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  1. #1

    From WoW to Guild Wars 2

    Ello ,

    So I was in doubt today to buy GW 2. My raid group in WoW isn't holding and I'm playing this game for such a long time, always hoping for new things to come and to et cetera. Then the following thought came to my mind; why would I wait if I also can bring the new stuff to me. I'm not quiting WoW, but just want to try something new.

    So here's the question. How is Guild Wars 2 if you've played WoW for 7 years, including raiding? Is the story and game as rich as WoW? Is the playstyle as smooth as in WoW? Etc.

    I'm curious and love to see some nice answers!

    Love,
    Raptar

  2. #2
    There are no instanced raids, per se. There are world bosses, which are the closest thing to resembling wow raid content. The lore within the Guild Wars universe is pretty well catalogued. Off the top of my head, I don't know of a good resource for someone new to the GW universe; a lot of lore was covered in GW1 and it's often referred to in GW2. Movement will feel as smooth as WoW; this is one of the few games I've experienced that can hold it's own agasint the wow engine in terms of smoothness in animations and combat.

  3. #3
    Deleted
    GW2 has quite literally zero end game content, that is, if you don't enjoy completely pointless grindfests. Story is absolutely cringeworthy and it's overall a pretty boring MMO, don't let the fanboys fool you.

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Kazgrel View Post
    There are no instanced raids, per se. There are world bosses, which are the closest thing to resembling wow raid content. The lore within the Guild Wars universe is pretty well catalogued. Off the top of my head, I don't know of a good resource for someone new to the GW universe; a lot of lore was covered in GW1 and it's often referred to in GW2. Movement will feel as smooth as WoW; this is one of the few games I've experienced that can hold it's own agasint the wow engine in terms of smoothness in animations and combat.
    the GW wiki, for both the original game and for GW2, is the best and pretty much only resource you'll need. The lore of the world is fantastic, the story presentation is a bit hit and miss. However, it will be tough to compare against something that you have played for 7+ years.

    Movement will feel a bit different at first since it has momentum animations (it doesn't affect reaction time, it is just an animation effect). Combat is more arcade like. It has tab targeting if you want but you don't need to target anything to use your skills (with a few exceptions).

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by johnyderp View Post
    GW2 has quite literally zero end game content, that is, if you don't enjoy completely pointless grindfests. Story is absolutely cringeworthy and it's overall a pretty boring MMO, don't let the fanboys fool you.
    But I like dressing up my Barbie's occasionally! GW2 is ok, not a replacement for WoW though, at least for me - a good game to screw around in when taking a WoW break... and playing dress up

  6. #6
    GW2 has quite literally zero end game content
    You could at least be factually correct when trying to make a point. Everything is endgame content. The game scales you according to the level of whatever zone, event or activity you are doing but you are rewarded for your actually level.

    that is, if you don't enjoy completely pointless grindfests.
    You can grind, that is an option, you don't have to.

    Story is absolutely cringeworthy and it's overall a pretty boring MMO, don't let the fanboys fool you.
    This is entirely subjective, some people love the story, others wish it was more complex.
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  7. #7
    Herald of the Titans Vintersol's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by johnyderp View Post
    GW2 has quite literally zero end game content, that is, if you don't enjoy completely pointless grindfests. Story is absolutely cringeworthy and it's overall a pretty boring MMO, don't let the fanboys fool you.
    Tell me your definition of "endgame".

    Endgame doesn't means wow like raids. Apart from that, WoW is pretty boring and pointless. Everything in GW2 is still meaningful on max level. That's the advantage of this game.
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  8. #8
    Stealthed Defender unbound's Avatar
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    GW2 is a solid game. A good variety of characters and zones, with powers that change based on your weapon (which adds an interesting dynamic). Dungeons and fractals are pretty interesting, and they do use the more current dynamic grouping when you walk into an area where groups are needed.

