I have to say its not grindy, its a leveling bullet train to the middle of the Sahara. The ride is great and really fun.... but then you get to max lvl on 4-5 toons after a single month and you look around.... then you leave. But for a month, yes its pretty good. I don't care about +3 to a stat over regular exotics fully gemmed. If I can go through the content and hit level 80 in 2 days without really pushing for level 80, the game is not grindy. It was built by people who didn't understand pacing, you blitz for 1-2 days to max level and all the sudden you get to grind for a weapon for a month. It's the fact that the pacing in the game slams to a halt, I pulled what little non bound gear off my 80s I could and gave it to my guild along with all my gold. I could just no longer log in and continue on. It was a fun comet ride, but that's all.
Originally posted by Pyatra I have to say its not grindy, its a leveling bullet train to the middle of the Sahara. The ride is great and really fun.... but then you get to max lvl on 4-5 toons after a single month and you look around.... then you leave. But for a month, yes its pretty good. I don't care about +3 to a stat over regular exotics fully gemmed. If I can go through the content and hit level 80 in 2 days without really pushing for level 80, the game is not grindy. It was built by people who didn't understand pacing, you blitz for 1-2 days to max level and all the sudden you get to grind for a weapon for a month. It's the fact that the pacing in the game slams to a halt, I pulled what little non bound gear off my 80s I could and gave it to my guild along with all my gold. I could just no longer log in and continue on. It was a fun comet ride, but that's all.
It took me about 1 months gaming to get to max level on my main for me, I cant possible get 4-5 toons to lvl 80 in a month lol.
Originally posted by Pyatra I have to say its not grindy, its a leveling bullet train to the middle of the Sahara. The ride is great and really fun.... but then you get to max lvl on 4-5 toons after a single month and you look around.... then you leave. But for a month, yes its pretty good. I don't care about +3 to a stat over regular exotics fully gemmed. If I can go through the content and hit level 80 in 2 days without really pushing for level 80, the game is not grindy. It was built by people who didn't understand pacing, you blitz for 1-2 days to max level and all the sudden you get to grind for a weapon for a month. It's the fact that the pacing in the game slams to a halt, I pulled what little non bound gear off my 80s I could and gave it to my guild along with all my gold. I could just no longer log in and continue on. It was a fun comet ride, but that's all.
It took me about 1 months gaming to get to max level on my main for me, I cant possible get 4-5 toons to lvl 80 in a month lol.
Maybe you're playing in wrong...?
James T. Kirk: All she's got isn't good enough! What else ya got?
Originally posted by Pyatra I have to say its not grindy, its a leveling bullet train to the middle of the Sahara. The ride is great and really fun.... but then you get to max lvl on 4-5 toons after a single month and you look around.... then you leave. But for a month, yes its pretty good. I don't care about +3 to a stat over regular exotics fully gemmed. If I can go through the content and hit level 80 in 2 days without really pushing for level 80, the game is not grindy. It was built by people who didn't understand pacing, you blitz for 1-2 days to max level and all the sudden you get to grind for a weapon for a month. It's the fact that the pacing in the game slams to a halt, I pulled what little non bound gear off my 80s I could and gave it to my guild along with all my gold. I could just no longer log in and continue on. It was a fun comet ride, but that's all.
It took me about 1 months gaming to get to max level on my main for me, I cant possible get 4-5 toons to lvl 80 in a month lol.
Maybe you're playing in wrong...?
Leveling to 80 in a couple of days won't be achieved by the average player.
It requires either a bunch of resources to craft (and now it is harder since the xp is split by 500 crafting levels instead of 400) or you are playing a ton of hours per day and being very picky about what you do and do not in the game.
The guys that achieved level 80s in the first 2 days of the game skipped hearts, most of the events and had other people pooling them resources so they could craft. They still played non stop.
The first people in my guild to achieve level 80 took some 5 days, but they were playing 16 hours per day. They weren't fully exotic either.
So there are different "months" of play.
There are "months" of 300 hours of play and there are "months" of 90-120 hours of play.
Currently playing: GW2 Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
First, my experience base playing this game which will qualify me to post anything remotely meaningful.
I play for the Tarnished Coast server and have made many servers my home and experienced a lot. I've ran my very own guild from nothing to something across three servers. We have the guild puzzle unlocked and we are an under 100-man guild that wanted to focus on communication and getting to know each other. I main Elementalist and have created multiple builds since playing the game from launch in Sept. 2012. By multiple builds, I have 12 builds with 120 bank spaces saved for all the builds and armors I've obtained. 2700 hours on my Elementalist so far, over 3000+ playing this game.
