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[flyinpiranha]

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.

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

Ah, gotcha. So basically processor is what's going to give me a boost in FPS? I hate when the game becomes a slideshow so trying to figure out the best bang for my buck to improve. So far those upgrades mentioned are about $620 ... about $100 more than I want to spend but I should be able to swing it after my September vacation ... although the girl is going to wonder why I'm not spending much while we're there haha.

I might skip the SSD if it's just loading and such that will speed up. That was the least of my worries and would almost cut the upgrade cost by 1/3.

 

[Valnen]

End Game Interview: http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/b/324689481 (Audio issues resolve about 30 seconds in)

- Final Dungeon
- Exploration mode in all previous dungeon content.
- Massive zone-wide Dynamic/Meta Events in Orr
- Legendary Weapon hunting (not farming)
- WvW
- sPVP
- Alts (especially important considering the personal stories are fairly unique)

Why have raids that play nothing like the content you've been experiencing when you can continue to do the things you've enjoyed for 80 levels? And if those things aren't enjoyable to you, there's a bunch of terrible MMOs with traditional raiding waiting for you.

You listed two things that aren't PvE. A lot of people don't want to be stuck doing only PvP at max level. Hell, a lot of people don't want to PvP at all at max level.

 

[BattleMonkey]

You listed two things that aren't PvE. A lot of people don't want to be stuck doing only PvP at max level. Hell, a lot of people don't want to PvP at all at max level.

PvP is always going to be one of the primary focuses of "endgame" for GW2. It was the focus for GW1. PvP always will be evolving while any PvE content takes alot of time to make and get added to the game.

 

[Iadien]

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

That depends, SSDs can help with stuttering in some situations.

I have all of my mmos on my SSD.

 

[Vinci]

You listed two things that aren't PvE. A lot of people don't want to be stuck doing only PvP at max level. Hell, a lot of people don't want to PvP at all at max level.

Then here's hoping ANET adds more stuff or that those people feel they got their money's worth after 80 levels, or that those people adapt to the wide range of content (yes, including PVP) to extend their enjoyment of the game.

All ANET is talking about in that video is what will be there at launch, not what will only be there forever and ever.

I'm saying this now: If someone refuses to PVP in this game, they are doing themselves and the game a disservice. 'Cause it is so fucking good. My friend has been the stereotypical carebear forever, and he loves WvW.

YMMV.

 

[Shanlei91]

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

Oh man, I always felt like this was the case whenever I saw footage of game reviewers at expos, etc. I didn't adopt the notion as truth until I was at Comic Con two years ago and played DC Universe Online for the first time. Alone, I managed to PVP against 5 bloggers/journalists, taking them all out and not dying once...eventually started corpse camping them. A developer at the kiosk kept asking if I was a closed beta tester, he refused to believe that I was that good or that they were that bad.

 

[Klyka]

That depends, SSDs can help with stuttering in some situations.

SSDs help MASSIVELY in open world games and MMOs because they allow your PC to get all the visual files for the characters, armors, effects, enemies, etc... much, much quicker.
An SSD will help you quite a bit in large combat and will keep you from experiencing that initial stutter or have a short lag/stop because some guy with armor you haven't loaded in yet shows up.

 

[Jira]

Ah, gotcha. So basically processor is what's going to give me a boost in FPS? I hate when the game becomes a slideshow so trying to figure out the best bang for my buck to improve. So far those upgrades mentioned are about $620 ... about $100 more than I want to spend but I should be able to swing it after my September vacation ... although the girl is going to wonder why I'm not spending much while we're there haha.

I might skip the SSD if it's just loading and such that will speed up. That was the least of my worries and would almost cut the upgrade cost by 1/3.

Get the CPU over the SSD.

 

[Valnen]

PvP is always going to be one of the primary focuses of "endgame" for GW2. It was the focus for GW1. PvP always will be evolving while any PvE content takes alot of time to make and get added to the game.

But this isn't GW1. It's supposed to be different. Which is the only reason I'm interested in this game.

