Guild Wars 2

So like the title said i returned to the game to take a look on the game .. I would say that I played at start a lot pvp and pve but since the pvp in my opnion was bad and i really didnt want to grind the pve events , so I stopped cause I felt there wasnt other endgame content.

So last week I returned to the game and took a new player with me cause I felt like , “hey its actually a good game lets play a bit ”. So I wanted to share her point of view , what she likes and dislikes and what I think after I returned ..

So lets start. We started in the class selection , her first char was a necro .. We started in sylvari area and I just took her with me and said “follow me , we gonna explore the world and do some quest´s” . On the way I tried to explain her the basic´s .
Whats about the 5 first skills and the other 5 , what are traits etc.. After we played about 3 hours she was really upset and kind a mad .. I was to fast for her and she was just helpless cause she didnt know what to do . We did maybe 8 heart quest´s and some events .. So we stopped playing for that day.
She was really mad cause you can do a beautifull champ and the area was that pretty but her armor was just ugly as kitten .. So she quitted the game and deinstalled it .. She were confused about the map ,helpless cause she didnt know what to do and ye ugly , that were pretty much the core problems .

But I was like.. Okay I might have screwed up , I gonna try to explain better so please give it another shot and yes she did !. She tried different classes , warrior , mesmer and ranger . She enjoyed the dmg from the war but the ranger was more the way she would like to play. So I really tried to explain a lot better and we started to play her personal story . She learned about how to explore the world what to do and where to go , so it was a good expierence but she still got mad .. We played until level 28 and she was really upset how ugly she looked like .." what the kitten is this , i am looking kitten , this game su(x) , how cant there be any good looking low level armor, every mmo got that, etc.. (a lot what i couldnt tell you know cause of flame ^^) " . It ended up that she walked arround naked . So in a short summary this was basicly her impression .

Positive:

Nice charackter creation
Beautifull and charming world
She likes the personal story
The trait system
Live updates(ls)

Negative:

Ugly armor sets !!! (really important for her)
That she could chose a weapon after the “tut” with no idea why and what they do
Really hard to learn cause there isnt a real tut
jumping puzzle (but i dont share this)
confusing minimap

(that´s the point of view from a new player , mine are coming on the next page)

And well I need to agree with her. The armor sets are really ugly compared to the rest of the game and like many of us beta players allready said early on .. You need to devolped a good explaining tut. I feel like the point with the minimap is just a habit so I wont say thats negative . but if I would do a summary by my own (only with things which you anet can do better , then it would be this list)

I would sort them in different categories :

The combat :

- Teach people Combat
- More focus on the fights , interupting on important skills should have a good impact
- Balance the field/finisher system and maybe add some new fields and finisher (for example)lighting and fire = Chaos field

The build !

- More viable Builds
- More Skills
- More Team builds ( and i feel this one if really important)

Extensions :!

- Hard mode in dungeon maybe even in PVE maps
- New Achiements for longer term motivation
- New Maps , new dynamic events more influce on the maps
- New clases
- Exclusive Weapons for the Champs / Dungeons / PvP / WvsW
- World Tournaments Like Snowball at
- Combine minigames and Guild for example could there be a monthly guild vs guild Dragon bash tourny

Nice to have features :

- Build teamplates
- Armor teamplates

Quality of life improvements

- Action House – sort armor after light, medium and heavy !
- Conditions on events with many people(rework)
- Give us the money from Coin bags straight
- Give us straight up karma instead if liquids since you cant change the value
- Higher max bank tabs
- Condition Damage builds on structures , i can put bleeding on a tree but dont a tree wall ?
- I want to buy 100x something at an npc ? I really need to click 100times ? what´s about i just write how many i need

PvP:

- PVP modes and formats- GVG / HA
- Better Rewards in PVP
- Visual WvsW rewards (like /rank )
- WvsW que , show the estimated time or the number you are in the waiting list
- Different Comannder Colours
- PvP should aswell be able to earn money
- Rank 1 / rank 2 / rank 3 to make older emotes
- PvP do something about the grindtitle2

Guilds :

- Guilds should do an alliance ( maybe for impact on W vs W to create uniq buffs for alliances)
- Guild feature , when was the person last online
- Guild Halls

Other :

- Which Dungeon Path Did I Complete Already(Interface Polish)
-Nicholas the Traveler
Stop the facepalm smashbutton spam
- Call for boss champs even on the next map that people can gather up , i mean if a dragon is in the sky you can see it out from the next map !
- Minimize or hide the meta events on the right top corner , to see whats happning in the world if there are more events !
- Gem shop , Show items whitch are permanent or will leave the shop with a timer (new mark or something , still cant figure out whitch items stays in the shop)
- Continue of Balance

She quit because she can’t have “nice” armor at lower levels? Work for it, find a combination you like and roll with it.

