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[Dunlop]

Stopped playing after a few weeks, and pretty sure all my friends did also. Removing the Trinity was one of the worst things about the game IMO.

Can't stress that enought. This was my most anticipated game and after maxing one toon I never played it again.

Dungeons were retarded with the whole strategy being that one person needs to stay alive at a boss so everyone else who dies just runs back in..rinse and repeat

 

[Wallach]

Can't stress that enought. This was my most anticipated game and after maxing one toon I never played it again.

Dungeons were retarded with the whole strategy being that one person needs to stay alive at a boss so everyone else who dies just runs back in..rinse and repeat

The dungeon design they launched with was generally pretty poor. Their Fractal designs feel like a receipt that they recognized how dumb they were. Hopefully they make good on their promise to go back and address their old dungeons.

 

[erpg]

Yeah, I hated that too. I usually died anyways. I didn't really get a chance to party much though.

I think the downed system usually works pretty well. But when it doesn't, it's frustrating.

Take the Lost Shores event. Downed from an AOE ring you never saw due to millions of particle effects and players covering your screen. Die while you're downed, immobile in the AOE's lingering poison cloud.

 

[Divvy]

I don't understand the downed state hate. It's a brilliant mechanic that encourages cooperation rather than people competitively fighting for loot. As a whole, I've never experienced such a frientdly player base in an mmo as this one and I'm sure that has a lot to do with the downed mechanic and the looting system. It makes the experience much more enjoyable to me than in other mmos where i'm surrounded by jackasses.

 

[Principate]

I'll take Dark Souls/Chivalry animation lock/parry/riposte gameplay for my dream MMO, please.

I actuallly prefer vindictus's basic pc combat to dark souls. Perhaps the dark souls pc port was that bad but vindictus didn't need lock on and felt more natural without it. Of course parrying reposite and back stabs felt more satisfying in dark souls.

 

[Syril]

I think the downed system usually works pretty well. But when it doesn't, it's frustrating.

Take the Lost Shores event. Downed from an AOE ring you never saw due to millions of particle effects and players covering your screen. Die while you're downed, immobile in the AOE's lingering poison cloud.

That's frustrating when it happens, but the alternative from every other game that's not Borderlands is just dying anyway without a chance to recover, so I can't complain too much.

 

[Sophia]

The dungeon design they launched with was generally pretty poor. Their Fractal designs feel like a receipt that they recognized how dumb they were. Hopefully they make good on their promise to go back and address their old dungeons.

Dungeon design is definitely what I want to see the most improved. There's amazing potential there, but it's underutilized. MMOs ultimately live and die by their coordinated group content.

 

[Dysun]

After my account got hacked and I filed a claim with NCSoft they restored my account and gave me full credit of the game back to my Credit Card.

Not sure why they did that since I never asked. I'll take it because I'll probably never play the game again anyhow.

 

[Trey]

Healing is relatively unimportant. GW2's combat is designed around avoiding and mitigating damage.

 

[Lunar15]

I still really enjoy this game, despite it's flaws. I think it's because I've never played any MMO's before, so I guess I'm not sure I know what I'm missing.

The game's just a lot of fun in groups, and I've actually enjoyed doing content with other people. It's neat to just run into someone random that is doing the same quest chain as you and instantly feel the need to help each other out. And for what it's worth, I enjoy the dungeon content, particularly fractals. Weirdly, I didn't enjoy the game as much UNTIL I hit my level cap. Once I hit 80 I could worry less about experience grinding and more about getting the armor and stats I wanted.

 

[Hasemo]

I find it funny how some people only got up to very low levels and stopped playing overall.

They didn't like it for some reason, so they've stopped playing, what's so weird about it?

 

[greatnorthern]

Played it for about a month, and it felt like I was really getting into it, but after the week when Borderlands 2 and Torchlight II dropped, I never played GW2 again.

 

[Durante]

RvR in DaoC was more smaller scale and focued that GW2 WvWvW. The hugeness of the WvWvW battlegrounds just make it so that it promotes zergs to circle each other. In DaoC the huge battles were focused to more contained area and kept the action flowing

I don't know, we recently had the situation on our server where we defended the Stonemist castle lord room for 2 hours straight, against a mixed assault from the north and the south by both other servers (who had allied previously). In the end, we got them to fight each other while retreating to the upper floor, had teams repairing the outer walls and then came back to wipe them from above when only a small part of both groups remained. I don't use the word lightly, but that was pretty epic.

