The Guild Wars 2 Thread

[Late Bloomer]

Sorry if someone posted this previously but hot damn... I just want an MMO thats fun and free of bs. Not going to happen I guess.

 

[BoroMonokli]

"Evil can not create. It can only corrupt and ruin" is such a fitting description for the Anet that made GW2

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

As a continuation of GW1's story, yes GW2 is bad fanfiction. But if you forget about GW1 entirely and judge GW2 as its own thing, then there are some interesting points there.

I find the Asura's character design to be interesting. I'm not too into their sci fi aesthetic, though.

Norn are, as you say, the weak link, being just big humans. Should've been replaced with anything else.

Sylvari at least had an interesting story plot point in GW2, with them being (season 2/Heart of Thorns spoilers) manchurian agents created by the Jungle Dragon Modremoth, who can try to possess them. Otherwise pretty meh on them. There was tension as to whether or not your two Sylvari party members, Caithe and Canach, were going to give in and turn on you. If you played a Sylvari commander, you could hear Mordremoth whispering to you.

GW2 Charr are fanfiction and the Ascalon retcons are aggravating, but on their own they are pretty interesting. The most interesting GW2 race IMO. Great character design and they run on all fours and have feral voice acting. Really feel like a beastman race. They also have a cool blackened steel aesthetic going on with Iron Legion's buildings and vehicles. Culturally you have four different legions. And ofcoruse you have the bikergang viking-samurai warrior culture with some Roman flavor mixed in as well. They have prisoner/slaves being worked to death in mines. Deserters are forced to walk around the Black Citadel preaching their story of shame for 10 years before being executed. Fun stuff. The Charr were so interesting they had the Icebrood Saga dedicated to them.

It is a shame that Tengu were never made playable. They were the most popular player race request for the entirety of GW2's existence. Adding in Tengu commander voicelines for the entire story wouldn't have been a monumental investment on Anet's part. During the leadup to EoD's release, Anet retweeted Tengu fanart and people got super excited for a Tengu playable race reveal. If only it had happened...

 

[Average Manatee]

It's a bad fanfiction tier "continuation" of the guild wars story, with none of GW's strong points, and only the weakest lipservice paid to OG GW1's "world".

I'd say even EoTN was a bad fanfiction tier addition, and it went downhill from there: It retconned the charr, retconned the ascalonians into some kind of colonizers, finished off whatever ambiguity there was around the mursaat, and turned our god-slaying heroes into the NEW races' errand boys who don't give a rat's arse about us. I get the last part, they wanted people who just got their feet wet with the tutorial areas to access this and it makes sense for them, but they should have really locked this behind at least completing one of the base campaigns. Then again, it's MMO logic of the time.

A bit more on the new races, they follow the standard formula of WoW with very little deviation, so aside from the humans we have:

the "Warrior Race" - the norn, giants with an animal shapeshifting gimmick that was heavily underutilized and this led to them being little more than "big (dumb) humans" with a norse theme.
the "Magic/Tinker race" - the asura, who are for the lack of better words, furry-scaly hybrids of gnomes and Stitch from that Lilo and Stitch cartoon, down to technobabble and high-gravity egos.
the "Nature race" - the sylvari, who are more or less night elves with a plant gimmick, and had to, along with their entire city/tree be grown from the ground. literally.
the "New old race" - the charr, who although present in the OG gw1 story, as unrepentant villains and literal monsters, were given the warcraft 3/wow orcs treatment on steroids, and they aren't even at war with the humans anymore.

Now this wouldn't be too bad, at worst just being boring and generic, except GW had plenty of races to choose from, who had to be sidelined to make room "new writers' pets", and this was done in an atrocious fashion.

There's also the Dredge from GW1 which would have been very interesting. They were the slaves of the dwarves in GW1, and if the dwarves had survived could have been in conflict with them and if they hadn't like happened in EotN then the Dredge should have taken over their position. They are basically an almost-industrial society in GW1 and appear across multiple expansions, they'd make a lot of sense as a player species. Instead they are still enslaved by... basically anyone around.

Incidentally was it ever explained what happened to evil dwarves like the Stone Summit? Seems hard to fathom that they'd selflessly die defending tyria. If it was explained then correct me but I'm guessing EotN completely ignored this and just treated all dwarves as good since that's all you see in EotN.

