Guild Wars 2

So I finally finished the story mode for my first character (a sylvari mesmer) and I’m glad to say it’s been a really satisfying experience.

I really like how this game never made me feel like I was being left out of events, and when my friends wanted to join me (who had never touched guild wars before) we could still play together and get rewards due to the level scaling to whatever area you’re in. it made it much easier for me to introduce friends, in WoW, I was already 85 and while I could still quest with a new friend, the level difference made it where I almost got no rewards or experience worth the time.

I’m also more obligated to make new characters this time around due to the branching storylines and diverse races, I will be running a charr warrior next. I could argue about the lack of end game content most people bring up, but even in GW 1, there was little to do at level 20. I always just made money and ran people from portal to portal so I could give the gold to my next character haha.

Leo G.4501:

Apparition.1576:

Firstly, I would like to start off and say that I am really enjoying this debate. However, I believe too much emphasis is placed on strength and strength alone. The art of fighting is much more by strength.

eg. Remember when Battista tried to fight in the UFC? LOL

I am not saying that strength isn’t important because I personally believe that it is. But there is much more of a science to fighting than any individual statistics. Especially, when it comes to something like Charr vs Norn where their strengths are not exactly directly comparable.

1. Charr were bred to fight and endure. Let us take both a Norn and charr.. and beat them both down to where they are so tired and beat up that they could barely walk. Who would be able to endure and have enough stamina to get up and continue fighting?

My vote would definitely be for the Charr, they were basically bred for this.

2. Aggression in my opinion is much more important than strength in a fight. Who can deny that the Norn warrior is an absolute kitten… but these norns are not fighting bears or gorilla’s. These are Charr.. possibly the most savage race in the World of Tyria..

My vote would be that the Charr would possess the most aggression solely based on the fact that not only is this a natural characterstic of the species.. but once again.. they were also bred this way.

I don’t personally believe that a Norn would be that much (if at all) stronger than a Charr warrior. However, assuming a slight advantage in strength given to the Norn. I don’t think that would impact the battle at all.

These are not little kittens, cubs, or even tigers. These are Charr, more comparable to the old werewolves from the 90’s movies (back before vampires walked in the sun and sparkled), the ones with walked with 2 legs, full of rage, huge fangs. claws, and just straight savage beasts.

Well, I’d say all those features you attribute to the nature of the Charr race can be transitioned over to the Norn and their Animal Spirit transformations…

…unless you’re saying my Human or Asura can somehow train to Become the Snow Leopard or Become the Wolf, Norn can be said to be ‘bred’ into such things as savageness, aggression, cunning, endurance and intimidation.

What Charr have going for them is not solely their appearance, size and nature, but their sophistication to go to go against nature to accomplish their means to an end. And that means tech, military might and stubbornness to throw as many Charr at something as needed…

…but when it comes to a one-on-one fight, I still don’t see why the Charr would have some sort of edge. Everything a Charr’s physiology and attitude offers, a Norn can gain the same or better with their spirits.

Even though I like the charr more, it does seem like there’s more evidence pointing towards the norn being superior in physical strength, with charr coming in close second.

Really what the charr have going for them is they know how to utilize the skills they do have, which is organization and strategy. On a one on one fight, yeah a born would probably win, but in a war, I think the charr would be more united and find a way to pick them out one by one, taking their solitary behavior as a weakness.

What I just said above isn’t really supported by anything official, it’s just my personal perspective.

Dustfinger.9510:

DrDivine.5378:

I can make suggestions, but I’m not going to pretend like I know the lore haha. I did play the original Guild Wars, but I honestly don’t remember much about the norn. Lore aside, I’d probably be more afraid of the charr, but I guess if the norn were weaker, they wouldn’t be living solitary lives would they?

Bingo!

Every playable race has something they bring to the table. I didn’t realize just how strong norn were until I started perusing these forums and looking up the references that other more knowledgeable people were providing.

That said, charr are no slouches. But they excel at group warfare in their warbands, while norn are known to be able to take on great odds just to test themselves against. And they are known to win. Jora was the first norn we encountered. When we ran into her, Ogden Stonehealer was extremely worried about her killing himself, Vekk, the PC, and their 3-7 allies in short order. And that was simply because she was a norn. One charr has nothing one norn doesn’t. They both have claws and teeth, but norn also has superhero strength.

