-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Guild Wars 2 |OT5| We've got fun and games
- Thread starter Retro
- Start date
- Status
I played for a few hours today and got to level 8.5, but I'm not what to make of this game
The combat is nice as a warrior, and having different set of skills for different weapons is a neat feature that I really like, but aside from that the entire experience seems to be very standard for an MMO (tho I am very early into the game)
Is there anything that's supposed to make this game unique compared to something like WoW? I remember reading that this game is not based on the traditional MMO style tank, dps and healer, but at the same time pretty light on end game content and raiding/killing bosses or whatever?
I also remember reading about events and I've got some pop-up near me when I level-up, but they're mostly just kill this thing IIRC
The combat is nice as a warrior, and having different set of skills for different weapons is a neat feature that I really like, but aside from that the entire experience seems to be very standard for an MMO (tho I am very early into the game)
Is there anything that's supposed to make this game unique compared to something like WoW? I remember reading that this game is not based on the traditional MMO style tank, dps and healer, but at the same time pretty light on end game content and raiding/killing bosses or whatever?
I also remember reading about events and I've got some pop-up near me when I level-up, but they're mostly just kill this thing IIRC
Welcome to the club refy
It'll be nice to be there as soon as the party starts. A new character slot is nice as well, although I haven't even used up my existing ones.
Now that the game is free, trying to get my brother to play it. Probably should have worked on that when it actually became free, but I wasn't really around in the past while.
Q
Queen of Hunting
Unconfirmed Member
level 60 ranger actually really like this armor
Astral/H3X
Member
The big things:
GW2 respects your time as a player. In WoW, you're pretty much always in a grind. First ten levels are fun, then level 11-80 is just a big grind to get to 80, then you have some fun, which is grinding for gear to get to the next thing that has better stats. In GW2, the content is spread throughout the game and scales to you, so there's no grinding just to get to 80 just to get to the cool shit. You have cool shit all the way through, and the cool shit never "gets too low level" or "doesn't drop good enough stuff". You can play the first dungeon at level 80, or at level 35, it doesn't matter.
When you DO grind, you basically grind for looks, not stats. There is legendary equipment, that does take grinding and does have a bit better stats, but its far from necessary. People go for the Legendaries because they look cool, not because they need the stats.
The game HEAVILY encourages co operation and teamwork. Everything is shared. If you helped, you get your slice of the pie. Period. No "he did more damage so he got the XP" or "he did the killing blow so he got the drop". You get everything. This makes impromptu helping a much more natural thing, because when you see another player fighting something, you just hop in and kill it with him. You aren't worried about who gets the XP.
I like the skill system much more. WoW, IIRC, just gives you a bunch of skill bars that you just kinda cycle through wanton without any skills really having an impact aside from the few you focus on. GW2 your weapons totally change your playstyle, and your utilities are incredibly important for how you accomplish what you're trying to do.
Also, GW2 avoids a lot of "stupid mmo shit". This one is harder to explain, but the more you play, the more you'll appreciate it. I can't even play other MMOs aside from GW2, and a lot of it comes down to this last point.
silvermember
Banned
Difference
1. Combat
2. No required gear threadmill
3. No fixed roles,
4. No sub. Was a big deal
5. No reading quest text.
6. No competition among players except pvp and WvW. Aka no kill stealing or resources stealing.
7. No gear based endgame.
Also of course most events require killing. It is a combat base game. At the core of guild wars 2 is the same base as all theme parks. The difference is in how these differences are presented. The little things are what define the game. If you go into the game expecting something that is not a combat theme park, you will be disappointed . Also it has raids but expansion only though.
Guild wars2 for the most part removes a lot of the tedious required crap for many of the players. Aka no required gear grind if you don't want to.
Just remember not every game is for everyone. Guild wars 2 is more evolutionary in some of its changes than revolutionary. If WoW style appears to you, you wont like this game.
Without getting into specifics, and I'd be happy to answer any individual questions you've got, I'd say there's just not a lot to draw from at only level 8. You can play the game like a traditional MMO up to a point (though you probably won't much enjoy yourself unless that appeals to you in particular), but it's really pretty different from something like WoW in most ways. Even with the addition of raiding when the expansion comes, I expect this will still be overwhelmingly true.
