Guild Wars 2

Short and sweet; with the utmost respect to pvp and wvw players, I am a pve player so please remember this with my comments.

I had no way to viably test the elite specs in the atmosphere I play. I realized I couldn’t fairly test the demo based upon this information. Is something good or bad for me? idk; do I like or not like certain specs? idk; ect…… I don’t want to make comments based upon testing the elite specs in a situation I will never use. I don’t think my comments would be fair to the pvp and wvw crowd for which this demo was intended this week. In the first week, I was unable to test the new specs which would be my reason for buying or not buying the expansion.

Well I feel you OP. The ritualist was my favorite class of almost any game I ever played. I loved it in pve. I was crushed when they said it wouldn’t make an appearance in this game. I also hate melee fighting but for some reason I really enjoyed the dervish, again I was utterly disappointed as there is no dervish in this game. I have played every class and right now, nothing and I mean NOTHING, resembles either of these two classes. While it saddens me I did move on and found I liked playing a mesmer which has an abysmal dps rating. I wound up hating it in HOT because the mechanics changed so much, you were forced to play a certain way to survive. The change was a complete turn off as I felt I was playing a much different class than the mesmer I played in the core game. Now I find myself trying to decide which class I go forward with into POF. Just an FYI, sometimes I go back and play GW1 for a bit so I can reminiscence and think of what might have been……

I suggest the following:

1. If she wants to stay with Warrior; A fun and easy build in open world is Axe/Axe with Rifle or Bow as a secondary

2. Is she will try engineer its super easy for open world pve for the core game. All she needs to start is pistol/pistol or rifle and use flamethrower. Once she switches to flamethrower all she will do is use the first attack almost exclusively and then add healing and the other secondary skills, like turrets as she needs them.

3. Ranger and Necromancer are also very easy since you can have your pet(ranger) or minions (necro) act as a tank while you attack away. Ranger uses longbow and shortbow or another secondary and necro uses staff and has many options for secondary depending upon desired impact and play style.

Any of the three above are easy to use. Ironically the warrior may be the hardest to use of the ones I mentioned, but all are quite easy to pick up and feel successful with quickly.

My cousin is a very casual player. They make up a very large core of the games population. They are pretty much a non vocal group who aren’t hardcore gamers who rarely post in forums, if at all. When they speak, they speak by not playing or paying so its felt. His response to me was simple when I asked him to play, “why would I play HOT, its to hard to solo, its boring, and hard to get around. I get some people will like the challenge but I am not one of them. I don’t have the time to craft the gear I need for raids or make the money needed to buy it.” I asked him what he wanted. He responded, “I like the core game, people asked for harder content and they got HOT, I want something like the core games difficulty. Something I don’t need to be a hardcore gamer to play. This weekend when I played the POF demo, its the first time I enjoyed this game in a long while.”

Keep in mind I am not trying to support his choice, but rather give an example of what he is thinking. Believe it or not, according to marketing reports on this game specifically, his type of player makes up as much as 70% of the people who play this game. I do believe however, its the other 30% who sustain the game over the long haul. My point is marketing reports show if you don’t cater something to your largest crowd, you will be losing valuable funds.

AS someone who can’t play first person view games for the same reasons, I understand the problem all too well. I didn’t have this problem myself in the demo, but I do understand the feeling for those who had the issues. I truly hope something can be done to help alleviate the issue for these players.

Liked the look of the new map. Liked the mount. Liked the story part I played. Liked the battles in the story I did. Liked the feel of the expansion. Liked the openness and getting around, unlike HOT. Liked ability to feel successful, unlike initial experience in HOT getting killed by mobs. Issues: a way to identify completed bounties. A pain to go all the way there and find out they have been done. Issue with Unidentified equipment and paying to identify. Wished I could have tried elite specs. As a PVE player primarily will be hard to make an assessment in wvw and pvp for my play style and experience.

