Guild Wars 2

So. Here you are, a new player, running around Queensdale and you come across a glowing blue thing. You run up to it, and the activate icon appears (F-Commune). What is this, you think – all excited at the possibilities, the sense of the unknown. Then, nothing. You see another player run up, take a stance, and glow with some unknown energy. You wonder why? There’s no tooltip, no tutorial, nothing. You have no idea you have to wait until level 13, go back to older areas you have already explored, and click on the blue, glowing things. No clue at all. Awesome design.

Lock it. Fine. Evidence #23 that this game has been dumbed down beyond all belief. But at least offer a tooltip to explain why you can’t “commune” with the glowing blue things – especially if you are serious about holding the hands of the influx of drooling newcomers to the game. This is simply confusing.

You can always do what you did before- go out of the game and look it up.

I thought all pros already knew that when starting new character as noone needs any info on anything, and for this masterrace tooltip is mere overdoing it.

Actually its amusing, you whine because of how old stuff worked without even realizing it

It gives you a message telling you to come back later. I’d think that was enough. At least the one I did gave me that message.

MikaHR.1978:

You can always do what you did before- go out of the game and look it up.

I thought all pros already knew that when starting new character as noone needs any info on anything, and for this masterrace tooltip is mere overdoing it.

Actually its amusing, you whine because of how old stuff worked without even realizing it

Wait. So a new player should use Google to figure things out? Who’s whining? I am merely pointing out what I believe is a mistake.

Vayne.8563:

It gives you a message telling you to come back later. I’d think that was enough. At least the one I did gave me that message.

It did. But with no idea how much longer. No idea that I will have to wait 7 more levels.

misterman.1530:

Vayne.8563:

It gives you a message telling you to come back later. I’d think that was enough. At least the one I did gave me that message.

It did. But with no idea how much longer. No idea that I will have to wait 7 more levels.

Those seven levels come awfully fast. And since you’re getting messages every level to show what’s unlocked, the odds are most people will just wait for the message and it will click.

A friend of my started playing for the first time he found it easy but boring. I like that the new level system teaches you what to do point leads you to hearts. But remove the level gates and the reason my friend found it boring. Because he couldn’t use all his skills was only 1,2,3 for couple spamming. And with underwater and down skills locked till around lvl 13.

misterman.1530:

MikaHR.1978:

You can always do what you did before- go out of the game and look it up.

I thought all pros already knew that when starting new character as noone needs any info on anything, and for this masterrace tooltip is mere overdoing it.

Actually its amusing, you whine because of how old stuff worked without even realizing it

Wait. So a new player should use Google to figure things out? Who’s whining? I am merely pointing out what I believe is a mistake.

“Lock it. Fine. Evidence #23 that this game has been dumbed down beyond all belief.”

I wonder what 1-22 and 24-infinite look like

Since you assume all of that is necessary, these tooltip is non – issue also.

Buuuuuuuuuuuuut…

And it would actually be nice to have more info (the one in home instance nicely informed you need lvl10 for it before this feature pack)

Vayne.8563:

Those seven levels come awfully fast. And since you’re getting messages every level to show what’s unlocked, the odds are most people will just wait for the message and it will click.

Why should a new player need to wait for information that should just be in the message anyway,instead of a vague comeback later,but I wont tell you when or why.

Vayne.8563:

misterman.1530:

Vayne.8563:

It gives you a message telling you to come back later. I’d think that was enough. At least the one I did gave me that message.

It did. But with no idea how much longer. No idea that I will have to wait 7 more levels.

Those seven levels come awfully fast. And since you’re getting messages every level to show what’s unlocked, the odds are most people will just wait for the message and it will click.

Those screens that popup with all that information when you level – slight overload there. Very, very busy. I wonder how many newbies will click on the various items to see more details. In fact, how many won’t even realize that the different icons in the popup are, in fact, clickable? I bet you many people just click the Accept button and move on. Now, when a player reaches 13, will they then want to run/wp back to the 3 or 4 SPs they missed? Eventually, I guess. But I still think it’s poor design.

Proper design would be to remove all SPs from any areas in which you would normally find a new player under level 13, running around. Only have them in areas with level 13 (or up) mobs. That would make way more sense and be less confusing/aggravating.

urfrid.5971:

A friend of my started playing for the first time he found it easy but boring. I like that the new level system teaches you what to do point leads you to hearts. But remove the level gates and the reason my friend found it boring. Because he couldn’t use all his skills was only 1,2,3 for couple spamming. And with underwater and down skills locked till around lvl 13.

