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Guild Wars 2 public Beta is here for pre-purchases! [Stress Test June 27th]
- Thread starter Jira
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Well, I think five of us just outed ourselves right now. That's a partyCan we agree right now that we have to have all Asura groups running amuck and causing chaos? I always loved all gnome runs in WoW... except that there were no gnome healers when I played
RepairmanJack
Member
Seems like everyones got the right mindset in here.
I put the entire thing on hold for other stuff. But I'm looming again.
OK, so there is legitimacy but nothing sounds game-breaking e.g. not fixable.
Forgive my laziness but what is currently the best way to get a boxed copy ensuring proper beta access? If I do purchase, I'm going to have to ask for you guys to give me a quick course to get up to speed.
Rofl, I'm waiting for someone to name a Sylvari "Green Giant."
RepairmanJack
Member
I put the entire thing on hold for other stuff. But I'm looming again.
OK, so there is legitimacy but nothing sounds game-breaking e.g. not fixable.
Forgive my laziness but what is currently the best way to get a boxed copy ensuring proper beta access? If I do purchase, I'm going to have to ask for you guys to give me a quick course to get up to speed.
Welcome back, bout time I have someone else in here against downed state.(from what I recall)
Not sure on boxed copy. Gamestopp seems to have stopped the beta keys. Maybe best buy, people were having luck with the digital version from them so maybe boxed too.
As for catching up let it loose I'm sure a lot of us can answer.
I'll have one of each race and probably several of certain races depending on how I feel.
I have also decided on the names of my Charr, Human and Norn thanks to the beta. Not sure on my Asura or Sylvari yet >_< trying to use names that sound like they fit into the game
Yes I will eat them.
Right. Ranged seemed more powerful because people are still sorting out how to play. I myself am guilty of sticking with my Rifle too much as a Warrior just because it gave me breathing room.
That said, once I could swap weapons (and once I trained myself to continually do so) there was rarely a fight where I didn't toss a few bleeds on with the rifle from afar, Leap to close the gap and dual-sword the shit out of things. If I needed a little room, I could swap to rifle and Butt them away and immobilize.
This worked in WvW too, a couple times I ran up against a Ranger who would swap to Greatsword when I closed ranks and I would need to dart back out for some breathing room and get my endurance back up.
Also Arrow Carts, for whatever reason, caused a white circle instead of a red one to appear. 100% sure that's a bug.
Other than that, I would say Ranged attacks only had an advantage if the terrain favored them or if they were en masse (which nobody in their right mind would tangle with anyways, ranged or not)
Forgive my laziness but what is currently the best way to get a boxed copy ensuring proper beta access? If I do purchase, I'm going to have to ask for you guys to give me a quick course to get up to speed.
Gamestop seems to be... alright, I guess. There were rumors that they stopped giving out keys (or were asked to stop, not sure yet).
There should be plenty of copies since droves of people are coming in to cancel their preorder because it sucks, apparently.
As for getting up to speed, ask away. There is a Podcast coming eventually, we recorded it last night so give it a couple days to bake.
Probably not. I'm planning a Female Human Guardian, Norn male Warrior, Charr Engineer and Sylvari Mesmer (or thief, didn't get a chance to really try either). Depending on how I can get them to look, I may make an Asura, but I've never been a big fan of tiny races. They do look pretty cool though.
Nope, will be making them look different although I do find myself favouring female humans for some reason, they just look better to me though I have thought about making a Male human at some point and will make it whatever profession I haven't assigned to other characters/races.
RepairmanJack
Member
This may sound weird but it depends on the character. I never really role play but I always think about how I want the character to be. So they never look alike. And then sometimes I just make a weird looking character, which is goinf to be so much fun in GW2.
So the beta keys have run dry or just at certain outlets? I of course would want in on the next beta if I purchase. And did you guys go boxed or digital?
