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Originally posted by Wakygreek

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Originally posted by Valkaern

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Originally posted by Wakygreek Hey, As someone that is looking at potentially buying GW2, I would like to hear from you guys what the game does so drastically different that warrants a purchase? A few things I am curious about: 1) I hear great things about the new quest system, but I am dubious at best to see if this has any staying power. 2) I hear you can customize your skills, but I feel that this may go the way of Rift. In other words you get a ton of skills you can use but a clear "best" build to use. I hope this is not the case. while there are other features these 2 seem to be the more focused of the lot. Would you like to add your thoughts, please post below.

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I'm sure others will answer your questions, I just found the statement about you being dubious as to whether or not their content delivery will have any staying power to be curious. Does that mean you're expecting somewhere down the line, people will realise that it's just not working, the whole having a certain amount of freedom in direction, and that going back to traditional linear task grinds is the only option? Maybe it's just worded oddly, but I'm not sure what you mean by questioning it's 'staying power', as I'm sure the vast amount of people who have had the opportunity to play GW2 will agree that it's far superior to traditional static task hub grinds. In my opinion, the traditional lineaar task hubs we've been fed since WoW have reached the end of their usefulness. I can't imagine that any new games that seriously expect to compete will choose to mimic that ancient and limited system over something like the dynamic set up we see in GW2.

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 Perhaps i chose my words wrong, for that I apologize. What I meant was that DE while seem very interesting I feel might not have the pull to keep the game fresh. Companies consistantly try to give you a reason to jump in and stick with their game. I want DE's to work because it will clear up the old method, but I am not so sure that the way they have them set up will do that.

Plus I am worried that there may be issues with getting decent rewards using that system with simmilar systems ex, Warhammer. Their PQ system ran off your total effort and SWTOR uses the same system in their pvp. Seeing as how those companies conifigured their "effort system" leaves me wondering if GW2 will be any different, hopefully I am wrong and it will be awesome

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I believe that ANet can get the participation system to work right, I've already noticed that it works almost perfectly in PvP: I felt that I was getting rewards accordingly to my performance. And since PvE has got less variables than PvP I assume that it will be easier to balance the system when it is applied there.

Originally posted by Loke666

Originally posted by Wakygreek
*snip*

1. Well, it feels really new but it is not that different. Heart quests are exactly like quests except you don't have to take them and they usually offers you a few choices, so you could do one thing or mix a few as you like. 

DEs are a bit similar but happens while you are out and walking, they are sometimes chains, sometimes triggered by enviromental effects, players, others events or just randomly.

The real difference besides you usually having a few choices and that they scale is that there are no questhubs anymore. Good riddance.

2. It feels rather different from Rift. You unlock skillslots and get skillpoints to buy skills by playing, and some of these skills make good combos with others or work better for your playstyle. There are however plenty of useful skills and knowing ANET they will add more later. 

The big difference between this and Rift however is that there are more possible playstyles in GW2 and therefor the numbers of good builds will be more. A few skills might be rather useless, or used for weird combos no.one thought about yet. GW1 do have many good builds, in Rift I always felt there were about 3 for each of the 4 classes.

GW2 doesn't really do things so dramatically different from other games, but it present things in a new way. The most interesting things to me is the fact that you usually work together with other players even when you just solo, and that they re-introduced exploration, a feature that used to be great in MMOs but been dead for almost 10 years.

Anet didn't reinvent the wheel, they took it, added rubber tires for a smoother ride, put on some bitchin' hub caps, polished it up and repackaged it.  So it not only looks better, but it functions better than anything else to date, IMHO.

The heart system is really just your basic quest system (go kill/find 10 XYZ) without the hub or the exclamation point.  Then, in many cases, if you hang around after doing some of these quests, you delve deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole and find out WHY you needed to kill 10 bandits, etc.  The level of detail to me is pretty amazing.  When you couple that with excellent game mechanics, PvP, a good story (not the greatest, but entertaining nonetheless) and all the extras in the game, I see it having very good longevity.  At least the longevity of, say, LotRO, or even WoW. (not saying it will be a WoW killer, just remarking on how long it will retain a decent amount of players)

I think Anet is really on to something with this game, combining aspects not only of other MMOs, but of other types of games (SPRPGs like Skyrim).  And, considering their track record with GW1, they will be putting out content (expansions and new DEs) and skills/armor/fun items, on a regular basis.

If you are considering dishing out the money for it, I personally don't think you'd be wasting your money at all.

You can swap out skills and weapon whenever you want as long as you are not currently in combat.  That only thing not immediately changable is your traits.

If you have a defensive trait setup you can't be an optimal spiker whenever you want.  But you can and will change your skill setup quite often to suit the situation.

You may only have about 20 skills you can actively use during combat.  But you have something like 50-60 to choose from at anyone time (if you have unlocked them all).

What the OP is considering a build probably has no analog in GW2.

DEs play a big part of post launch updates (not expansions they are a separate thing) - see this thread:  http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/351433/GW2-Article-at-PC-Gamer.html

As far as rewards they work great - I've gotten Bronze when I expected to (came into event at tail end and maybe got a couple of hits in), Silver, and Gold.   Dynamic Events themselves give Karma, Gold, and Experience - and you can buy what you want from the Karma vendors in the field or the Karma vendors in the cities.

Even better is that the rewards off of mobs are for my real level no matter how far I've been downleveled.

Originally posted by Wakygreek

Originally posted by Valkaern

Originally posted by Wakygreek

Hey,

As someone that is looking at potentially buying GW2, I would like to hear from you guys what the game does so drastically different that warrants a purchase?

