*channels Ferrio*
Well, I just got done with my beta period of Guild Wars, so I thought I'd share my impressions with everyone. Unfortunately, I'm banned....and banned for awhile so I had to get this posted through someone else. Much thanks to them!
For you people with short attention spans, here's the short version.
-PvE like diablo.
-Everything is an instance, even towns (though not as much).
-75 skills per class, but can only have 8 skills equipped.
-6 classes in game, with the possibility of dual class (36 possibilities)
-PvP is the main draw of the game. Think RPG deathmatch.
-PvP is hard. Team cooperation far outweighs anything else.
Ok, I'll break down the game in two sections. PvE and PvP
PvE
First of all realize that PvE doesn't mean you can't PvP, it just means you have to raise your character up the old fashioned way through the PvE element of the game. This means getting into parties, killing monsters, going on quests, finding weapons, getting new skills the whole shebang. Unfortunately I didn't have much time to play the PvE element of the game, mainly cause I didn't want to be spoiled before the official launch.
The game is very reminiscent of Diablo but adds a lot of quest elements to the mix. Like Diablo all the areas are instances, so Guild Wars isn't really a MMORPG as it doesn't really have any persistent world. Towns are the closest you'll get to a MMORPG setting, as many players will be able to reside there. Unfortunately towns are instances too, therefor there will be different (districts) which are basically the same town just with different players there at the time. Think of them as channels in battlenet, but part of the game. Once you travel outside a town, you and your party will be the only PCs present, which has it's ups and downs. One problem I had with this is if one player in your party goes to a new zone, you'll automatically get zoned with them which was annoying at times. Really sucks if one guy has to run to town to do something, so the whole party has to go.
The game is also story based, so you'll have something to interrupt you're mindless killing.
PvP
Though you can create a PvE character and level them up to participate in PvE, you also have a choice of forgetting the whole process and just creating a PvP only character that will already have many skills, weapons to choose from. This character can only be played in PvP mode, so you won't have access to the better weapons, armor as the PvE characters, but you do skip all that trouble and when team play far outweighs an individual's gear... it's not that bad.
How the retail will handle this I'm unsure of, but as of the Beta you were able to instantly create a lvl 20 character (cap), equip him/her with a default set of weapons/armor, and the full range of skills to pick from.
There's several PvP modes in the game, what I mostly played at was the Hall of Heroes. This basically consisted of a ladder type tournament in which the best teams compete until they reach the Hall of Heroes. Along the way you'll go through several different PvP type games (capture the flag, elimination, king of the hill), as well as game fame for each victory. Battles can range from your party versus another to a royal rumble consisting of 6 parties.
Battles typically start off with your party in a small area until the start timer ends, at which point the door opens and the battle begins. In each battle you'll have at least one NPC with you which will be used for some objectives in each battle (have him capture the hill, bring him a relic). If you happen to win the event, you'll be given an amount of fame points, then a timer will count down until your next match. This repeat until you win at the Hall of Heroes (and have your team's name announced across the server), or you lose and be sent back to the meeting area where you're able to try again at your leisure.
Skill System
As for the game system, basically you get to choose from 6 classes, and have the option of being a dual class. Each class has a ton of abilities at their disposal, but you're only able to have 8 equipped at a time. This may seem lame at first, but it reinforces the whole team play aspect of guildwars (explained in a bit).
Skills also don't have multiple levels, so when guildwars boasts 75 skills per class, they're unique and you won't see Pain lvl 1, Pain lvl 2, Pain lvl 3. Instead most skills also have a stat associated with it, when that stat is increased the effect of the skill is also possibly increased. This also means you'll have to decide what your class will want to specialize in, so people of the same class can easily have totally different functions.
Now you're thinking, how does having only 8 skills make the game more team oriented? Well first of all you'll have to be specialized if you wanna do anything decent, therefor you won't have many main purposes in battle which means you're not going to be winning in PvP if your team fights all haphazard.
Also many skills take advantage of the effects of other skills. Take the lightning type skills of an elementalist, many of them will knock down your opponent. Now this doesn't do much alone, it'll interrupt them for a bit... but big deal. Though there's several skills that other classes have that'll take advantage of a knocked down opponent and do additional damage/effects when they're on the ground. This goes for many effects such as bleeding and what not. Therefor there's lots of different combos that you could create with you're team, and just having a balanced team isn't enough... but having that team have balanced skills that work well with each other. And with such a wide area of skills, I'm sure you could think of hundreds of different possibilities for different team setups.
Things I didn't like
-Having to zone when another party member zones.
-The game still has some bugs at this phase, a few times in PvP battle the other team didn't show up.... which bugs out the game and you're team has to break up and return back to the meeting place.
-Crafting system. It's not much of a crafting system as I take it... more of a find this item and bring it with some cash to an npc
-Getting my ass handed to me. Seriously, in pickup groups in PvP you're SCREWED. Which well is a good thing....
-Not enough emotes.... how can you not have a /cry emote?
-Streaming content. Though nice, sometimes it'll cause problems if one of your teammates has a slow connection and hasn't been to that area yet.
-Doesn't seem to be a very wide selection of weapons/armor.
-Can't disable UI unless during screenshot.
.Well I'll cut it short and let other people put their two cents in, maybe they'll know more about PvE. Here's some pictures I snapped while playing (unforunately snapping pictures in battle is a pain)
Before battle with my elementalist
Charging forth
My parents don't understand me
My War/Rng dancing
Some chick
Fighting a capture the hill map. We won.
