Guild Wars 2: One Year Later

It’s been over a year since the launch of Guild Wars 2, and everything I posted about last year stands strong. This is still a remarkable game but there have been a number of changes since earlier in 2013 that have changed the attitudes, goals and dynamics of many players. I’m not just talking about skill balancing, bug fixes and world updates – although these do happen regularly – but bigger changes to keep interest, and it seems to be working.

Living Story

Each character you make has a personal story to follow. These change depending on the race you choose and the options during character creation. Further options are made to players as you progress until a point later in the story where paths converge and the story is largely the same for everyone, regardless of race or background. There are still choices to make but you can cover all the story options at this stage with the five character slots provided.

Upon completing this, there wasn’t much to do in terms of progression. The focus turned to alternate characters, dungeons and fractal zones, where you could get rare skins and items from much harder foes. Then the Living Story was introduced and new content is released for a period of time – sometimes leading on from the last update and other instalments making you do something else entirely. This shows the world changing and evolving, with limited edition items and events to access.

This is great for certain events – like now there is a Halloween makeover in places, with new events, challenges and items to complete. Next month, it will be something different. Each instalment lasts for four to six weeks.

World vs. World

While WvW has been around since the start of GW2, I’ve only really given it a few chances. I’ve enjoyed it, sure, but I’m not the biggest fan of Player vs. Player. This has changed with a recent update, which have different “seasons” for WvW and new prizes. This has grabbed my interest again, and that of my Guild, with more people heading to these battlegrounds on a regular basis. The armour skins are good too, and drop rates for rare items are still low, but slightly higher than other places. This could be a good thing for me, right?

I live in hope.

Working towards the…impossible?

Each type of weapon has a Legendary version – they are the hardest to get because of the items and levels required to get them. I’ve been playing for over a year and I’m about two thirds of the way there for ONE character. Even then, the final item needed for each of these weapons has a drop rate that’s one of the lowest in the game. You can buy them, but I can barely save 100 gold, never mind between 1000-2000 gold!

Some people have been lucky, and others have focused their entire efforts on this. I’d like one (specifically Kudzu, the longbow) but there’s more to do.

New weapons were included in a recent update, requiring an increase in crafting levels and very hard materials to find (albeit, not as hard as the Legendary requirements). I’ll work on these eventually too, when I’ve finished my current to do list. By that point, there will be the same options for armour too. Then other items – there’s always more to do!

Guild missions

Another inclusion has been focused on guilds and keeping their members active and working together. The reduced party size compared to Guild Wars was a concern but these missions don’t need you to be in a party, and allow multiple parties at once. From hunting specialist bosses, tracking down locations, completing a circuit full of danger and more missions, they provide excellent rewards once a week to players and access to specialist equipment to improve your stats and in high level situations.

More routes, targets and challenges are always being added and new rewards will be introduced at an appropriate time (probably adding to my list of things to do and get).

Summary

Overall, Guild Wars 2 is a great game and it’s only getting better. How much content they have to run with, I’m not sure but I’d imagine there’s a lot. With increases to crafting levels and new items always being introduced, there’s plenty to play for and aim towards. I know I’ll be playing for a long time to get at least one character with some of the harder to obtain items. Will you?