I can't believe I may be caving to this hype...

[Karizee]

I'm playing elementalist, I liked this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnSWO...hannel&list=UL

[worprz]

I played wow since before battlegrounds were a thing and I loved to pvp all the time. Now playing this game for me was a moderate leap in skill, mostly because I never used WASD to walk around and you need to do that to use the dodge to it's fullest in my opinion.

One thing I really love is how positional the game is. In wow I played rogue because you had to know when to go into stealth or when to run behind your target to cancel a spell. You also had to be behind your target to use certain abilities. In guild wars though every profession is like this, you have to dodge and move the whole time during pvp to do good and it is great.

The game itself isn't really a huge difference from other mmorpg's but it is a really good game. Only having 5 abilities isn't so bad either I find it is really challenging because you need to know when you want to use each ability and if you use something too soon or too late it can mess you up (same goes for the dodge).

Finally the pvp 'battlegrounds' aren't super amazing but what is great about it is that you do not need the gear to do good. I love this about the game because I don't need to have the latest gear to do well in pvp and you can simply focus on your skill and strategy.

[BrerBear]

I'm playing elementalist, I liked this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnSWO...hannel&list=UL

I admit that yours is the first GW2 video I've seen, but... Am I missing something?
I didn't see anything revolutionary. The graphics seemed bland, with the red-robed player sliding around the play field like a 10 year old FPS with animations that don't match the movement. The spells were effects like stun, knock back, and chain lightning, which are quite common in MMOs.

Objectives appeared to be standard captures. Pace was frenetic, but not much different from WoW, SWTOR, or other recent MMOs.

What is so different about GW2's PVP?

[oplawlz]

If you can accept the fact that there is no competitive raid environment and enjoy pvp, I suspect you would be very pleased if you get past your aversion to hype and try the game out. The fact that they don't have to pander to pve players in terms of balance should be enough to excite you as a gamer. It doesn't matter of class x does more burst damage than class y . . . unless you're a terrible player no one is going to refuse to take you to a 5 man dungeon.

[Karizee]

One thing to note is the devs understand balance issues, have been testing them all throughout the beta weekends and in fact have an entire team devoted to working on that to get as close to balance as possible by release.

[LurkerOnly]

Okay. First things first, I played WoW from the day it came out in Vanilla until Firelands in Cataclysm released and quit. I went to TERA and bashed the hell out of GW2's hype. I believe (and still believe) that the game will fare similarly numbers wise to every single other modern MMORPG released in the past 8 years or so.

I've seen a handful of videos, and I've skimmed that big "uninitiated" thread. This goes out to everyone who has extensive experience in the beta, I would like skeptics, haters, and lovers alike to share their thoughts...I am absolutely a fresh ear to this. I have no pre-conceived notions or any opinions to go off of. I have no friends that have played beta.

Is this game it? Does its PvP really stand out as much as its puffing its chest up to do so? Is its PvE tacked on and mediocre as a result? What's the skill cap on the characters seeing as everyone literally only gets like 8 moves (something like that?).

Introduce me to why this game may capture and be the best choice I ever made (before I pre-purchase it).

(I am a PvPer, but I do take a liking to well thought out and challenging PvE content)

I don't want to prove your self-admitted preconceived opinions wrong. Look at the data about the game, and see if you think you'll like it. Sadly, that's not a thorough experience, but unfortunately in this world the only way to get a good, thorough experience is to try for oneself.

In the end, all I can say to you is "the production quality is high, and the developers appear to be sincere about making a good game instead of a bubble-profit leaning tower, and both of those things show while you're playing. Your mileage may vary."

Hope that helps, but I know that it won't :| Sometimes there's no substitute for just trying it out. When I finally got into beta, the game was different than what the promotional materials and reviews had led me to believe: it will (would?) be the same for you if you try it.

[WarpV2]

Hey Zipzo,

Glad to hear another open mind about Guild Wars 2. I have been following this game as soon as I found leaked information about it. I love and praise this game, though first off I want to point it's differences of other common MMO's out that need to be examined.

(each class does not have just 8 abilities, but 5 from main weapon, 5 from secondary weapon(other than elementalists), 1 heal, 4 utilty, 1 special, and depending the class other skills or system of a sort that is completely different based on class.

Elementalists on the other hand have a total of 25 abilities(long CDs no weapon swap),
assassins have a total of 16,
warrior has 16,
ranger has 15 + 2 pets w/ abilities,
mesmer has 19 + 3 illusions,
guardians have 18,
engineers have 19,
necros have 19 (demon/necro form)
;Edit, some of the classes could have more (not an expert on all of them)

1.First Guild War 2 play/game style is about picking abilities you may find to be useful. Unlike a traditional MMO where you are given an unlimited amount of skills for your class to do with your disposal.

