Guild Wars 2

Something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately is the amount of unrest in the GW2 community over upcoming, desired, and unwanted changes that have been happening with the game, and that have happened in the past. At this point I don’t think it is a stretch to say everyone has something in mind that they’d like to see added or improved, and I find myself wondering what the community as a whole thinks. This is in no way a complaint or flame thread, or even a suggestion thread, but rather I’d like it to be a place where we could come together, outside the mandated topics of the CDI threads, and voice our opinions on those things we care the most about.

That’s right; this isn’t a place for wish lists or bullet points. This is a place for each of us to call attention to that one thing, whatever it may be; the most important thing to each of us. It could be anything you feel the most strongly about, no matter how major or minor, off the wall or standard. I’d just like to see what we each value most, miss the most, or desire the most. I’ll take the liberty of starting us off.

After a lot of personal debate and soul searching what I’d like to see the most is depth in the skill system. I miss the days in the original Guild Wars when I could spend hours staring at the UI and arranging skills and attribute, find the absolute perfect build for what I wanted to do or just how I wanted to play that day. There are lots of way that could be brought back to us, and Arena Net has already taken the first steps there, but I have a specific first step I’d really love to see happen: Weapon skills.

I’m not saying we should ditch the current weapon system; it was designed with noble intentions and it works. But rather we should build on it and use it as a starting point. If I had my way we would unlock new weapon skills in a tiered system like we do utility skills. With the first 1-5 skills for a given weapon unlocked naturally as you use the weapon, and upon unlocking them all you gain the ability to buy new “tier two” skills in any order for a few skill points. These new skills could be slotted in however the player wanted, with the stipulation that they needed to have at least one “first slot” (auto attack) skill on their bar for the main-hand weapon. Of course these skills would still fit within each weapon’s theme (ranger shortbow skills being rapid fire condition skills, guardian staff skills being support focused, and so on) but would give players more options for exactly how they want to work within those themes.

Oh there is a lot more I could suggest, from changes to crafting to a new Dragon Age: Inquisition inspired armor system to the return of damage types like fire or chaos, but this is about the most important thing. And to me personalization, customization, and depth are that most important thing.

Now it’s your turn. What matters most to you?

adding new territory to explore in open world and more options for pvp and WvWvW (I’m hoping Edge of Mysts will be as good as it looks like it’s going to be).

I agree with what you said above about the skill system but I don’t know what would be the best way to implement this.. I hate how the builds are very limited to a few choices making the professions one trick ponies.

A year and a half into the game and they still talk about option shock while numerous players are screaming about the simplicity and lack of challenge and diversity.

I guess the players who screamed about lack of progression so that ascended gear was added are more important than the rest.

Wintersday. In GW1, it was probably out of one of the major holidays when I first played the game. Everything was decked out. Most of all major cities got decorated. But beyond that, there was a story line. Even though the storyline was mainly about the battle of Dwayna vs Grenth. There was a story to be told. An adventure. It made the holidays more festive. Because in GW1 Halloween wasn’t the only extravagant holiday with a tale to talk about. So the only opinion (or rather suggestion) I hope for. I want Wintersday to have more “depth” to it. If one of the Orders can get involve with the origins and lore about Halloween, surely they can do so with Wintersday.

This actually is the what I would like to see most in this game:

one Map, one Castle- two guilds fighting over the castle
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/archive/suggestions/one-Map-one-Castle-two-guilds-fighting-over-the-castle/first#post1690934

Many have given up hoping for this GvG type of battling sadly... along with Halls too.

Expanded weapon skill system, as you described in the OP. More choices of #1 to #5 skills.

Armor. Because in a game based on cosmetics, having so many people complain about lack of armor the like is sad.

Player customization.
Broad topic, I know, but probably most of what keeps me in the game. I love making my character into MY character, not just the character Anet thinks I should I want.

Skills -

- More weapons unlocked for more classes. Warriors using scepters like cattle prods. Mesmers throwing shiny pink daggers and dueling pistols. Thieves committing arson with their torches. Rangers using other ranged weapons, like… uh…rifles? Guardians with Axes, for when that nasty psychotic break kicks in. Necros that use MH focus to summon/coordinate scary ‘paranormal activity’ ghost attacks. Elementists with fluffy possessed stuffed animals that can call down the Thundaga. Lastly, more engineer kits, including a shoulder mounted bazooka and BFG kit, transportation kits to rival secret of mana’s personal cannon transporter (with the animation from the disks from tequatl) AND to give engies the ability to mesmer portal…. OH… and a flame thrower kit that gasp might actually be seriously considered part of the PvE meta without being laughed at by the Pryo from TF2. Seriously, I hate that kitten…

- A brand new line of “PvE only skills” open to all races/classes that give baseline dungeon utility skills to all classes. They can’t be great, but they can get you by in a pinch and help promote the whole “bring the player, not the class” ideal. Stuff like really short smoke bombs, a minor reflection field, maybe a GTFO card or two to play in a pinch with a longer CD.

- Instead of using skill points or sold/collected drops, a personal story quest ending with your character finding a hidden trove of skills or an item that imparts the memories (skills) of characters from GW1 would be fun.

Aesthetics -

- more varied options for great gear looks. Allowing for more “cross tier” looks like armored looking medium or lighter looking plate. Each tier having a “normal” or simple shirt, pants, robe and trench. More aesthetically pleasing sets that mix and match well together (more middle ground with supporting textures in between the starkly different sets). More sleek leather sets like assassins, human special and Krytan and avoid any more trench sets.

