Guild Wars 2

There have been a lot of returnees recently and it is often up to me to deliver the straight answers they need over what has changed. As yourself, if you were a returning player, would this present an optimistic outlook for someone trying to get back into GW2?

- There is new content in the form of Living Story part 2. If you have not unlocked any of it, it will cost you 1400gems to get up to speed. The Living Story episodes take less than 6 hours to complete the lot, if you are half-competent.

- Outfits were added meaning that instead of buying one item for the stats you want, and another for the appearance, you only need to buy the stat one and add the appearance in your wardrobe. Great addition.

- You now get pretty darned good loot from Personal Story, and you may not have to buy any new gear till you hit level 80. Items dropped are now more likely to fit your character class, and you can cover up how odd and ugly your mish-mash gear looks with gem store outfits. Don’t waste transmute charges until you want your end-game look.

- There is one new dungeon path. No new Personal Story, and they rearranged the current one so it doesn’t make sense anymore.

- Traits are messed up. You now unlock the tiers as normal but have to perform tasks to obtain actual traits. This costs 360SP + 43G, or you are forced into group and WvW content. Either way, you grind.

- Town clothes are now worthless. Everything you spent money on in this direction is wasted.

- SAB is gone and is not returning in the near future. This has been edited as new information has arisen. See below

- EOTM was added and its a quick way to level BUT… you won’t get any of the skill points and few of the traits you need for when you hit level 80, so you will have all the gear, but no idea, when it comes to your endgame build.

- WvW has not changed much. They added some new ranks and skills, and buffs that give small bonuses to servers that are behind on points as well as some changes to maps. They tried a league system. I don’t play WvW so I can’t say whether this was good or not. (thanks to Ashen for his input here)

- SPvP has not received many updates, a couple of maps maybe.

- If you make a new character, expect to level to 15 quicker than before, but be locked from certain abilities and F-skills until level 22.

- There are 2 new maps for PvE, Dry Top and Silverwastes, which are pretty darned cool.

- Ascended gear was added which gives better stats than Exotic PLUS some gizmo for Fractals that I just can’t get my head around. Oh and you have to grind crafting to get most of it.

- Stepped progression in levelling means you will almost always be weaker than your actual character level. reworded to alter context

Nothing there is factually incorrect. If you were a returning player, would this make you want to try GW2 again?

Edit:
Ah yes! You reminded me!

- Craftable precursors never came and there is no realistic hope for them on the way since we don’t get much communication these days.

- Housing or guild housing never happened.

- But they DID make guilds multi server!

SAB (thanks Vayne!)

Gaile Gray said:
According to Colin Johanson, Guild Wars 2 Game Director, Super Adventure Box will be back in the future. We don’t have a timeframe for the return of the SAB, but we will be bringing back this popular content.

I know you would like more details, more info, a date, etc., but that’s not available right now. I hope the above comment reassures you, though, because at the core, the important answer is that yes, SAB will be back in the future.

All I do is world boss farm since creating new toons is dead to me now. I literally do nothing else in this game, not even dailies anymore, well done Anet.

Actually it’s factually incorrect to say SAB will not be returning. Colin confirmed that it will return.

Actually some of what you posted is factually inaccurate.

Ashen.2907:

Actually some of what you posted is factually inaccurate.

Actually some of what you posted is factually inaccurate

See, I can do it too. this is where you explain why? Not throw potatoes.

Paul.4081:

Ashen.2907:

Actually some of what you posted is factually inaccurate.

Actually some of what you posted is factually inaccurate

See, I can do it too. this is where you explain why? Not throw potatoes.

I made no extensive post claiming that I included no inaccurate information.

Its not my problem if you cannot see the inaccuracies.

I did correct the part about the WvW ranks. The majority of the content of WvW has not changed, but its a game mode I don’t play so I missed the ranks/skills part. This has been corrected. Not sure what buffs Ashen means other than the catch-up bonuses.

Ascended gear still has higher stats than its corresponding exotic plus associated Jewel (aka zerk with Exquisite Ruby Jewel) so I haven’t changed that.

There is a quote by Gaile Gray about Colin Johanson, suggesting that SAB will be back but we have no timeframe. Added this to OP for factual accuracy.

