My re-review 2014

Ringside

I played the game at release but returned to it recently. Most of the time when I hang around on the forums looking for something to play, I tend to re-activate old games hoping they will grab my attention like they did the first time and ignite a gaming passion.

Let's face it, it rarely happens! Most older games are never the same. They get patched in a wrong way or a bad expansion comes out and despite my desire to relive the adventure once again, it is not possible anymore.

Luckily Gw2 was a suprising exeption for me. I returned to it and decided to learn the game over again leveling up to 80 before jumping into pvp. It took me about a week to get used to the new interface and shake the rust off.

-Im not a fan of grinding but the grind in this game is fun. Finding vistas, points of interest, hearths and even dynamic events.

The game is relatively easy and casual player friendly. However, there is harder content available and unless you are an elitist raider you will find in the dongeons and especially higher level Fractals your PvE fix.

- Dont fall into the ( only few skills available, game seems too simple ) once you get higher in level you will realize the gameplay has a lot of depth and things can get much more complicated and hard than you can imagine. 

The ArenaNet store is a plus. People are buying there things illegally in every games, at least in Gw2 your money goes to the company instead of going to some silly chinese farmers. 

- There is no pay to win in there, just cosmetic stuff and fluffy items but I fell for a couple items and Im realy happy with what I bought for around 35$ US.

I usually play casters or healers in MMO's  but this time I decided to roll a Human Guardian. I realy enjoy the melee aspect in the game. I've watched Tap dat mouse videos on youtube and Empowering Wrath by Stella and decided to try their builds.

I am having a lot of fun roaming in world vs world killing people .... Dying also lolll but its only going to get better as my gear progresses. 

Next step will be to learn all the other classes basic mechanics so I can counter them better in pvp and also sinergize better with them in PvE. The world is immense and the graphics at max settings are for me 10/10.

Im glad I decided to give the game a second chance... I had to buy it over again since i had forgotten my password... I dunno how their password system works but ey didnt let me use a password i had used in the past for anything on my computer. So creating my new account was a bit complicated and I didnt understand at first why they wouldnt let me create my account. Even after trying like 20 different passwords possibilities lol I realy had to pick something new.

Ho and girls tend to like this MMO a lot. I joined a guild and was suprised to hear the voices once I joined their mumble. A lot of older people are playing the game as well. Im not saying there are no kids since it s F2P game but being casual friendly makes it accessible to people with busy lifes.

Being casual friendly doesnt mean the game cant deliver for hardcore gamers. Its going to take a lot of time before you run out of content and the replay value is good since every story line varies depending on your class and the choices you made upon character creation. 

Leon1e

Originally posted by Ringside

Let's face it, it rarely happens! Most older games are never the same. They get patched in a wrong way or a bad expansion comes out and despite my desire to relive the adventure once again, it is not possible anymore.

You forgot to mention pink-tinted glasses and being excited about something just because its new and shiny  

Also about your password issue ... I had a buddy with the same issue, forgotten password. So we searched through his GMail account and found the purchase confirmation e-mail by arenanet and contacted support. Within minutes we were asked about the CD-KEY and some personal information like name, birthdate, residing country. After answering these we were taken to a form to change the password. 

 

And guardian was my first pick as well a bit over 2 years ago. A great class to play. It is bonus nice because it can switch from group healer to damage dealer to tank to support (boon provider) to control(anchor guardians are awful to fight against) with the swap of few traits while out of combat. Insane customization class I'd say. 

fivoroth

For me picking the right class in GW2 made a huge difference to my enjoymenet of the game. I tried quite a few classes and I hated all of them. Didn't like the combat which affected my overall enjoyment of the game. The only class tht clicked with me was the guardian. I loved that char so much I got from lvl 1 to 80 without distracting myself with other games. Sadly I eventually got bored with the guardian too. But I don't like any of the other classes to begin with.

Ringside

I tried the Necro, Mesmer and now Guardian and I like all of them. What this game made me realize is that when you are playing a healer in other MMO's you are pretty much watching health bars going up and down constantly during an encounter.

