Will GW2 is going to keep me occupied and interested if i switch from WoW?

[Deleted]

Hello everyone.

In the last few days i read a lot of posts and forums about what GW2 is and what it provides.
Im sick of WoW currently, with my wife we are expecting a baby soon and i have less and less time to play every day.
I am sick of WoW because:
- it needs a lot of time to play to be competitive
- it is so grind-based, forcing you to do same things every day, for weeks and months
- most worthy content is provided only to pre-set groups and guilds. If you have no friends to play with or your guild is bad, you have no access to higher-tier raiding and competitive PvP. Besides, my wife is always around and i cannot use teamspeak at all.

I am thinking of switching to GW2. What concerns me is:
- lack of endgame progress. I like the WoW set-up where you are given something to work for (gear), although i don't at all like the ways provided for that.

To be kept interested, i need a goal to achieve. Whether it is going to be better gear, story progress or whatever, i need to be provided with a goal with steps leading to it, each of which feels rewarding to achieve. As i understand it, in GW2 there is nothing like that.
You hit 80, look around, see that there are things to do yet, but why bother since there is no actual reward for completing them? By reward i don't understand gear alone. but some sort of visible progression towards something. A simple achievement ladder to climb for instance.

For me, all MMOs are all about competing with other players, striving to do better, with the relevant indicators for that. In WoW that is gear and you feel proud of yourself walking around SW/Ogrim with your full mythic gear, transmogged into some badass look. You also feel proud of achieving N1 place in the dps chart after raid end.

Is there anything close to what i am looking for in GW2? Or you are just left to your own devices after there are no more levels and zones to cover. And whatever you do have absolutely no impact whatsoever?

[lawow74]

You can work towards gear in GW 2, but it's not boss kills and RNG that will get it for you, but developing crafting and making it. There are plenty of achievements to chase as well, with rewards given from total AP gained. It's definitely a game with things to chase after, and in its favor, once you buy it, you've got it for the game's lifetime. An expansion's in the works, but it's not bringing a level cap increase, but it is bringing some new progression systems related to both new and old content. It's a shame you missed the most recent sale. If you're really doubtful about the investment, you might want to wait for another one before making the dive in.

[Usagi Senshi]

For me, all MMOs are all about competing with other players, striving to do better, with the relevant indicators for that. In WoW that is gear and you feel proud of yourself walking around SW/Ogrim with your full mythic gear, transmogged into some badass look. You also feel proud of achieving N1 place in the dps chart after raid end.

Is there anything close to what i am looking for in GW2? Or you are just left to your own devices after there are no more levels and zones to cover. And whatever you do have absolutely no impact whatsoever?

GW2 is essentially create your own adventure, follow the story, do professions, several types of PVP, complete all world objectives, do the dungeons, craft a legendary for looks, collect dyes/skins, etc. GW2 represents what MMOs were originally supposed to be; log on and do whatever you want and make some progress for yourself. WoW was originally that until raiding totally took over the game and made people think that's what MMOs are all about. Being a lot of people's first MMO and reinforcing that notion didn't help either.

Seriously though, when you catch GW2 on sale for $10-$20, you're getting a literally fuck ton of bang for your buck with no sub fee attached.

Me? I quit WoW after 10 years and now play this, FFXIV (my main MMO now), and TERA. Waiting on Blade and Soul (Anime was awesome) to make its appearance.

[draykorinee]

Just get it and try it, its really a decent MMO if you aren't expecting to devote your life to it like wow, its a fun pick and play/forget mmo.

[Deleted]

Just get it and try it, its really a decent MMO if you aren't expecting to devote your life to it like wow, its a fun pick and play/forget mmo.

Well i guess that answers it. It is just as i suspected, the content quickly wears out after you reach 80 and explore the entire map.
I hope they introduce some sort of rewarding system for activities that will motivate you to do stuff, other than pure love to hanging around.

While keeping it casual-friendly at that. Or its too much to ask...

[zito]

Well i guess that answers it. It is just as i suspected, the content quickly wears out after you reach 80 and explore the entire map.
I hope they introduce some sort of rewarding system for activities that will motivate you to do stuff, other than pure love to hanging around.

While keeping it casual-friendly at that. Or its too much to ask...

