lalangamena

Some reasons why GW1 was a better game IMO:
- Leveling a char to max took less than a week for many/most passionate players - lots of people like leveling, and leveling in GW2 is easier for me than leveling in GW1, i was stuck on lvl18 for ages...
- Emphasis was on skills and skill synergy, not gear and DPS -- yes!
- Classes had well defined rolls, strengths and weaknesses --builds, not classes, but yes.
- Less grind (ironic, I know) -- gw2 doesnt feel grindy to me , because i dont care about legendaries
- Monsters/Enemies were subject to same game mechanics & skill mechanics as players --yes!
- Open world challenges did not boil down to "throw more bodies at the problem" solutions --yes!
- Half the skill bar was not weapon locked-- this will not change as devs stated they wanted to avoid skill mayhem that was in gw1
- (WIP, please feel free to add to the list)


The hardest fundamental flaws to fix in GW2, IMO:
- The dodge mechanism negates a lot of other gameplay mechanics-- agreee
- The weapon locked skill bar -- this is emotional issue based on nostalgy not a "real" one, if some weapon is lackluster anet  tweak it.
- The DPS, condition, buff imbalance and thus emphasis on DPS builds or GTFO -agree
- The open world lending itself to Zerg solutions -agree
- The gear grind - there is no real gear grind in game. both exotic and ascended are very easy to obtain. tPVP dont need any gear (ascended back is kinda grindy... but exotic is easy )
- The new Trinity - Warrior, Guardian, Mesmer (debateable and with exceptions I know, discuss that elsewhere please) -agree
- (WIP, please feel free to add to the list)
- 1 Heal skill per class - there is more than one heal per class, lots of classes can heal themselves with traited skill (thief invisibility, warrior shouts, guardian AH, necro inout DS, ele water attunement enter etc), regen boon, or combo fields+finishers.  

My proposed steps to improve GW2 gradually without breaking the game, in cronological order:

Anet Make up your minds and decide who this game is for, and which parts are for who --BIG YES!
It is possible to cater for both casual and hardcore players, but you cannot cater for both in every inch of the game. One of the greatest failings of this games is that it tries to please everyone all of the time and thus ends up frustrating everyone almost all of the time. This paradigm shift is possibly the most important thing that needs to happen. Focus is incredibly important.


Monthly updates are a huge disaster, revert to the expansions model --> agree
It took me all of 2 hours to finish this month's new dungeon, same last month. Seriously, why bother?

Introduce dynamic dungeons & rework existing dungeons accordingly --> agree and more....
Use Fractals as a departure point for all dungeons, it is the closest thing to engaging content this game has IMO. Introduce semi-randomised mob groups and possibly semi-randomised layouts. Keep the concepts of tiered difficulty and rewards. DO: tier rewards aesthetically. DO NOT: tier them with stats (infused vs ascended vs exotic).
(Note: randomised mobs might be difficult to implement at this point, but should be easier after the rework dodge step)

Make obtaining top stat but dead ugly gear dead easy -- obtaining gear is a no brainer and already very easy

Remove the magic find stat --yes!
Others have said it better but in essence it just adds nothing to the game.

Make accessory slot items visible -- not sure why....it will not improve the current game issues in any way
Maybe change it to tattoos, badges, banners, visual effects slots or something of the like, further de-emphasizing the stat-gear grind and emphasizing the aesthetic grind (which you can ignore if you are happy with max stat but ugly gear)


Empower conditions, buffs and debuffs --> yes, all non damaging CC conditions should be doubled in duration in order to be usable!
This will require a many pronged approach: Lower the damage on all or most direct damage skills (especially the big spikes), remove condition stack limits or raise the ceiling, Increase damage/duration of most conditions, Increase duration of most buffs and debuffs and reduce stacks on high stacking skills.

Make ALL mobs and bosses subject to same mechanics and skills as players WITH NO EXCEPTIONS -yes!
This IS a hard task, but the previous step should make it possible and sensible, the next step will further solve this problem.There is nothing worse than uninterruptable bosses imo.

Rework the dodge mechanics--> my suggestion is simple, make a 2 sec GCD (global cool down) on all weapon and utility skills after dodge. problem solved,
Don't get me wrong, I like dodging. But it creates a too easy way to completely avoid brutal attacks, thus the developers have made brutal attacks all the more brutal and gave a huge HP pool to bosses to offset players dodging 80% of their attacks. I propose a successful dodge halving damage instead of completely negating it. These are probably the hardest changes to implement successfully as every single enemy and every skill in the game will have to be rebalanced accordingly, but it will also add the most gameplay reward IMO. Smaller damage spikes, less predictable completely negatable boss attacks, more emphasis on survival instead of plain DPS. Better healing will be most crucial with this change - I propose either making healing skills cast instant with faster recharges, or adding more healing effects on current non-healing skills (or both). (reworking healing skills might be a whole step on its own)