So I'm getting a bit bored with WoW, but with the expansion only two months away, this may change. But now, in about a month, Guild Wars 2 is getting released too. Which one do you think would be a better game? I saw some gameplay videos of GW2 and it is going the same old annoying route as "realistic graphics but really crap" games did in the past but perhaps I don't know enough about it.
Or are there other good MMORPGs out there that I should try (they must be in a fantasy setting though, so no Star Wars please) - but I can't stand sloppy delivery - it must be the same quality as WoW.
Guild Wars intrigues me just a little because of the no subscription thing.
You are rich enough that you probably don;t care about that though.
What I like about Guild Wars 2 is that apparently each class can perform each of the three roles (tank, healer, dps) depending on the spec chosen. So you could be an Elementalist (equivalent of a Mage, broadly speaking), but if you specialize in Air or Fire, you are dps dealer, when you specialize in Earth you are a tank and when you specialize in Water, you are a healer - and on top of that you can be both melee or ranged dps.
In WoW, the choice was usually between the two classes that can perform all roles (paladins and druids) but are much more boring to play, than the "specializing" classes. But if some class concept speaks to you lore wise (e.g. I always liked the idea of a Mage in WoW), but it does not allow for a certain role, you are screwed/confined to the prescribed role.
I understand you are gay, dude, but there is being gay, and there is paying money so you can play as a PANDA.
Quote from: Tamas on July 26, 2012, 03:25:03 AM
I understand you are gay, dude, but there is being gay, and there is paying money so you can play as a PANDA.
I wouldn't be making a panda character, but they are overhauling talents and of course it's new content. Still, as I said, I am out to try something new, it's just that everything else so far (e.g. I was really into WAR, conceptually) has been sub par.
Seems to me then GW2 would be more to your liking. Few friends who have been in beta really like it, but unlike Marti i'm comfortable enough with my sexuality that I will be playing a Panda as liking the Monk tanking spec. :P
I would have a couple of friends to join in GW2, but I have made a sacred vow to not play any more MMOs, ever. Hard to resist, but I must!
Quote from: katmai on July 26, 2012, 03:43:13 AM
Seems to me then GW2 would be more to your liking. Few friends who have been in beta really like it, but unlike Marti i'm comfortable enough with my sexuality that I will be playing a Panda as liking the Monk tanking spec. :P
I think all races can be a monk so that's not a justification. :P
He's a Pablo Sandoval fanboi. :P
Quote from: Martinus on July 26, 2012, 03:55:13 AM
Quote from: katmai on July 26, 2012, 03:43:13 AM
Seems to me then GW2 would be more to your liking. Few friends who have been in beta really like it, but unlike Marti i'm comfortable enough with my sexuality that I will be playing a Panda as liking the Monk tanking spec. :P
I think all races can be a monk so that's not a justification. :P
All but Worgen and Goblin.
But of all the races would have to be Dwarf or Panda to follow lore of a Brewmaster :P
@ Syt Darn Tooting!
This is a writeup I did for my friends after the first Beta Weekend in April. I've added any changes in my thinking following the two other Beta Weekends in Italics.
I focused on PvE and crafting. If you want opinions on PvP and WvW you'll have to find other places for that. The quicky coverage on those is you can freely flip between the three formats, and here are the specifics:
PvP: Character auto-leveled to max (80) with full skills, appropriate equipment. Fighting in XvX (5v5 typically) 15 minute or 500 point maps, usually scored by capturing/holding locations and by kills.
WvW: Character auto-leveled to max (80) but with same skills and equipment as PvE. Massive struggle between three worlds, supporting hundreds of players on each side. Neutral locations to take and hold, worlds doing well give benefit to PvE players. After X weeks world matchups are reshufffled based on performance. I dabbled in WvW during the last beta weekend, and it was a hell of a lot of fun. I got to participate in an attack on the central keep. We got all the way to the main tower, but were eventually repulsed by not only the defenders but the third team that was also attacking.
