Guild Wars 2

As I mentioned in another post, I have recently returned to Guild Wars 2 after a year absence. I loved the game when I initially played over a year ago, but after playing for only a short time, live stepped in the way and I have not played since.

I have been avidly reading all of the posts and blog entries concerning changes to the game since I last played, and I am really excited to start playing again.

What class would you recommend for a new-ish player to become acclimated to the game once again? I’d like to play a class that is not overly complicated until I get my bearings in the game world… I’d like a class that is also able to survive relatively well, but not be able to “face roll” over all content.

What class would you suggest for a new-ish player? Keep in mind I have played MMOs for years, having played WoW, Rift, Everquest 2, and Guild Wars.

Thank you all for any help you can provide.

Good afternoon, everyone.

I am coming back to Guild Wars 2 after an extended absence. I played the game upon initial release, but life took over and I have been unable to play since. Upon returning to the game, I am attempting to familiarize myself with the Living Story aspect of the game, and I am a little confused.

Is the content associated with each Living Story arc always available to a player? Or, does the story unfold in a serial manner, and only the current story arc can be played?

I’m reviewing all of the content that has been release for the game since I last played over one year ago, and I would love to participate in some of the events listed, but I am afraid that once the current arc for a given story event is completed, the content is no longer available to players.

Can someone please explain how the Living Story works, and how the content for each story arc is accessed?

Thank you for your help!

At any time, will users be able to change the account information that was entered when we created our Guild Wars 2 account? I purchased the game for a friend, and would like to have his information in the account I created for him as opposed to mine. Will this be available any time soon? If not, how can a subscriber go about getting the information changed that is associated with an account?

I have been playing Guild Wars 2 for about 1 1/2 weeks now, and am having more fun in this game than I have had in all of my years in World of Warcraft. I cannot explain it, but the game’s mechanics are so different and so refreshing, other games just seem to pale in comparison.

The game is not made up of the typical MMO formula of quest hubs (in which you move through the world by going from quest hub to quest hub, collecting a bunch of quests, completing the quests, turning in the quests, and moving on to the next quest hub). As you explore the world of Tyria (the setting of Guild Wars 2), you encounter what is known as “heart quests”, in which you perform a number of actions for an NPC in the area. As soon as you enter the area, the quest is assigned to you automatically. Once you complete the quest, you receive the reward in your in-game mail (which can be accessed anywhere in the world). Heart quest givers are also karma vendors… as you gain karma completing events, you can buy items from each of the karma vendors. Items available from karma vendors are typically better armor, better weapons, or hard to find crafting materials.

As you explore the world and complete heart quests, Dynamic Events spawn near the heart quests. Dynamic events are group based events that require the cooperation of multiple people to complete the event. The more people involved in the event, the harder the event becomes. There is no need to accept the quest or form a group… you are automatically assigned the related event quest. If you participate, you receive a reward.

This brings up one of the nicest facets of Guild Wars 2 – this game encourages cooperation. There is no such thing as kill stealing. If you help kill a monster, you get experience and can loot the monster. Harvesting nodes are instanced, so everyone can gather from the same node. The game actually encourages people to work together.

Profession skills are all tied to the weapon currently equipped. Skills are unlocked the more you use a given weapon. You automatically receive new weapon skills as each one is unlocked. Swapping weapons equips a new set of skills. Daggers and swords tend to have close-range skills. Staffs are typically AOE based skills. And sceptors are typically range based skills.

Add in skill points (challenges that give you skills points to unlock utility skills that are in addition to your profession based skills), vistas (locations in the world in which you need to figure out how to get to the vista point, which unlocks a beautiful cut scene showing the surrounding area as seen from that vista), scouts (NPCs directing you to interesting activities and quest hearts in the surrounding area), jumping puzzles (attempting to reach an elevated area that contains a chest of goodies), and a really nice community, this game has everything I want and need in an MMO.

I won’t kid you… Guild Wars 2 is a difficult game, and is not something you can face roll through. You need to dodge – mobs are smart, and will modify their attacks based upon how you react. Because of this, it tends to attract a more mature and serious gamer community, one that prides itself on helping others and working together towards common goals.

ArenaNet (the developer of Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2) takes pride in their creation. The are quickly working on resolving in-game bugs and issues, and actually listen to their player base.

I can honestly seeing myself playing Guild Wars 2 for years to come.

It would seem as if deleting a character does not remove that character’s achievements from the Account Achievements. I would think that removing a character should also remove any achievements from the Account Achievements that the character has earned.

Is this a bug? What are your thoughts concerning this?

It seems as if FPS is severely degraded in certain areas of the world. For example, there is a bandit cave in the human starting area that, when entered, causes FPS to degrade by half. In addition, in the Black Citadel, entering certain areas also degrades FPS by half.

Is this a known issue? Is there a way we players can help to report various areas that degrade FPS so that ArenaNet can fix these areas?

I am running with an Nvidia GTX 580 (1.5 GB) with the latest Nvidia driver set.

Oddly enough, this seems to have started with the last client update. I did not have any of the VOD issues prior to the latest game client update.

Can someone please take a moment to explain Skill Points? I understand we earn Skill Points from completing Skill Point Challenges and for gaining levels. What I am not quite understanding is how to spend Skill Points.

Also, once chosen, can skills be reset?

For example, as I have been leveling my Elementalist, I have been going to the Skills Panel and just selecting skills that “look good” (i.e., are useful to me). Is this correct? Is there any method to selecting skills other than what looks good? Can multiple points be placed in the same skill to strengthen the skill? Equipping the selected skills is a non-issue for me, since that makes sense. However, the methodology behind selecting what skills to purchase with Skill Points is baffling to me.

Any advice?