My personal view on the state of GW2

[BioDio.3476]

This is not a rant post, but I'll just write the negative points I find in the game. For the record, I don't think there is a non-sub/kind of F2P/non-P2W game better than GW2. This is truly a massive game for an amazing value. However, for all the years I play it on and off, it always feels like it could do much better. I play mainly FF14 and come to GW2 in between my FF14 subs/patches.

 

I play GW since the original 4 games, and started GW2 in beta, but was never a hardcore player. I'm currently in the PoF Living World story. So, if I'm wrong with any of my statements below, please, correct me, I'm not a pro-player, just telling you how I perceive the game as a returning player/or maybe as a new player.

 

**Lack of a Strong Progression**

One of the "best things" about GW2 is that you don't need to farm new gear with each new expansion. I still remember in WoW, the long grind farm for new gear with each new raid expansion, terrible. So, when GW2 announced this (basically, the same thing happened in GW1), felt great, on paper. Using the same gear since for 2 expansions is... well, boring. Yes, I can farm other cool looking gear, but why, the gear I put up is just fine. This can also make veterans with stronger gear get bored in the open world, so, with each new expansion/patch, the game can't be too difficult, so the majority of new and the returning player can finish the story, at the same time the people who are fully geared can just destroy everything.

I really enjoyed how FF14 managed the endgame, you have an entry-level of gear, easy to obtain, useful to complete the entire story, then a mid-range gear, more time consuming to obtain but will let you do the hard mode of the end-game, which will reward you with the best gear at that point in time, so, its tier-based. Someone told me WoW does something similar (no idea). While in GW, I play with a friend who did his ascended gear set before he started HoT, and after all these years, he's still using the same gear.

For many people this is fine, but for some, it's just boring. I saw a bunch of cool gear in Elona, but I'm not gonna equip it, all of it sucked when compared to the gear I got pre HoT or during HoT. It's just vanity gear. As I've seen written somewhere, this is Fashion Wars 2. Again, not a major complaint, since this is the philosophy of GW since GW1, but, well.. yeah.

 

**Difficulty**

The game is hard. I know the veterans will come here and just shred me to pieces, but the reality is, after you start doing the ending zones of the core game, and going to the expansions, you'll see there is a spike in the difficulty. This is a difficult topic for me for a couple of reasons:

- Maps get crazy - Seriously, I love the maps in GW2 (expansions/Living World/Core Endgame), they look amazingly complex and amazing to explore, but, I also hate them because they can get WAY too confusing and difficult to traverse. I honestly dunno what to say here. I hated HoT verticality. It demanded too much from the player. I fully explored some zones, but, really, it felt like a test of my patience than skills. PoF maps are much more fun to play, but some areas get a bit crazy, BUT, I think it's more balanced. Can't wait to see Echovald Forest >_>

- Mobs can be frustrating, depending on location. The spawn times are a bit too quick (at least in the expansion zones), and there are a lot of difficult areas, with too many strong mobs around. This comes down from what I mentioned above regarding the progression of the game. The game is too easy for fully geared veterans, but difficult for normal geared people. If the game had a progression like previous MMOs, the devs would know which gear on average would the players have at that time, and you could scale the areas like the core game scales the player levels.

 

**Dungeons/Raids**

The game feels like it doesn't care for their dungeons or Raids. Why not make some story missions part of a dungeon, and the end of each expansion a Raid? I mean, the ending of each expansion was like... meh, PoF was cool, but, wow "I did that alone"? Damn, I'm a superhero. (Ok, someone helped, but still). I bet most people don't know dungeons are a thing, they feel like an afterthought. I've done 2 dungeons runs and run in hmmm... 5 fractals? I don't remember. Every time FF14 introduces new mechanics, they show you what it is, and make sure you know where it is and how it works. I'm not talking about the exploration stuff, I'm talking about mechanics you should know, GW2 is still a theme park MMO, not a survival MMO. Nothing in the main path brings me to a dungeon or raid, I just get a tooltip "oh, you can now to this"... ok, but, should I? Why should I do it? My gear is fine, I'm leveling fast... why should I go there?

Dungeon experience is also, meh, but, yeah, that can be just personal taste.

 

**Same Skills**

This is again, a difficult topic for me to discuss since is another GW2 philosophy. I'm using the same skills in my ranger since the core game, so, basically, doing the same rotation for years.

Sorry, but... again, in FF14 with every expansion they revamp the combat, adding new skills, new rotations, and remove certain skills that aren't as useful or joining them with others. Making the total amount of skills mostly the same, but with fresh gameplay feel. However, I would say, GW2 does better. They added specializations which is a great addition, however, that means I need to farm new gear to use that efficiently, and there is a chance that we don't end up liking that specialization, in my case, the Druid. However, I did enjoy Soulbeast, but once I tried it with my current gear, I got stomped HARD by PoF mobs, so, I went back to my old build and been doing normal progress. I don't think this is something that should change in the game, but, just giving my point of view. This, joined with the lack of strong gear progression, can make the game boring after awhile.

 

Just some closing **positive** notes, The road from 1-80 is by far the best experience I've ever had in any MMO. I love FF14 leveling, but it doesn't feel as rewarding as GW2 (until you reach level 80 in GW2). Masteries, whoever came up with this, is a genius at game design. Mounts, best mounts in any MMO, best use of mounts in any MMO, best-animated mounts in any MMO. Almost all gears look great (but I like the FF14 gear the most, just personal preference), but the dye system is just so perfect and good, and... perfect. Ranger pet collection <3. World events... and so on, so on. I haven't done much progress after all these years, because, after playing some days on my main character, I need to create a new character or continue to level up a character just to feel that amazing progression. GW1 had the same issue, but it was a different game. GW2 could, IMO, be much stronger than what it is currently. It still feels like a game for GW veterans and has a difficult endgame entry point for casual players, since the endgame starts at the end of the core game. That is a LOT of content to tackle for a newcomer.