Connection with the first Guild Wars - This is basically a completely different game. The first Guild Wars was almost all instanced/party based content. They provided henchmen and heroes so you could solo but except for some highly specialized builds you could not go out as a single character against even moderately difficult content. GW features a massive, massive, massive number of different skills and skill combinations, auto-targeting and at this point fairly antiquated graphics. It has a low level cap (20) that with dedicated play from some of the expansions could be reached within a weekend. After that the real game begins as you acquire and experiment with different skills and combinations both with yourself and your fellow players/heroes. GW2 leaves all that behind, pruning the number of skills way back, raising the level cap to 80 and opening up the game to a more traditional open world MMO environment. The connection between GW and GW2 is primarily through the story/background, strong support for PvP, some of the classes and some of the skills.
General Overview - Movement is through the standard keyboard directions/strafing. Right click hold and move if you want to drive by mouse. Equipment is all pretty straightforward, in addition to the base effect (damage for weapons, defense for armor) it can have attribute or effect benefits, with one additional upgrade slot. If you are knocked out in combat you have a limited amount of time to try to recover, generally by killing an enemy. If you fail to do this you are defeated and have to pop back to a waypoint or wait for someone else to come along and revive you. This also damages one piece of equipment. If all of your equipment is already damaged then one piece becomes unwearable. Damaged equipment can be repaired for a small fee.
You can have up to 10 skills at any one time (bound at start to 0-9), plus up to 4 class abilities (F1-F4). All skills except racial or other bonus ones are specific to the class. The first 5 skills are tied to your weapon/weapons. If you just picked up the weapon type you will only have the first skill available. Use of the skill will rapidly unlock the others, so it's more of a tutorial than a grind. I had all the skills for all of my weapons (except the underwater) unlocked by 10th level. All other skills can be picked from a selection of purchased (using skill points) ones. Skill 6 is a heal skill, 7-9 are utility and unlock at 10, 15 and 20. Skill 0 is the elite skill which doesn't unlock until level 30. Note that PvP has all skills unlocked automatically. Using skills is easy, just click the key. If you are out of range from the target it will miss. If the skill is projectile based and there's another target between you and the intended it will hit them instead. AoE skills will give you an overlay to place the effect where you want and will appear white lined. Enemy AoEs are red lined. More powerful skills will frequently have an activation time, during which they can be canceled prematurely for either a reduced or no effect.
PvE:
Questing and Events - There are a few different types of quests and events. There are heart quests, with each one requiring you to perform a variety of different tasks. You can do any of the tasks in any proportion, it doesn't matter, and you can pick up at a later point if you leave the area with no lost progress. Once you achieve it you are done with the heart quest and receive payment in your mailbox (always check your mailbox). Interspersed amongst these heart quests are dynamic events that you can participate in. They vary as widely as the heart quests, from delivery runs to eliminating enemies to destroying enemy supplies, whatever. The difference is that depending on how successfully the event is prosecuted, things will change in the world. Caravan shipment doesn't get through? The fort might come under attack from emboldened bandits. If the bandits aren't repulsed the fort might be taken over. There's a dynamic nature to the game because of this, and although the event chains come back around again on a somewhat short cycle you usually are advanced enough by that point that it doesn't matter too much. In addition you have your personal story, which you pursue in parallel. Personal story events appear to be strictly instanced, and is a more standard quest chain.
Player Environment - The world is big and spacious but felt small in some particulars. I was able to explore and complete most of the newb (lvl 1-15) and next to newb (lvl 15-25) areas for the human area, with a quick dabble in the norn as well. Didn't get to the Charr, and at release there will also be Asura and Sylvari areas as well. What was notable was how many hidden and difficult to reach areas there are about. There's whole tunnels and secret passages that if you aren't looking for them you won't find. I didn't get to any dungeons, but I think the first one isn't available until level 30 anyway, and I'm not sure it was open during this beta. There isn't a level limit for most content, if you wander into a high level area you'll probably get killed quick. On the other side you do get downleveled if you travel to lower level areas. This works better than I thought it would. You still are way more powerful than a regular player, since your equipment and skills are generally better, but the content isn't a complete walkover. I'm sure the same will apply to WvW despite everyone being level 80. During the third beta weekend over the two days I completed exploring the two Asura starting areas and the Asuran city, which registered as 8% of the total world. This doesn't count finding any of the many hidden areas, dungeons, the dynamic events that I missed or jumping puzzles (yes, jumping puzzles). So that's completing about 4% a day of the regular PvE content at a "weekend spent playing" pace. If GW2 was your 8 hour a day job I think you could get through all of this PvE content in about 25 days. The world is big.