Actualy you unlock weapon skills much faster than before, so did you inform him it was much worse before and that you had to grind every single weapon skill 1 by 1 which would often take above lvl 15(which now equals to much higher level)

Seems he would be bored out of his skull in the old system.

And no, you unlock downed state at lvl5 and underwater at lvl1 (with weapon and skill2 on lvl8)

urfrid.5971:

A friend of my started playing for the first time he found it easy but boring. I like that the new level system teaches you what to do point leads you to hearts. But remove the level gates and the reason my friend found it boring. Because he couldn’t use all his skills was only 1,2,3 for couple spamming. And with underwater and down skills locked till around lvl 13.

Underwater skills. You can get them as long as you have a weapon equipped. I do at level 7 and I have the level 1 skill unlocked. Of course, not the other skills, which is odd.

MikaHR.1978:

Actualy you unlock weapon skills much faster than before, so did you inform him it was much worse before and that you had to grind every single weapon skill 1 by 1 which would often take above lvl 15(which now equals to much higher level)

And no, you unlock downed state at lvl5 and underwater at lvl1 (with weapon and skill2 on lvl8)

To be fair I dont think Ive see it take longer than level 6 or 7 to unlock all weapons on a character.

Story time.

When I first started WoW, I made a Rogue. Right away I had autoattack, Sinister Strike, and Stealth on my hotbar, and an Energy bar under my health bar. Stealth immediately showed me that that ability is central to the class because it was in a unique spot all its own above the regular hotbar. When I snuck up to an enemy and used Sinister Strike, I was greeted with combo points and reduced energy which went back up over time. When I hit level 2, I talked to an NPC called “Thief trainer” and learned this ability called Eviscerate. What did it do? It allowed me to use combo points while dealing damage – more points, more damage. Simple as that. It also taught me that this class seems to function on this combo point system and that that is also central to this class, perhaps even totally unique to it.

When I first started GW2, I picked the Thief class. I was greeted with two abilities – Dual Strike and Steal – and 2 other abilities were greyed out. I also saw 9 shapes above the ability bar. I tried Steal and I teleported to (sweet!) and stole a weapon from a centaur, then used it on him. I shot him with a rifle that threw him back and also had a recoil effect on me, and thought that this was all awesome and engaging. When I attacked enemies I saw that a yellow bar moved across the first greyed out ability. Okay, I am making progress here. That ability quickly unlocked itself and allowed me the use of another ability called Heartseeker. This ability, like WoW’s Eviscerate, showed me the main resource mechanics behind the class I was playing. Unlike WoW however, I had another bar above the health circle that told me to press V to dodge. Considering I already knew what the word “Dodge” meant like everyone else above the age of 5 years old, I didn’t need a tutorial showing me what that word means or what pressing V would do.

When I was confronted with the big boss at the end of the first map, I had a big fight where I hit him with 3 different abilities and even stole rocks from the Elementals that spawned around him (because stealing from him gave me nothing, so I improvised). After he was brought down, I awoke to a cutscene that told me to get fresh air and exercise. After the cutscene I gained a level and a new weapon, an offhand. This immediately told me that this class not only can hold two weapons, but the weapon also changed my number 3 ability! I picked the pistol because I already had a dagger and noticed that this not only changed that 3rd ability, but gave me two more. I then thought okay since this is a dual wielding class, what would happen if I switched the dagger and pistol around? What’s that, I have abilities but 4 are greyed out. I cannot wait to unlock those abilities next and see how they work since I already have a decent understanding of how the dagger works (I poke things with it), but since I already unlocked the dagger skills, I thought for the sake of consistency that I would finish that arrangement first, but shooting a pistol was awesome, my WoW Rogue never had something like that. Anyway I noticed a green shape on the map and over an NPC’s head when I exited the house I was in, so I talked to it and it showed and explained to me hearts and so on. Great, so these must be quests I thought. I then followed the big kitten arrow on the minimap and reached a farm and something popped up in the top right corner of the screen. “Help the farmer by doing so and so” it read. I fed cows, I kittened off wurms, and I watered the crops. Then a QUEEN wurm popped up! Naturally I walked up to it and attacked it using 4 abilities, I even stole from it! The thing stunned me a few times and threw poison around (which hurt), knocking some people to the ground which introduced me to ability to revive players! Eventually me and my fellow compatriots brought the wurm down and all was well.

