Guild Wars 2

I started playing the game just over 3 weeks ago. It wasn’t’ really at all like I was expecting. I am assuming that I am just missing significant portions of the game and don’t even know they exist, so please point me in the right direction if that is the case…
1) Fastest level cap EVER!
2) Gear is easy to get.
3) GW2 is a Farm Fest!
4) Level scaling is cool
5) Picking a Norn was a bad idea
6) Personal story is lackluster
7) Crafting – why bother?
8) Group dungeons
9) PvP
10)WvWvW

1) Fastest level cap EVER!
It took me about 50 hours played to get to level cap, and that includes leaving the game AFK basically every night (auto logs out after ~an hour I think). I had not done any research into the game, I just started playing. Between running around with a zerg group in the QJ gauntlet place and completing a couple zone maps I was at 80. I had not even entered a map zone with monsters above level 40 by the time I hit 80, didn’t even have the final talent book purchased! It was very anti climatic!

2) Gear is easy to get.
I most recently played WoW where gold comes out your ears, so I didn’t think I had much gold, til I realized that you can buy level 80 exotics for a whopping 3-4g! I just walked into the TP, bought a full set of exotic Berserker gear for my Guardian and a set of superior sigils to go with it. Berserker gear was the expensive stuff, too. I have ~45g left over and could easily buy another complete set of gear if I wanted to try a different build.

There is no better gear in the game to get so far as I know. There are better looking things I can get, but the effectiveness is the same. So at this point there is nothing to strive for gear wise. Just prettier pixels I guess.

3) GW2 is a Farm Fest!
I think this has to do with the timing of when I joined the game, but between zerging through the QJ arena and the Clockwork Chaos farming extravaganza what else should one spend time doing? You get crazy money, lots of achievement points, tons of XP to get stat points (I have researched everything and still have 150 points left, since those scrolls come out of every box it seems!). It is not that entertaining to run the same thing over and over, especially in a zerg where your individual performance is meaningless, but for a new, “poor” character, why not?

4) Level scaling is cool
I like that I can still play the content of lower level zones instead of just instagibbing the entire zone when I walk in. It is still a lot easier as a level 80 with exotic gear though. I just cleared a low level map in the char area yesterday and I kill all the trash with one auto attack rotation with my sword. The only slightly challenging thing was where I encountered a champion for a group event, but it spawned insane amounts of adds that died instantly to me, which refreshed cool downs on my F1 burning thing so I kept everyone blind locked. Fight took a minute or 2, but was still soloed when it was supposed to be a group event.

5) Picking a Norn was a bad idea
While my guy looks awesome, and it seems fitting that the Asari mage I am guarding (my wife’s toon, until she got bored at level 18 and stopped playing) only comes up to my knee, I can’t see half my screen. Makes jumping puzzles way harder than it needs to be. And I am sooooo slow! I think all characters have the same base run speed, but because my guy is so freaking tall it looks like he is just plodding along. Playing my wife’s toon travel just feels faster because those little legs are pumping away. I wish I could get my guy to run.

6) Personal story is lackluster
Again, this might be because I picked Norn, but YAWN! I haven’t finished it yet (current quest is level 67ish) but I don’t really want to. Aside from being a boring story line (honestly, since the level 30ish quest I haven’t read any of the text and just skip the cut scenes since they are so boring) and being really weird that there is a dramatic fight and then everyone stops for a standing, face-to-face conversation while the others just stop and wait, it is BUGGY!

The last quest I did I had been playing along for ~25 minutes, and then at the end of yet another cut scene that I skipped I was spawned in a wall. I could not move, I couldn’t jump, couldn’t /dance out. Nothing. Even googled for a solution, but couldn’t find one. So I had to WP out of the instance, and redo the WHOLE THING! Even knowing what to do this time it still took about 30 minutes to finish (because the waves of attackers take way too long to spawn, 30 seconds down time between waves that don’t even damage you or require cool downs? Really?). I have no interest in finishing the story.

7) Crafting – why bother?
I started crafting because it was a daily quest. I did armorsmithing and weaponsmithing. Both are ~100. But since I was playing in scaled down areas my blue gear 20 levels below me was still working fine, so I didn’t need to make any new stuff. And collecting mats to make your own was too slow, and it is cheaper to buy finished products than make your own. So I just stopped crafting, hoard mats, and whenever I have more than I can stash in the bank (250 of each mat I think) I sell the other stuff. Saves time, makes money, and gets me better gear faster through the TP. Why bother with crafting?

8) Group dungeons
My favorite part of other MMOs has been the small group dungeons. Raids are great, but the amount of hassle to get them organized wasn’t worth it usually (Karazan being the exception. Loved that one). SWOTR failed me when I got into a pug for heroic version of whatever the hardest raid was on release, and we cleared the whole thing in under an hour. Those things are supposed to be hard! A pug clearing it so easily is just stupid.

