[shootermacg]

Originally Posted by Kiith

Does it have to be revolutionary in every aspect of the game? Can it not just do what other games have tried, but do them better? And considering the fact that it looks like it does this, and doesn't have a monthly charge, i don't see the problem.

And how is it limited compared to Guild Wars 1? Genuine question, as i've not played GW1.

In guildwars a character could collect every skill in the game, the amount of choice in potential builds being such that, PvP was a constantly changing environment with team builds dominating, getting countered and eventually dying out.

Same thing in PvE, the amount of skills available led to some of the most innovative and fun solo and team builds which took timing and skill to master 55 SV necro/monk/mez, invinci sin, 120hp dervish, eoe bomb trapping parties, barrage parties?

Everyone thinks removing specific classes from a game is a good thing, I personally think it's a bad thing, people actually like healing, mezing, tanking, dpsing. Placing the onus the individual to heal, mez and dps and possible tank is just watering down the experience.
In the old guildwars monks were eventually replaced in pve and a lot of PvP by necros, ritualists, dervishes etc, this goes to show that you didn't need to roll a monk to just heal, likewise a monk could just smite if he desired.

Guild wars grew into one of the most complex and rewarding mmorpgs ever made because of one thing choice, which to a large extent is missing from guildwars 2.


...well you asked..

[OctavarIan]

Originally Posted by Welease

But thats why I mean it will force zerging.. a guild will not be able to take a keep alone (which is good), so by necessity big guilds, small guilds, solo's, duo's etc. will be required to form up in order to take key point. They will in essence need to zerg to get anything important done.

Hopefully it will end up like the better DAOC servers during relic raids, where people would allow a few better know leaders to lead, and they would control the main force (mass of bodies) on the keep, and get the more formed/pvp ready guilds to run interference, take towers, kill enemy trying to get to the battle etc.. Makes for fun fights, and facilitates everyone..

Either way, we shall see

One use I saw immediately for smaller groups was for cutting off supply caravans to keeps leading up to the main force attacking the keeps themselves. That's the way the game is supposed to work because it stops the defenders from being able to repair, build weapons, etc. There are also lots of smaller PvE style objectives and points to capture that also add to your realm score. Also it's possible to become a leader with special abilities in WvW although I can't remember the process offhand.

The variety of objectives and sheer multitude of them means that WvW should encourage more tactical and thought-out gameplay than the likes of WAR, which was utter tripe. If realms descend into zergfest then let them, they'll fall to the bottom of the rankings after a few weeks and can zerg there amongst themselves while the better realms actually play the game

[Big Knox]

Promised myself I'd never even try another MMO again but it seems I will be the odd one out on vent if I don't. Although no sub is nice in fairness which means not such a big risk!!

Have purposely being avoiding everything to do with the game as I didn't want to get dragged into the hype but sure now that I will be getting it I might as well.

No trinity makes things interesting, does it actually work like this are there no tanks / healers at all? Are classes so balanced they can all do similar DPS? I've generally always played support / healer but I'm thinking Ranger or Elementalist to try something new.

Anyone that's tried both care to shed some light on which is the more fun of the two?

[OctavarIan]

Originally Posted by Big Knox

Promised myself I'd never even try another MMO again but it seems I will be the odd one out on vent if I don't. Although no sub is nice in fairness which means not such a big risk!!

Have purposely being avoiding everything to do with the game as I didn't want to get dragged into the hype but sure now that I will be getting it I might as well.

No trinity makes things interesting, does it actually work like this are there no tanks / healers at all? Are classes so balanced they can all do similar DPS? I've generally always played support / healer but I'm thinking Ranger or Elementalist to try something new.

Anyone that's tried both care to shed some light on which is the more fun of the two?

Damage output is pretty balanced across the board. Some professions favour burst damage while others favour damage over time. Each profession has a few different builds and playstyles, bar the Necro which is possibly the least balanced profession at the moment. It's not any weaker than other professions, it just has fewer options going for it.

I haven't played any dungeons, but from what I've played in PvE so far there is indeed no tank/dps/healer setup. Everyone has to be 100% alert as to what's going on and ready with quick reflexes. There was a boss in the last BWE that seemed to insta-kill everyone who fought it, but it was mostly because they weren't paying attention to what was going on. It required as much dodging and positioning as it did combat.

As for Ranger vs Elementalist, I'd go Elementalist. They've a crazy number of skills, very fast combat and lots of flashy effects Give Engineer a try as well though, it is quite similar.

[Big Knox]

Originally Posted by OctavarIan

Damage output is pretty balanced across the board. Some professions favour burst damage while others favour damage over time. Each profession has a few different builds and playstyles, bar the Necro which is possibly the least balanced profession at the moment. It's not any weaker than other professions, it just has fewer options going for it.

I haven't played any dungeons, but from what I've played in PvE so far there is indeed no tank/dps/healer setup. Everyone has to be 100% alert as to what's going on and ready with quick reflexes. There was a boss in the last BWE that seemed to insta-kill everyone who fought it, but it was mostly because they weren't paying attention to what was going on. It required as much dodging and positioning as it did combat.

