Sell me Guild Wars 2

[Novar]

1. What do you like about Guild Wars 2?
I can do things by myself if nobody is on. With WoW there is a real lack of content to do by yourself when you aren't doing guild activities(outside of mount/goldfarming). In this game there is a lot of things to do at all times. Having alts isn't as bad in this game because with ascended gear you can share it with your entire account, so you can farm out certain sets of gear and be good to go.

End game in this game is a multitude of things, it's crafting legendary armor/weapons, farming for karma to buy items, farming mats to make ascended gear, doing guild events, doing raids/fractals. I just got into and it's super fun and I feel like it requires a lot more situational awareness than wow does.

The mount system as a whole is amazing, every mount serves a purpose, they all have different traits. This is what made me stick with it because just walking around was slow this gives you fun new ways to explore.

2. What improvements have they made since launch?
Leveling isn't as grindy, without any boosters and just exploring, I was around level 38 in my first day playing. I haven't really played much except for PoF so I can't give a full answer here.

3. What is better about Guild Wars 2 than WoW?
The community is 1000 times better in my opinion. It of course has it's toxic players but I have not ran across them and everyone seems to be generally very helpful.

4. What do you dislike about Guild Wars 2?
It can be very overwhelming to get into since there is really no linear path to play the game, there is so much to do so sometimes you can be overwhelmed and not sure of a real direction to go towards. This may or may not be something you like.

5. What's going on with the class system? Do you need to evolve your Mesmer into a Mirage? What if the base class sounds cooler?
Just like wow, you play the specs that are the meta, really all that there is.

6. Rate Guild Wars, out of 10.
7.5/10. Def. worth the play. I have completely stopped playing wow this expansion for it. I was 5/8 Mythic when I quit.

[Sliske]

1. What do you like about Guild Wars 2?

The abilities are fun and the world is great. Its fun to just zone out and do events.

2. What improvements have they made since launch?

Too many to list. Game is unrecognisable from launch. Has raids, dungeons, a decent story, stuff to farm etc.

3. What is better about Guild Wars 2 than WoW?

The difficulty. The vast, vast majority of content in GW2 is trivial. This means that you can really play with most people. In WoW you can't just pick 4 random goons and hop into a +10 or a mythic or even heroic raid. They're going to die like rats, do 20th percentile dps, call you and everyone else shit and then leave wasting your time. This doesn't happen in GW2 until you reach the peak of end game, which in WoW terms would be 90% of the latest mythic raid cleared.

4. What do you dislike about Guild Wars 2?

If you aren't into fashion, theres very little repeatability in a given patch. Everything is collectible. WoW is kind of like this now too, but still has gear progression (although thats been ruined by massive amounts of RNG.)

On a given new patch, you can expect:

- 1-2hrs of story content
- 2-4hrs of unique events in the new zone
- Maybe a new dungeon or new raid wing
- Rest is collectable pets and so on

I also hate the gem store. Its bloody awful. Its as bad as the WoW services shop if not worse. For instance the baseline bag spaces are i believe 80 slots when maxed out. You can buy more space to make that 160 or higher. The same goes for bank. Baseline is like 80 ,but you can stretch it infinitely. This is a game with a ton of junk items that you need to keep, food and so on and that runs out VERY quick especially as the bank is account wide not character specific.

One massive change that would help GW2 retain players is making bag spaces and bank slots maxed by baseline. Like, you kill a world boss - tequatl, and he drops bags and items that result in about 14 slots taken. So you're constantly playing inventory management. There is an event in one of the Heart of Thorns maps where you can loot around 20 chests. That gives you a good 50 item spaces worth of loot. If you haven't bought spaces for real money, you have to stop every 30 seconds to clear your bags before you can loot more.

Inventory management in GW2 is hell.

5. What's going on with the class system? Do you need to evolve your Mesmer into a Mirage? What if the base class sounds cooler?

