Guild Wars 2

[Shuma]

@FriendlyFire:

That's strange, even the game says that guardians are geared towards being defensive and buffing allies, i know all classes can do everything, but are you telling me that there's not a single class that can do things better than others? Because from what i gather, a guardian geared towards buffing or tanking or whatever, would be better than a warrior geared towards the same thing.

Oh, and i never said i didn't use dodge, i said it was pretty useless. Yesterday i was in two events against two "champion" creatures, one was a wasp another was a troll, we had a bunch of people fighting them, but plenty of times they went after me and sure, you can dodge two of it's attacks, but most of the time once they have their sights on you they wont stop at two attacks, and they can take you out in like two hits. Is there a secret i'm missing? Because i can only dodge twice in a row and it takes a while to recharge the stamina bar or whatever it is. And one last thing.

Also, Shuma, you're basically asking for something that doesn't exist.

What did i ask for? I didn't ask for anything, are you even reading my posts?

[Goobers]

Dodge is pretty worthless for ranged weapons and Australians.

It's worthless for ranged weapons because you can circle strafe anything while shooting for greater effect. It's worthless for Australians because the slight ping disadvantage means the 'evade' frames don't line up with the animation.

[Shuma]

You know, i feel really guilty. Reading about what these guys intended with races like the Asura, Chuurr and Silvari and the only races i want to play are human and nord.

[FriendlyFire]

You said you didn't understand what the hype was about, that it was "just another MMO". I'm saying that you're looking for something that doesn't exist if you want an MMO that's not another MMO...

As for dodge, you need to use it sparingly. Many mobs have charged attacks (they show a charging animation) that NEED to be dodged, and I'm not just speaking boss monsters. Drakes have a charged fire breath attack that'll slash your health in half if you don't dodge it. Otherwise, you're just supposed to have proper spatial awareness. If you're squishy, just DON'T let bosses get close to you. All the classes have additional dodge and defensive abilities. Use them.

[n0z3k1ll3r]

You said you didn't understand what the hype was about, that it was "just another MMO". I'm saying that you're looking for something that doesn't exist if you want an MMO that's not another MMO...

Well that's not strictly true, there's some pretty out there stuff like A Tale in the Desert.

[Mokino]

@Shuma, every class can fulfill every role but the mechanics are different. Guardians are amazing when it comes to straight healing, but necromancers and engineers have crazy heal over time abilities (in the engineer case, it can be a summon so they're also free to contribute to damage while healing.)

The classes play so differently that you can choose more on playstyle rather than the role your guild/party needs. It's really nice to be able to group no matter the class or role since, if the team needs a healer or tank (and the game is designed to not force those roles on people since everyone can self heal and has methods to tank damage,) it's only a few gear changes away.

[IcyPenguin]

Whoa, I'm glad my ill-fated attempt at reviving this thread was actually moderately successful in the end thanks to Misiok.

I'm still so ready for (early) launch day, but I'm not playing the beta as much because to be honest I played the living crap out of the first two events and I don't really want to spoil my experience too much. Though I am disappointed that they just up and removed my old beta character who'd reached a respectable level 42. But not that level matters.

[FriendlyFire]

I believe they had to do this because of the changes between betas, specifically how they reduced the number of servers.

Plus, getting attached to a character which is condemned to be deleted anyway might be a bit problematic

I'm not levelling back up to 25 or so (which is what I did in BWE1, couldn't participate in 2), instead I'm using this to try out just about every class and get a feel for them. Thus far I got Guardian, Mesmer, Thief and Ranger to various levels (I try to go above 5 and no more than 10).

[Misiok]

Actually, one of the reasons for old beta chars wipe was that they wanted people to test the low level zones again, because AFAIK they've adjusted those and/or wanted to see how it would react to the zergy waves of players. The server number change was their attempt at stress testing the servers more proper, with having lots of people cramped up together in anticipation for launch day, than just barely having some of them filled in the earlier betas like they said.

[Shuma]

Well anyway, the beta is over(i think), i enjoyed the game, and i forced myself to only level up to lvl 10 in case i do end up buying the game. Soooo, i'll probably end up buying the game in september after it has launched.

[FriendlyFire]

@Misiok: They've also said in their blog that further server optimization let them put more people in the same server all while assigning more hardware to each server. In the end it means more populated areas which is fine by me!

I'll be particularly interested to see how the game handles once the initial zerg rush has come and gone. The game's a lot of fun, but having too many people around makes it harder to see what's happening.

