My review of Guild Wars 2

[Kingofrunes]

I'd say overall, it's a pretty fun game once you get used to it.

There's some parts that are really difficult unless you can manage to find a group to assist.

It's challenging to say the least. Got to level 26 in Open Beta and I would go futher but I'm tired and need sleep .

Love doing the exploration part of it. There's just so much land! The scenery is amazing. Shame that 3 of the skill points were glitched.

2 Of them had dead NPC's and the 3rd had the boss not showing up at all :/

Really loving the Norn's and being and Elementilist. So much fun.

You guys get a chance to play during the first beta event?

[Zid]

It's everything I expected it to be from reading so much about it. I'm very happy with it thus far.

The one aspect that exceeded my expectations was the amount of thought and detail put into structured PvP. It blew me away when I explored the whole PvP lobby; there's so much build freedom and practicing that it sets a new standard for me from any MMORPG PvP. I can't understand why any other serious MMORPG PvPs don't have these features, such as PvP "bots", attacking/still dummies, posthumous extensive damage data reports, match rooms, etc.

My only complaints are that:

1). In PvE and WvW, when you are revived by somebody, you automatically get back up. This is not useful if you are AFK, because then you're likely to be killed again. And every "defeat" means you damage your armor. I suggest ArenaNet put a manual option for the downed/defeated player to revive when someone else successfully revives that player (whether normally or by skills, like Battle Standard). Obviously this won't apply to rallies or self-reviving skills. To reduce "stored revive" abuse, make this feature only allowed outside of dungeons.

2). There should be an incentive to volunteer to be transferred to the other team in structured PvP if the other team has 2 or more less people than the opposing team. Right now, there's no incentive at all to move to the other team for balancing, and thus the autobalance kicks in, selecting one random person on the initial team as a substitute for the other team. Then those people are just likely to ragequit. This is even more likely considering that Glory points are awarded for certain in-match achievements, like getting the highest score or having the most kills. There's incentive to stay on the winning team (for a chance at more Glory points), and there is no incentive to stay on the losing team (which is more likely if they have less people than the winning team). I suggest ArenaNet put perhaps a 10% ~ 20% Glory point boost for volunteering to balance, that will stay as long as the volunteered person stays on the team they volunteered for until the end of the match. Not only will this make volunteering much more appealing, but it'll also make it more likely for highly-skilled players to volunteer too, making it more likely for the losing/lesser team to have a much better player. To prevent abuse, this volunteer bonus has a cool down of maybe 30 ~ 60 minutes.

Other than that, I love everything else. Well, maybe except the current class balance in structured PvP. I think the Engineer class is having the hardest time with it.

[Cucurbita]

Enjoy your click targeting. Such a terrible outdated system.

[Kingofrunes]

Enjoy your click targeting. Such a terrible outdated system.

I have yet to play an mmo that did not have click targeting Cucu. I didn't even know such games existed. It's all I know for MMO's. Is point and click.

Well, I lie. DFO didn't have click targeting but I hate DFO. UI is incredibly messy and way too busy. Played it for the free nx >.>

I only have one regret for Guild Wars 2. The fact that I didn't record any of my gameplay footage

[Cucurbita]

I have yet to play an mmo that did not have click targeting Cucu. I didn't even know such games existed. It's all I know for MMO's. Is point and click.

Well, I lie. DFO didn't have click targeting but I hate DFO. UI is incredibly messy and way too busy. Played it for the free nx >.>

I only have one regret for Guild Wars 2. The fact that I didn't record any of my gameplay footage

Click targeting, tab selection, its outdated. You haven't played vindictus? Its aim targeting.

Tera online is also aim targeting. Continent of the 9th is aim targeting. Dragon Nest is aim targeting.

[Kingofrunes]

Forgot about Vindictus. I quit that because the game was too damn hard >.>

But we are getting off topic.

I guess you just have different tastes in MMO's. I've never played any of the games you suggested and have no desire to either. Especially considering that 2 of the ones you listed I quit in a relatively short period of time.

On that note, there has only been 2 MMO's to date that I have stuck with for a long, long period of time.

Runescape and Mabinogi. If that tells you anything about my tastes in MMO's. Mabinogi in particular as I've stuck with that for 4 years plus which is a record so far for me in terms of time with an MMO.

