Anyone Playing Guild Wars 2?

[Heroette]

Speaking of vistas, I don't know how many times I have fallen trying to get to one.  More than I can count.  I find myself, jumping forward in my chair, just trying to reach the next step, like that is going to help.  LOL.  I can imagine how hard the upper level ones are, considering I am only lvl 17.

[Aggelakis]

I find myself, jumping forward in my chair, just trying to reach the next step, like that is going to help.  LOL.

I do this too. Like a child flailing around with their console controller or tilting their handheld. <3

[Vyx]

Speaking of vistas, I don't know how many times I have fallen trying to get to one.  More than I can count.  I find myself, jumping forward in my chair, just trying to reach the next step, like that is going to help.  LOL.  I can imagine how hard the upper level ones are, considering I am only lvl 17.

They're a test in patience. I'm not afraid of heights, and yet there are vistas and jumping puzzles that leave my palms sweaty and wanting to be afraid of heights.

[Aggelakis]

There are other threads to discuss NCsoft's nefarious past. Please do so in those threads. This thread is for people playing Guild Wars 2.

[Mysterious J]

I'm Mysterious J.7541, on Crystal Desert with some other CoX refugees (unfortunately, our guild seems to be dying out as folks get bored with GW2).  So far I'm having a good time with my altitis: I've got one of everything except Ranger, but none higher than 43.  I've done one dungeon so far, and hated it, so I'm not sure what if anything I'll do if and when I exhaust the rest of the PvE content.

[Adelante]

Which dungeon was it that you hated?  There's a steep learning curve coming from CoH to the dungeons in GW2.  They can be pretty daunting at first, but once you get the hang of the mechanics they can be a real hoot.

Also, to those looking for a home:  On Devonas Rest my guild (Justice Company) has merged with a larger guild called GASM.  GASM, despite the puerile name, is made up of helpful gamers with varied in-game interests ranging from exploring to World v World v World combat.  If you are looking for a busy & exciting home, we're it.

[Mysterious J]

Whatever one unlocks at 30... AC, I think?  There wasn't anything about it I thought remotely fun, or worth doing a second time, let alone over and over.

[FatherXmas]

So far I haven't done any of the dungeons.  I just been methodically working through, exploring every zone.

So far I've completed the six major cities.  All of the 1-15ish zones off of those cities and currently working on the 15-25 zones, two completed, one more than half way done on a third.

I'm Behellagh.1468 on Sorrow's Furnace.

[Adelante]

Whatever one unlocks at 30... AC, I think?  There wasn't anything about it I thought remotely fun, or worth doing a second time, let alone over and over.

Ascalonian Catacombs (story mode) is pretty fun for me.  The fights are varied and serve as a launching board towards the new fight mechanics.   The story isn't bad, either, all the dungeon story modes link together to form the story of the reformation of Destiny's Edge.

The explorable mode is pretty brutal your first time out, at least one of the paths is phenomenally difficult with a horrific DPS-test against objects that due to wonky hitboxes can be hard to hit with melee. 

Story mode, though, that's pretty fun.    For instance, fighting Master Ranger Nente you will probably have to split your group up so that the melee fighters can hit him on his pedestal in the middle of the room while the ranged fighters hit him from the sides.  When he spawns a companion you have to quickly switch targets and kill the companion before fighting Nente again.  This helps teach players about the "add" control that's absolutely vital in later-game play.  The fight against Kasha Blackblood teaches players about avoiding the 'red rings of death' that foreshadow impending area effects as well as the effective use of condition-removing powers.  Fighting the dual-challenge of Ralena & Vassar is important to teach players how to divide and conquer when faced with multiple opponents.  If they get too close to eachother the bosses gain massive buffs.  Separate them with crowd control and effective use of aggro management and it's a cakewalk.   The final fight with the King is a pretty straightforward fight where you have to avoid the attacks immediately after his 'buildup' animation as well as the deadly blue flames on the ground (kind of like the Apex TF). 

I guess I'm just kind of fond of the story mode of that dungeon as it serves as an effective tutorial without holding the player's hand and force-feeding them instructions.

