For those that have been playing since launch, what was the most fun era for you and why?

[Dovienya.6597]

When Fractals were brand new, and WvW was active but not in a pirate-ship meta yet.

They were a lot of fun despite being high effort/low reward at the time. They're what I keep checking back in to play.

 

The poorly balanced classes, overload of flashing lights, and utter neglect of PvP modes make it hard to get back into this game, unfortunately.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 29, 2022 by Dovienya.6597

[BadSanta.6527]

Hot lunch era period

[Deadric.1427]

For me it was the games launch no doubt. The entire player base starting out fresh together was an absolute blast. No guides, no builds, just trial and error. 

 

The first time we ran intel the Fire Elemental was an absolute slaughter. Crazy considering the thing dies in like 5 seconds now. 

Edited June 29, 2022 by Deadric.1427

[Thelgar.7214]

Before the New Player Experience took away all your starting skills and gutted the Asura starting zone in PvE.

Before the big stability change in WvW.

[Burial.1958]

Headstart. Everything was new and WvW was a real battlefield. Red Guard Portal Bombs where legendary. My first toon was lvld entirely in WvW. 😃

[Xervite.5493]

Pof release day, absolute power trip era. Loved those times. 

[xenon.3264]

8 hours ago, Crono.4197 said:

 

- Adding raids just made the toxicity in the community rise up, as elitists don't want to play with regular players

 

people do not remember this but this was the exact reason i left wow to come here. raiders are a very small but very very very vocal minority of the playerbase.

 

btw

 

best moment in gw2 was season 1 . i did not expect the destruction of lion's arc . it is the main hub of the world it was unbelievable . i farmed so much for the halo and the different color of the back . 

 

mounts were a game changer but griphon was amazing .

[mythical.6315]

Everything prior to LS3. It started going down for me after that. 

[kleisthenes.6247]

I remember playing warrior at launch, and just demolishing everything with longbow / axes combo. I was also a huge fan of good old LA.  PoF was a very fun time for me as well. Playing my thief with his staff  as daredevil,  wandering across the sand dunes.  There was a lot of nightfall nostalgia for me too.

[PookieDaWombat.6209]

The very beginning.  Especially when things in the starter zone were difficult if it was even 2-3 levels bigger than you before they toned it back.  I enjoyed having to be mindful about map travel and leveling.  I enjoyed having to take my time and learn what the weapon skills did and learn the timing of its CD.  Its something sorely lacking for new players.  I also really miss when WvW wasn't always a "zerg around the map to flip objectives" game like it is today.

[Cronospere.8143]

Core, at this point i think is somewhat boring. But back in 2013 i know i really like the fact i was able to play Charr and the personal story branches. There are soo many choices in core, thats what they advertised with. And thats something that would be great if that would be back: choices.. 

 I had fun with the first release of the queens jubilee and twisted marionette when it was a map event. The community was such a great group back then. 

Then Tarir Multiloot. That was insanely fun. 8 maps and tricking the game in giving as much loot as possible. I commanded a lot of those. 

The release of guildhalls. As a guild leader and scribe i really like this. Building it up from scratch and working together. That was awesome. You had a goal together. 

The LS4 story was something i really got hooked by. That story was soo good and well written. Especially that fight in the auditorium. If that is how we killed kralk that would be a real awesome ending. 

Icebrood saga prologue. No world ending issues, just fun and parties. 

And End of Dragons last story fight, which was a good conclusion to tge dragon story line. All came together.. 

 

In all honesty there are a lot of things i like and also dislike. But for me i think its a matter of taste. I dont have to like everything in this game, because someone else will like what i dislike and same other way around. Elite specs. I still havent unlocked some of HoT. Thats how uninterested i am in those. But some are really passionate about them. And thats okay. 

 

I just wished there was some more love for guild content.. (please? Haha) 

[Mik.3401]

It was the first couple months since the release for sure. The maps were always packed and there was a lot of GW1 nostalgia to revisit. GW1 is a legendary game to me, thus so long as strong influence of it guided the game design (early days) I loved it the most.

Edited June 29, 2022 by Mik.3401

[Asum.4960]

Definitely the Beta's/Launch. It's just a magical time, especially for an MMO - even more so coming from GW1 after years of wait and stepping into this new rendition of the world for the first time. 

 

Besides that obvious answer, late HoT for me, when after years of thinking Raids weren't for me after all the community horror and fearmongering about how hard the content is and how toxic and elitist the players are, eventually deciding to give it a go anyway, and finding the friendliest and most welcoming communities to date as well as forming GW2 transcending year long friendships through progressing through that content together.  

 

Honourable mentions to Vanilla GW2 when WvW was really big, integrated into the game with world bonuses, server identity and all that was a blast too, as well as HoT launch PvE - which felt more like what GW2 was at launch again, before all the powercreep largely invalidated the game and it's mechanics.

Edited June 30, 2022 by Asum.4960

[SlateSloan.3654]

WvW until HoT and generally the time before megaservers where introduced to pve.

PvE and WvW where bound to the same server selection and when your server has been successful in wvw all players in pve got a special buff. So when the buff went active your pve players knew that their wvw players where winning. Because all players of an server where this type of connected, WvW players have been known among the pve players and when they saw you in lionsarch they gratzt and thanked you for winning them the buff. It was more an all together for the server feeling. PvE server communities existed in teamspeak and battled each others for worlds first tequatl and triple trouble.

