Whats preventing you from coming back to play Guild Wars 2 ?

[Susy.7529]

Lack of new content for months.

[Thornwolf.9721]

@"Faowri.4159" said:Combination of adult free time and health prevents me from playing more than I'd like to. I try and get back on to bash out each living story ep and then sometimes I start some of the collections and 'extra' bits of the episode, but run out of time before the next one lands. Trying to complete the skyscale collections now D'X GW3 might be out before I finish.

Kinda surprised to see so much vitriol for the story though. I feel like it's dramatically improved from Path of Fire onwards. I've loved having my character be a more central and focused part of the story, with personal stakes, instead of just getting dragged along anonymously by events. I've enjoyed having a much more vivid supporting cast to love or hate, and the cutscenes and general cinematic polish have come such a long way since original release. The only thing I routinely handwave is the often fluffy-sounding lore, which . . . eeeeh, I've always found forgivable if the characters and general thrust of a story are interesting enough.

Maybe it's pure personal taste - I acknowledge that we've moved away from the drier, less personal writing of GW1, but I prefer it whereas perhaps other people don't? I never, ever for a second thought that story was GW1's strong point. But that's just me! :)

could also be everything is written as a "Human" would react and be there, But there are other races and people expect them to act as they do in the lore and how they did during the personal story. The nuance of that and the lack of such depth is .... disturbing considering the development of it in core.

[Silmar Alech.4305]

@Faowri.4159 said:Kinda surprised to see so much vitriol for the story though. I feel like it's dramatically improved from Path of Fire onwards.Interesting to read. For me, for example, the PoF story was the most fun to play in whole GW2. It might not have been the most intelligent plot, but the gameplay was great. I did the whole story solo with my elementalist, and it was so much fun to blast through all the hordes of enemies. All was balanced perfectly. And there was some kind of flow from the beginning to the end.In contrast, the living story after that felt stretched and prolonged with time wasters, so it wasn't able to keep me playing. I even waited playing till the Palawa Joko story arc was released completely, but there was no flow. It was interrupted by mandatory grindy and meaningless sidequests, so I just quit in the middle and never returned.

[Dreamer.1952]

I stopped playing 8 months ago after almost 6.5 years constant playing without breaks. But i finally gave up my hopes.

GW2 has still alote of potential. Just same small examplesLook at gliding, implemented with hot and later also implemented in wvw wich gave the wvw some new flair.Look at the mounts and pet races implemented at pof. Complete new mechanics. Gliding mounts wich is giving us small changes of gameplaying.

BUT, when did we get the mounts-> after like 5 years. Pretty to late.

There is realy realy alote of more potential in GW2. Like a new race or new weapon, profession...Sure we got new Specilasations like a Druid, wich was then a "crippled" healer or the Firebrand, also "crippled" healer instead a real healer profession.

Also Anet doesnt want to hear his players or doesnt respond to there demands like on the ranger longbow. With Hot the longbow got a nerf and we coudnt use it for like 4 years or longer? And what did we got instead, melee ranger builds, healer druid? The only thing we got as answere was: We here you, We know what you want.

Another example: Players wanted for a long time SAB back. When did we get it back, after 3-4 years. Any progress in SAB = no.

One of the demands was GvG. Completle ignored by anet. Why is this game called Guild Wars and not World Wars?What we got was a Grinding feast Guild hall, where only the buffs are good, with a not really working arena.....

Lots of players like to farm Gold. The gold farm (generation) is compared to the first 3 years greatly reduced. Instead the gem price is flying in the hights and the grinding in the game is also getting in mass. Grinding for gold, AP, Raids, skins ...... (dont forgett one of the many promisses of ANET -> Gw2 will not be a grinding game).

I wont go into changes in PVP wich makes me really angry, or the stagnation in WvW.

So what we get from anet:Lots of grindLots of skins + gem store skinsLots of RNGLots of empty promisses.Lots of slow changes in game.Lots of player demand ignoring.

I lost hope and stopped playing GW2.