    Endgame isn't really any better or worse than WoW IMO. You endlessly grind the same raids in WoW over and over again for better gear (there aren't any other real options), or you can endlessly grind gear world bosses and fractals in GW2, but you can also get into a lot of other activities since GW2 offers a lot more than WoW currently since they release new events every few weeks. It's more casual in general, and that suits people like me just fine.

    PvP is also generally considered better in GW2 than WoW (except by WoW PvP fanboys).

  9. #9
    So here's the question. How is Guild Wars 2 if you've played WoW for 7 years, including raiding? Is the story and game as rich as WoW? Is the playstyle as smooth as in WoW? Etc.
    Subjective qualifiers. No relevance to the game as designed.

    My own personal observation is Guild Wars 2 plays as well as any Action-MMORPG. Of which World of Warcraft is not. Gameplay comparison is faulty.


    Everything is endgame content.
    This is a paradox. If everything was endgame there would be no endgame. Distinction is the result of separation.

  10. #10
    This is a paradox. If everything was endgame there would be no endgame. Distinction is the result of separation.
    Then we will just call it a game
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  11. #11
    Scarab Lord Karizee's Avatar
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    It's a massive world with incredibly deep lore and impressive story. The devs aren't shy about destroy huge swathes of art assets in the interest of telling a compelling story in this ever changing Living World we play in - I bring you THE DESTRUCTION!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBc5BdcQDh0

    The combat is smooth as silk, but very different from WoW's. It's more situational, more pvp-ish, much more movement oriented - there are very few skills that root you while casting. Here's a video that illustrates the difference.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_zMPcT2jgc

    Many core concepts are different than WoW's - PvE is much more cooperative, there's no kill stealing, ninja looting, loot rolling type stuff - we all get loot from boss kills, nodes are shared so players will call out on map chat to help others find the rich ones. The latest end game zone consists of a cycle of events that progresses the zone to the ultimate or meta event, I guess this could be considered an open world raid of sorts, but there's 100 players working together to achieve it rather than 10 or 20 within a closed instance. You would probably find it a culture shock from WoW, most players comment on how incredibly good the GW2 is, Colin recently stated that the thing that was most often said in GW2 map chat is "Thank you".

    Most WoW players find GW2 dungeons blistering hard at first. They are extremely unforgiving until you learn the strats and even still most players do not run the most difficult paths but stick to a small handful of easy dungeons. There are guilds of leet speed dungeon runners that have the respect of the community.

    I raided in WoW pretty hardcore for years before I made the switch to GW2. I get my raiding fix in WvW which is a massive 3-way week long battle between 3 servers played across 4 maps. Your server becomes something of a meta guild and uses TS and mapchat to coordinate strategies between the different guilds and players across the maps. There's something very thrilling about rolling out into the battlefield with your guild at Friday night reset, getting callouts and highfives from the other guilds as you prepare for battle.

    I'm sure you'll see a lot of comments on this site about lack of endgame content, I think most of those stem from how easy it is to get max stat gear and the (intended) lack of gear treadmill. I'll leave this quote here from someone that commented recently on how to respond to those that say GW2 has no endgame:

    GW2 doesn't have instanced raids, or the elite zones of GW1, and little gear treadmilling. That's what they're talking about. They have been conditioned by the WoW dominated decade of modern MMOs to equate a gear treadmill that you participate in via raids with endgame content. While I wouldn't be shocked to see either a return of elite zones or instanced raids added in GW2 lifetime, GW2 is never going to quite fulfill the stereotypical end game model, especially since they've ruled out a gear treadmill.

    GW2's "end game" breaks pretty decisively with the old model. First, consider WvW. For all the complaining we do, WvW is probably the best realm vs realm content out there. There is a very large, dedicated community that focuses on it.

    Second, the Living Story means that even though you've hit level cap and finished your personal story, there's continuously new story stuff to be doing. People don't consider this "end game" because the story in MMOs is traditionally done during levelling and is static. Since it's not ongoing, it's not endgame. In gw2, even max level characters are constantly participating.

