Please "lock" Level-80 Boosters for new players!

[Haishao.6851]

> @Ellisande.5218 said:

>Why is ferocity called ferocity instead of crit chance?

 

Because ferocity is crit damage. Crit chances is precision.

If you put your mouse over stats in H window it says what they do.

[Healix.5819]

> @Cleopatra.4068 said:

> I don't know why real new players would want to jump straight to end game content. If you don't know how to play, why would it surprise you that you have trouble in the hardest maps?

 

The MMO crowd is accustomed to rushing to the endgame. Most MMOs are the same format where gear is all that matters and the leveling content is usually a joke, so for example, you'd have no problem jumping straight into an expansion for WoW or FF as a new player. Likewise, if you're accustomed to higher difficulty action games, you probably wouldn't have a problem jumping into GW2.

[Xbon.9086]

> @RandomWolf.3986 said:

> > @Paladine.6082 said:

> > > @Kheldorn.5123 said:

> > > > Just to say that I witnessed same cases of two friends, tentative GW2 players, new to the game, who ignored my recommendation to first play the "normal" game because they could not resist going to HoT for gliding. They used the booster to 80 and from there, hating all of HoT due to not understanding anything of it, hating foes, dying continuously,

> > >

> > > These are things that long term core veterans complained about HoT too, so booster is not the problem here. Core Tyria in no way prepares you for difficulty jump in HoT and PoF areas.

> >

> > I came back in first week of August after 4 years away from GW2 - when I left we didn't even have LWs1 let alone anything newer. I have had zero issues in the LW1-3 or HoT stories or any of the maps. So I am not sure what the fuss is about claiming HoT maps are too hard. And I solo'd all the stories.

> >

> > The issue is more likely to be one of patience than map difficulty...

>

> LW1 isn't even available at anymore.

>

> And if you managed to avoid being swarmed over by Pocket Raptors or Smokescales you must be one lucky cookie.

>

> > @Xbon.9086 said:

> > This game is accessible at level 80 just like it is while leveling, you can still complete 1-15 maps, and the level scaling system is the best out of any game, you might have exotic gear, but it's usually not too good for your class and can definitely be upgraded. I think the 80 boost is absolutely fine as is.

>

> You missed the entire point of this thread.

 

what a player chooses to do after upping themselves to 80 is up to them, however, it's a very user-friendly option for people with not much time/want to get straight into end game, which is the meat of any mmo.

[Maulclaw.4365]

 

> @Xbon.9086 said:

> > @RandomWolf.3986 said:

> > > @Paladine.6082 said:

> > > > @Kheldorn.5123 said:

> > > > > Just to say that I witnessed same cases of two friends, tentative GW2 players, new to the game, who ignored my recommendation to first play the "normal" game because they could not resist going to HoT for gliding. They used the booster to 80 and from there, hating all of HoT due to not understanding anything of it, hating foes, dying continuously,

> > > >

> > > > These are things that long term core veterans complained about HoT too, so booster is not the problem here. Core Tyria in no way prepares you for difficulty jump in HoT and PoF areas.

> > >

> > > I came back in first week of August after 4 years away from GW2 - when I left we didn't even have LWs1 let alone anything newer. I have had zero issues in the LW1-3 or HoT stories or any of the maps. So I am not sure what the fuss is about claiming HoT maps are too hard. And I solo'd all the stories.

> > >

> > > The issue is more likely to be one of patience than map difficulty...

> >

> > LW1 isn't even available at anymore.

> >

> > And if you managed to avoid being swarmed over by Pocket Raptors or Smokescales you must be one lucky cookie.

> >

> > > @Xbon.9086 said:

> > > This game is accessible at level 80 just like it is while leveling, you can still complete 1-15 maps, and the level scaling system is the best out of any game, you might have exotic gear, but it's usually not too good for your class and can definitely be upgraded. I think the 80 boost is absolutely fine as is.

> >

> > You missed the entire point of this thread.

