Guild Wars 2 (official review on pp 21)

[PR_GMR]

I'm logged in! Kato has been created

FFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!

 

[Cragmyre]

I'm logged in! Kato has been created

FFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!

 

NNNNNN? 

[Asharak]

Logged in and at character creation. Woot!

- Ash

[PR_GMR]

Logged in and at character creation. Woot!

- Ash

FFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!....NNNNNNNNN!!!

 

[Arkon]

My very early impressions...aside from it being an absolute cluster**** to get anything done, or even see the NPC's...why the hell does it feel like my character is running in mud but yet also feel very floaty.

[Teggy]

See, they knew everyone would cancel their pre-orders once they tried the beta, so they made them pre-PURCHASE.

Anyway, super glad they are uncovering these issues now instead of at launch.

[Big Jake]

Soooo, what server are people choosing who cant get into Sorrow's Furnace?

[jersoc]

well this game is pretty good so far. server started to lag so bad it's unplayable, but time for work anyways.

[tcweidner]

character does feel a lil floaty doesnt it,  its 2012 , not sure why they would have 2003 issues.

[Arkon]

So it appears the server we choose is absolutely slammed, and because I got in early and created a character there I am stuck unable to play, and don't have the gems to transfer to a low pop server.  Hopefully once things smooth out they will give the gems out and I can transfer to a low pop server.

[PR_GMR]

So it appears the server we choose is absolutely slammed, and because I got in early and created a character there I am stuck unable to play, and don't have the gems to transfer to a low pop server.  Hopefully once things smooth out they will give the gems out and I can transfer to a low pop server.

They won't be giving the gems out. You have to redeem. Here are the instructions:

Free Gems for Every Beta Player
Each account that participates in the Beta Weekend Event is eligible to receive 2,000 free gems that they can use on whatever they like in our in-game Gem Store during the weekend.
To redeem your gems, just follow these steps
Log in to Guild Wars 2 once the Beta Weekend Event has begun
(April 27-29, 2012).|
Open the Gem Store through the commerce icon on the upper left corner of your screen, or by pressing the “O” key on the keyboard.|
Select the link labeled “Get More Gems” in the Gem Store.|
Select the Beta Special option.|
Enter your valid credit card information – don’t worry, you won’t be charged!|
Confirm the transaction. A hold of $/£1 may be placed on your card, but you will not be charged.|
Spend your gems on any items in the Gem Store, or trade them for gold through the in-game currency exchange.|
Each account that participates in the Beta Weekend Event is eligible to receive 2,000 free gems that they can use on whatever they like in our in-game Gem Store during the weekend.|
Each Guild Wars 2 account is eligible to redeem free gems only once during the Beta Weekend Event. Gems redeemed during the Beta Weekend Event are for use during the event only and will not carry over into the game after launch.

Keep in mind the reasoning for this procedure is they're testing the micro-transaction system too. You won't be charged.

[PR_GMR]

ArenaNet just announced on their boards that server transfers will be free for the next 24 hours.

Sorrow's Furnace is chockfull. I'm finally home. Guess I'll have to create a character elsewhere then transfer to Sorrow's later.

[Big Jake]

I just randomly chose a server - Eredon's Terrace.  It had low population this afternoon.

[PR_GMR]

I'm in Deldrimor until I can move to Sorrow's Furnace. Made a Charr Guardian named Promgemar. The character creator is pretty damn robust. My guy looks badass. Remember, picking the right horns for your Charr is very crucial. 

[Lockdown]

Well. I'm in some really small town in Indiana posting on my kindle fire living vicariously through everyone else right now.  Happy. For you all.

[PR_GMR]

And the servers just went down for 30min maintenance.

[ericb]

My early impressions from yesterday and this morning.

