Guild Wars 2

Honestly? I loved Mesmer in GW1. GW2? I can’t bring myself to level past 47. I HATE it with a passion. GW2 took everything I loved about Mesmer in GW1 (My MAIN in GW1) And WIPED It off the face of the earth. Seriously disappointed there. I now play ranger. =/

I really, really miss the skills variety.
Yes in GW2 you can have a lot of skills at the same time with attunement, weapon kits, Death Shroud… But you don’t have the variety of builds you had in GW1.

The solution for me would be to add weapon skills that you could choose from to build your first 5 skills bar. I’ll post a suggestion about it in the right section, I think I can come up with a pretty nice and balanced solution.

edit : ok I took the time to make a suggestion, I’d love if you took time to read it and give your opinion : https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Weapon-skills-builds-customization-balance

GW2 takes everything I loved about GW1 and craps all over it, mainly Fire Ele Nuker and MM Necro also SS and SV Necro builds. >:(

I miss pretty much everything except:

- Henchmen. I never liked playing with bots much…
- Monks/Healers. Don’t miss them one bit.
- Instanced world. GW2’s open world with events is way more fun imo.

Egad! How could I have left out my number one favorite thing from GW1 that was not in GW2. Elite skills. In GW1, your elite skill was often the backbone of your build. In GW2, in class after class, I find that my elite is something I do not look forward to getting because my options will mostly include things that will make little difference, or that are downright terrible (human transform elites, I’m looking at you). I usually find myself wishing that I could use the number 10 slot for a regular skill rather than an elite. For instance, putting a stun break or condition removal in slot 10 might allow me to put another useful skill in slots 7-9. If I had to state my biggest disappointment with GW2, it would be the implementation of Elite Skills and forcing me to slot one.

Phantax.1369:

Tranquillity.8697:

1. “Build Wars”. Countless combinations out of hundrets of skills. that was the best thing about GW1. Even after 6 years you could still do something “new” and try different builds.

Is this in GW2? Not really. There are 4-5 Builds/Class that are worth to be played and it starts to feel repetitive very soon.

This is probably the main thing I wished they had carried over from GW1 into GW2. The many options of skills allowed you (the player) to create a character that felt very unique and personal

Tranquillity.8697:

2. Fast and easy character preogression. It was so great that becoming level 20 was really easy and fast. Also getting the best equip in game was super easy.

Is this in GW2? I don’t think so. Getting exotic gear simply takes to long. Not even mentioning ascended gear which seems to be a hell of a grind.

Thank god they didnt carry this over. Too many companies have let lazy players dictate that they want more, easier, faster. AND the ONLY thing this has achieved is removing the longevity of that game. Anet have made a lot of mistakes, but this isnt one. The effort / long term commitment needed to level/gear your character only serves to make you appreciate your efforts. WD to Anet on this one !

Tranquillity.8697:

3. Skill-descriptions. They were absolutly perfect in GW1. I have never played another MMO with such good skill-tooltips.

Is this in GW2? Sadly not. Both traits and skills are poorly described. They tell you what they do but don’t tell you the exact numbers. Thats sad.

Skills I found to be fine. Traits… yeah have to agree. Seemed a little vague at times, could do with re-wording !

Getting to max level in GW1 was only the beginning of the game.

stayBlind.7849:

Getting to max level in GW1 was only the beginning of the game.

Getting to 20 in GW meant you could do the “real” content in GW. Loved that aspect of it too. Now you hit 80 and don’t feel like finishing the story because you’re already bored with your character and just want to start a new different profession.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Egad! How could I have left out my number one favorite thing from GW1 that was not in GW2. Elite skills. In GW1, your elite skill was often the backbone of your build. In GW2, in class after class, I find that my elite is something I do not look forward to getting because my options will mostly include things that will make little difference, or that are downright terrible (human transform elites, I’m looking at you). I usually find myself wishing that I could use the number 10 slot for a regular skill rather than an elite. For instance, putting a stun break or condition removal in slot 10 might allow me to put another useful skill in slots 7-9. If I had to state my biggest disappointment with GW2, it would be the implementation of Elite Skills and forcing me to slot one.

This is very true. In GW, the elite skill was usually the best skill (and also the base skill that you created the build around); they were powerful, hence elite. Now, like you, I too keep thinking I would rather just have some other skill in there than the lackluster elites I have available. They’re not terrible, but I often feel that their usefulness is below that of the utilities. Honestly, sometimes I just forget to even use the elite because it makes so little difference.

1. build wars. lots of options to change your skills. Not in GW2 with the weapon linking and lack of options (like only 3 main heals or 3 elites).

2. knowing exactly what/when people are doing. They said they don’t want us to play the UI (so no casting bar in gw2), but it’s a lot harder to tell what is going on just by animation. There can be too many effects at once and it feels less strategetic. It also makes it harder to know when to dodge. The casting bar helped me learn the game faster by being able to put skill names to an effect in real time along with it’s animation, now it’s just “what are they doing? i can’t see” or if I can, most of the animations look similar to each other and I randomly dodge hoping I missed something big.

3. Armor. I loved a lot of the sets in GW1… meanwhile 2 is just fugly IMO. I went through every single dungeon armor for light + male. They are halloween costumes. They look ridiculous and are so bulky and gigantic. Crafted armor is 100% better. Even the starter caster armor blows most of the endgame armor away IMO.

4. You could easily get new items for PvP in GW1. Now, you need to play for a LONG time. Not only that but you can no longer make money playing pvp (well at least not tournaments).

5. Complexity in skills. There is nothing as complex as hexes or enchants in gw2. Nothing as punishing as interrupts either. I don’t have as much fun becuase I can’t be as evil and debilating as I was in GW1.

I think GW2 in general went too wild with the concept of balanced/even playing field. Everybody can do every role, everybody has similar skills, everybody has weapons designed in pretty much the same way. It sounds good but gets boring since you have less options.

