Guild Wars 2

I’ve been trying to find a post on this topic but haven’t been able to find one. I won’t get too much into lore and speculation surrounding the two heros but class aside, who do you think is the more powerful hero between the GW1 and GW2 Player Character in terms of sheer physical prowess and even accolades/accomplishments.

For example, the GW1 player character killed a god (Abaddon), killed an army of mursaat, became ascended, defeated (but not killed) glint in the bonus of dragons lair mission, went to the underworld and killed a fallen god (Dhumn), defeated Balthazars rival and army in the fissue of woe, as well as killed an undead lich and shiro twice. He also defeated one of an elder dragons most powerful champions champion. While the GW1 Player character had heros and henchmen to accompany him, GW1 could be played solo without the use of heros of henchmen besides various missions and quests that required certain heros.

On the other hand, the GW2 Player character defeated 2 elder dragons, went up against a human god, killed scarlet, and was the commander of the greatest army (the pact) on Tyria. As said above I’m not getting into speculating whereas the commander will most likely defeat more elder dragons over his/her campaign. The commander has help from the pact as well as members of destintys edge and dragons watch which are comparable to the heros and henchman the GW1 Player character had but on a much larger scale.

What are your thoughts and options? Feel free to include lore and speculation in your answers as I barey scratched the surface of both Player characters accolades

Both are pretty much the same.

Clearly the GW2 player. The poor GW1 hero couldn’t even jump.

GW2’s PC because he/she can be an Honorary Skritt.

Moonyeti.3296:

Clearly the GW2 player. The poor GW1 hero couldn’t even jump.

You can type /jump in guild wars 1 to make your hero jump

You forgot to include that in GW1 the player character was one of 8 working in unison to take these threats down and that you actually earned these accomplishments rather than easily rolling through single-player instances.

I think the setting is different which makes it harder to compare
GW1 had the style of writing where you can’t save the world, you just make it less screwed up. I don’t think GW1 ever had a real happy ending, more of a “we live another day”-ending.
Because we Defeating 1 God who was rebelling, then we had some other villains we never even saw the end of, like Menzies, he’s still out there.
GW2 is a lot more happy-go-lucky. So while I can’t argue which side is stronger, I can argue that the GW2 might be less depressed and less prone to PTSD or nightmare-induced-nightmares. Remember our ancestors went to the tyrian equivalent of Hell

gw1 players look more heroic because capes

Amaimon.7823:

I think the setting is different which makes it harder to compare
GW1 had the style of writing where you can’t save the world, you just make it less screwed up. I don’t think GW1 ever had a real happy ending, more of a “we live another day”-ending.
Because we Defeating 1 God who was rebelling, then we had some other villains we never even saw the end of, like Menzies, he’s still out there.
GW2 is a lot more happy-go-lucky. So while I can’t argue which side is stronger, I can argue that the GW2 might be less depressed and less prone to PTSD or nightmare-induced-nightmares. Remember our ancestors went to the tyrian equivalent of Hell

gw2 had a happ ending only on ps everything after than wasnt a happy ending.

Blue Blade.3049:

Moonyeti.3296:

Clearly the GW2 player. The poor GW1 hero couldn’t even jump.

You can type /jump in guild wars 1 to make your hero jump

Imagine if that was how you had to do it in GW2. Jumping puzzles would be a lot harder!

I’d really go for GW1’s PC.

The reason is, aside from all the OP stated, he also fought powerful shining enemies, to learn really powerful spells and skills. He was truly the leader of all that happened, and could gather friends and powerful heroes.

In front of him, GW2’s PC is a lame guy used as a doormat by most of his friends, isn’t truly respected, has Taimi explain him what to do all the time, and provide him with tech to fulfill whatever he cannot do. Left alone, that poor guy could only wipe in front of each and every people on Tyria that is more powerful than him, like Jennah, or Valette Wi for Mesmers. He’s merely a doll in a coconut following the stream of events, and obligingly performing whatever Taimi tells him to do.

ThomasC.1056:

I’d really go for GW1’s PC.

