Guild Wars 2

Dear Anet,

I played GW1 and play GW2 every day. I pre-purchased Heart of Thorns as soon as it was available and cannot wait to head off into battle. I have one of every profession max’ed and I enjoy them all. I play PvE, WvW and since ‘PvP 101’ I have begun to enjoy that too. The game is beauty, with rich lore and a development team who are dedicated, talented and love the game as much as we fans do.

So before I share my thoughts I wanted to honestly thank you for creating a game which has enrich my share time and given me many happy hours.

That said, I am honestly disappointed with the last episode Victory or Death and here is why:

- No Risk, No Reward
There is no real sense of danger during this final episode. Even with Destiny’s Edge doing their best ‘I like to stand in fire and die’ routine. Consequently I felt no sense of accomplishment when I completed it. It is hard getting the balance right in this area but I feel you may have gone too far into the comfort zone.

- Destiny’s Edge AFK
It’s a solo instance and it’s on me to get it done, but the lack of DE’s involvement killed any chance of immersion. When they were there they stood in ground effects and perished, when on the Airships they were tethered out of combat. The only way to engage them in any way was to stand on top of them once on The Glory of Tyria. I felt like a team of one and I do not think that was intentional.

- When a Boss is not a Boss
The mechanics of the Zhaitan encounter were non-existent. The cut scenes killed him, I was a passive observer. I found killing the first few champions at the beginning of Arah more challenging than the Elder Dragon Zhaitan. Sadly he just clung to that tower, looking fantastic, but doing nothing of real note.
It’s so disappointing that I had all the build up, with the many story missions, scavenger hunts, and the cleansing of Orr which held so much promise but left me wanting.

- Meaningful Rewards
The gem store keeps the game up and running day to day. I support it and enjoy the cosmetic rewards, toys and utilities it provides. However when I have just invested a large amount of time and effort into completing the personal story I would like a meaningful reward. Is it too much to ask that when we complete The Pact storyline we are given the option of an actual Pact weapon skin? That toe in the water of the gem store skins could even tempt more players to engage with more Black Lion collections.

- Worry for New Players
The personal story will, for many new players, be there introduction to a deeper understanding of the main characters, combat and story of GW2. I fear that in its current state it will put some off even trying Season 2 or Heart of Thorn. This would be unfortunate indeed as Season 2 and HOT are vastly superior in both combat, storytelling and player immersion. It may hurt to have to invest time and money in ‘old world’ content, but I think you will lose more money in the long term if you do not.

GW2 needs new players not just because it’s better for your balance sheet but because its better for us players too; therefore I would like to see any road blocks which could turn them away bulldozed.
———-

I hope I have been fair and constructive in my comments. This is not a personal attack on any individual but an honest point of view from a loyal customer. I know not all will share my opinion, but I know many who do and I only ask you consider the subjects raised.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post.

Kindest regards
Fornax.7928

Its like that for the entire PS. IMO the only good part of the PS is the Order arcs, which is only because of the partners you are given. Outside of that the whole PS storyline is cliche and annoying, I’m looking at you Trahearn. Victory or Death whether grouped or solo is just icing on a very bad cake.

E: Also add Logan into the annoying category. His obsession with the queen board lines creepy more so than anything.

Maybe I’m wrong here but I think nerfing Victory or Death makes sense. Look at it from this perspective:

You’re a new player and hit this ‘wall’ in the Personal Story. Now, you’ve leveled up all the way from 1-80 and now you need to finish this particular portion to advance the storyline. Yet all your buddies are busy with HoT content and can’t be bothered to help at the moment. What do you do?

So making it soloable (while disappointing, I’m sure to the long term players) will ultimately help the newer players get to where they CAN enjoy the ‘current content’.

I love how the entire contingent of Destiny’s Edge and the entire combined armed forces of Tyria just stand around doing sweet-FA but watching you do everything alone?

Need to block giant’s attacks, keep to an eye out for undead and defeat any incursions? OK, you do that whilst we’ll just chill here inside the airship out of harm’s way.

Have to kill Zhaitan with the Glory of Tyria’s vast gun batteries? That’s OK, I’m sure you alone can sprint up and down the entire length of the ship while we and the gunners just watch you.

Tachyon.5897:

I love how the entire contingent of Destiny’s Edge and the entire combined armed forces of Tyria just stand around doing sweet-FA but watching you do everything alone?

Need to block giant’s attacks, keep to an eye out for undead and defeat any incursions? OK, you do that whilst we’ll just chill here inside the airship out of harm’s way.

