Guild Wars 2

So, since Lost Shores, this forum has become polarized. Split. While I myself have taken a somewhat pro ANet position, this whole thing has had me thinking of something else-

The level 80 cap and it increasing.

I’m admittingly on borrowed time at the moment and I can’t find the interview at question, but this much has been stated-

“Q: What of the level cap? Have you guys decided whether you’re going to be increasing the level cap in future expansions?
Colin: Yeah. The level cap will be 80 on the initial release of the game, and we absolutely would increase it further into the game, probably through expansions is the most likely place we would do that."

Now, basically, this means it’s going to happen eventually, most likely through expansions. Let’s make this clear that this has been planned before the game was released. And now, I’ve been thinking- you know, even if Lost Shores and Ascended never happened, wouldn’t this same huge debate happen then?

So now I’m curious. How should ANet try to approach this? For one thing, better PR is an absolute must. Personally, I do not believe this game should be approached in a way that if you don’t play for a year, you should be 100% up to date. It worked in GW1 (and trust me, I love that game), when it was at times a heavily single player game with multiplayer elements.

Personally, I’ll be fine with Ascended if ANet holds true to their promise and makes it much easier to obtain, as well as not allow Infusions to become too powerful (as crazy as the 6 stat upgrades those Ascended give, it is mostly on par with full end-game Runes on them from the looks of it) and the game in all it’s elements doesn’t change to become “OMG YOU NEED IT FOR EVERYTHANG”. Hell, I can like continued Exotics to be on par with them in a level increase.

That being said though, there are a /lot/ of ways for this to go wrong. While it doesn’t need to be the end of the world, it does need to be handled more tactfully than the superb way they threw Ascended (they’ve even admitted they kittened up on that).

That being said though, how do any of you think it should be approached, and if (when) they do it, how do you think the best way for them to implement it?

EDIT TO MAKE MY OPINIONS CLEAR, PLEASE READ IF YOU’RE READING THIS FOR THE FIRST TIME: I think it’s also important to understand that Guild Wars 2 is a very different game than Guild Wars 1 ever was. I LOVE GW1, enough I bought GW2 blind because I wanted to be surprised, and while some areas dissapointed me and others didn’, I bought it. However, GW1 was mostly a CORPG than MMORPG. It was able to get away with staying at level 20 because it dosn’t have huge open world multiplayer like GW2 does. That’s why there was such a huge increase this time around- GW2 is not a mostly single player game with multiplayer functions like GW1 was. You can’t play the entire game on your own by enlisting AI assistance. herefor, it I believe it makes sense to be able to slightly increase the level over time- personall, I do hope it’ll end up caping at 100 someday.

That being said, I’m still curious as to how ANet should implant this without huge ire, after how horribly they handled Ascended. Even though they say they’re gonna fix it, if it had been done right, while people still would have left, the backlash wouldn’t have been so extreme if they had introduced it better AND had better PR during the event. But, maybe that’s just me.

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/19473-interview-gw2-qa-cd-projekt-conference/

The best way for them to implement it is to:

1) Make it so that if you didn’t buy the expansion, you still are stuck at lvl 80
2) No upscaling after lvl 80 in WvW
3) Better gear, multiply all stats by 3 at least.

Or not.

I dont see the point of a higher lvl cap…I mean sure if the game released with 50 being the cap…I can understand…but as it stands it would take major tweaks to traits to allow for more points without just letting us max all the traits and removing any form of builds/tactics to the game =/

And would u really get more enjoyment from a game by being able to go from 80-85?…Im more interested in having more things to do at 80, then having to look forward to 1 more day of level grinding

Primal.9513:

The best way for them to implement it is to:

1) Make it so that if you didn’t buy the expansion, you still are stuck at lvl 80
2) No upscaling after lvl 80 in WvW
3) Better gear, multiply all stats by 3 at least.

Or not.