GW2s system is both good and bad. In WoWs system, each expansion over rites the previous expansions work so if you liked 5.4 warrior, 6.0 rolls around and you want to kill yourself. In GW2 they simply add another spec. This means variety, but variety means a ton of imbalance. If you think WoW's balance is bad with spec 1 doing 20k dps while spec 2 does 15k dps, GW2 knocks that out of the park - spec 1 can do 35k dps while spec 2 struggles to get 12k dps. Its really hit or miss. Your spec is often times either OP or terrible. Theres really any inbetween.

Rerolling is also a non-option, as the aforementioned bag slots that you have inevitably bought are character specific. The idea of going back to merely 80 slots after playing with 160 is extremely unappealing.

6. Rate Guild Wars, out of 10.

5.5/10. Great story, great gameplay. Plagued by the 'no subscription' model. There should be an option to subscribe for £9 a month and in exchange you're given every account service for free, for ever. But thats never going to happen, as £9 is literally what they charge for two bag slots.

[Chromell]

I played GW2 for a month when it launched, was entertaning but there was a ton of collectible stuff that I'm into (dangerously similar to WoW), and I was also playing WoW at the time, long story short, I sticked to WoW cause I couldn't let myself ever play 2 MMOs simultaneously (a huge negative point for me was the focus on PvP).

I'm really disenchanted with WoW atm, guess I'm waiting for a miracle to happen and they announce something great in the Diablo universe. Point is, WoW is currently not delivering it to me, so I feel you on the MMO department, I'm spending my playtime on DotA 2 for now.

Forgot to add, a friend of mine used to play Secret World, hell of an MMO he said, it has lots of holiday events and whatnot, feel free to check it out.

[Rogalicus]

I also hate the gem store. Its bloody awful. Its as bad as the WoW services shop if not worse. For instance the baseline bag spaces are i believe 80 slots when maxed out. You can buy more space to make that 160 or higher. The same goes for bank. Baseline is like 80 ,but you can stretch it infinitely. This is a game with a ton of junk items that you need to keep, food and so on and that runs out VERY quick especially as the bank is account wide not character specific.

You can buy gems with your gold or craft 32 slot bags, which give you 160 slots baseline (with an opportunity to double it with bought slots). Although the first option is cheaper than second.

[Alex86el]

1. What do you like about Guild Wars 2?

ALL progress is account wide.

It's the only mmo i've played where leveling is fun and not a chore. (maybe ESO too)

Questing feels meaningful. No one tells you what to do like an errand boy.
You see something happening, you act on it, problem is gone.
No back and forth to each NPC to pickup/deliver.

The story is alright.

Bank is account wide.
All matterials have a designated space at a seperate bank.

Inventory is really good.
You can carry "disenchant consumables" (cheap) to disenchant any gear for materials.
And there is a button in your inventory to send anything you gather or disenchant straight to mat-bank, from anywhere. O_o!
So you never have bag space problems.

There's tons of exploration to be made, especially on your first playthrough.
All maps have hidden paths and jumping puzzles, some even riddles. Which is extremelly fun.
It's such a shame that you will breeze through the Heart of Thorns expansion. It was amazing, even though i hate jungles.

You can level through "world" pvp, or "BGs" as well. (WvW and Scenarios)
Scenarios (wow-BGs) are all about skill, since everybody gets the same level and access to the same gear.
You can just create level 10s and PvP for fun on equal terms.

There is "transmog", and you can also dye your gear as well.

World bosses and Events are fun. You actually have to try, not like in WoW.

Combat is fun. You dont "play the ui" like in WoW, you "play the battle" in front of/around you.
Even mounts are fun and meaningful.
Even a random elite encounter is fun and not a chore. In wow you're like.. oh great, lets start with the "rotation"...sigh.
While there you're on your toes to dodge, and treat each elite differently since most have special attacks, immunities, shields, etc.

Progression at max level and in expansions is not about levels, but about "masteries".

