NPE is a step in right direction
Locking weapon skills and the freaking elite skill behind a level gate (especially elementalists earth attunement at level 24) was dumb plain and simple.
As was level locking the downed state skills, having just the 1 skill and 4 skill until you magically “unlock” the other two is well beyond ridiculous good luck getting a rally at low levels since you won’t have access to the better downed skills for every class.
Underwater weapons you don’t unlock your last skill (which is typically the most useful for a lot of weapons) until level 23. That’s a rather long level gap to be kitten underwater. I personally used to take the time early on to acquire ALL my skills and have them all ready and open before I even hit level 15 made leveling alts so much faster when you have everything available to you.
As for the elite skill ANET if you read this lower the skill locks so they cap at 30 (which was the old Elite skill unlocking point) having to wait til you’re level 40 is freaking stupid especially since there are fights in dungeons that you really do want to have your elites for between 30 and 40.
Killer Instinct [KI]
Ferguson’s Crossing
Ferguson’s Crossing
Does everybody forget a certain other MMO that died out due to a NPE? One known as Star Wars Galaxies?
[hS]
PvE Main – Zar Poisonclaw – Daredevil
WvW Main – Ghost Mistcaller – Herald
PvE Main – Zar Poisonclaw – Daredevil
WvW Main – Ghost Mistcaller – Herald
I can see how it might be decent for a brand new player to MMOs. However, it is terrible for alts, and even veteran video gamers in general. Now if people were picking up GW2 as their very first PC game, it might be a different story. I did reserve my judgments until I played it. I leveled up a ranger until level 10. Yes it do go a bit faster, but I still found it incredibly annoying that weapon skills, and other abilities were level gated. Not having pet control (or other class mechanic) until a later level REALLY was a terrible idea. I almost didn’t make it to level 10 I was so dissapointed. However, that is the view point of a vet, with several alts. I am still trying to get my wife to try it as she is a new player, with VERY limited MMO/gaming experience, and has a much different perspective on it. I will post her thoughts when she gets around to it.
“You know what the chain of command is?
It’s the chain I beat you with until you
recognize my command!”
It’s the chain I beat you with until you
recognize my command!”
After watching days of complaining and crying on the forums, I decided to start a new toon and see what I really thought.
I honestly think the changes are for the best – for the most part. They arent perfect, and i think some things could use refining, but the new system feels fluid and actually works. I think it is a step in the right direction.
It makes me think that most of the people complaining on the forums are just following the hate crowd or simply reacting to change.
My advise – actually create a lvl 1 and see for yourself. Otherwise, please note that you havent actually tried the system when spewing hate.
That said, here are the positives and negatives, imo:
Positives:
- Places early emphasis on gameplay/exploration rather than on hitting random mobs
to unlock weapon skills.- It actually does feel more intuitive and easy to grasp – which should help players brand new to MMOs.
- The leveling pace feels significantly improved (MUCH faster) during the early levels. Basically one heart = one level.
Negatives:
- Some systems take a little too long to unlock. I think all weapon slots should be available in the first 5 levels (one per level), off hand slots should be available at level 6 and weapon swapping should be available at level 7.
- It can be a culture shock for veteran players. There should be a clear way to disable hints.
- I dont like that they had to dumb down some of the early fights/events. I think if they sped up the unlocks just a little (as per above), they could revert some of those events back without causing issues.
Elites should be level 30 for example.
Balance Team: Please Fix Mine Toolbelt Positioning!
I can see how it might be decent for a brand new player to MMOs. However, it is terrible for alts, and even veteran video gamers in general. Now if people were picking up GW2 as their very first PC game, it might be a different story. I did reserve my judgments until I played it. I leveled up a ranger until level 10. Yes it do go a bit faster, but I still found it incredibly annoying that weapon skills, and other abilities were level gated. Not having pet control (or other class mechanic) until a later level REALLY was a terrible idea. I almost didn’t make it to level 10 I was so dissapointed. However, that is the view point of a vet, with several alts. I am still trying to get my wife to try it as she is a new player, with VERY limited MMO/gaming experience, and has a much different perspective on it. I will post her thoughts when she gets around to it.
