im curious about this game!!!

[Spiral Mage]

GW2 is a must play for people who want to know what else an MMO can offer, because it makes many wonderful offers that are very different from any other MMO I've run into. It's the only time I remember thoroughly enjoying leveling in an MMO. All my friends who bought it and gave it a chance, were really happy with the leveling.

It's hard to say how it differs really. You just have to try it.

But .. be warned .. no DPS rotations, buttons/skills are very simplistic. The game offers challenge in reaction/movement skill not repeating a rotation. There is absolutely no end-game of any kind, there used to be a Living Story but that got scrapped mostly and still was only worth 1.5 hours of gameplay every two weeks.

End game dungeons are run for transmog, and are basically a rush/skip everything possible to get to the end kinda deal ASAP. Tuning is just god awful, anything that isn't a normal mob can nearly insta-kill you and most dungeon trash can easily annihilate a group. There is no aggro, the self healing you have cannot keep up with the damage if you find yourself the unfortunate target of the boss's attention.

You can hit up the Auction House and buy full end-game gear, and then when you look up what to do on Google, you'll find the answer is often: "Create a new character" or "finish exploring the world".

BUT they are adding raids in the future .. however .. 1: They can't tune a game to save their lives and 2: They stated there will be no gear increases, or power rewards for doing it. Purely a challenge thing, and challenge in this game is another word for frustrating.

Looking at the game through the "lens of Dev", I found many inspirations and impressive moves by them that were ultimately doomed by their inability to capitalize on them or provide a driving end-game.

I understand they didn't like the grind but .. the grind is what brings us back tomorrow. The promise of a bit more power, or more importantly .. self improvement. Of which this game offers zero at max level. If you have transmog gear you like, you're basically done, which is a really big shame. I'd still love to be playing it but I just couldn't find anything that was worth doing.

GW2 had a great leveling experience, the outdoor world boss/raids were amazing the first few times. What it needs, IMO, is more meaningful skill sets that feel more like they are capturing the class feel. The talents need to be alot more meaningful and interesting. They need to tune mobs to be fair, especially for a game with no tank and no healer to save you. And they need to find a compromise between their "no grind" stance and the lack an end-game.

GW2 is not WoW and does not need to be but it needs to be enjoyable, and needs a reason to come back every day. For all it's achievements otherwise, it just doesn't offer those aspects at the max level.

My opinion, of course. I honestly enjoyed leveling the 3-4 characters I played on there. So I don't mean to come off entirely negatively, I was impressed in the leveling and bosses. Just, I need an end-game to stay.

But of course, isn't GW2 free to play now? (I bought the box right at launch because I was really reeled in by their promises -- which I understand they made with the best of intentions even if they couldn't deliver on them). You got nothing to lose in giving it a try, man. I mean, well .. you ALWAYS have something to lose .. time .. if you don't mind losing that, go for it. Oh and it's about an hour per level, steady, all the way. Less you run headlong into a ton of events going on.

[barackopala]

"BUT they are adding raids in the future .. however .. 1: They can't tune a game to save their lives and 2: They stated there will be no gear increases, or power rewards for doing it. Purely a challenge thing, and challenge in this game is another word for frustrating. "

-Uh... there is a raid going on atm, the raid is just 3 bosses atm (just 1 wing) but it is fairly well tuned, definately requires good players that know how to do their rotations correctly, a permaquickness chronomancer is just so good for tanking! A good example of a nice battle is sabetha, it definately requires good coordination to beat, a metric ton more than gorseval




"Tuning is just god awful, anything that isn't a normal mob can nearly insta-kill you and most dungeon trash can easily annihilate a group. There is no aggro, the self healing you have cannot keep up with the damage if you find yourself the unfortunate target of the boss's attention."

-Actually you can tank mobs and it just requires dodging abilities, CC management and appropiate timmings. Bosses do have a "threat" based upon players toughness stat, meaning that they'll mainly focus on the tankiest player atm.

[Mystile]

Nope. The game shipped like that. The tutorial area technically does have quests- they must be done to get out of the tutorial. They are compulsive, required and not localized in the world map.

There are no quests in the overworld, however.

Did we play the same game? I specifically remember having a quest to kill a dragon... Zitan? Big undead dragon guy that was the "big bad guy." Also I remember there having been a crap ton of main story things, where you even pick which route you want to go, between some spy group, and two others. These are quests, have a tracker on the side of the screen and everything.

[Fencers]

Did we play the same game?

If you received a quest to kill a dragon, no. Because there are no quests in Guild Wars 2 as shipped.

The personal story is non-compulsive. It is not a quest in definition or mechanical expression.

[Mystile]

I mean... I just googled it. And the format, everything about this seems to scream out "QUEST!" https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Victory_or_Death
Just because it's not required to do doesn't mean there isn't any form of quest, right? I don't choose to do dailies anymore on WoW, that doesn't mean they aren't still in the game...