All dungeons and pvp give currency and have vendors. You dont have to rely on RNG.

It has no pay-to-win options at the store. Just costumes, xp boosts, mailboxes-etc.


2. What improvements have they made since launch?

Meh, i dont really remember.
Glider added at HoT, special Mounts at PoF.

3. What is better about Guild Wars 2 than WoW?

Leveling is fun. No back-and-forths. No q-chains. Freedom.
There's tons of exploration to be made, unlike WoW.
It does not feel like a chore, in general.
The combat is fun. Way more action, you dont have to just monitor your UI 24/7, you fight.
World content is fun. It's not just an ezmode checklist of chores.

4. What do you dislike about Guild Wars 2?

There is no trinity, so players dont rely on others as much, but mostly on themselves. (but that's subjective)
There is no collision among players. Which completely breaks WvW PvP. (that's a fact)
There's stupid scammy stuff like "daily login rewards" and "continuous weekly login rewards".
While "dodging" is really fun, it is not actual dodging, but rather a 1'' immunity buff and move.
Much of the gear is just gigantic glowy weapons, and silly shoulderpads full of spikes and glitter. Almost as bad as WoW. (subjective)
The lore is extremelly shallow, cant compete with WoW,WAR,ESO. But no one cares about it really.


5. What's going on with the class system? Do you need to evolve your Mesmer into a Mirage? What if the base class sounds cooler?

Sadly, in most cases (not all) the *new* elite specs are better.
But i personally used what i liked most, and pretended i played in hard-mode :P

6. Rate Guild Wars, out of 10.

(WoW, 7/10) take away lore and graphics, and it's a 5 from me.
(GW2, 8/10) because WvW is broken, imo. i miss WAR.


Thanks!

hope i helped

[Highelf]

Granted I haven't played in a couple years, but I enjoyed the questing and story THE FIRST TIME. it's the same thing every single time. Also there was very little end game so I stopped playing.

The classes I played were very fun but "boss" fights weren't. It was basically just do random stuff and avoid red circles. Very little mechanics, they just had a lot of health.

Again that all be different now, don't know.

[Daedius]

Sexy Charrs, obviously;

[Sliske]

You can buy gems with your gold or craft 32 slot bags, which give you 160 slots baseline (with an opportunity to double it with bought slots). Although the first option is cheaper than second.

That would be fine if you didn't also need gold in order to do everything else in the game. Halting all your progress just because you want the ability to hold a decent amount of items doesn't feel good.

[Yvaelle]

Just want to say thank you to everyone for all this feedback! We're reading it all it's just a lot to digest!

Also I am playing Guild Wars 2 now

[theWocky]

To throw a spanner in the works (don't get me wrong, I absolutely love GW2), you should maybe also check out Elder Scrolls Online. I've been drawn back to it quite a bit over the past few years. Maybe it's the lore, the graphics, the wealth of content, I don't know, I just love it.

- - - Updated - - -

Just want to say thank you to everyone for all this feedback! We're reading it all it's just a lot to digest!

Also I am playing Guild Wars 2 now

Enjoy! Great game!

[PACOX]

That would be fine if you didn't also need gold in order to do everything else in the game. Halting all your progress just because you want the ability to hold a decent amount of items doesn't feel good.

What are you spending gold on? Gold has never seem like a huge obstalce in the game in terms of character progress. I saw that as someone with several legendaries and never more 100g on my at a time. 20 slot bags are easy to come buy if you WvW or PvP. The Halloween event just ended where you could make it rain 20 slot bags if you wanted, still ~10g a bag after Halloween.

Most of my toons have 2 sets of ascended gear in their bags (I only use 20 slots) and I dont have an inventory issue.

[Svifnymr]

I just made my second legendary, though I haven't kept either. Both precursors were found by having an alt parked at a jumping puzzle chest...

