Guild Wars 2

Hi folks!

I’ve just read the MMORPG.com’s interview with Mike O’Brien and Colin “SmilyGuy” Johanson and I must admit that I’m a little afraid of what’s going next with mastery system.

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MMORPG: Every MMO developer thinks they’re putting in tons of stuff in an expansion, and three weeks later, some players are all “we’re done.” Especially when you don’t have the gear grind that forces people to play, how are you building things to ensure that it takes the proper amount of time without seeming too grindy?

Mike O’Brien: We release content all the time, but honestly, most of it is not very, very difficult challenges for groups. And when you think about it, I think you’ll realize that’s because it’s hard for us to be able to release content that’s so difficult that most players can’t solve it right away.

That’s actually a lot of the genesis of Heart of Thorns: being able to put in these endgame character progression systems so that we can release content in the jungle that requires you to have played all of the jungle to build up the abilities you need to solve that content. If you haven’t played the jungle and you haven’t built up your character, you’re not going to beat that content.

We’ve been developing content, but we haven’t been saying that it’s the ultimate group challenge. I think that’s something Guild Wars 2 needs and hasn’t had. Heart of Thorns is laying the groundwork so we really can bring ultimate challenges to the game.

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Where is the difference with a gear treadmill?
I guess, we will be able to do the content we want in an area but it moves the gear treadmill to a reputation treadmill which is basically the same thing : you repeat a kind of content again and again to unlock the “next” content.

But, the problem -at least for me- isn’t the “farm” component.
I’m in a guild with a lot of different kind of players : from the hardcore who spend all his freetime in the game to the very casual who come every 2 week to check what’s news in the game.
So far, I didn’t get trouble to group guild mates and bring them to an activity (dungeons, world boss, exploration, WvW, sPvP, whatever).

FotM is the only content I can’t do with guild mates because we need a group of people who get the specific AR cap to clean the content.
To reach the AR cap, you have to play (or pay via craft) a lot.

I’m afraid we will have a gap in our guild between people who level up masteries and people who don’t have time to play.
We already have a gap between players with AR and players without AR.

TL;DR :
Will we be able to share our mastery to our party?
If not:
Will we be able to carry our party to “beat that content” if we’ve unlocked enough mastery?

It’s a compromise, like the GW1 PVE only skills, or like a better-imagined Agony Resistance.

You’ll have to play in the jungle to get special skills for mastery, but those skills apply primarily to those encounters and don’t mess with other content.

It’s a bit of a time gate, but it’s guaranteed with work and it lets you choose focus. People that don’t care about these encounters can spend their mastery elsewhere, and people that do care can immediately get these abilities… just about everyone is going to get there eventually though.

purecontact.1680:

If you haven’t played the jungle and you haven’t built up your character, you’re not going to beat that content.

Why should you be able to beat content you haven’t worked for? Challenging content is exactly what this game needs desperately. Nothing in GW2 is really challenging besides higher level fractals and its all been beaten to death since launch. Something really to work towards besides just cosmetics, and it should be something that requires work and time. This is the first major update to GW2 and I wouldn’t expect anything after HOT for a long time so the content within HoT should be vast and should take time to progress though via masteries.

Obviously there is a fine line between progression time and just plain grindy and we will just have to wait and see what is in store for us.

They have revamped FotM quickly after the launch (Fractals of the Mists Dungeon Improvements) because :

The goal is to allow everyone to play together and make partying less restrictive for everyone.

What annoy me in the sentence I underline is the fact we have to build up our character, not our synergy with our party.

It would be great if each “mastery master” could bring something to the group :
- Lore master translate glyph and find a way to open a secret door
- Hang glide master fly to reach a path and launch a rope to allow the rest of us to come
- Combat master can loot weapons which weakens monsters (allowing party to hit it)

This is what I’m expecting from guild wars 2.
If you master everything that’s great!
You’ll be able to carry your group and explain them how everything work.

I don’t wan’t gw2 to become one of those game where you wait for the weaker to reach the cap (stuff / lv / whatever) to go on.