What are some of the things you believe GW2 DIDN'T do right/well?

When it comes to your time and fun in this awesome MMO known as Guild Wars 2, what are some of the things you feel ArenaNet didn't do right or just didnt do well at all?

Neglecting the amazing Wardrobe system (mix-n-match options) because of boring Outfits.Also, neglecting dungeons.

What things has GW2 not done well at this point:-Not splitting skills from the start; PvE, PvP and WvWvW.-Messy implimentation of Wardrobe system; a lot of people lost a lot skins they used to have, losing town outfits.-No ability to save builds, like in GW1

From the perspective of a latecomer, the absolutely worst thing GW2 has done is progress the main story via temporary content.Temporary content is fine, but not for the main storyline! Episodic content that doesn't really affect later stories? Fine! Side bits that give flavor but doesn't actually progress the plot? Also fine!

The fact that apparently either no one said "ok, so how will the story flow for someone who joins 2/6/18 months down the line?" or that argument was ignored is utterly mindblowing to me.

The real kicker is that large portions of the later "Side Stories" would have been perfect as temporary content! Justice of the Blade, the Ley-line magic stuff, the Sensor tracking, the Joko invasions, etc. With a good balancing of their associated achievements and maybe a system for making "missed" AP available via other, slower means, they'd be precisely what I imagined when they talked about a "living world".

rewards, or the lack there off. farming gold to buy stuff from the tp, never got me exited. i have more fun shopping in a supermarket honestly.

season 1 being gone and the new player experience

Neglecting the amazing Wardrobe system (mix-n-match options) because of boring Outfits.

Falling prey to their own limited Wardrobe system because their options (mix-n-match) have spiraled into worse and worse flashy/bulky/repetitive designs. Outfits were a breath of fresh air with their sleek, seamless options rather than piece-wise clutter of armor. They should have gone with outfits from the start and improved outfit options (like swappable headpieces/gloves and unique parts to disable).

Basically, the perfect system for GW2 would have been a wardrobe limited to body, head, gloves and back. So much simpler, so much easier to design good looking equipment, less effort creating it thus capable of pumping out more as well as more time to make the different race equipment look more unique.

Also, they should have never made 3 classes of armor (light, medium and heavy). The motif of a set of equipment should dictate if it is to look heavy, light, medium or some blend depending on how its design, not some arbitrary system of categorizing the professions. This would also cut down on the effort involved with creating a set of equipment (rather than making an armor set that must then be transposed into 3 different versions then further disseminated among multiple races and sexes).

Imagine how many cool equipment designs they could put out if they didn't have to imagine a light version of a set of armor they initially imagined as heavy or how stylized it could look if they didn't have to figure out a way to separate the upper part of the design from the lower part (their usually solution is put a buttcape in there).

My take on what GW2 did poorly as far as my fun goes?

• No effects slider
• Making changes here and there which have moved the game closer to a standard MMO
• Instanced story technology that can result in regular DC's for some players
• Over time, reduced emphasis on opportunity costs in build creation, resulting in builds that are not fun to play against

• Challenge/Difficulty - Most of the game is too easy, and when they try to spike difficulty it's with hitpoints/damage/aoe spam rather than with challenge.

• Powercreep - Has really messed up combats over the years, making combat less fun/interesting than it used to be, when you can cakewalk older content, and creates a much larger gap between new and old builds. Makes WvW for one thing a headache to deal with.

• Multiplayer/Social - While this was initially one of the things that drew me to the game, the ability to basically play it likke a singleplayer game. Nowadays I find it one of the weakest points of the game. You really have no reason to be social in the game, to talk with others in order to group up and play together, make plans or find ways to work better together etc. The game lets you just anonymously group up and encourages you to play deaf/mute and just walk away afterwards, and this completely cripples the social aspect of the game as well as players motivation to group/communicate/improve.

