Guild Wars 2

[Hawkbit]

I think I posted here about how it took me 2 years Real Time to go from level 11 to 12 or sommat like that.  

It's not for everyone, that's for sure.  But with Nightfall/Factions you can go from 1-20 in a few hours.  Post-core game, it is pretty much all about the post-20 game.

As someone who bought the game on day 1, I still haven't completed a pack yet.  I'm close, though.  I think I have two more missions in EotN, and maybe five more in Prophecies. 

The worst part of going for all 30 points is that mudflation has driven up the prices of things to near-absurdity.  I can't go for the pet points because I simply won't have the money to pay the prices on the market, no matter how much work I put into it.  The fact that 30-35 points of the 50 are tied to how much money you can get, well that sucks.

[Zetor]

I also got the game when it launched, and played it in short bursts with guildies... we played through each of the 4 campaigns once, and Factions a second time (first playthrough was Kurzick, second Luxon... not a huge difference though). The entire no-sub thing makes it easy to put down for a while and go back to it when there's nothing else to play. It definitely doesn't feel like "I gotta log in and do the weekly raid / daily quests / pvp for my x points / grind more faction" feeling that all sub games do - even though the game does have daily / weekly 'quests' - and that's just as well.

Anyway, back to HOM -- I really don't recommend going for 30 if you don't have an established veteran character (or multiple) with 7 heroes and enough skills unlocked to make a good team build. It's *really* trivial to get 7 points if you've played the game enough to finish one of the campaigns (start with 3 + get a common minipet + get one of the cheap rare minipets + 2 points from having a 'completed one of the campaigns' statue) and you can add 3 more points fairly easily if you get a ranger to 20 (pet) and run the Nightfall 'hero armor' challenges until you get 3 armor pieces. After that prices start to climb a bit, but you can get 3 sets of the cheaper elite armors for another 2 points, and a bunch of common minipets that everyone has for cheap until you have 20 for another 2 points, putting you at 14. I'd say "halfway there", except stuff starts to get a lot more expensive once you've exhausted the 'low hanging fruit' options

[Threash]

Is any of this actually going to give a real advantage in GW2?

[caladein]

Is any of this actually going to give a real advantage in GW2?

Maybe at the start, like CE items do in other games, but it's mostly vanity stuff long-term (wiki page).

[kildorn]

Is any of this actually going to give a real advantage in GW2?

It's mostly vanity pets and some stuff that sounds pretty when you start out. As I understand the plan, once GW2 launches you can still go back and fill out your GW1 hall for new items. It's pretty easy to get into the middle of it without hitting GW1's horrible endgame pve :P

[Furiously]

Yea once you get your heroes setup it's pretty easy to do the easy mode campaigns. The hard part is getting your heroes setup.

[Hawkbit]

The heroes issue was a tough nut to crack.  I floundered in the game for a long time, and only recently did I start to develop my heroes.  I have some elite armor on a few, and have their skill builds in place a bit more.  It doesn't even feel like the same game anymore.  Even with my first janky builds I'm walking over stuff that used to destroy me. 

Fleshing that out was not exactly easy, though.  There's no specific guide to just "Take these heroes, put this armor and skills on them to win".  If there is, someone please link it. 

[Furiously]

http://www.gwpvx.com/Build:Team_-_7_Hero_Player_Support

I switched from a spirit/disco way to this and this feels a lot stronger.

[Zetor]

Yeah, I mostly copied that build and had no problems soloing dungeons, hardmode areas and Glint's challenge (for hero armor -> easy HOM points) with 7 heroes on my ele even back when elementalists were gimped.

