Guild Wars 2 (official review on pp 21)

[Sparhawk]

Yak's Bend it is for me!

See ya there!

[Lockdown]

Just started playing bw3 this morning.  I had originally no desire to play a silvari, but I have got to say they did a pretty awesome job with this race.  Both the character creation options and the creatures you fight against are pretty amazing.

[Wargus]

Just started playing bw3 this morning.  I had originally no desire to play a silvari, but I have got to say they did a pretty awesome job with this race.  Both the character creation options and the creatures you fight against are pretty amazing.

I'm pretty impressed with both new races.  Played an assura guardian up to 9, switched over to a silvary elementalist and am really enjoying both areas.

[Harkonis]

Nobody checks chat I guess.   I've been typing in chat to a couple people from here and they just never respond.

[Soulchilde]

yeah I'm sure I missed chat...

[Harkonis]

Yeah, I tried talking to you and Sparhawk several times. 

[jersoc]

this is the first MMO i'm rolling a melee as my first char. absolutely loved the guardian. I tried WvW for the first time this bwe and it was so much fun. way, way funner than Spvp. i can see a small team of 5-10 players just changing the tide of battle really easily. a few of us broke off us once and took over supply areas which probably helped in capping the garrison not too long after. plus running supplies is really underrated. siege weapons are a must.

the sylvari and asura zones were amazing. i will probably level in those areas for a while

keg brawl was awesome. hope anet implements a tournament with brackets for that too. if you didnt try it, you missed out. do it at launch.

the end of the beta event was simply amazing. i really hope the anet fixes it up and releases has a live event. too amazing not to be included.

[Lockdown]

I missed all three end of beta events!  Sounds like I missed a good time.  Man I gotta say I love playing a thief in this game.  What a cool as hell profession.

[Booner]

Speaking of professions....my absolutely biggest issue regarding GW2 is which one to play first!  The Warrior, the Mesmer, and the Thief all have mechanics that strike a chord in me for different reasons.

The thief is just so quick and active that it's really rewarding when you're in the groove with it. The whole 'float like a butterfly sting like a bee' vibe is cool, plus it has some of the best combat animations I've ever seen in an MMO....there's just something I really like about it.

The mesmer I enjoy because it's a bit more cerebral. Even though you create a bit of confusion, it can be a bit confusing to track/manage your clones and illusions. Alot of folks find this to be an underpowered class, but I honestly don't feel it particularly underpowered. Fights may be a bit more protracted in all situations, but I feel as if I can take on a larger number of opponents. As far as sPvP...I find it to be beastly. Considering every time I drop a clone, my opponent drops target and has to reacquire me amongst the clones, I can really cut down on the time they are able to attack. If I have my head on straight during PvP, not doing something that gives the real me away, like jumping, unnecessarily dodging, or swapping weapons, while smartly using stealth and shatters, I feel as if I'm in control of the fight.

Then the warrior is always useful in a group due to it's high number of finishers. This allows it to take advantage of every field that's laid down by others and have a constant stream of cross-profession combos. Another thing that makes it attractive is the number of weapons it's able to use, and with the main hand/off hand combos, it has such a huge and varied skill set that could keep it playing fresh for a long time. Add in the fact that it's so damn visceral performing crowd control via greathammer and I have a feeling this will be the class when playing with friends. Which after the last stress test and BWE3, two of my regular mates had the game 'click' for them despite their earlier reservations.

Which classes are you all in love with and why?

[Soulchilde]

Haven't decided , but I am struggling between the Necro, Warrior, Engineer and Elementalist.   I have a feeling the Elementalist will be nerfed hard when the game goes live as they are too powerful at least in the early levels. 

[skystride]

I'm going Elementalist to start (I started with Ele in GW too).  But it's tough choice.  I took a cursory look at Guardian and it didn't interest me in the least.  And then I played it and saw some higher level Guardians in action and my perception completely changed.  What an awesome class.  So it won't from meh to maybe I should play this instead of Ele first.  I also really like Ranger, Mesmer and Necro.

[Wargus]

I played a guardian this last beta and loved it, it is a bit more cerebral and has a lot more utility than the warrior while retaining a lot of the visceral feel in combat.  It's now my my pick for release.

