Guild Wars 2

I quit the game a few years back…I didnt really like the living story stuff.

How is it now?

Pretty good. How are you?

cesmode.4257:

I quit the game a few years back…I didnt really like the living story stuff.

How is it now?

The game is really good. Xpac 2 probably coming next year. I suggest you come play. Fractals have expanded a lot. There’s a huge incentive to play fractals. Raids are really good with a great story. Spvp become a lot better, but since Anet failed to make spvp esporty material, it got taken down from esports. They still working on wvw. Personal story is really good. They have current events and they’re cool. I like it, it’s come a long way. Fingers crossed for a promising Xpac

I quit myself a few years ago and have been back a few months. Agree with you on the prior way living story was being handled. I’m having a really good time and am hooked. I’m certain that if they could just release gw2 today in it’s current state with a clean slate that it would be a huge sensation even after all this time.

They made a lot of improvements to the game, the economy is much healthier and you can make gold / progress doing pretty much whatever you feel like as opposed to CoF spam before. A ton of quality of life stuff, collectible things to improve your account, more account wide stuff etc… A lot of old systems that didn’t make sense have been completely revamped and feel better.

With the pros and cons I listed just to sum it up. It’s a great game now much, much better then it used to be and something pretty special. What is stacked against it is simply that it’s been out a while, and no longer a sensation. A lot of players have tried it and decided to move on long ago. Population and the band-aids they’ve had to add to address declining population are it’s weakness but the game on it’s own I would say is top notch and unique in the current MMO playing field.

A discouraging thing is that there seems to be many cases of Dev’s saying they are stretching their man-power too thin and they are pulling people off aspects of the game one by one. For example it’s rumored that WvW doesn’t even have an active developer on it and it’s addressed rarely when other teams have time to make some changes. i’m pretty sure they are banking in on gem sales since all my guilds seem to be spamming legendaries on their credit cards 24/7 so I think the community is giving the Devs to much breathing room on this point. I’ve seen enough super adventure cloud gliders in the last week to pay my yearly salary and I’m certain a single person could generate that entire asset within a single eight hour work day.

Stego.2483:

- SPvp got a lot better

What are you talking about? It’s as dead is it can be. The playerbase is almost completely gone, rewards were nerfed, teams are banned from ranked, still 1 gamemode, 1 real balance patch a year..

witcher.3197:

Stego.2483:

- SPvp got a lot better

What are you talking about? It’s as dead is it can be. The playerbase is almost completely gone, rewards were nerfed, teams are banned from ranked, still 1 gamemode, 1 real balance patch a year..

It used to be worse….trust me you don’t wanna know. Yea I know they had a pit fall recently, everyone talking about.

Welcome back cesmode, I remember your name lol.

Right now:

• HoT content is good, though not as huge as it should have been.
• There’s raids if you are into that.
• A few new legendaries.
• Fractals are a lot better.
• Spvp is generally better (imo).
• Living world continues with new maps. (new episode in a week or so)
• WvW is… eh… kinda dead from what I can tell. Certainly not where it used to be.

In future:

• Probably another 4 living world episodes before next expansion.
• Next expansion probably not till next year.
• Generally expect a new living world episode every 2-3 months.
• Generally expect a new raid wing… maybe… every 3 or so months.
• No clue if they even care about breathing life back in WvW.
• Expect a new Spvp map every once in a blue moon.
• Expect them to continue pretending esports will be a thing one day.

Conclusions:

I think the next expansion will decide the future of this game. It’s very critical to make up for the shortcomings of HoT. The content was good but there just wasn’t enough of it and a LOT of missed opportunities in the story. We only got 3 real maps and people were expecting a lot more than that. If the next expansion doesn’t go above and beyond then I expect a lot of people will be leaving.

I worries me that these forums seem way less active than they used to be. The front page used to cycle through topics in less than an hour. Now I can post a new topic and get no replies and it will still be on the front page two days later. There are threads on the front page of class forums that are more than a week old and you can’t reply to them without checking the bypass bump box.

A lot of people say the game is great, and maybe it is. But the audience is definitely shrinking…

I cant tell you for your self if the game is good for you to play now but for me, ehhhh its ok ^^

iKeostuKen.2738:

To everyone saying pvp is better, you are full of it.

PvP is nothing but HoT Power creep. Literally its pay for easy mode since elite specs broke pvp beyond anet’s repair. Your only chance of actually being able to fight elite specs is going complete cheese meta.

You must be a free player complaining about elites. Short answer is no it didn’t destroy anything, it actually helped balance gameplay and added usefulness to classes that were being neglected.

Adry.7512:

iKeostuKen.2738:

To everyone saying pvp is better, you are full of it.

PvP is nothing but HoT Power creep. Literally its pay for easy mode since elite specs broke pvp beyond anet’s repair. Your only chance of actually being able to fight elite specs is going complete cheese meta.

You must be a free player complaining about elites. Short answer is no it didn’t destroy anything, it actually helped balance gameplay and added usefulness to classes that were being neglected.

Yes because thieves on full evade dealing 5k+ crits when dodging is balanced gameplay. No, it made the game more “Build plays for you” then actual active play. And guess again, i bought HoT, fully regret it from a PvP perspective. And, If you want to fix neglected classes, then do that from the core.

Elite specs were really just the worst idea for additions to classes in this game. Even worse since you have to give up a trait line to even gain access to skills or the weapon in the tree.

iKeostuKen.2738:

To everyone saying pvp is better, you are full of it.

PvP is nothing but HoT Power creep. Literally its pay for easy mode since elite specs broke pvp beyond anet’s repair. Your only chance of actually being able to fight elite specs is going complete cheese meta.

You’re right that an elite spec would most likely be able to 1 v 5 an entire team of f2p in just a few moves unless 1 of those 5 really knows their stuff.