Guild Wars 2 is a grindy game. By grindy I mean what happens once one reaches level 80. There is almost no grind to go from level 1 through 80 and the progression to get there is mostly the same. Once a player reaches 80 they will spend a lot of time trying to grind to gain the looks that they want from either a very hard to obtain weapon, or a possibly because they might want something from the Gem Store.
Anet has announced they are going to change critical damage into a numerical attribute and hit for 10% less damage than current numbers. The result is that all your weapons are going to hit for critical damage as though they were one-grade lower than current, but will hit for current normal damage.
The current state of the game is that Anet spends more time in working on its Living Story and there is very few permament content outside of Southsun Cove or Fractal of the Mist. Their latest reslease is going to be a WvW overflow map, but quite frankly, I don't care about playing WvW if I can't help my server as a commander to actually score points. So the penalty for playing the new map will be to not score points for my server.
The greatest problem that I've seen for pro-players and casual players alike is the way Anet handles World Event Stories. They set a limit for a map to be around 75 to 100 people. Once more than those people exist in a map, players are thrown into overflows where they play with anyone else who has failed to reach their home server in these overflows. The result are very long queues and high chances that in populated servers you will not even have the chance or right to play with your own server unless you sit in six to twelve hour long queues to reach those maps.
I am not kidding when I say that players will keep their butts planted in event maps for the living story for hours in order to not lose their place. Its by far the one element that has repeatedly divided guilds as they cant play together unless they take empty overflows and bring their people there, Also it divided many players as well. I cant even enter areas with those in my friendslist because their overflows are filled up and it discourages me from playing in these events.
The other major thing that plagues this game is the way that Anet forces players to re-equip their characters. Every month they throw a balance patch and while I understand that its for the sake of balance, the result are usually the same two classes (guardians and mesmers) usually getting buffed while many builds out there being destroyed. The response is many players post-patch having to scavenge and hunt down creating a new build. The result is spending a lot more time trying to actually make a new build and completely re-equip a character than actually spending the time playing the game and enjoying it. Notice, its the korean mentality mixed with the American Mentality that in order to have fun, you must be doing some kind of progressive work or else you arent playing the game....
Rather than throw my armors away as they took a while to gather up as well as weapons, I store the in the bank. Notice I just said that a build can have a half-life of two weeks to a month at most....
Finally, the guild system is messed up with many buffs and upgrades being obsolete. People run with guilds a lot for the guild missions which award guild commendations. The problem is that utility guilds exist that already are about awarding commendations to anyone who joins them. The end result is actually devaluing what guilds are meant to have guild missions for (to spend time together with your guild doing something together) and guilds being tossed around as placeholders where its members being able to be in five guilds at the same time, yet representing one at a time at will can focus more on playing the "me, myself and I" attitude hoping that they can get the most out of whatever guild they are in. I am not saying that there arent good guilds out there, but the threat is ever present to this form of mentality as I have seen it across many servers.
I guess what I hate the most is the fact that there are 51 servers and only few servers have a good gameplay experience as many of the servers are disfunctional. One can walk around entire maps without a single soul around talking in map chat and I play in NA-Time too! Funny that a lot of the complaints that players have had since day 1 have not been answered.
Anet can walk around saying the trinity does not exist, but it still does in the form of soldiers, knights and berserkers and in some cases clerics, but the fastest times running most dungeons are by players who are running in full berserker gear who dont need anyone but mitigation. Anet talked about support being useful, but mitigation is far better than pure support in GW 2 and thus GW2 has failed at many things.
In the current state of the game, GW2 has offerings for the new player who wants to get their feet wet and about nothing for the level 80 player but a cycle that doesnt warrant staying in the game to always repeat it. I only remain in Guild Wars 2 due to the people ive met and friends I've met. If not for them, I would have left this game three months into the game and been smart enough to enjoy the game offerings and move on, but it seems faith is an American thing where people stay hoping and praying things improve rather than simply take a stand and fight.
There is a catch 22 to the design ANEt promised and realized.
I have like zero doubt,Anet fuly intended a no grind game because they don't wan t players on their servers 24/7 eating up profits,i considered that a lame design towards making a quality game.