I don't understand. You get rewarded for every thing you do. You could stay in the first starter zone forever if you want

[Deleted]

What kind of rewards exactly?
While WoW is constant grind for power which gives you acces to higher tier content, that you start grinding for more power, in GW2 power is set in stone and everyone is at the same level. A little Marcsistic i would say.

If not striving for more power to show off, what you strive to achieve after you cover the entire map? Aside from PvP and ladderboards, that is.
All i hear is the following:
- grind for dyes and skins (sounds a little boring to me)
- grind for Ascended gear
- do achievements
- do fractals, which sounds very close to the dung/heroic/challenge mode is WoW
- just hang around

All that sounds like a filler activities that you would do from time to time, bot not a main focus activities.

A main focus activity to me would be chasing after a legendary storyline for instance that takes weeks to achieve if you are casual like me. And main driving engine for such main activity should be some considerable reward at the end of it, like for instance a cloak that will burn with green fire when you wear it. Or a title showing in your nameplate. At the same time while on that storyline you delve deep into the lore of the game, visit various locations and more and more.

I hope you get what i mean. Like when i enter the world, i say "OK, today i will push a little more of my legendary." or "Mmm, i don't feel like it, today i will do some achievements instead". And not "Hmpfh, alright im in, so now what. Go out to kill those pesty swamplings? And what for? You know what, forget it, i'm off".

You can call me accustomed to a system based on activity-reward mechanic, but that's what i am looking for.

[zito]

First of all you are asking what is the point. The point is to have fun. It is a game in which you have fun for doing what you want to do. If you want to grind that's fine there is an option for that but if you don't even like it why even do it? You don't need to in this game.

Second of all there are a total of 28 zones. These are also no small zones either and some are even vertical (Some also have hidden things which I won't spoil). If you are playing casually for 100% completion it will take you quite awhile to do everything. Not to mention every single zone has replay value. If you found queensdale fun you could stay in it forever till you get tired of it (which probably isn't mostly true since the lower zones are a bit slower paced). I think I spend 4 weeks in dry top alone because I just loved it.

Next levels don't really matter. The more you level the more you unlock of the same content you get access too. It's just there for a progression feel.

The main point of GW2 is exploration. You explore and do things you find fun. There are various activities to do from Jumping puzzles to secret mini dungeons to actually dungeons to fractals which you can make harder and harder and harder till you can't take it no more. That's just a small summary though, there is a lot more to do like Dynamic events to world bosses. You can also farm for ascended gear if that is your cup of tea (you get a small power bonus - nothing game breaking but if that is your thing it will take you 2 weeks I think to get one piece of ascended), some world bosses also drop ascended.

As for rewards - you get rewarded for everything you participate in. Rewards include gold, various currency's , loot chest, etc. You get rewarded for your actually level too. So if you are 80 scaled down to level 15 you get rewarded for level 80. Rewards are still mostly RNG (like any MMO) with dungeons having dungeon currency. You could get a rare chance at ascended with 2 world bosses or a super rare exotic that is used to make a legendary that can sell for over 2000 gold. Some zones have specific rewardeds to them. Dry top has exclusive weapon skins and silverwaste has exclusive armor set. (You can get them in PvP too)

PvP is also completely relevant. You get rewarded for PvP. You pick something called a reward track and you get exp for that track when you PvP. Each track has milestones and when you reach one you get rewarded with tomes of knowledge (which you can use to level), loot chests (which can contain ascended mats, rare skins, etc) and other goodies. A few months ago I got the legend from playing PvP which is used to make the legendary staff Bifrost.

WvW is a cross between PvP and PvE. It's a siege based area where you take keeps and such and get rewarded for taking keeps and beating keep lords. You can also fight other players keeps and kill them and get rewarded from their bodies just like NPC bodies.

The game is highly a freedom game. You do what you want and get rewarded appropriately for it. You can't treat the game like WoW at all or you will never understand or appreciate it.

[Ytlayol]

GW2 is not a gear treadmill game, if that's all your interested in - this game isn't for you.

[lawow74]

If you're still unsure, wait until after Heart of Thorns launches, see if what it brings to the table grabs your interest. If not, oh well. Plenty of other games out there for you to try.

