Guild Wars 2

So me and the wife both got copies of GW2 and I have a lot of questions to ask while downloading so here it goes:

1. Is the game still alive and well?

2. Will the future expansion be adding more system requirements then the current version requires? (other then the usual HD space I mean. More talking about graphics and such)

3. How casual friendly is the game?

4. I am used to playing a Healer/Support role in MMORPGs…so what profession should i use?

1. Yes, definitely.

2. Not as far as we know. Anet has made no mention of it and all the previews we’ve seen so far appear to be the same graphics as the existing game.

3. Extremely. It’d be hard to list all the reasons (especially from memory) but here’s a few examples:

• Since the game came out they’ve added 1 new equipment tier, which is optional. They’ve already confirmed that the expansion won’t include a new level cap or new equipment tiers, which means you don’t have to worry about rushing to catch up if you can’t play much or you’re away for a while.
• Everyone who attacks an enemy gets the same XP and loot as if they killed it on their own, everyone gets credit for events (quests) if they participate, everyone can use gathering nodes even if someone else got their first….basically there’s very little a person can do in PvE to ruin another person’s experience.
• Trade is always done through the Trading Post which means you’re always informed of the current market value and other offers, which makes trading much easier for casual players who don’t want to monitor that themselves and makes scamming/unfair pricing much harder.

4. This game doesn’t use the ‘holy trinity’ setup (tank, healer, DPS) and for most things people don’t bother with roles, everyone focuses on damage and everyone heals themselves. (This is sometimes referred to as zerk or zerker, after the beserker equipment which is purely damage focused and therefore usually the best option for pure damage builds.)

Having said that however there are a lot of options if you want to focus on support, or do a combination of damage and support. All professions have support options but the best is probably the guardian, followed IMO by the engineer and elementalist.

1. It takes me forever to go to Rata Sum, as there are just sooooo many people there. So yeah, the game is definitely alive and well.

2. Expansions don’t really change the engine much, so they shouldn’t change the system requirements much, either. Look at WoW, for instance. One big problem with it today is that it’s just too outdated. This is because while it has had a ton of updates and expansions, they don’t change the core engine much. Ultima Online had a major graphic overhaul, but it was changed from ground up, if I’m not mistaken. So don’t worry, GW2 won’t suddenly ask you to upgrade your system to continue to play it.

3. Extremely. Right from the start, you are set off to explore the land (after the quick tutorial.) You don’t even get a story until level 10. Plus, you get XP for just about anything, be it exploring new areas, crafting stuff, finding vistas (or view points), finding points of interest and so on. The only thing you don’t really get XP for is fighting stuff. Which might sound weird, but that just encourages us to not fight stuff to gain XP, but rather get XP by having fun.

4. I recommend Engineer, and here’s why:

First of all, there are no trinity in this game, so you do need to be able to support yourself. If you can’t survive combat alone, you’re screwed. I know that sounds brutal, but that’s the truth. Unless you have a friend you always team up with, you’ll be on your own a lot – sort of. (I’m getting to that.) Engineers are very strong, and they have plenty of ways to do damage and buff themselves and others. Adn they are a lot of fun.

Second, you will be onl yoru own a lot – sort of. Meaning you probably won’t be grouping much with the same people in the normal PvE game, but there are always people around you. Perhaps especially in Public Events that pop up here and there. From my experience, people are very helpful in these events, and everyone who contributes get rewards. This means you can run around throwing elixirs to buff the others, revive the fallen ones and so on, and you’ll get rewards. Plus, as an engineer, you can put up a turret or three, and let them do the damage for you. This is excellent for a support role. I use a flame turret, rifle turret and rocket turret, and they don’t need me to do much damage at all. That means I can sit back and watch the fight, especially in a group (events etc). Which in turn means I’m free to help others, rather than activly go on the offense.

Not to mention Engineers can get plenty of kits to help out, like bomb kits and so on. Not sure how useful they are in solo PvE, but if you are in a group, they can be very handy. This means you can run around doing a lot of damage and stuff when you are on your own, and when an event starts and people show up, you can safely switch to a support kit and help out that way.

