Guild Wars 2

Soraiah.5042:

We lack things that help us deal more damage (which is necessary since there are a lot of characters with higher levels in the starting zones -> events get harder for new characters since a level 80 can almost onehit an enemy with his autoattack)

You can thank a lot of that on the APRIL FOOLS patch that was the trait revamp back in April. Except, it wasn’t a joke, sadly. You see, the way it worked is that they MASSIVELY increased the level before you started getting trait points and trait tiers. So, to keep the difficulty curve of the game the same, the had to make lower level monsters easier, particularly those monsters at extremely low levels since characters previously had traits and trait stat boosts that were now gated at much higher levels. However, level 80 characters kept all of their traits and stats. So, when they moved into low-level zones, monsters which previously took three hits they could kill in two hits. Monsters which they previously killed in two hits they could kill in one hit. Because, you see, the level 80 was the same strength as pre-patch but the monsters themselves were much weaker. Low level characters were also weaker, so they didn’t kill monsters much faster or slower than they did before.

Now, we have skill unlock increases and changes to stats from leveling. Of course, this won’t make it any more awkward to play around downscaled players. Nope. Not a chance. It won’t be any more awkward in any way, whatsoever. Not happening. whistles

ArchonWing.9480:

Wait, the bank is level locked? So I can’t even make use of those level 20 scrolls until later?

Sounds pretty awful. I wanted to have a use of scrolls to bypass this useless process…

I made a new character yesterday, and got in the mail the usual golem banker. i was able to get into my bank at level one in the tutorial, to snag some gear I had stashed in there for new characters. I also have access to the scrolls. So there is a workaround… provided you originally bought the deluxe version of the game when it came out.

If not… well… this won’t be of much help, will it?

Key farmers who spent money on the deluxe edition got ripped off… I bet they are pretty ticked about this update aswell. Really its just the whole idea of gating content. After 2 years they decide to do this… I just don’t understand. It wasn’t a good idea for 2 years, why is it a good idea now?

What is it with the rewards? Why does everyone need rewards?

Pre Spring 2014 Feature Patch, playing the game was reward enough. Leveling a character was awesome. You had a lot to experiment and toy with because Traits und Utility Skills were much more available and let you customize your character to your liking.

Just going out and exploring and doing events with your highly customizable character (by today’s standards), having the freedom to play the way you like from relatively early on; those things were the rewards.

I don’t need a splash screen with a huge “Congratulations kitten er! You made it to level 2, you’re so great! Here have some REWARDS!” … Playing the game itself should feel like a reward, and it did once.

ANet, your game was absolutely brilliant before the Spring 2014 feature patch. You didn’t need to change it.

The key word here is freedom. It’s one of the fundamental human needs, one of the most important things for people in every aspect of life, and that carries over to video games as well. You’ll always have a set of boundaries in video games, but the more freedom you let the players have within these boundaries the better.

With the Spring 2014 & September 2014 feature patches you took a lot of that freedom out of the game, that’s the biggest problem for me.
Now when I level a character, there are so many restrictions and decisions made for me and the level of customization has dropped considerably because of the Trait & Skill changes.

It all boils down to this: players are angry because you took their freedom. Please bring it back, revert the changes to the Trait system & Weapon/Utility Skill unlocks to the way it was before Spring 2014 feature patch.

Bring freedom to the peoples of Tyria.

Think about it.

Charlie.1726:

What is it with the rewards? Why does everyone need rewards?

Playing the game itself should feel like a reward, and it did once.

The game desperately needed better rewards, they just put them in the wrong place. The leveling experience only lasts a month or so even if you’re playing super casually. While the leveling experience should be rewarding, completely re-doing it with rewards that are pretty much garbage isn’t going to fill the massive void or lack of reward at the endgame that players will inevitably reach.

Pretty much all endgame has is fractals, and instead of having a common sense reward system like a pristine relic merchant for the rewards that are actually wanted (e.g. fractal weapons, ascended chests), you’re stuck with relying on RNG just as you are throughout the rest of the game i.e. being meagerly rewarded, if at all when compared to the time the player has put into it.

This reward system is just made up of stuff we already had in the game, now its locked up and given as a reward… what a joke!

I’ve not yet reached level 30 of the personal story on my new toon so I dunno what to expect but I have to say that the only thing that will make me angry is if they removed the items they use to change skins from personal story quest rewards!

I deleted some time ago like 99 of the level 79 ones long before they ever revealed they would be making those universal and so of course there’s only those in the store. It would be insulting if I couldn’t get any without having to spend money now since the patch!

I didn’t realize how bad this was until watching that hilarious and fantastic video:

I have over 20 level 80 characters across several accounts…I enjoy building up new characters. Shortly before the recent patch I started another new character, my first one since they changed the trait system. I reached level 30 and saw the requirements (map clearing, gold, skill points) to unlock all the traits and immediately stopped using the character. There was no way I was going to go through all of that even a single time after having experienced leveling in the past (suddenly an adept trait was worth 2-3 hours of my time to unlock by clearing a 70-80 area??, or p2w…) .

