My experience with the game so far

[Malitias.8453]

Hello everyone, and thank you dear developer if you take the time to read this. Most of what I write will just be general feedback and my own opinion, coming from someone who played the game for about 2 weeks straight as of writing. Most of my MMO experience has been with WoW and FF14. I got bored of those, because I find the holy trinity (tank,dd,healer) boring and IMO it's just lazy design. I had heard it's different here.

I'm not entirely new, I did level a character to level 80 back when the game launched and I haven't really played since. I tried it again with a new character after a few years with a friend after it went free-to-play, but we both got bored long before reaching 80. I have both expansions, but never really played them before. Not sure why I bought them in the first place. I know I rushed to unlock the first mount from PoF, but intentionally ignored the story, because I just wanted the mount and not spoil the story. As I said, I haven't even played the first expansion.

So I created a new character, a sylvari guardian, and went into the game hoping for a good time for maybe a few days. I was just bored, really.I leveled him mostly in zones I was sure I haven't been to before and tried to complete each map I visited until I was getting close to 80. The story wasn't really interesting due to the lack of interesting characters to get involved with and some characters had such bad voice acting I even started skipping the dialogue sometimes.The choices you make seemed very meaningless to be honest and unnecessary. Most of the time people don't even react to it. At all. Btw what's the running gag with norns tending to die so much?I still enjoyed the exploration of unknown areas and finding small hidden secrets (playing the organ was amusing), largely because the mount made it possible to run past enemies, which would otherwise just be a bother to deal with. Not challenging, not worth killing, just annoying. Thank you raptor. I love you.

So I hit level 80, finished the personal story and.. well, to be honest I was getting bored of the game and stopped to watch some Netflix.At this point I didn't really think I'd return to play the expansion because the base game kind of burnt me out. It felt tedious most of the time and, apart from champions, the content was just too easy and I didn't want any more of that.But I thought to myself "you bought it, you play it!" and returned to start the HoT expansion.It was really weird at first, because I had no idea how to navigate through the map, but the enemies suddenly started to actually be a threat and the voice-acting was also a lot better along with the characters. My character also didn't sound like a clueless naive child anymore. So I found myself actually enjoying the game a lot more all of a sudden, even though navigating was still really weird. And while I liked the "heart" system at first, they started to feel like a list of chores pretty fast, so I was glad they were gone.Then I got my glider and then the updraft mastery and things really opened up. I got hooked on the mastery system too.I found hidden mastery points, which meant my usually useless urge to look behind every corner suddenly got rewarded.The exploration, the more challenging enemies and the far better story-telling made me actually really enjoy myself.

Some days go by and I finish unlocking Firebrand, which will probably stay my favorite specialization forever. The versatility it gives me access to just feels incredible.I finished the expansion today and bought living world season 3.

I asked myself why I didn't play this earlier, because I can not remember the last time I had this much fun playing an MMO.Then I remembered. The base game is just (pardon my language) shit, compared to the expansion. It's not just not fun, it's a hindrance to the game itself.You kind of need to know what happened in order to understand the expansion, but at the same time it discourages you from going any further. After playing HoT, I am baffled the base game is still the way it is. I am even somewhat angry about it, because it made me not play the expansion for so many years.

I don't even think just making the base game more convenient to get through would help all that much, because you still get your expectations about the game from there. It would certainly help to have access to a mount from earlier on in the game (I know I would have stopped for sure if I didn't have my raptor), but I think there's more that needs to be done.I heard GW2 will be released on steam sometime in the future and I hope there will be changes to the base game as I fear it currently scares more people away than it convices to stay.

I am looking forward to play Path of Fire.

Sidenotes:-Swapping weapons to increase DPS feels wrong to me. Swapping to adapt to a changing situation seems more appropriate.-I feel like weapon skills should be a bit customizable as in adding for example a weakness debuff on a mace attack at the cost of higher cd or less dmg (just as an example)-Some animations, especially one-handed ones, seem outdated to me (3rd strike with axe looks wrong)-being able to talk to some NPCs for some backstory is awesome, I love it, pls more-the combat feels incredibly good and most rewarding when you block/dodge a well telegraphed (not too long, not too short) attack-Some of the events with the huge world bosses made my jaw drop and I love how their mechanics are explained WHILE you fight them. Good job there.

