So, I noticed that there is nothing official available for the PoF Open Beta feedback, and I know that there are a lot of threads around here that go relatively in-depth on a single topic (be it mounts, skills, the zone, etc.). I thought it would be nice to have a (hopefully) centralized location to power feedback and constructive criticisms (please don’t just say that “X is horrible”, but give a way to improve it, based on your opinion of course) on the beta.
Feel free to add your own feedback to this thread.
Now, on to the thread and my feedback.
The good:
- When I initially heard that the masteries would all be mounts in PoF, I was… let’s say very skeptical. Mounts in other games tend to be either something that is simply a status symbol, or something that is absolutely required to have to play. In both cases, mounts can be a lot of visual clutter on the screen and make it difficult to see and/ or interact with NPCs such as merchants. I also wasn’t sure that they would really fit in with GW2 (yes, I know the Necrotic Horsemen in GW1 rode horses). I was however very pleasantly surprised when dealing with the raptor in this beta. It felt intuitive, the fact that we have to dismount when interacting with an NPC or resource node, and when in combat means that the clutter is kept relatively minimal.
- The maps look gorgeous. I really enjoyed the Crystal Desert in GW1 and am happy to see it coming back. They also seem to have actually darkened the night effects slightly, which I know is something that I have wanted since launch.
- Hero Point updates. It is so nice to be able to solo hero points now (in comparison to many in HoT, which needed at least 1 other person; and sometimes an entire group).
The “I think it could be improved”:
- Unidentified Gear. This isn’t horrible, but it seems to be a solution to a problem I (personally) haven’t had… I mean, we still get other gear from mobs and chests, so our inventory will continue to fill up regardless of having some of it stacking now. We also have to complete a daily heart quest and spend coins to identify the items, which can be anything from white to exotic (yes, I have verified. I even have a video of identifying 25 items and getting 3 rares). This seems like a gold sink, and a kind of pain in the seat to identify items… not to mention that if you ID everything and then want to salvage it you are right back to the original problem of having runes/ sigils cluttering your inventory — at least you are already at a vendor?
- Waypoints, they are currently fairly sparse, and while I think they have probably been placed in relatively optimal locations already (though I only see 2 on my minimap in game, where I assume the 3rd is located off the right of the map by the 3rd bounty board), I think having 1 or 2 more located around the map would be beneficial. This likely holds true for the other maps as well, though I can’t say for certain there.
How I think you can improve the above:
- Unidentified Gear: I have seen a lot of good ideas on this already posted in other threads, though I think my favorite is to split out the unidentified gear based off of its rarity (so you would have a green, yellow, and orange unidentified gear stack), and then allow us to ID/ salvage whichever we wanted from those stacks (where each of the stacks is guaranteed to drop an item of that rarity). Then, removing much, if not all, of the cost to ID an item; and possibly adding ID kits so we can purchase a kit for the road (just like salvage kits). It also appears that we will be getting larger bags (based off of the Supreme Rune of Holding), so it almost seems like the bag bloat is being solved by 2 disparate teams in 2 different ways.
- Waypoints: This is as simple as adding 1 or 2 more per map in other nice-to-have locations.
Other Suggestions:
- I know that the raptor at least can’t strafe, and I personally think that that makes sense for the raptor. However, I do hope that the ability to strafe (as well as turn radius) is a mount-by-mount setting. For instance in real life, rabbits can turn very sharp, it would be nice if the hopper mount could too. Likewise, I think it makes sense if the skimmer can strafe, and the same goes for the sand wolf. Basically, each mount having a unique feel would be nice, instead of the mounts basically being the same to guide with different abilities to make them required for certain areas.
PS:
It may make sense to merge this thread with https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/PoF-Demo-Feedback/first but I felt that they had a different goal at heart, which is why I made a separate thread.