This has got to be the most underrated MMO ever...why?

[HotDelirium.7984]

On 9/21/2021 at 7:54 PM, Horace.3184 said:

GW2 is not underrated...  It's actually overrated.

The game has more cons than pros and doesn't come together very well when you look at a lot of things.  Now I know the fan boys and girls are going to go bananas reading this, but just stay calm...I'm not saying don't play GW2 or tell a friend about it, I'm just stating the developers dropped the ball on a lot of things.

 - Armor types really mean nothing.  It doesn't matter if you're wearing light, medium or heavy, you won't get any greater of a defense against physical attacks and that makes no sense.  Heavy armor should add more physical defense than medium and light.  You got to keep in mind, physical damage is different from elemental damage so you wouldn’t absorb any magical damage from armor, you would need resistance to an element for that.  That’s what bugs me with Elementalists...  You can attune to fire, use it to deal damage...practically become fire...but you have no resistance from fire when getting hit by it.  That’s just bad imagination or lack of creativity.

- The ultimate stat is power (precision and ferocity).  There's so many different stat-lines one can craft their gear with but in reality, it's all just a waste.  Power is the most valuable of them all.  If you want to deal damage, you stack power, precision and ferocity...period!  Because of this, there’s only two things you can ultimately be...  A damage dealer or a supporter but here’s the problem...  You can easily be a damage dealer by stacking the big three stats but what can you stack to be...lets say...a good healer?  Nothing!!  You can never stack enough healing, concentration or expertise to jack up your ability as a supporter like someone can who wants to deal damage.  The “Devs” wanted to go in a different direction than Tank, Healer and DPS but the direction they went in is no-mans-land.

- Boons are meaningless.  This is fact because 1 to 3 seconds of might isn’t going to help you much in anyway.  The same can be said for a life leech of 200 health per leech.  Really...boons, HOTs (heal over time) and DOTs (damage over time) are so poorly implemented, you’re better off just doing what most players do and that’s “zerk” out so they can survive and actually contribute big for a group.  As a support Necro, what’s the point in me casting a 2.5K shield when the enemy is hitting like 10k a pop...then the weak ability has to go on a cool-down and during that time, you’re being slaughtered up.  I know a group as a whole is supposed to all help out on support but really...”zerks” can do it alone because their own healing abilities are enough to carry the group so where does that leave a total support player?  .......  Huge ball drop.

- Unnecessary wasted time.  Lets be honest...  Getting anything done in a mmorpg takes a long time.  That’s nothing new, been like that in mmorpgs before GW2 because no company/developing team thinks to make the game move along faster for players who actually have a life outside the game.  Little things could really help out on the time consumption like getting rid of the cool-downs associated with crafting.  Really...it makes no sense waiting ten days to craft ten items you can actually craft like, right now.  That’s just a blatant waste of a gamers time and I know it’s all about gold sinking you but adds zero polish to a mmo that already has room for a ton polishing.  If you look for them, you find a lot of things that just waste too much extra time.

- In game rewards for level 80s is just bad.  I know everything in the game kind of points back to gold but come on...  Is it really going to kill the game to give one gold per chest in Drizzlewood final events?  Is the thought of letting an ascension piece gear drop at the rate of one drop out of every 30 Drizzlewood final events (north and south)?  Why are level 80 players getting so much meaningless garbage in their bags?  I remember getting something completely odd once in Drizzlewood...can’t remember what it was but I was like, “are you kidding me?!  This garbage shouldn’t even be dropping on this map!”  Seriously “Devs”....just give players some raw gold from chests and that alone will make a lot of players happy with the loop system.  Your gold sinks are going to get it back anyway, right?

- Inconsistencies throughout the game.  When you have auto loot enabled, you expect to never have to manually loot another chest or anything again but sadly the ability doesn’t stick throughout the game.  It’s the same thing with “teleporters” on maps.  One map has too many teleporters and another map might have one or two.  Fans make up excuses by saying, “well, we have mounts now” but sorry, that’s just an excuse for poor polish and inconsistency.

- Too many scripted knocked downs in combat (now) and “small fry” enemies are becoming world bosses.  Seriously...if you go to Drizzlewood as a support player who does not stack power, precision and ferocity...go toe to toe with a single “small fry”, you’ll find yourself on the ground reaching up as a “small fry” enemy sends you to your maker.  This is absolutely unacceptable for a player who’s level 80 and wearing all ascension gear!  Even as a “zerk” in Drizzlewood, you better kill fast but that won’t help you much if you end up in the middle of a swarm of “small fry.”  I find myself on the ground from random knockdowns in combat like 90 percent of the fight time and this is practically on every map because that “knockdown” thing has been programmed everywhere.  That’s like the worst thing I’ve ever seen in any mmorpg.  It’s one thing to make “small fry” enemies like bosses but to gave you no chance at staying alive because you’re always on the ground...sometimes for 10 seconds a knockdown...  Utter disgrace.

