Guild Wars 2

Good game, zergy to all hell.

So, I’m an “in and out” kinda player with GW2. I play for a few months, then leave, then come back, etc etc etc. Overall, GW2 is an amazing game. However, I feel HoT went in the right direction in the wrong way.

As a returning person, the new content isn’t really “hard” just…not great. All the new PvE maps seem to require a zerg to complete. I went back to the Silverwastes and thought I’d do some stuff there. BOY WAS I WRONG! Tons of little events, which is all right IF I had anyone helping me out. Someone yelling “Ferry people in!” for an hour and all the while I’m the only one defending a post from wave after wave of bulletsponge monsters. So, Silverwastes seems rather dead. It’s a non-existant zone basically from what I can tell. It’s yesterday’s news. And I look at HoT content and see that it’s all too similar to SW in that regard.

The new maps are rather confusing (at first anyway, I’ve kinda got them down now) and they are FULL of zerg oriented content…but what about ME!? What do “I” have to look foreward to? So many events that impede my progress as an individual, that is only waiting for the next map to be released so people can abandon these ones like they did SW (thus making “me” content inaccessable). However, I really feel the main issue with these events is that everything and their mom wants to knock you down, which means if you do try to solo some of the easier events, you’ll probably be stunlocked for an hour. My necro has TERRIBLE stability (unless someone else has a build I havent’ seen), so he may dodge the first 10 stuns thrown at him, but eventually he’ll be removed from the fight till he’s dead. I like the “harder/hardcore” content, but I don’t feel that mechanics that remove control from the player (ie: stunlock) is a “good” way to make something hard, it just feels cheap. This really makes me hate being a melee person too.

The Wyvern event in the first zone is a “good” fight imo. It is hard content that is hard because it is hard. It doesn’t require stun after stun after stun to artificially inflate the difficulty (SOME stunning is great, but not nearly at the level most HoT mobs are throwing out imo). I have to dodge out of the way of attacks and avoid the AoE and the fight gets more hectic the longer it goes. it’s a great fight. However, dinosaurs rolling around for 9/10 attacks and vines whipping constantly don’t make them “hard” they just make the fights annoying. Throw down persistant AoE abilities like the wyvern has. Give me some really strong abilities to interupt. Give “ME” something to actively do rather than sit on the ground for an hour.

So that’s my PvE experience. It’s content designed for a zerg that is, most likely, going to be abandoned by said zerg when a new map is released. It’s also artificially difficult due to so many stuns/knockdowns. I’d love to see some actual interesting mechanics rather than being knocked down by every monster. I really enjoy the less casual approach to the game, I just wish it was a “good” hardcore approach.

WvW however, is, imo, the main attraction. It’s what GW2 does better than the rest right now. EB is great. The map is nice and conducive to WvWers. The new maps…less so. The new maps feel more like a PvE map than a WvW map. I spent some time there but after half an hour of not seeing anyone and just killing random monsters, I’m over the new maps. I’m not an expert, but from what I can tell, the people who designed that map didn’t understand what WvW people wanted. It’s a perfectly fine PvE map, just a terrible WvW map. Too big, too confusing.

The new “auto-upgrade” system is a step in the wrong direction. Supply means very little now to the maps from what I’ve seen. In the past, supply in a keep meant something, but now the only time I see “0/XXX” supply in a keep is right after a big zerg raided the supply since there is no reason not to now. Every keep has basically been reduced to a glorified supply camp now, which reduces supply camps to…something less than a supply camp (a sentryless sentry I guess?)

I like going for more hardcore content, I just wish there was more there that didn’t cater to zergs. As it is, if you want individual content, there is no real reason to buy HoT. Once the next maps/expansion comes out, these maps will be a barren silverwasteland (see what I did there?!). HoT has no real longevity as it is right now. I like group content, I just hate that the new maps require, not just other people, but MANY other people to actually experience the new content.

