I agree that balance is a serious issue in this game. I haven’t been here 9 years and I can see it! I feel that in general most of the balance issues are symptoms of a few underlying problems. Staff not playing their game from level 1 to see it with new eyes. Bias towards balancing with high level players in mind (ex: Nerfing pathfinders because ultra high level players might make them Shiny). Design staff not always looking carefully at what is there before adding/changing things (I know it’s hard on an old game, but still). There’s probably even more here, honestly. I really hope staff takes some time and looks within itself to try to correct the underlying issues. All else are symptoms of the bigger problems.
I have noticed morale dropping overall lately as well. I think PvP is one of the biggest contributors to this. This is because PvP is both heavily promoted (look at GoW in stores and see it tout the PvP system!) and unavoidable. You need PvP wins for daily quests and certain Campaign step. Paying to skip a Campaign step is pretty expensive and most people don’t want to be stonewalled behind one Campaign step.
So people walk into PvP (possibly for the firs ttime in years) and get stomped by Wand of Stars / Elementalists (Stellarix is a symptom of this problem, IMHO: Stellarix is stupidly overpowered. Change the 3x back to 2.1 - #205 by Marbles ). And those Elementalists then literally say things like “I don’t care about low level players, how they play or feel” and that anyone who thinks that the obvious overpowered setup of the moment is bad is just “whining”. Mix of obvious OP combo everywhere plus toxic players using the combo is going to drive people away.
Can I put your ideas in the “Fix PVP” thread? Or you could post it there yourself! We’re working on collecting and brainstorming ideas with the hope that if enough of us say something in a very obvious collected place, we will be heard. They have been working a lot on PvP and promoting it heavily, so I feel there’s a solid chance that they just might. Thread is here: Fixing PvP (the mode itself)
I know the weekly mode is supposed to be tough. Journey, Invasion, Underspire, ect. But when people are already feeling low from betting stomped on and laughed at in PvP, it makes the difficulty ramp and unbalanced enemies feel even harsher. Guild Wars is down due to bugs, apparently. There is an official thread for suggestions on improving the mode. Feel free to stop by: Guild Wars Going Forward
I hope that if enough positive, lucid players make intelligent posts that eventually we will be heard. I know balance is possible. I have seen games like Gwent where balance is paramount and they even have in-game systems where people can vote on and point out unbalanced combos! I don’t want to give up on Gems of War. Come on, staff. Please do better.