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[etiolate]

Oh you'll have them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUVLclPDCBE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idjgE-RKpaE

yeah, but they haven't shown anything of that level since

I fought both the Shadow Behemoth and the swamp Wurm. They look awesome and introduce some classic raid boss design, but I am curious how much bigger and badder these events will get, and how many of them there will be.

 

[Retro]

Alright, you convinced me. That intro looked a lot cooler than the iron legion one. We build stuff and that stuff goes boom! Doesnt sound too exciting storywise to me since i cant really imagine what it would be about besides supporting the army and finding tech to build weapons.

Told ya, that Ash Legion intro is very satisfying. The VA helps to sell it well, and that's actually an earlier version of what's in there now.

I dunno what the Iron Legion's story would be, but I have to imagine they're all good. Go with whatever legion you think suits you best.

I guess i can rationalize it as my dude making smoke bombs to stealth and making tiny bee bombs to assassinate people. I think ill go Blood legion father, but if anyone has any opinions im all ears

This is your friend: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Biography

Your sire can be either a Loyal Soldier, a Sorcerous Shaman or an Honorless Gladium.

yeah, but they haven't shown anything of that level since

I fought both the Shadow Behemoth and the swamp Wurm. They look awesome and introduce some classic raid boss design, but I am curious how much bigger and badder these events will get, and how many of them there will be.

They haven't shown much high level stuff at all, so that's not really a surprise. Just because we haven't seen it doesn't mean it isn't there.
As far as how big and bad the events get, the Shatterer is an underling and Tequatl is small. I have to imagine Zhaitan will be pretty damn big and pretty damn bad.

It's also worth mentioning that he's only ONE of SEVERAL Elder Dragons. There's also Primordus, Jormag (that's one of his teeth, on display in Hoelbrek), Kralkatorrik (those are boats next to him) and an un-named Ocean dragon everyone affectionately calls "Bubbles".

Elder Dragon Concept Art: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/3/33/Dragon_13_concept_art_(Defeated_Dragon).jpg
Yep. Pretty big.

 

[Piecake]

Told ya, that Ash Legion intro is very satisfying. The VA helps to sell it well, and that's actually an earlier version of what's in there now.

I dunno what the Iron Legion's story would be, but I have to imagine they're all good. Go with whatever legion you think suits you best.



This is your friend: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Biography

Your sire can be either a Loyal Soldier, a Sorcerous Shaman or an Honorless Gladium.

Woops, meant flame legion father instead of blood. I imagine all the history and taboo would make it more interesting than the rest. Honorless Gladium sounds good too. Im tempted just because Gladium is an awesome word.

Living up to your father storyline seems kinda dull to me

 

[Vinci]

Here's a video of it, time set to skip over the first part in case you consider that spoilers; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSroAojF-zQ&hd=1&t=51s

So badass.

"You'll find ME... in the shadows...

Except for the part where you won't.

'Cause I'm sneaky and stuff.

I mean, if you were to find me in the shadows, what good are the shadows doing? They're failing miserably - and that would make them the kind of namby-pamby, Commie shadows that make upright Charr like me get angry and kick children.

What the fuck, shadows! Look at this shit - they found me! I'm standing here like a putz and - "

[game loads]

Sorry. First thing that came to mind.

 

[Retro]

Woops, meant flame legion father instead of blood. I imagine all the history and taboo would make it more interesting than the rest. Honorless Gladium sounds good too. Im tempted just because Gladium is an awesome word.

Living up to your father storyline seems kinda dull to me

Without going too deeply into spoiler territory, I picked Loyal Soldier and my storyline had me tracking down a treasure that his Warband had decided would be inherited by the last member alive. However, the task fell to me and I had to go hunt down the keys and follow the clues they had left behind. It is implied that the treasure is some kind of Ascalonian relic or something, they never really say but it's more than just loot. Something to better the Charr cause.

Sorry. First thing that came to mind.

Heh, that's actually a good point; Why should people find him in the shadows if he's supposed to be hiding there? Pre-order Cancelled!

 

[Emitan]

I just made a Necro/Mes in GW. I need my fix. Help ;~;

 

[Vinci]

I just made a Necro/Mes in GW. I need my fix. Help ;~;

Damn it, Billie. I'm staying strong here. I'm not going to buy Guild Wars and play it out of withdrawal. Played City of Heroes earlier; it's the only MMO fun enough to keep me from rewatching all the damn Youtube videos I've subscribed to over again.

 

[Emitan]

I'm probably going to not play too much. I have some nostalgia, but it's no GW2.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Is there no kind of two-step authentication for Guild Wars 2 accounts? Do we know if they have plans to do a mobile authenticator type thing, or even a Steam like system?