The reason is, aside from all the OP stated, he also fought powerful shining enemies, to learn really powerful spells and skills. He was truly the leader of all that happened, and could gather friends and powerful heroes.

In front of him, GW2’s PC is a lame guy used as a doormat by most of his friends, isn’t truly respected, has Taimi explain him what to do all the time, and provide him with tech to fulfill whatever he cannot do. Left alone, that poor guy could only wipe in front of each and every people on Tyria that is more powerful than him, like Jennah, or Valette Wi for Mesmers. He’s merely a doll in a coconut following the stream of events, and obligingly performing whatever Taimi tells him to do.

I think you may be forgetting about Kormir.

to me the gws 1 character..it could use all professions, more skills (1319) , all weapons, and hero’s/hench/merc’s..my gws 1 character could wipe whole maps solo, without breaking a sweat…it commanded huge zergs of unlimited undead and could easily wipe the gws 2 ver. from the map with no real effort.

Impossible to compare, since they’ve retconned the world setting (and lore) inbetween. For example, the human gods you brought up are a much smaller deal in gw2 than they were in gw1

I’d have to say the GW2 character for the following reasons:
1) You are almost always saving the world in a smaller group than 8.
2) Dragons are more powerful than the gods, so killing 2 is a pretty huge deal.
3) You are loaded up with Bloodstone crack cocaine and I wouldn’t be surprised if Balthazar gets empowered by stealing from Kralk and we beat him down because we’re so juiced up.

Azoqu.8917:

I’d have to say the GW2 character for the following reasons:
1) You are almost always saving the world in a smaller group than 8.

Doesn’t say much, you can solo in GW1,
You cant defeat a single bandit with a flamethrower without 9 allies going full throttle
Canonically, you defeated Zhaitan with a pact fleet at your call
Canonically, you defeated Mordremoth with Destiny’s Edge 2.0 and the alliance of Guilds fighting off the Mouth of Mordremoth simultaneously.

Azoqu.8917:

2) Dragons are more powerful than the gods, so killing 2 is a pretty huge deal.

See point one, you didn’t kill Zhaitan without a massive army, and you could get into mordremoth’s mind with friends, because mordremoth was distracted because the alliance of guilds was attacking the mouth of mordremoth.

Azoqu.8917:

3) You are loaded up with Bloodstone crack cocaine and I wouldn’t be surprised if Balthazar gets empowered by stealing from Kralk and we beat him down because we’re so juiced up.

May I remind you that the GW1 character was Ascended, which was pretty much the dopest thing the gods could do for mortals.

Not so sure about player characters in general, but there’s little doubt the GW1 Mesmer was far more powerful than it is in GW2. Backfire + Visions of Regret would kill another caster after two spells. You’d need a ridiculous number of confusion stacks to approach the same effect in GW2.

And then there’s Diversion (next skill disabled for over a minute), Empathy (a bit like Retaliation but 10x as powerful), and the list goes on.

Ben K.6238:

Not so sure about player characters in general, but there’s little doubt the GW1 Mesmer was far more powerful than it is in GW2. Backfire + Visions of Regret would kill another caster after two spells. You’d need a ridiculous number of confusion stacks to approach the same effect in GW2.

And then there’s Diversion (next skill disabled for over a minute), Empathy (a bit like Retaliation but 10x as powerful), and the list goes on.

Those are game mechanics. I’m pretty sure GW2 mesmers are more capable of illusions than GW1 mesmers. It was said that casting an illusion as large as the Eye of the North (building) made Koro Sagewind, a very powerful mesmer in her time, go blind for a week, and in GW2 you have Queen Jennah making an entire Kralkatorrik illusion while simultaneously petrifying and making everyone look like Branded to save them without a scoff (at least without any side-effect we know of)

Gw2 characters.
I thought about this same question tiiiime ago, but rationally thinking in the lore and not skill mechanics (canonically, the hero in gw1 did all his archievements with other powerful companions), and i think gw2 hero is a lot stronger than gw1 hero, by comparison i think gw2 hero is like what shiro was back in gw1, legendary strong, (lorewise it took the hero with many of his companions, from both tyria and cantha to be able to beat him) and seeing how in many instances the hero in gw2 battles alone (lorewise) a lot of strong foes (and being able to kill dozens of mobs on his own), i think of him/her as being something of a shiro tagachi but in gw2.