    Finally, there is high level pve content. High level fractals are appropriately challenging to be considered end game, and some of the open world bosses are also in that category. Because fractals are limited to 5 man groups, and the larger open world content is essentially public, there's a group of players that isn't completely satisfied with end-game pve.

    Of course, there's also spvp. However, without a full on ladder type system, I don't think spvp is well situated to be a major end game draw for the majority of players.

    The point is, end game in GW2 breaks with the classic end game model, so at first glance, some people are going to look at it and conclude there isn't any. They're going to see things that can be participated in equally by casuals, or even non-80's, and conclude there is nothing to do once you get beyond that level. But in reality, between doing the living story updates, running high level fractals or other dungeons, and doing some WvW, there's really plenty for even the hardcore players I play with to do. The fact that we can bring along our more casual friends sometimes doesn't negate that.
    All in all it's a great game, the most fun and epic MMO experience I've ever had. If you're interested I can definitely say it's well worth a try, just be aware that it is very different from WoW (which is great if you're looking for a different experience!).
    Valar morghulis

  12. #12
    Spam Assassin! MoanaLisa's Avatar
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    I will try to reply since a few months ago I was in the same spot as you; long-time player of WoW and had just bought GW2 on sale.

    It's fun enough to play. I had some difficulties placing myself in the story and lore. There were a few interface issues with slight changes in movement that I had to get past (and still do after not playing for a few weeks).

    It's a perfect second MMO. You don't need to be there every day although it's beneficial to do so. And one of the problems with nearly every MMO of this type is that it's just enough like WoW to be a little disorienting until you get the UI and muscle memory under control.

    The world is quite beautiful. The scaling is nice. There's lots to explore. I don't find it quite as compelling for reasons I can't quite get my head around but since there's no monthly cost associated with it I'm perfectly OK with spending time in it when there's downtime in WoW.

    Others will, of course, have a different experience since how we connect into games and worlds like this is very personal and only minimally predictable from the standpoint of a developer.

    In short, I'd give it a try. Especially if you can find it on sale for $20 like I did. It's a bargain.
    "...money's most powerful ability is to allow bad people to continue doing bad things at the expense of those who don't have it."

  13. #13
    It worth its money, since you buy it once and it will be there for all times.

    It fills a second MMORPG niche very good. I won't advice playing it as a first one though. It have tons of flaws, most of it is (or at least was when I was heavily playing it) faulty class balance. You may as well call the game Guardian Warriors 2, if you know what I mean.

    Controlling your character is great, maybe even close to WoW's level.

    Also, it has awesome jumping puzzles.

    Story was meh to me, as well as pvp part of the game.

    Biggest flaw of the game, IMO, is lack of reasons to do anything at all. Top-tier items take, like, forever to craft, and they are just a very very miniscule upgrade over usual orange items. So, for me it turned out to be like transmog grinding game, which, sadly, didn't last long.

    But, as I said, as a second MMORPG it fits perfectly. I still log in sometimes and go through fresh living story, do some achievements or whatever. Game certainly has its charm and absolutely costs its money. Try it.
    No more time wasted in WoW.. still reading this awesome forum, though

  14. #14
    Thanks for your great answers, especially Karizee! Thank you for posting the videos and bringing up te quote, you convinced me, I just bought it !

    The combat system and the world really are looking great! It's installing now, I can't wait to play it. A new and fresh adventure, good, very good!

  15. #15
    It has its ups and downs.

    Because I'm feeling in a bipolar mood today, I'm gonna alternate between praising and criticizing Guild Wars 2 =P

    Good: The gameplay is pretty nice. Every class feels different, animations are really cool to look at, spells are very creative and imaginative (In wow, what's the difference between a Frost Bolt, Lightning Bolt, and Shadow Bolt? one deals frost damage, one deals nature damage, and one deals shadow damage, but they're essentially the exact same spell. Here in GW2, spells have a LARGE variety of functions, like summon a sword made of fire, fire a phoenix made of fire that returns to you like a boomerang, summon a whip made of lightning to lash your enemies with, turn yourself into a lightning ball and then hurl yourself at a monster). As far as combat goes, its just a joy to look at.

