Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars 2: A Review

First, a quick introduction. I am a 25 year old law student who has been playing MMOs for the last 10 years. I played WoW (through WoTLK), Rift (1 year), and EvE Online (still play occasionally, going on 6 years). I only gave GW2 a chance about six months ago because I noticed it on sale for ten dollars. I play a Ranger on Fort Aspenwood with a couple of friends.

Overall, I have been impressed by the game and find that as MMOs go, it suits my busy schedule better than most.

Positives

• Solid Combat Mechanics
I think a lot of MMOs fail right here. Most players will have come from playing WoW at some point and a combat system that feels clunky or unresponsive will be a huge negative. I really enjoy GW2’s combat and really like that it is different from other games in the genre. Rift was a WoW clone and felt clunky, SWTOR felt clunky, GW2 feels just right. GW2 has active evasion, self-healing, and a very high skill cap. I love the addition of the downed state as well. In all, GW2 has the best combat system of any MMORPG I have played.

• Fun Leveling Experience
At no time leveling my ranger to 80 did it feel like a grind. In fact, it was almost over too soon. The wealth of zones, events, quests, and exploration makes it pleasure to level.

• Good Market
The trading post functions pretty well overall. While I wish there was additional functionality (modifying orders, escrow, contracts, etc.), it works pretty well and has not generally been a negative.

• Beautiful World and Graphics
The graphics and art theme of GW2 is awesome. It is heads and shoulders above most of its competition that I have played. Not only are the worlds and cities beautiful, but the armor and equipment looks good too. The only downside is that there is not enough of it. Outfits are not my favorite.

• The Event System
Events are awesome. For the most part they work very well and are enjoyable to play even multiple times. I often relax from work by running a couple of events in cursed shore or SW. Scaling on events, however, often does not work well. A good example is cursed shore, where the events are in desperate need of additional scaling.

• WvW
Frankly, the main draw of the game for me. I am first and foremost a PvP player and WvW feels like the only real endgame content in GW2. I love that you can use your “real” build/spec, and that you play the mode in many different ways. I do wish there were better rewards from playing it and that it was a bit less zergy. However, WvW has given me many hours of fun and I look forward to what the future holds. I wish the WvW maps had more to do than just straight PvP however, it would be nice if there were more random dailies and events mixed in. That would make up somewhat for the lack of open-world PvP.

• Casual
The game is very casual friendly. The grinding is manageable, even ascended gear is fairly easy to get over time. I also liked that I am not penalized for periods of absence. With no subscription fee, it is very easy to take a few weeks off from the game when real life gets busy.

Negatives

• No Open Word PvP or dueling
This is one my biggest regrets from GW2. I understand why there is no open world PvP, it would be hard to implement with how the game runs, but dueling is a huge huge huge omission. Some of the most fun I have had in MMOs are dueling with my friends. It gives you something to do while you wait in queue and helps you hone your skills. That there is no dueling even in the PvP waiting area is absurd. I very much hope that HoT will allow for some forms of dueling and turn WvW into even more of an open world PvP experience.

• Not a lot for Guilds to do (i.e. no group content)
Dungeons are kind of underwhelming in GW2 and most of the open world content is far too easy for an organized guild. This means, compared to most of its competitors, GW2 has surprisingly little for organized guilds to do.

• Separate Instanced PvP System
I, for one, am not a fan of the separated PvP system in GW2. I don’t like that I have to pay to unlock runes I already own. I don’t like that I cannot customize my gear and runes to the same extent as in PvE or WvW. I don’t like that I don’t get to use my ascended weapons and gear. I would be looking forward to Stronghold mode a lot more if I was not forced into the silly PvP mode.

• Not Enough Variation in Gear
Finally, the various tiers of gear are way to uniform for my liking. I would really appreciate more randomness in the stats of some of the gear so that finding a cool item feels more unique. I would also really like more creative stat distributions. How about giving some pieces of gear only 1 or 2 stats. It just feels like virtually everyone is running around with the same gear and in the same combinations (i.e. zerker everywhere).
This is one area I think ArenaNet could really improve with HoT. I just hope that the expansion contains some kinds of new gear.

• Poor Pet AI
The most frustrating thing about playing a ranger is the pet. The pet UI is really quite poor. Moreover, that I can’t name my pet (and have the name stay) drives me nuts. I gave up naming my pets long ago.

Conclusion

Overall I really like GW2 and will likely continue playing it into Heart of Thorns. I am anxious to see more released about the expansion and would definitely be more likely to play if some my negatives were addressed. I would recommend that anyone curious about the game give it a shot.