Maintenance Mode or Lack of Initiative - Balance Issues Included

[Almighty.6423]

I don't know where to start. I started playing GW2 around beta time and stuck around off and on since then. I've seen the rise and the downfall of the game; from the time it was nearly shut down to the studio falling apart due to layoff to people signing papers behind closed doors to say nothing.

 

BIRTHDAYS:  Poor rewards. A back item no one cares for and dye no one needs, karma and experience that is wasted. The rewards should've been bound precursor, a legendary choice of armor piece or weapon or trinket. Don't say but that will take away from playing the game or revenue because are you telling me that's the only reason to play? To make cosmetic gear that offers no real value and spend money on gems to convert to gold at a loss of 50 to 100 gold of tax? Don't tell me "What other game does birthdays" because if you can't give anything good don't give anything all. 

THIS GAME SUFFERS from balance issues in competitive modes, and more than half of the playing community will agree in saying that Arenanet and NCsoft members clearly don't play their own game. I'm trying to figure out if overpowered elite specialization is the tactic at work, so people willingly spend money for the new expansion.

 

The game died what back in 2013? mega servers? no more tournament? Maintenance Mode?

 

WvW:  is beyond fixing. That mode is so poorly managed. I used to see Staff members play wvw all day now they stick to pve. This mode has had players crying for help since game release. ORB was removed. Forced to play for legendary.

PvE: full of outdated gear, cosmetics, and low amounts of gold to be made.

Raids: Full of people that remove you from groups, paid services, illegal monetization, and money laundering

pvp: Full of AFK, bots, and broken builds. Crafting skins was removed and vendors. Forced to play for legendary gear.

Fractals: dead and pointless unless you want clovers x10 every Monday. outdated gear

Dungeon: Dead, no one plays the content after Arenanet ruined the mode and lowered the gold reward and difficulty and hasn't updated the gear stats.

 

Core GW2: Nothing much to do especially after 10 years. I mean i felt this way after my two world completes.

Heart of thorn: a great place to learn how to play your class

path of fire: dead, no reason to play other than to explore or help out someone new.

End of Dragons: content and events that no one plays unless it's your first time or you are working on the aurene legendries.

 

Truth be told. There is no reason to play the game after 1st world completion for core and expansions. If you reach 80 you finished the game. It goes as following:

1. Reach 80 - can be done before you even hit the second or third zone.

2. Wear Exotic armor and trinkets - you want to max stats? wear ascended. You can craft it but it is a common drop. 

3. Game Over

You want to min max stats?

4. full ascended armor - buy or craft foods.

now what? back to square one. Nothing to do. You take a break and come back to see the new changes only to find out it's the same state game.

 

You literally don't need legendary, dungeon, fractal, wvw, pvp, raid, or to even explore. Heck you can reach 80 and never finish story. It's almost like playing just for fun because that's about it and that new feeling only last about an hour if you are a veteran and a week if you are new to the game. You can probably watch the full story on YouTube and never buy or play the game. 

 

PVP:

WARRIOR - Bladesworn

The blade sword can outmaneuver any class, shrugging off all damage while applying a serious amount of damage.

 

Balde sword - charge up ability BLADE TRIGGER combined with things that make you immune to all sources of damage leads to an unstoppable one-shot ability that penetrates your block, shield, evades, and defenses. In the hands of an experienced players, it gets even more Over-Powered because the person can use it to apply serious damage to you while moving around the map like a thief spamming evades. 

Unsheathe Saber - provides pressure from skills you can spam

Sheathe Saber - Swaps back to your primary where you can spam another 6 skills all while reducing charge on swaps from sources and swap.

18 skills to spam in case you failed to one-shot your foe not including utilities. 

 

REVENANT - Vindicator 

The revenant does a serious amount of damage practically a berserker bunker easily able to 1 v 3. Why? because greatsword provides some serious trouble when combined with a staff which already has a cleans and crowd control.

10 utilities to potential swap to that provide an insane amount of evades, cleanse, and all while hitting like a freight train

 

ENGINEER - Mechanist

The Rifle spamming griefer or the infinite hammer stun spammer?

