Guild Wars 2

Seriously, what happened to this game? I remember a few years ago when Arenanet insisted that Guild Wars 2 would be a game with no grind, everyone could enjoy everything and people would be able to play the way they wanted.

And now, almost 2 years after launch here we are, no real content added to the game since launch, the same boring grind everyday for what ? To get skins ? So people leave the game (like I did) and then come back and see that instead of the usual thing you see in MMO’s, you know “lfg gg” you see the “5k+ only” and when you try to join a group you get kicked. It’s like you are punished for not doing the same boring thing everyday, or for not finishing the achievements of the LS. And when you finally manage to get back into the game you notice that nothing has changed, your character can’t really progress and you’re stuck doing the same thing you’ve done for almost 2 years.

I just don’t find any real reason to play, I want to find something worth doing but nothing is really interesting or new… Just wondering if I’m the only one feeling this way…

lordkrall.7241:

They have never claimed there would be no grind.
They have claimed there would be no REQUIRED grind. Which is still very much true. You can experience every single piece of content in the game without ever grinding anything.

They have added rather much real content since release, but for some reason people seems to ignore that.
But I suppose Fractals, new dungeon path, Southsun and Edge of the Mists (to name a few) doesn’t count for some reason?

You can’t really blame the game for a bunch of elitists either. It is the players, not the game that creates elitism. And that will happen in every game that require some sort of skill and/or gear.

Fractals, a new dungeon path, a few pvp maps, and a new area that is always empty ? In 2 years ? I wouldn’t say that’s a lot. And as for the grind, I really think that everything in this game requires some form of grinding.

All I saw since launch was some temporary content that you could pretty much do in 2 hours. And now that the LS is over, nothing is really different…

There is no real reason to log in to the game once you’ve reached level cap except maybe PvP and even that gets boring after a while… I know you’re gonna say that I just like to complain and that if I don’t like the game I shouldn’t play, but the truth is that I like the game and I want to keep playing but I don’t have an incentive to actually play…

So just because you don’t like it it doesn’t count? You claimed that there were no new content, which is clearly completely false. They have also added new mob-types, new crafting materials, new armors, new weapons, new crafting tier. Several new systems and so on. The list is rather long.

And all the temporary content from the Living Story is still content, even if it is not available at this time. It still took time and resources to create. That means new content basically twice a month for most of the games life.

Grinding would be repeating the same thing over and over and over and over again. I don’t really see that in GW2. Sure you CAN do it that way, but in order to progress, you don’t HAVE to do it that way. Thus no mandatory grind.
The fact that people seem to love to force grind upon themselves isn’t really the games fault though.

If you need an incentive (beyond liking the game) to play, then maybe you don’t actually like the game? I still play those old RTS-games from the 90s and none of those have really changed at all since then, and yet I still find them fun to play, even though I have done the same thing over and over and over and over and over again.

lordkrall.7241:

So just because you don’t like it it doesn’t count? You claimed that there were no new content, which is clearly completely false. They have also added new mob-types, new crafting materials, new armors, new weapons, new crafting tier. Several new systems and so on. The list is rather long.

And all the temporary content from the Living Story is still content, even if it is not available at this time. It still took time and resources to create. That means new content basically twice a month for most of the games life.

Grinding would be repeating the same thing over and over and over and over again. I don’t really see that in GW2. Sure you CAN do it that way, but in order to progress, you don’t HAVE to do it that way. Thus no mandatory grind.
The fact that people seem to love to force grind upon themselves isn’t really the games fault though.

If you need an incentive (beyond liking the game) to play, then maybe you don’t actually like the game? I still play those old RTS-games from the 90s and none of those have really changed at all since then, and yet I still find them fun to play, even though I have done the same thing over and over and over and over and over again.

Really? So if Anet said “Look guys, we’ll continue to do this living story thing, but no real expansion is ever going to come out, no real permanent conent is gonna be added to the game” you’d be fine with it ? That’s a lie… you play an MMO cause you want to PROGRESS through the game and feel like it doesn’t end somewhere, that there’s always something to do that can make you get better armor, better weapons that actually make a difference. I’m a casual player myself but the time someone invests in the game should be noticable and not just on some stupid skin… if someone plays more he should feel like he’s rewarded for it. Right now you reach level cap, you farm the same dungeons and bosses over and over again until you eventually get bored and leave the game, like so many people have already done… doesn’t it bother you that the population has dropped so much in the last months ? That before this “megaserver” you’d rarely find someone around ?

i recently made a list of content that has stayed.
It is quite a lot.
Most of it is of course polishing and QOL stuff, but hey. they changed the feeling of the game significantly in my opinion.
(Starting from the queens jubilee, till now)
(Excuse the weird formating, i just copy and pasted it from my document)

General Changes
- Magic find changes (accountbound stat now) and its new mechanics
- Critical damage change into ferocity
- New combat visuals, like damage markers and AoE signs for worldbosses
- Introduction of ascended armors and weapons
- Upgrade to the ascended and legendary rarities, like acountbound and stat switching
- New crafting levels with new recipes
- Complete revamp of sigils and runes
- looking for group tool
- Lot`s of UI changes, like in PvP, WvW etc…
- Trait and Tooltips now show exact numbers
- The Megaserver system
- Repair and retrait costs removed
- There is now a wardrobe in game

PvE
- Tequattle is now a Hardcore Boss
o He drops unique items and themed ascended weapons and armor
- New Hardcore Worldboss “Tripple Trouble”
o A three headed Worm, which needs around 150 coordinated player
o Has its own unique mechanics and rewards (hardest boss in game right now)
- Worldbosses got a reward overhaul as well as a timer to make them more challenging
- There is a new path in the Twilight Arbor Dungeon, themed around the living story season 1 for lvl 80 characters
o Twilight Arbor got unique skin drops
- Fractals got an upgrade
o Three new Fractals
Molten Alliance
Aetherblades
Thaumanova Reactor
o Two new Boss Fractals
Molten Berserker
Mai Trin
o Bosses appear after every run
o Fractallvl is now accountwide
o Starting at lvl 31 you get punished with an handicap called Mistlock
o Rework of Agony
o Reward reworked
- The Living Story Season 1 has concluded, leaving in its wake:
o The destruction of Lions Arch
All LA unique facilities have been moved to vigil keep
o Kessex Hills got redesigned after they introduced the tower of nightmares, which was a giant construction in the lake
o There are new events in the world, based on remnants of the living story
o New items were introduced
Watchwork sprockets
Poison pollen

