Guild Wars 2

Does WXP do more harm than good? I know many players enjoy a feeling of progress, (not all some like to build and finish a character and then create another class) but does progress have to be power creep progress via colossally time consuming grinds?

The fact you need to grind for years to do masteries, unless you are hardcore playtime and regularly transfer servers to the current wxp train seems ridiculously elitist. It’s bad enough the pve grinder creep is ruining WvW balance a little more every 2 weeks, without wvw adding it’s own promise breaking grinds. Most of all alt play is completely punished with the per character implementation.

It’s hard to see any future in playing when there is no chance of ever catching up, and the alt longevity has been removed from the game with charbound wxp making alts completely handicapped and detrimental to trying to keep in sight of the vertical power grinds.

The wxp earning rates are wildly different between servers, classes, organised versus casual players etc. This is a problem because you always need new blood, but handicapping them this hard seems extremely dangerous for game health.

Harm.

Cannot play alts in GW2.

Everything is a mega time gate grind, from WXP to the gear.

WXP encourages player vs door.

Harm.

Flame ram mastery on superiors melts doors insanely fast.

I think it’s important to note that it was not WXP that caused the problem it was the WvW abilities…

Allowing people to get hundreds of points worth of abilities, no matter how minor they might seem, without even an upward curve was a huge mistake.

It made it seem like a bad idea to play alts (how much of this is reality is debatable). Once that happened they have a problem and now they’re just throwing mad points at everybody as a solution. (A solution which doesn’t really fix the problem, of course…)

Massive harm. This is why PvP players play:

Not for some stupid titles. If Anet put more time into making the actual PvP more fun instead of skinner box gameplay, we would be better off.

The World Ability points really puts it over the top causing new players and alts to be left way behind. Not to mention the totally OP flame ram mastery.

Maybe you should just stop playing with people who requires you to have WvW rank abilities to play with them and alts won’t be a problem. Almost all WvW rank abilities is situational and so far have not hamper my ability to play on any of my characters. If anything I would say my guild’s desire to have a good composition when we WvW affects my choice more than which toon has the most WvW abilities and most definitely not the rank floating above my head that only enemy players can see.

I find it funny that WvW players complain about much about such petty things. WvW for WvW, anything else I get is bonus.

To answer the question, WvW ranks have brought harm to the forums, in actual WvW, everyting is good. My guild enjoys it and majority of them aren’t even about 200WvW ranks on any one character, we use the characters that is most helpful to the gorup synergy. IE it’s great if we can ram down that gate faster, but it’d be better if we don’t die.

How about them impossible wvw achievements amirite?

Not dying is massively assisted by an extra 2500 hp, wxp has a real and significant effect, siege masteries make a huge difference in the right situations. Etc.

Harm. Power Creep. Grind. Character Bound. All bad.

SlothBear.9846:

Harm. Power Creep. Grind. Character Bound. All bad.

plus kittening one sir!

Kalan.9705:

Not dying is massively assisted by an extra 2500 hp, wxp has a real and significant effect, siege masteries make a huge difference in the right situations. Etc.

Yes 2500HP is great for survival, everything else is situational. I have yet heard my commander or anyone else base their decisions on how or when to take a tower/keep/camp on weather or not they have the proper WvW abilities. Sure they ask that players with Ram Master use rams first and Cata Mastery to use the cata.

So unless you are going up against a server who only runs on their 600+ ranked characters I think the situational disadvatange of WvW rank is not a big deal.

Despite the greatness of such an idea, in it’s current incarnation WxP does a lot of harm.

Progression and specialization in pvp is a great thing imo, but the methods of getting WxP, the lack of progressing equally across your characters in such a time devoted system, and the strength of certain masteries given little investment make WxP ranks a far cry from what they could be.

That said i don’t have well written ideas on how to correct this trend.

I didn’t care until they added dumb things like Guard Leech and Applied Fortitude – random stat bonuses for spending ages grinding doors.

