Zephire.8049

I think I'd enjoy being myself in Tyria since, like I said in the other thread, none of my characters are based on me so I'd feel like an imposter if I became one. Plus I have anxiety so being a giant hellcat in a world without charr would make it kinda hard to do anything.

I'd probably do animal behaviour/training or writing in Tyria. I definitely wouldn't be on the front lines but I could do some good in the background. I could also possibly help the charr out a bit if my scattered knowledge of blacksmithing and metalwork is more advanced than theirs. Oh, and magic healing is great, especially when you don't have a GP of your own irl :p

> @"Obtena.7952" said:

> > @"otto.5684" said:

> > > @"anoligarh.3746" said:

> > > I just want to chill out, press a few buttons and do as much dps as possible. Is that a thing?

> >

> > High end as fractals and raids? None.

> >

> > Open world? There are plenty. Minion necro and ranger are the stand outs.

>

> Don't listen to this guy ... plenty of people do 'chill' high end raids, etc ... I know ... I team with them. We do just fine.

Yup. When I raided, I went with double shortbow soulbeast if I wanted to relax. I was often in the top 3 for DPS, too, since messing up the "rotation" or doing a mechanic that someone failed didn't severely impact my DPS. That build isn't as good now, but it's still perfectly viable. Honestly it's probably better for a lot of people as the skill floor is lower for the same amount of DPS so there's less chance of user error.

Unless you're running CMs, trying to break records, or are personally carrying the entire DPS for the squad, chill builds are perfectly adequate and viable. Especially when a lot of people are 5k+ off from the benchmarks of meta builds as their rotations can be finicky so the meta players are putting out the same DPS that you do on a non-meta build.

There is one character of mine that was a bit of an indulgent self-insert who I suppose I could take the place of, but otherwise my characters are distinctly not me so I would genuinely feel bad replacing them.

Living in Tyria as myself would be cool, though.

Keep the same model. Add to it or try something new (within reason) but the current model has served GW2 well for 8 years. GW1 had the same model and it's still going at 15 years.

An MMO going 8+ years without having a population crash is a rarity. Yes GW2's population has lowered since release but it's not to the point where server merges are required, servers need to be shut down, or game development shifts to maintain what players remain. And yes servers don't matter in PvE but they do in WvW and there's enough full servers that even people who would never play WvW can't pick certain servers because the WvW population is too large and too active. And the WvW population is much lower than PvE.

Player numbers trickling down is to be expected of any game outside of the release day or day of an expansion or other large content drop. GW2's last expansion was years ago and LW4 had a ton of issues and episodes were often delayed so it's no wonder the numbers have dropped. The thing is, though, is that GW2 has a rather large base of players who keep playing GW2 because they don't have to pay extra if they don't want to and aren't pressured to play every day because that's the demographic that Anet chose to focus on while other game developers decided to go after people who jump from game to game or who get _really_ into a game but, if they lose interest, they never touch the game again.

Change the content model of GW2 and you change the demographic. The time to change a model is early on, when there's an outcry and you're getting bad PR, or when the game is about to enter maintenance mode. Oh, or if you want to kill a game/studio off but want to blame players for it. 8 years for an MMO is a long time and it's very likely GW2 could not bounce back from a fundamental shift in their monetization. A steady stream of income isn't bad and it's unrealistic to think the amount a game makes should always go up—a lot of games died because of that thinking and a lot of studios have been shut down because publishers aren't happy with steady. NCsoft seems to be happy with GW2's revenue (especially since it's their main game in the west) and was rather hands-off about things until they got tired of GW2's revenue being put into an unreleased, unnamed game instead of being cycled back into GW2 itself.

And personally, I'd quit GW2 if it started demanding money for everything. I don't play other MMOs because I don't like them demanding time, money, or both from me, especially if I already bought the game. GW2 is the one MMO which I like the aesthetic, lore, and business model of and am well past the point in my life where I'd play I game I didn't like just so I could be playing a game.

Honestly what would help more is better marketing, which has always been Anet's weak point. Instead of changing the model and alienating those who still play, reach out to those who don't know about GW2 (because it's an 8 year old MMO and there's an entire generation which was in elementary school when the game first came out) or who forgot GW2 existed 5 years ago. Most people won't stick around long-term but there's a good chance they will buy both expansions and maybe some gems for the 1-12 months they do play. All while retaining the players who have stuck with GW2 for years _specifically_ due to the model it was built around.