[Harkonis]

Sylvari Thief and an Asura Guardian for me

[USMC Kato]

Sylvari Thief and an Asura Guardian for me

Sylvarin Warrior, Asura Elementalist

[Soulchilde]

Okay Charr Warrior or Necro & Asura Engineer

[skystride]

Sylvari Thief and an Asura Guardian for me

Hedging your bet this time by picking one of the most popular and least popular class?

[Harkonis]

Sylvari Thief and an Asura Guardian for me

Hedging your bet this time by picking one of the most popular and least popular class?

you caught me!   Thief will be my main though, so I'm still on the good 'ol gimped class run.   

I had a blast playing a pure support Guardian in SPvP.  Probably won't use the Guardian much in WvWvW though. 

[EngineNo9]

I was never able to get a beta key to try this out, is there anything in Guild Wars 2 to interest somebody who has burned out on traditional MMO gameplay?

[Harkonis]

depends on how burned out and why.  For me there is.  I really like the pvp both structured and open world.  I also enjoy the ease of levelling and lack of a huge ramp at higher levels.

Lack of quests is nice too

[Reemul]

I am looking forward to this, never really got in to GW but enjoed the beta of this. Hopefully this and Secret World will keep me occupied until Xmas

[Lockdown]

Thief and Warrior for me.  Sylvari and Asura.  Not 100% sure how I will pair them though.

[Covenant]

Sylvari elementalist, Norn Ranger

[Roguetad]

How does the engineer play?  Is it mostly a ranged class with turrets?  I haven't seen it mentioned too often as a class people want to play at launch.

Do ranger pets work mostly as additional damage and utility?  Are they able to function as tanks in pve? 

[Soulchilde]

Engineers are a range class they can  Dual wield pistols, Pistol/shield and rifles.  While turrets are a ability I think they shine with their kit versatility.  They have a grenade kit, healer kit and flame thrower kit ( not sure if there are more as I only unlock the preceding

[Roguetad]

Engineers are a range class they can  Dual wield pistols, Pistol/shield and rifles.  While turrets are a ability I think they shine with their kit versatility.  They have a grenade kit, healer kit and flame thrower kit ( not sure if there are more as I only unlock the preceding

That sounds good...thanks for the info.

[Lockdown]

Roguetad: Ranger pets are not created equal, that's for sure.  Bear in mind the following is from a person who got to a whopping level 13 as a Ranger, so someone like Cov. might have more accurate info.  But I found that something like a Brown Bear will live through quite a bit more than say a feline pet.  A Moa bird falling somewhere in between.  Things like Ravens seem to engage quickly and do pretty great damage, but I don't think they'll win any survivability contests.  In my short time playing with a pet, I feel their greatest "strength" is their special abilities though.  I treated there triggerable (is that a word?) abilities as another skill on my skill bar.  And some are pretty freaking good.  As far as holding aggro, overall on the lower level stuff they could do it without any problem at all.  I don't know if that scales as you get into the higher level mobs, but one could theorize that it does, as pets level with you.

[Roguetad]

All of that sounds good.  I'm happy to hear that ranger pets have a bigger role in GW2 than they did in GW1.

Without the benefit of playing in any of the beta weekends, and only watching gameplay videos, I'm leaning torwards a Charr/Nord Ranger, Charr Engineer, or Charr/Nord Warrior.  Things that I've seen that I like about each:

Warrior - I can't believe how many weapon options they have.  I can't think of any other game where warriors get ranged options as developed as they are in GW2.  Almost all of the melee attacks I saw looked brutal, with a lot of weight behind them.

Ranger - There seems to already be a good amount of depth with pet types and skillsets.  All of the bow attacks look good.  I think I saw that there are different skills for longbow and shortbow, which would add more options.  I also like that they don't seem to be complete pushovers at close range.

Engineer - This class seems to have a ton of options for damage dealing and support.  I can't tell from the vidoes if it all works together well though.  I've always enjoyed playing damage/support, or having the option to do both, depending on the situation.       