This right there will be a major issue… player A: has expansion, is now lvl 100 (example lvl) has level 100 ascended gear, player B: is level 80, doesnt want to buy a expansion, has lvl 80 ascended gear, is up leveled in Wvw…and is now at a huge disadvantage vs Player A: and others like him…paying for power would kill this game pretty fast…That was one thing they really did well in GW1, the added classes never had a OP feel compared to the original classes

If the expansions are anything like the expansions in gw1 they wont be expansions at all. They’ll be another campaign entirely, where you wont have to buy both or play both. You can just buy one and still have a great game. If you have both though you can travel between 2 worlds and all the other benefits.
I really hope Anet stick with this approach, as expansion packs essentially mean that if you dont have one or all of them then you are behind everyone else. That sort of thing isn’t a problem in a single player game but in a multiplayer game it makes a big difference.

I knew about this interview before the release so one thing was always clear to me: The time when the raise the level cap eventually will come and when it does I will stop playing this game.

Increasing the level cap – at least for me – destroys the possibility to play more than one char cause you will have to level and gear them all again once the level cap is increased and I seriously don’t want to spend that much time just to get ready to play the game again. The fact the the current level cap is 80 and not 20 always was a problem for me, it’s just too high to allow me to play each profession I want to, but it is kinda okay as long as the leveling stops there.
In addition I see no point in increasing the level cap at all, it is not necessary for anything unless you want to use it as time sink or to gate content. And I’m not okay with both options.

I knew from the beginning that I probably wouldn’t play GW2 for longer than maybe a year or so. Once the level cap would have been increased I would have left the game silently, I wouldn’t have started a huge debate about whether the cap should be increased or not.
With ascended gear things are different, the change in Arena Net’s philosophy caught me by surprise. I feel lied to or misled at the very least, and that is enough reason for me to be pissed.

What the eff? The games still pretty new and people want to raise the cap already? Didn’t a slew of people just go postal over new gear grind and vertical progression. I have ONE of my 5 characters at level 80, geez, some people must play this game like a full time job.

Half Tooth.1867:

If the expansions are anything like the expansions in gw1 they wont be expansions at all. They’ll be another campaign entirely, where you wont have to buy both or play both.

Back in June of 2011, they confirmed that they would not be continuing with GW1 styled (standalone) expansions. They stated that standalone expansions waste development resources since they have to reintroduce everything for new players, creating redundant content.

Expansions will be more like traditional MMO expansions, similar to Eye of the North.

Here’s the transcript from the interview. It happened at a game dev conference in Poland.

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/19473-interview-gw2-qa-cd-projekt-conference/

it’s somewhere in the middle of the interview and progression and the level cap are touched upon.

tkalamba.2541:

Here’s the transcript from the interview. It happened at a game dev conference in Poland.

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/19473-interview-gw2-qa-cd-projekt-conference/

it’s somewhere in the middle of the interview and progression and the level cap are touched upon.

Thank you!

I’m against increasing the level cap. In GW1 you got to max level quickly and got to play all the content – and it was a challenge. Getting level 20 was achieved ~half way through the story, and by the time you were at the end of the story in normal mode you were fighting level 28 bosses with level 24 foes (max level of your group was always 20).

It’d just be another grind that nobody wants to do once expansions are released, and mind you, even in the GW1 expansions the max level stayed the same. With the departure of stand alone games, and more traditional expansions (Eye of the North style) I’m wondering how they’ll handle it considering even in Eye of the North max level remained the same but the game just got harder.

I’d love it if they left max level at 80 and just kept increasing difficulty like they did in GW1, but I won’t be whining if they go another route. Just my 2 cents.

Mkalafut.1273:

I’m against increasing the level cap. In GW1 you got to max level quickly and got to play all the content – and it was a challenge. Getting level 20 was achieved ~half way through the story, and by the time you were at the end of the story in normal mode you were fighting level 28 bosses with level 24 foes (max level of your group was always 20).

It’d just be another grind that nobody wants to do once expansions are released, and mind you, even in the GW1 expansions the max level stayed the same. With the departure of stand alone games, and more traditional expansions (Eye of the North style) I’m wondering how they’ll handle it considering even in Eye of the North max level remained the same but the game just got harder.

I’d love it if they left max level at 80 and just kept increasing difficulty like they did in GW1, but I won’t be whining if they go another route. Just my 2 cents.

Same. GW1 knew plenty of success by leaving the level cap at 20 and continually dumping loads of content into the game with every expansion. It would be wise if GW2 followed this trend. That should be the only “vertical” progression that should ever exist.

