The Official Guild Wars 2 thread

is it necessary to play Guild Wars 2 with other players (co-op) or can I get the same value and enjoyment out of it by playing solo?...I'm not usually an MMO type of gamer but GW2 sounds really interesting but at the same time I prefer playing solo versus depending on other players to advance

can I just drop into any game and find new players or is there some kind of system to use?
 
is it necessary to play Guild Wars 2 with other players (co-op) or can I get the same value and enjoyment out of it by playing solo?...I'm not usually an MMO type of gamer but GW2 sounds really interesting but at the same time I prefer playing solo versus depending on other players to advance

can I just drop into any game and find new players or is there some kind of system to use?

You can pretty much play most of it solo. You don't really need to physically "group" for dynamic events. You can run up to the event and other people will be there doing it. You just start doing the objectives too and everyone gets credit. So in essence you're playing co-op and solo at the same time.

Obviously you need groups for dungeons and stuff. But levelling in PVE/ running around in WvW you can just sort of find a group to run around with if you want, or not.
 
You can pretty much play most of it solo. You don't really need to physically "group" for dynamic events. You can run up to the event and other people will be there doing it. You just start doing the objectives too and everyone gets credit. So in essence you're playing co-op and solo at the same time.

Obviously you need groups for dungeons and stuff. But levelling in PVE/ running around in WvW you can just sort of find a group to run around with if you want, or not.

Yeah this pretty much sums it up.

Here is Anet's offical response:

Will Guild Wars 2 be solo-able?

Yes. You will be able to advance your character to the maximum level without ever joining a group, if you so desire. Most content will be designed in a solo-friendly way, though often with mechanisms for scaling up in difficulty when more players are involved. This will give players the option to experience the game however they prefer.

At the same time, it is important for an MMO community to join together to overcome challenges. Guild Wars 2 will feature challenges that require players to join forces.

The great part about an instanced world with dynamic events is that they just happen. There is no effort required upon your part to find a group and make friends. i.e. You could be in the middle of a quest when a dynamic event appears (i.e. escort a group of people). This appears on the map and everyone just jumps in and starts taking out the bad guys.

I am so solo type of guy too. I was kind of disappointed when thy did away with the hero system from gw1 since that was one of my favorite aspects; however, the new system is wonderful. I think gw2 is a sure hit and is a can't miss. (TBH I am very biased.)
 
glad to know that the game will be just as good played solo...that pretty much assures that I will get this

I was kind of disappointed when thy did away with the hero system from gw1 since that was one of my favorite aspects

what was the hero system?...did they reward individual players?
 
Last edited:
glad to know that the game will be just as good played solo...that pretty much assusres that I will get this



what was the hero system?...did they reward individual players?

No. GW1 was hard to play by yourself. To be functional you had to either A) Join a party of real people or B) Use henchmen (AI players that would follow you and fight with you). These parties usually involved up to 8 people.

With the first and subsequent expansion packs they introduced Heros. These Hero was AI player you would meet through out the game that you could add to your parties like henchmen but they were completely customize-able (i.e. you could change out all their gear and pick their skill bar spells and even control when they casted them)

And lastly, the best of all, was the introduction of the Mercenary system. This allowed you to take other characters you had created and add them to you party just like you would a Hero. So if you had created three different characters, you could add up to 7 of them to your party(group) like heros.

In essence, GW1 was not designed to be able to be played complete by yourself. You either had to add henchmen, heros, mercenaries, or other real people to your party to make it through most quest.

GW2 changes this by designing the game for one person and allows for scaling for the more real player in an area.
 
I can't wait for this game I haven't tried the Beta yet just waiting for my copy to arrive from Amazon I was worried it was going to be just download but I guess the Retail copies will have DVDs. I

The way them make it sound on the Guild Wars home page this game is indestructible.
 
glad to know that the game will be just as good played solo...that pretty much assures that I will get this



what was the hero system?...did they reward individual players?

The other aspect of "Heroes" is that there is only 2-3 of each class available. There are some devastatingly effective Hero builds for certain classes (especially monk, ritualist and necromancer IIRC) but since you could only have 3 monk heroes or 2 Ritualist heroes, it could be limiting.

The Mercenary system allows you to potentially field more of a given class than you normally could.

I have not played in a while, but there a lot of skills that build off other skills - for example Searing Flames will set the enemies on fire, but if they are already on fire, it does a lot of damage - so multiple Elementalists casting this are going to keep enemies burning and taking damage and probably cut everyone down pretty quickly. This is a build that will scale dramatically by adding a few more Elementalists than you would normally be able to use.
 
