Guild Wars 2!

Picture of Guild Wars 2 Français : Image de Guild Wars 2 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Finally, beta!

GuildWars2Junkies helps us by telling us how NOT to waste time in those precious hours of Beta. Although there is some really great information in there, I decided to share with you what I found this weekend and there is a LOT of information! Sadly they have closed betas for the moment but if you’re interested you can preorder a copy for when they finally release! Let’s just keep our fingers crossed that they will continue the betas and open them for new folks, shall we?!

So, I’m going to extend Nerd Rage Mondays to Nerd Rage Monday and Wednesday over the next few weeks while we wait (patiently?!) for Guild Wars 2 to finally be released. I’m going to put up a few guides, talk about some really cool stuff and hopefully get you guys (at least those that are also gamers) as excited about this game as I am! I know I’m going to start drooling in anticipation, so while I keep a napkin handy, here’s some fun info for you…

What’s incoming…

Characterization
Maps/Zones (Home)
Dyes !!!!
Crafting
Achievements

For today we’ll talk about my recap, thoughts on GW2..

Personal Storyline:

When creating your character you get to personalize yourself. You can choose which Gods you follow, if you were an orphan, etc. Each class has a different personalization but it does effect your storyline. I restarted my Guardian just to check. I didn’t get far but for what I did the story lines seem to be well thought out, the only downside that I have is one chick was supposed to be evil but she’s just as nice as my Guardian in all her manners. That is after choosing for her to have great strength and ferocity (she was a Norn). Of course this didn’t take away from the story line too much and could be different once I’m tested in battle and the world has learned to fear me!

I’m looking forward to seeing how far this plays out but I can warn you with one thing. When they say you should be level 11 for a class quest, they mean it! I got myself killed a few times by jumping in prior to being ready. The missions seem to test you a great deal and multiple times I felt like I was fighting a mini boss. They seem to keep you on your toes and test how well you can play your character.

The Dynamic Quest system:

In Guild Wars 2, our event system won’t make you read a huge quest description to find out what’s going on. You’ll experience it by seeing and hearing things in the world. If a dragon is attacking, you won’t read three paragraphs telling you about it, you’ll see buildings exploding in giant balls of fire, and hear characters in the game world screaming about a dragon attack. You’ll hear guards from nearby cities trying to recruit players to go help fight the dragon, and see huge clouds of smoke in the distance, rising from the village under siege. —From GW2.com

It goes on further to explain that, in a normal mmo a quest giver will tell you that a bunch of Ogres are attacking a house, not by just screaming they need help but with walls and walls of text that most people are just too plain bored to even read and at the end of it you will get a quest saying to kill 0/10 ogres. When you go to said house to kill said ogres they are harmlessly milling around picking daisies, or their noses, who knows what ogres do in their spare time! But the point of the matter is, it’s an old, outdated quest system. It’s boring and even after all that effort to create that quest, nobody wants to go through all of that!

Insert dynamic quests. While walking through a village a guy yells at you to come over. You talk to him for a minute and he tells you to get to the inn where it’s safe. While heading to the inn you see and hear the citizens of the city screaming and running for their lives, guards attacking and trying to put out fires. When you get to the inn you are then told to try to help out where you can but when you walk outside you are attacked by hordes of centaurs (beginning story line of the human race). Fending off the attack is your first priority! It not only affects your story but those around you, the city can and will fall to the enemies if you do not attempt to save it!

The great thing is that there are all kinds of different events. Some quite interesting that make you feel completely immersed, some are as simple as helping clean up a city. They are all unique, and none are boring.

When you walk by these events you will notice an orange circle on the map, follow to the orange circle and they will then tell you what you need to do. The amazing thing is, most of these had waves to live through and got harder and harder as they progressed or as more people came into the event. I never had to worry about rewards either. If I participated I got a reward. If I was there from beginning to end I received a gold medal and was rewarded thusly. If I came in a bit late to the event, I was given either bronze or silver. No matter what, if I participated, I was given a reward normally money as well as karma. I was also never grouped. We all ran around doing what needed to be done and had a great time doing it!

All players that fully participate in an event are rewarded for doing so; everyone who helps kill a monster or blow up an enemy catapult will get credit for doing so. There is no kill stealing and no quest camping. Everyone works together towards the common goal of the event and everyone is rewarded for doing so. To help ensure there is always enough for everyone to do, our events dynamically scale, so the more players who show up and participate in the event, the more enemies show up to fight them. If a bunch of players leave the event, it will dynamically scale back down so it can be completed by the people who are still there playing it. —From GW2.com

This may sound like it’s still the same old thing, but I haven’t left the first area and I was able to participate in many different kinds of events. They’re very engaging and do not get repetitive at all! Something that was very, but pleasingly surprising!

