Guild Wars 2 - your thoughts? Looking to get into MMO's

[dmoney1980]

Hello everyone!

I'm hoping to try a good MMO that doesn't require level grinding and a paid subscription. The only other MMO I played was Vanguard and that was a long time ago. I love the Witcher series and Skyrim, and I already finished many single player RPG's but I'm hoping to find a nice MMO that offers fun combat, good story, etc.

Thoughts on GW2?

 

[blackened23]

Personally I love it. I think it's well worth trying.

 

[JeffMD]

Guild wars 2 is fine.. I played quite a bit of it, left wow for it. However the end game is really nothing but a grind, the only real coveted things in end game are the legendaries which require a ton of time, money, and grinding to gather materials, and then there are items obtained from the living quest and holiday events which require yet more grinding.

I ended up missing the dungeon/raiding lifestyle of WoW and am currently playing rift and having fun.

 

[GaiaHunter]

Hello everyone!

I'm hoping to try a good MMO that doesn't require level grinding and a paid subscription. The only other MMO I played was Vanguard and that was a long time ago. I love the Witcher series and Skyrim, and I already finished many single player RPG's but I'm hoping to find a nice MMO that offers fun combat, good story, etc.

Thoughts on GW2?

No sub and the cash shop sells no power, just cosmetics and convenience.

There is no level grinding, mostly anything you do in GW2 give XP, including exploration and crafting.

The combat involves loads of movement and positioning, with most melee weapons able to hit up to 3 targets if they actually connect with the mobs hit boxes. The blocks and dodges require active play instead of being stat determined.

Here is video comparison between GW2 combat and WoW combat (and it also showcases the combat in tons of WoW clones). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_zMPcT2jgc

The story is divided in the Personal Story that tells the main story arc of fighting Zhaitan and every zone own story(ies), with the story mode dungeons complementing the Personal Story arch and dungeons explorable mode telling some side events.

Contrary to many games that throw the story at you, in GW2 you may have to do an effort to catch all the story, talking to the NPCs and Scouts. Additionally since there are multiple paths for each race personal story, you might not get all the details in one go.

For example, you might not understand why so many bandits are burning crops and poisoning the water instead of actually stealing crops and what not around Queensdale (human starter area). During the Personal story you will find why it makes sense and then there is even a dungeon that will close that storyline.

I quite like the beginning of the Personal story, since it generally narrates things about your character and your immediate surroundings. The second half of the story isn't bad either. The third and final part I don't find so interesting.

There is some grinding for Ascended and Legendary (same stats as ascended but let you change stats combinations) gear tier, but they only offer a 10% boost over Exotic tier and Fractals aside, the game is balanced towards Exotic or even Rare tier, so it ends up being optional grinding.

 

[dmoney1980]

Thanks for the response everyone, and GaiaHunter for the in-depth post about the game. I'll give the game a shot this weekend!