I think Anet realized afterwards,they wanted to insure profits AFTER players bought the game and to do that they had to ruin their original plans.As mentioned by the OP,the ONLY way to encourage cash shop is to create a painful grind so that players spend on gems.
I see no positive out of either design decision,only greed.
This is my opinion but i believe a game NEEDS grind,otherwise levels and items go by so fast,you never feel satisfaction attaining them,nor do you get to enjoy them for very long.
When i see people complaining about grind,i think of one thing only,they want nothing to feel rare or any satisfaction attaining them and they want levels to go by fast,assuming levels mean something.
The best scenario is a sub fee and a game released with more content and no cash shop.If Anet truly believes they have a solid game,they should be able to charge a sub fee.That guarantees no hidden costs and gives them a more reliable steady income to build on content.
BTW if content is FUN and combat is FUN,you should NEVER be using the word GRIND,that tells me you do not find the content FUN .Just because a developer gives you rewards faster and easier,does NOT change the FUN factor.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
There is a catch 22 to the design ANEt promised and realized.
I have like zero doubt,Anet fuly intended a no grind game because they don't wan t players on their servers 24/7 eating up profits,i considered that a lame design towards making a quality game.
I think Anet realized afterwards,they wanted to insure profits AFTER players bought the game and to do that they had to ruin their original plans.As mentioned by the OP,the ONLY way to encourage cash shop is to create a painful grind so that players spend on gems.
I see no positive out of either design decision,only greed.
This is my opinion but i believe a game NEEDS grind,otherwise levels and items go by so fast,you never feel satisfaction attaining them,nor do you get to enjoy them for very long.
When i see people complaining about grind,i think of one thing only,they want nothing to feel rare or any satisfaction attaining them and they want levels to go by fast,assuming levels mean something.
The best scenario is a sub fee and a game released with more content and no cash shop.If Anet truly believes they have a solid game,they should be able to charge a sub fee.That guarantees no hidden costs and gives them a more reliable steady income to build on content.
BTW if content is FUN and combat is FUN,you should NEVER be using the word GRIND,that tells me you do not find the content FUN .Just because a developer gives you rewards faster and easier,does NOT change the FUN factor.
Only paid once for the game, by buying it.
Since then I upgraded my account with a few extra character slots, some extra bag slots with gold I earned ingame without ever grinding.
I am a casual player, I play on and off, and I love it when other players plunge cash into the game to buy cosmetic gear and buy exotic weapons+armor when they reach 80....and I still pwn them in PVP or PVE.
GW2 has one of the best shops of all MMOs out there, by not selling P2W gear/weapons that outclass ingame looted/crafted items.
"going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"
To those saying 80 in 2 days is nonsense for almost all players. Contrary to what you might think that is nowhere near the "norm". Try playing 2-4 hours a night but only about 5 or so days a week, with maybe one longer session on the weekend. That is a real life player, and probably that might be too much. It would take a few months to get to 80 on 1 character for the normal "casual" but dedicated player.
GW2 is a good game, I played a lot at release but fell off after a few months, no fault of GW2 I just wandered elsewhere. I might even come back and check it out again.
To those saying 80 in 2 days is nonsense for almost all players. Contrary to what you might think that is nowhere near the "norm". Try playing 2-4 hours a night but only about 5 or so days a week, with maybe one longer session on the weekend. That is a real life player, and probably that might be too much. It would take a few months to get to 80 on 1 character for the normal "casual" but dedicated player.
GW2 is a good game, I played a lot at release but fell off after a few months, no fault of GW2 I just wandered elsewhere. I might even come back and check it out again.
The current state of the game is that Anet spends more time in working on its Living Story and there is very few permament content outside of Southsun Cove or Fractal of the Mist. Their latest reslease is going to be a WvW overflow map, but quite frankly, I don't care about playing WvW if I can't help my server as a commander to actually score points. So the penalty for playing the new map will be to not score points for my server.
The other major thing that plagues this game is the way that Anet forces players to re-equip their characters. Every month they throw a balance patch and while I understand that its for the sake of balance, the result are usually the same two classes (guardians and mesmers) usually getting buffed while many builds out there being destroyed. The response is many players post-patch having to scavenge and hunt down creating a new build. The result is spending a lot more time trying to actually make a new build and completely re-equip a character than actually spending the time playing the game and enjoying it. Notice, its the korean mentality mixed with the American Mentality that in order to have fun, you must be doing some kind of progressive work or else you arent playing the game....