>

> what a player chooses to do after upping themselves to 80 is up to them, however, it's a very user-friendly option for people with not much time/want to get straight into end game, which is the meat of any mmo.

 

And then they end up quitting because they don't understand a thing about the game in general. Terrible way of thinking.

[Traced.3495]

I'm not for limitations like that at all. Should be up to people to decide by themselves.

They could work on a _completely optional_ tutorial available for every account type. Put a cool title and some AP as a reward for completing it.. That's a good enough way to draw people there surely?

 

I don't care about or like the end game, I wouldn't want to see everything centering around it.

[mXz.4512]

I agree. I was astounded when I was in-game playing some PoF last weekend when I suddenly saw in map chat people asking, "_What do I do next?_" or "_What can I do next?_" Anyone who's played for a long while would go off looking for other events or go off and do their own things. But these people genuinely seemed lost. So I figured they may have been new players who weren't fully familiar with the game as the rest of us. It's a shame :/

 

So I definitely agree that allowing new people use the booster to jump straight into content is a big oops. Or update the tool tip system more into a guide.

Now for friends you know IRL or any family/spouses, you can always game with them or tell them all the best ways/places to play around.

[James.1032]

I think they should be locked until certain criteria is met. There is a small vocal minority who boosts to 80 without any prior experience of the game, and then they come to the forums to complain about a particular fight being too hard when it's clearly a l2p issue. People really don't seem to think of the consequences of boosting to 80 without any knowledge.

[Maulclaw.4365]

It's good to see that many people agree with this. Hopefully, ArenaNet will do anything regarding this matter, but somehow I doubt it.

[SummerRayne.4672]

> @Kheldorn.5123 said:

> > Just to say that I witnessed same cases of two friends, tentative GW2 players, new to the game, who ignored my recommendation to first play the "normal" game because they could not resist going to HoT for gliding. They used the booster to 80 and from there, hating all of HoT due to not understanding anything of it, hating foes, dying continuously,

>

> These are things that long term core veterans complained about HoT too, so booster is not the problem here. Core Tyria in no way prepares you for difficulty jump in HoT and PoF areas.

 

I have to disagree. Not long ago there was a new player in one of my guilds who used the level 80 boost. He was so lost as to what to do he was truly hating the game. I advised him to create a new character and level it the normal way to get a better understanding of the game and feel for it. I always advise new players against using the boost, but as someone else said, it's too tempting to them. The new guild member didn't want to do that and quit within about a week. This is a very common thing.

 

I honestly don't know what a good solution would be but personally, I think the account should only be able to use the boost only after already reaching level 80 on an existing character. New players use the boost and end up overwhelmed, lost and confused and leave the game frustrated. Not to mention you have new players completely clueless how to play their class. I don't blame them though. They are using a perk given to them.

[CafPow.1542]

I think, a boost isn't needet at all in this game...

In no other MMO, leveling from 1 to Max is so quick n easy like here (imo)... so you can screw the boost aswell. I have 20+ chars at 80 and don't mind to level another one, without a boost.

 

In fact, the boost kinda sucks cause you have no Heropoints / waypoints at all... i like to have an open world for my chars, thats because i level through explorating the entire map (with every char)... so a boosted char is only half of a char for me.

 

But thats just me

[SmirkDog.3160]

The whole point of a level system is so you can learn and become stronger and better. Starting at the top leaves you inexperienced. I've seen level 80s that didn't know how to dodge (maybe they were just dumb) and do basic fight mechanics. If it's your first character, you should take the time to play and learn the game from 1 to 80. The level 80 content isn't going anywhere.

[Nyel.1843]

> @Zaltys.7649 said:

> So a new player buys the expansion (note that the base game is no longer sold), and finds out that he can't actually access the content that was advertised.

>

> I can't imagine that turning out well.

 

He can access the content but first he needs to put time into the game to get where the new content is. That's how every expansion works, let it be World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings or Guild Wars 2.

[takatsu.9416]

I agree with the lock on the booster until something... Level 20? Level 80 ideally like the rest of us who purchased from release. I don't think this really fixes play skill and facing challenging content that awaits in the expansions...

