Guild Wars 2

I was a big fan of GW1 but the way you changed the questing and fighting and skill mechanics just ruined GW2 for me. I know alot of the GW1 players would rather have the skill set up where you can completely customize your set of skills with hundreds of different skills to choose from. The fighting in this game is now also based on just the items you have mainly not how you combine everything together which makes GW2 way to easy for fighting i like a actual challenge.
Feel free to comment with input

Change for many, is difficult. Were ArenaNet to have replicated Guild Wars 1 it would have never achieved the heights it has. In addition, I would also add that many of Guild Wars 1’s systems and design implementations were incredibly frustrating or outright poor. Some of Guild Wars 1’s systems I enjoyed however, but most of those have thankfully been retained or transformed into a much more refined idea.

I think everything is fine except for the amount of skills and weapons being limited to only a set 5 skills.

The point and click movement game with no jumping? No thank you. I uninstalled it the day I downloaded it for a free trial, and I stayed with SWTOR for months, which is saying a lot. Little things like movement mechanics mean a lot, and DCUO is only playable with a controller for example.

Agemnon.4608:

The point and click movement game with no jumping? No thank you. I uninstalled it the day I downloaded it for a free trial, and I stayed with SWTOR for months, which is saying a lot. Little things like movement mechanics mean a lot, and DCUO is only playable with a controller for example.

You could use WASD you did not need to point and click. The only thing I use jumping for is jump puzzles and when I am bored. It has no real use in combat.

Now if you could jump and dodge shock waves, then that would make it useful.

It’s been said already, but if Guild Wars 2 were like Guild Wars 1, the player base and over all success of this title would be dramatically lower.

gw1 was a coorpg
gw2 is a mmorpg
they are 2 different games
maybe the game would be different if they called gw2 : World Of Tyria (in and around :P ).

Shukran.4851:

gw1 was a coorpg
gw2 is a mmorpg
they are 2 different games
maybe the game would be different if they called gw2 : World Of Tyria (in and around :P ).

But … they aren’t different games really.

The end game (and ultimate point) is still PvP. You just don’t have as much flexibility as in GW1 and have to invest in a larger time sink to get to it.

GW2 doesn’t have the sustainability to really be called a proper MMO.

Skill pool.
I did a bit of calculations and GW2 has more skills than GW1 Prophecies.
For instance, in GW2 a Warrior has 72 skills, all of them being useful.
In GW1 Prophecies, a Warrior has 59 skills – if we remove the skill that are useless in 99% of the game it’s down to 50 at least. Then we have maybe 10-15 viable secondary class skills.
In GW1 a Warrior can use 8 skills while in combat, 1 of which is usually res so they are actually 7 most of the time.
In GW2 a Warrior can use 17 skills while in combat, more than twice.

Combat.
The majority of GW1 fans who were not satisfied with GW2 seem to be deeming combat as the main reason.
They want point-and-click movement, auto-stick-to-target, etc.
While in GW1 the only skill involved was using those 8 skills, GW2 raised the skillcap by requiring players to be skillful with positioning and movement as well as using 2x to 3x the amount of active skills.
I believe they were aware that some people couldn’t keep up with this, but in 2012 it’s a necessary change to have your movement and positioning playing a major role.

“For instance, in GW2 a Warrior has 72 skills, all of them being useful.”

Good one.

You are also forgetting that you are locked into presets with the weapon skills. You don’t actually build a character in GW2, you work within the limited presets provided.

Im loving gw2, but i liked gw1 alot better. the story was better and i also loved the heroes. and being able to have 2 professions and the way the skills were. i havent played 1 in years and i can still remember character names and heroes and alot of the story. i cant hardly remember any peoples names from this games story except maybe 5 lol. but dont get me wrong its a great game, but nowhere near as good as the first one to me. the exploration is what makes this game fun for me.

Personally I hated a lot about GW1. I hated that everything was instanced and I loathed henchmen and all of that. It’s what made the game very non-MMO. That being said, I did like the customization that the game had compared to GW2.

Hopefully they’ll revamp things as they go, as most MMO developers do.

