INTRODUCTION: We’ve probably been over this a hundred times, but I just went back to GW1 for a brief login for some nostalgia. It made me realize why the plot in GW2 has been so unsatisfying from launch, and why GW2 needs an expansion so badly (living story isn’t cutting it, more on that below).
1. GW1 focused on one group of adventurers per campaign. Humans only, from Ascalon, Cantha, then Elona. Each story is mostly self-contained, has a definitive goal, some decent twists and turns along the way, and each campaign ends with a giant, satisfying mission/boss-battle. GW1 also had good villains that re-appear to keep the plot moving (lich and Varesh come to mind). GW2 has five races, different permutations of “personal story” and three “orders” to choose from. However, you realize halfway through, that no matter which race you choose, no matter which order, no matter which little racial personal story items you select, you always end up in the same Pact. This would be fine if the Pact plotline was somewhat stimulating. But instead of getting one decent plot, you get five watered-down half-plots with weak villains and meaningless choices (Mass Effect syndrome, anyone?) and another watered-down half-plot with the Pact (following a milquetoast leader Trahearne), fighting a faceless dragon that only communicates through lackeys. Not a very strong villain.
My opinion: better to experience one well-developed story with no choice than a weak story with a ton of meaningless choices.
2. In GW1 you are always the hero. You killed the undead lich, you killed Shiro, you killed Abaddon, you killed the Great Destroyer. In GW2, you play lackey to extremely unlikeable fools known as Destiny’s Edge, who take credit for everything significant in the game. In each dungeon, you play lackey to Destiny’s Edge and you help them sort out their high-school drama while they cry and mope over some dead asuran that you’re magically supposed to care about. In GW1 you starred in all the cutscenes. In GW2 you’re in the cutscenes, but you just play lackey to whichever Destiny’s Edge kittenant stars for that dungeon.
The only interesting characters in the story with decent development (the mentor from each order) get killed at the battle of claw island.
3. In GW1, the enemies were clear cut and evil, and the lore was well developed. Sure you had no choice in the matter, but you hated the Charr because they were portrayed so well: ruthless, vicious, and unrelenting attackers who destroyed the beautiful, idyllic Ascalon. A conniving undead lich who manipulated you the whole time. An ancient megalomaniac assassin bringing a proud nation to its knees. A fallen god reaching out from his prison to manipulate the world.
In GW2 you fight with “villain factions” or “splinter groups” or whatever you want to call them, which actually have a richer and more interesting lore than the “modern” races themselves, have a logical perspective depending on your interpretation, and could invite players to make a slew of interesting choices. BUT instead you just get to slaughter them mindlessly and spew moralistic one-liners. Why not let the player join the “rebel” factions? Why even bother to have an illusion of a personal story if you’re going to force them down one path anyway? At least write one good story with no deviations, like GW1.
And then of course, you have the dragons, the “big” evils, with hordes of faceless zombie minions with no personality, and the dragons themselves that are just omnipotent forces of nature, again with no personality.
CONCLUSION: The living story is a weak solution to this problem. It just replaces the lame, weak, boring Pact and Trahearne with more canned characters (those two lesbian gals, that annoying little asuran, a couple other nobodies). Instead of making you the star of one coherent, well-written story, you get to play lackey again to generic, unlikeable characters. This game desperately needs new writing, a new expansion, a good villain (you thoughts on Scarlet may vary… at least she had a little bit of personality), some semblance of a motivating plot. It looks like all we’re going to get with the living story, if we’re lucky, is a quick segue to the next dragon fight.
It’s definitely true that warriors are struggling right now, but there are warrior players out there that are definitely holding their own. Watch some of defektive’s streams and tell me that warrior’s not viable. He goes both long bow build as well as full melee builds, and does completely fine (in fact, excels in what he does).
That said, coming back after 6 months, doing the exact same button smashing and you expect the game to have changed enough to cater to your skills just makes you pathetic, to be honest.
might check out that video, if it helps me get a better build to smash you with. eat me, fool.
and just to give everyone some background, i was very big on alliance battles back in gw1, as wa/mo and ranger, but in gw1 you could take a secondary class to compensate for your class’ weaknesses. in gw2 it seems like you come up against another class that is a “hard counter” to your class, you are simply screwed.
not to knock gw2 as a whole, the pve has been very entertaining, the story was good (not as good as gw1, but whatever), and everything seems well polished with plenty of good content. but if this is how pvp plays out, then i guess i won’t even bother. either i’m missing something obvious, some technique that makes a warrior able to fight mesmers, elementalists, etc., or this is just how it is meant to be. if you all have some advice, please, enlighten me. another frustrating aspect of pvp is how the traits have changed since i left, now you have to put more points into the “Power” trait to get the old “berserker’s power” trait that was so useful before. but traits aside, it seems like melee is still a waste of time in pvp, same as launch.
okay so i left about six months ago and came back roughly a week ago to see what was new. and it turns it out nothing really has changed, at least as a warrior. pvp is basically unplayable as a warrior because of mesmers and elementalists. they are everywhere and basically unkillable as a warrior. when you down them, they have skills that allow them to disappear and revive themselves with pretty much 100% effectiveness. how are you supposed to kill these classes as a melee player? even playing your best, using all your movement skills, interrupts, etc. to down them, they can still escape, revive themselves, and run away, and then you will most likely get rolled by a gank squad while you are still weakened from the fight. if this is still the same almost a year after launch, it seems like this is “working as intended,” so basically pvp is pointless as a warrior? is there some magical technique that i am somehow not grasping, because everytime i down a Mesmer/elementalist, and start to “FINISH THEM”, they just disappear. and then pop up out of nowhere again, alive and well. is this how the game is meant to be played? because if so, might as well just roll a mesmer