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Guild Wars 2 Press Beta [Prepurchase Is Live]

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Transmutation stones are nice and all, but I really wish they just had a cosmetic appearance tab a la LOTRO/Rift. I am not sure what the benefit of transmutation stones are over cosmetic appearance tabs other than giving you something new to grind for over and over.

They do, even gw1 has that shit even though it's for gay costumes.
 
Can you imagine the later story mode dungeons and then explorable modes of each? They weren't doing themselves any favors by fighting in tight corridors or anything either.

PUGS are going to be a nightmare in this game. A whole new genre of Leroy Jenkins will be born out of ignorance. The only thing I hate about the F2P model.....13 year olds and griefers will be in abundance.

How is this build for a support engineer?
http://gw2.luna-atra.fr/skills_tool/?lang=en&code=2ei001h1o323120q00akkka9anapb0b8bfbl
 
Plus I prefer gw1's player base to WoW's they were more chilled and you weren't encouraged to be a wanker.

Referring to no monthly fee.

Which doesn't change anything, the issues with f2p games are the game design not the fact that's it's free to play which this isn't. which provides a gate to that crap anyway. It's not like monthly mmo's aren't just as bad anyway monthly fee has never been a gate to 13 year old kids.
 
Plus I prefer gw1's player base to WoW's they were more chilled and you weren't encouraged to be a wanker.



Which doesn't change anything, the issues with f2p games are the game design not the fact that's it's free to play which this isn't. which provides a gate to that crap anyway. It's not like monthly mmo's aren't just as bad anyway monthly fee has never been a gate to 13 year old kids.

Are they? I haven't played a pay by month MMO since I stopped DAoC a couple years ago. Didn't run into many wankers at all.
 
Are they? I haven't played a pay by month MMO since I stopped DAoC a couple years ago. Didn't run into many wankers at all.

Really?, like really?, the proportion of wankers to gnerally chilled out people is extremely high in the group of people I came across in p2p mmo's,
 
Really?, like really?, the proportion of wankers to gnerally chilled out people is extremely high in the group of people I came across in p2p mmo's,

In all honesty I've come across 1 jackass in over a year of GW1, it's quite surprising. The amount of jackasses in WoW chat is staggering in comparison.
 
Really?, like really?, the proportion of wankers to gnerally chilled out people is extremely high in the group of people I came across in p2p mmo's,


In all honesty I've come across 1 jackass in over a year of GW1, it's quite surprising. The amount of jackasses in WoW chat is staggering in comparison.

There were a some in DAoC, but that was an entirely different game that what WoW has turned MMOs into today. End game was all RvR. PvE in DAoC was pretty much a joke, so there weren't that many "raids" in what is now the traditional sense. Dragon raids were about the extent of it, and then it was just a zerg fest.

If you were a complete dolt, there really wasn't much room for you in organized RvR. They were pretty much doomed to playing Vamps, hovering home keeps leeching from the rest of the population....

Anyhow....

Thanks for the feedback on the Engineer build, Jira. I really wish there were more Engi videos. Would like to get some sort of idea the default range with turrets as well as the spec increases in range.
 
Really?, like really?, the proportion of wankers to gnerally chilled out people is extremely high in the group of people I came across in p2p mmo's,

Its off the chart in WoW. I've met some great people in WoW, but the vast majority there have been ignorant, greedy and selfish. The worst MMO community I've experienced. Lotro has probably the best, just a shame the game didn't hold my attention.
 
Its off the chart in WoW. I've met some great people in WoW, but the vast majority there have been ignorant, greedy and selfish. The worst MMO community I've experienced. Lotro has probably the best, just a shame the game didn't hold my attention.

To be quite honest, I've played MANY, MANY, MMOs and all of the communities were quite amazing except WoW's. Even though EVE is one of the most hardcore MMOs out there, the community is EXTREMELY helpful and nice...unless they're trying to gank you but that's part of the game.
 
Lets hope the community of gw2 is as solid as the first. You may have to just group with friends and/or guildies if people refuse to learn.
 
I'm wondering since the events are dynamic, and they scale based on how many people are participating, there will be a chance that a big group of people will participate initially and then just walk around and not participate making it more difficult for the ones that are actually trying.
 
I'm wondering since the events are dynamic, and they scale based on how many people are participating, there will be a chance that a big group of people will participate initially and then just walk around and not participate making it more difficult for the ones that are actually trying.

I believe they have a system in place that constantly checks and updates preventing this from happening.
 
I'm wondering since the events are dynamic, and they scale based on how many people are participating, there will be a chance that a big group of people will participate initially and then just walk around and not participate making it more difficult for the ones that are actually trying.

The game is constantly polling to see if people are actively participating, if not then it scales back down.
 
The game is constantly polling to see if people are actively participating, if not then it scales back down.

Aye, this will greatly encourage those to not only want to play but do their best to unlock the highest medal you can acquire for every event.
 
The game is constantly polling to see if people are actively participating, if not then it scales back down.

It's pretty incredible the servers can handle that. I imagine it'll be a couple thousand people per server, spread out with the server constantly polling to see where those players are and what events those players are doing and scaling the events based on their activity. Seems like a bit more than your typical MMO.

The tech behind this game must be seriously new and impressive.
 
It's pretty incredible the servers can handle that. I imagine it'll be a couple thousand people per server, spread out with the server constantly polling to see where those players are and what events those players are doing and scaling the events based on their activity. Seems like a bit more than your typical MMO.

The tech behind this game must be seriously new and impressive.

I think the Dynamic Events are the reason they're still using portals between zones, I think had it been possible they would have had a "seamless" world, but I'll take the need to zone every once in a while in order to get new systems like this.
 
I think the Dynamic Events are the reason they're still using portals between zones, I think had it been possible they would have had a "seamless" world, but I'll take the need to zone every once in a while in order to get new systems like this.

Oh okay. For some reason I had it in my mind that this would be a seamless world, which admittedly was kind of a silly assumption to make I guess. But I really don't mind a loading screen here or there at all so it's all good :D.
 
Oh okay. For some reason I had it in my mind that this would be a seamless world, which admittedly was kind of a silly assumption to make I guess. But I really don't mind a loading screen here or there at all so it's all good :D.

From what I've seen loading from zone to zone is 2-3 sec and the client has yet to be optimized so it'll probably drop a bit too. It's also nice that the zones are absolutely gigantic so it's not like you're going to hit a loading screen every 5 minutes.
 
Simon just posted this on reddit, essentially saying "I suck and this is too hard":

Thought I'd chime in on this one as I didn't on the last one. My admittedly bad play is a blend of genuine skill-less-ness, plus playing in a 1280x720 window and not sleeping for 48 hours, plus boredom and disappointment.

The dungeon was an extreme contrast to the rest of our GW2 experience, which involved hugely enjoyable open-world public wanderings and pseudo-questing, having a fantastic time. Here, we were suddenly required to spend 30 minutes finding 3 other people to complete a 90 minute dark, claustrophobic and grindy dungeon.

I found the whole thing very unoriginal, with none of the creativity, "fun", or active tactics of even 10-year-old dungeons like Deadmines. I'm not saying I want cartoon parrots or a pirate ship with a rope swing at the end - and maybe there is one since we didn't get there(!) - but I expected something different in Guild Wars 2, where they've done everything else right.

My biggest fear is what this means for end-game - which noone seems to have mentioned at all. Is this what's in store for us in terms of end-game dungeons/raids? Because count me out.

It's obvious he hasn't read too much about the game otherwise he'd know there is no endgame or raids and dungeons only get harder from that point. The lovers whooped their ass and that's all there is to it, other groups have got through just fine, but don't blame the game just because you're not able to run in and roll all over everything in your first try. Mechanically speaking that fight was just like the Twin Emps in AQ40, but getting them apart requires more strategy than said Twin Emps cause you can't simply press a button and have them break away from each other.
 
I actually don't mind that the world is not seamless. Seamless worlds tend to have these weird transition zones that lead from one area to another. I also imagine it makes it easier to add more zones later on in the game.
 
Some time ago ppl were talking abt the the animations, how they were a bit too much.
In my opinion they should add more animation to the casting.
You don't really see magic coming out of their hands and therefore I sometimes can't see what the character is doing.
 
Watching the part 2 vid, what is up with the character portraits in the upper left? The top 2 are extreme close-ups of faces, while the bottom are more traditional.

And holy crap. I didn't think this could be worse than Part 1. These guys are the epitome of terrible.

Although, Derpasaurus cracks me up. Such a tiny girl, such a huge sword. (Oh dear God...did I just say that?)
 
Watching the part 2 vid, what is up with the character portraits in the upper left? The top 2 are extreme close-ups of faces, while the bottom are more traditional.

And holy crap. I didn't think this could be worse than Part 1. These guys are the epitome of terrible.

Nope, it's the game, can't possibly be their fault. Yet, other groups have done just fine on the same boss.
 
Well, the hammer's charge is a Burst skill; if I'm lacking adrenaline (as I imagine I would be at the start of a fight unless Signet of Rage is always active) it's not an option. That's just one of those things I'll need to find out when I actually get to play the game.

As for the Bolas, I guess I'm still learning to pull away from the old school of MMOs, as I still feel like I need an "Oh shit, I lost it's attention" button to get control back. Bolas is there in case something decides to tear ass after the squishies, so I can get in front of it and knock it back or lock it down.
I was more referring to the hammer's enemy control with hammer shock (cripple) and backbreaker (KD). You usually don't have to get fancier against AI.
She hasn't spent much time with the Build tool, but I'll make a note to remember that one. I still feel like I need "Shake it off!" for those times where I'm getting heavily debuffed or stunned, but if I end up not needing the Bolas or Bull's Charge, that'll definitely go in there. Another shout would also push more adrenaline too.
Stun is pretty rare. It might not happen often in PvE and only the warrior can properly apply it. Again, you have to know how the AI is in the game first, but it is definitely not an easily applied condition. But I wasn't implying taking the shout out regardless as you need the removal. The other two skills are the wild cards. For great justice and signet of fury would make your build more gimmick with the stun but might be much more powerful overall.

---

My latest team build idea is all about layering daze and stun. The fact that the two effects are not conditions is just too tasteful. It is all about ganging up on one target and using team swiftness buffs to move your team as one.

Daze/stun PvP Team
3 stun-lock warriors
2 "grounded" ele

An enemy dazed and stunned behaves the following way:
-Interrupted
-Can't cast skills
-Can't move
-Can't remove the effects with conditional removal

Here are the two main traits:
Grounded (ele air major) +50% damage to stunned or knocked down foes.
Unsuspecting Foe (war major) 50% crit chance versus stunned enemies.

Daze skills:
Comet (ele water) 25CD
Static Field (ele air) 40CD

Stun skills:
What we already discussed on the warrior
Ele can change static field to daze

Speed buffs:
Airborne speeds
charge
etc...

That's massive damage boosts with stun from 5 characters who all have speed buffs. You basically run down target by target stunlocking and killing them quickly. They can't do much to stop it when they can't move, can't cast, and can't remove it often (or at all).
 
non-seamless world is really too bad. it *does* break immersion quite a bit. aw well...

i *do* hope the dungeons feel really hand-designed and un-generic (not going to watch that footage). there are only five or so.... i love the small-group instanced challenging content, but it can't just feel like corridors full of monsters...

That's massive damage boosts with stun from 5 characters who all have speed buffs. You basically run down target by target stunlocking and killing them quickly. They can't do much to stop it when they can't move, can't cast, and can't remove it often (or at all).

that sounds fun to play against...
 
non-seamless world is really too bad. it *does* break immersion quite a bit. aw well...

i *do* hope the dungeons feel really hand-designed and un-generic (not going to watch that footage). there are only five or so.... i love the small-group instanced challenging content, but it can't just feel like corridors full of monsters...



that sounds fun to play against...

8 dungeons :D and from what we can tell the design/layout of the dungeon is very fitting for the name. It seems like each dungeon layout will be built around the aesthetic rather than the aesthetic just plugged into a corridor. So the tight corridors opening into larger rooms and such is fitting as it is a catacomb, I expect stuff like the mansion dungeon to have a drastically different layout than the catacombs and so on.
 
It really frustrates me that Yogscast gave ZERO thought into how to approach that boss fight. Hey they do more damage when they're near each other so maybe we should slot knockbacks/knockdowns/shields against projectiles or general damage and maybe some more group based heals? Nope, we'll just run in and die then bitch that the dungeons suck. Hell, he didn't even use his utilities nor even do anything with his illusions, instead he LITERALLY spammed his skills, switched weapons and spammed those without ANY thought as to what they even do. GAWD. /rant
 
Bleh, another huge post to respond to stuff from last night, since you guys never sleep. I'm telling you, get all the rest you can now so when the game comes out you can stay up late then. Or are you guys purposely staying up to get your bodies used to going without?

God that dungeon video was painful, Simon went down about 4 times and died once. He acted like a dick in the fire trap room too. I now know why they listed dungeons as a con, it's because they suck.

Part of the reason I don't like the Yogcast videos; they're constantly giggling and shrieking at stuff and trying to be funny, and they end up not playing very seriously or doing stupid shit (like the fire traps) because they're just bumbling around being wonky.

I don't want "Dungeons: Serious Business Edition", but being goofballs all the time tends to get old fast when you want to see how a game is played but the guys who have access are being buffoons about it.

PUGS are going to be a nightmare in this game. A whole new genre of Leroy Jenkins will be born out of ignorance. The only thing I hate about the F2P model.....13 year olds and griefers will be in abundance.

All the more reason to be a part of GAFGuild; the 13 year olds and griefers will be people you know.

I think one of the things I am going to enjoy most about this game is watching the inept flailings of hardcore WoWheads trying to tank and spank mobs without shite mechanics like aggro or dedicated healers to keep them alive. And then listen to their delicious crybaby rants about how much GW2 sucks.

Its off the chart in WoW. I've met some great people in WoW, but the vast majority there have been ignorant, greedy and selfish. The worst MMO community I've experienced. Lotro has probably the best, just a shame the game didn't hold my attention.

Change "LotRO" to "Vanguard" and "didn't hold my attention" to "launched too soon without support from SOE" and you've got my experience, though LotRO had a fantastic community too.

Simon just posted this on reddit, essentially saying "I suck and this is too hard"

Yes, of course, it's the game that's broken. It couldn't possibly be the giggling sleep-deprived moron at the controls. Apart from the actual gameplay, the dungeon looks perfect; creepy, ruined, ominous and foreboding. Filled with traps and surprises, fights that require strategy and skill... Like a dungeon should be, rather than trash-filled hallways connecting rooms filled with loot pinatas.

I feel like I've been in training for GW2 with Dark Souls; expect the worst, taking nothing for granted and be ready to dive out of danger at any given moment.

I actually don't mind that the world is not seamless. Seamless worlds tend to have these weird transition zones that lead from one area to another. I also imagine it makes it easier to add more zones later on in the game.

The worst was Outland in Burning Crusade, especially the transition from Hellfire Peninsula to Zangamarsh; a sun-baked zone where everything is dry, red and thorny and fire erupts from the earth... to a lush, rainy zone where everything is wet, blue and overshadowed by enormous mushrooms. All of that within 20 feet of each other.

Would it have killed them to make some 'swampy areas' on the Hellfire side with dried and decaying mushrooms and nasty sludge pools?

I was more referring to the hammer's enemy control with hammer shock (cripple) and backbreaker (KD). You usually don't have to get fancier against AI.

When we played Vanguard, I would be holding a mob as I finishing it off, only to turn around and see my staff-wielding cloth-wearing wife is 'tanking' the next mob 30 feet away. Nevermind that Blood Mages could slap on heavy armor Symbionts and lifetap the shit out of things to tank them, it still made me feel like I wasn't doing my job. I eventually had to play with the camera pulled way out and looking almost straight down, just so I could keep an eye on her shenanigans: http://vgplayers.station.sony.com/fileimages/000/017/213/057.JPG. No robe-wearin' elf sissy is gonna put me out of work. Food stamps don't cover armor repairs, ya know.

So yeah, I'm gonna need that charge.

The other two skills are the wild cards. For great justice and signet of fury would make your build more gimmick with the stun but might be much more powerful overall.

Yeah, depending on how the build works in-game, I'll definitely be swapping those out. The Bolas will probably be the first to go if the immobilize duration is short, and I'd still need to close the distance anyways. The long CD on Bull's Charge is a major issue too; if the Adrenaline generation of the build is strong enough, I can just use the Hammer's Burst skill and dump the charge altogether.

Plus, I still need to start my Guardian version of this build.
 
It really frustrates me that Yogscast gave ZERO thought into how to approach that boss fight. Hey they do more damage when they're near each other so maybe we should slot knockbacks/knockdowns/shields against projectiles or general damage and maybe some more group based heals? Nope, we'll just run in and die then bitch that the dungeons suck. Hell, he didn't even use his utilities nor even do anything with his illusions, instead he LITERALLY spammed his skills, switched weapons and spammed those without ANY thought as to what they even do. GAWD. /rant

I'm amazed that they even posted it. I couldn't help but face palm each time they zoomed the map out, and everyone is just running into the boss area solo, just to die again. Seriously, it doesn't take a genius to figure out how to regroup and all go in as..... you know, a group....

**Edit:

lol, Retro. I'm completely with you regarding watching the WoWheads. As for the GAF guild, I hope it does better than what I've read....that they collapse a couple months after release.
 
It really frustrates me that Yogscast gave ZERO thought into how to approach that boss fight. Hey they do more damage when they're near each other so maybe we should slot knockbacks/knockdowns/shields against projectiles or general damage and maybe some more group based heals? Nope, we'll just run in and die then bitch that the dungeons suck. Hell, he didn't even use his utilities nor even do anything with his illusions, instead he LITERALLY spammed his skills, switched weapons and spammed those without ANY thought as to what they even do. GAWD. /rant

They had 48 hours to play the game and these 2 parts were probably commented during the playtime and not after. They simply didn't enough time to investigate (I think...)
 
057.JPG

Not enough brown...

Though I will say, Vanguard had BEAUTIFUL volumetric clouds and massive draw distances. It really was the epitome of high fantasy art. Also, DAT INTRO MUSIC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t18zWmxaMoI

Hey Retro, did you ever get to that mansion dungeon over on Thestra? God I loved that damn game, it really was how I imagined EQ to be when it came out, all of the excitement and wonder of a gigantic world where nothing was guaranteed.
 
It really frustrates me that Yogscast gave ZERO thought into how to approach that boss fight. Hey they do more damage when they're near each other so maybe we should slot knockbacks/knockdowns/shields against projectiles or general damage and maybe some more group based heals? Nope, we'll just run in and die then bitch that the dungeons suck. Hell, he didn't even use his utilities nor even do anything with his illusions, instead he LITERALLY spammed his skills, switched weapons and spammed those without ANY thought as to what they even do. GAWD. /rant

They are only useful to see stuff in a different way, like how some dynamic events works or the class skills (and only the dude with the serious voice, the squealing dude is awful), put them in an environment where you need to think or show a little of skill and they implode and go giggles and ranting as show in the dungeon video.

And the comment that he gives in reddit shows that he didn't investigate the game prior the beta weekend, ranting about no endgame therefore he won't play it? oh man. Oh well, at least its publicity (good or bad, still publicity)
 
It really frustrates me that Yogscast gave ZERO thought into how to approach that boss fight. Hey they do more damage when they're near each other so maybe we should slot knockbacks/knockdowns/shields against projectiles or general damage and maybe some more group based heals? Nope, we'll just run in and die then bitch that the dungeons suck. Hell, he didn't even use his utilities nor even do anything with his illusions, instead he LITERALLY spammed his skills, switched weapons and spammed those without ANY thought as to what they even do. GAWD. /rant
It looked like the knockdown mechanics were mostly broken though.
He tried a few times with the boulders and it didn't seem to do much.

Anyway, why are we complaining here ? It's not like he's playing the retail game here and has to take it 100% seriously.
 
They are only useful to see stuff in a different way, like how some dynamic events works or the class skills (and only the dude with the serious voice, the squealing dude is awful), put them in an environment where you need to think or show a little of skill and they implode and go giggles and ranting as show in the dungeon video.

And the comment that he gives in reddit shows that he didn't investigate the game prior the beta weekend, ranting about no endgame therefore he won't play it? oh man. Oh well, at least its publicity (good or bad, still publicity)

I think 95% of the press didn't investigate the game and maybe only heard about no dedicated healer and that's it.
 
It really frustrates me that Yogscast gave ZERO thought into how to approach that boss fight. Hey they do more damage when they're near each other so maybe we should slot knockbacks/knockdowns/shields against projectiles or general damage and maybe some more group based heals? Nope, we'll just run in and die then bitch that the dungeons suck. Hell, he didn't even use his utilities nor even do anything with his illusions, instead he LITERALLY spammed his skills, switched weapons and spammed those without ANY thought as to what they even do. GAWD. /rant

IKnowThatFeelBro.jpg

This whole press event has been a double-edged sword. While hype-inducing and our first real glimpse at the game in action (i.e. Not at a show where there's only a handful of people in the world at once), it's also been painful to watch people who don't know how to play video games bumble through it.

But saying dungeons suck and that they're a 'con'? Unforgivably stupid and fairly irresponsible from a journalistic point of view (yes yes, lol games journalism).


lol, Retro. I'm completely with you regarding watching the WoWheads. As for the GAF guild, I hope it does better than what I've read....that they collapse a couple months after release.

In my experience community guilds fall apart because members usually have friends or family who are more important to them than Random Internet Strangers and just fall away.

There's also the fact that MMOs usually have a huge hype period, then a large surge at launch, then people start to realize the game is just a WoW-clone or doesn't live up to the hype and fall away (which I guess is a real possibility with GW2).

I think the lack of a subscription and ability to play with multiple guilds across multiple servers will help keep people together, and the game itself has enough fresh ideas and such that we won't see too many people disappointed.

Not enough brown...

The hell man, you know as well as I do what Qalia looked like, you had the world-first two-humped camel Mount. It was very Arabia / Africa-inspired with bits of tropical around the Strand of the Ancients and the rare oasis. That particular shot was taken near Lomshir (as best as the wife and I can remember), which was nothing but wasteland.

Hey Retro, did you ever get to that mansion dungeon over on Thestra? God I loved that damn game, it really was how I imagined EQ to be when it came out, all of the excitement and wonder of a gigantic world where nothing was guaranteed.

Greystone? No, my PC ran VG too poorly for me and I kind of hated to play it because I could see the awesome but not enjoy it. My wife was in there though and loved it.
 
It looked like the knockdown mechanics were mostly broken though.
He tried a few times with the boulders and it didn't seem to do much.

Anyway, why are we complaining here ? It's not like he's playing the retail game here and has to take it 100% seriously.

Oh no the knockdown did work, but it takes more than one and you need to be coordinating with your team and have everyone on the same page. Throwing one boulder and calling it a day isn't going to do much other than negate one lightning blast or maybe one illusion summon. The lightning blast is FAR more deadly though.
 
It really frustrates me that Yogscast gave ZERO thought into how to approach that boss fight. Hey they do more damage when they're near each other so maybe we should slot knockbacks/knockdowns/shields against projectiles or general damage and maybe some more group based heals? Nope, we'll just run in and die then bitch that the dungeons suck. Hell, he didn't even use his utilities nor even do anything with his illusions, instead he LITERALLY spammed his skills, switched weapons and spammed those without ANY thought as to what they even do. GAWD. /rant

I unsubbed from their channel because of how poor their GW2 vids are tbh.
 
Haha I know, it's just a long standing FoH meme that I couldn't resist.

Oh, I know, "Next-gen graphics" and all that. But you wouldn't begrudge me another opportunity to bring up Vanguard now, would you? I heard rumors a while ago that it might go Free to Play and that doing so might merit a larger staff (if you can call two people 'staff'). Who knows, going F2P might give the game a chance to at least fix some of those 2-year old bugs.
 
Oh, I know, Next-gen graphics and all that. But you wouldn't begrudge me another opportunity to bring up Vanguard now, would you? I heard rumors a while ago that it might go Free to Play and that doing so might merit a larger staff (if you can call two people 'staff'). Who knows, going F2P might give the game a chance to at least fix some of those 2-year old bugs.

Oh shit....REALLY? I'd actually jump back in and reroll my Cleric if that happened. This could really turn it around for Vanguard.
 
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