Gaming Guild Wars 2

[Gavin]

[quote name='Petie' timestamp='1346187348' post='712309']
[color=#0000ff]In the beta, I tried a Paladin and then, for like 15 minutes, a Thief. My main now is a Ranger though I also made a Thief to mess with as well. I may go back and make a Paladin eventually too but one issue I already forsee is that the game, at least the beginning, seems very linear and going through it multiple times in quick succession does not seem like a fun idea.[/color]
[/quote]

[font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]I've mostly tried to avoid playing the same race, or going into other starting areas if I can help it to avoid that. [/font]

[Petie]

[quote name='Gavin' timestamp='1346190086' post='712310']
[font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]I've mostly tried to avoid playing the same race, or going into other starting areas if I can help it to avoid that. [/font]
[/quote]

[color=#0000ff]That is an excellent point. I hadn't even thought about the fact that other races would have different stories.[/color]

[Allamorph]

[FONT=Calibri]They do. Charr are ridiculously Roman, and it's fantastic; and the Sylvari lands are absolutely stunning.

Allamorph.5943
Current characters: Oculus Peregrine (Charr mesmer, lv15); Oculus Necis (Sylvari necromancer, lv7)
Sorrow's Furnace

[COLOR=DarkRed]Gavin[/COLOR], you may enjoy ele a lot. You can't switch weapons in combat, but that's because you have four attunements you can swap between essentially at whim, so instead of ten usable skills you have twenty, plus your slot. When I was playing one during the Beta, I got rather fond of either a staff or something with daggers in the lineup. Good times.[/FONT]

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]My main is a human elementalist. I use a staff, and it's pretty ridiculous when you're good at comboing spells between different attunements. For a while, I was running around at level 30-35, fighting baddies at my level, without really noticing that I was still wearing level ~20 armor because so few things could touch me.[/color]

[Gavin]

[font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]Interesting. I'll have to check it out, I'm actually moving out of my current place and won't have internet for a little while though so it'll probably be next week or later before I'm back online gaming.[/font]

[Lyndy]

My coworker talked me into finally getting the game, even though I'm broke. Was first in Eredon Terrace with my coworker, then moved to Blackgate with my Steam friends to soon have my coworker change servers as well. But I'm probably going to change worlds again (maybe Sorrow's Furnace) since my Steam friend is always too busy playing with his bitchy girly friend. :<

Name: LyndyLoup.9687
Main character is Venus Latranz (was too lazy to think of something different from Gw1) which is a human thief (BEST PROFESSION EVER. COMBOS ARE OP). Started a human Necro (Mortred Kingsley) and human ranger as well (Blane Latranz), but haven't done anything with them yet. Want to make a Sylvari Ele next. I do miss Rits though.
Server: Probably changing to Sorrow's Furnace.

And, if any of you Guild leaders could, hit me up an invite to Rare, plox. =) Edited September 6, 2012 by Lyndy

[James]

[font=palatino linotype]I've been playing GW2 a little bit with my sister over the last couple of weeks, and I'm slowly warming to it. The biggest issue I had originally was the controls, and that was primarily because I always used to "click walk" in the original game - that is, I'd point and click rather than using the keyboard, which I felt was sort of cumbersome.

Since GW2 forces you to use the keyboard for movement, it felt unintuitive for me initially. I think the reason is that I kind of wanted it to feel like a FPS, or like Max Payne, where you walk with the WASD keys and you look with the mouse. Yeah, you [i]can[/i] do that, but you have to hold down a button... eh. It's not nice.

As time has gone by though, I've become a bit more used to the way things work. I use auto-run a lot, and I am finding it easier to move around and interact. I still use the mouse for some actions (for instance, I mapped the #1 attack to a mouse button for ease of use - since I hate using the number keys to attack). A hybrid has worked well for me.

I'm also really starting to get used to the general flow of the game, especially around the way that skills work and how they are very different in GW2 as compared to the original game. Right now my primary character is a Necromancer, and there's a lot of correlation with the Necromancers in Guild Wars, but with some interesting changes. Most importantly, I love the fact that you aren't just summoning ever larger groups of minions - each minion "type" has particular capabilities, and you are sort of forced to actively engage them as part of combat, rather than simply having them attack or not attack. I'm finding that really enjoyable, and much more strategic than before. Now that I think about it, it's become second nature, and I think going back to Necromancers in the original Guild Wars would feel pretty dated.