[Joote.4081]

FF14 is the same as far as base game is concerned. It's their age. The difference with GW2 is that they could easily revamp the base game and make it awesome. I like the base game still even though I must have played through it at least 20 times and still go back to play parts of it to this day.Coincidence: I have recently made a young sylvari guardian. The sylvari race has become popular with me of late, I am a bit fed up with playing humans.

[mindcircus.1506]

@"Malitias.8453" said:-I feel like weapon skills should be a bit customizable as in adding for example a weakness debuff on a mace attack at the cost of higher cd or less dmg (just as an example)This kind of functionality is usually achieved via the weapon sigils. Though Weakness is not procc'ed via runes and sigils as it is a comparatively powerful debuff that is generally covered in a class' traits.You can however in the case of weakness extend it's duration when procced via a Superior Sigil of Debility.Not allowing Weakness to be procced off Sigils is generally a balance concern, however many other buffs and debuffs can be customized in this way.https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sigil

[Malitias.8453]

@mindcircus.1506 said:

@"Malitias.8453" said:-I feel like weapon skills should be a bit customizable as in adding for example a weakness debuff on a mace attack at the cost of higher cd or less dmg (just as an example)This kind of functionality is usually achieved via the weapon sigils. Though Weakness is not procc'ed via runes and sigils as it is a comparatively powerful debuff that is generally covered in a class' traits.You can however in the case of weakness extend it's duration when procced via a Superior Sigil of Debility.Not allowing Weakness to be procced off Sigils is generally a balance concern, however many other buffs and debuffs can be customized in this way.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sigil

Like I said, it's just an example. An example so you don't get hung up on the case I prupose.Maybe I wasn't clear enough about what I mean, because you go in a completely different direction with what you say.What I mean is being able to customize warriors 1h sword in a way that it works as a power weapon or customize guardians greatsword in a way that it works as a condition damage weapon.

[Pacificterror.7805]

Mounts are a great convenience/QoL item, I agree, but the reason you can't access them in the game earlier is because they didn't exist until the PoF expansion. I use my mount in HoT areas all the time of course, but those map areas were designed with gliding in mind (with updrafts etc to take advantage of - and areas of access that suit gliding really well). PoF maps have the sort of terrain that takes advantage of the different mount masteries so that you can more readily use those skills.

I tend to see the base game as being for the 1-80 journey which, depending on how you do it, is usually a pretty quick one. You get familiar with your profession in some "easier" content before stepping into the real grind. I can't comment on the story because, well....I skip all of the dialogue and every cut scene that I can.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Core Tyria is my favorite part of the game. I'm hoping End of Dragons is more like Core Tyria than Heart of Thorns or Path of Fire.
Not talking about difficulty, either.

Edit: Can't believe it took so long to see the typo/mis-name.

[Linken.6345]

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:Core Tyria is my favorite part of the game. I'm hoping End of Dragons is more like Core Tyria than Heart of Thorns or End of Dragons.

I hope its closer to release heart of thorn difficulty myself

[Astyrah.4015]

@"Malitias.8453" said:It was really weird at first, because I had no idea how to navigate through the map, but the enemies suddenly started to actually be a threat and the voice-acting was also a lot better along with the characters. My character also didn't sound like a clueless naive child anymore. So I found myself actually enjoying the game a lot more all of a sudden, even though navigating was still really weird. And while I liked the "heart" system at first, they started to feel like a list of chores pretty fast, so I was glad they were gone.

yeah HoT had the perfect difficulty. enemies aren't hp sponges (they can be killed much more easily unlike in PoF) and yet they can destroy you pretty easily as well (if you're not careful)

[Bewt.9258]

@"Malitias.8453" said:My character also didn't sound like a clueless naive child anymore.

This makes sense since you said you were playing Sylvari. They are suppose to sound like naive children because when you created your character is also when they were "born" and literally everything is new to them. Once you get to HoT, your character will have seen most of the world and had more experiences in their life.

This is why there are child models of all races except for Sylvari, because your character IS a child.

[Malitias.8453]

@Bailios.7518 said:

@"Malitias.8453" said:My character also didn't sound like a clueless naive child anymore.

