Journey to the North - GW2 buddy system beta?

Journey to the North

Players who are between levels 10 and 19 and are in Eye of the North maps will automatically receive a buff called Journey to the North. This buff grants players a base Health of 480 and bonuses to their attributes, and replaces their current armor level with the max armor level for that class until they reach level 20.
+
A new armorer, Jolvor Stoneforge, has been added to Boreal Station to give players a cheaper source of basic max level armor in the Eye of the North expansion. + a collector with max weapons, Arkor Leadfoot, giving basic non-inscribeable weapons without 15^50 or insc slot for finishing the hero tutorial in Boreal station.


What do you think of this.

I do not really see the reason for this. Levelling up in GW is fast. Factions Chars are already at Kaineng and almost level 20 when they can get to EOTN. NF players can enter over the plains of Jarin and get the biggest head start.

New Prophecies players have to get to LA first, and are low level there as well. But now they can get to Boreal Station and get MAX armor there, instead of making a Droknar run (okay, most just need to get to Droknar to get to THK and finish the Proph storyline anyways).


Was this aimed at buyers of the Platinum Edition (GWEN + Prophecies), to enable them to play EOTN right from the start?
Well, for a totally new player, the best thing he can get is the max AL armor he would have gotten anyways through runners.

The stat buff is necessary for survival, too. But it does not replace experience.

You cannot expect an inexperienced new player to survive in Eye of the North, even with max gear.

He does not have many skills available, nor well equipped heroes, nor any clue how to play the game. And many reviewers rated the expansion as too hard - for noobs, of course. But it was aimed at veteran GW players anyways, that is the point.


But somehow it seems to me like the "GW2 buddy system beta 0.5": The companion gets temporarily stat boosted to your level or a little lower.

I do not like it. Just make everyone start out with max stats and level then, easier solution. Then we do not need levels, and ANET does not have to balance and create early noob areas nobody cares for later on.

Sure, MMOs always had some kind of progression, but it should at least now become evident that level progression is not the way progression works in GW (besides the fact that GW is not that much a classicla MMO anyways).

In GW, it is the player becoming better (hopefully) and getting more and better skills from quests or trainers.


To summarize, I think this is like giving a 12 year old a M16 rifle and sending him to fight in a war. Veteran players do not need it, and the 12 years/levels old player now gets a huge boost, but still cannot make use of it, he will get butchered nevertheless.

Edit: Added this link: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Journey_to_the_North

ok, armourer in boreal station, fair enough... but I thought that GW:EN was always supposed to be end game content for lvl 20 characters, why is it even available to characters that haven't completed one of the campaigns?

It is completely ridiculous, like you said, might as well get rid of the level system! Whats worse is they called this an update, correct me if I am wrong, that would make PvErs and PvPers happy.

Oh and they do give 12 year old children rifles in some countries. Child Soldiers

I like the change... but I had the feeling that ANet wants to try out the Buddy system for GW 2...like it was said in the first post.

Well....

Why keep levels then at all?

Levels and level-based progression only make sense when you are restricted from doing higher level content simply because you're not "good enough". Removing it....

Let's just say that in CoV the sidekick system makes the game boring. On one hand, there's that level grind. On other, you don't need levels.

The main problem comes from content being, well, boring. Levels or no levels, there's simply the same old kill over and over.

So a better question is: Without levels - or with levels a non-issue - how will GW2 provide enjoyable, challenging content?

High-level content. Yes.
End-game content. No.

Disclaimer: I don't play level-based games, so GW2 holds little interest to me.

Being level 20 and finishing a campaign are two completely different things. GWEN was intended for the former, not the latter.

To the OP: I think you have the right idea, I believe this is a somewhat "beta" of the buddy system. However...

This may be your reason for not liking it, but I can't see a good reason in it. It's a bad analogy, too. The 12-year-old can't exactly trial-and-error with that gun. When they die, they die. In GW, you die, you res; no big deal. You learn from your mistakes, you move on.

This might be the best training someone could get at level 10+, or it might scare them away from the area, sending back to the continent they came from to level up on a more linear scale, learning as they go. This gives people options, kinda like our little Normal Mode/Hard Mode, on how tough they want their game and how they learn to play. It's not like they are forced to head to GW:EN when they hit one of the main cities.

I'm not sure if I like this update either but whether it's child soldiers or 19-year-old's in shopping mall's is besides the point here.

But I can see some of the reasons for doing it. I guess it's better to see it as a choice...you don't have to use it.

Yes, you should be level 20 well before finishing any of the campaigns, but the point is, GW:EN is a continuation of storyline aswell as more Highend content... I still think that it should only be available for in the same way as hard Mode is for the campaigns

Ok, it is a bad analogy. But the Journey buff does not make so much more sense either.

My main fear is that this is really a GW2 buddy system trial, and if it is supposed to work like this journey buff, oh noes...

ah, i see they only make this available now, it was said you can travel to the north with your friends who are not level 20, sometime at the very beginning of the announcement of EO:TN.

I do not know, pumpkin pie. You need a GW chapter to play GW at all, right?

It is not an open event for everyone like the Factions or NF preview. I am not sure if people who bought GW and are still not level 20 by now really WANT or NEED to get to EOTN.

But maybe you are right and I am just a bit too pessimist because of my fear of this rather stupid buddy system for GW2.

lol wut, levels? who needs them anymore?

This is screwed up and I don't like it at all =/

I am not very sure about what you need for EOTN, but in the very beginning when EOTN was announce there are mention of something regarding taking friends what ever level they are together forward into the north (not in those exact words). I cannot find the article anymore. i have too many bookmarks , its like a google search result.... i should clean them up sometime.

I also do not see the point in this

What's so bad about it? If this in fact just a test for GW buddy system I'm all for it. Allowing players (despite their level) to go where they please really adds to the longevity of a game, since restrictions like "You aren't strong enough to go here" is what really made most MMOs a one character limit thing for me and some other people I know. This is because you would have to go through all the tedious leveling in the same old newbie zones with the same quests and such to achieve the right to go into those new areas.

More options=good

That's not to say it will be without flaws, however. Everything has flaws, this could mean people will find some way to exploit it, and some people won't like it. The exploiting is a given, there's always a way, and people are always looking for a way to take advantage of a flaw.

My suggestion is just give it time. A-net isn't stupid, they listen to their community and know what they're doing.

You can as well simply remove level system, instead of giving this kind of buffs.

I think A Net has seen the light, my guess is that GW2 will not have levels for characters, only levels/ranks for skills.

This change in direction for EotN just confirms my suspicions. If this is the direction A Net is taking, then I completely agree with them.

Well, on the plus side, all those folks in Droknar's Forge begging for a free Power Leveler can now go level themselves!

Nope, i'm wth you there, its basically made levelling from 10 to 20 is now non existant...

Interesting thoughts.

But perhaps you're thinking too much.

It looks like they made this change so people who buy the Prop+EotN package can get access to EotN sooner, especially as it does take a fair bit of time to level up to 20 with only Prophecies.