The single biggest improvement I'm noticing, though, is how "alive" the world feels. I love the little heart quests, and the dynamic events. I also love that you can build your characters without [i]constantly[/i] fighting - there's simply a broader array of things to do, and you are often increasing your XP without even thinking about it. It works well.

I also particularly love that you really don't need to form parties like in the original game. The structure is such that you can just naturally follow crowds - or have crowds follow you - and there's an organic element to this that works incredibly well. There's really not much need to either form parties with other players or NPCs...and I really like that. Even when I play the game with my sister, we can spend time together and then we can kind of go and do separate things and join up again when it's convenient. It just flows so nicely, and it feels incredibly natural and easy.

The only thing I'll say is that, while the game runs fairly well on my (now ageing) iMac, I am clearly [i]really[/i] in need of a new computer. I'm sort of waiting for the next iMac to be announced, but it better happen soon... I'm not sure if I can wait that long! This thing is showing its age now.[/font]

[Allamorph]

[FONT=Calibri]My secondary character, as I mentioned above, is a necromancer. I love them as well; they're much more active and involved than they felt in GW1. Because I've been focusing on my mesmer thus far, I haven't gotten to test or familiarise myself with a lot of her abilities, and I'm about fifteen levels away from getting access to elites at all, but even with a short bit of playtime I find myself favoring axe/dagger and staff combos, which allows me to drop down symbols (which feel to me like the proximity-mine equivalent of your typical nukes) and swap over to some damage and control. The necromancer wells also feel significantly more useful, and I use one right now as my healing skill and another as my go-to slot skill.

I also discovered yesterday that playing on different worlds than your friends isn't necessarily a limiting factor. I went through the Ascalonian Catacombs dungeon with a guildmate and three other people from his/her alternate guild, and even though I was on SF and most of them were on Yak's Bend (I think one might have been on Gate of Madness), when we went into the dungeon instance we were all put on the same spot.

That dungeon is insane, too. Difficulty is pretty steep, and apparently the explorable options get even harder, according to a guild-mate.

Right now I'm focusing on world exploration. I've got two more starting zones to complete on my mesmer, and three more 15-25 zones (which I assume are built to lead your character to LA, at which point I expect the game storyline to sort of unify, since there aren't multiple same-level zones any longer after that point) and then I'll jump back into the story until I need to level some more.[/FONT]

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]I think click-to-move was removed because it's just too slow and imprecise for GW2. It's passable in GW1 â?? though still inferior to keyboard movement â?? because you're rooted in place any time you want to use most skills. In GW2, you're expected to be kiting and dodging near constantly, and click-to-move can't provide anywhere near the level of control you need for that.

By the way, Q and E can be used to strafe even when not holding down the right mouse button. It takes a bit of getting used to, but learning to use those in addition to WASD will make a big difference since it leaves your cursor free for UI stuff instead of requiring you to constantly hold right mouse to strafe with A and D. I've used keyboard movement from the start in GW1, so using combinations of WASD+QE and right click is basically second nature and this point, and it allows very fast and precise control.

And I also remapped skill 1, actually, because reaching up to hit 1 every time you want to start auto-attacking is annoying even if you're used to hitting the number keys for skills. (Skill 1 went to Space, jump went to V, dodge went to a button on my gaming mouse.) But I do recommend learning to use the number keys for skills 2-5, at least, because it's [i]way[/i] faster than clicking the icons and it leaves your mouse free for camera movement and targeting and stuff.[/color]

[Allamorph]

[FONT=Calibri]News update: [url="https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/announcing-guild-wars-2-for-mac-beta/"]Guild Wars 2 now available for Mac OS X[/url].[/FONT] Edited September 19, 2012 by Allamorph

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]About a week ago, I looked up what all it takes to craft the legendary staff [url="http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Bifrost"]The Bifrost[/url]. I figured this would be a good long term goal in the game since I'm not very fond of most of the high end armor skins for my elementalist. Below is the full list of raw materials, and yeah, this is going to be a good long term goal â?? emphasis on [i]long.[/i]

