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

[BlackBullWings.2734]

1: Dungeons: very outdated and boring, and little incentive to play them. the only dungeon that feels modern and genuinely unique is the twilight arbor aetherpath, I think each dungeon should have a level 80 special path like twilight arbor does, it would give lvl 80 players interresting content.

weapons/skills/core builds: elite specs are great, but they tend to overshadow most core builds. core weapons and skills getting some updates would do wonders. I think thief with its weird new traps is an excellent example of how to freshen up utility skills. I just wish they did that more often with the skills that are relly boring. Along with that, they could add new elite core skills to skill types (traps, shouts, etc) that do not have elites. Lastly, can we please just have water weapons on land? The skills can more or less remain the same, but getting 1~2 new weapons would freshen up the game so much, they can even make it a mastery for icebrood saga.

challenge: heart of thorns was amazing on release, but ever since, there has barely been much challenging content that isnt raids. it mostly has to do with us getting powercreeped, but also with Anet just not making interesting engagements. I know the whole philosophy is making the game accessible, but I don't think the gameplay should have to suffer so much for it. now that A-net is making new maps, and they have confirmed that they will be working on the same maps in multiple episodes, they have a great opportunity to make these makes amazing by looking at the map's weak points, and improving on it.

reasons to play: for a lot it might be getting a legendary, but I feel there should be more to the game than getting gear with swappable stats. Since gw2 has stat presets, that cap at ascended, you don't truly need legendary gear if you're satisfied with a single solid build. I don't know how to fix this though. Skins are always nice, but they seem very fixated on putting all the cool looking stuff in the gemstore. Can't we please have non-gemstore mount skins/glider skins/toys, etc?

[BlackBullWings.2734]

some other stuffwvw: just throw edge of the mist into the borderlands already. if not, at least make a new borderlands. It always bugged me so much that there are 2 alpine borderlands.

novelty:to go back on reasons to play. Give us real stuff, mount skins, glider skins, etc, but not in the gemstore. Give us something that is really hard to obtain, and that, when people see it, they will recognize your achievements. Legendary weapons unfortunately do not do this, because you can just buy them in the TP, which i think is an awful decision.

a more centralized focus: although strike missions are cool, I still think the devs shouldnt be doing so many new things that further split the playerbase. I would've been content with a high focus on pvp, wvw, raids and fractals. But they keep on attempting to do new innovative stuff, that ends up feeling as a half-attempt at making something interesting. When it comes to pve maps, I think them not making a new map every single episode as they have announced with icebrood saga is a really good idea. Hopefully they start doing that far more often, and with older maps as well. There already are enough level 80 maps. They just need to be fun.some good maps are grothmar valley, silverwastes & HoT maps.But when I look at lake doric, siren's landing domain of kourna, I wonder why these even exist lol.

[kharmin.7683]

@BlackBullWings.2734 said:challenge: heart of thorns was amazing on release, but ever since, there has barely been much challenging content that isnt raids. it mostly has to do with us getting powercreeped, but also with Anet just not making interesting engagements. I know the whole philosophy is making the game accessible, but I don't think the gameplay should have to suffer so much for it. now that A-net is making new maps, and they have confirmed that they will be working on the same maps in multiple episodes, they have a great opportunity to make these makes amazing by looking at the map's weak points, and improving on it.The backlash from HoT's initial release is probably a good indicator as to why the content after then has been less challenging for you. I don't think that Anet can afford the negative publicity (again!) that they received on HoT's release.

[Paradoxoglanis.1904]

My biggest issue with gw2 is that its being run by ncsoft.

[Dante.1508]

Arenanet needs to take a long hard look at what made Guildwars 1 so popular and go back to its roots.. This modern Guildwars 2 isn't fun at all..

Hell i went back to SWTOR because its an actual fun mmorpg.

[kharmin.7683]

That's a highly subjective statement. GW2 may not be fun for you, but clearly it is for many other players. Maybe GW2 is a result of taking a long hard look at GW1 and the studio deciding to take a different direction with GW2?