Windsagio.1340:

The thing with meta/stack is you can always choose not to. If somebody’s an kitten about it ignore them, and ‘meta’ players are pretty good about self-excluding, and are easy to avoid.

I wish I could believe that. Unless I go out and hunt down 4 other RL friends that want to play GW2 over any other MMO (I have one that insists ESO is the second coming…I disagree very much…), which I don’t have, it’s almost impossible to find groups that DON’T run those exploits. Most dungeons/fractals (granted, I’m not a high level frac runner) consist of people running almost like bots with nothing beyond the occasional “hello” at the start of the group.

The issue I have with the meta is how obviously better it is in almost all cases. Most skills in most classes have no real use. Pet skills, for example, are a joke, a bad joke, a bad joke that hasn’t attempted to be fixed yet. I feel like 90% of the skills in the game could be patched out and no one would really care/notice. I look at armours on the TP and wonder, WHO buys “dire” sets? “carrion” sets? “Cleric’s” set? The meta is, overall, a giant dps race, if you don’t fit into that meta (go in with “Cleric’s” armour instead of the zerker meta), you’ll likely wipe your team for it as they can’t afford an extra dodge beyond the first 2. Honestly, the only reason I’ve ever had any interaction with those other sets at level 80 is when I have to craft them to level up my armoursmith/tailor/etc. Outside of that, why are they there? Those sets’ entire purpose is to give you crafting xp afaik. HoT doesn’t excite me because I’m afraid the only difference will be that I’ll go from one obviously “best” skill/trait setup to another >single< obviously “best” skill/trait setup. I want variety in HoT and I, sadly, don’t think the devs can deliver it based on their track record.

Derigar.7810:

Badwolf.9725:

First, dungeons.

Second, the “meta” builds.

Third, world bosses.

Fourth, “stack here”.

1) They learned from their errors in designing the dungeons in Vanilla GW2. If you think they’ll make the same mistake twice, you’re very wrong. They’ve said time upon time they won’t focus on current dungeons, which are doing fine, but will focus time and effort in new content (like the Aetherpath dungeon path).

2) Necromancers have their use in some niches. Also, specialisations were made specifically to give current professions a new use in other niches or other parts of the game. I can assure you that the necro greatsword spec will be a heavy DPS-dealing spec, to make up for their lack of it.

3) Same point as number 1. They learned out of this. Thinking the bosses in the Maguuma will be the same as vanilla bosses is just stupid. I don’t even understand how you think they’ll make the same bosses as now, after looking at their latest bosses like teq and the wurm…

4) Stacking is an issue? What the hell are you even talking about?

To me, this thread is just a series of uneducated guesses at the expansion. You have no knowledge of what will be appearing other than some random guesses. They obviously won’t make the same issues that exist in the current game, and if you think they will then you should start reading their blogs.

1) Ok, so, assuming your right, I can expect them to abandon any future content they add instead of fixing it? AC, the first thing players can run, is still a joke. Dungeons are all exploited, bugged, tons of content skipped and the moment you suggest NOT exploiting broken mechanics, you can expect to be kicked out of the group or laughed at. When the expansion releases, I can expect 90% BS mechanics and the other 10% i have to pay extra for to be halfway decent?

2) ‘Use in niche" is great…if only anyone cared about those niches… As it stands, Necromancer has been fubar since release and there has been no real attempt to fix it. At best, with HoT I can expect to see every Necro running the one GS build. Also, considering how few kittens the devs gave in the last 2 years, assuming they still have an underpowered necro class, I can expect another 2 years of underpowered necros. The devs made it rather clear they give 0 kittens about an entire class, and I don’t see why they would start now.

3) Again, 90% of the content will be terrible, bland, and boring static fights and then I can choose to pay extra for good content? I don’t see the developer’s abandoning their old content as a good thing I guess, and I don’t see how that is a good model for the future of their game.

4) Stacking is an issue when it becomes, basically, every fight. WvW, stack here. Dungeons, stack here. World bosses….stack here…. Stack here? Stack here! Stack there? No, Stack THERE! There? THERE!!!!

