Guild Wars 2

The Problem: there are many different types of players in every MMO but there are two that are in such direct opposition that in almost every situation making one happy disappoints the other. I’m speaking of your elite diehard players who seek hardest possible challenge they can get, and your casual gamers who don’t care for the extreme challenge but still want to experience content.

One of the struggles here is how to balance content to cater to both and still feel rewarding for both camps. Unfortunately there isn’t really a way to do this, or is there?

Proposal: a new class of buff that acts as a debuff I’m calling challenge mode. Enabled through the character panel, these would fall under four categories. Damage, defense, support, and gear.

Damage Example: Deal 30% less damage. Gain 30% Magic Find, Gold Find, and Xp.
Defense Example : Take 30% more damage from all sources. Gain 30% Magic Find, Gold Find, and XP
Support Example: Receive 30% less healing from all sources. Gain 30% Magic Find, Gold Find, and XP
Gear Examples:

• Runeless: Disable all bonuses from equipped runes. Gain 50% Magic Find, Gold Find, and XP
• Sigilless: Disable all bonuses from equipped sigils. Gain 30% Magic Find, Gold Find, and XP

Additionally these disable the use of any bonus stat consumables while active.

Each of these could be enabled or disabled individually for stacking bonuses. To avoid buff clutter, they could all show under a single buff icon and display the currently active debuffs in the mouse over tool tip.

These should be allowed to be enabled and disabled under the same conditions as changing gear or traits.

These could be linked to special achievement that grant titles, loot, etc. to add further incentives for those daring enough to seek out the extra challenge.

• These achievements should not reward items or gear that could not be achieved through other means, but should provide an alternative method towards acquiring some of the more difficult to collect items.
• The rewards should not leave players feeling like these challenges are required, but that they offer alternative methods for progression. They should offer things like titles to acknowledge the effort by those who manage to succeed in completing the challenges.

This suggestion would allow players a variety of ways to spice up their game and create that challenge some desire, while not creating a wall for the less skilled, or those who simply do not enjoy difficult content.