GuzziHero.2467:

I did correct the part about the WvW ranks. The majority of the content of WvW has not changed, but its a game mode I don’t play so I missed the ranks/skills part. This has been corrected.

There have also been changes to maps, as well as additions in the form of buffs.

I would remove your own opinions, both positive and negative. Whilst the core of your points are valid, some of your interpretations of them will bias players one way or the other. Givve them the facts, let them decide if its worth it

Randulf.7614:

I would remove your own opinions, both positive and negative. Whilst the core of your points are valid, some of your interpretations of them will bias players one way or the other. Givve them the facts, let them decide if its worth it

This. For example, I like, genuinely like, the NPE. Some events have been made stupider like the cows, but some have been improved like the little cloud things that follow you in Metrica.

However the rewards for leveling are pretty cool to me, I feel like the pacing is better. It’s easy to get things like level up scrolls if you PvP (in fact PvP rewards are much much better) and you even get level up scrolls from daily log in rewards now.

Seems to me that a lot of chances to the game are okay to a lot of people and not okay to a lot of other people. So when I tell people watch changes I leave out the personal commentary and tell them there are a lot of little details that change the game quite significantly.

Some people might like some stuff I don’t and vice versa, so I just leave the judgements off.

When I first read the OP, before reading any subsequent posts, I thought it was an ‘okay’ list (though lacking many) of changes….except for the bias.

But, if you are the go-to person for so many returnees (as stated), then just the fact there are many returnees is a good sign for the game.

Good luck.

well done in listing everything that I was thinking about.

I am a returning player. It really irks me that I will have to buy the whole of Season 2. I didn’t like the trait change either. However Guild Wars 2 is still unique in a way that it can be your go-to game in between games as it doesn’t exactly absolutely require you to put in a lot of time into it. You can still see fractal levels 1 to 10 without ascended gear and the investment of time to make ascendeds is just not worth it for a small power increase.

Pretty elaborate list, but yeah. There are several inaccuracies.

GuzziHero.2467:

- Traits are messed up. You now unlock the tiers as normal but have to perform tasks to obtain actual traits. This costs 360SP + 43G, or you are forced into group and WvW content. Either way, you grind.

If you’re half-way competent, you can solo most trait unlocks.

You aren’t forced to do it with people but with certain events, it’s inevitable. Other people do world events and WvW.

I’ll never understand this complaint with regards to traits.

I remember skill hunting in GW1 being largely the same affair, people advertising they needed help getting this or that… it was a good time.

I don’t know if people have become more antisocial or have deeper pockets these days. One or the other I reckon.

GuzziHero.2467:

- Town clothes are now worthless. Everything you spent money on in this direction is wasted.

Some of the fancier ones are worth quite a bit of gold.

GuzziHero.2467:

- EOTM was added and its a quick way to level BUT… you won’t get any of the skill points and few of the traits you need for when you hit level 80, so you will have all the gear, but no idea, when it comes to your endgame build.

Huh??

You do get skill points in EoTM like any other part of the game. You can unlock several traits in EoTM.

Not all of them by any means, but this bit you wrote here is all kinds of wrong and confusing.

Though I suppose someone might not know what they want to do for their ‘endgame’ build at this point if they’re using EoTM exclusively, since you can’t unlock everything there…

GuzziHero.2467:

-SPvP has not received many updates, a couple of maps maybe.

PvP has received a few major updates, system and QoL wise. One new map.

GuzziHero.2467:

- Ascended gear was added which gives better stats than Exotic PLUS some gizmo for Fractals that I just can’t get my head around. Basically, they made all your expensive Exotic gear obsolete overnight. Oh and you have to grind crafting to get most of it.

Every time someone says this, it’s wrong.

This gear advantage is moot in PvP (all gear is balanced) and amounts to something like ~10% with weapon + armor for PvE and WvW.

It’s a very negligible gain, put there for people who need want something to grind work for.

It’s peripheral to all but the most asinine of players. Exotic is still the golden standard. Ascended is for the dedicated. Is ~10% worth the investment?

Most sane casual people would say no, and do just fine in every aspect of the game with exotics.