Moradon.1609:

Thx for the input, i went over the tutorials and they were simple enough so i got the gist of it.
I guess i’ll have to try the classes out myself to see which one suits me better. At least i can rule out a few professions already like thief and ranger

Just another quick question before i go, i started a warrior when i first started but got turned off due to me reading you need to swap weapons mid-combat all the time. Can you swap weapons efficiently and smoothly or do you always need to open the inventory and select it making it feel incredilibly clunky?

Thanks alot

Remember this. I had some preconceptions as well early on I remember, and now after getting to know the game, the classes I like the most weren’t the ones I would have thought of for myself as being my primary classes.

Mala.3861:

SmirkDog.3160:

Here’s a wild idea — just go into WvW and try it out. You can still use the skills, and there’s random mobs that hang around that you can hit. Have none of you actually played WvW and just assumed?

Yes, many of us have tried WvW and have spent enough time in there to know what’s what. That doesn’t mean that is how we spend 95% of our hours in-game. How fun would it be for us who do NOT like it to go in and try the new builds only be dead in 20 seconds? Try the training dummies? Yeah, that is loads of fun. A good way to spend the weekend, right?

And, how fair would that be to the new specs themselves. We seldom participate in this form of play so how would we judge the fun factor or viability for each of them?

All we are asking is why the spec beta is not going to be available for the other large portion of the population. I remember trying the Revenant out in Frostgorge and other areas of Tyria. If that isn’t possible, why not just let us use the demo area to try them out?

After my weekend of trying to play as much as I could while not rapter riding, I was really looking forward to trying the specializations.

From an unbiased perspective,since the great majority of players in this game are pve based primary players, this makes the above point very fair and relevant.

Vayne.8563:

Class forums for almost any MMO are never happy. That’s because the most disenfranchised people are the ones who post the most on them.

It’s the grass is always greener on the other side syndrome. If everyone is complaining the game is balanced. lol

Truth in the words above. I would also add until we can actually play them, its very difficult to make an accurate or honest assessment.

mbhalo.1547:

Justine.6351:

Mobs seem kind of tanky to power damage idk.

I was running full glass FA Sc/Wh tempest and haven’t had a problem with mobs except the hyena bounty boss that kept teleporting to me and 2-shotting into downstate.

Its ironic but the ele I ran seemed to be better here as well. Its was the exact opposite with the same build in HIT so I expected a similar result. I was pleasantly surprised at the play of the ele in this event.

Here’s the thing. While I get the responses by people, the op’s voice speaks for many of the casual players who left this game. Remember the casuals make up the overwhelming majority of this game. I have seen, read about, and heard this comment over and over again and it really is a valid point. People are not going to play a game they feel unsuccessful in. I played almost every character class in the demo and some of them had the same issue while some seemed better equipped to deal with it. Regardless of how hard or easy you personally believe it is, if someone feels like they can’t win and that its unfair, they will quit the game. Keep in mind I am not trying to justify anything or anyone’s opinion, but rather pass along what marketing reports tell developers over and over again as one of the main reasons why people leave some games.

I liked the expansion over all. I was mobbed by the mobs.

• I found myself fighting 6-10 at once. I found this happening regularly and found myself dying on certain characters.
  *I also found my dodge to be noneffective in the story battle as I would dodge well before fire was launched but still take the damage.
  *I made two demo characters, one with my own slot space. I can’t delete either so I can’t get my slot back. I tried several times and while I typed everything correctly, neither one will delete.
• Unidentified gear, why now? A turn off and necessary
  *Bounties, I got to them only to find out they were already done. Needs to be a way to identify the completed ones. It wastes so much time and makes them feel useless.
  *Builds for the characters, again altered playing styles. While understandable to an extent, keep in mind this caused many people to ultimately leave classes and the game with HOT. This is just an observation from in game chat and chat in my guild from many players who seemed to agree with each other. Someone above mentioned warrior issue, happened to me when I tried guardian and thief, happened to many others. No way to handle the onslaught of so many, even when trying specifically not to aggro.
  *I think its pretty clear this expansion revolves around mounts and doing content with them. I think many challenges and mission will require them. I am ok with this, however not if it comes at the expense of traveling around by waypoints.

