Guild Wars 2

thanks for the info Incaulpatus

Haven’t played in a very long time how can I get caught up?

hello,

I haven’t played GW2 in a while. I think the last time I did Scarlet has just blown up Lions Arch. Is there anything that can help me get caught up to the current story? Thanks

I haven’t played in months. I quit because I frustrated with how much they changed this class from the original version.

Did they ever fix this class to where it’s actually good? Like being able to effectively use bows and not depend on your pets buggy AI so much? Are the trait trees any better or are they just more useless skills scatter about?

Can this class do decent damage now or is it still a hit and run class (like shoot and arrow and hit someone then run for your life)?

Instead of investing on the uniqueness of GW1 like the lack of focus on a level cap, loot drops, highly adjustable character build system, highly focused PVE and PVP, Realistic Art styles set in real world cultural environments, battles that required strategy and teamwork instead of spam or zerg groups, etc. etc. made the GW1 really stand out on the shelf. To me GW2 is too much like other games that I already played and it has been a disappointment for me because I was hoping to continue GW1 in an updated version that offered more of the same play style but with a complete facelift to it. When I play GW2 It makes me wish I was playing GW1 again. Then I remember all those hours I spent in GW1 day dreaming about GW2 and looking forward to the new challenge.

For people that haven’t played games like WoW,Rift,or games like that for a number of years GW2 is probably “new” to you. If you never played GW1 you wouldn’t know how different this game is. I noticed a lot of players that I met that played WoW jumped to GW2 looking for salvation but only found more of the same and went back to playing WoW again once the new hype wore off. A lot of the people I met that still play this game never played WoW or games like it before. I noticed that GW1 players either hate or love GW2 or stick in the middle as they adjust to the new changes or went back to GW1 altogether.

I will say it’s hard to log into GW1 and not bump into someone that actually likes GW2. I think most players currently still playing GW1 loathe GW2 since it meant the end of GW1 and any future changes for it.

For me playing GW2 feels like I’m playing an alternate version of WoW mashed in with Guildwars. Choosing not to play WoW because I was tired of it and playing GW2 only to be reminded of how burnt out I was of those type of MMO’s really never motivated me much to play this game. The saving grace for me in an mmo is usually the community but MMO culture has really changed. People don’t group or talk they like to solo. There’s really nothing in this game that you actually need a guild for except for guild specific stuff like guild missions or bounties. With LFG and most of the main content being “zergable” A guild is hardly needed. The only time I’ve seen a guild matter is in WvsW and that’s usually because of their level of teamwork. Since this game follows the Warcraft type of style but doesn’t have raids exactly you don’t necessarily need a guild.

In GW1 guilds really weren’t needed either unless you were interested in competitive PVP. Even playing with other players wasn’t needed much because you had your Heroes. This left a pretty detached feeling a lot of times when you PVE’d in GW1 unless you invited a buddy to come along or felt like “Party Searching” for actual people for certain missions. You did however need real people for those hard—- GW1 dungeons. I thought that GW2 would somehow incorporate the MM in MMO better but their idea of this were just world bosses that required Zergs while everything else is largely soloable minus fractals.

So in closing I say that GW2 for me was a let down because it didn’t continue to carry on the lessons that GW1 taught. Instead it abandons them and takes note out of the books of other MMO’s. What I see in the future for GW2 is that as soon as a more unique mmo experience comes along GW2 might loose some steam. Right now MMO’s players are stuck in limbo. They play games they’re tired of while still searching for a replacement but end up falling on Appetizers in the mean time. Really GW2’s biggest problem is that it’s new paint on an old house. Underneath it all it’s still the same grind to shine format as every other dime a dozen mmo. It currently might offer a newer spin on it but it’s not enough to sustain the next “Guildwars” (as in a unique mmo-ish game that breaks the mold as GW1 originally did) type of game coming out.

They offer everything else in the gem store so why not a class change? I’m very tired of flaws in my current class and would like to change it to make this game somewhat more enjoyable again. I don’t have time to waste making a new character when this character I play took me forever to max out and I don’t really have the time to go through the story again nor care too doing the same tasks I already did just to get another 80 in the same race I like.

So do you think GW will offer class changes in the future? I’m surprised they don’t now. Some folks will say “No, you don’t need a class change just make a new charater yadda yadda”. Well speak for yourself. I’m just trying to get enjoyment out of the game. Nothing worse than logging into a game you’re beginning to hate because of the problems with your class the developers constantly ignore despite all the complaints.

Anyone that has played ranger type classes in an mmo can immediately tell just how poorly this class was developed in GW2. Ranger does no particular tasks well because specialization is impossible to achieve with the given trait layout and skill selections you have to choose from.

In PVP DPS and Healing are king. The ranger is not capable of producing enough DPS to outperform the other classes in this game. They are incapable of healing themselves fast enough to survive PVP in this game because of the lack of armor protection making them an ideal target for high damage results. As soon as you heal your health will be right back down.

I’ve been maining ranger since launch and have yet to see this class dominate and out perform any other single class in this game in PVE or PVP. Other class DPS better, apply conditions better, have better defense, and better offense. The one benefit of being a ranger is having your pet take Aggro away from you and mercy healing you when you’re down. The thing is Anet tried to make this class dependent on you having a pet and that pets abilities combined with yours making you equal to the other classes when in reality your weak by yourself and your pet is weak also.

The trait tree doesn’t have traits that compliment the idea of sharing power between a pet and the ranger. It’s attacks or abilities don’t change to compliment the fighting style you choose. If you choose to use bows or melee weapons pets still respond and act the same. Pets also only apply “moderate” conditions to foes. 2s of this 3s of that. If you blink too long you’ll miss what they did. They’re not effective enough to actually be useful in combat. In PVP the most effective ranger pet is the wolf and the spider because “fear” and “immobilization” can either buy you time or give you a better chance to escape as a ranger.

Other than that your pet is just another critter for players to ignore while they drain your health with their attacks. Pets don’t do nearly enough damage to be effective in pvp combat. They’re barely effective in PVE combat and anyone that wishes to challenge that tell us about how long it took your pet to solo just the average game goon. It takes forever for them to kill something by themselves.
Then you take that same pet and apply it to fighting another actual player and you can bet on disaster which is exactly what happens. Theifs and Mesmers make a mockery out of the pet AI system. I truly don’t see how any developer threw a pass at that during testing without realizing stealth and multiplicity make pets bug out.

Just vanishing will send your pet either flip flopping in place or looking for a random target to run off and attack. This is perfect for when that thief is now raining blows on you and your pet is now way off in the distance attacking moa birds. Of course you have your commands like attack my target, return, etc. etc. but how good is micromanaging those skills while you’re in the middle of a fighting for your life?

Guildwars had so many ideas that made more sense than this game it’s like GW2 is a step back. On the original ranger nothing brought more peace than knowing you don’t have to use a pet if you don’t want too. You could build a strong capable independent character to your liking. Investing half your fighting power into a pet in GW2 is like making Peyton Manning your Superbowl quarterback when you’re up against the Seahawks. Chances are things are not going to go well.

