Need general questions answered. Is it worth it?
1) It depends, now and again i alternate between a few builds and weapons to keep things interesting.
2) Most of the grinding occurs in high level area’s such as cursed shore, at times it can be quite social. I’ve never grinded anything by myself.
3) I found the end-game to pretty cool, there’s a few things you can work for like exotic karma armor and some cultural weapons. I’m hoping for more end-game activities, maybe larger scaled dungeons that equates to something like the underworld/domain of anguish/fissure of woe in Guild Wars 1. I’m pretty sure we will see something like this in the next few months.
4) I like the difficulty of some dungeons and events having to dodge, pay attention and plan things through. What i like least is very few things for guilds to do at the moment, for example no guild vs guild.
More violence, less violets.
1. As a Guardian, I am only using a greatsword, scepter and staff. The abilities on these weapons vary from purely situational to cooldown mash. The key to keeping the grind not as boring is to try new weapons. I tried out a shield, focus, torch, hammer, sword and mace before settling on these three. It takes a bit of time to unlock all of the skills for all of these weapons.
2. I think the community is actually pretty good. However, I currently don’t see a point to having a guild other than to have some bonus banners and a consolidated chat box. I usually never party with anyone unless I’m going to do a dungeon.
3. Dungeons are pretty challenging when done with an uncoordinated group. In fact, with pick up groups it can get close to frustrating. However, there is not to do at end game other than to farm for a legendary, repeatedly do dungeons for armor or level your crafting for X reason. I did feel like it was time to start a new character once I hit 80.
4. I love the open world. It is a very beautiful world and I wish I had more incentive to visit all of it. I hate the story. The personal story and story-mode dungeons are so hilariously bad that I refuse to ever do them again. I also hate the skill system. But to each his own!
As long as you have fun it doesn’t matter what progress you make in the game.
1) I haven’t played a necro, but find that the combat system remains fun throughout the game on other professions as long as you seek out a challenge – otherwise you can get away with just spamming your first weapon skill. Really the movement and evasion is a lot of fun.
2) The community is a bit private, but you do get those moments when you just naturally play together with people. That’s a really good part of the design, I think.
3) There isn’t an endgame – best to start an alt, IMOP, since you can’t do all the content on one character without overlevelling everything. Maybe though they’ll add some new content some time at level cap or make it more fun to do existing content.
4) The open world PvE, events and the detail that has been put into them are great. I like least the levelling system and the reward systems which I think are responsible for pushing people out of the top of the game, where there is no more content, whilst leaving masses of good unplayed content at lower levels unplayed.
1) Yes, they certainly do.
2) In my experience, folks you run into at DE’s and events are helpful in terms of rezzing, etc. Outside of that, M chat is extremely quiet aside from calls for folks to join a dungeon run. Like… ghost town quiet.
3) All depends on what motivates you as a player, there’s no true right or wrong answer here.
4) The most? Jumping puzzles and level scaling for both PvE and PvP. The least? I could write volumes, but travel speed / waypoint cost and zone portaling are my biggest annoyances.
In a word. Yes.
1. more abilities =/= a better game.
As the saying goes, less is more.
There is no 1 all powerful build. So you will be constantly swapping out weapons and skills based on what your going up against.
2. The community overall is really good.
With how the game plays people will almost always stop and rez or help out with dynamic events. (Especially if you call out the event and link the nearest waypoint).
3. The “endgame” starts at level 1.
You can get to 80. And you can get to 80 FAST but then you missed out on everything the game really has to offer. Its about the journey, not the destination. (and even when you get to your destination there is a TON of things to do still. Check out the sticky post on the players helping players forum.)
4. WvW = awesome.
SPvP = awesome. Admitedly though I am a WvW junkie.
PvE is really good. Most fun exploring and leveling since…
Jump puzzles are a blast to find and do. Especially the griffins roost bombing run. (Insanity)
Crafting is really good. (lots of complaints about how its worthless. You just have to find and craft and sell the things that others are not making and selling and you will do JUST fine.) And you get XP from it to boot!.
The “Send collectables to storage” is one of those little things that you really miss when you play something else.
ANYONE can rez. And you get xp for it too.
Everyone can participate in quests and dynamic events.
Everyone can gather any resource nodes.
I can guarantee that a lot of the features of this game will be copied and soon be appearing in other MMO’s.