I think gw2 overall has been a very honest B2P model. I see your point that the box price is gating a huge power gain but personally I believe the box price is fair for the huge amount of content GW2 has to offer. (There’s always going to be a dark side to F2P games). I consider the f2p version a demo to get started and try it, it’s not intrinsically wrong if the base game is behind the cost of the box/expansion.

You are right also, the build does play you now, in more serious pve and in pvp you pretty much have to do what the destined build wants you to do as exactly as you can. It was more liberal before where you could shape things around what you liked. Cooldowns were more for utility/mobility/survival/cc to suit your tastes.

The build-enforcing though is because of balancing. PVE & PVP feel very balanced (mostly), at least compared to before. I think the balance team felt they had to control exactly how everything would be played in order to ensure they would all perform about the same. Kind of a cop out maybe by narrowing their path it became easier to maintain them.

I’m not crazy about attaching weapons to the spec either, feels a bit clunky and think those extra weapons should just become available at a certain point. Elite specs will be nice if they add more that are equal power but offer different things. That might become a balancing nightmare however and most likely would be more pay wall gates like you mentioned that would make people upset so it’s tricky.

Last Note: I would be happy if they let F2P access elite in SPvp since stats are normalized there anyways but obviously that would be giving people the full game for $0 if all they wanted to do was PvP. It could be a nice gesture and keep the pvp community really thriving with a high population but I’m not their CFO so I can’t say the long term impacts that would have on $$$.

iKeostuKen.2738:

Adry.7512:

iKeostuKen.2738:

To everyone saying pvp is better, you are full of it.

PvP is nothing but HoT Power creep. Literally its pay for easy mode since elite specs broke pvp beyond anet’s repair. Your only chance of actually being able to fight elite specs is going complete cheese meta.

You must be a free player complaining about elites. Short answer is no it didn’t destroy anything, it actually helped balance gameplay and added usefulness to classes that were being neglected.

Yes because thieves on full evade dealing 5k+ crits when dodging is balanced gameplay. No, it made the game more “Build plays for you” then actual active play. And guess again, i bought HoT, fully regret it from a PvP perspective. And, If you want to fix neglected classes, then do that from the core.

Elite specs were really just the worst idea for additions to classes in this game. Even worse since you have to give up a trait line to even gain access to skills or the weapon in the tree.

A thief can get dropped by a good player. It also depends what class you play because while elite specs added more variety, some classes stayed with a specific job if you know what I mean. No build plays for you, because good players vs bad ones can be easily distinguished. I do see your perspective, but I don’t completely agree.

Pve still the main focus and if you hate living story 1 back then which personally I consider it was fun because it were massive scale events. I am not sure if you will like the living story now. Maybe we have different taste, you should consider trying it out yourself.

Hey mate, welcome back. Yeah, I’m still here. Not as happy with the direction of the game, but still happy with quite a bit of the stuff that’s come out. For example, a new zone with each living story chapter. The stories are better than the were too, at least to me.

If you own Heart of Thorns, there’s more challenging content in both the open world and raids. Gliding has changed the game quite a bit for me, and my guild hall is fully upgraded, and happily chugging along.

I still play every day.

cesmode, how long ago did you quit? Was it before or after season 2 of the living world?

I seem to remember both you and I were unhappy with season 1 of living world, but personally I think season 2 was much better. The story was better in the second half. Season 3 has been good so far, but not quite as good as the second half of season 2. Again that’s just my opinion. Either way the living world content has improved a lot since season 1, but I can understand if living world as a whole is not your cup of tea.

Adry.7512:

iKeostuKen.2738:

Adry.7512:

iKeostuKen.2738:

To everyone saying pvp is better, you are full of it.

PvP is nothing but HoT Power creep. Literally its pay for easy mode since elite specs broke pvp beyond anet’s repair. Your only chance of actually being able to fight elite specs is going complete cheese meta.

You must be a free player complaining about elites. Short answer is no it didn’t destroy anything, it actually helped balance gameplay and added usefulness to classes that were being neglected.

Yes because thieves on full evade dealing 5k+ crits when dodging is balanced gameplay. No, it made the game more “Build plays for you” then actual active play. And guess again, i bought HoT, fully regret it from a PvP perspective. And, If you want to fix neglected classes, then do that from the core.

Elite specs were really just the worst idea for additions to classes in this game. Even worse since you have to give up a trait line to even gain access to skills or the weapon in the tree.

A thief can get dropped by a good player. It also depends what class you play because while elite specs added more variety, some classes stayed with a specific job if you know what I mean. No build plays for you, because good players vs bad ones can be easily distinguished. I do see your perspective, but I don’t completely agree.

Its an example of what this game’s pvp has become, broken garbage. I really only play it due to theory crafting but seeing how this game functions now is just silly.

Warriors are now basically heavy armored thieves. (Tanky and bursty, with lots of sustain heals and damage negation)

Guardians have gained a lot of defensive boost but at the same time they have high offense. I’m starting to notice that some guards can burst players down 10k when they teleport, something you cant dodge should never be hitting you for this much dmg. Another thing to note, DH, a lot of access to blocks, brain dead traps (Actually better then rangers traps), High range damage, i really don’t know why.

Just 2 examples of how poor the design has been along the years with this game.

Xenon.4537:

I think the next expansion will decide the future of this game. It’s very critical to make up for the shortcomings of HoT. The content was good but there just wasn’t enough of it and a LOT of missed opportunities in the story. We only got 3 real maps and people were expecting a lot more than that. If the next expansion doesn’t go above and beyond then I expect a lot of people will be leaving.

I worries me that these forums seem way less active than they used to be. The front page used to cycle through topics in less than an hour. Now I can post a new topic and get no replies and it will still be on the front page two days later. There are threads on the front page of class forums that are more than a week old and you can’t reply to them without checking the bypass bump box.

