Classic + should progress like guild wars 2. I can log on a just play no matter how long a break i take. Vertical adds fomo horizontal is the perfect balance.
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I actually appreciate this clarification. I was having trouble understanding what they meant and was trying to figure out how I wanted to go about asking, but you may have saved me the trouble.
Iāve played GW2 a bit before, I did end-game progression through fracticals to craft my set (the pink quality one, I forget the name). It felt like vertical progression but that was only one path to end-game, I didnāt do any other content.
Donāt get me wrong either, I wanted toā¦ GW2 is a fun game to play, but itās an action RPG style and I kinda just really like the tab-target style with the āholy trinityā approach. I just like to heal folks, man!
For those of us not well versed in it, could you or Fyshles please elaborate more how GW2 end-game works and how horizontal progression is achieved? As each new wave of content comes out, how is it compelling to players without offering power gains that invalidate old content?
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Vertical power spike, you might as well just play TBC, since that is one of the major complaints about TBC, obsoletion of all previous content.
Even now, Naxx and some Aq40 items are waaay too powerful and imo should be nerfed to some degree.
This is in part why Iām advocating that Naxx be left as the pinnacle of player power in Classic+. Theyāre pretty strong items and new content can provider alternatives and/or different paths to that power level.
I think nerfs could maybe be quite offputting to a lot of folks. Nobody likes to have a thing and then lose that thing. This is also the reason why, when Iām talking about class balance changes, Iām generally careful about not calling for warrior nerfs. Warriors can stay the best, Iād just advocate for the gap to be narrowed a tiny bit and for other hybrid classes to be a little bit more viable, especially in terms of mana longevity.
I have to stress a little bit thoughā¦ it would be a lot of effort to retune existing content in the wake a full class balance pass. While that might ultimately make for a better game, I think itās maybe best for Classic+ to take a more incremental and careful approach, focusing mostly on content early on.
Down the road maybe class balance and gear tuning is a thing people might be more receptive to, once Classic+ is a thing that exists?
Anyway, I donāt think youāre wrong here, Naxx gear is super powerful, I just wanted to share my own insights and perspectives on what nerfing it might mean 
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You only need ascended gear for fractals for the agony resistance to not die. Blue,Green and Yellow gear are only really relevant during leveling to 80. Exotic (orange gear) is pretty much where the gear progressions ends (unless you do T4 fractals) and you can buy this gear from a vendor for next to nothing or craft it yourself. Legendaryās are pure cosmetic with some QoL tacked on to them. The game is not designed to chase gear upgrades.
You can absolutely treat the game as a tab target style but if you compare it to classic WoW in the same sense I get your point the combat in Gw2 is much more fast paced like retail WoW is. Holy trinity technically does exist in gw2 but its not dedicated to a specific class. Almost anything can heal and tank because this is based on how you build your character through stats. Stack enough Toughness and Vitality and you are a tank. Stack enough healing power and concentration and you are now a healer/support. Some classes even with this do it better than others but nothing is purely dedicated as those roles. My main is literally a thief that is a healer/support 
Like I said earlier the game was never really designed around chasing gear. Old content stays relevant because the rewards no matter where you are even if its a level 10 area are good and help you either work toward legendary crafting or other cosmetics/gold. Also the collection system gives a ton of reasons to be out in older zones because a lot of these are needed to unlock rewards (like mounts). Sometimes I hang out in these early level zones to help new players with questions and jumping puzzles because the game just throws you into the world lol
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Thanks for elaborating on GW2
About thisā¦ I didnāt find it to be this way, but it could have been unawareness of how the game worked or even when I played (which was right around the desert expansion came out, a bit before maybe?). I know you can play support builds, but itās not really the same vibe as WoW. Different mechanics and different expectations.
Like, your thief, you donāt target people to heal them and keep them alive, do you? Iād imagine you go on about your dps rotation and you have some support abilities that do stuff like remove debuffs or heal your team over time as a function of the damage you do? I played a Mesmer and thatās the general way it worked when I played it.
Iām not saying that like itās a bad thing either, itās just not what Iām looking for. If I was looking for a WoW alternative, FFXIV or SWOTOR are the closest in style to that (though more in line with retail). Tab-target style and dedicated roles with abilities that directly support those roles.
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You actually do target players with abilities. The thief spec I am talking about (Specter) was added rather recently with the End of Dragons xpac that came out last year.
I do get your point GW2 was advertised as not having a holy trinity but they have definitely loosened those rules a lot over the years.
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Oh interesting. Yea thatās defiitely different than how it was when I played. But like I said, last I played was in 2017/2018ā¦ maybe?
That would have been Path of Fire and that was around the time the game got less meta heavy with certain things being required for group content. Chronomancer for example got some pretty nasty nerfs and can no longer give their group both quickness and alacrity while other classes got access to generate 1 or the other to allow for variety in group content. Banner Warrior was also reworkedā¦
GW2 aside I do think classic+ with horizontal progression and just have new content like raids/dungeons/quest add new gear with power that stays relatively inline with older content would be neat.
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Scarlet Raid, already a concept within the realm, of Classic +
Could add in some fun new consumables too that increase nature/arcane/holy spell school damage.
We have low level individual spell power potions for each, but not high level. There is also no nature damage glove SP enchant. Personaly, I would like to see weapon skill glove enchants that grant +5 weapon skill to a specific weapon type. PvP can still go for 15 agility or immune to disarm, but PvErās would want +5 to their weapon.
Smite priest burst dps could be insane with a ret paladin
Bring back a āliteā version of crusader strike for paladins, that way they have a spell based attack with a very short cooldown (like 3-5 seconds?) to stack a increasing holy damage buff, to also synergize and buff smite priests, as well.
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