The Guild Wars 2 Thread

[Hobo Elf]

Hey, man. I was expecting GW1 to be an open world PvP game with real time territorial control and mounts and shit. They said that Guilds could capture whole regions and that would make questing for rival guilds difficult if they wanted to go and do stuff on the enemies turf. I got none of that and hated the game for it. Well, they added in the territorial control later, but it was so lame and gimped that it was virtually meaningless. The whole series has always been shit and at a Peter Molyneux level of fake promises.

 

[JustMyOnion]

Wow, so I wasn't paying attention for a bit and suddenly GW2 went F2P. Desperation?
Anyway, seems they managed to alienate whatever newbies they could get almost instantly with the addon pre-event. It's another "Mordrem invasion" going on in 4 low level zones where you have to run around with a massive zerg and try to tag some instantly dying mobs... for 30 minutes. After those 30 minutes, depending on how many events you've "participated" in you get a certain amounts of tokens and a chest with some useless shit. Then wait 30 minutes for the next invasion in another map, and continue. After 4 maps there's a 90 minutes downtime.
Now there's been a bug where you didn't get any rewards (or less rewards? Not sure), but also it's just such a mindnumbingly dull and boring grind, and the amount of tokens needed for anything (mostly skins and the likes from earlier living story parts) requires you to do this shit basically 24 hours a day, and since this entire invasion lasts only 4 days it's physically impossible for most people to get anything out of it. Great first impression. How fucking incompetent can you be?
Also, the addon's $50 and it has like 10% of the base game's content.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Wow, so I wasn't paying attention for a bit and suddenly GW2 went F2P. Desperation?
Anyway, seems they managed to alienate whatever newbies they could get almost instantly with the addon pre-event. It's another "Mordrem invasion" going on in 4 low level zones where you have to run around with a massive zerg and try to tag some instantly dying mobs... for 30 minutes. After those 30 minutes, depending on how many events you've "participated" in you get a certain amounts of tokens and a chest with some useless shit. Then wait 30 minutes for the next invasion in another map, and continue. After 4 maps there's a 90 minutes downtime.
Now there's been a bug where you didn't get any rewards (or less rewards? Not sure), but also it's just such a mindnumbingly dull and boring grind, and the amount of tokens needed for anything (mostly skins and the likes from earlier living story parts) requires you to do this shit basically 24 hours a day, and since this entire invasion lasts only 4 days it's physically impossible for most people to get anything out of it. Great first impression. How fucking incompetent can you be?
Also, the addon's $50 and it has like 10% of the base game's content.

Gw2 has been a train wreck since launch, the pve and pvp fast devolved into mindless zerg grinding... No fun to be had here.

 

[Avellion]

I dont agree with the people who argue for that GW2 was banal. It wasnt particulary innovative, but it differed itself from WoW quite heavily. But innovation is not always a good thing, especially when said innovation is stuff that no one really asked for.

Questing in GW2 is more dull than ever, often feeling like random, incoherrent chores, rather than a storyline to follow or objectives to pursue. The heart events were some of the most dull questing I have seen yet. The Dynamic Events, were a good idea, but after seeing a town get invaded every time you revisited it, made any of your achievements utterly redundant. There was too little interconnectivity as well, with the frog town quest was the only one that I felt had some interconnectivity with Dynamic Events.

Combat, differed quite heavily too from what was established with the DikuMUDs. Four features heavily differed GW2 combat from the mmorpg standard, they all were made for the worse,

1. No threat was a good thing in theory, but randomly changing targets is not how it should be done either. I dont like threat systems, and tanks making the rest of the party invisible. But what they implemented was nothing more than a system removed a role without adding anything meaningful in return. Essentially turning combat into a game of hot potato, with players rolling out of the big attacks. Speaking of which,
   
2. Dodge rolls. Words can not express my absolute distain for dodge rolls. In PvE it turns encounters into "dodge big attacks" otherwise facetank, in PvP it provides players with a get out of jail card with little opportunity for counterplay and in build making, well it greatly homogenizes defense. Resulting in very few interesting defensive options. That didnt involve passive defense or dodge rolls.
3. No mana or other resource to manage. Only thieves had any resource to manage. The rest had only cooldowns to worry about, this resulted in skills being able to be used much more carelessly (using skill X could prevent you from using skill Y later on), this also removed the ability of attacking the enemy's resources.
4. Move and use any skill. I feel like being able to move while casting pretty much any spell could have added a lot to the game, but in the end, I feel this only had detrimental affects to the whole positioning aspect. In WoW, casting a pyroblast, could have major game implications as you would also have to root yourself in place for quite a while. It is stuff like that that added a huge difference to cast bar spells and instant cast spells, one would allow you to move and attack whereas the other required you to position yourself properly.

