A Look Back at 2009

How did you guys enjoy 2009 in GW? Good? Bad?

Obviously a lot of great stuff happened in April with the 1 big content update, but what were your favorite or least favorite things of the year?

Personally, I've enjoyed the makeovers and costumes (that I got for free), as well as zaishen stuff.

I have missed the XTH and I'm really disappointed in the festivals this year (especially the Wintersday hats).


What about you?

In 2009, I finally lost faith in ANET:

1. GW2 nowhere on the horizon...
2. GW1 received 1-2 good updates, everything else sucked...
3. Wintersday LAG ridiculous!
4. And now, no hats...WTF ANET??

Personally I think that with the team Anet has on the job, they did more than enough to keep the game running. But the question is how long until the regular playerbase (non-Guru peeps) start to question how well Anet can handle their games. Personally I think that if they would make a stronger attempt at communicating to the ENTIRE playerbase people would at least realize that the game is old before jumping to rash conclusions.

Met 3 really amazing guys, had one guildy quit, had 2 super-sweet guys come back to game and ended with me taking a break after accepting the fact that I probably won't be getting GW2 thus completely removing all my initiative to grind titles in GW1.

Lost the one guy I always play Guild Wars with. He got frustrated with the way the game was going, aka dying. I still hold out, but it's rather lonely. So 2009 was a sad year for me in terms of Guild Wars.

I wish there was some way to help out, I love this game to bits and would really love to see it come back to where it was at a few years ago. I still have faith. Really hoping this skill update just truly blows me away.

I enjoyed getting real, non hero group with ally members. Quite funny to be the only frontliner, and not really a tank xD

Stopped playing GW in march to play Diablo2 again.
In april patch 1.13 was announced for the end of the month and i decided to wait until Blizzard releases the patch and continued playing GW while waiting for it... still waiting...

Disappointed with 'update', started doing XTH the month before it stopped aswell.
But hey, the person I used to always play GW with came back... twice.

I liked the anniversary update, but other than that I've been more or less on a break, only logging in to be social or pick up event swag. Title grinding doesn't interest me much anymore, and without that there's really not a lot I still need to do here. I'm still on the fence about getting GW2.

My guild switched alliances this year too, which is interesting. It's nice to be around guilds that aren't completely dead.

2009 was overall not enjoyable. Good things are most definitely outnumbered by the bad.

If anything, 2009 was a good year for GW2.

2009 was good and bad here.
I wish the updates were better and responded to skills that really needed to be nerfed. (i.e. bloodspike).
Better content updates than just costumes.
Drama


On the good side, I left the PvE guild I was in for a year and started doing HA - got my wolf : >.

Got my first ever obsidian set for my assassin.

I farmed/bought a lot of high end weapons and only need a few more to finish my collection.

I won the henchman contest!

Played and talked to some real old GvGers.

On the other hand...
1. Anyone who pays attention to game releases would know that Anet was silly and over estimating themselves when they announced a beta in 2008, thus shouldn't be upset over the lack of the game.
2. The lid on GW2 has been blown off, and with 2010 here, we'll get the other part(s) of the pre-release information.
3. There was some nice new content which is far more than what could be said for years before 2009 that wasn't a "pay to get" content: I.e., Nicholas, zquests, Dhuum, Menagerie, Codex compared to buying campaigns/BMP (and during said times, only real content update we got was Sorrow's Furnace/Titan Quests, the Tombs change, and DoA).
4. The finalization of the Test Krewe which should help out a lot in 2010.
5. Some bugs/exploits fixed, while others remain.


Overall, a pretty damn good job considering the Live Team is filled with 3 people and PR and testers (QA/TK). But that isn't saying it was a good year, I'd say a decent year. Though for GW2, a good year, since while no release or beta, we got information.

Good:

Nicholas Sandford - By far my favorite update

Nicholas The Traveler - I don't really get his items much anymore, but still a great update.

Dhuum - Even though I've never tried him, I'm sure a lot of work was put into the quest chain and him, good work.

Account-wide HoM - Another great update, nice to view all my achievements instead of just my one character's

Pet Zoo (forgot how to spell it) - Just brillant, something the community has ask for, for the longest time.

