Guild Wars 2

I want to like this game, and I know many people do, but it’s getting more and more difficult…

• PVE is better than most MMO’s for sure… it fun as an alternative… but, it’s still PVE.
• WvW has a ton of potential, but it’s so imbalanced that your window of play time, unless you just like completely lopsided battles, is very very short
• sPVP is sub par. I’m sorry… it’s an opinion… but there is no diversity, there are way too many effects and, like many games before, the speed at which you die seems to define the pace of the game

I was really hoping to get away from the 2 hitting, the lack of character control, and the imbalance. Instead, the 2 hitting is rampant, every time I turn around I’m feared, rooted, stunned, or just plain running in some direction that I don’t intend. And, yes, the imbalance… tPVP is awful. It’s a matching ground for PUG’s vs. Guilds simply because if you want to play with your friends, casually, you have no other choice. The game is so weighted towards burst dps that it’s not funny. Yeah, ‘bunker builds’… good luck. Likewise, there really is no support. I know there are better players than I, but the team work in this game, aside from instructing on which node to hop, is basically nil. It’s a group of individuals battling in the same area and if some support skill affects you, it’s coincidence by and large, or just plain luck. I’m not even going to mention the targeting… seriously, you can call target an ally. Really? What are you gonna do, heal him? Right. Pointless.

Everyone has different opinions and this one is mine. Ripping it to shreds does not detract from the reality. The more I play the game, the more I appreciate it’s richness but, at the same time, the more I don’t see a whole lot that’s different. It’s certainly less of a grind but it is still suffering from bad mechanics that are the result of development choice. I bought the game (obviously) but I won’t pay for anything in it. I would pay (ongoing) for a game that:

• Rewards and fosters teamwork
• Allows casual players to play together routinely
• That emphasizes strategy and not damage output
• That results in PVP being balanced, fun, fast, but something that you can live through for more than 3 seconds.

I want to like this game, but I am disappointed.

Yeah, everything in your last bullet points was what guild wars 1 was like. I’ve gone back to play it, there’s still some active guilds that don’t plan on buying guild wars 2.

Meanwhile, I’m looking for other games that are like gw 1. If someone knows, please send me a PM.

What games did you play before?

Because people keep telling me “well, doh, what do you expect from a mmo?”
I wonder if these people played guild wars 1 at all, or they wouldn’t say this.

The only mmo I played before was gw 1. I didn’t know that it was the only precious jewel out there, people who play MMOs keep telling me that it’s a MMO, so it’s easy mode for little children and that if I expect a fun, engaging, challenging game, I shouldn’t be playing mmos!

I can’t believe it.
I guess I should feel lucky that gw 1 was my first!

Im not sure about you, but in PvP, I usually last a long time. Because Im a bit more choosy about my battles. I dont go rush head long into a group of 10 guys without first thinking of how Im goign to get out of it. Personal play style I guess, but yeah.

I think the game actually does well enough to foster team play. Maybe not in parties, but I feel that people in PvE content are a lot less volitile and accepting of other players.

Though I will agree that in some respects, there does feel like something, what exactly, is missing. I love hte game to death, yes but I feel like there is just something that isnt quite there yet.

Im not sure about you, but in PvP, I usually last a long time. Because Im a bit more choosy about my battles. I dont go rush head long into a group of 10 guys without first thinking of how Im goign to get out of it. Personal play style I guess, but yeah.
I think the game actually does well enough to foster team play. Maybe not in parties, but I feel that people in PvE content are a lot less volitile and accepting of other players.
Though I will agree that in some respects, there does feel like something, what exactly, is missing. I love hte game to death, yes but I feel like there is just something that isnt quite there yet.

I’ve the same feeling and, honestly, it’s tough to describe. I still maintain that the game has a ton of potential and I really hope that the devs do something unique and actually listen to their player base. That said, with respect to PVP, the fundamental philosophy that the pace of the game is determined by how quickly you die pervades this game just like many others. This to me violates the main principle that people play these games to play, to struggle, and to work their tails off regardless of the outcome. Players die in this game just as quickly as any other PVP-centric game and, quite honestly, it is an awful experience.

