Getting Ready for Guild Wars: The Rant

I say this because I'm not exactly looking forward to this expansion, at the moment.

For one thing, I don't like that it's the last ever expansion and things are going to be transitioning to GW2.

For another, I don't like the emphasis on races and factions and apparent title grinding for skills (And, yeah, I'm on record as pushing for things like factions and optional paths through the game from way back when. But I'm not happy with what I've gotten out of those suggestions. Not, you know, how I would have done it. Because I would have made for actual choices, not communist ones.).

And no new professions? I like trying out new profs and running through a new campaign. It's what I do afterwards that gives me problems.

I hear there aren't going to be any elites in this expansion, either. I like hunting down elites. I had a lot of fun being among the early rush to find the bosses and locales in Factions. Hell, I set up, encouraged, a whole system for elite hunters back in the original release. Missed out on the mad rush in Nightfall but that's only because by the time I got the game, everything had been found.

To top it off, no new character slots? I mean, that's half the reason I buy the expansions right there. I just found that out and I'm pissed. I was kinda hoping I'd have another pair of slots so I could start up at least one new character. But now I have to buy new slots at the store where they're, frankly, overpriced? Bullshit.

Let's see, what else? The new and better bosses sound like they're trying to compete with WoW again and have completely missed the point of what makes this game interesting.

I don't care about the Hall of Monuments.

I don't care about the Norn.

I don't care about the stupid Asura.

I don't care about the new Heroes.

And I don't like the idea of a lot of lame PvE only skills that are imbalanced crap.

It's like everything design in this expansion is purposely out to repulse me and moderate to hardcore PvPers.

Don't get me wrong. For all I've complained and bitched about it I actually like the PvE stuff. I'm happy to run around doing missions and exploring. It's just, you know, brainless. The PvP is where the real meat of the game is and where I can spend hours practicing and preparing and such. PvE is where I kick back with some snacks and a tasty beverage and waste my time. But I do that because it's pretty fun. I'm not opposed to PvE content. Or to people who enjoy PvE play being served by the developers. But there's nothing there to interest the PvP side of me beyond those 100 new skills. And the preliminary reports I've seen of those aren't exactly thrilling.

There's some interesting stuff but nothing to really set the world on fire. And that's especially problematic because as far as I can tell, the game's been really stagnant since I left several months ago. There haven't been many updates, there haven't been many tweaks, meaning things have been flat and boring and probably not very far from the meta I was dealing with. There's been the traditional pre-expansion sweeping change to balance which is probably still working through the system. But before then, the last skill update? In early June. Back when they were adding PvE skills and my interests were flagging. I've got a few notes in my file meaning I was planning to say something but nothing ever came of it. So much for live testing, I guess.

Although, on the other hand. I actually do like some of the new changes. And when I read something like this, there's some glimmers of hope that, maybe, there's something to like here.