Rate GW2 2018

[Bloodstealer.5978]

5/10...

Loved Beetles and the racing .. A+++

Good LS episodes as I have come to always expect from ANET

Loved the Halloween Fear not this night music.. as I love all the GW2 sound tracks tbh.

Incorporated the option for players to buy the mount skin of personal choice from the gemstore whilst still offering the chance game (with increasing odds).

 

Hated -

The complete hash up ANET and KFT made of the summer promotion, changing terms mid promo in order to close off a large section of the player base from something that could of been a fun skin for many. Then basically wash their hands of it and told us to go vent to KFT.

The latest story was as I said good as to be expected, but then killed that perception for me with the shambolic incorporation of a known scarcely available, largely RNG based item in order to complete the armour set that was "front centre promo'ed" as the carrot.

Terrible incorporation of changes to salvaging, still not correctly wording the salvaging kits to advise that only BL kits can throw back upgrades to us.. the rest including the copper/silver feds, which have been sale promo'ed several times before and after the patch, are falsely stating they provide chances to drop upgrades when in fact its ingredients required to now craft runes. .. all in the name of less inventory clutter pfft.

Delays to LS cadence

Nothing new Guilds (of all sizes) except a few poorly sized deco's, which are still a huge time and money and resource sink for smaller Guilds.

Even more screen particle clutter with shed loads of necro circles, FB circles and effects to throw into the mix.

Pushing Gemstore from nice to have fluff to must have these and these .. looking at you salvage kits, extractors

Allowing of large swathes of permanent placed minion/turret farms across many maps

 

Undecided -

Class/skill balances - - I know I dislike how certain classes now play a large part in the influence of wvwvw,

Seems that building toons no longer requires players to choose between dmg, sustain, defence, support, condition dot, mobility because certain classes can be large tuffy, lots mobility, high burst with excellent sustain and can throw in some nice condition dots and boon strips, endless amounts of blocks and maybe some near permastealth if your a deadeye just for fun - there is simply very little in the way of risk and reward for many classes now imo.

[Rauderi.8706]

If I compare GW2 with itself.. 6/10. Maybe 7?

QoL continues to improve. Bravo many time over for that.

I'm not going to whinge about content since I don't raid and still have plenty to work through.

(...problem is, most of it feels like "work" and not much fun...)

The story is more coherent in Season 4, but it's also rapidly getting out of hand, and I think writing itself into a very uncomfortable corner.

 

So why not a higher rating?

The encounter design is still Not Fun.

They're filled flush with irritating CCs that are too long and too frequent, and Stability just isn't the tool to handle it (cooldowns too long, effect too short).

Defiance bars still need a heavy balance pass, along with making soft CC do proportional damage.

No care seems to be going into the economy. While it's not wildly out of control like most MMOs, rewards feel incredibly cheap because overflows still aren't being handled well, and gear itemization continues to be a clusterbomb of confusion and complication.

[hugo.4705]

A solid 8 for me, why? Here are the points:

LWS4E2 +2 awesome story and map

LWS4E4 +2 awesome story and map too

New guild hall decorations +2 more=better

Roller beetle races +1

Novelties +1 chairs!!

New fractals, achievments.... +1

Gem Store new stuffs +1 good ideas

 

Useless sigil update and extractors -1

You killed BLISH!! -1

You will kill TAIMI!! . #Asuras Bestrace

 

[Blockhead Magee.3092]

WVW changes coming to slowly...…

[Vlad Morbius.1759]

I liked all the LS episodes, the QoL additions but was not happy with the lack of discussion or information regarding balancing decisions. If i could wish for anything in 2019 it would be open discussion in directions taken prior to major balance changes.

[LazySummer.2568]

5

 

The only good changes that were memorable to me this year were Mythwright Gambit and legendary sigil swapping. Everything else is play for ~1 week and quickly forgotten LS story + deserted LS maps.

