Guild Wars 2

I just noticed GW2 is having a trial weekend. I haven’t played this game for months, but I haven’t uninstalled it yet either. So let me ask, what is there for new players to do?

Leveling and the plot arc? I have one character of each race, from level 20 to 28, and all their storylines were terrible. Don’t like the writing, the voicework, the ‘cutscenes’, or the awful level balancing. Levelling solo was painfully slow. Finding useful equipment was a chore — by design, I think, since they want players to buy equipment with real money on the auction.

Exploring the zones? I played long enough for the wave of hardcore players to pass me by, leaving the newbie zones and the secondary zones empty. Exploring by myself was dangerous with little reward, and even if I could handle that it’s not what I want in a social game.

Dungeons? The first real dungeon was level 35, which I never reached. I heard that something lower level appeared after I left. Do you need a team, or can a solo player jump into one?

PvP? Meh. If I want a PvP game with incremental character customization and fixed skills (can we at least rebind weapon skills, now?), there are MOBA games for that. I never liked the GW2 PvP.

For players without friends in the game, GW2 was un-fun…and the opportunities for making new friends was minimal. Has any of that changed at all?

Nothing for returning players. Just waste hours of your life to grind for achievements or gear.

Same to do, as when you left…

Really, nothing new for level 30 or less characters, other than champion trains in Queensdale mainly. A few changes in WvW and its a good place to level.

The Living Story currently pretty much assumes everyone is level 80 with exotics/ascended…

New players/old players with low level characters are just being left further and further behind, Anet does not seem to do anything to help new players out in GW2.

Remus Shepherd.2439:

Finding useful equipment was a chore — by design, I think, since they want players to buy equipment with real money on the auction.

What is this I don’t even…

Nothing for returning players.

They have indeed created a lot of content since you left. But it was all temporary and removed after 2-4 weeks. And those who missed it will never be able to play it again.

I feel like it’s not the game that did something wrong to make you leave…

Don’t listen to the hyperbole, they’ve added tons of content to the game. Fractals, Guild Missions, the new Twilight Arbor dungeon, the Tequatl open world raid, jumping puzzles, mini games, new pvp maps, custom arenas, spectator modes and more.

Only stuff that doesn’t make sense for you to do now as part of the Living Story was “removed”. For instance, a couple months back there was an election held ingame for the next council member which also ties in to future content releases. The vote was held, the councilmember decided, it would not make sense for you to participate in a past election.

Many things rotate in and out, like the Super Adventure Box (we just had the 2nd release of it), Labyrinthe Cliffs zone will be coming back and a couple post-launch dungeons that were part of Living Story will be coming back as Fractals later this year.

Start here if you are just coming back:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce_dvXJercI

Karizee.8076:

Don’t listen to the hyperbole, they’ve added tons of content to the game. Fractals, Guild Missions, the new Twilight Arbor dungeon, the Tequatl open world raid, jumping puzzles, mini games, new pvp maps, custom arenas, spectator modes and more.

Only stuff that doesn’t make sense for you to do now as part of the Living Story was “removed”. For instance, a couple months back there was an election held ingame for the next council member which also ties in to future content releases. The vote was held, the councilmember decided, it would not make sense for you to participate in a past election.

Many things rotate in and out, like the Super Adventure Box (we just had the 2nd release of it), Labyrinthe Cliffs zone will be coming back and a couple post-launch dungeons that were part of Living Story will be coming back as Fractals later this year.

Start here if you are just coming back:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce_dvXJercI

A quick explaination

- fractals : a bunch of dungeons that scale endlessly with each level, no new rewards after first few levels, if you intend to reach the higher levels u will need a stable 5 man organised group, if not you can just faceroll the first few with berserker warrior and get rewarded for nothing, enjoy

- guild missions are either running after one mob around the whole map or annoying mini games like jumping puzzles or guild races enjoy again

- new TA patch is not bad

- tequatl is A RAID BOSS, IN AN OPEN WORLD XD, have fun getting thrown into an overflow, that is if your world manages to down tequatl, else the event is empty enjoy guesting

- more mini games…. enjoy the facebook-like mini game distractions I guess?

- pvp is horrible wvw is a zergfest

- but there are a lot of anchievements to grind for (like kill 100,000 risen) ENJOY

Everything you could do when you left, plus farm your kitten off for mats in huge zergs to make a new type of weapon and soonish armour.

So much fun, you’ll never get bored in this non-grindy MMO.

It’s funny because you’re kind of answering your own questions in the OP.

TBh the game isn’t that much different, but if you want an easy place to level just stick to queensdale farming, guarantee there are tons of people there no matter what server you’re on. You’ll get loot appropriate for your character eventually lol.

