What's preventing you from coming back to/playing Guild Wars 2?

[Eleccybubb]

theres no such thing as being behind in gw2. the game is designed to played at your own pace, nothing becomes outdated, theres always a reason to go back and do 'old' content and no rush to anything new. that freedom seems to put people off more than pressure from 'falling behind'

So if I leave with Exos and come back when Viper gear is introduced which you know is damn strong for a condi build I wouldn't be behind someone in full Viper Ascended gear if I wanted to play the upto date condi builds?

And considering there are groups starting to use unofficial DPS meters in high fractals who are you going to take? The Exo pulling less DPS because their gear/build isn't upto date or the Ascended pulling a boatload because their gear/build is upto date?

Same with Agony Resistance. Who are you going to take in a high fractal? Someone in orange gear with no AR or someone geared with AR? If people come back to the game and want to do PvE depending on the gear they left with they will have to play catch up.

And to be honest even when geared with the build you are aiming for what then? It's boring not having a new gear treadmill to work for when your build is done.

There is absolutely such a thing as being behind in GW2 and it's wrong to state otherwise. It's just not as detrimental as other games unless you are wanting to pump out the higher end PvE content such as high Fractals or raids.

[cuafpr]

Forced mob level scaling, it quit when GW2 first came out around level 20 cause of that and never really looked back.

[Deleted]

theres no such thing as being behind in gw2. the game is designed to played at your own pace, nothing becomes outdated, theres always a reason to go back and do 'old' content and no rush to anything new. that freedom seems to put people off more than pressure from 'falling behind'

And i agree with you, if i just wanted to do nothing. But i came back, and said " I want to do the expation, so i can get glideing" and then, YOU are behind.

[Leih]

I played for a little while but the combat just put me off. I didn't enjoy the fighting system at all and an MMO where I don't want to fight anything cause I dislike the combat is not gonna work for me :/

[nodq]

The need of buying expansions iirc. Also, there are F2P MMOs that are better than GW2. Like Wildstar for example. So why pay money?

[PACOX]

So if I leave with Exos and come back when Viper gear is introduced which you know is damn strong for a condi build I wouldn't be behind someone in full Viper Ascended gear if I wanted to play the upto date condi builds?

You can be behind in this game in terms of builds because of how some new Ascended gear is handled. Exotics are good but it's still a step down. It's wrong to state otherwise. Legendaries thankfully are not needed because of their minor advantage but considering Fractals require AR then you need Ascended gear.

And considering there are groups starting to use unofficial DPS meters in high fractals who are you going to take? The Exo pulling less DPS because their gear/build isn't upto date or the Ascended pulling a boatload because their gear/build is upto date?

Same with Agony Resistance. Who are you going to take in a high fractal? Someone in orange gear with no AR or someone geared with AR? If people come back to the game and want to do PvE depending on the gear they left with they will have to play catch up.

And to be honest even when geared with the build you are aiming for what then? It's boring not having a new gear treadmill to work for when your build is done.

the jump between exotic -> ascended is only 6%, content is tuned for exotic gear. no one is going to kick your from an fractal for having exotic gear unless you're playing poorly, they suck themselves and need a carry, dps meters or not. the exception is farming lvl 40, in which you use power gear and the jump between exotic and ascended is even less apparent.

AR has nothing to do with falling behind, like equipment tiers its a static number that never goes up. New fractals still adhere to the 150 AR cap. 150 AR can earned through progression, which is short, or through gold. You dont even need a full set of ascended gear if you dont want to go the natural progression route...i see it all the time.

the treadmill if you must have one is acquiring and min/maxing the stats you want while not having to grind a new tier every time new content is added to the game. Are you playing to master encounters or to hoard loot, if its the latter then gw2 might now be for you.

[Eleccybubb]

the jump between exotic -> ascended is only 6%, content is tuned for exotic gear. no one is going to kick your from an fractal for having exotic gear unless you're playing poorly, they suck themselves and need a carry, dps meters or not. the exception is farming lvl 40, in which you use power gear and the jump between exotic and ascended is even less apparent.

