Guild Wars 2

My first MMO was a much older game (I think it came out 1 year either before or after WoW did). It was slow, grindy, poorly balanced, glitchy, ugly to look at, had an unresponsive dev team (and when they did make a presence in the forums, they were usually jerks) and a hit-or-miss small playerbase and community. And if you want an example of the balance in this game – let’s have an example. Let’s say Norn, Humans, Charr and Asura get a rez at level 10 with a cooldown of 15 minutes. Sylvari get a rez at level 90 that has a cooldown of an hour. It also costs money to cast for Sylvari. And yet…

I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread.

I really did; the ability to run into other characters had me thrilled since it was the first time I’d experienced anything like it. With nothing to compare the grind to, I busied myself socialising and never really thought about it too much. I just accepted the game for what it was, flaws and all.

Now it might just be my personality but given how much I originally adored this old MMO, how does it compare to GW2? Well. GW2 has better graphics. Better connectivity; less lag. The combat is faster, more responsive and more visually impressive. It has more content. The classes are fairly balanced, give or take some issues with clothies (also keep in mind that this has just launched – the other game’d been out for years when I got to it). There’s actual PvP (this game was completely anti-PvP. No structured options, no duel system, nothing but a single arena that was expensive and difficult to get to and was only put in to test the nonexistent balance). You can play any role – in the previous game, there was a single race which could DPS and literally nothing else. The list goes on. The basic point is, GW2 takes this MMO behind the shed.

So I think for people like me, GW2 would have been a fantastic way to be introduced to the genre. It’s a great game.

My quote button’s missing.

“We can speculate a lot, but the wiki which is supported by anet who made the game dictates that they bear children in the same manner of humans, which denotes the likely hood of being a mammal. Even games have some logic. The difference between good and bad fantasy is how to make it believable enough to sell it.”

That’s true, but the question: is the design decision of having a creature that gives birth live but doesn’t breasts unbelievable? That is, does it take more suspension of disbelief than plant people running around? How about undead? Crystal dragons?

I won’t harp on because I’m sure I’ve made my point, but if we’re going to talk about how believable the game is I think there are plenty bigger things worth tackling first.

There are slight differences in appearances, as can be seen in character creation, but I think for a race with such little sexual dimorphism it’s really not necessary; maybe I just take issue with the large chance of one gender looking distinctly crappier than the other. It’s already happened with 3/5 races in this game. And I disagree with you on the sexual angles always being used for humans on the basis that it’s often sorely overdone – can we have average looking people, for once? GW2 suffers from this problem. Humans and Norn look so perfect they look absolutely terrible. It’s pretty much the only reason I don’t have one.

We really don’t need to shoehorn in that there should be gender differences. From a lore standpoint yeah, maybe there could be traditional clothes for different genders – maybe add them in as cultural options. But nothing should be forced on the player because of their gender. Or why don’t we start picking other character choices and making them wear certain armour skins because of them – how about light skinned and dark skinned characters. Yeah, they could have different armour sets. Why not, it could be a cultural thing. Etc. etc.

I won’t argue that having a true gender-neutral option would be best (or having the choice, at least) there’s just far too much risk that people’ll get forced to dress a certain way for the most insignificant of visual differences.

Amber Malachite.2179:

Neither Asura nor Charr are hatched. The both (at least to me) appear to be mammals, so it would make sense that they would have boobs.

I disagree for two reasons. Firstly, this is a fantasy world so I think there’s a bit of freedom with design. Not everything has to be perfect according to true logic – if it was, let’s take away the Charr’s second pair of ears. And their horns. And let’s change their cub models; they can’t be that muscular that young. Oh and all the Sylvari are dead now. The list could go on, but the point is if you have all this illogical oddness in the name of design/fantasy all over the place, little design choices like a lack of breasts is really inconsequential.

Secondly, even if they did (which Charr do) they don’t have to actually be breasts in the sense I think you’re suggesting.

The fact that I love that Asura have no visible breasts does not impact my judgement at all. No bias here. Nope.