- GW1 wasn’t a MMORPG. GW2 is one. That point alone makes all the difference.

If GW2 was just a copy of GW1 with updated graphics, I wouldn’t have bought it.

1) No monthly fee – yes

2) Customizable builds with 100s of skills – no

3) Competitive missions -no. WvW sounded good on paper but it turned out to be a numbers game. please bring back JQ and FA game modes…

4) Easy to max out char lvl and gear. – i used to be able to get to max level super fast and obtain multiple max weapon sets on each character… no longer. now i have to grind if i want a new weapon; i can not afford multiple armour sets either.

5) Fun pvp -no

6) The excellent targetting system – no. the target system in gw2 is poor and when there are many people i can’t tell what im attacking.

7) tactical gameplay eg. use of high ground, careful pulling of mobs, strategic usage of skills instead of button mashing – all gone now. also i hate the invuln mechanic.

8) pvp characters -no

9) only horizontal progression – …..

People used to complain about build wars, but now I’ll take build wars over zerg wars/gear wars/latency wars anyday.

Instead of listing my likes and weather or not its missing I’m gonna list what i miss.

1 ) Getting warm fuzzies from helping others with capping , missions VQs etc .

I get i can help my friends with personal story and thats great im not just talking about them here but randoms as well. Going to THK or Hell’s Precipice and helping a random pug with the mission was fun as was helping randoms cap skills (something that should make a return ) and gave me more of a reason to stick around the game .

2 ) low level cap

Ok I’ll probably catch flak for this but the low level cap in GW1 was a good thing . It meant that more oft than not if you were left out on character X it was because you dident have an area not because you wern’t high enough level and even then you could usually be run

3 ) unique look

Im not just talking about armor here im talking about casting style and daces too . Each class was unique when it came to these things . Mesmers were all about flash and pizazz where in contrast you had all the twisting and contorting of the Ritualist . Just look at the HUGE difference in armors between classes you knew a Paragon from a Warrior or a Necro from an Ele when you saw it in GW 2 you need to look at ones icon to know .

4 ) Skills

Or lack there of in GW2 we need more .

5) FoW,UW,Urgoz , TOPK and the deep

I liked these areas a lot and i would really appreciate it if the priory found a way to go to these places

1. Skill capping from elites.

2. HM, NM

3. Free teleporting

4. Changing “traits” whenever you’re in town

5. No monthly Fee

That said though, I really do love gw2, it still needs a whole lot of things added, but they should be coming with time.

Tranquillity.8697:

I simply want to know if GW2 took the things YOU loved about GW1.

Not even close.

Instanced maps? nope.
Party size 8? nope.
Heroes? nope.
Foes that stay dead? nope.
Flowing Armor ? nope.
Monks? nope.
Interrupts? nope.
Skill Variety? nope.
The ability to use high-ground without getting ‘invulnerable’ messages? nope.
The ability to get characters up to speed with full-builds relatively quickly? nope.
Free Map Travel? nope.
fast forward
No Monthly Fee? Yes.

Our small guild was able to play at our own pace and style, and we absolutely loved it. We never ran into an ‘event [Temple of Melandru’s Acolytes]’ that we couldn’t finish because their weren’t enough of us. We never ran into an area that had too many people and thus became laggy and unresponsive. We had a blast doing things, and then doing them better with different tactics and builds. We’re still hoping that it’s not too late for GW2. Perhaps it would be better to hope for a GW3: Just like GW but with updated graphics and trading posts.

Almost too many to list. So I will break your rule and post more than 5.

1. Casual, skill-based PvP (Random Arena)
2. Builds AND armors for every occasion
3. Heroes/henchmen
4. Guild hall
5. Vanquishing
6. Endgame pve (UW/FOW, Deep, Urgoz, Tombs)
7. Observer mode (HA and GvG)

What they did take was:

Some lore, no monthly sub, the beautiful graphics and avatars… the name… umm…

GW1 had the following things I loved:

-Story driven PvE content
-Low leveling time, making alting more fun
-Collecting cool armor sets
-Collecting skills via quests and capping
-Skill bars that required thought and planning

GW2 offers:

-Lots of PvE content without cohesion and a piss poor main story line.
-A lot longer leveling time. With all the talk about a lowe leveling curve, it takes me just as long to level a toon here as in another MMO. Why? Cause there’s 80 bloody levels.
-Mostly lame armor sets from a cosmetic point of view. So no point in collecting em.
-Unlock skills at set levels. Elites are meaningless fillers.
-Skill bars that have more skills and less flexibility. You must choose weapons to get specific skills, even if you don’t like the weapon type or you cannot play those skills.

There is more but this is enough as a list.

Conclusion: Anet took everything I loved about GW1, put it in the garbage and made something else. Sadly, I don’t like what they made instead, so I quit playing altogether.

1: The skill builds. Having to pick between hundreds of different skills with onyl 8 slots to create a build.(and the fact that you didnt have them unlocked all at once at the start). Not even starting about skill sychronization between you and your heroes/hench

2: The diffuculty. You really needed to play well to outsmart the AI. ATM I only go down if the boss targets me 10 times in a row(more RNG ftw)) or if I am versus a huge zerg of mobs. I miss the strong AI from GW1.

3: The dungeons & bosses. They just dont feel as good/special in gw2 as they did in gw1. Might have to do with the lack of special drops or the fact that the diffuculty is near non-excistant in most dungeons.

4: Healing on my monk. Supporting in this game is kinda meh, and when you do it, you are usually rewarded with nothing because the current loot system is only about damage.

5; Random arena’s. I wasted so much time on these. Spvp doesnt even come close in terms of enjoyability.

…and heartlessly smashes it into the ground.

I couldn’t help but read that any other way.

