

Where can I find the VODs? I wanna watch it

[@edwardteague3276]

Preach, understand that Wing 7 was made with its CMs in mind, then stepped back. The best example of this is the lightning on QtP, which is pointless damage in normal mode but it is permanent area denial in CM so positioning actually matters there. Similarly, Adina becomes much more about real-estate in CM as well.

[@kiralikesyou9171]

In my Opinion as an Veteran Raider. The W7 Cms should be the NMs. And the cms should add more.

[@Shrek_The_Mathematician]

Really interesting to watch this video now because Anet announced a new raid coming this november with the latest expansion. You should definitely continue this series and complete the strike missions and challenge modes before trying the newest raid!

[@The_Noise_Marine]

Not sure who cares but when Preach is talking about Qadim 1 he keeps mentioning Kelthuzad but I’m fairly certain he kept meaning to say Kaelthas from Tempest Keep. That’s the fight he absolutely adores

[@Mosan13]

He does that all the time lol

[@haakie]

Too many KTs in WoW

[@BrynTheWizard]

Came here to say this. The floating and shattering the glass ceiling could only be Kael. Legendary fight.

[@des-trina]

Kael was my favorite fight in WoW back when I was a progression raider.

[@sorangar5723]

Super ready for the 2 hour long video from Mike and the team called “Project MMO” just diving deep into MMO’s, their history, their philosophy, the iterations, and what might be coming in the future

[@BigIsaac91]

"Devs don't want to have bosses go beyond 10 minutes any more these days" Every Ultimate encounter in FF14: Bonjour

[@sediquesedi3855]

You have to kill the strike HT(harvest temple) in challenge mode. Is the most challenging fight in the whole game

[@magnapeccatrix]

It's far from challenging, merely an awareness check at most.

[@fernaxv]

Considering only 0.03% of playerbase ve kill It at least once, im preety sure for the majority of them is hard enough

[@CadeAid1]

It’s also extremely buggy and frustrating as a result.

[@magnapeccatrix]

@@fernaxv that's not an official value you got out of Arenanet servers, however let's say it's correct. That value simply means people don't care to do HT cm, it does not mean actual reason it's being difficult. I do HT cm it's nowhere near difficult at all. Just boring, long and numbing. Explains why a minor selection of playerbase does it.

[@nickverschoore4351]

​@@magnapeccatrixyes yes we get it, you're the superman of gw2

[@ASpaceOstrich]

As someone who'd love to do blind raiding, having fights that don't just wipe you when you don't do it right would make it so much more feasible.

[@Poki3]

It's weird you said that Adina is easier with less people, cause I raid a lot and the opposite is my experience. The tank can't get a pillar, but every other person can, so if you have 4 people dead, everyone except the tank has to walk away and do a pillar. And with less people, you also have to merge pillars, cause if you leave some standing she gets the buff. Also, in Challenge Mode, there's an added twist that pillars destroy the floor piece they spawn on, so if you prolong the fight you get less and less room to work with. Anyways, I likes these videos. It's been very interesting to watch. I hope you enjoy the EoD Strikes (I can place my bets that you won't enjoy IBS strikes), but the CMs of those is where it's at. The Normals are tuned more casually then even the easier raids because of how few people raided.

[@masterdragon2345]

Please do the EoD strikes on CM. they are far too easy to do on NM. Doing CM raids would probably be a fun for you, they add a bunch of fun to the fights

[@Tempestchron]

He's already finished most of the EoD strikes on CM. Harvest temple is the last one, which he will probably start with when he gets back from his overseas trip.

[@notMeeps_]

@@Tempestchron did he? Dont think hes anywhere close to finishing KO CM? And OLC CM, he cleared it?

[@themaniac8596]

@@Tempestchron nope they still at KO

[@Tempestchron]

@@themaniac8596 Oh I thought they finished KO before he left for Exilecon. I mustve missed his last stream before then.

[@Tempestchron]

@@notMeeps_ I was referring to the EoD strikes. And I forgot if they did OLC at CM before. Maybe someone should remind him in chat. But he did promise to get back to the earlier contents that he missed.