-:Why I like this: It allows variety between fighting 2 classes of the same in PvP. You may come up to an assassin in the game and he may be specialized more into stealth/healing, combat, poisons, ranged or melee fighting. You will have to adapt to this during game play. Compared to a WoW rogue, you already know a basic of what he may do because they all, of course, have the same abilities.

-Though I do belief these are 2 completely different gamestyles that both have positives and negatives and are great in some aspects.

2. I really praise the Event system, this game literally feels like there is no grind. There is no waiting- after you complete an event it can lead off to another event and keep in a chain and continue to be extremely fun and waits for no one. THE BEST THING IS THAT IT ALL SCALES! Yet if you don't like it and want to level up and do pvp still I hear you can level up during WvWvW battles but I personally don't know the advantages.

3. Though you said you were a PvPer, and I am too at heart, but Personal story is quiet awesome. Knowing I can make a 2 characters of almost the same and they can have almost completely different outcomes on their story based on what you chose and what kind of dialog you did.

4. http://www.arena.net/blog/the-pillar...ars-2-gameplay Watch the videos on this website may indulge you more beyond what i have described.

Thanks for your time.
-Loyal Protector of Tyria, Phanci-kun Himself

[Karizee]

I admit that yours is the first GW2 video I've seen, but... Am I missing something?

The OP had expressed a concern about having a limited number of skills, I was just showing him that an elementalist (for instance) has 5 skills x 4 attunements +5 secondary skills - all useable on the fly.

Oh, I can tell you one thing GW2 does NOT have. Wall/terrain DC's ^.^

[Riffraff]

I am going to best explain why guild wars 2 has "it" based off my mmo experiences. I first started off with Everquest back in 2000 and it had a unique feeling of omg this is such a new amazing thing I just cant get enough. Based on todays mmo standards it was so raw and boring but it still had that magic.

In 2003-2004 I started to monitor all the rumors about WoW and was absolutely amazed at how polished those first few videos made the game look (ofcourse by now those alpha trailers look lol and nothing like wow when it even released). I thought omg this is the next step in mmos and will be a leader. When I got my hands on the beta in 2004 I remember getting home from class on a friday, and basically not logging off till sunday night skipping all meals that weekend. I knew WoW had that one thing that is so hard to capture in a game and is hard to put into words but it is just that total envlopment into the world and the content and the community, it just "feels" right and even though you dont realize it then, it creating nostalgia the whole time for you. I played WoW from vanilla up till cata on and off but I certainly am a veteran since I was more on than off.

Then came Guild Wars 2. I was such a sceptic about it since I was on the WoW train when GW1 came out and I was let down by rift, swtor, age of conan, vanguard(game ended up being great but the community was dead), and other mmos that were essentially WoW clones. I finally started doing some research on GW2 around March and decided to stop blindly hating it and think it would fail just because I was anti-hype. When I read about it I was interested but a bit worried that it would be too different and it might be a nightmare. It just looked so nice tho and I had to prepurchase for the beta weekends. Beta weekend 1 finally came, and I instantly knew this game had "it". I logged on Friday, and didnt log off till the beta ended(- 10 hours for sleep the whole weekend). When you start to play it, you truly feel it is a different fresh game. It delivers on what all those other mmos promise but never come through with. It is unrecognizable to WoW. Each class feels like it has never been done before, even the rogue class which is usually the most generic in all mmos. They managed to capture skill>gear and it breaks free of the dps rotation and role system that almost all mmos follow now. It is so hard to explain how the game makes you feel when you play it, but im sure its that same feeling you had when you tried WoW for the first time. The best advice I can give you is to prepurchase the game and give it an honest try on release, throw away all bias and do some research on talent calculators. Is it possible that you will hate it and feel like you wasted $60? ofcourse that is possible, it always is, but I can also tell you chances are high you wont feel that way. Personally I would recommend making a human or an asura also as your first character, their starting zones are so fun and breath taking. The human starting zone left me with that amazing first impression of the game. Also the Human capital is the single nicest city I have ever seen in any mmo by far.

[Merendel]

Fact: GW2 will not be a wow killer, why? because wow is already as good as an mmo can get. Graphics and events etc in gw2 are very good and everything but if the gameplay sucks it's popularity will drop fairly quickly, same as swtor, TSW, AoC etc etc.
Just look at Counter Strike cs 1.6, 12 years after release it's still one of the most played fps on steam, infact I even think it's ahead of MW3, if graphics mattered at all, mw3 would still destroy cs.
Gameplay is what keeps players, not graphics and fancy stuff.

