Guild Wars 2

There’s an upsurge of the number of ‘gear treadmill’ and ‘grinding’ threads on the forums lately, and I just have to ask: “What are you really looking for from this game?” Whether it’s Legendaries, Ascended gear, or dungeon gear, all of these threads are saying that it’s all just grinding.

Every game has an/a few goals. Mario games your goal is to get to the last level and beat the last boss. Is it ‘grinding’ to beat all the levels before that? In fighting games, your goal is to become better at the game. Is it ‘grinding’ when you practice your combos? In shooting games, your goal is to be able to beat other players consistently. Is it ‘grinding’ to play those matches before you can do that?

My point is, no matter what game you’re playing, you need goals to keep you interested. Grinding is exemplified when you need to do something repetitive and boring over and over to be able to access something that looks fun. Everything in Guild Wars is accessible without grinding. You can naturally enjoy playing the game in nearly any way (PvP, Dungeons, Fractals, Dynamic Events, Exploration) and STILL be able to go anywhere or do anything.

Legendaries are a goal that you naturally progress toward as you play the game normally.. Everything gives you karma, gold, and experience- these are the main ingredients of 90% of legendary items. Ascended gear came from Fractals, and was meant to be a reward for participating in that part of the game- ANet realized that not everyone likes Fractals, so they added an option to get them through Dailies, which are gotten through nearly any kind of gameplay. Cosmetic gear can be gotten through any way- there’s pieces from WvW, Dungeons, or random world drops.- YOU can choose what you enjoy doing in the game, and get what you want from that. How is this grinding? Tell me, what would a game without ‘grinding’ look like to you? How could ANet reasonably make this game grindless without putting an NPC in Lion’s Arch that hands out every item in the game?

All i want in pve is dungeons with much harder difficulty but NEVER ever see blues/worst quality as a drop. lets say i felt on my head and decided to build Twilight. I want a dungeon where every single needed mat has a high chance of drop. This way you’re doing a dungeon and have a goal. We all had one when the game was released and everyone wanted dungeon armors but now that all get them its worthless and drops from chests/creatures is a joke. I’ve been hearing devs say ’we’re making dungeon reward significantly better’ for months and nothing, absolutely nothing made laughable reward any more decent.

I want Stats Variations like GW 1 so the game does not have a treadmill.
I want loot to be casually found and made like GW 1 through every aspect of the game
I’d like end game “skins” to be the final grind not overpowered crap
The Cash shop full of Armor set weapon set skins.
Story Quest Gives an Epic or Legendary Item, as per GW1 (not a rare)
Story Quests can be redone
Dungeons Scaleable to level and group size in difficulty..
I want Skills Capture and a lot more skills than we currently have as per GW1

I’d just like Guildwars 2 to follow its roots better and appeal to its original fans more, i guess that’s too much to ask.
(my opinion)

^good points and i agree on all of them and yes that’s too much asking for anet, sadly….

All I want is what I have. I just like to come here to feel better about myself. It’s nowhere near as bad as the WoW forums were, but people with self-entitlement issues are good for a laugh.

All I’ve wanted since everything began with this game is for them to go back to their manifesto.

Where are the open world events with actual rewards (bots are gone restore the loot), where are the new metas across multiple zones (why does it have to be 55+), why is it still an RNG affair to get powerful bloods and gossamer scraps for crafting? Where are the crafting recipes that make ascended gear? (crafters weren’t supposed to be left out in the cold remember, there was supposed to be multiple choices in how you can gear your character). Where is the allocation of office resources to squash the major bugs plaguing three of the classes in their list of 8 many of which have been happening since launch?

I guess what I’m trying to say is where is what we were promised prelaunch and can we have better management when it comes to loot and progression?

Nuka Cola.8520:

All i want in pve is dungeons with much harder difficulty but NEVER ever see blues/worst quality as a drop. lets say i felt on my head and decided to build Twilight. I want a dungeon where every single needed mat has a high chance of drop. This way you’re doing a dungeon and have a goal. We all had one when the game was released and everyone wanted dungeon armors but now that all get them its worthless and drops from chests/creatures is a joke. I’ve been hearing devs say ’we’re making dungeon reward significantly better’ for months and nothing, absolutely nothing made laughable reward any more decent.

If such a dungeon existed, then building Twilight would be trivial. Everyone who wanted one would have it done inside of a week and all of a sudden, legendaries are just as trivial as other dungeon rewards. Is that what you want?

Dante.1508:

I want Stats Variations like GW 1 so the game does not have a treadmill.
I want loot to be casually found and made like GW 1 through every aspect of the game
I’d like end game “skins” to be the final grind not overpowered crap
The Cash shop full of Armor set weapon set skins.
Story Quest Gives an Epic or Legendary Item, as per GW1 (not a rare)
Story Quests can be redone
Dungeons Scaleable to level and group size in difficulty..
I want Skills Capture and a lot more skills than we currently have as per GW1

I’d just like Guildwars 2 to follow its roots better and appeal to its original fans more, i guess that’s too much to ask.
(my opinion)

Many of these rewards sound reasonable- I do think that the story quests should give exotics (probably not legendaries, since that would remove the uniqueness of them), but what ‘overpowered crap’ is currently available? Ascended gear? The stat increase is minuscule, and now, thanks to laurels, it’s available to everyone.

I haven’t played the first Guild Wars though, so I can’t say much about those comments. What do you mean about stat variation? And what about GW1’s loot system was different? It seems to me that 90% of skins can be obtained as random world drops during casual play or bought from the auction house for gold made through casual play.

For me, the issue is that I don’t get the majority of the items for a Legendary by “just playing the game” – while it is true that most of it is purchasable for gold via the trading post, the cost to do so appears to be unattainable by “normal” gameplay in a rational amount of time – say a year?

Only by a single-minded focus on maximally-profitable activities is it likely that you can acquire the means to obtain one. For many things (precursors, in particular) the cost is rising faster than many player’s income.

Now, if I could reasonably expect that I’d have “naturally” acquired everything I needed for a Legendary after a year of gameplay not utterly dedicated to obtaining one, then I’d be willing to contend that you can get a Legendary weapon without a “grind”.

Legendaries are (or should) be a long-term goal. And if you’ve got to have one now-now-now, then you shouldn’t be surprised that the means to do so are going to be grindy, and not what you’d otherwise be doing.

However, at the moment it seems likely to me that I’ll never have a Legendary, no matter how long I play the game as I’m just not willing to ruin my enjoyment of the game in order to pursue one.

ArenaNet seems to realize this, and will (I hope) be addressing this with the “scavenger hunt” that they’ve announced they’re working on, and perhaps other future updates.

LIke any MMO, Guild Wars 2 is a work-in-progress, and ArenaNet will learn from what players do and how they do it. What they enjoy, and what they don’t. I’m not going to let the apparent unattainability of Legendaries ruin my GuildWars 2 experience, but until and unless they substantially alter the process to obtain one, they may as well not exist for me.

To the extent that ArenaNet wants Legendaries to be an end-game aspiration or motivation for me – and apparently some other players, they have failed in their purpose.

synch.2980:

For me, the issue is that I don’t get the majority of the items for a Legendary by “just playing the game” – while it is true that most of it is purchasable for gold via the trading post, the cost to do so appears to be unattainable by “normal” gameplay in a rational amount of time – say a year?