Going into PvP will help you learn what weapons and traits do (there are npcs you can test crap on) all of which cost you nothing.

Although if she’s trying to find a medium armor set that looks good. Then that’s kinda laughable (seriously medium armor classes (male and female)) were screwed over.

Brother I really tried .. I said to her , you can get a nice armor and weapons later on . But she doesnt want to level up (just saying to lvl 80) for getting really nice looking armor .. its more about that the blue/green/ yellow armor things you get dropped are looking crap ..you getting told you are a hero in your story and if you look on the cut szence´s its more that you are a random trash cause your armor looks like you live in a slum

So check out the armor sets on the TP, you can buy six “blues” of any level for cheap and put together the look you want. Gift her a few trans stones or run through the different cities to get a dozen or so and transmute the armor to the look she wants. Later in the game you can do the same with exotic/cultural/faction armor, it just takes a little more planning to save up for them.

It’s pretty much an MMO thing, the better looking armor for max level toons is meant to motivate you to keep logging in and put in the effort needed to get them. If someone isn’t willing to do that, then it’s likely that she won’t stick with the game for very long anyway and should just play what she likes.

Well, if she takes style over substance then there is not much to help here.

She is right however. If you just play the game normaly, you will not get a lot of “difference” in armor when you play.
The “low level” armor goes basicly till you hit 80 and you will get the “same” again and again with one or two differences.
You can enhance your look however if you craft your armor, which gives you 1,2 extra styles per tier and if she gathered some money she can get the race armor.

If she is patient up to lvl 80 she will gain access to all armoes ingame (except HoM)

However if she thinks that she does not look “beautiful” then she is mistaken. Even low level armor can look great, just take a look at some mix and match in:
http://www.reddit.com/r/GuildWarsDyeJob
Where people post there armor and dye combinations.

You can also show her the armor galleries, if she wants to know what she will get later.

About her other negative comments:
*There is a tutorial in there. It explains almost everything. Maybe she is too used to “traditional MMOs?”

• If you dye your armor it can greatly enhance even the “ugly” armors (everyone using an ascended knows what i mean)

*I do not understand why she was confused about a “new” weapon. Is it so ahrd to just try things out? She would have just have to equip it o.O

*Well it is a jumping puzzle, what did you expect… it is not supposed to be easy. The more you play, the more you can control your character, thus jumping better. However you might start with a simple one. For example in Southsun Coast right at the start.

Overall i do not know what her problem is, aside from that she has no patience and there is not much helping her there.
If she does not want to take the time to experience it, then it is in the end her loss, because you can make your character really good looking in the end (which is about max 4 week casual playing with a friend)

@ tolunart I totally agree with you that this is an option .. I bought her some nice weapons but , this isnt an option to a new player . People who starts without anyone wont get a nice armor until late in the game . And thanks that you mention the trading post , thats again something i can add to the list since , the shop , trading post etc aint getting explained at all

@jaken like you said , its basicly the same armor till level 80 what you can get dropped and i feel thats something bad .. if you get first time a green item and it looks like the same ugly kitten like before and you getting just better stats then it is kind a frustrating cause you cant see your progession (visuall) . I totally agree with the point about " just explore " but I feel like there should be a tutrial which explains most of the things for people who wont just do something and see what happens .
Like if you wanna find our yourself ? Then skip the tutrial but if you feel overhelmed by the impressions you get then there should be a nice tut. Cant be right that you just get thrown into the cold water ^^

kobi.5236:

@ tolunart I totally agree with you that this is an option .. I bought her some nice weapons but , this isnt an option to a new player . People who starts without anyone wont get a nice armor until late in the game . And thanks that you mention the trading post , thats again something i can add to the list since , the shop , trading post etc aint getting explained at all

Well, then i ask you something.
What is a “good looking armor”?

I actually like the low level armor, because they are simple.
What is wrong with a simple and practical design on armor.
Furthermore if there are much more elaborate ones later on.

Do not get me wrong. There has to be progression and if you look at the armor “tiers” you will see that there is an armor progression.
However this is fortunatly in a very simple way.

Do you want flaming armor on a low lvl character with lots of particle effects, etc?

Guild Wars 2 (at the begining at least) wanted to have practical armors more then any skimpy or overdesigned armors in the game (that has changed a bit in my opinion since we are bombarded with particle effects right now).
The armor you find in the game are practical and simple designed.
There are still good looking armor in there. At the beginning and later on (though as a med. armor player you need to embrace the longcoats ).

Jaken.6801:

Well, then i ask you something.
What is a “good looking armor”?

I actually like the low level armor, because they are simple.

