Abdiel.3051

Shoot I messed up, that was a typo of course.

Thank you all for taking the time to read this post and reply. Some of you have made very insightful, well researched comments and I appreciate that. I think that a lot of it is semantics. With my original post I wasn't trying to say that the game has actual roles, we all know how GW2 works. But these roles exists, they exists as possible builds in the game, and they exists in the mind of the player. And, contrary to the game's philosophy, it evidently exists also in the mind of the developer. I say that because -as some of you have explained- there are moments in strikes and raids that, by means of a variety of mechanics, a player character will get a boss's aggro, and will have to endure an onslaught of attacks. On top of that the game allows you to create "tanky" builds by equipping gear with high defense attributes. Well, hate to break your hearts folks, but you just created the tank role in your game whether you want to acknowledge that or not. This is just one example. Perhaps its because the "holy trinity" is inescapable, or at least easy to fall into when designing an RPG. So the point I was trying to make, tough I was actually complaining more than anything, is that GW2 should somehow acknowledge and help the player understand these roles. I understand that it would be a big change, but in the past other MMOs have changed, why not GW2?

Yeah I was thinking the same thing but I didn't levitate towards that point. I do agree with the general idea he was trying to convey.

Well put. Thank you for your understanding and reply.

Fair enough about the old trait system but my feelings are the same. It was easier to know what role I was playing by choosing the trait that gave the attribute associate with the role. Please don't say GW2 does not have roles. If so, why do I see the words tank, dps, healer, alac, etc on LFG descriptions all the time? Please don't argue this you know what I mean. Roles might not work exactly the same as in other RPGs, but they exist, they are played, and commanders ask people to play these all the time. Doing a strike the other day our commander ask for someone to play tank, which I did because I had my tank template ready 🙂 "it's faster and easier to change a build now into a secondary play style using build templates." - This is arguable at best. but I see you point, I don't think this system is good enough though.

How was I wrong about roles? If there are no roles, then why are you explaining how roles work in this game? My point was not that in GW2 roles work exactly the same as other MMOs, I said that there ARE roles, as there are in other MMOs be it tank, dps, healer, hybrid and otherwise, and the game does NOT tell you about them. I understand fundamental game design of GW2 you do not need to explain but thank you, and I think you understand what my criticism is.

I can see that I mischaracterized the old trait system, it has indeed been gone for longer then it existed as you pointed out. The point I was trying to make, maybe I did so poorly, is that the old system made it more simple to switch between "roles". If your gear had no healing power for example you could get a good amount from the traits. Maybe the new system is the same and I've just failed to notice that after all these years. Untimely, I was able to understand the old trait system better. I mean, how did you know which was the defensive trait line? Well you just simply went by the trait line that gave you defense attribute. I mean it was like the ball fits through the circle, and the cube fits through the square. Doesn't get any easier than that.

After I kill the Golem's core the boss becomes unelectable and the fight continues indefinitely.

If that's the case than can you explain why I'm seeing the acronyms dps, tank, healer, in the description of some groups in the LFG window right now? And also, why did a commander ask me to tank on a strike yesterday? I guess they were just an idiot. Just because the game refuses to acknowledge these role doesn't mean they do not exist. One of GW2 many flaws.

Wait what? If you pre-buy SotO you can mount in combat? Can you explain?

Hello everyone, Thank you for reading and I apologized in advance if my little rant bothers you. GW2 does a lot of things right, it's one of my top ten most played games, and I'm looking forward to it's future. However, my issue is with how the game treats its roles, or the lack of treatment really. To put it simply, like any other MMO the roles are healer, DPS, tank, and a variety of supports. The endgame content and some of the public events are designed to be “beatable” only by playing these roles. However, the game makes no, and I mean none, absolute zero mention of said roles. Through its onboarding, various tutorials introduced in the games various expansions, and even the game’s very UI, there absolutely no indication that these roles exist. This might be the biggest source of frustration and confusion for new and old players like me alike. To me, this is one of life’s biggest questions. Right up there with, where do we come from? And, what happens after death? Why would the game developers design content with these roles in mind but never explain to the player that these roles are needed or even exist? Additionally, as a day one player I was there for the game's first trait system, when changing roles literally took seconds since you could allocate skill points to traits, which would increase your core attributes and allow you to play any role you wanted. A lot of players either don't know or don't remember that this used to be the main way to allocate core attributes. After a few years the developer overhauled the trait system so they would not increase your attributes and instead having your gear and gear customization dictate your role. I do not know why they did this, but I suspect the change was made in bad faith. My opinion has always been that the old trait system made grinding for gear almost irrelevant, that they wanted to incentivize players to grind for different gear sets and also making the legendary gear seem more convenient and therefore more enticing. Am I missing something about roles and the old trait system?

Though I don't mind a cash-shop at all, I do have a problem with GW2's cash-shop. For example, most if not all relevant MMO's provide a free and reliable way to customize your appearance. Though the game provides you with a way to buy these items from the cash-shop by trading your gold for gems, it is just too expensive, pushing people to seriously consider spending real money. I'd prefer a sub then GW2's cash-shop.