Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

[D DoUrden]

I recently picked this game back up after a year off and I had forgotten how good it is, how well done, and different it is. I almost didn't play again because Rangers are so screwed up, but I started a Necro and then played the Living Season 2 on one of my lvl 80's and am having a blast. I picked up the xpac last night and after college football this will consume my weekend.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/

 

[sushicide]

Went back to it in March after a 2 year break & still had a lot of fun, it's a nice low-commitment MMO without the monthly sub or "premium content" micro transactions.

 

[VashHT]

I might give this a try again, my necro is level 80. Shame that rangers aren't as fun as they were in the first game, I enjoyed them a lot there.

 

[HumblePie]

Will never play this game. I bought the game initially and was one of the initial wave of players to be hacked through their own security flaw. When I requested to have my characters restored to what they were previously I was told they didn't have that ability. So I refuse to ever play a game by them again.

 

[aigomorla]

sigh.... the game is well....

Dev: we dont have a grind system..
Player: What the hell is not a grind if u want shineys.... its a massive grind... sigh... back to Silverwaste, to GRIND....

Dev: we will have new content in dngs, and world..
Player: what happened to the new dng content???

Dev: the rewards you get from living story will be worth it.
Players: THAT IS A GRIND!!!

Original Dev: Because of the way ncsoft is heading, we are leaving the game..
Players : OMGWTFBBQ we lost all the original DEVs *sad panda*

Dev: you will not need Asceneded Anything...
Players: GREAT!!!
Dev Part 2: you will NEED ascended gear for HoT
Players: WTF?!?!?!?


^ in a nut shell....
I have all classes lvl80, 6 legendaries, 5 Sets of ascended Gear, all the perm kits, all the blingy $$$$ dyes... and well, i can tell you it was ONE HELL OF A GRIND.

 

[Franz316]

I can't speak for PvE but in PvP I welcome a little shakeup in builds and stuff. I still wish they would have implemented CTF or 3v3 arenas over Stronghold though. I think that will be a flop.

 

[BOOGY_DOG]

Haven't played since GW1, really enjoyed the Hall of Heroes PVP system though.

 

[TrevorGtAV]

that game is awesome oh boy it brings back memories..

 

[OCNewbie]

I've never played it, but I own it. What class should I start out with? I'm very familiar with the MMO genre.

 

[psychosiz]

I've never played it, but I own it. What class should I start out with? I'm very familiar with the MMO genre.

For Melee
Warrior
Guardian
Thief

For Ranged
Engineer
Ranger
Elementalist
Necro
Mesmer

I think it really comes down to your play style as each class is versatile. IMO the mesmer plays a bit different than other classes. The easiest to play and be successful with is the Ranger and Warrior IMO but I think most classes are straightforward. Most classes have the ability to be ranged and melee which is nice and all self heal. In the end, you need to figure out what type of character you want to play in terms of raged or melee and than do you want magic (elementalist), Bow w/pet (ranger), gadgets (engineer) and so on. Good luck and IMO this is really a very fun game.

 

[aigomorla]

Guardian > Warrior in everything but soloing.... as a warrior can probably solo though map exploration blind folded.

Guardian is more gear dependent then a warrior, also requires more skill spamming... while a warrior is basically very little skill mashing except 1-4.
(ie.. the 5 signet warrior is very versatile in open world, however u will get yelled at in DNGs for doing so)

Warrior is less dependent on gear, its actually the first class i recommend to people that is starting as it has the shortest learning curve.

Stay away from Ele's Necro's Engies and Mesmers as they are extremely gear dependent. Mesmer + Ele's + Engies also have the steepest learning curves.

Thief also requires a ton of skill, as you will die a lot once stealth runs out, or if u have not mastered stealth. It has one of the crappiest range dps (ties with guardian but lacks a AoE Staff guards have which they can spam) vs all the other class, but melee dps is considered the top.

 

[JamesV]

I really liked GW2 as a MMO when it came out, and played religiously with some ATOT members. Duo'ing hard content together was PC gamer bliss. He could soak up damage, and I could support, and we both came out on top...

However, their was NO end game. No PVE Nirvana. EVERY MMO has this problem.

You can't cater to solo and team players at the same time, no matter how wtfbbq you think your game is; see, um, the history of gaming?

 

[darkewaffle]

My friends and I have reinstalled to give it a shot. Unfortunately at least a few of them feel the need to start new characters so there's a good chance they never make it to 80 or will already be burnt out by the time they get there lol.

I should probably double-check the options but relative to FFXIV GW2 still feels kind of rough around the edges. I have a hard time telling what I have targeted and actually targeting the right thing when there's enough other people around in particular. If we actually enjoy the dungeons/raids (now) then I may stick around but otherwise I don't really have any plans to purchase the expansion.

 

[shortylickens]

is the first Guild Wars still running?

I probably have about 20 pets by now.

 

[GaiaHunter]

Guardian > Warrior in everything but soloing.... as a warrior can probably solo though map exploration blind folded.

Guardian is more gear dependent then a warrior, also requires more skill spamming... while a warrior is basically very little skill mashing except 1-4.
(ie.. the 5 signet warrior is very versatile in open world, however u will get yelled at in DNGs for doing so)

Warrior is less dependent on gear, its actually the first class i recommend to people that is starting as it has the shortest learning curve.

Stay away from Ele's Necro's Engies and Mesmers as they are extremely gear dependent. Mesmer + Ele's + Engies also have the steepest learning curves.

