A few friends of mine have convinced me to buy this game. I have a couple of questions, this game has no monthly fee at all? If it doesn't have a monthly fee is it setup like a free2play game in where I have to buy cosmetic things to make my guy look cool? Is this a bonafide mmo or is it heavily instanced like the old republic?
It has a cash shop that has cosmetic items and account stuff like bank tabs, but there's nothing in it that is a requirement to buy to get full enjoyment out of. Every armor or weaponset you may have seen in a screenshot can be obtained just through playing. Also, you can buy gems(the cash shop currency) with in-game gold so you never have to spend a dime of your real money.
Yes it's a real MMO, the only instancing it uses are for dungeons and pvp. You move through portals to change zones but the zones are absolutely massive so you don't move from zone to zone every day or something.
Alright new to Guild Wards here, played a bit during this evening's stress test and gave thief a shot. Didn't expect stealth to be more of a brief combat mechanic rather than a constant ability which kind of threw me for a loop. Class seems like a lot of fun but I'm not exactly sure how I'm supposed to approach combat. I admittedly didn't find out until after the test was over that your skills change based on your equipment so maybe duel daggers isn't a PVE spec? Or I could just be bad, which is much more likely.
Also quickly looked into engineer which seemed interesting. Will probably give one a shot if there's another test. What role are they supposed to fill though? They seem to have both support and offensive abilities.
In regards to dual daggers, there's no such thing as I'll only use this for PvE or PvP. There's reasons to use every weapon in every part of the game. In regards to roles, everyone can do everything, there's no specific role each profession plays because they can do everything. Everyone can control, support, and do damage.
It has a cash shop that has cosmetic items and account stuff like bank tabs, but there's nothing in it that is a requirement to buy to get full enjoyment out of. Every armor or weaponset you may have seen in a screenshot can be obtained just through playing. Also, you can buy gems(the cash shop currency) with in-game gold so you never have to spend a dime of your real money.
Yes it's a real MMO, the only instancing it uses are for dungeons and pvp. You move through portals to change zones but the zones are absolutely massive so you don't move from zone to zone every day or something.
We're having an issue with one of the Internet connections in our North American data center. Anyone connecting to us through that link is experiencing bad lag right now. Our network operations team is working to get it resolved.
My connection was bad tonight and that worsened the rubberbanding for me. At a certain point, I was just doing discoveries and whatever I could that would avoid tough combat situations where'd I die from lag.
The weirdest moment was when I was slowly doing the Gort's cave dynamic event in Kessex Hills. I was on the last Ettin in the cave, about to kill it, when suddenly I experience lag, warp around the map, and end up a quarter of the ways further north on the map. I had to map travel back to the cave.
Anyways I made a wee Asura Thief just to try it out, but bail due to the lag.
Also... I enjoyed Mesmer. Not sure if it was because I was a Midget or not, but it was the first time I had even bothered to try the class.
Can only echo what others have suggested, illusions need more feedback/animations that they're actually doing something. As it's hard to tell my looking at the screen (except for the Star Wars Blaster Illusion as you can hear that 3 servers over).
That's the best I've got. The prospect of being able to drop in and out as I like without feeling I HAVE TO PLAY all the time to justify a monthly fee. A huge game I can play with friends and at my own pace when I want.
Did anyone else notice that the camera movement feels a bit off? When I move my mouse in games like Tera or Wow it feels smooth. In GW2 it feels like there is some kind of delay or acceleration.
Did anyone else notice that the camera movement feels a bit off? When I move my mouse in games like Tera or Wow it feels smooth. In GW2 it feels like there is some kind of delay or acceleration.
Yes, it's kind of like wadding through water. It's even worse if you're trying to fix the camera while running since the camera doesn't stick with the direction you're running. Good times.
Did anyone else notice that the camera movement feels a bit off? When I move my mouse in games like Tera or Wow it feels smooth. In GW2 it feels like there is some kind of delay or acceleration.
Did anyone else notice that the camera movement feels a bit off? When I move my mouse in games like Tera or Wow it feels smooth. In GW2 it feels like there is some kind of delay or acceleration.
Yeah, I was having camera problems as well. General control problems, I didn't get how I could do a complete 180 quickly enough. Maybe I need to fiddle with the settings more. In videos it looks like people are swinging the camera around with ease.
I just loaded up GW1 (haven't played it in a while), and yes, the camera feels almost the same as GW2. During BWE2 there were a couple threads on the beta forums about it. The only Anet response I saw was mistaking the issue for camera speed, and told players where to find the slider in the options.
