Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars 2 was the most anticipated game of all time for me. From BWE1, I was hooked, but as the months went on, I noticed that the game became more stagnant with every update. Don’t get me wrong, I love the game, but I feel like ANet wasted A LOT of potential in making GW2 not only the best game to play online, but the product that players of its predecessor was hoping for.

Some areas that Anet can really capitalize on awesome:
*Legendaries
*Elite areas
*Points of Interests
*Easter Eggs

Legendaries – there are two aspects of legendary acquisition that can be improved:
*creation
*actual item

Creation- The quest to build a legendary is the most tedious endeavor in GW2, and rightfully so. It is essentially the end-game mission, yet it offers no benefit above the others. And this is fine, I have always been in favor of ANet’s view toward item progression, although the struggle to get a legendary is currently overwhelming for most players. I’m not simply complaining because I don’t have one, it’s quite the opposite. I don’t want one because of the required resources and the use I can put to those resources elsewhere. But I digress – the creation of a legendary weapon should be an epic undergoing, not a tedious chore. Having said that, I new acquisition system for a legendary should be implemented. Something along the lines of a legendary personal story quest, along with some aspects of the current system. SOME. The map completion was a good requirement, as was the use of a precursor, though it derailed quickly.

Here’s a few things I’d like to see incorporated in legendary ‘quest’
*Epic personal story quest that leads to the acquisition of a SOULBOUND precursor weapon that the profession completing the quest can wield.

*Rare items that must be collected by each world boss in Tyria.

*Items collected from each dungeon in Tyria.

*Items collected from Jumping puzzles/hidden zones throughout the map.

*Items received from completing temple events in Orr.

These are some of the things I’d love to actually work toward to achieve a legendary. I’m sure other players/ANet can invent some awesome new ideas for getting legendaries.

Item appearance (history/item lore/visuals) – Personally, the most lost potential in GW2 is the lack of connection to the original game by anything other than an altered map and some enemies. One area that offers the most potential for GW1 integration is the legendary items being pieces of GW1 history. The Flameseeker Prophecies is the coolest legendary for many reasons, my favorite being the fact that it’s the freakin’ Flameseeker Prophecies!! I mean dang!

Other legendaries that would be great to see in game:
*Notable items from various missions in GW1 (Mouthpiece to the horn of Rin for a warhorn, piece of the vizier’s staff, Ghostly Hero’s sword, etc)

*Pieces of the landscape from GW1 that can be forged into weapons (Shard of the Searing Crystal, for example.)

*Other miscellaneous pieces of GW history made into weapons (Dhuum’s Soul Reaper, Eternal Blade, Obsidian Blade, branch of Urgoz, something from the Domain of Anguish, various Old God artifacts).

And of course, the Ogre-Slaying Knife

These are a few examples of the many possibilities available to the Anet team to implement new legendaries and allow players to hardcore nostalgia about their favorite GW moments.

More areas to add some GW1 flavor to the game:

Underworld/Fissure of Woe!

After defeating the Shadow Beast in Godslost Swamp, players have the opportunity to follow the beast back into the Underworld to farm its creatures. Players are given 30 minutes to play in the underworld initially, and completing events extends the time by X minutes per event completed.

As for Fissure, let us finally meet Menzies! This could be similar to the timed Underworld runs, but instead of completing quests, players can offer Obsidian Shards to a priest of Menzies to extend their time in the Fissure. Besides, those shards begin to have no use not long after legendary completion.

Or perhaps use the Temples in Orr to allow access to different realms of the Gods?

One of the main issues I’ve been having with the current state of GW2 updating is the fact that the content is removed not long after implementation. I understand that the nature of these events are built to reach some kind of resolution, but the more content the better!

These are just a few things that I thought would add a very special Guild Wars flavor to the game. I’d love to see some ideas other players have!

Tanks for reading

I would not Quarrel with Gnat, all would be cool especially access to the underworld; but as a player who did not buy the game on day one, I find I very often feel unwanted by the Dev’s; Tonight my guild was chasing some bounties; the First was at the extreme East Edge of the map, oh you haven’t carted that yet, the next the extemes of Orr. And I cart. I mean thats what I do, not hearts or crafting or what have you. Mapping is my passion, and after 6 months I’ve got about 40% on my primary toon. Its a pretty big world.

And of course there are new maps, and so much happens on the new maps.

