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[thetrin]

I'm 80 and I have way too much to do still.

1) Finish my personal story
2) 100% some more zones
3) Get my Flame Legion gear, which in itself will take a while
4) WvW like there's no tomorrow

 

[Hawkian]

I need to do every jumping puzzle and climb more mountains too. Definitely gonna hit 80 first

 

[thetrin]

I need to do every jumping puzzle and climb more mountains too. Definitely gonna hit 80 first

You missed out on some massively fun WvW last night.

Last night, I realized you can pop your virtues while in Renewed Focus, giving you both the active and the passives at the same time for the entire duration.

 

[Hawkian]

Awww.

(Bear in mind by last night he means after 3:00AM EST on a Wednesday night)

 

[Lesath]

Level 20 and already losing a bit of steam. The combat is getting a little stale and repetitive for me as a warrior. Furthermore, everyone always discusses that this game emphasizes multiplayer, but this point seems moot because NO ONE ever talks during dynamic events or heart quests. I always try to party up or start some conversation and i'm always met with silence.

It is odd, really. I began with the impression that Guild Wars 2 professions were severely lacking when it came to dynamic ability use (having leveled 6/8 classes to at least level 10), and this seemed especially true with the warrior.

Due to my love for sitting in the fray, and my interest in keeping a diverse group amongst my friends, I initially chose the Guardian, got that to 38, and then gave Warrior another shot (because the Guardian lacked compelling ranged options). I dragged her to 80, and this is my impression:

The warrior is as interesting as you want to make it. There IS an element of rotating your cooldowns on your shouts and signets if you choose to do so; a 4 signet crit build is obviously not going to be very exciting if you just spam hundred blades every eight seconds and sit on your ass in between. Axe/Axe and Sword/? are very compelling melee alternatives (and arguably more dynamic), and always keep in mind your weapon swap, even if it's a ranged weapon and you're sitting in melee.

A big pro to the warrior is that with the cheese build you can just blaze through the incredibly boring levels where the good traits and abilities are not yet available, not to mention maintaining a good deal of survivability thoughout. My mesmer alt, for instance, is having a pretty miserable time on both aspects.

 

[thetrin]

Awww.

(Bear in mind by last night he means after 3:00AM EST on a Wednesday night)

Yeah. I realize you had work today. I thankfully have today off.

 

[ArtistDude88]

This is the best Guild Wars 2 review ever:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WdxF1EmADM&feature=plcp

I've been playing the game all wrong!

 

[Hawkian]

I've been playing the game all wrong!

We all have, Artist.

We all have.

 

[pyrandes]

I need to do every jumping puzzle and climb more mountains too. Definitely gonna hit 80 first

That remind me, Ive gotta do the jumping puzzle in Shiverpine tonite. Keep getting pushed into lava :/

That and lvl 70 before I take off for the weekend.

 

[Billen]

Every video I have seen makes the gameplay looks rather messy. Does it feel messy when playing, or do videos really fail to convey the feeling?

 

[Lingitiz]

It is odd, really. I began with the impression that Guild Wars 2 professions were severely lacking when it came to dynamic ability use (having leveled 6/8 classes to at least level 10), and this seemed especially true with the warrior.

Due to my love for sitting in the fray, and my interest in keeping a diverse group amongst my friends, I initially chose the Guardian, got that to 38, and then gave Warrior another shot (because the Guardian lacked compelling ranged options). I dragged her to 80, and this is my impression:

The warrior is as interesting as you want to make it. There IS an element of rotating your cooldowns on your shouts and signets if you choose to do so; a 4 signet crit build is obviously not going to be very exciting if you just spam hundred blades every eight seconds and sit on your ass in between. Axe/Axe and Sword/? are very compelling melee alternatives (and arguably more dynamic), and always keep in mind your weapon swap, even if it's a ranged weapon and you're sitting in melee.

A big pro to the warrior is that with the cheese build you can just blaze through the incredibly boring levels where the good traits and abilities are not yet available, not to mention maintaining a good deal of survivability thoughout. My mesmer alt, for instance, is having a pretty miserable time on both aspects.

I really enjoy playing as a sword/shield Warrior. Its a good dynamic of stacking bleeds as much as you can, using Balanced Stance to dodging to keep those bleeds up, and using signets to keep the condition damage from piling up. Dodging out and switching to a rifle to add cripple effects and draw out the bleed damage is pretty satisfying as well. The Warrior is a really versatile class.