My biggest issue with the game is that the Norn and Char run animations are so retarded that i literally cannot play those races. Male Asura is also pretty dumb.
*edit* wait no, my biggest issue is that it isnt released yet.
Yeah, I was having camera problems as well. General control problems, I didn't get how I could do a complete 180 quickly enough. Maybe I need to fiddle with the settings more. In videos it looks like people are swinging the camera around with ease.
Hehe. ArenaNet are really serious when they are saying stress test. These tests were not polished PR pre-order demos. They really are working like nuts on it.
I managed to make a male Sylvari whose looks I really like. Secretly there is a lot, and I mean a lot of customization options within the Sylvari customization due to the skin colors combined with the patterns plus glow at night. First time I played them it took me a while to realize the glow in the night effect.
And strangely I've become fond of Mesmer. I find it more interesting than the Pet wielding of Ranger and Necromancer, and I really like the unique spell effects provided by the Staff. Finally I find tactical positioning important when trying to keep your Clones and Phantas alive. It might have been extra difficulty thanks to last nights rubberbanding.
Elementalist is the star of Guild Wars 2, but there are lots of those guys running around. I feel the Mesmer is a bit less saturated and he has much less hipster feel going for him compared to GW1. Hopefully the elitist mentality won't come back!
For the last two stress tests I've been playing with my new mechanical Keyboard, Ducky Shine. I think this might be the best gaming related peripheral that I have had. It's not that it gives you super powers gaming wise, but it's just so damn good. If you are looking for a new keyboard, skip the Razer and try this. It's really amazing. It comes with different kinds of LEDs. Mine are blue (backlighting) and the keys are cherry MX: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDHp4jir8Bc
Note : this is my first mechanical keyboard, so that probably also influence me bias-wise. I've bought 3-4 keyboards in my life, but probably used over 20 different kinds.
Is it the case for Euro servers as well? I had zero lag whatsoever during the whole stress test.
And yeah the game finally runs at 60fps locked with all the max settings (except shadows turned down a notch from ultra). Can't wait to be able to make my final characters. I tried a ranger during this whole stress test, it was fun but pets are really squishy.
For the last two stress tests I've been playing with my new mechanical Keyboard, Ducky Shine. I think this might be the best gaming related peripheral that I have had. It's not that it gives you super powers gaming wise, but it's just so damn good. If you are looking for a new keyboard, skip the Razer and try this. It's really amazing. It comes with different kinds of LEDs. Mine are blue (backlighting) and the keys are cherry MX: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDHp4jir8Bc
Note : this is my first mechanical keyboard, so that probably also influence me bias-wise. I've bought 3-4 keyboards in my life, but probably used over 20 different kinds.
The Ducky Shine is an awesome piece of hardware to be sure. It's not just because it's your first, or your newness to mechs, it's really that good. I'm thinking of getting a shine 2 when they finally get out there in good numbers.
Also, I wish every race had the depth of creation like Sylvari. The Charr, and especially the Asura are lacking compared to them.
Is it the case for Euro servers as well? I had zero lag whatsoever during the whole stress test.
And yeah the game finally runs at 60fps locked with all the max settings (except shadows turned down a notch from ultra). Can't wait to be able to make my final characters. I tried a ranger during this whole stress test, it was fun but pets are really squishy.
Nope, turns out it was a NA data center's ISP issue. So there were a handful of people even from out here that didn't connect through the problematic route. Unfortunately it sounds like the majority of us did.
I almost hope they do one more stress test just due to external factors messing with this one. Of course they may just consider those circumstances to be a good thing. No love lost either way, I just want to play more.
For the last two stress tests I've been playing with my new mechanical Keyboard, Ducky Shine. I think this might be the best gaming related peripheral that I have had. It's not that it gives you super powers gaming wise, but it's just so damn good. If you are looking for a new keyboard, skip the Razer and try this. It's really amazing. It comes with different kinds of LEDs. Mine are blue (backlighting) and the keys are cherry MX: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDHp4jir8Bc
Note : this is my first mechanical keyboard, so that probably also influence me bias-wise. I've bought 3-4 keyboards in my life, but probably used over 20 different kinds.
I'm a big keyboard nerd and have spent a grip of money on different mechanical 'boards. It really does make more of a difference than you'd imagine if you've never used one, though; in hindsight you kind of go "yeah, I do actually sort of use the keyboard quite a lot when using a computer so that makes sense."
