Guild Wars 2: Opinions so far?

[Klutzington]

Hello. I have been looking through threads about GW2 since it's been about a month since its release date. How is it so far? Is it fulfilling? Another SWTOR? I am looking to buy the game, but I do not want to waste $60 before knowing how people feel about it.

Please do not turn this into a "THIS GAME MIGHT NOT BE FOR YOU LOL." Or a "TRY IT YOURSELF LMAO" thread. I am merely asking the opinions of the players who are currently playing it. I am looking forward to a new MMO to play.

A little bit of a background on me: I stopped playing WoW in November of 2011. I was a pretty good player (top 100 world guild). I play LoL now, but as a casual. . . I don't play everyday, but I do play when I want to, when I have time.

Thank you all very much in advance for your responses. I do appreciate all replies.

Edit: I would like to get perspectives on the leveling, the crafting (if possible), and end-game. Also, if it is not too much to ask. . . which profession do you like the best, and why?

[Thunderball]

If you are going to play alone I'd say stay away from it. The game is the hell lot more enjoyable when you play with friends. Also, the game will probably feel lackluster to you if you are not into PvP. PvE part will take some time if you play it casual but in the end it's only about the story, it doesnt have anything that you can do continiously (like raids). For me, the game looks to be having a lot of potential but still needs some work which is ok by me since it doesnt have subscription (imo they need to fix class balance asap, reduce damage output across the board, properly reward support play, fix problems with sPvP: group play in hotjoin, add more maps, probably change format, also WvWvW needs some time to balance itself).

[moveth]

As Bovinity said, its a great game for 60 dollars. The leveling and PVP are fantastic. Its nothing revolutionary, by any stretch of the imagination. But it was a wonderful purchase and I enjoyed it a lot :]

[Well]

a) There's no endgame in GW2, in the sense of no content is unavailable prior to the level cap. You don't HAVE to level to 80. Doing so, will give you more personal story, cooler weapons and armor perhaps etc. Nothing that judges how good you are or not in the game.

b) The game is incredibly fluid. It does not feel like a grind.

I overally like it. Especially the combat system. It's also very free and nice.

[Deleted]

As Bovinity said, its a great game for 60 dollars. The leveling and PVP are fantastic. Its nothing revolutionary, """by any stretch of the imagination.""" But it was a wonderful purchase and I enjoyed it a lot :]

Do you watch TB? :P

[Rapti]

I played all BWEs, all (except one) stress tests. I play since headstart, I was 80 very, very fast. I am still having fun.
Didnt have much time to play past 2 weeks sadly (especially as much as Id want to), but every single time I log in I have something to do.
At the moment I have 76% world completion, still want to level some other classes and do more PvP (both WvW and sPvP).
Im looking forward to finish my cultural T3 gear set and then maxing some crafts.
I enjoyed the personal story (Charr - Blood Legion - Priory) a lot, sure had some disappointing parts in it First you build your warband, just to abandon it moments later... and never see it again - major fail in my eyes! Shame on you Anet!.
I will be running another Charr with different Legion and group this time.

So far Im playing Warrior and like it a lot.
Didnt do much crafting (cooking and jewel - around 150-250 range) since Ive left it for later on purpose.
End game kinda starts around lvl30 imho (the moment you can do your first dungeon) since there is no rush for being 80.
I would like to still do proper major Orr Cathedral Raid, but wasnt able to log in at right time for it, yet. What Im talking about is that for that part you need like 40-50 people at least to be successful and clear it.
I have fun discovering new Jumping Puzzles and so on - I love this part of the game a lot. Too bad some of those are terribly designed when it comes to camera (small and tight caves - being a good example) movement which makes you bit dizzy and/or you simply dont see shit.

What I dont like is stealth nerfs to some stuff that Anet is doing, without reporting it even. Or overbuffing some NPCs while others (next to them, or same zone/shared spawn) remain being a joke that you can afk auto-attack kill.
There are some events that are bugged for ages (mainly random events - not hearts... Hearts get fixed rather fast).
There are also parts that give a nice challenge (especially exploration mode - some of those are really, really hard and I love it. Doesnt matter I end up losing tons of gold on repairs and took me 2-3h to clear it... IT WAS FREAKING FUN AND FINALLY CHALLENGING compared to standard "move out from fire").

So in general... In my eyes its a great game that gives me loads of joy, but isnt free from some shit that can get annoying from time to time.
Its worth more than 60euro in my eyes. I have over 214h played since headstart.
I wont go into comparing GW2 to TOR or/and WOW, because for some time Ive found the other two to be "shit" and uninteresting for me. Ive been even up to top13 (Vanilla/TBC) guilds, later top100 (wotlk) in WoW.