GuzziHero.2467:

- Stepped progression in levelling means you will almost always be weaker than your actual character level. reworded to alter context

Even reworded I can’t make sense of this. This needs elaborating. Pre-80, you’re weaker by default. Are you saying the game is somehow making you even weaker?

Because leveling to 80 has changed quite a bit, and you’re given far more stat points at certain ‘steps’ than you used to get.

CETheLucid.3964:

Pretty elaborate list, but yeah. There are several inaccuracies.

If you’re half-way competent, you can solo most trait unlocks.

You aren’t forced to do it with people but with certain events, it’s inevitable. Other people do world events and WvW.

I’ll never understand this complaint with regards to traits.

I remember skill hunting in GW1 being largely the same affair, people advertising they needed help getting this or that… it was a good time.

I don’t know if people have become more antisocial or have deeper pockets these days. One or the other I reckon.

Trait line 1: 7 of 13 are Group Events
Trait line 2: 7 of 13 are Group Events
Trait line 3: 8 of 13 are Group Events (9 if you don’t do Obsidian Sanctum on a Ranger)
Trait line 4: 9 of 13 are Group Events (10 if you don’t do Obsidium Sanctum on a Thief or Elementalist, or find the Earths Gap chest on a Necromancer)
Trait line 5: 10 or 11 of 13 are Group Events

Most, hmm?

CETheLucid.3964:

Some of the fancier ones are worth quite a bit of gold.

But doesn’t match up to the gems you bought them with in value.

CETheLucid.3964:

Huh??

You do get skill points in EoTM like any other part of the game. You can unlock several traits in EoTM.

Not all of them by any means, but this bit you wrote here is all kinds of wrong and confusing.

Though I suppose someone might not know what they want to do for their ‘endgame’ build at this point if they’re using EoTM exclusively, since you can’t unlock everything there…

No skill points in EOTM. You do get traits… but only a few. Exactly what I typed.

CETheLucid.3964:

PvP has received a few major updates, system and QoL wise. One new map.

I guess I can’t argue. Never touched PvP except to help a guildie with her monthly achievements.

CETheLucid.3964:

Every time someone says this, it’s wrong.

This gear advantage is moot in PvP (all gear is balanced) and amounts to something like ~10% with weapon + armor for PvE and WvW.

It’s a very negligible gain, put there for people who need want something to grind work for.

It’s peripheral to all but the most asinine of players. Exotic is still the golden standard. Ascended is for the dedicated. Is ~10% worth the investment?

Most sane casual people would say no, and do just fine in every aspect of the game with exotics.

I have seen ‘Ascended only’ dungeon runs, but I guess this is the one point I partly agree with you on. I’d rather have my Exotics with Strength Runes.

CETheLucid.3964:

Even reworded I can’t make sense of this. This needs elaborating. Pre-80, you’re weaker by default. Are you saying the game is somehow making you even weaker?

Because leveling to 80 has changed quite a bit, and you’re given far more stat points at certain ‘steps’ than you used to get.

Because of the stepped levelling, at level 33, for example, you are still on level 28 stats. I have literally been struggling in a fight, levelled up mid fight and instantly put a multi-melta to the face of my opponent.

As a potential returning player, thank you OP.

I found this to be a nicely condensed and informative list of the changes.

GuzziHero.2467:

Trait line 1: 7 of 13 are Group Events
Trait line 2: 7 of 13 are Group Events
Trait line 3: 8 of 13 are Group Events (9 if you don’t do Obsidian Sanctum on a Ranger)
Trait line 4: 9 of 13 are Group Events (10 if you don’t do Obsidium Sanctum on a Thief or Elementalist, or find the Earths Gap chest on a Necromancer)
Trait line 5: 10 or 11 of 13 are Group Events

Most, hmm?

Yes.

GuzziHero.2467:

But doesn’t match up to the gems you bought them with in value.

Not all of them, no. Not yet. Some of them however are worth a lot more in today’s gem prices. Gems used to a be a lot cheaper than they are today.

Some people like a certain look and will pay for this, but not for that.

Not many people honestly invested in town clothes to begin with. So some of the more interesting/rare looks go for more.