1. The Unshakeable Power Plateau

From the moment GW1 launched to current day, it’s had a power plateau that hasn’t once moved. ArenaNet is planning to cast aside GW2’s power plateau in both levels and further gear tiers. I don’t want to spend my life grinding, and I don’t want every fight decided by who has the biggest numbers. That’s what the power plateau prevents. Once you get to a certain point – everything is decided by player skill. Nothing in GW2 other than perhaps sPvP is decided by player skill.

2. Character Freedom

If I had been designing GW2, I would have given each weapon around 50 total skills, and then I would allow people to pick and choose the five that work best for them. Considering the limited pool, however, and how many skills feel like reskinned versions of other skills? It makes me wonder if there are more than 20 total skills in the game.

3. Freedom to Explore

There was no ‘exploration tax’ in GW1. I didn’t have to pay to go and help someone out with something. In GW2, if I want to help someone out with something across the map, or worse, across the world, it bites into my gold supply. That’s completely obnoxious. This makes me sad because even Free Realms does this better. And when SOE is being less cynical and more fun than you, you’re doing something very wrong.

4. Memorable NPCs

GW1 had plenty of these. In GW2 the only character I truly loved was Lightbringer Tybalt Leftpaw, and he doesn’t even stick around for the whole game! In GW1, they didn’t just kill off characters because it would be inconvenient having them around, that’s bad game design. If it was my choice, I would have taken Tybalt with me to take down Zhaitan. Instead I got Trahearne. And Trahearne is the most hateful character I’ve ever encountered throughout the history of roleplaying games, including the badly translated Japanese ones.

5. A Beautiful World

This is where it bites the most. Most areas of GW1 look better than most areas of GW2. I recently went back to GW1 to run a comparison. They took greater time and effort to make things look better in GW1, it’s as simple as that. In cities it’s probably the worst. You have clipping models in cities with no border rims or detail textures (sorry for the technical terms) to hide this clipping. And out in the world isn’t much better. I was genuinely disappointed how much copypasta there was in the first zone outside of the Grove. GW2 is just… ugly compared to GW1. It’s depressing when you look at the fantastic GW2 concept art, then the truly poor implementation in the game. Painterly my butt.

Where are you now, Dociu? :C

1. GvG and HoH - GW1 had possibly the best pvp competitive group play and still reserves a special place in my heart. Guild vs Guild pitted teams of 8 against each other in a massive ongoing ranked tournament. My guild made and held ourselves in the top 20 (during prophecies and factions) and it was one of the best gaming experiences ive ever had. Hall of Heroes was similarly awesome. The metas for both of these pvp experiences were constantly evolving leading to a very reply-oriented pvp system.

- In GW2, the pvp just sucks and is not very fun to play. This is for several reasons. 1) cap points aren’t that fun 2) very zergy 3) teams must split every match meaning epic fights like old school gvg and halls just cannot occur. No trinity – monking was a big part of GW1 pvp and I think the fact that you are “dps or bunker” is pretty limiting in GW2.

2. Connection between pve and pvp . In GW1 all pvp characters could be made instantly out of the box with max stats. This was great! However the dedicated people who wanted to look awesome could spend time pveing, get max stat items and armor with cool skins and take them into pvp. This connected your pve progression with your pvp end-game (killing people while looking awesome). In GW2 you get a legendary, then go into pvp and you have the hobo-looking pvp-only armor unless you have grinded glory. I hate this disconnect, let me use my max-stat armor ive diligently acquired in pvp.

3. Community and renown building , winning a battle in the hall of heroes spammed a global message to all players in the entire guildwars universe. Something like “<Player’s name/Guild> team has won a battle in the hall of heroes.” This was awesome and really distinguished your guild if you were able to hold halls for an extended period of time. Also OBSERVER MODE! Observer mode let players watch the top 100 teams in gvg and halls. Being a top 100 team was cool and I remember so many times having random people pm me and ask for build tips or play tips. It was cool and let me recruit more selectively since my guild had renown. In GW2 there is nothing (besides WvW) that really encourages this. No guild ranking (besides qualifier points) and wvw is not a competitive structured pvp experience.

4. Signet of capture, HARD pve areas (Think traps, difficult bosses, mobs that shatter enchantment or do other similarly advanced things, etc), and instanced missions that required me to change my skill bar to accommodate the specific requirements of the particular instance. In GW2 I run the same guardian tank/dps build with 2-3 utility skills that i swap out depending on the context. I would much rather swap 6-8 skills than 2-3.

5. Good elite skills – 1/2 – 3/4 of all elite skills in GW2 are just terrible with 180sec+ cooldowns. Why are they elite if they suck and have terrible cooldowns? I miss being forced to select the best elite skill from a huge variety in GW1.

things that i loved in guild wars 1

1.) IWAY
2.) Item Stat Cap

So not true man.

Lol no. Not even close. GW2 ain’t a bad game for sure but it doesn’t have anything I loved from GW1. That is a quote I like to bring up often when comparing the two games and I will translate for you. “GW2 takes everything you love about GW1, takes a dump on it, and puts it into a persistent world.”

Now I don’t want to get infracted, but this is how I see it. They should have come out right and said this game is nothing like GW1 so don’t expect it to be, certainly don’t say it takes everything we love from GW1 because that’s misleading as all hell and completely untrue to the max.

To put it simply: GW2 is basically the opposite of GW1.

Yes, yes, 100% yes on the point of skill descriptions. Yeah, it tells you what the skill does, but I hoped the tooltips would give you accurate, concrete numbers.

As much as I loved the endless amount of builds you could make on GW1, I feel like the system in GW2, while different, is actually equally as challenging. The possibilities don’t feel as “endless”, but the weapon + healing + utility slots system is actually really elegant.

Here’s something no one really mentioned… I liked the scenery/settings of the Factions and Nightfall campaigns, Nightfall especially because I have never, ever seen an MMO attempt to portray diverse African landscapes like scrub/deserts, low-lying mud flats, mangroves, etc. Rolling green hills, powdery mountains, dense forests and other traditionally European “fantasy” landscapes kind of bore me by this point.

