Guild Wars 2

Cinaed.2649:

Increase it again and again. GW1 suffered for maxing out at 20.

FFXI got this right.

GW1 was BETTER because it maxed out at 20.

Grumwulf.9602:

Increasing the level cap has a lot of advantages. Its a reset. We will get our exotics and then have to get our ascended again. More progression but pretty mild in my opinion and fun. I hope the level goes up. I think it will too or else why did ANet make 80 levels in the first place? Because they like levelling thats why and they know the audience they are after does too. I know there are some people that can’t stand the idea of obsolescence but if skins are really enough then there isn’t obsolescence anyway, just fun things to do to get more stats. Skins are your permanence, stats progress.

Sorry, but raising the level cap brings more disadvantages than advantages. Please see the million other threads/videos/etc. about power creep if you don’t understand why.

No. Just no.
/15 charictar limit

stayBlind.7849:

I wish the max level was 30

If the max level was capped somewhere around 40 and all the current 41-80 content was brought down permanently to that level, this game would have an identical progression to the first Guild Wars.

That’s not a bad thing at all mind you, just saying. It worked before.

Due to the progressive nature of both zones and the personal story present in the game, I find an increased level cap inevitable. In fact to do otherwise would make no sense with regards to story flow, every step is a different level (besides the last couple) and every “arc” is bracketed by segments of 10. To suddenly have that flow halted while the story trucks on would fly in the face of the precedent set and be completely jarring to any new player.

Add this to the interview linked above, and any other conclusion doesn’t make sense, and its not necessarily a bad thing given how this game treats leveling as a linear progression. You can barely sneeze without gaining a level. One path of an15 minute dungeon? Level. Level a crafting skill to max (either over time or all at once in 10 minutes), 10 levels. Finish your daily? Almost a full level. As long as you’re doing something besides sitting in LA reading forums on your second monitor, you can’t help but gain experience.

And that’s a good thing. It makes leveling feel like less of a chore than it does in other games. Heck, this is the first time in a while I’ve had a max level alt, and pretty soon I’ll have two. Maybe 3 after that. And traditionally I hate alts.

This isn’t guild wars 1 (which I loved, and played off and on from release) this is an actual MMO. You don’t reach max level 10% through the story, the story progressively increases in level with you while necessitating you leveling between steps. There’s gathering, and actual crafting (also with tiers) and tiered dungeons (which require interaction with actual players rather than min-maxing your NPCs to automatically do 95% of the work for you). The zones aren’t instanced (well, not the same way), there aren’t 1000 skills to outfit your character with, and most importantly, the expansions will be true MMO expansions for this actual MMO, and not stand-alone yet interconnected games like factions and nightfall (with eye of the north serving mainly as a lead-in to GW2).

GW2 is an entirely different type of game from GW1. There are some similarities, but many, many more differences. An increase in the cap in GW2s game model makes logical sense, where it didn’t in GW1, and both of these things are ok.

But please understand that while set in the same world, these are two drastically different game infrastructures and the infrastructure for the game we’re talking about should be your point of reference for building on that infrastructure. Not some other game entirely.

If they go through with adding more gear tiers, may as well add more levels too since that’s the audience they’re going for now.

Sinnyil.3648:

Due to the progressive nature of both zones and the personal story present in the game, I find an increased level cap inevitable. In fact to do otherwise would make no sense with regards to story flow, every step is a different level (besides the last couple) and every “arc” is bracketed by segments of 10. To suddenly have that flow halted while the story trucks on would fly in the face of the precedent set and be completely jarring to any new player.

You can separate story segments with space just as well as with time or levels. Say your previous mission ends, and the next story step is at the far end of a new zone, behind events and stuff related to the story as it stands at that moment.

Sam.4728:

gwawer.9805:

Why even have 1 – 80? Everyone should just start out as 80s with full max gear

You’re right. That needs to change in sPVP. If you aren’t skilled enough to play full time, then you shouldn’t be able to defeat those players who are! Who thought level 80 for new players in SPVP was a good idea?!

Same goes for new dungeons. Even if you’ve seen all the content in PvE, that doesn’t mean you are ready to join elite runs in the new zones. You should have to grind to max level and gear to deserve entering these elite-player-only zones!

LMAO!!!

Skilled enough to play full time actually means , no life, job, GF (wife, kids), living in mommies basement.
Kind of like your other post here Sam that pretty much stated you needed a leet gear advantage to kick scrubs that didn’t have the time to grind. That basically says you need gear to be good when this game is much more about the player behind the keyboard than the stats and gear on the avatar you are using.
Sounds like the DDO pvp mentality or the WOW mentality. Things this game really doesn’t need.

That being said…

Level cap at 80 is fine, more endgame areas would be a boon, constant gear upgrading through continuous dungeon runs gets old.

If you need a carrot in front of you to play this game then maybe this game isn’t for you. Take your time, smell the flowers, enjoy the scenery, there is a lot to see in this game if you don’t just mindlessly waypoint jump to everything.
Sure players zerged to 80 and did everything. The rest of the player based shouldn’t have to pay for those who decided to speed their way through the game.

Current level cap is fine. Don’t have to raise cap to give new experiences, and present new fun things to do.

First off, I’m fairly certain that they will raise the cap. But that’s not the question. It’s whether they should.

Honestly, no. Otherwise this becomes WoW – everyone grinds out their max tier armor at level 80 and sits on it for a while to enjoy their rewards. Along the way, an expansion is released, raising the cap and invalidating all they’ve worked for so far, ‘allowing’ them to re-earn new, higher level, max tier gear that will essentially serve the same purpose. And later on another x-pac with a higher cap, etc.