Have to kill Zhaitan with the Glory of Tyria’s vast gun batteries? That’s OK, I’m sure you alone can sprint up and down the entire length of the ship while we and the gunners just watch you.

And of course, there’s whatshisface (the Human guy whose name I can’t remember at the moment) GLORIOUSLY popping up out of nowhere and essentially say, “AHAHAHAHAH NUBS! U THOT I WUZ DED! TROLOLOLOLOL!” Of course, I always get a kick out of that.

I think if new player survives PS to this moment, VoD can’t make it any worse for him. I miss GW1 mission, especially Canthan ones.

Many.8419:

I think if new player survives PS to this moment, VoD can’t make it any worse for him. I miss GW1 mission, especially Canthan ones.

I will say there have been VERY few GW2 PS missions that I have felt as satisfied at completing as getting MASTER on some of the later Canthan GW1 missions….The one in the Jade Sea with the Truttle Hatchlings was truly a major achievement to get MASTER on (just getting past it with only Henchmen before Nightfall was a major accomplishment).

So what are the rewards for finishing personal story now? I know we used to get a legendary pact token (still have 3 in the bank) but what do you get now? and can we still use these old tokens?

I understand why some people who’d already completed it might have wanted it to stay the way it was – but “Victory or Death” is part of the PS, and it needed to become soloable. Look back in the early forums, and you’ll find any number of people seriously upset that it wasn’t. And the biggest, most frequent plaint was simple:
“This has been MY story all the way through – and now you’re telling me I MUST team up with, worst case, four complete strangers to finish it? That is NOT going to happen. I’d rather leave it unfinished.”
And no amount of trying to convince people – that, say, it wasn’t really THEIR story, but that of Trahearne, or Destiny’s Edge, or the Alliance – was going to change that feeling of having been robbed of the right to finish it themselves.

(I was one of those. To let the stats speak for themselves – I have 22 level 80s right now. Of those, before the change, no less than 13 had completed their PS – except for “Victory or Death”. And I’d run the story on 2 more – both times grouped with, and only with, RL friends. Sure, I might just have gotten around at some point to asking a friendly guildy or four to help me complete my PS on the odd extra one. But – PuG the rest? Not remotely interested. Whereas, now, I’ll pick them off one at a time, when I have the time and feel the inclination – and get a sense of satisfaction each time I do so.)

Whether ANet made a good job of the change or not is another question. My own reaction is that it’s not bad, but could be better. I’ve done it once since the change, and I agree that the ending is rather anti-climactic – especially compared to earlier parts of the episode. I had MUCH more trouble at a couple of points than with Zhaitan. But on the other hand, I’d have been SERIOUSLY pee’d off if, having spent a good two hours getting to the final fight, I’d then found it so hard that I couldn’t beat it (or if it had bugged, come to that – which at one point I thought it had!). It would undoubtedly have been a while before I summoned up the enthusiasm to try again.

So – I’d personally say that some rebalance is desirable. Some of the earlier bits need making just a fraction less challenging, whilst the fight with Zhaitan itself needs upgrading a bit and to feel a bit more like YOUR fight. kitten it – I’m supposed to be the Commander – let me command. Maybe give me a couple of alternative tasks I can entrust to Destiny’s Edge, and make me step in when they’re struggling to complete them (noticeably, I mean – I know that DE was running around all over the place at various times, and I probably did exactly that at points – but frankly, if so, I was too absorbed trying to do my own stuff to actually notice). And add some sort of checkpoint mechanism to let you skip the stuff you’ve already completed, should you fail, or get DC’d, or the episode bug – because it’s simply too long as it stands to oblige people to go back to the beginning and try again. (I’d suggest splitting it into multiple episodes, but I can understand that ANet probably want the last episode to feel of epic proportions, even if you’re the only one doing it, so it seems unlikely that there’s any chance of that.)

Vavume.8065:

So what are the rewards for finishing personal story now? I know we used to get a legendary pact token (still have 3 in the bank) but what do you get now? and can we still use these old tokens?

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Pact_Victory_Token

Edit

what I wonder if I still have one of these can I exchange it anywere

Victory, or Disappointment! lacks panache, but I think you could get people around here to take up the call.

I’m pro – solo instance and happy to have it match the rest of the personal story. It always seemed odd that it didn’t. I do think it could be improved on and I stand by my points after completing it again with a second toon.

Just getting the NPC AI sorted would make a world of difference to storytelling/ player immersion.