A few things I am curious about:

1) I hear great things about the new quest system, but I am dubious at best to see if this has any staying power.

2) I hear you can customize your skills, but I feel that this may go the way of Rift. In other words you get a ton of skills you can use but a clear "best" build to use. I hope this is not the case.

while there are other features these 2 seem to be the more focused of the lot. Would you like to add your thoughts, please post below.

I'm sure others will answer your questions, I just found the statement about you being dubious as to whether or not their content delivery will have any staying power to be curious.

Does that mean you're expecting somewhere down the line, people will realise that it's just not working, the whole having a certain amount of freedom in direction, and that going back to traditional linear task grinds is the only option?

Maybe it's just worded oddly, but I'm not sure what you mean by questioning it's 'staying power', as I'm sure the vast amount of people who have had the opportunity to play GW2 will agree that it's far superior to traditional static task hub grinds.

In my opinion, the traditional lineaar task hubs we've been fed since WoW have reached the end of their usefulness. I can't imagine that any new games that seriously expect to compete will choose to mimic that ancient and limited system over something like the dynamic set up we see in GW2.

 Perhaps i chose my words wrong, for that I apologize. What I meant was that DE while seem very interesting I feel might not have the pull to keep the game fresh. Companies consistantly try to give you a reason to jump in and stick with their game. I want DE's to work because it will clear up the old method, but I am not so sure that the way they have them set up will do that.

Plus I am worried that there may be issues with getting decent rewards using that system with simmilar systems ex, Warhammer. Their PQ system ran off your total effort and SWTOR uses the same system in their pvp. Seeing as how those companies conifigured their "effort system" leaves me wondering if GW2 will be any different, hopefully I am wrong and it will be awesome

Yeah, reasonable concerns, but I'm personally convinced they've made the right choices.

It's not as easy as taking GW2 systems out of context and inserting them into other games like Warhammer or WoW or whatever to imagine how it functions though, GW2 approaches a lot of things quite differently and their systems just don't make as much sense in another game.

Someone else can probably explain it better, but one rough example that comes to mind is a video I watched (http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/04/02/watch-an-hour-of-guild-wars-2-dungeon-footage-plus-commentary/) earlier in which one correspondent was providing commentary about his game play to his fellow reporter as they watched a video of his dungeon run.

The guy that wasn't as familiar with GW2 kept making assumptions based on what we've traditionally had in MMOs, and really kept trying to force what the guy that did play said into neat little compartments that he'd preconceived from his experience in other games (fair enough), blocking out what the guy that did actually play was really saying. The annoying thing was how his conclusions were all flawed because of this. It was really annoying to watch.

Anyway, it's up to everyone to decide for themselves. We all have different tastes. I've been either disappointed with the evolution of MMOs or trying to be content with mediocre for almost a decade now.

This is the first game in a very long time (if you look at my post history I'm sure you'll see about 9 years of grumpy and jaded sprinkled with a few glimmers of cautious hope for potentials like Vanguard, WAR & Rift) that I've liked for what it actually is at the moment, rather than for its future potential, and what it could possibly become somewhere down the road.

Originally posted by gestalt11

You can swap out skills and weapon whenever you want as long as you are not currently in combat.  That only thing not immediately changable is your traits.

If you have a defensive trait setup you can't be an optimal spiker whenever you want.  But you can and will change your skill setup quite often to suit the situation.

You may only have about 20 skills you can actively use during combat.  But you have something like 50-60 to choose from at anyone time (if you have unlocked them all).

 

What the OP is considering a build probably has no analog in GW2.

 Every game has a build that works the best giving your situation. When I say build, I mean a set of skills that works well if you want to be the best dps, healer, tank , support, etc. GW2 might not have a "best" build option yet because the game is still in production. But there is usually a set of skills that come into their pre-set build.

Originally posted by Wakygreek

2) I hear you can customize your skills, but I feel that this may go the way of Rift. In other words you get a ton of skills you can use but a clear "best" build to use. I hope this is not the case.

Well, in my experience playing in the BWE, this doesn't appear to be too much of an issue (at least not so much for the Guardian).  Perhaps a short explanation of the build system might help further:

1.  Your first 5 skills on the skillbar are determined by which weapons you choose.  Single main hand weapons give the first 3 skills, an offhand weapon gives the final 2, and a two-handed weapons gives all five at once.  The skills granted are also class-specific, meaning a Mesmer with a greatsword isn't going to use the same skills as a Warrior with a greatsword.  Also note that this isn't picking and choosing skills one by one as with GW1 and other games - it means ArenaNet will have more control over what combos are available, and consequently more control over balance.

2. Your sixth skill is a healing skill.  There are a number to choose from, but they'll all almost certainly be balanced against each other.

3. You then have 3 utility skill slots which, in my experience, equate to things like boons and status removal.  These could possibly could synergize with certain weapon skills to create overpowered builds, but since they are also class-specific, balancing them with the weapon skills shouldn't be too much of a task.

4.  You then have a choice of one elite skill, which is basically just a piece of badassery bound to a hotkey.  These are probably going to be the biggest balancing job besides the straight weapon skills, since they're made to be powerful.  Unfortunately, not all of the elite skills were working for my Guardian during the BWE, so I can't comment on how those are stacking up just yet.

So, all in all, ArenaNet has a lot more control over the available builds than I've ever seen before.  It certainly won't be the balancing nightmare that was GW1, where you could choose pretty much anything you wanted and throw it onto your skill bar - but even then, they really tried to get it right.  ArenaNet still actively releases skill balance updates for GW1, so I figure they do care enough to make sure GW2 is balanced as well as possible.