Guild Wars 2

The lack of alts in GW2 is one of the leading factors of its current problems.

Background:

Now in GW2 most players just focus on one primary character. Its becoming like WoW. I will explain in a second.

The problem started when changes were introduced to make alts harder to equip. These includes ascended gears and time gated LS rewards. Crafting and gems are also costing more and more each day. All these combined makes its very difficult to make and equip an alt character to the same degree as your main.

Now we see earlier PvE zones dying. There is no one there. A lot of meta quests are abandoned because there is never enough players to do them.

1) Alt Characters

Let’s take a quick look at GW1. It was one of the most alt-friendly games around. It was very easy to equip alts. All the farming involves are for cosmetics. Back in GW1 I have 9 characters in total, all maxed and max equipped. I wasn’t elite in all the classes, but I did have at least a basic understanding of all classes.

In GW2, I am barely max equipping one character. With the up coming ascended armor crafting I would be behind again. I am a casual player now. But it is safe to say that I have no chance of having an alt, unless I am willing to accept that my alt wouldn’t be as well equipped as my main.

In GW1 players also wasn’t as crazy over class imbalances. Why? Because in GW1, if your main’s profession “sucks”, you can easily switch and play another profession until your main’s profession is fixed.

In GW2 your main character is all your got. You have already invested all your time and money into him or her. If your main character’s profession is underpowered, you are screwed. It is no wonder why players are super upset over class imbalances in GW2, much more so than in GW1.

GW1 kept players playing by having them create, and then max level and equip multiple alts. This is, imo, the right way to keep players playing.

WoW kept players playing by making it very difficult to max one character and his equipments. They do so by introducing artificial grinding that’s required. This is, imo, the wrong way to keep players playing.

I think GW2 should go back to its GW1 roots. They should focus on allowing players to have multiple alts, instead of having one “ultimate” character.

2) Side-Kick System

This is an idea I got for a while. But I saw no chance of it happening. But with the new Collaborative Development, I decided it is time to share this idea.

Here is the core idea:

When you do pve in the open world, you can pick one of your other character as a Side-Kick. That Side-Kick looks the same as and uses the same equipment and skills as your other character. He/she would follow you and assist you in battle. You cannot bring Side-Kicks into dungeons, spvp or wvw. The Side-Kick is scaled in level, to the map’s level just like a human player. If killed, Side-Kick would require armor repairs just like the player do. The Side-Kick do not take any loot from the player.

So let’s say you have 4 level 80 characters. After picking a main character, you can select a Side-Kick in game. That Side-Kick would be one of your other 3 characters.

This will further encourage players for having alt characters. This will fix the dead zone problem in low level pve. Those low level maps will become popular again as players level up their alts. When a new players buys and joins GW2, they will see a lot of players to team up with.

Side-Kicks are not allowed into dungeons, so dungeon balance is maintained.

Side-Kicks in a level 40 zone will be scaled to level 40.

Side-Kicks will require armor repairs. So they are not cannon folders. Use them wisely.

Side-Kicks do not take any of the player’s loots. The player will still get all of the loots he deserves.

Thoughts? :P

1) I totally agree with this, but since they already started the progression, and it won’t end at least until ascended armor is released, I doubt they will just remove ascended gear from the game now, therefore there will always be vertical progression in gear in this game. Removing ascended gear now, after most of the people in game spent so much effort in acquiring it, is not going to happen. They should have left the progression to be cosmetic, and just added new T4+ armors and new legendaries, but ascended rings were introduced a year ago, and even then it was sure they won’t be removed from the game.

2) This is an idea they had in mind when they were developing the game, but they scrapped it, and for good reasons, since the open world (the only instance where they can be used) is scaled in difficulty enough to not require sidekicks, and if everyone was running around with one it would have major issues, one being that bots all around are already using a version of that (MM necromancers) to farm, and also what’s the point of learning how to play a new profession when you have your old one doing most of the job for you, kinda defeats the purpose imo.

1) Well with the new Collaborative Development thing, I was hoping that everything is open for discussion. ^^

2) Botting could be a problem with this. >_>

The key issue for me is that GW2 introduced forced levelling complete with tiered armour and weapons, because that’s what the MMO gaming community (read: WoW players) wanted. Yes, GW1 had a levelling system too, but getting to level 20 (max level) took perhaps a few days at most, and then it was down to your skills, build and abilities to carry you through to the rest of the game. You could truly craft your character to match your own play style in the first game as well as freely swap out abilities to see which combination worked best for you.