AR has nothing to do with falling behind, like equipment tiers its a static number that never goes up. New fractals still adhere to the 150 AR cap. 150 AR can earned through progression, which is short, or through gold. You dont even need a full set of ascended gear if you dont want to go the natural progression route...i see it all the time.

the treadmill if you must have one is acquiring and min/maxing the stats you want while not having to grind a new tier every time new content is added to the game. Are you playing to master encounters or to hoard loot, if its the latter then gw2 might now be for you.

That's totally dishonest considering higher fractals need Agony Resistance which Exotic slots do not have otherwise you get absolutely smashed. Very disingenuous statement to make towards anyone wanting to get into Fractals.

So again who is someone going to take. AR geared Ascended player pulling loads of DPS or Exo player with no AR pulling less? Not rocket science. Yes and DPS meters have started to hit the game and I've been reading of people being kicked for not pulling enough. 6% is still a difference.

Read what I said. I said there is such a thing as being behind but it's not detrimental. I even admitted that being behind isn't a huge ordeal nor did I make it out to be one. Claiming you can never get behind in this game is outright false.

And yes the treadmill does exist if you are adhering to a specific build and are a returning player or they introduce a new set for you to farm. Thankfully a lot of people seem to have gotten the whole "zerk" build crap out of their systems from what I see in the group finder recently.

[PACOX]

And i agree with you, if i just wanted to do nothing. But i came back, and said " I want to do the expation, so i can get glideing" and then, YOU are behind.

if you're talking about gliding then i would agree with you. grinding mastery xp (for Hot stuff) is a pain and there is no 'catch up' mechanic.

[Eleccybubb]

if you're talking about gliding then i would agree with you. grinding mastery xp (for Hot stuff) is a pain and there is no 'catch up' mechanic.

Masteries themselves are a pain.

I'd rather them just do a new level cap every expansion.

[PACOX]

That's totally dishonest considering higher fractals need Agony Resistance which Exotic slots do not have.

So again who is someone going to take. AR geared Ascended player pulling loads of DPS or Exo player with no AR pulling less? Not rocket science.

Read what I said. I said there is such a thing as being behind but it's not detrimental. I even admitted it.

you dont need to be fully ascended to hit 150 ar. my chrono is 1 of 2 characters i use for t4 fractals and it defin isnt fully ascended.

backpiece, trinkets, and rings = 100 ar without getting into using 10+ infusions.

plus 10 from the potion, plus 5 if you have your fractal masteries. that leaves 45 from any combination of exotics and ascended weapons/armor.

[Eleccybubb]

you dont need to be fully ascended to hit 150 ar. my chrono is 1 of 2 characters i use for t4 fractals and it defin isnt fully ascended.

backpiece, trinkets, and rings = 100 ar without getting into using 10+ infusions.

plus 10 from the potion, plus 5 if you have your fractal masteries. that leaves 45 from any combination of exotics and ascended weapons/armor.

I never said you needed to be fully ascended either did I? But any sane group for a 100 Fractal would take a fully Ascended player based on the stats. 6% might not be much but it's still a difference in a raid/high fractal.

I said that Full Exos ain't getting you much in the way of AR and that no sane group would take you to a high one.

I asked the question of which group would take what player out of the two presented? Stats still matter but as you said it's not a huge difference and maybe some groups do take Exotic geared players. But it's still Exotic gear and it's still lower than Ascended.

[PACOX]

Masteries themselves are a pain.

I'd rather them just do a new level cap every expansion.

how are mastery levels any different from raising the cap? both are just earning xp for the most part (expect getting HoT points which can be a pain, actually fixed if you have access to LS3 and/or raid).

[Eleccybubb]

how are mastery levels any different from raising the cap? both are just earning xp for the most part (expect getting HoT points which can be a pain, actually fixed if you have access to LS3 and/or raid).