[@wiiagent]

congrats on completing all the raids

[@alexdickman5114]

Really Really informative video series on GW2 raids - really looking forward to a similar series to the Savage raid progression over the years, what they learned, what they didnt, etc

[@R_SENAL]

Been waiting on you to go to GW2 expac 4 & 5 and Strikes... If you were waiting on Christmas, it is almost here!

[@sinchill5424]

Wing 8 just announced today with the new GW2 expansion! React on it Preach! Excited to hear your thoughts on it you will come back to Tyria :)

[@dahak2358]

Yep, the primary issue is they never managed to find a good "road" for raid content. That's hardly the raid design team's fault however - it was just impossible from the start. The mistakes were made long before then, during original game design that resulted in massive differences between different tiers of players. As a result, the gaps within the community became so big it was impossible to create a content that would be both truly challenging and interesting for "endgame"-interested more hardcore players, and yet be open enough to make it sustainable in the long run. Maybe if they went with the idea of several difficulty tiers in the beginning it would have ended up better, but i'm afraid even then there would have been issues.

[@solthas]

Didn't feel like there's really anything leading you to do the raids in the story or maps. When the raid is the end-cap on the story, that makes people *want* to do it, because the story pushes them into it. Think of uh the taken king raid in destiny.

[@dahak2358]

@@solthas If the gameplay level of raids is so heavily disassociated from what the average players are used to (and are capable of doing), pushing them into Raids just won't work. In the best case scenario it will just fail, but in the worst case one it would push them away from the game as a whole.

[@mcnudelchen2190]

Seeing this Video while waiting for W8 in a few Months

[@mpales9431]

The new 'raid' strikes of GW2 are fun and more accessible, but I fear they are losing their identity simply taking FF14 raid style but not adapting it to the GW2 combat style. It is a good step and requires more refining until they find their own raid identity

[@salty465]

This is a nice insight, but most of the later bosses really are meant to be played on Challenge Mode, it really completes bosses such as QtP and the rest of Wing 7, along with making Wing 4-6 really feel like proper raids

[@TFalconwing]

I've heard some dev stories through the grapevine for W7. Qadim 2 changed lead devs halfway through from what I understand and that probably is what you're feeling.

[@FlowerBot]

I so agree with you about insta-wipes - far better to get a few chances to try again without having to start over and over while not knowing how it works. Reading other comments though, you probably should go back and do the CMs - some of the encounters you didn't like might improve if you do.

[@vokuhila6913]

just downloaded this game for the first time ever, last mmo i played was pirates of the Caribbean online when i was like 7

[@Anonymous-vw8ei]

Sike! another raid is on the way :D

[@Tyelkormoko]

Awesome journey so far, love this project a lot!

[@lyokhamishukov3513]

Strike CMs are basically the equivalent of raids at this point in the game. As sad as i am that raids arent being made anymore, I'm looking forward to seeing how you like strikes.

[@lostsanityreturned]

I wish he had played the strikes as CM first though.

[@chickenbob562]

i did my first raid a few days ago think it was W3 but on CM (which i heard is the easiest), but still it was WAY too easy i actually liked what they did with the tower and stuff but the boss fights were way too easy and quick

[@chickenbob562]

also did a few strikes blind (no cm though) which didnt even feel like bosses so far REALLY hard endgame pve feels not so good tbh otherwise i love this game and honestly one of the best mmos ever out there imo

[@chickenbob562]

btw. did the raid also blind with 2 or 3 people knowing what to do and rest first timers

[@curo.]

I can't imagine saying you have the full GW2 raid experience when you haven't touched any of the CM's.

[@nicolasgonzalez629]

guild wars 2 is so weird, like sometimes its peak mmo content and other times... is not. i still think the journey was worth it cause the game is alive and still getting content, which i'd love for preach to cover.

