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[Jira]

So I saw a lot of people asking about their classes. Here's a list of every change to each class since launch in descending order from oldest udpate to newest:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/154RjdKPFglipxtY6Clg8zuiNJvhqlkClzgioA9s94oI/edit?usp=sharing

 

[Jest Chillin]

I'm loving the game, looking forward to what I hope is a big lore aspect of next weeks patch, and.. uhh yeah. Good times. /salute @ my fellow GAF Guildies!

 

[Hawkian]

Everyone who has reservations about the combat in Guild Wars 2 needs to try it with Immersive Combat Mode. Basically, it adds crosshairs and gives you mouselook whenever a cursor isn't needed, and GW2's remarkably good auto-targeting takes care of the rest. Doesn't quite reach the level of TERA, but it's pretty damn close.

ICM works so well that I suspect the game was originally designed to work like this and ArenaNet got cold feet and switched back to tab targeting relatively large in development.

Lots of GAFers play GW2 with a controller and swear they can't go back to KB+M too.

Indeed, I absolutely cannot go back to KB+M. Or to be more specific, I'm not at all kidding when I say I am at a handicap using keyboard and mouse versus my 360 pad.

 

[Geedorah]

Good for them I think, I was hyped but I couldn't get into it. Got tired of it after 2 weeks.

Same - but far quicker. Only logged about 2hours, then I was hacked. Think the hackers spent more time on the account than I did, which made me feel kinda bad for contacting support and getting them to reinstate my account. It's just sat there ever since... damn you day-job.

 

[Heysoos]

is the GAF guild still on Stormbluff Isle?

has the "end game" area been fixed yet? It was a piece of shit when I was there trying to do the story. Fuck Risen.

 

[diamount]

I wanted to get back into it, but Arenanets terrible customer support is really pissing me off. This was after spending $20 worth of gems too.

 

[Jest Chillin]

is the GAF guild still on Stormbluff Isle?

has the "end game" area been fixed yet? It was a piece of shit when I was there trying to do the story. Fuck Risen.

Still on Stormbluff.

Depends on what you mean by fixed. The events aren't broken anymore and they thinned out the Risen but it's still pretty loaded with them.

 

[Retro]

is the GAF guild still on Stormbluff Isle?

has the "end game" area been fixed yet? It was a piece of shit when I was there trying to do the story. Fuck Risen.

1. Yes.

2. The "End Game" is the entire game, but if you mean "have they fixed Orr", yes. They thinned out their numbers, removed some of their more annoying enemy abilities, added some new rewards and new waypoints that never become contested. That was way back in January. That said, Orr is still a dangerous place to go alone, it's just much less annoying.

I wanted to get back into it, but Arenanets terrible customer support is really pissing me off. This was after spending $20 worth of gems too.

What's the issue? I've heard of people getting their support tickets dealt with really quickly, sometimes a matter of hours...

 

[Pejo]

I am working on my 4th level 80, and GW2 is probably my most played game of 2013. There are tons of content and plenty of stuff to explore, even a year out. Definitely a fun game and the GAF guild is great with the planned guild missions and WvW.

But I can understand how it doesn't really catch with some people. The lack of the trinity and the shared xp approach makes it very much a solo game if you want it to be. You can run around with a group of 30 other players zerging Champion mobs and never need to talk without the occasional "ty" for the rez. Even if you want to chat during a dungeon, the actiony nature of the game and the rush to finish most players seem to have makes it difficult. It makes me kinda miss the days of shooting the shit while pulling mobs in eq...kinda

After reading the first page of this thread, i updated my client for GW2 and jumped back in, made a new elementalist (my fav class) from the beginning and dinked around for a bit. I couldn't believe how dead the starter zones were.

Anyways, the reason I quoted you, I whole-heartedly agree about the social aspect of this game. With everything being an action fest zerg rush, there is no time to chat, there is no need to chat, and nobody even looks at the chat box. EQ and FFXI were great for this, with slower combat and XP parties, you could really get to know your fellow players. Hell at times in FFXI i used it for a glorified chat with special effects and catgirls. So just like any of the action-y MMOs, I eventually got bored with this and quit.

