The Guild Wars 2 Thread

[Black]

But then imagine carebears crying on gw2guru. ANet can't have that.

 

[SerratedBiz]

I have so many of these awkward moments when I'm killing shit, then someone else comes along and helps me kill shit, and when everything's dead I either run away or log out to avoid having to interact with them.

I hate it when that shit happens to me. I don't roll with a group or a guild. I'm a solo player. I don't get into fights I can't handle. So, when I'm whacking away at something and clearly winning the fight, I fucking rage when someone rolls by acts like he's doing me a favor by helping out. Were it not for a fear of a ban, I'd tell them to fuck off. Instead, I say nothing and keep going. I'm just waiting for one of those assholes to whisper something like "A thank you would be nice."

What kind of retarded aspie shit is this? You only hit an enemy enough to assure you kill credit, anything else is inefficient and gets in the way of grinding experiencing the world.

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

Looks like that only RK, Angsthorn and I still play

I'm still playing, but there are plenty of other games that take up my time. No subscription means no pressure.

 

[RK47]

I have so many of these awkward moments when I'm killing shit, then someone else comes along and helps me kill shit, and when everything's dead I either run away or log out to avoid having to interact with them.

I hate it when that shit happens to me. I don't roll with a group or a guild. I'm a solo player. I don't get into fights I can't handle. So, when I'm whacking away at something and clearly winning the fight, I fucking rage when someone rolls by acts like he's doing me a favor by helping out. Were it not for a fear of a ban, I'd tell them to fuck off. Instead, I say nothing and keep going. I'm just waiting for one of those assholes to whisper something like "A thank you would be nice."

What kind of retarded aspie shit is this? You only hit an enemy enough to assure you kill credit, anything else is inefficient and gets in the way of grinding experiencing the world.

welcome to MMORPGCodex. A group of gamers who prefer to play a massively online game ... solo.

 

[Data4]

Hey, I used to do the guild thing, but I learned very quickly that people are fucking assholes. I play MMOs despite that because I like big worlds and long games. Short of an Elder Scrolls game, there's nothing else available that fits the bill.

 

[sea]

Of course, they are all level 80 and I just played couple of hours in the starting quests and what the hell is up with all the fetch quests and terribad dialogue and running back and forth? Where the hell is the MMO in this thing?

Well the way dynamic events pop up and sometimes drag like 50+ people into them is cool, but it doesn't happen too often unfortunately, and when it does combat just turns into a clusterfuck.

And then you can do, uh... World vs. World? It's fun but I dunno about MASSIVE. I never got to play it at the "right" time though because it seemed mostly dead whenever I went on.

I only really got to level 45 or so and got tired of the game before then. There just isn't enough to do. Yeah, grind another area, yeah, do more WvW, etc. but spend that long with the game and it gets repetitive to say the least. They really needed a few things to mix up the formula around level 40. I know you can start in dungeons around 30, but what, I exchange grinding events on the overworld while dealing with annoying combat, to doing annoying combat for its own sake?

That said that is far longer than I have lasted than any other MMO and those early 20ish levels were really good. Maybe if I had more friends to play with it would have been less monotonous, but I can't be arsed.

 

[RK47]

Yeah, and don't even think of heading into the Borderlands at lvl 40ish and expect a fair fight. A fully kitted level 80 can just drop you in 5 seconds, despite all the upscaling the game gives.
It isn't a really competitive game at this point. It's a clusterfuck in massive World v World battles, and smaller scale battles turn into a DPS race.

The only good thing the game does is easing the PVE from 1-30.
That's where the good part ends.

I gave it a fair shot but it's time to let it go. The latest patch introduce more dungeon running that the game doesn't really need.
And to top it off, let's add more stat upgrade gear to appease the min-maxers out there.
None of the loot drops in the new dungeons can be sold in Trading Post either. It's soulbound to account.
And the instance difficulty tied to each character means fuck your alts.
I log in and saw the guild chat filled with nothing but Fractals party of various level looking for 2-3 more people to fill their slots.
And A.net thinks it's fine to leave it at that for a week. Let the Community sort of the non-existent looking for group system.

Where the hell do they get these ideas from?