[Dannoson]

I enjoy it. It's a nice casual game that I can pick up at any time. It is fun being around people. You don't even have to group with them. Some of the most fun I've had is in a mass of people, attacking an area boss. It's a mess of confusing, fun chaos. Another thing, you don't have to worry about another player getting to that mining node before you: all gathering nodes are instanced to every player. If someone taps a mob, and you help kill it, you still get xp and credit for the kill too. This game is a social game. You get xp for rezzing people. Every profession (class) can rez, but it's not a spell, more like bandaging. There are a bunch of small things that make this a great game. It does have its issues too; I'm not saying this is a perfect game. But it is well worth the $60 I paid for it.

[Nightshard30]

If you'll consider this game like a single player RPG game, in which you can also chat with your friends and see what other ppl are doing and not an actual MMORPG.
If you can accept the fact that its a game with lets say a limited 100 hour play and then it's game over (well you can still play but theres nothing more to achieve).
If you enjoy a simplified version of a real RPG game.
If you enjoy being like everyone else, not really being rewarded by your efforts with gear, not having content that you actually need minimum lever gear to be able to pass (at least in PVE).
If you're more into movement and dodging, rather then understanding which abilities to use when and how in order to maximize you dps.
If you're ok with having the same exact basic 1-5 set of abilities from lvl1 to lvl80
If you think holy trinity is a bad thing.
If you don't like raiding.

Then you will love this game.

[Galaddriel]

There are no large scale instanced raids.

Otherwise, in every respect it's better than WoW.
The leveling, exploration and crafting are amazing.
The worlds are packed with people, the community is great as ANet bans exploiters and trolls.
End game is hard ass dungeons, 5 man raids.

[Porimlys]

It's a solid and fun game.

But for me, it's not going to replace WoW.

[Tuma]

I like everything about the game except for personal story difficulty, I think it's too hard at times

[nocturnus]

Best mmo ever made.

- Amazing engine. The game looks stunning, probably like no other game on the market. It's well optimized and runs fluidly.
- No need to grind, but you can if you're into it.
- No trinity - the real version of 'bring the player, not the class' (therefore chances are slimmer that you're forced to play a profession/role you don't enjoy)
- No gear treadmill - You're good cause you're good. Not because your gear has a higher quantity of stats.
- No gated content
- Amazing quantity of things to do with loads of depth, especially at level 80
- A HUGE and beautiful living world
- Challenging dungeons with crafty gimmicks and entertaining storylines
- A different approach to leveling, some say it's revolutionary, others say it's just 'different'. Personally, I won't be able to ever play an mmo with ? and ! above npc heads anymore.
- Dynamic events - The world feels alive with its constant changes and activity.
etc...
etc...

[Deleted]

I'm having quite some fun and enjoyed my money immensely thus far.

However I won't lie ... there's some issues that sometimes get me raging pretty badly. My friend with whom I play on TS always gets a laughing fit when I'm having one of those, so it's all in good spirits. But still there's a lot of (mostly small) things in this game that need to be fixed. If ArenaNet stays true to itself and sorts these things out in a timely manner, this game will be a really big timesink for me

[Azuri]

The game was a resounding meh for me. After a few weeks it just couldn't grip me enough. The game is eye candy for sure but that's where the love of the game ends for me. I guess it's good for some people but I still prefer a trinity based MMO. (I've not played wow for two years, so it's now WoW btw)

[Fencers]

@OP

I feel it's a pretty fun game. Well worth the $60 price tag with the amount of content and hours one can sink into the game. Naturally, no sub fee. So the commitment is no greater than many new games. However, the Guild Wars franchise more than most MMOs is definitely "not for everyone".

All the Guild Wars games are particular in feel and design. That is to say, Anet create their games in a manner that really is out of step with a lot of competing games. From core philosophies such as no required grind or vertical gear progression to item quality coloring & questing structure- it's all just a bit different from popular convention.

Tackling this more specifically:

I would like to get perspectives on the leveling, the crafting (if possible), and end-game. Also, if it is not too much to ask. . . which profession do you like the best, and why?

Leveling is non-linear for the most part. There is only soft direction on where & what players are "supposed" to do. As the PVE game world hinges largely on exploration. The level 1-79 experience is framed by 2 systems; Dynamic Events and Personal Story. Personal Story can be said to be similar to SWTOR's class stories or Age of Conan's destiny quests.