I'm okay with the skins being RNG but I do wish there was a way to exclude some of them. Even if you could buy a license where you could exclude 3-5 (or more depending on which license) of the skins would be great, imo. There are some skins I just plain don't like and would never use. After a certain point, I stop buying licenses because there's only 1-2 skins I particularly want and several I definitely do not and I don't want to spend 1200 gems to nab the one I'm okay with.

Licenses that stick to specific mounts also works. I just wish there was a way for people to narrow things down to some degree.

No, please. If they were added it would only be a matter of time before that small bunny tail or discrete cat tail got bigger and gaudier. I do not want to see people running around with neon green or neon pink or permafrost fox tails. Charr tails are restricted to what colours are available to fur, but cosmetics would have no such restrictions.

I very much enjoy the story. I can understand why others wouldn't, but for an MMO I'd say GW2's story is actually better than a lot of other MMOs. If I wanted an in-depth emotional story, I'd go with a single-player game or movie as MMOs need to be written much broader to account for multiple people playing different races and classes.

Sometimes you just want some fantasy that scratches familiar itches and there's nothing wrong with that, especially when so much scifi and fantasy nowadays leans dark or gritty or dystopian. GW2's story has gotten more serious but it still keeps things light through NPC dialogue and additions like Snargle Goldclaw's whole quest.

Also I can say that as a writer, a lot of the people who harp on GW2's story don't actually know how to write a novel, let alone several of them (video games generally have hundreds of thousands of voiced lines and that's not even counting writing and lore elsewhere in the game or the IP bible that the public doesn't see). Obviously not everyone, but I've seen so many suggestions on how to "fix" the story that would effectively make it bland as heck and the novelty would last for one update, maybe two, and then people would get bored of it and want something else. You have to account for pacing, emotional balance, character development/time on screen, what VAs you'll have available for the foreseeable future, what the goal is for the player character, what options the player will have, how their race or profession will impact their personal experience... also generally there's multiple writers so there has to be coordination between them as well as with other departments and it's just a lot.

Anyway, I'm not saying my opinion is the right one, either, but when people complain about the story, take it with a grain of salt. Especially on a forum where people who are happy with things are the least likely to say anything. Taste is subjective.

> @"mindcircus.1506" said:

> > @"kharmin.7683" said:

> > > @"mindcircus.1506" said:

> > > > @"Khisanth.2948" said:

> > > > > @"mindcircus.1506" said:

> > > > > > @"kharmin.7683" said:

> > > > > > > @"Zaidya.6138" said:

> > > > > > > and what's the right way kharmin? ^^ Brisban Farm?

> > > > > >

> > > > > > > @"mindcircus.1506" said:

> > > > > > > Directly west of the Joko's Domain waypoint in Desolation is a plateau with three Giant veteran Brawlers. Their respawn time is insanely fast. Depending on how quickly you kill them, the first is generally back up when you have killed the third and you can just loop around killing them as long as you like.

> > > > > > > [&BFYKAAA=]

> > > > > >

> > > > > > I completed this prior to PoF, so these veteran giants weren't available. I don't think that they should count; makes this achievement too easy now.

> > > > > Weird flex but ok.

> > > >

> > > > Even weirder if you consider the fact that the event scaled. With more giants spawning if there are more players. Which means if we follow that argument it should only count if you are soloing the event.

> > > It's probably a good thing that the developers decide what counts towards achievements and not @"kharmin.7683" .

> >

> > Meh. Point was that before PoF the achievement felt more like an achievement. /shrug

> Anyone who map completed Verdant Brink before mounts understands that there was a massive difference between 100%ing the map then and now.

> But in all my time playing I have never seen anyone attempting to invalidate the accomplishment of a newer player by saying "You used a Griffon, you shouldn't get your Gift of the Fleet".

> That would be pure gatekeeping.

Sadly I have seen a lot of people saying just that. Though strangely they go silent when I point out that I did 100% world completion at release when there were no mounts or gliding and you had to grab every POI, vista, and HP in each WvW map, so if they want to revert things to how they used to be where map completion "felt more like an accomplishment", I'm fine with that. They want things reverted to the moment they did something, not reverted further back where they'd have had to put in more time or work. It's a good thing that they didn't have to walk uphill both ways to school but it's bad that nowadays kids can ride a bus to and from school.