 

[Iadien]

SSDs help MASSIVELY in open world games and MMOs because they allow your PC to get all the visual files for the characters, armors, effects, enemies, etc... much, much quicker.
An SSD will help you quite a bit in large combat and will keep you from experiencing that initial stutter or have a short lag/stop because some guy with armor you haven't loaded in yet shows up.

Yep, there are games I can't talk about that benefit greatly from having the game installed on an SSD (as of right now anyway).

 

[Vinci]

But this isn't GW1. It's supposed to be different. Which is the only reason I'm interested in this game.

It is different, but that doesn't mean they're going to turn into Blizzard. IMO, the PVE in this game is great - I spent basically the entire weekend doing nothing but it and was never bored. But PVP is a good portion of this game, not the majority - but a pretty good portion. For a launch MMO, the amount of overall content in this game is amazing. If people choose to simply ignore a good portion of it, they're being irrational.

Nowhere did ANET say that the game would be heavily PVE focused - and yet, there's still a ton of it, particularly with the down leveling system in place.

 

[Hawkian]

That depends, SSDs can help with stuttering in some situations.

I have all of my mmos on my SSD.

SSDs help MASSIVELY in open world games and MMOs because they allow your PC to get all the visual files for the characters, armors, effects, enemies, etc... much, much quicker.
An SSD will help you quite a bit in large combat and will keep you from experiencing that initial stutter or have a short lag/stop because some guy with armor you haven't loaded in yet shows up.

I know you two aren't just being contrary but in the described use case based on his current setup, would an SSD produce anything remotely close to the performance boost he'd get out of upgrading his processor from a C2D E8400?

 

[Iadien]

I know you two aren't just being contrary but in the described use case based on his current setup, would an SSD produce anything remotely close to the performance boost he'd get out of upgrading his processor from a C2D E8400?

It's not even close, he should most definitely get a new processor over an SSD. =p

 

[BattleMonkey]

But this isn't GW1. It's supposed to be different. Which is the only reason I'm interested in this game.

It's also not sub based and making big and lots of content takes money. The game is going to have lot of content at launch, but how much will it expand by when it is free? Probably not by a huge amount outside of paid for expansion or content packs.

Unlike sub based games, they don't have to keep pumping out new progressively growing content to keep people paying a fee once they hit max level. But for the one time price you get to play GW2 whenever you want for as long as you want, and for $60 it's going to give you more length of game time than majority of games nowadays that have a hard time even giving you more than 4 hours of play beyond tacked on MP elements. Pay that much for a RPG and play it for 20-30 hours but GW2 will probably take you over 100 hours at least. Traditional style MMOs are more concenred with keeping the established player base playing and paying a sub and not quitting because they did everything the game offered.

Players will reach an end in GW2, everyone reaches a wall at one point where they feel they achieved what they want. Your not locked in a sub though so you can take a break and come back for "free" whenever something new gets added or changes made. And PvP is always going to be an activity that is dynamic and brings players back.

 

[Jira]

It's also not sub based and making big and lots of content takes money. The game is going to have lot of content at launch, but how much will it expand by when it is free? Probably not by a huge amount outside of paid for expansion or content packs.

Unlike sub based games, they don't have to keep pumping out new progressively growing content to keep people paying a fee once they hit max level. But for the one time price you get to play GW2 whenever you want for as long as you want, and for $60 it's going to give you more length of game time than majority of games nowadays that have a hard time even giving you more than 4 hours of play beyond tacked on MP elements. Pay that much for a RPG and play it for 20-30 hours but GW2 will probably take you over 100 hours at least.

They said they're splitting into two teams, one live and one expansion. That puts their live team at something like 130 people and they have pledged to have the best content support in gaming. They've talked about dropping content into the game and it'll be up to us to find it. Three years from now they intend to have tripled the amount of events in any given zone. The awesome part of downscaling is that they can put content anywhere and it's beneficial for all, not just specific people.

 

[flyinpiranha]

I know you two aren't just being contrary but in the described use case based on his current setup, would an SSD produce anything remotely close to the performance boost he'd get out of upgrading his processor from a C2D E8400?