1/2

Kamui.4038:

1/2

Now lets look at what the update has done within these few moments, from a theoretical new player’s point of view:

I picked a warrior this time around. It had a sword and one ability on the bar. The other abilities had a padlock on them and told me I need to reach so and so levels to use them. Alright, so I walk through the zone and fought the big boss, basically just pressing 1 and standing there until it keeled over. Exciting. I then woke up in the hallway of a house rather than near the beds for some reason – apparently the “Hero of Shaemoor” is not worth a hay mat to these people. Thanks for nothing, losers. I was greeted by a cutscene that told me to get some fresh air and exercise. After that cutscene I got to level 2, a leap ability unlocked for me, and I was greeted by a nagging winged diamond in the corner of the screen that reminds me of that thing from the Zelda game (you know what I’m talking about) and it with all these bells and whistles it praised me to high heaven for reaching level 2. Well thanks, I didn’t really earn it because all I did was press 1, but thanks I guess. It rewarded me with a slightly better sword than the one I already had. Great. Anyway I eventually get down to the farm and, what is this? I walked up to a cow and the game told me to entertain it for some reason. So I pressed the key and saw my character do a ridiculous dance that for some reason pleased the cow more than food would have, apparently. Why the heck am I dancing for cows? Shouldn’t I be feeding them, or milking them, or something like that? You know, something that makes sense? Anyway after stroking some corn stalks I made my way to the river north of the farm and wouldn’t you know it, a drake Broodmother appeared! Now unlike the Queen wurm, this Broodmother must have been peanuts because all I had to do was press 1 and stand there just like I did against those giant rocky hands that could lift a farm house yet die to a few sword swings from a dull sword that the reward thingy so graciously sharpened for me. My HP didn’t drop one bit, my life was never once threatened, and I just stood there… I didn’t even have to use the Leap ability I learned for hitting level 2 because the Broodmother spawned so close to me.

Anyway I eventually made it to a Moa farm and was greeted by level 5 bandits while I was level 3 still. They gave me a hard time but I steadied on. Around that area I saw the compass nagging me to LEARN TO DODGE. . . Well thank heavens! I thought dodging meant avoiding something, not moving into it, but thanks to GW2 my confusion was erased. Dodging now means “a stylish way to move around and into circles.” Good. I’m sure these circles on the ground are all going to benefit me later on in the future so I should surely roll into them from now on.

Eventually I hit level 5 and learned a third ability for this sword I had been using for about 15 minutes or so now. At this point, I don’t even know warriors even have some kind of unique ability to them or the ability to have more than one weapon in my hand. I see a shield in my inventory that I found but I can’t use it yet. Maybe that Guardian class who’s icon is a shield uses this weapon, and that they punch things with Shields. Regardless, I walked back towards the farm area where I danced for leering cows only to be greeted by the Queen wurm again! Ahh my old rival, time for a good battle! I leaped into action, pressed 1, and eventually it died. No poison, no stuns, no need to dodge into anything… nothing. I pressed 1 and occasionally 3 and it died. The queen has become a pawn.

I think people can see where I am going with all of this. There is nothing easier about any of this, in fact it’s actually more convoluted, more confusing, and not only is it more convoluted and confusing because so much of it doesn’t make a lick of sense, the game was treating me like a pea-brained imbecile every step of the way.

2/2

The underwater skills unlocking+10lvl but you have a underwater quest in asura starter map early around lvl 4 or 5 i don’t if they changed that. My self only 2 or 1 underwater skill when i was below lvl 14 third was unlocked at lvl 14.

Ashen.2907:

MikaHR.1978:

Actualy you unlock weapon skills much faster than before, so did you inform him it was much worse before and that you had to grind every single weapon skill 1 by 1 which would often take above lvl 15(which now equals to much higher level)

And no, you unlock downed state at lvl5 and underwater at lvl1 (with weapon and skill2 on lvl8)

To be fair I dont think Ive see it take longer than level 6 or 7 to unlock all weapons on a character.

Really? I just leveled 2 characters to 15-ish since i got some new char slots on 2nd anniversary sale

By level 7 i was done with barely half of weapons.

And yeah, i didint grind monsters just because of weapons skills, that would make it all that much worse. Not to mention juggling all the weapons around. AND that you actually had to have every lowbie weapon to unlock them.