I think the only thing that threw me off was how exaggerated their strength is. Yes, the norn are extremely strong, but at certain points it seemed almost godly (haha). Someone showed me a written part of the story once where all the races sent in about 100 of their own soldiers, while the norn only had to send 10 because that’s all it took.

The norn are also known for boasting about their heroic tales, I can believe they’re stronger than the charr, but how come the norn haven’t taken over yet? Their strength seems really unmatched haha.

Astral Projections.7320:

For brand new rangers, I generally recommend bear/bear to start with. They are low damage but very tanky. This means a new ranger has an easy learning curve when learning how to manage pets. When the new ranger has gotten used to watching their health, pulling them away from the target and switching them out as needed, then it’s a good time to change to the more fragile but higher dps pets. It’s discouraging to start off with a pet that dies fast in combat and you aren’t used to keeping an eye out for them.

Good idea, I kinda made that mistake last year when I tried a ranger for the first time. My moa would die rather easily and I got destroyed at most events haha.

Dustfinger.9510:

Okay. I can see you are choosing to ignore actual lore in favor of your fanfic. Unless you have a real point addressing the actual lore, we’re probably done here, no?

I can make suggestions, but I’m not going to pretend like I know the lore haha. I did play the original Guild Wars, but I honestly don’t remember much about the norn. Lore aside, I’d probably be more afraid of the charr, but I guess if the norn were weaker, they wouldn’t be living solitary lives would they?

Drakkon.4782:

I agree. The Charr have the best stories by far, and the Asura have the best flavor in their dialogs by far. They’re my top two favorite races. I made one of every race just try them out, and if I wasn’t so far into my alts as I am, I would delete them and restart them all as Asura and Charr. Humans and Sylvari are just… -sigh- and the Norn really are kinda bleh.

I agree, I was originally kinda meh about the Asura, but I love how they’re really sarcastic and egotistical about their own intellect haha.

The Sylvari I actually like, their starter area is gorgeous and the race themselves are pretty creative. They feel the most alien-like in that they will openly point out problems to someone’s face because they haven’t grasped the concept of human feelings to a certain degree.

The Norn is probably my least favorite, I can see why people like them, but I always lean towards the Charr. Sure, the Norn are probably stronger, but the Charr are more threatening to me, their culture is also more interesting. Maybe because I like war movies, but it was just interested me more than being an over sized alcoholic human haha.

Chopps.5047:

KyreneZA.8617:

The better question is: are there any good Ranger pets?

Wolf, hyena, drakehound, fern hound, black bear, red moa, jungle spider, shark, armorfish, jellyfish, carrion devourer, lashtail devourer, jungle stalker, lunx, jaguar, eagle, hawk, raven, snow owl, snow hound, siamoth, pig, warthog, river drake, marsh drake

Are all pets that should be used consistently in wvw and pve/dungeon. It depends on the situation.

Facing Old Tom in a pick up group? Use a devourer, take the fan or a battery, and stand behind the devourer with shortbow. Devourer eats damage since you stand behind it. Easy as pie—if you know your pets. Because most of you might not have known how useful a devourer can be to kite around.

Need fury? Red moa.

Want real CC potential? Dogs. They’re great roaming in wvw and actually good versus some enemies in pve. Say you’re in TA original path struggling with hound knockdowns. Use your own dogs to knock them down. This applies in COE too versus the ice hound elementals.

What about a good charged knockdown? Porcine believe it or not. Their charge used to be 600 units so it almost never landed. It was recently shortened and it works much better now. Plus, the environmental drops are actually pretty good.

Black bear for the aoe weakness which negates a ton of damage potentially. Also, it’s another dynamic invuln. with the shout.

I think there’s a lot of good pets honestly.

Sorry, I know asking what is the “best” pet is always kind of a stupid question considering each are designed for different situations. I guess what I was curious about is if these HoM monument pets were actually good.

I heard the jungle spider is one of the best (can’t remember if that applies to PvE or PVP) and someone on here just told me that the black widow is a reskin of the jungle spider. Do you think that would be a good choice for my first ranger pet when making a new character?

As far as rangers being good or bad go, I honestly don’t care too much. Even when I played Warcraft, I played a druid (which at the time, were considered one of the weaker classes), it ultimately comes down to the fun factor for me. I know a lot of people who say guardians are good, I just can’t play them because it doesn’t suit my play style haha. Doesn’t mean they’re bad though.

