First off, I have been reading everyone's viewpoint on Guild Wars 2 and I feel that you all are correct. Lol.

I want to start by saying that I am not a fan boi, nor am I a hater. I enjoyed my time in WOW and moved on after Cata, played every F2P conversion that has come down the pipeline and have been beta testing every major release in the last year or so from DCU, Tera, Rift, and the dissapointing SWTOR.

So how do I feel about GW2 so far?

Is it revolutionary? Yes.

Is it the same ol' same ol'? Yes.

So I will offer some explanations. When you first enter the world, whether through Charr, Human, or Norn, there is a little bit of a learning curve if you have spent the last few years playing themepark games. The learning curve comes in because you have to break the habits that are so ingrain for every player. If you keep to the same habits, you will die a lot, you will not have fun, and you will hate this game with a passion.

So if you stand in one spot, spamming buttons, you will fall down a lot and get pissed off that nobody is reviving you.

Also, if you don't learn about switching out your weapons, then you will also think that each class is boring and not very revolutionary. Learning that each weapon has a different set of skills and a different use is fundamental for playing this game. Each character has the opportunity to play dps melee, dps range, defensive, and offensive through their choice of weapons.

For example, I am currently using a Guardian which is the closest to a paladin/healer class in the game. I started out with a mace that unlocks various defensive melee abilites. Well, i am not a melee person, in general, and want to be more support. Well, i picked up a scepter and found a great weapon that lets me be range dps. I add a shield to that and I got some great protection abilities that can aid me and my allies. I also picked up a sword and found a decent dps melee weapon and with a shield can be better than my original mace. Later, I decided to try out a two handed great sword and found this is best when I want to be a off-tank and help my party.

But all of this is for nought if you dont pay attention to your enemies and use the frigging dodge ability. I found that with dodge, my heals, and my F abiilites and the occasional retreat, I dont end up dying as much as when I just frigging stand there.

Also, as role playing a support role, I try to revive as many people as I can, and this can help turn a fight.

If you dont help your allies in GW, whether through abilities or reviving, you are not going to fit in in this new dynamic.

But this is also a flaw in GW2. Because I can jump in and help anyone at anytime and there is always events going on, there is never a chance to stop and get to know the players around you. While grouping and adventuring feels more organic, there is a lack of developing friends that has to be worked out, maybe with social events or such ( I hope so cuz those large cities have to have some use down the line).

The personal quest line I have enjoyed so far and find it a nice diversion.

So about quests, they are the same ol' same ol' with a new spin. If you play Rifts, then the dynamic event system is very similar and we will see how this plays out when the population has spread out more because the biggest problem in Rifts was that in the middle levels it was sometimes impossible to get anything done because of fast respawns and nobody to help close rifts.

But what I like about GW's quest is there are no quests. There is no quest book that fills up with tons of quests. The quests all stay within thier respective heart zone (or dynamic event) and you work towards completing it. When you leave that area, the quest leaves your quest log, but stays at whatever level of completion that you left it. I like this feature because it allows me to explore.

I think that is the best part of GW2 is that exploration is the key to this game. The additional skill points in each zone really help to flesh out your indiividual characte if you so chose to hunt out these rewards.

Ok, finally, I must say that i have not been impressed with spellcasters at early levels because of cooldowns and confusing animations, but this might change as you level. I also felt that engineers were a little clunky. So far, anything ranged seems to be the best for handling the mobs that can overwhelm melee characters.

Well, that's it far now and I hope this helps some who are concerned and confused by this game.

They should have left upscaling in the game for areas outside of WvWvW.  You really can't explore a whole lot until you start running up on mobs a level or two higher than you.  Killing mobs two levels higher than me was so time consuming for my ranger that I felt it simply wasn't worth doing.

I found that I kept running around areas that I knew had level appropriate DEs or lower level DEs, and I kept repeating them over and over when I ran out of heart quests to complete.  I think I escorted a caravan about times yesterday and killed enough Centaurs to fill the entire city of New York. I didn't find this very fun at all.  The heart quests themselves, at least at the lower levels, weren't very imaginative at all, and in my honest opinion, gave far less progress per kill or item collected as they should have.  At times, my progress bar would stop moving entirely, forcing me to find some other way to update my progress.  At least other games tell you how many mobs you have to kill before you stop getting updates.  The range for the quests was sometimes shorter than the span of area which was populated by the mobs you're supposed to kill. 

