Guild Wars 2

Brother Grimm.5176:

I’d say the “hard” part of this is accepting that the action oriented combat is going to require you to play differently than “other MMOs”. I’ve seen a number of threads recently where new players want to play GW2 like “that other MMO”, and they don’t like hearing that they simply cannot do so.

GW2 was designed from the ground up as NOT being just another MMO, so you either need to adapt your playstyle or accept you will always have difficulties in combat. While I don’t find anything wrong with that, understand that requesting that GW2 be changed to be similar to “other MMOs” is going to get some rather strong reactions from long time GW2 players.

To be brutally honest, I have tried those other MMOs and was bored with the combat system….that’s why I chose to play GW and GW2.

I would never want to see GW2 changed. It is awesome just the way it is. The strongest point of GW2 is how it is something different. I haven’t seen any of the threads wanting GW2 to be more like other MMOs, but I wouldn’t agree with them if they did.

The game is great as it is. The game should not change, the player should. If someone isn’t used to doing things GW2’s way, they’ll need to learn! And nothing wrong with that. I’m just saying that I understand that learning period can be difficult for some if they aren’t expecting the differences.

That’s the difference between those of us who have played GW and GW2 since launch, and those who have only just picked it up recently. Compared to “stand still and tap one button”, GW2 is “hard”. So as far as the average difficulty of MMOs is concerned, GW2 is above the line.

Brother Grimm.5176:

Not to be argumentative, but there are MANY on these forums that would dispute the claim that GW2 is NOT an easy game. Sure, there are hard battles that requires some planning and tactics to complete without mishaps, but in general the game is NOT hard and the story missions are mostly designed to present narrative story with some interaction, not any serious challenge.

In my case, my claim that GW2 is not an easy game comes from comparing to just about everything else out there. GW2 is a game that requires movement, dodging, and in many cases thinking ahead. The battles that require planning and tactics are good examples of that, but not the only examples.

Even if you take The Ghost Rite quest and think about the fact that you need to -try- to not be surrounded, that already makes GW2 more difficult than questing in most games out there. In certain other MMOs that won’t be mentioned, you can stand perfectly still and spam 1 or 2 spells the entire time you are questing. If someone comes from that kind of background, they could very easily find GW2 to be a more difficult game and they likely would not find it very easy.

That’s all I was implying. “Easy” and “Hard” don’t really have clear definitions or ways of measuring them. It’s always a matter of opinion. What is easy to some may be hard to others. I don’t doubt for a second that there are a ton of people who would argue that GW2 is not a hard game. Because it’s easy to them. But for a new player who maybe has never played anything that requires you to move or actually think about what spell you are casting outside of end game raiding, GW2 is not the easiest game in the world. It’s also a big change because GW2 is one of the few games out there that puts every class in charge of its own self-heals. People who are used to playing a mage in other games might not expect to have to heal themselves as often as they do when playing an Elementalist in GW2.

I hope that clarifies what I was talking about!

Merchant Of Shadows.1526:

The NPE should be a choice. When you start a new character it should ask you in character creation “Are you new to MMO’s like guild wars 2”? and if you say yes then you are opting into the NPE.

I love this suggestion! I know several other MMOs out there let you skip the “tutorial” phase of the game. It would be really nice to be able to do that here.

I can see some defense for slowly introducing players to new abilities and content rather than overwhelming them all at once (though admittedly maybe the current tuning is a little TOO slow), but I don’t see why my nth character needs to go through the same experience. I would love to be able to check off a box or something and be able to skip all of the NPE stuff.

I don’t think the story quests are too hard in general. That said though, they’re not exactly easy. But GW2 isn’t an easy game. My elementalist died a few times on Claw Island and twice on The Ghost Rite, but I got through it.

At least death in GW2 isn’t as punishing as GW1.

As others have said though, if you’re having a lot of difficulty on a quest, experiment with your utility skills a bit more, freshen up any outleveled gear, and get use all of your abilities! As I’m sure you learned, The Ghost Rite isn’t a quest that you take slow and control your pulls. You’re supposed to be a spinning, slicing, AoE blasting meat grinder! The enemies won’t wait for you to pull them slowly, so make sure you’re taking them down as quickly as possible.

If all else fails and you really can’t finish a quest, level up a bit more and come back later. I know the game scales your level down, but by that point you might have some more utility skills, know the game a bit better, and have slightly better gear.