[@traveling.down.the.road56]

I searched through all of your most recent videos and it looks like this is the last GW2 video that you made (I might be wrong). Now that the Janthir Wilds expansion has released, will you be returning to play more GW2, and making more videos about your GW2 journey? In my opinion, Janthir Wilds is the best GW2 expansion since Path of Fire and Living World Season 4. I’d really like to know what the rest of your experience was like with GW2 and if you plan to continue playing and making occasional videos about GW2? Edit: The next Raid for GW2 will be released in the next partial release of Janthir Wilds, so just a few more weeks away. I didn't always agree with your opinion of GW2, but I was always interested to see what your opinion was, being that you have a vastly different prior experience with video games than I do, and I think that most of your criticisms have been fair, and useful for Arenanet to use as feedback.

[@Silvernite_Requiem]

time to start raiding again! :D

[@theia.t]

I feel like if Preach decided to do these fights again with an experienced group and maybe trying out the CMs in w7, his impressions would prolly be more positive. Glad he had an overall positive impression on w5 and 6 tho.

[@niclastname]

Are you guys going to be doing Challenge Modes? I'm curious how this would possible change your opinion of some fights if you guys do them. I agree though that Q1 is such a good boss fight!

[@GoddessOfTheWinds]

I stumbled upon those videos even though they are a bit older, but there WILL BE a Raid WING 8 in a few months in Guild Wars 2. They probably will implement bosses in the same similar manner to the new strikes, but with a linear story akin to older wings. That's my guess. Honestly, you should check it out when it releases! We thought they gave up on raids, but they are honestly amazing content (if they could remove the boring filler).

[@MInorek5]

what I really like is that every kind of content remains always challenging even when new xpac comes out, etc. there is not any power creep that would make that content soloable/not rewarding/pointless to do. (except for dungeons), but those still must be done for some legendary crafting etc

[@Tahulrik]

I get the part with it being odd that the fight gets easier as QTP gets lower, but i think overall the fight is very good. The same goes for the entirety of w7, it's some pretty good bosses. Not perfect but really good. Definitely better than the first 4 wings

[@pedromenezes4744]

Now you need to do the CMs of all bosses.

[@valkyrieomega8285]

It is super interesting watching the different approaches you guys have taken to bosses vs the more common "strats" for those bosses are. I always feel like w6 and w7 Qadim's should be the other way around (even though story wise that doesn't work) Q1 would have been so much better to end w7 as a big epic finale (that said I do really enjoy QTP). As other's have said, the CMs for these raids are a lot of fun. Also another vote for doing Harvest Temple Strike!

[@drauskam]

Tbh when it comes to endgame content the biggest point to play gw2 is the combat system, visuals and class variety. So if you take the overall easier encounters compared to e.g. ff14 but try to get the max out of your class or simple play a wide range of different roles/mechanics of those it is still pretty enjoyable. Back when my raid group progress through the wings we ofthen times had to adjust classes, or learn something just for a certain boss.

[@Forty2de]

Mike, remember that for the playerbase to discover the issues with the raids, they have to step foot in them first. And fact is that the majority of the playerbase has not even done that. The raids may or may not have issues, that's besides the point for GW2 players. They're simply not raiders, that's not the kind of activity that they play GW2 for. I have been a raider in WoW for many, many years. But I don't do raids in GW2 at all. I log in to that game with an entirely different purpose. I have done a few strikes though, because that's more in line with what I want out of GW2. Strikes are on-demand quick content. Go in, kill shit, get out. 15 minute adventure! GW2 is not a game where people like to commit several hours to the same activity at the same time of day every week, it's the game where you can just log on and have some fun at your own leisure. (For most people anyway) That's the main reason raids in GW2 are unsuccessful, it's not because of the raids themselves. Perhaps it could be, but it hasn't even come that far. A good thing about GW2 raids is that they more or less stay relevant forever. If you wanna go back and try Qadim 1 again in 2 years, you absolutely can. It'll always be there for you.

[@Warcrafter4]

Another part of the issue with raid's low participation when they were released was that they were advertised as requiring full ascended gear to beat which the majority of players simply don't have. Meanwhile the main advertised rewards for raids was and still is ascended gear... I think you can see the issue here.

[@Trevan2412]

There's a real clarity issue in terms of late-game content. I was there for the entirety of Icebrood Saga and never learned that they discontinued raids, so when strikes came out I just got tired immediately at the idea of having yet another end-game content to focus on.

