Guild Wars 2 - buy or not to buy? Your opinions (gw inside!)

old mmorpg mechanics

I'll ignore every single post that was posted earlier. Question is: do you like MMORPGs? From what I heard, GW2, while lacking end game, tends to be a rather great game.

Now on the other hand, if you were a fan of the first game, avoid it like the god damn plague. This game is not only boring, it's a waste of time. Don't spend even a dime on it, it's not worth it. True, I hate MMORPGs, but what I mostly hate is stupid devs shitting on their fans in order to make some easy bucks by surfing on "buzz". They'll never be able to compete with WOW which was already a shit game to start with.

So yeah, fuck ANET, don't buy this piece of shit unless you feel like burning your money, but then again you'd be better off buying some booze for a hobo.

Well instead of talking about pros and cons I can share my experience with GW2.

Bought GW2 an year ago(exactly an year ago,just got my bday booster). When I started I just rushed story cutscenes and other info just to get to lvl80 and see what stuff I can do at end of the game..

First thing I notice were world bosses.They were fun at the start if you do them with few people(but atm thanks to the time limit that anet added bosses are more or less : tons of people,you just need to auto-attack and dodge from time to time).

Then you have dungeons.Sadly new players will be invited in parties only for story dungeons(you need story complete to open explorable dungeon mode,story reward is few coins,rare item for the lvl of the dungeon(you get rare item only the first time you complete). For explorable dungeons you need to be lvl80 and with gear(sometimes there is even achievment points requirment but 3/4 of those parties fails).The way most of exp dungeons you do is: stack at corner->kill boss/mobs,stack at corner-> kill mobs/boss.Expect in this kind of dungeons to see ppl whine how easy PvE is in the game.

For sPvP(5v5 game mode) I can't talk much because it didn't really grab me(not big fan of PvPs) + there are still some OP builds(at least my guildies saying so) which are yet to be nerfed but seems ANET doesn't really know how to balance stuff(in next patch most glassy build gonna be nerfed with reducing dmg output with 10%).

Now let's talk about WvW(the only thing that keeps me playing).So in WvW you have 4 maps on which 3 servers fight for loot and glory + one more map(Edge of the Mists) that yet to try. So how WvW works: you have to capture enemy's objects while you defend yours...How actually is in the game....well...most of time the server blob(40+ players) just run with commander(some1 who spent 100g who leads ppl in battle but sometimes he is new to WvW and got no idea what to do) to capture undefended towers/keeps for fast karma,exp,wxp(world exp needed for getting WvW ranks).If 2 blobs clash then its fun ....if blobs arent full map blobs because then you get skill lag(pretty much you can only cast auto attack while rest skills need 5-10s at least to be casted). Also in WvW(mostly on borderlands maps) you can see guild groups running.Guild group fights are fun and organised.If you like WvW will be good to look for a WvW guild to have some fun(but the fun varies from person to person).Also for WvW guild groups not all classes are welcomed.You will need to be Warrior,Guardian,Necromancer,Elementalist for a chance to get into a WvW guild(also you will need to follow specific build and such). In WvW if you feel lazy you can scout for your server aka staying afk in tower/keep with having trips on wall to look for incoming enemies(perfect if you have to study). There is also siege in WvW that can be used both for defending and attack(the siege needs to be build and after it maintaned because it has despawn timer(1 hour)). If enemies come you have to report in the map chat and pray to god to get some help because : 1st: Defending isnt rewarding so not many ppl willing to do it. 2nd: If your server blob is capping something atm you will get just 2-3 people at most in the tower/keep you are defending. That's pretty much my WvW experience

When i started the game I was surprised to see a MMO with Storyline(that you can complete).So in Personal story you often will expect some big,epic fights but apart from the tutorial there is nothing epic. Expect big battle but ended up with fighting 6v6 or so. You will usually get help by NPCs which cant do shit(most useless NPCs I saw in a game so far) and dies in like 3-4 hits.After you finish the quest credits for completing it goes mostly to NPCs.If you manage to endure doing personal story(which I'm sure will because seeing a green star on your map that shows you where to go next can get annoying) you will end up with maybe worst "end-game" boss fight or more precisely(count it as spoiler): First you need a group to get into a story dungeon(long and boring) ,you fight your way to the boss,board a ship.Once on the ship you defend a cannon till it can shoot the Elder Dragon(last boss is Elder Dragon and GW2 plot is mostly about Elder Dragons awakening, so pretty much Elder Dragons are a force that is hard to stop...on paper).After laser shoots and hit dragon's tail he fell to the ground(but before that he destroy the cannon and part of the ship) and start climbing a building like King Kong.Now its time for you to strike...you and your friends get on cannons and just pew pew the dragon.Dragon dies,everyone is happy,credits goes to NPCs,you are done with story quest and get a rare weapon for your trouble. So personal story is tasteless(in early levels its fun because different paths but in mid game there isnt much choices to make),not rewarding and damn long.

About Living Story..well.Anet manages to make 2 weeks updates as promised but often it's shallow and outcome itself is set anyway no matter what you do.During 1st Living Story(introducing Scarlet,villian that players hated at first but loved at the end, and awakening of another Elder Dragon) most stuff were boring and shallow with here and there something interesting. Now at 15th April Anet will start next Living Story(everyone hopes its about an Elder Dragon from the start).

