Guild Wars 2

After the LS has finally come to an end and after having seen the whole arc, especially in the last update, I’d like to give my personal feedback on it.

To rate it with grades from 1-6, the whole LS deserves a 4 and the last update a 6 – considering that 6 is the worst possible grade. To clarify it: The LS basically is a great idea – but the execution was lackluster, horrible and simply bad. It was just all over a big fail, save for the very last cutscene.

• throughout the whole LS the true gw2 lore was entirely ignored, abandoned and contradicted – instead of some real gw2 feeling all we got was a plain stupid villain sue, having neither a good background, nor an interesting character, nor anything making the LS worth to play
• throughout the entire LS only few things have been added permanently to the game, most of them not even worth to mention
• most things that were left permenantly are completly garbage, like toxic spore events, scarlet attacks and southsun cove
• wasting – yes, I do definitly call it wasting – ressources on this LS has left the rest of the game nearly untouched, allthough huge parts of it desperatly need reworks to make use of their potential, as they are currently in a devastating estate

Especially I want to mention:

1. PvP and WvW: Nothing good has been done in any way to improve balance and game modes. Balance is in the worst state possible since launch.
2. Reworks to Dungeons: Most dungeons and encounters are dull, unbalanced, boring or just all over the same. GW2 has a lot of innovations when it comes to combat, yet it still needs a lot of polish. That polish has been entirely missing since launch.
3. New maps: Altough there are blocked passages to new maps like in the steam mountains, to the crystalline desert and in mount maelstrom, the only new maps we got were southsun cove and zephyr sanctum – and last one was removed.
4. New skins, new weapons, new skills, new traits, new everything: Where is it? The few things that were introduced are pretty lackluster, like ascended armor.
5. Rework to personal story: It’s dull, it’s annoying, especially due to Trähörn. The cutscenes are bad, the dialogues are static and boring to watch. There aren’t enough ps, they don’t cover the path from lvl 1 to lvl 80 and offer only few true choices when it comes to individual developement.

There is more to mention, but I stop here. Gw2 has the potential to become the best game of this decade, without no doubt. That is one of the reasons why my feedback here is so extremly negative, because it makes me sad how badly that potential is made use of.

But I definitly want to say something about this last update of the LS, as it deserves a lot of harsh critic itself – Warning: Spoiler.
[spoiler]

• The way it was presented was just horrible. Scarlet was wounded? Why exactly? Did we seriously kill her by finishing her? With stability?
• The characters of the LS performed very badly in the last personal story instance.
• It’s zergy, not challenging due to boss fight mechanics, only challenging due to laggs and gear check.
• The dialogues were just horrible.
• Sense and lore is completly missing.
• Why did Scarlet need all these weapons just to attack Lion’s Arch?
• What about all the other dragons in the meantime? What about the Tengu?
• What happened to the pact? Since when is it possible to build a villain lair beneath the priory? Are they seriously that stupid?
• We fought a dragon, but we can’t just bomb away an oversized driller?
• Far too many bugs that destroy the content completly, especially when it comes to rewards. Was it even tested?

[/spoiler]

So, all in all, I can only hope that his LS was only an experiment, so you were able to collect data and ideas how to do it better. Hopefully we do see a lot of improvements when it comes to the next arc – because this is actually the only thing i’m looking forward to seeing, because the last cutscene was just awesome. Hopefully you concentrate on quality now, when it comes to a real enemy: Modremoth.

Because this is a feedback thread, I’m going to assume anyone reading it has already finished the living story.

But I definitly want to say something about this last update of the LS, as it deserves a lot of harsh critic itself – Warning: Spoiler.

• The way it was presented was just horrible. Scarlet was wounded? Why exactly? Did we seriously kill her by finishing her? With stability?

I missed this as well. Perhaps I wasn’t paying attention to Scarlet’s position during the last phase of the fight, but I was rather confused as to why the destruction of the Prime Hologram injured Scarlet (or how she wound up in the center?)

Though by Scarlet’s End, I got the impression that her remaining (if there was any) sanity was about to be lost and her mind was at its end. Her being physically injured was just extra. Using a finisher is just symbolizing a definite end through game mechanics I guess.

*The characters of the LS performed very badly in the last personal story instance.

Performed as in dialogue, Braham/Marjory getting injured, etc.? Should clarify.

• It’s zergy, not challenging due to boss fight mechanics, only challenging due to laggs and gear check.

I get the feeling there would be a riot if it was anything more challenging. Despite it being very zergy, you still see the countless people getting pulled by Assault Knights, or the people getting pewpew laser’d during the Prime Hologram fight. ANet still has a lot to do to raise the player skill level gradually.

• The dialogues were just horrible.

I thought it was fine. Though feedback wise, you should give examples of what you thought was horrible and why.

• Sense and lore is completly missing.

I always get a bit confused when people say there’s no lore. Maybe there’s no references to GW1 or so (there doesn’t need to be really), but we still get the short stories and reveals through dialogue and NPC text regarding characters. This isn’t the most lore heavy example, but we do have small references to it here and there. Like Commodore Lawson Marriner (grandson of Cobiah who was the founder of the rebuilt Lion’s Arch) who we had to escort in Escape from Lion’s Arch.

And now we have the awakening of Mordremoth. In my eyes, we’re building a tale. But maybe I’m misreading this.

• Why did Scarlet need all these weapons just to attack Lion’s Arch?

From my understanding. The probes were used to find the ley lines. The alliances were just to build a force to take over LA. Marionette was used to… I don’t really know, a distraction? To kill some more enemy forces? Drill was used to interrupt the ley lines to awaken Mordremoth.

• What about all the other dragons in the meantime? What about the Tengu?

Primordus is still underground. Fighting the dwarves? Kralkatorrik is in Crystal Desert. Jormag is somewhere in the Shiverpeak Mountains. Zhaitan is dead (I believe). The Tengu are using their OP arrows to rain down obliteration in front of their door. Probably political issues or not willing to step into “human” affairs.

Just my thoughts and stuff. Not arguing, just trying to provide possible answers.