 

So on other hand gw2 should provide a much better tutorial experience for new brand new account players not just a simple easy starting scene in starting racial city/zone. Have something that teaches about AoE circles and dodges , and CC and break bar on the boss. And continue the tutorial with every time they encounter something new like they run into a mining node, merchant with salvage kits, have a tool tip once. Etc.

 

Players need that onboarding. It's not longer like when we first started 5 years ago when the content wasn't that challenging and we still struggled and had to learn. I remember early dungeons where no one knew what to do and spent hours figuring it out.

[Scourge.4317]

Just make a tutorial for each class. One that has attack dummies ( or creatures ) and is voiced explaining the basics of the class and how to dodge. Could be steps that gradually get more difficult to give the new player an idea of what to expect instead of just throwing them right into the Silverwaste which does nothing at all for a new player imo.

Add an option to skip for people with at least a lvl 60 ( or maybe an 80) on their account.

[Daffan.8924]

> @Scourge.4317 said:

> Just make a tutorial for each class. One that has attack dummies ( or creatures ) and is voiced explaining the basics of the class and how to dodge. Could be steps that gradually get more difficult to give the new player an idea of what to expect instead of just throwing them right into the Silverwaste which does nothing at all for a new player imo.

> Add an option to skip for people with at least a lvl 60 ( or maybe an 80) on their account.

 

This.

 

I came back to the game, I quit in 2012. It took a while to even understand what I am doing and half the stuff I still don't get. (I lvled my 44 guardian to 80 manually even)

 

The worst part is lack of build templates really. Means when you hit lvl 80 you want to try a new build but have to try remember all your old stuff if it sucks.

[Rennie.6750]

In that case, the problem isn't the booster, it's Heart of Thorn's difficulty. I too wasn't prepared for HoT at all when I got there, and it was frustratingly hard. Core tyria never prepares you for that. Never. It takes a lot of familiarity with the game to get a not too frustrating experience from it; in other words, it was an expansion for veteran players. Levelling normally to 80 wouldn't make a difference at all.

 

If I want to be perfectly honest, PoF also has quite a lot of areas that are probably a middle finger to inexperienced players. I got a much better understanding of how things work now, and I'm probably more successful in my endeavours, but I have to respawn people very, very often in PoF; to the point that when I do an event I get more XP from revives than from the event itself.

[Zaltys.7649]

> @Rennie.6750 said:

> Levelling normally to 80 wouldn't make a difference at all.

I concur. If I remember right, I hadn't even figured out combo attacks or usefulness of weapon switching by the time my first character hit 80 (within first week), would've been completely unprepared for HoT. So I don't see that making much of a difference.

 

Proper tutorial would be much better.

 

Also, this game is five years old. It's only going to get harder to attract newbies, many of whom will be thinking that they'll never be able to 'catch up'. Offering a max boost for 'free' is a great way to show that they're not late to the party.

[Rasimir.6239]

I've been playing a good bit of PoF with my daughters these last two weeks. Neither of them have ever played a character to 80 the old-fashioned way. The older one is into WvW and has leveled all 6 of her characters with tomes of knowledge and 80 boosts. The little one is heavily into fashion wars and jumping puzzles and doesn't like to fight (she's only 11 ;) ), and any character she has above level 20 has gotten some boost or another (including 2 80s). Both wanted to play HoT and PoF straight away for one simple reason: gliding and mounts.

 

Wherever you go in Tyria, gliders (and these days mounts) on other players are in your face. Those of us who have been playing a while take them for granted. Locking new or inexperienced players out of those and forcing them to "grind" their way to 80 the old way is a surefire way to give players new to the game a bad experience.

 

My girls and I got their gliders, raptors and bouncing mushrooms unlocked easily, and it's helping them enjoy the core world like everybody else they see around. They even went out to play the PoF story and maps to the point they got their springer without my help, because they didn't want to wait until I was available ;) . Sure, they're far from the best of players and don't know a lot that's "common knowledge" for experienced players, but then I know just as many experienced veterans with 10k+ hours played between beta and today who still don't know what they're doing and need others to carry them through story instances.