Rather than throw my armors away as they took a while to gather up as well as weapons, I store the in the bank. Notice I just said that a build can have a half-life of two weeks to a month at most....
Anet can walk around saying the trinity does not exist, but it still does in the form of soldiers, knights and berserkers and in some cases clerics, but the fastest times running most dungeons are by players who are running in full berserker gear who dont need anyone but mitigation. Anet talked about support being useful, but mitigation is far better than pure support in GW 2 and thus GW2 has failed at many things.
In the current state of the game, GW2 has offerings for the new player who wants to get their feet wet and about nothing for the level 80 player but a cycle that doesnt warrant staying in the game to always repeat it. I only remain in Guild Wars 2 due to the people ive met and friends I've met. If not for them, I would have left this game three months into the game and been smart enough to enjoy the game offerings and move on, but it seems faith is an American thing where people stay hoping and praying things improve rather than simply take a stand and fight.
What you mean is that the work that has more visibility is the Living World - and as I said before the Living Story is keeping more and more permanent content in the world.
Apparently they also spend time rolling balance patches instead of all the living world.
But lets see what kind of rebuilding do one needs to do after a build being nerfed
PvE you play zerkers (or knights+zerker trinkets or vitality+zerker trinkets) and people have been doing that since 2012 (maybe not the idiots that though ranged was so much better than melee). So the crazy rebuild time is talk to the trait person and pay 3.5 silver.
In WvW you play PVT or whatever with vitality or toughness or both.
In sPvP equipment is free.
Oh support is very useful - reflects and other bubbles effect, time warps, spirits, banners, shouts, combo fields, etc. Support isn't tied to stats, other than healing.
Active defense just outclasses passive defense and so passive defense is completely useless and you use passive offense instead.
As if that is somehow different to any other game.
The truth is 5-10 years ago, MMORPGs were like the social networks of today and you made your friends then.
And if your friends are not playing game X, neither are you.
Currently playing: GW2 Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
It can be, but not as easy as it used to, you will have explored 0% of the world and it won't be your first character either.
It is quite easy to reach level 80 and only have explored 20-40% of the world (even without crafting).
I am in the process of doing a bit of everything on my new War.
Actually, I'm a little concerned. I just rolled him this weekend. He's already in his 40s. I did cooking and Armor Smithing to 400 so far. But I have very very little else done. Being a warrior I am trying to think ahead to craft Ascended in the future, so I want WS,AS possibly, Hunts and possibly JC. But it looks expensive and long.
But I am OK with that, It gives me long term goals.
I am in the process of doing a bit of everything on my new War.
Actually, I'm a little concerned. I just rolled him this weekend. He's already in his 40s. I did cooking and Armor Smithing to 400 so far. But I have very very little else done. Being a warrior I am trying to think ahead to craft Ascended in the future, so I want WS,AS possibly, Hunts and possibly JC. But it looks expensive and long.
But I am OK with that, It gives me long term goals.
Who'da thought? GW2 and long term endgame goals?
What about 300% magic find for long term endgame goals?
Or Eternity?
Or collecting mini pets?
GW2 always had long term goals - it is simply a question of the player caring about those goals or not.
For many games the long term goal is progression via raiding, but if I don't care about raiding, my goals selection suffers quite a blow.
Can it have more goals?
Sure.
Housing/Hall of monuments could had loads of goals.
If one enjoys the game play and the world, one can always find some goals as an excuse to log in.
Currently playing: GW2 Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
I am in the process of doing a bit of everything on my new War.
Actually, I'm a little concerned. I just rolled him this weekend. He's already in his 40s. I did cooking and Armor Smithing to 400 so far. But I have very very little else done. Being a warrior I am trying to think ahead to craft Ascended in the future, so I want WS,AS possibly, Hunts and possibly JC. But it looks expensive and long.
But I am OK with that, It gives me long term goals.
Who'da thought? GW2 and long term endgame goals?
What about 300% magic find for long term endgame goals?
Or Eternity?
Or collecting mini pets?
GW2 always had long term goals - it is simply a question of the player caring about those goals or not.
For many games the long term goal is progression via raiding, but if I don't care about raiding, my goals selection suffers quite a blow.
Can it have more goals?
Sure.
Housing/Hall of monuments could had loads of goals.