The other aspect of "Heroes" is that there is only 2-3 of each class available. There are some devastatingly effective Hero builds for certain classes (especially monk, ritualist and necromancer IIRC) but since you could only have 3 monk heroes or 2 Ritualist heroes, it could be limiting.

The Mercenary system allows you to potentially field more of a given class than you normally could.

I have not played in a while, but there a lot of skills that build off other skills - for example Searing Flames will set the enemies on fire, but if they are already on fire, it does a lot of damage - so multiple Elementalists casting this are going to keep enemies burning and taking damage and probably cut everyone down pretty quickly. This is a build that will scale dramatically by adding a few more Elementalists than you would normally be able to use.

Yeah I use a hero/mercenary system with 3 necros 2 mesmers and 2 ritualist = ownage.
 
Try and get your HoM up, you still have time before the release even though you can continue it afterwards.
 
Do you need all the expansions for the HoM rewards or just Eye of the North? I was considering doing that stuff but GW1 plus all the expansions isn't really all that cheap (about $45 on amazon).
 
You need Eotn since your HoM is located there. There was a sale for everything at about $20 a few days ago on Amazon. Surprised it went up so much.
 
You need Eye of the North and at least one other campaign

Do I need to own a copy of one of the previous Guild Wars campaigns in order to play Guild Wars: Eye of the North?

Yes, because Eye of the North is an expansion rather than a new campaign—and because it is intended for your high-level characters—you need to own at least one of the Guild Wars campaigns—Guild Wars (the original campaign), Guild Wars Factions, or Guild Wars Nightfall—in order to play Guild Wars: Eye of the North. However, you do not need to complete any of the previous campaigns to play GW:EN.

I recommend nightfall since you get heros from a very low level plus the weapons are inscribable (its an upgrade component.)

Also, Once you start playing GW2 you can still unlock you GW1 perks. Plus the perks last forever, evolve with your stats, and are very cool.

Nightfall: Same price as trilogy... $30 Amazon or $15 ebay
Eotn: $18 amazon or $9 ebay
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Agreed, Nightfall gives you the most points after completing the campaign. A lot of it will come down to money but some will come down to time.(title grinding) Luckily, you can reach 30 or even 45/50 without having to kill yourself with the grind.
 
I stopped at 35 with my initial goal being 30 from not paying attention. Excellent guide doug. I'm thinking of going back to try and get 45 but the titles don't like they'll be worth the grind.

My HoM

Edit: I actually have all the armor and whatnot for both resilience and fellowship trees just too lazy to unlock the rest of my heroes.
 
I stopped at 35 with my initial goal being 30 from not paying attention. Excellent guide doug. I'm thinking of going back to try and get 45 but the titles don't like they'll be worth the grind.

My HoM

Edit: I actually have all the armor and whatnot for both resilience and fellowship trees just too lazy to unlock the rest of my heroes.

Yeah I stopped at 30. the titles are deff not worth the grind.

You can probably get 30-40 easily. The last 10 would be a pain though

EDIT; my HOM

EDIT x 2: GJ on the minipets. It came down to using my money to buy the minipets or buy destroyer weaps. I went with the destroyer weaps.
 
Especially if you like the armor that's given from the HoM you can transfer the skins over to a higher statistical piece. Nice job by the way

Edit: If you need help with weapons or anything else for maybe 35, let me know.
 
Nice, yeah this is a really good find. We're going to be seeing a significant change in traits/skills on the next bwe anyway so take it with a grain.
 
Haven't played close attention to this game much. I have a few questions please;

- Max level cap in the game ?

- Is it truly open ended world like WoW, can wander off and go anywhere you please ? I did not like Guild Wars 1 with their "invisible" fences blocking off vast areas of the game, and no fucking space bar to jump in GW1 ? WTF :rolleyes:

- Can you just solo play to level up and have fun ? or is group questing a must ? And is the leveling process story driven, and gear acquired through quest rewards ?

- I heard there are no mounts in Guild Wars 2 ? How do you get around the huge zones quickly ? Or lets say just want to get to middle of map, and not use a flight path, just a quick mount ?
 
Haven't played close attention to this game much. I have a few questions please;

- Max level cap in the game ?

- Is it truly open ended world like WoW, can wander off and go anywhere you please ? I did not like Guild Wars 1 with their "invisible" fences blocking off vast areas of the game, and no fucking space bar to jump in GW1 ? WTF :rolleyes:

- Can you just solo play to level up and have fun ? or is group questing a must ? And is the leveling process story driven, and gear acquired through quest rewards ?