It's not even close, he should most definitely get a new processor over an SSD. =p

I might have been a little unclear. The proc/mobo/ram upgrade is a definite (although might be more a Xmas present to myself since I might have to wait (dammit). I was wondering if ,since I have to reinstall Windows and everything anyway, an SSD on top of that mix would be worth the $175-200 they cost these days.

I've read things about loading times and such being cut by 10-30 seconds in some games and that doesn't seem worth it IMO. The start up/shut down I'm not too worried about. But if there is a huge performance leap in pop-up and texture-fill in general in the game (and others) then I might actually think about it more.

 

[Jira]

I might have been a little unclear. The proc/mobo/ram upgrade is a definite (although might be more a Xmas present to myself since I might have to wait (dammit). I was wondering if ,since I have to reinstall Windows and everything anyway, an SSD on top of that mix would be worth the $175-200 they cost these days.

I've read things about loading times and such being cut by 10-30 seconds in some games and that doesn't seem worth it IMO. The start up/shut down I'm not too worried about. But if there is a huge performance leap in pop-up and texture-fill in general in the game (and others) then I might actually think about it more.

Only get the SSD if you have the money to spare.

 

[flyinpiranha]

Only get the SSD if you have the money to spare.

Cool. I don't think I will since that will be back from vacation and nearing Xmas ... going to be stretching this one lol.

 

[Shanlei91]

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?

They both do go up at the same time. I will say though, I didn't start crafting until level 16 or so this past beta, expecting for XP gain to be a % regardless of all levels so that I would jump from 16. This isn't exactly the case, while XP is good there are diminishing returns due to the mismatch of low-level crafting done by a higher level character. It's on the same scale of a level 16 going off and doing a level 5 zone - you still get decent XP but nothing crazy.

Cooking on the other hand, is a different story. The buff meals seem worthless to me but the XP gain is ridiculous. Seems like a good method of exchanging money/karma for XP via the cook vendor.

 

[Lovely Salsa]

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.

This is interesting. Was anyone here a crafter in the last beta? How much could you level up with crafting alone if you started the game with, say, 20 gold?

 

[Lovely Salsa]

They both do go up at the same time. I will say though, I didn't start crafting until level 16 or so this past beta, expecting for XP gain to be a % regardless of all levels so that I would jump from 16. This isn't exactly the case, while XP is good there are diminishing returns due to the mismatch of low-level crafting done by a higher level character. It's on the same scale of a level 16 going off and doing a level 5 zone - you still get decent XP but nothing crazy.

Cooking on the other hand, is a different story. The buff meals seem worthless to me but the XP gain is ridiculous. Seems like a good method of exchanging money/karma for XP via the cook vendor.

Thanks for the tip!

I think I'll do both once the real game starts. Now time to youtube some cooking

 

[Jira]

This is interesting. Was anyone here a crafter in the last beta? How much could you level up with crafting alone if you started the game with, say, 20 gold?

Well per 400 crafting levels you would gain 10 character levels. Max out all 8 and you'd be level 80 or there about. As for the 20 gold question, that entirely depends on market prices and if you knew the best way to obtain materials, but I won't go into that. I have seen some of your comments before where you say you don't like leveling, but I have to ask...why do you want to get to 80 so badly? The game doesn't change once you hit the cap, the game you played from level 1 is the same as it is at 80, there's just more of it.

 

[Hawkian]

But this isn't GW1. It's supposed to be different. Which is the only reason I'm interested in this game.

Well....

1) Content support in GW1 was pretty awesome from my perspective. Sorrow's Furnace was considered at the time to be the largest completely free content update to any MMO in history (and if you consider that GW has no monthly fees it's pretty impressive that it's even in the running), bringing the Titan Quests, unique weapons, changes to chests, etc. The fourth anniversary update brought about the daily Zaishen Challenges and Elite quests, and all that was added completely free too.
2) Expect to pay for true expansion-level content every so often as was a very successful model in GW1. New contintents, classes, and skills. And along with the release of these usually comes feature additions for every player for free, even if they don't buy the expansion.
3) You said that he mentioned 2 things that weren't PvE, but that leaves 5/7 that are. It's silly to think that PvP shouldn't even be part of the endgame even if it's not your focus.
4) You really should play WvW cause it's a blast.