What pisses me off most about races in GW2 is how fucking everyone is equal and happy and multicultural and shit. There's no racial conflict like Asura/Sylvari being new races without much land, but pushing into human lands causing conflict. Even awakened in GW1 they shouldn't be as widespread as humans/charr/norn by GW2 and if they were it should be because of some massive war that would have repercussions for racial relations. There could be some kind of conflict like GW1 did in factions, or like WoW does with alliance vs. horde, but they didn't. Instead everyone sings fucking kumbayas. It's the most generic low effort MMO shit imaginable. The races mean literally nothing except a different coat of paint for characters. You could swap all the racial models and the only way to tell them apart would be the racial naming conventions and the fact that Asura talk like they are from big bang theory.

 

[BoroMonokli]

Funny, the dredge were meant as a mostly joke group at first, with all their names being puns, and led by Mole Lenin (literally: Molenin), with their other leader being Gorbachev. (Molachev), so I suppose they went with the classic liberal cartoony portrayal of russians for this one with more puns (Molent summit)

The dredge tunnels to cantha were never explored afaik, and it was the most interesting aspect of their spread, since they are in the echovald forest as well in factions.

The stone summit, leaderless thrice over (first by killing dagnar, then by raiding the sorrow furnace, and finally by killing their leadership in EoTN), eventually mostly succumb to the Great Dwarf Hove Mind, which at some point starts to turn them into stone dwarves regardless what they were doing before. In the icebrood saga, we learn that a splinter group of stone summit locked themselves up in Darkrime Delves, and searched for a ritual from Duncan the Black to reverse/harness the process, and naturally they were made a karmic example of by having the ritual turn out to bind them to the Great Destroyer's daddy, Primordus. Remember kids, join the hive mind or you will get burnt from the inside into dust by a big dragon.

As for the racial differences, the lack of different armor art did a lot to make it worse. Like, okay, this is superficial, but the lack of assets made for the characters did a lot to dilute the races' unique identity and reinforce this kumbaya-melting-pot theme. This isnt going into the territorial disputes, which as a hungarian I know what they mean, having been alive for the yugoslav war, being impacted by Trianon, and having the ongoing conflict in my eastern neighborhood. In comparison the peacefulness and cooperation of gw2 is surreal.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Races being nothing but shitty visuals is another symptom of MMO decline.

 

[BoroMonokli]

Now that I think of it more, GW2 as is isn't just a fanfiction of gw1, its a fanfiction of gw2 as of release, which is a fanfiction of eotn/gwbeyond, which is a fanfiction of gw1 trilogy. Its so diluted and derived that its almost unrecognizable.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Now that I think of it more, GW2 as is isn't just a fanfiction of gw1, its a fanfiction of gw2 as of release, which is a fanfiction of eotn/gwbeyond, which is a fanfiction of gw1 trilogy. Its so diluted and derived that its almost unrecognizable.

I played gw1 after gw2 and it made gw2 significantly worse. I already thought it was pretty shit prior.
also, seeing charr just walking around as guards in human cities gave me ptsd

can't imagine how anyone who has played other MMOs could like gw2

 

[Average Manatee]

Stone summit still exist and basically do the same thing (being generic evil dwarves)?

Truly Evil cannot create anything new, only make a mockery out of whats good.

 

[BoroMonokli]

regarding the "diversity and inclusion screening" out of a japanese word from a game, it's fitting since today is the anniversary of when the americans "diversity and inclusion screened" a lot of japanese civilians out of existence.

Some things never change.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

it's fitting since today is the anniversary of when the americans "diversity and inclusion screened" a lot of japanese civilians out of existence.

 

[BoroMonokli]

too since it led us to anime, jrpg-s and the associated conventions

 

[Average Manatee]

Americans nuking japs is based, but a korean company using diversity and inclusion screening to enforce korean supremacy over other asians is also based, so I don't see the problem?

 

[Kjaska]

Its supposedly coming to Steam at the end of August. Is there any fun to be had? I remember playing when it first came out and had some fun for a month or so. Still looking for a new or old MMO to get back into. How woke is it?

The early presentation is definitely on point compared to many other MMOs. Depending on how impressionable and open-minded you are, you might be hyped for a while after the initial impression. The community is also chock full with care-bears, so you'll be showered with positivity in most guilds. If you're a casual player and can stop yourself from getting autistic over missing features, GW2 ain't half bad. It is fairly woke though. I don't think they have trannies yet, but it's definitely Netflix tier writing (men weak and bad, wahmin stronk and lesbian).

