Temp upped my revenant to 80 to see what it was like. Reminded me of when my kid gave me a max level WOW character, I had no idea what to do. So I went on the reddit for GW2 looking for tips… It was like they were speaking a foreign language. I couldn’t understand why my level 3 ranger didn’t have a pet management panel. Turns out you get that when you hit level 5. So off to the wiki for me.
Well, if you see me online in-game, I’ll be happy to help with your questions if you want.
You can also ask them here and I’ll do my best to answer.
I’m guessing you played a ranger. :) Might I suggest an elementalist, necromancer, or especially mesmer?
But, yeah, it sounds like MMOs aren’t your thing, which I can certainly understand. But a lot of the stuff you describe is a function of the genre at large. If you think they’re problems in Guild Wars 2, hoo boy, wait until you try some other MMO!
-Tom
I played an Engineer which sounded interesting but ultimately became dropping turrets every battle and then firing off guns. I probably was playing sub-optimally.
I don’t mean to be such a Debbie Downer but I think I was sooooo disappointed with GW2 because I wanted to love it and part of me already misses the aesthetics. I have never played any other MMO but I’m sure GW2 was one of the best since I could sort of tolerate it.
The only other one I might try is Elder Scrolls but I might be in for disappointment there too.
I guess it was a lesson learned about my tastes.
The quest design is actually well behind the curve in GW2. Unlike most other things about the game, it’s pretty retrograde and dull. But then, I suppose what do you expect when one of their original selling points was that they claimed not to have quests at all? (They totally did, of course.)
So I got this a while back, got a ranger to level 12, then got bored. With all the brou-haha over HoT being half off, I created a new character, and asura elementalist, which is a bit more fun…but I gotta be honest, the more I play, the more I keep thinking “I could be playing ESO right now.” Is there something I’m missing or some class I could try to help make it click?
It is strange. I’ve always been a big MMO player. MUDs since '93, WoW forever, and at least dabbled in nearly anything else in-between. I suddenly can’t get into them, even after a significant break from MMOs in general. Have LOTRO and GW2 installed and have logged in each night and can’t get in the mindset to play either for more than just a little while.
I too wonder if maybe I need something else like ESO, but I’m wondering if I’d end up doing the same there. Maybe I just need to admit to myself that the time of MMOs has passed for me. It makes me sad somehow, and I don’t know why.
Woah, you sound like me. I feel the same way (except I haven’t even logged in nightly … just once or twice).
I look back at how involved I was playing MMOs, and while part of me thinks it’d be fun to go back there, part of me says it doesn’t seem as interesting as it once did. Maybe it’s partly the old “you can’t go home again” syndrome. Maybe I’ve changed? Dunno. But things are definitely not the same for me with respect to MMOs.
Yeah, turret builds can be somewhat boring. Try using rifle with kits (flamethrower/elixir gun). Lots of CC, mobility, etc. It’s a much more involved build, which is the kind of build I prefer.
Badly phrased. Only logged in nightly this week (since reinstalling both). I’m not quite that bad!
Just started an engineer Asura. Big change from the other classes/professions that I’ve tried.
Popped on, stared bemusedly at the fairly major levelling/build changes (why does every MMO want to simplify their equivalent of talent specs repeatedly? It’s usually not an improvement) for a while. Eventually went and poked at some dailies and such. Then I realized one of the daily achievements needed me to get to an expansion zone, so even though I’ve only finished like two chapters of season 2 (and not quite finished the original story, either, though I did a couple of those today) I went ahead and gave the opening of the expansion story a shot. To my surprise, it was not completely unreasonable to solo, even though I’m rusty and not in full exotics by any stretch of the imagination, and my main’s a fairly squishy elementalist. Pretty good NPC support for the most part, and while the fights are fairly dramatic, I didn’t get knocked down super often (though I had real trouble with Mordrem Guard Snipers. Fuckers.). I got basically far enough to unlock masteries (and get my glider) and then participated in the night meta-event in that opening zone, fighting the momma wyvern as a culmination and getting a whole pile of loot that I don’t really have any useful purpose for right this second. The day ticked over in the process and the new dailies weren’t in expansion zones, so I didn’t push any further in. I wouldn’t have gotten where I needed anyway, i don’t think. It was like the third or fourth zone.
Real easy to get sucked into an endless to do list in this one, lemme tell ya.
What level were you when you did all this? Not a fresh toon?
No, level 80. But not all that geared. A few exotics from a karma vendor in Orr and one or two other spots but mostly I’m in greens or yellows and not all of my secondary stuff is level 80, even. My rings are probably furthest behind.
Ok, so as someone out of the game for a loooooong time, what is a stake about leveling or logging in or whatever now? Speak slowly and pretend I’m an idiot… it has been forever.
But of what little I do remember, if I were to try MMOs again I think it would be GW2.
I tried. I’ll try again, too.
But man. HoT is a spectacular bellyflop of an awful expansion and it kinda crashes the game experience for me.
I can’t tell if your question was autocorrected oddly or if I’m just not understanding what you’re asking. But if you rephrase the question, I will definitely try to answer it!
For what it’s worth, Guild Wars 2 is by far the easiest MMO to pick up again after a long absence. Even if you don’t want to start a new character. Just slot a few of your skills and faff about. No need to relearn everything about your character.
-Tom
Why do you say that?
I jumped back in and also bought HoT while it was at the deep discount last week so I could get the season content. But, I am an idiot as my highest character is level 14. And it’s the one I have been playing now…
For some reason I just don’t really grok the combat mechanics - I am never really quite sure what is going on, what my skills do and how they interact. This is a primarily a solo PvE experience. So I log back in once in a while, tool around for a bit exploring, but never really gelling with combat for some reason.
My biggest problem with it remains the way it gates content by requiring large and somewhat coordinated public groups. In that regard, it is eerily similar to the DAOC expansion Trials of Atlantis, an expansion usually credited with helping to kill that MMO. When I wander around HoT, it’s basically “Nope, I can’t go there or do that right now, I’ll have to log in later and see if others are going…” and then you can either try that or spam chat and hope.
I will say that it is a bit better this week thanks to the HoT sale bringing in new players. But I worry that in coming weeks that may once again be a critical issue all over again.
So, for one thing - it’s been my experience that GW2 is really not optimal as a solo experience. You can do it, don’t get me wrong, and the mechanics are designed in a way that does promote ambient cooperation with anyone else that happens to be in the area…but if nobody else happens to be in the area, events are mostly inaccessible. Events are the lifeblood of GW2, and if you can’t do them you’re a) missing the genuinely original and interesting bits, and b) in a lot of places you may well be locked out in some way. I think Triggercut is right that Heart of Thorns content has some particular issues with that but honestly, there’s a lot of stuff in the game that can be closed off by events failing because no one was there to fend the monsters off.
As far as combat tips go…we’d probably need to know which class(es) you’re trying to play. They all work fairly differently in at least some respects.