I find the new system absolutely mind boggling. Even if they only required it for your first character it seems unnecessarily tedious (with later characters leveling as they did when the game first came out).

The more recent design decisions (clearly focused on boosting gem sales) give me the impression that they’ve hired a recently graduated MBA with no gaming experience and lots of clout. I can picture a meeting where his/her ideas are presented and developers, for the sake of their jobs, go along with whats said – knowing how badly they’re going to be viewed by the players. (Disclaimer: My experience with pure business MBA graduates has been poor, I’m sure there are good ones out there though!)

In a word, “not happy” (well 2 words .. never did like Math), the Spring 2014 update made leveling an absolute chore. Stuck with it though, ‘nose to the grindstone’ and all that but yeah, with the September 2014 feature patch I think I’m done with that .. I just can’t make heads or tales of it, not the “new” system, I mean the decision to implement it. Why? As I see it, it’s a step backward and I’m no business major or great visionary but that’s generally the opposite direction you want your development to take is it not?

Snorcha.7586:

+1 – does anyone on the dev team even play a low level character.. this has turned into the most frustrating leveling experience i’ve ever done…. what was wrong with the old system????

From the devs that no longer work for ANet, they saw this coming and bailed when the higher ups refused to listen to even them when they said this was wrong. They knew this was coming months ago.

Ravion Hawk.4736:

Snorcha.7586:

+1 – does anyone on the dev team even play a low level character.. this has turned into the most frustrating leveling experience i’ve ever done…. what was wrong with the old system????

From the devs that no longer work for ANet, they saw this coming and bailed when the higher ups refused to listen to even them when they said this was wrong. They knew this was coming months ago.

I’m sure this is a factual statement and you know those devs personally and they old told you this.

People leave companies for all sorts of reasons. Drawing this kind of conclusion is a matter of confirmation bias. I seriously doubt you can verify what you’ve said.

statement before CB:
-no level grind
-skills not attached to levels but when you do battle
-play the game the way you want from the start

they were key selling points and it did exactly that, made playing the game allot more enjoyable and you didn’t have to worry about anything.

the situation after the september feature pack:
-player level is the most important indicator
-skills locked behind levels
-level grind is the number one importance due all the ability level locks.

this limits players enjoyment of the game, removes all the freedom we previously had and makes GW2 the most grind filled and limiting MMO of all MMO’s.
even ST:ToR, a freemium game that limits allot of thing, and champions online, that blocks pretty much half the game, isn’t as bad as this crap.

Anet, can you give me an honest answer and please, be direct.
who is so stupid to think that western players would even enjoy 1% of this new leveling system?
i mean, i already don’t like the new renown heart reward screen (what’s wrong with auto accept like before?), now you make the level system the worst of all MMO’s and when you realize how many MMO’s are out there, that’s quite a damper.

Charlie.1726:

With the Spring 2014 & September 2014 feature patches you took a lot of that freedom out of the game, that’s the biggest problem for me.

And me.

I never have wanted to see an artificial carrot that is there only because there should be something.
There wasn’t too much of this pressure to have to get somewhere before actually getting somewhere.

Talindra.4958:

You cant access to changing dyes colour on armour until your toon reaches lvl6. My 4 yo only really play with dyes for her toons tht she delete and recreate (i restrict her play time in gw2 so pls dont come and bash me with bad parenting comments :p ) now she cant do tht until she lvl her toon to lvl6.. :o she only interested in create and recreate new toons.. :p she said mummy help me pls… arghh lool…. arghhhhhhhhh

That has to be a bug unless she is playing on an account with no level 80s. I had access to my wardrobe and dyes before ever leaving the starter tutorial area.

Pardon me if this has already been mentioned, but don’t these changes also hose anyone wanting to try a new class in WvW?
From memory you used to get levelled up to max and get the associated stat gains when you entered WvW at low levels, but you kept your unlocked skills.
This was fine when you could have lots of options at fairly low levels, but how does it work now? Do you get dumped on the battlefield with only your first 3 weapon skills and everything else locked?

Yeah the WvW upleveling is something I noticed and its a horrible way to punish new players. The new system is unplayable as a new player… its sad

Vayne.8563:

Ravion Hawk.4736:

Snorcha.7586:

+1 – does anyone on the dev team even play a low level character.. this has turned into the most frustrating leveling experience i’ve ever done…. what was wrong with the old system????

From the devs that no longer work for ANet, they saw this coming and bailed when the higher ups refused to listen to even them when they said this was wrong. They knew this was coming months ago.

I’m sure this is a factual statement and you know those devs personally and they old told you this.

