Guild Wars 2

For those unaware of the game.

While there are many differences between GW2 and BR, there are concepts in BR that I think could be adapted into GW2. The most important concept being simplicity. BR is by no means an easy game, but from the time I have played so far most every skill is very simple and straightforward. The same applies to the buffs you select at the start of every round.

You have the choice to either specialize into one of your abilities or you spread them around, but doing that doesn’t seem to make you good at everything. Now, I can’t claim to know how BR’s balance and meta currently are (some things do seem a bit too strong), but I do think that balancing these problems will be easier than what balancing GW2 currently involves.

So many attacks and traits in GW2 have multiple powerful effects that it can be hard to figure out just what is making a certain build OP. Sometimes it just comes down to the design of Conquest (in the case of DH), but other times the design of the classes themselves are just so bloated that it’s a combination of serval different skills and traits that we have now become trapped in a cycle where builds don’t get toned down, they just get flat out destroyed because balancing said class would require changing a ton of different traits and skills.

When GW2 first launched, the combat was much simpler. Go and watch some old dueling/PvP/WvW videos and compare them to what we have now. In my opinion the increased complexity didn’t make the game more skill based, it just made PvP a crazy mess, especially for a spectator. I have a feeling someone who has never played Battlerite could tune in to a stream and be able to quickly figure out what’s going on. Now, the lower player count helps, but it also helps that there’s not excessive particle effects too.

So I guess the TL;DR is this, GW2 has become too bloated and that complexity hurts the playability and view-ability of the game.

Also, before anyone says “if you love Battlerite so much why don’t you go play it.” To that I answer “I will.” I’ll keep coming back for the PvE content, but the most PvP I’ll do is maybe mess around with gimmick builds in hotjoin. I WANT to enjoy GW2 PvP, but currently it’s more frustrating than fun. Even when I lose in Battlerite, I don’t feel mad because chances are it was still fun.