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Guild Wars 2 Press Beta [Prepurchase Is Live]
- Thread starter Jira
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More PvP, this time with the Necro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tvv9VAc74YA
My one complaint is that he didn't use enough Death Shroud.
My one complaint is that he didn't use enough Death Shroud.
Kill Ten Rats has an awesome article on both Arena PVP and WvW; Closed Beta War Stories. They tend to be really thoughtful when discussing MMOs and tend to grasp game design concepts and decisions really well and write about them in a more approachable manner.
A few highlights:
A few highlights:
On the Battle of Khylo 5v5 said:
WvWvW said:
WvWvW said:
WvWvW said:
Is it really accomplishing anything to keep bitching out the beta players for not playing to your satisfaction? Wouldn't it be more constructive to stick to pointing out standout videos, like the one with the human warrior? You're usually good at setting a positive attitude for GW2 talk.
Uhh, you're really criticizing him for that? He's not bitching out anyone. Take things with a bit more lighthearted tone.
AppleSmack
Banned
Is there a Collectors Edition for this game planned? I usually like to buy Collectors Editions for big budget PC games I'm interested in. Particularly Diablo 3 and Guild Wars 2.
Dear "everyone is special" generation,
There's nothing wrong with criticism.
-Your older, highly patient siblings
Everything in that killtenrats write-up makes sense with what I saw of WvWvW. The rushes on doors felt extremely futile. In another write-up, they talked about how they were able to feign at a keep while recapturing supply depots, and then take down the keep once the other server could no longer repair the doors with supplies. That's one counter. I'm not sure they'll make any major tweaks until they're in a larger beta and test how higher numbers change the barrier breaking point.
There's nothing wrong with criticism.
-Your older, highly patient siblings
Everything in that killtenrats write-up makes sense with what I saw of WvWvW. The rushes on doors felt extremely futile. In another write-up, they talked about how they were able to feign at a keep while recapturing supply depots, and then take down the keep once the other server could no longer repair the doors with supplies. That's one counter. I'm not sure they'll make any major tweaks until they're in a larger beta and test how higher numbers change the barrier breaking point.
Bad news, it's in German.
Good news, he knows how to play. http://videos.pcgames.de/hdvideo/6875/Guild-Wars-2-So-spielt-sich-das-instanzierte-PvP
And he has a second. http://videos.pcgames.de/hdvideo/6874/Guild-Wars-2-So-spielt-sich-das-Open-PvP
Good news, he knows how to play. http://videos.pcgames.de/hdvideo/6875/Guild-Wars-2-So-spielt-sich-das-instanzierte-PvP
And he has a second. http://videos.pcgames.de/hdvideo/6874/Guild-Wars-2-So-spielt-sich-das-Open-PvP
I would imagine this is the first time they've had so many people in WvW, so I have no doubt we'll see lots of tweaks and changes in the next Beta event. Door strength down, repair costs up, supply costs of siege weapons down (the article mentioned the Siege Golem needed 100 units of supply which sounds absurdly high for something that walks slowly and only smashes down doors)... things like that.
But the actual mechanics of skirmishes and sieges sound like they're all in place and just need a good once or twice-over. That's very promising considering how many MMOs have tried to deliver on the promise of sieges in the past.
Complistic
Member
that was actually a good overview of the warrior. Didn't mind the german really.
Differentiation between your say Warrior and another is quite a lot more extensive than most people seem to realize.
You have 2 weapons to choose from
Heal/Utilities/Elite skills
Different stats on gear that you'll want to switch around based on your build
Mod slots on every piece of gear and weapon allows for you to use upgrade components that affect your build
Traits affect how your skills behave as well as statistical bonuses that help bolster your skills
All of those things combined makes for an extreme amount of diversity, then you factor in general player skill with dodging, correct skill usage, correct weapon swapping, supporting your allies, controlling your enemies, cross profession combos, and you end up with one hell of a system.
You have 2 weapons to choose from
Heal/Utilities/Elite skills
Different stats on gear that you'll want to switch around based on your build
Mod slots on every piece of gear and weapon allows for you to use upgrade components that affect your build
Traits affect how your skills behave as well as statistical bonuses that help bolster your skills
All of those things combined makes for an extreme amount of diversity, then you factor in general player skill with dodging, correct skill usage, correct weapon swapping, supporting your allies, controlling your enemies, cross profession combos, and you end up with one hell of a system.
Agreed, it also doesn't help that in all of the WvW footage, it's generally people throwing themselves at a keep door rather than using siege weapons or doing the smart thing and shutting down the enemy supply lines so they can't build a defense. Though yeah I'm sure they're going to use this data to tweak those kinds of things and will continue to do so as they get even more people into the public beta.
Yes, just not officially announced yet.