Let me do some reading tomorrow. Some info on the general feel, surprises, etc... is basically what I'm interested in from the GW crew here. I probably will only need a few hours in game to get caught up if I hit the next beta.
Any surprises to what we anticipated from the mechanics? Cool-down management, condition application effectiveness, mesmer shatters, etc... I do indeed have to do some reading but am most interested in the things you got surprised at. I also saw a criticism that most attacks feel like they do the same thing and mixing up is fruitless. That is an odd one since GW1 was the plague with that shit and that sounds like an inexperienced player. But I did see that quite a bit from my check up today.
Already called it long ago, pick something else.
Okay... Sylvari Female Thief.
RepairmanJack
Member
I went digital, hate dealing with boxes anymore. It seems that Gamestop was only doing the beta codes up to the first beta? My original thinking was it was just stopped because the last beta was full and they would get more codes soon, but Kentaro thinks it was only up to this weekend.
Yeah, I would read through the last couple pages of the thread a lot of impressions and videos and some post beta info from ANet. Especially their initial reply to a lot of PvP concerns from the official forums.
The only one I would lump that to is Elementalist right now, and even that is minimal. Fire spells on a staff seem very similar to fire spells on a focus and dagger and what not. They are different in range and effect and more, but feel wise they are somewhat the same. Other than that everything else I played didn't seem like that at all, duel daggers thief felt nothing like a sword dagger thief or a duel pistol thief.
As for surprises I'd say I was actually surprised at the amount of customization with the pvp gear. I guess I just didn't know before going in that you could go into the mists and change out all the stats of all the gear and weapons, but there is a shit ton of options. I was completely surprised at that, build were already pretty crazy but you throw in the amount of options with the runes and sigils and what not and it get's kind of crazy.
Mechanic wise, I was surprised just how different each weapon felt. I mean, we all knew going in that each weapon was going to feel different, but I guess I just didn't expect your choice of weapon setup to have as much impact as it did. It was like getting a completely different class with some setups.
Cooldown management was a non-factor for me, once I unlocked weapon swaps there was never a point where I was watching a cooldown. If you somehow manage to blow all of your attacks on one weapon, the second weapon set is ready to go.
Condition applications were nice, I noticed Burning damage was especially nasty from both an attacker's perspective (Longbow Warrior) and as a receiver (it was especially nasty during the Moa fights at the end of the Beta, but they were crazy strong anyways). Bleeds stack up to 25, but I don't think I ever got higher than 5 or 6 (mostly because things were dead before I could apply more). Didn't dink around with Mesmers much.
I did notice an odd glitch where my Warrior would only have Two adrenaline bars instead of three. It would seem to come and go at different intervals, not sure what it was.
Overall, the biggest surprise was how quickly ANet patched the game to remove some soul-crushing lag on Friday night. From announcement to remedy was a half hour and it was flawless for the rest of the Beta.
I definitely changed up my attacks on my warrior, the different approaches enemies took demanded it. I dunno what your sources were playing, but my attacks weren't "Cause Damage", "Cause Damage" and "Cause Damage". They were utility skills that required careful consideration before use. For example, when I was using a shield on my warrior, my stun could either be a prelude to Burst, an interrupt, or a way to get some breathing room. Depending on which application I used it in, I was stuck with that choice for a fairly lengthy cooldown.
Anybody who says what attacks you use doesn't matter definitely wasn't playing a warrior, and I would argue that they took the path of least resistance with whatever profession they chose and went with a pure DPS weapon (assuming any of those exist, I didn't see any on my warrior, guardian or engineer).
Elementalist. My friend will be joining us as an Asura engineer.
Managing cooldowns is vital to success in both PvE and PvP. I see 90% of players just popping all their big cooldowns in PvP, leaving themselves completely open for the kill. This doesn't work in the slightest as any decent player can counter with various different abilities e.g as an ele, i would just magnetic shield, frost armour, mist form, stone skin (5th focus ability in earth that makes you invulnerable for 3 secs.)