 

[gurugeorge]

One thing that gradually turned me off GW2 at the time was the "watercolour" art style (which is carried through not just in the splash screens but in the in-game art design, icon design, everything). It's quite charming at first, but it eventually got on my nerves as being too fuzzy and scrappy looking. I prefer things to be more defined and realistic at the end of the day.

 

[Kjaska]

The main art director left before the game launched, iirc. So whoever is in charge is just trying to emulate. You can see this in their cosmetics design really well. It's just high complexity, without any actual aesthetic to it. Maybe this has changed in the past years, gw2 seemed to have a high turn-over rate.

 

[ADL]

Steam players will be able to experience the core Guild Wars 2 game for free (with the same restrictions applied to free accounts created on GuildWars2.com), with options to upgrade to Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns™

Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire™ and Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons™ from day one. We've heard your feedback that Living World unlocks should be better communicated to prospective players, so we'll also be creating a Complete Collection bundle that includes
Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns
Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire
Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons
and Living World Seasons 2 through 5 (Living World Season 1 is free for everyone).

The Complete Collection won't be immediately available to players outside of Steam, but we'll be working to add it to our web store and the in-game store for players with accounts created via GuildWars2.com in the near future. (Note: Existing
Guild Wars 2 accounts can't be linked to Steam and vice versa. Please visit our knowledge base for more info.) Additionally, we'll be making it clear on our Steam page that Living World seasons must be purchased separately from expansions. No surprises.

Also

Guild Wars 2 10th Anniversary Event

It wouldn't be a true celebration if we didn't show some love to the community that's supported us all these years. When you log in on August 23, you'll find a new series of achievements waiting for you that will take you on a journey to experience the best of
Guild Wars 2, world bosses, Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire, Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons, Living World, World vs. World, Player vs. Player, and more. As you complete these tasks, you'll earn Proofs of Legend, which can be traded in for the new Decade armor set.

These achievements are permanent additions to the game, so our new friends joining us from Steam will be able to make progress on these achievements as they explore Tyria at their own pace.

A +30% bonus to karma, magic find, and PvP and WvW reward-track progress will be active for one week starting on August 23.

As is traditional, we'll also have a wide range of Gem Store sales to celebrate the anniversary, and maybe even a few freebies to collect (spoiler: mount skin).

 

[luj1]

yeah Gw2 redefined shit

its a failed WoW wannabe

Gw1 was great game, with masterpiece PvP

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Woah, a Steam launch is jumping the gun. They still need to fix the offputting new player experience (the crappy 2000s MMO tutorial, running around the ugly boring vanilla zones with hardly any abilities, the bifurcated story that you only see 15 minutes of every 10 levels, etc), not to mention that WvW is still a terrible experience going in blind (the restructuring didn't solve anything. Guilds figured out how to game the system so you're still going to have uncoordinated solo players being trounced by people in Discord).

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Steam players will be able to experience the core Guild Wars 2 game for free (with the same restrictions applied to free accounts created on GuildWars2.com), with options to upgrade to Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns™

Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire™ and Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons™ from day one. We've heard your feedback that Living World unlocks should be better communicated to prospective players, so we'll also be creating a Complete Collection bundle that includes
Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns
Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire
Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons
and Living World Seasons 2 through 5 (Living World Season 1 is free for everyone).

The Complete Collection won't be immediately available to players outside of Steam, but we'll be working to add it to our web store and the in-game store for players with accounts created via GuildWars2.com in the near future. (Note: Existing
Guild Wars 2 accounts can't be linked to Steam and vice versa. Please visit our knowledge base for more info.) Additionally, we'll be making it clear on our Steam page that Living World seasons must be purchased separately from expansions. No surprises.

Also

Guild Wars 2 10th Anniversary Event

It wouldn't be a true celebration if we didn't show some love to the community that's supported us all these years. When you log in on August 23, you'll find a new series of achievements waiting for you that will take you on a journey to experience the best of
Guild Wars 2, world bosses, Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire, Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons, Living World, World vs. World, Player vs. Player, and more. As you complete these tasks, you'll earn Proofs of Legend, which can be traded in for the new Decade armor set.

These achievements are permanent additions to the game, so our new friends joining us from Steam will be able to make progress on these achievements as they explore Tyria at their own pace.