I've already talked about that guy and he's indeed outstanding. But newer footage means a whole different discussion and personally that's what I grab from what I saw. It just frustrates me because as a person I pick up on stuff in one go, I'm a quick read and to see so many people just fumble about in games is hard for me to watch. I'm not acting like I'm better than them or anything, but I just don't understand how so many people are generally bad at games. Especially when it's their job. I understand not grasping how skills work together or utilites or what have you, but dodging isn't a new gameplay mechanic and is extremely simple to understand why you need it. They've revived each other a couple times, talked about it, seen the icons many times by that point, yet simply ignored it and nearly wiped because of it.
I'm ready for everyone to call me an arrogant ass, but have at it because my point still stands and that being the press suck at gaming.
The devs flat out said on Saturday that repair was currently too fast and too cheap and would be for-sure changed.
I totally get how frustrating it can be, but please remember a few things:
Most people were jumping from class to class, so were working with skill sets they knew nothing about. Often characters were made specifically to run the dungeon, immediately leveled up to 30, and had to quickly select three skills to buy with trait points without knowing what was in the dungeon. I slapped together a guardian for a dungeon run and I think we did reasonably well, but we definitely wiped a few times while we tried to figure out the mechanics and how to deal with some of the bosses (particularly the Lovers).
Even for people with experience in MMOs, this is a completely new game, and it's not a thing where you can just sit down for an hour and know what's going on. For dodging especially, you have an extremely limited window in which to dodge, many of the attack telegraphs are hard to spot (especially if it's your first time fighting a boss), and tack on the low framerates most people were getting and you see a lot of stupid mistakes. Dodging well while getting 13fps in large battles was virtually impossible.
That said, I'm absolutely not going to claim that a lot of the press are great gamers. Seeing videos where people were using the mouse instead of hotkeys blew my mind too.
oh boy oh boy oh boy
Missed this on the last page.
GW2 has a "main quest", the Personal Storyline. This is heavily instanced, changes based on your responses and the personality traits you picked during creation, and takes players all over the game world, apparently.
While out exploring / traveling towards the next Personal Storyline segment, you will encounter Dynamic Events, GW2's replacement for the tired questing most MMOs use. These are things that are happening whether you want them to are not and you basically stumble upon them organically rather than walking into a hub, clicking everyone with a shiny question mark over their head and doing their chores for them. This is the meat of the game's PVE.
On top of that, you can level up in PVP and because slain players drop loot like NPCs (don't worry, you're not actually taking their items nor can they take yours) you don't have to constantly drop out to get better gear.
So yeah, you can go do whatever interests you and not get forced into a storyline.
Ah, I must have missed that tidbit. Thanks.
Scaled to 80
So, after you made a level one character in the beta, you could do the following:
Level him up normally.
Level him up to 30 automatically, gaining all weapon skills plus the skill/trait points you'd have by level 30 to spend. Permanent choice, couldn't be reversed. Could level normally from there -- I think some people managed to get up to 36 through dungeon running and PvP.
For PvP, it works like this:
For structured PvP (battlegrounds) you are temporarily fully leveled to 80, and have all skills and traits unlocked. You start naked, and have your choice of special PvP equipment for battlegrounds. From an interview at PAX last year, they said this was the "competitive mode", where everyone is theoretically equal. They talked about hoping this would gain traction in the eSports area.
For World PvP, your character is kicked up to 80, as is your equipment, but you only have the equipment, skills, and traits that you'd normally have in PvE. The kicking up scaled, so a natural 80 would be a little better than someone who was level 60 scaled to 80, who would be a little better than someone 40 scaled to 80, etc. For the beta, pretty much everyone used a character they leveled up to 30 automatically through the NPC, so everyone was playing 30s_ scaled to 80 with a limited selection of equipment/skills/traits.
Quadrophenic
Member
Does the gear have passive non-stat bonuses too? Or set-bonuses? I think I remember seeing a link to some ghastly weapons which do a life syphon when attacking at night. Do armors have anything like that? Procs on hit, or bonus morale?
AppleSmack
Banned
Necro seems to be quite a good CC character. He had that guy running in circles in that 1v1 dual a few mins in.
The Structured PvP gear? Not inherently, but you also have access to a pretty large selection of runes that do stuff like that, allowing for customization. Each piece of PvP gear has one slot in it, and there are set bonuses for having a certain number of the same rune in your equipment.
I'm trying to remember; I THINK only the armor had slots. I don't believe the weapons were slotted. I'm pretty sure though that a lot of the runes and rune set bonuses had stuff that affected weapons/damage.
Set bonuses aren't tied to specific armor but instead were instead tied to crests or something similar. So you'd apply a crest to a piece of armor and it would become a piece of that "set".
From the wiki:
I haven't heard of this changing, so I'm assuming that's the way it still is.
Honestly, I feel like the siege weapon costs are high because they're scaled to the amount of people playing with you. You're only going to get away with plopping a trebuchet at someone's front door if you have around 10 people anyway, so have those 10 come with you to get the supply there all at once. Smaller skirmishes will call for smaller, more stealthy weapons like the cannons and mortars.