WvW
- The Borderlands got a complete overhaul and a new “Bloodlust” mechanic
o There is now less water on the map, but some nice ruins and objectives to capture
- The rewards got updated to reflect changes in the game
- The WvW UI got a drastic overhaul, offering real time data
- The obsidian sanctum is now a separate zone you can log into.
o It got expanded to cater to the Guild vs Guild people
o You have the ability to party up with other servers people to finish the puzzle
- A new Map was introduced called “Edge of the Mists”
o It is always available, even if all other WvW maps are full
o It resets every two hours
o Has unique objectives
o Teammembers are based on the color they represent in WvW right now and not on server
o WvW rank is now acountbound

PvP
- Glory and armor rewards have been removed in favour of a new system
- Costs for Ranks have been adjusted
- A Complete new rewardsystem which allows for gold and items of PvE
- New Arenatype: Duell

Classes
- A lot of balancing
- A new Healskill for every class
- The Traitsystem got a complete overhaul
o Every class got 5 new grandmaster traits
o Some traits get only unlocked after you explored the world in PvE
- Critical Damage has been removed and got exchanged for a new stat: “Ferocity”

Gemstore
- A few UI Improvements
- New Hairtypes in the stylingkit
- You can now buy unlimited finisher to punish your enemies
- New Booster
- New Armors in the shop

Nope, nothing permanently changed to the game… just these minor things…

Jaken.6801:

i recently made a list of content that has stayed.
It is quite a lot.
Most of it is of course polishing and QOL stuff, but hey. they changed the feeling of the game significantly in my opinion.
(Starting from the queens jubilee, till now)
(Excuse the weird formating, i just copy and pasted it from my document)

General Changes
- Magic find changes (accountbound stat now) and its new mechanics
- Critical damage change into ferocity
- New combat visuals, like damage markers and AoE signs for worldbosses
- Introduction of ascended armors and weapons
- Upgrade to the ascended and legendary rarities, like acountbound and stat switching
- New crafting levels with new recipes
- Complete revamp of sigils and runes
- looking for group tool
- Lot`s of UI changes, like in PvP, WvW etc…
- Trait and Tooltips now show exact numbers
- The Megaserver system
- Repair and retrait costs removed
- There is now a wardrobe in game

PvE
- Tequattle is now a Hardcore Boss
o He drops unique items and themed ascended weapons and armor
- New Hardcore Worldboss “Tripple Trouble”
o A three headed Worm, which needs around 150 coordinated player
o Has its own unique mechanics and rewards (hardest boss in game right now)
- Worldbosses got a reward overhaul as well as a timer to make them more challenging
- There is a new path in the Twilight Arbor Dungeon, themed around the living story season 1 for lvl 80 characters
o Twilight Arbor got unique skin drops
- Fractals got an upgrade
o Three new Fractals
Molten Alliance
Aetherblades
Thaumanova Reactor
o Two new Boss Fractals
Molten Berserker
Mai Trin
o Bosses appear after every run
o Fractallvl is now accountwide
o Starting at lvl 31 you get punished with an handicap called Mistlock
o Rework of Agony
o Reward reworked
- The Living Story Season 1 has concluded, leaving in its wake:
o The destruction of Lions Arch
All LA unique facilities have been moved to vigil keep
o Kessex Hills got redesigned after they introduced the tower of nightmares, which was a giant construction in the lake
o There are new events in the world, based on remnants of the living story
o New items were introduced
Watchwork sprockets
Poison pollen

WvW
- The Borderlands got a complete overhaul and a new “Bloodlust” mechanic
o There is now less water on the map, but some nice ruins and objectives to capture
- The rewards got updated to reflect changes in the game
- The WvW UI got a drastic overhaul, offering real time data
- The obsidian sanctum is now a separate zone you can log into.
o It got expanded to cater to the Guild vs Guild people
o You have the ability to party up with other servers people to finish the puzzle
- A new Map was introduced called “Edge of the Mists”
o It is always available, even if all other WvW maps are full
o It resets every two hours
o Has unique objectives
o Teammembers are based on the color they represent in WvW right now and not on server
o WvW rank is now acountbound

PvP
- Glory and armor rewards have been removed in favour of a new system
- Costs for Ranks have been adjusted
- A Complete new rewardsystem which allows for gold and items of PvE
- New Arenatype: Duell

Classes
- A lot of balancing
- A new Healskill for every class
- The Traitsystem got a complete overhaul
o Every class got 5 new grandmaster traits
o Some traits get only unlocked after you explored the world in PvE
- Critical Damage has been removed and got exchanged for a new stat: “Ferocity”

Gemstore
- A few UI Improvements
- New Hairtypes in the stylingkit
- You can now buy unlimited finisher to punish your enemies
- New Booster
- New Armors in the shop

Nope, nothing permanently changed to the game… just these minor things…

Is that even content ? That is nothing… it’s been 2 years, not 6 months… 2 years and this is all they could do ? Looking at other games you can see that in 2 years they’ve released one or even two expansions, not bug fixes, not UI and map improvements but real expansions that keep people interested…. You know an mmo needs people to actually “work”, people need to be interested in the game in order to stay, content keeps players interested… so no real content = less interest = less money for the game company. You really think that by supporting this stupid (in my opinion) policy that Anet has adopted you’re really helping the game ? If no one complains then nothing changes. I’m not saying that GW2 is a bad game, but I am saying that it needs real, permanent content to stay alive…

lordkrall.7241:

They have never claimed there would be no grind.
They have claimed there would be no REQUIRED grind. Which is still very much true. You can experience every single piece of content in the game without ever grinding anything.

They have added rather much real content since release, but for some reason people seems to ignore that.
But I suppose Fractals, new dungeon path, Southsun and Edge of the Mists (to name a few) doesn’t count for some reason?

You can’t really blame the game for a bunch of elitists either. It is the players, not the game that creates elitism. And that will happen in every game that require some sort of skill and/or gear.

You need to grind for ascended gear (or play REALLY LONG). It gives 5percent more statts and you need it for high lvl FOTM. There is REQUIRED grind. Just not so much.
——
Living story was nice and it kept the game alive. I hope they will add an option to replay it some day. I think we just need new areas and a few HARD dungeons, to keep us busy. There was enough content last year, just not smart (permanent and hard) content.
——
Actually you can blame the game a bit for it. They could remove the option to see other players their AP.

Dragonar.1342:

You need to grind for ascended gear (or play REALLY LONG). It gives 5percent more statts and you need it for high lvl FOTM. There is REQUIRED grind. Just not so much.

Yes you need ascended for high level fractals. But you can still see everything from the fractals at lvl 1, and thus you don’t need Ascended to experience any content. And as you said yourself, you can get it, over time, without grinding, and thus it is not forced grind either way.

lordkrall.7241:

Dragonar.1342:

You need to grind for ascended gear (or play REALLY LONG). It gives 5percent more statts and you need it for high lvl FOTM. There is REQUIRED grind. Just not so much.