I don't feel comfortable playing MMORPGs without that kind of security anymore.

 

[Jira]

Is there no kind of two-step authentication for Guild Wars 2 accounts? Do we know if they have plans to do a mobile authenticator type thing, or even a Steam like system?

I don't feel comfortable playing MMORPGs without that kind of security anymore.

They've been working on an extended experience for mobile and web for nearly 2 years now. NCSoft and ANet's logo have both been seen connected to the company who makes Blizzard's authenticator so at the very least I do expect a mobile authenticator because ANet doesn't strike me as the company who does so many things right only to create more work for themselves when it comes to unnecessary account hacking and CSR tickets.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

I'm interested in the kind of stuff past what we've seen in the early levels of the BWE's. Collecting apples isn't that great after doing it 3 times, I'm hoping that these concerns are alleviated in later levels, like you do stuff on a grander scale.

Things like the Shatterer and the Sun guy seem to indicate that this will be the case.

 

[Piecake]

I'm interested in the kind of stuff past what we've seen in the early levels of the BWE's. Collecting apples isn't that great after doing it 3 times, I'm hoping that these concerns are alleviated in later levels, like you do stuff on a grander scale.

Things like the Shatterer and the Sun guy seem to indicate that this will be the case.

Well, the level 80 zone doesnt have any heart quests. Its all huge Dynamic events

 

[Jira]

I'm interested in the kind of stuff past what we've seen in the early levels of the BWE's. Collecting apples isn't that great after doing it 3 times, I'm hoping that these concerns are alleviated in later levels, like you do stuff on a grander scale.

Things like the Shatterer and the Sun guy seem to indicate that this will be the case.

Give this a read:

http://www.arena.net/blog/telling-stories-from-global-to-personal-and-back-again

It talks about how you go from more simple and local problems to seeing things progress on a global scale where the world is overrun by Zhaitan's forces.

 

[Deleted member 10571]

There are no WoW-like raids in GW2.
The stuff in GW2 is better.

I love GW2, but really, this is something no one knows yet. Maybe all high level Dungeons rely on simple hit&run gameplay, maybe the only "tactic" you'll have to know is "run away when the boss charges"or "everyone punch that guy" and stuff like that.

WoW's raid bosses seem to be one of the few things everyone cheers about (didn't play it myself for that long, cause I got bored fast), so yeah. I'd say we'll wait until someone actually has seen high level dungeons before we defend them with our lives

I think it's very hard to create intriguing bosses with clever team-based tactics needed, if every character basically can do the same. I also think Anet can pull it off, but I'm not yet convinced.

 

[Ferrio]

As much as I like this game, there's no way it's going to have bosses on the complexity of Wow. WoW's rigid class design allows it to tailor make boss fights. The lack of classic aggro system, tanks, dedicated healers won't allow GW2 to do that.

The best I'm hoping for are the fights aren't total zerg fests, and require least a bit of coordination.

 

[Piecake]

As much as I like this game, there's no way it's going to have bosses on the complexity of Wow. WoW's rigid class design allows it to tailor make boss fights. The lack of classic aggro system, tanks, dedicated healers won't allow GW2 to do that.

The best I'm hoping for are the fights aren't total zerg fests, and require least a bit of coordination.

Must convince arenanet to implement FFXI skill chain system

 

[Ferrio]

Must convince arenanet to implement FFXI skill chain system

With the amount you can spam skills in the game it wouldn't be fun. Only reason it was fun is you could only do a skill like every 5 minutes so it was like some miracle you were being allowed to push buttons.

 

[Sir Abacus]

Must convince arenanet to implement FFXI skill chain system

The skill chains are on the field not decided by the order.

 

[les papillons sexuels]

I just watched the dragon encounter and all I can say is: what the fuck was that.

It looks like a total mess, no coordination, no risk, the reward seems fruitless, the fight looked like it was just a random spank job from the players. I'm not sure i can get excited for this.

 

[Piecake]

The skill chains are on the field not decided by the order.

The field/finisher is a real weak version of FFXI's skill chain system. Though I can kinda see with the amount of abilities you use compared to FFXI that it would be extremely difficult to make work

 

[thetrin]

As much as I like this game, there's no way it's going to have bosses on the complexity of Wow. WoW's rigid class design allows it to tailor make boss fights. The lack of classic aggro system, tanks, dedicated healers won't allow GW2 to do that.

The best I'm hoping for are the fights aren't total zerg fests, and require least a bit of coordination.

Coordination is awesome, but raid fights in WoW are antithetical to what Arena wants GW2 to be, and I have no problem with that. Why make a game serious busines? It's just a video game. Let people have fun and wild out with their character.