Calm down folks, “geesh!”  GW2 is a playable mmorpg even with all the short comings.  It’s just far from being the greatest mmorpg ever made, but doable.  Are there better mmos out there?  Definitely one...22 million players and counting but I’m not naming it here.

I just wish the “Devs” would clean a lot of things up so the game can be what I know it can be.  Really, after putting so much money in this game, I wouldn’t want to just give up on it anytime soon.  It really is up to the “Devs” as far as what happens with this mmo title in the future and rather or not players continue with it or part ways.  There is nothing anyone can say that will cause someone to stop playing a game.  Only the game itself can do that.

Forgive my “typos” if any...  My eyes move too fast at times...  Like a baby Yoda.
 

I'm not going to reply with a novel but 22 million players and counting has the prestige of that franchise well under it. If Guild Wars can last 33 years like it has then it might retain some pedigree just like it. Guild Wars also doesn't have any single player games to entice more people into the fold so until LEADERSHIP "builds it....they will not come."

The true sin is not allowing this game to bloom into its full potential but thats 100 dependent on the owners and management.

That 22million player game might be flashy and have lots to do but still came off as kind of souless. That doesn't matter though with fans of the franchise just want to be a part of it.

[xoxin.8326]

Some of the stuff in this thread is just the player's own grievances rather than genuine reasons.

 

Anyways, I agree with Aodlop's post here...GW2 does a lot of things differently compared to many MMOs. Some of it good, some of it bad, much of it subjective. But I think it deviates a lot from what many MMO players want. Most notably vertical progression. Which is unfortunate, because I've always hated the whole gear treadmill thing....particularly in PvP. 

 

 

[Excursion.9752]

I blame the marketing team. I am in their target market and I never see anything about this game unless I am specifically looking for it. Most of the people in my circles have never heard of the game and when they do learn about it they feel that its to late to start because the game is 9+ years old. In my opinion that is the daunting task convincing people that its not to late to start. On a side note I have a few friends that only PvP in games the first question that gets asked is are there bots.  So that's a turn off there.  I tell them about WvW but they don't want to put in the work to level up their character and get the specializations because of the whole to late to start reason. 

My suggestion is to create media that explains that this is not the case. Show actual game play footage. I focus on points like no level increases in 9 years. How the armor and weapon system has not increased since ascended armor. (I don't know exactly when that was) That all the gear they had when they left is still good. Show the unique combat system being used in different game modes.

This game is like jumping into a swimming pool you know its going to be a shock to your system but once you get acclimated and get your bearings you realize its pretty nice. We got to get people to jump into the pool.

 

[Tiviana.2650]

On 6/1/2021 at 9:52 AM, Aodlop.1907 said:

List of reasons I can come up with:

- People interested in vertical progression may not find what they need in GW2, probably a big reason. Some folks reach level 80, get exotics, and have no idea what to do next so they just quit after a few days.

- People who prefer tab targeting combat to action combat stick to WoW. This can be a pretty big reason, because the way your character plays and feels is probably the #1 thing that will make you stick to any video game.

- Lack of support and love given to PvP. Limited game modes, and some game modes such as 2v2/3v3 arena aren't even a permanent feature, but rather a limited time thing for special seasons. Lack of proper battlegrounds too, like 10v10 or 15v15. Probably other issues as well but I'm not experience enough to give an enlightened opinion.

- Confusing PvE. Dungeons, fractals, strike missions - sometimes the content is dead or irrelevant, you have to know what is what and it's not really explained well. Lots of having to do your own research here. And since you can't join a dungeon by pressing 1 button, you may be discouraged and not bother.

Truer words were never spoken! 

[Crono.4197]

On 9/23/2021 at 1:46 PM, Tren.5120 said:

TL;DR:  The game feels too disposable, which means that people feel like it disposes of their time for not enough return in investment.  It starts off nice, but you eventually hit a wall where it becomes more chore than entertainment, because you aren't really able to progress further without "redoing" what you've already done on a new character.  The game doesn't offer enough avenues of progression.  It plays more like an ARPG than an MMORPG.  It gets very monotonous, except if you're into story content and play only when they launch Living World Episodes.