Personal Story is largely instance [you can bring friends along]. Personal Story is unlike the previously mentioned games in that there will be large gaps between the stages of the story. Again, the developers intend for players to take breaks from PS, explore, PVP, craft, DE farm, etc.

Dynamic Events are the make or break system. They are essentially public quests similar to Warhammer or Rift. Though they have more variables in their fail/succeed conditions than those two games. Where a "failed" DE may not be the end of the chain [e.x. Rift] but simply branch into new DEs.

Dynamic Events bank on the player's willingness to not just explore the world but be curious about the world. Sometimes players have to talk to NPCs. Sometimes players just have to wait around after certain event chains. Sometimes players can force an event by doing X, Y, Z in other parts of the map. Some DEs are random. Some are very specific.

You will never get hints about DEs or a quest journal telling you how DEs unfold. They must be discovered. Stressing again, non linearity and exploration.

The make or break aspect of DEs I suggested above comes from the fact that you will be doing DEs basically forever. The crux of the entire PVE system are the Dynamic Events. If one does not enjoy the style, presentation and mechanics of DEs at level 1 it is very likely that players will enjoy DEs at level 80. DEs are what you do forevermore.

That's it. That's the content. Either you find the mass open world event system an enjoyable romp or a boring zergfest. There is little variation. DEs don't get particularly harder or demanding. I can not stress enough; if the basic dynamic event system seems off putting at level 1 it will not change at level 80.

Aside from open world stuff there is group PVE content in the form of 5 man dungeons. No, there will be no raiding.

Dungeons have four modes for lack of a better term. Story [easy, limited access] and 3 explorable mode variations. Dungeons are ran mostly for the sake of challenge &/or vanity items. Gear is not better from dungeons than stuff that is crafted or bought with open world currency. Just different skins.

Crafting is another largely discovery driven process. One can craft from level 1 to level 80. Materials are gathered. 2 disciplines can be active at any one time. Not sure what else to say that can not be found on the wiki in great and thorough detail.

There is no "endgame" in any of the Guild Wars games. The concept as known in the popular sense of MMOs is inappropriate to the Guild Wars franchise.

I like Warrior best but play a Ranger mostly. They're both just interesting classes to play around with traits/skills.

[Gunslinger]

If you'll consider this game like a single player RPG game, in which you can also chat with your friends and see what other ppl are doing and not an actual MMORPG.
If you can accept the fact that its a game with lets say a limited 100 hour play and then it's game over (well you can still play but theres nothing more to achieve).
If you enjoy a simplified version of a real RPG game.
If you enjoy being like everyone else, not really being rewarded by your efforts with gear, not having content that you actually need minimum lever gear to be able to pass (at least in PVE).
If you're more into movement and dodging, rather then understanding which abilities to use when and how in order to maximize you dps.
If you're ok with having the same exact basic 1-5 set of abilities from lvl1 to lvl80
If you think holy trinity is a bad thing.
If you don't like raiding.

Then you will love this game.

Most of those points are personal opinions that don't actually reflect how the game is.

This game has:
- difficult raiding (exploration 5man) which THOROUGHLY test your individual skills (more so than the snorefest 25man HC in WoW where 1-2 bosses actually challenge you in Tier X)
- dynamic combat
- huge world with an almost never ending supply of quests which can end both in victory or defeat and actually have continuity
- personalized story and character
- rewards for everything for everyone
- platforming & puzzles
- CHOICE!
- lush and alive world that's always changing
- no monthly fee
- weapon swap gives you 10 abilities on 1-5 and ele get 4 "stances" to dance arround. Each weapon drastically changes the way you play. You NEED to understand how abilities work & when to use them in a group environment and alone to maximize their potential or you're dead. Per example WoW uses the generic 50 abilities per character and each character changes their rotation depending on the spec. Here you need weapon combination X or Y for encounter Z and can modify talent K for it. It's a lot better than just using a static spec and ALWAYS that one rotation for single target and one for AoE. Here you actually have to change depending on party composition & how the battle plays out.
- compared to WoW's lonely leveling (and most other static MMOs) where the only time you join a party is for the LFG this one puts you in the middle of the action surrounded by players helping one-another. Heck WoW even decreases the EXP you get in a party so drastically it is in your best interest to level ALONE.

For the OP I'd say grab a look at Angry Joe's review or the one at IGN to get a clear picture but the game is worth the purchase price. Nothing personal against WoW or mr. Nightshard30 but right now GW2 by far offers the more bang for the buck & fun. Innovation vs old school. It all comes down to personal choice.

