The beta wasn't particularly well optimised and if I recall correctly didn't even use your GPU, instead handling all the graphics with the CPU (and even then I think it was locked to a maximum number of cores). It still ran pretty well though.
Yeah it was pretty awesome, I got to around level 25 ish and my cooking level was nearly halfway to max. Sadly at that point I ran out of things to cook (beta is beta, the ingredients weren't registering) so I went and explored the charr starting area (where I was levelled down to the suitable level for the area so it was still semi-challenging).
I'm not sure what i'll do next beta event; on the one hand, i'm enjoying my Ele a lot and i'd like to get the switching of elements down to a tee before general release, but on the other I don't want to exhaust all the fun and options before general release, only to have myself bored out of my skull when I try and replicate it for real.
Still got my Human Guardian to try out, so might give that a whirl next event, but i'm still not sure at all =/
Can anyone tell me how quickly an enraged Melissia can get to Chicago from Texas? I need to time my comfy chair, popcorn and drink so that it coincides with Karon's screams of pain as he's sodomised with a statuette of Colin.
Guild Wars 2 facebook wrote:
Many of you have been asking about when we will have our second Beta Weekend Event. As we are approaching a long weekend in many parts of the world, we understand that some of you want to make plans for that. To help you with that we can confirm that we will NOT be running BWE2 this coming weekend.
Our BWE1 was super successful, we exceeded our expectations. As some of you might have experienced first hand, this lead to some technical issues. To make sure we are not running into the same situation for BWE2, we recently had a stress test, and we are currently deploying a lot of additional hardware in our datacenters.
We will be able to tell you exactly when BWE2 will take place as soon as all the hardware has been deployed. We are not withholding a date intentionally, we want to make sure that BWE2 will be a really great experience for all of you.
I hope this helps a bit in understanding where we are standing – you all have a really relaxing long weekend!
Arenanet Blogpost wrote:Heroes of Tyria!
My name is Chris Whiteside, and I’m the lead producer of Guild Wars 2. Normally, I’m head-down in the trenches, making sure we’re producing the best MMO possible, but I wanted to come up for air and share some exciting news with you:
Beta Weekend Event 2 will begin on Friday, June 8th, at noon PDT (GMT-7) and will run until Sunday, June 10th, at 11:59 p.m. PDT (GMT-7).
If that isn’t enough to get you all bursting with excitement, here is some more news:
Your existing beta characters have not been deleted, and you will be able to continue right where you left off! This means that enterprising players with characters level 35 or higher will be able to test their mettle against the explorable version of the Ascalonian Catacombs dungeon!
In addition to sharing this news with you, I want to convey a massive “thank you” to all of you for playing in our beta events so far. The participation and enthusiasm we’ve seen has exceeded our expectations, and we’re all very grateful and appreciative here at the studio. Your support during our first Beta Weekend Event and throughout development has been instrumental in getting us prepared for launch and helping us take massive steps in the evolution of Guild Wars 2 as a whole. You, our community, are an integral part of the development process, and Guild Wars 2 simply would not be what it is today without you.
Your participation is even more important when you consider that we take our beta events very seriously in terms of our development strategy. At ArenaNet, “beta event” means exactly that—it’s a development-centric event in which we test our systems, discover new and exciting bugs, and get pivotal feedback from our testers about what is going in the right direction and what isn’t.
We have listened intently to all of your feedback from our first Beta Weekend Event, and we’ve made great strides toward resolving many of the issues you’ve helped us identify. These include party movement into overflow servers, chat functionality, key bindings, server stability, performance, and many more that we will detail in the near future.
Of course, there’s no denying the benefits of having such a vocal, outspoken community. And I’m not speaking just in terms of development; I’m also referring to how our players are spreading the word that Guild Wars 2 is more than just a game, it’s an evolving, online world that is shaped and driven by its players. Our community and our studio won’t accept anything less than excellence, and above all else, we both value a pioneering approach to the future of online worlds.
Having said all that, what is the one thing we most look forward to in our second Beta Weekend Event? In a nutshell, it’s getting the chance to play with you all: sharing a world we’ve built together, discovering what’s great and what could be better, and defining a ground-breaking world that we can all enjoy for many years to come. That’s what these beta events mean to us.
For those who haven’t yet pre-purchased Guild Wars 2, you’ll still have a chance to play in the beta. We’re teaming up with our partners to give away keys for Beta Weekend Event 2, so follow us on Twitter and Facebook to get the latest news.
Thank you all so much for your support, care, and enthusiasm—we couldn’t do it without you!
See you in-game,
Chris Whiteside
(a.k.a. Snowcrash)
It’s almost here—the second Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekend Event begins this Friday! For three days, players from all over the world will experience the wonders and dangers of Tyria—and a ton of cool new content!
Keep Your Characters! Or create new human, norn, or charr characters and start a whole new story. Since players will be able to play with their existing characters from the first Beta Weekend Event, they can experience some of the new higher level content.
Enter the Catacombs (Explorable Mode) Looking for a real challenge? Try out the explorable mode of the Ascalonian Catacombs dungeon for groups of ambitious level 35+ players. The tough explorable mode of the Catacombs presents a party with three different paths through the dungeon, each with its own dangers and rewards. Enter if you dare!
Visit Lovely Gendarran Fields We’ve opened up a new map, Gendarran Fields, for players to explore. A level 25 to 35 map just outside Lion’s Arch, Gendarran Fields is a picturesque area of pine trees and rolling hills, teeming with wild beasts and bandit gangs.
Unlock the Mysteries of the Mystic Forge On a less dangerous note, the Mystic Forge has arrived in Lion’s Arch. This strange forge actually holds the imprisoned djinn Zommoros, who hails from distant Elona. If you offer the Mystic Forge gifts (like unneeded items and weapons), you will receive a gift in return. Got a pair of pistols that you don’t need? Drop them in the Mystic Forge and see what Zommoros gives you in exchange!