    Con: There's no resource system, everything is based on cooldowns, so while the skills are unbelievably cool, there's no strategy to them, you just mash 1,2,3,4,5 over and over to fire whatever is off cooldown. In wow, if you play a Death Knight, there's a strategy to using your runes and your runic power, There's a strategy to using energy to build up chi as a monk, or using energy to build up combo points as a rogue, or accruing rage to burn it off in a burst of attacks as a warrior, or building up burning embers as a warlock, etc. Here, there is no such thing. Your skill number 1 is spammable and is akin to your auto-attack, and the other 4 have short cooldowns, which means combat quickly boils down to just button-mashing.

    Pro: Really good lore and backstory for the setting. The cities, villains, factions, and characters have deep and complex backstories that are almost as good as the wow mythos.

    Con: In this regard, wow and GW2 are very similar, they both have amazing lore, and backstory, but their CURRENT story is pretty bad. That being said, at least the current story in wow is serviceable, maybe not the best stuff you'll see in a videogame, but entertaining nonetheless. In GW2 however, the story is a snoozefest. They made a big deal about how the character creator had so many variables there's thousands of combinations for different stories, but the truth is, all the branches are cut off after lvl 35-40 and then everyone plays mostly the same story, and its not very entertaining, with boring dialogs, an anticlimactic ending, villains that lack any true personality or depth, and protagonists that for the most part are cardboard cutouts. The only characters mildly interesting are the members of Destiny's Edge, and some of the order mentors. If you came here for a good story, you're better off playing SWTOR.

    Pro: Dungeons are very challenging, and provide a good feeling of accomplishment when completed.

    Con: Sadly dungeons are all the group content there is to do on the game. There are no raids, and while there's lots of respawning world bosses like the Shatterer, they're nothing more than zerg festivals where you just mash on the boss and avoid crap on the ground and win without any thought or reason. Honestly, I've seen raid bosses in Naxxramas 10man that require more effort than the GW2 world bosses. They're glorified loot piñatas, simple as that.

    Pro: PVP is pretty good for the most part, and you can take part of it right from the start. In wow you have to first level your character, then gear up your character, and THEN you can actually pvp without getting your ass kicked. In GW2, when you enter a pvp zone, your level is automatically set to the cap, gear is strictly cosmetic, so the guy who has spent 6000 hours grinding battlegrounds isn't gonna have an unfair advantage over you, and the basics of it are pretty simple to grasp. This is a great game to go against other players because of all these reasons.

    Con: Sadly the pvp could use some improvements, because the World-vs-world-vs-World (Think of it like Ashran, or wintergrasp or tol barad, but its 3 servers against each other rather than 2 factions) its little more than a zerg fest, and as far as I know (Don't take my word for it, I haven't played the game in a while) there's no ranked arena mode. Just battlegrounds. And even then, all the battlegrounds are the same. As in: they have the same objective. Basically they're all like Arathi Basin. There's no capture the flag mode, or stuff like that. In wow, each battleground has a unique objective to make them feel different, the only one that are reskinned versions of old BGs are Gilneas (Reskinned AB) and Twin Peaks (Reskinned Warsong Gulch). Here, they're all like Arathi Basin, capture and hold nodes to gather points, first team to reach certain points, wins.

    Good: There's no mob tapping. Good god, how I wish wow would do this already. If you're trying to complete a task that requires you to kill 30 boars, and there's someone else killing boars, you don't have to compete for them, as long as you hit them you still get XP, and credit. Same goes for resource nodes. You never have to compete for anything with anyone, seeing other players in the zone is always something good.