"In mythology and literature, a quest, a journey towards a goal, serves as a plot device and (frequently) as a symbol." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest

So by being told to go out and kill a dragon in the personal story, this is some how not a quest? Because I have a choice in whether or not to do it. You even get rewards (and it's the main "personal story" of the game, at least when I was playing).

[Fencers]

I mean... I just googled it. And the format, everything about this seems to scream out "QUEST!" https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Victory_or_Death

Yes, because it is the Personal Story.

Just because it's not required to do doesn't mean there isn't any form of quest, right?

Wrong. Quests are typically compulsive. In the monomyth, a quest is compulsive. As Schopenhauer, would say, the quest is the reason for the hero's existence.

Journeys that are serendipitous are not necessarily quests. To quest involves compulsion (Ulysses, Don Quixote, Walter White, etc), great effort, decisiveness and transformation.

As a game mechanic, quests are a requirement to move between stages of game progression; character levels, narrative, levels, stages, whathaveyou.

So by being told to go out and kill a dragon in the personal story, this is some how not a quest?

No. It's a plot point of the Personal Story mechanic.

[Deleted]

A quest is a quest. There's no other super advanced hocus pocus definition to it.

quest
noun
1. search, hunt, mission, enterprise, undertaking, exploration, crusade his quest to find true love

quest
noun
An attempting to accomplish or attain:
pursuing, pursuit, search.

quest (kwɛst)

n.
1. a search or pursuit made in order to find or obtain something.
2. an adventurous expedition, as by knights in medieval romances.
3. those engaged in such an expedition.

And yes, we are in fact on a quest to slay multiple elder dragons in guild wars.

Now when looking at the gameplay side and you would compare it with games like WoW, then no gw2 does not have such a defined questing feature like WoW. But that doesn't mean you're not on one.

[Fencers]

And yes, we are in fact on a quest to slay multiple elder dragons in guild wars.

Players are not on a quest. There is no mechanism that places players on this quest to slay dragons as a requisite of any sort. there is only the tutorial.

One is no more required to slay a dragon than pick strawberries.

[Deleted]

Players are not on a quest. There is no mechanism that places players on this quest to slay dragons as a requisite of any sort. there is only the tutorial.

One is no more required to slay a dragon than pick strawberries.

Players are set on a journey with the goal to slay an elder dragon, with the intention to quell the dangers that it brings. Therefore the player is sent on a quest.

The term 'quest' is far from as narrow as you stubbornly believe it to be.

[Tripz]

There are quests per se, you go into the world and do stuff for npcs to receive rewards on an auto-accept / auto-complete basis. I've not done any Pve aside from world spawn bosses but the pvp is fast paced and fun

[Fencers]

Players are set on a journey..

You are not. You are not set on anything. To be set on a quest, send off on a quest, be on a quest- are all compulsive. To have a goal, it must be required by the gameplay.

There are no quests in the base Guild Wars 2. There is a linear tutorial, however.

[melodramocracy]

I've played on and off (mostly off) since it was released.

Thoughts:

-PvP is probably one of the best implementations of any MMO going. Create a character, hit the portal, and you're ready to roll. It's also a nice way to try out classes prior to leveling through the PvE side, and there's (afaik) absolutely no power advantage through gear.

-It's true that there are no 'quests' in the conventional sense, but later on in the game, you will certainly benefit from participating in group mission events. One could certainly argue that these ARE quests, but the big difference is that these events are repeatable. Solo play is rewarded, group play is rewarded more, which is exactly as it should be.

-The game rewards exploration in many different ways, and this is probably one of its strongest features along with the artwork and environments you'll encounter as you go. Sadly, this is offset by not being an actual open world game, which is rather annoying. The insta-travel system is awful, as it is in most games, but I do see why they went with that decision.

-There are all manner of currency and crafting mats in this game, to the point of being kind of absurd. You will spend a lot of time just sifting through loot, salvaging, etc.

-Crafting is strong, and mats become appropriately less frequent to find as you near or reach max level in that profession. On the downside, crafted materials while leveling seem to serve little purpose aside from increasing the skill itself, but this is hardly the only game guilty of that.

-Combat is made interesting by dodge and how aoe works, but made dull by the fairly limited toolkit most players wind up preferring. Not bad, but not the best I've experienced either.

-Gliding / travel options in HoT, and how you acquire them, are brilliant. Jumping puzzles that I've experienced are very fun.

I'd say that it's absolutely worth the price of admission. It's not what I'd consider a really compelling MMO, but it does serve to be entertaining enough.

[Tavin]

Havent played GW2 for more than a few months. Imo the main difference is that there is always something to do whether it's short or long, new jumping "puzzle" or some new instance. New content (not a big patch like wow with new raid+zone+tier etc) every few weeks to a month.

It feels... i guess "less serious". It's one of those games where you can log in whenever, play for an hour and log off for a month and you wont feel that youve missed much in terms of progress. Don't know the slightest about pvp though, except that it looks meh.