Take this all as opinion. Its just what I believe anet accomplished with silver wastes and what they failed at.
The Good
1. No waypoints – for those who played at the beginning of the games release will remember that in dungeons, dying meant nothing either, not when you could just warp to the wp and basically keep throwing yourself at the boss. This changed with if anyone in your party prevents you from doing that if in combat. Death felt like a very bad thing. Now death is back as a threat as dying means running allll the way back again if no one rezzes (or can’t) you. Again, dying is now a threat.
2. The meta event – IMO, I think this is how they imagined WvW in the beginning and how it would be. But the event makes players communicate and assists, while tempted by greed (chests and legendaries). And every event is more than just a reward of silver and karma, but a chance at items as well.
3. The new minions at events – the three new ones (troll, and the pincer weird looking ones) are great with their new abilties. Trolls force you to kill them before getting swarmed by insects. the other one charges you and anyone else, leaving behind a dead trail, PLUS able to leap on you (hint, if you have stability and stand before it, it can’t push past at times XD). And the other pincer sends roots at you, along with aoe shout.
4. The bosses – talking about meta bosses. Their good because they aren’t straight zerg and dps. They have tactics that need to be known to make them possible to kill. Indigos bosses are the hardest in many eyes, as you need to pop the bubbles at the right moment to stun them.
The Bad
1. The reward for meta completion – when I first got a 4/5, and saw it was just a rare bag. I though “okay…well, 5/5 must be the really good stuff!” 3 rare bags instead. Yeah. All that hard work defending, escorting, and killing 5 bosses in a limited time for just three rares didn’t feel like a good reward. The random gear at times for events, OK. But when you complete something this tasking, three rares isn’t going to cut it.
2. Shovels #2 CD – its way too long if you don’t detect any chests. At least halve it.
3. Position of some seige – at indigo, the arrow cart seems like its in the worse place. Because of the roof, its a pain to aim over the walls, and if you aim for creatures inside (which seige should prevent happening), the mobs aggro you, attack, and easily destroy.
The Ugly
1. Empty zone – once a new map or something comes out, how well will this maps style function? Sure, it works now because its popular and the newest thing, but look at dry top after silverwastes release.
2. Chest Nerf – I debated adding this, but had to. Was it warranted? Yes, it was grossly too good. But some factors of this could be blamed. One on the meta not having good loot. The bags were fun at the same time, I felt like I was finally progressing on t6 mats without champ farming, and doing something that felt fun.
Are people still farming chests? Yes. But different things could’ve been tried first: remove badges from chests, no badges means have to complete more events for keys. Another one (of course) make the meta have better 5/5 reward, and make it holding the four forts longer increases the bar faster (such as holding all four gives more fill every time defended, instead of same amount). Or increase the rewards the longer a fort is held, or more for how many you control at the time.
I want to say I still love silverwastes, and find it fun. The team took the right direction in many cases, and stumbled on others. I hope the team looks back and fix only what’s broken, and not what works.