Mystic Starfish.2586:

I personally use the Black Moa and a jungle spider, I believe. All of the HoM pets are just reskins of other pets, so the only difference is appearance, not skill. That being said, if you want to play ranger, I’d suggest taking one melee pet, and one ranged, so you have versatility (instead of two melee pets)

Isn’t the black widow a skin of the jungle spider? Out of curiosity, why do you choose using the black moa?

I recently acquired my Hall of Monuments rewards and after getting the rare pets unlocked, I’ve been temped to make a ranger.

I have access to all the HoM ranger pets, and someone told me once to not be one of those standard rangers that uses the bear pet. So, I kinda shifted my attention the black widow, black moa or white raven. What do you think?

My first character was a Sylvari Mesmer and now that he’s almost 80, I’ve already started my next character, which is a charr warrior. I wanted to make a character that I felt would be the exact opposite of what I played before, a warrior charr sounded much different than a mesmer sylvari haha.

I think the charr is tied with the sylvari as my favorite race, I really like how everything in their community is treated like the military, sometimes Guild Wars 2 humor can be a little distracting, but I find it the funniest with the charr. Seeing a race with such a threatening image go out of character actually made me laugh a few times.

A friend told me that the charr and asura are the two least played classes, which I was kinda surprised about. I found both of them to be more entertaining than the human or norm. Granted the human and norn models are good, I just never play the human race in an MMO haha.

Laura MacIntyre.1860:

Okay background as quickly as possible lol.

Played guild wars obsessively for 4 years straight, was amazing at it and loved it. Them a friend swayed me toward wow. Found it a bit more versatile and it was fun to try something new, so that eventually won me over.

When guild wars 2 came out I was SO excited, but I only played for about 2 weeks before quitting. It was nothing like the old game is known and loved, and I was already built up in wow.

So now I’d like to start guild wars 2 again, but I’m debating whether it’s even worth it. Is there even a large community anymore? I’m on gate of madness at the moment and I feel so lonely even though it’s a high population server. Is there end game content that makes it worth starting the game?

It’s hard to get the motivation to start, because I have no clue what I’m doing and I don’t know ANYONE who plays anymore.

I was frustrated because I got so good at this game and invested so much time, and then they just rip it away and throw us into a new game that we have to learn all over again….

Anyone have any advice?

As someone who played the original Guild Wars for such a long time, I am pleased to say that Guild Wars 2 a completely re-visioned sequel that is faithful to the lore and fun of it’s predecessor. The game is drastically changed in that it isn’t so linear, you can jump, dodge, explore a massive map with very few portals (most is completely open world). Instead of competing, the mechanics actually reward everyone and you’re actually happy when someone shows up and helps you kill an enemy.

If you liked the original, I think you will very much enjoy Guild Wars 2. It takes what made the original so fulfilling and improves just about every aspect you can think of. Visuals, open world, full voice acting, different playable races, more collectibles, instant grouping etc.

To be honest, not only did I think I get my moneys worth out of Guild Wars 2, but for a game that’s a little over a year old, there’s A LOT to do for only paying $60 dollars.

Really my biggest criticism is the story telling, it’s not bad, but it doesn’t have the same quality Warcraft does with how serious and interesting their story archs get. Guild Wars 2 tries to be serious, but kinda strays into humor, which works at times, but is sometimes distracting.

Still, coming from me who thought this game was really underwhelming at launch, I’m very pleased to say that I am extremely satisfied with the game, I just had to invest a little bit more into learning how everything works. I tried to play it like WoW instead of Guild Wars 2. Instead of focusing on merely capping a character to get to the stuff, it instead tries to provide you with a fun experience to share with friends, it does exactly that.

It’s more about the journey rather than the destination.

Justdeifyme.9387:

I only miss a good story that really thrills me here, and some technical optimizations, then I’m completly satisfied.

Currently the stories we can participate in suck, and the way those stories are told suck even harder.

Story telling has never really been Guild Wars’ strong point, although it’s passable and not bad by any means, it’s not quite as gripping as Warcraft’s approach. While Warcraft tends to go towards a more serious approach, Guild Wars 2 feels comfortable with adding humor, which works sometimes, but not all the time.

It’s not that I’m against giving a game criticism, but like a work of art, it has to be constructive criticism. I detest a lot of these threads that just say “this game is boring” without giving any real reason why they think that. There still a few posts I see where there are people who actually make suggestions on what needs to improved without hating the game as a whole.

