Guild Wars 2

Just so you know, I’m firmly on the side of people who say the lack of gear grind and emphasis on equal stats after a certain point is a good thing and the way forward for this genre. I find the accusations of ANet having missed the point to be ill-founded.

However, I do think it’s a genuine and fair concern that there needs to be some feeling, however illusory, of progression and reward once levelling is maxed out. Something to aim for, say, for people who’re perhaps less imaginative when setting their own goals or who’re driven by a sense of completion.

This is my suggestion: a long, long list of special achievements for difficult or ridiculous feats in combat, to be rewarded by rare skin drops, karma and money.

Examples of some of these achievements (based around the ranger, because that’s the class I’m most familiar with):

Combat

• Finish off two enemies at the same time with one ricochet.
• Kill three enemies by tricking them into attacking a veteran oakheart.
• Set four separate enemies on fire with flaming arrows in under four seconds.
• Set six enemies on fire at once with bonfire or flame trap and survive the encounter.
• Kill five risen in under three minutes whilst naked except for your boots.
• Reflect six projectiles with a single whirling defence.
• Kill an enemy using only your offhand weapon.
• Kill an enemy using the longbow without them coming within 500 range of you.

Support

• Come to the aid of 10 separate downed players not in your guild, having previously not entered the fray (in other words, you weren’t already fighting alongside them).
• Heal the most (excluding self-healing) in a group of five or more when successfully defeating a champion or boss.
• Cure the most conditions (excluding self-healing) in a group of five or more when successfully defeating a champion or boss.
• Inflict the most conditions in a group of five or more when successfully defeating a champion or boss.

I think I like this idea (although I’m yet to get my first character to 80). I think it would keep you thinking whilst grinding/exploring, etc about how you can strategise for these achivements. It might mean trying out different weapon/utility combos than you’re used to and challenge you to adapt to a different play style.

I can see that it would add a little something to the post-80 experience, perhaps if these class-based skill only unlocked at level 70+.

I agree that it’s probably best to introduce it only at level 70 or so. That’s exactly the point where I started to wonder what my aims in the game would be once I’d cleared the last 10 levels.

Hmm. Bit disappointed this thread – and compromises along these lines – are being ignored by players who seem to feel the only acceptable endgame is gear grind.

Interesting at best.
You’d have to think carefully and perhaps input some restrictions.
Because killing a few things with your offhand weapon isn’t going to be
difficult if you can just go to one of the starter areas/zones and use it there,
which does 999 damage at that point : p. Haha. But maybe you could tailor
these, so that each class gets their own variant of achievements.