Guild Wars 2

lacrimstein.5603:

Lack of PvE content for large organized groups (Raids)
Lackluster character progression

It was advertised that this game would not have those things – and that those 2 items hurt MMO’s in Anets opinion. It was all over the web, in their MMO manifesto video. Dev chats and interviews.

It was made very clear to me very early on that those two items would never be in this game and for good reason. It’s why most of us bought this game.

Zenith.6403:

Exactly knightblaster. Now we get back to the question I asked in opening post: if level-upping doesn’t give you a stronger character but rather appears to be a penalty, why have leveling system along the whole storyline in the first place?

Because – in my opinion leveling does nothing character wise due to scaling – leveling simply keeps you out of higher level zones you do not belong in yet.

Levels simply throttle the masses to stay in the zones they “can” be in. People would just run to Orr if they could… they reason they don’t / can’t is because they are not high enough level.

• edit – it also gives trait points prior to 80 so it serves as a tool to slowly unlock your traits.

There seem to be a LOT of complaints out there about how this game “should” work as far as lack of progression, and raids etc.

Please take 5 minutes and watch this video, because I have seen it many times and listening to what was said in the video makes it hard for me to listen to all these complaints.

ArenaNet’s Guild Wars 2 MMO Manifesto

I would like to see some feedback from unhappy gamers after seeing that video and knowing it has been on YouTube and their website for well over a year.

Amra it’s all smoke and mirrors – Look up some WoW census info – you will see that the game barely has 2 million “active” players right now.

Sure 9 million subs are being paid for – (mine included) I haven’t played in months. I signed up for a year in advance to get D3 for free… lot of good that did me. I’m stuck now till it expires.

Make no mistake – WoW is sinking…

It’s sad how this tread will probably see very little posting and will most likely fall by the wayside and it speaks more truth than most of them out there.

Birdy.4816:

Another baseless excuse, bottom line fact here is, arenanets pve endgame isnt complete so they have thrown this token grind to keep us busy. and it sucks.

Fact? please – Anet has said MULTIPLE times that grinding out an entire game to bypass 1-80 just to GET to the endgame content is mind numbing and refused to do it. They have said they purposely do not even have an end game for that reason and will not be adding it. The game is the end game starting at level 1.

So I would argue that it is complete and many people here that actually researched and followed this game for years knew this and it is no big surprise.

Those are facts – you might want to look the definition of the word up once.

I’d have to agree – that I also feel like the game is very “fun” but does little in the realm of challenging my gaming skills in PvE.

I’ve fought dragons, Giants, Undead sharks! and more. But none of them really felt difficult. Most of them felt like Move here for a while and shoot stuff. Then move here a while and hit some more. Then move here… Repeat for 5 minutes and poof dead!

I never really felt as if I was in any danger. If I did happen to die – there were always loads of people there to rez me quickly enough before I was defeated. Heck even if I did get defeated – just waypoint and run back to get back into the fight.

It’s all very user friendly if you ask me and pretty easy. Thats a little diappointing for me. I was expecting some really engaging difficult battles I couldnt overcome at first – then had to work on them over and over and figure them out, finally beating a boss and then going ape kitten over the victory!

That is the ONLY gripe I have for GW2 – The difficulty level. Everything else is GOLD!

I’m not a teenager, and i don’t want to play console type games on my PC. I don’t want to be permantly under a frustrating stress.

I find absolutely no pleasure in it.

It’s artificially too hard by unfair and unpleasant mechanisms based on reflexes over reflexion.

chaotic

hysterical gaming experience

All of this sounds like you were shocked at the game play. We live in a world dominated by you tube videos, twitter feeds, facebook, message boards.

This very site had lots of movies on all the classes and their MMO manifesto talked about the viceral, fast paced combat mechanic, it’s a shame you didn’t take the time to check around a little bit to know that you were getting into.

Honestly – the evolution of the genre has always been to move to a more Real-Time experience IMO. Lots of this wasn’t possible technology wise for years. Now we have much stronger hardware and internet connections capable of moving the large amount of data required to have all this real time combat in MMO’s.

We didn’t roll dice back in the day for combat because it was the best way – it was the only way, and all we had to simulate real time combat. It has always been about the best way to portray a real-time fight.

