Originally Posted by makosi

4) Skill balance is atrocious; nerfing Fevered Dreams where dervishes were the problem was utter laziness and thoughtlessness.

Originally Posted by Jeydra

Explain. If the aim is to keep Dervishes equally viable frontliners as Warriors (which they are, at the moment) then how would you balance things such that they retain a niche?

I'll tell you what I see the update as. The proposed niche for Dervishes is condition spam. Nerf to FD makes Dervishes viable while keeping condition spam builds balanced. If instead Dervishes had been nerfed directly while keeping FD the way it was, it would be that much harder (if not outright impossible) to keep Dervishes viable.

Of course, you could say "but Dervishes and Assassins and Ritualists and Paragons should've been removed from the game anyway", like all the other GW-was-awesome-Nightfall-killed-it complainers do. Your call.

Originally Posted by Vezoth

You should carefully choose your words, if you think real MMORPG's are about grinding you are wrong. Besides if you are right, I've been there. 300+ days played on RuneScape, nearly every WoW character to 80+ (levels were grinded mostly when it was way longer then currently). You eventually get tired of the LONG grinds and just want to do small grinds. However Guild Wars grinds are small compared to most MMORPG's except titles, PvP title grinds are longer than any 99 skill on RuneScape BY FAR.

Let's look at the Glad title, assuming you get 250 points per day, that's 800 days which is like 2.5 years just for one title putting most of your time into that specific title. Point is.. if you want to COMPLETE the game Guild Wars does have excessive grinds.

Originally Posted by Maria The Princess

I believe we are all adults here and I don't have to "knit-pick proof" my posts, most people here understand simple analogies and comparisons. ive never played Runescape, nor do i intend to. However I played other MMORPGS, and all coincidentally (?) revolved around:

1- start a level 1
2- level to mid range
3- join a pve clan (a PvP clan will laugh you of the face of the game if you apply being a level 40, out of the 99 levels to cap )
4- use the pvers (or not, up to you) to get gear from raids and Xp parties etc
5- level to level cap, endless hours, days, weeks, months, years... of using the same 2-3 skills on theoretically the same mob.
6- apply to a PvP clan
7- if accepted, go pve + pvp with them. Most PVP would come to you while you PVE so you still have to kill the same mob. Or spend hours looking for enemies.
7.5- If not accepted, stay in care-bear clan till you can improve your gear
8. when you initiate pvp and target doesnt defend himself, you suffer bad consequences. When you die, you loose Xp or something else that you grind for hours towards.

With that base system found in almost every MMO, grind is inevitable to join the high end content. In GW, you can as soon as you cap the needed elites, which can take up to 2 weeks (of doing missions and quests to get to the town). If someone is grinding in GW and doesnt like grinding, they should look around at all the other stuff they could be doing instead in this game.

Also, 300 days is not much for a grind game since they are designed to keep you playing for years trying to achieve the barely achievable, a perfect character withy perfect gear and skills.

In GW, you are given all that when you get out of newbie areas (desert, kaieng, consulate docks). You are lvl caped, you have max gear, you only have to work on some elite skill captures but you easily get them as you advance, will take 1 week to get the basic elites needed. You don't spend years getting to lvl 83 to get the ONE skill that makes your class needed in a PvP clan and on a siege field. At level 83, it takes about 20 regular mob kills to get 0.01%.

Originally Posted by Cryshal

I didn't find serious grind until the last primary quests in Eye of the North, before the final quests. I did finish the Asura line, but the Dwarf and Ebon Vanguard are too hard for solo, at least for me. I spent hours on both of those quests, trying different heroes and skill builds.

Originally Posted by Arduin

Are you seriously calling failing a quest, improving your strategy and then finally succeeding (aka challenging content) a grind?

Originally Posted by Zebideedee

The only thing I don't like is how a lot of the titles are character based. This is preventing me from playing other professions for the most part, each time I try other professions something at the back of my mind says "Whats the point, stick to your main!"

Originally Posted by MithranArkanere

Luckily, all titles will be account-based in GW2.

I wouldn't mind if that was changed for GW1.

I'd make the only things character based plot advancement, quests (excepting the PvP ones), heroes unlocked, skills learned and outposts visited, and everything else account-wide, including titles and customized items.

Originally Posted by Lanier

I also think that skill balance has completely fallen apart (in PvE). Honestly, the difference in power between the top of the scale (rits and necros) and the bottom (rangers and paragons) is massive. Unfortunately, anet isn't willing to introduce some much-needed nerfs to the top professions, and this in itself is hurting the game. I know that complete skill balance is nearly impossible due to the sheer number of skills in the game, but there are some easy steps that anet could take to at least improve skill balance somewhat, and they are proving to us right now that they are unwilling to do so. I wish they would just understand that skill balance needs to be "balanced" - it needs to include both nerfs to the OP skills and buffs to the underpowered skills.

Originally Posted by Swingline

I would support customized items but we already have enough account wide titles, I could see the rep titles becoming account wide though just because they feel like a grind to me.