Guild Wars 2

IMO absolutely don’t use them unless you’re at risk of quitting because it’s taking you too long to see the content you want. I’ve capped five toons, and regret using a boost on my sixth. The classes need to be played to get into and master, so whether you skip leveling or not, you’ll still need to put in the hours to learn. By skipping you’ll be doing that in content that’s way more unforgiving. Plus I think leveling from 1 is still GW2’s best endgame… and HoT will be as fun and viable to play after PoF release as it is now, /train

Edit: my boost was on ranger, and he’s sitting fully decked out in exotics but unplayed in Rata Sum while my elementalist gets all the kittentang ;-)

Running fire/water/tempest staff and controlling groups with water 2,4, earth 4, fire 4 and air 3 is excellent to offset squishiness. Add your pick of shield and let her rip. Movement and mob position awareness are key. I rarely run into any PvE trouble I can’t handle solo, but I’m keen on keeping player DPS ‘bots’ ;-) alive.

Running HoT with fire/water/tempest staff, and I’m surfin’
Dunno about PvP.

For an OCD event guy like me, game is better than ever. Can’t comment on PvP.

I couldn’t care less about story and actually enjoy endlessly repeating events, simply because I’m hooked on the combat. Different strokes, Sir.

Having played WoW on-and-off from vanilla to Legion – and having recently burned out on the latter, what really struck me after getting back into GW2 (I played it since beta, but quit a couple years back) are the quality combat, down-leveling and events. These combine to make a world that feels alive, rewarding me for doing pretty much any content, no matter what level, at whatever pace I enjoy. I don’t feel obliged to login (no sub), and I play it not as an MMO but as an actual GAME. If I get bored, I logout.

A few tips: don’t rush leveling. Do all the map stuff: events vistas, etc. but don’t feel you have to complete everything on one map before moving on. Just carve a path through the content however you like: explore, always join events you run into, help out. The down-leveling means you can (and will) come back to do or repeat content, as much of it remains relevant, even as part of the endgame.

And maybe it’s too late but… DON’T USE INSTA-80!! Save it, and savor the content on your first run-through. I hate alting, normally, but I’m currently leveling my fifth, and loving it…psst, elementalists are awesome, and mesmers too ymmv

In random order:

The combat
Events
Soundtrack
No level cap increases
Level scaling
No sub
Asura poppin’ o~o

Well, at least I understand now why this game hasn’t moved an inch in the direction I was hoping it would: an epic, dynamic world with player actions having at least some measure of influence on it. What we have is a ton of (great) mostly solo leveling content, a bunch of dungeons filled with kitten bosses and extremely unsatisfying PvP. Back to vanilla WoW for me.

I wish it were my number #1 MMO – I tried, but after about 700 hours I’m burned out and back to pandaless v2.1 WoW, which is still my #1 MMO by far. Leveling is aweful in vanilla WoW compared to GW2, but WoW’s dungeons are still far, far more enjoyable than GW2’s, at least to me. Plus: MC, BWL and Ony. More dots !

Not meant as a cop-out but why not switch professions ? I found the elementalist pretty hard to play, but had a great time leveling my mesmer (and warrior and ranger). It might just be your playstyle isn’t well suited to the elementalist, I know mine wasn’t.

Having to simplistically label actions or things as “best” and “worst” is nothing but the primate brain trying to establish a picking order, and considerations like this have no place in any rational discussion.

In short: who gives a kitten ?

Tried the dungeons, tried the fractals, and to be honest: without the trinity, I’m just not enjoying them. There, I said it. Yes, I think we (my little guild, all of whom are taking a break from GW2) played as intended: combo’s, offering support, self-healing and re-buffing on the counter. It’s kinda fun, but, to me, far from the great time I’ve had just healing parties and raids in other MMO’s.

IMO the problem with GW2 dungeons is that ANet hasn’t used the ‘all classes are self-sufficient’ system to good effect on trash and boss-fights in dungeons. Instead of challenging us with well-scripted fights most bosses are just tank-‘n’-spank (by yourself) and boil down to longish fights chipping away at a mountain of HP, with the occassional dodge, heal, CC to avoid instadeath for you or somebody else.

