Guild Wars 2

Nay… to be honest, only two weeks ago, I found out about that Walk-Run-Toggle

Never used it before.

I really do like traveling across tyria for all the reasons I told you before. BUT I’m really happy, that my main is a thief, which is quite a mobility beast. Chances are, that the whole traveling-thing is not quite as enjoyable, if you don’t have access to perma swiftness.

By the way, funny, that someone’s mentioned Breath of the Wild, which is the game I am playing right now. The experiences I found there are quite comparable to Guild Wars 2 in terms of unexpected events, quests or treasures. Not too different the both.

I wonder if we could get mounts…!?

No, really, those were just my impressions while playing without waypoints. Have fun clicking yor way through tyria, if thats your according to your taste.

Hey everybody,

this one’s about my personal experience with a new way to play Guild Wars 2. Just like lots of you guys, I’m playing this game since release. I have three Level 80 characters and played lots of, lots of hours – although I’m far from hardcore. Nowadays my playtime is more like 4-5 hours a week, which is all I get beside my family.

Now, while within these almost 5 years of Guild Wars 2, I never managed to build up a connection to the game world. For me, there barely was an immersion. Much unlike the good old World of Warcraft, where I can still remember running around Mulgore Fields during sunset.

I thought about this and came to the conclusion that this is not the fault of the world itself. The maps are beautiful crafted, the sound (music & enviroment) is phenomenal. I think, it way my playstyle that was ruining the experience for me. When there was something to do (e.g. killing a world boss), I jumped to a waypoint, waited 5 minutes, did what I had to do and jumped to the next event. I barely took notice of this great game world, because I didn’t take my time to do so. I don’t know, how many hours I spent running around crossroads or mulgore in World of Warcraft, but I’m absolutely sure, that it was way more than in any other GW2-Map. I knew every rock within those maps.

This all changed with the Lake Doric-Map, which had only very few waypoints. One day, I decided to skip even these waypoints. I simply walked (or flew) my way across the map and took all those events I quests, I stumbled upon. I only used waypoints to resurrect. By taking much more time traversing the map, I realized, that I managed to get a feeling for the world again. For the eerie atmosphere of the melandru-shrine, the beauty of the peach tree and the creepiness of the lost woods. I loved, how the soundscape and the general mood changed, when I came to a new location. It was a blast.

Now, with the new Caladbold-Quest, I decided to visit the places and search for the shards without using ANY waypoints. Only asuran portals were allowed. I asked myself, if that experience could be repeated on any other map. And to my joy, that was the case.

By traversing the world of Tyria, I came across events, players and places, I’d never seen before. I revisited old maps and did some old events, found lots of new events and just had a blast of a time. Again, I way able to get a hang for those maps, just like in those glory days with World of Warcraft. And, by the way, traveling from Lions Arch to the hearts of maguuma really feels like reaching the end of the world. Suddenly you can relate to a Soldier, who asks you, If you’d found a way out the jungle. You are trapped within this deadly, tangled jungle and really have to watch your step. Even though traveling across the jungle was oftentimes frustrating, it really felt like an accomplishment, finding the shard within the tangled depth.

So, I think, I will never go back to using waypoints. The world is too vivid, too beautiful to skip everything with a click on a waypoint.

So, unless you have the “Been there, done that”-Achievement, I recommend, trying out this way experience Guild Wars 2. Even for those, who won’t have much time for the game. The content will wait for you. Chances are high, that you will simply have more fun. And that’s what games are about!

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tl;dr:
Found out, that skipping waypoints and running across the world is much more enjoyable for me. Try it out!

For me, it always felt like cheating, when my group was skipping encounters. So I started my own party stating something like “Fight like men! No skipping!” and had a blast of a time. Well, that was far long before fractals, but perhaps worth a try, even nowadays.

I just have to say, I loved lake doric. Even better than all other LS3-Maps, lake doric managed to get me sucked into the world. Beautiful landscapes, lots of different fights and events and a manageable size, without too much waypoints.

Even the achievements were great, so this is my second ever LS-Episode, in which I managed to get the meta achievement.

After the map, I went back into the heart of maguuma to collect the caladbolg-shards and, man, I will never go back there! The maps are still hellish for people, who are on their own. And the maps (tangled depths especially) are still hell of confusing.

So, please, for the next expansion, aim more for maps like lake doric and I’m with you.

Faith restored.

Hey everybody,

I’ve got the same problems! Stuck on Map-Screen + Texture-Issues! Now, since some of you guys already posted about “fixing” the stuck-on-map-screen problem, I’d like to help you with the texture-problem:

If your textures are messed up again, fire up the graphic-options and set the texture-size on something different (e.g. “high”, if they were “medium” before). This does eliminate the graphical glitches, since the textures seem to get reloaded. After that you are even able to set the texure-size back to it’s old value.

Now, I’d really like to see this issue resolved by Anet, so: BUMP!

I really would like to see GW2 moving towards “traditional” MMORPGS:

1.) Go back to separate realms. Remove every loading-screen in this game. Build one huge persistent world per realm.

2.) Remove / weaken the waypoint system. It destroys immersion completely. You’ve build so many great worlds – most players will visit them only once to complete the quests. After that, they’ll use Waypoints to teleport back and forth. Force players to “live” in your worlds. E.g.: Reduce the number of waypoints! 3 or 4 WPs per Map would be great. Or make using WPs far, far more expensive, so players think twice before using!

3.) Mounts! Mounts! Mounts!
With far less waypoints, mounts would be great!

4.) A (small) step towards the holy trinity to make dungeon runs less chaotic. I really like the ideas of roles in a group (Damager Dealer, Tank, etc.). Just make sure, that every class can fullfill these roles about equally good. The thief would like to heal (Ninja Nurse)? Fine!

5.) Please get rid of that tree-jungle-theme. I’ve seen enough of it – and that is BEFORE HoT! I wouldn’t mind going back to traditional fantasy-settings.