Guildwars 2 Beta Thread

[diesbudt]

There was also an event in the char area.

Escort a guy to a spot. When we succeeded and got there, he set up a camp that had a merchant and some dialouge. And then it chained into a commander wanted helped going through a ghost infested area to lay bombs down and blow up some targets in there that held the ghosts alive. Which we failed. And when we came back to the camp, it was being counter attacked by the ghosts in which we had to defend. We barely succeeded, though 1 of the 2 buildings were destroyed in the process. (and stayed that way)

 

[GaiaHunter]

See, I don't pvp so that aspect of the game is dead to me.

I think spamming even in PvE is a waste of your skills and foes later one (level 20-30 and explorable mode dungeons) punish you for doing that.
I kept telling my GF "why are you netting that foe? He doesn't move".

At diesbudt:

Yeah, this BWE enemies started running really quickly out of AoE, GW1 style, but that also opens them to exploit. Anet stated they will be tweaking it.
-------------------------------------------------------

About the zergy argument - I had events where there was a crap ton of people, but I also had events where there was a handful of people.

Against the Shadow Behemoth there was like 20 ppl - it was challenging enough for a starter area.


About the DE events being too spammy or being too rare:
- It really depends - sometimes there is none for a while and then bam 2 or 3 pop up at the same time

 

[zinfamous]

Yes, The events were spammy, though I didn't mind learning the game. I feel that a few more events placed randomly around would work great, and slow it down a bit. (Which events looked like on a 30min timer, when I read it should be 2-3 hour timer live) And I did see one of their Month events (once per month) which my god... that was difficult, long and a blast getting my fur incinerated trying to beat him.

This was my favorite part on events:

Did one event on the human starter in which bandits were poisoning the water supply. Well because of mistakes, they succeeded with 20s to go. Then all the sudden BAM new event (chained from previous event) Help clean up the poison goo left behind by the bandits!

The main complaint I seen throughout the beta on "map/yell" chat was the complaints that their characters wont carry over to live lol.

Yes the engineer, the healing kit wasn't amazing, I feel the healing is a bit limited. I wish 1 ability was a weak heal like an auto attack targeted, with the other 2 being the healing kit on the ground idea. However, the grenade kit? /LOVE first the "F" skill that comes with it is powerful for single target and AOE, plus the ability to switch to grenades for aoe, then back to your gun(s) for single target (and switch in and out to get more affects going on) was a blast.

One thing I noticed too that made me chuckle was Aoe attacks. I did the poison grenade, and everytime the A.I. would go WHOA WHOA /run out of aoe... I don't remember a previous time mobs were smart enough to stand out of the AoE of a player. /kudos on that. Though it was funny if they ran out the other way, they would run back towards me through the poison... and then partway through turn around and run out again lol.

several years ago, when GW1 adjusted the AI to make NPCs respond intelligently to AoE....well, you'd imagine the bricks that were shat in the community--remember that?



Though, one of the problems that is worth mentioning, is that in the mesmers super awesome massive debuff/buff AoE melty spell (Chaos storm), one of the debuffs is "fear"

....this is a bit counterintuitive. It will simply cause mobs to flee the area. Only way to keep it viable, right now, is to coordinate with an engineer or ele or ranger than can toss a cripple or paralysis trap in the same area.

 

[Chiropteran]

Played for about an hour during the beta weekend, and it felt just like WoW or Rift. I might pick it up 6 months after release if there is a 75% off steam sale or something, but I didn't enjoy the game enough to buy it at full price.

I want an MMO that really brings new stuff to the table, really sick of the seeing the same game get released every 6 months by different companies. "Oh but our version of WoW, you gain skills based on the weapon you equip, so it's different and special!"

 

[zinfamous]

btw, any one experiecne the finale last night? It was rpetty awesome I must say.

ANet gave us a test of what I can only imagine will be one of the festival games (like when the boardwalk opens in GW1 and you get the various PvP games for the week or weekend).