Caveat: most 'good' hero team builds need you to have at least two necro heroes, two mesmer heroes and many of them need two ritualist heroes. Melee heroes are much easier to get, but the ranged AI is far better (esp when it comes to interrupting), so most hero builds focus on these three classes... ritualists in particular are hard to track down. Unless you're using mercenary heroes ($$$), you need these guys:
- Mesmer1 -> Gwen: you get her after reaching the Eye of the North area (easy)
- Mesmer2 -> Norgu: Nightfall - finish the newbie island and the first area, and midway through the next area choose Goren - whoever you DON'T choose joins you (med)
- Necro1 -> Olias: finish a quest starting at the Consulate Docks, needs you to have both Nightfall and Prophecies (easy)
- Necro2 -> (spoiler): Nightfall - finish the newbie island and get halfway through the first 'real' area and don't choose Margrid (easy-med)
- Necro3 -> Livia: EOTN - get to the halfway point of the Asura path in the EOTN campaign (med)
- Ritualist1 -> Xandra: EOTN - get to the Norn Fighting Tournament and fight until you face her, then defeat her (easy)
- Ritualist2 -> Razah (technically he can be any class, but most people make him a ritualist due to the scarcity): Nightfall - finish the campaign, then take a quest from the Gate of Anguish to get him/it (hard)
- Ritualist3 -> (spoiler): Factions - finish the Winds of Change chain in hard mode (VERY hard)

[Hawkbit]

Really?  Okay then, I've got some changes to make. 

I play a warrior, Dragon Slash build.  I saw that support build in the wiki, but didn't give it a ton of credit because I'm so used to doing two tanks, two monks, four dps.  I guess this gives me something to work on. 

I'll need to get Norgu, Razah and the third rit.  So, I have some work ahead of me. 

Thanks for the tips.

[kildorn]

Ritualists are hilariously bullshit is the basic idea. Mesmers are decent NPCs due to being on top of interrupts, and having a few crazy AE damage skills now.

I gave up on Glint's for a bit. I should give it another try, but meh.

[Fordel]

I saw a Keep Door and a Real Zerg in the GW2 RvR area.


I am so there!

[Ard]

Yeah, I use an earlier variant on that player support build that uses 3 necros instead of a monk, and I just walk all over most everything that isn't an elite zone (underworld, domain of anguish, etc).  I'm at 26 points, very nearly 27, and this is what I used to get most of them after I finished the main 3 campaigns.  I might need to try the newer version of that build since I've already got the monk for it sitting around anyhow.  You can get around 15 HoM points really easily if you just finish the main campaigns, and you don't really even need an optimized hero build to do it in most cases.  I didn't really get around to fixing my heroes until I started into Eye of the North, and I beat the majority of them before they upped it to 7 heroes, so I was using henchmen for a good part of it.

[Soulflame]

I saw a Keep Door and a Real Zerg in the GW2 RvR area.


I am so there!

I had no interest in GW2 until I heard about this.  Now I'll have to keep an eye on this title.

[Furiously]

I just learned... There is an auction house.

[Evildrider]

I just learned... There is an auction house.

I bet they have healing and mana potions too right?

[Shatter]

I just learned... There is an auction house.

I bet they have healing and mana potions too right?

Yes...for the door

[Outlawedprod]

Hai Guyz, I hear GW2 game breaking pve content is just Tank & Spank.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Plsd0eK36lY#t=2299s
lol @ 38:20

I watched that, but I didn't actually see a tank and spank fight. He used the phrase to mean "just dps down the boss" as far as I could tell. There was nobody tanking him, and nobody healing the tank?

I will say that the fight is loltastic because the boss is just twoshotting people and they're releasing and running half a room back from the bind point to death zerg him down.

I'm curious if you got something else from that video?

I learned pretty much instantly that the fight isn't "tank and spank" despite what the reviewer thinks. I also noticed the reviewer likes to click on skill1 a lot and GY zerg.  This was posted for comedy.

[Draegan]

GW2 is all about positional attacks.  If you have a character that can take more damage or whatever, if you stand between the boss and other people, you will be hit.  Simple as that.

[caladein]

I'd be interested to see how that concept meshes with their netcode if it's really widespread.

GW never felt terribly responsive to me (which may have just been the lack of jumping) and while WoW is, it breaks down badly when needing to be very precise as a result.

[Outlawedprod]

GW2 is all about positional attacks.  If you have a character that can take more damage or whatever, if you stand between the boss and other people, you will be hit.  Simple as that.