A lot of people say the game is great, and maybe it is. But the audience is definitely shrinking…

This.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Xenon.4537:

I think the next expansion will decide the future of this game. It’s very critical to make up for the shortcomings of HoT. The content was good but there just wasn’t enough of it and a LOT of missed opportunities in the story. We only got 3 real maps and people were expecting a lot more than that. If the next expansion doesn’t go above and beyond then I expect a lot of people will be leaving.

I worries me that these forums seem way less active than they used to be. The front page used to cycle through topics in less than an hour. Now I can post a new topic and get no replies and it will still be on the front page two days later. There are threads on the front page of class forums that are more than a week old and you can’t reply to them without checking the bypass bump box.

A lot of people say the game is great, and maybe it is. But the audience is definitely shrinking…

This.

Reddit seems pretty busy. Maybe it’s a forum thing more than an audience thing.

A lot of people have just moved on. This happens when they lose faith in the game or get really burned.

Currently, GW2’s content patches are actually of high quality. But it took years until we got to this point, and newcomers and returning players can’t even enjoy the new story without paying (which they might not do before regaining their lost faith back, and they won’t regain it neither, if they can’t enjoy the new content before doing so).

At the same time, it’s clear to most of the community today that a lot of GW2’s fundamental flaws are not going to be fixed without revamping way too many things, something Anet clearly has not enough budget for. Boring enemy AI, repetitive and monotonous world exploration, dominance of zerker gear, boring dungeons, etc. may be things of the past (new content is much better at this), but that past is 90% of the base game, and it’s what new players will still experience today.

On top of that, the game is entirely driven by the trading post, which has made the reward systems really poor and the loot tables unexciting. Anet’s attempts at improving rewards have made the game a better experience, but it’s far from what it could have been. GW2 is mediocre both at vertical and horizontal progression. Ascended gear was poorly implemented, stat swapping is for the rich players (which means that the zerker-dominated meta is also a bless for your average player), and most cosmetics are black lion weapons or non-customisable outfits. The wardrobe is restricting, there’s no build templates, the balance team does not have enough time to properly balance this game, and we very rarely get new armor sets. When we do, most of them are ugly and overly designed, but generally, the game only offers us a headpiece or a pair of gloves each story episode. And it has been like that for years.

As it is, GW2 is currently best enjoyed if you log in every few weeks for new content patches, because that’s where quality content comes from. The community has lost faith that Anet will ever improve the base game and make that wonderfully brilliant game that they wanted it to be after underdelivering so much in the past.

I feel that the game is dropping players, but since the game is solo friendly to a fault and the megaserver system should make sure that all popular zones are decently populated, I wouldn’t worry about the population drop if it turns out to be real. (That’s Arenanet’s problem.)

Personally, I play this game on and off, almost always solo and unguilded, but if someone wants me to join a group for non-PvP content I’ll be happy to help. For what I get out of this game, it’s well worth the initial price + expansion price.

DiogoSilva.7089:

newcomers and returning players can’t even enjoy the new story without paying

This is a major problem. In fact I think it is highly underestimated how bad this is for Anet’s bottom line.

Anet pays a team of people to develop content that they give away for free for two weeks before charging money for that labor. The only way they recoup that loss is through gem store sales and hoping returning players will purchase it.

On top of that they don’t even market the old living world content at all. No advertisements on this website or reddit. No banner ad in the gem store panel. Nothing. Even then, each episode is only 200 gems ($2.50 USD) which is tiny compared to the thousands of dollars in man-hours it cost them to develop each episode.

Anet should at least put up a banner ad for old episodes. I personally think season 2 is worth every penny for the story (it’s about $20 USD in total). They should market that and put it on sale once or twice a year for returning players. I know a lot of returning or brand new players who don’t even know about season 2 and they miss out on some great content.

Now I know some people might argue that returning players should get it for free, but I just don’t agree. It was free for active players as a courtesy for actively supporting the game at the time it was released. $2.50 for an episode is more than fair price for returning players (considering minipets are triple that price and no one complains).

Everyone is always worried about Anet’s budget. Well, I think this would help them and it baffles me they don’t market their own product…

Anet should also make LS2+HoT bundles, especially as HoT price falls over the time.

I agree that the marketing for living season is too obscure. New and returning players don’t know what they should buy to stay updated. Anet is willing to keep things simple when it comes to expansions (buy the lastest one and get all previous expansions), but they aren’t doing the same thing with LS, which is really confusing.

Xenon.4537:

DiogoSilva.7089:

newcomers and returning players can’t even enjoy the new story without paying

This is a major problem. In fact I think it is highly underestimated how bad this is for Anet’s bottom line.

Anet pays a team of people to develop content that they give away for free for two weeks before charging money for that labor. The only way they recoup that loss is through gem store sales and hoping returning players will purchase it.

On top of that they don’t even market the old living world content at all. No advertisements on this website or reddit. No banner ad in the gem store panel. Nothing. Even then, each episode is only 200 gems ($2.50 USD) which is tiny compared to the thousands of dollars in man-hours it cost them to develop each episode.

Anet should at least put up a banner ad for old episodes. I personally think season 2 is worth every penny for the story (it’s about $20 USD in total). They should market that and put it on sale once or twice a year for returning players. I know a lot of returning or brand new players who don’t even know about season 2 and they miss out on some great content.

Now I know some people might argue that returning players should get it for free, but I just don’t agree. It was free for active players as a courtesy for actively supporting the game at the time it was released. $2.50 for an episode is more than fair price for returning players (considering minipets are triple that price and no one complains).

