Guild Wars 2

Hello, is the game worth returning to? Me and my gf quit a long time ago 2 years + i think. We started playing from beta played a couple of months. Last patch I remember was when they introduced the ascended rings or whatever.

For me pve lacked any challenge and for her not having a meaningful healer was too much of a dealbreaker.

So, please be honest is the expansion good? Is the impact of healers strong enough now? How hard is the endgame pve?

Thanks in advance.

Well, in my opinion, it was too good a game to leave in the first place! But opinions vary as they say, so it’s up to yourself for you own gaming taste to decide.

I’d say pop on the game vanilla for a while before deciding. HoT is certainly worth buying if you like a bit more challenging content, and the continuation of the story.

End-game wise, in my opinion Guild Wars 2 always had end game – the trouble with it was the “fore-game” was short (as it is in HoT, like the story) so I think what I consider as end-game in GW2, others consider as not end-game. I’m a role-player though, so roleplay is my end-game for me personally, so my opinion can be taken with a pinch of salt to be honest for that part.

Thank you for your answer. For us probably the most important thing is if there are pure healing classes(not just the hybrid support i had seen back then) in the game now and if they are significant.

KerriganGR.2736:

Thank you for your answer. For us probably the most important thing is if there are pure healing classes(not just the hybrid support i had seen back then) in the game now and if they are significant.

I guess for ‘pure’ healing class, you’re looking at becoming a Druid (Ranger elite specialisation) as your closest option if you’re going for HoT then.

Yes and no. Unfortunately the answer isn’t easy and will depend on what kind of content you want to play.

Dedicated healers are only required in raids, and even then they should bring other forms of support and need to be active participants in the encounter’s mechanics… not be stationary heal bots like some other MMOs.

In open world PvE however, healing still doesn’t have much impact… a player that doesn’t use dodges/blocks/etc will only live a nanosecond longer even if you were trying to heal him. Even in high end fractals, a dedicated healer is really nice to have, but you could still get through without one.

In terms of challenging PvE, again it’s a mixed bag.

Yes, raids will challenge your individual and collective skills.

Yes, the new HoT maps are full of enemies that will destroy you if you’re not on your toes.

Other content less so… the new bosses (Tequatl, Triple trouble, Shatterer, all the HoT meta events) are map organization >> individual skill. The only open world event where I felt my individual skills actually mattered was the Tangled Depths meta before it got ner… I mean “fixed”.

Same as you, my bf and I started playing since beta. He left the game after a few months (overseas studies) while I continued for another month or two.

I stopped playing around the time when the ascended gears patch came out. The ascended gears thingy created a huge resentment amongst many beta players because of having to grind again for crafting materials and new gears. I think OP you will still remember.

Anyway, I came back just about a week ago and I felt that things have not changed much, unless you plan to buy the expansion. Healer role is still not viable in this game as healing support is still weak. I know bcos I am still trying to play as one. I only like healing role.

The old PVE maps are deserted. I went to check out the old maps and after running around for more than 30 mins, I came across one player. Yes, only one. Many of the old maps are like ghost towns now. The only populated areas are that city area, Divinity Reach or something and maybe factuals or dungeons.

I cannot comment on HoT as I am still contemplating to buy it or not. From what I read, most events need group efforts and that is what stopping me from instant buy lol. Most of the new stuff like new skills, gliding, and even buying certain stuff in the guild hall need the HoT expansion :/

And btw, gliding or flying only works on the expansion maps and my guild hall is just a hugh empty cave as most of my guildmates are either offline or busy grinding :/

I bought a couple of cosmetic stuff for myself and I have been playing WvW and nothing else for about a week. WvW is still quite populated but I don’t know when will that last me. Seems like the game is going the crafting and PvP way, which I don’t like.

My interest may last for a month or two. Unless things change. But I know that won’t happen. Then again like all posters above me, these are just my opnions

edit: took out some negative comments

Personally, i think this game is worth returning to, just because it’s a free to play game. Your welcome to return at any time and you will not really lose anything. Sure you might come back to the traits and builds being totally different and changed, but that’s not really that big of a deal. I know im always taking breaks for a few weeks to months, then come back for a bit. So just keep it installed, update it once a month and stop in for an hour or so and enjoy.

KerriganGR.2736:

Thank you for your answer. For us probably the most important thing is if there are pure healing classes(not just the hybrid support i had seen back then) in the game now and if they are significant.

There has been quite a bit of improvement to healing via the ranger/druid and some other classes. Unfortunately this is only required in the single raid wing at present.

