Guild Wars 2

As a veteran play i absolutely approve of these changes. I created a new character to see they changes first hand. For those of u that upset about the changes stop griping and don’t make a new character.

Wow the veteran community is dumb, someone ask me why. Its like this in evvery MMORPG forums, people with no common sense complaining.

Why dont some of you screaming ‘burn the witch’ ask somoene who hasnt played the game before what the think about the new system, that is who Anet did the changes for. Some clown said something about Anet being in a bad financial state which is why they “dumbed down” the leveling system. This is the sort of people complaining.

If you want an alt, play pvp and get the tomes and sp scrolls, go play end game content and the personal story on your alt. Why in the hell would you want to spend months leveling several times you may already have several other times?

Vayne.8563:

azyume.6321:

MikaHR.1978:

Actually, many “vets” should probably make new character and go through new tutorials (from my ingame experience).

So yeah, theres that.

It is not a tutorial, just a lock down. The day Anet actually care about making tooltips with a better, cohesive, text in a way the players need to take their time to learn content, things will change.

Besides, those vets and any other player won’t learn absolutely nothing about their classes as long as they can and will level up almost entirely in EoTM by pressing 1 and F or even experience scrolls.

It’s not a tutorial? So what do you call it when you level and something unlocks and you click on it and a giant white arrow goes and points to something and gives you instructions?

No it’s not a tutorial. It’s the systematic dumbing down of an entire game. A tutorial is an optional part of the game that teaches you the basics. The “tutorial” this new feature pack brought is smeared over 50% of the leveling experience to lvl 80 and unfortunately non-optional.

To repeat it, just for you: no, this abomination is not a tutorial anymore.

Straylight.7529:

Vayne.8563:

azyume.6321:

MikaHR.1978:

Actually, many “vets” should probably make new character and go through new tutorials (from my ingame experience).

So yeah, theres that.

It is not a tutorial, just a lock down. The day Anet actually care about making tooltips with a better, cohesive, text in a way the players need to take their time to learn content, things will change.

Besides, those vets and any other player won’t learn absolutely nothing about their classes as long as they can and will level up almost entirely in EoTM by pressing 1 and F or even experience scrolls.

It’s not a tutorial? So what do you call it when you level and something unlocks and you click on it and a giant white arrow goes and points to something and gives you instructions?

No it’s not a tutorial. It’s the systematic dumbing down of an entire game. A tutorial is an optional part of the game that teaches you the basics. The “tutorial” this new feature pack brought is smeared over 50% of the leveling experience to lvl 80 and unfortunately non-optional.

To repeat it, just for you: no, this abomination is not a tutorial anymore.

So noted. You don’t believe it’s a tutorial. I do.

Vayne.8563:

Just turn off the arrow and do what you want. I will after I’m done testing.

Do what I want with my level-locked skills you mean? Explore locked skill points and take the path less-traveled, gathering non-existent nodes?

As far as I know, those are now all things that you unlock.

My point is that the leveling experience is on rails now, like a traditional WoW clone. You can only “do what you want” to a small degree, before the game will remind you that “no, that is not something you get to do yet – keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times!”

I mean, I guess you can still do EotM. If you consider that “doing what you want.”

Ragion.2831:

Wow the veteran community is dumb, someone ask me why. Its like this in evvery MMORPG forums, people with no common sense complaining.

Why dont some of you screaming ‘burn the witch’ ask somoene who hasnt played the game before what the think about the new system, that is who Anet did the changes for. Some clown said something about Anet being in a bad financial state which is why they “dumbed down” the leveling system. This is the sort of people complaining.

Guess what? All the veterans in GW2 have been playing the game before. Everyone has been playing the game before. And we did just fine. Took a couple of hours of learning and that’s it. Seriously, what is wrong with you? I can’t imagine that people are so dumb they need this extreme sort of handholding. It’s not rocket science.

Arenanet should stop catering to the lowest common denominator which is apparently Cletus from the Simpsons.