But! I know that these sorts of things will come with future expansions, so I’m not too bothered.

1) I miss the heroes of GW1 although my Necro can go anywhere, alone, I sure could use them in dungeons. I had such a good team in GW1, that it was better then a team of real peoples 99% of the time and I’m not exagerating, now I need to rely on a Zerg….
2) I miss using cleverness, trapping ambushing and pulling. Now the game has stupid rules about using terrain to you advantage, that is plain idiotic for a thief or a ranger or even an engineer, that cetainly would take advantage of terrain. I suggest to the designers of GW2 to read “The Art of War” so that they, perhaps can realize their folly.
3) I like in GW2, well planned events like the claw of Jormag. Jumping, swimming and diving, just love it. Crafting, getting supplies. Making fancy weapons/armors as well as cooking.
4) I have mixed feelings on the explorations, some puzzles would work better as instances. It is bad to come in a cave, kill everything and at the end an event prevents you to get what you came from, because no one is there and alone you get wiped out, by the time you’re back all the monsters are back.
Caves and puzzles should be instances.
5) In general, I had more of a sense of accomplishment in GW1, when i vanquished a zone, they stayed dead until I got out. This constant respawning, i find disturbing and unpleasant. My opinion is that this feature provides the worst grinding of GW2.
6) Sometimes i would like to have the pet stay away for a little while for my ranger like in “Wait under the tree, Fido”. i could leave the pet home in GW1
7) I like the personnal story, in general it is well done and better for some of the races.
8) I miss the mapping system of GW1. GW2 falls short on this. Here is a suggestion for the future. A portal could be accessible when one has fully explored a zone. Creating an incentive for full exploration. Zone to Zone portals as a reward for full exploration seems to be a good motivation.

1. Well I dont know if GW2 has a more skills but the skills in GW 2 are limiting just because you cant mix two classes for a wider variety of build and many of the skills on timers seem to be on a much longer timer than GW 1 skills working from memory. The timers in GW 2 can leave me with every weapon skill but my first one on a timer with my ranger until I weapon swap which may also be on the timer.
2. I would rather have limited crafting done by crafting npcs as in GW 1 or even no crafting than the resource grind that GW 2 can be even for exotics. The stats may not be all that great a difference but a difference they still are and it can mean casual players eventually not getting pugs if not geared to suit the more regular players. (Notably though there was still grind for resources to buy only better looking armour in GW 1).
3. I loved the spiritualists spirits in GW 1 and miss them deeply. Rangers spirits are no where near as good or as cool looking and engineers turrets aren’t even as cool as some of the Rits damage dealing, health stealing spirits. The Rits ability to carry ashes of various uses instead of weapons is also a really cool tool to use in combination with other skills.
4. Is it just me or are loot drops in GW1 relatively better?
5. Heroes/Henchmen could possibly make a difference when there are not enough players for easier group events. The Guild Wars 1 supreme invention was to allow a player to use his alts as companions. An excellent idea and incentive to make alts.

Did anyone else thing he was going to finish off the title by saying:

and (blanks) on it.

AuldWolf.7598:

…and heartlessly smashes it into the ground.

I couldn’t help but read that any other way.

1. The Unshakeable Power Plateau

From the moment GW1 launched to current day, it’s had a power plateau that hasn’t once moved. ArenaNet is planning to cast aside GW2’s power plateau in both levels and further gear tiers. I don’t want to spend my life grinding, and I don’t want every fight decided by who has the biggest numbers. That’s what the power plateau prevents. Once you get to a certain point – everything is decided by player skill. Nothing in GW2 other than perhaps sPvP is decided by player skill.

2. Character Freedom

If I had been designing GW2, I would have given each weapon around 50 total skills, and then I would allow people to pick and choose the five that work best for them. Considering the limited pool, however, and how many skills feel like reskinned versions of other skills? It makes me wonder if there are more than 20 total skills in the game.

3. Freedom to Explore

There was no ‘exploration tax’ in GW1. I didn’t have to pay to go and help someone out with something. In GW2, if I want to help someone out with something across the map, or worse, across the world, it bites into my gold supply. That’s completely obnoxious. This makes me sad because even Free Realms does this better. And when SOE is being less cynical and more fun than you, you’re doing something very wrong.

4. Memorable NPCs

GW1 had plenty of these. In GW2 the only character I truly loved was Lightbringer Tybalt Leftpaw, and he doesn’t even stick around for the whole game! In GW1, they didn’t just kill off characters because it would be inconvenient having them around, that’s bad game design. If it was my choice, I would have taken Tybalt with me to take down Zhaitan. Instead I got Trahearne. And Trahearne is the most hateful character I’ve ever encountered throughout the history of roleplaying games, including the badly translated Japanese ones.

5. A Beautiful World

This is where it bites the most. Most areas of GW1 look better than most areas of GW2. I recently went back to GW1 to run a comparison. They took greater time and effort to make things look better in GW1, it’s as simple as that. In cities it’s probably the worst. You have clipping models in cities with no border rims or detail textures (sorry for the technical terms) to hide this clipping. And out in the world isn’t much better. I was genuinely disappointed how much copypasta there was in the first zone outside of the Grove. GW2 is just… ugly compared to GW1. It’s depressing when you look at the fantastic GW2 concept art, then the truly poor implementation in the game. Painterly my butt.

Where are you now, Dociu? :C

1. is not totally true(lower skill requirements, better runes/inscriptions ect where added later)

I totally agree on your #2 tough. Just having a few alternatives on a few skills(from 1-5) could mean i can get rid of that totally useless condition damage skill on my crit build, or visa versa. The current system, with both power, crit(damage) and condition damage just limits options severly combined with static 1-5 skills.

1- Secondary professions. The attribute system and skill system with the secondary profession made GW1 unique. This opened countless possibilities to each profession. The only similar thing i have seen was sub classing in Lineage 2, but it was VERY different than in GW1.