[Cucurbita]

Forgot about Vindictus. I quit that because the game was too damn hard >.>

Pretty much this. Tab and click targeting is too easy and puts me to sleep.

Aim targeting has a ton of extra potential for interactive combat. The skill floor and ceiling can be as great as to be able to solo raid bosses intended for your level if you play well. Each battle is a constant struggle of positioning, blocking, dodging, attacking.

I'm sick of games that rely purely on your level and currently provided skills. Its a grindfest that plays "WATCH THE COOLDOWNS - THE GAME".

Alternatively, you have games where you could solo bosses like these intended for a full party without taking a single damage if you play carefully and strategically.





And as far as visuals go, I do prefer Tera's.

 Spoiler:

Taken at medium settings

Though honestly, no mmorpg will ever be as beautiful and detailed as Blade & Soul.

[TA]

It blew me away when I explored the whole PvP lobby; there's so much build freedom and practicing that it sets a new standard for me from any MMORPG PvP. I can't understand why any other serious MMORPG PvPs don't have these features, such as PvP "bots", attacking/still dummies, posthumous extensive damage data reports, match rooms, etc.

Wait, what? Where was that stuff? I never saw anything like that...

[Kingofrunes]

Wait, what? Where was that stuff? I never saw anything like that...

Neither did I. Then again I didn't do PvP that much. I only did a little taste of WvW PvP and managed to kill 3 people in that and other than that got slaughtered and went back to exploring.

There's so much to explore in Guild Wars 2. The map is HUGE! The Skill Challenges really are a challenge. Both in getting to them, completing them, and finding the damn things.

[Zid]

Pretty much this. Tab and click targeting is too easy and puts me to sleep.

Aim targeting has a ton of extra potential for interactive combat. The skill floor and ceiling can be as great as to be able to solo raid bosses intended for your level if you play well. Each battle is a constant struggle of positioning, blocking, dodging, attacking.

I'm sick of games that rely purely on your level and currently provided skills. Its a grindfest that plays "WATCH THE COOLDOWNS - THE GAME".

Alternatively, you have games where you could solo bosses like these intended for a full party without taking a single damage if you play carefully and strategically.

Tab and click targeting in GW2 is basic, and only applies to basic ranged attacks. Even then, it's kind of useless in PvP, because there's no "heat-seeking" in this game (except for perhaps one skill, but that skill is weak). You could just dodge out of the way by running to the side.

Virtually every melee skills operate the same way TERA does: without needing a target to swing or activate. Tab targeting, therefore, is just to see how much health your enemy has.

The majority of the hard-hitting skills (including melee) are ground-targeted. In other words, you need to aim them, AoE-style. This also scales well with a high skill ceiling because you have to lead targets and are also dodgeable. The skilled players in structured PvP are the ones who know how to keep their opponents in these ground-targeted areas, while making it difficult to dodge out.

And the mobility buffs/debuffs. They are the most useful buffs/debuffs I've seen in PvP because mobility is key to survival. I'm actually worried how much emphasis is placed on mobility buffs/debuffs, because it gives me that MOBA feeling. ._. Where standing still in battle is guaranteed death.

Tab and click targeting is the least of your worries in GW2. There is just as strong an emphasis on movement and positioning. The fact that there's no blocking puts even more pressure on dodging.

I haven't seen anybody solo any huge field bosses in GW2 yet, because everybody is fighting them 24/3 (3 days of beta). So I can't comment on that. If it's anything like Guild Wars 1, then they're potentially soloable even if they're slightly higher in level.

Wait, what? Where was that stuff? I never saw anything like that...

The PvP bots were on the north side of the PvP lobby island, or north of Hall of Memories. Most of these bots are lvl 80 professions, and their AIs are customized to take advantage of their profession's weapon skills.

The dummies were to the right of that area, and they were golems standing still, either by themselves (for 1v1) or in a group (for 1 vs. multiple targets).

Anytime you die aka get "defeated" in the PvP lobby (due to the PvP bots) or in structured PvP, you get a window popup that details the skills used against you, in what order, and how much damage each skill did to you. This is great for figuring out opponent's combos.

Structured PvP uses match rooms instead of queues. Hence, there's a structured PvP room browser.