It’s not that they can’t fix these things in HoT, it’s that their handling of vanilla GW2 doesn’t, imo, bode well for their future content. You said yourself, they’ve basically abandoned the old dungeons in favour of adding in new selling points, so what happens when they inevitably mess up on the new content? Another 2 years of mediocre content in the hopes that I can pay extra for another set of content they can abandon? It’s not guessing that the way they handled vanilla content (turning it into a giant grind and exploited material) is somewhat telling of their mindset going into HoT. Look at SW, the first little glimpse into the expansion is nothing more than an event grind with a mediocre boss. SW is nothing more than “run in a circle, do event, do another event, repeat circle” and THAT is all I’ve seen the devs do so far, they are stuck in a rut and haven’t really shown that they can get out of it. That’s why I’m not hyped, because the devs haven’t shown that they can’t fall into those pitfalls again and again and again…

Assuming your NA, if WvW is important to you, it’s probably best to join one of the Tier1 servers. I’m from JQ and absolutely love the server. A lot of great commanders on it. BG and TC I have respect for and I’m sure that if your aiming for WvW, you can’t go wrong with TC/BG/JQ imo.

Windsagio.1340:

Yes his obviously and totally true story about how they couldn’t beat Kholer without stacking was totally constructive. You’re right!

More directly, he’s complaining about things that exist in the current game which we either have no idea about whether they’re being addressed in the expansion, or about things we know are getting addressed at least somewhat in the expansion (and the patches coming up with it).

The post sums up to "I’m not hype for the expansion because stacking and meta also worldbosses that haven’t been revamped (ignoring those that have)’

Believe me or not, Idc tbh.

Anyway, I list all the reasons why I’m not, personally, hyped for the expansion. The issue isn’t that these issues are in the game, it’s that, for me, these issues haven’t really ever been addressed. It’s that “grind” has been the definition of GW2. It’s that, 2 years after release, dungeons are still buggy and exploited. It’s that, 2 years after release, they haven’t really done anything to improve the game all that much.

The living story, so far, has been one grind leading to another grind. It’s one chest train to another, one event to another, one static world boss (yes, SOME have been improved, but shatterer is still beaten because he’s apparently Zoolander and can’t turn right…) after another. It’s the vast quantity of completely useless skills (guardian spirit weapons?! HAHAHAHAAH!) that are still around.

Yea, the expansion COULD improve all of these things, but I, personally, haven’t seen anything that really indicates that HoT won’t turn into a 1 trait/skill setup event grind with static bosses that are negated by balling up in a corner rather than actually fighting them. I’m glad that GW2 tried to be different and “challenge the fundamentals” of MMO’s, but so far their falling into the worst aspects of MMO’s and their failure to do anything to really fix them is why I’m not hyped. I made this thread in the hope that, if by some miracle, a developer reads it and realizes that “Grind Wars 2: Heart of Stacking” doesn’t sound nearly as appealing as they might think it does, at least not to me.

I enjoy GW2, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think it could be a LOT better.

SPNKr.6208:

It’s funny how almost all of you here can’t seem to see past PvP. Minion health is no problem at all in sPvP and they’re fairly well balanced. The problem in PvE, where them getting one-shotted by AoEs every three seconds or so completely invalidates some builds and entire classes in some situations. The proposed changed will be a great idea in PvE, and can be kept out of sPvP entirely.

WvW is a little more troublesome, since we have both massive AoEs in zergs, in which minions could use a buff, and small scale skirmishes, in which the buffs would make the minions rather overpowered. An elaborate solution would be to have the game figure out which situation you’re in and apply the correction accordingly, but it’s probably simpler to just leave things as they are now.

I don’t sPvP, so I have nothing to say there. I think that Anet could make changes that PvE content adds in an AoE resistance, while sPvP doesn’t have that buff? I think that’s a fair point. In WvW, could you scale the AoE resistance(or maybe health) of minions/pets based on the number of players present? Similar to PvE bosses scaling depending on the number of players present?

