GW2: Highs, lows and comparisons

[Astralporing.1957]

1 hour ago, Dawdler.8521 said:

Theres no point in even trying anymore.

People constantly claim to farm 20-50g per hour in PvE but when one point out thats like a couple of casual days to get an account upgrade its always NoWaYTo0ExPeNSiVe!!!!! 

Almost as if those were different people.

(not to mention 20-50g per hour is so far away from "casual day" play it might be in a different galaxy)

Edited September 15, 2021 by Astralporing.1957

[Fenris Silverfang.7906]

Revenant set is done, renegade maxed.. got my thief and mesmer on 80 and gucci.

Been debating what to tackle next and looked up some builds for inspiration but I am terrible at making decisions haha.

Power dragonhunter for burst fun, Soulbeast perhaps?... I am also perplexed how so little people seemingly play engineer. Holosmith and scrapper both seem like decent elite specs on top of a super versatile base kit.

[Valfar.3761]

+ You can apply multiple different dyes to armor. You can dye the main part, the metal, the rims, etc. The dye charges are stupid and milk you dry but that's besides the point. You can get a lot more customization here than in FFXIV (where you can only apply one dye to each armor and it usually doesn't dye the whole armor), let alone WoW (where there might only be 2 or 3 recolors max of a single piece of gear, though WoW has library of gear that is orders of magnitude larger than either FFXIV's or GW2's so it's easier to find a combination for almost any tint of gear).

+ Your character will engage in a voiced conversation with NPCs without the game taking away control from the player and going into a scripted cutscene, allowing you to move around and do things while the scene plays out. Now, the quality of the dialogue and the voice acting is a different topic, but I just really like how fluid this is. The party can be having a chat while I am investigating some ruins. WoW does this too but your character doesn't participate in the conversation, and FFXIV has no voice acting outside of a handful of cutscenes and doesn't do live, out of cutscene dialogues like WoW or GW2.

+ Jumping puzzles spruce up gameplay. They are actually fun to do in GW2 (whereas in FFXIV and WoW, the engine and moving your character is extremely stiff and finnicky).

+ Animation wise, GW2 legendaries tend to be more memorable than their counterparts. They're not just weapons with a glow. When you draw the shortbow, Chuka and Champawat, the two tiger spirits will roar and jump into the bow, making it glow and enlarge slightly. Rather than shooting arrows, the shortbow shoots out tiger spirits that run towards the target. The wielder also leaves behind claw marks as their "footprints".  The greatsword, Exordium, changes shape depending on what ability you are using, ie morphing into a hammer for a melee AoE or widening into a shield when blocking. The greatswords Twilight and Sunrise have a beautiful, painterly animation, looking as if you are wielding a living painting as a sword. You can see another world inside the sword. If you look into the blade of Twilight, you see starry galaxies. If you look into the blade of Sunrise, you see a blue and golden sky with fluffy clouds. Swinging either sword leaves trails of paint. That said, the grindary system sucks kitten, but that's a different discussion.

+ GW2's implementation of momentum based flying is very fun.

+ Is the only other MMO besides WoW to have an actual playable beast race. Not a human with an animal mask on their head like in every other race; no. An actual, legit beast race, with different anatomy and posture from a human. Long necks and manes of hair and monstrous, inhuman faces. Charr even go the extra mile and run on all fours.

 

That's about the most praise I have for GW2. As for it's failings... well, that's quite the laundry list. We would be here forever if I got into that so I'll just say:

- 1. graphically the game has not aged well like WoW and is pretty poorly optimized

- 2. the lack of meaningful content, padded out by grinds

- 3. the story setpieces like being chased by a spider lady through a jungle are pretty good but the writing is abysmal

- 4. combat feels pretty meh. I can't even see my character attacking or being awesome because there are so many effects obscuring him, and other problems.

- 5. the cash shop that milks you dry.

- 6. the game neither feels like a good MMO (WoW) nor like a good singleplayer JRPG with a multiplayer component (FFXIV). The map instancing and constantly migrating to the next instance really makes the game feel less like a world or more like a lobby game, and you have no reason to interact with other players. And as a singleplayer game you play for the story, there is just too much that sucks.