 

The rifle provides a knockback (overcharged shot) and a (jump shot) ability that lets you down a person potentially in one hit. Thats not the issue... the culprits are people abusing Rifle + Quickness enabling players to auto spam attack. The engineer has great utilities, gap closers and emergency get out of trouble abilities so for someone to be able to nuke you while you are stun/dazed on the ground unable to escape is a bad experience.

 

GUARDIAN

Condition 3 second burner or sword spam bully trapper?

 

The guardian which people know for Anet's favorite child offers a playstyle of all kinds, but the severely abused is longbow/sword guardian. The instant crit gap closer with crowd control traps will leave you useless as you die quickly.

 

RANGER - Trapper troll soulbeast or Trapper / Hammer infinite knockdown and 1 hour long entangle duration?

 

The ranger can use a shortbow to stun and apply an insane amount of pressure with bow. If you need to escape traps will give INSANE! conditions and knock down your opponent, swap to hammer for more control rinse repeat. I won't get into conditions too much because we all know this game has poor condition control. NO balance but I won't talk about that right now. 

 

ELEMENTALIST- Bunker or Auora Cleanse Abuser?

 

The Ele is the most bunker class in the game. While being such a force it still applies damage stacks. The new elite catalyst takes this to a whole new level. Insane pressure on the field, spam, evades and cleanse on command as a bunker. Before someone says " but bunker was removed you can't make it like that" please play the game before you speak. There should be no healers in pvp or heal stat.

---

 

 "Arenanet" addressed the nerf trapper stealth rune for obvious reasons. Gave thief a reveal cooldown which decimated the entire profession. Removed many runes and sigils after what? about 5 years of players quitting and crying online for a fix. So where is the fix now for the issues we have? Do you also want steam players to quit because the game is in a rubbish maintenance mode state purely focused on gem store. The second and third gen professions are still broken to this day and see no fix any time soon.

[kharmin.7683]

11 minutes ago, Almighty.6423 said:

Truth be told. There is no reason to play the game after 1st world completion for core and expansions. If you reach 80 you finished the game. It goes as following:

1. Reach 80 - can be done before you even hit the second or third zone.

2. Wear Exotic armor and trinkets - you want to max stats? wear ascended. You can craft it but it is a common drop. 

3. Game Over

You want to min max stats?

4. full ascended armor - buy or craft foods.

now what? back to square one. Nothing to do. You take a break and come back to see the new changes only to find out it's the same state game.

 

You literally don't need legendary, dungeon, fractal, wvw, pvp, raid, or to even explore. Heck you can reach 80 and never finish story. It's almost like playing just for fun because that's about it and that new feeling only last about an hour if you are a veteran and a week if you are new to the game. You can probably watch the full story on YouTube and never buy or play the game. 

 

 

Not trying to be snarky, but maybe GW2 is no longer appealing to you?  Maybe find another game since you say that you have no reason to play GW2 anymore?

[vinterberg.2783]

Why do you focus so much on leg. gear in game that is "dead", what will you use it for? 

And how about doing fractals for daily 25g and have fun, play lowlevel fractals and teach newbies the mechanics etc? Dungeons are still fun, and people still play them, some to complete all skin collections, others for some easy gold. 

You seem to focus alot on "outdated gear", legendaries and gold - you should play to be entertained IMO, or go do something else that entertains you instead. 

[TheQuickFox.3826]

20 minutes ago, Almighty.6423 said:

Raids: Full of people that remove you from groups, paid services, illegal monetization, and money laundering

 

I'm just going to comment on this one. I've (re)started raiding with the introduction of emboldened, now also on normal difficulty mode and I haven't had a more friendly and rewarding experience. Stick to the "training" tab in LFG or join a guild that hosts accessible raids. Watch Mukluks guides, have patience and enjoy the best that Guild Wars 2 raiding has to offer.

 

I haven't been kicked a single time even tho I'm far from top-tier DPS. Players are generally patient and understanding and willing to explain and try again. The 'worst' that I experienced was players joining training groups hoping for a quick kill and leaving as soon as they realized it would take a number of attempts.