Long Version:

It isn't about farming overpowered gear in raids.

It's about feeling like, after 500 hours of playing an MMORPG, you feel like you have progressed your character - and don't feel the need to roll numerous alts to work around the lack of that.

Even if you play something like FFXIV or WoW, you can never raid but you will still progress your character's gear, Talents, etc. just from running dungeons.

GW2 has a hard progression wall that you hit, and after that the only way to get any more of it is to create a new character and start over.

In games like EQ, you could play the same character for 20 years, and this never happened - ever.  Even if you have never stepped foot in a raid zone.  They added things like the Alternate Advancement System, etc. into there that facilitated this.  Other games have far better crafting systems, etc. as well.  In GW2, you have... cosmetics?

This is not about people wanting OP gear off raid bosses - which sounds no-sensical, since content can simply be tuned to normalize the gear anyway, and anyone who raids the zone has access to it ... it's not that special, and it exists [largely] to facilitate content progression - as usually happens in Expansion/DLC zones in other MMORPGs.  It's about them wanting to play an RPG game where they feel like their character progresses and doesn't stagnate after 6 months of farming for the next decade.

Get off of that high horse, guy.

If you're an ultra-casual, then of course this will all appeal to you because it's nice not "falling behind" those people who have more time to play a game.  But for people who have more time to play a game, this feels more like Diablo III than something like EQ[2], WoW, FFXIV, TESO or other MMORPGs that actually deliver an MMORPG experience.

It's basically an open world Action RPG without the loot component.

I know it's cool to call any open world social game an MMORPG, these days.  But what many people expect out of them is different than what GW2 delivers, which is more similar to current multi-player Action RPG Games - except it lacks a carrot.

So, the only reason to play it is if you either:

1.  Are an ultra casual who can't really devote the time to progress a character in another game (which requires more playtime to do so and actually keep up with the general playerbase).

2.  Just love the lore and/or story - but one can always just play the way they play Path of Exile.  Get it when it launches, play through it and go away until the next season starts.

I played WoW for 5 years, Runes of Magic for 4 years and TERA for another 5 years, among other MMOs which were also gear based, but I played them for less time. All of this happened in the period 2006 - 2017.

Yes it is about doing dungeons, raids and getting gear, because other than that, you don't have much to do in other MMOs because those are the base things in them. Why do people generally play MMOs? To create a character, level it up and get gear, be it from dungeons or raids. People that play vertical progression MMOs only have a feeling of achievement from the gear they get, they don't know how to have fun in the game other than that. It's a form of self ego boosting.

Now, I won't talk as if I haven't been there myself. I played WoW, Runes of Magic and TERA for all those years, for a reason. At one time, I also liked vertical progression MMOs, until I got tired of doing the same thing over and over and over again.

I will also mention that while playing WoW and later Runes of Magic, I was playing Guild Wars 1 too and while playing TERA, I was also playing Guild Wars 2 and I didn't enjoy one less than the other. I enjoyed them all equally, until the frustration of always losing all my hard work after each few months got to me.

Now I don't have an issue with vertical progression MMOs, each person is free to like anything. My issue is with people that bash Guild Wars 2 for no reason, as if they're the masters of the universe and they have the supreme opinion (because yeah it's 2021 we're entitled about everything now, right?) instead of purely accepting that this isn't a game for them and that each person is free to like what type of game they want.

You don't see me going to WoW, Runes of Magic or TERA forums, screaming that the games are bad, just because I stopped playing them, but I see tons of people that come on this forum only to bash the game and demand, as if they're kings or something, that the game becomes like WoW or ESO or FF14 or whatever.

 

On 9/23/2021 at 3:05 PM, Dawdler.8521 said:

Isnt that vertical progression though?

Yes it is, sorry 😄 Corrected the post. Thank you for pointing it out!

Edited October 7, 2021 by Crono.4197

[Dami.5046]

Certainly for me, this game lacks in Character progression. You get to level 80, buy some exotics and you are set 'for most' content. There is no reason for most to get ascended or even craft for that matter.

There is no prestige, no willingness to make your characters better, and for me that's what an MMO is all about.

 

    

 

 

[kharmin.7683]

1 hour ago, Dami.5046 said:

 

There is no prestige, no willingness to make your characters better, and for me that's what an MMO is all about.

 

    

 

 

And there is nothing wrong with that preference.  It doesn't happen to be mine, though. 