Guild Wars 2 was also quite innovative in its ability to upset the series old fanbase, or at least, it was in the mmorpg market. Fallout 3 already had it beat.

 

[Dire Roach]

I dont agree with the people who argue for that GW2 was banal. It wasnt particulary innovative, but it differed itself from WoW quite heavily. But innovation is not always a good thing, especially when said innovation is stuff that no one really asked for.

Questing in GW2 is more dull than ever, often feeling like random, incoherrent chores, rather than a storyline to follow or objectives to pursue. The heart events were some of the most dull questing I have seen yet. The Dynamic Events, were a good idea, but after seeing a town get invaded every time you revisited it, made any of your achievements utterly redundant. There was too little interconnectivity as well, with the frog town quest was the only one that I felt had some interconnectivity with Dynamic Events.

Combat, differed quite heavily too from what was established with the DikuMUDs. Four features heavily differed GW2 combat from the mmorpg standard, they all were made for the worse,

1. No threat was a good thing in theory, but randomly changing targets is not how it should be done either. I dont like threat systems, and tanks making the rest of the party invisible. But what they implemented was nothing more than a system removed a role without adding anything meaningful in return. Essentially turning combat into a game of hot potato, with players rolling out of the big attacks. Speaking of which,
   
2. Dodge rolls. Words can not express my absolute distain for dodge rolls. In PvE it turns encounters into "dodge big attacks" otherwise facetank, in PvP it provides players with a get out of jail card with little opportunity for counterplay and in build making, well it greatly homogenizes defense. Resulting in very few interesting defensive options. That didnt involve passive defense or dodge rolls.
3. No mana or other resource to manage. Only thieves had any resource to manage. The rest had only cooldowns to worry about, this resulted in skills being able to be used much more carelessly (using skill X could prevent you from using skill Y later on), this also removed the ability of attacking the enemy's resources.
4. Move and use any skill. I feel like being able to move while casting pretty much any spell could have added a lot to the game, but in the end, I feel this only had detrimental affects to the whole positioning aspect. In WoW, casting a pyroblast, could have major game implications as you would also have to root yourself in place for quite a while. It is stuff like that that added a huge difference to cast bar spells and instant cast spells, one would allow you to move and attack whereas the other required you to position yourself properly.

Guild Wars 2 was also quite innovative in its ability to upset the series old fanbase, or at least, it was in the mmorpg market. Fallout 3 already had it beat.

The basic pve questing system in GW2, aka "doing map completion" was apparently made to be brainless by intentional design. Originally, the game was made so that the open world only contained dynamic events. Renown hearts were added later after early testers complained of not knowing where to go because they felt that the game didn't give them enough direction. Much later, they added a compass that points you in the direction of the nearest unexplored location or unfinished event. With every big feature patch, Anet keeps working toward the goal of making the solo leveling experience as laid back and disconnected as possible in an attempt to make a WoW-like game that is even more casual-friendly than WoW.

You got some things wrong with those four points though:
1. There is an aggro system in the game, but because Anet intentionally wanted to avoid the holy trinity, pulling off effective tanking and healing was made to be so difficult that players just avoid it completely. The current pve meta in dungeons is full dps glass cannon strategies that are usually based on exploiting the game's relatively dumb AI, although this might (or probably not) change with the expansion since they're introducing raids and taunt mechanics.

2. You can only dodge roll so often in a fight. Granted, in PvE there are not too many fights that truly require you conserve your stamina carefully so that you don't end up being unable to dodge a red circle. In PvP, players need to use "active" defenses such as blocks, blinds, interrupts, weakness, line of sight, and so on in order to stay alive past the time that they run out of stamina.

3. Neo-Anet strikes again, limiting resource management mechanics in an attempt to avoid reusing the GW1 energy system for stupid reasons. Still, warriors have adrenaline, necros have life force, and mesmers have a three illusion limit. Ironically, the new revenant class features an energy system that is almost exactly like GW1's.

4. There's a lot of skills that require you to stand still to cast them. Almost every channeled skill slows you down greatly, requires you to stand still for the entire casting time, or just roots you in place.

