Guild Wars 2

I just got to level 80 with a human ranger and have to admit i was presently surprised. It never felt like i was riding treadmill like it felt like no matter what I was doing i was aging a good amount of experience. Not only that but even at higher levels it seem like my leveling speed remained constant there was none of this “ok we are going to double the amount xp you need every time you level now” . I not sure but i think this is the approach wow took and it was soo annoying leveling was a "chore " in that game.

Just to give context to what i am saying I got the game mid December 2012 so it took me less than a month to max out my first character with in itself is a great improvement over the majority of games out there again most notably wow.

I progresses entirely solo and without joining a guild or an actual party other then the automatic ones that are built in part of the game. though pve maps and story quests only. The fact you can solo up to 80 and other features such as grouping , pvp, guilds etc are completely option is a huge selling point in favor of the game.

I completed every map I was in up to about level 70 and had no trouble with acquiring weapons armor and supplies along the way and at level 80 i even had 3 gold left in my bank. I don’t know a lot about the games economy or if that is a lot in the grand scheme of things but again this is a major improvement over wow where i was constantly broke and could barley afford repairs.

Also this game is huge!! at level 80 I have only completed 32% of the map I don’t know another game where you can max out a character and see just over 1/4 of the content.

I tried a dungeon Queensdale where you have to get the queen but was smashed to bits so if i had a gripe is they should scale the dungeons to how many people are in the party so they can be soloed or at least have some sort of a group or solo choice before you enter i feel like i missed out on part of the story not being able to complete them. I haven’t tried any fractal yet.

Although i have only poked my head into wvw just because i was curious it looks somewhat interesting although when i did poke my head in a looked around i got smashed by a pack of people sooo…yea it didn’t inspire me to go back although now that i am at 80 may try again. I poked my head into the mist as well but didn’t do any battles i like the fact that everyone is on a equal playing field though.

So my final thoughts is that Arenanet hit a home run and Gw2 is unquantifiably a better game and more enoyable than wow in every conceivable way that matters to me .

Now play for another 1-2 months and do another review…
I think it might be a tad different

I enjoy it even more post 80, having all the traits and nice runes/sigils is a lot more fun than the levelling :p

Glad you’re having fun Nova

Coming up to 900 hours. 4 level 80’s with Exotics, no ascended though (don’t care enough about the gear “gap” to FotM for those), all skills for the 4 toons, and I’m still having a blast. I run dungeons for fun, I stay around the starter zones to help new players, and just overall am having a great experience in Gw2. I’m not saying it’s a perfect game, but it is one of the most enjoyable games I’ve played in a while now. I know that there are flaws….and pretty big ones, but I figure, 900 hours of fun for $60…that really can’t be beat. I’ve spent no money in the gem store, and I still have more than enough gold for the things I want (Legendaries, meh…none really capture my attention.) and the things that I need. My biggest gripe has to be the story. I just don’t feel compelled at all to help a Sylvari dude be a hero.

This game is great, not matter how long you have played (and I play since 1st beta weekend event).
Some things can be improved, some rare things are frustrating. But I love this game, and I’ll probably love it more when it gets more matures (it’s only 4 months old, not everything is well balanced and there are still a few annoying bugs)

@OP : Everything except dungeons scales to the number of people. Personal stories, events, meta event … But dungeons are a team work, designed for 5 people. It will probably not change.
I’m alos mainly a solo player (done whole personal story + 100% map alone, and have done several GWAMMs in GW1 by doing everything with heroes/henchies). But I also like to play with ppl, and dungeons are great for this. Plus, in gw2 they are very different from each other. Unless you really only enjoy solo playing, you’ll probably enjoy discovering dungeons one by one with other new people (You can also join one of the many teams of experiences players, but is it as fun to follow a team that will to it easily, than discovering it by yourself ?). If you prefer solo, then dungeons are not for you : one nice thing about GW2 is that there are plenty of different things to do, so you can focus on what you enjoy and let what you don’t like for other players

Edit : @cNcHellShadow : you didn’t play GW1 Nightfall. You play with a NPC following you, that doesn’t shoot a single spear to a monster, and at the end she gets the power of Abbadon and becomes a godess while you just go back to Kamadan what nobody knows that you saved the world. (don’t be mistaken, I really enjoyed NF. But Kormir was really frustrating). Some players avoid using any Kormir-related skill in GW2 because, 250 years later, they still didn’t forgive her^^.
Also, I really enjoyed the personnal story. I felt it was much more than just helping Trahearne

Glad to hear you’re having fun with the game. My experiences with GW2 are very similar to yours. My first lvl 80 was a human Ranger. My next toon I spent time with was a norn Guardian which is just a few levels away from 80. After that I’ll probably work on my engineer or elementalist – haven’t decided which one yet. I also like how most of GW2 is solo-friendly. I like when grouping is optional, or even encouraged, but I dislike when it is mandatory. Around the forums you’ll hear a lot of people say “it’s an MMO, therefore you must group” but I disagree with that. I like how I can interact with people in GW2, join up for events, etc. I dislike dungeon content forcing groups though, especially story mode which should be solo. I’d love to see options for grouping being encouraged or rewarded but not mandatory for all game content.