[Shakadam]

Badass skins are the GW2 equivalent of whatever the high-end raiding gear in WoW is called. The difference being that rare skins in GW2 have no extra stats over normal exotic/ascended gear, and that pretty much all of them can be bought in some way, although the really rare skins or legendaries are very very expensive. This is essentially what end game PVE is for many people in GW2: Do whatever you find rewarding to get gold so you can buy badass skins that you like.

It is by no means the ONLY end game PVE activity though, some people don't give a shit about skins and may perhaps find joy in trying to beat dungeon speedrunning records, or do all the achievements possible (would take an absurdly long time), get a certain title etc etc.

However, if you're looking for an epic storyline mission which rewards you with something clearly better than anything else, you won't find it in GW2. The expansion will introduce a new system for getting legendary precursors that will involve more of a storyline, visiting places and doing certain tasks etc, but even then the end reward is simply a weapon skin no more powerful than any other weapon of similar level and rarity.

[Kazgrel]

...there's already another thread pretty much the same scenario on this page.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...o-Guild-Wars-2

OP: Based on your OP and replies, you probably won't enjoy this game. As stated already, there is no gear treadmill to be found here, and that sounds like what you're looking for, a non-WoW treadmill. Zito's post nails it pretty well.

Now, on the other hand, if you are looking for a game where you get max stat gear and pretty much don't want to worry with having to deal with power creep every few months, then this is a game worth checking out.

[Sohalia]

Hello everyone.

In the last few days i read a lot of posts and forums about what GW2 is and what it provides.
Im sick of WoW currently, with my wife we are expecting a baby soon and i have less and less time to play every day.
I am sick of WoW because:
- it needs a lot of time to play to be competitive
- it is so grind-based, forcing you to do same things every day, for weeks and months
- most worthy content is provided only to pre-set groups and guilds. If you have no friends to play with or your guild is bad, you have no access to higher-tier raiding and competitive PvP. Besides, my wife is always around and i cannot use teamspeak at all.

I am thinking of switching to GW2. What concerns me is:
- lack of endgame progress. I like the WoW set-up where you are given something to work for (gear), although i don't at all like the ways provided for that.

To be kept interested, i need a goal to achieve. Whether it is going to be better gear, story progress or whatever, i need to be provided with a goal with steps leading to it, each of which feels rewarding to achieve. As i understand it, in GW2 there is nothing like that.
You hit 80, look around, see that there are things to do yet, but why bother since there is no actual reward for completing them? By reward i don't understand gear alone. but some sort of visible progression towards something. A simple achievement ladder to climb for instance.

For me, all MMOs are all about competing with other players, striving to do better, with the relevant indicators for that. In WoW that is gear and you feel proud of yourself walking around SW/Ogrim with your full mythic gear, transmogged into some badass look. You also feel proud of achieving N1 place in the dps chart after raid end.

Is there anything close to what i am looking for in GW2? Or you are just left to your own devices after there are no more levels and zones to cover. And whatever you do have absolutely no impact whatsoever?
All i hear is the following:
- grind for dyes and skins (sounds a little boring to me)
- grind for Ascended gear
- do achievements
- do fractals, which sounds very close to the dung/heroic/challenge mode is WoW
- just hang around

I don't get it, you are disliking WoW because of the skinner box, yet your main concern for GW2 is a lack of endgame progress, (which I guess to most people is a treadmill?)

Anyway, when it comes to the traditional "end-game" content found in most MMOs, which involves doing the exact same dungeons/raids on loop just so you can get a chance at your piece of gear; GW2 does indeed lack that. In fact, when you play GW2 and hit level 80, you can run around in greens and still do alright. (Although Exotics are very easy to obtain and nice to have.) If you need that good ol' Skinner grind, very few things in GW2 will give you that. I prefer to put myself in that box too, so I play GW2 along side grindy kmmos like Ragnarok Online. Despite that I still have over 3,000 logged in for GW2.

Yes, skins and cosmetic items are one of the many things people grind at "endgame." As well as all the other things you listed, however, at level 80 many people like to participate in WvW. (large scale pvp, this can be done pre-80 but most people prefer to do it at max level.) As well as participating in the 2-4 week content updates (they try to stick with this schedule, but as the expansion got closer they started to slow down a little) via the living world. The Living World could take you to do several things depending on the update, you can end up helping refugees escape a threat one patch, or try to save the game's main city in another. Never underestimate the Living Story as something to work on! It's kept me busy throughout the years, without being overly demanding as well.