I think your right, it is much simpler to do nothing, but doing nothing makes entire skill/trait lines completely useless as it is. I think if they aren’t going to do anything, they should just patch the skills out of the game.

jessiejay.3625:

I think this topic is toxic without constructive suggestions. Most are complaining what is bad but never give ideas what could be good. Topics like this hurt the potential morale into everyone walking on ice.

Id say close this post.

I’m not at all trying to be toxic. I think that the game has some, imo, serious issues. I think those issues can be fixed. I also, more importantly, don’t see any of those issues being fixed in HoT so far.

I think it’s healthy to call them out on a lot of these things in the hopes that they can make a better game. As it is, Grind Wars 2 is how I think of the game. Each living story is little more than another grind, SW is a map devoted to a massive grind. I don’t think that the current grinding story model is good. I totally understand that you’ll never completely remove grinding from an MMO, but GW2 is, imo, the very definition of grind.

Instead of a grind, add in compelling content. Event>event>event>thefirstevent>secondevent>thirdevent>firstevent>secondevent>thirdevent>>>>>>>>>> isn’t, imo, a great start for getting any hype surrounding the expansion. Make those events feel important. make them feel epic. Because nothing in SW feels important or epic. I’m a god-kitten undead army, dragon slaying champion, yet all of a sudden I’m escorting a bull 20 feet to a castle then helping pick up rubble? All in the hopes that I can get a RNG dropped shovel and open a lockbox… I slay a dragon and I have to pray for a shovel?

I pointed out that AC is a dungeon that can run multiple paths at once, skipping the majority of the content in doing so. I don’t know why that even has to be said. Their dungeon designs have been fubar since day 1. Most content is trash and skippable, the rest is exploiting a stupid AI (Arah, just walk the guy into a wall so half his AoE gets stuck behind a wall? or my aforementioned Kholer example). SE has you repair a gate to progress, the cogs to repair are guarded by boss…so you run past the boss, pick up the cogs and just run past him… “fix your kitten” is about as constructive as I think I need to be here.

World boss walltraps: Again, I highlighted an issue. Shatterer is a wall trap that isn’t even connected to a wall. But that is every world boss. Teq and Jormag are the same thing, it just isn’t as noticable in how the terrain is around them, Jormag is either on a cliff or on a hill, Teq is on a beach. Both those try to hide their wall trap status, but shatterer is literally just in an open field and he can’t turn to the right. The world bosses stationary status makes them feel much less epic in general and there seems to be no real threat from them. They are confined to their little 2′×2′ box. The rest of the zone couldn’t care less about whether Shadow Behemouth is up or not. Jormag’s presence only affect’s that one specific small area. The rest of the world couldn’t care less if Jormag’s event fails. Make those events matter, make them dynamic.

My original intention was to bring attention to the issues that, imo, plague GW2 and highlight why I, personally, don’t find anything announced from the HoT expansion anything to get excited over. I didn’t mean to be toxic, I, overall, enjoy GW2, but all I see from HoT is more of the same. I get that the wyvern is trying to change the world boss, and that’s great. But, I’m afraid all the wyvern will turn into is just another timer on the boss chest train.

I think the AoE protection could be determined on a case by case basis. Right now, EVERYTHING is an AoE. EVERYTHING being AoE adds to the issue of minions/pets/illusions being super squishy. My mesmer can’t not create phantasms as a decent chunk of their damage, most take time to summon (taking away from my, already low, personal dps), and a single AoE from almost any source can 1 shot them. In dungeons, I can expect to get one attack from my iSwordsman. Necrominions are the same, a massive C/D for negligible damage that probably won’t even occur due to the quantity of AoE’s in this game.

