2041

Which is why the voices for the Asura work well. In GWEN a main Asuran was voiced by The Brain from Pinky and the Brain and by Felicia Day in GW2.

2042

So I saw a post by Jon Peters on the ArenaNet beta boards (the necro forum, specifically) that, while all classes still need work, the three currently in need of the most work are Necro, Thief, and Mesmer. So if anyone was discouraged by any of those classes in BWE3, perhaps they’ll have some nice improvements by the time launch rolls around.

2043

I still feel that they really need to improve the “New User Experience”. I gave 2 co-workers beta keys and their reactions today at work were exactly the same as many other people new to the game been having (even people who played MMOs before).

Those tooltips that keep appearing are “nice”(and annoying for people who already know how to play the game) BUT not enough.

2044

Played Elementalist for the first time, and I’m thinking it is my new favorite class! I am missing GW2 once again, glad that next time will be the release.

A particularly great time for me learning elementalist was getting 5 talent points in arcane and realizing that some instant spells can be cast while channeling other spells. So it’s possible to begin to cast earthquake (dagger skill 5 in earth mode,) fire off 3 instant utility slots arcane skills, and switch to air and get off several instant lightning attacks, then switch to fire, and thanks to arcane 5, continue casting earthquake the entire time… so instead of just getting off earthquake during its long several second channeling time, you could fit in 5 different spells and already be in another element.

I think I will start off with guardian again in release, my old favorite, just to see which I really love best.

Another happy discovery for me was the auction house, specifically in conjunction with master salvage kit. The text searching options for the AH enable you to easily find cheap set pieces, ie “of the vampire” (chance to steal life), “of the flock” (chance to summon a bird on hit), “of the air” (chance for a lightning strike on crit) – even if its an unusable item outside of your level range, it can still be a worthwhile buy. Master salvage kit costs 1 s and some copper for a 25 stack – each of which gives an 80% chance to remove the sigil which gives that designation to any armor with an open slot.

So, spending only a 1-4 silver per item I was able to kit out all of my armour with set bonuses. When upgrades drop, I just salvage the prior and roll along with the set. I expect these will remain cheap, since the items with minor sets are only slightly uncommon drops.

Anyway, everyone should at least gather in my opinion. I am not a big crafting fan (hate inventory management), though I’ve kind of liked this system. If you have 2 people feeding each other material, you can easily skill up a couple crafts enough to provide a lot of your upgrades. Gathering is quick, decent exp, and if nothing else good money. It’s pretty feasible to just sell gathered materials on the AH, and buy crafted or found goods there.

2045

O_O

Also played an Elementalist this BWE…didn’t know about that, damn it!

2046

Levelling is a fundamental mechanic of MMO’s. ;) GW2 disguises levelling as a fun activity, TSW disguises levelling as a means to gain AP/SP, Eve Online even has a form of levelling disguised as skill training. I don’t think MMO’s can exist without this. Most people need a goal when they play a game whether it be loot drops, levels, achievements, etc.

I think at this time in my MMO life I am very happy with the direction GW2 has taken. I’ve really started to lose interest in endgame activities. I no longer have huge amounts of time to devote to MMO’s. I just want to exist in the world and have fun whenever I log in. GW2 being a more casual and combat focused game fits my needs perfectly.

2047

Makes sense, Sean. It’s just that my brief time in GW2 still felt a lot like other fantasy MMOs. Yes, the game mechanics are different and possibly better and there are a lot of innovative touches, but I still felt like I was running around trying to get XP so I could gain a level and unlock a new ability, and that part of it felt like every other MMO I’ve played.

It’s not that it’s a bad game design. It’s just that I’ve put thousands of hours into MMOs and I’m weary having to start out at level one again in a new one. I probably killed 50-75 centaurs in the few hours I played the game this weekend. I’m already tired of killing centaurs.

Anyway, this one’s on my list. I’ll get it, though probably not until after Christmas. I’d like to give them time to fix bugs, refine the experience, etc. When I do play it I may try to only play once or twice a week and just explore and craft to level when I’m not doing my story quest.

2048

Oh this link is worth repeating - http://brokenforum.com/index.php?threads/gw2-the-big-picture-new-player-guide.2625/ - Reldan’s excellent GW2 guide.

PS. Did anyone notice when your character is standing on a slope you actually balance your legs appropriately. Amazing detail! :)

2049

This was the odd thing - I never felt the ‘need’ to go get XP or level up while playing. More than most MMOs, the XP/levels just seemed to be a side-effect of running around and “doing stuff”. Part of that may simply have been the knowledge that I had the game for two days and then all was lost, so there was no motivation. However, part of it is also knowing that I don’t need the levels to experience things. I can hop over anytime into sPvP/WvWvW and be mostly on par with anyone there (my sad excuse for PvP skills aside).

