I ran the 3.0 Patch update during lunch time today and I’ll be ready to start playing when I get home tonight.
There’s a lot of things I’m excited about this patch. Most of all I am excited on how the classes now plays with the new Discipline System. This new system is better than what it used to be since there are times that I am forced to pick up skills that has no actual advancement for my class. It didn’t really matter which class I play, the old system definitely needed this new redesign.
I currently have a Marauder, a Sniper and a Sorcerer all at level 50-55 and these changes did little to change things up for these classes. The bulk of the changes seems to focus on improving the tanking spec.
The funny part of the patch note is that, the damage output of many DPS class was expected at level 60 and not at level 55, so they toned down the DPS of level 55s. I’m not sure if this will piss a lot of people off, but as far as I’m concerned, it didn’t really affect me. Besides, they’ll get that DPS output when they reach level 60 anyways. However, I know I would be pissed if I grinded for the gears to get the highest DPS possible and to only get nerfed this patch. I know the feeling, but I’ve accepted that this is part of the game. New patch, new goal.
Another part of the game that I’m excited about is the story progression. What this really means to me is that, I can now solo some more lower level content to get my story progression. 🙂
Speaking of this, I was running some flashpoint the other night and I saw a couple of low level standing at the node. I’ve completed 2 FP and they’re still there. After completing my 3rd one, they PM’d me asking if I can run them through one of the FP. I asked what’s the matter and they told me that it’s hard to find a group. This is why I don’t do FP or mission of my level. Either there’s no one there to do the instance with or players are competing to fill a spot in a group. I hate this system in any MMO — so much time are wasted waiting for healer, or tank, or another DPS. This is why I do this alone.
I strongly believe that the new way of playing any RPG is doing away with text dialog and this is why I’m a big fan of Bioware games. One would think that this is the best way to go and anyone making an RPG game would do this as a standard RPG format. GW2 started off in this direction, then they veered away from it due to stupid decisions of cutting costs. Now they hired Leah Hoyer as their new Narrative Design Director who said in one interview;
“People obviously get invested in the characters and the story they’re playing through,” Hoyer said. “And by no means am I saying that every game needs to be a particularly narrative heavy game. There are certain genres of games or types of games that don’t need a lot of story. But the bigger they get, and the more expensive the budget gets, you start to realize how important it is to have characters and a story world that people are excited to be a part of.”
And from the interview it states;
“For Guild Wars, Hoyer wants to embrace that ambient storytelling approach instead of overloading players with long-winded cutscenes or lore dumps between missions.”
Imagine that. All these time when players have been telling ArenaNet that they are moving towards the wrong direction, it took them 2yrs to realize that and now hired someone to bring them back on track. For Glint’s sake, fire the person who is responsible for this type of mess of a game and let your new Narrative Design Director bring you back to glory.
It seems that the recent obvious money grab changes starting to hurt their pockets when players realizes that this is all they do in ArenaNet — finding ways to get players to spend money instead of progressing the game. Money speaks louder than words these days and I for one are no longer spending $10-$20/month in GW2. I also know a lot of player who have done the same thing.
You see, what ArenaNet fails to acknowledge is that, they are not the best game in the market. They’re all delusional into thinking so that whatever they do to the game that people will continue to give them money — reality hurts, specially when negative numbers starts to show on your financial reports.
One thing I know for sure, whoever took GW2 to this mess will be the biggest hurdle in making the right changes.
It is commendable to strive for innovation and unique approach, but it is futile and stupid to try to re-invent the wheels. ArenaNet opened really strong when they launched with non-text based dialog and dynamic events and very strong lore based story that could’ve expanded for years — then Scarlett happens and every player in unison said WTF?! Now they struggle to make the NPC from LS season 1 to fit in season 2 which is an obvious damage control effort. I mean seriously, Canach as a recurring cast? The one who endangered countless of people now works for the crown? Hopefully this new Narrative Design Director will not put up with this crap. I’m not entirely sure if she even knows what she’s getting herself into. I can’t wait to see where she’ll take Tyria from this point on.
Minor DAI update. I have not been playing it lately since SWTOR 3.0 is getting close to release and I tried to get my Trooper to level 50 but it seems that I ran out of time. Oh well, it was interesting to have the 12x exp bonus, but there’s a lot of snags along the way like collecting commendations and building companion relationships. So now that 3.0 is out, I’ll be in SWTOR for quite sometime. So far, I just founded Skyhold after suffering a one-sided defeat. Geeze, I want a pet dragon too.