If one enjoys the game play and the world, one can always find some goals as an excuse to log in.
I think you misunderstood me. My long term goals revolve around a number of things, primarily, I'd like to do Fractals to work on a full set of Ascended gear with infusions. This is going to take a while. I was taking a jab at the notion that GW2 doesn't have endgame progression when it does.
As far as I know, colin is no longer the lead studio head over at anet now, am i correct? I know that chris whiteline's vision is farrrrrr different from what GW2 was originally. I litterally have never played a game as grindy as GW2 was. Sure, it doesnt take much to get the exotic dungeon gear, but if you want any of the gear above that? Be prepared to be farming for weeks on end to acquire the crafting skills and materials required to make said armor/weapons, because guess what, there is no RNG in this game.
However the edge of the mists patch coming up made it painfully apparent to me why exactly that is. PvE is not going to be what the game is oriented for, they want a PvP/WvW oriented game play style, much like the way Eve online incorporates PvE but is 90% pvp. The balancing of the classes and the lack of a trifecta, the lack of items in the game, the dumbing down of stats across all the tiers of armor/weapons, and just the general focus towards PvP oriented gameplay.
I wondered for a long time why everytime over the past year when chris was questioned with regards to development of PvE in this game why it was shrugged off and he couldnt help himself from spewing the words world vs world on every interview, but it couldnt be clearer now.
Originally posted by fantasyfreak112 I was actually very surprised how grindy this game was since it basically prided itself on being the opposite.
It wasn't when it launched. Peak power was extremely easy to get. Then people started to get bored and wanted new content to - believe or not - grind so that they would have something to do.
In comes the concept of Ascended Gear and out goes the concept of a non-grindy game.
That's basically it. ANet buckled under the content locust whiners.
amen bro, it is idd all you content locusts that are the whiners...always!.
I play about 1 hour a day, very casual.......have been since launch and still enjoying the game, if i am sick of doing events i go roaming the world for mats or go do a dungeon.
I have about 6 chars.....3 x lvl 80, 1x lvl 74, 1xlvl 69, and my new alt lvl 16 and still i am having funn, there is no better mmo out there imho (at this time).
If i realy have enough of GW2 for a while there is also stil Skyrim (bit dissappointed in this title tbh) and TL2.
I think most of the "young" gamers just play too much......go outside once in a while you know.
maybe i am getting old.......NAH hehe
okay, lets remove all the locusts from the game
whos left? 5 PVPers, and 7 raiders
lets see how long the game can last , with that kind of money
without the locusts, there wouldnt BE a game
lolz you are getting it wrong m8, its the roleplayers, pvp'rs, raiders and explorers that KEEP a game alive.....the locusts do the content within a month and then bitch about it for a fiew weeks B4 they leave for the new hyped gaming content to consume.
Every game its the same.....no matter how many years the devs took to develope the content, these guys run trough it without even reading the quests.....its just klik accept button and follow the radar symbol.
Yeah people like that are the real community.....lolz.
i agree
but Again..without the locusts, the devs wouldnt MAKE a game, or at least make it a really cheap one
investors wont wait for 5 years, without any returns
would you?
Kinda agree with you and disagree at the same time.......imho they would not make SO MANY games if there wouldnt be content locusts.....true. But the devs would would make games none the less with or without the content locusts, that i am sure of.
As for being an investor....that is always a risk and they know that......personaly i would not mind investing in a game over 5 years if i would know it would bring me a profit after those 5 years. (there problem is greed, just like the gamers them self.....they want it all and they want it NOW....imo a wrong attitude but that's just mho).
As far as I know, colin is no longer the lead studio head over at anet now, am i correct? I know that chris whiteline's vision is farrrrrr different from what GW2 was originally. I litterally have never played a game as grindy as GW2 was. Sure, it doesnt take much to get the exotic dungeon gear, but if you want any of the gear above that? Be prepared to be farming for weeks on end to acquire the crafting skills and materials required to make said armor/weapons, because guess what, there is no RNG in this game.
However the edge of the mists patch coming up made it painfully apparent to me why exactly that is. PvE is not going to be what the game is oriented for, they want a PvP/WvW oriented game play style, much like the way Eve online incorporates PvE but is 90% pvp. The balancing of the classes and the lack of a trifecta, the lack of items in the game, the dumbing down of stats across all the tiers of armor/weapons, and just the general focus towards PvP oriented gameplay.