 

One last thing, I really don't like the amount of inventory management it needs to be done, this game has so many items, its crazy, but maybe it's just me having issues.

[Fipmip.7219]

I try to switch characters around more. I still havent learned half the classes in this game. and each one has multiple ways to play, and now with build slots.

[Veprovina.4876]

**Lack of Strong progression**

 

You have everything legendary? If so, then yeah, you're done.

If not, work towards the legendaries. Yeah, they're the same as ascended but stat selectable, and something to work towards to if you're bored.

How many characters have you fully geared out? I can tell you that playing a new character and profession does wonders. Maybe you have many, maybe not, but that's also an option.

 

I personally like GW2 exactly because there's no "better" gear. Once you hit Exotic, the difference between Ascended and Exotic is miniscule. That's great! Means that everyone gets to have fun, not just the 1% of people who can afford to spend countelss hours grinding for new gear over and over. And once you hit Legendary, you're done. That's a HUGE plus in my opinion. I don't want to have to grind for better gear every expansion, i have things to do, and so does the rest of the playerbase which i believe is mostly made up of people who hate that kind of stuff in other MMOs.

 

You're as strong as your stat combinations are, and those either benefit your build or not. That's the mechanic here, and that's why i think most people like it.

 

There's also like, tons of fashion wars to unlock, why not go for that?

 

**Difficulty**

I'm confused here, you say the game is too difficult but you want to go do Fractals and Dungeons and Raids? Those are even more difficult than Open World, and you said you're a superhero because you did PoF ending solo (or with help), but i mean, it's not THAT difficult then, is it?

 

EDIT: Oh, about maps... Tangled Depths... Enough said. If i never set foot in that place again it'll be too soon. I like the rest though, just that map is giving me a headache.

 

**Dungeons/Raids**

Dungeons died when Raids became a thing and Anet buried them in a shallow grave. There's nothing to do in dungeons that you can't get anywhere else except some exotic armor, but other than skins, there's no use for it now. So i agree here, maybe Dungeons should be kinda reworked, make something there worth while doing? Idk... Pre HoT, dungeons were THE BOMB, everyone was always hanging around there, tons of people, it was amazing. But Raids and upgraded Fractals killed them.

The problem i see with them are the progression in GW2, it's very fast and you'll outgrow them almost instantly as you reach the reqiuired level. And even at the minimum level, it's not advisable to go there until you're max, so dungeons are really confusing content right now, weird place to be. But i'm not smart how to make people go do dungeons again, idk... Legendary or Ascended Dungeon specific armor or trinkets, or backpiece or something? Idk...

That ties to your "why should i go there" point. There's no reason to for Dungeons.

 

About Raids and Fractals... I see you never played WvW have you? :tongue: Now THAT's a mode that has literally not attention whatsoever. Ok, little attention, but compared to what PvE players are getting, Raids and Fractals are well taken care of. And as purely optional content that has its own mechanics, i don't see why players would need to complete any of that even once mandatory, just to see how it looks and plays. It's not the main point of GW2, it's there as endgame content, and players go see it only when they want to. It's kind of a "meta" content, you hear about them outside of the game, and then try them.

 

**Same Skills**

This is also something that i bought GW2 for when it came out. I can't stand tons of skills like in WoW, 5 different skill bars for all your 20 skills per bar, that's just insanely unnecesary. I love GW2's philosophy here so i don't agree, i want them to keep it simple.

 

The rest i agree on, GW2 is amazing to level and be in.

 

And you're not alone on your inventory management issue. I don't like it either. They mitigated it somewhat with the wallet system, but MAN was it awful when HoT came out with all 500 of its currencies. Now most of those are in the wallet where they should be.

BUT they do need to sell bag and bank slots so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Anyway, nice post, fun to read and respond to. :smile:

[BioDio.3476]

> @"Veprovina.4876" said:

 

I'm actually fine with everything you said, but, just want to clarify some stuff **Spoiler**

Gameplaywise, you kill both dragons alone (core and HoT) and a god (PoF). In PoF you have the help of Aurene, that's what I meant, and in Zaithan you have the help of a fleet.. etc. All cool, but (sorry, I need to), when compared to the ending fight of each expansion of FF14, GW2 final boss fights feel, weak... They should be mandatory raids that reward veterans by queuing up to help newcomers. That's how the FF14 queues work. Every single bit of group content from 1 to 80, rewards endgame players and leveling players.

 

Regarding the gear grind, it's a tricky topic, it really boils down to each player experience. You probably won't believe me if I tell you that, if I grind for the legendary or ascended gear, in GW2, it'll actually be a bigger grind than when I grind for mid-range gear on FF14. I usually don't grind for the top of the line gear, but for example, in FF14, to get an endgame ready weapon, right now, it takes you 2 days. You can take that weapon to any raid, normal or hard (or any content in the game). The gear is a bit different, but you can choose to grind some months (having a small weekly cap, so, 3-4 days a week) for medium-high gear or just get some current raid drops for a couple of weeks (medium-range gear), usually less than 1 month, making 4 runs weekly (each run is around 20min). GW2 is a bit different, however, once you finish that long grind, you're set... forever.

I think the idea is to keep that progression feeling (that the core GW2 nailed it, SO WELL), and don't make that grind boring or too long. Yeah, sure, you can create a new character, but what if I just like that 1 character? Again, this comes down to player choice, but, I could argue that most people (especially nowadays) enjoy progression more than 1 big grind.