2- Build wars. The mystery, the calculations, the trial of a new build, the fulfilment feeling when it works after several tweaks.

3- Monks. Healing in GW1 was the most challenging and the most fun support role ever!

4- Elites that matter and make a difference in a situation.

5- GLF <insert class> for mission. Even tho it died out with implementation of Heroes, I really do miss missions as story line progression where you would have to team up with others to complete. Made many friends that way!

I do not however miss henchman. When I found their graves I danced on them, especially Alesia.

GW2 takes everything you love about GW1…and improved upon it.
1. I disliked “build wars”….so I like the improvements they made with the weapons skills.

2. I prefer GW2 playstyle compared to GW1. I like the improvement they made that professions can be melee and/or ranged.

3. LOVE that the required “trinity” is gone. We still get to work together, but you don’t have to depend on a single profession to get you through an area.

4. Still no monthly fee! Yay!

5. I will admit I don’t care much for the majority of armor sets in GW2

I doubt anyone will read this, but I loved gw1 so much that it brings tears to my eyes and i have to post about it. I honestly loved every single little thing about gw1. Everything. Here is just a few things i can think of. These aren’t in any order btw.

1. Instanced areas and vanquishing-
So much fun back in the day when i would clear the whole map and feel like a beast. The areas loaded up in 2 seconds so it was never a problem. Oh, and I always ran people to areas for a small fee but i was making some big time bank back in the day from droks and desert mission runs. Free world can lick my nuts.
2. Level 20 cap-
When I made new characters, they would be 20 by the end of the day, not because i’m so pro, but because the game was about something more than getting max level. It allowed me to appreciate the stories of each campaign rather than worry about getting 80 asap.
3. Picking your own skills-
Simply made the game more customizable and fun. (imo)
4. HA, GvG, RA, TA, and ABs-
So much fun. These were the reasons i couldn’t wait to wake up and play guild wars. (Go kurzick. Boo suxons.)
5. MY MONK!!!!!!! I loved my monk more than anything and they stole it from me. They stole my precious. ;((
6. Titles – I mean before everyone and there mother had GWAMM. They were so cool back then.
7. Armor- max armor was simple to get, but the cool looking ones (especially obsidian) took quite a while, and of course you gotta dye that kitten black cause black is the most expensive!

I would keep playing gw1 to this day if my account wasn’t stolen. (it was by a friend and guildie too)
If Anet is wondering what to do next, I say make it more like the real guild wars.

Tranquillity.8697:

… Thats what Mike says in the manifesto video.

First things first. I don’t want to start another kittentorm about wheter Anet lied to us or not.

I simply want to know if GW2 took the things YOU loved about GW1.
Because most of the things i loved about it, seem to be non-existent in GW2.
It’s still a pretty great game imho.

To keep things easy please write about the 5 things you liked the most about GW1. After that please tell me if you can find these things in GW2.

So here are the 5 things i loved most about GW1:

1. “Build Wars”. Countless combinations out of hundrets of skills. that was the best thing about GW1. Even after 6 years you could still do something “new” and try different builds.

Is this in GW2? Not really. There are 4-5 Builds/Class that are worth to be played and it starts to feel repetitive very soon.

2. Fast and easy character preogression. It was so great that becoming level 20 was really easy and fast. Also getting the best equip in game was super easy.

Is this in GW2? I don’t think so. Getting exotic gear simply takes to long. Not even mentioning ascended gear which seems to be a hell of a grind.

3. Skill-descriptions. They were absolutly perfect in GW1. I have never played another MMO with such good skill-tooltips.

Is this in GW2? Sadly not. Both traits and skills are poorly described. They tell you what they do but don’t tell you the exact numbers. Thats sad.

4. No monthly fee. This was great in GW1 and is even greater in GW2! Thank You!

5. Healing. Playing a Monk in GW1 was fun and i love beeing a support character.

Is this in GW2? Kinda. I can support my group but it feels strange. I know Anet wants to remove the trinity and i like this idea, but still i feel a bit lost in this game because playing supporters is so uselless. 5 pure DD’s are blasting through any Dungeon while a balanced group of DD, CC, Support is just slow…. i was even kicked out of some groups because i traited in defensive skills instead of playing a pure DD-guardian =/

6. (Breaking my own rules here =P ) Mesmerz….. i love them

Does GW2 have them? Hell yeah =)

So, please tell me about your 5 things you loved about GW1 =)

Ahah, well said
, GW2 have nothing from GW1 i loved so much.

Also, i loved GW1 mesmer. Gw2 = awfull.

Especialy for the 1-2-3 points ( and 6 ). Fail Anet.

In fact, GW2 turned into “everything i hate in a mmo”

-boring class
-very few skills
-impossible to create your own build
-No more interesting rock paper sissor spirit, in GW2
-Grind for lvl up, Grind 100time a dungeon to get “end game” stat armor / weapons / Grind materials for craft, Now Grind Fractal to get the new OP stuff.
- Poor fashion customisation ( 90% of the light armor are awfull, heavy armor look like can of food )
- Cash Shop is nearly becoming mandatory = nearly P2Win game. ( to farm gold, to have “free” repair / recycle stuff / revive ( LOL ).. etc )

Everything i loved from GW1 ? no, i dont think.
But, everything i hate from all other mmo, no doubt

I think GW2 has some promise. Rough start, but a lot of the stuff it took from GW1 and improved, I wouldn’t have considered a favourite feature in GW1 because it wasn’t good enough. So I’ll do a couple lists, if you can excuse the break in procedure – one of my favourite parts of GW1, and the other of my favourites in GW2.

1. Tranquillity. With the exception of (most of) Kaineng, the environments of GW1 were beautiful and enjoyable to explore.
In GW2, this is still there, but the world is a lot busier.

