I'm rather disappointed that they're doing class limitations. After looking at the differences between the premium and F2P model, this is the one thing that is holding me back on actually installing this game and giving it another try. This just seems like an utterly ridiculous move on Funcom's part; do they not realize that this will obviously cause severe class imbalance, or do they just see it as a non-issue? I would actually be just fine and dandy playing a Barbarian or Guardian, as the two were some of my favorite classes when I last played them nearly two years ago. But it seems rather bleak if I actually were to play them to a competitive level only to find that the game's meta was based on quantity of specific classes rather than quality of their balance or the players.

Originally posted by Bhorzo

I don't think allowing for left and right-handed characters is on too many peoples' priority lists.

That said... I can't imagine an easier thing to implement: just flip the models and voila!

weeeeelll... no, it'd probably be a lot harder than that, at least coming from someone who is a left-hander.

As someone who was raised by and taught many sports and types of choreography I can say that form isn't really "flipped" for those of us that are left-handed... often times we have completely different movements, albeit subtle. Tennis is a very good example... forehands and backhands are indeed "flipped", but serves and slice, for example, are very different. Although I haven't had training in self defense, I'm absolutely positive that for fighting styles with weapons that form would be a lot different for people who wielded weapons in the opposite hand. On that note I highly doubt developers, at least for a good while, would ever put that much effort just to "appease" to left-handers... hell, I could care less either way to be perfectly honest; which is probably how most left-handers feel when it comes to games, but that's just me.

I can't even see it on my display. Updated drivers, tried multiple resolutions, can't do nothing but hear whizzy sounds while my monitor displays nothing but blue. So far not so good... though I'd like to at least try the game before I make any opinions.

Anybody know of any similar issues or solutions?

I always preferred the concept of players having to close the range through actual stealth rather than invisibility (aka, what most MMO players know as "stealth") in MMOs: staying out of view and using abilities to keep it that way until the last minute. Shadow-stepping (the assassins in GW1 didn't have invisibility, rather, quick teleports from one spot to another) is much better in my opinion as a mechanism for closing a gap. Invisibility feels too gimmicky and every stealth character must focus on it if it's in the game, whereas in GW1, players didn't have a dependency: they could get speed boosting abilities if they needed other ways to close the gap, or no shadow-steps or speed abilities at all to make room for more attacks or maybe an escape mechanism to sacrifice as much mobility as other players.

I can't say whether or not I'd be more liking if it was in or not, but I'd think its likely that, unlike the first, it is in GW2, what with the mass difference in how the environments and the worlds will work (much more open as comparative to very closed instances in the original).

Of all the races I'm actually most inclined at playing the Asura. I always prefer smaller characters, whether they're gnomes or groundhog-things, whatever these guys are supposed to be. Either that or just regular old boring humans :)

That's amazing that this video was able to capture my attention for the full 50-some minutes. I can never maintain interest watching somebody else playing an MMO, but this was completely different. It was fun just to watch it. Seeing their game mechanics in use all looks beautiful...

...But it raises questions to me. How beautiful will it look when it isn't choreographed? A massive problem with WAR's open world PvE system was that it not only created a dependancy on other characters, but was also ultimately unfixable in it's inbalance of rewarding each player who put the same amount of effort equally for their roles. Furthermore, due to this and a plethora of other issues, the system was easy to manipulate and take advantage of. My worry is how they plan to handle this and how they do things differently than how WAR did it.

The ritualist was my favorite class in the original, but there's pretty much no chance for it to make a return. It was fantastic seeing a ritualist who had a really stellar build annihilating the floor with everything.

I'll probably end up playing a necro, as it's most likely the closest thing we'll get and the necro wasn't far off from a favorite class anyway. Either that or mesmer. I always prefer playing the "unique" classes.

Originally posted by RameiArashi

Leveling must not be too important since one of the developers talks about how during the demo their higher level characters ran a level 2 character played by fan at Gamescom to a level 15 area and together they killed a boss.

 

That was due to their "sidekick" system, similar to what CoH introduced to MMOs when it first came out. By taking a player as a "sidekick", the person whose the sidekick is temporarily one level below you, so that no matter what level difference there is between friends, they can still play the same content.

