Offically thinkiing of jumping on the Guild Wars 2 train.

[LilSaihah]

1) There is no exponential growth in xp needed to level, level 9->10 takes the same time as level 79-80.

Because I'm a nerd and have to nitpick here, this isn't quite right; the flat time-to-level starts at level 20. The time it takes for you to level does increase slowly over the first twenty levels, though it's pretty difficult to notice as you're probably paying more attention to learning how to play.

[Valeron]

I thought it was level 30 when the leveling flattened out?

[LilSaihah]

I thought it was level 30 when the leveling flattened out?

Let's compromise and go with 25.

[Fernling306]

Hello all the peps of the Guild wars 2 sub forum. I have officially quit WoW (since the release 5.2 note (deleted and sold, no going back now)) I have check something up about Guild wars 2 around the internet, and seem to love the Dynamic Level/Event but what I am worry about is.

1) How hard is it to level? (most free games are very hard after level 20)
2) If I am not a PvPer what is there for me to do after I max level?
3) Is there any Daily grind like WoW: MoP... aka Golden Crap Lotus (if this is a yes, just let me know now so I will not waste my time)
4) Whats with the Gem shop? Saw a code for Gems at the local Wal-mart, does that mean there are power users?
5) Will this game be a job like WoW? or will it be something that I can play to have fun?
6) Any good looking armor? from the photos I seen, I'm not that impressed (I don't care if they are weak, just wanna look nice)
7) Are areas dead like WoW?
8) Friendly Community
9) Ninja Looting?
10) Gateing?

1. Very easy to level. It's pretty much a flat leveling curve after like level 20ish.

2. Dungeons, world completion and run dynamic events.

3. There is a daily and monthly "grind", but not nearly as time consuming as WoW's. In GW2 you need to 30 laurels to get the best amulet(expecting more gear later) you get 1 laurel per daily you complete and 10 laurels for a monthly completed. This laurel system is brand new and fully expect them to add more things to the laurel grind later on.

4. Cosmetic items, xp boosts, magic find boosts, crafting boosts, armor repair, trade gems for in game gold and a bit more convenience items.

5. My first run through the game I kept expecting things to get better. I ran the first dungeon and was like "wow this is complete shit, I'll just try the next", but they never got better. Now I know what to expect from all aspects of the game. PvP in this game is a complete joke, one of the worst I have played in an mmo. I play extremely casually 2-3 hours every 1-2 weeks and its working for me.

6. Very few good looking armor. Heavy armor has the best choices, a couple decent light armor and haven't found a good looking medium armor in game.

7. It really depends on the server. Almost every servers mid level zones are pretty empty, unless a meta event is going on. Low level zones are almost always full of people and high level zones are picking back up as of late.

8. eh, alright I guess, no better and no worse than any other mmo.

9. Game mechanics do not allow this.

10. Like level gating? The game is full of level gating, just like you would see with WoW. Item level gating? There is now thanks to the fractal dungeons. You have a new stat called agony that you HAVE to overcome with agony resistance, which comes on the more grindy gear.

[draykorinee]