The only things I desperately miss from GW1 are larger numbers of elite skills, and the elementalist class. I still think GW1’s elementalist is one of the best realised classes of any game, ever. The ability to spec into the elements essentially turned one class into four. I miss it and haven’t enjoyed the messy chaos of the GW2 version.

As for skills – I do miss the customisation from GW1, though I only really notice it with elite skills. GW1 had bundles of elites, with maybe 4-5 really useful ones. Now we have 3 or so class specific elites and only 1 useful one. Some classes have none. I would much rather have an extra utility skill slot on my elementalist than have to take on of their so called elites.

Kruunch.3714:

Shukran.4851:

gw1 was a coorpg
gw2 is a mmorpg
they are 2 different games
maybe the game would be different if they called gw2 : World Of Tyria (in and around :P ).

But … they aren’t different games really.

The end game (and ultimate point) is still PvP. You just don’t have as much flexibility as in GW1 and have to invest in a larger time sink to get to it.

GW2 doesn’t have the sustainability to really be called a proper MMO.

Eh…they are different games. “Massively multiplayer(MO)” is a huge part of that. You simply can’t call yourself an MMO in an entirely instanced world. And being sustainable doesn’t make an MMO proper or whatever. It’s about the game mechanics, not how large the player base is, or how long it stays large. :/

At any rate, I did like having the skill choices in GW1. But running back to town everytime I wanted to change them was…well…rediculous.

MrThebigcheese.2014:

“For instance, in GW2 a Warrior has 72 skills, all of them being useful.”

Good one.

Name those useless skills then.
The only one I can name is Rampage.

MrThebigcheese.2014:

You are also forgetting that you are locked into presets with the weapon skills. You don’t actually build a character in GW2, you work within the limited presets provided.

In GW1 prophecies for instance all axe warriors had the same skillbars too, it’s no different than having a preset.
At least GW2 lets you use two weapons, which means double the skills.
And you can still freely choose your utilities, heal and elites just like GW1.

I have a problem with only using 14 hotkeys and a couple f skills and dislike ele/engi. I wish i had access to more skills/macros buttons to push. I hated d3 for this same reason.

Thing I liked most about GW, was that it was a collectors paradise.
You didn’t have to farm to get lots of the stuff in game. Farming was for people who collected so much stuff they had to buy extra storage panels and character slots for mules. XD

I hope GW2 tones down the requirements for a number of it’s shinies. I see no problem in changing things to allow a casual player to get some shinies without the need for farming. Hardcore player could spend their extra time to amass entire collection. And the game could bring back some kind of Hall of Monument system for them to display their collections.

It’s like prestige items in GW2 are handled like they are on par with Obsidian Armor or Vabbian Armor from GW1. It’s daunting.

Hated GW1 myself. Never could get into that game. Just felt closed in. Guess it just shows that its different strokes for different folks.

And Point & Click movement…..just “Ugh”.

I’s a toss up. The pve/leveling in this game is generally better. The pvp in GW1 and the story missions were better.

I really didn’t customize my bars much for pve in gw1. I found a buld that worked for my role and pretty much stuck with it on each character. But the ability to come up with so many unique ways to kill other people and the complexity of skill interactions is what kept me playing pvp for years.

The cooperative story missions were really the only pvp I had fun with in gw1. Going to thunderhead keep and saying “healer lfg” meant i found a group and had a lot of fun in no time at all. forcing us to play together to progress the story really made the pve side a social experience.

The other thing I liked about the story lines in gw1 is when you hit max level you were only half way done them. you didnt hit max level and go “what now?” you just kept playing and by the time you had finished the story you were used to playing without progressing. that’s why people didnt wonder where the end game was.

so yes, there were things that gw1 did really well that are hard to let go of. gw2 is a much more emersive world and is way more fun to wonder around in. The combat it fun. it doesnt feel as static and grindy to me to quest and kill monsters.

the pvp at this point is kind of lacking to me and i just can’t get into it for some reason. gvg was my main pvp choice initially in gw1, but it was aliance battles that i was still playing 3 years later…and would still be playing today if they hadnt died off. that was added in an expansion, so i’m still hopeful pvp will be expanded before i lose interest in gw2 pve.