So we hang out in metrica province, wait for announcement. gates open up all over that teleport us to: "The Hunger Jamboree"

basically--4 team PvP. each person has a rifle and a set of 4 skills, limited by ammo (you have to pick up ammo drops dotted randomly on the map). You are constantly losing health, so you also have to pick up rations. One of the slot skills that you get, is to drop a trap exploding ration for rival teams to pick up.

so it's 4 teams of ~ 70 each assassins in a very large Metrica province map (I think it was the whole map--which made the hunger component very difficult, as it just took way too long to find other people). SO you find other team, try to take them out, and try not to starve. with a PK, the victim will drop rations and ammo packs (about 4 uses of your skills will limit you to only use the rifle butt skill, so you need to be constantly finding ammo)

Die enough times (4 or 5), and you turn into a round flying golem. No more hunger, but you can't attack. You can now drop ammo packs, to aid your living assassins to finish the game, create a shield, or ping a radar to let others know where the rival assassins are hiding out. When it got to 1v1v2v2....it was pretty awesome. all these little golems flying around and mobbing the two living dudes, the last one's standing, haha

 

[zinfamous]

Played for about an hour during the beta weekend, and it felt just like WoW or Rift. I might pick it up 6 months after release if there is a 75% off steam sale or something, but I didn't enjoy the game enough to buy it at full price.

I want an MMO that really brings new stuff to the table, really sick of the seeing the same game get released every 6 months by different companies. "Oh but our version of WoW, you gain skills based on the weapon you equip, so it's different and special!"

And there you have it!

If this is anything like WoW, I'll eat my hat.

 

[diesbudt]

Played for about an hour during the beta weekend, and it felt just like WoW or Rift. I might pick it up 6 months after release if there is a 75% off steam sale or something, but I didn't enjoy the game enough to buy it at full price.

I want an MMO that really brings new stuff to the table, really sick of the seeing the same game get released every 6 months by different companies. "Oh but our version of WoW, you gain skills based on the weapon you equip, so it's different and special!"

How is it like WoW?

The fact that it is an MMO?

- No "quests" like WoW, it is all Event based/many players contribute (0 KILL X, and quests all have multiple ways to do it and other plaeyrs contribute)
- No Raids as in lots of people doing an endgame instance. Mostly all wll be small dungeons for small groups, however at max level each time you play through it gets harder and the "instance map" changes a bit until 3-4 play throughs, changing the story a bit. Like first time through you killed an end boss that blew up on death. The shockwave Dislodged rocks in a room previous in the dungeon. Next playthrough you can go through the area you opened up and there is a harder/new Boss waiting for you.
- Combat is more active, and its better to not take a hit then to play like wow in which you basically killed before being killed in solo PvE, and you have to actively dodge an attack.
- There are no tanks, no healers, no dps. Everyone can do everything and everyone is relied upon doing the best they can for everyone.
- WvWvW matchs last HOURS, you only have to do a few minutes worth to try and help if you wish. (similar to time length of Vanilla AV, not the new 20min BGs, and you can leave whenever and get rewards for it when completed)
- When you die fully (and not recover from the fall) you can choose where you respawn (with in reason) and do not have to corpse walk.
- groups form By just being in the vicinity with them in events, and once you leave you leave the group. If you help kill a monster both players may loot boss (seperate loot), so there is NO REASON to not help shoot a monster someone may be struggling with.

I could go on... But there is plenty that isn't like WoW, and really is the next stepping stone. What do you expect? a full 180 change to MMOs before you consider it not like WoW?

 

[diesbudt]

btw, any one experiecne the finale last night? It was rpetty awesome I must say.

ANet gave us a test of what I can only imagine will be one of the festival games (like when the boardwalk opens in GW1 and you get the various PvP games for the week or weekend).