[@wolfer5486]

Cardinal Adina on CM is a really cool change, it's worth doing that. Otherwise agree that each of these bosses needed a little more time in the oven. I would have really liked to see QTP require you to place fires "correctly", it would have been really fun seeing you try and figure that out. Instead placing them randomly on the edge just makes the boss more tedious but not harder.

[@moo3oo3oo3]

QtP CM does what you describe

[@nykkyfanchini6427]

As someone who would like to try raiding in GW2, but can't match my playtime with any guild raiding time (so far), it's nice to see this kind of videos. Thank you

[@YouTubeChillZone]

make your own grup in lfg lol i never raid whit guild

[@australienski6687]

On weekends there's a lot of groups going in LFG. It's not like WoW

[@GlacierRain]

This was a fun watch and I enjoyed your journey good sir! Will you be doing the challenge modes of the Guild Wars 2 raids/Strikes/Fractals to contrast between the designs of the encounters ?

[@zivaztian]

Played GW1 since launch, then got in line at Game Stop and got some GW2 shirts signed and have been playing GW2 since launch. Got some legendaries, have all classes and races and each classes, hundreds of builds, maxed out lvl 100 in Fractals, but guess what--NEVER did a raid. Seems stressful, inconvenient, and a side end game that I never had any desire to do. Same with Strikes if it wasn't needed for some crafting.

[@friedbones8227]

I used to play GW2 years ago and did want to raid, but was told by our raid leader I wasn't good enough to be included in the team because the raid play was extremely difficult. That was disappointing, but I understood once he explained how difficult mechanics were that if you made one small misstep, the raid would wipe. I remember the personal story dungeon setups and understood how poorly designed the game play was because, unless you were an uber player and had the very best gear, your personal story would fail. When I did my personal stories, at some I was able to group up with other guild mates to help me out but even then it was horribly over tuned and difficult. I no longer play GW2, which is sad because I started with the beta and had fun with it. But as I progressed I was mostly questing and learning the lore. Due to my mobility limitations with my hands, I was unable to do anything else.

[@welikegrapefruitz]

Preach you gotta do CHALLENGE MODES! Thats the real intended design of the raid bosses, the normal modes are made much easier so that the participation is higher for the average player due to how player skill is much more relevant in this game and rotation/class/role awareness is higher/more complex than more traditional MMOs, check em out, you wont regret it! Also the strikes in EoD, namely the CMs are more like FF savage, they also returned with raids in the latest expansion which feel more like extreme trials/savage

[@Lloydumas]

Wow, after watching this I'm really keen to see Preach and crew do Kings Fall and the other Destiny raids. I think he'll really like them

[@Lorker1992]

Hey Preach, you should really try some of the CM (Challenge modes) For W4567. Maby then you opionion will change for some bosses. Some CM's are way better and improve the overall boss fight. Some are a bit meh.

[@dezm1]

I’m glad you enjoyed some of the bosses and also found flaws in others. I hope you’ll continue on into EoD strikes and their CMs, as a couple of them are known to be similar to/harder the raid encounters

[@philosophicallybroke8873]

Damn, this a year ago already! I watched all these raids live while playing gw2. Might get back into it. Was alot of fun for the short time i playex it.

[@TinyBlueGames]

I often wonder how great and accessible GW2 raiding could have been if they simply caved and did have a holy trinity. As it stands the game has a meta of roles, they are just roles that no one outside of GW2 understands right away. I think had the game adhered to the traditional holy trinity system and offered additional difficulty levels for the fights we'd be in a different place than we currently are. All that said, I'm pumped for the upcoming expansion and really enjoyed watching your journey through this Preach!

[@dafire9634]

Oh hello, didnt expect to see you here, you got a nice channel

[@m3.s0]

Dhuum is the bigboy because it is the iconic BANHAMMER from guildwars1, gms would teleport to the player and "dhuum" the players with the ban"scythe" . you can youtube that its funny :P

[@ch.k.3377]

Preach likes her GW2 content! The only thing that strikes me is that I get the impression that you are still looking at the GW2 content from a WOW/FF14 perspective. Raids are a supplement for 1. Anet uses raids to complete one or more stories from GW1, 2. additional content + PVE Legy armor.