I wondered for a long time why everytime over the past year when chris was questioned with regards to development of PvE in this game why it was shrugged off and he couldnt help himself from spewing the words world vs world on every interview, but it couldnt be clearer now.
Legendary weapons had RNG to which people complained day and night.
Judging from your post, i am assuming Ascended weapons and armors don't have RNG. So, now we have a different group of people complaining.
I think you misunderstood me. My long term goals revolve around a number of things, primarily, I'd like to do Fractals to work on a full set of Ascended gear with infusions. This is going to take a while. I was taking a jab at the notion that GW2 doesn't have endgame progression when it does.
I was just reinforcing the jab at that notion by saying the goals are in the eye of the beholder and is a subjective reason to like or dislike GW2.
Currently playing: GW2 Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
As far as I know, colin is no longer the lead studio head over at anet now, am i correct? I know that chris whiteline's vision is farrrrrr different from what GW2 was originally.
From what I know Colin is the Game Director and Chris Whiteside is the Studio Design Director. Eric Flannum as far as I know was and still is the Lead Game Designer.
So I don't think it is a question of a single person directing the game direction.
Currently playing: GW2 Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
Comments
How do you know they are the same people?
It took me about 1 months gaming to get to max level on my main for me, I cant possible get 4-5 toons to lvl 80 in a month lol.
If it's not broken, you are not innovating.
Maybe you're playing in wrong...?
James T. Kirk: All she's got isn't good enough! What else ya got?
Leveling to 80 in a couple of days won't be achieved by the average player.
It requires either a bunch of resources to craft (and now it is harder since the xp is split by 500 crafting levels instead of 400) or you are playing a ton of hours per day and being very picky about what you do and do not in the game.
The guys that achieved level 80s in the first 2 days of the game skipped hearts, most of the events and had other people pooling them resources so they could craft. They still played non stop.
The first people in my guild to achieve level 80 took some 5 days, but they were playing 16 hours per day. They weren't fully exotic either.
So there are different "months" of play.
There are "months" of 300 hours of play and there are "months" of 90-120 hours of play.
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
Hello everyone. Been a while since I posted....
First, my experience base playing this game which will qualify me to post anything remotely meaningful.
I play for the Tarnished Coast server and have made many servers my home and experienced a lot. I've ran my very own guild from nothing to something across three servers. We have the guild puzzle unlocked and we are an under 100-man guild that wanted to focus on communication and getting to know each other. I main Elementalist and have created multiple builds since playing the game from launch in Sept. 2012. By multiple builds, I have 12 builds with 120 bank spaces saved for all the builds and armors I've obtained. 2700 hours on my Elementalist so far, over 3000+ playing this game.
Guild Wars 2 is a grindy game. By grindy I mean what happens once one reaches level 80. There is almost no grind to go from level 1 through 80 and the progression to get there is mostly the same. Once a player reaches 80 they will spend a lot of time trying to grind to gain the looks that they want from either a very hard to obtain weapon, or a possibly because they might want something from the Gem Store.
Anet has announced they are going to change critical damage into a numerical attribute and hit for 10% less damage than current numbers. The result is that all your weapons are going to hit for critical damage as though they were one-grade lower than current, but will hit for current normal damage.
The current state of the game is that Anet spends more time in working on its Living Story and there is very few permament content outside of Southsun Cove or Fractal of the Mist. Their latest reslease is going to be a WvW overflow map, but quite frankly, I don't care about playing WvW if I can't help my server as a commander to actually score points. So the penalty for playing the new map will be to not score points for my server.
The greatest problem that I've seen for pro-players and casual players alike is the way Anet handles World Event Stories. They set a limit for a map to be around 75 to 100 people. Once more than those people exist in a map, players are thrown into overflows where they play with anyone else who has failed to reach their home server in these overflows. The result are very long queues and high chances that in populated servers you will not even have the chance or right to play with your own server unless you sit in six to twelve hour long queues to reach those maps.
I am not kidding when I say that players will keep their butts planted in event maps for the living story for hours in order to not lose their place. Its by far the one element that has repeatedly divided guilds as they cant play together unless they take empty overflows and bring their people there, Also it divided many players as well. I cant even enter areas with those in my friendslist because their overflows are filled up and it discourages me from playing in these events.