Expanded World vs. World Once again, the Mists will echo with the sound of combat as we open up World vs. World for the weekend. As usual, massive armies of players from different servers will battle for supremacy on four huge maps, but this time we’ve added a couple of interesting new twists. Players can now take their WvW battle underground in a new “mini dungeon” beneath the central map. This brand-new subterranean level is full of tricks and traps that can be used against enemy players, and is home to the aptly named Dark Room, which players will have to see (or not) to believe. We’ve also added skill challenges, dynamic events, and even jump puzzles to the WvW maps. Why are these PvE elements being integrated into WvW gameplay? “We want to make the transition from PvE to World vs. World easy and natural for players,” says developer Matt Witter. “We always wanted additional meaningful content on the WvW maps so that players will always have something to do, even if the frontline of battle is far away.”
New Automated Player vs. Player Tournaments and More For this beta, we’re introducing Automated PvP Tournaments. Each tournament pits eight teams of five players against each other. Teams that excel during the three-round, single-elimination tournament are rewarded with tournament chests full of valuable loot. The PvP reward system has also been greatly improved with the creation of a two-tier reward structure that involves Glory and Rank. Put simply, Glory is a currency that players can spend to unlock reward chests stuffed with useful loot, while Rank is a measurement of your success in PvP. You’ll receive valuable reward chests as you climb in Rank.
Combat— “A Sense of Hitting” Combat in Guild Wars 2 is more visceral than ever. We’re constantly making improvements to the entire combat experience—better timing, enhanced sound design, subtle camera shakes—to enhance what designer Jon Peters likes to call “the sense of hitting.”
Improved Overflow Servers We listened to a lot of the input we received from players regarding their experience with overflow servers in the first Beta Weekend Event, and we’ve implemented a new party UI that tells you when party members are on a different overflow world. We’ve also given party members the ability to fast travel to overflow worlds where other members of their party are located, and we’ve made it easier to keep party members together when moving between maps. It’s all designed to give you as smooth an experience as possible.
Improved Chat Communication in general has been greatly improved, as well. We’re adding the much-requested chat bubbles, as well as map chat and an updated local chat function, both of which make it easier to communicate with other players.
New Key-Binding Feature This is one of our most requested features. For those who want to customize their gameplay experience, we’re introducing a new, easy-to-use key-binding interface, which now allows you to bind modifier keys.
UI Improvements MMO players are often very particular about their user interface, and we’re no exception. We’ve listened to your feedback and have refined our UI to make it even easier to use. We’ve revamped the mini-map in the bottom-right corner of the screen. The formerly round mini-map is now square and can easily be resized for better navigation. UI Art Lead Vicki Ebberts says, “Little adjustments, like making the map resizable or wrapping the dodge meter around the top of the health bubble, may not seem like a big deal at first, but over the course of many hours spent playing a game, you start to appreciate a well-designed interface.”
Tiers for Skills We’ve organized each profession’s elite and utility skills into three different tiers, or levels. When you get enough skills in one tier, you unlock the next level of skills. Why the change from the previous model, which let players choose from all the available skills at once? “The tier system gives players both a sense of progression and accomplishment,” says Lead Designer Eric Flannum. “It encourages them to experiment with different skills as they increase in power, and it avoids overwhelming new players with a huge list of skills to choose from.” “Plus,” Flannum adds, “the tier system is more scalable and expandable. We can more easily add new skills in the future with this system.”
The Gem Store is under New Management The Black Lion Trading Company out of Lion’s Arch has officially taken over operation of the Gem Store, Currency Exchange, and Trading Post. Its new owner’s first action was to completely overhaul the Gem Store. As a result, the all-new Gem Store is easier to use and has a greater variety of items, from the decorative—like dye packs and costumes—to the whimsical—like the Box o’ Fun, which spawns a chest that applies random crazy effects to everyone who touches it. Each beta player will receive 500 free gems on their account, so do a little shopping on us!
In Closing… There’s no shortage of things to see and do during our second Beta Weekend Event, and this is just a small sample of what awaits you when you log in. We’ll see you in-game from Friday, June 8th, at noon PDT (GMT-7) until Sunday, June 10th, at 11:59 p.m. PDT (GMT-7).
I put the bit I'm a bit unsure of in italics, this really doesn't sound like a good system.
Eh that seems like a minor change, in the end you'll still be able to unlock every skill. Funnily enough the only thing I'm unsure about is a square mini map, round is better.
Ok after some investigation the tier system is just a division of skills rather than a WoW style "fireball level, fireball level 2" tier system, it's more like "fireball, get to two and unlock lava font and ice laser" where lava font and ice laser are no better than fireball.
mn, dunno if I'll be participating this time. I don't want to get too in to the game and if they're not putting in sylvari and asura.... well, I'd just be exploring higher level content with a character that would end up getting wiped...
I probably won't be able to play, since we're disputing a bill BT gave us and they're ignoring our requests to take it higher up (surely illegal if you request to see someone higher up during several seperate phone calls, and each time simply have the same gak repeated to you and the request ignored?), so my mother has cancelled the direct debit in preperation to go over the heads of BT altogether, and the next payment would have been due, yep, on Friday.
So I anticipate having no internet from Friday to the forseeable future, as they're undoubtably quick enough to pull the plug when people don't pay.
Just started a necromancer, and I have to say I'm having a lot more fun than I thought I would. Tossing conditions on someone like it was going out of style is quite satisfying.
That said, it'd be nice to see more/better implamentation of blood magic. It's a shame to see it so neglected in GW2.
Started up a Guardian yesterday, and it might just be the human starting zone, but I found it a lot easier than the Elementalist, but I haven't tried her in this weekend.
I'm finding my Thief to be surprisingly fun, very cinematic with all the flipping and teleporting around. Plus I'm Ash Legion Charr, so it totally fits the storyline.
I honestly prefer the Greatsword over the Hammer; I switched during a raid on a Centaur camp and never looked back. I'm going for a power build above all, and the GS has suited it far better than the hammer did; the hammer felt like it was trying to be defensive as well as offensive, and trying a little too hard at it to be efficient at either of them.
I died a lot more with the hammer than I have done with the GS, and I find it [the GS] a lot better for events too, since I can leap over to a group of mobs and blind them, chain them closer to allow spellcasters and ranged to get away, or others to heal up, and unleash my main AoE to deal very good amount of AoE damage.
With the hammer, i'd have to line mobs up and time the immobilise just right to even stop them, and then walk up to them unless I have the Teleport ability (Judge's Intervention or something like that). Leaping at single mobs or mobs already in melee can also be handy; Blind is never a bad thing.