As for Ranger vs Elementalist, I'd go Elementalist. They've a crazy number of skills, very fast combat and lots of flashy effects Give Engineer a try as well though, it is quite similar.

Cheers for the reply mate, yeah I was leaning towards Elementalist. Have never played a mage in an MMO before and they do look fun so I think that's made up my mind!!

[ShaneScouse]

Well im looking forward to this now again, Had preordered ages ago and kept meself from investing any time into betas or looking much up about it, due to it being months away and why get hyped for something so far away.
Got tera as a stopgap and its mediocre areas apart from combat and gfx eventually caught up with me few weeks ago and flaked.

Back in a mmo mood now
Still seems its wierd that its only like 3 weeks away, I rem talking alot about this with mmo friends about 18months ago, where the hell does time go

[Kiith]

I'm still torn on what class to pick. Will probably go Asuran Necromancer, but tempted to go Engineer as well. Will watch some video's over the next few days and decide before launch.

[ArthurG]

Getting excited too, and trying to decide what to go for. Am I correct in my understanding that race provides no real boost to stats for any particular role?.

Having never played a FTP MMO, I'm still trying to get my head around the sub free model. What exactly can you buy?. Is it purely decorative stuff, or stat boosts?. Were transactions up and running during beta?.

Ok, must get back to work and stop thinking about necromancers......

[Xeyn]

Originally Posted by ArthurG

Getting excited too, and trying to decide what to go for. Am I correct in my understanding that race provides no real boost to stats for any particular role?.

Having never played a FTP MMO, I'm still trying to get my head around the sub free model. What exactly can you buy?. Is it purely decorative stuff, or stat boosts?. Were transactions up and running during beta?.

Ok, must get back to work and stop thinking about necromancers......

The gem store is purely cosmetic and convenience items. Convenience items include xp boosts, to save time. Nothing to add any power.
But IMO the xp boosts are a waste of time as they are centred around giving extra xp for mob kills which will be the slowest way to gain XP. But if you want to level a little bit faster and have spare cash lying around you might try it.

There has been a little discussion over the gem store but i cant see anything in it that would stop anyone from enjoying the game to its fullest extent unless of course you suffer with a serious case of green eye.
If you play the game to lvl 80 without spending one cent in the gem store, you will have the same armor stats, same trait points, same weapon stats etc as anyone else regardless if they used the store or not.
Transactions were up and running and the only thing I bought (because we will get refunded the gems we used during beta) were mini pet packs.

The only thing I will buy is probably an extra few character slots as i would like to have one of each profession. I might consider bank tabs if thats the case but the way Anet has streamlined the storage management there shouldnt be any need to buy bag slots.

All races have no inherent stat advantage. The races are purely cosmetic. The Norn and the asura vary HUGELY in size but apparently have the same hit box. The only advantage I can see is if in WvW or PvP someone has enemy name tags turned off - then asura could be missed behind a rock where a norn could not. But why would you turn that feature off in PvP or WvW, so I dont see it as a problem.

[ArthurG]

Cool thanks. One other question - whats performance like?. I saw somewhere its not really optimised for GPUs yet, heavily CPU dependant. Is this still the case?. Having recently upgraded my Radeon card, would be good to give it a decent workout.

Sorry I know this is probably all in the public domain, but I'm trying to avoid to much reading on this game, given my most recent MMO hype/disappointment cycle (Tera /shudder)......

[Xeyn]

It wasnt optimised fully in the Beta weekends and did seem to be CPU intensive but it improved with subsequent betas. Its going to be optimised for DX9 with potentially DX11 compatible after launch at some stage.
In my opinion the world is incredible looking and ran very smoothly on my rig on optimal settings. I cant speak for anyone else though.
They are trying to make it as accessible as possible so it should run well on mid level setups and possibly on older pc's at lower settings. If your rig is only a few years old there shouldnt be any problem running it well on max settings I think.

[VampiricPadraig]

I was playing GW2 Beta's on a i3 with a HD 3650. Apart from the pixelation from the terrain, everything played smoothly for the most part. I bought a HD 6670 as a upgrade...guild wars being one of them (But I wanted to upgrade in general)

I would say that they are currently getting the graphics and that sorted over the next couple of weeks.

[ShaneScouse]

Originally Posted by VampiricPadraig

I would say that they are currently getting the graphics and that sorted over the next couple of weeks.

You would hope so, the one thing Im bit wary about is the optimization. Theres alot of work to do on the engine from what I saw from my very short burst last beta. The FPS dont match what your seeing at all, its not an ugly game I like its artstyle, but from a hardware standpoint Its far from new or fancy

[uncle_sam_ie]

Stress test for the 9th of August http://twitter.com/guildwars2

[GREENGEKO]

grand stuff be there.. but its still just a tease waiting for the 25th head start.