Guild Wars 2

i just wonder from were did arenanet get the idea of making the new leveling experience like this. i mean really , who told them to make it like this? i dont think that there’s someone who hated the old system

Jornophelanthas.1475:

@phys:
Your point about leveling speed balancing out against Personal Story delay is valid.

Regarding the rest of your post:
Colin Johansson already said that skill slot unlocks (especially utility and elite skills)have been put in too late in the leveling progression.

As for when this could be changed:

Hi there,

As a follow-up to Colin’s post, we want you to know that we’re working kitten fixing bugs in the New Player Experience system. We’re also using this opportunity to make a few changes to its design to take into account the feedback we’ve been reading. We’re aiming to deploy the fixes early next week.

As Colin explained (make sure to read this post and that one if you haven’t!), this is a complex, “big picture” system that has a lot of components. We want it to benefit all players and improve your game experience overall.

We understand that this is an important topic for the community and appreciate that players have been talking about it. We’ve been triaging bug reports, developing fixes for them and discussing what design changes we will bring to you next week. We’ll continue to both work on the next updates and read the feedback from the community on this topic!

Thank you

Source: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Misconceptions-regarding-Level-gating/page/8#post4398760

ahh so bugs AND adjustments.
aiming for next week,
not so bad then. I wish they would try to get more feedback earlier though.
either need a PTS, or they need to run some of these things by the userbase earlier. A lot of dev time is being used with reworks, the reworks of the reworks.

You know what would be better than the compass? Colored map overlays. If you look at the maps on the wiki, they have a sort of “stain glass” effect to them, where each sum-region of the map is blocked off with lines, right? Well each of those zones has a slightly different level requirement than the surrounding zones.

What if they did a system (which you could toggle off if you liked), in which these lines were overlayed onto the map (for the zone you are in), and then a tint is overlayed onto each region based on how difficult it is compared to your level. If it is the same level or bellow, it would be clear, same as now, if it is slightly higher level than you, it would start tinting yellow, and if it’s considerably higher then it would tint to red. This would mean that if you look at the map, at a glance you could see the shifting pattern of how to move through the map while moving from lowest level to highest level content.

ipan.4356:

It’s 15+ where things get really terrible – second utility slot at 24? Third at 35? Elite at 40?

No thanks.

Funny thing is, whether its a glitch or not, I managed to get a second utility at level 15. I had box 3 open as well but nothing to put in it!

I also dislike it. The compass is so distracting and irritating.

Sorry, didn’t see this thread so I’m re-posting this here:

Before too much criticism/analysis is made about the new leveling system it’s really worth it to actually try it out first.

I created a new baby Mesmer after the patch and leveled it to level 16 at a lazy pace in a few hours. Overall so far it’s seemed a lot smoother and even kind of addictive to level now (without boosts of any kind). At each level getting a little fanfare, some shinies & new unlocks or words of advice does make the process seem more rewarding.

My first ever character in GW2 was a Mesmer so I remember how it was to enter knowing absolutely nothing about the game, let alone the profession. For instance I remember not fully understanding or even using my shatter skills until maybe around level 40-50. I’ll admit it’s a little weird unlocking one at a time but that does allow you to get familiar with each one in turn before moving on to the next.

I do miss the unlocking of weapon skills by using them, but I also remember how much of a pain it was to unlock all the weapon skills of an Elementalist for instance. You end up hanging out in the same attunement for what seems like an eternity just to unlock all the skills, so being able to switch attunements doesn’t even really matter at that stage. And then you have to unlock all the underwater skills….

So far overall I’ve seen an improvement (this is my 10th character) with my leveling experience. I absolutely don’t support the dumbing down of the little touches (feeding cows, watering plants etc.) as they were some of the reasons that really drew me to GW2 in the first place.

So before being too critical of the system check it out first…then be critical.

Made the game even more boring, I didn’t know that was possible.
The game is:
Buy gold from gemstore to buy things off TP
Buy gems to make character look good
Realize there is no new content
Quit

I found leveling a new character tedious enough before the trait changes or this patch.

After the trait changes I started to level up my mesmer some more to try it out, and I was really put off by it.