The situational awareness and movement lacking in the previous video example can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRlFViMpewI

[Shatter]

The positional awareness part of this game is going be HILARIOUS....HILARIOUS

[Nebu]

I think that it's going to be watered down eventually.  People in SWTOR are complaining that it's too hard (which I find amusing).  Imagine the same crowd getting one shot because they didn't move away from the big swinging axe that they had a 10s warning about.

The forums will be soaked with the tears of bad gamers.



Edit: I'm not saying that I'm any kind of gaming guru.  I'm just competent enough to find the content of most MMO's pretty trivial once you learn the queues.  I have internalized the whole "don't stand in the flames" mantra. 

[Furiously]

I always thought of GW as being a tiered difficulty game.

There's the main storyline which ramps up to somewhat difficult. But doable by just about anyone. You should be able to solo most of it with henchmen.

There's hard mode clearing and such which is a bit tougher. Need some heroes with decent skills.

Then there is the stuff which comes after the storyline which requires you to have a heroes with skills that support each other and probably some macro'ing skills.

[Draegan]

I think that it's going to be watered down eventually.  


Edit: I'm not saying that I'm any kind of gaming guru.  I'm just competent enough to find the content of most MMO's pretty trivial once you learn the queues.  I have internalized the whole "don't stand in the flames" mantra. 

They won't.  The whole game is based on positional awareness and is deeply embedded in all the player skills.

[Mrbloodworth]

Do spells still track targeted players? ( IE :Bend mid flight ), what about bullets, arrows or other non-magical projectiles?

Or is this for melee only?


Because yeah, MMORPG gamers. They won't be mad they were in LOS and got hit, they will be mad that they pressed the skill, and the target was not hit.

[luckton]

Do spells still track targeted players? ( IE :Bend mid flight ), what about bullets, arrows or other non-magical projectiles?

For the sake of sanity, I would say they have to.  I'm not firing a 6-second fireball just so that Derp McDerperson can side-step to the left 2 feet in order to avoid annihilation.  Why play a caster then?  Everyone would just go melee.

[Mrbloodworth]

 

[Draegan]

It's not pure action/fps style gameplay.  Its kind of like a hybrid.

[luckton]

What?  I'm sorry, I have much respect for the 'skill'-type people who have the dexterity and reflex to whomp on others, exploit terrain, etc., but still.

[Ingmar]

It would certainly be the last nail in the 'not buying this' coffin for me if it was just a straight up FPS like that.

[Mrbloodworth]

So its AOC combat, with out the defense/Shield mini game.

Just for clarity. You can't say the whole game is based on situational awareness and positional awareness when half the game, isn't.

"Don't stand in the fire" is about the most basic positional awareness a game can provide. Along with: "Giant circle on ground bad, move before cast bar is finished".

[Sky]

Edit: I'm not saying that I'm any kind of gaming guru.  I'm just competent enough to find the content of most MMO's pretty trivial once you learn the queues.  I have internalized the whole "don't stand in the flames" mantra. 

Ditto. I'm amazed at how bad some players are on a bunch of fronts from situational awareness to constantly attacking the cc target.

[Nebu]

It's not pure action/fps style gameplay.  Its kind of like a hybrid.

The "thief" video above shows him 'pew pewing' a mob with all of his shots hitting while he gets the luxury of avoiding most of the return fire.  I don't see how that would work in pvp unless it's a limited avoidance mechanic (meaning there are only a few attacks that can be avoided).  I'm fine with this, just saying that pve and pvp will feel and play very differently if that's the case.

[Merusk]

Edit: I'm not saying that I'm any kind of gaming guru.  I'm just competent enough to find the content of most MMO's pretty trivial once you learn the queues.  I have internalized the whole "don't stand in the flames" mantra. 

Ditto. I'm amazed at how bad some players are on a bunch of fronts from situational awareness to constantly attacking the cc target.

Heh.

I'm still amazed by folks who run INTO flames and ground effects.. never mind breaking CC.