Iron Wolf.5973:

All that being said, as I mentioned, armors should I feel be differnet between male and female, but what they play up is different then what is played up between human male and females.

I think the gender neutrality is great. All races should have the same thing – masculine or feminine clothing options should be a personal choice, and nothing should be forced on a character due to gender.

Torasan.6029:

That makes a lotta sence! Charr females can look a lil too rough, maybe need some ‘catwoman’ style ideas to sex em up a bit

…No. Just… no.

Sorry for the double-post, my edit button’s gone.

So I went to the character creation screen to look at the changes and I’ve noticed there are a lot of clipping problems with the ears. They weren’t always like this, were they? One of the male ear choices clips so bad it results in spikes sticking out the side of his head.

RainbowSyrup.4130:

Galdethriel.7524:

I’m a bit oblivious to what’s happened here, maybe my Asura just have a head sizes close to this change but… could someone explain what’s happened here? They’ve made all Asura heads bigger? Why?

they removed the head size slider. Head size now depends on what body you pick. :/

I see. Thank you for clearing that up for me.

Why have they felt the need to take the head slider away? If the OP was right, they were making their characters too small? I would have thought that being small would sort of come with the territory.

I’m a bit oblivious to what’s happened here, maybe my Asura just have a head sizes close to this change but… could someone explain what’s happened here? They’ve made all Asura heads bigger? Why?

I’d prefer that is did revive dead allies for a cost. I’d be happy enough if I could have it in its original form as an elite skill.

Because we’re so bad in underwater combat, I actually avoid any situation where I’ll have to fight in water.

The thing that’s really bothered me is Glyph of Renewal. They seem to be missing the fact that it was ONLY useful for DEAD players.

If you’re in PvP, the player you’re trying to help up will be long, long gone before you’ve finished casting GoR. And the player that killed them is probably coming to kill you, too, so you’re not going to have time to cast it. And this is true for both sPvP and WvW. If the player is NOT being finished off, and this will only be if there’s no one around to finish them off, then they can get up themselves or you can rez them normally and save a utility skill slot.

If you’re doing PvE it works like this: if the player is in normal PvE and is downed, the mob(s) will be quite weak. This means that it is just as effective to run over and rez them normally, or kill the weakest mob which will rez them instantly anyway. You can save a utility skill slot.

In hard PvE like dungeons, if a player is downed they will likely have a powerful mob finishing them off. This means that they will more than likely be dead before you’ve finished casting. If they do not have a powerful mob finishing them, you can rez them normally (or, depending upon the situation, kill the weakest mob and rez them instantly, again). So you can save a utility skill slot!

Am I missing something here? The ONLY useful application of this glyph was on a fully DEAD target. Take that away and there is NO point to it existing any longer. I find this upsetting because it was one of the few things that made me feel useful; you’re in WvW, there’s a player that tried to slip into the safety of the fort but was finished. You pop out, channel, bam, that player’s up and runs inside. It was a real sense of satisfaction when you could see someone just pop back up in the middle of battle to continue the fight. I liked it, even with the long cooldown (longer than some elite skills).

Now it’s useless. Ah well, it makes choosing utility skills even easier.

Darmikau.9413:

Really, REALLY want them as a playable race.

Especially if they /dance Gangnam style.

This, this, and this a thousand times!

I’m really new to the Guild Wars games and I ran into a Tengu; instant love. I love bird races – they’re so underdone. I even adored the Arakkoa in WoW but of course, they got pandas instead. I’d insta-buy an expansion that’d let me play a Tengu, so long as they weren’t made more humanlike (waters down the uniqueness of the race)!

I was quite upset to hear that the Tengu were planned to be one of the original playable races but were dropped, but what we have so far is fantastic. Still. Tengu! <3

I’m not sure what you mean; what have I never tried?

I just don’t really see the point of adding a weapon swap like this, at least not at the minute. It just seems like a shortcut to an already easy task. Just my opinion though.