People leave companies for all sorts of reasons. Drawing this kind of conclusion is a matter of confirmation bias. I seriously doubt you can verify what you’ve said.

Probably about as factual as your insider knowledge into how powerful their metrics are. Remember that loot bug people kept denying for months that they told us all was in our imagination? Or how about that drop rate problem they created with unidentifiable dyes. Yeah…

tigirius.9014:

Vayne.8563:

Ravion Hawk.4736:

Snorcha.7586:

+1 – does anyone on the dev team even play a low level character.. this has turned into the most frustrating leveling experience i’ve ever done…. what was wrong with the old system????

From the devs that no longer work for ANet, they saw this coming and bailed when the higher ups refused to listen to even them when they said this was wrong. They knew this was coming months ago.

I’m sure this is a factual statement and you know those devs personally and they old told you this.

People leave companies for all sorts of reasons. Drawing this kind of conclusion is a matter of confirmation bias. I seriously doubt you can verify what you’ve said.

Probably about as factual as your insider knowledge into how powerful their metrics are. Remember that loot bug people kept denying for months that they told us all was in our imagination? Or how about that drop rate problem they created with unidentifiable dyes. Yeah…

I’m at least going but stuff that was said by Anet and direct observation, as in the graphic for the first year that they did. And my knowledge of how companies work doesn’t hurt either.

If you don’t think they have metrics, I don’t really know what to say.

Rogue.7856:

The new system is unplayable as a new player… its sad

It’s what?

I find it that pretty much explaining how this game work. Especially downed state, but still I would rework it.

Every single time you level up, you’re notified about stuff that roll the game.

Also, I doubt that any new player will jump into wvw or eotm straight away. or HotM.

For Experienced player it’s all dumb, but for a complete newbie. This system is perfect so they can learn step by step and push them further. They won’t quit in the middle because, kitten, game is hard or something like that.

As a person with 5 level 80 characters and no intention to create any more until we get more races (which is likely never, but hey, I can keep dreaming), this change would fly right past my head and I wouldn’t have to care about it.

Problem is… I really like Guild Wars 2. And I like to bring my friends to it, because as it happens, they like similar things as I do. And they always ask me: How is this game different from the MMO I’m playing right now?

Up to this day, one of the key points I mentioned was the absolute freedom. Up to the patch, the Guild Wars were very liberal in a way I (and many more, it seems) loved. “Create a character and from then on, it’s YOUR way,” said the game proudly and I adored it for that possibility. Pick a race, gender, class, mess up a face you can look at… and then do whatever you like. As a charr, I could level up in Wayfarer foothills or Metrica Province and the game was fine with it. I could delve into personal story as soon as possible or never touch it at all. I could take my time, meticulously explore everything, or breeze my way to level 80 and backtrack to see what I missed. I told them how the game gives you a second chance instead of just killing you, so you can always get up and fight.

And that all was erased with this clusterkitten of levelling content. I’m fine with other aspects of the patch, most of them improve the gameplay experience. But whoever thought “Oy! Let’s levelgate the content!” is a great idea deserves to have their foot stepped on by a Norn guardian in full armor.

— Who needs freedom of choice? Let’s point players to the next objective with an obnoxious arrow that can’t be turned off! No matter if they actually have level for that content! No matter if they actually completed all the maps in the game! They’re blind and stupid, they need to be SHOWN where the fun is!
— Let’s put downed state behind a level cap! Let’s teach those noobs that death is quick and unforgiving! Just kill them!
— But hey, we can’t kill them that quickly, so remove all content requiring any skill from up to level 15 areas.
— Teach rangers they don’t need their pets in the tutorial by locking their F skills out! Teach elementalists that attunements are overrated by locking their F skills out! Teach necromancers deathshroud is for ninnies, teach Guardians that signets are pretty little icons that aren’t to be touched!
— Elite skills are too easy to use when you gain them on level 30 and have 90-180s cooldown on them! Push them back to 40! Especially guardians would be too overpowered in underwater combat with them! Possibly. Probably. If they had any skill for that. Well… useful skill anyways.
— Letting people use multiple weapons and choosign their best build is SO dangerous early in the game! Only people with high enough level can understand the mystique behind the greatsword hilt bash! Level gate that!
— The story is horrible. Let’s gate it ten levels forward! If we’re lucky, people will forget it exists. They learned to ignore that green pointer star, anyways.
— No gathering must be available to low level players! It’s children safety! Have you seen how sharp those sickles are? We don’t have enough healing spells for all the severed limbs that caused!

… and many, many more problems this “upgrade” caused.

Seriously, ANet. I love your game, I tend to defend you. But I have one question here for you: What. The. kitten. Were you thinking?!

