Guild Wars 2

I agree with most of these comments, my friends and I left wow a year ago (6 years+). and now are heading back after sort of getting bored with GW2. Take it with a grain of salt, nostalgia has a lot to do with it – via the little things. I remember reading about this concept in Back to the Future movie franchises, how they would consistently reuse or restate certain things in the movie to ensure the audience keeps the emotional attachment – such as when Marty encounters Biff every single movie. Now, I think GW2 does just about everything right – mechanics, controls, graphics are all top notch. Story I can care less for, just not invested, its just 0s and 1s to me, since it doesn’t really shape anything I do, such as gleefully aligning myself with the horde or allies in real life within my inner circle – I mean, no one admits this stuff in public, hah. Here’s what I would suggest, based on the successes of what others have done intuitively:

1) Expose the Character API so that savvy developers can create their own version of Gw2 Armory. People love seeing what others look like, do, and are about to either mold, or compete with, it adds such a tremendous element to the mmosphere

2) I was excited about dynamic events, until I realized it happened on a timer, over and over again, and there wasn’t really anything dynamic about it. I wish it would pop up randomly all over the place, across multiple storylines. For example, if area A has a big wild boar that you have to kill within 3 minutes, then make it popup randomly in Area C with a big Green Moa in the same mechanism to kill within 3 minutes, hopskotch!

3) The thing that I loved about WoW, and makes it wholly different is how well it embraces healing. Now, I like that gw2 removed the roles, and made it fair, but what it ignored was how much healing is to the altruistic person. I see 8 new healing spells are making its way, but something about healers playing a large role is quite fun. I would fix by adding a new elite skill to each race that last for 2 mins with 4 min cooldowns and has only healing type skills or spells.

4) WvW. WoW had the best open world pvp across all mmos. Now its just moba fest. Instanced areas where people are trapped like rats. I would fix by encouraging rewards for skirmish skills, so there’s more 1v1 battles even amongst the masses.

5) New playable races – I’d like to see a new take on dwarf, elf that will draw people in. Especially maybe dark elves, that aren’t so fluffy like the wow night elves.

I’d like to suggest dwarf. ArenaNet has done so many things right with GW2, I would love to see their take on traditional lore. It’s weird, but with so many new rpgs/mmos, the trend is to move away from what people are used to, to constantly innovate, but through subtraction, not addition. I had to go back for a while and play World of Warcraft just so I can experience what an Elf, or Dwarf are about again. Take it with a grain of salt, but I couldn’t get into Charr, I like ugly – Orcs, Ogres, trolls – but those things are like a barge of goats. I wish they werent allowed to use weapons/armors.

Don’t give on your necro. I’m a complete noob to Gw2, and the learning curve was difficult, but once you master it, it’s borderline OP’d as someone suggested. I was disheartened at first like you were, now I can’t seem to put it down.

I don’t know enough to instruct you on sPvP vs WvW vs PvE, but I do know the way I now play it adds more defensive capabilities as well as pretty fun and high damage in all situations.

(Disclaimer: High dmg for me, might be low to experts, but ultimately, its still 10x higher than when I started).

So I play a style that some find laughable, but I’m married to it, and so my muscle memory is making me better each day I practice in it. I roll twin daggers 0/20/0/30/20, rely on heavy precision sigils/runes, and go with the precision/vitality/toughness amulet for health. All my skills have very low cooldowns, so I can reuse them often in sPVP, or Wells to pad my dmg in pve. I jump into Death Shroud as much as possible, to create space, or chase runners to get within melee range, and rely on carrion crawlers and the elite minion to “stunlock” opponents to escape or murder them in both pve/pvp.

This tactic didn’t work as much in WvW unless you find a 1v1 challenge, and have the right gear.

My crit after all that is about 57%, and 40% critical damage – which is important I think for maxing out the effect – there’s a chart on precision explaining me thinks. So if you stay the course on your basic dagger attack, you end up critting ALOT.

PM me for details, but I’d like to stress that this is good for only single target stuff in both pvp/pve. But oh my its tons of fun.

Character API is crucial, so I understand taking the time to get it right. Fortunately, Blizzard has established the gold standard with BattleNet’s Armory, and it has really enhanced their community experience. With the new spectator mode in sPVP, you are now able to obtain character API information in game – and I believe that’s all ArenaNet needs to put out initially in a web format. IMO, I learn a lot by looking at how others build their toon wrt gear, skills, and traits – and it enhances my experience. There are times, however – that I don’t remember what my toon looks like when I’m away from the game, or what I’ve accomplished, and there’s a feeling of disconnect because the information is not readily available at my fingertips. For the long term health of this incredible gw2 mmo, and community – I re-emphasize that the Character API is the key to continued success.