[Zexanima.7851]

@"kharmin.7683" said:That's a highly subjective statement. GW2 may not be fun for you, but clearly it is for many other players. Maybe GW2 is a result of taking a long hard look at GW1 and the studio deciding to take a different direction with GW2?

Completely personal view here but it seems to me Anet has some kind of issue learning from the past. They are really good at pushing forward and not looking back, even at the cost for making preventable mistakes. I think the frustration people express is that there are things in GW1 that seemed to work but were changed and don't work as well in GW2, not that they really want the same game again. I'm not saying any one decision Anet has made is right or wrong but I can sympathize with the sentiment that they don't seem to learn from the past/other games and instead just take a "200mph ahead at all times" approach.

[MoriMoriMori.5349]

@Zexanima.7851 said:

@"kharmin.7683" said:That's a highly subjective statement. GW2 may not be fun for you, but clearly it is for many other players. Maybe GW2 is a result of taking a long hard look at GW1 and the studio deciding to take a different direction with GW2?

Completely personal view here but it seems to me Anet has some kind of issue learning from the past. They are really good at pushing forward and not looking back, even at the cost for making preventable mistakes. I think the frustration people express is that there are things in GW1 that seemed to work but were changed and don't work as well in GW2, not that they really want the same game again. I'm not saying any one decision Anet has made is right or wrong but I can sympathize with the sentiment that they don't seem to learn from the past/other games and instead just take a "200mph ahead at all times" approach.

That could make sense if they would actually were heading to some untapped frontier at 200mph. But judging by how they've been approaching GW2's development for the last few years, it's more like "go with the flow wherever it takes us, investing as little effort as it's needed to keep the whole thing afloat". The last semblance of breakthrough was 3 years ago, with PoF. The mount system, specifically, which is by far the best in MMORPG world - that was true innovation (welp, forcing mounts to all maps, even the core maps and HoT maps, without any downside to balance it, was a mistake, still, I believe), and PoF's maps were really well adapted to mounts, it was a joy to explore them. But aside from that, not that much. New elites? Elites already were there in HoT. Bounties? Nothing special about them, just a simple "kill a boss" thing.

And then they did literally nothing innovative for years, and as it's clear now, nothing big is planned for the future as well. LWS fast-food content once in a while, a raid or a new fractal one day, may be. A PvP rebalance, if we are lucky.. It's like "30 mph towards the nursing home".

[mercury ranique.2170]

My main issue is that too many people think they are entitled to specific changes and demand the devs to do A or B. Constructive feedback is good, but I miss the innovation brought by the original release. They are now too hard trying to cather everyone and the result is that the game is no longer unique and innovative.I would like to see that the devs get back to being creative again and feel less incentive to listen to us and more to do what they are good in.

[XatraZaytrax.2601]

@"mercury ranique.2170" said:My main issue is that too many people think they are entitled to specific changes and demand the devs to do A or B. Constructive feedback is good, but I miss the innovation brought by the original release. They are now too hard trying to cather everyone and the result is that the game is no longer unique and innovative.I would like to see that the devs get back to being creative again and feel less incentive to listen to us and more to do what they are good in.

I agree. There is no longer the feeling that something's up or things will change suddenly or drastically, like with Scarlett, because people will complain (originally had stronger words) about not being able to experience it. I mean the death of the old Lion's Arch was AN EVENT. It was so dramatic and impactful. I was sad and angry. I truly wanted to destroy Scarlett's minions. One of my favorite places was gone to never return. Maybe it is because I am 51 and have experienced such change that I accepted it as a fact of life. That fact that it happened builds the world and makes it living. But I guess the backlash must have been strong -- don't know mbecause I avoided the forums then -- because now we have what we have today. Static maps that play out like they are stuck in time. People say they want change, dynamic environments, want true consequences -- but scream "what if I miss it, boo hoo" when they got what they asked for and chased it away. They want difficulty, that isn't difficult; they want challenges that aren't challenges; they want achievements without any hard work or any work at all. Sure I fume when it seems impossible to complete something, but I live with my limitations and try to get better. Sure there are experiences I wish I had, but I knowing I could be part if the future historic events would keep my attention.

