Guild Wars 2

[U4EA]

So, the Guild Wars 2 beta is next week. You can get access by pre-ordering the game. Will anyone be playing that? GW2 was off my radar for a long time, but I may give the beta a shot.

http://www.arena.net/blog/the-beta-week ... -is-coming

Professions [the usual archetypes] and races [as well].

We had a decent sized contingent last time around.

[Mat Linnett]

I'm there
Guaranteed a spot with a pre-order too.

[U4EA]

[Transient]

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/forum/faq ... 34427.html

Apparently there may be a difference between pre-ordering the game through a 3rd party store and pre-purchasing the game directly from ArenaNet.

The only way to absolutely guarantee your access to this or any future Beta Weekend Events is to pre-purchase any edition of Guild Wars 2.

[Mogul]

LOL MMOS U FAGS!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mat Linnett]

I pre-ordered directly from ArenaNet and have already had my access code linked to my existing Guild Wars account.

[Eraser]

Would love to play GW2, but I'm afraid I simply don't have the time available for it.

[Ryoki]

Everything i've seen about Guild Wars 2 so far really makes me want to play it, but yeah... what Eraser said

[Mogul]

I don't know... I really don't like how the game doesn't cater to the "trinity" role system (tank, healer, damage). I felt that way about the first game, too. It's like, get a group, go to the dungeon, and everybody just starts spamming their abilities. Eventually you come out on top.

At the risk of sounding like I have no idea how GW PvE works (I only had one max-level character), that seems like a stupid setup. For comparison, if you look at the Burning Crusade (and early Cataclysm) heroics, the beauty of the trinity system really stood out. You had to crowd control specific targets for specific reasons, then burn the remaining targets down in a specific order -- mobs that were being tanked away from the CC'd mobs so they could be carefully damaged without breaking CC... and so on. In Guild Wars, it seemed (and it looks to play out the same way in GW2) that everybody just rushed into the dungeon and spammed buttons until they won.

Again, am I missing something here? I'd be very glad to find that I'm wrong on this and there actually is some depth to GW/GW2's PvE.

[Mat Linnett]

But Holy Trinity is such a staid, unoriginal, bad habit in MMOs.
And no, spamming abilities will not win in even the first Guild Wars. You have to plan ability bars according to what you're going to be facing. Then you have the synergies between conditions, hexes and the removal thereof or exploitation of such for damage spiking. Then there's interrupt skills, which work far better in GW than in any other MMO I've played. Topping that off, very few skills take more than a minute to cool down, with most cooling down in 20 seconds or less. This all adds up to incredibly dynamic combat where you have massive leeway for specialisation.
Finally, when played as a single player game with a full team of AI "Heroes", it becomes more a strategy game as you have the ability to govern exactly where on the battlefield your companions will stand and whether they will automatically use their skills or you will choose when is best.

Most MMO players don't "Get" Guild Wars. They see the limitations placed on levels or number of skills or the flat levelling curve and easy attainability of top tier gear and automatically assume it's simple.
But the beauty of Guild Wars lies in those restrictions.
With well over 200 skills to choose from at top level, which eight will best suit the current map?
You never have to worry about other team members having spent months or even years grinding out top tier gear, as the best equipment is easily attainable in a week or even less.
And the best part?
Because of the low level cap, I would say that a good 75% of the content you're playing in Guild Wars is what other games would consider "End Game". When was the last time you played an MMO with that much content available for top level players?

Edit: Oh, and Mesmer is the best PvP class in any MMO ever. Nothing beats the satisfaction of having picked the right skill bar and having someone ragequit because you know your class well enough you can completely shut them down
A little dull in PvE, Mesmers come in to their own when you know some poor schmuck is on the receiving end of your shutdowns. Hell, even Mesmer gimmick builds are utterly hilarious, such as the abilities that allow you to "Steal" a random skill from an enemy which is shut down for them whilst you gain the ability to use it.

[Mogul]

For what it's worth, the thing I wish more MMOs would take from Guild Wars is the 8 skillbar slot limitation.

[Mat Linnett]

Just had a quick blast for the first time in a while on my favourite PvP map, Jade Quarry, and it's still as great as ever. And what's even better, my old self-built Jade Quarry Mesmer build still works a treat.

