Guild Wars 2

I have been lurking this thread quietly for the past several months and I want to voice my thoughts on this subject now.

I have been playing an Elementalist and after the patch in November that killed the fireball effect I was quite peeved. Then the following patch killed the beautiful auras and I stopped playing altogether.

I have been playing GW2 on and off since launch and do nothing but PvE but these visual changes have killed all my remaining excitement to continue logging in at all.

Obviously the fireball effect has been restored with the latest patch (which I am happy about) but I don’t see why the auras (and other effects people have complained about here ad infinitum) will stay the way they are.

I remember all the various trailers before launch showing all the skills in their amazing visual glory which made me buy this game and now that they are no more, I don’t see any incentive to play anymore.

Making it all optional would be the best solution. Other games have such an option which keeps your skills visible but mutes those of others. GW2’s visual style is unique and one of the main reasons why I play this game. The world is very immersive and the effects contribute to this aspect immensely.

So please reconsider restoring auras and all remaining effects to their former glory and then make it optional so those who have no problem with visual clutter can enjoy the game the way they purchased it.