Guild Wars 2

On Christmas day, I bought my GF AND myself the digital upgrade from the gem store using in-game gold. This cost me about 52G. Granted, I’ve been saving a looong time. However, this is my advice to you. Save your gold, and buy yourself the upgrade with gems.

edit: The upgrade is on sale btw for 1600 gems last time I checked.

Gummy.4278:

you know what would be nice if all those present spawning all over the world, that when opened, the toys inside can literally have the “stuffing” knocked out of them!

I bet a lot more people would try to fight them then, cause as it is now I see people run open it grab the present and run away….

This Sir or Ma’am, is a fantastic idea.

This

Raincrow.1840:

As long as people support RNG, Anet will keep useing it.

If you bought a bunch a chests, or threw things into the Forge hoping to win, and then came here to complain after you didn’t get what you wanted…. It’s YOUR FAULT.

You already voted IN FAVOR of RNG with your wallet. Coming here to complain after the fact is pointless.

Just remember next time, if you don’t like RNG, don’t support it in game. That’s the only way to stop ANet from using it in the future.

Silentstorm.7531:

@Jsmooth but it’s not like you can’t come up with things to make it interesting. But i guess the argument would be we had to come up with it ourselves. Which usually ends up being a flame fest on forums.

Coming up with things ourselves? Like in GW1 where players would come up with skill combinations?

In GW1, elite skills could be used to define an entire build. In GW2, the elites seem like a slightly more powerful version of a utility skill. For example, on my GW1 warrior I could create different hammer playstyles based on different hammer elites. I could swap out other skills that would give me a totally different feel for playing the character.

If I swapped out different utility skills or even elites in GW2, I still have the same basic playstyle (for a given weapon). I may swap out situational skills like a combo fire field for a projectile reflection wall.. but my overal attack strategy doesn’t change much. I could also change from a crit build to a condition build… but again (imho) that doesn’t change much either.

I know GW2 isn’t GW1. I get that. GW2 does a lot right. I like having to move around during combat. But there are things about GW1 that I miss most severly.

“- Fourth, and strangest of all, you’re talking about other MMOs and their ability bloat, without once mentioning macro’ing and razer nagas – guilty consciences perhaps?”
– I think i used 10 macros my entire WoW career , pally tank FTW!
One to display guild vent info.
One to activate a shield-invulnerable ability / turn it off
One to describe a boss fight in Raid chat
One to spam “/cluck” for… well, you know
One to target a group member with a taunt or shielding ability
and I forgot the rest.

“Elimination of fluff abilities: Yes, you have 10 weapon abilities and 5 utilities. Maybe some class-specific stuff on top. That is actually a lot and here’s why:”
- your opinion. The ability bars in GW2 have been simplified. But, I still classify some abilities as “fluff” or at least less than optimal. That means I have less abilities that I’d normally use do to the reduced options we’re pulling from.

“Let’s take the example of WoW.”
– I’d actually like to take GW1 for example…

“Hunters for years could reduce their entire heroic raid rotation to one macro button – or rather 2 macros in-game combined with one button macro on a macro mouse.”
- I actually liked my (survival) hunter. When I played it in WotLK it was more than the generic 4-button rotation that plagued a lot of the classes. There were classes/specs in WoW that I stopped playing, because they could be reduced to a 4-button snooze-fest.

“I see it all the time, bad players assume that fewer abilities means less buttons to press.”
- I dare say some “good players” also assume this. Why are you stereotyping?

“But the depth of combat is very high in GW2 when you realise it has no fluff at all…”
- again, your opinion

I’m actually looking at this from the perspective of my main in GW2 (Hammer Guardian). I have 2 main abilities and 3 situational crowd control ones that do not last very long. I do have to move a lot during fights, but the actually fighting / swinging of the hammer is fairly simplistic. I honestly think GW1’s skill pool spoiled people like me.

Grim West.3194:

As others have said GW2 has some depth, but there just isn’t a need for it. GW2 is extremely easy. You don’t have to think or do anything, just hit auto attack and go to sleep.