Player Interaction - Even in PvE the game is built around player interaction, and yet it doesn't require it. The more players around the bigger and tougher events become. Events (especially mobile events) have a way of attracting people, and soon you'll have a sizable mob of otherwise unconnected people working together. Having people around to revive you when you are defeated helps tremendously, and even gives them a small xp reward. A number of times I was defeated and was fiddling around with my inventory before jumping back to the waypoint, and someone would come along and revive me. I did it myself, when you see the skull and crossbones come up on the minimap it's fun to go and help them out. All item drops are bound to a specific player, so there's no fighting over loot. In fact the only resource that is ever fought over between players are some of the heart quest items, but there's usually plenty around for you to do something else.
Crafting - Making items is fairly easy and intuitive once you get the basic logic of it. A given item requires 1-3 other items to be combined, as well as possibly an inscription. The more crafting you do in a given discipline you get more experience, eventually leading to better items. The basic ingredients for crafting can either be gathered out in the world, salvaged from drops or purchased from craftsmen. Most items require some of the first two, and occasionally a little of the third. Your crafting level for a given item should be (your level-10)*5. You get goodies at crafting levels 0,25,50,75,100, etc for player level 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, etc. I was able to stay ahead without dipping into the trade market until the end when I decided to to see how far I could get. I got to crafting level 108 with a 23rd level character by buying a bit from the market. You are encouraged to experiment to find new recipes, although most of them are pretty straightforward. Others can be purchased from merchants.
The Cash Market - The only mandatory cost to the game is buying a copy of it. There's no monthly fee (same as Guild Wars). They do have micro-transactions, but they are doing it in an interesting way. You can buy Gems from Arena-Net for cash, which you can use to buy cosmetic changes/mildly helpful bonuses from the Gem Shop. Alternatively you can trade the Gems to other players for the in game currency. Effectively everything in the Gem Shop is available to everybody, if you are willing to pay game currency to another player for the Gems.
The Good:
The game is gorgeous. I lost count of the number of times I stopped to look around at the scenery, even though I have the graphics option set to the minimum. It reminds me of Eve Online back when it first came out in how the visuals just took your breath away. In particular the underwater areas are great, beautiful shading and the extra mystery/danger of three dimensions.
The game is endlessly engaging without a whiff of grind. You advance and gain skills but it's organic and wrapped with doing fun things, like squishing wasp nests to help out a farmer, or rescuing another random player from fishmen.
Grouping doesn't feel forced or difficult, and it definitely doesn't require guilds or other social structures. It just happens because you are both in the same area and help is welcome. If you later separate that's fine too.
The (Potentially) Bad: Other than some minor bugs I didn't find any flaws that bothered me to a great extent. Considering this is still beta it's rather impressive. Still, things worry me.
The great aspects of grouping may end up being the game's great failing. Large groups of players zerging across the landscape is a pretty unstoppable force, and there's very little downside to joining the herd. Other than you really can't tell what you are doing, what anyone else is doing or what is going on except the rewards being racked up. There needs to be at least some pressure to pry players apart when they get like that, either by reducing the overwhelming power of large groups, making 'friendly fire' an issue or having events that require attention in multiple locations when the group gets big enough. As it was I'd join these large (20+ players) groups to take down difficult positions, but generally preferred staying away from them so I could tell what the hell was going on. I didn't see nearly as much of this in the second and third beta weekends. I don't know if I got better at avoiding the zergs or they just tended not to form as much. There were still plenty of people around to group up with, just not huge blobs
I know I'm coming from the GW background where figuring out your party's build is a large part of the fun, but it does feel like there isn't as much skill variety as I hoped for. Admittedly, compared to most MMOs it's probably a reasonable number, but GW was a haven for wildly divergent skill builds that did all sorts of crazy things. I don't see this in GW 2. Now that I've gotten used to the combat system and played a few more classes it feels like there's room for different builds. A lot of the customizing of your character isn't in the skills but in the traits/equipment that you use to enhance your skills.
