Guild Wars 2

Rather than write another post flaming ANET for going against their manifesto, I figured this could be constructive to help them stop vertical progression of all forms and give them some better reward ideas.

Because we all know vertical progression is bullkitten and it doesn’t reward players at all why;

1. If you are level 45 fighting a level 45 bad guy the fight is just as hard as your level 80 epic geared toon fighting a level 80 bad guy, all that changes is the numbers you hit each other for.
2. Rewarding players with better gear so they can “survive the harder battles” just keeps the difficulty level static.

So here are some positive ideas that can be used in the next non-vertical expansion;
• Bad guys use evade/dodge more
• Bad guys get better gear (but players don’t)
• Bad guys get more levels (but players don’t)
• Bad guys skills recharge faster
• Bad guys utilize elite skills or use multiple elite skills
• Better AI and positioning for bad guys (i.e. duck behind things/run for support)
• Balanced mobs (i.e. a mob of 5 bad guys with a mix of ranged, melee and classes)
• Higher attack speed for bad guys
• Faster combat movement speed for bad guys
• Bad guys using combos to waste players (i.e. we have to think about kill order)
• Add in different combat mechanics; flying combat, mounted combat, etc.
• GW1 had hard mode… awesome idea, why not do that again

• Reward players with titles
• Reward players with more flags like the commander one currently in the game
• Reward players with special abilities like using way points for free
• Reward players with better salvage kits, etc.
• Reward players with aura’s so they truly stand out when they walk around
• Reward players with parallel skills that have different visual/massive visual effects

Hope that gets the ball rolling because I don’t want to play a game where it’s more of the same, just with different numbers…

Enemy AI

This could be improved. Also, make events harder the more times you succeed. Managed to drive the Centaurs back? Then next time they bring a Champion with them. That didn’t work? you got a bunch of them on a hill raining down siege and arrows on your camp, and you need to fight your way up there to get rid of them, all the while a group needs to stay down the bottom to guard the camp. This would give a fresh feel to events as opposed to just the same lot just attacking the camp.

GW1 had hard mode… awesome idea, why not do that again

While you couldn’t implement it in the way GW1 did, you could have a toggle that decreases your effective level, gives you reduced damage output, endurance regen, increases the damage you take, increases condition duration, reduces boon duration ect while giving you a passive 50% increase in XP, Karma, Coin, MF ect.

Misc

• Bring back skill hunting, and also apply it to traits and trait points (trait points are awarded every 5 levels, and you need to find the rest)
• Unlockable armour and weapon skins for Achievements i.e. Drake Slayer unlocks Drakescale Plate / Drakescale Hide / Drakescale [something to do with cloth]