What do you think makes Guild Wars 2 lackluster?

[the doom cannon]

Hey everyone. I am going to make a video discussing the possible pitfalls of Guild Wars 2. Analyze them, strike down some, and reinforce others. And it dawned on me that instead of searching the interwebs high and low for various negative thoughts on Guild Wars 2 that I could just create a thread for it here.

So the purpose of this thread is to bring to light any flaws and dealbreakers that you have seen in Guild Wars 2. However, please make them well thought out. I do not want to see any of this: "Guild Wars 2 sucks it's just WoW and it sucks." If you really must compare it to WoW or any other mmo, at least support your claim with good information and think just a little before you post. I want to see the 'why's, not the 'what's.

To start, I will offer one of my own qualms:
leveling is too easy. Experience gain needs to be significantly tweaked before launch to make the game require more time between levels, but also not so much that you end up grinding the last 1/4 of your XP bar each level. You should also not have to go to other starting areas to finish off your XP bar either.

Anyway, have at ye, escapists.

PS: I played pretty much obsessively(over 100 hours) during the betas and stress tests, so I know what I'm doing and what I'm talking about. I also love the game and can't wait for its release.

PPS: I would appreciate it if there would be no flamewars, but I guess it's inevitable whilst talking about negatives of Guild Wars 2.

 

[Norrdicus]

Ooh, that's a tough one.

Well, while I did not play much past level 20 content, I do have one complaint: the rate at which you gain skills feels like it follows an inversely exponential curve. You gain 10 in the first hour, maybe more, but then when your skill selection is later based on the skill points you gain from skill challenges (since you've probably grinded all the weapon skills), it takes a ton of time to get just a single new one. In Guild Wars 1 the curve wasn't as noticeable, there wasn't much hierarchy between standard skills, and the acquisition felt a lot less restricted

 

[Kordie]

Been in all of the beta weekends so far and I love it.

For your leveling point, I can kinda see your point, but not really. In the last weekend I was mostly playing a Norn Warrior, and through doing only quests and a few skill challanges (no pvp, no crafting, no other exp boosting activities) I was leveling up right along side the quests. At no point was I over leveled or under leveled to any big degree. Some points I would do my story quests a bit low but that was by choice. Also, at no point did I have to go to another races zones for quests. for the most part I was able to completely ignore my exp bar, and some times after a skill challange I would notice an extra point because I forgot I leveled up earlier.

As for a fault, I would say balance with regards to dynamic quests related to number of players. I do not know what the solution would be, but it seems like some most quests become really easy as soon as you get over a certain number of people. Especially when it comes to a large group in the start areas, some quests get overrun to the point where you just become part of a big mob. Maybe lowering the population limit for zones a bit could help, though we want to avoid any area becoming deserted as well. Other thought would be to increase the enemy strength even further when more people join in.

 

[targren]

1) The skill tree is pointlessly tiered since BWE2. The claim was that people "thought that the more expensive skills were better" (duh?) and that that's not the impression they were trying to give. Somehow, they think they're not going to give the impression that 3rd tier skills are better, and now you have to grind out and waste a bunch of points on skills you may not even want, just to unlock them. *golfclap*

2) Group combat and combat events are a total mess. Between the particle spam, the ranger and necromancer pets that often use the same models as mobs, and just the crush of people, good luck figuring out what's going on. Combined with the fact that they've removed the "auto-facing"/"auto-ranging" that they had in GW (if you were out of range of a skill, you moved into range before triggering it. Likewise, if you were in range but facing the wrong way, you turned to face your target). This new mechanic grants players the endless laugh-fest that comes of burning your cooldowns on that damned Necro's bloodsucker minion instead of the minotaur that just stomped your buddy's face into pate.

3) It is insanely grindy. Unlike GW, the story questline alone doesn't progress you sufficiently to keep up with itself, which means grinding those stupid #$#! hearts over and over again on each character. The claim that "you should be leveling up with events" doesn't hold up very well considering that the map directs you to the hearts, not to the events which (until you've played Shaemoor 15 blasted times) seem almost randomly spawned until you know the area. How do you get to know the area? Chasing the hearts! Gogo replay value.


Those aren't all of the problems I've got with it (some serious buyers' remorse going on here) but they're the big ones for me.

 

[GrandmaFunk]

make the game require more time between levels

Why?

please explain how the game would benefit from slower leveling.

 

[Norrdicus]

As for a fault, I would say balance with regards to dynamic quests related to number of players. I do not know what the solution would be, but it seems like some most quests become really easy as soon as you get over a certain number of people. Especially when it comes to a large group in the start areas, some quests get overrun to the point where you just become part of a big mob. Maybe lowering the population limit for zones a bit could help, though we want to avoid any area becoming deserted as well. Other thought would be to increase the enemy strength even further when more people join in.

I think we're going to see far less of absolute zerg-rushing once the game's been out for a while. Then the level differences between players will be higher, many will have migrated away from the low-level areas, but, some of these high level guys will come back to lower level areas because the quests there can still give appropriate XP thanks to downscaling.

I know I will complete every bloody area in the game with my primary character!

 

[the doom cannon]

make the game require more time between levels

Why?

please explain how the game would benefit from slower leveling.