My first time with the game this weekend. Tried a member of each race myself and played a few early levels for several classes.
Mesmer's pretty sweet, but I'm loving the warrior to (I went rifle and great sword). Gonna play a bit more today before the weekends over. It ends midnight pacific time right?
I have decided that my main, or at least first character, will be a Guardian. I am in love with it.
It's also quite ironic, since my first character for WoW was a Paladin, but got replaced as my main by my Warrior when I got sick of Blizzard being unable to actually balance my class.
A game can mess with the Holy Trinity as much as it wants, but if it plays like a traditional MMO with a few gimmicks ( One is: Different attacks depending on the weapon? Cool idea, but I didn't see anywhere that you get more depending on your level, just extra utility spells through skill points), no matter what it is, the game won't go far.
AresX8 wrote:So I was looking forward to this beta weekend.
A game can mess with the Holy Trinity as much as it wants, but if it plays like a traditional MMO with a few gimmicks ( One is: Different attacks depending on the weapon? Cool idea, but I didn't see anywhere that you get more depending on your level, just extra utility spells through skill points), no matter what it is, the game won't go far.
The two main components of an MMORPG are the questing system and the combat.
Neither have had major changes in the genre since EverQuest 1. EDIT: TERA is trying to change the combat, but I haven't played a beta for it yet to comment on it.
I do kind of wonder if there will be more weapon abilities at release. No problem with what's currently there, but it would be nice to get more options.
And frankly, the trinity is still kind of there. They've just decentralized it.
I wouldn't call the game gimmicky though. It kind of strikes me as a dash of DA2's combat, except not bad, mixed into MMORPGness with a skill and talent system that isn't a pain in the ass to work with *glares at Rift.*
EDIT: Oh and one thing I've been trying to figure out. If I boost the duration of conditions, does that increase the damage of a bleed, or just spread it over the duration? My numbers are so low right now I can't really tell.
LordofHats wrote:
EDIT: Oh and one thing I've been trying to figure out. If I boost the duration of conditions, does that increase the damage of a bleed, or just spread it over the duration? My numbers are so low right now I can't really tell.
It increases the overall damage.
Bleed damage is equal to (your level/2)+(condition damage/20) per stack. It can stack up to 25 times. So, for example, my character, a condition-based necromancer, has around 180 condition damage, and is level 28. I end up doing around 23 damage per second with each stack of bleed, and I apply around 10 stacks at a time, give or take a few. Add that all up, and that's around 230 damage per second just from bleeding, which is actually pretty considerable at that level.
Thanks. I've been looking at the traits, wondering how to build my warrior and its always a pain in the butt to figure out without knowing exactly how the numbers effect one another.
So the finale was pretty cool. I lasted a pretty long time against the corrupted players, not as long as a some, though I managed to kill quite a few corrupted players before I went down.
The two main components of an MMORPG are the questing system and the combat.
Neither have had major changes in the genre since EverQuest 1. EDIT: TERA is trying to change the combat, but I haven't played a beta for it yet to comment on it.
Seeing as the both the questing system and the combat are radically different to standard MMO fare I'm not totally sure what your point is?
I'm not saying dynamic events with liberal sprinklings of personal story quests are better than traditional quests, just that they are definitely different and the same applies to the action based combat.
@LordOfHats do you mean getting multiple sets of skills per weapon? So Greatsword set 1 would have A,B,C,D and E skills whereas Greatsword set 2 would have V,W,X,Y,Z, etc.
The two main components of an MMORPG are the questing system and the combat.
Neither have had major changes in the genre since EverQuest 1. EDIT: TERA is trying to change the combat, but I haven't played a beta for it yet to comment on it.
I played the beta of TERA, and it's not changing anything. Its got the different aim-based combat system, but every spell or action roots you into the ground as you do the animation.
Its a Korean MMO that is trying to be popular over here, and that will not happen with Loli's and such. Its the same old grinding and questing that is popular with KR MMO's.
TERA has some other cool features like the high-level politics, but it won't succeed over here.
GW2 changed the questing system with their dynamic events. Coupled with the personal story, it's a really nice combination.
The combat system is different from WoW and EQ2. Bullets/arrows are actual projectiles and can be blocked, swipes from weapons are in a slight aoe due to the weapon swing.
Its not overhauling anything in the combat, but the questing is an entirely different feel and very refreshing.
- Dynamic events are no different from the public quest systems found in Warhammer Online and RIFT. Instead of being on a fixed time interval for respawning, they have a set list of "events" in a particular area that are randomly cycled. One cannot truly have dynamic events in such a large scale game. They still even have the reputation and contribution system found in Warhammer Online, except they fixed the problem of the contribution system where only a few people actually got items by not giving out items, which cheapens the experience. The only items you can get for those areas with the dynamic events are the NPCs that show up as hearts on the map (can't remember the exact name), when they act as vendors after you've helped them.
- The questing system is a point system that compiles all of the old design choices of MMO questing into one spot: Grinding, fetching, and item delivery are all still there, but you have a choice to "pick your poison" since they all give equal contribution to helping that NPC. The personal story aspect of the questing has its experience cheapened when you realize everyone else is going through it as well.
- The combat hasn't changed. It's all ability based and about spamming abilities. What's stopping a caster from standing in one spot and spamming spells when they don't have mana to worry about? Yes, melee weapons have a slight AoE. So? That doesn't change the fact that all you have to do is stand still and spam abilities. Sure, in higher levels you might have to start dodging, but even the implementation for that is shoddy (possibly because it hasn't been polished yet). If you want to see a combat system I wish would be used in more games, take a look at DC Universe Online. The game was absolute garbage when you look at everything else though.
If you want to stand still and spam, you're going to have a bad time reviving all the time. I think the best example is a close-combat thief. If you're good, you can avoid every single bit of damage and still come out on top. If you're bad, you'll be almost dead or dead very quickly.
If you try to play it like WoW you'll think it's like WoW.
The heart system isn't meant to replace quests, it's just some extra content for you to do while exploring the world. Dynamic events and personal story are meant to replace quests.
