Pii.8574

Good point!My suggestion when taking that into consideration: Make it so that the Mounts only unlock on vanilla maps once you achieved 100% map completion on your account.

I stopped playing GW2 in early 2013 when there were no Mounts at all and just recently came back to finally finish the story, including the HoT, PoF and LS. Mounts ruin a big part of the vanilla and HoT map content, even simple things such as reaching a Vista or HP can be a challenge without mounts. You don't want to take that away from new players and spoonfeed them everything. Sometimes I think it would be better if the mounts were not usable on vanilla / HoT maps, it feels like players cheat their way to map completion now. Jump on a roller beetle and you can explore maps in a few minutes, skipping literally everything. E: Mounts are 100% essential for most metas, sometimes even the lack of a skyscale or griffon (content locked behind a paywall) can result in failed event participation simply because you can't get there in time. It's really poor game design in my opinion but it is what it is.

...but that's exactly the problem?!How could they know that they underperform when there's nothing and no one that tells them they underperform? For a long time I thought I'm doing great dps-wise but boiii did I feel embarassed when I finally geared up, skilled properly and got my rotations. I didn't know this was even possible, how could I know when all I see is my own DPS and the enemies HP bar going down simultaneously?

Bag space are not p2w, that's simple quality of life. I guess Legendaries however can be considered pay2win because what would usually take hundreds of hours to get can be bought in a few minutes via gem store -> gems into gold -> trading post.

GW1 had build diversity but GW2? I haven't seen anyone using a hammer in years - that should tell you enough.If you wanna play ineffective, fun builds (which is understandable), you shouldn't do that when people rely on your performance. Most classes have 3-4 "effective" builds and that's it - those are also the builds you're supposed to use for endgame stuff. For everything else it doesn't matter and no one will care about DPS.

I am all pro DPS meter! I'm always curious how I perform compared to the other DPS classes and I'm always willing to improve and learn. If your job is to DPS then I don't see why you shouldn't get measured by your DPS?In the end that lack of skill / knowledge or dedication could be the reason why other players waste a lot of time trying some more challenging stuff.

What I don't like about these kind of grinds in general is that it's ALL about time-investment. That is the only aspect that is required to get something, no skill at all is needed especially when it comes to unlocking the mounts. Sure, grinding is a big part of any MMORPG but that doesn't mean any sort of skill should be ignored. If you are a skilled player, most MMOs reward you for that and as a result reduce the grind. Being able to farm UW for ectos back in the good old GW1 days required skill and the better you knew your build and what, when and how to pull rewarded you - or killed you if you lacked this knowledge. The way GW2 handles such things is basically; You need 250x of each map currencies but we will only allow you to get X of each per day. Or collect these 30 things across the whole map, wait 2 hours and repeat a few times. The result is that players are forced to log in over the next few days or even weeks and that's it. No skill at all is required, the only goal is to get people to log in on a daily base. Same with daily crafting materials, the purpose is to get people into that daily routine - which almost feels like a job if we're honest. It's a bit sad to see that skill is mostly irrelevant and only the time you spend doing something has actual value.

...when there are 20 people trying to fight off invaders and literally everything dies 2 seconds after it spawned so you can't even get a hit to contribute to the kill....or when you try to destroy mines and some randoms keep running into them so you get no contribution at all. Some Hearts are fun to do but most are just boring and tiresome, even annoying. Unfortunately, since they introduced mounts the map completion is an actual joke so it would be way too easy if they removed hearts. Back in the days you had to solve jumping puzzles just to get that last Vista or Hero Point - now you just jump on your mount. Not a fan of Hearts at all but unfortunately, they are needed so stop people from farming completion rewards.

Well, you still have the legendary armour! But I am exactly in this situation now, I played GW2 from day 1 but soon (maybe after close to 1000 hours / half a year) went back to GW1.So fast forward 8 years later I come back and I feel like I have to start at zero again. I wish I had spent my gold for gems back then because now not only is it more or less worthless but gems actually cost 50x more gold!

Thanks all for the answers. Just FYI, I am NOT new to the game and I love MMOs. I already played GW2 for over 1000 hours so I guess that's where my frustration is coming from. I'm running around with a self-crafted Twilight, posing with the GWAMM-title (7000 hours in GW1) and I'm sitting on 2'513 Spirit Shards which are pretty much useless now - but apparently I lack the experience to craft Legendaries again because things like mastery points didn't even exist back then. So I have to grind literally millions of experience points just to be able to craft legendaries again even though I already crafted Twilight (just as an example). Anyway, for now I'll start by rotating between low tier fractals first as I think getting ascended gear & agony infusions is the most important part. It will help me through most parts of the game (higher stats gear than exotics and additional infusion slots) and since Skyscale/Griffon clearly seem to be unnecessary, I won't waste any time on those for now. I'll look into the ascended gear for Laurels aswell because currently I only very few Infusion slots on my gear so that really won't get me far.