I noticed this since beta, it seems most loot you get are for other professions (encourage alts?) but idk, RNG is RNG.

I honestly think the game will have problems getting new players, not returning players. But brand new players who plan to level from level 1. And I hope they try to do something to help with this problem.

The 1-30ish experience is fine, it is fun and diverse. But from 40-80 it is a painful to level especially solo. The leveling areas are dead (which should be expected) and leveling from 40-80 by yourself sucks.

Not sure why people bring up Tequatl, good luck doing it on most servers today. Even on the busiest servers you will rarely see it down anymore. People have moved on sadly.

Xcom.1926:

Not sure why people bring up Tequatl, good luck doing it on most servers today. Even on the busiest servers you will rarely see it down anymore. People have moved on sadly.

Don’t be silly. There are armies of players taking down Tequatl everyday. Day before yesterday I participated in a Tequatl kill thanks to the fine people at Tequatl Terror Squad. They were running the event in 4 overflows with more players clamoring to get in.

But it is a raid, you generally want to be part of a guild or associated with a guild to do it.

Xcom.1926:

I honestly think the game will have problems getting new players, not returning players. But brand new players who plan to level from level 1. And I hope they try to do something to help with this problem.

The 1-30ish experience is fine, it is fun and diverse. But from 40-80 it is a painful to level especially solo. The leveling areas are dead (which should be expected) and leveling from 40-80 by yourself sucks.

Not sure why people bring up Tequatl, good luck doing it on most servers today. Even on the busiest servers you will rarely see it down anymore. People have moved on sadly.

It really depends what class you are. I think the opposite when it comes to new/return players. I think returns are harder to manage but new players are easy to get due to free trials and this being a B2P game. Most everyone at this point has at least tried GW2 (clearly not a fact), I’m just generalizing here.

Karizee.8076:

Xcom.1926:

Not sure why people bring up Tequatl, good luck doing it on most servers today. Even on the busiest servers you will rarely see it down anymore. People have moved on sadly.

Don’t be silly. There are armies of players taking down Tequatl everyday. Day before yesterday I participated in a Tequatl kill thanks to the fine people at Tequatl Terror Squad. They were running the event in 4 overflows with more players clamoring to get in.

But it is a raid, you generally want to be part of a guild or associated with a guild to do it.

“Armies” on 4-5 servers out of the 51 servers that exist. That helps.

How come people still are claiming that farming is the only thing in this game?
I can’t realy see any point in farming in this game, why do you have to farm or grind?
Some people will always find ways to farm and grind in every rpg-game… It all comes to how quick you wan’t to be compleate, you could grind and farm your behind of in a week to kiss your Legendary hello or you could actually enjoy the game for what it is and achieve your Legendary when you have played this game long enough to deserv it.

There is no need to grind in this game and there is realy more conten’t to this game than just ascended gear, Legendary and gold.

Enjoy all the content of the game, if you don’t have fun then I would advice you to find a fun game.

To answer OP’s post.

This is an MMO so first of all you should find yourself a guild.

Second, you get experience for almost everything you do like; Crafting, Dailies, Killing, Reviving, Clear Tasks, finding new places, exploring all in all, Events and also you have to remember that going to maps that isn’t bound to your story or even maps that are lower levels than you still awards you with good amout of experience to level up and there are events everywhere to enjoy the story of the world.
Sell everything you get if you arent in to crafting sell all crafting mats too and go buy some armor for your level and your prefered stats.
I can tell you havent tried this game enough when you state that you level too slow in this game, in other games it takes almost a week for me to level to level 60 – 65 and in this game it takes me 2 hours max to level 5 livels, period.

But anyhow… the way you describe your feelings about this game is like you have made up your mind already.

Mathias.9657:

It really depends what class you are. I think the opposite when it comes to new/return players. I think returns are harder to manage but new players are easy to get due to free trials and this being a B2P game. Most everyone at this point has at least tried GW2 (clearly not a fact), I’m just generalizing here.

But let us say Joe Casual wants to try an MMO. The barrier to entry to GW2 is pretty high compared to games like Rift/Tera/Neverwinter/SWTOR etc. When Joe Casual is looking for an MMO he probably will try the F2P ones first instead of spending $40-$60 dollars on GW2.

A B2P system is AMAZING if all MMOs are subscription, but that isn’t the case anymore. There are so many free games to chose from.

EdgarMTanaka.7291:

How come people still are claiming that farming is the only thing in this game?
I can’t realy see any point in farming in this game, why do you have to farm or grind?
Some people will always find ways to farm and grind in every rpg-game… It all comes to how quick you wan’t to be compleate, you could grind and farm your behind of in a week to kiss your Legendary hello or you could actually enjoy the game for what it is and achieve your Legendary when you have played this game long enough to deserv it.