The variety in viable playstyles for RvR in DAoC really is an amazing feat, you had organized 8v8, zerg vs zerg. small zerg buster groups, Solo play, Darkness Falls, Keep and relic focused battles and everything in between.

I feel like you have that in GW2 as well though. You can have your huge Zergs fighting strategic battles, small well organized groups capping towers, 2 or 3 friends ninjaing camps or even disrupt supply trains alone. And that's before all the crazy trebuchet positions you can come up with in small groups.

And when they added Fractals it was super fun, easily the best dungeon content in the game, some of which seemed to prove you could do good instances without a trinity system, but almost immediately it segregated me from my friend who was grinding them like mad, so I had to sit around scrounging for groups to catch up.

Yeah, the fractals are great dungeons, and really varied. The grouping problems will be fixed in the next patch.

People seem to hate on the DE system but exploring areas to find those and jump puzzles is far more fun and engaging to me. This is one of the few modern MMOs that lets you explore that way and actually FIND things. Some of you who hate the game should give it a try, instead of running from marker to marker. That is, if you care at all about exploring In a video game after what years of MMO playing has done to many of your brains.

The (jump) puzzles are a really awesome aspect of the game, if you take them for what they are (nice pieces of -- potentially cooperative -- gameplay) and don't see them framed in an MMO mindset of "I need to grind this".

 

[Amneisac]

I agree with everyone else about the removal of the holy trinity being a bad thing. I didn't realize it until it was gone, but it really did remove something tactical from the combat. I'm playing The Secret World now, and while I don't like the game quite as much as GW2, I really enjoy the instanced / dungeon combat a lot more because there's a focus on healing / tanking and people have clear roles.

 

[BattleMonkey]

I don't know, we recently had the situation on our server where we defended the Stonemist castle lord room for 2 hours straight, against a mixed assault from the north and the south by both other servers (who had allied previously). In the end, we got them to fight each other while retreating to the upper floor, had teams repairing the outer walls and then came back to wipe them from above when only a small part of both groups remained. I don't use the word lightly, but that was pretty epic.

Yea it happens, but sadly it's not common. Much of the WvWvW is just giant zergs who race around each other capping areas where the enemy zerg is not at. In DaoC you got much more cohesive battles since there wasn't as much territory to cover and fight over, so it was all concentrated to a smaller area.

 

[Valnen]

Healing is relatively unimportant. GW2's combat is designed around avoiding and mitigating damage.

That's one other reason the game sucks. The game has no place for people who like playing as support or who liked healing. So without interesting combat for the damage dealers and without a place for people who like healing, what else is there?

 

[aliencowz7]

Yea it happens, but sadly it's not common. Much of the WvWvW is just giant zergs who race around each other capping areas where the enemy zerg is not at. In DaoC you got much more cohesive battles since there wasn't as much territory to cover and fight over, so it was all concentrated to a smaller area.

There was actually just as much if not more ground to cover in DAoC then in WvWvW in GW2, DAoC just had dedicated "hotspots" that the playerbase chose to have random skirmishes in.

If you count the entirety of all of the realm frontiers then it was actually really massive, most of it just ended up being mostly travel though since people ended up always going to the same area outside of siege stuff.

 

[Wallach]

I agree with everyone else about the removal of the holy trinity being a bad thing. I didn't realize it until it was gone, but it really did remove something tactical from the combat. I'm playing The Secret World now, and while I don't like the game quite as much as GW2, I really enjoy the instanced / dungeon combat a lot more because there's a focus on healing / tanking and people have clear roles.

A lot of this comes down more to encounter design than it does the trinity itself being gone. I think ArenaNet themselves struggled pretty significantly when it came to trying to design encounters in its absence. Most of the original dungeons reflect that to some degree, though some are much worse than others. That said I think they showed a lot of improvement in their Fractal designs and it will bode very well if they can continue improving on that. There's plenty of merit to their current system.