Sorry I didn't explain. During the press beta (before bwe1) many of the testers said that leveling was way too slow and tedious. This led to bwe1 being extremely quick. After bwe1, testers said it was too fast, so they increased leveling time for bwe2. Again they overshot, and in bwe3 they reduced it to around the level of bwe1. I believe they once again overshot the leveling rate.
The game would benefit from leveling that stayed in touch with the area and what you as a player are expected to do. Personally, I believe you should complete most hearts, most skill points, some dynamic events, some exploration, and some crafting in order to progress to the next area. At the rate in bwe3, you could get that from doing the hearts and 1 or 2 dynamic event chains, completely leaving out other aspects of the game. I get that you need to let players decide how they want to spend their time, but it just seems too quick imo. I am not advocating that they make it grindy or force you into other starting areas to avoid grinding, but it would benefit from slightly slower leveling in order to keep the game challenging and interesting. I frequently found myself outleveling the area I was in or the part of the personal story that I was on. The sidekicking system fixes that problem for the most part, but it would still be nice if the levels were exactly on par with the content instead of relying on the sidekicking system to even out the playing field.

Obviously this is an area in which Anet will continually be tweaking, but I just thought it'd be nice if they got it down by release. I personally believe that level is somewhere between bwe2 and bwe3, and closer to bwe2.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I suppose my only complain with GW2 is the lack of communication between the players as in no party needed when doing mission and quest. Being with many other players in a area of a quest in action is not the same thing since we do whatever we want and no communication is involve from what I've seen. Yes I know about forming a party in the dungeon but the lowest one is level 30.

I mean one of the reasons why I like GW was needing a party to complete a mission or make it easier when doing a quest. In Gw2 you can complete a mission by yourself so it kind of make the game abit of a lonely experience if you don't got friends with you online.

In saying so however I do remember the times being in a team was annoying (blaming each other when the mission fail and calling noobs and etc) so I guess what I'm asking for is having abit of both worlds or the balance of it.

Who knows maybe I change my mind or there will be some party forming once I start playing the full game.

 

[GrandmaFunk]

we already do have a bit of both worlds: while you don't NEED to party for most of the content, you certainly CAN party as much as you want.

during the first BWE I ended up partying with two ppl I randomly came across in the middle of a zone. they rescued me from a fight for which I was outclassed..after that we spent about 3 hours exploring that zone together and met back up the next day to visit other places and help each other with various individual goals.

so random PUGs will still happen if that's what you're into.

 

[Archetypal_Maniac]

Hey everyone. I am going to make a video discussing the possible pitfalls of Guild Wars 2. Analyze them, strike down some, and reinforce others. And it dawned on me that instead of searching the interwebs high and low for various negative thoughts on Guild Wars 2 that I could just create a thread for it here.

So the purpose of this thread is to bring to light any flaws and dealbreakers that you have seen in Guild Wars 2. However, please make them well thought out. I do not want to see any of this: "Guild Wars 2 sucks it's just WoW and it sucks." If you really must compare it to WoW or any other mmo, at least support your claim with good information and think just a little before you post. I want to see the 'why's, not the 'what's.

To start, I will offer one of my own qualms:
leveling is too easy. Experience gain needs to be significantly tweaked before launch to make the game require more time between levels, but also not so much that you end up grinding the last 1/4 of your XP bar each level. You should also not have to go to other starting areas to finish off your XP bar either.

Anyway, have at ye, escapists.

PS: I played pretty much obsessively(over 100 hours) during the betas and stress tests, so I know what I'm doing and what I'm talking about. I also love the game and can't wait for its release.

PPS: I would appreciate it if there would be no flamewars, but I guess it's inevitable whilst talking about negatives of Guild Wars 2.

To me it was the world pvp system in which you have to capture keeps and resource points. In theory it should be a PvP war zone. However it's utterly zergy, large battles never end since they come back as fast as they are killed too.

The main problem is capping the keep, theres many keeps and all of them have a huge door with a bunch of health and an NPC inside. While you're PvEing that door, the enemy are PvEing another door and everyone is whacking down a wooden health bar. Then you go in and have some more PvE fun.

In the match I played most people just ignored the boring objectives and fought each other at the front of the main gate.

 

[9thRequiem]

EDIT : Do you mean this thread to be titled "What elements of Guild Wars 2 need some work?"? I wouldn't say it's lackluster at all atm, and your post indicates you don't find it such either.

I disagree on the leveling speed. I found it a touch slow before, and BWE3 got it spot on. Bear in mind they should cater for mixed playstyles. You shouldn't feel forced into other race's zones, PvP or insane amounts of crafting to level.

As for a fault, I would say balance with regards to dynamic quests related to number of players. I do not know what the solution would be, but it seems like some most quests become really easy as soon as you get over a certain number of people. Especially when it comes to a large group in the start areas, some quests get overrun to the point where you just become part of a big mob. Maybe lowering the population limit for zones a bit could help, though we want to avoid any area becoming deserted as well. Other thought would be to increase the enemy strength even further when more people join in.

I'll agree on this one - the scaling on a few of the DEs could use a little tweaking. BWE3 did improve this a lot though, but there's still work needed on both the low end (some not labelled as needing a group effort are insanely hard on your own) and the high (swarming with a vast number of people just makes some of the low-level DEs too easy).
They did mention this was on their To Do before release though, so I expect it to be better in release.

 

[the doom cannon]

EDIT : Do you mean this thread to be titled "What elements of Guild Wars 2 need some work?"? I wouldn't say it's lackluster at all atm, and your post indicates you don't find it such either.

I named it that way to encourage ppl who dislike the game for whatever reason to post. If I said "needs work" then the ppl who just simply don't like it wouldn't bother posting or would just flame the thread. I personally have the "needs work" opinion, but others have stronger opinions than I do.

 

[J. Mazarin]

Maybe some balancing issues, as playing as a Guardian with a greatsword was insanely ez-pz compared to other classes.

I will say, just playing the beta was the most fun I've ever had on an MMO and I certainly can't wait until the 25th.

EDIT: The skill system kind of fucking sucks. There's no way to avoid spending points on skills you absolutely don't want/will never use, which makes leveling feel like a bit of a pain.