Guild Wars 2 free to try weekend

[BobbyFizz]

Worth a try if you haven't yet, plenty of RPS'ers play so we should be able to organize an invite thread if anyone wants to give the game a go.

Quote from everyones favourite site, facebook:

Refer a Friend Free Trial is Coming

We want you to experience Guild Wars 2 and Lost Shores with your friends, so on Monday November 12, we will turn on Refer a Friend Free Trial. You will be able to invite up to 3 Friends to play Guild Wars 2 with you for free from November 15-18.

To do so, you need a Guild Wars 2 account in good standing that was created before 23:59 PST (7:59 GMT) on November 6.

We will give you more details once the program goes live, but start thinking about who you want to invite!

Edit: link to game client http://cloudfront.guildwars2.com/client/Gw2.exe

[squirrelfanatic]

Good idea, none of my invites (I guess my account is "in good standing") has been given away yet.

No idea how this is going to work, but if anyone's* interested, send me a PM. *Anyone with at least a few forum posts and an account created before today.

Edit: One left.

[Mohorovicic]

*Anyone with at least a few forum posts and an account created before today.

That's racist.

As usual, let me guess - you can't actually activate the invite and get the client beforehand, right?

Nothing like three days of free trial two of which you spend on downloading the game.

[meloncrab]

I think the client downloads before logging in.

[Bobtree]

That's racist.

As usual, let me guess - you can't actually activate the invite and get the client beforehand, right?

Nothing like three days of free trial two of which you spend on downloading the game.

Uh, racist? No. Forum-ist, maybe. More likely it's about avoiding loading up the three days of free trial with botting gold farmers that want to run the extra accounts because they keep getting banned. Restricting our invites to existing RPS forum members seems perfectly reasonable.

[BobbyFizz]

you can't actually activate the invite and get the client beforehand, right?

This client link should work: http://cloudfront.guildwars2.com/client/Gw2.exe

Make sure you put that in it's own folder like C:\guild wars 2

That's 20mb or so, then run it for it to patch the game, which comes in about 16gb ish. You can exit the patcher at any time, it will resume the download.

[Flint]

Oh, sure, pick just the weekend I happen to be away from my computer. FINE. Well, uh... I didn't want to try it anyway!?

(I did want to try it anyway)

[Shooop]

This game is now making me sad. I've transferred to three different servers now, each of them high population, and I'm lucky I don't trip over a tumbleweed when I log in.

[trjp]

MONSTER download warning - the client is almost 16Gb (and that's ONE file once it's installed and updated which drives some AV software into apoplexy).

Awesome game IMO but utterly and totally overwhelming when you first start - it really needed to tease people in a bit better rather than just showering them in stuff - at least that's my 10p

[Finicky]

Oh, sure, pick just the weekend I happen to be away from my computer. FINE. Well, uh... I didn't want to try it anyway!?

(I did want to try it anyway)

You aren't missing out on anything:p
It's a slightly more streamlined, poorly (framerate) performing generic theme park mmo that takes a step back (didn't know it was even possible, but they managed) in gameplay, complemented by a cringe worthy fan fiction quality storyline.

I wish I could find some sucker to buy my account from me so I could recoup some of my money.

[DevinSmoth]

This game is now making me sad. I've transferred to three different servers now, each of them high population, and I'm lucky I don't trip over a tumbleweed when I log in.

Hit 80... go to Arah... profit?

[Sparkasaurusmex]

Is this like a lot of MMOs where you don't really even get to sample the game in just a weekend?

[DevinSmoth]

The game will allow you to go to level 80 content and get scaled upwards... so I think it will be a bit different than most MMO trial periods, honestly. ;P

[Lightbulb]

Is this like a lot of MMOs where you don't really even get to sample the game in just a weekend?

You can get a good feel of it in a weekend I would say.

[Cooper]

I'd love a chance to try it out. Been saving off stumping up the £35 as MMOs aren't something I really go for, but GW2 has consistently looked interesting anyway.

If anyone's still got any invites they could send, please let me know.

Cheers.

[Bobtree]

benexclaimed & Cooper: send me PMs with your email and I'll invite you.

Spark: aside from the mandatory intro mission, you can dive right in to whatever part of the game you like, PvE, personal story, PvP matches, WvW. Your level really only restricts what areas you can survive in, but there are also five different 1-15 PvE zones (one per race) you can go to straight away. There's a free shortcut too: enter the PvP lobby (you'll have to do or run past the tutorial bit your first time), take the Asura Gate to Lion's Arch, and that hub city has gates to the other 5. WvW will scale you to level 80, but does not give extra trait points or skills or slots, and you will still level normally while playing it. PvP is properly fair, where you have a separate level 80 version of your character that's completely independent of the rest of the game, as it lets you use all the trait points, skills, maxed equipment, etc, with no unlocking needed, and separate inventory and storage for PvP gear.