To be honest, the three GW campaigns were developed and marketed as stand alone games, so increasing the level cap on later games would have caused pretty significant problems with cross campaign play and PvP. Downscaling had probably not been conceived of, and would’ve been problematic to integrate. They upscaled level 10 and above players to 20 i EotN, but that was the only real expansion, and the last big content update the game received.

Would they have increased the level cap in GW1, if Factions and Nightfall had been developed as expansions? I don’t know. All I can say is that it wasn’t needed for progression.
The increased level cap isn’t really a problem, as you will level up by simply experiencing the new content. Expanded armor levels however are. It’s just another form of treadmill they are introducing, that will even render ascended gear sub par.

I don’t mind increasing the level cap in subsequent expansions (or expansion-like content updates), but I think to avoid causing unnecessary grief and balance issues, power level for WvW/sPvP should be capped at level 80. Items can likewise also stop gaining in power at level 80, meaning that there is no real difference between a character at level 80 and a character at level 100 other than the fact that a level 100 would have more traits.

If not, ANet should automatically buff top-tier items like Ascended and maybe high-end Exotics like T3 Culturals so they automatically get scaled to the new top-level items. (I’m leaving Legendaries out of this since ANet has stated they will always remain BiS.) Of course, this doesn’t rule out people wanting to farm/craft new items so they can have the newest skins; I believe this is only fair enough and isn’t a departure from the way people adopted new skins in GW1.

khefka.2804:

Mkalafut.1273:

It’d just be another grind that nobody wants to do once expansions are released

What is with the term ‘grind’ being thrown out for every single activity in the game? Did you really feel like going through the various zones in the game to level up was a grind? I cannot understand why some players put themselves through activities they don’t find fun in.

Way to throw words into my mouth. Not once did I say anything about grind. I said that it’d be another grind – because there are. Before Fractals you had to grind events to get Obby shards for a legendary. I’m not complaining about the game – or at any aspect of it at all.

I’m simply saying if they keep adding gear tiers it will become a grind and I won’t have any part of it and I know a ton of people who feel the same. We loved GW1 because there was no gear treadmill, no requirement to continuously get new and better gear once you had good stuff.

I love this game and not once have felt like anything I did was a grind (I didn’t farm CoF when the rewards were bugged nor did I event spam in Orr to get Karma – I’m in no hurry for 1mil Karma).

That’s all I’m saying. Please read the entire post, not just Ctrl + f the word “grind” and call me a hater.

Arbitrarily increasing the grind to level and gear up is just going to kill people’s plans for making more alts, more builds, and pursuing aesthetics for their existing characters.

The introduction of Ascended gear already killed a lot of people’s spirit and plans for pursuing alts/builds/aesthetics.

What would be the reason for introducing yet more power creep?… other than trying to piss off competitive players and placing more restrictions on people’s self appointed goals (for alts/builds/aesthetics).

There is no subscription fee, therefore there is no reason for needless time sinks in this game. Unless they plan on introducing a subscription fee, or taking on a more P2W model, then I understand why they would need such time sinks.

Surbrus.6942:

Arbitrarily increasing the grind to level and gear up is just going to kill people’s plans for making more alts, more builds, and pursuing aesthetics for their existing characters.

The introduction of Ascended gear already killed a lot of people’s spirit and plans for pursuing alts/builds/aesthetics.

What would be the reason for introducing yet more power creep?… other than trying to piss off competitive players and placing more restrictions on people’s self appointed goals (for alts/builds/aesthetics).

There is no subscription fee, therefore there is no reason for needless time sinks in this game. Unless they plan on introducing a subscription fee, or taking on a more P2W model, then I understand why they would need such time sinks.

I agree completely. Someone isn’t doing too well in the thinking dept. over there because they went and f—-ed with something that worked in GW1. Why do they have to add gear and level increases? To appease the “hardcore 1337 xxX420XxxN0Sc0p3Xxx” crowd who go through and clear everything (or hit level cap) day 1 and say “This game sucks there’s no content.”

khefka.2804:

Mkalafut.1273:

Way to throw words into my mouth. Not once did I say anything about grind. I said that it’d be another grind – because there are.

What?? That is very contradictory. Sure I’m only quoting a part of your post but I did read it all and words still have meaning.