Just adding 10 extra levels to each expansion and have the same progression as you have in the core game. In the endgame, you could upgrade your ascended gear to the current meta. I think that would solve most of my issues, and I (as a non-legendary player) could continue feeling that gradual gear progression, changing the looks of my character to the current zone without using transmog for a temporary look. Also, I think it would make the mobs more balanced.

 

About skills, again, it depends on the class. Let's take a look at Elementalist, with a total of 40 active skills / 4 attunement skills / 5 support skills

Elementalist has more skills than my Dancer has in FF14, and Black Mage too. Yeah, you don't use all at the same time, the same is true for my Dancer. I also hated WoW for the number of skills, but I think both GW1 and FF14 proved that was not necessary. This is just a personal issue, I have a harder time with GW2 skills than FF14, since I can't see them all and I need to switch tabs (switch weapons) to use another set. This is not an issue, just something I pointed out. I don't even know of a solution, I think it's fine as it is. Just pointing out that you're using the same skills for years on end unless you change your specialization.

 

Ignore my talk about fractals, I did some years ago, with a couple of friends, I don't really remember most of it, and I was just following them. Was fun though.

[Linken.6345]

No you dont take down anything alone in story, you have plenty of npcs with you.

[BioDio.3476]

> @"Linken.6345" said:

> No you dont take down anything alone in story, you have plenty of npcs with you.

 

Well, yeah, I clarified that above, but, this is an online game/MMO, it would feel more impactful than playing it solo. But hey, if it works better for the community, then I'm the minority. It just felt... meh, when I killed both dragons and a god. If it was a single-player game, ok, that's just how it is, but, as an MMO, it doesn't feel amazing killing an all mighty powerful god, solo (with an average gear set).

[Veprovina.4876]

> @"BioDio.3476" said:

> > @"Veprovina.4876" said:

>

> I'm actually fine with everything you said, but, just want to clarify some stuff **Spoiler**

> Gameplaywise, you kill both dragons alone (core and HoT) and a god (PoF). In PoF you have the help of Aurene, that's what I meant, and in Zaithan you have the help of a fleet.. etc. All cool, but (sorry, I need to), when compared to the ending fight of each expansion of FF14, GW2 final boss fights feel, weak... They should be mandatory raids that reward veterans by queuing up to help newcomers. That's how the FF14 queues work. Every single bit of group content from 1 to 80, rewards endgame players and leveling players.

>

> Regarding the gear grind, it's a tricky topic, it really boils down to each player experience. You probably won't believe me if I tell you that, if I grind for the legendary or ascended gear, in GW2, it'll actually be a bigger grind than when I grind for mid-range gear on FF14. I usually don't grind for the top of the line gear, but for example, in FF14, to get an endgame ready weapon, right now, it takes you 2 days. You can take that weapon to any raid, normal or hard (or any content in the game). The gear is a bit different, but you can choose to grind some months (having a small weekly cap, so, 3-4 days a week) for medium-high gear or just get some current raid drops for a couple of weeks (medium-range gear), usually less than 1 month, making 4 runs weekly (each run is around 20min). GW2 is a bit different, however, once you finish that long grind, you're set... forever.

> I think the idea is to keep that progression feeling (that the core GW2 nailed it, SO WELL), and don't make that grind boring or too long. Yeah, sure, you can create a new character, but what if I just like that 1 character? Again, this comes down to player choice, but, I could argue that most people (especially nowadays) enjoy progression more than 1 big grind.

> Just adding 10 extra levels to each expansion and have the same progression as you have in the core game. In the endgame, you could upgrade your ascended gear to the current meta. I think that would solve most of my issues, and I (as a non-legendary player) could continue feeling that gradual gear progression, changing the looks of my character to the current zone without using transmog for a temporary look. Also, I think it would make the mobs more balanced.

>

> About skills, again, it depends on the class. Let's take a look at Elementalist, with a total of 40 active skills / 4 attunement skills / 5 support skills

> Elementalist has more skills than my Dancer has in FF14, and Black Mage too. Yeah, you don't use all at the same time, the same is true for my Dancer. I also hated WoW for the number of skills, but I think both GW1 and FF14 proved that was not necessary. This is just a personal issue, I have a harder time with GW2 skills than FF14, since I can't see them all and I need to switch tabs (switch weapons) to use another set. This is not an issue, just something I pointed out. I don't even know of a solution, I think it's fine as it is. Just pointing out that you're using the same skills for years on end unless you change your specialization.

>

> Ignore my talk about fractals, I did some years ago, with a couple of friends, I don't really remember most of it, and I was just following them. Was fun though.

 

Ah yes, that's what you meant. Makes sense now. Yeah, you're never really alone in the story missions, a lot of NPCs follow you around.

I never played FF14 so i can't compare it but you seem to know so i'll take your word for it.

 

Yeah, gear grind is tricky. I think in GW2 it comes down to maybe gold sinks and if that would somehow negatively affect players since each new tier of items would need materials and gold probably to do. But then the meta would change for most game modes.

 

You're looking at this from a PvE perspective and that's ok, but people don't only play PvE (me included) i don't know how negatively that would affect WvW in particular since that mode makes use of your equipment (as opposed to sPvP that just has generic gear for everyone).

It would be tricky to balance, and i think they left it that way on purpose because of that. WvW has enough problems as is, it doesn't need more gear tiers to get in the mix.