- I heard there are no mounts in Guild Wars 2 ? How do you get around the huge zones quickly ? Or lets say just want to get to middle of map, and not use a flight path, just a quick mount ?

- Level 80 so far
- Very open unlike GW1 and yes you can jump with spacebar.
- Solo play yes, grouping is alot different too, its not really required for open world stuff, you level thru story and questing.
-No mounts just travel teleporters that you find around the world.
 
Haven't played close attention to this game much. I have a few questions please;

- Max level cap in the game ?

- Is it truly open ended world like WoW, can wander off and go anywhere you please ? I did not like Guild Wars 1 with their "invisible" fences blocking off vast areas of the game, and no fucking space bar to jump in GW1 ? WTF :rolleyes:

- Can you just solo play to level up and have fun ? or is group questing a must ? And is the leveling process story driven, and gear acquired through quest rewards ?

- I heard there are no mounts in Guild Wars 2 ? How do you get around the huge zones quickly ? Or lets say just want to get to middle of map, and not use a flight path, just a quick mount ?

1. 80.
2. Instanced zones. Large enough where changing to another zone is a minor load screen. You can jump in GW2 and there are mountains blocking edges of the zone like any other MMO.
3. Yes. Group questing is not a must. Story-esque. Personal story with each "event" or quest-area has it's own arc.
4. No mounts, fast-travel with a waypoint system. Discover new waypoint, you can then waypoint to the city or previous waypoints and vice-versa.

Very summarized, more to explain but I am too lazy.
 
Thanks dog and tim :)

Level 80 cap :eek: holy cow, did not know that, it took WoW 2 expansions to get to that high level. That's good to know, so 80 levels will keep me occupied awhile. In WoW to get from Level 1 - 80 in Wrath days took a long time, if you were a casual player.
 
Thanks dog and tim :)

Level 80 cap :eek: holy cow, did not know that, it took WoW 2 expansions to get to that high level. That's good to know, so 80 levels will keep me occupied awhile. In WoW to get from Level 1 - 80 in Wrath days took a long time, if you were a casual player.

The leveling is going to be linear after like level 30. So it wont take nearly as long as WoW. That's not to say there will be little to do though. There is also level scaling in place. So if you are level 50 and go into a level 10 zone you will get down-leveled to level 10. You will still be more powerful than a normal level 10 because you will keep all you skills but your stats will change. This way they can make "end game" content that is lower level than the cap and also add new things to all the zones without making anyone feel like they have to re-level to experience it.

The game really starts from level 1, not max level like all other MMOs.
 
Thanks dog and tim :)

Level 80 cap :eek: holy cow, did not know that, it took WoW 2 expansions to get to that high level. That's good to know, so 80 levels will keep me occupied awhile. In WoW to get from Level 1 - 80 in Wrath days took a long time, if you were a casual player.

80 is just a number...

GW2 (and GW1) is probably perfect for a casual PvE player. There's no real emphasis on the "game beginning" at level cap.
 
one correction, it's not instanced. it has seams(loading) between zones, but the zones are all persistent.

instanced = either only you/your group are in the zone ala GW or the most freely stretched typed of instances seen in SWTOR, TERA and AION you have 100 people in a copy of the zone then another copy is made when more people log in. GW2's world is not seamless, but it is not instanced either. there can be thousands of players in one zone up to its player cap. the rest are put into an overflow. this is not a channel/instance copy. it pools players from multiple servers, this is why when you're on an overflow you see people from other servers.

put it like this, the overflow is there to keep you out of a log on screen queue and let you play when you hit log in(there will only be queues for the WvW PVP). an instanced game with a server cap at 5000 will have 100 instances of a zone when it's full of players and if there's 1000 more people trying to log into the server they have a queue. in GW2 you'd just have all 6000 people log in and play the game, 1000 of which would be put into overflow.


as far as grouping/solo goes there's a good balance of both. you can play by yourself up to 80 sure, but this isn't specifically saying that every single thing in the overworld can be solo'd. some elites cannot, and there are a high number of events that can't be done(some cannot even happen_) with less than 10 players. there are alot of mini dungeons in the open world that you can probably solo but it'd be pretty impractical i think. they're certainly tuned for groups.
 
Last edited:
80 is just a number...

GW2 (and GW1) is probably perfect for a casual PvE player. There's no real emphasis on the "game beginning" at level cap.

Thanks, good to know. I am more casual player. Don't have time like WoW requires to be end level in top tier raid gear. That's what turned me off from WoW. Was World of Gearcraft
 
Back
Top