I agree with pretty much everything Guhracie has said. In fact, I am willing to admit that I am okay (if not happy) with most of the changes that have been made.
Megaservers – I would have no issue with this if I could choose a shard from a list AND/OR racial cities were server only, with or without guesting allowed. I remember when guesting was brought in, and I spoke to many people saying ‘yeah I am from XXX server but I came here to show roleplaying to my friend’. There was more of a sense of travelling to parts unknown and exploring there.
New Player Experience – Unlocking skills for all weapons at character levels makes no sense. Why would a new character have skills with a weapon they have never picked up before? The old system was far more intelligent and logical. And it saved having to 1,1,1,1,1 in the starter instance which is frustrating and dull. The same goes for the profession F1,2,3,4 skills. However, the speed at which you now level to 10 sort of negates some of this issue, since it is so easy to level at earlier stages now.
The big issue for me is the stepped progression. You can be mid fight, struggling, level up and ‘bam’ you faceroll the opponent. This is frustrating, illlogical and does not encourage players who want to challenge themselves by reaching into areas above their Exp level. I used to take level 30-32 characters into 40 zones to level faster and enjoy the challenge. I cannot do that now because instead of being level 30, I am now level 28… and will get my sweet derriere handed to me by those mobs until I hit level 34 and suddenly get a boost.
Ascended – Again, no problem if the stats for Ascended BEFORE infusions matched Exotic, not bested them. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/2/22/Ascended_example.png shows this well. Berserker with Ruby gives 92 Power, 63 Precision and 6% Crit chance. This does not match Ascended. Yes I am aware that this is a trinket which is accessible to all, but the armour and weapon Ascended stats give a further leap above Exotic stats. For those of us who do not play Fractals, this is an enormous advantage for those who do.
Anet said there would be no grind in GW2 – this is enforcing grind of Fractals to create an optimal PvE build. I don’t care if they give an advantage in Fractals, that is the intention. But to give a general quantum leap of an advantage over Exotic, that is unacceptable to me.
Traits – Been hitting my head against the wall on this one for so long, I have left a dent in the brickwork. Traits that require you to go way above your character Exp level to obtain. Yes, some were fixed but Anet has no interest in fixing the rest. Compounded with the stepped progression, this MASSIVELY restricts build choices until, and even after, you hit 80.
It is not all bad. The new rewards, plus rewards focused so that you have a higher chance of profession-suitable rewards is a massive boost to levelling characters.
Right now, my main anger and frustration is the way that Anet knows our concerns, particularly about traits, and yet seem incapable of doing anything to sort it. I mean, if a Dev came in and said “Sorry, this is how our NCSoft Masters want it”, I could accept that. But the complete lies about “We will never force you to grind” and “The new trait system makes traits more approachable” are unacceptable to me. If I blatantly lied to my customers, I would expect to be called in for disciplinaries left and right.