 

Don't expect ANet to gate people from using their booster for whatever random reason you can come up with. Give the less experienced players a helping hand instead. There's lots of valid reasons to jump in at the high end (from preconceptions born in other MMOs to mastery unlocks to simply wanting to play with everybody else), and lots of ways to deal with it. There's no hard and fast rule which players might benefit from the boost from it and which might not. Accept the fact that boosting to 80 is reality and deal with it. Most experience is gained from playing with other, more experienced players anyway, and the new players wandering around the Iron Marches sure won't get much help from others while everybody else races their mounts around Elona.

[hellsqueen.3045]

> @Spinex.3695 said:

> I would make it unlock at level 10 or 20. This is a good idea.

 

That doesn't work either.

You are still EXTREMELY INEXPERIENCED AT THAT LEVEL>

Elite Skill - Unlocks at level 31.

All Specialization Slots - Last one not unlocked until level 71.

This means until a little bit after 71, a person still does not possess quite enough experience in build making.

Nor are they entirely sure what armor stats (Zerk, Carrion, Dire, etc.) effect what because until level 80 you don't bother buying gear for your build.

 

Assumptions I've Seen People Have:

- "Pink" Ascended Gear is what you need which is not true, you can get through everything the game has to offer on exotic. Ascended improves/accelerates that experience.

- That it is okay to chuck on random exotic gear you have earned. It's not, a mismatch of stats with a majority of classes builds WILL RUIN YOUR EXPERIENCE AND YOU WILL DIE A LOT. I cannot count how many times my fellow guild leaders and I have taken on players who have just shoved on random exotic items and ended up buying them all new gear based on their weapons that they enjoyed and helped them with their builds by having them change to better specs and utilities.

 

The booster should not be able to be used by someone without one level 80 character on their account.

That or there should be a mentorship program where someone can walk a person through their first class and teach them what they need to know. That way an experienced friend can teach them everything they need to know for that class and teach them about CC and such. Hell, a mentor ship program in general would be good. Any time a person needs help with something, it sends you to an instance with that other person and it allows you to access ways to teach someone about the stun bar, about their skills with training dummies, activate-able like the fractal area. It gives them a similar stat selection thing like in sPVP but it lets them access all the stats via amulets up to PvE standards and they can experience a character at level 80. Idk this is just rambling. Then at the end of it, if they intended to use a level 80 boost the mentor can decide if they passed training. This gives time for a person to decide as well if they want to actually boost or experience the game from the start and actually learn some more instead of jumping into it all.

[sephiroth.4217]

I'm only speaking from the last weeks experience.

 

- Introduced a friend to the game under free to play

- upgraded his account with both expansions this weekend just past

- he boosted his Warrior to level 80

- he spent half hour on the tutorial before I used a Teleport to a friend to find out he was just doing some random event.

- I gave him a brief tutorial about combat mechanics, gear, traits, loot, events and everything else he wanted to know

- I spent 150g on his gear

- I spent 2k gems on his outfits, gliders and such

- he spent another $50 for inventory tabs and bits n pieces

- I dropped a Guild Keg, We got drunk and we have both been exploring HoT and PoF as level 80's, enjoying the game thoroughly. When I'm not online he says the expansion maps are a bit hard so he sticks to his personal story quest until I log on again.

 

 

I am really happy we have level 80 boosters and as he said, without it, he wouldn't have bothered to get any further into this game.

Comes off as a little petty that the reasoning for not wanting the boosters is "I had to level mine to 80 4 years ago they should do the same", that's like, toddler mentality.

[hellsqueen.3045]

> @sephiroth.4217 said:

> I'm only speaking from the last weeks experience.

>

> - Introduced a friend to the game under free to play

> - upgraded his account with both expansions this weekend just past

> - he boosted his Warrior to level 80

> - he spent half hour on the tutorial before I used a Teleport to a friend to find out he was just doing some random event.