1) How hard is it to level? (most free games are very hard after level 20)
I have found it to be no harder or easier than other games, I have found blocks along hte way where the zone im in doesnt have appropriate level events and had to go do some wvw or exploration to bump it up. Thw storyline is constantly gated to an infuriating degree, it goes up nearly 2 levels every chain of the story which means by the time you feel ready to do so you have become disjointed from the story
2) If I am not a PvPer what is there for me to do after I max level?
Grind for gear and karma for rewards like all other games, even if youre a pvper the pvp is really sub standard.
3) Is there any Daily grind like WoW: MoP... aka Golden Crap Lotus (if this is a yes, just let me know now so I will not waste my time)
Yes, but its not so obvious nor as mandatory.
4) Whats with the Gem shop? Saw a code for Gems at the local Wal-mart, does that mean there are power users?
Overpriced nonsense just avoid it if you can, its certainly not to overpower you its just to entice you to spend money on short boosts and garbage backpacks. Server transfers were better when free now about £6 a go but certainly not the most epxensive on the market because all your chacters get transfered for that small fee.
5) Will this game be a job like WoW? or will it be something that I can play to have fun?
Definitely not, I am tolerating it a bit more but never feel like I have to log in, well except anet keep putting in 1 time events but otherwise this is definitely casual friendly to the point where I can not log in for a week. Its a bit like the Wii for me, I bought it but it sits gathering dust until I get the urge to try it out again, WoW is my ps3 keeping me playing constantly.
6) Any good looking armor? from the photos I seen, I'm not that impressed (I don't care if they are weak, just wanna look nice)
No, I look at characters running around and nothing has stood out to me, admittedly I dont see a lot of people but when I do the colours are bland and the styling dull. I have an rp friend on wow who spends hours farming gear for looks, then he played GW2 and couldnt believe how bland it all lookied.
7) Are areas dead like WoW?
Very much so, having leveled on a high pop server and downgraded to a medium t join friends I can happily say I saw no rise in the number of people in low level zones, I regularly walk past the same champion event every day in each zone calling out for players to join but noone does. When the game released you couldnt move for players now its a ghost town except for the odd few zones.
8) Friendly Community
No more or less than any other, Ive seen some awful people on map chat. However what I also saw is something I have rarely seen in mmos, I saw one guy running around killing stuff so i joined him we then spent an hour questing together, I found out he was max level and was just getting his 100%. Thats when the system works amazingly well and could create a great atmosphere, but I see so few people and the guild system is atrocious that I feel very little connection to anyone in game yet...I might with time.
9) Ninja Looting?
No, but then looting is all individual so of course not.
10) Gateing?
Yes and no, the only gateing ive seen is the usual level gates of questing, there is talk of gateing with fractuals but i have avoided any talk about that because I dont understand it yet. No real gear gating although WvWvW is pretty atrocious being upscaled with crap gear getting near one shotted by level 80s is quite frequent. That however will change with time as well.

Just buy it, I doubt youll regret buying it anymore than you can regret buying any one off purchase, just dont expect to see this amazing change from wow its a real grind fest but the difference being the casual nature of the grind, but its certainly going to offer more variety than the likes of swtor or rift if youre looking for a break from wow.

[Willias]

Hello all the peps of the Guild wars 2 sub forum. I have officially quit WoW (since the release 5.2 note (deleted and sold, no going back now)) I have check something up about Guild wars 2 around the internet, and seem to love the Dynamic Level/Event but what I am worry about is.

1) How hard is it to level? (most free games are very hard after level 20)

Think of Guild Wars 2 like a more typical video game.

What does that mean? Leveling is a lot less something you try and do and a lot more something you get for just playing the game. Almost anything you do will level you up. Crafting, exploring, doing events, doing personal story line, killing things, WvW, etc.

2) If I am not a PvPer what is there for me to do after I max level?

Again, think of it more like a normal video game, not an MMO. Any content you haven't finished? Go do that. Want a specific look on your character? Work towards that. There's a dungeon called Fractals of the Mist that gives some sort of high level endless PvE. It's a bit like endless dungeons from other games, the further you go in, the more difficult and gimmicky it gets. If you want to chase after a flashy Legendary weapon, heh, good luck with the grind for that.

There's things to do, but it's not like other MMOs where hitting the level cap opens up some amazingly different content. You're basically limited to stuff you could already do. Once you have 100% world completion, there's not a lot more to see past that.

3) Is there any Daily grind like WoW: MoP... aka Golden Crap Lotus (if this is a yes, just let me know now so I will not waste my time)

There are daily achievements, but they're not really required like other games. Usually the achievement can be done in about an hour.

4) Whats with the Gem shop? Saw a code for Gems at the local Wal-mart, does that mean there are power users?

No power users. Gems are for cosmetic and convenience things.

5) Will this game be a job like WoW? or will it be something that I can play to have fun?

If you stay away from the Legendary grind? It requires much less dedication than any other MMO on the market.

