Guild Wars 2

- Warning, A opinion is being stated below -

When it comes down to it, everything you do in the game allows you to get what you need. At first this was a amazing idea that allowed you to do whatever you wanted without worrying about missing out on gold/items. But, lately I feel that this has negatively impacted my enjoyment because there is nothing special about majority of the zones/dungeons.
I miss the feel of going to certain areas to farm/find certain items. I used to love running slvaer’s exile for that chance of a Voltaic spear. The trading post has everything you would need on it so you just mindlessly do your daily routine for gold farming and then either log off or kitten around. I feel less inclined to play because everything was so easily obtainable. If there is ever a item you want, you just find the most efficient gold farm at the time and you can get most anything with a day of farming. The only item that took me time to get was the legendary, but there was no amazing route to get there. There was no visiting of rare/exotic areas. It consisted of waking up and doing 50+ CoF runs a day. I would have much rather it taken me to exotic lands and epic bosses. Even if I had to pay to get to these lands or pay to do these fights I would have enjoyed it more.

Before you say I “rushed” my legendary, I’ve 100% everything there is to do. I have maxed all the zones, leveled multiple characters to 80, participated in WvW, completed all the dungeons, and compete in SPvP and TPvP.

• If you want dungeon gear, you got to run that specific dungeon.
• If you want a legendary, you got to do certain things, like it or not.

In GW:

• You could farm platinum to get the mats to get any armour you want. Correct me if I’m wrong, but you could also do this to buy different skins such as that spear as well? Or was it customized as soon as you picked it up?

Cynical.2097:

I miss the feel of going to certain areas to farm/find certain items.

Same.
I really really miss things like boss hunting or farming certain zones for a specific loot like we did in GW1.
Hopefully they will find a way to make earlier zones useful at lvl 80, I don’t believe 90% of Tyria should become immediately obsolete once you hit 80.

TheDaiBish.9735:

• If you want dungeon gear, you got to run that specific dungeon.
• If you want a legendary, you got to do certain things, like it or not.

In GW:

• You could farm platinum to get the mats to get any armour you want. Correct me if I’m wrong, but you could also do this to buy different skins such as that spear as well? Or was it customized as soon as you picked it up?

You could buy mats/weapons. The only difference is that majority of the items are better off found through the mystic forge rather than going to a zone and getting it to drop.

Definitely not typical of my experience in the game post Nov but okay, you did state it is your opinion. I’m sure plenty of people here would show you the data from their experiences in this game so far post Nov to show you how it’s really not as “play as you like” as we were led to believe. For example, there hasn’t been a new permanent DE Meta since launch.

“Play as you like” is long dead. Certain equipment can only be had from specific areas of the game, and you have to grind those areas even though Anet doesn’t make grindy games.

Case in point? I have no chance to get an Ascended Back Piece in WvW, and I detest the fractals. It has been 3.5 months since the Nov 15 patch that brought out Ascended gear and I only just got my first piece, an amulet. Admittedly I didn’t have to do much to get it, just a daily achievement but where are the Ascended rewards in WvW? That is supposed to be the endgame and it’s where I usually play.

As others have stated, pre-11/15 I would agree that play it your way ruled the day. My opinion is that that was a good thing. Post 11/15 we have a yellow brick road to follow to get the goodies we need to remain at the max power level. In my opinion the game no longer has enough play it your way.

Herr der Friedhoefe.2490:

“Play as you like” is long dead. Certain equipment can only be had from specific areas of the game, and you have to grind those areas even though Anet doesn’t make grindy games.

Case in point? I have no chance to get an Ascended Back Piece in WvW, and I detest the fractals. It has been 3.5 months since the Nov 15 patch that brought out Ascended gear and I only just got my first piece, an amulet. Admittedly I didn’t have to do much to get it, just a daily achievement but where are the Ascended rewards in WvW? That is supposed to be the endgame and it’s where I usually play.

Though I don’t enjoy PvP or WvW, I think the players who don’t want to PvE (to whatever degree) have been put on the back burner as regards Ascended.

As to the OP, while I enjoyed farming for items in GW1, an open world is not the same as instanced play. If you don’t believe me go to the only place in the open world to farm level 81+ mobs for better drops and tell me how much success you have tagging amidst all the other people doing it. Still, I wish that GW2 had more skins, better skins and “unique” skins that could be sought.

Raine.1394:

As others have stated, pre-11/15 I would agree that play it your way ruled the day. My opinion is that that was a good thing. Post 11/15 we have a yellow brick road to follow to get the goodies we need to remain at the max power level. In my opinion the game no longer has enough play it your way.

yeah because you totaly cant get your daily done almost any were. ((as apose to every other MMO daily that make’s you grind out a daily in one spot for a month or so))

I don’t think “play it your way” means what you think it means.

IMO Playing and Farming are NOT the same thing.

“Play your way” doesn’t mean anything to me anymore. Ever since they changed the dailies I’ve had to go out of my way to complete them. Even after they removed WvW from the monthly I’m still having to go out of my way (dungeons) to complete it. If I want 100% map completion I have to PvP whether I like it or not. If I need gold I have to farm Orr or CoF, I make comparatively nothing playing “my” way.