Have to agree with Changer. For me however it’s gone far beyond the whole adjustments for the lower levels. you see it was already difficult enough to get drops or rewards from doing normal things, like completing maps. But now! Now you can feel restricted WHILE not getting any rewards for anything outside of personal story. Now you can have your hand held wherever you go while playing and “Experience” will be your reward. That’s revolutionary alright, that’s entirely outside of the norm of why MMOs are played in the first place. The first feature patch (which btw they still haven’t fixed, it still costs gold to progress in traits, remember karma? yeah…) cut new players off from progressing for example, not all events are done by players because some of these were messed with by the early direction of making the game a 1%ers game so they could keep raiders as long as possible. For example, the krait witch. I’ve been on that map multiple times now, not a single time has anyone decided to go over there to complete it, but it is essential to the traits especially if you’re a player with one of those unlucky accounts that doesn’t earn gold.

And why have people earn anything from early levels why have them gather anything so there’s an ice cubes chance in hades that they might actually be able to one time or another afford something like the Krait Witch’s trait that they need later on? That might be economically unsound or something >.>.

Let me tell you just how bad this is. AA is coming out. Even with all of it’s blatantly obvious directly noticeable pay to win options in their system, even THEY added the ability for players who are F2P the ability to progress to some minor degree when it comes to getting enough currency to buy the plans to make a vehicle essential to getting enough for making a house. They knew that people after leveling would need enough currency to progress, they have forgotten that here in GW2.

I LOVE this video – I think the couple of people who down-voted it must not have understood that he was being sarcastic

Yep, they nerfed the wonderful heart where you turn into a fern hound in Caledon. I loved that heart!

Now it’s “GW2 For Dummies”.

Djinn.9245:

Yep, they nerfed the wonderful heart where you turn into a fern hound in Caledon. I loved that heart!

SERIOUSLY?! This update is getting more stupid by the minute. No pet control until you have driver’s license, removing renown hearts that were actual FUN to do because new delicate babies might die of the awesomeness overdose or something…

Could someone on the forum staff please parade the individual who thought all these changes were a good idea to present and defend WHY they were a good idea in their twisted little personal universe?

I updated the original post with some good points and links to support the topic.

Changer the Elder.2948:

Djinn.9245:

Yep, they nerfed the wonderful heart where you turn into a fern hound in Caledon. I loved that heart!

SERIOUSLY?! This update is getting more stupid by the minute. No pet control until you have driver’s license, removing renown hearts that were actual FUN to do because new delicate babies might die of the awesomeness overdose or something…

Could someone on the forum staff please parade the individual who thought all these changes were a good idea to present and defend WHY they were a good idea in their twisted little personal universe?

Because they observed you playing/collecting feedback for past 2 years and this is result.

I know, i know, its everyone elses falut but yours and all that.

Bows before the OP Thank you!!! Someone that gets it and put it together in plain (business) English. Maybe. Hopefully, if the gods favour us, ANet will get the mother-loving hint. -_-

MikaHR.1978:

Changer the Elder.2948:

Djinn.9245:

Yep, they nerfed the wonderful heart where you turn into a fern hound in Caledon. I loved that heart!

SERIOUSLY?! This update is getting more stupid by the minute. No pet control until you have driver’s license, removing renown hearts that were actual FUN to do because new delicate babies might die of the awesomeness overdose or something…

Could someone on the forum staff please parade the individual who thought all these changes were a good idea to present and defend WHY they were a good idea in their twisted little personal universe?

Because they observed you playing/collecting feedback for past 2 years and this is result.

I know, i know, its everyone elses falut but yours and all that.

Which suggests that their choice of getting feedback, or the solutions they chose for the problems presented, is not good, because a large number of players dislike the last few implementations of these major features.

Now i am not saying people are stupid for proposing these ideas, but somewhere along the development process, some of these ideas should have been adjusted or tweaked, or had tangential systems considered.

Hopefully they will talk about how they are going to clean up this mess. Atleast give us an option to toggle this level system off if we wish to.

phys.7689:

MikaHR.1978:

Changer the Elder.2948:

Djinn.9245:

Yep, they nerfed the wonderful heart where you turn into a fern hound in Caledon. I loved that heart!

SERIOUSLY?! This update is getting more stupid by the minute. No pet control until you have driver’s license, removing renown hearts that were actual FUN to do because new delicate babies might die of the awesomeness overdose or something…

Could someone on the forum staff please parade the individual who thought all these changes were a good idea to present and defend WHY they were a good idea in their twisted little personal universe?

Because they observed you playing/collecting feedback for past 2 years and this is result.

I know, i know, its everyone elses falut but yours and all that.

Which suggests that their choice of getting feedback, or the solutions they chose for the problems presented, is not good, because a large number of players dislike the last few implementations of these major features.

Now i am not saying people are stupid for proposing these ideas, but somewhere along the development process, some of these ideas should have been adjusted or tweaked, or had tangential systems considered.

