Guild Wars 2

Some are satisfied with the end game in GW2, some are not. It is what you make it but with that said it could be made better. I don’t believe the problem with end game in GW2 is that there are no raids or that there is no gear grind. The gear grind is a good thing to see gone and I’m not sure how well a raid would work in the stack zergging gameplay of GW2.

Anet doesn’t believe the game should change once you hit max level. Why should the player have to level 80 times to get to the “real” game? This is a good mindset but with a problem. The game IS different once you get to 80. While leveling the player gets a sense of progression. The player explores new maps and unlocks new skills. Once you hit 80, it doesn’t take long to have explored the whole map and unlocked all the skills. The progression seems to stop nearly.

We can say that there is crafting ascended armor and farming legendary weapons. But this stuff is extensive and more for “hardcore players.” We could say there are dungeons and world bosses to be done, but these are things you repeat over and over again with nothing new to gain. There is no new dungeon gear in 2 years and world bosses reward the player with a few items that the player will sell or salvage. I say this all to say that the problem in my eyes is the lack of horizontal progression at end game. Casual and hard core players alike need more than legendary weapons to work towards and achieve in an MMO.

Having items unique to specific content is not a bad idea. The way it was implemented in the previous iteration of the living story was not ideal because the opportunity to get the item was limited. Now that the living story is permanent and unlockable to those who missed it there should be a unique item given for completing each episode or every other. Currently there is only the back piece which is extensive and expensive and seems more aimed at the less casual players. There needs to be more to work towards and achieve for the casual players too.

Add in reputation gains for the Vigil, Priory and Order of Whispers with gear unlockable at different reputation tiers and missions that tell side story about each order. Add WvW and dungeon exclusive gear into the game like the new PvP exclusive gear and release new sets in seasons. This sort of content keeps the player busy working towards something they do not have and do not have to be a hard core player to achieve. They just have to play their favorite content to earn rewards to show for it.