[costepj.5120]

1 hour ago, Valfar.3761 said:

- 5. the cash shop that milks you dry.

 

I have to take particular issue with that one. I have played GW2 for nearly nine years and have never felt the need to spend a single penny in the cash shop.

[Fenris Silverfang.7906]

Only thing making me want to use the cash shop is catching up on the earlier living world seasons I've missed.

So while its a fair bit of money, considering there's no monthly sub im debating buying the end of dragons edition with the gems to buy those in one go, minus the currently re-running one to save some gems.

Are the zones and story bits pretty decent or whats the general opinion on those?

[costepj.5120]

What are you missing?

They are currently in the midst of giving away LS4, with LS5 to follow.

LS2 introduced 2 new maps, but you can access them anyway (Dry Top & Silverwastes).

LS3 had 6 episodes / 6 maps just like LS4. Some of those maps provide easy access to ascended trinkets. Bloodstone Fen and Bitterfrost Frontier remain very popular and are always well populated when I visit.

LS1 was played out on core maps, following a true living world philosophy, but that meant if you weren't there you missed it; the only way to play LS1 content now is in fragments of Fractals or other instances

[Fenris Silverfang.7906]

Just about all of it honestly. I played LS1 back then after which I took a long break just until recently. LS2 is only story and I played the finale of it cause i think its free, not sure if the rest is exciting.

But having new areas to explore in Ls3 , 4 and 5 seems neat so if the story to accompany those is good I'd love to try em.

Also the fact 5 seems to have its own masteries and 3 and 4 both tie into HoT and PoF mastery gain seems decent.

[costepj.5120]

LS2 story is charged for the same as other LS  episodes, but if you previously played it then you unlocked it for free at the time.

Anet have been giving free unlocks to all the story episodes through this year, so depending on when you returned to the game you should have a bunch of those in your mailbox. That will continue over the next few months until they get to the end of LS5 (IBS).

[Fenris Silverfang.7906]

Ah they're re-running LS5 as well after 4 is done?

I'd only have to get the first 2 chapters of 4 I missed and the bundle for ls3 then in that case which isnt so bad if thats the case.

Unless people recommend getting ls2 as well if it has anything cool or exclusive you get from there or the story leading up to HoT is super good.

[costepj.5120]

The main reasons to get LS2 story:
It bridges the story gap between LS1 and HoT if you are any sort of completionist.

It provides some easy APs (achievement points) and core MPs (mastery points).

Access to the carapace and luminescent armour sets (I believe each of the required collections is dependent on completing a different story step)

[Fenris Silverfang.7906]

Thanks again for the clarification. Something to nab later perhaps then for me as I am very interested in all the new zones they added in the later seasons and would like more content to that helps work towards the expansion mastery tracks instead.

Really grateful to get some help and feedback on this, makes deciding a bunch easier.

[kharmin.7683]

41 minutes ago, Fenris Silverfang.7906 said:

Thanks again for the clarification. Something to nab later perhaps then for me as I am very interested in all the new zones they added in the later seasons and would like more content to that helps work towards the expansion mastery tracks instead.

Really grateful to get some help and feedback on this, makes deciding a bunch easier.

Despite what some might feel, we do have a pretty good community willing to help.  😉

[Fenris Silverfang.7906]

39 minutes ago, kharmin.7683 said:

Despite what some might feel, we do have a pretty good community willing to help.  😉

Can only agree. First day of coming back and making my revenant I had the luck of having a mentor stand in the charr starting zone who was super chill and I ended up casually chatting with for a solid 30+ minutes or so.

Most people i've come across been really nice, a few people in spvp aside but thats pvp overall.

Competition usually has people try to flex on each other.

[Xanadrine.4352]

10 hours ago, costepj.5120 said:

I have to take particular issue with that one. I have played GW2 for nearly nine years and have never felt the need to spend a single penny in the cash shop.

So you dont support the game?

[costepj.5120]

1 minute ago, Zuldari.3940 said:

So you dont support the game?

I bought the game and both expansions. I play it around 4 hours a day. That's how I support the game.