2. The stories. GW’s main storyline quests were passable; only Nightfall and the Ebon Vanguard arc of EotN were favourites of mine. But it was the side-quests that filled out the world that I enjoyed most.
In GW2, this is a bit lacking but the groundwork is there. The main storyline is the only real quest chain you get – it doesn’t need to be. Events are too impersonal to tell much of a story.

3. Versatile classes. 8 skills from a main and secondary profession made it possible to do a wide variety of things – if you knew what you were doing. Changing sets of armour and runes to complement your build was cheap and easy.
In GW2, this is mostly gone. There’s a little versatility in utility skills, but they don’t have the power that GW1 skills did. Many of GW2’s elites aren’t the kind of thing you’d even put on your bar if you had a choice. Gear takes far too long to get – you can’t just make a new build whenever you like.

4. Enemies that used your skills. In War in Kryta, this hit its peak – you’d face the kinds of builds that good players might run.
In GW2, this is gone as well. GW1 had a bad habit of bloating creature levels instead of giving them better skills in the early campaigns – GW2 has a worse habit of just giving them so much HP it takes minutes of pounding to kill them. I’d rather have the fights of GW1’s dungeons where things died relatively quickly but had more skills.

5. Music. Aside from the battle themes that cut in all the time from Nightfall onwards, GW1 had many of my favourite soundtracks.
In GW2, a lot of the same tracks are around, plus extra. Battle themes aren’t as intrusive. Definite improvement here.

And from GW2:
1. World vs World. Has its flaws at present, but the format is a lot of fun. Probably the only way I’d like it more is if we had fewer servers, and more maps to fight on – an underworld to rival the GW2 overworld. (Aside from fixing rendering bugs etc., which is a work in progress.)
In GW1, this had something of a precursor in Alliance Battles and the Kurzick/Luxon frontlines in Cantha. AB was more like GW2’s Conquest, however, and there really wasn’t the same capacity to wander the whole territory, fighting enemy forces on the way.

2. Charr. This is the biggest reason I can’t go back to GW1. Can’t get used to not playing a charr again.

3. Jumping puzzles. The ability to jump in GW2 didn’t change anything for me, but I never expected to find the puzzles so enthralling. Except in WvW when dead weight in the jumping puzzle is keeping useful players in the queue.
In GW1, puzzles were teasers with no navigation component. There really weren’t any memorable ones.

4. Characters. For every Trahearne or Jenna, there’s a Tybalt or Galina out there. There are a lot of characters in GW2 I’d like to see more of – hence why I think personal quest instances should be broadened.
In GW1, there was Mhenlo and Cynn, Koss, Morgahn, Ogden, Vekk, Gadd and Pyre – it’s something of a tradition to have characters that people love and hate, and I hope it’ll continue in GW2.

5. Music, as explained above.

Much of what I liked about GW1 didn’t really get going until Nightfall. The things I would like to see improved in GW2 look very fixable, aside from the class skill situation.

Aside from structured PvP, anyway, where neither game did it for me. In GW1 the game was decided by what you entered the arena with, more than what you did there – and in GW2 the builds are all the same, plus Conquest is nowhere near as interesting as team elimination or GvG.

But, on the bright side, WvW is pretty much the only PvP mode I’ve ever liked in the RPG genre. This despite the presence of unequal gear. When I think about it, that’s not a bad start.

1, BUILDS: Plenty of combinations to try here. For some reason, despite cross-profession combos in GW2, it takes much more thought and is much more fun to compose builds for a whole team in GW1!

2, GRAPHICS/ART: Amazing in GW1. GW2? NEED I SAY MOAR

3, NO SUB FEE: Awww yeaahhh

4, EOTN DUNGEONS: Each has their own unique theme and enemies. A lot of thought has to be made before going into each dungeon. Sadly, in GW2, most dungeons are similar – with little interesting gameplay and homogenous high-healthed enemies

5, FERRY RUNS: Being the runner was actually very fun and challenging. From Droknars to Granite, to Ascalon, to Camp Rankor, to Beacon’s Perch, etc. Began with Charge Warriors in its infancy, to Shadow Form Assassins and Vow of Silence Dervishes.

GW2 takes everything you love about GW1…

… and removes it.

1. builds – ’nuf said

2. intelligent mobs – mobs in GW1 were sometimes as smart as players, they could spike, focus the healer, use all their skills on the right player at the right time… in GW2 they are all dumb, using their skills whenever off cooldown, and attacking closest target

3. nice pvp – GW1 pvp was awesome, GW2’s pvp is one big dissapointment to me, and I’m not talking about balance

4. complexity – why did they have to make GW2 the most simple game ever? Only one type of buff (boon) and only one type of debuff (condition), the ability to kill any mob in the game by just using skill 1, no different skill types like in GW1, not even attributes… yes we have traits but this is just a shadow of GW1’s character building

5. elite skills that you could build around, rather than okitten buttons with minutes of cooldown (ignoring the fact that over half the GW2 elites are useless anyway)

E Tan.7385:

Everything i loved from GW1 ? no, i dont think.
But, everything i hate from all other mmo, no doubt

sad, but yes, I agree (with one exception: at least in GW2 the best gear is obtainable by playing solo or in 5 ppl groups, we don’t have to do 20+ people raiding or kill world bosses or anything)

For me, this game is a monumental disappointment. It doesn’t even feel like Guild Wars. I haven’t logged in for about two months and I’m actually disappointed I got all of my friends hyped for the game. I probably won’t ever be logging in again and my friends aren’t either.

Honestly I think the game has had a very rough start as well and a few mistakes have been made at least in this players opinion but GW 1 and GW 2 are so completely different how in the heck can you really even compare the two ? I played the original game for seven years and even in GW 2 I’ve started off as one of the folks who were having fun and playing the weekend beta events. There are things I absolutely hate about this game and things I absolutely love about this game and honestly I’d have to say I’m either loving it or hating it at any particular moment so I’ve tried to stick to areas and just the things I’m enjoying. Looking back I’ve did the same thing with the original Guild Wars game.

