Guild Wars 2

[Chron]

The beta has started and Pre-Orders begin on 10th April, so the game will probably go live during the summer.

I'm expecting Guild Wars 2 to deliver, as the original was a fun game to play through - PvE and PvP. All of the info below is from the beta videos on YouTube and the Guild Wars 2 Wiki, parts of which may be inaccurate (Note the disclaimer incase I am getting flamed 5 months down the line!).


Professions; Guardian, Warrior, Engineer, Ranger, Thief, Elementalist, Mesmer, Necromancer.
Races; Asura, Charr, Human, Norn and Sylvari.
Level Cap; 80.

The first thing to note is any race can choose any profession, and the second thing to note is the absence of the Monk. There is no healer in GW2!

The race should only affect the aesthetics of your character and their personal storyline, but there are racial traits too, which again are not meant to become so powerful to determine the selection of that race.

The Quick Bar!

Prime Bbcode Spoiler Show Prime Bbcode Spoiler:

As from the original GW, there will be a limit of a single, 10 button quick bar. These abilities cannot be changed during the conflict, you are limited to the handful of abilities and weapons you choose before going in to battle. I'm guessing in world PvE, you have access to all 50+ of your abilities, but in dungeons and PvP zones, your QB will be locked to changes.

From that image of a QB above, going left to right:
Curled Arrows : Switches between the 2 sets of weapons most classes can carry.
1 - 5 : These skills changes depending on the weapon you equip
Red Circle : Health pool, diminishes as you take damage
6 : Self Heal
7 - 9 : Utility/Class skills, can be upgraded by points earned as you level up
0 : Elite skill

F1 - F4 : (Above weapon skills) Varied effects, depends on the class
Conditions : (Above Health Circle) The buffs and debuffs affecting you
Dodge : (Above Utility skills) The endurance pool for your evasive actions.

These are anything but your conventional classes. Every class can self-heal(with a cool down), but no class is effective as a group healer. Some, like the Elementalist and Engineer have AoE heals. The picture I get is of a group laying down a defensive ring with their AoE buffs and heals and pulling mobs into it, layering the same area with offensive conditions. So... I'm undecided on classes right now, they all look of interest but nothing is standing out either.

Every class can dodge incoming ranged and melee attacks by double-tapping a movement key to jump aside. The endurance pool looks good for about 2-3 evades, and refils quickly so you can expect to be using it often.

There's a large selection of weapons for every class, like greatswords, swords, daggers, axes, mace, warhorns, staffs, torch, rifles, pistols.. etc etc. Some can be dual wielded and used in different combinations unique to that class. 2h weapons will give 5 skills. A one handed weapon will give 3 skills and the offhand fills the other 2 slots. So you can use a sword + dagger, or torch, warhorn or whatever in the offhand for those 2 associated skills.

Classes can also combine skills for a combat bonus, i.e. one person sets the ground aflame and the other shoots arrows through it to set the enemy on fire. There are meant to be many combinations in the game to be discovered by the players.


PvE should be worth it for the huge boss fights, like these couple of dragons from ingame pics:

Tequatl the Sunless


Shatterer



PvP



Guild Wars was all about the PvP and if I were to generalise, I'd say for the sequel they've borrowed some from WoW's PvE and from Dark Age of Camelot's PvP.

There are two PvP modes; The small Group vs Group matches and the new World vs World vs World conflict.

Here's an amazing concept for PvP; every server is united during their PvE endeavours, there are no opposing factions or PvP zones, you all live in harmony. Then every two weeks, three Servers are joined around a huge battleground, in which they must fight to prove themselves the best of that group. The war is for control of resource camps, towers, forts and the central castle. The reason people want to join this conflict is they're given server-wide bonuses for controlling the most resources.

This war lasts for two weeks and then the scores are tallied, the winning servers move up in ranks to join with other winners for the next match. This happens every two weeks to keep the conflict zones balanced.

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An overview map of the WvW battleground. There are 4 zones, each limited to 300 players(A cap of 100 from each world). Most the action will likely take place in the central zone but if that fills, players can attack the home zones of the other servers.



The resource bonuses gained from capturing and holding conflict points, this updates every 5 minutes:

Something to note is, the server you start on is called your Home Server, but you can visit other servers to PvE with friends there. From this I'd expect the name you choose at character creation will be global. And that must also help with the smaller (Group vs Group)type of PvP, I'm guessing it will be possible to setup a friendly game of PvP with ~10 people you know from multiple servers, all joining together for some violent bonding.

A GvG game list... perhaps possible to host your own? oO

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Some Youtube vids:

Prime Bbcode Spoiler Show Prime Bbcode Spoiler:

Norn character creation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-YKm20rPQY

Group vs Group video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqSVue7dK6o

World vs World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxeffOuV_5o

[Allison Millet]

Looks good, but I have my hands full still with everything from last winter, and this spring.

[Victor.]

Waiting for it eagerly for quite a while now - so far, it looks almost TOO perfect, so I hope it doesn't tumble over its own hype.

I just can't decide what profession to play but meh. Still got some time. I don't think it'll be released before june, although some retailers are convinced it's coming around May 20th. We'll see!

Certainly my most anticipated game this year and last...and the year before

World vs World vs World looks absolutely fantastic, it'll all stand and fall with how performance is for people and how many people there are for these 3 servers to compete in it.

[Caria]

It sounds interesting, but I am still playing Star Wars the Old Republic and am still enjoying it. So I am not looking to move any time soon.

I only have time in my life, well barely for SWTOR and SL-Gor. I think my family will kill me if I added yet another.

[Allison Millet]

It sounds interesting, but I am still playing Star Wars the Old Republic and am still enjoying it. So I am not looking to move any time soon.

