Guild Wars 2

I’m 66 years old, retired and play Guild Wars 2 almost every day. I bought it as soon as it came out and have been pleased with the steady improvements. Through the years I purchased extra character slots and bank storage. I’ve never regretted a penny spent. Pretty much my favorite game. Needless to say I was excited when they announced the expansion
About 6 months ago I introduced my nephew (35 years old) to the game and he got his Asura Elementalist up to level 80 in a couple of weeks. I think I can say he likes the game.
A couple of months ago I was considering purchasing a copy for my grand-niece (14 years old). We currently play DDO together (usually Casual Mode).
However when they replaced the Traits system with the Specialization system I was truly disappointed. The old Traits system allowed me to slowly improve my character steadily as I leveled up. I always looked forward to those milestone moments. The new Specialization System has only three milestones and each provides a massive six Traits jump ahead which is not nearly as satisfying.
I think I read that the Specialization system was introduced in preparation for the release of the Expansion. Now, I’m concerned what else the Expansion may change/add. I’ve read the description of the Expansion several times trying to decide whether it is worth $50 dollars. The base game is not as fun now and I’m really doubting the Expansion.
So, just two months ago I was loving the game, looking forward to the expansion and considering purchasing a copy for my grand-niece so we could play together. Now I feel let down by the game (Traits to Specialization), confused by the expansion (1 new area and 1 new profession for $50 dollars) and wondering if it’s worth buying for my grand-niece.
Of course, the game and expansion for $50 is a good deal. Can’t argue with that even with the less satisfying Specialization system. And yet, I’m worried about the Expansion changing other aspects of the game making it less fun like they did with Traits to Specialization. I’m puzzled how the devs thought that was a good idea!
Well, I guess I’ll wait to see how the Expansion is received. If they haven’t messed up any other game mechanics I may reconsider buying it. Not sure one area and one profession is worth $50 (note I’m not interested in Guild Halls or Competitive Modes).
Think I’ll create another character (Human Ranger maybe) and see if I can make peace with the new Specializations. If not it may be time for me to move on to another game. Wish Elder Scrolls had a trial mode. Don’t want to spend $60 just to try it out.

Hmm. This might help, unless I mistake your point: You don’t have to wait for the three-tier-jumps to get more traits. You can collect Hero Points via the Hero Challenges much earlier.

Now, you can’t use more than one spec line at once until you are 45, but you can unlock more than one and swap around. Ditto with the utility skills, you just have to pick an order to spend the points but you can get a ton of points just in the 1-30 zones.

If you like progressing, I think you’ll enjoy the expansion. One of the things I’m looking most forward to is the mastery system, which will allow you to progress continually after level 80. The specialization system, once you get used to it, and figure it out, is fine too. Donari has you covered there.

Those three milestones provide the ability to “use” traits, but not the traits themselves. While it might seem less impressive to not get one new trait slot every few levels, having a trait slot unlocked is irrelevant if you don’t have any traits to go in it.

Level 11 you get 5 Hero Points and can now start doing Hero Challenges. That’s only enough points initially to unlock the a couple of tier 1 traits. It’s going to take the combination of Hero Challenges and levelling up to actually unlock the tier 2 and 3 traits.

When you get your next Trait tree unlock at level 40, you’ve already unlocked all your Utility slots, and so you’ve probably spent some hero points unlocking skills. But assuming you had not, by this point the game has only given you 106 Hero Points from levelling, and you’ve probably achieved another 20 or so from Hero Challenges. As it costs 60 Hero Points to unlock an entire trait line, that’s probably only two unlocked at this point, again with nothing unlocked in your skills.

Your ‘smooth progress’ comes through the new training screen.

You won’t have to spend anything to try it out in the future. Just wait for the Open Betas to happen in the months ahead. Then you should get a good look at the expansion and decide.

More than a few players are of the same opinion as you.

Is the expansion really just 1 zone and 1 new character class? I was coming back for this =(

If, by zone, you mean map, then no; there is more than 1 map.

If, by zone, you mean area/region, like the Shiverpeaks, or Kryta, then yes, there is one zone: Heart of Maguuma.

Good luck.

Edgge.7594:

Wish Elder Scrolls had a trial mode. Don’t want to spend $60 just to try it out.

ESO was on $15 special last week. You missed a good deal. PvE in that game is amazing, but you’ll come back to GW2 for WvW and pvp.