Guild Wars 2

redacted by moderator, as the quoted text has been moderated

To me, WoW is deeply flawed. There are some things it does well, better than any other MMO, but it has many terrible mechanics. It’s rather depressing to watch other developers cranking out more WoW clones, all with the same terrible mechanics as the original, instead of looking at gamers who are not interested in WoW and trying to cater to their requirements instead.

It’s therefore also a relief for us to find a game like GW2 that does things a bit differently and in a way which works for us.

Apotheosis.3786:

I never claimed to want raiding because I don’t. It just wouldn’t work with this games combat system at all.

What would you like to see at end game that it doesn’t have, then?

Is there an option to switch on player health bars so that you see them permanently above their heads? I think this would be easier way to follow people’s status, and you could then direct your healing by just clicking people on the screen or directing your AoE there.

P.S. Raid frames are evil. That squares thing that healers use in That Other Game is an abomination unto skilled play and must be banished from your thoughts. Just focus your mind on nice shiny guardian bubbles until the feeling goes away.

Birdy.4816:

Realm v Realm’s effects on the world are so minor.

Do you mean you think the only reason to WvW is for the Realm effects?

Birdy.4816:

PvE dungeon Crawling is non existant due to the horrible grind, lack of cleverly designed boss mechanics…. and only 1-2 80 dungeons… 1500 token grind is FUN FUN FUN.

Sounds really boring to me. Why do it at all if you already have crafting at max level?

If you don’t like exploring, sPvP, WvW and levelling alts what made you pick this game to play? What would make your end game fun – better dungeons?

pmiles.3489:

Rift… was too much like WoW. Stopped playing it.
SWTOR… was too much like WoW. Stopped playing it.
TERA and TSW… didn’t bother, I could already tell it was going to be too much like WoW. Saved my money.

GW2… totally unlike WoW. Finally, a game developer that gets it. Too bad it didn’t hit the scene 5 years ago… I would have had 5 years of GW2 under my belt by now.

Actually TSW isn’t very much like WoW at all, it’s actually a lot more like GW2. I’m really pleased to see two major MMOs moving away from mechanics which I personally don’t like.

I think Anet released that statement because a lot of people are complaining about dungeons not being good enough to count as end-game. It’s a reminder of all the things they said prior to release that people didn’t see or take into account when buying the game.

I’ve never considered GW2 something I would log in and play every night, because it’s not really the kind of game I want to play. But it’s better than most other theme parks, and I’ve found that after reaching level 80 there is still plenty for me to do.

Maybe when I’ve got my exotic gear, finished levelling my crafting to 400, levelled my alt to 80, explored the entire map and burned myself out on WvW and sPvP… well, then I will be finished with the game.

I like exploring and I’m glad this is included as end game content. I find dungeons boring so I’m glad I’m not required to play them. I’m also glad there is a stat plateau to the gear grind.

All the things you list as not being worthy of “end-game” were continuously advertised prior to the game’s release.

So, out of curiosity… what did you actually expect that you weren’t given? It sounds like you were expecting a suprise new gameplay experience to emerge at level 80. What made you think that was going to happen?

With dungeons – I think “finding who to blame” is the wrong approach. I also think you should go and read the dungeons forum for tips, because (from what I have read) if you are repeatedly wiping then your whole group is doing something wrong.

I agree that world bosses can be very boring – stand there, dodge occasionally, spam dps at a massive health bar. I would like to see Anet try to make those fights a bit more intelligent and interesting.

No.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Gold-selling-nightmare/first#post104659

What happens if you die and you have no money on your character? Or in your bank?

In your traits panel click the bit at the top in the middle that says “refund trait points”

The game mail is account specific when it’s from other players.

It’s only character specific when you’re getting thank you messages from renown heart NPCs and invitations to dungeons from story NPCs.

First of all I haven’t come across anything that can perma-CC me to the point I can’t do anything, as there are a lot of CC removal/mitigation and counter CC skills.

Second, I don’t agree with CC immunity timers – I think this is a lazy way of dealing with too much CC. It’s a very poor design solution, and I’m glad it hasn’t been used in GW2.

Yes, this would be very handy.

I’m not aware of any achievement for this, and I fall off things a lot.

