I can tell you only, what I would do …
1) I would completely redesign Raids, as long its possible, because what we got there so far are absolutely NO raids.. what we got there are just pathetic 10 man fractals that are essentially nothign else but a string of 3 boss fights ….
But nothing of this “wing” at all provides anythign at all what I would personally call a Raid.
2. I’d removed the Story Parts out of the content, no one should be ever forced to play raids to get to know something about the games story and lore …
3. Id rebalance all classes so, that each class provides something unique for the group, that you actually want to have a balanced group of each class 1 at least in your group, to have the most best possible group synergy.
The problem with Naets “Raid Design” lol is first and foremost, that the content is designed around laughable 10 man groups…
We wouldnt have at all this problem with certain classes finding no spots for raid,s if the Raid would be designed around having say for example 15 man groups with some kind of leeway to have for some classes maybe two or more, while absiolutely having enough space to take from everything at least one wioth you, so that no class gets discriminated here, because of having no place in the group due to beign too useless, because of certain classes beign too overpowered right now and therefore too mandatory compared to other classes that dont provide such good group synergy…
I would solve this with special CLASS BASED MASTERIES for Raids that give all classes unique raid masteries which can be useful to have for the group to maximize group synergy, loot quality and especialyl loot quantity for the group so thast you will want to take of every class someone with you, if you want to maximize for everyone the quantity of loot that everyone will get at the end or while raiding together
by remaking the concept of raiding, my first step it would be
1) remake Spirit Vale into a complete new explorable normal PvE Map and rework the Spirit Vale Achievements for that map with the current 3 bosses being reworked into World Bosses….
2) Add the Underworld as a new real Raid Map which is a raid map of the size of like all 3 desert borderlandmaps together where 15-20 People can raid together, where this giant map is divided into 4 explorable wings in which dynamic raid events together with solveable daily raid missions you can do there.
The dynamic raid events in those wings are just there to ensure, that every raid you make daily feels a bit different each time,
The Underworld would be just the beginning.
When you cleared all of the Underworld, a Raid group can gain then access to the next Raid Area, which is then the Abyss, which is a 100 floor Raid that has on every single floor a Raid Boss, that you need to beat as Raid Group to gain access to the next floor.
So some kind of Reverse Fractal System blended together with raids kind of “Sword Art Online Style” , where when you get defeated as group, need to start over again from floor 1 (no death game, but you have to restart …) but rewards and loot becomre more and more valuable, so deeper you come and so more you progress in the Abyss.
Not only would this add some significant needed nostalgia back to Guild Wars 2, it would be definetely much better of a game design concept thats WORTHY to be called a Raid … what we have right now are just cheap wannabe raids that are no raids at all,m and that even so bad designed, that we get class discrimination toe to garbage class balancement that absolutely doesn’t take all classes at the moment into consideration to offer good enough gameplay mechancis for all of them, so that all classes are seen as equally worthy to be taken at all into a group, because certain classes right now have so much extreme power creep, that they are way too much mandatory for overall raid success, like Mesmers as Chronomancers, like Revenents as Heralds, like Rangers as Druids, like Engineers as Condition/Support Bots and like Elementalists/Tempests as DPS machines due to the current raids being nothing else but braindead DPS races due to facing practically just certain death, if you cant beat the bosses within a certain time limit due to them then become alot harder to beat to the point, that they easily can one hit kill you.. and one hit kill mechanics have always been one of ANets lamest most boring game mechanics they constantly use just to make their borign boss fights somehow “challenging”
Its so lame already that you start on believing, that Anet is running out of ideas, that they can’t do anything else but one hit kill mechanics for challenges for their boss designs rolleyes Was already so for their dungeons, was so for their fractals and is so again now in their “raids” .. cough
Just to think on it, that they hired extra for raids some new developers and come up then with something like this, is kind of shameful really, when they then deliver then exactly practically the same gameplay experience that we have had for years already with dungerons and fractals, just now playable with 10 people instead of 5 /facepalm
So personally spoken, for me are these “raids” the absolute biggest disappointment of the whole HoT Expansion.. they miserably failed to deliever somethign thats worth calling a Raid in my eyes in every aspect of it.