Corpsesarefun wrote:@LordOfHats do you mean getting multiple sets of skills per weapon? So Greatsword set 1 would have A,B,C,D and E skills whereas Greatsword set 2 would have V,W,X,Y,Z, etc.
Sort of. I mean Great Sword has skills a-z and I can pick as many as will fit into my skill bar customizing how I use it. I'd love that personally, but they do seem to be making different weapons to be better at different things. Life for the warrior, greatswords are huge aoe brute force damage. Dual swords however are more focused on bleeds and crit damage (looking at traits as well). Longbows are for dealing with groups, while rifles are single target damage. So on so forth. While I'd love more variety to customize my skill bar, I can see why they wouldn't go as far as I would were I the designer.
AresX8 wrote:- Dynamic events are no different from the public quest systems found in Warhammer Online and RIFT.
Except that the area events in Rift sucked. What's that? Huge boss? Sweet. Hope I'm in the group of 20 people out of the 200 present who get the credit for downing him. While Guild Wars 2 is totally reinventing the wheel here, lets at least give them credit where they deserve it. They've taken ideas that have been tried before and made them work.
Oh and the quests events actually come in decent variety!
What's stopping a caster from standing in one spot and spamming spells when they don't have mana to worry about?
The mean warrior with a charge with more range than their attack distance, a stun, and a greatsword. Go ahead and stand there. You're helping
Yes, melee weapons have a slight AoE. So? That doesn't change the fact that all you have to do is stand still and spam abilities.
If you want to be a stationary target. Some of the things they've done are slight and subtle, but PvP in this is going to be very different. Even in PvE, if you don't learn to dodge, you're just going to keep dying, over and over and over again. This game is mobile, and not in the run around like an insane person trying to keep your opponent in line of sight while trying to stay out of theirs stupidity that is WoW.
Sure, in higher levels you might have to start dodging, but even the implementation for that is shoddy (possibly because it hasn't been polished yet).
I will actually agree that the dodge mechanic could use a little more polish. I found it slightly sluggish at times to respond to my key presses.
EDIT:I say this thought. Guild Wars 2 is the first RPG I've played in years that doesn't suffer from 'everyone other than you is incompetent' syndrome. In the Char storyline, I'm running around with other NPC characters taking on the baddies. Some world events have you fighting alongside NPC's, and the story (I only finished the Char starting zone) as I saw it, doesn't have me solving all the worlds problems because everyone else is too idiotic to do it. Huge difference between walking into a Sith tomb and a soldier saying "My lord, we tried to do our job, but we couldn't, can you do it for us" and walking into an area and hearing about some soldiers wanting a little help while I see them out there fighting those ghosts.
Corpsesarefun wrote:@LordOfHats do you mean getting multiple sets of skills per weapon? So Greatsword set 1 would have A,B,C,D and E skills whereas Greatsword set 2 would have V,W,X,Y,Z, etc.
Sort of. I mean Great Sword has skills a-z and I can pick as many as will fit into my skill bar customizing how I use it. I'd love that personally, but they do seem to be making different weapons to be better at different things. Life for the warrior, greatswords are huge aoe brute force damage. Dual swords however are more focused on bleeds and crit damage (looking at traits as well). Longbows are for dealing with groups, while rifles are single target damage. So on so forth. While I'd love more variety to customize my skill bar, I can see why they wouldn't go as far as I would were I the designer.
Yeah that's unlikely to ever happen, they had a similar thing for guild wars 1 and as expansions added more and more skills it became impossible to balance. With this balanced system of limited skills then can simply buff or nerf weapons rather than worry about how individual skills impact every other individual skill, it also means they can add new weapons with ease (which they have confirmed will happen).
A lot of things about GW2 are designed to be very modular so that expansions/updates can add to what is already in the game without negatively impacting the vanilla.
I figured something like that. Personally I'm also hoping to be able to eventually use spears... without being underwater. Or maybe they'll add halberds
Karon wrote:
The combat system is different from WoW and EQ2. Bullets/arrows are actual projectiles and can be blocked, swipes from weapons are in a slight aoe due to the weapon swing.
This is slightly incorrect.
Bullets/arrows can be evaded, but only when in an evading state. Normal movement will not stop you from getting hit once the attack has been registered. Similarly, the same thing is true for the AoE from melee attacks. That's why simply strafing some enemies won't work, since the area of their attacks can be very deceptive.
Oh, yeah, I know that. I just meant that if you stand in front of someone who is being shot on the correct angle, you'll take the shot and damage instead.
Well originally I thought I would stick with GS guardian, but Iv found that if your going to go melee you need to be pretty mobile, while GS guaridian has a few tools to get into combat range after playing a sword/dagger theif the guardian just feels a bit slow.
Sword/dagger theif was great fun, being able to teleport and stab people, cripple them if they try and run and dodge around to the enemies back and give em a good stabbin.
Being able to stealth when the situation goes bad was pretty invaluable also.
The other character I tried this time was a staff necro, definately does less dmg than either the melee theif or guardian I played but as the necro I barely ever died, being able to chill people and slow them down was fun as well.
Xeriapt wrote:
The other character I tried this time was a staff necro, definately does less dmg than either the melee theif or guardian I played but as the necro I barely ever died, being able to chill people and slow them down was fun as well.
Staff does piss poor single target damage, but marks are really good when comboed with other skills. I find, with the necromancer, you can't just pick one weapon and stick with it, changing when a specialized situation called for it (for example, using a ranged weapon to pick off enemies, and melee when close). I used primarily a scepter and dagger in one set, and a staff in the other. I found that I had the most success when I would be constantly switching between sets.
Start with staff, place some marks, switch to staff/dagger, throw down some conditions, switch back to staff, throw down more marks, use utility skills to spread everything around, switch back, etc.
Additionally, I find that Necromancer is a pretty poor choice against weaker enemies and smaller fights. It's not that they're bad, I was perfectly content soloing quite a bit as my necro, it's just that they're not as good as the other classes. I played a fair bit with a friend's warrior, and he cleared through enemies before I was even set up. The thing about the necromancer is that they take time to get started. Longer, attrition based engagements are definitely in the necromancer's favour. Given time to set up and spread their conditions around, they're capable of doing an obscene amount of damage over time, all whilst spreading it around. Additionally, they can keep themselves relatively safe while doing so (unlike my friend's warrior, who would lose a fair chunk of health even in the smallest of encounters, I had a tendancy to stay relatively untouched).