If not, I deffinately got my moneys worth out of gw2, and had a lot of fun playing a great game. If i’m not still playing it in 3 years like i was gw1 that doesnt mean it was a faliure or they did it wrong. gw2 is still an amazing game in it’s own right.

Even if i prefered GW1 pve (more choices, every weapon on warrior were usefull (hammer, axe, sword) not like in GW2 in which more people just play greatsword or xx/shield) and all his elites skills hunt, GW2 pve is still descent (except dungeons though).
But GW1 will still be the best pvp game i played, GW2 pvp is so horrible, I seriously do not understand how they failed at improving PvP in GW2 after GW1.

I think GW1 flat out has better PvP. The balance of incoming damage and protective/healing as well as key roles like interrupts and spiking were some of the best done in an RPG or MMO ever. The innovative approach of the monk doing more than just pushing up health bars but actually preventing damage was really well done. Battles were less flashy and chaotic and you could actually recognize animations and skills instead of being swamped with fireworks and blasts filling the screen like in GW2.
However I find PvE to be much more inviting and interesting in GW2. I mean as if half of us didn’t fall asleep in the Maguuma Jungle running our fourth character through it in GW1.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The reason there are not dual professions in GW2 is balance in PvP. In GW1 you not only ended with a metric kitten ton of skills which made balancing nightmare in itself, but any character could pick from 2 professions worth. The result with dual-professions was you would have OP builds relying on skills from the secondary profession, but if you nerfed those top balance the build it could really underpower skills for people who chose that class for their primary.

An example was touch rangers (Ranger/Necro). With their stat that made skills recharge faster they could run up to an opposing player and spam touches and decimate them very quickly, but the build couldn’t be nerfed without touch skills becoming almost useless for necros.

By having a finite set of skills mixed with a talent tree and no secondary profession it makes PvP balance much easier while also giving players a level of customizability.

“You could use WASD you did not need to point and click. The only thing I use jumping for is jump puzzles and when I am bored. It has no real use in combat.”

The prospect of WASD movement makes me want to throw up and before getting a Razer Naga always rebinded these (A = “1” skill like hemo, W = backstab or arcane blast depending on the class, S = eviscerate, D = stealth for example) as skills should be near homerow the more often you’d use them with something like smokebomb being binded to 3 (longer cooldown = further from homerow as a general rule).

As for jumping it can be useful as there are places mobs can’t reach. They (thankfully) cannot jump, remember that for when you need to escape a certain situation. The only problem I have is “invulnerability” in these games if you manage to get a good vantage point. I can’t pelt them with fireballs yet they can stand under me hitting the air and damage me? That’s messed up (both WoW and SWTOR had those problems).

I don’t know I prefer it the way it is now rather then as in GW1.
Being able to select skills to form a skillset introduces sooo many variables, how skills combo with one another etc, to say nothing of the dual profession system, it’s just nigh impossible to balance propperly.
Now on the other hand you have a well rounded skill set suited to a playstyle, one wich can be much more easily be balanced.
Making it more about how well you can use your skills rather then picking a cookiecutter setup.

i tried going back to GW1. i couldn’t. controls way too differently, and i miss pressing space to hop everywhere.

I miss the skill selection for sure. I feel like all that matters is my weapon, and less the skills I choose to take… Sword bars were vastly diffrent in GW1, in gw2, nah.

But its much more simple now, so I guess thats a plus.

I was a huge GW1 PLayer; granted I didn’t collect as much as a lot of people but I played the hell out of the game I had roughly 19 maxed titles and I LOVE GW2; granted I feel kind of at a loss for ideas at 80 but that happened when I first hit 20 in GW and beat the story.

PvP is beginning to pick me up; I feel like my decisions in sPvP are meaningful and effect a good amount… timing your abilities seems to be very rewarding; but I will say Thieves are so annoying in PvP and need some toning.

“The end game (and ultimate point) is still PvP. You just don’t have as much flexibility as in GW1 and have to invest in a larger time sink to get to it.”