If you use other classes than Ranger then the skill needed is a bit higher in the new HoT areas, I see quite a few corpses there which didn’t happen in Central Tyria areas. Central Tyria, if anything, is less challenging than before.

As to whether you should come back, I can’t answer that question for you, it’s suck it and see.

KerriganGR.2736:

Hello, is the game worth returning to? … For me pve lacked any challenge and for her not having a meaningful healer was too much of a dealbreaker.

So, please be honest is the expansion good? Is the impact of healers strong enough now? How hard is the endgame pve?…

Well, PvE in HoT is significantly more challenging than in the Core Tyria. The first round of HoT story is also challenging for a great many players. Endgame PvE… is what you make of it. If you enjoy challenging stuff, then running map metas may appeal to you, commanding, organizing and rallying players to complete content. WvW is getting an overhaul — likely hitting in April.

The ranger/druid elite specialization is currently considered the best healer and is essential for raids. Everywhere else, it’s nice to see one but not essential. They aren’t dedicated healers the same way that you see in other games; they’re more versatile, but healing mode will feel familiar.

I think if you are looking at this game with the pure oldschool healer in mind you are doing yourself no favors and you undervalue this game…

Support/Heal builds aren’t and will never be -Meta-, but are not useless either.
While true healers are never NEEDED, they are VALUED by a considerable group ingame, but some part of the community will use any opinion to nag about playstyle.
Healers and supporthealers DO have a place in the Map Meta chains in HoT maps, WvW and to a lesser extent in Silverwastes for group(-event) fights.

This game in it’s old (non-HoT) format had healers, but these were not extremely popular due to to the “DPS” only views radiating from dungeons and the small acces to craftable healing armor with limited stats

1. Clerics (Healing (*) ,power and toughness) and limited acces to
2. Magi (Healing(*), Precision and vitality) and
3. Shaman (Vitality(),Healing and condition dmg)).
   () = main stat

Introduction of new stat combo’s made healers more usable in instances and more viable, though healers remained mostly outside meta.

1. Apothecary (Healing(*), Condition dmg and Toughness) and notably
2. Zealot stats (power(*)/precision/healing) and more notorious
3. Nomads (Toughness(*), healing , vitality)
4. Celestial (All stats (pwr,pre,fer,cnd,vit,tgh,hlg))

HoT Introduced an improved version of Nomads but lacked any other improvements

1. Minstrel (Toughness( * ),Healing( * ), vitality, concentration (boon duration))

Builds like

• Fire/Water/Arcane ele,
• Shout/warhorn ranger,
• Hammer/Mace Guardian,
• Hammer/ A + W Shout Heal Warrior
• D/F & Staff Transfusion Vampiric Necro

all had uses but many have since been lost and/or replaced by

• (Staff?) Zealot Druid DPS Support/Healer
• Ventari/Glint revenant Support Healer
• Dagger/Warhorn(or focus) Water/Arcane/Tempest Aurashare Rebound Tempest
• Hammer/Staff Minstrel/Clerics Guardian Boon Support/Heal tank

I sometimes play some of these builds, and opinions vary, but facetanking 50+ fractals can be worthwhile change to all stress.

Still you’ll find ppl unable to cope with things outside the supposed highest DPS builds.
They cannot seem to understand rotations cannot be met in high level content without support, and actually taking a mitigator/healer will sometimes speed up DPS though the MAX attainable DPS for the group is lower. (Old rule: Dead zerks still do no damage)

(My full zerk DPS Staff tempet was kiced form party recently due to someone notcing I had a build being Staff Fire/Water/Tempest instead of Dagger/Warhorn or Fire/Lightning/Tempest? His opinion of me saying a additional cleans on swap had it’s uses while running through the swamp didn’t change and resulted in an insta kick due to not being 100% meta while it was an open LFG Fractals(56/67/77)… Yes this still happens, wonder what would have happened if I’d had joined with my Zealot/Clerics water/ arcane/ tempest aurashare build….)

I personally do not care for such amounts of elitism and shortsightedness and finished my Even Higher Fractals 67/77/83 30 minutes later with a different group without any problems.

Some positives:

The game is nice, most content is still repeatabe and ineresting and since the 1st release of fractals a lot changed in game, most for the better.

I think You will need to figure out for yourself if you want to play GW2 again. Healers have a new option with zealot armor and healing & concentration builds (which will likely and hopefully be expanded and buffed further from HoT’s minstrel stat combination alone)

If you do restart, get the 64 Bit version it’s way more stable, provided you have 6-8Gb of memory minimum.

Only parts of content which iere really dead are

1. dungeons, after A-Net destroyed the cash reward and
2. WvW due to the failing introduction of Desert(ed) borderlands