Guild Wars 2

Zach.3264:

PookieDaWombat.6209:

OK, so new test.

I think I’ve gotten to a point with my new guardian that i know roughly what i might be dropping in gold for traits, but that’s not realistic because i have gold to burn.

So I’m pulling a wooden potatoes and doing a soft reset on my account and leaving myself without access to that gold or mats or anything else like that and going to try a new toon straight from the beginning with no bonuses except for those that are now account bound. Let’s see just how easy or fun it is for a new player.

I made a new Guardian a couple weeks ago and crafted to 80, I’ve been running the same build since. Getting the new traits is an absolute chore and having the “just buy them” option isn’t as easy as it sounds. It’s also very tedious to get the skill points.

Have you tried rolling a mesmer since the trait patch?
They were the worst class to level by far before the patch. They only got good when they hit 40 and access to decent traits. The update now, has made them close to unplayable.

I used to hate leveling a mez as well. i might make the tester a necro though.

OK, so new test.

I think I’ve gotten to a point with my new guardian that i know roughly what i might be dropping in gold for traits, but that’s not realistic because i have gold to burn.

So I’m pulling a wooden potatoes and doing a soft reset on my account and leaving myself without access to that gold or mats or anything else like that and going to try a new toon straight from the beginning with no bonuses except for those that are now account bound. Let’s see just how easy or fun it is for a new player.

Zaxares.5419:

ANet basically wanted to use the trait system to encourage people to do content in other parts of the game that they may not have done before. If they prefer not to, they have the option of just buying it outright. Unless you’re a completionist, you can get away with just buying the few traits you will actually use too. (Personally speaking, I’ve only used a handful of the same traits since launch. I don’t even touch most of them.)

Here’s the problem with this: you are either saying that they have effectively made a game that has a bunch of useless fluff OR that isn’t balanced to use all that they made for it. You are also saying that ll classes operate in his manner, which isn’t true. On my guardian alone I can find myself sinking points into each line to varying degrees for different effects and weapon sets I run with. If I want to have that kind of diversity then I HAVE to pen up everything or opt to not play my toon to its fullest. Thing is, a new player without the gold that I’ve gotten or the skill points may never get the chance to find out how many of those traits are worth it/wanted nor will they do it for a bunch of alts once they realize they have to slog through the same content over and over or lose a small fortune just to find out.

For the one that just made the argument that the new system is just fine: How many characters do you run, how often do you play and for how long, and what game modes do you play in? Furthermore, do you have all of your adept and master traits unlocked?

I honestly would like to know what kind of player base you fall into since you are appearing to be a fairly atypical player.

GAH! The Sanctum though?!?!? That hit me right in the gut. Not gonna lie.

So, update on my “lowbie” Guardian:

She is now level 69 (about to hit 70). She just recaptured Claw Island and has even opened a few maps that I avoided like the plague. On one of them I was reminded how much I really hated that map. All in all I have all of the adept level MINORs selected and some random Majors selected because that’s what I happened to unlock just by playing through the game up until this point. Fairly certain I’ve not unlocked any of the Master or Grandmaster traits yet.

Let me restate the above with the most pertinent info: I am almost level 70 (10 from max) and I have a small handful of ADEPT traits open that are completely meaningless to the toon’s playstyle.

I will keep pushing her to 80 and then see what else I can unlock through normal play. I will make a list. I will share said list, along with the list of traits I could/would conceivably hunt down.

I will then make and share the list of traits I will not bother to hunt down and tally the cost of those skills.

something tells me that number will be unpleasant.

Kohlteth.3715:

TheBandit.7031:

The one thing I think is absolutely ridiculous is this whole unlocking traits thing. Some of the things you have to do are outrageous… and make no sense at all. Autotool Installation, for example, has to be unlocked with a level 70 quest. You get the level for that trait at level 48….
This update ruins the character training experience. You literally have no traits because almost none of them can be locked anywhere near easily. You have to kill the Karka Queen for some traits… how is a new player or someone who doesn’t have a huge group going to ever do that?
The buying prices are also outrageous. All that gold for a single trait?? And what is with the skill point cost? I want to spend my skill points on SKILLS. That’s why they’re called skill points. Not traits.
I feel bad for any new player that has to go through this… they probably won’t get any traits long after they’re level 80.

