Guild Wars 2

A lot of people think GW2 is just easy to jump into…and it is to a certain degree. I am a gamer and have been playing more than 1/2 my life (37yo) and have come across things that make me scratch my head.

While it follows the same basics of most MMO’s it also differs in a lot. If you never took time to read outside the game, or official tutorial videos, a person can get lost.

1. Currency. What is it all for. Dungeon tokens are kind of understandable unless you don’t know where the vendors are in LA. Laurels are odd considering you can buy some of the same things with Laurels that you can buy with other currency as well. So do I spend Laurels or BoH, or Guild Commendations? What is the best way to go?

2. Dungeons. Story vs. Explore? Choose a path? Is 1 easier than 2 and 3? Huh? Story mode? What is the difference?? It also says level 35, but I see a bunch of 80’s looking to run it. Do I need to be 80? Now we can also discuss the people that have been running them for a while, with a NEW person. Total confusion when things are skipped, and you are suppose to run here, jump over this, don’t agro that….with no explanation why.

3. Mystic forge. Sure the basics are easy to grasp….throw 4 things in get a single one out. But recipes are hard when you have no idea where to look. Mystic forge stones? Who is Zormmmanananmfdfsdfdsfdsfs????

4. Fractals. What exactly is a fractal? How do I get there? What is a reward level?

Those are just a few example of what I was wondering about when I started over a month ago. Granted I looked up stuff outside the game, and asked questions that helped figure most things out. You have to remember there is a lot of things that are clear and just plain hidden to a casual gamer, or someone who expects the game to introduce new paths in a way that is dynamic.

I am NOT advocating hand holding garbage, but from a person so is very familiar with games and MMO’s I can see how a new person could get confused.

pilourse.9174:

Keep the deluxe edition, make an Heroic edition at 5$ more with new benefit I would say, ok it’s fair. But changing the deluxe for heroic at the same price…. Not fair for player who spent their money on the deluxe edition before.

You bought a 2010 VW Jetta in ’10. A person in buys a 2010 Jetta in ’13. Would you be upset that they paid less for the car?

Its life. Not that hard to understand.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

How about Xolotl in Caledon Forest?

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Defeat_Xolotl

When you’re anywhere in the Quetzal Bay area, he constantly spams the same dialogue. But when you start fighting him, he transforms everyone into various animals, which is annoying as hell. No one ever bothers to fight him, unless they are really annoyed by his dialogue.

Wow…one of the coolest looking fights in GW2. I have to check this out.

Shame a lot of these go unnoticed and/or untouched.

I don’t see how leveling in GW2 is anywhere close to a “grind”. EQ1, Lineage 2, etc. etc. were real grinds.

GW2 lets you do your own thing without the hand holding quests.

I fail to see how anyone can think that armor setup is “the best”? No offense, but it looks like blue jeans and a sleeveless sweater.

It all comes down to personal taste I guess. I prefer the darker colors, and the more rugged look in an MMO like this. Especially for a ranger.

Meglobob.8620:

I have had a level 80 Ranger since month1 of the game and YES they are a BAD main…

They underperform in WvW, PvE dungeons, fractals, bosses and anywhere you have to be precise where you stand. Its basically endgame/harder content they are bad at…mainly because your pet ends up dead and on permanent cooldown or your pet goes to the wrong place/is hard to control.

Rangers can seriously fool the beginning player because they are great/easy street in open world PvE, which is mainly where you level. Also, they are good in sPvP because your pet can stay alive longer (other players damage is balanced) and the only enemies are opposition players so your pet can’t go wrong in who to attack. Plus Rangers can ‘bunker’ exceptionally well. But the ‘bunker’ mechanic is by and large only good in sPvP…

I have ALL 8 character classes so I know what I am talking about…

This is the truth. Sadly.

Add to the fact, the main mechanic of the Ranger, the pet, is pretty generic. They don’t grow in size as you level. They lose the names you give them when you change pets. They are all stuck on juvenile _ . You cant change looks (armor, fur/scale/feather colors). There is a huge disconnect with your pet.

As Meglobob said, the pet is part of the Ranger dps. When they get one shot from a boss AoE, or WvW zerg spam, you just lost a huge chunck of your damage. No other class losses damage that way.

The worst part is it seems Anet does not spend much time….or does not know how to fix the main issues with Rangers.

