Guild Wars 2

So when you make a toon, eventually you will have to map each racial city + Lion’s Arch. So I want to hear your reasons for liking and disliking certain cities. They can be dumb reasons, they can be too nitpicky. Let your inner critic shine!

Divinity’s Reach: Second most hated city (Lion’s Arch is my most hated city). Too big and I always get lost or can’t find a POI or something. With content guide it has become a bit easier to map. Despite this, I love the Palace gardens and the little aquarium leading to the Minister’s Waypoint. Also like how it does feel like a royal city, with many houses and different areas with inns/bars.

Hoelbrak: Again, too large and also too snowy. I dislike snow levels because it’s just so plain and white. I hate some of the NPCs in Hoelbrak that never shut up (“Take heed, I have not taken a leave of my senses. I’ve seen creatures of metal and steel” She says this every time someone walks past, so it can get ridiculous.) and how much more of a maze it can be. On the up side, it can be great for rangers, giving you about 3-4 pets.

Rata Sum: I have no real gripes with the city, except perhaps how one of the vistas you have to get is impossible to get back up from without dying or wp. Also there are always thousands of gold spammers whenever I go there. Also tons of people crowded in one area. But other than that, I love the sci-fi feel it has, almost something straight from Star Wars. Also it is one of the easiest cities to map, because it is mostly contained in one cube.

Black Citadel: I have heard people complain about BC being the worst city, but I can’t see it. I guess because I have mapped it 40+ times, I just know it off by heart and it is one of my easiest cities to map. It is full of brutish charr that growl at you if you get too close, hardly any good areas to rp in, too brown/yellow in colour tone and one whole corner of the map is entirely sealed off.

The Grove: Beautiful city. Easy to map as it seems to all be contained in a 4 layered circle, also pretty small. I can only think of a few reasons to not like it, and those are really nitpicky. It is too small and almost suffers the same “overcrowded” feel of Rata Sum. The Repair your armour merchants are always tucked away and never easily found.

Hmm…. I’ll post these in my order from least favorite to most favorite I think.

Hoelbrak |=| Huge, absolutely huge, and while I understand this from near giants living there, it’s such a major pain to run through to map quickly when you just want to get it over with. Cold in look, cold in feel, and frustrating to deal with around the main merchant/bank area, it’s so kitten spread out I can’t remember where I’ve been and where I’m going.

Black Citadel |=| A maze. A kitten maze. Its twisting, turning inner areas are laid out on top of each other and I really have no idea what to make of it sometimes. Sometimes I can’t even find my way up to the higher area because I easily get turned around. This being a personal thing, I’m awful at direction and obvious paths. Regardless, I dislike it for that, and for the utter industrial feel. Maybe it’s my empathy toward Sylvian race, but the lack of life and the cold, mechanical running of the whole place makes me feel isolated and leaves me wanting to escape as quickly as possible.

Rata Sum |=| It feels so overcrowded, and mapping, while easy enough, can feel clunky because you tend to use gates to get to further off areas like the quay, idea incubation lab and such. The vista you have to jump to below the city is a pain because you have to rely on a WP to get back to it without falling to your possible death. It can be easy to get a bit turned around here and there, too.

Lion’s Arch |=| I have a feeling if I’d have been in the game before the city fell to ruin it’d be so much easier to map. It’s easy to map, for me, yes, but I don’t know if it’d be easier if it were repaired or not (and I hope to god in some later installment it’ll be repaired, because I’m tired of looking at those kitten ed ruins). Regardless, I have relative amounts of fun with it, though some of the vistas are hard to pinpoint exactly. And on my first run, I couldn’t find several because they were so completely out of the way I had to Google the way to get there. That constantly-contested WP that isn’t supposed to be there is a bugger to me too, and I’d love to see it gone someday or at LEAST repaired. And some of the merchants are a bit hard to get to.

Divinity’s Reach |=| I like DR. I used to hate it. It seemed to be laid out in a maze and finding your way around, let alone mapping, was a chore, until I took my time to begin exploring with more diversity. The elevators can be a little confusing to me if I don’t use the same ones to get to certain places, and the royal gardens area feels so much more suited for lower levels, rather than some higher place above the city. That in itself does confuse me from time to time, but I love its look. The city overall is a relatively okay circle you can run pretty well when you’ve gotten its direction down, which can take time.

The Grove |=| It’s a beautiful city, the Grove. Unless you’re from there initially, using Sylvari race, one can, while mapping, forget to get the vista, poi, and WP that leads out to Caledon. Getting to a vista above the lowest level of the Grove is a bit odd, because of its location. I’m never sure which WP to click, though, because they’re virtually on top of each other and I’ll click a few times until I figure out which level I’m supposed to be on. The spiraling pathways can be a little impractical to me, too, because it seems there are a few that lead to totally different areas and I tend to get lost, even though I’ve basically lived there for a while.

And since I’m too lazy to go back and find all the ‘curse’ words they changed to ‘kitten’, I’m just going to say

kitten kitten kitten kitten .

Also, all the ‘curses’ start with D and in with N.

• Black Citadel, Divinity’s Reach, Hoelbrak, Rata Sum, and The Grove: There is one hub where everything and everyone is, and the rest of the city is empty. It makes most of the city feel deserted and pointless.

• Lion’s Arch: The new layout is more spread out and even, there’s multiple places where people can gather. It’s great.

As far as map completion goes, all cities are pretty straight-forward once you get used to the layout. Some are just smaller than others.

I would say I like the Grove least. I grew up in a fairly open and vast country with lots of scrub land but no true forests. So forests tend to make me feel claustrophobic. If I can’t see long distances I get antsy.

Rata Sum is another place I don’t like much. The ceilings are so low it’s claustrophobic. I grew up in a house with 10ft ceilings so anything lower than a cavern is too low.

Lion’s Arch is ok for the most part. It’s central, always plenty of ppl around to talk, but it’s not pretty by any means.

Now, being an engineer, Black Citadel is a great place. Sure it can be confusing to get around but the sounds of industry is music to my ears.

At the other extreme, I really love Hoelbrak. I’ve always loved mountains and snow particularly as where I come from, I have to travel a really long way to see it. Walking out on the Upper Commons and staring out into the snow is a real delight

Hoelbrack and Divinity’s Reach are my favorite cities. Hate all the other ones equally. I prefer a circular layout to cities. I suppose I hate Lion’s Arch the most followed closely by the Black Citadel.