 

[ROBOKITTYZILLA]

Does anyone actually play MMOs for the story?

It's an important part of the genre to me but I can sometimes overlook the story content in MMOs depending on the gameplay and other content.

 

[Lovely Salsa]

Well per 400 crafting levels you would gain 10 character levels. Max out all 8 and you'd be level 80 or there about. As for the 20 gold question, that entirely depends on market prices and if you knew the best way to obtain materials, but I won't go into that. I have seen some of your comments before where you say you don't like leveling, but I have to ask...why do you want to get to 80 so badly? The game doesn't change once you hit the cap, the game you played from level 1 is the same as it is at 80, there's just more of it.

My plan isn't to get to level 80 from crafting but I want some easy way to earn exp when I feel underleveled, like I often did in the last BWE.

I'd also like to start the game where I ended the beta, at level 12 (my plan is tho to get to level 15 asap)

 

[Vano]

Does anyone actually play MMOs for the story?

I didn't but i liked the presentation and story in GW2 so it will be my first time that i will pay full attention to the story and lore.

 

[Lrn2reed]

Quick question about alts. Since I plan on having at least 4, is there any way to combine map completion and vistas? Are achievements account wide?

I want to have even more alts but im not sure I can handle starting from scratch on each one.

 

[Deleted member 10571]

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.

Of course, but in this case I meant the actual game story The whole stuff around the rise of Amarthiel and everything it affected was really fun to me.

 

[Iadien]

Cool. I don't think I will since that will be back from vacation and nearing Xmas ... going to be stretching this one lol.

If you do end up purchasing an SSD I would go for 256 GB if you play several different mmos (amazon had a crucial m4 256GB for $172, which is what I use) or higher.

 

[darkwing]

btw does anyone have a link which explains WvWvW properly? like the benefits/maps etc...

 

[flyinpiranha]

If you do end up purchasing an SSD I would go for 256 GB if you play several different mmos (amazon had a crucial m4 256GB for $172, which is what I use) or higher.

Damn, that's a good deal. I usually only play one MMO at a time but that's cheaper than the 128Gb I was looking at!

Now the waiting game. Should just buy it all and make the girl pay for the vacation!

 

[Shanlei91]

My plan isn't to get to level 80 from crafting but I want some easy way to earn exp when I feel underleveled, like I often did in the last BWE.

I'd also like to start the game where I ended the beta, at level 12 (my plan is tho to get to level 15 asap)

I recall watching a video that described crafting being a tier system, where every 75 levels in Crafting the raw materials used change. (i.e. copper -> iron) That said, I think the most efficient way to get XP is to first convert raw materials into base components until the XP yield significantly drops, then make secondary components using the base components, then use everything you have in the discovery tab. The discovery tab lets you "create" recipes you don't know by mixing items that make sense to put together, after one go you then learn the recipe. Making a discovery generates bonus XP that can boost your crafting potentially multiple levels and give a nice chunk in character XP.

Cooking is different in that you have almost no recipes at first so most of cooking revolves around discovering new recipes via the discovery tab. This is why the XP yield is so lucrative. Putting together bread and meat gave me a recipe for Hamburger and gave me about 1/5th a level in character XP.

This might be hard to convey via text. This guy sums it up pretty well in these three youtube videos. The first is the basics, the second is about XP optimization and the third is about cooking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFU_b4e2bxU&feature=plcp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry3Ddw6Gqmo&feature=plcp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpPWp1Yh_30&feature=plcp

 

[Violet_0]

trying to level up quickly really isn't worth it in this game - aside from unlocking elite skills at level 30 maybe, there's nothing to be gained by doing this. sPvP and WvWvW automatically level you up to 80.

 

[Vinci]

btw does anyone have a link which explains WvWvW properly? like the benefits/maps etc...

Start here, and then you can ask more specific questions about any elements that are unclear.

 

[darkwing]

Start here, and then you can ask more specific questions about any elements that are unclear.

thanks, was trying to explain to a friend about the WvW mechanics, figured there must be a site already with the info lol

 

[Sir Abacus]

trying to level up quickly really isn't worth it in this game - aside from unlocking elite skills at level 30 maybe, there's nothing to be gained by doing this. sPvP and WvWvW automatically level you up to 80.

sPvP yes, WvWvW no.