I mean, at it’s core we are talking about fighting right? The most accurate way to portray a fight is to actually BE the person swinging at your pace, rolling and dodging at your pace and removing numbers from the equation totally.

It sounds to me like you want the genre to stand still and be content with an older technology that suited you because it was more relaxing. I can see that – we all lead stressful lives I guess, to an extent, and games are our release from the stress. Pushing the stress bar even higher than it already is in life doesn’t sound fun to me either – I see that point clear enough.

I guess I am a different breed of 30-40yr old gamer than you.

vidiotking.1928:

No one responded, so I’ll suggest it again. Can’t they just make multiple versions of the same ‘zone’. Then there will never be too many people for a DE. Will make DE’s more difficult due to less folks.

No DE’s scale for the people there and instancing zones is just a terrible SWTOR mechanic that failed miserably.

Xfuryion.6835:

I only read a little of your post and stopped.
Are you mad? Guild Wars 2’s intention isn’t to do the game as fast as posibile.
It’s just the opposite! It’s about exploring, having fun and do as many things as you can.
They always said it and the game shows it.

What is wrong with you people? Are you blind or something?
Please, just quit without this nonesense.

He didn’t really talk about the very great parts of the game in his post. I think his main issue is the twitch aspect of combat and that speed and reflexes (read: skill) rewards the player. He who is faster and can react to a given animation to dodge or CC or counter attack wins the day. He doesn’t seem to like that in his games.

I think he is stuck in the Ultima Online days where you right click to move and spam left mouse to attack. UO was a masterpiece – don’t get me wrong. For it’s time that was an awesome game.

Most gamer’s relate enjoyment to tests of skill and speed / reflexes and HATE basing ones worth on the armor they have on. I value myself as a skilled gamer but in a game like wow where I could not attain the highest tier gear due to time constraints – I was viewed as a lesser gamer because of my gear score. Yeah in my prime I was pushing 40+ hours a weak and had the best gear in the game… you can’t do that forever.

I would much rather pride myself on my own person skill vs. the game telling me how powerful I am based on a number representing my defense, or how many times I miss being based on a number.

Who can honestly sit there and say standing face to face with a boss and swinging 20 times at, and him swinging 20 times at you was fun? Only to find out that because of my stats I missed X times and he missed me X times.. What? I’m standing right here how could I have possibly missed him?! He is ten feet TALL! How did he miss me?

Well for me and just about everyone I interact with online here is the state of WoW for us:

Ex-pack hits – Play WoW for a month or so beat all new content get new teir of loot. Quit WoW and do something else for a year.

The last 4 years have been this way and we are tired of it. If GW2 wouldn’t have launched we would have all logged back in like lemmings – beat the new content and moved on. The sad thing is that most of us keep our subs rolling for MONTHS and don’t even play thekittengame. I have finally cancelled WoW for the first time in years and I have no desire / plans to return. I am finally done with it.

This game takes care of soooo so many issues that I had personally with WoW that there is no way I see Blizzard profiting off that style of gameplay in an MMO agian. It was a one time shot – They made it big. Lots of people tried to copy the game and ride thier coatails (read: SWTOR) and failed so miserably the game literally folded within months of launch. People do not want WoW clones.

This is where the money is at now. I paid for 1600 gems that is over a months worth of a WoW sub. So the way I figure it – to support a game I love I will EASILY spend 10 bucks a month for 800 gems regardless if they get spent or get saved. I see it as my monthly sub for Gw2

I’m not sure how many people were on board with Vanilla WoW back in the day but gw2 roping 2 million players this fast seems very good to me. 2 Million players worth of sales, plus gem sales – I would expect to see content coming soon just like in LOL – the players showed the devs how well the game was doing by micro trans – which in turn funded more features/ content.

Micro Trans is the future for gaming and these game mechanics are here to stay if you ask me. It is a vast improvement over games of yesterday.

Yes because queue times waiting for just ONE tank, or just ONE Healer were working right?

How many times have you wanted to do an instance but couldn’t find a tank or a healer? That is what I find ridiculous.

Scratch that – how many people ROLLED alts to make tanks and healers just so they could actually run content because they knew finding 3 DPS was instantaneous.

