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I'm struggling to enjoy this game


EpicName.4523

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@EpicName.4523 said:A WALL OF TEXT INCOMING!

I purchased this game with its two expansions around January last year. The reason why i did it was obvious at first - it was non-subscription based MMO with seemingly decent combat system and a lot of features which actually promoted fun, instead of mindless grinding like most, if not all other MMOs out there.

However, since the summer I've been playing just the bare minimum to get a daily done and then I immediately log off. The more I played this game, the more I realized how many serious flaws it has. I also cannot help, but compare it to WoW. To the true WoW, not the abomination it has become. I could go play the vanilla servers when they release, but sadly, as good as the game was in its original state, the classes just aren't balanced and it lacks the polish of Burning Crusade where all specs were good for something to a degree. So, not gonna happen.

Let's focus on GW 2 though.

-The combat. Very important, because this is what you do most of the time. When I saw that you can dodge I was very happy. It reminded me of Dark Souls series which are very dear to my heart. Sadly, instead of facing mobs with individual strengths and weaknesses which can seriously mess me up if I do something wrong, I am bombarded by weak enemies with some unique gimmick/ability here and there, Diablo style. Weren't the creators of Diablo also involved in making GW2? Because it feels like Diablo in 3rd person, really. But to the point - These weak mobs are boring to fight. Even if I die, the second wind mechanic ensures I will most of the time survive.

I have all nine classes in this game at 80 with maxed professions. They all play the same. You just mash 2 or 3 buttons that do some damage and you win. Some of the core specs like Mesmer and Engineer need more attention due to low dps, but they are in the minority. On some classes i am not sure what some of the buttons do, honestly. I never needed to learn. I never felt challenged. Granted, the mobs in HoT are tough, but they either two shot you or you outdps them.That's it. Then you get second wind if lucky and repeat. Instead of learning patterns and using specific tactics to beat certain enemies, this is what the combat is in this game. The biggest difference for me is if a mob can reflect missiles so I don't range him. Boring.

In comparison, in vanilla WoW, mobs could also simply do a lot of damage, but every class was truly unique. I was constantly in danger of running out man/rage/energy. I had to make sure I had enough to interrupt someone at the right moment or abuse line of sight if it was a strong caster. With frost mage I could kite for days and pull crazy shenanigans while totally dominating melee enemies. If I was a healer, I could drop HoT over time or shield on me preemptively or use short casting heal during combat to prevent myself from being constantly pushed back during a longer cast. Basically, while it wasn't incredibly deep, the combat was intuitive, you naturally learned what does what during the course of the game. In modern WoW after Cata you can just spam abilities with impunity and that is why I left during that time.

The combat in GW2 is unintuitive. I am also bothered that you don't have to even target an ally to heal him. As someone who liked supporting when in group, I could target someone and literally save their life by doing the right thing at the right time. I also had to manage mana. It felt rewarding. Not the case in this game. Every class can do everything. Indeed, some are simply better at this than others, especially when it comes to groups, but the lack of Holy Trinity makes every class much more generic regardless if it is tanking, healing or dps. That is, if we can even say these roles exist here.

-The world. The creators of this game realized that making generic quests which people simply grind out is pointless. So, they replaced generic quests...with generic hearts. But you know what? In WoW there were some great quests. Quests that could take you exploring half a continent to complete them. Quests which involved interesting characters and subplots which you can slowly reveal. Many were tied to dungeons which also made exploring the dungeon more fun, because you knew why you went there beside gear.

If you go to Darkshore and you see The Master's Glade you start wondering. Hey, what is that thing over there? Who is the Twilight's Hammer? Who put that sword in the thing's head? I even looked on the internet for those things and it made the world feel alive. Why is Duskwood dark? What happened to Sven and his family? Is there connection between the Embalmer and Morben Fell? Who made the Worgen? Can the Horde trust the Forsaken? Is there hope for the Scarlet Crusade? How is Balnazzar alive? Most of those questions have already been answered, but you get the drift.

In GW2 we have a few generic land massesAscalon - northern land in eternal autumn. Unique enemies -Branded and rebel humans.Shiverpeak - frozen wasteland. Unique enemies - Svanir and mole men.Kryta - pastoral green area - Unique enemies - centaurs and bandits.Asura/sylvari - jungle area - Unique enemies - Nightmare Court and Inquest.Orr- another wasteland with undead.HoT was more jungle and Mordrem.PoF added desert and egyptian undead+Forged and more Branded for flavor's sake.

Every enemy is just bad for the sake of being bad. To be honest, some of them like Nightmare Court have somewhat deeper motivation, but hardly enough to make it very involving. The world is shallow and boring. I never felt emotionally attached. There is no politics, no backstabbing, no intrigue, no hidden motivation, nothing. The personal story is somewhat interesting until you get to the guilds. Then its a straight downfall. And after you realize there are no choices in the personal story, you just pray it is over sooner so you can get to the Battle of Claw Island for that sweet key. Every time they release a new LW episode I am like....Pff, to get that cool mount, gear, perk or whatever, I have to play through the story. /Facepalm.

PvP. I admit I tried that in unranked a few times and lost pretty badly. Nobody to blame, but me because i was bad and deserved it. However, after every match the game tried to place me somewhere? Why would you give me rank or measure me in any way when I play unranked? From what I heard and watched in videos PvP is an afterthought. I've been told matchmaking is bad and nobody cares too much about balancing it anyway. Why bother getting good then?

WvW. Went there for the spoon. Without the mount I felt it was very sluggish, slow to get anywhere. Saw a tag, ran to it and had a bit of a zerg fight. There were so many explosions, so many flashing lights I had trouble understanding what is going on. It is not only hard to see, but even starts to hurt the eyes. When I stray away from the zerg someone kills me.

Shortly before starting to log only for the daily, I made my guardian a Firebrand with a WvW support build I saw in MetaBattle. Gave it exotic minstrel gear, ascended minstrel weapons and accessories and monk runes. When it was fully geared I couldn't bring myself to play it in WvW. The process of gearing was more of a goal than playing it, it seems.In addition, support Firebrand with its pages plays very differently from the core guard. While this is good, the unintuitive combat of this game is a huge turn-off. I tried watching a video on how to play FB in WvW and you know what i learned? Make sure your team has stability and retaliation. Couldn't even find a proper guide, honestly.

When I went to battlegrounds in WoW I performed well. The idea behind each and every one is simple enough. I understood the tactic and never needed to use discord unless in a premade. Seems that if you want a proper multiplayer experience in GW2, you need to use voice chat. I don't even have a way to learn how to play FB properly in WvW and honestly getting blamed for not doing something by some tryhards doesn't seem the most fun way to approach this.