Everyone is always worried about Anet’s budget. Well, I think this would help them and it baffles me they don’t market their own product…

current storyisnt only available for 2 weeks for free

Vayne.8563:

Hey mate, welcome back. Yeah, I’m still here. Not as happy with the direction of the game, but still happy with quite a bit of the stuff that’s come out. For example, a new zone with each living story chapter. The stories are better than the were too, at least to me.

If you own Heart of Thorns, there’s more challenging content in both the open world and raids. Gliding has changed the game quite a bit for me, and my guild hall is fully upgraded, and happily chugging along.

I still play every day.

whats the direction that the game is taking that you dont like?

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Xenon.4537:

I think the next expansion will decide the future of this game. It’s very critical to make up for the shortcomings of HoT. The content was good but there just wasn’t enough of it and a LOT of missed opportunities in the story. We only got 3 real maps and people were expecting a lot more than that. If the next expansion doesn’t go above and beyond then I expect a lot of people will be leaving.

I worries me that these forums seem way less active than they used to be. The front page used to cycle through topics in less than an hour. Now I can post a new topic and get no replies and it will still be on the front page two days later. There are threads on the front page of class forums that are more than a week old and you can’t reply to them without checking the bypass bump box.

A lot of people say the game is great, and maybe it is. But the audience is definitely shrinking…

This.

Reddit seems pretty busy. Maybe it’s a forum thing more than an audience thing.

Free to play players can’t post on the forums. I keep bringing this up, and a lot of people ignore it, but it’s a fact.

Unless people don’t think that people play this game as free to play, which I can’t imagine, the forums can’t really be an accurate gauge of the in game population.

Aside from that, I know a number of people who used to post here all the time who stopped due to various infractions they didn’t feel they deserved.

zealex.9410:

Vayne.8563:

Hey mate, welcome back. Yeah, I’m still here. Not as happy with the direction of the game, but still happy with quite a bit of the stuff that’s come out. For example, a new zone with each living story chapter. The stories are better than the were too, at least to me.

If you own Heart of Thorns, there’s more challenging content in both the open world and raids. Gliding has changed the game quite a bit for me, and my guild hall is fully upgraded, and happily chugging along.

I still play every day.

whats the direction that the game is taking that you dont like?

I never felt raiding belonged in this game. I think some of the grind for certain items is too high for casual players, combined with timers and having to use LFG to get into specific maps, which seems to offend some people, even though I don’t mind it.

At the end of the day, with the new content, without a timer site and using LFG, it’s much harder to get stuff done. Half the playerbase doesn’t realize it.

Raids are a symptom of the game moving to harder content that requires more dedication to beat.

This game was once more pick up and play. You can still play it casually but you need to know a lot more.

iKeostuKen.2738:

Adry.7512:

iKeostuKen.2738:

Adry.7512:

iKeostuKen.2738:

To everyone saying pvp is better, you are full of it.

PvP is nothing but HoT Power creep. Literally its pay for easy mode since elite specs broke pvp beyond anet’s repair. Your only chance of actually being able to fight elite specs is going complete cheese meta.

You must be a free player complaining about elites. Short answer is no it didn’t destroy anything, it actually helped balance gameplay and added usefulness to classes that were being neglected.

Yes because thieves on full evade dealing 5k+ crits when dodging is balanced gameplay. No, it made the game more “Build plays for you” then actual active play. And guess again, i bought HoT, fully regret it from a PvP perspective. And, If you want to fix neglected classes, then do that from the core.

Elite specs were really just the worst idea for additions to classes in this game. Even worse since you have to give up a trait line to even gain access to skills or the weapon in the tree.

A thief can get dropped by a good player. It also depends what class you play because while elite specs added more variety, some classes stayed with a specific job if you know what I mean. No build plays for you, because good players vs bad ones can be easily distinguished. I do see your perspective, but I don’t completely agree.

Its an example of what this game’s pvp has become, broken garbage. I really only play it due to theory crafting but seeing how this game functions now is just silly.

Warriors are now basically heavy armored thieves. (Tanky and bursty, with lots of sustain heals and damage negation)

Guardians have gained a lot of defensive boost but at the same time they have high offense. I’m starting to notice that some guards can burst players down 10k when they teleport, something you cant dodge should never be hitting you for this much dmg. Another thing to note, DH, a lot of access to blocks, brain dead traps (Actually better then rangers traps), High range damage, i really don’t know why.

Just 2 examples of how poor the design has been along the years with this game.

Funny you mention warrior and guard. You can imagine how bad warriors were needed in pvp, they became kinda useless and then guards were just a one trick pony who sucked at 1v1. Those two classes were neglected really bad. Rangers use traps but it’s not a big focus in the class. Rangers are really good tho soooo who cares. I feel like they can fix pvp up a lot, but it terms of classes, they are adding variety and usefulness to each class.

Adry.7512:

iKeostuKen.2738:

Adry.7512:

iKeostuKen.2738:

Adry.7512:

iKeostuKen.2738:

To everyone saying pvp is better, you are full of it.

PvP is nothing but HoT Power creep. Literally its pay for easy mode since elite specs broke pvp beyond anet’s repair. Your only chance of actually being able to fight elite specs is going complete cheese meta.

You must be a free player complaining about elites. Short answer is no it didn’t destroy anything, it actually helped balance gameplay and added usefulness to classes that were being neglected.

Yes because thieves on full evade dealing 5k+ crits when dodging is balanced gameplay. No, it made the game more “Build plays for you” then actual active play. And guess again, i bought HoT, fully regret it from a PvP perspective. And, If you want to fix neglected classes, then do that from the core.

Elite specs were really just the worst idea for additions to classes in this game. Even worse since you have to give up a trait line to even gain access to skills or the weapon in the tree.

A thief can get dropped by a good player. It also depends what class you play because while elite specs added more variety, some classes stayed with a specific job if you know what I mean. No build plays for you, because good players vs bad ones can be easily distinguished. I do see your perspective, but I don’t completely agree.