In terms of archievement, well the hero of gw1 did manage to do a lot of great things, but so has our hero managed to do great feats in gw2, and the game isn’t even over yet, so his/her story isn’t over yet neither.
I think both heroes are great and powerful on their own standing, but i think the hero of gw2 has a bigger destiny stored for him, not because of favoritism, but because the current situation in gw2 demands a strong hero, capable own is own, but also capable of uniting all races against a common foe.

Djahlat.9610:

Those are game mechanics. I’m pretty sure GW2 mesmers are more capable of illusions than GW1 mesmers. It was said that casting an illusion as large as the Eye of the North (building) made Koro Sagewind, a very powerful mesmer in her time, go blind for a week, and in GW2 you have Queen Jennah making an entire Kralkatorrik illusion while simultaneously petrifying and making everyone look like Branded to save them without a scoff (at least without any side-effect we know of)

Lore-wise, yes, but this thread is about player characters.

I thought about this a lot myself, and i would say they may be equal in terms of comparison – that it’s simply due to the fact one is stronger and the other is more adaptable\versatile.

back in guild wars 1 magic was still much lower than it is in gw2. Moreover magic was also a lot more strict, which is one of the reasons warriors had far more skills based on technique and skills than any actual ‘magical’ abilities, such as shooting fire from their swords. as such the player character of GW1 had to learn new ways of using their magic to compensate for the lack of raw ‘power’ that is prevalent later in the world. As such they know how to extend their magic and skills in many more ways than our GW2 characters. Moreover due to this they could actually do things GW2 characters cannot, such as stand against a god. had kasmeer possessed a GW1 mesmers repertoire of skills she may have been able to easily save marjory during the assault on scartlet’s airship. this is what allowed our GW1 characters to remain reasonably weak when, say, facing an army but still able to kill off gods. Their number of abilities made them excellent duelists when it comes to 1 on 1 scenarios. (one example is how an elementalist who has traveled all over tyria could wield all four elemental attributes and more at once.) Another example of this was their versatility in being able to learn skills and abilities from another profession without negative effects – a warrior could, with diligent effort, learn the healing skills of a monk or an elementalist could learn energy manipulating spells that mesmers did.

I believe the rising of the dragons is what changed magic and its function in tyria, allowing spells to be far more powerful and thus more volatile and require more concentration to keep under control. On top of how magics of different professions can clash badly with one another – one example being the elder dragons and their polarity to one another – likely resulted in the ‘dual profession’ practice dying out. Elite specializations try to compensate by allowing a profession to replicate the effects of another through their own magical mediums. This makes those who are experts\masters of their professions extremely powerful, easily gaining an edge over many ‘normal’ inhabitants which is how our character is able to do so much – they have their professions techniques and abilities practically coded into subconscious memory at this point.

all in all if our gw1 character came to GW2 they might blow themselves up due to being unused to how powerful magic has become, and in turn our GW2 character brought into the past would be significantly weaker and far less versatile than our GW1 characters. all in all it comes down to power vs technique really.

but that’s just my interpretation.

Djahlat.9610:

Ben K.6238:

Not so sure about player characters in general, but there’s little doubt the GW1 Mesmer was far more powerful than it is in GW2. Backfire + Visions of Regret would kill another caster after two spells. You’d need a ridiculous number of confusion stacks to approach the same effect in GW2.

And then there’s Diversion (next skill disabled for over a minute), Empathy (a bit like Retaliation but 10x as powerful), and the list goes on.