I have completed PS on five of my characters. I have always soloed PS except the final piece…Arah…and of course used a group for that. Last night, I soloed the revised final episode on a Guardian.

I liked it. First, I disagree with OP on the risk, at least for me (I am not the best of players, obviously). I went down once and there were a number of times, especially when fighting the two dragons at once, where my blood was pumping. It definitely helped having been through Arah story mode…so I basically knew the fights. As for the rewards…I came away with an exotic account bound helm (berserker stats, if I recall correctly)…and that seemed very worthwhile for me…considering the smaller goodies I received.

I also think that the revised final episode is very much aligned in terms of difficulty with other episodes of the PS. As I said, I have routinely soloed everything leading up to Arah and the new version seems pretty consistent with my experiences.

Now, the caveat…I have never looked at the PS as needing to be super challenging content. It has always been something that I needed to work at…pay attention to mechanics and use all of my skills. I have just never viewed it as high end challenge…and for me, that is not a bad thing. I can understand, though, how better, more skilled players might find it overly simple.

As for DE…I am kind of torn on that one. If they were too powerful or too involved, it would “let me off the hook” somewhat. As it is, I know that I cannot depend on them and so I treat it like a solo experience. On the other hand…I can see where having them stand around doing nothing or just dying straight away tends to be annoying.

All in all…I am very happy with the changes.

I went through this with a 5 player team and… wow was it easy. There seems to be no upscaling at all.

I’m eager to solo this when my only non-80 character reaches this part of the story. From what I saw the other day I should ace it.

I hope one day, when they get time, they’ll look into updating or reworking the battle of Zhaitan, completely..

ReV.6097:

I hope one day, when they get time, they’ll look into updating or reworking the battle of Zhaitan, completely..

Not going to happen when we got other dragons to fight.

I feel the end part of the story has always been about how the whole pact comes together and fights Zhaitan not just me and the 4 others that where there but how the pact it self brought Zhaitan down by working together and I think many think it should of been the party and thats it fighting this giant elder dragon the was 3 times the sizes of the airship you where on.

But this was a story telling point that says that because of the pact we defeated Zhaitan and now the story moves on from there. Look what happened to the pact and our friends from DE at the end of season 2 the tried the same strategy and it failed so maybe this next time it might be different because of the players complaining about it.

The personal story has always been a sub-par experience in this game.
In my opinion Anet should fix it otherwise a lot of players will be lost because of it.

Firstly, I agree that this story should be soloable.

Secondly, on my rangers it was very simple as my pet guarded me I just cannoned away.

Third, I did NOT notice being alone as I am primarily a WvW roamer and I just adapted when I needed assistance, IE I ran inside and engaged the crew and DE on the mobs then went back to the cannon.

The reward is in the doing and maybe the 4 gold pact weapon skin if you want something to sell.

In short I prefer the new version.

Linken.6345:

Vavume.8065:

So what are the rewards for finishing personal story now? I know we used to get a legendary pact token (still have 3 in the bank) but what do you get now? and can we still use these old tokens?

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Pact_Victory_Token

Edit

what I wonder if I still have one of these can I exchange it anywere

Players completing the story now get a Pact weapon chest that allows them to choose a Pact skin. But, if you still have an old token, you can still take it to the quartermaster in Caer Aval (Trahearne’s office in Fort Trinity) and exchange it for your choice of Pact skins.

I’m glad it’s soloable. It was horrible to begin with, but now at least you can get through it faster without having to wait for a full party.

To me VoD is just that-last-mission-that-I-have-to-endure-to-finally-get-PS-out-of-the-way-and-get-a-pact-skin.

Then it glitches out at the giants. Such fun. Had to redo it 4 times on my human thief because of that glitch. Best part? Absolutely no loot and no rewards for even making it to the glitch. Absolute waste of time.

BrettM.9062:

Linken.6345:

Vavume.8065:

So what are the rewards for finishing personal story now? I know we used to get a legendary pact token (still have 3 in the bank) but what do you get now? and can we still use these old tokens?

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Pact_Victory_Token

Edit

what I wonder if I still have one of these can I exchange it anywere

Players completing the story now get a Pact weapon chest that allows them to choose a Pact skin. But, if you still have an old token, you can still take it to the quartermaster in Caer Aval (Trahearne’s office in Fort Trinity) and exchange it for your choice of Pact skins.

Alright thankyou.

Miss Lana.5276:

This person is the altoholic you’ve heard about – with 43 character slots.

Um… nope never heard about you…