GW2 has tons of design flaws and shortcomings, but it still mostly just gets criticized for the wrong reasons.

 

[Avellion]

The basic pve questing system in GW2, aka "doing map completion" was apparently made to be brainless by intentional design. Originally, the game was made so that the open world only contained dynamic events. Renown hearts were added later after early testers complained of not knowing where to go because they felt that the game didn't give them enough direction. Much later, they added a compass that points you in the direction of the nearest unexplored location or unfinished event. With every big feature patch, Anet keeps working toward the goal of making the solo leveling experience as laid back and disconnected as possible in an attempt to make a WoW-like game that is even more casual-friendly than WoW.

You got some things wrong with those four points though:
1. There is an aggro system in the game, but because Anet intentionally wanted to avoid the holy trinity, pulling off effective tanking and healing was made to be so difficult that players just avoid it completely. The current pve meta in dungeons is full dps glass cannon strategies that are usually based on exploiting the game's relatively dumb AI, although this might (or probably not) change with the expansion since they're introducing raids and taunt mechanics.

2. You can only dodge roll so often in a fight. Granted, in PvE there are not too many fights that truly require you conserve your stamina carefully so that you don't end up being unable to dodge a red circle. In PvP, players need to use "active" defenses such as blocks, blinds, interrupts, weakness, line of sight, and so on in order to stay alive past the time that they run out of stamina.

3. Neo-Anet strikes again, limiting resource management mechanics in an attempt to avoid reusing the GW1 energy system for stupid reasons. Still, warriors have adrenaline, necros have life force, and mesmers have a three illusion limit. Ironically, the new revenant class features an energy system that is almost exactly like GW1's.

4. There's a lot of skills that require you to stand still to cast them. Almost every channeled skill slows you down greatly, requires you to stand still for the entire casting time, or just roots you in place.

GW2 has tons of design flaws and shortcomings, but it still mostly just gets criticized for the wrong reasons.

I would argue GW2 is more casual than WoW already. Probabkly was the case too with launch as well.

1. So They do use a threat system then. I guess I was wrong about this, and just never noticed it.
2. Well, yes, there are more defenses than dodge rolls, but that doesnt change the fact that defenses have been terribly homogenized compared to the likes of World of WarCraft or many of its clones, since everyone pretty much uses the same thing for their main method of defense.
3. Yes, limit breaks exist, and so do summoning limits. But these resources cannot limit are nowhere near as interactive for both your and your opponent as a good old energy bar. Nice to know that the Revenent goes back to a GW1 energy-like system, I just hope its more well executed than the thief's initiative.
4. True, I did forget about those skills, on my dagger elementalist I had a really powerful earth attack that rooted me in place for roughly 5 seconds. It was by far the most satisfying skill to use, and in my opinion the only satisfying skill to use as that class. That said, how is that number compared to the number that let you cast and move without any movement penalties though? Either way, you are right on this point, I guess my opinion was just tainted by those who seeked to copy GW2's style and made every skill not cause any limitations on your movement.

But despite my negativity, there are some things I feel the game got right. However, it seems like no one actually copied the things it DID get right. The Sigil and rune system was far more interesting than WoW's enchantment system, with some sigils providing weapons and armor with some actually fun effects.

 

[Dire Roach]

I would argue GW2 is more casual than WoW already. Probabkly was the case too with launch as well.

1. So They do use a threat system then. I guess I was wrong about this, and just never noticed it.
2. Well, yes, there are more defenses than dodge rolls, but that doesnt change the fact that defenses have been terribly homogenized compared to the likes of World of WarCraft or many of its clones, since everyone pretty much uses the same thing for their main method of defense.
3. Yes, limit breaks exist, and so do summoning limits. But these resources cannot limit are nowhere near as interactive for both your and your opponent as a good old energy bar. Nice to know that the Revenent goes back to a GW1 energy-like system, I just hope its more well executed than the thief's initiative.
4. True, I did forget about those skills, on my dagger elementalist I had a really powerful earth attack that rooted me in place for roughly 5 seconds. It was by far the most satisfying skill to use, and in my opinion the only satisfying skill to use as that class. That said, how is that number compared to the number that let you cast and move without any movement penalties though? Either way, you are right on this point, I guess my opinion was just tainted by those who seeked to copy GW2's style and made every skill not cause any limitations on your movement.

