There are a lot of threads like these, but I'll throw mine into the pile.

I played a human thief for the latest BWE and got to level 10. I did not PvP. So this is purely a PvE impression. Bear in mind I am only going to comment on things that were important to me and not evey aspect of the game. These are casual comments from a currently casual player and they are not especially organized throughout the post. I've been keeping tabs on GW2 over time, but I have not yet put in the effort to study all of its aspects, skills, formulas of attributes, or other specific details.

I liked the unorthodox quest system that incorporated a small area and the ability to do multiple tasks toward the same goal of "protecting/clearing/saving" that particular area. The "area-event" episodes were pretty fun and there was a big incentive to participate because of the purple triangle points that are awarded which allow you to buy better equipment. The announcement of the event allows all of the players in that area to come together toward one goal. Making groups were not necessary and no player felt excluded which added to the seemlessness of the event and participating. This of course does mean that people that came late tend to get the same benefif for participating, but I didn't really mind nor did I feel cheated. I think coming late and barely contributing will happen to us all at some point and in the greater scope of things it evens out. I did not preceive an increased benefit of a smaller group working harder to complete the area-even, so it didn't seem effort is proportional to benefit. I, personally, have no issues with this.

However, the areas and their accompanying tasks were pretty short. Many times, if I didn't participate in a world event, I would be done in ten minutes. While a person can always revisit the same area for other area-events, once you do those tasks the area becomes pretty obsolete. However, the character does level pretty quick at this low level, so there is little reason to hang around these areas anyway. I can see why they introduced a paid teleport system to zip around because otherwise your character is running through the same large areas to get anywhere.

The abilities seemed pretty interesting and they complimented each other well for some powerful attacks. I do not recall the names of attacks, but I used a poison attack, then stealthed, then a +150% dmg ability, and then an attack from stealth for some pretty hefty damage very quickly. It made my character feel powerful and capable.

Personally, I like customizing the way my character looks. The character is the representation of you as a player in the gaming world. I looked exactly the same for all ten levels. All of the "light" armor looks the same, unless you pick a different set with bonuses meant to augment your player. For example I kept seeing "vitality" bonus, "power" bonus, and I believe "perception(?)" bonus (correct me if I'm wrong) for light armor. The perception bonus was for long range attacks (I'd assume), the vitality for hps, and power for strength of attacks. I always opted for power and therefore my character's appearance never changed. This was disappointing. Many MMOs tend to recycle different looks, especially at the lower levels when equipment is replaced often. I like this only because I was always curious what piece of armor I will get next and how it will look. As a side NOTE: I do like the dye system that allows you to switch out colors on the fly, but still gives you access to "special" dyes that drop from kills.

As mentioned before on this forum before, the cut scences were bad. But then again, this is not Dragon Age Origins, it's an MMO and character quests and stories are not extremely significant on most people's list.

The one thing that irked me the most was the limitations in ability choices to have on the hot bar. Why is the hot bar so small? Why can I only assign a few abilities at a time? If I have four healing abilities, why not just put a timer on them all when I use one, but still give me access to any of them dependent on the situation? This arrangement really boggled my mind because it makes very little sense. It appears that the game can potentially give me access to 10+ utility skills, but I can only put 3 on my hot bar at any one time. What's the justification for that? It really limits the versitility of your character and it will ultimately dampen PvP.

There is a lot of continual movement in this MMO. The player will have to get used to chasing mobs, evading, and moving around. I can see PvP is going to be pretty drawn out and with player-capable healing abilities there is going to be a lot of running, jumping, and dashing around in PvP. Personally, I prefer the slower, more controlled, pace of games like LOTRO, DAoC, and Rift because moving around with the WASD keys and simultaneously hitting adjacent buttons gets tiring.

Anyway, even though there may be more cons than pros on this list I like the game and will play it when it launches. I know this was not a comprehensive review in any regard, but perhaps I mentioned something that may also be important for a few other people out there who are interested in this game.

- Reese

Originally posted by ReeseFlame

The one thing that irked me the most was the limitations in ability choices to have on the hot bar. Why is the hot bar so small? Why can I only assign a few abilities at a time? If I have four healing abilities, why not just put a timer on them all when I use one, but still give me access to any of them dependent on the situation? This arrangement really boggled my mind because it makes very little sense. It appears that the game can potentially give me access to 10+ utility skills, but I can only put 3 on my hot bar at any one time. What's the justification for

It's supposed to make actual choices before combat important.  You're creating a build.  There are distinct advantages and disadvantages to each utility, heal and elite you can pick.

If everybody had every build, it truly would be like some people accuse GW2 of being, where 'everybody is a jack of trades that can do anything'.  As it is, everybody can pick specific builds for specific roles and to be useful in specific situations.  nobody is ever good at everything at the same time.  Hopefully, if they balance it pretty well, that will create a large amount of viable roles.

I've found that with some creativity, you can use a lot of powers in various situations.  ... and if you really think about it, the average amount of abilities a class has is around 20+, with some having significantly more at times..

Honestly, it's more ability than you think, and more than you're using in most MMORPGs for the vast majority of your gaming experience.  ... and they tend to be more unique, with various utilities and usages even in say, weapon skills.

Nice write up. Glad to hear you enjoyed yourself. Just wanted to clear up a few bits of misconception I saw in your post:

1) The 'power, perception, vitality' bonus'. These are stat bonus, and they are beneficial to ever class. Precision actually isn't a stat based around long ranged weapons. Precision is basically a crit stat. So if you are basing your character around critical hits, this stat will be fairly important.

- None of these stats are tied to how you're character looks. That is entirely determined by your armor / weapon skins. Early on it's much easier to see a different between weapon skins, than armor skins, but they do change. If you want the really elaborate armor skins, you generally either have to craft them, or you get them from dungeons. Also, getting armor from different areas (i.e. if you were to start in the Asura zone, then adventure a bit in the norn area, item skins would be quite different).

2) The least amount of skills a class can have is 16 on land, and 11 underwater. Many of the classes have more than that. Some people are even complaining that classes like the elementalist have way too many skills. When you stop to look at other MMOs, you'll find that most of them don't have that many skills. They have the same skills that you rank up (i.e. Fireball rank 1, rank 2, rank 3, etc.). So while your skill tab may look like you have 50 skills in it, in reality you have the same 20 skills repeated over and over.

- Also wanted to point out that there is more to the event rewards than just better gear. There's a lot of hidden vendors I found exploring that offer special crafting recipies, food, potions that do random things (like change you into a monster for a while). Most of the gear rewards I actually skipped, because you can get better gear through other means.