While my comments may seem negative, these are just the things I noticed which could become issues for people, myself included on some of them. I did like the expansion and had a good time until I got bored with the content and frustrated by the bounties. The content was limited so no issues with that, it was just a small sample.

Falados.7165:

SICK and TIRED of being creamed by HOT mobs and get 3-4 hit

Insert many different classes here and I have seen this comment so many times. Not to make fun or light of what you are saying. I get it. I struggled with HOT as well and got my kitten handed to me in the exact same way. Nothing more frustrating than getting hit for 5-10k at a time when you only have 20k. I had this happen with my mesmer, elementalist, ranger, guardian, and thief. The difference was with all of them, there was at least some kind of decent counter, well until this last patch for some of them. With mesmer, I had to completely switch my build and play style in a way that made the class no longer fun for me to play. I have been contemplating giving the mesmer a go again over the last week.

While I believe I get in principle what the OP is referring to, I may also be wrong. Let me take this from another perspective. In almost every game, this one included, the majority of players are casual gamers. Again in most games, about 2-5% of the total population posts in the forums, these usually turn out to be mostly your non-casual gamers. Early in this game, the learning curve can be a bit overwhelming when try to figure out weapons, builds, skills, ect. However, they do get much easier if you stay with the game and eventually you figure the basics out and get to the higher levels. Great, you’re feeling good and think your character is properly equipped, your build is good, you understand the game better and mostly importantly you feel successful and are dying much, much less. (this is called the learning curve and its takes some time, the OP was probably referring to this)

Now here are two examples of where people get frustrated. I make another character, have a level 80 boost and send my character into the silverwastes. This area is much harder but not still not on par with HOT. I struggle with the level 80, begin dying and /or barely surviving most fights, and think hmm.. I just don’t know how to use this class yet. Try another class and get similar results. This experience is in the back of my mind because…

I finally get my main character into HOT or story 2/3 and the same thing begins to happen. At this point, statistics tell us the following. About 20% quit the game, another 15-25% will ask in game or on the forums. After receiving answers, of those 15-25%, about half of them will quit, ironically many of them will eventually come back. The other 50% or so either stick it out, take a break or complain to the company per customer service, tech support ect.

My point here is we often forget the impact of these players and whether we like it or not, they do have a voice, just not as vocal as the non-casual gamer. What really needs to happen is HOT and the stories need either a very specific tutorial or warning about the content difficulty increase. I had a max level guild when HOT was introduced and while people come and go all the time, I can’t tell you how many times I heard the comments about difficulty and the frustration players. Keep in mind most of these players also want the ability to feel successful doing mostly solo content so as much as I/we tried to help, I/we were fighting an uphill battle.

I will add the following, when you get to HOT, be prepared. Its a huge step up in difficulty. The success of your characters can be misleading in the regular world. Once you jump into HOT related content, everything hits harder and you will notice your skill level and choices of builds, armor ect matter a whole lot. I am having, and have had issues with many casual players in my guild who are entering HOT and having trouble adjusting, while blaming this and that when in reality they were overconfident due to their success leveling their characters. Unfortunately some characters seem to be better made, easier and suited for success in HOT.

Leveling all the professions myself, I found a few frustrating and it was only because I didn’t quite understand the mechanics or how to play the class. (Thief and Elementalist fit here) Once I learned how to play the class in a way that worked for me, they became much easier, quicker and more manageable. In terms of time, it was the Mesmer by far but I also had a lot of fun leveling it because of the challenge and play style. Some classes are easier to figure out than others and I think this may add to the difficulty aspect.

TheBravery.9615:

There’s a game changing build coming up tomorrow, but a safe bet is always berserker gear + greatsword, and damage oriented traits for open world pve

Some kind of update happening tomorrow?

I am going to make this short and sweet. Those dreaded words are coming….. I am new to Warrior and looking to do HOT and Story 3. I have been tinkering with the GW2 build editor and have small pieces of information. However I lack experience and knowledge of this class. What I am looking for is a build for PVE that has decent survivability and DPS. As I said earlier I am looking to do HOT and Story 3 before the expansion comes out. I also have a level 80 boost I could use as well. I am familiar with the game but usually haven’t played warrior, guardian or revenant this game. I know sometimes responding to these requests can be a PITA. I do appreciate any responses and insights.