- Add glowing effects, aura effects, footfalls and particle effects through invisible back pieces.

- Smoother and more realistic clothing/hair physics?

Voices/personalities -

- If I create a dark and tormented human necro, I’d really like to be able to customize their voice to sound… like a dark and tormented human necro. When I make an older veteran looking character that has been through hell and back, I like to hear a little grizzle in their fo-kitten, if you feel me. Maybe make it an option to turn off the personal story when choosing new voices to “preserve the sanctity of continuity” if you need to, but I kinda want me an asura that sounds like a charr… because why the kitten not? I feel like, aside from the personal story, which after a few times, gets kinda old anyways, the only real reason not to add more voice options is the cost of good voice acting. /shrug

With the LS effectively picking up where the PS left off and given your character has no lines to speak, they wouldn’t have much to lose… unless they really did try and continue the PS later on…

- Something similar to dungeons, but designed for a larger (set) amount of players, preferably within the Guild Mission-system. I’d really like to do a really epic bossfight with a bunch of guildies. Like the dragon events and such, but much more hard, structured, complex and engaging.
That’d be amazing.

- A 2v2 game mode in sPvP – with tiny maps build around that concept.

- More armor with effects, such as those seen on the CoF armor, AC weapons, Toxic gloves & shoulders, Dreamthistle weapons, etc.

I would like to see a form of Dungeon having no rezzing. You die you are out. Teams of 20 enter it through separate entrances and race their way to the bottom (fighting mobs on the way) where the team there first fights the boss and gets the chest.

If the two teams happen to enter the boss room at the same time a fight ensues.

(Imagine the two sides getting there with 3 left alive on one and 4 on the other KNOWING that they need at least 5 to kill the boss)

This topic is quite underestimated, I’ll say! :v

Guild Wars 2, is quite a different feel for me. Everything feels thin in a sense, everything apart from each other. This is more of a design issue with current technology, either have small rooms but tons of things, or big rooms but little things spread out. We love to have big rooms and tons of things, but as of right now that’s not possible.

I want Guild Wars 2 to expand on its weapon slots, weapon skills, weapon types, and more things to do. In a sense, I want A-Net to give me abilities and things I can do with them, but so far they’ve only given me things I can do with my current abilities. It’s not a bad thing at all, but more of a preference.

Now back to the point. The most important thing in Guild Wars 2 for me, is its dynamic story. Sounds simple, no?

So let’s be clear, a story is a set of events and paths a protagonist (you) take, which is frequently linear. Having it dynamic, turns it into something that affects things. I can kill a man I hate, and the dead man’s wife will be affected by it, causing her to run away and accidentally trigger an elder dragon awakening by crying in front of the dragon’s sleeping ears.

As ridiculous as that sounds, it’s something I want. I don’t care about how realistic it looks, because a game that goes for realism is the most boring experience ever. I do not ever want a video game to go for realism, but go beyond it. To have an extremely experience one cannot ever have in real life, exclusively to a easy-to-get-to device, is paradise. We have indeed succeeded that with innovative gameplay, amazing story, amazing music, and a healthy community.

I want Guild Wars 2 to be a place I can explore and see a village in great danger, because as I see dynamic events is that I feel they should be more. I want to see citizens in chains, and dredge building massive machines atop on houses. So far, it feels like killing a bunch of waves of mobs. As new as it is, it needs to be taken further. I want taking back a village and saving hundreds of NPC’s feeling like an extremely hard challenge, with only a hero that has courage to do it.

Guild Wars 2 sure has its moments, getting a chain event up to a big baddie boss. Fighting with a massive army against tons of players taking down a castle, trying to get past the bridge in Edge of The Mists… Only barely making out alive from the collapsing bridge.

Seeing a dead player getting bullied by 4 enemy players, then jumping in there and owning them all with my guardian elite skill and my awesomeness. Using blast of magical blue waves at bosses, completely dominating them in every angle, giving them no chance of mercy. Using my hammer and smash the living force of a player out of an island in Edge of the Mists. The time where I also single handedly defeated a boss 15 levels above me, where all I had was my wits and skill.

In WvW, interacting with player commanders how I think we should invade the castle, and they actually listened to my advise and we go with my plan. The thing also about cooperating with players taking down a giant kitten wurm, or a giant lady robot. Taking down every enemy in my way, player and NPC, and sometimes take a break and watch videos of a ton of players trying to kill a training dummy in LA.

The dynamic story, in Guild Wars 2, is not the Personal Story or Living Story, but your very own adventure with friends, guildies, and strangers. The way GW2 is designed is to maximize your teamwork with people, strangers or not. It may seem that you don’t know where you’re going, so I try and set one myself. Level up to 80, complete PS, do some LS, do some dungeons, get this gear because I feel like it, explore the world, and be the 1% of players by getting a Legendary. Most of this will ALL be stale if it doesn’t have any kind of buddie you’re with, or some kind of variety of progress you’re going through. Most enjoyable solo experience is probably PS and LS, I’ll be honest. A notepad in Guild Wars 2 would be great, so I can make all kinds of goals and such and give them to friends.

I think what Guild Wars 2 needs the most is customizable housing, with a wall of trophies and weapons and all kinds of goods and items (weapon racks, armor statues, pet statues you have) you can have on there. And players can go to your home and see all kinds of adventures you’ve been through. Having a medal of honor from the village that you saved, or seeing that exclusive cosmetic item in LS only 1% of players have. It would truly be a great thing.