Not sure I get this. SPvP is = to a PvP created char in GW1. The PvP chars in GW1 did not start with all skills unlocked nor upgrade components for newer players so it was a much higher curve to “get things” compared to SPvP where you make a character – go to mists – boom all skills/traits/gear.

I was actually surprised and looked for the option to add another skill bar when I started playing. I never played an mmo where one couldn’t pick skills and arrange them as one wanted, but on the other hand, some of these where frustratingly complicated so I kinda appreciate the set skill system of GW2..

i played Guild Wars 1 since 2005 so this is an unbiased comparison.

Guild Wars 1 sucks. Guild Wars 2 doesn’t.

^ if it sucks, why did you spend 7 years playing it?

“The end game (and ultimate point) is still PvP. You just don’t have as much flexibility as in GW1 and have to invest in a larger time sink to get to it.”

lol no. I don’t like the PvP in Gw2 and I actually think it sucks fanboy rage shields up

I personally like the way they set up the skills in Gw2; it’s kind of refreshing and a little different. They just need to do some tweaking and stuff now to the way they are used and setup.

BrunoBRS.5178:

^ if it sucks, why did you spend 7 years playing it?

i had a comparison now. comparing guild wars 1 to guild wars 2.

Guild Wars 2 is better than Guild Wars 1.

It’s a design decision to make builds in GW2 very simple. I think (bugs aside) it works pretty well.

I hate to imagine what balance and the bug-list would be like with a more flexible combat system with more configurable choices.

Some players like systems where they tweak and test and theory-craft builds ad infinitum. A lot of players don’t care for that. This is the game for the 2nd set of players, while giving a few things to fiddle with.

I agree in that Guild wars 2 is a lot less challenging and skillful. Most gameplay is based around AoE skills. Almost all of it. The PvP just feels so much less fun and casual compared to GW1. They obviously really dumbed it down, but its still a fun game. However, if this game was subbed based i would not be playing it.

I loved the gw1 mesmer … master of interrupts, enchantment removal, degen, and using the foe’s skills against themselves. It was my favorite class after ranger. The gw2 mesmer is a different breed with its illusions and clones. Even though its very competitive in pvp I don’t care for the class mechanics.

I also loved using heroes because to use them effectively you basically had to master the skills and builds for every class. So that was fun. It was like a puzzle trying to figure out just the right builds for each hero to complete a mission or vanquish an area. For me it involved a lot more thinking about skill interactions than in GW2 where weapon skills are pre-set .. so no real thinking to do there other than which weapons to go with. Many of the utility skills aren’t very useful (at least for rangers); so basically you have only a small number that are worthwhile equipping. I feel very limited in GW2 but maybe that’s because of the class I chose to play.

This has probably been stated before, but for me, when Guild Wars 1 launched I got it and played it around 2-3 months, then never touched it ever again. I was skeptical about Guild Wars 2, but I’m all about chances and I’ve played Guild Wars 2 since launch (read no reviews, did not follow the game at all, just blindly pre-ordered game at last moment) and I’m still having a blast today. Kinda says something about the 2 games, no?

Guildwars 1 SEit great, he lacked more than jumping, jumping puzzles, and housing to make a game for my taste! Ultimate!

after that, there’s more to expand again and again! = D

pity that évolura more!

But I expected much guildwars2!

wcnighthawk.8530:

This has probably been stated before, but for me, when Guild Wars 1 launched I got it and played it around 2-3 months, then never touched it ever again. I was skeptical about Guild Wars 2, but I’m all about chances and I’ve played Guild Wars 2 since launch (read no reviews, did not follow the game at all, just blindly pre-ordered game at last moment) and I’m still having a blast today. Kinda says something about the 2 games, no?

The thing about GW2 is it is very casual friendly. This is genius on their part because it means more money for them. GW1 was a very competitive game. The PvE was tough and required knowing strategies for the monsters, not just the monsters having a ton of HP or there being more than one. There were certain routes you’d run in the instanced maps, etc. Gw2 is very easy, any playstyle friendly game. If this game was subbed i wouldn’t still be playing it, but as long as they don’t over due the cash shop with inbalanced and keep it f2p, ill be happy as a camper.