Guild Wars 2

So, having played Guildwars 2 for about a year (with a break), I thought I’d just share my thoughts about this game, both for the a-net and others to read. I don’t seek to start a discussion, I am merely stating my impression of this game, and thing that should’ve been changed, or things that would have been nice if they were changed. Feel free to discuss amongst yourself wether my views and opinions are right or not, but I won’t partake that.
So here we go:

Wrong impressions:
When I first heard about the game, I thought the game would be some sort of free-roaming RPG, where you could go wherever you wanted, and just “live” on exploring.
-However, it seems that this is not the case. You cannot roam freely, there are lvling-zones, which have to be completet in order. After lvling 4 characters in the same areas, this tend to get really, really boring. And if you do not want to get underleveled for the zone you’re in, you usually have to do more (for example) 15-25 maps than the one you’re currently doing.

I also thought you could play any class the way you wanted, and still be “viable”.
-This is also not the case. If I wanted to use a sword and shield on my guardian, my role would have been somewhat of a tanky mediumrange DPS-er, and that is the only role it can fill. I cannot begin to explain even, how much I wanted to play a rifle-wielding engineer, but I just had to quit, because it is so bad, compared to the flamethrower and other gadgets, that I ended up deleting it, swearing to never touch engineer again (I have not).

Things I’d liked added or changed:

The two things I want added the most is:
1 Capes/cloaks. I cannot really see why all MMORPG’s (Except WoW and SWToR as I know) don’t add this equipment, as it adds to a charaters look and can really pump up the feel I get when just walking through a town. A-net, you already have the visible back-piece, why not add cloaks as an item, or maybe even as a new backslot?

2 Rapiers. I know we already have the “Bonetti’s Rapier” skin in-game. That’s not really what I mean though. Imagin playing a thief or ranger, and you equip one or two rapiers, and suddenly, you’re this whirling blur of deadly stings, thrusting your opponents from all kinds of angles, bleeding and slowing. It would’ve been so cool. This is also something I miss from more games out there. Don’t understimate my rapiers!

Some things I want changed:

The balancing. As I mentioned above, you’re “supposedly” able to play a class with any weapons as any role, but you’re not. You might say that everything is equally good, just in different ways. Then my problem is, I don’t want “different ways” I want to be able to play my guardian, pick up a darned shield and bash my enemies skulls in with it, but for some reason all I can do is create this forcefield to amuse all jedis in GW2.
- What a-net could do was to add more “panels” to each weapon. Just like an elementalist changes between atunements, it could also be done with weapons. When you make your build, you could be able to select “Shield – Defensive” or “Shield – Agressive”. Same with the 1h-swords (which are only used for crippling and bleeding it seems…), you could have “One Handed Sword – Blunted” (for crippled and tormented) and “One Handed Sword – Sharpened” (for bleeds, critcal hits).

The last thing I can think of right now is:
The pick-up function. Take WvW and a more recent example, the Invasions. You’re fighting and getting loads of kills. At the same time as you’re using your spells, you’re also using the “pick-up” button to loot all your mangled, dead foes. And you get to loot one corpse, then you find yourself standing with a banner or elemental weapon in your hand. I just love that. How come it’s not been made a button for picking up useless things like elemental weapons and banners, separate from the loot button.

I had some problems with doing things in lvl 80 at first (which led to my break), but it has become better now with the fractals and continously changing living story, so keep up the good work!

Flowrence.4683:

The pick-up function.

Have you look at your keybinds lately? It’s there. You can separate “looting” from “interacting”.

The problem I have with it though, chests responds to “interacting”, not “looting”.

You are pretty much spot on.

ANet rotates the balance to rotate the meta forcing people who like to min/max to grind out a whole new set of gear. If they simply achieved a balanced state, people wouldn’t feel like they need to swap gear, and they falsely believe that the game would get stale for the players if this were to happen.

Instead people get very annoyed and fustrated when, after spending the time grinding out the new gear, they find out it was pretty much for nothing as the meta has been changed again.

So you grind out gear for all possibilities? Sure and use up your bank space or create mule alts. Quickly getting to the point of needed to buy gems to expand your space.

Hooks and ploys to keep people interested in and/or spending money on a game where the content intself lacks anything interesting.

I would ask the following:
What gave you your initial impressions? You don’t really expound on these, other than to say it isn’t what you expected. (Most things in life rarely are, not an excuse just reality)

Rifle engineers are plenty strong, I haven’t played one since launch so I can’t say when this change occurred.

While I do not often utilize the shield on my guardian there are situations in which it’s invaluable. Perhaps this is not what you were expecting.

I feel like you are pushing yourself into playing a min/max setting. By doing so you are always going to be limited. No MMO will ever no have these “meta” specs that are Maxed out and therefore best.

This doesn’t mean you can’t play whatever you want and not be successful. I play with a variety of players in my guild all running whatever they feel like. I happen to run min/max specs myself but it’s not overly important for them to do so. We are able to complete all available content. Sometimes it can be harder or slower than other times, but if you are having fun as a group that is all that matters.

Deamhan: Really? When hasn’t berserker everything not been the meta in PVE? Do you need another set really?

This is certainly an issue, and in my opinion boring. But there is almost no reason to grind out other sets currently. The only time you even need alternate weapons is for sigil of night / force. This is true for almost every class (there are a few exceptions)