What brought it all home to me were the little dolls that popped from the presents. Suddenly I had to stay away and actually think a bit to beat them. Use a little strategy and turn off my autoattack. I enjoyed the challenge of them and was opening presents just to fight them.

But apparently the complaining masses spooked the devs because I haven’t seen them the last couple of days. The other mobs that pop are the autoattack while you sleep type.

There is no challenge to GW2 and frankly the game sucks because of it.

I saw the creepy dolls in WvW yesterday. They’re still here o.0

What was typed was…

Field Marshal.7946:

Why don’t you lower the price even more of your Incinerator and ensure it sells?

What I saw was…

Field Marshal.7946:

Why don’t you lower the price even more of your Incinerator so I can buy it cheaper?

:)

@Charismatic Harm:

What i meant was…
The person “manipulating” the prices will buy these reduced items then post them again to sell at a higher margin. That higher margin has to compensate for the TP fees or the player will not make a profit due to having to actually buying the item first (to be resold).

but YES, it can work. There are probably people out there using this method right now.

Intersting theory Charismatic Harm. That could very well work, depending on the price of the item and the 10-15% fees (depending who you ask). Though I will say, I’ve seen my fair share of 20s drops just sitting there on the “to sell” list along with everyone else.

However in this case…

Kid Taylor.5479:

Or they could buy me out, which I want, faster sells, higher return on my investment.

I don’t think this was Kid’s intent… unless he’s lying.

Kid Taylor.5479:

No really, someone else will simply undercut me by 1c. If I undercut by 20s, they have to think twice before doing so. Do they want to take the loss, or do they want to undercut me? Or they could buy me out, which I want, faster sells, higher return on my investment.

Kid…
You don’t know if someone else will undercut you or not… 1c or 20s.
I normally undercut by 1c, else I’ll lose profit.
If someone undercuts me, it doesn’t bother me much. My stuff normall still sells; unless it is not a highly desired item.

If you undercut by 20s, I have 2 options.
1) I still undercut you by 1c if the profit margin is there. I’ll still get my stuff sold first.
or
2) I wait for your stuff to sell first. Then, I post my stuff at a 1c undercut and make more profit than you…

Either way, your ROI is less… unless your product doesn’t sell at all.
- my opinions of course

azizul.8469:

back in early days, i thought 1 gold was a lot. now as my characters are in their 80s, 1gold is very easy to get. getting 4g is easy by farming orichalcum/omnom with my 3 characters….

Hmm… we seem to have the opposite problem. When the game was released, I just played the game and had fun and saved enough to buy a bank slot and a couple of character slots. I didn’t have to try to farm. The gold came naturally from regular play.

Now it’s harder for me to scrap together enough gold to convert to gems. I can make a little money from dungeon/fractal runs. But the time/effort invested to equal the same buying power seems a lot steeper.

I’m not trying to complain, just making an observation.

My suggestions for adding combat depth:

1) Adding more skills to each player’s skill pool.
2) Have conditions/boons last longer or have a greater impact.
3) Add a 3rd layer to combos… think Chronotrigger
4) Different combo interations… maybe combo fields could interact with each other.
5) Stronger environmental weapons
6) Diverse boss fight mechanics

Galen Grey.4709:

My suggest is play what you enjoy and not to get the best reward. The game is perfectly designed to allow just that.

This. (fixed)

Practice, Patience, Purpose

I think the OP is talking about gems.

http://www.gw2spidy.com/gem
– very handy

I would put my money/gold on it bugging because of group members leaving.
I attempted this 2x on the 15th. Some of the group left (both times), the rest of us attempted this achievement and clear everything we could see. I spammed skill 1 on staff guardian to no avail.

On the 16th (yesterday) the whole group decided to stay. We completed the achievement easily and quickly.

There is always the possibility that the achievement isn’t bugged and we just missed an invisible tree for 30minutes. However, just because you get the achievement on the first try doesn’t mean it won’t bug for someone else.

