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What are your issues with GW2 and how would you fix them?


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@Shadowmoon.7986 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:The biggest problem is when they strayed from content that appealed to the original market. It gave hope to a low population of high performance players the game was moving in a direction that Anet can barely support. Maybe this is why we see so many calls for 'content' ... Anet spread themselves way to thin trying to appeal to this fringe groups. From a business perspective, the ROI on raids must be relatively low.

There isn't a fix to this without abandoning some players at this point. They should have stopped at Fractals.

What the heck are you talking about. Do you not remember how hard dungeons were prior to the hot power creep.

Nothing in my post said being hard was the problem. In fact, I think i was clear in what I think the problem is, and it's not about content being hard.

Then what was the original audience? What "gave hope to a low population of high performance players"? Raids? T4 fractal? Cm? I think what you think the original audience was never existed.

What is relevant here is who the original audience wasn't ... it wasn't people that expected an experience in the form of instanced 10 person content at that challenge level because that kind of content wasn't even conceived when the first adopters of the game signed up and installed it.

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Hello Everyone!

This is my first time participating in the public forum, but I was a quite active player (I'm not playing right now because of unrelated reasons). So anyways, I want to share my thoughts.

I'd say that my problem is not with GW2. As someone that came from WoW and other MMO games such as SWTOR and Aion; i found this game pretty compelling, appealing, quite innovative, different from the others, and very well done in most of the cases. My problem is indeed with Anet with the decisions they're taking and the obvious mismanagement. While there are clearly things I'm not that convinced about the game itself at all, I think the biggest threat to it is the current state Anet is right now and that's a bit sad due the game has a lot of potential and opportunities that can be exploded. I don't think the game is dead as some would say here and there, but the actual situation is somewhat concerning.

Anyway, I'll mention some things I'd like to change and how (without any specific order):

1. Marketing department and management: these two things are more related to the company, but as people have already said in other forum's posts; the advertising of the game online is practically null. You can't see any promotional video or any ad outside the company's official websites. If this game was better promoted, I'm sure things could be different right now.

The same goes to the management. As I got to know so far (reading from forums and Reddit - I know they're not reliable sources-) is that the company is already with 200+ employees. I know the work behind a game is hard, but I doubt all the 200+ employees are dedicated at full in GW2. If yes, the complexity of the patches would be bigger, wouldn't it? I think overall that a better management of the company could improve the game's situation and inclusive, could let them space for other IPs.

2. PvP and WvW modes: I liked a lot playing almost all the modes GW2 has to offer, and I always saw these two so full of people that my PC got critical FPS falls. But the last time I could entered, this wasn't the case. I saw least people and major time between matches. That without mention the almighty one-shot classes that will kill you in 2-3 hits.

I think that a big balance patch is clearly needed. The meta-class thing is not bad at all, but I'd rather that the game allows you to play all the mechanics, all the weapons, all the skills every class has to offer without it being too overpowered or the contrary, too improductive.

New maps are needed too. And not only just a few new maps, but new mechanics and chores inside them that make these modes more diverse and dynamic. Maybe a PvP where you have to stole the flag from your enemies, or you have to protect your hero while he's trying to make some kind of stuffs... These two are unconnected ideas that could work somehow.

3. Open-world and masteries: I think a great idea that could renew interest in old zones and could work in new ones is revamping their graphic design, maybe bring in to them not only more texture details but climate conditions already seen in newer maps. I know this is a hell of work, but bringing in this would make the game more challenging for both new players and veterans.

With those climate conditions, you could add some masteries, armor attributes and events that are linked to those weathers or day cycles. Imagine having several challenging linked meta-events about centaurs during night in Gendarran Fields (a la Auric Basin, Dragon's Stand), or several marked invasions you and more people have to counter in Iron Marches or Fields of the Ruin. These things not only make the maps even more dynamic, but they'll behave differently in day-night cycles and climates/stations.

In the same way, veterans/casuals could win a lot of them because those events could grant them the climate-conditioner attributes I talked about above, skins, hard-to-get ascended mats and else, and newbie people could get a more challenging experience that'll make more enjoyable leveling with any of those rewards. Those rewards could easily be integrated in PvP, Raids, Fractals and WvW modes for people that isn't interested in Open-World (if they'll have too this climate condition thing too).

I'd add that those events could be different mechanics: Siege Centaurs/Marked/Undead/etc fortresses and/or invasions from them, specials quests that send you to kill some number of rare bosses, countdowned delivery events, etc.

