Guild Wars 2

I love this game, I have had a lot of fun in it. I don’t want to see it slip to the bottom.. but I do feel that it is slipping. It’s almost 2 years old and many features that should have been there from the start are still not here. The wardrobe system is a great new addition to the game but it highlighted that half or more of the skins in the game were added through the gem store and not the ACTUAL game, tucked behind a pay wall. Then others are restricted to me due to race. The latter is acceptable but the former is not.

There is little to do in the game. Players need things to aspire towards; players need character progression. Not only is there a limited amount of skins to get per armor weight but there is no way to progress your character. The world is so big yet there are only 3 factions in the game outside of the race cities in general and being a member of that faction means nothing and offers nearly nothing. There are no missions outside of the personal story that are offered, no reputation standing to be gained or tiers of armor or weapons that can be unlocked with your standing with the faction. Having only 3 factions like this makes the game feel small.

The story and lore feels missing. 200 years have passed but little history is told or seen besides the ruins to most people I think. Right now it feels like the story and lore in GW2 is not in GW2 at all, but rather just the wiki. That’s too bad.

Just some laments from a passionate player.

I have said this before but crafting is unexciting until you hit level 400 pretty much. This is because everything looks the same! This game is a cosmetic-centered game. There is no gear STAT grind, but there is a gear AESTHETIC “grind.”

Leveling up crafting you see only the same boring gear with that same level 1 look. Leveling up in general is the same way! This needs to change.

Some item skins in the game are only gained through crafting, but they are again past the lvl 400 mark. There should be more unique items, possibly named items that can be crafted all the way through the craft leveling process. This would give crafting and items more value in the game.

This is mostly, I think, why blues and greens in the game, and even rare items, have such little value. There are no unique skins, only the same 4 or so per armor weight.

New skins should be added into the game. Period. Many of these skins should be found on blue and green and even rare items. Not only these items, but many of them should be. Some of these items could be given iconic names that people know and look for for that items skin and only drop in certain areas. This would help a great deal to add value to items in the game.

The ACTUAL game needs to grow, not just the store. When the game grows it draws the players in and gives them something to do. The game needs to have new content and features to make the players want to invest into the game. Players need to want to invest time into the game before they will want to invest money.

There are plenty of opportunities that could be taken to expand the game as far as features go that could also bring in revenue for Anet. I will list two.

Player Housing
This is a feature players have been wanting forever and only makes sense. Your personal instance is worthless and unvisited. We are “heros” why are we so homeless? Adding this feature would open an opportunity to collect furniture such as the paintings you see throughout the game and weapon or armor racks to display your favorite gear skins. “Art packs” could be purchased in the gem store that offers random paintings and lets the GW2 concept artists have their work a little more appreciated. Additional upgrades to the player house could be purchased too such as more armor or weapon racks.

Trait-Build Save
Even this feature could create revenue for Anet. With as deep as the trait system can be it is difficult to remember your build for every situation (general PvE, Fractles, Dungeons[individual basis for some], per weapon set, etc…). Giving the players 2 or three slots (depending on how the saved PvP build would be handled) would save players the headache of alt+tabing to third party resources for build saves and give Anet the opportunity to sell more slots in the gem store.

People would eat this stuff up! And these are only 2 of my ideas. Other people I’m sure have many more. The point is that Anet needs to start making money in ways that can make the game grow or bring in new needed features and spend less resources on hats and llama finishers – with all due respect!

Going back to what Phadde said, I think that dueling should be limited to outside the cities and if it IS in the cities it should be only in a designated spot. I can’t imagine people dueling in the streets of Divinities reach..

However I disagree with it being a purchasable feature. If Anet wants to make money on features I think they should make it accessible to everyone in a basic form and offer the option to pay to expand it. That is if they do that sort of thing at all.

I can understand what someone is saying when they say they are worried about harassment coming out of open world dueling, but I strongly believe that with a few setting options that issue will cease to be an issue. If the request never appears on your screen because you don’t ever want to duel anyone and you put a check in the auto decline then how do you suffer at all from this feature? If someone bothers you in chat and you block them and now you don’t hear them either, what do you suffer?