I remember in the lead up to Scarlett those now- broken metal structures popped up all over Tyria. They had a force field surrounding them that made you fly backwards and hurt you, that of course I repeatedly ran into just because. Now their ruins lie in testinents to Tyria's history. That is the true vision of this game -- a vision that will never be realized because players won't let it be.

Me -- I like this game and will take it for what it is, even if it means running from mesmers in pvp when I play guard because they are evil or playing on static maps. Would I like more? Yes, but with a player base so divided about what they truly want, the majority will rule and I will be content that I have what the world offers, flaws and all.

[Genlog.4983]

for me i wish anet bring scarlet back i still dunno why they remove it i hear from so many players that did it that is was 1 of the best parts of gw2not to mention that many want the old lion arge back

sadly i didt play it in that time :(i still hope anet will change it and that players who never done it stile can enjoy that great story

[mercury ranique.2170]

@Genlog.4983 said:for me i wish anet bring scarlet back i still dunno why they remove it i hear from so many players that did it that is was 1 of the best parts of gw2not to mention that many want the old lion arge back

sadly i didt play it in that time :(i still hope anet will change it and that players who never done it stile can enjoy that great story

Season one (Scarlet) was never designed to be permanent. The real live maps changed and this change was permanent

[Fueki.4753]

Imo, they should rename living world into "GW2 Story".It was called Living world on the concept of the existing world constantly evolving/changing, like it did with Season 1.It doesn't deserve the name anymore, if all they have are constantly added maps, which don't evolve/change over time and a story that barely affects the overworld (if at all).

[FrizzFreston.5290]

@Blaeys.3102 said: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.

Definitely sounds interesting, except that guild missions to this extend would blob the hell out of certain events that aren't build for it.

It could be more interesting to see these event flag things be more expanded on (guild upgrade eventflag 2.0 ) , where one guild is responsible for a certain area in the game and get rewarded by how good they are managing their area. Instead of an event flag, you would have a territory flag, where group events and other stuff is included in it. It would be more in the style of factions, possibly with visibility on the map or somesuch.

Although it can also be expanded upon quite easily from there (guild donation system in GHs being used for upgrades that upgrade (more rewards, harder or different events) or customized (adding own rewards to completed events, different vendors or accompanying NPCs or possible defensive structures, weather (idk!)) your guilds assigned area. It might be taking the concept a bit too far, as it infringes on how meta servers are set up with whichever maps a guild member has unlocked or not and such.

[Obtena.7952]

@mercury ranique.2170 said:My main issue is that too many people think they are entitled to specific changes and demand the devs to do A or B. Constructive feedback is good, but I miss the innovation brought by the original release. They are now too hard trying to cather everyone and the result is that the game is no longer unique and innovative.I would like to see that the devs get back to being creative again and feel less incentive to listen to us and more to do what they are good in.

Much truth. There is a BIG difference between feedback and instruction. There are many instances where people confuse the two. No, Anet does not want players to tell them what to do.

[maddoctor.2738]

About this idea that Arenanet "strayed" from their original intent by adding lots of instanced content. The game launched with 8 dungeons each containing 4 paths, with Arah having 5 paths for a total 33 paths.

The addition of instanced content started with their very first release, Shadow of the Mad King which contained two of them, the Clock Tower puzzle and the Ascend to Madness dungeon. It continued with the addition of the original 9 Fractals, finally we got another part of instanced content, Winter Wonderland puzzle and Tixx's Infinirarium dungeon. And those were only in the 4 months of 2012 that the game was live.

In 2013 we got Super Adventure box, Molten Facility, Canach's Lair, Aetherblade Retreat, Candidate Trials, Scarlet's Playhouse, Aetherpath and the Thaumanova Reactor Fractal. That's quite a lot of instanced content, including 3 actual dungeons (paths) and 1 fractal. The game both launched with quite a lot of instanced content AND added a lot of it in the first year, you know the most popular/active year of the game.

I guess the so called "good era" when Arenanet stayed "true" to the game and only in the Open World was from the end of 2013 and up to the release of Heart of Thorns (nearly 2 years) were the only instanced content was story content during Season 2. It was also one of the worst periods for the game both in terms of revenue and activity because it contained massive content droughts due to the team working on the expansion. The "golden age" of Open World wasn't exactly golden.

