WoW questing pattern vs. GW2 Heart Quest pattern

[Clockwork Pinkie]

It's grindy but enjoyable, the old questing pattern just waste huge unnecessary time going back and forth to pick up and turn in the quest. I enjoy this current one far more, also, of course it's a grind, it's an MMO.

[Gisei]

OP: It really isn't a fair comparison in my opinion. Questing is WoWs primary focus in leveling. In GW2, it is only a secondary aspect, meant to be used as a guide. If you're level 8, you'll know that the mobs comparable to your strength will be somewhere near the lv8 heart. Treating the hearts as a Zone checklist, or the primary method of leveling, will make it very grindy. When you enter a zone, it is best to ignore the hearts the best you can, and focus on what's going on in the world. The hearts will fill up all on their own as you bounce from DE to DE.

[DrunkenBeard]

Yes Hearts are repetitive, but keep in mind that Hearts weren't even supposed to be in the game until late Betas. You shouldn't focus on them, they're just an indication that there is something going on in that area and serve to introduce the theme and general preoccupations of NPCs. AFAIK there are no Heart quests in Orr.

[Exroyal]

Hearts were implemented as guides to where quests were happening. Though, since player would get lost and didn't know what they were doing, they added hearts so people could find them easily. For lore about the various hearts i recommend you listen to the scouts.

I personally dont see much difference between collect 5 apples, kill 10 boars, heal 2 soldiers and kill separtists, destroy their equipment, steal their weapons and free prisoners. Only difference is, in WoW those are 3 different quests. In GW2 it's just one heart. Though this said, there are many hearts in GW2 which are way different then WoW quests. Only problem i have with WoW quests is that there are so many kill x collect y quests that i get very fast bored of them. After lvling my rogue to 85 and my mage to 85 i did only dungeons and some quests on my every character.

[VibrantViolet]

Man wow is like simpsons in this regard... they already did everything... well almost... to me the lvling in gw2 seems just like in wow except that the zones aren't lvl restricted? (in wow terms u could go to twilight highlands at lvl 10) ... the "quests' are basically the same... if not even more repetitive than in wow... coz in wow u have a lot of unique(sort of) quests like the Plants vs zombie one or the plane chase in uldum or the plane ride in sholazar or the giant ride in sholazar etc ... I don't really care what any1 says but in terms of mechanics wow has the most fleshed out quests ....

This part really isn't true, at least not to me. Questing in WoW is far more boring then in GW2, at least to me. I always HATED questing, even when WoW was the only MMO I played, and I played WoW for 6 years. Once they introduced LFG and you could get XP from PvP, I started doing that over questing in WoW. I did some quests, if the reward was good, but for the most part, I skipped them. The quests in WoW were always, "Kill 10 [insert mob here]" or "Bring me 10 [insert item here]". Some quests were neat, but for the most part, they were extremely repetitive. The difference is in GW2, yes, they may be repetitive, but they are masked well.

---------- Post added 2012-09-02 at 03:59 PM ----------

Well obviously to each his own, but some people are calling GW2 grindy as well. I don't think they're making this up. And the options all can become repetitive, especially when mechanics are similar or they repeat over and over whilst you're in the same zone and area.

Everything with repetition in it, can feel grindy. GW2 ain't no exception here. I prefer storylines and proper questing (in WoW you don't go back and repeat a storyline or quest, if it's done it's done unless a daily) by far I've come to realize.

To me, GW2 has felt less "grindy". I think it's because instead of talking to people with a ! over their head, you just jump in, do it, and you're done. You don't even need to return to the heart if you don't want to (unless you want to spend karma). I hated questing in WoW. I stopped doing it for the most part, and just leveled via LFG and PvP. Maybe I hated questing in WoW because I played from vanilla to about 4 months ago, with one extended break in between. Anyone remember the quests in Nagrand, where you had to kill like 30 of each animal? I know they've since nerfed it, but that was incredibly boring and grindy, and really made me hate questing even more. That's just the way I personally felt about it, though. I loved doing dungeons, and I loved PvP (until Cata, but that's a new topic all together).

