Guild Wars 2

[Nefretiti]

Yeah mostly cosmetic,fashion, mini pets etc
Unfortunately no permanent trial yet to my knowlege.
they had a temporary invite a friend during the big world even in early Nov

[Meggers]

Fuuuuu cant wait for the winter event. Was my fave in GW1.

[Silivren]

YAY TIXX IS HERE!!! /FLAIL!! SNOW!! In some way or another since I lack it irl. >.<

[Chimera]

So, im poking around to try my hand at a new MMO... GW2 is free to play, 5 character slots to begin with, and a lot more flexability and versatility in armor/weapons and classes? I only read back to about page 27 >.>;;

To each of you guys playing the game, is it worth the money?

Whats the lore like? Is it easy to understand and feel like your a part of the GW universe? Is it in-depth and extensive in the origins of the world and the races that used to and still do live there? Ive never even had the idea of playing GW until now so i know nothing on what its about xD

Is it easy to learn and understand the gameplay?

I have absolutely no understanding of computer lingo so for graphics, does it tax your computers to run on a medium or higher graphic setting? Like, lag, glitches, poor fps?

What classes are there and (just a basic explanation) how do they work? What are each of your favorite classes? In WoW i play hunters and rogues mostly, but im always willing to attempt a caster class. I have mixed feelings to casters depending on how the game im playing made them.

If i join i'll probably roll a Charr, what classes benefit from that race the most?

What armor and weapons should each class use and how much leeway is there to customizing them? I saw one post that mentioned they were having fun with a 'greatsword ranger'.

What is combat like? Is it more akin to Skyrim where you have to pay attention to what your doing unlike WoW where you just sit there and pew pew?

Are there any addons from Curse or elsewhere for GW2? If so, are there any you guys use that benefit you in general on the game? (nothing class specific but just to change gameplay or UI).

What are the commands, controls, and UI set up like? Is it easy to work with the UI and customize the key bindings?

What is the social aspect of the game like as a whole? Is it cutthroat, do quest mobs tag when hit, do people grief others horribly, do people fight for mobs? Is it more free-for-all with the named quest mobs in that you can get credit for helping rather then having the first tag? What's PvP like? Is there world PvP? Battlegrounds? Are there factions like WoW where they cant communicate with eachother?

What are the dungeons like?

I read a couple pages back you can cross-realm. How does that work?

How do guilds work? I'll def be trying to wiggle into the Petopians guild if i can.

What kind of mounts are there? What level can you get them at? Where can you acquire mounts? What do you require to ride a mount? Are there flying mounts?

I'll be researching their actual website and going through whatever i can on storyboard and races, classes, and other aspects of the game the site has to offer but would love to hear your guy's opinions and explanations in response to all the questions ive asked :3

Edit: Re-wrote the question about the lore ^^

[cowmuflage]

I'd say it's a bit like both. If Skyrim was a MMO. What do you mean by storyboard? Cos like the storyboard's I know ahve nothing to do with games apart from ciniematics.

[Chimera]

Kinda forget sometimes Skyrim isnt an MMO lol.. and um, maybe storyboard isnt the right word.. um, the lore, the story of the game, how the world was formed, how the races came into existence, how things became the way they are now in the world, what happened to the extinct races, stuff like that :3 I dont know what you call it unless the story of the game is literally just 'Lore' ^^;;

[Vephriel]

The lore is amazing, I immersed myself for 2 days reading over the official blog entries regarding the races and history, it's very compelling. I didn't know anything beforehand since I'd never tried the original Guild Wars.
http://www.arena.net/blog/
It's sort of scattered, but if you go back to the very first entries and just work your way backwards in chronological order you'll see a bunch of the lore related posts they made.

[Chimera]

All the lore is in the blog entries? Well.. that'll keep me busy for a looong time.. XD from the pleasent reactions im seeing in the first few and few last pages of the thread that were about peoples experiences with in-game content, i'd say it'll prolly be worth it to browse through. I hope to get cash and not gift cards for christmas this year to pay for the game incase i decide to join.. $60 is a lot for me right now >_<

[cowmuflage]

All the lore is in the blog entries? Well.. that'll keep me busy for a looong time.. XD from the pleasent reactions im seeing in the first few and few last pages of the thread that were about peoples experiences with in-game content, i'd say it'll prolly be worth it to browse through. I hope to get cash and not gift cards for christmas this year to pay for the game incase i decide to join.. $60 is a lot for me right now >_<

I feels ya on the money front. Least it's not $100 like it is here XD Hence why I bum of my mate

[Silivren]

To answer your question or a few of them...