So we hang out in metrica province, wait for announcement. gates open up all over that teleport us to: "The Hunger Jamboree"

basically--4 team PvP. each person has a rifle and a set of 4 skills, limited by ammo (you have to pick up ammo drops dotted randomly on the map). You are constantly losing health, so you also have to pick up rations. One of the slot skills that you get, is to drop a trap exploding ration for rival teams to pick up.

so it's 4 teams of ~ 70 each assassins in a very large Metrica province map (I think it was the whole map--which made the hunger component very difficult, as it just took way too long to find other people). SO you find other team, try to take them out, and try not to starve. with a PK, the victim will drop rations and ammo packs (about 4 uses of your skills will limit you to only use the rifle butt skill, so you need to be constantly finding ammo)

Die enough times (4 or 5), and you turn into a round flying golem. No more hunger, but you can't attack. You can now drop ammo packs, to aid your living assassins to finish the game, create a shield, or ping a radar to let others know where the rival assassins are hiding out. When it got to 1v1v2v2....it was pretty awesome. all these little golems flying around and mobbing the two living dudes, the last one's standing, haha

Sadly was too late for me.

And the mobs leaving AoE. I havent been around GW1 since right before Eye of the North as I played other games. But seeing Mobs A.I. Realize Aoe = Bad? I was impressed. I was too used to them staying in aoe, but noooo these guys were like "F that, Ill just go around it to you"

 

[GaiaHunter]

Played for about an hour during the beta weekend, and it felt just like WoW or Rift. I might pick it up 6 months after release if there is a 75% off steam sale or something, but I didn't enjoy the game enough to buy it at full price.

I want an MMO that really brings new stuff to the table, really sick of the seeing the same game get released every 6 months by different companies. "Oh but our version of WoW, you gain skills based on the weapon you equip, so it's different and special!"

In the genre of fantasy MMORPGs it is the most different it can be from WoW or Rift.
I really don't get this sort of argument.
If people don't like to kill mobs to save/help people then it is another problem.

Lets see GW2.
No trinity - no tank, healer, dps.
Limited number of skills.
Active dodging.

No kill or node stealing - everyone is playing together even without partying.
Events have failure states that might lead into different events/changes in the world - the centaurs attacked a farm and kidnapped 6 of the 10 workers. Next event will require you to free 6 farmers. If was 8 farmers it would ask for 8 farmers.
Living world where NPCs do their own business and aren't just standing there waiting for you. The world also moves without you.
Jumping puzzles.
Massive open world raid-like events.
No tread mill grinding - max stats equipment is trivial to get.
Automatically down levels each player to the area level - all the content is challenging and rewards you with level appropriate gear/rewards.

Solved questing problems:
If the problem you have with quests is that those quests are just a wall of text and the world doesn't reflect that text, GW2 fixes that - there is no text, you see the quest with your eyes and hear it with your ears.

If the problem you have with quests is that they are a pain because they are solo, so you aren't playing with other people since partying for quests is a pain, GW2 fixes that (although sometimes it can get a bit overcrowded, playing at later hours and more advanced areas reduces the crowding).

If the problem you have with quests is that they follow a linear progression, requiring you to complete the previous to join the next, GW2 solves that, meaning you can play with your friend without worrying who has what quests.

If you deslike the fact that you kill Mr. Boss A 5 seconds ago but since you didn't have the quest yet you now need to kill again, GW2 solves that problem.

If you deslike having to go back and fowards to collect quests and rewards GW2 solves that.

If you hate when you are in an area to do a quest and there are 5 other people competing for kills, GW2 also solves that.

If you dislike the fact lower level quests give you no rewards or challenges, GW2 fixes that

GW2 solves a ton of the problems present in questing and cardbox worlds - there is still loads of killing though. If you are a pacifist, GW2 also solves that - you can level to 80 with a minimum amount of killing by crafting.

There is more, much more, I could be gushing here all night long.
If you don't like fantasy games with combat, well just because I'm not into flight sims I'm not saying all flight sims are the same since you pilot planes.

Good luck finding GW2 at 75% discount in 6 months.



And by the way WoW didn't invent the fantasy genre - it just released one of the most polished games with everything from previous games and without most of the crap those games had.

 

[diesbudt]

Solved questing problems:
If the problem you have with quests is that those quests are just a wall of text and the world doesn't reflect that text, GW2 fixes that - there is no text, you see the quest with your eyes and hear it with your ears.