Galtrix.7369:

No, I’m not spoiled. Either Anet is the laziest company I have ever seen, or they realistically don’t know how to deal with an mmorpg that they can call “theirs”. The ridiculous amount of bugs in this game nearly makes me sick to my stomach. We’re 1 year into the game and there are still bugs left over from beta that haven’t been fixed, and they’re giant. Most recently, I complained multiple times about my sound vanishing when I enter a zone or talk to an npc, and it still has not been fixed after 3 weeks.

Moreover, they don’t take responsibility for the bugs they do create. I didn’t get my money back for a glitch that made it disappear when I used the tp because Anet said they never had a record of that happening.

The Living Story is also a poor sight to behold nowadays. Sure, the mini-games that must come with the LS are fun, but the actual LS is garbage in my opinion. It seems like Anet literally took a bunch of blank cards, wrote down random ideas for a living story, and are drawing them every two weeks. And the content they do come up with is recycled over and over again. Go fetch x. Now go press f 200 times on these. Now go find x amount of npcs. I want to smack my face into my keyboard repeatedly every time I see the new LS achievement list. I know the LS is free, but it feels like another daily or monthly, except that it comes every two weeks and takes 3 more hours. It feels like a mindless chore is what I’m getting at.

I can feel that Anet is not doing the best they can do when it comes to this stuff, so why should I feel grateful for practically unfinished, recycled content?

I don’t expect massive content updates every two weeks. I don’t expect new land to pop up out of nowhere. I don’t expect new classes, races, or anything else like that. All I expect is variety… and so far, Anet hasn’t been doing much of that at all. Keep in mind, Anet is a company which means that they want to find the fastest ways possible to make money and ways to keep that money flowing. They want to come up with the cheapest, easiest content updates that keep you happy while they can still rake in money.

The same can be said for Bethesda, as Skyrim suffers numerous, horrible glitches that were never fixed two years from it’s release including many that often stop game progression completely. However, glitches are to be expected from a large game. In Guild Wars 2, I am nearly capped to 80 and haven’t experienced any technical difficulties except for the occasional time where the black lion trading company doesn’t work.

Calling Anet the laziest company ever is a bit extreme, they created a massive MMO with the idea of making it playable for everyone. If the game is this unsatisfying to you at such an extreme degree, perhaps selling your account will help you acquire your money’s worth back.

chemiclord.3978:

That’s not really all that true. I think you’ll find the majority of official forums of ANY game slant to the negative, especially if they are a “AAA” title.

That’s actually very true, people tend to lean towards griping about any negative aspects of a game. This can be useful in the form of constructive criticism, but most of the time it’s not the case.

Xista.7391:

I’ve become spoiled.

I tried to play WoW last month. I couldn’t stomach it. 5.2 content has been out since early March. Only thing that has changed was crappy ‘heroic’ scenarios that are kitten easy, and some daily quests in the Barrens.

GW2 has released 13 updates since then, compared to WoW’s 1 since March (had to look it up). Sure I may not be interested in everything that GW2 releases, but it’s still peaks my interest enough to log on an check everything out.

Oh, also I was a huge PvP-er in WoW. I tried queueing for a BG recently. After 9 minutes in queue, i just Alt+f4-ed. The game is no longer worth 15 dollars/month to me.

To Warcraft’s credit though, I do think the one thing they still do better is story telling. Guild Wars 2 has some pretty good story archs and interesting characters, but the cinematics of WoW and how serious their plots can get actually kept me invested longer than I thought. Even Cataclysm, a huge step backwards, had an excellent set up for Deathwing.

I really like though how I can just jump in and out of this game whenever I want. With Warcraft, I always felt I had to play EVERY day just so I could get my money’s worth. Now, we have an MMO that gives us surprisingly deep content all of which are free forever after you buy the game.

Sauzo.6821:

I personally don’t hate rangers but the majority you will end up with in a group are mediocre at best and a mediocre ranger isn’t worth the spot he takes up. Problem I see with ranger is they have to work twice as hard to do something other classes can do half heartedly.

Kinda reminds me of how the Hunter class in WoW where are often referred to as “Huntards” due to a bad rep. The class itself wasn’t bad, it was the astounding amount of players who pulled aggro or just played horribly. In the right hands though, they can be very useful.

Reaper.1695:

What Chopps said. Go Ranger. It’s my main and I’ve invested a ton in him. We’ve had our ups and down, but we are on a decent up right now. I just started to play a GS Sword/Dagger combo and I’m really liking it vs the LB/SB Axe/Axe (or Horn or Torch) combos.

Necro is also very good, but for me, the weapon skills are annoying to use. (this is my opinion, not a general consensus) The skills in Death Shroud is very powerful if traited properly.

