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.
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.
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Enjoy! Great game!
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.
Resident Cosplay Progressive
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.
"I only feel two things Gary, nothing, and nothingness."
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.
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.
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.
Last edited by Thelxi; 2018-11-17 at 07:46 AM.
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.
Last edited by Eleccybubb; 2018-11-17 at 02:04 PM.
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
Last edited by mmoc46768b56b0; 2018-11-17 at 06:54 PM.
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
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
A berserker ele (or a with access power/crit before gear with 3 stats) is going to melt anything any level. Says nothing about living though. A lvl 80 ele will go down like a lvl 20 ele if they don't kill their targets(s) fast enough.
People at level 80 do tend to kill stuff faster...but because they have proper stats on their gear...which are soft capped. A fresh lvl 80 gets it'd ass beat like a fresh lvl 110 in WoW.
Its hard to die in both games. Both games take knowledge and finesse to play 'properly'.
On your last paragraph, definitely lvl 80 mobs, non-vets, that will wreck your face if you pull 2-3 thinking you can just face roll them.
Resident Cosplay Progressive
What gear do you have? Because 3-4 skales in that zone should only take a few hits each from a level 80 and pose little to no risk - even in rares.
There is and it's pretty easy, it just depends on your gear and build.
It is, but it requires some basic knowledge of the game and your class. If you were talking about HoT mobs, which are considerably more difficult, I'd be more on board. Those rekt me (and still kinda wreck me) when I was rolling with a completely broken build that made no sense and a hodge-podge of stats that conflicted.
We'd need to know more about your character and how you play to help you figure out what the hurdle is.
Movement is your friend. Even just running around a little bit can cause enemy autoattacks to miss.
Last edited by Edge-; 2018-11-20 at 01:02 AM.
I think what GW2 does better than WoW is mostly just exploration/leveling (map hearts), class design and PVP. I would still just prefer like, WoW, but better class design like GW2 systems, more sandboxy leveling like GW2 and their objective based PVP. WoW does eveyrthing else better imo. Music, art, lore (not necessarily story), small group content like Dungeons, etc.