But despite my negativity, there are some things I feel the game got right. However, it seems like no one actually copied the things it DID get right. The Sigil and rune system was far more interesting than WoW's enchantment system, with some sigils providing weapons and armor with some actually fun effects.

1. To be fair, the game has absolutely no indication of an aggro system other than when a neutral mob get pulled, it's name changes from yellow to red.
2. How do you figure that GW2 is more homogenized in terms of defensive play options for classes compared to WoW? Everyone can dodge in GW2, but that doesn't mean playing defensively in GW2 feels the same with every class. An effective PvP mesmer, for example, uses a combination of clones and and stealth to mislead their opponents to an extent where it might not even be necessary to perform a single dodge in a fight.
3. Yeah, the current energy mechanics in GW2 are pretty simplistic. Also, despite having cooldowns as the main cast-limiting mechanic, they've also barely explored interactions with haste/slowing/CD-reset mechanics. Only recently did they add a slowing debuff and change the equivalent of haste to be a removable/stealable buff thanks to the upcoming chronomancer specialization.
4. What annoys me the most is how they "balanced" movement with casting: your forward speed is instantly slowed down by almost 30% as soon as you are engaged in combat. This makes the swiftness buff pretty much useless for combat since the only options you are left with to escape from or catch up to opponents are teleports and a few specific weapon skills, such as leaps. This gives classes with a wider variety of mobility skills a major advantage in typical small-scale WvW battles.

About the sigil and rune system, I would say they are perhaps more comparable to glyphs than enchants in WoW. However, they are so unbalanced, you will always want to choose the same top combinations depending on your stat build no matter which class you play. The only real limiting factor is how expensive the best ones can be to acquire.

 

[Avellion]

1. To be fair, the game has absolutely no indication of an aggro system other than when a neutral mob get pulled, it's name changes from yellow to red.
2. How do you figure that GW2 is more homogenized in terms of defensive play options for classes compared to WoW? Everyone can dodge in GW2, but that doesn't mean playing defensively in GW2 feels the same with every class. An effective PvP mesmer, for example, uses a combination of clones and and stealth to mislead their opponents to an extent where it might not even be necessary to perform a single dodge in a fight.
3. Yeah, the current energy mechanics in GW2 are pretty simplistic. Also, despite having cooldowns as the main cast-limiting mechanic, they've also barely explored interactions with haste/slowing/CD-reset mechanics. Only recently did they add a slowing debuff and change the equivalent of haste to be a removable/stealable buff thanks to the upcoming chronomancer specialization.
4. What annoys me the most is how they "balanced" movement with casting: your forward speed is instantly slowed down by almost 30% as soon as you are engaged in combat. This makes the swiftness buff pretty much useless for combat since the only options you are left with to escape from or catch up to opponents are teleports and a few specific weapon skills, such as leaps. This gives classes with a wider variety of mobility skills a major advantage in typical small-scale WvW battles.

About the sigil and rune system, I would say they are perhaps more comparable to glyphs than enchants in WoW. However, they are so unbalanced, you will always want to choose the same top combinations depending on your stat build no matter which class you play. The only real limiting factor is how expensive the best ones can be to acquire.

2. Due to an overly shared defensive playstyle. When every class is given the same tool, homogenization does occur to some extent. In WoW, a warrior would depend on healers (and stuns) for survivability, a rogue would rely on stealth and incapacitations and the ability to counter whatever the opponent is doing, a mage would rely on superior mobility and the ability to root enemies in place, a priest would use fears and shields, a druid would use a bit of everything, a hunter would live and die by their ability to keep their distance without the tricks of the mage (but would otherwise remain more mobile as it could move and attack), affliction warlocks would rely on a big health pool and the ability to drain life.
3. and 4. Well, seems like the main problem is incompetence of the devs in the end. Sometimes their heart may be in the right place, but they may lack the talent to pull it off.

Same goes with the sigil/rune system. I love the concept (so nice to have gear that isn't +5% damage or something equally boring), but with Arenanet's current management, I dont expect anything great.

 

[Mangoose]

Hey, man. I was expecting GW1 to be an open world PvP game with real time territorial control and mounts and shit. They said that Guilds could capture whole regions and that would make questing for rival guilds difficult if they wanted to go and do stuff on the enemies turf. I got none of that and hated the game for it. Well, they added in the territorial control later, but it was so lame and gimped that it was virtually meaningless. The whole series has always been shit and at a Peter Molyneux level of fake promises.