Only by a single-minded focus on maximally-profitable activities is it likely that you can acquire the means to obtain one. For many things (precursors, in particular) the cost is rising faster than many player’s income.

Now, if I could reasonably expect that I’d have “naturally” acquired everything I needed for a Legendary after a year of gameplay not utterly dedicated to obtaining one, then I’d be willing to contend that you can get a Legendary weapon without a “grind”.

Legendaries are (or should) be a long-term goal. And if you’ve got to have one now-now-now, then you shouldn’t be surprised that the means to do so are going to be grindy, and not what you’d otherwise be doing.

However, at the moment it seems likely to me that I’ll never have a Legendary, no matter how long I play the game as I’m just not willing to ruin my enjoyment of the game in order to pursue one.

ArenaNet seems to realize this, and will (I hope) be addressing this with the “scavenger hunt” that they’ve announced they’re working on, and perhaps other future updates.

LIke any MMO, Guild Wars 2 is a work-in-progress, and ArenaNet will learn from what players do and how they do it. What they enjoy, and what they don’t. I’m not going to let the apparent unattainability of Legendaries ruin my GuildWars 2 experience, but until and unless they substantially alter the process to obtain one, they may as well not exist for me.

To the extent that ArenaNet wants Legendaries to be an end-game aspiration or motivation for me – and apparently some other players, they have failed in their purpose.

I could not agree more about precursers., specifically Dusk and Dawn, which are nearing 600/700g. I’m curious how much time you devote to the game though, and what you prefer to do in game. It seems odd that you wouldn’t be able to build up the funds/materials for a legendary over the course of a year of gameplay. I usually play 2-4 hours per day, playing an occasional dungeon, running events in Orr, and doing random world exploration. While doing that, I walk away with about 4-5g per day on average, along with a few Ectoplasms, skill points, and some karma for clovers. I’m estimating that at my current pace, it’ll take me about 5 months to get my legendary together.

Dante.1508:

I want Stats Variations like GW 1 so the game does not have a treadmill.
I want loot to be casually found and made like GW 1 through every aspect of the game
I’d like end game “skins” to be the final grind not overpowered crap
The Cash shop full of Armor set weapon set skins.
Story Quest Gives an Epic or Legendary Item, as per GW1 (not a rare)
Story Quests can be redone
Dungeons Scaleable to level and group size in difficulty..
I want Skills Capture and a lot more skills than we currently have as per GW1

I’d just like Guildwars 2 to follow its roots better and appeal to its original fans more, i guess that’s too much to ask.
(my opinion)

I was a Guild Wars 1 player too. The welfare greens that we got by finishing campaigns were terrible. They may have had max stats, but they were generally bad. This is particularly true in Factions. No other mission in the game had item rewards.

The drops in Guild Wars 1, after you maxed out, were pointless, except for holiday drops and your chance of getting a black dye. If you wanted something really good, like a voltaic spear, or a celestial compass, you had to run the dungeons you needed to get them, buy them off the trading post, or get very very lucky with a Z chest.

You’re talking about Guild Wars 1 like it was the be all and end all. It wasn’t. There were flaws with how it was laid out, just like there are flaws with how Guild Wars 2 is laid out. But the welfare greens you got at the end of the adventures? Meaningless, because everyone had them, and you wanted something better anyway.

In any event, the skill system in Guild Wars 1, which was a lot of fun, is part of what killed the game for people in the first place. 200 skills per profession and you could make a zillion builds, twelve of which were viable.

The balance problems due to the dual classing and number of skills were completely impossible to solve. That’s why rits destroyed the game. Everyone could just take rit heros, a minion master, and content became meaningless.

You want some of the very things in this game that prevented that game from growing.

For the record, I do agree that you should be able to get max stat items more easily than no exists in Guild Wars 2, however, I play the game without max stat items and do everything in the game. The gold weapon you get as a reward for finishing your personal story is worth as much as the greens you got from finishing a campaign.

Oh, one more thing. When Prophecies launched, you didn’t get that green. They added the Prophecies gear reward far later. I know this because I had to go back and finish Hell’s Precipice a second time to get it on my earlier characters.

In fact, the high end stuff like obby armor, six months after Prophecies launched was almost as out of reach to most people as the Legendaries are here. You’re just not remembering that.

The fact is, you’re comparing 4 seven year old games (or a series of games that came out over a 7 year period anyway) with a six month old game. But Guild Wars 2 has more in common with Guild Wars 1 at six months than it does with Guild Wars 1 now.

There were less skills, because no expansions. No PVe skills. And there were a couple of effective builds. The best gear was hard to get. And you didn’t get epics or anything great for finishing Prophecies.

Crespus.7405:

My point is, no matter what game you’re playing, you need goals to keep you interested. Grinding is exemplified when you need to do something repetitive and boring over and over to be able to access something that looks fun. Everything in Guild Wars is accessible without grinding. You can naturally enjoy playing the game in nearly any way (PvP, Dungeons, Fractals, Dynamic Events, Exploration) and STILL be able to go anywhere or do anything.

I accept your definition of grinding. The issue here is that for some people, the gameplay itself is not the most fun or challenging aspect of a game. Take Magic: The Gathering for example. At least half the fun and challenge comes from building your deck, not from playing a game.

Likewise in GW2. When I do stuff in PvE and PvP, I am not just evaluating my twitch reflexes, but also how well my build is performing. My satisfaction when playing my engineer doesn’t just come from the fact that I can set things on fire, but that I’m putting my choice of traits/skills/food/equipment to the test. The fact that ANet have decided to make changing your equipment require a large time investment is what frustrates people.

wah wah wah why cant veterans drop exotics every time!

All the DR complainers and “no loot” complainers obviously have no clue how an economy is run. Be prepared for your gold to be absolutely worthless and prices to skyrocket if for some reason Anet gives in to your demands. It’s a shame the forums are infested with you guys.

Czar Peter.7961:

Crespus.7405:

My point is, no matter what game you’re playing, you need goals to keep you interested. Grinding is exemplified when you need to do something repetitive and boring over and over to be able to access something that looks fun. Everything in Guild Wars is accessible without grinding. You can naturally enjoy playing the game in nearly any way (PvP, Dungeons, Fractals, Dynamic Events, Exploration) and STILL be able to go anywhere or do anything.

I accept your definition of grinding. The issue here is that for some people, the gameplay itself is not the most fun or challenging aspect of a game. Take Magic: The Gathering for example. At least half the fun and challenge comes from building your deck, not from playing a game.

Likewise in GW2. When I do stuff in PvE and PvP, I am not just evaluating my twitch reflexes, but also how well my build is performing. My satisfaction when playing my engineer doesn’t just come from the fact that I can set things on fire, but that I’m putting my choice of traits/skills/food/equipment to the test. The fact that ANet have decided to make changing your equipment require a large time investment is what frustrates people.

I see your point about strategizing and build-testing. I enjoy many of the same things in games that you seem to. I think you’re overestimating the investment needed to change your build though. Even the priciest gear on the trading post is 6 gold/each at most. This can be gathered in either a long day or two days of modest playing.. At 6 pieces of armor, two weapons, (four if you count awatic weapons), six trinkets, and 8 runes/sigils. Assuming the ABSOLUTE most expensive new equipment, you’re looking at a month of farming to completely replace your old gear with exotics. That seems like a reasonable commitment to make your character the strongest possible in a new build. If you’re unsure of the build, then test it with significantly cheaper rares first. You’ll quickly see if it’s viable and worth the investment to get exotics.