Thanks, but no thanks. When it only impacted siege wars I didn’t care, but affecting player battles was too much for me. I want no part of their mindless grinding.

I think Wxp was a good idea, but they implemented it badly, first of all the guard leech and applied fortitude, it forces people to farm everything they can and more !!!!
I used to think that ppl played in WvW for fun, now I’m not that sure, it’s like most people enjoy the wxp and dragonite ores more than a nice fight.

When they implemented Wxp I saw people capping sentrys for the first time ! pugs never botered with them, but now that they give wxp, they even wait when the sentry is already in our hands, /laugh

I did a 3 days of test with my ranger, I bought the equipe only for blobbing, turned of my brain and followed the commander 100% of my play time, I played as a PUG ( no ress, no support, I cared only for loot and wxp ), what do I realized ? I was not the only one, too many freeloaders.

- People are becomming more and more noob, is it me ? anyone else has experienced it ? it’s like a) good players have already left b) lots of new players or pugs are staking on the first servers.

At its core, it is a good idea. Participating in WvW lets you specialise in certain activities and siege weapons- sure, that makes sense. I don’t mind a bit of power creep, so long as that power creep is kept in check by other mechanics.

However, there are big holes in the design.

- No account wide ranks. We all know this song and dance, but character-specific ranks really does hurt when it comes to playing what you want. Part of the reason I advocate having several alts is so that, if the dev team shoots your favorite class in the neck with a nerf gun, you can just go “no problem, I will play this other class”. All of the impetus behind having an alt goes down the drain without catchup mechanics or account-wide ranks.

- Mandatory lines. Hi there, Applied Fortitude! It takes days to get Applied Fortitude unlocked on a character, and just as much to get its cousin, Guard Leech. This is a really punishing barrier to entry for new players, and with no account-wide WXP, it’s a barrier to alts as well.

- Lopsided power gains. Catapults, trebuchets, rams; they’ve all gotten boosts from the power creep, but the walls and gates haven’t. There is no equivalent mechanic, either in WXP, or at all, to counteract this. This will only get worse as lines expand, until appropriate countermeasures are put in place.

So yeah. Account-wide ranks, some countermeasures for ranked-up siege, something done about GK/DAG and a gentler slope for new players, and I’ll be pretty happy with the system.

I would enjoy WXP if it was account bound.

As it stands, I find it discourages me from playing with the characters I want to play with or which would be most suited to the task I want to do.

Kalan.9705:

The fact you need to grind for years to do masteries, unless you are hardcore playtime and regularly transfer servers to the current wxp train seems ridiculously elitist. It’s bad enough the pve grinder creep is ruining WvW balance a little more every 2 weeks, without wvw adding it’s own promise breaking grinds. Most of all alt play is completely punished with the per character implementation.

It’s hard to see any future in playing when there is no chance of ever catching up, and the alt longevity has been removed from the game with charbound wxp making alts completely handicapped and detrimental to trying to keep in sight of the vertical power grinds.

All the masteries, from stuff you spend rank points to, have to do with the PvE aspect of WvW. With the exception of the last point in two tiers.

Also complaining about elitist stuff in this game?! really?! You can get full exotic gear the moment you hit 80 on your alt, with just gold. That will allow you to do pretty much everything the game has to offer. In Spvp, you can be awesome while your character’s real level is 2.

The only thing in the game that requires time and some serious work to do, is geta good amount of agony resistance, and legendary weapons. And even those two, can be aquired 90% solo.

I’m not elitist, and definatelly not a hardcore player. Although I can easily say that this game is one of the most casual friendly games on the MMO market atm. Heck, in other popullar mmo’s, you need months, to grind only the gear of your character, let alone all the other stuff. (I’m not saying it’s good system, I’m just doing a comparison.)

Have No Faith In Me.1840:

WXP encourages player vs door.

Meh, WXP encourages lord room farms….SMC 1000 WXP to take, thats ~13-20 tags/kills. I’ll take the fights over the doors any day…

WXP encourages bads vs door.