And now they lock more things, making the experience all that more tedious? I don’t even need to try it out to realize the impact this will have. It was bad enough before any of these changes, but now? Forget leveling up those new characters!

Darkchief.5468:

First off let me say that after reading about the leveling changes yesterday both here and on reddit, I was up-in-arms and as ready to hate it as most other people seem to be. But, I decided to wait to play it before I judged. I’m glad I did.

I would consider myself a “veteran” player. I have played since beta, and have four level 80’s. I know how to dodge, I’m not an idiot, etc. So I have good reasons to be angry about level-gating and hand-holding. But after playing a new character from levels 1-8 (and will be doing 8-15 tonight), I have discovered a few things:

1. There is a TON of misinformation about what was changed, what is level-gated, etc.
2. Low levels go a lot faster. Leveling from 1-7 took me about 30 minutes, so even the stuff that is level-gated I hardly noticed.
3. There are definitely some things that still need to be changed/fixed.
4. The new leveling system works. I play all melee/ranged classes. Historically I have a mental block for casters for some reason. I made a caster class last night and the slower skill unlocks allowed me to get comfortable with what I had before I was introduced to something new.

Good things the leveling system does:
1. The “Information Rewards” when you level up. This is where a lot of the misinformation about level-gating has come from. Many of the features aren’t actually gated, you can still use them, the game just introduces you to them one at a time. This prevents information overload on new players while not hindering people who are willing to tinker around the world and the UI and find things themselves.
2. The compass (when it works). I have had friends come from WoW or similar MMOs and been unable to cope with how differently you level. They couldn’t grasp that exploration rewards you and that aside from the few hearts on each map there aren’t quests. I can see how the compass could help those players get acclimated to doing events, POIs, etc.
3. The skill unlocks. While I really liked the idea of using a weapon to unlock the skills, unlocking each skill at a certain level gives new players time to learn how to use them (And because each low level takes about 5 minutes, it isn’t that bad).
4. Personal story unlocks. This is just speculation, but I think I will like this a lot more. It always seemed weird to me that something climactic would happen in a PS chapter but then we would have to go feed some cows before going to save someone’s life. With each chapter unlocking all at once, I think it will feel more cohesive.

What needs to be changed/fixed:
1. Skill challenges. I don’t see any reason to lock players out of activating these. They should be like the POIs and Vistas, accessible but not shown on the map until X level.
2. The compass (when it doesn’t work). There were certain areas where the compass would freak out and switch objectives every 10 steps or so. Obviously this creates confusion. There is also the problem of it sending players to places above their level.
3. Veteran player options. It would be nice if you have a level 80 already that some features come already unlocked (POIs, Vistas, gear rarities, offhands, etc.). In addition, it would be nice to be able to get rid of the compass if you don’t want it.

Overall, just give it an hour of your time and try it out. An informed opinion is going to be taken a lot more seriously than an uninformed opinion.

People like you are the reason nothing ever gets fixed, and always agree with everything the devs do. For once stop being a white night and try to help the game instead of killing it even further.

LOL, I was leveling for the heck of it. I think it was level 6 where I saw my reward as a blue helmet!!! Oh no, not in my pack!

Disappointed that my reward was only the ability to use blues. The helmet would have been way cool.

So I guess I need the game kittened a bit more so I don’t get confused by the awards boxes.

XApocalypse.8739:

People like you are the reason nothing ever gets fixed, and always agree with everything the devs do. For once stop being a white night and try to help the game instead of killing it even further.

Your post makes no sense.

The person you quote agrees with some things in the update, and disagrees with other things in the update. There is no “always agreeing with everything the devs do” there.

Also, while you make a valid point about critical player feedback being important for improving the quality of the game, you make it sound as if agreeing with anything that is changed in the game is a bad thing. People like different things. Is enjoying something that you don’t appear to enjoy “killing the game further”? So who made you the expert?

Good idea, terribly executed. This extreme of levelgating was not necessary by any means, you don’t open your last slot until halfway through the leveling experience!

Do you know any game where you leave the tutorial and the game is halfway over? Because that is essentially what ANet has done here. Level thirty should be the absolute latest but to be honest I don’t think 20-25 would even be a bad idea, that is a good 10+ hours of play for a brand newer player, or was before the scaling changes.