 

I like it too somehow but it was getting old for me after a couple years of playing a priest in WoW. In GW2 you are actually playing the game not the UI.

You rarely have to watch what is around you as a healer in most MMO unless you are standing in the fire or if the boss require a certain strategy for positioning. Then you are back at playing the health bar game again.

Watch your cooldown timers, watch your positioning a split second then back at staring at the health bars.

 

Its like playing a Nintendo game of the 90s lol. 

I know, I know its much more than just staring at health bars especially in pvp but you get the point.

PaRoXiTiC

You can pretty much spec a full healer as a Guardian and it is A LOT of fun. I'm mainly Warrior in every MMO I play, but I also enjoy the Priest/Healer classes when I want a change.

Look up a Full Healer/Tank/Support Guardian build and roll it. You will be suprised how much you help others and they don't even know it. LOL

There is no glory nor rage against the healer like in other games. That's why I love it. I can quietly support and keep my party alive in WvWvW and they have no clue how many times I have saved their life. It makes for great fun.

Bladestrom

For me ^^ describes perfectly what gw2's lack of trinity offers. if this was a power/vertical based MMO, people would minmax decide on the optimal build and either every guardian would be forced to be a healer, or forced to pick the 'meta' buil. Instead we get to play the build we most enjoy, with no idiots bellowing I. Party because you not doing x% of this or that on a meter.

Dakeru

Just a word of advice from one previously dedicated healer to another.

 

No matter what build you are using on necro - investing 2 points into the blood traitline will unlock the ability to heal with your life transfer skill.

Even if you don't have any points invested in healing this will heal 5 persons around you for 3k each.

It's that skill to "not feel naked" for notorious healers as us.

sumdumguy1

Originally posted by fivoroth
For me picking the right class in GW2 made a huge difference to my enjoyment of the game.

 

This happened to me when I came back to play as well.  I chose to play a melee character which is not my style.  Fortunately, I recognized this fairly early and was able to switch to a class I really enjoyed playing.   I figured I heard so many good things about the Guardian and while a good class, just not a good class for me

Gaia_Hunter

Originally posted by sumdumguy1

Originally posted by fivoroth
For me picking the right class in GW2 made a huge difference to my enjoyment of the game.

 

This happened to me when I came back to play as well.  I chose to play a melee character which is not my style.  Fortunately, I recognized this fairly early and was able to switch to a class I really enjoyed playing.   I figured I heard so many good things about the Guardian and while a good class, just not a good class for me

One of the nice things with GW2 is that no single class is strictly melee or  strictly ranged.

I spent a nice portion of my guardian open world PvE play time shooting with a scepter/torch.

andre369

Originally posted by Ringside

I played the game at release but returned to it recently. Most of the time when I hang around on the forums looking for something to play, I tend to re-activate old games hoping they will grab my attention like they did the first time and ignite a gaming passion.

Let's face it, it rarely happens! Most older games are never the same. They get patched in a wrong way or a bad expansion comes out and despite my desire to relive the adventure once again, it is not possible anymore.

Luckily Gw2 was a suprising exeption for me. I returned to it and decided to learn the game over again leveling up to 80 before jumping into pvp. It took me about a week to get used to the new interface and shake the rust off.

New interface? There have been some revamps here and there, but calling it a new interface is just wrong. Especially since this is a "Re-review"

-Im not a fan of grinding but the grind in this game is fun. Finding vistas, points of interest, hearths and even dynamic events.

The above listed things are simply part of the game, if you had played it  thoroughly the first time around or even at all none of this is end game content and is just a part of the leveling experience. Stating hearts vistas are part of the "grind" in GW2 is just wrong, they are things you do once, then all that is left in most of the game world is dynamic events that is most of the time sub optimal to do. Unless they are meta events, boss events or new temporary Living World content. DR and nerfs by ANET made sure of that.

The game is relatively easy and casual player friendly. However, there is harder content available and unless you are an elitist raider you will find in the dongeons and especially higher level Fractals your PvE fix.