Some other standouts that I saw:  Guardians get this awesome hammer attack that launches their foe into orbit via a devestating looking homerun swing.  I really liked the dual pistol or pistol/sword animations for the Thief.  I don't know how well they work in practice, but they were fun to watch.  Mesmers seem like they could be the ultimate f**k you class in pvp.  So many of the Mesmer skills seem to be sadistically designed to f**k with other players.   

[Covenant]

Just a reminder that there's a stress test today from 12:00 - 4:00 PST

[Soulchilde]

Another stress teast today from 4 pm to 8pm pst

[ericb]

Another stress teast today from 4 pm to 8pm pst

I'm starting to regret playing the stress tests because I realize how much I'm looking forward to actually playing the game when it comes out in a few weeks.  Mostly played around with the character creation but my first is still going to be a Norn ranger.  I thing they really, really need a neck adjustment slider for the humans though...my neck on a new character looked like it was about a foot long.

[Roguetad]

Sunday's 1 hour stress test was much, much smoother for me than Friday.  No rubberbanding.

I picked up where I left off with some of the classes I started on Friday.  The engineer felt good wielding both a rifle and 2 pistols.  Main hand pistol seems to do pretty well in pve with the bleed damage on #1.  I didn't get far enough to try any kits.   

I spent most of my time with the mesmer, which I wasn't interested in at first.  I like the dueling aspect of the class.  I tried main hand sword with off hand pistol which was a lot of fun.  I also tried greatsword, and scepter/pistol.  The mesmer was much more fun than I expected, although it seemed to take a more focussed effort to kill things than any of the other classes I tried.  I could see myself playing a mesmer main or alt.  I'm not a fan of the pink butterflies though.  I'll take bats instead...or birds...or beetles.

If there's another stress test, I'd like to try the warrior and ranger.  I did try the thief, but the playstyle was a little too spastic for me.  The attacks I unlocked were cool though.  Just not my thing. 

           

 

[rittchard]

11 more days til headstart begins!

As with other MMOs, all GTers in good standing are welcome to join the Wanderers guild.  I'm sure we'll have a pretty eclectic and active group of people in this game, both for PvE AND PvP.

If you haven't already, be sure to sign up at our wesbite and indicate you are coming from GT.  Once we have a server choice set, we'll post it here immediately.

www.the-wanderers-guild.com

[Lockdown]

Excellent, ritt.

The more the merrier guys - The Wanderers don't bite.  Come join us!

[Knightshade Dragon]

Excellent, ritt.

The more the merrier guys - The Wanderers don't bite.  Come join us!

I'll Wander in. 

[Arclight]

So, this Saturday marks the start of Guild Wars 2 maiden voyage. How appropriate that today I couldn't log into SWToR. Time had run out on my sub but I decided time had also run out for my time in SWToR.

Perfect timing as I like having a go to MMO for my gaming time. Mind you I wasn't that impressed with the couple of tests I jumped into. But I have a gut feeling that this is going to mature very nicely.

So cheers guys. Here's to a smooth launch and months of fun.

I think a Tree People Thief will be the starting toon of mine.

[rittchard]

Hey guys,

After a lot of discussion, we've decided to launch on Ehmry Bay for release.  Head on by the Wanderers site for more details!

If there is a change in server due to too many people or whatnot, I'll be sure to announce it there and here as well.

www.the-wanderers-guild.com

[Gratch]

I'll be jumping in on GW2 this weekend.  Looking forward to it.

[ericb]

Can't wait...this is the first game in a long time I've wanted to play more every single time I logged in beta or any stress test.  Looks like it could go live as soon as midnight eastern Sat based on their "up to 3 hours early" estimate.

[Scraper]

Hey Rittchard,

I'm going to be having an active guild on Emry Bay as well. We should make an alliance when the game launches. Here's our website http://www.thunderbottomale.com/

If anyone is interested in joining Thunderbottom just sign up on the site. We are open to everyone 21 and over. Just be warned we get rowdy as our guild name implies. We also have a brand spanking new Mumble server set up for GW2.

[Harkonis]

I saw that as Thunder Botto Male and thought Ritt would love playing with it's members.