6) Any good looking armor? from the photos I seen, I'm not that impressed (I don't care if they are weak, just wanna look nice)

That's fairly subjective don't you think? http://www.gw2armor.com/ shows many of the high level armors and racial armors. Note, the game has a ton of different armor dyes, so you get to pick how things are colored.

7) Are areas dead like WoW?

Depends. Some areas have a ton of people in them. Others not so much. Don't expect to go to Dredgehaunt and see a lot of other players running around. Newbie areas and more popular zones will have people in them.

8) Friendly Community

No different than any other MMO.

9) Ninja Looting?

Game is designed so that can never happen. Can't fight over tagging mobs either, as anyone who attacks a mob gets full kill credit and their own separate loot.

10) Gateing?

There's a bit in Fractals of the Mists, but not much.

[Hanyuu]

Hello all the peps of the Guild wars 2 sub forum. I have officially quit WoW (since the release 5.2 note (deleted and sold, no going back now)) I have check something up about Guild wars 2 around the internet, and seem to love the Dynamic Level/Event but what I am worry about is.

1) How hard is it to level? (most free games are very hard after level 20)
2) If I am not a PvPer what is there for me to do after I max level?
3) Is there any Daily grind like WoW: MoP... aka Golden Crap Lotus (if this is a yes, just let me know now so I will not waste my time)
4) Whats with the Gem shop? Saw a code for Gems at the local Wal-mart, does that mean there are power users?
5) Will this game be a job like WoW? or will it be something that I can play to have fun?
6) Any good looking armor? from the photos I seen, I'm not that impressed (I don't care if they are weak, just wanna look nice)
7) Are areas dead like WoW?
8) Friendly Community
9) Ninja Looting?
10) Gateing?

1) The curve is linear. I played causally for 2 hours a night at the very most and leveled my first character to max level in a month. I know guys that I have done it in 4 to 5 days. There's no real reason to rush.

2) It is a strange kettle of fish. The end game is mostly the game before it. You run events and do zones and work toward towards a legendary. There's some out door bosses but no real raiding or anything like it. Basically, there's 5 man dungeons and such and that's as organized as I've seen it. Basically, if you enjoy playing the game along the way up, very little has changed at level 80. You get scaled down when you go to old zones, so alot of the content is still relevant. I've only like 40 percent of the map completed, so there's still 60 percent of the game out there to explore for me and a good chunk of the personal story line. I really feel like it plays like a single player game in alot of ways with the option to group with my friends. I haven't felt the need to level like a madman to keep up with my friends or get to max content. Instead I just meander at my own pace, which is a new feeling for me. No sub is really nice if you don't have a ton of time.

3) There's one daily and one monthly quest. The daily quest usually has 5 sub sections, which end up being things like dodge 15 attacks, rez 10 people, craft 10 items...the whole thing is pretty fast and if you are just doing whatever, you'll accomplish them without trying. They aren't too big of a deal as far as I can tell.

4) Gem shop is how they do micro transactions. I deal with it because I don't have a sub fee. You can trade in game gold for gems on their auction house as well. Basically, you can unlock more than 5 characters, extra bag and bank space and the like with it. You can play completely without it. The nice thing is there are no gold spammers. IF people want to buy gold, they buy gems and the company gets the income. I think it is a really nice model in alot of ways.

5) It seems like alot more casual of a game. Like I was saying, I didn't really feel the need to play much. It is nice to group with my friends for about 3 hours once a week and then just mess around the rest of the time, usually under an hour each day, averaging 2 per day at most. I know a guy that only plays 2 hours a week and slowly makes progress. He is just really busy with family and church stuff.

6) Impossible to say. I found the female armor to be pretty revealing as I gained levels and alot of it was hit and miss for me, but it is tough to know what you think looks cool.

7) I've always seen a handful of people in every zone, but some areas are more busy than others. My server is only a med pop one though and if I start dynamic event, people flock to it.

8) I've met a few friendly people and really no one that's unfriendly. I really haven't pushed to interact with many though.

9) You really should read the mass info thread. Basically, if two people tag a mob, both get loot. So it is really advantageous to work with others. You don't dread them like in other games. That's a great feature in my book. A game about meeting other people, should have you...actually liking to see them right?

