The Guild Wars 2 Thread

[Darth Roxor]

Tombs of Primeval Kings(What is it called now?).

I suspect you mean Heroes' Ascent.

It's been supershit for a longer while now.

 

[SerratedBiz]

Not that I believe the whole 'this game is handcrafted for you' hype, but I liked GW's design philosophy enough that I believe I'll definitely buy it when it comes out.

 

[Tycn]

No secondary professions, no body blocking, 10 skill bar, mandatory skills (every build has to have a healing skill? eat a dick please), a gazillion different weapon types, no deep wound. PvP already sounds more than fucked and they've openly admitted they aim to pander to casuals.

 

[SerratedBiz]

No secondary professions, no body blocking, 10 skill bar, mandatory skills (every build has to have a healing skill? eat a dick please), a gazillion different weapon types, no deep wound. PvP already sounds more than fucked and they've openly admitted they aim to pander to casuals.

wut? Where'd you read all this?

 

[Shannow]

http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2 is pretty extensive.
There are no secondary classes and there is no dedicated healer class. They do want "to pander to the casuals" (and GW1 didn't?).
As for the other claims: I don't know. But judging from the gameplay videos bodyblocking "seems" to be in.

 

[Tycn]

No secondary professions, no body blocking, 10 skill bar, mandatory skills (every build has to have a healing skill? eat a dick please), a gazillion different weapon types, no deep wound. PvP already sounds more than fucked and they've openly admitted they aim to pander to casuals.

wut? Where'd you read all this?

http://www.arena.net/blog/eric-and-ben-answer-your-questions-about-warrior-and-traits
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_2

Because of many issues with collision in a persistent world, players will not be able to collide with one another in Guild Wars 2

Q: Given how you want to encourage build experimentation, will there be an easy way to save and load build information in Guild Wars 2?

Eric: This is an issue that we’re looking at, but it isn’t as simple as it might seem. We don’t want to encourage people to feel that the way they need to play is to constantly switch their builds. That’s a pretty advanced sort of mentality and we can’t balance our game around it.

A character will have a total of 10 skill slots, five of which are weapon and profession dependent and can only be changed by switching to a different type of weapon. The other five are dependent on profession and race and can be changed by the player whenever out of combat, with one skill being reserved for healing, and one for an elite. The goal of this change is to give more options for truly viable builds than Guild Wars allowed while at the same time decreasing the potential for less useful skill combinations (like bringing Gash without a skill that causes Bleeding).

 

[SerratedBiz]

For fuck's sake. This is exactly the kind of shit path I was expecting GW2 not to take.

What's wrong with switching builds? That's the whole basis of GW right there, multiple profession and skill choices, limited options to use them. Having no secondary professions, limit on what weapons you can take... it reeks of standard MMO classes.

As for the healing class thing, I'm skeptic at the very least. The Monk was my favorite class in GW and I made quite a good living as dedicated healer or prot in my guild, but the fact that they're doing away with one of the standard pillars of MMO gameplay is always good news to me. I'd like to wait to hear what else they have to say about this, if support characters are entirely gone, before going all FUU about it.

Thanks for the links, by the way.

 

[MapMan]

I'm really trying to stay optimistic. For now, the thing that bothers me the most is the lack of dedicated healing class. But maybe thats what they mean by a class that can heal and do damage as well, like Monk in GW1? I wan't GvG and always ongoing tournament like Heroes Ascent. Those 4v4 arenas were nice as well. Damn it.

 

[Mangoose]

I'm really trying to stay optimistic. For now, the thing that bothers me the most is the lack of dedicated healing class. But maybe thats what they mean by a class that can heal and do damage as well, like Monk in GW1? I wan't GvG and always ongoing tournament like Heroes Ascent. Those 4v4 arenas were nice as well. Damn it.

I don't think it will be a problem IF they implement the classes well. Hopefully not everybody gets a superawesome heal spell and you end up with tank-mages. They do have a point that you NEED a healer for a team, and thus a monk, whereas for the other roles there are many classes that can fill them, not just one for each role.

Perhaps a safer and less rage-inducing way were to have maybe only half the classes with healing capability, using different methods, so that there can be multiple choices for healing but not totally "streamlined." It may be, though, that some classes are not as good at healing others, as IIRC the one Warrior heal that they have talked about is just a self-heal.