Really? dumping a character JUST to be able to play the game using a character you might not enjoy – but at least it gets you in.

That my friend is a totally broken system.

AC is the hardest dungeon IMO and story mode at this point for me yields very few deaths. Explorer mode is another story – but with practice I bet I could get it down as well.

The level of teamwork and dependence on players here in GW2 is far higher than in games that use the Holy Trinity. Because if I have aggro and need to back out, people need to watch for that and pick up the slack. CC’s need to be used, and they need to be used at the right times and players need to know that.

It’s all doable – it’s just very different. I personally love it. Mass deaths happened in the beginning of doing dungeons for me, but now? not so much.

I have to say I agree with the OP.

I love this game and it is “fun” I will give it that and it looks wonderful. I also love the design and the mechanics BUT my real issue with this game is the challenge.

I don’t feel challenged at all with any of the content save for explorer mode AC of all places.

Dragons? honestly it is just a mindless zerg. Kill wall, move in do damage, kill wall, move in do damage etc. There really is no reason to die and if you do? there are 30 other people there and you get rezzed instantly.

Dynamic Events? Yeah they are fun, but I never felt like “Man this is SO difficult! we did it!!!! Yes!!!”

My memory drifts back to vanilla WoW where we had fought with ragnaros for weeks and we got further each week and then one week we actually downed him and were ALL screaming like little school girls on Vent – It was a momentous event and we remembered that fight to this day. Sadly I have been pushed hard enough in this game to feel like that.

This content is fun, but I feel like the difficulty is just WAY low on just about the whole game.

No to mounts – They were a faster mode of transportation period.

This game already has the fastest mode of transportation, waypoints.

We have run buffs for when we want to run through a zone and the only time you can’t have a continuous run buff is if you are alone and on CD.

Someone else mentioned dismounting and that is a valid point. In WoW I would just fly overhead or run past people on the ground all the time. Someone people here might dismount and help, but I would have to think that most people would just say “Im on my way to X location – and just blaze through without stopping”

I could not ever go back. My guildies and I were just talking about that the other night.
Gw2 has raised the bar and all I can say for Blizzard and companies like them – Their next title needs to be Gw2 “and then some” if they hope to compete at all. I see GW2 sales growing well past the 2 million mark they just hit.

This game will change the face of MMO’s going forward IMO, and I love it.

No decent heals? My warrior uses 6 heals, I also have tons of HP and toughness. 3 of those heals are group heals on SHORT cool downs. Anet can tell me all day there is no tanking – but I do it all the time. I also have an AoE rez using my banner.

I can plant myself in front of lots of mobs and never move out. Bosses are the same – the only time I am backing out is when a 1 hit mechanic is being used. Obviously you need to move for some attacks.

Mace/Mace Axe/Shield Warrior here!

“I want 1,000,000 precision, toughness, power,condition damage and vitality! I also need Heavy armor AND I need to use all weapon types! I also need more utility skills and traits so I can compete. I’m a caster btw…Thanks”

I run the same shouts that heal build using “on my mark” “Shake it off” “for great justice”

I run Mace/Mace Axe/Shield and have Superior Sigils of Leeching on all 4.

I trait spec 15 points into Tactics for the reduced weapon swap timer and swap on CD for addition heals in the form of life steal.

So 2 swaps heal me, 3 Utilities that group heal, and mending for condition removal and healing.

2 X Maces and Shield for CC.

My DPS is pitiful but hey… I can heal 6 times if need be. I’m also able to take a lot of punishment.

THANK YOU!!!! This annoys me to death! If I place it somewhere, that is where I want the banner. I didn’t put it there for someone else to pick up and move or worse to get a free run buff.

I use them to rez people and apply buffs. In WvW I have plopped them down only to see some dude run past and pick it up to run to a keep! Really? You’re taking buffs from the players in battle to get to the keep a few seconds faster?

It is frustrating to say the least – I am in favor of only letting the warrior who put the banner down, control it.

Or pop a window saying “so and so is trying to pick your banner up” then letting you click yes or no.

Not to discredit this post – but I see way points as a convenience, you can always go to the mists and tele to Lions arch and portal places for free. Then you are much closer to your place of interest and can waypoint for coppers instead of silvers.