Please reconsider this change. At least make the unlocking system more logical and possible for newer players. And without a doubt lower that rip off cost of these traits -_-

As 1 of those NEW players I could not agree more …….. Ridiculous tasks to unlock Traits I wished to explore, now I cannot ..

Anyone know how many Skill points I will need on way to 80?

I mean how many do I have to save as there has to be a finite number right ? or is there way to get more other than the ones on the maps ?

Every time you level you also get a skill point and every time you “level” after 80 you get one. there are also scrolls.

So, from the quick read of the last page am I to assume that they are “close” but have not actually gotten this squared away?

Wow. i just don’t know anymore. i know you guys (Anet) are trying to deliver a product to us that we enjoy/try to enjoy. i know you aren’t actively acting with malice in how things are rolling out, so I am trying really hard to not be super sour here, but look at some of this from the other side:

There were tons of us that put in A LOT of time and energy into season one and didn’t even get the meta, and then there were those that DID and didn’t see their rewards for it until season two started. We were told things would be better/easier the second time around and you even increased the length of the season. Some of us jumped back in and put in even more time the second season in the hopes that the outcome would be different. And now this.

Please just get it resolved in a reasonable time or you can consider any potential third season a failure.

Kind of disturbed by the only needing 5 people to pop a breakout. Not only do 5 people alone have barely enough supplied to get the siege up, but this will be abused horrendously by larger servers just popping breakouts more often. i dunno…Was there some discussion about this one that I missed somewhere. Surely there were other WvW related things that could have been addressed first. *cough*commandertoolsandhackingissues*cough*

So I’ve been trying to find the best way to describe this in a way that made sense, and for me it works like this:

Currently the trait system feels much like outfitting my toon in armor. As i’m leveling its like I’m expected to just put on whatever armor comes my way that is marginally better than the last piece of armor, whether or not it helps me play style or build or whatever. Now if I have a TP to spend, i get to spend it on whatever I managed to maybe unlock by happen stance as i level regardless of its usefulness. Then at level 80, aside from dropping (sometimes) upwards of 20 gold on armor and runes and maybe one or 2 weapons for my now level 80 toon that are potentially build specific, I also get to drop some serious gold on buying the traits I want for said build and basically ignore the other traits unless I: a) buy them, or b) hunt them down in the world as a level 80.

By contrast, this was my leveling experience before: Starting at level 11 i could start burning TP and would sink 10 into each line until level 60. not only did this synergize fairly well with random armor drops, but it allowed me to play with different play styles as i leveled while still being effective with a little of everything. I’d sometimes even stay that way until level 80 when I’d buy the remaining books, and then re trait once i’ve learned how i wanted to play. And i could do this for WAY less gold than I have to spend now to unlock all the traits i might want to play with.

I’ve been playing kind of sporadically lately, especially after completeing this latest meta for the LS and decided to jump onto my grandfathered in Warrior that just needs to kit level 80 to have all of the traits unlocked. He’s at about level 75 now and pushing along and all I can think it, please 80 hurry and get here so I can kit him out and do what I WANT to do with him.

The problem here are the 2 lowbies i have been trying the new system with. Its fun in that I have a friend that I don’t get to game with often, who recently came back to the game, talking about going with me to do some trait hunting. OK, fine, it might be fun to do that. Problem is it changes the way I get to play the game to have fun. It has become a thing that I will have to do if I want a viable character with CHOICES at level 80 and not some meta-build I decide on now and just buy as I go along. I think for me it just doesn’t feel organic enough. Hopefully you all at Anet are now looking at this as a work in progress and are going to implement some things little by little to get it to where it needs to be.

If we can keep the good ideas flowing then we might also get to see some of them implemented for the up coming patches. They obviously heard and possibly even experienced the issues with tying some of them to high level map completions so there’s hope.

i think part of the problem here is that people (myself included) remembered turning over 100+ gold from the Pavilion last year, and figured it was going to be the same thing, and instead they aren’t getting anything near as much for as little effort as it took to do last year. I get its a bit annoying, but at the end of the day, when I get that final reward chest and it comes out with some decent loot from doing the champs in a more “challenging way” then I feel a bit “more” rewarded.

