These changes greatly dishearten me (bloody 40 character title limit e.e)
I am not an idiot, nor are the vast majority of MMO players. Basic skills on a skill bar do not overwhelm me or any other MMORPG player save for those playing an MMORPG (not GW2 itself) for the first time.
I do not need training wheels added to my basic levelling experience, not do I need my hand held through learning how to press 1-0 on my number bar.
What I do need is; better introductory explanations of advanced features like traits, crafting, living story, dungeons, events, WvW and COMBOS - possibly one of the most unique and interesting aspects of GW2 combat that has 0 acknowledgement within the game and no introduction or tutorial (rather than them just being “there” and having to ask my guild for details), a better directed levelling experience (where to go, what to do. now that I will need to wait 10 full levels to actually begin my story, this worsens the problem) and more reason to effectively learn my classes ins and outs.
This new experience seems to treat you like an idiot who can’t press number bar keys and seems to give progression a gated, “pat-on-the-head” mentality (awww, you hit level 4? There’s a good boy, have a skill). I enjoyed being able to unlock skills through the active use of a particular weapon, and also to be able to have all skills available at level 2 if desired. Now from what I understand, to gain access to my entire skill bar I need to be level 20? Absurd and silly.
This is my own, personal opinion, but it is also that of someone who bought your game a little over a week ago and who has very little experience with the game itself, thus I assume would qualify as the target audience of a “new” player.
Honestly, this hand-holding, casual mentality is insulting, causes gameplay to be frustrating and gated, rather than rewarding, and just kind of seems totally and utterly counter-intuitive to making the new player experience a “better” one
TL;DR: As a new player I don’t need my hand held and my head patted while I’m spoon-fed basic game features at a snail’s pace, I need clear, concise direction and knowledge regarding the advanced features of the game like traits, dungeons, crafting and WvW, which currently has little/no in-game tutelage and requires wiki research or pestering guild members to learn about properly.
Maxwell.7843 Expertly summarises my feelings here.
“GW2 was my fist mmorpg.
The game did feel overwhelming during the first hour or so, BUT not because I had a skill bar! To me the quantity of skills was never a problem, and I remember that when my character was low level I wished I had more utilities unlocked, to make the fights more interesting and varied.
What made the game overwhelming was the huge amount of stuff not covered by the tutorial, stuff that I could figure out only thanks to the wiki.
This update “dumbs down” things that for me were never difficult to grasp, while not addressing the things that actually need a Google search.
So, to me, the game now is actually less accessible: not only it still lacks a good and complete tutorial (that was what it needed in the first place), now leveling is a worse experience too.”
Resident smug Englishman on the NA servers, just because.
