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Guild Wars 2 on sale for $10
- Thread starter kurahador
- Start date
nrvalleytime
Member
Yup:
Guild Wars 2 |OT5| We've got fun and games
Playing with a guild like GAF's makes the game infinitely more fun. A good group of people who are far too jolly and nice to be playing an online game. Skill level and interest (PvP / PvE / WvW) varying across members so anyone can fit in.
SJRB
Gold Member
Haha thats what I get for skipping the last half of the page to post.
Awesome! Thank you!
We had an EU guild at launch but it fizzled out, and we've been helping EU players transfer to NA servers ever since. Most of them report little to no latency issues playing on the NA servers, and we have players from all over (AU, SEA, EU, South America, etc.).
Glad you like the OT, I had a blast making it.
FaintDeftone
Junior Member
I really need to install this game and play it again...
No better time than the present. They overhauled the leveling process to give you more rewards, teach the game mechanics better and give a little more guidance to people who need it. There have been over 40 content releases in the last 2 years, so a lot has changed; everything from quality of life improvements (megaservers, account-wide wardrobe and wallet) to major content releases (new zones, dungeon paths, etc.)
There's also an update coming next Tuesday (get used to hearing that a lot if you decide to play).
SJRB
Gold Member
So you'd recommend starting in on the NA GAF server?
GAFGuild is absurdly helpful and will probably make your experience a lot more fun, so it's probably worth at least giving it a shot. If you find the lag to be too much you can throw everything in the bank, delete the character and start over on EU. Most everyone seems to report minimal ping issues, though.
Yes. We're on Stormbluff Isle, but any North American server will do. With the way their servers are set up, if the Megaservers don't automatically put you in the same map as other GAFers, you can actually "Guest" to any server in your region manually. Basically, you have unrestricted movement across all North American servers. No $25 fee per character to transfer or any nonsense like that keeping you from playing with friends or any community of your choosing (you can also belong to up to 5 guilds at once).
The only things you can't do are play World vs. World for a different server (since it's basically server vs. server mode, they kind of have to keep people from bouncing over to the winning side) and you can't play on EU servers if you're on NA (And vice-versa; they're separate data centers)
Kos Luftar
Member
It will bring so many gold farmers.
Kos Luftar
Member
Seems like a good mistake to me.
fuck it, i'm in
will join the GAF guild - that was the best part of playing FFXIV:ARR PS4 before
i've heard there are jumping puzzles in this game, that intrigues me. what kind of other non-combat stuff is out there? any sort of collecting? base-building? etc
will join the GAF guild - that was the best part of playing FFXIV:ARR PS4 before
i've heard there are jumping puzzles in this game, that intrigues me. what kind of other non-combat stuff is out there? any sort of collecting? base-building? etc
Be sure to join the GAF guild for even more fun
Just send over your character/account name and we'll invite ya!
In regards to your other point, JPs are the biggest things, but there are also activities from time to time that differ from normal gameplay. The expansion will probably add the concept of base-building to Guild Halls, but we are not sure yet.
Crafting is kind of throwaway which is a shame because a more involved crafting system (ala Vanguard, for example) could be really interesting in a game as laid back as this. It's non-combat so I'm mentioning it, but it's mostly just a lot of clicking and watching bars fill. Functional but not exactly thrilling.
In addition to Jumping Puzzles (of which there are 44 currently, not counting holiday ones), there are also Vistas, some of which are sort of like mini Jumping Puzzles in complexity and contribute towards map completion (which, since we're on the subject, won't show you everything worth seeing in the game by a long shot; you have to go well off the beaten path to see some really cool stuff).
Lots of mini-game like activities, my favorite is a Mario Kart-esque footrace called Sanctum Sprint but there's also a Rugby-like game called Kegbrawl (unfortunately, teams are randomized so it's not as good as it could be), a Hunger Games-esque "Southsun Survival" game, a drinking game, etc. The holiday games tend to be the best (they just recently brought back the Unreal Tournament-like "Dragon Ball" game, for example, though it's gone now).
A few zones have some scavenger hunt-like activities as well, especially the two newest zones (Dry Top and the Silverwastes). They're mostly for achievements but if you love exploring it'll scratch that itch nicely too.
They recently added a Collections, usually just finding junk that vendors sell (there's one for sampling different beer and wine, for example), usually the rewards are fair to middling but it's something you do while you're playing, not something you focus on unless you really want the reward (for example, there's one I had to get right away that gave a cool title).