- Love the game.  The graphic style wasn't initially to my liking but it's a lot more detailed than I gave it credit for past the first impression.  Love the maps...not so hot on the character interaction or cutscenes but I've really never loved that style.  Reminds me too much of little big planet.
- Music, effects and sounds are awesome.
- Playing the Norn and I love the story, setting and style.  Love starting with a white wolf too. 
- Character customization at the beginning is pretty decent.  Hate the different options not scaling though.  The tattoo and other boxed selections are about the size of a postage stamp at my resolution.  Also seems silly to have to scroll to multiple pages for things like hair color, etc when over half the screen isn't being used.
- Did I miss the option to change my characters voice?  My female Norn Ranger sounds like a 80 year old Florida native who smoked all her life.
- Getting used to the interface but it's more stylish vs useable.  I would prefer a cleaner option (option, not replacement) that gets rid of the blurs, claw marks, scratches, random lines, etc. 
- PvP was great and quick.  Took me longer to figure out how to leave and go back to the playing world than it did to join in the first place. 
- Game is not ready for prime time.  NCSoft is definitely not ready for the huge numbers of people who are going to hit this especially when it launches.  Lots and lots of complaints about lag, slowness, GPU not being used, parties zoning and being broken apart, etc. 
- Combat is pretty responsive but "floaty" at the same time.  Character running is the same.  Like I'm an inch above the ground always.  Most of it is probably lag and graphic slowdown at this time.  Need to tone down the spell effects though.
- I like sharing kills and getting bonus XP for helping kill something (or being helped) and also being able to share loot even when you're not grouped. 
- Really need a manual or more tutorials or something...there is a ton of stuff hidden away and I still don't know how to do half the things I want to do.
- Some of the classes are really, really, really squishy.  My Ranger can easily go down in about three seconds.  Can't imagine how bad it is with cloth.

While it may seem like a lot of complaints above I don't want to give the impression that I don't like the game.  I'm loving it and I'm glad I pre-purchased.  I'll gladly be playing this once it's live.  I only hope it's a few months before that point so most of the problems are actually fixed.  Say what you want about SWTOR but they set a new standard for stability and bug free playing when it launched especially for a MMO.

Well, I'm going back to playing

[faide]

Agree with Ericb's points.  I really dig this game so far.  I'm not sure it's the big "game changing" mmo they are hyping, but I haven't seen a lot of the game yet.

Speaking of grouping that's the only main complaint I have.  Tried to group with a buddy of mine, it kept putting us in different overflow instances so we never were able to hook up.  It's beta tho, so hopefully that'll be fixed on release.

[tcweidner]

I agree, Iam enjoying the game, but I agree its more evolutionary then revolutionary, and as for the voice acting... its bad.. My norn elementalist sounds like Amy Farah Fowler from The Big Bang Theory.

[Arkon]

So for some reason I am having no issues playing any of my other games, but twice today when playing GW2 my machine has blue screened.  I went ahead and updated my graphics drivers but now I can't log back in.

As for the gameplay, I guess I am in the minority as so far I am just not all that enthralled with it.  Perhaps it is lag, but dodging seems to be useless as even if the enemy telegraphs something, dodging doesn't get me far enough out of range and I take the damage anyways.  I keep seeing people saying to circle strafe...in my opinion having to be in constant motion is no better than just standing still trading blows.

As for the "dynamic" events...I have yet to see a single event actually change the world...and to be honest the game still mostly entails kill X creatures or collect Y widgets, they just mask it by not calling it a quest, but rather an "event".

[Harkonis]

I agree that things aren't very different than most mmo's, however a couple of your points seem off.

Dodge works great, constant movement is a lot better than standing still because the movement matters (ie, getting behind, breaking los, etc)

You are probably confusing dynamic events with the events that are tied to renown hearts.  These are two completely different things.

[Arkon]

I agree that things aren't very different than most mmo's, however a couple of your points seem off.

Dodge works great, constant movement is a lot better than standing still because the movement matters (ie, getting behind, breaking los, etc)

You are probably confusing dynamic events with the events that are tied to renown hearts.  These are two completely different things.

Then I must be having horrendous lag because breaking Line of Sight has done nothing to keep me from getting hit, the same as using dodge.

And yes, I realize there are two types of events, the renown heart events are essentially quests.

The dynamic events I have seen have pretty much boiled down to either:

1.  Kill all the waves of these invading forces
2.  Kill this special monster that just spawned

Killing them gives a small reward and then 5 minutes later the same special monster spawns or the invading forces come pouring in again.

[Thry]

I've had some issues but for the most part I think the game is pretty stellar.  Love the art and music.

I don't see the floaty issue. 

PvP is as good as tab targeting can get.  Lots of room for skillful play. 

[greeneggsnham]

Is it down? I can't log in or hit the beta forums.

