Unless their internal client is ages apart from their Closed Beta client (a.k.a. if they've been holding out on 95% of updates), then the game will be highly problematic.

The combat felt choppy, no attacks seemed to connect. "Unbalanced classes" is an amazing understatement. Optimization was lacking, to say the least. And translation was only 50% done. Oh and quests are basically the now ancient F2P/WoW style yellow exclamation mark, no voice, ultra-wall-of-amazing-text. XP levels on quests are awkward, and broken.

The only good things I could say about the game are the sheer number of dragons and the pretty fun community (expect Neverwinter-like community after the game launches tho).

Hope they indeed kept most updates in-house and Open Beta will be mostly fixed tho...game has potential.

For me, D&D is about story and dangerous mission, exploring where other people would not dare go. And that is why instances are perfect for NWO in my view, it allows for a perfect experience.Like people have said, if it would have been open-world, the same classic WoW factor of people camping spawn sites would happen. Yeah, VEEEERRRRYYYYY immersive.

As for quests, I can't deny they are very run-of-the-mill *kill X* *gather Y*, and I would highly appreciate some more imagination in there (TSW-style). However, they link them together perfectly, the flow fits, the lore fits, so I can't complain too much.

The Foundry is still in its incipient form, few people have truely put in the time and effort. I think NWO is the type of game where you play for a few weeks, take a break a few months (F2P ftw), the come back to check the added content (stories) and new Foundry missions.

I'd honestly say the trinity is only half-needed, at least until you get to the epic dungeons, so level 60. My rogue is still low 50, but from what (reliable) people are saying, the top dungeons get rough.

The need for DPS: to be honest, few encounters have endless mobs spawning on a timer, so you could go full-cleric on a dungeon and still come out on top, if you feel like it.

The need for a healer: heck, YES!. Can't finish dungeons after level 20 without one. However, there are encounters where healers can shine or sink, depending on their ability to actually follow individual members around. And I will admit to being careless sometimes and driving healers mad trying to find me in the field.

The main problem: tanks.

1). They need to actually be really good to hold aggro. Most classes (rogues, wizards) have craploads of mobility and/or AOEs, so they soak up tons of aggro and usually move fast from one target to another. If a tank cannot keep up, he is 90% dead-weight and useless (the damage on guardians is not amazing, roughly 30% of a rogue or CW).

2). Many things in this game are not really meant to be tanked. They are meant to be dodged. A full, massive, head-on skill from some bosses can drop a tank's shield and his HP to almost half.

3). Most tanks don't understand that their purpose is to...tank. Most just rush the slow-moving boss and hug him trying to out DPS the rogue, instead of grabbing the weak, yet strong adds off the cleric or CW.

First of all, the cohorts of people who dished out 200 dollars (or more) before the game even went into beta is clear indication that there are a decent number of people who actually do spend like bosses. Then, if you check the forums, some people claim (and some probably have) to have spend tens of dollars on the game only to realise they don't really like it (in 1 week or less) and walk away. And remember that the AD-Zen market is free, meaning people actually do trade at those prices.

Secondly, there is literally nothing in the cash shop that is actually needed in-game, that u cannot receive through other means:

- Top gear: dungeons; granted, you can get it by crafting too, so a person with 100 dollars in Zen can potentially turn them into uber-gear (not the most powerful tho, to my understanding);

- Inventory Bags: there are quests that give those out (however, 90% of the player population rush through the levels through foundry-grinding like mindless zombies...smaaaaart); there are also tips (like in every game) to go around it: mail yourself extra items, use a mule-char; but no, people want a  "FEED ME!" option that is free...

- Great storyline and great dungeons: oh wait, full free access!

Epic companions are fluff, everything in this game is soloable in the open maps, easily. You might want a healer to save on potions or a DPS to save on time, but that's it. There are 3 biiiig reasons you actually need Zen right now: to get to max lvl fast (either in crafting or char-level), to get fluff items (shiny flaming horse of impossibiliy), and to respec.

