Guild Wars 2

Greetings.

Played Gw2 around a year ago, but it kinda faded away some point just before HoT.
In the light of me getting a brand new PC I’ve been thinking to return, as I had some fond memories of this game.
Tho’ I kinda disliked how grindy the endgame was and the lack of PvE content too.
Also I rather disliked that all dungeon was Berserker builds, stacking and zerging the bosses.

So just wanna know if the game have addressed any of the issues I have been having with it.

- There is somewhat grinding, but all of it is optional and at your own pace.
- As far as equipment goes, ascended is still end game and avaliable through multiple means. My favorite was doing a collection for the elite specialization of my favorite classes to get their ascended weapons.
- Plenty of stuff to do in game. I’d argue that the community suffers from being overwhelmed with stuff to do to the point in which they do nothing.
- Berserker meta is sort of disappearing. We’re starting to see dedicated healers and tons of condition builds thanks to raids.

If you still think the same way, I am not sure you’ll be pleased with the evolution of the game.

• Dungeons are always going to be done as quickly as possible, which means high-damage builds, stacking, rushing to bosses. People have done them 100s of times; they aren’t interested in the nuances of the fights any longer.
• The end-game continues to be what you make it. Anything that you want that isn’t basic gear takes time to acquire. If you’re in a rush, it’s a grind; those who take their time seem happier with acquisition.
• If you didn’t think there was enough content a year ago, you probably will feel the same today.

On the other hand, if you come back to the game aiming to remind yourself what you liked about the game, I think you’ll be pleased.

Put another way:

• If you you are skeptical about things getting better, skip it.
• If you are cautiously optimistic, then c’mon back.

One thing that’s new is the expansion, Heart of Thorns. Don’t worry about getting that until you’re sure you like the game. Some people feel it wasn’t worth the cost, whereas I love gliding, autolooting, the new profession specializations, and the aesthetics of the new maps — collectively worth the price for me, even if I’m less pleased with other aspects.

In my experience, MMO dungeon runs are always “speed” runs except when the dungeon is new (or the entire group happens to be new to the dungeon!) or if the dungeon is particularly difficult, such as the original release of WoW heroic dungeons in BC, if anyone remembers those prior to raid gear trivializing them. Once you’ve conquered them enough times, it’s natural to just plow through them as quickly as possible. So that’s still going to be an issue, I’m afraid.

“Grind” is subjective. All the term means is that it takes time/effort involving some repetition to achieve objectives. So what it really comes down to is whether or not repeating the required content to achieve the objective you want happens to consist of tasks you personally find enjoyable. Welcome to MMOs!

So, it sounds like dungeons will still disappoint, but it’s impossible to predict whether the “grind” will be a grind for you or not. I expect that if you like the expansion, it will not feel so grind-y, but after some time you will have exhausted most of the low-hanging fruit and objectives you find most appealing and find yourself left with expensive upgrades that you don’t find worthwhile.

For instance, I’m at 102 mastery levels. I’ve been around that level for some time now. Why? I just don’t like the HoT adventure content that has many of the remaining mastery points built into it and the handful of masteries I have left to unlock aren’t required for anything. So I don’t feel motivated to get them just yet. I imagine at the point where I would be forced to acquire them to achieve something of interest to me, I might suddenly view that part of HoT as an excessive grind!