The end game is pretty collection heavy as well, as it's entirely cosmetic. Once you're in exotic-tier equipment, the only thing left is Ascended (represents about a >5% stat increase but is highly gated) and Legendary (which are weapons with the same stat weight as Ascended, but with stats you can swap on the fly). There are collections for various sets of armor as well.
The Expansion is adding Guild Halls (no details yet) and a "Mastery" system that will allow you to explore the game world and learn different languages, which grants access to areas you couldn't reach before. Details on that here; https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/reimagining-progression-the-mastery-system/
We dunno what else they might slip into the game, features that other games would make a big fuss about get dropped into the game out of nowhere pretty regularly.
ScriptedReality
Member
thanks ! purchased!
CosmicQueso
Member
Thanks again for the PSA... got to level 10 this morning and am really enjoying it.
J
Jotamide
Unconfirmed Member
It's on sale again. Btw, how grindy is this MMO? I don't like MMOs but my friends want to start playing so yeah. :/
I won't lie: There is a grind. The good news though is that this grind is entirely optional and it's possible you'll never experience it. GW2 is a really accessible MMO
Barack Lesnar
Banned
Echoing everyone else; you'll have a blast getting to 80 and then some. $10 is ridiculous
To see the content, gear up, and do the dungeons or open world or pvp or whatever, it's not very grindy. It can be grindy if you want to get fancy skins or titles that are cosmetic.
Matrix XII
Member
It was a pretty good and fun game.
But I only lasted for 70 hours or so.
WoW has lasted me for... years.
But I only lasted for 70 hours or so.
WoW has lasted me for... years.
Zeroth and Levyne already answered this, but I wanted to clarify; the grind they're talking about is for "Legendary" weapons and "Ascended" weapons and armor.
Neither of them are necessary to complete 95% of the content in the game, if not less (there's a special kind of dungeon called Fractals where Ascended gear is kind of required just to survive, but it's very much a long term goal), and the statistical difference between Ascended and the next tier of gear (Exotic) is only about 10%. Legendary weapons are actually the same as Ascended, statistically, just with a cooler skin and swappable stats.
Both are intended to be long term goals for folks who want that sort of thing; most players stop at Exotic tier and no one can tell the difference. It's also worth noting that the developers have stated that they will not raise the level cap or add additional tiers of gear, not even for the upcoming expansion, so unlike just about every other MMO out there, you're not forced to stay on a 'gear treadmill' to keep up with everyone else. Players who left the game months or even years ago have come back and picked up right where they left off without having to catch up.
The game respects your time in a way that I don't think most players truly appreciate.
I think the general consensus, even among people who decided the game wasn't for them in the long run, is that you get a lot of bang for your buck, even moreso now that it's $10. 70 hours would probably be on the low end, and the potential is certainly there for somebody to spend closer to 700 hours if it clicks with them (lots of GAFers have 3k hours).
$10 for 70+ hours is pretty good, and without starting a heated discussion on GW2 vs. WoW, even Warcraft ends up costing more after that first free month ends.
Weltall Zero
Member
Retro is OP maker of all time, but I hadn't seen this later iteration; he may have surpassed himself with it. For reasons that should be obvious, this straight up melted my heart:
Feels so good to still be useful after all this time.
Awww, thanks... I try to get the information out there in an interesting way mostly for my own amusement, but it was cool to see ArenaNet gush about it on their Livestream.
Also, don't trust anything Mordremutt says, he's pure, fuzzy evil.
J
Jotamide
Unconfirmed Member
Thanks for the replies. If I'm in the West Coast (Vancouver, BC) what server should I pick? I think my friends want to do PvE.
His Majesty
Banned
The combat and exploration are decent (especially the jump puzzles) but the questing and storyline are atrocious. Had some fun with it though but I'm not eager to go back.
As long you pick a NA server (so you get to play with most GAF people), you'll be fine. Server only matters for WvW (a server versus server PvP system) ever since we got megaservers (so there are no "dead" maps"), so pick whatever server you prefer. If you want servers with a really active WvW, join one of the top servers in this list. GAF in particular plays on Stormbluff Isle, but I wouldn't say we do enough WvW nowadays to justify going there.
When's the last time you've played? They've done a lot of optimization tweaks over the years that have improved things. You might also need to keep in mind that no matter how high-end a PC you've got, when you put 100-150 players + enemies + spell effects, you're gonna have frame drops.