In WvW, everything is balanced around the Exotic/Ascended tiers of gear. The keep bosses, the guards, and the PvP aspect of it. Shoving in more equipment tiers into that mix would mean that either bosses go down too fast with newer stronger weapons, or it would create a huge discrepancy between Exotic and new tiers. Becase, right now, you can do WvW with exotic just fine and exotic is easy to get. With new tiers mixed in, you'd need to craft yourself at least Ascended stuff, and we all know how expensive that can be. That means WvW people would need to grind PvE for materials and gold to be able to stay competitive. Meaning, they'd have to play a mode they don't want to be able to enjoy the mode that they want to play. Which is already a thing, but it would be worse if they'd have to grind new gear. And not to mention how the group fights compositon with so many different tiers would work. Right now, full ascended group VS full exotic group makes no difference if you're skilled and *stay on tag* lol. Now imagine full exotic group VS full 2 tiers above ascended group. How much more damage and defense the latter group would have. At that point, WvW is no longer about skill, it's about gear, and that's BAD, like REALLY BAD.

 

Everything in the game, including Fractals and Raids is balanced around Exotic/Ascended endgame. WvW would suffer the most from new equipment tiers, but Fractals and Raids would potentially also become a joke if people would get higher defence stats and attack stats on armor and weapons.

 

And considering all that, i don't think Anet would be able to balance it all. Exotic would then become unacceptable in Raids, and well, Fractals might suffer less since Fractals are harder and require Ascended anyway, but if you add just 2 more tiers above ascended then the story changes considerably.

 

It would become prohibitabely more expensive to do endgame content, not to mention all the headaches of balancing all that gear prices to accomodate new tiers etc. Ascended is expensive now because it's the best. With new tiers, that cost would be unjustified to make in the first place, and all the people that spent so much on gearing would be a bit cross i think with the decision to add new stuff.

 

And then you mention new levels... Take what i wrote for gear and translate it to new levels and how that affects WvW. Take note, you don't level up in WvW, you only level up in PvE. A lot of WvW people don't even like PvE and now they'd be forced to level, or waste their knowledge books that could be converted into spirit shards to level up...

It would be a mess.

 

Don't take this the wrong way, i know why you'd want that, but since GW2 isn't only PvE, this just wouldn't work well.

 

As for the skills, that's entirely personal preference.

I don't play elementalist exactly because it has too many skills lol.

The rest of the professions are fine, maybe Engineer with many kits idk, but yeah...

 

I think your issue could be solved by a simple GUI change, to have the second bar like, smaller and half above half behind the "active" bar so you can see your second weapon skills and cooldowns at the same time. That would be actually useful for many people too.

 

But yeah, that's just a player preference, nothing can really be done about that, you either like it or you don't.

[SexyMofo.8923]

I love the progression: mastery points locked behind expensive skins collections and boring DRMs. Can’t get any better than that! I’m going to preorder EoD to experience the same progression.

[BioDio.3476]

> @"Veprovina.4876" said:

 

You bring a good point. I've done WvW before a couple of times, for the dailies.

Ok, one good thing about GW (both) is that even if it's not perfect in every way, it offers a lot of different content. I mean, FF14 PVP is embarrassing, the game is amazing at doing Raids and Epic endgame boss fights and trials (my opinion, but the FF14 gameplay is more responsive than GW2, from my experience), but the PVP is embarrassing. Every year FF14 tries to salvage the PVP but, the core of the gameplay is just... bad for PVP. GW (both) gameplay is not perfect, but it's crazy versatile, it's ok for everything.

 

However, this game needs more spending players from my understanding. I'm not joking when I say that I feel like I'm stealing from the devs every time I play the game, look at the ridiculous good quality amount of content Arena Net creates... for free. In 2020... for free. I would vote for them to at least sell an episode half-price during the release window, and not for free. I'm gonna buy the Deluxe Edition of the next expansion and spend some money on the game. I haven't spent money since... pfff... I really dunno, I know I did at some point, and I have the deluxe of PoF, but that's it. There is no P2W, no sub... asking for a couple of coins for every episode, should be fine?! Probably half the people will reject this idea, but really, if you like the game, don't let it die, and show GW2 as an example of a good non-sub MMO that can turn a good amount of profit (I really don't know if they're doing well, but I don't feel like its too hot).

 

That leads me to, PVE is what casual players play (in MMOs). Casual players make the majority of the players. PVP in GW was always hardcore. I did PVP in GW1 to get the HoM achievements, and once I got the hang of it, I was destroying, but it took a lot of dedication and practice. It requires a LOT of skill to pull off a well-balanced build and master it.

PVP and PVE can be separated modes like in GW1. Go to PVP, pick the gear you want, and off you go. Balanced. I know we're too late for that. But we're just discussing here.

I did not intend to create this post asking for changes to the game, just saying my point of view, like, just sharing some feedback on how I feel about the game.

 

I think the PVP experience can and should be more streamlined, so it wouldn't need too much balance every time they introduced new content, but, that's my opinion.

 

Story missions are just a minor issue I have. GW2 story feels like GW1, a single-player game that you can play online/co-op. FF14 story sequences are actually locked as a single-player ONLY experience, but main bosses, endgame story raids, no, that's online, with a party, and it feels epic.

GW2 has world events with Dragon's minions that required hundreds of players, but a god was just you a sword and a sapling... meh. It was the best fight so far in the game, but... eh. I felt like PS2 Kratos.

