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Guild Wars 2 Launch Date announced: August 28th, 2012

Random question:
Should I bother keeping my beta client up to date or on release day we'll have to redownload a different client?
 
"Yes, they've said that they tested every gametype imaginable and found Conquest to be the most enjoyable for what the game is promoting and for the eSport scene. They said they will make more gametypes, just not at launch."


Conquest is pretty bad eSport-wise for spectators, though.
 
I haven't played any of the previous Guild Wars games. But if I wanted to try one out and get a few points for HoM, which release would you guys recommend I try? I'd probably be shooting for 9 points in total (FOR THE KITTY CAT). Remember, 3 points are supposedly given for just linking my GW1 and GW2 accounts.

And is there a brief overview of what I should do to get the 9 points? Or is that something I'd get just for playing through the game normally.
 
I haven't played any of the previous Guild Wars games. But if I wanted to try one out and get a few points for HoM, which release would you guys recommend I try? I'd probably be shooting for 9 points in total (FOR THE KITTY CAT). Remember, 3 points are supposedly given for just linking my GW1 and GW2 accounts.

And is there a brief overview of what I should do to get the 9 points? Or is that something I'd get just for playing through the game normally.

Dont do prophecies. that shit bored me to tears (havent tried the other ones cause was on the free trial)
 
"Yes, they've said that they tested every gametype imaginable and found Conquest to be the most enjoyable for what the game is promoting and for the eSport scene. They said they will make more gametypes, just not at launch."


Conquest is pretty bad eSport-wise for spectators, though.

How I would put it due to their words: Conquest is the product of compromise.

There is a large player base that wonders why you think 5v5 Conquest format is better than a 3v3 Death Match, or traditional Guild Wars GvG format. Could you discuss your position on these issues? Is there a possibility we might see them at a later point?

We tried a number of formats for GW2 and decided to go with one that scaled well for different numbers of players and was familiar to a wide audience. We want to build an open and inclusive PvP community, and finding a game format that fostered both friendly play as well as highly competitive play was a challenge.

We have seen the Conquest format work well on our open play servers with 10v10 as well as competitive 5v5 tournaments. It is important to us that people have an avenue to move from less competitive to more competitive play. Our hope is to see a player new to the game start off by hitting “Play Now” on the server browser, getting to know the game, making some friends, and building some confidence. Once they have a firm grounding in how the game works, how the maps work, and how their builds work, we hope to see them move into tournament play with our automated tournament system and eventually to our scheduled tournaments where they can contend for a spot in our yearly tournament. Our dream is to see someone go from newb to world champion. We just want to provide a path for them to follow to get there.

Having said that, we may try new formats in the future, but we want to be sure that we don’t split up our competitive player base and that any new additions are good for the game overall.
 
"How I would put it due to their words: Conquest is the product of compromise."

Which is awful. The secret to every significant competitive game (besides League of Legends) is just to make a damn good game, no compromises.
 
The funny thing is that the difference between the 8v8 or 10v10 of hotjoin Conquest and 5v5 Conquest is still significant enough that the "ease of transition" is limited.
 
"How I would put it due to their words: Conquest is the product of compromise."

Which is awful. The secret to every significant competitive game (besides League of Legends) is just to make a damn good game, no compromises.

I think the compromise in question is that it doesn't make a good e-sport, i.e. they chose something that is more fun to play than to watch.
 
"How I would put it due to their words: Conquest is the product of compromise."

Which is awful. The secret to every significant competitive game (besides League of Legends) is just to make a damn good game, no compromises.
So you've been playtesting GW2 longer than ANet? You'd do well to let them know the "real deal" at just how awful it is before launch... especially with everyone expressing their disdain after betas. Nobody likes this game for sure.

:|
 
"I think the compromise in question is that it doesn't make a good e-sport, i.e. they chose something that is more fun to play than to watch."

I don't think that's correct, considering all ArenaNet's said regarding GW2 and esports.


"So you've been playtesting GW2 longer than ANet? You'd do well to let them know the "real deal" at just how awful it is before launch... especially with everyone expressing their disdain after betas. Nobody likes this game for sure."

No, of course not. But I definitely don't think sPvP is good. Furthermore, you've managed to completely misinterpret my post. Read again?
 