As long as they're on North American servers, as long as you pick one in NA you'll be fine for everything except World vs. World (which is actually server vs. server vs. server, so you can understand why that makes a difference). Assuming their megaserver system doesn't automatically put you and your friends in the same map, you can always force it by 'guesting' to any server in the same region temporarily (no transfer fees or anything).
What questing do you mean? Because if you just ran around doing the Renown Hearts then yeah, that would be awful. But those static quests (which are still an improvement over most MMO quests since you can do multiple objectives to complete them) are just there to get you out into the world where Dynamic Events happen and those are the really tasty bits of content.
Also, as far as story goes, the Living Story stuff they've been doing bi-weekly since March 2013 is substantially better than the Personal Story that shipped with the game. Substantially. The Battle for Lion's Arch stuff was a particularly strong point, if you missed it that's a real shame since you can't replay it now. The Season 2 stuff has been good (not AS good, but still nice and released bi-monthly) and can be replayed if you have a friend who's unlocked them (or you buy them for the price of a medium fry).
51 servers; 24 North American and 27 European. The servers are set up in such a way that you can play on any server in your region though (referred to as "guesting"), so if you're on NA "World X" and find out your friends are over on "World Y" and your friend at work who plays is on "World Z", you do not have to pick only one group of friends to play with, or pay $25 to transfer or start a new character from scratch. It's a breath of fresh air compared to how isolated most MMO shards are handled.
The only exception is the large-scale PVP mode, "World vs. World", which involves 3 servers fighting each other for control of four very large maps with siege and supply camps and such. Since it's server vs. server (vs. server), they restrict you to just your 'home' server. If your friends are into WvW you might want to roll where they are just to be safe.
The GAFGuild plays on the North American server "Stormbluff Isle," for what it's worth. If you're interested in joining but are playing from outside North American, you should know that we've got a lot of international players from Europe, SEA and Australia who play on SBI with little to no latency issues. The EU chapter of the guild petered out due to poor management shortly after launch and we've been taking donations and raising money to buy transfers for folks ever since.
Swing by the community OT if you have any more questions =)
Memorabilia
Member
Awesome. I'll do that right now.
Northeastmonk
Gold Member
I remember meeting a group of people who loved GW. I had never played it and the only reason I had seen people play it was because it was free. I tried the beta for GW2 and the final version when it came out. I wasn't in to it. I'm just not an MMO person or a fan of GW's fantasy elements. In other words I didn't like the world and the characters. I really couldn't get into it (the lore, classes, and etc). I'd only recommend it to people who love MMOs and they don't care for the fantasy world. It really made me not like MMOs that aren't a specific fantasy theme.
I had a terrible experience with it. I'm not even quite sure why I'm even saying this, but that whole year I spent with a group who loved it sure soured me. I haven't wanted to touch an MMO in a very long time except a few specific MMOs. Maybe that's just how GW is. It's trying to establish itself with the others.
I'm sort of set in the fantasy that I like. I know it like I know the back of my hand.
I had a terrible experience with it. I'm not even quite sure why I'm even saying this, but that whole year I spent with a group who loved it sure soured me. I haven't wanted to touch an MMO in a very long time except a few specific MMOs. Maybe that's just how GW is. It's trying to establish itself with the others.
I'm sort of set in the fantasy that I like. I know it like I know the back of my hand.
Lanrutcon
Member
GW2 is really not your normal MMO. The dungeon content is bad, the class balance in PVE is hyper fucked, character progression effectively stops like 50 levels before you're max, you can't customise the UI in any way, the game doesn't support mods and you can buy your max level gear straight off the auction house for peanuts.
But it's pretty, the dynamic events are fun, combat is smooth, visual customisation of your character is very varied, there's a lot of landscape to explore, pvp gets a lot of focus and the guild mechanics are stronger than in most games.
If it had a monthly sub it would have tanked so badly, but as it is: grab it on sale and give it a whirl. You can burn through the content at a casual pace in a month or two and then move on to something else.
But it's pretty, the dynamic events are fun, combat is smooth, visual customisation of your character is very varied, there's a lot of landscape to explore, pvp gets a lot of focus and the guild mechanics are stronger than in most games.
If it had a monthly sub it would have tanked so badly, but as it is: grab it on sale and give it a whirl. You can burn through the content at a casual pace in a month or two and then move on to something else.