    Bad: There's no quests other than the main story, which is like 5 quests every 10 levels, until then you have to fill that gap doing other stuff. Granted, there's lots of viable ways to level here, like exploration, crafting, gathering resources, doing dynamic events, and doing renown hearts. The problem is........ a lot of this stuff is boring, at least for me. Renown Hearts are essentially quests, but with ZERO plot, you just approach certain regions of a zone and get (presumably via a fax from heaven) a list of stuff to kill, or to pick up, and you do it, and get sent (again, from heaven apparently) your reward. There are some NPCs you can talk to to ask WHY you are killing 20 bandits, but the stuff they say is SO mundane and boring. I mean, in wow you get to westfall, which is beset by bandits, and they have a pretty complex backstory, and a rich history, and deep motivations for doing what they do, and its resolved greatly.

    Here? You talk to the farmer and she's just "bandits are attacking, HALP!!!". And you'd be like: "Okay, who are these guys? why are they attacking? how long have they operated in this area? how can they keep recruiting more for their cause?" and all the NPCs would answer to that is......... "bandits are attacking, HALP!!!!". Don't expect bad guys to have ANY motivation to do what they do. Centaurs attack, just because. Bandits attack, just because. Sons of Svanir attack, just because.

    The Dynamic events are the same for the most part. Some of them manage to spin a convincing and entertaining story, but the majority of them are just NPCs getting attacked just because, towns getting besieged, just because, and you having to help them...... just because. Don't question it, just do it.

    Good: The art style of this game is GORGEOUS. I wish SO BADLY that blizzard would replace their art team. I haven't had any reason to be excited for the appereance of a tier set for DKs since tier 10. Every armor looks hideous, most weapons look like crap, most monsters look terrible. The world can be pretty most of the time, but the design for creatures, armor, weapons, and characters is more often than not a miss than a hit. GW2 however knocks the art department right out of the park. Cities look gorgeous, landscapes look awe-inspiring and jaw-dropping, armors look absolutely amazing, weapons look just as good, character design is just..... incredible. GW2-Centaurs >>>>>>>>>>>>>> WoW-Centaurs. I can tell you this much, this game is a treat for the eyes.

    Bad: too bad their optimization is crap. If you have a PC that can handle it, this game can deliver some truly kickass visuals, but if you don't, the game will look like cardboard. And that's no hyperbole. At least wow is capable of delivering visual candy on even the crappiest rigs, but this game isn't exactly made for the budget-gamers. Its possible this has changed since I last played, but when I was initially playing, the game ran like a cow on rollerskates on my old PC.


    Good/Bad: There's no world pvp to speak of, but whether or not that's a good thing or a bad thing is VERY subjective. Some love it, some hate it. I just thought I had to mention it. When you're in the PVE zones, there's no way at all for you to attack another player in any way. All the pvp is exclusive to the pvp-designated areas. And even then, you can only attack at people from other servers (in the mists) or people from opposite teams (Battlegrounds)

    Por que odiar si amar es mas dulce? (*^_^*)

  16. #16
    Brewmaster MORGATH99's Avatar
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    GW is a casual deal easy game you can do anything with 1 button ( PVE ) and pvp is a just zerg mode
    its real easy to level up the so call history is a joke IMO ( NPC will do anything for you )
    what else mmm pretty much an easi and casual mmp with good graphics .

  17. #17
    seems like a solid list, and certainly more in depth than I would post Derah. I will add/clarify to your first con though, Thieves do have a resource that they have to manage and that takes the place of cooldowns for their weapon skills. That is the only exception though.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by MORGATH99 View Post
    ( NPC will do anything for you )
    huh? are you sure you have the right GW game?

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Raptar View Post
    Thanks for your great answers, especially Karizee! Thank you for posting the videos and bringing up te quote, you convinced me, I just bought it !