I want to ask for your advice on how I should approach the game as a returning player that basically starts at 0 again, how to stay motivated instead of getting frustrated?I am seriously overwhelmed by all the rather necessary content that I missed out over the years which requires a lot of time, a lot of gold until I am able to participate in "end game" stuff. It feels like I have to grind for a year just to catch up again? Everything I need by now is locked behind an insane grind, insane amount of gold or very tiresome and monotonous events and tasks. A few examples: grinding agony infusion to be able to participate in higher tier fractalsunlocking Skyscaleunlocking achievement for Infusions (Significant Otter for example)getting enough gold for ascended gear so I can use the infusionsOn top of that the gem / gold exchange in store is ridiculous these daysIt feels like I am waaaay too late to catch up, it's gonna take months to catch up - for what? What are you all doing each day to keep the game interesting and how do you avoid the grind?

Exactly, it's not really "optional" for PvE and that's why I expected it to be easier accessible - especially when I empathise with completly new players.Mounts, mastery points, even gliding and some of the elite specialisations are all locked behind a paywall. Then I look at oldschool quality content such as the jumping puzzles that almost made me lose my mind - and find out nowaways you can just fly / jump / glide there - but only if you spent enough money? You all made some good points but I also think some people don't know anymore what it feels like to play GW2 without a glider, not to mention without mounts when everyone else is flying past you. So I don't think it's an exaggeration when I say that content is gamebreaking but it's probably also true that I am just a spoiled brat with an unpopular opinion when I say these gamebreaking mechanics shouldn't be locked behind a paywall ;-) Have a nice day all and thanks everyone for the inputs.

That's how major expansions have always worked though. Throughout the history of gaming, expansions brought something new that is not obtainable without owning the expansion. Gliding and mounts are THE big tickets in attracting players to buy HoT and PoF besides the story and new maps. besides that you can buy everything else with in-game currency. And things like raids are also map-based, so you can't do them without owning that map. it's how MMO companies make sure people buy the expansions, you need to have a paywall of some sorts to stay afloat. I would agree that realising you need to buy the living story episodes retroactively is not the best, buying the expansions should at the least be done in such a way that you are up to date with episodes when you buy a major expansion. I guess I can agree with that. Most of the disappointment comes from the content that's locked behind a paywall even after buying all the DLC content or the so called "Ultimate Edition" that still requires you to pay $50 to actually get the full content. It's a bit confusing and misleading and looks like a shameless money grab.

The main issue with living world episodes is that the extra monetization on them is unclear to players both new an returning. That's unfortunate and could use some better integration or warning. Not to be confused though with the fact that they are monetized the way they are:If you weren't around supporting the game while those episodes were being developed, not even finding the time to log in, then you have to pay the developers retroactively. Content development is not free and the game did not survive 8 years by people NOT playing or supporting it. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem supporting them - I already spent hundreds of dollars for Guild Wars 1 and Guild Wars 2 (along with 7000-8000 hours of playtime). I have no problem unlocking the story with gold, that's really not the issue. It's more the feeling that they develop the game in a way that forces people to buy the new content in order to keep up with the meta. It looks more like "unbalanced must-have content" rather than the balanced, optional "high-quality content" I expected. Also I don't think there is a way to unlock Elite Specializations or Mastery Points without buying the DLCs and it's out of question that they provide immense advantages not just in form of PvE QoL but even in the PvP environment.

Hello, I am a returning player and just recently found my way back to GW2 after playing some Guild Wars Pre-Searing. I thought I'd quickly share my recent experience: I bought Heart Of Thorns and Path Of Fire with the intention to (finally) complete the Story and unlock the "new" Mounts but I just noticed that some Episodes and Mounts are locked behind an additional paywall. I am a bit confused and disappointed, as someone that preordered the game and bought both DLCs, I have to spend another 4200 Gems (over 50€) or 1764 Gold to unlock the other Story Chapters and Mounts. I like GW2 but I must say I don't like this concept at all, locking gamebreaking content behind paywalls. I was already a bit salty when I found out about the HoT and PoF exclusive class specialization and Glider / mastery points but it keeps getting worse the more I play. Original Tyria Dungeons are more or less useless now and for Fractals you need the expansions with the specialization classes. Sometimes I can't even keep up with some map metas because when I finally reach the next event destination, the people with the Skyscale already finished it. It feels like I wasted a lot of time back in the early days and now I have to pay a lot of money to be able to keep up even with the playerbase. So last night while doing The Shatterer Meta a kind person PMed me something along the lines of "Ohh hi! Are you a new player or a returning one? I've never seen a GWAMM with so few MP!" and needless to say I felt like the biggest noob despite playing this game for so long. I have no problem keeping up with gear and meta builds but it feels like people have to buy into DLCs and Story Content / Mounts to be able to truly enjoy the game these days. And no, not all of those things are unlockable via in-game currency. Anyway, I just wanted to vent a bit and share my personal opinion. Maybe some of you can relate or understand that it's quite the turn-off for returning players but I'm also aware that many of you have absolutely no problem with it. It just doesn't feel right to me. Have a nice day!