Guild Wars 2

I think there are three glaring difference between GW2 and the popular Asian MMO’s.

1. The grind. I have to laugh when I hear people complain about the grind in GW2. You’ve never experienced a grind until you’ve played an Asian MMO. For example, I played one game from 2004-2006. The level cap was 75. It took me two years of nightly playing to reach the level cap. I rolled no alts.

2. The guilds. Western MMO’s tend to treat guilds as large, faceless zergs. You can have hundreds of members in your guilds. Meanwhile, Asian MMO’s tend to restrict guild membership to a few dozen members. I like this a lot, as you really get to know your guild members. Also, in Asian MMO’s it is easily apparent who the good guilds are . . as opposed to guilds made by some kid on a whim.

3. Penalties. I think the biggest difference I have seen is that Western MMO’s tend to have absolutely zero death penalties. Meanwhile, Asian MMO’s often have severe death penalties (causing a full day’s worth of experience at times). I think a lot of Eastern players may find GW2 far too carebear.

Finding a good guild in any MMO these days is a very difficult thing to do. Most are large, faceless entities . . basically with a dozen or so “core” players with hundreds of interchangeable minions – or they’re hastily thrown together guilds created because the leader “could” make a guild, without considering if he “should”.

Mirta.5029:

I’m going to assume that you weren’t in a single beta. The PVE is the most awful boring thing in ESO.

This is the truth. The developers made a monumental mistake with PvE in ESO. They forgot to make it the least bit interesting or fun. It is a tedious, mind-numbing bore.

As I have said numerous times – yes, ESO will hurt the population of GW2 when it is released . . mostly because it’s shiny and new. But I think most will be back sooner than later.

The population on my server didn’t drop off during ESO beta weekends at all. I know most of my ESO beta weekends were spent playing GW2. I saw many comments in GW2 chat (whether they were lying or not is debatable) from many players who said they just could not get into ESO at all. Too boring.

Over time, of course GW2 is going to lose a part of its player-base. They will also gain some new players as well. People will always flock to the “next best thing” – even if it’s not very good.

The Elder Scrolls Online should not really provide any long-term troubles for GW2. The game is actually getting quite poor word-of-mouth. It is going to sell well (it already has), but I predict its subscription rate will sharply fall off after one month – perhaps more than any other sub-game in history.

Embrace The Bold.7619:

Wrenn Haldane.3208:

Went for a white/gold look

but the clipping with those skins are soooo bad! how can you tolerate it?

It’s not so bad in-game

Went for a white/gold look

I rarely see RPers on Darkhaven. Thank goodness.

1. Make dyes account bound, not character bound.
2. Commander should be account bound, not character bound.
3. I would really like to see more armor skins from the gem store.
4. Skin locker. For example, for the armor skins purchased from the gem store.
5. I would really like to see Karma Vendors sell more useful items. Frankly speaking, these items are often weak compared to items that are world drops.
6. I also think crafted armor/weapons should be of better quality. Honestly, crafted armor/weapons are largely weaker than world drops.
7. Give all classes a “speed boost” signet they can put on their skill bar. I may be wrong, but I think there are a couple of classes that don’t, and they lag behind in big groups.

So I have played with this medium armor since last night. I have seen screenshots on this forum and others. I have yet to see a screenshot of a character with the helm visible. Obviously, the helm is not very popular.

Of course, the “blue” in the armor is not very popular with some people. I think the blue looks preposterous myself. I thought we would be able to dye it. My mistake there.

One improvement I have made it to hide the shoulder armor. Frankly, the shoulder armor is pretty shoddy. It looks like it was added as an afterthought. The ensemble looks better without the shoulder armor (medium).

Had I realized (again, my mistake) that the blue areas were not dyeable, I would never have purchased this armor. I guess I will just have to swallow my pride and either salvage them, or re-roll.

videoboy.4162:

goldenwing.8473:

videoboy.4162:

I think people are a bit confused about this armor. The blue parts are armor not skin. Hiding the helm or previewing a single piece with another piece of skin-showing armor confirms this.