Other things:

• Interacting with environmental objects should not have been level gated past level 2 or 3, it has broken several hearts in the opening areas. And is not in any way an advanced mechanic in the first place.
• Using weapon skills to unlock them was significantly more instructional than unlock by level
• Condition damage is not explained anywhere at any time so far as I have seen, only the primary stats are overviewed. This is especially egregious considering at least three classes start the game with condition weapons.
• A lot of things are not unlocked at certain levels but you are informed of them, and the difference between the two is not in any way clear. You are told about PoIs at level five for example, but you can in fact get PoIs before that level.

I’ll add more as I find them

After playing three new characters over the last couple of days, there’s a lot to like about the NPE.

It does help settle a new player into the game’s features and “rules”. The rewards for leveling are fun and actually useful to new characters. I actually look forward to leveling.

But, the weapon related locks seem to be rather jarring bumps in the road of a fairly smooth and fast progression of the first 15 levels.

Example:

Makes no sense to me that I can use a Greatsword and a Mace and Shield at level 7, BUT I can’t actively swap from one set to another…I have to manually go into my inventory and equip the weapons until I get weapon swap at level 15. O.o

Something is off with not being able to swap weapons when you gain the ability for off-hands.

The grating elements immediately noticeable to me, revolved around the locked content of weapon swap, off-hand, profession abilities and skill challenges.

Additionally, the access to Profession Skills is a kinda a big deal for some Professions; it might bear some fine-tuning.

Example:

Why block Skill Point Acquisition?

The answer lies in how the TRAIT System has been changed since April. We can’t act like the September changes to the game have happened in a vacuum.

My bigger concern is how Traits have been removed from the normal leveling process.

I think the core Traits should be put back as they were prior to April and a new line of “Elite Traits" can be seeded out into the game world tied to various types of challenges.

Throwing the whole lot into the content gated system was a HUGE mistake because it tends to lock players into a regimented agenda. Too much gating destroys the player’s sense of freedom and replaces it with To Do Lists and robotic game-play routines.

I tried the new system I understand what they are trying to do with it… but honestly it bored me. There was nothing exciting about it. In saying that I do like the help tips you get when you click on a icon when you level unfortunately its not very obvious that the info is there to be clicked on.

So I deleted the toon and got a friend around, who had never played to try it out. They picked a human guardian, they found while they leveled quick it was boring due to the lack of skills hitting only 1 or 2 of the same button over and over. They liked the compass but got frustrated constantly having it point back to scouts. They found that the game didnt explain basics like early like gathering and dudnt explain why others could do skill points but he couldnt unless someone else started it.
The funny thing is he was running round madly and what enfuriated him the most was basically not being able to do anything under water till level 8. But yeah after he played I asked what he thought n basically he said it was pretty but yeah boring.

Whether or not it’s the right system for GW2, I think there’s been a serious overreaction insofar as millions upon millions of players have leveled characters in games with significant ability and perk gating for years. It has proven success bringing inexperienced gamers into a game, which is what it’s goal appears to be here.

But I have tried it in GW2 and for me:

(1) Taking combat abilities out of my hands by moving them to later levels has made playing at lower levels less fun.

(2) I already strongly disliked the trait system changes from earlier. The game had a poor effort-reward balance during leveling when it was released, and it’s not been improved. The consensus has always seemed to be that leveling becomes a slog after 30, and their solution, rather than come up with things for players to be excited about, has been to move leveling rewards to higher levels, thereby making the lower levels less satisfying.

(3) Low-level XP gain really is lightning fast, but it adds to the feeling that I’m being treated like an idiot. I kept being reminded of WildStar’s “kitten yeah! You’re awesome!” when I leveled up.

(4) The dumbing down of low-level content is sad. I liked carrying things, pouring buckets of water on crops and fires, whipping cattle, and cleaning up scraps and tools. Active participation in the happenings of the world is more fulfilling and immersive than what the changes offer.

(5) With respect to 3 and 4 above, I want to feel like I’m playing with self-motivated gamers with sophisticated gaming tastes who know what they’re doing, and these make me feel like I’m playing with the iphone crowd.

