Guild Wars 2: Should you return to it? .

Guild Wars 2 April Feature Pack

At the beginning of 2014 I decided to take a break from Guild Wars 2. Most of my displeasure with the game was from the Living Story which was at times destructive to the economy, and the social environment in the game. It was around this time we saw the rise of the boss trains. And while I will admit that I have joined in a few I know that for many people it was all they did. This had a very negative impact on the rest of the game where it would be difficult or impossible to complete things because there wasn’t the population to support it. So when I first learned about the April Features release there was a glimmer of hope. Would it be time for me to make my return?

Wardrobes

My first day back was spent entirely on alting around. I have sixteen characters and an unhealthy alt addiction. First on my list was seeing what all I could unlock as far as the wardrobe. With the new system if I have it on one character I can have it on all of them. Best of all previous PvP options which were useless to me are now suddenly saving me several dungeon runs which I previously would have needed to do in order to get the look I wanted. This is both a good and bad thing. For those who aren’t usually the dungeon running types (like me) this means the ability to skip over something undesirable. But I also understand that this ultimately means there is less for people to do. I do imagine however that this won’t make a very big dent in the amount of people doing dungeons as if players are anything like me they will only have one or two pieces here and there when really they’re out for the full set. It could perhaps even spur people on to do dungeons right away because now they’re closer than ever to finishing that look they want.

 

How you look is what it’s all about.

Traits

Perhaps the biggest headache the new changes have made are to the traits system. If I had considered it beforehand I would have logged in before the changes were made and taken note of everything I had done. I quite liked how my level 80 fire elementalist worked. Having it all wiped, being forced to pick all over again…it is a bit like playing a new character except that you have many more skills. She doesn’t play quite the same anymore, though it isn’t nearly as bad as I’ve experienced in other games.

 

World Bosses

Unfortunately the boss train is still a thing. And people are still jumping around from one world boss to the next. Now though the events happen only at certain scheduled times. Which while handy to plan around doesn’t really mean a whole lot. I tried my hand at a few of the lower level boss events but after two hours of trying only managed to make it to one. This was in part due to a bugged event and part due to going to the wrong event at the wrong time. The mega server technology may have also played a role in this but I can’t say for sure.

Mega Server

When I first read about the mega server technology I was instantly filled with fear and dread. And having now experienced it my feelings on the matter are still somewhat mixed. For instance, it was beautiful logging into the Black Citadel and seeing players everywhere. What wasn’t so good though was that many of them weren’t speaking English. And though I play on a European server and am somewhat used to seeing people speaking other languages, it really does make things more difficult all around. I imagine that this isn’t nearly as big of an issue on North American servers where basically everyone speaks English anyway. So in this small way European players were neglected, something that if I’m perfectly honest I think we have all grown to expect.

For one particular subset of the Guild Wars 2 playerbase the mega server means something else entirely. Roleplayers are being isolated from one another. Previously if you headed into Divinity’s Reach you knew exactly where you could go to find roleplayers day and night. It is unfortunately now the case that when you go into Divinity’s Reach you aren’t guaranteed to see those same people. In fact you could end up in an instance of Divinity’s Reach with no roleplayers at all. There is a small fix for this that will really only last for a limited time. Not every zone has been put on the mega server at the moment. So it seems the easiest, temporary solution is to gather in a zone where the mega server hasn’t been introduced yet.

The mega server also creates issues for world bosses. The way the system works is that basically every time a zone fills a new instance of that zone is opened. So if you wanted to go to the Jormag event you could in theory end up in a second or third instance of that zone. And if you show up too late, which is really a relative term, then you could end up in an instance that doesn’t have the population to complete the event. What this usually results in is players showing up for the event earlier and earlier. Which will ultimately result in a bored playerbase who just stand around waiting all day. This whole instance business is made even worse by the fact that there isn’t really an easy way to switch between them. In City of Heroes for instance, if you were stuck in Atlas Park 33 you could go to the tram station and the list of AP 1-33 would be available as well as the other zones the train went to. And if room was available in AtlasPark instance 2 it would be a mad fight to click the button quickly and get in to fill that spot. Perhaps in the long run this will make the world boss events less popular. Which could be both a good and a bad thing. Though I highly doubt this will be the case.

There is much more to look at when considering a return to Guild Wars 2. How have the changes impacted combat? And of course we can’t forget WvW and PvP which were also changed in the April update. I’ll be covering all of that tomorrow as well as giving my final verdict.

Check out the developers answering questions about the April Feature Pack:

If you like Maressa’s articles, I suggest you take a look at her Beta Data list, a list where you can find the latest and hottest games that are in beta testing.

Or you can check out her last weeks article about Sexism in Funcom.

If still not satisfied, check out our Why MMORPGs Never Win Any Awards article. Why don’t they win any awards anyway?