This is good. I like exploring for the sake of exploring but roaming around and encountering one of these events is pretty nice as well. Don't know how expansive the choices are for personal story but even a little bit is just fine with me. It's still a lot better then your character just standing there and nodding at everything.
I imagine this game will have a similar gear system to Guild Wars 1? Find a look you like and somehow you will be able wear it forever if you like.
Transmutation stones for your gear will allow this.
We don't really know how expansive the choices for the personal story will be either yet, though apparently the decisions you make affect the responses you can give, and NPCs are supposed to react to your reputation (children run away if you're a bastard, etc.). I'll try to find the source for that, but you definitely won't be nodding at things; your character is fully voiced (for better or for worse depending on your perferences).
As far as gear goes, you'll be able to use items called Transmutation Stones to apply the cosmetic appearance of one armor onto another;
Transmutation stones are an item you can buy in the cash shop for real money, apparently.
Beyond their own self-heals, there are mitigation options (Guardians can cast barriers, warriors can raise their shields), outright evasion (you can dodge projectiles), interrupts, etc. Warriors and Guardians have heavier armor, of course, and Thieves should have the element of surprise. Those are just what I've gleaned from videos and honestly, we just really can't say for sure though until more people (who aren't terrible players) get their hands on it.
Also keep in mind that every single profession can switch to ranged weapons and play the ranged game as well. Warrior Longbow abilities are supposed to be right up there with the best of the Elementalist's Fire AOE.
It seems they are posting it on all their social sites, guess it should be big.
"We were so pleased with the February Press Event that we've decided to launch... right now."
"We were so pleased with the February Press Event that we've decided to launch... right now."
Honestly, I hope that doesn't happen lol. I'm still running a low-end pc waiting a month before the game released to build a new one. =)
Short answer: Smart play
Long answer:
Your options are defensive utility skills and offhands, self-heals, good use of dodge ability, good spacing, being able to switch to a ranged weapon when there is too much going on up front and using the support provided by your teammates.
I like this whole idea, I really do. But at a certain point doesn't every class being able to do everything make everyone kind of the same with different visual flare? Have they talked about this?
"After a long discussion we have decided to allow all Guild Wars players who have achieved the God Walking Amongst Mere Mortals title into the beta.""We were so pleased with the February Press Event that we've decided to launch... right now."
I would be okay with this.
Warrior Traits are almost entirely complete:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_warrior_traits
Oh and the Guild UI for anyone who missed it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60U8tSaGSKY&feature=related
I'm extremely impressed by just how much stuff there is for Guilds to do.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_warrior_traits
Oh and the Guild UI for anyone who missed it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60U8tSaGSKY&feature=related
I'm extremely impressed by just how much stuff there is for Guilds to do.
It's a concern. I think that right now certain classes have more definition and look more unique than others. They may have addressed this in particular ways, as in the skills a Ranger with a bow has versus the skills a Warrior with a bow has are diffrent, but not addressed the bigger issue of a possible lack of greater distinction.
Some professions just have more or better options for specific tasks, making them slightly better (but not so good that they're required, at least in theory) at specific roles. It's not so much about everyone having the same abilities with different visuals; the mechanics behind each profession makes those tasks work differently.
Control, for example, is all about snares, stuns, knockbacks, interrupts, pulls, barriers, etc. Not everyone has the same method of control, but everyone has some way to manipulate what an enemy is doing and where they are doing it. Support is all about buffing, debuffing, combos and (to a very small degree) healing, but to what degree and what method each class does it is different.
So, for example, a Warrior's control options are things like Stuns, Knockback/down and slows while a Guardian uses magical barriers.
Read more here; http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/combat/healing-death/, but keep in mind that until we really get a chance to sink our teeth into it we can't say for sure how things will shake out. The only video I've seen showing all of the profession abilities was in German (I think) and the guy didn't actually use the skills on enemies, he was just casting them in town.
The answer is probably "no options" (that actually work; I'm sure you can mitigate it a little). It's barely possible to design a game where concentrated, intelligent focus-fire can be survived even if you can balance things around a very specific number of enemies contributing (see: Guild Wars 1). I don't think it's unreasonable to say that it's probably just flat-out impossible to do in an open-world format where any number of players can be involved. I highly doubt that ArenaNet, even with some of the best designers in-genre on board, have found the magic bullet solution to that problem.
With any luck, World PvP is just the screenshot-and-video-friendly spectacle that they're advertising to the general public because it 'looks cool', and the 'real' PvP, where their actual attempts to balance the game have been focused, is the fixed-level, fixed-power, fixed-team size competitive modes. That's really the only way to remove the bullshit from a competitive game.
VanillaCakeIsBurning
Member
It can only be about the beta. If that second line is also part of the quote, then that would apply to GW1 players.
If they let GW1 players into the next beta weekend or something, oh man.
Quadrophenic
Member
Have the devs commented on why Asura/Sylvari werent available in the last press weekend?
Might not have anything to do with Guild Wars 2, sadly. Nintendo is going to make some announcements in the morning too.
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