 

[Excidium]

It's still easy to find group for other dungeons even though FotM dominates. I just completed my HotW set yesterday, looking mighty fine here:

Stop crying, bitch ass nigga

 

[RK47]

the bullseye on the crotch is JUST RIGHT.

 

[Shiki]

I loled.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

Still can't believe i wasted £30 on this bag of bollocks.

 

[Darth Roxor]

This is like that thing Darth Roxor was talking about

 

[Data4]

Go die

Shit, how'd I miss this?

Go fuck yourself in the pee hole with a steel pipe cleaner.

 

[RK47]

This game really needs a miracle at this point.
The selling point - Fractals of the Mists is still pretty shit concept in PVE.

This video shows how Fractals work in game

 

[Kane]

GW2 is

Spoiler

shit.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Generally I'd say the problem is that the game just isn't that enjoyable in its gameplay. If the gameplay was better, and it wasn't as alt-hostile, the game would be much improved.

 

[Kane]

Generally I'd say the problem is that the game just isn't that enjoyable in its gameplay. If the gameplay was better, and it wasn't as alt-hostile, the game would be much improved.

So, basically you're saying that

Spoiler

GW2 is shit.

 

[Erzherzog]

These game's image went from beloved WoW killer to just another dying MMO pretty quickly.

Is it the not so fun PvP? Even strictly PvE gamers seem to take a less enjoyable PvP glumly.

 

[Average Manatee]

There are official forums? HAHAOHWOW, I gotta check this out.

 

[Blaine]

I started playing Guild Wars 2 during Head Start, and through a combination of pure luck, determination, and knowing the right people, became one of the wealthiest players in the game... easily in the top 0.1%. Nascent economies are easily exploited if you have the right information.

Once the Trading Post was actually working reliably, I developed a few profitable strategies, such as buying and reselling lucrative runes and using Black Lion Trading Kits to extract Ectoplasm from rare (yellow) gear. This allowed me to earn approximately 80 gold (a fucking fortune in the first two weeks). I stumbled upon an excellent place to farm Vials of Powerful Blood in WvW before almost anyone knew they were worth farming (and also before the farming nerf), and increased my fortune to about 160 gold. The most lucrative of all was crafting exotics, though. One of my guild mates discovered by accident that you could get "legendary precursors" by putting crappy exotic gear (along with one Mystic Stone) in the Mystic Forge. He shared this information with me, we agreed not to undercut each other, and I turned 160 gold into about 430 gold. Finally, ArenaNet had a 24-hour-long event where you could buy items to craft a "Mystic Forge nexus stone" or something that allowed you to use the Mystic Forge from anywhere, and I wisely invested my money in these and their components. Later, during an upsurge in price (which soon ended), I resold them for a profit, bringing my final tally to about 600 gold. I can't remember whether that includes or excludes gold I spent on gems for myself and other in-game expenses, I may have made as much as 700-800 gold.

I quit (and donated my fortune to my guild) soon after because I couldn't play the game normally anymore. I was constantly on the lookout for the next economic exploit, constantly poring over the Trading Post for buying/selling opportunities, and the reason why was that being a capitalist at all times was the ONLY way to make gold with any sort of efficiency. And that's most likely because of the fucking cash shop; they wanted you to buy gold, not earn any. I'd say that the vast majority of players had 5, perhaps 10 gold to their names at most, and earning money through normal gameplay rather than staring at a market screen all day would earn you at most 1, maybe 2 gold per hour. This is in a game where a set of aesthetic armor can cost 100 gold. Everyone on practically every gaming website was also complaining about their characters being poor.

Last I checked, even now—many months after launch—the majority of players still have a dozen gold at most to their names. I understand economics fairly well and I realize that everyone can't simply be rich, but keep in mind that gold is tradable for gems and NPC-sold items, which at 1-2 gold per hour's worth of earning power are expensive as fuck.

Also, the game itself is shit even notwithstanding the economy.

 

[roll-a-die]

I started playing Guild Wars 2 during Head Start, and through a combination of pure luck, determination, and knowing the right people, became one of the wealthiest players in the game... easily in the top 0.1%. Nascent economies are easily exploited if you have the right information.