[FriendlyFire]

So there's a stress test today from noon to 4PM PDT available to all those who prepurchased.

[FriendlyFire]

It's worth noting that guesting will NOT be in the game at launch, so if you want to play together, you need to pick the good server. There will be a week of free server transfers on launch so that you can settle in properly.

I myself will be going Dragonbrand along with a few friends and I'd invite any dolt who wants to play GW2 on US servers to join us there

[Methuselath]

Have RN set on a server? I have a guild (and mah dad) to run around with, but they're flexible with any servers. I would LOVE to play with RN doods though, even with those around. Sometimes nothing beats a good Dolt romp.

[FriendlyFire]

I've heard absolutely nothing about a RN server. It's why I'm talking about Dragonbrand, as I too would really like playing with RN dolts.

[darkelf]

Finally settled on a server for myself at least, any EU dolts are more than welcome to join me on Gunnar's Hold. We have a pretty large alliance of guilds that should be able to accommodate any playstyle from strictly casual pve to hardcore wvw/spvp fanatic. List of guilds on Gunnar's Hold (I'm in the Unnamed).

[Malachi]

Hmm... seems my old GW crew is going to make a comeback that after watching some gameplays I just can't stomach the cartoonishness and what they did to the Necro, so I might won't actually play this after all.

Gunnar's Hold it is then for EU dolts? We're probably going to aim for our own guild with a significant RP focus.

[Fenra]

Is this game worth buying? in sum, I'm hooked on Aion O.o not sure if it's worth really doling out the 60$ on yet another MMO that could be a flop launch and over-hyped (see: SWTOR) and a grandeur waste of 60$. yes, it seems like little, but I *just* got my girlfriend sucked in Aion, is it really going to blow everything else out of the water? or is it just a hype for 3 months then dead?

[Misiok]

GW2, for all intents and purpouses, seems to be shaping up to be the perfect MMO. Open world with lots of players, no subscriptions, perfect balance PVP, awesome, big GvG, lots of PvE too, some puzzle platforming, interesting combat, anti-grinding mechanics. Yeah, I could go on and on.

[Ragnarok]

I have a question, and I was wondering if this has happened to anybody else:

I've seen friends of mine who have also purchased the game saying that their client is on the 20GB+ size and counting, and yet mine is only 14 GB's big and it says it has finished downloading. Is this a bad thing?

[n0z3k1ll3r]

If it's like GW1 it'll download extra data as needed.

[Akranadas]

I've seen friends of mine who have also purchased the game saying that their client is on the 20GB+ size and counting, and yet mine is only 14 GB's big and it says it has finished downloading. Is this a bad thing?

Mine is 14GB, Might be a difference between the beta client and final release client.

[Methuselath]

Yo aussie doods, have any of your chosen a server yet? I'm puttering around and asking this because honestly I have no idea where to go. Damnable WvW making server choice more important.

[Akranadas]

Sea of Sorrows is the unofficial Oceanic Server, so I'll be attempting to get onto that one. If its full up all the time however, my back up is Ehmry Bay as that seems to be the secondary choice for Australians

[FriendlyFire]

Is this game worth buying? in sum, I'm hooked on Aion O.o not sure if it's worth really doling out the 60$ on yet another MMO that could be a flop launch and over-hyped (see: SWTOR) and a grandeur waste of 60$. yes, it seems like little, but I *just* got my girlfriend sucked in Aion, is it really going to blow everything else out of the water? or is it just a hype for 3 months then dead?

A MMO without a monthly fee can't really flop. The business model already takes into account the fact that the majority of players will only be paying for the base game.

Plus, as Misiok said, this is shaping up to be nearly the perfect MMO. I honestly couldn't see the appeal of Aion, but GW2 got me hooked the second I played the BWE (and I was pretty certain to get hooked before then).

[Methuselath]

Krandy, I played at Ehmry last BWE and it seemed to be okay. It was last crowded than Vasburg circa BWE#2. Dunno about Sea of Sorrows. How the hell do you people find data about the servers anyway?

[Open Blue]

Played every beta event. Already in an oceanic guild. 30 cans of V in the fridge, some monster bags of chips and pre-cooked fried rice that'll last me a week. Less than two days to go.
I've got my game face on.

EDIT: If you want to look where guilds will be at launch, have a look at http://www.gw2guilds.org/guilds/us
My guild is set on Northern Shiverpeaks.

[IcyPenguin]

HoM Reward-claiming info

...I hope it'll still work with me since I somehow managed to grind my way to 30/50 and re-sent my account validation to my current e-mail (i.e, not cluttered with spam and ancient internet artifacts). Hnnnggggggg it's so close now.