I have one main and three alts in GW2. I recently rolled an Elementalist again after I ditched my old one six months ago because even at level 80, she was about as powerful as a wet paper bag against even level 10 mobs and as squishy as a wet sponge. Annoyingly, rerolling one six months later, and she can barely hold her own against a couple of bandits (she’s lvl 29 and the bandits are lvl 8), no matter what weapon combo or build setup I try – it seems that the Elementalist is weaker than ever and a far cry from the powerful class I beta tested. Worst still, she actually manages to become weaker and weaker as she levels up, despite possessing the highest level armour/weapons for her level. My level 80 Necromancer (my main) however can steamroll through just about anything in comparison and still protect herself even against the toughest of mobs (except high level champions), so I’m more inclined to play that character instead.

Although I play alts, it often feels like there’s far too much work required in getting anything resembling a useful build, especially just for PvE. I don’t play PvP but it annoys me no end that all the nerfs and boosts made to PvP classes also apply to PvE classes as well which can render my alts practically useless overnight.

As for a sidekick system, I would much rather see the ability to take my alts into dungeons, along with the henchmen from GW1 instead of having to rely on PUGs or moaning elitists demanding full zerker builds.

Off topic, but eles are not meant to face tank damage. They should rely on mobility to avoid damage.

But yes ele does have a problem when soloing. One of their strength are combo fields, which allies can get buffs by blasting. When soloing, that advantage is gone.

I dont see Ascended as a must so that’s not really a problem for me . Rather the issue is the burnout while leveling an alt . Gearing them up in exotics is super easy though .

Regarding the alt-unfriendliness of GW2, I would just like to add that the WvW xp only made things worst. It stimulates people to focus on 1 character to get all the bonuses from the WvW levelling system, instead of trying different classes.

Sidekicks or heroes would be nice, but I would be happy with just having the NPC I rescued rez me when the mob it just agro’d kills me.

Am I the only one who thinks it’s extremely easy to decently gear up new characters?

Ascended Weapons do take a while, but if you craft your daily Mithrillium/Glob, you’ll have most of the mats down by the time you need to craft something.
When it comes to trinkets, two can be gotten from any 10+ FotM, and while the rest can take a while, the stat difference between Ascended and Exotic is so ephemeral, that it doesn’t affect you that much to have Exotic trinkets in the meantime.

Besides, a little treadmill doesn’t hurt anybody. If you had everything from the beginning, it would be most boring.

FenrirSlakt.3692:

Am I the only one who thinks it’s extremely easy to decently gear up new characters?

Apparently.

Ascended Weapons do take a while, but if you craft your daily Mithrillium/Glob, you’ll have most of the mats down by the time you need to craft something.
When it comes to trinkets, two can be gotten from any 10+ FotM, and while the rest can take a while, the stat difference between Ascended and Exotic is so ephemeral, that it doesn’t affect you that much to have Exotic trinkets in the meantime.
Besides, a little treadmill doesn’t hurt anybody. If you had everything from the beginning, it would be most boring.

No, a little treadmill doesn’t hurt you. It does hurt people who want fully geared alts.
Ultimately, it’s a different perception about what matters in a game. For you, it’s about time-gated/grind-gated prestige. For me, it’s about playing content.
Let’s do a little math, shall we? Assuming 1 month per ascended weapon (extraordinarily quick, but let’s be generous.):

Warrior: 12
Guardian: 9
Ranger: 9
Mesmer: 8
Necromancer:7
Thief: 6
Elementalist: 5
Engineer: 4
17 types of weapons; (12+9+9+8+7+6+5+4)x17=1020 months=85 years.
I would need to play for 85 years before I had freedom of weapon and class choice. That is weapons alone. This is not alt friendly, and it’s ridiculous for anyone to pretend otherwise.

FenrirSlakt.3692:

Am I the only one who thinks it’s extremely easy to decently gear up new characters?

no . like i said gearing up alts is easy . i have 5 alts now tricked out in exotic and a fair amount of ascended trinkets . Burnout is a far bigger factor for alts than gearing them up .

Adine.2184:

FenrirSlakt.3692:

Am I the only one who thinks it’s extremely easy to decently gear up new characters?

no . like i said gearing up alts is easy . i have 5 alts now tricked out in exotic and a fair amount of ascended trinkets . Burnout is a far bigger factor for alts than gearing them up .

Yes burn out does play a part. And the current gear situation doesn’t help at all. In GW1 you can max out a character fairly quickly. So you can max 9 character or more by just playing causally.

@ Requiem.8769

LOL at the 85 years.

alt. problem isnta solved, give us insta 80 scroll for 300-400 gems.

as to reanimating old zones, ANET need to invent more world bosses, better and bigger world events, increase bounty to attract 80s.

Asmodeius.2751:

alt. problem isnta solved, give us insta 80 scroll for 300-400 gems.

as to reanimating old zones, ANET need to invent more world bosses, better and bigger world events, increase bounty to attract 80s.

You mean like they reinvented Teq?