So I preordered Guild Wars and this weekend is the last Beta Event (I think) before the release the last week of April. I’ve been playing it for a few hours and I’m pretty impressed. The graphics and the design are nothing short of spectacular, and the fighting system is very easy to pick up.
The only thing I don’t like about the whole situation is that any progress I make this weekend gets wiped out. :(
I’m actually not sure how much more I’m going to play this weekend because of that. I don’t really want to have to do some of the newbie stuff over again.
I started playing this evening. It seems pretty easy to pick up. I’m just soloing so far. I want to try out the different character classes. So far I’ve been playing with a Ranger, and it seems like playing a bow-azon could be pretty fun to play. I have a pet cat.
The models are very pretty, but I wish there were more customization options. I’m spoiled by CoH. Perhaps I just need armor and items.
I’m kinda curious how it turned out, but alas, no key. Anyone still sitting on their friends event key that won’t be needing it since the game ships in two weeks?
BTW, how do those of you with some PVP experience feel about the game? To a neophite like me, the PVP is just chaotic and it’s difficult to follow what’s going on. I mean, I can barely select a target. Jeez. But I like everything else about the game. The pre-order stays.
It’s definately very chaotic and at first it’s hard to tell what’s going on. If you play a decent amount of PvE and stick with the PvP pretty soon you’ll get comfortable with it.
I put in a pre-order for the Guild Wars CE at my local EB today, but they were out of preorder packages so I didn’t get a key for the event. I asked them about getting more before the release date, but they were giving me some BS-excuse about it being a limited item. I think this is the last time I’ll be getting anything from them.
Thanks for the help this evening, EFlannum. A paladin was a good character to start with. After a couple of battles, I started to get a feel of the PvP. It is beginning to make sense. I’d like to be able understand what effects are going off, keep track of who’s hexed and who isn’t, etc. Seems like it can be a lot of fun. Can you edit your skill lists in the beta PvE or do you have to create a new character?
My PvE paladin is named Panawiewien Holycae. (Can people find me with that name?)
Playing the PvE solo and then the random PvP arena battles was like playing two completely different games. PvE was like playing a big solo game of Diablo with MMO towns. PvP was team gladiatorial madness. I’ll have to read more about the game to find out the relation between PvE and PvP and where each of them leads. Is PvP just about a ladder or something? Does PvE have the typical MMORPG development arc of new areas, bigger monsters, new story arcs?
I have a conundrum! I’m playing but I don’t know how much I want to play because I’m going to lose my character. (Who’s name is Apollina Tarshish by the way.)
I really hate going over the same ground again in any kind of game, so I’m very hesitant to take my Mesmerizer/Monk very far. I know that this probably doesn’t make much sense…there seems to be enough newbie content that I could easily advance to level 3 or 5 or whatever in a completely different manner, but I guess I’m paranoid. I mean, I never create alternate characters in MMORPGs and I was extremely ambivalent about the multi job start over in the newb area thing in FFXI.
I’m definitely getting the full version in two weeks but I may or may not be on much this weekend depending on my paranoia level.
I have a conundrum! I’m playing but I don’t know how much I want to play because I’m going to lose my character. (Who’s name is Apollina Tarshish by the way.)
That is how I am approaching it. I usually try Betas just to see if I will like the game, but prefer to keep the thrill of a new game there for when it counts.
From what little I have seen I am totally blown away. I wonder if Guild Wars may make a dent in WoW’s subscribers numbers. I know they are not exactly the same kind of game, but there is a striking similarity, right down to the exclamation points. WoW brought in lot’s of curious and casual gamers to the genre. All the fun, and without the fee.
This game is fun, but I have two complaints so far:
Lots of invisible wall type limiters throughout the levels. I’m sure there are many reasons for this, but I really miss being able to travel anywhere I wanted as WoW allows, limited only by the steepest of cliffs. In Guild Wars, you can’t even walk off cliffs. If there’s a drop off (and there are many) count on hitting an invisible wall at the edge. And it appears that there are no buildings that can be entered! The evnironment is a bit of a tease: graphically, it’s expansive, but, as far as movement is concerend, it’s very confined.
Only full teams can play each other in PVP, as far as I can tell. No 1v1, 2v2, or 1v3 like in Phantom Dust. This is kinda irritating. Not everyone wants to play in teams.
I have many minor complaints about the interface as well. Window positions aren’t remembered when windows are closed. The buy/sell window was done much better in WoW. Other stuff I can’t remember…
When you create a PvP character just be sure to check the “Unlock all skills for the BWE” check box at the top of the skills list and it will give you every skill for your two classes. You should then be able to experiment with different skills.
People should be able to find you using that name. Friends lists are account based so even if you are playing as a different character they will be able to see you.
There are three different types of PvP in the game:
Arena - Team vs. Team with both randomly assigned teams and picked teams and a variety of objectives. No real signifigance to this type of PvP right now, pretty much just for fun and/or to try out new character builds.
The Tombs - This is a PvP tournament that constantly runs and features teams of 8. Multiple stages to this with different variations on capture the flag, king of the hill, and straight melee some missions feature up to 6 teams fighting it out. The team that wins this will recieve a sigil that is used to buy a Guild Hall as well as unlocks the “veteran” PvE missions for their “world”. As you win you will gain fame (right now high levels of fame will make you look different more is planned for the future though)
Guild vs. Guild - Once you have a Guild Hall you can challenge other guilds to battles or try to be matched up with a random guild based on your guild ranking. A worldwide ladder is kept for these battles. There are 8 different Guild Halls to choose from each with different advantages/disadvantages in a challnge match the defender is always in their Guild Hall while in random matches the team with the lower rating is the home team.
Do you mean that when someone wins the tournament, the veteran missions are unlocked for everyone in a worldwide game changing event, or that you have to have been on a winning team to get to those missions? If its the former, then it seems like it’s meaningless for at least 2/3 of the players. There’s only to be a small group of unemployed teenagers that has a serious chance at actually winning a large scale tournament. For everyone else, it’s just the delayed release of some content. One day people will go “Oh, they added some new areas. Cool.”, and that will be that.
Also in that vein, isn’t it overwhelmingly likely that the winning team will be people who just made PvP characters, and so won’t even see the new PvE content they unlocked?
Even the bees? I spent an hour and a half during the last BWE looking for those goddamn bees. The ones that you have to lure across a bridge using the Ark of the Covenant. Never did find them.
