Guild Wars 2

I would like to start off by saying that the praise this patch is receiving is much deserved, and I hope to see future patches of the same quality. However, nothing is without its faults, and so I’d like to detail what was done well in the patch and, most importantly, what wasn’t. The purpose of this post is to promote constructive criticism and discussion.

THE GOOD

• The new map – Adding new permanent content to the game is always a good thing, especially when it can expand the world and, more importantly, player interaction and choice. The map may be small, but it does everything right and is full with content.
  As many have said, this new map is everything Orr should have been, and is a testament to how successful and engaging dynamic events can be. And the pillar of its success is the implementation of WvW mechanics into a PvE setting, which work wonderfully. This addition allows a real push-and-pull mentality that emulates the feeling of a war or conflict. And, the usage of only a single waypoint makes pushing out into the map and holding the forts all the more important and engaging. The frequent attacks on the forts by the Mordrum and the intelligence of attacking from multiple angles with different forces, tactics, and siege make for engaging experiences. It’s just fun, and I would love to see more of this in the future. GW2 has a very active combat system, but it has been unfortunately hindered by the poorly designed encounters. Experiences that promote movement, positioning, and teamwork are a step in the right direction.

• The rewards – While there are many forms of content in the game that are more physically rewarding than what this patch has to offer, the difference is the rewards here feel good to receive, both from the achievements and the events. Getting a new currency from participating in events that you can spend for unique rewards is what gets people to go and stay on your new map. The only nitpick I have is having to open the chests each and every time I do an event and that the currency is not automatically put into your account wallet.
  However, the real success here is the rewards you get from the story and achievements. Getting a new skin is always an incentive to do something in this game, but utilizing the collections mechanic to drive players to different form of content on a scavenger-hunt mentality is something we need more of. For the last 4 patches, I didn’t even touch the new achievements for the story because I didn’t see a reason to do so. I didn’t get anything out from it except some trash loot and a very small amount of AP. This time, however, it felt extremely rewarding to do everything, from the new titles to the new armor pieces. It’s unfortunate how a reward-mentality is used to drive people to do content, but as long as it is going to be done, it should be done like this.

• The story – I don’t need to say this, but the story this patch has been significantly higher quality than anything else we’ve seen in GW2. And one of the main reasons for this, I feel, is the call-backs to the already established lore from GW1. As Wooden Potatoes has said, It feels like Anet suddenly remembered they had a previous game already filled with a ton of engaging lore and mystery they could tap into and utilize, and the many, many references to that lore gives me hope for the future. I understand that GW2 is a new game and is its own thing not to be compared to its predecessor, but when you already have interesting and detailed lore in your hands, it doesn’t make sense to not use it. I’m glad to see that, if nothing else, Anet remembers and acknowledges the lore of Tyria that so many of us fell in love with in GW1.

• The mechanics – Mostly found in Glint’s lair, how the new mechanics that were added was handled exceptionally well. While the vortex crystals, fragility, permanent area debuffs (call-back from Glint’s lair in GW1), black areas of doom, and the colored aspects needed to traverse those areas of doom are all unique and interesting, what I find more impressive is how Anet handled introducing these new mechanics. In each area, you were given a new mechanic to deal with, and to progress you had to learn, understand, and show mastery over it to progress. Then, after you learned how the mechanic worked, you had to then utilize that mechanic to defeat the boss waiting for you. No damage sponges here. There was no tutorial, no NPC you had to talk to to explain how everything worked, no holding your hand the entire way though. Everything you learned, you learned through the gameplay. And I appreciate that.