I’m in the same boat as you guys. I don’t know why, maybe it’s because I’m too use to vertical scaling games like WoW, where cool/better gear and weapons are the motivation. It just doesn’t feel right at the moment, I GET BORED TOO QUICKLY. This, obviously is not the case for a lot of people, but there are definitely a number of us out there, that feel…weird.

I’m kind of regretting my purchase atm. =[

The effects in this game are sub-par imo.
It’s too transparenty. The only effects that semi-wows me are Ele’s and the pink/purple butterflies of the Mesmer. I agree with the working together part as a team.

Team work is great, but the goal is what might be ont eh short end. I like anets idea to make the game feel visceral all the way through. So that big bosses you encounter are out there in the leveling environment, not just in tough raids at the end of the game. But I feel that once you hit 80, unless its dungeon running or pvp, I dont feel like theres a whole lot to achieve. I like the dungeons every now and then, but they dont have grand scale that I am slightly used to. In many ways they are pretty much just like the real world, except mobs hit harder and have more hp, and theres non of hte real world fun like interesting events or jumping puzzles and so forth. I would kind of expect that dungeons would have more “pizazz” considering that they are a more controled environment then the world.

Im not regretting my purchase personally. For the 60 put into the game, I got my money’s worth. That is very true. Its just Im hungering for something a bit more. If/When they redo the dungeon design (its apparent that the dungeons need work) maybe then we’ll see something different. To be frankly honest, If a dungeon clear takes me 3 hours, but its an epic fist fight and challenge the whole way through where I have to coordinate and think, fine. Its time well spent. Raids take time to do, but they have the feeling of being big.

As for effects, yeah. This game takes the approach of energy based effects. Where its more about the lights and colors, rather hten a physical tangible object. Energy effects are common in jRPGs and other asian rpgs, where as physical effects are more common in western RPGs. Its the difference between shooting a beam of energy and throwing a massive boulder. They do have physical aspects, but i feel that often enough, its drowned out by the light. If your going to have a magic spell which impales someone on a pillar of stone, make it big and bold.

Just before anyone starts trying to hijack this thread about strategy and bringing up the “Holy Trinity”, the Holy Trinity is not strategy, the holy trinity is a mechanic.

A mechanic in which your group has to be designed around that.

Guildwars2 is based on personal strategy and team strategy.
Personal strategy in the sense that you are responsible for your own well being.
Team strategy in the sense that you make combo fields and figure different takes on completing the mission. albeit some dungeons are badly designed with a simple mechanic of 100xhp mobs in which case the best strategy is for high DPS.

Were all for strategy. Thinking our way through a boss encounter is always more fun and mentally rewarding hten resigning our selves to just spam our skills and burn downt eh boss. Autopilot makes games boring. Having to think and plan makes them rewarding. Currently, its to tank and spank, not enough strategy.

I guess maybe for me though Im just reminiscing a bit about WoW. Not the current wow. No. I mean back in BC. I liked raid design then, cause it forced team work. kitten doing their own thing often got everyone killed, and you had to think your way through the encounters.

But what I want to see is more dynamics in dungeon content personally. Jumping puzzles and boss fights with phases and hard mechancis and interesting events that happen like what happen in the world.

Hell you know what would be fun, if instead of choosing apath, you enter the dungeon and it chooses the path randomly for you. And things just unfold as you enter. Or The events in teh dungeon kidn of steer yoru progress. Beat event A, continue to path B. Fail Event A, continue to path C. That would be dynamic to me. But now Im just rambling.

Honestly, the pvp in this game is the most balanced I ever seen. I don’t know about the latest versions of GW1. But there it used to have very little levels and very little improvement capability in weapons. The fun is to have the possibility to have some character improvement from PVE working in PVP, but not to the degree where it is only about equipment & level, like Lineage 2. Why do map completion and all the other stuff to get a legendary weapon if it doesn’t give you a tiny advantage in WvW.