I seriously hope, that the next following wings won’t continue with the exact same bad raid design that we get now with every single raid wing exactly the same crap of boring multiple boss strings only, but actually something, that is worth calling it a raid, that feels actually like a real raid.
just my 2 cents
And thankfully ANet nerfes in the next patch Chronomancers and buffs Thief DPS, but I think they should have nerfed also significantly more the Revenant/Herald, ther nerfs are too weak, its still after these changes a powercreep class that screams out powercreep just for better HoT sale’s sake, especially with total overpowered skilsl like Coalescence of Ruin … the nerf from 2s to 4s recharge time is an absolute JOKE.
They should increase this skil lfrom 2 to at least 6, if not even 8 seconds of recharge time, then it would be balanced for the kind of hefty damage it can deal and maybe even also reduce its range..i know the hammer is a long range weapon for the class, but a skill like CoR shouldnt have such super long range, while dealing on its way to the target also multiple hits that become each time more powerful and can hit multiple targets per hit also …
The Revenant/Herald is for me personally a very bad class design, its way too much of an allrounder, that steals too much concepts and gameplay roles from other classes while trying hard to come over as like the “supernatural wannabe dark soldier” that is a kind of jack of all trades that can switch to other class mechanics on the fly whenever you need it or want it in general…
When changing over to Ventari, the class feels like beign a wannabe Druid/Healer
When changing over to Shiro, the class feels like being a mix of a superior Thief/Warrior/Assassin
When changing over to Mallyx, the class feels like a mix of being wannabe Mesmer/Necromancer
When changing over to the dwarf, the class feels like beign a wannabe Guardian
When beign Herald it feels especially liek beign a superior Guardian Clone..
The whole class design around it just feels like, as if all devs responsible for that crap just sitted together in a round and one started the discussion with the question:
How would a class in GW2 be like, if it basically can combine all aspects of all other classes into itself and exchange those aspects out at will??
How would you you call it?
The Revenant..
Whoah ,bingo!!!, we’ve got a winner
clap clap clap clap* (furious echoes of lots of clappings)
Just as Herald the whole thing first provides something unique and own, that makes it so extremely mandatory for groups in alot of cases in the HoT content, due to its way too overpowered Boon Expander Feature of whopping 50%, which is the sole only reason, for why so many people want to have multiple heralds in raids, because they are alone due to this feature too mandatory to have.
Thats something that should get nerfed in my opinion down instantly from 50 to 25% and the effect shouldnt stack or synergize together with other heralds, so that actually taking more than 1 herald into the group doesn’t make it much better for the group of getting much longer and more widely spreaded boon expansions as that would create then also space for other classes to find their place for raids, once anet reduces the mandatory stuff from the power creep classes and rebalances then the content so, that the content is still doable with the changed game balance due to reducing the overall max dps most like from the current raid meta, by also removing the silly timers from battles, so that there doesn’t even exist something such as ret peep as these DPS races, that just only hurt games like GW2, than they are good at all for the social aspects of MMORPGs in game content as like raids, which should be played together in big player groups in first line, to have fun together and not to race a god stupid clock for some battles just to make some elitists happy that they can stroke their egos for having done something under a specific time, that forces everyone in this game mode to minmax everything and never make mistakes ect..
such gameplay design just encourages people tho show off their real bad egos and to discriminate others. thats not, how raids should work and be designed.
Raids should be fun and challenging diverse content, that brings people together to play together to have play sessions between like 1+ hours (just as long as you want to raid together) in a place, that can be seen as rewarding endgame content, where you want to hang out later alot to progress quickly with your characters and get the stuff together that you need to fullfill your goals in the game, be it materials for legendaries, be it gold or other materiasls needed to make rare skins, be it directly gained gems to get something out of the gemstore or be it somethign unique and rewardign, as liek legendary armors and other stuff you can only earn in them and nowhere else in the game.
however, what we got so far is just the very first raid content.. who knows what we will get more in the future..I just hope only that the quality of future raid content will become significantly better.. some well placed nostalgy surely would help here alot by now hint
Personally I like the idea behind sub classes ~ quoted from Chris Whiteside