I haven't played any of the previous Guild Wars games. But if I wanted to try one out and get a few points for HoM, which release would you guys recommend I try? I'd probably be shooting for 9 points in total (FOR THE KITTY CAT). Remember, 3 points are supposedly given for just linking my GW1 and GW2 accounts.

And is there a brief overview of what I should do to get the 9 points? Or is that something I'd get just for playing through the game normally.

Best thing to do is google Hall of Monuments guide. A ton of it will seem as if you are reading a different language, but it should sink in.

Yes, 3 points are given for linking accounts. Even with 9 points, prepare to spend some decent time in game.

I think the compromise in question is that it doesn't make a good e-sport, i.e. they chose something that is more fun to play than to watch.

As for the whole eSport thing. I honestly don't get the whole thing, so I'm fine with whatever there is. Don't think I'll step foot in sPvP that much anyhow as I absolutely hate the format. Hell, Tribes, Tribes 2, and Tribes Ascend are my favorite FPS games. I just can't see sitting around and watching matches of top ranked teams. I don't have anything invested in it, so I just don't quite grasp the whole thing. Especially just watching them.
 
I don't think that's correct, considering all ArenaNet's said regarding GW2 and esports.

I think it it is, considering all ArenaNet's said regarding GW2 being focused on the player's experience rather than the company's profit motives.

Obviously they want to make a profit and stick around to keep making games, but they've seen (and shown) that trying to milk the player doesn't work. That's why GW2 stands out from the crowd so much; it's not just another MMO Cash Grab. There's no reason to believe that they'd start now by making sPVP about e-sports than being enjoyable.
 
"I think it it is, considering all ArenaNet's said regarding GW2 being focused on the player's experience rather than the company's profit motives.

Obviously they want to make a profit and stick around to keep making games, but they've seen (and shown) that trying to milk the player doesn't work. That's why GW2 stands out from the crowd so much; it's not just another MMO Cash Grab. There's no reason to believe that they'd start now by making sPVP about e-sports than being enjoyable."


http://www.guildwars2guru.com/news/...with-arenanet-and-our-pvp-section-is-growing/

I'm not really saying they're making sPVP simply about e-sports, but they clearly want it to succeed as a competitive game and that is obviously going to affect some of their decisions/design to some extent. Hence, a compromise.
 
I haven't played any of the previous Guild Wars games. But if I wanted to try one out and get a few points for HoM, which release would you guys recommend I try? I'd probably be shooting for 9 points in total (FOR THE KITTY CAT). Remember, 3 points are supposedly given for just linking my GW1 and GW2 accounts.

And is there a brief overview of what I should do to get the 9 points? Or is that something I'd get just for playing through the game normally.


I reckon you would be able to get all of these points by playing through Prophecies and some of Eye of the North once (which is quite the journey by itself):

Fellowship
: 5 points
Any hero statue
Any pet statue
Any Rare Pet Statue

5 Companion Statues (Full Display)

Valor 2 points
Any Weapon Statue
Destroyer Weapon Statue

Resilience 1 points
Any Armor Statue

Devotion 5 points
Any Miniature Statue
Rare Miniature Statue
20 Miniature Statues
Unique Miniature Statue (uncertain about this one since I think you need to buy a green mini, and that might be expensive)

Honor 5 points
Any Statue (Eternal Hero of Tyria)
Accounts Linked

I would go for the points in italics if I were you. Should be doable in around 30 to 40 hours. You could also go for some of the other points that I listed, but I think the 9 I chose are the easiest to accomplish.
 
Thanks for that! I also found this guide: http://www.giantbomb.com/guides/getting-3050-hall-of-monument-points/2270/

It suggests starting with Factions and Eye of the North and they reckon 25 hours for a new player to get 10 points. Is this a reasonable strategy?

Here's the thing. Going with a Rit spam build is fastest, but dear god is it boring for the player. So that's up to you. Either way yeah start with Factions then do EOTN then Nightfall, then Prophecies if you continue to get points.
 
So is the build vital for me getting 10 points or can I go with something more interesting? I'll probably be solo most of the time.

I'm trying to glean this information from the guides and wikis but oh god none of it makes sense. Most of the guides are written for people already familiar with the game's concepts.
 
I didn't mind Rit. But then again, I micro-managed the hell out of my Heroes.

Aren't Rit and Minion Master Necro the easiest to complete with? Not saying they are fun, but they get the job done.
 