Max AR Hats - Even though I don't like the micro-transaction costumes, wearing festive hats w/ out losing AR is awesome.

Guild Wars 2 news - Finally Anet

Test Krewe - I'm not on it, but it's still a nice idea.

Bad:

Community Management - When Regina comes, she never actually answers to real questions, and stick to answering the suck-ups. She also seems to respond to tech issues more than actual game issues.

Costumes - A step in the wrong direction (imo) and I really hope GW2 isn't micro-transaction based.

Ugly:

Skill Updates - What happened to the 2 month skill updates? Scratch that, what happened to having a skill update period?

Schedule - Seems like updates are being delayed longer, and longer. Anet is also getting more employees on the Live team, so you'd think they would push out content faster than when they only had 3 Live team members.

SF - It's still around. I don't care if it's nerfed or not, but it's just something the community has been in a uproar about since the day it was buffed.


8:5 good bad ratio, for me. Overall, I guess it was a good year. During the finally stretch of '09 it seemed that everything was tumbling.

2009 saw more content, which is good, no matter what it is. 2009 saw less skill balances, which is bad, no matter what they balance. 2009 saw more GW2 news, which is ...not always good, but at least better than nothing.

Guess that sums it up for me.

Good: RRday-Shadowform-Got "People Know Me"-Made my warrior good.
Bad-RRday-shadowform not being nerfed-Codex-servers-...... much more that i dont want to write about...

The 4th anniversary stuff was great.

Everything else though was pretty downhill.

This error is occuring 2010 you time freak!
JK...but still....

^
agreed! ESPECIALLY the skill updates (or lack of). First the delays, then the change from 2 weeks to a month, (with more delays during this period), and then the change from a month to TWO months! Followed by another delay!...which still hasn't been sorted out...since september...

That out of the way, some more good and bad points-

good-
.Zhaishen rewards (especially the extra equipment slot)
.the anniversary update in general (although the pricing for some of the content may not be)
.Making some classes more viable in pve (generally just rts and paras, and all from a single update which focused primarily on them, leaving other classes out for another month )
.Improving Heroes and Hench in general (in pve) A LOT (AI updates and new skill bars for henchies)


the bad-
Xunlai Tournament House. The lack of communication about this makes me think that their trying to make everyone forget it ever existed...

By far, my favorite thing about this year was the addition of Nicholas (both Sandford AND The Traveler). While I have yet to get a mini Gwen Doll (I want one!), the Rock Candies and the kegs of ale have helped IMMENSELY! I hit 10,001 drunk mins in Sept/Oct thanks to both Nicks.

I also LOVE the Zaishen Missions, and the Zaishen Rewards from Zoins. Easy ways to get Z-keys/tomes is GREAT!

Also, the buff to the rit. Making spirits cast almost instantly, along with the modification to Signet of Spirits, made my rit playable once again. That was worth it right there!

I disliked the change to the XTH and the subsequent shutdown to it. Bob only knows when it will be back up.

Mostly, I will remember getting Legendary Guardian, Incorrigible Ale Hound and Vanquishing both Cantha and Elona this year, 18 max titles and counting. ^_^

PvP-speaking :

- Insufficiant nerf to bloodspam issue.

- Only two "good" & effective skill updates in the entire year (May & June), considering in the other hand theses updates intends to fix the shitstorm created by the insane elite buffs in 2008 (hexes, warrior's endurance, omegaspikes).

- Still no fix for the tie-breaker issue : GvG is boring as hell and this leads to decrease the population even more. The "damage lord race" is an another way of exploiting the end-game (Me/Mo Illusion of pain, Me/N Dark Pact+ Vamp spirit, lightning reflexes rangers and MB eles).

- The weakness of the Guild Lord and another NPC's in the Lord's room tends to make the ganks and split easier without a real threat/cost for the players using this strategy. This issue favors "suicide splits" in order to quickly clean the base for the low cost of 1/2 rez signets or 15-30% DP.
In my opinion, the removal of VoD wasn't the good answer and it accelerated the vanishing of GvG playerbase.