Once the Trading Post was actually working reliably, I developed a few profitable strategies, such as buying and reselling lucrative runes and using Black Lion Trading Kits to extract Ectoplasm from rare (yellow) gear. This allowed me to earn approximately 80 gold (a fucking fortune in the first two weeks). I stumbled upon an excellent place to farm Vials of Powerful Blood in WvW before almost anyone knew they were worth farming (and also before the farming nerf), and increased my fortune to about 160 gold. The most lucrative of all was crafting exotics, though. One of my guild mates discovered by accident that you could get "legendary precursors" by putting crappy exotic gear (along with one Mystic Stone) in the Mystic Forge. He shared this information with me, we agreed not to undercut each other, and I turned 160 gold into about 430 gold. Finally, ArenaNet had a 24-hour-long event where you could buy items to craft a "Mystic Forge nexus stone" or something that allowed you to use the Mystic Forge from anywhere, and I wisely invested my money in these and their components. Later, during an upsurge in price (which soon ended), I resold them for a profit, bringing my final tally to about 600 gold. I can't remember whether that includes or excludes gold I spent on gems for myself and other in-game expenses, I may have made as much as 700-800 gold.

I quit (and donated my fortune to my guild) soon after because I couldn't play the game normally anymore. I was constantly on the lookout for the next economic exploit, constantly poring over the Trading Post for buying/selling opportunities, and the reason why was that being a capitalist at all times was the ONLY way to make gold with any sort of efficiency. And that's most likely because of the fucking cash shop; they wanted you to buy gold, not earn any. I'd say that the vast majority of players had 5, perhaps 10 gold to their names at most, and earning money through normal gameplay rather than staring at a market screen all day would earn you at most 1, maybe 2 gold per hour. This is in a game where a set of aesthetic armor can cost 100 gold. Everyone on practically every gaming website was also complaining about their characters being poor.

Last I checked, even now—many months after launch—the majority of players still have a dozen gold at most to their names. I understand economics fairly well and I realize that everyone can't simply be rich, but keep in mind that gold is tradable for gems and NPC-sold items, which at 1-2 gold per hour's worth of earning power are expensive as fuck.

Also, the game itself is shit even notwithstanding the economy.

Play EVE cocksucker, and then tell me about focusing on exploiting the economy. I instinctively start making spreadsheets any time I play a game anymore. Tracking how much money or experience I earn per hour. If there's magic find, how much magic find I had while earning that much. I then test without magic find, to see how much I make without it, and if I can cut that out to maintain earnings without being forced as I advance to buy expensive magic find gear. In GW2 my average per hour earnings are 5g, assuming I have 170% magicfind. It cost me once I reached 80, 19g to make a top end magic find set. I spend 1 gold every 2 days buying top end magic find food. And have had 6 precursors drop for me. Magic find scales earnings upwards by around 32.42 silver to 42.56 silver per 20%. It only effects mob drops however, so event earnings are lacking, and if I take too much time out of farming say trolls in Frostgorge Sound to fight Jormag all the way through, I would see a 3 gold drop in profit for that hour. The Drop Reduction mechanics scale good loot upwards by 20% if you leave an area(IE if you stop farming trolls and go farm Karka(Don't farm Karka, spawns are slow and generally they are less clustered than Trolls in the crevice in Frostgorge Sound, meaning more TTK thus they make me 3g per hour.)), but will never increase beyond that 20% if you've scaled it too high. In general I will farm for an hour on Trolls then go farm in each region of Orr for an hour(Orr is decent even with the attempts to reduce the amount of people farming there. Drops are decent and you generally can get around 6-10 ecto's out of a single hour in each region, if you use BL Salvage Kits.)


That said, Guild Wars 2 is a VERY good MMO, people who claim it's shit need to realize something. It's a radical departure from WoW. They are going to be releasing monthly free content. The focus is on exploration and PvP at the end game, not the dungeons. And trust me, there's always more stuff to find. Just recently I found a dev and community graveyard in Orr. Completely unmarked, map section looking completely normal, and not even an achievement for getting there. People who claim Orr sucks, also need to realize, YOU DON'T SOLO THERE. That's the point where the game starts reminding you that it, you know, actually is Guild Wars, and to solo in it you need to really be good at the game, and have very specific builds. It was practically impossible to solo play in Guild Wars, it's mindnumbingly tedious, and it makes people think retarded things about the game. Guild Wars 1 would have been horrible had I not played through it with friends. Just like Orr is horrible unless you are in a group. The mobs there, every single one of them, crowd controls, mucks about with your abilities and has resistances that are interesting. It's where the game starts to get truly difficult. And the people that say Orr is ugly, really need to reconsider, is it ugly, or does it simply look like something that's been under the sea for eons.

