Guild Wars, moving forward you should consider reworking some of the present things. Most of the information brought forth is very interesting and will add some much needed content, but some seems less important than some things. Allow me to delve into some aspects.
Underwater combat:
Although very little exists what does exist is avoided by players, nothing was mentioned your post, and if you’ve played the game within the past year you would notice some balance issues.
Armor:
Missing key elements such as rare, exotic aquabreathers for example. Each pieces of armor, trinkets, AND weapons should have equal scales (ex. common, masterwork, rare, exotic, legendary/ascended). Balancing of traits should be almost top priority.
Utilities:
You mention adding utilities to build off of current utilities and playstyles. I’m not really sure where you’re going with this. Let’s talk about a Berserker play style for example. I don’t want to see a utility that increases damage or critical damage etc. I want to see things added like a Ranger blocking utility, since none exist currently.
Living Content:
As you know players crave content. Frankly, I would rather see balance and expansion upon current game content such as skills, skins, foes, etc before expanding to expansions. I hate that you forced yourself to announce every 2 week content updates. Again, frankly, I would rather you do a thorough job than force yourself to crank out updates and small tid-bits of content. But, I guess that’s your decision.
Rewards for Champs and Dungeons
I’m actually happy to report I’m glad with where you’re going with this. Players currently “speed run” and farm paths of dungeons. Most of the time if you’re not a Warrior Zerker you’re not going to get in. This is far from what GuildWars intended dungeons to be. Use this energy and keep going towards that goal of any profession and playstyle team, as long as they are united in a common goal, can complete it.
Crafting
Some like crafting, honestly, I’m not a fan. I was surprised when you announced you’re taking it to 500, but I suppose if you’re going to make legendaries and ascended gear craftable you have to. I would have scrapped the entire system and tried something new. For example, you should only be able to craft items: your level, your class (Heavy, for example), and recipes should be easily acquirable. For conversation sake, Rampager Inscription recipes should be purchasable from the nearby NPC. These recipes, like currently, should hold true for all items etc. I feel like I’m ranting and my point of the crafting system being a mess is getting lost in communication, so I’ll leave it at that.
Traits
Other than your mentioning of updates and balances nothing much was said. I suggest you look into seeing a graphical representation of what players lean towards. If you see, for example, all warriors leaning towards critical damage and power, maybe you should balance those traits to encourage use of others such as healing power and boon duration, etc.
I think I could rant for hours about anything and everything, but, alas, all good things must come to an end. In conclusion, I hope reading my post reignites some passion for ideas for future content or make you pause to question the current direction. Comments and responses appreciated.
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