Guild Wars 2

the bots were worth it just to hear the story. well played, sir – enjoy your brewskie.

I’m usually an altoholic myself – but this may be the first MMORPG in which I actually get a toon to max level!

I tried to make an alt once but then played for a couple of hours and said to myself “meh… I’d rather just stick with one guy to max.”

kinda nice really…

I like the healing turret myself – its a double heal with the toolbelt skill, it helps allies and it makes a good aggro sponge for ’nade spamming or escaping.

I haven’t seen any – but I’d sure like my GW2 engineer to have that nice hand held cannon that my T2 engineer totes around!

As a roguelike player from way back I can certainly sympathize with your position, OP, but the fact is that only a few games are actually designed for permadeath. Roguelikes are a good example. For one thing, they’re turn-based – which allows plenty of time not to do something dumb… which any game in real-time is going to make you do eventually. Hell, there’s not even a pause button in a MMORPG… much less a way to deal with death due to lag or service loss!

It’s an interesting problem. Heroic fiction rarely allows for the death of the protagonist – and RPG’s have had to deal with this mess since 1974. In a story – the hero is often captured alive – only to escape later from the lair of the bad guys, for instance… in a game? that could work, I suppose – but it would make group-play difficult.

I’ve always wondered why I couldn’t choose from different difficulty levels within the game to say – enhance my loot-finding at the risk of losing more xp when I die. Such a system could work in GW2 or any MMORPG because the rules would apply to individuals who could still participate together.

upon researching – I think combat mode may be too elaborate for me. all I want to do is hold down the RMB…

Found this script for autohotkey:

RButton:: Send {rbutton down}

After that, click ShiftRight Button toggles the right button being held down, and just clicking the right button again toggles it back off.

Dear Anet:

please do not ban me for this. I am a very happy customer and satisfied in every way except for this one issue. My middle finger gets tired and sore… making my right wrist tired and sore. this fixes it.

I run with turrets and grenades in PvE and it works really well. I think the thing to realize is that you can’t get too attached to them, they are not permanent fixtures. They are not so much for causing damage as they are for causing delay …

I use rifle, rocket and healing turrets plus supply drop for emergencies. But the general idea is to pull in some mobs, drop a turret (type depends on specific situation) and then – in the precious few seconds the turret buys you – because the mobs are not attacking you – you pelt those suckers with ‘nades, drop some cc on them (nets, etc). By the time they get to you they’re already dead… and if not, drop another turret, rinse and repeat!

I don’t know why there is so much hate for turrets. There are no bad turrets, only bad turret tactics.

@Ashmedai

Thanks, man!

:)

Hey, all -

Has anyone heard from the devs whether or not they are planning to implement a “mouselook” mode? A hotkey which frees us from holding down the right-mouse button all the time? Future patch maybe?

There were several posts about this a few weeks back but I haven’t seen anything about it for awhile. It’s a very important topic of concern for me and many others… repetitive stress on the carpals and tendons and all that…

I use two turrets: the healing turret and the rifle turret. I also have the trait “static discharge” from the tools line. with this combination, I can heal twice (toolbelt regeneration plus healing turret – which also helps other players around me) – the rifle turret isn’t powerful but it has a fast recharge, including it’s toolbelt shot. In combination with the static discharge thats a total of two heals, a fast shot, a decent DoT plus two free AoE electrical attacks. Very good use of turrets, IMO.

Yes!

This is the best MMORPG design I’ve played. (I’ve played EQ / EQ2 / AO / DAOC / WOW / EVE & about a half dozen others)

I’m with the OP. Holding down the RMB is actually a pretty big deal… Finger fatigue is an improtant issue after a couple hours of play – not to mention that I have enough to do already without my finger slipping off the mouse causing the screen to rotate wildly and disorient me in the middle of the fireworks show…

Primary hand: Sawed-off shotgun

1: Boomstick! Low dmg – Range 250 – Cone AoE sprays all enemies in 90 degree arc.

2: Back off, Charlie! Medium dmg – Range 250 – Single target knockback. – medium CD

3: Slugger! Range 400 – High dmg – Slug shot vs. Single target – causes stun – long CD

Off hand: Chainsaw

4: Get some! Medium dmg melee – 180 degree front-arc – causes bleeding – medium CD

5: Who’s next? High dmg melee – 360 degree arc – causes bleeding & knockback – long CD

It’s gonna be great!