Also agree above with the fact that the skill progression is done way too fast, and the "tie-in" to weapons kinda stinks. It'd be great if there were 20+ skills per weapon that you could set, but on the guy i just made, i had all my dagger/scepter/staff skills for fire/water/thunder before i hit level 4. Then you have to use that the rest of the game and it's very "meh".

Dungeons really made me miss the trinity system in this too. I tried to makeshift heal using water staff skills on my first elementalist, but there just was too much cooldown to make it really viable. You kinda end up feeling like you don't really matter in a dungeon, plus i felt the trash mobs were way too tough on average.

I had a lot of fun trying one character of each class, getting all the weapon skills with each, and then a few of the supplementary skills, but after about level 20 i'd get bored with each character and start a new one.

Production values are amazing on it, the combat is fun to watch (although as others have mentioned, it lacks weight), but it just didn't hold me very long. Would love to see an overhaul of the skill system. That would bring me back in a big way.

 

[diamount]

1. Yes.

2. The "End Game" is the entire game, but if you mean "have they fixed Orr", yes. They thinned out their numbers, removed some of their more annoying enemy abilities, added some new rewards and new waypoints that never become contested. That was way back in January. That said, Orr is still a dangerous place to go alone, it's just much less annoying.



What's the issue? I've heard of people getting their support tickets dealt with really quickly, sometimes a matter of hours...

Basically, I bought some skins for my lowbie engineer. The page wasn't clear on their one-time use per item, and now I'm to be forced to grind for transmute stones or buy them. I would rather do that shit in my own time, not forced to grind for stuff that I've already paid real money for. It's ridiculous.

Why they can't they follow Blizzard's model is beyond me.

 

[br0ken_shad0w]

While I'm currently taking a break a second time (new PC + new PS3 + work + girlfriend), I will say playing and chatting with the GAF guild is still the best part of this game. It's honestly the only thing I look forward to nowadays (if I do come back).

The game isn't perfect, but as a themepark-style MMO it's probably one of the best. The mechanics it has makes it quite hard to go to other MMOs. Horizontal progression, personalized loot, level scaling, etc. I'm just suffering from MMO fatigue and all the temporary content really isn't helping.

As for ICM, I can't get used to it. It's just not *quite* polished enough for my liking. It felt like trying to add controller support via xpadder in Oblivion. It works, but the feel isn't perfect.

 

[Canis lupus]

I got this game last week, first mmo since runescape a decade ago. Completed quest 1 and seems cool so far, will resume playing sometime in september.

 

[Xevren]

Been so busy past few months and haven't played in awhile, but I did enjoy when I played. GAF guild is the best guild. <3

 

[Retro]

Basically, I bought some skins for my lowbie engineer. The page wasn't clear on their one-time use per item, and now I'm to be forced to grind for transmute stones or buy them. I would rather do that shit in my own time, not forced to grind for stuff that I've already paid real money for. It's ridiculous.

Why they can't they follow Blizzard's model is beyond me.

For what it's worth, you get 3 Transmutation Stones for completely exploring any of the major cities... If you're 80 and need Crystals though, that's different.

 

[diamount]

For what it's worth, you get 3 Transmutation Stones for completely exploring any of the major cities... If you're 80 and need Crystals though, that's different.

No, I know that. But at the rate you're upgrading gear.. I would need to do that multiple times, across many alts. Not my idea of fun,

 

[Gintoki313]

The game is super fun and was well worth the money. I'm still only lvl 34 but I'm gonna reach 80 one day so I can play all that post-game content.

I've started playing again recently to scratch that MMO itch while I wait for FFXIV, they still haven't made PvE fun or added native controller support =/.

I wish they would add this. If they added controller support kinda like how FFXIV does it, I would play this game more. It's not that I don't like playing the game with a kb/m, it's just that my hands and fingers cramp up easy after long use of my kb/m.

 

[erpg]

I really wish I could like this game. Biggest surprise disappointment of the generation.

Had a group of five ready and we all quit within 4 months. I sometimes wonder if I'm losing interest in the genre in general.

 

[Luigi87]

Over 900 hours played, and still enjoying it.
I've never dedicated myself to an online game as much as I have GW2.

 

[Orayn]

The game is super fun and was well worth the money. I'm still only lvl 34 but I'm gonna reach 80 one day so I can play all that post-game content.