Labjax.2465:

Vayne.8563:

Just turn off the arrow and do what you want. I will after I’m done testing.

Do what I want with my level-locked skills you mean? Explore locked skill points and take the path less-traveled, gathering non-existent nodes?

As far as I know, those are now all things that you unlock.

My point is that the leveling experience is on rails now, like a traditional WoW clone. You can only “do what you want” to a small degree, before the game will remind you that “no, that is not something you get to do yet – keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times!”

I mean, I guess you can still do EotM. If you consider that “doing what you want.”

As far as I know, the only thing you can’t do is get skill points. You can get vistas and points of interest. They don’t show up on your map. You can still look around and you know, not follow a check list.

The leveling process to level 10 when four of your skills are unlocked on all weapons is massively fast. You get weapons you can use faster in this. Once you get to level ten you can do five chapters of your personal story in a row if you like.

Yes, it takes an hour to get going. But once you get that hour, you can pretty much go around and play the old way. I did.

You can’t salvage til level 15. Gather nodes are an enigma.

Ltomato.8649:

You can’t salvage til level 15. Gather nodes are an enigma.

straight up false lies. I was salvaging at level 2 and gathering at level 2

Serophous.9085:

Ltomato.8649:

You can’t salvage til level 15. Gather nodes are an enigma.

straight up false lies. I was salvaging at level 2 and gathering at level 2

Are you a new player?

Serophous.9085:

straight up false lies. I was salvaging at level 2 and gathering at level 2

Wrong. Salvage-o-matic has a req of lvl 15. Check before you speak.

Serophous.9085:

Ltomato.8649:

You can’t salvage til level 15. Gather nodes are an enigma.

straight up false lies. I was salvaging at level 2 and gathering at level 2

Yep. Nodes don’t appear on your map, but you can definitely gather and salvage.

AtlasSi.9130:

Serophous.9085:

straight up false lies. I was salvaging at level 2 and gathering at level 2

Wrong. Salvage-o-matic has a req of lvl 15. Check before you speak.

poster did not mention in any way salvage-o-matic, just said can’t salvage so the facts don’t need to be checked.

AtlasSi.9130:

Serophous.9085:

straight up false lies. I was salvaging at level 2 and gathering at level 2

Wrong. Salvage-o-matic has a req of lvl 15. Check before you speak.

There is a difference between salvaging in general and using an ITEM called the Salvage-o-matic.

I didn’t know you couldn’t salvage without using that specific item!

Check before you speak

Yargesh.4965:

AtlasSi.9130:

Serophous.9085:

straight up false lies. I was salvaging at level 2 and gathering at level 2

Wrong. Salvage-o-matic has a req of lvl 15. Check before you speak.

poster did not mention in any way salvage-o-matic, just said can’t salvage so the facts don’t need to be checked.

Correct. He never said it wasn’t. (:

See how confusing it is now?

I don’t even know when you can start salvaging/gathering.

Ragion.2831:

Wow the veteran community is dumb, someone ask me why. Its like this in evvery MMORPG forums, people with no common sense complaining.

Why dont some of you screaming ‘burn the witch’ ask somoene who hasnt played the game before what the think about the new system, that is who Anet did the changes for. Some clown said something about Anet being in a bad financial state which is why they “dumbed down” the leveling system. This is the sort of people complaining.

If you want an alt, play pvp and get the tomes and sp scrolls, go play end game content and the personal story on your alt. Why in the hell would you want to spend months leveling several times you may already have several other times?

Because many of us have suggested the game to new people prior to these changes only to receive very real and relevant feedback from these news players in the form of “why did you suggest this again?”

Ltomato.8649:

Us veterans can no longer in good conscience recommend the game to friends.

I feel the same way I don’t think I could recommend to anyone other than some younger neice\nephews who are under the age of 10.

edit: does anyone remember beta weekend 2? =)

Vayne.8563:

You know, it makes me laugh a bit. People always compare this game to Guild Wars 1. Guild Wars 1 had more this, Guild Wars 1 had less that.

