Opinions on the state of the game?

[lamaros]

I'm wondering if anyone has any opinions on the current state of the game to share, now that the game has been out for a while?

I'll pass them on to the alpha forums if I think they can contribute to some of the discussions going on there.

[Daydreamer]

Why are henchmen all but useless post-imbue?  What is the purpose?

[Llava]

Why are henchmen all but useless post-imbue?  What is the purpose?

You mean after you get your armor infused?  They just updated that, if that's what you mean, so that they have the equivalent of 3 infused pieces of armor.  Just got done completing that very mission, in fact, with myself and 4 henchmen (2 tanks, 2 monks).

I've only been playing a couple weeks, now, so I still don't feel like I've absorbed the game in its entirety.  It would be nice if the Tomb of Primeval Kings had an auto-grouping feature similar to the Team Arena, though, where holes from people leaving prematurely would get patched at least.

[penfold]

I got to D'Aleissa Seaboard, and by that stage the game was crashing regulary, for some reason it would only crash and take down my entire PC when 10-30 seconds away from the zoneline (or actually upon zoning) that completes that area/mission, i guess was due to  the streaming technology or something. I know its a fairly rare bug i have, but it was a gamestopper for me.

I cant be bothered to grind through those missions even when they do work to be honest, even though i was very keen on experimenting with PVP builds, unlocking all those skills isnt something im prepared to do, especially if it crashes 2 out of the 3 times i get to a new area. The few times ive logged on since ive been greeted with an empty guild channel, no one else has logged on in well over a week, I guess everyone else in the guild got bored too.

[Xanthippe]

I switched guilds because few people were playing, to a guild of old friends - where few of them are still playing HAHA.

I think I'm one quest from ascension, so I can't compare the state of the hench.

Getting to Thirsty River was a pain in the ass because whenever my group of henchies and I died, stupidfuckingmoron Alesia would go running off alone to die to mobs.

That zone in particular I had trouble with, doing with just hench because of henchbugs.

[schild]

I like the game. It's pretty, it's fun, it's painless. And the game is all about rewards.

Unfortunately, the rewards suck ass. And I felt like a contrived medieval City of Heroes character that couldn't jump.

That said, I still like it and am happy waiting until I see what's in the expansions.

[Sauced]

God, just make the fucking henchman pick up a pile of gold every once in a while, since they are stealing most of it anyways.  I shouldn't have to run around collecting piles when Little Thom is standing right there on top of them.

[Krakrok]

Store the highest number of consecutive wins in the random 4v4 arena on the character. Let other people see it?

More random 4v4 arenas.

There use to be a "charge the adobe castle kill the hero" random arena. Bring that back.

Unranked guild battles?

Take the 4v4 arenas and do a version where you get to pick the 4 people on your team?

[Xilren's Twin]

Rather than having to run all your alts through the pve ascencion stuff to unlock skills, be nice to have an option to say buy non elite skills for other characters on your account.  The more viable characters you can get people to experiment with, the more rention IMHO.  The pvp only characters aren't bad, but if you can unlock runes and skills for your whole account that way, how much different is it just to allow folks to spend their in game money on them.  The pve should be an optional component for those who enjoy that sort of thing (and we know some people live for loot farming golds and purples).

Overall, for the price and purpose, i think the game is fun.  The pve is light enough to not be annoying, and the pvp can be fast paced and fun.  With no monthly fee, why wouldn't you just keep it around for whenever the mood stirkes.  I'd be willing to pick up an expansion if they add new stuff, like new character templates.

Xilren

[tazelbain]

Where is the balance for elementists and monks?
There are a ton of spells the trivalize warriors and rangers.
Necros and Mesmers are pretty situational.
Elementalists there are only a few elites that really hose them.
And nothing hoses monks but massive damage.
Don't bother say mesmers because a mesmer can really only shutdown one caster, so you'd need a full group of them.


And

Get rid of skill points! They are not needed.

[Yoru]

Liking it so far; I have a small cadre of friends to play with, and we play extremely casually - one group plays 1-2 missions a week together, the other just sort of tosses together whatever characters we have near each other for a few hours every other day or so.

I've got one character post-ascension (E/Me) and having a bear of a time getting through the Ice Caves of Sorrow; I pair up with a good Mo/Me regularly, so I don't have issues finding groups, but the groups tend to be so full of mouthbreathing cocktards that it's difficult to actually complete the mission without someone royally screwing the group over.

Not particularly looking forward to running the Imbue quest five times, but that's what alts are for.

[Yegolev]

I like the game. It's pretty, it's fun, it's painless. And the game is all about rewards.

