First Impressions

[Tannhauser]

I dislike the annoying popups about overflow as well. And like others have mentioned, the invitation to change to the main server comes up at the worst times. It seems to love popping up when I'm in a very intense fight with an elite mob and his friends and that damned popup obscures my screen at a critical moment.

I'm still enjoying my thief though he does feel squishy and I wish I had more AOE type potential. Right now I use a dagger/dagger and pistol/pistol build. I murder single targets but get easily overwhelmed by numbers. I may sideline the thief and try out a more AOE friendly class or even a Ranger.

I'm playing a Thief as well and the shortbow has good aoe.  You have a nuke and a choking gas.  But yeah he's a mite squishy.

My complaints are that the last two patches have overheated my laptop again, switching it off.  Also, I can't get the camera to lock behind my Thief, resulting in me CONSTANTLY losing track of my target.  Anyone else have this issue?

[EWSpider]

I dislike the annoying popups about overflow as well. And like others have mentioned, the invitation to change to the main server comes up at the worst times. It seems to love popping up when I'm in a very intense fight with an elite mob and his friends and that damned popup obscures my screen at a critical moment.

I'm still enjoying my thief though he does feel squishy and I wish I had more AOE type potential. Right now I use a dagger/dagger and pistol/pistol build. I murder single targets but get easily overwhelmed by numbers. I may sideline the thief and try out a more AOE friendly class or even a Ranger.

I'm playing a Thief as well and the shortbow has good aoe.  You have a nuke and a choking gas.  But yeah he's a mite squishy.

My complaints are that the last two patches have overheated my laptop again, switching it off.  Also, I can't get the camera to lock behind my Thief, resulting in me CONSTANTLY losing track of my target.  Anyone else have this issue?

Yes, Thief with a Shortbow is fantastic for taking down groups of melee mobs.  If you didn't realize the auto attack shot bounces between targets.  Drop a poison field and then start shooting through it and you can instantly poison multiple targets.  Then you have the Cluster Bomb which is an aoe bleed.  The secret is to fire it a bit in front of your target so that it has a low arc and then detonate it when it is almost right on top of your targets.  This will spread a nice stack of bleeds.  Make sure you get your Acrobatics up to 5 for the Swiftness buff on Dodge.  I've killed as many as 8 melee mobs at a time without taking a single point of damage.  The squishiness doesn't matter when you don't get hit (needless to say ranged mobs are priority targets).

I do still occasionally lose my target when circle strafing, but I've been getting better at it.  Still frustrating when it happens though.

[ffc]

The secret is to fire it a bit in front of your target so that it has a low arc and then detonate it when it is almost right on top of your targets. 

I fired a high-arching arrow and it got caught on an overhang, exploding well before my target.  Didn't expect environment collision like that. Quite nice.

[Amaron]

I'm now having trouble finding people doing events in off hours sadly.   With people finally spread out the zones have too few people.   They need to add an underflow server or something.

[Murgos]

But yeah he's a mite squishy.

The thief has a lot of movement related abilities, you should never be face tanking and there is no reason to stand still.  Remember that most attacks are in small area in the direction you (or your opponent) is facing and not actually targeted.  Switch weapons as needed, I am using dagger dagger and Shortbow.  It's pretty easy to avoid most damage in PVE.

All through the previews for this game I thought I was going to hate the Asura.  I thought they were an annoying gimmick (gnome/cutesy).  My Asura thief is by far my favorite character personality wise and the Asura starting area has been the most entertaining.

[Mattemeo]

Oh boy, this is a good sign. I want to transfer the characters I made last night to Jade Quarry... which is FULL at 13:30 UK time on a weekday, which is what, 8:30 at the earliest in the US? The game itself seems lovely. Their implementation seems to be anything but. I don't remember feeling this frustrated trying to just start any other MMO.

When Funcom are kicking the shit out of you in the accesibility stakes, you are doing something very, very wrong, Arenanet. 

[Amaron]

Dragonbrand felt like a ghost town in the 15~30 area so I logged out and the server said full. 

