Guild Wars 2

I’d like to start out by saying that this is going to be a long list of patch feedback about everything good and bad that I can pop out of my little head. Some of it might be displeasing to read, but take it all as opinion and not fact. Also, note that I loved the content and the patch; so it’s not going to push hate at all.

This feedback is not just going to be Pro and Cons, but also some insightful suggestions on to improvement for the future.

PROS:

• Karka enemies are fun. They’re very challenging, very vicious, and somewhat unique. I really dig how they have 2-health bars (1 for the shell, then 1 for the nakedness underneath). It’s also funny watching 20 people balled up and the Karka do it’s steampowered dash right through all of them, killing/downing most instantly.

• Fractals are fracin’ awesome! Rewards aside (get to that later), the Fractals are a great experience. They do require a lot more communication than current dungeons, and almost always require a VOIP (pugs are …nearly impossible here). The use of traps, puzzles, jumping, and so on is great.

• Head crabs: To have the hatchlings latch onto your head like that of something from an Alien movie is so cool. Honestly wish I could get a town-cloths hat of one.

• Another jumping puzzle: Keep them coming, they’re loads of fun and I love every one of them. Definitely great content for the explorers at heart.

• Nice tropical design: The island of Southsun Cove is very tropical and semi-volcanic in a sense that it’s pleasing. Thankfully it’s nothing like Orr (some people might have gone mad if it was).

• Karka Lore/Event story: Thus far (minus the Event 3 that hasn’t happened yet), the invasion and story of the Karka has been very well laid out. It’s great that this “mysterious creature” shows up after a few weeks of anticipation based on dying whales, signs warning of death, and a ship wreck. Then to find ways to fight them by using other race’s knowledge, finally using that to take the fight to them. {Still want to know whether or not they’re minions of Bubbles?}

• WvWvW loot drop increases: Yay! Some love for those that slaughter the enemy in droves. I mean I’m all for tokens, but getting Rares and Exotics off of players instead of needing to farm Orr for 3hrs is a great thing.

• New sPvP map: I really enjoy the new sPvP map. It’s so fun to kite someone around a bridge and up the stairs in a circle 3x that you’d think they’d eventually stop and turn around to intercept… Oh what a blast it is, glad to see ever expansion on this aspect.

• Daily/Monthly sPvP achievements: Another change to sPvP that’s very much enjoyable. Now daily participation is showing much more so than just tiny nicks in the overall Glory Rank bar. And the rewards are very appreciated and fitting.

• New back Pieces: Quivers! Yay! So many of my guild’s Rangers (and Thiefs) were flipping out in happiness upon finding this out. But, to also have other back items, new books, and the like is fantastic.

• Profession’s sweep: Glad that a lot of broken skills have been fixed, mislabeled items labeled properly, and a few balancing tweaks. The best ones I see as appreciating is making the Elementalist’s Conjured Weapons viable via the Boons provided and the extended range of Magnetic Pull on the Toolbox Kit for Engineers.

CONS:

• Ascended Gear’s Attainability: Don’t get me wrong here, I love the idea of new progression through some gear stats. It’s not that big of a deal to me and I won’t flip out. However, what I was so vigorously made aware of was that it requires “repeated runs” of the Fractals to get. When the developer posted that these will “eventually be obtainable through WvW and other previous content”, the only question is “Why not already?”
  ————Suggestion: Ascended Gear is missing in different sections of the game. I’d have like to see it in WvWvW, even if it cost 1,000 Badges of Honor to obtain a single piece. That itself sets a goal for WvWvW players and allows them to play the content they enjoy while still progressing their character just as PvE players do on their content for their character. Even across the board, that’s what I mean.

• WvWvW Gear Skins: Right now there’s a single skin set for WvWvW and a single stat stack (Power/Vitality/Toughness). There’s not been any new added stat sets to WvWvW, nor has there been any new skin sets added to this.
  ———-Suggestion: Add in a few more skins to the WvWvW vendor for badges. I can sort of see why stat types are one version, as it promotes other content and even crafting/buying crafted goods (economy keeps spinning). But, there just needs to be a few good skins out there so that Engineers don’t look like Thiefs and Mesmers don’t look like Necromancers.

• Mini-games: There was not yet a single one this patch. During Halloween’s event we were introduced to three really fun and entertaining mini-games; yet only one was kept while the other two taken away. The game contains only two mini-games of note (and Achievement) at this moment: Costume Brawl and Keg Brawl.
  ——————Suggestion: I’d first love to see a return of Reaper’s Rumble. That’s a great game that was so super fun and unique that it’s sad to have seen it go. However, some content updates as far as the currently-in-construction Polymock Arenas and Shooting Gallery would be nice. Trust me when I say that guilds love to do these mini-games together, scheduling events that get their players a refreshed “fun” in the game. That translates to them staying in the game longer, leaving less, and … possibly spending more in the Gem store. Ah, that last part is completely speculation, but you get the idea.

• WvW anti-zerg: Aside from the changes to the loot table (and class balance sweeps) there’s been nearly no changes to WvW as of this patch. The current method of WvW stands as 1) get army of 30-50 players following one commander, 2) steamroll supply camps, power-build 3 rams at tower doors, and kill everything via the blob.
  ——————Suggestions: There’s been a few others have shared that I’d like to adopt. The first would be to remove the AoE cap for both healing and damage. Damage for a Arrow Carts, Catas, Trebs, and the like can be tweaked if they become an excessive nightmare like they were in Beta…but, it would promote more different tactical styles instead of zerg-blobs. The other suggestion is to remove sword flagging of keeps, towers, camps, and everywhere else. That change would promote scouting parties and sentries stationed at key properties in the map; communication would be a must then.

• Bugged Events: I really hate to touch this subject (as mentioned above, I love the events and story), but it’s a must touch subject. Halloween’s Events had the same issue when it came to select added NPCs that players had to kill. The NPCs we just talk to for interaction, or gather things for, were just fine. But, those that have to be killed don’t reset or get bugged out for some reason. Same server bug in both Live Events.
  —————-Suggestion: If we come up on a lore based scavenger event for Wintersday and this one issue is not completely 100% QA tested and fixed by then, I’d like to suggest not to have any static interactive NPCs we have to kill and expect to respawn for the next guy. Or, another suggestion would be to make these NPCs into a separate instance thing similar to personal stories so that there’s no issue with respawn, bugging out, or whatever.

• Lion’s Arch again?: Seems like this Pirate-governed city is the center of Tyria’s universe. I would like to see use of some of the other cities in the game, which now feel like Ghost Towns. I know LA was the main city for Guild Wars 1 (having read that, never played), but this game has 4 other really great cities (and a Charr one ;P).
  ——————Suggestions: Earth Day in The Grove? Wintersday in Divinity’s Reach or Halbrok? Snaff day in Rata Sum! I’m just thinking that the other cities need love and give plenty of reasons for players to go there. I’ll even go as far as suggesting that the catacombs below Divinity’s Reach featured in Ghosts of Ascalon should be turned into a dungeon (which would promote travel there).