Help me understand what everyone loves about Guild Wars 2!

[wastaz]

I'm a longtime gamer who has spent a lot of time in different MMO's. Don't worry, this post is not going to turn into one of those "hidden bashing of another MMO"-threads, at least that's not my intent.

My current love is the secret world, mostly because I love the lore, setting and (very important) the levling system. I love the levling system. It's like a game within a game and it makes me all warm inside just thinking about it (*cough* ..time to get back to the point...)

I also thought Guild Wars 1 was awesome, choosing two classes...combining skills...trying to optimize strange combinations and creating wonderful concoctions of strangeness.

My girlfriend is still getting into gaming, she was totally hooked on Skyrim for like 300+ hours and I've been feeding her some bioware games and so on. A couple of days ago she told me about this awesome game she'd heard about and how she wanted to get a gaming rig so she could play it and join a guild and so on and so on. This made me really happy, since I might finally get to actually play a game _with_ her, since she's been more into the single-player games before.

However, it turns out she was talking about Guild Wars 2.
Now, I bought GW2 on the release day. It looked awesome. And I tried playing it. But I just could not get into it. I've been reading reviews about it, people talking about it etc... and everyone seems to love it! I mean, I can see that this game is expertly done. The sound and graphics are awesome, the mechanics that discourages griefing is a blessing, the story seems to be at least "not bad", the crafting actually seems like something I'd like to play around with, it at least _seems_ balanced though I can't say I've played long enough to make that call yet. But I can't for my life get into it!

I _want_ to like this game, but what breaks it for me is - it feels so stupid to admit this - the levling system. From my standpoint, it seems like I can learn all weapon abilities on every weapon my class can use pretty fast, and then they never change? Or do they? I get the feeling that they don't, but I might be wrong? And the non-weapon abilities are so few, so it seems to me like they cannot really add enough to distinguish my warrior from every other single warrior in the game. I love playing around with skills, finding combinations, doing strange builds etc..but I just don't see that there's any space for that at all in this game.

As I said, I really _want_ to love this game. I've played enough games in my life to see that objectively this is a really good game that I am missing out on because for some reason I can't see the forest for all the trees.

_Please_ help me to see the forest. I'm honest to god not trying to start a "compare my MMO to your MMO"-thread here, I just feel that I need someone to help me find my way around this game and point me to where I should look to get the most out of it.

Please tell me your stories about the parts of the game you love. What gets you ticking? What part of this game makes you keep coming back? Are there character building options that I'm missing? Other customization options that could scratch my itch? Or should I just try to let go of that part and try to direct my obsessive need of complex character building systems to some other part of the game like crafting?

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Help me Escapist Forums, you are my only hope!
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[Smooth Operator]

Well I'm no fan so I haven't clocked in too many hours but from what I know, yes you can learn everything eventually and build up a full set of skills.
However you can only roll into battle with one build that maximizes the play style you want, that is where you get the originality.

And mainly people can't get into it due to the story, it's there but it is nothing that stays with you, so either hang your time on the rest of the game or things won't work out.

 

[GrandmaFunk]

I _want_ to like this game, but what breaks it for me is - it feels so stupid to admit this - the levling system. From my standpoint, it seems like I can learn all weapon abilities on every weapon my class can use pretty fast, and then they never change? Or do they? I get the feeling that they don't, but I might be wrong? And the non-weapon abilities are so few, so it seems to me like they cannot really add enough to distinguish my warrior from every other single warrior in the game. I love playing around with skills, finding combinations, doing strange builds etc..but I just don't see that there's any space for that at all in this game.

Your weapon skills won't change, but how you use them will.

Builds are made of 3 components: your skills, your traits and your equipment bonuses. Traits seem to be the main element that you're missing.

The big differences with GW1, and what might take time getting used to, are that the progression takes longer(you keep unlocking extra points for your skills and traits as you level, and it's not till level 80 that you'll have 100% of your pool to play with) and that they've tried to remove the capacity to make "bad" builds(so there is less strange experimentation).


That being said, even if the choices seem more limited on the surface, the more you play the more you'll discover the system's depth. My main is a lvl 62 Thief and I've been using mostly pistol/dagger for the last 50 levels.... but without changing those 5 skills, I've gone through 3 completely different ways of playing my thief.

There's also elements like Conditions, Boons and Combos that end up being way more complex than they look up front.

 

[endtherapture]

There's grind in this game.

I'll have completed all the events and quests in an area but I'll still be 3 or 4 levels under the level recommendation of the next area, or next story instance.

Which is kinda annoying. Very annoying. I'm near Level 20 at the moment and everything is either so easy it's boring to kill, or impractically hard to do. So I don't know.

 

[Jynthor]

I was enjoying it a lot but I thought it was starting to get very repetitive around level 50 haven't played it since.

 

[GrandmaFunk]

There's grind in this game.

I'll have completed all the events and quests in an area but I'll still be 3 or 4 levels under the level recommendation of the next area, or next story instance.

Which is kinda annoying. Very annoying. I'm near Level 20 at the moment and everything is either so easy it's boring to kill, or impractically hard to do. So I don't know.

at levels 18-20 there's 9 zones to adventure in.

don't get bogged down in "next area" mentality, there's a whole world out there to explore.

 

[endtherapture]

There's grind in this game.