One last advise from an old gamer to the game developers: Stop trying to push players into the play style YOU want them to play. Start hearing out the demands of the players earnestly and set the demands into progress (not after years). Stop looking into your statistics and then telling us we know what you want.

[grave of hearts.7830]

Been one of the hardcore wvwers ,been there since the early access till 2 months since the layoffs.

1:Contentbeen of pisspoor design,run there kill ten rats and faceroll over the buttons and win for 7 years now.And since the layoffs the content dropped to almost zero.

2:CateringThe developers instead of listening to the people and community that lives in wvw ,they listened to individuals that were totaly disconnected from what wvw should had been and in that process they destroyed it.The catapult gravel change only happened because one of those people got sniped repeatedly and they preffered to render gravel useless to satisfy ONE I REPEAT ONE PERSON because he was crying to them non stop that outmanned people dont allow his group to farm them.Adding on top of it the constant defensive siege nerf spam made it evident that the development team only caters to select few,and i take that as plain cheating so id rather get cheated elsewhere.

3:Censoring criticismYou cant talk about them,you cant talk about this you cant talk about that you broke the forum conduct rules etc etc etc etc.You arent even allowed to point at their double standards.

4:This is NCSOFTRemember city of heroes?Remember Wildstar?Remember tabula rasa?

Yeah well i do,and i can feel the shutdown coming so may as well emotionaly detach myself now because 20 years supporting this product with my hard earned cash going down the drain is gonna hurt.And i am not in the mood for that kitten,they can go kitten themselves.

And thats all folks.

[Richard Marcinko.5132]

The destruction of Mesmer, every time I go to log in I think of my 7 year mains current state and play something else.

[lezbefriends.7516]

Grind when there was supposed to be no grind.

Passing updates such as “ascended cooking” as real content.

Legendary/ascended of everything is not alt-friendly, nor real or new content.

Gold farming nerfs (e.g., Istanbul nerf).

[Rico.6873]

I'm still playing and working on the legendaries, not sure what I'm gonna do after thats done though.Maybe go back to FFXIV even though not moving (and casting spells) feels weird thx to GW2 now......

Though FFXIV music is still top notch! maybe one day If I got some more time.

[Dreamer.1952]

@grave of hearts.7830 said:

3:Censoring criticismYou cant talk about them,you cant talk about this you cant talk about that you broke the forum conduct rules etc etc etc etc.You arent even allowed to point at their double standards.

Here you can add also the funny "Exploit" understanding of ANet.Or when players are telling in the forums that "THIS" playstyle of the community is not intended by the developers. How can a player know what the developers are intending??? Examples like this in the forum exists alote.

@grave of hearts.7830 said:ONE I REPEAT ONE PERSON because he was crying to them non stop that outmanned people dont allow his group to farm them.

As example from PVE i can add the Blinx farm. PPl just didnt finished the the event to let the event restart faster. A few toxic players where crying in the forums that this playsytle is not intended by the developers. Blinx got nerfed. And this few toxic players got there farming event rotation back in the cursed shore. In there rotation of cursed shore farming They also didnt fnished the 2 events near Penitent Waypoint and where toxic if random players finished them.Blinx farm was an exploit and the cursed shore farm is not an exploit??

Ignoring the mass of players.Its just the small waterdrops that filled up the well which is why i dont want to come back.

Edit: BTW. An active friend showed me this thread. Usually i even dont bother to watch into GW2 forums. Its not worth it.

[Deaths.9165]

The rewarding system overall is broken. Best example is for that the Hot meta. Where u had to cc the boss. But nobody cced the boss, cause he couldnt do else the tag dmg to get the rewards. Why should he even bother for the win when he dosnt gain anything. SO we were standing their, hundrets of players and hoped somebody were noob enough to cc so we could get the reward.At the end the rewarding system got nerfed one by one so u had to grind days maybe moths to get ur stuff cause u had to just hit 1 time the boss for the reward. So we were standing their waiting for the timer just to do a single hit to gain a box with green items.

This entire game is based arround dmg and not particitating in an event. SO basicly every class beside dd was usless, cause u couldnt gain any rewards.