Sorry, didn’t mean to sound hateful but I’m pretty sure I read that correctly. You explicitly said you are against increasing the level cap, and then said it would be a grind that nobody wants to do. That’s EXACTLY what you said!

I should have been more clear. Leveling is not grindy, but I fear if they go down the route of adding in more levels, more gear tiers, it will become one. The only thing I considered grindy in this game was pre-jug Karma acquisition. And obviously Legendary items but that’s a grind people choose to do – they aren’t forced to (I’m looking at you, increased level cap).

I don’t really see the point – Increasing the level cap will only make all your equipment redundant, and make the new equipment that everybody needs severely inflated.

They don’t need to raise the level cap to add more skills or anything – People already have excess amounts of skill points after having everything and you only get any kind of character progression at all on every 5th level.

On every level inbetween you scale slower than mobs until your next equipment upgrade at which point you are proportionately where you started.

Servanin.5021:

I don’t really see the point – Increasing the level cap will only make all your equipment redundant, and make the new equipment that everybody needs severely inflated.

They don’t need to raise the level cap to add more skills or anything – People already have excess amounts of skill points after having everything and you only get any kind of character progression at all on every 5th level.

On every level inbetween you scale slower than mobs until your next equipment upgrade at which point you are proportionately where you started.

Another good point I didn’t even think of. For those of us who are comfortable with our characters. Level 80, awesome looking gear (cultural, primeval, whatever) who now have to do that all over again (VERTICLE PROGRESSION / GEAR TREADMILL “HELLO ANET?”) this is a huge disappointment.

As I said, I really hope this doesn’t become a trend because one bad move can easily lead to more. And I fear for this game’s longevity, I really do.

khefka.2804:

Mkalafut.1273:

khefka.2804:

Mkalafut.1273:

Way to throw words into my mouth. Not once did I say anything about grind. I said that it’d be another grind – because there are.

What?? That is very contradictory. Sure I’m only quoting a part of your post but I did read it all and words still have meaning.

Sorry, didn’t mean to sound hateful but I’m pretty sure I read that correctly. You explicitly said you are against increasing the level cap, and then said it would be a grind that nobody wants to do. That’s EXACTLY what you said!

I should have been more clear. Leveling is not grindy, but I fear if they go down the route of adding in more levels, more gear tiers, it will become one. The only thing I considered grindy in this game was pre-jug Karma acquisition. And obviously Legendary items but that’s a grind people choose to do – they aren’t forced to (I’m looking at you, increased level cap).

Hm you know what, I didn’t even consider that (more levels = higher stat gear). That’s how it works all the way up until 80, so if they increase cap it would only make sense for them to add gear along the way. Really not sure how I feel about it now myself, what have you done to me??

There’s another thread about that, and how this game is steering towards more traditional (WoW) MMO standards and leaving behind what made GW1 great. By adding more levels, more gear will be added as well – and by the sounds of it, not just better gear, but better gear tiers as well. These are bad things.

Mkalafut.1273:

There’s another thread about that, and how this game is steering towards more traditional (WoW) MMO standards and leaving behind what made GW1 great. By adding more levels, more gear will be added as well – and by the sounds of it, not just better gear, but better gear tiers as well. These are bad things.

It is like Anet has forgotten the lesson from the failures of previous WoW wannabes. The sad thing is, they appeared to completely understand the downfall of every single other WoW wannabe before Guild Wars 2 came out… but now they have mysteriously had their memories wiped from their minds and seem fairly adamant in the horribly predictable path of failure that has plagued every single other WoW wannabe.

More or less they will probably handle it the same as most mmos you will level your character to 90 then you will have the same gear you just worked your toon thru only a 90 level tier masterwork rare exotic ascended then legendary your gear is at level to your toon they didnt say they wouldnt be adding new gear just not adding new tears so now you work towards the 80 level gear new expansion 10 more lavels on your toon and new 90 level gear for your toon you just work thru the tiers that they have intoduced

deborah.2068:

More or less they will probably handle it the same as most mmos you will level your character to 90 then you will have the same gear you just worked your toon thru only a 90 level tier masterwork rare exotic ascended then legendary

A little punctuation goes a long way. I’m having trouble reading what you posted, but if I’m understanding it correctly I think I agree. It makes no sense and goes against all of the unique features of this game by essentially adding a gear treadmill.