Here is an example of an endgame story boss fight (skip to the middle at the change of the phase), with a dragon in FF14. The ending of the 2nd expansion -

 

I feel like world bosses are more powerful than the Dragons or a God in GW2, just that. But overall, GW2 lore is really good, and I've read all 3 books. I just think the game could get a bigger crowd, somehow, because what's here, truly is one of a kind, and I don't want to see it die slowly, since the current player base doesn't feel enough for this game. (Meaning that, feels like the game doesn't do the money it was set to do when it released)

[kharmin.7683]

> @"BioDio.3476" said:

> However, this game needs more spending players from my understanding. I'm not joking when I say that I feel like I'm stealing from the devs every time I play the game, look at the ridiculous good quality amount of content Arena Net creates... for free. In 2020... for free. I would vote for them to at least sell an episode half-price during the release window, and not for free. I'm gonna buy the Deluxe Edition of the next expansion and spend some money on the game. I haven't spent money since... pfff... I really dunno, I know I did at some point, and I have the deluxe of PoF, but that's it. There is no P2W, no sub... asking for a couple of coins for every episode, should be fine?! Probably half the people will reject this idea, but really, if you like the game, don't let it die, and show GW2 as an example of a good non-sub MMO that can turn a good amount of profit (I really don't know if they're doing well, but I don't feel like its too hot).

What is preventing you from buying gems and supporting the studio? If you feel so guilty about it, then go ahead. Many players already do this on their own. There is no need to push or mandate it.

[zealex.9410]

They didnt release an exoac on the clock after pof so its been tought for those who were hoping for espects to change the way we play. Luckily those are comming with eod.

[Algreg.3629]

just one point: game is too hard unless you are a "fully geared veteran" and endgame gear is acquired very early so you never have to change it do not go together well.

[Blude.6812]

> @"Algreg.3629" said:

> just one point: game is too hard unless you are a "fully geared veteran" and endgame gear is acquired very early so you never have to change it do not go together well.

 

Now that is funny. Sure you can circumvent the the levels by using boosters etc and jump into the end game without knowing how to play and then complain about the difficulty. But that is the players fault only.! AND, btw, many players change their end game gear depending on what they are doing using the build/gear templates.

 

[BioDio.3476]

> @"kharmin.7683" said:

> > @"BioDio.3476" said:

> > However, this game needs more spending players from my understanding. I'm not joking when I say that I feel like I'm stealing from the devs every time I play the game, look at the ridiculous good quality amount of content Arena Net creates... for free. In 2020... for free. I would vote for them to at least sell an episode half-price during the release window, and not for free. I'm gonna buy the Deluxe Edition of the next expansion and spend some money on the game. I haven't spent money since... pfff... I really dunno, I know I did at some point, and I have the deluxe of PoF, but that's it. There is no P2W, no sub... asking for a couple of coins for every episode, should be fine?! Probably half the people will reject this idea, but really, if you like the game, don't let it die, and show GW2 as an example of a good non-sub MMO that can turn a good amount of profit (I really don't know if they're doing well, but I don't feel like its too hot).

> What is preventing you from buying gems and supporting the studio? If you feel so guilty about it, then go ahead. Many players already do this on their own. There is no need to push or mandate it.

 

I'm probably the minority, but, personally, I don't find any vanity items in the cash shop particularly interesting/attractive, game's gear, even level 1 gear, is pretty cool looking, and the HoM gear being free to transmute, including dyes... I can make my character look the way I want. Also, the base mounts look amazing, with the possibility to also dye for free.

I did buy most of the Episodes from Season 2 and Season 3, since I wasn't so active back then, only had a couple of them unlocked, and that was the only time I bought anything from the game since I started playing from the beta.

Never felt the need to spend money besides that. I'm gonna buy some QoL stuff, that's the only thing I feel like I need.

 

I'm just saying, this game is much bigger and complex than GW1, but still has the GW1 philosophy, by not asking you to pay for anything besides the game, however, even in GW1 you had to pay for a pack of 4 bonus missions, explaining past events of each game, which was fine, the missions were nice and they gave you some cool weapon skins.

GW2 is massive, in every sense of the word, yet, it doesn't ask you too much to experience everything. The base game is free, and it's by far the best 1-80 experience out there in the market... for free. Again, this is my point of view. Black Desert has a very predatory cash shop, and the game still asks you to pay like 5/8€ just to play it.

 

Sure, it's great to get up to a friend and say all the good stuff from the game has to offer without asking too much from you, but, I personally don't think they need to go to such lengths. Asking for up to 50 gems per episode during the release window doesn't seem that crazy.

[Trise.2865]

> @"BioDio.3476" said:

> This is not a rant post, but I'll just write the negative points I find in the game.

 

That's exactly what a "rant post" is.

[kharmin.7683]

> @"BioDio.3476" said:

> > @"kharmin.7683" said:

> > > @"BioDio.3476" said:

> > > However, this game needs more spending players from my understanding. I'm not joking when I say that I feel like I'm stealing from the devs every time I play the game, look at the ridiculous good quality amount of content Arena Net creates... for free. In 2020... for free. I would vote for them to at least sell an episode half-price during the release window, and not for free. I'm gonna buy the Deluxe Edition of the next expansion and spend some money on the game. I haven't spent money since... pfff... I really dunno, I know I did at some point, and I have the deluxe of PoF, but that's it. There is no P2W, no sub... asking for a couple of coins for every episode, should be fine?! Probably half the people will reject this idea, but really, if you like the game, don't let it die, and show GW2 as an example of a good non-sub MMO that can turn a good amount of profit (I really don't know if they're doing well, but I don't feel like its too hot).

> > What is preventing you from buying gems and supporting the studio? If you feel so guilty about it, then go ahead. Many players already do this on their own. There is no need to push or mandate it.

>

> I'm probably the minority, but, personally, I don't find any vanity items in the cash shop particularly interesting/attractive, game's gear, even level 1 gear, is pretty cool looking, and the HoM gear being free to transmute, including dyes... I can make my character look the way I want. Also, the base mounts look amazing, with the possibility to also dye for free.

