Guild Wars 2

First, this is a great game. I loved gw1 to death, I love gw2, kudo’s to the devs, but there’s always plenty of room for improvement. So …

These are the things I pray to Santa for. These are the things that would stop me getting frustrated or bored and go searching for a new game to play (i.e. quit playing gw2).

For those with a pro gamer’s attention span, the TL;DR of each section is the section title.

Introductory philosophical mumbo jumbo (skip to next section!)

First, gather around children to hear the philosophical rambling of an old man:
yes —-———————————————————————————— no
night —-——————————————————————————— day
0 —-—————————————————————————————— 1
This is how the human mind tends to think (without serious effort), one extreme or the other. There is an infinity of possibility in that grey area between 0 and 1, the dev’s need to be there when making changes.

We need more flexibility (not total or zero, just more). The ability to jump into different game modes, wvw, pvp, dungeons, open world pve, zergs, solo, small group, jps, etc. without mental effort makes my gaming experience fun. Dealing with trying to switch traits and gear and stuff to set up when I’m tired and just want to play is not. However, having a “main” character that I develop and play most of the time, having serious character progression for that character, is important.

General

1. Templates and ability to switch traits quickly and easily.
I remember in gw1 when it was a total pain to switch builds. I remember helping a friend farm a couple of plat because he was stuck with no way to switch to his farming build so he could raise it himself! Allowing a character to easily switch builds and have templates was a huge improvement. We have it in spvp, we need that in gw2 for wvw and pve too. It is such a pain to be in wvw, then someone wants help running a dungeon or something and you have to futz around switching up and trying to remember what build you want to use and what exact traits, and you make one mistake because you are tired … you get the idea.

2. Give me the option to reduce particle effects.
Seriously, I can’t play a melee class effectively in this game because of the excessive glowly sparkly stuff going off in my face. I can’t stick to the target because I can’t see the darn thing in amongst all the special effects. My screen is just a mess of kitten if there are more than a few players involved in the fight regardless of whether it is wvw, pvp or pve. Please give me the option of turning down or off these effects (without losing the potential information content). Gw1 had perfect balance for me in this regard. I could play any class in that game and see what was going on without it making the game unplayable.

3. More account wide credit for doing stuff!
I love the changes that make all the currencies, achievements, etc. account wide. It gives me more flexibility to play other characters and classes and experiment more. Characters are avatars of me. I should get the credit and progression regardless of what avatar I am currently inhabiting in the game world.

PvP

1. Allow players to drop one (or two?) map(s) from the random rotation in SoloQ.

Skyhammer, ugh! Sometimes makes me want to log out and do something else for 10-15 mins when I see this map pop. That other MMO that’s been around a while does this; you can drop one of the bgs from the list of randoms. If I could drop skyhammer from my list, it would greatly improve my experience. Heck, I might even add it back in the rotation sometimes just for the variety.

2. Make some maps that are SoloQ friendly.

A lot of the maps are team maps, they don’t work that well for solo queue because your “team” are random pugs each with their own agenda – do the daily, “pwn face in a slug fest at mid dude!”, “I wantz 1v1 duels!”, etc. (all is vain). Besides, no one in soloq is on voice com, so communication is usually next to nonexistent. Most of the maps are very spread out, so you end up isolated a lot. Gw1 randoms maps were pretty well designed in this regard. Most everyone had the incentive to try and win and do the right thing, objectives weren’t too spread out, etc. You want more ppl in spvp, so make soloq better and they will eventually join teams too once they get the hang of it.

3. See above on special effects.

If there are more than one or two fighting on a node, it gets impossible to play effectively with all the visual nonsense crowding the screen. Gw1 was a beautiful game but didn’t have this problem, so I know you can do it.

4. Make the pvp mystic forge and crafting mats give stuff I can use in wvw and pve.

Some excellent changes are already being made in terms of tying in pvp with pve a little more already. I’m just hoping for more of the not all or nothing, but in the grey area sweet spot! I have crafting mats in my pvp locker that are totally worthless for me. I couldn’t care a fig what my pvp character looks like really, certainly not enough to mess with mystic forging stuff, so let me get something for pve or wvw.

5. Change glory booster to glory consumable (like wvw liquid experience).

I think this would be much better than having to keep remembering to go get one of these from the pvp locker, then have to log out because the wifey needs a spider killed, dog put out, w/e. Sometimes you only get one pvp match and you need to go do something else and the booster is wasted, other times you forget to grab one. A consumable that gives instant glory would be much nicer.