- Even with reductions of qp required (and the easy way to obtain them due to the fact that 75% of AT aren't really played), the popularity of monthly tournaments is decreasing slowly :

Registering (=/= playing) guilds to MaT in 2009

January : 64
Feb : 51
March : 58
April : 50
May : 65
June : 53
July : 57
August : 58
Sept : 51
Oct : 51
Nov : 48
Dec : 48

- Despite their intentions, Anet doesn't learn from theirs errors. Since 2006, fast activation attacks result in imbalanced spikes or pressures (eurospike, hunter's shot, melandru's shot, power shot). Buffing assassin's lead attacks to 1/2sec activation is another failbuff with wrong consequences in the metagame.
Same story with hexes : why buffing theses skills when, in the past, hexes where just too strong for the game ? (2007 meta from the CT to firsts MaT's)

- Too much snares with damage and/or fast recharge (water ele issue).

- Maybe look a bit about ranger's interrupts. The way they are designed now promotes mindless spamin for lucky interrupts + damage (spike compressed dmg) + poison spread.

- Codex Arena was a noble intention but it was implemented too late. And i still think people prefer the 8vs8 configuration in large area's than 4vs4 confrontations in small areas.

-> Suggestion : give in game prizes (character's slots, makeover's charges, xunlai, dwayna/grenth costumes...) for the MAT's ?

-> Renew the ladder play.

PvE wise- I think while ursan was waaaaay overpowered that it cost a lot of people to quit the game. I wish they would unnerf it i think it would give people a lot more to do in the game. Peopel would probably start to do DoA again, more UW, more FoW, more farming options in general. It may cause things to become overfarmed but would still give you a lot more options due to the lessened difficulty of things.

GvG wise- Dude taking out VoD was absolutely retarded. The whole lord damage thing is stupid. The constant buffing and nerfing of skills thew the whole meta into a tailspin of stupidity. everytime something got could and people cried because they weren't good enough to stop it ANet just nerfed it. Now GvG is a joke. Its los waaaaay too many strong players imo. [rawr], [KMD], [StS], [DM], [sup], [NOW] etc.

2009, the year with 1 update, no account security and the further decline of guildwars. roll on 2011

to be honest..for me 2009 one of the worst years of guild wars yet..and the closest ive come to quitting.

Good:

Equip Pack..very good update this had been needed for a very long time
Storage..seriously when is more storage not welcome even though we had to pay for it was still a good update
Zaishen Missions/Coins.. when they first brought this into the game i thought it was great..it got very boring though after about 2 weeks for me. i think more could be added to the missions, things like go vanq this area or something similar that makes u work more towards titles and makes it easier to find groups..i dunno how they would do it but im sure it could be done. atm its just the same thing over and over again
Nicholas.. same as the zaishen, nick was good for a while but now i cant be bothered..most of the items are easy and annoying to farm and ive got just about every good thing from the gifts already. was a good idea though
Acc Wide HoM.. gg and finally..
Makeovers.. ive wanted this for a while..i hated the chinky look of my ranger but i wanted her to be from factions so i had no choice now i can give her the proph looks i like for ranger..i think every char but my monk has had 1. costumes tho..were a step too far.
Skill Changes..not really a skill change but kind of a build change..keg farming nerf FTW..recharge of seed of life decreased
Halloween..the new quests were a nice change and fun
Festival Hats..nice change to wear them over armor
Dhuum..this was a great update i have to say..gave UW a bit more after it was ruined by uwsc..maybe when they finally nerf sf too..my obby might be worth something again like it was before SC's im glad they added dhuum he is a bit of a challange


Bad:

Tourney House.. made worse then removed altogether..and for i dont know how many months we have been told..its being fixed. yes anet im sure it is. well we have yet to hear any REAL news of it
GH Henchies..no more heroes in gvg and not to mention some of the winners of that contest won with pvx bars
Devona.. no 'Charge!' = useless :P
Hero Battles..rrday was bad but..because of a few greedy players you had to ruin the fun of others..gg anet..and team arenas..
Codex Arena..fail and no longer having to unlock HA is stupid too..lets let complete idiots flood the place now
Commander Title..dead title in my box which i cant change..it annoys me
SF.. WHY IS IT STILL NOT NERFED! seriously how long have they been saying it for
600/Smite..i dont see anything wrong with this build tbh..yet they are thinking of changing it...not that i agree with sf but u gotta at least leave us some way to farm/and or max titles..like kurz
Account Hacks..need i say more?
Wintersday Hats..ive been to every one and still have not got one hat..