Unfortunately, the rewards suck ass. And I felt like a contrived medieval City of Heroes character that couldn't jump.

That said, I still like it and am happy waiting until I see what's in the expansions.

Ditto.  I am waiting to hit the area where I get DII:LOD loot, the kind that makes you feel good about whacking foozles because they are likely pinatas of crap.

[Hoax]

There is just something missing, I dont know what it is but its missing and I miss it.

The game is fun, I enjoy doing a mission a day (I just got to the seaboard) and I like the pvp, but there is a bit of a lack of depth.  How to fix that, I have no idea.  GW will stay on my computer and I will definately buy the first expansion just to see what other cool stuff has come out.  But I'm not sure that I'm going to bother being active.

Also there should be a much more robust guild recruitment system in-game, because without a guild you can hardly play the game. 

I sure wouldn't mind being able to rearrange my quests either.

[Llava]

Take the 4v4 arenas and do a version where you get to pick the 4 people on your team?

Done, visit the "Team Arenas" on a PvP character (or a RP character who passed the Dragon's Lair quest).

[Xilren's Twin]

There is just something missing, I dont know what it is but its missing and I miss it.

I think part of it is a mindset that needs to change.  With most mmorpg type game, when you play them you really strive to be active as in getting in some playtime every day or more days out of the week than not.  Too easy to fall behind your friends or miss out on something otherwise.  I think a big reason why is becuase no matter how casual friendly the game (WoW and CoH come to mind) you still know that it's going to take you X weeks/months to make it through a significant part of the game, and the rest is just keeping up with the jones or treading water in game (gold farming in SB, managing your harvesters/shops etc in SWG).

Here, that's really a non factor.  It's just not that hard to get to level 20 timewise, and if you don't even want to bother with that your can pvp from day 1, and there no crafting or other gameplay to speak of, even the loot farming is a shadow of other games.  It's most definately NOT a typical mmorpg.  If GW had a monthly fee, I don't think most would pay for it b/c it's much closer to a fantasy quake game than it is a orpg.  I dare say the average mmorpg game just doesn't treat their games casually as in "play 1-2 times a week" but GW just screams out for that b/c there's no mountain to climb.  (It does make me wonder if DAoC had a "create max level toon you can only pvp with" on release, how it would have affected their player rates; enough people certainly asked to skip the pve part...)

I plan to treat it like I do MTGO or many xbox live games; fun game I play when the mood strikes.  No monthly fee so it's easy to do that.

Xilren

[Shockeye]

I plan to treat it like I do MTGO or many xbox live games; fun game I play when the mood strikes.  No monthly fee so it's easy to do that.

That kind of attitude makes it hard to be active in a guild or get a real sense of "team" with a few other people.

Not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying that if it should be treated like a fantasy quake game, the whole "guild" part of the game should be scaled back a bit.

[eldaec]

pvp needs more stats. I want to know how many people I ganked. It could use fluff rewards for the more casual arenas - but obviously no repeat of daoc RRs.

Pvp maps with a greater variety of objectives would be nice I guess.

Oh and the death penalty is absolutely the best death penalty ever created in a MMOG.

I'm just saying that if it should be treated like a fantasy quake game, the whole "guild" part of the game should be scaled back a bit.

Being successful at quake requires a guild just as much as GW does.

GW just tells you that much up front when you are a noob.

[Shockeye]

Being successful at quake requires a guild just as much as GW does.

GW just tells you that much up front when you are a noob.

But if you're going to treat the game casually, then you can't really be helpful in a guild.

[tazelbain]

pvp needs more stats.

I want to record what happens in a match.  What skills do they use?  What conditions, hexes, and enchants are on people effects? When did they end? How much damage did people do?

So tired of losing and not being able to figure what happened.

[SuperPopTart]

The game for me is still fun for what it is but since I've reached 20th I am really unsure what I should do with myself save creating alternate characters and well, I really don't want to do that. I did that 700000000 times in EQ 1. If I wanted to do that I'd just go back to EQ (which I do but I am not because I must resist this temptation and move on) and the PVP on GW seems dead around the times when I am able to play.

Did I mention our guild has all but died?

GW needs, in my opinion, more quests, more places to travel, more rewards for those that have hit 20.  And of course, because I am a whore for role playing.. I think something more rp involved would be just...

lovely.

[Shockeye]

And of course, because I am a whore for role playing.. I think something more rp involved would be just...

lovely.

WoW. Earthen Ring. Asstastic RP on a nightly basis.