So is the build vital for me getting 10 points or can I go with something more interesting? I'll probably be solo most of the time.

I'm trying to glean this information from the guides and wikis but oh god none of it makes sense. Most of the guides are written for people already familiar with the game's concepts.

If you want easy and I mean EASY, use this:

http://www.gwpvx.com/Build:Rt/any_Spirit_Spammer

It's not going to be fun for you, but it is easy.

If you want fun, play another class.
 
SPVP is my favorite part of the game. Having said that, it's great despite the maps. I don't know why, but Arathi Basin in WoW was set up so much better than conquest is in GW2. Maybe it's because the map is larger and you could see further so you could avoid getting zerged.

I love the PVP in GW2 because the combat is amazing. That's why I'd like to have a straight up 5v5 arena match type. Capturing points isn't particularly exciting, but the small battles of evenly sized teams are amazing. 3v3 or 2v2 would also be cool. Why not have all those options? It cannot be hard to implement considering the map can just be a large circle.
 
If you want easy and I mean EASY, use this:

http://www.gwpvx.com/Build:Rt/any_Spirit_Spammer

It's not going to be fun for you, but it is easy.

If you want fun, play another class.
I'm looking to get an idea of what the game and world are all about before GW2 so I don't particularly want to ride out a boring autopilot build. Can you suggest a more interesting build? Preferably something with a GW2 analogue so I can see how things evolved between games. Maybe an elementalist!
 
I'm looking to get an idea of what the game and world are all about before GW2 so I don't particularly want to ride out a boring autopilot build. Can you suggest a more interesting build? Preferably something with a GW2 analogue so I can see how things evolved between games. Maybe an elementalist!

I wouldn't expect to learn much of anything of how to play the game, the world, for sure, but the games play very differently
 
I'm looking to get an idea of what the game and world are all about before GW2 so I don't particularly want to ride out a boring autopilot build. Can you suggest a more interesting build? Preferably something with a Guild Wars 2 analogue so I can see how things evolved between games. Maybe an elementalist!

If you want to play an Ele then do it, I've thought about it and if this is your first time playing then throwing a build at you right now is pointless since you don't know the mechanics nor will you have access to some of these skills to make up your build right out the gate. So I'd suggest playing with some classes to get an idea of what you enjoy and then let us know in the thread so we can help you with a build.
 
Minion Bomber Rit was always my favorite Rit build. You can have fun with the class, but if the objective is as many HoM points as you can get in the fastest amount of time, then the Rit Spirit Spambore build is the way to go.
 
So is the build vital for me getting 10 points or can I go with something more interesting? I'll probably be solo most of the time.

I'm trying to glean this information from the guides and wikis but oh god none of it makes sense. Most of the guides are written for people already familiar with the game's concepts.

I find Factions to be the most boring campaign, but it might be the quickest to play through. Nightfall is the most time consuming campaign, but it gives you access to heroes along the way.

My personal choice would be to go for Prophecies as it is the one that is most relevant to GW2 in terms of location and lore. Follow the main story until you hit Lions Arch. By then you should be at least level 10, and therefore able to get to Eye of the North where there is easy access to level 20 heroes. Earn yourself a couple of tapestries as you work your way up til level 20, and then return to Prophecies and steamroll the rest of the campaign. By the time you beat the campaign you should have enough money to buy the things you need for the last couple of points. Just remember to pick ranger as one of your professions so that you can level up a pet to level 20 along the way.

I am making my final preparations for GW2 now, so if you need any help just whisper me if you see that I am online. My ingame name is Minipet Manager. Should at least be able to lend you a decent hero team for story missions even if I dont have time to be there personally.
 
Alright guys! Those of you who need a reason to look at more GW2 stuff (you know you want to), I'd be extremely happy (and I;m sure others would be too, I remember seeing a few posts about it last page too) about 1 video that demonstrates each class really well to make up my mind... or to at least help at doing so. (And it'd be a great addition to the upcoming OT?)

Thanks a lot in advance :)
 
Agh, Mein leben! My heart is having palpitations for that package. Damnit. I feel like I need that thing so hard.

Is this a thing you say in common English language usage too? First time I'm hearing the german expression used in English... Sorry for OT.
 
Zojja open the Collector Edition of Guild Wars 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS85KJsw2rg

Damm :( I would like it only for the pictures and the frame, so cool.

Warning: Lots of cuts.