Yea... I just realized your right. I only once read the quest text because I was lost on where to go. Otherwise, I never needed too, I could just tell what was needed.

Also the mail system... YOU DONT NEED TO FIND A DAMN MAILBOX. Mail is instant and right to you. (that is also how you send items to someone).

"Hey I found this 2-h axe you may like"
"OK let me see it"
/mail ax
"Oh Hey thanks man, it works great for me."

And he is on the opposite side of the world. No need to find a mailbox or have a wait time.

Also I do not think Steam will get ahold of GW2. because you can buy it from their site online, and they would have no benefit to allow steam access, unlike 90% of the games on Steam. Plus with no Subscription fee, they also will probably not lower the price for a while. GW1, even with only average playerbase (SInce wow was out and new) still lasted the full price for over a year.

 

[thujone]

you mean i have to use NUMBER BUTTONS to cast SPELLS?!?!?!


it's just like wow... JUST like it.

 

[diesbudt]

you mean i have to use NUMBER BUTTONS to cast SPELLS?!?!?!


it's just like wow... JUST like it.

Whoa how did I miss that simularity!?!


I should also start a poll for everyone to help me choose which character to start with


A) Engineer
B) Elementalist
C) Necro
D) Mesmer
E) Warrior
F) Guardian

and... GO!

 

[Chiropteran]

And there you have it!

If this is anything like WoW, I'll eat my hat.

(Re: I played for an hour)

Well, thing is there are HUNDREDS of these new MMOs. I refuse to devout more than an hour before making a conclusion about the fun, because it's just not realistic for me to spend 5 hours each on each and every single MMO that comes out. I'd never have any time to play the games I enjoy.

How is it like WoW?

The fact that it is an MMO?

- No "quests" like WoW, it is all Event based/many players contribute (0 KILL X, and quests all have multiple ways to do it and other plaeyrs contribute)
- No Raids as in lots of people doing an endgame instance. Mostly all wll be small dungeons for small groups, however at max level each time you play through it gets harder and the "instance map" changes a bit until 3-4 play throughs, changing the story a bit. Like first time through you killed an end boss that blew up on death. The shockwave Dislodged rocks in a room previous in the dungeon. Next playthrough you can go through the area you opened up and there is a harder/new Boss waiting for you.
- Combat is more active, and its better to not take a hit then to play like wow in which you basically killed before being killed in solo PvE, and you have to actively dodge an attack.
- There are no tanks, no healers, no dps. Everyone can do everything and everyone is relied upon doing the best they can for everyone.

The quests were just like WoW, are you kidding? Go here, talk to this guy here, now go there, now water some plants and kill some purple worms and such. Go that enough and you finish my task. They call them events? Whatever, changing the name doesn't change what it actually entails: follow the rails. I guess my real complaint there is I want a real sandbox style MMO. This linear class or race based quest line feels exactly like World of Warcraft or swtor. And going "off the track?" The mobs were giving me like 6 xp per kill, but doing the "events" gave hundreds of xp, so it doesn't look like you have any choice but to follow the quest line.

The big battle events just seemed dumb. A lot of shiny graphics but ultimately it was just sit and wait while you and 10 random players dps down the boss. No personal achievement, in one fight I died and didn't even matter, I just came back up and it was done.

The dungeon concept you describe sounds good, but I need something new and fun NOW. I'm not going to grind through 20 hours of of these "non quests" which feel just like quests just to get to the fun part. Game has to be fun from the start or it won't hold my interest.


Active combat, no thanks. But I could tolerate it if the rest of the game was amazing and perfect. It didn't seem like it was.

No healers or tanks, that is good! But again, I didn't get to the point where this was relevant in my playing. I need a reason to want to play, but if the fun part doesn't start until after 20 hours of mindless level grinding than its too late.

I could respond to the rest of your points but I think you should see where I stand. It's time to drive home, I'd be happy to explain further later.

 

[GaiaHunter]

Sandboxers...
Dreaming of the impossible game.

 

[thujone]

it sounds like he wants to play EVE...

 

[GaiaHunter]

And by the way events spawn outside the heart quests zones.