If you want elite skills in WvWvW you're getting to 30. If you want master traits (i.e. the 20 point bonuses) you're getting to 40 and if you want grandmaster traits (i.e. the 30 point bonuses) you're getting to 60.

 

[Zaph]

Could someone please clear something up for me. Is there or isn't there a 'loot treadmill'?

I've read/experienced conflicting things. Originally I heard no, but during my (very) short time in BWE3, there seemed to be stats on loot and vendors selling stated lvl80 loot too. Is all the 80 stuff identical or something?

Also, I gotta say, GW2 has by far the best launch AH I've ever seen. I loved being able to browse from anywhere, I loved the 'offer' mechanic allowing you to sell your stuff instantly if you're not too fussed about getting the best price possible and I loved how identical items stacked.

After a month playing D3, using this AH felt so damn cathartic.

 

[Quadrophenic]

There is progressively better loot as you level up, but attaining the max-stat items will not require grinding out dungeons/raids/mobs hoping for a lucky random drop.

For sPvP you get max statted items automatically.

Unique weapon skins/armor skins may, however, take a bit of luck and/or grinding.

 

[Vinci]

Could someone please clear something up for me. Is there or isn't there a 'loot treadmill'?

I've read/experienced conflicting things. Originally I heard no, but during my (very) short time in BWE3, there seemed to be stats on loot and vendors selling stated lvl80 loot too. Is all the 80 stuff identical or something?

There is a max cap on how high gear can get you. It won't consistently go up and up forever, so there is a treadmill in one sense - but it's not infinite, nor will it be perpetuated beyond 80 gear. Once you reach level 80 gear, all further gear specific evolution is cosmetic. Even the Legendaries are not superior stats-wise to so-called Exotic gear. Legendaries simply look cooler and come with bragging rights attached.

Also, I gotta say, GW2 has by far the best launch AH I've ever seen. I loved being able to browse from anywhere, I loved the 'offer' mechanic allowing you to sell your stuff instantly if you're not too fussed about getting the best price possible and I loved how identical items stacked.

After a month playing D3, using this AH felt so damn cathartic.

Yes, they learned from EVE. 'Bout time someone did.

 

[Sir Abacus]

I've read/experienced conflicting things. Originally I heard no, but during my (very) short time in BWE3, there seemed to be stats on loot and vendors selling stated lvl80 loot too. Is all the 80 stuff identical or something?

Stats are based exclusively on the level of the item and each item has an upgrade slot allowing a rune/sigil or jewel.

All gear confers to these rules. The gear treadmill is vanity not power.

 

[Weltall Zero]

YES

APPLAUD THIS MAN

Thanks!

But :'(

Oh, sorry, I didn't actually think anyone would be interested on what we were talking about... I guess we could use email and reply to all?

Might want to throw that over at Reddit if you want some Karma haha. Thanks for this though.

You're welcome!
I don't even have a Reddit account; what little I know of it suggests it would eat my free time whole. Does Karma do anything other than bragging rights? In any case, it'd be great if someone posted it at Reddit, so that those guys could benefit from it as well; if you want to, go ahead!

@IPoopStandingUp

Wut, If am thinking about the right quest, not only is the guy who you need to speak to like 10 feet away from those robots (literally outside the little cave they are in) he also turns you into a little robot of your own -complete with 5 different abilities- just to go through that 5 minute quest. If it is about the other powered-down robots around there is always a toolbox next to them that allows you to start them, and they even have like 4 different outcomes (including dif. animations) for the different sequences. I only made an Asura and took him to lvl ~5 and I don't remember it being a problem.

Yeah, I have trouble believing anyone having trouble with the Asura quests, like the ridable golem one. Particularly, golem chess sold me on the zone completely; such a fun little activity, and it was just one out of FIVE for its heart!

The AOE control issue was something I had trouble with using my mouselook autohotkey script. It's unfortunate that right-click + left-click is mapped to run, and that there's no cursor while holding right mouse button. I settled for toggling it on and off, but I'm thinking when the game comes out that I'll change it to have a key which *stops* holding right mouse button only while held.