I'll have completed all the events and quests in an area but I'll still be 3 or 4 levels under the level recommendation of the next area, or next story instance.

Which is kinda annoying. Very annoying. I'm near Level 20 at the moment and everything is either so easy it's boring to kill, or impractically hard to do. So I don't know.

at levels 18-20 there's 9 zones to adventure in.

don't get bogged down in "next area" mentality, there's a whole world out there to explore.

What...so I am not only stuck in the Kessex Hills until I finish the quests there?

 

[GrandmaFunk]

nope, you can go check out other places and come back to it later. or not, if you don't like a zone there's no requirement to complete everything there.

Go back to Divinity's Reach, take the asuran gate to Lion's Arch. From there you can gate to any of the 5 capitals and from those you can enter all the other started zones which will lead to the other 15-25 maps and so on.

 

[Comocat]

I like the combat. In other MMOs like rift, lotro, or wow the outcome of combat is determined before you start the battle- you either have the gear score/cool downs to win or you don't. I enjoy the action style of play where you can actually dodge attacks.

The skill system is simple yet complex at the same time. You get additional trait bonuses every 5 points you through in a particular tree. This leads to some interesting synergies that arent obvious but incredibly powerful. One of more interesting ones I've become aware of is the thiefs ability to permastealth in large PvP battles using a unique stab and hide skill.

This is the only game I've played where I dont feel compelled to rush to level cap. It seems like a complete game in every zone, so I'm just having fun on my way and leveling up is a bonus.

Some sticking points for me:

1) I don't know why my hero exists. My friend is into the lore so he has filled me in. But I have been playing the game for a month and only have a vague idea of why I'm doing anything (other than its fun).

2) A lot of classes are late bloomers. This is pretty common in the industry so its hard to dock the game for this. My friend plays a mesmer and its a pretty cool class archetype. However, they are just tedious to play until about level 40, and now he just rolls over mobs like its going out of style.

 

[jehk]

I'm having a tons of fun doing the end game events (ie the level 80 zone). Most of the events are big chains that have multiple start points (or branches). It's pretty cool to see your group grow as the event gathers steam. It makes the conclusion feel pretty epic.

Leveling was pretty fun for me. You have to realize its not as directed as TSW or SWTOR. The leveling experience in GW2 rewards and encourages exploration. The maps shows the level ranges for all of the zones. Pick one and go explore hitting as many hearts along the way.

I'm not sure what the personal story is for the other races but mine's pretty cool. I feel like I'm an active agent in game world.

 

[DementedSheep]

You won?t get new skills for your weapons but have a look at your traits. They are more than just stat bonuses, they also give different abilities and they are where a lot of difference between builds comes from. Between being able to swap between two weapon sets in combat, the skills you pick, gear customisation and traits there is a surprising amount of depth.
Problem is that it takes a while to see that.

 

[GrandmaFunk]

A lot of classes are late bloomers. This is pretty common in the industry so its hard to dock the game for this. My friend plays a mesmer and its a pretty cool class archetype. However, they are just tedious to play until about level 40, and now he just rolls over mobs like its going out of style.

You won?t get new skills for your weapons but have a look at your traits. They are more than just stat bonuses, they also give different abilities and they are where a lot of difference between builds comes from. Between being able to swap between two weapon sets in combat, the skills you pick, gear customisation and traits there is a surprising amount of depth.
Problem is that it takes a while to see that.

This is very true, you don't really get a true sense of what your class can do till you hit the lvl 30-40 stretch. that's when things really start coming together.

 

[Kordie]

A lot of classes are late bloomers. This is pretty common in the industry so its hard to dock the game for this. My friend plays a mesmer and its a pretty cool class archetype. However, they are just tedious to play until about level 40, and now he just rolls over mobs like its going out of style.

You won?t get new skills for your weapons but have a look at your traits. They are more than just stat bonuses, they also give different abilities and they are where a lot of difference between builds comes from. Between being able to swap between two weapon sets in combat, the skills you pick, gear customisation and traits there is a surprising amount of depth.
Problem is that it takes a while to see that.

This is very true, you don't really get a true sense of what your class can do till you hit the lvl 30-40 stretch. that's when things really start coming together.

I currently have an 80 warrior, and an almost 80 mesmer. I am STILL finding little tricks with my skills that can make me more useful (mainly with my mesmer).

I found the warrior to be a very upfront class with how their skills work, but have a lot more going on when working with others. I think a decent warrior should strive to learn all the can about combo fields and finishers. While they don't have many fields, they have a lot of finisher abilities and can be constantly benefiting from using other characters fields. As well, nothing turns me off more than seeing a warrior in my group with all signets on. (signets provide passive buffs to the player, and have an alternate use that can be triggered losing the signet buff for a period.) These guys are so passive with their utilities that there is very little reason to have them in a group. I would trade two of them for a single shout or banner warrior any day.

As for my mesmer, they have a crazy amount of things they can do to benefit a fight. While everything is useful in small ways, at the right time they can be invaluable. I have seen multiple occasions where the right skill can change a fight from impossible to easy in the blink of an eye. As such, I find myself constantly keeping up on what skills the upcoming enemies will use, and how I can best counter them. I am constantly changing my skill line up between fights, and during most fights I am thinking "what skill would make this easier?"