Xeriapt wrote:
The other character I tried this time was a staff necro, definately does less dmg than either the melee theif or guardian I played but as the necro I barely ever died, being able to chill people and slow them down was fun as well.
Staff does piss poor single target damage, but marks are really good when comboed with other skills. I find, with the necromancer, you can't just pick one weapon and stick with it, changing when a specialized situation called for it (for example, using a ranged weapon to pick off enemies, and melee when close). I used primarily a scepter and dagger in one set, and a staff in the other. I found that I had the most success when I would be constantly switching between sets.
Start with staff, place some marks, switch to staff/dagger, throw down some conditions, switch back to staff, throw down more marks, use utility skills to spread everything around, switch back, etc.
Additionally, I find that Necromancer is a pretty poor choice against weaker enemies and smaller fights. It's not that they're bad, I was perfectly content soloing quite a bit as my necro, it's just that they're not as good as the other classes. I played a fair bit with a friend's warrior, and he cleared through enemies before I was even set up. The thing about the necromancer is that they take time to get started. Longer, attrition based engagements are definitely in the necromancer's favour. Given time to set up and spread their conditions around, they're capable of doing an obscene amount of damage over time, all whilst spreading it around. Additionally, they can keep themselves relatively safe while doing so (unlike my friend's warrior, who would lose a fair chunk of health even in the smallest of encounters, I had a tendancy to stay relatively untouched).
You're really not meant to be playing alone, like at all.
Most of the time i've been playing alone, except for events or when I happen to see someone doing the same quest.
I much prefer it, because I don't have to worry about getting in anybody's way, and nobody is getting in mine; for example, I found out just how annoying it is to have a Hammer Guardian Banish a mob across the park as if it were a cricket ball, and i'm having to chase it again; even worse if it's a ranged mob, and triple worse if it's a centuar archer, because they like to take every opportunity to bugger off.
Avatar 720 wrote:Most of the time i've been playing alone, except for events or when I happen to see someone doing the same quest.
I much prefer it, because I don't have to worry about getting in anybody's way, and nobody is getting in mine; for example, I found out just how annoying it is to have a Hammer Guardian Banish a mob across the park as if it were a cricket ball, and i'm having to chase it again; even worse if it's a ranged mob, and triple worse if it's a centuar archer, because they like to take every opportunity to bugger off.
Whenever I ran into a problem adventuring alone, I'd yell across the map asking if anyone wants to do something together. I almost always got some help from a player that wanted the skill point I wanted or even a player that was just being generous with their time.
This often worked out considering most people were around my level. I'm afraid this may begin to be a problem when people hit higher levels and the density of players per zone dwindles.
However, as an Engineer, I always felt guilty using the plethora of knockbacks and pulls we have access to. I felt that I was disrupting the smackdown that other players were doing. Regardless, I hope that the other players appreciated the interrupts at the very least. I tried to at least smash the enemy into a wall or something not too far away.
Absolutionis wrote:
However, as an Engineer, I always felt guilty using the plethora of knockbacks and pulls we have access to. I felt that I was disrupting the smackdown that other players were doing. Regardless, I hope that the other players appreciated the interrupts at the very least. I tried to at least smash the enemy into a wall or something not too far away.
As a necromancer, I HATE it when someone knocks an enemy out of my marks/AoEs.
My build is centered around loading as many conditions as possible onto a single enemy, and then spreading them to everyone around him, so if someone were to remove my target from my range, or knock them out of the AoE that would put a vital condition on them, then I might as well just go sit out in the corner.
Personally, my necro build is based off of absorbing as many conditions as possible from my allies and either consuming them or transferring them to my enemy...
I like to cut the middleman out and stack them on myself.
Throw a tonne of marks down, layer on the bleeding/poison/weakness with staff/dagger, transfer it to everyone else with epidemic, and then finally toss everything I've done to myself in the process (bleeding from Blood is Power and Vulnerability from Epidemic) over to the enemy once more with Plague Signet, or just use Consume Conditions for the clutch heal.
Relatively quick way to get 10+ stacks of bleeding and a million other things spread around really quickly.
Dagger mainhand is just bad for Necro, from what I find. Melee range makes you an open target, and even though necromancers are tied with Warrior for highest health in the game, they're still very squishy as hell with light armour. You also don't really get enough to justify all that risk either.
That said, dagger offhand is AMAZING on necromancer.
Scepter's good at a distance, but staff is even better, what with the longer range. Scepter's primary goal is to stack DoTs and then crunch them with Feast of Corruption for even more damage.
Warhorn has some useful skills, but they're more fitting a mainhand dagger or axe because of their short range. You generally don't want to be in the position where you'd be using those skills in the first place with a scepter.
Focus is solid, but I've always felt more comfortable with dagger.
Really, I'd say the best necro offhand is dagger, it just offers so much. But that doesn't mean that the other offhands are bad. They've all got their uses.
From my experience the necro is really survivable (though every class dies fast if you try to just absorb hits in this game), on par with the warrior and guardian.
Maybe it's because I'm not a fan of getting hit at all in the first place, but I've only really noticed real survivability on the necro when I pop the super sayain. And I generally dislike doing that unless I'm really in trouble, since it makes for a great clutch escape and I don't like getting caught in a moment when I really need it and it's half empty.
Yeah I used death shroud a fair amount for some extra health in a tight spot, usually gives you the time to gain some distance and them drop marks and such.
Sadly I didnt get to the lv on the necro to be able to swap weapons lol, was a bit limited in my playtime.
As much as I loved the guardian I think at the moment the Theif is looking like it will be my main, it was just fun as to play and had some really cool things it could do.
Agreed. One of the biggest reasons Fee-to-Play games appeal to me is that there is no incentive towards bloating the game to artificially extend playtime.
People complain that single-player games are getting too short nowadays, but they fail to understand that those games are still REALLY FUN for those 6-10hr.
All the design decisions in GW2 described are a consequence of no subscription fees. Instant travel for a minor fee replaces boring long-term travel. Participation-based looting and resource gathering replaces competition-based looting/gathering.