Can’t comment on Engi. Ran out of Slots. I also have Thief, Mesmer and Warrior.

The last ranger I made I got up only to about level 10 so I don’t want to judge the class so early either. It seemed kinda fun, and the HoM pets look really cool. I just heard bad things about rangers not being so viable, but I guess that’s not entirely true to most.

Apparition.1576:

Firstly, I would like to start off and say that I am really enjoying this debate. However, I believe too much emphasis is placed on strength and strength alone. The art of fighting is much more by strength.

eg. Remember when Battista tried to fight in the UFC? LOL

I am not saying that strength isn’t important because I personally believe that it is. But there is much more of a science to fighting than any individual statistics. Especially, when it comes to something like Charr vs Norn where their strengths are not exactly directly comparable.

1. Charr were bred to fight and endure. Let us take both a Norn and charr.. and beat them both down to where they are so tired and beat up that they could barely walk. Who would be able to endure and have enough stamina to get up and continue fighting?

My vote would definitely be for the Charr, they were basically bred for this.

2. Aggression in my opinion is much more important than strength in a fight. Who can deny that the Norn warrior is an absolute kitten… but these norns are not fighting bears or gorilla’s. These are Charr.. possibly the most savage race in the World of Tyria..

My vote would be that the Charr would possess the most aggression solely based on the fact that not only is this a natural characterstic of the species.. but once again.. they were also bred this way.

I don’t personally believe that a Norn would be that much (if at all) stronger than a Charr warrior. However, assuming a slight advantage in strength given to the Norn. I don’t think that would impact the battle at all.

These are not little kittens, cubs, or even tigers. These are Charr, more comparable to the old werewolves from the 90’s movies (back before vampires walked in the sun and sparkled), the ones with walked with 2 legs, full of rage, huge fangs. claws, and just straight savage beasts.

That’s actually a pretty good point, take for example a honey badger or a wolverine. Although much smaller in size and not nearly as strong (though still formidable for their size), they can both hold their own against bears, lions, swarms of bees, etc.

This is because they possess extreme ferocity, stamina and refuse to back down during a fight.

Yeah it’s one of those questions again haha, I’ve almost capped my Mesmer to 80 so now I’m deciding on which class to play next. I’ve played a little of each, but not into extensive play. I’m having a hard time deciding, as I like these three classes for different reasons.

Ranger: I have the HoM pets so having a giant black widow is pretty neat.

Engineer: I like the concept of using technology, possibly as a Charr or Asura.

Necromancer: What I played in the original Guild Wars.

Which would you suggest?

RedSpectrum.1975:

My face when (old pic)

That’s the face someone makes when they realize there is no subscription fee.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Welcome back, and just in time for the Holidays, which are always fun. =)

I guess that’s when all the good events start popping up xD

Vayne.8563:

It’s not a game for everyone, as can be seen by these forums, that much I can tell you, but it’s positioned well for someone like me.

Glad you’re enjoying it again.

Thank you, I mean nothing in the game feels lazy at all, they really put their hardest effort into it. I guess with any MMO, it just isn’t the same when you play it alone all the time.

My character looks FABULOUS.

I was really excited for this game, I pre-ordered it and played it immediately at launch. I used to play Guild Wars 1 a lot back in high school when I was a freshman. Although World of Warcraft was the game EVERYONE played back then, I was 14 and couldn’t afford the monthly subscription, so I played Guild Wars 1 as an alternative. Eventually, I bought World of Warcraft and played it for an exceptionally long time, as it just felt superior to the original Guild Wars in terms of content and socializing (I had more friends on Warcraft).

When I heard that Guild Wars was having a sequel that not only looked great, but had innovative MMO mechanics, I wanted to support it. Strangely enough, the first time I played Guild Wars 2 last year, felt really underwhelming and I could not figure out why. I think it had to do with the lack of friends and I wasn’t quite invested in the races as a whole. Now that I’ve revisited this game again in 2013 and have been leveling more characters, I’ve began to appreciate the game a lot more. You could argue that the end game content isn’t quite up to par yet, but for the price you pay, this is an exceptionally well made MMO with a lot of things to to keep you invested.

I have a sylvari mesmer and I was just curious which one do you think is more useful as an elite skill? I mostly use take root, but both are pretty cool.

