Faowri.4159

I use griffon and springer the most because I find they offer the most utility, but in terms of actual preference . . . I love most of them! Ahh, the designs and the movement and the sound effects are so well crafted. I think my favourite is the thumpthump of the springer. But I'm a huge fan of rodent/lagomorph-type critters so springer was an insta-win for me. I admit I'm less fond of the rollerbeetle. I find it a bit unwieldy and I'm still sad that they don't have the wonderful HBLBLBLBLB sound effects from GW1 (GW1'ers, y'all know what I mean). Otherwise I would have been sold!

Still really love the look and feel of GW2. I love my characters, I enjoy the story, and the gameplay is fun. I've been playing since GW1 so have a lot of fondness and long-term interest in the game. Like others in this thread, I can't be anything more than a casual player these days based on time commitments alone, but I always come back for each expansion or story update, and sometimes I spend a little in the gem store for the obligatory fashion wars. While people on the forums bemoan the grind, the ultimate truth is that very little grind is required to play the fundamentals of the game. I wouldn't pretend I was raid-worthy, but on my main, I've stuck with exotics and changed my build very little since I found one that I liked pre-Heart of Thorns and it still works for all general PvE content. It's that 'pick up and play' level of design that makes GW2 successful, IMO. It's low maintenance and fills a gap in the market that most other MMOs don't touch.

Combination of adult free time and health prevents me from playing more than I'd like to. I try and get back on to bash out each living story ep and then sometimes I start some of the collections and 'extra' bits of the episode, but run out of time before the next one lands. Trying to complete the skyscale collections now D'X GW3 might be out before I finish. Kinda surprised to see so much vitriol for the story though. I feel like it's dramatically improved from Path of Fire onwards. I've loved having my character be a more central and focused part of the story, with personal stakes, instead of just getting dragged along anonymously by events. I've enjoyed having a much more vivid supporting cast to love or hate, and the cutscenes and general cinematic polish have come such a long way since original release. The only thing I routinely handwave is the often fluffy-sounding lore, which . . . eeeeh, I've always found forgivable if the characters and general thrust of a story are interesting enough. Maybe it's pure personal taste - I acknowledge that we've moved away from the drier, less personal writing of GW1, but I prefer it whereas perhaps other people don't? I never, ever for a second thought that story was GW1's strong point. But that's just me! :)

This was an unexpected opinion to hear. I really like the human female VA. I think she nails the long-suffering, exasperated but determined Commander. I'd be pretty miffed if she was swapped out. I really hate VA changes with all my being though. Rox was bad enough.

The GW1 OST will always have a special place in my heart - even hearing some of my favourites, like First Light, chokes me up. JS's work is always very good for ambient environmental immersion. But aside from a few of his tracks for GW2, I never really felt like his work on this game specifically stood out. The most emotive pieces are the GW1 tracks that play in Ascalon maps, imo. There are a couple, like the charr themes, that stick out in my mind, but that's it. The rest all kinda blur into one big "nice" ambience after a while. I feel like the in-house team have brought a lot more distinctive, lively character to the soundtrack ever since. There are some real standouts, and the expansion OSTs are fantastic. I've said before, I wish they'd properly release the LW season soundtracks the same way. I'd happily buy. Soundcloud is a little restrictive, even if I can appreciate getting stuff for free. One I haven't seen linked here is the Marionette battle music from S1, another of my faves: (I really miss that fight, too! :'( )