Guild Wars 2

So, okay. I’ve seen threads on some topics that I will touch, but since I’m going to cut through a variety of topics, and some of them may not have had their dedicated forum thread so far, so I would have to make one for the “other stuff” either way… well… I’ll try to be concise, and I’ll try to make it… readable. I’ll use CAPITALIZATION (and bold) for general topic overview.

First up: Hello. This is Kranodor, I’ve been a Guild Wars 2 player since the first World Preview Event, which was an open beta weekend for Guild Wars, back then just Guild Wars, not Guild Wars 1 or Guild Wars: Prophecies. I’ve been on all GW games since release and I am rather amazed by what Arena.Net has cooked up so far. For the HoT BWE1 I had limited play time, and I did play some Chronomancer (my main is a Mesmer) and a tiny little bit of Reaper.

I did already submit a bug report about the ??? map reward that I got on a non-beta character, which was very likely the map reward for Verdant Brink, which this character never has been to, since she’s not a beta character. That was strange, in any case.

Now, to business:
The ATMOSPHERE is great. The whole thing feels like the Maguuma, but on steroids. The greater vertical traverse does add to the feeling of being in a jungle, and considerably increases the size the map feels like (and finally gives true purpose to the three layers buttons on the map, I presume). It’s hard to find your way around for the first time, which can be irritating, but I think this is how it should be. The DAY/NIGHT shift works well, but could be a bit more accentuated, at least visually (a little bit darker, more blueish hue for night). I’ve read that this night was “night light”, a relatively simple iteration. It already looked good for that. It’s an expansion of the Sandstorm in Dry Top, but it feels better done.

As far as ATMOSPHERE IN LORE goes, the ruins look great, the whole crash and shipwrecks stuff feels much better done than with the Zephyrites in Dry Top and… please, do continue to weave in character differences into dialogue options and voiced dialogue. I started playing my Chronomancer (a Sylvari) and made my Reaper an Asura to check a few things. The different bit of dialogue by Canach when finding the first survivors and having to decide if to scavange materials for defense or try to save the captives with Laranthir did NOT go unnoticed, as did the nifty little detail of a voiceover by an otherwise silent character (that is: unless Sylvari) in an ingame video sequence therafter. (Even though that voice sounded a bit too human, considering how different Charr sound…) – I already liked how the character race and bio was used for sprinkled-in little details in Living World 2 (a dialogue option with one of the Delaqua sisters referencing my Mesmers noble birth, for example) – to me this had a greater effect of making this bio felt than the first missions that depended on the choices.

In regard to NORMAL FOES encountered, it’s a mixed bag, really. I felt that there were a few too many launching foes, at least at times it felt like being a ping pong ball. I really liked the Pocket Raptors, on the other hand, and most foes seemed interesting enough to matter. The ones I liked least were the bugs, because the “vulnerable from the front” thing makes it hard for a mesmer to really dish out damage (all phantasms are basically useless, and any clone will incur the risk of having the bug turn towards it and making it immune to the Mesmer itself) and the spotted bugs have some very quick attack animations, and others that feel like ages, which means risking an initial hit, or maybe wasting a blocking skill.

I saw some part of the NEW DEFIANCE SYSTEM in place, although parts of it looked a bit make-shift still, I think it’s a step in the right direction. It could use a bit more clarity, and possibly variation. By clarity I mean that currently, there’s two different Defiances at work: One that has a grey, segmented bar when it’s depleted, and another that has a brown-ish bar filling up (that doesn’t get depleted by further control skills). Plus, 5 seconds of Daze are alright, but Daze is a relatively invisible effect. A knockdown or unique animation would probably be more helpful. The only foes I checked that didn’t have a 5 sec Daze as Defiance broken effect were… the spores, I think, and the description of what happens on Defiance end was unclear. But I think this might be due to the iteration this system is in right now.

Now for the EVENTS. I wasn’t able to enjoy too many of these, due to my limited access to the map, limited time. Most of the time I was on the event with the MORDREM BREAKER and the ELITE VINETENDERs. A lot of people said it was broken, I found it to be an interesting change in concept, and ideally challenging… that is, if it worked as intended. Sadly, the Pale Reavers didn’t snipe anything (or if they did, they did so without any sign of animation, and any visible effect) and for the small ledge (and limited player numbers when I was there) having four elite Vinetenders with bazillions of health that took ages to kill (in an otherwise very uninteresting fight) didn’t help this event. I don’t know how strong the effect of the Pale Reavers would or should be, but unless it is truly significant (which would also make the event a bit more engaging, as people would have to split up and actually fight) the Vinetenders should be toned down in number and in health amount. Also, why are those things even stun-able? If there was one left, and it was stunned, the shield stayed active, and since they don’t do anything besides casting the animation for the shield (which is only tied to at least one of them being alive, it seems) what’s the use of stunning them?
One other event that seemed either bugged or unclear was the collect tasty larvae as food for the Hylek one, with the Bats stealing the larvae. It was unclear if you could collect more than one larva at once (sometimes it seemed like I could carry two) and it was not clear if I had put them in the basket correctly (sometimes, it would be possible to pick them up again, sometimes not), or which baskets still needed filling.
Another even that I found fun (and that worked, like most of the simple kill X or deliver Y ones) but that was jarring because of a graphics glitch, was the “get explosives and blow up the vine by hitting its weak spots” one. The ever-present hovering explosives in that area made it seem like the players had stumbled into the aftermath of a magielectrical explosion in some Asuran lab.