It is only a grind or a gear treadmill if you want it to be and treat it as such. So many of you have the completely wrong outlook, enjoy the game and have fun.

Crespus.7405:

Nuka Cola.8520:

All i want in pve is dungeons with much harder difficulty but NEVER ever see blues/worst quality as a drop. lets say i felt on my head and decided to build Twilight. I want a dungeon where every single needed mat has a high chance of drop. This way you’re doing a dungeon and have a goal. We all had one when the game was released and everyone wanted dungeon armors but now that all get them its worthless and drops from chests/creatures is a joke. I’ve been hearing devs say ’we’re making dungeon reward significantly better’ for months and nothing, absolutely nothing made laughable reward any more decent.

If such a dungeon existed, then building Twilight would be trivial. Everyone who wanted one would have it done inside of a week and all of a sudden, legendaries are just as trivial as other dungeon rewards. Is that what you want?

Dante.1508:

I want Stats Variations like GW 1 so the game does not have a treadmill.
I want loot to be casually found and made like GW 1 through every aspect of the game
I’d like end game “skins” to be the final grind not overpowered crap
The Cash shop full of Armor set weapon set skins.
Story Quest Gives an Epic or Legendary Item, as per GW1 (not a rare)
Story Quests can be redone
Dungeons Scaleable to level and group size in difficulty..
I want Skills Capture and a lot more skills than we currently have as per GW1

I’d just like Guildwars 2 to follow its roots better and appeal to its original fans more, i guess that’s too much to ask.
(my opinion)

Many of these rewards sound reasonable- I do think that the story quests should give exotics (probably not legendaries, since that would remove the uniqueness of them), but what ‘overpowered crap’ is currently available? Ascended gear? The stat increase is minuscule, and now, thanks to laurels, it’s available to everyone.

I haven’t played the first Guild Wars though, so I can’t say much about those comments. What do you mean about stat variation? And what about GW1’s loot system was different? It seems to me that 90% of skins can be obtained as random world drops during casual play or bought from the auction house for gold made through casual play.

If you’re interested heres a couple of links to show Guildwars 1 Weapon stats
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Weapon
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Unique_item

Yes the Crap is Ascended, and no the stats increase is not miniscule, if it was they wouldn’t be bound and we’d all be able to just get them on the Trading post, like Exotics..

I personally think Legendaries should be trivialised, they are causing so much division in the community and problems with gold farming bots etc, i think these things should be gotten without much thought, the whole idea of legendaries in Guildwars is laughable anyway, they make zero sense..lore wise and most are quite atrocious to look at (personally)..

Guildwars 1 loot dropped, everywhere, yes certain things like Ectos dropped from other areas but 99% of loot you got casually and without much hardships then you just got the Armor Skins you liked and were happy, obviously if you wanted the grind skins you had to run certain areas, more and collect the items needed..

But it wasn’t a gear treadmill and the game catered to everyone equally, wanted a good weapon go kill a boss or champion a few times and a masterclass weapon dropped, unique and master class were pretty much the same stats.

Crespus.7405:

I see your point about strategizing and build-testing. I enjoy many of the same things in games that you seem to. I think you’re overestimating the investment needed to change your build though. Even the priciest gear on the trading post is 6 gold/each at most. This can be gathered in either a long day or two days of modest playing.. At 6 pieces of armor, two weapons, (four if you count awatic weapons), six trinkets, and 8 runes/sigils. Assuming the ABSOLUTE most expensive new equipment, you’re looking at a month of farming to completely replace your old gear with exotics. That seems like a reasonable commitment to make your character the strongest possible in a new build. If you’re unsure of the build, then test it with significantly cheaper rares first. You’ll quickly see if it’s viable and worth the investment to get exotics.

You’ve just described the state of GW2 before the fractals update, which no one was complaining about. I agree, 1 month to get full exotics/runes for a new build, while worse than GW1, is not that bad. Now it takes 1 month to get 1 ascended item. Cue the people who say ascended items make no difference to gameplay. If it makes no difference to gameplay, why have extra stats? People could “work” towards legendary items, but clearly it was “pointless” because they didn’t have better stats. Methinks some people are engaged in Orwellian doublespeak here.

Dante.1508:

If you’re interested heres a couple of links to show Guildwars 1 Weapon stats
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Weapon
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Unique_item

Yes the Crap is Ascended, and no the stats increase is not miniscule, if it was they wouldn’t be bound and we’d all be able to just get them on the Trading post, like Exotics..
Guildwars 1 loot dropped, everywhere, yes certain things like Ectos dropped from other areas but 99% of loot you got casually and without much hardships then you just got the Armor Skins you liked and were happy, obviously if you wanted the grind skins you had to run certain areas, more and collect the items needed..

But it wasn’t a gear treadmill and the game catered to everyone equally, wanted a good weapon go kill a boss or champion a few times and a masterclass weapon dropped, unique and master class were pretty much the same stats.

Unless I’m mistaken, I’ve read that it’s an 8% increase in stats from exotic to ascended. Currently the only piece of equipment that is Fractal-specific is the back item. Back items are the weakest pieces of equipment. We’re talking about a 5-10 point increase in three areas for having that ascended back item. I’d say that’s pretty minuscule. Plus, if the laurel merchant is any indication, the back items won’t be fractal-specific for long.

For the gear from laurel merchants, as long as you do your dailies, you just have to be patient- it’s not grinding or a gear treadmill- it’s just patience.

Gw1 and gw2 are different games.. What do you expect in a legendary item? Why do you think it is called legendary if you can achieve it in a month or two.. I’ve been playing gw2 for 4 months about 2-3hrs a say yet im still aiming for legendary(sunrise) im only around 60%-65% from completion and im not complaining about it.. Anet wants us to have fun with gw2 and you may submit your recommendations to them but they must check if its applicable and we dont want to destroy the game

regarding items in guildwars 2 all items are achievable to everyone but we really need to put up some effort to get it.. In every game you need to work really hard to achieve something unless you’ll go and buy in online market but anet wanted to be fair to everyone and they decided not to put any items that may result to distort the balance between characters

Crespus.7405:

Every game has an/a few goals. Mario games your goal is to get to the last level and beat the last boss. Is it ‘grinding’ to beat all the levels before that? In fighting games, your goal is to become better at the game. Is it ‘grinding’ when you practice your combos? In shooting games, your goal is to be able to beat other players consistently. Is it ‘grinding’ to play those matches before you can do that?

- I’m glad you brought up other games. The way I think about those games that you mentioned, they are fundamentally different from the MMO paradigm. In the olden times games were made because someone thought of fun idea, like plumber running around collecting mushrooms, and made it into game. There was no expectation. Fighting games is another similar idea. Surely the bureau of concerned parents didn’t approve such violence, but they were made because fighting is cool when you’re young.

Then you have the MMO genre which is basically a collection of strict rules. You must have numeric stats on characters. You must have levels. You must have item collection and progression. People were playing Warcraft III and thought “what if I could play this game and level up my heroes past the level 10?”. The game that never ends was a popular demand back in the days of limited computing resources. Thus World of Warcraft was made and became insanely popular. The gring was wanted and desired. People wanted goals to work for and bling to show for it.