I enjoy playing the game, the movement, the style, now the mounts, wandering the areas. I never cared about the gear treadmill, partly because those systems have almost always created a second class that can't get stuff because they don't do X. I don't raid in GW2, or do Fractals, so there are certain things I can't get (I'd love a chair that was a pile of treasure for instance), but nothing that makes me less able to play the game. In WoW, back in the ancient days, I could spend a month or more grinding stuff in that fire zone and eventually craft a weapon that was worse than any random drop some guy got from doing an hours work in a raid.

Hell, I barely bother with Ascended in GW2, too many alts to pick a main.

So one of the problems I see people having with GW2 is that they want to be rewarded specifically for playing their style. If they pvp, they want to be rewarded for pvping, rather than just pvping because they enjoy it.

For myself, loot is mostly worthless. I invested in a copper salvage thingee, so I barely look at most of the loot before it turns into mats and gets deposited.


Anyway, my point is, try the game and if you like playing it, play it. You'll mostly have to make your own goals, because the game won't point the way very often.

[jimmy valmer]

I tried it once like a year ago and stopped at lvl 7 or something. The early game was so boring and well that didn't motivate me to keep going. Perhaps I might give it another try. Something to play at least until bfv global launch.

[Threather]

Ok so ill just list some details:
The game has changed massively since release;
- There's actual lategame content now
- Graphics are better now
- Classes have become more diverse regarding stats/traits/skills.
- Elite specializations change your class into something completely different.
- Theres PvP ranked queue with placements now if you prefer PvP

Notable things to know about GW2
- You get 1 level 80 boost for each expansion meaning if you already have a friend, you can skip the early grind (which would take 20+ hourish for new player) and play with him instantly. You get some sub-optimal max level exotic gear which is pretty good but not what you want to aim for.
- The max tier of armor is Ascended and has been for multiple years, meaning once you reach 1 set of full ascended which is a few weeks doing profitable content, there's only legendary to work towards (stat/rune swappable Ascended level gear) which is pretty hard grind. You can swap ascended stats permanently in one way however there are 3 armor weights (heavy,medium,light) and you can't change those. There are 3 classes in each armor weight and you can move ascended gear from light class to another light class. Guild wars 2 gear PVE/WvW progression comes mostly from getting multiple sets of ascended thus unlocking different builds.
- Each class is infinitely different from each other and picking wrong class can give you terrible impression of the game. GW2 players usually have 1 main class but as game allows you to have multiple different classes with great gear easily, players often have spent at least a few hundred hours on other classes and have them geared up for when necessary (especially at high level PvE/PvP/WvW content)
- The 5v5 PvP is actually existant, skill-based. You can enter PvP with level 2 character and play it. However it is not that friendly towards new players as you will be playing against veterans in a skill based game. GW2 has lot of players that play 90+% only PvP because your level 1 character will be as good as any other players max level max stat character there. You can spend next 2 years trying to become best PvP player if you want, you won't reach it, there's so many good players out there. There's also daily 5v5 automated PvP tournaments and 2v2 tournaments are coming soon, you don't have to be great to attend these to have fun with friends.
- WvW, what I play mostly, is where servers battle against each other in large and small-scale content 24/7. Theres roamers, gankers, scouts, commanders, people who follow commanders (majority) which all battle each other with skill and communication. Servers use external voice comms with good commanders and you can't say you really played WvW until you join them (often there's 40+ players on those channels). WvW is most active about 5 hours a day and decently active another 10 but pretty dead for about 9 hours (night/early morning crews which usually get about 1 fight per hour which is mostly socializing). WvW servers have lot of females on leading/scouting positions depending on how misogynist the server is openly towards women. Main point of WvW is to get points and win fights, some people go for other and some for other, I believe balance is necessary. WvW is not on super great state atm in EU but big chances are coming withing 6 months with moving from server based system to guild based matchmaking Alliance system. on NA servers WvW is great currently apparently however it varies because EU was better 1-3 years ago.
- The PvE difficulty, which I have done fairly bit, goes about like this: Core PvE maps < Dungeons (not popular) < Expansion PvE maps < High level fractals (heard its kinda like mythic+ where you can choose from levels 1-100) < Raids (lot of guilds do them but pugging is not that popular as it is hard).