> I did buy most of the Episodes from Season 2 and Season 3, since I wasn't so active back then, only had a couple of them unlocked, and that was the only time I bought anything from the game since I started playing from the beta.

> Never felt the need to spend money besides that. I'm gonna buy some QoL stuff, that's the only thing I feel like I need.

>

> I'm just saying, this game is much bigger and complex than GW1, but still has the GW1 philosophy, by not asking you to pay for anything besides the game, however, even in GW1 you had to pay for a pack of 4 bonus missions, explaining past events of each game, which was fine, the missions were nice and they gave you some cool weapon skins.

> GW2 is massive, in every sense of the word, yet, it doesn't ask you too much to experience everything. The base game is free, and it's by far the best 1-80 experience out there in the market... for free. Again, this is my point of view. Black Desert has a very predatory cash shop, and the game still asks you to pay like 5/8€ just to play it.

>

> Sure, it's great to get up to a friend and say all the good stuff from the game has to offer without asking too much from you, but, I personally don't think they need to go to such lengths. Asking for up to 50 gems per episode during the release window doesn't seem that crazy.

 

You don't have to buy anything in the gem store. Just buy gems. That's enough to help support the studio.

 

Asking to pay for episodes during the release window goes against precedent. However, you are more than able to buy 50 gems each time a new episode is released.

 

I guess I'm not sure what your agenda is here. It seems like you want to enforce some kind of subscription or mandatory payment model which is opposed by the game's F2P concept from inception?

[BioDio.3476]

> @"kharmin.7683" said:

> > @"BioDio.3476" said:

> > > @"kharmin.7683" said:

> > > > @"BioDio.3476" said:

> > > > However, this game needs more spending players from my understanding. I'm not joking when I say that I feel like I'm stealing from the devs every time I play the game, look at the ridiculous good quality amount of content Arena Net creates... for free. In 2020... for free. I would vote for them to at least sell an episode half-price during the release window, and not for free. I'm gonna buy the Deluxe Edition of the next expansion and spend some money on the game. I haven't spent money since... pfff... I really dunno, I know I did at some point, and I have the deluxe of PoF, but that's it. There is no P2W, no sub... asking for a couple of coins for every episode, should be fine?! Probably half the people will reject this idea, but really, if you like the game, don't let it die, and show GW2 as an example of a good non-sub MMO that can turn a good amount of profit (I really don't know if they're doing well, but I don't feel like its too hot).

> > > What is preventing you from buying gems and supporting the studio? If you feel so guilty about it, then go ahead. Many players already do this on their own. There is no need to push or mandate it.

> >

> > I'm probably the minority, but, personally, I don't find any vanity items in the cash shop particularly interesting/attractive, game's gear, even level 1 gear, is pretty cool looking, and the HoM gear being free to transmute, including dyes... I can make my character look the way I want. Also, the base mounts look amazing, with the possibility to also dye for free.

> > I did buy most of the Episodes from Season 2 and Season 3, since I wasn't so active back then, only had a couple of them unlocked, and that was the only time I bought anything from the game since I started playing from the beta.

> > Never felt the need to spend money besides that. I'm gonna buy some QoL stuff, that's the only thing I feel like I need.

> >

> > I'm just saying, this game is much bigger and complex than GW1, but still has the GW1 philosophy, by not asking you to pay for anything besides the game, however, even in GW1 you had to pay for a pack of 4 bonus missions, explaining past events of each game, which was fine, the missions were nice and they gave you some cool weapon skins.

> > GW2 is massive, in every sense of the word, yet, it doesn't ask you too much to experience everything. The base game is free, and it's by far the best 1-80 experience out there in the market... for free. Again, this is my point of view. Black Desert has a very predatory cash shop, and the game still asks you to pay like 5/8€ just to play it.

> >

> > Sure, it's great to get up to a friend and say all the good stuff from the game has to offer without asking too much from you, but, I personally don't think they need to go to such lengths. Asking for up to 50 gems per episode during the release window doesn't seem that crazy.

>

> You don't have to buy anything in the gem store. Just buy gems. That's enough to help support the studio.

>

> Asking to pay for episodes during the release window goes against precedent. However, you are more than able to buy 50 gems each time a new episode is released.

>

> I guess I'm not sure what your agenda is here. It seems like you want to enforce some kind of subscription or mandatory payment model which is opposed by the game's F2P concept from inception?

 

I guess you're right. Well, this was an insightful discussion, good to see other points of view. Hope the game stays around because even after all these years, I honestly think it is aging pretty well all things considered. I played other MMOs in between my FF14 sub, but I keep coming back to GW2, overall, it's a very enjoyable experience.

[Astralporing.1957]

> @"BioDio.3476" said:

> Story missions are just a minor issue I have. GW2 story feels like GW1, a single-player game that you can play online/co-op. FF14 story sequences are actually locked as a single-player ONLY experience, but main bosses, endgame story raids, no, that's online, with a party, and it feels epic.

> GW2 has world events with Dragon's minions that required hundreds of players, but a god was just you a sword and a sapling... meh. It was the best fight so far in the game, but... eh. I felt like PS2 Kratos.

There are two problem with GW2 and locking story progression behind group content. The first is that there's no equivalent of Duty Roulettes or Duty Finder. And, due to how the classes are designed (and lack of hardcoded roles), it's not something that can be introduced to this game without rebuilding large parts of it from grounds up. Second is lack of gear progression - meaning, you are not likely to outgear the content in order to minimize its difficulty, like you can do in FF XIV (just consider how easy Crystal Tower raids are nowadays, even with level sync in place).