 

[Uchip]

I love GW2, but really, this is something no one knows yet. Maybe all high level Dungeons rely on simple hit&run gameplay, maybe the only "tactic" you'll have to know is "run away when the boss charges"or "everyone punch that guy" and stuff like that.

WoW's raid bosses seem to be one of the few things everyone cheers about (didn't play it myself for that long, cause I got bored fast), so yeah. I'd say we'll wait until someone actually has seen high level dungeons before we defend them with our lives

I think it's very hard to create intriguing bosses with clever team-based tactics needed, if every character basically can do the same. I also think Anet can pull it off, but I'm not yet convinced.

having dedicated roles makes games reaaaaaally boring for me
if they can have difficult bosses that rely on well timed dodges and stuns, maybe even some jumping over shit, ill be stoked

 

[Piecake]

I just watched the dragon encounter and all I can say is: what the fuck was that.

It looks like a total mess, no coordination, no risk, the reward seems fruitless, the fight looked like it was just a random spank job from the players. I'm not sure i can get excited for this.

You expect coordination from a bunch of people that probably dont know each other and playing a game that they have very little experience with?

Id imagine that they made the whole thing no risk precisely for those reasons

 

[Ferrio]

having dedicated roles makes games reaaaaaally boring for me
if they can have difficult bosses that rely on well timed dodges and stuns, maybe even some jumping over shit, ill be stoked

Even then, it's not about coordination as a team... but just a bunch of people doing the same thing together.

And I'm not giving the game shit, it is what it is. Just I hope people don't have false expectations about what end game will be.

 

[Jira]

I just watched the dragon encounter and all I can say is: what the fuck was that.

It looks like a total mess, no coordination, no risk, the reward seems fruitless, the fight looked like it was just a random spank job from the players. I'm not sure i can get excited for this.

So you're aware, those big fights were toned down at conventions because they didn't want people instantly dying since it was their first experience with the game. I'm not sure which one you watched, but no one has seen The Shatterer fight for nearly 2 years now so it's probably quite different and as for Tequatl there's many layers of mechanics going on at once that players must react to and overcome in order to win. Now the thing is these events can and will fail if the player isn't successful and will have repercussions because of their failure. In these examples they didn't want people's first experiences at conventions being death after death because the bosses crushed them into the ground and nor did they want people to see the failure states. Throwing players into level 50 content as their first experience with the game and expecting them to actually play as effectively as someone who played for 50 levels is silly, hence why it's toned down and has no fail state as the real version will.

ANet has said that during testing they fail the huge events all the time and even their dungeons can crush them.

In regards to coordination, that stuff is absolutely required in dungeons, sPvP, and WvW. You'll see it out in the open world PvE, but it won't be as common place. Orr will probably require the most coordination from a server in the general PvE sense.

 

[Sir Abacus]

Even then, it's not about coordination as a team... but just a bunch of people doing the same thing together.

And I'm not giving the game shit, it is what it is. Just I hope people don't have false expectations about what end game will be.

It is and it isn't. Yeah you can do everything yourself (otherwise how would you solo?) but good execution and coordination of combos will increase the output of boons, conditions and healing. And when the damage output of mobs starts scaling up with more people around this is imperative. If I'm on a Ranger I can dump Healing Spring on the ground and start healing enemies nearby my current target. It does far more than just Healing Spring alone will.

If I'm on a Protector or Warrior in a large group I can apply boons frequently by just paying attention. I see the lava font come up from an Elementalist I can immediately switch to the relevant weapon, slam Earthshaker or Mighty Blow and grant three stacks of Might to my nearby allies. If a Thief puts down Smoke Bomb and I do the same it'll immediately stealth my nearby allies. If I see the trademark Frozen Ground graphic and blast finisher? Frost Armor for all!

Or I can just sit there spamming the same abilities on cooldown doing sweet FA with them and we take 20 minutes to zerg down a difficult boss.

 

[Firestorm]

If you haven't pre-ordered yet and want to pre-purchase at 20% off use coupon COSYO-UDIDN-TGET1 on GreenManGaming. I'm not sure if it works on the UK site on http://greenmangaming.co.uk but you can try!

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

I don't like how they've already spoiled the ending.

I liked going through Guild Wars 1's story without knowing what I was getting into.

 

[thetrin]

I don't like how they've already spoiled the ending.

I liked going through Guild Wars 1's story without knowing what I was getting into.

Does anyone actually play MMOs for the story?

 

[markot]

Does anyone actually play MMOs for the story?

A few EA execs.