Borked.6824:

Give us something like amped up healing with traits (God forbid we actually use healing gear to), or give shield-wielders a way to elongate their mitigation for longer periods of time, or give leather wearers more endurance and avoidance traits. Lots can be done to liven up professions (from 1-80, and on) without having to call the change “Operation Trinity-Up the Broken GW2.”

I would like to see more of this. But, I’m afraid it would push combat too close to trinity roles for the GW2 player base to accept. Then, we’d have another forum implosion with people crying out “ANET LIED TO US!!!!” among other things.

Currently with GW2 combat, I always feel like a dps with limited other weaker skills.

akamon.2769:

change the formatting, words you use, etc

for e.g. you can start with your standard “LFG SE Exp”
then after a while, if no responses, you can then go “LFG SE any path! come join!”
etc etc
and you shouldn’t get surpressed as easily or as fast.

this works once or twice… but after that, you still get suppressed for like 15 / 20 minutes =P

I’m not filling up the chat box … I’m just trying to find a group

Nashaan.3160:

I don’t know why you wouldn’t use a tool that will get you a group faster, even if it is from a 3rd party website.

It’s the principle of the thing. The website is a quick fix for an issue that needs a better solution.

Nashaan.3160:

If your messages are suppressed, I’m pretty sure I read somewhere on these forums you can just log out and log back in to fix that, or is that something you don’t want to do either?

Thank you for the suggestion. I did not know about that. However, no need for the attitude.

ReginaBuenaobra.6953:

The Wintersday event web page has been updated with a full schedule of all events taking place: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/december-2012/

Thank you

hurry (with the LFG tool) that is

I’d like to ask the people of LA for a SE exp group. But, I can’t. My messages are suppressed.

Don’t tell me to go to a LFG website…

Please hurry Anet. I’d like to play.

It’s the week of the 14th.

Have you guys found any info about Wintersday beside the little bit on the official page?

I know about the backstory on GW2hub… but what about this year?

9) if a boss has a one-shot mechanic, prevent them from using it for the first 15-30 seconds of the fight. There is nothing more demoralizing than trying a new explorable boss and having him one-shot the whole group just 1 second after the initial pull. I gave up on exp paths for a long time because of this.

10) Exp paths seem to be designed for lvl 80 characters who are down-leveled. I like this design. However, I did not expect this as a lvl 35 going into AC for the first time. Scream L2P if you must, but exp paths are just more enjoyable when you’re an 80 in (at least) greens.

attended / no loot / mail

1) Add tokens to story mode… even if it is less tokens than an exp run.

2) I’d prefer a balance of RNG and token rewards for exotic dungeon armor. Maybe increase the tokens needed for armor. But, give each end boss a chance to drop an exotic armor piece (and please make them drop more than 1/100 runs, bad RNG is bad).

3) Create interesting/fun mechanics for boss fights. FotM is a step in the right direction.

4) Please for the love of God and all that is Holy and good in this world, disable waypoints during boss fights. This is a mechanic which is great for learning a dungeon. However, it greatly cheapens a boss encounter. If you have to adjust boss difficulties as a result, fine. Just say NO to corpse zergs!

5) Have minis or other vanity items obtainable from dungeons.

6) Please add dungeon finder tool.

7) Some how reduce the player base segmentation from FotM levels. I’m all for progression in content. But it’s hard to find group for my exact level.

8) Easter eggs are great. Pop-culture references are cool. Think outside the box

Thank you for making a great game.

Q: Do you think gems can quadruple in price?
A: They already have.

I bought gems back when 1G could get 300+ gems.
Now 1G gets you around 56 gems.

LordByron.8369:

try again at lvl 80…you’ll see that despite downleveling, any dungeon is made for lvl 80 players….

I m not an elitist i take often low levels to dungeon..
Yet 100% of people i took there finds dungeons really bad, and they change opinion at 80 usually….

This… My first tries at AC story (while around lvl 30) was rough with lots of corpse zerging. It was very difficult, but we got through it eventually. I really dislike corpse zerging btw.