There are going to be people who are either annoying by character or go out of their way to annoy you or anyone in general. That, unfortunately, is just how some people are. If you want to avoid people, an MMO isn’t the platform.

I truly believe that this feature would not have the negative impact some of you think it would. Should it be implemented properly as has been outlined in previous posts several times, those that don’t want to deal with it wouldn’t and those that want to be able to have it would.

You’re welcome

Also, Phadde, that’s a cool duel or not to duel poll you’ve got there, thanks for linking that:

http://strawpoll.me/1650018/

I would like say that it has been interesting to see what people have had to say on this topic. It is unfortunate that people resort so frequently to being nasty to one another on the forums but there were those that were not and actually contributed their ideas, opinions and proposed solutions civilly among their fellow players. I also have to say that I agree with a lot that Scrambles has said on this thread and that I think he made some very good points.

There are features in this game that have been left out for far too long. I understand that this game doesn’t need to be like every other game but dueling isn’t make or break… and the implementing of an auto decline duel option would solve the main complaint to the idea, being harassment.

Thats kinda the problem with this game at the moment. The only thing to do after you hit 80 and get the gear look you like is get a legendary. After that, nothing. The end game is supposed to be the same as the pre end game. Well prior to 80 you are working towards something, level 80, maybe map completion. After that you are no longer striving for anything and the game provides you with little to strive for. They need to add more things in the shape of character progression. The games gear grind is aesthetic rather than stat based so their needs to be more gear skins and more ways to get it. Like guilds for each profession that you can do missions for from a job board or something, gain reputation or something and then at different tears buy armor. Just spit-ball’n!

Is it just me or does that look like a particularly busty woman’s upper torso on the front of the Radiant helmet?

I’m not sure if I was clear that I meant profession specific armor aesthetics, and not stats or stat combos. Its not my opinion that a stat combo should ever only be available to one profession and not another. I only meant that the warrior would have skins available to them that the guardian would not and vice versa. The same as cultural armor.

Crossaber.8934:

Bolthar.7192:

I would still like to see this. I know there are dueling servers but I don’t think they quite fulfill the need (is it just me?).

Dueling is necessary for players to have a fair 1v1 battle with their friends without the inevitable 1v1 battle turns into a 3v1 battle ending in rage and exasperation. This also helps a player learn to fight specific classes and hone their skills in a fair environment.

PvE dueling is necessary because players shouldn’t have to go through 2 loading screens and a possible queue to duel with a friend real fast in the mists, then take another 2 loading screens to get back to PvE followed by a waypoint to get close to where they were adventuring before when they decided to have a quick duel.

I feel this feature would be really nice and possibly even introduce PvE players to PvP in a more fun and less frustrating way… among friends and not probably angry strangers.

When it comes to fair fight, using PvE gear is already against “Fairness”. Full exotic vs Full ascended gear already make a difference. This is why we have separate gear for PvP and PvE in the first hand.

Well, that is a very good point. Admittedly I didn’t’ think of that.

smekras.8203:

I’m with Evans on this one. There is no real need for profession-specific skins. We have all the options available to pick and choose precisely how we want our characters to look like (though i have to admit, I’m surprised hoods have not caught on with sylvari in their cultural gear).

I agree with Evans for the most part as well, but the opinion stated was mainly a standing against cliché armor aesthetics. I disagree with you where you say we have all the options available to choose a look for our character, however. It’s my personal opinion that the options are a little shallow with some variation but definitely not enough. With that I’d like to point out that this system would offer a way to add more variation to the gear available (even if it is profession specific) as well as offer players new ways to get gear (skins) in the game and new things to do. Not to mention more character progression.

Evans.6347:

I may have come off a bit pretentious there, though that wasn’t my intention. My opinion is in no way better than yours.

I suppose I’m a bit stuck conceptionally to GW1, with necro’s having rugged, creepy armor, elementalists skimpy dresses and mesmers stuck up formal wear. If I read profession specific, that’s what comes immediately to mind.