GW2 fractals are supposed to be hard. So I hear. Haven’t done one yet. I have only done one dungeon at all (the crypt or catacomb or something. whatever unlocks at level 30). It was fun, but quite easy (which one would expect since it was the first one to unlock). I have not done any others since there is no reasonable way to find a group. You can use 3rd party websites (totally absurd to even have to consider that option!) or just spam LFG everywhere, but no one wants to lowbie dungeons, and no one wants new people for harder ones. And no one is doing dungeons anyway since the LS farming is so insanely profitable compared to any dungeon at all!

And, I always played a tank in other MMOs. I think I am going to miss that.

9) PVP
Fun, but meh. Never been my thing.

10) WvWvW
Haven’t tried. Seems like a mix of PvP and zerging. Sounds uninteresting to me.

Conclusion:
Was fun to try, but not really sure why I should log in when I get home today. Farm for armor skins? Do a jump puzzle? With all the games in the world it seems like I ought to just try another.

Or could reactivate WoW and pour money down that drain again….

Risiko.7412:

5) Picking a Norn was a bad idea
While my guy looks awesome, and it seems fitting that the Asari mage I am guarding (my wife’s toon, until she got bored at level 18 and stopped playing) only comes up to my knee, I can’t see half my screen. Makes jumping puzzles way harder than it needs to be. And I am sooooo slow! I think all characters have the same base run speed, but because my guy is so freaking tall it looks like he is just plodding along. Playing my wife’s toon travel just feels faster because those little legs are pumping away. I wish I could get my guy to run.

6) Personal story is lackluster
Again, this might be because I picked Norn, but YAWN! I haven’t finished it yet (current quest is level 67ish) but I don’t really want to. Aside from being a boring story line (honestly, since the level 30ish quest I haven’t read any of the text and just skip the cut scenes since they are so boring) and being really weird that there is a dramatic fight and then everyone stops for a standing, face-to-face conversation while the others just stop and wait, it is BUGGY!

The last quest I did I had been playing along for ~25 minutes, and then at the end of yet another cut scene that I skipped I was spawned in a wall. I could not move, I couldn’t jump, couldn’t /dance out. Nothing. Even googled for a solution, but couldn’t find one. So I had to WP out of the instance, and redo the WHOLE THING! Even knowing what to do this time it still took about 30 minutes to finish (because the waves of attackers take way too long to spawn, 30 seconds down time between waves that don’t even damage you or require cool downs? Really?). I have no interest in finishing the story.

7) Crafting – why bother?
I started crafting because it was a daily quest. I did armorsmithing and weaponsmithing. Both are ~100. But since I was playing in scaled down areas my blue gear 20 levels below me was still working fine, so I didn’t need to make any new stuff. And collecting mats to make your own was too slow, and it is cheaper to buy finished products than make your own. So I just stopped crafting, hoard mats, and whenever I have more than I can stash in the bank (250 of each mat I think) I sell the other stuff. Saves time, makes money, and gets me better gear faster through the TP. Why bother with crafting?

8) Group dungeons
My favorite part of other MMOs has been the small group dungeons. Raids are great, but the amount of hassle to get them organized wasn’t worth it usually (Karazan being the exception. Loved that one). SWOTR failed me when I got into a pug for heroic version of whatever the hardest raid was on release, and we cleared the whole thing in under an hour. Those things are supposed to be hard! A pug clearing it so easily is just stupid.

GW2 fractals are supposed to be hard. So I hear. Haven’t done one yet. I have only done one dungeon at all (the crypt or catacomb or something. whatever unlocks at level 30). It was fun, but quite easy (which one would expect since it was the first one to unlock). I have not done any others since there is no reasonable way to find a group. You can use 3rd party websites (totally absurd to even have to consider that option!) or just spam LFG everywhere, but no one wants to lowbie dungeons, and no one wants new people for harder ones. And no one is doing dungeons anyway since the LS farming is so insanely profitable compared to any dungeon at all!

And, I always played a tank in other MMOs. I think I am going to miss that.

9) PVP
Fun, but meh. Never been my thing.

10) WvWvW
Haven’t tried. Seems like a mix of PvP and zerging. Sounds uninteresting to me.

Conclusion:
Was fun to try, but not really sure why I should log in when I get home today. Farm for armor skins? Do a jump puzzle? With all the games in the world it seems like I ought to just try another.

Or could reactivate WoW and pour money down that drain again….

log in cuz theres new content every 2 weeks or new experiences in wvw everyday. WoW makes you log in every day because you paid for it.