Alright you Primitive Screwheads, listen up! You see this? This… is my boomstick! The twelve-gauge double-barreled Remington. S-Mart’s top of the line. You can find this in the sporting goods department. That’s right, this sweet baby was made in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Retails for about a hundred and nine, ninety five. It’s got a walnut stock, cobalt blue steel, and a hair trigger. That’s right. Shop smart. Shop S-Mart. You got that?

…too bad it ain’t gonna happen. But it would be awesome!

…because we’re the only anachronistic steampunk elements of the game and all the Tolkienesques want their genre back…?

Steampunk… the Eurotrash of Nerdom.

Run faster.

First time playing GW2 – first character: Engineer – played PvE for awhile then into sPvP

Round 1: I played with the set-up they gave me – I ran straight to a capture point, spammed every turret I had and felt like I was ready for anything. Seriously, I jumped in there – dropped a supply crate and three other turrets & felt invincible. The other guy there (a team-mate) actually took the time to emote a laugh at me. I thought he was impressed! Then we got steamrolled by – oh – three people (or one mesmer – I couldn’t tell). The turrets were useless.

Round 2: (actually several rounds later – but a different ‘set" of rounds) – I’m rifle man – fear me! A good trait set up featuring 30 in firearms, all the rifle bennies – some alchemy. I wear the goggles for the good crits. I work this pretty well, I do excellent (so it seems) single target damage. Okay! I’m a sniper, right? Wrong. I run into a 1v1 vs. a ranger. Ranger is sniper. Engineer is sad.

Round 3: Fire! Fire! Fire! The mighty flamethrower! Just like in TF2! …well… maybe not. I’ve got every trait with a flamethrower mention in it up to and including “juggernaught” …Fear me! Me in the fight – suddenly realizing everyone is running in crazy circles, zig-zagging everywhere, jumping around… slow steady damage of the flamethrower at medium range does not impress them. Even with speed boosts I cannot keep up. Poor, sad pyro.

Round 4: Grenades! I’m the mad bomber. 30 points into explosives – grenadier, improved radius and damage. 20 into inventions and alchemy. I’m made out of win! I carry bomb-kit for B.o.B. (everyone loves Bob!) I wear slippery shoes, I make people fall down and then blow them up! I remap my keys so that attack 1 is the F key… I am now side-strafing in clockwise circles – spamming grenades. I can’t see anything except my own explosions… I think there are red guys in there!?

Now my fingers hurt.

What little experience I have – I have not seen any turret builds in sPvP except the ones I tried when I first started – which didn’t work too well. They just get ignored / steamrolled. The only exception is the supply crate which is an awesome AoE stun with bonus gifts for everybody!

In sPvP – turrets would have to be four times as durable to be twice as useful, if you see what I mean.

In PvE – I experiment a lot with turrets – they can be fun when used as a purely secondary tactic. The problem is one of mobility… combat in GW2 favors the kite and the backflip – not the tank – so I end up running in circles around my turrets…

I see your point there – the traits are tied to the weapons so you really do have to pick and choose. But maybe that makes sense for PvP – just sticking with the one weapon or combo you’re good at?

Swapping weapons to change from melee to ranged, for example, may just be a convenience for PvE and was never intended to be used in PvP where we’re all expected to bring our “A” game and fight with what we’re best at – just like gladiators in the arena.

What I agree with you the problem is – is that each class only seems to have one or maybe two options for the best weapon for PvP. Hopefully this will evolve over time to encompass a wider range of options for each class depending on play style (offensive, defensive, etc.) – but even then we’ll still have to spend the traits for a specific fighting style.

Even if, for instance, the warrior has 3 or 4 legitimate choices for PvP weapons – he will still have to spec his traits to be strong with one or mediocre with two. Since PvP is what it is – I still don’t think there will be any weapon swapping 90% of the time.

Ah, quite. Yes, gentlemen – the panscopic monocle is a brilliant and spiffy necessity for our personal kit. Why, only a rogue or a scoundrel would call himself a proper engineer without one… eh, what?

Backpacks, indeed. Pffft. We are not mules! We are men of science! SCIENCE!