Whoa, wait! I have to think that over for a while, later on; it sounds like it could be a really interesting idea!

I did end up pretty happy with my controls though - with mouselook on by default, and left mouse mapped to 1 while mouselook is on, I felt like it made the combat "feel" a lot nicer.

I really recommend you try my simplified configuration or Hawkian's if you have some time on retail; the bindings play much better than they might sound like on paper. For AOE abilities, also remember that you can press the ability key/button a second time to fire them; there's no need to click the left mouse button. So if your third ability is an AOE, you could hit 3, move the reticle, then hit 3 again; or you could just position the mouse where you want it, then hit 3 twice.

Leveling up through events is all well and good, but what about max level? No options for things like traditional instanced raids is kinda bleh. There's more to PvE than just leveling up.

In fact "leveling up" doesn't factor into PvE for me anymore. Honestly, I'm too busy exploring the map, reaching vistas, completing hearts, hunting for elusive events, finding secret places, completing out-of-the-way puzzles, crafting, and so on, to pay a lot of attention about a little number on the bottom left of the GUI.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt1Q2W1Jvw8&feature=plcp

Keg Brawl for those who didn't get to see it. I played one round of it myself and it was insanely fun. I didn't really expect much from Activities but damn if this is any indication as to how others will be then I seriously can't wait to see the others. There's supposed to be ~30 of them according to the wiki.

Keg Brawl is so much more fun than either the description or any video would have one believe. Please guys, give it a try, with friends if possible.
By the way, keep in mind when you play it that your two dodges are extremely effective when carrying the keg. With the 3 ability, that's three dodges you have to time perfectly with keg stealing attempts. Also, freezing the ground to make others slip is funny AND effective; don't forget to do it.

Finished GW2 Ghosts of Ascalon. (forgot about it for a while). Decent book, but wtf ending. It just stops. I thought i was missing pages or something.

Yep, it was quite abrupt, but at least the characters were quite interesting and developed, for a videogame book.
Next step: get a copy of Edge of Destiny, then rip out each page one by one and burn it. Hint: reading a couple of lines from each page before setting fire to it will make the experience that much more enjoyable.

So much defensiveness about people bringing up wanting raids

First of all, in my opinion people have been nothing but courteous and helpful explaining why they're not in the game.
Second, considering how often this topic (itself a huge waste of time) is brought up, people are entitled to be a bit testy at the least. I know each person commenting on it thinks he's the first one, but it's not the case.
Third, this game needs raids like a bird needs wheels. If I went to a Street Fighter IV board and suggested they added a level grind that made characters more powerful in online versus, how would I be received? What if I entered a WoW board and said what this game needs is FPS mechanics like headshots and rocket jumping? Certainly no better than the very reasonable answers over here. Now imagine that very same thing happening every week. Yeah, I think some sparks would fly.
I guess it's understandable for new people to GW2 to wonder, if it looks so much like WoW, why doesn't it have raids. Until they grok GW2 (and it took me a year!), they're not going to understand that anything it doesn't have, is because of a design choice.

Plus yeah, raiding sucks. But that's even beside the point.

Thank you for this. I meant to set up my own xpadder profile during bwe3, but I explored the asuran zones instead. Two quick questions as I'm downloading your pack now, so hopefully you haven't already answered them. Did the 360/PS3 chat pad work alright and did your corresponding headset work okay for mumble? If nobody knows, I'll look into these questions first thing come launch, along with aoe targeting with the controller.

My 360 pad worked fine, but I've been using for Windows games for quite some time. In fact, I owned a X360 pad years before I owned an actual Xbox360, just for that purpose! If you never used one, you have to know that, while wired pads work pretty much out of the box, wireless ones can NOT be connected via the charging cable in the battery pack; Windows will recognize them but you can't use them as pads. Why? Well, so that Microsoft can sell you the PC receiver for it! >_> So, if you only have a wireless X360 pad, you'd need to buy that one bit of hardware.