I also recently hit 80 for the first time and will probably have a 2nd 80 in a day or two. The leveling experience has been awesome and my only major gripe is the occasional ridiculous mob that has some crazy damage/knockdown move with no differentiating animation. Jumping puzzles are awesome, dynamic events are awesome, the world is huge and detailed, the personal story is awesome, the holiday event was fantastic, etc.

At 80 my one experience in a dungeon wasn’t all that interesting, but whatever not everything can be perfect.

Hellkaiser.6025:

-snip-

That’s an improvement.

Again, though, I remind you that there’s nothing wrong with someone claiming this is a great or “amazing” game. That’s an opinion and they’re welcome to it. And you are not the grand authority of all things gaming, who has the right to come into another person’s opinion thread and rant about how they’re totally wrong and ignorant and dumb. In the future, please show respect for other people’s opinions even if you don’t agree with them.

As to the last point, there are objective measures by which any game can be compared and contrasted with its competition.
- Do the controls work as intended? (they do)
- Does the game have an excessive number of bugs by comparison to its competition? (not really, though I agree there are still too many)
- Do the graphics hold up by comparison to its rivals? (they do)
- Does it provide a significant amount of game play in terms of content and time (I’d say a few hundred hours of content is pretty good for $60, compared to some games which can be played and finished in less than 10 hours)

And so on.

And by those measures, yeah, it’s fair to say that GW2 is not a bad game. There are lots of games that are far, far more broken by comparison. Is it a good/great/amazing game? Eh, that boils down to more subjective stuff. But it’s a very hard sell to try and argue that this is a bad game, as I’ve seen far too many people claim.

OP, welcome and glad you are enjoying the game. The dungeons are intimidating at first and are much more difficult than PvE. Considering that the dungeon tokens can be exchanged for BIS equipment, I feel the effort is worth it. I don’t belong to a guild and always do dungeons with random people. While I have found a few quitters and elitists, a lot of dungeon runners are helpful, especially if you tell them you are new. I started doing dungeons with lvl 80 rare equipment, it isn’t very expensive. I have heard people say that a good set of greens is good enough. Upgrade to exotics with dungeon tokens, karma vendor items, or the TP. Just remember the TP is not your only option.

Broken Angel.4956:

Now play for another 1-2 months and do another review…
I think it might be a tad different

Been playing since beta. 500 hours. Still loving the game.

Hellkaiser:

Ok we get it you dont like the game. Your opinion. There are many of us who do. That is our opinion. I personally like where the game is headed. There are many things that need to be fixed but I will be along for the ride.

Playing since beta here too. It has glaring flaws, it has amazing charms. Although I really didn’t like ascended items, I enjoyed the kitten out of the fotm dungeons, so I decided why the heck not, those pink items will just be something to look forward to. I don’t play too much every day, but I log on and do some dailies and then run my daily fotm’s. Might chat with guildies, do some WvW, then log off. It’s a nice and casual playstyle for me, and I already luckily looted 4 ascended items.

I agree, the game is still young. Give it time. GW1 went through some gigantic changes. Remember the dervish overhaul :P. But I’m also along for the ride, because this game was founded on good ideas, and I have faith that Anet will expand on these ideas through patches and expansions.

3 level 80s and still loving it. Working on my 4th slowly but surely while trying to maintain a profitable farming routine, discovering new areas, conquering jumping puzzles, timing it all around dragon spawns.

I haven’t even invested any time in a dungeon yet, but there will be plenty of time for that later, still enjoying the outside world completely.

My first 80 was my Charr Necromancer who I got to 80 about 2 weeks after the game was released (played him in headstart as well), I made a lot of the xp for him from Dolyak escorts in WvW and skipped levels 61-71 by using the cooking guide on guru. My second 80 is my Asura Elementalist and my third will be my Asura Mesmer.

