Guildwars 2 Beta Thread

[KMFJD]

Major likes are

- ease of travel
- being able to sell directly to ah from your bags
- WvWvW

 

[Merad]

Had lots of fun tonight. Got my guard up to level 13.

I can see its going to be important to carry multiple types of weapons to fit the situations you run into. Eg a guard with a staff is AWESOME for those defensive type events against waves of mobs. I can put up walls to block the entrances when a wave comes in and then blast out waves of AoE damage into their ranks. But then once they get through and spread out, that isnt very effective so I try to swap to sword & board. But, neither one of those is that great for soloing, soni try to keep a great sword or 2H hammer for it.

 

[zokudu]

16 on my warrior. Really getting burnt out after 2 days of near nonstop play. I felt like such a boss 10-15 in the starting area but once I hit 15-25 area it was like I was back in the first little area. I can only take so much getting one shot by 1 level higher mobs. A lot less lag though so if I die its generally my fault but like right now I'm kind of tired so that put me off so I was dying a lot.

Dunno how I feel about dying all the time if I'm not playing on the top of my game.

 

[drebo]

Yeah, the monster difficulty scaling definitely needs work.

 

[zinfamous]

this game hates mele.

period.

 

[gothamhunter]

this game hates mele.

period.

My dual dagger necro had no problem this morning

 

[NoSoup4You]

I made a thief and it's super hard compared to Ranger. Even just using the bow is a world of pain... lots of dying and noticing your armor has vanished.

I've noticed the dynamic events system doesn't really work in the early game because there are too many players in the same zones, the events don't get to play out since the players usually just zerg rush everything and win. So I still don't have a real good feel for just how "revolutionary" the events sytem will be... but so far it's at least nice not to have to speak with a zillion npc's to get quests...etc.

 

[zinfamous]

I made a thief and it's super hard compared to Ranger. Even just using the bow is a world of pain... lots of dying and noticing your armor has vanished.

I've noticed the dynamic events system doesn't really work in the early game because there are too many players in the same zones, the events don't get to play out since the players usually just zerg rush everything and win. So I still don't have a real good feel for just how "revolutionary" the events sytem will be... but so far it's at least nice not to have to speak with a zillion npc's to get quests...etc.

If you're in the human land and ~level 12-15, head south to Heartland Woods.

That is a rather epic event that doesn't stack on top of other nearby events like in other areas, and it it is long and difficult enough to follow what is going on. It involves a wooden fort contested by centaurs. It is probably the most fun I've had int eh game so far--besides crazy WvW last night.

 

[zokudu]

If you're in the human land and ~level 12-15, head south to Heartland Woods.

That is a rather epic event that doesn't stack on top of other nearby events like in other areas, and it it is long and difficult enough to follow what is going on. It involves a wooden fort contested by centaurs. It is probably the most fun I've had int eh game so far--besides crazy WvW last night.

There was one of these to the far east of the Plains of Ashford. Long almost "meta" event involving several dynamic events culminating in the defeat of an evil human ghost guy. Pretty cool if you ask me. I assume all of the early areas will have one of these major "meta" events as a capstone kind of for the zone.

 

[Worthington]

Killed that Ginormous corrupted treant yesterday before I had to log. took like 8 of us a good couple minutes before he'd drop. Pretty damn epic.

 

[drebo]

My dual dagger necro had no problem this morning

What were you doing with it?

We were in WvW and I was on my 17 Warrior...I was almost useless. I didn't have any extra survivability in comparison to everyone else, and I did less damage...but I had to be on top of everyone. Not to mention, my best skill requires me to stand perfectly still to use it. If I move, the skill cancels.

On top of that, most Champion mobs one-shot me anyway...so I've found little reason to bother fighting them in any way except to equip my rifle and plink at them from a distance. As a warrior, my strength should be running in and destroying the fuck out of mobs at close range...no plinking at them with a rifle.

 

[zokudu]

Isn't dual dagger necro full of life steals? IE it's meant to absorb damage somewhat?

I think the defensive melee builds work fine. As a warrior going mace/mace or mace/shield I can lockdown a mob well enough to survive most things but "glass cannoning" seems to only work at ranged and even that not very well. If I was to move off my mace builds I think i would need some control utilities to stay alive in melee.

Logged in for about 20 minutes this morning got a skill point and a heart done. I like that I can log in. Smash some heads and log out without feeling like I'm wasting my time.

 

[zinfamous]

necro is indeed a bit OP. Though, it probably helps that I spent time figuring out the game mechanics on two classes.

Staff and dual dagger or scepter/dagger is quite powerful. Plenty of life steal and the Oh Shit! button. Plus, it provides great condition spreading and party buffs

 

[zokudu]

My friend who I've been playing with is a necro. He said the game got 20 times more fun when he threw his axe away.

 

[zinfamous]

My friend who I've been playing with is a necro. He said the game got 20 times more fun when he threw his axe away.

yeah, it starts with axe. those skills are OK...but nothing like daggers or staff.
Nec survives and damages better with daggers than a thief does.


...this is retarded, imho.


Nec will be nerfed. for sure


I wanted to start an Ele, but turned to Nec. i don't know, maybe I'll mess around with one later

 

[NoSoup4You]

Seems I'll need two characters when the game launches - a Thief for off-peak hours when the server lag is nonexistent, and an Elementalist or Engineer for on-peak hours when you feel like you're playing underwater.

Also, if you haven't played Ranger yet the description for one of the bow skills references Skyrim's now famous "arrow to the knee" line.

 

[zinfamous]

Behold, the Shadow Behemoth!

(no, I wasn't posing, just trying to kite, revive others, destroy portals, and cap screen at the same time)

Check out the photo-art paper look to the screen (see the borders). I dig it.