Yes you need ascended for high level fractals. But you can still see everything from the fractals at lvl 1, and thus you don’t need Ascended to experience any content. And as you said yourself, you can get it, over time, without grinding, and thus it is not forced grind either way.

Yeah 4 years or something? :P

Trouble.3859:

Really? So if Anet said “Look guys, we’ll continue to do this living story thing, but no real expansion is ever going to come out, no real permanent conent is gonna be added to the game” you’d be fine with it ? That’s a lie… you play an MMO cause you want to PROGRESS through the game and feel like it doesn’t end somewhere, that there’s always something to do that can make you get better armor, better weapons that actually make a difference. I’m a casual player myself but the time someone invests in the game should be noticable and not just on some stupid skin… if someone plays more he should feel like he’s rewarded for it. Right now you reach level cap, you farm the same dungeons and bosses over and over again until you eventually get bored and leave the game, like so many people have already done… doesn’t it bother you that the population has dropped so much in the last months ? That before this “megaserver” you’d rarely find someone around ?

Well, they have more or less said that. They have stated multiple times that they are not currently planning an expansion, and that the Living Story will continue after this break. And I don’t really have any issue with that. I like getting new stuff to do more often than those once every six months for most other games.

No, I don’t play MMO because I want to progress. I play MMO because I find it fun. GW2 was never advertised as a game for the kind of progress you want, so maybe the game simply isn’t for you?
I mainly play WvW, and there have been more or less no real progression in WvW since release (I don’t really count WXP, since that doesn’t really progress your character that much, but rather just make it a bit better in WvW, but not overall), and yet I still play it and find it interesting and fun, and quite clearly rather many other does as well.

If you want a game where you always have to chase the carrot to get better and better gear, then GW2 is simply not for you. The game has always been advertised as skin-based rather than stat-based.

Since none of us actually have any sort of numbers about how much population has dropped I don’t really see any point in discussing that.
Personally I saw rather many people around before the MegaServers as well, and it is rather usual to have queues in WvW as well.

Dragonar.1342:

Yeah 4 years or something? :P

Or you can do fractals and get the drops from there.
The whole point is that you can see every piece of Fractal content at level 1, and as such, you are not locked out from any content if you choose not to grind. And thus, there is no required grind.

Trouble.3859:

Is that even content ? That is nothing… it’s been 2 years, not 6 months… 2 years and this is all they could do ?
- snip-

It is content o.O
How do you define content, i might ask?
- Is a complete new map no new content?
- a complete rehaul of mechanics that change the way you play no new content?
- Upgrades to the fundamental systems of the game itself no new content?
- new items, skills, traits, etc. to aquire in several ways throughout several gamemodes for old AND new players?
- extending the variety of mechanics introduced into the game no new content?

You are going on and on about “something big”, however we do not even know in which direction the game will be going from now on.
People are asking since Day One (yes, ironic isn`t it?) for an expansion and Anet several times stated that they will go with the living story right now and that they are working on something in the back.

The living story, while temporary at the moment can easily modified to introduce the content you crave for:
- new zones? look atsoutshun coast. not the best example by all means, but imagine that in an ongoing story, pushing deeper into the lands, unvailing new maps to explore, new dungeons to master.
- new story? Can be implemented the same way, with new players able to follow the story in instanced areas, always accessable to them.
- new classes/skills/races : They are allready pushing out new skills and traits. New classes need to be unique and be balanced with the others. This is no easy task and every other MMO struggles with balancing as well. Is it wrong to take it slow here?
New races however are bound to the implementation into the gameworld. They need refittet armor, a starting zone, have to be somehow integrated into everything… geez it is hard, cut them some slack. You do not want something kitten, do you? Something with some cookie cutter quests, just to get it?

That saying. You already got new content. The living story, while temprorary provided you with exactly what you want. New content.
It is a NEW system, other MMOs have not used before and they said that they have learned a lot from their first try.
That is all. it was a trial and in my opinion, even if it had it`s flaws, it worked rather well.

Now as i mentioned there are a lot of signs that point into more permanent content for the second season. How much of it will be there aplease you, i cannot say.

You just have to remind yourself that there are several teams right now out there, to provide the content you are so in need for.
- four living world teams providing you with something to do every two weeks again, when the 2nd season starts.
- There is “hidden” team in the back, creating something no one knows, however it was stated that certain key developers have their own secret projects at the moment.
- The whole polishing and balancing is something that is essential to a game, if you do not care for that and just want the shinies, then i cannot help you.
- Teams for the several different game modes. Change them, upgrade them, hold them relevant in contrast to the others when they get their update.

You sound like someone who has allready seen “everything” the game has to offer, or at least what interests you.
It is okay. You want more and i can understand that, but plase do not go around and shout “my stuff gets not enough love”.
I do not know how you play, what you play or anything about you.

I for example play since the beginning and i know i have certainly not experienced everything the game has to offer at the moment.
I am keen on collecting skins, for example, beacuse there are some very beautiful out there.
I have not finished all dungeons, but i am still up to the task if i find the right group to do it.

Everyone has a subjective look on these things and while i agree, there is not enough “new” content left over from the stuff they have shown throughout the living story, so it feels like a set back, everytime something is taken away, i do not call them out for that, since there is still enough content there in the expanded core game experience.
At least for me.
You are unhappy, i understand that and if you find enough others who share your sentiments they might chime in this (or the several other) threads on the forum and i wish you good luck with that.
Maybe it works.
I for once, sit back, drink my tea and see how it continues for now.
We have our “promises” from Anet. If the S2 does not provide a certain amount of interest for me, i might join your camp, but right now i do not feel like it, since it is too early in my opinion.

Jaken.6801:

Everyone has a subjective look on these things and while i agree, there is not enough “new” content left over from the stuff they have shown throughout the living story, so it feels like a set back, everytime something is taken away, i do not call them out for that, since there is still enough content there in the expanded core game experience.
At least for me.
You are unhappy, i understand that and if you find enough others who share your sentiments they might chime in this (or the several other) threads on the forum and i wish you good luck with that.
Maybe it works.
I for once, sit back, drink my tea and see how it continues for now.
We have our “promises” from Anet. If the S2 does not provide a certain amount of interest for me, i might join your camp, but right now i do not feel like it, since it is too early in my opinion.