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As an aside, the article implies that there is more than one beta weekend coming up...
According to the FB page, this test is because of issues that the European servers suffered near the end of the last beta event, so that might be why it's timed perfectly for the UK and other european nations, as well as why it's short.
Where is everyone planning on playing? I got like 3 disparate groups of friends that are getting in on this, consolidating servers seems like a smart call.
European and US servers seem to be pretty much exactly the same for lag so currently the official guild server is Longeye's Ledge, up for change though.
Yeah that's why I'd like to keep everyone on one server if possible...
We can do a vote for what server is the official guild one? As I said NA/EU servers seem to be indistinguishable for lag so it doesn't really matter what we pick.
A very interesting and unexpected interview on endgame, it talks about legendary item skins (which sound AMAZING ).
Server list has changed up a bit so I thought now is a good time to take a vote which server we're going to have as the official guild server! Here is the list so what do people want?
Anvil Rock Blackgate Borlis Pass Aurora Glade Crystal Desert Blacktide Darkhaven Boreal Station Ehmry Bay Desolation Fort Aspenwood Gate of Madness Far Shiverpeaks Henge of Denravi Fissure of Woe Isle of Janthir Jade Quarry Maguuma Gunnar’s Hold Sanctum of Rall Sea of Sorrows Sorrow’s Furnace Lakeside County Stormbluff Isle Piken Square Tarnished Coast Ring of Fire Yak’s Bend Ruins of Surmia Seafarer’s Rest Umbral Grotto Underworld Vabbi Whiteside Ridge
Unsure if you all are aware, but characters and everything will be wiped before and after BWE#3. The only thing that will remain is (sensibly) your friends list.
We've decided on the server, the official guild server will be The Desolation so if you want to be able to trade items and play WvWvW with guildies then go on that server!
Well I've downloaded half the patch as of 1pm .. so around 14hrs of downloading.. so yeah, might see folks for a couple of hours Sunday morning before I head off to work.
Yeah, its my bad. Problem is I downloaded the Earth patch for ME3 on Thursday night, and for the rest of the week Mists of Pandaria Beta has been finishing off the Green download.
For some reason I thought GW2 was next weekend, but oh well.
Morathi's Darkest Sin wrote:Okies so my 100% set in stone I'm going to be a Ranger at launch flew out the window tonight. Fallen in love with the elementalist class.
I thought they where fun with the staff... then I equipped a dagger.. electro-whips ftw.
Same lol, I was pretty set on playing guardian but lightning whips are too cool.
Or using a magic scythe to send a ball of life stealing energy from everyone in its path so that you can more frequently transform in to the avatar of death.
Games looks silly, over-rated, and over hyped. It just seems like another WoW, but that will cost me more money if I buy the game .
It will probably end up like all the other MMORPGs (SWTOR, WAR, GWs, RIFT) it will be played massively for a month then everyone will get bored and hop back on WoW. Hey, you might not like it, but its true.
Poppabear wrote:Yes. I'm simply expressing my opinion, am I not aloud to? What is a forum for?
I've played the tests and done my research, I do think I'm entitled to voice my opinion.
Also, as a DCM, you think you would know better then to mindlessly attack people online?
You're welcome to your opinion but do remember that walking into a thread and loudly expressing an opinion contrary to the general consensus in said thread will normally provoke backlash.
Fafnir wrote:You also can buy some extra in-game benefits and goodies, but they're largely cosmetic or for convenience.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Oh, and I have to say, for as much as I enjoy GW2, the very worst part of it are its fanboys.
Second beta weekend and I still love the game. Tried the Guardian and the Ranger this go round (with a minor stint as an Elementalist). Absolutely. Love. The Ranger. Gonna be rolling that first on launch day with a Warrior, Thief, and a Necro or an Engi to follow.
Also have to say I really liked the Sylvari. They have a great aesthetic design. Props to whoever had the brilliant idea to give them leaves for hair, and to cover certain places Gotta love the classics. So far I really like the Char, but I think the Sylvari are my new favorite race. Like their background and their concept myself.
Never got around to an Asura, but I'm not sure I'd be able to tolerate being so short anyway
People do have opposite opinions about this game. I am nowhere near as happy about this game as I was when I played the first Beta Weekend.
This game has a lot of flaws, and it could get boring.
I'll save final judgement for when I start playing it on release, since I did prepurchase, but it needs to be improved a lot to differentiate itself even now from the generic, high-fantasy big bad lore it has going on.
It doesn't have a monthly fee, so I don't regret my purchase at all - I will probably level 1 or 2 characters to max if the game stays as is - but don't act like it is even close to a perfect game.
The lack of monthly fee will be a huge boon to the game. People aren't going to simply play the game for a free-month and quit. They'll quit for some time, come back for some time, etc with no need to reactivate accounts and such.
People do have opposite opinions about this game. I am nowhere near as happy about this game as I was when I played the first Beta Weekend.
This game has a lot of flaws, and it could get boring.
I'll save final judgement for when I start playing it on release, since I did prepurchase, but it needs to be improved a lot to differentiate itself even now from the generic, high-fantasy big bad lore it has going on.
It doesn't have a monthly fee, so I don't regret my purchase at all - I will probably level 1 or 2 characters to max if the game stays as is - but don't act like it is even close to a perfect game.
People do have opposite opinions about this game. I am nowhere near as happy about this game as I was when I played the first Beta Weekend.
This game has a lot of flaws, and it could get boring.
I'll save final judgement for when I start playing it on release, since I did prepurchase, but it needs to be improved a lot to differentiate itself even now from the generic, high-fantasy big bad lore it has going on.
It doesn't have a monthly fee, so I don't regret my purchase at all - I will probably level 1 or 2 characters to max if the game stays as is - but don't act like it is even close to a perfect game.
Generic high fantasy?
Did you play anything other than humans?
I was talking about the overarching plot.
Everyone is trying to stop the big bad (Dragons) from destroying everything.
That is generic.
I'm going to play Charr almost exclusively, as well.
Really, though, how else are you going to have a plot that will be able to encompass millions of different participants? It's either pure PVP, like EvE and how I assume Secret World is (if it's not, then Pfft.) or everyone against a single Big Bad, whether Organization, or King, or LIche or whatever. With a Fantasy setting, you can't really do anything interplanetary (Rifts already did Interplanar) and Guild Wars 1 already covered the Conquest aspect. They're trying not to have a Faction vs Faction system, so everybody can party up with friends even if some like Charr and some like Asura.
