I'm only one point short of 30, but I'd have to grind up that last set of armor, which doesn't sound like my idea of fun.Originally Posted by dan.
It's strange. I always was bad with money in this game. That is to say, bad with grinding. When everyone around me was farming ettins for gold drops and starting to trade with ectoplasm, I was grateful for every plat I had in the bank, wondering how anyone could even afford prestige armor.
Maybe I should sell off all of those duplicate minipets...
Actually, I thought about doing this a while back when the first parts of the transition quest lines were introduced but at some point felt it was too much of a hassle to get enough tokens for all the new weapons. Similar to Malawi, I stopped after reaching 30 points worth of HoM ... stuff, beyond that there are only titles to be had and I never fancied those that much.
Having said that, I find it amazing that there is new content made for a game of GW's age whithout the neccessity of a subscription. Of course, it's in ArenaNet's interest to maintain their fanbase and provide something to be occupied with until their new product arrives, but still.
Edit: Malawi, if you lack a bit of money for an armor set, I can help you out (as long as it isn't the Fissure Armor...).
Last edited by squirrelfanatic; 23-02-2012 at 05:36 AM.
So beta applications are open, game seems to be increasing its pace.
On the HoM, I got to 25 with a few easy but grindy possibilities ahead. Just not sure I can be bothered to do that all alone anymore, most of my friends stopped playing quite a while ago.
I am way behind no the HoM, I'm at 6-8 if I remember right. I'm rubbish!
There are some good guides around the net for quickly accruing HoM rewards, I should really get cracking.
Thanks for the offer, but getting that one set of armor wasn't as hard as I thought. I sold two of my unded uncommon minis for enough to easily afford the very cheap ancient armor.
Here's my hall. Interesting how different our points are spread out in comparison, especially for honor.
Ok, nevermind then. :) Concerning the HoM: Yeah, there is more than one way to get there. Nice PvP statue, Gladiator surely took some time to achieve. Random Arenas were always fun though. The reason for going after all the PvE titles was mainly that my girlfriend fancied the Rainbow Phoenix pet. Since you need 10 titles for getting access to that and since I like my girlfriend quite a bit the objective was clear... A bit nerdy, I know.
I also realised that I am only a few points away from the next tier, so... well I said that I don't really need the titles... but "Ghostly Hero", man that sounds tight! ;) Maybe I'll log in again, even if it is just for a quick glance at how things have developed.
I used to consider myself a Random Arena pubstar (I had not one but two 71 win streaks as monk), and for almost a year I only played one particular underplayed-but-overpowered throwing dagger spamming Assassin build until it got nerfed into the ground. The title is not a great achievement though, I'm only rank 4 (and only due to bonus points after they changed the formula twice).
When I last played RA a couple of months ago I was berated for picking a shortbow over a recurve bow and I was supposed to know what the term "linebacking" meant. It's a completely different game now.
Edit: I just found out the value of my Everlasting Vekk Tonic. Oh.
Last edited by Malawi Frontier Guard; 23-02-2012 at 12:47 PM.
The rather analytical Kill 10 Rats blog got to play the beta, too, and did this extensive writeup on just how making everything communal and co-operative changes the nature of play. It's a good read.
http://www.killtenrats.com/2012/02/2...rience-part-1/
In summary: You play other MMOs for the promise of eventual fun and/or numerical rewards. GW2, you play because it's fun. The rewards are just icing on the cake. It doesn't lead you with a carrot on a stick - it just gives you the damn carrot.
Yeah, I remember that RA together with Alliance Battles were - in many people's eyes - the lowest forms of PvP. I think that's not quite true but choosing Monk as your class certainly helped with getting into the winning streaks, as your team really suffered if there was no competent healer in your party. Therefore, I welcome the removal of one dedicated healing class in GW2. Also, I think the constant changes in PvP balance were one of the things that made GW a PvP success. The screams of rage after the dev updates however will never cease to echo through the Mists.
My monk streaks often ended when a few peeps left and I got stuck in a 3 monk team...
and nothing happened till some people went afk.
Alright, here's some impressive scale to wrap your heads around:
Here is a guesstimated (and almost certainly wildly inaccurate, but we'll just use it as a point of reference) map of the zones in GW2:
See that zone labelled 1-15 under the round city in the top-left corner?
That is Queensdale. This is one of the five newbie zones.
(Edit 3: Correction - that is the top half of Queensdale. Here's a developer heat-map showing the lower half)
See the dam to the right of the city walls? I highlighted it with a couple of red pixels in the world map. Here's what it looks like in-game, at a distance:
And close-up:
Queensdale also contains 17 'hearts' to fill, each representing a cluster of related events with a big reward at the end. The dam seems to be just one of them.