ColinJohanson.2394:

No need to buy them, Gw2 will feature consistent free content updates and in-game events going forward. Our goal is to make it so you get more from Gw2 for free than you get from a game you pay a subscription for.

On top of a large amount of free bonus content, we will be expanding on offerings in the Black Lion Trading Company going forward, as well as be doing large-scale expansion content down the road.

We’ll cover a lot of the details on the kind of support and plans we have in place over the next month or so on the Gw2 blog and with our press partners.

We do appreciate that you’d like to buy lots of new content, but we’d prefer to give a lot of it to you for free, cause that’s what we think a responsible MMO company does!

That business mentality will keep me as a loyal customer for years to come. Awesome post.

Well stop deleting them :P you have multiple slots anyway haha

Rukia.4802:

Yeah let me just throw on some plate, shield and sword and start throwing down banners on my thief bro. I can’t do that, not to mention vit and toughness is useless on a thief you still die in a hit.

I love when idiots bring up real life to compare to a game in fantasy setting….

I was simply asking if people would DO what it took for their class to survive if they want to fight in close, like I did with my warrior. Is it much more challenging? Yes. Is it impossible? No.

The fact of the matter is there are a lot of people out there that are being bullheads about it. For example – WoW rogues playing thieves in Gw2 are wondering why the heck they cannot just safely position themselves behind a mob and mindlessly spam all their DPS abilites doing tons of damage up close without consequences.

Break out of your preconceived “class” restrictions from other games and play this game to its fullest. In the course of a day I change weapon setups out at least 3-4 times, as well as major trait setups.

While in my current weapon setup during a fight I am swaping weapons on cooldown to maximize effects from swaping.

I was in a dungeon the other night as some mesmer was like " I don’t care about fight instructions dude… im staff AoE… I don’t need to attack a target"

I thought wow – 1 staff? thats all you use those 5 skills eh? Thats a shame.

edit and why was he doing that? My best guess is he thought a mesmer was a caster and casters use staves and so he must use one because that is what casters “should” use.

Think of seeing Gandalf rushing into a battle with a sword – get the crap out of your heads the other games have pre-programmed you to be used to! You might be a stubborn guy and say “NO! I Prefer to use ONLY staves!” Fine – then you live with the fact that you are weaker than someone that is willing to drop that staff and set up another weapon or tweak major traits between pulls to utilize CC or something else that wins the fight.

I guess to keep this short and sweet I have noticed 3 types of gear out there – healing/support/dps

It sounds like you want a mix of survivability and dps and to that I say nay!!!! You cannot be a big strong dps class that can ALSO survive big hits.

Each build has to come at a cost or else there is no point to having different stats. Im terribly low DPS but I can out live most people. I use 6 heals on my warrior and utilize almost nothing but CC. Sure I would LOVE to be a viable DPS class at the same time but how OP would that be?

Even cavemen knew it was smarter to chuck spears at mammoths rather than run in and and face the things head on.

Ranged makes more sense for just about any situation.

I am a melee warrior on the other hand and Im not there for DPS. Im there to keep the people around me alive. I utilize 6 heals to do it and wear vit/toughness/ heal gear.

I almost never range – but I am stubborn! It can be done Are you willing to do what it takes to do it though? I can honestly say my DPS is not even viable at this point.. but I can stay up for a long long time.

Gurpsmeister.9068:

all you’ll get is butter anyhow..

Heeeyy woah woah – Don’t forget about the chocolate :P I get tons of that too…

Good thing I’m an armor smith…..

I am probably the WORST DPS warrior on my server, but I can tell you this – I can rez like no other while taking a beating.

I can also stand toe to toe with most mobs for quite a while.

Vit/toughness/healing gear = Survival

I have 6 Heals I use, rolling Mace/Mace and Axe/Horn. 5 of the 6 heals can be used when ever I want (even while rezzing)

In dungeons I let the other 4 people go hog wild on DPS – I keep the pulls / bosses on me!

Seriously I also saw a map of the dynamic evens triggering pre-launch and it showed a zone in the example and that dynamic events might start in the top left corner of the zone and begin to move across the map. If they met with resistance it would turn into an event. If not they would push onward until they hit a settlement or outpost and attempt to take it over. If they did – they would take ownership of it and continue gaining strength to move out and capture more player run territory.

