We spent some time doing PvP during the recent Guild Wars 2 beta weekend event and today we're sharing our report on the experience.

When I first started playing MMOs, I was a full-blown roleplayer, with no real interest in PvP. However, over time I really began to warm up to the idea of besting other players in combat instead of the typically boring PvE AI. Unfortunately, my search for truly fun PvP has been a frustrating one over the years, that is until I played Guild Wars 2 last weekend.

Read more of Michael Bitton's Guild Wars 2: Dunking on Nooblords in Tyria.

Originally posted by cutter666

WvWvW was awesome.

 

Fuck Yea!

Originally posted by Veshi

In most mmo's i hardly ever PvP, just never interested me. When i saw WvW on youtube i was interested. I then thought id try it at lvl 3 on the BWE just to try it out, 9 HOURS later i was like WTF i just PvPed for 9 hours, i went in for more.....

 

Haha, that is awesome :)

Nice video btw, OP.

nice write up. My experience in the WvW pvp was amazing, jump to instant lvl80- started to play around in mists area getting familiar with new abilities.

then enterd the pvp arena. and  i was amazed-no lag, the detail at what you can climb and do in combat in areas felt like warhammer online terrain.

felt great and fresh!- there was so much to cover on that weekend- i can see myself inbeded in this game at its released =easy!

I didnt really have any issue no other than typical Beta issues that a hotfix couldnt handle.

Anet/GW2 has thought this out so well.













 

Liked when talked about WvW, if zerg battles looked like real fights just imagine when ppl start to master their characters and set up tactics.

If Beta was fun just imagine...

Kudos to GW2

Originally posted by someforumguy

Originally posted by Veshi



In most mmo's i hardly ever PvP, just never interested me. When i saw WvW on youtube i was interested. I then thought id try it at lvl 3 on the BWE just to try it out, 9 HOURS later i was like WTF i just PvPed for 9 hours, i went in for more.....

 

Haha, that is awesome :)

Nice video btw, OP.

 

Video wasn't mine, just to be  clear. Just a video off YouTube I thought fit well. :)

I hadn't pondered the fact that zerg battles that I encountered in wvw weren't like other zerg battles in other MMOs. Like Mike states, never  really had a stare off with ranged poking at each other(in the case of Aion a tank pulling a poor soul over to the mob). For some reason, I think the fact that health in GW2 is a lot more than usual, people just go in and fight. And it usually ends up in small skirmishes rather than full on mob fight.

Arena based pvp is going to be epic! I had a blast with it and got better as the matches passed. It was fun to learn more and more about other rpofessions during pvp and I expect a lot of strategy when it comes to capturing points.

Originally posted by Kuppa

I hadn't pondered the fact that zerg battles that I encountered in wvw weren't like other zerg battles in other MMOs. Like Mike states, never  really had a stare off with ranged poking at each other(in the case of Aion a tank pulling a poor soul over to the mob). For some reason, I think the fact that health in GW2 is a lot more than usual, people just go in and fight. And it usually ends up in small skirmishes rather than full on mob fight.

Arena based pvp is going to be epic! I had a blast with it and got better as the matches passed. It was fun to learn more and more about other rpofessions during pvp and I expect a lot of strategy when it comes to capturing points.

 

The video embedded in the article kind of perfectly illustrates this phenomenon, too. It was one of the more refreshing things I experienced. Just..fights...everywhere! It felt like being part of a Braveheart movie during the scenes after the main armies clash. The camera cuts to all these smaller battles between the masses of soldiers within the furball. It's what large-scale battles should be and I'm really itching to get back in!

I think my most genuine complaint is there is SO MUCH TO DO IN THIS DAMN GAME!  ; P

I spent all of my weekend basically addicted to sPvP. I never even got to try WvW and my highest character was level 7. How am I supposed to maintain some semblence of a life with all of these options! Curse you Anet!

Originally posted by katriell

A "full-blown" roleplayer embraces PvP.  A roleplayer who does not like PvP is an incomplete roleplayer.

 

I completely agree. :P

Originally posted by Veshi

In most mmo's i hardly ever PvP, just never interested me. When i saw WvW on youtube i was interested. I then thought id try it at lvl 3 on the BWE just to try it out, 9 HOURS later i was like WTF i just PvPed for 9 hours, i went in for more.....

 

Haha I'm just like you.  I didn't try pvp until the last 6 hours of the beta and stayed in WvW for the whole time.  It was exhilerating.  I was so upset when there was only an hour left I was thinking "how the hell did time pass by so quickly".  While watching the video is was funny to notice how low of health the ranger had and the same for the ele in the image.  It was awesome playing my necro and having 28k health when boosted to 80 in WvW.  I never felt so powerful as a caster before.  I love this shit.

Very nice write up MikeB. Wish I could've played sunday to do some WvW w/ you guys. You missed some epic battles on saturday, though!

I definitely agree w/ what you said about zergs, and I don't think enough people realize this. In combat I was constantly switching between ranged & melee. Ranged seemed to do better in stand-off situations where siege equipment was involved, whereas melee tend to do much better in skirmishes, or leading the charge. Most of the fights I'd switch to melee w/ a warhorn and just rush the enemy, and my team would follow. What nearly always happened was the enemy would break up into smaller groups, and we'd either do the same, or just flat out destroy them. If I found myself taking too much damage; a few traps, a heal & an evade and I was back to safety. Definitely really fun times, and I can't wait to do some more WvW action.

My only real gripes with it (aside from chat, and the lack of large war-parties), were that it didn't seem to do much to balance out server populations. Our server was packed, as was one of our enemies. Poor blue had like 3-4 squads of people max and just got squandered.

It has been a theme of mine for years now.  And I am grateful for your honesty in admitting it.  What do MMORPG ( WoW ) haters want in their MMORPGs?  More FPS mechanics.  DAoC had /stick, /follow and /face plus skill rotations, this and Rv³ is what made DAoC's PvP.

GW2's PvP is for the Dodgers.  When only Dodgers PvP, the fun of PvP will evaporate.  Dodge will either be nerfed or eliminated from the game.  Enjoy it while it lasts.