In your opinion will the feature patch help the game? We might as well speculate on what is coming based on leaked information and prior experience.
We have already been told the balance changes (in ready up and on the balance forum). Prior experience shows us that these will be close to all the balance changes in the actual patch. So it is unlikely thief will be addressed. AH bunker guard (bunker), spirit ranger (support), warrior (transition class) and thief (roamer) will thus all likely still be the apex predators of the game for another 3-6 months. Necro gets hit really hard which is a good thing in isolation, is there still hope anet will do similar significant nerfs to other strong builds in your opinion?
Then there is the sigil and rune changes. And the addition of at least one amulet. Obviously these are both frightening and good. To outwiegh all my concerns, I am really impressed they are doing this sigil and rune rework. It has been needed for a long time and REALLY should freshen things up for at least 3 months. Really will be interesting to finally be able to buildcraft and have fun testing things out again as a team and individually.
However, this general happiness comes with some concerns. Obviously warriors are receiving one of the largest buffs possible as they will be able to equip 4 on-swap sigils and get 4 such buffs every 10 seconds. Thus, however the sigils are balanced – warriors will always be top of the tree. I suspect warrior will come out of these sigil changes really dominant again. Perhaps, though, an overdue lyssa rune nerf will give warriors something to think about. As warrior and thief are the two classes which abuse lyysa runes the most. My main concern with this is that arenanet will follow their usual “buff everything mindlessly” approach. So maybe they will make lyssa runes the power level which they will buff everything to.
New game modes are obviously what everyone has wanted for 2-3 years. During alpha it was leaked that gw2 designers went against strong feedback on conquest being the only game mode being bad. Finally they have relented and listened to the community. But how much have they listened is the question. Do you think this game mode (as has been rumoured) will be hotjoin only? If it is hotjoin only how frustrated will that make you? Personally, if it is hotjoin only I am 100% (instead of 95%) done with this game. I rarely play for 3 months now, and if the new game mode is hotjoin only then I will feel lied to again and will uninstall. Surely they wouldn’t make such a mistake? I hope the rumours are incorrect, although usually they are not.
So overall, I am hopeful about the feature patch helping the game. If I was a betting man I would bet on the following:
1, Balance becoming more cheesy with more power creep
2, Sigils changes making warrior unstoppable
3, The new game mode being hotjoin only
Number 3 on the list above is the big one of course. Time will tell. The fact anet haven’t come out and said whether the new game mode will be hotjoin only is just indicative of the poor communication we receive from them. Good developers share their vision of the game. We aren’t talking about time tables here or even specific features. We are talking about a high level vision that players can buy into. If they came out and said their vision is a new game mode that is only in hotjoin then we could all happily quit now.
