Guild Wars 2

Been watching new player streams alot recently. One thing that I keep noticing is how underwhelming the gear grind is at early levels. Frequently upon taking part in dungeons, world bosses, or other long group event chains players recieved 2 blue under water weapons, or gear they could not use. This made me think of a something world of Warcraft did. They added gear bags that dropped class specific gear to dungeon bosses, just like exists in Guild wars2 now. This allowed me players to have much better drop rates on her they want.

What Guild wars could do is add the “chest of guardian, elementalist, Mesmer…” Gear boxes to things that challenge players a bit more such as dungeons and world bosses. This box could replace and existing drop as to not inflate the economy, and could scale from Green to rate based on the players level.

This might not seem vital, just a thought on how to make the new player experience better.

TLDR: add “chest of class specific gear”to dungeons and world bosses so new players have better gear when starting out.

I never had trouble with the gear you get from leveling up and personal story rewards and never experienced gear grind at any point while leveling up.
A few actually useful drops would be nice anyways though.

I would like for the World Bosses to drop loot that below level 80 chars can use. I try to gear up my low levels from dropped loot as much as possible and taken them to World bosses. Usually I get a blue or two I can’t use for my efforts. I’ve concluded that loot wise, it’s not worth taking low level chars to the low level World bosses.

Just new players huh? Completed a mid-level map last night, got 20 mushrooms, two greens, and a black lion key, which gave me a leveling tome, a resurrection stone, and tier six cooking ingredients. All in all, about nine silver for completing a map.

The whole bloody base game is unrewarding.

The loot system has always been extremely terrible with GW2 since 2012.

You get constantly overwhelmed with so much garbage in this game, that has only the sole purpose of getting your inventory quickly full, so that you get always the impression, that you can’t collect never enough things that you feel forced to buy from the Gemstore either additional bag slots ect.

Starts already with the tons of grey junk crap that you get dropped like in 90% of all cases permanently, thats basically worth nothing.
All this dirt should get removed completely out of the game. This garbage is useful for nothing, it has no sense in this game, its needed for nothing, except 1 single collection achievement, you can’t even salvage this junk into something, that could be useful somehow for you like Materials you could potentially get out of the salvaged junk
—-

Equipment drops are in felt 80% of all cases useless for you, because its crap, that isn’t of your equipment type (light, medium, hard) or its weapons you can’t use…
If there would be a system in this game, that would ensure, that all weapons that drop for you are always only based on the class that you currently play and if gear drops would be ensured to be always only of the type, that your currently played class can wear, then would make the loot system of this game at leaset sense and way more fun, as when you get disappointed because you got some kind of rare drop and then you realize, your character – which is eventually even your main character – can’t even use that drop …

Its these kinds of nonsensical game design elements, that make you always again realize as a player, if behind a developer stands a company, that has truly in mind to make a game, that should make fun, or if it is a company, which gives nothing about it, if the game makes by its design sense or fun, as long it makes just only MONEY.

Because I believe, if Anet could do it, they would have changed the loot system already long time ago, but NCSofts marketing system and those resposnsible for the gemstore simply say no, because if they would give this game a senseful and fun making loot system, then would people have not anymore any reason to buy more bag slots and more chest slots or to buy more character slots for “mule characters” because of all the garbage you get spammed to death with in this game.

Worst thing is, the game doesn#t even give you an option to deactivate “Auto Looting” once you have learned that mastery that lets you automatically loot whenever you kill something, which makes this feature a curse and a blessing at the same time!!!

And then theres missing other helpful automatics, that you gelp the player massively as quality of life improvements managing all the garbage you loot automatically by auto salvaging things you want to get salvaged directly and for example as well auto selling as like also auto chesting.

That would be 3 absolutely needed QoL improvements, which we most likely never will get to see in this game and even if it should ever happen, then we most likely have to buy these feattures as Account Upgrades for like 1000+ gems per feature unlocked for better account inventory management to not be annyoned anymore with the permanent spam of useless junk in this game.

The loot system of world bosses is also something that needs to get improved finally. You can kill like a million times Tequatl and will eventualy never get a single weapon skin drop from him due to the stupidly ridiculpous rng system in this game, while there could be someone so lucky, who gets the skin he/she wants just after the first tequatl kill!!

This is something that needs to get changed finally.
It can be solved only by a Boss Monster Token System
Every boss monster in this game should drop guaranteed for you after the kill 1 “Boss Coin”, which a player should be then able to trade at specific NPCs for the loot of the loot table of the specific bosses.

That would enable players finally, that even if you are totally unlucky and didn’t received what you wanted after your like 100th Tequatl Kill, that you will have by then enough Boss Coins collected from all your efforts and tries, that you are instead able to buy what you want then from the NPC.