I have 8 different PCs (and one laptop) in my house. The armor shows differently depending on graphics cards/settings.

The fact that most of the posters are calling it “skin” means that the effect (which I am sure the artist labored over) is not being correctly conveyed on a wide-scale level. This indicates there is a problems in the design that might need to be addressed.

Retooling is expensive.

So is potential loss of sales.

ANet gets to make that call based on feedback (a small portion of which comes from this thread.)

Your statement would carry more weight (be more understandable) if not for the fact that you can preview a piece of the armor, with another piece of armor, and explicitly see that the blue isn’t skin. This is regardless of graphics settings (I checked before posting). It seems like far too many people are basing their complaints off of photos and not actually seeing the armor in game.

People not liking the armor is perfectly ok. But people insulting the design for doing something it, very clearly, doesn’t do (show too much skin) isn’t ok.

It’s an armor skin, which is why people are using the word “skin”. It’s the correct term to use.

I did purchase the Zodiac armor skin. I was hoping it looked different than it does in pictures (and the in-game preview panel). Sadly, my opinion is that this armor skin is a mess.

I agree with goldenwing. The only reason I said to make the blue dye-able (and not removed entirely) is because the skin would be X-rated on females if it were showing skin where the blue currently is.

I absolutely agree that the Zodiac skin is not at all consistent with the artwork of the game. It just seems misplaced.

I bought it. But I just don’t like it. Now I have to buy new armor to replace it. My mistake.

Danica,

My feedback is as follows:
1. Allow the blue areas of the Zodiac armor to be dyed.
2. Remove the facial “skin” on the helm. Some of us don’t like “masks”.
3. Seriously look into whether the medium skin and light skin were reversed. Looking at the armors (for human female) they do seem like they were mis-named.

Paulytnz.7619:

Wrenn Haldane.3208:

I bought the medium armor, and I hate it. It just looks ridiculous. This is the first armor that I have bought from the gem store that I have not been happy with.

The armor doesn’t have a lot of detail to it – certainly not when compared to other gem store armors. The blue is preposterous, and the smurf boobage is embarrassing.

Actually if you are male I think they have mixed up the Medium and Light armours. Light looks like engi steampunk and Medium looks like wiz gear……

I agree with you. I think the medium and light armors are backward for the females as well.

I bought the medium armor, and I hate it. It just looks ridiculous. This is the first armor that I have bought from the gem store that I have not been happy with.

The armor doesn’t have a lot of detail to it – certainly not when compared to other gem store armors. The blue is preposterous, and the smurf boobage is embarrassing.

I think SAB is extremely odd and out of place. I really can’t explain it, but it diminishes my enjoyment of the game just knowing it’s there.

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy GW2 and absolutely feel like I have gotten way more than my money’s worth out of the game. I know some people enjoy SAB. That’s great! But I’d rather see added end-game content/paid expansion.

Here’s my suggestion on how to make the dailies and monthlies better (for the laurels rewards).

Basically, make the Laurel rewards for PvE, PvP and WvW. Then, whichever someone completes first (provided they complete it in the allotted time frame) that’s the Laurels they get.

For example, let’s say that tomorrow during my prime playing time my guild is having a WvW event. Of course, I would want to play with my guild. So why not have dailies for Laurel rewards tied in with WvW?

So I complete the WvW dailies and get my daily Laurel. This automatically turns off the Laurel rewards for PvP and PvE . . . because I completed the WvW dailies for the Laurel reward first.

This same concept can also be applied to the monthlies. Whichever you complete first . . that is what you get the Laurels for.

The way I see it, this allows players more freedom to not only do what they want, but also to experience more diverse challenges every day. It doesn’t penalize PvE-only players, because they can still get the same rewards as the people who primarily play in PvP and WvW. It would also help break up the monotony of being stuck doing the same PvE dailes every single day. Honestly, if I have to do that stupid “dodger” daily again, I am going to rip my hair out. (I play my Ranger the most, and I simply do not dodge nearly as much with my Ranger as I do with, for example, my Guardian . . so I end up switching off my Ranger to something else so I can complete that daily dodge as fast as possible.)