I wish they would add this. If they added controller support kinda like how FFXIV does it, I would play this game more. It's not that I don't like playing the game with a kb/m, it's just that my hands and fingers cramp up easy after long use of my kb/m.

Definitely check out Hawkian's Controller Mode if you haven't already.

 

[Piecake]

I quite enjoyed my time playing it, but with all mmos I eventually burned myself out/got sick of it. Definitely the best MMO out there and nice to see its still going strong

I tried playing it again a few months after I quit and didnt last an hour, so I doubt Ill ever pick it up again

 

[Jest Chillin]

I really wish I could like this game. Biggest surprise disappointment of the generation.

Had a group of five ready and we all quit within 4 months. I sometimes wonder if I'm losing interest in the genre in general.

Genre fatigue does happen. Hopefully if it's not genre fatigue you find something that fits your bill.

 

[Xiaoki]

Production values are amazing on it, the combat is fun to watch (although as others have mentioned, it lacks weight), but it just didn't hold me very long. Would love to see an overhaul of the skill system. That would bring me back in a big way.

To me it seemed like the entire game lacks "weight".

Theres so much to do but none of it really matters because the rewards are too easily gained or have little impact on gameplay.

Grind dungeons for gear thats the same as crafted gear, crafting is too easy to level, sPvP is just for fun, WvW only gives you things to do more WvW, exploration is already mapped out for you, the story mode is beyond pointless and most events are temporary.

Its seems like ArenaNet wanted to take pressure off people and let them play and advance at their leisure but they took it too far and the game becomes boring with nothing to strive for.

In a recent interview ArenaNet said they know this is a problem and want to change the game and make more permanent changes so maybe I'll be back.

 

[Anno]

Great thread, Jira.

I never thought I would be able to get back into another MMO after EverQuest, but GW2 and the amazing GAFGuild community has kept me coming back almost daily for nearing 900 hours. Looking forward to another great year of increasingly crazy free shit every two weeks!

 

[BLCKATK]

This game is still awesome after all this time. And lately with the content updates and how they work I don't totally feel intimidated to come back and play every once and awhile.

I'm not playing now but this is the one MMO I never feel bad about reinstalling and getting immersed in for a little while.

 

[Durante]

Ok, after reading this thread I have 1 serious question:
How the fuck would you play this game with a controller? I mean, 6 out of my 9 primary skills are ground-targeted.

I've only really played Necro and Ele, and probably spent 80%+ of my 700 or so hours in WvW, but I just don't see how you could be at all competitive with a gamepad. Maybe it works for some other classes... which I would then consider boring to play, since ground-targeting stuff precisely and quickly is my favourite thing

 

[Jira]

To me it seemed like the entire game lacks "weight".

Theres so much to do but none of it really matters because the rewards are too easily gained or have little impact on gameplay.

Grind dungeons for gear thats the same as crafted gear, crafting is too easy to level, sPvP is just for fun, WvW only gives you things to do more WvW, exploration is already mapped out for you, the story mode is beyond pointless and most events are temporary.

Its seems like ArenaNet wanted to take pressure off people and let them play and advance at their leisure but they took it too far and the game becomes boring with nothing to strive for.

In a recent interview ArenaNet said they know this is a problem and want to change the game and make more permanent changes so maybe I'll be back.

This reads to me as if what you're looking for are things where the game requires you to do X before you can do Y. Ultimately GW2 just isn't that type of game and 95% of the genre is what you're looking for. The idea behind GW2 is you cap out statistically very quickly and then rewards are merely cosmetic. Instead of statistical prestige, GW2 uses cosmetic prestige which has no bearing on gameplay and that is never going to change. This means all content will have relevance 10 years from now since everything is cosmetic and therefore a drive to obtain the items still exists. You can quit the game for a year and never be at a disadvantage compared to other players. You'll miss out on content and cosmetic stuff but you'll never be behind. Why don't you try for a Legendary then considering that's as time consuming as it gets to acquire any one item. WvW titles are also insanely rare due to the time investment required. Oh also have you tried to get the Mini Liadri from the Queen's Gauntlet? It's pretty damn hard to beat plus getting all of the achievements is difficult to do as well. Anyways, ANet never said this was a problem, what they said was they're going to create more permanent world changes with the Living Story to create new content. They're not moving away from an optional cosmetic reward system towards forced grinds of other MMOs.