Every race can be every class, there are no racials in this game to make one race better a class than another. the only difference is each race get different racial skills but those are mostly for fun. Each race also has a different story than the other races.

There are no mounts, GW2 didnt make them because they want you to explore the world on foot, it really isnt that bad though.

Each class gets certain weapons they can use be they one-hand/two-hand/ or an off-hand. It depends on your class and really, I dont think there are any BEST weapons per class. Sure someones gunna say that they like bow rangers best but someone else could like greatsword ranger best.

You get credit for helping on a named mob or on hitting a mob, the quests are different than WoW, very different. You'll have to play through the game to see them. I'm not sure if you could even call them quests.

Gw2 will tax your computer if your computer is poor, the game is graphically VERY well done.

You dont really customize the UI what so ever, you have 10 attacks at any given time. The first 5 are tied to the weapon/weapons you're using, the 6th is your healing skill, the 7th, 8th, and 9th are utility skills that can be used for attacks/gyphs that buff you, etc and the 10th slot is your Elite skill. You can put a racial elite skill or a class specific elite skill there.

To my knowledge there are no add-ons for GW2.

In combat you DO have to pay attention, but double clicking the top of your health bubble(you'll see what I mean if you watch some vids) your character will dodge, however you can only dodge so many times before your endurance has to fill up. At lower levels it doesnt matter so much but in higher levels you will be dodging your ass off and kiting too. You have to pay attention, if you dont then you die.

Hope this helped some!
Guilds are unique as in you can join more than one, you just have to choose to "represent" the guild you want to be social in. That guilld will get your infleunce points and you will be able to see their guild chat and talk to them as opposed to seeing and talking in guild chat of your other guuilds which you're currently not representing.

The lore is fantastic and through your personal story(as close to quests as you'll get) you'll meet major lore characters. yuou'll learn their stories and you'll deepen your own. You make choices throughout your story and some do impact the world areound you. For instance, on my human character I had the choice to stop bandits from poisonining the cities water supply or warn my friend who was part of this bandits gang that he knew where he was and was coming for him. I cleaned the water, the result was the death of my best friend.

[Chimera]

Before bed last night i went through all the races, thief for classes (my mind instantly drew me there, i was having a lot of fun on my rogue), combat, dungeons, and dynamic events (reminds me of skyrim but muuuch more interactive and consequential), personal story, and while i understood the instanced pvp environments, the world pvp confused me a bit, i didnt exactly understand how it works and if its safe to enter whatever area is being fought over to do quests.. or are the world pvp zones places that dont have pve quests?

The UI and combat sound like it'll take some adjusting to, aside from WoW ive never played another computer game that had a UI to click (skyrim has no UI, you enter your magic tab to 'equip' spells). Combat according to the site takes environment into consideration too it seems as well as running around wildly Items lying around everywhere that you can pick up as weapons, working with other players can create really bizzare fights that effect eachothers combat moves (arrows lighting on fire after moving through someones flame wall or life stealing arrows from passing through a darkness field). I swore i saw somewhere last night hiding behind things like trees or other environmental objects also make the difference in life for death when fighting mobs but i cant find it anymore..

Sad theres no mounts :< though in skyrim, even tho i do have mounts, i only ever use em if i need to travel really far so i can probably adjust to on foot really quickly.

Im reeeeeeally liking the personal story and dynamic events, im going to have a looooot of fun with that

Gw2 will tax your computer if your computer is poor, the game is graphically VERY well done.

Ahhh.. i keep comparing GW2 to skyrim lol, but thats the closest game i have played that i can compare to GW2 to get a feeling for its system and inner workings... have you played skyrim before? has anyone in the thread played skyrim? Do your computers lag more in GW2 then in skyrim? Or even better, anyone understand computers?

My computer info, in terms of whats inside it that is (im throwing everything thats on the sticker on the side of the computer out there) xD:

Windows 8
AAMD Quad-Core A6-3620 APU with Radeon HD 6530D graphics
1TB Hard Drive
8GB DDR3 memory
DVD-Super Multi Drive
Multi-in-one Media Card Reader
Intergrated LAN 10/100/1000

Edit: Oh yes, a few more questions..

What is the main source of transportation aside from walking if there are no mounts? Ive read theres city portals, but is there means to travel to non-city areas quickly?

What happens if you die? Do you spawn automatically at a graveyard or do you run to your body? Is there a penalty to dying (losing exp or gold)? Do you lose any items?