 

That's why trying to lock the content behind group instances run a distinct possibility of having a lot of players get stuck on a story step, unable to pass it. And that would be most unfortunate.

[Teratus.2859]

> @"BioDio.3476" said:

> **Lack of a Strong Progression**

 

The Fashion Wars thing really does exist for good reason there, but ultimately I have to agree that being able to use the same gear for years is far more preferable to the kinds of gear grinds we see in other MMO's.

 

The biggest reason I can see for swapping out your gear is build diversity.

Say you decide one day you want to run a new Guardian build that does lots of burning damage then you are not going to get much use out of it on zerker gear..

Having a couple of sets you can swap between (now easier with templates) is one reason you can get a sense of progression in this game with your gear.

Then again you could just go and get a character fully geared up with legendary gear and swap stats to whatever build you like.

 

I think Anet's decision to go more with horizontal progression was definitely the best way to go in Gw2 although I think we can all agree that for the most part it hasn't been very exciting overall.

There has been some definite upgrades through this system though, Mounts, bond skills and Gliding to name the obvious few.. but a lot of masteries etc that were supposed to fill this role have been either pretty lackluster (many of the Ice Brood Saga masteries for example)

Spoiled due to being extremely restricted to certain maps (Bloodstone Fen Gliding skills and the Draconis Mons hookshot ability etc)

Or they just really dropped the ball on and never lived up to their potential (The lore masteries in HoT for example)

 

Overall Masteries have been pretty hit and miss.. sometimes great, sometimes disappointing and sometimes they're just so bad or annoying to use we just straight up ignore their existence..

 

> **Difficulty**

> The game is hard. I know the veterans will come here and just shred me to pieces, but the reality is, after you start doing the ending zones of the core game, and going to the expansions, you'll see there is a spike in the difficulty. This is a difficult topic for me for a couple of reasons:

 

This is largely a circumstance of the time of development and the meta culture in Gw2..

Gw2 was often criticised back in the day for being far too easy and there was a huge demand for tough end game content when HoT was in development.

This resulted in Anet designing HoT to counter much of the zerker meta that existed at the time and the result was HoT getting a massive difficulty spike that left many players pretty bitter and angry that their super high DPS builds were getting obliterated constantly in the content, something I personally found very amusing tbh.

 

HoT was greatly nerfed down over time but still maintains a pretty big difficulty spike over the core world content, this isn't so much a problem with HoT anymore though but instead more highlights a problem with core world end game areas just being too easy, especially today with so much power creep and new mechanics having being added with newer content and elite specs etc.

 

A good few of us have pushed for Gw2 getting some nice upgrades to the core world content to help bring it more in line with the expansions.

One of these suggestions would be to give the endgame regions a bit of a remaster of sorts.. some new core content maybe but for the most part just make it a bit more dangerous and challenging, I believe this would help diminish the difficulty spike with HoT content quite a lot and help prepare players for the transition into that content.

 

> - Maps get crazy - Seriously, I love the maps in GW2 (expansions/Living World/Core Endgame), they look amazingly complex and amazing to explore, but, I also hate them because they can get WAY too confusing and difficult to traverse.

 

You're not alone, we all felt that way at first but many of us have grown quite fond of the HoT maps over time.

It takes some getting used to but once you know how to traverse these maps it does get significantly easier.

I quite miss the large vertical maps that came with HoT, I do hope Anet makes a few more in future, Echovald Forest would be a great location for a large vertical map imo.

Going back to HoT maps now with mounts is a really fun experience, nothing like soaring around on the Griffon in Verdant Brink :)

 

> **Dungeons/Raids**

> The game feels like it doesn't care for their dungeons or Raids. Why not make some story missions part of a dungeon, and the end of each expansion a Raid?

 

They have done this already and it kind of backfired..

A big complaint some people have about dungeons is that the story modes are not balanced for single player and are awkward and unfriendly for groups.. nobody want's to get stuck waiting around because 1 member of their group wants to take their time with the story stuff.

Raids when tied into the story (such as the White Mantle stuff) have also left more story focused players pretty disgruntled as many of them have not been able to experience them.

 

I think it's far better to keep these forms of content apart from the main story in Gw2.. keep them more as spin offs that don't intersect much or at all with the main storyline.

The new Dragon Response Missions are also suffering from a similar problem with people largely complaining about how all the story dialogue needlessly drags these missions out on multiple playthrough's when people just want to farm them for the rewards.

 

> Dungeon experience is also, meh, but, yeah, that can be just personal taste.

 

I think this is more to do with the content just being really dated now, back in the day before raids and fractals etc this was all we had and people did play it quite a lot.

 

> **Same Skills**

> This is again, a difficult topic for me to discuss since is another GW2 philosophy. I'm using the same skills in my ranger since the core game, so, basically, doing the same rotation for years.

 

Yeah same here, this is what I was getting at back in the progression bit about looking into having multiple builds and gear sets so you can spice things up if you get bored with your usual build.

I don't really get bored with my builds though and I enjoy soloing strong creatures so this isn't so much a problem for me.

 

> Sorry, but... again, in FF14 with every expansion they revamp the combat, adding new skills, new rotations, and remove certain skills that aren't as useful or joining them with others. Making the total amount of skills mostly the same, but with fresh gameplay feel. However, I would say, GW2 does better. They added specializations which is a great addition, however, that means I need to farm new gear to use that efficiently, and there is a chance that we don't end up liking that specialization, in my case, the Druid. However, I did enjoy Soulbeast, but once I tried it with my current gear, I got stomped HARD by PoF mobs, so, I went back to my old build and been doing normal progress.