I agree that there is some definite dumbing down that leaves a sour taste in my mouth, but if they can design and implement well the other things that they talk about I think it will still be a good game.

 

[Mangoose]

Anyways the thing I am most worried about atm is the switch away from energy management and towards potions:

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/forum/sho ... tcount=879

Energy regenerates slowly on its own, however, all players have a potion button attached to their energy bar. Drinking a potion returns energy and puts this button into recharge. Out of combat, this recharge is short. During combat, the potions recharge slower, allowing us to reward skilled play and balance difficult encounters against a finite resource pool, so that challenging bosses can’t simply be defeated by bringing more defensive and healing skills. Energy potions are the only kind of consumable that is usable in combat.

Since I know it is the first follow up question, we aren’t talking about PvP yet, but there will be interesting energy dynamics in PvP, but we will not force players to buy and pound potions to be competitive. Potions are not very expensive, they refill a significant portion of your energy pool and they will also drop off of mobs.

Also the second question, what about energy management and energy denial skills? Energy as a long term resource does mean that energy management is no longer a direct mechanic in the game. However, we recognize the strategy implications of this decision and there are other mechanics in the game that replace these elements and play style in a way that makes sense for the new game we are making.

Still, if they have other, new mechanics that are similarly strategic in nature as energy management in GW1, that will be fine. I have some confidence in GW2, given that they did design and implement all the mechanics in GW1 pretty well. Unless you think GW1 was a fluke, I think it's still viable to take a wait-and-see approach, and not dismiss it yet.

 

[SerratedBiz]

Still, it's annoying they keep getting rid of the stuff that set GW aside from every other MMO. The bit on Energy is also news to me.

 

[Mangoose]

/shrug GW2 is already in its premise quite different from GW1. And it seems to be going its own way rather than simply towards the typical MMO.

Edit: Okay, really sleepy so I'm too lazy to find the link again, but I just read in an interview that they're making it very easy to get to level cap. Which... I don't know about that. They are assuming that people will want to replay with a bunch of alts to try out the personal instancing C&C stuff, but this seems to be quite opposite of their goal to make a populated, more "immersive" persistent world.

 

[GarfunkeL]

But can I be a sexy elf in a hot chain-mail bikini!?!?!?

 

[Shannow]

Edit: Okay, really sleepy so I'm too lazy to find the link again, but I just read in an interview that they're making it very easy to get to level cap. Which... I don't know about that. They are assuming that people will want to replay with a bunch of alts to try out the personal instancing C&C stuff, but this seems to be quite opposite of their goal to make a populated, more "immersive" persistent world.

"Very easy" compared to other mmos. Too lazy to find the link, too, but IIRC they wanted the same playtime invested for levelling from 1 to 2 as for 79 to 80. But that doesn't say how long it takes from 1 to 2 on average. And keep in mind that levelling was very fast in the GW1 expansions, too. You'd typically be level 16 - 20 when leaving the noob-areas.

And "persistent" worlds are the very opposite of immersive. "Dynamic" worlds are immersive. And that's what they are going for. Although I still don't see how that can work.

But can I be a sexy elf in a hot chain-mail bikini!?!?!?

Sure you can. But it's "Sylvan" and "leaf-mail bikini"

 

[Hoaxmetal]

I'm having mixed feelings about no dual professions and "less build changing."

Ok, players have found tons of overpowered builds over the years (mostly for solo farming) but most advanced ones (team builds where everyone has very specific role) are very fun to try to run right.

Like yesterday I was in a group with assassin and elemental tanks and because of their near-invisibility we even didn't need a healer (this is PvE of course, I love that PvP has some skills changed so it needs different builds).

About healing - every class being a bit self-sufficient isn't a bad thing imho. We still don't know what the other 4 classes will be and how powerful heal skills are and how they differ from one class to other. I'm thinking of a model where it's everyone's task to help group survive so you have healer role divided between the group.

About energy and potions - doesn't sound too bad. That's just a bit different way of keeping energy up. I'm fine with that as long they don't implent actual heal/buff potions or limit them to PvE.

I think it's still viable to take a wait-and-see approach, and not dismiss it yet.

I agree, ArenaNet made a mmo which was great from the very beginning and I see why they couldn't do it again. It's only logical that something we like will be removed, it's good as long they make something even better to replace that.

 

[Mangoose]

"Very easy" compared to other mmos. Too lazy to find the link, too, but IIRC they wanted the same playtime invested for levelling from 1 to 2 as for 79 to 80.

