Prior to this update I was starting to lose interest in the game: I was getting into a regular rotation of world events + dailies ( + guild missions 1 day/week) that was quickly growing stale. I feel this update has done a lot to prevent that, and I want to congratulate the developers and point out a few things which I hope they will keep in mind for future updates/living world/expansions/whatever.
Feel free to jump in and add, expand, disagree—though I would prefer this thread focused on what is going right. If you think the answer to that is “nothing,” may I respectfully direct you to the rest of the GW2 forums?
1) Interesting gameplay challenges in the Gauntlet: many, if not most, players have had to put some thought into skills, gear, tactics to beat all levels of challenge here. I know I did. Getting players out of their usual comfort zones is a Good Thing.
2) Focused farming in the Pavilion: I suspect this event is a little bit of a troll of all those players who said “omg anet nerfing all farm spots they hate fun!” It’s just too perfect: ridiculous and convenient magic find buff + slices of game content like a little rat maze + champ rewards / event rewards / chest rewards. But then you get in there and you can’t just use autoattack and pay no attention (this ain’t Great Jungle Wurm, bro) or you die. It gives farmers a bit of what they want, but also drags them into a little map where they don’t even affect anything else in the game world. (Is Anet laughing at us? I know I am.) This was an interesting way of giving some of the players what they wanted.
3) Champ rewards make PVE content worthwhile again: Cursed Shore is back. There are reasons to go places and kill champs now. This is quickly being overused by players to the point of absurdity and will likely be dialed down in the near future, but the basic idea of providing stepped up rewards for killing high-level PVE enemies like this is sound. I now have the feeling that I have options when I play the game. It’s not just “World Event chain, daily, log off” anymore. Again, the basic idea of making more content viable through providing less closed-fisted rewards is a move in the right direction, even if some future refinement will probably be necessary.
4) Dungeon reward system encourages trying more varied content: COF1 hasn’t gone away, but it’s now part of a rotation rather than a be-all/end-all moneymaker. I’m seeing more requests in Guild Chat for AC, TA, COE, HOTW, and Arah than I saw before. I suspect the rewards will need to be tweaked further (80% of paths I think give the 1g reward, which is probably not where it should be), but player feedback can help guide this. Encouraging players to try out more game content is also a Good Thing.
5) Token wallet: thank you for this. Like the AOE loot option, this has improved my experience subtly but significantly. My main was regularly engaged in Inventory Management Wars and now… isn’t. Issues with alts not having enough money/karma for something and needing to grind them to get there… gone. Some bugs will need to be fixed, like Karma Spender achievement (if it hasn’t been already), but this is the kind of addition that adds to enjoyment of the game by removing pointless hassle. Well done.