Guild Wars 2

Larger party size! This may sound like a traditional raiding request, but I love the epic feeling of a large party facing hard encounters. The great part about this is you can actually have tactical coordinated combat, versus the normal rule of “don’t stand in the red rings.” This doesn’t degrade into roles like “this is wear the healer stands…” but into something more constantly like the Dredge Fractal final boss with the molten pots. I’d like to see more mechanics like that enter dungeons, but I know that reasonably you’re limited by the amount of players allowed in the party.

I believe a big founding thought in GW2 is that everyone should get to play how they want to, so horizontal progression is amazing (and I love the options everywhere) however there’s no reason not to have vertical progression as well (and it doesn’t have to be gear-based.) Vertical progression outside of fractals is pretty non-existent, and while some of your player base don’t want it, some of your player base does! And since you can start designing really complex tactical scenarios as far as boss fights the challenge isn’t a gear-check, it’s a can-you-coordinate-effectively check.

The other thing I really liked about fractals is that you incorporated jumping puzzle-like components to it, which is fairly unique to GW2, and everyone really enjoys them. It really gives some depth to the “challenge” of a dungeon as the challenge is not just knowing the mechanics of a boss, but also knowing that certain mobs knock back so you have to be more situationally aware, etc…

I’d also like to see more story while you’re fighting (like different phases an NPC will say something to progress the topic…) rather than cut scenes. I love cut scenes, but I think there are other ways to weave story into the game during actual gameplay.

I think incorporating these aspects into the game will make it a more complete game as far as horizontal content is concerned because there is just a hole right now for big-group boss-like battles. You can argue that the world bosses provide this, however the tactics to these bosses are non existent because you want the entry fee to participate low since they are actually happening in the world (unavoidable in the zone, etc..) What I’m really asking for is encounters on an equivalent scale or higher to the tactics required for competent WvWvW play and system that supports a larger group.