I didn’t feel you were being pretentious. I like bouncing ideas back and forth with other players, even if Anet doesn’t take notice. I understood what you were saying though about professions falling into a cliché look. I don’t think it would be bad if some pieces were a little cliché but I’m with you, I honestly would hope that Anet would be a little more liberal and creative than that.

I would still like to see this. I know there are dueling servers but I don’t think they quite fulfill the need (is it just me?).

Dueling is necessary for players to have a fair 1v1 battle with their friends without the inevitable 1v1 battle turns into a 3v1 battle ending in rage and exasperation. This also helps a player learn to fight specific classes and hone their skills in a fair environment.

PvE dueling is necessary because players shouldn’t have to go through 2 loading screens and a possible queue to duel with a friend real fast in the mists, then take another 2 loading screens to get back to PvE followed by a waypoint to get close to where they were adventuring before when they decided to have a quick duel.

I feel this feature would be really nice and possibly even introduce PvE players to PvP in a more fun and less frustrating way… among friends and not probably angry strangers.

I agree. I’ve been really wanting to at LEAST be able to save my trait build. If they wanted to I wouldn’t mind if they gave us only two build save slots and allowed us the ability to buy more build save slots the way they do bags. They have to make money after all. Either way… this is a must, I mean… isn’t it!? The trait system is pretty deep compared to others and there are a lot of different routes and options you can take. Then when you have a different build for WvW, dungeons (on an individual basis sometimes), Fractals and PvP (even though you can save that separately)… it gets really difficult to remember your builds specifically and you have to rely on third party resources. I give your post a +1

Evans.6347:

I think this system is a large step forward from GW1’s profession specific armor. I understand you would like to stand out more as ‘a necromancer’, but what does that actually mean? Does that mean you should be wearing green fuming armor, or lot’s of skulls? Any of those cliché’s?

Personally I’m glad to be done with that. I don’t want my necromancer to look like the most socially inept creep, but rather a civilised, high ranked member of the community, that just happens to be adept at necromancer magic.

The thing is, if you want to look like the cliché (by lack of better words) image of ‘a necromancer’, you can. You can look like whatever you want really. Also, I believe there are already a few vanity boast items, such as legendaries and special dyes, and instead of boosting variety they end up being the standard look you see everywhere, ruining any special value it has.

But that’s just my 2 cents really.

I completely understand what you’re saying but I would like to point out that I only used “Necromancer” as an example. I don’t actively even play a necromancer. But to answer your question as to what it would mean to wear gear unique to professions: it would only give the player more ways to express themselves, and yes stand out as the profession they play. Even if every other player of that profession can get that same gear too if they rank up enough. Second to this, or heck maybe even more primarily, this system would offer new content and ways to get gear skins and as the game progresses more tiers of gear and ranks can be added. Other games have a gear grind based around stats. Well this games grind is in aesthetics and there needs to be more of it.

And you’re right about the legendaries. The legendaries offered players a way to show that they had achieved something challenging and time consuming but since there was nothing for players at level 80 to do BUT get a legendary (I say that loosely) for two years… MANY people have them now and the impressiveness of it is somewhat lost.

Being patient I can do. Perhaps an update on what’s to come is just a day away but as it is not here now I feel a little frustrated.

The living story has added very little to the game as far as content and really only barely appeased the players in giving them something to do it would seem. The new feature pack added some more drive to playing the game, I think, with the wardrobe system and PvP reward lines but still didn’t add any content to the game. So now I play the same stuff I’ve been doing for almost 2 years and get a little better rewarded for it but wonder what is next and when are we going to get real NEW content. That and Anet said to hold on to blade shards and all that stuff because there was gonna be a use for it soon, well I’m still holding it! lol

I really like the new system! Some thoughts, though:

I didn’t like the RNG side of the old system which is why I like the new system. I like that I can see an end goal and work towards it. However I would like to see sPvP specific gear added into the game. Bring back a vendor to sell gear at different ranks that you can only get through PvP. This would allow players to express themselves as PvPers. Give a currency such as Honor Points, or Glory Points again that can be spent at these vendors. No RNG, not a set and not something you have to craft. Just a vendor with a list of gear that you can get at your rank tier and a PvP currency price to get it.