In 2015 we got the Forsaken Thicket Raid wing.In 2016 we got Salvation Pass Raid Wing, Stronghold of the Faithful Raid Wing, Chaos Isles Fractal, Nightmare FractalIn 2017 we got Bastion of the Penitent Raid, Shattered Observatory Fractal, Twilight Oasis Fractal, Hall of Chains RaidIn 2018 we got Deepstone Fractal, Mythwright Gambit‎ RaidIn 2019 we got Siren's Reef Fractal, The Key of Ahdashim Raid

In summary, we got the following dungeon/fractal/raid content over the years (not counting re-works and the conversion of old dungeons into fractals):Release: 8, 2012: 9, 2013: 4, 2014: 0, 2015: 1, 2016: 4, 2017: 4, 2018: 2, 2019: 2, Total: 34Yes Arenanet strayed so far away of the original game promise of being an Open World and focused on instanced content.

[Albadaran.1283]

Remove Soul bound; make it all Account bound.

[Obtena.7952]

@"maddoctor.2738" said:About this idea that Arenanet "strayed" from their original intent by adding lots of instanced content.

From what I see, that's not the complaint about straying from the original game intent. The problem isn't that there continues to be a release of instanced content because as you say is true ... we have always had it. The problem is the structure of that 'newer' instanced content, the organization needed to complete it and yes, I won't deny it .. it's harder to do. The direction of those characteristics for instanced content does not typically favour the profile of the people that signed onto this game day 1.

But make no mistake, that stray from original intent is not JUST demonstrated by the evolution of instanced content ... you see it in OW content also. It's absolutely obvious if you compare HoT to Core. It was a whole game philosophy change ... THAT is what I believe was the problem.

[maddoctor.2738]

@Obtena.7952 said:

@"maddoctor.2738" said:About this idea that Arenanet "strayed" from their original intent by adding lots of instanced content.

From what I see, that's not the complaint about straying from the original game intent. The problem isn't that there continues to be a release of instanced content because as you say is true ... we have always had it. The problem is the structure of that 'newer' instanced content, the organization needed to complete it and yes, I won't deny it .. it's harder to do. The direction of those characteristics for instanced content does not typically favour the profile of the people that signed onto this game day 1.

But make no mistake, that stray from original intent is not JUST demonstrated by the evolution of instanced content ... you see it in OW content also. It's absolutely obvious if you compare HoT to Core. It was a whole game philosophy change ... THAT is what I believe was the problem.

Dungeons on day 1, even including Ascalonian Catacombs where perceived as hard as "Raids" and that lasted for months after release. This was also true for Fractals, they only became "easy" with Heart of Thorns, and even the Molten Facility/Aetherblade Retreat living world dungeons had their own difficult parts. Meanwhile dungeons like Arah, are still hard for a great number of players. Also, as demonstrated by my post the amount of that so called "hard content" we got was very limited, even at its best, than we used to get in the first year, or what we got on release, so I'm not really seeing this horrible increase in difficulty of instanced content.

For your comparison between Core and HoT, keep in mind that on release we had a single level 80 zone and the rest of the game is meant to be played by players that aren't level 80, don't have appropriate gear and skills unlocked yet. It's no surprise that Core is so easy compared to the expansions, BUT Living World Season 1 took care of that, from the Mad King's Lab (When not following a tag in huge numbers), the Toys of Wintersday (remember the toy princesses in the open world?), Molten Alliance, Toxin Alliance and Scarlet's army types of mobs. Season 1 was full of interesting (and level 80-appropriate) mobs, anyone following the progression of the game through Season 1 shouldn't have a problem with the expansion.