[Gehenna.3625]

20 hours ago, HotDelirium.7984 said:

I'm not going to reply with a novel but 22 million players and counting has the prestige of that franchise well under it. If Guild Wars can last 33 years like it has then it might retain some pedigree just like it. Guild Wars also doesn't have any single player games to entice more people into the fold so until LEADERSHIP "builds it....they will not come."

The true sin is not allowing this game to bloom into its full potential but thats 100 dependent on the owners and management.

That 22million player game might be flashy and have lots to do but still came off as kind of souless. That doesn't matter though with fans of the franchise just want to be a part of it.

the 22 million players is the total number of accounts that have been made since the start of the game. How many of those accounts are still active is anyone's guess. Also not every account is a player. Some people have more than one account and with F2P accounts there probably are a fair amount of them being used by credit sellers. Still, I won't deny that this game has garnered a good amount of attention and is in the top 10 of MMOs today.   https://mmostats.com/  

[AliamRationem.5172]

6 hours ago, Dami.5046 said:

Certainly for me, this game lacks in Character progression. You get to level 80, buy some exotics and you are set 'for most' content. There is no reason for most to get ascended or even craft for that matter.

There is no prestige, no willingness to make your characters better, and for me that's what an MMO is all about.

 

    

 

 

 

I think there's more prestige in overcoming challenges that you can't simply increase your ilvl to faceroll through.  Call me crazy.

[Marikus.1875]

On 6/1/2021 at 10:52 AM, Aodlop.1907 said:

List of reasons I can come up with:

- People interested in vertical progression may not find what they need in GW2, probably a big reason. Some folks reach level 80, get exotics, and have no idea what to do next so they just quit after a few days.

- People who prefer tab targeting combat to action combat stick to WoW. This can be a pretty big reason, because the way your character plays and feels is probably the #1 thing that will make you stick to any video game.

- Lack of support and love given to PvP. Limited game modes, and some game modes such as 2v2/3v3 arena aren't even a permanent feature, but rather a limited time thing for special seasons. Lack of proper battlegrounds too, like 10v10 or 15v15. Probably other issues as well but I'm not experience enough to give an enlightened opinion.

- Confusing PvE. Dungeons, fractals, strike missions - sometimes the content is dead or irrelevant, you have to know what is what and it's not really explained well. Lots of having to do your own research here. And since you can't join a dungeon by pressing 1 button, you may be discouraged and not bother.

 

I think a lot of what you listed has validity and it's certainly reasons that some players would stop playing (or not play altogether). 

But the root of the problem as to why GW2 is not well known or recognized as a "currently active and supported game" is even simpler - 

There is literally no meaningful marketing.

Marketing exists for a reason and it's why companies spend well into the hundreds of millions to market products out -- because it works. 

I can't even tell you the last time I saw any form of marketing about GW2 literally anywhere. On the other hand, I'm constantly bombarded with Black Desert online ads in YT, World of Warcraft is marketed via word of mouth (mostly negative publicity lately) and ads that I've seen since Legion. Elder Scrolls Online I've seen ads and announcements plastered everywhere even while incognito. 

Players aren't going to invest time and effort into a game that they believe is no longer supported. One of my biggest reservations coming back to GW2 from WoW and FFXIV was that I honestly thought the game was on life support with a small community.

When I jumped ingame for the first time and saw SO MUCH LIFE AND PLAYERS EVERYWHERE...I was like, how the heck did I miss this?!

And it was because GW2 corporate staff have done a poor job IMO of pushing this product out to as many people as possible and maintaining that "top of mind" approach you need to maintain momentum. 

Edited September 24, 2021 by Marikus.1875

[Gehenna.3625]

8 minutes ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

 

I think there's more prestige in overcoming challenges that you can't simply increase your ilvl to faceroll through.  Call me crazy.

Unfortunately the prestige that comes with overcoming challenges is undiscernible to other players because many such challenges, if not all, can be bought with money or by simply getting help. I make it a point to do all JPs myself, even if I got teleported to get the achievements. So what does that mean as far as prestige is concerned? Well to me JPs are very challenging because I have fear of heights that translates to the screen as well. So what's challenging is also different from person to person. When I say I've done all JPs, a lot of people will go "so what?". So it's not so much about prestige as it is about personal satisfaction that I conquered that challenge.

[mistsim.2748]

Unfortunately Lost Ark got delayed so I have to play GW2 for a few more months. GW2 isn't underrated, its design keeps many away. You can hit max power level in a few weeks, otherwise you're just grinding for cosmetics and QoL features. Or gearing up alts cuz there's nothing else to do. GW2 simply lacks depth, but it does have the best execution of open world events on the market currently.