 

There are some specs I don't care for either, Scourge probably the main one I disliked over the years.. Anet dun stole ma death shroud!! :O

 

I do wish for more general enhancement to classes though, having played this game for so many years I kinda am starting to wish there was a way to mix certain elements of Elite Specs together to create something new and expand overall build potential.

 

A lot of people have suggested allowing Elite Spec Weapons and utility skills to be usable without needing the spec traitline equipped.. I have to admit i'm not 100% against that idea, I could certainly see how fun that might be even if it was purely a PvE only thing.

Another suggestion that I have made in the past would be to give each weapon on each class a second set of skills that effects how the weapon works and give people the freedom to pick which skills they want to use, could finally have a Greatsword skill set that uses condition skills.. or Necros could have Melee skills on their Axe.

There is a great deal of potential with something like this imo, specially if you got to pick and choose individual skills and not by set.

 

Anet has started to add new forms of some skills depending on if you have a certain trait equipped (Necro Sceptor 3 for example) but this is extremely rare as well and I wish they would do more stuff like this.

 

Gw1 followed the more traditional path of adding more skills with each release and we ended up with so many different ways we could build our character's specially when you factor in the duel profession system which was originally planned to be in Gw2.

I know this ended up being an absolute nightmare for balancing but it's hard not to feel like Gw1 did skills better than Gw2 just because we had so many more options to choose from.

 

 

[BioDio.3476]

> @"Teratus.2859" said:

 

This was a really good read, thanks for putting this together.

I haven't reached the current season yet, so, I don't know how it works. FF14 had (has) the same problem of waiting for dialogue during an instance when people just wanted to farm a certain eh... semi-raid. After that, all of the story sequences are done instanced, none of the plot is ever done during group content since everyone got mad at that. One thing I enjoy in FF14 is that the entire content of the game (exclude PVP) is populated. You can find a party to do anything in the game, even old base game raids, due to the way the game is designed. I don't feel that in any other MMO, I think WoW made something similar recently?

But GW2 has a bunch of content that, well, people just have no reason to go there, making it hard to find groups like you said. I'm not even gonna talk about Season 1, like, wow, I don't even know how that got approved... Again, great idea on paper, but a middle finger for newcomers, glad they changed for Season 2.

 

Most of the other stuff you said, is true, and I agree with it. I mean, GW2 has a great foundation. I'm not a fan of an MMO without the Holy Trinity (Tank Healer DPS) hardcoded, but I'm ok with GW2.

I think the game has progressions issues at the end of the day, but I also don't know how to solve those issues, and they're not major. The game is fun and enjoyable from start to... well, forever, but it can get repetitive depending on your gameplay style.

[Tyncale.1629]

My way of keeping the game fresh is to have a lot of Alt accounts. I feel progress with my Main account is currently only possible through grinds that I am not interested in (Weaponcollections and associated achievements with such grindy content) so I am just redoing content and Masteries with Alt accounts. I have 7 Legendary Weapons and 2 legendary trinkets so I feel I have reached end-game there too with my Main account, since I do not Raid or do PvP (only for GoB).

[titje.2745]

today i tried a raid without knowing tactics (anymore), it was cairn normal mode, we failed everytime. i am a healer and i got countered on every single turn. on druid class i got interrupted every time before i even build energy for the special ability. all i want in new xpack is better or more new healer classes, and nearly all classes able to use every weapon. a legendary skin should be available to more then 4 classes.

i tried scrapper wvw healer and druid but nothing works. raids can be nice but it must be rewarding for sure. if loot is not good then i do not take the time to learn everything because thats a waste of time. sure i have full ascended and some legendary weapons. and when this game released they say there is no holy trinity and only dpssers needed. but we failed with 2 healers. this is a lie, 2 healers are better then 10 dpssers with only 1 healskill. and normal mode should be faceroll mode compared to the loot wise. i guildy said anet gave up on many things in the game like raids and more. it can be restored. if the loot gets better and simple fights.

i wont raid so much because it is hard and the chance of getting nice gear is too low to try.

[Einlanzer.1627]

I think the biggest problems are:

 

- content releases have over-favored story episodes with open world PvE zones/metas for far too long, leaving a major content imbalance. It arguably already has too many zerg-based events and competing metas while having far too little in the way of dungeons, raids, and PvP content. It desperately needs more of the latter and less of the former at this point.

 

- neither the mastery nor the skill/trait systems are as deep as they need to be to replace gear progression, which makes the end game just feel like fashion wars and creates a disincentive for hardcore MMO players. The game either needs some type of gear progression OR, better, a revamp to both of its character customization systems to make them deeper, more flexible, and more engaging.

 

- the game tends toward being too punishing for anything outside of vanilla zone exploration, which creates a disincentive for casual MMO players that might otherwise stay invested through cosmetic pursuits. There is a very limited amount of casual-friendly instanced content that serves as a proper build up to raids and fractals, and story instances and their bosses are over-tuned for solo players. They either need to scale with # of players or have selectable difficulty levels.

 

Note in particular among the above sections that the game suffers from a dual issue of trying to appeal to casual MMOers with a relatively simple and on-rails gearing/trait/skill system, and trying to appeal to hardcore players by offering lots of very difficult content. It does a poor job of both, and instead creates disincentives for both types of players. A far better paradigm would be literally invert this and offer more casual-friendly pathways into difficult content and also deeper and more rewarding customization options for characters.

[CeNedro.7560]

For me the biggest problems are:

-visual clutter

-chores

-inventory clutter

-accessibilty

[Johnny.1634]

Biggest issues for me are:

Refusal to fix bugs

Lack of communication with their playerbase

Releasing more and more content that that players only play once instead of making old content like Dungeons more impactful and fun to play again.