> - I gave him a brief tutorial about combat mechanics, gear, traits, loot, events and everything else he wanted to know

> - I spent 150g on his gear

> - I spent 2k gems on his outfits, gliders and such

> - he spent another $50 for inventory tabs and bits n pieces

> - I dropped a Guild Keg, We got drunk and we have both been exploring HoT and PoF as level 80's, enjoying the game thoroughly. When I'm not online he says the expansion maps are a bit hard so he sticks to his personal story quest until I log on again.

>

>

> I am really happy we have level 80 boosters and as he said, without it, he wouldn't have bothered to get any further into this game.

> Comes off as a little petty that the reasoning for not wanting the boosters is "I had to level mine to 80 4 years ago they should do the same", that's like, toddler mentality.

 

The issue is not that "we had to level initially, so should they", it is that so many come into level 80 not knowing what they are doing.

If you don't know what a stun bar is, then you shouldn't be doing max level content to learn what that is.

If you don't understand or have a build, jumping into max level content is not for you. Particularly if you don't intend to get help.

I can understand the appeal in everyone using it and it can bring friends together and what not, that is great but there are too many people going into max level without a clue or help to get a clue.

It needs to be regulated by one or some of the following:

- A person needs to have a level 80 character already bound to their account.

- A person needs to go through a mentor-ship system as I posted a vague gibberish idea of elsewhere in the post.

- A person can activate the level 80 boost, but after doing so they are restricted to the core tyria maps until they have done the core Tyria story before they can go into and through HoT and later. This then exposes them to the full experience that teaches you over time the mechanics of the game, allows them to experience the story from the start and not just jump in somewhere in the middle which would ruin the story experience and gives them one time in which they are going to experience the story in the order it is supposed to be experienced with the movement that each of these times were intended to have by the creators.

[usnedward.9023]

Maybe I am old school but I think you should have at least 1 level 80 before you are able to use a boost to 80. BUT other MMOs have been doing this for a long time when releases come out. Jump in game at level ??. As big as GW2 has become maybe it is not a bad idea. Understand that just because they get 80, they still have to do masteries and such for gliding, auto loot, mounts and so on so technically they get a level 80 with some pretty basic exotic gear and they have to work to get the best and the rest. Kind of a tough spot I guess.

[Maunzi.3764]

I had the exact opposite experience. Every friend I told about the game gave up because the first twenty levels were utterly boring to the point of being braindead, nobody wanted to play that. They take too long, you get barely any interesting abilities, you have no options.

 

The leveling boost lets them actually try out the GAME, instead of 11111111111 for hours.

 

To be frank, they should remove levels from the game entirely. Start everyone at 80, and have a better game for it. Leveling serves no purpose anymore.

 

What we need is a TUTORIAL that is skippable. A real one. Leveling is not a totorial, it teaches shit. Not a single important mechanic is taught during leveling.

 

* Combos? nope

* Boons? nope

* CC? nope

* Stealthskips? nope

* ressing and respawning when dead? nope

* different kinds of AOEs enemy use? nope

 

Leveling to 80 is useless. You don't want new players to do them for the new player's benefit, you want it because god forbid new players actually enjoy the game without wasting 80 hours of boring grind first.

[ovinnik.9216]

The boost to 80 may very well be aimed at people who want to experience and acquire things in a rush or at those who don't want to feel left behind. Yes, they might leave quickly due to frustration, but by then they'd have already paid for the expansion. A different sort of clientele, that.

[Mea.5491]

So I have a friend who just bought GW2 a few days ago only because I told him there was a max lvl boost... He hates lvling in MMOs. I told him to wait for me so I can explain the SW meta but by the time I logged on he already explored 2 maps and was having a blast and now he wants to quit FFXIV for GW2. :P The lvl80 boost encourages some people to play the game so it's not a good idea to lock it away. If someone can't handle high lvl content then they should start a lvl1 character, problem solved.