After a slaughter
Well, I just got done with my beta period of Guild Wars, so I thought I'd share my impressions with everyone. Unfortunately, I'm banned....and banned for awhile so I had to get this posted through someone else. Much thanks to them!
For you people with short attention spans, here's the short version.
-PvE like diablo.
-Everything is an instance, even towns (though not as much).
-75 skills per class, but can only have 8 skills equipped.
-6 classes in game, with the possibility of dual class (36 possibilities)
-PvP is the main draw of the game. Think RPG deathmatch.
-PvP is hard. Team cooperation far outweighs anything else.
Ok, I'll break down the game in two sections. PvE and PvP
PvE
First of all realize that PvE doesn't mean you can't PvP, it just means you have to raise your character up the old fashioned way through the PvE element of the game. This means getting into parties, killing monsters, going on quests, finding weapons, getting new skills the whole shebang. Unfortunately I didn't have much time to play the PvE element of the game, mainly cause I didn't want to be spoiled before the official launch.
The game is very reminiscent of Diablo but adds a lot of quest elements to the mix. Like Diablo all the areas are instances, so Guild Wars isn't really a MMORPG as it doesn't really have any persistent world. Towns are the closest you'll get to a MMORPG setting, as many players will be able to reside there. Unfortunately towns are instances too, therefor there will be different (districts) which are basically the same town just with different players there at the time. Think of them as channels in battlenet, but part of the game. Once you travel outside a town, you and your party will be the only PCs present, which has it's ups and downs. One problem I had with this is if one player in your party goes to a new zone, you'll automatically get zoned with them which was annoying at times. Really sucks if one guy has to run to town to do something, so the whole party has to go.
The game is also story based, so you'll have something to interrupt you're mindless killing.
PvP
Though you can create a PvE character and level them up to participate in PvE, you also have a choice of forgetting the whole process and just creating a PvP only character that will already have many skills, weapons to choose from. This character can only be played in PvP mode, so you won't have access to the better weapons, armor as the PvE characters, but you do skip all that trouble and when team play far outweighs an individual's gear... it's not that bad.
How the retail will handle this I'm unsure of, but as of the Beta you were able to instantly create a lvl 20 character (cap), equip him/her with a default set of weapons/armor, and the full range of skills to pick from.
There's several PvP modes in the game, what I mostly played at was the Hall of Heroes. This basically consisted of a ladder type tournament in which the best teams compete until they reach the Hall of Heroes. Along the way you'll go through several different PvP type games (capture the flag, elimination, king of the hill), as well as game fame for each victory. Battles can range from your party versus another to a royal rumble consisting of 6 parties.
Battles typically start off with your party in a small area until the start timer ends, at which point the door opens and the battle begins. In each battle you'll have at least one NPC with you which will be used for some objectives in each battle (have him capture the hill, bring him a relic). If you happen to win the event, you'll be given an amount of fame points, then a timer will count down until your next match. This repeat until you win at the Hall of Heroes (and have your team's name announced across the server), or you lose and be sent back to the meeting area where you're able to try again at your leisure.
Skill System
As for the game system, basically you get to choose from 6 classes, and have the option of being a dual class. Each class has a ton of abilities at their disposal, but you're only able to have 8 equipped at a time. This may seem lame at first, but it reinforces the whole team play aspect of guildwars (explained in a bit).
Skills also don't have multiple levels, so when guildwars boasts 75 skills per class, they're unique and you won't see Pain lvl 1, Pain lvl 2, Pain lvl 3. Instead most skills also have a stat associated with it, when that stat is increased the effect of the skill is also possibly increased. This also means you'll have to decide what your class will want to specialize in, so people of the same class can easily have totally different functions.
Now you're thinking, how does having only 8 skills make the game more team oriented? Well first of all you'll have to be specialized if you wanna do anything decent, therefor you won't have many main purposes in battle which means you're not going to be winning in PvP if your team fights all haphazard.
Also many skills take advantage of the effects of other skills. Take the lightning type skills of an elementalist, many of them will knock down your opponent. Now this doesn't do much alone, it'll interrupt them for a bit... but big deal. Though there's several skills that other classes have that'll take advantage of a knocked down opponent and do additional damage/effects when they're on the ground. This goes for many effects such as bleeding and what not. Therefor there's lots of different combos that you could create with you're team, and just having a balanced team isn't enough... but having that team have balanced skills that work well with each other. And with such a wide area of skills, I'm sure you could think of hundreds of different possibilities for different team setups.
Things I didn't like
-Having to zone when another party member zones.
-The game still has some bugs at this phase, a few times in PvP battle the other team didn't show up.... which bugs out the game and you're team has to break up and return back to the meeting place.
-Crafting system. It's not much of a crafting system as I take it... more of a find this item and bring it with some cash to an npc
-Getting my ass handed to me. Seriously, in pickup groups in PvP you're SCREWED. Which well is a good thing....
-Not enough emotes.... how can you not have a /cry emote?
-Streaming content. Though nice, sometimes it'll cause problems if one of your teammates has a slow connection and hasn't been to that area yet.
-Doesn't seem to be a very wide selection of weapons/armor.
-Can't disable UI unless during screenshot.
.Well I'll cut it short and let other people put their two cents in, maybe they'll know more about PvE. Here's some pictures I snapped while playing (unforunately snapping pictures in battle is a pain)
Before battle with my elementalist
Charging forth
My parents don't understand me
My War/Rng dancing
Some chick
Fighting a capture the hill map. We won.
After a slaughter
Also, the game is a lot prettier then Diablo.