Heart of Thorns difficulty was in terms of navigation and getting around the maps. The actual difficulty of fighting mobs around Heart of Thorns wasn't that much higher than the difficulty of maps like Silverwastes, it was a natural progression. What made the transition between Season 2 and Heart of Thorns so bad was the 6 months of content drought were players had fun pressing 1 and F on their keyboards for hours on end in the SW metas and forgot how to actually fight those mobs. The complete nerf of every hard hitting Season 2 mob with the release of the expansion, including the Mordrem Wolves, the Mordrem Thrashers and others, made it look like we went from a joke to something that required some thought process, in reality, if you had zero trouble fighting Season 2 mobs on your own, Heart of Thorns wasn't a leap in difficulty.

And even so, Path of Fire has much harder mobs than Heart of Thorns, it is a harder expansion, yet the complaints about the difficulty are less. That's because HoT had a navigation problem, not a mob difficulty problem.

tl;dr There was a natural progression in game difficulty over the years, as players were supposed to both get better at playing the game, get full builds, unlock all skills and get to max level, the disappearance of Season 1 and the content drought after Season 2 led to this mistaken idea that Heart of Thorns was a giant leap in difficulty, when in reality it wasn't, it's just the community got so bad at playing the game in the process that Heart of Thorns was a wake up call.

[Obtena.7952]

@maddoctor.2738 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:

@maddoctor.2738 said:About this idea that Arenanet "strayed" from their original intent by adding lots of instanced content.

From what I see, that's not the complaint about straying from the original game intent. The problem isn't that there continues to be a release of instanced content because as you say is true ... we have always had it. The problem is the structure of that 'newer' instanced content, the organization needed to complete it and yes, I won't deny it .. it's harder to do. The direction of those characteristics for instanced content does not typically favour the profile of the people that signed onto this game day 1.

But make no mistake, that stray from original intent is not JUST demonstrated by the evolution of instanced content ... you see it in OW content also. It's absolutely obvious if you compare HoT to Core. It was a whole game philosophy change ... THAT is what I believe was the problem.

Dungeons on day 1, even including Ascalonian Catacombs where perceived as hard as "Raids" and that lasted for months after release.

Again, unless I wasn't clear, this isn't JUST a question about being hard though it is part of that equation.

And to be fair ... it was no 'natural' progression either. It went from 0 to 100 when it went from Core to HoT. In addition, if the progression was so natural, why is PoF such a downgrade in difficulty after HoT? That doesn't add up. It's not like all the sudden people just 'got bad' when expansions were released like you claim either. That's ridiculous. The fact is just as I said: Anet ramped up content parameters that were not inline with the expectations they set with their customers in the first two years of the game ... like WAY up. It's a bad move to stray THAT much from what makes the game appeal to the market ... just to stick to some paradigm of 'natural progression'. I suspect Anet knew they made that mistake and THAT's why we got a retreat in difficulty in PoF.

[SoulGuardian.6203]

...actually GW2 is fine the way it is.That's what makes it unique.

[IndigoSundown.5419]

@"maddoctor.2738" said:Dungeons on day 1, even including Ascalonian Catacombs where perceived as hard as "Raids" and that lasted for months after release. This was also true for Fractals, they only became "easy" with Heart of Thorns, and even the Molten Facility/Aetherblade Retreat living world dungeons had their own difficult parts. Meanwhile dungeons like Arah, are still hard for a great number of players. Also, as demonstrated by my post the amount of that so called "hard content" we got was very limited, even at its best, than we used to get in the first year, or what we got on release, so I'm not really seeing this horrible increase in difficulty of instanced content.

For your comparison between Core and HoT, keep in mind that on release we had a single level 80 zone and the rest of the game is meant to be played by players that aren't level 80, don't have appropriate gear and skills unlocked yet. It's no surprise that Core is so easy compared to the expansions, BUT Living World Season 1 took care of that, from the Mad King's Lab (When not following a tag in huge numbers), the Toys of Wintersday (remember the toy princesses in the open world?), Molten Alliance, Toxin Alliance and Scarlet's army types of mobs. Season 1 was full of interesting (and level 80-appropriate) mobs, anyone following the progression of the game through Season 1 shouldn't have a problem with the expansion.