[tazelbain]

Oh boy, this is a good sign. I want to transfer the characters I made last night to Jade Quarry... which is FULL at 13:30 UK time on a weekday, which is what, 8:30 at the earliest in the US? The game itself seems lovely. Their implementation seems to be anything but. I don't remember feeling this frustrated trying to just start any other MMO.

When Funcom are kicking the shit out of you in the accesibility stakes, you are doing something very, very wrong, Arenanet.  

What is a game company suppose to do when everyone wants to play on the same 5 servers?

[Nebu]

WHat is a game company supose to do when everyone wants to play on the 5 same servers

Snap their fingers and make it instantly happen with a miracle patch.  Duh! 

[Mattemeo]

Use a queue system like everyone else has managed to for what, a decade now? This isn't unreasonable frustration. This is a stupid system that locks people away from their friends less than 24 hours after the game went live.

[Khaldun]

So I have to say that for the first time in a while in an MMO I have that uneasy feeling that I might be gimping myself or not doing something right at a fundamental level. In a weird way I kind of like that--to not feel like my hand is being held every second. But I was really surprised when I equipped a MH sword on my thief and suddenly I've got new abilities that are autolevelling, from what I can tell--to then try to figure out how to relate that to the abilities which I actually choose is a bit confusing. Heavy participation in public events makes it even a bit more confusing because in a huge crowd, it's very hard to tell what's working and how it works. I don't mind it too much, but I have this intense sense that under the hood there is all sorts of shit going on with my character that I don't understand at all. As I say, that's not too bad, *as long as* it doesn't turn out two months later that I've permanently fucked the character up.

The early feeling I get is a lot like the better feelings I had about Warhammer Online. Here's hoping that the same bad feelings don't follow later on.

[01101010]

So I have to say that for the first time in a while in an MMO I have that uneasy feeling that I might be gimping myself or not doing something right at a fundamental level. In a weird way I kind of like that--to not feel like my hand is being held every second. But I was really surprised when I equipped a MH sword on my thief and suddenly I've got new abilities that are autolevelling, from what I can tell--to then try to figure out how to relate that to the abilities which I actually choose is a bit confusing. Heavy participation in public events makes it even a bit more confusing because in a huge crowd, it's very hard to tell what's working and how it works. I don't mind it too much, but I have this intense sense that under the hood there is all sorts of shit going on with my character that I don't understand at all. As I say, that's not too bad, *as long as* it doesn't turn out two months later that I've permanently fucked the character up.

The early feeling I get is a lot like the better feelings I had about Warhammer Online. Here's hoping that the same bad feelings don't follow later on.

I don't think it's possible to permanently screw your character up though... You can reset traits and I think you eventually unlock all the abilities and weapon skills.

And I fully agree that when I equip a new weapon or swap offhands, it is a new game trying to figure out what works with what. My ranger had a nice combination figured out with MH sword and OH axe, but had to majorly adjust when I went axe/axe. All the sudden I am back to ranged full time with an oh shit melee ability.

I am just starting to weave in the other abilities from the skill points like traps and boons. Feels like I have a lot more to develop which is fascinating.

[Hawkbit]

The early feeling I get is a lot like the better feelings I had about Warhammer Online. Here's hoping that the same bad feelings don't follow later on.

That's a very interesting assessment, and I didn't want to be the one to say it first.  However, this game feels a LOT like a partially fixed WAR.  

Don't sweat the weapon skills.  In my opinion, learn two weapons very well, know their abilities.  Then add a third, and so on. I think you're a thief, right, so start with one ranged and one melee.  Learn those two so you know exactly what those five buttons will do, then add another set of abilities through a new weapon.    

[PalmTrees]

Map completion chest awards need to be more personalized. Finished Kessex Hills and my mesmer got: heavy armor, medium armor, ~50 soft wood and two black lion keys. Can't wear the armor, don't have a tradeskill that uses wood, and most of what the keys unlocked was more of the useless turn into an animal potions. Reward my ocd completion of your content Anet!