[Farohna.6247]

Maybe it's just time to find a new game for yourself OP.  This one doesn't seem to appeal to you or have anything to offer, and you feel everything is outdated.  That was an odd combination of things btw.  Birthday rewards and pvp and legendaries, oh my!

[Freya.9075]

This is taking overreacting to a whole new level. Clearly you are tired of this game right now. It seems you need a break. Good news. You can do that and everything you worked for up to this point will be waiting for you and not lose its value when you’re back.
 

Meanwhile players who are not burnt out will enjoy full meta maps, new content when it’s released and the game modes we like. 

Edited September 4, 2022 by Freya.9075

[Cuks.8241]

When you complain about birthday gifts and pvp builds that hardly exist above silver you lose all integrity even if some parts of post might have merit. 

[Ashen.2907]

As I said in another thread, yes games need criticism. I just wish more of it was factually accurate. Too bad the OP here doesn't subscribe to that philosophy.

[Brandon Uzumaki.1524]

Open World PvE and Fractals give no gold, that's a OMEGALUL moment lol.

[Raknar.4735]

1 hour ago, Almighty.6423 said:

You literally don't need legendary, dungeon, fractal, wvw, pvp, raid, or to even explore. Heck you can reach 80 and never finish story. It's almost like playing just for fun

I hate it when games are just played for fun!

If you really "need" to do content, are you doing it because it is fun, or because the developer forces you to do that specific content for some reason? I know which style i prefer, the fun one.

[Sobx.1758]

2 hours ago, Almighty.6423 said:

BIRTHDAYS:  Poor rewards. 

Not really.

2 hours ago, Almighty.6423 said:

The rewards should've been bound precursor, a legendary choice of armor piece or weapon or trinket.

So you want to get late-game rewards simply because you've created an account x time ago? Doesn't make sense to me.

2 hours ago, Almighty.6423 said:

Don't say but that will take away from playing the game or revenue because are you telling me that's the only reason to play? To make cosmetic gear that offers no real value and spend money on gems to convert to gold at a loss of 50 to 100 gold of tax? Don't tell me "What other game does birthdays" because if you can't give anything good don't give anything all. 

You went from "give me precursor or legendary gear" to arguing it would be ok "because this game isn't only about cosmetics". But what you want here are not cosmetics. The game is about playing. Earning rewards for gameplay is where it's at, apparently what you want is the opposite -more rewards for less gameplay?

2 hours ago, Almighty.6423 said:

The game died what back in 2013? mega servers? no more tournament? Maintenance Mode?

So you think the game died in 2013 and yet 9 years later you're still here?

I don't understand the logic behind this.

 

2 hours ago, Almighty.6423 said:

Truth be told. There is no reason to play the game after 1st world completion for core and expansions. If you reach 80 you finished the game. It goes as following:

1. Reach 80 - can be done before you even hit the second or third zone.

2. Wear Exotic armor and trinkets - you want to max stats? wear ascended. You can craft it but it is a common drop. 

3. Game Over

You want to min max stats?

4. full ascended armor - buy or craft foods.

now what? back to square one. Nothing to do. You take a break and come back to see the new changes only to find out it's the same state game.

You've literally just asked about accountbound precursor and leggies as a birthday present. Looks to me you still have plenty stuff to get through gameplay. If you don't want to play for the rewards you want then maybe you just don't like the game at its core.

Edited September 4, 2022 by Sobx.1758

[Unicorn Luna.5204]

I came here because I thought the post would be interesting. It just reads like a 3am rant (edit: ahem, not talking about myself doing a 3am bump of a rant). So many problems with it I don't know where to start. It's a shame you've been playing this for over 10 years and are dissatisfied enough to sit down and type all this, I've been here for the same time but don't have the same experience. The one thing I agree with was that I was hoping we'd get a choice of a legendary item for being 10 year players and that the anniversary birthday present felt disappointing, but I suppose that was my fault for having such lofty hopes.