Making things easier, faster, or otherwise improving something for people isn't bad. Everyone ends up benefiting and, both in video games and in life, the newer generation will have an easier time of certain things because that's how things go. To keep things "equal" is to embrace stagnation and stagnation doesn't keep a video game going.

PvP and WvW content would be great (especially WvW) but as a primarily PvE player I have come to dislike raids in GW2 and what they did to the community. I agree that Anet did a good job with the variety of mechanics at first but disagree that they are, as a whole, "beautifully done". If they expanded raids at the expense of the rest of PvE, that would negatively impact non-raiders and would do nothing to encourage people to try raiding (unless they completely changed the LFG system). Considering raiders make up only ~10%-15% of PvE players, it doesn't make sense financially or resource-wise to divert the bulk of resources to them over the rest. I'm not saying raids should be dropped completely, just that focusing exclusively on raids doesn't benefit anyone but raiders and that includes Anet.

I'm not sure why everyone thinks raids are the only good or valid end game content, though. The original exclusion of raids and focus on making PvE as a whole enjoyable is why leveling and open world leveling is so good in GW2. Even if it's not your thing, the fact that everything stays relevant nearly 8 years later is dang impressive for an MMO. Sure there's powercreep and both gliders and mounts have made some of it trivial, but that's still better than other games.

Doing events in the world where everyone can participate would do more to retain players than dumping the bulk of resources into a raid that already has a high skill, time, and gold requirement (unless you play power DPS).

> Strikes just seem like stuff to do, something that is there.

So Strikes are like everything else in the game then? :p

I don't know where or when it was said, but at least one Anet dev did go on record to say that they looked into upgrading from dx9 but they found it didn't improve performance as much as players think it would (they'd have to hardcode it and whatnot in a way the mod doesn't have to, similar to how Anet couldn't just copy build and gear templates as those needed to be integrated into the rest of the game's code) and it would be extremely costly in time or money to implement so they chose to stick with dx9.

The engine in general needs an overhaul, though. It's over 15 years old and while their method of patching is fantastic, the performance side of things is definitely running into the limits from the GW1 engine. Anet doesn't like tipping their hand on what they plan to do (although they are getting somewhat better now) but I wouldn't be surprised if the third expansion comes with a complete engine overhaul. I think that's more likely than it happening (if at all) without anything else going on, but it's just speculation on my part.

One of the first issues is that you expect content from 2012 to be able to tell you how to play other content that is post-HoT. At this point, core Tyria is just a tutorial/chill MMO with a focus on lore and exploration and it won't be able to teach people how to play in raids or fractals when neither of those were on the table when GW2 was originally in production.

WvW and PvP were, but one of the things about MMOs is that they change over time. It's common knowledge that if you stop playing an MMO for several months to several years, you will have to relearn things or grind out entirely new sets of gear if you return.

WvW hasn't changed much mechanically since launch. The main things I can think of are the addition of Desert Borderland, changing how experience works, and adding masteries to it. There's some changes here and there such as map tweaks and a mount (which they have nerfed repeatedly since adding it so it no longer has much of an impact on anything) but the bulk of the change is skill changes and player strategy changes. Skill changes happen in an MMO and Anet can't control player strategies. And personally speaking, I find it the objectives really clear, albeit some of them are boring if you're playing it solo.

I don't PvP so can't speak to that other than PvE =/= PvP. When I poke my head in there is a lot of info and it can be overwhelming, but after adjusting to that it's fine. Which isn't really strange when it comes to completely different modes or video games.

It seems one of the things you don't like is that GW2 doesn't hold your hand the whole way through everything. There are gaps in teaching, I agree, but that's something they are now addressing—strikes teach people raid and fractal basics and are easy to jump into and the upcoming map looks like it will teach some WvW basics. PvP they can't really do much with, especially after all but doing away with the stronghold mode. Though as early as HoT they did incorporate finishing downed enemies into PvE.

But there's only so much Anet can do without being patronizing or making everything ridiculously easy. If they gave out BiS gear when you hit 80, there would be no reason to buy or craft anything else and you'd never have to think about stats because you were automatically given them. Even using the level 80 boost only gets you soldier stats because it's a balance of offering survivability and keeping decent enough damage up, but it's training wheels. What you get from your level up rewards isn't even max level and doesn't offer a full rune set because it was never meant to be permanent and is supposed to look off to encourage people to look at what else they can use.