Another thought and my main peeve with the new system. Currently it seems you have a cap to the progress you can make on your reward line. Once you reach this cap all you can do is rank up. Ranking up gives you NO REAL REWARD. It’s very anticlimactic. For players that find the PvP to be their main interest this discourages them from playing the game anymore for the rest of the day until the reset. This needs to be changed.

I would like to see some profession specific gear. Before I get into that I think there should be more ways in this game to express yourself as a player. For example, gear that you can ONLY get by doing sPvP or WvW or dungeons. This would allow players to express themselves as if to say “yes, fellow Tyrians, I am a high ranking PvPer” and so on.

This leads me into the main topic of this post. You see a Necromancer, Mesmer and Elementalist and often you can not tell which is which as they all can have the same gear. I don’t think this is bad but it doesnt allow the player to say “I am a great Necromancer!”

My suggestion is that each profession has a guild and each guild a main base, hall or something. This would be where players can go to get missions from the mission board. Completing missions gives guild rank (and typical rewards). More missions open up based on level and rank. The guild quartermaster also offers new items based on level and rank. These items would be different tiers of armor and weapons, unique to the profession.

This system could help to navigate new players to content in the game as well as existing players to content and maps that don’t get seen so much. This system should also introduce new content into the game that are only activated by the missions. These missions can also hint to players what is to come in near future living story updates or even further future updates.

I would like to say that personally I really like this new wardrobe system. I think it’s great. I have seen some complaints but I think the system is pretty fair from what I’ve experience and understand. However I do believe that the number of skins available is lacking. And by that I mean per armor type (heavy, medium, light) especially, weapons are less lacking. I love the system but there needs to be more skins available and more ways to get them.

With that I’d like to suggest armor and weapon skins that you can only get through pvp. This would give players a way to express themselves to the tune that they are “PvPers” There could also be gear you get from a unique credit you can only get by doing dungeons in addition to the dungeon specific currency. I say this because currently you can get all dungeon armor though PvP. There could also be a set of armor that you can get that is specific to your profession (The implementation for this I have outlined here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Profession-Specific-Gear-1/first#post3990429 ). This, I believe, would be great to see.

I think the gem store needs some changes.

The prices for some items are quite steep. Lowering the prices or giving people more gems for their money will not only help Anet to look less greedy but also give players the feeling of “oh well whats a few gems” when purchasing items. Players will feel like their money is going further and feel more willing to buy things from the gem store.

The Black Lions chests are underwhelming and the keys are over priced.

Most of the armor skins that have been put on the gem store have been relatively unimaginative. That aside, more new armor and weapon models/skins should be entering the game though game content or just as general drops and less through the gem store.

Some may bash it, but I think its worth considering adding features and content into the game that can also help the gem store grow. For example, player housing. This can offer horizontal progression to the game in allowing players to upgrade their homes and add new things through living story content as well as offer potential upgrade items and themes or wall paintings you find through out the game of concept art that can be purchased from the gem store. Armor displays and weapon racks are other ideas.

Service items are the best items to have in a gem store, however new hair styles, eye colors, faces or any other character creation options should actually be present when creating a new character and not just available through those packs. The actual game needs to be growing, not just the gem store. Players that have invested the time to level up a character they care about are going to buy the make over packs over re-rolling their character if they want any of the new options on their new character anyways.

I am really excited about the new changes in the upcoming April 15th update. I am happy to see that dyes are going to be account bound and shared across all characters. It makes sense to remove the random drop of unidentified dyes with this change but I don’t think it should be done.

My reason is this: As you level up in the game as a new player you get new gear here and there and at first your excited about this. Until you realize that all the gear you’re getting looks the same. It’s all just a clone of what you already have with a different name and when you do get a new looking piece of armor… it’s not really all that imaginative. So the excitement diminishes. Then you get an unidentified dye! And the excitement is back.

Granted you don’t always get a very cool dye and it might even look similar to what you already have but it’s still exciting. Removing this kinda feels like removing the only exciting loot you get leveling up. That and it’s going to make it much more rare for a new player to get new dyes. The drop rate isn’t that high to begin with, lower that rate, sure, but removing the drop completely I think hurts the new player.