All I see now are events firing that I can follow for maybe 1-2 steps and they finish (the event NPC turns into a vendor)

I have also seen some settlements under attack, we always repel them. I have walked into towns and, yes, there are red’s in there but they aren’t making defenses or looking to press out and actively attack other locations.

They also made mention of the enemy retreating back to the prior event once beaten and I don’t think I have seen any of that. If a band of centuars own one of our settlements and you beat them – it seems to end and you get a thank you.

Maybe it is us players? Maybe after beating an event we need to fan out and explore the area looking for where they pushed back to and continue to push them back?

I agree with the OP – unless we are missing something, this doesn’t seem to be working like advertised.

Kikz.5097:

Imagine you are alone in the zone having to prevent a centaur horde from taking divinity’s reach.

That’s why it wouldn’t work, people move on from zone to zone, some zones will inevitably be less populated.

Now imagine that you need a certain cafting item to lvl your crafting and it is found in a less populated zone which is totally taken by centaurs and you can’t get that item, this topic would be just about that.

They actually advertised that as working – They said that it would scale if there were only a few players around. If more showed up more mobs would spawn and the difficulty would get increased.

Anyone else out there feeling the same thing here?

After fighting the dragons and some of the larger events – I think I have settled on the fact that they were designed to be more fun/ interactive than diffucult.

They are cool looking, yeah, the mechanics are ok – but I just don’t feel like the group accomplished anything. I seemed to have the “Thats it?!!!!” feeling when we finished.

Honestly I have had more trouble with dungeon trash pulls than these big events and that was a little bit of a disappointment.

Granted – the gear that drops off them is balanced for their difficulty IMO. Ok blues and greens, maybe a yellow if you get lucky.

I guess I thought it would be more difficult so I built myself up too high about it.

I have been using this for pure utility and survival. It is low DPS but you can take hits quite a while before backing out. I reply on the other 4 people to DPS. I add some DPS to the table but it is not my focus.

This is a mod of a build I found on you tube for sPvP.

Build

It works around Tactics and the 30 point skill that heals when you shout. All my utilities are shouts, so they are simply there to use as heals. (That gives you 4 active heals including your main heal)

Additionally I have sigils of leeching on all 4 weapons that provide heals on weapon swaps, so that is 2 more heals. I put 15 points into Disc for the reduce swap time allowing for weapon swap heals on cool down.

Wearing all Vit / toughness / healing gear.

Also – you normally draw aggro in a dungeon for rezzing someone, so this helps as you will be able to actively heal while rezzing someone with your three utilities.

grifflyman.8102:

So the 8000 that flies above the mobs head is the added tottal damage?

What…

Yeah it is a roll up of the current damage. so wen you swing around look at the first number, the rest are just adding to it.

I am kind of torn on this as well.

I have been going Rifle / Mace Mace using leeching sigils for healing on weapons swap, I also spec:
Build

It revolves around healing and staying alive as long as possible. Weapon swaps heal, I have reduced swap via traits. I also use the 30 point talent in tactics that heals when I shout. All my utilities are shouts so they heal, I am not taking them for their effects really..

It’s not a killing machine – but I can survive like mad. It also helps tremendously with rezzing allies, because they can not kill you. (Shouts can be used while you are rezzing)

If you are looking for high DPS, this is not the build you want. This is a team build / Survival build.

Depending on the situation I change the rifle out for the bow for AoE ranged damage and combos.

Sucks when someone is holding bleed slots with inferior bleeds I bet

Wiki good

Condition Damage

In that link it says that you can see your Condition Damage by hovering over your Attack statistic in the Hero screen. I would assume that means that the higher your Attack is the higher you Condition Damage scales with it.

Sounds feasible right? I would have to test.

You start with a default “build” in PvP. For my warrior it is a Rifle and 2 axes and DPS armor.

If you don’t want that you can build your own stat gear and use the weapons you like to use for your own build.

*Edit your armor in PvP is all “steady” armor when you hit “H” as in day 1 you are wearing a full set of steady.

hex.3218:

There will always be roles. Many classeses can fill different rolls in different ways.