LameFox.6349:

Dustfinger.9510:

Then later one lone norn hunter is compared to a charr warband when describing what would happen to each when they crossed into each others lands. There’s a reason Norn can live scattered and alone with no central government or ruling body in the unforgiving wild and still survive as a people and a force to be reckoned with. it’s because each individual norn is a major force to be reckoned with.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Movement_of_the_World#Norn

This I expect is because charr tend to move with their warbands or at least members thereof, and charr without warbands probably don’t go looking for fights,* whilst norn may come from the same village, homestead, or loosely affiliated group of friends, but not necessarily travel together even when they live together or otherwise associate. Charr warbands and norn hunters then may simply have been the most likely things to cross over into the other’s land and come to conflict with the inhabitants.

*I notice that there’s one in Gendarran which seems to have settled there after it was separated from its warband (who sound significantly unlikely to be alive from the dialogue) and another in Cragstead which lost its warband during F+F. Of course back then this was probably far less likely to happen, but I think it shows (especially if you talk to the one in Cragstead about it) that individuals simply wouldn’t have a whole lot of incentive to go make a fuss in some other race’s land.

I actually liked the way you explained this, because it explains a little bit how both function when it comes to battle. I don’t know too much about the lore, but judging from what I’m reading here, it sounds like the Charr fight more like a wolf rather than most large cats. They fight as a pack, and tend not to pick fights as an individual but rather as a whole. I’m sure they have enough physical strength and tactics to back themselves up on a 1v1 fight, but it’s mostly not the case.

Compare that to the Norn, a race that is more individualistic, yet backed up by their unrivaled strength. The Charr are more savage, but the Norn’s raw power is something that allows them to live these solitary lives. Similar to a grizzly bear, an animal that fights with packs of wolves all the time, they are balanced by sheer strength.

Lostwingman.5034:

DrDivine.5378:

…the charr looked more advanced in terms of war technology…

Charr society is entirely about war though, so it’s a given that they would appear deficient in every other technological aspect.

That sounds about right, perhaps their technology is advanced, but only in one area?

Dustfinger.9510:

As Ben K said, “technology” is a tricky term in a world where magical constructs are real. But as far as traditional, real-world non-magical tech, charr are the most advanced.

So a lot of the technology has advanced and the Engineer is the profession that embraces this the most.

Engineer technology really developed with the Charr first and foremost.

http://www.wartower.de/artikel/artikel.php?id=562

Asura on the other hand have magitech that can mimic our own most advanced real-world tech but it is still magic-based. So despite the modern look an asura golem has they actually have more in common with flame legion effigies than RL robots.

I see what you mean, the Asura looked more advanced in terms of standard technology, but the charr looked more advanced in terms of war technology. Granted they both have an arsenal of weapons such as the golems for the Asura, I guess it all comes down to perspective.

Ehecatl.9172:

Armed I might lean toward norn. They are larger than charr on average and possess an unnatural strength even for their size. They also have a human body, which is more flexible and more agile than a hunched over battlecat.

Unarmed I’d go for the charr. Nearly as large as a norn, but the charr has long claws, teeth, and horns. There’s a reason a human can be taken down by an attack dog despite the human being larger.

However if the norn invoked the power of the bear, I’d give it again to the norn. Norn from a lore perspective shouldn’t have a time limit on their transformations. It’s just something they can do.

That’s a pretty good argument, I haven’t really looked into the true strength of the norn, although I did play Guild Wars 1, a lot of the races have changed since then. xD

It’s a tough call because after seeing a full scaled norn character, you can kinda imagine the physical strength behind such a large build. I guess the reason why I thought a charr might win is due to their brutality. They were born to fight, but that doesn’t always guarantee victory.

Just a question I wanted to ask for fun haha, if a charr and norn were to go 1 on 1 with each other, who do you think would win?

I hear a lot of my friends saying the norn would, which may be true considering their size and strength. I guess I just always found the charr more menacing, what do you think?

Me and a friend have kinda debated on Charr technology, originally, I was thinking Asura were the most advanced in every aspect, I’ve heard that it’s actually the Charr who excel in war technology, is this true?

Pandeh.5248:

Haha, IM A TWIG

12 charrmanders

Thanks for the updated photo! I saw that elite skill and was thinking “Wow this is badass!” but it’s notably smaller than it used to be.

There was a skill while in that form that says you do a massive swipe, sounding like the form was rather large.

I previously asked this question on the Human forums, but since I got no replies I figured I’d ask here.