I don't actually own a 360 headset (shock!). I don't have a lot of use for one, as I don't like FPSs at all, or, well, most competitive shooters, first person or no. Perhaps any other GAFers tried it? Does it work like a normal headset in Windows?

I also stumbled upon this awesome video from wvw during the end of the weekend beta. Arrow carts are broken.

OK, that was awesome. The stuff people do with their free time...

I am interested in this game, and I am also interested in raids. It's not mutually exclusive.

Well, I'm interested in this game, and I'm interested in spaceships. But I don't want spaceships in this game, because they don't fit. Raids are the same (only I actually don't like them to start with, which might color my perception of fitness...). Does that make sense?

I am curious about dungeons though. How are the boss fights? Without the "trinity" is there much challenge involved besides not standing in the fire so to speak?

I don't need raids. But without bosses with some sort of mechanic to learn and conquer...

Apparently, the only dungeon shown so far had a boss fight that involved fighting off hordes of enemies. However, there was a lever in a high area that would spring traps that killed those enemies. You could assign one person to the lever, or have all five fighting the horde.

The real answer is that we don't know. Nobody was able to finish the dungeon in hard mode in the closed beta I think, not even with a team of devs!

And like I said for all I know this game has it. I bought the game, loved what I played in this last beta, but still have questions

Don't worry, don't apologize for asking anything! Asking just shows that you're interested and willing to listen.

Didn't read Edge of Destiny. I heard it was terrible, and have heard the same repeatedly since. Ree's book will hopefully be better... whenever that comes out.

"Terrible" is way too kind. It makes teenager fanfic look amazingly competent.
Really looking forward to Soesbee's book! I wonder if it will be Sylvari-focused.

There are no raids, but there are massive world events. If you want challenging mechanics to learn and conquer, meet Tequatil the Sunless (a "small" dragon). This guy summons walls (need to be taken out by player-manned cannons), spawns exploding kamikaze undead (that make a b-line towards said cannons), breathes poisonous fumes, and spawns tentacle-like vines that fling you away from him. If his spawns wipe out any of the cannons, you need to protect the Asura repair teams until they're back up. Oh, and there's a giant Asura cannon you need to defend so it can weaken him enough for everyone to run in and cause damage. Oh, and he's only level 58 out of 80.

Yeah, I think that people have forgot that Guild Wars 2's ability, kit and enviromental weapon system makes it much more flexible than WoW, not the opposite. Want to have a heal/tank/DPS fight? Just drop kits for each role before the fight, and have people pick them up. That way they can even switch roles anytime they want. But honestly, I think WoW tapped out every single possible fight mechanic and permutation based on the trinity; trying to find new ground there is next to impossible, why would they want to? Control/Support/Damage is much fresher and interesting for me. People are extrapolating hard mode dungeon complexity from the BWE's; that's like trying to figure out how raids (or dungeons!) would work from WoW's starter quests.

Well said on everything else as well; really, it can't be put much more clearly.

I want the whole raiding mentality to be squelched out of existence. When people describe what they have to do as part of a raiding guild, they sound like absolute lunatics. I mean, there are the occasional ones who comment about liking at least certain raids and they don't mind running them and, in a sense, 'specializing' in that raid. But more often, I've heard people talk about raiding as a job - not as a fun activity or anything to do with a game - and it dons on you how sick that whole setup is.

Yeah, me too; I want raiding to disappear from the face of the world. At some point you wonder if it's not similar to a cult; a lot of people leaving it for good can't fathom, looking back, how they put up with it (count me in as one of those, although I was very lucky and decided it sucked a couple of months into it).

EDIT: Didn't mean to go all out on the WoW comparison, but it's the MMO I've spent the most time with. I keep trying to get back into it because most of my friends still play it, but GW2 has ruined it for me.

GW2 has ruined every other MMO for me, including TOR which I was looking forward (before I realized how much better MMOs could be).

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

Except for the part where you won't.

Heheheh, good call. It does seem like a hilariously dumb thing to say, in retrospect. Should we file a bug report?