That does NOT MEAN you don’t need a TANK. That just means your tank could be almost anybody with skill from almost any class.

Notice the group in the OP wasn’t waiting for a Guardian, but a TANK.

Now, ANet made a huge mistake in how they described what they created. It’s not the end of the Trinity, IT’S A CLASSLESS TRINITY.

Trying to portray it as “Any group can get together, all just DPS away and you’ll solve every dungeon with ease!” might have been going a bit too far. It’s more like, “If your group sits down and thinks about it, gears up, makes a plan, sticks with the plan and adapts to the situation, you might be able to do almost any dungeon without having to drag another character out.”

Not to mention the ability to change out major traits without a respec, change utilities and being able to change weapons around to totally change your role between pulls. It is very user friendly to tweak a given group.

Eskali.1380:

Sounds like a whole lot of learn to play to me.

Not saying that this is the OP at all but I personally have seen a lot of people very accustomed to only visiting instances that were on Farm in WoW. Where it was safe to enter and just kind of button mash and get free loot. The learning curve is STEEP for those type of players.

The Guildies that paved the way to putting an instance on farm are the ones doing well in this game. They were faced with big challenges and paid the price for it wiping night after night in WoW and paying large repair bills, sucking down all their pots etc etc. First time Ragnaros went down anyone? Some of us worked LONG and HARD for that.

These dungeons remind me of that – they are difficult, but not so bad that you are stuck for weeks on content. It still seems like people can clear a dungeon the night they start it or soon after.

Support warrior here – Rolling mace/ sheild & axe/horn. Stacked Vitality toughness and healing.

I love it as well – lots of fun.

This is helpful – I was wondering about my bleeds vs. my ranger buddy’s bleeds. I see one number while he reports another number on vent so we were like hmmm… but we share the 25 stack?

So correct me if I am wrong X stacks of that 25 are mine and X are his. Lets say 3 of them are mine those 3 tick for me on screen and I only see them, while he will see his 22 stacks ticking away.

Meaning each tick he will see BIG bleed numbers, while I will see small ones generated by my 3 bleeds.

@OP

Anet is talking about dedicated roles of tanking, dpsing and healing confined to a single player more than the terms tank healer and dps being gone.

Each player is a his own Tank, Healer and Dps.

The trinity refers to the group composition of 3 people you could not live without in an instance.

In summary, yes you still need a tank (you have 5 in your group) you also need healers and dps, you also have 5 of those if you get me.

To me tanking is defined by dealing with the aggro of the target that is attacking you. If that means take some hits, then cool. It could mean dodging or kiting something as well. Generally you give what you can to the situation and back out, then someone else needs to pick up the slack and continue rotating through group members.

Our first 1-2 runs through AC were horribad :P

Once you get used to it though – we actually clear the place with few deaths. It can be done!

We really had to rethink how you play through dungeons coming from wow – it’s totally different.

For instance, monks heal , rangers toss traps, elementalists huge AoE dps. We had to stop and think of each pull as a well thought out plan and focus mobs down, while controlling others. Moving alot – dodging, Los’ing.

Use the ability to mark targets and make sure all use it and work together to get those targets down asap. Monks will own your group if left alone and you wont kill any of the other mobs with him around.

All the trash is CC’able too so use those CC’s

Bosses have mechanics and all go down pretty easy once you learn the fights.

AC Explorer mode is the hardest content I have done in a game lol, AC story has nothing on AC explorer.

I thought it was random right? you could have gotten a bad roll

I also believe that after your story there is nothing really left to do but WvW sPvP, explore and make alts.

Hypathia.1049:

NyghtProwler.9386:

The strongest gear in the game still doesn’t allow you to do any better in a lvl 30 dungeon.

And this really really blows! Not even a 4th mod, no…

Sorry but legenderies are not legendery at all (except for the look, which is irrelevant)

100% relevant That is where our opinions differ. It shows anyone looking at it that you did what it took to get it.

Why should stats outweigh the appearance of an item? Why is it important to do more damage than someone else in a game? I say you and I should do equal damage all day long and the better player succeeds.

Other games fail at this by awarding more time with more power. So while I might be a more skilled gamer – if someone can topple me with their DPS alone is that fair? Is that player more skilled?