I saw one video showing it was this hulking tree monster creature, but I read some of the comments saying it’s now “dinky.”
Regardless of whether the skill is good or not, does the avatar of melandru skill still look like this and be the same size as the one in the video? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrTew551llI

Raven.9603:

engineers are very good but very clunky. on the upside you have a high skill cap and that random engineer charm. on the downside, listening to teldo talk will make you dumber. they have lots of build viability, from burst to condi spam to 1-man-siege-master to toolkit engis with a weapon for every situation.

there was a thread a few weeks ago, out of 1500 votes, ranger was voted worst in almost every single category (except spvp, where it came in 2nd worst). take that for whakittens worst. rangers had their pet damage gutted for ALL specs because of 1 OP bunker spec, with no compensation for the loss. they had their shortbow made “shorter” just to make longbow (a flawed weapon) more attractive. the fact that spirits are still garbage and yet are probably the most popular spvp spec choice atm should say volumes.
if they unnerf shortbow, redesign longbow, increased the range traps can be thrown, make spirits into auras and make pets provide some sort of useful bonus when theyre on passive (so they are worth something in dungeons / zvz), then rangers might just be one of the coolest archers in any game. but that will never happen, so basically only pick them up if you really like being the joke of gw2.

if you are a casual player who just wants to explore tyria and see what there is too see, they are both great choices. if you are somewhat competitive and care about class balance, its not much of a choice.

Thank you for the detailed response, I understand that it’s a fairly ridiculous question to ask which profession to play since it’s about personal preference, but I also like to hear other player’s personal experiences playing both classes. I liked rangers because of the pets and high damage AoE, but I also heard they aren’t very interesting to play and are considered the so called “worst” class currently in terms of adapting to different situations.

Engineer looked like an interesting choice, I originally thought the class would be boring, but some of the skills actually looked like the class was pretty fast paced and fun.

Anyone know of the latest model?

I saw one video showing it was this hulking tree monster creature, but I read some of the comments saying it’s now “dinky.”

Regardless of whether the skill is good or not, does the avatar of melandru skill still look like this and be the same size as the one in the video? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrTew551llI

After leveling my Mesmer, I’ve thought about which class to play next and I was strongly considering either a ranger or an engineer. Which do you think would a better choice?

gaspara.4079:

Compared to leveling a mesmer you will likely find leveling warrior overpowered or even boring. Ele will probably provide the closest comparison of challenge to what you have already faced.

Necro and Engineer are in the middle and both have their own benefits. Engies have a lot of fun kits that change their playstyle, but you will not get to spend much time looking at your weapon skins. Necro is one of the most powerful open world soloers in the game while leveling and are also surprisingly good at getting event credit with staff, however they feel even less powerful as a summoner than mesmers do which is depressing to anyone who associates the necro class with gw1 or diablo 2.

By far the best thing I can recommend though is play all 4 to level 20 and see how they feel, then decide.

I got my Mesmer to level 37 so far, on my first game I used to play a Necro, but I’ve heard they’re a little different in this game.

I’m caught between these choices for my next play through (did mesmer the first time):

-Human Necro
-Charr Warrior
-Asura Engineer
Ele of undecided race

Genavelle.9516:

Hmm well I guess it really depends on you, y’know? I’d say you should try each one out for about 20 levels atleast, and see how you like them.

For the record I’m a human ranger and I love it. Norn would also be a cool ranger race, though. And asuras…but yeah just give them all a little test trial and see which one feels best when you’re actually playing it.

Human Ranger seemed like a basic, yet interesting choice. I recently acquired all the special ranger pets such as the black widow so I’ve always wanted to try them out.

After leveling my Sylvari Mesmer and getting all the HoM rewards, I was thinking about the next character I want to play as. I’m caught between these choices:

-Charr Warrior
-Human Ranger
-Asura Engineer
-Elementalist of undecided race

What do you think?

This may or may not be a bug, this particular quest leaves me against an assortment of enemies that are completely invincible. As a mesmer, I have all my clones out, have NPC’s attacking and none of them can do damage to any of the last four enemies, it just keeps telling me they are invincible, yet the objective is to defeat them. Any ideas?

After getting my Mesmer to level 29, I’ve been messing with some of the other professions as well. I have a Sylvari Mesmer, a Charr Warrior, and possibly a human ranger now.

What do you think would be the most fun for a first play through?

MightyMicah.7451:

I’m glad you’re back! However, I simply don’t understand how the social aspect turned you away from GW, but kept you in WoW…?