Edited September 24, 2021 by mistsim.2748

[Klowdy.3126]

9 hours ago, Crono.4197 said:

I played WoW for 5 years, Runes of Magic for 4 years and TERA for another 5 years, among other MMOs which were also gear based, but I played them for less time. All of this happened in the period 2006 - 2017.

Yes it is about doing dungeons, raids and getting gear, because other than that, don't don't have much to do in other MMOs because those are the base things in them. Why do people generally play MMOs? To create a character, level it up and get gear, be it from dungeons or raids. People that play vertical progression MMOs only have a feeling of achievement from the gear they get, they don't know how to have fun in the game other than that. It's a form of self ego boosting.

Now, I won't talk as I haven't been there myself. I played WoW, Runes of Magic and TERA for all those years, for a reason. At one time, I also liked vertical progression MMOs, until I got tired of doing the same thing over and over and over again.

I will also mention that while playing WoW and later Runes of Magic, I was playing Guild Wars 1 too and while playing TERA, I was also playing Guild Wars 2 and I didn't enjoy one less than the other. I enjoyed them all equally, until the frustration of always losing all my hard work after each few months got to me.

Now I don't have an issue with vertical progression MMOs, each person is free to like anything. My issue is with people that bash Guild Wars 2 for no reason, as if they're the masters of the universe and they have the supreme opinion (because yeah it's 2021 we're entitled about everything now, right?) instead of purely accepting that this isn't a game for them and that each person is free to like what type of game they want.

You don't see me going to WoW, Runes of Magic or TERA forums, screaming that the games are bad, just because I stopped playing them, but I see tons of people that come on this forum only to bash the game and demand, as if they're kings or something, that the game becomes like WoW or ESO or FF14 or whatever.

 

Yes it is, sorry 😄 Corrected the post. Thank you for pointing it out!

To be fair, most of the WoW forums are just people saying how bad the game is, trolling and real. 

[yann.1946]

1 hour ago, mistsim.2748 said:

Unfortunately Lost Ark got delayed so I have to play GW2 for a few more months. GW2 isn't underrated, its design keeps many away. You can hit max power level in a few weeks, otherwise you're just grinding for cosmetics and QoL features. Or gearing up alts cuz there's nothing else to do. GW2 simply lacks depth, but it does have the best execution of open world events on the market currently.

Can you explain what you mean with lacks depth?

[mistsim.2748]

36 minutes ago, yann.1946 said:

Can you explain what you mean with lacks depth?

Wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle.

[ChronoPinoyX.7923]

7 hours ago, Gehenna.3625 said:

the 22 million players is the total number of accounts that have been made since the start of the game. How many of those accounts are still active is anyone's guess. Also not every account is a player. Some people have more than one account and with F2P accounts there probably are a fair amount of them being used by credit sellers. Still, I won't deny that this game has garnered a good amount of attention and is in the top 10 of MMOs today.   https://mmostats.com/  

Credit where credit is due, ANet definitely did a great job in keeping relevant in the MMO sphere in terms of Top 10 Recommended MMOs even in 2021. 

That said though, if their publisher actually bothered to market any of their games, this would literally be on a strong spotlight that people could easily recognise it as much as they recognise FFXIV, especially since they've got an upcoming expansion. The fact that Endwalker overshadowed End of Dragons without even trying just shows how little NCSoft puts effort to marketing this great game. 

[yann.1946]

17 minutes ago, mistsim.2748 said:

Wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle.

That is the most non answer I've read in a while. 

So I'll ask again, what do you mean by lack depth? 

Maybe an example will clarify it. 

[Cuks.8241]

Well coming from Wow as a long time raider from vanilla to pandaria I don't think GW2 has easier raid bosses. I think they are actually harder, Wow is a generally slower game. Maybe people are comparing open world bosses with raid bosses. I do agree Wow bosses are better designed. It's the whole point of the game. There is really not much more to do in PVE in Wow besides raids. 

There was a strange comment about PVE easy in GW2 and one shotting everything. You actually do literary one shot everything outside dungeon and raids in Wow after you get you first raid gear so that is a strange complaint.

Now about gear progression and rewards. That is just my opinion but I don't see that as a good thing at all. It's actually just an addiction and really doesn't add anything to the game. If you value game play you don't really care about shiny pixels. Gw2 offers you both but luckily completely removes the shiny pixel addiction from game play which is very close to just skill.  