Combat Flow:

Combat is very interesting. Depending on the weapon you have equipped you will get different abilities. When you equip a new weapon you start with one ability. As you kill you open up the next four abilities that are specific to that weapon. At level seven you can interchange two weapons (you get weapon slots just for this in your inventory), so you have five abilities per fight per weapon giving you a total of ten. Not counting your bought skills that remain static (more on this when I go in depth on skills) I kept a melee weapon and a staff at all times as I tried out both the Guardian and the Necromancer.

The first picture is of my Guardian wielding her mace. As you can see she does not have any abilities but the first slot until she gets more proficient with the mace.

In the second picture she is wielding her hammer and has learned nearly every ability. You can’t see in this picture but the first ability is a chain ability. One bar, one weapon, six abilities since this first one chains!

The weapon types are also very reminiscent of Everquest. They have amazing weapons like harpoons and tridents! And even at level one, they look good!

Underwater combat was also easy. You are given a trident and an underwater breathing apparatus so you get new skills to use with the trident. It wasn’t difficult to swim or to be in combat and I never got discombobulated like I usual do. Also the fact that we have an underwater breathing apparatus from the get go really made me happy. I have missed that “you are drowning” bar far too often to admit!

The dodge mechanic was interesting. That is, when I could remember to actually use it! Basically it helps you to get out of the way of whatever is crushing the life out of you. Definitely helps but sadly by the time I remembered to even use it was when I was nearly dead anyhow. Not really helpful. Prior to nearly being dead is a good way to use it and one I intend on trying out next time I accidentally attack a mob that’s too big for my britches.

More interesting is the ability to fight while you’re down. I was able to heal myself a few times and avoid death. You can see the health that is left and you get five abilities to fend off your attacker. Or if you see someone go down but struggling you can heal them and help them to rally. Reminds me a bit of Everquest’s purple club but even better cause if I’m on the ground I sure want to beat up the jerk that put me there!

24. Downed state is awesome. Instead of going straight to “dead,” you’ve got a chance to get back into the game or have someone save your hide with the downed state. You get a small handful of skills — in my case, it was a basic attack, a smokescreen, a bouncy attack, and a small heal — and you can bounce back if you either kill the mob or can heal up to full. It feels quite natural and adds an interesting dynamic to the game. — From Bio Break‘s 30 things about GW2 Beta

Crafting:

I really enjoy crafting and I believe that this is a good mix of both easy and hard. I was able to get up a few levels in tailoring and cooking but if you are low on money then watch how much you buy from the vendor. I went broke fast! First thing I suggest everyone do is to get to the nearest merchant you can find and buy all three tools for harvesting. You can only have two crafting professions but you can harvest anything you want, as long as you have the tools equipped. Again they were smart and made a special place just for equipping these. You can also buy a salvage kit. When you find something you don’t need, SALVAGE!

There are multiple ways of finding new recipes, one of which is just to level but you can also experiment. If the experimentation fails, you get to keep your ingredients! Also, you can get new recipes by helping out certain npc’s. Don’t forget to check and see if they have recipes for sale.

The system itself is relatively easy. For tailoring I had to make the leather bottom, the cloth upper and then the cloth show and combined them to make a shoe. The only downside I found was that I felt like I was really doing good, the experience bar seemed to be moving and then it stopped and I was only level TWO! So, I’m not sure if it’s slow throughout or to start with but beware if you only have a few materials.

As I find and try out more professions I’ll get them up here. First is cooking! I’ve always loved to cook in mmo’s and this one shouldn’t be any different!

Mail:

Ok, who knew mail was such a big deal? But have you been out in the world and gotten a letter and wanted to read it right then, not wait until you traversed the hundreds of miles to get back to a city and check the mail box? Guild Wars 2 has changed all of that. You can check or send mail by clicking on your mail icon in the top left of your screen. Imagine that!

Banking:

I was a bit dismayed when I noticed I could not mail things to myself until I went to my bank and noticed that anything you put into the bank is shareable by your account! The main bank slot is not very large but there are collectible slots for crafting items, cooking items and mini pets. If you right click in your main inventory they will go to the appropriate spots or if you’ve already put them into the bank then right click and then click deposit collectible.

Dyes:

I was so excited by the dyes and the colors you can find that I literally will have to do an entire post just on this! What I can say now is that each race is given it’s set of specific colors to work with. They aren’t shabby either. The downside to that is you’re stuck until you find a dye seed or purchase dye packs. Also all outfits when undyed are given a nice hue that matches so you don’t go around looking like a noob! Lots more on this SOON!

Housing:

Nothing on housing yet. I know they’re looking into how to implement this and I really hope they do it soon! This is the one thing I’m dying for! Quite literally…

Guild Stuff:

I have yet to find out a lot about guild information but one thing I did notice was if you are in a guild you can choose to be in that guild with all of your alts. When you log an alt in, go to the guild screen and you can choose to show your guild or not or even to leave guild. Very good concept!

That’s the ups and the downs of it! So far I’m truly excited about this game. Definitely getting a 5/5 from this gamer and on first beta weekend when I was expecting a ton of lag and to not be able to get anything done! So far, I absolutely love it and I can not wait until it starts!