I guess if I had to say I missed something it would be the instances I had in GW 1 to simply explore in the world with a party of my own design. Now GW 2 is giving us that party instance but for dungeons instead of the world and are pretty much a level based elite area which are simply a beat down for most of your casual players and no fun at all to play. I avoided DOA / UW / and FOW in GW 1 because I ran into the same thing players are running into now with fractals and dungeons in general. Be it gear checks, level restrictions, or whatever elitism flavor of the month is in-order to accomplish these areas and get into a group. I could do these areas in GW 1 on my own. Anytime you’re pushing me into having to group up with complete strangers for accomplishing something, yeah this is never going to work for me. On a map where there might be 25 – 30 of us okay I guess because then if I feel like the group is a group I don’t want to listen to or help I can go my separate way. To endure it for 30 minutes to an hour, no thank you ! They need these areas to appease your so called hard core or elite gamers who play the game but they made some bad blunders by making it so GW 2’s game lore and some of it’s story line is tied into these areas.

I miss being able to explore the game’s entire story without the need for every having to set my foot in any elite zone and having to endure the antics and prejudices of players in-order to be a part of that world. Elite gear was still obtainable without doing these areas in GW 1 if one simply put in the time but here in GW 2 that isn’t the case, you’re forced to play these areas if you wish to have a character that stays on par with everyone else. I also still see them grouping together P vs P and P vs E in this game and honestly hasn’t the past shown this has never worked ?

It’s hard to list items and give just a bullet or two about what I like and dislike about this game but I can say this. Since I did play GW 1 for so long I can remember having to seriously hope of having a good party to complete Thunderhead Keep before we ever got heroes and let’s face it the henchmen really didn’t cut it. Anyone else remember those days ? Over time though the game evolved into something that players who joined it many years later would have absolutely no idea what on earth those of us who could remember the game’s early years or start was even talking about. I can see GW 2 evolving and doing the same things. I will say I am concerned though that since this is more of an MMO than GW 1 is that I Hope the current direction of the game doesn’t become the trend. If you only add elite end game areas without adding on to the world and force party driven instances on players to obtain all the new things you add into a game then there isn’t much point in playing for some of your fan base. I think we’ll see this game evolve as the last game did and I’m waiting and hoping in a few more months to see a new direction and some things added to the game which will keep my interest. Currently many of the things I hate about MMO’s are almost to the point of over shadowing the things I love about this game so I’m one that is simply waiting to see what happens and based on my experience with Arena.net in the past, I’ve been both disappointed and blown away but in the end I always ended up as the winner in the long run. I’ve yet to see a group of designers and folks try so hard to please everyone and for most of us above the age of seven we should realize this can never happen. Here’s to hoping that somewhere in-between the two games that GW 2 settles and 90 % of us can say we got what we wanted.

1. In GW1: Play with anyone, anywhere, anytime. I loved that my guild and alliance had people from all over the world and we could all play together. Trinidad, Hungary, France, England, Canada and the US all represented themselves in my GW1 guild. We’re still in the same guild in GW2, but we can’t play together unless we’re doing a dungeon. The devs have said that guesting will be put in the game to bring this ability back, but the longer it takes the less likely it is to happen. I miss playing with my European friends. In GW1 we could be doing one of the huge festival events and say, “Go to International district 37” and we’d all be in the same spot, sync dancing, teasing, talking… In GW2 we end up in overflow servers. Sure, we can talk in guild chat, but it isn’t the same as being in the same spot together.

2. GW1: Sync dancing Yep, it’s here! Forming up those lines and dancing with friends (and strangers) is still great fun!

3. GW1: Alliances — I can’t tell you how badly I miss alliance chat in GW2. I farmed my butt off and bought a commander’s book just to have some cross guild chat, but it’s so difficult to get the squad going to begin with that it hasn’t really taken off. Now I miss my alliance AND my 100g.

4. No subscription fee. I would have paid it in GW1 if they had had it, and I would pay it in GW2 if they had it; I’m really glad that they don’t. It’s nice to not have to decide if you want to play that game that you bought 6 months ago this month.

5. “Brightly, brightly and with beauty!” Both games are truly beautiful. The characters are beautiful, the scenery is beautiful, the weapons are beautiful, the dye system makes the armor even more beautiful.

There is definitely carryover between the two games, and a lot of stuff to love in both. But GW2 doesn’t give the fluidity and options that GW1 did. Builds, character looks, play options, team options, weapon choices, all of that was available in GW1 — you want a necro with a shield? Equip a shield. kitten that was cool. You want a warrior with a staff? Well, at least we can all see at a glance that you’re a big dummy. You want a melee Ranger, without a pet, in a Russian district wearing flowers and burning candles on your head? Do it. Then hit a saved template, grab a bow, Map to the Great TEAMple of Balthazar and jump into some arena play. You could do it. That was what made GW1 a better game than GW2. GW2 doesn’t have the fluidity and player options that GW1 had.

I mostly miss two points out of GW1.

1. The ability to create my build out of hunderts of skills, being able to change it for free.

2. The different damage types. I liked using fire damage against Ice-Creatures or holy damage agains high armor and so on… As a mage it feels strange to use four elements that all do physical damage with different graphic effects only.

1. No monthly subscription fee
GW2 has this but it’s tarnished a bit by the cash shop. Comon do I really need to buy a BL salvage kit to reliably get my upgrades off my gear or pull ectos out of my yellows? Yeah I do

2. No grind to max your toon
GW2 fails here miserably. The gear treadmill exists and has actually grown since launch. Even the go to level 80 seems tedious. Honestly I tap my skills out by level 50 and the last 30 levels feel like a pill. There’s no “build perfection” in this game since I can only configure 5 skills (and two of those are seriously restricted to small pools).