You got skills a whole lot slower in Guild Wars 1 than you do here. You may have gotten a few at once, but you got them slower.

I played this game for an hour today, I had four skills unlocked on any weapon I picked up.

I just find it amusing.

That’s true, Vayne you DO get skills a lot slower in GW1. I made a video about it if you wanna look at it:

I’m a vet player, having started up during headstart, and I love the changes. I don’t know if this is normal, but I’ve got 4 80’s, 3 of them with world map completion. At this point, when I level a new alt, I run EOTM until I hit 80, grabbing boss events along the way. I have no care either way concerning the changes they made to the leveling process. After leveling up 3 characters in the open world, I really just don’t care if they change things because it’s kind of stale at this point.

Now with the addition of the new personal story rewards, I may even go back and replay the story just to see what kind of rewards they have. I never would have done that otherwise.

Tagus Eleuthera.7305:

I’m a vet player, having started up during headstart, and I love the changes. I don’t know if this is normal, but I’ve got 4 80’s, 3 of them with world map completion. At this point, when I level a new alt, I run EOTM until I hit 80, grabbing boss events along the way. I have no care either way concerning the changes they made to the leveling process. After leveling up 3 characters in the open world, I really just don’t care if they change things because it’s kind of stale at this point.

Now with the addition of the new personal story rewards, I may even go back and replay the story just to see what kind of rewards they have. I never would have done that otherwise.

its garbage yellows that you will discard when you lvl up a few times lol

Ltomato.8649:

I don’t like making a new character, playing it from the perspective of a player who has never played it before and finding myself in blazeridge steppes at level 13, getting one shot by monsters 30 levels higher than me.

I don’t like that some of the biggest reasons for choosing this game over any other have been eliminated.

I like change. When it’s polished, appropriate, and constructive.

This change is destructive and unpolished, and causes much more confusion than it solves.

So you wandered into a higher level zone and died? THE HORROR! Not having the common sense to hit M, mouse over or tab to an in world animal or mob to see its level really doesn’t mean the game needs fixing to prevent you from doing this.

Do you live in a bubble IRL? Or have some life guide holding your hand from running out in front of a big scary car? Or not to do things like jump into lava?

Badlatitude.4309:

Ltomato.8649:

I don’t like making a new character, playing it from the perspective of a player who has never played it before and finding myself in blazeridge steppes at level 13, getting one shot by monsters 30 levels higher than me.

I don’t like that some of the biggest reasons for choosing this game over any other have been eliminated.

I like change. When it’s polished, appropriate, and constructive.

This change is destructive and unpolished, and causes much more confusion than it solves.

So you wandered into a higher level zone and died? THE HORROR! Not having the common sense to hit M, mouse over or tab to an in world animal or mob to see its level really doesn’t mean the game needs fixing to prevent you from doing this.

Do you live in a bubble IRL? Or have some life guide holding your hand from running out in front of a big scary car? Or not to do things like jump into lava?

A new player does not necessarily inherently know that a level 20 zone is not for a level 5 character to traverse. The game’s new compass actively guides players to massively overleveled zones. If they’re following the instructions of the game because they have no story to do, they’re harmed through no fault of their own.

Vayne.8563:

Yes, it takes an hour to get going. But once you get that hour, you can pretty much go around and play the old way. I did.

I give up. If you can’t see my point when you’ve written it in front of your own face, then repeating myself is certainly not going to make you see it.

I’m glad you continue to find fun in the leveling process. I sincerely am. But please realize that you are not everyone and nothing you say will make you everyone.

I’m upset cause they ruined the Personal Story, and I refuse to log back in until it’s fixed. I used to recommend the game to all my friends, who became most of the members in my guild actually, BECAUSE of the PS. How can I recommend this now that ANet has shown that they will be more than happy to cut out story content on a whim?

I don’t normally agree with complaint threads, but now when I recommend the game, or talk to new players, I’ll have to include the caveat:

“It’ll be boring at first, and it’ll treat you like a braindead toddler each time you make a new character, but don’t worry, it gets better at higher levels.”