[@Dragon-Doxin]

I love to see how much you love your dog

[@strykerace]

fyi Dhuum is not inspired by World of Warcraft. Dhuum already existed in the original Guild Wars core game as a boss in the Underworld. Not everything is inspired from World of Warcraft.

[@coolboyjk7]

come for gw2 content, stay for Bendog

[@Yoda7676]

Had a blast watching you showing their mistakes and weaknesses and successes and accomplishments as well. When do you think you gonna try Challenge Modes(cm) of those encounters btw?

[@Jaydo]

You're missing out if you move on from the raids without trying the CMs, though I wouldn't do them fully blind; I would atleast know what mechanics they add before going in.

[@x_rhi_x2772]

Why not? I'm sure they'll pick up the changes in a short space of time if they went into, like, qadim1 blind which has a bunch of stuff going on. CMs with 1 or 2 changes isn't gonna be too hard for them to go in blind

[@hyperionnova2854]

The only reason why I haven’t stuck around for raids (and believe me I have done a bit of them) was because of the barrier to entry People keep bringing up raid training Discords but because of the timezone I’m in, coupled with training groups being so full and/or have trainings held only on weekdays meant that I just gave up on ever finding a group to do such content with

[@jankoset7766]

I believe that is probably the most important reason for raids being so underplayed in gw2.

[@conannanoc8768]

Just pug them? Training groups are one of the biggest barriers to entry for raids. Wings 1 through 4 can be completed by anyone who knows what he is doing and a 3 minute video by mukluk.

[@jankoset7766]

@@conannanoc8768 majority of ppl dont want to sink the time in to learn... it is different than fractals where you can train in easy tiers. Here you either get good and get a reward, or you play and have nothing to show for it imo. So pplboften dont even try or when they do, they get discouraged by the lack of training groups

[@lmarc3011]

I don't understand this. Wings like 1 and 4 are kinda easy. A lot of people complain about raids in gw2 being too difficult but a lot of them aren't. If you can do T4 fractals and CM efficiently you can easily do raids. Im not a very good player myself and I clear them weekly.

[@jankoset7766]

@@lmarc3011 I very much agree, but once again, it is do or die situation whereas in fractals you can learn the encounters on lower difficulty first. Also it is much harder to organise 10 randoms than 5.

[@ArchesBro]

Yeah w1-4 were a mixed bag of difficulty. Gorseval back in the day had pretty hard dps checks, and then you just roll over the rest of the raid wing. Problen is power creep has destroyed that fight. People would legitimately kill the first boss of w1 and just move on.

[@mebrandonb]

Out of curiosity, why wasn't End of Dragons or Secrets of the Obscure covered? The playlist is really cool to see, but it cuts off here which is a little weird considering how much improved in EoD.

[@srarts123]

Wing 7 was definite,y designed around the challenge mote because those actually feel like how the bosses should have been. But also with w7 is i am pretty sure the raid team was on their way out but they had to add the wing for the legendary ring. I don't think w7 is horrible but it is such a step back from 5 and 6, 6 being by far the best wing imo

[@fracturedorb1]

As a long time GW2 player who just completely bounced off the raids, I think the main reason GW2 raids failed is they aren't in line with the rest of GW2's content. The vast majority of GW2's PVE content is not very organized. Meta's can be hard but they are also kind of simple in many ways. No one is required to be a tank or healer. GW2 was built around the idea that everyone can heal and everyone's capable of taking care of themselves. So a mode that forces everyone back into traditional MMO roles was bound to have some friction with the ongoing playstyle of most people. Add into it that if you aren't a raider, being told to go get specific gear and play a specific way also went against how the game worked in open PVE. There are people who love that kind of gameplay but the average player just wasn't interested.

[@thisisntthewholesomefuture649]

We wouldn't they start over... Raids can be an excellent experience to run with others.