1. Yes and No. Light retention, heavy rotation through returning players coming and going again with lots of new players like your self getting to the scene.

2. The expansion is going to be more of a map feature, but changes in store to coincide with the expansion are all game mechanics, and not engine mechanics. There are no announced hardware change requirements that I have heard of.

3. There is multiple groups here. There are lots of Casuals because of the shared experience system. This systems encourages randomly helping as all mining nodes, mobs, events, and things going on are shared not competitively locked down to and horded. There is a group of hardcore people who do their thing as always. You will align with guilds based on what meets your needs (and you can be in 5 guilds so don’t get tied into a 100% rep till your happy with those people.)

4. Don’t listen to the specific recommendation of play this character because I love it. You should use your 5 character spots and play several types. Do not race any where in this game or you will quickly run out of content.

If you take your time and test alts out, you will figure out what you do and don’t like. Feel free to add me to your friends list and hit me up in game when ever you have questions. You can use the posters account name to add to friends list, and you get their account so no need for character names.

Welcome to Tyria.

1. Very alive and well thanks to mega servers and more QoL features (wardrobe, customization and improvements here and there) makes for a more welcoming, easy experience.

2. ANet hasn’t listed any system specs yet for HoT that I know of other than stating something along the line lines of “most rich content to date” so I assume there’s a lot of new stuff being implemented.

3. Each to their own – very casual friendly. You get exp from basically any source (killing mobs, capturing a point, heart quest, exploring, crafting & so much more), in the time you spent lvling up and clearing zones, farming stuff once you hit 80 you probz have some gold to buy 80 gear. Ascended is considered ‘end game’ to some; it’s the highest tier of gear shared with Legendary stats and it’s just the mere, tiniest stay increases for those that want to ‘max out’ things so no biggie. Really this game is go at your own pace. If you want something you gotta work for it though – repeating dungeons for example.

4. There is no trinity in this game. Some professions will have certain things about them that do the job better but everyone can survive just fine. If you’re looking for healer related professions I can recommend Guardian (do it Oprah style be handing out those free boons for everyone), shout-heal Warrior (I personally enjoy playing warrior over guardian due to the higher health pool and visually aesthetically speaking – Guardian had this ugly Aegis shield effect that ruins the look of most nice shields but don’t let that ruin anything.. Just my opinion) and lastly is Elementalist (I have not played this profession at all but it does very nice at AoE heals, e.g; water fields on the players using flame rams is very appreciated in WvW)

Hope that helps.

Also new to game, but not new to gaming, and I’d like to refine the OP’s questions a bit…

What to play (class/build) for:
1. solo PVE
2. support PVE
3. solo PVP
4. support PVP

Answers that are unacceptable (mostly because they go without saying):

1. it’s the player (yeah we know)
2. play the one you like (yes thanks—not helpful)
3. they are all good (I’m sure they are, and I’m just as sure that certain classes stand out at the roles I’ve mentioned above).
4. There is no holy trinity of dps, heals, tank (ok, got it, but…I will be shocked if this doesn’t actually exist in guilds at least on a less formal level…even in the descriptions, guardians/warriors are the most tank-like, the mid and long range classes are more pure dps. I’m guessing the major guilds have characters designed to yeah self heal but also aborb mitigate while others specialize in healing and still others specialize in damage—even if 95% of any raid/run are self-healing damage dealers).

If I look at the boards for pvp, which class/build is most likely to stand out? I will probably not end up playing this class—I rarely do. I usually find ways of making a support class work in ways other people didn’t anticipate.