If one is following from heart quests to heart quest they are doing it in a way that will feel grindy.

With 5 zones to level at level 1, plus WvW from level 2 onwards (gives xp and loot), plus crafting (gives xp and it is possible to reach level 80 just by crafting), plus gathering (gives xp as well), plus loads of hidden stuff and exploration giving a substantial amount of XP, there are a ton of options to customize your experience.

 

[diesbudt]

(Re: I played for an hour)

Well, thing is there are HUNDREDS of these new MMOs. I refuse to devout more than an hour before making a conclusion about the fun, because it's just not realistic for me to spend 5 hours each on each and every single MMO that comes out. I'd never have any time to play the games I enjoy.





The quests were just like WoW, are you kidding? Go here, talk to this guy here, now go there, now water some plants and kill some purple worms and such. Go that enough and you finish my task. They call them events? Whatever, changing the name doesn't change what it actually entails: follow the rails. I guess my real complaint there is I want a real sandbox style MMO. This linear class or race based quest line feels exactly like World of Warcraft or swtor. And going "off the track?" The mobs were giving me like 6 xp per kill, but doing the "events" gave hundreds of xp, so it doesn't look like you have any choice but to follow the quest line.

The big battle events just seemed dumb. A lot of shiny graphics but ultimately it was just sit and wait while you and 10 random players dps down the boss. No personal achievement, in one fight I died and didn't even matter, I just came back up and it was done.

The dungeon concept you describe sounds good, but I need something new and fun NOW. I'm not going to grind through 20 hours of of these "non quests" which feel just like quests just to get to the fun part. Game has to be fun from the start or it won't hold my interest.


Active combat, no thanks. But I could tolerate it if the rest of the game was amazing and perfect. It didn't seem like it was.

No healers or tanks, that is good! But again, I didn't get to the point where this was relevant in my playing. I need a reason to want to play, but if the fun part doesn't start until after 20 hours of mindless level grinding than its too late.

I could respond to the rest of your points but I think you should see where I stand. It's time to drive home, I'd be happy to explain further later.

P.S.

I talked to 0 people to do 9/16 "quests" in the starting area for charrs.

Just saying, maybe you should really look into it. Because you think an MMo can exist without quests, and we call that asian MMOs where you just gain xp from killing stuff.

Again you just are saying what you don't like, not what you are looking for. I bet what you are looking for is impossible to implement and actually be fun at the same time.

But, I have played GW1, Asheron's Call, EQ1, EQ2, WoW, SWTOR, Rift and this by far feels MUCH different then those.

Sure call the event quests, whatever. But they actually make an impact on the world around it if you fail/succeed, and you have to talk to 0 people to do it. It tells you what the "objective is" in the top right corner.

And you only call end level fun? I had a blast leveling to 10, hell half the time I just explored and jumped in any events or "quests" that happened to be there. Killing things gives almost 0 xp. Yet I enjoyed blasting everything I came by as it was fun to kill them and actually dodge their attacks. I didn't even realize there was a main quest until late in the Beta weekend. Sounds like you just want a game that has no levels, no quests, no accomplishments?

and for the record, what you are saying is "wow-like" is like apples and oranges. Sure they are both fruits, but they both are very different, and its a fresh new idea over the KILL X number of Y monsters.

But hey, I am not trying to convince you, you just seem set in your ways what game you want and anything else is beneath you, and that is fine.

 

[zinfamous]

Sadly was too late for me.

And the mobs leaving AoE. I havent been around GW1 since right before Eye of the North as I played other games. But seeing Mobs A.I. Realize Aoe = Bad? I was impressed. I was too used to them staying in aoe, but noooo these guys were like "F that, Ill just go around it to you"

Nah, I think it is a good thing. The main reason the GW1 community got pissed, at first, was that it killed UW ecto farming for SS/50 team for a bit.

but not a big deal--ANet has always tweaked skills, obsoleting some builds while creating new, equally effective play styles. The community will always bitch about such changes, but they will also invariably learn a completely new way to play their same character, and new strategies to do the same thing.