I agree that from a design perspective they have been horrible about “teaching” the mechanics for the event, and rather seem to let the event do the teaching via trial and error. This is something that goes back to most of the other LS content that they put forward. I remember being highly frustrated with some of it when it first came out since there was no way to know what to do at first. That being said, it didn’t take more more than 2 runs through the Pav before figuring out both the “best” way to train it if need be, but also that better rewards are gotten for breaking up the zerg and doing the divide and conquer thing. now i just have to get the other commanders to help follow suit with that tactic and sell it to those that want better loots to actually follow the commanders trying to get them that loot.

Kythan Myr.4719:

So I would venture to say they are not wanting trains. After playing through the boss blitz in the Crown Pavillion, this became quite apparent after I realized they nerfed drops from mobs. After the dismal rewards from the successful completion of that event, I find very little at this moment to continue with the Crown Pavilion.

The only reason I can think for these changes is due to the complaints made by other players. I remember last year tons of complaints made by the players in gauntlet. QD train got lots of complaints too. Maybe anet is trying to fix the squeaky wheel?

I think the common denominater here for most players is fun (duh), but we find that fun through rewards, most often loot. I watched the Boss blitz fall apart. I was trying to break us up in teams, but most wanted that zerg mentality. We all want the loot, but I don’t know if we can get coordinated enough to not zerg. It’s sad and frustrating to spend all this time and get mostly greens and bloodstone dust.

Am I in the minority here? Or do you mostly find your fun through loot rewards too and have been finding them sorely lacking?

You’re sorta right there.

See, what they don’t want is what happened before, which was run to boss A-B-C-D-E-F and and spam one while area collecting loots along the way. Wheeeeeee!

Now they made it more rewarding if smaller teams strike each boss at around the same time. This way, no one boss can get too many if any buffs from the other bosses and if they go down in fairly fast succession then you get BETTER prizes from the final chest. So yes, they want to limit farming while also increasing enjoyment by giving content that might be a bit more challenging since what you get for challenging yourself more is better rewards, which btw is what MANY people have been asking for.

I’m sorry they are not trying to just give away 1236434 mats and rares for every other enemy someone blindly tags with an AOE auto attack. Actually no, I’m not sorry about that at all. i applaud them for that.

Guhracie.3419:

I’m cautiously optimistic about the changes thus far.

As am I. It looks like they are moving in the right direction on some of this. Kudos to listening to us about the map completion=low level trait stuff. Now about some of the other reqs that might be a bit wonky and we might be in a good place. Thank you.

JustTrogdor.7892:

jheryn.8390:

Good. Now maybe that zone will be more civil.

No, it will probably be pretty dead now and all those L10 new players asking questions probably won’t get a response.

Nah, I may still be there to answer questions as will others that actually enjoy doing that and helping them with content in those areas if they ask for help.

Naranek.3467:

This is a terrible move. I use those for dailies and monthlies, usually just one circuit of boar>troll>oak before going on to better things. And it’s not just Queensdale, either; it’s ALL starting zones. If they really want people off the train, then just don’t give loot after the first time.

OOOOOR, you could just champ train in a higher level area.

The problem still remains that even if you research which traits you want for build A and maybe build B, most people will then just stick to build A and build B and forget about anything that isn’t “useful” to them, or isn’t already deemed “the best” as per the current meta. So instead of fostering experimentation a diversity they are forcing people to meta build or have sub par/pointless builds. You can’t honestly argue that this change was to stop people from making sub-par builds (11 in one 14 in another), and then turn around and tie people’s hands so they either do a meta they hate, on maps they hate, or opt to play with whatever happens to unlock whether its helpful or not. Frankly Anet you’re feeding into more horrible builds this way than helping.

Congrats.

I’m sure its been said in 25 pages, but I just want to put in my 2 cents here since I seem to be in these forums more these days than the actual game. (That’s not even hyperbole. Think about that Anet.)

The MS thing is neat for ONE reason and one reason alone. I’ve seen more people on the map at odd hours of the night playing all over a map, and doing events, helping out etc. For some of the lower level maps, that’s actually kinda fun. For some of the mid level maps (levels 30-50) it can be downright helpful.

Over all though, its not a good thing for high level maps, world boss events, and most importantly server identity. As someone who has played a fair amount of WvW there USED to be a lot of gearing up for, getting hyped for, and getting organized for WvW while in a PvE map. This is categorically impossible now since, oh look, my potential opponent and their entire guild is standing right next to me and a few others from my server right before reset night.

