Guild Wars 2

Greetings, denizens. This is presented as a state-of-the-game analysis, focusing of course mostly on areas that I perceive as problem areas that are in most need of attention.

First, I want to say that I do not intend to convey a negative tone in this post. Anet has crafted a game that is impressive in scope and by and large quite enjoyable to play. However, it doesn’t do a lot of good to spend enormous time or energy elaborating on what’s great about the game (particularly because there’s so much that is) rather than providing some direction on what needs work.

I also want to point out that I’m mostly an open-world PvE’er, so this will be primarily reflective of that. I also focus more on Thieves in the class section, not because I main a Thief but because of all the classes I’ve played they have the most problems. Without further ado, here goes:

GENERAL

1.) While some degree of casual-friendliness is a good thing, the game is a bit too casual friendly in most respects. The effect of this is that it’s often quite easy to progress while playing solo and inconvenient to group with others, harming the potential community and camaraderie-building aspects of the game. I like the Orr zones in concept for this reason, but the execution leaves a little to be desired. Instead of just spawning crazy numbers of mobs that have annoying attacks, how about creating a few “hard mode” zones (including some sub-80 zones) that are intended to be tackled by groups of 3-5? I really like the idea that some zones are essentially open-world raids that force you to group up to tackle them, but it needs to have a more polished implementation.

2.) The economy is sort of whacky. For starters, while leveling it is far less expensive to entirely upgrade your armor through the TP than it is to repair (or upgrade through vendors) most of the time, which is pretty nonsensical. This is in part due to the costliness of repairs, and in part due to the over-proliferation of crafted items. Both of these things need to be addressed in some way. I think there needs to be a meet-in-the-middle approach. Repairs need to be reduced in cost modestly, while the crafting system needs an overhaul. There should be a lot more variety in what you can craft at a given level, and most items should be tougher to get recipes for and require more extensive mats, but you should get more craft xp per item crafted. As it is, most items are too basic and are crafted repetitively for leveling and therefore the supply is overloaded for the demand, which results in them being far too cheap and crafting being less satisfying than it should be.

3.) I suspect this is something that will be solved over time anyway, but I kind of feel that, while the zones are beautiful, there isn’t quite enough variety to them. I want to see deserts, ice palaces, misty valleys, and lots more fantastical landscapes.

4.) While the level scaling is an awesome feature, by itself it doesn’t provide enough incentive to visit lower-leveled zones. What the game really needs is more diversified loot tables. You should be able to get unique, thematic drops from different places around the world. I would take this opportunity to complain about how the game ‘forces’ you to run Fractals over and over at the level cap, but the devs have stated their intent to fix this. I’m holding out hope for that because it’s a problem.

CLASSES/COMBAT

1.) We need more weapon options and skills. Skill-set crafting was one of the most enjoyable aspects of GW1, and it helps facilitate greater longevity in a game. On top of that, you acquire most of your skills too early in GW2 and are left to focus mostly on traits as you get higher level, which is a bit lame. Also, certain classes don’t really have an adequate set of weapon options. Suggested new weapons: Polearms, Greataxes, Whips, Flails, Claws, Tomes, Crossbows.

1.) Skill/interface responsiveness is an issue. There should not be such a long delay between when a skill is activated and when it is executed.

2.) Some classes are very clearly stronger in PvE than others, especially at lower level. In my experience, the hardest to play is the Thief (Caltrops help substantially), followed by the Elementalist (D/D helps substantially) while the Guardian is faceroll easy. In large part this is due to large differences in the ability to take damage vs. the ability to avoid it. I think medium and low armor classes should have bonuses to their endurance regeneration, or their innate dodge/avoid, to compensate for their defensive weakness. Thief’s stealth mechanics also need a lot of work (see below), while several weapon sets for both classes are just weak (Pistol for thieves, Staff/scepter for Eles).

3.) Auto-attacks for lots of ranged weapons seem to have a slower refire than they are supposed to, because they aren’t chained and the recast is dependent on animations. The #1 skills for Pistols and Longbows for all classes that use them fire more slowly than they should, resulting in the autoattack being very subpar compared to other weapons (this is also likely why you see so many complaints about Pistols and Longbows). The Elementalist staff seems to have the same cast speed on all 4 elements, even though Air/Earth/Water are supposed to be a bit faster than Fire. There are probably other examples as well, this needs investigation.

4.) The thief’s stealth is clearly balanced for PvP (even though culling ruins it), and is consequently way too weak in PvE. It constantly fails to drop aggro, it doesn’t void incoming attacks, and it doesn’t last long enough to get you out of harm’s way. The Smoke Bomb downed skill is laughable in how it never does anything useful to the point that it feels like a glitch. Because thief’s are low health, weak armor, their Stealth ability really needs to work well as a defensive utility in PvE in order for them to not feel gimped, which isn’t currently the case.

5.) There should be a way to turn off skill queuing. It’s quite an annoyance that there isn’t. Once again, it disproportionately affects the Thief due to their unique Initiative-instead-of-cooldown mechanics.

That’s it for now, I’ll edit in more if more spring to mind. Thanks for reading!