Guild Wars 2: Pre-Release Discussion

[madpersian]

Costumes are just that costumes. you wear it over your normal gear. In GW2 you will have what they call town gear which has no stats, or battle usable stats. stuff like holiday clothes etc. transmutation stones are the things that allow you to take skins you like and apply it to your stat gear.

This seems like a good model because I can ignore the store if I want to without being left behind. I don't mind this type of stuff, or even fully leveled characters (a bit after a game launches). The only thing I have a problem with is gear that's better than what you can reasonably acquire through regular play, or content that looks like it was removed from the game to be sold as a DLC. This is stuff like the Golem and Castle expansion in Dragon Age.

[Syntex]

The only thing I don't like about GW2 and I know this goes against their philosophy is how gear doesn't get better and only gets visually better.

I understand to make a fair and balanced pvp game you can't have weapons and armor with 30% better stats then someone who just got all their blue quality gear from the auction house vs the guy in Season 7 Ruthless gear like it is in wow now but I still want something to strive for.

It may sound dumb but part of the drive to raid in wow and other games is for the gear and knowing you got the best gear out there from the get-go kinda loses that drive. I know it would great a balance problem like it is in wow now with the tiers but I don't think it's too much to ask that maybe some higher level gear has a 5% increase in stats. The difference would give people who play a lot an edge but only minor and I feel the game will be balanced enough that only in really evenly skilled fights would it actually make a difference.

I am willing to give ANet the benefit of the doubt and see how the system works in its current state since they are doing so many good things. I just hope there is some drive to improve your character in some way other then aesthetics.

Then again I could be going about this all wrong and by making gear best in slot from the get-go lets us focus on more fun things like killing people.

[vrumpt]

Mounts in WoW. Proof that even if your carrot on a stick only offers aesthetics, people will do anything for them.

[Celeras]

He's also taking it to extremes. Of course gear gets better with upgrades in terms of PvE and WvWvW. But once you get that awesome PvP set, whatever the requirements may be, you only continue to unlock aesthetics. And in the case of the PvP matchmaking (which you are given a max level character to do the non WvWvW PvP with), you are GIVEN the base set without any of the bells and whistles. It differentiates who "plays" and who doesn't, whilst preserving balance. You can't even equip anything else for those types of matches, the aesthetics are the only gear customizations available.

[niwaar]

I was under the impression that "BG" PvP was 100% level playing field. ie, in several of the interviews I have heard them say you step into PvP with ALL weapons and ALL abilities of a top level character. That its about skill and not about trying to get that piece of PvP gear that makes you better, but about learning from every match you are in so you are better the next time.

As for the "carrot/stick" thing. I always thought that GW PvE was about situational gear, not unlike XI was to a degree.

The "fun" gameplay and "personal story" (read: missions?) is what I want to play this game for, not repetitive endgame raiding where nothing changes and people just end up being loot whores and asshats. I'd rather go back to perpetual meripo's then continue indefinitely with "raiding" as it currently is in Rift, WoW and SWTOR.

[Lucavi]

^ If that's the case, then it sounds like a ton of fun; more akin to the deathmatch and team deathmatch style of games like Mechwarrior, than say, WoW, where even if a team has superior status, its possible that they can be defeated simply by sheer power that superior stats bring.

[Takiwaki]

Yup structured pvp which is hot joinable is definitely a level playing field. Gear will be all standardized, everyone has everything unlocked, including traits and skills (racial skills are disabled ). WvW is still PvE centric in that it will use your pve character and gear, and has no level restrictions. what makes it work is that the entire area has some sort of equalizer so that a level 1 would be able to stand up somewhat to a level 80 person. The level 80 will have an advantage in gear variety, traits and skill types unlocked, but the level 1 would be able to put up a fight and even win without getting steamrolled. Also there are dynamic events going on in WvWvW so that you can as a level 1 level up totally in there. I am sure you will be able to unlock unique gear skins etc that you can only obtain from wvwvw/structured pvp also.