[Arkon]

Is it down? I can't log in or hit the beta forums.

I am assuming it is down as I am having the same issue.

[greeneggsnham]

Back up.

[Booner]

...and back down. Ahhh, the joys of beta. 

That said, I have enjoyed the majority of it over the past day. Wielding a two-handed hammer as a warrior has been one of the most visceral gaming experiences ever, the sound of it alone gives the combat heft that I'm not used to hearing. I could blather on about the games audio, but I'll just say that I've been really impressed.

[Pharaoh]

It feels like DAOC sorta, excited!

Elementalists and Thieves will own at launch (should make you happy Hark), and I like the mechanics of Boon and Condition trading during fights. It's almost like two wars going on...the tab combat scrums, and the debuff/buff wars between guardians, necros, mesmers, etc.

I really want to love Enginneer, but it just feels so weak, even at lvl 80 pvp. Their skill set just feels so jack-of-all-trades, that nothing stands out. Mortar strike hits like a noodle, turrets are weak...hmm, maybe I'm missing something.

[Knightshade Dragon]

It feels like DAOC sorta, excited!

Elementalists and Thieves will own at launch (should make you happy Hark), and I like the mechanics of Boon and Condition trading during fights. It's almost like two wars going on...the tab combat scrums, and the debuff/buff wars between guardians, necros, mesmers, etc.

I really want to love Enginneer, but it just feels so weak, even at lvl 80 pvp. Their skill set just feels so jack-of-all-trades, that nothing stands out. Mortar strike hits like a noodle, turrets are weak...hmm, maybe I'm missing something.

The devs did say that they are working on balancing and damage values after this build.  They think they made the critters too tough and the players too weak.  The fun of balancing....

[Hotfreak]

The devs did say that they are working on balancing and damage values after this build.  They think they made the critters too tough and the players too weak.  The fun of balancing....

I've been enjoying the difficulty but  still quite low level. 

So far, (after playing necro, ranger, warrior, engineer, thief), thief is my favorite.  It's easy to comprehend and pretty acrobatic in practice.  I wanted to love my necro but I wasn't "getting it" yet -- seemed to be very reactive to what others are doing around me, no non-awkward solo build that I could construct -- although switching between dagger and staff was kind of fun.  I've tried 3 weapons (dagger, pistol and sword -- with the various off-hand options) with my thief and each has had a distinct and comprehensible play style.

It was when I was playing my thief that the game began to click for me.

[Knightshade Dragon]

If you'd like to see what a Level 30 dungeon looks like, look no further:  http://gamingtrend.com/2012/04/29/guild-wars-2-hands-on-level-30-dungeon/

[faide]

Awesome vids!!!  I'm curious, what was your take on the strategies involved in doing the dungeons?  Since they don't have the traditional heal / tank roles, what's the strategy for bringing bosses down?   

[greeneggsnham]

The devs did say that they are working on balancing and damage values after this build.  They think they made the critters too tough and the players too weak.  The fun of balancing....

I've been enjoying the difficulty but  still quite low level. 

So far, (after playing necro, ranger, warrior, engineer, thief), thief is my favorite.  It's easy to comprehend and pretty acrobatic in practice.  I wanted to love my necro but I wasn't "getting it" yet -- seemed to be very reactive to what others are doing around me, no non-awkward solo build that I could construct -- although switching between dagger and staff was kind of fun.  I've tried 3 weapons (dagger, pistol and sword -- with the various off-hand options) with my thief and each has had a distinct and comprehensible play style.

It was when I was playing my thief that the game began to click for me.

Necro really takes off with axe/warhorn, esp. if you are going minion heavy. Staff necro might be ok for party support, but it was subpar for solo in my experience.

I'll have to put some thoughts together later, going to get some sleep now.

[skystride]

My brief impressions:

This is pretty much exactly the game I was hoping for as a big Guild Wars fan.  There are some issues but nothing that I felt was really major so not really worth mentioning considering it's a beta.  I'm pretty sure I'll be playing GW2 for a really long time.  If GW is any indication, we will be seeing tons of new stuff continually being added to the game (both free and through expansions) and that makes me really excited.  GW2 really is like 3 games in one and I like all 3 of those games types (persistent PvP, MOBA, PvE).