Stormy O.7025:

@Galdethriel, “difficult” is an opinion (and it can differ from build to build). Either way, each class clearly needs to be played differently and some builds require more reflexes and good connections in order to be effective.

You’re absolutely right. But I think elementalist is notably harder than the other classes. It’s not that I don’t appreciate each class has mechanics – I love all the classes I’ve tried as they’re so diverse and interesting in their own way. But I think that having quite a squishy class with double the abilities to use which also cannot switch range like other classes can, and has cooldowns for its cooldowns, is going to up the difficulty a bit. It’s arguably more difficult than a thief or warrior, who are both fairly effective even if they decide not to weapon switch and fight with just a few abilities. They can also take hits better than an elementalist can.

Although it is an opinion, I think it’s a reasonably valid one, considering the complexity of the elementalist mechanics. They’re not bad, they’re just tricky.

To be honest, I’m not really seeing the point of having an out-of-combat weapon switch. We can sort of already do that just by opening our inventory and equipping a weapon. Maybe having specs that we could save could be useful, but that’s something else entirely.

I’m not so sure; I can sort of imagine a camera being Norn height on an Asura to be very awkward looking. Would you even be able to see your head bobbing around the bottom of the screen somewhere?

I vote absolutely NO for this. Keep those pesky DPS metres away from my precious GW2!

With the removal of the Holy Trinity it wouldn’t reflect effectiveness in battle at all, anyway. How’s a DPS metre going to show you that that player stopped attacking the boss in order to stack buffs on the party, or help a fallen player, or whatever other job it wouldn’t measure? Victory in GW2 isn’t about ignoring all else to focus on what numbers you can hit; you’d probably actually die a lot more that way. But despite that you can’t escape the fact that people will use metres like this to judge players. It presents a completely skewed and inaccurate view of battle competence and would only bring harm.

I would actually really like this idea, I’d love to be able to play little tunes. It could get annoying if there’s tons of people making noise in one place, though. Perhaps there should be an option to turn instrument sounds off, if that’s possible?

Otherwise, +1!

@Kuzzi: There is? I’ll have to find those! I still second the idea though.

If they build games for casual players then only the casual ones will play it. The hardcore will achieve everything there is quickly and easily, get bored and move on.

There should be something for everyone – if they make what is designed to be for hardcore players easily accessible for casuals, then it’s not really content suitable for the hardcore anymore, is it? Unfortunately for casual gamers like me and perhaps you, that means that ‘legendary’ really does mean ‘legendary’, and has a difficulty appropriate for a feature with such a name.

I was under the impression that Legendary weapons were meant to be for the most hardened, experienced, skilled and dedicated players: owning one is something of a badge of honour.

Just because it’s in the game, it doesn’t mean that you have to get one. I think it’s important to cater to both the hardcore and the casual and give them both things to achieve that they can be proud of. Legendaries are for the hardcore.

nerva.7940:

ele is a high skillcap prof. it’s very much fine.

In a ticket I sent in a few days ago asking about the class, the reply assured me that no class is meant to be more difficult than another. So I’d disagree with you on that basis.

It really depends for me – I love my elementalist but I have a really difficult time playing her already. Even if the class isn’t underpowered as far as pure numbers are concerned, the difference in difficulty makes them underpowered. So it’ll really be a case of how much more difficult they become as a result. I may have no choice but to shelf mine permanently.

I’m hoping that ‘watching’ is a good thing, rather than a we’re-considering-a-nerf thing… :/

I’m in the camp that wouldn’t mind seeing mounts in game, so long as they’re fairly mundane and ordinary and not these huge sparkling dragons or whatever. But I think you’d have to be mad to spend 10 gold on a mount if it can only take 5 hits – you wouldn’t even be able to ride it anywhere. Then again, maybe some people would like that.

ANet already likes to put in little fun things people can do besides the main game – maybe we could have the best of both worlds if they implemented mounted racing/jousting/etc? These would be instanced, would only allow you to have a mount inside the instance, and would count as another minigame or a lighthearted PvP option. If the system could handle it, I’d absolutely love playing minigames like these.