Its an example of what this game’s pvp has become, broken garbage. I really only play it due to theory crafting but seeing how this game functions now is just silly.

Warriors are now basically heavy armored thieves. (Tanky and bursty, with lots of sustain heals and damage negation)

Guardians have gained a lot of defensive boost but at the same time they have high offense. I’m starting to notice that some guards can burst players down 10k when they teleport, something you cant dodge should never be hitting you for this much dmg. Another thing to note, DH, a lot of access to blocks, brain dead traps (Actually better then rangers traps), High range damage, i really don’t know why.

Just 2 examples of how poor the design has been along the years with this game.

Funny you mention warrior and guard. You can imagine how bad warriors were needed in pvp, they became kinda useless and then guards were just a one trick pony who sucked at 1v1. Those two classes were neglected really bad. Rangers use traps but it’s not a big focus in the class. Rangers are really good tho soooo who cares. I feel like they can fix pvp up a lot, but it terms of classes, they are adding variety and usefulness to each class.

The game shouldnt be balanced around 1v1 in the first place. Since the only pvp there is is based on on group play.

iKeostuKen.2738:

Adry.7512:

iKeostuKen.2738:

Adry.7512:

iKeostuKen.2738:

Adry.7512:

iKeostuKen.2738:

To everyone saying pvp is better, you are full of it.

PvP is nothing but HoT Power creep. Literally its pay for easy mode since elite specs broke pvp beyond anet’s repair. Your only chance of actually being able to fight elite specs is going complete cheese meta.

You must be a free player complaining about elites. Short answer is no it didn’t destroy anything, it actually helped balance gameplay and added usefulness to classes that were being neglected.

Yes because thieves on full evade dealing 5k+ crits when dodging is balanced gameplay. No, it made the game more “Build plays for you” then actual active play. And guess again, i bought HoT, fully regret it from a PvP perspective. And, If you want to fix neglected classes, then do that from the core.

Elite specs were really just the worst idea for additions to classes in this game. Even worse since you have to give up a trait line to even gain access to skills or the weapon in the tree.

A thief can get dropped by a good player. It also depends what class you play because while elite specs added more variety, some classes stayed with a specific job if you know what I mean. No build plays for you, because good players vs bad ones can be easily distinguished. I do see your perspective, but I don’t completely agree.

Its an example of what this game’s pvp has become, broken garbage. I really only play it due to theory crafting but seeing how this game functions now is just silly.

Warriors are now basically heavy armored thieves. (Tanky and bursty, with lots of sustain heals and damage negation)

Guardians have gained a lot of defensive boost but at the same time they have high offense. I’m starting to notice that some guards can burst players down 10k when they teleport, something you cant dodge should never be hitting you for this much dmg. Another thing to note, DH, a lot of access to blocks, brain dead traps (Actually better then rangers traps), High range damage, i really don’t know why.

Just 2 examples of how poor the design has been along the years with this game.

Funny you mention warrior and guard. You can imagine how bad warriors were needed in pvp, they became kinda useless and then guards were just a one trick pony who sucked at 1v1. Those two classes were neglected really bad. Rangers use traps but it’s not a big focus in the class. Rangers are really good tho soooo who cares. I feel like they can fix pvp up a lot, but it terms of classes, they are adding variety and usefulness to each class.

The game shouldnt be balanced around 1v1 in the first place. Since the only pvp there is is based on on group play.

It should because in situation where a 1v1 encounter occurs, the class that can’t hold their own evenly will simply get dropped like nothing. So yea sir it’s very much needed. On top of that spvp isn’t the only pvp type, and if Anet knows what they’re doing they will add more pvp options in the near future.

every game that has anpvp whether its teambased or not should be balanved around 1v1 that open the way for diff gametypes as well like arenas with 3v3 2v2 1v1s

Xenon.4537:

DiogoSilva.7089:

newcomers and returning players can’t even enjoy the new story without paying

This is a major problem. In fact I think it is highly underestimated how bad this is for Anet’s bottom line.

Anet pays a team of people to develop content that they give away for free for two weeks before charging money for that labor. The only way they recoup that loss is through gem store sales and hoping returning players will purchase it.

On top of that they don’t even market the old living world content at all. No advertisements on this website or reddit. No banner ad in the gem store panel. Nothing. Even then, each episode is only 200 gems ($2.50 USD) which is tiny compared to the thousands of dollars in man-hours it cost them to develop each episode.

Anet should at least put up a banner ad for old episodes. I personally think season 2 is worth every penny for the story (it’s about $20 USD in total). They should market that and put it on sale once or twice a year for returning players. I know a lot of returning or brand new players who don’t even know about season 2 and they miss out on some great content.

Now I know some people might argue that returning players should get it for free, but I just don’t agree. It was free for active players as a courtesy for actively supporting the game at the time it was released. $2.50 for an episode is more than fair price for returning players (considering minipets are triple that price and no one complains).

Everyone is always worried about Anet’s budget. Well, I think this would help them and it baffles me they don’t market their own product…

But that isn’t the case with Season 3, it’s free to bank until the next one comes out and they make it clear when it’s coming. I will assume that Season 3 will have a package deal like Season 2 has where it’s 20% cheaper and prorated when buying the package from the gem shop as oppose to the story panel. Yes, $21/1280 is a tad pricey for all of Season 2 which is what, 4 to 6 hours of story content?

But the carrot/stick approach to charging I think is there to keep players returning to play even, during season two, it’s just every two weeks. It’s the “on second thought” schizophrenic nature of the game. On one hand it’s designed around the notion that you the player can not feel obligated to play routinely and take stretches of time off, yet the devs then add mechanics to encourage players to play routinely or miss out.