SkiTz.4590:

its garbage yellows that you will discard when you lvl up a few times lol

I actually made about 10g on bags from a level 80 mission… it happened twice. I think the rewards are scripted to occur every other mission at level 80 near the end of personal story.

Charleston Chew.1209:

Adapt or move on. How simple life is, innit?

Looks like there are at least a few who are choosing the latter.

What remains to be seen, is whether the “new player experience” will entice as many new players to join the game as it has current players to “move on”.

Labjax.2465:

Vayne.8563:

Yes, it takes an hour to get going. But once you get that hour, you can pretty much go around and play the old way. I did.

I give up. If you can’t see my point when you’ve written it in front of your own face, then repeating myself is certainly not going to make you see it.

I’m glad you continue to find fun in the leveling process. I sincerely am. But please realize that you are not everyone and nothing you say will make you everyone.

The irony!

these tutorials in the starting zone showever loose all meanign if you can not aply them to the next or secound next heart quest. the dodge tutaorial in queens dale is after the apple farm so baisly after quest three. you have 15 other quests to do before you reach an appropriat level for kessex hills, where oyu need the dodge mechanic.
So as a new play you spend only the beginning of the game to learn ONE mechanic and the next lets say 2-3 you spend in queens dale never using it again. then you run into kessex hills NOT knowing what or how uses stuff you need to dodge. and the new palyer fall right back were they would be without the feature pack.

and thats the problem: they took away anything to pratice on in a safe environment.
the starting zones were the megaman X intro stage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FpigqfcvlM
this video explain explicit WHY this itnro stage was good and why this system is best to use.
NOW the starting zones are like a intro stage wihtout ALL the elemnt where you elarn by doin in the controlled environment.
the little tutorials are now nothing more but pop up screen telling you what a button does.
before the patch you could run around free and asoon you would hit an obstacle you need to have afunctioning brain to figure it out. yes in an MMO with a keyboard you still need a pop up saying which key does it but teach basicly yourself where and when to use it. and that constantly with changing enemies and situations.
the megaman x intro stage does that too. goin further into the stage the very mechanic you jsut thought yourself will be atleast used 3 more times so that the palyer can atleast learn that not all situation will be exactly the same so you need cognitiv conclusion skills to analyse a situation and act with the learned abilites accordingly.

thats not given in the starting zones. there is jsut one spot that never changes in its approch of dodging and new players will be overwelemd when they sudden ly have to move and or attack at the same time. so nothing is really gained there.
Anet should have kept the dodge ability of mobs and bundle item and use the startign zones more as itnro stage. teaching the player one thing by doin it and let him apply this knowledge in variosu EASY situation to let him know that sometimes u need to dodge a projectile or a moving wave or aoe attackand not jsut a red cirle area on the floor that doesn´t move.

then the level gating. it should have been kept to the first levels NOT halfway through the leveling. they have those reward UIs. they should have used these to "reward a new palyer with the new weapons skill each level, it also would have drawn attention to the skill and its use.

Gibson.4036:

Charleston Chew.1209:

Adapt or move on. How simple life is, innit?

Looks like there are at least a few who are choosing the latter.

What remains to be seen, is whether the “new player experience” will entice as many new players to join the game as it has current players to “move on”.

There was a game dev team that took that attitude when it came to the sweeping changes they made to the game and thought it would be cute to have a bit of tough love. Guess which game that was. Wildstar, they are hemorrhaging players now fyi.

tigirius.9014:

Gibson.4036:

Charleston Chew.1209:

Adapt or move on. How simple life is, innit?

Looks like there are at least a few who are choosing the latter.

What remains to be seen, is whether the “new player experience” will entice as many new players to join the game as it has current players to “move on”.

There was a game dev team that took that attitude when it came to the sweeping changes they made to the game and thought it would be cute to have a bit of tough love. Guess which game that was. Wildstar, they are hemorrhaging players now fyi.