I find it funny that people claim to support and like the game and they keep insisting that this whole thing has been an improvement to how the “expansion” and “update” system for MMO’s has been working up to now. I mean yeah sure keep the LS but put in some CONTENT that is not finished in 2 hours, and that can actually keep the playerbase entertained for more than a couple of days. Most players are not happy with this, most people are bored and the only ones who do remain in the game are just hoping for something to change. I just don’t see what you see, I don’t see how they’ve really updated the game since launch if you exclude some traits and some general improvements there is no new real content added to the game that can keep players busy. The only thing I’ve seen is promises being made that never live up to the expectations. To be honest with you I would prefer if Anet just told us what they’re planning to do with this game, this “top secret team” that keeps working on things that just “might” surprise us seems a bit like a joke. And trust me it is not too early, I’m afraid that it just might be too late seeing all these new games come out and all the hype they’ve been getting recently. This whole thing feels the exact same way that it feels in any other game, you know players sit afk in major cities, waiting for the next content update but for GW2 it’s not a few months that people do this, it’s nearly 2 years…

It’s not necs an improvement on said system, but it is interesting and it is different. If I want expansion style progression..I’ll play Lotro (which is going downhill with every expansion, but is just about playable) or any of the other countless mmo’s out there that do that. GW2 at least offers an alternative and I enjoy it for that. If others don’t, well that is entirely their prerogative – it is not going to please everyone. I’d prefer Anet to stick to their vision, tweaking it to player feedback rather than wholesale overhaul the game and it end up being something different.

I have also yet to see concrete statistical proof of a declining playerbase. I’d be surprised if the population hadn’t dropped, but not to the extent many have proclaimed.

At the end of the day, it is a video game. Nothing more. It will do what it will do and I’ll follow it whilst I enjoy it (which is likely a long time).

Content that only lasts “2” hours – too short, finished instantly
Content that lasts longer than “2” hours – “I though no grinding anet???”

You cannot please everyone anet

Jaken.6801:

i recently made a list of content that has stayed.
It is quite a lot.
Most of it is of course polishing and QOL stuff, but hey. they changed the feeling of the game significantly in my opinion.
(Starting from the queens jubilee, till now)
(Excuse the weird formating, i just copy and pasted it from my document)

<snip>

That’s a nice list, but most of that isn’t really new ‘content’ but are either features or bugfixing or changes to existing stuff (so not really ‘new’).

For example: there is stuff like “Magic find changes/looking for group tool/wardrobe/etc…” those are more like actually features and therefore not really content.
On the other hand there is stuff like “Tequattle is now a Hardcore Boss/Complete revamp of sigils and runes/The destruction of Lions Arch/etc…”. These are changes to already existing content and therefore isn’t ‘new’ but changes to ‘old’ content.

Some of those features and changes were nice, but don’t give players a reason to start playing again. New content (like mostly in the form of an expansion) make players that either left the game (to do something else) a reason to come back and play again and/or make the game even more actractive for new(er) people.

Stuff like the wardrobe, changed sigil/runes, etc… might be nice, but it doesn’t give people who left the game a while ago something to do. (My friends, for example, won’t say something like ‘I have to go back to GW2 because they added a wardrobe to the game’.
New content gives people (new) stuff to actively do

NathanH.1465:

For example: there is stuff like “Magic find changes/looking for group tool/wardrobe/etc…” those are more like actually features and therefore not really content.

On the other hand there is stuff like “Tequattle is now a Hardcore Boss/Complete revamp of sigils and runes/The destruction of Lions Arch/etc…”. These are changes to already existing content and therefore isn’t ‘new’ but changes to ‘old’ content.

Some of those features and changes were nice, but don’t give players a reason to start playing again. New content (like mostly in the form of an expansion) make players that either left the game (to do something else) a reason to come back and play again and/or make the game even more actractive for new(er) people.

Stuff like the wardrobe, changed sigil/runes, etc… might be nice, but it doesn’t give people who left the game a while ago something to do. (My friends, for example, won’t say something like ‘I have to go back to GW2 because they added a wardrobe to the game’.
New content gives people (new) stuff to actively do

Exactly. The white knights won’t believe you, but that is exactly the problem. They spend the time refining or changing the things we already have. Many of us (probably most of us) want new – as in it never existed before.

A dungeon path or a new fractal is small potatoes. I want to explore these vast areas under the clouds, play new races and battle new enemies. I might be foolishly getting my hopes up that something like this comes out of the next living story, but I’m going to foolishly do it anyway.

lordkrall.7241:

They have never claimed there would be no grind.
They have claimed there would be no REQUIRED grind. Which is still very much true. You can experience every single piece of content in the game without ever grinding anything.

They have added rather much real content since release, but for some reason people seems to ignore that.
But I suppose Fractals, new dungeon path, Southsun and Edge of the Mists (to name a few) doesn’t count for some reason?

You can’t really blame the game for a bunch of elitists either. It is the players, not the game that creates elitism. And that will happen in every game that require some sort of skill and/or gear.

So you’re just pretending the whole “we don’t make grindy games, we leave grind to the other MMOs” thing was never said? Yeah, I’m not surprised.

ITT: features packages, balance updates, and bug fixes count as content. /smh

lordkrall.7241:

They have never claimed there would be no grind.
They have claimed there would be no REQUIRED grind. Which is still very much true. You can experience every single piece of content in the game without ever grinding anything.

That’s how it is. GW2 is the game which requires nearly no grind. You can create a character and level it to 80 just by sightseeing.
You can get good enough (exotic) equipement by doing every dungeon path once.
You can play however you want and get enough money to buy that stuff as well.

Everything else is behind a great wall, but is not required at all to play better, or to make your character better. The new trait system is a little bit different here.

lordkrall.7241:

They have added rather much real content since release, but for some reason people seems to ignore that.
But I suppose Fractals, new dungeon path, Southsun and Edge of the Mists (to name a few) doesn’t count for some reason?

I have to disagree on this one. Most added content was deleted again and can not be played anymore by any new or returning player. The newly added content like Southsun could have been done by a five year old klicking in visual basic. EotM is ok, but not that big for over a year of development. PvP maps that have been added are skyhammer and courtyard, but thats not really a lot.
Fractals is the only thing that has been added and is grown on. One new dungeon path is also a joke and a byproduct by LS like most other things.

Content that should be added soon are new 80 maps in PvE, like at least 3-5 with new dungeons, world events like tequatl and hardmode for old dungeons with completely new AI and strategies. Complete new weapon and skill sets for all classes. Different PvP maps and modes together with their respective solo and team queue. And WWW stuff, whereas I don’t know what
This is what I would count as a content update. Not that LS #klick here for AP#.

Dragonar.1342:

lordkrall.7241:

Dragonar.1342:

You need to grind for ascended gear (or play REALLY LONG). It gives 5percent more statts and you need it for high lvl FOTM. There is REQUIRED grind. Just not so much.

Yes you need ascended for high level fractals. But you can still see everything from the fractals at lvl 1, and thus you don’t need Ascended to experience any content. And as you said yourself, you can get it, over time, without grinding, and thus it is not forced grind either way.