I didn't have this problem, but I also did my personal story which gives a lot of xp. Also, some of my DE were better at giving XP, especially if it was a level or two higher and were the orange group events. Yeah, the heart quests seem to not give a lot of xp but I guess I was lucky in one area because three other dynamic events launched while I was doing a heart quest and got get some great xp (I was in the human zone).

I found that the quests with waves are easier to complete and repeat for good xp.

Originally posted by negacrowbar

So I will offer some explanations. When you first enter the world, whether through Charr, Human, or Norn, there is a little bit of a learning curve if you have spent the last few years playing themepark games. The learning curve comes in because you have to break the habits that are so ingrain for every player. If you keep to the same habits, you will die a lot, you will not have fun, and you will hate this game with a passion.

So if you stand in one spot, spamming buttons, you will fall down a lot and get pissed off that nobody is reviving you.

This is spot on, and all people who only know the WoW clone genre should take this advice very seriously.

I quickly got rid of my WoW/LOTRO/SW:TOR habits, and went back to an "Asheron's Call" play style. AC1 combat is also very dynamic, requires to move all the time, and also requires to switch weapons to change damage type and/or to heal yourself.

I wouldn't go as far as saying GW2 is what AC2 should have been, but it's close. Many of the sensations of AC1 are back, and some are even better.

Well said. Finally seeing impressions & previews from people who arent fanboys.

The part about grouping is so true. Yes GW2 does a great job at making groups automatically and delivering quests in a way that is different from past mmos, but NO ONE Says anything, there is no socializing. You are in group for that objective and that's it.

I wonder a year from now how people will escalate dynamic quests when there are only a few people? Only time will tell.

Combat is more action paced then the usual MMO people are used to. MOVE! Is all I can say to anyone trying GW2 for the first time. Keep moving, keep it flowing. Unles you are ranged and you dont have aggro, then its just the same spam skills, well it felt like that to me  on my ele.

Now there are some people saying the combat is the same as every MMO, this is untrue, most of them probably played a range class, and probably just spammed skills and did not move because they didnt draw aggro. If that's the case then yes it will feel like every other ranged class in every other tab-targetting game. Also, when soloing, a lot of people have stated that GW2 combat is the same as every other MMO, once again most likely ranged classes. When you solo as a ranged class you basically kiting the whole time, I guess that's what some people mean by "action combat", to me it just felt like I was constantly kiting. Now don't take that wrong, as a ranged class you ALWAYS have to kite, but unlike other MMOs, being OUT of the way in GW2 actually means something, your survivability increases.

Well I think the start of this was you have to forget the Asian cookie colored stand and ping ping ping 101 =1001 XP to the kind of the %  of the level 2.

Personal Story, new areas, Events honestly I have hit here and there and I just do not feel stuck, the map could be better. But once you start adventuring about you find what you need. The larger cities will be a bit of a pain if you have to walk them all out to get raders etc.

Skills for caster, I always play the caster groups I have found them to be very verstal. I think everyone just has to lay back and enjoy. Remember that all is not unlocked these are Beta events, stress and bug detecting. I am really pleased at what I can see so far, and I am really glad to finally having something non asian grind and here is your quest line now kill me 101 spiders :-P

Originally posted by dh188709
So did you guys enjoy what you played with the Beta? Im really considering prepurchasing but I am on a budget so every choice really counts.

any other game in ur mind? 

u can pre purchase it now, but u wont know how long until the game is official released. so i would wait a bit. unless u really want to play beta, which i wouldnt recommend. cos i am on of the unlucky one that only managed to play for few hours due ot log in issue, and performance isnt reall ideal, (if i can run witcher 2/tera/battlefield 3 all in max setting, theres no way i cant do that in this game).

so maybe wait a bit until they have excat date on release.

The game itself is a good game.