(6) The compass is ridiculous. Not only does it sometimes give you bad guidance, but a big selling point for GW2, offered (I guarantee) by many of the players who now support this compass nonsense, is that the game lacked aspects of linear hand-holding of other games. It’s a visual distraction that I don’t need anyway, so at least let me turn it off.

The leveling changes, while not catastrophic, have, for me, made the game worse. One can get used to it and learn to live with it, but if you’re having less fun, the changes were bad for you. You can then weigh how the positive changes in the patch compare to it. In my case, since leveling alts is a major part of the way I play the game and playing the TP, collecting minis, and running with a guild are not, this patch has been a minor setback after the positives of the wardrobe and account-wide dyes introduced earlier in the year. It has moved the game away from the way I like to play it.

On a more general level, GW2’s differences from major commercial MMOs were IMO part of its appeal. If I want to level characters like they do in WoW, FFXIV:ARR, or SWTOR I play those games, where they honestly do it better by virtue of the leveling experience being designed around it.

I recently returned to gw2, and done a toon from scratch, about lv 63 now.

The compass with arrow, I like it, because the times I had to stop half hour to understand where is that tiny bit of map I haven’t still done, and then resort to the web to see a full map and check there, were things I’m happy will be (hopefully) no more;

Packing the personal story in groups of 10 levels, is maybe good at low levels, when you go up fast enough to read chapters, but now at 63, to go 70 is some way to go (at least, to me and my playstyle) and I’d prefer the old system, because I were incentivated to make that 2 or three levels to see where my story goes next. Now I’ve to grind to 70 to get all story in a row. I’d prefer it a little at time, to enjoy better my level growth: when in the past I got the level to make that part of story, that was my reward

About new trading system, it will be nice have by default selected the highest buyer and the highest quantity; dunno if I’m the only one, but usually when I want get rid of my stuff, I always select highest buyer, and will max the quantity to sell. The few cases I don’t follow that, is when the buyer is too low, on that case I make my price, but don’t happens often. Or, at least, let the interface remember my last choose (higher buyer or seller selected, 1 or max quantity) and use that when I open trade again.

Healix.5819:

Paradox.1380:

Also its there for a baseline guide it is NOT instructions. Go wherever you like.

That’s a problem. Traditional MMOs have taught players to follow the arrow.

I disagree with you. I Played a “traditional MMO” called called EverQuest. it didn’t have an arrow. it dod not even have an exclamation point over people’s heads.

Unless what you mean by " traditional" is “MMO’s released since World of Warcraft”

Trust me, those aren’t traditional. But after WoW there seems to have been a collective race to the bottom, as each new entry saught to dumb content down more and more than the competition.

" get them young, I want to see pre-schoolers playing Gw2!" seems to be the intent of this patch.

Well… I am off to Archeage. I gave gw2 two years. I think I’ve seen enough.

Path of Exile also seems very sweet for a Diablo-esque dungeon crawl.

Nerelith.7360:

Path of Exile also seems very sweet for a Diablo-esque dungeon crawl.

Path of Exile is an awesome game! I recommend it

I’m completely dumbfounded by the lack of logic on these changes including the infamous current trait system. Grievances over the unnecessary degradation of the said systems are to be expected since nobody asked for these kind of changes. This wouldn’t be quite a problem if these changes were made 3-4 months after the release. I mean it’s been 2 years already and then a sudden change, that’s a scratch on the head. The community have been asking for different things now – a better endgame or an expansion. And yet, you failed to listen.

All these people defending this “new player experience” act as if the old system is confusing and broken. When I was new to this game, I didn’t have a single problem leveling as I was completely engross with my personal story, every zone’s landscape, zone completion and the skills I acquired.

Have you guys ever thought the time and resources wasted for these needless changes? Who knows, they could have invested those to create things what the community really wanted. And yet, they prefer to fix what isn’t broken.

eXeth.9134:

Nerelith.7360:

Path of Exile also seems very sweet for a Diablo-esque dungeon crawl.