Yeah 4 years or something? :P

I am not just a casual player, I am frugal. While I’m not actively crafting Ascended Artificer weapons, they are currently available to me, and I’m only 25 Ratings away from Armorsmith.

ANet’s priority obviously is making people stick around continuously (spending money on hats). Since they mostly focus on temporary story content it’s the method they believe works best, and there’s no indication that it’s changing anytime soon.

lordkrall.7241:

Grinding would be repeating the same thing over and over and over and over again. I don’t really see that in GW2. Sure you CAN do it that way, but in order to progress, you don’t HAVE to do it that way. Thus no mandatory grind.
The fact that people seem to love to force grind upon themselves isn’t really the games fault though.

Do you actually believe what you are saying ???
You can’t see grinding in GW2 ???
Would you like to explain me how to get the dungeon armor skins without doing the dungeon over and over again ? Did i miss something ??

There is material you can’t buy at the trade post….. why an apple is account bound is far beyond me anyways.
That means you have to grind over and over again. Vision Crystal is a nice example.
How to get it without grinding temples over and over again is far beyond me.

Of course if i follow you logic i would just stand around and look at things.
This doesn’t require any grinding at all. And you are right we are not forced to move from this spot.
I am just afraid this won’t be helpful behavior to keep a fan base.
The last post show me that you are incredible happy with GW2 and i respect that.
But always visiting a forum to explain people who miss something that they actually don’t miss it is strange.
It is like a wife constantly cooking stew and the husband tells her “you know exactly i don’t like stew” and she answers “yes, you like stew”.

The players coming here to make their concerns being heard and their are a lot matching concerns. 90% it’s new contend and fresh stuff.
So don’t come here and tell them “you don’t want new contend”

There is a difference between absolute lack of grinding (that would basically mean log in, do everything one time and have every single thing in the game) and lack of MANDATORY grind.

The game have no MANDATORY grind, since you can access and complete every single piece of content in the game without grinding anything.

Boneheart.3561:

Dragonar.1342:

lordkrall.7241:

Dragonar.1342:

You need to grind for ascended gear (or play REALLY LONG). It gives 5percent more statts and you need it for high lvl FOTM. There is REQUIRED grind. Just not so much.

Yes you need ascended for high level fractals. But you can still see everything from the fractals at lvl 1, and thus you don’t need Ascended to experience any content. And as you said yourself, you can get it, over time, without grinding, and thus it is not forced grind either way.

Yeah 4 years or something? :P

I am not just a casual player, I am frugal. While I’m not actively crafting Ascended Artificer weapons, they are currently available to me, and I’m only 25 Ratings away from Armorsmith.

Yeah, talking about a full gear set here.
Full light ascended armor is atm 500-600 gold. Thats is a lot of gold for a single set.

Anet never really promised new content, at least not to a significant degree. It’s supposed to still be the same game when you bought it – it’s not like you’re paying for a subscription. When I fire up my old BattleTanx (Or even Neverwinter Nights) game, I don’t expect new content.

… then again, I don’t expect it to be changed in a manner as atrocious as this latest content patch, either.

Free to play and gems. That’s what happened.

Kurrilino.2706:

lordkrall.7241:

Grinding would be repeating the same thing over and over and over and over again. I don’t really see that in GW2. Sure you CAN do it that way, but in order to progress, you don’t HAVE to do it that way. Thus no mandatory grind.
The fact that people seem to love to force grind upon themselves isn’t really the games fault though.

Do you actually believe what you are saying ???
You can’t see grinding in GW2 ???
Would you like to explain me how to get the dungeon armor skins without doing the dungeon over and over again ???

But you don’t have to get the armor skins. You can get armor of the same power by world completion, drops, or trading posts if you really want.

Gw2 has plenty of grind. Legendaries and ascended items are a testament to that. But there isn’t a “gear grind” that keeps you from experiencing the game. You aren’t perpetually getting stronger armor to experience the next chunk of content. Exotic gear and that is it.

I Still think the game is headed to kitten though….

lordkrall.7241:

They have never claimed there would be no grind.
They have claimed there would be no REQUIRED grind. Which is still very much true. You can experience every single piece of content in the game without ever grinding anything.

They have added rather much real content since release, but for some reason people seems to ignore that.
But I suppose Fractals, new dungeon path, Southsun and Edge of the Mists (to name a few) doesn’t count for some reason?

You can’t really blame the game for a bunch of elitists either. It is the players, not the game that creates elitism. And that will happen in every game that require some sort of skill and/or gear.

thumbsup that is all I can say – great post.

Dragonar.1342:

Boneheart.3561:

Dragonar.1342:

lordkrall.7241:

Dragonar.1342:

You need to grind for ascended gear (or play REALLY LONG). It gives 5percent more statts and you need it for high lvl FOTM. There is REQUIRED grind. Just not so much.

Yes you need ascended for high level fractals. But you can still see everything from the fractals at lvl 1, and thus you don’t need Ascended to experience any content. And as you said yourself, you can get it, over time, without grinding, and thus it is not forced grind either way.

Yeah 4 years or something? :P

I am not just a casual player, I am frugal. While I’m not actively crafting Ascended Artificer weapons, they are currently available to me, and I’m only 25 Ratings away from Armorsmith.

Yeah, talking about a full gear set here.
Full light ascended armor is atm 500-600 gold. Thats is a lot of gold for a single set.

But, unless you go into high level fractals – YOU DON’T NEED ASCENDED ARMOR – EXOTIC WORKS AS GOOD. This is the point of this game, if you want it, your choice but not needed.

in b4 someone says that he NEEDS the dramatic increase of stats or else he’ll get owned by everyone and their mom in wvw.

Trouble.3859:

Seriously, what happened to this game? I remember a few years ago when Arenanet insisted that Guild Wars 2 would be a game with no grind, everyone could enjoy everything and people would be able to play the way they wanted.

And now, almost 2 years after launch here we are, no real content added to the game since launch, the same boring grind everyday for what ? To get skins ? So people leave the game (like I did) and then come back and see that instead of the usual thing you see in MMO’s, you know “lfg gg” you see the “5k+ only” and when you try to join a group you get kicked. It’s like you are punished for not doing the same boring thing everyday, or for not finishing the achievements of the LS. And when you finally manage to get back into the game you notice that nothing has changed, your character can’t really progress and you’re stuck doing the same thing you’ve done for almost 2 years.

I just don’t find any real reason to play, I want to find something worth doing but nothing is really interesting or new… Just wondering if I’m the only one feeling this way…

I feel ya and so many others do too. You just won’t find much support w/the general GW2 community. Just look at the mount, dueling, & ascended threads.

