Guild Wars 2

I know that MANY of us are upset with the new leveling system. This is not yet another thread to discuss how bad we think it is, but rather to discuss SOLUTIONS for rolling and leveling alts. Many of us are extreamly put off with this new system and trying to roll an alt. But what can be done about it? Please share your solutions for veterans, yet keeping the new system for new players, if at all possible. Thank you.

Doing a complete roll back: While this seems to be the simplest solution, you then have the problem with new players (which is why this whole system is integrated), and no turtorial system. So IMO it doesn’t really help anything.

Including the turtorial as part of the opening sequence: This would allow a new player to get familiar with the basic controls, movement, attacking, dodging, etc. For example in the human opening sequence, you have to get to the garrison to help defend. Oh wait! Whats that!? The bridge has been trapped! Heres how to dodge roll to get past it. Earth Elemental is attacking! Heres how to target, how to use your attacking skill, etc. Now go out and have fun!
They can keep weapons skills locked behind leveling up, for that “reward” of learning a new skill. Just make it every level instead of every other level. (i.e. at level 5 you’ve unlocked all your weapon skills) Also class mechanics should be unlocked sooner, with a guide on what they do and how to use them. The UI changes, with the arrow and whatnot are fine, and don’t think pose much of an annoyance/problem. The leveling pop up can also stay, as it’s not a determent to leveling an alt at all.

General changes:
Remove masterwork gear unlock: As a veteran, trying to level an alt, locking masterwork (and higher) gear behind a certain level is kinda pointless. Some of us will drop equipment into the bank just to use for an alt. If we have a low level bow, that our mesmer can’t use, but we want to roll a ranger, there is no reason we can’t start a ranger, go straight to the bank and get better gear from the start.

Map skill points: There is also no reason for these to be level gated. As a new player and coming to one of these points (i.e. place of power) I am naturally curious and want to investigate. Hmmm says come back later….ok….Then I go off and forget about it. Instead include a mini turtorial, on what this is, what it does, and more information on skill points, and utility skills at X level. But still allow to get it.

Roll back the current system, and use the Hint section to explain offhand weapons, Masterwork gear, gathering, weapon swapping, etc.

Return weapon skills to being unlocked through use, rather than levels. Having only a few skills to use at a time makes for incredibly boring gameplay, even for new players. In addition, the current system let’s new players equip a weapon they haven’t used before, but if they’re a high enough level it gives them the full range of skills, defeating the point of slowly opening up skills one by one to get used to them.

As for the Downed state, which is easily the most confusing part for new players, I remember back in the BWEs (and possibly even just after launch), all the intro bosses had an attack that instantly downed all players, and forced them to use the mobs that the bosses spawned to rally. Bring this back, with a quick tutorial beforehand to explain what’s going to happen and what to do.

Because really, as it stands at the moment, I feel like this new experience isn’t a very appealing one, for new players and veterans alike. The first 15-20 levels end up being incredibly boring, and fail to show off the depth of GW2’s combat, making it feel very much like every single other MMO out there.

Doomsayer.8250:

Roll back the current system, and use the Hint section to explain offhand weapons, Masterwork gear, gathering, weapon swapping, etc.

Return weapon skills to being unlocked through use, rather than levels. Having only a few skills to use at a time makes for incredibly boring gameplay, even for new players. In addition, the current system let’s new players equip a weapon they haven’t used before, but if they’re a high enough level it gives them the full range of skills, defeating the point of slowly opening up skills one by one to get used to them.

As for the Downed state, which is easily the most confusing part for new players, I remember back in the BWEs (and possibly even just after launch), all the intro bosses had an attack that instantly downed all players, and forced them to use the mobs that the bosses spawned to rally. Bring this back, with a quick tutorial beforehand to explain what’s going to happen and what to do.

Because really, as it stands at the moment, I feel like this new experience isn’t a very appealing one, for new players and veterans alike. The first 15-20 levels end up being incredibly boring, and fail to show off the depth of GW2’s combat, making it feel very much like every single other MMO out there.

Weapon skills: What about a hint pointing to the tool tip on the new weapon skill as it’s unlocked from use? That way, as a new skill is unlocked, new players are shown what it does, and how to use it, but for vets we can simply ignor the popup hint and move on? I kinda like the idea of having all the weapon skills unlocked when I switch to a new weapon. Yeah I can take a second to look at the tool tips, maybe try it out on a mob or 2. When leveling an alt, even an unfamiliar profession, it’s nice to not be “forced” to use a certain weapon just to unlock the weapon skills. Heck even a hint about the weapon I am switching to would be cool. Something like: “You’ve equipped a Longbow, This is a ranged weapon that allows you to strike your foes from afar. But be careful, it’s not very good when you are too close…” or “You’ve equipped a hammer. This weapon allows you to smash your enemies and drive them back with a mighty blow. Usefull in large groups of enemies” or something like that.