If you’ve really only been playing for about 30 days and you don’t like it you can get a refund.

If the progression model for WoW appeals to you, then GW2 will seem like a big “what do i do now?” moment.

There was either a post or a blog I read recently that was called 80 things to do at 80 and there is quite a bit. For the explorer/achiever types, this game has a lot to offer. For those that rush to get into the end game, not so much.

Fractals are on a whole different level from dungeons. They continue to increase in difficulty. I’m somewhat interested but the repetitive nature would bore me. Some might say the same for world exploration, but I just got a new computer so seeing all the areas is interesting to me.

Hope you find what you enjoy doing in GW2, if not, there are plenty of options for games nowadays.

SkylightMoon.1980

log in cuz theres new content every 2 weeks or new experiences in wvw everyday. WoW makes you log in every day because you paid for it.

True, new content is nice. The new content I have seen is just “Zerg Here” instead of “Zerg There.” There isn’t even a story in the content, you have to read it on the website.

TooBz.3065:

If you’ve really only been playing for about 30 days and you don’t like it you can get a refund.

How? I bought it from some Amazon marketplace person. I’d probably take it if possible.

Probably.

Risiko.7412:

I started playing the game just over 3 weeks ago. It wasn’t’ really at all like I was expecting. I am assuming that I am just missing significant portions of the game and don’t even know they exist, so please point me in the right direction if that is the case…
1) Fastest level cap EVER!
2) Gear is easy to get.
3) GW2 is a Farm Fest!
4) Level scaling is cool
5) Picking a Norn was a bad idea
6) Personal story is lackluster
7) Crafting – why bother?
8) Group dungeons
9) PvP
10)WvWvW

1) Fastest level cap EVER!
It took me about 50 hours played to get to level cap, and that includes leaving the game AFK basically every night (auto logs out after ~an hour I think). I had not done any research into the game, I just started playing. Between running around with a zerg group in the QJ gauntlet place and completing a couple zone maps I was at 80. I had not even entered a map zone with monsters above level 40 by the time I hit 80, didn’t even have the final talent book purchased! It was very anti climatic!

2) Gear is easy to get.
I most recently played WoW where gold comes out your ears, so I didn’t think I had much gold, til I realized that you can buy level 80 exotics for a whopping 3-4g! I just walked into the TP, bought a full set of exotic Berserker gear for my Guardian and a set of superior sigils to go with it. Berserker gear was the expensive stuff, too. I have ~45g left over and could easily buy another complete set of gear if I wanted to try a different build.

There is no better gear in the game to get so far as I know. There are better looking things I can get, but the effectiveness is the same. So at this point there is nothing to strive for gear wise. Just prettier pixels I guess.

3) GW2 is a Farm Fest!
I think this has to do with the timing of when I joined the game, but between zerging through the QJ arena and the Clockwork Chaos farming extravaganza what else should one spend time doing? You get crazy money, lots of achievement points, tons of XP to get stat points (I have researched everything and still have 150 points left, since those scrolls come out of every box it seems!). It is not that entertaining to run the same thing over and over, especially in a zerg where your individual performance is meaningless, but for a new, “poor” character, why not?

1. To be fair, you joined at a hectic time where we had a rather large and chaotic Living Story event that was catered to farming and leveling, thus you leveling extremely quickly and having a lot of gold.

2. Gear is more about looks once you’ve obtained exotics and ascended. The cheaper exotics are the most common ones. You do have to work though for certain gear, and to have the correct stats on certain gear. I don’t think all lvl 80 related exotics have equal stats, I could be wrong but I believe some are better than others.

3. Same as point 1. I mean there definitely is farming in the game, but it’s not necessary whatsoever.

This game is what you make of it. You are not given goals by the developers to achieve(to an extent), you get to make your own goals.

If you truly want to give the game a try, I would suggest starting a new toon and leveling it normally through the personal story and zones, and not grinding levels on a farming event.

I would answer the rest of your points but I’m at work and have been typing for an unusually long amount of time. Good luck!

Risiko.7412:

SkylightMoon.1980

log in cuz theres new content every 2 weeks or new experiences in wvw everyday. WoW makes you log in every day because you paid for it.

True, new content is nice. The new content I have seen is just “Zerg Here” instead of “Zerg There.” There isn’t even a story in the content, you have to read it on the website.

There is, I promise, its just not always implemented in the nice way. The Living Story is currently the best bit of lore I think. Beyond that, learning about lore from different zones is rather difficult and you have to dig hard.

benOTK.4961:

1. To be fair, you joined at a hectic time where we had a rather large and chaotic Living Story event that was catered to farming and leveling, thus you leveling extremely quickly and having a lot of gold.

