Guild Wars 2

Well as for me GW2 is typical game for casual playing…. Go sit play 1h/day, and log out…. Of course there is no grind accept from DDs, cuz if I want to grind, after a while I would be punished, and killing mobs without drop is not grind….

Before release I was wondering how they are going to make profit of the game and I think I have my answer… Gem to gold trade. OK you can still make profit probably up to 5G/Day playing actively, having some luck and thinking all the time how to not get “punished” by anti grind systems implemented anywhere. But it is not playing the game – it is playing the game the way developer wants me to and no other. Playing normally and doing all I was intended to do pre release I would end up having 0 money, broken eq, and dead somewhere without possible way, to port myself.

Don’t get me wrong here. The biggest problem is that the content takes too short. And adding mobs 10x more HP doesn’t make grind at all, you simply makes thing slower (of course you could achieve same result more sophisticated way). After completing whole content you would have enough mats to LVL craft and make full set, but after that you have sPVP witch for some would be great or big black hole….. If you want to grind anything you can’t, so you are left with DDs and WvW. DDs same as grind after few runs you will start getting out of money (besides they are nothing but grind, as all of them are to simple and to fast). WvW is not an option on alone you wouldn’t do much…. Maybe grind mobs and collect crafting stuff (I can do same things at any zone). Meeting up with friends would require to login late at night or place a bot to simply move my character while I would be away, so that we all can meet at certain hour.

The problem is not if there is grind, not even if there should be grind. The problem is there is not much to do after reaching lvl 80 and reaching that lvl is far to fast. Fine I could probably farm all sets from DDs (I don’t see any sens with that as I can wear only 1 anyway), but for me it would take 2M tops probably less than 1M, even I don’t see the point I could also fill up the character slots with 80lvls 100% Map chars. But even then I do not suppose there will be new content before I end this all.

Well from my personal experience warrior is simpler to play (to play it well to be correct). And have better DPS 10-20% tops, but you should easily keep it up with retaliation, besides I haven’t seen pure DPS guard build, well it seems not to be possible, as traits lines kinda makes it impossible. Also distance fight with guard is harder, because skills seems to be much weaker.

Well as for DDs 1 run should be simply longer and give more badges or same amount, but lower the price at vendor…. I personally don’t mind spending 50h+ dungedoning to get full set, but doing same DD 30-50 times over and over again is a different story.

Main problem of GW2 is that everything is to fast… LVLing up to 80 takes (depends on commitment to the game form hardcore-player to casual) 2-21days. For casual it is no bad, but I do agree that part with LVLing is singleplayer, with parts of good MMO. At that point you can still aim at 100% of map. That should take another 7-35 days. Later is collecting EQ. As for crafted, after 100% of map it takes top 1 week no matter of game style. So far no grind, but no MMO also. Than you can do DDs and start MMO. So you can do each one once + all path, so 4 times, and that will take 2-32 days.

As for casual nice 3 months of game…. As for more dedicated player 1M tops. After that grind it is. If you could only save progress in DD, and full run would take 3h instead of 15-20min, than it would be different story. Same with lvling. You can get up to 80. with 30% or less map completion….. And with event system it should be something near 100% + many events behind. Not mentioning event should be hard to complete and longer. Fight with mobs (zones 50+) should be tough alone.

If you like PVP, you can go there and have fun for ever you don’t care about content. If you don’t you have hybrid WvW, but you have to wait few hours to get there first and during that time probably changing colors of your clothes? As soon as you get there you will also understand, that bigger zerg always win. You could say, that you don’t have to fight with zerg and that is true, with 5 ppl you can take over even Keep, but eventually there would be opponent zerg somewhere, and this is where the fun ends. Besides find 4 other, as your guild mates are probably still in quote.

After almost a month of GW2 I am a bit disappointed. WvW are all about zergs and this is because (I think so) maps are too smal (basically distances between castles) and there is not enough NCP (that stays neutral), between them to slow down the aggressors. This leaves not much space for any kind of tactic…. Currently the war could be all about 4 castles…. 1-st zerg is attacking “Castle A”, 2-Nd “C B” and 3-rd “C C”, after taking over 1-st “C B”…….
DD are all about grind and most of all completely not rewarding grind…. Maybe some would like to go there 40+ times to get look alone, but for me costs, as gold as the end is nerfed is not a good reason to do same content over and over again. As I’ve said I don’t mind doing single dungedon for 50h+, but let it be 10 runs with option of saving progress, to casuals instead of 46 times same content.

Currently cost of telepotring is definitely too high. This game should be about playing together and doing event/dungedons. Dungedons money were nerfed instead of doing DD simply longer. The way this system works (or rather doesn’t work) make me only stop doing them. So stay with events. To teleport same map you pay 1,5-2s… For event you can get 1,86s, so obviously teleporting is taking whole profit and we are talking only WP on same map….. As ANet is encouraging as to switch them with drop system the costs are even bigger. Going for another event usually is not an option to, as it takes too long (event will simply end).

As for money sink, the biggest currently is TP, 15% of any transaction is really big deal. Second would be repair. And currently third WP. Probably soon upgrading castles in WvW would take Second maybe even first place. So even WP an no cost is an option in my opinion. Still I would agree, that it wouldn’t be as good. Maybe 50% cut at 100% map is an option.