Did have the first zerg fail in the Destroyer caves in Kessex Hills. Champion destroyer harpy wiped us like we were nothing. Damn giant flying mob in a cave, so hard to see what it was doing. Got two-shotted so much all my armor broke.

[Kageru]

Learn all the weapon skills, they train pretty fast and it's much easier to unlock them when the mobs are weak. And you can play with the skills without a target to get a feel for them. It looks like there'll be enough skill points around that you could learn everything if you are a completionist or really indecisive, and since you can change them on the fly having more options is generally good. Traits can be reset.

Trying to find a comfortable mix of weapons, skills and traits that fit the role I think I should be filling is pleasantly complex. But I have no real idea if it's complexity because there are lots of options or because there's no underlying logic to it.

[Tmon]

Also, once you hit 80 every time you get enough xp to gain a new level you will gain a skill point so you aren't limited to the points you can find on the map.

[Lantyssa]

There are infinite skill points.  Besides the 75 from leveling, each zone has challenges, and once you hit 80 you'll continue to 'level', with each one giving you a point.

Traits can be reset, weapon skills are never forgotten and easy to learn, and you can learn as many crafting professions as you want, the only cost being if you change between them.  (It's far less costly to dedicate characters to two specific skills each.)

[KallDrexx]

There are infinite skill points.  Besides the 75 from leveling, each zone has challenges, and once you hit 80 you'll continue to 'level', with each one giving you a point.

I've read that you only gain 10 "skil point levels" once you hit 80.

[EWSpider]

You are not locked out from your friends if you have to choose a different server temporarily.  You can still talk (in-game) with them, group with them, join their guild, and exchange mail with them.  The only time your server matters is when you are in a WvW zone.  Jump in whichever server you can get into and start playing with your friends immediately and then as soon as their server opens up transfer over to it.

[proudft]

The guild invites seem wonky if you haven't yet gotten into a non-overflow server zone.  Nevertheless, I'd MUCH rather be able to fart around on my own doing random stuff than sit and stare at a "your position is number 3512" display for god knows how long.

[01101010]

There are infinite skill points.  Besides the 75 from leveling, each zone has challenges, and once you hit 80 you'll continue to 'level', with each one giving you a point.

I've read that you only gain 10 "skil point levels" once you hit 80.

Either way... looking at thief in particular, there is only 118 points needed for all the skills. There are 187 skill challenges in the world, so I'd think you should have enough with leveling and world.

However, the mystic forge uses those points as currency so there is that... (http://www.guildwars2hub.com/guides/basics/skill-points)

[Riggswolfe]

But yeah he's a mite squishy.

The thief has a lot of movement related abilities, you should never be face tanking and there is no reason to stand still.  Remember that most attacks are in small area in the direction you (or your opponent) is facing and not actually targeted.  Switch weapons as needed, I am using dagger dagger and Shortbow.  It's pretty easy to avoid most damage in PVE.

All through the previews for this game I thought I was going to hate the Asura.  I thought they were an annoying gimmick (gnome/cutesy).  My Asura thief is by far my favorite character personality wise and the Asura starting area has been the most entertaining.

Well I use Death Blossom on my daggers to move around some. As for traits I've done the crit trait and the power trait so far. Both up to 5.

As for the short bow my issue was, if I remember:

A) It had a ground target AOE and I suck ass at those when things get hectic
B) I had issues timing the explosive arrow attack to go off correctly.

[Ingmar]

The guild invites seem wonky if you haven't yet gotten into a non-overflow server zone.  Nevertheless, I'd MUCH rather be able to fart around on my own doing random stuff than sit and stare at a "your position is number 3512" display for god knows how long.

That doesn't help you when you're just wanting to make your character in the first place, though. I think queueing to the character creation screen would be ok, it can dump you in an overflow after that. Then people wouldn't have to dick around with transfers just to get on the same server with their guild.

[01101010]

Well I use Death Blossom on my daggers to move around some. As for traits I've done the crit trait and the power trait so far. Both up to 5.