It’s not a good cycle. But it’s probably the one we’re headed for.

Sion.1653:

Otherwise this becomes WoW – everyone grinds out their max tier armor at level 80 and sits on it for a while to enjoy their rewards. Along the way, an expansion is released, raising the cap and invalidating all they’ve worked for so far, ‘allowing’ them to re-earn new, higher level, max tier gear that will essentially serve the same purpose. And later on another x-pac with a higher cap, etc.

And if they introduced a higher level cap WITHOUT increasing the max tier gear? Would that change your mind? Because it would for me. Having a wider variety of skills to choose from and more trait points to spend, but without having to re-equip all of my characters again, would definitely appeal to me.

They can introduce more skills and traits without increasing the level cap. Trait points on the other hand shouldn’t increase, builds are about choices, not about getting everything.

After the latest news I’m pretty sure they will raise the level cap with each expansion, but I’m also very sure that I won’t buy even the first expansion pack if that’s the way this game evolves.

nachtnebel.9168:

They can introduce more skills and traits without increasing the level cap. Trait points on the other hand shouldn’t increase, builds are about choices, not about getting everything.

Wouldn’t that depend on how high the level cap goes? If ANet were to bump the level cap to 90 for the (theoretical) Canthan expansion, and then to 100 for the Elonian expansion, 20 extra trait points still wouldn’t be enough to automatically max out every trait line. (And I’ll admit, this is something I like to do in single player RPGs. I like having a “God” character that can do absolutely everything in single player, but it’s not something I expect to have in multiplayer RPGs.) Problems that may arise from overpowered combinations of traits could then be looked at and balanced when they arose.

The more points you get the less hard are the choices you have to make and the less distinct are the possible builds. I’m fine with the current trait points, you get a few different and effective builds out of them, more is not necessary, at least not in my book. And don’t forget, GW2 is not about having a very powerful character, there are already countermeasures to prevent people from feeling two powerful, e.g. the downscaling system.

At the end of the day it all comes down to personal taste. You may like it, for me it would be a deal breaker.

Haette.2701:

Sinnyil.3648:

Due to the progressive nature of both zones and the personal story present in the game, I find an increased level cap inevitable. In fact to do otherwise would make no sense with regards to story flow, every step is a different level (besides the last couple) and every “arc” is bracketed by segments of 10. To suddenly have that flow halted while the story trucks on would fly in the face of the precedent set and be completely jarring to any new player.

You can separate story segments with space just as well as with time or levels. Say your previous mission ends, and the next story step is at the far end of a new zone, behind events and stuff related to the story as it stands at that moment.

This is true, but it doesn’t change the fact that this is not how the game has been set up.

And unlike this alleged gear treadmill (which, depending on the final implementation could be good or bad, I’m personally reserving judgement and hoping they aren’t in the process of slaying the golden goose) there has been no indication that increasing the level cap in expansions is not part of their design philosophy. In fact, the opposite was indicated quite some time ago, so at least if/when it happens no one can accuse them of being big fat stinking liars going against what they’ve stated previously…unlike some scenarios possibly related to current events.

nachtnebel.9168:

The more points you get the less hard are the choices you have to make and the less distinct are the possible builds. I’m fine with the current trait points, you get a few different and effective builds out of them, more is not necessary, at least not in my book. And don’t forget, GW2 is not about having a very powerful character, there are already countermeasures to prevent people from feeling two powerful, e.g. the downscaling system.

At the end of the day it all comes down to personal taste. You may like it, for me it would be a deal breaker.

All fair points. Hopefully whatever comes will manage to satisfy both of us, but I guess the ball’s in ANet’s court.

Sinnyil.3648:

Haette.2701:

Sinnyil.3648:

Due to the progressive nature of both zones and the personal story present in the game, I find an increased level cap inevitable. In fact to do otherwise would make no sense with regards to story flow, every step is a different level (besides the last couple) and every “arc” is bracketed by segments of 10. To suddenly have that flow halted while the story trucks on would fly in the face of the precedent set and be completely jarring to any new player.

You can separate story segments with space just as well as with time or levels. Say your previous mission ends, and the next story step is at the far end of a new zone, behind events and stuff related to the story as it stands at that moment.

This is true, but it doesn’t change the fact that this is not how the game has been set up.

The game is also not set up the other way, it can still end up being like GW1.

And unlike this alleged gear treadmill (which, depending on the final implementation could be good or bad, I’m personally reserving judgement and hoping they aren’t in the process of slaying the golden goose) there has been no indication that increasing the level cap in expansions is not part of their design philosophy. In fact, the opposite was indicated quite some time ago, so at least if/when it happens no one can accuse them of being big fat stinking liars going against what they’ve stated previously…unlike some scenarios possibly related to current events.

That’s right, the told us the level cap would probably be increased via expansion packs.

nachtnebel.9168:

They can introduce more skills and traits without increasing the level cap. Trait points on the other hand shouldn’t increase, builds are about choices, not about getting everything.

After the latest news I’m pretty sure they will raise the level cap with each expansion, but I’m also very sure that I won’t buy even the first expansion pack if that’s the way this game evolves.

This guy gets it. More and deeper trait lines would be interesting, and open up more choices. Adding ten more points into the current system does little for variety, it just means people will go straight for that one trait they would get if they “just had 5-10 more points,” which is unlikely to drastically alter how the build works.