I’m sorry to say I grew bored with them very quickly.

I hope new content (we do need an expansion announced IMO…) will improve, and I fully expect it will. But in the meantime, it’s back to 1.21 WoW for me..

Yramrag.3026:

I am flabbergasted – people are still arguing about this pick?

Maybe people who have too much time to burn on a forum are exactly the sort of people who have no spare cash to spend on something they enjoy. Add a dab of narcissism, and we’re on page 8.

Geotherma.2395:

ophidic.1279:

Goettel.4389:

Nuka Cola.8520:

danbuter.2314:

Nuka Cola.8520:

why would you buy it with any kind of money?

Real life cash may be easier to come by than in-game gold for some.

Not only an infinite mining pick is useless because the normal ones are cheap but spending 10$ for pixels and pixels that aren’t even useful is kinda funny imo. Like not because its new YOU have to buy something as worthless…

Have you ever bought a DVD ?

Useless pixels on a disc, why buy those ?

OMG HAHA I love this comment.

What is a DVD? I have all these Blu Ray thingies… you kids and your new fangled technological gizmos!

Just as with games, I gladly pay extra not to get burdened with any quaint physical media.

Nuka Cola.8520:

danbuter.2314:

Nuka Cola.8520:

why would you buy it with any kind of money?

Real life cash may be easier to come by than in-game gold for some.

Not only an infinite mining pick is useless because the normal ones are cheap but spending 10$ for pixels and pixels that aren’t even useful is kinda funny imo. Like not because its new YOU have to buy something as worthless…

Have you ever bought a DVD ?

Useless pixels on a disc, why buy those ?

/bumped

Made the jump to a dev kit, can’t wait.

Vireio support for GW2 would be worth the price of entry alone, for me.

A qualified “yes”…

I’m burned out working on my fourth 80 – stuck in the late 60’s for a couple of weeks now, about 700 hours in.

Adventure Box was a lot of fun, but what’s still lacking is… I don’t know, really. Something about GW2 is off for me. With all the quality on offer, I should have been hooked. But I’m not and really haven’t, yet.

It’s a great game, with little competition IMO. I’m just gonna enjoy some of the many other games waiting, and come back in a while.

Well, after about 700 hours of fun (and it was), I uninstalled GW2.

The reasons are simple: I just couldn’t find my ‘groove’. The dungeons I’ve seen didn’t offer a sense of wonder and exploration and they didn’t offer challenging fights – just fights requiring repeating the same tricks to chipp away at mountains of hitpoints. PvP lacks team cohesion, probably because all classes are self-sufficient to some degree. Also: biggest zerg wins. The exploration of the open world is great, but not as great as it can be – I find the instancing of the zones simply breaks my immersion, and there’s a lack of places of wonder without having to smack random mobs to just look around, which is a shame considering how awesome much of it looks.

The (few) guilds I’ve seen lack cohesion, probably because of a lack of the need to truly organize large groups (raids, yes).

GW2 is somewhere between gobsmacking awesome and somehow sterile because I don’t feel truly involved or committed.

So a quit rant ? Not really: I love this game !!! I want it to become more. Yes, whatever constitutes “more” seems to be different for just about every player, which is also a good thing.

So it’s a “when I get back” thread.

When I do return (and I will), I’d love to see some things differently, things that I think are within the intend of ANet:

- Craft new dungeons with a focus on tactical (boss) fights: less hitpoints, more dynamics/scripting. Use e.g. textures and sounds which aren’t in the open-world so we know what’s on offer inside is unique, not more of the same with a couple of zero’s on the mob HP counters.

- Drastically rethink PvP maps to create a more natural flow of players, with more choke-points and significant and obvious advantages to your team. Give expert PvP players extra boons and/or conditions which make them natural leaders in-game, to encourage team-play. Add duelling to the open world, so people can more easily make the transition from PvE to PvP, simply by having some fun.