There is harder content indeed, although running the easiest dungeons with daily limits is the most profitable. There is lack luster advantages doing harder content. Fractals gives ascended gear drops, by chance. It has been bugged for months upon months as the higher level would not, if even decrease the drop chance. Maybe they have finally fixed it now? Who knows? 

- Dont fall into the ( only few skills available, game seems too simple ) once you get higher in level you will realize the gameplay has a lot of depth and things can get much more complicated and hard than you can imagine. 

More complicated and harder I can imagine? As a GW1 player, that is just a plain lie. But sticking to GW2, it does have depth, it does have customizing, but it does not have enough of it. To me personally it feels like I am forced to play a certain way, that might be their GEM OF A SKILL system in GW1 speaking though. For other MMOs I do not have so high expectations for different builds and experimentation. But from my personal experience the combat and gameplay feeling just gets repetitive compared to the predecessor.

The ArenaNet store is a plus. People are buying there things illegally in every games, at least in Gw2 your money goes to the company instead of going to some silly chinese farmers. 

Boy, we are on totally different ends of the specter here. People are buying stuff illegally in GW2 as well, so just stop. DR, daily limits, DE rewards, dungeon rewards the whole game reward and loot system is designed to contemplate and lure players into buying gems to convert for gold. That is my opinion, many others and you cannot sway my opinion about it.

Remember, cosmetics are the end game in GW2, and you can buy it all with real dollars by converting gold. 

Add to that, them pesky RNG chests which behind them lock away unique cosmetic armor that you cannot get anywhere else in the game.

End game being the cosmetics, to me that gimps the whole reason to play the game when you need to open RNG chests to obtain gear you cannot get anywhere else in the game. Make them rare drops and it would been "okay", but then again look at the skin for the ascended armor. Tell me really if you think that one looks good, or even on par the items in the gem store offers. 

They gotta make money, I get that but locking unique gear behind RNG in a browser inside a game.. Breaks it for me.

- There is no pay to win in there, just cosmetic stuff and fluffy items but I fell for a couple items and Im realy happy with what I bought for around 35$ US.

100% right, but as said above. If you are a dedicated player and want to invest in a game, you wont be happy about GW2. As its endgame content is cosmetic "mostly" and items being locked behind RNG chests rather than being actual in game rewards for doing hard content.

I usually play casters or healers in MMO's  but this time I decided to roll a Human Guardian. I realy enjoy the melee aspect in the game. I've watched Tap dat mouse videos on youtube and Empowering Wrath by Stella and decided to try their builds.

I am having a lot of fun roaming in world vs world killing people .... Dying also lolll but its only going to get better as my gear progresses. 

I have limited experience in WvW, but in the end it comes down to 2 maps where the size of the zerg means more in most situations. and the emphasis on siege weapons are just lackluster. They should be more powerful and rarer. You should not be able to bring down walls without one. That is just my opinion. Plus the stacking and the AoE cap, which they sadly cannot do anything with is just another downfall. 

Do not get me wrong, I have had some fun in there but in the end it gets repetitive. 

Next step will be to learn all the other classes basic mechanics so I can counter them better in pvp and also sinergize better with them in PvE. The world is immense and the graphics at max settings are for me 10/10.

Im glad I decided to give the game a second chance... I had to buy it over again since i had forgotten my password... I dunno how their password system works but ey didnt let me use a password i had used in the past for anything on my computer. So creating my new account was a bit complicated and I didnt understand at first why they wouldnt let me create my account. Even after trying like 20 different passwords possibilities lol I realy had to pick something new.

Ho and girls tend to like this MMO a lot. I joined a guild and was suprised to hear the voices once I joined their mumble. A lot of older people are playing the game as well. Im not saying there are no kids since it s F2P game but being casual friendly makes it accessible to people with busy lifes.

Being casual friendly doesnt mean the game cant deliver for hardcore gamers. Its going to take a lot of time before you run out of content and the replay value is good since every story line varies depending on your class and the choices you made upon character creation. 

