I have about 500 hours in the game now, and am struggling to even find reasons to run around the world anymore. I’ve done everything, and while leveling alts is fun, it only goes so far when there is nothing left to explore. Now, this can be remedied by offering rewards for going back and doing things over again, this is how almost every game works ever made, and Guild Wars 2 is no exception to this. This is where the problem lies, and that’s the rewards are rather lackluster for doing content over again. Actually, it’s beyond lackluster, and borderline abysmal. The simple fact of the matter is that there is little incentive to do anything in Guild Wars 2 that’s not a dungeon. period. Below I have a series of suggestions, that I think, would be awesome additions to Guild Wars 2 that follow their intentions for the game, and hopefully wouldn’t hurt the economy at all.
1. Add weapon and armor skins as drops to the game. And not a few here and there, a TON of new armor and weapon sets that drop across Masterwork, Rare, and Exotic rarities. As they offer no stat increases this is pure horizontal progression. By adding variety you have scarcity in armor sets, and popular ones will gain value. It also adds a thrill of discovery when you stumble on a new one, and finally makes for interesting rewards for doing stuff around the game. Variety is key here, as to avoid having to nerf drop rates because everything is too common.
2. What are these silly crests/medallions/seals I keep running across and selling to the vendor because they have no value? How about when added to your armor they add special effects to you! Just like legendaries and highly rare items. Then upgrade stats to match exotic level jewels, and create a diversity of rarities to add variety to finding them. I do know what you’re saying though, that this will make legendaries much less attractive as they have those awesome effects. I see a major design flaw here, and one that will end up hurting the game significantly as time goes on. What’s that flaw? By deciding to keep animations, and cool effects to legendaries and very rare and hard to obtain items you have seriously cut that design space out of the rest of the game. In fact, in my 500 hours I have yet to equip anything that does much more than glow a faint purple to my character. That’s poor design expansion across the game. You can have more progression in this area. I am suggesting these crests add 1 thing to your character, maybe at max you could have two or three effects. This still pales in comparison to a legendary, but it makes for a cool find when you pick one up. Also, of course, the more sought after ones will have value and create item value variety as you find things.
3. Greatly expand what can be found in large chests, such as the dragon chests, or the chests at the end of jumping puzzles. I’m talking un-id dye’s, Black Lion Salvage Kits, mini pets, Black Lion Keys, skins, boosters, transmutation stones etc,….the list goes on. Yes, I understand the desire to monetize on many of these objects, but I don’t see how getting a few of these things week will hurt sales if I desire a reliable source of something! I mean, if I want 10 karma boosters I’m probably not going to farm them if I can just buy them.
I think just adding these things would make loot much more interesting, and sought after. Making loot interesting is what is going to keep people playing the game! Better yet, this is horizontal progression mostly, everything is cosmetic, no balancing required, and it’ll feel a bit more like how the game was advertised.
Bonus suggestion: Please get rid of as many soul-bound things as possible, and change them to account bound. I’m tired of using up armor that would be great on an alt, only to have to trash it. I can’t sell it, or even salvage it. It’s immensely frustrating.
Thank you for your time.