Thank you both for your responses. They were both helpful and gave me something to think about in different ways.

You know the story, prodigal player returns home to the game after some time away. I realized when I logged on, I never used my instant level 80. I am debating which class to use it on and how to use it. I have narrowed it down to elementalist, mesmer and warrior for the choices. As with all the classes it seems they all have strengths and weaknesses. While I know I am on the elementalist forum, I would appreciate any insights on choices. I plan to PVE solo with the eventual run in with others for events. I will be playing story 3 for sure, and possibly HOT and Story 2. While I know all the classes have viable builds, at least I think they do, how is elementalist fairing these days and any of the others I mentioned if you possess that knowledge. I have read through some of the threads on here and got some information. As for me, I am not the best player and also not the worst. I also don’t have any crafting skills as I never developed them when playing previously. Thanks for any responses and insights.

Thanks for the responses. I now have to figure out which one it is but your responses really help, thanks!

What class/profession does the spinning attack where the character attacks while completely spinning around? I have seen bandits do the attack as well. I know there are a few spinning attacks, not sure which one this is.

Hey all,

Thanks for the responses. They were very helpful for the most part and gave some different insights than the responses I received from others!

I did a recent paper/ project on this game. My focus was on why people stop playing or quit beyond they just got sick of the game or wanted to play something else. In essence I was looking for other reasons. I found it interesting as I discussed with many GW2 players, 1167 total over the last four months, the same theme continued to come up. Most people quit due to content difficulty or too many unusual things to do. (FYI almost all their comments are in regards to pve after the original story.) Examples – Many people mentioned HOT was too difficult to complete and they never finished it. (Several different missions mentioned) Another example was season 2, the Mystery Cave Mission. Many people mentioned it was too difficult to complete and/or took too long due to complete something in battle and having it cancelled out, so in a sense voiding your previous action.

I thought I would get the info for the project and be done with it. However so many people mentioned the same things over and over again, I am curious if others on here feel the same way. I know the forums represent a small percentage of the actual game players and usually the more involved players are on the forums. I also understand a wide variety of variables factor into many things for each player, but from a general sense, do you feel the same way, disagree, agree to an extent ect.?

Thanks for your help. It worked and we can chalk this one up to player incompetence.

Here is a picture of what is my screen when its happening

I have a complete set and enough transmute charges. I was able to do my headgear, shoulders and chest. The Leggings, gloves and boots will not transmute. I get a greyed out area when I try to apply the new look I want to transmute. I have more than enough transmute charges but for some reason it won’t allow me to transmute the last three pieces of my set. Any ideas, suggestions ect?

same issue for me

After playing much of the day today on and off, I am unable to log in now. Below is my error and build info. It says it can’t connect to the server. I can connect to the internet and to other games I play online, so this appears to be an issue on your end.

Build: 53850
Error Code: 58:11:5:535

Same issue, unable to connect to game. I tried on 3 different connections, all have the same issue.

I’ve been away for a few years and recently came back to the game. Spent my time playing elementalist and ranger when I played back yonder. I decided I wanted something new, didn’t feel like warrior, necro or guardian, so in the end it came down to thief or mesmer. Went with thief and I hit level 10 and this is where my problems began. I am not one of those people who say the class is no good, I will be real, as a thief, I currently suck as a player. The good news I do want to learn how to play the class and get better. I am looking at this right now as a PVE thing, once I get the feel of the thief down a bit, I may consider other elements of gameplay. So what I need….

A few tips on how not to die so quickly (especially with mobs)
Good weapon choices
Any techniques or strategies I need to keep in mind
Any combos or builds I should be using
Other Thief wisdom you could impart on me.

I did look at the thief information that is stickies but most of it is fairly dated. If its relevant, I would be happy to use it, but being away from the game so long, I just wanted to make sure with the changes. Lastly thanks in advance for any help.

Oh the irony. Thanks for your responses and help. I tried logging on and off originally and that didn’t work. When I logged on now, it was working fine.