I only have time in my life, well barely for SWTOR and SL-Gor. I think my family will kill me if I added yet another.

Yea I'm stretched to thin as it is, and star wars has been getting neglected a bit of late with mass effect out at the moment, school, and some crazy things in sl happening.

[-Scar-]

I'll definitely be playing GW2, and will be pre-ordering it ASAP. Hell, I still play GW1. It will most definitely be my main MMO. ANet know what they're doing.

[Alice McConnell]

Guild Wars was what got me into gaming. I have never been one to really get into single player games, even though some seem great. Guild Wars was fun to play, but... the greatest thing was the Player vs player. I loved to hear my team (mix of people, mostly teenagers) scream enthusiastically into my earphones as we managed to beat team X. And the PvP had a lot of depth too it. I spend some long nights trying to device a strategy and skill combo that would be novel and would let us scrape out those unlikely wins.

And I STILL believe that my Sit Down Monk Spike build was awesome. Could split in 2 (the other team splitting in GvG was the bane of the spike-team build) and still do spike damage, using a (I think) clever combination of an elementalist knock-down skill followed by a smite spike. And since it used mostly primary monks, it had plenty of healing (with only 2 monks mostly dedicated to the healing). Problem was when we tried it that it required 2 separate spike counts and separate targeting. So, didn't work out that well... and I never could get them to give it another go. Especially since I always tried to get them to try my experimental builds, some of them not so great.

What I liked about the game as well was that you could play it 'casually' if you wanted. And no monthly fees or level 80s to grind towards.

Not sure if I'll have the time to play it, but... if I do, I'll be enjoying this one.

[Tantus]

Pre-orders are open and the Beta-Weekend begins tomorrow(Friday), with a server list here.

I have the client downloaded and ready to login, but still undecided on which class to play. There's nothing which really stands out yet.


Some more resources:

GW2 Wiki
GW2 Guru Forum - The closest to an official forum for now
GW2 Tools - A build calculator
GW2 Builds - Another build calculator
GW2 Character Creation - Simulates the character creation process


About Microtransactions:

Here’s our philosophy on microtransactions: We think players should have the opportunity to spend money on items that provide visual distinction and offer more ways to express themselves. They should also be able to spend money on account services and on time-saving convenience items. But it’s never OK for players to buy a game and not be able to enjoy what they paid for without additional purchases, and it’s never OK for players who spend money to have an unfair advantage over players who spend time.

I know none of this is new; the original Guild Wars also had microtransactions. But microtransactions were an afterthought in Guild Wars, whereas with Guild Wars 2, we had an opportunity to integrate the microtransaction system from the ground up, giving players more options and more convenience without sacrificing our design principles. So, here’s what we’re doing differently this time.

In Guild Wars 2 we have three currencies: gold, karma, and gems. Gold is the common in-game currency. Karma, which players earn in-game but cannot trade, is used for unique rewards. And gems are the currency that’s bought and used to purchase microtransactions.

We have a new player-driven market that allows players to trade gold for gems and gems for gold. If you want something, whether it’s an in-game item or a microtransaction, you ultimately have two ways to get it: you can play to earn gold or you can use money to buy gems. We think that’s important, because it lets more players participate on a level playing field, whether they use their free time or their disposable income to do it.

MMO veterans will note the similarities of our system to EVE Online’s PLEX system. As in that case, our system takes gold trading out of the hands of real-money trading (RMT) companies and puts it directly in the hands of players.

We think that’s a great thing.

From a player’s perspective, RMT companies have all the wrong motivations: the more money they make from selling gold, the more they spam ads in the game, run bot networks to farm gold, and hack accounts to loot them for gold. Conversely, under our system, players have all the right motivations. If a player buys gold from another player, he gets the gold he wants, the selling player gets gems she can use for microtransactions, and ArenaNet generates revenue from the sale of gems that we can use to keep supporting and updating the game. Everyone wins.

[Victor.]

Got everything ready. Spending the week in the UK, feigning any sort of social life but upon touchdown in Wien-Schwechat hopefully ~ 19.oo tomorrow - there's a ONE TRACKED MIND of mine fully indulging in all Guild Wars 2 has to offer.

Technically 21.oo as that's when it starts for me.

Rolling with a couple RL buddies and budtresses on Elona's Reach.

It shall not soon be forgotton! The only weekend we have until the next Event - so "Ima rip this shit till my bones collapse"

I am by the way completely torn still what profession I'll want to roll on release - will try to limit my choices through the weekend. Right now Elementalist seems like it'll be one of the classes with the highest skill ceiling - should be fun to experiment with it.

I was playing the game already at an earlier occasion - gotta say it's smooth as suede. Glad I finally can play it with others I know

[Victor.]

I won't embarrass myself by obsessive fan girl squees and giddy goodness but I am not lying when I say that had to be the best gaming experience I had in my life.

33 hours of played time.

Yet there is a DAY and NIGHT difference between my impression of the game, by playing it alone and by playing it with RL friends.

The scaling epicness of every little dynamic event is just glorious if there's a group of 50 people running around and wrecking havoc - most of them don't know each other, but there's that innate feeling of playing together for a common cause. There's no creep stealing, no turning away when you see others are doing your "quest" and it will take forever - nah, you fight whatever you're facing as a crowd and if you see someone downed, you hurry to get him back on his feet.

Just freaking loved playing it.

The PvP was hilarious - a pity one couldn't queue as a group yet, so we were forced to play against each other but it certainly has potential to be competitive upon game release.

Looking forward to a launch date, whenever that is - but for now, I am looking forward to the next Beta in a month from now