10) As far as I've gone, you can't do the explorable mode of dungeons until you to the story...the rest of the zones are gated by level I guess. Neither of those things are really bad in my book. It seems to be virtually non existent, but I am casual enough I haven't done much at the max level at all yet. Just still doing zones and exploring the world and trying to decide if I want to try another class.

[Deleted]

1. Generally the leveling curve won't be giant. For example, you won't ever need 100k xp then at next level 2 million xp. In general the ramp up is very gradual, from 33k xp to 35k xp and so on.
2. The entire world is max level. But there's dungeons, there's jormag, there's new events incoming.
3. There is one daily and one montly. The daily asks you do do 5 things at random, you'll be able to chose soon (for example kill 20 mobs, gather 20 things, kill 5 veterans etc, you need to do 5 of these things per day, so it's like 5 dailies in WoW).
4. No, the gem shop, you can buy gems with money but also with in-game gold. The gem shop doesn't sell power. The only buffs that are sold are minor ones and they only last 30m-1h at most. In general it sells cosmetic stuff, character slots, bank space etc.
5. I am playing it to have fun, you're not forced to do anything.
6. Subjective is subjective.
7. The mid level areas have some of this problems, the other areas no.
8. Mostly yes.
9. Impossible, if you attack a mob and someone attacks it too you both get loot, separate. In dungeons the same, you loot your loot from a chest.
10. Only different levels to enter different zones or dungeons, if you're wondering about gating as in "do dailies for a month to get this" no, there aren't any.

[Deleted]

Hello all the peps of the Guild wars 2 sub forum. I have officially quit WoW (since the release 5.2 note (deleted and sold, no going back now)) I have check something up about Guild wars 2 around the internet, and seem to love the Dynamic Level/Event but what I am worry about is.

1) How hard is it to level? (most free games are very hard after level 20)
- Leveling is severly harder than WoW leveling. But it also was (for me) the most fun experience in GW2. Dont know how it is now, with fewer people leveling up. As Thief, you die alot if you dont pay attention/dont play correctly while leveling. Anond LOL underwater combat is the worst experience I ever had in an MMO.
2) If I am not a PvPer what is there for me to do after I max level?
- Dungeon grind for some crap emblems to buy your sets (no, gear is NOT "just" cosmetic in GW2), legendary weapon grind, world exploration 100% (which is not accound-wide)
3) Is there any Daily grind like WoW: MoP... aka Golden Crap Lotus (if this is a yes, just let me know now so I will not waste my time)
- Even worse, see above.
4) Whats with the Gem shop? Saw a code for Gems at the local Wal-mart, does that mean there are power users?
- You can trade RL/in game money to gems, they offer different rewards like cosmetic gear sets (for their "transmogrify"), short-time buffs (which you also could get by playing with other classes, or your own buffs), short EXP boosts, etc. Dunno how it changed from release to now.
5) Will this game be a job like WoW? or will it be something that I can play to have fun?
- Your definition of "fun" differs greatly from mine. I honestly stopped playing GW2 as I hit 80 (with one char) and couldnt progress past 98% world exploration because you were basically forced to explore the PvP areas in the Mists (not part of the true GW2 world, if we were correct) for the fucked up reason that my server was terrible at PvP and always outnumbered... but you need 100% world exploration to get one of few thousends materials for your legendary weapons. The dynamic events at 80 were horrible... its another grind for gear, you've to repeat hundred of times to see some progress. They also werent fun, to me, at all.
6) Any good looking armor? from the photos I seen, I'm not that impressed (I don't care if they are weak, just wanna look nice)
- Taste differs. I always thought that the fire themed armor was best for my female Asura Thief.
7) Are areas dead like WoW?
- Areas arent dead since cross-realm zones, sorry to burst your bubble on this one. Dunno how the areas are after people rushed to 80, but there's no reason for a level 80 char to go back to "lower" level zones (even if you get scaled down, you still are very OP and one/two shot all staff), except you want to help a friend.
8) Friendly Community
- No, the same people who also play WoW, SW:ToR, Aion, TERA, WAR, etc.
9) Ninja Looting?
- Not possible in GW2.
10) Gateing?
- What? If you mean load screens between zones, then the answer is YES. TONS of load screens between every zone, and there are even load screens inside towns.

