What can I do to enjoy playing a character?
I know I can’t really get into playing a character unless its an Asura. Have you messed around with other races? Other builds? It might be an aesthetics thing. That’s all I can think of.
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I like to pick weapons and skills that are fun or interesting to me and building my traits around that style. I don’t know, I played mesmer first and have all the other professions at 80 now but still love my mesmer’s playstyle.
What did you guys do to find a character you truly enjoyed playing.
Well, my main character (Freya, ranger) is based upon a girl that works in a local bar (oh, if she’d only knew she was my inspiration), so she looks very much like her.. And of course, like this you get some sort of ‘bond’ with your character, making you come back to it all the time.. :-)
Of course it speaks for itself that I also love the playstyle of the ranger (especially with 2 bows), so that’s another argument for coming back to her..
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You could dress up your characters, make them look good and stuff, well, y’know. I enjoy sitting in LA with my 80s simply because I got them to look nice, but that’s just me. :3
“Memories are nice, but that’s all they are.”
For me it’s a combination of playstyle and asthetics. But I would say playstyle is the most important, if I don’t enjoy a character I won’t play then, no matter how cool I think they are.
I’m realising this with my asuran guardian. I’d played guardians before and found them boring but I thought the idea of a tiny little girl holding off whole mobs with a huge hammer/sword would appeal to me enough to overcome that. But I created her months ago and she’s still level 7 because as soon as I actually get into playing the concept becomes secondary to the gameplay, I get bored and switch.
So I’d recommend as a starting point thinking about what you do and don’t like doing, not just in GW2 but in RPGs in general. What makes you think “wow that was awesome!” or just make the game feel more fun and exciting. My favourite is having a character who dual wields, relies more on mobility than armor/health to survive and uses tricks like conditions or traps, so I play a ranger and a thief, but I also play an ele and engineer for the challenge (and because I like all the swapping).
But it also helps a lot for me to build an actual character rather than just a model for me to control. Before I even go into the character creator I’ll have an idea of their looks and personality and build them around that. I’ll invent extra backstory for them and although I don’t exactly role-play I will imagine what that character would do in a situation and do that rather than necessarily what I would do or what I think is best.
Although again that last point doesn’t over-rule gameplay. I won’t stand in AoE because the character is stubborn and would refuse to move. I just mean I’ll pick the personal story choices and dialogue options they would.
“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”
For me, aside from gameplay, it was all about aesthetics. I always enjoy my characters a lot more once they look cooler, which is why I transfer down high-level skins to my alts and grind out transmutation stones to keep their look updated.
Maybe it comes from my background of role-playing and writing, but I also find that I need my characters to be… characters. It’s beyond me to give them silly or nonsensical names- I have to give them names that not only sound like names, but fit lorewise. If something about a character’s name isn’t right, it bothers me to no end. I also come up with backstories and personalities for them that I continuously tweak and build upon while I play.
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The R in RPG doesn’t really exist for me.
I usually have a general concept about the character in terms of offense/defense. I don’t bother with other people’s builds. I play with the build I think fits the concept.
I have some characters which just … are. I didn’t have an predisposition towards how they should be built. I find I enjoy playing those characters a lot less. I guess having a goal for each character is important to me. Without that I would log on and start wondering what I am going to do.
I played every single profession. And beyond level 10. Some professions like mesmer & engineer don’t really shine until you’ve unlocked some traits and/or utilities. I’ve “wasted” hours playing a profession that I’ve grown bored with. When that happens, I don’t delete the character, simply start another. I don’t look at it as wasted time though, because I’ve a) enjoyed my time playing it and b) learned what not to invest my gold in.
I main an asura engineer. Probably the last combo I would have expected at launch. But it’s fun and took me going thru a lvl 70 ranger, 45 guardian, 46 necro, and 13 thief to find. I enjoyed every level of those other characters but it took time for me to find my favorite.
Having 2 80’s makes your job a little easier. What specifically is it that you don’t enjoy about your toons? Not dynamic enough? Too 1-note? Not magic-y? Not versatile? Too much melee? Ugly armor? Wrong race? Identify that first.
[TTBH] [HATE], Yak’s Bend(NA)
I don’t think it’s something you can do, at least for me, it’s just something that happens. My main is a guardian, which fits the style of play for me so far (I usually pick tanky melee magic users in most MMOs), and enjoyed (still do) it a lot… same with mesmer, the second class I took to 80… then I grabbed an engineer, thinking I’d enjoy it, but for some reason never really clicked with me, he’s now gathering dust at level 20something, rolled an asura warrior for no other reason than liking the animations of a tiny asura wielding a huge sword, since I never really play straigh warriors on other MMOs, he became my third 80, now pondering on whether to delete the engineer and make a new char (maybe a ranger or elementalist), or whether to take the necro I created and is now sitting on rata sum as a banking mule for a spin.
wrapped up in some crazy ritualist hoo-ha from Cantha.
A real grab bag of ‘you can’t hurt me. They’re called Guardians.