As for the short bow my issue was, if I remember:

A) It had a ground target AOE and I suck ass at those when things get hectic
B) I had issues timing the explosive arrow attack to go off correctly.

I use Dual daggers as well - only really gets harry when I have more than three and no help. Trait one of those up to ten and grab a virtue... I think they are worth it personally.

The ground target AoE thing should have a setting to enable “Fast ground targeting” in the options menu to disable the targeting circle and instantly cast ground targeted skills at the location of the mouse pointer. Might help.

http://www.noxxic.com/gw2/getting-started/combat-basics/targetting

[Miasma]

Each race has a 1-15 area and a 15-25 area, I would suggest getting all the skill points in those areas now while there are tons of people around doing the same thing.  Some of them are quite hard to do solo for some classes.  I'm only level forty and I've unlocked all of my skills except for some of the last ones that cost ten or thirty.

Anyways the game is fun and something to do.  I mainly bought it to be my PvP game and I have yet to do any, too many shinies all over the map to try and get.  I don't know if it's just because the class I picked is more of a support role but I feal weak and sometimes squishy in PvE.  Seems to be a polish issue, some enemies are easy to kill but something else the exact same level will bring me to half life and take three times as long to kill.  No the tough one was not a veteran/champion or anything.  The down scaling in zones below you is interesting but it goes too far in my opinion, you are typically scaled down to being only one level above the mobs, I'd like a few.  Personal storyline is crap, even when I try not to compare it to something like TSW it's still crap.  That could just be due to my profession/race though.

[Sky]

Guardian has been pretty cool solo thus far. A couple tight fights and I realized I wasn't using my Virtues (f1-f3), DOH. Pop those on a tough fight and it become a nice little edge. And it spreads to all close allies, which is even more cool. Fun class but ever since I picked up the greatsword, I just can't put it down. I can see a few situations where I might want some of the others, but it's definitely my meant+potato weapon.

[Ingmar]

Remember that popping the virtue turns off its passive effect while it is on cooldown, so actually not popping them is often the right answer.

And yeah, greatsword just seems far and away better than other options.

[Genev]

I've seen a fair amount of guardians around, they're insane in large fights, pretty impressed.

I'm loving Ranger so far, finding a fair amount of pets, though i admit the ones i use i don't use because they're ebst for the situation but because they're simply cool
(Locke the fern hound, Fluffy the lashtail devourer and Cuddles the jungle spider :p). Pity i can't seem to find a longbow to upgrade y lvl 16 one, every other weapon has been upgraded....

[Nebu]

Has anyone else done the level 30 dungeon?  It's quite challenging, but fun. 

[kildorn]

Has anyone else done the level 30 dungeon?  It's quite challenging, but fun. 

Yes. Story mode is hard as hell (mostly trash wise), explorable is absolutely crazy mean from what I've done there.

[Lantyssa]

We're hoping to do the first dungeon this weekend, if we can all manage to hit 30.

[sachiel]

Did have the first zerg fail in the Destroyer caves in Kessex Hills. Champion destroyer harpy wiped us like we were nothing. Damn giant flying mob in a cave, so hard to see what it was doing. Got two-shotted so much all my armor broke.

That was a hard fucking fight.  Survived that without downing on my water/arcane ele pushing as much healing on the 3-4 other guys as possible.  The veteran adds made it fun!

[Sky]

I should hit thirty in another week or two!

Ingmar, do you mean signets? Even so, good to know.

[Nebu]

I should hit thirty in another week or two!

Fortunately, I can group with you no matter what level you are.  That is if I haven't quit and moved on to a new game by then.

[01101010]

Remember that popping the virtue turns off its passive effect while it is on cooldown, so actually not popping them is often the right answer.

And yeah, greatsword just seems far and away better than other options.

The aegis virtue is one I pop as soon as I see the mob start up an ability even if I am not tanking the mob. The heal I use when I shield or dodge if my main heal is down. I never pop the burner.