Thus the new genre was born. MMO had guaranteed longevity, because the endless progression was one of the ideas that was taken for granted. At the same time development resources were wasted on making this possible. It’s not possible for artists to draw infinite number of original art or coders to code infinite number of original events and encounters. The genre is very much different of the hand-crafted experience of Mario series or the old console Final Fantasies. It’s watered down and the appeal is in the floating numbers and red bars going down.

Games are not restricted by nature. They are made so by deliberate choice. The choice of having to unlock maps and waypoints. The choice of making armor cost great number of dungeon relics and the choice of separating currencies and making things bound to character. Restrictions aren’t only in MMOs. The little Mario can’t break brick blocks but the Super Mario can. The crucial difference is this: restriction that makes sense is a fun game element, and the restriction that doesn’t make sense is anti-fun obstructionism.

You can see the explanations for many design choices be like this: We didn’t want players to be done with the content so soon, so we added a new currency and scaled the prices so that the content must be repeated around 50-70 times. We added waypoint fees because gold must be taken away from economy. Those are bull**** explanations for restrictions. Here’s some that make sense for good measure: The little Mario can’t break brick blocks because he is small (and has no power). The shotgun has lower effective shooting range because the ammunition spreads thin. The fire bolt spell is ineffective against sand monster, because sand doesn’t burn.

Guild Wars 2 has a great deal of anti-fun obstructionism, because the choices make no sense. The game developers have to have idea what he wants to present to the player, but the art of that is presenting it in a manner that makes sense. That’s one of the marks of good game.

Icko.1307:

Gw1 and gw2 are different games.. What do you expect in a legendary item? Why do you think it is called legendary if you can achieve it in a month or two.. I’ve been playing gw2 for 4 months about 2-3hrs a say yet im still aiming for legendary(sunrise) im only around 60%-65% from completion and im not complaining about it.. Anet wants us to have fun with gw2 and you may submit your recommendations to them but they must check if its applicable and we dont want to destroy the game

regarding items in guildwars 2 all items are achievable to everyone but we really need to put up some effort to get it.. In every game you need to work really hard to achieve something unless you’ll go and buy in online market but anet wanted to be fair to everyone and they decided not to put any items that may result to distort the balance between characters

I think you misunderstand the issue. GW1 had lots of things you could grind for. I had full obsidian armor in GW1. However it gives me no satisfaction to kill people in PvP just because I have better armor, in the same sense that I take no satisfaction in beating someone at chess because they started with two pawns down.

Vayne.8563:

Dante.1508:

I want Stats Variations like GW 1 so the game does not have a treadmill.
I want loot to be casually found and made like GW 1 through every aspect of the game
I’d like end game “skins” to be the final grind not overpowered crap
The Cash shop full of Armor set weapon set skins.
Story Quest Gives an Epic or Legendary Item, as per GW1 (not a rare)
Story Quests can be redone
Dungeons Scaleable to level and group size in difficulty..
I want Skills Capture and a lot more skills than we currently have as per GW1

I’d just like Guildwars 2 to follow its roots better and appeal to its original fans more, i guess that’s too much to ask.
(my opinion)

I was a Guild Wars 1 player too. The welfare greens that we got by finishing campaigns were terrible. They may have had max stats, but they were generally bad. This is particularly true in Factions. No other mission in the game had item rewards.

The drops in Guild Wars 1, after you maxed out, were pointless, except for holiday drops and your chance of getting a black dye. If you wanted something really good, like a voltaic spear, or a celestial compass, you had to run the dungeons you needed to get them, buy them off the trading post, or get very very lucky with a Z chest.

You’re talking about Guild Wars 1 like it was the be all and end all. It wasn’t. There were flaws with how it was laid out, just like there are flaws with how Guild Wars 2 is laid out. But the welfare greens you got at the end of the adventures? Meaningless, because everyone had them, and you wanted something better anyway.

In any event, the skill system in Guild Wars 1, which was a lot of fun, is part of what killed the game for people in the first place. 200 skills per profession and you could make a zillion builds, twelve of which were viable.

The balance problems due to the dual classing and number of skills were completely impossible to solve. That’s why rits destroyed the game. Everyone could just take rit heros, a minion master, and content became meaningless.

You want some of the very things in this game that prevented that game from growing.

For the record, I do agree that you should be able to get max stat items more easily than no exists in Guild Wars 2, however, I play the game without max stat items and do everything in the game. The gold weapon you get as a reward for finishing your personal story is worth as much as the greens you got from finishing a campaign.

Oh, one more thing. When Prophecies launched, you didn’t get that green. They added the Prophecies gear reward far later. I know this because I had to go back and finish Hell’s Precipice a second time to get it on my earlier characters.

In fact, the high end stuff like obby armor, six months after Prophecies launched was almost as out of reach to most people as the Legendaries are here. You’re just not remembering that.

The fact is, you’re comparing 4 seven year old games (or a series of games that came out over a 7 year period anyway) with a six month old game. But Guild Wars 2 has more in common with Guild Wars 1 at six months than it does with Guild Wars 1 now.

There were less skills, because no expansions. No PVe skills. And there were a couple of effective builds. The best gear was hard to get. And you didn’t get epics or anything great for finishing Prophecies.

I disagree with a lot here i had more than 12 viable builds, may not have suited PvP but i didn’t PvP!

I came to Guildwars one during prophecies and was into it as Factions dropped, i loved the Factions gear (greens etc) i had multiple sets of Armor, multiple weapons, and multiple builds, i never found weapons “welfare” and the final Factions weapons were awesome to me looks great and were top class (better than guildwars 2 skins any day)..
Obviously we saw Guildwars very differently, the whole game mechanics played ten times better than Guildwars 2 ever do, i played Guildwars for many years before i became bored, Guildwars 2 im bored what four or five months into it, that’s saying something broken right there..

I want decent enough crafting mat drops to enable me to craft my own items with a minimum of grind. To me the crafted items are the base items that should be available with a minimum of grind.

I want sexier medium armor and will battle my way through the underworld and back if I must for it.

Dante.1508:

Vayne.8563:

Dante.1508:

I want Stats Variations like GW 1 so the game does not have a treadmill.
I want loot to be casually found and made like GW 1 through every aspect of the game
I’d like end game “skins” to be the final grind not overpowered crap
The Cash shop full of Armor set weapon set skins.
Story Quest Gives an Epic or Legendary Item, as per GW1 (not a rare)
Story Quests can be redone
Dungeons Scaleable to level and group size in difficulty..
I want Skills Capture and a lot more skills than we currently have as per GW1

I’d just like Guildwars 2 to follow its roots better and appeal to its original fans more, i guess that’s too much to ask.
(my opinion)

I was a Guild Wars 1 player too. The welfare greens that we got by finishing campaigns were terrible. They may have had max stats, but they were generally bad. This is particularly true in Factions. No other mission in the game had item rewards.

The drops in Guild Wars 1, after you maxed out, were pointless, except for holiday drops and your chance of getting a black dye. If you wanted something really good, like a voltaic spear, or a celestial compass, you had to run the dungeons you needed to get them, buy them off the trading post, or get very very lucky with a Z chest.

