Vigilant Walrus
Member
I gave up GW2 because of the messed up dungeon system, it's not fun at all.
I don't even think about raiding in GW2, it would be a torture.
It is a lot of fun. The problem with Dungeons in GW2 is that they give a bad impression because they are difficult and ask more of the player than what many are used to. There is no anywhere near the same dependency and reliance on movement, dodging real-time combat and twitch-skill, while at the same time navigating the tab-targetting encounters.
I've met countless people who came back later to the game, and they almost always say the same thing- "I was just turned off the game because it was so different from what I expected".
Dungeons in GW2 are not perfect. Not by a long shot, but there are some really cool ideas, and they get my heart racing a lot more than any dungeon I have ever played in WoW, SWTOR and so on.
It's also a misunderstanding that there are no teamwork. Lots of teamwork. Roles are assigned on the fly- but heals, buffs and aggro is not so massively overpowered and easy like in other games, so everyone has to do their part. This increases the intensity and the difficulty. When I was tanking in traditional MMOs, I would have a disgruntled healer (who was always told to STUF if he didn't do a good job) while I spammed my Taunt rotation. It was the most nonsensical repetitive nonsense. completely dumb AI, endless encounters with little variation.
People would tell you how to play, drama, don't play with pugs, cry more n00b, and so on. It was just a bad experience.
In GW2 people are generally really cool because everyone has different means to help one another. rangers can use melee weapons if they want to (but with a twist), warriors can used ranged weapons (with a twist) - everyone can do unusual things, heal, buff, deflect, DoT, debuff, stack, rally and so on, in unusual ways, and this leaves for more freedom and less shitty people telling other people how to play.
Due to the nature of dungeons being able to be cleared by any combination of players (like a dungeon of 5 warriors) or without anyone specced for healing, the game has to rely on enemies dealing high damage. It's different from all other MMOs, but it really is more stimulating.
I see the negativity in this thread, and I acknowledge it, because it took me a good 10-dungeons in the beginning were I hated it too. Because it was difficult. the story dungeons were, particularly in the first year, poorly balanced (difficulty wise) and the rewards were not good. Thankfully a lot of good changes have been made to them, and they are a lot of fun now.
I like the dungeons in GW2 because they reward high skill level, they reward teamwork for people who really want to teamwork- and they reward experimentation. Like when I run as a shout warrior, healing my allies, removing their conditions as I use a buff them with speed buffs with my warhorn, and add AoE fire damage with my longbow.
In other MMORPGs I would have been ineffective, got some racist comment, get told to kill myself and go away. Really my favorite part of GW2 is the nice people. IGN has a good article on why players in GW2 are much less hostile (generally) than in many other MMOs; http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/10/05/the-heroic-habits-of-guild-wars-2
Trinity is just bad. GW2 doesn't fix it, but there is no going back to that. Not for me at least.