[Akranadas]

Servers are up btw

[LoneWolf666]

I think GW2 just died...

My first impressions: "Alright, lest's focuoOOOoooOh shiny! (20 mins later) right, let's get on with the questliohmygawdwhatisthat!? (15 minutes later) okay, where was I? Ah, yes, I was on my way to is that a vista it's a vista isn't it yes it is must get to the vista..." and so on and so forth...

But I think the servers melted. It booted me out and I can't log back in.

[Mokino]

Great. That was happening a lot during the stress tests. You think they would've fixed it.

[Open Blue]

Only got to level 15 before the serves melted. I almost expected as much, it had huge hype surrounding it, so I was certain the servers would buckle at some point.

[LoneWolf666]

Apparently the issue affects mainly EU servers? I guess the euro stress tests weren't up to par then, eh?

Level 15, wow. I mucked around so much I think I only got to level 6ish.

[darkelf]

Got to 15 as well, did some crafting and conquered the entirety of the WvW maps (all four of them). Now I can't get back in >.<

[Mokino]

Lone, it's affecting everyone except a very lucky few who haven't been disconnected yet.

[Akranadas]

Level 15? What's the rush? :P

[Thorno]

I logged in at 5am, had a single, lonely frame every second. Logged out, went to bed.

[LoneWolf666]

Some "head start" it is.

EDIT: it seems it's up?

[Inquisitor Lok]

The NA servers seem to be back up.

[Mokino]

I'm still having a heck of time deciding what to play. Torn between my Asura engineer and Sylvari elementalist and I do want to try mesmer out as well...

[Akranadas]

Really enjoying my Asura Guardian, the animiations are what make the race a blast to play. Got to really handed it to the team behind Guild Wars, my character actually feels like he's got some real world weight to him when he's carrying his "massive" two handed hammer and swinging it around.

I also love the fact that you get rewarded with XP and Loot for exploring, its almost addictive trying to get up to those high view points in pseudo-platformer style.

Only at level 14 at the moment.

[LoneWolf666]

Has anyone seen the CRAZY rewards you get for 100% exploring an area? I got the Charr starting zone and got a piece of armor for level 24 (I'm lever 14 ATM) + a bunch of assorted trinkets and gubbinz. And, like, a quarter of a level. And a rather funny letter.

You get XP for doing pretty much anything in this game, and boy does it taste sweet. You have found X, here's some XP! Oh, you've participated in event Y (in my case it's mostly "got swept by a zerg"), here's a ton of XP! Oh, you've helped this NPC up, here's XP! Gathering onions, I see? Here's some free XP! Crafting? We've got you covered!

Like, seriously. I'm just constantly mucking about and loving every minute.

[Akranadas]

Like, seriously. I'm just constantly mucking about and loving every minute.

Me too, there is just so much to see and so much funny quest dialogue or NPC chatter going on. I also like it how random NPCs will actually run up to you and ask for your help, you could be doing nothing but just sitting down or mining some ore and a the NPC will ask you to help them with a quest. It makes me feel like a hero that I got sought out by that NPC while another player near me didn't.

[LoneWolf666]

Yeah, they run up to you ang go all "hey, come help, shit's going down!" and this really gives a sense of urgency to what's going on. This has to be the most "living" MMO I've seen.

[Mantaray]

GOD DAMNIT! i want the 28th to happen faster.

[FriendlyFire]

The Asura dialogue has to be the funniest I've seen in an MMO. Megahedron collider, seriously? This is awesome.

[Akranadas]

The bonus' you get from exploring a whole area are great, a lump of materials for crafting some nice gear and a weapon. So Far I've done the Asura and Plant pseudo-people starting zones, Might go do the Human's or Charr's next and get those bonuses. It's also good when a buddy is starting a new character as you don't feel quite like your blasting through the zone.

Tried some PvP; while I like the idea (and getting xp and loot for kills) it seems to be one big clusterfuck at the moment without any sense of strategy. It also seems that once a World gets on the upper hand (ie capture a few outposts) you have a hard time getting them back without the whole server jumping in. A tri-battle is the ultimate clusterfuck though.

[Afoxi]

There's no way to enter another server as a Guest is there?

[Akranadas]

Well if your home server is full you get put into 'overflow' which is another server until a slot is free on your home server; so I would say there is. Haven't tried it though

[Mokino]

The guesting feature isn't working yet but they do eventually plan to allow friends to invite you to their server.