 

[panty]

Can you play this alone? I've never played an MMO.

 

[Artanisix]

I made an Elementalist the other day and it was the best decision I could have ever done. They're a million times more engaging to play than a Warrior.

Also has anyone looked at the requirements to make legendary weapons? Lol holy shit, I don't think I'm going to bother with that.

 

[pyrandes]

I've been playing the game all wrong!

I have seen the light after finally watching this review.

Time to reroll!

 

[nicoga3000]

Can you play this alone? I've never played an MMO.

Sure, but you won't be able to complete any of the world events. That being said, you'll never really NEED a party unless you run a dungeon. Simply being around other people and contributing to the world events will get you credit and rewards based on how much you put into said event (typically, very little contribution need be made to get "gold" rewards).

 

[Retro]

Can you play this alone? I've never played an MMO.

You can do your personal story alone, but everything else is out in the big wide world. You don't really have to talk to anyone else, but you'll be interacting with them quite a bit for Dynamic Events (especially anything with a single target, where the spell effects are so heavy you might not be able to see what you're attacking). Obviously WvW and PVP can't be done solo.

But out of all the MMOs on the market right now, GW2 might be the most solo-friendly. Nobody is going to come along and steal your kills or take your resource node before you get there. The amount of things other people can do to ruin your experience is practically non-existent.

The bigger question is, why would you want to play an MMO alone when the entire focus of the genre is to play together?

 

[Grokbu]

Does anyone know what the weapon this NPC has and what "set" it is from?

EDIT: The NPC is the one on the right.

 

[ROBOKITTYZILLA]

I'm 80 and I have way too much to do still.

1) Finish my personal story
2) 100% some more zones
3) Get my Flame Legion gear, which in itself will take a while
4) WvW like there's no tomorrow

I was just posting for fun. I've put over 120 hours into the game and still haven't hit level 80 on my main and I have 5 alts that I want to level.

Here is the list for my main after I hit 80:

• Finish Personal Story
• 100% all zones
• Discover and finish all jumping puzzles. Look up the ones I can't find.
• Finish leveling my crafting professions to 400
• Explorable Mode Dungeons - Completion of all paths for the achievement and for collecting tokens for all the gear sets and weapons that I want.
• Farm skill points and materials for legendary weapon
• Farm karma for karma gear and weapons
• Complete all achievements
• WvWvW
• SPVP
  
• Level alts

* In most cases I will be doing the same above steps for most of my alts and will be taking up different crafting professions on most of my alts.
* Ranger alt has the additional activity of finding and collecting all pets. Gotta' catch em all!

True end game for me will be PVP.

 

[Hawkian]

Does anyone know what the weapon this NPC has and what "set" it is from?

The NPC in one of the AC explorable modes has a shield which must be from the same set. Looks awesome!

Pleases put that gigantor image in a quote box though

 

[panty]

Sure, but you won't be able to complete any of the world events. That being said, you'll never really NEED a party unless you run a dungeon. Simply being around other people and contributing to the world events will get you credit and rewards based on how much you put into said event (typically, very little contribution need be made to get "gold" rewards).

You can do your personal story alone, but everything else is out in the big wide world. You don't really have to talk to anyone else, but you'll be interacting with them quite a bit for Dynamic Events (especially anything with a single target, where the spell effects are so heavy you might not be able to see what you're attacking). Obviously WvW and PVP can't be done solo.

But out of all the MMOs on the market right now, GW2 might be the most solo-friendly. Nobody is going to come along and steal your kills or take your resource node before you get there. The amount of things other people can do to ruin your experience is practically non-existent.

The bigger question is, why would you want to play an MMO alone when the entire focus of the genre is to play together?

I meant do I need a party to be able to enjoy the game to the fullest? I have some friends who play this but when they're not online, I can just roam around and play with strangers, is that correct? I can attend these world events just by interacting with strangers and so forth? I'm a total MMO-noob but this game interests me.

 

[Ashodin]

Does anyone know what the weapon this NPC has and what "set" it is from?



EDIT: The NPC is the one on the right.

Looks like the Priory Sword. Priory is an Order you can join.

 

[Grokbu]

The NPC in one of the AC explorable modes has a shield which must be from the same set. Looks awesome!

Pleases put that gigantor image in a quote box though

Oh I see. Thanks! It reminds me about Master Sword.

