Guild Wars 2

Can we please have an optional reward mode to start a character?

This should be good for both veteran players and newcomers of all styles, be they enjoy the new reward system or not. Yes I realize some veteran players enjoy the new system, but there may be players new to GW2 that will hate the new system too,

As for me, the new system has killed my desires to make any new alts.

I quit WoW when I was making an alt, and its map was, to me, too kindergarten-like with numbers indicating quests I could do. It got so I could not log in just looking at those numbers. (If this has changed in WoW, pardon me, because I have not been back to WoW for years, and never will again, now that I love GW2.)

One thing I like most about GW2 is the options available to players of many play styles. Nothing is mandatory in this game. I am terrible at jumping, won’t even touch WvW, PvP, yet I have enjoyed the PvE content that in general is friendly to me.

I recently bought many new character slots to start new alts because I had finally come to trust that GW2 will always offer options for players. It took me a long time (played since close Beta) to come to trust GW2 developers to lay down money for alt slots.

Little did I realize this is going to happen. The whole alt experience now means I get to step thru labor to obtain even basic skills that used to be available to me.

One of my favorite things to do when starting an alt is to meet challenges at a lower level than I used to need to accomplish certain goals in the game. I’m not a great player, but I was loving pet-pulling to attain what I consider to be a challenging goal at level 4. Now, I don’t even have access to pet management window at lvl 4. That took out what I looked forward most to with each new alt.

With the painfully kitten skills there is nothing I can do but try to grind through the steps, and by the time I get pet management it’s too late. I’m over level for that fight to be challenging at all to me.

The thrill of making alts is to go back to the old areas and see how much better I can do this round. Sadly now it’s just a chore. No challenge, just biding my time so I can even get the skills back. By then my forced leveling has taken out all the fun, and it’s just another grind.

An even more painful part is: This chore lasts 20 levels when I tried to use a birthday exp scroll.

Allow me to elaborate: It used to be if I wanted to have a quick level 20 alt, I can do so and upon clicking the scroll boom I get 20 skill points to fill out my skill and can go merrily along. I used to have fun assigning those skills to suit my play style. Now…. wow, I get to click through every single level, forced t select a prize at many levels, adding to my “play time” which seems more like “work time”, to be forced to drag the rewards out just to destroy them. None of the rewards fit me as a level 20.

My birthday scroll now means more torture in the “reward” process of clicking, dragging for .. being forced to choose lower level gear, then destroy those gear, because I don’t need them at level 20. Then at 20, I only have 8 skill points. I need to grind 12 more skill points just to get the 20 skill points I used to get, and then can’t equip some of those skills I work hard to grind for until I reach level 35, due to the new level requirement to equip skill slots. By then, guess what? I’ll be over-level to perform any challenges I would have enjoyed.

This means I will never buy another character slot,, nor wish to use my birthday scroll. I feel dumb to finally trust a game enough to buy alt slots. Been there, done that. Many MMORPGS dispappoint at the end. I still have hope GW2 will be different though. I have noticed ANet listening to players many times on the forum. It is my hope an option can be developed for players who do not wish for “guidance” in the form of torture to those of us who do not enjoy this new “reward” system.

Thank you for reading. Take care.

P.S. I changeed topic title to “Optional Reward Mode”. There are vet players who enjoy the rewards in the new process. But some of us do not wish for these rewards. We just need the old level of skills available. For me anyway, the reward in replaying a new alt is to feel I understand some of the combat skills now and can TRY to do better in raising an alt. When the ability to try is taken away, so ends the desire to make a new alt. For many players with level 80 toons, they do not need to play another low level toon for a level 14 piece of gear that they can’t even salvage, but are forced to destroy.

I would like to request an option for us to go back to the old way.

The limit of skill points is a major blow to folks like me, who want to experiment in terms our skills, not in terms of un-salvageable low level reward gear. For us, the real reward is in being able to instantly get the skill points and go have a ball experimenting. Thank you for your consideration.

Perhaps one way to handle this is to have 2 options in reward path upon creating a new toon: 1) gear, etc ala current implimentation. 2) skills ala the old way. Make it 2 paths, and even the same individual player can then have the option of choosing either path to experience, depending on the player’s choice of class. (Sometimes a player is just playing the same class, other times a new class he/she would like to experience. The same player may decide to use path 1 or 2, depending on his/her own need.