I’ve also not tried to recruit for my small guild since I have to now ask if the person is even from SF and most times finding someone else from SF on my map is like finding a Yeti.

Maybe it was stated already, but has anyone tried to make an Engie or Thief from the ground up under this new system? I know i am sort of easy mode-ing it with the War and Guard. If so, how has not having adequate access to traits affected your playing through the game with a lowbie?

Oh i agree that we should keep this one alive. Lord knows I still have a bit to say about it. From my perspective so far:

I have 2 alts i’ve been taking through this new system, a warrior and a guardian.
I haven’t had any real problems running in the areas that I’ve run in, either because of the overall scaling of NPC mobs and/or because of my knowledge of the classes since I already have fully leveled 80s of those classes. I’ve also not been TOO pressed about not having certain traits unlocked (although there were a few times where I really wanted certain ones on my warrior).

Unfortunately, as has been said 234354353232 times now, the traits unlock system is not feasible for anyone not already max level, and it certainly is of no use to anyone before 80 now. This means tons of pre-80 people running around without enough Sp or gold to get those traits opened ending up at level 80 being very under powered and ill-equipped for certain PvE areas and most if not all PvP aspects of the game. It forces brand new players into a meta build, and all but kills build diversity on anyone that isn’t already a level 80.

So, any bets on how quickly this post will find its way to page 10 after the may 20th update?

You know what’s really delicious? Taking a group of new players and ganking the bandit or troll with them to disrupt the timing of the train. 1) because it disrupts the momentum of the train, allowing new players the chance to also fight some mobs that would otherwise have gotten rolled over by the train zerg, and 2) because they get some help in learning how to fight those mobs by doing something other than hitting 1111111.

So yeah, try that sometime OP.

Thing is, there have been some GREAT ideas in this thread. Seriously top notch ideas that 1) make sense, 2) don’t throw the baby out with the bath water, and 3) honestly should not take too many update cycles to implement/test/and release.

Here’s the thing A-Net: i LOVE the idea of unlocking the traits. I even like the spread. TBH, i have NO problems with the starting at 30 and spreading it all the way out to 80. None. Its where and how those lower ones are achieved that is complete and utter garbage along with the cost to “just buy them”. We all know it. Please take some of what’s been said here into consideration. PLEASE look over some of the ideas about tying them to hearts and possibly secondary heart quests that can be done at more level appropriate times. make the adept ones easier to get and the master ones a bit harder, and then the GM ones even harder still. THAT is how it should be.

HAHAHA, wow Anet. So much anger on these boards so ya’ll set up to re-release your 2 most successful events. Bravo for the sleight of hand. Well played. You might get some breathing room come the 20th. Might.

GuzziHero.2467:

What astounds me, ASTOUNDS ME, is that some of the starter traits requires you to complete events in high zones zones.

eg.

Line 1 trait 5 = 100% completion in Blazeridge Steppes.
Line 2 trait 1 = Complete Twilight Arbor, lvl 50 dungeon.
Line 2 trait 6 = 100% completion in Fireheart Rise.
Line 4 trait 6 = 100% completion in Mount Maelstrom.
Line 5 trait 6 = 100% completion in Frostgorge Sound.

This. Is. Ridiculous. Not to mention forcing players into WvWvW unless you want to spend all your game-earned money (or of course buy gems) and skill points to get some traits.

Quite simply, if this had been in place when I started GW2, I wouldn’t be here now. Anet – this is very likely costing you players. Introducing grind to such a degree like this is even more pathetic than the way Ascended was handled, and you saw the backlash from that.

I won’t be making any more characters whilst this charade is in force. No more characters = no more money to buy gems to make them all fancy.

Dude, your sig. Spot on.

And yeah, I took my warrior into Obsidian just to see if it was possible. Nope. Griefers all over the place. And before anyone says so: no, I should not need to have level 80s there to protect or port me to the end of a JP for an adept level trait. If it actually requires that then the system itself is broken. Full stop.

OK, so Anet, I get that you are all in full on silent mode at least until after this joke of a tourney is done.

(And it IS a joke. Seriously, don’t structure it like this again, or better yet just don’t do WvW tournaments until you’ve fixed all of the WvW issues that have come up in the past.)