I disagree with you . . but only to a point.

Dailies and Monthlies are a good idea, but they are poorly implemented. Here’s why.

I play MMORPG’s to have fun. I have been playing MMO’s for years. One thing about me is that I have always despised doing dungeons. I just do not have fun doing them. The dungeons/fractals in Guild Wars 2 are no different. There’s nothing wrong with them. I just don’t enjoy doing them. That being said, I have never completed a Monthly because I just don’t do dungeons. People will say, “But you only have to do 5 in a month!”. Sorry, but that’s 5 too many for me. So, I never compete a Monthly, and I never receive the awards. Now I will never get the Laurels, because I refuse to do something I don’t have fun doing.

As for the Dailies, these are poorly implemented as well. I love crafting, but I know people that don’t. Forcing people to craft is not conducive to a fun experience for some people.

To be honest with you, I think the whole Dailies thing is rather poorly implemented. Have to complete 5 Events? You now see level 80’s running around newbie-ville doing the Champions and quick-and-easy newbie events. Same thing for Veterans. I see level 80’s, for example, at the Hunting Lodge in Queensdale plowing through the veteran boars. What’s the challenge in that? In basic terms, the game is turning some of its players in to mindless robots. The dailies and monthlies are adding a linear element to the game.

Perhaps my biggest issue with Dailies and Monthlies is that I have not gotten Laurels from completing the PvP side of things. I enjoy PvP. It’s why I play the game. So if I want Laurels, I have to take time away from PvP to do PvE content. I don’t like that one bit.

Don’t get me wrong. The dailies are somewhat painless. I complete them rather quickly. It only takes a half hour or so to complete them. But two months from now, doing the same old stuff day in and day out is going to be a mind-numbing. Plus, since I have no intention of doing dungeons, I will never get the Laurels because of that. Even though I am a PvP player, I still do enough PvE content in a month to earn the Laurels (except the dungeons). I’m being penalized because I don’t want to do something that I don’t like to do.

There needs to be options. Don’t want to craft? Kill 10 more Veterans. Don’t want to do dungeons? Complete 30 more events. Even though it is mind-numbingly repetitive, it still affords all players to get awards . . . and not be forced to do something they do not like to do.

I understand that AN is trying to expose players to different aspects of the game. But in some cases, this backfires.

OK, no one is forcing me to get Laurels. But if I want Laurels, I am forced to do stuff I don’t really care to do. As I said, there needs to be choices . . . and there needs to be Laurels for PvP. (I dunno if it is a bug or not, but I certainly have not gotten them).

I have played a lot of MMO’s, and my class of choice has always been the Ranger/Archer class. I have always enjoyed the challenge of being the proverbial “glass cannon”, dealing high damage and being cunning enough to survive.

With Guild Wars 2, I consider the Ranger to be three-faced.

In PvE, I am extremely happy with the Ranger. My pet acts as a tank for the most part, and I was easily able to get to level 80 faster than I was able to do so with any other class. I am not much for dungeons, so I really have not spent enough time there to formulate an educated opinion.

By far the weakest area for my Ranger is in PvP. A testament to this is trying to complete the PvP dailies. I can play 10 PvP matches, and often times I won’t get top stats in any of them. But if I switch to any other class, I get top stats almost every time. I think the problem is that there are too many line-of-sight problems in PvP for my personal style of play. I am used to being a glass cannon, so I have always been adept at using the terrain, while moving and sniping. Since my weapon of choice are the bows, I simply can not do this in PvP because there are just so many angles to deal with. In order for me to do damage, I have to be right on top of my enemies, and this is not conducive to success for me.

I have more luck in WvW, as it has more open spaces. I am able to move around while fighting. WvW is much more suited to my playstyle.