THE BAD

• The group achievements – While I said above that the achievements felt rewarding to do, I also didn’t have a good experience doing them. A lot of the reward, unfortunately, was getting them over with so I didn’t have to do them again. One of my biggest pet peeves in this game is having achievements require a group of people to complete. Having to rely on other people to get something I want for myself leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
  Nearly every achievement in the new map requires a significant amount of people to do. I understand that the map is centered around team coordination, but you have to think about the future. How long are people going to be playing this map? A Month? Two Months? How many people are going to be participating a year down the road? What about the new players who come in after the bandwagon has left? It’s fine to have content centered around group coordination (which was done very, very well), but when people who are trying to complete achievements come to the map and realize they can’t do any of them without a ton of people, they’re basically SoL. These kind of experiences are fun right when the content is released, but really poor and frustrating after the hype is gone.

• The Legendaries – I HATE THESE! Not for their mechanics or the encounters themselves, but rather how poorly they were handled. In the new map, there are 4 forts for you to capture and defend. Each time you successfully defend the fort from attacks, the defense level of the fort is increased. When you successfully get to defense rank 3, a Legendary associated with that fort has a RANDOM chance of appearing. What is worse is defeating these legendaries gives you a gnarly title, and defeating all 4 will give you an even gnarlier one. However, because it is completely RANDOM when these guys will show up, AND that it takes a lot of people to complete, AND that they can appear during defense events, AND that the one you want to show up likely won’t appear AT ALL for hours or even a day is horrible. This isn’t fun, nor does it create fun scenarios. What it does is create artificial longevity.
  I understand that the intended concept was to have fun surprises. These guys would appear without warning when you’re already stressed from having to constantly defend something, and when they appear it’s this huge highlight because not only do you have to survive the enemies bombarding your fort and rushing the lord you have to defend, NOW this huge legendary is in the equation as well that you have to somehow deal with. HOWEVER, In reality, these guys aren’t dangerous at all. They’re just damage sponges.
  What actually happens is you end up waiting at a fort for hours on end for the legendary to spawn so you can get your achievement and title, and they never show up. For me, I got the first 3 Legendaries within 5 or so hours of playing, and then waited the rest of the day for the fourth one to show up, only for it to never do so. It was only until half way through the second day that it did, and only once. during that time, the one at red spawned over a dozen times, while the other 2 spawned maybe once or twice. And, most times, the legendaries don’t spawn AT ALL. This is just plain frustrating.
  The concept itself was fine, but tacking on achievements and titles to something that is completely random AND requires a ton of people to complete is just evil.

THE BAD CONTINUED

• The stupid amount of waiting – Overall, Glint’s Lair was absolutely amazing. The new mechanics were interesting in both their concept and how they were used. However, my biggest complaint with the boss fights was how much Waiting was involved. For 3 of the bosses, you had to wait for the boss to do a specific action that would allow you to start damaging it.
  With the Second boss, you had to wait for the trash enemy to spawn, run to you, wait for its invulnerability to disappear, kill it, then run to associated color, and THEN you could damage the boss. Run away when invulnerability buff ends, wait for trash to spawn again, repeat until dead.
  With the third boss, he was invulnerable to damage and could only be damage by destroying the vortex crystals surrounding him. However, you could only destroy the crystals in they had the fragility condition applied to them, which could only happen if they absorb it from you. This concept in itself is awesome. In order to deal damage to the enemy, you have to utilize movement and positioning while putting yourself at risk. Having fragility means you’ll die in a single hit, so it’s super serious. However, the problems were 1, the boss attacks so stupidly slow you’ll never be hit even if you were a turtle, and 2, fragility only appears during a specific attack from the boss. So what happens is you end up WAITING for the boss to do a specific attack 8 times, and then you kill it under 10 seconds.
  Third boss is just a combination of the second and third boss, containing all of the same problems.
  You see, GW2 has an extremely active combat system. It’s based around making active decisions and proactively defending yourself, while emphasizing quick movement and intelligent positioning. And for these fights, you threw all of that out the window for some gimmicks. Bad Anet, bad!

Anyways, despite the criticism, I still loved the patch and can’t wait to see what else you have in store. In the future patches can be of this quality, then I have a lot to look forward to.

Keep it up Anet, I love your passion and creativity.