You’re talking about Guild Wars 1 like it was the be all and end all. It wasn’t. There were flaws with how it was laid out, just like there are flaws with how Guild Wars 2 is laid out. But the welfare greens you got at the end of the adventures? Meaningless, because everyone had them, and you wanted something better anyway.

In any event, the skill system in Guild Wars 1, which was a lot of fun, is part of what killed the game for people in the first place. 200 skills per profession and you could make a zillion builds, twelve of which were viable.

The balance problems due to the dual classing and number of skills were completely impossible to solve. That’s why rits destroyed the game. Everyone could just take rit heros, a minion master, and content became meaningless.

You want some of the very things in this game that prevented that game from growing.

For the record, I do agree that you should be able to get max stat items more easily than no exists in Guild Wars 2, however, I play the game without max stat items and do everything in the game. The gold weapon you get as a reward for finishing your personal story is worth as much as the greens you got from finishing a campaign.

Oh, one more thing. When Prophecies launched, you didn’t get that green. They added the Prophecies gear reward far later. I know this because I had to go back and finish Hell’s Precipice a second time to get it on my earlier characters.

In fact, the high end stuff like obby armor, six months after Prophecies launched was almost as out of reach to most people as the Legendaries are here. You’re just not remembering that.

The fact is, you’re comparing 4 seven year old games (or a series of games that came out over a 7 year period anyway) with a six month old game. But Guild Wars 2 has more in common with Guild Wars 1 at six months than it does with Guild Wars 1 now.

There were less skills, because no expansions. No PVe skills. And there were a couple of effective builds. The best gear was hard to get. And you didn’t get epics or anything great for finishing Prophecies.

I disagree with a lot here i had more than 12 viable builds, may not have suited PvP but i didn’t PvP!

I came to Guildwars one during prophecies and was into it as Factions dropped, i loved the Factions gear (greens etc) i had multiple sets of Armor, multiple weapons, and multiple builds, i never found weapons “welfare” and the final Factions weapons were awesome to me looks great and were top class (better than guildwars 2 skins any day)..
Obviously we saw Guildwars very differently, the whole game mechanics played ten times better than Guildwars 2 ever do, i played Guildwars for many years before i became bored, Guildwars 2 im bored what four or five months into it, that’s saying something broken right there..

GW2 is a completely different game from GW1.

You don’t personally enjoy the combination of mechanics in GW2 compared to GW1.

That doesn’t make GW2 a poor quality game because it doesn’t suit your tastes.

I did not like how much money and reputation went into getting “cool cosmetic sets” in GW1. Sometime’s it felt more about how much money you had more than anything. I felt like I was grinding more in GW1 than I am in GW2 in that regard.

I like GW2’s system better (how it’s earned through Dungeons, etc), but I believe they messed up with Fractals. Ascended would be better if people had a variety ways of earning it, rather than just Fractals and dailies. I don’t believe it should be sold on the TP though, to stop the inflation of gear like Exotics. It should be earned personally to make it less about money and grinding money.

What I want : I wish GW2 had as many nice looking cosmetic options as GW1. Even as a “hardcore” player (someone who plays a lot, a devoted “Raider” in other MMOs), I never wanted a gear grind. Ever. What I wanted was better looking armor sets and weapons. Things that were considered “prestigious” and I wanted harder content to challenge my group. Not to mention more cosmetic rewards for WvW. Overall, for a “cosmetic” game, it lacks in cosmetics and variety (take a look at Medium armor, blegh)

Do I consider GW2 a grindy game? No. Not at all. Especially in comparison to a traditional MMO. The only thing I find “grindy” in GW2 is getting a Legendary. If they fixed the way Ascended is earned, it’ll be a lot better (just in my opinion).

Crespus.7405:

Nuka Cola.8520:

All i want in pve is dungeons with much harder difficulty but NEVER ever see blues/worst quality as a drop. lets say i felt on my head and decided to build Twilight. I want a dungeon where every single needed mat has a high chance of drop. This way you’re doing a dungeon and have a goal. We all had one when the game was released and everyone wanted dungeon armors but now that all get them its worthless and drops from chests/creatures is a joke. I’ve been hearing devs say ’we’re making dungeon reward significantly better’ for months and nothing, absolutely nothing made laughable reward any more decent.

If such a dungeon existed, then building Twilight would be trivial. Everyone who wanted one would have it done inside of a week and all of a sudden, legendaries are just as trivial as other dungeon rewards. Is that what you want?

Dante.1508:

I want Stats Variations like GW 1 so the game does not have a treadmill.
I want loot to be casually found and made like GW 1 through every aspect of the game
I’d like end game “skins” to be the final grind not overpowered crap
The Cash shop full of Armor set weapon set skins.
Story Quest Gives an Epic or Legendary Item, as per GW1 (not a rare)
Story Quests can be redone
Dungeons Scaleable to level and group size in difficulty..
I want Skills Capture and a lot more skills than we currently have as per GW1

I’d just like Guildwars 2 to follow its roots better and appeal to its original fans more, i guess that’s too much to ask.
(my opinion)

Many of these rewards sound reasonable- I do think that the story quests should give exotics (probably not legendaries, since that would remove the uniqueness of them), but what ‘overpowered crap’ is currently available? Ascended gear? The stat increase is minuscule, and now, thanks to laurels, it’s available to everyone.

I haven’t played the first Guild Wars though, so I can’t say much about those comments. What do you mean about stat variation? And what about GW1’s loot system was different? It seems to me that 90% of skins can be obtained as random world drops during casual play or bought from the auction house for gold made through casual play.

Not only twilight but all legendary weapons. And it won’t be exactly easy with all the mats the thing needs. just look at Tormented weapons from gw1 as an example. You do ONE dungeon, collect all needed items and craft that weapon. This is how legendaries should’ve been because buying gems off of gem store to convert into money to afford the redonculous mats/precursor prices and then waste tens of hours mapping a boring and deserted world isn’t exactly exciting.

Zenith.6403:

- I’m glad you brought up other games. The way I think about those games that you mentioned, they are fundamentally different from the MMO paradigm. In the olden times games were made because someone thought of fun idea, like plumber running around collecting mushrooms, and made it into game. There was no expectation. Fighting games is another similar idea. Surely the bureau of concerned parents didn’t approve such violence, but they were made because fighting is cool when you’re young.

Then you have the MMO genre which is basically a collection of strict rules. You must have numeric stats on characters. You must have levels. You must have item collection and progression. People were playing Warcraft III and thought “what if I could play this game and level up my heroes past the level 10?”. The game that never ends was a popular demand back in the days of limited computing resources. Thus World of Warcraft was made and became insanely popular. The gring was wanted and desired. People wanted goals to work for and bling to show for it.

Thus the new genre was born. MMO had guaranteed longevity, because the endless progression was one of the ideas that was taken for granted. At the same time development resources were wasted on making this possible. It’s not possible for artists to draw infinite number of original art or coders to code infinite number of original events and encounters. The genre is very much different of the hand-crafted experience of Mario series or the old console Final Fantasies. It’s watered down and the appeal is in the floating numbers and red bars going down.

Games are not restricted by nature. They are made so by deliberate choice. The choice of having to unlock maps and waypoints. The choice of making armor cost great number of dungeon relics and the choice of separating currencies and making things bound to character. Restrictions aren’t only in MMOs. The little Mario can’t break brick blocks but the Super Mario can. The crucial difference is this: restriction that makes sense is a fun game element, and the restriction that doesn’t make sense is anti-fun obstructionism.