[Feycat]

We're still new and getting used to GW2's action combat. In particular my friends aren't yet used to the idea of having to dodge-roll to avoid big attacks and I wasn't happy about my Guardian (tank-ish class) being rag-dolled across the room so often. It was kinda frustrating.

The guild member, sorry I've forgotten his name, was very friendly and patient with us and helped us to learn a lot. His help and advice turned what would have been a horrible experience into a fun learning one.

One thing is to get out of your head that guardians are a tank, or even tank-ish, class. They're not. The game is literally designed AGAINST any form of aggro control or tanking. Your guardian actually has the LOWEST hp of any class, and the BEST support/healing abilities (though, like COH, there is no healing class either.)

Build for survivability (armor, vitality and toughness) on EVERY class and stay mobile at all times. There is very little in the way of a gear/stat gate in this game. I've yet to find a single thing I can't do in greens, though you should try to keep your armor within 10 levels of your level, don't sweat it while leveling. You will ALWAYS do enough damage - build to survive the inevitable bomb you can't dodge out of.

Dodgerolling is life. Learn it, love it. Do not be in red circles. When you can't dodge, circle. If you stand toe-to-toe fighting a mob, you will die. The game is not designed with static combat in mind.

Keep a stunbreaker on your bar.

I'm in a really awesome RPing guild on Tarnished Coast (the unofficial RP server) and have done most of the dungeons at this point - I'm glad to help folks out whenever I can! PM me if you want my global

[Adelante]

For leveling I generally just go for Precision & Power, as Precision affects your chance to critical hit and Power makes you do more damage.  I have little trouble staying alive while leveling, and I find it is more helpful for my playstyle to simply kill the enemies quickly rather than outlast them.  Especially with some of the gonzo-bananas respawn rates out in the wild.

[Feycat]

For leveling I generally just go for Precision & Power, as Precision affects your chance to critical hit and Power makes you do more damage.  I have little trouble staying alive while leveling, and I find it is more helpful for my playstyle to simply kill the enemies quickly rather than outlast them.  Especially with some of the gonzo-bananas respawn rates out in the wild.

I really have not noticed enough of a difference in killing speed that way to make it worth while. An extra cushion of hp/toughness always helps me more in a gonzo-bananas (lol!) respawn area than a little extra damage, frankly.

[Mazz vs The World]

[snipped discussion the moderation team has requested multiple times be left out of this thread ~Agge]


 Anyway, GW2 was fun at first but then got boring in about a week IMO same PVE as the first in regard to run all the way here, click this, hunt this etc. The graphics are GREAT! I really enjoyed the new graphics and also new combat system. I haven't played it much since I got bored with it, has nothing to do with my animosity towards NCSoft, I just got bored with the PVE, it wasn't anything special IMHO. The pvp is addictive but gets a little boring when people play the same things. I am in a guild, not for COH'rs though and I honestly don't even talk to them or chat much on that game at all and i'm a serious chatter!! All in all it's an ok game not a waste of money since it's a one time fee, I hope you find a guild and people you like to play with. GOODLUCK!

[FatherXmas]

[snipped discussion the moderation team has requested multiple times be left out of this thread ~Agge]


 Anyway, GW2 was fun at first but then got boring in about a week IMO same PVE as the first in regard to run all the way here, click this, hunt this etc. The graphics are GREAT! I really enjoyed the new graphics and also new combat system. I haven't played it much since I got bored with it, has nothing to do with my animosity towards NCSoft, I just got bored with the PVE, it wasn't anything special IMHO. The pvp is addictive but gets a little boring when people play the same things. I am in a guild, not for COH'rs though and I honestly don't even talk to them or chat much on that game at all and i'm a serious chatter!! All in all it's an ok game not a waste of money since it's a one time fee, I hope you find a guild and people you like to play with. GOODLUCK!

I've been enjoying all the zone events and I go out of my way to do all the various missions (hearts on map) in every zone.  I enjoy the puzzle aspect of getting to some of the Vistas but my jumping skills on keyboard aren't all they are cracked up to be.

I've been playing for about a month now with a single character, something I wouldn't have done in CoH due to CoH's character creator and ideas for a new hero, and I don't find GW2 game play any more boring than CoH.