=/ she is damn annoying, was waiting the entire time for her to put her eye out with those scissors.

Collectors edition though, pretty impressed with everything there. Still feel fine that i went with the regular edition. :) money for the gem shop!
 
Alright guys! Those of you who need a reason to look at more GW2 stuff (you know you want to), I'd be extremely happy (and I;m sure others would be too, I remember seeing a few posts about it last page too) about 1 video that demonstrates each class really well to make up my mind... or to at least help at doing so. (And it'd be a great addition to the upcoming OT?)

Thanks a lot in advance :)

I like the With Haste series for a quick look at each profession (they're PvP centric though)

here's the Warrior vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD01FU7TJH0
 
So I bought the platinum edition last night that just comes with guild wars 1 and eye of the north.

How would you suggest I proceed in gaining the HoM stuff?

Really jumped in the deep end with this one.
 
I like the With Haste series for a quick look at each profession (they're PvP centric though)

here's the Warrior vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD01FU7TJH0

With the amount of weapon combinations I simply can't not pick the Warrior over Guardian!

As I've never played Guild Wars, how good are the devs with patching in content/changes? WoW had a ton of nice content added/overhauls. I know there will be standalone addon packs, but I'm talking about changing the core game.
 
So I bought the platinum edition last night that just comes with guild wars 1 and eye of the north.

How would you suggest I proceed in gaining the HoM stuff?

Really jumped in the deep end with this one.
Play Prophecies (gw1) up to Lions Arch, from there you can start Eye of the North where you get heros, then finish up Eye of the North so you unlock the hall of monuments. Come back to lions arch and finish rest of prophecies, which should be really easy because you'll have heros and you'll be max level.

Wiki.guildwars.com has great walkthroughs for all the story missions.
 
Audίoboxer;40747285 said:
With the amount of weapon combinations I simply can't not pick the Warrior over Guardian!

As I've never played Guild Wars, how good are the devs with patching in content/changes? WoW had a ton of nice content added/overhauls. I know there will be standalone addon packs, but I'm talking about changing the core game.

The live team will consist of ~150 or so people while the other 150 or so work on an expansion, they said they'll drop content into the world without telling us, they intend on making GW2 simply the best supported game in gaming. They see MMOs as a service, not just a game. They've said a zone might have 100 events at launch and three years down the road it could have 300 and they'd just make it so the older events happen less often while the newer ones happen more frequently. One of the nice things is due to scaling, it doesn't matter where in the world they put content, it is always relevant to you as a player because you always need XP/Karma/Coin/Loot even at level 80. At level 80 you'll continue to level, but every time you do your XP bar resets and you gain a Skill Point which is then used at a currency at 80, specifically for creating Legendary weapons, crafting related stuff, some improved siege weapons among other things.

Oh also, when a new build comes out you simply have to logout and log back in, there's no server downtime for patches. They also have the best server uptime amongst any big developer in online gaming. GW1 has been down for a total of 32 hours in 7 years, 24 of which when they had to physically move datacenters. They can do maintenance on servers without taking them down. Also, there's no queue system to get into the game, if the login server is up then you're able to play regardless of how many people are playing on your server. One more thing, you can hop from one server to another for any PvE content and sPvP(it's entirely regional so it doesn't matter where you play anyways) via guesting, you can even go play on a European server if you're in NA all for free. The only restriction is for WvW where you have to play it on your home server, to move that it costs gems(either pay with real money or buy gems with in-game gold) and the price is based on the server population. This is something that seems to get swept under the rug a lot or people don't tend to realize how significant it is, but ANet has the best server infrastructure in online gaming. They're doing things no one else seems capable of and still not charging any monthly fees.
 
The live team will consist of ~150 or so people while the other 150 or so work on an expansion, they said they'll drop content into the world without telling us, they intend on making GW2 simply the best supported game in gaming. They see MMOs as a service, not just a game. They've said a zone might have 100 events at launch and three years down the road it could have 300 and they'd just make it so the older events happen less often while the newer ones happen more frequently. One of the nice things is due to scaling, it doesn't matter where in the world they put content, it is always relevant to you as a player because you always need XP/Karma/Coin/Loot even at level 80. At level 80 you'll continue to level, but every time you do your XP bar resets and you gain a Skill Point which is then used at a currency at 80, specifically for creating Legendary weapons, crafting related stuff, some improved siege weapons among other things.