[quote=6556741;Adry.7512:]

Vayne.8563:

I never felt raiding belonged in this game. I think some of the grind for certain items is too high for casual players, combined with timers and having to use LFG to get into specific maps, which seems to offend some people, even though I don’t mind it.

At the end of the day, with the new content, without a timer site and using LFG, it’s much harder to get stuff done. Half the playerbase doesn’t realize it.

…

This game was once more pick up and play. You can still play it casually but you need to know a lot more.

“much harder to get stuff done” pretty much nails it for me. There is much I like about the game but it is hard to progress at the goals I am interested in pursuing at a rate that feels fun. That to me is what they broke with HoT. The content I want to do feels locked behind timegates and content I don‘t want to do.

I wouldn’t mind working on another legendary for instance but i need to run fractals to get masteries and to unlock the collections and a bunch of other things that might appeal on my terms but not as a must do.

It is all made worse by the lurking sense that they knowingly wedged everything up to try to mask the somewhat limited content in HoT

qbalrog.8017:

Vayne.8563:

I never felt raiding belonged in this game. I think some of the grind for certain items is too high for casual players, combined with timers and having to use LFG to get into specific maps, which seems to offend some people, even though I don’t mind it.

At the end of the day, with the new content, without a timer site and using LFG, it’s much harder to get stuff done. Half the playerbase doesn’t realize it.

…

This game was once more pick up and play. You can still play it casually but you need to know a lot more.

“much harder to get stuff done” pretty much nails it for me. There is much I like about the game but it is hard to progress at the goals I am interested in pursuing at a rate that feels fun. That to me is what they broke with HoT. The content I want to do feels locked behind timegates and content I don‘t want to do.

I wouldn’t mind working on another legendary for instance but i need to run fractals to get masteries and to unlock the collections and a bunch of other things that might appeal on my terms but not as a must do.

It is all made worse by the lurking sense that they knowingly wedged everything up to try to mask the somewhat limited content in HoT

Okay so how is running fractals for a legendary any different from running dungeons, which you had to do originally?

Vayne.8563:

zealex.9410:

Vayne.8563:

Hey mate, welcome back. Yeah, I’m still here. Not as happy with the direction of the game, but still happy with quite a bit of the stuff that’s come out. For example, a new zone with each living story chapter. The stories are better than the were too, at least to me.

If you own Heart of Thorns, there’s more challenging content in both the open world and raids. Gliding has changed the game quite a bit for me, and my guild hall is fully upgraded, and happily chugging along.

I still play every day.

whats the direction that the game is taking that you dont like?

I never felt raiding belonged in this game. I think some of the grind for certain items is too high for casual players, combined with timers and having to use LFG to get into specific maps, which seems to offend some people, even though I don’t mind it.

At the end of the day, with the new content, without a timer site and using LFG, it’s much harder to get stuff done. Half the playerbase doesn’t realize it.

Raids are a symptom of the game moving to harder content that requires more dedication to beat.

This game was once more pick up and play. You can still play it casually but you need to know a lot more.

Interestng opinions. I believe tho that there need to be content and pace for 2 diff groups because not everyone plays this game casually as well as not everyone plays it hardcore. Both are parts of the population and both should be pleased by diff things anet does. Tbh i felt like the game needed some atttention to ppl who put alot more effort to do things and what not because imho completing harder things and getting what you came for that way feels all the more satisfying.

zealex.9410:

Vayne.8563:

zealex.9410:

Vayne.8563:

Hey mate, welcome back. Yeah, I’m still here. Not as happy with the direction of the game, but still happy with quite a bit of the stuff that’s come out. For example, a new zone with each living story chapter. The stories are better than the were too, at least to me.

If you own Heart of Thorns, there’s more challenging content in both the open world and raids. Gliding has changed the game quite a bit for me, and my guild hall is fully upgraded, and happily chugging along.

I still play every day.

whats the direction that the game is taking that you dont like?

I never felt raiding belonged in this game. I think some of the grind for certain items is too high for casual players, combined with timers and having to use LFG to get into specific maps, which seems to offend some people, even though I don’t mind it.

At the end of the day, with the new content, without a timer site and using LFG, it’s much harder to get stuff done. Half the playerbase doesn’t realize it.

Raids are a symptom of the game moving to harder content that requires more dedication to beat.

This game was once more pick up and play. You can still play it casually but you need to know a lot more.

Interestng opinions. I believe tho that there need to be content and pace for 2 diff groups because not everyone plays this game casually as well as not everyone plays it hardcore. Both are parts of the population and both should be pleased by diff things anet does. Tbh i felt like the game needed some atttention to ppl who put alot more effort to do things and what not because imho completing harder things and getting what you came for that way feels all the more satisfying.

I’ve discussed this elsewhere, and I’m not 100% sure this is the place for it, but I guess it does tie in to how the game is doing.

The game was mostly casual for 3 plus years. That means a lot of hard core players didn’t wait around. The game attracted casual players. It’s business model was based on casual players. And casual players came to play. That’s the game that was provided.

HoT is less casual. It can be soloed, but it can’t necessarily be casually soloed. When you change the game from it’s core offering, you end up with dissatisfied people. So maybe you do get some new people who like hard core stuff, but only at the risk of alienating your core player base…which is almost always a bad idea.

We’ve seen many comments on the difficulty of HoT, or the increased grind, or the inability to solo, or the lack of access for casual players. It’s not just one or two opinions, a lot of people hold these ideas. But they didn’t get those ideas in a vacuum. The game trained people to understand what they were going to get.

If you don’t like more difficult, more grindy content, and you bought the expansion, there’s at least a reasonable chance that you were going to be put off by something.

It’s not because the game doesn’t need harder core content. But the balance of casual content in the expansion to harder core content is off. If casual people were the most loyal, biggest part of the player base, then the game stood the most to lose by not catering to that demographic.

