Guild Wars 2

[murdoc]

As a reformed alb: Never do what that guy is telling people to do. Seriously, that guy is just terrible at the game.

I usually make it a point to do the exact opposite, but it might actually be funnier to do exactly what he says.  I remember from the army that you could have a lot of fun carrying out an order exactly as it was given.

Now they guy using all caps can also purchase a Commander star and his directions will be EXTRA important to follow!

[Nevermore]

Yeah, that should work out well.

[Fordel]

... while the mindless masses swirl around and blow up random stuff.

You've perfectly described my preferred pvp style.  I don't have time for a 2nd job but will be perfectly happy to drop in and do my bit for the war effort.  My bit being defined as whatever I happen to think it would be fun to do.  Heck, if I'm in a good mood I might even actually do whatever the all caps guy who thinks he's in charge is telling us to do.

As a reformed alb: Never do what that guy is telling people to do. Seriously, that guy is just terrible at the game.

Which is why you are still an Alb.

[kildorn]

... while the mindless masses swirl around and blow up random stuff.

You've perfectly described my preferred pvp style.  I don't have time for a 2nd job but will be perfectly happy to drop in and do my bit for the war effort.  My bit being defined as whatever I happen to think it would be fun to do.  Heck, if I'm in a good mood I might even actually do whatever the all caps guy who thinks he's in charge is telling us to do.

As a reformed alb: Never do what that guy is telling people to do. Seriously, that guy is just terrible at the game.

Which is why you are still an Alb.

I don't think you ever met our ALL CAPS folks. They were really, really bad.

[Fordel]

We had fucking FITZ, yet we managed. 

[Redgiant]

Bad news for you then chief. Guild Wars 2 has instanced arena's too.

Not saying instances can't coexist, but they sure can't be perceived as better rewards. Since they are easier in many ways to begin with than investing in open world (queues, not ravel, smaller scale, short duration), there has to be a real compelling motivation for people to generally do open world instead of instances.

Hopefully, the split character mode and the ongoing competition to let better servers face each other will be the extra motivational feather in the cap that overcomes this happening to GW2. Well, that and not bolting on open world as a fucking afterthought during Beta (thanks WAR).

Though I have to say, it was so much easier to get motivated to battle the other sides when they were different races in DAoC. Even 2-sided games usually have visually different races. When the same races fight each other, it's more about different philosphical/religious stances; so is Green=Catholic, Blue=Muslim, Red=Hindu? Might be nice to have some sort of mental grounding as to why I want to kill that guy who looks exactly like me.

[kildorn]

I don't think you need any form of ethical backing for RVR. I mean, hibs fought because the frontier was the only place with buildings that weren't just particularly rain resistant mushrooms. Nobody else had a reason to be out there.

WvW will live or die by how much fun it is to play it. They appear from the videos to bolster you to the level cap when you step in, and give you xp and loot for kills. That alone should help a lot with the "rvr is just something you do when level capped" idea. If they keep with GW1's gearing ideas and older DAOC's, it should solve a bunch of the "I don't want to PVP they all have crazy gear" shit as well. One thing I loved about early/mid DAOC was that it was trivial to gear up a fresh character for pvp.

[Tmon]

Against my better judgement I did some poking around the Guildwars 2 site and followed some links to press beta articles and now I fear I'm starting to froth.  I mean I was interested, but other than reading the info that popped up here I've been pretty much avoiding doing any reading about the game at all.  I think what put me over the edge was an article that mentioned that the way you get to the WvW battle grounds is by clicking a pair of crossed swords in the interface and being teleported to the battlefield.  No running halfway across the world to a pvp 'lake' no earning the right to fight by making some arbitrary level, no having to meet some gear or skill spec and then once you get there being able to earn xp and credits by doing WvW is like pure crack to my someone like me whose play style can best be summed up by the phrase "Dinking Around."  There go my resolutions about not preordering and waiting thirty days post launch to buy any MMO.

[Bungee]

Against my better judgement I did some poking around the Guildwars 2 site and followed some links to press beta articles and now I fear I'm starting to froth.  I mean I was interested, but other than reading the info that popped up here I've been pretty much avoiding doing any reading about the game at all.  I think what put me over the edge was an article that mentioned that the way you get to the WvW battle grounds is by clicking a pair of crossed swords in the interface and being teleported to the battlefield.