- Add more strangeness to the world: zones with odd day-night cycles, NPC’s that turn ‘red’ under certain conditions (e.g. phases of the moon). Sync day-night cycles across zones and to certain time-zones – having my virtual world at approximately the same clock as IRL adds to the immersion. Get creative with stuff like constelations – why not have starsigns which yield boons and/or conditions ? Seasons would be even more awesome…

- We need news of an expansion. Or at least I do. I need to know that next to adding to the existing world there’s all new content coming, with new graphics, new sound (please ! sound is one of the best aspects of GW2)…and hopefully some new, improved voice-acting.

- Adding to the existing world is great too, in theory. If you do add, make those additions epic in scope, longer in duration compared to current DE’s and more significant in rewards – what about e.g. being able to unlock extra utility skills by doing long chain DE’s ?

I could ramble on like this for ages.

If you’ve taken a break, like me, what would you like to see on your return ?

LordChoobaka.1496:

They kindly gave me the IP, and tracked it down to a place in China. What do I do next?

Nuke ’em from orbit.

It’s the only way to be sure.

To me, GW2 is easily the best MMO since WoW, and is currently the best – “best” meaning (again, to me) the best and most forward-looking, the freshest and the most fun to actually play.

Having said that, I’m burned out on it about 700 hours of very casual play in. As a game, that places it in my list of all-time most played games. As an MMO, it’s still second best – after WoW.

It has not become the ‘next step’ in MMO’s I hoped it would. It’s very close in places, but there’s a list of things which keeps it away from being a true classic.

Yes, it is doing well and will continue to do so. I’m still confident it can grow into its own and become what I think many of us hoped it would be, but the clock is ticking.

Just to add: whatever else happens, GW2 is a remarkably beautiful game, crafted with so much obvious love and skill that I feel a bit bad typing what I just did, and ANet’s success has been hard fought, and well earned. Good luck to us all !

Welcome !

Fair warning: don’t get addicted to dyes ..

I tried GW when my mates were in it after they were done raiding in WoW.

I didn’t like it, mostly because GW isn’t an MMO in the sense that you can play with a lot of people. It’s basically a singleplayer/co-op game with an ‘MMO lobby’, but also because of the bland/old graphics and clunky (looking) interface.

I wouldn’t recommend you pay a lot for it, but since it has (or had) an army of dedicated fans, there’s obviously a good game in there, somewhere.

After spending 10 minutes in the GW2 beta, it was clear that it is an entirely different beast, so liking one doesn’t necessarily translate to liking the other as well.

Well, I think the current outbreak of sourpuss-itis is due to the long, long winter – assuming OP isn’t from Australia or thereabouts. Otherwise, might I suggest you just go outside for a bit ?

Agreed, sweetest ‘seasonal’ so far, and an awesome piece of work – keep it coming !

People who hoard large stacks of cash generally don’t seem to be willing to part with any of it for any reason, so good luck. I’d do it without hesitation, if it wasn’t for having spent it all on lapdancing Asura chicks, cheap LA booze and shady and addictive substances near LA boondocks (know as “dyes” – be careful with that).

I find almost all of the GW2 soundtrack to be either instantly forgetable standard fare or brash, pom pom POM fantasy fare, which is an terrible shame after Soule’s work on Skyrim.

So: huray for custom playlists !

Why ? Fun.

Your turn: why do you grind instances for make-believe cash ? Wouldn’t that time be better spent on a real job for real money ?

If only we had huge hammers… (no double entendre).

I’d love for ANet to add this.

Sorin.4310:

Nathiest.5413:

Such a needless restriction. awe-well.

Both you and gemmethegepgun are right.

He’s right on the fact that you can just use your bank, and you are right that it just seems such an odd restriction to not mail yourself. I’m really curious as to why it is not allowed. But I wouldn’t expect a response from an Anet employee. At least not one that truly explains why.

The reason is that you could store items in mails to your alts, circumventing your bank limit, which can be increased by spending gems = money.

So it makes perfect sense.