And theirfore, the entire openworld was just zerging behind a com and dealing dmg to some kind of bosses, without any mechanics and tactical movements. At the end i did just some auto attacks, enough to get tag dmg, but without any tatical movemnets.

Wvw has the same example, we finally get something like a healer and cant use it cause of the rewarding system. Even the 25% dmg gain by healing was broken cause u healed in a zerg random ppl so u couldnt gain the heal tag.

Or the bouble Warrior. A genius tactical movement. But nobody wanted to use it. SOmeone else had to use it. Cause castinga bouble could kill an entire overpowerd foe zerg. BUT the bouble caster didnt get a single reward for it.

ANd i still cant belive it, that they nerfed the only rewarding and working support class, the stick guardian. Sigh. For excange of a firebrand what was maybe supperior to stick guardian as a support class, but with 0 reward nobody wanted to play it.

ANd bit by bit they broke the entire game. Every try to "repair" it made it from bad to worse. So the only "content" left over was LS and even that they broke, cause the entire story was nothing more then a merchandise for their gemstore item.

[Stand The Wall.6987]

no gvgno other pvp modeslow amount of total skillstoo many unused weapons/ traits/ utilitieslack of balancepve is a hp spongefest, wvw is a lagfest, pvp is a clownfest

[Dreamer.1952]

@Deaths.9165 said:

ANd i still cant belive it, that they nerfed the only rewarding and working support class, the stick guardian. Sigh. For excange of a firebrand what was maybe supperior to stick guardian as a support class, but with 0 reward nobody wanted to play it.

Shade Scourge FTW.... Loooooot. Mass scourges in Zerg, Commanders begging for more Firebrands :D = unbalanced

@Deaths.9165 said:Or the bouble Warrior. A genius tactical movement. But nobody wanted to use it. SOmeone else had to use it. Cause castinga bouble could kill an entire overpowerd foe zerg. BUT the bouble caster didnt get a single reward for it.

Less Tag dmg with bouble warrior, mostly suicide runs infront of the zerg, not the same rewarding like a scourge ^^= unbalanced

Rewarding sucks with most Professions.

[Rauderi.8706]

Another game respects my time and effort. Another game doesn't force me into obscure grinds for over a month to get a tiny costume piece. Another game has plenty of content in-game. Another game doesn't need cheap combat tricks to keep me engaged. Another game doesn't force me into broken PvP. Another game has better ambiance, color, and music without being a tremendous eyesore of particle effects.

I log in from time to time just to get the dailies and see if there's something to do. There usually isn't in comparison to the goals I'm chasing in Another Game. I look at my collections in GW2 and find bits of bad, time-gated and/or RNG content propped up by collections, when I'd really just want to target something and play. I said it a long time ago with HoT. GW2 puts barriers in the way of playing the game.

[Razorsharp Blade.9283]

Lack of important updates, burnt out after playing since one of if not the first non NDA beta, and completely wrong focus from Anet.Don't get me wrong, I still "Play" but just not even close to as much as I used to, and I just feel like there is too much focus on Living Story and 1 hour worth of content locked behind 2-3 weeks of timegates, I'd come back if they fixed up PvP so more players would play again, balance the classes properly for once, and roll out some new exciting stuff for WvW players, I.E alliance systems and get rid of servers etc. I'm primarily a PvE players but you can only raid and do Fotm so many times before you get bored. And farming maps 100000 times aint my thing really.

[Tsakhi.8124]

I still play, but I have been quite discouraged after reading the forums. I try my best to find the good things, but most of the posts are doom and gloom threads and over the top back biting if someone disagrees or has a different opinion, well, either all hell breaks lose or there's an intelligent conversation that sometimes leads straight to the former, making things confusing. I'm guilty of angrily typing out responses, a habit I am trying very hard to break. I see people just exclaiming just how much the games sucks/is dying/is unfair and for the most part have ideas that are infeasible or clearly detrimental overall. More often than not. we have people that jump and are like "This is so stupid, why don't we...?"

Why don't we not, exactly? Ever try to make a game? Do people not realize you can't wave a magic wand to fix the problems , that it takes a lot time and foresight. Also, if you truly have a problem, then do research to make changes instead of popping off and making this out into the "Devs are incompetent!" spiel.