This and the fact you get a fully equipped, all skills unlocked, max-level character for "Arena" PvP is what got me in. No having to grind, no having to catch up. Create a character of every class and enjoy "end-game" PvP instantly. WINNING!

[Redgiant]

There must be more to it than just "click on swords to get to the keep" I hope.

Like, it only works when you already own a keep, or some restriction(s)?

And do you literally port into a keep, or just nearby and still have to run the gauntlet of seigers to get inside? DAoC had a special provision added that let defenders port directly from a border keep to a relic keep. I hope its not just port anywhere, all the time though.


Part of the seiger's strategy in DAoC was where to place people to scout and also intercept enemies as they came to defend, and part of the defender's fun was to figure out how to get inside (have someone run interference, run around high and behind, then swoop down when someone inside drew the seigers off to the side). You used to have to go in at the front door that was being rammed, later they added a side/back sally port door that only the current keep owners could use to get inside - which usually had a group of seigers camped on it trying to prevent it.

Or are you telling me that whole part of fighting is N/A and gone now? Hope not.

[kildorn]

As I understand it it's click button, port to your equivalent of a portal keep. WvW is four zones, each world gets a border zone with some keeps and such, and the center zone with the neutral objectives and main keep. You port to somewhere in your border zone and hoof it to the action.

[tazelbain]

Based on the videos so far, both running to keeps under attack and trying to get past the people beating on the front are alive and well.

[Redgiant]

Based on Yogs and other videos I've seen, it does seem that the porting is only to the border keeps per side. Sounds good then.

Like others, I get flashbacks from certain things in those videos. I especially laughed at the reaction time it took Yogs' crew on the doors to notice the Greens coming up behind them, despite being told a full 60 seconds prior about it in chat. As I watched the video, I kept saying to the screen "TURN AROUND".

[kildorn]

I like that the zone in point is a portal, and not some ghost dude you have to spam chat macros at in hopes that he notices you.

[Kitsune]

I can imagine very important jobs for parties of thieves in WvW.  Given how inattentive the zerg tend to be, five guys uncloaking and ganking the people manning the catapults would probably go unnoticed for a good long while.  Ditto for killing off the supply camps and setting up ambushes on the paths from the realm gate to where the fight is going on.

[01101010]

I can imagine very important jobs for parties of thieves in WvW.  Given how inattentive the zerg tend to be, five guys uncloaking and ganking the people manning the catapults would probably go unnoticed for a good long while.  Ditto for killing off the supply camps and setting up ambushes on the paths from the realm gate to where the fight is going on.

That will be left for the guilds to do. I can't see the mindless zergettes defending the keep leaving a big fight with lots of pew pew going on to roam around hunting that may or may not be there. I however, love that shit.

[kildorn]

Hurry up and take my money, ANet.

I'm going to be rolling with my own personal mesmerzerg.  And hoping not everyone thinks mesmers are as awesome as I do.

[Bungee]

Hurry up and take my money, ANet.

I'm going to be rolling with my own personal mesmerzerg.  And hoping not everyone thinks mesmers are as awesome as I do.

That's a train of thought that seems to occur with every GW2 clas..err profession. Except for Guardian. They really have to put some new mechanic in for Guardians...

[Segoris]

Personally, I think Guardians will turn out better than Mesmers once people realize how to actually play this game (unless there are quite a few changes to Mesmers). I was of the mindset Mesmers would be required by most groups, but not after watching some videos of them.

Though, I am in the same boat of actually being eager to give ANet my money...it feels wrong.

[kildorn]

I kind of like Guardians. It's warriors that completely bore me. But I find memsers so freaking awesome that I just assume everyone else will play one as well.

As for the playstyle: I think the weakness I see in mesmers will be WvW pvp. The illusions and clones die the second your target does. So you're only going to get a real crazy setup going if your time on target is relatively large. Their base damage in the short term seems pretty low. But I spent a while making my character builder mesmer with hilarious illusion spam, it will be glorious.

[Kitsune]

Just imagine the chaos if a guild works together and makes every mesmer the same race, same face, and wearing the same gear.  Five identical mesmers each throwing more identical illusions into the battlefield...   

[Segoris]

Just imagine the chaos if a guild works together and makes every mesmer the same race, same face, and wearing the same gear.  Five identical mesmers each throwing more identical illusions into the battlefield...  