I am not a big pvp fan but damn pvp looks fun in this game.

[Celeras]

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sidekick

[Lucavi]

Gonna fuck this game so hard. Now lore-whores like myself can get all of it without having to make 300 different alts in every zone.

[Deejay]

Are there any good game play videos out?

[Vimes]

Are there any good game play videos out?

Are you being serious ?

Start watching these then:
http://vigilantfans.blogspot.com/201...-round-up.html

And this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giFE9ZEJM0Q

[Deejay]

Thanks. I didn't know much about Guild Wars until I stumbled upon this thread so I figured I'd ask where you guys were getting all this hype from >_>

[Vimes]

You're welcome.

Basically, Totalbiscuit & Wartower have the best gameplay vids.

That's:

https://www.youtube.com/show?p=VB1pLPfcJI0&s=1
and
https://www.youtube.com/user/wwwWARTOWERde

[vrumpt]

I like part 2 of Totalbiscuit's charr video since it shows off some of the simpler dynamic events that don't involve fighting a small dragon. Gives you an idea of what to expect when you aren't doing large epic level dynamic events.

[Takiwaki]

new PVP map shots

Spoiler: show

http://www.guildwarsinsider.com/back...2/01/gw056.jpg
http://www.guildwarsinsider.com/back...2/01/gw037.jpg
http://www.guildwarsinsider.com/back...2/01/gw045.jpg
http://www.guildwarsinsider.com/back...2/01/gw021.jpg

[Dantrag]

RELEASE DATE WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN NNNNNNNNNN?

[Kuya]

I think they haven't been doing a good job at keeping interest over this game constant. At least the two gaming sites i go to (gametrailers and the escapist) have been silent on this game for a while now, a fact i blame on the the people making the game for not doing more to keep people hyped.

[Gokulo]

Ehh, every MMO has its silent streaks before release, when developers are withholding information for whatever reasons.. Though I agree that they are especially long for GW2.

[Dragir]

What I find myself reminding people about here and elsewhere is that ArenaNet is giving us WAY MORE information than most developers would this far behind release. They've been trickling out information (good information) for 2+ years now and that we should be grateful for that rather than critical of when the pace of that information slows a little. Just wait until we're closer to the release date... and remember: "press" will have first access to "openish beta". I'm sure we'll start seeing GW2 kicking up a lot more dust between that time and its date of release (which will come shortly after the second phase of open beta, which is when "many" players will have access).

[niwaar]

I think they haven't been doing a good job at keeping interest over this game constant. At least the two gaming sites i go to (gametrailers and the escapist) have been silent on this game for a while now, a fact i blame on the the people making the game for not doing more to keep people hyped.

I think that if you are interested in MMO news you should start going to sites more attuned towards the MMO genre. I hate to say it but Massively even with its sometimes "bad" writers does a decent job at highlighting the "news" of the day for MMOs. Where as a site like Gametrailers doesn't really say much when a developer like ArenaNet drops a nice lore post like they did last week with the Jotun.

What I find myself reminding people about here and elsewhere is that ArenaNet is giving us WAY MORE information than most developers would this far behind release. They've been trickling out information (good information) for 2+ years now and that we should be grateful for that rather than critical of when the pace of that information slows a little. Just wait until we're closer to the release date... and remember: "press" will have first access to "openish beta". I'm sure we'll start seeing GW2 kicking up a lot more dust between that time and its date of release (which will come shortly after the second phase of open beta, which is when "many" players will have access).

I would have to agree and disagree at the same time. I think the best thing EA when publicizing SWTOR was have a specific day on a set interval to drop some sort of information about their game. As a matter of fact, I think that one of the only things EA/Bioware did well with that game was correctly publicize it. I am not a Guild Wars 1 player. Yet I am most excited about GW2 than any game since I first heard about the failure that became XIV. We are all salivating for new information about the game, or new play video, or ... we just want something. Even if they dropped a 30 second game play video every friday of some random thing, they would do a lot to appease those of us who can't wait to get out of WoW and into something better.