Guild Wars 2

This list is going to appear long, I’m sure some will want to say “if you hate the game so much, why don’t you stop playing?” The answer to that is that I don’t hate this game, I am simply frustrated because I know the game isn’t living up to its potential. I thought maybe posting this would lead to at least one dev reading it because I feel like my gripes are shared by a good number of players.

These first few points focus on game balance.

1. The infrequency of balance updates: There is letting the meta settle, there there is letting it sit for half a year. These giant balance updates every 6 months often dramatically change the game and lead to a massive amount of new bugs being introduced. Personally, I would much rather game small patches every month focusing on 1 or 2 things per class. I would even be fine with patches focusing on a specific class so long as they are ordered in such a way that no one class has to wait too long for their turn.
If the current rate of updates has to do with a lack of resources or some other reason then please, tell us. Otherwise, we have to draw conclusions for ourselves as to why. One theory I have is that you don’t want to have too many patches so players are constantly downloading updates. As someone with a slow DL speed I understand that, but I’d rather have a 15-30 min update every month for a constantly evolving game then a 1-2 hours one that drastically changes how things work.

2. Runes and Sigils have too great of an effect on your build: The last few content patches shifted runes and sigils to being a fairly minor part of your build to being almost as, if not more important than, your traits. I like that I can have an “on crit/hit” and an “on swap” sigil on each weapon but being able to stack 2 of the same kind of sigil means I can use both Fire and Air or Battle and Energy on one set. This is absurdly powerful, and I think it this is to the game’s detriment.

If you could only have 1 of each type of sigil on a weapon set, as in the game will simply not allow you to put 2 “on crit/hit” or “on swap” on, it would make sigils go back to being something that enhances a certain part of your build or slightly covers a weakness rather than totally covering it up.

As for runes, the changes to the +might duration sets such as Strength, Hoelbrak, and Pirate allows you to run tankier gear yet still do decent damage via might stacking. Not all classes/builds can take advantage of this, but many can and it is especially prevalent in PvP. There are a lot of runes that are really interesting mechanically, but are never used because others simply overshadow them completely. They aren’t bad, it’s just that the alternative is better (a problem shared with build diversity).

3. Weak/buggy traits and skills: There are tons of cool build possibilities that are not viable simply due to things not functioning correctly. One that has been discussed a lot frequently is how this last patch totally broke the already unreliable gap closers in this game. You can miss Bull’s Charge on a stationary target even with no lag. This means that double melee builds involving weapons that requiring something like a gap closing knock down to be effective aren’t as strong as they should be simply due to skills not working.

The same thing applies to traits, some have cool effects but they don’t work as described so they’re totally worthless. In addition, there’s still a healthy number that you would never take under any circumstances. It’s hard to know what exactly will be viable as well due to the aforementioned sigil/rune changes. If the current go-to items were slightly weaker, we might see more variety like we used to. There’s always going to be a meta, but it would be nice to be able to build to specifically counter it. When it comes to might stacking, very few can actually build to counter because of how low on the strip/steal priority list the boon is.

4. Very few new non-gemshop skins: GW2 is a game about aesthetic progression more than stat progression. While there has been new items added the vast majority has all been unobtainable except for gem purchases. I don’t mind that there are skins in the store but it would be nice to have more armor/weapons that you can earn by collecting different items around the world as a sort of scavenger hunt. If it’s hard enough those who obtain would have a sort of status that legendaries (used to) have. If it was Ascended quality then it would also be a nice alternative to those unwilling to partake in the current system.

5. Consistency of dye colors: This is a minor gripe, but if you have ever tried to mix armor sets you’ve probably discovered that some pieces dye completely different even with the same dye. Some sort of option to change the “material” so that you can get them to look like they belong together would be amazing. It’s not something I’m holding against the game, but like I said it’s a game about looking cool and dyes are a big part.

6. Lack of visual representation for Stability: It has been stated on multiple occasions that the devs want us looking at the health bar of our foe as little as possible. However, a boon as important as Stability has no visual cues at all. Something like a circle at their feet with the same pillar as the boon icon would go a long way.

7. Inconsistency with tells: While this was somewhat fixed in PvP, it would be nice if some animations were given more pronounced animations on smaller races when it comes to WvW. Same thing when it comes to some spells regardless of race. There has been improvement in this area but I would like to see it continue.

Is this not the best $60 you ever spent?

Once I spent $60 on a steak and it just came out the other end

This $60 has lasted me 2+ years

But yeah everything you said is true

I’m not dissatisfied with the game in the slightest.

I’m dissatisfied with the responses the development team is making to customer and player tester feedback.

I’ve gotten my money’s worth of entertainment. I couldn’t ask for more. I’d be willing to pay for an expansion though.

Pretty good as far as my $60 goes.

I can think of a certain other MMO which got thousands from me and I regret every penny…………. >_>

I don’t disagree that for the price (although I bought the collectors edition with the statue) it is certainly worth the price. However, the same holds true for GW1 but that held my attention much longer as someone who likes to theorycraft due to how often the game was updated.

Like I said, I don’t dislike the game, if I did I wouldn’t post this and I would just stop playing. The criticism is because I care.

I’d say this is a pretty fair-minded assessment OP.

The only thing I’d chime in on is regard to the dye colors. Apparently different “materials” dye differently. It was an effort at realism. Dying a metal the same as a leather will look different.

Probably doesn’t help your complaint much, though.

It’s not just different materials though.

The Armageddon, Draconic and Scale chestpieces are all metal, and the Midnight Ice applied to all three is a different color.

IndigoSundown.5419:

It’s not just different materials though.

The Armageddon, Draconic and Scale chestpieces are all metal, and the Midnight Ice applied to all three is a different color.

Okay that’s just weird. lol

Vayne.8563:

IndigoSundown.5419:

It’s not just different materials though.

The Armageddon, Draconic and Scale chestpieces are all metal, and the Midnight Ice applied to all three is a different color.

Okay that’s just weird. lol

Yah, it makes it really, really hard to the the look you want. This sort of existed in GW1 as well, but you can mix dyes so you could generally get what you wanted eventually.

IndigoSundown.5419:

It’s not just different materials though.

The Armageddon, Draconic and Scale chestpieces are all metal, and the Midnight Ice applied to all three is a different color.

Perhaps they are metal but with different finishes (regular, polished, matte)?

Draknar.5748:

IndigoSundown.5419:

It’s not just different materials though.

The Armageddon, Draconic and Scale chestpieces are all metal, and the Midnight Ice applied to all three is a different color.

Perhaps they are metal but with different finishes (regular, polished, matte)?

I assume that’s the case. It would be great if we could actually choose that finish though.