what can i say..imo the bad greatly out does the good this year..and even most of the good could have been better. it seems to me we are getting less and less out of anet the longer gw is around. no offence to regina..but i agree with the other guy she doesnt answer questions. i want gaile back. could anyone tell me the last time regina came to town to talk to players like gaile used to? skill updates seem to be getting more irregular..instead of the other way around. on the other hand though..at least we got some news of gw2..even if it is delayed again. ive had so little to do this year that ive actually started doing titles..something i always hated doing. and only because im bored. tbh if i diddnt have to help run an alliance and my boyfriend diddnt play with me..i would have quit guild wars this year.

EDIT: fav update of the year..seed of life buff ftw

Good

1. Met plenty of awesome people.
2. Became the Guild Leader of the guild I've been in since I was but a mere nub.
3. Made a new alliance, with friends and guilds from the last one.
4. Re-met one of my old friends from when I took my random Hiatus. He ended up joining the alliance.
5. Achieved Obi' armor for my main character.
6. Went from 8 toons to 10.
7. Storage update!
8. Winning items from the BR events.
9. Getting my Miniature Mallyx on my second try with the Coffer of Whispers.
10. Equipmentpacks, seriously.
11. Name change
12. Makeover/sex change.

Bad

1. Losing friends.
2. Computer crapping out, along with monitor.
3. Ending up on the bad foot with old alliance.
4. Crappy Rodolph, grentch, and charr hats. The Finale issues from current event finales.
5. Lack of loyal guild members.
6. Almost got ripped off, but luckily I looked before completing trade(s).
7. Constant 007 attacks.
8. Unnecessary skill updates.

There's more, but that's all I can think of, right now.

I think the biggest event was the removal of HFFF.

Good:

- Rit buffs
- Dhuum
- Codex Arena

Bad:

- Zaishen Menagerie (who cares?)
- SF still raping PvE

The other stuff...eh, wasn't really that memorable enough to mention.

rawr won 500000000 gold trims


loooooooooooooooooooooool

I enjoyed Mass Effect.

In 2009 I quit playing out of sheer boredom. Played since beta and 4 years later, I just dont get any satisfaction out of playing the game anymore.

I'm really hoping that a year from now, we'll all be getting rdy to log into gw2.

This has been a great start but bad finish for GW 2009. While they were still holding up nicely in April/May/June, many of the issues occurring near the end of the year really disappointed me:

-Updates being delayed (skill updates, The Waiting Game, content updates)
-Henchmen skill bar contest
-CR being completely dead (what ever happened to Martin nowadays?)
-No GW2 for another year
-And worst of all - account security issues

Here's hoping that the start of the new year will introduce the much delayed skill update to blow us all away. Still, somehow I doubt that...

I'll try to make it short.

The year beggining was a good period (excluding everlasting balance issues). First three months were calm, developers were trying to fix some of the problems they created back in 2008 and before. I'm unable to say correctly if it happened in March and also too lazy to check it, but that was also a period of 'silent' XTH removal. It wasn't probably intentional, but the existing situation allowed it to happen. A bug in the code, wrong point distribution, firstly few months of 'our programmers are trying to find a problem' (like it was hiding in their own work) and later 'attempting to fix it', finally evolving into meaningful silence. It won't probably come back. It was destroying game economy (multiple accounts and more) but the way to fix it was in changing rules and prizes not by abandoning it.

In April everyone was excited about upcoming anniversary update. It went live and was a very good PvE content update. We could only question the purposefulness of some of the added stuff, like Zaishen Menagerie. Nonetheless, it's a part extending the content, which might be useful and interesting to some players; I personally cannot see the point in it.
In May and June we had another attempts to balance the skills buffed and overpowered earlier. In June developers gave us rit and para buffs which were good if you play PvE and meanigless if you PvP (meaningless in terms of buffing things and making them balanced). July was a dead month because everyone was AFKing in Nine Rings.

