Caught up on the story tonight, finishing off episode 5. For a pet-focused necromancer, that last fight is a stone bitch. It’s based on the boss throwing out a bunch of AoEs while you kill his thorn vine things, and you can’t train a pet to avoid those. I pretty much died every time his big AoE went off since it killed all the pets instantly, regardless of whether I avoided it myself. There’s too much stuff going on to resummon the whole horde, so once they died, I wasn’t far behind. The only reason I made it through was that when you “restart from checkpoint” after a death, the boss health doesn’t reset, so I was able to whittle him down. Died more times to that guy than to everything else in the story put together.
fdsaion
6222
You can respec for free and at anytime when not in combat, so switching things up probably would have made that easier for you.
Yeah, I thought about making a change, but it didn’t occur to me until after the fight was finally over. Of course, I have no idea what I’m doing with any other build anyway, so it may not have mattered. Still, it is nice that the option exists, unlike in some games (Path of Exile, I’m looking at you).
robc04
6224
I finally put several hours into the game as a fighter (or warrior?). I’ve been doing the heart missions and some personal story stuff (dealing with bandits). I think I’m level 5 or 6.
I’m not a big fan of the combat. Probably not a surprise that I’m not a fan of Diablo style combat either. I’m wondering if I’m not too excited about the game this far if it is likely to stay that way? It’s not real bad or anything, but nothing that makes me feel strongly about firing it up. It’s hard to play these types of games if the combat isn’t there.
Well, it’s an MMO. You haven’t even dipped a toe into the combat system until you’re around level 20 or so. :)
-Tom
Daagar
6226
And traits don’t come in until 30 now, which adds a bit more too. Don’t bring up the trait system to old players though - they really really hate the new system.
robc04
6227
I guess I’ll try to put in an hour here and there in between other things. I don’t have high hopes that I’ll really dig it, but you never know.
fdsaion
6228
Yeah, you have probably 1 skill, 1 heal, and 3 or 4 weapon skills at this point? While at the end of the day, you end up with 10 weapon skills available after swap, 4 skills, 1 heal, plus class gimmicks (F1-F4), which while doesn’t sound like alot, is more than enough, with alot of variety (and hard choices in weapon/skill loadout).
That said, “builds” in GW2 really aren’t something until near max level, and it’s even worse now that they’ve (A) backloaded the traits so heavily (you don’t get your first trait that modifies how your character works until L30) and (B) force you to do mini objectives scattered across the world to unlock traits (or pay to unlock), so you can’t even experiment freely.
Anyway, here’s a really good example of the potential depth of GW2 combat (there is alot going on there that he isn’t even talking about due to “assumed” knowledge too). Mesmers, Thieves, and Elementalists all trend towards this type of “kinetic” style. Certain rangers builds too. Necros/Warriors/Guardians less so.
The flipside of that is that this type of combat only really shows up in small scale WWW (the server vs server battlegrounds) fights and SPVP (which also is more build restrictive due to the objective being “sit on a point.” And this type of combat reactivity very rarely shows itself in PVE. There are awesome moments where you, through timely usage of skills, save your dungeon party from disaster. But the vast majority of PVE is basically autoattack + dodge red circle.
robc04
6229
The flipside of that is that this type of combat only really shows up in small scale WWW (the server vs server battlegrounds) fights and SPVP (which also is more build restrictive due to the objective being “sit on a point.” And this type of combat reactivity very rarely shows itself in PVE. There are awesome moments where you, through timely usage of skills, save your dungeon party from disaster. But the vast majority of PVE is basically autoattack + dodge red circle.
That may be my main problem. I’m only playing PvE. It is rare I do multiplayer in any game (yes, weird since I’m playing an MMO). The exception was Dark Souls 2 where I really got into the PvP for a while. I ventured into GW2 because someone said it is fine as a solo game.
The next big “Player Experience” patch detailed: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/a-fresh-start-the-new-player-experience-in-guild-wars-2/
The coming feature pack is bringing improvements that were designed to ensure the leveling experience and, most importantly, the learning experience is solid, clearly messaged, easy to follow, and rewarding. These were part of the game when we launched in China, and now they’re making their way back to North America and Europe.
KevinC
6231
I really enjoyed GW2 and thought it was a bit of fresh air in a genre that’s become very stale. While I was happy with the game I purchased, I have to admit I’ve been extremely disappointed with their ongoing support and development. I was really looking forward to coming back to a subscriptionless MMO as new features were implemented, but mostly it’s been Living World stuff which I just can’t muster any interest in.
Giaddon
6232
What did you expect / want?
KevinC
6233
Additional mechanics, classes, expanded abilities, new ways of customizing your character, etc.
For instance, Warframe completely expanded their damage/combat model, implemented an entirely new melee system, added piles of new warframes, weapons which behave in unique ways, tilesets, mission types, etc, all in the past year. They’re adding space combat soon.
PoE has added lots of new content to the game like corrupted areas, vaal gems/items, revamped skill trees, and continuously adds new abilities and uniques which makes entirely new builds possible.
Both of those games are examples of how i like to see games grow, and GW2 in comparison just… hasn’t added anything that interests me.
I think the Living World stuff as of season 2 is starting to add some real content and such, but I still would like a proper expansion like Factions or Nightfall were for GW1.
draxen
6235
I agree 100%. I don’t understand GW2s direction at all. They are expending all this energy and resources on throw away content.
They should have never bothered with the living world crap and instead thrown all of their resources and talent into developing a full paid expansion.
Surely a more traditional development method is more sustainable/profitable and better for the games overall future?
KevinC
6236
Who knows, maybe they’re making buckets of money doing it? I honestly don’t know. The Living World updates may be good for their bottom line and may be great for 95% of the playerbase or something, but it sure leaves me cold. And since I’m a self-centered human being, that’s all I care about. :P
I don’t know. I mean, I can’t disagree with what you 2 are saying, but outside the aberrations of adding a new loot tier and a progression-oriented end game track, they have pretty much always been focused on the player’s interaction with the world rather than character-centered evolution. They have clearly made it a goal to try to make players feel like they have an impact (sometimes lasting) on the environment – which is not a common MMO objective. Whether they’ve succeeded or not is up for debate.
Telefrog
6238
Reminder! The September Feature Pack is out now.
PC Gamer says the reaction from hardcore players is not positive so far.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/09/10/guild-wars-2s-september-feature-pack-now-live-draws-criticism-from-community/
A mixed pack, then—one with some genuine improvements, but hampered by potentially off-putting systems.
DarrenO
6239
I updated this morning and ever since my launcher has been crashing on startup. I’m not the only one with this issue from looking at ANet’s support forums. Forewarned is forearmed.
Going to leave this here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-On3Ya0_4Y
Best satirical review of the NPE yet. I’ll point out two reasons why this is miffing and should miff non-new players:
- Like the trait system, this is a “new”* and totally unskippable tutorial. All alts must go through it.
- This does major changes to many things in low level zones. With level scaling, this low level content is content that vets do go near. Like, getting map completion on other race’s low areas, and at least two large champion events**. So the original promise of “all content is endgame” except not now, as 5 to 9 (of the 26 available) PvE zones had significant changes making many quests quite boring.
If it really were are redoing of some “Newbie Isle”, I don’t think it would be of much concern to anyone other than the usual game message board “I hate you all” posters.
*“new”, like traits, it is no new content, its removing features from existing characters and locking them behind grind gates. So there is no new content associated, only the system is “new”.
** to do the events you should get in zone early, esp. if with a group. So you have to toodle around amusing yourself somehow.
