6041

That’s too bad you don’t like the combat. I guess you’re lucky in that nearly every other MMO on the market to date caters to your taste. For me, GW2 felt like one of the first MMOs I actually had to pay attention to while I played and I really enjoyed that.

I never finished the personal story either, but given the writing quality I didn’t feel like I missed out on very much.

6042

I don’t mind paying attention, I just wish the game didn’t require I have 4 hands and the reflexes of a hyper 16 year old to do anything other than simple content. I have specifically tried finding the least twitch based classes so that I have any hope of surviving. It is why I don’t play First Person Shooters and most action games.

6043

I’m a total Guild Wars 2 fan boy but I hate this “Living World” thing. I have absolutely no interest in the badly written, meandering plot line.
Changes to existing parts of the world such as Lions Arch annoy me as I lose the chance to fully explore the original version and now it’s been changed/destroyed.
It’s also frustrating to have events/rewards that only occur for a limited time. If I’m too busy to play through them for whatever reason then I miss out.

Call me a philistine but I’d much rather they had spent all this development time on a proper expansion (like the Guild Wars 1 model)
Some entirely new classes/new zones could really breathe some more life into the game.

Please Arena Net. Stop with the “Living World” shit already. Regardless of what you do, it doesn’t feel “Living” at all. It’s just a series of poor vignettes.
Does anyone else feel the same - I’m guessing I’m the minority here?

EDIT:
This most recent “Living World” event where you go into the tavern to “celebrate” was the worst yet.
It was like being stuck in a fantasy version of a Neighbors episode or some other equally bad soap opera (Dallas, Dynasty?)
Random characters who I don’t know spout excruciatingly bad dialog at me, complete with canned laughter.

6044

I like it. As someone who will never ever get to explore everything anyways, I like that they try to do something than just open new areas I’ll never get to. This way, they spend their time doing things everyone has a chance to experience.

I DO Like new classes and new starting areas though, so there is that.

6045

I think there are plenty of games with static worlds, that almost never change. I can’t complain about a game that tries to break out of the mold a bit and do something different. I only play GW2 a couple hours a week, so there’s no way I can ever hope to keep up with the story and do it all. I was a little upset about it at first, but once I settled it into my head that it was just a part of the game that wasn’t for me, it stopped bothering me. I don’t do any of the sPvP stuff either, but I don’t get upset when they put development time into it.

Honestly, it amazes me that they’re able to keep up the development pace with the Living Story content. Pushing out new huge content patches every two weeks is pretty incredible.

6046

I think the plan for 2014 is to slow down on the Living World content, and have changes that stay in place longer. Hopefully that will reduce the feeling of missing out when everything is changing all the time.

That said, I have to agree with Gedd here: There are other games to play if you want a static world. You could even play a single-player RPG if you want to experience things that never change. But if you’re worried about not being able to explore every nook and cranny of Lion’s Arch (for example), that’s a problem you’re going to run into for the rest of your life. There are games that I missed out on playing that are no longer available, and frankly I’ll never finish all of the games I already own. My suggestion would be to just log on and enjoy the game as much as possible, instead of worrying about the parts that you missed.

6047

As someone who has played ridiculous amounts of Guild Wars 2, I’ve got mixed feelings about the Living World content. I like having new things to do every couple of weeks. Some of the updates have been exciting. I do like that the world actually changes. However, it has plenty of room for improvement. I think the next Living Story arc will be better.

6048

I play Guild Wars 2 for a month, then take a break for a month. I used to think I was missing out on great Living World content, but then I realized that I usually never get to see all of it anyway because I’m too busy wandering off after I sample the latest update.

6049

The Living World stuff seems inaccessible to me because I wouldn’t put enough time in to finish it before it’s gone, so it has no appeal to me at all. This is all theoretical on my part though since I never got through all the shipped content before quitting.

6050

As a month-on, couple of months-off player of GW2, I absolutely love the way Lion’s Arch has changed and how the world and its story changes over time. This game would be perfect for me, in terms of the way it’s designed and the way it’s being developed, if only I had more love for the lore and setting. (i.e. if it were a superhero MMO or a grittier mediaeval fantasy MMO, or an s-f MMO, I’d be living in it 24/7)

But I must admit, I don’t have a completionist bone in my body, and I can understand how it might be annoying for completionists.

6051

The LW Scarlett arc sure died with a whimper. The civilian runs and miasma events in the first part were great, even if I got tired of grinding LA. Then it deescalates to whacking certain bosses so that you can whack bosses in another zone…OK. Never did get energized or whatever for this phase. Then all of a sudden, Scarlett is dead and… LA is a tourist zone. So much for that.

Nice thing about the LW arc being over is that everyone is back to doing Teq raids, dungeons, etc. now that the distraction of LA is over.

6052

70 talent points reduced to 14, and pushed to level 30 onward.

It seems the WoW design plague is spreading.

“you’ll earn one trait point every six levels”

“With this system, spending traits will be much easier for new players to understand.”

Yeah, it’s really too much allocating one point for every level. SUCH BURDEN.

6053

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/traits-unleashed-forty-new-traits-and-more/

Other changes include no need to buy mastery books and no cost to refund traits, plus you can adjust traits anywhere, master traits are locked and must be earned by completing content in the world (or purchases), and there’s a new tier of grandmaster traits.

Sounds good to me! If I wasn’t playing Dark Souls 2 I might want to get another character up to 80. My thief could use some love.

6054

Personally, slotting traits was never a particularly interesting or rewarding activity. At least now you’ll get a bigger boost with each point, even if you do have to wait longer. I’m not sure how much I like tying new traits to doing content, at least they’re putting in the option to buy them also but we’ll have to see what the prices are. The idea of grandmaster traits do sound nice though.

I haven’t played since just before Thanksgiving, but I’m glad to hear that Scarlett is finally done. Worst villain ever.

6055

Switching trait points to be equivalent to 5 of the current trait points is just a quality of life thing. I doubt anyone ever seriously put 12 points in one line, 8 points in another.

I’m also not sure how I feel about them locking traits behind certain bits of content, particularly group content. Having the option to buy them is nice if the prices aren’t crazy.

I’m also unclear whether they’re saying that if I have an existing level 80 before these changes hit whether all my traits are unlocked, or only the ones I’m currently using are unlocked. I’m guessing the latter.

6056

The blog post says “All existing characters created before this feature pack will be have all previously existing major traits unlocked.” So I think it’s safe to say we’ll have everything unlocked that’s currently in game. I’d assume we’ll have to unlock any new ones using the new system.

6057

TBH, allocating less than 5 trait points to a trait line is hardly worth the effort, and as I level characters I always let the points accumulate until I have 5 to spend.

However, I fear this will mean an end to all the jokes about 14/14/14/14/14 builds.

6058

I’m not sure how I feel about the trait changes. Parts of it, I’m okay with. Other parts, not so much. I think I’ll reserve judgment until I see the rest of the changes coming in the “Feature Patch”.

6059

I like the sound of those changes except that the first meaningful character customization is now delayed until level 30. That’s a lot of time.

6060

Reducing the 70 points to 14 is certainly an improvement. I would expect that mistakes or jokes account for nearly all of cases of people not spending them in groups of 5 (aside from spending them point by point to get to the next 5 as you level).