Fractals. I went there with my guardian because it was my first character and did a few of them. Mostly to finish my mastery points. Fractals are well designed, but the problem remains. Combat is boring. I put GS 4 on the ground, press GS 2 and spin to win. GS 3 to close the gap. Use trap (it's DH) on cd for extra burst. I know there is rotation and all, but at low lvl fractals doesn't matter anyway.Again - in 5 man dungeons in WoW I had to manage resources which isn't the case here. If I was a mage I had to polymorph and my CC was vital for the success of the group. And if people were nice I gave them food or water. A well placed shield on my priest could save lives. On my druid I was constantly trying to get aggro from multiple mobs and taunt if something went bad. Once more - it felt rewarding, it felt engaging. Not in GW2. More dps, less dps, whatever. Stuff dies.

Raids.I've raided in BC and found they were just a part-time job, especially as a dps because the rotation is pretty much what you do in GW 2 now. Spam shadowbolts/fireballs, whatever your main nuke is and occasionally refresh a debuff. So, don't care about them.

Currently I am logging in just for dailies. The thing I enjoyed the most at first it seems, was to get the fashion I wanted. Skins. So far, I think , I've gotten most of what I desired. rest is locked behind WvW/Fractals or raids. Don't see much reason to play for vanity's sake if I don't like what the game offers. I feel like I've wasted my money? Convince me to give some aspect of the game a second try?

So why not go play wow instead? Nothing forces you to play gw 2

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I recommend to enable the option to make names of hostile creatures visible in the world. Because also the yellow names of usables and lore-items like books are tied to this option that makes them visible from afar. There are quite a lot of them and they are easily overseen without it.

"Quests" that require the player to travel through various maps in GW2 and to complete different things do exist, but they are very rarely given by npcs, most of them are hidden in the lists of collections. Whether you try to achieve them or not is entirely up to you. Just last week I did the achievements to unlock the winter's day tree in my home instance. It's only possible during the current event. It took me three days to complete. And I always avoided JPs in the past because I'm a pretty bad jumper ^^ But for the tree I did six JPs in a row, many of them for the very first time - and I play GW2 since headstart (with few breaks). I thought the tree was worth it and it was satisfying.

I do not recommend just to copy&paste a meta-build because it's much likely that something similar like losing interest in actually playing it happens again. Instead go into PvP and WvW with your own build and slightly adjust where you detect flaws. Maybe at the end the meta appears or something different, but you grew into it. E.g. I play a Power Renegade in PvP - despite I know that Renegade profits a lot (perhaps even more) from a Condi build+gear, but it's fun to play. I cleared the PoF maps and story with a Nonshatter-Mesmer (pre phant overhaul) and it was fun, because it was "my" build and I was successful with it. I'd never c&p a meta-build for the reason of plain efficiency, to me that'd be no fun at all.Though I admit, if you do not like the basic combat design, then this won't help too.

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First things first:

@EpicName.4523 said:I never felt emotionally attached.

I'm pretty sure this is number one reason for all the issues you are facing. I know your feelings. I am still missing the moments in my previous game, and I would like to repeat them, but GW2 is different game and that other game is in such sad state that I can't go back there. I just can't.

The solution is to either try to find this emotional attachment, or give up. In GW2, yeah, this attachment probably will not come from quests, if it comes it comes from players around you. Sadly, gaming in GW2 does not bring you together with players that much, because landscape group events do not require teaming up (just show yourself at right place at right time) and for ad hoc teaming like fractals and PvP you don't usually meet the same players over and over again.

Try to find active guild, it will help a lot. If players in your guild pull you to events that you first think that you don't even like them, you will eventually find people and groups doing fancy things all day long.

I comment few things generally.

GW2 combat system is IMO fine. Landscape is mainly meant for new and casual players and not for challenges, except if you start trying soloing champions and other group content (many of them are soloable). If you seek for PvE challenges, you need to climb up ladders to T4 fractals and raids. Even then, PvE can offer challenges only to certain limits, because most PvE fights are predictable (you know the mechanics beforehand, and you can prepare for those). PvP side is different story, and I think GW2 combat system generally fits that side very well, although there are certainly some issues at that side, too. PvP side fights really reveal the uniqueness of classes and their game play. They are anything but smashing two buttons - at least if you strive for winning.

@EpicName.4523 said:Fractals. I went there with my guardian because it was my first character and did a few of them. Mostly to finish my mastery points. Fractals are well designed, but the problem remains. Combat is boring. I put GS 4 on the ground, press GS 2 and spin to win. GS 3 to close the gap. Use trap (it's DH) on cd for extra burst. I know there is rotation and all, but at low lvl fractals doesn't matter anyway.

Low tier fractals are for practising, not for challenge. You can autoattack them through (and solo them), but that is really not their purpose. Gear up for (gear-gated) higher tiers, and you can't autoattack your way through anymore.

@EpicName.4523 said:The combat in GW2 is unintuitive. I am also bothered that you don't have to even target an ally to heal him. As someone who liked supporting when in group, I could target someone and literally save their life by doing the right thing at the right time.

Targetless heals are fine. They put pressure to the group to position themselves correctly for heals. Just like in other games, well-timed heals save people here, too, but this game is much more punishing if people needing heals play themselves out from the spots where heals come.

You find them in other MMOs, too, although WoW-clones usually define healer classes so that they have (outgoing) single target heal skills. In the previous game I was playing, healers had also group-wide heals, that is, they heal anyone in your group no matter of the position & distance, but don't heal friendly players near you if they are not in your group. But: they introduced a new class which have AoE heal skills hitting also non-grouped players & friendly NPCs very much similar we have here.

@EpicName.4523 said:I also had to manage mana. It felt rewarding. Not the case in this game. Every class can do everything. Indeed, some are simply better at this than others, especially when it comes to groups, but the lack of Holy Trinity makes every class much more generic regardless if it is tanking, healing or dps. That is, if we can even say these roles exist here.

You manage your resources in this game just like in other games. If you want mana management, try out Druid-Ranger and its Celestial Avatar form. Or necro with life force.

Even that I loved to play tank in my previous game, I really don't want GW2 to introduce such system in class level. Please, no classes that are specially dedicated to tanking: it will introduce huge problems everywhere outside of PvE instances. Tank role is entirely tied up to mob AI, and in such it fits really poorly anywhere else.

But at the same moment I have to say, that GW2 could IMO do better job with instances (fractals). I have found them challenging enough at higher tiers, but the basic mechanics design are not usually that interesting: they mostly revolve around avoiding one-shot mechanics while keep spanking mobs as hard as you can. I have made a suggestion, that if ANet finds out that they can't create more interesting fights without having PvE-side Holy Trinity, they should implement Trinity as instance mechanism, not bake them inside classes. For example, you might have a prop which makes one group member "a tank", by overriding mobs' normal targeting algorithm.

@EpicName.4523 said:-The world. The creators of this game realized that making generic quests which people simply grind out is pointless. So, they replaced generic quests...with generic hearts. But you know what? In WoW there were some great quests. Quests that could take you exploring half a continent to complete them. Quests which involved interesting characters and subplots which you can slowly reveal. Many were tied to dungeons which also made exploring the dungeon more fun, because you knew why you went there beside gear.

