A long time ago I was a hardcore raider in WoW (vanilla, bc, & wrath) and have conquered server-first boss kills, etc. I’ve since then accumulated a lot more real–life responsibilities that limit my play-time and make my schedules unpredictable. I am unable and unwilling to make commitments to guilds and to raiding because I do not want to feel that pressure to have to log on, to have to do this, to have to do that. I can’t keep up with that type of gaming anymore even though that itch is still there, it’s just not possible.
Guild Wars 2 never had any type of hardcore commitment; there was no monthly subscription either so it was always pick-up and play when you wanted. The game was designed around that and that’s what always kept me coming back. It’s why I’ve had the game since pre-release and I purchased the $100 copy of HoT.
The thing is HoT has moved the game in a much different direction than what GW2 represented to me and was to me prior to the expansion.
GW2 was a game where I could do anything at pretty much any time and have it feel meaningful while not having to dedicate a huge chunk or time or make a major commitment.
I could level up an alternate character through zones, story, crafting, EotM, or use the tons of tomes and scrolls I have lying around OR a combination of all of that OR only one of them!
I could PvP, WvW, Dungeon, Fractal, Explore (JPs / Other Achievements), or even do some World Bosses if I was on at the right time, pretty much at any time I wanted to.
I could do this on any of my characters with any type of gear and mostly any type of build.
HoT has changed all of that.
I have about 800-900 hours on my warrior (who is my main) but then I also have an additional 800 hours spread out amongst my alts. I have an 80 of every class (except rev). A few of them I have leveled up through story and map completions, some through EotM (somewhat recently but before HoT) and then I have a necro I leveled up with scrolls/tomes. Most of these characters I don’t play often enough to give them more than one set of exotic gear. In fact, even my warrior only has one set of gear and its exotic with some ascended trinkets, amulets, etc. and Twilight (which I FINALLY made a few weeks prior to HoT).
My point is, I play every aspect of the game and on a wide array of characters because not only do I enjoy it but because GW2 supported it and made it possible.
However, with the implementation of raids, the design of the new zones, and the destruction of dungeons and WvW I feel like I cannot do these things the way I used to and how the game was prior to HoT.
The design decision to have map-wide meta events tied to specific timers is extremely frustrating for me. If I do not log in or am not in a zone at a certain time I am out of luck for the next few hours if I want to complete it. I understand that they did not want map-hopping like SW but then maybe having 4 zones in HoT ALL with meta events was not exactly a great design.
Don’t get into a dragon stand map within in the first 30 minutes of the timer good luck finding one. Nobody attempts DS with an hour or even 90 minutes left on the timer.
Get into a fresh AB? have fun waiting about an hour for that Meta and it’s even longer with VB.
Oh, you need to complete VB event chains but log in during night time? Well, sorry, you have to wait 45 minutes until they begin.
This also ties into adventures being constantly locked due to map times and event progression. Need gold for those mastery points? You must progress the specific event for it and hopefully you have enough time to hone your skill at it before it closes!
Wait, you mentioned all the HoT zones but left out TD. Well, TD ties into two issues I have.
One, Guild Wars 2 was always about play how you want but in order to complete the Meta in that zone you must be a zerk meta advocate and spec’d specifically for DPS. Condi builds, GTFO, you can’t dps fast enough and your CC’s end up breaking the bar making the Gerent move which results in a dps loss for everyone.
Two, ANet talks about how they want you to be able to play how you want but then create a DPS race at the same time as saying they’re moving away from the zerk meta end-game.
Something doesn’t add up.
(I actually do not have an issue with Gerent, but I feel its poor taste to say one thing and design the opposite and then having the completion required for some collections/masteries/etc. despite the way it alienates players.)
Not only that but then they go ahead and create raids – the opposite of playing how you want. Raids are a pretty exclusive thing and a great thing for highly organized and structured guilds and players with manageable schedules. However, if you have been playing GW for this long I don’t think raids were something you were missing because the game has never been about them or designed with them in mind.
GW2 was always about doing what you wanted when you wanted and how you wanted.
You want legendary armor? You HAVE TO raid, you have to conform, you have to designate time in your schedule and study/learn boss mechanics . You need to have ascended gear because the Devs said it’s been tuned for such so no guild or PuG is going to let you in without it.
There are ways to create challenging group content for organized guilds for more than 5 players. Look at TT and even look at Gerent.
Honestly, ANet has just completely changed directions with the game and I personally do not like it. If I wanted a cookie-cutter raid based game I would not be playing GW2 there’s a million other games out there that have that and have it implemented better and were built around it as one of their core pillars. Throwing a raid into a 3 year old game with no supporting features around it is just poor design.
If they wanted to cater to the hardcore progression player, well, you already have fractals, too bad they can’t seem to get that right either.
Too much time and effort and tuning and perfection is required to create unique meaningful and challenging raids. ANet doesn’t have those types of resources and almost no game company does, look at the MMO landscape these days, every game gets chewed up and spit out when they resort to raiding as end-game.
I just do not understand what ANet was thinking when they decided to go in this direction with HoT and with the game in general.
I am not complaining about the value of the game. I definitely have gotten my money’s worth and do not feel cheated. I willingly paid the money for it and would do-so again. However, I just do not agree with the direction I am more and more beginning to realize that the game is going and wanted to voice my opinion and that fact that I may not be supporting the company in the future.