[Leo G.4501]

@"Tsakhi.8124" said:I still play, but I have been quite discouraged after reading the forums. I try my best to find the good things, but most of the posts are doom and gloom threads and over the top back biting if someone disagrees or has a different opinion, well, either all hell breaks lose or there's an intelligent conversation that sometimes leads straight to the former, making things confusing. I'm guilty of angrily typing out responses, a habit I am trying very hard to break. I see people just exclaiming just how much the games sucks/is dying/is unfair and for the most part have ideas that are infeasible or clearly detrimental overall. More often than not. we have people that jump and are like "This is so stupid, why don't we...?"

Why don't we not, exactly? Ever try to make a game? Do people not realize you can't wave a magic wand to fix the problems , that it takes a lot time and foresight. Also, if you truly have a problem, then do research to make changes instead of popping off and making this out into the "Devs are incompetent!" spiel.

I'd chalk it up to the whole adage of "the squeaky wheel gets the grease". Those that complain loud and often enough get the most attention. Those that quietly enjoy the game or just have that one thing they really wish to be added likely go ignored.

[Lysander Freeman.4186]

Personal life changes, here. Some good, some bad, such is life. However, I pop my head into the forums from time to time just to see if there's anything new that would entice me into returning.

I know the devs spend a lot of time on the LIving Story and each one if judged independently is pretty neat, but I got tired of having a new zone each time. The power creep, pacing and LS storyline are just all over the place. It doesn't seem like there's a cohesive, coherent reason for much of the game at this point other than shinies. I prefer diving into something I can sink my teeth into, like a full blown expansion. Nickle and dime stuff, leaving little tidbits to snack on just aren't keeping me involved.

[Ragion.2831]

They don't really understand how player movement affects combat. They kept designing skills to satisfy their own creative whims without considering how they will be used or abused.Shield bubbles that dont follow the caster.Clunky movements on necro that got it abused by thief. Slow is fine but it shouldnt be slow for the sake of thematicsspammable stealth, blind and teleports on thief that caused way more problems than it should have.Ventaris heal is very awkward in mobile combat.

They kept trying to balance on extremes (evade or nuke everything or die, or tank everything or do no damage) which does not work

In PVE legendaries are glorified skins, and not a good enough reason to keep me invested when my bought skins were already pretty good.

The way the story was told was extremely boring to me. I think the writing was intended for a 10 year old audience which is fine. I just kept thinking, "nobody talks like that" and got bored of following the story after a while.

[Anchoku.8142]

There is no creativity value in the game.

• Cannot build structures of our own design and share them with friends or have them collaborate
• Recipes are fixed. While there are "discoverable" recipes, they are not flexible in ingredients, method of making, or results.
• No fishing or other super casual ways to pretend being productive when chilling in-game. (Would need fish recipes, too.)
• No clothing design options. Let fashion wars fans be creative fitting new designs to characters using a model interface tool.

Combat mechanics can still be improved.

• Combinations are very simple. Increase their complexity and teamwork dependency.
• Mob aggression mechanics could be changed to be less driven by a defensive stat and more driven by player actions.
• Mob AI could be updated to respond like players in PvP by dodging, interrupting skills with tells, focusing on low health individuals, etc.
• Rework boons and conditions to make them more meaningful, scarce, and balanced. Limit high value boons and conditions to specializations with clear opportunity costs.

Quality of life improvements

• Allow more than 5 guild memberships or the option to purchase guild slots.
• Make a training mode for raids and fractals that reduces mob defense and permits WP use when dead while the group is in combat.
• Create a more sophisticated auto-grouping tool and add performance feedback options for all instanced combat.
• Add native VR support for multiple platforms.
• Add an option for a web-based client even if it costs the user a monthly fee.
• Increase maximum texture and model detail
• Improve model physics
• Add a check box in on the BLTP to hide recipes and skins already learned.
• Update dungeons to prevent skipping and other near-exploits and then add follow-on dungeons.
• Fractals have become somewhat quirky with the instabilities. Consider expanding the fractal maps into group exploration areas before or after the main objectives and letting the group grind a novel location for additional loot.
• Pathing issues for travelling objects are frustrating. Develop better classification between a door and a slope or small rock to allow some objects to be transpatent or provide guidance.