I believe profession specific content could add a level of horizontal progression as well as other positive attributes to the game. I envision it like this: At a specific level, around 10 or below, you are brought into the Guild or Order of your profession. Here you are given the option of several profession specific missions across Tyria (level appropriate obviously).

These missions would deliver story about the area they take place in and possibly even hint at what’s to come in future content. More so this would help to send players to experience different content in the game in a more purposeful way than dailies do.

Completing these rewards the player normally with karma and coin as well as increases your rank in the Guild or Order. Higher rank offers more missions and allows you access to more items from the Guild/Order quartermaster. At the quartermaster you can purchase different tiers of profession specific armor and weapons. This helps a player to stand out as a high ranking and well accomplished player of their order/guild.

This idea excites me as a player and I’d like to know what the everyone else thinks.

I have been saying this from the start. In one of the posts Anet said that they were surprised by how many skins there are in the game. Well I have yet to see this list but at the moment I am surprised to see so few! This games progression focuses on aesthetics rather than stats. That being so, it is disappointing that you can level to 80 and barely see more than a few variations of gear. And non of them are really all that imaginative.

The game NEEDS MORE ARMOR SKINS! when you pick up an item you should really want to see what it looks like, get excited, not feel like its just a clone of what you already have with a different name that’s probably not even worth looking at before being vendored. That’s my standing and I +1 your post.

I have to +1 this! I am very happy about many of the changes in this “feature pack” but a lot of it probably should have been there from the start or at least within the first year. With as many variations of builds you can make, I think it only makes sense to have this feature to save your favorite build and not have to again rely on third party out-of-game resources to do so. This is one of those features that probably should have been implemented by now or at least soon (I hope).

PART 2

One thing I haven’t mentioned yet is the lack of a proper outlet for currency. Karma gives the player the freedom to pick their own “quest rewards” (so to speak) for completing hearts and dynamic events. Sadly after a player hits 80 there isn’t much karma vendors offer that interests the player (Unless they are a cook). The addition of these factions and their specific vendors offers several new outlets to spend karma and gold.

Moving forward, player housing would be a welcomed addition to the game. It would provide another outlet to spend gold as well as progress in the game. Giving players the ability to buy a house in their home instance, upgrade it, add displays for armor and weapons, earn trophies from achievements and living story content to display and show off to invited guests would not only give players something extra to aspire towards, achieve and boost their ego, but it would also give Anet a new type of item to sell in the trading post. For example, picture frames with concept art that can be hung on the players walls, upgrade construction licence, armor displays (for displaying armor the player has earned, doesn’t wear, but wants to show off or display) weapon racks or displays (same purpose), or even a servant that gathers for you while you’re doing your own thing!

Lastly I’d like to note that any gear in the game that is purchased from a faction, this includes the current cultural gear, should have unique models and should not share models with an item that can be found from a random drop off any random monster. Also special care should be taken when modeling gear so that it can be worn separate from it’s set and still be viable. The light head armor from Arah tokens (hood open in the back) and the heavy leg armor from CoF (shows a happy trail triangle) are examples of gear that looks horribly awkward without the rest of the set.

I appreciate any time you took to read through my suggestions and I hope you found an idea you liked among them. I would love to discuss this topic more but this is already a long post.
Thank you for reading, sincerely,
Jason

Character Progression… I’m glad you asked!

PART 1

First off I’d like to say I love this game. That said, this game (I feel) is in dire need of more character progression.

Character progression while leveling your character up is alright but I feel the lack of real diversity in gear models available to the player as they level up stunts the feeling of progression. That same lack has the same effect on crafting too sadly. The first time I leveled up a craft I was super excited. I kept thinking whats the next item going to look like? Until I realized they never really changed in appearance. Adding new gear models to the game, obtainable via karma vendors as well as drops from enemies, would help boost the feeling of character progression while leveling up. Giving craftable items more varying models would have the same effect. Giving craftable items unique models may even give crafted items more value.