At the end, I just want to ask how many people you have gotten to know through out the leveling part. Excluding any guild you have joined. My experience with the game is that it is just too busy, no downtime for player interaction and no real interaction within the community. No player trading, no grouping really required in the open world etc..

PaRoXiTiC

I wish this game had player trading as well. I hate auction houses.

Ringside

Here is what I enjoy to do the most in the game... To those saying Zerg pvp suck after trying to do it for like  a day or two saying its only a button mashing thing.

 

Cedrick's Guardian on youtube.

 

/watch?v=vAg49ziVUqM 

add  w w w youtube dot com at the begining obviously

( cant write down webpage on forums )

fivoroth

Originally posted by Ringside

I tried the Necro, Mesmer and now Guardian and I like all of them. What this game made me realize is that when you are playing a healer in other MMO's you are pretty much watching health bars going up and down constantly during an encounter.

 

I like it too somehow but it was getting old for me after a couple years of playing a priest in WoW. In GW2 you are actually playing the game not the UI.

You rarely have to watch what is around you as a healer in most MMO unless you are standing in the fire or if the boss require a certain strategy for positioning. Then you are back at playing the health bar game again.

Watch your cooldown timers, watch your positioning a split second then back at staring at the health bars.

 

Its like playing a Nintendo game of the 90s lol. 

I know, I know its much more than just staring at health bars especially in pvp but you get the point.

A lot of games where you have difficult raid content, you will be doing way more than watching health bars. As a healer you will have to predict what's about to happen next and you will have to move a lot and be very much aware of your surroundings so you don't die.

Sadly GW2 doesn't offer any kind of challenging PvE content.

epoq

I love leveling in this game.

 

Literally, it's the only thing I enjoy.   Dungeons are OK, I'm not a big PvP guy, never was, don't really enjoy WvW very much.  But I have leveled 4 characters to 80 and each time feels unique in it's own way (played all the races, with different storylines).  I dig it the same way I dig SWTOR.  Fun PvE leveling experience, everything else is just 'meh'.

aesperus

Originally posted by Ringside

I played the game at release but returned to it recently. Most of the time when I hang around on the forums looking for something to play, I tend to re-activate old games hoping they will grab my attention like they did the first time and ignite a gaming passion.

Let's face it, it rarely happens! Most older games are never the same. They get patched in a wrong way or a bad expansion comes out and despite my desire to relive the adventure once again, it is not possible anymore.

Luckily Gw2 was a suprising exeption for me. I returned to it and decided to learn the game over again leveling up to 80 before jumping into pvp. It took me about a week to get used to the new interface and shake the rust off.

Glad to hear it man!

I re-visited the game not too long ago (a couple months ago) after a long break. And I had a similar experience. A lot of my old friends had returned as well, surprisingly, and we still have fun. The game really does shine on it's own once you play it with an open mind. I keep trying to tell people this, and have ended up resigning to the understanding that most people just can't do that.

It has it's qwerks, and it's not a game that everyone can nolife, but it's definitely one of the better MMOs on the market today. With probably the fairest business model I've seen thus far (it doesn't impede gameplay, and you aren't forced to buy anything after the initial purchase).

The only thing that really bugs me about the game is the lack of an expansion, and how ANet seems to always come around to these hugely requested features far too late. Usually after most of the players have given up hope. If they delivered on some of that stuff in a more timely manner (don't get me wrong, the living story stuff is getting better and better), I think they'd win a lot more people back into the game.

I'm still baffled they are just now pushing a PvP tournament; Two solid years after the esports scene left the game running. They should probably get some tips from Hi-Rez as to how to get into the esports scene as a relatively 'newer' company. And the order / timetable with which you need to get things done to make that happen. They could prove us all wrong, but it seems like a mistake to pull a large tournament out of the blue and expect that to work. Most competitive teams go where the money is, and that means frequent tournaments with enticing payoffs. They won't stick around in a game just on the off chance they'll be a big tournament (which they can still lose), with nothing in between to live off of.

 

APThug

I'm glad your liking the game. I did hear ANet is looking to hiring a raid content person. So we maybe getting some new large scales dungeons to crawl through.