Lol. Sad. I never even heard of this.

Mkalafut.1273:

deborah.2068:

More or less they will probably handle it the same as most mmos you will level your character to 90 then you will have the same gear you just worked your toon thru only a 90 level tier masterwork rare exotic ascended then legendary

A little punctuation goes a long way. I’m having trouble reading what you posted, but if I’m understanding it correctly I think I agree. It makes no sense and goes against all of the unique features of this game by essentially adding a gear treadmill.

Idono about gear treadmill but usually most expansions new character level new gear for that level character at that level in those same tiers used before welcome to all the other mmos went thru bc wrath cata and now mop is out was hoping not to be in that boat anymore but good word plays in the ama they actually wont be intoducing a new tier just new item level

as for puncation its late i m tired

deborah.2068:

Mkalafut.1273:

deborah.2068:

More or less they will probably handle it the same as most mmos you will level your character to 90 then you will have the same gear you just worked your toon thru only a 90 level tier masterwork rare exotic ascended then legendary

A little punctuation goes a long way. I’m having trouble reading what you posted, but if I’m understanding it correctly I think I agree. It makes no sense and goes against all of the unique features of this game by essentially adding a gear treadmill.

Idono about gear treadmill but usually most expansions new character level new gear for that level character at that level in those same tiers used before welcome to all the other mmos went thru bc wrath cata and now mop is out was hoping not to be in that boat anymore but good word plays in the ama their actually wont be intoducing a new tier just new item level

Once again I’d like to thank you for not using a single punctuation point. It really makes reading your posts easy. I think a lot of GW1 fans were disappointed to see the way loot was handled in Gw2 compared to GW1.

With GW1 expansions (I use the word loosely because it really only had 1 true expansion) all gear remained the same in power over the course of the game. New content? “Ok cool we get some new skins.” Never “Oh nice I get to farm some stronger gear!”

Yea well this keeps the lemmings going new stats more dps oh lookey there a monster to kill omg he has 1 billion health lucky i got higher stats on my new gear so i have higher dps its just a numbers game they play on the people running to get new higher stat gear cuz after all they are soo skilled rather boring if you ask me

deborah.2068:

Yea well this keeps the lemmings going new stats more dps oh lookey there a monster to kill omg he has 1 billion health lucky i got higher stats on my new gear so i have higher dps its just a numbers game they play on the people running to get new higher stat gear cuz after all they are soo skilled rather boring if you ask me

I hate how ANet claims they are catering to the community as a whole, yet what has been given to GW players? Grind, more grind, oh and eventually our level increases. Linear skills & combat. Come on, it’s pretty obvious what’s going on. WoW2.0

I hope there will be no level cap increase, 80 levels is enough…

increasing level cap is what make me leave the games…

Lalangamena.3694:

I hope there will be no level cap increase, 80 levels is enough…

increasing level cap is what make me leave the games…

I m with you but that wouldnt be profitable considering they have already stated they wont be adding more tiers and you spend more when you grind/farm w/e you want to call it more gear

Primal.9513:

The best way for them to implement it is to:

1) Make it so that if you didn’t buy the expansion, you still are stuck at lvl 80
2) No upscaling after lvl 80 in WvW
3) Better gear, multiply all stats by 3 at least.

Or not.

That would be the stupidest move ever for Anet to do.

Although I’d prefer standalone campaigns to WoW-style expansions that deprecate all your previous accomplishments, in the end I don’t think I’d care that much if they raised the level cap. I never grinded XP in that game, I did events and crafting, and I barely saw my level 80 coming. If they raise the level cap to 90 I’ll start exploring and doing quests, and the first thing I’ll know is I’m level 90. With downscaling everywhere, level is just a gating mechanism, really.

There’s only 1 reason for level increases, which is to reset gear for newcomers. If there’s no gear gating, level increases are not necessary.

Which begs the question… how much gear gating will there be?

marnick.4305:

There’s only 1 reason for level increases, which is to reset gear for newcomers. If there’s no gear gating, level increases are not necessary.

Which begs the question… how much gear gating will there be?

vertical progression, new gear, higher stats, and feeling of accomplishment

you just reached the highest vertical progression you can with ascended gear but you want more vertical progression … simple….. raise characters level now you have all the tiers available for vertical progression

deborah.2068:

and feeling of accomplishment

Why don’t all these people just move to Zimbabwe and just revel in that accomplishment of the country’s currency?