I feel like the things I do have more impact in GW2 than they ever did in WoW. Yes, it was nice to top the DPS charts as a hunter in one raid, but when that raid was done that was it. Having the best gear was fun, but it would eventually become obsolete and worthless. In GW2, the dynamic events give me a better sense of "you have impact," as well as the living story. Voting for Ellen Kiel to be on the Captain's Council over Evon, for instance. (Something that STILL gets people riled up in map chat nearly two years later!) Or trying to take out the Tower of Nightmares in time. (Although I am suspicious that the bar was rigged <<)

In terms of competing with other players, HoT will introduce a bit more competition into the PvE side of things. But overall you're right, in a game geared towards rewarding players for working together there is a lot less competition to be had in GW2 compared to WoW. If you only feel a sense of pride by being "better" than other people, GW2 won't help you much with that, there are hard-to-obtain skins and titles that you can use to lord over people, I suppose. But for the most part you'll have to find your sense of achievement on a private level.

HoT will also introduce a "visible" way of progression via the new trait and mastery systems. As well as ways for you to branch your class out and take your level 80 Ranger on a journey to become say, a Druid. Although for now, you will only be able to branch your level 80 in one direction. :P

My suggestion to you is that if you're unsure, simply wait for GW2 to go on sale again before the release of HoT. It goes on sale for $10 at times, especially lately due to the expansion hype-train. Just buy it for ten bucks and try it out. It's cheaper than your one-month sub fee and after that it isn't going anywhere. If you don't like it after that, well, then at least you didn't spend $60 on it, and you could log in if anything new happens that piques your interest.

[Deleted]

I feel like this a thinly veiled "GW2 is bad" thread.

[ro9ue]

GW2 is a game more about running around in the world and doing stuff at your pace, whenever you want.

WoW is a game more about the devs giving you a carrot to get every so often. If you need those "goals" then you won't like GW2.

[lawow74]

I feel like this a thinly veiled "GW2 is bad" thread.

Nah, just interest from someone who's probably not well-suited to it for any long duration since it lacks an in-depth lore-heavy special questline a'la the legendary chains from WoW. Which IMO were mostly OOH NEAT QUEST-grindgrindgrindgrindgrind-OOH NEAT QUEST-grindgrindgrindgrindgrind, but to each their own.

[TheWindWalker]

Look, from the perspective of someone who likes GW2 and is eagerly awaiting the expansion but can't be arsed to get a second 80 even though I've owned it since launch, there is an End Game but it's basically dungeons and battlegrounds. If neither of those concepts really keeps you attached, then it's not really worth your effort to try and force it to be your "next WoW."

Thing is, it's a one time purchase, goes on sale all the time, and you can sink a few hundred hours into it easily. So uh... yeah, it's a great game but look elsewhere if you want anything vaguely like raiding. It's better to think of GW2 like a vast adventure game with an MMO slapped on it.

[Eveningforest]

OP sounds like the competitive type. PVP can make an excellent end game, if you enjoy that kind of thing.

When my baby was born during TBC, I switched from a hard core raider to a competitive PVPer because it gave me the flexibility I needed. I ran battlegrounds and arena when my son was asleep without having to schedule anything beforehand, and being able to step away from the computer anytime I needed to.

I still like this kind of flexibility and it is one of the main reasons why I prefer GW2 over Wow. I do not like to be dictated by the developers what I should be doing in my FREE time in a GAME in order to not get left behind the crowd and their utterly nonsensical ilvl chase.

Anyway, others have expressed their opinions about GW2, my only point to add to that is that Anet does many kinds of pvp, and it does them well.

[draykorinee]

Is everything in GW2 still on a timer? Last time I played was chase the timer game to see which scripted pve encounter was coming up next, used to run around for hours, was quite fun but kind of removed the whole making an impact thing, just an anonymous nobody.

[Sohalia]

Is everything in GW2 still on a timer? Last time I played was chase the timer game to see which scripted pve encounter was coming up next, used to run around for hours, was quite fun but kind of removed the whole making an impact thing, just an anonymous nobody.

If by "everything" you mean one facet of the game known as "World Bosses" and "Champ Farms" then yes, that one part of the game is still on a timer. But nothing's changed in the "You don't have to do it if you don't want to" department, either.