This is what works so well with GW and the fact that all classes have the potential to play many different roles. You tweak a few skills in a class in a game like ToR (to the degree that ANet changes skills)--one of the 2 possible roles that class can play is effectively trashed. Then, it is no longer viable in very specific HM teams. Yoiu now have a class that can only do one role--too bad if you liked that role.


again with the AoE--have you noticed how not only will mobs avoid your AoE spells like Meteor shower, they will also actively avoid the field walls? Like when you lay down a fire wall, to use for combos, they will often pause, retreat, or WALK AROUND the wall to get to you. pretty nifty.

 

[dougp]

He'll never be happy in a game, just let him go back to WoW.

 

[diesbudt]

Nah, I think it is a good thing. The main reason the GW1 community got pissed, at first, was that it killed UW ecto farming for SS/50 team for a bit.

but not a big deal--ANet has always tweaked skills, obsoleting some builds while creating new, equally effective play styles. The community will always bitch about such changes, but they will also invariably learn a completely new way to play their same character, and new strategies to do the same thing.

This is what works so well with GW and the fact that all classes have the potential to play many different roles. You tweak a few skills in a class in a game like ToR (to the degree that ANet changes skills)--one of the 2 possible roles that class can play is effectively trashed. Then, it is no longer viable in very specific HM teams. Yoiu now have a class that can only do one role--too bad if you liked that role.


again with the AoE--have you noticed how not only will mobs avoid your AoE spells like Meteor shower, they will also actively avoid the field walls? Like when you lay down a fire wall, to use for combos, they will often pause, retreat, or WALK AROUND the wall to get to you. pretty nifty.

Like I said I was impressed, Normally A.I. just goes to you in as straight of a line as possible. But this A.I.... they try their hardest to avoid aoe damage as best as possible.

yea I always liked Anet when it came to PvP, they would patch some skills/builds every 2-3 weeks to try and balance things out as best as possible.

I know they kept breaking my healing builds in GvG battles...

 

[diesbudt]

For fun I reopened up my GW1 game/characters.... yea seems i missed alot

 

[zinfamous]

(Re: I played for an hour)

Well, thing is there are HUNDREDS of these new MMOs. I refuse to devout more than an hour before making a conclusion about the fun, because it's just not realistic for me to spend 5 hours each on each and every single MMO that comes out. I'd never have any time to play the games I enjoy.

I see your point here which is why I mentioned earlier that I have a lot fo patience...which was needed for this game during BW1 when it was extremely difficult--everyone squishy, everyone one-shotted in mele range...at every level.

But the other thing is that it is so different than other MMOs (you have to realize that you will never be either a classic tank or DPS or healer...and jsut accept that in this game or you will be frustrated.), that it has a steaper learning curve

The quests were just like WoW, are you kidding? Go here, talk to this guy here, now go there, now water some plants and kill some purple worms and such. Go that enough and you finish my task. They call them events? Whatever, changing the name doesn't change what it actually entails: follow the rails. I guess my real complaint there is I want a real sandbox style MMO. This linear class or race based quest line feels exactly like World of Warcraft or swtor. And going "off the track?" The mobs were giving me like 6 xp per kill, but doing the "events" gave hundreds of xp, so it doesn't look like you have any choice but to follow the quest line.

The big battle events just seemed dumb. A lot of shiny graphics but ultimately it was just sit and wait while you and 10 random players dps down the boss. No personal achievement, in one fight I died and didn't even matter, I just came back up and it was done.

The dungeon concept you describe sounds good, but I need something new and fun NOW. I'm not going to grind through 20 hours of of these "non quests" which feel just like quests just to get to the fun part. Game has to be fun from the start or it won't hold my interest.


Active combat, no thanks. But I could tolerate it if the rest of the game was amazing and perfect. It didn't seem like it was.

No healers or tanks, that is good! But again, I didn't get to the point where this was relevant in my playing. I need a reason to want to play, but if the fun part doesn't start until after 20 hours of mindless level grinding than its too late.