Related to this, I'm worried about the lack of skill variety between 30 (when elite skills are unlocked) and 80 (max level). I'm sure you'll gradually unlock all the skills, but since you can do that in any order and it seems like skill points are easy to come by I think you'll start with the most interesting and work your way down. Which means the early skills will get more use than the later ones, which means it'll probably take active effort to avoid getting stuck in a rut as far as your character build. This has been mitigated by having skill groups, where the more expensive/better skills aren't available until you buy a certain number of cheaper skills. I think it helps.
Many thanks, frunk. I have since read a bit about the game and this seems like a step forward in many ways, compared to WoW (the interactive "quests", character creation etc. all sound like so much fun). The "only" way this game could suck compared to WoW if the delivery of all the new ideas was faulty (something WAR suffered from). But I hope they pull it out. I will be definitely getting it.
I think one of the best parts of the dynamic events is the feeling that in certain parts of the land world changing events are happening where others are just sleepy backwaters. One of the human cities in the ~30th level range would regularly get attacked by centaurs. If the centaurs win they would take over. At that point there is another dynamic event to take the city back from the centaurs. If nobody (or nobodies, I doubt a single person could pull off taking it back, I tried) comes along to kick them out they'll stay there indefinitely. If the players do kick them out then there's following events to weaken the centaurs to stop them from attacking again (destroying catapults/supplies, defeating leaders). If those aren't successfully prosecuted the centaurs will attack again in short order, otherwise it could be several hours before they show up again. Some of the shorter dynamic events can cycle back 2-3 times in an hour, longer ones like this one will recur only 2-3 times a day. I noticed increasing numbers of longer term events as I went up in level, which builds an epic feel.
Very late in the last beta I was almost finished with the second Asuran area. I just had a stronghold of Inquest (evil Asuran) to clear out. They were 2-3 levels higher than I was. I could probably do it but I decided to explore the southwest corner of the map first. I found this weird region with a glowing sky and animals/monsters popping in and out of existence with flashes of white light. Every once in a while the monsters would stick around long enough to attack me, but it was manageable (if unsettling). In the middle of this region I found a deactivated golem (Asuran robot servant) sitting there. I powered him up and it engaged some "secondary protocol" declaring that it would attack the Inquest! I followed my robot buddy right back to the stronghold and kicked their asses in short order, joined by a couple other people who were drawn in by this newly created event.
There's a lot of depth to the game. I started out lukewarm after the first few hours of the first beta, but as I played the world opened up and I didn't want to stop.
Damn, I have been looking at videos from GW2 and while I like a lot of concepts discussed, I have the same problem with so many MMORPGs before - the graphics is just weird and annoying. I am not saying it is not pretty, but all these games that go for pseudo-realistic graphics (unlike WoW) end up with wonky animations - it's as if something was always off; I don't know really how exactly to describe it, but it's as if every character was a paper doll and not really "connecting" against the background/ground they are running on - it looks so artificial.
Blizzard, with WoW, somehow nailed it - the characters look like they are a part of the environment - in the videos of GW2 I have seen they don't. It's really annoying to me (I know that it was in many other games) so I am not sure I can live with it.
Hmm, the WoW characters may be better blended into the environment, but they've always struck me as looking very fake and artificial overall. It think it's likely a question of what you are used to.
Yeah could be. Also, some videos do not look bad so this could be settings issue. I will definitely be giving it a try, anyway. Probably playing a Human Guardian as my first character.