This is pretty much my experience with GW2 content.Now for combat...well combat is fun and fast but with some skill mechanics that are questionable(quite a lot of questionable stuff in GW2 to keep you busy thinking).You can have 10 skill max at a time. 5 weapon skills(depending on equiped weapon with most classes able to dual wield or use 2 sets of weps(elementalist and engineers can have only 1 set of weapons),1 healing skill,3 utility skills and 1 elite skill.While in GW1 skill pool was big(1k+) in GW2 Anet going for quality over quanity( laughing a bit here) so every class got more or less 40 healing+utility+elite skills.

Now about micro-transactions...well you don't need to pay real money at all if you fight a good way to get gold because you can exchange gold for gems(atm 800gems are $10/€10 or 72-80g in-game).Micro-transactions are for skins/minis/tools like change char name,hair,appearance or permanent gathering tools(though one of them got chance to give extra materials when mining).

I'm sure that this isnt all but need to go now..later may edit it more with guild stuff.

EDIT : So for guilds in GW2. Well guilds can be cross-server or based on 1 server.What I mean by cross-server.Well you can have members from different servers . You can do PvE stuff together but WvW is server based(unless your home servers are same colors,then you can do together Edge of the Mists). Every guild can progress with guild buffs,guild bank,guild missions. But progress is server based.

At last want to tell you this.Before you buy it see if you can get some friends or gaming buddy or existing players to play with in GW2. This way you will have 100% fun in GW2.Now if you are social you can go play solo and find friends on the way(though some server communitys are kinda crap). I'm sure that people posting in this thread are playing GW2 so you may try to play with them. For example if you start playing you can add me on steam. I would like to suggest you a server but I dont really know much about different servers.(You need server basicly just for WvW since for PvE you can guest other servers(what is guesting: you are joining other server's PvE maps..Every 24hours you are limited to 2 guest passes(aka guesting 2 servers) you cant guest 3rd server until you have a free guest pass).
For the record at this moment I got 2433 hours playtime(though prolly 200-300 are afk for bosses)

EDIT 2.0 Recently was scrolling through WvW forums and notice something that talks bad about Anet.So in WvW seems there are ppl who either can get perma invisibility(its possible) and can attack while invisible(don't think is possible) or simply they get under map and hell get loose.Bad stuff is that even recorded Anet's answer is just to delete the thread and do nothing.

If you consider buying it, PM me :P

for the price it costs it's a great game!

If you are into MMORPG you probably can enjoy it, but it's best if you watch some gameplay videos just to see if mechanics suits you.
If you are a fan of the original Guild Wars, you should not expect anything from this one since is a very different game.

Either ways I would consider waiting the 14/04 since they would release a huge patch that will change many aspects of the game (Hopefully they'll make it more like GW1), so many who are not happy with the current state of the game may change idea.

I'm a huge fan of the first GW but haven't find lot of enjoyment on this sequel: You have many things to do, but I get bored quickly after reaching the cap level and get fully armored. Also some missions are very boring..

It's 50% off now! :)

Dude, just buy it. This game is awesome and the community is great!

I put in thousands of hours in GW1. I was even in the monthly closed betas before the original release. There were many aspecs of GW2 that I saw in videos that I didn't like so I stayed away from it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31Sx90HIcB0

I was in Lions Arch when Gwen did this to us all. Wish I could find the old video again.

I bought it for 60 euros when it came out. And 25 dollars is a really good price.Really nice game , I am not happy that I bought it for 60 euros but if it was 25 dollars when I was buying it , its a definitely MUST buy I think. Really fun game when you play with your friends. I hope I could have helped you :D

I've had it preordered because it was to be the best thing to ever happened to mmos. And of course it didn't live up to (my) hype and turned out to be huge grindfest. Not sure if it's the same now but wouldn't be surprised. I often hear they're adding cool stuff but a lot of those should have been there day 1.

I think it is a really great MMO. They are constantly adding new content to keep things fresh. I really loved Guild Wars 1 and all its expansions and loved hundreds of hours in it. Guild Wars 2 is so much better even than 1 was. It improves a lot on the first one and has a ton of replayability IMO. I really like the level scaling so that you are never over level for an area which keeps it fun and challenging for you and it also keeps you from having to deal with high level players coming through and ruining your experience in a lower level area by destroying everything.
I would highly recommend getting it especially if it is 50% off!
And thanks for the gw too.

The new Update looks like it would be fixing alot of problems with the game BUT the combat still feels repetitive and the grind it's horrible (for a game that promised no more grind)

It's certainly fun to play, and pretty unbeatable in value, in terms of the payment model. They have a micro-shop, but I never had to buy something from it.

However, I'm a big story guy, which is admittedly not a strong-suit of most MMOs, and GW2 is one of the worst I've tried in that department. It definitely gets old toward the end of the game, when you're just doing map completion and working on special armor.

I enjoyed it for the time I played it...but I haven't really gone back since I stopped...loved the music and exploration bit as well as the lore and atmosphere; questing, WvWvW and story was okay I suppose.