As much as I love the fact that the xp rate is pretty much the same for all levels, I think they could do more to make leveling alts more fun. For example, I’ve already finished world completion on my Necromancer so I don’t want to have to explore maps again to level my alts, of course I could do Crafting but that’s so expensive to the point of not being viable for me. Still it isn’t too bad because just by doing hearts alone the xp rate is pretty good and with the occasional sp and vista I run into along the way I suppose it isn’t all that tedious. What I would like to see them do is to give people more reason to visit the mid-level maps, at least on the servers I’ve been on many of the mid-level maps like Fields of Ruin, Iron March, Brisban Wildlands have been ghost towns and it becomes a drag to not have people to do events with.

I’ve learned that dungeons are a good way to level alts provided you can get into teams, particularly AC because it has the lowest level requirement, doesn’t get contested and is very popular due to the amount of gold you could make. In addition to that you also get Dungeon Tokens from every run which, by the time you reach level 80 can be used to get yourself exotic armor and weapons. My problem with dungeons is twofold, firstly many parties refuse to take people who are just the right level to do the dungeon, they always want people who are either level 80 or close to it or at least way higher than the minimum level requirement for the dungeon. Another issue I have with dungeons is the fact that some classes, particularly Guardians and Warriors (and mesmers in some niche areas like the Wisp fractal and CoF p1 boulder area) are so good in parties compared to others that people try to get as many players of those classes as possible. Having a Heavy armored class or 2 in a team makes runs significantly whereas not having a Light armored class for example doesn’t seem to make a difference, at least not to the extent that not having a heavy armored character does. I often get told I play the worst class in the game when I join PUG’s with my Necromancer and to a lesser extent, Mesmer. What I would like to see them do is make the lower level dungeons like AC and CM more forgiving for people who barely meet the level requirement and make them more challenging for a team with mostly level 80 players in them so it doesn’t become too easy. I also hope they balance the professions in such a way that they’re all useful in teams in their own way and people actually have reason to not stack as many Guardians and/or Warriors as they can. Neither of these issues matter for people who are in large guilds and/or play with lots of friends of course but for players who play mostly solo I believe this would help make the game a lot more fun.

Broken Angel.4956:

Now play for another 1-2 months and do another review…
I think it might be a tad different

4 months and counting and still love the game.

Broken Angel.4956:

Now play for another 1-2 months and do another review…
I think it might be a tad different

That depends.
In 2 months the new updates will be out and maybe your opinion might be a tad different.

Broken Angel.4956:

Now play for another 1-2 months and do another review…
I think it might be a tad different

I look at things in business terms so I hope you don’t mind but I am going to use one to speak to your point. Personally I view this in the terms of ROI (return on investment) .

So way i see it I have already gotten $60 worth of “value” out of it just as if i had bought a stand alone RPG . I progressed though the story the same as i would have a standalone and as I have said before have only uncovered 32% of the map so there is still added replay “value” in that respect .

This investment also has added value in the terms of the other features associated wvw crafting etc.. as well as t he fact that I can make a new toon and try out the order and pirory quest lines that is additional “profit” in the terms of entertainment value.

So to use the ROI I have already got my investment back anything else is “profit” .

So to speak on your point whether your right or not is irrelevant at this point because ****even if you are I haven’t “lost” anything *in fact this particular endeavor *has resulted in a "profit"** of play value at least in my opinion but by your post our opinions may differ.

NovaBlast Shockwave.5164:

Broken Angel.4956:

Now play for another 1-2 months and do another review…
I think it might be a tad different

I look at things in business terms so I hope you don’t mind but I am going to use one to speak to your point. Personally I view this in the terms of ROI (return on investment) .

So way i see it I have already gotten $60 worth of “value” out of it just as if i had bought a stand alone RPG . I progressed though the story the same as i would have a standalone and as I have said before have only uncovered 32% of the map so there is still added replay “value” in that respect .

This investment also has added value in the terms of the other features associated wvw crafting etc.. as well as t he fact that I can make a new toon and try out the order and pirory quest lines that is additional “profit” in the terms of entertainment value.

So to use the ROI I have already got my investment back anything else is “profit” .

So to speak on your point whether your right or not is irrelevant at this point because ****even if you are I haven’t “lost” anything *in fact this particular endeavor *has resulted in a "profit"** of play value at least in my opinion but by your post our opinions may differ.

Not to mention that huge content patches are coming within the next 1 or 2 months which will further add “profit”. So yeah, I also challenge you to review this game in the next two months, it’ll be a much better game then.

Eowin Of Rohan.2619:

@OP : Everything except dungeons scales to the number of people. Personal stories, events, meta event … But dungeons are a team work, designed for 5 people. It will probably not change.

