What is GW2 about?

[joneirikb.7506]

Hmm, perhaps the weirdest thing about this game is that most people will have gotten hooked on it in different ways.

I actually got hooked by the game promising Action Combat and Exploration, and that you didn't need to group up to do things. I basically bought and started playing this game like a single-player game. The game honestly promised a bit too much for its own good, but I can't complain, just walking around in the open world and finding small hidden spots, trying to look around every corner, and fight every beast took me around a year of on and off playing. It's a beautiful world and I enjoyed every single moment of it, until I hit Orr.... that place is just too ugly for me, and I hate undeads :) (Thus my first Superior Sigil was Undead Slaying!)

Then after punishing myself to finish map completion on the Orr maps, the last place I hadn't been was WvW, so I decided it had to be done. Sat down, read up on how it worked, read up on what builds worked, and geared for it. And was roadkill in 5 minutes flat, welcome to WvW prepare to die edition! But found a nice guild with some crazy roamers that could take on just about anything, tagged along and learned. Got a lot better at fighting, and really started learning my class, how to do builds, and generally how to fight. Since then the combat has been what kept me glued to the game for years afterwards.

Infact, so much that it is painful to go back to Open World Tyria again, because now I see how crazy weak those mobs are, they're not even fun as punching bags >_< So i a desperate attempt to recapture some of the feeling of old, and enjoy Tyria again, I've been trying several silly experiments. Like trying to level a Thief with no weapons (got bored at level 50), and later on leveling a Thief with no armor (currently at level 50, but just haven't bothered continuing in a while). I should probably just get around to start learning to solo dungeons instead :p That said, some of the later maps and expansions does upgrade the enemies a bit, so I at least got to pay attention, so I try to focus more on that these days.

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That said, the closest GW2 has to the invasions of Aion (barely tried the game, so don't know much about it other than what I've read), would be WvW, where 3 different servers/links battle against each others 24/7 in week long matches. This used to be my main mode for a couple of years, and I think you might find some funny stories there, similar to your experiences with Invasions.

I like "Roaming" myself, which is 1-5 players running around the map harassing the enemy, taking their resource camps, killing their scouts and Yaks (supplies), and generally trying to bring some chaos to the map. And running with a couple of guildies is lots of fun, taking towers under the enemies nose, killing twice our number, getting run over by 30+ players because they're just sick of us etc.

A story from couple of days ago: Was just walking about looking for something to do, when I see a Tower with walls down. That's usually a sign that someone is there, and usually more than 1, so was careful snuck around tried to see what was happening. Didn't see anyone....... suspicious.... Then I notice a trebuche shot from the nearby keep, ah so they're shooting down the walls in preparation for taking it back! So I sneak in, run up to the lord and start fighting him alone to take over the tower. Suddenly I notice 3 enemy players walk into the tower.... uh oh... and then go over to the wall and starting to repair it.... could I be so lucky that they haven't noticed me ? Standing on top of their tower and fighting of the lord and 3-4 veterans at the same time? Yup!

They're so busy focusing on repairing the wall against the trebuche that they don't notice me, so I get to slowly kill down the towerlord alone, and then capture the very tower they're trying to repair! Boy did they look surprised as the wall completely repairs in front of them, and suddenly all the guards starts attacking them! (Unfortunately they managed to flee before I had time to attack them!)

(2 minutes later, I walk out of the tower, and a randon Ranger rapid fire me in the back when I'm not paying attention and I die.)

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Anyways, that's some different stories of different types of things. Hope you enjoyed them.

Edit: There is actually one kind of gear progression in the game, if you're curious. But it has more to do with making different/new builds. Basically the "Soldier gear" that you got free with the level 80 booster is very tanky (Soldier = Power+, Toughness, Vitality). As you play more, and learn more about the game and combat/class/build, you might want to play more aggressive and consider buying some gear with more aggressive stats (Glasscannon = Berserker "Zerk" = Power+, Precision, Ferocity). Later on you might want to try a Condi build (dot), and might have to look at completely different stats (Dire, Rabid, Carrion, etc depending on class and type of build). And then suddenly one day you decide heck I'm going to make a Healer type of build for the laughs! And suddenly stats like Clerics/Magic/Ministrel/Apotechary etc might be tempting.

So there isn't gear progression in the usual way, but more different gear for different purposes. If you start playing WvW for example you'll really notice this, as WvW is probably the mode that uses the most different types of stats!

[MoriMoriMori.5349]

@HenzyOne.5348 said:WHAT NOW?

Ahem... Play the game, mb? I.e., like, go to any map, join some ongoing event on it, an give all red-circled stuff a good whacking? Dungeons, fractals or raids, or PvP realm could also be an option. Some people even enjoying solo-playing trough the story episodes, but don't tell anybody I've let you in on this.

If you don't see any reason and interest in doing this, then you have beaten the game, I guess, and can proceed to uninstalling it. Thank you for playing.

[MoriMoriMori.5349]

Also, this"Oo so, lets make the cash shop. This game is basically driven by chain of dopamine bursts in players heads when they success and reach their goals but... F*** it, lets give all the stuff for real money and make game really not challenging at all... but lets make it so: Takes about 2 months to get some proper gear by doing boring dailies. Lets make them suffer like drug addicts waiting their dose.

You seem to have a funny idea of what playing game is, which isn't that uncommon among MMORPG players, though. Like, that process of grinding for something constitutes a core gameplay :) So, full disclosure: this game is totally not about getting better gear, or grinding for something. It's quite opposite to this, it's skill based (or tries to pose as one, as most of OpenWorld doesn't require that much skill, except getting some meta-build from Internet and learning how to use it). So the only achievement you can hope to achieve here is mastering your character. The good part of it is that you can start doing this right away, at least in PvP where you are granted with fully unlocked character, you don't even need to level it. You still need to develop it quite a bit in PvE. And btw 80 lvl boost doesn't unlock elite specializations, so all what you've got is fully unlocked core profession so far, which is mostly nothing (core professions are mostly played for fun these days, elites are way, way better). You still have a long grinding road ahead of you, if that's what you wish for.

But again: this game is about gameplay, mostly. You go there, explore maps, get involved into different events going on on each of it, complete story chapters and dungeons, and finally mb starting to run Fractals/Dungeons (end-game PvE content), or go into PvP.

You still can grind for gear, in form of crafting Legendary armor/weapons, but those are cosmetics-only, they are not better mechanically than ascended. And btw ascended gear is only really needed for high-tier Fractals, it's not that much better than exotic and the main reason of getting it is infusion slots which are required to survive there (artificial gate, mostly, to create a sense of progression).

You can still have your share of grind as well, if you really want to. But the important part is that no grinding is required if you want to just play a game, unlike many other MMORPG. Except ascended gear, you are not forced to grind for anything.