In GW2, I just feel like I am contributing to the world. I'm making a difference in Tyria. I also think it's cool that NPC's will alert you of an event nearby. Like they'll run up to you, and say something like, "We need help at _____!" I think if Blizzard and ANet combined their talents into one game, it would epic.

---------- Post added 2012-09-02 at 04:02 PM ----------

Hearts were implemented as guides to where quests were happening. Though, since player would get lost and didn't know what they were doing, they added hearts so people could find them easily. For lore about the various hearts i recommend you listen to the scouts.

I personally dont see much difference between collect 5 apples, kill 10 boars, heal 2 soldiers and kill separtists, destroy their equipment, steal their weapons and free prisoners. Only difference is, in WoW those are 3 different quests. In GW2 it's just one heart. Though this said, there are many hearts in GW2 which are way different then WoW quests. Only problem i have with WoW quests is that there are so many kill x collect y quests that i get very fast bored of them. After lvling my rogue to 85 and my mage to 85 i did only dungeons and some quests on my every character.

Well said, that's pretty much how I feel. I notice people in map chat will always say they are missing a heart, or a vista, and you have to remind them about the scouts. The scouts are so useful!

[draykorinee]

I reall dont enjoy the questing in either but if i was to choose one i'd go for wow everytime, there is not one quest that has made me go oooh in GW2, I realise im fairly low level still but its just so damn grindy, I even switched to different zones for a change of scene and tis the same thing, and its not just the hearts its the DEs too.
However I did spend 4 hours solid lost in levelling today so it cant be all that bad.
There are so many different quests in wow compared to GW2, and I cant stand the 'vehicle' quests in GW2, the oens for example that make you turn in to a dog with weaker abilities, if im going to lose my abilities I want something cooler.stronger not to be a dog with bite and sniff abilities.

[Rooflesstoofless]

I don't mind either type of questing type. I do mind that severeal of the DE's I've done so far can take a long time complete and give shit for xp. Some of them aren't easy when there are only two or three people participating but it gives xp like 20 people were all taking part and it was just a super quick zerg event.

[Deleted]

I grew to hate questing in WOW. The whole travel half a zone away to collect 10 Bear Rectums that you have to inexplicably have to kill 50 bears to get and then walk all the way back again. Then he asks you to go back and collect 10 Lion Balls that are ten foot from the bears you were just killing was painful.

That's why the GW2 quests kicks wow arse. They have removed the tedious back and forth across zones and each quests has several things you can do to complete them. Now that may not be revolutionary enough for some in this thread it will do me.

[Kahnugo]

GW2 does feel more grindy to me than wow. I find myself repeatably annoyed because I'm getting nowhere while killing endless respawns to get from a to b. It is my hope that eventually the respawn rates will go down and the problem will be less obvious, but as it is now there's only so much I can take at a time before getting a minor fit over the shear grindyness of the game.
It is not rare that I end up fighting the fouth set of respawns before being able to move on (not even while doing something specific, but in an efford to get somewhere to do something) leading to very drawn out kite fests where I'm running around dodging the very same monsters for 5+ minutes straight not progressing even a tiny bit.

Rant out of the way I do enjoy the game when I get past those occations, but they occur too often to my liking when you're not in a big mob mindlessly facerolling events for ez exp.

[igame]

What wow quests did very well was to control the zone flow. This came at it's best in Wotlk. You had different quests hubs, but they all guided you towards the next zone (not to mention quest rewards are helpful during questing).