Supply and demand.

GuzziHero.2467:

No skill points in EOTM. You do get traits… but only a few. Exactly what I typed.

No… you level up in EoTM, so you do indeed get skill points.

If you meant actual places of power or skill point events, you were not clear on that point. I get you now, but that was unclear before we began.

GuzziHero.2467:

I have seen ‘Ascended only’ dungeon runs

I haven’t. Stranger things have happened though. One time I saw a dungeon looking for asuran rangers only. No exceptions.

In a thread on the old asura forum, someone posted a harrowing event of asura discrimination. They weren’t allowed to come because they were an asura.

Loony toons are real. That doesn’t mean it’s a typical thing.

GuzziHero.2467:

Because of the stepped levelling, at level 33, for example, you are still on level 28 stats. I have literally been struggling in a fight, levelled up mid fight and instantly put a multi-melta to the face of my opponent.

Okay, I get what you’re saying now. It’s a glass half full/half empty argument.

You can argue the in-between is weaker than it used to be, but then you’re given way more stats at the steps than you used to accumulate gradually.

It’s different. I like it personally. Sorry to hear you’re struggling. Do you have any friends, guildies that might help you?

Just a few to add:

- A few new fractals
- New Reward Track system in PvP makes it much more rewarding than it used to be
- WvW “Seasons” with unique rewards

Also, I know the megaserver is tasty bait for trolls on these forums, but if someone left because open world maps felt empty, the megaserver pretty much eliminated that issue. I would definitely mention it to any returning players.

Yeah, I left Megaserver off when I shouldn’t really. I originally hated them but can now see their value. I should add them for completeness.

I do not count SAB as an addition to the game. It has nothing to do with it and while people find it fun, I found it a waste of resource power.

I guess those people who bought that Infinite Coin would be kittenin pleased to see SAB coming back.

I hadn’t played the game in nearly a year and a half, and came back to it about a month ago. I am… very pleased. Very, very pleased. I’ve just spent weeks running around, and while I have no intention of paying for the seasons I missed, I love seeing the way the world has changed. I just run around in constant amazement. I like the leveling system on my alts, I LOVE the new daily system, I love earning achievement points, and I continue to love the community. I am depressingly sad at jumping puzzles (kind people still try and help me through the ones I’m “good” at) but I managed to get all of my ornaments because of awesome mesmers, and an awesome guild organized an attack on Teq yesterday so I was finally able to kill him (and earned so many achievement points!)

And I dunno… It’s hard to explain, but I feel like before, part of why I stopped playing was because I just felt like there were things I’d never be able to accomplish in this game. Over the last few weeks I’ve felt like I can do anything. I can only assume it is because of the changes they’ve made.

Exotic gear is not obsolete. It is still perfectly viable in almost all content. Ascended is mostly for cosmetic purposes which is why the fact that it is a crafting grind isn’t overwhelmingly awful. Having ascended armour will not turn a bad player into a good player. The difference is minimal

Deleted the bit about Ascended making Exotic obsolete, I agree in hindsight that it does not. I was a little dubious about that one anyway. I put it up because I typed this just after seeing an Ascended Only group in the LFG tool.

What is the purpose of this topic?
All info about past patches can be way more acurately seen on the wiki or in patch notes.
No need to make a thread about it that will be buried on a double digit page soon.

GuzziHero.2467:

Deleted the bit about Ascended making Exotic obsolete, I agree in hindsight that it does not. I was a little dubious about that one anyway. I put it up because I typed this just after seeing an Ascended Only group in the LFG tool.

It was a dead unicorn last year, it’s more skeletal this year and only brought back over and over by people trying to make it real. The only thing which makes Exotic “obsolete” is when you have to deal with Agony.

Honestly, that’s exactly how I want it to work, but I’d really have liked if it was only useful at all in Fractals, and meant only really for higher-level Fractals . . . then have Fractals use a different gear system like how PvP does, or attach a Fractals-only affect which is only achieved in Fractals somehow.