Ahh yeah, I'm only looking at this game with a pvp mindset (both WvW and structured in this case) - in PVE I'm sure mesmers will be good, just not in pvp in their current state. I think their base damage and the damage of most conditionals (conditionals for all classes, except bleed as that looked like it was doing well when stacked) should be increased and I think the clones could use some buffs

Warriors - while boring - I think will be solid. Though, I don't think 2h warriors will dominate like people expect them to.

Just imagine the chaos if a guild works together and makes every mesmer the same race, same face, and wearing the same gear.  Five identical mesmers each throwing more identical illusions into the battlefield...  

And then 1 elementalist comes by with a single AE attack and ruins all their fun (edit: okay, maybe 2 elementalists)

[Threash]

I kind of like Guardians. It's warriors that completely bore me. But I find memsers so freaking awesome that I just assume everyone else will play one as well.

As for the playstyle: I think the weakness I see in mesmers will be WvW pvp. The illusions and clones die the second your target does. So you're only going to get a real crazy setup going if your time on target is relatively large. Their base damage in the short term seems pretty low. But I spent a while making my character builder mesmer with hilarious illusion spam, it will be glorious.

Could you link me this character builder?

[Bungee]

Could you link me this character builder?

http://gw2.luna-atra.fr/skills_tool/?lang=en
http://www.gw2tools.com/

[01101010]

I was thinking much the same way with a group of mesmers exactly alike - only I was thinking about that in terms of multiboxing. 4 accounts with 3 on follow. Best to hope for some AoE or else you have small odds of hitting the correct image/character.

And I like warriors thank you very much. Bow skills and S&B - I am curious. Though ranger seems to be in my wheelhouse when it comes to PvP stuff.

[Draegan]

I can imagine very important jobs for parties of thieves in WvW.  Given how inattentive the zerg tend to be, five guys uncloaking and ganking the people manning the catapults would probably go unnoticed for a good long while.  Ditto for killing off the supply camps and setting up ambushes on the paths from the realm gate to where the fight is going on.

There is no perma-stealth.  Most stealth lasts for a few seconds at most.  The only way you can "de-cloak" is poppping into line of site and teleporting (like a charge) in at the same time.

[Kitsune]

There is no perma-stealth.  Most stealth lasts for a few seconds at most.  The only way you can "de-cloak" is poppping into line of site and teleporting (like a charge) in at the same time.

Oh really, I hadn't known that.  I was thinking they'd be like DAoC and WoW rogues where you can just lurk in stealth.

[luckton]

There is no perma-stealth.  Most stealth lasts for a few seconds at most.  The only way you can "de-cloak" is poppping into line of site and teleporting (like a charge) in at the same time.

Oh really, I hadn't known that.  I was thinking they'd be like DAoC and WoW rogues where you can just lurk in stealth.

No perma-stealth?  I think we just hit 'meaningful PvP'   

[Bungee]

There is no perma-stealth.  Most stealth lasts for a few seconds at most.  The only way you can "de-cloak" is poppping into line of site and teleporting (like a charge) in at the same time.

Oh really, I hadn't known that.  I was thinking they'd be like DAoC and WoW rogues where you can just lurk in stealth.

Yogscast made some pretty good profession videos.
Here's the thief:
http://youtu.be/s4E3raPxpUo

[Nevermore]

Hurry up and take my money, ANet.

I'm going to be rolling with my own personal mesmerzerg.  And hoping not everyone thinks mesmers are as awesome as I do.

So how long will you last in this game before flittering off to something else? 3 weeks?  

[kildorn]

Hurry up and take my money, ANet.

I'm going to be rolling with my own personal mesmerzerg.  And hoping not everyone thinks mesmers are as awesome as I do.

So how long will you last in this game before flittering off to something else? 3 weeks?  

Depends how fast leveling goes!

[Tannhauser]

OMG I found a 'seekret' funnay in one of the tooltips for Short bows (Skill 4:  Crippling Shot)



 

[schild]

I'm sure that was funny when they put it in, which was probably 4 hours after the internet beat that meme to death.

[Redgiant]

Is the "one more siege weapon" reference in this dev Q&A mean rams are actually in as well??

Couple more Q's that I couldn't find video evidence of, in case someone has seen in public info:

- Any towers in seige weapon range of keeps/castles? I.e., you break in, take them, climb to top and mount a seige weapon up there instead of on the ground.

- Any sally port doors? I.e. doors on side or in rear of keep/castle for defenders to enter during an attack.

[kildorn]

For the towers in range thing, one of the Yogs videos was talking about a guild that built mortars in one keep and used it to shell the next keep over.