Ok I gotta say, I watched more gameplay videos and withdraw all my earlier criticism. This game looks amazing. Now I can't wait. It could be what WAR was supposed to be but failed to deliver.
I'll probably be starting with a Ranger, but I had a hell of a lot of fun with the Elementalist as well. I struggled with the Mesmer and Necromancer, but I want to try all the professions. The Mesmer is great for confusing yourself, as it is easy to mistake the clones that you create for other players (which I guess is the point).
I'm now in the full fanboi overdrive mode. I preordered the deluxe digital edition of the game and already bought the first of the trilogy of most likely crappy novels that introduce the world (they are available on iPad bookstore). If there was a t-shirt I'd get it. :blush:
Liked what I've seen so far about Guardian gameplay, so still gonna play a Human Guardian as my first character.
I know quite a few people in game in WoW who are going to make the switch. Personally, the lore doesn't overly appeal to me from what I've read. It makes me wish that LotRO was more to my liking and had a larger rp community. That's about the only MMORPG that I'd give another try to. Do report back with your findings though.
Quote from: Martinus on July 30, 2012, 02:36:17 AM
If there was a t-shirt I'd get it. :blush:
http://www.guildwars2forum.com/threads/5145-Guild-Wars-2-T-Shirts-Are-Coming-(2012-07-05) (http://www.guildwars2forum.com/threads/5145-Guild-Wars-2-T-Shirts-Are-Coming-(2012-07-05))
Quote from: Benedict Arnold on July 30, 2012, 01:28:17 PM
I know quite a few people in game in WoW who are going to make the switch. Personally, the lore doesn't overly appeal to me from what I've read. It makes me wish that LotRO was more to my liking and had a larger rp community. That's about the only MMORPG that I'd give another try to. Do report back with your findings though.
I agree the lore itself isn't that exciting, pretty standard heroic fantasy stuff. If you've played Guild Wars you do get a thrill of seeing echoes of the previous game, but without that context there isn't much to excite when reading up on it. In fact one of the big questions left after the three betas is how deep the PvE content is. There's only hints of what the upper level content will be like.
In the betas I've played they've filled out the world pretty thoroughly. Normally the start cities aren't that interesting in and of themselves. The Human, Norn and Asura cities (the ones I've explored) are completely different from each other and thoroughly fun from top to bottom. I spent a couple of hours exploring each one and gawking at the visual spectacle. As you walk you'll hear snippets of conversation from the street vendors or pedestrians, and it isn't like a street urchin at one location will say the same thing as one in a different part of the city. These cities are quite large too, bigger than some of the PvE zones. Just like the PvE zones there's also plenty of hidden points of interest to discover. It's that attention to detail that has me hopeful that the content I haven't seen will receive the same care.
Hmm, despite the Marti taint I might have to look at getting this.
Quote from: crazy canuck on July 30, 2012, 05:11:10 PM
Hmm, despite the Marti taint I might have to look at getting this.
I just might too, if I can find the time (and if it runs on my old laptop).
Between it not holding any interest and it's release during the fair means i'll be passing on GW2.
Quote from: frunk on July 30, 2012, 04:34:48 PM
Quote from: Benedict Arnold on July 30, 2012, 01:28:17 PM
I know quite a few people in game in WoW who are going to make the switch. Personally, the lore doesn't overly appeal to me from what I've read. It makes me wish that LotRO was more to my liking and had a larger rp community. That's about the only MMORPG that I'd give another try to. Do report back with your findings though.
I agree the lore itself isn't that exciting, pretty standard heroic fantasy stuff. If you've played Guild Wars you do get a thrill of seeing echoes of the previous game, but without that context there isn't much to excite when reading up on it. In fact one of the big questions left after the three betas is how deep the PvE content is. There's only hints of what the upper level content will be like.