On conditions, i also think they are severley underused in PvP atm. Most people are just focusing on straigh out damage, which is much easier to counter. In the beta i played ele. I traited in bleeding and burning conditions, putting most of my points in earth and fire attunement. I had increased condition damage and duration, increased damage against bleeding enemies, chance for crits to cause burning etc etc. Due to putting 30 points in earth i had a lot of toughness so people trying to staight out dps me were having a hard time whilst i would just stack bleeds and burning on them and watch their health tick down then finish them with my damage spells.
So yeah, conditions are very important in PvP. But, this is just beta so i'm sure people will improve as they get more used to their classes.
90% I'll be an Elementalist.
Nice, should be a capable mix muahahah.
Gunbo, the "all skills seem the same" thing is nonsense essentially. I only played two classes, but there is just no basis on which to make that claim. The fact that the first five attack skills are all weapon-based allowed them to use a lot of variety. I ended up preferring scepter to axe on my necro, but the "2" axe skill was so awesome I definitely considered keeping it.
I was shocked at how few Rangers used their snare and slow abilities (which just about every damn weapon they can equip has) at range. I wasn't traited to have my movement abilities break immobility either. They just straight up didn't realize "Oh, I should stop that warrior with two swords heading for my face."
I'd say there was one or two fights in my entire WvW experience (~4 hours) where somebody actually locked me down from a distance.
Also, Vulnerability is disgustingly useful. ANet even commented that it was overlooked, but I was dropping to my rifle and dropping a Brutal Shot as my opening attack almost every fight (that's 5 stacks of it for 10 seconds).
RepairmanJack
Member
Here's another PvP video from the same team who released the Ele and Engineer one from earlier. 2 min in so far pretty good.
Also of note(not to rub it in) another pvp video of the player ignoring the downed players.
Well hmpff...
*goes and sits in the corner*
Haha I think I used the slow and backstep on my thief's shortbow(oh shit, or maybe it was ranger? I played too many classes this weekend) just about every time I could. It was my instinct oh shit button almost instantly, but I kind of used it too much. :lol
Also of note(not to rub it in
) another pvp video of the player ignoring the downed players.Well hmpff...
*goes and sits in the corner*
Haha I think I used the slow and backstep on my thief's shortbow(oh shit, or maybe it was ranger? I played too many classes this weekend) just about every time I could. It was my instinct oh shit button almost instantly, but I kind of used it too much. :lol
My Asura will be a Guardian. No shield will be big enough for my little guy!
Oh man. Perfect. We will be unstoppable
Hey you're welcome as long as you're willing to scoff amusedly at bookahs as well.
VanillaCakeIsBurning
Member
I think weapon swapping will play a big part in showing the difference between the good and the great players. Like a video I saw on reddit where a guy had certain sigils and stuff to benefit his first strike after weapon swapping. After all the preparation, he showed how he could basically kill people in 3-4 seconds with his greatsword into axe/shield combo.
I think it's pretty good for all the classes aside from maybe the Thief, since they use initiative instead of cooldowns.
I think it's pretty good for all the classes aside from maybe the Thief, since they use initiative instead of cooldowns.
Teknopathetic
Member
"Are there no plans to add a raid group option for the times in WvWvW when you do want to run in larger groups?"
That's essentially "Squads." It's already in the game.
That's essentially "Squads." It's already in the game.
RepairmanJack
Member
Haha, That PvP video with the thief is doing something so simple and genius but I never thought about it. Using the same weapons in both weapon swaps. If you have an ability that your build is dependent on, you now have two of those abilities instead of being reliant on one with the cooldown.
Ah! Well that is just super.
Goddamn.
RepairmanJack
Member
I'm not even joking, it actually blew my mind. Something so simple and I never once heard it ever mentioned.
VanillaCakeIsBurning
Member
I don't see how that would help a Thief since their abilities have no cooldowns. They just run off of initiative.
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