Well I guess its a good thing that the gameplay is very solid as well in GW2. I find it rather sad that you believe WoW is the best that an MMO could ever be. Thinking like that leads to stagnation. You dont think you can improve so you never do. Everything has room for improvement even WoW, if it didnt there wouldnt be so many folks looking for that wow killer. GW2 wont kill wow because its not trying to kill wow. Some aspects of it wont jive with everybody. It is offering things WoW can not do because it goes agianst WoW's design. Its trying to offer to people what they are not geting from wow if they want it, not trying to grab those people that just want WoW because they do. There is plenty of room for the two games to coexist without trying to kill eachother.

[Zipzo]

I don't want to prove your self-admitted preconceived opinions wrong. Look at the data about the game, and see if you think you'll like it. Sadly, that's not a thorough experience, but unfortunately in this world the only way to get a good, thorough experience is to try for oneself.

In the end, all I can say to you is "the production quality is high, and the developers appear to be sincere about making a good game instead of a bubble-profit leaning tower, and both of those things show while you're playing. Your mileage may vary."

Hope that helps, but I know that it won't :| Sometimes there's no substitute for just trying it out. When I finally got into beta, the game was different than what the promotional materials and reviews had led me to believe: it will (would?) be the same for you if you try it.

I knew someone would pick those words the moment I re-read it lol.

A presumption based on past experience with new MMORPG's is not really a pre-conceived notion about Guild Wars 2 specifically. It's a pre-conceived notion about any new MMORPG. All I was trying to elate was that I'm a weathered and conscious MMORPG buyer at this point because I've been burned so many times (like most of us), it wasn't meant to like, put up some kind of front and make you believe I'm not flaming the game. I'm just being stern and cautious about my money, since I didn't get to participate in the betas and, well, I knew some people would probably give me their 2c (which they have, and I am thankful for).

Also, no, I don't need a "WoW killer". WoW was dead to me a while ago. I'm looking for something to effectively fill the void. I'm not picky. I don't pick games apart for not being like WoW (there was a lot about WoW I hated in the end, so the more different from WoW's current state the better).

I just legitimately know close to nothing about GW2, and now I'm drowning myself in it so I can make an informed purchase and thought I'd stir a conversation.

[ZerOKami]

If you asked me what made GW2's PVP stand up to other MMO's is this: Any spec can work. And it will work, if you know how to do it. The Structured PVP is specifically designed for it.

It is perfectly imbalanced (go watch Extra Credits right now) and that's what makes it possible for any spec to be able to work. You see, the maps may seem generic being all CP centric but it's the best design you can get for a PVP map. If it was Arena-styled, it would boil down to "damage specs" and "counter-damage specs" and that, is boring. In CPs you have to move around, be more dynamic. It adds hotspots for combat, which are the points, yet it also promotes people moving and working together.

They achieved a PVP mode where PVP is a major element yet not the focus.

It's genius design. And in a mode like that, any spec can work if you make it work. Last beta, I played a Sword/Warhorn + Greatsword Warrior with pure defensive traits that simply focused on one thing: mobility. Didn't have a lot of damage, but I took a lot of disruption so enemy couldn't catch up to me. Al lI did was run around capturing points that were abandoned, buffing allies and helping them down targets. And it worked. A lot. Most times when a point got neutralized I just ran to it and recapped it.

Wanted to try the other end and made a Necro based around minions and survivability that was made for point defense. Thanks to Death Shroud, I never died. Since I could hold my point long enough for my team to come and fend off the invaders, all my team had to do was focus on keeping the center point.

While I was testing a crit axe warrior build I came upon this Guardian, you know this Guardian, the one with the Hammer and Spirit Weapon Hammer. Oh, the knockdowns. He stood in the tower point and no one could move him because of the knockdowns. Then, I switched Balanced Stance into my utility skills. And we took the point. Went to cap the enemy point and when I got it, the Guardian was back in the tower. Still immovable. Since then i figured my team wouldn't do anything to counter him so I just followed him the entire match drawing the attention of him and his spirit hammer.

Most times, you will have the tools to deal with whatever your enemies throw at you. The rest of the time, it's your allies who will have them. It's a different metagame, and kinda like Guild Wars 1 in the sense that you can counter stuff hard if you know how you do it.

This is what makes GW2's PVP different.

[Deleted]

I hate this game for being so awesome... damn you arenanet!

engineers have 19,

depends on how many kits you use, there's no real fixed number here... this can go up to 26 if you use all three utility skills for kits/gadgets and the med kit as heal skill
and up to 33 (36 if you add the underwater form) if you use elixir x as elite skill

and don't forget the 4 downed and 4 drowned skills

[Alkaholic]

Fact: GW2 will not be a wow killer, why? because wow is already as good as an mmo can get. Graphics and events etc in gw2 are very good and everything but if the gameplay sucks it's popularity will drop fairly quickly, same as swtor, TSW, AoC etc etc.
Just look at Counter Strike cs 1.6, 12 years after release it's still one of the most played fps on steam, infact I even think it's ahead of MW3, if graphics mattered at all, mw3 would still destroy cs.
Gameplay is what keeps players, not graphics and fancy stuff.