GW2 method is certainly very very grindy and has no proper flow to it. Like you could kill 20 mobs or water 10 potten plants, the Xp you get seems to be same. yesterday I spend over 45 minutes fighting this massive giant dude attacking a village. there were only about 6-7 of us. When he died we got no loot and only about 2 bars of Xp at level 20. How can something where I die over 10 times (all gear had disappeared by the time we got the giant down) and takes almost an hour give no reward and piss poor Xp compared to some random discovery I made in the safety of a crafting station?

I like the crafting Xp but this is what grinds my gear. When I overcome something so difficult, I want a proper reward. I want some decent looking staff or a shirt or something ffs. All 6-7 of us had all our gear broken by the time the giant died. My repair bill was 2 silver and some copper and the boss gave me only copper. I got the gold medal but it's just a damn medal that's useless to me.
To others this may be fine, to me it's a slap in the face. It's statement by arenanet that we'd rather have you discovering a recipe for a shiny skirt than kill giant monsters after dieing repeatedly.
I like exploration and crafting etc rewards but I want the rewards for fighting giant monsters to be at par with all that. My foremost motivation to play is fighting giant monsters and everything else is second.

A lot of times after fighting massive monsters that take ages to die and tons of people, you get worse rewards than you get for crafting or a heart quest.

To give you a proper comparison, some of these big boss events are like the arena quests in BC, wotlk, cata. In wow those give a weapon which you will keep pretty much as long as yer leveling and great Xp and gold. In GW2 similar bossfights give 2 bars of xp and massive repair bill and diddly squat and a gold medal that is just there for show. But in GW2 you can make a new shiny skirt and an apple pie and pretty much level half way across your Xp bar.....WTf logic is that !

[Deleted]

Yeah, this heart (quests) rewards are really bad, I stopped to check what they have to offer long time ago

[Gámbller]

I like how in GW2 you dont get this wall of text in front of your face to read if you want to have an idea what is happening. Lets face it, not many people bother to read every quest. In GW2, you get a good idea of what is happening and why you are doing whatever you are doing. You may need to read few sentences and rest is done briefly by voice-acting, especially DE's are really good at this. People who dont bother to read those wall of text's will get inside GW2's world far easier than in WoW's.

I find GW2's hearts/DEs slightly grindy, but when comparing to any other MMO, GW2 wins by miles in terms of least grindiness. In WoW you may get occasional cool quest which breaks the pattern and you get to fly a drake or whatever, but these are rare. After you're done with it, it is time to go back to kill 10 more mobs and collect their hearts for next few dozen quests before next cool quest. WoW has taken the right path in this though, cool quests are showing up more often (few in wotlk, far more in cata and probably even more in MOP). But what would happen if every quest would be this "cool quest"? Would they start to feel grindy? If you get too much of something, it wont feel that good anymore and if you get it rarely, it feels better than it actually is. I love chocolate and got a job from chocolate factory where you could eat as much chocolate as you wanted. Already after a week I was sick of chocolate. Anyway, in GW2 I still havent seen a quest where you have to kill few dozens of mobs to finally get 10 items for quest, every DE is kind of fun. Though GW2 could use some different quests where you can get to ride that drake/giant or just do something extraordinary.

[Roggan]

Some people are saying they aren't getting good xp from hearts or DEs. I think you may be doing stuff too low of level, or the DE is failing which results in crap xp. For the last 40 levlels I have gotten roughly the same percentage of a level from hearts/DEs, just gotta be in level appropriate areas.

[Deleted]

My view on them is like this:

Are they refreshing and different than normal questing? Yes

Are they Better than normal (WoW style) questing? Probably not

[Kalyyn]

Hearts are really just there for when nothing else is going on around you, and should be seen as a last resort for leveling. Unless you want the karma gear they give, in which case they are actually a really good way to gear up.

[PBitt]

They are repetitive but they are a major source of game completion and experience, with their design at least there was no way around that, IMO. I do prefer the WoW questing over the heart quests, but of course there are other things to do to level in GW2 while leveling that WoW doesn't provide. And as others have pointed out, they probably wanted something static for players to do so people aren't just looking around for dynamic events with no other quests to do.

