Guild Wars 2

Bought the game at launch after being hyped up for it for around 4 years (I played the original Guild Wars games heavily) but sadly I was underwhelmed. I’ve tried at multiple points to get back into the game without success, and I’d pretty much written it off as not my cup of tea.

However, I’ve been reading up on this game lately and I’m liking the direction that it’s going in so I thought I’d give it one last try. I’m pretty glad I did!

Last night I logged in and created a Thief to find the starting experience is so much better than it was before. I love the arrow that guides you where to go, something so simple has made it all so much more user friendly.

Quick question: Now that the Main Story doesn’t start until level 10, does that mean there are less level gaps between each mission? Always disliked that before you couldn’t really do the next mission until you’d grinded out a load of hearts or events and gained a few levels, really ruined the immersion for me.

Welcome back.
Now that the story is split into chapters as soon as you get to level 10 you get all the missions that used to run from level 2 – level 10 (which is 4 or 5 instances I believe) in one go to work through. I mean you still need to run to the place on the map to start them but you can just do the whole chapter in one go.

Each segment of the personal story comes at 10 level intervals. Or, I guess they’re calling them “chapters” and before, you could at least attempt them early. Now you just don’t have access.

But after you do, the gaps will be bigger, as the story missions only appear every 10 levels. You’ll also notice that you won’t have your traits unlocked as you level, instead having to either buy them open with gold or accomplish the associated event to unlock it.

I would save your praise until you’ve gone a few more levels through the NPE. The majority seems to hate it.

Tom Gore.4035:

But after you do, the gaps will be bigger, as the story missions only appear every 10 levels. You’ll also notice that you won’t have your traits unlocked as you level, instead having to either buy them open with gold or accomplish the associated event to unlock it.

I would save your praise until you’ve gone a few more levels through the NPE. The majority seems to hate it.

There are quite a few positive things about the NPE, especially at first glance. I mean, I agree that it might be a bit early to lavish the process with praise, but it’s a process nonetheless.

Yeah I don’t have a strong opinion for the NPE. I think as a genuinely new player it is probably alright, and I also think most of the hate comes from the veterans who need to go through additional hoops when powerleveling alts.

Personally, I would change the trait unlocking to be account-wide, especially because unlocking the traits requires the same stuff for each race/profession anyway.

I like the sound of splitting it up into chapters, makes a lot more sense to me than the way it was before!

Sounds like there’s been quite a few big changes since I last played then…

Anything else I should be aware of?

Traits are awful and were changed last April. Instead of paying 2g60s to unlock them, you can do a bunch of busywork to unlock them for free or pay up to 43g AND 360 skillpoints, per character.

Guhracie.3419:

Traits are awful and were changed last April. Instead of paying 2g60s to unlock them, you can do a bunch of busywork to unlock them for free or pay up to 43g AND 360 skillpoints, per character.

It would seem you have a real issue with the current implementation of Trait Points, I don’t think I understand enough about the situation yet to make a judgement.

If you’re doing them on one character, the traits aren’t a huge deal. If you have a lot of alts, it can get tiresome or expensive in gold and skill points.

People who have one or two characters do have some inconvenience. Characters made before April 15 don’t have to worry about it at all.

Tom Gore.4035:

But after you do, the gaps will be bigger, as the story missions only appear every 10 levels. You’ll also notice that you won’t have your traits unlocked as you level, instead having to either buy them open with gold or accomplish the associated event to unlock it.

I would save your praise until you’ve gone a few more levels through the NPE. The majority seems to hate it.

I dunno. I think the NPE mostly gets panned by those of us that had our cheese moved by it. Its different, and I personally think its weird, but bad? I’ll phone that in when I figure that out.

The trait locking, that, I declare to be god awful. That’s not NPE though. That’s its own fiasco.

The NPE-system is different, not necessarily bad. It arguebly makes the game more traditional and therefore introduces a more player-friendly experience, an aspect that GW2 really lacked. While I do dislike some parts of it myself, I don’t think it is bad as a whole.

On the other hand, I think that the new systems in the game extend the ‘’building up’’ experience. You can’t go around and finish the game quickly anylonger. It will take you time to get your traits and collect the skillpoints that you need. It is arguebly a more enriching experience even if some parts of it desn’t really make sense.

In general, I would say that the new systems would be overall more friendly and better for newer players. However for a vet, it makes the experience different in which case many people end up complain that the experience that they once enjoyed is gone now. It also makes the process of creating a new character harder and longer. You can’t go around with 15 alts anylonger and if you are willing to be done with that, it will probably take you longer time.

CDawg.9356:

I like the sound of splitting it up into chapters, makes a lot more sense to me than the way it was before!

Sounds like there’s been quite a few big changes since I last played then…

Anything else I should be aware of?

On the personal story, because the story wasn’t originally intended to be divided up this way the chapters tend to end somewhat abruptly, so for example, you might finish a step where the characters say “we should meet up back in Lion’s Arch” but the step where you meet up in Lion’s Arch won’t unlock until the next chapter does, it has caught more than a few people out (I’ve seen a load of posts by people that think there are bugs here).

Anyway just so you know, if the story seems to just end when you think it should continue it’s probably just cause you finished the chapter.