You can see the explanations for many design choices be like this: We didn’t want players to be done with the content so soon, so we added a new currency and scaled the prices so that the content must be repeated around 50-70 times. We added waypoint fees because gold must be taken away from economy. Those are bull**** explanations for restrictions. Here’s some that make sense for good measure: The little Mario can’t break brick blocks because he is small (and has no power). The shotgun has lower effective shooting range because the ammunition spreads thin. The fire bolt spell is ineffective against sand monster, because sand doesn’t burn.

Guild Wars 2 has a great deal of anti-fun obstructionism, because the choices make no sense. The game developers have to have idea what he wants to present to the player, but the art of that is presenting it in a manner that makes sense. That’s one of the marks of good game.

Interesting, but what if they hadn’t done these things that you’re objecting to. If they didn’t have ways to remove gold from the economy, price inflation would go insane. If there weren’t so many currencies, then we’d all have run out of things to do long ago, which means we lose out the fun we have with the game. Not all aspects of game design are as romanticized as you seem to think they are. These are important to an MMORPG. Even if some mechanics don’t make sense, they’re essential to the health of a game. What about Guild Wars specifically bothers you?

Nuka Cola.8520:

Not only twilight but all legendary weapons. And it won’t be exactly easy with all the mats the thing needs. just look at Tormented weapons from gw1 as an example. You do ONE dungeon, collect all needed items and craft that weapon. This is how legendaries should’ve been because buying gems off of gem store to convert into money to afford the redonculous mats/precursor prices and then waste tens of hours mapping a boring and deserted world isn’t exactly exciting.

It just sounds like Legendaries aren’t for you. They’re in the game as a be-all-end-all goal-of-goals. If that’s too extreme for you, then there are plenty of other options. No one has a gun to your head telling you that you need a legendary weapon. Why not go for one of the rarer exotic weapon with a cool skin?

Go for cultural skin it costs around 64k karma

I want a game which puts players on a level and accessible playing field for end-game stats, allowing strategy and skill to shine instead of sitting in wait for an 8% stat boost for months.

Crespus.7405:

Nuka Cola.8520:

Not only twilight but all legendary weapons. And it won’t be exactly easy with all the mats the thing needs. just look at Tormented weapons from gw1 as an example. You do ONE dungeon, collect all needed items and craft that weapon. This is how legendaries should’ve been because buying gems off of gem store to convert into money to afford the redonculous mats/precursor prices and then waste tens of hours mapping a boring and deserted world isn’t exactly exciting.

It just sounds like Legendaries aren’t for you. They’re in the game as a be-all-end-all goal-of-goals. If that’s too extreme for you, then there are plenty of other options. No one has a gun to your head telling you that you need a legendary weapon. Why not go for one of the rarer exotic weapon with a cool skin?

I never said i cared about legendaries weapons and even if precursors were 30g/each i wouldn’t bothered. My point is, when you make an ‘epic skin’, make it so the way to get it feels epic. if spending dollars for gems/grinding lodestones and get one per hours is epic to anyone, they don’t know what epic is. Nothing, i repeat, nothing about getting a legendary feels rewarding. Its like turning your brain OFF for the hundreds of hours you’ll be farming mats for it lol talk about epicness.

I would like a game in which I feel my time is well spent, and I am having fun. I would like it NOT to feel like work. I would like to feel I have a chance of eventually having all of my characters in gear that would keep them alive in the highest areas, and in the best of worlds, looking as I would desire them to look.

I would like a game in which I feel the developers are working with me and not against me. I would like a game where I am not punished for the actions of a few. I would like a game where I felt at least competent playing it—-not guaranteed to win, but not feeling like a failure every time I play.

I would like a game that is not frustrating, tedious or boring. I do not believe that those three words should ever be used to describe a game, which in its essence is supposed to be for entertainment—-fast, fun, and exciting.

I would like a game where I am awarded not merely for smashing through things by brute force, but by coming up with innovative ways to use my skills to accomplish tasks.

Mario is a rather poor comparison.

A goal in a game becomes a grind when it requires excessive amount of time, while offering little challenge to the player. When a player feels like they are just going through the motions.

With Mario (the classic Super Mario bros, anyway), you always have that place which was the furthest you reached last.
And you’re always aiming to go further (as well as the execute your path back to that spot more efficiently); to do better.

While it may look the same, it does not feel the same for the player, mentally.

—

The goal of attaining a Legendary is nothing like getting to the last level in Super Mario Bros.

One is repetitive and time-consuming.
One is repetitive, time-consuming, and challenging.

Hobocop.1508:

Dante.1508:

Vayne.8563:

Dante.1508:

I want Stats Variations like GW 1 so the game does not have a treadmill.
I want loot to be casually found and made like GW 1 through every aspect of the game
I’d like end game “skins” to be the final grind not overpowered crap
The Cash shop full of Armor set weapon set skins.
Story Quest Gives an Epic or Legendary Item, as per GW1 (not a rare)
Story Quests can be redone
Dungeons Scaleable to level and group size in difficulty..
I want Skills Capture and a lot more skills than we currently have as per GW1

I’d just like Guildwars 2 to follow its roots better and appeal to its original fans more, i guess that’s too much to ask.
(my opinion)

I was a Guild Wars 1 player too. The welfare greens that we got by finishing campaigns were terrible. They may have had max stats, but they were generally bad. This is particularly true in Factions. No other mission in the game had item rewards.

The drops in Guild Wars 1, after you maxed out, were pointless, except for holiday drops and your chance of getting a black dye. If you wanted something really good, like a voltaic spear, or a celestial compass, you had to run the dungeons you needed to get them, buy them off the trading post, or get very very lucky with a Z chest.

You’re talking about Guild Wars 1 like it was the be all and end all. It wasn’t. There were flaws with how it was laid out, just like there are flaws with how Guild Wars 2 is laid out. But the welfare greens you got at the end of the adventures? Meaningless, because everyone had them, and you wanted something better anyway.

In any event, the skill system in Guild Wars 1, which was a lot of fun, is part of what killed the game for people in the first place. 200 skills per profession and you could make a zillion builds, twelve of which were viable.

The balance problems due to the dual classing and number of skills were completely impossible to solve. That’s why rits destroyed the game. Everyone could just take rit heros, a minion master, and content became meaningless.

You want some of the very things in this game that prevented that game from growing.

For the record, I do agree that you should be able to get max stat items more easily than no exists in Guild Wars 2, however, I play the game without max stat items and do everything in the game. The gold weapon you get as a reward for finishing your personal story is worth as much as the greens you got from finishing a campaign.

Oh, one more thing. When Prophecies launched, you didn’t get that green. They added the Prophecies gear reward far later. I know this because I had to go back and finish Hell’s Precipice a second time to get it on my earlier characters.

In fact, the high end stuff like obby armor, six months after Prophecies launched was almost as out of reach to most people as the Legendaries are here. You’re just not remembering that.

The fact is, you’re comparing 4 seven year old games (or a series of games that came out over a 7 year period anyway) with a six month old game. But Guild Wars 2 has more in common with Guild Wars 1 at six months than it does with Guild Wars 1 now.

There were less skills, because no expansions. No PVe skills. And there were a couple of effective builds. The best gear was hard to get. And you didn’t get epics or anything great for finishing Prophecies.