One thing I noticed is that some people with more powerful machines than me are having performance issue.  It runs really well for me.  This makes me think that there are probably graphics card optimization issues that they still have to deal with.

[jersoc]

only played 28 hours this weekend. game not very good

[The Grue]

only played 28 hours this weekend. game not very good

He likes it! He likes it!

[skystride]

I agree that things aren't very different than most mmo's, however a couple of your points seem off.

Dodge works great, constant movement is a lot better than standing still because the movement matters (ie, getting behind, breaking los, etc)

The fact that you can watch enemy animation and time your dodges and change your positioning makes it different from most MMO's out there.  There are also more "skill shot" type skills than most MMOs.  I do wish that it was a bit more like Tera in the combat department but I don't think that's what they were going for.

[Sparhawk]

The devs did say that they are working on balancing and damage values after this build.  They think they made the critters too tough and the players too weak.  The fun of balancing....

I've been enjoying the difficulty but  still quite low level. 

So far, (after playing necro, ranger, warrior, engineer, thief), thief is my favorite.  It's easy to comprehend and pretty acrobatic in practice.  I wanted to love my necro but I wasn't "getting it" yet -- seemed to be very reactive to what others are doing around me, no non-awkward solo build that I could construct -- although switching between dagger and staff was kind of fun.  I've tried 3 weapons (dagger, pistol and sword -- with the various off-hand options) with my thief and each has had a distinct and comprehensible play style.

It was when I was playing my thief that the game began to click for me.

Necro really takes off with axe/warhorn, esp. if you are going minion heavy. Staff necro might be ok for party support, but it was subpar for solo in my experience.

I'll have to put some thoughts together later, going to get some sleep now.

I have completely eliminated pets from my Hotbar as they're useless. Instead I'm going scepter/dagger for massive bleed conditions and speed movement glyph and life force glyph. I can kill packs of enemies without any difficulty at all.

Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2

[Harkonis]

for 5v5 pvp by far my favorite and most effective necro was dagger/warhorn. Spec for move speed.

[Teggy]

Crossposted from OO:

I decided to play as an engineer the whole weekend rather than jump around classes. Next beta I'll probably try a different class. I quite liked the engineer because it can play a support class, which I like doing. I could drop healing turrets or med packs and there's an even a skill where you use a gun that shoots out all kinds of buffs and debuffs.

I liked using the rifle, but it wound up really only suitable for one to two mobs at a time. See mob, shoot out net to root it, start shooting, let it break the root and close, blunderbuss for a bleed, use the shot that shoots you away from the mob and knocks it down, repeat. Very little AOE, though so I could get in trouble if I was solo. If I do an engineer, I'll probably want to have a different set of weapons and skills for soloing and then a support set.

I hope over time they come up with some more interesting heart quests. There were a few unique ones (one had you catching bugs and feeding them to cows, one had you destroying ogre houses), but the majority were just grabbing stuff in the general area or killing mobs. Could get a little tiresome. They're also not mandatory, but completing them gives you access to some valuable Karma vendors. I also completed everything in the first Charr area and my reward was two green items that weren't for my class. Not much benefit for the completionist. (Also, it's probably time they got with the color coding for rarity that every other game uses).

The area events were fun, but it seems like you're can be kind of penalized for succeeding. For example, in one area I was called to help prevent some guys from building a barricade. A lot of players joined in and stopped them. After that, the NPCs asked us to follow them further in and retrieve their mining equipment. Everyone followed and we completed that. After that the NPCs just headed on out and thanked us. Seems like if there was a chain of 4 or 5 it would be a lot more fun, but by finishing off the early stages of the chain, there's nothing left to do. It certain areas it was just the same one event over and over and over. There's only so many times you want to shoot harpies or save some guy's scout who for some reason keeps getting lost in the woods.

Overall I am positive, though and I'm looking forward to trying more. I love some of the ease of use features, like being able to deposit resources directly to the bank from anywhere or using the auction house anywhere, and seeing all equipable items in one screen separate from all your other junk.

Chat seems a little limited, though. There seems to be a local channel but it's not clear how far it goes. There never seemed to be anyone asking questions, which seemed odd. Of the MMOs I've played, I still think Rift has done it best with channels for the area you are in and then channels for level bands.