In following months: some PvP changes, after few months of 'Crying of the Community' heroes were removed from PvP arenas - better late than never, TA&HB removal in exchange for some Codex Arena to which I never had time nor wish to go and dead months filled with insignificant information about Test Krewe, things they want to do, miscalculations about skill updates. Linsey even stopped (why?) writing her journal in September or I missed something. Half or even more players left the game to play life or Aion. PvP community's condition seems to be like after receiving numerous agonizing chops. Best players left, you can notice it even by viewing Observer 'B' window.

Overall it was not as bad as sad year. Anet's employees did few amazing things but also forgot to do many more. I believe they were doing their best in these hard conditions. Unfortunatelly even the best balance update in upcoming months won't probably bring back all those fantastic guys you knew and played with over all those years, that left due to some mistakes made this year.
Sorry for all the possible grammar mistakes.

Nicholas Sandford - was nice even though i didnt spend a lot of time in pre. but it at least it gave pre dudes/duddetts a thing to do.

Nicholas The Traveler - I love this. it gives me something to do. now if i could get some of the nicer items from nic.

Dhuum - Bad. i didnt like this idea. i love the new goodies in chest. it would have been nicer if you could fight him in a shorter term way for the chest.

Account-wide HoM - doesnt do anything for me. if it gave us some benefit then i can see it being worth while. but at least its nice to be able to look at other armors times on a diff char then your one who got the armor.

Pet Zoo (forgot how to spell it) - love this! now i lvl a 20 pet on one char i dont have to repeat the freaking long annoying process on another char. please the babies are too cute!

Max AR Hats - it's cool to be able to wear the hats without losing the goodies you got got from your head piece. but the costumes are fail. if we could have bought them with in game money then i would love them.

Guild Wars 2 news - nice to have news but would have been nicer to get the product sooner.

Community Management - When Regina comes, she never actually answers to real questions, and stick to answering the suck-ups. It would also be nice for them to admit mistakes and do more good work for us. ie work on skill balances and finally find a way to stop this lag.

Costumes -nice another thing you have to shell out rl money for. fail absolutly fail on anets part. you have time to make something we have to give you more money for yet cant make something nice for free for us? and i so hope gw2 isnt going to be a micro transaction game.

Skill Updates - What happened to the 2 month skill updates? Scratch that, what happened to having a skill update period?<--i second that thought


SF - either nerf it or stop freaking saying you will nerf it! and leave my nice 600/smite alone too!


Equip Pack..i so loved this idea. now if it only didnt cost so much for the biggest bag. <3

Zaishen Missions/Coins.. love it but like others say. same old boring content is still same old boring crap. i only grinded them each day to get my 2 heavy packs. now i have them i only do them when i need title points,its easy to do or it can be runned.


Makeovers.. would have been a great idea if it didnt have to take rl money. here's hoping gw2 has it and it will be free.

Halloween..the new quests sucked. wish they had added more then just the ones in uw. and please for the love of god add new jokes next year!

Tourney House.. you say you are working on it anet but me thinks you arent. if you are going to remove it; which i would hate if you do, at least give us our points we would have won. gg anet you knew it had issues for how long and decide now to work on it?

GH Henchies..i dont pvp so this doesnt bother me. but i miss seeing heros pawn some rl people on observ.

Hero Battles..again didnt pvp so it didnt bother me when it got yanked but it was fun to watch when going through title items.

Codex Arena..fail! even i a non pvp can see limited skills we can pick to make a build we love to us is bad.

600/Smite..unlike others who say it is easy i dont think it is. when you even had to spend hours on a run due to a bad 600/smite or die in a 2 hour farm in uw cause they interrupted a heal then you would think like me. still i didnt think is was being over used like SF sins were.

Account Hacks..didnt get hacked but was wrongly banned by anet. they so need to work on this more and with bans. really anet how many people got wrongly banned this year?