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

But "a bunch of people, not coordinated but doing the same thing together" is a perfect definition of 90% of WoW's dungeons and most raids. You don't have to coordinate with others; if you're a healer, you heal them, no matter what they are doing. Same with DPS. Tanks might have to pull aggro off a squishy, but again they're reacting to the mobs, not the players. The big lie of current MMOs is that you're doing something together, when actually each person is single-mindedly concentrated on their next steps in the dance and couldn't care less what the others are doing. Sure, you succeed or fail together depending on each one's success, but that's no more coordination than taking a test and awarding each person in the class the average grade.

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

I did (beta). Some of them were actually quite entertaining stories; I particularly liked Bounty Hunter, while Jedis seemed on the boring side. The funny thing is that Guild Wars 2's stories are about the same quality, certainly not the much, much worse I was expecting and was totally willing to accept in exchange for the other good bits. Heck, I just read in this thread that the only story I played to completion was one of the worse ones, and I quite enjoyed it! If you're not expecting world-class stuff, leave aside the cynicism, and keep an open mind, they're actually quite enjoyable and to the point.

btw does anyone have a link which explains WvWvW properly? like the benefits/maps etc...

Probably beaten, but have a look at these:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/World_versus_World
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1160647-Beginner’s-guide-for-WvW

 

[RepairmanJack]

Holy shit, We have a new champion of the mega post. :lol

As for the loot, does anyone know if drops are more common in the later levels? I felt like I got stuff so few and far between that it almost felt pointless.

 

[flyinpiranha]

Stats are based exclusively on the level of the item and each item has an upgrade slot allowing a rune/sigil or jewel.

All gear confers to these rules. The gear treadmill is vanity not power.

Vanity IS power!

 

[Sir Abacus]

Holy shit, We have a new champion of the mega post. :lol

As for the loot, does anyone know if drops are more common in the later levels? I felt like I got stuff so few and far between that it almost felt pointless.

Most of the loot you get you're supposed to salvage rather than use. Keep in mind that the best quality items are always obtainable via crafting in one form or another. Drops and quest items really only fill in the gaps between level tiers.

 

[Wallach]

I'm still unsure whether to go Warrior or Engineer. Human or Norn on the Warrior, Charr on the Engineer. Both will happen eventually (assuming I don't totally hate the game on my first go) but I have been waffling on which to start with for months.

 

[Shining Sunshine]

Does anyone actually play MMOs for the story?

Playing TOR rocked.

Story is also the reason I quit WoW.

 

[Jack_AG]

(incredible post of quotes and stuff)

I'll start this...

 

[RepairmanJack]

Most of the loot you get you're supposed to salvage rather than use. Keep in mind that the best quality items are always obtainable via crafting in one form or another. Drops and quest items really only fill in the gaps between level tiers.

Yeah, I know about salvaging, I actually think that's sort of the issue. Deposit collectables and salvaging pretty much makes everything pointless unless you stay up with crafting in some way. There needs to be something else to keep people looking other than the few peices of gear they will see every great once and a while and constantly salvaging and depositing everything.

Guess my question is if more worthwhile stuff starts dropping later as apposed to just more crap to salvage. Or am I going to be saving everything to drop in the Mystic Forge...

I guess there is random mini's to drop rarely from mobs(maybe?) and inks.

 

[BattleMonkey]

There is progressively better loot as you level up, but attaining the max-stat items will not require grinding out dungeons/raids/mobs hoping for a lucky random drop.

So how do you get the better loot? You get sent a care package with free stuff as you level?

 

[Quadrophenic]

I did an event chain which led to Skrittsburgh opening up. I am not sure if it was because I was in Skrittsburgh, or if it was just random chance, but the items I was getting as drops off the mobs inside there were substantially better than that I was wearing + was finding outside of Skrittsburgh.

So maybe better loot drops in harder to access areas? I am not sure.

It could also be that thier loot tables are a bit borked at the moment. I was watching Wooden Potato's walk through of the Metrica Provence jumping puzzle and the end chest gave out a couple crap items, which seems off considering the work required to get there.

So how do you get the better loot? You get sent a care package with free stuff as you level?

The same way you get all the other loot? Karma, vendors, drops. The point is that its not a 5% drop at the end of a raid in which you then have to win a roll against everyone else in the raid to attain.