I like PvP and PvE equally, really, the thing is though that in most MMOs the PvE just isn't enjoyable. Aka, it's just grinding. So I normally play PvP for a good amount after I reach max level until I get bored of the game. Guild Wars was a game I that had me mostly playing PvP, but for different reasons. The PvE content in Guild Wars was the best PvE content I've played in any MMO. It was group oriented, challenging and diverse. The campaigns were purely fun and played like a single player RPG while keeping what makes me enjoy MMOs, group content. But they're short, and there isn't much to do after the campaigns PvE wise other than grind. So I played PvP, and enjoyed myself very much for about 2 years or so until I finally started getting tired of it. Guild Wars was certainly the MMO with the most time spent on it on my part. There was a certain level of strategy in the high-level PvP content that wasn't existant in other MMOs. Teamwork was key.

As I said, the fun I find it both PvP and PvE comes with grouping... I don't find dueling anywhere near as fun as group vs. group combat, nor do I find soloing as fun as group vs. massive number of enemies combat. I'm one of those MMO players that doesn't really get the preference of solo gameplay over group gameplay in an MMO. I get that its just all around easier to solo, both in time consumption and gameplay, so there's a convenience to it. But I don't see how those things can make the game more fun than playing with a group of other competent players... a game having all of its content soloable is a great feature if only for the fact that people generally don't have the time to find a group, but I don't see it as a full replacement. If people can do one or the other I just don't see the enjoyment of solo content over group content, if only the MMO has a horrible grouping system or absolutely atrocious community (though, even in the worst MMO communities, you can find fun people to play with relatively easily). I just don't get why people would want to play an MMO if they don't want to be a part of the community... it all goes back to that question of why play the MMO over a single player RPG if you're not working with other people?

We can't really know yet. A good hint would be in judging how big the game world will be and how open it will be. Knowing both would help, but even then we wouldn't have any hard confirmation. We do know that there'll be "fast traveling" (traveling from one waypoint to another instantly), but we also know that there will be fees attached. So from that info you could really take it seperate ways.

I'm doubtful that we'll get mounts on a personal opinion / guess. For one, while it hasn't been confirmed, this game will most likely have a much shorter level cap than most MMOs, as was the case with the original guild wars, despite the massive level increase. The original guild wars was very dependant on characters being at the right level of experience as they went along the campaign, and this was mostly solved by fighting mobs on your way from one outpost to the next destination and/or doing a side-mission on your way there. However, thanks to the shorter level cap, that meant there was far less time spent grinding levels in Guild Wars than in any other MMO. With an introduction of mounts, that could encourage a playstyle (one of ignoring the few amount of mobs necessary) that could tamper with their leveling and mission system, that is, if they keep one that is semi-similar to how it worked in the original. With their stated level system, I'm guessing that they'd be essentially following the same path as with the original guild wars, but this way, are able to extend the gameplay without gameplay becoming stale by keeping the time from level to level short and consistent. With mounts from outpost to outpost, you'd be missing those necessary experience boosts necessary to continue the main campaign properly.

Second, I'm doubtful the world will be that much more massive than the original. More open ended in terms of much less instancing? I believe so. But as big as, say, the space of World of Warcraft (which, even that isn't too extreme)? Highly doubtful. With both fast traveling from anywhere (albeit with a fee, but we don't know yet how much of an encumbrance this fee is) and a world with waypoints that will most likely be numerous and only slightly farther than in the original guild wars, it doesn't seem to make sense to introduce mounts. Speed boosts through abilities and "speedrunners", however? Very likely.

Originally posted by OmgZombies

Originally posted by DanMcC

But paladin has a nice familiar tone to it.

To you, maybe.  I think crusader would be a much cooler name.  It would also fit other races more imo.  

I think he didn't mean it in a personal sense, but more in a MMO consensus... sense. It's a very familiar class in all sorts of fantasy games, MMOs and single player RPGs alike.

But then again, after reading other posters comments, I'm much more inclined to believe a cleric or crusader type class would be in over a paladin. I don't know why, as it'd essentially be the same class, just different ways of getting it done (holyness vs... crusader-ness), but the name makes all the difference to me for some reason.

Originally posted by jvxmtg

If you look at it by race, you'll get the idea on what profession there would be.

 

Human - Warrior, Elementalist, Ranger (so far, maybe Necro too)

Charr - Warrior, Necro, Ranger (so far, maybe a prof with Rifle)

Asura - no much here other than Engineering or Alchemy, maybe

Sylvari - Necro (so far, maybe Warrior, Elementalist and Ranger)

Norn - Warrior (so far, maybe Elementalist and Ranger)

 

Judging from the silhouette of the other profession, one is undeniably feminine, which I can assume to be a caster, which can either be Necro or Mesmer. From the concept art, the same feminine figure that I'm 90% sure a mesmer.