Big Bad Evil Guy isn't a terrible plot- it's a classic.
Prophecies had us constantly switching sides and was a bit indecisive.
Factions had us fighting against a unique spin on a zombie outbreak.
Nightfall had us fighting against otherworldly horrors.
EotN had us fighting against primordial forces from underground.
WiK and WoC had us fighting against an entire nation.
GW2 has us fighting against dragons. Rather boring, but flavorwise they're supposed to be primordial forces. I'm just pretending they're scary elementals with wings and my apologetics keep me content.
I don't think the Nightmare Court has anything to do with the dragons. The Nightmare Court just opposes the idea that Sylvari should be enslaved to the hive mind and wish for freedom.
The Eldar Dragons' minions are undead, the destroyers, the icebrood, and the crystalline things we saw at the end of BWE2.
The dream is a manifestation of the mind of The Pale Tree (a conscious and sentient being) and The Shadow Of The Dragon is The Pale Tree subconsciously being concerned about Zhaitan/the eldar dragons, the nightmares in the dream are literally nightmares The Pale Tree is having.
The Nightmare Court on the other hand are really just amoral, hedonistic sylvari...
Well I still enjoy the game after my second beta weekend.
Played both Sylvari and the Asura, even though pvp is the main thing I enjoy in the game I actually played the personal story for my Asura a bit, was quite fun.
Finally got around to instanced pvp as well. My guardian went well smiting people with his 2h sword but damn do you die fast in those matches.
I still feel classes with more ranged abilities have the upper hand, you do alot of dmg in melee but its just far too easy to kite people, often I was running right behind someone swinging away and all I saw was miss miss miss miss.
I think the trick (and this is from watching, not playing) to Melee is judicious use of the various slow/knockback/draw conditions and effects- I'm almost certain that every single build has at least one skill that will close the distance some way or another.
Melee weapons come in two catagories, "catchup" and "control" . Things like daggers, swords and greatswords have leap/teleport abilities that let you catch up to a ranged/fleeing foe whereas hammers and maces have stuns/cripples/immobilises that prevent the enemy from getting away in the first place.
Clever use in these abilities makes melee very effective, after playing melee I kinda got frustrated with how low damage ranged attacks are.
I know that the Longbow ranger has a shot that knocks opponents away, while their shortbow has a shot that launches them away from the target. I do remember seeing rangers in gen chat though talking about how the longbow was nerfed since last beta.
Elementalist can be really good at kiting, plenty of speed buffs they can get as well as abilities to roll back etc.
Not sure how many speed buffs stack though, I had several traits that boosted speed which made me run about pretty quick, then I used swiftness and I pretty much went the same speed so maybe its capped or such.
Corpsesarefun wrote:after playing melee I kinda got frustrated with how low damage ranged attacks are.
Now you know how I felt about my greatsword/rifle warrior. I loved the rifle, but the greatsword just... it outclassed it in almost every way. The only reason I used the rifle was whenever I was running away trying to regain health or fighting a nasty boss, where I was letting the higher level players fight instead. The greatsword did more damage, more consistently, and to more enemies at once, than the rifle could ever dream of doing . EVen just to a single target the greatsword was better. The rifle's advantage was range and the ability to stay back out of the way of area of effect attacks-- but if the enemy decided to focus on me, the rifle was useless compared to the greatsword.
Xeriapt wrote:Oh yeah melee has cool stuff like leaps and that, but they are pretty easy to counter just by using a dodge to get back out of range.
Greatsword warrior for example has three attacks for this purpose. One of which had greater range than most ranged weapons, one of which crippled you, and the other one was a nasty area attack that moved the greatsword user in the process.
And that's not counting the greatsword's own dodge move to keep up with your dodge. You're gonna have to do more than jump out of the way to stay out of the greatsword's range. Other melee weapons have other methods to keep up.
Well that was just my experience playing 2h sword Guardian.
The abilities to get in range of targets are good (the leap is probably the best one), but the main problem I had was that even when your really close to your target I kept getting misses. Not sure if that was some sort of lag issue or not.
That and I only had the 2 abilities to close the gap, both of which have a decent length cooldown.
It does sound like the warrior has better tools for chasing people down, having the cripple would be very handy.
I actually love the Guardian's 2H Sword set. Mix the right traits and you can stack some really nasty amounts of damage. But the Warrior seemed to do more straight up damage. The Guardian mauls groups better though if you go for the burning damage bonus and a tanky skill set with damage focused traits.
I'm playing 2hsword/rifle warrior sylvari as my primary, with my secondary being staff/2dagger necro norn. Dunno about the other characters. A guardian, a thief, an elementalist, and a mesmer are all likely. Maybe a human, an asura, and a second sylvari (Because charr walking annoy me, at least Asura are fun to watch with their yoda dodges) for races. Although I might do a second norn instead of the asura simply because I dislike the "cute", it isn't cute, just annoying.
Unless you make them to be (picking the cutest face and playing with the sliders to make it even more cute) the asura aren't particularly cute... Most of them are pretty ugly.
Corpsesarefun wrote:Unless you make them to be (picking the cutest face and playing with the sliders to make it even more cute) the asura aren't particularly cute... Most of them are pretty ugly.
I think all of them are ugly, even the "cute". It is not a race aesthetic that I particularly like.
Charr would be okay if they walked instead of pouncing everywhere.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
JohnnoM wrote:Are necromancers any good? Was thinking of playing one but I never got to play any of the beta weekends.
Necromancers are good-- they have the most life of any class, and are definitely the most survivable of any class when played right. But as I said, they have to be played right. There's really three ways to play them, and you can when done right play all three at the same time.
1: Life stealing, the most direct and hardest way to play the class, life stealing is exactly what it sounds like, using attacks that transfer life from your opponent to you.
2: Condition transfer, where you focus on keeping conditions off yourself and your allies, and on your enemies. This is also hard, but there's more condition powers than life stealing powers, so it isn't as hard as life stealing builds.