I also don't know what you mean by "deep skill tree". Assuming someone jumped into WvW or PvP without playing to 80 in PvE, there's 5 options and each of those has 3 other options and you can change them at any time outside of combat/a match. I've played single-player, multi-player, and so many other MMOs that have convoluted UIs and dozens upon dozens of choices you can't change once you hit "Okay". Of course if you aren't used to a UI, it will be confusing at first, but GW2's skill/trait UI is extremely streamlined and forgiving compared to other games out there. You also have to accept a certain degree of responsibility of your own confusion if you willingly jump into a mode where everything is unlocked instead of gradually unlocked so you can learn about them without getting overwhelmed.

And ironically, GW2 was designed so that players such as yourself aren't punished for not playing daily for years. It's supposed to be an MMO that can be your primary game or a supplementary game that you come back to from time to time. And even people who are hardcore into raiding/open world/fractals/WvW/PvP often find other modes in GW2 confusing because they're so different and require different knowledge and ways of thinking, so don't be too hard on yourself for not learning how to play each and every other mode well in a matter of days/weeks. If hardcore raiders who sell CM runs can fail on Forging Steel, you can be forgiven for not knowing the meta way to play everything while having the muscle memory to do so.

> @"Rasimir.6239" said:

> > @"Kathkere.3068" said:

> > I think it's worth looking at what early WoW (and Classic WoW), as well as what SWTOR did that caused people to actively talk to strangers in the game. In early WoW and in SWTOR I never had to apply to a guild, I was always invited by people I got to know by playing with them first.

> This argument shows up regularly when people find it difficult to socialize in GW2. Personally I think it's much less a question of design but a question of people being different.

>

> To me GW2 makes socializing much easier than older MMOs I played ever did, exactly because it does not force me to group up with people. I'm the kind of person that likes to stop and smell the roses, not race towards goals, and I found a lot of my in-game friends by casually grouping up for content and getting to talk to and know people. It's easier to find "my kind" of people in this game precisely because it does not herd you into specific content avenues the way I've experienced in other games.

>

> There's nothing stopping guilds from getting to know people by playing with them and asking them to join. In fact one of the guilds I've been in for years I found by chatting with people on the old dungeon forum, getting asked to join their dungeon and fractal groups and eventually their guild. The variety of players and guilds in this game however does make finding people that mesh with what you are looking for in the game more complex. However that is a "problem" you can't fix technically unless you are willing to curb the variety by making the gameplay more restricting to only one (or a few) right way(s) to play.

I have to agree. Forced socialization is the best way to make me put down a game or refuse to do content. I find that extremely stressful and it sets off my anxiety something fierce. GW2 has it set up so you know clearly if you're going to do organized group content instead of springing it on you out of the blue. Even group events and world bosses in open world PvE don't force you to talk to anyone if you don't want to but you still work together on everything. As a result, I'm far more social in GW2 than in any other game I've played other than Team Fortress 2.

I can understand why some would like content/systems that force people to talk and interact, but those things end up alienating others as well. I think GW2 does a good job of encouraging socialization without making it a requirement, it just requires a bit more pro-action on the part of people who do want it.

For optional subs you have to either offer things that have no real benefit, thus making it far less likely people will get one outside of showing support, or you offer a tangible benefit which makes the sub all but required. From what I've seen of other MMOs that have an optional sub, this means crafting ends up becoming a "premium" ability which in turn makes crafting pointless for anyone who doesn't want to shell out $5-$10 a month for a game they already bought. Your suggestion of making material storage unlimited would already cause huge issues of people buying up thousands of stacks of cheap mats just because they can. (You also have to find a way to compensate people who bought material storage expansions)

You can currently support the game by spending $5, $10, $20, $50+ on gems every month. Why do you want to punish others—a large number of whom chose GW2 because Anet has been anti-sub for 16+ years—for something that you can already do, albeit without automation or being able to feel superior to others who chose not to/can't afford a sub?

First I just want to point out that 100+ hours (30 of which went into making Dusk) in two weeks means you played for about 50 hours a week both weeks. That amount of time spent on anything can lead to burnout and affect your views of whatever you invested that time in.