Another area for improvement is combat. The combat in Guild Wars 2 makes combat in other games dull. BUT! I can’t help but feel it needs more variety. Changing the utility skills or adding new ones ins’t enough. I strongly feel that adding maybe 2 more sets of skills to each weapon that players can learn and swap with already existing skills would add a progression to combat that lasts all the way through level 80. The first set may become available at level 50 and the last at level 80. Maybe players have to hunt down the trainers somewhere in the world. Regardless, I think the game would benefit from this.

In a giant world like this I’m surprised by how few factions there are. I would expect to see more private groups in the world with their own values and agendas. And I’m talking about groups that the players can join or help. Currently there are 3, really. The Vigil, Priory and the Order of Whispers. I think giving the players more factions in the game that they can earn reputation or fame with would give the players more to achieve and add another element of progression to the game. Adding items and gear available at different fame levels with these factions would be the reward to aiding each faction. The factions ideally would have “missions” that players could do that would reward fame, karma, gold and experience.

On the topic of factions – Giving each profession it’s own “Guild” could also add a similar element of progression. The idea would be fairly the same. As players level up missions open up that players get from their “profession master.” Completing these reward the player with the usual karma, gold and experience with the addition of fame or reputation within their profession guild. At different tears of fame new gear and items become available for purchase. This gives the opportunity to add profession specific gear in the game. Both of these ideas offer new potential options to add to the daily and monthly achievement options as well.

Am I the only one who feels that the prices on items in the Gem store are a bit high? I realize that Anet needs to make money on the game after release and I even frequently support them by buying gems, but I feel like my money doesn’t go very far.

I purchased this game for $60. At the current prices, with that amount of money, I could only buy 6 armor skin sets or 8 weapon skins. With that said, 800 gems for a complete set of 6 skins and then later 400 gems for one piece of the toxic skins seems a little wrong. And I know how you might defend that decision, but it still doesn’t seem right. I don’t think they should be giving things away but some prices seem a bit harsh. 5 keys cost $5.62 at the 5 key bulk discount.

It feel like if players money went further on the gems store they would feel a lot more willing to purchase gems and get more satisfaction out of their purchase of gems. I don’t think all things are over priced, but some of it, I do. And maybe not even by all that much but I still feel it makes the difference.

I wish your lost piece/skin would be returned to you. That said, thanks for the warning and for sharing it so matter-o-factly and free of readable rage as I would expect you to express.

I think people are starting to understand me. there is a limited feeling of progression all across this game, sadly. Combat, crafting, even leveling feels limited.

They could add something like a “class guild” like the vigil, priory, shadow idea. Except there would be different sets of gear that you could purchase at different levels and different levels of “reputation” earned by doing class specific “quests.” Earning class armor sets would be cool IMO.

I’ve already mentioned a lot of this but upgradable player housing, new weapon skills that can be learned, unique models spread out throughout crafting professions, more challenges to overcome and rewards to show off those feats (more than just legendary weapons and dungeons)… I think all of these things would be great! Limiting character progression primarily to cosmetic changes at level 80 as far as PvE is concerned is underwhelming at best.

To me, character progression is pushing your character forward in some way. Generally speaking this could be getting better gear (in power or cosmetics), leveling up crafts, gaining access to features (more traits slots as you level up as an example), better/faster/cooler mounts (remember I said generally speaking), learning new combat skills, acquisition of a player home, etc.

So in my previous posts what I was trying to explain is the addition of things like what I suggested could at least aid in the feeling of character progression. Different and new gear models between 1 and 80 would help give the feeling that your character is becoming more of a hero and advancing by actually LOOKING like the gear they are wearing isn’t still level 10 gear. Adding new weapon skills would make combat feel like it was actually advancing and changing as well. Sure we gain new utility skills as we level up, but how many of them do we actually like enough to use often? And we all know we use our weapon skills the most and tend to stick to a few favorites. Anyways, I was just pushing out some ideas or examples. Mentioning currency was only to say these sort of things could be an outlet for that karma pile-up.

I’m not trying to start a debate, just trying to express a concern.

You’ve all misunderstood me. I apologize for not being clear. I do not expect more levels or want them, nor am I asking for more story content or even dungeons necessarily. I’m not complaining that there is no character progression within the personal story. Neither am I asking for a way to spend currency.