 

[Lunar15]

That's one other reason the game sucks. The game has no place for people who like playing as support or who liked healing. So without interesting combat for the damage dealers and without a place for people who like healing, what else is there?

I'd say that spec-ing to remove condition damage is essentially this game's version of "support." The Guardian I run is mainly a support build, so I'm constantly watching my party members for conditions so I can get rid of them almost immediately. One issue with the game (this may be Anet's fault for not making it clear enough) is that a lot of players don't realize how much impact condition damage has, and what a difference it makes when you have a player that's good at mitigating it. Is this the same as the holy trinity? Absolutely not. But it means I can contribute in my own way, which, for me, is good enough.

 

[Retro]

That's one other reason the game sucks. The game has no place for people who like playing as support or who liked healing. So without interesting combat for the damage dealers and without a place for people who like healing, what else is there?

Most professions can spec for support, even Warriors have a build that allows shouts (which buff) to heal. Slap some Solider runes in your armor and they also remove a condition. Run with the Warbanner elite and you can revive multiple people at once (not to mention grant some useful buffs once they're revived). Grab a Warhorn to give further buffing ability. Lots of traits that help with support too (faster reviving, for example)

Just because there isn't direct healing in the game doesn't mean you can't assume a support role.

 

[Durante]

I'd say that spec-ing to remove condition damage is essentially this game's version of "support." The Guardian I run is mainly a support build, so I'm constantly watching my party members for conditions so I can get rid of them almost immediately.

You should watch out with Necros. My whole build is based on stacking conditions on myself until I'm almost dead, sending them all to an enemy and then spreading them from that enemy to everyone around him

 

[aliencowz7]

A lot of this comes down more to encounter design than it does the trinity itself being gone. I think ArenaNet themselves struggled pretty significantly when it came to trying to design encounters in its absence. Most of the original dungeons reflect that to some degree, though some are much worse than others. That said I think they showed a lot of improvement in their Fractal designs and it will bode very well if they can continue improving on that. There's plenty of merit to their current system.

I don't really think the issue at hand is that its impossible to get rid of the trinity system, it just makes developing all of the content within the game that much harder which leads to a higher chance of stuff not being up to what the general public would consider "par".

The gamer side of me encourages developers to innovate and to aim to improve what is currently the norm but at the same time as far as smart business decisions go I certainly wouldn't blame anyone for wanting to stick with the trinity to increase there chances of coming up with really great content.

It is kind of the usual cycle though, there will be alot of instances of attempts at innovation here and there the fall short until that one really clicks with people and it becomes the new norm.

 

[Levyne]

I haven't played many of the classes, but there always seems to be both a trait-line that focuses on support as well as certain utility skills. For instance, rangers can take party conditions and transfer them to their pets, and necros (I think) can convert conditions to boons. Water traited elementalists get some great healing buffs.

 

[Lunar15]

You should watch out with Necros. My whole build is based on stacking conditions on myself until I'm almost dead, sending them all to an enemy and then spreading them from that enemy to everyone around him

Yeah, I'm well aware of this tactic. The people I run with don't use it though, so I'm fine. usually if I get into a group of randoms and I see a necro, I'll switch to something more DPS, like my warrior or ele.

 

[BattleMonkey]

There was actually just as much if not more ground to cover in DAoC then in WvWvW in GW2, DAoC just had dedicated "hotspots" that the playerbase chose to have random skirmishes in.

If you count the entirety of all of the realm frontiers then it was actually really massive, most of it just ended up being mostly travel though since people ended up always going to the same area outside of siege stuff.

True, but like I said it was more focused in where the combat took place. GW2 really spreads out all the objectives so that you got players going everywhere at all times instead of funneling the battles to specific points.

 

[aliencowz7]

True, but like I said it was more focused in where the combat took place. GW2 really spreads out all the objectives so that you got players going everywhere at all times instead of funneling the battles to specific points.

Yeah, i'm just not all that sure if the focus that ended up happening in DAoC was really due to intended design by the developers as opposed to the way it evolved due to the player community. Technically the same thing could occur in GW2 if players decided on a single map or area to focus battles on but DAoC evolving that way may have just been a case of lightning in a bottle so I have a hard time really expecting it of other games.