Next, the things you complain about are why myself and so many others have spent thousands of hours playing GW2. Chasing stats is boring when it's a chase that will never end and you can't take a break because that will leave you even further behind. Skins you have, you have forever (literally—the engine doesn't allow for support to re-lock skins) and you can tailor your goals by pursuing the skins you want most. Dusk may not be worthwhile for you, but for others that's their top goal.

GW2 is an MMO where you largely set your own goals, not have them set for you. At level 80, with only ~70 mastery points, and 5/7 mounts, you've only scratched the surface. It's fine if you want that stat treadmill to keep you going, but if you can get over the panic that comes from not having a game tell you what to do, GW2 improves vastly. To use Dusk/Twilight as an example, some people see Twilight and see an awesome skin. Some people see a QoL upgrade for raids. Some people see $$$. Some people see another goal. Some people just don't care. No one is wrong and because there's no stat treadmill, people have the time to pursue what they want to pursue.

A lot of MMOs railroad you in what content you can do, to one degree or another. GW2 guides you through the story and supplies ideas of what to do via achievements, skins, masteries, and exploration, but after that you're free to do whatever you want without having to worry about falling behind when the next stat increase hits. Even if you don't pick up GW2 as a primary game, it may make it a great supplementary game for you since it was designed to not punish people over not being able to dedicate hour(s) a day every day to playing it.

Maybe GW2 is for you, maybe it isn't. But think of it more like a theme park MMO than an MMO like WoW where you can technically do various things but are punished for not doing the "proper" things.

(Also salvage blue and green gear, don't sell it. The raw materials generally sell for more than the gear and being as you're new, the luck is worth it as well. The exceptions tend to be green weapons in the 30-65 range with +power and +precision since people use those on leveling characters.)

> @"thepenmonster.3621" said:

> > @"Fueki.4753" said:

> >

> > To many people, the easy things **are** the "memorable, engaging and genuinely fun experiences".

>

> Once upon a time, some months ago, a message popped up in the map chat in Orr;

>

> "Anyone around? I need some help for the Melandru chain"

>

> There were a few "OMWs" and "Where at?" and one "You have my ax!". That last one was me by the way. I hope no one was disappointed I was using a hammer scrapper.

>

> When I arrived there were two players already there. The person asking for help, elementalist, and a necro. All three of us were playing Asura. Cute but we set out. As we finished the events more players joined. They were all Asura as well. Here's the kicker: We were all mostly clad in primary colors. Orange, green, white, black. That's right. We were Asuran Power Rangers taking on a giant statue. If only we had a big golem to jump into.

>

> Great memory. Entirely casual.

I do a lot of map completion AKA "peak casual content" yet most of my positive memories come from it. Pointing someone to a POI or vista that's hard to find. Helping someone out with an event. Seeing someone getting downed because they ran into a high level area, reviving them, then being their bodyguard until they make it somewhere safe. Giving a new player tips on what to do and then 6-12 months later them sending me a whisper with a link to their very first legendary.

It's great.

My memories of raiding are those of frustration and boredom. I raided in GW2 weekly (sometimes multiple times per week) for over a year and can't recount any specific positive memory—even the first time downing bosses are devoid of emotion. I did it for a long time so I must have enjoyed it to a certain extent, just not enough to actually form long-term memories.

I literally have more positive memories about raiding in WoW 10 years ago than I do for raiding in GW2.

But the best memories come from helping in the open world where people don't have to help or expect to get much help and yet people will go out of their way to help others. It's fleeting but that moment of unforced camaraderie is better than 1-3 hours of people forced to group up where people get frustrated, angry, or don't respect other's time.

> @"Aridon.8362" said:

> As I've mentioned earlier, the only thing gating players from raiding is literally a mindset, and nothing else.

So it's okay to force people into doing something they don't like or have no interest in doing because that matches up with what you think is the "correct mindest" while you're arguing against Arenanet and others for essentially asking you to not focus so much on raiding AKA changing how you view raids in GW2?

Not everyone likes raiding. Analytics are helpful in determining which areas for a company to focus on. Just because some companies misread or skew analytics to say what they want doesn't mean analytics are bad and no one should use them—they're a tool, nothing more. In the case of GW2, raiding was never a part of the original plan and in its heyday it was still a minority of raiders who raided, a number that has steadily dropped from wings 5-7.