• The continued focus on "strobing-disco-flashing-circus-clown-costumes-of-cancer". The entire "fashion wars" was at its best the first month after launch, when most people still where stuck in the low level skins, that actually look somewhat realistic ;)

Not having traditional quests.It was a breath of fresh air at first not having these but over time I've come to the conclusion that ANet is missing a lot of environmental storytelling, side stories and worldbuilding by not having the option of doing quests. As a result, the world sometimes feels empty, lacks context and every map that looks alike feels alike. Especially in the core game. For example, Iron Marches feels the same as every zone it connects to.What's worst, I think having a traditional questing system would compliment hearts and achievements really well. There would be no need for fetch quests or other dumb things like that are designed to be time sinks for players.

Lore and storytelling outside major events.

-- Being unable to have the freedom to choose any armour piece you want.

@joneirikb.7506 said:

• Multiplayer/Social - While this was initially one of the things that drew me to the game, the ability to basically play it likke a singleplayer game. Nowadays I find it one of the weakest points of the game. You really have no reason to be social in the game, to talk with others in order to group up and play together, make plans or find ways to work better together etc. The game lets you just anonymously group up and encourages you to play deaf/mute and just walk away afterwards, and this completely cripples the social aspect of the game as well as players motivation to group/communicate/improve.

To be honest, this is why I like playing the game. I don't HAVE to socialize unless I WANT to. The fact that, for the most part, the game doesn't give reason to talk to anyone doesn't prohibit you from doing so. It's all up to you, and I like that the choice is there.

To stay on target, though, I do really miss Season 1 content. I also think it was a mistake to design them as temporary content and I welcomed the decision to move to permanent releases. I think it would be very hard to bring S1 back, as the events happened on already populated (populated with content, that is) core maps but one can dream, right?

I'm assuming the question is for the current state of the game since GW2 has changed over the years.

1. Neutering in-game experience in favor of the cash store. This is happening in many ways. From manipulating game economy so gold income gets reduced in favor of gems to the pitiful rate at which new skins are added in game compared to the store. Looting in general feels unrewarding since you never see something exciting coming out of that bag.

2. BLC and mountskins as this game's version of one of the most unsavory practices in gaming industry today. Focusing on either RNG or overpriced items to cater to a small minority of big spenders is also related.

3. Meta events on a timer. I'm not willing to schedule my real life around a video game. Silverwastes is meta done right.

4. The removal of dialogue scenes in story. There is nothing more immersion breaking than trying to find your story NPC under a pile of other players. Also it looks really cheap compared to the polish in those simple but effective cutscenes.

5. LS behind a paywall for new players. It's one thing to expect current players to be active and login to get the free episodes. It's another to expect players who don't even own your game to be active. Those players are being left with huge narrative gaps unless they pony up.

6. Abandoning the manifesto. I don't need to elaborate on that although some of the above can be easily included in this.

Most of the problems I had with the game at launch has been fixed. There are a couple of things, though:

1: The initial story is still terrible post Claw Island. There was a certain ideology that permeated throughout the game (most of which has been rectified), but the story here can't be changed to fix it. We're still stuck with Traehern, who was initially written as the humble leader (I.E. the kind of guy who'd get eaten up by his competition IRL) but who really comes off as a Marty Stu. Unfortunately, this cannot really be changed.

2: They were such a tease showing us different colored underwear and designed swimsuits, but never releasing it to the public.

3: LWS1 being temporary content really killed it for future players.

4: I always thought that Anet should be more liberal with the designs of PVP and WvW maps. When E-sports was on the table, I could understand an extremely heavy emphasis on balance. But, when played just for fun, there are a lot of ideas you can throw out there. Kind of like how Smash Bros. has all sorts of different stages with layouts and items.

Loot:Actually finding interesting loot to use yourself, specific mobs or regions dropping rare and high value weapons and armor/skins etc.Everything is reduced to farming for gold, usually to then buy skins of the TP or Gem Store, which feels a lot less interesting and rewarding than getting cool drops yourself while playing.It also means items completely lack character themselves. They usually don't have a story or origin which roots them in the game world.