In the betas I've played they've filled out the world pretty thoroughly. Normally the start cities aren't that interesting in and of themselves. The Human, Norn and Asura cities (the ones I've explored) are completely different from each other and thoroughly fun from top to bottom. I spent a couple of hours exploring each one and gawking at the visual spectacle. As you walk you'll hear snippets of conversation from the street vendors or pedestrians, and it isn't like a street urchin at one location will say the same thing as one in a different part of the city. These cities are quite large too, bigger than some of the PvE zones. Just like the PvE zones there's also plenty of hidden points of interest to discover. It's that attention to detail that has me hopeful that the content I haven't seen will receive the same care.
Have you played GW1, and if so, how does it compare to GW2, graphics/animation-wise?
I installed GW1 yesterday to get some of the hall of fame whatchamacallit bonuses for my GW2 character, and the animations/camera was too quick for me, giving me a bit of motion sickness. The characters also felt like paper-dolls with no weight to them when attacking etc. Is that different in GW2?
Quote from: Martinus on July 31, 2012, 04:29:17 AM
Have you played GW1, and if so, how does it compare to GW2, graphics/animation-wise?
I installed GW1 yesterday to get some of the hall of fame whatchamacallit bonuses for my GW2 character, and the animations/camera was too quick for me, giving me a bit of motion sickness. The characters also felt like paper-dolls with no weight to them when attacking etc. Is that different in GW2?
I have played GW. They are completely different games, other than them both being skill based, wsad movement. In GW many of the skills require you to be standing still while activating (or will stop your movement if you are currently moving). In GW2 movement is not only possible while using most skills it's recommended. GW allows you to double click on a target (or spacebar/activate a skill after having them selected) and you will move toward the target until your weapon is in range of them. At which point it will use its auto-attack. In GW2 selecting a target doesn't do anything until you activate a skill, and if the skill isn't in range (indicated by the color underneath the skill) it'll miss.
The animations and effects are a lot more dramatic in GW2 as well. I think your paper-doll concern isn't an issue in GW2 as targets do respond to being hit, giving a feel of impact. There are plenty of youtube videos that show combat so you can get an idea of that kind of thing. Motion sickness? I don't know, never experienced that in GW. The max zoom out distance in GW2 is less than GW. I don't know if that would make it better or worse. You could tweak your mouse sensitivity to slow down the camera.
Yeah, I think slowing the camera turns and zooming in a bit should help the motion sickness problems.
One bit of trivia on GW shocked me. Do you know how much downtime they've had in the past 7+ years?
32 hours, 24 of which when they physically moved their servers to a new location. I don't think it's completely fair to compare the downtime to say WoW, since GW is so heavily instanced. Still, look at Diablo 3, effectively an instanced online game, and they regularly have hours of downtime every couple of weeks. I've experienced patch days with GW, it goes quite smoothly. The client actually downloads the patch behind the scenes while you are still playing. In-game they give you a warning 5-10 minutes before you need to restart, at which point if you haven't restarted it kicks you out and you jump right back in again. The betas in GW2 were similar.
For those that like waiting in lines, there won't be any queuing to get into the game. If a given zone has too many people you are put into an overflow zone of the exact same content (although obviously different people). One of the biggest bugs in the early betas was getting the overflows to work right with player parties, but they straightened that out.
Ok, enough homerism.
MoP pre-ordered. :cool:
Quote from: Caliga on August 02, 2012, 09:02:26 PM
MoP pre-ordered. :cool:
Holding off on Pre ordering as might be off at work when games comes out.
GW2's release is one month ahead of MoP so will preorder MoP only if it turns out GW2 sucks.
This (http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1058358-Guild-Wars-2-Mass-info-for-the-uninitiated-READ-ME) is probably the most comprehensive single post on GW2 I've seen.
:D
If GW2 does not suck, Blizzard could be in big trouble.
Some rumblings as such with the subscriptions dropping to 9million and vivendi trying to sell activision.
Quote from: katmai on August 04, 2012, 02:03:10 AM
Some rumblings as such with the subscriptions dropping to 9million and vivendi trying to sell activision.
I read somewhere that 90-95% of Blizzard's revenue comes from WoW subscription fees. If that cash cow goes, it's gonna hurt.