Playing “your” way is all well and good as long as you don’t mind being gimped somehow in terms of gear, gold, achievements, etc. Otherwise, GW2 is no different than any other game when it comes to having to do very specific activities to accomplish things.

It’s never been play your way. A lot of specific stuff is required if you want anything beyond generic skinned crafting or karma exotics.

Furthermore, if you want to be combat effective to any particular extent, you have to use one of the very small pool of “OP” builds – gsword Guardian, well Necro, etc. This is particularly irksome since it’s due to poor balance of the game.

For example, I used to use mace + torch on my guardian, but dropped it because it was inferior not only in offense but also in defense to the generic gsword build. And other guardian weapons, such as hammer or sword are even worse in this regard, despite my attempts to build for them.

You don’t have to grind fractals. Ascended doesn’t make any real difference in wvw, and there’s no content in pve that needs ascended besides fractals.

Well, the daily and monthly aren’t necessarily meant to be freebie rewards for just doing what you want, they’re (more the monthly than daily) meant to encourage you to expand your play a bit . That said they have said they intend to make it so you only have to do 4 of 6 requirements to get it, so you can do the ones closest to your way to play.
So they’re adding at least a tiny bit of “play your way” back. (and I’m sorry but there’s a difference between having to go a little bit out of the way to finish it, like having to hunt down 5 vets or 10 dead npcs, and having to go do something you really hate doing, whether it be dungeons, WvW, or what have you).

Of course that doesn’t address all the ways they’ve gimped/crippled being able to do that in general however.
The biggest example of course is that I shouldn’t have to adjust how I play to accommodate DR. Sometimes I want…no, sometimes I need to farm something when I’m working towards one of my long term goals (because for me, for example, buying all the parts for a legendary isn’t any different than just buying one)
And yet I am continually hampered by this system, forced to try to find ways to avoid it.

Now, as you mentioned, GW1 had a lot of skins that were specific to certain regions or even specific chests. I think it would be pretty cool to add stuff like that here, would certainly be an incentive to go to certain zones if you knew that zone had either a higher or only chance of dropping a certain skin.
You might find interesting, there’s currently a staff that as far as anyone knows has never dropped. It’s called Final Rest, and I think the Players Helping Players subforum has a current theory thread on it. It’s a pretty nifty looking staff skin (PvP gargoyle staff I think if you want to take a look in the PvP locker) and the hunt for it is pretty interesting. Of course once it’s found a lot of people will farm that location hoping to strike it rich, but I’d love to see more of this kind of thing added, where the community works together to try to find it. It’s kind of like what I’d imagine for a hunt for a legendary item (except maaaayybe not quite so long :P)

Even with four 80’s, I spent almost all my time in non-80 zones, simply because I enjoy doing the dailies all over the place. The diminished loot and lesser mats don’t matter much to me, since it’s not hard to get more than enough karma and gold to keep all my characters in exotics, and I don’t care about the tiny increases in stats I could obtain by ‘upping my game’, so to speak. And yes, I realize that playing mostly in lower level areas means those tiny differences become quite a lot bigger, making me less effective. But since this actually increases the challenge in low level areas, that’s fine with me !

I’d rather have an unidentified dye drop than any gear, to be honest, so that feeling of just farming and chillin’ is available everywhere in the gameworld.

HannaDeFreitas.4236:

Cynical.2097:

I miss the feel of going to certain areas to farm/find certain items.

Same.
I really really miss things like boss hunting or farming certain zones for a specific loot like we did in GW1.
Hopefully they will find a way to make earlier zones useful at lvl 80, I don’t believe 90% of Tyria should become immediately obsolete once you hit 80.

I completely agree. This was a great part of what made GW1 special and fun, which would have worked very well in GW2. Saying that this game moved away from GW1 and some things wont work doesn’t make sense in this case. This isn’t like H&H, this could have translated on to GW2 in a very good way.

Like specific loot, there could be bosses at the end of mini dungeons who drop a certain item, or a variation of it, like say a searing greatsword, or searing shortbow, or searing shield, etc. Maybe, if they don’t want there to be drops, there can be a vendor at the end of the mini dungeon that sells some specific items, but I’d rather have them drop from the boss.

Or even have an event chain that summons a world boss, one that can actually defeat players if they just spam attacks. If he’s not killed in a certain time, he’ll actually leave. But when killed, he’ll drop an item from a set, like the searing example I used.

Also, I wish there were certain useful drops in each zone, something you can only find there. Maybe it could be crafting tools, maybe specific items that you trade in for items, like GW1 collectors. I’d also like it if each region (Kryta, Ascalon, Shiverpeaks…) had its own unique looking armors, like you’ll find Ascalonian light armor, which has a distinct Ascalonian feel to it. These can drop with different rarities and stats, but basically, each region drops armors with a distinct flavor according to that area.

“Play your way” is a logical fallacy if taken literally. It’s not physically possible because it requires catering to conflicting desires. Something that is lost on most of the complainers.