Difficulty:The complete lack of difficulty in Open World and Story instances makes that experience very shallow.It doesn't matter what mobs, or even bosses in most cases, do, as everything just melts in your path with a half decent build. Which also negatively affects story telling and immersion, besides not being interesting mechanically.

Community:Lack of difficulty and focus on easy open world content means aside from content like Raids, WvW etc., there is no reason to ever join a Guild or Community in GW2, as you pretty much never find yourself in need of help to overcome a challenge, or at least not frequently enough to warrant engaging in a community.

Questing:Achievements are extremely cumbersome no navigate and track, while also feeling completely disconnected from the world.A lot of the content in there could have been delivered in a much better way with traditional questing, supported by a better user interface meant for that purpose.

Character- Progression/Customization/Exploration/Balance:Moving away from the skill hunting that the original Guild Wars provided was imo a mistake, as that added a lot to the game in terms of exploration and building up your characters capabilities over time through gameplay in a targeted and direct way.I was also never a fan of locking all weapon skills to a weapon, and would have liked to see the ability to choose from a pool of skills on each weapon for each profession, as well as more choice in Healing, Utility and Elite skills, or at the very least, for more viable choices among that limited pool that we have.If you look at another player, unless they are playing completely inefficiently, you know exactly what weapons, utilities and Traits they are running by their class, as there is usually one good build, and then a lot of bad.I would like to see multiple widely differently playing builds on each profession performing at similar levels. Instead some entire classes struggle to have a single well performing build in some game modes at all.Also, native Build Templates.

Build swapping - You should be able to swap builds on your character with a single button press, rather than manually changing your skills and gear.

Also, the fact that stats are tied to gear makes it difficult to effectively try new builds. I'm convinced that the only reason for this is to create an artificial time and money sink.

My only real goal is to accumulate gold so that I can occasionally buy the things I want. This game lacks direction, which can be a positive for some people, but it isn't for me.

@AlexxxDelta.1806 said:I'm assuming the question is for the current state of the game since GW2 has changed over the years.

1. Neutering in-game experience in favor of the cash store. This is happening in many ways. From manipulating game economy so gold income gets reduced in favor of gems to the pitiful rate at which new skins are added in game compared to the store. Looting in general feels unrewarding since you never see something exciting coming out of that bag.

2. BLC and mountskins as this game's version of one of the most unsavory practices in gaming industry today. Focusing on either RNG or overpriced items to cater to a small minority of big spenders is also related.

3. Meta events on a timer. I'm not willing to schedule my real life around a video game. Silverwastes is meta done right.

4. The removal of dialogue scenes in story. There is nothing more immersion breaking than trying to find your story NPC under a pile of other players. Also it looks really cheap compared to the polish in those simple but effective cutscenes.

5. LS behind a paywall for new players. It's one thing to expect current players to be active and login to get the free episodes. It's another to expect players who don't even own your game to be active. Those players are being left with huge narrative gaps unless they pony up.

6. Abandoning the manifesto. I don't need to elaborate on that although some of the above can be easily included in this.

Thanks for this! You wrote everithing I wanted to write. Thanks again.

@Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

4: I always thought that Anet should be more liberal with the designs of PVP and WvW maps. When E-sports was on the table, I could understand an extremely heavy emphasis on balance. But, when played just for fun, there are a lot of ideas you can throw out there. Kind of like how Smash Bros. has all sorts of different stages with layouts and items.

I am confused about what you mean here. I remember Anet getting lots of praise for going full esport with SPvP. I personally didnt like the idea and remember getting slammed for it. But what sort of design did you have in mind? Give me an example please.

WvW in general.

Whether it's population imbalance, coverage, rewards, broken classes, map design, gimmicky implementations, zerg vs roam, mounts running in circles waiting for an easy pounce, loss of server/guild identity, burn out, the community itself, or the overall objective. It has always felt incomplete and there's honestly no way to fix it now.

10/10 scrap it and start over.

People need more of a functional reason to enter guild halls, too. A giant map for a few nodes and a merch. RIP

• How the guild system changed for small guilds when guild halls were introduced.
• Megaserver for Lions Arch
• Removal of farming PvP rewards with friends, it's only duo now.