It's not like it's going to disappear overnight. I'm fairly certain they're already quite deep into a successor of some form or other.
Quote from: katmai on August 04, 2012, 02:03:10 AM
Some rumblings as such with the subscriptions dropping to 9million and vivendi trying to sell activision.
Vivendi's been trying to sell for a while, probably due to other financial problems rather than difficulties at activision.
In game screenshots (https://www.guildwars2.com/en/community-news/the-envelope-please-announcing-the-winners-of-the-moment-to-moment-screenshot-contest/) from the latest beta weekend.
Quote from: frunk on August 04, 2012, 09:02:20 AM
In game screenshots (https://www.guildwars2.com/en/community-news/the-envelope-please-announcing-the-winners-of-the-moment-to-moment-screenshot-contest/) from the latest beta weekend.
I really like that the zoom level one plays at is closer than in Guild Wars - I think, largely, this is the reason I don't like some of the other games - the zoom out is so far, the character looks small and unrealistic.
Someone says Blizzard is "in trouble" every time a new mmo launches. Prediction: after one-two weeks of playing you'll complain of motion sickness or some such nonsense and you will be a Panda bear.
I participated in the stress test today and this game is really amazing. Plus no dizziness. I'm in. :bowler:
Ok, so this game is really fun, based on the 2+ hours I was able to play yesterday.
frunk already did a good summary so I will just list some key features that stand out compared to WoW:
- most quests on the main map are essentially "join as you go" - there are no questgivers etc. of any kind - as you approach the relevant location (e.g. a field overrun by giant worms), you get a message that you are supposed to kill them and there is a bar filling up to show your progress - everyone in the area who contributes helps you fill the bar;
- from a WoW perspective, you are pretty much assumed to be in the party with all players in vicinity - your buffs and heals affect them, your protection aegis protects them, when someone near you is "downed" (see below) the game alerts you to it and lets you heal them;
- when you are "killed", you don't die/respawn immediately, but are "downed" which allows you to actually pull yourself up/kill enemies around you with a limited number of damage and self-heal abilities; if you are still overcome, you respawn at the nearest waypoint;
- the map is filled with waypoints and travel to them is instanteous - e.g. if you click on a waypoint that you previously visited on the map, you pay a small fee and are immediately teleported to it - so no more heartstone with just one place to teleport to - there is also no cooldown;
- speaking of the map, the game caters to "explorer/achiever" type of player more than any other MMORPG I played - the map is filled with "points of interest" and "vistas" which give you xp points/achievements for finding them, with a small cutscene (usually showing the location from a bird's view or some such) as a reward;
- cities are... well... cities, not small amusement parks pretending to be cities; the human capital, Divinity's Reach, is huge, filled with people who go about their business, talk etc.;
- the "events" quests are fun, especially as players from the whole area are alerted and come to help - so you have this horde of players for example escorting a courier between two outposts, while centaurs attack etc.;
- personal story quests are a different beast - they essentially are completed in instanced locations, so it's not that you have 20 other players in the same area who are also looking for their long lost sister or crap like that - essentially, the game balances this pretty nicely - you are surrounded by other people most of the time, but in your personal quest you are alone (though I suspect you could have your actual party members join);
- no more "not enough action bars" which I love - you get lots of skills but they are grouped into categories and you can only use that much at a given time (specifically, you get 5 skills that are directly affected by your weapon - for example my guardian gets direct damage and aoe damage spells when wielding a 2-handed hammer, but more protective and healing stuff when wielding a mace and a shield - these weapon skills are immutable, i.e. they only change when you equip different weapons); you then get one slot for a healing spell (out of 3 - usually, but depending on the class, some sort of powerful self-heal, weaker aoe heal etc.); three skills selected from 30 which are mainly influenced by class (you learn these skills with xp points but you can essentially end up buying all - but you can only use 3 at a given time); and one skill that is "elite" racial or class skill (which is very powerful, from maybe 5 or 6 available to each class/race combination - e.g. Norn can change into animals or stuff);
- combat is very dynamic, hardly any spell requires you to stand still, except when it makes sense (e.g. my guardian, when using a shield, can cast this huge "magic barrier" dome around him when he just kneels on the ground and protects all allies in the radius - he can't move while doing so), you can dodge, roll on the ground, jump and whatnot;
- animation is very smooth (and I'm playing this on my iMac with Windows installed through bootcamp, so nothing fancy), and the characters are big enough not to seem weird; and the graphics is very pretty, with a stylized water colour look rather than being "pseudo-realistic";
- everything is accessible on the road (except for vendors, I think) - so you can put items on AH from anywhere in the world; you can respec/change your skills etc;
All in all, I think for the first time since the launch of WoW, I found a game that would make me switch. From previous games, if you liked the graphics of LotRO, but were annoyed by the game mechanics being too "old style MMORPG", this is the game for you.