This makes sense since you said you were playing Sylvari. They are suppose to sound like naive children because when you created your character is also when they were "born" and literally everything is new to them. Once you get to HoT, your character will have seen most of the world and had more experiences in their life.

This is why there are child models of all races except for Sylvari, because your character IS a child.

Humans also sound like naive clueless children tbh

[Veprovina.4876]

@Malitias.8453 said:

@mindcircus.1506 said:

@Malitias.8453 said:-I feel like weapon skills should be a bit customizable as in adding for example a weakness debuff on a mace attack at the cost of higher cd or less dmg (just as an example)This kind of functionality is usually achieved via the weapon sigils. Though Weakness is not procc'ed via runes and sigils as it is a comparatively powerful debuff that is generally covered in a class' traits.You can however in the case of weakness extend it's duration when procced via a Superior Sigil of Debility.Not allowing Weakness to be procced off Sigils is generally a balance concern, however many other buffs and debuffs can be customized in this way.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sigil

Like I said, it's just an example. An example so you don't get hung up on the case I prupose.Maybe I wasn't clear enough about what I mean, because you go in a completely different direction with what you say.What I mean is being able to customize warriors 1h sword in a way that it works as a power weapon or customize guardians greatsword in a way that it works as a condition damage weapon.

Devs have a hard enough time balancing what's already in the game by default, no need to also let players customize their weapons, even if the customizations are preset. Just having an option that enables each weapon to be power or condi means double the work for the devs when they do balance patches.No thank you, the balance is messed up enough already.

[Orack.9756]

Agree with the Heart thing, it's a chore, I hate it with passion.. I was glade they remove it with Orr and HoT, (HoT is for me the most amazing maps in the game).But then, with pof and some living season, heart come back, it made me so frustrated... They don't bring anything fun (for 90% of them at least) and just feel like lazy basic content, they're just here to slow you down..For the story, I agree too, my friend and I could never have empathy for the personnage we follow through the story cuz they're just so boring..The S5 with Bangar where the 1st I got a bit hooked in, Bangar was amazlingly done, but they also have ruins that later in the story to replace him by another boring char..

Gw2 are amazing for map design and exploration, I don't have find anything better than here for this.Combat is cool, but would need some more balance imho, and underwater fight definitively need some toolkit review for many class, especialy on condi side.

I love this game, but some of these thing always take me off for a period before I come back, have fun again, and got disapointed again.

[AliamRationem.5172]

@Malitias.8453 said:

@mindcircus.1506 said:

@Malitias.8453 said:-I feel like weapon skills should be a bit customizable as in adding for example a weakness debuff on a mace attack at the cost of higher cd or less dmg (just as an example)This kind of functionality is usually achieved via the weapon sigils. Though Weakness is not procc'ed via runes and sigils as it is a comparatively powerful debuff that is generally covered in a class' traits.You can however in the case of weakness extend it's duration when procced via a Superior Sigil of Debility.Not allowing Weakness to be procced off Sigils is generally a balance concern, however many other buffs and debuffs can be customized in this way.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sigil

Like I said, it's just an example. An example so you don't get hung up on the case I prupose.Maybe I wasn't clear enough about what I mean, because you go in a completely different direction with what you say.What I mean is being able to customize warriors 1h sword in a way that it works as a power weapon or customize guardians greatsword in a way that it works as a condition damage weapon.

First, thanks for the detailed feedback on your experience. It mirrors my own pretty closely. I never played Guild Wars prior to HoT (I was playing WoW), and I can see that I never would have. HoT is what convinced me to love this game and appreciate its potential. As you say, the combat feels fantastic. Pulling off complex rotations and crisp counters while actively dodging and moving to avoid enemy attacks puts WoW and FF combat to shame.

You're also 100% spot on about the story! The core story is simply boring and the only choice of consequence is which order you choose. LS2 isn't much better, although it at least ditches the pretense of branching story paths. HoT is where things finally start to get interesting. Make sure you also look into LS3/LS4. The story doesn't entirely make sense, in my opinion, and I could write at length about the parade of dragons, gods, and other immortals that they oddly insist on using as villains. Some of the dialogue continues to be trash as well.