Path of Exile is an awesome game! I recommend it

I always seem drawn to casters… melee Not as often… made a witch, although I might try for a Ninja type… maybe make a Caster/ melee dps Hybrid. That 1,350 trait passive tree scares me.

jagabs.5086:

I’m completely dumbfounded by the lack of logic on these changes including the infamous current trait system. Grievances over the unnecessary degradation of the said systems are to be expected since nobody asked for these kind of changes. This wouldn’t be quite a problem if these changes were made 3-4 months after the release. I mean it’s been 2 years already and then a sudden change, that’s a scratch on the head. The community have been asking for different things now – a better endgame or an expansion. And yet, you failed to listen.

All these people defending this “new player experience” act as if the old system is confusing and broken. When I was new to this game, I didn’t have a single problem leveling as I was completely engross with my personal story, every zone’s landscape, zone completion and the skills I acquired.

Have you guys ever thought the time and resources wasted for these needless changes? Who knows, they could have invested those to create things what the community really wanted. And yet, they prefer to fix what isn’t broken.

They have the numbers. They have metrics. The only thing I can imagine is, they see how often Players spam the 1 key and can only assume that players have no clue that their weapons even have more skills?

Maybe some players need a big flashing banner headline" You have Just Unlocked a new Skill!!!!!"

Nerelith.7360:

That 1,350 trait passive tree scares me.

Haha, that was what got me into the game. I was blown away by all the possibilities.
But let’s not drag this further off-topic

I spent the past couple of hours leveling a new human elementalist and had loads of fun. I am now lvl 16 and can’t wait to continue tomorrow. Below is a summary of my experience.

• It didn’t bother me at all that I had to unlock the weapon skills one by one. I had them all ready to use really fast. In fact it was nice to get a closer look at the elementalists many skills, and I switched several weapons as they were dropping.

• It never felt that parts of the map were being locked out. The compass was showing me directions, but I went whereever I felt like. There is absolutely nothing forcing people to follow the compass. It is just an orientation, and I liked how it would direct me to the nearest vista without having to click M.

• So the underwater skills are locked… big deal, people have been hating on underwater combat since forever, now they suddenly miss it and need it at lvl 2.

• I loved getting the new level rewards. And with them there was a lot of usefull information for new players. For example dailies, monthlies, laurels were explained which is something a person new to the game needs to know. And there is no reason for a veteran player to be annoyed by such explinations.

• So the first vendors we met didn’t sell salvage kits.. I found those in Shaemoor, the newbie bags I had were big enough to hold all the items I had looted, and then I salvaged the stuff. I know getting essences of luck is vital, but I could survive 30 mins without salvaging.

• I also know that by the time I am lvl 40, I will be tired with the leveling through exploration, but that won’t be because of the new system. I simply prefer to play with my characters when they are fully geared at lvl 80. For the same reason I have leveled my 8 alts via crafting, tomes of knowledge, dungeons, whatever methods there are to speed up the process.

Nobody is forcing people to try out the new leveling. But those who do it should keep an open mind and may find out that they like the changes.

You have been feeding the cows in Queensdale for 2 years and now they need you to dance with them

I have been trying the new system on my mesmer. The new information ‘rewards’ from leveling would have been handy when I was first starting. Those are actually a neat idea. A quick flashy ‘Did you know….’. However, I still despise the flashy vibrating thing at the corner of my screen. I just bugs me. Gets my attention nicely though. I did not like that underwater combat was not available to start. I did not like that resource nodes where not displayed on my mini-map.

Carcerus.9107:

(4) The dumbing down of low-level content is sad. I liked carrying things, pouring buckets of water on crops and fires, whipping cattle, and cleaning up scraps and tools. Active participation in the happenings of the world is more fulfilling and immersive than what the changes offer.

(6) The compass is ridiculous. Not only does it sometimes give you bad guidance, but a big selling point for GW2, offered (I guarantee) by many of the players who now support this compass nonsense, is that the game lacked aspects of linear hand-holding of other games. It’s a visual distraction that I don’t need anyway, so at least let me turn it off.

Yes to #4 and #6 you can turn it off under options. I think someone mentioned it on the first page but that was one of the first things I did upon re-rolling another new toon today.

