Guild Wars 2

Necro: I remember it had no cleave, but they wanted to add a 2nd target to dagger, it had pretty much no buff capacity and the debuff was not so important (weakness is good, that's true). I played power necro for a while and imo it was very fun and very powerful. The only downside was that wells were on a quite long timer, so burst was not applicable more than once every 45 to 60 seconds. In reality, by rotating wells, lich form and some death shroud, it was quite possible to have good single target and multi target dps going, while being extremely tough to kill.

My disappointment for the class was based mostly on the stupid pets AI, they often stood there watching and did nothing. When they decided to work, it was fun to see the swarm running down mobs quickly, while you dropped staff #2 to keep them in good shape. Against champions and similar they exploded before being useful, so I had to swap to standard power nuking, well leecher necro build.

Condition necro was great for soloing, but in groups and large events it was kinda useless, but that was true for most condition based specs, a pity.

Just in case anyone was considering picking this up before the expansion, it's going to be 75% off all through PAX East (Friday through Sunday).

Gonna grab a couple copies for friends who are getting sick of wow so I have some buds to play with.

I picked up this game again and I still find it very fun. My biggest issue is that I like all classes and I play them all, at this pace I'll never finish a storyline before the xpack.
I'll try to focus harder on one, but it's so difficult, it's so tempting to swap every day... altoholicism at its peak here!
I may just pick a class and finish everything, then go through alts one by one... if only I could decide which one to play first. The good thing is that I'm not concerned by PuGs picking only certain classes, that's a big plus.

They did some decent QoL changes since last I played, also last big patch made a lot of weapons slightly better, for example ranger longbow is now firing at a nice speed, especially witht the 13th trait and necromancer dagger now cleaves 2 targets. I still wish they would put an out of combat 25% speed boost on a mesmer signet and a few more small changes here and there, but I'm generally pleased with how they treated the game so far. Content was a bit stale, but now I have all the LS to do, given that I logged in once briefly for every chapter, I don't have to pay for it.

Ranger, tonight I'll play ranger...

How solo friendly is this game? Can you just jump into PvP (like battlegrounds) or do you need established groups? $10 looks tempting.

Vandyn_sl said:

How solo friendly is this game? Can you just jump into PvP (like battlegrounds) or do you need established groups? $10 looks tempting.

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I think it's a solo friendly game like few others in the world. There is PvP and rated PvP and WvW (World vs World) which is a gigantic clusterfuck of people and it's fun on its own, even for me and I'm not a PvP'er at all.
Dungeons may not be very pug friendly at the beginning, unless you state that you're new and need guidance, most groups are nice (don't join speedrunners).
A lot of shit can be soloed even in dungeons, if you use special builds, special strategies and use mechanics in a very creative way. It's very hard to pull off, not stuff you can do just because you have mad skills, you really have to put some efforts in trial and learning and maxing your character gear (or finding gear tailored to a specific build), which can take some time and quite some gold. You can throw real money to buy gems and convert gems to gold, but it won't get you ascended gear, nor some special things, but it can certainly speed up the process ten-folds.

If you want to PvP you get boosted to level 80 automagically, with set stats (you can choose the stat combo you want), in WvW you use your PvE gear, but your level is boosted to 80. As a boosted up, you're a wet paper bag vs geared level 80s, but that's ok I guess, you can still run with the zerg.

The first few times, doing dungeons in story mode and adventure mode is quite fun and fractals dungeons are really entertaining. Remember there is no tank and healer in this game, so you can't be carried and rely pretty much on yourself for survival and on group synergies for high dps.
If you never played before, pick a warrior, it's a powerhouse in all game modes and quite fun too.

The levelling experience (your mileage may vary) is one of the best on the market, no real quests, you explore and kill stuff everywhere and do the odd event you stumble in for extra coins, loot and exp. The world is also fucking big and there are no mounts, but only some speed modifiers (+25% or +33%) on skills or spells (or rune sets, but that's more for level 80s, given the cost of those rune sets).

Upcoming Heart?*of?*Thorns closed beta tests | GuildWars2.com
Closed beta in ~2 weeks, with no NDA, so it seems like release isn't that far away. There is a ton of youtube videos detailing the systems from a press event a week or so ago and it looks better than expected. If you want a chance to get in, sign up for their newsletter.

Vandyn_sl said:

How solo friendly is this game? Can you just jump into PvP (like battlegrounds) or do you need established groups? $10 looks tempting.

