Guild Wars 2

Hello!

It looks like this Heart of Thorns is coming. Though we don’t know anything about what it is yet, I’m wondering what people feel is the best things to do in preparation for it.

General Concern.
Everyone I have spoken with saw this game as on its last legs. I’m not sure if that’s true or not, but the opinions among my friends haven’t shifted. The feeling is that the game hasn’t been given any serious development for too long. So, this thing coming is either an expansion or an attempt to balance out losses Anet has had from Wildstar.

For me, all these concerns throw me. I don’t know what to put my concerns toward.

My biggest concern is that Anet projected higher profit earnings this year. That’s great for Anet, but Heart of Thorns could turn into a “Wall of Thorns” if we have to buy it.

The last year hasn’t been spectacular. Fractal skin drop rates suppressed to ‘not-going-to-happen’ settings. No SAB again despite constant requests for it. A lot of junk Gem Store things. No return for Tribal Armor despite constant requests for it. Really wild highs and lows with the quality of story writing and consistency in lore. Traits getting reworked into a huge cash barrier. Personal Story was broken. Probably a lot of other things depending on your own interests and so forth.

There have been good things too. The Ranger is finally somewhat useful again. Some balancing with WvW (good and bad, but needed). Scarlet and everything about her.

Overall, I have invested a lot in the Gem Store personally, but the game hasn’t lived up to standards or output of the original.

What should I consider most worth my time or money? Should I just buy Heart of Thorns if it turns into Wall of Thorns, where I can’t get to the new content unless I pay? If there is a gem option should I do that instead?

What about armor and classes? With all the recent changes some classes are just not what they were. Anet’s beginning to make single player experience more and more of a difficult thing. They haven’t changed the content quality at all, but creatures are doing more damage, with more health, and fewer weaknesses. The changes have made some of my classes require a partner for Living Story which means I’m typically watching Living Story on youtube the week it releases. I play it a week or so later with friends when our schedules match up. What classes do you see as viable in the future and which are not worth the investment?

What am I not thinking about that I should be or might become a thing to focus on in the future?

Thanks!

You seem to be playing a very different GW2 to me.

This one may just be a matter of having different friends but the way I’ve heard it Wildstar was never a serious contender because it was aimed at the hardcore raiding crowd while GW2 is very much a casual-friendly game. And most people seem to consider Wildstar a disappointment, apparently because hardcore raiders are not a big enough group to keep a game going on their own.

GW2 certainly has lost players over time, as all games do, but it’s still got a lot of players and is far from dead. Otherwise they wouldn’t be making an expansion (which requires a huge input of time and money).

We don’t know yet how the expansion will be sold. I’d be very surprised if they gave it away for free (because of the aforementioned huge input of time and money) but it could be something similar to the living story where the open-world content is free and it’s only the story that needs to be bought.

As for recent changes making some classes unable to do the story on their own I’d love to know what classes these are. I did them on my weird condi/crit ranger build without any particular difficulty and I haven’t seen any complaints about specific professions being unable to do it.

Everyone you’ve spoken to seems not to be near the people I speak with, I actually talk to a lot of people who’ve decided to come back and have a look on GW2.

Most stay, others just leave if they noticed there’s no precursor crafting
(If you gonna define a game by one or two things that’s missing, than those 2 things won’t change your QOL)

Regarding losing players to Wildstar, I actually remember a group of Wildstar players moving to GW2 as they were dissapointed by that game. (Coin, two sides thingy)

Why do you speculate how HoT will turn out, it’s a week from now…
You will know when they talk about it, and they will talk about it at PAX.

After that you can decide not to buy/download/collect the HoT update/expansion

I like how you’re stuck on everything that the game didn’t give you, I assume it’s been given you a lot of stuff that makes you stay (ingame or forum).

Just sit and listen, PAX is on your doorstep – and if you’d like to make a suggestion make a nice [Suggestion] topic somewhere

Concern 1:
My first concern is probably whether or not to start farming a boat-load of gold so I can trade it in for gems if this really is an expansion and it can be bought that way.

