Anyone else playing this?
For those who don't know Guild Wars 1 is a new mmorpg from Arenanet (who made Guild Wars 1, and made up of alot of ex-blizzard developers).
Guild wars 2, like GW1, is free to play once you purchase the game. There's no monthly fee to it like most mmo's.
I've been having quite a bit of fun with it. The developers are focusing less on grind stuff and more on the fun of it. You are awarded exp and things for doing about anything, exploring the world you find a lot of exp from "vistas" (think assassin's creed viewpoints),point of interest on the maps, exp for pvp'ing or wvwvw (world vs world vs world, big open pvp battlegrounds), Skill challenges (sometimes just finding them, to having to fight a tough enemy, etc and events. If you explore all of a zone and do all the mentioned things (Vista/heart vendor/point of interest, skill challenges) you are rewarded with a chest and decent item. Crafting even awards you exp, if you wanted you could simply level the entire game by crafting items (That's actually how the first lv 80 got there, his guild gave him a lot of materials and he crafted a ton).
The game doesn't really have "quests" like most mmo's, you know where you see a gian "!" over an npc's head and get a quest to kill "x" of these or what not. Instead it's built around "dynamic events" which work basically like Warhammer online's. You simply run across events happening in the world. A caravan needs guarded while it makes its way somewhere, a town is under attack, etc. These events can also have tiers to them, you do one part then it leads to another and so on. Some of the bigger events also have a decent chest reward at the end of them. Npc's also react to events, you'll be near an npc and they'll come running to you to tell you about "x" event and where it is, makes it feel connected to the world and not just tacked on.
The game has quite a few different forums of currencies. You earn "karma points" for doing events, which can be used to purchase goods from various "karma" vendors around the world, from heart vendors (which are npc's that have certain things you need to do for them to unlock that ability) to other higher lv npc's that sell rare/exotic goods. You earn "glory" from regular pvp, which can be used to purchase pvp based goods (armor, weapons, runes, etc). Dungeons reward you with dungeon coins, which can be used to purchase armor/items that are specifically tied to that dungeon. World vs World vs World rewards you with both loot drops (from other real players, not their specific items but random loot drops when you kill them) as well as badges of honor to use at specific vendors.
Class wise is where GW2 also breaks the mold. The "Trinity" isn't here (Thank God! I'm so tired of that in mmo's). There is no "healer" in the game or anything. Every single person int he game has some form of self heal (dependent on your class) as well as the ability to res people that fall, a warrior to a elementalist can all res. Tank wise there's no "taunt" ability or anything, and you can actually dodge attacks. You can gear more toward defense to help with some dmg but overall it's better not to get hit lol. They also reward this in combat. Certain classes have abilities that grant a bonus for other players when they use a certain class ability. For example on my warrior, if I use a longbow I have an ability to shoot an aoe skill that sets fire to the ground. Now this grants a melee character who's fighting within that fire a "fire" shield.
Also your "skills" that you have are weapon-based (as well as class). This means that say, if you are a warrior (what I am). If you use a greatsword, your 5 weapon skills are specific to a greatsword. Now if you use a one handed sword and an axe in your offhand, you have 5 different weapon skills. If you even change this, and put the axe in your main hand, and the sword in your off hand, you have different skills (first 3 skills ar emain hand, last 2 are offhand, or all 5 for two handers). So say an elementalist (mage) who uses a staff has 5 skills (geared toward range) but you can also use dual daggers on a mage and they have specific skills (Which is awesome imo, dual dagger elementalist are a BLASt to play).Each class has specific weapons they can use, but there's usually quite a variety they can use, both range and up close weapons). You also , at lv 7, get the weapon swap ability. Basically you can have two weapon sets and can swap between them (tilde key default). Generally I recommend rolling with a melee based and range, I use a longbow and sword/axe for my warrior.
The game is level based, however it also uses a tier system similar to warhammer, but not only for pvp but the entire game world. Lets say you have a friend that picks the game up down the road, you are level 30 now and he's just starting. In many mmo's this is a no-go, you'd have to roll a new character to play with him. In Gw2 you do not. You can simply go to the zone he's in, the game will auto-lv you to the zone's level range and still reward you with exp and things. You aren't "punished" for going into lower zones. PVP area's (wvwvw and regular pvp) all auto-lv you to 80 (lv cap). You are actually encouraged to do this for skill challenges and things (they reward you with a skill point).
Also when you make your character you have different choices to make, a few backround choices (is your character charming, dignified, fericous, etc and other story-releated things which have an affect on your personal storyline.
your personal storyline is kind of the backbone of the game. It's dependent on the race you choose and the starting storyline (think of dragon age origins starting stories) is dependent on a certain element you choose when making your character. IE for the sylvari you can make a choice that in your "dream" (before sylvari are "born" they are in a dream, from the great tree, and have visions, etc) you saw a certain thing, a green knight, a great stag, etc and it shapes your starting storyline. Later on in your personal storyline you also make a choice that can tak eit in differnt paths. Overall the personal storyline's are "ok." The writing can be a bit meh and it's not really that cinematic (they use a kind of 2d backdrop with two characters talking, it's a bit on the cheap feeling side).
I'm currently playing as a Sylvari. Such a nice change of race from your usual fantasy "trolls/elves." There's no elves here. You have Charr (minotaur/cat'ish like race) humans, Asura (quirky small race) Norns (Nord, big burly people) and Sylvari (Plant based creatures).
The sylvari is my favorite, you can tell they spent so much time on them compared to many other races. They are made up of all plant parts and character customization wise have quite a bit more depth/layers to them. Even have a Bioluminescence to them that glows when it's night in the game world.
I've spent a lot of my time just exploring the zones. It's fun to have an mmo that encourages exploration like this and rewards you for it. spent a bit of time in wvwvw with my guild too. I forgot to mentiont hat in wvwvw you have objectives, such as keeps/towers to capture, supply carts, etc and various things reward your entire server with boons.
Here's a few pics:
(this one shows off the "glow" on sylvari at night, you can make it whatever color you want and different patterns)
http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/2974/gw035wg.jpg
Other screens are just random ones i've taken over the past week, showing off the world a bit and some wvwvw battles.
http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/5017/gw008z.jpg
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/1267/gw010ob.jpg
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/6572/gw027f.jpg
http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/1127/gw029q.jpg
http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/434/gw023v.jpg
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