Wintersday Hats..i got my 2 hats but i been in many district with people who didnt. i am glad to see anet will allow those to get their hats. now i can only hope when they redue it wont be 6-1yr until the redux it.

so over all i rate this year as a 5/10. here's to hoping this year will be better.

I'll speak of my experience:

Nicholas Sandford/ The Traveler: These were fine for the first few weeks, but now have become annoying to do, now I only do it when the drops are easy to get, (15mins to farm max).

Z-Quests- Only did them to get the coins for the equipment packs, now they just change without my notice, as they are for many of you.

The Birthday update: Pointless, most changes were totally cosmetic and the storage panes are THE MOST USELESS THING EVER, you can buy a character slot for the same price and get more storage along with birthday gifts.

Costumes: I don't like paying for cosmetics.

Account Wide HOM: Could have been done much faster but it is good that they finally got around to it.

Dhuum: Was fine the first two times, now it is tedious, once SF is nerfed UW will be a ghost town.

Hats with AR: If only the new ones we are getting actually looked good.

Zaishen Menagerie: Basically the stable system in World of Warcraft with an unnecessary island.

Test Krewe: A group of video game "testers" that are supposed to be from the community that have worse communication with us than the actual developers are just there to be guinea pigs for the skill updates which are already totally late.

Community Management: One post every 3 months does not amount to being in touch with the community.

Nerfing Sf + 600: Put ursan back to the normal state if you are doing this, trying to get pugs for dungeons is mindbendingly frustrating and have a 60% failure rate (if not more based on MY experiences).

Paragon STILL relies on one bar to keep it the slightest bit viable. Dervish and Mesmer are still TOTALLY useless.

Tourney House: down with no word ...........................

Codex Arena: OMG LOLOLOLOLOLOL

Gh Henchies: Henchmen with dumb PvX bars, no, because no.

Let me see. I liked Nicholas the Traveler, the Zaishen Challenge, and the Zaishen Menagerie. I also liked the Equipment Packs and the additional Xunlai Storage Panes. Btw I still need more storage. I really liked the Makeover Credits and the Stylist NPC. But my favorite for 2009 has to be the Wintersday costumes! Thank you so much, Anet! I am really looking forward to 2010. oh and is it possible to have a walk command? j/c

I can't really think of many amazing highlights from '09. Overall it was a really boring year in GW for me. Didn't really achieve much, or do much. Then again, maybe I'm just getting bored with it after 4 years of playing. I decided to uninstall it and take a break for now, and reinstall/start again when there is an update that catches my interest enough to drag me back...which means it might be a while. xD

Highlights:
April Update


"Meh's":
Boredom after playing for years, nothing to keep me interested anymore.
General lack of updates, lack of skill changes.
Ugly Hats for the same 'ol rehashed festivals.
Tournament House vanishing.
Friends leaving one after another.
NCSoft Security issues.


Things I wish would happen this year, that would re-spark my interest for a little while:
-Bringing back the Tournament House.
-Major skill updates/changes.
-New content (and NOT charging us $10 for it D: ).
-Redesigned festivals/events, with NICE hats.

I'm aware most of that can't happen cuz of lack of resources...would still be nice though. >_>

2009 was a tough year for GW, but then again how much can we really expect from a slightly aging free-to-play game with little support/development and with a replacement already announced for how many years now? Don't get me wrong, I've been playing GW since May 2005 and I'm about as close to a GW fanboi as you can get, but it's clear that GW is on life-support -- attempting to bridge the uncertain gap until GW2 arrives. I can only hope ANet is learning huge lessons because GW2 will not succeed with this lack of communication and attention to the community (not to say there weren't positives in 2009, but community communication issues have plagued GW since the beginning) and with the game's inbalances going unchecked.

As a PvE player, I've been rather happy with as much as we have gotten, all things considered. I can see how PvP'ers may feel shafted, and I can't say that I blame them. Hopefully they will get a nice update soon. It's interesting to look at the progression of GW from the beginning - from skill vs. time and being primarily PvP with PvE a way to unlock skills and pull players into PvP after beating the game, to a much greater PvE-focus but without the content in place to truly support it, to the possibilities of less zones / constant world-ness in GW2.