3. Can play the way I want to play
GW2 is pretty good here, but not as good as GW1. I could hero/henchie missions and zones on days I didn’t feel like playing with others. There were exceptions like the Domain of Torment (at least initially). My time is limited and I hate sitting around for 45 minutes trying to organize a pug just to play some aspect of the game.

4. Player Roles (aka something like the trinity)
Defined player roles are some of the fun of role playing and RPG enjoyment. GW2 has very little for player roles. Everyone is an autonomous island of skills. Team composition is irrelevant, and in most cases team work is also irrelevant. I don’t miss the “Group 7 of 8, LF monk then g2g”… but I miss the ability to play “like” a monk.

To turn this question around a bit… here are some things I like about GW2 that are not in GW1:

A. Trading Post
Sorely needed in GW1 and it’s great to have a place to easily buy and sell items. Unfortunately this has also brought all the undersirable aspects of having an open game economy including bots, gold sellers, and grind.

B. More accessible PvP
GW2 shines here. I could not play in random PvP in GW1… it was agony. I’ve played both WvW and random sPvP. I actually enjoy sPvP the most. It’s easy-in, easy-out, balanced, and fun. It is actually more fun than PvE imho because there’s zero grind… just play.

gw1: warrior adrenaline skills- mana for gain double adrenalin- chain of awesomeness
gw2: warrior adrenaline skill- use trait to get more adrenaline- kitten, my skill is on CD anyway:(

/flex

signet of capture

5 things I loved about GW1 (Absent in GW2)

1. Missions. I loved playing missions with guildies and friends in normal mode and hard mode. There was always somedbody that needed a hand with them and alot of them were fun to play as a guild.

2. Skills. Lots of skills and lots of builds, sure you could create some incredibly terrible builds but that was all part of the fun. Being able to save your skills as a template was such a great feature and added so much diversity to the game. With GW2 we’re stuck with many skills we can’t even change, the lack of freedom is galling.

3. Memorable NPC’s. GW1 had so many memorable NPC’s (View them here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fIrtwBFLU0 ), fans speculating the fate of Gwen lasted for years, then there was Rurik, the Lich Lord, Evennia, Glint, Varesh, Kilroy Stonekin and King Jalis Ironhammer to name but a few.

The only NPC’s I remember from GW2 are Destiny’s Edge (Who squabbled alot), Trahearne (Who I’d rather forget), and Mad King Thorn who I loved in GW2 but he’s from GW1!

4. Signet of capture. I loved capturing elite skills, having to go to some hard to reach places to capture them added to the sense of achievement, unfortunately there’s none of that in GW2.

5. Guild halls. Not just for GvG but the social aspect too, plus it was always an easy place to go to sell stuff or be afk , yes I know Guild halls are supposedly going to be introduced at some point but the reasoning why they weren’t included at release escapes me.

There are alot more features I miss absent from GW1 but those are my top 5.

I miss the Signet of Capture. And hunting down bosses to get their green items. And the heroes/henchies. And Cantha. And Elona. But mostly Cantha. Yes, even Kaineng City.

In regard to the music, at first I thought it was cool that I was hearing music from GW in GW2. I felt it helped tie things together. Now, however, I find myself somewhat resenting that they used GW music in GW2. In my personally personal opinion, Guild Wars 2 is in no way, shape, or form a worthy successor to GW.

Which is not to say that I think GW2 is a bad game. GW2 is not a bad game. It is in fact a pretty darned good game. It’s just not a good GUILD WARS game.

In my opinion.

No for me they left the best stuff out.

Personally feels like they just tacked on WoW to GW2 and ignored GW1 to me

I dont agree with the dificulty of getting exotics and getting to 80 on top of gear… it is easy.

Nor I cant agree that playing a support is useless. Please.
Any good group on a harder dungeon needs support.
In fact, if you trade off all dps for supporters or hybrids your group will fare better.

Reihert.1509:

I dont agree with the dificulty of getting exotics and getting to 80 on top of gear… it is easy.

Nor I cant agree that playing a support is useless. Please.
Any good group on a harder dungeon needs support.
In fact, if you trade off all dps for supporters or hybrids your group will fare better.

Getting exotics is not that hard but it definitely takes a lot more to get a set of exotics than a max stat basic armour set in GW1. It may not have looked expensive but the stats were the sasme.

Support is important but in GW1 the effect of your build was more noticeable in what you did and not just the end result. Also because of much lower cd’s on skills it was much more active and direct. I think a lot of people miss that feeling where you really instantly feel involved because what you do makes a clear and undeniable difference. In GW2 I don’t really get that feeling. If I change a skill in GW1 I usually instantly notice the difference. In GW2 not so much.

While I do LOVE Guild Wars 2, some stuff that was present in Guild Wars 1, and that I bet it would level the game to higher standards, really is missing:

1 – Builds and Skills: I literally have dozens of builds for my warrior in GW1. GW2 would benefit with a system similar.

2 – Missions and Storyline: Both the missions structure AND the storyline telling in GW1 was vastly superior to GW2.

3 – Special Mobs: Is it colored?! Gotta grab a Signet of Capture, an Elite is waiting for me!! And so on :P

4 – Variety of items: I had a huge collection of different Swords. Though this might be because GW2 is still new and fresh!

5 – Henchs & Heroes: While I don’t mean having a group of NPC’s following me, I remember that ANet talked about a companion system and later decided not to use it. I’d love to have a companion, not human but an animal, to help me fight. Although I can see the issue here, pets would prolly become obsolete.

And…that’s it lol Solve these issues and GW2 becomes instantly…even more amazing that it already is :P

My biggest “like” in GW2 is the variety of playable races———-I love my bandy-legged, floppy-eared Asura, and my Charr warrior is intriguing. Both of them are distinctive. I could only wish that ANET had done the same for the Sylvari (c’mon, humans in green?) and the Norn.