One of the things I do while following the zerg in WvW (other than watch TV shows) is to talk on mumble with my friends. One of the recent discussion point was 'why is GW2 so zerg focused?'

It is actually a game vision that made it so. The vision of GW2 is all about 'groups without the barrier to get players into groups'. It is so focused on getting people 'in a group' that just being in the same area = group in terms of gameplay; esp DE / WvW. Being in an area with a lot of players = more XP / Loot in PVE and higher chance to win in a PVP (sometimes referred to as 'Death Ball' or just 'Zerg' in WvW). Thus this encourages 'zerg' at a gameplay level because of the overall vision of the game and the game designs / game systems created to suit that vision.

Offensive is passive while defensive is reactive / active. The strength of your 'group' increases in a linear fashion as you add more players; hence it is passive. But all defensive systems are active; dodge, shield, heal, react to offensive push in WvW etc. Once again, the game pushes the player-base to be all about offensive and 'find the biggest zerg'. It's system is based upon trying to create the biggest 2 blobs of players and smash them into each other.

Whether you personally find this enjoyable or not is completely subjective, I find it amusing in small bursts.

The only place you are still likely to see 'zergs' in PvE are in Orr. Most 1-75 content is now done by smaller groups, who have to be more organised and helpful if they want to beat the more challenging DEs.

Open world content wasn't really designed to be challenging though, because it is far too uncontrolled. And to be fair, the only MMO with challenging overworld encounters I have played was EQ2, and those were for elite raiding guilds with the best gear (Avatars of the gods during EoF -> TSO).

PvE challenge in GW2 is found in the dungeons, most people just stick to the easy ones, but there are challenging ones there that require players to work as a coordinated team. Making the overworld challenging just isn't practicable, or necessary.

Same as WvW, that was never meant to be challenging, the challenge is in sPvP. Open world PvPers don't relish a challenge or fair fight, they just like being able to kill people by any means necessary. Pretty much the opposite of a fair fight / challenge. If you want a PvP challenge, you should be doing tournament sPvP.

I agree that WvW is mob focused. Most of PvE is also mob focused.

However, with the change in Arah temple mechanics, especially that of the Temple of Grenth, simply spamming your skills doesn't seem to work as well.

They also have said that some Guild Missions will be harder than others and simply standing around and spamming auto attack probably won't be the best idea.

(Source: https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Guild-Missions-revealed/first#post1439703)

I do believe there will be more challenging content in the open world for you to enjoy fairly soon :)

Originally posted by evilastro

Open world content wasn't really designed to be challenging though, because it is far too uncontrolled. 

Which is why I scratch my head whenever someone acts like killing someone in the open world is supposedly so skillful when  they more than likely just ganked the guy when they were at their weakest (I know I would, I might be a player who likes thrills, but I am not stupid enough to attack a person at full strength...unless I'm feeling really gutsy), and then skedaddled the moment reinforcements arrived.

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Originally posted by Vorch I agree that WvW is mob focused. Most of PvE is also mob focused. However, with the change in Arah temple mechanics, especially that of the Temple of Grenth, simply spamming your skills doesn't seem to work as well. They also have said that some Guild Missions will be harder than others and simply standing around and spamming auto attack probably won't be the best idea. (Source: https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Guild-Missions-revealed/first#post1439703)   I do believe there will be more challenging content in the open world for you to enjoy fairly soon :)

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