2. Gear is more about looks once you’ve obtained exotics and ascended. The cheaper exotics are the most common ones. You do have to work though for certain gear, and to have the correct stats on certain gear. I don’t think all lvl 80 related exotics have equal stats, I could be wrong but I believe some are better than others.

3. Same as point 1. I mean there definitely is farming in the game, but it’s not necessary whatsoever.

This game is what you make of it. You are not given goals by the developers to achieve(to an extent), you get to make your own goals.

If you truly want to give the game a try, I would suggest starting a new toon and leveling it normally through the personal story and zones, and not grinding levels on a farming event.

I would answer the rest of your points but I’m at work and have been typing for an unusually long amount of time. Good luck!

Fair enough. I am at 62% map completed, 1300 AP though, so I do think I have seen a fair amount of the game. Even a few jumping puzzles (not my thing).

The 2 portions I am missing to make a fair judgement is WvW and dungeons/fractals.

(1) No, …well for level cap specifically maybe, but in UO where it took me a year to skill cap a tamer, at the release of UO:AoS people were cranking out skill capped tamers in 20hrs. Not just tamers though, the whole game moved away from skill development to a new gear grind system mimicking EQ1 in many ways. Thus began sudden and long term subscription cancellation.

(5) Yes, Norn is horrible for JP’s. Also Charr is bad for it too. I JP my Asura mostly, sometimes my human thief. My Norn is a warrior, still feel it was a good pick for the race. Like in EQ1 raids, we usually had primary melee either big or used a temporary size increase. Assist and all that…

Oh I’ll add (7). Used for crafting your legendary weapon. They are adding a new tier to crafting soon. Some crafting professions and crafted items you can make gold from depending how the TP is going per item. Then there is an achievement and title, master crafter (I have). If you don’t like crafting, don’t do it, just sell most of your mats.

So what to do at cap? There is quite a bit. Myself, I run Orr temples a lot and with my commander tag on and also do some boss events like fire ele etc. Temples are like open-world mini raids. That stuff has dropped dead recently more or less due to the zerger fests going on but that is more of the recent thing. You can google for Dragon Timer to get the timers and locations on that stuff. But yes, dungeons, fractals, guild missions, living story, spvp, wvw, etc etc etc you’ll find some things to do.

You did everything too fast, I am here since headstart. it took me long to understand this game and get every aspect, maybe I dont know some stuff even now. You should not have rushed. You joined at kinda bad time, updates come every two weeks and for last month we’ve been receiving grindfest content. DO NOT RUSH! and this game is not about your sats its about looks, Devs made it easy to get exotic gear so you could make yourself look cool with better looking gear even if it is of same power. I believe this whole “Ascended” nonsense was implemented due to people WHINING that getting exotics was wayyyy too easy and wanted something that was hard to get and had more power. Legendary weapons is a goal to set that needs every aspect of the game, some people want to make it short and just buy stuff but some of them cant be bought. The gift of mastery is the part where you cover exploration, events, WvW, and skill points. gift of fortune is mainly gold but also its RNG, other stuff are bought except for dungeon gifts and crafted gifts (their components can also be bought). So you now should do world completion, look through legendary weapons and go make them. I am kinda amazed how fast you made gold. I am not one of Grindguys that can grind same boring content every day so I am not also the richest one. if you can get gold that fast you can make legendary fast too.

sounds pretty accurate. there isn’t much reason i think to play this game after you reach max.

i think the “cosmetic” argument doesn’t really work in this game like it did before. it’s missing prestige.

Prestige is something that can be called end game. Prestige comes when you can show off something that is difficult to get. However, anet has interpreted “difficult to get” as “behind pay wall, rng wall, or time gate” when it should mean “behind challenging content”. Thus, all these pretty armors and such are not especially prestigious so the desire to get them and flaunt them is greatly diminished because they don’t say anything positive about you.

Risiko a tip,if you do go into WvW,that full set of berserker gear will not help you much,and you will melt in 5 seconds.You will need to do some research for a different build that will keep you upright for longer.

Risiko.7412:

TooBz.3065:

If you’ve really only been playing for about 30 days and you don’t like it you can get a refund.

How? I bought it from some Amazon marketplace person. I’d probably take it if possible.

Probably.

Hmm…If you didn’t buy it from the web site then I don’t know. If you create a support ticket there’s an item for “refund”.

https://en.support.guildwars2.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9053

Go test your skills in wvw and if you dont like to run with the zerg run in a 5-10 man group or even go solo if you really wanna test you skills.

Yeah, not EVERYBODY is zerging, it’s just the current thing that many are doing. The next big thing is going to be the return of the adventure box. Much of the current zerging is going to be gone.