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It is the most solo friendly MMO maybe ever made. So much so, that the other players in your world might as well just be friendly NPC's. Whether you view this as a good thing or a bad thing is going to be up to you. You experience will be enriched if you can get a guild or a group of friends, but the game was designed from the ground up to allow everyone to solo through their content.

Itzena_sl said:

Just in case anyone was considering picking this up before the expansion, it's going to be 75% off all through PAX East (Friday through Sunday).

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Heh, I bought another account when they had the 9.99 sale for a couple days, thought it would be cheaper than buying extra char slots. Started a Ranger (Legolas9999999 huh huh) and got her up to 35 before I realized I would have to buy the expansion twice.. doh.

ouch. yeah, people do the second account thing for, doubling up on account based dailies.

for most players, probably crazy.

Ended up buying this during the sale even though I hated the game back when it was in beta for being nothing at all like the original Guild Wars. Haven't played GW in close to two years so I figured maybe I might be able to overlook that now.

Is there a 'best' class for someone who is pretty much only going to do solo PVE? I'm interested in the dungeons, but I don't know anyone who plays the game and it's pretty unlikely I'll go out of my way to try and join a guild for organized speedrunning. WvW/sPVP viability is completely irrelevant, I'll never set foot in either. Currently I have a L30 Warrior, but I'm finding the class pretty boring and it doesn't seem like it's going to be much different at 80.

Anything else I need to know, especially mistakes to avoid? I've read through the new player stuff on reddit, but so much of it is old and seemingly outdated.

Also, how slow is ANet customer support? Their website is retarded and refuses to link my GW account because it's an old[email protected]/* <![CDATA[ */!function(t,e,r,n,c,a,p){try{t=document.currentScript||function(){for(t=document.getElementsByTagName('script'),e=t.length;e--if(t[e].getAttribute('data-cfhash'))return t[e]}();if(t&&(c=t.previousSibling)){p=t.parentNode;if(a=c.getAttribute('data-cfemail')){for(e='',r='0x'+a.substr(0,2)|0,n=2;a.length-n;n+=2)e+='%'+('0'+('0x'+a.substr(n,2)^r).toString(16)).slice(-2);p.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(decodeURIComponent(e)),c)}p.removeChild(t)}}catch(u){}}()/* ]]> */username. I put way too much time into my GW Hall of Monuments to not have access to the stuff even if it's all just cosmetic.

If you don't speedrun, play whatever class you like more. If you speedrun you are pretty much playing warrior or guardian if you are decent and elementalist or thief if you are very good. Mesmer has a niche and it's imo a great class, it can also pack decent dps, but it's a melee build only and frankly the most fun weapons for mesmer are ranged. Engineer has its uses, it's a bit more clunky as a grenade build (try one and you'll understand why).

I don't find speedrunning any fun at all, in fact I'd rather solo than doing dungeons like that and with most groups you can play any class and do good dps. After all you need only one or two classes to stack might and vulnerability and if you are not at perma 25 stacks, who gives a fuck? Stuff dies anyway. Necro are not awful at groups, they just provide no buffs worth mentioning and little debuffing (vulnerability mostly and weakness is an option). Their dps is good and bursty, as I said if you don't speedrun, playing necromancer is perfectly fine and if some retard kicks you out of a group for playing necro, you didn't want to play with him anyway, trust me.

I mainly play a ranger, in dungeons I use sword/horn or sword/axe paired with longbow for opening fights, as pets I use jungle stalker and river drake, always use Spotter and Frost spirit and I'm a huge boost for any group I play with, thanks to my AE healing and condition cleansing on top of doing very good dps and providing very good uptime on important buffs and debuffs. People still think rangers are crap. Of course if all you do is bear/bow and sit at max range, well, they are right.

It's not a game for min maxers in PvE, acting like one is for selected groups/guilds only, for the general population you are just someone to avoid.

Miele_sl said:

If you don't speedrun, play whatever class you like more. If you speedrun you are pretty much playing warrior or guardian if you are decent and elementalist or thief if you are very good. Mesmer has a niche and it's imo a great class, it can also pack decent dps, but it's a melee build only and frankly the most fun weapons for mesmer are ranged. Engineer has its uses, it's a bit more clunky as a grenade build (try one and you'll understand why).