[Silivren]

Before bed last night i went through all the races, thief for classes (my mind instantly drew me there, i was having a lot of fun on my rogue), combat, dungeons, and dynamic events (reminds me of skyrim but muuuch more interactive and consequential), personal story, and while i understood the instanced pvp environments, the world pvp confused me a bit, i didnt exactly understand how it works and if its safe to enter whatever area is being fought over to do quests.. or are the world pvp zones places that dont have pve quests?

The UI and combat sound like it'll take some adjusting to, aside from WoW ive never played another computer game that had a UI to click (skyrim has no UI, you enter your magic tab to 'equip' spells). Combat according to the site takes environment into consideration too it seems as well as running around wildly Items lying around everywhere that you can pick up as weapons, working with other players can create really bizzare fights that effect eachothers combat moves (arrows lighting on fire after moving through someones flame wall or life stealing arrows from passing through a darkness field). I swore i saw somewhere last night hiding behind things like trees or other environmental objects also make the difference in life for death when fighting mobs but i cant find it anymore..

Sad theres no mounts :< though in skyrim, even tho i do have mounts, i only ever use em if i need to travel really far so i can probably adjust to on foot really quickly.

Im reeeeeeally liking the personal story and dynamic events, im going to have a looooot of fun with that

Gw2 will tax your computer if your computer is poor, the game is graphically VERY well done.

Ahhh.. i keep comparing GW2 to skyrim lol, but thats the closest game i have played that i can compare to GW2 to get a feeling for its system and inner workings... have you played skyrim before? has anyone in the thread played skyrim? Do your computers lag more in GW2 then in skyrim? Or even better, anyone understand computers?

My computer info, in terms of whats inside it that is (im throwing everything thats on the sticker on the side of the computer out there) xD:

Windows 8
AAMD Quad-Core A6-3620 APU with Radeon HD 6530D graphics
1TB Hard Drive
8GB DDR3 memory
DVD-Super Multi Drive
Multi-in-one Media Card Reader
Intergrated LAN 10/100/1000

Edit: Oh yes, a few more questions..

What is the main source of transportation aside from walking if there are no mounts? Ive read theres city portals, but is there means to travel to non-city areas quickly?

What happens if you die? Do you spawn automatically at a graveyard or do you run to your body? Is there a penalty to dying (losing exp or gold)? Do you lose any items?

There are city portals, they are asura waygates but those are only for really traveling between major cities. In the world there are waypoints which when unlocked you can travel to them for a small fee by clicking them on the map.

When you die, you technically go into downed mode where you fight to survive. You have 4 downed skills and if you manage to kill an enemy with those skills you can pop right back up, however if you die you simply select a waypoint that you would go back to after you resurrect.

And as for the skyrim question, well I dont really play it on my computer, the best I can tell you is that you'd just have to give Guild Wars 2 a try. They do have computer recommendations somewhere on their site.

Also thief is nothing like WoW rogue to me. They use poisons but thats about it, they cant stealth all the time only upon using certain skills. The big difference is that they can steal but they steal items from whatever mob theyre fighting to use against them. For example, fighting a moa bird and stealing from it will give you a handful of feathers which when you then throw at them blinds them.

[Chimera]

And as for the skyrim question, well I dont really play it on my computer, the best I can tell you is that you'd just have to give Guild Wars 2 a try. They do have computer recommendations somewhere on their site.

I read the system requirements but i dont understand any of it so i dont know if my computer is poor, average, better then what they ask, or a huge step beyond what they ask :<

[cowmuflage]

Most games nowadays will set it's graphics settings to match your computer so it runs the best for you.

[Chimera]

Ahhk.. i just really want to make sure i can play a game on at least an acceptable standard of graphics.. i dont want it to look like WoW on low settings with all the blurry colors and the fuzzy lines and the poor spell graphics.. :X I have to wait until christmas at least unless i get together early with my family soo, lots of time to think still problem is im really itching to get it >.>

I went through the online manual, it was really awesome to get more of an in-depth feel of the game and how things work inside it i got a much much better feel for the gameplay and looked at the spells the professions use to understand how some of their moves actually work and how you can apply them best in combat

[Wassa]

Your computer will be able to handle GW2. My old laptop can even play the game, but I have to be on the lowest settings and if more than 10 people are on my screen I lag so much that I think my computer is like "I give up!" This is a laptop that plays WoW on medium settings just fine. Good thing I'm getting a new computer after the holidays since I have extra cash on me.

EDIT: The game is beautiful even on low settings, as seen in the screenshots I take in the screenshot thread, so don't worry if you do have to put the graphics down a bit.

What happens if you die? Do you spawn automatically at a graveyard or do you run to your body? Is there a penalty to dying (losing exp or gold)? Do you lose any items?

