Although I appreciate the attempt at helping me, my biggest problems with groups, or the lack there of, was not for pve. I've beaten all the campaigns, 2 of which by soloing some of the end missions. Its doable, it wasn't a "problem" in terms of being able to get it done. It was just annoying, that I as a more experienced player, would often times be doing something other then the "flavor of the week" build, so I choose to just play myself/with few people, because of the hassle involved with groups. PvP is the real problem, and has been adressed in other threads.

Amusingly enough, I use my hero battles builds to do pve. So far I've been able to do every mission I've attempted with them. I never saw most missions as requiring a gimick, but I've also not gotten into hard mode, or some of the most difficult post campaign missions, simply because those seem to actually require real players.

I was just sitting  here pugging an imaginary group in an unreleased game that has not released very much information and came to the conclusion that I spend too much time thinking about games.

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Originally posted by Telre
Although I appreciate the attempt at helping me, my biggest problems with groups, or the lack there of, was not for pve. I've beaten all the campaigns, 2 of which by soloing some of the end missions. Its doable, it wasn't a "problem" in terms of being able to get it done. It was just annoying, that I as a more experienced player, would often times be doing something other then the "flavor of the week" build, so I choose to just play myself/with few people, because of the hassle involved with groups. PvP is the real problem, and has been adressed in other threads.

Amusingly enough, I use my hero battles builds to do pve. So far I've been able to do every mission I've attempted with them. I never saw most missions as requiring a gimick, but I've also not gotten into hard mode, or some of the most difficult post campaign missions, simply because those seem to actually require real players.

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In all honesty I've soloed all except 4-5 missions in both NM and HM, and almost never changed the bars. That you can solo the missions in NM isn't so strange considering that they are sooooooo easy really, anything works as long as it got some heals and some damage, in HM you need to have good builds at least... But then GW idea is good, but the problem is that the "hard" places don't become hard, they become impossible: you have to run a strange gimmick relying on permasins and whatnot. If you've ever tried SoO in HM with a balanced team you should know what I'm talking about. I would very much like to see the idea becoming better done in GW2 by allowing you to run some semi-balanced builds and the difficulty being beatable by being clever.

Well, I only play this game for less than a week, and havent really done much yet, esp I never did PvP yet.

But so far I dont feel this is the future. The 8 skill limit and the extraordinary properties of some skills you can learn is certainly fun in a way. But it makes the game feel a lot like chess and a lot less like actually playing a MMO. Maybe its ideal for PvP, but for PvE is kinda weird, and the RP value is not that uber either.

For example, one thing I really miss is playing a healer class and being able to buff others.

Another thing I miss is being able to choose a race. Everyone is human. Except if you're a thief, then you're actually an anorexic human. And many classes look quite elf-ish except for Warrior. Anyway, I love having a choice there.

That said, its certainly an interesting system, but I wouldnt want to be limited to play only that.

I think you'd be in the minority in not liking the skill set system that Guild Wars has. I hope they keep the same (which I think they are) system for GW2. It's a real nice change of pace from all of the other cookie cutter mmo's out there. As you said, it is more stratagy or chess like and I, for one, enjoy that. Since you've only played for a week you are missing out on a lot of elite and other skills, it can be fun to mess around and play with different combinations. As far as your healer example, there are many different setups for monks and ritualists for healing and buffing. Your gripe for not having race choices is certainly valid, I don't mind just playing human but I know other people would want to play different races. Well if you can wait for GW2, it'll have different choices for races.

I think they should make it a few more slots to fill up maybe double it actually to 16. The reason for this is because everyone demands that you have x skills .. and perhaps rightfully so. But then everyone was afraid to try anything orginal or let people be creative with their skills... hopefully they add more so that people can put skill that others want and still have room to put in more skills of their own.

Side note: GW was it's best when it first game out. I got it on the first retail day and it was much more group oriented and people trying different skills ect. This was before trade spam and "runners" and all that. Still I'm excited for Guild Wars 2. It sounds like they are learning from Guild Wars to make Guild Wars 2 even better.

The more skills you add, the harder it is to balance though.

Originally posted by arenasb

The more skills you add, the harder it is to balance though.

I love it that GW classes aren't "balanced" on a regular basis.  If GW2 introduces the regular class balancing patches that WoW has today, I will quickly move to play something else.

In gw1 skills are tweaked every month to make the game more balanced.

NO way do I want to see the 8 slot skill set system removed! It is that,  and the dual class system that add real strategy to the game. I don't want GW2 to be like WoW, LoTRO, EQ, or any of the other MMO's out there that ALL employ the same done to death system. GW is a PvP game with very fun PvE thrown in. There is no level or gear grind. There is only the enjoyment of a game system that dared to be different.

If it aint broke don't go trying to fix it, and any real GW player will tell you it aint broke!

Err, there is no need to quote postings if you answer the posting directly above your own ...

And I didnt said I wouldnt like it. But its removing much of what I like of other games, moving heavily from a RPG to something like, I dunno, card games, chess, whatever. The fact that you leave the city and BOOM you're all alone doesnt exactly make it any better.

That's what makes it a unique game. There are numerous other games that are as you described. Guild Wars can be hard to get into at first. It actually took me a year to really start to like it after getting it when it first released. I felt as you did and actually quit playing for 9 months or so. I came back to it since I had a friend playing and for some reason it just clicked with me then, I've played it ever since. The game mechanics and style might not be your cup of tea though, there is nothing wrong with that. If everybody had the same tastes this would be a boring world.

Err, again, I didnt wanted to imply that GW would be BAD.

I just bought it as a small diversion from my standard MMO, Vanguard, which has amazing game world size and tons of quests and lots of things to do, but now approaches 2 1/2 year uptime and things indeed get a bit repetitive after such a long time.

As a fun diversion, GW is pretty much perfect. Especially also because of no monthly fees, and I guess the strong PvP aspect is cool too; GW IMHO has the most sound concept for PvP I know of. But its nothing I would want to see as the new standard design for MMOs. For that I prefer a more "make a consistent character who travels a large world with many other players" than a "optimize a card deck for PvP" approach.

Originally posted by Adamantine

As a fun diversion, GW is pretty much perfect. Especially also because of no monthly fees, and I guess the strong PvP aspect is cool too; GW IMHO has the most sound concept for PvP I know of. But its nothing I would want to see as the new standard design for MMOs. For that I prefer a more "make a consistent character who travels a large world with many other players" than a "optimize a card deck for PvP" approach.

 

I agree the game mechanic would not work for most run of the mill MMOs but it fits perfectly in GW. The skill deck system allows for much more variety than in other games. I spent hours mixing and matching with what seemed to be endless combinations.  Then you had to actually learn to manage the build efficiently, which is where player skill came in.  In other games none of this matters. You just load up your bar with icons and start mashing buttons.

While in GW I played as a monk. During that time I played as a boon/prot, WoH,Infuser, LoD,Infuser, RC,Prot, smiter, and on and on. As skill were added and balances my gaming experience changed. That is a huge advantage of the skill system.