My second accessory and ring slot on my asura engineer will not switch to the new things I purchased. If I try to double click, it simply changes the first one I already changed back and forth. When I manually move the new item over the second slot, it does not switch to the new items. I also can not unequip either of the second slot items as when my mouse is above it, the option is not available.

I think the brown bear is far and away the best tank for the Ranger. If you are WVW or PVP, it probably matters a whole lot more. For most things PVE, you can run with whatever you like. I have run with all of them at some point in PVE and I think what happens is you begin to develop favorites.

I agree they are many more, but my issue with the quality of those who have the commander tag. I have had to rez several of them in various events, none of which are overly difficult. Just your basic run of the mill ones. I am not meaning to condone them as most of the ones I have worked with and seen are good players, but is there something going on where the standards to be commander or something along those lines have been lowered?

Is there any benefits to playing a specific race as an engineer in your opinions? I am starting one soon and would like any input you would be willing to share, thanks!

I have been curious about giving the necromancer a try. Its the only profession I have yet to try in GW2. My question is for those who play a necromancer is there a race that better to play as a necro or one that’s not better to play as? Any other insight you want to share would be great but not necessary.

I was highly critical of this system and furious about how this was implemented. Clearly they could care less about how many complaints they received. I am still upset about my situation as are many others. I have had this conversation about skins and how they are used with several new players who are very frustrated and upset. Wish I had a better response.

The simple answer is its really up to you. Do you like crafting? If you are planning to do the hardest fractals and stuff, then IMO you will need to so you get the best gear. Other than that, it comes down to a personal choice. I hate crafting in most games so unless I need to do it, I won’t.

A bit late to the discussion but I still play GW 1 and love it. About a month ago there was an event and I was amazed how many people were on. Its a game that captured my heart and hopefully it will do the same for you. You can solo most, if not, all the content, if you know what to do. Generally some things are easier with others.

I think this depends on your play style. Personally, I enjoyed playing an elementalist, a Ranger and Guardian. It comes down to what you want and expect. I don’t generally play heavy classes like warrior, yet I enjoy the Guardian. I would say figure out if you want to fight at a distance or up and close, then go from there.

Perhaps I don’t understand exactly how events occur, but about a month ago I was in the straight of devastation leveling another character. The event rate was awesome, they were flowing, rhythmic and I enjoyed the process of leveling most in this area. Today I have been here all day with another character and the area is slow, uneventful and I have seen a much, much smaller event happenings. Did they make changes to the area? Is it based upon population? I am curious why there are so few events in this area.

Thanks for the replies.

Does the Identity Repair Kit in services allow you to change your character class as well? Example: Lets say I want to change from a human to Asura, will it let me do this? If you do this, I assume you don’t lose your current gear on your character, yes?

Two choices from what I see but I am by no means an expert on the matter. Either trash as you said or buy an extractor to get the upgrades out if you want them. I wish I had better options and could be more definitive with my response.

Thanks very much for your responses, while not what I wished to hear, your explanations make perfect sense and give me the answers I was looking for, thanks again!

Please forgive my ignorance, but I am having some difficulty understanding a few things.

1. I have a level 56 Guardian and purchased a skin. I put in on him and the armor transfused with the skin, in essence the way I understand it, the skin became the armor.

2. Now I have better armor and wanted to upgrade, but my skin is bound to the armor it was on and I need to transmute them off. (this is what I was told I need to do)

A. My understanding is I have to buy some kind of transmutation charge to do this. What kind of skin is this?? I have to spend more money because the skin is now the armor stats I was currently wearing if I want to change it? Aren’t skins just covers for your armor?

B. I don’t know how to transmute, I read some information but its still unclear, so the way I understand it is…..(see number 3)

3. I have five pieces of armor, so I need(have to pay for) five transmutation pieces to get the skin back that I already paid(real money) for so I don’t have the level 56 armor stats forever attached to the skin?

I mentioned all the above because it sounds like they are double dipping money wise with this. Pay for the skin, then you have to pay to take the stuff off if you want to change the stats. Am I not understanding the process correctly? Any help and responses would be appreciated, thanks!