Guild Wars 2

Hey there, prepare yourself for a barrage of questions!

It’s been quite a while since I have played, since the game went f2p I have not logged in more than once for more than 10 mins or so. Anyhow, I wonder how the game has been lately. How’s the community? It used to be pretty nice for an MMO community, and the moderation was pretty strong (which I enjoyed), is it still pretty much the same deal? If you are familiar with Tarnished Coast how is the RP there?

Are the mechanics of the game still pretty much the same, dodge lest you be one shot? Are dungeons still the same in terms of difficulty (or lack thereof depending on your level of play). How are you all enjoying the new class and expac?

Since going f2p has the game “cheapened” in any way? Like is there a constant push to use the store or tactics like more stuff locked behind the store?

Sorry for the interrogation and I plan to check it out, but just wanted to get a vibe from the community and see what people thought. Thanks.

Oh god you mentioned dungeons. Hide.

Judging from forum activity, prepare for a barrage of negative feedback…
Dungeon rewards have been nerfed, and everyone’s been complaining ever since.
However, before that happens, I want to jump in and say HoT is great. Rev is a lot of fun, and the necro, guard, and mesmer elite specs are excellent. New maps are tricky to navigate, but I’ve enjoyed them. They’re challenging enough to stay interesting, and there’s a lot to explore (by glider!).
I’ve been playing less than a year myself, so I can’t compare long-term changes. Despite a few vocal naysayers, the players I’ve interacted with have been very friendly.

Game community is ok (forum, not so much).
Moderation of the game, about the same.
Mechanics of the game are the same. Dodge is used to avoid damage. The new maps are harder than vanilla Tyria.
Dungeons were nerfed, gold wise. PvE had a gold faucet added (shiny baubles worth 30 silver) given for doing events on a PvE map.
The game has a lot of cosmetics in the gem store, but you can still buy them with ingame gold.
F2p is an extended trial version with a lot of restrictions. I haven’t seen it adversely affect the game.
I’m enjoying the expansion. Others aren’t, for various reasons that they will have to tell you.

Community is still great as always. One of the best in MMO gaming, hasn’t changed much. RP on Tarnished Coast is still lively and awesome. I transferred off there a little while ago to play with friends, but from last I remember, it was still very very active.

Mechanics are pretty much the same as they have always been. Some content has been nerfed, others buffed, depends on what you enjoy. As for the new expansion and new profession, I have a bunch of nasty things to say about it but I won’t go into it. The new profession is pretty fun though. As for HoT, let’s just say it is not for the casual player.

F2P hasn’t really caused any negative impact on the game. The new expansion though, has. A lot of nerfs to gold farms in the base game, and some stuff taken away and then put behind HoT so you have to buy the expansion in order to get it back (guild buffs as an example). The expansion released with a big lack of cosmetics, then we got a bunch of day one DLC in the store for cosmetics. And they’ve pumped out tons of cosmetics in the store since then without nothing being put in the actual game. The game has a heavy focus now on buying rewards instead of earning them.

But otherwise, feel free to jump in yourself and check it out. The game isn’t a sub game, so you can come and go as you like.

Winter.5690:

Hey there, prepare yourself for a barrage of questions!

It’s been quite a while since I have played, since the game went f2p I have not logged in more than once for more than 10 mins or so. Anyhow, I wonder how the game has been lately. How’s the community? It used to be pretty nice for an MMO community, and the moderation was pretty strong (which I enjoyed), is it still pretty much the same deal? If you are familiar with Tarnished Coast how is the RP there?

Are the mechanics of the game still pretty much the same, dodge lest you be one shot? Are dungeons still the same in terms of difficulty (or lack thereof depending on your level of play). How are you all enjoying the new class and expac?

Since going f2p has the game “cheapened” in any way? Like is there a constant push to use the store or tactics like more stuff locked behind the store?

Sorry for the interrogation and I plan to check it out, but just wanted to get a vibe from the community and see what people thought. Thanks.

1. How is the game lately? – totally subjective, you have to decide for yourself.
2. How is the community? – subjective as well but still good in my opinion, good people find good people to play with
3. RP in TC? – no idea to be honest as I don’t RP
4. Are mechanics still the same? – for the most part yes, but with specializations, all the classes have been tweaked in how they are played
5. Dungeons? – yes, they are the same in difficulty but their rewards got nerfed so its hard to find parties now
6. How are you enjoying the new classes/expan? – everyone is different but I like it. Added a bit more variety without deviating too much from the core game
7. Has f2p cheapened it? – nope, just more new people playing which is good for the community
8. More stuff locked behind gem store? – Nope, nothing you “need” is locked behind the gem store

Hello, and welcome back!

I still find the community to be agreeable, and moderation seems to be about the same, I guess? I’ve never seen it in action, personally, so I don’t know. I report and/or block and that’s usually the end of it, for me.

The game implemented megaservers so that in PvE, your server doesn’t really matter. This has caused some upset to the RP community, but they’re still finding ways to network and find each other, and it seems to be thriving, particularly if you join TCRP to find out where stuff is happening.

I never found combat to be as simplistic as “dodge or die” but I will say that they’ve addressed things like conditions in PvE and they’ve created some really interesting encounters as time has gone by.

The dungeon team was disbanded ages ago, so they haven’t been touched in terms of difficulty, but the gold rewards were slashed in order to get people to stop playing the content. Fractal rewards were supposed to be rebalanced to make up for this, but that didn’t happen. I’m pretty sure that you can no longer play high level fractals without the expansion anyway.

My own opinion based on what I’ve read about the expansion is that it’s not worth $50. Additionally, how they’ve chosen to monetize the game and gut aspects of the core game have made me glad I didn’t buy Heart of Thorns. For example, gliders are one of the major elements of the expansion, but there’s only one skin obtainable in-game. The rest are in the gem shop. They’ve taken to selling “bundles” of items- $25 packages of outfits/gliders/etc, rather than simply allowing players to buy what they want. New legendary weapons were also a major selling point of the expansion, but a couple of days before launch, they announced that Heart of Thorns would only be shipping with 3 new legendary weapons. Guilds have had their progression reset in favor of a new system, which heavily favors massive guilds. Most small guilds struggle to access the things they had unlocked before this new system. You’ll have to read reviews and decide for yourself if you think the expansion looks appealing. Personally, I’m wondering if it’ll be worth a $20 sale in a few months, or if I should wait for it to be lower, assuming I’m still playing the core game.

I don’t think the F2P has impacted the monetization of the game as much as the expansion has.

As always, this is just my opinion, and I hope it has been of some use to you. Whatever you decide, I hope you enjoy!

Thanks a ton for the input you all.