We're going to need a bigger wand...

Here I am reviving some peon next to his mouth--check out energy bar near top right (In GW2--get used to reviving everyone around you--and being revived, constantly)

Here I'm trying to distract him with the 'ol "Look over there!" trick. Silly Mez.



It didn't work.

 

[zinfamous]

....

It was a surprisingly small group this time, maybe 20 or so people working on him

I actually did pretty well and strangely enough, this guy is far easier than the dinky Charr fire shaman that spawns just outside of the very first starter area for Charr players.

No fair. I was knocked out only at the very end. He's mocking me, but I know it was me that killed him what that final blast of energy while on my back Muwahahahaha. ...well, I'm sure it was me. :hmm:

 

[Merad]

I played my guard to 15 this morning then spent some time with ranger and mesmer before calling it a weekend. My main thoughts from the beta are:

• Game has HUGE potential but needs polish in many smaller areas. Example - units. So my skill has a range of 600. Great, how far is that? Or, bound items. You apparently have to double click to bind them to you before you even get the option to equip them. Very confusing.
• Combat system has great potential, but has teething issues. Watching for animations works fine for something like a troll that's swinging a huge club, not so great for all the mobs with less obvious animations. Also seems very biased in favor of ranged classes, as the vast majority of the big attacks that require dodging appear to be melee or short range. And, there are a lot of mobs that do roots or knockdowns and then rape you in half a second... so being even slightly off your game can screw you. Not sure how well that's going to work.
• Combat difficulty in general needs a lot of work. Yesterday I was fighting level 13-14 mobs and thought I was getting the hang of things and doing very well. This morning, I walk into the swamps at the south of Queensland and start fighting level 15s (me being at 14-15) and am getting torn to pieces. Level scaling also seems really off. Seems to take a LOT of effort to bring down a mob even 2 levels above you.
• Game does not play well with massive numbers of players in a zone. Lag affects the combat system very badly, and the dynamic event system doesn't seem to work well with legions of players zerging every event. This is actually one of my bigger concerns since that's exactly what we're going to have to deal with at launch.
• I'm not sure how "dynamic" the dynamic events really are. Lots of it seems to be the same thing over and over. But, as above I'm not sure the system was working that well this weekend. Either way it can work out to drop you into some really fun situations.

I've heard that release is planned for the end of June... definitely looking forward to the game but they have a lot of work to do in the next 2 months.

 

[zokudu]

Great Screen Shots zin.

Your skillbar is so...purple.

 

[DucatiMonster696]

Played a warrior, necro, guardian and engineer to levels 10. So far Warrior is a blast and Necro is as others stated OP. Engineer lacks damage but is fun once you get kits, guardian was meh IMHO and oddly enough did well with 2-h sword, scepter (or sword) + shield combo. Don't bother with hammers cuzz they are weak damage wise compared to the aforementioned weapons. Overall I really like the game and see great potential for the future.

 

[xboxist]

Played a warrior to 13 and a guardian to 9. PvP a little with each too.

Warrior was my arena class in WoW and much of the reason why warriors in that game functioned at all was because of hamstring. In GW2, there's no source of semi-perma-slow to apply to your target and you're kited endlessly. Also, a few of your skills require you to stand in place (moving cancels them), which I'm told is not found on other classes' skills? Add in server lag, and playing a Warrior in PvP was pretty unfun, at least from my perspective. Running around with a rifle was way more effective than using melee weapons.

Guardian had a bit more going on for it. Damage seems relatively the same as a warrior, but with much more utility and survivability.

Something tells me that mesmer/elemental/necro is going to rule PvP, at least at launch.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

Played a warrior to 13 and a guardian to 9. PvP a little with each too.

Warrior was my arena class in WoW and much of the reason why warriors in that game functioned at all was because of hamstring. In GW2, there's no source of semi-perma-slow to apply to your target and you're kited endlessly. Also, a few of your skills require you to stand in place (moving cancels them), which I'm told is not found on other classes' skills? Add in server lag, and playing a Warrior in PvP was pretty unfun, at least from my perspective. Running around with a rifle was way more effective than using melee weapons.

Guardian had a bit more going on for it. Damage seems relatively the same as a warrior, but with much more utility and survivability.

Something tells me that mesmer/elemental/necro is going to rule PvP, at least at launch.

Warrior has a ranged stun, at which point they can initiate the stationary channeled death chop thingy that does absolutely obscene amounts of damage.

 

[Ichigo]

What were you doing with it?

We were in WvW and I was on my 17 Warrior...I was almost useless. I didn't have any extra survivability in comparison to everyone else, and I did less damage...but I had to be on top of everyone. Not to mention, my best skill requires me to stand perfectly still to use it. If I move, the skill cancels.

On top of that, most Champion mobs one-shot me anyway...so I've found little reason to bother fighting them in any way except to equip my rifle and plink at them from a distance. As a warrior, my strength should be running in and destroying the fuck out of mobs at close range...no plinking at them with a rifle.

I played a Mesmer with a similar melee skill, rooting me in place. Of course, I brought along a hard CC that rooted my opponent in place so that the entire skill animation goes off in my opponent's face every time and I win.

Solo'ing mobs are about CC, AOE, and proper dodging. Lots of Warriors were doing good with a greatsword and solo'ing 3-4 mobs that I saw.

Is melee less obvious than ranged in PvP? Are PvE mobs probably a bit too difficult right now? Maybe. The point is all you have to do is think a little bit. It's not like most MMO's.

That being said, the beta was very laggy so melee will be harder based on that alone. If you just want to leap in and faceroll 1-5 though, you're gonna have a bad time no matter what.

 

[videogames101]

PvP'd my way to 15k glory to get the rank 2 armor set.

Rangers and Rifle Warriors need a nerf.