Was that a reply to me?

I never was aware of GW1 so, well, I can't say much about expectations. I just know it had good "intellectual" gameplay when I checked it out later.

 

[Dire Roach]

2. Due to an overly shared defensive playstyle. When every class is given the same tool, homogenization does occur to some extent. In WoW, a warrior would depend on healers (and stuns) for survivability, a rogue would rely on stealth and incapacitations and the ability to counter whatever the opponent is doing, a mage would rely on superior mobility and the ability to root enemies in place, a priest would use fears and shields, a druid would use a bit of everything, a hunter would live and die by their ability to keep their distance without the tricks of the mage (but would otherwise remain more mobile as it could move and attack), affliction warlocks would rely on a big health pool and the ability to drain life.

Bruh, if you're claiming GW2's gameplay variety between classes is too homogeneous compared to WoW's... are we even talking about the same game? In GW2:

-Warriors take advantage of their high durability, along with banners and stances, to play an aggressive, mostly melee-focused style while also improving the damage output/passive defense of allies.
-Guardians use a wide variety of active defenses that also often work as close range attacks and can easily cleanse conditions. Their Virtues give them constant passive bonuses that can be sacrificed in critical moments to boost and defend allies.
-Rangers can specialize in high single-target damage in both melee and range, use traps for CC and AoE damage, or provide area support with spirits.
-Engineers use turrets for area control, elixirs for boon sharing, and gadgets for all kinds of utility. Their weapon kit skills and toolbelt system means they have the widest variety of play styles in the game.
-Thieves have the lowest durability of all classes, so they rely purely on stealth, mobility, and high burst damage to kill things. Can easily trigger combo fields and share stealth as well as poisons with allies.
-Elementalists are the only class in the game that benefit from using rotations that involve constantly casting different skills. They are sought out by groups for their ease in creating the most useful combo fields and providing powerful conjured weapons.
-Necromancers use their life force as a secondary health pool and a casting resource when activating their death shroud ability. They can inflict, absorb, and spread conditions easily while using wells, marks, and minions to attack and drain health from their enemies.
-Mesmers are constantly creating mirror images of themselves in combat. They can sacrifice these illusions for both defensive and offensive purposes. They are able to create wormhole portals that allow large groups of allies to pass through, which are especially useful for ambushes and infiltrating forts in WvW.

It seems that you tried GW2 and quit in the early levels, so I can understand if you didn't see any of this, but I guess it just speaks volumes of how badly the game is dumbed down at first for the sake of maintaining a confusion-free "new player experience". Ironically, they do allow you to play sPvP as soon as you exit the starting instance with full build customization options so you can compete just as well as any max-level player.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Was that a reply to me?

I never was aware of GW1 so, well, I can't say much about expectations. I just know it had good "intellectual" gameplay when I checked it out later.

Kinda, but also a reply not aimed at anyone specific either. I was just stating that Arena.net was never known to be a reliable company and although GW1 managed to be a somewhat decent game it still ended up being a disappointment due to the large promises, which soured my enjoyment of the game entirely.

 

[Avellion]

I was talking about defense here, now you bring in offensive and support as well.

Regardless, summing them up,

-Warriors take advantage of their high durability, along with banners and stances, to play an aggressive, mostly melee-focused style while also improving the damage output/passive defense of allies.

High armor (though the same could be said for guardian), Totems, self buffs, melee focused, buff.

-Rangers can specialize in high single-target damage in both melee and range, use traps for CC and AoE damage, or provide area support with spirits.

Traps, and totems again

-Guardians use a wide variety of active defenses that also often work as close range attacks and can easily cleanse conditions. Their Virtues give them constant passive bonuses that can be sacrificed in critical moments to boost and defend allies.

Defensive skills (as if every other class didnt already have access to these already), auras, buffs. Nearly everything comes down to their class gimmick to make this class unique.

-Engineers use turrets for area control, elixirs for boon sharing, and gadgets for all kinds of utility. Their weapon kit skills and toolbelt system means they have the widest variety of play styles in the game.

Buffs (which class doesnt have this), minions, class gimmick.

-Thieves have the lowest durability of all classes, so they rely purely on stealth, mobility, and high burst damage to kill things. Can easily trigger combo fields and share stealth as well as poisons with allies.

Stealth, high mobility (though warriors are extremely mobile as well), high burst dammage (which far from not being exclusive to the thief), comboing with fields (which every class can do), buffs.

