Add me to the list of players who, for the most part, dislike NPE. I have had one account since release and recently added another account with the sale (more character slots for a bargain price). I find the lockout from basic skills and content makes the experience of leveling a new character to be boring and grindy. Instead of enjoying content and exploring, I feel like I should rush my way through the beginning levels of a new character just so I can unlock dyes, vistas, and basic skills. Please fix the design in a manner that will allow players to turn off NPE. It’s not as terrible on my old account where I have level 20 scrolls and tomes sitting around, but it’s downright painful on the second account or if the day comes that I buy enough character slots on my original account that I run out of leveling aids.
1,1,1,1,1,1 yawns. Oh, I gained a level! I wonder what Nanny Game will let me do now? 1,2,1,2 sigh
Things I like:
Not having to grind out each weapon for skills. I remember this being very tedious on my elementalist for each weapon & attunement. However, I did like that I had the ability to gain access to skills faster.
The content guide compass that direct you to new content. It’s helpful at times when I can’t find that one item I missed for completion of an area.
The level rewards can be a gratifying experience.
Things I dislike:
Pretty much everything else, but particularly all the gated content that really doesn’t seem necessary to gate, such as dyes, wardrobe, hiding map content, personal story, downed state, weapon swapping, underwater combat, and other content that doesn’t require hand holding for someone who has played GW2, or almost any game, for that matter.
The previous way felt organic and natural. You could explore, gain skills at a faster pace if you wanted to use them earlier, follow the beginning personal story when you were the same level as the area where it takes place, and access basic features. Gaining profession-defining traits wasn’t about doing some ridiculous mission or grinding out skill points and gold to be able to purchase them. The current system feels overly simplified and frustrating for experienced players, yet doesn’t seem to add good in-game information about how traits, combo fields, or things that are far more confusing to new players work than using dyes or accessing a vista. Additionally, much of the info comes very late in the leveling process and is very brief and easily overlooked by players just clicking the pop up to get it off the screen. How about instead of focusing on telling someone how the bank works at level 9, you tell them at level 1 what those big red circles on the ground mean when they fight Issormir? I guess that may be too much when you assume that any player with a level 1 character needs a popup that explains movement and isn’t capable of doing anything more than pressing “1” and letting autoattack take over. Such a waste of an opportunity to actually teach a new player how to use their basic skills or combat principles.
I would like to see a lot of the level-gated features come off, the trait system reworked, the personal story fixed so that it flows naturally and isn’t full of problems at later levels, and a solid tutorial or tips that can be toggled off.
