Returning player comes back after 8 years away. My thoughts on the game

[Galtrix.7369]

So, with the clickbait title out of the way, I'd like to provide some context.

I'm a returning player. The last time I played this game was in 2015 when the Heart of Thorns expansion first released.... so it's been awhile. I mainly quit the game in 2015 due to time constraints and career obstacles. Eventually, I began to get back into gaming, staying away from Guild Wars because, quite frankly, I just forgot it was even there. In my time away from Guild Wars, I experienced every MMORPG out there, including even the obscure games that nobody hears about. I had a lot of fun, but I decided randomly one afternoon to re-download Guild Wars 2 because MMO's tend to change drastically over time - and I had given it roughly 8 years to change. Here are my thoughts:

PvE/Expansion content

1. There are way too many currencies. This isn't a Guild Wars specific problem, as I've had this with other MMOs. But geez. GW2 has a TON of currencies. And the majority of them don't have easy explanations - I have to wiki them all and many of them are unclear.

2. Combat feels slower than it used to be. This is both a positive and a negative thing to me, because I remember a lot of times, I'd join an event when it just started and I'd be milliseconds too late because a mob of people took the boss out before I could even see it. The combat still feels fluid, but it's slowed down a lot and gives people time to really think about what they'd like their character to do. Dodge/fight/roll/heal... it all feels as good as it did back when I played. The negative side to this being: It almost feels like my character is weak now. Playing through the new expansion, I periodically wonder "Am I just super weak and not able to kill these monsters quickly, or is this how every class feels?" Maybe it's because I played WoW and am used to burst-damaging the heck out of monsters, but I can't help but wonder if my class got nerfed into the ground because of the time-to-kill being the way it is.

3. Open World content is still very cool. I enjoy running up to random events and having a random problem thrown at me. This is by far the coolest aspect of Guild Wars, and I hope they keep it and expand on it in the future. The fact that you still gain experience at level 80, albeit in different ways, is brilliant.

4. Ascended gear is now much easier to obtain than I remember. I vaguely recall I got all of my ascended gear through Fractals, which I think was the only way to obtain ascended gear at that time. (Correct me if I'm wrong. Crafting them could have been available at that time) I like the fact that it's much easier to obtain and there are various different ways to do so.

5. Dailies and Weeklies are better! The fact that you can obtain cool-looking armor through just doing daily or weekly quests is freakin cool. I'm a casual player the majority of the time, so I appreciate that I can obtain ascended gear through just logging in and completing a couple of things. I like it!

6. Dungeons are just as buggy as I remember. I ran through Ascalonian Catacombs with some guildies recently, and the npc bugged out 5 times before we had to exit the dungeon and reset everything. I am kind of surprised that this bug has persisted for nearly a 10-year timespan. It seems like group content would be a priority when it comes to fixing bugs, but it seems like the same bugs are still there. 

7. Lastly, this expansion doesn't really feel like an expansion. I know Anet has the large task of creating mind-blowing new zones, class specializations, and other new additions, but Secrets of the Obscure almost feels like it could've been a patch in their Living World (if they're still doing that). There's a new zone, a new story, and classes can use specialty weapons as core weapons now. And now that I mention the expansion, I find that other subclasses are locked behind the other expansions - Path of Fire and End of Dragons. That really rubs me the wrong way, considering that you can purchase the newest expansion and it isn't clear that you'll need the others to unlock parts of your own class. That alone made me want to ask for a refund of this expansion, but I didn't.

Overall, PvE content feels pretty darn good. This last expansion, not so much. I would absolutely recommend the PvE aspect of this game to my friends who play MMOs.

PvP content

1. Here we go. I am a PvP addict. I played a mesmer in PvP a long time ago and did great, even playing in Guild tournaments. But after 8 long years of not playing Guild Wars 2, I knew I had some catching up to do. I researched builds, created my own, and made sure I had the correct gear for my specialization. I watched videos and experimented on those test-dummy-robots to ensure I was getting optimal performance as far as damage and sustainability. And then I entered my first game of PvP... and I got absolutely wrecked. Like steamrolled and smashed into a pile of nothingness. So I did some more research for weeks, playing game after game, writing down average crit strikes, writing down heal rates, and being a nerd. I decided I didn't have a point of comparison - something I could compare my damage to, so I logged into my guardian and performed the same tests... and the damage I was seeing smoked my mesmer out of existence. I started performing tests on all classes and determined that class balance is extremely out of whack to the point of absurdity. It's almost like they didn't know how to balance all of the classes they created, so they just didn't bother with balance. As a PvP addict, this was just super disheartening to experience and really threw off the fun of PvP for me. Back before the expansions, PvP was pretty fun and engaging. It felt balanced and fair, like you could pick any class and succeed if you had the right build and the right reaction time. That's definitely not the case anymore.