Your questions:
1) I like largescale MMO based PvP and GW2 is best game out there for that.

2) I already answered this

3) GW2 has actual PvP/WvW and you can come back to the game any moment because they don't make new stages of gear.

4) The WvW playerbase has lot of veterans meaning as players "matured" the amount of guilds and commanders went down. Most of the players around are older than me (I am 25).

5) Elite specs are basically just added few mechanics to the base class. Mirage is not that much different from normal mesmer, only real difference is the evade mechanism and ambush skills which matter mostly in PvP engages. Lot of players swap on and off from the elite specs as Guild Wars 2 is really Build Wars 2.

6) Id say it is 8/10 but I only really care about WvW. I think the lacking of guilds thingy on EU really puts lot of players off.

[Thelxi]

It's the most West-friendly MMO after WoW imo. If you have never played it before it is a huge, beautiful and innovative game to explore. The base game was made with a lot of attention to detail, and clearly made with a lot of care and inspiration. The playerbase of GW2 is also exceptionally friendly, probably at least in part because the core of the game is so well designed that toxicity is kind of pointless and friendliness encouraged.

Now the darker side of the game starts with everything post-launch really. Unfortunately not one ounce of development that went into the game post-launch was up to the standards set at launch; it was as if they had a dream team create a fantastic game which they fired or disbanded immediately once the game was ready. Balancing was (is) slow, and new content was uninspired and very scarce. It took them a very long time to start working on this problem and unfortunately the game lost most of its launch momentum and the playerbase wondered off for greener pastures. Imo this was quite tragic as GW2 had the potential to give Blizzard some real competition here in the west.

Another dark aspect of the game is the cash shop. It's very eloquently set up, and it is definitely not as explicitly intrusive to your experience as your run of the mill Asian MMO, but it is greedy and pricy. The real problem is that the game is designed from the ground up to be very grindy, grinds that you can shortcut with your credit card. It's cleverly set up to disorient average Joe, like for example in order to craft legendary or ascended gear you need certain bound to account materials that you can't trade and have to farm; the catch is that you can sell or buy the actually crafted legendary item. And of course you can buy cash shop currency for gold, so already half the gamers in the world are placated. For the more aware gamers there will come a point in GW2 where you realise that you are literally grinding for pennies; spend 20 hours on X or 2 minutes confirming payment details. Gold/gems is a currency that is directly or indirectly tied to everything, and you can buy as much of it as you want with a credit card. On the flipside of this, if you have money to burn, you could burn thousands of dollars and still have cool things to buy or shortcut.

Classes and combat are honestly great. It's a much more complex and polished game than it gets credit for. It's the opposite of WoW's streamlined and ultra-balanced design. Abilities have animations you have to work with and the game rewards very precise timing and positioning, far more so than WoW where any keyboard turning 2 finger typing Joe can do mythic progression.

The PvP is exceptional in GW2. Another one of the reasons I am a bit bitter they dropped the ball so hard post-launch. It could have really thrived. Very high individual skillcap on PvP performance, with a great variety of builds playing very differently with something for everyone. Not just a game of tracking and coordinating cooldowns, which is WoW PvP in summary. No global cooldown either as a pacing cushion, it is hectic and as fast as your fingers and animations allow.

WvW is also exceptional. At least it was when I played. Great server vs. server spirit of competition. Real server identity that you do not have anymore in WoW. They did an exceptionally good job with WvW. Epic battles and communities. Things might not be as lively these days though, idk. The one thing that really stood out to me is how hundreds of people were participating and essentially bleeding gold for next to no rewards, other than just having fun and winning. Getting gamers to do something unrewarding must be any developer's wet dream; Blizzard can't bribe us enough to do rated BGs.