That being said, I thoroughly enjoy the rather loose form of being able to go anywhere you'd like as long as it's around your level range. The game really encourages exploration in a way that WoW has very rarely done for me, atm I'm just going for map completion in each zone I enter and I'm more or less taking my time in doing so so it feels less grindy. To be fair, most of the heart quests don't take that long to do and often events can give you a big boost if they are near by, I must admit I love when that happens.

[zeelic]

The hearts were added to the game because to many people need their hands held to play a game anymore and are far from the main goal of pve. My favorite moment in GW2 was the first time I helped the human armies take land from centaurs, it was simple but epic we had to hold the land while more men arrived to aid the fight. Took about 5 minutes but it felt like war which is something wow never made me feel. In wow I never felt like a hero, I never felt like their was some great treat waiting to kill us all and I never felt like anything I did mattered. In higher zones in guild wars 2 what you do really starts to show and the events get truly epic. One of the best dynamic events I played through took about a hour and half and involved a keep, enemy seige weapons, failing horribly and watching many people die both NPC and players; then retaking the keep and repairing buildings and other things all the while still fighting off the army of orgers left and right......it felt truly epic, again nothing even close to what wow has ever done for me and this was all happening in the open world were anyone could see and join (if you need dialog to understand their is a war happening It amuses me then) or run like a little bitch. The game is meant to feel alive, which life is chaos you can not know everything, as a example if you see a child about to burn to death you don't stop and ask someone "can you explain what happen?" you get off your ass and help that child.

If your just playing the hearts and not exploring and seeing the world and finding the epic events even if their not labeled as such, then the only one to blame is you for needing your hand held to play a video game. I also wonder how the mass will handle Orr when there is no hearts to lead you by the nose.

[namelessone]

My view on them is like this:

Are they refreshing and different than normal questing? Yes

Are they Better than normal (WoW style) questing? Probably not

Exactly my view. These type of events could be a great ADDITION to a standard quest system, but you can't really tell a good story through DE's, at least in the state that they exist now. I like dynamic events for providing interesting diversion during travels, but I would also like to have more storylines to actually follow. I guess some people love to explore for the sake of exploring, but I don't think I'm one of them.

---------- Post added 2012-09-03 at 12:33 AM ----------

If your just playing the hearts and not exploring and seeing the world and finding the epic events even if their not labeled as such, then the only one to blame is you for needing your hand held to play a video game.

How about this: I explored most of the Charr starting zone and didn't find a single dynamic event that I really enjoyed doing. They are all the same - kill some dudes or escort some guy. Some have several stages of "kill some dudes", but that doesn't make them a tiny bit more exciting. It's not about "holding the hand", it's about DEs being boring.

[zeelic]

Did you find the two large meda events? Which are both open world raid boss fights and set ups? I must point out some of the starting zones 1-15 are kinda lack luster but I do promise they get a hell of a lot better past the starter zone as it is a beginners guide to the game pretty much. Also I have to point out their is no way to get rid of kill/escort/collect as *quest* as that is the foundation of a RPG game play and with out them their would be nothing to do. Anyone who wants something different I would recommend going to play farm-vile or something like a Sims/sports game.

[darkfire979]

I like GW2's system as it's alot more free form than WoW's. Many games nowadays have become like a railroad (both single player RPGs and MMOs), you literally just follow the path laid out by the game from start to finish, you don't have to even think and just do everything the game tells you. GW2 system I think is more suited for those that like to explore and have their own adventure in the game world, those that like to just follow an exact path that a game laid out for you might not like it.

It was refreshing to have those exploration vistas in GW2 that was fairly out of the way and that need some out of the box thinking to get to (for the first time you try it) and it was amusing to see many people ask over the map chat on how to get to just because there was no laid out instruction on how to get to them (and actually there are instructions to get to them in youtube done by others).