-Elementalists are the only class in the game that benefit from using rotations that involve constantly casting different skills. They are sought out by groups for their ease in creating the most useful combo fields and providing powerful conjured weapons.

Conjuring weapons (are these even viable? Back when I played, nobody ever bothered with these), combo field creation (which every class can do).

-Necromancers use their life force as a secondary health pool and a casting resource when activating their death shroud ability. They can inflict, absorb, and spread conditions easily while using wells, marks, and minions to attack and drain health from their enemies.

Debuffs, totems, minions, health drain, class gimmick.

-Mesmers are constantly creating mirror images of themselves in combat. They can sacrifice these illusions for both defensive and offensive purposes. They are able to create wormhole portals that allow large groups of allies to pass through, which are especially useful for ambushes and infiltrating forts in WvW.

Minions, wormholes (probably the coolest skill in the game).

Man, this is why I hate the "bring the player, not the class mentality that modern mmorpg designers have. Restrictions are what make a class, and with GW2, they seemed to remove most restrictions outside of somewhat different means to achieve a goal, and the occational cool gimmick like portals. A class being able to do something somewhat better than others is not enough to get out of the homogenized rut GW2 is in.

Bruh, if you're claiming GW2's gameplay variety between classes is too homogeneous compared to WoW's... are we even talking about the same game? In GW2:

It seems that you tried GW2 and quit in the early levels, so I can understand if you didn't see any of this, but I guess it just speaks volumes of how badly the game is dumbed down at first for the sake of maintaining a confusion-free "new player experience". Ironically, they do allow you to play sPvP as soon as you exit the starting instance with full build customization options so you can compete just as well as any max-level player.

I quit GW2 at level 80. I was so hyped for it prior to launch, even suckered all my friends into it, once we got to around levle 60 however, we became extremely bored with the game. And once we hit level 80, most of us couldnt take it anymore. The only reason we managed to push in that far anyways was because we were playing with eachother. The gameplay barely changed after level 20, sure at levle 30 you got elite skills, but those were so situational due to absurdly long cooldowns, so that they rarely got any use and didnt have much of an impact on minute to minute gameplay like the elite skills in GW1 did.

 

[Dire Roach]

Man, this is why I hate the "bring the player, not the class mentality that modern mmorpg designers have. Restrictions are what make a class, and with GW2, they seemed to remove most restrictions outside of somewhat different means to achieve a goal, and the occational cool gimmick like portals. A class being able to do something somewhat better than others is not enough to get out of the homogenized rut GW2 is in.

Ok, so GW2 feels too homo for you not so much because of dodging, but because classes don't feel restricted enough for you. It's true, GW2 classes do have a bit more build flexibility than WoW (not too much though). But in my case, I wish GW2 had even more room for build flexibility, like GW1 did.

I quit GW2 at level 80. I was so hyped for it prior to launch, even suckered all my friends into it, once we got to around levle 60 however, we became extremely bored with the game. And once we hit level 80, most of us couldnt take it anymore. The only reason we managed to push in that far anyways was because we were playing with eachother. The gameplay barely changed after level 20, sure at levle 30 you got elite skills, but those were so situational due to absurdly long cooldowns, so that they rarely got any use and didnt have much of an impact on minute to minute gameplay like the elite skills in GW1 did.

Gameplay barely changed after level 20? Dungeons start at 35. Full trait unlocks, which means having full potential for build experimentation, used to be unlocked at 60 (now 80). Fractals and WvW are only done seriously at 80. Granted, the leveling process to hit the level cap, despite taking far less time to reach compared to WoW, takes much more time than it really needs to. And the elite skills in GW2 are just a name category for the equivalent of the long CD skills in WoW.

If GW2 bored you because it doesn't play as similarly to GW1 or WoW as you had expected, that's OK. Claiming that all classes play the same and that you get to experience the game fully before reaching the level cap is simply not true, though.

 

[Avellion]

Ok, so GW2 feels too homo for you not so much because of dodging, but because classes don't feel restricted enough for you. It's true, GW2 classes do have a bit more build flexibility than WoW (not too much though). But in my case, I wish GW2 had even more room for build flexibility, like GW1 did.

That would be great, but I would rather have that flexibility be focused within certain roles. Right now, the classes that I played are spread way too thin. On my warrior, I felt there were too few skills geared to my role, no matter what role I picked, heavily limiting build choices. Whereas in say GW1, there would be dozens of skills suited for my role.