Fractals are interesting as well. Bar 2, they all are very fun. And even the 2 that aren't can become tolerable with good communication and a decent amount of cooperation. The dungeons are all well put together bar 1 or 2 depending on opinions.

One thing I think they did really well with the game though, is divorcing themselves from the roles, and still maintaining unique class identity, every class I've tried so far has played nearly completely differently. And anyone who says the combat is faceroll on the keys until things die, needs to reconsider that strategy, by going straight to Orr and trying to farm without dying every 15 meters. The races themselves are interesting enough that even those that are similar to the ones in WoW feel at least slightly different. For instance, Asura are all without exception miniature Hitlers, in spite of basically being clones of the Gnome race from WoW. Humans are closer to LotR Elves than WoW humans. Sylvari are the most interesting of the races, at least in my opinion, and basically have no comparison in WoW. Charr are kitty orcs, but fill the role of both humans and orcs in WC. And Norn are interesting to say the least. None of them are just clones of a WoW race, and all of the races have unique identities and distinct objectives. It's a pity they seem to fall by the wayside at the end of the game in favor of the Pact.

My hopes are that the expansions add classes and races, as well as new landmasses. I'd love to see a Canthan race, and Skrit in the first XP, with Ritualists and actual Eastern style Monks getting added. Then add in the Dervish and Paragon and an Elonian race, with maybe the Tengu being added as a playable race. I think their going to do free content until the world has no blank spaces, then add in the areas on either side of Tyria.

More than that, their free to play model is the friendliest I've ever seen. Unlike LotRO which previously held this title for me. They aren't going to content gate you, at least until expansion packs come out. More than that, they are free to develop for lower levels as well, and it will still stay relavant to their player base as a whole. It won't end up like WoW where you get to the end and then run the same dungeon 40 times, to get into the next dungeon and run it 40 times to get into the next dungeon, then XPAK, you get to max level to run the same dungeon 40 times, to get to the next dungeon and run it 40 times, ad infinitus.

I definitely wouldn't call it a WoW killer, however I would call it a decent MMO, with a lot of good ideas behind it. I'm personally hoping that with the content patches, they'll add in an Asura and Sylvari path to level 80, just like there's a Norn path, a Charr path and a Human path. I loved the look of the Sylvari areas, and the game really does look fantastic. Orr which most people seem to think looks horrible, looks really good, it actually looks like something that has been under the sea for eons. The only bland/not very good looking area I've really been to thus far is that shithole that is the Karka area. I really can't wait to see what they do with Elona and Cantha. And Cantha will draw so many players to the game, even if they aren't particularly good ones and are also Weeaboo's.

Let's talk about what it does badly for a second, though. Because I don't want you guys thinking I love the game irrevocably and don't see anything bad with it. The WvWvW needs additional relevance, I would make it so that you could only get high tier(5-6) mats here and in special parts of Orr(Frostgorge and Karkaland aren't hard enough to warrant them.) The sPvP needs a better matchmaker, and a better tiering system. The classes need a little more balance, because certain weapons are rediculously overpowered combinations on certain classes, and others just fall by the wayside because of it. Dagger, Dagger on a necro is the best weapon combo because it's the fastest attacking, which means it gets the most life stolen from the enemy, which means you are infinitely more powerful. On the contrary, axe's deal shittiful damage, and their only redeeming feature is that their attack animations look amazing. The only other relevant combo's are when you have very specific builds. Dagger dagger doesn't deal condition damage with its main attack, so if you have a build focused on that, you'll want to use Scepter Dagger. Staffs are good but with a well build, which is the best possible build for a necro right now PVE wise, they aren't relavent and the traits for them are in completely different trees than the ones you need for your wells.