I tried AC exp at lvl 35… it was horrible. I take that back. It was bad until we got to the final boss, then it really sucked. The boss mechanics just ROFLstomped us. One-shots all around!

When you get to 80 and gear up in greens, things will get much better.

Shootsfoot.9276:

I will say one thing that I think would improve GW2 world participation greatly, and that would be vanity drops…mini-pets, town-clothes…whatever. People love collecting these things. People in my guild in WoW go nuts over pets and rare mounts. I would think it would be the same here.

And no, I am NOT advocating mounts in this game…just an example.

This is an area that Anet could greatly improve upon. Lots of people love collecting things (mini-pets as an example). I find it fun collecting mini-pets in other games. Yes, having mini-pets is nice. But, the process of collecting them can also be just as fun. Anet is really missing out by limiting its mini-pet collection to a cash/gem shop only deal. This would be a perfectly good example of something to do at 80. I have not purchased any of the minis. I have no bragging rights or sense of accomplishment by just buying them.

People tend to stay in Orr because the rewards are better for 80s, the high level crafting mats drop there, and the Arah entrance is located in that zone. That is why I think of it as an “end-game” zone.

If you (as an 80) could go to any zone/area and have the same chance for lvl 80 gear/items to drop, that would go a long way to re-inforce the “whole game as end-game” stance. Open-world PVE would probably need its difficulty re-adjusted to make this system more fair… but that is a different issue.

Just wanted to say that I loved your post (OP) and agree with most of it. I think that Anet has taken a step in the right direction with the fractal bosses. I hope they continue on that path to better, more interesting battles.

@Amonde Daneren: You bring up some very vaild points. While I don’t think that Ascended gear is as terrible for GW2 as it is being made out to be, I’m still on the fence as to how I feel about it. I’m glad that I have more stuff to work towards. However, Ascended gear (if only for the moment) has thrown a lot of things off-balance. If you’ve not very lucky, Ascended gear IS a grind. I’m not going to argue with you there.

Compared to a lot of other gamers, I maybe considered more casual. Most of my armor is still greens. I do have yellow trinkets and a back-piece. My weapon of choice is my only current Exotic. I’m starting on explorables to slowly grind my first exotic gearset. I’ve started in FoTM. But so far, no one has complained to me about my gear stats, or dps/survivability despite being a front-line hammer guardian. Could I be just a little bit better if I had full exotics? Sure. Do I need them to be effective? Not right now, no. I’m not going to ignore Ascended gear… I’ll just get there when I get there. Or I may ignore it alltogether, depending on the situation.

As to why Ascended gear was not made available outside grinding FotM right from the start? I can only guess. If I had to guess… I’d say they didn’t have enough time to get that pushed out right now.

helladoom.4317:

That is until the number grinders have aquired their ascended gear. Then they are again in the situation that there “there is no progression”.

Then what is Anet going to do?
Leave those people at the top of the stairs, or add yet harder content and more stats upgrades – and so come full circle into the threadmill trap?

Not to pick on anyone in particular, but there are a lot of “Well, what if/when this happens? This is what Anet will do!” posts going on. We don’t 100% sure know what Anet will do. All we have is what they’ve told us as a player base…

If we are going to try to fortell the future, I propose to you this… What if when players get tricked-out in Ascended gear, then the next step (in difficulty) would be Legendary items?

My thoughts…

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Discussing-Progression-Reactions/

On a follow-up thought. We might disagree with the description of “treadmill” in this sense. I was just using it to describe the fears of players that they will have to keep chasing after more and more gear in gw2 to have max stats. I just see ascended gear as a one time thing as per the devs’ descriptions (albeit spaced out with its release over time). But that’s my view on the dev posts.

“No stat gap. No time gap. No effort gap”
– how long did it take you to get your exotics? How long for your legendary? Did they cost any different?

“As it stands, Exotic gear fills in the time and effort gaps between Legendary and Ascended gear, not the other way around.”
– GW2 Wiki contradicts this. Compare the stats. If this were true, we wouldn’t be discussing it cause no one would care.