Thief also requires a ton of skill, as you will die a lot once stealth runs out, or if u have not mastered stealth. It has one of the crappiest range dps (ties with guardian but lacks a AoE Staff guards have which they can spam) vs all the other class, but melee dps is considered the top.

I don't see how Necros, Engies, Mesmers or Eles are more gear dependent than any other classes.

 

[GaiaHunter]

I recently picked this game back up after a year off and I had forgotten how good it is, how well done, and different it is. I almost didn't play again because Rangers are so screwed up, but I started a Necro and then played the Living Season 2 on one of my lvl 80's and am having a blast. I picked up the xpac last night and after college football this will consume my weekend.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/

In the xpac any minion, including ranger pets were buffed (and the hot pets rangers get are awesome) by barely taking any AoE damage unless they are the main target.

 

[GaiaHunter]

is the first Guild Wars still running?

I probably have about 20 pets by now.

Yes.

 

[D DoUrden]

I have played quite a bit and they added a lot of content but it's locked behind mastery progression so you have to run the same stuff over and over to get the needed mastery to unlock it. I guess it's their way of keeping people from beating it too quickly. I was "ok" with it until I hit the next story progression and it requires me to grind through 2 mastery levels with only the content I have already done to do it in.

If you don't buy the expansion you cant do much in the new content because it's locked behind the story and the mastery system.

 

[GaiaHunter]

I have played quite a bit and they added a lot of content but it's locked behind mastery progression so you have to run the same stuff over and over to get the needed mastery to unlock it. I guess it's their way of keeping people from beating it too quickly. I was "ok" with it until I hit the next story progression and it requires me to grind through 2 mastery levels with only the content I have already done to do it in.

If you don't buy the expansion you cant do much in the new content because it's locked behind the story and the mastery system.

Mastery is account wide.
You can access all the maps. You can bring other characters. Use any +xp items. The 4 mastery req on one of the missions was removed.

 

[NoSoup4You]

My confidence in Anet was at rock bottom after 3 years of "press 1 to win" PVE. So far though, they've delivered a AAA experience in this expansion... hopefully that continues. There's definitely some alarming issues here and there that need to get sorted out but the overall experience thus far has been solid.

 

[aigomorla]

I don't see how Necros, Engies, Mesmers or Eles are more gear dependent than any other classes.

You do know the difference between a fully geared above vs non fully geared.
Also on top the difference between a full rune setted on the full gear above vs a non right?

Example... a full zerker + str runed Ele, will end up might stacking near 18 stacks of might for 30s + give 30s+ of fury.

Same can be said with a perplex engie.

 

[GaiaHunter]

You do know the difference between a fully geared above vs non fully geared.
Also on top the difference between a full rune setted on the full gear above vs a non right?

Example... a full zerker + str runed Ele, will end up might stacking near 18 stacks of might for 30s + give 30s+ of fury.

Same can be said with a perplex engie.

Again it is valid for any profession.

 

[Malladine]

I recently picked this game back up after a year off and I had forgotten how good it is, how well done, and different it is. I almost didn't play again because Rangers are so screwed up, but I started a Necro and then played the Living Season 2 on one of my lvl 80's and am having a blast. I picked up the xpac last night and after college football this will consume my weekend.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/

How are Rangers screwed up? My only 80 is a ranger and i enjoyed it for quite a while and recently started again. Didnt do any end game admittedly!

 

[sushicide]

Rangers aren't terrible now, but it is a noob magnet for players with selfish play style that most groups dislike.

Only complaint I have is the sword autoattack has a really annoying animation lock that developers refuse to remove for some ass-backward aesthetic reason, I'd much rather play a condi build to avoid it.

I didn't have to spend much to gear out my ele; while ascended cloth cost a little more to make, only staff is used most of the time so you can get away with just that then use exotics dagger/scepter/focus for pre-blasting, Scholar runes give the most damage if you leave might generation to warriors and heralds since they have a much easier time maintaining it in combat. Reapers do benefit a ton from Strength runes though, and those are up to 14 gold each

 

[Fallen Kell]

So anyone have comments on what masteries should be unlocked first and what we might need to be ready for the next expansion?

I took a break from the game for a while, but just jumped back in and finally started working on the HoT expansion (which I never played). Took a little while to deal with all the changes with the classes that happened since I took my break (skill points becoming hero points, all the changes with the various traits, etc.). Luckily my favorites didn't change too much, but I am behind on ascended equipment and crafting skills (i.e. need to spend some time/gold to get the various crafting up to lvl 500 now so I can start crafting ascended armor and weapons and get back on power curve).

I don't think I am ready for any dungeons or fractals at the moment as too much has changed for me to be able to jump in, but I have been playing 2 of the HoT maps doing the meta-events which have been a lot of fun (and let me at least kit out 2 more characters with exotics (I just trained up a lvl 80 necro, and a lvl 80 engineer... need to work on expansion elite (scrapper) still for the engineer, but was able to easily get a nice exotic armor set from the first map in HoT as it was nice that you can select the stats for the armor (unlike the dungeon armor which were simply what they were and you had to run the specific dungeon(s) to get the stats that you wanted).

Any hints/tips on ascended weapons armor (especially given that I have multiple lvl 80 characters (Warrior, Gardian, Necro, Ele, and Engineer and would like to limit the grind if possible)?