The Guild Wars 2 Thread

[Average Manatee]

One of the Charr elite skills is to call in members of their Warband. It would've been really cool if the character you picked as your buddy would be among the troops summoned. But that elite would also need to get tuned up for me to use it, as it is on a 4 minute cooldown and doesn't do much damage, whereas I can hit Strength of the Pack every minute and do a ton of damage.

The designers mentioned they intentionally lowball racial skills so that people don't feel compelled to pick "optimal" races but really in practice it means they're useless.

Probably for the best. You just know that if they tried to make them "balanced" that one of them would end up overpowered and that race would end up mandatory for every PvE group in the game. Then a year and a half later a balance patch would hit, the OP race would change, and now everyone who wants to join PvE groups needs to make new characters.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

There's literally nothing wrong with one race being better than another at something in an RPG.
I'm tired of "m-m-muh meta..." ruining everything fun about MMORPGs because 1% of the population can't stop crying on the game's forums.

 

[Kev Inkline]

In GW1 balance between builds mattered because it had a highly competitive pvp scene. The solution? Some skills were nerfed when in pvp. Everyone's was happy.

But balance in pve? Why? Why'd you care if everyone's running with the same skin?

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I went into the Maguuma Jungle and it's first time explorable areas don't look like a WoW-clone whatsoever.
Infact the level of detail is hugely different. Why would this be? I've run all the way across the world.
Rata Sum -> Ascalon. Nothing comes close to the Maguuma Jungle.

The vanilla game's zones suffered from having generic art direction (snow zone, happy forest zone, generic MMO fields, etc), and from having so many zones pumped out that hardly any of them could be individually made to look great. In contrast, HoT landed on good art direction with its zones, and HoT only introduced 4 new zones so the level designers and the artists were able to spend more time on them. Verdant Brink is really memorable with the humongous trees and the airship fleet that has crashed into the canopy of a very large jungle. Looking up from below, it's almost like the sky is on fire. Below the canopy, you have these huge brambles that are snaking around. The second zone, Auric Basin, has you descend from an ethereal blue/green forest into a golden city. The last two zones are less memorable, but still have some striking aesthetics. Tangled Depths has the underground Chak (insectoid) tunnels with the ribbons of magic that distort the rocks in Tangled Depths. The last area of Dragon's Stand's has you jumping from floating island to floating island over a foggy chasm on the way to the giant tree hollow, and the final mission of the HoT storyline has you traverse the inside of that tree hollow.

 

[Drakortha]

I'm surprised nobody else here is pushing new players to try out the structured PvP. It's the only place where you are forced to learn everything about your class and every detail about the combat system, which has significant depth to it where I'm still picking up new things after years of play.

As a new participant you will be crushed over and over again. But if you have what it takes to keep going into the fire you will improve yourself and this improvement extends to all aspects of the game. You will know the limits of your class, and the limits of others. Etc.

 

[Kev Inkline]

It's because GW2 PvP is so inferior to that of GW1. No point.

 

[Drakortha]

It's because GW2 PvP is so inferior to that of GW1. No point.

How much GW2 PvP have you played yourself to come to that conclusion? Did you play it enough to become competent at it, or tried out different classes to see what worked for you? I'm curious because a lot of GW1 fanatics simply write it off without trying it.

 

[Kev Inkline]

It's because GW2 PvP is so inferior to that of GW1. No point.

How much GW2 PvP have you played yourself to come to that conclusion? Did you play it enough to become competent at it, or tried out different classes to see what worked for you? I'm curious because a lot of GW1 fanatics simply write it off without trying it.

Skills that depend on equipped weapon sets, no way to build individual or team builds like in GW1, and most importantly, and most importantly: no 8 vs 8 GvG.

It has nothing comparable. It’s dumbed down.


Seriously, I played GW1 on a relatively high level, top-10 a top-20 guilds, it didn’t take too long to understand GW2 was meant for a completely different audience.

1 vs 1 or realm vs realm dont quite capture the essence of a coordinated team play with dedicated target callers and a squad leader.

GW2 was effectively designed as a pve mmorpg, whereas pvp was meant to be the ultimate endgame in GW1, although it was later realized this was not commercially viable.

 

[Drakortha]

It's because GW2 PvP is so inferior to that of GW1. No point.

How much GW2 PvP have you played yourself to come to that conclusion? Did you play it enough to become competent at it, or tried out different classes to see what worked for you? I'm curious because a lot of GW1 fanatics simply write it off without trying it.

Skills that depend on equipped weapon sets, no way to build individual or team builds like in GW1

This is completely false. Once you start digging into some of the elite specs later in the game you'll find that many of them change up the fundamental mechanics and skills of your class, and this includes skills from your weapon sets as well.

And you absolutely can create builds to your individual needs or for your team. Show me 10 players who run Druid builds and I'll show you how I build and play my Druid very differently to all of them.

I'm not at all trying to say GW2 has better diversity than GW1, I'm not retarded. But to come out and make statements such as;

no way to build individual or team builds like in GW1

Just shows your inexperience with GW2. Being a top PvPer in GW1 might make you knowledgeable about that game, but that doesn't immediately make you an expert on GW2 systems. Because it's a different thing altogether.

 

[Kev Inkline]

It's because GW2 PvP is so inferior to that of GW1. No point.

How much GW2 PvP have you played yourself to come to that conclusion? Did you play it enough to become competent at it, or tried out different classes to see what worked for you? I'm curious because a lot of GW1 fanatics simply write it off without trying it.