It is a weird situation because I know its probably unfair to hold other MMO pvp to a standard set by DAoC for various reasons but at the same time it is still what I go into games wanting.

 

[Sir Abacus]

I agree with everyone else about the removal of the holy trinity being a bad thing. I didn't realize it until it was gone, but it really did remove something tactical from the combat.

It's because they don't want this:

If it's just pulling four other friends together you get in and play. If playing whack-a-mole with green bars was your idea of fun that's great but not enough other people seemed to like it as much as you.

 

[Wallach]

I don't really think the issue at hand is that its impossible to get rid of the trinity system, it just makes developing all of the content within the game that much harder which leads to a higher chance of stuff not being up to what the general public would consider "par".

Yeah, that's basically what I'm getting at. It's definitely harder to design encounters with only an implied structure. For my part I think they were way too shy about pushing players towards more short-span goals when it came to their original dungeons, and really they're still very apprehensive about it in Fractals. This game is going to come into its own more when they flesh out class skills enough that they feel confident in pushing those kinds of goals on a party throughout the course of a dungeon. By that I mean when a full party is unable to go from one end of a dungeon to another without changing any of the skills on their bar.

 

[Spehornoob]

That's one other reason the game sucks. The game has no place for people who like playing as support or who liked healing. So without interesting combat for the damage dealers and without a place for people who like healing, what else is there?

I'm playing as a support based Warrior (using shouts to buff and heal and a shield for survivability) and having a blast. The trick is that you can't simply stand back and support everyone, you're involved as part of the fray, too.

 

[MoonLightWave]

I hit the level cap, did some dungeons, realised that the endgame sucked, quit.

 

[BrokenSymmetry]

My biggest gaming disappointment ever. Played Guild Wars 1 for 3000 hours, and was looking forward to Guild Wars 2 for five years. Turned out they removed everything fun and unique from the first game, to leave another boring MMO.
Also, any game that uses the "lockbox" system (dropping large amounts of boxes/chests that can only be opened with keys that have to be bought with real money) is evil in my book.

 

[Spehornoob]

My biggest gaming disappointment ever. Played Guild Wars 1 for 3000 hours, and was looking forward to Guild Wars 2 for five years. Turned out they removed everything fun and unique from the first game, to leave another boring MMO.
Also, any game that uses the "lockbox" system (dropping large amounts of boxes/chests that can only be opened with keys that have to be bought with real money) is evil in my book.

I've gotten maybe five of those over the course of levelling my character and I've been able to open most of them without paying a cent.

 

[Levyne]

Lots of story quests/map completion rewards can give you keys, and in game currency can be converted to gems to buy the keys.

 

[Wallach]

I've gotten maybe five of those over the course of levelling my character and I've been able to open most of them without paying a cent.

They definitely drop a fair amount - I probably have around a hundred or so in my bank - but to be honest there isn't much in them to where I feel like I'm missing out by not opening them.

 

[Divvy]

Besides, there's nothing really special in those chests anyways. Mostly just superfluous junk.

 

[SolsticeZero]

I've gotten maybe five of those over the course of levelling my character and I've been able to open most of them without paying a cent.

I have somewhere around 30, but I often get black lion keys as rewards from completing daily achievements.

Besides, there's nothing really special in those chests anyways. Mostly just superfluous junk.

Yep. The tonics are fun for about ten seconds, then they get boring.

 

[Syril]

I've gotten maybe five of those over the course of levelling my character and I've been able to open most of them without paying a cent.

Black lion chests used to be absurdly common.

 

[Spehornoob]

Man, I must have shitty (or good, given your perspective) luck with the RNG. I rarely find those chests. XD

 

[BibiMaghoo]

I just picked this up an hour ago.

Any advice for a noob going in?

 

[SolsticeZero]

I just picked this up an hour ago.

Any advice for a noob going in?

Have fun. The Asuran's have the best animations in the whole game, and they're adorable. I definitely recommend one. Engineer is one of the harder classes if you plan on soloing a good amount. Guardian is great for solo. Make sure to buy salvage kits and picks, axes, and sickles as soon as you can.

If you get confused with the backstory, the book "Ghosts of Ascalon" and "Edge of Destiny" help to fill the time gap between GW and GW2. They're surprisingly good and very easy reads.