Hearts are superior compared to generic quests. As a new player, you get easily pulled out from your planned track to discover fascinating things. As an example, as a very new player, I followed hearts and events and suddenly I was surrounded like 50-100 players and I was so, so excited: my first world boss fight is something I will probably remember rest of my life.

You have quests in story line (core + expansions + LWs). I think GW2 is in right track here, because lack of generic quests would allow them to create much more involving quests. But sadly, it seems that storytelling is not one of ANet's strengths, there are lots to improve at that side. GW2 really lacks is the existence of its lore in the game.

@EpicName.4523 said:In addition, support Firebrand with its pages plays very differently from the core guard. While this is good, the unintuitive combat of this game is a huge turn-off. I tried watching a video on how to play FB in WvW and you know what i learned? Make sure your team has stability and retaliation. Couldn't even find a proper guide, honestly.

Both sPvP and WvW needs some more dedication than just making gears to start, and yes, it can be long road with unnecessary rough start. I definitely agree that it could use some improvements from ANet and player base side. WvW zerg playing - I suppose you made FB for those - has its own strategies, tactics, pecularities and maneouvers. FB granting/timing stability and retaliation is nothing different to some class in some other game providing heals to allies. Let's say that it is even better here, because you have also other support roles than dishing out just plain old heals.

@EpicName.4523 said:... never needed to use discord unless in a premade. Seems that if you want a proper multiplayer experience in GW2, you need to use voice chat.

This is true to all games which have non-trivial real time group content. Even in the game I played previously.

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Alright, there were a few fair points here. Mostly about the fact that if I don't get deeper into certain modes/mechanics it is a bit hypocritical to complain about lack of depth. I might give WvW another try.

To those telling me to go back to WoW, I might have, if they had BC server. Regardless, those comments were pointless and did nothing to clear things up.

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@Taygus.4571 said:If you think all professions play the same... you're not playing them right.Of course they're not the same, but I think I understand what he's trying to say. First of all, I need to establish a few elements here that I think are important for the context. So here it goes:1) I think it's fair to state that most players do not engage in structured group content at a serious level or at all, be it sPvP, high level fractals or raids.2) All classes have the ability to dodge in the same exact way and also can combat ress in the same way3) Weapons are shared across various classes4) Armor sets are based on groups (light, medium, heavy) rather than individual classes

Now as I said, classes are not all the same but they can feel very similar to many people. The reasons above show why. The results of these elements is that class definition is more fluid and flexible and therefore less specific or defined. Added to that the looks of characters are not based on class but groups of classes. Therefore there is no visual difference between an elementalist, Mesmer and necromancer for example. I can make them all look exactly the same. Also weapons are not unique to classes and the new specializations further pushed that. But it's even to the point where for example a person with a staff is not necessarily a spell caster class but could be anyone except an engineer and warrior I believe. So 7/9 classes can use a weapon that's really an iconic spell caster weapon. By itself that doesn't have to be a bad thing but it also adds to the lack of definition of classes.

So where do they get different? Well there we would have to look at skills and traits. That system is more in depth. Personally I feel that the depth is not the exciting kind so I find it a strange system that basically sets your traits which are passive or trigger-boosts or effects so once set you don't really look at it anymore. And this is where I particularly want to refer to my point 1. And also because of the fixed skills on the left side and the restrictive selection options on the right side with often high cooldowns it all feels very limited to me. Sure there are some offsets because of weapon swapping and many classes having another set of options above the skill bar like the Mesmer has Shattering skills. But also there it's fixed.

More importantly for the general public a lot of traits, skills and effects seem to have little impact on enemies in open world in particular. I understand that OW is not supposed to be challenging and I agree, but it does make the depth of the combat system rather superfluous for the majority of the game's content and as I believe the majority of players. I would prefer a system with more choice than fixed skills in fixed slots and skills and effects that make a clear difference in open world also because it will increase the overall interest in the combat system. Currently though to get the benefit of creating or using a good build takes too much of the average player and benefits them too little because the content isn't that challenging, but rather annoying. It also means that for the majority of players, the actual differences in classes and how to optimize them are outside of their scope of interest.

You may see a lot of differences that are there, but for a lot of players it's just using the same 2-3 skills on the left and maybe some on the right and wait till the enemies are dead. Shatter skills or Virtues are often ignored because they are this extra thing that seems kind of tricky and I'm sure that a lot of people (no idea how many but ok) do not actually use half the skills they have. Even weapon swapping is often ignored.

And well, when you have things like world bosses, it's easier to just use ranged damage and run around ressing people. Any class can do that. And that's what makes classes feel similar especially in function. I mean sure I can be a ranger or a dragonhunter and shoot a bow. The skills may be different but it's still a guy/gal shooting a bow. Functionally the game revolves around the role of DPS. In structured content that's different of course, but again I don't believe for a minute that it's any sort of majority that engages in that content. So it servers only a smaller portion of the players.

I think it's an interesting choice to stay away from the MMO trinity of tank, dps and healer. However, it has come at a cost of class definition. I remember that in GW1 armor sets and looks were per class. My Necromancers certainly looked different from my elementalists, even by the customization options. But if I wanted Kurzick Elite armor for my Necro it was specific to that class. People can call that a limitation but these limitations also helped define the classes. Also I cannot help but feel that the classes in GW1 also fundamentally worked different. Rituatists were nothing like Necromancers though both tapping into the realm of the dead. The trait or skill trees were very much themed. The Necro had Curses, Death and Blood as well as Soul Reaping. These should sound very familiar to GW2 players as well, but they didn't work anything alike. In GW2 they work fundamentally differently. For one it wasn't linked to the weapon type and your skill bar in GW1 could be attuned to a theme based on your trait. So I could for example take all blood magic skills and they would be stronger for putting points in blood magic. However, in GW2 I have a weapon that forces me to use a specific skill set which has a mixture of things. And this is also subject to your stats. So things like power, critical, condition damage are not themes that you can specifically and fully attune to. Sure, you can make a condi or power build. But not all of your skills will benefit from condition bonuses.

That brings me to my final point about this... stat sets. You know, Berserker stats, Viper stats etc. The running advice is that unless you want to do something really specific you can't go wrong with berserker stats and power reigns supreme. However, some of these stat combination sets were clearly designed with specific classes in mind as you can see by their names but these sets are totally imbalanced because not all stats are equal and yet they are treated as if they were. But that again makes a lot the same.

In conclusion: No, classes are not all the same. But I do feel that not enough has been done to make classes really feel different for the average player. Too much is the same or similar in terms of functionality. All classes can have melee and ranged weapons, they're all DPS classes (though some support functions are now available though mostly for the purposes of structured group content) and they have very similar abilities like dodging which are extremely key in combat and the design of combat encounters. So I do understand that classes can feel similar and superfluous even though they aren't technically the same for sure.