“if it was an issue of there being a time and effort gap, then why would a stat gap be necessary?”
- necessary? I don’t believe they HAD to add a stat gap. But, this is the game we currently live in. Doesn’t mean I agree with it. Although, adding a new middle tier of gear would seem silly to me if it offered no perks. Why not just add more legendaries then?

“It is entirely irrelevant whether you have to do that just once, whether you have to do it every three months, or whether you have to do it every year.”
- a have to disagree. I have to level from 1 to 80, but don’t consider it a treadmill. Like in real life, if a treadmill stops, you don’t continue walking on it… kinda defeats the purpose.

“Many, many people have been polite, courteous, articulate, and entirely constructive in giving their feedback and criticism.”
- I know, and that’s awsome. I don’t have to agree with them. And, that’s ok.

This is a follow-up to my original post on GW2 endgame.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/The-End-Game-Debate

Intro.

Recently there have been many heated debates (understatement) on the forums over this seemingly new direction and vision that the developers have taken for the current GW2 endgame. One thing that the developers have now made perfectly clear is that the endgame in GW2 is important to them. We (the players) have told them that this is a topic that is important to us, and they have responded with reassurance. this is a good thing

In order to address endgame progression, the developers have (along with other things) given us a new gear tier as a medium-long term goal for those of us on the way to acquiring our Legendaries. What players can’t seem to agree upon is whether or not this new tier-of-gear solution is a good and healthy thing for their beloved game. Many players have a deep emotional and/or monetary investment into Guild Wars 2. Many have, sadly, become hostile towards the developers and/or other players.

Lack of Progression leads to stagnation.

Guild Wars 2 needs progression if it is ever going to survive its infancy. You may love or loathe vertical progression, horizontal progression, diagonal progression, 3D progression, 4D progression, Zig-Zagging progression, etc. But the fact of the matter is, GW2 cannot stay the exact same as it was released out of the box. Games can change and evolve as people change and evolve. I DO believe, however, that GW2 can progress and evolve into a mature gaming world while still holding true to its original ideals.

So what is this new gear tier doing in our Guild Wars game!?!?!

As the developers have stated, this new tier is meant to bridge the gap between exotics and legendaries. Since there were no statistical differences between these two, it is logical to assume that this new tier is designed to bridge the time and effort gap. Maybe the developers thought that exotic gear was in-fact too easy to obtain and that players wanted a middle ground between the exotic and legendaries. Maybe the ascended gear represents a difficulty that was originally intended for exotic gear. Maybe the developers thought the many players would lose interest because of the massive investment that the legendaries require and simply give up. Maybe they just wanted to give an attainable target for the semi-hardcore. I do not know for sure.

But this is a gear treadmill!!! I hate treadmills!!! Go play XYZ game that has a treadmill!!! Leave my game alone!!!

Many players believe that ascended gear now represents a gear treadmill mechanic in GW2. For those who are unfamiliar with the term. A treadmill implies that a player must CONTINUALLY acquire new gear for his character over-time in order to be competitive. Anet developers have said that ascended gear will have better stats than exotics and will be released over time. They have also stated that they do not have plans for players to grind for a new gear tier every 3 months. Ascended gear is a vertical progressive statistical step-up from exotic gear. By this definition, I think of ascended gear more like a flight of stairs to be climbed rather than a treadmill.

So, where do we go from here?

Guild Wars 2 is a true MMORPG, and as such; it needs some form of endgame progression for its players. Anet has chosen to implement a new gear level in order to help fill a void which the game had upon its release. We may not agree with Anet’s particular solution to the problem. However, the best thing any player can do is to voice their opinion in constructive and courteous feedback. Let us please not jump the gun at assume we know what Anet will do in the future to ruin our beloved game. Posting hateful comments, attacking players/devs, QQing, trolling, or otherwise helps no-one and certainly doesn’t help the game. I want GW2 to succeed. I want GW2 to stay true to its roots. I will try to post constructive feedback. I will try to make this a better game… What will YOU do?

