Guild Wars 2

Had a lot to say about Verdant Brink, so I wanted to separate it from profession/elite spec opinions:

Countdown to Nighttime

• The timer stopping the event chain (not a bug?) was frustrating. When I see that timer going down, there’s this motivation for a final push to complete events and prepare, and the adrenaline of that can be quite fun. Instead, me and other players were left standing around in confusion.
• Counterpoint: it could be that the purpose of stopping the event chain is so commanders and players can get into outpost positions, since the event chain itself (when it gets to wyvern) puts everyone more or less in the same place. I actually like the concept of a split: a fairly unified chain in daytime and “divide and conquer” at night.
• At any rate, I think it should be signalled in the UI or in NPC behavior once the timer begins, instead of everything just being dropped in place. The chain I experienced stopped at Utogi: if he had gone back to his hidey-hole saying something about night being upon us, or if the Outpost bar progress bar had disappeared/been replaced, what to do next would’ve been a lot more clear.

Event Chains: Nighttime

• I didn’t feel very motivated to participate in Nighttime events. Maybe the event chain didn’t progress far enough for me to appreciate the mechanics and I missed what I’m about to suggest, but it simply felt like a long siege (tower defense/fending off mobs) when I could just as easily let the points fall and just wait/move off the map until daylight with no real consequence. Some rough suggestions:
  Make like The Silverwastes: Implement a progress bar. The Silverwastes are successful, I think, because despite the incredible repetition in defending forts, each successful defend has an immediate, visual result. We feel and know that we are working towards something (a meta boss event with challenging fights and decent rewards), and we know we have to fill the progress bar to get to the next part. The day/night dichotomy should be kept, but unique internal phases within day and night would make it more interesting.
  Make like Southsun: In Southsun, holding all settlements triggers a meta event, but also triggers special merchants. Verdant Brink’s outposts could build on that: offering merchants, buffs, outpost upgrades, and special events rewards (greater rewards the longer an outpost is held without it falling, and a significant reward for holding it throughout the night, e.g.).
• Have Night affect Day, and vice-versa, to make the content mutually meaningful. e.g. The more outpost events completed during the day, the better equipped each rally point is at night. Or, for example, the default Night state is to hold 0 rally points, and every 25% completion of events in the Day chain guarantees that the player characters begin with a rally point already held. Or, if Night is an abysmal failure, the Day events change in some way: new events go into rotation that specifically rebuild those points, say, or more events need to be completed for the Day bar to fill. Right now, the feeling of consequence is lacking.

Event Chains: Outpost

• The Itzel Hunting event that takes the east/up route often failed because the timer started too early (before the actual event area was reached). Often left with maybe 40 seconds to complete the first phase.
• The west route’s mushroom soldiers feel a little unbalanced (and boy do they aggro from far away, although I don’t have an issue with this), at least in comparison to the
  other event chains. The east chains progressed with relatively little problem, but Phase 2 of the mushroom event wiped out large groups and failed a lot. I’m not sure if this is just because players are still grasping that particular enemy’s mechanics, but those mobs felt slightly overpowered.
• The larder and put out fire events in the village are very confusing. It felt impossible to tell when a basket was nearing fullness or when a fire was almost doused. Multiple progress bars would be useful here.
• Overall I liked the Outpost event chain and its different demands on mechanics; whether it will feel stale quickly remains to be seen, but it seems to have some longevity considering just how many events are required for completion.

(cont.)

Map Design

• I personally love it. Traversing the canopy is especially rewarding once glider basics are achieved. It does have more of a multilayered feel than any other map in Guild Wars 2, with the cliff sides, underground caverns, and crisscrossing paths at various altitudes. However:
• The layout is promising, but the difference between the levels of the jungle (floor, canopy, etc) didn’t feel as pronounced as hyped. I understand there needs to be some unity, but I think the underground areas could be expanded, and the canopy areas could be vastly expanded beyond just the village. I don’t want to just be among the trees, I want there to be secrets and new, accessible areas at the very top, like vistas (like the one in Dry Top, although maybe a little less crazy-making), mastery points, and special NPCs (like the Skritt in LA, that was neat).
• I foresee a lot of complaints about navigating the Itzel town. For me, the mazelike structure is worth getting to know for the beauty and interest factor, but I imagine a lot of comparisons to the Black Citadel in that it’s hard to tell on the minimap what’s going on at what level of the village, and a lot of paths dead-end into huts. The versatility of gliding eliminates a portion of this problem and the temptation to make blind jumps onto narrow walkways. Related: I was surprised that the bouncing mushrooms launched horizontally more than vertically, and only for short distances, but it was still convenient. Reminded me of the lightning aspect skill, only less erratic.
• The canopy can make it hard to see while first opening up a glider, but that just may require minor camera tweaking on the player’s part.

Mastery UI

• I haven’t played beta since the first closed test, and the new placement/integration with the Hero Panel is excellent and looks clean.
• The two requirements (XP, mastery pts) that are required to achieve a skill each left me and a lot of other players confused. Really confused.
  - I didn’t immediately make the connection that the % bar in the Mastery UI reflected the % bar that replaced my level experience.(?)
  - I was confused when I “leveled” and didn’t receive a Mastery Point.
  - I also am still not sure if a Mastery Point is required to unlock the ability to train.
  - I didn’t fully figure out how to acquire Mastery Points, let alone all the ways how to.
  - When the Demo told me I had unlocked Gliding Basics (just the % bar, mind), I thought I could Glide. Myself and others under this impression quickly became player-character pancakes. There were a lot of questions in map chat.
  - Basically from what the demo tutorial told me I thought the EXP bar was how close I was to receiving a Mastery Point (awarded on “level”), which then would be used to Train a Mastery, which would progress the Mastery Bar in the UI by some %, which would then eventually unlock the next tier. In other words, it seemed like UNLOCKING a training bar meant the skill was ALREADY acquired, and the progress bar itself was what was needed to unlock the NEXT skill in the tier, not the CURRENT one. The system in place isn’t bad, it just needs clarification.
  - The pacing for training feels fine.

Misc

• I really like the idea of the player character occasionally speaking out loud in response to an event chain (although we’ll see if it gets grating), but mine talked into thin air, repeatedly, with no clear trigger.
• In the story mode demo, Rytlock’s voice in the cutscene is way, way quiet in comparison to the rest of the volume level.