But keeping all that in mind, i also know you all aren’t blind. I know you HAVE to be seeing this thread. Can you please at least give us something like, “Hey we know this is something you all have been focused on and we will try to start addressing it after [[[insert date here]]].”

Even if its a post to say that you are planning on having REAL specific talks with about ways to fix this. Because it is broken. No amount of smoke being blown places will change the fact that the trait system as it stands is categorically broken at the moment.

Yeah, i pushed my lowbie warrior through gendarrin recently and saw the little trait unlock thing pop up and when i went to look at it:

1- I couldn’t equip it since I hadn’t gotten big enough level wise to have the points to chose it and…

2- Even if i did, it wasn’t even a trait i would ever use. Ever.

So yeah. Yay?

Sartharina.3542:

I wonder if he mistook my name for yours, after my comment about playing the game for reasons other than Zerg Training/Loot acquisition. That said, I am in agreement that the current system does discourage not rushing to 80 because of the difficulty in acquiring traits – the ones that veterans have unlocked for being veterans should be unlocked for everyone, and not be treated as something special. And that’s a crippling mark against the game. I used to be able to play how I wanted and fight whatever I wanted to fight wherever I wanted to (Assuming I was high enough level) simply for the thrill of the game (I actually got sick of leveling too fast to enjoy all the content at a level-appropriate pace. Being overleveled takes too much challenge out of the game, even when it’s just at the top of the area!), without having level-appropriate content deprived from me (As trait locking currently does), and having each level (or at least level range) provide enough tools and toys for me to enjoy playing around with in level-appropriate content (Which the 70 dead levels, and too-late access to traits, have taken from me.)

I do see the potential for new, locked ‘adept’ and other low-level traits to be intended for high-level or determined low-level characters that need something more complex or powerful in their earlier trait slots that don’t compete for the highest trait slot available, but not all traits should be locked like this. The original array of unlocked traits gave players enough to mess around with and explore different playstyles before having to need to hunt for new ones, and I’d like that back. Even if we don’t get all traits unlocked, there should be at least 3 or 5 ‘free’ traits in each tree of each tier.

On the subject of buying traits (And other things people want locked behind gameplay content) – the fun is in doing the tasks that give you the cash/skill points that you spend on the stuff you want. I actually think I like the game using Skill Points as an alternative currency measuring player accomplishment.

You would be correct on the name confusion. :p Stop that.

But yes i agree with both of you that it all needs to be brought down to more level appropriate tasks that encourages exploration/variety without forcing content on players needlessly.

Its just frustrating that we ALL seem to see how it can be fixed, but we aren’t even getting a nod from Anet that they are seeing this and seriously considering all we’ve said.

@Seraphina: My point there was that for people that want to play the high level content (WvW and dungeon runs, etc) they are more or less being forced to research the meta, grind/zerg for the gold and SP to unlock those traits for the meta, then not playing their toon in any other way. i like to explore and all, but i have one of every class and of every race with some dupes in there as well all at level 80. I’ve seen the world Anet has provided so far. Numerous times. Now they are telling me I HAVE to do it all over again on alts that i might make just to unlock a few traits and do content I never enjoyed doing before to unlock other traits. That’s just goofy.

Except for those of us that hate EoTM and zerging there in. i might go in there for jollies on one of my level 80s to mess with people every now and then, but actually playing in there? Nope. Not fun at all. Still doesn’t address the issue with not really getting to play with all the traits on new characters or alts either.

Its sort of like buying a sports car then after getting used to driving it around a track, they take half the wheels off and make it only go 30 miles an hour, but they balanced it to drive on those 2 wheels. Well, that’s nice of them, but that’s not how I wanted to drive the thing.

Lord Kuru.3685:

• Run EoTM karma train until you’re 80.
• Look up a build on the web and with the gold you’ve earned, buy only the traits you need.
• Spend the rest of your gold on gear.
• Begin to play the game.

And completely miss out on the part where you get to respec for free to test new builds as you play. So, the option now is zerg til you’re 80 then pick a meta build and zerg in your meta build.