LordByron.8369:

sinisterpink.7912:

So I’ll make my point now before I lose your interest: grow up guys. The developers love and continue to love the game as much as we do.

So people that posts arguments you don t agree with should grow up?
Your logic is unrespectful of players.

Freedom of speech worth more than personal attacks not vice versa…….

“They can act and communicate according to our feedback, if we facilitate a constructive and positive forum environment for them to do so.”

The OP is encouraging constuctive posts. He is discouraging hateful posts, personal attacks, trolling, etc. You may have different personal opinions. I’ve done my best to explain his logic to you.

Miss Hilton.4623:

Is there even any confirmation that the items are dropping from the creatures?

I started a Q/A thread on this exact topic

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lostshores/Did-Consortium-Chest-loot-drop-during-events/first#post798207

“•All the items found in the Consortium Chest can also be obtained as rare drops from any creature from the new Lost Shores event.”

Just curious… did anyone actually have this happen? I attented the events Saturday and Sunday and spent multiple hours both days (with 100%+ magic find). My GF was there too. She didn’t have these drop. No one linked any rares in chat.

We did get kicked at the very end of event 3 and didn’t get to loot the chest. Maybe the Consortium rares were in there.

On a side note: there were multiple champions during these events which dropped no loot at all. ( also in patch notes).

Raiya Lokri and I ( Atryue ) had the same problem on Anvil Rock serv… we were in an overflow and got kicked during the last 15 seconds of the fight. Two hours with nothing to show for it.

IMHO, Anet is trying to strike a delicate balance. They wanted to originally create a game without grinding… Players have said they don’t want random gear drops from bosses that may NEVER drop for them like in that OTHER mmo (statistics aside, some players just never get the loot they’re after). In its place, we have token rewards which gives you progress towards gear every time you complete a dungeon-run (no randomness there). But, that system can start to feel like a grind. So, what can you do???

Legendary weapons are a grind at the moment… that is the way they’re currently implemented to make the process take a long time and lots of effort. Devs have said better things will be implemented for these in the future.

For the gear tread mill debate… check out the merged thread. I’m sure it has been discussed there.

Your post title is very misleading… You should rename it “item” progression. I for one want to progress… in life and in my games. I’ve played “that other MMO” game for many years and I enjoyed my time there. I just got tired of chasing a moving target. Even so, I still don’t fault Anet for what they’re doing. I’m willing to give them a chance. If ascended gear works, great. If it doesn’t, I hope they change it.

Now if you don’t want any progression at all… I can’t help you. My only advise would be to stop playing mmorpgs.

+1 OP: This is an amazing post. It is very well thought-out, formatted and delivered. I like the test server idea. I actually agree with most of your points. Even if I didn’t agree with your views, I could still tell that you put a lot of work into supporting them.

There are 138 pages of this... So, I don’t know if this link has been posted or not.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/A-message-from-our-Studio-Design-Director-Chris-Whiteside/first#post721451

Those of you who are worried about the stat increase should read this. I was very worried about it too. However, this response from Anet helped put me at ease.

Atryue
lvl 80 Guard on Anvil Rock

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/The-End-Game-Debate/

I’ve already posted my thoughts on another thread... https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/The-End-Game-Debate/

I will have to admit that Orr is one of the most annoying areas in GW2. The seemingly endless waves of risen who impair your travel and exploration (with their CC abilities), the contested waypoints, the hazardous water travel… they all get old after a while.

Although, I can’t help but try to imagine what the developers had in mind when they designed Orr. I think they wanted a wasteland… a non-inviting place, where the undead seemed unending and there was hardly a friendly soul to be found. Orr is the undead’s territory. We have to take it back from them. In that area of GW2, we’re playing by their rules.

So the real question becomes. How do we keep the essence of Orr while making it just a tad less annoying?

I just wanted to take the time to say thank you for all of the responses. Even though everyone may not agree in this discussion; many of you have brought forth original and intelligent ideas for this issue. I appreciate those of you who took the time and put some thought into your posts.