Those are game mechanics. I’m pretty sure GW2 mesmers are more capable of illusions than GW1 mesmers. It was said that casting an illusion as large as the Eye of the North (building) made Koro Sagewind, a very powerful mesmer in her time, go blind for a week, and in GW2 you have Queen Jennah making an entire Kralkatorrik illusion while simultaneously petrifying and making everyone look like Branded to save them without a scoff (at least without any side-effect we know of)

And Xera who made her castle go mad. Glenna said it would take weeks before the castle slowly returned to normal

definitely GW1, having access to 2 professions and some crazy synergies allowed for some pretty kitten crazy characters,
like 55 hp monks who were INVINCIBLE without disenchantment,
or perma shadowform assassins who were utterly unattackable,
GW1 trap rangers could place 20 traps in one spot, stepping on it means instant death,
a GW1 Edge of Extinction ranger in GW2s WvW would kill everyone,

GW1 minion masters could have their own personal army of minions and wash over enemies, until later in the games life there was no minion cap, instead minions had health degeneration, but with the right build you could negate it and keep your army alive.

Gw2 “Confusion” condi? pff! in GW1 mesmers could bury you under 3-4 “if you attack you take damage” hexes, swing 3 times and you’re dead!

the healers could reduce damage to minute amounts,
while also having huge spammable heals.

each GW1 class would utterly destroy their GW2 shadows.

i am assuming for the sake of argument that health pools and damage are percentages since GW1 used different numbers.

The devs seem to believe that gw1 characters were the more powerful. They specifically chose to change character building and design systems for gw2 in order to prevent what was possible in building characters in gw1.

Ashen.2907:

The devs seem to believe that gw1 characters were the more powerful. They specifically chose to change character building and design systems for gw2 in order to prevent wbat was possible in building characters in gw1.

Mechanic wise I’d agree. GW1 character builds are way more busted than anything in GW2. I’d even say in pretty much any MMO GW1 character combos would be busted. Lore wise I’d have to side with the GW2 character though. Though this argument can go either way and only Anet can truly say who is more powerful lore wise.

Azoqu.8917:

Ashen.2907:

The devs seem to believe that gw1 characters were the more powerful. They specifically chose to change character building and design systems for gw2 in order to prevent wbat was possible in building characters in gw1.

Mechanic wise I’d agree. GW1 character builds are way more busted than anything in GW2. I’d even say in pretty much any MMO GW1 character combos would be busted. Lore wise I’d have to side with the GW2 character though. Though this argument can go either way and only Anet can truly say who is more powerful lore wise.

It’s actually my opinion that the GW2 hero doesn’t have half the power of the GW1 hero, on a lorewise point of view, I mean.
We lack any intel on how to grade the gods against the dragons, maybe in unison the gods could kill the dragons one at a time, we just don’t know.
But the GW1 hero was Ascended, killed a god with but a handful of people, went to the literal hell and back, fought of Mursaat by the dozens, and Titans by the dozens. and has been doing just about everything the GW2 hero has been doing.
Can’t even call it fair to involve the fact we killed 2 dragons in gw2, since dragon 1 wasn’t the hero vs Zhaitan, but the Pact vs Zhaitan, and second fight was The Guild Alliance vs the mouth of mordremoth+Destiny’sEdge2.0 vs Mordremoth

Liewec.2896:

definitely GW1, having access to 2 professions and some crazy synergies allowed for some pretty kitten crazy characters,
like 55 hp monks who were INVINCIBLE without disenchantment,
or perma shadowform assassins who were utterly unattackable,
GW1 trap rangers could place 20 traps in one spot, stepping on it means instant death,
a GW1 Edge of Extinction ranger in GW2s WvW would kill everyone,

GW1 minion masters could have their own personal army of minions and wash over enemies, until later in the games life there was no minion cap, instead minions had health degeneration, but with the right build you could negate it and keep your army alive.

Gw2 “Confusion” condi? pff! in GW1 mesmers could bury you under 3-4 “if you attack you take damage” hexes, swing 3 times and you’re dead!

the healers could reduce damage to minute amounts,
while also having huge spammable heals.

each GW1 class would utterly destroy their GW2 shadows.

i am assuming for the sake of argument that health pools and damage are percentages since GW1 used different numbers.

All that (+1), and also story-wise things felt a lot more epic.

So yeah, the GW1 hero wins.