Guild Wars 2

This will be a welcome improvement, and I’m very much looking forward to its implementation. Can’t wait to try Troll’s End on my tall norn and actually be able see where I’m going.

Very, very disappointed in this change, especially coming as it did without forewarning. The first season of the living story was stated clearly and often to be temporary. The removal of the Raid on the Capricorn map was announced ahead of time as well. In this case, there’s a blog post about re-ordering the personal story at high levels, but nothing about the outright removal of whole chapters.

I had a character sitting at the start of the Concordia mission before the patch, having recently finished up the Claw Island segment, with the intent of playing the “fear of letting an innocent die” storyline for the first time. I (foolishly, as it turned out) waited for the feature pack’s release, to see what the new, compelling rewards for personal story missions were like.

Now I find myself at the Battle of Fort Trinity after defeating Dzhudin Stormbreak, with its undead mesmer and water orb and no context for either of them. Had I known this was coming, I could have finished the Forging of the Pact before the patch and at least been able to play through one branch of Tonn’s story. But now I can’t, and I’m seeing no signs that I’ll ever have the opportunity to again. This situation is just frustrating and confusing.

Here are a few shots that I think turned out pretty well.

1) Temple of the Forgotten God
2) Mournful Depths
3) Skyhammer
4) Beetletun
5) Driftglass Springs

I recently made a new character (a charr warrior), and had been enjoying the experience of starting fresh, progressing through personal story lines I hadn’t seen before, participating in low-level zone events I hadn’t played for ages, and anticipating the builds I would use along the way to level 80. However, when I reached level 35 and unlocked selectable traits, it didn’t take long for my enjoyment to wither away.

I went for the the first trait I knew I could access off the bat, Death From Above, which reduces fall damage. This required completing the Obsidian Sanctum WvW jumping puzzle, which took an increasingly frustrating twenty-odd minutes of my time that included dying from fall damage that the trait I was after would have prevented.

When I looked more closely at what sort of hoops I’d have to jump through, even for the lowest tier of traits (such as completely clearing Blazeridge Steppes, a level 40-50 zone, to unlock Dual-Wielding), it killed my enthusiasm to keep playing. The zone completion reward is something that has, until now, been strictly a bonus to me. I’ll fully clear a zone if I like spending time in it, or just really want the rewards (like Orr). However, I won’t do it all in one go, much preferring to travel between zones while adventuring instead of grinding through all the content in one area.

Gating basic traits behind map completion or rare events changes things. Instead of feeling rewarded for vanquishing a zone on my own time, or being pleasantly surprised by a spontaneous group attempting the font of Rhand, I feel pressured to slog through areas or camp at event locations well past the point of it being fun, just to have a certain trait or build available for my character. I can’t stress enough that feeling forced into these arbitrary tasks to unlock core class abilities is an unenjoyable experience. The (collectively) high gold and skill point costs to bypass these tasks only add to my frustration. It doesn’t feel like a reasonable alternative, it feels like a tax on my free time.

Ultimately, these changes just aren’t fun, and the current implementation of acquiring traits has soured me on the experience of progressing through the game with a new character.

I’ve been on Jade Quarry since well before the start of the season (and I’ve never been outside of the NA region), have my achievement chest key, but no reward chest. Like some others, I haven’t found the time to log in to the game for the past 2 weeks or so. Eagerly awaiting a resolution to the issue.

Here’s my sylvari mesmer, wearing tier 2 cultural armor & wielding verdant weapons.