I would like my sacrifices to the god of broken armour at vistas and other high places of interest to be recognised in some way.

I’m sure some people would get this just by repeatedly jumping from a height, but maybe you could restrict the amount of times “death from falling” counts towards the achievement if too many deaths occur within a certain amount of time.

Is there a /roll or /dice feature? This would be the easiest thing to ask for that would allow groups of players to create their own gambling game in a tavern somewhere in Lion’s Arch.

I have memories of a player on Dark Crag in WAR standing on a tent and conducting some game of chance (I forget what) with in game gold. It was quite popular.

Agree, the moment I get them I delete them.

I don’t want to use them, I can’t sell them, and they take up precious inventory space.

The cost of waypoints has completely changed the way I play. When I hit level 80 and was trying to PvE on Orr it was costing far too much to travel between different areas, so I tried to run through them on foot instead. While this is possible in lower level areas, in Orr I ended up dying too much and had massive gear repair bills instead.

As a result I now run everywhere, and when I’m travelling through Orr I slowly fight my way to where I’m going one mob at a time. If I want to travel across the map I go to the nearest asura gate, or hop into the Heart of the Mists and use the asura gate to Lion’s Arch.

When I log in I now spend about half the evening making my through Orr, and then usually hop back to Lion’s Arch to do crafting.

I’ve actually been enjoying the challenge of trying to complete the content I want to without spending all my money travelling or dying too much along the way. I like the fact I’ve hit an obstacle that requires me to think about how I play and adapt to it to get stuff done. I’ve also seen a lot more of the game world than I would have otherwise.

If this is the playstyle the devs intended, then great.

I would honestly like a centaur, but I appreciate that would cause a lot of problems in the animation and armour department so I wouldn’t expect it to be offered as a choice.

Failing that maybe an ogre?

There is another thread on the front page (as I type) asking if people have noticed load times getting longer.

Perhaps there is a connection here somewhere… if I could just put my finger on it…

;)

lacrimstein.5603:

Releasing a skeleton of an MMO with an action-oriented combat system isn’t something “new in an MMO”. Sure, there are many improvements in this game, and I’m enjoying myself – but, a lot of things present in other MMOs were stripped out of GW2 for no good reason, really.

Out of interest, what do you think was stripped out for no good reason?

It’s funny, cos I was thinking the opposite – a lot of really annoying or pointless stuff that I don’t like in MMOs was stripped out of GW2 and replaced with better mechanisms. It’s a shame they kept classes and levelling too, but you can’t have everything.

Well, thanks for the explanations, I understand now how it works :P

Since the penalty is only present if you have gear lower than your level I don’t see how it negates the effect of levelling. You have better traits and a bigger range of utility skills to choose from which will likely offset any minor penalty from having underlevelled gear.

I used blue/green drops the entire time I was levelling up, which meant that my gear was usually no more than about 10 levels below my current level – when I went to e.g. a level 20 area at level 40 I felt I was killing mobs faster, and able to survive longer than I had when I was in that area at level 20. The lower level the area the more noticeable the effect is. If you go as a level 80 to a level 10 area you’ll find mobs hp just melts away like butter under a blowtorch and they barely do any damage to you.

Also, the gear disparity issue is a temporary one that will disappear at 80.

I got to level 80 last week but I haven’t had that feeling that I’ve done everything yet. I haven’t finished levelling my crafting, I still need to finish my personal storyline, I’ve got a long way to go before I get a full set of exotic armour and weapons. I’ve only completed ~50% of the map (on all characters) and I love exploring. I barely have time to WvW right now. I still have my alt to level. I would also like to try more sPvP.

Idk if that all counts as “end-game” but I’m spending a lot more time in this game than I originally planned.

I only hope I am not required to grind a dungeon to get exotic gear because I tried one already and it was really boring.

I clicked on this topic expecting to see some norn complaining about his man breast issue. I was disappointed.

But the higher level areas do have quite a nasty respawn rate.

I’m not aware of level scaling the way you describe it. It was my understanding that Level 10 gear will add exactly the same stats to a level 11 character as it would to a level 10 character.