This game needs to get rid finally of its absurd grade of RNG, which gives you too oftenly the impression, that you play some kind of god awful korean grinder MMORPG where you need to grind for ages to get what you want, instead of a modern game, that had once the principle to do things different, than every kind of 0815-classical mmorpgs of the past – lets remind us all once again on Anet’s lie of an manifesto..you remember?

I swung a sword, I swung a sword again, oh hey and I swung it again, great, or???
The same does it feel like, if you kill a boss like multiple hundreds of times and still don’t have, what you want from it …

The most funny thing about our inventory system is, that we all are still running around sicne 2012 with our “Beginner Rucksacks” with only 20 slots.

As epic heroes, which have saved Tyria by now two times from elder dragons and are going to save it several times from form other dragons in the future – from such a person after all those yours – would you expectv from someone liek that to still run around in any kind of “Beginner Equipment” ???

rofl

I am personally waiting since release day, that we find or get somehow on our epic journy the option to receive better Rucksacks with that we would be able to essentially improve our whole inventory system – not make it only just bigger, but also with added new features, that give you as a player a real impression of character progression, that you optained a now much better rucksack, that makes your whole inventory management also better, than your simple old “Beginner Rucksack” with that we run around now for 5 years…

LOL

There are already several types of sorting bags …

As for “good” loot the closest a game will ever come to that is to create the illusion by having a gear treadmill and keep churning out seemingly better loot. That is just lying to yourself to make you feel better. I want no part of that kind of system.

While I do agree that most of what you get as drops, even at level 80, are salvage food. The mats are more valuable than most gear drops, even the Exotics. But, this game isn’t about the gear drops, and someone can level a character through exploration, dungeons, events and whatever other means they want, and still be able to function and have fun. In the end, it is about looks, achievements, and the challenging end game content, or any mix of this that interest you. Gear is cheap compared to mats. Someone could salvage everything not usable by their class and sell the mats, in turn buy gear from the trading post that is viable for their current level. Although, you could get gear every 20 levels and still have little to no problems.

I’ve never had a problem with self equipping at lower levels. Besides, buying a green or two to fill in the gap is so easy that any efforts to change things seems pretty pointless.

You get tons of gear from killing trash, world bosses, completing events, etc. as you level up. Sell that stuff (or salvage that and sell the salvage) on the Trade Post, and then buy the gear you want. I usually come out ahead that way, because I upgrade my gear about every 10 levels, but get far more gear than that during those other 9 levels.

If you can’t gear up after completing dailies, what are you spending your 14 gold/week on? The game offers tons of loot and we barely notice, because it comes in the form of coin or stuff we need to sell on the TP.

Dungeons offer all of that plus tokens, which can be converted into gear.

I saw some interesting responses to this. I was hoping not to focus on guild wars’ design choice with loot. I completely agree that it can feel underwhelming. Other games had a lot more variety in their loot which made each piece feel unique and flavorful. However for balance purposes i get their decision with how gear works.

As for salvaging → selling on TP → buying new gear. Keep in mind free to play players cant access the TP, and this is a common way people try out the game before seeing if they want to purchase. I would also argue that its more fun if doing content such as shadow behemoth and early level dungeons rewarded you with powerful level adjusted gear boxes. Sure buying the best item you can use at your level is cheap and easy, but this disrupts game play flow.

This wont effect 99% of us too much, but for new accounts on their 1st play through, i think it would help out, especially with free to play accounts with no access to the TP. Im not 100% sure on the finer points, but they icons exsist for the exotic tier class boxes, and when you kill a world boss, 1 rare/masterwork (depending on lvl) item will be in a wiggly chest. This could simply be replaced with this box and bam, no ectos added but now its a class specific rare. Do something similar with dungeons, maybe just 1 at the end?

Im Gonna take a sec here to respond to you as well Orpheal, Because im not sure of your experience with the guild wars franchise, or other games, but i think you have ArenaNet wrong on this one.

1st off, as for their loot system. Guild wars 1 had a similar gear system where it capped out pretty easily (more like exotic than ascended in terms of farm time) and after that it was all cosmetics and titles (Im strictly talking item farm, The other awesome endgame progression was unlocking 100s of unique skills but those days are gone and we are talking about gear here). WoW was the completely different in that respect, however the gear system in wow was more fun in my opinion. But they sacrifice balance, and the gear treadmill means if you take a break and come back you will be irrelevant. Guild wars 2, like gw1, has cosmetic and achievement based endgame goals. exotic gear is pretty easy and quite strong for most content, and ascended gear is attainable at a reasonable rate.

As for your “boss token” idea. This pretty much exists in guild wars 2. Fractal tokens, Magnetite shards, And dungeon tokens are awarded after each run, and can be redeemed to buy exotic gear for dungeons, and ascended gear for raids/fractals.

The “swarmed with gear thing” 100% right, this game sucks for it. Probably a bit of pressure on anets part to want bank tabs, but never forget gold → gems is a thing.