And also, you can get Astral Diamonds (already refined) through the Auction House. Go do a few dungeons, get a rare drop, sell it off, use the proceeds as you like. Most epic stuff right now is hellishly profitable. You can get some 1 million  in one pop through an epic drop after running 3-4 high level dungeons.

That being said, the prices in the Zen shop seem mostly random. They might have just flipped coins on them. You get a bag for 1000 (decent), 10 "try-your-luck" boxes for 1100 (reasonable), a fluff companion 2000 (w00t?), a "try-your-luck" profession pack for 2000 (da' heck?). I doubt any big changes will occur tho, since that would enrage the people who already spent hundreds of dollars.

I've had such a bad experience with other MOBAs that I find the community in LoL to be decent. Honestly, if you want a REAL bashing install HoN or something similar, you will see swearing from min 0 to the last minute of the game, every game.

However, I disagree that Riot is doing anything decent about the community. They have some ideas, but they are mostly poorly implemented, and a trip around the forums reveals that they almost never listen to player suggestions.

Still, here's hoping that *someone* will invent a decent system for punishing toxic players soon!

One thing that I find awkward is the way skills are designed as a whole, in relation to the difference between PvE and PvP.

For example, I can see "Overcharge" being a good PvP skill, since it increases damage AND defense (funny combination). However something like "Decoy" sounds pretty wierd, appart from the teleport-to-decoy part, but that might prove too complicated to abuse (unless it's something like 0sec cooldown and u still aim at the same target after you teleport). I'm sure mobs are nice to script to shoot at the decoy, but players are probably less retarded (at least some of them are).

Stealth, is wierd. I mean, it either keeps you stealthed when you shoot (OP again), or it goes away after 1-shot, making it rather silly. Given that the game also uses a radar-type thing for marking enemies apparently, would you still appear as a target in PvP, even if only for a brief second as you shoot the first bullet? From the description, stealth seems much rather like a melee-type ability: middle of fight, things going bad -> stealth, go behind some1, use the increased-dmg-from-behind trick and all that burst (kill him) -> move on to the next, or resume machine-gunning every1 else from your new and improved position.

Hope the devs get it right...

Ah, I wish they'd also update their actual combat system. As it now, things feel very chunky, and it's much easier to play a random-AoE-spellcaster than a single-target-melee/cleave-fighter.

They're good in terms of items, and probably even spells (even though there are only about 1-3 viable builds per class), I think they should improve on fluency, stability, etc. Maybe even add some actually immersive story-line.

While it is debatable that GW2 was the BEST mmorpg of the year, it was clearly THE GAME of the year in this mmo market. I mean, with all the drums and all the hype and all the talks (both negative and positive), I can't see how anyone can argue against that. :P

Kudos to Funcom for making TSW buy-to-play (don't get why MMORPG.com hasn't placed several big, CLEAR banners saying "Go try TSW, near-free now~!!"), and a big "w00t" for Pirates 101. Wizards 101 was awesome fun (and my little brother still plays it), so perhaps it's worth a spin indeed.

What I don't understand is how people expect 1.000.000 players (a "good" playerbase) to be cramped up in 1 server given that:

- at release 80% of players will be in the same area (1% of game)

- at "end-game" 80% of players will still be in the same area (1% of game)

Now in a decent map (heck, pick the BIGGEST high lvl map anywhere), I don't see how even 100.000 players can play without any instancing and without any lag. Yes, this MIGHT have worked in very old MMOs (with 1000-2000 players) or unpopular FTP MMOs, but in a premium title? Errr, impossible?

As for servers, I'm not much into Open-World PvP...but to be honest, lots of PvPers are ***** with no lives who spend 12-14h a day lvling and grinding gear just to kill low lvl players. I'm not gonna go into how sick those ppl are mentally, but I'd rather just have them somewhere else..."PvP server" is a good fence around them.

Imo if they keep those "Infusion Slots" to only story-related upgrades (a.k.a. "You need X infusion to kill Y mobs in this storyline"), and said infusions aren't hard to get, just handed out by some story quest, it's all ok. But not if they make them very expensive or rare...