There is no need to grind in this game and there is realy more conten’t to this game than just ascended gear, Legendary and gold.

Enjoy all the content of the game, if you don’t have fun then I would advice you to find a fun game.

To answer OP’s post.

This is an MMO so first of all you should find yourself a guild.

Second, you get experience for almost everything you do like; Crafting, Dailies, Killing, Reviving, Clear Tasks, finding new places, exploring all in all, Events and also you have to remember that going to maps that isn’t bound to your story or even maps that are lower levels than you still awards you with good amout of experience to level up and there are events everywhere to enjoy the story of the world.
Sell everything you get if you arent in to crafting sell all crafting mats too and go buy some armor for your level and your prefered stats.
I can tell you havent tried this game enough when you state that you level too slow in this game, in other games it takes almost a week for me to level to level 60 – 65 and in this game it takes me 2 hours max to level 5 livels, period.

But anyhow… the way you describe your feelings about this game is like you have made up your mind already.

After all that, what are you left with?

A farm/grind fest.

Xcom.1926:

Karizee.8076:

Xcom.1926:

Not sure why people bring up Tequatl, good luck doing it on most servers today. Even on the busiest servers you will rarely see it down anymore. People have moved on sadly.

Don’t be silly. There are armies of players taking down Tequatl everyday. Day before yesterday I participated in a Tequatl kill thanks to the fine people at Tequatl Terror Squad. They were running the event in 4 overflows with more players clamoring to get in.

But it is a raid, you generally want to be part of a guild or associated with a guild to do it.

“Armies” on 4-5 servers out of the 51 servers that exist. That helps.

That’s just one guild’s efforts!

Follow this and you will see that Teq is going down regularly. (this does not include overflow information)
http://gw2dragons.com/dragons/leaderboard

Xcom.1926:

Mathias.9657:

It really depends what class you are. I think the opposite when it comes to new/return players. I think returns are harder to manage but new players are easy to get due to free trials and this being a B2P game. Most everyone at this point has at least tried GW2 (clearly not a fact), I’m just generalizing here.

But let us say Joe Casual wants to try an MMO. The barrier to entry to GW2 is pretty high compared to games like Rift/Tera/Neverwinter/SWTOR etc. When Joe Casual is looking for an MMO he probably will try the F2P ones first instead of spending $40-$60 dollars on GW2.

A B2P system is AMAZING if all MMOs are subscription, but that isn’t the case anymore. There are so many free games to chose from.

Most F2P MMOs are garbage imo.

Skan.5301:

EdgarMTanaka.7291:

How come people still are claiming that far… (My little rant)

After all that, what are you left with?

A farm/grind fest.

No, I have been playing since pre-release and have each class on level 80 with all atleast exotic equiped if that would matter.
I still enjoy doing most of this games content and helping my friends and guild, I still have maps you explore with my alts and I enjoy almost every new Living Story that comes.
If I play this game so much that there is nothing more to do than to farm I will quit untill there is something new to do and bi-weekly I have atleast some new stuff to do in this game.

Karizee.8076:

Xcom.1926:

Karizee.8076:

Xcom.1926:

Not sure why people bring up Tequatl, good luck doing it on most servers today. Even on the busiest servers you will rarely see it down anymore. People have moved on sadly.

Don’t be silly. There are armies of players taking down Tequatl everyday. Day before yesterday I participated in a Tequatl kill thanks to the fine people at Tequatl Terror Squad. They were running the event in 4 overflows with more players clamoring to get in.

But it is a raid, you generally want to be part of a guild or associated with a guild to do it.

“Armies” on 4-5 servers out of the 51 servers that exist. That helps.

That’s just one guild’s efforts!

Follow this and you will see that Teq is going down regularly. (this does not include overflow information)
http://gw2dragons.com/dragons/leaderboard

The advice people are giving to returning players is that if you want to kill content about a week old you either need to be on the top 4-5 servers in the game AND have to be there right after reset and that is the only time you down him.

Or you will have to join guilds that are specifically made for killing him.

Not the best advice.

Mathias.9657:

Xcom.1926:

Mathias.9657:

It really depends what class you are. I think the opposite when it comes to new/return players. I think returns are harder to manage but new players are easy to get due to free trials and this being a B2P game. Most everyone at this point has at least tried GW2 (clearly not a fact), I’m just generalizing here.

But let us say Joe Casual wants to try an MMO. The barrier to entry to GW2 is pretty high compared to games like Rift/Tera/Neverwinter/SWTOR etc. When Joe Casual is looking for an MMO he probably will try the F2P ones first instead of spending $40-$60 dollars on GW2.

A B2P system is AMAZING if all MMOs are subscription, but that isn’t the case anymore. There are so many free games to chose from.

Most F2P MMOs are garbage imo.