That’s a good question, keep in mind I like both WoW and Gw2, this is just comparing my personal experiences with both.

The social nature of WoW was much stronger, if I ever asked any question, requested help, looking for groups, etc. there were always people responding regardless of what time of the day I played. I made very good friends on there and it made it so much more enjoyable and kept me coming back.

Compare that to Guild Wars 2, the mechanics themselves really lean people towards working as a team, and the game itself is designed to be a more friendly MMO when it comes to playing together and interacting. The problem was that because of this, nobody was interested in talking anymore because they got credit just for showing up due to automatic grouping. They could just show up, fight and leave. I tried very hard to communicate with people and nobody would reply and even chat with others.

In some sort of strange way, WoW’s old mechanics forced people to communicate more, and it’s not the way that Guild Wars is designed, it’s how people are just interested in playing rather than making friends and making the game a better experience. After joining a guild in Guild Wars 2 a year later, I finally found people I talk normally with and it makes such a difference.

Back in 2005 when World of Warcraft was all the rage, I was a freshman in high school thus had no job to pay for Warcraft’s monthly subscriptions. Because of this, I was the only one playing Guild Wars, which seemed to be the next best thing. I had a lot of fun on there, but after a year or so, I was finally allowed to play Warcraft and got sucked into how much more it offered. I played it, my friends played it, it was the game to play.

I pre ordered this game last year for old times sake and strangely enough, I was completely bored with it. I couldn’t quite figure it out, but there was something about the game that didn’t appeal to me as much as I wanted to, and shortly after, I just stopped playing.

After recently picking this game up again to give it a second chance, the game feels so fresh. I joined a guild and after playing with these new friends and guild mates, I realized my major problem with the game wasn’t the game play, it was the anti-social structure. Although quest encourage you to play together, nobody actually talked in the game which really hindered my experience in the long run.

Now that I decided to try it all over again, get a guild, try to make new friends, it’s been a lot more fun this time around. I didn’t even know that the items and pets I got from my old HoM on my Gw 1 account were pretty rare now such as the black widow so it was kinda cool I had some exclusives that followed me over.

Overall, I’m really glad this game finally turned me over. I wanted to like it, but the element of socializing was so sparse it kepts me from truly enjoying the game. Now, I can’t put it down.

Astralporing.1957:

Yes, you need to get the tapestries (which would require going through EotN storyline), and then you will be able to register all already done achievements in HoM. You won’t have to redo anything (unless you have deleted your old characters).

That’s good, I didn’t delete my old characters, I just didn’t get points for my progress because I completed them before I bought EoTN

I understand this is the Guild Wars 2 forum, but I figured players on here may have already gone through a situation like this so it would be best to ask.

I still have my old Guild Wars 1 account from years ago that has at least prophecies and nightfall completed with a bunch of mini pets. However, I only have 3 points in the Hall of Monuments because I completed all of this before I bought Eye of the North back then. Now that I recently bought that expansion, is there a way I can acquire points for what I’ve already earned?

It’s been years so while I used to be really knowledgeable, now I don’t remember much haha.

Latinkuro.9420:

DrDivine.5378:

Vayne.8563:

My guild has people people who have helped people get points in Guild Wars 1 as well as playing Guild Wars 2 together. Once you have a couple of friends to help you, there’s no reason you can’t go back and get 30 points. It’s not that hard, even if it takes a while.

It’s good that they still allow you to get them, which is really nice! I got a bit spoiled, I played GW2 seeing how good it was and then after I had to go back to GW 1 to get my pet back, I couldn’t find myself playing without going back to GW 2 xD.

I have a friend that may be playing my original account to rack up the HoM points for me since he wants to do a play through, so I may get lucky haha

I bought gw1 2 years ago but only played a total of 100 hours on it.
than I joined a guild that has been around since the launch of gw1 a couple of months before gw2 launched, man that made a difference !

They even helped me get all my 35 HoM points and everything, it was a blast.

The entire guild migrated to gw2 as soon as it launched, and I’ve been playing with them ever since.

On a side note A.net when are you gonna introduce alliance chat or something similar again ? my guild is now divided into 3 full guilds and we cannot communicate properly !

I recently started playing again and the same problems started again, it’s hard to believe that an mmo with so many features that encourage player team work results in such an anti social game.

I managed to join a few guilds after they invited me, and I can’t get any players in even the guild to talk to me. I’ll just say hi or ask if anyone wants to do a quest and they call just ignore you, 400+ members, over 80 online and none of them talk.