Heart of Thorns difficulty was in terms of navigation and getting around the maps. The actual difficulty of fighting mobs around Heart of Thorns wasn't that much higher than the difficulty of maps like Silverwastes, it was a natural progression. What made the transition between Season 2 and Heart of Thorns so bad was the 6 months of content drought were players had fun pressing 1 and F on their keyboards for hours on end in the SW metas and forgot how to actually fight those mobs. The complete nerf of every hard hitting Season 2 mob with the release of the expansion, including the Mordrem Wolves, the Mordrem Thrashers and others, made it look like we went from a joke to something that required some thought process, in reality, if you had zero trouble fighting Season 2 mobs on your own, Heart of Thorns wasn't a leap in difficulty.

And even so, Path of Fire has much harder mobs than Heart of Thorns, it is a harder expansion, yet the complaints about the difficulty are less. That's because HoT had a navigation problem, not a mob difficulty problem.

tl;dr There was a natural progression in game difficulty over the years, as players were supposed to both get better at playing the game, get full builds, unlock all skills and get to max level, the disappearance of Season 1 and the content drought after Season 2 led to this mistaken idea that Heart of Thorns was a giant leap in difficulty, when in reality it wasn't, it's just the community got so bad at playing the game in the process that Heart of Thorns was a wake up call.

I've been saying stuff like this for years, going back to when HoT came out. There was a very clear progression in difficulty if you followed the game's development since launch. True, there have also been nerfs to some Core mobs (like that which accompanied the transition from Crit % to Ferocity). People also forget that players have had plenty of time to get better. Of course, there's also power creep. But, yeah, the transition from S2 to HoT was not that steep. Most of the complaints about HoT mobs at first were by people who had not yet learned the new mobs' abilities and tells.

@Obtena.7952 said:

@"maddoctor.2738" said:Dungeons on day 1, even including Ascalonian Catacombs where perceived as hard as "Raids" and that lasted for months after release.

Again, unless I wasn't clear, this isn't JUST a question about being hard though it is part of that equation.

And to be fair ... it was no 'natural' progression either. It went from 0 to 100 when it went from Core to HoT. In addition, if the progression was so natural, why is PoF such a

downgrade

in difficulty after HoT? That doesn't add up. It's not like all the sudden people just 'got bad' when expansions were released like you claim either. That's ridiculous. The fact is just as I said: Anet ramped up content parameters that were not inline with the expectations they set with their customers in the first two years of the game ... like WAY up. It's a bad move to stray THAT much from what makes the game appeal to the market ... just to stick to some paradigm of 'natural progression'. I suspect Anet knew they made that mistake and THAT's why we got a retreat in difficulty in PoF.

I see, though, Mad, that you're having the same difficulty with "common knowledge" that is really opinion based on lack of observation.

Too bad "it" didn't go from Core directly to HoT. Also, too bad open world didn't actually get easier in PoF. The difficulty just looks different because HoT mobs in general do more burst damage that is easily avoidable, once tells are learned. Also, the really high burst mobs in HoT have low health, just as the Mordrem Trolls in S2 do. PoF mobs in general do more pressure damage and have more health. They also swarm more because of the greater aggro distance which was probably put in because of mount speeds.

The truth about ANet, though, is that as a studio they always had a close relationship with some of the (perceived) best gamers playing their games, and always wanted to cater to the better gamers. It doesn't surprise me that some of Core (OK, a lot) has been made easier both by nerfs and by power creep over the years. However, the progression that you outline clearly shows they wanted players to step up their play. ANet also always intended to scratch the itch of the so-called hardcore gamers, though the common forum perception is that they didn't do a good job. It's certainly untrue, though, to suggest that Core GW2 was aimed solely at casual gamers.

That's the old ANet, though. The new ANet, post MO? I'm really not sure.

[maddoctor.2738]

@"Obtena.7952" said:And to be fair ... it was no 'natural' progression either. It went from 0 to 100 when it went from Core to HoT.

No it didn't. Season 1 and Season 2 were the in-between difficulty progression, someone that was accustomed to the difficulty of season 1 and 2 content would have zero trouble playing in HoT. There was nothing more challenging/difficult in the expansion than we fought previously. The problem was the content drought, the big open world zerg focused gameplay in Silverwastes (that took all the challenge away) and of course the removal of Season 1.