It may also have simply been attitude. In WoW, levels/numbers/gear/etc are the goal, so the drive is always there. In fact, I typically burn out each time I get an alt to 80 because that drive is so strong that once I get there, it fizzles. So I was making an effort to just ‘play’. And in this game, it works (not that it doesn’t in WoW - just that we’ve adapted over time to ‘rush’ to the end because that’s how that game sorta works…)

2050

The only motivation i found to “level up” was so i could get the ability to switch weapons in combat, and you get that at only level 7 i think?

2051

The quests to me weren’t that interesting. The interesting thing was wandering around to find them, but once I got them they were very much like quests I’ve done hundreds of times before. Escort a merchant and fend off several attacks. Done that many times. Go to a farm and kill things that are eating the crops. Done that. Also water the plants. Done some version of that. Fight centaurs that are attacking the city. Done something like that. Destroy their catapults. Done something like that. None of that felt fresh or new.

The way I got some of those quests was interesting but not overly so, since I’ve experienced public quests before in Warhammer and Rift.

So those things didn’t really impress me. What impressed me was the overall experience with all the MMO refinements. It’s a next-gen MMO and ANet seems on top of things. That’s impressive.

Hey, maybe it will be 33% or 50% off for the Steam Xmas sale. That might be the time for me to jump in.

2052

Standard fair for the life of a medieval fantasy hero. At least we get paid to do it and get to drink mead afterwards. Those centaurs aren’t going away by themselves! ;)

PS. Mark you really need to try TSW.

2053

Also carry a greatsword as an asura and look at your posture :-)

2054

Maybe you’re just burned out on games. Sounds like you’ve jumped from platform to platform and killed things before too…

2055

True, levelling is an integral part of RPGs (not all MMOs, though) - but TSW doesn’t just disguise levelling as a means to gain AP/SP - it uses a very immersive story to push people through content.

GW2 reduces the sensation of being rewarded - but on the upside - it doesn’t force you to go through the areas linearly. Personally, I miss a reason to feed cows - but I have to admit the game flows rather well for the kind of silly quests it seems to provide - at least until level 15 or so. Not sure what comes later.

I think at this time in my MMO life I am very happy with the direction GW2 has taken. I’ve really started to lose interest in endgame activities. I no longer have huge amounts of time to devote to MMO’s. I just want to exist in the world and have fun whenever I log in. GW2 being a more casual and combat focused game fits my needs perfectly.
I’m with you about endgame activities. I’ve been sick of that since I discovered what it means back in my WoW days. Ever since then, I’ve been avoiding endgame grinding like the plague. Oh, I’ve played MMOs since inception - but I always resisted them for long-term play, because I saw nothing but pointless treadmills. I won’t go into why I got hooked on WoW - but suffice it to say that having a GF more into the genre than myself had a lot to do with it. Well, that, and the superb work done by Blizzard for the vanilla version. I’ve never experienced a more rich and immersive world anywhere - which helped a lot, since I’m a big immersion player.

But I think there are other ways to provide entertainment once content is exhausted - it’s just that developers haven’t figured that out yet.

I’ve yet to see a smart perpetually interesting PvP endgame - unless we count games like Darkfall which suffers horribly for being such a low-budget unfriendly game.

WvW in GW2 is very, very far from my vision of something perpetually interesting - but I can definitely see why so many would be crazy about it.

2056

When I checked the gem store during this last beta I was surprised – OK, really shocked – to see aviator sunglasses and boxing gloves as some of the cosmetic items. Talking about ruining the immersion. What the hell are these things doing in a fantasy MMORPG – especially one where the developers are always expressing so much pride in their lore and game world?

2057

I too found it really out of place, something akin to a straight F2P who doesn’t even pretend to have a rich game universe. I just hope that people will find it lame, peer pressuring others not to buy them.

2058

I’m not so sure the idea of sunglasses and boxing gloves are really that out of place in this world.

2059

Seems pretty fitting in a world where you’re fighting gigantic rock elementals one second, and feeding cows and watering plants the next.

2060

It’s no medieval fantasy world that’s for sure.

With the inclusion of a race like the Asura, they can do basically anything (and they will). For example a moon expedition with a rocket built by Asurians? Space ships? Vacuum toilets? I mean, they have holographic displays for crying out loud! It’s the wacky race after all.

The silliness was something (besides other things) that has always prevented me from playing WoW but I think I don’t really care anymore in this game.