Maybe I am just bias against inflation due to my schooling…. but I absolutely hate the idea of inflation, especially when it is just for the sake of inflation.

They were talking about this last year.

But realistically, we’re looking at a long time before they do an expansion.

Generally speculation about expansions involve wondering what new professions and/or races will come with it, Cantha or ??, that kind of stuff.

The talk in this thread… makes it sound like you hate to play GW2. Oh no, I might have to level another 10 or 20 levels! Hey, if it’s exploring a new continent, I’m all for it (when the time comes)

I can’t stand how people keep bringing up GW1.

Gw1 was not an MMO, Gw2 is an MMO… They are not the same type of game.

You know, kind of like how warcraft is an RTS and WoW is an MMO… Different game type but same world and lore.

Who cares if GW1 didn’t raise the level cap? What’s that have to do with Gw2?

And why are people acting like an expansion is coming out soon? It’s going to be a really long time before that happens so all you people who can’t stand character progression can enjoy never needing to progress for many months to come.

I mean really, why even play an MMO if you don’t want to ever worry about upgrading you characters? Go play a FPS or something.

mulch.2586:

They were talking about this last year.

But realistically, we’re looking at a long time before they do an expansion.

Generally speculation about expansions involve wondering what new professions and/or races will come with it, Cantha or ??, that kind of stuff.

The talk in this thread… makes it sound like you hate to play GW2. Oh no, I might have to level another 10 or 20 levels! Hey, if it’s exploring a new continent, I’m all for it (when the time comes)

I thought this was just that speculating and discussing what we think might happen with a new expansion if there will be a new level cap and what will happen. Am I pro or con dont really care, what will be will be. I m not on the dev team and it is not my game to do with what I please. We can only wait to see what they will do with their game and then form our opinion and do what we must at that time and what best suits us, be it leave the game or continue to play it will most likely be an individual decision we will have to make at the time. Maybe some speculate and discuss with others to form their decision and they fill it is the right time now to do so to be prepared. But who are you to say it is right or wrong, when it is not your decision to make but theirs.

mulch.2586:

They were talking about this last year.

But realistically, we’re looking at a long time before they do an expansion.

Generally speculation about expansions involve wondering what new professions and/or races will come with it, Cantha or ??, that kind of stuff.

The talk in this thread… makes it sound like you hate to play GW2. Oh no, I might have to level another 10 or 20 levels! Hey, if it’s exploring a new continent, I’m all for it (when the time comes)

There are a lot of people whose purchase of a GW2 expansion is based primarily on whether there will be a treadmill or not. Story, environments, mechanics are all secondary.

My question to ANET on a level cap increase is this:

What good is increasing the level cap in a game where capped level scales down to the area/dungeon you’re in?

Is it another carrot to give the Hardcore Vertical Progression crowd something to chase for a couple days? Why not simply add more level 80 zones, given the current short supply of them? If that is already planned, then what is the time frame for the first level cap increase? Will there be sufficient time for active players of both hardcore and casual demographics to fully experience the additional level 80 zones before they are inevitably moved on from in favor of the new max level zones/events? How will you rebalance zones such as the Cursed Shore to be less hostile to individual players who may not be able to find enough people to do events to access Waypoints and Arah?

I’m not opposed to a level cap increase, I just want ANET to be absolutely positive they have weighed every possible consequence, unlike how they handled Fractals of the Mist and Ascended gear.

LeoXearo.3641:

I can’t stand how people keep bringing up GW1.

Gw1 was not an MMO, Gw2 is an MMO… They are not the same type of game.

You know, kind of like how warcraft is an RTS and WoW is an MMO… Different game type but same world and lore.

Who cares if GW1 didn’t raise the level cap? What’s that have to do with Gw2?

And why are people acting like an expansion is coming out soon? It’s going to be a really long time before that happens so all you people who can’t stand character progression can enjoy never needing to progress for many months to come.

I mean really, why even play an MMO if you don’t want to ever worry about upgrading you characters? Go play a FPS or something.

So, according to you we can’t discuss and idea if it’s not coming out soon? What harm does it do?