Some players dislile changes, but no matter what they do some will dislike changes.

It will never ever be 100% staisfaction.

And no thing is perfect and there always can be improvements, its just a question is it worth the effort getting those improvements or would gains of improving something else result in muc more effect.

I had to grind hearts on my low level alt to unlock skills. Are you flippin’ kidding me? I don’t think I even remember how to grind (effectively) since I ditched my last MMO for GW2.

I finally accepted that free trial invite for another game, (it starts with World and ends with Craft) and guess what? Running around to do hearts and checking my map to see where it is – oh my gosh, that’s the exact same thing Running around to do quests and checking my map to see where it is…replace quests with hearts, and there you have it!!

Me: “Hey my friend who introduced me to this other game, can I learn crafting?”

Him: “Sorry, that’s not unlocked until other levels..”

Me: “Can I learn new skills then?”

Him: “Only as you level up.”

Me: “I’m bored…where’s all the fun stuff?”

Him: “Sorry, you gotta get to the end game content to do anything fun.”

Me: “Aw, I can’t equip this sword I found and duel wield?”

Him: “Nope, that’s unlocked at a higher level.”

Me: “I finished all the question mark quests in this map! Now what?”

Him: “Now we move on to the next part of the map and grind through the quests there.”

Me: “…at least GW2 still has stunning graphics.”

Him: “Huh?”

Me: “No no, don’t mind me. Let’s go to the next questline.”

ANET. YOU’VE KILLED YOUR OWN CREATION.

I guess I’m lucky, since I got access to insta-leveling tomes/scrolls to cap my new alt to 80 asap. My heart bleeds for those that aren’t as lucky.

MikaHR.1978:

Changer the Elder.2948:

Djinn.9245:

Yep, they nerfed the wonderful heart where you turn into a fern hound in Caledon. I loved that heart!

SERIOUSLY?! This update is getting more stupid by the minute. No pet control until you have driver’s license, removing renown hearts that were actual FUN to do because new delicate babies might die of the awesomeness overdose or something…

Could someone on the forum staff please parade the individual who thought all these changes were a good idea to present and defend WHY they were a good idea in their twisted little personal universe?

Because they observed you playing/collecting feedback for past 2 years and this is result.

I know, i know, its everyone elses falut but yours and all that.

In which case, their methods are rather flawed. First of all, these kinds of changes are incompatible with just watching the players play their game with no feedback (but in a fridge brilliance way, it would explain why the update’s so bad).

Second of all, how on earth would you, from watching players complete a map, deduce they like one renown heart over the next? Would you make some complex algorithm that would count the amount of bounces we make divide by steps we take and multiply by the time we spent idly ogling the scenery? If so, how can the mechanism know when we stand idly watching the scenery mesmerised by it, and when we stand idly because we got bored and went for a cigarette break, or when we stand idly because our cat suddenly caught fire and real life needs our attention more than a videogame?

Third of all, the update has not only a bad idea, but also is very badly implemented. In a game where each class plays differently and requires different skillset, attitude and game style, having a SET GATE same for ALL classes is just inexcusably stupid oversight. Correct me if I’m wrong, but if I remember correctly, warrior only has one F-bound thing, and that’s the adrenaline attack on the F1 key, so locking out the F bar only robs the warrior of one single (albeit strong) attack and it gets unlocked quite early on anyway, because it’s the F1 function. Compare that to the experience of a starting ranger, who’s pet is a kitten loose cannon you cannot control in any way, because you cannot call it off (F3), call it to specific target (F1) or swap it for another (F4) until you’re big enough to do grown up stuff like that, which robs you of 20-40% of your damage output, not to mention it actively DAMAGES YOUR PLAY.

As a side note, I distictly remember the preview saying rangers get a lot of love in this patch. Don’t make me laugh that loud, it’s 1 AM here, neighbors will complain.

Elementalists have a similar problem.

Seriously, if you want to tell me that ANet used divination powers and deduced that no players until level ten use the no. 5 skill on their weapon or that elementalists only discover they can go rocky on level 24, they have been watching some very badly written bots, and not actual players.

Tao.5096:

I find it that pretty much explaining how this game work. Especially downed state

Well, you’re the only one. I find it that pretty much NOT explaining how the game work, ESPECIALLY downed state. I’m not too familiar with necromancer, and I’m finding that it is just as difficult as it was before to learn what all of my downed state skills do. The only difference is that I only have two skills instead of four, so I can’t really do anything useful while downed.

The only thing that has been explained is a new dodge quest, an arrow that points you to things, and some hints and explanations about various things when you gain a level. That is the only thing which has explained anything. I have yet to encounter anything that significantly helps me learn what my downed skills do, or even what the downed state is.

