Guild Wars 2

Hey, I’m not greatly active on this forum, so my apologies if this subject has already been covered/there are plans to do this, but I just thought it as a way to keep players like myself interested in the game, if there are indeed no intentions of providing a classic MMO-style endgame.

The idea is basic, just set up ladders or rankings for say, arena PvP (2v2, 3v3, etc.), dungeons quickest time to complete, WvW, sPvP, whatever! And add rewards such as unique weapon designs or titles, just to add a sense of accomplishment to the game, which from my perspective is what lacks the most at the moment (I see no reason to do dungeons or PvP due to lack of reward. I don’t consider appearance changing items as a reward as I have little interest in cosmetic apparel, as I’m sure a lot of other players agree).

And forgive me again, as it is possibly the most mentioned complaint, but the best way to keep people interested would be to include a classic MMO endgame, in my own personal opinion.

Thanks for reading, and my apologies once more if some of these have been all over the forums recently, or they are already/being implemented.

- Areia

1.) I agree 100% on the ranking…. As implemented now sPvP Tournaments are essentially closed unless you are in a top rated sPvP guild. Since leaderboards and ranking don’t exist it’s a little bit of a misnomer to say “top ranked” but the reality is a handful of guilds have been doing sPvP exclusively since early beta. (e.g. Team Paradigm). These guilds have very organized teams practicing daily. If you try to take a team of friends into Tourny just to see what it’s all about there is a good chance you’ll end up head to head with one of these teams and get destroyed.

Let’s be honest, that’s not about two groups bringing their A game and getting a fair fight. That’s like an aspiring High School basketball player going up against an NBA pro. Ranking are so critical, not just to eSport but just in general for the sPvP side of the game to be anything more than these unstrategic hot-join matches.

I think ranking is core to any sPvP system. I would put it above observe mode, above pay tournaments, above anything else. Leaderboards aren’t the same thing either. Leaderboards represent who’s the best of the best that’s it. I am very frustrated with ArenaNet over this.

2.) Endgame…. I disagree on this one. I think they need to make the endgame they have already created a bit more appealing at max level. What does a level 80 max stat player want? They want to be challenged. They want scenarios where they can function s a member of a team, execute team strategy and make a difference. The only path GW2 provides for that in PvE is dungeons explore mode. I’ve also noticed in pattern in the guilds I am in that when our members play together 99% of the time it’s dungeons or WvW.

I think the dynamic event system should be retooled a bit to be more welcoming to party play and they need to get rid of the horrible way point cost (play together tax) impacting group play.

The problem is, as I stated in my original post, the Endgame doesn’t provide enough reward to keep me (Or the rest of my guild for that matter) interested in playing. We did 3 explorable modes, and got bored with the amount of bugs and one shotting trash, all for what? To do it again and get a piece of armour that looks different. It really gives me no motivation to play the game, which is such a shame because the game has SO much potential, and I truly believed it was the best game ever until I hit level 80 and farmed BiS gear in a week :/

And yes, you are right, at max level you want to be challeneged, you want the feeling of working on a boss for so long and then finally downing it…but you also want the feeling that you accomplish something from doing it, which there currently seems to be none, unless you are wildly in love with one of the dungeon armour sets :/

Areia.1940:

And yes, you are right, at max level you want to be challeneged, you want the feeling of working on a boss for so long and then finally downing it…but you also want the feeling that you accomplish something from doing it, which there currently seems to be none, unless you are wildly in love with one of the dungeon armour sets :/

^^^
This is the problem I see with ArenaNet’s concept of endgame. It’s not that they decided against adding raids, it’s that their idea of level 80 players running around the open world revisiting events is flawed, because

1.) Waypoint cost isn’t properly offset with the rewards in lower level zones. This creates a sort of waypoint tax to help lower level players

2.) The dynamic events with combat can be zerg rushed. You need no strategy whatsoever to beat these, just spam 1, pop a heal every great once in a while and stay out of AoE and you’ll get Gold award for event at the end if the collective effort wins the event. Too few people and the event is unplayable (challenge too great). Occasionally your come across and event and you’ll have a small group in the area going after it (5-8 seems about optimal for most) then you’re not just spamming and watching a slide show as frame rates drop. No. With the right size team you’re enjoying the event as I suspect the developers intended and you are using strategy

My problem with their idea of PvE endgame is not the lack of raids it’s that the dynamic event system as implemented goes to kitten when you have too few or too many players and this is happening more often than not.

3.) Bugs, Bugs. In WvW hackers frequently steal orbs. WvW guild leaders are actually stepping in with the bugs and helping. While that’s fantastic and says how nobel of community we have it’s also very sad that this game we all want to keep loving is so broken. Another possible avenue for endgame would be sPvP, but sPvP has no ranking, no leaderboards. It’s problem isn’t bugs. It’s problem is that it’s unfinished. So also you’re blocked from challenge and rewards.

Suggestions for fixing these things

1.) Get rid of waypoint cost once zones are cleared -or- have a waypoint unlock achievements for each zone. The achievement could be based on a combination of gathering and dynamic event success in the zone (this could give a player additional reason for repeating events and going back to help players…. better yet, just make the waypoints all free. No one likes them. We all see them as money sink designed to try and get players to spend in the gem store and I just can’t imagine they are fulfilling that purpose

2.) The challenge on this one is finding a way to give players the ability to always experience the events with an optimal team size. Right now events scale, but the scaling is on the NPC side. The amount of damage and the number of mobs seem to scale but it does not work well with large crowds of players. When you have 20 players attacking a boss there is no room for team strategy. The challenge goes away and with it the fun…. Find a way to allow max level players the ability to enter instances of the events so that they can tackle the event sandboxed with a small team. This would greatly increase endgame value without having to rescript events or alter the events in the open world. Instancing should be be an option presented to level 80 players with higher chance of payout than non-instanced version of events. Pick a few of them to start. I would recommend putting them in lower level zones to give level 80s a reason to go back and revisit those zones…. What I’m suggesting here is my concept of “hard mode” for GW2 because the level scaling that’s baked in now is just not enough.

3.) Fix the bugs. Finish sPvP ASAP