 

Balance changes were more frequent, but it doesn't matter because they were mostly rubbish changes as usual. The only good balance change was that thief finally had a place in high-end pve content, otherwise classes that are meta stays meta while classes that aren't stays bad. It seems as if the balance team usually like to nerf and buff at same time so nothing changes, but throw all of that out the window every now and then with random reworks or blanket changes that seemed to have come on a whim. Random Mesmer/deadeye/rev reworks with the former 2 pissing off many in competitive modes, especially when they are fine without the changes, whereas for rev, it didn't really change anything. Several terrible skill powercreep buffs -- Daggerstorm, Rampage, Elixir U, Overcharged shots -- on classes that don't need those buffs. Single underwater rework that didn't seem to matter.

 

Last year was much better with Istan, Hall of Chains, Bastion of the Penitent, Shattered Observatory, and Twilight Oasis (I know some people hate it but at least I think the boss fight is way more fun than the whole Deepstone fractal). Competitive mode balance last year sucks as much as this year's though, especially with the release of PoF.

[gateless gate.8406]

Still one of the best MMOs in the world, still free.

[Pifil.5193]

Too many delays in 2018. They're slipping, let's hope they can actually turn it around and start delivering again.

[zealex.9410]

Gave it a 6. Its a good game to check once every 2 1/2 to 4 month (depending if their revolutionary updates get delayed) and play around for a week or 2. If you are looking for an mmo to do more and play more often this aint it.

 

Also the delays have been disgusting this year. 3 episodes, 1 raid and 1 fractal over the course of a year? Step up your game.

[zealex.9410]

> @"TexZero.7910" said:

> It's a solid 6.5.

>

> Things could be better, but they could also be 9 months of sitting on our hands waiting for a sign of life again.

 

ehh not quite there but could be way better.

[Za Shaloc.3908]

I still love this game and am very loyal. Why?

-It has the best combat system of any MMORPG I have ever played

-It has a very creative and innovative approach to class design, from traits to skills to elite specs

-It has a team of very talented artists

-It has a wide range of content, and while erring on the side of more casual, still has content that more hardcore players can invest into

-It has a very casual leveling system and is extremely alt-friendly

-It has a gear-grindless PvP mode

-It has a non-BtW approach to its gemstone

 

I am sure there are other reasons too. It is really the only video game I can play and choose to play. However, the reason I am giving it a 7 is because of the balance in PvP and WvW. I know this is a thankless and tireless job that is a constant uphill battle, but there are some builds in this game that are just so incredibly toxic and detrimental to the enjoyment of this game. To me, it's when a fanciful idea gets prioritized over reasonable application. At the same time, there are builds that are so bottom-tier to the point of unplayability. I know a meta will always exist, but there is currently far too great of a discrepancy between top-tier and bottom-tier builds.

 

I don't point my frustration at the systems team per se, but moreso at the budget that they have to work with. From what I have gathered the team is quite small, and even has stuff like rewards management within it, which is quite unrelated. With that said, it does seem like the team focuses a little too hard on spreadsheets and overprioritizes websites like Metabattle, which is why a skill like Glyph of Unity still exists in its current state despite it being an atrociously bad elite skill.

 

I will say that the team does seem to be working harder to balance the game better, and I do very much appreciate that. I'm grateful to have devs like Ben P who make a deep effort at communicating with the community. I see him pop in all the time on streams, even giving bits to streamers. Is there a Dev of the Year award, ANet? Because if so, he deserves it.

[CharterforGw.3149]

Mostly based on the living world, it all seemed a bit rushed imo.

[Jonii.6285]

Living World has been awesome this year. Each episode has been deeper than ever before. Maybe not "bigger" on the surface, but the special questlines, Sunspear Sanctuary collections, the respect (and great integration!) for GW1 lore and history, cutscenes, dialogue, cohesiveness of the plot... it's been a much richer experience than we've been having with LW.

 

And I really liked Blish.