Sorry about the size. :<

EDIT:

Looks like the Priory Sword. Priory is an Order you can join.

Hmm. Is that some personal story thingy? I've barely done anything there yet.

 

[thetrin]

I meant do I need a party to be able to enjoy the game to the fullest? I have some friends who play this but when they're not online, I can just roam around and play with strangers, is that correct? I can attend these world events just by interacting with strangers and so forth? I'm a total MMO-noob but this game interests me.

The best part of GW2 is that, no, you don't. You don't take anything away from other players when you gather materials, or kill creatures, or do quests. In fact, many of the events require that players band together loosely to complete an event. You don't need to physically group up. You can simply be in the same area, work on the same objective, and you'll all be rewarded accordingly.

You can join whenever, leave whenever, and what you do is not at the whim of the larger group.

I rarely group up unless I do a dungeon (which are instanced areas tuned for 5 players). Otherwise I just wander around, and when I see an event that interests me, I join in. There's no reason not to, after all.

So, for the majority of the game? No, you don't. You might find yourself interested in grouping with others for harder challenges like dungeons later on, but nothing says you EVER have to do a dungeon at all.

 

[Trey]

At this point I don't even care if I finish the personal story. It's gotten so stale and from what I hear it only gets worse.

I haven't gotten to 80 either. I plan on doing a lot of PVP and WvW, but that will have to wait until I've 100 percented the world, got the armor sets I want, leveled up the disciplines I care about, gotten a few of my alts to 80 along the way, and become well versed in the trading post and its mechanics -- basically, making a lot of gold.

 

[Lingitiz]

I meant do I need a party to be able to enjoy the game to the fullest? I have some friends who play this but when they're not online, I can just roam around and play with strangers, is that correct? I can attend these world events just by interacting with strangers and so forth? I'm a total MMO-noob but this game interests me.

I've played mostly solo for most of my time and its been good. I've really only partied up outside of dungeons 3-4 times. The dynamic quests work in a way that encourages randoms to work together on instinct.

 

[ROBOKITTYZILLA]

Oh I see. Thanks! It reminds me about Master Sword.

Sorry about the size. :<

EDIT:

Hmm. Is that some personal story thingy? I've barely done anything there yet.

Yes, you have to choose one of three orders to join, somewhere around the level 40 story quest. Each order has a unique set of armor (and weapons?) that you can obtain.

 

[panty]

I've played mostly solo for most of my time and its been good. I've really only partied up outside of dungeons 3-4 times. The dynamic quests work in a way that encourages randoms to work together on instinct.

The best part of GW2 is that, no, you don't. You don't take anything away from other players when you gather materials, or kill creatures, or do quests. In fact, many of the events require that players band together loosely to complete an event. You don't need to physically group up. You can simply be in the same area, work on the same objective, and you'll all be rewarded accordingly.

You can join whenever, leave whenever, and what you do is not at the whim of the larger group.

I rarely group up unless I do a dungeon (which are instanced areas tuned for 5 players). Otherwise I just wander around, and when I see an event that interests me, I join in. There's no reason not to, after all.

So, for the majority of the game? No, you don't. You might find yourself interested in grouping with others for harder challenges like dungeons later on, but nothing says you EVER have to do a dungeon at all.

Ah sweet, that sounds good. Thanks for the write-ups, I'm buying this.

 

[Audioboxer]

I made an Elementalist the other day and it was the best decision I could have ever done. They're a million times more engaging to play than a Warrior.

Also has anyone looked at the requirements to make legendary weapons? Lol holy shit, I don't think I'm going to bother with that.

What are you liking about the Elementalist compared to the Warrior?

 

[Retro]

I meant do I need a party to be able to enjoy the game to the fullest? I have some friends who play this but when they're not online, I can just roam around and play with strangers, is that correct? I can attend these world events just by interacting with strangers and so forth? I'm a total MMO-noob but this game interests me.

The only thing you'll need to actually form a party for are the 5-man dungeons. Those are optional, but are quite fun and are part of the whole experience (plus, lots of very cool and useful gear to get in them). Otherwise, you can roam the game world and play with whoever you bump into and have spontaneous adventures together since nobody is fighting one another for advancement. World Events and everything, all available to you.