Personally I play GW2 because I decided to play as a casual. Effectively this means I stay away from structured group content because then I don't have to worry about any of the issues I see with the combat system. And as such I can enjoy the game, but it will never be my favourite game. If I get bored, I stop playing it again. I keep it simple for myself. I liked raiding a lot in other games, learning roles, rotations and classes in general...in this game not so much, so I stay away from those parts. I'd rather shoot up toys and throw snowballs then ;)

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@"EpicName.4523" said:I might give WvW another try.

It might help to compare the WvW experience, at least a little bit, to Ashram. ..which was also a clusterbomb of line battles where AoE splatters rained in the middle and melee couldn't get near anything. Though, I do find WvW to be more dynamic than that.

Sadly, PvP itself doesn't have much beyond wonky balance issues and "stand on a circle" gameplay. Very lackluster compared to WoW.

To those telling me to go back to WoW, I might have, if they had BC server. Regardless, those comments were pointless and did nothing to clear things up.

Forgive the zealots a little. They get riled up, especially when WoW is mentioned. :PBut BC? At least Wrath, c'mon now. That was literally when the game peaked. :)

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@"TamX.1870" said:Hearts are superior compared to generic quests. As a new player, you get easily pulled out from your planned track to discover fascinating things. As an example, as a very new player, I followed hearts and events and suddenly I was surrounded like 50-100 players and I was so, so excited: my first world boss fight is something I will probably remember rest of my life.

That made me think about my first WB-like fight in GW2. And it was during one of the Beta Weekends, BWE3, I think.

I was in there with my late wife (before she became my late wife, obviously), and we went into a cave in south-west Queensdale. She asked me, "What's this rune over here?" and then she picked it up. Let's just say that our mutual participation in that fight was very, very short indeed.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Defeat_the_cave_troll when the troll wasn't some wussy Veteran.

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@Steve The Cynic.3217 said:

@"TamX.1870" said:Hearts are superior compared to generic quests. As a new player, you get easily pulled out from your planned track to discover fascinating things. As an example, as a very new player, I followed hearts and events and suddenly I was surrounded like 50-100 players and I was so, so excited: my first world boss fight is something I will probably remember rest of my life.

That made me think about my first WB-like fight in GW2. And it was during one of the Beta Weekends, BWE3, I think.

I was in there with my late wife (before she became my
late
wife, obviously), and we went into a cave in south-west Queensdale. She asked me, "What's this rune over here?" and then she picked it up. Let's just say that our mutual participation in that fight was very, very short indeed.

when the troll wasn't some wussy Veteran.

Yeah, I did something similar to that runestone and then got yelled at by the Queensdale Champ Train. Hey, I didn't know! :)

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@Gehenna.3625, many interesting points which I can agree at least partially! Yes, classes feel similar when you look them from bit distance - that is, don't delve too deep to class playing - and if you don't put your skills on those classes under test.

From your post, I pick few things:

@Gehenna.3625 said:So where do they get different? Well there we would have to look at skills and traits. That system is more in depth. Personally I feel that the depth is not the exciting kind so I find it a strange system that basically sets your traits which are passive or trigger-boosts or effects so once set you don't really look at it anymore.

Yes, when I started this game, traits looked like having just some small adjustments to a class. But that was just my ignorance. Traits pretty much define your gear sets and weapon choices. They really have very minimal effect to casual playing (landscape fights), which may in fact be fortunate for new players, but when the things get more heated, you start to see how tremendously they affect to your playing and draw the line between success and failure. Luckily we have metabattle and other such sites, so you can copy a build first, and start examining them later to fit builds better to your needs. Anyways, I fully agree that trait system and gears look pretty unimpressive when taking first look :D

On the other hand, the opposite is not necessarily any better:

@Gehenna.3625 said:I think it's an interesting choice to stay away from the MMO trinity of tank, dps and healer. However, it has come at a cost of class definition.

In the game I played previously, classes are more strictly divided to tanks, healers, ranged DPS, melee DPS and CC/debuff. Initially they were not able to blurr the line. Leveling up a tank, healer or CC/debuffer was/is just very painful and annoying job, because even trivial solo fights took that long. That put pressure to add sufficient DPS and self-sustain to all classes. That caused huge balancing problems: with their innate sustain tanks were able to became unkillable DPS machines being able to solo group content, certain classes lost their spot in groups and so on.

Even thought not all classes have decent role in all content here in GW2, not any class is so totally obsoleted from all game modes like it was in my previous game. Yes, I am not that happy that if I want to play several game modes and roles, I need to have several geared toons in my deck.

@Gehenna.3625 said:However, in GW2 I have a weapon that forces me to use a specific skill set which has a mixture of things. And this is also subject to your stats. So things like power, critical, condition damage are not themes that you can specifically and fully attune to. Sure, you can make a condi or power build. But not all of your skills will benefit from condition bonuses.

Yes. In the previous game I played, different weapons were mainly cosmetic. Skills were strictly class-based, no matter of your weapon of choice. Here, weapons are visual feedback to you to tell you the skillset your opponent is using, hinting you the possibilities your opponent has. If you remove that e.g. by giving players freedom to choose the weapon & utility skills as they wish, you then remove one aspect from competitive game play, and most probably open up much more balancing issues.

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Alright, there were a few fair points here. Mostly about the fact that if I don't get deeper into certain modes/mechanics it is a bit hypocritical to complain about lack of depth. I might give WvW another try.You really could have gotten prickly in response to some of the comments here, but you didn't. Good on you for that.

-The world. The creators of this game realized that making generic quests which people simply grind out is pointless. So, they replaced generic quests...with generic hearts.I really thought someone else would have corrected this, but in lieu of that:Hearts were a relatively late addition to the game. They were put in place largely for those that struggled with the concept that Dynamic Events were the GW2 'quests.' Events and their associated NPCs, not hearts, tell the stories in GW2. General rule: if an NPC has a unique name you talk to them. Smartest approach: Try to talk to all NPCs at least once your travels. Hopefully now knowing that you'll find that there are A LOT of great stories in out there in the world, for you to discover and work out.

It's right there in the first sentence of the pre-launch official video on

that can still be found today at the bottom of our page. > @EpicName.4523 said:
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@TamX.1870 said:@Gehenna.3625, many interesting points which I can agree at least partially! Yes, classes feel similar when you look them from bit distance - that is, don't delve too deep to class playing - and if you don't put your skills on those classes under test.

From your post, I pick few things:

@Gehenna.3625 said:So where do they get different? Well there we would have to look at skills and traits. That system is more in depth. Personally I feel that the depth is not the exciting kind so I find it a strange system that basically sets your traits which are passive or trigger-boosts or effects so once set you don't really look at it anymore.