4. Reward and Gemstore: while I understand that Anet needs to make profit, I find fascinating (not in the good way) that All new skins go directly to the gemstore. Every mount, glider, outfit, etc that is released; won't make it to in-game but to the gemstore. I'm not implying either that it couldn't be like this, but designs that aren't on sale could go temporarily, as rewards, to open world events, raids, Fractals, PvP or WvW. This will make every mode more attractive for all audiences even if you could get any of those skins only in a low rate (1-0.5). But at least you'll have more possibilities to get them outside the offers in gemstore, won't you?

5. PvE quests: while I think the heart system was quite innovative, I felt they're quite shallow regarding the game's lore. They don't clarify much things and many new players (As I was) could feel a bit lost in that sense. I don't think this is a main issue, but I wonder if it's possible to add at least one chain quest that agglutinates all the central story of the region you're playing in and is locked behind progress.

I'll explain that: my idea is that you could make this chain quest alongside the hearts, with it explaining you and introducing you to the region (not only the map) and the lore-context you're playing in. You could always choose if you want to do this chain quest or skip it and proceed with only hearts since this chain quest will not be necessary for map completion. The chain quests could grant you some extra rewards (like Lion's chest keys, Knowledge tones, boosts, etc) and experience by completing them but in order to going on, you need to be completing the hearts in the area you're now. That chain quest have the potential to make more compelling the lore, and more enjoyable to complete the map. Once you've finished the map and its chain quest, you can decide if you want to continue this quest in the next map, or you leave it for later and take other chain quest in other map.

I mean, the chain quest could serve for you to understand the history of that map and the history of your race and their culture outside the 'campaign' story. It narrates you how everything regarding your race or that map originated and how surged the antagonists, like the Norns and the Sons of Svannir, the Humans and the White Mantle/Centaurs, the Charr and the Flames' Legions, etc. These chain quests would be practically a comprehensive tour/guide around Tyria.

6. Raids/Dungeons: I can't say a lot of this mode since I didn't play it that much, but I believe they could be divided in difficulties that could bring in new players into them without needing more experienced players; and they could be more attractive for veterans in more difficult modes with better rewards such as skins, materials or gifts for the next legendaries, etc.

To those game modes (especially the difficult ones) could be added already existing masteries that help you to get through; and if we continue with my idea of climate conditions, you'll need the conditioners because maybe the new maps could have heavier cold weather you'll have to counter, warmer weather, etc. My idea is that the next maps have a larger span of challenges that aren't necessarily limited to NPCs but to things that you can't maybe control. No mention that these modes need too new maps, new mechanics, etc.

7. New expansion: I think everyone agree with me that isn't a better indicator of the future like an expansion. An expansion is the excuse to bring every single new mechanic to the game, new revenues, bring veterans and casuals back, etc. I think everything I mentioned before could be added into a new expansion (especially the climate stuff), but something that they could bring too is two new races (maybe kodans -Icebrood Saga- and this other bird-like whom name I don't remember right now lol) and maybe the last elite specs (since the issue of balancing) with more specific class features.

I think this is all. There's many things I think I'm leaving behind but this post is already too long hahaha. I know many of the ideas are quite radical.

Thank you for reading! Cheers!

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@Obtena.7952 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:The biggest problem is when they strayed from content that appealed to the original market. It gave hope to a low population of high performance players the game was moving in a direction that Anet can barely support. Maybe this is why we see so many calls for 'content' ... Anet spread themselves way to thin trying to appeal to this fringe groups. From a business perspective, the ROI on raids must be relatively low.

There isn't a fix to this without abandoning some players at this point. They should have stopped at Fractals.

What the heck are you talking about. Do you not remember how hard dungeons were prior to the hot power creep.

Nothing in my post said being hard was the problem. In fact, I think i was clear in what I think the problem is, and it's not about content being hard.

Then what was the original audience? What "gave hope to a low population of high performance players"? Raids? T4 fractal? Cm? I think what you think the original audience was never existed.

What is relevant here is who the original audience wasn't ... it wasn't people that wanted they experience you get form instanced 10 person content at that challenge level because that kind of content wasn't even conceived when the first adopters of the game signed up and installed it.

Under that logic, people didnt want mounts, and look how that turned out.Again you are avoiding defining what you think the original audience is because if you do, it can be disproven.

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@Shadowmoon.7986 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:The biggest problem is when they strayed from content that appealed to the original market. It gave hope to a low population of high performance players the game was moving in a direction that Anet can barely support. Maybe this is why we see so many calls for 'content' ... Anet spread themselves way to thin trying to appeal to this fringe groups. From a business perspective, the ROI on raids must be relatively low.