And what part of “Massively Multiplayer Online” do you exactly read as “upgrading your character” ? And RPG means you play a role not that you gain +3 health +2 power each 3h you play. Of course the character you play has to evolve in order to remain interesting, but evolving =/= raw power increase. The fact you’re used to evolve that way in MMOs doesn’t mean every MMO should follow that path. In fact that was one of the hem selling points hem of GW2, NOT being your traditional MMO.

Prob new zones will be in expansions like say with the expansion 2 new zones one 80 to 85 the next 85 to 90 with the same karma vendors like there are now in zones also there will be 2 new dungeons in each zone then when there is boredom like there was with the ascended gear they will add a new dungeon so forth and so on with each expansion the same thing there after wards but who knows

look at the empty zones we have now I feel really sorry for all those refer a friend if their friends arent helping them with the respawn rates the way they are and the de set for high player population right now

mulch.2586:

They were talking about this last year.

But realistically, we’re looking at a long time before they do an expansion.

Generally speculation about expansions involve wondering what new professions and/or races will come with it, Cantha or ??, that kind of stuff.

The talk in this thread… makes it sound like you hate to play GW2. Oh no, I might have to level another 10 or 20 levels! Hey, if it’s exploring a new continent, I’m all for it (when the time comes)

It’s not levelling that is a problem – getting additional 10 levels can likely be done in a day or two, especially if there will be lot of new areas to explore and new crafting levels to get xp off.
The problem is again) gear – at the moment level cap is increased all your gear becomes instantly obsolete. You have grinded for that ascended gear? Good – but that is only level 80 eq, and now you have to get a level 90 version. Legendary? Yes, it’s still Best in Slot… for a level 80 weapon. Too bad there are now level 90 legendaries, that are stronger.
And so on.

Which is why the top level gear must be easily accessible – it should take you no more than a week total, per character, to update your gear to new one. If you are casual player, that is – the time should not be calculated using hardcore grinders as a baseline.

I hope they never increase the level cap. I’d seriously consider not playing any longer. I do NOT want another WoW 2.0 style gear progression game. It’s exactly what I thought I WASN’T getting with Guild Wars 2, and it seemed to be what they promised. If they go back on that very basic thing, I would be done defending the game.

Nah they said legendaries will always match best in game …. but they are only weapons you still have legs chest helm ect ect that as of yet I dont think there are legendaries out of

deborah.2068:

Nah they said legendaries will always match best in game

Look at what they said, and what they didn’t say. They said the legendaries wil always be bumped up to top tier. They never said they will be updated in case of level increase. And since apparently what they suggested is not important as long as it didn’t get said explicitly…

80 is as odd a number as 20 was in GW.

100 seems much nicer.

increase to 100 please.

LeoXearo.3641:

I can’t stand how people keep bringing up GW1.

Gw1 was not an MMO, Gw2 is an MMO… They are not the same type of game.

You know, kind of like how warcraft is an RTS and WoW is an MMO… Different game type but same world and lore.

Who cares if GW1 didn’t raise the level cap? What’s that have to do with Gw2?

And why are people acting like an expansion is coming out soon? It’s going to be a really long time before that happens so all you people who can’t stand character progression can enjoy never needing to progress for many months to come.

I mean really, why even play an MMO if you don’t want to ever worry about upgrading you characters? Go play a FPS or something.

In case you haven’t noticed, this game is called Guild Wars 2, not World of Tyria. It’s obvious it is a sequel, as it is obvious that WoW isn’t Warcraft 4.

Now, if course it will be different. But it is already different enough. This isn’t a reason to let Arena Net make every mistake in the book.

Astralporing.1957:

deborah.2068:

Nah they said legendaries will always match best in game

Look at what they said, and what they didn’t say. They said the legendaries wil always be bumped up to top tier. They never said they will be updated in case of level increase. And since apparently what they suggested is not important as long as it didn’t get said explicitly…

True who knows would hate to do the grind for it and then find out there will be a level 90 legendary with expansion I know my last mmo didnt bump legendaries up they stayed with their stats from the content they were obtained with but they were never grinded out they were a really really rare drop and there was usually only one weapon that was a legendary in the expansion any ways had fun discussing with you all off to bed … Thanks for conversation/discussion found it very stimulating