2. Maps were still the same after like 8 years away - I think they added 1 new map.

Tldr: PvE is still fun. Latest expansion is kinda trashy. PvP is not fun anymore. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[ugrakarma.9416]

Mesmer is weak because was nerfed long time ago, they launched POF with a condi OP mesmer class (mirage), that can one shot anyone....

Then to fix that, they nerfed mirage dodges,(LOL) , that probably the reason u feel slow.

As if ins't enough, they nerfed it again in 2022.

And all repeat again, Anet launches "balance" coincidentally close to new expansions, which end wrecking old specs.

like Gw2 playerbase is always naive, theres some elementes crying for more nerfs cuz "there's too much powercreep", just when anet is to launch a new weapons choices on Soto. lol.

[Linken.6345]

1 hour ago, ugrakarma.9416 said:

Mesmer is weak because was nerfed long time ago, they launched POF with a condi OP mesmer class (mirage), that can one shot anyone....

Then to fix that, they nerfed mirage dodges,(LOL) , that probably the reason u feel slow.

As if ins't enough, they nerfed it again in 2022.

And all repeat again, Anet launches "balance" coincidentally close to new expansions, which end wrecking old specs.

like Gw2 playerbase is always naive, theres some elementes crying for more nerfs cuz "there's too much powercreep", just when anet is to launch a new weapons choices on Soto. lol.

Yea scourge going from what was it 34k to 49k totaly not power creep at all.

Stop spreading missinfirmation.

[QueenKeriti.5176]

1. Yup, way too many currencies, and they've pared a ton of them DOWN over the last year! (like the dungeon currencies are now one currency, strikes are now just two currencies old/new, etc) And there are some things I wish were moved to currencies instead of material/bank storage.

2. Combat feels about the same to me over the last few years, but it's also going to depend on class/build/where you're at. Some mobs will be instagibbed by just about any class/build while the ones in EoD tend to be tankier.

6. Dungeons feel like they've been abandoned since the beginning. Maybe Anet will give them some love one day. Maybe. maybe. They've been poking at some OG content and doing lots of QoL upgrades, but I can understand them being terrified of the spaghetti that makes up the dungeons.

7. It pretty much is the new style of Living World because Anet was just throwing away money with the original style of Living World. SoTO is going to be made up of multiple major build releases. Big build release #2 (probably early next year) includes things like the new open world legendary armor. Next year (probably August again), there'll be another new "expansion," assuming Anet sticks to this new idea. Who knows, though. The C in Arenanet stands for Consistency.

PvP

I just don't do it. It's an absolute mess right now with all the class changes that came out with SoTO. PvE is a mess, and PvP is a cluster. Anet did a hell of a YOLO with the weapon specialization changes + rune changes + addition of relics all at once.

[Danikat.8537]

10 hours ago, Galtrix.7369 said:

7. Lastly, this expansion doesn't really feel like an expansion. I know Anet has the large task of creating mind-blowing new zones, class specializations, and other new additions, but Secrets of the Obscure almost feels like it could've been a patch in their Living World (if they're still doing that). There's a new zone, a new story, and classes can use specialty weapons as core weapons now. And now that I mention the expansion, I find that other subclasses are locked behind the other expansions - Path of Fire and End of Dragons. That really rubs me the wrong way, considering that you can purchase the newest expansion and it isn't clear that you'll need the others to unlock parts of your own class. That alone made me want to ask for a refund of this expansion, but I didn't.

How does this compare to other MMOs?

SotO is comparable to expansions in my other MMO (which add 1 map and typically either a new mechanic for all classes or 1 new class) and require you to pay extra if you want previous expansions you don't already have. Although SotO is cheaper. But it would be interesting to hear from someone who has played every other MMO because most people commenting on it have only played a few so it's difficult to get a perspective on how it compares to the market as a whole.

[Galtrix.7369]

4 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

How does this compare to other MMOs?

SotO is comparable to expansions in my other MMO (which add 1 map and typically either a new mechanic for all classes or 1 new class) and require you to pay extra if you want previous expansions you don't already have. Although SotO is cheaper. But it would be interesting to hear from someone who has played every other MMO because most people commenting on it have only played a few so it's difficult to get a perspective on how it compares to the market as a whole.