EVERYTHING AoE’s in this game. It’s not that there is a select few builds or a select few bosses that make minion based classes useless, it’s that there are a select few builds or a select few bosses that make minion based classes viable. Like Ehecatl said, Rangers are punished by something they can’t control, Necro/Guard/Engie at least have the option to use useless things (engie’s only saving grace is that the turrets are rooted and ranged, which means the engie can place them (relatively) out of harm’s way). Same for mesmers, we have no choice really to not use them and we are punished by their frailty and their useless AI.

It’s not that I don’t like GW2, like I said, overall I enjoy it. It’s alright. I just think that these issues that haven’t been fixed for years are really making it hard for me to get excited for the expansion.

You can call BS on my offer of 5g to beat the first dungeon boss without exploiting, but it happened. My party wiped on the FIRST wind-up pull in. The second round, only I and one other player dodged the first wind-up combo.

I totally get doing dungeons in the fastest, safest, and simplest ways, I’ve loved doing dungeons since my first dungeon in MMO’s. The issue, for me at least, is that GW2’s dungeons are nothing BUT exploits. Like I said, my AC group who vastly out leveled, out geared the first dungeon still could not complete the first boss without an exploit. Dungeons have always consisted of jumping over invisible walls, skipping content (can do AC p2/3 at the same time! Now in half the effort!), and cheesing the system. Every other MMO I’ve played (at least for me), has had exploits and bugs that were exploited, however, the critical difference is that those MMO’s rather quickly patched those exploits and made it so that you couldn’t so easily and so obviously exploit the system.

It’s not that it’s bad, it’s that I see no reason why HoT would be anything but “more of the same”. The game has been out for 2(?) years now, dungeons still consist of exploit after exploit (they fix one exploit and then there are another dozen exploits found) etc etc etc. GW2 is a great game, there just doesn’t seem to be any quality control for their content, and I see no reason why HoT would be any different. I want to be excited for the expansion, I enjoy the base game (overall), but I see no real reason why HoT is anything to be excited about. Specializations and a new class sound cool, but, afaik, it’s just going to be more of the same, more akin to a living story that you have to pay for now.

That’s what I’m afraid of. GW2 tried to pass itself off as a game that was challenging all the “mmo” fundamentals, it’s why they tried to get rid of the trinity, and it sounds great. However, the reality is that GW2, to me at least, suffers from the most extreme versions of some of the worst fundamentals in MMO’s. Grind Wars 2; Heart of Thorns doesn’t sound all that appealing to me.

If I had to make a wish list for GW2, I think getting rid of the trains would be #1. For a “living” story, it sure as hell feels dead to me. The last time I played, Divinity’s Reach had an event going on that was just a giant train for grinding out useless kitten, and now that I’ve come back, SW is almost the same exact thing, just on a larger map.

First, let me say that I’ve spent too many hours in GW2. I enjoy it overall (I’ve even bought some more gems to help support the devs a bit more), but as we approach the new expansion, I’m finding it very hard to get excited for the new expansion.

First, as someone who plays for a month or two, then takes a break, then comes back…etc, I have noticed that very little seems to be “fixed” between those times. In dungeons, the “meta” is still to bug out, exploit, and overall abuse the system. It’s been the same since day 1. A week ago, I offered my AC group 5g each if they could beat Kholer without stacking. They, all 80’s in exotic/ascended gear who claimed to have run the dungeon a million times, all died on the first big wind-up. I tried my best to help them, to no avail. I was rezing the entire time. This is how long after release, and Anet still has a system where their players still can’t beat the first boss? This right here, dampens my spirits for HoT. They simply can’t design a dungeon that isn’t exploitable and it’s ruined the “dungeon” portion for me.

Second, the “meta” builds. I totally understand them. As a game that was touted as getting rid of the “trinity”, all I can see is that they ended up removing 2 of the 3 pillars in that trinity. It’s all about DPS. If you aren’t 100% dps, your doing it wrong. To make matters worse, this meta has made classes like necromancer almost useless by design and yet there has been no effort put into making a necro relevant outside of WvW zergs.

