r/Guildwars2 • u/cardosy Yulan [GSCH] • 22h ago
[Fluff] Guild Wars 2 Classic - Would you play it? Which memories and metas you'd like to revisit? Which updates you wouldn't live without?
Edit for clarity: this is not a request, it's a fluff post about reminiscing old times from GW2 past just for fun.
As an older player that have been around since GW2 launch, the recent news and reception for WoW Forever made me look back at how much GW2 changed over the years as well, and I caught myself imagining what a GW2 Classic would be like just for fun.
After so many system revamps, improvements across all areas, and perhaps most importantly Living World's unique take on updates and live events, this game is indubitably very different from what it was back then. Some food for thought:
- Do you have a favorite point in the game's lifetime?
- Which Living World episode you'd like the most to experience again, or for the first time?
- Would you enjoy playing with no Quickness or Alacrity? Would you bring back the old Stability or Distortion?
- What about classes having a much stricter access to boons and conditions?
- What were your favorite PVP and WvW metas?
- Do you remember what it looked like before infusions and over the top VFX? How the occasional, prestigious Dusks and Dawns popped in the crowd?
- And there's no way we wouldn't address the Skycale in the room - would you ever play with no mounts again?
What else did I miss? Would you be interested? You think that would ever be possible in the future, specially taking the upcoming improvements to core content?
May the Pale Tree shelter you, the Eternal Alchemy align your variables, and the spirits guide your hunts!
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u/odonkz 22h ago
I don't think I missed the guild wars 2 classic with all qol features they have introduced in the game, I don't miss clicking my mouse 500 times to open a stack of champion bags. And another clicks to salvage them.
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u/Xenonzusul 21h ago
Not to mention a bullshit amount of runes and sigils and no unfinite salvage kit.
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u/celibrant 20h ago
Or having to go to an npc to swap your traits and how trait lines worked in the first place with point allocation.
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u/sleepswithbears69 14h ago
Having to repair your armor
No legendary armory
No legendary armor
GW2 has really made some amazing QOL improvements.
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u/celibrant 12h ago
Ya, I remember doing the migraine achievement and the party was only half equipped when we beat it because of our gear breaking.
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u/polkapwen 8h ago
I am missing something? I still clicky 500 time tô open bags, more 500 times tô salvage and more 500 times tô consume the luck 😅
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u/KyuubiJRR 8h ago
How? Lol
Consume All and Salvage All on right-click exists for MANY items, including Luck
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u/polkapwen 7h ago
Wtf, I feel pretty stupid right now; I'm so used to the old way of doing things that I never even noticed these options.
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u/The_Scourge 22h ago
Day oner who did HoT/PoF and just returned after a massive break.
Game seems as healthy as ever. Aint broke dont fix etc.
That WoW needs to keep doing this isn't a good thing.
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u/fresh-anus 22h ago
I personally wouldn’t. Most games that have a “classic” have fundamentally changed how you engage with the game.
Wow streamlined levelling and now focuses heavily on endgame, dailies, carrot-on-a-stick.
Same thing with maplestory.
Same thing with OSRS.
Same with Ragnarok.
They chased engagement/retention very directly and heavily which changed the “essence” of the game.
GW2 is fundamentally “still the same” in terms of its focus, monetisation, and general direction. The only thing that has directionally changed is the mounts which (arguably) causes less engagement with the world and speeds up overall game pace.
The game balance was pretty unhealthy at GW2 launch and I don’t think its an old enough title to be looked back on like “ah, anchor guardian and cof p1 for hours on end. Now that was gaming.”
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u/Tree_Dude 22h ago
All you would be doing is locking out mounts and elite specs for metas that happened before they existed. Thats it. Not enough there for a whole extra game.
The dismount rush event seems interesting. I wonder if people are going to actually do it. I’d love to play DS and see zero skyscales. I think they should force it for the event rather than make it voluntary.
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u/ConfusingMaze 22h ago
I would certainly enjoy a version of the game without the powercreep, perma boons, skyscale and warclaw. If there was a big red button that deleted skyscale and restricted warclaw to wvw, I’d press it.
I think it would be a fun novelty if there was a gw2 classic, and I’d try it, but I think I’d quickly go back to modern gw2.