What I’m trying to say is that at end game character progression seems to stop. Cosmetic changes are mainly all you have to work with (referring to character progression). And sadly most of the unique armor and weapon models are only available at level 80. This makes leveling less exciting because you will rarely see gear that looks any different then the gear you saw at level 10. This also makes crafting less exciting because again the models are all the same for the most part up to level 400.

With that said I meant to point out that there’s a lot of things that could be added to the game to allow players further horizontal progression of their characters. Such as adding unique gear models throughout the game and into crafting pre level 400 or player housing with the option of upgrades purchased with karma or gold or maybe unique armor SETS built from rare materials from rare monsters or creatures in the game (a visible feat to show off other than just legendary weapons), or giving each weapon another set of skills to be learned and swapped out for the old ones and so on.

Progression feels limited and despite the living story, it makes the game feel a bit empty.

I have a million karma and nothing really to spend it on, gold accumulating and nothing to spend it on either (repairs and way point travel?). Leveling crafting is expensive and unexciting due to the reuse of the same basic models over 400 levels. The living story is cool, but finishing it rewards you with little to nothing. Map completion feels accomplishing but rewards you with a gift used for building a legendary and not much else – not an ambition I’m interested in but I’m starting to feel is the only thing left to do.

I’m not here to bash on GW2, just point out that it needs more character progression for its players. How about adding unique models to the craftable items between 1 and 400. How about adding more gear models between levels 1 and 80. There is no gear grind and I love that, but if there are no bigger numbers to get excited about then the chance for a cool new model to wear should exist. That is the most exciting part of getting new gear and it’s completely missing.

How about an outlet for Karma that isn’t just cooking materials or leveling-gear. Or a HOME in our home instance to upgrade and customize. Things to hunt in the game, rare monsters or plants or ore that yield rare materials to make unique armor sets. Give us new weapon skill sets to learn for each weapon per character. I’m just spit-balling here, but the point is, I think More character (horizontal) progression is needed.

Other suggestions

If you like these ideas give it a +1. Or be more specific and list the ideas you do like and the ones you don’t. Give other suggestions. Give feedback, I love to hear it.

Here is a list of things I think would be beneficial to GW2 if added. This is devided into 3 catagories, Features, Content and Other Suggestions which is primarily ideas that could be considered less expected and more just a suggestion from a zealous player.

Spoilers hide details to the suggestion for readability.

Features

-Player invite from right-clicking player name in chat

-Fix the UI text when set to small

Content

Continued below…

The wiki should not be a games source of lore. And yes there are books lying around but as someone else has stated they don’t say much. The conversation that you hear from NPC’s tells a little, at least about the immediate area that you are standing in. My reason for posting this I guess is to address that there is a large gap in the game as far as lore goes and there is a lot of potential to make really interesting stories that can make the game deeper and more interesting.

I am not trying to bag on GW2 or talk it down. I enjoy this game and want to see it do well. It’s only about a year old, I know, but there is still A LOT that can be done with it that would make it better.

philgo.1480:

Maybe if you guys could upvote my post and tell your friends to do so as well, maybe we would have more chances that it reach Anet crews !

lol, feel you there! Also I was thinking the same thing. I already feel like the game is seriously lacking on the variety of models for both weapons and armor and the skins given for the achievement system was a good idea but more variety would be nice. Giving them for completing specific achievements would be good too! Not just once you’ve got a ton of points you get to chose one of one theme of skins.

The game takes place 250 years after the first. Yet there is little lore around for the players to find. Orr is in ruin, the dragons are waking up and stuff got real! Ok, well I’m not looking for any spoilers to the story but I would like to find things in the game that are truly old that give a little lore to the game. I don’t want a few NPC’s and bits of info dropped form the personal story and that’s it.

I would love to see some explorable ruins with old books, journals, tomes and scrolls that the player can pick up and read (not in NPC conversation UI either) and learn a little about the past and the lore and what happened here. These things should tie in with possible upcoming content – the soon to be released and the still very far off releases.

250 years… where’s the lore? Ruins under water and Orr should not be all there is. There could be events where excavation teams uncover an old ruin under ground and change the look of a map forever.