Skills that depend on equipped weapon sets, no way to build individual or team builds like in GW1

This is completely false. Once you start digging into some of the elite specs later in the game you'll find that many of them change up the fundamental mechanics and skills of your class, and this includes skills from your weapon sets as well.

And you absolutely can create builds to your individual needs or for your team. Show me 10 players who run Druid builds and I'll show you how I build and play my Druid very differently to all of them.

I'm not at all trying to say GW2 has better diversity than GW1, I'm not retarded. But to come out and make statements such as;

no way to build individual or team builds like in GW1

Just shows your inexperience with GW2. Being a top PvPer in GW1 might make you knowledgeable about that game, but that doesn't immediately make you an expert on GW2 systems. Because it's a different thing altogether.

Yes it is a different thing altogether. It's a casualized, pve oriented game. You probably can make it to the top of the ladder (which I think still doesn't exist) without ventrilo or teamspeak. 1 vs 1 is not really pvp, sure you can learn to micro very well.

Dual profession of GW1 alone makes individual decks a lot more versatile.

 

[dacencora]

Being a top PvPer in GW1 might make you knowledgeable about that game, but that doesn't immediately make you an expert on GW2 systems. Because it's a different thing altogether.

But there’s probably not a lot about the very different GW2 system to attract GW1 veterans. I have barely played either one, tbh, but I think I would like GW2 a LOT more if they had retained the skill system from GW1. It is such a good system, it’s so silly for them to have ignored it entirely. Of course, the lead dev for GW2 never played GW1 and is proud of that fact, so

 

[Drakortha]

1 vs 1 is not really pvp

There is no 1v1 PvP mode in GW2. The main mode for competitive ranked play is 5v5. There's also a 3v3 and 2v2 that run during off seasons. All tournaments are 5v5.

Dual profession of GW1 alone makes individual decks a lot more versatile.

I will agree GW1 has much more individuality and versatility. My argument is just that GW2 isn't anywhere close to as limited as you're making it out to be.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Of course, the lead dev for GW2 never played GW1 and is proud of that fact

That's... odd. What's the rationale for keeping the name but completely discarding the original system?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Of course, the lead dev for GW2 never played GW1 and is proud of that fact

That's... odd. What's the rationale for keeping the name but completely discarding the original system?

people liked it so they needed to rape its corpse

 

[Kev Inkline]

I will agree GW1 has much more individuality and versatility. My argument is just that GW2 isn't anywhere close to as limited as you're making it out to be.

Ok fine, I can agree with that. It was a bit of a hyperbole.

 

[dacencora]

Of course, the lead dev for GW2 never played GW1 and is proud of that fact

That's... odd. What's the rationale for keeping the name but completely discarding the original system?

:itisamystery:

But yeah, as said before, GW2 is best treated as its own thing, entirely separate from GW1, because it is entirely separate.

 

[Average Manatee]

There's literally nothing wrong with one race being better than another at something in an RPG.
I'm tired of "m-m-muh meta..." ruining everything fun about MMORPGs because 1% of the population can't stop crying on the game's forums.

That's fine until you need to group for high level content and literally no groups allow you in. GW1 was different since you could use AI henchmen/heroes for most everything except very specific areas (which nowadays allow them).

 

[Efe]

tried this on a free account.
are you supposed to just mindlessly be grinding zone checklists until level cap?
all i did was see vista, do generic kill quest, unlock point of interest and move to next zone

 

[Caim]

tried this on a free account.
are you supposed to just mindlessly be grinding zone checklists until level cap?
all i did was see vista, do generic kill quest, unlock point of interest and move to next zone

This is an MMO, at least Guild Wars 2 has the courtesy to throw in the vistas between your murderhobo adventures.

 

[Efe]

Yea I'm not much of an mmo player
seemed like a worse new world in every way and only reason I could persist in that game was because of friends.

 

[Drakortha]

Sounds like you got filtered hard. Early game does that.

It was pretty nice for 2012 launch but it's dated now compared to newer content and current MMO's. The dev's have mentioned giving it a facelift before the steam release but we don't know what that will entail.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

tried this on a free account.
are you supposed to just mindlessly be grinding zone checklists until level cap?
all i did was see vista, do generic kill quest, unlock point of interest and move to next zone

The vanilla 1-80 content is trash and turns too many people away from GW2. My advice is to just boost to level 80 and start at the HoT expansion and season 3. The gameplay loop and presentation is so much more engaging and the story isn't a total trashfire. Anet really needs to revamp the intro experience. Who knows how many people dropped the game because of it.

 

[Kjaska]

If you're gonna buy a boost and the xpac, just to play some passable story and have a sense of progression for 30 hours, you might as well just buy an actual RPG for the same price.

 

[Drakortha]

If you're gonna buy a boost and the xpac, just to play some passable story and have a sense of progression for 30 hours, you might as well just buy an actual RPG for the same price.

If you're looking at GW2 at all you're probably searching for an MMO to sink your teeth into, so your logic there doesn't make sense.

Even if you buy an xpac for $30 there's still no subscription fees so already that's a better deal than some of the contending MMO's.

 

[dacencora]

If you're gonna buy a boost and the xpac, just to play some passable story and have a sense of progression for 30 hours, you might as well just buy an actual RPG for the same price.

I never get this argument. “Just play a real RPG lol!” Somebody is looking at an MMO for a reason. Maybe they want to quest with other people? Maybe they want to PVP in between quests? Maybe they just want to shitpost in the gen chat? I don’t think most people are unaware of the existence of single-player RPGs.