[@naramsin5271]

Well, it's a bit like saying that you won the formula 1 championship when in fact you simply just got your driving license, but ok, I'm glad you enjoyed this short visit to Guild Wars 2, I hope to see you again soon for a more enjoyable experience. thorough :)

[@fluffyfood]

I don't know if there is any other comment mentioning this, so I'll say it. The reason wing 7 is much easier than wing 6 is because many players complained about the difficulty of Wing 6. There were less power creep back then, so the DPS check were much much tougher. The design of raid 7 since the beginning was to make it easy.

[@dahak2358]

And the issue is they made it easy for the experienced raiders without really lowering the bar for the more casual ones. The mechanics themselves might be easy (again, for experienced raiders), but at the same time fights are extremely mechanic heavy, which spreads the pressure more evenly around all players. If they wanted easier, they should have went with something more like w4 instead, but the way they did it, it's a wing for noone.

[@krzysztofpietrzyk3319]

still waiting for fractals & Eod stikes video. i think you will enjoy them

[@Plasmacat1]

Wholesome ending to the raiding and the video.

[@hub1986]

At least they gave it a shot valiant as you said.

[@RenevKerkhof]

I feel like all the cm's of w7 should be the normal modes. Also qadim the peerless gets new mechanic after 40 but ignoring it doesnt matter

[@matyjsoubozi]

You planning to do ESO sometime?

[@solboyhx]

The ending really makes me wish I wasn't allergic to other animals lol

[@dfg12382]

I hate to see them go. This is a big hit to raid guilds. Strikes have such a short engagement time, few players will go through the effort of building and maintaining a static around them as they did for raids, which made you get along for longer than 1 fight. Strikes will more often than not just be pugged. To me this will make GW2 less social and more anonymous, and more rare to build real relationships with other players.

[@ErgoProxy12345]

they should have added at least 1 raid with the expansion, knowing that its for a specific section of their playerbase. Not enough for a full set of raids but still important to some.

[@nicolasgonzalez629]

Good, most people don't want to make friends in game, i want to click ready and join and group and do the fight.

[@xy1odrone]

@@nicolasgonzalez629 Do you realize you play an MMO - Massively Multiplayer Online not a single player game. Social interactions are CRUCIAL in this type of games.

[@nicolasgonzalez629]

@@xy1odrone then go play ffxiv and go to a catmaid cafe, gw2 isn't on that level, this one is an action game, we get together to fight stuff

[@TooHardOnThePaint]

@@xy1odrone he just wants to play a mobile game to collect rewards with little effort sadly it feels most gw2 players are like that

[@TheLordDhaos]

I hope with how far you've come you'll also consider doing End of Dragons, even if just to round off your story experience. It has such a pleasant culmination of everything you've worked towards, that it'd be a shame to miss out on it. Especially after that downer of an Icebrood Saga.

[@ghostapi874]

He has already done EOD

[@Kantharr]

I love these videos! I do encourage him to check out the Raid CMs to see if the challenge modes made them any better. There is Keep Construct CM from W3, then W4-7 has CMs for every boss fight.

[@TheMormonatorChannel]

“Technically” there are mini CMs for Wing2 as well

[@imtypax8341]

@@TheMormonatorChannel tbh slippery slubling is harder for most groups then kc cm

[@Kantharr]

@@TheMormonatorChannel True but they aren't technically considered CMs compared to how you start the other CMs. But yes he should try those too lol

[@traiontheia]

Ben better still be getting that belly rub. No leaving!

[@Bergbergen]

Suppose you meant to say Kael'thas not Kel'thuzad? Remember you mentioning Kael'thas from the eye as favourite boss fight.

[@Underground_Owl]

The way I see it most your grievances with the raids stem from the fact they didn't have a granular enough difficulty tiering system, and were fumbling desperately to appease as many players as possible along the skill spectrum with each release.

[@DaFunkz]

I would recommend to do all the strikes first time with CMs.

[@josephprins1258]

I'm watching in 2024 right before a new raid is about to be released next month 😂 Maybe this will be the last raid? I have no clue.