As far as the MASTERIES go… I like the system. I found me asking myself which track I wanted to prioritize because they sounded interesting! I went for gliding, then. For one weekend, to test, it was a bit much. If you want more detailed feedback to the content of the masteries, or how much higher tier progression changes the game, you’d have to dedicate some testing to it. AS far as the time consumption goes, I think it’s about right, as far as I could tell by the short time I was able to test. One thing bugs me, though: Why the redundancy between getting a level bar full of experience and in addition needing a MASTERY POINT or more than one?

I only managed to get GLIDING to the first tier, but I have to say: I really, really liked it a lot. It may have been because I was more than a little sceptical about it, but I was surprised how well it meshes with general gameplay, from a controls perspective, and as a means of mobility. It’s relatively free-style, yet there’s some relatively clear-cut intended uses that add value, but the free-style of it works really well. Kudos!
(And it really makes me wish I could have unlocked the updraft tier, or one of the other masteries, but the game was close to unplayable on my last night in, and I had to stop from frustration – I can deal with a lot of stuff, but unresponsive controls / lags just kill playability altogether)

I sadly seemed unable to test the MAP REWARD SYSTEM (or the non-HoT masteries, for that matter) for some reasons… well, except for my non-beta main suddenly getting a beta-area map reward after logging in to get the daily chest after playing a few hours of beta (as of writing this – August 12th, 2015, around midnight CEST, my main character still has a blue ??? account-bound trophy item in her inventory – as I said above, I already filed an ingame bug report). It looks nice-ish, but I hope there will be some clarification on how to get those rewards.

I did play around a bit with one of the ADVENTURES. They seem to do what they are intended to do. As others have mentioned, it can be a bit confusing to have other people run around in “your” adventure, especially if they’re blocking your view (although you might glean some useful tricks from one of them) and the sometimes shifty and irregular naming and tagging of goals doesn’t help, either. I hope the leaderboard function will be expanded (with stuff like a friends leaderboard and/or a guilds leaderboard to switch between, telling you where you are in rank (with a total number of people on the list given for reference) and showing at least the top 5 or top 10, maybe even top 20). The leaderboard seemed a bit makeshift, still, but I like the concept of the feature in general. I did the Tendril Torchers one, and found Bronze rather easy to obtain, with a significant gap of what needed to be done to Silver and Gold, exactly how it should be. The reward structure could be a bit more clear, though.

Finally, my feedback for the CHRONOMANCER… I love the SHIELD I like shields in general. Considering it’s pretty much a signature weapon for the new specialization it’s a bit sad to only have two new skills and only be able to use them in combination with either Sword or Scepter. SKILL 4 is pretty cool (although a clarification on how long the second helping of it will be available after a block would be appreciated) even though it’s more risky than most other blocking skills – most of those have a “block, and do X, if not, do Y” formula, but this skill only rewards success. From that perspective, I’d almost expect it to be infinitely chain-able, which, sadly, it is not.
SKILL 5 is brilliant. I love it. A handy interrupt with buffs and debuffs and some damage. The pathing has a few problems with walls as well as with ledges and other abundant pitfalls, where it tends to disappear, never to be seen again. It also seems to return at varying lengths. While it could, of course, try to intercept me if I’m moving while it’s turning around, the distance it travels back shouldn’t be shortened by me moving towards it. The NEW SHATTER is… to be honest, it doesn’t feel like it does what it should. It sounded like a handy tool by description, but even if you do all the buildup and only blow it at full charge, it’s very short. Not that this is inherently bad, but it doesn’t really allow any significant repositioning or tactical play and thus largely boils down to “use your elite (or other powerful long-recharge skill) free of charge”. If you don’t have a full stack of illusions to sacrifice, it might not even last long enough to cast a skill that has a recharge. I’d rather have some downside to it (deal less damage, or deal part of the damage only AFTER the shatter expires, or even only IF the shatter is ended early by the player) but last a bit longer.
The WELLS are nice, but feel lacking in a way. That isn’t to say they’re useless. On the contrary, I used some of them a lot. I just think the effect between the normal and final ticks should be more accentuated (the final tick should be more noticeable, at least visually, if not by effect). Currently it feels like a normal AoE field with a somewhat low number and rate of attacks/ticks. Also, I wish there was a bit more to having the skill category of another profession than just having a nifty name (like some sort of interaction or cross-profession buff traits) to them.

And that’s that, my “quick write-up” of my impressions of HoT Beta Weekend 1. I hope someone actually read this, and that it may have proven helpful, I am GREATLY looking forward to HoT BWE2 and – as I am from that field – I do suggest creating a survey (and probably inviting participants by email) for further tests, as this could create some additional feedback.