Do not get me wrong. There has to be progression and if you look at the armor “tiers” you will see that there is an armor progression.
However this is fortunatly in a very simple way.

Do you want flaming armor on a low lvl character with lots of particle effects, etc?

The armor you find in the game are practical and simple designed.
There are still good looking armor in there. At the beginning and later on (though as a med. armor player you need to embrace the longcoats ).

If you ask me about " what is a good looking armor " I answere you , I dont care about my looking till lvl 80 but some players , maybe espicallly girls do .. I can understand it in the way you want to feel connected to your hero and if your hero just looks trash it might not be that cool . You are right in the thing its just a simple one but why cant there be something more cool ? It cant be that hard to design an armor which aint floating arround with paricles for early levels .. I think its enough if they just look a bit nicer , the game got some nice end looking armors but there should be something inbetween .. some armor sets which you just can find on special area´s or bosses , which are a bit nicer the the simple starting armor

I started an light armored class, so i always had good looking to silly armor

Again, let her use dyes. They change the look of one armor piece a lot. You can highlight and hide things and while speaking of hiding, you can hide whole armor parts as well.

For other classes. hey change a lot. Overall you get a new armor design every 20 lvl or so on what you will find.
Then there are enough Karma armor where you can get some different designes as well as chocices you make during the personal story which award you with other designes.

Every armor type has at least 10 different designes you can find on their way up to 80.
That are including Karma and Crafting armor.
So yeah there is enough variety.

The only ones who are a bit lackluster are the heavy armor though, since they only pick up at around 50 or so.

Medium and light armor easily change their design as you go through the lvl.
I just went through the gallery of light armor and just looking at the ones you that the way i discribed shows a lot of diversity ranging fom alchemist to hunter, noblewoman, rouge, harlequin etc… These are no high lvl armor.
http://argos-soft.net/GW2/ArmorGallery/index.php?lang=en&color=10&race=2&w=1&sex=1

Well, medium is a hard sell though, since it is mostly long coats. However there are dozens of ways to change that (dyes, combining, hiding pieces, for example)

Yes they seem “plain” if you look at games like Terra, WoW or other which go for the extreme designes.
in that case GW2 is not for your tastes, since they use a more “simple and practical” aproach to their design.

Which brings us back to the question. What is good looking?
What kind of look are you going for?

If you want to relate to your character just think about this: You are a “hero” starting local. You do not have much backers. It is your Journey. The hero part is only a nickname, a title you are being given.
Everyone however who does great things is a hero. You won`t get handed legendary armor or equipent from the start.

kobi.5236:

Negative:

Ugly armor sets !!! (really important for her)
That she could chose a weapon after the “tut” with no idea why and what they do
Really hard to learn cause there isnt a real tut
jumping puzzle
confusing minimap

Just wanted to respond to a couple of these.

• First on armor – yep some of the low level stuff is ugly as sin (low level stuff always is), but you can transmute higher level skins onto lower level gear – something most mmos would never allow you to do – ugly armor solved.
• Jumping puzzle – I really enjoy these. Yes, I actually pound the table when I slip and fall – but all part of the experience, to actually let out an audible ‘whoop’ when you get to the end just tells me that these puzzles are doing their job. Solved
• Don’t think of weapons and combat as you would with another mmo. Think more horizontally. Of course you can pick up another weapon because really, why wouldn’t you be able to? Doesn’t mean you’ll be any good at it though, for that you need practice. The more you use a weapon, the more weapon skills become unlocked. Go with the flow and use what’s comforable – solved
• Minimap – can you elaborate on what’s confusing about it? It shows icons like a standard minimap, also highlights nearby events etc. Plus if you hover over one of your quests, it’ll flash/emote on the map too to show you which way to go.

Trust me, I hated this game at release, really couldn’t get it at all. But once you let go of what other games have trained you to do in the past, it’s actually far superior to anything else. Here’s an article I read earlier today on GW2 that sums it up quite nicely: https://www.tentonhammer.com/features/opinion/how-to-love-guild-wars-2

Hope that helps

Kobi, you might try reading over the patch notes or releases since you have been gone. Several of your suggestions to improve the game have already been implemented.

Welcome back. =)

Dont know if i stay inculpatus cedo .. Can you give some examples for what got added ? since i didnt really notice a difference.

Like the buff food bug is since beta not fixed , how hard can that be ?

What games give you good looking armor at low level? I think GW2 have one of the best looking armors at low level.

Well there are more games where you actually change visually by the progession but the armor drops until max level are just simple and ugly .. People stated that there are some “fine” pieces but if you think that maybe 1 set is ok till lvl 80 then its just really sad.

Basic critical thinking skills. If she quit a game because of armor at low levels, her feedback may be less than helpful.