If <5% of players are participating in content that can take 50%+ of the PvE resources, that's not fair to the other 95% of people. Not everything has to have raiding. Not everyone has to raid. Not Everyone likes to raid. There are other MMOs with raiding out there if that's what you want, don't demand GW2 and GW2 players change just so your personal tastes can be catered to.

Also, raiding in GW2 is _not_ accessible.

* No automatic LFG tool

* Complicated encounters that need research

* High skill floor for everyone in a raid

* The only DPS tester is in an obscure room

* No official mods

* One unofficial DPS metre that can be confusing for people to install and crash their game

* Groups willing to take new(ish) players are few and far between

* Having to search for training groups outside of the game

* Said training groups often fill up fast the moment they announce a run

* Common cheese/speed-run strategies that confuse people because they intentionally ignore mechanics

Other MMOs you can hop into a raid fairly easily from my experience. GW2 requires effort, time, gold, and willing to spend multiple hours trying to find a group. That's not even going into how toxic raiders are and what people are expected to listen to over voice chat. Throw in how many bosses have a mechanic that wipes the group if even 1 person doesn't play perfectly and it's just not fun for a lot of people and those people aren't wrong for not liking it and they don't need "convincing" for them to like it.

> @"Uden Reavstone.3426" said:

> When GW2 was still in development, the devs made several blog posts about how and why they developed the game the way they did. In one post, they stated that they made racial skills (and races in general) the way they did was so no one would say stuff like, "Why are you playing an asura warrior you noob!?" or, "Oh. You want to play a norn ele? Not in my party, noob!" In my opinion, they made the right choice, and I'll stand by this until the day I die irl. The "You better be playing the meta!" gamers are annoying enough as is. Don't add more fuel to their fire.

I don't know if it's still the case, but back in WoW during the Wrath of the Lich King era, humans were the only viable Alliance PvP race outside a handful of niches where the other races were only a _slight_ downgrade because the human racial skill was so much stronger. In PvE it didn't matter _as much_, but if you were serious about PvP you had to play human, especially if you wanted to join a PvP guild. It sucked. A lot.

I am so glad Anet made racial abilities thematic rather than making them comparable to profession abilities. As soon as the min-maxers figured out which race had the "best" racials, anyone playing anything else would be mocked and/or excluded. PvP, WvW, and even PvE before raids. You can't simply change a race or class in GW2 so people would have had to make a whole new character... and then make another one when a patch changed up the meta. And again the following balance change...

Racial abilities still serve some purpose anyway when leveling. They may not be as powerful but if you only have a few profession skills available, they're a viable alternative.

> @"Blocki.4931" said:

> I've never cared about how other characters look. Eye of the North shows me every single day that it is very easy to just ignore all of those flashy people if I don't want to see them.

It's not easy if you have a type of photosensitivity that is triggered by them. Culling the number of models shown only goes so far when you can't specify what to cull or turn off certain skins and Anet keeps adding more such skins and animations.

I love the look of the mount skin... I just wish it had been kept as art or a single character in SAB. It's a lot harder to ignore a raptor running around than minipets or the tools that disappear after a few seconds.

Something about the animations are also deeply uncomfortable for me. I have an issue with certain types of gifs and the raptor elicits the same response where I can both feel the animations and a crawling on the back of my neck and skull. I can control what mount skins and not use it but with no way to turn off skins for other players' mounts, that's something I'm going to have to deal with whenever I play the game now which I'm not thrilled about.

No. If you want to play a harder game, go play a harder game. Don't make GW2 into something that the vast majority of its playerbase isn't interested in. People would quit if story content was locked behind hard group content, not "realize it's the new norm" and happily accept it.

According to GW2 Efficiency, only 6.624% of people who use the site have beaten even the first boss of Wing 7. Yes GW2 Efficiency doesn't count the entire playerbase but considering the more invested players tend to use it, when it comes to raiding it is likely close to being correct. Especially as in one of the past infographs or announcements Anet said only about 10% of players have raided.

Also in case you haven't done them, try the Whisper and Boneskinner strikes with pugs and you will see that you'd have effectively cut off the playerbase from the story if you locked the story behind group content on par with raid difficulty. I don't know about you but the moment I have to pay a group just so I can see the story progress is the moment I quit GW2.