 

[Jest Chillin]

Ok, after reading this thread I have 1 serious question:
How the fuck would you play this game with a controller? I mean, 6 out of my 9 primary skills are ground-targeted.

I've only really played Necro and Ele, and probably spent 80%+ of my 700 or so hours in WvW, but I just don't see how you could be at all competitive with a gamepad. Maybe it works for some other classes... which I would then consider boring to play, since ground-targeting stuff precisely and quickly is my favourite thing

The script that Hawkian and Weltall co-created has your mouse pointer in a specific spot near the center of the screen so you just position your character then hit the ability twice to lay down the AoE. At least that's my understanding of it since I don't use it personally.

 

[Hawkian]

Ok, after reading this thread I have 1 serious question:
How the fuck would you play this game with a controller? I mean, 6 out of my 9 primary skills are ground-targeted.

I've only really played Necro and Ele, and probably spent 80%+ of my 700 or so hours in WvW, but I just don't see how you could be at all competitive with a gamepad. Maybe it works for some other classes... which I would then consider boring to play, since ground-targeting stuff precisely and quickly is my favourite thing

The script that Hawkian and Weltall co-created has your mouse pointer in a specific spot near the center of the screen so you just position your character then hit the ability twice to lay down the AoE. At least that's my understanding of it since I don't use it personally.

That's about the long and short of it. Theoretically you could even turn on fast-cast in the settings and just aim and shoot (I don't, since it's already plenty fast); in windowed you can even get a crosshair.

It's actually pretty natural. I have little Necro experience but my third 80 is an Ele and it's a lot of fun. You're not emulating a mouse cursor to aim skills or anything.

 

[Durante]

The script that Hawkian and Weltall co-created has your mouse pointer in a specific spot near the center of the screen so you just position your character then hit the ability twice to lay down the AoE. At least that's my understanding of it since I don't use it personally.

B- b- but what if I need to hit a specific pixel on the tower wall with my AoE to take down an arrow cart which is just barely in range? What if I need to drop a reaper's mark behind me while fleeing a zerg which will hack me to bits if they get a single cripple/chill/stun off on me? What if I'm a guardian and only my perfectly placed line of warding makes the difference between holding or losing a staircase? What if I'm using an arrow cart which is so safely positioned that I even need to turn off the HuD to be able to aim at the spot I need to hit?

I guess it could be fine for casual play

That's about the long and short of it. Theoretically you could even turn on fast-cast in the settings and just aim and shoot (I don't, since it's already plenty fast); in windowed you can even get a crosshair.

It's actually pretty natural. I have little Necro experience but my third 80 is an Ele and it's a lot of fun. You're not emulating a mouse cursor to aim skills or anything.

I see, that probably works better than an emulated cursor at least. I think gamepad aiming and the lack of flexibility in positioning wouldn't really cut it in WvW for any build which relies on ground targeted skills though.

 

[ArtistDude88]

Damn, it's been a year already?

I loved the game and art, but I never really had many friends to play it with. Quickly became a single player MMO for myself and I got bored and moved on I log on about once a month just to poke around but eh.... Hard to get back into it.

Those GAF raids way back when on that one undead island was a blast though!

PS: Nice usage of the Myst falling guy for jumping puzzles

 

[gamergirl85]

Gaf guild is the best! If it weren't for you guys I would've probably quit this game a long time ago. Despite what Retro says about himself I still think everyone is really nice in our guild.
Gaf guild makes this game fun.

 

[Ultra Magnus]

Just got into the game like a week ago and I am absolutely loving it. The hours literally melt away. How does one get into the Gaf League?

 

[gamergirl85]

Just got into the game like a week ago and I am absolutely loving it. The hours literally melt away. How does one get into the Gaf League?

You have to post your account name.#### here or you can Msg an officer in the game.

 

[Hawkian]

B- b- but what if I need to hit a specific pixel on the tower wall with my AoE to take down an arrow cart which is just barely in range? What if I need to drop a reaper's mark behind me while fleeing a zerg which will hack me to bits if they get a single cripple/chill/stun off on me? What if I'm a guardian and only my perfectly placed line of warding makes the difference between holding or losing a staircase? What if I'm using an arrow cart which is so safely positioned that I even need to turn off the HuD to be able to aim at the spot I need to hit?