 

[TheChocolateWar]

Does anyone actually play MMOs for the story?

I do. Some of the MMO plot threads out there have been really good. Some of the stories back in Burning Crusade I found to be very interesting. DAoC also had some good quest threads. Granted, it requires the horrible concept of reading!

 

[Klyka]

I don't play MMOs for the story, but I sure as hell won't complain if it has a good one.

 

[Lovely Salsa]

People say go craft to easily level up the character, but one thing I noted in all the crafting videos is that the experience you get there doesn't go to the character exp, but to the crafting exp.....can anyone explain this one to me?

 

[ForzaFerrari]

Does anyone actually play MMOs for the story?

Chains of Promathia had an amazing one

 

[Jira]

People say go craft to easily level up the character, but one thing I noted in all the crafting videos is that the experience you get there doesn't go to the character exp, but to the crafting exp.....can anyone explain this one to me?

It goes to both, you may have seen crafting footage from BWE1 where there was a bug where it wasn't working.

 

[Iadien]

Does anyone actually play MMOs for the story?

I would guess not many. gameplay >

 

[Retro]

I just watched the dragon encounter and all I can say is: what the fuck was that.

It looks like a total mess, no coordination, no risk, the reward seems fruitless, the fight looked like it was just a random spank job from the players. I'm not sure i can get excited for this.

It's convention footage, you can even see the demo timer at the top of the screen. These are people who literally stood in line to play the game for a half hour with no previous experience. The mechanics behind the fight are solid, the people who were thrown in there to demo it are.... well.... you know the old saying "Those who can't do, teach"? Well, "those who can't play become games journalists." Sorry, Kayos

I don't like how they've already spoiled the ending.

I liked going through Guild Wars 1's story without knowing what I was getting into.

How did they spoil the story? I must have missed something. I mean, if you're referring to the obvious encounter with Zhaitan, I dunno what people expected. Besides, it's the journey and how ny character gets there, and all the stuff that happens on the way, that's interesting to me.

Does anyone actually play MMOs for the story?

Just because most MMOs haven't had a story doesn't mean we don't want it.

People say go craft to easily level up the character, but one thing I noted in all the crafting videos is that the experience you get there doesn't go to the character exp, but to the crafting exp.....can anyone explain this one to me?

It was broken in some of the BWEs, but in the last one and at launch you're getting both; you're leveling up your crafting level and your character level. ANet devs have stated that you can level to 80 entirely on crafting as long as you have the materials to do so. And considering how much some people love to wheel and deal on the trading post, the ability to just hang out in town and play the market while leveling via crafting actually seems like a distinct possibility.

 

[Deleted member 10571]

I played LotRO for the story, 'cause it was pretty amazing. Gameplay got in the way after a few years.

 

[Jira]

It was broken in some of the BWEs, but in the last one and at launch you're getting both; you're leveling up your crafting level and your character level. ANet devs have stated that you can level to 80 entirely on crafting as long as you have the materials to do so. And considering how much some people love to wheel and deal on the trading post, the ability to just hang out in town and play the market while leveling via crafting actually seems like a distinct possibility.

A very distinct possibility indeed. With a little bit of startup capital you're able double and even triple your initial investment every few minutes. I won't go into this though as I want to keep this to myself.

 

[Retro]

I played LotRO for the story, 'cause it was pretty amazing. Gameplay got in the way after a few years.

Let's be honest, we all played LotRO so we could visit Bag End and Rivendell and giggle like little girls when we bumped into Bilbo.

Gameplay was alright, but it had some glaring issues. Still, it had some neat ideas and it was different enough to play for a while.

A very distinct possibility indeed. With a little bit of startup capital you're able double and even triple your initial investment every few minutes. I won't go into this though as I want to keep this to myself.

I'm sure there will be plenty of people who just hang out and play the market all day, and do it very well. I personally never saw the attraction to that particular facet of MMOs, but I can see how controlling a virtual market is appealing to some.

All I care about on the Trade is if people are being douche-nozzles and jacking up the prices of stuff to try and manipulate the market.

 

[Vinci]

In regards to coordination, that stuff is absolutely required in dungeons, sPvP, and WvW. You'll see it out in the open world PvE, but it won't be as common place. Orr will probably require the most coordination from a server in the general PvE sense.

I mentioned this before, and this is no attack on your comment as I feel like reiterating this for effect... But if people will stop taking what's fed to them and explore, especially if it
leads them into zones where every mob is three to four levels above them or more, they will develop coordination. Even with PUGs, even with nothing more than Party Chat. And it's amazing to experience and it prepares you for all sorts of content, not only on a group level but on an individual basis as well.