I disagree with a lot here i had more than 12 viable builds, may not have suited PvP but i didn’t PvP!

I came to Guildwars one during prophecies and was into it as Factions dropped, i loved the Factions gear (greens etc) i had multiple sets of Armor, multiple weapons, and multiple builds, i never found weapons “welfare” and the final Factions weapons were awesome to me looks great and were top class (better than guildwars 2 skins any day)..
Obviously we saw Guildwars very differently, the whole game mechanics played ten times better than Guildwars 2 ever do, i played Guildwars for many years before i became bored, Guildwars 2 im bored what four or five months into it, that’s saying something broken right there..

GW2 is a completely different game from GW1.

You don’t personally enjoy the combination of mechanics in GW2 compared to GW1.

That doesn’t make GW2 a poor quality game because it doesn’t suit your tastes.

I never ever said Guildwars 2 was a poor quality game, but the mechanics in Guildwars 2 are far more lacking in this version (which were the staple of the first) than the first.

Its not that it doesn’t suit my tastes, i’m playing it still..(but reading this thread it doesn’t suit a lot of tastes though) it just doesn’t play as well or as fair to everyone as the first Guildwars was..there is no real equal opportunity in this game than the first game enjoyed, that to me is where the fun laid..

Crespus.7405:

Interesting, but what if they hadn’t done these things that you’re objecting to. If they didn’t have ways to remove gold from the economy, price inflation would go insane. If there weren’t so many currencies, then we’d all have run out of things to do long ago, which means we lose out the fun we have with the game. Not all aspects of game design are as romanticized as you seem to think they are. These are important to an MMORPG. Even if some mechanics don’t make sense, they’re essential to the health of a game. What about Guild Wars specifically bothers you?

- It’s not possible to deviate much as genre sets the standards. The fundamental differences. Why do people keep playing the same few Counter-Strike maps for years without idea of permanence or progress? I think it has to do with the fact that it’s a very skill-driven game. Maps that give clear advantage to one team aren’t popular. Compare to GW2: the damage you deal is pre-defined by the stats of your gear and the only thing that really matters is if you choose to attack (continuously…!) or not. No matter if you’re alone against 5 players at the end of the CS round, you still have the feeling you have slight chance to win. If you’re playing GW2 in WvW map, the 5-man team will beat you down without question.

If the actions you do lack meaning, they are omitted. Achievements make it so that you can give meaning to your meaningless repetition of same content: you’re gaining something outside of it. It’s not surprise those players who are not into grinding come to forums ask what there is to do in the game. My view of gaming is closer to childlike playing than work where you “achieve” things. Do you ever get the feeling when you log in and everything you could do in the game feels like big chore?

Crafting – need to buy/gather materials first, craft useless items until you can get what you’d like.
Dungeon – need to assemble team first and pay money to get into the place
Achievements – who is going to see these? If I beat the hardest boss challenge it only gives same points as doing daily quests. Grinders are the kings here and there is no e-fame to be had.
WvW – have to find a good zerg to get anything done. It’s impossible to tell what your personal contribution is in the big fights.

I didn’t mention sPvP. It’s quite accessible. There’s really a question of Why. Out of all the possible ways I could spend my time, is playing this after-planned side dish in MMO game the most fun I could have? Why not dedicated PvP game instead?

Crespus.7405:

Dante.1508:

If you’re interested heres a couple of links to show Guildwars 1 Weapon stats
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Weapon
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Unique_item

Yes the Crap is Ascended, and no the stats increase is not miniscule, if it was they wouldn’t be bound and we’d all be able to just get them on the Trading post, like Exotics..
Guildwars 1 loot dropped, everywhere, yes certain things like Ectos dropped from other areas but 99% of loot you got casually and without much hardships then you just got the Armor Skins you liked and were happy, obviously if you wanted the grind skins you had to run certain areas, more and collect the items needed..

But it wasn’t a gear treadmill and the game catered to everyone equally, wanted a good weapon go kill a boss or champion a few times and a masterclass weapon dropped, unique and master class were pretty much the same stats.

Unless I’m mistaken, I’ve read that it’s an 8% increase in stats from exotic to ascended. Currently the only piece of equipment that is Fractal-specific is the back item. Back items are the weakest pieces of equipment. We’re talking about a 5-10 point increase in three areas for having that ascended back item. I’d say that’s pretty minuscule. Plus, if the laurel merchant is any indication, the back items won’t be fractal-specific for long.

For the gear from laurel merchants, as long as you do your dailies, you just have to be patient- it’s not grinding or a gear treadmill- it’s just patience.

That’s what 8% per piece, and i hope your right about the laurel back pieces..As stated Ascended should be right through the game exactly the same as exotics are now, they are not… i must ask why not? also the exclusions of them make me find it hard to believe these were intended on the opening of the game.

And i disagree the laurel vendors are just another type of gear treadmill, mostly a time based one but still a treadmill to me.

lol since OP asked what i really want?………
Here we go!

Well i dont ask for much. All i ask for is.. (in order of priority)
1) More Faster & More Fluid combat & movements.
2) Similar Ascended Stats could be gained by doing WvWvW solely too.
3) or Ascended stats are totally worthless in WvWvW.
4) Guild Halls (Even without Factions)
5) Character Name Change! Jesus!
6) More dance moves.
7) More emotes. I cant kittening Flex!!!
8) Remove DR! <— Developers please ignore this one if its too harsh.
9) Weekly instead of Dailies as some suggested.
10) and Lastly… What i really want?
All of the above.

Thankyou for reading.
Hi Craig hi Jamie, hope to see you guys again here or the new promised land! (my Ex GW2 good ol’mateys from 2005-2009 in GW1)

I really want an expansion pack for GW1

I want gear treadmill.
I want more levels.
I want pvp armors and things like expertise so I can unleash hell on new players.

Oh and I want gear refinement so I can +10 all my gears and own wvw.
And no I dont’ wanna play other game I want this to happen to gw2 because I love the lore.

Dante.1508:

Vayne.8563:

Dante.1508:

I want Stats Variations like GW 1 so the game does not have a treadmill.
I want loot to be casually found and made like GW 1 through every aspect of the game
I’d like end game “skins” to be the final grind not overpowered crap
The Cash shop full of Armor set weapon set skins.
Story Quest Gives an Epic or Legendary Item, as per GW1 (not a rare)
Story Quests can be redone
Dungeons Scaleable to level and group size in difficulty..
I want Skills Capture and a lot more skills than we currently have as per GW1

I’d just like Guildwars 2 to follow its roots better and appeal to its original fans more, i guess that’s too much to ask.
(my opinion)

I was a Guild Wars 1 player too. The welfare greens that we got by finishing campaigns were terrible. They may have had max stats, but they were generally bad. This is particularly true in Factions. No other mission in the game had item rewards.

The drops in Guild Wars 1, after you maxed out, were pointless, except for holiday drops and your chance of getting a black dye. If you wanted something really good, like a voltaic spear, or a celestial compass, you had to run the dungeons you needed to get them, buy them off the trading post, or get very very lucky with a Z chest.

You’re talking about Guild Wars 1 like it was the be all and end all. It wasn’t. There were flaws with how it was laid out, just like there are flaws with how Guild Wars 2 is laid out. But the welfare greens you got at the end of the adventures? Meaningless, because everyone had them, and you wanted something better anyway.

