Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars 2 was the first MMORPG that I played seriously after getting tired of World of Warcraft.

The first character that I had created was FUN! I encountered in Guild Wars 2 many elements that I haven’t been able to find anywhere else (at least not as well implemented):

• Personal story
• Weapon based skills
• Lack of defined combat roles (damager, healer, tank)
• Multiple ways to complete a quest
• Automatic party grouping for questing
• Jumping puzzles!!

That made my first character a real, new, improved experience from what I’ve had with World of Warcraft. I only started to notice the shortcomings once my character had reached level 80. And that is what brought me to writing this review.

What was there for me to do after I reached level 80? I got my end gear instantly (more or less, depending on luck) with karma! All dungeons are low level! The only reason to do them was for the better looking gear (which wasn’t even that good looking but I’ll get to that later)! What was the purpose of my character now that his story was over? He had saved Tyria…now what?

My solution to this would be to add more dungeons, not just one every 10 levels or so. I noticed that players are particularly excited about being able to create custom content. I say, let them do it! Furthermore, there are ways to automatically calculate a dungeon’s difficulty based on the number and level of players and number and level of mobs. From there you just need to add a database of loot ranked by dungeon difficulty that would be uploaded automatically in the user created dungeon without any interference from the player.

To better understand what I mean, I give you the Dungeons and Dragons Wiki
It’s a website that helps people who play Dungeons and Dragons (yes, the old pen and paper RPG) generate their instances.

At least give it some thought. I don’t see what harm it could do.

There are MANY things that could be done to improve game play. First of all, remove animation time! Replace it with global cooldown or whatever else you think fits better.

There is nothing more annoying than using an ability…and having to wait until my character has finished the animation before I can do anything else…including moving! You wanted Guild Wars 2 to be a game where quick reflexes and mobility matter (otherwise I see no reason for the rolling to the side thing). Also, if we interrupt the animation by moving or doing anything else, the cooldown is reset. I need a way to interrupt the casting of a skill if I happen to change my mind without triggering its cooldown.

Speaking of animation, I think you should tone it down a bit. There have been instances when 5 or more of us were fighting an outdoor boss and all I could descern on my screen was blinding light. I has no idea where my character was, what it was doing, where the boss was, what it was doing…and all that with my animation graphics to the minimum. Even with more than 2 players around it becomes difficult playing.

Another really hurtful thing regarding mobility is that, in my opinion, the characters have a rather clunky movement. Now, maybe I wouldn’t feel it so clearly if the other issues were taken care of, but for now, it just adds up on top of everything else.

The respawn rate is too fast. There were times when I cleared a zone and before I had a moment of rest they were all back!

Think about it: not all of us want to spend every second of the game killing something. This gets especially annoying with higher level. So please, lower the respawn rate. Maybe make it something dynamic, like based on how quickly the mobs are killed.

I am BORED with all 10 models of armor and weapons that are available to players! Really! I feel like I spent all the time until level 20 dressed in the same rags I started the game with! And another thing, just because they’re low level it doesn’t mean we have to dread wearing them. I have come upon threads from players volunteering to design armor and weapon models as long as you put them in the game. They want competitions! This has so much potential!

It could really be something more than “Go feed my cows!”, “Gather corn”, “Give water to soldiers!” for quests. The Guild Wars 2 gives me a rather…country feeling, like I live in the Middle Ages (though I must say I loved the Asura and Norn starting areas. The Asura seemed so sci fi while the Norn reminded me of Lord of the Rings for some reason). Really, you are ruining the great personal stories by making us feed cattle in the meantime. What I mean to say is that you should try to integrate outdoor questing with the main storyline. Take a game like Dragon Age for example. They have A LOT of side quests but NONE of them ruin your immersion or make you feel like you’re wasting your time. They actually add depth to the story.

For those of us who like to fret over our character’s appearence you could add a few of those packs in the Black Lion Trading Company that we could buy with gems. I am aware that there are a few available at the Black Lion trading post, but as long as there are people willing to create them and people willing to buy them, then why not? Everybody wins!

Now, I’ve seen this topic is largely debated but I really can’t understand why. It doesn’t have to be a given! They could be rare drops from mobs of 30+ level for example and bound to character. It really would make life easier for us. Tyria is a big place! (And hurray for that!). This won’t stop us from exploring it and getting all the waypoints. I mean, who in their right mind would pick travelling by horse from one end of Tyria to the other when you have waypoints?