You are saying HoT deviated from how the game was supposed to be. I'm saying HoT RETURNED the game to how it was supposed to be. How it was advertised, marketed, promoted and sold to be and its entire first year of existence proved it. Then they did a 180 and ruined their own game, the casualification that so many remember "as how the game supposed to be" happened in 2014 and until the release of Heart of Thorns. But THAT game was a far cry from the game we bought, from the game that sold millions, from the game it was supposed to be.

In summary, HoT was a return to "normal", not a deviation from the normal, and there was more than enough difficulty progression in the game. Unfortunately, most of that progression doesn't exist, and the nerfs to Season 2 mobs make the transition from core to hot a rather steep one, but anyone that followed the game since release and played all its season content has no excuse to talk about "lack of difficulty progression" or total non-sense like "going from 0 to 100". Unless for the entirety of Season 1 and Season 2 you were hiding behind zergs and pressed 1 on your keyboard and for some reason you couldn't do that in hot anymore.

PS: PoF is MUCH harder than HoT and that you are saying PoF is easier than HoT proves my point of you not knowing what you are talking about.

[Fueki.4753]

@maddoctor.2738 said:PoF is MUCH harder than HoT

I don't think either one is harder than the other.Both have their difficult parts, but each also has their BS players had problems adjusting too.HoT started to add weird gimmicky mechanics that raised difficulty in weird ways and PoF just continued that trend.Examples for these are the Hordes and Hordes of Pocket Raptors, the annoying Smokescale fields or the *** AoE lines from the Morderm Snipers.

While PoF did add less gimmicks (only the Forged Assembler's orange walls comes to mind), they added straight up difficulty in unnecessary ways.For example Hydras and Djinns feeling more like Champions, rather than the Veteran are labeled as.

However, if it comes to the troops of the primary antagonists (Forged and Awakened vs Mordrem), I consider HoT to be the bigger challenge.

[maddoctor.2738]

@Fueki.4753 said:

@"maddoctor.2738" said:PoF is MUCH harder than HoT

I don't think either one is harder than the other.Both have their difficult parts, but each also has their BS players had problems adjusting too.HoT started to add weird gimmicky mechanics that raised difficulty in weird ways and PoF just continued that trend.Examples for these are the Hordes and Hordes of Pocket Raptors, the annoying Smokescale fields or the *

**

AoE lines from the Morderm Snipers.

While PoF did add less gimmicks (only the Forged Assembler's orange walls comes to mind), they added straight up difficulty in unnecessary ways.For example Hydras and Djinns feeling more like Champions, rather than the Veteran are labeled as.

However, if it comes to the troops of the primary antagonists (Forged and Awakened vs Mordrem), I consider HoT to be the bigger challenge.

Wait what? The old Mordrem Wolves back in Season 2 were very similar to pocket raptors and if anything they could 1-shot kill you if hit from behind. They also had retaliation on them so you killed yourself attacking them, knowing how to fight those made fighting both Smokescales and Pocket Raptors a breeze. Bring area of effect/cleave and use crowd control. Go fight the big veteran Mordrem Wolf in Iron Marches to remember how Season 2 wolves used to be before they were nerfed with the release of Heart of Thorns (that mob remained the same)

If the lines of the Mordrem Snipers caused you so much trouble then I'm not sure how you survived fighting the Mordrem Thrashers which created much deadlier lines AND were immune to attacks unless you attacked them from behind (from where that line originated from) good luck killing them in melee.

Or other mobs like the beetles that have complete immunity to attacks as they are charging and you needed to CC them (so they flip) in order to damage them, perfect "teachers" for fighting Mushroom chargers and Rolling Devils.

And let's not forget Mordrem Teragriff with their unavoidable homing projectiles. That make the projectile mobs of Heart of Thorns a joke by comparison.

As for your "main antagonist" comparison, you probably never fought Awakened Canids or Awakened Abominations as those two make anything available to the Mordrem army look like a real joke.

Djinn and Hydras are good mobs because they have varied attacks, but they do not feel like champions in any way due to their veteran level health, they die quickly compared to even the most average champion.