Gameplay barely changed after level 20? Dungeons start at 35. Full trait unlocks, which means having full potential for build experimentation, used to be unlocked at 60 (now 80). Fractals and WvW are only done seriously at 80. Granted, the leveling process to hit the level cap, despite taking far less time to reach compared to WoW, takes much more time than it really needs to. And the elite skills in GW2 are just a name category for the equivalent of the long CD skills in WoW.

I did 2 (story mode) dungeons and they were so bad, I swore never to do them again. Trait unlocks are passives, and mainly add bonuses rather than significantly changing your playstyle. But yes the levelling experience needs to be shorter, they should have gone for a level cap of 30 or so.

If GW2 bored you because it doesn't play as similarly to GW1 or WoW as you had expected, that's OK. Claiming that all classes play the same and that you get to experience the game fully before reaching the level cap is simply not true, though.

I didnt say that all the classes play the same, what I am arguing for is that there is not enough to differentiate them. Nor did I say you could experience the game fully at level 20 (hence why I used the word barely, as opposed to saying "didnt change at all").

 

[Lhynn]

GW2 is a stupid ass game for the mentally defective.

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

I just came to this thread to remind everyone how much I hate GW2 and how much I regret wasting time and money on it.

Carry on.

 

[Lhynn]

Whatever bad i said about gw2 i take it back, wildstar is soulcrushingly bad, it made me contemplate suicide, it gave me 3 types of cancer, i wouldnt play that shit as a well paying job.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

and meanwhile ncsoft deleted my account. not my gw's, not my gw2's: my main ncsoft account.
it's just not there anymore.
i always keep registering emails, i know which address i used to register so i can't be mistaken. the account have been deleted.
this is truly the last chance i give to ncsoft, i hope they die as soon and as spectacularly as possible.

 

[Lhynn]

and meanwhile ncsoft deleted my account. not my gw's, not my gw2's: my main ncsoft account.
it's just not there anymore.
i always keep registering emails, i know which address i used to register so i can't be mistaken. the account have been deleted.
this is truly the last chance i give to ncsoft, i hope they die as soon and as spectacularly as possible.

My main ncsoft account has existed for over 10 years and was never touched. Arena net accounts are different from ncsoft accounts tho i think.

 

[Avellion]

Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns was released today. The story so far is pretty much what everyone predicted.

Spoiler

Traehearne become corrupted, Faolin turns into a giant monster and Eir dies.

Once she dies, you can honor her, by interacting with her corpse.

Hmm, sounds familiar,

 

[Lhynn]

Yawn.

 

[Black]

I like how GW2's story seems to be character driven and the characters are terrible.

 

[Mangoose]

I like how GW2's story seems to be character driven and the characters are terrible.

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.

 

[Angthoron]

Decided to give it a try, and since I apparently used up most of my instant level scrolls, Revenant is just L36. Didn't start with the new content since they changed so much interface crap that I don't even know what's going on anymore. And apparently Hounds of Balthazar legendary skill and all racials have been taken out? Good riddance, tbh, but Hounds was useful for getting skill challenges done on wimpy chars. O well o well.

Anyway, Revenant: actually quite fun, though I kinda expected more weapons to be usable. Melee staff, ranged warhammer, sword, mace, and offhand sword and axe. Not too fat. Sword/axe seems to be the setup of choice when going Berserker's path - Skill 3 is basically a 10-second CD one-shot kill for any trash and almost one-shot for any veteran. Facetanking seems to be a little more viable, too, at least I mostly don't die from random shit anymore. Seems a little railroaded though, 6 - 0 skills are basically tied to your current Legendary Whatever form (F1 skill), so you're stuck to premade kits when using that, for now anyway.

Overall, it seems like a fairly 'k class.

Oh yeah, and ANet should really add some new 1-15 and 15-30 zones.

 

[Avellion]

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.

Me neither. I flat out ignored the personal story in GW2 alltogether. I could already tell I didnt like my character's personality going by the dialogue from the tutorial mission. I found it really unimmersive as well, to give your character that you made, a personality resulting in a different personality from what you probably envisioned.

I might be able to say more of Heart of Thorn's Personal story. JIts like watching a train wreck in action you just cant stop. But alas, everything in this expansion pack is timegated and grind gated. You can only advance the personal story if you grind dem Hero points... because reasons.