[@machinemademan]

i would love to join for the strikes its been so hard to find a group for anything as a newer player im 300 hours in and have yet to group for anything but trains

[@Ralesk]

Kind of a bummer you don't like w7 that much, Adina and Q2 are pretty much my favourite encounters the entire PoF set

[@TheRadPlayer]

11:50 Not sure who was happier, Preach or Ben dog.

[@RubysWrath]

I will say. They made them easier to make regular players try them. Then they added challenge modes for the real raid experience.

[@dahak2358]

Problem is they failed at making them easier. They did it in a way that lowered the satisfaction for hardcores, but didn't really do anything for regular players. Average players, instead of mechanic heavy (even if those mechanics are really easy for experienced raiders) w7 would have preferred something like another w4

[@gontrandjojo9747]

I don't agree with Adina. It's not easier with less players. You still have 5 pillars if some players are dead so it doesnt change anything except the fact you have to be merge them (which require better coordination). Also less players means less dps means longer phase means more mistakes can happen (and boss enrage when timer is out if players have not good dps)

[@HezrouDhiaga]

New raid just dropped

[@Iamsofakingwetartit]

Carried throught the raids

[@MrSupersasuke64]

god dam 71 pulls i give u respect for that

[@ericherrero3212]

Really sucks man. Raiding was the best time we ever had in gw2. 😢

[@TheKrepen]

The fights were created first and nm fight is a stripped version of that. Would make more sense for him to play all cms tbh!

[@lolmobs]

will preach also review the Fractals :)? that'd be awesome

[@RaptorGoesRAWR]

GW2's a great game but they've definitely struggled over the years with finding their path for instanced group content. I gave raids a try back when wing 1 was first released but I could never gel with them, and so never did any others. Fractals are great and all, but uninviting for new players with how far ahead most of the core playerbase is, and even though I think their 1.0 dungeons were not too bad at all, they just... gave up on them after 1.0 and nerfed the rewards into oblivion to remove any incentive to do them. Conversely, I reckon the place GW2's encounter designers excel the most in is definitely their open world, map-wide metas. The HoT ones are just ~fun~ and give out a good amount of rewards (my favourite is Mordremoth), and it's really great that there are guilds who still gather up and run them for that reason. Given the design philosophy for the game, with open world drop in/drop out rolling events I think that's for the best and I'm glad it's something they've stuck with over the years instead of leaving by the wayside like dungeons and raids. I started playing at launch and I _still_ do vanilla world bosses -- the little tune-ups they've given them over the years have definitely helped them keep up with the style of the game (even though I kinda miss the whole 'do this pre-event chain to spawn the boss' part that's still a thing for bosses like Ogre, Eye, and Shaman). Overall though I really, REALLY think GW2's biggest problem with attracting players is the 1-60, 1.0 experience. Design-wise it's so far removed from the much, MUCH better LW1/HoT and on method of storytelling that when I suggest friends try GW2 I have to stress that the clunky nature of 1.0 is not how the whole thing plays out and the level cap experience is vastly different.

[@hadi_SooT]

watching after i cleared my weekly wing 8

[@HBB-HardstyleBassBoosted]

if is to easy go Cm's and you see the difference cheers

[@kalydon2826]

Welcome to the newest GW2 dlc. We will get a new raid wing in like 3 monts xD

[@Scott_Silver]

You could probably stand to check out WvW before the expansion. It is kind toxic, but the raid like mentality on FA, Mag and others is fascinating.

[@KornOil]

Check out the Dhuum fight from GW1!!

[@Allhavengames]

its because they need the chase items and harder content. that why wow always has the player base it does, some one will do a raid 50 times if they get a rare mount or peice of gear not many people have. you dont have to break the mold and come up with a whole new thing or gimmick. if some one made something similar to wow but with their own take on it. it would be amazing dungeons and raids from wow, crafting system from ff14

[@330DKNY]

You forgot to mention that GW2 boon system is massively over complicated. WoW ditched party buffs how many years ago, because it made it a pain to form groups.

[@mandodelorian4668]

Yeah, I wish Anet would take a tip from Blizz and just bake in the buffs instead of this constant stream of trying to feed them out and keep 'em going.