Despite that, the story is fun and interesting to play through and it also brings new masteries, maps, mounts, and a variety of rewards and achievements to unlock. I find myself actually growing some degree of attachment to several of the characters. This is generally solid content that I enjoy and look forward to. The Icebrood Saga has been a bit of a miss for me (though still far better than core content!) and I don't wish to excuse it, but if it results in HoT WOW! factor for the coming EoD expansion I suppose it will all be worth it.

On your suggestion for weapons. I don't necessarily disagree with the idea of making weapons more versatile in this way. However, that would not be a simple change to make. In fact, we might be talking about turning the game on its head. I'm not sure what that would look like. Having said that, I acknowledge that it is this lack of flexibility that turns a cool idea (weapon swapping in combat) into less than it obviously could be. Some classes really only have 1 or 2 viable options for a condi or power build. It feels very limiting when at first glance it seems to make GW2 classes more versatile. I do think elite spec weapon unlocks have helped a bit, however.

On Firebrand, it's a powerful and versatile spec. I tried out condi firebrand for open world recently and the damage was excellent with good defensive options and room to adapt with different utilities and the tome skills. But don't necessarily count the other classes out! I'm very picky myself, but sooner or later I find something that "clicks" and a new favorite class to play! Having said that, I have been stuck on this Weaver for awhile. It feels amazing to play! Check it out:

[Dante.1508]

Weird op as i had a completely opposite experience I loved every single aspect of the core tyria experience.. I mean its no Guildwars 1 but it was very fun for me.. Iplayed it for a year and a half 80'd like 10 characters and loved every minute..

Fast forward to Southsun Cove and Living story 1 and i just lost interest the difficulty ramped up the somewhat forced raid/dungeons at the end then Fractals and ascended weapon grind.. I stopped playing for years, i picked up HoT cheap and i had a horrific time there.. even after the so called nerfs i hated it, i still do to be honest the over need for grind and currencies, oh so many currencies just turned me away..

I came back for PoF and while it was some what less harsh the enemies and bosses were still so horrific in spots i just became tired and stressed and left.. I do so hope the new expac is more along the lines of core tyria but i'm not going to be holding my breath.

[battledrone.8315]

yep, hot is the expansion for those, who DIDNT LIKE THE GAME IN FIRST PLACE.hardcores have to slug through 80 levels of boredom, before they get , what they paid for.and casuals simply got fleeced. its a miracle, that they have kept it up for so long.

[Abelisk.5148]

Yeah, the first time dipping your toes into the game is always great. The expansions bring a lot to the table, from the mega-metas in Heart of Thorns, the mounts in Path of Fire, the story in Living World. My only issue is when the endgame syndrome hits and you feel compelled to grind and unlock as much as you can, to the point where it becomes super tedious and pointless, but that of course is always optional :)

[Pacificterror.7805]

@battledrone.8315 said:yep, hot is the expansion for those, who DIDNT LIKE THE GAME IN FIRST PLACE.hardcores have to slug through 80 levels of boredom, before they get , what they paid for.and casuals simply got fleeced. its a miracle, that they have kept it up for so long.

It takes something like 20 hours to hit level 80 in this game if you're power leveling lol....for a hardcore player that's a very small time investment (and a hardcore player is more likely to power level if they just want to reach endgame). As a casual I loved roaming and leveling up, but that's because I ignored any plot in the story (it's just not what I was playing for).

[maddoctor.2738]

@"AliamRationem.5172" said:I never played Guild Wars prior to HoT (I was playing WoW), and I can see that I never would have.

There is a high possibility that you'd love Guild Wars 2 even if you played back then. From the very first update Arenanet released in the game they made it clear that the Core game was there to help players level up, but the mechanical challenge was higher on all further releases. And Season 1 had a rapid release cadence so you barely had to go through the boring parts of the Core Game, and instead enjoy the new challenging designs introduced with the living world.

First release gave us the mad king's lab, with higher density mobs, and more challenging mobs than the Risen of Orr. Second release gave us Southsun Cove, with the Young Karka, to this day, putting many HOT/POF mobs to shame. Third gave us the lovely toy princesses which made sure players understood what "condition" and "confusion" mean. Fourth gave us a new dungeon and a challenging new set of foes in the Molten Alliance, Molten Brawlers specifically would put most HOT/POF mobs to shame again (they were like a scaled down version of the Molten Berserker from Fractals).