It really didn’t need to be gear. Of course, I like some of the skins so . . . would like them better if it wasn’t attached to a gear tier which is so controversial.

hey all, I know its REALLY HARD to read everything on a State of the Game blog, and just decide to ignore a last paragraph because its oh so simple to do so, but I thought I’d be helpful and post that paragraph that everyone decides to ignore and believe that what’s stated is a promise on precursors.

From the upcoming release of our brand spanking new Looking for Group (LFG) tool, to investigating ways to limit culling in PvE, to the two-week content schedule our Living World teams have in store, the second half of 2013 has countless more exciting new things in store for our players than I can possibly cover here. As always, the content above is subject to change as we test and iterate on these systems.

As the thread is heavily affected by your subjective dissatisfaction with the game, it could hardly be taken seriously considering the purpose behind it (assuming that your title isn’t sarcastic ^^).

Did you know that the exact same facts could be used to create a thread in which GW2 can be seen as a heaven? If you didn’t, you may google ‘’rotten media’’ to read about different methods that the media uses to mislead the audience by implementing subjective ideas in their subjects, coloring them with the color they want.

During that time, in the same amount of months, Guild Wars 1 had three chapters + an expansion,

*Hundred of new skills, dozen of new PVE only skills,
*Dozen of new non cash shop weapons and armors,
*4 new classes
*Two new continent to explore, Far Shiverpeaks, Charr Homeland and new parts of the Maguuma Jungle to explore,
*Hard mode + vanquishing,
*18 dungeons, 8 elite zones,
*New guild halls,
*New PVP modes
ETC.

Thinking about it, i am a bit depressed, now.

Lévis.5489:

During that time, in the same amount of months, Guild Wars 1 had three chapters + an expansion,

*Hundred of new skills, dozen of new PVE only skills,
*Dozen of new non cash shop weapons and armors,
*4 new classes
*Two new continent to explore, Far Shiverpeaks, Charr Homeland and new parts of the Maguuma Jungle to explore,
*Hard mode + vanquishing,
*18 dungeons, 8 elite zones,
*New guild halls,
*New PVP modes
ETC.

Thinking about it, i am a bit depressed, now.

So am I.

. . . much of that was more of the same stuff just shaped differently.

I leveled a new character and finished it with 45% map completion. Less than 10% of my Traits were unlocked.

The system works.

Nokaru.7831:

I leveled a new character and finished it with 45% map completion. Less than 10% of my Traits were unlocked.

The system works.

I experimented with leveling a mesmer via crafting, then had to do into EotM to finish it off since crafting seems to have been nerfed on XP a fair bit.

Crafting awarded no traits at all, which I knew it wouldn’t. I got two very useless ones out of EotM, tried for a few others at events and was only able to scrounge up two more (failed to be able to be around when the other three I attempted were supposed to go).

After that, I’d about had it. Bought a zerker builds traits, went full zerker gear and will probably never do a lot with it.

System is WAI? God I hope not.

Nokaru.7831:

I leveled a new character and finished it with 45% map completion. Less than 10% of my Traits were unlocked.

The system works.

Ask Anet to reduce exp gained so you can reach level at the same time as you have 100% traits.

nGumball.1283:

Nokaru.7831:

I leveled a new character and finished it with 45% map completion. Less than 10% of my Traits were unlocked.

The system works.

Ask Anet to reduce exp gained so you can reach level at the same time as you have 100% traits.

That would be horrible if I’m understanding you correctly… they said that they had 10% unlocked.

So all that time they put into getting to 80 would mean they would make it to the grand level of… 8.

The actual leveling system is just fine, it’s great even. Getting to level 80 is a fairly quick process.

Unlocking traits is as simple (and free) as clicking the locked trait in your traits tab and going to the place it points out to you.

If you need a more elaborate explanation, Dulfy has a guide and the official wiki has a guide organized by level so you can unlock traits as you level.

If you want to argue that having to do a bit of research in this regard is counterintuitive, by all means.

Nokaru.7831:

I leveled a new character and finished it with 45% map completion. Less than 10% of my Traits were unlocked.

The system works.

Nothing wrong with this at all. Just go and get the ones you need now that you have dinged.

Hard life, isn’kitten

I have 14 × 80s and 6 since patch. Leveling still fine.

(lol isn’t + it got kittened…)