Guild Wars 2

So I recently bought GW2 and have been working on getting several classes to level 80… then this nerf came down the line and I’m wondering how this affected the balance of classes for record speed runs. I love the speed running community and would like to do it when I get level 80 but when I logged on to my warrior my crit chance had gone down by nearly 30% which is just… massively weakening. I have several other classes around this same level and all of there dungeon builds have been slowed down quite a bit, has anyone come out ahead of this patch? Who took the smallest hit? How does necromancer fit in now that Condi-damage is so great?

I can’t find this anywhere in the store and was wondering if the recustomization allows you to change race… I rolled sylvari on my warrior and I just don’t like playing as sylvari…

The problem here is that you are right… I mean really from this stand point I should just form a guild or join a young one… but it just seems daunting to establish a guild this late into the game (What with people having tons of influence by now). I feel punished… oh well. I’ll give it a shot.

So there has been a lot of research into different playstyles of the years. The most popular model is probably the Bartle type system (designed for MMOs particularly, wikipedia has an article explaining it quite well). There are others that have done similar research keirsey, lazzaro, etc. Gamasutra has a unified theory comparing them all: http://www.gamasutra.com/db_area/images/feature/6474/chart.png.

So now that we are all on the same page: Where are these types designed around in GW2? I have played this game and am a Socializer which although this game has many social aspects along with socializing I like having caretaking and compassion as well as just being there hanging out. To me it seems that removing support and healer roles from the game completely cuts off this part of Lazzaro’s “Paths to fun”. So where is this represented in the game? Is it in a class (or multiple classes) is there a way to play this game where that is covered? In many ways this game scores greatly on the hard fun (fractals and the like) serious fun (grinding, slow progress, therapy like), Easy fun (leveling down for content) but it seems that people fun is just so under represented. As if some how being an mmo seemed enough for the designers.

Sorry I don’t mean to beat down the game (as I stated it’s a near perfect example of many of the other types of fun/ playstyles) it’s just it seems my playstyle seems under represented and that just… seems not right… I feel like there is some huge part of the game designed for me that I’m not seeing. Is anyone else?

TL;DR: Where are the mechanics that involve people fun, socializing, care-taking, counseling etc.

Thanks for all of the answers I’ve finally started to have fun in this game thanks to some of the suggestions! One of the best communities other than the overprotective-ness some of the players have over the game.

Because this is a social game, that I would like to play with all of my friends… and I just feel that I am approaching it wrong. Or that perhaps I’m playing all the wrong classes… or don’t know enough about it. Surely if all of my friends who like the same games as me like it then there must be something about it that I can like?

So I bought GW2 to play at launch with all of my friends. Since then all my friends have played it on and off and each time they go back for a patch… I’m left behind because I’ve only ever gotten to level 30… and find this game really, really boring. Now I don’t mean to hate on the game I think it has a lot of good design it’s just… well the combat (at least on my Mesmer) is just dull and repetitive. So back to the question and my problem. I need help getting into this game and getting to high level so I can not worry about leveling anymore and just get into the end game stuff (the patch events etc.) The huge issue is that I only tend to like playing healers in MMOs and there is no trinity in this game… I can’t seem to feel like I’m reacting to what’s happening as much as I’m just repeating a rotation… or playing whack-a-mole with cooldowns. It seems as though the developer’s solution to the trinity problem was forcing everyone to be a DPS… not a solution. I actually like playing the PvP in this game (NOT WvWvW) but that doesn’t level you last I checked and won’t let me play with my friends as far as PvE content is concerned. I’ve tried several classes (Thief, Warrior, Engineer, and Ranger) got them to around level 20 and just couldn’t take the grind anymore. How do I have fun while leveling? What do people like about this game? Why do people like being forced into one role instead of having 3? What can I look forward to? What class should I pick? etc…

TL;DR: How do you have fun in this game, whilst gaining levels? What class has the least rotation feel? And Is their a way to avoid the whack-a-cooldown combat?