I thought removing all the pickup items was silly but going back to Metrica hit harder then Queensdale. It is faster I will agree with that now. As long as you ignore all mobs that aren’t attached to a heart or event you will level like crazy. But seeing all the rc golems and tool chests turned off made me sad. Killing sparks charges you now instead of picking up orbs and that was kind of fun. But I miss the underwater heart it’s just an abandoned area now. That one was more then a bit of fun and I always hit it up then waited for the shark to spawn. I know the heart is still there and just moved to the toad village but still it doesn’t have the same charm.

There’s good and bad for now I think I will reserve any further judgement for next weeks patch.

Got to 20 on my new Sylvari Necro.

So, again: 1-15 is about the same as it was before. There’s a couple things locked here and there, but you level so fast it’s irrelevant.

15-20 you start to notice the gating. Only 1 utility skill for now. Just barely unlocked underwater skills and downed skills, which should have been unlocked 5-10 levels ago.

Now, comes the hard part, getting to 40 without ripping my hair out. We’ll see if I can do it – I might give up and uninstall again.

well i tried it.. and it felt like i played a char that was unable to breath and walk at the same time, with 1 arm, too stupid to activate things, too stupid to understand skill challenges, too stupid to even use the class mechanic… but hey i was immortal while fighting a huge possessed statue… well fighting.. i didnt do anything but watch but i clearly helped rytlock brimstone… i moved out of the way and let the big shots handle it -_-

I made a charr warrior.. just to test and technically a derbface like this would be killed off in the legions or left behind to die. Yea.. look at me.. the amazing warrior that wants to raise up to a centurio yet is unable to tie his kittening shoelaces…or even dye his armor blood red to fit into his legion… but yay i got a pat on the head all few levels cause i was a good boy and magically could swing my sword a different way.

I mean seriosly.. what the kitten

Basaltface.2786:

well i tried it.. and it felt like i played a char that was unable to breath and walk at the same time, with 1 arm, too stupid to activate things, too stupid to understand skill challenges, too stupid to even use the class mechanic… but hey i was immortal while fighting a huge possessed statue… well fighting.. i didnt do anything but watch but i clearly helped rytlock brimstone… i moved out of the way and let the big shots handle it -_-

I made a charr warrior.. just to test and technically a derbface like this would be killed off in the legions or left behind to die. Yea.. look at me.. the amazing warrior that wants to raise up to a centurio yet is unable to tie his kittening shoelaces…or even dye his armor blood red to fit into his legion… but yay i got a pat on the head all few levels cause i was a good boy and magically could swing my sword a different way.

I mean seriosly.. what the kitten

By definition half the population is of below average intelligence. I think this may be their new demographic.

Nerelith.7360:

Basaltface.2786:

well i tried it.. and it felt like i played a char that was unable to breath and walk at the same time, with 1 arm, too stupid to activate things, too stupid to understand skill challenges, too stupid to even use the class mechanic… but hey i was immortal while fighting a huge possessed statue… well fighting.. i didnt do anything but watch but i clearly helped rytlock brimstone… i moved out of the way and let the big shots handle it -_-

I made a charr warrior.. just to test and technically a derbface like this would be killed off in the legions or left behind to die. Yea.. look at me.. the amazing warrior that wants to raise up to a centurio yet is unable to tie his kittening shoelaces…or even dye his armor blood red to fit into his legion… but yay i got a pat on the head all few levels cause i was a good boy and magically could swing my sword a different way.

I mean seriosly.. what the kitten

By definition half the population is of below average intelligence. I think this may be their new demographic.

so their new demographic are styrofoam cups?

Nerelith.7360:

Basaltface.2786:

well i tried it.. and it felt like i played a char that was unable to breath and walk at the same time, with 1 arm, too stupid to activate things, too stupid to understand skill challenges, too stupid to even use the class mechanic… but hey i was immortal while fighting a huge possessed statue… well fighting.. i didnt do anything but watch but i clearly helped rytlock brimstone… i moved out of the way and let the big shots handle it -_-

I made a charr warrior.. just to test and technically a derbface like this would be killed off in the legions or left behind to die. Yea.. look at me.. the amazing warrior that wants to raise up to a centurio yet is unable to tie his kittening shoelaces…or even dye his armor blood red to fit into his legion… but yay i got a pat on the head all few levels cause i was a good boy and magically could swing my sword a different way.