 

[Wallach]

I just picked this up an hour ago.

Any advice for a noob going in?

There's really only one question you need to answer... are you a bad enough dude to roll a Norn?

 

[erpg]

I just picked this up an hour ago.

Any advice for a noob going in?

Go Asura, and anything but Guardian.

 

[Divvy]

I just picked this up an hour ago.

Any advice for a noob going in?

Join Gafguild great source of help.

 

[Levyne]

You should roll a greatsword wielding guardian.

 

[Retro]

I just picked this up an hour ago.

Any advice for a noob going in?

Jira's original OT (before it was butchered for the OT2) has a lot of information for those just getting started; http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=41244799&postcount=1

The Community thread is also probably a better place to ask questions; http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=492179

GAFGuild is on Stormbluff Isle server.

 

[SolsticeZero]

Go Asura, and anything but Guardian.

I don't think I like you......

 

[erpg]

I don't think I like you......

Well, most people don't like boring classes with long cooldowns and massively situational abilities. I'm just offering advice.

 

[Trey]

That's one other reason the game sucks. The game has no place for people who like playing as support or who liked healing. So without interesting combat for the damage dealers and without a place for people who like healing, what else is there?

The game has no place for people who liked the robotic gameplay of "see low health on party member, press button." If you like that kind of gameplay, you can only heal yourself in that manner.

As others have said, tactical support in buffs and enemy degen is very much a core component of the game.

And as a person that plays elementalist and warrior, I find damage dealing to be very satisfying in GW2. Active dodge, positioning, hurtboxes on weapons, projectile travel times, and LoS are very well done features in this game.

 

[flyinpiranha]

"Also I hated the 'downed' system."

The downed system is a total bandaid to cover up the lack of the trinity and reliable healing. I think this is a core problem with PvP, downed state almost singlehandedly ruins it.

Yeah, the downed system seemed like it could have been replaced easily with healing.

I like the game, really got into it for a couple months but paywall with Halloween really left a bad taste, trying to sPVP a couple times and we couldn't get in after 45 minutes (nobody else queing for tPVP).

I really enjoyed WvWvW, even if a majority of the time it was a zerg ... my problem? I couldn't afford it. As a Guardian I didn't really have a good ranged option. The drops being bags on the ground also ruined it if you were "in the moment" and running back 30 feet would get you caught by somebody outside of your group.

Plus the Que's ...

I will definitely go back to the game, it's one of the few that have stayed installed on my SSD. But the dungeons were not for me, WAY too zergy and I felt like I was really not helping the group whatsoever (even though I was with DPS). But that might come from playing a main tank in WoW for years.

I was really glad they got rid of the trinity, but it's so engraved into my playstyle that they need something that will change my perception of the game ... and just zerging everything isn't that. Yes, there are definite tactics to most encounters, things you can do ... but when it comes down to it I felt I was just hitting the same 5 buttons over and over.

Well, most people don't like boring classes with long cooldowns and massively situational abilities. I'm just offering advice.

I'm also thinking my class choice of Guardian was the wrong one also. They didn't seem viable in 80% of the encounters I happened upon.

EDIT: Level 80, ran a few dungeons, 1/2 exotic gear and played for about 100+ hours I think, maybe more just to have an idea of where I'm coming from.

 

[Won]

i was just about to open this thread =P

grats on the sales, but i didn't really dig the 2013 preview video, don't get me wrong but you should make this kind of announcements a little bit more interesting, like showing some concept art along with some dude talking in front of a camera

Seriously, what the hell was that? I expected to video with some random footage to start rolling, but he just kept talking.
Too bad nothing he said seems to be interesting enough to log back in again.
They generally come off as a bit aimless at the moment.

The problem is that they didn't innovate. Did they ask themselves:

"What are the gameplay benefits in having the trinity?"
"What will be lossed if we remove it?"
"How can we make for it in other ways?"

Doesn't seem like it. They simply removed an important game system, without any attempt at understanding why it was important, and what could be a sutable replacement.

The result was spectacularly boring combat.

Pretty much.
If GW2 had anything interesting to offer in return the topic wouldn't come up again and again.

I just picked this up an hour ago.

Any advice for a noob going in?

Ask Arena.net for a refund!

/troll