Otherwise it's a fantastic game.

Pandering to the lowest common denominator in terms of difficulty and complexity

Dumping content and never looking back instead of improving on existing assets

Abandoning systems while leaving them in game(Guilds, Dungeons, etc.)

Terrible Marketing, not even over exagerrating here. Whoever thought that the taxi add or betsy would promote the game in a positive way should better be working at a McDonalds counter.

Guild halls. (No racial decorations)Lore. (Hmm does that word exist?)Lw maps and stories.(lws4e2/e4 are exceptions, good map and story.)Rewards. (Nothing is rewarding.)Easter eggs. (Unexploited maps potential)Personnal story. Should've been longer, 80 levels personnal, 20 related to pact.

Our choices doesn't matter and we don't see those npcs ever again...

But the worst is BALANCE hooray!Plz, 1 minute of silence and consideration for the following poor class/weapon combinations:-Druid with staff.-Core Engineer with rifle.-Dragonhunter with bow.

Nah nah I just found worst:UNFINISHED SAB D:Unfinished polymock arenaAnd the nuked canthan district of DR.

More involvement o the community through contests and polls. I Would love to design a fractal!! <3

So, here's my personal list of things I don't think GW2 did well:

• Total lack of difficulty in Open World. Even if you die, your death doesn't mean anything; just tp to Waypoint, come back and repeat.
• Lack of Core Dungeons development - I remember my first days in 2012, and I was excited about Dungeons and armors. Having to cooperate with your team was great
• Too much focus on being the most casual MMO, the most distinct one. ANet wants to do so many things differently that they sometimes do them wrong
• Existance of Guilds doesn't have any impact on game
• Balance; Single skills do too much. GW2 doesn't have MMO Trinity, which can be good, but hurts the PvP system
• Gliders and Mounts - Core Tyria lost its immersion because of this
• Everyone can do anything

What I love about GW2:

• Art, art, art, art and art - it's artstyle is gorgeous. I love abilities' effects being painted
• Story itself (not always how it's executed)
• Lore and all of the motives connecting GW2 with GW
• Combat system
• Class design (some not that much)
• Wardrobe system

The removal of secondary professions, as being able to make a hybrid of say two classes capable of using all the skills of each within reason was a fun aspect of Guild wars, build-craft was amazing in the original game and the sequel falls flat on its face. (Traits are good but limited, and really harm the nature of the game as we are only allowed three trait lines and are unable to mix and match our Elite specs.)

Races don't matter once so ever and they neutered their core beliefes, customs and lore in favor of a more kid friendly happy world. Norn don't shape-shift into werebeasts in combat as was their whole appeal and MO in the original game. Charr are not as hardened and primal/animalistic as they were in the original. Your race doesn't matter at all and gets no attention to its nature at all, which is a damn shame as it would of been interesting had they kept the culture alive in our character.( Norn always enter a beast form when in combat, and you get a separate transmog window for them which makes armor look different than your current set.)

Removing the ritualist, dervish and paragon as class's in favor of new classes rather than keep the original classes and add the guild wars 2 unique class's such as Rev/Guard, so they could stand up alongside old favorites.

Making super sized content patches as expansions rather than taking the time to make a real expansion.

Not adding new weapons

not adding new races

Communication with its player base/customers.

Unfulfilling their promises all the time (I.E: "We will add the abbadon fractal later on, once this one has been added as it won the poll.")

Not making all the armor in the game look different based on race chosen, and giving each race unique transmog options so there is a reason to play the other races as there is little to no reason to play the others.

Not focusing on what made the game strong, or unique and going in favor of trying to follow other people rather than make a ripple in the market that they could call their own. (Raids, E-sports ect)

Boons and Conditions.

They are both too prevelant, and not impactful enough.

When they are so common that you only notice them when they are gone, that's a bad sign.

Ideally, there would be less of each, and when they were in play, you would really notice.

That way, the application timing of boons and conditions would be an important part of play and rotations, not just spammed like they are now.