Guild Wars 2

Looking to start a healthy conversation on the Guild Wars 2 : Heart of Thorns Economy post. There are a lot of dedicated players airing their concerns here and on Reddit.

There is however one concern being aired that I feel is valid. That concern is that dungeons will fade into the background as new content comes forward. I understand pushing new content and giving greater incentives for that content. But I believe that dungeons serve, and should continue to serve, that middle ground content between casual players and hard-core players.

Based on what we know from datamined Heart of Thorns track rewards. We will be pushed into map activities for farming materials. This method is great because it allows the player to revisit the world and farm for what they need. This however method however serves the casual PvE player base best.

My suggestion:
Reduce/remove the gold benefit from doing dungeons, as currently planned, and include the dungeon as part of the map reward rotation. This would give players that want to do dungeons incentive to continue play dungeons (tokens + map reward progression). It would serve that ‘middle ground’ community of players. Additionally, it aligns perfectly with the number of weekly rewards (8 weeks of map rewards and 8 dungeons). It’s certainly viable to align with the map or be on a separate dungeon rotation.

I think this is a win/win because it reduces the flow of gold into the economy, which is currently an issue and sounds like it’d be one for the future state, and it plays by the rules that the expansion wants to set. But most importantly, it allows players to continue to play how they want.

*Edited for words/formatting

Look, dungeons were already nerfed down to “run once a day maximum”. If there are no rewards beyond tokens less people will run them. It’s already can be difficult to find someone to do story mode (as most people put it on “never again” list), now regular exploration paths would be similar too.

Remember, players who want to do dungeons now want to do it because of the rewards. If you remove rewards they won’t do it. They might feel a bit obligated to run if they are short on map reward or something, but there will be no love lost on days where it’s not on the map reward.

I’ve been wanting to get some of the armor sets from the more unpopular and longer dungeons. I’ve managed to get one or two runs every few days, because so few people are willing to run them. As it is right now dungeons are only worthwhile if you want to get dungeon tokens, and all the armor pieces are so expensive that this has turned them into the most ludicrous grind in the game simply due to how unpopular they are.

If you want to change things to this degree, make them soloable with next to no effort, and make the token gear non-salvageable. It’ll serve their purpose to kill the dungeon-aspect of the economy, and still allow players to get what they want.

Or just do the smart thing: Remove dungeons, admit they were an utter failure, and more the gear to other parts of the game that people will actually play.