There isn't a fix to this without abandoning some players at this point. They should have stopped at Fractals.

What the heck are you talking about. Do you not remember how hard dungeons were prior to the hot power creep.

Nothing in my post said being hard was the problem. In fact, I think i was clear in what I think the problem is, and it's not about content being hard.

Then what was the original audience? What "gave hope to a low population of high performance players"? Raids? T4 fractal? Cm? I think what you think the original audience was never existed.

What is relevant here is who the original audience wasn't ... it wasn't people that wanted they experience you get form instanced 10 person content at that challenge level because that kind of content wasn't even conceived when the first adopters of the game signed up and installed it.

Under that logic, people didnt want mounts, and look how that turned out.Again you are avoiding defining what you think the original audience is because if you do, it can be disproved

/shrug ... whatever you want to believe. If you think comparing mounts as content to 10 man instanced raid content is relevant, we are done this conversation.

No one that signed up to this game in the beginning had any expectation for the kind of content Anet introduced later in the game, so it can't be what brought them here in the first place.

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@"Obtena.7952" said:/shrug ... whatever you want to believe. If you think comparing mounts as content to 10 man instanced raid content is relevant, we are done this conversation.

No one that signed up to this game in the beginning had any expectation for the kind of content Anet introduced later in the game, so it can't be what brought them here in the first place.

This is because Anet constantly confuses high end player feedback with what most playerbase want. This was the source of many failures in Pvp and WvW. ... In Pvp a player who has been on platinum + for last season normally say crazy things like "a elemental is a overperforming class", while most who are gold or bellow do not see this, when listening to what the "top end" people say, the game ends up being balanced for a minority.

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@"Julischka Bean.7491" said:Everyone here has said something I agree with.

Daddicus.6128 hit the nail on the head for me.

....snip....

"First is more achievements available for less-than-perfect gamers. It is impossible for anyone without top skills to get radiant (or hellfire) skins for all pieces. The vast majority of achievements that I don't already have are unattainable by me; I'm just not good enough to complete them."

....unsnip....

I would roll over with sheer delight if this became so. I too am a sorry gamer, but I very much enjoy what content there is in the game that I can do.

Grin. I would pay real money or a lot of gold to hire someone to aid me in the hard stuffs...not do it for me, just help.

I think I'm a pretty good GW player. But, I just don't have the speed or fine-motor skills to be one of the elite players. The fact that the very first player (the most elite of all) didn't get to 36k until late 2018 means I'll never attain it unless something changes. I'm close to 30k, but the higher you are, the harder they get to attain.

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@Zoltar MacRoth.7146 said:INVISIBLE WALLS.~snip~

How many times have you tried to reach the top of a cliff that looks reachable, only to get slapped by an invisible wall when you get to the top? For Grenth's sake, Anet. Just make the cliff higher. Skyscales and springers do have their vertical limits. Factor in the maximum height of the skyscale, with wall jumping and bond of vigour thrown in and make the cliff higher than that. You're not mapping a real world here. You get to design the mountains the way you want.

~snip~

Actually, they don't have limitations, the limitations you seem to think are related to the mount are instead related to the mount and it's relationship to the ground(especially true with the Skyscale, as long as you can get it to sit, you can go up indefinitely until you reach the upper limit of a map, and yes, I've done it).

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The biggest issue with this game is that the developers strayed too far away from the original vision of compelling community based content when they started adding more and more instanced content to the game. The tentpoles of GW2 are open world and WvW - they set the game apart from the competition and deserve the lion's share of Anet's attention.

As far as how to fix the issue, I can only say - guilds.

However, im not saying design everything in the game to be done as a guild - but rather rely on guilds to invigorate the world around them for everyone.

I've recommended this before, but let's use a potential example solely using mechanics already in the game. There is a more-or-less abandoned item in the guild crafting system that would serve as the centerpiece - the event flag. Currently, it only triggers one of three events - Tequatl, Triple Trouble and Karka Queen.

Step one is to extend that item for use on every group dynamic event and boss in the game - with the same restriction it has now (cannot be used 30 minutes before or after the actual scheduled event).

The second system that is underused is guild missions. This is where the carrot comes in. Reward guilds for keeping the world alive by adding a new category of mission - one that centers around open world bosses and events.

So, as an example - on a given week, Shadow Behemoth may be a guild mission. Every guild out there will have a flag to trigger Shadow Behemoth. This benefits not only guilds - but the solo players as well, who can count on the boss to be continually active on that given week.

