Returning to the game soon, what has changed since release?

[Deleted]

I played for a few weeks but I found my enjoyment greatly hinderd by sub-optimal hardware on my end. At most I could get 10fps in an empty area with the lowest possible settings and the fps hit rock bottom in cities and in combat.

In any case; when I left it was pretty much ranged>melee across the board, as with a gun/bow/wand you could use CC (On most classes, I played Guardian/Warrior) to stay out of reach (and thus damage) while performing the same, if not more, DPS than you would have done in melee. (Already out of reach=less time spent rolling/avoiding AoE=more DPS) Is this still the case or have ranged and melee weapons been rebalanced so ranged is not innately better than melee across the board? It kinda sucked in PvP as a Guardian where it was basically "Go ranged or be prepared to die a lot". In addition I have strong memories of thieves being incredibly powerful in PvP and PvE with very high damage output and plenty of survivability, it may have been my own lack of skill but I distinctly recall having a thief pop up behind my guardian out of nowhere and killing me faster than any other stealth class I've ever bumped into from any other MMORPG. Has class balance improved as well? Are lower level dungeons regularly run still? More to the point were they ever fixed? It wasn't fun spending two hours trying to get into the same instance as the rest of your party, constantly breaking then re-forming your party and in general trying to actually run the bloody thing. And speaking of dungeons; have they improved the "no trinity" thing? When I played everyone still had it stuck in their heads that they needed a "tank" and a "healer" and to be frank if the group lacked both it made dungeons notably harder anyway, it may just be a case of old MMO habits but from what I remember the dungeons still somewhat needed a heavy defence character up front with a supporting/healing character at the back.

tldr; See bolded text.

[Slappyjoe]

The ranged vs melee thing has isn't really a balance issue. The problem is basically the same as every MMO in that it's typically easier at range since you can see more of the playing field and have more time to avoid things. Especially in a game like GW2 where actively avoiding damage is a huge part of gameplay, melee is just inherently more difficult. That said, since dodging and using class abilities to survive is such a big part of the game, playing melee isn't that much harder simply because it's just something you have to do with every character, melee or ranged. My biggest reason to prefer ranged is due solely to the fact that up close you're forced to deal with the massive amount of particle effects everywhere and since facing is important, being in a jumble of bodies and particles is often not all that fun.

They've made tons of changes to all the classes, but since I don't play PvP at all I can't speak to that part of it. But in general, I think most classes are in better shape than they've ever been.

As for the "no trinity thing", that's always been a player issue. It still exists to some degree, but I think in general people have adapted to it well enough. Some people still try to be tanks or healers, but it's usually pretty obvious that it just doesn't work that way. If I have one gripe with it, it's that a lot of people have embraced it to the point that too many end up going pure glass-cannon dps. There's a balance in there a lot of min-maxers can't seem to figure out because they're so used to just maximizing their damage output they often forget that survival is also a really important aspect. The most popular exotic gear by far on the TP is Berserker and most of the class guides out there will suggest it. You do want someone in your party with huge burst potential, but you don't want everyone geared that way.

[Fencers]

have ranged and melee weapons been rebalanced so ranged is not innately better than melee across the board?

Has class balance improved as well?

Are lower level dungeons regularly run still? More to the point were they ever fixed?

have they improved the "no trinity" thing?

1. Depending on the situation ranged has advantages over melee and vice versa. Which is intended design. Though it requires less reflexes to play ranged in a highly twitch based game such as Guild Wars 2.

2. Class balance in what sense? The game is in active live development as most MMOs. Any concern about balance should be viewed as transitory.

3. All dungeons are run. The game is fairly lateral.

4. Um, I don't know of any phenomena in GW2 by which dungeons needed a heavy defense character upfront. Or what occupation such a character would fill. But the game still has no role trinity and any content can be and is ran with any assemblage of classes and builds without issue. The current flavor of the game is to run nearly total glass cannon builds and power through dungeons at a rapid pace.

[Deleted]

Sounds pretty good to me, I shall return as soon as I'm done building my new PC and set it all up.

[Deleted]

To those who are playing on EU; what's the most active server? I'm returning to the game aswell.

[Karizee]

To those who are playing on EU; what's the most active server? I'm returning to the game aswell.

I don't play EU but just looking at the Leaderboards, Seafarer's Rest is #1
https://leaderboards.guildwars2.com/en/eu/wvw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ0NcvpFwXk

[Deleted]

I don't play EU but just looking at the Leaderboards, Seafarer's Rest is #1
https://leaderboards.guildwars2.com/en/eu/wvw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ0NcvpFwXk

Sweet thanks!

[rezoacken]

Might also make a casual comeback after 9 months aproximately. Thank god its not subscribed based. I'd play WoW casually too if I could find a reason again to think its worth 15$ a month.

Did they add a lot in term of content (dont care about the level since I'll probably start a character from scratch to see what has been added as I go up) ? Zones, Quests, Instances, Game modes ? Are low level zones still populated to make events running interesting ?

I've heard there are new stuff regularly based on some form of story.. what exactly is it ? Only events that I won't be able to witness anymore or is it permanent stuff ?

Did classes were a bit rebalanced/redisgned too ?

Is there still an active MMOC guild where player hang together ?

Edit: Looks like I have around 3G of patch to download

[Fencers]

I've heard there are new stuff regularly based on some form of story.. what exactly is it ? Only events that I won't be able to witness anymore or is it permanent stuff ?

Did classes were a bit rebalanced/redisgned too ?

Is there still an active MMOC guild where player hang together ?

1. Every two weeks there is time limited content called Living Story. After 2 weeks, a new set of LS replaces the current LS. And so on, forever. Yes, you missed out. But in a few days there will be new content.

2. All MMOs in active development have transitory class balance. Guild Wars 2 is in active development.

3. No idea.

[Zeek Daniels]

They announced yesterday that they are changing the Tequatl the Sunless encounter to be less Zergy. So instead of 100 players all attacking the dragon your going to need 3 seperate groups. Group 1 killing Tequatl and his fingers, Group 2 (6 players max) manning the turrets using the new abilities to clear poison clouds, buff players, and clear the new stack mechanic on Tequatl that causes him to go invulnerble should he reach 20 stacks, and a 3rd group to clear adds that will attack group 2.

And at certain %'s Tequatl will fly up and the mega laser will start to charge to shoot him down. Theres 3 batteries that need to be protected and players have to spread themselves out to keep all 4 things alive till Tequatl is shot down.

Tequatl's abilites seem to get stronger as the fight progresses.

So to reward players for this harder encounter that is also time restricted there are a whole new set of achivements just for this event, Also there are new Tequatl themed ascended weapons that will only drop from him after the even succeeds. Also they said that all rewards are given after the boss battle completes so no need to run around spamming F. But in the video i saw the person still got drops from mobs during the megalaser phase. So who knows how that will work out.

[Odeezee]

Also they said that all rewards are given after the boss battle completes so no need to run around spamming F. But in the video i saw the person still got drops from mobs during the megalaser phase. So who knows how that will work out.

if you actually listened to Mike he said that protecting the batteries is a separate event and that may be the reason why you get look from that and not from the minions spawned by Tequat'l himself.