When you look at the traits for ranger one thing that should be clear to anyone is that the most of the traits don’t make sense for the category their in. You have Marksmanship which is for bow specialization but it gives you traits for use with swords,axes,and traps? Then you have Skirmishing which gives you options for using Bows? and Traps? Then you have wilderness survival (which is what traps should be in btw) and you have things like pet skills?

By the time you scatter your points you realize they you have traits you don’t need just to get something you do need to help compliment you’re actual play style. The sad part is that as a ranger if you want to survive you will always be forced to dump 30 in W/S just to get toughness to survive.

This class is just a cluster of bad ideas that should have never made it into the game. The entire ranger class needs to be reworked. I’m not trying to say that the class needs to be made invincible but it should at least been created so that it had a fighting chance to begin with.

All these large open maps not to exclude pvp get repetitive and tiresome to run around in all day. I can’t help but think how much more interesting/fun this game could be if they added mounts to ride. Some people want to bring up the waypoint argument well that’s nice. What game doesn’t have waypoints of some sort? Those games still have mounts for you to ride as well. So if you want to ride you can ride and if you want to point and click a map you can. I personally dislike being forced to do one thing without having options.

This game samples so many elements from other mmo’s but leaves behind stuff that they should have applied as well like “mounts”. 200 years in the future and people are still walking from point A to point B? (considering GW1 had the point and click way points map also).

From day 1 it was beyond obvious Anet gave you as little space as possible so you like a sucker would be put into a position where you would have to spend money just to get more room to put your game junk.

The annoying part is all this game gives you is junk items and junk to fill up your bags to create a problem for you to where you need more space. These scarlet drops you get where you open the bag and you have 15 items (most of them junk) and they know there’s no way on earth you’re going to have room to fit all that crap in your bags. Even breaking them down or selling them is made difficult as possible.

Seriously, every time I play this game I find myself cleaning out bags 100% percent of the time. It’s a chore and a bore and I didn’t buy this game to play house maid and clean up digital junk. I thought this was GW2? How is it that it has an inferior inventory system to GW1?

Some small brained people will say “I like giving money away and buying bags and space” well guess what I don’t. I don’t like “WASTING” money on things that I shouldn’t have too. This is why I quite Warcraft years ago and never looked back. Of course you can use game gold to buy gems but getting gold isn’t easy if you have a life and I’d rather grind for real dollars than game dollars.

I know this small rant will fall on deaf ears but really it’s one of those things that makes me think twice about logging in because every dungeon, every event, every boss I kill I have to stop what I’m doing to clean out my bags. I mean they just let you fill these bags up with crap they could easily let you store elsewhere like armor sets, event tokens and currency, Just silly stuff like that. The bag space they give you makes no sense compared to the junk that’s always dropping. You’re always outnumbered and out of space.

And as someone that plays a ranger I appreciate it. Snowball Mayhem is probably the best pvp event I played in this game. It so well balanced, so simple, and so much fun. As a ranger and one of the worst most broken classes to play in this game it was actually the first time I had fun playing PVP in GW2 and I mean EVER.

Other players during the game say the same stuff they’re all just having actual fun for once. I was almost reminded of how much fun pvp was in GW1 where you played with a close group of 6-10 other players and you played game after game after game fighting the same folks and having fun. Exchanging a few taunts and everyone having a good time. Snowball Mayhem brought that feeling back for me. I’ll be sad to see this event go. Right now it’s the only reason I still play and made me realize what I’ve been missing “fun”. I know I probably wont continue playing after this event is done because I think I’ve pretty much gotten all I can get from this game. I just don’t like how Rangers are done in this game.Assassins were booted, and so were Dervishes. No class for me to fall back on that I also like and I don’t care for the new classes much. Not saying this game is bad but I don’t enjoy it as much as I did the previous Guildwars and therefore haven’t played it as much till this event and I’ve been loving it.

I just hope more fun stuff like this will be done again in the future.

When GW2 was announced I waited years playing GW1 thinking I’d be able to play a cool new Assassin. Then they announced no Assassins anymore. Saw some of the thief clips and even then realized it wasn’t a good substitute for me.

I wasn’t even sure if I was going to buy the game but GW1 play friends keep asking me to get the game and what class was I going to be knowing how I loved my Assassin. Then one day awaiting GW2 they finally released more info on the game and then I saw it. Eir Stegalkin in her awesome pose with her giant wolf. Then they started to release game play footage of the ranger COOL! I’ll play a ranger. It’s going to be B/A! I waited and waited and waited…and waited some more and waited and waited and waited again “it will be done when it’s done” they said, so I waited and waited and waited and finally the day came! I jumped for joy as I rushed to get my Collectors Edition with Rytlock (whoever he was).

Yes! I smiled with glee as I installed the game. Choose your race? Norn! choose your profession… haha! Skip all the rest it’s ranger for me Baby!!! Yup…. yup…yep… … : | … … :*(

So I just wanted to thank Anet for making my dream of playing this awesome class come true. The other day as I was getting steamrolled in WvsW and was rezzing at the waypoint for the 20th time that day I said to myself you know what… this class is pretty good. Everyone always rushes to kill you first when they see you’re a ranger so you get mobbed all the time. You get a cool pet that spazzes out because he can’t figure out where the target your shooting is, you make a good target dummy for thieves that like to take advantage of your lack of armor and defense abilities. My favorite though are my bows that are both useless since ranger only seems to be effective with melee weapons.

I hit a Warrior once with my bow and he got mad and showed me how real bowing is done. I’m glad they have bows too. Sometimes it’s lonely if you’re the only one with a bow yah know even if it’s a staple for your class I’m glad Anet was nice and gave them to everyone. Even a nice thief was kind enough to use his bow on me instead of jabbing me with his pointy stick things. I said “hey what are you doing Sir?” and he said “Oh, I’m stealthing and shooting you with my bow.” I was like cool, I wish I could do that all I can do is become a sitting duck but you know what if someone hits me really hard I can turn invisible oh and sometimes when I shoot this arrow that only does like 50damage I turn invisible too but I think it’s to give me a few seconds to plan where I want run too before I get steamrolled when the person I just shot finds out where I am.

I also like my rangers elite skills. We have these Vine things that shoot out the ground it says you’re not supposed to be able to break free but no one ever gets caught by them anymore. We also get this cool skill that makes you glow and makes you and your pet stronger. I press it when I want to intimidate people but they just laugh and leave me a glowing mess on the ground.

I love being a ranger! It’s the coolest if not THE coolest class in the game. Thanks Anet!

So were still stuck with the same useless traits just cut differently now? I don’t get it… No matter how much sugar you put in vinegar it’s still going to taste bitter.

Yeah I agree whole heartedly kitten guy. Ranger is by far the worst in this game and I mean it. Every time I run into another ranger they have the same complaints. This is a Pve class not a PVP class at all. A thief is a rangers worst nightmare them and mesmers because stealth and multiply make your pet useless! That little update where a thief can’t stealth is when executing whatever that skill is called is garbage and hardly worth it. The thing about ranger is that things that YOU NEED! are scattered throughout a traits list that makes it impossible to skill your class correctly. You have to dump points in one specific area just to get one skill that YOU NEED while wasting points in spots you don’t need just to get it.