ROFL, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHHAHA...

U my friend are delirious if you truly believe that. LOL @ gameplay sucking w/ no examples.

[Mavecryst]

Lack of trinity I'm not a fan of. I like the trinity, even if it makes grouping a pain sometimes. It just adds a dynamic to grouping I'm not sure you can recreate without it, otherwise it just feels like everyone is mashing buttons and moving out of the way of stuff. Less of a coordination requisite.

Whaaaa? Really, the trinity was also about mashing buttons and moving out of the way. It added a dynamic to grouping, I can agree with that, but not in the way you say.

At least GW2 makes you think on your feet some about your abilities and not just movement. WoW feels far too easy after playing in the BWEs, it's a set keybind input and occasional movement out of the way. Not that I hate it (played WoW for years, and I ain't gonna hate on it, game has given me more than my fair share of good times) but really, if you wanted to head away from "mashing buttons" the trinity wasn't the way to go.

The trinity's "button mashing" tendencies is worst seen in classes like the shaman where you could have a potential backup healer/dps but because people are so used to their own "rotations" they very often forget that "hey I can help out here too". In GW2 that tendency is much more limited...you know right from the start you have a mixed set of abilities to achieve different effects, and it's a powerful mind set changer.

[shise]

Gw2 will be one more fun game that people leave after a little while, complinning about how it could be good but it failed because of X.

Do you know why? Because all games created nowadays are created under the money making philosophy, they no longer create games listening to their writers and designers in order to deliver epicness, they do it listening to the sells.

[Swampfox2223]

Gw2 will be one more fun game that people leave after a little while, complinning about how it could be good but it failed because of X.

Do you know why? Because all games created nowadays are created under the money making philosophy, they no longer create games listening to their writers and designers in order to deliver epicness, they do it listening to the sells.

Uh, if they wanted to make the maximum money they wanted to, wouldn't it be P2P? Scores of people would still buy it being that GW1 players are a pretty large group and would try it just for the name. Others would see the art/gameplay and try it for the sake of trying it. This company has always listened to it's fans, and makes money along the way.

[Deleted]

Does its PvP really stand out as much as its puffing its chest up to do so?

Well - link the anet PvP "chest puffing" material and I can try and give you my objective opinion...

[ccckkk]

Okay. First things first, I played WoW from the day it came out in Vanilla until Firelands in Cataclysm released and quit. I went to TERA and bashed the hell out of GW2's hype. I believe (and still believe) that the game will fare similarly numbers wise to every single other modern MMORPG released in the past 8 years or so.

I've seen a handful of videos, and I've skimmed that big "uninitiated" thread. This goes out to everyone who has extensive experience in the beta, I would like skeptics, haters, and lovers alike to share their thoughts...I am absolutely a fresh ear to this. I have no pre-conceived notions or any opinions to go off of. I have no friends that have played beta.

Is this game it? Does its PvP really stand out as much as its puffing its chest up to do so? Is its PvE tacked on and mediocre as a result? What's the skill cap on the characters seeing as everyone literally only gets like 8 moves (something like that?).

Introduce me to why this game may capture and be the best choice I ever made (before I pre-purchase it).

(I am a PvPer, but I do take a liking to well thought out and challenging PvE content)

No pre-conceived notions or opinions? Seriously, have you read your post?...

OT: I think GW2 is as interesting as anything that has come along in a while, although in the end I will know after playing for a few weeks and months (hopefully).

As a long time wow player like yourself I sometimes wonder if I (and perhaps others) am (are) just burnt out on MMOs and whether it be GW2, MoP or whatever, MMOs can just never provide what WOW (or whichever MMO you cut your teeth on) used too...

Let's hope GW2 proves me wrong.

[Zipzo]

No pre-conceived notions or opinions? Seriously, have you read your post?...

OT: I think GW2 is as interesting as anything that has come along in a while, although in the end I will know after playing for a few weeks and months (hopefully).

As a long time wow player like yourself I sometimes wonder if I (and perhaps others) am (are) just burnt out on MMOs and whether it be GW2, MoP or whatever, MMOs can just never provide what WOW (or whichever MMO you cut your teeth on) used too...

Let's hope GW2 proves me wrong.

Yes, I have read my post. I have absolutely zero pre-conceived notions about the Guild Wars 2 game itself.

I do have pre-conceived notions about an MMORPG Jesus descending from the heavens. I've been burned too many times so my expectations are low in general. I explained this in a later post.

A pre-conceived notion of GW2 for example might be if I came in and said "The PvP is probably going to suck" or "I think the dungeons will be super easy".

My pre-conceived notions are simply broad generalizations that the MMORPG genre has gotten stale over the years, so I have given up on any new release to pop out and blow me away.

Come on people, there's totally a difference.