 

Also from the concept art, a mace wielding, shield carrying woman is shown...and according to the book, crusader is a title or rank, not a profession, a party of different profession can called crusaders. My thought is that, a mace wielder with shield is a Cleric.

 

About the Charr. Charr is interesting due to their Legion system. Each legion focuses of some kind of expertise. Blood Legion is mostly warriors, Iron is mostly blacksmith or engineers, Ash is espionage and assissination, and Fire is mostly Shamans. From the Demo, you can choose your Legion, thus I can assume that since Ash is a choice, there would be profession to reflect that particular Legion. If so, then we'll have an Assassin profession and it's hard to deny that.

Just curious, has it been confirmed anywhere that races will be constricted to certain professions? Not really asking for a link/quote, I'd take your word for it.

If we had profession restrictions I think that' d be my first thing of disappointment regarding GW2's development. They really seem to know what they're doing and are making some really great steps to make an MMO that's both familiar and different in it's own ways, taking out the stupidities of MMOs while keeping the good. Keeping something as stupid as race restrictions would be... ugh... I'd be "disgruntled".

oooo... creepy.

Title says it all... what professions do you think will be in the game, besides the ones we know? And why? The following is all speculation on my own part (in other words, my own opinion), so don't think I'm stating things thinking they're guaranteed. Skip down to my list if you just want to see what I think will be in the game rather than the "why" (aka, all this block of text you see down here), and please share your own information and speculations as well.

From what I've been gathering, there are a few things that have been confirmed... 6 of the 10 professions from the original Guild Wars will be in, with an additional 2 "unique" professions that we haven't seen in the game before. There will be no dedicated healers. Finally, there will be a class that primarily is focused in guns (different from the Ranger). I can't be bothered to provide links, but I'm sure with 2 minutes of googling you will recieve the same results.

We already know these professions will be in: Warrior, Elementalist, Ranger, and Necromancer. All four of these professions were from the original game, leaving us with two of the remaining six more originals and then two "unique" profs. The two most likely to make a return at this point are the Mesmer and the Assassin. The Mesmer is a staple to the original Guild Wars, being not only very unique to the series, but one of the most popular of all professions while being hinted through the GW2's concept art and stories. The Assassin, likewise, was also an extremely popular class in the original GW's (if not the most popular class in the game, at least today), hinted at numerously in concept art and in the stories, while providing a role of physical burst DPS that the Warrior cannot bring. Chances are highly likely due to the role's popularity in almost all MMOs, that there will be some class that'll fill in the role of physical burst. It makes most sense to bring back the Assassin, a well-known playing style and very popular archetype in all MMOs, to GW2 rather than introduce something new that could potentially alienate players.

It's pretty much 99% confirmed the Monk will not make it, due to a plethora of reasons that aren't even worth mentioning. It is also highly unlikely that the Paragon will make it either. It was the most unpopular profession in the game, and its roles of support or damage was overshadowed by every other profession. The warhorn seems to completely replace the class, and I say (remember, all my own opinion) good riddance. It was a cool class concept, but poorly implemented. The dervish is unlikely due to lack of worship (or rather, less focus on worship) of the gods in the game world, as well as its character dependance on its weapon (the scythe), whereas in GW2 weapons are to be more diversified. The ritualist is also unlikely. Why is that? Mainly, the theme of the character is unfitting to the new era, being one of new technology and varied customs, whereas the character was one symbolizing old traditions. However, the role the profession played was very important... it was truly the only profession in the game to be a jack-of-all-trades. The character could play almost every single role possible in the guild wars universe, and certainly had more role potential than any other class. The class was often played as the "off-[profession]"... it was support in every sense of the word.  If this class were to make it, it would be heavily redesigned to the point where it couldn't be considered the old profession it once was... as I further explain below.