[SuperPopTart]

Really? Who is RPing? Are they invisible?

[Hoax]

Shockeye is spot on in this one.

You dont need a guild to have fun in quake, because fps is naturally a ton of fun. Guildwars pvp is good, its the best rpg pvp ever I would say easily.  But its still rpg combat which for its own sake is not that fun.  You need a pvp reward mountain to climb unfortunately.  But stay away from the RealmPoints, AA style as much as possible..  I dunno its tough to quantify why everyone has stopped playing already. 

[tazelbain]

Please don't turn the game into another treadmill anymore that it already is (which it already is too much)? 
Don't we have enough of those?

There isn't much to do, much post 20, if you don't want to PvP or don't have an active guild..

[Strazos]

You WILL all start playing again when I return.

I hate gaming alone.

Since all my close RL gaming friends have moved to Florida to attend Full Sail, this may be a recurring theme. 

[eldaec]

Take the 4v4 arenas and do a version where you get to pick the 4 people on your team?

Done, visit the "Team Arenas" on a PvP character (or a RP character who passed the Dragon's Lair quest).

Isn't that 8v8?

[Signe]

You WILL all start playing again when I return.

I hate gaming alone.

Since all my close RL gaming friends have moved to Florida to attend Full Sail, this may be a recurring theme. 

Gaming alone will be your penance for taunting us with fun anecdotes of Rom-a.

[tazelbain]

Isn't that 8v8?

nope, briefly there was a bug that merged 2 teams together to make them teams of 8, but those maps are too small 16 players.

[tazelbain]

I hate gaming alone.

You can join my new guild if you want.

[trias_e]

I loved Guild Wars PvP in and of itself when I could make any character I wanted during the beta events.  Now it's just another piece of shit grindfest.  I thought these guys would be the first devs not to cave in to the grind, but I was wrong.

And the PvE in this game is unquestionably terrible (not in grinding length, but quality and enjoyment), even more so than usual for the genre...at least in my experience.

I still love the PvP when I'm with a good group...I just wish I could make the character I want to.

[Rasix]

I just can't get through the PvE.  It's the worst in this "genre" (not sure this game is a mmorpg, thus the quotes) since AC2.  It just kills me to the point where the rest of the game could be robot jesus and I wouldn't care.

Shortest stint in an online multiplayer game ever for me (at least it only cost me 10 bucks, so I find it hard to be bitter).  Someone notify me when they put in some robot pirate ninjas.

[Shockeye]

Shortest stint in an online multiplayer game ever for me (at least it only cost me 10 bucks, so I find it hard to be bitter).  Someone notify me when they put in some robot pirate ninjas.

I could go for either robot or non. Pirate+Ninja=Happiness.

[WayAbvPar]

I just can't get through the PvE.  It's the worst in this "genre" (not sure this game is a mmorpg, thus the quotes) since AC2.  It just kills me to the point where the rest of the game could be robot jesus and I wouldn't care.

Shortest stint in an online multiplayer game ever for me (at least it only cost me 10 bucks, so I find it hard to be bitter).  Someone notify me when they put in some robot pirate ninjas.

I had the same problem. I was hoping the strategy guide would help me get through it, but it STILL hasn't shipped from Amazon. I will likely cancel it, since no one is playing any more.

Damnit- I KNEW this would happen. The PvE was boring as hell in the beta, but all the fanboy ravings at release lulled me into buying it. Actually, the selling point for me was the chance to hear Schild screaming obscenities at Haemish on TS  :-D

[trias_e]

Well, the game would have been worth buying if it had been the same as the fiinal beta event.  Bait-and-switching bastards.

[Shockeye]

I just can't get through the PvE.  It's the worst in this "genre" (not sure this game is a mmorpg, thus the quotes) since AC2.  It just kills me to the point where the rest of the game could be robot jesus and I wouldn't care.

Shortest stint in an online multiplayer game ever for me (at least it only cost me 10 bucks, so I find it hard to be bitter).  Someone notify me when they put in some robot pirate ninjas.

I had the same problem. I was hoping the strategy guide would help me get through it, but it STILL hasn't shipped from Amazon. I will likely cancel it, since no one is playing any more.

Damnit- I KNEW this would happen. The PvE was boring as hell in the beta, but all the fanboy ravings at release lulled me into buying it. Actually, the selling point for me was the chance to hear Schild screaming obscenities at Haemish on TS  :-D

Yeah, the PVE I thought was bad back in beta as well, but I was suckered into buying it. Not saying it was a bad purchase, just that it didn't hold up. Perhaps not having to pay a monthly fee has something to do with it.