Hughs.6549:

there are way too many effects

I think this is literally killing the game, or at least, its potential.

I would really like to know, Arenanet, how on earth are we supposed to care about the animations, anticipate moves, dodge properly and most of all execute combos with our teamates. How could this game offer any serious PVE or PVP content ? Most of the time, ennemy players/bosses/mobs/doors are hidden behind this huge ugly mix, this is not fun.

The effetcs are nice alone, but they’re not working together, AT ALL So i’ll just finish with these 3 words that are really important imo… less is more.

As a picture is worth a thousand words, here’s what i’m talking about :

Totally agree with this, especially important in pvp/wvw.

Hughs.6549:

there are way too many effects

I think this is literally killing the game, or at least, its potential.

I would really like to know, Arenanet, how on earth are we supposed to care about the animations, anticipate moves, dodge properly and most of all execute combos with our teamates. How could this game offer any serious PVE or PVP content ? Most of the time, ennemy players/bosses/mobs/doors are hidden behind this huge ugly mix, this is not fun.
I will be the first to admit I am an Anet Fanboi and Whiteknight…but by the Six Anet listen to this man/woman! tone down the effects! or give me a slider so I can do it myself…in every game I have ever played (back to EQ1) I have turned off the Particle effects as to me they are nothing more than a distraction. I do understand with the combo field aspect of the game that turning them off is not in my best intrest but please please please let me turn them down….WAY down
The effetcs are nice alone, but they’re not working together, AT ALL So i’ll just finish with these 3 words that are really important imo… less is more.

As a picture is worth a thousand words, here’s what i’m talking about :

I can only agree. I can’t see what is going on so just face roll the keyboard. Sadly I am finding myself drifting back to GW1

The spell effect visuals are not working well together because a lot of effects are very voluminous and exaggerated compared to their actual impact. If AoE effects would scale down and visually fade out faster the more of them are in place then a lot of this cacophony of spell effects would be reduced. It would at least be nice to given that as option.

@ OP, I stopped reading after your first sentence. You assume as if PvE is trivial, and lesser form of content compared to PvP. Not everyone enjoys PvP. I myself prefer PVE, but will dabble in PVP from time to time. Very large assumption based on your own biased.

this game is absolutely not and should not even be associated with guild wars 1 even in passing. its a disgrace of a title. they only used the gw name because it was known, stick another name on this game and it would be an entirely different entity.

its pretty obvious it was a money grab using PR to dupe people into thinking something it aint.

@ infiniteretro: I disagree. The gameplay might be different, the types of systems and features might be different, but it is guild wars. The characters, the lore, the references to event that have passed. I didnt play guild wars 1, but what I have gathered from lore in game, and NPCs talking, along with personal story, I understand a little bit what it was about.

If you wanted the game to play exactly like Gw1, why even bother buying its sequal? People said the same thing about Diablo 3, that it was nothing like Diablo 2. isnt that the point of a NEW game? To be NEW and try NEW things? Otherwise it should just be recoding the graphics engine, and keeping all the same content in the game for guild wars 1.

I know Blizzard is working on Titan, but if they weren’t, they would be smart to put their money into WoW 2. For that, would you expect the same looking azeroth, dungeon feels, raid mechanics, etc? I think when I pay 60 bucks for a game, I want it to be its own game.

InfiniteRetro.9865:

[…]
its pretty obvious it was a money grab using PR to dupe people into thinking something it aint.

Yes, 6 years investment into an “obvious money grab”. Seriously if they were as unimpassionately out for a money grab they could have just opened a hot dog stand.

cesmode.4257:

@ infiniteretro: I disagree. The gameplay might be different, the types of systems and features might be different, but it is guild wars. The characters, the lore, the references to event that have passed. I didnt play guild wars 1, but what I have gathered from lore in game, and NPCs talking, along with personal story, I understand a little bit what it was about.

If you wanted the game to play exactly like Gw1, why even bother buying its sequal? People said the same thing about Diablo 3, that it was nothing like Diablo 2. isnt that the point of a NEW game? To be NEW and try NEW things? Otherwise it should just be recoding the graphics engine, and keeping all the same content in the game for guild wars 1.