My concern is time.
- If I start saving gold now then I’ll be able to buy this thing whenever it releases.
- If I don’t start saving for gold after it releases and it turns out to be £40 then I’m not going to be playing right away.
- I don’t have that much time to play games. If I want to do that I have to make room in a pretty narrow schedule. So, waiting till PAX is not a good plan.
- I also don’t want to end up doing a mad crunch grind over a week or something like this. That doesn’t sound fun at all. Better to plan ahead.

Concern 2:
I’m not a big person on crunching the WvW, PvE, and PvP numbers. I do a lot of WvW and PvE when I have the time, but there is this Might Nerf ahead. This just after I finished setting my warrior up with runes 12 gold a piece and ascended armor.

- everything above makes me think I ought to start thinking about what classes are A-Net isn’t investing concerns over right now.
- If not classes directly then maybe I ought to start thinking about what kind of gear isn’t going to turn into a black-death for my gold when A-Net starts another round of financial destruction.

In quick summary:
“Where would I benefit the most in putting my time?”

Response to the what class was dying so much?
“I’ve only really progressed my Elementalist and thief all the way through this season of Living Story. My Elementalist did not fair well with the ghost at the beginning with Ossa. I ended up committing to the kamakazi strategy. Stepping back from my normal Dagger/Dagger to Scepter/Dagger did not improve things. The issue is just too many creatures with too little damage being done too them.”

Hmm. Why not wait one week, watch the PAX announcement, then ask these questions if they are not answered by that panel?

Doesn’t seem very likely you would be able to buy this with gems. Especially not with the amount NCSoft is expecting ANet to take in for the 3rd quarter.

I would recommend waiting a month(or maybe six -_-) after release to get it. Hopefully most of the bugs will actually be ironed out by then.

Eirdyne.9843:

Concern 1:
My first concern is probably whether or not to start farming a boat-load of gold so I can trade it in for gems if this really is an expansion and it can be bought that way.

My concern is time.
- If I start saving gold now then I’ll be able to buy this thing whenever it releases.
- If I don’t start saving for gold after it releases and it turns out to be £40 then I’m not going to be playing right away.
- I don’t have that much time to play games. If I want to do that I have to make room in a pretty narrow schedule. So, waiting till PAX is not a good plan.
- I also don’t want to end up doing a mad crunch grind over a week or something like this. That doesn’t sound fun at all. Better to plan ahead.

Heart of Thorns is being officially announced at PAX. It’s not going to be released then, and I’d be very surprised if it was released a week later. The NCSoft report seems to imply the 3rd quarter, which is July – September, or October – December if they’re doing it on the financial year.

Even if you wait until after the announcement you’ll have plenty of time to get gold. (And if you do go that route I’d strongly recommend not saving the gold until release, keep an eye on gem prices and covert whatever you’ve got when the price drops slightly. Because if HoT can be bought with gems the conversion rate is going to jump up a lot when it’s released.)

Also I think it’s very likely not getting the expansion right away won’t be a big problem. This isn’t like other MMOs where you need access to the newest content to get the best gear to keep up with everyone else. I’d be honestly surprised if it even included new levels or equipment tiers, and if it does I expect the benefit to be minimal, like going from exotic to ascended.

I got GW1’s Prophecies campaign (the first one) just after Factions was released, and didn’t get Factions and Nightfall until more than a year later when even Nightfall had been out for a while. The only real problem that caused me was that I couldn’t go to all the locations people were selling things (no TP in that game) and people kept recommending I use heroes for difficult missions. But the second one was actually solved by playing with other people.

Ahh, that makes good sense. I mostly play the games I do through word of mouth by friends. I don’t usually trust much what developers says, especially Anet, because they only say their plans. They aren’t playing the game, they’re making it. So Devs usually have a wildly different idea about their games than the players and their experiences with the game.