I think that Humans are humans and they should not be separated by nationality. I do support the addition of Cantha however. I just hope not to see a new “race” added that is just humans with different customization options. It would be interesting to be able to select different types of humans and Charr – maybe a type that still stands straight and proud – and the other playable races in character creation if this was to be included in an expansion at some point.

Good idea. I’ve played other games that have this and it is very handy!

Well, that’s pretty much it. Dyes with a glow to them or other visual effects.

I really hope they do something like this at some point as the player already has a lacking feeling of progression in the game and with dynamic event systems main purpose to make the player feel like they matter, it’s hardly giving that illusion at all. This would change that I think.

On the topic of weapon skills, I think maybe an even better way of dealing a horizontal feeling of progression to the combat and weapon system would be to have new skills just unlock on their own the more you use them. This happens already with the default weapons but I’m talking about something different. you get your default skills and then after that your weapon has it’s own “experience bar” you might say, where the more you use it the more skills become available and are swappable with the current default skills. Then the weapon masters can come into play at level 80 just to add a little more progression. You find your weapon master (maybe in a dungeon path, or at the end of an extensive jumping puzzle or any other difficult area to reach) and you have to “prove yourself worthy” by defeating him with the weapon he specializes in. Then you learn your master skill.

On the topic of adding weapons, I think a great axe and a pole arm type weapon would be enough to add a complete feeling to the weapons available. Big Tower is right about the work that would go into that many weapons and a lot of them are kinda repetitive to current ones.

Sirendor, I feel the same way as you. The map is huge, lots to explore, the game is fun. But… it does get stale. One thing that I think is missing in this game is the progression that should accompany an RPG. There isn’t enough in the game that makes me feel like my character is progressing.

Leveling up, my character finds very few different looking armor sets to make it feel like I’m becoming more of a hero or more powerful. Same with crafting. By level 10 I could have every skill for every weapon available to my class and from then on nothing changes for my combat other than the utility skills. I could use weapons I don’t like and switch it up, but that defeats the “play your way” idea and doesn’t provide any feeling of progression anyways.

Adding a new class would be great, but it wouldn’t fix the progression issue. You’d play the new class and after a time be right back where you are now. I imagine a weapon system where the more you use a certain weapon, the more skills are unlocked for it. This would go on after you unlock your defaults and at a much slower pace than the defaults. Things like this where your class progresses horizontally are needed in games like this. Maybe each profession is represented by its respective organization where it can do missions and gain popularity with said organization and eventually buy profession specific gear from that organization at different popularity tiers. You get the idea. This is the kind of thing that I think is missing.

They really need to update the trading post. I feel it could be done better. But in the mean time, some additional filters would make sense.

I don’t think they will every add mounts to the game and I’m not sure that I want them to. I also wont say I’m against it at this point. I was thinking about this idea the other night where you would catch a mount sized creature in the wild and it would become a companion to you without control options like the ranger pet to keep it distinct. But maybe it could walk with you and attack your target. It would have a loyalty bar and the more you used it the more loyal it would become and additional options would become available. Maybe armor it up (only cosmetically, no stats) or run slightly faster.

Anyways it was just a bit of my imagination taking off, thought I’d share with you all. Again, I don’t really stand on either side of the mount debate. I will say this though, Mounts would allow people to skip content by simply running past everything, but it could also encourage players to explore more once they are 80 and they don’t want to fight things, just explore the world. Maybe in the alternate universe where you all got your mounts it wold be a level 80 prestige

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

I’m against this. What makes this game really interesting to me is how many different ways you can combine the fixed weapon skills with traits, utilities, and tactics to still have a lot of viable options. (Others might point out, correctly, that there are very few optimal variations. But, that’s true by the definition of “optimal.”)

Originally, I expected to hate the GW2 system, but now I wish more games did something similar.

One reason I’m against this: I really hate the scavenger hunt for skills and much prefer being able to unlock skills by playing.

It would be nice if they could make it so that the more you use a certain weapon the more skills will unlock. I’m not talking a ton more, just a few options for each slot. Then have the master skills optional. These skills would all be available to you in PvP though.