Don’t expect a Xpac anytime soon at all, the Living Story is directly tied to the marketing and revenue of the gem store, and is cheap to produce w/a high yield. This will not change until we get someone new leading the direction of this game.

Yes some permanent stuff has been added, much needed overdue QoL stuff, around 250 gem store items, and the list of “content” someone already posted.

Pug’n PvE in this game generally not the crowd to run w/so don’t expect good results from that.

You got four general choices in GW2

PvE simplicity
Living story mini games & zergs
Play barbie dress up in a major hub w/your fancy new fuzzy hat, plush back, store bought skins.
Level alts
Join the boss/temple zergs
Guild mission mini games
EOTM karma zerg trains

Dungeon
FOTM grind & Exp’s

SPvP/TPvP
meh, we all knew that was never going to be a esport.

WvW
Zerg
or run solo/group avoiding the zerg…or a thief

I got five lvl 80’s, four crafts lvl 500 all the rest 400, 2 full ascended sets (including weapons, rings, back, etc.), 2 Legends crafted, FOTM lvl 44, Dungeon Master, Mist Runner (WvW), Finished all of Season 1 LS (gave it a full try)…

and that was easy to do since release w/a career, family, & finished college. The game is just not made for players like us, so we log for WvW once and awhile waiting for the grass is greener game to pop up.

But who knows what the future holds maybe Anet will try to retain our playerbase, maybe the release in the east will have a better influence? Only time will tell.

Wetpaw.3487:

The game is just not made for players like us

True. It’s a design philosophy issue.

Myself, I like this game for my casual moods, EVE for my sandbox moods and (currently at least) WildStar for my more focused moods. I don’t expect GW2 to be a sandbox or to be focused/core, any more than I expect EVE to be a themepark, or WildStar to be casual. Let the games be what they are, I think, and spend your time in the ones you like — it’s not like there aren’t a crap ton of MMOs available.

…believe it or not, there IS more to the open world than Zerging.

That said, catching barrels of booze in the Shiverpeaks (And other unique, fun activities usually part of renown hearts, such as stuff involving cows in Diessa Plateau) should be repeatable for leveled cash rewards to make that content not punishing to enjoy over things that do pay (Even if the events do pay less than ‘hardcore’ challenges. Then again, actually managing to catch a barrel is far harder than beating almost any fight I’ve been in.)

Renown hearts should be repeatable.

Some points:

• There is a difference between features and content. Rather more features have been added to GW2 than content.
• For explorer play-style, the only new permanent zone is Southsun, which offers no map completion options and very few Easter eggs. For this play style, Southsun was a bump in the road, not a decent addition. Sanctum of the Winds offered more for explorers than Southsun, and was imo the best addition to the game since launch.
• Replacing things with revamped things is not necessarily new content. Tequatl was revamped, meaning that one group now does his event more and another group does him not at all. Same with TA-AP: it was a replacement path, not an additional path.
• The possibility that someone will experience grind in GW2 is the same as in any MMO. The MMO genre is built on enticing players to repeat content past the point where it still offers a new experience. Some people are going to lose themselves in the game while repeating content, those who cannot lose themselves and only seek the reward will experience grind.

Trouble.3859:

snip

Is that even content ? That is nothing… it’s been 2 years, not 6 months… 2 years and this is all they could do ? Looking at other games you can see that in 2 years they’ve released one or even two expansions, not bug fixes, not UI and map improvements but real expansions that keep people interested…. You know an mmo needs people to actually “work”, people need to be interested in the game in order to stay, content keeps players interested… so no real content = less interest = less money for the game company. You really think that by supporting this stupid (in my opinion) policy that Anet has adopted you’re really helping the game ? If no one complains then nothing changes. I’m not saying that GW2 is a bad game, but I am saying that it needs real, permanent content to stay alive…

6 months? You expect all of that to be released in 6 months? Holy time scales, Batman! You do realize that those other games you’re thinking of that supposedly released more in 6 months were most likely working on most of the stuff that was released for far longer than 6 months it’s just that they didn’t release it piece-meal, they saved it up to release all at once. I think there is very little that ANet released after launch but already had significant progress on before launch. They spent most of their time up to launch finishing what was gonna come out on release. It may not have been permanent content, but including all the Living Story releases, ANet has produced easily an expansion worth of stuff.
You say an MMO needs new content to keep people coming back and interested, but that is exactly what the LS stuff is designed to do. No other MMO has new content every 2 weeks for any stretch of time. They spend 2 years working on an expansion with nothing but balance changes and bug fixes in the mean time, and then they put most of the best content behind a gear grind that forces you to grind the same couple of dungeons over and over for weeks until you can even manage the next dungeon all to keep you busy on the same content until 2 years down the line when they have another real content release.

I couldn’t read all of the answer but this is my 2 cents:
I had left gw2 for a long time like you. Like 1 and a half or 2 years. Since 1-2 weeks i’m playing again and i can say; yea there are some changes nopt significant but i can say positive changes like the trait system or almost every map has its own boss and changed mechanics. More ascended gear can be gained by doing them. Slow but yea it’s fun.
You can say “Do you think is it enough?”. Sure it’s not i said i left game like 2 years when i turned back nothing has changed actually. What I missed is a couple amusements and entertainments. That’s all.
But:
Remember we(I) only paid like what 50$/60$. I really don’t remember but I think i had fun enough for that amount of money.

All games get old at some point, period. Boredom is not secular to the mmo genre by any means. The question that should be forefront is does this game have re-playability for me? If the answer is yes, then great! If not, there are other games in the genre that may be more to your liking. I’m a stranger in a strange land when it comes to f2p. I’ve tried some pretty awful ones and I can say that at least, imo, I’m happy with my purchase when it comes to this game.

lordkrall.7241:

They have never claimed there would be no grind.
They have claimed there would be no REQUIRED grind. Which is still very much true. You can experience every single piece of content in the game without ever grinding anything.

This should be the standard boiler-plate response to every “GRIND” complaint post on these forums. The supposed “statement” that GW2 will have “NO GRIND” is misquoted, misused and twisted for a wide variety of agendas and needs to be properly stated and used in proper context.

Thank you for stating it clearly.

Well, considering the game is nearing it’s 2 year birthday, we’ve had no real PvE content in terms of exploration or lasting value. One new zone, which doesn’t have anything of lasting value or anything to do ’cept for one world boss.

Yes, Lion’s Arch got blown up. Yes, Kessex Hills looks a bit different. All this was tied in a certain time. They do not provide game content for this time, unlike, let’s say they released a god realm – type update from GW1. A new set of armor, weapons, unique jewellery drops, lore, exploration, NPC interaction, minipets. THAT would be content.