Arbitrary listings are arbitrary.

Study physics ?

Train to become an astronaut ?

Go outside ?

You’ll have to be more specific about your interests, apart from gaming.

+1

The dungeons in particular feel ‘off’ – there’s no real fun to be had in running them, and chipping away at tons of HP while running through the rotations and combo cd’s doesn’t cut it for me. I’m 650 hours or so in, nearly done with my fourth 80, and I really love a lot about this game.

I love difficult content, but I think what is lacking is extensive playtesting of the dungeons. I hope new instances will be more about tactics and teamwork, but in the meantime, I must admit that my play has dropped to an hour or so of the daily, the occasional frustrating PUG instance (since most of my guild has left too), and it makes me sad that GW2 seems to be stuck so close to being the ‘next step’ in MMO’s.

But -hey- the game is great as it is, and it’s a great frame on which to start building towards becoming the true classic it should be.

I completely agree, and it’s one of the main negatives of GW2 for me.

The reason they did it like this is undoubtedly due to technical limitation of the engine, and it’s a good solution, but I do miss the feeling of truly exploring an open world.

An hour a day, maybe two.

/age is about 650 hours

A bit of trauma helps to remember don’t sweat it.

I dislike making choices in games based on utility. In GW2 I picked the races, professions and weapons of my (five) toons purely based on looks, backstory and projected fun-factor, and couldn’t care less about racial skill choices. But -hey- if it works for you: that’s good !

Oxstar.7643:

I think you should look up the word “objective” since I don’t think it means what you think it means. But I’ll say it, it means from my point of view.

No, “objective” means the exact opposite from what you think, smart-kitten.

Humans > Norn > Charr > Sylvari, talking about low-level zone population.

I don’t know Dragonbrand, but it might be a good idea to transfer to a high pop / full server like Desolation (EU), if you don’t mind spending some dough.

Maybe look around for a good leveling guild too, if you’re so inclined.

Rukia.4802:

Extremely alt unfriendly actually, in comparison to let’s say WoW

Except WoW leveling has been extremely boring since vanilla – what with Blizz killing off world PvP (remember that?) and never catching on to the basic idea that you have to give people a reason to be in low level areas other than leveling ASAP to ‘get to the fun stuff’.

how does the game encourage us to alt?

By offering the most fun leveling content of any available MMO (or at least the ten or so I played).

Feel free to try elsewhere.

I actually like leveling in GW2 the most – never had that before in an MMO. So I’m spending most of my time alting, I’m almost at 80 on my fourth toon.

If there’s nobody around to do dungeons, guest it or even transfer. Desolation (EU) is alive and kicking.

A nice price considering no sub.

Qnopsik El Qox.1269:

We already have a similar system with mobs. Those alive for a long time give a nice bonus exp.

Implementing this for DE’s would be a great boon to low and mid level zone populations.

Herr der Friedhoefe.2490:

Seriously, taking a break will leave you so far behind in gear and currency that you’ll never catch up again. It’s treadmill game design and players must make choice. Stay on the treadmill, or find a new game?

I think you might confusing GW2 with your Farmville addiction or something, we’re not playing the same game in any case.

OP, like others said, just take a break. To me, the addictive draw of something like a WoW or Everquest has set the expectation (or even requirement) that an MMO should provide for thousands of hours of continuous play, averaging 3 to 5 hours a day play or even a (a lot) more.

GW2 just isn’t that kind of MMO, and it was designed not to be, no matter how much trolling goes on about it.

So have a break ! I’m down to just doing dailies and an instance here and there, and enjoy every minute I do play, but I’m sure there’s great things ahead for GW2. You gotta love subless MMO’s

Just blow it all on dyes, IMO.

I’ve also been using it for months, don’t worry.

GW2 is a working man’s MMO, and in the one or two hour per day I spend on it, I’m having plenty of fun with my small guild. There’s plenty of good MMO’s for people who can afford to spend ten hours or even more per day on a “progression” treadmill.

Presumptions and expectations don’t make an argument.