I also find it off that they have 3 adventurers/medium armor wearers, 3 scholars/light armor wearers, both with 1 kit user, 1 combo pool user, and 1 pet user. Even weirder, you have one upfront in your face tank(Engi, Necro), you have one avoidance/diversion tank(Mesmer, Ranger), and you have one no tank, kill it faster than it kills you classes(Ele, Thief) Then you only have have 2 soldiers, a plain jane hit things with weapon Fighter/Warrior. And a Paladin(Honestly curious why they went with Guardian when they had a class like this previously called the Paragon.) Wheres the third one, the Kit user. I hope they bring back the Dervish to fill this role. Heavy armor, lots of spinning animations, and a focus on enchantments, maybe giving the enchantments visual looks, IE, if you were using something like, dust cloak, you could see the dust cloud around the character, or if you were using Vital Boon, you're skin would appear to harden gaining a rough texture to it. They were so fun to play in Guild Wars 1, if underpowered slightly when I last played them. Only divorce them from the gods in this incarnation. Every class in Guild Wars 1 had some affiliation with the human gods, and I'm glad that went by the wayside in Guild Wars 2.

Jesus christ that became a wall of text quickly.

TL:dr?

Guild Wars 2 is a good game, made by a company that is trying their damndest not to be evil. They are going to be offering free content updates, with new zones and ETC. And whats more they won't be asking you to shell out truckloads of money to purchase those zones. They are making tonnes of money off their cash shop, most people just don't realize it. The reason I say this, is that the price of Gems to Gold, and Gold to Gems hasn't stopped raising day in and day out.

The game is gorgeous and features some of the most well done effects I've ever seen in any game. Even if it does get a little eye bleedy at times.

The games Drop Reduction mechanics means that in about 4 hours of grinding in a single area, you will start getting grays and only grays. However because of the botting problems they had at one point, it doesn't reduce entirely if you change locations. It goes down by 20%, and won't go down any further until the next reset(Which on my server is at 4PM PST.) The simplest method is to every hour swap grinding locations. This also helps alleviate tedium. Drop reduction only effects mobs the same as magic find.

Bringing me to my next point. Orr haters need to go away, it's a teamwork based area that is practically impossible to do well in solo, this angers a large majority of people who find their constant dieing and refusal to adapt to the sudden change in gameplay a solid road block. It becomes manageable and very fun to go to if you have friends.

Class design is really good, but balance could be better. Weapon variety for the classes needs to increase, and I think the game would be far better off if you could have a dual pistol Necromancer, or a greatsword Engineer. Remove weapon restrictions entirely and leave it up to the players to decide what they want to use. There should be another Soldier class and it feels to me like a class got cut somewhere along the line.

The game doesn't follow the WoW model, but instead is an exploration themepark, rather than a directed themepark. Once you hit high level, it's not the raiding that keeps you around, it's a desire to explore the world and find the best looking gear. And trust me, that generally keeps people occupied for a while(I'm still working on my legendary.)

Still TL:dr?

It's not a game for everyone, however it still is an exceptional MMO, that deserves a try. Don't just trust the mindless hate. It's good looking, it plays well. And it has a decent amount of character customization. The dungeons are well balanced, and I haven't had many bugs. Except occasionally getting desynced and then getting raged at by guild mates because I can't see when the giant shouting graveling attempts to pull a big bad wolf. The only real stinker of a dungeon thus far has been CM, which seems like it would be fun at first, like a non-combat dungeon or something. And then the instakill rocket timing puzzles, and legitimate uses of BC era WoW dungeon mechanics, like gauntlets with packs of 30 mobs. And kill corridors with near instakill turrets and enemies that CC. It's like they decided, you know all those mechanics we had from other dungeons that we cut out because they were bad, well, we put all that work into designing them, so we're just going to put them all in one dungeon. Hopefully it will be so bad it's good. Not so bad it's terrible.


STILL TL:dr?

Fuck off bitchy fuckwits, it's a sad day when I have to come in here and be a voice of positivity.

 

[Blaine]

Play EVE cocksucker, and then tell me about focusing on exploiting the economy.

I played EVE for six years. What did you want me to tell you?

I appreciate the amazing rant. You aren't even clear on your own opinion:

That said, Guild Wars 2 is a VERY good MMO...