Because at least with a new cap would come higher level gear for me to work on. I admit that one is a personal feeling.

Plus if they are optional for the most part where is the incentive to learn them? Why would I go learn the Precursor Mastery if I don't need it?

It's an example of once you have the two or so you need for the HoT story they become less meaningful. At least a new level cap has you work towards something meaningful.

[PACOX]

I never said you needed to be fully ascended either did I? But any sane group for a 100 Fractal would take a fully Ascended player based on the stats. 6% might not be much but it's still a difference in a raid/high fractal.

I said that Full Exos ain't getting you much in the way of AR and that no sane group would take you to a high one.

I asked the question of which group would take what player out of the two presented? Stats still matter but as you said it's not a huge difference and maybe some groups do take Exotic geared players. But it's still Exotic gear and it's still lower than Ascended.

full exotics, nope you're not doing high fractals but then theres that treadmill you said thats needed. if you dont know how to secure a few pieces of ascended then you're not ready for lvl 100 anyway.

raids can be done full exotic no problem.

you question assumes people are pinging gear, which is uncommon in gw2. if im running a fractal and question your resolve im going to ask you to step into an agony field to see how much ar you have, really couldn't care less if you had all ascended gear or not (we agreed that full exotic is out of the question for high fractals). im only going to go to my dps meter if we wipe. high lvl fractals are composition/player skill > ar > dps (related to class/gear not player skill).

[Eleccybubb]

full exotics, nope you're not doing high fractals but then theres that treadmill you said thats needed. if you dont know how to secure a few pieces of ascended then you're not ready for lvl 100 anyway.

raids can be done full exotic no problem.

you question assumes people are pinging gear, which is uncommon in gw2. if im running a fractal and question your resolve im going to ask you to step into an agony field to see how much ar you have, really couldn't care less if you had all ascended gear or not (we agreed that full exotic is out of the question for high fractals). im only going to go to my dps meter if we wipe.

Then the treadmill does exist and you can fall behind if you take a break. So my point still stands. But as I said it's not a HUGE detriment to fall behind as it can be in a lot of MMORPGs.

And I've seen raids done in full Exotics and while they can be done they were tricky at least in full Exotics. Full Ascended is when it started to get a bit easy.

[PACOX]

raids feel better imo in exotics (but you wont see me downgrading my gear). they feel more challenging, if i wanted to outgear raid content i would play wow.

[Lotus Victoria]

raids feel better imo in exotics (but you wont see me downgrading my gear). they feel more challenging, if i wanted to outgear raid content i would play wow.

I've raided for the first time two weeks ago and I can't remember the last time I had so much fun with an MMO.

[Brocksley]

I wish I could figure out what it was, then maybe I could address it and play again. The game just never grabs me. I haven't played since HoT launched.
There are lots of little things I don't like:

-being forced into using certain weapons due to the skills they provide (Sorry you can't be a thief with a bow, they are weak, you have to be melee. Sorry you can't be a bow warrior they are only for WvW)
-ranger pets that are even worse than hunter pets in wow. They don't feel useful or interesting at all, and they are just plain stupid AI
-nearly all the weapons feel like gimmicks. There is usually only 1 main and 1 swap choice that works, the others are weak or gimmicky and aren't usable.
-ranged weapons are almost always worse than melee due to the way boons and combos stack you need to be close to each other all the time
-level scaling made me feel like I never got stronger
-content that gets removed when new content is added and forcing me to pay for incremental story progression if I come back
-all the new events that came out were just zerg fest grinds just with a different bad guy
-all the dungeons felt like zerg fests
-meaningless PvP (WvW just a huge mob running around the map doing meaningless activities with no story or reason)
-having to buy the old expansion in addition to the new (instead of just buying the new one and being brought up to current)
-5 skills on my bar
-elite specs seem like whats the point of other specs now
-loading screens, so many loading screens
-boring armor sets (every medium armor is just a long jacket)
-grinding, grinding, grinding like theres no tomorrow to get the legendary or ancient or what ever the high level items are called
-armor sets tied to certain dungeons, If I want an armor set I have to run X dungeon 100 times to get the armor set tokens for it. I can't run a variation of dungeons.
-group making was awful (maybe fixed now, I dunno)

Maybe it's just a sum of all the little things.