What do I think will be the "new" professions? Well, like I've already mentioned, it has been confirmed that guns will be in this game, and that furthermore, there will be a profession specifically meant to use guns (NOT the ranger; the ranger cannot use guns). There's two likely options I think that could fill this: a "gunner" type profession or an "engineer" type profession. To me, I'm leaning more on thinking we'll get an engineer. This is where the recreation of the ritualist comes in. The era in the Guild Wars 2 universe is one of growth, industry, and as mentioned, discovery and technology. Something that could fit the role of this motif sounds very logical. Furthermore, while the developers are really trying to focus on ridding their game with the group setup of "tank-DPS-healers", they are leaning towards "offensive-defensive-support", as certain developers have been stating on numerous occassions. An "engineer" type role, one that controls multiple characters beyond itself, could fit a niche of "ranged support" extremely snuggly, which leads to my second speculated "new" profession, a "paladin" type class. In the main profession concept art (you know the one I'm talking about... the waterbrush silhouette of eight figures, each made clear with the profession's announcement), you can see a large silhouette in the back far left. He appears to be carrying a shield. With everything else that I predict of the professions, it makes a lot of sense to have melee support of some kind. Of the 4 I speculate on that haven't been announced, this is the one I'm most unsure of. While I believe the role will be the same, it could very well be a radically different profession, as paladins tend to be pious, which is counter-intuitive to the game world.

What professions I think will be in this game:

Elementalist - Ranger - Assassin - Necromancer - Mesmer - Warrior - Engineer - Paladin

(ranged elemental offensive) - (ranged physical offensive) - (melee physical offensive) - (ranged elemental defensive) - (ranged physical defensive) - (melee physical defensive) - (ranged physical support) - (melee elemental support)

Originally posted by dupons

I dont wanna make a new thread but ive found other gamplay of Guild Wars 2 Demo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_VsBO_avW8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMzOEpIQzDw

No god mode, no ghost just normal gamplay (with pet). Lower the sound and enjoy.

those look good, thanks for posting these. After seeing this I could really start to get annoyed with the charr's running animation.... all 4's is fine to an extent, but the way it is here just doesn't look natural. Combat looks fun... he seemed to try combining different abilities to make new attacks, like we've seen from previous videos of "combos". Should make gameplay more fun.

And it's nice to see that apparently there'll be small cinematics of some sorts... though we probably already knew this as this is the predecessor of GW1.

It seems unlikely now that we'll see the Mesmer, but that's just my own theory. The mesmer and necro played almost symmetrical roles, they just had slightly different ways of doing it. They could probably combine the mesmer's DOT and interrupting abilities into the necro.

I'd love to see the Ritualist return, or maybe just a variant of the class with similar gameplay (a jack of all trades), but it seems really unlikely. Probably the second least likely class to return, right in front of the paragon... nobody liked the paragon and it's role was substandard compared to other classes in both PvE and especially PvP.

Originally posted by Abrahmm

Meh... I really liked the low level cap and extremely fast leveling in the original Guild Wars. The fun was playing the game, not grinding up levels. I'm not thrilled with this new direction.

agreed. What I loved about the PvE in Guild Wars was its philosophy on the content rather than end-game. They said it was the journey and not the end, and they certainly fell through with that. It was a double-edged sword really... what made their PvE some of the best PvE in any MMO also gave it a very low replay value, at least for me. I know there are some GW players who can enjoy themselves just making alts and playing through the same exact story, but I didn't get that much enjoyment. If Guild Wars 2 could get the best of both worlds, being a PvE experience that actually is fun to go through and not considered a chore to end-game, while also making end-game existant and fun on its own, this could very well be much more successful than the original GWs (not that it wasn't highly successful to begin with, which adds even more to my statement).

Originally posted by Alberel

For an MMO to have voices for the players there really has to be a selection to choose from otherwise it'll seem stupid if everyone sounds the same. All the MMOs I know of with player voices have such an option.

I have to wonder if ANet might link voices into the personality system though. It might be that players will have differing voices based on what personality they choose/end up with.

The original Guild Wars didn't give you a choice; if I recall, all male characters had the same voice and all female characters had the same voice for cutscenes. It might have been different per class, again it's been so long since I've played it, but nevertheless you didn't have much choice beyond class, if even that.

It didn't really bother me personally, since the PvE is played mostly as a single-player story anyway. I predict it will mostly be the same with this game while being a little bit more open, and in any case I still wouldn't mind if we had no choices on voices. Nevertheless I very much would like it. So long as the voices are good then I'll be happy, and if we get choices, I'll be even happier.

last code get...?

Requesting a key once more, as I still haven't recieved one. Again, just a US player whose already made a purchase looking to get a couple of days of gametime before I put my actual account to use. I figure somebody would like the free gametime for sending me a RAF before I activate. Email below:

dndd8686@aim.com