Edited September 7, 2022 by Luna.2158

[Veprovina.4876]

On 9/4/2022 at 3:19 PM, Almighty.6423 said:

BIRTHDAYS:  Poor rewards. A back item no one cares for and dye no one needs, karma and experience that is wasted. The rewards should've been bound precursor, a legendary choice of armor piece or weapon or trinket. Don't say but that will take away from playing the game or revenue because are you telling me that's the only reason to play? To make cosmetic gear that offers no real value and spend money on gems to convert to gold at a loss of 50 to 100 gold of tax? Don't tell me "What other game does birthdays" because if you can't give anything good don't give anything all. 

THIS GAME SUFFERS from balance issues in competitive modes, and more than half of the playing community will agree in saying that Arenanet and NCsoft members clearly don't play their own game. I'm trying to figure out if overpowered elite specialization is the tactic at work, so people willingly spend money for the new expansion.

Well, this is one thing i can agree on, the rest seems like you're either wanting for a vertical progression system, or it's just not the game for you anymore...

 

Anyway... Agree on this at least... After 10 freaking years of having a character, the least they could do is offer 1 bound precursor, and 1 choice of legendary piece. It's 10 freaking years after all.

However, the legendary needs to be bound as well, no selling, and only one per account. Otherwise people with max characters will be getting every legendary there is just for existing.

One per account, precursor and legendary seems fair though.

The rewards are just typical Anet fear of making something good.

 

And agree on the balance, though, there seems to be a genuine effort now to balance the game out.

Sad that some active communities had to quit the game for this to happen, and them only now learning things the community has been telling them for at least 5 years now, but whatever... At least now they seem to be trying so, let's just see where it leads...

 

Lastly...

 

You need a break man, seriously... Thankfully, the horizontal progression will make your gear as relevant as ever when you return.

[TinkerBro.1982]

On 9/4/2022 at 6:19 AM, Almighty.6423 said:

It's almost like playing just for fun

 

Heaven forbid people play video games just for fun 😱

[Labjax.2465]

I get the "dead" type of vibe sometimes, but it may be because of anet's tendency to drop something into existence and then never revisit it again, giving an impression of things being abandoned. In other words, it may be the population has little to do with that feeling and it's mostly about the design of the content too often feeling like it could use more iterating, or just more attention period. MMOs are supposed to be a virtual world and so unlike a lot of games, it's supposed to feel like the developers are doing something, or in lieu of that, the players have tools within the game to keep the virtual world vibrant themselves. This game, significantly more than some other MMOs, tries to keep old content relevant, but that doesn't necessarily mean the old content feels fresh in any way, it just means the reward structure is tied into it somehow. So people show up, which is great for player activity, but the content doesn't get any less stale over time just because people continue to show up for it cause of the rewards.

Of course, this is where some people would say "if it's stale to you, then you should prob take a break." Prob true, but that's not necessarily to anet's benefit. I mean, if someone is burned out on a game, they're burned out, it wouldn't be healthy to try to keep them around at that point. But if they're just getting bored because they are finding that the virtual world is feeling stale, that might be fixable, depending on the approach to development. Like take some basic features of EoD expansion, research notes and fishing. As far as I can recall / from what I've seen, they've done very little with these since release, despite feedback about them in some detail. Now I'm not saying they "should" listen to any specific people on any of it or that they have to listen to feedback to make the content good, but when you've got something new like that and it could freshen up the game for a lot of people and it seems to be suffering to some degree because of various issues people have with it, that seems like a problem.

It's like with the profession balance. People were/are long feeling that balance was biased and strange in some very pointed ways and after the, uh... controversy that happened, they started paying closer attention to certain balance details and feedback, and it may not be all sunshine and rainbows, but it's sure as heck nice to see attention paid to it in some ways that make clearer sense and are more clearly communicated

If they could figure out how to not only keep that up, but apply that level of attention and communication to other areas of the game too, I bet that would make the game feel a heck of a lot more "alive" to those who get vibes to the contrary.

[Gibson.4036]

Lost me at free precursor for birthday.

TLDR