I’ve been saying this since long before HoT launched, in relation to raids, and the image of the game to casuals.

I really do believe that what I expected to happen has actually happened. I think the game did lose a percentage of it’s casual player base. I’m not sure enough hard core players are here to offset that loss.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Xenon.4537:

I think the next expansion will decide the future of this game. It’s very critical to make up for the shortcomings of HoT. The content was good but there just wasn’t enough of it and a LOT of missed opportunities in the story. We only got 3 real maps and people were expecting a lot more than that. If the next expansion doesn’t go above and beyond then I expect a lot of people will be leaving.

I worries me that these forums seem way less active than they used to be. The front page used to cycle through topics in less than an hour. Now I can post a new topic and get no replies and it will still be on the front page two days later. There are threads on the front page of class forums that are more than a week old and you can’t reply to them without checking the bypass bump box.

A lot of people say the game is great, and maybe it is. But the audience is definitely shrinking…

This.

Reddit seems pretty busy. Maybe it’s a forum thing more than an audience thing.

That could be a big factor, a forum that is broken and isn’t going to be updated (not that it couldn’t be changed but Anet doesn’t seem to want to address it), very limited interactions with Devs , and a system of moderation that some may feel to be over zealous. I imagine there are lurkers that just don’t interact here anymore.

Blude.6812:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Xenon.4537:

I think the next expansion will decide the future of this game. It’s very critical to make up for the shortcomings of HoT. The content was good but there just wasn’t enough of it and a LOT of missed opportunities in the story. We only got 3 real maps and people were expecting a lot more than that. If the next expansion doesn’t go above and beyond then I expect a lot of people will be leaving.

I worries me that these forums seem way less active than they used to be. The front page used to cycle through topics in less than an hour. Now I can post a new topic and get no replies and it will still be on the front page two days later. There are threads on the front page of class forums that are more than a week old and you can’t reply to them without checking the bypass bump box.

A lot of people say the game is great, and maybe it is. But the audience is definitely shrinking…

This.

Reddit seems pretty busy. Maybe it’s a forum thing more than an audience thing.

That could be a big factor, a forum that is broken and isn’t going to be updated (not that it couldn’t be changed but Anet doesn’t seem to want to address it), very limited interactions with Devs , and a system of moderation that some may feel to be over zealous. I imagine there are lurkers that just don’t interact here anymore.

You win.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Blude.6812:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Xenon.4537:

I think the next expansion will decide the future of this game. It’s very critical to make up for the shortcomings of HoT. The content was good but there just wasn’t enough of it and a LOT of missed opportunities in the story. We only got 3 real maps and people were expecting a lot more than that. If the next expansion doesn’t go above and beyond then I expect a lot of people will be leaving.

I worries me that these forums seem way less active than they used to be. The front page used to cycle through topics in less than an hour. Now I can post a new topic and get no replies and it will still be on the front page two days later. There are threads on the front page of class forums that are more than a week old and you can’t reply to them without checking the bypass bump box.

A lot of people say the game is great, and maybe it is. But the audience is definitely shrinking…

This.

Reddit seems pretty busy. Maybe it’s a forum thing more than an audience thing.

That could be a big factor, a forum that is broken and isn’t going to be updated (not that it couldn’t be changed but Anet seem to want to address it), very limited interactions with Devs , and a system of moderation that some may feel to be over zealous. I imagine there are lurkers that just don’t interact here anymore.

You win.

LOL—‘lurker mode’!!!! BTW I left out a word and changed it to “doesn’t seem”

cesmode.4257:

I quit the game a few years back…I didnt really like the living story stuff.

How is it now?

I am a returning player myself. I was gone for almost 2 years, so I missed a lot. Since being back, here is my take on what I have discovered.

I was never a Living Story person. Having said that, I like season 3 so far. It is more like the personal story from way back when than the staged event system that the whole Scarlett debacle was. I am enjoying it immensely, and I am looking forward to the next episode.

WvW has changed in that the new elite classes and specs make it difficult for old-school eles like me to get back in the swing of things, but I am learning.

I never got into sPvP, so I can’t comment.

The new zones are pleasantly difficult. I like the fact that I can’t take a nap on my keyboard and still complete the meta.

Eventually, I hope to get into raiding, but until I get farther along with my character and learn the things that others already have down pat, I’ll putter along with what I am doing.

The only thing that I really dislike is the grind involved for the masteries. I am bored with the same events over and over for the experience necessary to make it to the next mastery level. Not only for HoT, but now for Tyria core as well. Not that I mind working for them, but it just doesn’t seem to go as smoothly as leveling my character did.

Hope that helps. Keep in mind that its only my opinion, and YMMV.

Ashabhi.1365:

cesmode.4257:

I quit the game a few years back…I didnt really like the living story stuff.

How is it now?

I am a returning player myself. I was gone for almost 2 years, so I missed a lot. Since being back, here is my take on what I have discovered.

I was never a Living Story person. Having said that, I like season 3 so far. It is more like the personal story from way back when than the staged event system that the whole Scarlett debacle was. I am enjoying it immensely, and I am looking forward to the next episode.

WvW has changed in that the new elite classes and specs make it difficult for old-school eles like me to get back in the swing of things, but I am learning.

I never got into sPvP, so I can’t comment.

The new zones are pleasantly difficult. I like the fact that I can’t take a nap on my keyboard and still complete the meta.

Eventually, I hope to get into raiding, but until I get farther along with my character and learn the things that others already have down pat, I’ll putter along with what I am doing.

The only thing that I really dislike is the grind involved for the masteries. I am bored with the same events over and over for the experience necessary to make it to the next mastery level. Not only for HoT, but now for Tyria core as well. Not that I mind working for them, but it just doesn’t seem to go as smoothly as leveling my character did.