Yup, sounds like tons of fun. :/

@OP: I run a healing warrior build. I love it because I get to take the typical “dps” class and load her up with healing that i can switch on the fly between shout heals and banner heals depending on the situation and game type i might be playing while still offering some decent damage with her bow. I’ve run her in PvE and helped my team facetank kitten near everything with a few banners, and even did the same in some dungeons. In WvW I swap between the banner and shout builds depending on how active I need to be or how sneaky/passive I can be. Heal builds are very viable in the game as it is.

Gibson.4036:

stayBlind.7849:

Guys, just get to end-game.

This should send a chill down ArenaNet’s spine.

One more way they’ve fallen into the same old MMORPG traps.

They originally touted their vision that there wouldn’t be a divide between “leveling” and “endgame”. GW2 was going to be different. They didn’t want the classic “just get to endgame where the game really starts”. They wanted to create a game that smoothly increases challenge from level 1 on up through to level 80 and the time beyond.

But so many changes since launch have drifted away from that philosophy, and now we have people advising other people on the forums to just push through and get to 80.

It’s been a truly sad thing to see the original vision for the game get dismantled, patch by patch.

The saddest part about that is that even if you did “push through” to get to level 80, you MIGHT have the gold for those traits, but you’re not going to have the skill points unless you took every single scroll you might have gotten along the way and burn them all, and even then you might not have enough to unlock all the traits or even most of them. This is even more true if you also wanted to get something like a legendary as a new player because you need a ton of skill points for that as well.

Here’s the thing: I love the idea of going out into the world to get traits from doing things. I personally don’t mind having to do certain things in other game modes (but i don’t agree with it since i know others hate doing such things and forcing them into it is kinda rude). What i mind most here is the complete barrier to entry for people that wanted to make or were in the middle of making alts, and more importantly new players. They are already not liking this new system from what I’ve seen and heard and this is only going to hurt gw2 in the end. Its a poorly implemented system that frankly leeches away any fun there was in leveling before. shrug

Maybe I’ll do what someone else has done and play some gw1 some more. At least they aren’t actively trying to break that one.

Anet: Can we get SOME feed back about the things in this thread?! Someplace? Here? FAcebook even? I don’t care, I just want something that tells me someone is seriously reading this and not plugging their ears in a corner somewhere.

Yeah, i can’t wait for this one.

Actually, you know what might redeem them a touch? if they let this fool buy those shards from us and give us TRAIT books for them. just sayin’.

Yeah, I have to say that the lowbies I’ve been trying to level right now are going to pretty much have whatever traits unlock from me playing until level 80, and then after that, their build will be whatever it happens to be. Either that or they will be deleted before they even get there. This unlock system is too ridiculous and is forcing me to play a way i don[‘t want or pay monies I don’t have just so I can experiment with builds.

i guess its back to my level 80s and more of the standard grind and play in WvW until that too gets stale. Good job guys. Good job.

tigirius.9014:

I’ve also found it sad that the scrolls for leveling alts are only available to players who’ve received the birthday package and they only level the alt to level 20 which was the previous standard.

Why haven’t these things become available from monthlies on level 80’s and why hasnt the scroll been updated to reflect the new level 30 system? Wouldn’t that have helped in this situation?

i was thinking the same thing actually. They could at least change that to be level 30 or even 35 now since its not like its going to drastically change the power level of the player.

I think that’s also one of the saddest parts to all of this: I’ve yet to really try out any of the new GM traits on my 80s just because the rest of this system is THAT infuriating.

:/ Of course since my 2 mains are a Guardian and an Engie I am now worried what I will encounter just from reading the things in this thread as well.

So, another fun bit for me last night was taking my lowbie through Obsidian Sanctum. I was going along fine until I missed a ledge and had to double back and when I did I had an ever so helpful enemy player (ranger) notice i was an uplevel and proceed to jump all over me. Now, pushing aside the fact that as an uplevel I still took down about a fourth of their health before being in cooldown and half health myself, the fact still remains that NO ONE is going to get this trait in this way unless A) they are not on an uplevel, they are doing the JP with others to watch their back, or C) people are not using the JP to farm bags.

sigh Really Anet, I’m glad I have level 80s to play the game with since it frankly sucks to be anything but right now. There is no way I’m dropping that much coin and SP on buying those traits so my build on any lowbie is going to be horribly stunted and certainly not diverse. So yeah. Thanks I guess for making me play the game in the way you and the meta would have me play it, with people I don’t even know, and in armor that I won’t reskin until level 80 as well since the cost to reskin before then is also too high. Kudos. I don’t see many new players staying with the game once they learn how absurd it is to get the same things that those of us with level 80s have.

