Guild Wars 2

After reading the entire thread, I would have to agree that balancing all the downed states and making rally a one time only thing would be a good way to make things a bit more fair.

I really like that people can stop and res each other, but it takes time and you can’t defend yourself while ressing someone else. If we were to take out DS, I’d still want the ability to res the fallen put in.

A lot of times, I find that I die trying to be a hero, but other times I really am a hero and we’re able to successfully retreat with most of our numbers.

As I originally said, it adds an interesting dynamic, and until the person is completely dead, they aren’t dead. I do agree doing damage while in DS is pretty kitten, and some classes definitely need some help while others a nerf.

The most fun play style for me is either solo roaming or less then 10 players running around taking guards, camps and if its not upgraded a tower.

Going solo is always the most challenging because if you come up on 2v1, even if one is upleveled, you are at a disadvantage. It’s just that simple. I think you get better at your class when you always put yourself as an underdog, but it’s definitely a frustrating play style and it can be a slower way to rank up.

As far as the down state goes, I think it adds an interesting dynamic to the equation. This is coming from a rangers perspective, and I agree some down states are just TERRIBLE (sorry warriors, you just die) so I can completely understand why some players think its a really dumb mechanic.

It definitely encourages group play, which I think is wonderful. A lot of the design decisions in this game seem to be geared toward encouraging group play. Helping someone kill stuff at random is rewarded. In most other games, if someone randomly comes by and helps you, it very well costs a person experience or coin.

This game doesn’t do that. If you don’t want to be social, that’s fine, but this game doesn’t half your reward, it just gives to everyone.

I both agree and disagree with what the OP has to say. Having temporary content can definitely make the game feel more alive for those actively involved. I have memories from early EQ days when they use to do the occasional one-off event and they really were awesome.

On the other hand, exclusive content is just that, exclusive. It’s great for those who got to see it, but doesn’t do anything for those who missed it. Someone else pointed out, we already have one “real” life to live once and only once. Having another one means we’re probably going to miss stuff, and missing stuff in a game almost seems silly.

The history book idea sounds like a great solution to this as it lets people that honestly want to just see the content, do just that. It wouldn’t have to offer much of a reward outside of some silver coins, where as the event done live would perhaps offer up something truly awesome.

It’s a double-edged sword and there is no right way of doing things. When I was super addicted to MMOs and spent 4 to 8 hours logged in a day, one-time content was all I wanted. Now that I log anywhere from 4 to 10 hours a week max and missing one time content is a very real possibility that is kind of annoying. I shouldn’t have to miss out on REAL life for a game.

With all that said, I love how there is no monthly cost to play and I still haven’t finished earning a full set of exotic gear or gotten 100% map completion. I’m thinking if I played this game like how I use to play EQ, I probably would of used all the content up in that first month. Playing more casually like I do, I still have lots to do.

The problem I’d like to see some how “fixed”, is getting events to start when only a couple of people are around. I’m one skill point shy of completely cursed shores but it can be challenging finding people to do these things, especially if they’ve done it already.

Playing my ranger I used mostly SB/LB. One day a guildie mentioned using sword/torch which never really occurred to me. The idea of tossing fire at someone, slowing/bleeding them with a trap thrown at range and then landing poisons and bleeds on them all before switching weapons just really upped the damage output for my toon.

S/D was also interesting but I found I’d rather have my torch for the fire conditions then the daggers for poison conditions since the sword 3 ability does poison as well.

Now I primarily use sword/torch and LB though sometimes depending on the situation, I’ll go sb/lb or st/lb. All and all the variety for each class is what really makes it fun.

Oh, and for the record, I went through D3 and it was a terrible experience when put next to the prior games. I was really frustrating with that mess of a game because it completely failed to live up to the name DIABLO!!!!! Mop is no better. Sorry Blizzard, its over. No way I’ll buy titan (whatever it is).

Let’s see. My top toon is level 50, I’ve only finished about 35% of the map and I’ve well over 100 hours of game play in. Yes, yes I have gotten my monies worth by far.