[PACOX]

I wish I could figure out what it was, then maybe I could address it and play again. The game just never grabs me. I haven't played since HoT launched.
There are lots of little things I don't like:

-being forced into using certain weapons due to the skills they provide (Sorry you can't be a thief with a bow, they are weak, you have to be melee. Sorry you can't be a bow warrior they are only for WvW)
-ranger pets that are even worse than hunter pets in wow. They don't feel useful or interesting at all, and they are just plain stupid AI
-nearly all the weapons feel like gimmicks. There is usually only 1 main and 1 swap choice that works, the others are weak or gimmicky and aren't usable.
-ranged weapons are almost always worse than melee due to the way boons and combos stack you need to be close to each other all the time
-level scaling made me feel like I never got stronger
-content that gets removed when new content is added and forcing me to pay for incremental story progression if I come back
-all the new events that came out were just zerg fest grinds just with a different bad guy
-all the dungeons felt like zerg fests
-meaningless PvP (WvW just a huge mob running around the map doing meaningless activities with no story or reason)
-having to buy the old expansion in addition to the new (instead of just buying the new one and being brought up to current)
-5 skills on my bar
-elite specs seem like whats the point of other specs now
-loading screens, so many loading screens
-boring armor sets (every medium armor is just a long jacket)
-grinding, grinding, grinding like theres no tomorrow to get the legendary or ancient or what ever the high level items are called
-armor sets tied to certain dungeons, If I want an armor set I have to run X dungeon 100 times to get the armor set tokens for it. I can't run a variation of dungeons.
-group making was awful (maybe fixed now, I dunno)

Maybe it's just a sum of all the little things.

- Preferences are preferences but this never bothered me. If youre wielding a particular weapon with particular characteristics then your actions should reflect that. Also shortbows arent bad on thieves as longbows arent on warriors. Not sure who told you that.

- Ever ranger pet in gw2 has their own unique set of skills though. PoF allows you take on those skills for yourself. The synergy between ranger and their pets is pretty high if you take certain traits.

- Not true at all...

- Range is a trade off for safety.

- Level scaling never made you feel stronger but a downleveled 80 will still out perform someone who isnt downleveled.

- ??? Mindless zergs usually fail. I wouldnt confuse the ability for others to carry others as just "zerging" Any old open world boss in gw2 is still harder and dynamic than any open world boss in WoW.

- Theres a reason why dungeons were traded for fractals

- What is "meaningful pvp" and wvw really isnt just zerg v zerg.

- The expansions are standalone.

- 10 skills min...how many do you need anyway?

- Elite specs are just one trait line...3 selected traits out of 9, i dont understand the criticism.

- Maps need to be loaded. Dont have a SSD?

- Except the ones that arent!

- Legendaries are called legendaries because they take time and effort to get

- Honestly dont understand this point. Yes certain skins are tied to certain content, how is that bad?

- Much easier and faster than any automated LFG tool in other MMORPGs

[Gray_Matter]

I'll repeat myself again since you guys keep quoting the same stuff. It's all psychological. I know there's no hard reset of progression in the game so i will still feel like im 4 years behind everyone else in terms of gameplay.

I didn't get to finishing the thread until now. Just saw your responses. I can understand. There was a really good post on page 4 or 5 explaining the issue. It's more difficult for me to get a handle on because I see other MMO's that have gear/legendary/etc progression where those impediments can actually limit a person competing. On the other hand they have a "reset" every expansion so that gives people an opportunity to get back on the train.