Now, as an added piece - to add potential difficulty scaling to open world - they could extend the flag trigger system to include an easy, medium and hard version. That way, guilds can adapt a boss like Shadow Behemoth to their skill level - with guild rewards (such as decorations and guild currency) as the carrot. This would create a flexible system in open world that would include content for guilds of all sizes (from 5 up to 200) while making the open world more engaging at the same time.

The same system could then be adapted to WvW - with similar results. The determining factor would be the reward system there - moreso than in PVE.

Again, with the exception of the last point, all of these systems are already in the game. They just need to be utilized better to encourage a more active open world across all maps. It could even be used dynamically by the devs to reinvigorate less active content in the game.

Just my thoughts, though. I know there are a lot of opinions about this subject.

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@"Shadowmoon.7986" said:Then what was the original audience? What "gave hope to a low population of high performance players"? Raids? T4 fractal? Cm? I think what you think the original audience was never existed.

I can't speak to the original audience, but the core of this game's appeal was that you could basically just show up and play the content. In the early days dungeons and fractals offered more challenge than the open world for certain, but almost all of them could be pugged. The entry requirements were generally pretty low and you could just learn by doing with minimal instruction.

They started making too much of the content unnecessarily complex post-HoT, in my opinion. And with every update the instanced content becomes tuned towards a higher base level of skill.

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Full gear/itemization reboot.Change the way gearing is done, no more "nomenclature" sets, more fine-tuned customization. This extends into how items/materials are gathered and gained, which extends into reward structures.Also includes food. Revamp that so more items get used, instead of lingering as vendor trash.

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Stat aquisition and crafting:Currently we have too many different ways to aquire stats for crafting, yet most of them only applies to one set. Another issue is that it's almost impossible to get exotics of expansion stats without crafting. It's getting harder and harder to equip new players with the best stats for their build as there is no standard way of obtaining them anymore.I suggest that instead of using 1 material for every combination of stats the system should use 1 material for each stat and combine them to get the relevant stat set.Recipes for unlocking the stat sets can still require new maps, but crafting will be more streamlined and no stat set will be a lot more valuable than others.

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@Obtena.7952 said:The biggest problem is when they strayed from content that appealed to the original market. It gave hope to a low population of high performance players the game was moving in a direction that Anet can barely support. Maybe this is why we see so many calls for 'content' ... Anet spread themselves way to thin trying to appeal to this fringe groups. From a business perspective, the ROI on raids must be relatively low.

There isn't a fix to this without abandoning some players at this point. They should have stopped at Fractals.

I have said this before, many times. But boy did you said it right!

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@Tzarakiel.7490 said:Stat aquisition and crafting:Currently we have too many different ways to aquire stats for crafting, yet most of them only applies to one set. Another issue is that it's almost impossible to get exotics of expansion stats without crafting. It's getting harder and harder to equip new players with the best stats for their build as there is no standard way of obtaining them anymore.I suggest that instead of using 1 material for every combination of stats the system should use 1 material for each stat and combine them to get the relevant stat set.Recipes for unlocking the stat sets can still require new maps, but crafting will be more streamlined and no stat set will be a lot more valuable than others.

Maybe I misunderstand, stats have never been easier. VB exotics are completely stat selectable and fairly easy to get.

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I am not too familiar with meta building and stuff. Sorry I am probably doing noodle damage at times. (I can't solo some of the non-legendary bounties...)

But I have to wonder, if they should reign in damage buff stacking. Just that, it confuses me that people say things are too easy and fold over, because no health pool can withstand meta builds and optimal rotations. While being sub-optimal, doesn't simply make things somewhat more grueling, it make things take way longer, and quickly can shift into failing.

Not to say that 1111 should be sufficient to complete all content... but.. I dunno, maybe the punishments for being lazy should be 2-4x slower, not 10x.

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  • Showing the teleport tome UI on top of my inventory instead of opening it behind it for starters would be extremely nice.
  • Clicking on a waypoint link within Mistlock Sanctuary and not seeing white fog when you wanna teleport to it would also be extremely nice.
  • Clicking a waypoint link to the daily JP should not lock the map to a waypoint I might not have yet and then close the map automatically. I would very much like to pick a nearby waypoint so I can walk to the mentioned JP.
  • Reducing the wait time after killing Legendary Chak Gerent would also be nice. Staring at a wall for 5 minutes just to get my meta reward is not my thing.
  • Story achievements bug me a lot. Their implementation is horrible. Having to keep repeating story for achievements is a nightmare.