As a follow up, I watched a recording of the interview with mmorpg.com. And I must say, it brings me hope as to what Arenanet will bring to the table for the level 80s in the future. This “new dungeon” intrigues me greatly, with its increasing difficulty and unique rewards. I hope the developers take an equal amount of time to polish the current (indoor and outdoor) dungeon content.

I look forward to playing with you all for years to come.

Atryue
Lvl 80 Guard, Anvil Rock

Something I forgot to emphasize (and even mention) in the suggestions section. I thought GW1 had a completly valid endgame experience with the skill hunting and experimentation. This type of system might also work for GW2.

3) GW2: Collecting, Exploration, and hard dungeons. – also horizontal progression

Now comes the new kid on the block. Wait wait, before we go any further, this is something that we need to remember. This game is NEW. We all would like a complete and finished product from day 1. But, that just isn’t practical now-a-days. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather have the game right now, than wait another 2 or 3 years. So this leads us to the end game for GW2. To generalize a few quotes from an interview with ArenaNet staff, the developers want us to approach the whole game as an end game experience. They want us to continue doing at 80 what we’ve been doing while leveling to 80. If it was fun the first time, why not keep having fun? You can always create a new character and play the game again with a different story line.

… meanwhile players are screaming, “Where is the end game?!?!” …

The disconnect seems to happen at the perceived absence of character development past max level. The max character level has been raised from GW1 (20) to GW2 (80). But make no mistake; the max level mindset is still the same for both games. In the absence of gear grind, the first GW allowed you to progress your character through skill acquisition and experimentation. So, what do we have in GW2? We have weapon swapping (for better or worse), and a more limited customizable skill selection. This system does not easily translate over for a lot of players who are seeking a way to progress their character. Once you reach level 80, grab your gear, and unlock all of your skills, there is a great temptation to feel that you’ve reached the end. There are no higher gear levels to be had, no skills left to find… So how do we progress?

At the release of GW2, GW1 had three complete games and 1 true expansion. It had hard dungeons for each version and tons of skills to play with. It also had the Hall of Monuments (HoM) which gave players a tangible reason to collect the vanity items, titles, etc. Don’t forget though, all of this content was not released on day 1.

Now don’t get me wrong; there are plenty of things to do and explore in GW2 if you don’t madly rush to “finish” the game. The exploration of the GW2 world is part of its end game experience. [spoiler] I recently found a mini maze in the Lion’s Arch zone. This extra addition was not a necessity. But, it was a welcome surprise and quite fun. [/spoiler] GW2 also has hard dungeons in the form of explorable modes. And not to worry, GW2 has its fair share of vanity gear, titles, and items to work towards.

Suggestions:

So, how can we incorporate systems into GW2 that appeal to a player’s need to develop their character past max level without breaking the fundamental structure of the game itself? Well, two solid options we have are to either design new dungeons/systems to supplement the game, or modify existing systems to give a better end game “feel” for players.

In designing new systems, I would highly recommend creating a raid-esque environment with fun and different fight mechanics that required a coordinated group of around 10-20 players to defeat. These “raids” could be very hard to defeat, but also reward max or close to max gear. The gear treadmill does not need to be implemented into this solution for it to be effective. It would just need to offer rewards that players would actually want to attain.

Instead of designing new content, designers could use the existing outside world bosses and alter the encounters to resemble more of a raid scenario. I believe the outside world bosses have a lot of potential, but need more tweaking in their current state to provide a more satisfying experience. Again, I would recommend making these encounters very difficult to defeat, but reward max or near max level gear.

The wrap up:

So I end with these thoughts. How will the developers of GW2 handle the character progression issue? Do they think it is even an issue? Will the release of new content allow players to feel like they are progressing? I personally have high hopes for GW2, especially with this years Halloween events and rumors concerning the November content patch. GW2 is a work in progress. I just hope they progress sooner rather than later.

Atryue
Lvl 80 Guard on Anvil Rock