[quote][color=#000000]The Legend
Superior Sigil of Nullification

500 Shards of Zhaitan (Gift of Zhaitan)
500 Badges of Honor (Gift of Battle)
525,000 karma (250 Obsidian Shards)
200 skill points (Bloodstone Shard)
120 gold (100 Icy Runestones, Recipe: Gift of Color, Recipe: Gift of Energy)
100% world completion (Gift of Exploration)

77 Mystic Clovers
- Mystic Forge recipe (may produce tier 6 materials instead):
- - 1 Obsidian Shard, 1 Mystic Coin, 1 Glob of Ectoplasm, 6 Philosopher's Stones

250 Globs of Ectoplasm
750 Piles of Crystalline Dust
250 Piles of Incandescent Dust
250 Piles of Luminous Dust
250 Piles of Radiant Dust
250 Vicious Fangs
250 Armored Scales
250 Vicious Claws
250 Ancient Bones
250 Vials of Powerful Blood
250 Powerful Venom Sacs
250 Elaborate Totems
100 Opal Orbs
250 Unidentified Dyes[/color][/quote]

So far, the only thing I've checked off the list is 100% world completion, though I'm also close to 200 skill points.[/color]

[Paradoxical Fang]

Is anyone still playing around here? I'd really like to get back in to GW2 but my friends that were playing kind of got tired of it =/.

[Allamorph]

[FONT=Calibri]Absolutely. [COLOR=DarkRed]Desbreko[/COLOR], [COLOR=DarkRed]SunfallE[/COLOR], and I are all still fairly active, and we're in a couple of decent guilds, so.

And, whaddyamean "[i]back[/i] into it"? It's only been a couple months since it came out. =P[/FONT]

[Paradoxical Fang]

I got burned out after a month of heavy playing and plus I probably shouldn't have played the beta since I spoiled the awe and wonder of the game for myself XD. What severs are ya'll on?

[Allamorph]

[FONT=Calibri]Sorrow's Furnace.

[COLOR=DarkREd]Pumpkin[/COLOR] is on Yak's Bend; I've whispered her a couple of times but she apparently thinks I'm a serial killer and won't respond. =([/FONT]

[Paradoxical Fang]

Mmm gotcha. I'm on Tarnished Coast at the moment.

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]I've mainly been plugging away at getting The Bifrost. I still need about 80g for buying t6 mats, 180 more ectos, the Arah tokens, and the precursor.[/color]

[Pumpkin]

Mmm gotcha. I'm on Tarnished Coast at the moment.

So am I. If anyone wants to add me my name is Akishunda.2405  Especially older members.

[Allamorph]

Especially older members.

Aha. So that's why you never responded.

e_e

[Inuyasha Fandom]

I've been thinking about getting into GW2, it looks like a blast. I used to play the first one, my guild was the Slaughter Fairies. Is the second one as good or better than the first?

[Allamorph]

I think, in a direct comparison, it's tough to say decisively that one of the games is better than the other simply because they are so markedly different in approach. Guild Wars, for me, was mostly a mental challenge, and gameplay was about efficiency and timing and understanding exactly how your skills worked. Guild Wars 2 is much more focused on movement and involvement, and while you still have a fair amount of the same focus on timing and efficiency, there are many moments in regular gameplay where you need to be able to swap roles quickly and improvise a little in order to survive. The Downed state (similar to the Borderlands concept) is a good illustration of that, adding a bit more tenseness to the game than when you just keel over at 0 HP.

GW2 is also significantly more interactive. You can now run into other random players out in the regular world, instead of having to meet up in towns and only seeing you and your party in your personalised instances. And since loot drops and gathering nodes are unique to each player, there's still no concern with ganking.

The Living Story content is also slowly coming out, so now would be a perfect time to get into the game.

[Pumpkin]

Aha. So that's why you never responded.

e_e

What!? I'm still around. And yet no one has looked me up yet! I'm usually on as Kaloki Touchstone. <3 A schmexy norn ranger. 

[Petie]

I added you a while back! Except that I'm almost never on so that might not be so obvious in hindsight.

[Katie!]

oh man, I wish I wasn't broke.