All rangers need Toughness points because they barely have any armor. They have weak defense and weak offense and I don’t remember this class being that bad at launch but it is seemingly worse now (actually I complained about the armor issue at launch). When you want to make your already useless bow or pet more effective you have to sacrifice your points just to skill up to make yourself less vulnerable first. The traits they also have for ranger are pppppppointless. Most of these traits should be standard to the class. It’s almost like using points to patch fix issues with the ranger and that’s how it feels. The entire trait list should be burned. The only helpful skills on there are Recharge f2 faster,longer bow range,faster recharge skills on bows, larger traps and move traps (why is this not standard?), The few skills that actually make your pet useful, and that’s about it. Regenerations, Vigor, and all the other garbage don’t help when your getting steamrolled. The prolong your life by maybe 2seconds before you get massacred.

At this point I’ve tried most builds including the spirit build everyone brags about and while its interesting I feel like it takes up too many skills to use. It could just as easily be one skill to execute all 3 spirits instead of one for each (making the ranger even more defenseless). I could honestly go on all day about the problems with this class as many of us that play it can. Ranger is also my main and I don’t have time to make another class just to get around the problems the developers won’t fix. I would honestly like to see a developer play this class competitively and successfully in PVP and show all of us here that the class is perfect and equally as powerful as the rest. I would like to see Anet show us how this class should be played and how they intended it to be used because I am curious. This class is entirely too weak to be useful in any combat setting. Pve it’s fine because it’s terrible AI against your terrible class so it evens out. Except for certain dungeons where your weak armor will get you downed fast.

I do see more people abandoning Ranger than relishing it and they are rare to find in WvsW or even the Myst now. They’re there but when I do speak to one they just complain about the problems with playing a ranger. This class has no sweet spot it’s just all around bad and the more complaints I see from others in my guild and around the game really are hard to miss. I seriously don’t see how Anet can not grasps the idea that this class is broken and should have been fixed long before this game launched.

They should have set the traits up to specialize your traits in specific areas. Bows,Traps, Melee, or Pets and for once have the traits actually compliment those skill sets. Have traits that increase bow,melee,trap or pet power exclusively and not force you to waste points. Why do we even have a trait to improve “toughness” or “vitality”??? can someone explain that to me? Is this not something they couldn’t’ figure out how to apply to armor sets or runes? Must we waste points to get what we should all have stock? Even when maxed out the ranger is still below average.

TLDR this class sucks and OP is right.

I thought Sylvari were going to be like Guild wars version of Elves. Then it looks like they went that route at first then changed it to making them plant people and still keeping the Elven type of ground roots with the being in-tune with nature and the forest and all that jazz. Scarlet actually looks scary, the concept art makes her look subtle. She is a fun villain though.

How about putting mounts in this freaking game for once. I also could honestly care to hear what anyone against the idea of mounts because I can boringly point and click using a way point on my screen. I could also pay a FlightMaster in Warcraft to take me from point A to point B while I AFK’d and went and got snacks but you know what THEY STILL HAD MOUNTS! Why? because it’s fun. When it comes to adding fun and entertainment to my personal game play experience I could care careless what someone else thinks.

The maps in the game are huge and what way to have more fun exploring than to ride or fly a mount through them? Ah but what about jumping puzzles and WvsW. Easy (disable mounts in those zones). You couldn’t fly is PVP in WoW either so what Anet can’t get some programmer to add that in?

Not having mounts in a 2013 MMORPG is just outdated and lazy. Even Everquests has mounts and just how old is that game. Not having mounts in an MMORPG is like buying a car that has NO A/C, Radio, or Cupholders Cup Holders. Sure I could just roll the window down, sure I could just sit my drinks in the seat, sure I could just humm my favorite tune but who want’s to do that man!?! Get with the times put some freaking mounts in this game. How is this game supposed to be ground breaking when it lacks a “Funfactor” that basically every other MMORPG ever created now has. Pointing and clicking on a map breaks the 4th wall. It reminds me I’m playing a game and it’s annoying when I try to immerse myself in the digital goodness of Tyria.

I could care less about cutting down on travel time (which is worse btw now that waypoints are no longer free and cost the same as mission rewards). I just want to improve the “Fun factor” when I’m playing the game. One of my favorite things about MMO’s are the Mounts!

But who am I kidding no one is ever going to read this.

Jormag, or maybe Tequatl … actually I’d like them both, and they can double as my flying mount.

Heck, even Eir gets her butt kicked all the time and she’s the Ranger Queen.

What annoys me the most about this game is the fact that they changed it’s format and they should have left it alone. Because they tried to make Rangers like Hunters in World of Warcraft. Giving you the option of using nearly every weapon in the game, (except guns because that would be too similar) and having you rely on your pet to do damage and you doing damage as a team with each pet offering different abilities and bonuses…and you know what? IT DOESN’T WORK! for guild wars.

Because in warcraft everything a hunter used was balanced supremely. From ice traps to fire traps, to pet attacks to weapon attacks when you played the class you could use these skills effectively. Even with an ability to use your pet to detect stealth presence so you were never off guard. You can’t copy a class from another game that has been balanced and adapt it to your game and put your own spin on it to where it’s not balanced and expect there to not be problems. Didn’t we just now get pet stealth detection? This class has lost everything that made it original or unique. It’s now just a knockoff of the WoW Hunter only with less power and more problems. If I wanted to play a WoW hunter, I’d just play Warcraft!

I thought that GW2 would give you a new version of Ranger. A Specialist of using Bows,traps,and pets. Your entire life was in your bow and how you used it you played like a “Ranger” and you were effective as a Ranger.

What I see when I play GW2 is Warcraft Remix when it comes to it’s format of gear grinds and classes.

Valentin.2073:

QueenHysteria.1084:

Rangers are terrible for PVP . They are good at however PVE! When I play WvsW I just sneak around and capture supply camps and whatever else is needed on the map. You can actually do a lot against the NPC’s just as long as you don’t pull too many at once. As far as fighting other players just pick a different class. Ranger is not a PVP class its’ a support class.

You could put up your bow and run around looking like an idiot with a great sword until you realize your no warrior when a real warrior slices through your soft armor. I’ve spent time talking to a lot of rangers and playing with them and despite what they think or say they ALWAYS go down a lot faster than the other classes do no matter what armor and trait list they use (I refuse to call anything in this cookie cutter game a BUILD). Ranger is a “Ranged” class and distance is your friend. Unless you want to spend your time in WvsW playing a support role you probably would find another class more suitable.

If you’re planning on being a menace to other players and want to solo WvsW pick a thief. Then you can scout and ambush people and help your team. If you want to be front line in battles pick a guardian or a warrior. The other classes I didn’t mention are good for all the above also. But seriously I have never seen anything good happen to rangers in WvsW when going head to head with other classes.

you obviously have no idea how to run a ranger in pvp. try rolling a spirit build, other classes might even run just by the sight of you. rangers are monsters in pvp. we have evasion, toughness, condition stacking and damage and with the spirit res we can even carry a bad team to victory. learn more before you diss the ranger class.

Give it a rest. I’m honestly tired of hearing people using that excuse to anyone pointing out the flaws with this class.

If your the greatest ranger in the game shout me a whisper, I’ll come and watch you in WvsW or whatever PVP game as you solo all the classes in the game. Apparently you must be on to something that most everyone that has been playing a ranger in this game has missed.