As for the items, I don't really get it: the increase in main stats is just under 10%, but the increase in the third stat (magic find) is almost 50%. Might just be a wierd preview, "subject-to-change" thing, but THAT worries me. Otherwise, 10% isn't much. Unlike high-progression game such as WoW or Rift, going up 1 tier does not make you 20%-50% more powerful; and staying at cheap gear doesn't make the game impossible, just slower.

Great to hear ANET is pumping out content on a regular basys, even though GW2 is a B2P game. They've also said they have some major rebalances in store for this update (or one in the near future), so even more good news. I hope the dungeon will be tons of fun, and require strategy and good gameplay to finish; add some MORE difficulty to the game. The current dungeons are nice, but some are too easy, and the difficult ones already have sound strategies in place. Still getting a laugh from time to time with all the under-skilled players going "OMG lower broken difficulty~!11one"  or  "OMG ANET fix bugged path on X dungeon~!11".

I guess the "Ascended" (somehow rings of Rift, hehe) weapons are their answer to people complaining about end-game progression PvE? The thing is, most dungeons can be completed right now with green gear (2 tiers above the highest quality), but require more time/skill. This might be their way to get rid of some of the whinners mentioned above I guess. Still, hope it's something more than just the "more farm, better stats" concept.

I think the system is fine really. It's not THAT easy to get full exotics, and unlike other games, the focus is almost never on gear in PvE.

I was running a few dungeons last night in full green ("masterwork") gear, which is 2 "tiers" of rarity under exotic (the highest stat-gear) and was constantly out-surviving and out-DPSing my companions who had full exotics. I was just doing a run to test a new build before I commit to getting expensive armor for it, but I proved something else in the mean-while. 

I'd rather it be: 

You spend more time in-game == you get to look cool

rather then:

You spend more time in-game == you get over-powering stats which negate any requirement of gaming skill

This imo leads to anyone at lvl 80 being able to attempt anything. If you were in a gear-progression game, you'd need to actually complete a tier of armor before you can attempt the next level of raids/dungeons. And if you weren't fast (or lucky) enough, you'd miss out on content you actually paid for.

And then there are all the little pricks who go "OMGZZZ my stats are 1% bettter so I am a GOD~!" or "Pffff you n00b, you don't have full Tier X, don't join our party", which happens in any PvE hard-progression game.

I'm still a GW2 player, truth be told, but don't log in as much. Only for the occasional fun dungeons (I find dungeon-running to be very fun and relaxing in most games). And GW2 has a few really amusing ones.

Otherwise, I've jumped on the Rift train for a while. Reasons:

-         Lots of new content added in the past year

-         Tons of ways to lvl (not in the GW2 “levelling is a breeze” style, but better)

-         Great community; so far, very helpful

-         Lots of dungeons; lots of end-game content

-         Characters are sort of “on-the-fly-switching-jacks-of-all-trades”; I can tank, heal, support and DPS with the same character

BUT what I dislike is the difficulty; dungeons at Normal seem far too easy for my taste. I hear Raids are great, but will have to wait and see.

And I’m really considering going back to TSW:

-         Amazing story-driven questing

-         Great dungeons

My biggest problem with the game was the community. Before launch the forums were 90% full of AWESOME people. Really amazing, mature, helpful…everything! Then when the game launched, all freaking Hell broke loose!!! (no pun intended) I like both RP and Progression PvE, but after going through 4-5 guilds I was left with an awful taste. The people were imbeciles in those guilds, most PUGs were considerably retarded, and 90% of the people I met with good gear openly admitted to getting it through bugs and exploits alone. I am usually a solo player when levelling, but I enjoy grouping for dungeons and damn, TSW was impossible from that perspective. The quest system however, I loved. The dungeons were very challenging and fun as well, so it had all the makings of a great game. But community wise…worst I’ve ever seen. I’m guessing though that perhaps it’s better now, most retards have been weeded out, and with the raiding addition I might have a reason to go back.

The problem with GW2 dungeons are the players. I've stopped going in PUGs since 90% of them are INCREDIBLY stupid (like the op). I can do an explorable in 30 mins with guildies or in 3 hours with PUGs (and tons of silver spent on repairs).