I believe ANet is waiting for the game to settle a bit before they start tweaking classes. I would hope that they understand that elementalist is having some issues, though, and will deal with it when they think it’s a good time to start making changes.

Personally, removing the repair cost wouldn’t make me any less frustrated. Repair costs are just an irritating money sink; dying itself isn’t even that bad. Unless, as in the elementalist’s case, I nearly always feel that it was unfair and I had no chance to recover. Doesn’t happen on any other class. That’s what really bothers me – going down fast with nothing to help recover.

I’m just really not a very good player, and as much as I’d like to play my elementalist I just find it so much harder than my other characters it becomes difficult to solo. I keep logging onto her and trying different weapons and builds that’ve been suggested on the forums, but no luck.

So, sort of.

My main problem with elementalist is that I think it’s a very hard class to play; this’ll be a great thing for some, but it’s frustrating to struggle with what other classes do with ease. I’ve talked to several guildmates, all of whom have played an elementalist to max or close to max level, and we all seem to have problems with it.

I’m no class balancing expert nor do I pretend to be, but here’s a basic list of what I think the problems are.

-Squishy. Very squishy, even if you spec to be tough.
-Attunements themselves: a great mechanic but also a tricky one. Having to time the cooldown of each attunement, and all the cooldowns of the abilities in those attunements, which will be needed fairly frequently.
-Having to switch also slows reaction time
-I believe in order to balance those 20 abilities with the normal 10, each ability must be weaker (at least true for attacks)
-Utility skills seem very hit or miss. I’d love for Signet of Earth (I think that’s the one) to root for longer, so I can put distance between me and my enemy, for instance. Some are much less useful than even that.

Those’re obviously just from my own experience, though. Others who have had more experience with elementalists than me also assure me that even at level 80 the damage is pathetic, and elementalists can’t get a high critical chance. Obviously this is just what I’ve been told, though.

My main wish is that when I spec wanting a certain focus on my elementalist I could get it. I’d be perfectly happy being a glass cannon if I felt like I was getting the cannon part. Or if I ran full earth and water to make me more sturdy, I’d like to feel like I can really take a hit. But in my experience it doesn’t make all too much of a difference.

Varkarei the Elementalist

Personally, I really like that the Asura have male armours. I get sick of playing every game, with few exceptions, where because I want to play a female character I’ll get forced to wear armour that’s skimpy to the point of impossibility. Even some armour sets in GW2 suffers from it, but playing an Asura has given a real breath of fresh air. It just feels so much fairer – I don’t have to put up with the game constantly reminding me that a character being female means it’s a sex object to oogle at.

That being said, I wouldn’t be against giving people the choice of having more girly-looking gear. In an ideal world, I’d have all the female armour available for male characters and all the male armour available for female characters, which would at least double the number of armours available. And it would be true equality between the genders, too. Why shouldn’t a woman be allowed to be clad from head to toe? Why shouldn’t a man be allowed to run around in a miniskirt? Like I said, GW2 is definitely better than most for making nice looking gear for both genders, but there’s still a few areas where it could be worked on.

Also, as for the Asura females showing their chests – chests aren’t bad. We’ve just all been conditioned to view them as being unacceptable… at least, when it’s a woman. Asura don’t have that distinction, so there’s no reason for them to have become similarly conditioned. And just personally, and not to sound arrogant but I find the notion of forcing them to cover their chests when it makes zero difference offencive; it’s kind of reinforcing that no matter how illogical it is, no matter how little difference it makes, society’s views must be adhered to. ‘Cause it’s a woman.

I’m in no way saying that I’d like all female characters to go topless; it’d bother me as much as the next player. But there’s little point in forcing our own gender biases onto a fictional species for which it makes absolutely no sense, and so serves only to reinforce messages we’re already getting drilled into our heads on a day to day basis in our normal lives.

So overall: more girly armours, yes! Armour free of gender requirements, yes! Switching out/changing armours to be more girly, hell no!