[Peregrine Falcon]

[snipped discussion the moderation team has requested multiple times be left out of this thread ~Agge]

In any case, I'm a bit disappointed with my Guardian. I knew about the dodge-rolling, I knew about the lack of the trinity, but I created this character thinking the Guardian was the closest one could get to a tank class. It turns out she's more like an old AD&D Cleric rather thank a tank.

[Adelante]

[snipped discussion the moderation team has requested multiple times be left out of this thread ~Agge]

In any case, I'm a bit disappointed with my Guardian. I knew about the dodge-rolling, I knew about the lack of the trinity, but I created this character thinking the Guardian was the closest one could get to a tank class. It turns out she's more like an old AD&D Cleric rather thank a tank.

You *can* build a Guardian like a tank.  Guardians get enough boons & heals to support themselves in battle and draw enemy aggression.  You just have to experiment and discover the builds that work best for you.  There are so many builds out there, so many viable builds... that's one of the major reasons why I love this game.

[Aggelakis]

Stop posting about NCsoft's past and possible future in this thread. Stop posting about how you hate Guild Wars in this thread. Stop posting about how Guild Wars will die a horrible death very soon because NCsoft is a horrible, baby-eating monster.

Post about playing Guild Wars in this thread.

Further infractions will incur a temporary ban. Not kidding. We're adults guys, let's act like it.

[Feycat]

You *can* build a Guardian like a tank.  Guardians get enough boons & heals to support themselves in battle and draw enemy aggression.  You just have to experiment and discover the builds that work best for you.  There are so many builds out there, so many viable builds... that's one of the major reasons why I love this game.

Well, different mobs have different aggro formulas. The way to draw ire with one dungeon won't necessarily work in another.

It's been determined that your highest chance to draw aggro is affected by having low hit points, low armor, rezzing someone who's down, proximity and applying conditions. That's not universally true, but generally so. So the mobs are actually smart enough to go after the squishiest folks. Rolling back, getting out of proximity and breaking LOS are good ways to drop aggro, though again, it's not 100%. They deliberately did not want combat to consist of "heavy armor guy stands here making fun of monster, healer dumps hp into heavy armor guy, DPSers kill monster," which I'm thrilled about.

I'm not sure why someone would WANT to simulating tanking in a game that specifically gives freedom from the same, but I've seen it done. I've got 2 very good low-hp guardians who do an amazing job of kite-tanking (which is really the only viable way to tank - you are NOT gonna stand there getting hit, you will die quickly and no one has big hp-dumping heals to stop it) and putting up reflective walls and boons and doing really amazing things. I'm not sure why they WANT to do it, but they do a good job.

IMO, it's best not to build a character for a traditional "role" (tanking/healing/cc/dps) but instead to build a character to be able to react to situations. Swapping your utility skills in and out depending on the kind of mobs you're fighting is super important. Just having a good grasp on your class and what it's capable of and how you feel comfortable playing will pretty much allow you to slot into a group and do a great job. I've taken level 10 characters into the Fractals of the Mists dungeon, which a pretty rough place - with GOOD players behind them - and we've come out winners without too many hiccups.

I've actually done an all-mesmer Ascalonian Catacombs run, which means we had class anyone would consider either a tank or a healer. It was pretty amazing and hilarious and full of pink lasers and butterflies.

[Dispari]

So far I have one of every class. I'm playing guardian now. I have necromancer, thief, warrior, and engineer at 80. I would say thief was the hardest, but it can be fun to play. Necromancer was by far the easiest, even though the official forums never shut up about how necromancer is crappy. But I had that experience in CoH too. I was always enjoying undervalued classes and sets.

Anyway, my girlfriend and I just finished moving so we may be in the game more now. We've been pretty absent through the holidays up until now. But now I've gotten used to not playing so I may not be as active as I was before.

[Adelante]

I tend not to use the official forums because everyone seems so bitter there.  It leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

People that say Necros are underperforming probably aren't playing them very well.  I did some Twilight Arbor runs the other day with a couple guildie Necros and we absolutely murdered everything in our path, it was pretty darned cool.  The team was 2 Necros, 2 Warriors, and an Elementalist.  Both Warriors were Berserker build w/axes (one was me), the Necros were both about conditional damage, and the Elementalist switched around a LOT but put down an impressive amount of damage.

I really like how good teamwork is rewarded here.