Changer the Elder.2948:

Third of all, the update has not only a bad idea, but also is very badly implemented. In a game where each class plays differently and requires different skillset, attitude and game style, having a SET GATE same for ALL classes is just inexcusably stupid oversight. Correct me if I’m wrong, but if I remember correctly, warrior only has one F-bound thing, and that’s the adrenaline attack on the F1 key, so locking out the F bar only robs the warrior of one single (albeit strong) attack and it gets unlocked quite early on anyway, because it’s the F1 function. Compare that to the experience of a starting ranger, who’s pet is a kitten loose cannon you cannot control in any way, because you cannot call it off (F3), call it to specific target (F1) or swap it for another (F4) until you’re big enough to do grown up stuff like that, which robs you of 20-40% of your damage output, not to mention it actively DAMAGES YOUR PLAY.

Pet functions are basic control functions for a Ranger, especially the F1 and F3. They should have never been locked in the first place. Warrior got hit least with the patch (I’m talking strictly low-level), because their profession mechanic doesn’t effect PvE as much as most other professions. Try playing a warrior just with weapon skills and try playing a mesmer just with weapon skills. Not using adrenaline skills hardly affects gameplay because you can kill most things similarly with weapon skills. Not having or being able to use shatter skills significantly affects gameplay.

Same thing for an elementalist. Elementalists and engineers don’t have weapon switch. Attumenets and kits are their weapon switch. An early engineer without kits or profession mechanics are pretty weak. Elementalists without their attunements are more difficult to play, whereas a warrior without adrenaline isn’t significantly more difficult to play.

If they wanted to gate this much stuff, they should have scaled the weapon skills, utilities, and particularly profession mechanics per-class so that the difficulty of leveling would be similar for all professions, rather than laughably easy for some and much more challenging for others. For engineers, utilities are their profession mechanic since your utility skills are linked to F1-F4

“We want people to say, Wow that’s incredible! I’ve never seen anything like that!”

well GJ anet, we’re all thinking that!
it’s incredible! we have never seen anything like a game where rather than adding new rewards, all of your current content is removed for you to unlock as the rewards!

Djinn.9245:

Yep, they nerfed the wonderful heart where you turn into a fern hound in Caledon. I loved that heart!

Nooo! That was one of my favorites, if not the favorite heart in the game.

That was one of the first hearts I ever completed and I was so impressed by the uniqueness and ingenuity of it, that was when I realized I had made a great purchase in gw2 and started really getting into the game.

“These statistics overwrite any prepatch testing.”

What PRE-patch testing? It’s POST-patch testing. Done by we, the playerbase.

Changer the Elder.2948:

MikaHR.1978:

Changer the Elder.2948:

Djinn.9245:

Yep, they nerfed the wonderful heart where you turn into a fern hound in Caledon. I loved that heart!

SERIOUSLY?! This update is getting more stupid by the minute. No pet control until you have driver’s license, removing renown hearts that were actual FUN to do because new delicate babies might die of the awesomeness overdose or something…

Could someone on the forum staff please parade the individual who thought all these changes were a good idea to present and defend WHY they were a good idea in their twisted little personal universe?

Because they observed you playing/collecting feedback for past 2 years and this is result.

I know, i know, its everyone elses falut but yours and all that.

In which case, their methods are rather flawed. First of all, these kinds of changes are incompatible with just watching the players play their game with no feedback (but in a fridge brilliance way, it would explain why the update’s so bad).

Second of all, how on earth would you, from watching players complete a map, deduce they like one renown heart over the next? Would you make some complex algorithm that would count the amount of bounces we make divide by steps we take and multiply by the time we spent idly ogling the scenery? If so, how can the mechanism know when we stand idly watching the scenery mesmerised by it, and when we stand idly because we got bored and went for a cigarette break, or when we stand idly because our cat suddenly caught fire and real life needs our attention more than a videogame?

Third of all, the update has not only a bad idea, but also is very badly implemented. In a game where each class plays differently and requires different skillset, attitude and game style, having a SET GATE same for ALL classes is just inexcusably stupid oversight. Correct me if I’m wrong, but if I remember correctly, warrior only has one F-bound thing, and that’s the adrenaline attack on the F1 key, so locking out the F bar only robs the warrior of one single (albeit strong) attack and it gets unlocked quite early on anyway, because it’s the F1 function. Compare that to the experience of a starting ranger, who’s pet is a kitten loose cannon you cannot control in any way, because you cannot call it off (F3), call it to specific target (F1) or swap it for another (F4) until you’re big enough to do grown up stuff like that, which robs you of 20-40% of your damage output, not to mention it actively DAMAGES YOUR PLAY.

As a side note, I distictly remember the preview saying rangers get a lot of love in this patch. Don’t make me laugh that loud, it’s 1 AM here, neighbors will complain.

Elementalists have a similar problem.

Seriously, if you want to tell me that ANet used divination powers and deduced that no players until level ten use the no. 5 skill on their weapon or that elementalists only discover they can go rocky on level 24, they have been watching some very badly written bots, and not actual players.