I could respond to the rest of your points but I think you should see where I stand. It's time to drive home, I'd be happy to explain further later.

ah--I see the confusion with events. Heart quests are not events. In fact, after the first 2 or 3 of them, I never talked to those guys, never. Yes, the carrying around buckets and feeding cows or whatever is very low level MMO, but you never have to do any of that. there are other random events (the real events) that will spawn nearby and when you complete those, will meet the requirements to fulfill that heart activity. it's best to generally avoid those tasks, and fulfill them by helping out spawning events nearby. That makes it anti-grindy.

I almost never talked to an NPC, anyway. There would often be a notice that an event has spawned nearby, so I then run to find it on my map and join the fray. One of my favorite things is to try and intentionally let a merchant fail in their caravan and get ransacked by monsters....which is harder than it sounds in beta b/c some other players will invariably show up running form the other side of a hill and help out. :|

so, if you are following events as they occur "naturally" you should never be "going off to kill someone x to do this." quick example: as soon as you cross that first bridge in human world, jsut after the intro, and NPC will run up to you and ask him to help with the bandits that are poisoning his water. You can follow him and run up to his water tanks, or not. Succeed, and you then get to rout the bandits out of their hideout. fail, and the bandits camp out in his water tanks, destroying everything. Then, you can choose to help the guy take back his tanks, then help him repair the damage. You never really have to talk to anyone,his request will just appear in his own chat window and he will attempt it himself even if you ignore him, because NPCs have their own motivation and intent. He will fail, of course, if no player helps him.

and to that end, levels never felt grindy--at least not for anyone in general chat or that had played it extensively. If you are exploring and doing events, then you will level quite quickly--you can also level quite well just from crafting, if you feel you aren't getting the hang of the events and the class quests seem to over leveled (they do jump level gaps from one to the next--which is why you shouldn't be doing them straight on. They are a guide to tell you--hey, explore this part of the map now, you should be able to handle it.)

That being said, I ignore most of the class quests. it's easy enough to just start from the intro and start unlocking the maps. Unlock skill points as quickly as you can, as the proper skills will keep you from feeling the under-level effect.

 

[NoSoup4You]

Yes, the heart quests are just basic quests and they're there for the players that quake in fear when they aren't told where to go. Sounds crazy but bazillions of gamers HATE not knowing where to go.

I've only played the Norn area but the actual events don't really kick off until you leave that initial starting area around the time you reach level 7.

 

[KMFJD]

one good thing about the game is how weapons impact your play style, got a mesmer to 19 and loved the class, other good points
-instant travel to different areas, no long runs from point a to b
-banks accessible from crafting station/normal xp from crafting
-instant mail system

 

[zinfamous]

Yes, the heart quests are just basic quests and they're there for the players that quake in fear when they aren't told where to go. Sounds crazy but bazillions of gamers HATE not knowing where to go.

I've only played the Norn area but the actual events don't really kick off until you leave that initial starting area around the time you reach level 7.

there was that "one guy" at some point yesterday--and yeah it was in the Norn area (the most boring of them all, imo), and he had been on for a few hours and he was asking in g-chat--"So, what do I do?"

...it's a legit question, I guess, but the only response I could give was "go find stuff to do!" which is pretty much what it boils down to. That was acceptable to everyone but himself. --We all hate fetch quests, we bitch about them, but when some don't find them anywhere....they have no idea what to do, and get confused and pissy. Anyway, the other problem was not being able to find events or anything within proper level--same as chiropteran's complaint.

suggesting that you just need to wander around a bit and find things that happen (in my experience--they are constantly happening), one will get the feel for how things work and will blindly level so long as they are just following the flow of the game--the events being "micro-organic" components of the larger game.

though. to be fair--the biggest complaint was the rampaging minotaur event at the very beginning of Norn land. Yes, it was constantly occurring (Beta effect by the devs, supposedly), and it was getting repetitive. But what people don't realize, is they are bringing themselves to keep completing it. just ignore it, move on, find another event if it bothers you....or hey--just sit back and watch them rampage and see what happens! some of the nearby raids on the svanir camps and cave (~lvl 4-6) were pretty damn fun.