Guild Wars 2

Still pretty mad about the changes to the leveling system, tbh.

I had thought about it for a while, and it seems like the timing is what makes me fume about the whole thing. This game was functioning perfectly fine for two years. AFAIK, the combat system was more or less the 5-10-20-30 system that I had gotten used to. I was even okay with the Traits being locked behind level 30. It was simple to complete a few maps, get the skillpoints, and spend a minor amount of gold to unlock.

The locking of utilites behind low level gates and unlocking all your weapon skills fairly quickly through combat against low level monsters was fine. Even playing as an Elementalist and learning 40/80/120 whatever number of skills you had to unlock was tedious, but doable.

With this new system, I’m aware that new players are now given more time to learn each individual skill and really master it before they get another one. You unlock your weapon skills 1 and 2 early on and aare forced to really learn the complexities of those abilities before gaining more. But for players who aren’t as…intuitive (?I hate using that word sometimes) all they’ll grasp is WEAPON SKILLS ONE AND TWO FOR THE ENTIRE GAME, AMIRITE?! because that’s all they had the patience to learn in the beginning.

I’m also ashamed to admit it, but maybe I’m just being a grumpy old fart about the whole thing. At least grandfather older players in, or have some way to track player progress. I’m leveling a new mesmer after having deleted a level 60 mesmer. Anet, why not realize I know how to play a mesmer and just let me move on with the Tutorial Mode?

I’m also afraid of map changes, it seems. Because just going through Metrica Province was depressing. The water quest being moved to another simple terrestrial “kill so many of x enemy” was annoying. So was the changes to the Obsolete Scrap Bot heart nearby. It taught you, in a simple manner, how to revive allies and use bundles/golems/environmental tools. I had a distinct flow/method around completing each map. Now it’s broken by locating the heart’s new location, and in some cases, having to backtrack and get skillpoints that were not previously accessible because I was not the required level.

PvP and WvW are not my strong points in this game. Being a player of only seven months means I am still learning those two realms of the game. Whenever they frustrated me, I could find comfort in picking up an alt and rampaging through Tyria, sometimes starting from level 1. Now that feels like another thing I must grind through to enjoy anymore.

I sincerely hope Anet considers a rollback or a way for players to opt out of this new system. I know it’s not that simple, with intricate code reworking to do, but it would really help calm down the playerbase.