Out of Pod Experience

K first of all, I never played GW1 so I dont know if they migrated some or all of the features or none, but been playing almost nonstop since saturday morning to sunday night, avoiding wife aggro and body pain issues for being in the same positions for several hours to tell you this:

Please, give this game a try, no really, give these guys at ArenaNet your $$$$$$ NAO!

First time in a while I have felt this relaxed, happy and cheerful just to to explore around a world without any real worry besides higher leveled red mobs that will pwn me in droves, as I cheerfully harvest, find points of interest and just wander aimlessly looking for the next public quest like missions, events and scripted open world boss fights that happen and are so much fun.

As a complete Guild Wars noob, I must say I find this MMO, after trying AoC, RIFT, EQ1-2, WAR, CoH, PW, LOTRO, AION and several other obscure ones, a total and fantastic hit!

In no specific order

-Tradeskill nodes are public and even if someone harvested before you a node, you can still harvest it at your leisure, also harvesting gives XP, no more node wars

-Tradeskill mats can, in the field, be transferred to their very own bank slots called collectibles, and so far they stack up to 300 and seem to have a high cap of stacking from what I have seen, so no bag space worries

- Mobs can be killed by anyone giving xp to anyone involved, no stupid Killstealing anymore, fact is, people ganging up on the mobs you kill are encouraged as theres a higher chance of comboing plus extra xp

-Moob loot is personal too, so no more RNG NBG or ninja stealing crap off you. Everyone has the same chance to get whatever the mob drops

-Like WAR did back in the day, there are public quests, that anyone in a specific area can attempt to complete and the more people the faster the progression line moves, more people gathering shinies or more people killing mobs faster , xp is HUGE when you do them, and has been my main form of leveling since level 1

- NPC quest areas with a heart are personal quests that give a huge boost of xp too when you complete certain condiitions within an area, like killing several of x monsters or harvesting or even watering plants if you are are more of a pacifist type.

-Random (to me at least) escort missions where NPCS move in a road and you have to protect them from marauding hordes fo local mobs, or NPCS that simply wander in a path destroying stuff and you have to help them clear faster the infestation of evil XD, just love these quests, sometimes my puter slowed down due to the amount of sheer firepower people were throwing and all I managed to see was red bars quickly depleting amongst bright flashes of blue, red, purple, yellow and chromatic spectrums I wasnt aware existed

-Racial starter areas are fun, fun fun. Nice quests, racially themed and in accordance to the lore of each race. So far have done the Human, Sylvari and Asura ones and find them awesome (the Human one with the big bad boss at the end is still my fav)

-Races, u can be a Lettuce Girl or a Fungi Man and you wouldnt be any different to a Human or the lemur like Asura in term of stats. So freedom of choice in cosmetic looks is truly liberating, I for one am a Green fungi Girl Ranjah and enjoying it XD

-Skill set and selection is very straightforward yet can become complex in timing if you add up combos and trait lines, specializing your char in either condition caster, debuffer or healer, support, spammer or whatnot. The trait line setup is what makes you form your char according to what you feel is your playstyle within the current proffesion

-The world is nice looking and effects plus vistas around as you explore are gorgeous to my eyes.

-The pre launch, was very smooth, considering I have been in several MMO launches like VANGUARD, RIFT, AION, AOC, TABULA RASA and WAR. Certain functions dont work atm like the shop and mail is a bit slow, but playwise it has been a flawless run to me besides a few DCs due to the massive amount of people playing around

- I really really enjoy some of the classes, the Necro is a bit meh to me, but the Ranger is super fun , and I have seen some people swearing by their Mesmers. Have only played 2 classes so far, but I really find all of them bring along something to the table, as every class has a HEALING spell plus assorted utility ones that make them rounded up for solo play but can be a huge boon in group play (specially with wells and aoe healing effects)

-When you die you have a second small life bar that slowly depletes that gives you some breathing room, the FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE moment, which is a nice touch. Also everyone can bring you back up if they dedicate some time to patch you up and slowly bring your death threshold lifebar back to normal.

- You heal super fast when not in combat, also NO MANA!!!! Just cooldowns (This alone made the game rise 10000 points in my book)

-You get nice rewards from doing ALL the Heart quests, discovering all POIs and looking at all the vistas in a map, which is good in my book. Mixed up with xp off tradeskilling, harvesting and regular questing, you can get xp off several venues in the game wich leads me to my biggest favorite thing. Grinding is utterly inneficient, as in grinding mobs over and over and over and over (ugh reminds me of severa spawn spots in EQ1 in BB) since you get more xp doing the events and heart quests and dynamic public quests that pop up in areas. This alone breaks the mold for me and though not exactly innovative as I have seen several mechanics like this in spread out MMOS, to have them ALL in a single one is simply marvelous!

Am I a fanboi? perhaps, but this game simply deserves praise where praise is due.

It has its flaws, it might not be that innovative to some and the simplistic yet streamlined approach to skills might irk some hotbutton lovers out there, but really, to me, this game is PURE GOLD.

actually skimmed this, as I know a few that are playing. One thing I didn't see

1) PvP, was stupid in GW1 and haven't heard about it in here
2) reason to pvp. No meaningful losses means i might as well play an fps.

From your long list of MMO participation, i take either you have a wealth of free time on your hands or you don't like eve very much. And if you don't like eve very much, what makes you think many people from this community will like GW2 considering how much you enjoy it?

Is GW2 primarily PvE or PvP focused?

Primarily, IMO, may depend on the users views but I would have to say it leans toward pve only because that is what I've done over the weekend. But you can get into pvp from the get go with the arena battles and they've constructed it so that you are automatically top level when you join (no level discrepancy).
But what I'm looking forward to with the WvW where they put 3 servers up against each other and you have to conquer a huge map with hundreds of players fighting. That brings me back to my old DAOC days in the Frontier. Such a rush when that keep door finally breaks open and 60+ people come swarming in.

You can read about it/watch videos here.

So the world pvp isn't added yet? That was my only real reason for wanting to play it. Instanced zone pvp isn't all that great.

Also what makes the combat stand out? or is the same ole same ol?

Meh?

Nothing about GW2 has me intrigued as it looks like and plays like your generic fantasy mmo that has launched and failed over the past five years.

LOL! ... theres always SOMEONE ... no really, why put levels in anymore? XD

This reminded me of someone in map chat yesterday saying its ridiculously easy for someone to form a guild in GW2. For a moment as a Psychologist I had to say and reply "Why should it be hard" and then it hit me.

People for some strange reason that I can describe but wont bother here, have this tendency to overcomplicate life just to give it a "meaning" or a reason to complain why they are who they are, or why things never go their way, or why their lifemate left them, divorced them, dumped them or was unfaithful, or their kids have low grades, blah blah blah.

Its as if some people are hardwired to just see the glass always half empty and even more. Just a thought in a regular working day where I have to transcribe excel sheets over and over showing data of subway station metrics and organize the over 100 documents per day that contain said data in a seemingly readable document people can reference later.

Then again Im derailing my own thread as usual ... thats why I like GW2, I can shut my brain off and not think of the excel sheets and just explore and craft and join people that wont killsteal me or steal way my loot or nodes. So relaxing

Now seriously, this game gives me a good vibe. I am waiting to resurrect one of my old Morrowind/Oblivion characters inro a new shape...

Hey congrats avatars, -EDIT-Not in character, and trolling. - ISD Tyrozan