[mistsim.2748]

3 hours ago, yann.1946 said:

That is the most non answer I've read in a while. 

So I'll ask again, what do you mean by lack depth? 

Maybe an example will clarify it. 

Raids - abandoned. Easy.

Spvp - mostly abandoned.

Wvw - abandoned.

Strikes - abandoned. Very easy.

Fractals - mostly abandoned. Easy. 

Dungeons - long abandoned.

Guild Halls/Activities - long abandoned.

Living Story and open world - the only properly maintained parts of the game.

 

So as you can see, you have a ton of variety in terms of endgame activities, but they're all easy and quick to complete. Also, being very proficient in these activities doesn't yield significant rewards, with maybe one exception (fractals). I guess you can speedclear raid bosses for Reddit points. So there's no point investing further into them. Therefore, endgame is wide and shallow. And this is why people flock to FF14 instead of GW2 - it knows what it is and it does it well.

Edited September 24, 2021 by mistsim.2748

[Cuks.8241]

14 minutes ago, mistsim.2748 said:

...

Well I do partially agree on some of the points.

But first of all don't pull pvp modes in this depth discussion. Yes pvp modes are neglected but far from shallow. Pvp content was always about other players and depth in the game play systems. Gw2 has very good game play systems. I play pvp games where there wasn't any update in decade or more and they are just as complex and deep as they were on day one. 

When you bring shiny pixels aka rewards into discussion about depth you lose some credibility. These systems have nothing with depth and everything about player addiction. Churning out new armor skins with some added stats every few months has nothing with depth.

[mistsim.2748]

2 minutes ago, Cuks.8241 said:

Well I do partially agree on some of the points.

But first of all don't pull pvp modes in this depth discussion. Yes pvp modes are neglected but far from shallow. Pvp content was always about other players and depth in the game play systems. Gw2 has very good game play systems. I play pvp games where there wasn't any update in decade or more and they are just as complex and deep as they were on day one. 

When you bring shiny pixels aka rewards into discussion about depth you lose some credibility. These systems have nothing with depth and everything about player addiction. Churning out new armor skins with some added stats every few months has nothing with depth.

Designers either have ADHD, or didn't have leadership with vision. Likely the latter. So what they have to do is shave the fat, and commit to a few things, and go deep on rewards and content for a select few game modes. Sounds like they are doubling down on Strikes and WvW, which makes me happy cuz I love them both. But I need to see some results at this point.

[Stadsport.8714]

 

On 9/23/2021 at 9:35 AM, Excursion.9752 said:

I blame the marketing team. I am in their target market and I never see anything about this game unless I am specifically looking for it. Most of the people in my circles have never heard of the game and when they do learn about it they feel that its to late to start because the game is 9+ years old. In my opinion that is the daunting task convincing people that its not to late to start. On a side note I have a few friends that only PvP in games the first question that gets asked is are there bots.  So that's a turn off there.  I tell them about WvW but they don't want to put in the work to level up their character and get the specializations because of the whole to late to start reason. 

My suggestion is to create media that explains that this is not the case. Show actual game play footage. I focus on points like no level increases in 9 years. How the armor and weapon system has not increased since ascended armor. (I don't know exactly when that was) That all the gear they had when they left is still good. Show the unique combat system being used in different game modes.

This game is like jumping into a swimming pool you know its going to be a shock to your system but once you get acclimated and get your bearings you realize its pretty nice. We got to get people to jump into the pool.

 

 

I actually do get ads for GW2 on Facebook occasionally, but they're not great. They're just like a small screenshot and it says "Come explore Maguuma" or whatever. They're like lazy travel brochures. If they made ads showing the combat system, or even some of the cinematics it would go a long way. 

[yann.1946]

27 minutes ago, mistsim.2748 said:

Raids - abandoned. Easy.

Spvp - mostly abandoned.

Wvw - abandoned.

Strikes - abandoned. Very easy.

Fractals - mostly abandoned. Easy. 

Dungeons - long abandoned.

Guild Halls/Activities - long abandoned.

Living Story and open world - the only properly maintained parts of the game.

To me abandoment of content does not nessecarily mean that the content is shallow. If ff14 suddenly abandoned all their raids, would they become shallow.

 

27 minutes ago, mistsim.2748 said:

So as you can see, you have a ton of variety in terms of endgame activities, but they're all easy and quick to complete. Also, being very proficient in these activities doesn't yield significant rewards, with maybe one exception (fractals). I guess you can speedclear raid bosses for Reddit points. So there's no point investing further into them. Therefore, endgame is wide and shallow. And this is why people flock to FF14 instead of GW2 - it knows what it is and it does it well.