The personal story seemed to be more of a chore the first time through. Playing through with an alt now and it seems they cleaned up all the bugs/balance issues quite nicely.
Bots are annoying. (They really need to get admins IN GAME running around that can view bots and insta-ban them.)
Gold sellers. (same as with botters. Then need admins IN GAME that can insta-ban gold sellers.)
But those are typical to any MMO so…kinda a minor gripe.
1) Depends on the class… On my necro, I often switch between weapon sets and utility skills whereas my engineer rarely needs any skills/weapons switched around.
2) Guilds probably play a bigger role in terms of social aspects and maximizing enjoyment. Map chat is often used to point out big events or link up for dungeons with the occasional running conversation.
3) Alot of people say it’s what you want to get out of it, but if what you want to get out of it is a PvE experience, then it can be a little lackluster… If you’re more for the PvPs (whether WvW, sPvP, or tPvP) then it could have more staying power.
4) I think the worst and best part about the game boils down to the concepts… I think there are a lot of great concepts and potentials, yet the execution sometimes doesn’t do justice in fleshing out the concepts.
1. I noticed there are a lot of abilities, but only a few can be equipped at a time. Do the rotations get boring (not just for necro, any class can answer) while grinding?
For me, there are no “rotations” in other mmos, you’d macro loads of abilities and stand still and rotate them to get max dps on bosses and the like, GW2 isn’t like that at all, its combat is fluid and “live” you dodge to avoid, dodge/block isnt a stat that gets rolled behind the scenes, its dependant on your actions and skills.
I play a ranger with a shortbow and sword/horn, i have to flank to get the most out of my weapon, i have an interrupt I have to time with the mobs animation to interrupt at the right time, I have an “avoid” to leap back out of danger, with the horn I have a buff I use in groups to maximise damage of the players around me, everything, every skill every action is situational dependant.
There are no “rotations”, if you get set in a rotation, you will not get the most out of your skillset.
2. How’s the community? I haven’t made it to any major cities yet, but I like the social aspect of an MMO. Grinding by yourself is boring, so the world events are awesome. But as far as guilds go, do you seem to do more as group than other MMO’s?
I’m the most active in my guild, I was 80 weeks before anyone else, we’re a casual guild and I like that, like you, I work and have family, so I can’t do traditional mmos with raids and long dungeons. What I do is go and help others when they need or ask for it, offer advice and such. The downscaling makes going back to low level areas just as fun and challenging (ok, a bit less challenging, i have traits and armor) rather than a chore it would be just going there and slaughtering everything with one shot, ruining the experience for the person I’m trying to help.
As for grouping, I hang around in cursed shore a lot, as I’m one of a few in my guild that do so, I’m often asking for party spaces, I’ve met some great people this way, and we always look for each other in contacts to see if we’re in the same area, many people I’ve adventured with will say “hi” or wave in passing too
3. How’s the endgame? Is it challenging, or is it one of those games when once you hit the cap you’re going “welp, time to start a new character!”
Depends what you want from “endgame” and also your definition of it.
I’ve played rift and swtor (never wow) and I get that those games have drilled it into peoples heads that MMOs dont start till max level, once your max level, the fun begins! raids! dungeons! more raids! gear! grind gear to be able to do bigger raids for more gear!
GW2 isnt like that.
You have to realise, that the entire game is endgame. the fun is all the way through, dungeons all the way through, massive challenging zones all the way through, world events, dragons, bosses, all the way through.
I’m not saying theres nothing to do at 80, there is (and there will be more to come, loads of free content and expansions), but if you are rushing to get max level for a traditional “endgame” experience, you will be sorely dissappointed. The first thing you’ll have to do is go back and redo what you rushed through.
4. Honest opinions. What do you like most about the game? What do you like the least?
I like that i can pick up and play, go afk for 10 mins at any time and not let anyone down, that theres stuff happening wherever you are at whatever time.
I like that if I get a bit bored of PVE (hasnt happened yet) I can go sPvP or WvW for a different gametype.
I like that im not barred in anyway from any content because I havent grinded the requisite gear stat numbers from previous content, I never got to hammerknell in rift cos my cleric hammer never dropped from the once per week greenscale raid.
I like that pvp is actually player vs player and not gearwars
Theres nothing I dont like, really, although I feel that the voice acting in the story is a bit flat sometimes
(edited by Safari.3021)