Yelloweyedemon.2860:

Kalan.9705:

The fact you need to grind for years to do masteries, unless you are hardcore playtime and regularly transfer servers to the current wxp train seems ridiculously elitist. It’s bad enough the pve grinder creep is ruining WvW balance a little more every 2 weeks, without wvw adding it’s own promise breaking grinds. Most of all alt play is completely punished with the per character implementation.

It’s hard to see any future in playing when there is no chance of ever catching up, and the alt longevity has been removed from the game with charbound wxp making alts completely handicapped and detrimental to trying to keep in sight of the vertical power grinds.

All the masteries, from stuff you spend rank points to, have to do with the PvE aspect of WvW. With the exception of the last point in two tiers.

Also complaining about elitist stuff in this game?! really?! You can get full exotic gear the moment you hit 80 on your alt, with just gold. That will allow you to do pretty much everything the game has to offer. In Spvp, you can be awesome while your character’s real level is 2.

The only thing in the game that requires time and some serious work to do, is geta good amount of agony resistance, and legendary weapons. And even those two, can be aquired 90% solo.

I’m not elitist, and definatelly not a hardcore player. Although I can easily say that this game is one of the most casual friendly games on the MMO market atm. Heck, in other popullar mmo’s, you need months, to grind only the gear of your character, let alone all the other stuff. (I’m not saying it’s good system, I’m just doing a comparison.)

Also, In SPVP you can just go to skyhammer and suicide your ranking up sky high The game is extremely casual friendly. I think WXP may be one of the few things that you can’t insta max out.

TainoFuerte.8136:

I didn’t care until they added dumb things like Guard Leech and Applied Fortitude – random stat bonuses for spending ages grinding doors.

Thanks, but no thanks. When it only impacted siege wars I didn’t care, but affecting player battles was too much for me. I want no part of their mindless grinding.

This.

Zikory.6871:

WXP encourages bads vs door.

And this.

My main character has gotten a bit stale after a year playing him, and the new ascended weapons grind makes it feel like he’s no longer ready to play whenever I have game time. I could easily be excited about a new character, but the prospect of starting wxp from scratch really drags against my motivation.

Instead of being into learning a new class, I’m looking around at other games, and that is basically down to WxP being char bound, makes my account, and the past years playtime feel a bit worthless.

In the end wxp/rank is no different than leveling a new character. Just because you hit lvl 80 on one character doesn’t mean you are punished or forced to just play your 80 because your new character starts at lvl 1. Same thing applies to rank and that makes sense. I mean your lvl 1 doesn’t have all the cool abilities and such that your lvl 80 does. Just like your low rank alt doesn’t have all the cool stuff you high rank character does.

That said, I do think they need to do something to help people with alts. I think that just making ranks flat out account bound would be bad. I do think they should do something like make the wxp pots that drop give that wxp to all characters you have when you consume them. On top of this they could make it so at every 10 rank mark (10,20,30,etc.) that all lower ranked characters on your account earn 1 free rank. This might be something that is hard to implement as far as programming though. It would give you a little something on your alts so they are not totally left out.

I came here to whine about WXP and read around to see if anything was posted yet.

I’m long since 80 with all elite and all whatever. The difference between me and another 80 is +-10% and then down to skill and luck. But if someone is packing another 250 Vitality and 100 Power and Condition from WXP skills that’s an awful lot. If someone has legendary gear and I just have elite or even rare, the difference is minor. But WXP, and even worse, Bloodlust are gigantic changes.

I’m down for having more things to get. More hamster wheels to run. But make them cool or small. Like legendary/ascendant. Some of the skills are totally worthless and some are insanely powerful and it really unbalances WvW.

clint.5681:

How about them impossible wvw achievements amirite?

I’ve escorted 992 yaks! Only 8 more and I’ll get… 5 achievement points!!!!
Seriously though… I’ve actually escorted that many yaks… there’s something wrong with me.

Good.