No I don’t want to roll an awkward build just to make this class even moderately competitive against other classes. The Spirit “build” is a team SUPPORT “build” I use that in PVE for dungeons. If I wanted to make spirits I wouldn’t have picked a “RANGER” to do so, I’d just go back to playing a “RITUALIST” in guild wars 1.

I’m tired of these “work arounds” and excuses people make for this class. I picked a ranger because I want to shoot bows, lay traps, and use pets. If this class can’t do that effectively than it fails. WHICH IT DOES! Pet Ai and controls are obnoxious, traps don’t do hardly enough damage, and your bow is about as useful as a water gun in a firefight. Everyone knows this so what do they do? They have to concoct some wakward trait/skill setup that makes you wonder why they bothered to play a ranger in the first place. You want to throw heals and inflict burning why not just chose a Guardian or Elementalist they do the job much better. You want to swing a great sword why not just make a warrior at least then you’ll have the armor to back up your strength. What good is a glass cannon when it breaks?

Seriously, you don’t see these type of conversations about other classes because they don’t have these types of problems but you always will for ranger. This class has too many problems to work around when it comes to PVP and Ironically the class I have no trouble killing is always OTHER RANGERS regardless of what awkward build they use. Why? because it takes one to know one. The weaknesses of this class is easily exploitable.

You ask 100 different people about rangers and they’ll tell you 100 different things. But, those 100 different things are just their methods for working around the 100 different problems this class has.

The only time a ranger is difficult is when they’re running away and have the speed signet on making you work to run them down and kill them.

Hell, even Eir gets her butt kicked all the time and she’s the Ranger Queen.

Feirlista Xv.1425:

Local.dat was moved but not sure where. It’s in the hidden files I think maybe someone knows exactly where. Also the reason you got that problem is some how your local.dat file got set to read only, so when you find it make sure it is not set to read only this will fix your issue

That’s… interesting. I think Arena Net knows that old PC users were having trouble getting into the game. There’s plenty of complaints about it and that was the only solution to it. Why would they make it harder for is by HIDING IT of all things.

:(

Feirlista Xv.1425:

Ok just found where the local.dat file is

C://Users/“the user that is log into windows”/AppData/Roaming/GuildWars2/local.dat

Thanks, I’m going to see if I can play around with this some more. Every update it seems like the game makes it harder for people with Relic PC’s to play this game. I wish I had a new good running PC but I’m poor and must make due.

Rangers are terrible for PVP . They are good at however PVE! When I play WvsW I just sneak around and capture supply camps and whatever else is needed on the map. You can actually do a lot against the NPC’s just as long as you don’t pull too many at once. As far as fighting other players just pick a different class. Ranger is not a PVP class its’ a support class.

You could put up your bow and run around looking like an idiot with a great sword until you realize your no warrior when a real warrior slices through your soft armor. I’ve spent time talking to a lot of rangers and playing with them and despite what they think or say they ALWAYS go down a lot faster than the other classes do no matter what armor and trait list they use (I refuse to call anything in this cookie cutter game a BUILD). Ranger is a “Ranged” class and distance is your friend. Unless you want to spend your time in WvsW playing a support role you probably would find another class more suitable.

If you’re planning on being a menace to other players and want to solo WvsW pick a thief. Then you can scout and ambush people and help your team. If you want to be front line in battles pick a guardian or a warrior. The other classes I didn’t mention are good for all the above also. But seriously I have never seen anything good happen to rangers in WvsW when going head to head with other classes.

Well I wasn’t but old computers apparently were from this game. Whenever I try to log on with my old faithful windows XP computer the game crashes and my computer bugs out. I get the black flicker screen and the rare BSOD. In the olden days of early 2013 us XP users would just delete the GW2 Local file and that would let us enter the game but now there is no local file to delete and the game crashes on you. I guess Anet wants us old PC users gone

This game for a “war” never seems to feel like one with no opposing sides. No Kurzick, No Luxon, no one with different views or agenda’s just everyone living in harmony is dreadfully boring. It’s actually one of the biggest things I dislike about the game is that there is no one to hate or fight against. When you had Kurzicks and Luxons you had your zones and areas, armor, rewards etc. etc. You had a side you choose and it was an aspect of fun added to the game. In GW2 it just all seems to be Server related stuff that you could careless about if you’re not doing WvsW. It just be fun to have an actual opposing side or even opposing races in this game. When Warcraft had Alliance and the Horde it made the game so much fun to have enemy classes and races. It only added to the lore of feel of the game. The Kurzick and Luxon stuff wasn’t so deep but it was still something that made the game interesting outside of just doing quest and farming to kill time.

What is that thing for anyway? Besides taking up space in my pack?

The people I know left because they were looking for Guildwars that was similar or an update to Guildwars as indicated by the “2” but instead found themselves playing a game that was two different from the original to be enjoyable for them. The living world though for me does make the game feel more alive than the previous guildwars where content felt stagnent because it was but “events” reminded you that the game was still progressing in some form. Without the “living world” I couldn’t see the game feeling stagnant like the first.

My only complaint about the living world is how your character is effected personally by it and theyr’e not. Nothing you do in the game really matters or changes anything. It’s almost like the movie “Ground Hog Day”. You just keep repeating your actions over and over again even if you’ve done it before a million times. Nothing ever changes except a heart being filled in. That is something I wish could be improved somehow so playing the game didn’t feel so pointless. I guess what I’m trying to say is that it be nice if after you accomplished something there be some progress in the world shown. I guess that’s something that haunts every MMO, the lack of change to the world after you’ve completed an event.

I don’t usually bother to come to the forums and complain about stuff unless it really bothers me but I just wanted to put in my two cents about the “Tequatl the Sunless” event. I enjoyed a lot of the other living world events those I was capable of participating in but this had to be the most tediously frustrating pointless event in the game thus far.

Why? well there are several things about the dragon that made people abandon the event altogether.

1. Difficulty, the dragon isn’t designed for random people (which is what the live world events mainly are) to take down. It required too much organization and strategy and that’s hard to achieve in a non guild oriented event. It also takes a number of people to bring down when at times there may be only a small group on the map interested in doing the tasks.

2. The wait! Because of reason number 1 people rushed to get into main servers that were organized with guild event runs to take down the dragon. Which meant you would mostly end up in an unorganized over flow waiting to get to a main server or in a main server waiting for the dragon to come which at times would be 1hour of your time wasted.

3. The Rewards. The dragon never dropped any or near enough rewards to compensate for the trouble it takes to bring him down. He’s tough, requires a lot of organization, and patience to wait for his arrival but all you get mostly are junk items and supplies from him making him not worth the trouble at all which many people realized and quit soon after completing him as a daily.

Now Tequatl is still an event in the game but you can see how he is favored by how many people have abandoned bothering with him. With fun stuff like SAB people still played when another event occurred but with Tequatl he’s a cold omelet.

The thing about this event that made it so unlikeable is that it wasn’t fun. It was a chore with little reward.

