Looking for new MMO, is GW2 worth now for totally new people?

[Mamut]

Due my job I decide to leave sub based MMOs (was playing WoW and wanted try Wildstar) because I have not enough time and paying for something that I cant play atleast few days per week seems pointless. Also sometimes I can play only 1h and in another day even 4h.

And from what I read GW2 is a MMO where you can easily "jump in and out".

The problem is I played GW2 only in beta, dont have guild/firends and I wonder how gameplay looks at lower levels. Are the zones empty? Its even possible to do this world events or theres just not enough people?

I enjoy crafting in every game (even singleplayers), is the crafting system fun in GW2?

Is the game "alive" or serwers looks like ghost towns (EU if this matter)?

Any other things I should know before buying?

[Karizee]

They use a Megaserver technology so no zones are empty. As each zone fills up, the system spawns a copy of the zone - players are prioritized into maps based on their server, guild, friendslist, party. There's plenty of players everywhere - dungeon queues are almost instant, pvp queues take only a minute or 2.

The only server restricted activity is WvW - a massive week long battle between 3 servers. The lower tiers don't have the 24 hour coverage that the higher ones do but they are all active during prime time. Honestly for a new player I would recommend something in the Silver range - you'll probably just get steamrolled before you know what's happening in the higher tiers and it's better/more fun to learn the maps, objectives and mechanics on a lower tier. Just a suggestion!

Crafting is fun. You create different components then combine them for the final product. I especially enjoy cooking but you'll need a good amount of bag space to start that since you make so many different components (for example, to make a plate of spicy herbed chicken you need not only the poultry meat but a bowl of fancy tangy sautee mix and a pile of zesty herbs which is made of even more components). You can even make dyes to color gear with cooking

You can learn all 8 crafting disciplines on each character, but have only 2 active at a time. Cool thing is you don't lose your progress or recipes if you make a craft inactive to work on another one.

There's also the Mystic Forge which is kind of a glorified crafting station for everyone. There are specific recipes for high end weapons, upgrading mats or siege weaponry, mini pets, etc. in addition to a random roll of the dice on other items.

It's a great time to jump in since they just started Season 2 of the Living Story. It's Buy 2 Play, so no sub fee. There is a gem store but it sells completely optional vanity and convenience items only and you can trade gold for gems with other players through a currency exchange.

[zed zebes]

I don't play on EU so I can't judge the activity levels on EU. In NA, the game is very active and it's never really felt barren of people outside of some mid-level leveling zones.but that's been greatly changed since the addition of megaservers. Now whatever area of the game you're on, it will fill with people from multiple servers if it needs to.

The game is very much alive and just had the first part of a new zone open up.

[Chickat]

I love a lot about gw2, but the combat feels clunky after playing something like wildstar with superior telegraphs, and I like gear progression games. If the idea behind gw2 sounds appealing though its very much worth it to play. Every time I log on the zones are pretty full, and theres a lot of stuff to do if you like the type of content the game provides.

[Keny]

W*

/10char

[Valeron]

W*

/10char

?

/10morechar

[Rivellana]

If you don't want to pay a sub and don't have a lot of time to invest, I'd say GW2 is probably one of your best choices. There's many ways to get the gear you need once you hit max level as well and you don't really need to worry about putting a lot of time into updating it.

I've played some other F2P games that were just as grindy as sub games, GW2 isn't one of them.

[Svifnymr]

W*

/10char

Aside from the guy specifically mentioning the sub reason for not playing Wildstar, abbreviating it and then having to type in more to hit the character limits is amusing.

I mean, if you'd just said "go wildstar", that would have done it.

[Fhi]

And from what I read GW2 is a MMO where you can easily "jump in and out".

Objectively true. There is no subscription fee, so once you buy it, you can log in when you're free, do stuffs, not log in when you're not free. If you want to participate in Living Story though (it's an episodic worldwide campaign that everyone takes part in), logging in every time a new episode is released (2 weeks) allows you to "save" the episodes for later playing. If you forget to log in during an episode, you can unlock it with real money.