According to the wiki the only level scaling is the environmental version, which reduces you to the effective level based on the mobs surrounding you (source).

Can you explain more about how this level scaling you refer to is supposed to work?

Really nice idea

I don’t really notice coin drops from mobs, but you can check the vendor prices of items by just going onto the trading post and searching for drops at different levels. Hovering your mouse over the icons of the pieces of gear will tell you the vendor price.

My stats went up every time I levelled. Why are yours going down? Are you visting areas which reduce your effective level?

I love the crafting. But it’s taken quite a lot of work to get my crafting professions levelled up, even with me harvesting/mining/chopping every node I came across from level 1 to 80.

You need to add the time it took you to get enough money to buy all the materials on the trading post.

I found I was getting careless at level 80 and spending way too much on travelling, reviving at waypoints and mending gear.

In the last few days I’ve been a lot more careful when running around in PvE, and tried really hard not to die a lot. And I’ve stopped using waypoints to zip everywhere. I’ve actually been enjoying the challenge of keeping my costs down.

The way the game is at the moment, waypoints are a luxury/emergency assistance point, not a mode of transportaion.

Treble.9378:

I see alotta people making the claims that alotta the skills in WoW were useless.. When infact they were not, lol.
I’m not sure where this got started, but as an Enh Shaman, fury/arms/defense War, and Feral Druid, there was never any lack of useful skills you had at your disposal going from vanilla-wotlk WoW (which is where I stopped).

I haven’t played WoW, but games with similar skill set ups (SWTOR, WAR, AoC) you had a lot of skills that did very similar things in a slightly different way – there was so much redundancy it seemed quite poor design to me. Then you would have a few skills that were so situational they weren’t really used much but you felt obliged to make room on your bar for them just in case.

Treble.9378:

The weapon swapping in this game also feels terrible atm imo due to the HUGE cooldowns on the weapon swap ability.
I can see why it was supposed to be awesome, but it just feels so janky in pvp atm as a Warrior switching from melee to range.

If this is a problem there is a trait in the discipline tree that reduces that. I like to swap weapons a lot so it was a priority for me, and I’m constantly switching.

I hope we don’t have any limits on our block list.

Edit – Regina said that scamming or spamming is fine and that they may add an option for gold sellers.

I don’t understand what the no. of skills on your skill bar has to do with immersion?

I love the skill system. I dislike games which have vast numbers of skills and hundreds of keybinds. And in GW you still retain flexibility and a range of options because of the weapon swaps.

I’ve stopped using waypoints at all, they’re too expensive for me at this stage. I want to save my gold for other things.

So now if I want to travel somewhere I use the Asura gates and run the rest of the way. If I have difficulty running past mobs (which can be tricky in Orr) I just suck it up and spend an hour getting to the place I want to go, gradually killing mobs and doing events along the way.

I found it inconvenient at first, but now it’s kind of fun, because if i want to go somewhere it feels like a real journey. No more instant gratification!

Edit: in contrast to the previous poster, I’ve seen a lot more areas than I would have otherwise if I was instantly zipping to waypoints all the time.

Ganadorf.3460:

I think they made the zone to be underwater, then decided that since no one likes underwater content, they made it land level, and then wrote the lore around that

Lol.

- I love underwater content.

- I like Orr – it’s not the prettiest zone, but it’s full of fascinating things and ancient ruins. I really like the remains of coral and other stuff that suggests it’s been at the bottom of the sea for the last two hundred years.

- I agree that lots of contested waypoints is inconvenient, but it does make it feel like a genuine invasion. The further into Orr you go, the fewer players and allies you find, and the more enemies you come across.

- I agree that Risen are boring – never been a fan of zombies. However, they do fit the theme and it’s not like they are going to be the only level 80 content.

- Am I right in thinking Orr is not the only level 80 zone? I see a lot of unexplored content on my map (38% right now) and I don’t think those bits are all levelling areas.

From the thread in the General Discussion section:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Why-no-direct-trade/73059

Just wondering if the devs have said anything about this feature being planned or not.

TurtleofPower.5641:

The trinity is played out, and finding groups isn’t fun with it.

However I think GW2 could do more with group gameplay. Right now group play is basically focusing fire, and helping the occasional downed player.