Vergil summons light-made swords, has a move where he sends out these ranged air slashes (like Zealot Defense), is lightning fast and even teleports around (like Flashing Blade), and his skills tend to emit bluish light. It's one of the non-obvious ones (as he has a very aggresive style), but it makes all sense (in my deranged mind, at least) once you connect all dots.
Also, I think I quite like the very bright and heroric tone of GW2. We've had so many dark mature bioware lol storytelling games that it has become a cliche of itself. Somehow I actually am not liking the bright tone and adventure feel. That's how I would describe it. The personal story I played through yesterday gave me the tinglies like I was watching a classic Indiana Jones film. It's not that it's great storytelling but I feel this good intended well meaning exposition and it somehow comes through the pixels. Thus I am impressed. They have achieved (from what I've seen) to make me care about the story half as much as TOR, but they have probably used 90% less resources, time and production values compared to Bioware and I think that's a resounding achievement. I hope the later games keeps the good intent. This is not so bad at all. after all.
I wholeheartedly agree. This is much like after all that "darker and edgier" trend of the nineties, some forms of entertainment went back to "it's OK to make things heroic and clear-cut". For an MMO, in fact, I think this is essential; you are your character, after all, why make me feel like a jerk? We have games that do that (very good games in fact, not naming them as some are spoilers in themselves), but an MMO is where I'm going to spend a lot of time and in a sense "be" my character; I need to care about them, to feel they are heroes, or at least good people.
I had that problem in WoW, because quests were all over the place in regards to character alignment (some were downright evil), but since you never knew what lied down the chain, you really couldn't afford to skip them if you were a completionist (plus you pretty much often played in automode). Here, not only is that problem not present (you are ALWAYS helping good people and working for the common good, that I've seen at least), if it came to be, you can safely skip an event or heart and know it's not locking anything down the road.
You know what's neat? How the game can switch graphics settings in realtime without reloading the engine. Not only that, the FPS marker is built right in to the graphics options so you don't even have to close the menu to test your new settings.
Now I feel bad that I never bothered with Guild Wars 1. ArenaNet = good people
I have no idea wth they did to the graphics, but in beta, BWE1, and BWE2, I had no graphical glitches at all. Now I get this in a TON of areas. It almost makes Rata Sum completely unable to be navigated with how jacked up it is in there:
Yep, they totally broke the Asura starting area. I believe the problem may be that some of the differently detailed models for Asuran geometry seemed to be missing.
Entirely new to me, and I played several tens of hours across all BWE and stress tests. It was actually unique to THIS stress test to me, previous ones were fine regarding lag (once you could get in).
2) Can I drag and move that mini-map elsewhere? Didn't seem to be able to even though I could move most other windows. Coming from WoW, I think I got too used to the mini-map in the top right corner that it's a bit disorienting.
Well, you can't move the WoW minimap either, nor can you resize it like you can here, so that's already an improvement. Give it a little more time and you may actually like it better; it makes so much sense to have it down there, where it overlaps the ground rather than potentially important stuff.
3) Is there a way to manually turn off auto attack? I don't mean permanently disable it, as I saw the option to do that. I mean once I start auto attacking, there doesn't seem to be a way to turn the auto-attack off until the mob is dead or I switch targets. I thought simply hitting the skill again would turn it off. Not really a big deal but I like having control over my character's actions.
Yes, pressing ESC, much like in WoW, stops your autoattack.
4) Not a question, but I absolutely love jumping in this game, especially with Asura. I just can't stop bunnyhopping. Probably just a bad habit from back when I used to play a lot of TFC and original Counterstrike, but I love how jumping doesn't interrupt your auto attack.
Nor any abilities that are not channeled. That's actually what makes GW2's combat so different; you can move, jump and even dodge while you use all and any abilities that don't require you to channel on the spot (which are extremely rare and usually very powerful).
Whoever trolled me- I forget who you were or if you were identifiable by screenname, but I'd like to thank you. I'll appreciate my plans extra hard this weekend.
If you picked an armor piece for a slot that's empty when you create your character (say, a cape, when your starting personal item was a helm), it will be undyed. You can then dye it, and further pieces for that slot will be dyed the same way.
Yep, I'm almost 100% that's it. This game has really awesome idle animations, which are BOTH weapon and class specific (and perhaps even gender specific too?). The freaking master race Asura ones are awesome for example (twirling pistols western-style, staffs bo-style).
You know what? When the game releases I'm going to try to catalog all idle animations (if I have the time), and perhaps make a video out of them.
It's one of the non-obvious ones (as he has a very aggresive style), but it makes all sense (in my deranged mind, at least) once you connect all dots. 