I’m so tired of people saying “You don’t need mounts”. Who are you to tell someone what they “Need” and don’t “Need”. I personally don’t care for teleports it’s takes you out the atmosphere of the world and reminds you that you’re playing a game. Teleports are worse now because they’re no longer free and paying for them is annoying. So what is the problem with having a mount in the game to roam around with? Maybe people don’t want to teleport but enjoy riding and sight seeing instead. I’m actually surprised Anet put so much thought into the new guildwars but didn’t think to include mounts which EVERY mmo has. Mounts are a good thing they’re fun and just another aspect of the game to enjoy. If you personally don’t want a mount than just don’t use it. Don’t try to speak for everyone elses opinion.

The fact that this game doesn’t have mounts is a setback. I like exploring and I like riding around the map not using waypoints (save money). Considering GW2 was supposed to be everything GW1 wasn’t by adding swimming and jumping what were they thinking by not adding mounts too? 200years pass and people still walk from point A to point B? Even if there are waypoints you still need to walk to travel to certain areas. How annoying are those huge WvsW maps that you have to WALK through to get back to where you were. Atleast toss some mounts there.

Terkov.4138:

After playing ranger for 3 years in GW1 (too lazy and check exact time) and over 2,5k hours in GW2, I disagree with your post.

And I’m also too lazy to even explain why. I did it sooo many times on this forum.

You can play ranger for 3 years I played Ranger for 5 (and still do to this day). Time has no meaning it’s about what you do while you’re playing. From PVE to PVP there was never a downside to that class. It was strong all around but you actually played like a ranger making use of your bow attacks and keeping your distance from your enemies. If you ever seen how Rangers played JQ that’s a perfect example of how the class should be used.

You can’t play like that in GW2 because you don’t have the skills needed to play like a ranger. You just don’t have that here in GW2 it’s a complete tear down and build up of something that was never broke to begin with. Ranger went from a class that did all things well to a class that can only do certain things well under the right conditions. That’s what I’m getting at. You mainly have a barrage of weak bow attacks that you spam that don’t necessarily do nearly enough damage. I can only describe most ranger battles with a bow like shooting a slingshot at a tank.

My post (and I thank you all for reading) wasn’t about agree or disagree it’s just about the observations of the gap between this class and the others. I like playing ranger I think it’s fun but that doesn’t mean I don’t recognize the disadvantages and how “useless” a lot of the traits they give this class are. Take for example I think it’s “Wilderness survival..Or Skirmishing?” one of those where one trait if you select it lets you toss traps and they’re 50% larger… WHY? Why is something like that a selectable trait when it should be standard to the skill. The usefulness of them is cut down severely without this and lives you spending time trying to lure people into a tiny area so your traps will work. Most of the time they just walk around them because the trap zone so small.

Other skills like “Protect Me” Why? Why is that a selectable skill that you need to waste a slot on? If you die so does your pet (well they disappear) So why don’t they just automatically protect you when you’re about to die. All their other skills are automatic? Except the bonus effect skill.

They drastically changed this class from GW1. There’s no such thing as a Trapper, Burner, Interrupter, or Poisoner, any more. The freedom of choice is removed from you on how you play ranger so you pick a ranger not to play as one. As most of the superior PVP builds are cast out the usage of bows. If you can’t even man the weapon you were originally designed too what does that say?

Then I forgot to mention earlier about the “Ranger Elite Skills”. I haven’t played any other classes except my ranger and it’s like of all things your useful Elite skill is Healing or Entangling. Why? On a class that has such weak offense why are the elite skills defensive? I don’t know why not have the ability to summon an Oak Heart to fight for you for a few seconds, Or Leeching Vines that entangle your enemy and give their health to you. Just something to compensate for the lack of offense this class has.

There’s so many things in this game that would make playing ranger more fun. Give us Pin Down, let us use poison, or burning arrows or penetrating arrows like we did in GW1 to drain enemies. What good is a knockback when a player can get right back up in 2 seconds and stomp your face in while your only defense ability is now on cool down. I mean you have to WORK and I do mean WORK! to take someone down as a ranger and when they finally go down it’s a relief. That should not be! Every battle shouldn’t be a “cross your fingers and hope to win”. Also why don’t rangers have blind? What happened to “Throw dirt” or a blocking stance? Give us weak armor but at least give us the ability to reduce the possibility of being injured. If I have Paper mache armor at least give us a fighting chance to avoid being hit.

Rangers need improved Armor or defense abilities
or they need improved power and offense abilities

5% chance to bleed and 2% chance to cripple and all that other nonsense is not helping this class. Yes Rangers are fun to play in PVE, they’re okay in dungeons as long as you let the more powerful classes do their jobs and stand back at a safe distance, but their flaws are show out highly in PVP when you’re paired up against the other classes and the difference is highly apparent.

I just don’t get why Anet has not figured out that this class needs an overhaul to balance them out better. Sure people can get “decent” results in PVP and PVE (which isn’t as noticeable as a problem) with a ranger using some “awkward” 1 out of a million build BUT WHY? Why go through the extremes of playing a class the way you don’t want too just to make it somewhat competitive. That right there shows there’s a clear issue with the ranger design that needs improvement.

As for me personally after playing Assassin for years and being ridiculed in PVE and PVP as my beloved class being “useless” in both and not a crowd favorite like Ele’s,Necro’s,Mesmers, Monks, Warriors, etc. I’m just feeling deja vu with Rangers in GW2. This class used to be so much better but now it’s watered down garbage.

I’m trying so hard to get into the game coming from GW1 but stuff like this does not make it enjoyable seeing a good class destroyed.

and I know my little post is going to get 2 types of responses. New players that have never previously played a Ranger and not knowing what this class used to be saying “What do you mean Ranger is great” and old players that realize “It’s not what it used to be” and the 3rd type of player the guy that says "I’ll put up with the class even though it’s at a disadvantage and use “insert random build here that may be more successful but not necessarily fun to play” as a work around to get the results I desire.

The bottom line is that this class feels half baked and either you’ll get “used” to playing harder than you should (don’t confuse that with skill) or you’ll reroll one of the winning classes that have better balance for what you want to do.

One thing I have noticed is that people I meet that play Ranger usually stick to PVE and use a caster or melee class like Guardian for WvsW or PVP. As with the first GuildWars it seems casters are the dominant class in this game as well.

How did Anet take a good class like Ranger from GW1 and screw them up so badly in GW2? I just don’t get it. Nearly all, no I take that back ALL of the ranger skills that mattered are gone. No Apply Poison Arrows, No Burning Arrow, No Crippling shot, No Trappers, No throw dirt, No nothing!

I’m trying and I’m trying so so so very hard to give this game a shot after a year of playing it off and on and maining my Ranger. I’ve taken her through dungeons, PVP, tried different traits but this class seems so half baked. I also noticed other rangers having the same issues.

You don’t have enough armor and you don’t make enough power. The two never balance out. You have weak armor and poor power so you need to spam whatever attacks you’re using and keep your distance otherwise you just go down. In WvsW don’t even try to solo because you wont make it when a Thief catches you and just drains your life like it’s no big deal.

It doesn’t matter what weapons you use it’s like nothing truly works well enough for a ranger. If you use Melee weapons it’s a death wish. Damage is a little bit faster but your weak armor will get you killed so you spam heal when you can. The healing is NEVER fast enough and you just go down again and again and again.