I guess it could be fine for casual play

I see, that probably works better than an emulated cursor at least. I think gamepad aiming and the lack of flexibility in positioning wouldn't really cut it in WvW for any build which relies on ground targeted skills though.

You can pixel hunt with an emulated cursor (either a toggle or hold) in pinch scenarios like that. Of your examples, using a really tightly positioned arrow cart is the worst. When it's under cover (tower lord's room for example) the camera is so restrictive I definitely, absolutely have to position the camera to a fixed point and then toggle to moving the cursor to aim. And I know this is getting ridiculous but I swear to god, there's a controller input to turn on/off the HUD. =P

The broader point you're driving at is perfectly right of course, I'm sure. I'm not attempting to be competitive in t1-t3 WvW or event PvP tournaments and I'm certainly not in the highest echelon of skill to the point where it's my control scheme that is bottlenecking me to get that extra edge. It's a bit similar to whether or not you can enjoy playing any FPS, even on consoles, with a gamepad versus a mouse and keyboard. I think it's a fair analogy in that it really isn't any worse of a disparity than that either, despite the fact that it's an MMO. A lot of elements actually lend themselves surprisingly well to a control scheme where your hands are fixed. SAB, as expected, was a match made in heaven.

Just got into the game like a week ago and I am absolutely loving it. The hours literally melt away. How does one get into the Gaf League?

Go here and post your account or character name and ask questions and all that fun stuff.

 

[Ultra Magnus]

You have to post your account name.#### here or you can Msg an officer in the game.

Thanks will do once I log in tomorrow

 

[Ceebs]

I liked almost everything about the game EXCEPT the group combat, and that is kind of important for me as far as endgame MMO stuff goes.

Group play in the game is a mess and makes the dungeons largely worthless content.

 

[Durante]

You can pixel hunt with an emulated cursor (either a toggle or hold) in pinch scenarios like that. Of your examples, using a really tightly positioned arrow cart is the worst. When it's under cover (tower lord's room for example) the camera is so restrictive I definitely, absolutely have to position the camera to a fixed point and then toggle to moving the cursor to aim. And I know this is getting ridiculous but I swear to god, there's a controller input to turn on/off the HUD. =P

That's actually impressive, I really didn't expect that level of control. Arrow carts have the advantage though that you have a bit of time to aim usually, I think the use case where you are doing moving (open terrain) fighting and have to aim while running (potentially in a different direction) would be harder.

The broader point you're driving at is perfectly right of course, I'm sure. I'm not attempting to be competitive in t1-t3 WvW or event PvP tournaments and I'm certainly not in the highest echelon of skill to the point where it's my control scheme that is bottlenecking me to get that extra edge. It's a bit similar to whether or not you can enjoy playing any FPS, even on consoles, with a gamepad versus a mouse and keyboard. I think it's a fair analogy in that it really isn't any worse of a disparity than that either, despite the fact that it's an MMO.

I can't even really enjoy single-player FPS on a gamepad, so I know it's not for me . Feeling held back in any way by controls is one of the quickest turn-offs for me in a game. This is of course also true if the mouse controls are messed up (ie. input lag or hard-wired mouse acceleration/smoothing). If I fail (and I do that all the time!) I want to be 100% sure that I should blame my own lack of skill and not my input device.

 

[Pumpkin King]

I'm by no means a veteran when it comes to dungeons, and it really helps running them with more experienced players, but personally I love the dungeons. Fractals are what I need to get in to next.

 

[Hawkian]

That's actually impressive, I really didn't expect that level of control. Arrow carts have the advantage though that you have a bit of time to aim usually, I think the use case where you are doing moving (open terrain) fighting and have to aim while running (potentially in a different direction) would be harder.

I can't even really enjoy single-player FPS on a gamepad, so I know it's not for me . Feeling held back in any way by controls is one of the quickest turn-offs for me in a game. This is of course also true if the mouse controls are messed up (ie. input lag or hard-wired mouse acceleration/smoothing). If I fail (and I do that all the time!) I want to be 100% sure that I should blame my own lack of skill and not my input device.