One blogger at Kill Ten Rats mentions he strives to play GW2 like a Kung Fu Master;" I wanted to just walk Tyria to create adventures as I went, you know like Caine from Kung Fu. Guild Wars 2 supports this playstyle. I want to be present in the game world. I cannot stop to smell roses if I don’t even notice the flowers."

Pretty much just wander around and have a good time exploring, fighting for the right and following your personal story. Nobody else really intrudes on your experience unless they're naked and dancing, wearing hot pink armor or have a goofy name like "R O F L C O P T R". That's as far as they can affect you, really.

 

[thetrin]

Ah sweet, that sounds good. Thanks for the write-ups, I'm buying this.

Glad to hear it! Be sure to message Hawkian the Blade in game tonight if you want to join the GAF Overflow Guild. I think the regular GAF guild is currently full (there's sadly a 500 member limit, but I think we're culling inactive members out over the next few days)

 

[Ferrio]

What are you liking about the Elementalist compared to the Warrior?

I'm guessing tons of button pushing.

 

[Lesath]

I really enjoy playing as a sword/shield Warrior. Its a good dynamic of stacking bleeds as much as you can, using Balanced Stance to dodging to keep those bleeds up, and using signets to keep the condition damage from piling up. Dodging out and switching to a rifle to add cripple effects and draw out the bleed damage is pretty satisfying as well. The Warrior is a really versatile class.

I personally am using sword/sword. The sword burst gives me a 2.6k bleed on a 10s cooldown, Impale gives me an 8k bleed on a 20s CD, and 2 out of every 3 autoattacks trigger a 1.4k bleed. If it wasn't for the bleed cap, I'm not sure how GS or Axe warriors could even compete.

I try to couple that with my longbow, as it provides the warrior with its only combo field, and comes with 2 finishers inherent to the weapon (projectile and blast). I want to see if I can get a rotation going, but the golems in the mists die too fast.

 

[panty]

Glad to hear it! Be sure to message Hawkian the Blade in game tonight if you want to join the GAF Overflow Guild. I think the regular GAF guild is currently full (there's sadly a 500 member limit, but I think we're culling inactive members out over the next few days)

The only thing you'll need to actually form a party for are the 5-man dungeons. Those are optional, but are quite fun and are part of the whole experience (plus, lots of very cool and useful gear to get in them). Otherwise, you can roam the game world and play with whoever you bump into and have spontaneous adventures together since nobody is fighting one another for advancement. World Events and everything, all available to you.

One blogger at Kill Ten Rats mentions he strives to play GW2 like a Kung Fu Master;" I wanted to just walk Tyria to create adventures as I went, you know like Caine from Kung Fu. Guild Wars 2 supports this playstyle. I want to be present in the game world. I cannot stop to smell roses if I don’t even notice the flowers."

Pretty much just wander around and have a good time exploring, fighting for the right and following your personal story. Nobody else really intrudes on your experience unless they're naked and dancing, wearing hot pink armor or have a goofy name like "R O F L C O P T R". That's as far as they can affect you, really.

Appreciate the tips. I was kinda hyped for this before release but don't know why this went unnoticed.

 

[thetrin]

I'm guessing tons of button pushing.

Skinner boxes are in.

 

[Grokbu]

Yes, you have to choose one of three orders to join, somewhere around the level 40 story quest. Each order has a unique set of armor (and weapons?) that you can obtain.

Oh I see. That's good to know. Thank you.

 

[jono51]

Just wondering - have they announced when free server transfers will end? (or have they ended already?)

 

[Hawkian]

need

 

[Zyrusticae]

The warrior is as interesting as you want to make it. There IS an element of rotating your cooldowns on your shouts and signets if you choose to do so; a 4 signet crit build is obviously not going to be very exciting if you just spam hundred blades every eight seconds and sit on your ass in between. Axe/Axe and Sword/? are very compelling melee alternatives (and arguably more dynamic), and always keep in mind your weapon swap, even if it's a ranged weapon and you're sitting in melee.

Interestingly, I've yet to run into another warrior using a Hammer/Greatsword combination like I am. (In fact, I hardly run into any hammer users at all...) I find it lots of fun to switch between the two - hammer gives me lots of breathing room when I need it, and the GS gives me killing power for the rest of the time. Lots of fun!

 

[Achtius]

I'm 80 and I have way too much to do still.