When you die (as in failing to get up from a downed state) your gear has a chance to be damaged. If you die enough times your gear can break and you won't get the stats for them and they don't show on your character. Fixing gear just requires visiting an armor repair merchant. So just like in WoW. You don't lose any exp or items. Only money you lose is how much it takes to repair the armor.

What is the social aspect of the game like as a whole? Is it cutthroat, do quest mobs tag when hit, do people grief others horribly, do people fight for mobs? Is it more free-for-all with the named quest mobs in that you can get credit for helping rather then having the first tag? What's PvP like? Is there world PvP? Battlegrounds? Are there factions like WoW where they cant communicate with eachother?

This is the thing I love most about this game compared to WoW: there is no tagging mobs. Everyone that hits the mob can get exp and loot. Many times when events are going on or if you are exploring a place with a high density of mobs (like in a cave) people will fight with you and help clear the area together. The same thing happens with nodes such as mining ore. You don't need to rush to gathering items since they will be up until you loot it.

There are no factions, so no open world PvP. This game is about all races working together, not war. PvP is in small battlegrounds or large ones know as World vs World (aka WvW) where you fight on a map against two other servers.

[Chimera]

EDIT: The game is beautiful even on low settings, as seen in the screenshots I take in the screenshot thread, so don't worry if you do have to put the graphics down a bit.

I'll dig through the thread and check out the screenshots :3 WoW plays on high on this computer so i shouldnt have too much trouble having the settings a little on the high side in certain areas (im veeeeery visually orientated, picture is key to me ^^) but just from the sheer detail in the game itself, it'll prolly look more akin to how i play skyrim which actually isnt that bad (graphics are usually on the lower side lest i lag skip my way through the lands xD).

When you die (as in failing to get up from a downed state) your gear has a chance to be damaged. If you die enough times your gear can break and you won't get the stats for them and they don't show on your character. Fixing gear just requires visiting an armor repair merchant. So just like in WoW. You don't lose any exp or items. Only money you lose is how much it takes to repair the armor.

Relief to hear its like WoW in terms of what its like to die (i still loathe the memories of runescape..) but um, do you run back to your body or spawn alive elsewhere?

This is the thing I love most about this game compared to WoW: there is no tagging mobs. Everyone that hits the mob can get exp and loot. Many times when events are going on or if you are exploring a place with a high density of mobs (like in a cave) people will fight with you and help clear the area together. The same thing happens with nodes such as mining ore. You don't need to rush to gathering items since they will be up until you loot it.

I read about that in the online manual It was sooooo awesome to read and see! Bf might join me in it, we've been talking a little about the game todaya nd he said he was thinking for a while now about trying GW2. He's not fond of WoW's playstyle with the mob tagging and rather boring straight forward, no way to wiggle around it questing (aka you have to do every quest in this area to move on to another section no if, ands, or buts). He would rather dungeon but he hates que times and doesnt want to play the role of tank or healer (he's bad at it.. trust me.. xD)

There are no factions, so no open world PvP. This game is about all races working together, not war. PvP is in small battlegrounds or large ones know as World vs World (aka WvW) where you fight on a map against two other servers.

So, the WvW is a private enormous battleground against other servers and not actually something an unknowing quester will stumble into? Thats one of my major peeves with PvP, having open pvp zones. WvW sounds like its a much more friendly and equally challenging system to world pvp.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Relief to hear its like WoW in terms of what its like to die (i still loathe the memories of runescape..) but um, do you run back to your body or spawn alive elsewhere?

There's a few different things that can happen when you "die."
-You don't die right off the bat; you go into a downed state that gives you a few abilities to allow you or another player to get you back on your feet.
-If you do actually die, don't release right away. From my experience, if there's other players in the area, they'll usually come rez you.
-I haven't played in a while so I don't remember if you run back to your body or spawn alive. My bf says that you spawn alive, I think at the nearest waypoint thingy, but don't take my word on that because my memory is being a jerk to me. xD

[Wassa]

You spawn alive at the waypoint you choose. Most of the time I pick the closest waypoint but sometimes you just want to get out of that area. Using waypoints costs a little bit of money. Just a few copper at lower levels and a few silver at 80.

WvW is in a battleground map. All zones are in separate maps, so you cannot free world wander from zone to zone unlike in WoW. You have to take portals that connect zones or use waypoints you already discovered within the zone.

[Chimera]

Ahhk ^^

What is the cap level?

And just to recap, any race can be any profession? Im already planning to be a Charr thief, bf is thinking of an engineer but cant decide on race. He doesnt seem to be all that fond of any of the races besides human and norn