The Guild Wars 2 Thread

[Rahdulan]

I can't comprehend why GW2 even has a solo story mode.

A: It has absolutely nothing to do with the gameplay design they emphasized (dynamic quests & RvR)
B: THEY ARE FUCKING SHIT. SHIT WRITING. SHIT ENCOUNTERS.

I assume it was done because of direction for traditional players and MMORPGs pretty much trying to tell stories in the same fashion singleplayer games are doing it. Hell, "heart quests" were added because people had no idea what to do after tutorial and couldn't grasp the idea of just going somewhere in the zone and doing their thing. Not to say ANet helped when they somewhat dumbed down starter zones when they released that feature pack coinciding with the Chinese release. Dynamic Quests are of course not perfect, but I prefer them over static setups with a dialog window, which is still basically what Personal Story is, albeit prettied up.

It could be just be a classic problem with GW2 - trying to be everything and do all the dipping they can as far as different player types go. I have yet to try the expansion, though.

 

[SerratedBiz]

And apparently Hounds of Balthazar legendary skill and all racials have been taken out?

They are still there. Maybe you switched races / god?

 

[Angthoron]

They are still there. Maybe you switched races / god?

Are they in one of the learnable mastery tracks?

 

[SerratedBiz]

Are they in one of the learnable mastery tracks?

I don't have HoT and still have them on my characters, even new ones.

ETA: Not sure if you got what I meant, but Hounds is a human only Elite. Norn get the shapeshift ones, for instance.

 

[Angthoron]

I don't have HoT and still have them on my characters, even new ones.

ETA: Not sure if you got what I meant, but Hounds is a human only Elite. Norn get the shapeshift ones, for instance.

Ah, it looks like it's a Revenant-only feature or bug. All my other characters have things differently.

 

[Shammy]

So how does everyone feel about the expansion so far? I'm loving it, though the mastery grind is a bit silly when you get to higher tiers. Also waiting on PvP seasons and Raids to see how it all wraps up, but so far its fuckin sweet.

 

[Angthoron]

Haven't had too much time to play but so far:

Positives:
- New class seems to be interesting enough to level to 80
- New zones look nice, and seems like there's a lot of new mobs
- New mob abilities, good stuff
- The story stuff, while unnecessary in an MMO, is fairly entertaining for solo play. VA is decent, too.

Negatives:
- Can see new zones becoming Orr #2 in terms of "Fuck you if you wanted to solo the map" after the initial surge of players subsides. Mob pops seem a bit too dense, there's too many tug of war events at safe havens, and these occur way too frequently at the moment (once in 10 minutes, what?)
- Looks like for any sort of meaningful Mastery progress, you'll have to grind hard
- Mastery progress may not actually be worth mentioned grind
- How the hell am I supposed to farm my skillpoints now, I still have a bunch of crap to unlock in my Legendary progression
- Too much potential farm
- Some mobs seem to be a rape train for melee

So yeah, looks like majority of my gripes come down to the crazy farm potential, some balancing and tuning issues, and long-term zone viability. Haven't seen raids or new endgame yet, playing at a beyond casual rate.

 

[JustMyOnion]

Perhaps tell us the price tag of the expansion, and then give us the amount of content it provides.

 

[Shammy]

Perhaps tell us the price tag of the expansion, and then give us the amount of content it provides.

Can't be bothered to just google it?

50 dollars, Elite Specs that alter the playstyles of each class, 4 new zones with lots of exploration and meta events to farm, with Dragon's Stand being the most well done meta event they've ever done, balance changes, Raids that will be coming out middle of the month, pvp seasons that come December 1st, Guild Halls, a new Class, Scribe (new crafting discipline), Mastery system to act as a linear progression system of sorts, new skins, skills, traits, new WvW map, and other stuff I'm probably forgetting.

 

[JustMyOnion]

Can't be bothered to just google it?

You know full well what kind of question it was.
$50 for an addon that has 4 zones, 1 class, 2 armor sets, 0 dungeons, 1 promised raid and 3 hours worth of "quests" is pathetic.

 

[Shammy]

You know full well what kind of question it was.
$50 for an addon that has 4 zones, 1 class, 2 armor sets, 0 dungeons, 1 promised raid and 3 hours worth of "quests" is pathetic.

You glossed over a lot of stuff that I mentioned. Granted it's fine if you don't enjoy the game, but you really did just completely ignore a lot of key components of the expansion.