Arrows are supposed to be key when playing a ranger and it’s like Anet took all the worst skills from GW1 and forces you to play with them. These arrow skills SUCK! They’re useless and they don’t do enough damage. The short bow is the most effective in pvp because it’s faster but it’s no real advantage. I was thinking that Anet thought giving rangers a Pet would be a 50/50 deal. A weaker character but you have a pet as an advantage. Let me say this, these pets are garbage. They aren’t strong enough to down a player or even an NPC by themselves. They are mostly just “condition” appliers and aggro collectors. They are not effective in combat. A rangers pet is only dangerous to another ranger with weak armor. If your targeting one player and some of the nearby wild like decides to get in your way Guess what!? You’re pet will leave your target and chase the Doe or Moose or whatever just bumped into you and you’ll be fighting for your life until you retarget your pet to have a “slightly” improved chance of winning.

There’s a clear unbalance between the class and other classes like Spell casters and Melee classes. You can main these and lead a battle. Ranger is just a support class for the other classes. You can’t main a ranger and lead anything because you’re not strong enough. Your job is to stand back and shoot arrows from a safe distance and that’s what I hate the most about this class. That’s what makes it weak.

As soon as a melee class gets you up close you’re going down, as soon as a caster hits you with a few good spells your down. You don’t have any defense and you don’t have any offense. Traps are just an annoyance just like the weak arrows. It takes so much work and strategy to kill another player class as a ranger and that shouldn’t be. Lay traps here, lure player there, use pet special here, keep distance here. IT’S ANNOYING! and if another player comes along you’re screwed.

There was nothing wrong with Ranger in GW1 I don’t get why they had to destroy them completely and leave their best moves behind. I only played Ranger,Assassin, and Dervish in GW1 for years. When I play GW2 it just makes me want to play GW1 because I feel like the Ranger is missing so much. I can’t speak for the others they are no longer in the game. People tell me to make another class but why? Why do I have to choose a “BETTER” class to work around the problems of the class I want to play? Anet should be able to see the data from Rangers by now to know that they are WEAK and need improvements in many areas. Ranger IS NOT the jack of all trades class they tried to make it to be. It’s a weak support class that does little damage and has poor defense.

and I know I sound like I’m just ranting but I’m not. I like the idea of being a ranger and I want this class to be decent for once. I don’t want to reroll anything. I just want to log in and play ranger. I keep playing around with as much as I can to improve it with as little as Anet gives you but this class just does not work. The traits are ridiculous, the skills are ridiculous. They are not helpful! There’s skills/traits that you use that should be standard because you’re dead without having them equipped and all you folks that play ranger know what I’m talking about.

Guild Wars 1 was a casual game it didn’t require a grind to complete it. You could take your time and get everything you needed unless you wanted to make it a grind.

Guild Wars 2 is nothing but a grind.

Story mode is simple but everything else around it is tedious and a grind. “Teql” was the final blow that did it for me. Waiting an hour or so for a fight, then failing the event over and over again. It wasn’t fun, it wasn’t entertaining, it was a chore. Scarlett was the same way, another chore of wasting an hour fighting to get mediocre items and achievements, Teql is the same.

It’s not worth the effort for what you get even if you do win. The fighting isn’t fun it’s also tedious. No builds or skill sets to make your character play any different than they always did. It gets boring fast and adds to the mundanes of playing the same way each fight. I miss being able to swap builds and try different techniques on bosses. Another thing is that characters feel so weak in this game. Everyone dies all the time and has to be rezzed. It’s annoying. It’s like players aren’t tuned up enough for mobs without having to group up. A weak character was cool when you had henchmen and heros that you could appoint to be healers etc. etc. but you can’t always depend on a random player to be as helpful. So when you get rushed by champion or mob that there’s no way in heck you can beat alone it’s annoying. I can’t say I’ve played a single class in this game I thought felt powerful or not boring to play after a while. On one side this game has been watered down but on the otherside it kicked the difficulty up, while somehow not making it fun or entertaining to play.

I originally started Guildwars because I was tired of Warcraft and had enough of games like that. Now that those days are gone and GW2 is here it’s like running into what I was trying to leave behind again except with less interesting classes and lack of character customization.

Each month is just a new carrot to chase with these annoying living world GRINDS! for achievements. That’s not Guildwars at all. All people do in this game are dailies and grind. A lot of veterans from GW1 that I know quit the game and moved on because it doesn’t cater to people that enjoyed GW1 it’s too much like a miss mash of every other MMO but the one you wanted to play GUILDWARS.

I know some people will read this and be like oh they’re complaining about the game being a grind well it is an mmo, they’re complaining about the lack of character customization you don’t need builds etc. etc. NO! I’m saying that this game lacks the entertainment and fun factor that it should have as a GAME. When I talk to people they seem to loathe doing half the things the game has to offer. A game shouldn’t be a grind it should be ENJOYABLE.

Another thing is the Character Customization that was a Staple of Guildwars and what Guildwars was. The game that you build and customized your class. Taking that away does not make this game “Guildwars”. This game has nothing in common with the previous one outside of the lore. I often wonder why this game is called Guildwars 2 because it’s too different from the original. To me it’s like sitting down to watch a sequel to a movie that’s a completely different movie from the first. Playing this game is like Watching “Exorcists 2”. You go in thinking it’s going to be as entertaining at this first and you get treated to something completely different.

Anyway that’s just my experience in the past year with this game. I don’t see myself playing this as much as I did the previous one or even past the next month or so. I just don’t care for it because it doesn’t feel like guild wars. The worlds nice, the story is nice, but the actual design of the game play just isn’t enjoyable.

After accumulating 250 scraps finally I click on them to get my pad and nothing happens? Checked my bags and nothing is there. Is this item bugged or what?

I’ve been a lowbie for about 11 months now. I like the game but I also have a demanding life so I don’t get to play it as much. I play when I can. What sucks is that whenever I do play there’s always a new event dungeon that’s part of the event story and always I find it frustrating to get into a group to play. Even with Insta 80 people don’t want you (I don’t blame them your not as powerful still).

Guildwars dungeon groups have always been smug. After 5 years I’ve never even completed or got past the entrance of the old dungeons due to the Elite dungeon group issues. So I just stuck to PVP. Seems like I do that in most MMO’s I try to Pve and join up in dungeons and always run into some elitists get annoyed and stick to PVP. This game really doesn’t have a PVP system worth talking about so to me it’s really a PVE game.

What’s annoying about dungeons is that there’s no room to learn them. Everyone expects you to know it going into it. When these group Proleetis groups wipe out they blame everyone but their lack of teamwork.

I actually quit MMO’s because of getting tired with the group attitude but in Guildwars the game kind of leveled somethings out since dungeons were just a side part of the story and there was plenty in the story to do that made you not have to miss out out anything.

GW2 is different. These dungeons are apart of these stories and if your a casual player that wants to do them its a stump in the road. I never thought I’d miss Hero’s and Henchmen just so I could explore a dungeon.

Even though GW2 tries to offer more content and the option to instant 80 on relevant events this game carries the same issues most MMO’s do. That is not offering enough for the Journey instead of just focusing on rewarding you when you get there. Level’s do come fast in this game but most content if not all of it is aimed at Max level. It makes players focus on rushing through the game to get max level so they can join their friends and do the max level content of the game.