I dunno, I guess some people are happy that we have get/got less content than with a traditional expansion (like in GW1). I have no issues against temporary content as long as it’s not the ONLY type of content that is offered. Fractals is fun for a while. For me it was about 10 runs to get level 10. That’s way less than I did GW1 elite PvE content.

It’s such a shame, really. The game is beautiful, has awesome lore to expand on, the potential is there, but it’s not realizing as it could be. I’m willing to update my views if there will be new news, but for now I’m not satisfied with the type of content updates we’re getting.

Trouble.3859:

lordkrall.7241:

So just because you don’t like it it doesn’t count? You claimed that there were no new content, which is clearly completely false. They have also added new mob-types, new crafting materials, new armors, new weapons, new crafting tier. Several new systems and so on. The list is rather long.

And all the temporary content from the Living Story is still content, even if it is not available at this time. It still took time and resources to create. That means new content basically twice a month for most of the games life.

Grinding would be repeating the same thing over and over and over and over again. I don’t really see that in GW2. Sure you CAN do it that way, but in order to progress, you don’t HAVE to do it that way. Thus no mandatory grind.
The fact that people seem to love to force grind upon themselves isn’t really the games fault though.

If you need an incentive (beyond liking the game) to play, then maybe you don’t actually like the game? I still play those old RTS-games from the 90s and none of those have really changed at all since then, and yet I still find them fun to play, even though I have done the same thing over and over and over and over and over again.

Really? So if Anet said “Look guys, we’ll continue to do this living story thing, but no real expansion is ever going to come out, no real permanent conent is gonna be added to the game” you’d be fine with it ? That’s a lie… you play an MMO cause you want to PROGRESS through the game and feel like it doesn’t end somewhere, that there’s always something to do that can make you get better armor, better weapons that actually make a difference. I’m a casual player myself but the time someone invests in the game should be noticable and not just on some stupid skin… if someone plays more he should feel like he’s rewarded for it. Right now you reach level cap, you farm the same dungeons and bosses over and over again until you eventually get bored and leave the game, like so many people have already done… doesn’t it bother you that the population has dropped so much in the last months ? That before this “megaserver” you’d rarely find someone around ?

No, that’s why you play MMOs, not why everyone plays them.

For me one of the best things about GW2 is that once I had exotic armor I didn’t have to work towards getting new gear anymore, or worry about whether I have the right gear for things I want to do. It’s much nicer for me to know I can do whatever I feel like, rather than having to do a few specific things in order to progress.

Dragonar.1342:

lordkrall.7241:

They have never claimed there would be no grind.
They have claimed there would be no REQUIRED grind. Which is still very much true. You can experience every single piece of content in the game without ever grinding anything.

They have added rather much real content since release, but for some reason people seems to ignore that.
But I suppose Fractals, new dungeon path, Southsun and Edge of the Mists (to name a few) doesn’t count for some reason?

You can’t really blame the game for a bunch of elitists either. It is the players, not the game that creates elitism. And that will happen in every game that require some sort of skill and/or gear.

You need to grind for ascended gear (or play REALLY LONG). It gives 5percent more statts and you need it for high lvl FOTM. There is REQUIRED grind. Just not so much.

High level Fractals requiring ascended gear is an exception which was added as a direct response to complains in the early months of the game that there wasn’t any hard content to grind that required hard to acquire gear.

It was a compromise between Anet and a significant minority of players who wanted that type of content.

lordkrall.7241:

They have added rather much real content since release, but for some reason people seems to ignore that.
But I suppose Fractals, new dungeon path, Southsun and Edge of the Mists (to name a few) doesn’t count for some reason?

This game is almost two years old, and the amount of permanent content added to this point is nothing short of woefully underwhelming. It’s not that the content you mentioned doesn’t count, it’s that it doesn’t add up to much when counted.

Let’s keep in mind that by this point in GW1’s life cycle Factions AND Nightfall had been released already. And if you hadn’t played GW1 since Prophecies, and you came back afterward, you could still do those things.

Living Story is a great avenue for creative story-telling, but it sucks compared to permanent content, and at the rate they are releasing LS, there isn’t any time for them to make permanent content.

The problem is that Anet wants to keep releasing Living Story and pay for it with gem store purchases, instead of releasing expansions that players buy. That’s a problem because, as many before me have said, Living Story doesn’t persist in the game, so people who weren’t around when it came out can’t ever play it, and they’re stuck going back to the same boring things that haven’t changed since they stopped playing.

Theres a lot if content added, but they’re all temporary. As much as I like innovation, I don’t think this is working out. The recent dry spell of content really displayed how rapid updates isn’t a selling point of the game, but that GW2 needs it to have as much longevity as other games.

For example, if you look at TSW, that game gets content at a snail’s rate. Yet there’s still a healthy playerbase. Why? Because the core game has a lot of replayability in terms of trying different builds.

GW2 massively lacks that. Every class at least in PvE plays very similarly, and without many meaningful traits and no interchangeable weapon skills, the core game gets old. So it needs very fast updates to keep players engaged.

Going back to the first point, I think ANet really needs to focus on the problems which plagues the core game before trying stuff that’s completely new.

Having said that, I don’t think you can actually make a themepark MMO that’s free from grinding. In fact, you need a bit (note: a bit) of grind to make a MMO work. You will have to repeat content, because 1000+ hours of content is just basically impossible to create given that most single player games are what, 10-20 hours?

So then given you need to repeat content, you need that carrot for MMO gamers of today to repeat your content, because they expect loot. And thus, you inevitably get grinding.

akuzum.5263:

I couldn’t read all of the answer but this is my 2 cents:
I had left gw2 for a long time like you. Like 1 and a half or 2 years. Since 1-2 weeks i’m playing again and i can say; yea there are some changes nopt significant but i can say positive changes like the trait system or almost every map has its own boss and changed mechanics. More ascended gear can be gained by doing them. Slow but yea it’s fun.

How the heck can you say the trait system is a positive change? Maybe the free re-traiting, and maybe faster sorting… but the kitten progression (Starting at 30, but not picking up until the last 10 levels) and trait locking have absolutely destroyed the game.

Sartharina.3542:

akuzum.5263:

I couldn’t read all of the answer but this is my 2 cents:
I had left gw2 for a long time like you. Like 1 and a half or 2 years. Since 1-2 weeks i’m playing again and i can say; yea there are some changes nopt significant but i can say positive changes like the trait system or almost every map has its own boss and changed mechanics. More ascended gear can be gained by doing them. Slow but yea it’s fun.

How the heck can you say the trait system is a positive change? Maybe the free re-traiting, and maybe faster sorting… but the kitten progression (Starting at 30, but not picking up until the last 10 levels) and trait locking have absolutely destroyed the game.

