Guild Wars 2 is a great game with a lot going for it- fluid combat, interesting classes with solid design paradigms, an engaging world, and beautiful aesthetics. Frankly, I think it is a system much more primed for long-term appeal than most MMOs, mostly due to the ingenious mechanics that help prevent the trivialization and obsoleting of content.
The game also has some flaws and shortcomings. I could go on and list them out and talk about them in detail (which I will sort of do), but first I want to say that I believe 90% of the ‘problems’ directly stem from one thing – lack of content. I firmly believe that GW2 will come into its greatness over time as more and more content is released.
Now, don’t get me wrong- GW2 had a fair amount of content for its launch, however, very popular games like WoW and even GW1 have grown so large over the years that in comparison, through no fault if its own, it feels a bit light, which I feel will probably be addressed over time.
Now, the question is – what is lacking in the current content? Where does development need to be focused? While everyone will have differing opinions to some extent of course, I’ll state a few things I feel would probably represent a huge pay-off and should be prioritized for development-
1. More Skills & Weapons- The combat system, at its heart, is great. The biggest problem with it, by far, is that there simply aren’t really enough skills or build options within any particular profession to prevent the game-play from becoming a little stale. For starters, each class should really have a larger range of weapons available to them. This means both expanding the availability of existing weapons to new professions (such as Sword for Elementalist and Axe for Thief) and adding many new weapon types to the game.
Here are just a few suggestions:
2-handed – Polearm, Greataxe, Tome, Crossbow, Scythe
Main-hand/off-hand – Whip, Claw, Boomerang/Chakram, Sickle
Off-hand – Glove, Orb, Buckler (as distinct from larger shields)
While adding new weapons probably isn’t too controversial (I’m sure most players would like to see it), I’m also going to suggest something that probably is a little moreso- work on adding a lot of new skills and (eventually) expand the skillbar to 16 skills. There should be 8 weapons skills (5/3), 6 Utility skills, and a Healing and Elite skill. Obviously, there would need to be some rebalancing work done to accommodate this, but I feel it’s a worthy endeavor. One of the big issues in the game currently is that you stop developing your skills at a relatively low level, and the combat gets kind of stale as you just don’t get enough cool new stuff later on. The pacing of skill acquisition should be staggered better so that you’re getting new stuff (including weapon skills) up to a higher level.
2.) Greater Diversity of Zones – The zones in the game are beautiful. However, in many ways they also feel kind of samey and a bit mundane. There just isn’t quite enough diversity or magical feeling/immersion in the zones in general. I would like to see more fantastical, surreal landscapes and greater variety of climates.
3.) Greater Diversity of Creatures – Much as above, the existing creatures and races are great, there just isn’t quite enough of them yet. Too much undead stuff, too many woodland critters, etc. I’m not necessarily suggesting more fantasy staples like Elves and Orcs, there just needs to be more creative types of mobs and races to interact with.
4.) Allies – Ok, so I don’t quite know what to suggest specifically here, but allies added a lot of depth and immersion to both GW1 and TOR. One of the big issues in GW2 is that you don’t really get attached to many NPCs, and part of the reason is the lack of presence they have. Additionally, as the game gets older it will be more painstaking to find people doing dynamic events, etc, and being able to have allies (probably just one at a time) would be a great way to add immersion to the setting and depth to the gameplay as well. The allies could be great fighters or weak fighters that provide a service (such as a mobile bank, etc.).
5.) Dungeons – Fractals was a great addition. This one speaks for itself. There should also be dungeons designed for fewer than 5 players, as well as dungeons designed for more.
6.) Revert to the beta attriute names. The original names of the various attributes were far more flavorful. Many people argue the current ones are more functional, but given the recently simplified hero pane along with the concise tooltips, it would be my preference to see the flavor names return.
7.) Greater variety in armor models. Especially medium armor. Enough said.
8.) Full-blown expansion content. The game needs more than just a steady trickle of new content, it needs entire continents, etc. I’ll be quite disappointed if I never see Cantha or Elona, I’m just saying.
(edited by Einlanzer.1627)