Quality of Life and Accessibility.
After all my years of playing these online games these two issues seem to resonate so loudly that they cannot be ignored. This game currently as it stands has Quality of Life issues, and many Accessibility issues.
I do not understand why they had to make aspects of the single player story experience so difficult. That is the first gripe, and this gripe has to do with Accessibility. These are intended to tell the story and provide some challenge, but not so much you have to be hardcore to complete them. It would be nice if it difficulty wasn’t a factor at all, but just experiencing a fun story.
The second problem: Story mode dungeons. The problem here is two fold. Both Quality of Life are seriously hampered by odd unpredicatable frustrating mechanics backed by health and damage that is likely just way to high. That last one is an accessibility issue.
Mob Threat Mechanics. This is a somewhat popular topic, and frankly many don’t really know how this works. Better explanations of this would be nice. Or at least improvements on it so that it is more obvious what draws threat more than other things would be nice. This is a Quality of Life issue.
Leveling in zones there isn’t a reliable way to find the DE’s occurring in each zone, that way I can rush out to get the xp from them in order to progress to the next zone. Not to mention you could likely miss a good chunk of DE’s by thinking a DE is over and continuing to move on. Each zone’s Renown hearts don’t offer enough xp, in addition, the drops are oftentimes pretty bad (unless it is intended that we all wear a certain amount of Magic Find?). *These are more Quality of Life based issues.
The DE"s sometimes are very difficult, if not bordering on impossible, to complete solo. They are supposedly scaling to the people participating, but as it stands this seems improperly tweaked or not working as intended. Another Accessibility issue that can be a show stopper as well.
Waypoint costs are just too much to deal with while leveling. I get they have to cost something, but this early in the game when people are struggling to build there wealth it is uncalled for. This is a Quality of Life problem.
I’d argue that in WvW it is not okay to let higher level characters keep there traits and excess stats on their gear. This creates an imbalance and promotes the level grind more than it helps ensure people can just play and have fun. If I don’t want to level to 80 and just want to play as a level 10 character than it would be better if I had the same stats as someone who was level 80. This is kind of a gripe with both the above issues, Quality of Life and Accessibility. In fact, I would argue that any player in WvW should already have a predetermined amount of traits and skill points to spend, and once they do it is saved just for WvW.
I honestly want your game to succeed, but as it stands now there are just too many problems that make the game unfun for me. I know I am only one person, but perhaps this feedback can help. Thanks.
I cannot comment on explorable modes.
I cannot comment on class balance.
I cannot comment on Ruins of Orr.