Guild Wars 2 Roll Call

[Cecil]

Good then I have a watercooled 3960X. 

[frunk]

So is there an American server we are looking to get on?

I'm on Henge of Denravi right now.  I have a couple of friends here, but nothing tying us to it.

[Martinus]

I think I am going to go with a guardian as my first toon.  Not sure about my crafting skills yet.

You do not lose the skill level when you abandon a crafting skill and then pick it up again - you just pay a fee (gold, not gems).

[Syt]

Good then I have a watercooled 3960X. 

You're so incredibly awesome, I guess?

[Martinus]

Anyway, this game is fucking awesome. I made to level 13 on my guardian (guys, discover new stuff with crafting - it gives ton of xp!) and made it to a Heartwood outspot in the Southern Queensdale. First we helped to clear it out of centaurs, then troops arrived and started to secure the perimeter. We then had to defend it against incoming centaur counterattack.

I was the highest level there and with my great sword I really brought death and destruction on centaurs - but then was stricken down by the chieftain. So noob ranger and engineer riskes their lives to come and revive me during the combat. 

They really managed to capture a very rpgish experience with this game. Cities feel like cities, villages like villages, battles like battles - it's not all "put two buildings and pretend" like it was in WoW.

[Martinus]

Btw, another awesome thing - you can freely access your bank at crafting stations - no need to run back and forth between the bank and the forge etc. Just remember, when crafting, to put the relevant stuff in your backpack (the crafting stuff is under the collections tab when you are at the crafting station).

And discovery is very fun and easy. For example, I'm a weaponsmith on my guardian, so I know how to make a simple bronze sword (it takes bronze hilt and a bronze blade). So discovery works like this: you put a bronze hilt and a bronze blade in the discovery slots and add a rune (e.g. a rune of vitality) - and voila, you discover a recipe for a sword of vitality. This gives you very good equipment (the stuff I craft is routinely better or on par with the the stuff you get from quests or drops), you get more than 1 skill point and you get a shit ton of xp (I got 1000xp or so per discovery).

[Martinus]

Oh and in case you didn't notice - if you go to a newbie area, your level is decreased to the max level for that area, and you get normal (for your actual, not decreased, level) xp and loot from there. So if you want to complete some achievements etc. don't worry if you outgrow the level of the area. Same if you want to help a friend who is a lower level (each of you will be getting different loot).

This morning I went to the cliff area near Shaemoor (where you fight earth elementals and harpies occassionally attack). I was scaled down to level 5 (the gear scales down with you, so you can still equip stuff usable from, say, level 8, it just works like the best gear available at level 5) and harpies dropped for example a hammer usable from level 12. 

This game is seriously a WoW killer. WoW took EQ2 and cut down all the annoying, bad crap in it by reinventing itself. GW2 did the same to WoW.

[Eddie Teach]

This game is seriously a WoW killer.

Says the level 13. 

[Martinus]

The way I see it, even if this game had no dungeons, and just world content like this, I would still like it better than WoW.

[Eddie Teach]

It's not just that you haven't seen the endgame that makes your conclusion premature. It's that you've barely played the game. It's fresh and new right now, but does it have the hooks to keep you playing six months from now, or six years from now?

Anyway, the "WoW Killer" is not a different game. It's Time.

[Martinus]

It's not just that you haven't seen the endgame that makes your conclusion premature. It's that you've barely played the game. It's fresh and new right now, but does it have the hooks to keep you playing six months from now, or six years from now?

Anyway, the "WoW Killer" is not a different game. It's Time.

Well, I never was a big fan of end-game - I'm more of a completionist/altoholic type of player. And GW2 has no raiding in the sense WoW does, for example.

[crazy canuck]

It's not just that you haven't seen the endgame that makes your conclusion premature. It's that you've barely played the game. It's fresh and new right now, but does it have the hooks to keep you playing six months from now, or six years from now?

Anyway, the "WoW Killer" is not a different game. It's Time.

They have fixed a lot of what was wrong with MMOs.  It makes WoW look very old, not necessarily because of the content but because of the game mechanics.  It might not be a WoW killer but it should be.

[crazy canuck]

Oh, and an Engineer with a heavy shotgun is a hoot!

[Berkut]

I've got my Ranger up to about 8 or so. It is a lot of fun, and some refreshing mechanical changes. I am curious to see what grouping will be like.

CC, are you really so annoyed at the soccer thing that you don't want to play with American languishites?

[Syt]

Things I really like about the mechanics so far:
- Fast travel which deserves the name. Worst offender IMHO was SWTOR which has you go to your ship, fly to a planet, run through an orbital station, take the shuttle down, run through the ground base to a taxi and then alt-tab during the looong taxi rides. All on game time for which you paid, of course. Fast travel only once per hour, and only on the same planet. Quick travel to faction capital (fleet) only once every 16 hours(!).
- Crafting: meatier than the usual fare, but not overwhelmingly so (think Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, which turned crafting into a multi-round minigame).
- No skill/traits spam. No dozens of skills spread out over three quick bars.


I'm still trying to get the hang of combat with my warrior. So far I like dual axes and greatswords best, skillwise, though axe/mace is also a fun combination. I've started skilling all available weapons and try out combinations to see what works best for me. Underwater combat is pure chaos, but not near as bad as the original quest in the Night Elf starting area where you have to fight hordes of Murloc, under water, in a shipwreck, while struggling not to drown.

I'm having a good time "completing" the maps, i.e. get to all vistas, visit all points of interests, etc. It's something that was sorely missing in SWTOR or STO. AOC had some of it, but not quite as big, I think.