3: Death Shroud, where you focus on building up life force so that you can transform in to death shroud. Functions as an "oh gak" button as well, because death shroud acts as a second bar of HP when activated, and it has a nasty area of effect life steal and a fear attack to boot.
I play all three to some extent, but I find that focusing on death shroud, using a staff (staff's main attack gives you extra life force for every enemy you hit with it, and it hits every enemy in a line), is usually the best way to go because it's the most survivable. But dagger/dagger, my other weapon choice, is offensively more powerful, and contains more useful conditions and a life drain.
Ugh, this one server nonsense is annoying. I have two disparate groups of friend and you jerks I'd like to play with. And I mean that in the dirtiest way possible.
On release (and perhaps in the beta, I didn't really try) you can guest on other servers for as long as you like, the only condition is you can't guest in World Vs World.
As an aside, I'm going to an American server. I might guest at the server the Euro players are using, but I don't want to deal with the lag when I just want to solo.
At this stage in the internet there actually isn't a huge difference (depending on the quality of your internet provider). Labeling a server as 'Euro' or 'American' is a lot more about helping your demographic find itself than providing the best ping.
Yeah. I was on Desolation (EU server) as an American and the lag was the same as the US servers I was on in prior betas.
My only worry was lack of English-speakers, but Desolation is apparently the primary UK server, so that's fine too; I even met some people from India and Middle East during some late-night betagaming.
LordofHats wrote:For some reason I find that statement horribly disturbing.
If the thought of an individual liberally covering them self in butter and sitting in a chair staring at a computer monitor with a maniacal grin disturbs you... well, I have nothing to say to you, sir.
I know I sound like a fanboy when I say this, but for the first time ever, a game has made several rather sweeping and grandiose claims and actually followed through with them rather satisfactorily.
Those manifestos got me ridiculously hyped up, and when the beta weekends came around, I wasn't let down in the slightest.
I compressed the files somewhat into .jpg in an effort to make all 300+ images fit. Otherwise, it was rejecting the original .png files.
That may account for the graphics settings. Otherwise, I work on "High" graphics settings.
Charr females and males wear pretty much the same armour, in lore there was a huge and bloody equal rights movement for female charr that eventually led to the overthrowing of their theocracy and the creation of modern charr society. Charr males and females are equal in every respect.
Norn, however, are definitely the most eggregious of this. Norn female armor isn't really even armor. It's stripper outfits. Tier one is fine, but it gets progressively worse from there...
Considering how cool the Sylvari's bodies look (HOLY GLOWSTICKS BATMAN), I actually really like armour that shows off their skin, for both males and females.
Well I'm just popping in to let everyone know I'm still alive, still in the guild, and all that; though honestly I wouldn't be suprised if no one noticed my dakka hiatus (real life and Diablo 3 are to blame for that), I don't exactly leave an impression.
Now to add something GW2 related to my post I think I've settled on my characters:
Sylvari Necromancer
Human Thief
Human Mesmer
Charr Guardian
Norn Warrior
Also that was an excellent post with all the armour pics, exalt and all that good sir. I'm also actually suprised at how modest (by vidya gaemz standards) the armours are, now I just hope they're all easy to obtain.
Well here's the relevant info from the link if you're having trouble
"We will be conducting a stress test on Thursday, August 9 from 12:00 Noon PACIFIC Time to 4:00 PM PACIFIC Time."
I know what you mean about the surreal thing and time slowing down. I'm just lucky to have 2 huge time-sink games. Honestly, I haven't felt like I've been waiting that much, you just gotta find something fun to occupy yourself with.
I am really tempted, but the line in the digital deluxe edition about the banker being only good for 5 days gives me pause. If one of the special edition items is only temporary, then what must mundane items be? You have to buy a new mount every week? I worry there will be micro-transactions everywhere this time around.
Well I don't think there are any mounts as far as I can tell. GW1's microtransactions were all cosmetic and from the brief stuff I've seen in the beta it seems like it'll stay that way. Also it's worth remembering that you can use in game money to buy anything in the "real money" store. Generally speaking Arena Net has been pretty good with being user friendly, intuitive, and all that so I don't think there's anything to fear.
The one thing I see myself getting a lot are the transmutation stones. Afterall, you gotta look cool but you also need good gear.
You don't even need to buy Transmutation Stones; maybe only the lvl80 stones need to get bought. I 100%-cleared four areas during the previous BWE and each time got 3 Transmutation stones. They're common and plentiful.
I may end up getting those awesome glasses though. Glasses are sexy.
I'm honestly really conflicted.
I'm really not much of a guild person, so the only guilds I would ever care about are ones with my IRL friends and the Dakka Korps.
That being said, I'm in the US and playing on a EU server was a bit desolate (on Desolation, lulz) at times when I would usually play. Additionally, many people I know are beckoning me to join a US server.
I may end up joining the 'Maguuma' server in the US so I can play with people on this side of the pond and then guest into anything DK is doing in PvE or sPvP.
This recent news regarding guild bonuses being per-server is also a bit of a conflict-stirrer.
Is there still interest in making a Dakka Korps - Eastern Hemisphere chapter/server?
Apart from reason 6, this lass really doesn't get the WoW mindset at all, most of those negatives she mentioned, are positives to hardcore raiders, and the ninjaring thing isn't that much of an issue if you know what your doing.
Most folks I play with have tried multiple MMOs, like me was playing GW2 without a issue in moments, and its not really all that different.
Damn, glad I didn't see this first, she would have put me off, talk about talking down to your audience.
Heh, not liking things are fine, if we didn't have a large amount of people liking different things, the games industry would look an ever sadder place than it does. With all the bandwagoning and making as safe selling games as possible situation we have these days.
I just have an issue when folks go out of their way to take issue, offend fans, take the mick of a game/product they say they have no interest in.
If you have a previous vested interest and feel it has betrayed your core ideals, I can respect that. I have no issue with Vanilla WoW or TBC vets moaning about the game it once was, even If I don't agree with them, or in my view feel in just as many places as it has been dulled, it has improved.
I should note, this is not directed at anyone, just in the past I have asked folks not to jump down the throat of WoW threads I have created. So felt I should clarify my position to avoid any confusion.
On an utter side note, that's the best sig I've seen in ages Mel.