No, it's a different interview I'm talking about, from yesterday:

So the biggest thing is that we don't want the experience part to be the driving force on how long it's going to take to play the game. The content that is around should be enjoyable, so however long it takes you to play it to have an enjoyable time is probably how we're thinking it should be like. It's going to take quite a short time to reach the cap.
Also it's going to have a lot of re-playability value. Even now in just this demo you can play the same character, the same race and experience several different stories each time, including quests by playing it over and over.
And it's also something against our grinding philosophy for it to take a really long time to level a character to it's max level. We want you to level up a character in a reasonable amount of time and we want you to play more characters and experience the story over and over again if you want to. And we can have you play the endgame content and different things like that. Those are the things that you should be able to do. We want you to enjoy the game as you play through it and not be stuck in some long leveling treadmill.

And "persistent" worlds are the very opposite of immersive. "Dynamic" worlds are immersive. And that's what they are going for. Although I still don't see how that can work.

Sorry, I meant just having a non-instanced world that everybody plays in, with some persistent elements. If everybody hits level cap quickly and then rerolls then it's kinda blah.

What I mean is, I don't mind having a long leveling process as long as the journey is fun. I want to be able to have fun with the same character and keep improving him, rather than just hit the level cap and then restart.

 

[Shannow]

And "persistent" worlds are the very opposite of immersive. "Dynamic" worlds are immersive. And that's what they are going for. Although I still don't see how that can work.

Sorry, I meant just having a non-instanced world that everybody plays in, with some persistent elements. If everybody hits level cap quickly and then rerolls then it's kinda blah.

That wasn't "against" you. I know they call it persistent world. It's still stupid As for levelling, it's GW. Since after Prophesies you hit the cap quickly. But there was still quite a lot to do and to "gain" after capping.

What I mean is, I don't mind having a long leveling process as long as the journey is fun. I want to be able to have fun with the same character and keep improving him, rather than just hit the level cap and then restart.

I agree and I always saw the fast levelling as a weakness in GW, but as I mentioned above, it's not as if the game is suddenly over after reaching the cap.

 

[Mangoose]

Hopefully. I'm just a bit anxious because they have released almost nothing about end-game.

 

[Mangoose]

Anyways, compilation of info and links from Gamescom: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/forum/thi ... t6651.html

GW2 won best online game.

One of the things that MIGHT be interesting is the environmental weapons and effects. One thing I saw was an Elementalist summoning water while standing in a pool of water. If this is prerequisite for many spells, then that could add a big layer of tactical positioning to the game.

There are also environmental weapons, and spell combinations. Not much has been revealed except for 1 or 2 gimmicks, so I have definite ambivalence whether it will be localized gimmicks as in DA or if these are actually useful.

 

[Black]

I'm really trying to stay optimistic.

I think that's good. No holy trinity/tank 'n spank/nuker, healer, tank. And like all classes in GW1, classes in GW2 will have support skills and self-heal.

 

[Mangoose]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHngeccY ... r_embedded

Interview with our resident Annie :D

Annie, stop by and comment!

 

[Black]

I bet she thinks she's better than us, the haters.
Fuck women!

 

[Zed]

Man it's loud at those conventions. People are talking very loud. It's a miracle she doesn't lose her voice.

I suppose they haven't added a lot of bosses and stuff yet because all the videos show either solo or group grind. Would be nice so see some real encounters and to hear some more info on item tiers and stuff like that.

 

[Darth Roxor]

There sure are some things I don't like in the new info. Elite skills that are 'I win' buttons with 720 seconds of recharge?! The whole video with the superbig fight against the dragon felt like a gigantic clusterfuck and nothing more. Dropping energy management I also don't like. Not to mention the 6000 hp the player had in the dragon fight and dealt something like 500+

Derpenherpen.

Also, Annie: If GW2 sucks, I'm totally not buying ZombieRPG, so you better make it good

 

[Mangoose]

Yeah Elite skills.. eh.

The dragon fight - You can't expect much more than a clusterfuck from a bunch of random guys playing the demo for 30 minutes. On the other hand it really brought out the inner graphics whore in me, lol.

E-management - Depends. Perhaps it will be more of a long-term resource management, a la dungeon crawlers like the Wizardry games. Dunno how easily spammable potions are, though.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

This game is gonna be massive, as massive as annies tits. She's playing with the big boys now.