The armor problem has come up before… two words: “Mage Tanks”… everyone ends up playing wizards dressed as knights… why wouldn’t you?

It is a valid criticism that the OP has – why have different classes at all if they are all supposed to be self sufficient? A skill based system could do that better than a class based system. But then we’d be playing Skyrim Online I suppose.

I suspect that the devs may retool the game eventually towards a trinity-ish balance as far as that goes. Good point, OP.

I’m with you, man. Gold farmers and bots make me upset because they’re messing up the market. I hope they all get canned soon.

On the other side – crafting suffers. It’s hard to get all the mats you need. I had to give up crafting until they change the drop rates or something… but otherwise it’s a good thing!

I played original EQ – both carebear and PvP servers. It was an amazing game for it’s time and only really designed to appeal to old-school pen & paper RPG players, I think. The real sense of danger, the neccessary teamwork and the extraordinary circumstances it took to get ahead made for a gaming experience unlike any other I have had.

One thing people forget about EQ was that the long downtimes for healing, mana regen and travel were purposely designed into the game to allow players time to chat with each other and get to know each other. Often times such chat sessions were used to plan strategy and exchange advice.

Would I go back? I don’t know. I’ve often thought that modern MMORPG’s would benefit from having different servers with different rules built into them for higher or lower risk / reward gameplay… the same way you can choose a difficulty level in a single player game. Heck, you could make it an option for players on the same server. Players playing by harder, less forgiving rules concerning death and xp loss, for instance, would be rewarded with better and distinctive gear for their efforts… and everyone would be able to see it.

It was a surprisingly good review from Yahtzee. Even games he likes he only grudgingly admits he likes towards the end of the review after he’s already badmouthed all the things he doesn’t like about the game. In this review he mostly talks about the improvements GW2 makes over WoW & other similar games. That’s about all you could expect out of a reviewer that admits from the get-go that he doesn’t care for MMORPG’s as a rule.

Personally, I like the cut of his gibberish. He’s a funny dude with a good sense of timing and a funny cartoon.

to the OP: dude, you are a master gamer and a great writer! But, like a few others here I think you may have a sense of perspective slightly off-kilter due to your massive experience!

You paid $60 for a game that enterained you for hundreds of hours… as opposed to a $10 movie ticket for about 2 hours of entertainment (for instance).

Zen time, brother… zen time…

Been having a fun time in sPvP – I am only rank 4 or 5 so far (a rabbit?) – I can pretty much hold my own in most circumstances but 1v1 gets dicey as I mostly end up facing Mesmers, Thieves & Guardians… (in fact, I’ve noticed that most servers consist almost entirely of those 3 classes – and also some warriors). Thieves I can usually take out if I survive their initial burst, though. Usually someone else pops in to finish the fight for good or ill…

So – I know that Engineers are considered a “middling” PvP class – and I’m okay with that (the game is young – in a few months I could be OP!) – I stick with the crowd and help out from range – teamwork and all that. Heck, a few times I even end up as the “top player” – don’t even know how that happens!

But now I have some tournament tickets – and I was wondering how I should approach this? I don’t have a guild or anyone I regularly play with – can I just jump in a tournament anyway and win some fat lewt? …or will I be verbally abused to no end by all the mesmers, guardians and thieves for bringing a failbuild to their treasure farm?

Also – what would be a good build to help do my part? I usually sPvP with rifle / potions.

Thanks!

It seems like such a small thing, really! I just want a key that let’s me go into FPS targeting mode so I don’t have to hold down the RMB. Heck, I don’t even need a crosshair (although it would be nice).

It was the first thing I looked for under the options tab when I started playing the game. Other, similar games have it (DDO leaps to mind). Anyone who games a lot should understand how this is sort of a big deal… with all of the wonderful refinements the devs bring to this game I’m really surprised this wasn’t included!

Not a deal-breaker for me… but a puzzle for sure.

I just looked up Combat Mode 1.0 & it says A-net does not disallow it – is that true?

good info – thanks!

Engineer!

Lots of fun ways to play. Interesting to experiment with new toys. Something for every situation. I think if the devs ever feel like making the turrets more durable then we would be a viable point defender in sPvP as well.