I too play a ranger. That is a terrible idea, it’s bad enough that they have limited pet control overall for any class but for a ranger to be cut off from that is overboard too.
Balance Team: Please Fix Mine Toolbelt Positioning!
After watching days of complaining and crying on the forums, I decided to start a new toon and see what I really thought.
I honestly think the changes are for the best – for the most part. They arent perfect, and i think some things could use refining, but the new system feels fluid and actually works. I think it is a step in the right direction.
It makes me think that most of the people complaining on the forums are just following the hate crowd or simply reacting to change.
My advise – actually create a lvl 1 and see for yourself. Otherwise, please note that you havent actually tried the system when spewing hate.
That said, here are the positives and negatives, imo:
Positives:
- Places early emphasis on gameplay/exploration rather than on hitting random mobs
to unlock weapon skills.- It actually does feel more intuitive and easy to grasp – which should help players brand new to MMOs.
- The leveling pace feels significantly improved (MUCH faster) during the early levels. Basically one heart = one level.
Negatives:
- Some systems take a little too long to unlock. I think all weapon slots should be available in the first 5 levels (one per level), off hand slots should be available at level 6 and weapon swapping should be available at level 7.
- It can be a culture shock for veteran players. There should be a clear way to disable hints.
- I dont like that they had to dumb down some of the early fights/events. I think if they sped up the unlocks just a little (as per above), they could revert some of those events back without causing issues.
Elites should be level 30 for example.
I actually agree with this, but Im pretty sure I saw a dev mention that this – and a few other things – were an oversight and they were planning to revert them back to the old pacing.
I do think the new system is a step in the right direction, but it is far from perfect (again, some things unlock a little later than they should).
Basically what lordkabal said. Some of it’s fine, but things such as gating skills even further does hurt the experience. I’ve made a level one, they’re now level twenty one… no more, just no more. These changes, combined with the trait system introduced previously, make it take forever to actually customise your character beyond an auto-attacker who can occasionally use one or two slightly different attacks.
A simple pop-up style hint upon receiving a new skill slot or feature, as we had before, but perhaps with a bit more of an in-depth explanation (including a link to the wiki, if need be) would have sufficed.
Also, barring bundle items and hiding certain exploration thingies wasn’t exactly necessary either.
I think the first three weapon skills ought to be available during the tutorial – the whole instance (and especially the boss fight) is bland when all you can do is auto-attack.
My opinion is that the old system for weapon skill unlocking was vastly superior to this one. It ensured that you could practice with each new skill in turn before unlocking the next, and more importantly it extended that opportunity to every new weapon you got, whereas now getting a new weapon after level 10 means getting accustomed to all five skills at once. It also made logical sense that you unlocked weapon skills by practicing with the weapon.
I think the changes to downed state are unwise – adding a delay before the player can experience it doesn’t make it any less confusing, and probably makes it more jarring if the player is given the understanding that once their health runs out, they’re dead. It would be much better to add a tooltip so that the player will know what to do, and perhaps unlock the 2nd and 3rd skills after the player has been downed a few times.
As for the personal story (specifically the level gating, not the ridiculous continuity shuffling at the end), I can see the merit in removing it so that the player isn’t confused by it when they aren’t a high enough level, but I would have thought it would be enough to simply exclude it from the new content direction system until the player is the right level, so they aren’t getting pointed at something they aren’t ready for. If they stumble across it, the recommended level warning ought to turn them away.
This would avoid restricting the options of the player (something which seems to go against what this game stands for), while still making it clear to new players that there are mechanics beyond just the story, and keeping them from getting confused when their story ‘levels up’ faster than they do.
The concept is good, and overall I think it’s fine, but dumbing down the experience and pushing back some locked skills should be considered thoroughly.
And I agree that most veteran players haven’t even tried out the NPE and just complain because it is popular to do so.
“I got a fever! And the only prescription, is more COWBELL!”