GW2 is an MMO that has some raids, not an MMO build to revolve around raiding.

The cursor needs to be allowed to be customized plain and simple. I wouldn't be against special or thematic versions being sold (either for gems or gold) but changing the size and colour should be default options available to everyone.

(And before anyone says otherwise, I know YoloMouse is a thing and have used it before. I had to remove it after other programs started having issues with it existing. The bottom line is such a simple yet impactful QoL feature that people have been asking for since release should be in-game, not require an outside program.)

Reloading works in an FPS because everyone is subject to it (minus melee or special weapons) and it adds a layer of strategy as you can't just spend the whole time firing an infinitely reloading weapon. A good number of FPS games also market themselves as realistic and real life guns need to be reloaded.

Ammo doesn't work in an MMO because it punishes classes that use ranged projectile weapons and also punishes people for playing with someone who plays a ranged projectile class. How does it punish others you ask? Because people run out of ammo mid-encounter or forget to buy several stacks before running a dungeon or raid so the whole group has to wait around for someone to port to a city to buy/craft what they need and then port back. During this time others often go AFK as well so the entire thing is delayed for 15 minutes because one person forgot ammo.

As mentioned earlier in the thread, WoW had ammo in-game for years. They removed it because it caused so many issues. Nothing that was game-breaking but it did bring down the QoL for players who played classes that required ammo.

If you can suspend your disbelief around magic, monsters, dragons, and objects/animals spawning from nothing, you can suspend your disbelief around people having the perfect number of arrows or bullets.

Skimmed it and I can appreciate you put a lot of time into thinking about this and typing this post but just from the skimming your proposed revamp would go against what GW2 was meant to be and go against the New Player Experience where they changed, added, and removed content to make it easier for new players to integrate into GW2.

The major thing I see is you gating core gameplay and class mechanics behind levels. People can't dodge until level 4? Don't get their elite skill until 40? You need to be level 45 before you can swap weapons? That wouldn't be fun to begin with, but GW2's combat is designed to be active and have people dodge and swap weapons as needed which means mobs are design around people being able to dodge and swap weapons on the fly. Literally one of the promo videos while GW2 was in development was about how this was going to be an MMO where you could dodge attacks and carry a second weapon that you could swap to (with two exceptions: ele and engie) so you were never left out of the fight. You take away those two things and new players are going to end up very dead, often, and be stuck auto-attacking before they're too frustrated by how boring it is and quit to find another game to play. Not to mention other players being frustrated how some players "are lazy and just auto-attack everything" when that's really all they can do.

Your locking the downed state until level 25 just further punishes new players who are missing a huge chunk of their class' ability to deal with damage mitigation and healing. That's 24 levels where if you die, you die and need to waypoint.

Then you lock weapon access for players. Fun fact: Initially GW2's weapon system was such where you leveled up individual weapons to gain access to the full bar of skills. It wasn't hard but there were enough complaints about it because people would forget to level up a weapon then be stuck leveling it up or using a different weapon when they wanted to run group content so Anet changed it to what we have now. You are doing no one any favours by locking entire weapons behind levels. Elite specs can get away from that because those are spec perks and you have a fully leveled 80 with the entire base set of weapons to pick from.

Finally you lock core profession mechanics up to level 50. That is completely unfair and unfun and would actually break a lot of classes.

* An ele is built around changing attunements, hence why they can't switch weapons in combat.

* Engi, like ele, is built around having toolbelt skills to make up for their utilities being situational/being in a fixed location.

* Guardian's ability to do DPS, cleanse, heal, and buff are tied to their virtues—you can even trait it so you get buffs for not using it, just leaving it on your bar.

* Mesmer is already a PITA to level and you want to make their level experience even worse?

* Necro shroud is utility and balanced around having the full kit available.

* So for the pet class you want to... remove the ability to customize or control pets?

* With Rev you're gating legends which means your gating all a rev's utility skills as revs cannot pick and choose what skills they want.

* Skill #3 is a core part of thief and by gating it you also make the thief only have 4 weapon skills for 20 levels. It's also weird that a thief can't attack from stealth or steal.

* The warriors class mechanic is the simplest and most straightforward one and yet you gate it behind level 20 and make its DPS negligible until level 50.