Raids are not "easy", its morso that combat intrinsically is so deep that  it creates a big gap between the strong and weak. 

Personally i dont see how rewards make content deep, i always assumed that that had more to do with gameplay then rewards.

[Klowdy.3126]

On 7/12/2021 at 9:25 AM, Aeolus.3615 said:

 

 

they did some raids as well but for what they told me there was no point of doing them since  rewards had no sense of progression nor had anything special besides useless toon embezzlements.

Well  i cant say they arent wrong ;\ Raids are useless for me as well, i rather be in WvW than being a useless raid player for a useless reward 😄, dungeons at least at the begning provided stuff players want to use for the build.

They liked fraactals but playing the game just for it would be lackluster.

 

Altough the embezzlements stacking can hide toon animation xD if the enemy has everything maxed and will be harder to notice skill animations hahahaha.

If your friend doesn't understand that gear that let's you customize everything about the stats, on the fly, and is available to all characters that can use it without banking it is vertical progression, then they don't understand this game. 

[Pheex.8932]

This is all a mix of hearsay from friends, personal opinions and assumptions. don't take it personally:

 

-difficulty varies between afk to win and getting oneshot in singleplayer story content (and HoT + PoF open world). damage is extremely spikey, a single attack can hit you on multiple frames instantly downing you from full health. however the game never shows you proper telegraphs on when an enemy attacks and any animations that are there are drowned out by ludicrous visual noise. AoE is only an outline, sometimes making it hard to make out which area is inside or outside the damage.

-nearly every basic mob in the game has 1-2 different cc abilities. if you're new or not used to the mobs, dodging or using stability it's really, really annoying to play and just sit in 8 second immobilizes and 5 second knockbacks constantly unless you build your char specifically to counter these, removing attack or utility options.

-skills tied to weapons is very limiting. you might like staff aesthetically but your class has no 'viable' builds for it, or you like a weapon but the skills are not to your liking. Binding attacks, especially magical attacks to a specific weapon is just nonsensical outside of gameplay gimmicking.

-horizontal progression is something you either like or dislike. a huge amount of the content to work towards is gaining aesthetics and 90% of the aesthetics are bought with gems.

-confusion about hearts, personal story, builds, items being valuable or junk (vendortrash is literally called 'trophy'). Bosses and story enemies will go invincible so often it just destroys any sense of an actual fight and becomes more like a theater play where your adversary can just change the rules at will. Bosses will also constantly use abilities or gimmicks that could kill you but choose not to - like the boss in the emerald nightmare dungeon that can just transform anyone constantly into small animals. if he can do THAT at will you should stand no chance but the boss just chooses to use it as a gameplay gimmick and mildly inconvenience you.

-Champions will just spawn in events that you solo, and blend in with the other mobs. Any thoughtful game dev worth their salary would have champions stand out or at least announce their presence with a big roar or something, to make the player aware of impending danger. but in gw2, for example with the awakened portals in core tyria, champions will just spawn in a wave of regular mobs and veterans and you'll just get oneshot out of nowhere.

-Ancient mmo world with loading zones, low skyboxes and pathetic draw distance in core Tyria especially. Portals all look identical and don't give any visual representation to easily see where they go unless you hover over them with your mouse. They are also put in low traffic corners in cities that make no logistical sense whatsoever.

-lack of high quality and actually pretty armor skins outside the gemstore

-mob variety could be better and a lot of mobs are repeated way too much.

-a disgusting amount of different currencies sure to make new 80s lost and instaquit. one of the worst most convoluted currency systems in the MMO genre.

- a lot of zones lack interesting landmarks to define them, especially core Tyria is awful and lifeless.

-bland skill aesthetics for classes like elementalist, the skills don't look impressive or exciting at all, and core Tyria is incredibly boring and bland like some 2005 korean f2p mmo

-lack of musical variety, too many zones use the same songs and music doesn't match up with the cinematics making them extremely awkward to watch

-teleporting around the world doesnt make you connect to the world. mounts have sort of fixed this as its not mandatory to teleport eveywhere anymore

-core gw2 consists of snowzone junglezone springforestzone autumnforestzone and underwaterruinszone, not enough variation between zones in the same province and leveling through one zone bored me so much I almost quit back at launch

-builds and talents are pretty lackluster and often just stat buffs and changing numbers