ANET is to blame for making the game too easy though, since even a player with maxed-out gear (full exotics, right stats), who has 100% world completion and 2.000+ points, can very well be (and usually is) a total retard, who just happens to have 16 hours a day to grind easy events or abuse bugs. There's no real way to determine if someone is good or not before you see them play. I don't mind an unskilled player (no one was born knowing everything) but retards who can't be bothered to dodge/heal/listen to advice really annoy me.

As for dungeon design, they might not be as good as some WoW options and such, but most are really fun and interesting. Just go do Sorrow's Embrace in story mode if you don't believe me. (this is just a personal opinion, other people thing other dungeons are even more interesting)

If anyone is finding them awkwardly hard, just try getting in a decent guild, and form a nice group. You'll be flying through stuff soon.

I recommend that anyone should give this game a go. It is well worth the price for 1 month of very fun gameplay.

Sadly, the population will clearly thin out very soon, as the devs are unable to create content fast enough (the game was in development for well over 3 years, yet they only produced bug-filled content for 2-3 weeks of gameplay).

While the end game is incredibly grindy and the "no class system" translates into: "you need to grind out weeks of skills to be able to actually play the game to its fullest", I have to admit that the atmosphere and the quest system are top-notch, better even than SWTOR in my opinion (might not be the case if you're a huge Star Wars fan ofc).

I think the game is still fairly unpolished. The first dungeon (Polaris) along with the first map (Kingsmouth) are really fun and take you into the game's atmosphere really well. But it's fairly downhill afterwards. This dungeon (Hell Raised), and the map (Savage Coast) are far less interactive as far as characters and choices go, and are somewhat less imersive as a whole. The haunted amusement park is just as scary and awesome as described on the net, but it's about the only really interesting element.

As far as bugs go, and optimization, it still feels 2-3 months too early to be launched. The PvP is very balance-oriented (but without any auto-balancing elements in the game it just falls to pieces), and has too much of an impact on the world (capturing all PvP elements gives just north of +20%exp, a big dmg and healing boost, and so much more). I went into Hell Raised this weeked and it really felt a lot easier due to all the PvP buffs we had on.

I love the atmosphere, love the concept, LOVE those investigation quests, but the bugs and lack of real customization are game-breaking for me. I hoped they would postpone the launch by 1-2 months, since just 1 more week in the oven isn't enough.

I think the best suggestion for someone feeling that it's all just "boring and repetitive" is to re-roll the character (change both class, nation/species, etc.).

Personally I went for Human Elementalist (with a friendly vibe) and honestly didn't enjoy it too much, so I stopped at about lvl 20.

Then I went for a Charr Ranger with a more dodgy feel. And it ROCKED~! Everything about the story, setting and even the quests in the area worked so fine for me afterwards. I'm not an RP-style player, but I do enjoy my enviroment, and the Charr one spoke to my heart.

I know some people enjoyed the Human a lot (my Guild has lots of Human players who say that it's their favorite starting area so far), while others think Norns are brilliant. For me it was the Charr, and their rugged style. Making a good character choice really makes a HUGE difference, which is fairly unexpected.

I don't understand the idea behind "teleporters are so anti-imersion".

I mean, does anyone FORCE you to use them? I don't think so...

They exist for the 80% of the player base who is not RP-oriented, as do many other things in most games. The devs need to make money, and making the game appeal to more people is the best way to do it. Honestly, if anyone wants to walk, then...one could just....walk...

As for mounts, I'd be reallly amazed if they didn't have anything up their sleeves ^^ I'm guessing they'll most likely add something very soon there (tho I hope it'll high lvl content). Charr choppers anyone? :D

They could simply make the animations more believable. Right now, at least for melee and magic, it's somewhere between "Am I tripping?" and "Is this guy drunk?". If they make the movement more natural (heck the zombie looked a lot more natural than characters), then it'll be OK.

And they should add some more impressive (gore-like) effects. The game already has a fairly mature rating, so it wouldn't really matter there.