Well, you can harp how their 2 years of experience with the game is wrong and overwritten by your personal experience. They have 2 years worth of metrics/feedback.

My personal experience from last 2 years is that lots and lots of these “vets” need even more handholding.

Ele is very specific class and i can certainly see why holding off of their attunements can be justified. Same boat for mesmer. Even a lot of “vets” cant play these classes nearly to full potential. While these changes wont make world of difference they might at least draw attention and give new players a bit of time to get comfortable with attunement/skills (as weapons are not locked, just attunements)

Ranger pet skills could be sooner, as well as Guardian ones. Engineer is again special snowflake, and, while it gets most limited weapon selection gets “weapon swap” at lvl 13 (with kit) opposed to others who get those at 15.

And rangers did get a lot of love, whines have started already ;P

You do get actual rewards for leveling (gear, boosters, and such) not just “you unlocked harpoon skill2”. It’s not perfect, but you get more incentive to lvl up, and get the locked skills (that’s the reasoning behind it as I see it). I think it misses the point because people would rush to higher and higher levels instead of actually playing the game (read: having fun) and learning their character’s mechanic, because they have so little to experiment with.

Eric.6109:

You do get actual rewards for leveling (gear, boosters, and such) not just “you unlocked harpoon skill2”. It’s not perfect, but you get more incentive to lvl up, and get the locked skills (that’s the reasoning behind it as I see it). I think it misses the point because people would rush to higher and higher levels instead of actually playing the game (read: having fun) and learning their character’s mechanic, because they have so little to experiment with.

This is true. It’s turned the game into a grind mechanic, the exact thing GW2 wanted to avoid.

…I guess in one sense, before I was grinding kills on my ele to unlock all her skills, so this new system is much better. I dunno, wouldn’t it be better to teach new players what are boons and condi, fields and finishers, instead of “this is a shovel, you can pick it up and whack stuff with it”?

Changer the Elder.2948:

Djinn.9245:

Yep, they nerfed the wonderful heart where you turn into a fern hound in Caledon. I loved that heart!

SERIOUSLY?! This update is getting more stupid by the minute. No pet control until you have driver’s license, removing renown hearts that were actual FUN to do because new delicate babies might die of the awesomeness overdose or something…

Could someone on the forum staff please parade the individual who thought all these changes were a good idea to present and defend WHY they were a good idea in their twisted little personal universe?

See this is the kind of post I find most objectionable. Demanding an explanation from a company that’s already explained. Ridiculing them because you don’t agree or understand something.

Take the ranger pet controls. The main controls unlock at level 5. Level 5!, it’s like 20 minutes into the game.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but there’s no room for this kind of post on the forums. If you have a problem with the patch, it’s possible to state it without insulting staff members who worked kitten an update, just because you don’t like a tiny percent of the upgrade (and the NPE really is a small percent of the update).

Vayne.8563:

Now if you pick up a new weapon at a higher level, every skill is automatically unlocked without killing anything. And by a higher level, I mean 15.

If you only used a bow and nothing else, by level 12, you’d have every single weapon skill unlocked. I don’t see that as grind.

No, it’s not grind. It’s also not delaying acquisition of skills so that new players can better acclimate to new stuff, either. If I level to 10 with longbow exclusively and now slot shortbow, I have five new skills to learn all at once. The old system was more new-user-friendly with regard to changing which weapon to carry, particularly once you unlock slots 1-5.

Sarah.1825:

Although I honestly don’t expect anyone at Anet to actually read, let alone listen to what I have to say, I am going to say it anyway.

I am one of the veteran players, I have over 4 thousand hours into the game. I am also one of the people who have a lot of alts. I have 16 of them to level 80, with another 20 at measured increments from 20 to 75. (Why yes, I know I am crazy, and I only buy the character slots when they are on sale)

While the leveling has been dumbed down to the lowest common denominator, I don’t have much of the leveling to drag myself through. But… this game was already dumbed down when I first started playing it almost 2 years ago.

As it stands now. I let my 5 year old next door neighbor make a character and start leveling her. He had no issues at all in figuring out how to play. Congratulations, you have reached your target audience. Unfortunately, your target audience doesn’t have disposable income.

In April you changed the trait system. Despite not being able to trait until level 30, and the final trait points being given at level 74, but not able to be used until level 80, if you have unlocked the trait you want, or spent the skill points AND gold to get them, I was able to deal with the changes and tweaks.

Now, however, you have made it so that you don’t have a ‘capable’ character until level 40 to 60 (depending on your class and gameplay style). By ‘capable’ I mean capable of playing PvE solo, which is about 80% of the PvE content. Capable of not dying half a dozen times before you do enough hearts to get enough levels, to unlock the skills THAT WERE NOT CONFUSING OR SCARY TO BEGIN WITH.