The list goes on, Aetherblades, Scarlet's Minions, Toxic Alliance mobs were all much more exciting/interesting to fight than anything included in the Core game and even comparable to expansion level enemies. And let's not forget the Mordrem introduced during Season 2 in Dry Top/Silverwastes which were once again, mechanically challenging and had to be nerfed when HOT launched. Because those Mordrem Thrasher and Mordrem Wolves were more challenging than regular/normal HOT mobs anyway.

Arenanet has been adding more challenging foes in the game for years and long before HOT even launched. So even if you disliked the Core game experience, which is indeed rather boring, the constant living world releases introducing one more challenging foe after the other, would keep you busy and interested in the game. Sadly, Living World season 1 doesn't exist anymore, so players, especially on these forums, pretend the game was all too easy before the launch of HOT and that HOT was too hard for them. When in reality, that's not true at all, we've had a LOT of challenging foes in the past and interesting encounters/mechanics long before HOT was released.

[Captain Kuro.8937]

Yeah , it would be better if Steam Core people started at HoT , full 80 while the UI will be at 70 . And lock the wardrobe system.Core its "too peacefull" and the idea that you must lvlup... regardles how easy it may be ..its blah .

Just start them in HoT , waking up from an unconscious state , and some npc telling you "are you ok commander ? What is wrong with you ? You lost your memory/hurt your head ?" .And each time they die (first 10 times) , start them at Core to relive the past /learn to play for 10 min and a message "where am i ? is this the past ?is this an immagination?:After the 10 times , the commander can activly "go in the past" as long as he wish, or find "Shards of Memory" on the HoT ground and "search clues about his missing sister" across the Core maps ,that happen to be Full Map unlock to get a artsy piece of cutscene from childhood , and some locations she loved to hide/go find .

edit: or died after the first time the commander "failed" in HoT // she got a sickness that killing her . And you believe that 're-living in Core" might prevent thatOr any NPC/friend character that died , you can touch his body and you travel at Random Core Map >> look for him>>try to warn him//kill the boss that hurt his knee at young age and he couldnt run in HoT .While areas you have visited ,Death Hounds(invisble to others-move 5%) track you , or a red circle start pushing you in mid //areas for Events //demonic Bosses

[LucianDK.8615]

I find core to be hideously tedious. Im glad you can skip it with level up tomes.And dont forget that anet likes to include a 80 boost with the more expensive version of a new expansion.

[Luthan.5236]

For core I liked the maps a bit more. Some have interesting nice little meta events and more settlements that are in a "normal" environment. (No dragon minions.)

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

@LucianDK.8615 said:I find core to be hideously tedious. Im glad you can skip it with level up tomes.And dont forget that anet likes to include a 80 boost with the more expensive version of a new expansion.

FYI: Level-80 Boost is included in any edition (Standard, Deluxe or Ultimate) of the expansion(s).

[LucianDK.8615]

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

@LucianDK.8615 said:I find core to be hideously tedious. Im glad you can skip it with level up tomes.And dont forget that anet likes to include a 80 boost with the more expensive version of a new expansion.

FYI: Level-80 Boost is included in any edition (Standard, Deluxe or Ultimate) of the expansion(s).

Ah, I mustve forgotten.

[Jin.8501]

Agree with you Malitas on your latest spoon fed comment.

[maddoctor.2738]

@"battledrone.8315" said:yep, hot is the expansion for those, who DIDNT LIKE THE GAME IN FIRST PLACE.hardcores have to slug through 80 levels of boredom, before they get , what they paid for.and casuals simply got fleeced. its a miracle, that they have kept it up for so long.

Or those who liked the entire Season 1 + Season 2 before the expansion launched. Because Season 1 and especially Season 2 weren't really less challenging than HOT/POF. You know the content that started 1 month after release. The real question is why are players who never liked the game to begin with, still here and want the game to change so those that still play it, and have been for 8 years, don't like it anymore. Just go find another game instead that is like the "core experience", that boat sailed just 1 month after release.