I know this sounds a little…arrogant? jaded? Sorry about that. I’m not new to forums. I’m really not like that, just trying to avoid the dev-pandering replies I’m used to seeing in other game forums. Looking for “here’s what’s good for what…if you’re into this..try this…etc.”

to 1,2,3 u hve ansvers.
4. if u are support/healer, its meen u like party and do stuff with ather ppl. if for pvp, so i cant help, becouse in pvp all go for themself, dps dps and try to survive, for pve, guardian going mostly as support. warrior as dps + banners.
if u wana find partys for dungs go for guardian, warrior, or elementalist. thay all wanted in partys. rest dont have as much abilitys to bring into party.

thats what i read up in liek 100 forums, i am still kind a new and trying to lvlup. but ll forum say same as i just told u =)

have fun=)

@Abdiel: there is, in fact, no set best class. At high level and if you want to follow the current meta (which is the impression I’m getting from your post), most if not all classes are good, you’re the one who has to adapt depending on context.

More specifically: for solo PvE, literally any class goes. The choice is going to be dependent on what kind of damage you want to deal (for example, condition damage is not great in group play but becomes a good option in solo, while direct damage builds remain good for both solo and group play, which means less-liked classes/builds like condi necromancer become viable), what kind of utilities you want to use and how much of an error margin you feel comfortable with.

A lot people tend to go for warriors or guardians for their solo running, thanks to them being relatively more durable than other classes (warrior thanks to heavy armor + high health pool and guardian thanks to having easy access to defensive buffs despite their low health) and elementalists are also pretty popular despite being the squishiest class due to them having the highest raw DPS, but all of the classes have something to offer.

For group PvE, any class finds a place in the current meta except for necromancer, who lack group support skills. The way the meta works is everyone uses gear that focuses on increasing direct damage output (what is usually referred to as ‘zerk’, short for Berserker’s, which is the prefix for +Power +Precision +Ferocity stat set), while setting their traits and utility skills to bring support.

A typical speedrun party can have:
- 1-3 elementalists for damage and might (+power buff) stacking
-1 guardian or mesmer to reflect projectiles/buff (usually guardian, that has more panic buttons and blocks for the party; mesmers are however invaluable for average-strength groups or make certain skips easier)
- 1 thief for high single-target DPS and longer skips where stealth makes everything a lot easier, as well as blinding trash mobs
- 1 warrior for party buffing
- 1 ranger for party buffing
- 1 engineer to damage, debuff & bring a wide range of utilities (*rarer, due to the fact engineer is probably one of the hardest classes to master & generally one of the least-played)
Now, parties are only 5-man, so it’s going to depend on who you have. Some dungeon paths I would be wary of running without a guardian or a thief, whereas for others I wouldn’t care having neither but would ask for an elementalist, etc. There are no healers, at all. Everyone brings their dodges and their heal and keep each other alive by buffing the group, debuffing the mobs and generally killing stuff faster than it can kill you.

I’m less experienced on PvP so take with a grain of salt, but from what I know/have seen/heard:

Solo PvP is going to be roaming in WvW, basically, since structured PvP is 5v5 matches on smallish maps. I believe for this the most commonly found classes are dagger/pistol or sword/dagger thief (burst damage + ability to reset if things go badly thanks to stealth + high mobility), dagger/dagger elementalist (good sustain, damage and mobility) and engineer (idem). I’ve also encountered mesmers, guardians and rangers, though slightly less frequently.

Group PvP is also going to depend on your game mode (WvW zerging vs WvW small group/guild vs sPvP).

For zerging (aka running in a big pack into some other server’s big pack), last I checked the meta was to run frontline warriors and guardians with backline staff elementalists and power necromancers, the other classes having more specialized roles and being needed in lesser quantities (ie having a couple mesmers is appreciated to drop a short stealth field to setup an ambush or a charge, thieves and rangers can be useful to finish off wounded enemies, etc).

Small groups are going to be dependent on your guild/friends/whatever, I can’t really say, this is what I’ve played least so I’ll refrain lest I say something stupid.

For sPvP, there’s several good builds currently in usage like d/d elementalist, rifle engineer or sword+warhorn/longbow warrior (among others) but it’s more a system of hard counters, where no build is so strong that it won’t be possible to be countered by another build or skilled player.