A lot of those mechanics do have level requirements but they're requirements that make the class accessible and possible to play without people being overwhelmed with a dozen skills.

I've played games that have done things that you want to do and quit them all because it makes what should be fun into a grind. A character should not require several dozen levels before a player can get a sense of whether they like the class or not. 10, even 20, levels is a reasonable amount where players don't feel like they wasted much time on something they don't like after all. 50 levels for a new player likely means a couple weeks on average of playing, some more some less since it depends on their free time and desire to play GW2 during that time. People would be a lot more miffed about wasting that than 2-6 hours.

Your changes also make playing GW2 about chasing the next level when GW2 was designed to encourage people to explore and not pay attention to the bar. People will focus on grinding out their next weapon/profession/skill/general ability to improve their QoL slightly instead of just exploring and looking at the world. And the suggested level ranges of current zones are just that: suggestions. Because of level scaling, players aren't punished by playing below their level or choosing to play in zones they like the story or aesthetic of instead of a map that's a "proper" level range but which isn't appealing to them. If you remove the ability for players to gain experience from maps "below" them you effectively kill that map for anyone above that level, too. That was a huge problem in MMOs when GW2 was in production and they wanted all their maps to be worth revisiting. Both for the sake of players and so devs don't see work they spent months on discarded.

And the reason why some zones have strange level ranges is because they're tied to some branches of the personal story and Anet didn't want to have a set path of maps people would go through until they hit level 75 or so. You can't change the level on some of these without changing the personal story and the personal story is never, ever going to be touched or changed. Ever.

You can't split resources equally and it still be equitable in GW2. PvE needs a larger team to create and code frequent content patches. PvP and WvW do need some love, but the draw of those game modes is the other players. Anet's job is to facilitate that interaction, not create interaction from the ground up.

I'd also like to point out that PvE isn't a monolith. You have raids, dungeons, strikes, leveling, map completion, stories, and more. There was a time where most PvE resources went into raids which the minority of players participate in. For non-raiders, that time _sucked_. Sure on paper it may have looked like PvE was getting the majority of resources but the truth is raids got most of said resources so non-raiding PvE players and PvP players saw roughly the same number of updates. All while being told PvE got all the love and why were PvE players complaining about not getting updates when they got a whole new raid wing.

Really, you'd need to break it down to something like:

* Raids and strikes

* Living World and other stories

* Open world

* PvP

* WvW

* Inventory and wardrobe related

* Skins and outfits

Even then, there'd be a lot of overlap, with people switching between them as needed. Artists especially.

Town Clothes definitely need their dye channels updated.

But the reason why the 4th dye channel doesn't always work is because it seems the dye channels are used across all races and genders, but it only shows up if you have a specific race/gender combo. With other skins, the dye channels (usually) adapt to any extras the skin has. Town clothes are set up so it assumes everyone has the thing that the 4th dye channel is tied to so if your character doesn't have it, the channel does nothing.

It's weird and definitely related to how town clothes used to be potions.

I'm not sure what the issue is exactly. You can't do in-game flashback episodes in an MMO the same way you can in TV. The player character is not omniscient and could not have seen a number of things thus it makes sense to change the player character to be an NPC or nameless grunt. There's multiple fractals that do this, the Caithe missions of LW2, and the new Forging Steel mission off the top of my head. GW2 is also not the only game—let alone MMO—that has done this. And then there's the end of HoT where story-wise you are battling Mordy in their mind, but open world-wise you are fighting their body. Sometimes you need to suspend your disbelief or recognize the character you're playing at the moment isn't your personal avatar in the game world.

This is also far more preferable to some of the things that the player character has had to do in stories. One of the most glaring ones is playing a charr and being forced to join The Shining Blade. That was bad for all non-human races, but it was especially egregious for charr players. I'll take playing a different character and doing something bad over having my character do something that they would not do, would not be allowed to do, ignoring all previously established lore in the process.

And with Darkrime Delves in particular, it develops characters that haven't had much contact with the player character and who were extremely guarded around the player character. You can be sure none of the banter would have happened (thus none of the development) if any other character was around, and the ending would have been far different. Playing through a flashback also makes the whole thing more engaging and emotional than reading about it or being told about it would, which is a common complaint people have had with GW2's writing—people want to see stuff, not be told about it at a later date.

You may personally not like it, but it is a legit writing and development choice given the medium.