Guild Wars 2

ANET: Here’s a few thoughts on my gameplay since Friday in several aspects of the game. Take it for what it’s worth.

Guild Halls: Amazing! The capture was fun and challenging (did it with 6 people), and the Gilded Hollow is simply incredible. The upgrade paths for building is steep, but I think it should be tough and take time as these are impressive structures. My full compliments on the Guild Hall design and process (so far).

Masteries: The UI is more intuitive than in the betas, so good job. Gliding is fun, Exalted Markings is helpful, and the mushroom one helps get to points not previously available. The time it take to level them to at least be able to use them is not too burdensome. Overall, looks good so far.

Map Creation: Auric Basin is simply gorgeous. I haven’t gone past that map yet, but you guys hit a homerun on that map. Verdant Brink is OK looking, but it really gives you a feeling of danger in the jungle, as you can fall of at any moment (if you do not yet have gliding). The artwork throughout is brilliant and The multi-tiered canopy makes the maps feel huge. Well done.

Content: This is where the game starts to take a little hit. The content was repetitive and had a grind feel to it, and at some parts was tough to solo. I usually go with a small group, but I can totally see how solo players would be frustrated. Escort missions are simply not fun (in my opinion), and there’s a TON of those. Still, while the missions and content could be better, it isn’t bad.

Specializations: Ok, ANET….you completely and totally failed on this. When you announced the Elite Specializations, you told us we could explore the jungle as a new spec. You failed to mention we would have to FIRST explore it with our core spec and then RE-EXPLORE it with EVERY alt character we have. That it take 400 points to fully unlock it is INSANE. Yes, we can unlock it with 60 points, but we have to lose a full trait line and replace it with an empty one while we slowly grind hero points. To add insult to injury, we don’t get a choice in what we spend the points on. You FORCE us to spend it in this linear path on things we may never want/use. This needs fixing ASAP.

Overall, good job on the XPAC. The elite spec fiasco can be fixed (hopefully you will), and content will be tweaked. My family and I have really enjoyed it. I hope this feedback helps.