That’s fine if you like focusing on your destination but I like to focus on the trip. There just isn’t anything for you as you’re leveling aside from following along in the story. There’s not enough dungeons or level specific challenges. In GW1 this didn’t matter because you were max level 20% into the story. There were only a few dungeons but there were many challenges to face in each mission so you paid attention to the question experience. Now that 80 is the max and the game is level specific there’s not enough to fill in the void to make level tiers special or memorable other than (you cant go to that zone yet). You just quest and level and follow the story till you hit max then do the things you couldn’t really before. There are a few sub 80 dungeons but what’s significant about them when levels come so fast? One day your 20 then the next day your 50. Everything in this game gives you EXP even signing in (okay I’m kidding about that). I just miss the idea of levels not mattering and the story/game mattering. GW1 was brilliant for saying F—- leveling! We’re about the game. Now I find myself with a level 40 character in level 20 zones still digging through the story line because you get too much EXP in this game! I wish GW had done away with leveling altogether and just made the game about building your character up through adventure and exploration. That was the angle of the old game and what made it unique. Why was that thrown out to adopt the standard MMO leveling system that made me run to GW in the first place?

GW2 is a lot easier than GW1. That was one of my greatest dislikes about the sequel. The game really holds your hand and doesn’t punish you for failing. The Risk and Challenge are gone so you feel like you get rewarded for nothing. It has nothing to do with being casual though. GW1 was play when you wanted too but it was hard as nails. A lot of the thinking and strategy is gone from the game. ArenaNet really trimmed down on the challenge of the game to make it more appealing to the “Average” person. Building your character is cookie cutter and there’s no real wrong way to do it. Questing is like riding on rails as everything you need is marked out for you when before the GW’s never told you diddly. Matter of fact the map wasn’t even exposed until you discovered that portion of the area and it didn’t help that some maps were like a maze.

Even with that this isn’t the type of game to turn people away from it. It’s just the type of game to attract and keep a certain type of player.

Jaall.3420:

I actually haven’t had any of the same issues you have with the community. Finding a guild will really solve a lot of them problems, and generally people don’t group up for levelling in this game they just meet up at the place where the event is. That doesn’t necessarily mean there’s no communication though, a lot of it is just done through the say channel. Even if you do group up, if you got kicked for being a lower level player then you’re better off without them honestly.

I think it’s partly down to what server you play on, but you can guest on other servers to see if you like them, and even stay on there without having to spend a penny if you just keep guesting. I also think your disappointment is partly based on you comparing 2 rather different games. I played GW1 years ago, and this just isn’t the same game at all. It has similarities, like for example Final Fantasy whereby every game has the same mobs and magic, summons etc. Similarities is as far as it goes though. I think to really enjoy GW2 you have to lose those rose tinted glasses of GW1 and class this as a whole new game without comparing it to anything. Comparing can only be bad for your view on any game because it immediately points out the flaws that you might have otherwise missed.

I’m just basing my review off my experiences with the game so far. It has been very desolate. For new/leveling players the game isn’t so welcoming unless you’re playing with friends IRL. By this point finding groups to level with or getting into dungeons isn’t so easy. August and September no problem but now it’s pretty quiet unless your max. For the first 40 levels it’s been like that. I don’t see much changing the next 40 levels. I am one of those “annoying” people you can say I guess. I like to talk to everyone I come across but a lot of people just don’t feel like being social or grouping up and doing quests. The game is also so easy that you really don’t need to do that at all. Untill you get to a Mob boss and then you’re searching for other players to come help. One time I got frustrated and just camped out at the boss till enough people came by and started attacking him and eventually they jumped in. It took about 1 day and a half to make that happen (that includes asking people on the map for help).

As the game is now it’s a sologame with grouping game play at Max level. That’s just not what I’m looking for in a game or MMO. For me a game is all about the journey. The level 80 thing really killed the thrill I think. They were smart before to keep the level cap low so people focused more on the game experience. Even though leveling comes fast it shouldn’t really matter. I like one of the ideas “The Secret World” Did where they removed leveling altogether and just made the game skill dependent. That sounded more like what a next Gen Guildwars game would be like but instead it ended up being the exact opposite. “Limited Skills” and “Leveling”. I don’t think GW2 is a bad game it’s just very different from GW1. It should really be called Guild Wars “Rise of The Dragons” or something like that because it doesn’t have enough in common with the first game to be a sequel to it.

Crysto.7089:

Someone never hung out in Marhan’s Grotto!

Didn’t know that was a “hangout” spot. Aside from getting armor I’ve never known anyone to hangout there. Most people choose Kamadan.

Vayne.8563:

Interesting review. I think Guild Wars 2’s best years are ahead of it. Right now, what you see is a backbone of what was to come later. Remember in earlier Guild Wars 1, there was a whole lot less to do. There were no heroes at all. There were less challenging content. All these things take time to develop.

In fact, Guild Wars 1 isn’t one game….it’s 3 games and an expansion. In order to compare Guild Wars 2 to that you’d have to wait at least a couple of years.

So don’t be so fast to write the game off quite yet. There’ll be a lot of changes in the years to come.

It’s a very different game indeed. I see the potential for it becomming even better. It’s just lost a lot of what I enjoyed about GW1 and replaced it with something new. I’m open to new ideas but I just don’t really enjoy some of the changes, and what I mean by changes are the lack of character customizations with the skill options, the lack of a challenge when fighting and no real fear of death or failure. It feels too simplistic for me.

The Sweet part about the game is everything else. Seeing the details and work put into the game to make the world feel alive, the story arc is interesting, and the living world so far is a good touch. As GW1 felt stale once you beat the game there’s nothing much else to do with the story. The living world solved that problem but, I do hate how you can complete a quest and 5 minutes later the same quests is back up. I wish there was a way for the world to remain altered for you once you complete a quest instead of just resetting like nothing ever happened.

PVP and the Wvs.W. with the huge battleground is also nice as Jade Quarry, Fort Aspenwood, and Random arena’s got old after playing them for years. What the game is missing is the Kurzick and Luxon feel to it. There’s no group to oppose which makes PVP even more fun when you have a real team/side to represent. I liked those kind of games the most because they strengthen the community of the game.

The biggest let down I’ve experienced so far are group content. Since there’s no one around on maps it’s hard to find a group for a boss. It’s also hard to get a group for the special world events as Lowbie’s or non level 80’s aren’t exactly welcomed even if you get the “instant 80! Bonus”. I’ve been kicked from several groups for being the low level odd man out. So exploring special content isn’t exactly the most fun experience for new/leveling players. You can join guilds that can help but so far it hasn’t been much different from the same people soloing and farming away. Most people just sit quietly online going about their business. These things aren’t really the fault of the game it’s just how mmo culture has changed. No one’s really interested in questing, leveling, socializing in a group. It’s about getting to the end as fast as possible and getting armored up as fast as possible. Most of lionarch chat can tell that story of “look at this shiny armor here”. As a GW1 player I’m just not used to that I guess. Armor wasn’t a big part of the game it was just a reward for your hard work. The emphasis on armor now is something I’d rather do without. Looking cool but not mattering is what it was about but now it seems that looking cool matters when it did not matter before in the Guildwars world. Your badge of “Elitism” I guess were the skills you acquired and how well you played with those skills. That’s completely gone now.