I again point to the game industry changing its audience to the median (center and left of the normal distribution) rather than to the top 2% of the game. It seems this might be an NCSoft directive to all their devs. If they can sell their game to the 70% of the market around the median, and only lose the top 2% of the market, in business sense, that’s a fair trade off. The nice thing about this move is that the devs get blamed, the games close, and NCSoft walks with a huge pile of money!

Roybe.5896:

tigirius.9014:

Gibson.4036:

Charleston Chew.1209:

Adapt or move on. How simple life is, innit?

Looks like there are at least a few who are choosing the latter.

What remains to be seen, is whether the “new player experience” will entice as many new players to join the game as it has current players to “move on”.

There was a game dev team that took that attitude when it came to the sweeping changes they made to the game and thought it would be cute to have a bit of tough love. Guess which game that was. Wildstar, they are hemorrhaging players now fyi.

I again point to the game industry changing its audience to the median (center and left of the normal distribution) rather than to the top 2% of the game. It seems this might be an NCSoft directive to all their devs. If they can sell their game to the 70% of the market around the median, and only lose the top 2% of the market, in business sense, that’s a fair trade off. The nice thing about this move is that the devs get blamed, the games close, and NCSoft walks with a huge pile of money!

why would the game close with a big pile of money to be made again?

If it’s not broken don’t fix it. Nope lets break it more seems to be the mantra at Arena Net.

Vayne.8563:

azyume.6321:

MikaHR.1978:

Actually, many “vets” should probably make new character and go through new tutorials (from my ingame experience).

So yeah, theres that.

It is not a tutorial, just a lock down. The day Anet actually care about making tooltips with a better, cohesive, text in a way the players need to take their time to learn content, things will change.

Besides, those vets and any other player won’t learn absolutely nothing about their classes as long as they can and will level up almost entirely in EoTM by pressing 1 and F or even experience scrolls.

It’s not a tutorial? So what do you call it when you level and something unlocks and you click on it and a giant white arrow goes and points to something and gives you instructions?

A notification.

Part of the reason why I enjoyed Gw2, was the early personal story .It was a fun experience for me while leveling. It would give me a goal to work towards if I was too under-leveled to complete. It’s a little discouraging having to see I need to get to a certain level to start it.
With that said though, it wont effect the new players coming in because they will not have had the chance to experience and make the decision if they would’ve like the new leveling system or the old one.

Myself, and possibly some other players have enjoyed the option to roam around the map at our leisure. Exploring, leveling, finding way-points, and vistas/points of interest, or even doing story quests a bit early.

-The skill locking until a certain level, I can possibly live with, just in earlier levels it made it feel like the combat is a little slow-paced.

- In my opinion there are some great changes, and some not so great. But these changes actively effect other peoples playing experience. For some good and some bad; I really do love this game.The different playable races included in the game was refreshing though. (Too many Human-like Races, IMO)

Silkla.8374:

Part of the reason why I enjoyed Gw2, was the early personal story .It was a fun experience for me while leveling. It would give me a goal to work towards if I was too under-leveled to complete. It’s a little discouraging having to see I need to get to a certain level to start it.
With that said though, it wont effect the new players coming in because they will not have had the chance to experience and make the decision if they would’ve like the new leveling system or the old one.

Myself, and possibly some other players have enjoyed the option to roam around the map at our leisure. Exploring, leveling, finding way-points, and vistas/points of interest.

-The skill locking until a certain level, I can possibly live with, just in earlier levels it made it feel like the combat is a little slow-paced, or even doing story quests a bit early.

- In my opinion there are some great changes, and some not so great. But these changes actively effect other peoples playing experience. For some good and some bad; I really do love this game.The different playable races included in the game was refreshing though. (Too many Human-like Races, IMO)

Re: the Personal Story. Are you aware that’s parts of it have been cut entirely?

Roybe.5896:

Labjax.2465:

Vayne.8563:

Yes, it takes an hour to get going. But once you get that hour, you can pretty much go around and play the old way. I did.

I give up. If you can’t see my point when you’ve written it in front of your own face, then repeating myself is certainly not going to make you see it.