Yes, when I started this game, traits looked like having just some small adjustments to a class. But that was just my ignorance. Traits pretty much define your gear sets and weapon choices. They really have very minimal effect to casual playing (landscape fights), which may in fact be fortunate for new players, but when the things get more heated, you start to see how tremendously they affect to your playing and draw the line between success and failure. Luckily we have metabattle and other such sites, so you can copy a build first, and start examining them later to fit builds better to your needs. Anyways, I fully agree that trait system and gears look pretty unimpressive when taking first look :D

On the other hand, the opposite is not necessarily any better:

@Gehenna.3625 said:I think it's an interesting choice to stay away from the MMO trinity of tank, dps and healer. However, it has come at a cost of class definition.

In the game I played previously, classes are more strictly divided to tanks, healers, ranged DPS, melee DPS and CC/debuff. Initially they were not able to blurr the line. Leveling up a tank, healer or CC/debuffer was/is just very painful and annoying job, because even trivial solo fights took that long. That put pressure to add sufficient DPS and self-sustain to all classes. That caused huge balancing problems: with their innate sustain tanks were able to became unkillable DPS machines being able to solo group content, certain classes lost their spot in groups and so on.

Even thought not all classes have decent role in all content here in GW2, not any class is so totally obsoleted from all game modes like it was in my previous game. Yes, I am not that happy that if I want to play several game modes and roles, I need to have several geared toons in my deck.

@Gehenna.3625 said:However, in GW2 I have a weapon that forces me to use a specific skill set which has a mixture of things. And this is also subject to your stats. So things like power, critical, condition damage are not themes that you can specifically and fully attune to. Sure, you can make a condi or power build. But not all of your skills will benefit from condition bonuses.

Yes. In the previous game I played, different weapons were mainly cosmetic. Skills were strictly class-based, no matter of your weapon of choice. Here, weapons are visual feedback to you to tell you the skillset your opponent is using, hinting you the possibilities your opponent has. If you remove that e.g. by giving players freedom to choose the weapon & utility skills as they wish, you then remove one aspect from competitive game play, and most probably open up much more balancing issues.

Very nice reply. I certainly don't expect people to agree with everything or anything I say but I hope that it at least gave an idea why people may feel that class definition is lacking. I'm also not saying that people who do see class definition are wrong. We all have our perceptions and they can exist at the same time.

Your last comment about weapons indicating the skill set is something I hadn't considered. You still need to know the class and what that skill set would be. However, I do not see any problem competitively or otherwise in hiding what skill set you are using and well weapon or not, people do tend to gravitate to specific builds so it won't take you long to figure it out anyway I suppose. As for balancing issues, I think you have them no matter what. GW1 was very tricky but that was mostly because of the dual class system. I actually do understand them taking that away. It had some fun sides to it for sure but the limitations on using a secondary class weren't strong enough and it must've been a pain to try to balance it, although I will say that they did a pretty good job at it nonetheless.

As for leveling tanks or healers and such I never had that problem. I usually level healers first because that's my preferred class. I don't mind taking a bit of extra time especially the first time. So it comes down again to personal preferences. Trinity systems also do have their downsides in the end. As much as I prefer it gameplay-wise since boss encounters are so much more interesting than here, I cannot disagree that having to wait a long time to get a group together is also a pain in the rear end.

But that's why I play as a casual here and the combat system doesn't quite inspire me to delve into it, so it's better that way... for me :smile:

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@Gehenna.3625 said:Very nice reply. I certainly don't expect people to agree with everything or anything I say but I hope that it at least gave an idea why people may feel that class definition is lacking. I'm also not saying that people who do see class definition are wrong. We all have our perceptions and they can exist at the same time.

Ah, yes, definitely, I agree with you with those points and I should have said that more explicitly. My bad.

@Gehenna.3625 said:Your last comment about weapons indicating the skill set is something I hadn't considered. You still need to know the class and what that skill set would be. However, I do not see any problem competitively or otherwise in hiding what skill set you are using and well weapon or not, ...

I need to rephrase it. There are competitive games like chess and go, where nothing is hidden. Then there are competitive games where everything is initially hidden, like Magic: The Gathering. Most games (Texas Hold'Em poker, most MOBAs, CS:GO, Fortnite, WoT, etc etc) are something in between. Like said, in the previous game I played skill set was defined by the class entirely: the weapon you had didn't have any effect to that in the end (the initial weapon specialities were watered down in the process).

Here the skill set is defined by class (including specialization) and your choice of weapons. What is initially hidden to your opponent, is your choice of traits (excluding expansion specializations) and gears (including runes and sigils) as well as your choices as your utility skills (and maybe your secondary weapon set, but quite rarely that is a game-changing secret). It is definitely possible to change that, so that weapons are only cosmetic choice and not affecting your skill set, but you would then need a balancing pass, and players would need to adjust to that change.

@Gehenna.3625 said:people do tend to gravitate to specific builds so it won't take you long to figure it out anyway I suppose.

It is true, but not long ago I was caught red handed by a warrior using so called Killshot build. I was definitely prepared to very different fight, and I was not that familiar with that specific PvP build. S/he managed to surprise me even second time: I had a hunch what I was expecting, but not yet in the level I was able to utilize. Third time was finally more even fight. It is definitely true that encounters are dictated by builds that have been found out generally most effective, but under that there are several bit weaker or bit more specialized builds you can play quite well.

@Gehenna.3625 said:As for balancing issues, I think you have them no matter what.

That is definitely true. But IMO ANet does quite good to try to keep classes on par, even that not all classes are equally powerful in all game modes and all roles. I can't hope to be stuck in one class and one gear set and hope that I can play everything. What I hope is that regearing toons will not be too hard, time-consuming and extensive, and that you could have some longer term perspective to choose a class for your needs. What I mean is that I could commit much more efforts to certain classes to make them for open world, fractals, raids, WvW roaming and WvW large scale, if I would not need to worry that chosen class or build for that specific game mode would drop out entirely after few game patches.

@Gehenna.3625 said:As for leveling tanks or healers and such I never had that problem. I usually level healers first because that's my preferred class.

In that game I was playing, my favorite role to play was a tank. I had ranged DPS class which I used when first times in instances to make observations of instance mechanics and such. I also had a healer, which eventually was my raid work horse: it was so much easier to find DPS, but finding raid-ready tanks and healers was painful. I would have liked to tank those raids, but the class I much earlier made for tanking was not anymore suitable as raid tank at those times - it was more a hybrid tank for smaller teams and special crazy "black ops" efforts.

@Gehenna.3625 said:Trinity systems also do have their downsides in the end. As much as I prefer it gameplay-wise since boss encounters are so much more interesting than here, I cannot disagree that having to wait a long time to get a group together is also a pain in the rear end.

Yes. I have wrote it several times, that I feel that GW2 PvE instances are not as creative as they were in my previous game. The company behind that game didn't do that well in many other fronts, but the people behind instances did (and maybe still do) excellent job. Like I said in another post today, here at least in fractals quite many of them revolve just around spanking mobs as hard as possible while avoiding one-shot mechanics at the same time. In the previous game I played, a raid encounter that needed only one tank was usually considered simple tank'n'spank style encounter (but there were exceptions to this, making also one-tank encounters revolving around totally different co-operation). If you like to hear more, you can ask: but if you are former or present WoW player, you probably know already, as that game was/is one of those many WoW-clones.