So far I find myself liking things about the game and also disliking certain things about game (more so the MMO aspects of it). It’s not a bad game at all it’s just not for me anymore I guess. I’ll probably continue on in my storyline and then put the game aside. I still play GW1 so I’ll reflect to that when I have a Guildwars itch.

Now when I got GW2 I purchased it back on Preorder and played it on Prerelease. I didn’t make it past level 6 because the game kept crashing and GW2 decided to rule out XP users altogether by including a file that completely crashes our systems when we try to play. I put the game on the shelf and didn’t play it again till last month till now after learning how to get the game to play on XP. So these past few weeks have been my true experience of the game. So far it’s been bitter sweet. Sweet because it has so many things included into it from GW1 but Bitter because at the same time it’s so far apart from GW1. The fighting style is fun because it’s more fluent but the limited option of skills for your specific class gets old quite quickly. The fun of changing out builds and having your character fight differently kept the feeling of combat fresh which was one of the selling points of GW’s for me. This time around I get bored in combat switch weapons till I get even more tired of seeing the same moves. It just doesn’t feel like Guild Wars. The other things I noticed is that the community of course is different thanks to the game being much bigger and renowned now but, no one socializes. It’s just solo this and grind that while people are off in their own little worlds. Sometimes I feel like I’m right back in those GW1 instance Zones except without my henchmen. Maybe it’s because I’m so late in the game but still there should be other new players about questing that you can group and level with but there rarely are (most of the time I just run into high-level players farming for items or map achievements). It’s hard to explain but leveling as a new player feels so desolate. It be a good idea to quest with old pals from GW1 but they quit or just stopped playing for whatever else they have going on in their lives.

Well let me start out by saying that I’ve been a player of Guildwars 1 since about late 2008. Guildwars was a game I enjoyed because it was casual and also challenging. It wasn’t a grind it was just a game that could be extremely hard and challenging at times but your hardwork was usually rewarded. It just has a balance to it that I liked. Things weren’t easily achieved they were earned and they were earned only through really playing the game. The Story Arcs and super detailed environments made the game fun as well as the community that relied mostly on eachother for help since there were no things like ingame stores to buy gold or gems or things you wanted to use gold and gems to buy. The game also would let you use henchmen, heroes, or real players to join up on missions to progress through the story. The Henchmen and heroes (like henchmen) came in handy when it was hard to find a group or a group that was cooperative. If you wanted to solo you could and if you wanted to play with others you could. I liked that option a lot. What that game lacked though was a continuous world and an open MMO environment to really explore the game side by side with other people. I drooled at GW2 like everyone else for years waiting the day I’d get a chance to play it. GW2 was something like everything we had wished for in GW1’s like being able to swim, no more instances, and being in a real live open world!

Thanks for the tears GuildWars. Her story made me cry. I hope it has a happy ending. Who knew some simple lines could be so touching.

That also leads me into another problem I wanted to address and that’s the armor for rangers. Since they have such a reduced damage level now they take on more damage with fewer defensive skills. They are at times somewhat like a punching bag and go down very quickly. Even if they are using melee abilities they are susceptible to taking heavy damage from attackers as they are a ranged class with very thin armor.

Pets also used to play a major role in the strength of a ranger but they are now almost meaningless and are better used as a decoy to hope your enemy attacks your pet instead of you.

These changes to the PVP aspect of GW2 aren’t just limited to the Ranger class but other classes as well but Rangers stick out the most. The curve on this game really sticks out in the direction of the spell casting classes just as the original game did which is what I hoped would be fixed.

I also find the PVP games in GW2 to be tightly structured maps that all feel the same. There really isn’t enough running room or space to make it feel like a real battle field. It’s more like rushing to find a seat on Bus. Everything is so compacted that a lot of times it’s just mobbing the other team. Guild Wars 1 had large open battlefields like JQ and AB that make battles open and spread out. There is Wvs.W in Gw2 with a huge map but for shorter simple games it defeats the purpose.

Overall as far as it goes with me and PVP in GW2 I don’t intend to rely on this game to fulfilled that need. I see PVE as the strong point of GW2 and will play it for that aspect only. PVP leaves much to be desired and I don’t think I’d spend another 5 years playing PVP the way it is now. GW1 pvp wasn’t perfect balance wise but it was challenging in a good way as it made you think and learn to build your character by using a large variety of skills that tied into the game by using those “signets of capture” to get them from bosses. It compelled you to play the game but all of that is completely gone now. The gaps in each class vary but they are very large gaps to fill. With being forced to stay in your lane and not have the option of mixing and matching other class abilities into yours like making a Mesmer/necro or Warrior/necro and interesting builds like that, a lot of the fun of the game has been taken away.

So overall those are just my thoughts on PVP in GW2 from a GW1 veteran. I don’t know what changes could possibly be made to the game to make PVP as much fun as it used to be without overhauling everything but for now I see this as a PVE only game for me. When it came to PVP for me it’s “fun” above anything else. The “fun” has been replaced with “simplicity” and PVP now feels extremely watered down and less challenging.

Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts.

Hello,

I just wanted to share my thoughts and experiences with GW1 and GW2 PVP. I played guild wars one for about 5 years while spending most of that doing PVP about 80% of the time. When I picked up GW2 it took me a while to get used to the new changes but here is what I noticed.

So far I’ve enjoyed the PVE side of the game the most and that’s where GW2 shines through the brightest. It provides a non linear experience and that’s what the previous game had too much of some times but it still followed a good story which I see has continued into this game and that is good.

PVP wise I don’t see myself getting into this game. While PVP in GW1 meaty with endless options to customize and build your characters so that no 2 were every really the same unless you wanted them to be, I found GW2’s PVP to be extremely linear. Mostly it’s the same skill set with the option to change it slightly by picking a selection of few different skills that might be useful, and then opening up a larger but still limited pallet by changing your weapons that are also limited to your class.

The system really is a major kickdown to how open it used to be and feels extremely linear. You typically use the same 4 main skills over and over again and it becomes dull and redundant very fast. The lack of being able to change and tweak your character (skill wise and not point wise) makes every match just feel the same. Now I know people from other MMO’s are used to dealing with the same skill set so they wouldn’t understand but people that came here from GW1 know what I mean when I say “linear skill set”.

I also found the same problem with GW1 in GW2 and that’s that the spell casting classes have the upper hand in the game still over melee or weapon using classes. The area damage these classes do is still massive and puts them at a major advantage over non casting classes. The biggest disappointment so far was seeing how the Ranger class was reduced in PVP useability significantly. They lack everything that made them worthwhile in GW1. No ability to improve their armor, blind enemies, cripple enemies, lethally poison enemies, burn enemies, trap enemies etc. etc. All those things are truly missing and it makes their class feel extremely weak. Arrows or more of just a nuisance and do very little battle worthy damage. As you can no longer take an opponent down simply by shooting them to death like in the previous game. Now, I do know that some of the abilities I mentioned have been updated and transferred to GW2 but, they perform nothing as they did in GW1 and are no way on the same level. There is no longer such thing as a Trapper, Interrupt,or Burning arrow ranger. The skills are to weak now to be the main focus of a build. Things like not having “throw dirt” as a way to blind melee attackers so you can focus on your target really make Rangers a very open and “squishy target”.