I’m glad you continue to find fun in the leveling process. I sincerely am. But please realize that you are not everyone and nothing you say will make you everyone.

The irony!

What irony?

I’ve made my feelings known elsewhere about the difference between teaching newbies and actively punishing your experienced players with unskippable restrictions, but.. seriously.

Anet. Tell me one goddang kitten thing. Why, when I actually manage to FIND a skill challenge on the unmarked map, can I NOT INTERACT WITH IT IF I CHOOSE TO!?!??!

Thia.4891:

Silkla.8374:

Part of the reason why I enjoyed Gw2, was the early personal story .It was a fun experience for me while leveling. It would give me a goal to work towards if I was too under-leveled to complete. It’s a little discouraging having to see I need to get to a certain level to start it.
With that said though, it wont effect the new players coming in because they will not have had the chance to experience and make the decision if they would’ve like the new leveling system or the old one.

Myself, and possibly some other players have enjoyed the option to roam around the map at our leisure. Exploring, leveling, finding way-points, and vistas/points of interest.

-The skill locking until a certain level, I can possibly live with, just in earlier levels it made it feel like the combat is a little slow-paced, or even doing story quests a bit early.

- In my opinion there are some great changes, and some not so great. But these changes actively effect other peoples playing experience. For some good and some bad; I really do love this game.The different playable races included in the game was refreshing though. (Too many Human-like Races, IMO)

Re: the Personal Story. Are you aware that’s parts of it have been cut entirely?

O. O That is disappointing and a very discouraging. That was one of my favorite parts of making new characters… I loved the Charr,and Asura personal stories..

GW2 gave me the most engaging and freeing leveling experience I ever had. I’ve played MU Online, MapleStory, Mabinogi, World of Warcraft, Grand Fantasia, and Dragon Nest. None compared to the fun I had here.

I wholehearted agree with the first post in that the leveling experience now is pitiful.

I can understand Downed State being daunting, as it is a flawed mechanic and you need more time to fix it properly.
I can understand concentrating the personal story into chapters.
I can understand adding a guidance compass to fill in the resulting gaps.

What I cannot tolerate is the severe level-gating of weapon skills, utilities, skill points, vistas, gathering nodes, etc..
What I cannot accept is parts of the Personal Story being shuffled or removed.
What I detest is how the guidance compass is always present rather then optional or time-restricted, discouraging exploration.

Any “confusion” devs observed that could lead to such changes feel far too much like the conflict of having habits from other MMOs, and catering to these habits goes against the ideals of GW2 differentiating from traditional MMOs.

If you wanted to make mechanics easier to learn and leveling more exciting, do know that you have not succeeded. You have only made both sides weaker by gouging them to add to the other.

GW2 originally succeeded in making a game that encouraged exploration. This Feature Pack has undone that hard work.

Arena Net, you have decided to “remove” or “delay” in far too many places where “adding” would have been the superior game design decision.

Vayne.8563:

And you think veteran players universally like challenge OP? All veterans? Most veterans? Most veterans who happen to post on forums?

I’m a veteran and I think the leveling experience is one of my favorite parts of the new patch.

I’m glad to hear you finally had time to learn Greatsword Swing before being overwhelmed by the introduction of Hundred Blades thanks to the patch.

DraconicDak.9340:

Badlatitude.4309:

Ltomato.8649:

I don’t like making a new character, playing it from the perspective of a player who has never played it before and finding myself in blazeridge steppes at level 13, getting one shot by monsters 30 levels higher than me.

I don’t like that some of the biggest reasons for choosing this game over any other have been eliminated.

I like change. When it’s polished, appropriate, and constructive.

This change is destructive and unpolished, and causes much more confusion than it solves.

So you wandered into a higher level zone and died? THE HORROR! Not having the common sense to hit M, mouse over or tab to an in world animal or mob to see its level really doesn’t mean the game needs fixing to prevent you from doing this.