I know Blizzard is working on Titan, but if they weren’t, they would be smart to put their money into WoW 2. For that, would you expect the same looking azeroth, dungeon feels, raid mechanics, etc? I think when I pay 60 bucks for a game, I want it to be its own game.

umm Anet did say they were taking everything we love about gw1 and putting it in gw2.

so lets assess what DIDNT make it:
- Mesmer (in their TRUE form not this rubbish now)
- Monks (not these kitten Paladin hybrids known as Guardians)
- Elite skill capping or skill capping in general off NAMED BOSSES
- No Dual Profession
- Only swap to 2 weapons, GW1 had FOUR
- Far superior cut scenes and story telling
- tighter gameplay
- LOADS more pvp options
- Faction grinding
- racial grinding (like Asura or Deldrimor from gw1)
- the ability to team up with npcs in case other players arent around to assist
- Dungeons were far superior, and in fact, ALL instances/mobs were far superior
- LOOT. LOOT actually was worth hunting for even if it was skins. the hell happened where they suddenly thought ‘oh they dont need loot, we’ll give them fun instead’

face it, gw2 is a run of the mill mmo with stolen ideas from all other failed mmos like warhammer and rift to try and capitalise on the disgruntled casual. they kinda succeeded but literally within a week of release the wheels were falling off.

dont even dare telling me this game is in any way shape or form resembling gw1 and the complexity and epicness of that game.
Edited by moderator: Off-topic

cesmode.4257:

@ infiniteretro: I disagree. The gameplay might be different, the types of systems and features might be different, but it is guild wars. The characters, the lore, the references to event that have passed. I didnt play guild wars 1, but what I have gathered from lore in game, and NPCs talking, along with personal story, I understand a little bit what it was about.

Uhhhh…………..

Random trolls apart, I wonder when (if ever) will ANet actually come out with an official statement regarding the overall status of the game. I find it quite shocking that they prioritize nerfing over fixing bugs.

@InfiniteRetro You forget wars, everybody seem to forget wars. There are no wars in guild wars. No way of fighting your nemesis in epic battles

Well, all in all I like the game, a lot. Many things need to be fixed though. Many things from GW1 should be put in this GW.

lorazcyk.8927, add me on Guild Wars 1. Lance Havenbay.

Sadly, I have not seen another game like Guild Wars 1.

" Many things from GW1 should be put in this GW." Many functions were not added… the call system in GW2 is SERIOUSLY lacking. About 10x worse than GW1, for starters… Armor for second… Not many decent looking armors atm…

“The gameplay might be different, the types of systems and features might be different, but it is guild wars. The characters, the lore, the references to event that have passed. I didnt play guild wars 1, but what I have gathered from lore in game, and NPCs talking, along with personal story, I understand a little bit what it was about.
If you wanted the game to play exactly like Gw1, why even bother buying its sequal? "

Sorry, but go play GW1. This game has done a terrible job at representing its former self. As in, it dug a hole and attempted to bury it. The sequel was HOPED to be an improvement of the previous game. But like every other game out there, games, movies, etc… all tend to get worse on the sequels…

To InfiniteRetro.9865:
Exactly. Mesmer. is… not a mesmer. You are a fancy ritualist thing. The ones I agreed with the most, that I feel best need to be applied to this game now:

- Far superior cut scenes and story telling
- tighter gameplay
- LOADS more pvp options
- Faction grinding
- Dungeons were far superior, and in fact, ALL instances/mobs were far superior
- LOOT. LOOT actually was worth hunting for even if it was skins. the hell happened where they suddenly thought ‘oh they dont need loot, we’ll give them fun instead’

Glory atm is lame…

You know you want Fort Aspenwood back! Check out my design! Help me promote it and get this as a format in the future!
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Abridged-Fort-Aspenwood/first#post293310

As for Zergs… If my event gets zerged, I just walk away. I get much more enjoyment soloing a group-event than having hundreds of players faceroll around me…