PvP

• WvW needs small maps for guild vs guild and squad vs squad. The 5v5 PvP is limiting while WvW can be too unlimited
• Continue working on balance. The disparity between player and mob AI are too large to support a common balance between game modes. Keep splitting skills, especially passive proc's.

[DonArkanio.6419]

@Dreamer.1952

One last advise from an old gamer to the game developers: Stop trying to push players into the play style YOU want them to play. Start hearing out the demands of the players earnestly and set the demands into progress (not after years). Stop looking into your statistics and then telling us we know what you want

Oh man. How I wish it happened.

This sums up everything everyone said here.

[Uhkam.2164]

I play kind of on-and-off, taking long breaks from the game.

There are couple reasons I kind of am not playing this so often:

• I love to play as a tank. I dislike that I can't play that role in GW2 because Toughness as a stat is meh.
• I like to play the way I play (most often off-meta like Symbol Firebrand Guardian or Aura-focused tanky Tempest). That's fine as it is for open world PvE, but not when people in Fracs/Raids are demanding meta only builds. That basically excludes me from those things unless I play as another role I kind of like to play: Healer.
• I have no proper group to play in Fractals/Dungeons. the LFG can be... not so pleasant experience if you're the healer because people want to point their fingers at the healer...
• Raids are boring. I tried it, and it's just really boring. It's only fighting really. I have much more fun with another MMO's raids because there are other things besides just fighting, like puzzles.
• I kind of have nothing to do in the game atm. I got all masteries, got all mounts unlocked, all classes with max level alongside with their elite specs, map completed everything, I'm happy with my gear (other than maybe getting more ascended armor but.. that's just a money sink really). I have no interest on making legendaries because it's just a massive money sink for basically just a skin with cool effects.

When I do return it's mostly when some interesting change to a class has been done (like the recent symbol buff for guardians), more content (hoping LW5 will be good) or if I get my friend(s) to test out the game to maybe play together with.

But until then it's mostly hopping on for a little bit to get my flax farm or so.

[VDAC.2137]

I haven’t stopped but take breaks from time to time just because I’ll get more involved with other things. What drove me to sooner and has decreased my incentive to come back for fractals and raids is the huge nerfs to Druid and Chronomancer. I was glad that other specializations were introduced that could fill these roles — variety is great! — but Druid has been my main for group content since I started playing endgame content. I learned it over time and it was the one role I was really good at — not sign-me-up-with-an-elite-squad level, but good for a semi-hardcore / occasionally obsessed otherwise casual player. My healer Druid was my in-game identity as a player and the whole nature aspect was very important to that for me. That is why the pet nerfs upset me so, and having my chosen companion mortally wounded if an enemy so much as looks at them. :( It probably upsets me more than a purely mechanical by-the-numbers analysis would back-up, but it’s important to how I play the game, logical or no. Sure, I could learn another role, but it takes time, especially if you don’t want to approach it like a job, and why would I want to do that especially when my new chosen class might be completely changed in the next patch? I had been in the process of learning chronomancer boon / tank support but scratch that... I don’t mean to sound overly negative and there are many aspects of the game that’s I still enjoy and I participate in solo stuff and open world when I play. It would be really nice if we had more options in choosing our traits and trade-offs...

TL;DR Revert some of these huge nerfs and class overhauls that limit how we can play.

I’ll still be back in and off, especially if there’s more underwater content — a pain on some classes, yes, but not all, and something totally different and unique to GW2. :)

[KelyNeli.4516]

O p t i m i s a t i o n

This game should have use more than one core, for real we are already in 2019...

[preacher.9370]

lack of content, and lack of ambition to do the last two weeks of grind to finish a wvw legendary armor set, lol

[Terra.9506]

Lack of new armor set or interesting loot that good enough to motivate me to work for.