Quote from: Martinus on August 10, 2012, 02:44:37 AM
- when you are "killed", you don't die/respawn immediately, but are "downed" which allows you to actually pull yourself up/kill enemies around you with a limited number of damage and self-heal abilities; if you are still overcome, you respawn at the nearest waypoint;
Even if you are fully defeated and asked to respawn you can still be revived by another player if you are willing to wait.
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- the map is filled with waypoints and travel to them is instanteous - e.g. if you click on a waypoint that you previously visited on the map, you pay a small fee and are immediately teleported to it - so no more heartstone with just one place to teleport to - there is also no cooldown;
Travel by waypoint inside of cities is free, but otherwise the cost increases as the distance increases. From some of the major cities there are also Asura Gates which are free to use and take you to other far away locations. Access to PvP or WvW can be done through these Asura Gates (if you want to stay in character) or by a menu item in the top left.
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- personal story quests are a different beast - they essentially are completed in instanced locations, so it's not that you have 20 other players in the same area who are also looking for their long lost sister or crap like that - essentially, the game balances this pretty nicely - you are surrounded by other people most of the time, but in your personal quest you are alone (though I suspect you could have your actual party members join);
Yes, they can. The personal story is also completely optional to do. You can ignore it and play the whole rest of the game instead.
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- everything is accessible on the road (except for vendors, I think) - so you can put items on AH from anywhere in the world; you can respec/change your skills etc;
Vendors, cross character storage areas and crafting stations aren't available anywhere. You also have a crafting storage area. In your inventory there's a dropdown where you can place all of your crafting items in this storage area. It means you almost never have to go back just because you run out of inventory space.
There's another stress tonight from 7-11 pm EST.
QuoteVendors, cross character storage areas and crafting stations aren't available anywhere. You also have a crafting storage area. In your inventory there's a dropdown where you can place all of your crafting items in this storage area. It means you almost never have to go back just because you run out of inventory space.
Oh didn't know that - I ran out of inventory space yesterday. :blush:
In any case, as travel is instanteous and waypoints are frequent, going back to the city to sell and back to the waypoint to continue questing is not a problem.
QuoteThere's another stress tonight from 7-11 pm EST.
Yeah I know. I'm debating whether to stay up or not (it starts at 1 a.m. my time).
Anyways, if anyone is going to be on the stress test, feel free to drop my character a line - the name is Duncan Montray.
I'll be on the US servers, so I don't think we can really talk. I don't remember what my character name is in-game for the betas/stress.
Another Stress Test today from 2-3 pm EST.
Quote from: frunk on August 12, 2012, 07:43:09 AM
Another Stress Test today from 2-3 pm EST.
Yeah. Pity it's only one hour.
I played an elementalist a bit but prefer the playstyle of a guardian.
Here's he, Duncan Montray, defender of Divinity's Reach. :nerd:
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg707.imageshack.us%2Fimg707%2F1562%2Fgw003xa.jpg&hash=db75231dd97638dd2b4aa4eab2b286d7b8958e1a)
With all the MoP changes I just noticed you can rename your pets in WoW now. I now have a pet penguin named Peter North. :showoff: