Guild Wars 2

I’ve been playing this game a bit now, sitting at about Lvl. 73(almost 74) and I am rapidly becoming less and less excited to finish it up.

1) The story continues to get worse and less cohesive. Voice acting at given parts doesn’t help, some of it is horrendous and would be better in mere text. Honestly, for a game touting a more “RPG” experience it’s failing horrendously on this front—WoW does better quite frankly.

2) Guilds are utterly worthless. I can rarely ever get a group going, assistance, or even a conversation much of the time. This appears to be a reoccurring theme among friends who also played(keyword here). Are people just joining them for perks or just ’cause with little desire to actually mingle?

Been in several, not much luck it would seem.

3) Some of the content in this game is downright INFURIATING. Take one of the skill-point locales in the Straits of Devastation; can’t get to it because a veteran mob is spawned there along with a couple of regulars. The veteran is not only buggy and easily reset(very problematic as a thief relying heavily on stealth to survive) but him and his companions have this neat trick of dragging you down and paralyzing you the entire duration for 3 seconds or so.

Why they thought this was a clever component, for such a random moment in someone’s leveling career, is beyond me. You’ll see this sort of thing throughout the game and Orr LOVES to dump it on you in heaping doses. Guess they didn’t count on the community being lifeless knuckleheads unwilling to assist unless there is a clear objective stamped out on their map.

Again, if you’re going to suddenly throw some amount of difficulty at people at least make it not such a buggy NIGHTMARE!

4) I really, REALLY do not like the scaling in this game. Thought I would, find it makes my progress feel utterly worthless and doesn’t give enough appreciation to how you build your character either. Shifting from a raw damage character to a more tanky, crafty one seems to have very little difference save in perhaps the game-play itself.

This makes no sense and brings to question why we even bother to do anything besides a more evasive or defensive character? My defenseless, glass-cannon killed things about as fast as a more defensive orientated design! The only difference was she couldn’t stand for very long…

5) Water combat is god awful and makes you wonder why it was implemented in the first place if you can’t even use your character’s carefully selected abilities. It’ll often outright undo the benefits you had on land making it a living hell. Then they jam pack it, almost consistently, with an abnormal amount of mobs to take on.

Not cool.

6) PvP is just confusing, especially in WvW I really don’t know what’s going on half the time. It does a poor job of ushering you into things and not only that, but regardless of what Arenanet says, the disparity between levels/time spent can be an enormous factor.

Getting killed in a few shots while I couldn’t dent my target kind of gave that away. It’s just another layer of frustration and disappointment—lot of broken promises and what they did adhere to, wasn’t that great of an idea to begin with.

7) Now a question; Is this game even worth completing the story? To continue collecting and completing for whatever bizarre reason? It went from one of my most anticipated, most hopeful titles since like… EVER to being nothing more than a pain in my behind. I’m serious when I say most of what this game offers is done better elsewhere and what it does uniquely just drags it down generally speaking.

Hate to rip on a game people likely enjoy a great deal but I’m pretty sick of it at this point. Ready to drop MMOs entirely, as I am not going back to you know what, and find my place in another genre instead

All thoughts, feelings, suggestions on improving my experience are welcome. Just don’t expect me to be too happy-go-lucky obviously.

Guilds are as much or as little as the members want them to be, and I don’t even know why you include that here. If you’re in a guild full of people who are totally different from you, it isn’t an issue with guild design, you’re in the wrong guild.

I agree that the voice acting sucks. I can’t speak for all of it, but the vast majority of the VA that i have experienced has been just so pointless. It seems the VA prioritized sounding like their characters more than actually speaking as if they were there in the situation themselves. There words have almost no weight or impact the majority of the time.

For having over several feature film’s worth of dialogue, it is sure an enormous letdown that so much of it has so little emotion.

The story is lacking yes
Guilds, I joined 2 and both rarely ever had any one on. Joined another and for the first time had guild members chatting
Orr in general is a pain, even trying to run away I get my behind kicked. Would be better with more people which happens every now and then.
I have also noticed a lack of wanting to help. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t but it is frustrating when you need help and no one wants to.

Regardless I still enjoy the game, maybe my Asura is helping in that she is just too cute and the stuff she says is so funny
I am also easily amused and that helps

chocomamma.1539:

The story is lacking yes
Guilds, I joined 2 and both rarely ever had any one on. Joined another and for the first time had guild members chatting
Orr in general is a pain, even trying to run away I get my behind kicked. Would be better with more people which happens every now and then.
I have also noticed a lack of wanting to help. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t but it is frustrating when you need help and no one wants to.

Regardless I still enjoy the game, maybe my Asura is helping in that she is just too cute and the stuff she says is so funny
I am also easily amused and that helps

Trust me friend, I wish I was too. I think I might be a bit too much of a critic these days.

Look at it this way, at least you haven’t been stuck on “The Hatchery” for the last two weeks…

The part about people helping is only going to get worse as more zones become empty. Right now at least 4 to 5 maps are empty. Doing anything group related is out of the question, unless you bring your own group.

With the upcoming patch they are adding yet another area, meaning that the little population left will become even more spread out. Meaning that there will be fewer people around to do group content.

For anyone that thinks I am wrong, please go fraps running through straits, or brisban, or blazeridge. Then post it telling us how those zones are just so full.

GSSBlunaspike.4153:

Posting here is a bad idea, for two reasons.

1. You aren’t alone, but most of those threads like yours are deleted very quickly.

2. Anet already knows how people feel. Their behavior so far should give you a hint how much they care.

I do like some of the game, but most of the points you brought up are valid.

I figured as much, hope it wouldn’t be that way. It’s one of the reasons why I didn’t feel like putting up a “you could fix or improve it like this!” thread. Seems like they’re not interested in working with the community at large, as long as people support what they’re doing currently—why listen to any dissenting arguments?

I’m actually terribly confused by a lot of the directions they went with things. Innovation is great, yes, but innovation for the sake of innovation can be outright destructive to your overall efforts.

GSSBlunaspike.4153:

The part about people helping is only going to get worse as more zones become empty. Right now at least 4 to 5 maps are empty. Doing anything group related is out of the question, unless you bring your own group.

With the upcoming patch they are adding yet another area, meaning that the little population left will become even more spread out. Meaning that there will be fewer people around to do group content.

For anyone that thinks I am wrong, please go fraps running through straits, or brisban, or blazeridge. Then post it telling us how those zones are just so full.

Yes, this is another point I wanted to touch on in more detail. There was many zones where I could do very little in the way of events or grand battles because there was like virtually no one else there and this is shortly after its release!

They designed this game in such a way that it was great for the first flow of people and boring/miserable for those coming up behind them. I’m actually dreading the idea of rolling another class—even though I’d like to because I’m thinking part of my disliking of this game originates with being a thief.

Now if you have an active guild(which appears to be few and far between), friends, yeah, that alleviates this problem, no doubt. However, what about the rest of us? Is this game going to really be that picky and focused that it only caters to a very specific market group?

@ GSSBlunaspike.4153 I completely agree with you.

I think if you got this far you should just go ahead and finish it. Or you can play something else for a few weeks and then return and finish it. There really is no rush, the game doesn`t change and you don`t really get anything for completing the story anyway. The rest of your time in the game will be just the same as your previous time in the game.

I agree with you on the orr map. It took me a month to get a certain skillpoint because it was impossible with the respawns being so fast if you didn`t have a group. I notice that for difficulty, Anet likes to put the most annoying abilites on mobs and group them in packs and litter the landscape with them and call that challenging. Was kindof neat at first , but after the millionth time, it isn`t fun anymore. It makes you want to avoid that area because it`s not enjoyable to be running and hear from behind you, " DEATH! GOOD!" then get slingshotted back a few times.

Try exploring other parts of the map you haven`t been to yet. Not really any of them are even close to annoying as orr is. You might find an area you like. The frostgorge map is pretty fun.

Banewrath.5107:

I think if you got this far you should just go ahead and finish it. Or you can play something else for a few weeks and then return and finish it. There really is no rush, the game doesn`t change and you don`t really get anything for completing the story anyway. The rest of your time in the game will be just the same as your previous time in the game.

I agree with you on the orr map. It took me a month to get a certain skillpoint because it was impossible with the respawns being so fast if you didn`t have a group. I notice that for difficulty, Anet likes to put the most annoying abilites on mobs and group them in packs and litter the landscape with them and call that challenging. Was kindof neat at first , but after the millionth time, it isn`t fun anymore. It makes you want to avoid that area because it`s not enjoyable to be running and hear from behind you, " DEATH! GOOD!" then get slingshotted back a few times.

Try exploring other parts of the map you haven`t been to yet. Not really any of them are even close to annoying as orr is. You might find an area you like. The frostgorge map is pretty fun.

Probably will detour from Orr should I continue, it’s been a traumatizing experience. I also agree that difficulty via extreme annoyance is not a good way of going about things—and come on man, you can only dodge so much crap at once! Give us a break.

(No thoughts on PvP? This was another area I was underwhelmed by despite actually liking it in GW1)

I think if they fiddled with the way scaling works other zones could become more active. Right now, at 80, being anywhere other than an 80 zone is less beneficial to me. So while I do enjoy some of them (compared to Orr, most of them) I’d be kittening my progress toward whatever I’m doing by being there.

EDIT: LOL so much at censoring that word.

You can always go back to orr and finish the map or do activities there when you are in the mood for it. I only go there now to make a quick sweep to mine for ori. I will go to frostgorge which I like despite all the bots everywhere you turn or fireheart rise. I like the fireheart map alot, I feel that map catches the feel of the original game the most out of all of them.

I`m allready 80, allready have my gear I need, finally saved up enough to buy my protectors cultural set and now I`m finding it hard to remain ingame longer then 20-30 minutes before logging. I know it`s a huge gameworld with numerous activities, but I feel like I have experienced all there is to offer at this point. Not really into pvp anymore so I don`t mess with that. So just take your time and milk it for what it`s worth until you get to the point I am or stop beforehand.

Kelliak.9152:

5) Water combat is god awful and makes you wonder why it was implemented in the first place if you can’t even use your character’s carefully selected abilities.

Water combat does indeed suck.

But when you say “you can’t even use your character’s carefully selected abilities”.. it makes me wonder if you’re not aware that you can assign a set of utility & elite skills for underwater combat? It’s a separate set, so your bar is empty when you go underwater until you do assign skills.

I didn’t realize this myself until last week.. after playing through several beta stages and two months since release (/facepalm)

Banewrath.5107:

You can always go back to orr and finish the map or do activities there when you are in the mood for it. I only go there now to make a quick sweep to mine for ori. I will go to frostgorge which I like despite all the bots everywhere you turn or fireheart rise. I like the fireheart map alot, I feel that map catches the feel of the original game the most out of all of them.

I`m allready 80, allready have my gear I need, finally saved up enough to buy my protectors cultural set and now I`m finding it hard to remain ingame longer then 20-30 minutes before logging. I know it`s a huge gameworld with numerous activities, but I feel like I have experienced all there is to offer at this point. Not really into pvp anymore so I don`t mess with that. So just take your time and milk it for what it`s worth until you get to the point I am or stop beforehand.

I see… kind of disappointing. I really like games I can invest my time in. Didn’t expect your typical gear progression grind or anything like that. However I did hope there was a lot of challenges to be done, skins to be grabbed. I’m guessing there’s not much of that if many are already burning out on it.

Banquetto.9521:

Kelliak.9152:

5) Water combat is god awful and makes you wonder why it was implemented in the first place if you can’t even use your character’s carefully selected abilities.

Water combat does indeed suck.

But when you say “you can’t even use your character’s carefully selected abilities”.. it makes me wonder if you’re not aware that you can assign a set of utility & elite skills for underwater combat? It’s a separate set, so your bar is empty when you go underwater until you do assign skills.

I didn’t realize this myself until last week.. after playing through several beta stages and two months since release (/facepalm)

Yeah I know of it, unfortunately 90%(probably less than that but the majority no doubt are)of my abilities are barred off. Again, I’m thinking maybe the Thief is just a crummy class for someone’s first experience.

I sincerely don’t mean to troll you OP, but if you are unhappy with the game, find a new one. There are so many out there. Personally, I love the experience. That said, I have to agree about some of the end game story voice acting. The female Norn after Fort Trinity …its almost as if they changed voice actresses at that point, and if the voice didn’t sound the same, I’d swear they had! Instead of thinking critically about it though, I’ve decided to find it entertaining!

Well there is all kinds of challenges and skins you can try to get. The game don`t lack that. Once you hit 80 and play it for awhile after you get the stat gear you need or want, you will probably find youself playing it less and less if you are more into games that focus on raiding or developing you character further like aa points in eq. It`s not bad game. I`m glad I bought it. But I didn`t expect it feel like it was over this soon.

Ageia.5843:

I sincerely don’t mean to troll you OP, but if you are unhappy with the game, find a new one. There are so many out there. Personally, I love the experience. That said, I have to agree about some of the end game story voice acting. The female Norn after Fort Trinity …its almost as if they changed voice actresses at that point, and if the voice didn’t sound the same, I’d swear they had! Instead of thinking critically about it though, I’ve decided to find it entertaining!

I loved the(leveling)experience until they killed off the only character I liked and the story/difficulty spiked all over the place in a nonsensical manner. It went downhill WAY too fast for my taste, sort of like getting slapped out of a nice buzz.

I might be able to enjoy this game if I’d bite the bullet, get this leveling done, and forget the story ever happened—oh and stay clear away from water. However there are other complaints, concerns that haven’t bee really addressed yet noted in this thread.

Banewrath.5107:

Well there is all kinds of challenges and skins you can try to get. The game don`t lack that. Once you hit 80 and play it for awhile after you get the stat gear you need or want, you will probably find youself playing it less and less if you are more into games that focus on raiding or developing you character further like aa points in eq. It`s not bad game. I`m glad I bought it. But I didn`t expect it feel like it was over this soon.

I actually LOVE collecting skins, doing challenges, especially on the PvE front. Sans that though if it requires me trudging through Orr alone—that place has literally become my own personal hell in the gaming world.

I even like PvP generally speaking, I just don’t understand the disparity—getting killed in a few shots, not denting people, etc. It kind of irks me when Arenanet said that wouldn’t really be the case. How do you complete with that, you know? Granted I don’t know all the details probably when prepping for PvP.

I also find this game very disappointing and frustrating.

Guilds are useless at this point. Because you can join more than one, you never know which Guild people are actually representing. No place to meet and join up with someone.

If you have a group, you all have to travel separately, meet at some waypoint. Spend way too many coins to get there.

Also have found areas that are void of other players. Impossible to go Events if you are the only one fighting.

Respawn rate is way too fast. If you have a group of 5 or 6 by the time you kill the 5th guy, the 1st one is back again.

Being slowed while “in combat” is just plain dumb. If you are just trying to get the POI you have to stop and kill everyone as you cannot just run by them.

The cost of repairs and waypoints and trait books is way to much. You end up spending more on those than you get by doing the quests and events.

You cannot move your skill around so they are in the order in which you use them.

Crafting is a bore. Having to craft is just plain dumb. All the sotage space is for crafting materials and not near enough for reg stuff.

Black Lion Chests are useless unless you use real money to buy gems so you can get keys to open them.

Chests for completing an area are also useless. Most of the time you get weapons and armor that your char cannot use.

Hate it when I switch pets, the name disappears or stays the same as the previous pet. Who has several pets with the same name??

I played GW1 all the time. Had several char that completed all 4 areas, had a GWAMM and had the 50 titles. Loved it. Was in great anticipation for this one. But now have a hard time even logging in anymore.

Kelliak.9152:

I’ve been playing this game a bit now, sitting at about Lvl. 73(almost 74) and I am rapidly becoming less and less excited to finish it up.

1) The story continues to get worse and less cohesive. Voice acting at given parts doesn’t help, some of it is horrendous and would be better in mere text. Honestly, for a game touting a more “RPG” experience it’s failing horrendously on this front—WoW does better quite frankly.

I agree to an extent that voice acting doesn’t really work for playable characters. SWTOR got away with it somewhat, but it feels more like watching someone else complete a quest than doing it ourselves. In other words, it feels more like Final Fantasy than Dragon Warrior, and the later traditionally has a silent protagonist as the player himself is the hero. TSW also knew this, but it was funny watching our characters there stand around like a drooling lump lol so they didn’t really do that right lol!

2) Guilds are utterly worthless. I can rarely ever get a group going, assistance, or even a conversation much of the time. This appears to be a reoccurring theme among friends who also played(keyword here). Are people just joining them for perks or just ’cause with little desire to actually mingle?

Maybe you need better guilds?

Been in several, not much luck it would seem.

3) Some of the content in this game is downright INFURIATING. Take one of the skill-point locales in the Straits of Devastation; can’t get to it because a veteran mob is spawned there along with a couple of regulars. The veteran is not only buggy and easily reset(very problematic as a thief relying heavily on stealth to survive) but him and his companions have this neat trick of dragging you down and paralyzing you the entire duration for 3 seconds or so.

It is oftentimes infuriating, but you also have to see if it’s a gear issue or if you have the right abilities slotted for the situation. As for the skillpoint the intent is to group for it. That stun is environmental, not a skill from the mob. Just try luring it out from behind the curtain of green smoke.

Why they thought this was a clever component, for such a random moment in someone’s leveling career, is beyond me. You’ll see this sort of thing throughout the game and Orr LOVES to dump it on you in heaping doses. Guess they didn’t count on the community being lifeless knuckleheads unwilling to assist unless there is a clear objective stamped out on their map.

Many want to assist, but simply either might not have the resources to do so. A guildie of mine wanted to do TA explorable, something I need myself, but I couldn’t help because I’m in some magic find gear with magic find gems on the one hand and beserker gear on the other, not exactly ideal dungeon equipment. I do have an exotic knight’s dagger that I swap glimmerfang out for, but it’s only one piece of equipment. I’d also need to buy a GM book to give myself a viable dungeon build: 25 power, 30 vit, 15 toughness is what I’m looking at for my thief to give it sustained damage and survivability required for dungeons. People might be afraid of dungeons because they run glass cannon farming and PvP builds and can’t be bothered to pay some money to change traits. 30 in power and precision may be great for low end PvE (Plinx, tars, and Penitent), mid-end PvE (Grenth, other world legendary bosses other than medium high end dragons, where glass cannon starts being unviable) and PvP, but not for high end PvP (dungeons).

Completely agree on underwater combat. I absolutely hate it in this game, its just so bad.

Again, if you’re going to suddenly throw some amount of difficulty at people at least make it not such a buggy NIGHTMARE!

I’ve seen much worse in launches where very important quests would bug out, and not the kind of bugs that benefit players, but those bad bugs that halt progress and break game balance. Yeah here due to rendering issues thief is more OP than even it was intended (and I main a thief) in PvP, but they have to do these fixes gracefully and cleanly, they don’t want to create bigger problems elsewhere.

4) I really, REALLY do not like the scaling in this game. Thought I would, find it makes my progress feel utterly worthless and doesn’t give enough appreciation to how you build your character either. Shifting from a raw damage character to a more tanky, crafty one seems to have very little difference save in perhaps the game-play itself.

Do you enjoy roflestomping lowbie mobs? It may have been fun in WoW for the exalted achieves and getting BC drake mounts, but here it isn’t necessary.

This makes no sense and brings to question why we even bother to do anything besides a more evasive or defensive character? My defenseless, glass-cannon killed things about as fast as a more defensive orientated design! The only difference was she couldn’t stand for very long…

World mobs weren’t meant to be a challenge, especially in smaller packs.

5) Water combat is god awful and makes you wonder why it was implemented in the first place if you can’t even use your character’s carefully selected abilities. It’ll often outright undo the benefits you had on land making it a living hell. Then they jam pack it, almost consistently, with an abnormal amount of mobs to take on.

Not cool.

Agreed. It used to be fun for me until the whirlpool nerf. What’s also annoying is how the can chain dunk you, and each dunk last three seconds. I have learned somewhat certain routes to avoid these kinds of mobs that minimizes water travel in Orr, and when an ori node is underwater I use stealth to get at it and swim back up.

6) PvP is just confusing, especially in WvW I really don’t know what’s going on half the time. It does a poor job of ushering you into things and not only that, but regardless of what Arenanet says, the disparity between levels/time spent can be an enormous factor.

Getting killed in a few shots while I couldn’t dent my target kind of gave that away. It’s just another layer of frustration and disappointment—lot of broken promises and what they did adhere to, wasn’t that great of an idea to begin with.

When the game first came out even crafting was somewhat confusing for me, then I got a handle on it and use the search function like a boss. However, since crafting is beyond the scope of this point I will mention that maybe you didn’t counter glass cannons properly? And if you could, you yourself would have a counter, and if you were balanced like me currently you can’t outdamage glass cannons and tanky builds easily soak up anything you throw at them, yet could take hits better than the glass cannon and dish out more damage than the tank. Maybe you aren’t running with the right zergs and always happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time? Siege is also your friend. Like I said elsewhere: sometimes the zerg steamrolls you, sometimes your zerg steamrolls them, but you have fun all along the way.

7) Now a question; Is this game even worth completing the story? To continue collecting and completing for whatever bizarre reason? It went from one of my most anticipated, most hopeful titles since like… EVER to being nothing more than a pain in my behind. I’m serious when I say most of what this game offers is done better elsewhere and what it does uniquely just drags it down generally speaking.

Hate to rip on a game people likely enjoy a great deal but I’m pretty sick of it at this point. Ready to drop MMOs entirely, as I am not going back to you know what, and find my place in another genre instead

All thoughts, feelings, suggestions on improving my experience are welcome. Just don’t expect me to be too happy-go-lucky obviously.

It is worth it if you want 100% world completion, but my main is only up to his level 70 story quest. My former main is up to 76, and one of the 70 story missions was almost entirely underwater… in Orr.

Actracts.1389:

Then LEAVE! But we all know you won’t. Just as all the trolls who’ve come here and complain about the game. You hate it, but you won’t leave? Why…because you’ve nothing else better to do than troll.

The general consensus among the people that I knew in gw1 that have played gw2, is that gw1 was a more engaging game.

There are aspects about gw2 that I really like, but at the same time there are aspects which utterly frustrate me and make the experience un-fun. Your suggestion is that I don’t bother to tell anyone that I don’t like, delete the game and never log in again.

If everyone did that the game would become pretty quiet pretty quickly.

By telling ANet which parts of the game we find problematic, we give them a chance to at least address our concerns and improve the general quality of the game. GW2 has a lot of potential, but at the same time it definitely has the feel of an unfishined product.

Personally, I share a lot of similar frustrations to the OP. I’d like to see those frustrations minimised so that my general experience of gw2 can be more positive. Because right now it feels like I’m playing a single-player grinding game and that’s not what MMOs are about.

1. Agreed – the story was great at first but it started to go downhill the moment Traeherne got involved. I actually thought the story was very interesting until then.
2. Doesn’t that just mean that you’re in a crappy guild? Perhaps you should consider joining another. Remember that you can be in multiple guilds at the same time.
3. Many skill points are guarded by veteran mobs, hence why they are called “skill challenges.” Shameful if the mob is bugged, though.
4. It’s common knowledge that something like Hundred Blades Warriors or Shatter Mesmers are far more like glass cannons than, say, a confusion-based Mesmer. Try experimenting with popular builds from websites like:
   http://www.gw2builds.org/
   http://www.gw2build.com/
5. Underwater combat was intended to add another combat layer but it can definitely be frustrating for some classes. Remember, though, that you can change your skills to a different set solely for underwater combat. Also remember that level-appropriate underwater weapons are extremely important.
6. WvW can be confusing at first, but once you figure it out it’s very simple to understand. Remember that you can speak with the tutorial guide the moment you zone in. You can also check out: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/World_versus_World
7. I’m not sure what you mean by “worth” completing. There’s no subscription fee and little vertical progression at the maximum level. You can stop playing for several months and not have to worry about falling behind or feeling obligated to play.

Turtlemilk.1064:

1. Agreed – the story was great at first but it started to go downhill the moment Traeherne got involved. I actually thought the story was very interesting until then.
2. Doesn’t that just mean that you’re in a crappy guild? Perhaps you should consider joining another. Remember that you can be in multiple guilds at the same time.
3. Many skill points are guarded by veteran mobs, hence why they are called “skill challenges.” Shameful if the mob is bugged, though.
4. It’s common knowledge that something like Hundred Blades Warriors or Shatter Mesmers are far more like glass cannons than, say, a confusion-based Mesmer. Try experimenting with popular builds from websites like:
   http://www.gw2builds.org/
   http://www.gw2build.com/
5. Underwater combat was intended to add another combat layer but it can definitely be frustrating for some classes. Remember, though, that you can change your skills to a different set solely for underwater combat. Also remember that level-appropriate underwater weapons are extremely important.
6. WvW can be confusing at first, but once you figure it out it’s very simple to understand. Remember that you can speak with the tutorial guide the moment you zone in. You can also check out: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/World_versus_World
7. I’m not sure what you mean by “worth” completing. There’s no subscription fee and little vertical progression at the maximum level. You can stop playing for several months and not have to worry about falling behind or feeling obligated to play.

THESE are the kinds of posts I love. They’re respectfully opinionated but more than that, helpful. That’s how you grow a community and grow your game, not by trying to run people off that don’t immediately agree with your viewpoints.

I’ll take a gander at the builds and see if anythings trikes me as profitable.

By the way, your name is unusual and familiar. Were you a WoW player on Lightninghoof sometime before you went to GW2? I could swear that is exactly the name of the warlock that used to harass the unholy hell out of us during BC.

Completion wise I was referring to the story more than anything—and level-capping.

Dont pick the steel tide tank thing it is the worst mess there is.
I thought tank and guns and fun. No
The tank and camera operation are so buggy it took me 4 hours and like
8 tries to finally get through 1 part of 1 little quest. The horror-it should be pulled.
Almost barfed a couple of times.
I agree with your sentiments – the game had promise but had I know orr was this bad I would have passed plain and simple.

I agree with some of the points the OP brings up.

1. I completely agree here. The story goes from interesting and sometimes even very entertaining (Grizwhirl anyone?) to “Why am I needed here again?” – Mr Cabbage Head with his uber sword of doom can handle it all on his own.

2. Guilds are not really needed as there’s no valued group content. Dungeons? They are really token farms, nothing of value IN them, just getting THROUGH them. IMO, that’s the core problem. Group content is lacking in substantial rewards for time and effort – almost everything in game can be gotten via grinding only. I could list potential ideas on how to address that here, but it would be off topic… but, that’s a core reason Guilds are about useless here right now (at least, IMO).

3. I have different thoughts on 3 (Orr) than you. I do not find any of Orr difficult. It’s silly, the Risen are poorly designed and are easy to over come. My main is a thief, and I don’t think I’ve ever died on Orr from Risen (Krait got me once or twice I think, but not land based Risen). As a thief, I set for conditions and cripples. When you dodge make sure you get the Speed Boost and toss out caltrops. Bleed, bleed, dodge through the Risen and run around a bit – repeat. Pretend your in a Benny Hill chase scene and the dumb Risen don’t stand a chance. The Risen like to flank, so dodging through them seems to reset where they think they want to be – buys you more time. (Hope that helps some at least vs Risen. – as for the Champions, gotta join a zerg; sadly)

PS. I also keep in mind, that while on Orr. Risen are not meant to challenge; they are meant to annoy. Once we figure out how silly these things behave, they are easy – yet they still annoy the life out of us. Eventually, the only thing they test, is our patience.
I’ve had near 5 Risen on me without issue. Just remember the above AND zig zag while you run. Their pulls will miss and you can hum Benny Hill chase themes while they stupidly follow you bleeding and limping to their deaths.

Now, when I go to Fireheart… yikes. I get a lesson in humility. The Charr don’t run around trying to flank or try to compete with Sonic the Hedgehog. They just run at me trying to smash my face in. And often, if I’m not careful; they do. Fireheart > Orr for end game challenge IMO. Maybe it’s a playstyle difference; I dunno.

4. Scaling – Don’t have much to add here.

5. Personally, I love underwater combat on all but my Necro. The thief is all about timing with the spear. If you time the enemies attacks right, 1v1 combat you can kill anything without taking a single hit. The 2 attack evades and puts us behind the target. The 3 blocks and multi-hits after the blocked attack. 4 is great for quickly catching up or closing the gap between AI that think they can get away by moving two feet away.
The ranged option for thieves underwater is all about the condition damage/duration. Snare foes, kite. Pretty much all we can do.
Also, stack the poisons underwater. They really help, even if you don’t trait into poisons (I didn’t, and they still are a solid choice).

6. Not a fan of PvP in a game like this at all. So I’ll not comment. I play Planetside 2 currently for my PvP fix.

7. I would finish the story once; but eh… I completed it on my thief and since then have an 80 mesmer and an 80 necro. Both I have stopped their story lines soon as they are able to use their chosen portals to Fort Trinity. After that point, there’s little reason for me to continue in it.

Anyway, hope that helps or gives things to think on. This isn’t meant as a l2p, just a suggestion on what works for myself and so on.

1. Agreed. No need to say anything but that.

2. I joined a guild where people are friendly. My first guild was cool, but it diminished fast. My current is okay, howerver, we are separated by a huge gap on timezone (I’m on Asia, most of them are US/Can) that’s why we only play together weekends or weekdays when they wake up and I’m about to sleep -_-

3. It takes patience and strategy. I completed all completed maps without involving/asking for help, which includes Straits of Devastation. I have to admit, I went all rage on that skill point, but there is no point getting mad over something you have little control of. Just keep calm, think clearly.

4.I don’t like it too. I just got used to it and live with it. Personally. I don’t like it. If feels I leveled my character for nothing. But I understand the reason behind it.

5.I maybe one of the few who thinks water combat is okay. I don’t like it, I would avoid it if I have to and I still prefer to fight on land, but I don’t despise it.

6. Not Anet’s fault for you not understanding what is going on. Read chat. Read commander’s orders. Talk more, ask more. It’s a MMORPG for god’s sake. You play with other people. They are not NPCs. They do respond when asked.

7. I just completed story for the sake of completing it and gaining exp. Ending sucks.

Honestly, it sounds to me like you should just quit MMOs all together. You can’t expect everything in an MMO to be as perfect as other games, that only focuses on one of these things. A MMO will never have as whole a story as Skyrim, or as complete a PvP games as LoL. It might be that Guild Wars 2 will grow into having as great content as these games, but it’s going to take more time then three months into release. There are only a limit amount of people in a development team, so they can’t work on everything at all times. So if you don’t have the patience to wait, it’s better to just quit all together and play something you think is more worth your time.

1.) I am not particularly fond of some parts of the story either but I know some people actually like the story in its entirety. WoW does not a better job here. Maybe SW:TOR did. Yes. All in all it’s a subjective opinion along the lines of “I don’t like spinach!”

2.) can’t comment here. Still guildless.

3.) I think they should leave in the infuriating stuff but fix the bugs. A lot of the later challenges require assistance due to shorter respawn cycles.

4.) Scaling is actually my favourite part and in my opinion not quite vigorously implemented as you would expect. You still are far superior to those being natively at this level.

5.) Water combat is not perfect but to call it “god awful” is an exaggeration. The things which make it annoying are occasional bugs. And of course being chained pulled doesn’t help either. But as Engineer I should have the greatest reason to complain, yet I don’t thanks to bombs and grenades being kitten awesome underwater in PVE.

6.) WvWvW depends greatly on communication, meaning also you could just listen to chat and takes a moment to get used to. If you are below a certain level you shouldn’t be at the frontlines anyway because I personally pick on those gladly if they are leaving the group in your pursuit. That does not mean I don’t like WvWvW. On the contrary. Despite its imperfections I found a lot entertainment in it.

7.) Now that’s a funny thing. You do not have to finish the story per se but I found doing so was quite fun.

I would suggest not to get worked up too much about a game anyway. MMORPGs in particular are very gigantic and very multi-layered. It’s more likely to see some issues the bigger one is. Take a break. You don’t have to play it daily. I took a break for other reasons to play games like XCOM:EU and BL2. Take a break, chill and maybe when you come back you will see it’s not as bad. If it’s ruining your fun then continuing to play will only make it worse, like cutting yourself first and then treating your wounds with sandpaper is.

Half of the skillpoints are easiest as thief….run up, ignore everything, pop Shadow Refuge, activate skillpoint whilst invisible….run away.

DR is a pain to deal with, and relogging doesn’t work anymore =(

I can see why ArenaNet is going to fight tooth-and-nail every step of the way to not make things easier, especially when you do something like throw the MMO role holy trinity out the window. People are still getting used to this: everyone complains about the dungeons until they finally figure it out (same thing with the clock tower from the Halloween event).

And, maybe, it’s the same with Orr.

Orr is different. No more cute little hearts to turn gold. It’s brutal. If you go alone, and you are not very skilled (like me, heh), you’ll die a lot. It bugs me to death that most of the waypoints are contested and nobody can save the stupid choppers.

It’s just not easy. And ArenaNet is not going to hold our hands and make it easier. Can’t clear major objectives on the map? Things are going to stay bad until the players finally get their act together and coordinate. It does happen, just not all that often, it seems.

But in most other MMOs you could max level without ever dying once while questing. Nothing was ever really a challenge except raids (and even, for some people, not so much). In GW2, Orr and dungeons are (mostly) that challenge. Maybe this is partly what ArenaNet meant when they said the whole game is “endgame.”

You’re not gonna have a good time in Orr unless you’re really skilled or in a group at least, and coordinating with other groups at most in order to clear the bigger objectives.

I think a lot just depends on the attitude of the player. If you’re the kind of person who gets angry when things don’t go your way, that’s not exactly bad game design. That’s just your disposition and attitude about it (notice I didn’t say bad attitude, I’m not judging here).

Take the clock tower, for example. Some people got really mad, really fast and others (who died just as often) laughed their way through it. Was the game design good or bad? Seems to me that people too easily mistake their own assumptions and attitudes for “obvious” “truths” about the game. I think it’s more about the characteristics of the player, not the game.

Which leads me to guilds.

Most guilds really aren’t all that great because in the rush to get bodies in the door (gotta get them influence points and bigger is better amirite???) you don’t have a cohesive group of people who respect each other. The guilds I’m in organize Orr hunting trips, people often want to do the dragon events or run dungeons, and roleplay. The most important job of a guild leader is picking the right people to be in the guild in the first place, but most people don’t know that.

I don’t want to seem like I’m lecturing or like I know it all, here. But I’ve actually been thinking about all this stuff a lot. I used to get really angry and frustrated very quickly when things didn’t go my way, and I’m not a particularly skilled player so you can imagine how often I’d rage. At first, dungeons seemed impossible, but other people kept completing them, and repeatedly, so obviously they weren’t impossible. There’s plenty of video proof out there, people are not lying or trolling. Same thing with the clock tower. And maybe it’s the same with Orr, too.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that while I would get really angry, other people did not. In fact they laughed it up and loved every minute of it. That was a revelation for me about my own assumptions and attitudes, and I’m still wrestling with it (I still rage more than I want to). But it’s why I’m saying what I’m saying here, how you know where I’m coming from. I’m not just blithely judging or dismissing your concerns.

I can’t speak to PvP because I almost never engage in it, and the story and voice acting is a very subjective thing. I’m not very critical of the voice acting and I don’t know the whole story yet (still working on that). I think the underwater combat in this game is the best I’ve seen but the only other games I’ve played with underwater combat are WoW and Rift. So, again, it’s just a matter of opinion, really.

But as to some of the other concerns you raised, I hope this was somewhat helpful.

Look at it this way, at least you haven’t been stuck on “The Hatchery” for the last two weeks…

I know the feel bro…

1. The story wasn’t that aweful.
ps. It is not over yet either.

2. Thats on YOU to find a good guild/group of people to play with that are active and help each other out. There are plenty of great guilds out there that are hulpful, active and friendly.

3. You are correct. There are some parts/encounters in the game that are overly difficult. You can make a forum post with specific information on the encounter, why it is overly difficult/frustrating and make a suggestion on how to improve the play experience. Ranting does not help.

4. The scaling in the game is probably one of the best parts of the game. It allows you to participate in any part of the game at (with a few exceptions) any time in the game. I am not claiming that is is perfect, but it does work and work quite well.

It sounds like your trying to force play a specific weapon. Use the weapons that you have available to you. (eg, short bow pistol/pistol). Heck even if your dagger/dagger you can use dagger 4 to kite multiple enemies. Take the time to read/learn about what you class and abilities do and then use them to your advantage.

5. Underwater combat…yeah….

6. WvW is not very confusing.
The map shows you what points you control. The map shows you what points your enemy controls. The map will also show you a general area where fighting is occuring.

Protect your caravans. Kill enemy caravans.
Protect your map assets. Kill enemy assets.
Use your map chat to find out where people are at so you can coordinate with them.

7. If you do not enjoy playing MMO’s.
Then don’t play MMO’s.

1. totally true

2. not true, the main problem is finding a nice guild. In previous games I did this by checking the rankings and applying to a really high guild. This would ensure that people in my guild were at least dedicated and active, like myself. In GW2 there is nothing to distinguish guilds apart from there tag, no ranks or anything. That’s why it’s hard to find a good/fun guild, I think that’s the problem and not that there are no good/fun guilds.

3. dunno never had any trouble with difficulty in GW2, bugs obviously suck but sadly every MMO I played had bugs that could ruin the gameplay every now and then

4. not true at all, tanky chars don’t kill nearly as fast as dps chars, if yours do then you are doing something wrong

5. water combat is great (when not bugged), and your abilities being undone etc is no valid argument because 1) you get a second skill bar for underwater play so your utility skills change to whatever you selected for underwater play and 2) there’s nearly always an out of combat moment between land and water play, so you can swap a land/regular trait to an underwater trait if needed

6. I agree that it’s (nearly) impossible to see what’s going on, they really failed in making things visually clear because it’s all one big mess of effects. However, if you are getting killed in a few shots why barely damaging your target, that’s certainly your fault and not the game’s .

7. not really, this is kinda similar to point 1) and you are right there

“Guess they didn’t count on the community being lifeless knuckleheads unwilling to assist unless there is a clear objective stamped out on their map.”

Interesting outlook….moving on, you know since my map doesn’t have an objective for this

Find a better guild.

Learn pvp rules as they are as simple as cap an area.

Orr is easy but some points are tricky. I remember a skill point was only doable to me when I duo it. And it was a hell of an epic battle. So dont do it alone.

Downleveling is awsome. You still retain some of your extra power but that content can still be challenging.

I had a blast last night doing CoE exp. Felt very resident evil like. But it took us three hours for two pathes because se had group mates specced into glass cannons… therefore were a burden.

Game is cool and I cant agree with you.

Banquetto.9521:

Kelliak.9152:

5) Water combat is god awful and makes you wonder why it was implemented in the first place if you can’t even use your character’s carefully selected abilities.

Water combat does indeed suck.

But when you say “you can’t even use your character’s carefully selected abilities”.. it makes me wonder if you’re not aware that you can assign a set of utility & elite skills for underwater combat? It’s a separate set, so your bar is empty when you go underwater until you do assign skills.

I didn’t realize this myself until last week.. after playing through several beta stages and two months since release (/facepalm)

Actually a good portion of those utility skills, and almost all elites, do not work under water.

Btw, I was infracted for the post that everyone was agreeing with. Posts seem to be disappearing around here. =P

Kelliak.9152:

GSSBlunaspike.4153:

Posting here is a bad idea, for two reasons.

1. You aren’t alone, but most of those threads like yours are deleted very quickly.

2. Anet already knows how people feel. Their behavior so far should give you a hint how much they care.

I do like some of the game, but most of the points you brought up are valid.

I figured as much, hope it wouldn’t be that way. It’s one of the reasons why I didn’t feel like putting up a “you could fix or improve it like this!” thread. Seems like they’re not interested in working with the community at large, as long as people support what they’re doing currently—why listen to any dissenting arguments?

I’m actually terribly confused by a lot of the directions they went with things. Innovation is great, yes, but innovation for the sake of innovation can be outright destructive to your overall efforts.

I agree with OP and I also agree that the innovation in this game just isn’t executed correctly. There is no reason for parties other than to go to a dungeon. The game should have no levels, which removes the need for scaling down players and instead only scales players up. Without levels, the whole game is truly endgame. World bosses give no loot. Traits and special builds don’t matter because…everyone can do everything… just a few of my complaints to be honest. I was looking forward so much to the game and its just such a bore right now. It doesn’t captivate me like Guild Wars did.

No sub fee come back again or never come back. Its the the market strategy that Anet has in place. No game keeps 100% of its user base for its life cycle 3 months after release is when numbers start to pop up so they can gauge how many are still playing.

You are bored or whatever its expected loss to the community come back on the 15th or christmas.

Kelliak.9152:

Turtlemilk.1064:

1. Agreed – the story was great at first but it started to go downhill the moment Traeherne got involved. I actually thought the story was very interesting until then.
2. Doesn’t that just mean that you’re in a crappy guild? Perhaps you should consider joining another. Remember that you can be in multiple guilds at the same time.
3. Many skill points are guarded by veteran mobs, hence why they are called “skill challenges.” Shameful if the mob is bugged, though.
4. It’s common knowledge that something like Hundred Blades Warriors or Shatter Mesmers are far more like glass cannons than, say, a confusion-based Mesmer. Try experimenting with popular builds from websites like:
   http://www.gw2builds.org/
   http://www.gw2build.com/
5. Underwater combat was intended to add another combat layer but it can definitely be frustrating for some classes. Remember, though, that you can change your skills to a different set solely for underwater combat. Also remember that level-appropriate underwater weapons are extremely important.
6. WvW can be confusing at first, but once you figure it out it’s very simple to understand. Remember that you can speak with the tutorial guide the moment you zone in. You can also check out: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/World_versus_World
7. I’m not sure what you mean by “worth” completing. There’s no subscription fee and little vertical progression at the maximum level. You can stop playing for several months and not have to worry about falling behind or feeling obligated to play.

THESE are the kinds of posts I love. They’re respectfully opinionated but more than that, helpful. That’s how you grow a community and grow your game, not by trying to run people off that don’t immediately agree with your viewpoints.

I’ll take a gander at the builds and see if anythings trikes me as profitable.

By the way, your name is unusual and familiar. Were you a WoW player on Lightninghoof sometime before you went to GW2? I could swear that is exactly the name of the warlock that used to harass the unholy hell out of us during BC.

Completion wise I was referring to the story more than anything—and level-capping.

Thanks! Yes, I was. I tried Mists of Pandaria, actually… I thought it was neat but I grew quite bored of it after a while.