Good question! I guess I’ll start out with the most popular MMO, World of Warcraft. When Shadowlands released, it had 6 new zones, Torghast (an end-game repeatable dungeon to get gear), legendaries, new covenants, an anima system for rewards complete with each classes’ own ability, The Great Vault for rewards, 8 new dungeons, new armor transmogs, and countless mounts. 
 

Then there was Rift, an MMO that was popular more than 12 years ago. The first expansion for that added two giant continents, 7 new dungeons, a new Chronicle, new souls for classes (comparable to class specializations), new creatures that would wreak havoc on its environment, lots of new puzzles, and new weapon specializations for each class. 
 

I mean, I can’t list every MMO I play on here, but RuneScape added like 30 new zones, new armor, new weapons, dungeons, and events in like one go… and they don’t even really do expansions. Neverwinter Online always adds countless things to do such as quests, dungeons, new classes, raids, guild structures, etc. 

Then there’s the new Elder Scrolls expansion, Necrom. It released with two new zones, a new class, new Oblivion raids, new companions, new trials, and a new world event. This expansion most closely resembles the Guild Wars 2 expansion in the way of content. I didn’t feel like this expansion was worth the price either, and didn’t provide adequate amounts of content. 
 

It feels like most other mmos just provide more in the way of new mechanics, new zones, new dungeons, new group content, new events. I feel like I’m just grinding for experience on these new rift things, repeatedly scanning for them, going to the next one, defeating it, and then scanning for another one. There’s not really a variety of things to do, and I find myself playing all those other mmos for the sake of variety. 

[Randulf.7614]

Combat hasn't been slowed. If anything, the power creep, the increase in boon availability has sped it up. It def hasn't slowed down. It might feel that way compared to modern games though. It's a perception thing rather than an actuality.

Yes currency bloat is a problem. It's past the point of fixing, but I;d like them to be more restrained in the future

Dungeons were abandoned. They merged the tokens and left them to rot. They are old content that will never be reworked. It's just the way it is

The expansion not feeling like an expansion is deliberate. They can no longer support all game modes and clearly have other things brewing in the background. So we get a half Living World Season spread over a year. Which is fine to be honest as long as the quality is there. I think SoTo hits more than it misses

[Eekasqueak.7850]

I think given the lack of a subscription fee the price of Soto is fair. 

[Galtrix.7369]

2 hours ago, Eekasqueak.7850 said:

I think given the lack of a subscription fee the price of Soto is fair. 

I think it would be, if Anet hadn’t shown us they can do better. The first expansion “Heart of Thorns” brought in so many changes that I couldn’t even wrap my head around most of them. I mean, take a look at the list of features that expansion brought in, and then look at this expansion’s features. The difference is staggering. Maybe they just overdelivered on the first expansion and had to cut back due to financial budget limitations? Not sure. 

Edited September 12, 2023 by Galtrix.7369
Edited for clarity

[Cuks.8241]

19 hours ago, Galtrix.7369 said:

As a PvP addict, this was just super disheartening to experience and really threw off the fun of PvP for me. Back before the expansions, PvP was pretty fun and engaging. It felt balanced and fair, like you could pick any class and succeed if you had the right build and the right reaction time. That's definitely not the case anymore.

Basically for pvp I would recommend you play a few classes. Some might not agree because you might become master of none but this way you avoid the balance issues.

Before expansion class balance was relatively good. Mesmer was good with chronomancer (and prolly still is). But right now with all the new weapons there are definitely some issues. I dont even bother worrying for now, it will settle to an extent. 

Is there really mmorpg out there with good class balance for pvp? Gw2 at least remedies it with easy alt creation and no need for gearing for pvp. And high skill cap, fast semi action combat leaves lots of space for skill.

[Tiviana.2650]

6 hours ago, Eekasqueak.7850 said:

I think given the lack of a subscription fee the price of Soto is fair. 

I agree how would people like to pay 180 a year minus expansions lol. 

[QueenKeriti.5176]

55 minutes ago, Tiviana.2650 said:

I agree how would people like to pay 180 a year minus expansions lol. 

I remember when I bought Heavensward for FFXIV. $40 or something at the time and did not come with 30-days gametime, so I had to pay for that, too. I was salty af. Their other expacs have been the same. 😐

$25 for a year's worth of content is a bargain.