Those are some minor fixes I would appreciate a lot. And a big headache at the end.No other major issues.

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Mount Skins and Outfits that can be earned through playing rather than buying them in the gem-store.

New Elite specs

More open world events like the awakened invasion or the rifts

Cantha (one can always hope haha)

Cultural themed oufits/armor/weapons you'll unlock when you complete an area (not a map!) Like Ascalon, Kryta, Orr etc...

Scaled-down raids so that they are easier accesible for those who wanna try them.

More options for your personal home. Decorating etc. Would be cool if your other characters could interact with one another in your home.

New cosmetics/hairstyles for all races.

Reduce the range for the emote-commands. Sometimes I see RP-stuff when Im on the other side of the map.

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@"Dark Skeeve.2695" said:Content. I am content.

I like this, it's clever, but if you apply it to WvW it becomes a double triple entendre it was meant to be!

In WvW, the PLAYERS make/are the content, not developers. That is the beauty of the mode. It's sandbox-light, and at it's best, a wonder to behold! But it desperately needs some developer-love to correct it's current problems. The developers should be fixing the framework in which the players create the painting ... crap metaphor aside, let's quickly move on.

The issue with WvW is that NOBODY CARES ANYMORE.

Holding an objective is impossible, everything flips all the time, why CARE? Flipping a Garrison gets a collective golf-clap, where back-in-the-day it was rapturous cheering - losing it provokes a shrug and "oh well". It's TOO EASY.

Arenanet embraced this easiness - I get that, it's a new era - it's the mobile phone gameworld now, where everything is easy and nothing takes effort and nothing is worth doing or celebrating. Well NO, that's NOT OK. We want SOME things to be difficult (not all). So here are the things I'd like to see;

  1. Let's have our hard walls back! The nerf to tier 2 and 3 walls, combined with fast mounts makes it too easy to flip stuff before it can be defended.
  2. All positions that you can catapult through outer AND inner keep walls should have at least one become indestructible. Catapulting through to the lord from one place is a silly thing. This would shake things up and slow things down. It will get the fighting Arenanet want inside the keep to happen.
  3. Fix the gate at green keep on EB so you can only ram through ONE gate at a time.
  4. Fix the stuck dolyak at green garrison on Alpine map. It's an embarrassment that Arenanet haven't done this yet.
  5. A Point multiplier for success while outnumbered.
  6. Develop a metric for measuring which team is leading in the matchup at the moment,
  7. Quadruple rewards for killing members of the server that's leading (loot AND points), This is a COUNTER-SNOWBALLING measure.
  8. All teams get a varying multiplier on points as the week progresses. For example, on first day you get 5,4,3 for a skirmish, on second day you get 6,5,4 etc. This creates a better chance of a comeback at the end of the week, earlier days aren't worth as much!
  9. Consider moving reset to Monday in order to make the weekend dramatic. There are many more WvW players on weekends.

Some of these ideas are not mine, other players have suggested them over the years and the developers didn't implement them.

@HardRider.2980 said:Balance -Sort out the balance team (No offense indeed).I hope the devs realise that the balance team are the most important team at the company. They should be the BEST employees at Arenanet. They are important because they change how your character plays, what the game FEELS like, the very basics of the game, the thing that gives you the great heights of emotion, your success and failure depend on the balance team! They affect ALL modes! Even when players are doing STORY content, it is the balance team's work that affects whether their experience is a wearisome slogfest or an exciting frag-festival.

So yes, please sort out the balance team. Give them the resources and time they need to fix the skills. Increase numbers on the team, make them powerful enough to fix our collective woes - undo the nightmarish POF damage increases and boon/condition spamming skills, and get us back to something far more reasonable.

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Increase the number of dailies available back to where they were before they were reduced to only 4 options for PvP, WvW, and Open world. Rewards would be the same as now, finish any three to get your daily reard, 2 gold/AP, anything after that just gives the daily chest.

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@"XenoSpyro.1780" said:The devs really boned themselves by trying really hard to be not WoW.... or literally any other complex RPG sandbox for that matter.

A more accurate description for this game would be "Third person Call of Duty except with swords and magic, but we're MOSTLY trying to be Second Life."

I think more accurately, the devs boned themselves by NOT believing they couldn't be WoW ... because when the game was first released, it did that REALLY well and it's likely the reason for it's initial success. Any idea that an MMO can't be successful because it doesn't mimic WoW is not recognizing that no one is going to be WoW better than WoW is.

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