Pros/Cons of Guild Wars 2 in it's Current State?

[hostileskeleton.7364]

I've been on and off GW2 and the forums and I've done more than my fair share of griping about little things that have since been updated for the better or were never much of a problem from the start. With the restructuring of how the story is told and the additions that have been made to the game I can say I'm happy with how the game as a whole is progressing but I would like to know if that's an opinion that's shared by the community, or at least those on the forums.

To go over what I like about the game after the release of Steel and Fire;-I'm a big fan of the DIY city hub idea at EotN. Totally optional but gives me something to grind for in between all the lulls in content we're sure to see. Perfect timing really considering everything that's going on. I can see this being a hub for tryhards/vets-Love the idea of the visions to the past if it means I'll finally be able to play the first LS-New armor sets have limited/no butt capes. S00per expensive for a full set but the pants are all I care about personally-jumping puzzles seem to be given more attention/utility-I enjoyed the squad based story instance. Feels like they're really trying to get the player-base into strike missions and then hopefully raids and I aint mad about that.

What I'm not a fan of;-Story missions seem too short. I understand rebranding as living sagas instead of stories to set new expectations and to ease the workload on the devs but it feels like the story is slowing down after all that momentum it had. Steel and Fire is very short and I'm not sure how much fun I would have replaying the instances to complete achievements.-Dropped down to a four man team during the boss battle at the end of Forging Steel and I thought I was going to have to run through the story again. That's all about it though.

I play a lot less than I once did so I may not know all the going's on right now but when I do manage to play I'm never disappointed. What do you think?

[Blocki.4931]

Keep in mind the latest release is filler. Actually quite impressive to think about imo

[Danikat.8537]

I've not played the latest release yet, but for me the pros and cons of the game are largely unchanged. The biggest appeal is that it's an MMORPG which doesn't require a subscription or regular cash shop purchases to play and it has a large open-world with semi-sandbox design. It's not a true sandbox where you have almost total freedom to choose what you do and how you do it, but there's lots of different activities available and very little you have to do to progress, so you're free to choose what you want to focus on, especially after level 80. I also like the art style and the way it's not completely a traditional fantasy setting, there's enough which is new to me that I don't feel like it's entirely predictable and that makes me want to know more. Like where the elder dragons come from for example, and how they ended up in this cycle of destruction and hibernation.

Also it's the only game I know of which lets me fly around on a dragon (almost) anywhere in the world, where I'm in control of the flight (as opposed to on rails) and which isn't otherwise a terrible game. For me that's a huge bonus. There's plenty of games with dragons, even games where you can ride dragons, but in the vast majority of cases it's either one tiny, limited, bit of the game or the rest of the game is badly made and/or frustrating to play (like traditional endless grind MMOs).

I have to be honest, for me there's not many cons. I know that makes me seem like a mindless fan-girl (and I'm pretty sure some people here already have that opinion of me) but geninely this game is one of my all-time favourites, because it does so many things they way I want them done. Having said that...

• Season 1 should never have been tempoary content, and once they finally decided to make permanent content converting it should have been a priority.
• There should be a way for a new player to buy everything, at least up to the start of the current season, in one package; Base game, HoT, PoF, Seasons 2-4, all in one go, for one price.
• Many storylines are...not necessarily too short but they could use more within them. Like side stories where we can talk to additional NPCs (just a dialogue box with no voice acting would be fine) to get more about their experiences or go off and investigate additional details. Or just stuff to find which adds more background and detail. Or more event chains with diaogue between them which build on the world and the current events. (Yes there's quite a bit of this already, but more would be nice.)
• I'd prefer a mix of traditional quests for more story-focused optional content and events where it makes sense. Yes if someone says a town is under attack it makes sense that it's happening now regardless of whether you show up or not. But if someone wants help with studying some ancient artifacts I think that could be better told through a quest system than an event or collection achievement.

There's probably some other stuff too, which I can't remember right now.

[Teratus.2859]

@Blocki.4931 said:Keep in mind the latest release is filler. Actually quite impressive to think about imo

This!

Visions of the past are not the usual Living world episodes.. that much everyone needs to keep in mind.They are probably best described as Blocki said.. as filler content that gives you something to do between episodes while also giving some small bits of story, mostly backstory to better setup the next episode.

Personally I really enjoyed these new missions and I still got the LW1 stuff to go play as well.Very good release and considering it is filler content we got quite a good ton of stuff to do in it as well :DBig thumbs up for me, very happy with this release ^^

[zealex.9410]

Im fine with the quantity because the cadence rn is really solid, ppus im sure this is a mater of getting better and optimising procecies no? The longer they hold this schedule the more used to it they will get.

I prefer current aproach than 1 ep every 3 to 4 months.