But tank concept is very, very problematic everywhere outside instances and their mechanics. I have already wrote about the subject few times here with greater level of details, and thus I wont repeat them here unless asked.

First I want to state, that PvE instances are mechanical circuses, they are amusement parks with shooting targets for players to run through. You practice the route and location of targets, you develop most optimized way to run it through. Even thought I chose the words deliberately bit offending, that that PvE instances are predictable mechanical circus to run through is one of the most important things that makes them fascinating to players. We used to play games like Asteroids and such, and we didn't want the levels to be anything else than predictable. There is absolutely no reason to change it any ways. You don't need intelligent, unpredictable enemies and encounters in PvE instances, you have PvP side for that.

Tank as concept is a deliberately made flaw to mob AI. You won't need it when soloing (all the mobs are anyways hitting you, no matter if you are tank or not), and not in PvP (as you don't have freedom to choose what your opponents choose to beat). To justify the tank spot, mobs need to hit hard enough to make only the one that is dedicated for beating to survive. That is the thing that radiates this deliberately made flawness in mob AI to other game modes, including PvP. This is why I am very much against making tank classes, that is, baking this artificial flawness in AI to fighting mechanics.

Tank concept may make instances more fascinating, because it adds another role to a fight. I would compare this to an instance mechanics, that requires one player to play chicken dance(*) at certain points to prevent the team to wipe. The way how regular Trinity games do this, is to bake chicken dancing to a class, so that only certain classes can play chicken well enough to prevent wipes. My suggestion to this is to make this chicken dancing as an instance mechanics. Here in GW2, you could (1) have special skill that performs chicken dance to prevent wipe (in WoW terms, special skill would be force taunt, single target or AoE, caster-centric or ranged), or (2) you could have Mistlock Singularity type prop, and the member pushing that would become the group's chicken dancer - or a tank.

EDIT: (*) And now you need to remember that I absolutely loved to play tank.

This way you could not only implement the traditional Trinity tank concept inside instances without letting the concept to radiate to other modes (landscape, PvP), but you could also make instance and tanking mechanics way more interesting than a traditional Trinity game can do. You could have three different props: each of these props would make you to attract specific types of enemies and you would be able to move them around the platform. You could attach either buffs or debuffs for the one(s) chosen to play tank: in some instances, you could buff them up so that without a dedicated tank it would be hard to sustain the damage. In some other instance, you could apply a debuff to tanks, so that the ones that are responsible to take the mobs to certain locations would be unusually hard to be kept alive. You would have lots, lots more options to design these mechanical circuses called PvE instances to amuse the ones that take them, including of course myself.

But that's why I play as a casual here and the combat system doesn't quite inspire me to delve into it, so it's better that way... for me :smile:

Yeah, it is understandable :)

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Oh, I forgot to say one thing, and I think it is worth another post quoting myself instead of editing the previous one:

@TamX.1870 said:It is true, but not long ago I was caught red handed by a warrior using so called Killshot build. I was definitely prepared to very different fight, and I was not that familiar with that specific PvP build. S/he managed to surprise me even second time, I was definitely not ready for fighting like that, but third time was finally more even fight. It is definitely true that encounters are dictated by builds that have been found out generally most effective, but under that there are several bit weaker or bit more specialized builds you can play quite well.

One thing to understand in at least WvW roaming meta is that meta builds are created by experienced players. Those builds work for those players, because they are also familiar with all kinds of variations in the classes. For more newbie player as I am, they don't usually work in their full potency. An experienced player, who is familiar with classes and their variations, create a build that has some counters to different variations. S/he knows what opposite builds are hard encounters you can win hands down, what encounters are soft counters, and what are the weaknesses against specific other builds and how to try to handle them if the opponent is not skilled enough to utilize them, or how to escape such encounter entirely. Many of those counters are anything but obvious at least to me. That is why I can not necessarily benefit meta builds, just because I am not yet on the level to utilize them fully, and at the same time, I am much more vulnerable to more rare ways to play classes than the ones who have been there, and done that already.

So: at least WvW small scale meta builds can be the best you can get in general, but it really depends on you as a player, as well as your opponent as player. Except against experienced players, you can be very effective with builds that work well in certain encounters, even if they are totally stomped against certain builds. From this perspective, PvE group meta is much more restricting. Because you know what you are facing, you don't exactly have much choices. You can try several things, of course, and you may be able to adapt for PuGs, but the meta is meta in much more strict sense that it is at PvP side.

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  • 3 weeks later...

@"EpicName.4523" said:

-The combat. Very important, because this is what you do most of the time. When I saw that you can dodge I was very happy. It reminded me of Dark Souls series which are very dear to my heart. Sadly, instead of facing mobs with individual strengths and weaknesses which can seriously mess me up if I do something wrong, I am bombarded by weak enemies with some unique gimmick/ability here and there, Diablo style. Weren't the creators of Diablo also involved in making GW2? Because it feels like Diablo in 3rd person, really. But to the point - These weak mobs are boring to fight. Even if I die, the second wind mechanic ensures I will most of the time survive.

I advocated a long time to get some kind of hard mode for open world PvE. With new interesting mechanics etc. A very efficient use of time to hand out a massive chunk of revisited content to players, that would maybe also get ppl together and counter act the antisocial climate in this game that is generated by all the convenient systems in the game, where talking and building groups gets irrelevant.

I have all nine classes in this game at 80 with maxed professions. They all play the same. You just mash 2 or 3 buttons that do some damage and you win. Some of the core specs like Mesmer and Engineer need more attention due to low dps, but they are in the minority. On some classes i am not sure what some of the buttons do, honestly. I never needed to learn. I never felt challenged. Granted, the mobs in HoT are tough, but they either two shot you or you outdps them.That's it. Then you get second wind if lucky and repeat. Instead of learning patterns and using specific tactics to beat certain enemies, this is what the combat is in this game. The biggest difference for me is if a mob can reflect missiles so I don't range him. Boring.

I am just coming from WoW. There, really most classes feel the same now, where you either have classes with builder/spender mechanics or you just press one button until another one lights through rng up.I think compared to this GW2 classes, although they never shined through their insane customization options or additional class fantasy added by tons of flavor skills, like in early WoW, these GW2 classes still remain more unique and interesting with their few skills than in most other MMOs. Can they be improved? Absolutely yes. I would wish we would get something like Glyphs from WoW for GW2 class skills for the beginning. Give more skills to choose, like for each weapon another skill you can swap out etc.

And these skills should not just come through the lazy GW2 way, a UI popup menu. They should be aquired through (for everyone accesible) content. Imaginge how many weapons for all the classes, doing just a few things in the world out there for all of them. Again another massive chunk of content for ppl to do.