The problem is I played GW2 only in beta, dont have guild/firends and I wonder how gameplay looks at lower levels. Are the zones empty? Its even possible to do this world events or theres just not enough people?

Subjective: The game may be much better played with friends and guild. Although most activitiess can be soloed, many parts of the game encourage playing with people you know. I have only been in the lower level zones (got to 80 mucking around instead of going to the high level zones ) and they are far from empty with Megaservers (as Karizee explained). Some world events may be unpopular (I'm looking at you, underwater krait queen) so you may not get as much interest, but those are few and far between. Usually for world bosses, I run into the problem of not being able to get there in time before it's dead.

I enjoy crafting in every game (even singleplayers), is the crafting system fun in GW2?

Subjective: I didn't really enjoy it. It felt like it punishes me too much for not following a guide. I normally like to craft my own gear and wear them, but it is really hard to justify spending more than 10 times the cost to make a piece armor than it is to buy it off the TP. Gold is valuable in this game. Some people will tell you it's super easy to come by, or they have 100g by the time they are level 10, but hyperbole is common and just like my opinion, you should take those with a grain of salt.

However, the discovery system is a nice system. You combine different ingredients or materials to discover new recipes. With experience you'll learn what combinations work. You can't "waste" mats either -- if your combination doesn't work, it won't let you combine them and get garbage. Some discoveries are worth lots more experience and skill points than others, even within the same tier.

EDIT to add that a fully leveled crafting (1-400 or 1-500 depending of the crafting skill) will give you 10 character levels, regardless of his/her current level. So it is another form of leveling if you enjoy that.

Is the game "alive" or serwers looks like ghost towns (EU if this matter)?

With megaservers, servers mean little anymore outside of WvW. It is both a good and bad thing, so you have to decide for yourself. But I will say that it is far from dead. Of course, just with any other games, certain locations are more popular than others, so you may run into empty outposts and towns once in a while.

Any other things I should know before buying?

Definitely consider finding a guild or friends. You also have to at least like exploring -- there are many, many hidden places that don't show up on your map anywhere. Once I saw a hole in the wall that I thought was a little odd, with a spider in it. Went in, killed the spider, found another crack in the wall, followed in, and pretty soon I was in this vast cavern of imps and spiders, and when I got to the end, there was a big chest and a random achievement that popped up. Nothing on my map indicated it was a whole new area. It was just a blob of color on the map.

I later found out that it was one of the tasks you are directed to for a particular class trait, so it wasn't exactly hidden, but it was nice discovering that cavern accidentally.

[Solzan Nemesis]

I myself enjoy GW2 a lot. I would say its right next to WoW was one of the better MMOs out there. Plus I also jump in and out of playing. Never having a sub its easy to do. I say you should go for it.

[zolok2.0]

GW2 is a really good game. It's got a pretty lenient learning curve, and the lower levels aren't difficult at all. I do, however, find some difficulty doing world events in some of the lower zones. That being said, if you find an empty zone you can always switch instances (puts you with more players) and there will be a bunch of people you can play with! Plus if you enjoy GW2 then you'll love wildstar to death. It's basically a cross between WoW and GW2. GW2 has no quests, and wow only has quests. Wildstar has a mix of both (and tasks, but those are basically worthless). If you do pick up GW2, and you get stuck in a difficult/boring/unlikable zone, then you can go to a crafting table and slam through the levels. I leveled my guardian up to 80 just from events and the main story, but my thief I leveled 15-80 through crafting. Only took me about 2 hours too, so it's nice if you're like me and get sick of doing the level grind. Hope this helps!!!!!

[Gray_Matter]

Due my job I decide to leave sub based MMOs (was playing WoW and wanted try Wildstar) because I have not enough time and paying for something that I cant play atleast few days per week seems pointless. Also sometimes I can play only 1h and in another day even 4h.