I mean seriosly.. what the kitten

By definition half the population is of below average intelligence. I think this may be their new demographic.

By definition? What definition? Yours most likely as the actual definition of intelligence doesn’t list any empirically measurable attributes.

Conncept.7638:

Nerelith.7360:

Basaltface.2786:

well i tried it.. and it felt like i played a char that was unable to breath and walk at the same time, with 1 arm, too stupid to activate things, too stupid to understand skill challenges, too stupid to even use the class mechanic… but hey i was immortal while fighting a huge possessed statue… well fighting.. i didnt do anything but watch but i clearly helped rytlock brimstone… i moved out of the way and let the big shots handle it -_-

I made a charr warrior.. just to test and technically a derbface like this would be killed off in the legions or left behind to die. Yea.. look at me.. the amazing warrior that wants to raise up to a centurio yet is unable to tie his kittening shoelaces…or even dye his armor blood red to fit into his legion… but yay i got a pat on the head all few levels cause i was a good boy and magically could swing my sword a different way.

I mean seriosly.. what the kitten

By definition half the population is of below average intelligence. I think this may be their new demographic.

By definition? What definition? Yours most likely as the actual definition of intelligence doesn’t list any empirically measurable attributes.

By the definition of average. Half the Population is above the average, and the other half below.

If you have 6 people and they have IQ’s of 98,99,100, 101, 102 and 103…. the average is 100.5 3 people are below average intelligence, three above.

Average means that half the sampled audience is above the average, and half below the average.

Now if you simply revisit my statement, it should make more sense.

By the definition of the word average, half the population is above average intelligence, and half the population is below average intelligence.

It seems this is the new demographic. The half of the population below average intelligence. I do admit, that that half the population is easily pleased, and usually needs more hand holding. Ask yourself what half of the population needs that much hand-holding?

I have tried it and I do not agree with some of the changes.
More specifically I find it rather annoying that off hand are not available until 7 and weapon switching doesn’t happen until 14.
Furthermore the idea of leveling up to 10 before you can use all 5 weapon slots is ridiculous to me.

Had they kept the original system, combat XP to unlock the skills, but made it global (level up the rifle means level up the rest of them) I wouldn’t have minded it.

Then there’s the F keys gating. Now I know the old system did similiar, but I would have at least accepted it if the boxes were there.
Under this new system, my Guardian didn’t see any of the F1 keys until he leveled to “unlock” them. They should have shown the boxes like they did the other weapon skills.

I get it, they want to keep China and non China code as close as possible.
I also get it that this could be used as a trial system if they wanted that route. Trial characters only make it to level 10 max or some stuff.
They could at least give vets the option to unlock all this, or bump us to level 10 immediately.

Even though I understand it, I don’t have to like it.

The rest of the release was just fine in my opinion.

Atlas.9704:

I have tried it and I do not agree with some of the changes.
More specifically I find it rather annoying that off hand are not available until 7 and weapon switching doesn’t happen until 14.
Furthermore the idea of leveling up to 10 before you can use all 5 weapon slots is ridiculous to me.

Had they kept the original system, combat XP to unlock the skills, but made it global (level up the rifle means level up the rest of them) I wouldn’t have minded it.

Then there’s the F keys gating. Now I know the old system did similiar, but I would have at least accepted it if the boxes were there.
Under this new system, my Guardian didn’t see any of the F1 keys until he leveled to “unlock” them. They should have shown the boxes like they did the other weapon skills.

I get it, they want to keep China and non China code as close as possible.
I also get it that this could be used as a trial system if they wanted that route. Trial characters only make it to level 10 max or some stuff.
They could at least give vets the option to unlock all this, or bump us to level 10 immediately.

Even though I understand it, I don’t have to like it.

The rest of the release was just fine in my opinion.

You understand it? Cheers. I don’t Understand it, and hate it.

Jornophelanthas.1475:

According to the patch notes, the leveling speed through levels 1-15 was accelerated greatly compared to before.