Champion fights are watching a bar go down.

It just feels kind of like strategy doesn’t really matter that much.

One big problem perhaps is that cause and effect feels weak. Instead of a melee character making their work count by knocking down that bad boss with their hammer… the boss just flicks up immune and tells you to DPS more or get out. In this example I’m saying that the boss shouldn’t just be a big ball of hit points that you wail on forever and kills you with super attacks. Instead, why not have a cool weakness to the boss like knockdown lasts extra seconds… you see, then they can start to build scenarios where people are doing things to make their effort focused and not just mashing through combat.

QFT. Maybe they should make more of the combo system to enhance group play and fighting bosses.

OK, thanks for the reply.

Gosh. Really?

Think of it as a form of natural selection and you will probably feel much better about it.

EntropicTempest.2759:

However this game is about looking cool and not getting really powerful, so on that note it would be nice if there were unique dungeon skins in each dungeon, one light, one medium, and one heavy, and each boss had a chance to drop up to one (or two, doesnt matter as long as there is a decent chance of at least one dropping) piece of armor with that unique armor skin, and make it bind on pickup/account.

That’s a nice idea, for people who like doing dungeons.

Nozgeth.9638:

AND that’s why there isn’t a fair player to player trading system; “forcing” people to use the trading post prevents people from circumventing the gold sync and Allows the buyer to see the sales price history of an item. This educates they about fair price and keeps the game economy more in Areananet’s control.

If you and a buddy or guild mate are selling stuff to each other cheap or something you already have a bond of trust that allows you to use mail should you desire.

Is this supposition on your part, or is there a statement from a dev anywhere that specifically says this? If so, could you link it?

In GW1 there was no trading post and no mail system, so all trades were advertised on forums or in-game trade channels, and took place directly between players. There was actually quite a vibrant economy, and prices fluctuated based on supply and demand. It was difficult sometimes for a less experienced player to know what price to haggle towards, but extensive ‘price check’ threads developed on the guru forums and that helped a lot.

So to go from that system to the complete opposite is quite a leap and I have no idea whether this is a deliberate policy, or whether a direct player to player trade window is just something Anet haven’t got around to putting in yet.

I find I am constantly underlevelled for the area I am trying to do. Doing every renown heart, finding most vistas and POIs, resurrecting players & NPCs, keeping my personal story up to date, gathering everything I see and crafting (when I have enough mats) leaves me about 2-3 levels down.

The other options are WvW or hopping to a different area. However, I don’t want to burn myself out on WvW by doing it too much, and I want to leave some areas undiscovered for when I play my alts.

The best solution I’ve found is actually running back through the area you’ve just done and joining in as many dynamic events as you can find. Ones with incoming waves of enemy NPCs are best.

ozymandias.5317:

Just speculation, but part of the reason could be that it makes monitoring for external gold sellers much easier. If the only way to transfer is through the mail system, and you are limited to 10 mails at a time, restricts people being able to transfer large amounts of gold easily and unnoticed.

Hmm, even with the 10 mail limit we’re getting regular spam about buying gold. So I don’t think that would limit RMT via the mail system?

Dungeons do seem lacklustre. I only did Twilight Arbour in story mode and we didn’t even complete it, but it was very dull.

However, I’m actually glad that gear grind in dungeons is not the main focus of the game. It would be a horribly boring game if that were so.

A lot more emphasis has been put on exploring, which is a lot more fun.

VicSkimmr.3216:

only if we get to bite your ankles

This attitude is precisely why asura would be such great cannonballs! Ankle biting may commence after being thrown into the midst of the enemy.

Just wondering why this feature isn’t in. Is it planned?

Mightylink.3816:

I always wanted to dual mage, hold 2 asuras who shoot magic for me.

Ooh, I didn’t think of that but now I want to do that too.

Which bit would you…? No, forget I asked.

Norn should be able to pick up asura players and throw them as projectiles

There are plenty of small objects such as boulders, spades, icicles etc that players can pick up and throw at enemies.

I think asura players should be added to those interactive objects.

Every time you see one hopping past don’t you just get the overpowering urge to grab onto those floppy little ears and start whirling it round your head?

So who’s with me on this one…?