While true, some of the personal story stuff can be annoying as even playing them solo results in being zerged by mobs as a squishy caster in cramped quarters.

Chase.8415:

Broken Angel.4956:

Now play for another 1-2 months and do another review…
I think it might be a tad different

4 months and counting and still love the game.

Yep. Close to 1600 hours clocked and still have a ton left to do.

NetherDiver.6079:

Not to mention that huge content patches are coming within the next 1 or 2 months which will further add “profit”. So yeah, I also challenge you to review this game in the next two months, it’ll be a much better game then.

Well, it’s not only the next two months, they’re planning on adding content each and every month. Now how’s that for a investment.

I think I’m on 700 hours total and still loving it.

Lots I haven’t done, mostly because hanging around doing world PVP in wvw just makes the hours pass without me noticing xD

NetherDiver.6079:

NovaBlast Shockwave.5164:

Broken Angel.4956:

Now play for another 1-2 months and do another review…
I think it might be a tad different

I look at things in business terms so I hope you don’t mind but I am going to use one to speak to your point. Personally I view this in the terms of ROI (return on investment) .

So way i see it I have already gotten $60 worth of “value” out of it just as if i had bought a stand alone RPG . I progressed though the story the same as i would have a standalone and as I have said before have only uncovered 32% of the map so there is still added replay “value” in that respect .

This investment also has added value in the terms of the other features associated wvw crafting etc.. as well as t he fact that I can make a new toon and try out the order and pirory quest lines that is additional “profit” in the terms of entertainment value.

So to use the ROI I have already got my investment back anything else is “profit” .

So to speak on your point whether your right or not is irrelevant at this point because ****even if you are I haven’t “lost” anything *in fact this particular endeavor *has resulted in a "profit"** of play value at least in my opinion but by your post our opinions may differ.

Not to mention that huge content patches are coming within the next 1 or 2 months which will further add “profit”. So yeah, I also challenge you to review this game in the next two months, it’ll be a much better game then.

Your right that’s something I did not factor in. To continue with my ROI example not only is there a profit in play value already but there is also residual income in the form of additional content that will be added in the future.

As for it being a “much better game” as I stated earlier for me to be " amazed " once again they would have to scale the story based content dungeons so that they were “group optional” in other words soloable.

I think they have done a great job at making pvp and wvw optional as well as taking out the traditional party system which is great and I hope it is something that other games should “copy” for themselves. The just need to complete it and do the same for the story dungeons now make them easier and able to be soloed..

NovaBlast Shockwave.5164:

I think they have done a great job at making pvp optional

WvW is still part of the monthly, no?

digiowl.9620:

NovaBlast Shockwave.5164:

I think they have done a great job at making pvp optional

WvW is still part of the monthly, no?

i forgot to mention that i edited my post to include wvw

digiowl.9620:

NovaBlast Shockwave.5164:

I think they have done a great job at making pvp optional

WvW is still part of the monthly, no?

Which is also optional. What’s your point?

Cheers.

Personally, I enjoyed playing GW2. Heck, been playing it for 150 hours already since launch (Kind of small compared to others because of schoolwork). I think once I reach 80, I’ll go focus on leveling up my other alts to get their stories OR I just go get gear and do WvW Overall, GW2 is a great game!

Just right off the bat, I have a hard time believing you actually played WoW, OP. Why? First, you made it seem like it takes a long time to hit max level on WoW. It doesn’t. You fly through the content so fast that it’s actually pretty ridiculous. Heck, join a dungeon and you’ll gain a level or two before you finish. Do the quests and you can hit max level in maybe 2 weeks.

Secondly, you said you know no other game that you could get to max level and still have 3/4ths of the content unexplored. Once again…WoW is exactly like that. Heck, I took every single one of my characters through the Burning Crusade section levels 58-68 with ONE zone. I don’t even know how many there were in that expansion.

You can do the same with the Wrath of the Lich King expansion as well.

With that said, I’m still having a lot of fun with GW2, but the hollow ‘end-game’ is leaving a lot to be desired.

It’s nice to see some non-pouty people up in here who aren’t expecting this game to provide a non-stop gear-grind! I’ve been playing daily since head-start and I’m making myself take a break so I can play some other games that have been piling up since before GW2 beta weekends (still got the free orichalcum node, finished a daily and did a Claw of Jormag fight to spite myself yesterday).
edit:

Broken Angel.4956: Now play for another 1-2 months and do another review…
I think it might be a tad different

Chase.8415:

4 months and counting and still love the game.

Yeah, don’t know how many hours I’ve played but I’m coming up on 4k acheivement points (which really slows down after the first 2500 or so).