Just wana end by saying don’t be so hard on the devs. They have listened to the community and the game has improved a lot since launch. Salvage all, shared inventory slots, heck even 2 sigils on 2handed weapons, the wardrobe, THE WALLET (remember the pre wallet days! talk about wanting bank tabs).

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

If you can’t gear up after completing dailies, what are you spending your 14 gold/week on? The game offers tons of loot and we barely notice, because it comes in the form of coin or stuff we need to sell on the TP.

Dungeons offer all of that plus tokens, which can be converted into gear.

-Free to play cant access TP
-I would argue its more fun obtaining the gear from drops than buying on TP
-If this content rewarded you with an item you could use most of the time, it would make that content feel more rewarding (not to us veterans but to a noobie, ya)
- Players often save dungeon tokens for their lvl 80 exotics when starting out

I believe you are mistaken about Play4Free accounts and the TP. They do have access to the TP, and can buy Armor, from Fine to Exotic (only certain stat sets), as well as food, trinkets, weapons, and a myriad of other items.

For a complete list, peruse this article: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Account#Free_accounts

Good luck.

Free accounts can use the TP but as far as I can tell they are limited to the crafted items. Due to the prices of materials this makes things more expensive since you can often just buy the dropped version that is a level or 2 lower instead for a lot less.

On the other hand I consider P4F to be irrelevant because that is more like a trial account with no time restriction. GW2 is not an actual F2P game.

@ Dino:

I know the Guild Wars Franchise very well. I’m one of the many veterans, which know and have played GW since 2005, so I know both gear designs of the games completely.

Yes,. GW2 has aToken System, but sadly only for Dungeons and Fractals, when it should have best for general PvE World Bosses this as well to remove the absurd loot grind from them.
People should be also able to earn the loot from the World Bosses with patience, not only with absurd luck and unendless grind if you have no luck at all.
We play a game here, not a gambling!!

I have also no problem with it with getting rewarded with “trash” – salvage, sell, fine.
But I have a problem with complete useless “trash”, because of the game not being designed to filter out for you the loot that your class can’t use to make the loot system at least feel a bit rewarding, because you get loot at least, that always fits to your character that you play.

Means if I play a warrior and I loot some kind of blue or green equipment from killed enemies, then this equipment should always be heavy gear that my warrior can wear.
Do I change now to my thief, then the game should change to drop for me always only medium gear. That way feels the game more rewarding, despite lettign drop still everythign by random – just by rewarding us with appropiate class fitting stuff.

Same should be done with Weapons… I should get find for example a Rifle as loot only, if I play either a Warrior or an Engineer, but not for example while I play an Elementalist that can’t use Rifles. If would make also absolutely nosense at all, that for example an Elementalist, that has absolutely no interest in rifles, that isn#t expertised with should look after them while looting killed enemies.
If I loot an enemy, then I look specificly after things, that are USEFUL for me and not after trash, that I can’t use at all and takes only free space away in my bag.
Thats how I do see it and I’m sure, I’m not alone with this way of thinking here.

However, all of this would also be much lesser of a problem to me, if the game would at least provide more good quality of life improvements that massively help the player in better Inventory Management and if we could get also in this game better Rucksacks, that have addiotional features that make Inventory Management more overviewable, without that I need to have for this like half a douzend of different bag types, when all of this could be just handled as one feature from improved Rucksacks, instead of having to make like 4-6 different bag types to get additional functions to help you handling better your inventory.

That such simple small things haven’t been improved within the last 5 years simply just shows, that Anet absolutely doesn’t care about such things either, or that they were just blinded for 5 years by now not to see, that this area of the game needs some significant improvements in QoL and grind reduction, especially in the mentioned area of Bosses getting their own Tokens to become able to receive quicker the things you want also through just patience with the help of Boss Tokens , if you have no super luck like someonne else maybe.

DinoToss.4810:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

If you can’t gear up after completing dailies, what are you spending your 14 gold/week on? The game offers tons of loot and we barely notice, because it comes in the form of coin or stuff we need to sell on the TP.

Dungeons offer all of that plus tokens, which can be converted into gear.

-Free to play cant access TP
-I would argue its more fun obtaining the gear from drops than buying on TP
-If this content rewarded you with an item you could use most of the time, it would make that content feel more rewarding (not to us veterans but to a noobie, ya)
- Players often save dungeon tokens for their lvl 80 exotics when starting out

You didn’t mention F2P, so I didn’t think to address it in my original response.

Even including F2P:

• I get more toon-appropriate gear in this game than in other games and, more importantly, having the perfect gear matters little until L80.
• I’m not sure how many players of any sort (F2P or not) do that many dungeons at under L80.
• Speaking for myself, no, it’s never fun waiting for the right drop. I always prefer to choose what I want and GW2’s system works much, much better for me. It also works better for anyone who doesn’t insist on “living off the land” (a reasonable approach to gaming, which is more challenging in GW2)