Oh also, when a new build comes out you simply have to logout and log back in, there's no server downtime for patches. They also have the best server uptime amongst any big developer in online gaming. GW1 has been down for a total of 32 hours in 7 years, 24 of which when they had to physically move datacenters. They can do maintenance on servers without taking them down. Also, there's no queue system to get into the game, if the login server is up then you're able to play regardless of how many people are playing on your server. One more thing, you can hop from one server to another for any PvE content and sPvP(it's entirely regional so it doesn't matter where you play anyways) via guesting, you can even go play on a European server if you're in NA all for free. The only restriction is for WvW where you have to play it on your home server, to move that it costs gems(either pay with real money or buy gems with in-game gold) and the price is based on the server population.

Sounds.... awesome.
 
Play Prophecies (gw1) up to Lions Arch, from there you can start Eye of the North where you get heros, then finish up Eye of the North so you unlock the hall of monuments. Come back to lions arch and finish rest of prophecies, which should be really easy because you'll have heros and you'll be max level.

Wiki.guildwars.com has great walkthroughs for all the story missions.

Thanks
 
To "reiterate"*, ANet has some crazy stream tech that they've had since the first game. It's probably the quietest and weirdest bit of interest about ANet and the Guild Wars franchise. Their ability to update of fix content is highly impressive and lowly known. Sometimes, I think BNet would be better now had they not let the ANet people go. (Sorry flame war sort of discussion.) Ed Park (aka Taugrim) discussed how much of an advantage the way they can keep up servers is in a GuildCast episode. I am not sure who is responsible for this, but it will be put to its most extreme test on launch. I really hope they were paying attention to the d3 fustercluck at launch and preparing for the massive pounding of demand that will happen at launch. I half expect them to be overloaded and fail, while the other half expects them to pull it off with a sly grin.

This is what they're claiming to do:
-Allow guesting to another server for PVE
-The Black Lion Trading Company (AH for wowpseak) is game-wide
-sPVP is regional
-All social features are game-wide, that includes guilds, chat, and friends list

That's a whole lotta babies for one momma.
 
To "reiterate"*, ANet has some crazy stream tech that they've had since the first game. It's probably the quietest and weirdest bit of interest about ANet and the Guild Wars franchise. Their ability to update of fix content is highly impressive and lowly known. Sometimes, I think BNet would be better now had they not let the ANet people go. (Sorry flame war sort of discussion.) Ed Park (aka Taugrim) discussed how much of an advantage the way they can keep up servers is in a GuildCast episode. I am not sure who is responsible for this, but it will be put to its most extreme test on launch. I really hope they were paying attention to the d3 fustercluck at launch and preparing for the massive pounding of demand that will happen at launch. I half expect them to be overloaded and fail, while the other half expects them to pull it off with a sly grin.

This is what they're claiming to do:
-Allow guesting to another server for PVE
-The Black Lion Trading Company (AH for wowpseak) is game-wide
-sPVP is regional
-All social features are game-wide, that includes guilds, chat, and friends list

That's a whole lotta babies for one momma.

How was logging in and server stability for the beta? I hope to god we do not have another Diablo 3 launch, especially considering the "3 day headstart".
 
To "reiterate"*, ANet has some crazy stream tech that they've had since the first game. It's probably the quietest and weirdest bit of interest about ANet and the Guild Wars franchise. Their ability to update of fix content is highly impressive and lowly known. Sometimes, I think BNet would be better now had they not let the ANet people go. (Sorry flame war sort of discussion.) Ed Park (aka Taugrim) discussed how much of an advantage the way they can keep up servers is in a GuildCast episode. I am not sure who is responsible for this, but it will be put to its most extreme test on launch. I really hope they were paying attention to the d3 fustercluck at launch and preparing for the massive pounding of demand that will happen at launch. I half expect them to be overloaded and fail, while the other half expects them to pull it off with a sly grin.

This is what they're claiming to do:
-Allow guesting to another server for PVE
-The Black Lion Trading Company (AH for wowpseak) is game-wide
-sPVP is regional
-All social features are game-wide, that includes guilds, chat, and friends list

That's a whole lotta babies for one momma.

Well seeing as Mike and Patrick pretty much built BNet, it's not a stretch to imagine the quality faltered over time when they were no longer there to keep things going.
 
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