Guild Wars 2

Hey,

I quit about 1 year after official release and am re-downloading the client now.

Can someone give me a short breakdown of what changed? How is the game’s population? Dev support/transparency/content updates/cash shop?

Thanks !

Short breakdown of what changed… dne.

How is the game’s pop? Due to mega servers, it feels fine so long as you don’t spvp. in pve it feels fine. wvw is so, so, but i don’t do enough of that to comment strongly on it. I think in general it is on the up and up, but i think it still depends on your server.

dev support? decent, but for issues you should make a big stink about it on reddit, lots more eyes there

transparency? almost non existent.

content updates? have been few and far between since the expansion last year, but they are starting to ramp up to a new story arc, so it should feel good to you for now.

cash shop? still not pay to win, are some nice cosmetics and convenience items in there

How is class balance viability? Are most classes still pigeon-holed into 1-2 specs?

Thanks for the nice response btw

Over the years there have been many changes, of course. But I think nothing has changed so much that you could not play much the same way as way back then. It won’t be that hard to catch up.

There are people around pretty much everywhere. You won’t be alone unless you want to be.

The current plan is to have a bigger content update 4 times a year. The next is coming very soon. There has been content added that is still there to enjoy, but people forget so fast. And, of course, if the content is not for a part of the game one enjoys it is not content.

Cash shop offers cosmetic stuff mostly. No way necessary to playing, but can be fun sometimes.

If you want to, I have time to chat with you in game once you have downloaded. It is easier to answer specific questions that way.

So from what I hear, the game is in a pretty healthy state I expected worse, knowing how broken PvP used to be years ago (Thieves 2-shotting people, Guarding not dying, Rangers being useless, etc).

Thanks for the info guys

Lunacy.5183:

How is class balance viability? Are most classes still pigeon-holed into 1-2 specs?

Thanks for the nice response btw

The trait system has been overhauled. There are and always will be metas, but it is arguably more diverse these days outside of raids. We also have elite specs from the expansion which alters your class to play in a different way, giving access to new traits, weapons and utlity skills.

A LOT has has changed and been overhauled since a year after launch including, but not limited to
- Improved wardrobe system
- loot systems
- reward tracks for pvp/wvw
- megaservers to bring populations together
- overhauled bosses including Shatterer, Tequatl, and a highly coordinated Triple Headed Wurm
- Season 1 story (ie the one after personal story) is gone, but we have a second season, an expac story and a 3rd season on the way. These are all permanent additions
- Season 2 brought two new maps – silverwastes and dry top. Those are free access
- The expansion brought 4 new maps accessed only through the expansion
- Guild Halls now exist
- Lions Arch got blown up and restored and looks utterly different
- Collections were added as additional ways to drive content and achievements
- Fractals work slightly different and are more accessible
- We have a lfg tool (press Y)
- Ascended tier now stretches across armour and weapons as well as jelwellry
- Legendary tier exists as weapons (including 4 new ones), armour (via raids and backpacks (via fractals and pvp)
- Dev communication has changed. They now drop large patches every quarter with little communication about them to drive “surprises”. We have small patches in between for open world events, wvw updates and other smaller things. Collaboration is reduced significantly
- We have raids via the expansion – general feedback from the raiders is positive
- We can glide in the open world in all maps as long you as you own the expansion

Severe content drought in 2016 aside, the game is generally in a solid and decent place. It just needs a shot in the arm with pve after what is probably fair to say an disappointingly short story in the expac.

Lunacy.5183:

How is class balance viability? Are most classes still pigeon-holed into 1-2 specs?

Thanks for the nice response btw

most classes are still fairly pigeon holed. in general, for most of the pve stuff, you can play however you want, even if its a healing necro or a support theif, it probably doesn’t matter.

one thing that is a stickler for many is that they added a series of skills and such with the expansion for each class. in general, these are considered an improvement to the base versions that came w/ the original game. its not a whole lot of skills to the point it completely changes the class, but it does add some features. read about them on the wiki, they are called elite specs.

if you want to do fractals, which are basically short form dungeons, you’ll want to be more in line w/ what is expected of your class, but it still not too strict until you get to the higher, more difficult ones.

they added some raiding to the expansion, i think classes are pigeon holed there more or less too. if u can find a nice guild that raids, you may be fine here too.

i’d take that other guy up on his in game offer. traits and such have changed a bit, so you’ll have lots of questions about what you are looking at in that regard.

if he/she’s not around, do a map chat in LA or divinity’s reach, someone will prob be more than ready to answer any q’s u have

Lunacy.5183:

Hey,

I quit about 1 year after official release and am re-downloading the client now.

Can someone give me a short breakdown of what changed? How is the game’s population? Dev support/transparency/content updates/cash shop?

How is class balance viability? Are most classes still pigeon-holed into 1-2 specs?

A lot has changed, some of it more than once. I strongly suggest starting fresh with a new character. But…

• Skill Points are now called Hero Points. You spend them on both skills and traits. By the time you’re level 80, you’ll automatically have enough to buy all the skills and traits of your base class, but getting them out in the world does speed that up for you.

• Skills now come in groups for each class. Signets, Turrets, Stances, Shouts… whatever. You have to buy them in a specific order, with any healing skill in the line being first, and any elite skill being last. Skills unlock at level 11, elite skills at level 31 (I think).

• Traits work a bit differently now, too. You can only have 3 lines, but you can go all the way in all three of them. Each line has only three adept, master, and grandmaster traits. You’ll find a lot of old traits have been merged together or even made a default part of a class.

• There are three “new” zones in the base game. Southsun you likely saw before you left. The other two are on the West side of Brisban Wildlands, and are called “Dry Top” and “The Silverwastes”. You may find things harder there than in normal zones, and both zones have larger, zone-wide goals to work towards.

• Living Story. Season 1 can not be replayed, but there’s an NPC that can tell you what happened. Season 2 was done for replay-ability, but you’ll have to pay for it in the gem store to unlock it. Season 2 takes you into the two newer zones and up to the expansion.

• Heart of Thorns. The expansion has 3.5 zones, each with an ongoing zone goal/event to work towards. They are also much harder than normal zones, there is a very strong learning curve when you go there. This is where current builds may not hold up, and you may have to regear/rebuild your character. HoT also has the one and only raid (in three parts), which really pigeonholes your character’s build, but is also the most challenging group content you can find. (If you’re looking for that here.) HoT also has “Masteries” and “Elite Specs”, both of which can give some new abilities to characters once you’ve earned/unlocked them.

Lunacy.5183:

I quit about 1 year after official release

How come?

umm. i think that’s what needs to be said:

1 – pvp build diversity – minimal. u’ll be pigeon-holed into 1 build.
2 – gotta have HoT expansion to stay somewhat competetive.
3 – PvE/WvW is quite okey i suppose
4 – balance is… well… test for yourself.. (i suggest creating Scrapper/Druid so u’ll be op)

Lunacy.5183:

How is class balance viability? Are most classes still pigeon-holed into 1-2 specs?

Thanks for the nice response btw

They recently confirmed a pve and pvp split this is good because that means more room for build diversity, and a balance update should be coming in the 14th I believe so you licked a good time to come back.

Here is the list of updates to the game since you left, you can read all of them to see what’s changed

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Game_updates