Gonna go ahead and disagree with you here. My non-80 alts post patch kill things just as easily as my non-80 alts did pre-patch.

This game is not difficult. Those traits added a negligible amount of added damage/protection/utility. It isn’t a big deal at all. Heck I still forget I even have trait points, just like I did pre-patch, because you know what, it doesn’t even matter! My level 60 alt is still in level 35 gear and I can easily kill things. Pretty sure I haven’t used trait points since level 35 either, I would have to check. It really makes no difference in this game while leveling up if you use traits or not. Traits only really come into play while doing dungeons/sPvP/or WvW.

You are really only upset because they took away a carrot every level. Oh boy I have a point to put into something! Huzzah! Now that it is every 5 levels or whatever, the game is destroyed…over-react much?

Dragonar.1342:

Boneheart.3561:

Dragonar.1342:

lordkrall.7241:

Dragonar.1342:

You need to grind for ascended gear (or play REALLY LONG). It gives 5percent more statts and you need it for high lvl FOTM. There is REQUIRED grind. Just not so much.

Yes you need ascended for high level fractals. But you can still see everything from the fractals at lvl 1, and thus you don’t need Ascended to experience any content. And as you said yourself, you can get it, over time, without grinding, and thus it is not forced grind either way.

Yeah 4 years or something? :P

I am not just a casual player, I am frugal. While I’m not actively crafting Ascended Artificer weapons, they are currently available to me, and I’m only 25 Ratings away from Armorsmith.

Yeah, talking about a full gear set here.
Full light ascended armor is atm 500-600 gold. Thats is a lot of gold for a single set.

Just got to 500 Armorsmith, three Insignias crafted. Need fifteen more Damasks, which shouldn’t be a problem come this Tuesday.

Trouble.3859:

lordkrall.7241:

They have never claimed there would be no grind.
They have claimed there would be no REQUIRED grind. Which is still very much true. You can experience every single piece of content in the game without ever grinding anything.

They have added rather much real content since release, but for some reason people seems to ignore that.
But I suppose Fractals, new dungeon path, Southsun and Edge of the Mists (to name a few) doesn’t count for some reason?

You can’t really blame the game for a bunch of elitists either. It is the players, not the game that creates elitism. And that will happen in every game that require some sort of skill and/or gear.

Fractals, a new dungeon path, a few pvp maps, and a new area that is always empty ? In 2 years ? I wouldn’t say that’s a lot. And as for the grind, I really think that everything in this game requires some form of grinding.

All I saw since launch was some temporary content that you could pretty much do in 2 hours. And now that the LS is over, nothing is really different…

There is no real reason to log in to the game once you’ve reached level cap except maybe PvP and even that gets boring after a while… I know you’re gonna say that I just like to complain and that if I don’t like the game I shouldn’t play, but the truth is that I like the game and I want to keep playing but I don’t have an incentive to actually play…

It won’t be 2 years till the end of August, seriously if you’re going to be critical, you could at least be accurate about it.

we should be able to hide our ap so people wont’ get kick!

Jaken.6801:

i recently made a list of content that has stayed.
It is quite a lot.
Most of it is of course polishing and QOL stuff, but hey. they changed the feeling of the game significantly in my opinion.
(Starting from the queens jubilee, till now)
(Excuse the weird formating, i just copy and pasted it from my document)

General Changes
- Magic find changes (accountbound stat now) and its new mechanics
- Critical damage change into ferocity
- New combat visuals, like damage markers and AoE signs for worldbosses
- Introduction of ascended armors and weapons
- Upgrade to the ascended and legendary rarities, like acountbound and stat switching
- New crafting levels with new recipes
- Complete revamp of sigils and runes
- looking for group tool
- Lot`s of UI changes, like in PvP, WvW etc…
- Trait and Tooltips now show exact numbers
- The Megaserver system
- Repair and retrait costs removed
- There is now a wardrobe in game

PvE
- Tequattle is now a Hardcore Boss
o He drops unique items and themed ascended weapons and armor
- New Hardcore Worldboss “Tripple Trouble”
o A three headed Worm, which needs around 150 coordinated player
o Has its own unique mechanics and rewards (hardest boss in game right now)
- Worldbosses got a reward overhaul as well as a timer to make them more challenging
- There is a new path in the Twilight Arbor Dungeon, themed around the living story season 1 for lvl 80 characters
o Twilight Arbor got unique skin drops
- Fractals got an upgrade
o Three new Fractals
Molten Alliance
Aetherblades
Thaumanova Reactor
o Two new Boss Fractals
Molten Berserker
Mai Trin
o Bosses appear after every run
o Fractallvl is now accountwide
o Starting at lvl 31 you get punished with an handicap called Mistlock
o Rework of Agony
o Reward reworked
- The Living Story Season 1 has concluded, leaving in its wake:
o The destruction of Lions Arch
All LA unique facilities have been moved to vigil keep
o Kessex Hills got redesigned after they introduced the tower of nightmares, which was a giant construction in the lake
o There are new events in the world, based on remnants of the living story
o New items were introduced
Watchwork sprockets
Poison pollen

WvW
- The Borderlands got a complete overhaul and a new “Bloodlust” mechanic
o There is now less water on the map, but some nice ruins and objectives to capture
- The rewards got updated to reflect changes in the game
- The WvW UI got a drastic overhaul, offering real time data
- The obsidian sanctum is now a separate zone you can log into.
o It got expanded to cater to the Guild vs Guild people
o You have the ability to party up with other servers people to finish the puzzle
- A new Map was introduced called “Edge of the Mists”
o It is always available, even if all other WvW maps are full
o It resets every two hours
o Has unique objectives
o Teammembers are based on the color they represent in WvW right now and not on server
o WvW rank is now acountbound

PvP
- Glory and armor rewards have been removed in favour of a new system
- Costs for Ranks have been adjusted
- A Complete new rewardsystem which allows for gold and items of PvE
- New Arenatype: Duell

Classes
- A lot of balancing
- A new Healskill for every class
- The Traitsystem got a complete overhaul
o Every class got 5 new grandmaster traits
o Some traits get only unlocked after you explored the world in PvE
- Critical Damage has been removed and got exchanged for a new stat: “Ferocity”

Gemstore
- A few UI Improvements
- New Hairtypes in the stylingkit
- You can now buy unlimited finisher to punish your enemies
- New Booster
- New Armors in the shop

Nope, nothing permanently changed to the game… just these minor things…

I will not argue that work hasn’t been done to GW2. However the majority of what I see in your overlong list is polish, not content. There is a difference. Even Anet labeled its latest “Feature Pack” as polish, not content.