Rhysati.4932: …I have a hard time believing you actually played WoW, OP…you made it seem like it takes a long time to hit max level on WoW…you said you know no other game that you could get to max level and still have 3/4ths of the content unexplored. Once again…WoW is exactly like that. Heck, I took every single one of my characters through the Burning Crusade section levels 58-68 with ONE zone…but the [GW2] hollow ‘end-game’ is leaving a lot to be desired.

You must not have played vanilla. It was tedious and the 52-60 grind was a just that. They may have changed that since then. Also, I don’t know what you were doing in BC, I played an emu with 10x xp and I’d been almost everywhere in BC and WotLK by the time I got to 80.
And of course, the gratuitous LOL @ “endgame”.

edit2: I give up on trying to get the quoting code to work right.

Nova, I can’t agree with some of the things you said about WoW considering I’m a 6 year player, gaining money isn’t that difficult, it’s just different. Professions are an easy easy way (herblore, enchanting, mining, etc) as well as dailies. I have easily made over 100k gold in WoW, and within a weeks work I can have 5-10k gold. It’s not difficult, its not a chore as you may call it, you just make it that way. Lvling is a grind, yes. Yes it doubles sometimes tripples the exp the higher you are, but that shouldn’t matter if you enjoy the game. Hitting level 90 can take a month, two tops.

Rhysati.4932:

Just right off the bat, I have a hard time believing you actually played WoW, OP. Why? First, you made it seem like it takes a long time to hit max level on WoW. It doesn’t. You fly through the content so fast that it’s actually pretty ridiculous. Heck, join a dungeon and you’ll gain a level or two before you finish. Do the quests and you can hit max level in maybe 2 weeks.

Secondly, you said you know no other game that you could get to max level and still have 3/4ths of the content unexplored. Once again…WoW is exactly like that. Heck, I took every single one of my characters through the Burning Crusade section levels 58-68 with ONE zone. I don’t even know how many there were in that expansion.

You can do the same with the Wrath of the Lich King expansion as well.

With that said, I’m still having a lot of fun with GW2, but the hollow ‘end-game’ is leaving a lot to be desired.

you can believe what you want doesn’t change the fact that I have 80 level hunter and and a 60 or 70 paladin i cant remember its been ages since i logged in there. I think in the while time i was there I may have done 2-3 dungeons between both characters and it took me a very long time to get to 80 mostly because i was kitten off at how much of a grind it was and the fact that they had 100000 different levels of armor. And to speak of “content” i think the content is much better in gw2.

Ctrlaltdaleeet.6805:

Nova, I can’t agree with some of the things you said about WoW considering I’m a 6 year player, gaining money isn’t that difficult, it’s just different. Professions are an easy easy way (herblore, enchanting, mining, etc) as well as dailies. I have easily made over 100k gold in WoW, and within a weeks work I can have 5-10k gold. It’s not difficult, its not a chore as you may call it, you just make it that way. Lvling is a grind, yes. Yes it doubles sometimes tripples the exp the higher you are, but that shouldn’t matter if you enjoy the game. Hitting level 90 can take a month, two tops.

I guess we had different experiences because i was always broke granted i didn’t play the auction market as much as you it seems. Also you made my point I didn’t enjoy the game there is no reason why xp levels should increase at that rate. I think that. Gw2 is so superior in that way. Xp needed should remain stable yet the xp given for kill increase so it actually easier and takes you less time to level the higher you go .

Playing a little more I actually like the ranger and am starting over again trying a few different classes out to see which other one I like I don’t think anything can top the ranger though for the most part my pet distracts the target long enough me me to just hang back at range and kill stuff. Its a great combination. Although i herd that ele is op at higher levels and can destroy stuff on its own which is cool i may work on one of those and / or a guardian. I was looking into thief but I read they are harder to play effectively. I actually got to kill a dragon that appeared in one of the maps to there were a ton of people there so again i just hung back with range attracts and everything went well.

As long as they keep everything on a horizontal progress and don’t make content stuff more difficult in any way or turn into a wow clone where there is always some new more powerful armor or weapon to get like wow did Ill be happy. If they can make the story based dungeons easier and give them the ability to be soloed i will be amazed.

When all is said and done I feel that i have gotten my $60 out of the game so whatever they do doesn’t really matter to me if the game turns into something I don’t have fun with any more i will simply stop playing and will still be ahead in terms of play value received

I will say though I am actually am disappointed in the player base they seem to be very negative and demanding for something that only cost them $60 one time. with no mandatory recurring fee.