In any event, the skill system in Guild Wars 1, which was a lot of fun, is part of what killed the game for people in the first place. 200 skills per profession and you could make a zillion builds, twelve of which were viable.

The balance problems due to the dual classing and number of skills were completely impossible to solve. That’s why rits destroyed the game. Everyone could just take rit heros, a minion master, and content became meaningless.

You want some of the very things in this game that prevented that game from growing.

For the record, I do agree that you should be able to get max stat items more easily than no exists in Guild Wars 2, however, I play the game without max stat items and do everything in the game. The gold weapon you get as a reward for finishing your personal story is worth as much as the greens you got from finishing a campaign.

Oh, one more thing. When Prophecies launched, you didn’t get that green. They added the Prophecies gear reward far later. I know this because I had to go back and finish Hell’s Precipice a second time to get it on my earlier characters.

In fact, the high end stuff like obby armor, six months after Prophecies launched was almost as out of reach to most people as the Legendaries are here. You’re just not remembering that.

The fact is, you’re comparing 4 seven year old games (or a series of games that came out over a 7 year period anyway) with a six month old game. But Guild Wars 2 has more in common with Guild Wars 1 at six months than it does with Guild Wars 1 now.

There were less skills, because no expansions. No PVe skills. And there were a couple of effective builds. The best gear was hard to get. And you didn’t get epics or anything great for finishing Prophecies.

I disagree with a lot here i had more than 12 viable builds, may not have suited PvP but i didn’t PvP!

I came to Guildwars one during prophecies and was into it as Factions dropped, i loved the Factions gear (greens etc) i had multiple sets of Armor, multiple weapons, and multiple builds, i never found weapons “welfare” and the final Factions weapons were awesome to me looks great and were top class (better than guildwars 2 skins any day)..
Obviously we saw Guildwars very differently, the whole game mechanics played ten times better than Guildwars 2 ever do, i played Guildwars for many years before i became bored, Guildwars 2 im bored what four or five months into it, that’s saying something broken right there..

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy Guild Wars 1, I just think you’re thinking about it through rose-colored glasses.

I had many weapon skins I liked better than end game rewards, with the possible exception of the forgotten staff. But the Factions stuff wasn’t released until a year after Guild Wars 1 came out. In other words by the six month mark, none of those end game pieces exists at all.

But at six months the stuff you’re asking for didn’t exist at all. Making content takes time. In a year from now there’ll be far more skins and I guarantee you that ascended items will be easier to get. That’s the path all MMOs take.

I want Guild vs Guild that relies on PvE gear like WvW, so that the character I “raised” is the one that participates rather than some default SPvP puppet.

I also want SPvP to actually give me rewards that effect the real part of the game (it’d be nice to trade glory for karma).

and lastly I’d love dueling to be added to the PvP world to have 1v1 matches in a map rotation of nearly infinite variability is a dream.

I want to enjoy the game as I play it, and not feel as though:

- I am being pushed into doing things I don’t enjoy.
- I am being punished for choosing “the wrong class/weapon/skillsets/traits…”
- I am being judged by other people’s metrics and found wanting.

I want to be able to walk away from the game for a few weeks, come back and pick up more or less where I left off. And, yes, I did that following Wintersday. Guess what? I didn’t find it impossible to play anything except WvW because for some reason Stormbluff Isle decided it was not going to even try.

My guild? Still there. Still banking Influence and organizing a weekend to get together and drop Karma banners in Lion’s Arch or sit down and chatter while using the saved Liquid Karma goodies from the bank.

If I had to say the most important thing I want? People playing who give a crap about the game, even if I don’t agree with them. I want people who care about it and who can disagree with me civilly, so that I feel they’re people I could at least coexist with rather than people I want to avoid strongly enough to not click “Log In”.

ANet can’t give me that, though.

I want…

1. Any class balances/bugfixes which are still pending should be prioritised and have more than just two people working on them.

2. Better drops/rewards in WvW. People shouldn’t be poorer if they prefer to spend their time playing there.

2. Greater map variety in WvW.

3. New dungeons and more variation in the current ones.

4. Dual specs for those of us who like to switch it up between dungeons/normal pve/WvW. Plus ability to equip a whole set of armour at once.

5. Rewards for map completion in line with your current real level, regardless of whether you are downlevelled.

6. Phase out renown hearts since many of them feel grindy and boring, and replace with more dynamic events.

I want Lineage 2 with better gameplay, better combat, better graphic, and less grind. In fact I think I found it, but not here.

GW2 has one big problem, and all you wrote here can’t fix it. The problem is that everything in this game is pointless. Very much like in WoW. L2 is different cause it makes you play – not for daily grind, but for fame, for friendship, for wins and respect, just like in real life. That’s why ppl who make games never shall listen the players.

I’d like to see each profession have just ONE unique ability that allows each class to bring something special to a group of players. I’d like to see combo fields that require two or more less popular professions to setup and use but make using a team of high DPS professions obsolete.

3W/1G/1M can take out a boss in 15min? How about 2N/1E/1R/1G doing it in less time?

—customizable player housing
—customizable guild halls
—lots of new armour, and skins
—make a normal, old school crafting system!
—open world consensual guild vs guild battles.
—open world consensual pvp.

Which would result in tons of new items to play for, and Anet could make lots of money selling the more sparkling version of these new items.

What I want…. hmmmmmm…. “ponders”

Well I wouldn’t mind more customization for Town Clothing; it’s so boring to see the same clothing over & over! I want more personality in it. [ Would be Nice ]
Also more customization & styles for creating your character! [ Sims3 Style; more hair options heehee ]

Player housing sounds interesting; I played one game that did that was Fable 1,2&3.

Guild Halls is a MUST have!!!!!

“Story Quest Gives an Epic or Legendary Item, as per GW1 (not a rare)”

This is insane. What is the point of having Legendary weapons if EVERYONE is going to get one.

They are supposed to be hard to get. Most people are supposed to NEVER GET THEM. I for one will never have one. I know this. For me to be able to get one with my casual play would completely ruin the point of them.

You should see a person toting around a Legendary and stop, stare, and think, wow this is the first time I have ever seen that Legendary. Not “Wow, I have 5 of those in my bank collecting dust”.

There are certain types of players that like to spend enormous amounts of time chasing hard to get items. Legendaries are for them. If you are not one of these players, they are not for you. There is plenty in this game to do other than get Legendary weapons.

Salt.4621:

It is only a grind or a gear treadmill if you want it to be and treat it as such. So many of you have the completely wrong outlook, enjoy the game and have fun.

Erm, the mmo genre was built on grinding. doing challenging grinds IS fun.

thing is you have this new breed of casual kids/adults on this game that whine if there is something that takes “a while” to get and to me THATS entitlement.

“we pay the same price so we should get the same” IS ENTITLEMENT AND IS NOT REALISTIC OF ANY PAYED ACTIVITY.

I think the lesson that we can take from this topic is that everyone wants something different. Anet is balancing the tastes of millions of players. Few of the requests in this thread have been echoed by other people, and it’s clear that what would make one person happy would not make others happy. What YOU want is not what OTHERS want, so the next time you decide to complain about the direction that Anet is taking, maybe we should try to remember that there are others who are applauding what they’re doing. I think that would make the forums a much more enjoyable place. That’s what I want.