That is a broken system if you ask me.

Hypathia.1049:

NyghtProwler.9386:

and when it finishes you will most likely unlock a vendor that is normally not there?

And then what? I can not buy anything which would be an upgrade. The itemization of this game is one big disappointment.

I’m talking exotic vendors, and what is your opinion of an upgrade? because stat wise you can find, craft or be rewarded all the same stat gear. It’s not about upgrading gear for better stats. It’s about finding gear that you think looks cool for you.

I bet you either don’t care about that or haven’t even seen close to half the skins out there. If that is the case – you might be right about not finding this game enjoyable.

The strongest gear in the game still doesn’t allow you to do any better in a lvl 30 dungeon.

Do you realize how many events are in each zone? How many can fire monthly or weekly or daily? Some won’t even fire if certain situations are not in place.

Do you know that almost all events are chained? and when it finishes you will most likely unlock a vendor that is normally not there?

Simply sprinting through zones are break neck speed looking on the map to plot the most efficient route to the next Poi or waypoint, not fighting mobs if you don’t have to is such a waste of all the time the devs put into this game.

It almost seems like you are racing to end so you can experience end game content now that all the mundane zones are done. Like “ok, done with all the chores! Show me the awesome stuff now and lets have some fun!” the fun IS 1-80, that is the end game – if you rushed through and wasted that away all I can say is you missed out.

There seems to be a lot of people feeling that way around here – and if that is your thoughts as well, I feel like maybe you wasted your cash. That is FAR from what this game is about imo.

Think Skyrim instead of WoW. Just sit back, chill and enjoy the game.

Levels mean nothing here other than restricting your movements on the world map.
Gear means nothing because of scaling so there is no progression.
Dungeons are not mandatory or necessary or to be done after 80.

It’s all about the trip, not the destination.

Ennarian.4620:

I just hit 80 today and my mindset hasn’t changed. I still have to complete my story, clear each zone 100%, find and complete all the puzzles, get in some Keg Brawls, explore all the WvW zones, rank up in sPvP, get stuff for a Legendary or so, run the last 6 dungeons and all explorable modes, get exotic gear, and start saving up tokens for some of the cool dungeon armor.

After that, I’ll probably make my first alt.

My thoughts exactly. I will be here a long… long time.

Jerakor.1678:

There is a form of tanking and a form of healing in this game it just isn’t the same as most games. I can tell you from experience that having a nice high defense person dancing around an enemy in melee is really helpful. Also having someone dropping Protection and Regen at the right times, pulling conditions off people, can be REALLY helpful.

That said… thinking that you can “tank” in this game by standing in melee and just mashing keys is the wrong way to go. Tanking is about dodging, interrupting, immobilizing, crippling, blinding, Aegis. This is why a lot of people interchange tanking with control for this game. Most importantly though, you need to recognize that your job is to help kill things, you can’t JUST tank. A good tank will be rezzing people because they can live through the hits for example.

You can “tank” but what you cannot do is stand in melee 100% of the time and rotate through a rotation and expect to live or be useful.

Wow good post! I do just that too- I find myself rezzing people a lot in big fights because I am the only one that can. Pop ignore pain and hit my shouts for heals and I can stay down and rez someone no problem. Sometimes the outcome of the fight is decided by that one rez… because in turn he rezzed others and we succeeded.

The Claw of the Ice Dragon we were fighting last night fears people over and over. My shouts totally negated that mechanic and I did it from range. People were like omg thank you thank you thank you!!!!

I tank and heal all myself – I don’t need to rely on healers. It opens the door to blame others for your lack of skill anyways remember these comments “WTF WHERE WERE MY HEALS!!!!”

Was it really the healer? I played a tank and a healer most of my 7 yrs in WoW and let me tell you those 2 classes took the MOST abuse.

Here in Gw2? That is all gone. Its up to the individual to handle his own business and I love that. I run a tank/support/heal spec most of the time and I take alot of punishment. I can stay in fights quite a while, but when i need to dodge, I do and when I need to run and change out to ranged, I do and when I need to heal I do. I don’t need to rely on anyone else. If I fail – I am to blame.

Fighting in this game is so much more versatile – I wouldn’t have it any other way.