Third, “trains”. The massive events being on a giant timer means all you do is chase one world boss to the next world boss to the next one to the next one…. However, it doesn’t even end there, looking at SW, SW sets up the expansion in my mind as a giant grind. All you do in SW is chase one event to the next. Nothing really feels “important” either. I defend X camp, repair the wall, kill the next wave, repair wall…for what? To grind some more?

Third.5, World boss designs; So, they’ve made “some” progress on this since release (Teq), but overall, the bosses are all basically a giant walltrap that doesn’t “do” anything. Shatterer is the prime example. Since release, Shatterer has been a giant wall trap that Anet didn’t even have the decency to put on a wall. The strategy has always been “stand to his right” and, like any flame trap you’d find in a dungeon, Shatterer can’t do anything to anyone standing to his right. These giant, massive, visually impressive world bosses really don’t do anything, they don’t threaten anyone. Pick a world boss though, and that’s all they are, a wall trap that you have to try to die to…

Fourth, “stack here”. Stacking, nothing breaks immersion more than “stack here” tactics. WvW is “stack on commander” dungeons are “stack on the wall”.

These issues really, to me, paint a picture of what I can expect from HoT. Overall, I’ve enjoyed GW2, but I honestly don’t see any real appeal in the HoT news that makes me think that it won’t suffer from the same issues. The new specializations sound interesting, the new class sounds cool, but the core content of the game hasn’t really shown any sign of improvement. I don’t see, based on their history, why ANet would suddenly be able to make dungeons that didn’t rely on cheesing the systems or world bosses that didn’t turn into wallmounts or zones that didn’t turn into giant event grinds or create a game that makes more than one specific build/trait setup viable for endgame.

Yea, as someone who absolutely loves the >idea< of a minion mancer, I just cringe whenever I see one. Not only is the “AI” not even close to having a semblance of “intelligence” (The last 7/10 fights on my necro had the ultiminion just stand there on a smoke break…), but the minions are worthless currently. They die in 1-2 hits, which makes sense if it is a single target attack imo, but with the amount of cleave in the game, minions are just a wasted utility skill slot.

Additionally, I look at the mesmer clones/phantasms (being a mes, I am a bit biased tbh) as a huge pain in the kitten atm. Again, they shouldn’t, imo, “tank” anything, but most bosses in dungeon/fractals will one shot them with an AoE attack. Additionally, phantasms are, for a lot of mesmers, a large chunk of their dps that takes time to set up, so the mesmer’s already lacking damage output is almost completely negated in AoE heavy fights. SW’s, I lose way too many phantasms before they even attack once due to a Tearagrif’s damaging line they leave behind on their charge. This is also whether I have the extra health trait/signet on or not… This isn’t even to mention their uselessness in WvW settings…

Same on my Guardian too. Those spirit weapons are just a wasted slot. I honestly don’t know why the devs didn’t already patch them out of the game already.

Minions in general, are a huge liability. Mesmers/Necro’s rely on them to help on damage output and their frailty (along with the TERRIBLE AI) makes them really hard to justify putting them on the skill bar when you can easily take ANY other skill and do as well if not better with. Not to mention the other traits you can take to boost other skills.

Right now, I honestly think that if Mesmers (like me) weren’t almost forced to use them, we would trait out for anything but phantasms. We already almost never see the 2 utility phantasms used, but looking at the other “minion” classes, you see that no serious necro or guardian uses minions/spirit weapons outside of a “look at this funny but completely useless gimmick build I made!” for a reason; You can pick any other skill and not have it wiped away before it’s done anything.

I fully support having a huge AoE damage resistance on minion type creatures. As it stands, outside of Mesmers (which are almost forced to use them), the pet traits/skills never see the light of day because of their frailty. Either give the minions about 25x the current health, or give them an AoE damage resistance buff to make them useful, otherwise, just patch them out please. No need to waste time on skills that have no use, it’s just added fluff as it is.

lukejoe.1592:

when a real life tragedy so closely resembling the joke is playing itself out in the media as we speak.