Do you live in a bubble IRL? Or have some life guide holding your hand from running out in front of a big scary car? Or not to do things like jump into lava?

A new player does not necessarily inherently know that a level 20 zone is not for a level 5 character to traverse. The game’s new compass actively guides players to massively overleveled zones. If they’re following the instructions of the game because they have no story to do, they’re harmed through no fault of their own.

And other than a learning experience what is the penalty for such a thing happening? Oh you have to pick a way point to spawn at.. Oh the horror. Lesson learned.

Are people really so helpless in life they cant handle learning how things work in a video game?

Yargesh.4965:

People don’t like change that is at the heart of it.

And yet when this game was released, I looked at it and thought “Wow! This is different. An MMO where I can dodge incoming fire and unlock weapon skills by practicing with them. That sounds like something different. A nice…..change.”

I am all for Anet making changes for new players, but honestly…it feels like they stripped out so much of the first levels – which have so much impact on the new players. People are still going to key farm. They are still going to speed level through the content etc. But a new player probably won’t, and it will probably be a bit boring.

After reading this thread, I don’t even know what “veteran” means anymore.

Agreed on the original post. I run the Tyria Assistance Guild (TAG) and it’s my personal mission in life to help newbies to understand and to enjoy the game and to get the best experience they can out of it; and to do this I have one of each class and a couple the ones that I like and all of them are 80’s. My point? The point is, today I decided to rough it and start over with a new character and it quickly became apparent to me, a veteran and experienced player (from 2012) that it was a definite struggle. Now, if I think that, what can the noobs think? It does not bode well for any game to have players stuck in low-level regions because to try combat in higher level ones would mean their being wiped out to much more easily but that is just the tip of the iceberg.

When DRY TOP was introduced I thought to myself, “hey, some new content! Great, at least I get to do something I have not done at least a thousand times before,” but sadly Dry Top proved to have a very limited appeal. It would have been better to have utilized it as say a PvP map.

Yargesh.4965:

People don’t like change that is at the heart of it.

I think it is a bit more than that. A lot of us, me included, LIKE exploring stuff on our own. I well remember how guild members would go through every Asura gate they could find, just to see what was beyond it. They brought back stories about awesome world bosses, dying horribly to way higher level mobs and having fun. People actually liked ‘discovering’ the weapons for their class, and experimenting around with skills and later traits.

And all that is gone now. While I agree there was room for improvement, I feel horribly disappointed by what actually happened. I came back from a GW2 break after the trait changes, and hated the fact it tried to gate me into doing stuff on new alts that I’d long since done on my lvl 80 main, again and again. I don’t run dungeons or fractals (I don’t think they’re fun, sue me), and I don’t like farming, so I never really did have much gold. Being told ‘you can just buy them’ made me want to smash in teeth. Not being able to just try things out while levelling… well, let’s just say I consider that bad game design.

And I really consider this worse. I can only see it as dumbing down, and it strongly reminds me of the horrible invisible walls with painted-on trees you got in some older MMOs: you know there’s more out there, but you can’t get to it, or only after a long detour someone else thought fun.

Personally I’m extremely upset about the ‘suggestion’ arrow that appeared top right in my screen and that I just can’t seem to turn off, even on my 80s. With six 80s, all with full PVE map completion, I REALLY REALLY don’t want ‘help’ in finding places and events, and I’m pretty certain I would not have wanted it when I first started playing either. Having an event finder flickering nonstop in the corner of my eye is not my idea of fun. If you’re going to implement things like this, at least give people the option to turn it off already…

sunset.3056:

That’s true, Vayne you DO get skills a lot slower in GW1. I made a video about it if you wanna look at it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fFNNVQf0AM

I note you didn’t continue showing that you CAN’T keep those skills after you do the quest NOR can you buy the ones on the list you showed without Skillpoints (that you ONLY get by leveling in GW1).

Video is VERY misleading if you are trying to convince someoen you just got 4 skills less than a minute after creating the character…..you got to TRY 4 skills (which is a GOOD tutorial method in my mind), not actually gain them.