Guild Wars 2

Although Anet has reconfigured the foundation of the game. Currently no vertical nor horizontal progression has been added to the game. So in the long run is there any strategy at all to builds? Anything that makes one player unique from another? There is nothing to work towards other then legendarys and they honestly arn’t worth the time you put into them for they are but skins.

While I agree no progression has been added to the game (with the obvious exception of Ascended which was talked about since near-release), I’d like to ask you what exactly do you want to see out of progression? If you want to see vertical progression, you can uninstall Guild Wars 2 now because that is not that the Guild Wars Way.

Also, as far as the Legendaries go – they are a fun grind. I’ve almost got my first Legendary. You should consider grinding for one for the horizontal progression. Guild Wars has never been about vertical progression with extreme rarity and value, only horizontal progression to earn the name Fashion Wars.

Don’t complain about a lack of progression if there is plenty of horizontal progression you haven’t tapped yet.

Nope. We are all running around with the same cookie-cutter build and the same sparkly greatsword. Running the same content for the same green loot. Yawn

Ha,
Guild Wars= Build Wars
Guild Wars2= Fashion Wars= Runway Wars=Tyria’s Top Model

From time to time I look at the traits and wonder, would I ever use that? Many traits, to me have become the useless skills that never got any playtime in the first game.
I guess you see this sort of thing in all games, but it seems as though there are more here than other games I have played with this tree system set up.

I think there are even more traits that find themselves in every build that are difficult to let go off because they provide so much utility. Probably even more utility than those 3 on your skill bar.

Then, I think that the same thing can be said for those utility skills/heal skills and elites.

Hopefully we see new weapon skills sooner than later to spice things up a bit to increase some diversity.

The Point of guildwars is that skill it IS working towards that skin, and not the kittening grindfest from wow progression feels like being on a hamster wheel
skins mean the the difference is player skill

RaGe.9834:

The Point of guildwars is that skill it IS working towards that skin, and not the kittening grindfest from wow progression feels like being on a hamster wheel
skins mean the the difference is player skill

there is still, no progression, and it doesnt have to be gear based, there is just, virtually no progression. Horizontal, vertical, sideways, nothin.

FFXI had max level at 75 for like umm 4-5 years? they had tons of progression even with that though. 3 or 4 different overarching progressive plotlines, massive amounts of gear specialization, many different end game contents of varying difficulty/types. New zones to work towards. A max level skill progression system, many many classes and abilities to master, i think like 24?

but lets not say progression, because people just think of leveling up, or getting statistically more powerful gear.
lets just say, depth.
It has virtually no depth, and its breadth, well you basically do all its breadth in about 1-2/3 weeks. well you can go slower, but lets say its basically around 80-99 hours of gameplay, as far as depth, i would say the depth stops around level 45, by level kitten, you have seen pretty close to the max difficulty, outside of arah dungeon.
item wise, stats basically provide the same things just in higher numbers from 3 stats onwards.

Some of this was intentional, so that everything had similar weight, but after about a year, you want to get better, or see more things, or uncover more of whats happening in the world. some type of depth..

phys.7689:

RaGe.9834:

The Point of guildwars is that skill it IS working towards that skin, and not the kittening grindfest from wow progression feels like being on a hamster wheel
skins mean the the difference is player skill

there is still, no progression, and it doesnt have to be gear based, there is just, virtually no progression. Horizontal, vertical, sideways, nothin.

FFXI had max level at 75 for like umm 4-5 years? they had tons of progression even with that though. 3 or 4 different overarching progressive plotlines, massive amounts of gear specialization, many different end game contents of varying difficulty/types. New zones to work towards. A max level skill progression system, many many classes and abilities to master, i think like 24?

but lets not say progression, because people just think of leveling up, or getting statistically more powerful gear.
lets just say, depth.
It has virtually no depth, and its breadth, well you basically do all its breadth in about 1-2/3 weeks. well you can go slower, but lets say its basically around 80-99 hours of gameplay, as far as depth, i would say the depth stops around level 45, by level kitten, you have seen pretty close to the max difficulty, outside of arah dungeon.
item wise, stats basically provide the same things just in higher numbers from 3 stats onwards.

Some of this was intentional, so that everything had similar weight, but after about a year, you want to get better, or see more things, or uncover more of whats happening in the world. some type of depth..

This

One reason, why I want Anet so desperately to improve this Game by adding for all Classes somewhen into the future Sub Classes, as they give the game alot more horizontal, as like vertical depth at the same time, without that players need to grind for tons of new gear and materials that are ultra rare, time gated or locked behind RNG whats even worser >.>

Adding just more skills and traits is also a form of progression as also addign more equippable weapons.
adding also to the weapon skills different “Skill Sets” would be a form of progression I think that really alot of people are wishing for, so that players wielding weapon X wouldnt be so extremly predictable anymore and it would naturally increase alot the build variety and character individuality, if weapon skilsl would receive also multiple different skil lsets between that players could change outside of battles.