Hope that helps. Keep in mind that its only my opinion, and YMMV.

Just some advice on leveling masteries. Use buffs. Don’t just depend on dynamic events. Killing stuff with high bonus XP will level your masteries faster than doing events will, and it’s far easier to find that stuff. Using food, utility, guild buff, birthday booster, celebration booster, XP boosters will get your masteries leveled very quickly. Far more quickly than you’d think possible, I’d guess.

Clearly tons of people left because anet needed to appeal to esports which was understandable but they did not really divide the skills therefor alienating different kinds of players. Esports pvp killed build diversity period, now I know elite classes did help not but they could of easily been fixed.

Believe it or not most mmorpg players these days need and want build diversity.

Ryou.2398:

Clearly tons of people left because anet needed to appeal to esports which was understandable but they did not really divide the skills therefor alienating different kinds of players. Esports pvp killed build diversity period, now I know elite classes did not but they could of easily been fixed.

Believe it or not most mmorpg players these days need and want build diversity.

this is so true. my complaint is how certain gear is locked behind raids and it turns me away from this game. i play necro and want viper accessories but cant get them due to that. people who play now and want to get to that point in the game have a hard time finding groups because those groups are full of veterans looking for more veteran players that are geared up and know the mechanics.

XP isn’t the problem with masteries. XP happens, just play the game. The issue for me were the Mastery Points, especially in core Tyria. While in HoT maps you can acquire a lot simply visiting locations or doing well in adventures, in core Tyria however a lot are tied up in story, in doing 5-man content and being an AP completionist.

GiggleFairy.3807:

Ryou.2398:

Clearly tons of people left because anet needed to appeal to esports which was understandable but they did not really divide the skills therefor alienating different kinds of players. Esports pvp killed build diversity period, now I know elite classes did not but they could of easily been fixed.

Believe it or not most mmorpg players these days need and want build diversity.

this is so true. my complaint is how certain gear is locked behind raids and it turns me away from this game. i play necro and want viper accessories but cant get them due to that. people who play now and want to get to that point in the game have a hard time finding groups because those groups are full of veterans looking for more veteran players that are geared up and know the mechanics.

You can get viper stat accessories in bloodstone fen and bitterfrost frontier mate.

Edit
If you want both to be infused and attuned you need one from each map.

GiggleFairy.3807:

Ryou.2398:

Clearly tons of people left because anet needed to appeal to esports which was understandable but they did not really divide the skills therefor alienating different kinds of players. Esports pvp killed build diversity period, now I know elite classes did not but they could of easily been fixed.

Believe it or not most mmorpg players these days need and want build diversity.

this is so true. my complaint is how certain gear is locked behind raids and it turns me away from this game. i play necro and want viper accessories but cant get them due to that. people who play now and want to get to that point in the game have a hard time finding groups because those groups are full of veterans looking for more veteran players that are geared up and know the mechanics.

i’ve got a full viper/trailblazer mix set and dont raid, gear you can use the mystic toilet to swap stats and wvw/spvp/fractal for the rest. Took about a month once i decided this is what i wanted to do.

Linken.6345:

GiggleFairy.3807:

Ryou.2398:

Clearly tons of people left because anet needed to appeal to esports which was understandable but they did not really divide the skills therefor alienating different kinds of players. Esports pvp killed build diversity period, now I know elite classes did not but they could of easily been fixed.

Believe it or not most mmorpg players these days need and want build diversity.

this is so true. my complaint is how certain gear is locked behind raids and it turns me away from this game. i play necro and want viper accessories but cant get them due to that. people who play now and want to get to that point in the game have a hard time finding groups because those groups are full of veterans looking for more veteran players that are geared up and know the mechanics.

You can get viper stat accessories in bloodstone fen and bitterfrost frontier mate.

Edit
If you want both to be infused and attuned you need one from each map.

have not played in a while so this is good news. use to be locked behind the raids in HoT

Vayne.8563:

Ashabhi.1365:

cesmode.4257:

I quit the game a few years back…I didnt really like the living story stuff.

How is it now?

I am a returning player myself. I was gone for almost 2 years, so I missed a lot. Since being back, here is my take on what I have discovered.

I was never a Living Story person. Having said that, I like season 3 so far. It is more like the personal story from way back when than the staged event system that the whole Scarlett debacle was. I am enjoying it immensely, and I am looking forward to the next episode.

WvW has changed in that the new elite classes and specs make it difficult for old-school eles like me to get back in the swing of things, but I am learning.

I never got into sPvP, so I can’t comment.

The new zones are pleasantly difficult. I like the fact that I can’t take a nap on my keyboard and still complete the meta.

Eventually, I hope to get into raiding, but until I get farther along with my character and learn the things that others already have down pat, I’ll putter along with what I am doing.

The only thing that I really dislike is the grind involved for the masteries. I am bored with the same events over and over for the experience necessary to make it to the next mastery level. Not only for HoT, but now for Tyria core as well. Not that I mind working for them, but it just doesn’t seem to go as smoothly as leveling my character did.

Hope that helps. Keep in mind that its only my opinion, and YMMV.

Just some advice on leveling masteries. Use buffs. Don’t just depend on dynamic events. Killing stuff with high bonus XP will level your masteries faster than doing events will, and it’s far easier to find that stuff. Using food, utility, guild buff, birthday booster, celebration booster, XP boosters will get your masteries leveled very quickly. Far more quickly than you’d think possible, I’d guess.

Thanks for the advice. I do buff a lot, but it still seems rather repetitive. Maybe I’m doing it wrong >:}

doing adventures once a day and aiming for gold also gives reall good exp and if in tarrir you should always take part onmthe meta on an active map and try to get 200% participation.

Cesmode hasn’t replied once to this thread. I don’t think we convinced him…