I don't find speedrunning any fun at all, in fact I'd rather solo than doing dungeons like that and with most groups you can play any class and do good dps. After all you need only one or two classes to stack might and vulnerability and if you are not at perma 25 stacks, who gives a fuck? Stuff dies anyway. Necro are not awful at groups, they just provide no buffs worth mentioning and little debuffing (vulnerability mostly and weakness is an option). Their dps is good and bursty, as I said if you don't speedrun, playing necromancer is perfectly fine and if some retard kicks you out of a group for playing necro, you didn't want to play with him anyway, trust me.

I mainly play a ranger, in dungeons I use sword/horn or sword/axe paired with longbow for opening fights, as pets I use jungle stalker and river drake, always use Spotter and Frost spirit and I'm a huge boost for any group I play with, thanks to my AE healing and condition cleansing on top of doing very good dps and providing very good uptime on important buffs and debuffs. People still think rangers are crap. Of course if all you do is bear/bow and sit at max range, well, they are right.

It's not a game for min maxers in PvE, acting like one is for selected groups/guilds only, for the general population you are just someone to avoid.

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I fully agree with you about speed running not being any fun but hasn't that become the de facto mode of gameplay for pretty much every MMO now? I remember fondly back during vanilla WoW how much fun and immersive it was spending an hour or more running heroic dungeons like BRD, Scholomance, Stratholme, etc. I resubbed to WoW at the end of MoP and the first couple of months of WoD and now the heroic dungeons are a joke difficulty wise with pugs speedrunning them in 15-20 minutes.

I played GW2 at launch and there wasn't any speedrunning of dungeons going on back then. My guess is players weren't used to a MMO with no dedicated tank or healer so if you tried to speedrun it you would just keep wiping. What has changed since release that makes dungeons in GW2 so easy that you can speedrun them now?

Not using shit class combos, odd stat choices for gear and a better understanding of the game's mechanics.

ascended gear. min/maxing and learning the "proper" class combos.
Thats the point. you have to play specific professions and builds to speed run. not just op builds, but builds that are op in conjunction with other professions builds.

Also do keep in mind, speed running is in no way the end all be all of the game.
Silverwastes is arguably. as well as all around achievement hunting, etc.
Spvp has been flushed out better. its reward tracks are fantastic. and give all sorts of end game mats.
New maps, removed the stupid water ones.
Fractals are the "end game dungeons" but huge gap from 1-40 and 50 speed running.
drytop and Silverwastes are pretty great. everything Orr and Rift were not. really. everyone should come back, check out these two zones.
World bosses trains too... Most are pretty easy. only Tequatl and triple trouble require any real strategy. (with TT being TOO much, fails all the time..)

WvW hasn't changed much sadly. Culling is better. They removed the lake.. which.. so what? they added masteries, which is nice.
Edge of the mists wvw map is pretty great.. but why? seems like a HUGE investment of time and resources instead of fixing the wvw problems.

HoT is supposed to add a new wvw map too. is this going to be like edge, in addition to previous maps? which will just FURTHER split the populations? Such an odd choice.

Rescorla_sl said:

I fully agree with you about speed running not being any fun but hasn't that become the de facto mode of gameplay for pretty much every MMO now? I remember fondly back during vanilla WoW how much fun and immersive it was spending an hour or more running heroic dungeons like BRD, Scholomance, Stratholme, etc. I resubbed to WoW at the end of MoP and the first couple of months of WoD and now the heroic dungeons are a joke difficulty wise with pugs speedrunning them in 15-20 minutes.

I played GW2 at launch and there wasn't any speedrunning of dungeons going on back then. My guess is players weren't used to a MMO with no dedicated tank or healer so if you tried to speedrun it you would just keep wiping. What has changed since release that makes dungeons in GW2 so easy that you can speedrun them now?

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It didn't take long for some people to show that 25 stacks of might and 25 stacks of vulnerability on the boss, meant the fight went from 2 minutes to 20 seconds. Of course you require to do this in full berserker armor, so no defensive stats whatsoever, dodging is your main defense. The last boss of CoF path 1, possibily the most killed dungeon mob in the game, can last about 15 seconds, like you can see here:GUILD WARS 2: [oO] CoF Path 1 Speedrun 5:13 [WORLD RECORD] - YouTubeor even two minutes if the group is casual and quite bad.
Also some classes are just better at this kind of runs, stack them nicely and you are in for a treat.

What is Anet waiting on ? Are we going to get any details soon on the other class specialization ?