    The combat system and the world really are looking great! It's installing now, I can't wait to play it. A new and fresh adventure, good, very good!
    A few of tips:
    -There's a "mega server" system in place, which helps to keep maps full by pairing people from any server into the same map based on a number of factors (friends list, guild, playstyle).
    -You can join more then 1 guild, but you only 'represent' one guild at a time. Joining guilds is account-wide, but which guild you 'represent' is unique on each character. You can also have your own guild, which is useful as a cheap way to get a bit of extra bank space.
    -You can "visit" other servers by clicking "World Selection" and then hitting "Guest" at the bottom left of the character select screen.
    -If you're in a party with someone, and their portrait is black, it means they're on a different map. If you're on the same map, and their portrait is still black, it means they're in another server. If you right-click their portrait, you can select "join" to go to the same server as them.
    -Press Y to open the friends list. On the left side of the friends list window, there's an LFG tab. You can use it to look for groups to play with, or to post your own group (even if you're alone) for others to join. Particularly useful for dungeons. The "Followers" tab contains people who have added you, but who you haven't added back yet.
    -The major cities each have a portal to Lion's Arch (the hub city). Lion's Arch has portals to all major cities. You can quickly (and while avoiding the waypoint fee) get to Lion's Arch by going to the Heart of the Mists (pvp lobby zone), or by entering a WvW map. Click the Crossed swords icon, or the castle icon, at the top left of the screen to access PvP or WvW. Once you're there, run through the purple portal to get to Lion's Arch.
    -At the top right of your inventory screen, there's a gear icon. If you click this, and select "Deposit All Materials", it will send all of your mats to your storage. Material Storage is separate from your bank.
    -Your bank and material storage can be accessed from crafting tables. Additionally, you can craft using things in your bank/storage, you don't have to put them in your inventory (though you can).
    - The "Trading Post" is this game's Auction House. You can purchase or sell things to and from the Trading Post from anywhere in the world. But to pick up your profits/purchased item, you have to go to a Trading Post npc.
    Last edited by Arewn; 2015-04-23 at 06:11 PM.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by zito View Post
    Then we will just call it a game
    Then the statement is redundant: "Everything is game content."

    The actual factual statement in line with the design of GW2 and concepts of Endgame classically is there is no endgame in any of the four Guild Wars games.

    Lack of an endgame is only condemnation if personally viewed as such. Which is fine for some, but neither here or there for Guild Wars 2 in it's current state.

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Raptar View Post
    Thanks for your great answers, especially Karizee! Thank you for posting the videos and bringing up te quote, you convinced me, I just bought it !

    The combat system and the world really are looking great! It's installing now, I can't wait to play it. A new and fresh adventure, good, very good!
    If you get really into the story one person to look up on YouTube is Wooden Potatoes. He has a lot of lore and news videos for GW2. GW2 follows a "Living Story" system, where they'll (try to) update the game once every 2-4 weeks with a new step in the game's current story arc. This can range from anything between helping out refugees escape a threat in the Shiverpeaks, to unlocking and exploring a new map, or it could even mean experiencing the destruction of a major city in the game.

    One of the videos you'll probably want to look at (for the story, if you plan on waiting until they are released to be re-playable like the current Living Story steps then you might want to skip out on it.) I'll link the two-part video series that encompasses MOST of the Living Story's 1st 'Season.':

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSicD-CA4lM (Part 1)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EsWtkj6f2k (Part 2)

    You can find summaries on the wiki here: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Living_World_season_1
    And you can probably youtube the names of each living story arc to find someone playing through it if you'd prefer that as well.

    We have currently just finished Season 2, which is all purchasable and re-playable now. I know the idea of purchasing it sounds wrong, but if you log in for the 2-4 weeks that the Living Story step is currently running on, you get the currently running Living Story step for free. So, if you log on during each story update, you'll have those story steps for free and can experience them whenever you choose.

    Alternatively, if you don't care for the achievements or the loot rewards for the story steps, and care only for the lore itself, a friend can start the step for you and take you through the experience.
    Last edited by Sohalia; 2015-04-23 at 08:27 PM.

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