Whats wrong with Guild Wars 2

I purchased Guild Wars 2 when it was on sale last Christmas. I got a great deal on it and only paid 40 dollars for it. Before I got the game obviously the game got a whole lot of praise for being innovative and reshaping mmos and potentially breaking the WoW mold. I was not necessarily hyping my self up to the game but I had been keeping the game close and following it up until its release. I am surprised I did not cave in and buy the game on release. I just watched it get plenty of praise from critics and I was even more interested in the game once I actually saw reviews and game play videos.

This was my desktop background for a longgg time! Great picture

So what does this have to do with Guild Wars 2 being bad? Well when I finally bought the game on sale and I sunk my self into the game. After many many many hours of playing on one character here is what I have come too. Me personally feel like the game does not start until 80. Is the game innovative? Oh hell yes for an MMO to actually not use the standard WoW mold is just great. IT was a great execution. The game is fantastic. I love exploring the maps and the classes are interesting enough. The game is a very good game and I still love playing it. but here are my gripes.

First is the the leveling experience. Now let me just come out and say I have no problem with slow leveling (hell, I played Maplestory back when the pirate class first came out. THAT was hell.) slow leveling is not the problem. But when the majority of the game is based off of being 80 and the main way to level is obviously to do the quests(oh I am sorry HEARTS) and just completing each section of the map(which is really really fun btw). But the problem is completing maps as the main way to level gives you little experience TO actually level your character. Okay that's fine I'll just do dungeons at 30. Well your first dungeon is unlocked sure, but the game almost FORCES you to have 80's in your group. Now I know the dungeons are meant to be hard as fuck to beat and I like that. But since they advertise "No tank, healer, and damage role" its very hard to coordinate a good group to beat these mind numbingly hard dungeons WITHOUT these templates that WoW has hammered into our heads.  I mean I just honestly think dungeons being hard as shit to beat are fine but the way I have always handled tough dungeons is with a good "Tank, Healer, and Damage" group. Giving a player a role I think just HAS to be there for an MMO. I just really can't stand how they don't use that form. Maybe it is just me but I hate that.

I don't want to be doing this boring shit all day to level :P

 Now I know the loophole to get to 80 really fast with crafting or professions but that is just boring and I have never liked crafting in any MMO. I am not a huge PvP player either. Although on a side note World vs. World vs. World is SO much fun defiantly an awesome experience. I just feel like the game is BASED around PvE it should have the leveling experience be worth it when clearing maps as the main leveling tool.

The other problem I have with this game is gear. the gear is not unique at all until you hit 80. I take a look at the dungeon gear at 30. Looks sweet! I look at the 40 gear. The same gear. The only time I noticed different gear for the same class is at level 80. They have many different sets for each class. Which is awesome. So why did they not do that for the first 79 levels too? I always loved getting an upgrade and it looking way different from the old gear I had. It kept me going sometimes. 

Now I understand low level gear never looks too interesting but I mean it couldn't be that hard to have several sets at each 10 level interval. Some even argue that's what dyes are for. Sure okay. That WORKS for the color of the gear. I like customizing that. but I like to have a wide variety of different looking gear. So I have to get to 80 to have different gear. That is fine and dandy EXCEPT it is a very slow grind to get there(unless you max out a profession skill which is more boring than the grind).

Side Note: Sylvari or tree people as I call them are my favorite race ^.^

Summing things up here is it is perfectly FINE for at a devs stand point to revolve all of the good stuff to happen once you hit 80 BUT if you make the core part of your game not worth the time to do the slow leveling then it is a flawed choice to have your core activities happen once you hit 80. To me those 2 things (slow leveling/not good time sink, and boring gear) that frustrate me the most about this game and has also held me back from playing it religiously( I was hoping it would get me really into it too). But hear me out, This game is still a great game! I was just pointing out the problems I have with it based off of what I look for in an MMO. I can still log into this game and have tons of fun with always plenty to do! If I would have bought this game for full price it still would have been worth my 60 dollars. I know this was long but I had a lot to say about it! Hope it was not too bad!

-Lamesbond007