...however I would call it a decent MMO,

 

[Kane]

That said, Guild Wars 2 is a VERY good MMO, people who claim it's shit need to realize something. It's a radical departure from WoW.

Rofl. You seriously needed a 10k word essay to post that bullshit? I feel bad that I wasted the time reading through your drivel, usually if someone puts enough effort for a 10k word essay into something, they hit a good point by accident at least once. Are you working for A.net?

 

[Shiki]

Charr are kitty orcs, but fill the role of both humans and orcs in WC

I'm very jealous of the Charrs, I love their culture, the black citadel and so on, but I just can't bring myself to play a furry race, I hate furries with passion. I could play something alien or anything other than a fucking furry anthropomorphized kitten. But in every aspect except for their appearance, they are the most interesting race of the game imho. I don't get the comparison you make with the orcs, the charrs are brutal, but very smart, cunning and technologically developed, more so than the humans and much more so than the stereotypical orc. From what I understood from the lore they started the whole engineering class concept and are the most numerous members of that profession. That's not what you'd expect from a stupid axe-toting orc. And the "humans" of guild wars are really primitive compared to both the charrs and asura.

Making such a great race and cultural concept into a furry.. now that's really dumb.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Charr are kitty orcs, but fill the role of both humans and orcs in WC

I'm very jealous of the Charrs, I love their culture, the black citadel and so on, but I just can't bring myself to play a furry race, I hate furries with passion. I could play something alien or anything other than a fucking furry anthropomorphized kitten. But in every aspect except for their appearance, they are the most interesting race of the game imho. I don't get the comparison you make with the orcs, the charrs are brutal, but very smart, cunning and technologically developed, more so than the humans and much more so than the stereotypical orc. From what I understood from the lore they started the whole engineering class concept and are the most numerous members of that profession. That's not what you'd expect from a stupid axe-toting orc. And the "humans" of guild wars are really primitive compared to both the charrs and asura.

Making such a great race and cultural concept into a furry.. now that's really dumb.

They're not even real furries you know. They lack certain stupid shit sexualization aesthetic qualities. You want truly terrifying furries, go to Club Caprice.

That said, Guild Wars 2 is a VERY good MMO, people who claim it's shit need to realize something. It's a radical departure from WoW.

Rofl. You seriously needed a 10k word essay to post that bullshit? I feel bad that I wasted the time reading through your drivel, usually if someone puts enough effort for a 10k word essay into something, they hit a good point by accident at least once. Are you working for A.net?

Personally I didn't find it a radical departure at all. Gameplay-wise, it's years behind the stuff Cryptic has done with the MMO format, and it ultimately does not benefit from trying to break the Trinity because it doesn't seem to have any idea HOW to break the Trinity.

 

[Blaine]

...and it ultimately does not benefit from trying to break the Trinity because it doesn't seem to have any idea HOW to break the Trinity.

That's the truth. The difficult parts of explorable-mode dungeons, as I recall them, consisted of playing musical chairs with the mob(s) because even a defensive-spec Warrior or Guardian could barely take any hits. Healing was a marginal help at best, and when someone went into FFYL mode, every mob in the room would make them a priority target and thus difficult to resuscitate. This might be an enjoyable paradigm in a true action game, but in Guild Wars 2 I found it to be a tedious pain in the ass. My guild could certainly complete the dungeons and eventually became very efficient at completing many of them, but as an alternative to the Holy Trinity, Guild Wars 2's method is no better. Possibly worse.

Speaking of classes, I started with a Warrior and could easily solo my way through Orr, impressively so with high-end gear, runes and food... which shouldn't have had nearly the impact on gameplay that they did in a game that's not supposed to be gear-based. A dual-axe signet Warrior with lifesteal food and good gear could plow through PvE content far better than any other class, and was pretty strong for WvW as well. I was using the "5sig babby build" for PvE long before it turned into a sarcastic meme (using 5sig babby in PvP is stupid). In structured PvP, the Mesmer turned out to be the best class by far.

I know some of that may be different now. I only played for a little less than two months, and left shortly after the Mystic Forge use-anywhere item (what were they called?) crafting event. I might try the game again in a year or two when they've had time to improve it and add content.