Edit: The thing that makes the PvP stand out is that there really is no way of gaining a major advantage over other players thanks to gear or being a higher level. Everyone is on an equal footing, it comes down to your build and your skill, and as builds can be changed whenever you're in an outpost with absolutely no penalty, it encourages experimentation.

[phantasmagoria]

Everything i've seen about Guild Wars 2 so far really makes me want to play it, but yeah... what Eraser said

dump her

[Mat Linnett]

I wonder how i'd do at GW PvP nowadays after countless hours of WoW battlegrounds. I vaguely remember being completely fucking useless at it. That and everyone running around in pants.

To be honest, GW really isn't built around the idea of the individual in PvP. It's very much a case of picking a role that'll best benefit the team. If you tried it now, you'd best be prepared to do some research in to what builds work best where. It's why I favour Jade Quarry and Fort Aspenwood. Those are far less dependent on trinity style play as they're objective based. Besides which, they're instant respawn with no Death Penalty.
Being good at GW PvP means understanding the disciplines for all other classes as well as the one you're playing. That way, you can tailor your build accordingly. For example, I know I'll meet a lot of Smiter monks and Necro bombers in Jade Quarry, so my build focuses on shutdown skills and spike damage that relies on those shutdowns being active. Chuck in a little AoE for those pesky AI defenders and I'm golden.
I know GW2's on the way, but if the beta this weekend gives you the urge to go back and explore the original, check out the PvX Wiki, an excellent database of working builds for any given situation. You can just copy and paste the build codes in to GW's skill template management system and you're ready to roll.

[U4EA]

For what it's worth, the thing I wish more MMOs would take from Guild Wars is the 8 skillbar slot limitation.

So, the difference is just 2 skills? The 8 skill limitation is great in GW and should be applied to other games, but 6 skills in D3 is too few? Not having a go, genuinely curious. Also, the 6 skills are 4 more than they had in D2!

BTW, Mat one thing that I disagree with you about is the sheer number of skills in GW. You had lots of very niche and frankly not very good skills and very few usable ones. Figuring out which was which took either a lot of experimentation or, eventually, research. In a sense, that sort of theorycrafting can be fun, but I think GW took it way too far and was way too bloated. I've read a similar sentiment from the devs and about how they are focussing a lot more on the quality of skills rather than the quantity.

[Eraser]

Guild Wars' 55 hitpoint monk configuration showed how beautiful a finely tuned skill set with the proper gear could work.

[Ryoki]

dump her

Haha nooo, she makes me happy

Didn't you have a girl too these days? How's that going?

[phantasmagoria]

I dumped her \o/

[Tsakali]

so now you're left with \,/

[Mat Linnett]

Beta client downloading

[Eraser]

Running though my screenies...GW1 doesn't look half as good as I remember it.

I was thinking the same thing seeing these screenshots. I remember it as a gorgeous game.

[MKJ]

it looked pretty enough to me.
i liked the lush enviroments.. before they breached the wall and that seaboard bit.

gw. too bad it turned to a WTB-fest pretty quick.

[Mat Linnett]

Heh, you should head back MKJ; they came down heavily on trading in global chat a few years back and now trading is done pretty exclusively via party search in only a few places.
Guild Wars still does look great, but yeah, it's easy to see the workings.
If you've got the Eye of the North expansion, that's probably got the best looking environments.

[U4EA]

Not sure I'm reading this correctly, but if so, this means no more international districts and freely being able to play with anyone around the world?

http://www.arena.net/blog/choosing-and- ... ild-wars-2

If so, that's going to suck major ass. I'll be playing on US west coast servers for latency reasons.

[Eraser]

When Guild Wars 2 launches, you will also have the option to play with your friends on another world with our free “guesting” feature. With guesting, your characters can play on any world where you have friends—with certain restrictions. For instance, you will not be able to participate in WvW while guesting.

While home-world selection and world transfers will be available during our Beta Weekend Event, guesting is not currently available. All players will be able to receive 2,000 gems free for the Beta Weekend Event, so you will be able to purchase a world transfer if you find yourself in need of one. Since the limit is one transfer every seven days, you’ll only be able to change worlds once during the Beta Weekend Event.

Looks like you can play PvE and PvP with your friends from all over the world. Just not the WvW mode.