Guild Wars 2

Yep, created a new warrior only last week!

Game is shockingly active(Its F2P and not even 7months old yes)but MMOs tend to die out fast these days Population wise. The low-level areas are still brimming with people, and still Qs for WvW and countless people doing Fract runs and overflows still in areas etc..

The only thing that you will find it hard to do is content that most people have done or are bored of, like some of the Story or Explorable modes in few of the runs due to the rewards not being that good or everyone whored it months ago.

I'm holding back buying this game until I get a laptop.. I have a High-End PC though.. what do you people think I should use?? a decent laptop or a high-end PC with 5.1 surround sound? I usually leave my PC for fast paced games like Battlefield and left 4 dead.

Ah ya see me girlfriend wants to play with me, and she really doesn't want to be left behind if I buy it before her, so I was thinking it'd be handy for us both to be seated next to each other on a Laptop that'd be capable of Medium-High settings, perhaps I'm a fool but ya gotta keep the missus happy sometimes I suppose ;p
The game does appear pretty, playing it on my PC would definitely be a nicer experience, but what do I do.. keep the missus happy.. or go mad and play with alongside my brother.. another thing is comfort.. would a laptop be more comfortable to use.. or the PC.. why am I even posting this ;S

Each to their own indeed, I'm sure this game doesn't require a huge amount of concentration?? therefore I think sitting on the couch with the TV on while playing this game could be a bit more comfortable and enjoyable, I checked benchmarks out for the laptop I've been keeping an eye on and it looks smooth on Medium settings with one or two on High settings, I think this'll do the job just fine

Does anyone play this game using surround sound btw? for an open world type of game I'd always expect beautiful surround sound effects, so if anyone has any opinions please share

No fear of GW2 emptying out of players in the foreseeable future. They mentioned last month that the number of concurrent player was rising.

I find playing the starter zones now far more enjoyable than what it was at launch. Far less zerging of dynamic events so the content is a lot more enjoyable. Alting in this game is a breath of fresh air with loads of content packed into the beginning/Mid level zones.

They are releasing small monthly updates with an expansion probably in the works, but I doubt we will see it until late this year/next year.

WvW will be getting a big update this week to improve performance(Big issues surrounding culling at present) and to introduce some progression for players that is focused on WvW.

To be quiet honest the "End game" of GW2 is very different to traditional MMOS. The way the game is designed, all the content can be accessed even if you out-level the zone. Of course there are still the traditional Dungeons but I find these to be less enjoyable than the actual open world.

The character that I have put most effort into, a Necro, has Crafted exotic gear/Dungeon completion/Fractals 10. Only use him for WvW and Guild bountys anymore as grinding to get a legendary weapon doesn't really appeal to me.

Well if you were into GW1 I would start off as a Charr as their home zones are in Ascalon. This game is a good bit different to GW1 but the nostalgia of the lore in the Ascalon zones are good.

Next is the server choice, I would go with a High/Medium world that is not just WvW orientated. I am on Desolation and there is a good PvE community but we are also ranked 3rd in Europe for WvW so there is a good balance.

Finally I would try and get into a guild community or build up your friends contact list for levelling. While levelling alone and just jumping into events with randomers is good fun, it is always good to have few people who are willing to help you out with that tough Champion or Skill point.

I've never played as an elementalist but from what I hear they can be quiet squishy. For PvE play this might suck in terms of survivability but I am sure there are ways to spec for survivability.

Got my Distinction in Applied Jumping before they took away the nice whip glitch so im happy.

Actually forget that, the answer was in the post right about mine. Doh

Fractals, Explore mode dungeons and PvP. Map completion too if that is your thing. All these get boring after a while though. What I generally do is level a Character to 80, get exotic gear and finish a crafting discipline then roll an alt. Currently on my fourth character after doing the above with my other 3 level 80's. Working towards map completion on one of my characters, plodding along slowly. I wouldn't advise grinding for a legendary, it can be soul destroying.

Playing guild content too can be enjoyable, my favourite being the Guild Rushes. Guild Missions are probably the only enjoyable large scale group content in the game anymore the way WvW has turned out. Our Server will probably be dropping out of Tier 1 soon though so looking forward to seeing if WvW is more enjoyable in the lower tiers.

Open world PvE is probably the games strong point to be honest. Playing with new classes in different regions can be quiet rewarding, and there is a lot of content out there. All the while giving my existing characters some use by doing dailys or Dragon events.

Saying that a big plus for this game is that you can take a break for a while, many in our guild have done this and have returned again after a bit. There are rumours that the expansion is being actively worked on at the moment, which is well needed in my opinion.

*And to answer your question about fractals they are 3 (+ 1 bonus fractal) random mini dungeons in a one level run, they get increasingly harder after each level. You can jump in at any level as long as someone in your party has the level unlocked. I played them for a bit but got bored of doing the same mini dungeons(about 9 in all) after about level 7.

Desolation. [IRON] have recently left our server (Might be a good thing) and we have seen a drastic drop in cover in WvW, leading to us being stomped in most the other servers borderlands. We can still hold our own in EB and our own BL during primetime but just cant compete anymore with the superior cover and zergs.

Actually played a good bit last night and had some great battles running around in small groups. Again once we hit the zerg we get wiped.

Having played both extensively,GW1 from Factions and GW2 since release I cannot understand how you can compare GW1 and GW2 and come to a conclusion that one is better than the other, they are very different games(GW1=build wars, GW2=Directional combat system in an open world). You are comparing them by the time spent by you on each (Which is fair enough but entirely subjective). I could argue that I will spend far more time playing Gw2 than I did in Gw1 for the first 8 months I owned both but it doesn't prove that one is better than the other.

Some people that came from Guild wars 1 have left Guild wars 2 because it is not the squeal that they wanted, which is fair enough. The only common ground between the two is the lore. I agree that the end game content could be expanded more quickly in guild wars 2 but you have to remember that it has only been out for 9 months, and recent leaks indicate that the expansion is already being worked on.

The actual content being released monthly for the game is fairly substantial but it's problem is that it doesn't keep people logging in like say the gear treadmill in WoW. While the monthly update content are good, I would like to see more WvW and Lvl 80 content , like new zones(Southson cove being one recently updated) and objectives in WvW.

I am almost certain that the expansion for Guild wars 2 will focus on expanding content for current level 80 characters by maybe introducing new skillbars, high level zones, PvP etc.. and new content like classes and probably a new race with new zones.

For the time being I would be happy with how the game turned out. It is not a game that will keep you playing constantly for 9 months straight but it is not like you have to. Traditional MMO's would need the subscription revenue to survive, whereas GW2 has a different P2P model. I would look at it like this, do you think you have got value for your euro in comparison to other games. For me I easily have.