Guild Wars 2

Yes. I’m going to be gaming on a laptop. No, I don’t intend to spend $1,000+ on it. I know I’m expecting a lot, but it has to be a laptop and I expect it to run GW2. And run it well.

Right now, this is what I’m looking at to do the job. According to this site over here the graphics card should be fine. The processor is probably fine.

I dunno. I’m scared of spending that much money and risking getting disappointed. I’m not looking for consistent ultra-high settings, but right now, my FPS hovers around an optimistic 18.

What do you guys think?

You should be good to go with an MSI leopard.
I’m running GW2 (in Windows) on a 2011 Macbook Pro. With settings at high I still average around 15-20 FPS (it used to be much much better but the games optimisation has gotten worse). That MSI is a far more powerful beast and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Worse case scenario you return the laptop if it isn’t doing what you want?

Oh. I also found this here, which looks a lot like the other one, only bigger. It’s also cheaper, even if you upgrade the RAM from 8GB to 16GB.

Am I missing something here? I hate to sound technologically stupid, but this feels like I’m missing something.

It’s been a while since I looked at portable hardware, but that looks OK if you’re not planning running high settings. I sometimes play on my i5 Surface Pro 3… not recommended, but possible. Generally, you can get an affordable, powerful laptops, but the trade off will be either larger size, shorter battery, etc. If you’re contemplating a laptop instead of a desktop, I’m guessing you have some other requirements or use-cases outside of GW2 in mind… thus you have to consider if those trade offs are acceptable.

An intangible you should watch out for is the cooling solution… a poorly cooled laptop will just thermal throttle and you never see the benefit of your fancy specs. Try look up some reviews and see if anyone complains of throttling under gaming scenarios.

I intend to run high settings, or at least mid-to-high. I don’t intend to march around with ultra-high/max settings. I mean, I DO want to be able to function in the Silverwastes and HoT area, after all. XD

Anyway, I went ahead and ordered the first one – the Leopard. I’m optimistic about it. The second one, while potentially better, lept up in cost when I went to checkout, so the heck with that.

Additional/better cooling systems, and a mouse that doesn’t suck will be my next purchases. Any recommendations there?

There are “cooling pads” for laptops… not sure how effective they are, but they make sense in theory:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834992913&cm_re=laptop_cooling-_-34-992-913-_-Product

I personally like MMO mice… my GW2 control setup is a Razer Orbweaver plus Corsair M90.

Have fun with your new baby

Not familiar with the MSI laptops since I strongly favor Laptops based on Clevo Barbones and thus being highly customizable, but the one you’ve chosen should do the job on high’ish settings, even if the resolution is full HD (which I assume it is).
For comparison: I run GW2 on a 3,5 year old laptop with a GTX660m and 3rd gen i7 on mostly high settings just fine (though mine uses a HD+ display, but since your hardware has more power overall, that should close the gap), though you will notice the usual fps drops in WvW zergs and at world bosses.

Just bear in mind that this laptop is somewhat an “end-of-range” model, if you plan to play other games aswell that might be more hardware demanding, you might wanna rethink your decision.

About your cooling question: as long as you keep the air vent free and clean your fans regularly, you shouldnt need a cooling pad.
For mouse, just go with whatever fits your hand and you would use with a desktop pc aswell.