Yeah, but that’s only for levels 1-15. After that, you level slower because you don’t have all of the skills that you would have had before. You still only have one utility skill, you don’t have all of your underwater skills, etc.

Yes, you do level a lot faster at 1-15. I’ve confirmed it. With an experience booster pre-patch I was getting 10 xp (without bonus xp) from a low level enemy while post-patch I was getting 18 xp (without bonus xp) from the exact same level mobs. That’s 80% more experience per kill. But, that doesn’t help you for levels 16-40 which go slower now. At least, in regards to fighting mobs. You can still gain experience from things which aren’t affected by your lack of skills, such as many heart quests.

Sokia.3710:

Jornophelanthas.1475:

According to the patch notes, the leveling speed through levels 1-15 was accelerated greatly compared to before.

Yeah, but that’s only for levels 1-15. After that, you level slower because you don’t have all of the skills that you would have had before. You still only have one utility skill, you don’t have all of your underwater skills, etc.

Yes, you do level a lot faster at 1-15. I’ve confirmed it. With an experience booster pre-patch I was getting 10 xp (without bonus xp) from a low level enemy while post-patch I was getting 18 xp (without bonus xp) from the exact same level mobs. That’s 80% more experience per kill. But, that doesn’t help you for levels 16-40 which go slower now. At least, in regards to fighting mobs. You can still gain experience from things which aren’t affected by your lack of skills, such as many heart quests.

It took me one hour and 45 minutes of boredom to get to lvl15. No idea if it was faster or slower before the patch because I had more fun then. And having fun can’t last long enough.
First, events. Somehow they avoid me (I often don’t even finish that part of the daily because I simply can’t find events and when I do, it’ll be finished before I get there). And secondly, killing foes. Yes, you get more xp per foe, but each foe takes longer because you won’t have all weapon skills. So, it’ll just be the auto attack without any deadly combinations.

So, leveling was mostly done by hearts. I couldn’t gather until lvl6 (WHY!). I couldn’t name my pet, I couldn’t use all weapon skills until lvl10, I couldn’t use an offhand until lvl7.
All this ‘I couldn’t’ made the leveling feel like a chore, I had to go through it because otherwise you can’t even play the game like you should.

And it’s not that I enjoy fast leveling, far from it. I always thought I leveled too fast. But I would have all weapons I wanted to use unlocked at 4 or 5 (depending on drops) and by 7 I would know which weapons I’d mostly use, for main and secondary. After that, I’d just completely ignore my levels and just continue going up and down the map, enjoying the scenery, culling some wildlife and gather stuff for the fun of it. I’d be lvl15 before I had even finished half my first map.

I won’t comment on the utility skills (I tend to ignore those till lvl70 mostly anyway, put some signets in there and continue :p) or the elite (mostly use that as a panic button and that doesn’t happen that often in lower level areas).
The personal story changes I like. But that’s because I never did it (or rather, I only once did it) with a non-level 80.

Tried it, still POS. I agree 1-15 is fast but… See all negative forum posts.

I did.

I like the level up rewards etc, The packs of personal story is not a bother for me personally. The Guide and the tips and tutorial things like the dodge one are a good thing for new players.
The level gating of basic gameplay mechanics are terrible. And the simplyfication of the begin area is over the top (example: no more bear cub feeding at bear shrine, no more give the cows some water at the first Queens dale heart).
And where have multiple of the charmable animals gone? (example: Brown bear, Bear shrine).

I agree 100% with the op i started 3 new alts and i really enjoy the new leveling system and the rewards for leveling are awsome imo. Crafting mat bags, racial armor skins, uni dyes, heck some of the story skins even give order weapon boxes so you can choose skins saving you having to go buy it. Im only lvl30 ish on the 3 now and to be honest I barely noticed the lockouts.

I have the feeling that this level of mollycoddling will end in Ascalonian Tears!

Both the new trait system and the new levelling system, having led them by the nose through all gameplay, will start nagging them to head to AC around lvl 30

I see nothing in either the April or September FP’s that is imparting the sort of knowledge they will need in their first dungeon.

I can’t help but think they are being set up for failure later on and I predict that slowly the whole game will become as mindless as 1-15 now is in order to accomodate.