Once I figured this out, I would intentionally always run in areas that were well above my level.

 

[Hawkian]

Didn't people (such as they were) play The Old Republic primarily for the story?

 

[Ms. Tea]

Quick question about the performance. It wasn't really good during the 1st and 2nd BWE and I haven't played much of the 3rd one. Was anything fixed in that regard or are all the problems still there? Changing graphics options not having impact on the performance etc.

I saw a huge improvement from BWE2 to 3. On my Radeon HD 5800, I played at 1080p with the second highest settings and antialiasing. BWE2 ran decently most of the time, but it got visibly choppy in busy fights and especially in the big cities. In BWE3 the game ran at a solid framerate 100% of the time, even with tons of players onscreen. I didn't have an FPS meter running most of the time but I don't think it dipped below 40FPS.

Like you say, changing graphics options did basically nothing in BWE1 and 2; in BWE3 I noticed a difference. I also noticed that my GPU was actually at ~90-95% usage while in-game this time, so it was really being used.

 

[fluffydelusions]

Didn't people (such as they were) play The Old Republic primarily for the story?

I found SWTOR pretty fun for a little while...until I hit lvl 50 and completed my story line. The other thing that sucked about that game is the servers had such a low population and the hero engine is terrible. I couldn't complete so many heroics due to the lack of people in the area. Plus, you get 15 or so people on screen and the game would start to crawl.

 

[Vinci]

Didn't people (such as they were) play The Old Republic primarily for the story?

The MMO space and its trappings really aren't a good place for a game with SWTOR's aspirations. Instead of an MMO, they should have treated it a bit differently. An online, multiplayer KOTOR that rolls out new 'episodes' periodically for a price.

 

[flyinpiranha]

I think somebody was mentioning it somewhere but couldn't find it. When I do my upgrade around October I think I'm going to go with an SSD. I couldn't care less about start up/shut down as it would be for a few games I play often, does it affect MMOs? They behave differently than regular games with most other things so I'm not sure if an SSD is worth the jump (although probably will anyway because of Photoshop performance my girl could use).

Probably upgrading to a Z77 Extreme6, i5-2500k, 8Gb DDR3 (1600) and the SSD, most likely 128Gb.

One thing I do not want is performance troubles, and with my current setup (C2D E8400, HD 6870, 12Gb RAM DDR2) I did see some slowdown in quite a few areas with medium-high settings unless I was in a story instance then it ran smooth as butter.

 

[Jira]

I think somebody was mentioning it somewhere but couldn't find it. When I do my upgrade around October I think I'm going to go with an SSD. I couldn't care less about start up/shut down as it would be for a few games I play often, does it affect MMOs? They behave differently than regular games with most other things so I'm not sure if an SSD is worth the jump (although probably will anyway because of Photoshop performance my girl could use).

Probably upgrading to a Z77 Extreme6, i5-2500k, 8Gb DDR3 (1600) and the SSD, most likely 128Gb.

One thing I do not want is performance troubles, and with my current setup (C2D E8400, HD 6870, 12Gb RAM DDR2) I did see some slowdown in quite a few areas with medium-high settings unless I was in a story instance then it ran smooth as butter.

Well you do have an old processor so that'll bottleneck your GPU. As for the SSD, you'd see a decrease in load times of the initial boot up and changing zones, but nothing else.

 

[Hawkian]

An SSD would improve your load times of existing areas on your hard drive, it would do nothing regarding FPS or performance during gameplay.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Does anyone actually play MMOs for the story?

Lot of people do. Secret World and TOR have have excellent ones. LOTRO is basically one long story that moves you forward and can be quite interesting if your into that lore. People get invested in story telling in WoW event even if it's pretty anemic in it's presentation. People like to have a reason to play their characters and have fluff to give life to the world they are playing in.

Even then, it's not about coordination as a team... but just a bunch of people doing the same thing together.

And I'm not giving the game shit, it is what it is. Just I hope people don't have false expectations about what end game will be.

Hopefully later events and big fights are nothing more than just zergs, which is what they are so far in what we've done in the beta. RIFT had the same problem with it's large event fights which were nothing more than population zergs with next to no strategy. You would unlock the huge bosses in RIFT and it was nothing but zerg till dead. None of the event fights or big bosses in GW2 so far have required any actual strategy. Assume the dungeon fights will have more strategy being designed around small parties, as single play fights require much more thought than event stuff. Event fights might be more interesting post launch really when populations die down and you won't have so many players and have to group up with some actual thought. Lot of GW2 will probably be better post launch when theres not so many people doing same exact thing.

 

[Emitan]

Does anyone actually play MMOs for the story?

I do if it's good.