Bolded answers.

[Rukh]

1) How hard is it to level? (most free games are very hard after level 20)

Leveling is fairly easy. Just go do stuff and have fun and you'll keep leveling up.

2) If I am not a PvPer what is there for me to do after I max level?

You can farm stuff for gold to use for gear or gems, you can run dungeons, go for 100% map, do fractals and see how high you can get there, look for rare armor skins you want, farm out a legendary, find jumping puzzles, etc. Sometimes it can get kind of boring. its a very easy game to take time off from when you don't feel like it and come back when an event is out, which is pretty often. I didn't play a ton between halloween and christmas, but the events were worth coming back for.

3) Is there any Daily grind like WoW: MoP... aka Golden Crap Lotus (if this is a yes, just let me know now so I will not waste my time)

No. There's a daily achievement which is fast to do and if you go do some events, you'll have most of it done without even trying.

4) Whats with the Gem shop? Saw a code for Gems at the local Wal-mart, does that mean there are power users?

There are a few things in the gem shop that are marginally power-ups but you would barely notice, and other people using them isn't going to affect you much. There's some tokens that give an armor buff, regeneration buff, etc. The main things in the gem shop that are nice are the bank expansion, character slot expansion, etc.

Personally I view the gem shop items as in-game items to try for. I.e. a reason to get gold for gems. I've only bought gems once at the start when i was planning to buy them each month like it were a subscription game.

5) Will this game be a job like WoW? or will it be something that I can play to have fun?

Its definitely a much easier game to only play for small segments and then drop for a while. You come back and don't feel way behind. This was really one of the primary goals they had for GW2.

6) Any good looking armor? from the photos I seen, I'm not that impressed (I don't care if they are weak, just wanna look nice)

I think it's pretty good for an MMO. Light-years better than the play-do looking armor for WoW

7) Are areas dead like WoW?

Depends on server of course, but even when going back to lower level stuff, you'll see people. You'll see tons on end-level stuff and cities of course, but you still see people in lower level zones too. The nice thing is events scale so you can still do a lot if it's an off time.

8) Friendly Community

Yes very friendly so far. Go do events in Orr and people will chat about stuff. How to go do events, where they are, etc

9) Ninja Looting?

Also something they vowed to vanquish and have done a pretty good job of

10) Gateing?

Yes and no. You can go do pretty much any end-game content in green level armor (goes white>blue>green>yellow>orange>pink). It gets marginally easier by gearing up, but it's not a giant change, and honestly you can farm enough gold in just a few days to get all orange gear straight from the market. Not at all hard to get to all orange in this game.

For Fractals of the Mists, which is basically a chain of mini dungeons, when you get high enough there kind of is gear gating because pinks have a special slot for agony resistance. You get way up levels and agony starts getting pretty severe, so in a way there is some gating there.

[draykorinee]

10. Only different levels to enter different zones or dungeons, if you're wondering about gating as in "do dailies for a month to get this" no, there aren't any.

Of course it does, thats not even gating, you cant seriously say GW2 does not have you do something repetitively over time to get something. Do dailies for a month to get this or do events for a month to get enough karma to get this are the same thing.

[Deleted]

There is quite a bit of pvp i assure you. Arenanet will make it a ton better, so jump on!

[Deleted]

I don't know if you will really enjoy the game, I myself thought I liked it but after playing for a while I started to hate it.

I just didn't feel like something new, it felt like playing WoW all over again.

[ro9ue]

I think the main problem with every MMO I play is no innovation at max level. Rift was a great game. Hit 50, now all I have to do is grind reputations and points... same essentially with GW2. Same with WoW.... I'm done with MMOs for now. I'll most likely try ESO since Elder Scrolls is my favorite game series of all time, but that's really my last ditch effort to enjoy this genre.