-animations are mediocre for some weapons

-weapon skills are kinda meh, you can't just make a sniper archer with 5 single target damage skills, no the longbow has autoattack, 1 single target skill, 1 stealth enable, 1 knockback and 1 aoe. there is no interesting rotation to do with those skills on either 1 target or multiple targets. you have to weapon switch to make combat interesting which is kinda unimmersive as no person in any (fictional) world would carry 2 weapons around and switch every 10 seconds from hammer to greatsword in the middle of a 1v1 fight against a monster, it's just silly and only exists for the sake of gameplay

 

instead of having pure single target dps weapons or AoE weapons, every weapon must do EVERYTHING. every weapon has 1 single target skill, 1 AoE, 1 crowd control and one distance closer / maker. it makes every weapon feel the same and makes the weapons extremely boring for pve rotations as in most scenarios you dont or even shouldnt use a few of the lackluster 5 (8 if you count both weapons but don't count autoattack) skills you have.

-tons and tons and tons of item drops for collections and quests you don't know if you'll ever need or what they're for unless you wiki it but they take up tons of space and confuse people and convolute the open world experience unless you're going for exactly that collection at that exact time. you get tons of armor recipe books with no explanation of the prefix until you make your decision again its just SO convoluted and unnecessary throwing you to the wiki again. and have fun getting hundreds of useless junk equipment boxes every play session you get to unpack and instantly salvage, over and over because it needs 250 slots of inventory space to unpack at once or you'll be busy 10 minutes manually unpacking all the garbage drops

-too many gem store purchases to enjoy basic mmo comfort. equipment slots, bag slots, build slots, gathering tools even freaking transmogrification of gear has to be bought or grinded making me not want to change build or gear ever because it's gonna cost me another few dollars every time. I spend about 400 euro's a month on this game and Im still pissed off at how hard you get nickled and dimed for literally everything.

 

-gearing a viable build is a massive google / wiki rabbithole for new players. you finally find out from exteral sources what build and gear you need, but getting trinkets armor and weapons with those stats is a giant headache if you're completely new to gw2 gearing. And if you want to switch builds well have fun getting an entire new armor set, weapon set and trinket set.

 

-incoming damage is extremely hard to see. what is friendly AoE what is an enemy AoE? then skills you can't see through all the visual noise, without learing mobs you have no idea what skills to dodge and what to tank, against some enemies the tankiest builds fall like glass cannons, you just have to *know* which enemies and skills. this is not fun or engaging for people that don't like wiki's or trial and error.

-Abscense of tank damage healing trinity or any defined roles. it's an okay concept but fails in execution. join a fractal and you get 2 supports, or a party of only zerker dps. what happens in practise is people still use aggro mechanics to tank using vitality builds or dps meters, build dedicated healers and builds only for buffs like banner warr, alacrity mirage or renegade and quickness scrapper whose only purpose is to just build their entire character around passive buffs for others instead of actively using tank heal or support utilities like in traditional mmo's.

-lack of polish and consistency in every single part of the game. broken dyes, borderline difficulty, some veteran mobs die in seconds, some are as hard as champions for no reason whatsoever, some story and voice acting is amazing and some is intern level. some chests you autoloot some you don't, clunky menu's, sometimes the game teaches you to roll through traps, sometimes rolling through a trap will damage and kill you. you can't remove your ow boons, someone spamming quickness during a jp ruining your flow? kek deal with it. max mail limit of 10???, trade post that lags out every day, completely ruined or skewed markets for some trade post items, tab targeting will often not switch to things closest or on screen but will just target random mobs way offscreen that are not attacking you and far away first; it's broke beyond belief. bugs that havn't been fixed in years because Anet deems new content and new skins more important, some items are for sale once every 2 years for a week, some items rot in the store for months before being switched out, game is 10 years old and still no toggle F to switch between different interactions, enabling griefing since lauch, necro minions still attack anything and everything and you can't unsummon them or call them back keeping you in combat constantly, etc etc etc etc etc the game is so deeply deeply flawed and neglected in certain areas.

its like 3 different teams without any communication designed parts of the game independently from each other. One highly professional team doing the best they could, one large group of interns without guidance forgetting about core mmo and game design and another team that's decent but has wildly different ideas than the other teams and just does their own thing. besides there being only the absolutely most basic small budget team to work on the game now while they profit of the slow decline instead of investing in something that can grow and flourish and make the entire team millionaires.

-

 

There is a beautiful game here buried under poor management, a convoluted and clunky technical framework and overmonetized bs.

Edited October 20, 2021 by Pheex.8932