Pro's:
Zaishen Quests
Zaishen Menagerie
Nicholas Sandford / the Traveler
Dhuum
HoM changes
Equipment packs/storage panes
Character renaming/transforming (way, way overdue to be particularly useful for me, but still nice they finally did it)
Codex Arena

Con's:
Major account security issues
Tournament House fiasco
Death of HB/RA/commander title
Lack of skill balances/updates (which I understand with resources diverted to GW2, but it' still sad to see this happen)
Microtransactions (I would just about rather pay a monthly fee for better servers and real content than be charged for every little new bell and whistle)

Overall, I give GW a passing grade for 2009, but only just. Now that 2010 is here, I am hopeful for significant news on GW2 in the next 3 - 6 months. These next few months are going to say a lot for where we will be a year from now.

Pro's (for me)

*Nicholas (although only found out about him by accident)
*Zaishen Bounties/Missions & I guess equipment packs also fall into this category
*Some lucky guild joining, althought that is outwith A-Nets control
*OPTIONAL costumes (Nice idea, don't mind chucking some extra cash to A-net if it'll have a positive outcome on GW2)

Con's

*Ignored lag issues
*As far as i know, no definitive answer about XTH
*Not pushing the boat out on hats this year, possibly the last year for GW's 1, unless the Dev's of GW's 2 know something we don't?
*No Mini Polar bear (grumble, grumble lol)


All in all it was good for me, none of the skill nerfs affected me badly, although I'm not a farmer. If MPB attempts and Kurzick title counts as farming, WTB Tractor

A big con is how FA, JQ, and AB are not as functional as they should be, to put it delicately. Especially AB is always grenz and ancestral. Since that was the last thing that really bound me to the game because I enjoyed it, there's only so much of the same you can take before it starts to become boring.

First year I've taken a break from GW for more than a month.

Personally...

A pretty good year. Our old guild died with the coming of Warhammer, but those of us who preferred free play stayed on in a guild of about eight. Summertime, we mass-joined our current guild, a collection of like-minded and like-humored adults. Nice to have around.

I found the updates a hell of a lot better than the support for the game I used to play: Madden. Each year, I bought a new game. No updates. NO new rosters unless I found user-created ones. No support for bugs. So the support, as marginal as many claim it to be, is far better than EA's model of "New Year, New Game."

Nicholas: great. But I'm fading in my intensity on it.
Skill balances: I've liked some (go go ranger and rit buffs, yay for ursan nerf), and waited for others (ummm..SF? Spell Breaker?). I'll believe in balances when I see them.
Xunlai: loved it until it died. Still love the keys and chest, but the supply's tightening and I can't afford the title.
Compression of Kurzick/Luxon Title grind: glad this happened, and glad I didn't rush those at all.
Zaishen Missions and Bounties: Nice way to move people around and try to rezz PuGs. Seems to have faded. But it makes alliance and guild a little more active, too.
Dhuum, Skeletons, and UW changes: I like the theory here--to make UW less hospitable to splits and solo artists. The Dhuum fight was fascinating.
Halloween: repeatable, high-reward skeleton farm. What's not to love?
Equipment pack: thank you, thank you, thank you.

Not a fan of...

Microtransactions. Costumes, storage, etc., are nice, and I have paid for them. But I'm really curious to see where it'll stop: will we need to pay for new areas, new quests? Will there be a pay-to-get legacy hat set, in case you missed any? (actually...I might buy that...)

The disintegration of the market: this is probably inevitable in a game this old. The sellable items seem to be now of the +xx ecto variety (or straight xxx ecto), or tonics/cons/party, or pets. I rather miss the mid-price market of 25-50k items. This is a function of people having what they need now, and it's a pointless whine, but it's tough to feel excited about WTS and WTB when it's all just voltaics, obby, eternal, and minipets.

Soooo...I guess I had a pretty good year.

Came back from about a 7-8 month "break".

Discordway (which I ironically don't use brought me back.) + PS3 breaking / buying a new one leaving me a bit bitter. Re-hooked up with guildies / friends, still working on HoM unlocks.

Learned how to earn gold at a quicker rate making HoM unlocks more within my reach / quicker unlocked. Helped several new players get there feet wet.