I mean whats the point of being in a guild if you cant play with your guild because all the new content assumes you’ve already done EVERYTHING. Perhaps there should some mechanism for grouping people who join in a give week or month into a guild so their level and accomplishment even out; but thats not like any guild I’ve ever known; Im sure it describes some very Elite guilds but they would not have any problem. Is it possible once in a while for the live team to remember not all of us bought the game day one and have exausted all that content; but we would still like to contibute to our guilds when they take on new challanges.

As opposed always feeling like one is on the short bus when the guild does something because I have not completed ALL the content yet. Could we have some Events that dont assume you have carted110% of the world and/or are toting Legendary Weapons to deal with the mobs. I mean Fire and Frost took place in lower Level zones; and morphed them to High Level zones for the duration of the Event.

Excuse me for feeling like a bit of player pollution soiling your art project, but I very often do. Nuff trolling.

I love the Underworld best thing in GW1; would love to see it rebirthed here. C.

That’s a really good point, actually. Now that you mention it I can see where a new player would feel unwelcome to every new piece of content. This Southsun story is a great example, but I think they are offering player scaling to the new events?

Correct me if I’m wrong.

I believe they are offering the player scaling, and I find it works a little better going up than down, it’s more catching up with the content, wrapping ones head around the lore. I was trying to reach a freind carting to a WP the other night, only to find its on a wholly other map; and I had to arrange passage via some NPC.

One of last weeks bounties was there and I wasted maybe 30 minutes trying to reach a WP so I would have it for next time, before I said something in frustration and found out it was on another map. Somehow I thought maps were more descrete like factions and prophs maps are descreet. So you can look at the WP in Chat, you can take a bearing and move towards it, but you cant get there; that was very frustrating.
Actually once I got there I spent about 2 hours merrily nosing about.

Its the little things your just assumed to already know, that cause more trouble than anything else; at least for me.; level scaling helps one Physically deal with challanges in game, but it does not make up for the actual in game experiance one may or may not have; depending on if one is a new player or running up an alt, no?

Anyhow thanks for a the reply. Happy Hunting. C.

One of the biggest problems I encounter (in all MMOs) is the lack of motivation to replay content with an alt. It’s just amplified in GW because there is so much mediocre content that it is literally not worth the time investment to do it over again. I think that is the biggest struggle the game is having, is making the content hold value once you achieve the ultimate reward from said content (i.e. dungeon sets, legendary weapons, rare skin, etc.).

The time and gold sinks are poorly designed because they bottom out quickly. This created the same problem that the original Guild Wars had, which was really with the economy. The hardcore players created an immeasurable gap in the economy from the casual players. Not to say that those working harder shouldn’t be rewarded greater, but the acquisition of sought after skins is just ridiculous if you don’t pour time or real money into the game, or get lucky on the forge. I think it’s safe to say that a player entering the game now has little chance of achieving a legendary weapon without massive frustration and unheard of commitment.

Guild Wars has always been a demanding game, in terms of time and grind, but the fact that the economy is worldwide makes it a dangerous business. The beginning of Guild Wars 1’s decline was initiated with the hunt for Underworld/FoW items. This created Shadow Form meta that plagued the game and destroyed any chance for the casual player to get a leg in with elite areas. Thankfully the design of GW2 does not allow for such a metagame to exist due to the baseline balance of classes.

I know I went off topic here but the fact remains that with the current direction of the game headed towards temporary content additions, it will be hard for a new player to become engaged or appreciate the value of being level 80. There is no real “end-game”.

Another major issue that will lead to the creation of a metagame is the design of fractal dungeons. From day 1, the fractals seemed like a lazy way to give players the illusion of progressive content while demanding unprecedented amounts of dedication to the dungeons to advance. All of these updates can be traced back to a theory of quietly shoving the gem store in your face with a “do allllll this stuff or just pay x dollars and you have it” which is a low blow for a game that wants to be so respected.

I can’t argue I’ve run 4 toons up to lv20 in GW1 and pretty much only play C1, C2 is a Ele Farmer, and C3 my GW2 toon. .. I really dont find the motivation to repeat content after I’ve been there and done that; I will say I’m having alot of fun with a War Alt in GW2. It does not feel like such a drop off because of the Lev Scalling and C3 would be nerfed to the same lv. first thing about Lv Scaling Ive found I like.

I think this isn’t a bad idea. Collecting money and stacks of items is hard, but it’s not rewarding. Though this would probably make it harder, I think it would also make things more worth the effort.