Spryt.8012:

What do you mean with hardcore. Like EQ1 hardcore?
Where you respawn naked and have to fight your way back to your corpse to get gear back?
Where dying in some places without any respawn or way to get back in?
Where disarm makes you drop your weapon on the ground for any player to pick up? Where mob spawns required for progression are so rare you need to camp the same spot for hours/days?

Won’t deny it was a lot of fun back in the day. But tbh if they released that 2012 I think I would have to pass.

I’m with you here. My first MMORPG experience was the original EQ and I wouldn’t trade that experience for what it’s worth. That game had a real sense of exploration, tangible danger and fear. The PvP servers were merciless hells… anyone who earned their stripes in original EQ PvP servers are the ONLY gamers worthy to call hardcore.

I think it would be very interesting if the devs were to set aside one or two GW2 servers with the game-rules altered to mimic the original EQ PvP servers (as far as possible). Then see how many self-proclaimed “hardcore” gamers (like the OP) would stick it out to 80 or go crying with their tail between their legs back to the safe, warm busom of the regular servers!

@Raijinn: how do you make the right mouse button a toggle instead of a hold?

@OP: Nostromo is awesome – you can also map it to handle number keys and function keys by using the thumb buttons (arrow defaults) to toggle alternate modes… so basically I never have to take my hand off the nostromo unless I need to chat.

Well – the kitten devs can kitten shove their kittens up their kittens for all I kitten care – kitten this kitten if you think I’m letting a bunch of kitten kitten kittens ruin my kitten kitten rants!

…just kitten.

Just wanted to say THANKS to everyone who worked so hard and made such an excellent game. I have been having a blast this past week since I bought it and look forward to playing a lot more!

I have played many MMORPG’s – starting with the original EQ, but never managed to stick with any of them for more than a couple of months. A lot of what eventually turned me off of them I have already seen addressed in GW2, to name a few:

• No subscription: This is obviously nice – but also removes (for me) the pressure of trying to get my “money’s worth” out of the game… I can play it nice and slow, enjoying the content a little at a time without feeling like I missed something. I hope this model works well enough to support future content and encourage other companies to switch to it as well.

• Automatic group-benefits: Just run up an help! Everyone shares the XP, the loot, etc. – you actually get rewarded for helping complete strangers fight the mobs. This is nothing short of a revelation. An end to the awkward “should I help or not?” problem.

• Multiple ways to complete quests / automatic area quests: No more chatting with the NPC’s unless you want to (and I usually do) – just run in and do helpful things when you get in the right area… and less emphasis on inventory juggling aspects. All very polished, evolutionary ideas.

• Collectables straight to the bank: Genius.

• Little trail of white dots on the map show where I’ve been: I never knew I wanted this, now I can’t live without it…

• A limit to ten “keys I have to worry about”: I liked this concept from the first GW (although I didn’t play that one too long for other reasons) – I loathe levelling up characters in other games (I’m looking at you WoW & LotRO) because past a certain point I need to juggle dozens of active skills (and skill chains), monitor just as many passive ones and also try to figure out the best way to use consumables… no thanks. I use a Nostromo pad and it works just perfectly for GW2. The strategy comes from switching out skills before you go into a fight… that’s how it should be!

• Down-leveling allows for content exploration: No more big empty areas full of “grey” mobs to irritate me (anyone remember “roller-rats” from AO?) – I can go anywhere my level or lower and still be entertained – while still carefully exploring the edges of higher level areas. Now the whole map is opened up for those like me who like to wander (and yet are not lost).

• Underwater: automatically supplied with a rebreather & special underwater weapon? A whole new Z axis to explore? You win again, GW2.

There are many other things I’m sure I’m forgetting, but those are the big points that leap to mind. I know my experience is still fresh and I’m sure I’ll find things that get on my nerves eventually – but for what it’s worth those items I listed above are solutions to problems I’ve always had with other MMORPG’s in the past. To have them instantly solved the second I start playing is just way beyond awesome.

Keep up the great work, ArenaNet! You are truly master game designers!

As an engineer, whenever I switch from my standard weapon to my flamethrower (technically a utility skill) – the auto-attack option must be reset by control-right clicking on the desired attack. Is this a bug or is it working as intended?

If not a bug, then I would suggest that it be considered in a future patch to remember auto-attack settings for utility weapons.

Thanks!