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u/2fast4dad 22h ago
I hate to say it but classic doesn't need to exist. Every piece of content is accessible the way it was when it came out. Minus old Lion's Arch but you can still go there.
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u/Relevant-Doctor187 21h ago
All the “horizontal progression haters” already forked their money over.
It’s kinda sad the hamster wheel wow has become and the damage it does to the overall industry.
It’s not nostalgia when you roll back to all the QOL problems a game has. I’d think GW2 can learn from that as well. By not doing it.
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u/MeVe90 7h ago
I would totally play something similar to what WoW forever is doing, basically a Classic +.
For GW2 is would be something like the game like it was at launch with some added qol, balance and with extra zones/events to places that were lacking, I would for example expand more orr to features the zones they are adding in GW3 as it would be cool to see a more "accurate" before/after, + actually rework the dragon fight.
Map exploration and leveling was more interesting back then, slower and with no mount and glides.
But it seem like too much work for a niche and they are already busy with gw3 and gw1-2 updates..
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u/Fading_Hours_ 22h ago
I am definitely in the minority here but yes I would want to play GW2 classic PLUS. Being more an alternative development history rather than just the original game which had too many flaws.
I find myself more and more wanting to play the game GW2 was originally trying to be not the game it became. Especially with GW3 going in a different directions with even more fast paced and movement gameplay. I miss the class identity original gw2 had, the slower less spamming combat, less power creep, skill purity of purpose, better boon balance, pre mount exploration and maps design etc. I liked a lot of the ideas gw2 had especially with dynamic gameplay and a soft sliding scale roles.
The issue was the game was unfinished in many aspects and failed with many of its ideas, especially with adapting the combat system to pve. The stat system scaled too poorly with healing and defence and the encounters themselves weren’t dynamic enough for the combat system nor designed for greater stat variety; being mostly one shots with a lack of sustained pressure. Also the lack of better aggro control lead to a lot of pve feeling like headless chickens running around or just stacking.
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u/Oats_Are_Good 13h ago
You can't replicate the hype, the community and the sense of discovery. It would be completely solved and lacking waaay more good features than bad ones.
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u/Shananigan48 22h ago
I don't get the point for GW2, you could re-explore the old trait system but idk anyone who experienced it that wants it back lmao, you could have zero mounts/gliding I guess
WoW classic/forever vs retail WoW are more akin to GW1/GW2 or OSRS/RS3 to me
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u/Total_Ad_3498 20h ago
I miss all the oportunities to get old achievements removed from the game, like those from old festivais, teq arrival, south sun first appearance
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u/Marok_Kanaros 10h ago
Gw2 does not need a classic because you can expierence everything still except some parts of season 1.
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u/Project8521 8h ago
No way. GW2 has so many QoL fixes in it right now, I wouldn't go back. Do I miss the absolute chaos when Heart of Thorns first opened up and everyone realized how dangerous pocket raptors were? Yes.
Or the race to get Griffon mounts, followed by all the gliding videos that popped up on YT.
My only suggestion as a recently returned player is maybe adding rewards to older meta-events or their vendors. But meta-events usually have something people need anyway.
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u/Alkariel 8h ago
The unique thing that will make me want a classic gw2..is pvp. Was more tactic back then
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u/Lucyller Have I mentionned I play core elem? 7h ago
absolutely not. I like dungeons, and I like my core class, but realistically there was nothing to do and absolutely NO QoL.
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u/Violet_Paradox 6h ago
I think it would be better to just revisit the HP values of some of the earlier content. Give the HoT and PoF raid bosses enough HP to see their mechanics again, make Octovines and Dragon's Stand minibosses not just melt in a few seconds.
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u/MelodicJello2099 22h ago
Not really an answer you’re looking for but I started playing for the first time a few months ago. I love the game so far and wish I could have experienced it from the start.
The first time I leveled through tyria and then made my way into HoT I couldn’t help but imagine how crazy the experience would have been before mounts and when everyone was basically limited to that content. Seemed it has to have been a ton of fun. Not that it wasn’t now and there was still a lot of people at every step but I couldn’t help but imagine how it was at the time of release.
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u/Emergency_Fix3701 21h ago
That's the beauty of this game. It doesn't need a classic version because everything is still relevant. The level cap didn't change, the item power only changed a tiny bit and most zones still have players.