The other major thing that plagues this game is the way that Anet forces players to re-equip their characters. Every month they throw a balance patch and while I understand that its for the sake of balance, the result are usually the same two classes (guardians and mesmers) usually getting buffed while many builds out there being destroyed. The response is many players post-patch having to scavenge and hunt down creating a new build. The result is spending a lot more time trying to actually make a new build and completely re-equip a character than actually spending the time playing the game and enjoying it. Notice, its the korean mentality mixed with the American Mentality that in order to have fun, you must be doing some kind of progressive work or else you arent playing the game....
Rather than throw my armors away as they took a while to gather up as well as weapons, I store the in the bank. Notice I just said that a build can have a half-life of two weeks to a month at most....
Finally, the guild system is messed up with many buffs and upgrades being obsolete. People run with guilds a lot for the guild missions which award guild commendations. The problem is that utility guilds exist that already are about awarding commendations to anyone who joins them. The end result is actually devaluing what guilds are meant to have guild missions for (to spend time together with your guild doing something together) and guilds being tossed around as placeholders where its members being able to be in five guilds at the same time, yet representing one at a time at will can focus more on playing the "me, myself and I" attitude hoping that they can get the most out of whatever guild they are in. I am not saying that there arent good guilds out there, but the threat is ever present to this form of mentality as I have seen it across many servers.
I guess what I hate the most is the fact that there are 51 servers and only few servers have a good gameplay experience as many of the servers are disfunctional. One can walk around entire maps without a single soul around talking in map chat and I play in NA-Time too! Funny that a lot of the complaints that players have had since day 1 have not been answered.
Anet can walk around saying the trinity does not exist, but it still does in the form of soldiers, knights and berserkers and in some cases clerics, but the fastest times running most dungeons are by players who are running in full berserker gear who dont need anyone but mitigation. Anet talked about support being useful, but mitigation is far better than pure support in GW 2 and thus GW2 has failed at many things.
In the current state of the game, GW2 has offerings for the new player who wants to get their feet wet and about nothing for the level 80 player but a cycle that doesnt warrant staying in the game to always repeat it. I only remain in Guild Wars 2 due to the people ive met and friends I've met. If not for them, I would have left this game three months into the game and been smart enough to enjoy the game offerings and move on, but it seems faith is an American thing where people stay hoping and praying things improve rather than simply take a stand and fight.
There is a catch 22 to the design ANEt promised and realized.
I have like zero doubt,Anet fuly intended a no grind game because they don't wan t players on their servers 24/7 eating up profits,i considered that a lame design towards making a quality game.
I think Anet realized afterwards,they wanted to insure profits AFTER players bought the game and to do that they had to ruin their original plans.As mentioned by the OP,the ONLY way to encourage cash shop is to create a painful grind so that players spend on gems.
I see no positive out of either design decision,only greed.
This is my opinion but i believe a game NEEDS grind,otherwise levels and items go by so fast,you never feel satisfaction attaining them,nor do you get to enjoy them for very long.
When i see people complaining about grind,i think of one thing only,they want nothing to feel rare or any satisfaction attaining them and they want levels to go by fast,assuming levels mean something.
The best scenario is a sub fee and a game released with more content and no cash shop.If Anet truly believes they have a solid game,they should be able to charge a sub fee.That guarantees no hidden costs and gives them a more reliable steady income to build on content.
BTW if content is FUN and combat is FUN,you should NEVER be using the word GRIND,that tells me you do not find the content FUN .Just because a developer gives you rewards faster and easier,does NOT change the FUN factor.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Only paid once for the game, by buying it.
Since then I upgraded my account with a few extra character slots, some extra bag slots with gold I earned ingame without ever grinding.
I am a casual player, I play on and off, and I love it when other players plunge cash into the game to buy cosmetic gear and buy exotic weapons+armor when they reach 80....and I still pwn them in PVP or PVE.
GW2 has one of the best shops of all MMOs out there, by not selling P2W gear/weapons that outclass ingame looted/crafted items.
"going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"
To those saying 80 in 2 days is nonsense for almost all players. Contrary to what you might think that is nowhere near the "norm". Try playing 2-4 hours a night but only about 5 or so days a week, with maybe one longer session on the weekend. That is a real life player, and probably that might be too much. It would take a few months to get to 80 on 1 character for the normal "casual" but dedicated player.
GW2 is a good game, I played a lot at release but fell off after a few months, no fault of GW2 I just wandered elsewhere. I might even come back and check it out again.