Can we also get some kind of ping from the people at Anet that they are even listening to the things said in this thread? It honestly feels like there is a whole lot of “hope it gets buried on the forums” which is really upsetting.

Simply put: i have about 3 other games I’ve yet to play, and about 3 others that I like to go back and re-play.

Between things like this, the Trait changes, and a few more of the things in the update I find myself looking to those others games to spend what little time i get to relax in the evenings. GW2 is getting harder to stay with if these changes persist, which is sad because I don’t want to be one of those people that walks away from the game because of unnecessary changes to the gameplay made to suit a completely new and different player base.

Also, before I forget: I have been having some fun with my lowbies and leveling them for now, but i am wondering if Anet has truly worked out the timing on the rate of skill point acquisition and when they believe we will be ready to hunt down those traits. My guess is the answer is no. Anyone try to figure that out yet? I’m curious.

Lankybrit.4598:

Taygus.4571:

notebene.3190:

Taygus.4571:

Nike.2631:

I’ve gotta say… GW2 has the most casual (and FAST) leveling of any MMO I’ve played in the last decade. If you find this “painful” you may want to find another genre entirely.

You do remember gw2 was advertised as “if you’ve never played an mmo this is the one for you.”

Many people here dislike other mmo’s for that exact reason. Things take too long to get to what people actually want to play.

That is an interesting question and distinction.

Is the original post about the process of leveling itself? Examples of better rewards for leveling? Speed (compared to)? Other?

Or…is this about leveling as a concept? Meaning, you want to come in Call of Duty on day one, gear up, and play ‘the end game’?

I’d like to skip leveling altogether. Chase gears/chase traits but forget the leveling.
Or make it shorter. This is my first mmo, and I find leveling to be quite dull, it’s just not what I’m after in this game.

But Guild Wars 2 is all about Exploration. And Exploration levels your character. I don’t know what you are after, but the zones of GW2 are beautiful, and exploring them is fun.

here’s the thing: I’ve already explored all of the zones, and some of them more than once across many alts. i have no reason to explor as much anymore. Now i just want to “play the way i want”, but I don’t really have that option anymore either.

i refuse to believe that OP is actually serious here.

Just refuse.

When on the proper toon i like to roam. Mind you, I am not the best roamer in the world with a 40/60 W/L ratio, but i like to do it for fun and test myself as I play. If i get into a fight (even one i have a feeling i might lose), i don’t squirrel. If they have friends show up or try to jump me and i can break the fight off i will just to make them waste time chasing me, but one on one i stay to spike or be spiked. I really hate it when someone else initiates the duel/1v1 and when they start to lose they rabbit. THAT annoys the bejeebers out of me.

Here’s the thing Anet: I have MAYBE 1-2 hours of gameplay time available to me most nights IF i am not completely wiped by the end of my day. I usually try to spend some of that time in WvW if I can. I also specifically started 2 lowbie alts to test out this patch.

This is all important info as i move forward with my point. Prior to this patch I would do events and squirrel money away so I could (when someone turned level 80) craft/buy them armor that suited the build(s) I had worked on making for them. I’d test and tweak as i went along (paying for a re-spec here and there), so I could know what armor and runes and sigils i wanted to buy for them. Sometimes i had enough gold to get them outfitted all at once and other times I had to get certain things from drops or over time.

Now you’ve given me the option of opening maps that I honestly don’t have fun running in half the time, having to go into PvP which I don’t do, or seeking out enemies in places of the world I’ve told myself I don’t ever want to do again just to unlock a trait. Oh wait, you’ve also given me the option to spend WAY MORE gold than I can muster to unlock, and certainly more skill points than that toon would even have as well by that point. So I basically have to choose between doing content i don’t have fun playing (usually at levels far above my own) or spending gold and skill points to unlock them. (Skill points that I’d rather use on unlocking, you know, skills.)

In all seriousness Anet, this is 16 pages of complaints that are not only well put, but fairly detailed and most importantly VERY SIMILAR. That means that this isn’t some small problem with a bunch of different angles. Its the same very annoying problem that is upsetting to the people whom you want to spend more money on the game.