I recently spent 50 dollars on gems, and converted all of my gold to gems, and purchased enough character slots to make a new race and/or a new class. There are many new games that are out or soon will be out, even if I don’t request a refund, I doubt I will be playing this game, purchasing accounts for my own children for xmas, or spending one red cent more to play a game that has been idiot-proofed to the extent this one has been.

I will give it until the 19th for communication from the devs that indicates someone, anyone at Anet is paying attention, but I doubt it will happen.

TL:DR This game has been dumbed down past the tolerance of old and new players alike, I am taking my wallet elsewhere.

Hear, hear!! My feelings too at this point!

Yesterday I was a little bit “kittened” off with Arenanet. Now? Now I’m just waiting until they start going through the higher levels for new players.

I personally still don’t get it. I was a new player in this game at one point too. If the game had been set up like this when I started I probably wouldn’t have stayed, to be honest.

It was never a problem in this first place. Heh shows where Anet’s priorities are.

Honestly my only complaint leveling my 10th to 80 this past week was this nugget of game design brilliance….

We at ArenaNet realize you might have 3 centaurs trying to stomp you right now, and you’d probably like to see them rear up to trample you, but instead we’d like to offer you this nifty window explaining that you can now do something.

Well gee swell, but I closed the window before I could read it because I didn’t want your nifty window getting me killed. I have no idea what you were trying to tell me I could now do. Good thing I’ve been through the game already. Cause that was a waste of UI effort on your part. I guess you were hoping I’d level up cutting down a tree? Couldn’t put a little book icon down where the chests and level ups go? Design consistency? Ever heard of it?

That’s always a problem with tutorials, popup “help” or “explanations” in combat. I’ve only been running 80s since the patch so I don’t know how level rewards are handled but I hope it’s just a dancing chest so you can look at it during a lull in playing.

Hopefully things like that are the things that will be suppressed now that you’ve seen it once. A check box to disable the tutorial info drops is even better.

Behellagh.1468:

That’s always a problem with tutorials, popup “help” or “explanations” in combat. I’ve only been running 80s since the patch so I don’t know how level rewards are handled but I hope it’s just a dancing chest so you can look at it during a lull in playing.

If by “dancing chest” you mean “a huge text window that covers your entire screen” then, yes, the new level-up pop-up is a dancing chest.

Sokia.3710:

Behellagh.1468:

That’s always a problem with tutorials, popup “help” or “explanations” in combat. I’ve only been running 80s since the patch so I don’t know how level rewards are handled but I hope it’s just a dancing chest so you can look at it during a lull in playing.

If by “dancing chest” you mean “a huge text window that covers your entire screen” then, yes, the new level-up pop-up is a dancing chest.

So it’s like the personal story rewards screen. That’s dumb. At least with the PS the action is over, mid battle it would be horrible. It should just be a chest drop, jiggling in the corner of the screen with just a “Leveled Up” that floats away like damage numbers.

Behellagh.1468:

So it’s like the personal story rewards screen. That’s dumb. At least with the PS the action is over, mid battle it would be horrible. It should just be a chest drop, jiggling in the corner of the screen with just a “Leveled Up” that floats away like damage numbers.

Actually, I’m just playing. The text screen doesn’t come up unless you click an icon in the corner of the screen. At least, I don’t think it will come up. I’ve never tried leaving the icon there.

It’s actually very similar to what happens when you complete a heart quest. An icon appears on the right side of the screen, and when you click it a huge text box opens up.

I tried the new player experience. Initially I didn’t even realize the level up screen is now what is tied to all of the hints in the game, so I looked at the level up screen and dismissed it. After a while, I was like, hang on a minute, did Anet remove the hero/inventory screen tutorial?

I restarted the character and that is when I discovered that that tutorial is a part of the level 1 level up screen. It is hidden and easy to miss now. I guess it isn’t all that important for new players to learn how to change equipment or manage their inventory. That is why it is skippable. Also, you can’t re-visit hints. So if you did miss something, well, that is your fault for missing it, and you can’t have a look at the tutorial again.

Seriously Anet, you took the fairly well functional tutorial system and hid it inside a non-repeatable easy to dismiss dialog…

I also found that the charr starting area is a bit lacking in order to get you to level 10. I followed the quest guide. (didn’t go back to the black citadel so I didn’t run into the bugginess of telling you where not to go). I found that I almost immediately was forced to do hearts and events one level ahead of me. I was left by the water and submarine area (level 11) at level 9. Then I finally achieved level 10 so that I could start the personal storyline. I also noticed that at one point, there is a scout, who shows level 6 hearts, but is surrounded by level 8 enemies…. that was not fun place to go to at level 6.

Any ways, these level up ‘rewards’ are not rewards at all. They are just an overly drawn out tutorial sequence integrated with bad UX and design decisions.