PvE

1. Templates and make build switching easier (see above).

2. Ability to switch stats on ascended gear.

I have two ascended weapon chests in my bank that I may never use because they are the wrong stats for my character(s). It is quite a downer to find one of these rarities, get excited, then look up the stats and see that they completely suck for any of your characters. Also, even if they didn’t, they would only be good for one segment of the game (wvw, open world pve or dungeons – each needs different stats really).

Ascended gear needs more flexibility. Allow stats to be changed (as with legendaries), make them account bound, or just make them easier to get (like exotics). Something needs to give here.

I have tailoring at 500 but don’t plan on crafting any ascended armor soon because I don’t know what stats to go for. The cost is too great and forces me into one stat combo. I need more flexibility. Same goes for ascended weapons: I could craft a few, but they are too costly to be stuck with one stat choice.

3. Give me the ability to play multiple characters.

In gw1 I had at least one of every class maxed and geared decently, I could switch easily. Maybe that was a little too much flexibility, I don’t know, but gw2 seems too far in the direction of only having one character because it is too darn time consuming to try and gear a second.

3. No more vertical progression.

This IS a tough one. Players need something to progress towards or they get bored and quit. Legendaries are enough of a grind for anyone to stomach imho. Ascended crafted items are too much of a grind for the lack of flexibility (see above). The rings, trinkets, etc. aren’t too bad. The grind to level up and gear out a character is enough.

I’d like to see more things to keep me busy at 80 other than grinding, but I understand that this is ultimately THE tough nut to crack. Account wide progression, ability to try out and play different classes is one solution. I still haven’t played several classes because it is too onerous to progress new characters. I think better soloq pvp would help a lot with this too.

WvW

Funny that this is last because it is probably what I have done the most of, but I actually think wvw is in a pretty decent place right now, and I’ve rambled on far too much, so I’m going to say very little here and quit while I’m behind.

Some of the main things I’ve already stated above: the whole build switching and needing templates again, ability to reduce particle effects.

Different colored commander tags would be nice, so we can color code our zerg leader, havoc leader, etc.

Anyway, happy holiday season all, and here’s wishing for a great new year. I very rarely post, but I play a lot and read forums a lot. I love this game and hope it stays popular, so keep up the good work Anet elves!

Steppenwolf Z

Nice list! I agree with everything but I’m hesitant to agree on the suggestion to make Ascendeds have the ability to change stats. Only because that gives Legendarys actual value, there’s a reason for getting one that’s beyond aesthetics and it doesn’t involve higher stats. I think its a brilliant design. I know little about Ascended and it hasn’t been out long enough for me to make a good suggestion with what to do. I hear you about the grind it would take to gear out your character in ascended and I am an altaholic myself. I’m sure that once the initial rush of people who NEED ASCENDED RIGHT NOW passes the Ascended armor will be easier to get but still probably not easy enough for us altaholics. Hmmm. Not sure what to do here!

My wish list:

More full, permanent dungeons

More game types for sPvP
– Would love to see something similar to GvG and/or HoH from GW1

More diverse items from the gem store
– Give us more instruments like a guitar
– Would also love to see more emotes and/or new dances
– It’s a shame there’s not more stuff available now since gem store items make great gifts for the holidays

New elite skills and utility skills
– As happy as I am to see new skills released, the new heals aren’t really game changers.
– Elite skills, in particular, need more diversity. Many classes have limited options for a lot of situations (ex: mesmers in PvE)

New profession
– The game has been out for well over a year now. Adding a new profession to the game would be a very welcome addition to keep the game feeling fresh.

I’ll second the request to be able to reduce/remove particle blur. Effect proliferation makes the game a headache-inducing eyesore that is flat out not fun to play. For me, this is the worst problem in the game, followed closely by its cousin, that being that all new content is designed for a herd. This, of course, makes the particle blur worse.

Suggestions belong in the Suggestion forum…

Great ideas. I don’t agree with ascended being equal to legendaries. However, I would be for something in between.
how about making it so you can at pick between 2 or 3 types of stats for ascended instead of all stats like you suggested.

More armor skins, they don’t even have to be fancy, just more options to mix and match.

Maybe even more “bizarre” armors, rusty metal/weird scifi asura stuff/more unique helmets.

Make Charr armor less clunky looking, (clipping tails, weird squished helmets)