Example 1 Set, thats better for aggressive combat, 1 that is better for defensive combat and 1 that is better für supportive combat …

Equipment progression isn#t also still complete.
GW2 could/should get anywhen later also legendary armors, legendary accessoires and ascended runes/sigils as like also the infusion System could need improvements here and could be used at any given time to add more vertical/horizontal progression, like anet has said it about that system around infusiions and ascended stuff, with their first blogpost, that the stuff, that they added was just the beginning and that they could add in the future always more stuff, if they thiunk that its needed to keep the players busy and entertained.

Then there are also far other options for horizontal progression, like adding features into the game, like Mounts, Housing, Naval/Sky Traveling/Battles (build your own Ship/Air Ship)

This game is far away from making usage of all of its potential.
people must also learn to understand finally, that MMORPG’s like GW2 are no shorttime projects, but rather longtime projects, designed to run for at least 5+ years and longer and that games like these are like flowers, which bloom and get prettier and prettier over time.

Also in WvW we are far away from all its massive potential, that lies in that gamepaly mode. Also here we will surely see in the near future more stuff added for more progression, be it new wvw skills, like the leaked Assault Mastery or Reinforcement Mastery, which Anet is holding back so far whyever, or new perks to the existing WvW skilsl to raise them also to 10 perks, like the first 2 WvW Skills that are based on killing guards.

Or they could what I massiely hope for add finally class specific WvW Skilsl to improve the roles of all classes in WvW better.
And theres alot of positive things from the Eotm Map, that should get added for now also into the other maps.

However, whatever they do, GW2 can become just only better

You could always try l2p.

Honing your skills is a progression. In most MMOs where you can’t move while casting, the skill is in the skill buildup.

Here the skill is much different. WvW roamers and people who play TPvP will tell you there’s more to skill than just builds and cookie cutter builds aren’t all that’s used.

Using a cookie cutter is a choice. Running with a zerg, that’s a choice.

Why depend on a company to give you artificial progression? Until you can solo the hardest stuff in the game, the progress is in the honing of your skill.

Everything else is window dressing.

Vayne.8563:

Honing your skills is a progression. In most MMOs where you can’t move while casting, the skill is in the skill buildup.

Here the skill is much different. WvW roamers and people who play TPvP will tell you there’s more to skill than just builds and cookie cutter builds aren’t all that’s used.

Using a cookie cutter is a choice. Running with a zerg, that’s a choice.

Why depend on a company to give you artificial progression? Until you can solo the hardest stuff in the game, the progress is in the honing of your skill.

Everything else is window dressing.

soloing stuff is not really a thing, i mean essentially you are taking 5 times as long to do something. I dont hate it, but its not really a goal i would promote as many people have.
If one dude can beat 5 dudes at once, it implies he needs more challenging opponents.

as for the pvp, yeah pvp is as good as your opponents, generally, but not everyone wants to pvp.

Fafnir.5124:

Although Anet has reconfigured the foundation of the game. Currently no vertical nor horizontal progression has been added to the game. So in the long run is there any strategy at all to builds? Anything that makes one player unique from another? There is nothing to work towards other then legendarys and they honestly arn’t worth the time you put into them for they are but skins.

Depends on who you talk to. For me, skins make or break an item. In most games, if the BiS raid gear didn’t look cool, I didn’t bother with it because what’s the point of it? It’s BiS so you don’t need it to get anything else and seeing bigger numbers didn’t exactly blow my mind in a MMO.

Xae Isareth.1364:

Fafnir.5124:

Although Anet has reconfigured the foundation of the game. Currently no vertical nor horizontal progression has been added to the game. So in the long run is there any strategy at all to builds? Anything that makes one player unique from another? There is nothing to work towards other then legendarys and they honestly arn’t worth the time you put into them for they are but skins.

Depends on who you talk to. For me, skins make or break an item. In most games, if the BiS raid gear didn’t look cool, I didn’t bother with it because what’s the point of it? It’s BiS so you don’t need it to get anything else and seeing bigger numbers didn’t exactly blow my mind in a MMO.

In FFXI, they didnt go with a pure numbers gear value. They tried to limit power creep, so new items they gave, were generally strictly speaking not more powerful, but they offered new ways to hone your abilities.
One of the most desired stats was haste, which made you attack/recharge rate go down. But that is mostly useful for tearing up normal enemies.
Then you would have direct status increases which was better for overcoming bosses high innate defense stats.
There were special sets that enhanced job abilities, and others that gave weak versions of abilities you couldnt get elsewhere.

Essentially the stat system/item set possibilities were deep, so while something wasnt necessarily stronger overall, it had its specific uses.

For example a low manning monk (thing fighting boxer) might focus on counter boosting stats.

point is, there were still items i wanted, not because its stats made you mechanically more powerful, but because they made you way more versatile, and you could try interesting new modes of play you couldnt before.
There were some issues with people needing massive inventory, and the insane gear swapping that could occur, but if you know that going in you can build to avoid that. (simplest solution is to have a seperate armory like system for gear, and unbind appearance from gear)

GW2 kind of does this with runes, and traits, but neither is deep enough, nor tied to deeper content (yet)
runes will always be something that requires a massive investment, and cannot easily be changed, so no one can really experiment with runes except in spvp. My feeling is that they should make runes unlockable by some means, and swappable, but i doubt they would do that.