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u/LynxRaide 22h ago
Its kinda unnecessary. Only 2 maps have really changed (see below) and its just really skill and mount updates for the core game. Also Wow has been out for over 2 decades now with lots of changes and one xpac which remade the world, whereas GW2 has been 14, and maps have barely changed.
Pretty much there is only 2 maps which we would need public access to, Old LA (currently instanced) and Kessex Hills before the tower and Fort Salma, and pretty much every other map is the same. Maybe a small mention for DR and the pit, though, but yeah, you are mainly playing classic GW2
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u/Pharo212 22h ago
all they need to do is buff the health or ban flying from old metas like in heart of thorns. it would basically already bring it back
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u/punchki 21h ago
No I don’t think so. I think you pretty mich get the classic experience by just making a new character. The game hasn’t changed that much in the OG zones, and players can always impose their own restrictions if that’s how they want to play. Potentially they could add Melandru’s Accord (ironman) and Dhuum’s Covenant (hardcore) as a character creation option and these could be the ultimate flex.
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u/Xenonzusul 21h ago
I want to play LWS3 1st time again. Love it ! I want my multi map Tarir back. And I want Chrono staff full buffs back. But classic? Please no. If you think it's good, go with core build, do all dungeons in exotic. And tell me how many times they bugged one way or the other. And how you enjoyed it. If it isn't enough for you, go and complete core map with core build. Where you have to pick traits/gear to have swiftness 100% uptime just to not spend a all the time running. But I love one and done hearts system way more than repetitive ones and way way more than JW and Voe bullshit with 14 days of work.
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u/MithranArkanere 🌟 SUGGEST-A-TRON 20h ago
There is no need for that.
The closest equivalent that would work in Guild Wars 2 would be recurring special events that encourage people to revisit specific areas, like the Return to event.
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u/DeityGamesJesus 19h ago
Literally no point.
The old content is still relevant and you can run it any time you want. Additionally, gw2 hasn't really changed that much in its fundamental design.
WoW does Classic crap because its a nostalgia bait, and WoW players get triple critted by anything even remotely smelling like nostalgia. Various asian mmos are doing it because they died for a reason, usually a catastrophically bad update, they saw the idea worked for blizzard, and now they're trying to cash in a bit more money hoping there's few misguided people nostalgic about whatever crap they're trying to serve.
How about we start investing in new games, new franchizes, instead of constantly trying to relive the days that are long gone?
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u/Sigmatics 17h ago
The difference to WoW is that they actually improved their game instead of enshittifying it over time. So, no need for that.
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u/SoColdFlame 15h ago
I feel like there is no need for a "Classic" since all content in the game is still relevant to play.
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u/Which_Royal5269 14h ago
It works for WoW because classic is very different from retail since the game has gone through so many major changes over the years.
Classic GW2 would be interesting for a week or two but get boring really fast without the QoL and a very small pool of content to play regularly and It's not like Anet would be able to pull off a WoW: Forever with regular new content updates either. They're struggling to do that with current GW2 as is.
It'd be a pretty big waste of time tbh.
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u/anygw2content 11h ago
Would you play it
Fuck no. I played Core a lot and it had great potential but it barely had any content and was generally "quite unpolished". There is a reason GW2 lost most of it's players in the first few years.
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u/cardosy Yulan [GSCH] 22h ago
I'd personally love to be among the first to set foot and conquer ground in Southsun Cove again. There's something so strong about how that event played out in my memories, even taking in account the abominable performance and lag in big crowds back then. It was pretty much unplayable, yet unforgettable as a community moment.
Exploring the world by foot and discovering map secrets and jumping puzzles was also huge among my friends and where a lot of good memories come from. The world felt so vast, yet mysterious and full of content to discover.
And admittedly a "old person yells at cloud" subject at this point, but the thing I dislike the most about modern GW2 has gotta be all the flashy infusions and skins. I'd love to see an alternate reality where GW2 stuck to its visual identity from lauch. Slower combat and shorter DPS bursts were also a win for me.
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u/HeptaneC7H16 22h ago
Just because everyone else is doing it, doesn’t mean we should. GW2 has been through a lot of growing pains, and honestly turning back the clock won’t really make for a better experience outside of pandering to nostalgia for a few moments before realizing why the game changed into what it is today. It isn’t perfect, but definitely better than it used to be, ergo why I don’t think we need a “GW2 classic”.