I put in some comparisons mostly as examples and how I feel GW2 mixes things up in new and interesting ways which push the envelope of what we can expect from MMOs. Can't wait until GW2 starts trowing patches and even more content to the mix. The one are where WoW trumps GW2 is the content but that's just due to lots of expansions and time to add things to the game.

[Deleted]

I made it to 80 around a week ago on a mesmer. Despite my initial thoughts that mesmers in GW2 weren't nearly as fun as in the first game, they grew on me. The profession is very...well, weird to be honest. I run with dual swords and a greatsword with a power phantasm build, and even though it takes a while to build dps compared to other profs it's very, very rare I die. Tried a necro, guardian and thief and nothing really is as much fun as a mesmer imo, but they feel a little bizzare to play. And it can be challenging tagging mobs in events at times >.>.

I have around half the world explored, maxed out four crafts (weaponsmith, tailor, chef and jeweller) and full exotic gear. I have half a "tanking" set farmed from Orr from the karma vendors. I've run a few dungeons, pvp matches and WvWvW and...yeah. It's fun, it's just a shame with both Torchlight 2 and Borderlands 2 it looks like I'll be putting the game down for a while.

[Grenzstein]

Almost 200 hours and i still love it so much.
If you like exploring, immersion and a good MMO with some old school features and the average themepark feel.

But if you are looking for the same kind of item progression and "carrot on a stick" that WoW offered you might be dissapointed.

[Sanguinerd]

So far it's been pretty cool but I'm very dissapointed with the personal story aspect. It was advertised like some epic adventure and how it's different for everyone but the fact is.. it's not true.

I've leveled two classes to 80 so far and except for the beginning story quests you eventually end up choosing one of the 3 orders and from there on you pretty much do the same quests. Yes you can pick different options like an ambush or head-on but with the same end result. \

My first character was a Charr Warrior and I really enjoyed the warband quests and actually bringing everyone together, it felt cool recruiting people and fighting with them (even tho they were just NPC's) but then you just leave them behind... the childhood friend you pick in the beginning is never to be seen or heard from again and to make matters worse suddenly this Sylvari gets forced into your story that you have no choice but to accept taking orders from.. And yes I really freakin dislike Trahearne.

Same with my human guardian... in the beginning there's all this stuff happening and people you save, meet or just help out but you never hear from them again either. Sure when you enter your personal instance they're all there but besides a few chat options that's all. I would've loved to actually see them all (same goes for Charr story) at the end standing with me facing Zhaitan or at least when you return to Fort Trinity applauding or SOMETHING... anything.

Tho it's not a total deal breaker but had I known beforehand I'd probably be less excited to play.

(I realize for alot of people the personal story element might not mean anything)

[sk8ter12244]

I like the game so far. The questing system is very unique and provides a great alternative to WoW. Exploring is now worth it and the events are amazing. (Sometimes there are events that I have never seen before pop up!) The PvP is great and the WvWvW is spectacular and different. There are some issues with it, but in time it will be fixed. Gathering and crafting are now useful in leveling making them ideal in the leveling progress.

Overall the game is amazing and pretty addicting. It doesn't pose a challenge to WoW, but is a great game to play along with it

---------- Post added 2012-09-22 at 07:10 PM ----------

So far it's been pretty cool but I'm very dissapointed with the personal story aspect. It was advertised like some epic adventure and how it's different for everyone but the fact is.. it's not true.

I've leveled two classes to 80 so far and except for the beginning story quests you eventually end up choosing one of the 3 orders and from there on you pretty much do the same quests. Yes you can pick different options like an ambush or head-on but with the same end result. \

My first character was a Charr Warrior and I really enjoyed the warband quests and actually bringing everyone together, it felt cool recruiting people and fighting with them (even tho they were just NPC's) but then you just leave them behind... the childhood friend you pick in the beginning is never to be seen or heard from again and to make matters worse suddenly this Sylvari gets forced into your story that you have no choice but to accept taking orders from.. And yes I really freakin dislike Trahearne.

Same with my human guardian... in the beginning there's all this stuff happening and people you save, meet or just help out but you never hear from them again either. Sure when you enter your personal instance they're all there but besides a few chat options that's all. I would've loved to actually see them all (same goes for Charr story) at the end standing with me facing Zhaitan or at least when you return to Fort Trinity applauding or SOMETHING... anything.

Tho it's not a total deal breaker but had I known beforehand I'd probably be less excited to play.

(I realize for alot of people the personal story element might not mean anything)

Don't take this offensive, but leveling two 80s already is a bit much. How many hours a day do you play?