 

[Riel]

In comparison to GW2 base game HoT certainly offers much less, that said GW2 offered a shit-ton of content to the point that I would say it is the game that's ever offered more content per $ even if that content was pretty shallow, on the other hand while content/$ is far less for the expansion this time it seams like the it's at least a little deeper and will be longer lived in terms of enjoyment beyond need to grind.

 

[JustMyOnion]

You glossed over a lot of stuff that I mentioned.

No, I left out the stuff that isn't even worth mentioning. PvP seasons, really? The profession is just there for guild shenanigans and the mastery system isn't even a feature, but a gating system. (grind 2000000 XP to gain access to vendors, what a joke)
Specialization and its associated traits and skills might have been worth mentioning if there was a significant enough amount of them, but they're a drop in the bucket. Guild halls seem to be a clusterfuck so far and the new guild system pretty much kills smaller guilds.

In comparison to GW2 base game HoT certainly offers much less

Also in comparison to almost every other expansion out there. Wouldn't be too sure about longevity either, I've seen a lot of frustration about the new maps and vanilla content seems to be more popular than ever.

 

[Shammy]

No, I left out the stuff that isn't even worth mentioning. PvP seasons, really? The profession is just there for guild shenanigans and the mastery system isn't even a feature, but a gating system. (grind 2000000 XP to gain access to vendors, what a joke)
Specialization and its associated traits and skills might have been worth mentioning if there was a significant enough amount of them, but they're a drop in the bucket. Guild halls seem to be a clusterfuck so far and the new guild system pretty much kills smaller guilds.

Also in comparison to almost every other expansion out there. Wouldn't be too sure about longevity either, I've seen a lot of frustration about the new maps and vanilla content seems to be more popular than ever.

PvP Seasons will either save or ruin the PvP scene, with incentivized rewards and a legendary backpiece to work for. Even if you don't PvP, you can't deny that this is something great for PvPers. And Elite Specs have drastically influenced the meta, in both PvP and PvE. Hardly a drop in the bucket. Again you don't have to like the expansion, but you can't just say 'elite specs are a drop in the bucket' or ignore the potential in PvP seasons.

 

[Mangoose]

Mesmers are clonemakers instead of hexers/interrupters/etc.

Fucking fail.

 

[SerratedBiz]

While there's not any dedicated interruption mechanics in GW2, other than your run-of-the-mill stuns/dazes (ie, unlike GW's interruption and shutdown builds), Mesmers are very potent condition stackers and their mobility / clone mechanics are pretty fun. It's a class with a pretty high skill ceiling and I'd put it up there with the Elementalist among the more demanding and fulfilling classes to master.

Not that I actually mastered them, because you'd need sub 300 ping to win at PvP in this game.

 

[Average Manatee]

Too bad GW2's skill ceiling is a few stories below GW1's skill floor.

 

[Seethe]

I bought the game for the Revenant class, only to discover afterwards that you have a determined set of traits, and you cannot interchange them. I'm retarded.

Seriously though, the class is bland as hell. At least it's still funner than Warrior.

 

[Mangoose]

Mesmers are very potent condition stackers

How exciting.

and their mobility / clone mechanics are pretty fun.

No, they're not fun. I played one for long enough as my first character before ditching it.

 

[Darth Roxor]

empathy/backfire/ineptitude or bust

 

[Kjaska]

I bought the game for the Revenant class, only to discover afterwards that you have a determined set of traits, and you cannot interchange them. I'm retarded.

Seriously though, the class is bland as hell. At least it's still funner than Warrior.

The set path for traits thing was a feature they introduced for the HoT xpac.

Arenanet is currently on a path to revert all of the initial designs which made GW2 different from all the other popamole MMOs.

 

[Kefka1134]

This game rocks.

 

[SerratedBiz]

Mesmers are very potent condition stackers

How exciting.

and their mobility / clone mechanics are pretty fun.

No, they're not fun. I played one for long enough as my first character before ditching it.

Not saying it's exciting, but it's somewhat similar to certain Mesmer builds in GW1 that consisted of stacking hexes until your health pips took a skydive.

And yes, they're fun. There aren't many (any?) classes in MMOs with the same kind of mobility a Mesmer has. Try out PvP, you might enjoy it. The AI has nothing going for it, of course it's going to suck ass to play a high-skill character in a dungeon.

 

[Mangoose]

Try out PvP, you might enjoy it.

I did at launch. Gets old.

 

[Kjaska]

Please don't do it