A +30% bonus to karma, magic find, and PvP and WvW reward-track progress will be active for one week starting on August 23.

As is traditional, we'll also have a wide range of Gem Store sales to celebrate the anniversary, and maybe even a few freebies to collect (spoiler: mount skin).

In what possible way did gw2 redefine mmorpgs? Wat.

 

[Average Manatee]

It de-fined them. As in made them less fine.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

This week has been yet another one of Anet's World vs World (aka server vs server mass PvP) "restructuring" beta events, testing the "alliance system" (an organization made up of guilds).

Since the beginning of the game, WvW focused players have been moving to specific servers where other WvW players are in order to organize with them. This eventually led to servers with tons of WvW players on them dominating WvW. WvW servers would fill up and become locked, meaning it would be very hard to move to that server, so if you move there early on then you were screwed.

5 years ago, Anet announced that they would implement an alliance system where they would try to offset the huge masses of WvW players by combining the smaller groups of WvW players together into a single server. No work was performed on this feature until last year, when the first tests began. Inevitably big WvW guilds managed to game the system and we wound up back where we started, with one side stacked with all of the WvW players crushing everyone else. Friday began another beta event. By now it's pretty clear that nothing has changed.

Green controls 70% of the Eternal Battlegrounds, about 33% of Red's map, 50% of our map, and 90% of their own map.

There is no matchup. Red has two alliances. We (Blue) have two small alliances of 90 players each, but can barely get 15-20 players online at primetime, so we run around with a small zerg of 30-40 players. Green has everyone and their grandma so you get farmed over and over by 200+ man zergs (so many of them that their character models don't load in, you just see their names). When you move to another map, green pursues you and their leaders are dipshits who keep PMing and flaming our leaders. Lots of drama in chat.

The opposing zerg is stacked on their commander, on the square marker. There are so many players in the enemy zerg that the game doesn't load them in (you can increase the model count in the graphics menu, but GW2 is poorly optimized and CPU bound. Even with a 3080ti and an I7, you will get 15 FPS if you set the model count to high).

Furthermore, WvW combat has become an extremely bizzare experience. GW2 has shifted into a boon (buff) meta over the last few years. For WvW, that means combat has devolved into hundreds of players stacking right on top of a single commander so everyone can share buffs that only last a few seconds, and the outcome of a battle being decided immediately with one stack one shotting the other in 2 seconds with AoEs. Commanders tell their people to get into Discord and they give movement instructions over voice, as the two zergs play chicken and zig-zag trying to bait the other zerg to buff up and fire off their AoE barrage first (and hopefully miss) before responding with the lethal counterattack. This is not what WvW resembled during the HoT era and it's certainly not the war experience people want out of a game.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Furthermore, WvW combat has become an extremely bizzare experience. GW2 has shifted into a boon (buff) meta over the last few years. For WvW, that means combat has devolved into hundreds of players stacking right on top of a single commander so everyone can share buffs that only last a few seconds, and the outcome of a battle being decided immediately with one stack one shotting the other in 2 seconds with AoEs. Commanders tell their people to get into Discord and they give movement instructions over voice, as the two zergs play chicken and zig-zag trying to bait the other zerg to buff up and fire off their AoE barrage first (and hopefully miss) before responding with the lethal counterattack.

wow....
so this is how gw2 redefined the MMO genre...
powerful.................................

 

[Average Manatee]

Furthermore, WvW combat has become an extremely bizzare experience. GW2 has shifted into a boon (buff) meta over the last few years. For WvW, that means combat has devolved into hundreds of players stacking right on top of a single commander so everyone can share buffs that only last a few seconds, and the outcome of a battle being decided immediately with one stack one shotting the other in 2 seconds with AoEs. Commanders tell their people to get into Discord and they give movement instructions over voice, as the two zergs play chicken and zig-zag trying to bait the other zerg to buff up and fire off their AoE barrage first (and hopefully miss) before responding with the lethal counterattack. This is not what WvW resembled during the HoT era and it's certainly not the war experience people want out of a game.

Do the zergs still have group invisibility and therefore oneshot you out of nowhere? That was fun last time I tried playing.

 

[Kjaska]

I wasted so much time on WvW. Content like this is really good in pulling you in with the illusion of actually being a useful member of the community/server. Too bad no major MMO ever picked up this type of pvp.