Most aspects are actually pretty divorced from the WoW formula. There's certainly no trinity as you've brought up, and most classes can slot into either a damage, support, or control role as needed while handling their own mitigation/healing. The gear treadmill is extremely shallow and it's quite easy to acquire endgame viable gear; in fact besides the absolute best-in-slot stuff (which isn't actually necessary for any content outside of late-level Fractal dungeons; you can look into those as early as you want, as the low level ones are accessible to anyone), it's pretty trivial to gear up, and there's no obsolescence in terms of a gear set when a new update arrives. For many players the endgame surrounds collecting weapon and armor skins (and dyes) to customize the look or your character, but there are lots of individual goals you can set for yourself- beating all the dungeons, world completion (100% all zones) and doing all the jumping puzzles, crafting an ascended gear set or legendary weapon, beating fractal level 50.
One thing that you may want to keep in mind is that the zones, even the early ones, aren't just excuses to level your character, but have had quite a lot of work put into them and just about all of them have a bunch of cool stuff to see. Almost everything you can do- just exploring undiscovered areas, gathering materials, rezzing players or NPCs, completing vistas/hero challenges (and of course hearts and events). I suggest just kinda running off in an interesting direction and exploring the zone- don't just hover around hearts and feel like you have to complete them before moving on. Plenty of events will take you into the radius of a heart and get it mostly filled or even complete for you. I definitely suggest seeking out a jumping puzzle or two and seeing if they're your cup of tea, I completely love them.
Events come in a few flavors, and in the text says [Group Event] your odds of soloing them are extremely low, but if you call out in map chat that it's happening and link a waypoint (shift+click) you may get a nice group of people to help. Some events chain into other ones, so stick around for a little bit after completion (or failure) and listen to the NPCs. Once you hit level ~20 there are a few big world bosses you can see, and you can also jump into PvP (where stats are wholly normalized) or WvW (where you're scaled up to 80, though you keep your equipped armor and skills) at any time if they appeal to you. Though if you're a free player I'm not sure if this applies or if you have to hit a certain level first. They can both be a lot of fun.
I was going to go into detail about each aspect but it's best to sum it up like this: the game is just chill. Can play most content without anyone batting an eye at your equipment, class or skill choice. Everyone gets their own loot so no one's fighting. Basically everyone has little reason to ever fight over the game.
I say "chill' and not "casual" because the game still has some content that is much harder than the rest of the content, requires skill and certain equipment setups. There's a lot of treadmills to grind towards but the game leaves it open where you never feel pressured to participate in it.
As for the combat and events - early on it's not exactly the best stuff. Enemies you encounter around that time fight like they're combat dummies. You don't even need to dodge. Once you fight enemies with unique combat patterns that require dodging or using other tools, the combat opens up and outshines other MMOs easily.
Vigilant Walrus
Member
Angry Joe's review came out around 3 years ago and was really informative. The game has improved 100x fold in that time, but I think it illustrates some of the things that are really nice about it; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax-_06Acj8Y
D
Deleted member 325805
Unconfirmed Member
I just added a 2 step auth to my account (WinAuth) but it doesn't ask me to enter any code when I try to log in, does it only do it if it's an outside network that tries to log in?
Yep.
Astral/H3X
Member
The improvements to the game since launch have been insane. Just the differences in the trait system alone are huge and ultimately a much, much better experience.
now if only they would put the fucking trading post right next to the damn bank in the damn lions arch fuckers
D
Deleted member 325805
Unconfirmed Member
OK great, that's nice actually, all the security without any extra bother.
Crafting stations work as banks, so you can just run north of the TP to get in quickly... it's the GUILD bank that's the problem.
Astral/H3X
Member
Yeah but IIRC there's no WP that's as convenient as for the bank.
I hope that Guild Halls come out with a instant teleport to it (whether it be a stone or a menu option like the pvp lobby), and the first fucking thing there is a bank and a trading post. And I guess a guild bank.
appletoasty
Member
I started using Heart of the Mists (PvP lobby) once new LA came out for this very reason. There's a bank, TP, and merchant right next to each other and it's accessible without a waypoint fee from anywhere in the world
https://twitter.com/All_Caulle/status/649239988282875907
Hmm, can't say I like this decision. The grind for ascended gear is a pain.
Hmm, can't say I like this decision. The grind for ascended gear is a pain.
Not officially. There's info in the OT about profiles people have set up, I do not know if it's all up to date though (windows 10 ,etc).
appletoasty
Member
appletoasty
Member
Either one will work, if you're providing account name make sure to include the accountname.#### at the end
D
Deleted member 325805
Unconfirmed Member
Can you still buy Halloween Pail's for cheap? If so where is the vendor now. I remember they were like 3g per bag instead of 11g. I need 4 for my Revenant.