I agree, but the random casual player doesn’t know that. They will go with the game with the least barrier to entry. Also, tastes are weird, there are people that prefer Runescape over any other MMO in the market.

Xcom.1926:

Mathias.9657:

Xcom.1926:

Mathias.9657:

It really depends what class you are. I think the opposite when it comes to new/return players. I think returns are harder to manage but new players are easy to get due to free trials and this being a B2P game. Most everyone at this point has at least tried GW2 (clearly not a fact), I’m just generalizing here.

But let us say Joe Casual wants to try an MMO. The barrier to entry to GW2 is pretty high compared to games like Rift/Tera/Neverwinter/SWTOR etc. When Joe Casual is looking for an MMO he probably will try the F2P ones first instead of spending $40-$60 dollars on GW2.

A B2P system is AMAZING if all MMOs are subscription, but that isn’t the case anymore. There are so many free games to chose from.

Most F2P MMOs are garbage imo.

I agree, but the random casual player doesn’t know that. They will go with the game with the least barrier to entry. Also, tastes are weird, there are people that prefer Runescape over any other MMO in the market.

I agree that’s true but are you saying GW2 should be F2P with cash shop to keep up with the competition?

Personally I think F2P would hurt the game more than anything but that’s my opinion.

Mathias.9657:

Xcom.1926:

Mathias.9657:

Xcom.1926:

Mathias.9657:

It really depends what class you are. I think the opposite when it comes to new/return players. I think returns are harder to manage but new players are easy to get due to free trials and this being a B2P game. Most everyone at this point has at least tried GW2 (clearly not a fact), I’m just generalizing here.

But let us say Joe Casual wants to try an MMO. The barrier to entry to GW2 is pretty high compared to games like Rift/Tera/Neverwinter/SWTOR etc. When Joe Casual is looking for an MMO he probably will try the F2P ones first instead of spending $40-$60 dollars on GW2.

A B2P system is AMAZING if all MMOs are subscription, but that isn’t the case anymore. There are so many free games to chose from.

Most F2P MMOs are garbage imo.

I agree, but the random casual player doesn’t know that. They will go with the game with the least barrier to entry. Also, tastes are weird, there are people that prefer Runescape over any other MMO in the market.

I agree that’s true but are you saying GW2 should be F2P with cash shop to keep up with the competition?

Personally I think F2P would hurt the game more than anything but that’s my opinion.

No I would hate for it to be F2P. I just think the need to incentive new players better to want to level in this game. I would throw in big XP boosts with the Box copy or “Refer a Friend” type programs in this game.

Oooh, little tired here man. Yeah a RaF system would be great – similar to WoW’s for people that don’t really like leveling. TBH though you are missing out if you don’t level legit at least once through the game and get the gist of how things work.

If the RaF was only like 20% extra xp I think that would work perfect.

Yeah they added lots alright… Lots of the same thing! lol. Woot, new weapon, oh wait its just diff color. On top of that you cant even do dungeons at your lvl because the lvl 80s rolling it will kick you. (Why did they add a group finder again?)

Xcom.1926:

Mathias.9657:

It really depends what class you are. I think the opposite when it comes to new/return players. I think returns are harder to manage but new players are easy to get due to free trials and this being a B2P game. Most everyone at this point has at least tried GW2 (clearly not a fact), I’m just generalizing here.

But let us say Joe Casual wants to try an MMO. The barrier to entry to GW2 is pretty high compared to games like Rift/Tera/Neverwinter/SWTOR etc. When Joe Casual is looking for an MMO he probably will try the F2P ones first instead of spending $40-$60 dollars on GW2.

A B2P system is AMAZING if all MMOs are subscription, but that isn’t the case anymore. There are so many free games to chose from.

I disagree. The majority of people wanting to try an MMO for the first time are likely to already be gamers, so spending $40 – $60 to try a new game they think they’ll like will be totally normal for them because for most games that’s the only way you can play it. Also they’re more likely to associate “free” to play with browser and phone games which are shamelessly pay to win orientated, whereas buy to play games are usually less over the top with the microtransactions, if they have them at all.

In my experience it’s extremely rare for people to jump straight from never having played a game before, or even having only played casual friendly mini games to an MMO.

I know when I first heard about GW1 the payment model was a big part of what sold me on it. I knew about free to play MMOs, I’d even tried a couple, but I didn’t like them and they always seemed to be focused around forcing you to spend as much money as possible. This seemed more like a regular game, but with other people in it.

You certainly need a guild to get the most out of the game. It would alleviate a lot of the problems you have.

However, while prepared to answer the question posed by the thread title, the actual content of the first post reads a lot like “I don’t enjoy anything that was in the game when I was playing before, is it completely different now?” And the answer to that would be no.