My friends are generally of the opinion PAX isn’t meaningful because nothing the Devs usually say to us via the forms is more than vague comment. It’s almost unicorns to get real time and direct communication. So, better to ask friends and other players. We’re the ones playing.

As for 3rd quarter, I never understood that system. Where I work and occupy my time this right now is the final third quarter of the year. Spring is first. So, the financial structure is entirely opposite the quarters I work in and has no baring on physical reality. It’s just human-centric and first world centric at that.

Also, I didn’t think about the armor system. Anet did say it was going to be releasing raids of some sort. As a long-time WoW player ‘raids’ always comes with the accompanied understanding, “Destruction of everything you own.” In WoW you can be completely boxed out of content simply because you didn’t finish acquiring last seasons release. So, really good point. GW2 isn’t that kind of game.

Same issue above clarifies not having to worry about getting an expansion right away if it comes out. It’s not going to have any big impact on the actually effectiveness of my character if it stays true to how GW1 worked.

Alright, thanks all! This was really helpful.

Eirdyne.9843:

Ahh, that makes good sense. I mostly play the games I do through word of mouth by friends. I don’t usually trust much what developers says, especially Anet, because they only say their plans. They aren’t playing the game, they’re making it. So Devs usually have a wildly different idea about their games than the players and their experiences with the game.

Not quite true. One of the lead designers was a part of my guild. Out of respect, his in-game name will remain anonymous. Initially he didn’t say much of anything but as time rolled on he became more open and vocal. Not all Anet players have the company logo above their heads. Many play on alts after work. The developers have never been the problem, its upper management.

Eirdyne.9843:

Ahh, that makes good sense. I mostly play the games I do through word of mouth by friends. I don’t usually trust much what developers says, especially Anet, because they only say their plans. They aren’t playing the game, they’re making it. So Devs usually have a wildly different idea about their games than the players and their experiences with the game.

My friends are generally of the opinion PAX isn’t meaningful because nothing the Devs usually say to us via the forms is more than vague comment. It’s almost unicorns to get real time and direct communication. So, better to ask friends and other players. We’re the ones playing.

As for 3rd quarter, I never understood that system. Where I work and occupy my time this right now is the final third quarter of the year. Spring is first. So, the financial structure is entirely opposite the quarters I work in and has no baring on physical reality. It’s just human-centric and first world centric at that.

Also, I didn’t think about the armor system. Anet did say it was going to be releasing raids of some sort. As a long-time WoW player ‘raids’ always comes with the accompanied understanding, “Destruction of everything you own.” In WoW you can be completely boxed out of content simply because you didn’t finish acquiring last seasons release. So, really good point. GW2 isn’t that kind of game.

Same issue above clarifies not having to worry about getting an expansion right away if it comes out. It’s not going to have any big impact on the actually effectiveness of my character if it stays true to how GW1 worked.

Alright, thanks all! This was really helpful.

Yeah, GW2 is totally different from WoW that way. I wouldn’t worry about gear – if ANet does do something like that, 90% of the playerbase will leave and not come back. IDK if you were around when Ascended released, but the game took a huge hit then. ANet won’t do that again.

Asking friends their opinon is good, but friends are only a small group of players. So the sample is biased and data is missed. I follow MMO and gaming sites like Massively and Kotaku as well as asking guildmates for opinons.

Quarters aren’t a ‘Western’ thing, all big companies use them or something similar. There’s got to be some way for companies to aggregate information and track performance once they get to be a certain size. Publicly reporting company performance is required of any company on a halfway decent stock exchange.

ANet has actually been very honest in their communications, although you’re right that there isn’t much of it. But I’d rather have less communication than wild promises that don’t work out or devs not thinking before they speak and acting like total jerks *cough*Wildstar*cough*.

Speaking of WildStar – it’s tanked hard. All the news sites and playtime trackers agree that it’s having serious problems. On the other hand, GW2 seems to be having an influx of new players. There’s always someone asking how to do X.