Vender is in Lion's Arch all the way to the upper left. There's an icon on the map for him.
Lashley
Why does he wear the mask!?
D
Deleted member 325805
Unconfirmed Member
Thanks, they've doubled in price though. 6g per bag now. Are they likely to get cheaper during the coming Halloween event?
Well the market is probably going to be flooded with Candy Corn so yea, likely.
I did LB + left stick down. But my config is different than the standard one used by the guild. I keep RB as emulating left mouse click and right stick down for jump, which causes a ripple effect where the two configs go their own ways.
Looking at Hawkian's diagram mapping it to something involving the d-pad makes the most sense.
I think it's going to wind up being RB + D-pad Down for F5. It has the least crucial current mapping (swim down underwater) and wouldn't interfere.
Gah. Sadly I'm pretty much out in that case, unless they made ascended gear easier to acquire in a guaranteed way or less onerous to craft.
D
Deleted member 325805
Unconfirmed Member
Figured as much, I'll wait then. I have 700 dungeon tokens for my berserker gear, so about 500 more to go for a full set and I have enough mats for one Ascended weapon which should get my Revenant off to a good start. I've also just bought some 15% XP food and some boosters which will come in handy. I still need to make her some jewellery and I'll move some Ascended gear around from alts. I'm thinking if there's anything else I'm forgetting to make my levelling as smooth as possible?
Nemesis121
Member
Halloween is right around the corner the price will drop..
It's absolutely necessary though in order to balance dps checks and enrage timers. If they balanced everything around full exotic and then people came in with full ascended, they would have a lot easier time of it and could potentially trivialize phases/mechanics. It has to be balanced against the BiS the game has. Something I think people are neglecting to realize is that you'll be able to beat at least 1-2 of the bosses each week to get ascended gear which is WAY less time consuming or expensive than the current route.
I really really wouldn't make zerker gear or any gear right now until you experience HoT open world and raids. You may not even play the same class once you experience an elite spec.
D
Deleted member 325805
Unconfirmed Member
I'm just farming the tokens and materials for now, I'm not actually crafting/buying anything just yet.
Is it worth saving the potions of PvP reward for the new battleground track? Also, are the items from the weapon/armor boxes soulbound or account bound? I'm wondering if I have to keep the boxes unopened.
I'm unsure if stronghold has its own track or not. The item boxes from pvp are all going to be sellable unless it's ascended then it will be account bound.
Seems like the sort of revelation that could do with a follow-up sentence or two rather than a tweet that can be read as 'gear checks inbound'.
Like jira said, its tied to how the bosses are balanced. The earlier raid bosses will need a mix of at least exotic+ascended, while the last one will be balanced solely on ascended.
Given ascended drops have been confirmed, i think its safe to say this process will be easier than it looks right now.
No one posted the guild mission blog yet?
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/guild-mission-changes-and-improvements/
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/guild-mission-changes-and-improvements/
I must disagree, anything that can be done via DPS gating to prolong the duration of a fight (if necessary) can also be done mechanically.
Also you're sort of nullifying the appeal of the last sentence, which sounded great to me when I imagined doing it in exotics, if you need a full ascended set to get them in the first place
Will reserve judgment. I currently have no crafted ascended gear or weapons, and no desire to craft any. Just have a piece here and there from lucky drops.
D
Deleted member 325805
Unconfirmed Member
Yeah that's the thing, if Ascended gear is dropping from the early bosses you may just need to farm them for a few weeks with your group before progressing, which isn't abnormal. I'm not sure what I'll do when it comes to raiding in GW2, I was a hardcore raider in WoW (top 20 world) but now I'm old with a fucked back and no friends who play this game so it's unlikely I'll have a stable group, hopefully the early bosses will be doable with a good LFG team.
WvW guild missions sound pretty cool to me. PvP guild missions seem a bit chaotic to do in any organized way but hopefully it's something our groups that do PvP can just sort of do at their leisure.
The other mechanical stuff in this post all sounds fine though not exciting. The addition of difficulty selectors, and this-
are both nice.
Gotta say though the language here just barely avoids stating or implying that there won't be any new PvE guild missions with the launch of the expansion and that's a bit on the disappointing side.
D
Deleted member 325805
Unconfirmed Member
I really wish they'd do a 50% sale on name change, I fucking hate mine. It was my first char and I didn't really care what I put, but now it doesn't fit my naming scheme of all my other alts and it's just awful. I have 480 gems so at 50% I could afford it. I've never seen a sale since I've been playing though.
- Status
Similar threads
- Locked