It can be done.
You can craft your way to 80 in a few hours.
What you mean is that the work that has more visibility is the Living World - and as I said before the Living Story is keeping more and more permanent content in the world.
Apparently they also spend time rolling balance patches instead of all the living world.
But lets see what kind of rebuilding do one needs to do after a build being nerfed
PvE you play zerkers (or knights+zerker trinkets or vitality+zerker trinkets) and people have been doing that since 2012 (maybe not the idiots that though ranged was so much better than melee). So the crazy rebuild time is talk to the trait person and pay 3.5 silver.
In WvW you play PVT or whatever with vitality or toughness or both.
In sPvP equipment is free.
Oh support is very useful - reflects and other bubbles effect, time warps, spirits, banners, shouts, combo fields, etc. Support isn't tied to stats, other than healing.
Active defense just outclasses passive defense and so passive defense is completely useless and you use passive offense instead.
As if that is somehow different to any other game.
The truth is 5-10 years ago, MMORPGs were like the social networks of today and you made your friends then.
And if your friends are not playing game X, neither are you.
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
It can be, but not as easy as it used to, you will have explored 0% of the world and it won't be your first character either.
It is quite easy to reach level 80 and only have explored 20-40% of the world (even without crafting).
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
I am in the process of doing a bit of everything on my new War.
Actually, I'm a little concerned. I just rolled him this weekend. He's already in his 40s. I did cooking and Armor Smithing to 400 so far. But I have very very little else done. Being a warrior I am trying to think ahead to craft Ascended in the future, so I want WS,AS possibly, Hunts and possibly JC. But it looks expensive and long.
But I am OK with that, It gives me long term goals.
Who'da thought? GW2 and long term endgame goals?
What about 300% magic find for long term endgame goals?
Or Eternity?
Or collecting mini pets?
GW2 always had long term goals - it is simply a question of the player caring about those goals or not.
For many games the long term goal is progression via raiding, but if I don't care about raiding, my goals selection suffers quite a blow.
Can it have more goals?
Sure.
Housing/Hall of monuments could had loads of goals.
If one enjoys the game play and the world, one can always find some goals as an excuse to log in.
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
I think you misunderstood me. My long term goals revolve around a number of things, primarily, I'd like to do Fractals to work on a full set of Ascended gear with infusions. This is going to take a while. I was taking a jab at the notion that GW2 doesn't have endgame progression when it does.
As far as I know, colin is no longer the lead studio head over at anet now, am i correct? I know that chris whiteline's vision is farrrrrr different from what GW2 was originally. I litterally have never played a game as grindy as GW2 was. Sure, it doesnt take much to get the exotic dungeon gear, but if you want any of the gear above that? Be prepared to be farming for weeks on end to acquire the crafting skills and materials required to make said armor/weapons, because guess what, there is no RNG in this game.
However the edge of the mists patch coming up made it painfully apparent to me why exactly that is. PvE is not going to be what the game is oriented for, they want a PvP/WvW oriented game play style, much like the way Eve online incorporates PvE but is 90% pvp. The balancing of the classes and the lack of a trifecta, the lack of items in the game, the dumbing down of stats across all the tiers of armor/weapons, and just the general focus towards PvP oriented gameplay.
I wondered for a long time why everytime over the past year when chris was questioned with regards to development of PvE in this game why it was shrugged off and he couldnt help himself from spewing the words world vs world on every interview, but it couldnt be clearer now.
Kinda agree with you and disagree at the same time.......imho they would not make SO MANY games if there wouldnt be content locusts.....true. But the devs would would make games none the less with or without the content locusts, that i am sure of.
As for being an investor....that is always a risk and they know that......personaly i would not mind investing in a game over 5 years if i would know it would bring me a profit after those 5 years. (there problem is greed, just like the gamers them self.....they want it all and they want it NOW....imo a wrong attitude but that's just mho).
Legendary weapons had RNG to which people complained day and night.
Judging from your post, i am assuming Ascended weapons and armors don't have RNG. So, now we have a different group of people complaining.
Go figure.
I was just reinforcing the jab at that notion by saying the goals are in the eye of the beholder and is a subjective reason to like or dislike GW2.
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
From what I know Colin is the Game Director and Chris Whiteside is the Studio Design Director. Eric Flannum as far as I know was and still is the Lead Game Designer.
So I don't think it is a question of a single person directing the game direction.
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders