Guild Wars 2 Heroic Edition - $25

GW2 is the best MMO to pick up if you're looking for a rewarding 'casual play' experience.
 
harmattan said:
Would you say this is the sort of game that you could pick up every couple days for 30 minutes of play and find it enjoyable? A lot of good feedback on this game, but I just don't have the time any more to dedicate to a traditional MMO.

I used to play AoC and WoW for hours on end, but that life paradigm just doesn't exist any more... Is GW2 something I could jump in and jump out and not feel like I had to grind on?
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Yea you could play it that way. I did, well perhaps an hour or two every few days and there is a ton of stuff you can do and generally always someone around to help out with those rare occasional things you can't do solo.
 
Ugh... fine. I bit. Been hearing about this game for a while and your responses indicate this might be worth it for me. Damn you guys... add another title to my list of games I may at some point find time to play after retirement :D
 
harmattan said:
Is GW2 something I could jump in and jump out and not feel like I had to grind on?
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omg yes, i bought it upon release and still play it. When i get bored of it i put it down and always come back eventually. Not having a subscription is amazing. :D:D
 
harmattan said:
Would you say this is the sort of game that you could pick up every couple days for 30 minutes of play and find it enjoyable? A lot of good feedback on this game, but I just don't have the time any more to dedicate to a traditional MMO.

I used to play AoC and WoW for hours on end, but that life paradigm just doesn't exist any more... Is GW2 something I could jump in and jump out and not feel like I had to grind on?
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I haven't played quite that much yet but I've basically dropped in and out a couple times, so close to what you mentioned.

I'm pretty sure yes. There are the traditional quest lines for things and pretty much any sort of grind is going to reward, but everything also seems to be instanced much differently than WoW, so you can easily restart or resume things where you left off when you were last on.

Haven't done a lot yet, but I do get the impression (so far) that there is a good balance between hardcore grinding and casual loafing. Esp when it comes to PVP stuff, gear doesn't seem to be a factor, basically everyone is equipped the same and it's whoever outskills the other.
 
My dad played the game casually up to level 80 and then got kind of bored. He's not really an RPG player and he's not driven to maximize things the way I am. He played a Warrior and mostly used his rifle (safer) and it took a while. We would be on our way to an event and he would stop to kill some singular mob (because it was there) and miss out on the bigger reward.

That said, he enjoyed the game, but he barely scratched the surface.

There are many different vectors for you to focus on - you can go wide and make a character of each profession (I have 6 80s, a 50 and a 20).

You can log in just to do your daily tasks and get the reward.
You can try to keep up with the Living Story updates which are released every 2 weeks (currently on hiatus for a little bit while they launch China)
You can go full WvW and get a commander tag and even Ascended armor with WvW infusions.
You can try to get to max level in PvP and earn advanced titles.
You can chase the world bosses that happen every 5-15 minutes and drop decent loot.
You can farm/craft/trade your way to wealth and show off some extremely expensive weapons or try to manipulate the world economy.
You can work your way up to the top level of the Fractals of the Mist - considered the most difficult PvE content in the game.
You can build and run a guild, play as a Role Player (I still don't understand how that works) or do a little of everything.

Personally, I do almost everything but only rarely do WvW. I play more than I should and I always feel like there is more to do than I have time for. I'd like to get to the point where I have a fully equipped character of every profession with enough of the world explored that I can get them to any world event I choose.

That is actually another aspect of the game - many rewards are "once per character per day" and some rewards are only available to level 80 characters (like the Empyreal shards you need to make Ascended gear).

My point is that even thought I have one main character I do "everything" on and try to max the vertical progression (two Legendary weapons, full Ascended gear), there are still areas where increasing your horizontal footprint is an advantage.
 
i bought this for 25 bucks before the april feature pack. I would say it is very easy to pick up and start doing things. In just a month of play I have almost all ascended accessories. I have all exotic gear and do perfectly fine in all dungeons (including PUGs) and low level fractals (usually with guild). fractals are difficult and usually require a good active pve guild and my experiences with PUGs haven't been stellar for fractals. If you run enough you will start to get some agony resistance infusions for your ascended accessories to get into higher fractal levels. Join a guild asap as they usually will have experience boosts running.

In 4 weeks of guild missions you get enough for 2 ascended accessories, with dailies/monthlies laurels + badges of honor from karma farming mist you can get ring and trinket. the back piece is the only thing you need to run fractals for but if you do run fractals a lot you can get ascended rings also. Karma from world boss events, mists, hearts, events, etc can get you exotic temple armor. Dungeons also get you exotic armor running them daily (you get 40 extra tokens each day you run a dungeon in explorer mode usually when you are 80).

What I didn't like is that dungeons are usually not a good idea until you are 80. It made leveling a bit of a bore since finding a decent group to even do story mode was a pain for dungeons at low levels. However world boss events you can usually just jump right in even if you are under leveled as long as you can find a way to the nearest waypoint and follow the zerg.

I recommend jumping into pvp once in awhile if you get tired of doing hearts and events or exploring. Another good way to level is crafting. I would pick one crafting (i recommend weaponsmithing) as you start gathering stuff you can look at power leveling a craft which will help you level up faster as well. The personal story once in awhile to change things up a bit but do note personal story gives you a nice chunk of experience at the end but considered slow for power leveling.

Oh and I think every first character for a new player should be a warrior or guardian. Warrior for more bursty dps and guardian if you prefer a more support role. They are good to begin with and learn dodge mechanics. I think people stop playing things like engineer, mesmer, etc their first time because they find it frustrating to solo content and quit the game. But after you play a warrior or guardian you are almost encouraged to play a 2nd profession and you can pick what you like best after you learn basics. Then you can play whatever profession and do okay since you learned the game mechanics.
 
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lee0539 said:
I think people stop playing things like engineer, mesmer, etc their first time because they find it frustrating to solo content and quit the game. But after you play a warrior or guardian you are almost encouraged to play a 2nd profession and you can pick what you like best after you learn basics. Then you can play whatever profession and do okay since you learned the game mechanics.
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Good advice to start with the warrior or guardian so you don't get discouraged.
Mesmer is a path of tears, but well worth it in the end. I feel like I am kicking a lot of ass as an engineer at 40 with my turrets though!
 
Troll is up

where?

Vale Waypoint

Basically that is all I seen in GW2

The areas are just way too big to have people come back I think they should of condensed the spawns and not made the areas so spaced out.

Was fun for a while at launch...

Too grindy and friendly didn't like the Story line element of the game.
 
Comixbooks said:
Troll is up

where?

Vale Waypoint

Basically that is all I seen in GW2

The areas are just way too big to have people come back I think they should of condensed the spawns and not made the areas so spaced out.

Was fun for a while at launch...

Too grindy and friendly didn't like the Story line element of the game.
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Disagree with all of this. The game isn't grindy at all and the story is actually really good; however, I do understand that is personal preference but I enjoyed it quite a bit.

The areas are large, but again there either too big or too small and you can't please everyone. I think the vastness is what makes it appealing. It actually feels like a world instead of just a zone.
 
I have max level, 100% and i havent experienced grind

Unless you are counting superfluous overachieving that is of your own choosing.


I joined someones elses story yesterday and spent like an hour slaughtering hundreds of undead, barely surviving the entire time. We kept having to revive each other. Was so fun.
 
GW2 is only grindy if you try to play it that way.

If your goal is to just level and grind as fast as you can until max level, it will definitely feel like a grind.

But you are not supposed to play GW2 like that. It is not like other MMOs where you want to get to max level as fast as you can, because everything you do before max level is worthless. GW2 is not like that. What you accomplish as you are going through the game is worthwhile. It is also fun.

In GW2 you should just be playing the game. Do whatever you feel like, do whatever you think is fun. You will level up just by doing that. You will also get rewards that are actually useful the entire time.
 
You can even join edge of the mist karma train and level up pretty fast as well. Plus you get a lot of karma and some badges of honor you will want for ascended gear. Uses less laurels that way and you get your feet wet with some pvping. The downside is if you die its hard to get back into the zerg group so I would avoid going ham on pvping. You get upscaled to level 80 but you are generally much much weaker than someone who is 80.
 
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