In total, the game contains 657 hearts at present. And that's not counting personal quest stuff (which happens in either instanced copies of map areas, or off-map unique areas) and WvW, which has it's own (recruitable) NPC factions and sidequests that don't involve bludgeoning other players.
The previews so far imply quality. I don't think we have to worry about quantity, either.
Edit: Here's some gameplay footage of the Yogsgast guys doing some events in and around the dam.
Last edited by Dominic Tarason; 26-02-2012 at 04:55 PM.
Dom those screenshots make the game look so pretty. Thanks for linking the YGCS video too - I've been watching a lot of their content but didn't manage to catch the Human content.
As part of the GW2's inclusive 'why not?' design, you can apparently be in multiple guilds at any given time.
The potential for gimmick guilds is unparalleled. On launch day, I promise I will start Bears Repeating [BEAR]. A guild exclusively composed of Norn rangers with bear pets, and with the bear-form elite skill. Double the bear, ten times the dragon-terrorizing. If you've ever played Skyrim, you'll understand.
If Bears Repeating is taken, then we can be Bjorn Again instead.
Yeah I absolutely love what they're doing with guilds, it's something I've wanted for a long time in MMOs. When GW2 comes out I won't have to choose between joining a mini-guild with my long-time pals and the inevitably awesome RPS guild. So glad.
Fantastic map overview Dominic, I'd not seen that before.
That is a stroke of genius. Lost so many MMO friends who "need" to leave my social guild in order to join a raiding guild.
After a tiny little video/information binge, I think I'm going to be giving this a shot when it comes out. Looks veeeeery promising. Already planning my first character...
Give me steam and how you feel to make it real.
Here's a fun little bit of gameplay footage. A level 30 human Guardian decides to travel to the Charr newbie zone, probably expecting an easy ride. Between a combination of enemy encounters being remarkably large and his stats having been scaled down, he gets a pretty substantial beating.
Also, a really good scholarly two-part dissection of how PvE in GW2 differs from everything else.
Part 1
Part 2
Totalbiscuit should start releasing his beta footage stuff in the next day or two - he has a ridiculous amount of it to edit down. 40+ hours, at least.
Last edited by Dominic Tarason; 27-02-2012 at 05:42 PM.
I am delighted to hear that the warrior is able to set fire to enemies with the longbow, allowing him to combo with hamstring to trap foes in the blaze.
I assume this is supposed to be a reference to Hamstorm? ;)
After having watched some more footage I am a bit torn to be honest. On the one hand, the game looks amazing, the landscape is nice, the classes look (mostly) great. On the other hand there are still some stuff that I found confusing/irritating:
- (Mostly) No instancing, no heroes - At first I thought this wouldn't bother me, but being someone who has played through a lot of GW1 content just with my heroes I find it quite irritating to see people mess around with MY world.
- Cooldowns as the exclusive skill timing mechanism - Removal of energy and energy management seems like a huge change and cuts out a whole aspect of the game. I won't use the word "dumbed down" here (because I guess it isn't), but it surely simplifies a lot of the skill usage.
- Fixed combination of skills (through weapons) - There is still a lot of customiation going on with the skill bar, but all this really does is making sure that you are less likely to put together horrible skill combinations at the expense of increased predictability of your skill selection. I remember having loads of fun with running builds in PvE that included next to no attack skills or having success with gimmick builds in Alliance Battle. It seems most of these will be gone, as you only got five support slots left.
- The landscapes are pretty yet somehow seem quite lifeless (maybe that's just me though).
- Frantic flailing seems to be the order of the day, animations and effects everywhere - Less likely to be a problem in PvE, but this will definitely be an issue in PvP where it is (or was) really important to recognize spell and skill animations in order to react to them. On a related note: Has anybody seen interrupt skills on a mesmer bar?
Still, this looks really solid. But more of the same game (GW1) it ain't. Hopefully, this will deliver some of the incredible and atmospheric experience that I had with the predecessor.
Edit: I also really hope that the character and armor designs will undergo some improvements until release. Some of this stuff looks horrific.
Last edited by squirrelfanatic; 04-03-2012 at 02:56 PM.
Not all professions play the same. The thief has an energy bar similar to the WoW rogue to fit their bursty style, the fighter has a rage bar for one burst skill per weapon for the same reason, the guardian has to choose between all-the-time-useful passives and party buffs or right-now! utility etc. On top of all that there's added complexity through dodging, blocking projectiles/enemies with barriers/your own self for every profession.Another thing, the mesmer now plays completely different. Interrupting was way to subtle and lag-prone for the kind of action flashy style of GW2. Now they are misdirection masters through clones and debuffs and probably the hardest ones to play well.edit: I don't know why I can't format the text at all.
Last edited by alset85; 04-03-2012 at 08:05 PM.
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