WvW has been active from the morning to the evening, commanders literally took over the lead from each others, there has been almost no lead downtime.

some commanders even stopped their raid when there wasnt at least one scout in every keep and in every tower and only continued the raid when it was the case.

wvw maps allowed for like 100+ players per map. Skirmish tickets where not rewarded for just participating in playing the gamemode, they needed to be won in a seasonal tourney. So who owned a wvw weapon skin was actually successful in a tourney.

the game had a strong passive defense meta so selection of armor stats actually meant something and did a big part in defensive play unlike today where dodge, active blocking, booning etc is 100% mandatory otherwise you directly explode in your enemies bomb. The game allowed for more human errors before you went down. So one can say armor had more influence on the ttk.

People treated each others with more respect than today.

Good times back then.

[DeceiverX.8361]

Mid-to-late 2014 to Pre-HoT Spec patch.

Balance was still questionable in a lot of ways, but at least somewhat coherent and consistent.

[TexZero.7910]

Post inital trait rework up till they moved away from the bi-weekly update.

14/14/14 cele meme builds aside.

[Doggie.3184]

The time period where I got to enjoy my favorite weapons "Dual Pistols" on Thief for the first time when they buffed their range and gave them Ricochet. Sadly they TOTALLY DELETED THE ENTIRE BUILD AND WONT RETURN IT AND GAVE US GARBAGE SINGLE TARGET RIFLE INSTEAD THAT NO ONE USES

Sorry, it just still annoys the crap out of me. That build was so much fun. The one 'balance' update I want to rollback. Moreso than current.

Edited June 30, 2022 by Doggie.3184

[Travis the Terrible.4739]

6 months after release. People more or less had builds figured out and well warrior wasnt a toothless critter yet

[Chrysaliss.8720]

Probably mid PoF. I got into a raiding guild and we did raids and daily fractals together. I got my legendary armor and everything was good. The the guild slowly died and then everything went to sh*t with EoD. The worst expansion ever. 

[Rendalmj.3152]

before path of fire or after i dont remember i used to play rifle warrior and oneshot thiefs in wvw so fun now it rarely happens

[Vidit.7108]

Before HoT, those months leading up to it if I had to pick a more specific time. When we got things like removing item repairs costs, the trait rework, and the wardrobe. 

The community was much nicer back then, it's hard to describe now. Conversation and company were better. There was just more of a zest for life back then and now you just have the same tired meme-y gamers you can find everywhere else. Players really looked forward to updates then with a lot of optimism, most players I think had played the story and knew at least what was happening. WvW did actually mean something to the rest of the player base. Severs had their own cultures and personality that was predictably lost with the megaservers. Each game mode feels like a different world now from what it was before. PvP is one of the most drastically different parts of the community now I think. Things felt like they were improving after each update and everyone had something to be happy about.

A lot of updates that followed HoT also increased player toxicity, so looking back the best times found you in that era, now you have to search just to find good times.

Since, HoT there have been improvements, time periods that weren't as bad as the ones before them but the highs now don't last for nearly as long.

[Holykitten.3064]

I have several eras that I have fond memories of.

Putting on your Magic Find Exotic armor and blitzing Orr maps in Core end game content.

Dungeon running being the thing you did to help your guildies get the gear they wanted/needed.

Thief's Ricochet. End of, point blank. I want this back.

PvP Glory and the PvP armory, and buying/obtaining skins you wanted from Glory rewards. Using armor tokens, Rank tokens, arcane orbs, slivers, powder, to forge armor skins for your PvP armory. Luckily, anything obtained before this system was removed, the armor skins unlocked in the PvP locker were automatically added to the wardrobe.

Taking part in Living World Season 1 as it happened. I'm glad it's coming back, in some fashion, but it's not the same.

Old Lions Arch. Everyone had "their spot" that they afk'd in. It was the best iteration of Lions Arch. I try to stay away from new LA as it doesn't have the same feel as it did before Scarlett's attack.

 

Edited June 30, 2022 by Haleydawn.3764

[Tazer.2157]

Game has been a blast. Some of my memorable events include following the Hero point train in Heart of Thorns, taking people in my skiff to complete the Gauntlet of the Khan Ur JP , the light puzzles in Bjoras Marches, and a little known event in the Domain of Vabbi where we help a father beat up... I mean train his three sons :P 

[dace.8019]

Everything up to the point where ANet caved to the holy trinity crowd.

 

GW2 might not be completely Tank, DPS and Heals but it's very close and much worse for it. Look at elite specs now, they're designed simply to give professions the ability to take on these roles (which is mainly by supplying specific boons) as much as they are about interesting twists on core mechanics or taking them in new directions.

 

I'd rather they stuck with their original vision and differentiated professions based on unique mechanics rather than access to boons. Boons used to be nifty little things that occured semi randomly and felt like bonuses to being grouped or cooperating with strangers. Now they're everything. They're so boring! Powerful, sure, but boring. 

[Skorpis.4372]

Vanilla gw2 was the most fun for me. Sense of exploration like no other mmo. I really was proud then complited world exploration and crafted my first legendary twilight. I main warrior and had a lot of fun in pvp.

 

Also in wvw players where not as cordinated as now. We had a commander who made us dye our armor in pink then trogle walking and just autoatacking huge enemy blobls and killing them. It was called the SWAG walk. Also commander had really nice like radio dj voice wich is also adds to expierince.