You're right on the money of course. I think there's a strong implication in there that deep down at its core, Guild Wars 2 actually has really tight controls- I've always maintained it does- and you can be sure most of the time that mistakes lie with you and not because of struggling with inputs. Those controls at their core translate well to a gamepad. But if you're not at all predisposed to like it, there's no way you will. If the idea appeals to anyone though, I swear that it is pretty damn good. It's increased my enjoyment of the game a lot.

 

[Dmax3901]

Is there an Australian GAF guild on Sea of Sorrows?

 

[markot]

Is there an Australian GAF guild on Sea of Sorrows?

No. But there are lots of Aussies on SOS. Gaf guild used to be pretty active on sbi at Aussie times though, not sure if it is anymore.

 

[Machine Messiah]

I got Guild Wars 2 at release and, as a strictly PvE player in most games, I felt like the game was a little too hard. At level 18 I had a really hard time soloing any of the quests (hearts, whatever you call them) and story dungeons were even worse. I was playing as a guardian and I just felt like I was either getting swarmed or getting hit too hard. Did anyone else have this problem? I'd love to start playing again, I just couldn't get past how hard it was to solo.

 

[raven777]

I always wondered, how does GW2 earn money? You buy the initial package and you don't have to pay for additional monthly fee. The server would cost a lot of money and they seem to be doing lots of updates, so how do they earn money to keep these? Do they have in-game micro-transaction shops like F2P games? If so, what kind of items do they sell?

 

[Hawkian]

I always wondered, how does GW2 earn money? You buy the initial package and you don't have to pay for additional monthly fee. The server would cost a lot of money and they seem to be doing lots of updates, so how do they earn money to keep these? Do they have in-game micro-transaction shops like F2P games? If so, what kind of items do they sell?

Indeed there's a cash shop using "gems." Cosmetic items, skins, gimmicky things like musical instruments, "boosters" (50% extra experience for an hour), convenience items (access your bank from anywhere), account/inventory management stuff (bank slots, character slots).

Crucially, you can convert in-game gold into gems (nothing that can be bought with $ can't be bought with gold).

 

[raven777]

Indeed there's a cash shop using "gems." Cosmetic items, skins, gimmicky things like musical instruments, "boosters" (50% extra experience for an hour), convenience items (access your bank from anywhere), account/inventory management stuff (bank slots, character slots).

Crucially, you can convert in-game gold into gems (nothing that can be bought with $ can't be bought with gold).

well, that sounds amazing. I love how they let you buy all the cash items with in-game gold.

 

[Hawkian]

well, that sounds amazing. I love how they let you buy all the cash items with in-game gold.

They had a temporary sale on character slots once and I just converted gold and bought one. I don't actually know of any other games that let you buy character slots with in-game money but there must be some.

 

[Pumpkin King]

Awesome video Hawkian!

Between my wife and I, we have spent $100 for the game itself, $40 for me on sale, $60 for her. Then we have bought 4 gem cards for $25 each. Cosmetic stuff with the gems. I'm sure others have spent much more. For us, the $200 so far is totally worth it. This pay model of not forcing me to pay actually makes me want to spend. We will probably spend another $50 for gem cards this weekend. With the 2 week updates, and the hype over the next few updates, I feel like Anet has delivered so much more for the money than our initial purchases. I'll give them some money every now and then buying gems cards.

Totally voluntarily of course. Buy the game, and you never have to spend another dime. You can convert in-game currency to gems, and buy the exact same things I can buy in the gem store. But we love this game so much, buying gems just feels like we are helping contribute to the longevity of everything.

 

[Dec]

They had a temporary sale on character slots once and I just converted gold and bought one. I don't actually know of any other games that let you buy character slots with in-game money but there must be some.

There are many. Neverwinter is a recent example.

I've been playing again for like a month or so but it's pretty low on my list of what to do when I have time.

 

[Fjord]

Is there an Australian GAF guild on Sea of Sorrows?

I'm in NZ on Sea of Sorrows. I simply joined the main GAF guild, you don't miss anything. Can chat, join groups, do guild events (guest on their server, takes 5 seconds and costs nothing).

 

[Valnen]

Lots of GAFers play GW2 with a controller and swear they can't go back to KB+M too.

I just wish they would add native support, I tried the controller thing initially after release and it felt great but it would be even better if Arena Net did some stuff on their end to make the UI more accommodating for it.