I do think the first few hours on a new character are the slowest, as you have to unlock weapon abilities (through use), weapon swapping (lv 7, but not for Engineer or Elementalist) and skill slots (at 5, 10, 20), and buy the book to unlock your Traits (costs 10 silver, useable at lv 11). Get some gathering tools asap, a salvage kit, and buy 8 slot bags on the trading post (around 35c each), and you're good to go. Buy fresh armor and weapons if you're dying (it's better to replace damaged gear than repair it, so don't pay for repairs early), or starting around level 10, and anytime you have gear that's 10 levels lower. Around level 10 or 15 is where you'll start to get a solid feel for your character class, and at 20 you have all 3 utility skill slots, and the ultimate at 30.

Make some keybindings that work for you (mine are here). Know that crafting is a big time and money sink, and not well explained, so don't waste limited trial time on it. Set some good options (no double-tap evade, autoloot, show skill recharge, autotarget, promote skill target, stop autoattack on target change). For performance, full reflections is a killer (sky & terrain is fine), medium shadows and shaders are a bit less expensive than full, and I prefer low postprocessing just because it's slightly brighter overall. GW2 performance is also very CPU-bound, and some WvW scenarios and cities and crowded events may crawl a bit.

Story quests are a bit slow (cutscenes, and travel to/from your starting city), and sometimes unbalanced, but give ridiculous XP (and useful items/equipment). You really can't go wrong running around some of the 1-15 zones, doing heart quests (when complete these NPCs turn into Karma vendors) and dynamic events, gathering, and so on. GW2 gives rewards for pretty much everything you want to do. If it doesn't click by level 15 or 25, maybe try a different class, or else it just may not be your game. After level 20 or so, it really picks up and gets more fun. The meaty midgame of 20-60ish will fly right by if you stick with it, and that seems to be the range of highest player satisfaction.

Edit: For starting classes, I haven't played these 3, but Warrior is considered the easiest (high armor + HP), Elementalist has the most complaints (low HP, no weapon swaps, switching attunements is relatively a lot of work), and I know a couple Rangers who were unsatisfied heading into the midgame. I've played all the others, with a Thief at 80 (fairly survivable, great mobility, good solo capabilities with stealth, very fast), and the rest around 15-20. Mesmer is a bit tricky and demands good timing with the illusion/clone skills, Guardian is great fun (love the greatsword moveset) with lots of healing and support abilities and zoning, Necro can tank by turning invincible for a bit, can summon lots of pets, and is range/condition heavy, and Engineer has only one weapon set (no swapping), no melee (just guns/shield), but every skill gets additional secondary abilities, there are skill kits that can swap your weapons for other things (flamethrower, grenade launcher, etc), and has an interesting management game and some fun skills.

Race is much less important, giving only some extra slot skills (that are not useable in PvP), but Char may have the most interesting racial skills, and also some complaints about the jumping puzzles due to their walk/run animations, a better than average story, and a slightly bland starting area. The Norn areas, after the starting greenery, are all snow and ice for a long time. The others are more green and varied. Humans are the most common, but a bit subpar in storyline, and Asura and Sylvari are interesting starts and more beautiful areas.

[squirrelfanatic]

Good summary Bobtree, I think that description nicely fits with my experiences with different classes and races. Warriors are quite versatily in this game too, giving you decent mobility skills as well as ranged options with the rifle and the longbow. My first character was a Norn Warrior(ess?) and I still love to play her (and in the game).

If anyone has any questions, we've got quite a big guild running with lots of friendly people willing to help out, answer questions, and so forth. So no worries if it all seems overwhelming at first. We'll also be hosting some introductory WvWvW events over the weekend, so people can have a look at this play mode too without having to worry that they don't know what to do.

I've still got 2 keys left to give away. As mentioned above, I'd rather give them to people that are part of the RPS forum already, but if noone wants them until, say, tomorrow evening, I'd happily offer them to anyone interested.

Edit: One key left.

[jimitris]

I'd also love to try it if anyone still has a key available.

A few friends play but after getting burned with TOR I'd like to give this one a try first.

Thanks!

[squirrelfanatic]

jimitris, send me a PM with your email address and I'll give you one of my keys.

[BobbyFizz]

3 invites here, pm me if you want one.