[Toffie]

I played like so many others and LOVED it at first, later on you realize you end up doing the same thing everytime while leveling up..

Protect this, kill this, collect this. Also If want dungeons or raids with fun mechanics than this game is not for you, it's just horribly boring. I quit at level 60, didn't feel like there was a purpose to finish the game as PVP could have been done at lower levels since you get buffed to level 80 when joining a battleground..

If you want to spend money on something revolutionary then you might wanna wait for Wildstar, beta should be up soon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6spchVJ2-ks

Seing you aren't a pvp'er then I think this game is not suited for you. This game is for pvp and exploration and learning the story of your character.

[Valium104]

How the hell can you quit after reading 5.2 patch notes, this is going to be best patch in WoW history, quit from whatever reason, but not this... As in GW2, no real end-game, content even slower than Blizzard and a lot less (didnt know it was possible)(unless you care for things like christmas events which just waste time for something being live for 1 week). PvP I heard is kinda fun, but to me 5 buttons are not enough for MMO. If I wanted PvP with 5 buttons, I'd play DoTA2 with over 100 "classes".

[Karizee]

Of course it does, thats not even gating, you cant seriously say GW2 does not have you do something repetitively over time to get something. Do dailies for a month to get this or do events for a month to get enough karma to get this are the same thing.

Not even in the same galaxy as gating since you don't need the "this" to do any content in the game.

The ONLY gear gate in the game is the Agony resist gear for higher level fractals. You can fractal to your hearts content up to level 10 fractal (that's when the agony mechanic kicks in) and you can dodge agony for another 10 levels easy. By the time you've hit level 10 fractal you've seen all the mini-dungeons in the fractals.

You can do fractals with a level 2 toon.

The daily is hugely different since it encompasses the entire game. Today's daily is:

50 Kills
15 Attacks dodged
10 Allies revived
20 Gatherings
5 Events

These tasks can be done by any level toon in any area of the game, from dungeons to open world events to killing random mobs to WvW or anything, anywhere. You don't have to go out of your way to do them, you get it just by playing the game.

You don't even have to do it all on one toon. Any toon doing any of these things in any area contributes to it. It's one daily per account.

[Deleted]

How the hell can you quit after reading 5.2 patch notes, this is going to be best patch in WoW history, quit from whatever reason, but not this... As in GW2, no real end-game, content even slower than Blizzard and a lot less (didnt know it was possible)(unless you care for things like christmas events which just waste time for something being live for 1 week). PvP I heard is kinda fun, but to me 5 buttons are not enough for MMO. If I wanted PvP with 5 buttons, I'd play DoTA2 with over 100 "classes".

You obviously didn't play the same GW2 as I did.

1. In GW2 everything is end-game. Plus, it's not a game focused on the end-game alone and ignoring the journey. Like WoW, where you rush to max level since other content barely anyone does and you're alone and do stuff like in a single player game.
2. Content even slower? It launched on 28th august. Since then we got:
-the Halloween patch
-the kraka island (which I admit wasn't so ok)
-the Wintersday event patch
-right now we're going to soon get the second actual true patch.
So even counting only permanent non festival patches, that's 2. So about one per 3 months. I say that's good. Esepcially since you don't pay for playing every month, unlike a game that, during last expansion, gave you content once every 6 months and you still played a sub fee.
Plus, if the christmas events are a waste of time, everything is, I mean, why would you do anything in a game? For rewards? NO! You do stuff because it's fun. If you reached the point where you do stuff only to get stuff... then get a job, it's the same but at least you get real life rewards.

Overall, I understand some people dislike GW2, but seriously, get your arguments straight.

[Deleted]

to population in world question, it's kinda strange. I'm on server that is usually High/Full and I hardly meet anyone, even in Lion's Arch or other capitals. There are always few people in low level zones, but you'll rarely meet someone in most of 15+ zones. So it's "High" populated server, but it feels like my dead server in WoW.

[Sekkrah]

I really wish GW2 would get more attention. It's IMO one of the best-designed MMOs around. Unfortunately it needs a little more to set it apart.. I miss sandboxes.