-The world. The creators of this game realized that making generic quests which people simply grind out is pointless. So, they replaced generic quests...with generic hearts. But you know what? In WoW there were some great quests. Quests that could take you exploring half a continent to complete them. Quests which involved interesting characters and subplots which you can slowly reveal. Many were tied to dungeons which also made exploring the dungeon more fun, because you knew why you went there beside gear.

Another big gripe I had with the game from the very beginning and I also said that in the PoF feedback. Hearts are the most boring and uninspired thing, only way to make it worse is to make them reset every 24hrs, which they do in new content!

There is no major MMO that has such an impersonal feeling to it when walking through the world and leveling than GW2 with its 15 places in each map, where you have to fill a bar. I remember in WoW ever single good quest hub, even after all these years. Why? Because, even if I am a player that skips 90% of all quest texts, I still enjoy going with a Dwarf following me into a mine and kill a little boss inside.

The quests I hated the most in WoW are the "Here's an area, fill up the bar in the top right corner, by putting out fire, killing Alliance members and collecting boxes", which were introduced a few expacs ago in WoW. These are the WoW version of GW2 hearts, and while they're popular to do, since they give a good amount of XP, I hate doing them. They're terrible impersonal and alienate me from the game world.

GW2 would've needed standard quests imo to make me really care about the game world and the NPCs in there.

If you go to Darkshore and you see The Master's Glade you start wondering. Hey, what is that thing over there? Who is the Twilight's Hammer? Who put that sword in the thing's head? I even looked on the internet for those things and it made the world feel alive. Why is Duskwood dark? What happened to Sven and his family? Is there connection between the Embalmer and Morben Fell? Who made the Worgen? Can the Horde trust the Forsaken? Is there hope for the Scarlet Crusade? How is Balnazzar alive? Most of those questions have already been answered, but you get the drift.

Yes, these little stories, although GW2 has many of these too, they're not quests and only visible to those that really look exactly for them, which ppl like you and me do not seem to be. If you just normally play GW2 you don't notice that stuff. With the standard quests even ppl that skip all quest texts notice at some point what's going on. And that's good!

In GW2 we have a few generic land massesAscalon - northern land in eternal autumn. Unique enemies -Branded and rebel humans.Shiverpeak - frozen wasteland. Unique enemies - Svanir and mole men.Kryta - pastoral green area - Unique enemies - centaurs and bandits.Asura/sylvari - jungle area - Unique enemies - Nightmare Court and Inquest.Orr- another wasteland with undead.HoT was more jungle and Mordrem.PoF added desert and egyptian undead+Forged and more Branded for flavor's sake.

Every enemy is just bad for the sake of being bad. To be honest, some of them like Nightmare Court have somewhat deeper motivation, but hardly enough to make it very involving. The world is shallow and boring. I never felt emotionally attached. There is no politics, no backstabbing, no intrigue, no hidden motivation, nothing. The personal story is somewhat interesting until you get to the guilds. Then its a straight downfall. And after you realize there are no choices in the personal story, you just pray it is over sooner so you can get to the Battle of Claw Island for that sweet key. Every time they release a new LW episode I am like....Pff, to get that cool mount, gear, perk or whatever, I have to play through the story. /Facepalm.

The initial story of GW2 was to me very boring. I only care about big stuff that influences entire continents or the leaders of an faction etc. I don't care if some random Asura I've known for 3 missions blows himself up with a bomb or whatever and I certainly don't want to be forced to search for him in a mission lol.

WoW story is cheesy, in some way the generic Fantasy story of an MMO. But it is also incredibly diverse with all the races and also deep, where they come from. The first thing you notice when you open up the map as a new player is the giant whirl in the mid of the map. These things are still relevant in todays WoW lore (Azshara, nightwell, burning legion, old gods etc. etc.)

Everything in WoW has some lore and story behind and is in some way connected, it's amazing! I absolutely love WoW lore, not because it's so surprising, or unique and well wirtten etc. but because it's so detailed and connected together.

In GW2 this is much less obvious. The lore in GW2 has its own strong points, but you really have to watch a guy like WoodenPotatoes to get this stuff and it's not really apparent enough through the game experience itself.

WvW. Went there for the spoon. Without the mount I felt it was very sluggish, slow to get anywhere. Saw a tag, ran to it and had a bit of a zerg fight. There were so many explosions, so many flashing lights I had trouble understanding what is going on. It is not only hard to see, but even starts to hurt the eyes. When I stray away from the zerg someone kills me.

Yeah, never thought WvW was that great. When GW2 was announced, I was excited about it, I thought it would be a massive battlefield as far as you can see ppl fighting in a keep. What we got was commanders telling everyone to "stack", meaning everyone stands inside of each other,and then you run around like that doing as much mindless AOE as you can, while sticking to the Zerg.

They would've needed a solution to the stacking first. Large Scale fights are never super fun if every one stands just at one point klicking all abilites with AoE. Small group (5-15 ppl) fights but on a far grander scale (dozens of groups), that's what I wanted with WvW.

When I went to battlegrounds in WoW I performed well. The idea behind each and every one is simple enough. I understood the tactic and never needed to use discord unless in a premade. Seems that if you want a proper multiplayer experience in GW2, you need to use voice chat. I don't even have a way to learn how to play FB properly in WvW and honestly getting blamed for not doing something by some tryhards doesn't seem the most fun way to approach this.

Indeed, another turn off for WvW, a place where I would only go when I want to relax and do mindless Zerg action, is, that I am required to listen to other ppl in voice chat. I don't want to do that for this type of content lol. I am not in a competitive arena ranked group or whatever.

Fractals. I went there with my guardian because it was my first character and did a few of them. Mostly to finish my mastery points. Fractals are well designed, but the problem remains. Combat is boring. I put GS 4 on the ground, press GS 2 and spin to win. GS 3 to close the gap. Use trap (it's DH) on cd for extra burst. I know there is rotation and all, but at low lvl fractals doesn't matter anyway.

I think GW2 combat is still one of the most polished and fun experiences compared with other MMOs. ESO is worse, WoW is worse, BDO i probably better, although I hate spamming abilities and being reliant on drinking potions.

In higher level fractals and with random pug groups, you can't just do what you described, especially without any heal. Fractals are boring with META groups. You just stand there, do your damage rotation (I never did that in GW2, I always go without META groups and need to play without getting hit much), soak all the dmg in and the healer outheals m,ost of it.With random pugs, boy you better be aware exactly what you or the enemies are doing, you can't just follow a rotation on higher levels and the combat is therefore far more dynamic.

Again - in 5 man dungeons in WoW I had to manage resources which isn't the case here. If I was a mage I had to polymorph and my CC was vital for the success of the group. And if people were nice I gave them food or water. A well placed shield on my priest could save lives. On my druid I was constantly trying to get aggro from multiple mobs and taunt if something went bad. Once more - it felt rewarding, it felt engaging. Not in GW2. More dps, less dps, whatever. Stuff dies.