1) Finish my personal story
2) 100% some more zones
3) Get my Flame Legion gear, which in itself will take a while
4) WvW like there's no tomorrow

1) I'm almost done
2) I might do this if I don't have to get Vista. Those things makes me want to pull my hair out. It's impossible find my way up, but once I do, I was like...wtf it's so obvious
3) AC explore x 25 more runs (at least)
4)

need

ebonhawke gear?

 

[thetrin]

Interestingly, I've yet to run into another warrior using a Hammer/Greatsword combination like I am. (In fact, I hardly run into any hammer users at all...) I find it lots of fun to switch between the two - hammer gives me lots of breathing room when I need it, and the GS gives me killing power for the rest of the time. Lots of fun!

It's because a lot of people feel hammer doesn't have the same level of combo potential that GS does.

1) I'm almost done
2) I might do this if I don't have to get Vista. Those things makes me want to pull my hair out. It's impossible find my way up, but once I do, I was like...wtf it's so obvious
3) AC explore x 25 more runs (at least)
4)

Yeah, I've been neglecting my story lately. I'm only in the 50's still. Might do that today.

 

[Retro]

Interestingly, I've yet to run into another warrior using a Hammer/Greatsword combination like I am. (In fact, I hardly run into any hammer users at all...) I find it lots of fun to switch between the two - hammer gives me lots of breathing room when I need it, and the GS gives me killing power for the rest of the time. Lots of fun!

I haven't been using a Hammer just because I don't ever need any breathing room that my Rifle Butt / Bola setup can't provide... plus I haven't found a cool-looking one randomly and I'm too cheap to try the TP.

But I will give this a try as my current Rifle + Sword/Sword combo isn't as exciting as it used to be.

 

[Hawkian]

2) I might do this if I don't have to get Vista. Those things makes me want to pull my hair out. It's impossible find my way up, but once I do, I was like...wtf it's so obvious

Normally I love them but this one in the Dredge mine at Dostoev Sky Peak is driving me nuts.

ebonhawke gear?

Seems to be the same skin yep, that's just an exotic drop version.

 

[Kingbrave]

Interestingly, I've yet to run into another warrior using a Hammer/Greatsword combination like I am. (In fact, I hardly run into any hammer users at all...) I find it lots of fun to switch between the two - hammer gives me lots of breathing room when I need it, and the GS gives me killing power for the rest of the time. Lots of fun!

I'm using the GS and hammer right now to take a brake from the dual axes. Hammer is great for interrupts.

 

[Won]

Came around to do the Shatterer today. Haven't seen a dragon going down so easily in a while in a game. Bring it on, Elder Dragons! I'm ready!

 

[Lesath]

Interestingly, I've yet to run into another warrior using a Hammer/Greatsword combination like I am. (In fact, I hardly run into any hammer users at all...) I find it lots of fun to switch between the two - hammer gives me lots of breathing room when I need it, and the GS gives me killing power for the rest of the time. Lots of fun!

Hammer does decent damage (better base damage than GS, actually) and provides a lot of survivability, but you don't really need that survival outside of dungeons, and I think most people were turned off by the prohibitively long cooldowns when leveling up the weapon.

 

[Reknoc]

Normally I love them but this one in the Dredge mine at Dostoev Sky Peak is driving me nuts.

Hated that one. Even when you figure out the trick to it to progress you still have to deal with Dredge that can knock you back (right off the ledge).

Though the absolute worst for me was the one in Diessa.

 

[Vossler]

Won't be on tonight unfortunately, but I will be able to play ALL NIGHT tomorrow, til the wee hours of the morning. Hopefully I can get through CM and do some AC explore as well. Halfway to 80!

Edit: Also would like to do Shatterer....

 

[Pancakes]

Came around to do the Shatterer today. Haven't seen a dragon going down so easily in a while in a game. Bring it on, Elder Dragons! I'm ready!

It's pretty disappointing to be honest. I want huge scary world dragons that are feared and leave a ton of bodies in their wake, not giant loot pinatas. Something like Onyxia (without the cheap deep breath nonsense) or that one emerald dream dragon that could destroy your whole raid if you weren't careful.

 

[Achtius]

Won't be on tonight unfortunately, but I will be able to play ALL NIGHT tomorrow, til the wee hours of the morning. Hopefully I can get through CM and do some AC explore as well. Halfway to 80!

Edit: Also would like to do Shatterer....

yes please

 

[Hawkian]

Certainly I'll be around for some AC explore with you two tomorrow