I agree. I have decent solutions such as:

1. Make AoE damage against pets much lower in PvE, and slightly lower in PvP.

2. Give pets a new set of skills while in “passive” like a personal buff to the ranger in the forms of damage, protection, precision, etc. etc. in order to still be effective while keeping them next to you and out of combat to avoid OHKO AoE’s.

3. Have pets “evade” when you dodge roll, or add the skill to the pet bar.

There are of course many more. Not sure why the devs are so content right now with the sate Ranger pets are in. They are in need to a revamp….soon.

The models are good, but far from the best in an MMO, imo of course.

Warhammer Online, for me, still had/has the best character models ever made. From the Warrior Priest to the Goblins they are all spot on and fit well in the WH theme. Each moving very different, and each with their armors/weapons unique to the races. I still have not seen an MMO do it better yet.

I know I wrote this before, but I keep thinking it would be a solution to the complaints of damage for Ranger.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but the pet is suppose to be part of the DPS Rangers output, right? Make sense in theory, and some applications, but not every one.

This was the same concept that was used in DAoC with the Hunter class. Since the Hunter could use pets, it didn’t have the RAW damage that say a Scout had. This was the same concept in Warhammer online with the Squig Herder class.

The thing is, in Warhammer the SH’s pet was maybe slightly worse than the GW2 Ranger pet. So they gave a skill that was a 25% increase in damage once your pet was dead, or you didn’t pull one. So you could make up for the loss of pet in damage, as well as the loss of utility (knock down, AOE, poisons, etc) from pets.

I am not one of those people that is anti-pet. I love them. The whole reason I chose the class was for the pet. But no other class looses dps, F1-4 skills, and utilities as much as the Ranger with a downed pet.

Would it not make sense to bump our raw damage a bit when our pet in a downed state? Call it something like Bonding Revenge or some other nature like thing. Some might run without the pet on purpose, some will like the fact you don’t feel so kitten when your pet gets caught in WvW AOE spam, or 1HKO by a boss mob. Either way it might make lot of groaning and complaints go away. Maybe?

Thoughts?

There were a skill from Warhammers’ Squig Herder class that I think would be awesome for the Ranger.

1. A version of “All by Meself”. You deal 25% more damage when you have no pets present. When pet is stowed or down.

2. A poison arrow for LB.

That’s all I really want to see.

Tribio.8531:

Vaxx.3178:

Cool video. But honestly, Id rename the title something else.

Unfortunately his ranger’s name is Exploits, and he’s known like that over the forums..

That’s funny. I am new here so I don’t. But you know the first thing people think when they see “exploits” on a game forum is negative.

But again, great video. Watched the whole thing.

Cool video. But honestly, Id rename the title something else.

Pet customization. That is all.

I am pretty new to GW2 but Ill chime in.

I love the wide selection of pets. It is what made my buy GW2 in the first place. I was excited about the possibilities of so many different kinds. I also liked the fact that what I initially read, was pets actually do decent damage, unlike other MMO’s (i.e. DAOC, Warhammer, etc). I was also super stoked that you can have 2 pets active!

Well getting into it, I realized not everything is as cool as it sounded. My disappointments:

1. Pets don’t “grow”. I was wondering when my pet would get out of the juvi state. Level 20? No. Level 30? Nope. 40? Nu-uh. WTH? It never grows???!!?!?!? That is just plain silly. My small little wolf that has leveled from 1 to 67 and still smaller than a regular sized wolf. Boooo.

2. 2 active pets does not mean 2 pets out at the same time. Bummer. Considering a bear + bird would be such a nice combo. 2 canines? Super fun. Heck even if damage was reduced a bit for having 2 out it would still be worth it.

3. I went through and named all my pets. Then realized, when you change them, they don’t keep the name. Stupid.

4. Purchasable and craftable pet armor. Nothing OP but something that makes you feel original. We can change dye on our armor, why cant we change hues of pet hair? No customization. This is one area that totally kills the bond feeling. I was sad to learn this.

5. Charming. Another lackluster mechanic. WoW did a great job of this. DAOC did a great job of this. GW2 is….find a species with a green juvenile name, hit a button. Wow….

I am pretty much like the OP. I love the pet companion classes, and really wanted to feel that “bond”. But sadly while the pets in general are neat, everything about getting them, to using them is so kitten generic that it takes a lot away from the class.

My opinion of course.