Yeah, I am not so sold of WoW combat being any more dynamic or interesting but where I agree again is, that GW2 lacks in what I call class "flavour skills" like those you mentioned. Something you're secretly a little bit proud of, helping someone else with it, since only you and your class could've done it that way.

Currently I am logging in just for dailies. The thing I enjoyed the most at first it seems, was to get the fashion I wanted. Skins. So far, I think , I've gotten most of what I desired. rest is locked behind WvW/Fractals or raids. Don't see much reason to play for vanity's sake if I don't like what the game offers. I feel like I've wasted my money? Convince me to give some aspect of the game a second try?

I only play GW2 nowadays, if at all, for fashion wars. With all the conveninece in the game the game , it is very good at that, yet it lacks more basic armor skins and it also sadly focusses far too much these days on shop skins and what's even worse is it focusses on complete outfits, that immediately kill most customization options.

Did you waste money? Well, how much did you pay for GW2 and how many hours did you play? It should've been still woth every cent. Imagine how much money other hobbies you do for hundreds of hours cost.

Is there potential for GW2 to improve and is it still worth playing for veterans as the main MMO in 2019? In my opinion, sadly, no.

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  • 1 year later...

Totally agree op.. I moved onto Star wars the old republic, its a lot more casual and forgiving game.. and you can enjoy it solo, plus star wars...

That said this game expansions were not my cup of tea after core tyria was so fun.. and sadly the details that future maps will be like WVW in pve made me quit GW2 completely..

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  • 1 year later...
On 12/17/2018 at 11:26 PM, EpicName.4523 said:

I have all nine classes in this game at 80 with maxed professions. They all play the same. You just mash 2 or 3 buttons that do some damage and you win.

So I have 8 class. I make each look different and they obviously each play different. For each class I have their sub class or elite specialization as it is known. But to be able to enjoy a class, I feel you need to understand what it is intended for. What its set of strength weakness. What is it good for. Another words what it brings to table in terms of a party. In a raid, in WvW. Or even in 5 men PVP. If you could have a goal, to be proficient in 1 character. Then bring it to such competitive stage then make the difference. You will feel appreciated as you are making a notable difference. It is no longer smash buttons it is you knowing what you are doing. How your character is contributing. Thats the key. You don't need that many class, just be good at one. Remember in Wvw if you make your commander tell you what to put out, then you are not that good in that toon. As in, you are not sure how it can meaningfully contribute in WvW. It matters because a competent group can always take out a larger number of human opponents at Wvw. So yeah work on the toon, learns its rotation and optimal mechanics. Learn why you are smashing which buttons and learn to time it. Practise until you are good at it. 

 

On 12/17/2018 at 11:26 PM, EpicName.4523 said:

I could target someone and literally save their life by doing the right thing at the right time.

Manual targetting is in settings you just have to find it. There is ranged targetting and auto targeting. So its entirely up to gamer's preference. 

 

On 12/17/2018 at 11:26 PM, EpicName.4523 said:

I tried watching a video on how to play FB in WvW and you know what i learned? Make sure your team has stability and retaliation. Couldn't even find a proper guide, honestly.

If you get many critism it could mean you still on learning curve which is the case as well. Firebrand is more offensive oriented. Yet your built is a defensive one with healing runes. If that the case you should focus making Healbrand which is another variation of FB. You tank stay alive bring heals. A support role which should fit your play style well.

 

On 12/17/2018 at 11:26 PM, EpicName.4523 said:

don't even have a way to learn how to play FB properly in WvW and honestly getting blamed for not doing something by some tryhards doesn't seem the most fun way to approach this.

Unfortunately the toxicity are real. If you are not proficient on a toon don't bother - You'll almost certain to get blamed. (Sometimes kicked out of group!) That is why I asked for you to pick out of your 8 class and focus on being good at one. Then bring it out. 

 

On 12/17/2018 at 11:26 PM, EpicName.4523 said:

Without the mount I felt it was very sluggish, slow to get anywhere. Saw a tag, ran to it and had a bit of a zerg fight. There were so many explosions, so many flashing lights I had trouble understanding what is going on. It is not only hard to see, but even starts to hurt the eyes. When I stray away from the zerg someone kills me.

Unlike your opinion for me GW2 has about the best combat experience. I tired Phantasy Star Online 2 and within 1 month uninstalled. Also you almost certainly cannot enjoy GW2 properly without a mount, so get yourself one. 

WvE may be less challenge but Zerg fights or even Worldboss fights can be pretty enjoyable. It is the time when your built can suck but still achieve an objective. Take this as learning and check regularly the combat window next to chat. It logs your DPS, heals, barriers, condis, heals recieved, damage recieved. The icon bars above your combat buttons show who is give you buffs and for how long before expiry. If you playing support you need to put out those support boons to team mates. 

About the flashes hurting eyes go to settings and adjust your graphics. Play around until you get the most optimal or comfy point. Feel free to experiment with those settings. Reflections, surroundings and AOE effects can be tuned down. 

 

On 12/17/2018 at 11:26 PM, EpicName.4523 said:

If you go to Darkshore and you see The Master's Glade you start wondering. Hey, what is that thing over there? Who is the Twilight's Hammer? Who put that sword in the thing's head? I even looked on the internet for those things and it made the world feel alive. Why is Duskwood dark? What happened to Sven and his family? Is there connection between the Embalmer and Morben Fell? Who made the Worgen? Can the Horde trust the Forsaken? Is there hope for the Scarlet Crusade? How is Balnazzar alive? Most of those questions have already been answered, but you get the drift.

Have to agree to a extend. Makes me want to WOW if they are on a free. Haha. But give GW2 another shot. You are just scratching the surface here. I hope you find fun. Peace...

Edited by medivh.4725
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On 12/17/2018 at 11:26 PM, EpicName.4523 said:

 A WALL OF TEXT INCOMING!

 

It seems you have chosen to stick to the bare minimum of the game and now you complain that you are struggling to keep up.

 

Which raid wings or bosses have you cleared? What is your fractal level? You said you have what? 8 level 80 characters? Did you try any other roles than DH?

 

Have you joined any active guild or discord community? Have you made any friends just in GW2?

 

At the end of the day, I play this game is because of the vast community of amazing and some not-so-amazing players.

 

P.s. The GW2 has a ton of bugs and issues.

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Is this post meant to make you feel better? I don't understand. Nothing will ever be perfect. No one will like everything. This is life. If you don't like something, you stop it. Easy. Ranting about it in a wall of text no one is going to bother reading makes you look like an attention seeker. There are many things I dislike about gw2, but I don't come in here to rant about them. 

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On 7/11/2021 at 4:19 PM, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

Seems someone^ read it. 

Though, why get upset and respond to 2-year old threads is head-scratching. 

You seem very overall negative. There is chance this person may return and there is chance she may read it. Since she bother to write such a long essay. And since admin has not closed this thread, anybody can write their opinion.  If you are date sensitive, don't read it if it bothers you

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