I'm pretty sure any computer capable of running Guild Wars 2 at a consistent 60fps dwells in the same universe where bigfoot exists.
Especially if you play WvW.
UltimateIke
Member
I'd like some more details on these.
Literally every class and/or combination of classes is viable in every imaginable situation in PvE, so maybe that could be considered a bad thing?
You don't unlock master traits until level 60 and grandmaster traits until level 80; traits are incredibly important to making any class in the game play as it was designed to be fully experienced. Equipment doesn't start giving you three attribute bonuses until level 60. Your selection of armor rune and weapon sigil bonuses is also drastically different after level 60 compared to before. And your character is incapable of gaining agony resistance until level 80. You're also not going to have anywhere near enough skill points for all of your healing, utility, and elite skills until well after level 80, so again, that's another step in your progression you're missing way back at level 30.
Regarding dungeons, the dungeons that have been out since release have been optimized to hell so I can imagine why one would not like it. Fractals are a bit different though, and I recommend checking em out if you are into that stuff.
The class and progression aspectos have been touched above, so I won't dwell on it, but I am curious too as to what you find bad there.
In regards to customizing the UI, there are some unofficial addons that enhance the UI info, but yes, you can't tweak the UI itself entirely. I can't say that's something that I've ever seen listed as a negative aspect since it is pretty small, but I can see why it would bother someone used to a MMO that enables it. Also, the game has several graphic mods, so I would't say it doesn't support them.
And finally, buying the high level gear is far from a negative thing, at least to me. GW2 is a game where the skill gap is far more importante than the gear gap, and a big part of the game is not about progressing your character gear, but your skills in using said character.
The English Conquistador
Member
Can someone tell me how to use the site even though it's going insane? I'm using Chrome, like the user on the first page. I want to buy it from the US site to save a couple £. 
I like Guild Wars 2 but the game have some really glaring issue that annoys me to no end. For those on the fence i'll just list the thing i like and and dont like:
The Good
The Good
- The exploration - The world is beautiful and there is many secrets areas to find, jumping puzzles to do.
- Dynamic events - My favorite thing about the game, this is a natural evolution of Warhammer Online's public quest or Rift's rift. To this day i still discover totally new events that i have not seen before.
- Really interesting and well done lore.
- Little quality of life stuff that encourages players to help each other like no kill stealing, allowing multiple people to harvest the same resource node, auto down-leveling when going to low level zones and many more.
- The dungeons - I've spent a significant amount of time dungeoning in WoW, FF14, Rift and Secret World and i can safely say GW2 have the worst dungeon content I've come across. I'm not even sure why i'm not enjoying the dungeons as much as the aforementioned games, they just feel like a slog to get through. I imagine it must be difficult to design interesting encounters with the lack of a trinity system.
- The story - The background lore is interesting but the current story is not. The story telling has improved quite a since the start of Season 2 of the living story but the story is still no better than your average Saturday morning cartoon.
- Slow release of content. The devs Arenanet is not as slow as Blizzard but its still pretty bad ever since the start of Season 2 of the living story. New episodes were coming out sporadically and some of them were really short. No significant content has come out since the end of S2 since the devs is busy with the expansion. I can't help but be disappointed when comparing it to other games like FF14, which just had a very meaty content patch just before the new expansion hit.
When did you start playing? They took a break after Season One ended too in March of last year and didn't start up again until May (though Season Two technically didn't start until July). Otherwise they release every two weeks for 3-4 months at a time which is... you know... the opposite of slow. The current gap of 2 months and 29 days (last update was January 13, not counting the Lunar Festival which was just a holiday) is actually longest the game has gone without an update, I believe.
For what it's worth, FFXIV averages about that between all of their updates; 2.1 to 2.2 was 3 months and 12 days, 2.2 to 2.3 was 3 months, 11 days, 2.3 to 2.4 was 3 months and 21 days, 2.4 to 2.5 was 2 months and 23 days. They have larger updates with more content all at once, whereas ArenaNet has smaller updates spread them out over several months at a time. Whether it all adds up to be an equal amount of content over time doesn't really matter (they're different games with different audiences, they shouldn't add up to be equal), but it definitely isn't slow though.
But you're right, it's no where near as bad as Blizzard. When I checked to see what the gap between the last patch of Mists of Pandara (5.4, the "Siege of Orgrimmar") and the release of Warlords of Draenor was, it turns out it's a year and two months. Yikes.