I love the idea of earning rank and points to use towards a specialization. In the past, when we did not have it, WvW efforts had no reward. Now you can at least get something out of all that time you put into it. You can SPECIALIZE. I think your problem is that you see all those potential rank-point investments and you feel like you need to be able to have all of them. Do you like using siege? Pick a type of siege and specialize in it. Do you tend to run a lot of supply? Pick supply or build mastery. Do you frontline a lot? Pick Applied Fortitude or Guard Leech.

As far as I see it, the people who are bothered by WEXP are those that are envious of those that have more rank points. That is not a good reason to dislike the system, my friend. No matter what game you play you will always come across and be surrounded by people who have an advantage. That is why people play MMOs, because they get to play with and against other people and develop a sense of their own prowess/skill/development in relation to other players.

So WEXP and Rank points and WvW Mastery skills is GOOD GOOD GOOD. Thank you Anet for rewarding my WvW gametime with measurable achievements, and for letting me feel like I can pick something that gives me a unique edge in WvW gameplay. Please, keep up the WvW progress!

Siege masteries aren’t absolutely terrible but still a case of ‘have it or gtfo’. Applied fortitude and guard leech are the most absurd, disgraceful things in the entirety of GW2 though. This is not a game for people that want to just smash buttons and watch them get better returns for nothing. YOU are supposed to get better after you cap out your gear, not your character by just jumping on the next treadmill.

Coldtart.4785:

Siege masteries aren’t absolutely terrible but still a case of ‘have it or gtfo’. Applied fortitude and guard leech are the most absurd, disgraceful things in the entirety of GW2 though. This is not a game for people that want to just smash buttons and watch them get better returns for nothing. YOU are supposed to get better after you cap out your gear, not your character by just jumping on the next treadmill.

So…you think that Applied fortitude (2500 more vitality) and guard leech (100 Power & Condition Damage) is terrible. I have AF on my guard and am a few ranks away from adding to that my GL, and I am a Guardian, and those things are VITAL for a frontliner. Us guards and warriors are up there holding up the frontline and popping stabos and retal to push through and body guard so that the rest of our “zerg” can do work and help us push through. My guess is that you do not have AF and GL and resent those that do, for unfair reasons. The amount of rank points needed for those skills is great, and I invested in them first and foremost because I want to be able to stay alive and create as much an impact as possible to support my group. It just boggles my mind that you call them absurd. You should be enthusiastic about having people with those stats in their boon lineup in your party, and when your enemy has them you should feel a burning desire to vanquish that flame and see those boons ripped away. OK so that is a bit intense and overzealous, but I think you catch my drift. Don’t be so negative about it, don’t hate on the people that saved up the rank points to get them. Like I said, if you had them, you would not resent them so much.

WxP is bad. For no other reason than it being character bound. Devon mentioned a couple days ago in another forum that they like it that way for character progression. Even though focusing on one character inherently makes it alt unfriendly.

Harm.

It is alt unfriendly. Lacking the WXP traits on your alt, steers players to play just one character, which is bad for the longevity of the game, as people tend to get bored fast with just one character.

The WXP traits are also too powerful. Originally they were just +1 to +5% more damage or reduced incoming damage by max. 5%, but now they have went totally overboard. Many siege related WXP traits practically double the effectiveness of that siege weapon or make it even more powerful. Some added siege capabilities are really powerful and I am still afraid what the upcoming golem mastery will bring us. The guard leech and applied fortitude are huge stat buff. The latter gives 2500 more vitality.

Despite my main character has those guard leech + applied fortitude + many other WXP traits, I wish WXP traits were either completely removed from the play or severely toned down. For example the current 25% added damage is a lot or 1.5 radius (2.25x area!), make it more like +10% added damage or 1.25 bigger radius (56.25% larger area).

Make them account wide……simple.

SlothBear.9846:

Harm. Power Creep. Grind. Character Bound. All bad.

true

I don’t get why WXP got added in the first place. It doesn’t provide progression or anything.