I figure once I get map completion done and all the instances ran a handful of times each, I’ll likely be done but for only $60 and so many hours of game play, I can hardly complain.

Plus, they are constantly fixing bugs.

My biggest complain though, is questing is still questing. I enjoy the dynamic events, the pvp is ok (sorry but I don’t play a mesmer, thief or guardian, so it isn’t great), WvW is decent and the dungeons are challenging. Questing though, well, its still the same thing as it has been for the past oh, 10 years.

Still a wonderful game and after playing this, I’m incapable of going back to my last MMO. Oh, I tried and just couldn’t stand it. So glad I didn’t buy the latest expansion.

@OP, if you’ve finished all this

Complete your personal story
Unlock all available skills for your profession / race
Raise your crafting disciplines to skill level 400
Explore all areas in the game (100% World Completion)

And have no interest in clearing all the dungeons (at least for the story and graphics), then I’d basically say you are done. You likely spent at least 200 hours doing this. 200 hours of entertainment for $60 is a bargain if you ask me.

I mean, that’s literally 3 hours 20 minutes of entertainment for a $1. This really isn’t an MMO in the traditional sense. Arenet isn’t subscription based so it doesn’t block you from completing content. It doesn’t limit you with artificial caps or only letting you do the dungeon once a day.

I hate to say it, but it sounds like you beat the game. I know when I get 100% map completion and all the dungeons cleared, as well as my personal story done, I’ll consider the game done with outside of pvp. Not a bad thing really. I’m sure you payed $60 for far less entertainment before.

I’ve been taking my time doing the pve content. My ranger just turned 49 and it my highest level character. Think I’ve got around 105 hours so far. I also have a lvl 6 war, lvl 2 thief and lvl 2 ele.

I have spent a considerable amount of time doing Spvp on different toons and have played about 150 games so far. I was getting really frustrated with my ranger for pvp. Decided I needed to test out thief/war/ele and I really enjoy Spvp on the war now.

I still love doing the pve content on my ranger and I’m just starting to do dungeons. I’ve seen the two lowest level ones so far.

The thing I love about this game the most is that in pvp you get scaled to level with a full set of gear and are fairly competitive. WvW is ok but a little dull for me. Spvp is where its at.

For the pve side of things, just exploring all the zones and seeing all the dungeons is what I enjoy doing. I figure until I’ve done each dungeon in both modes and all paths, as well as full map completion I have something to do.

I constantly switch up what I do from day to day though otherwise I tend to get tired of doing the exact same type of content. With only 105 hours, I’ve already felt my $60 has been well spent.

@OP, I was getting really frustrated with dungeons at first too. As another poster said, your team really has to work together. Here are a few tid-bits of knowledge I’ve gleamed after playing a few of them.

1) If someone dies, multiple people should pitch in to get that person up asap. It makes a big different.

2) A group needs to take its time planning out pulls a lot of times. In some dungeons, the mobs come mixed from normal to silver (more hp) to gold (even more hp). Setting an initial kill target and getting all the lower hp ones down fast can really make things easier.

3) Depending on the setup you can often times get the melee mobs to chase you out of range of the ranged mobs making it significantly easier to reduce group damage and focus fire down individual mobs.

After playing EQ for 4 years and wow for another 7 its become apparent that those games don’t play like this one. Rules such as aggro, leashed mobs and mobs that auto reset aren’t necessarily rules in this game. Understanding gw2 isn’t wow and that the group needs to look at things from other angles makes a difference.

4) When you are setting your own character up, try and take several defense type abilities as well as crowd control type abilities. A lot of people are really use to taking all dps abilities thinking it will suffice. It won’t here.

ex. On my ranger I’ve found that my aoe snare that I can ground target with and my another trap that causes mobs to be snared can really help myself and my teammates kite mobs around while still damaging the focus mob (always have a focus mob, they die so much faster).

Just keep at it and try and remember the cool people. When you play with the same people multiple times you’ll learn each others patterns and generally start to work more effectively with one another.

Good luck.