And from what I read GW2 is a MMO where you can easily "jump in and out".

In before Karizee, oh wait, too late

Seriously, though, that's exactly the way I play GW2. I log on and off when I feel like it. The only time you really think twice about doing that is when you are in a dungeon or fractal but even those are pretty quick.

The problem is I played GW2 only in beta, dont have guild/firends and I wonder how gameplay looks at lower levels. Are the zones empty? Its even possible to do this world events or theres just not enough people?

There are plenty of people around in all of the zones that I go on. If you see a dynamic event and announce it on chat then people will materialize out of nowhere. I play mostly solo but its fun with a good guild or on your own.

I enjoy crafting in every game (even singleplayers), is the crafting system fun in GW2?

I like the crafting system. Discoveries is a great idea. I like that it gives you decent XP. I like everything about the crafting except one thing, there is no reason to do crafting. I used to craft on WOW. Made my own gear, etc. In GW2, it's not worthwhile to craft. It's better to just buy what you need on the TP.

Is the game "alive" or serwers looks like ghost towns (EU if this matter)?

No ghost servers because of the MegaServer. If anything, during the world events the maps can become a bit too crowded.

Any other things I should know before buying?

There are a lot of things in GW2 that are different from games like WOW. It's about exploring. Don't rush to 80. Take your time and experience the maps. Because of the nature of the dynamic events you can even log off in an area one night and when you log on the next night there are different events going on.

There are some really nice chained events. They can span 3, 4 or more events. Those are one of my favorite parts of the game.

Jumping puzzles are very cool and rewarding.

Try and finish a map completely. Vistas (these are not the same as jumping puzzles), points of interest and hearts. You get a nice little reward for completing them.

[Fhi]

There are some really nice chained events. They can span 3, 4 or more events. Those are one of my favorite parts of the game.

Oh yes. Don't run off after an event concludes. Stick around. Most of the time there is a follow up. Once I stuck around and I ended up wagering with an NPC on how far a flying cow would land splat on.

[pvw1075]

I am brand new and I love it!!

[zito]

Oh yes. Don't run off after an event concludes. Stick around. Most of the time there is a follow up. Once I stuck around and I ended up wagering with an NPC on how far a flying cow would land splat on.

Yea the thing with events people tend to forget is that they are not just quests. They are a story that influences the world. It may reset itself but it's still there. I remember day 1 in caldeon there was an event with a sylvari hunter and his pet hunting some undead and his pet died and he got the egg of his dead pet back. Not only did it chain events (people left after one event before the dialogue started for the next event) but if you sticked around you watch it hatch.

It's def a stop and smell the roses kind of game.

[Edge-]

And from what I read GW2 is a MMO where you can easily "jump in and out".

As someone who missed a bunch of the S1 content, and routinely jumps in and out with weeks/months in between play sessions, I can verify this.

It's very much so a game (at least for me) where I can play for 10 minutes and feel productive, or sit down for 6 hours. Where I can log in after weeks and while I missed content patches and not really feel as if I'm ever obligated to play. Though now I feel I should at least log in during S2 patches so I can save the living story episodes for later play in case I don't finish them/want to replay them.

[Tastyfish]

Only game I would ever seriously suggest owning if you want a wow break is GW2. It's also the only MMO other then WOW that has kept my interest..

[Rukh]

I'm sorry but the gathering/crafting system in GW2 is utter crap. Everything else is pretty good though.

[Mamut]

Thx all for your answers. I have one more question, is there a class that can solo dungeons/bosses or its impossible in GW2? I know playing with friends is more fun but I enjoy also sometimes soloing some stuff.

[zito]

Thx all for your answers. I have one more question, is there a class that can solo dungeons/bosses or its impossible in GW2? I know playing with friends is more fun but I enjoy also sometimes soloing some stuff.

You can, it more or less requires skill of how to play your class rather then a specific class but thieves, warriors, mesmers and elementalists seem to be the "go to" for soloing group things. Though they all can if you are good enough.