WHAT?! “So closely resembling” what? Airplanes, yes, they exist. That doesn’t mean we have to pretend they don’t when something tragic happens. PLANES DO EXIST!!!! I mean, let me be frank here, if this prank “closely resembles” the tragic event, you and I have a very different idea of what was happening on those planes at the last moment… I’m not trying to be an kitten in saying that, but I don’t think this prank “closely resembles” any tragedy I’ve seen on the news…

This prank offends me greatly! I thought I was the only one who could do killer plane sound effects with my voice and spread my arms out!!!!! kitten YOU ANET!!!!! YOU STOLE MY AIRPLANE SOUNDS!!!!!

on topic:

Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar… Sometimes, the world being a kittenty place doesn’t mean we have to cower in fear that simple reference to a reference to something tragic is “too far”.

Another JQ player here. It’s become almost impossible to play WvW anywhere near Zergs anymore since the stab patch. 3-4 second skill lag at times that was not present at all prior to the stab patch. I don’t know how it is on the other servers, but as for JQ, I can read/hear chat/TS every time we rush into another zerg, and it almost always erupts into a discussion about the lag. 0 issues outside of the zerg though. As long as it’s just havoc squads, no issue.

I don’t know if it has to do specifically with the changes to stability, but that is the exact point in time that I went from no lag to stopping WvW all together.

I’ve got to be perfectly honest… That grammar is simply adorable!

Thanks for the update.

just tried myself. I’ve had over 1k+ hours in the game and I figure I can throw them a little more revenue than the base game purchase for that much time I’ve spent enjoying their game. However, it isn’t letting me use my card, I get the “error” screen.

Asbrandr.6324:

Thor Rising.7850:

…their mobility…

That’s a good one.

Hey…necro has….ummm…..warhorn…?

Personally, I love the playstyle of the necro and have tried, since release, to play the Necro and not feel like a burden to my team. I’ve yet to feel like I’m benefiting the team though. Pick a class, any class and it will most likely perform better than the necro, and that is the history of the necro. Every dungeon I’ve run, every fractal I’ve done, I’ve found myself thinking “I could go pick ANY other class and be a better benefit to my team.”

As it stands, the necro has too many core design issues and it has always been that way. The devs don’t really care about the necro, and it shows. I’d say you should watch for the expansion and the specializations, but I see no reason to think that the devs would actually make the necro a relevant class outside of WvW zergs. If they do make the changes to necro that would make it competitive, I think it would be more accidental than anything else.

That said: I can pug dungeons and low level fractals, but I don’t think anyone has ever been happy to see a necro in either of those. I’ve been kicked from groups for picking necro before too. Necro is the kitten step-child of the developers and it shows.

idk, I’m finding myself rather skeptical of the expansion in general but I think the Necro is a good example of how, imo, Anet doesn’t really seem to know how to fix things or how their “fixes” will actually influence other things. Necro has almost always been the bottom of the barrel class. I’ve tried desperately to play necro and not be a detriment to the team (as compared to any other class I could bring), it’s, imo, the most fun class to play, but it is almost useless outside of WvW zergs (comparitively). Necroing this thread or not, it represents that Anet is incapable of fixing core issues, the same issues that were a part of the necro community a year ago are still issues today.

As I play the necro in fractals, dungeons, or world events, I can’t help but think that I could better serve my team by picking any other character. I love the necro’s playstyle, but I hate the feeling that I’m burdening my teams by playing one. As it stands, I can’t help but think the devs have abandoned the entire class. At this point, removing it completely from the game really wouldn’t hurt the game since the necro is, at best, a mediocre class. The amount of work you have to put into the class to be considered mediocre is insane.

I’m going to be watching the new specialization when it releases, but I don’t have much faith that it will bring the Necro to a point that makes it a relevant class. I can’t remember the necro ever not being considered the “worst” class outside of WvW, so why would the devs change it now? Why bother boycotting an entire class though? It’s already designed in such a way that, outside of WvW, no one will level one outside of the novelty of making one.