Overall the game is solid, but not quite as good as it could have been had they kept up the momentum of their launch and kept employing the people responsible for making this beautiful game. WoW is much better at keeping the game alive, which is saying something considering the steady decline that even WoW is experiencing. Also Blizzard mostly just wants your subscription money (with some exceptions like slowing down leveling to sell more boosts), so outside of lockouts and RNG to keep you hooked you just pay a subscription for full access to everything on a level playing field with everyone else. In GW2 at every turn you will be tempted to use your credit card.

[Eleccybubb]

For me it's a good game but it's one of those MMOs where I come back, have fun and then find myself bored again and end up doing the same old Fractals and Zone events.

My Necro was decked out in Viper gear for HoT and once I'd done that only thing I really had interest in was PvP. WvW doesn't appeal to me anymore, raids are meh at best, Fractals at least have been made a bit more interesting and the RP community feels really small.

Plus as I said I'm not keen on the fact that if you miss out on the story it's gated behind gems.

In short GW2 isn't a bad game god no. It just doesn't keep my attention as other MMOs do.

[your mother]

its way harder than WoW because of downscaling, as lvl 80 one is still dying to lvl 15 mobs if more than 1 comes to attack, and the lvl 80 zones are too overtuned for solo play,
also its a game that has one of the steepest learning curves of all games, almost everything is opaque. all in all, one of the hardest games ive ever encountered for someone new who has to play games without knowing anyone to play/talk with

also a large part of the game is gated by being in paid LW content, which a new player has no access to besides the latest LW 4.4

[Lazuli]

There is no azerite gear so that makes it 10/10 compared to WoW right now. Instead of destroying your class every expansion they just add a new talent tree that changes your playstyle IF YOU CHOOSE IT. There is grind if you look for it but not really required. I only play for the pvp personally. This forum is dead af for the game so you should use reddit and the official forums.

I would really recommend you start with PoF and not HoT. HoT probably rage you into suicide when you're new to the game because it was even tedious for me.

All you need to know imo

[Bovinity Divinity]

its way harder than WoW because of downscaling, as lvl 80 one is still dying to lvl 15 mobs if more than 1 comes to attack, and the lvl 80 zones are too overtuned for solo play

I don't quite get this one. Downscaling is pretty much a joke and a level 80 "downscaled" to any level is still absurdly powerful compared to most anything you'll fight at that level. A level 80 downscaled to 15 is probably still stronger than five true level 15s, if not more.

Not to mention that even as a true level 15 you still wouldn't die "if more than one mob comes to attack" unless you're just standing there autoattacking and not moving out of telegraphs?

also its a game that has one of the steepest learning curves of all games, almost everything is opaque. all in all, one of the hardest games ive ever encountered for someone new who has to play games without knowing anyone to play/talk with

I don't really get this one, either. What's the learning curve, exactly? It's a very simple game mechanically, the only real difference in gameplay is that GW2 has a little more "twitch" required compared to other MMOs.

[your mother]

I don't quite get this one. Downscaling is pretty much a joke and a level 80 "downscaled" to any level is still absurdly powerful compared to most anything you'll fight at that level. A level 80 downscaled to 15 is probably still stronger than five true level 15s, if not more.

Not to mention that even as a true level 15 you still wouldn't die "if more than one mob comes to attack" unless you're just standing there autoattacking and not moving out of telegraphs?



I don't really get this one, either. What's the learning curve, exactly? It's a very simple game mechanically, the only real difference in gameplay is that GW2 has a little more "twitch" required compared to other MMOs.

thats not true at all, for example on a lvl 80 in that swamp southeast in the starting zone, 3-4 skales at once, death came swiftly within less than 10 seconds
theres just no way to kill them fast enough before their autoattack melee hits overwhelm the 80
if it was from telegraphed attacks, one could understand why, but its all from purely melee attacks
several mobs at once is just not survivable, especially if theyre ranged mobs, like dredges