One of the most exciting surprises for me was how possible it was to drop down into a mass of players attacking a wall, have some great back and forth - maybe even finish my target off, and then retreat out of the mess without dying (mostly).
In any other game that's almost always instant death. They got the TTK and survivability almost perfect as far as I can tell.
Which is great, as normally melee is limited in those scenarios. To actually be able to take part and serve a purpose really opened up my list of potential classes. I'd intended to quickly check out WvW for a half hour or so but that quickly turned into 5 hours - 5 hours of a wide variety and scale of activities.
I was more impressed than I expected to be, for someone who's been looking for something similar to DAoC this game was perfect.
I don't really care about your post or your feelings on GW2 because most of us love it feel it was done right and NOT once did I feel like I was playing WAR. The zerg on zerg felt like I was on a real battleground and no mmo has ever given me that feeling ever till GW2...
I thought the post by Frostillicus was excellent. For veterans of pvp in many games (including WAR), his thoughts were spot on and was the kind of report I was looking for. Except for his use of the word "fanboy", I don't there was anything he said that was offensive, or should cause someone to become defensive. And you calling him a "WAR fanboy" is ironic, intentional or not.
Thanks Boardwalker. My use of the word fanboy was to refer to the irrational fans who can't abide any criticism, not fans in general. I was not referring to everyone who likes GW2, I like GW2.
Sitting down to what I knew was to be my last session during BWE I logged my guardian and went right for the WvW. I found myself running east outside the walls of castle stonemist, which we held, and I came across Darius Gulch, a small keep that was under siege by around 25 blue invaders. As I saw them pounding the gates with a fiery battering ram for whatever reason I didn't think twice about running for the gate to get inside to defend it. Half way through their ranks several of them saw me and started laying me low and for a moment I thought I was a gonner but in a last ditch effort I through up a shield of absorption and somehow made it inside with 800 health. Once inside it hit me that I was all alone! Shit! Despite I ran up to the top of the wall and manned a ballista there where I began poppin off at these scumbags. I was able to pepper them decently but couldn't bring any down, just sent them running a ways away to recover. After a few I ran back downstairs and examined the gate to see it was at about 30%. I looked over to the supply area and saw it empty. Aww damn I was thinking, I'm so fucked. So I threw out a /team need help Darius gulch! Within moments 4-6 people arrived to help and we managed to pepper them a bit more from the wall before finally the gate broke. We fell back to the lord and miraculously somehow just the 6 or 7 of us held off that entire group. Before long more teammates showed up and we completely sent them packing and set to repairing the gate. They tried again and got pushed back. And then again they came and now with significant numbers we took the fight to them outside the walls and later to take the nearby supply camp. We got beat back to the keep one more time and it seemed like like their numbers had swelled significantly. Our keep was back under attack with maybe 15 of us inside and while we attacked from the wall we all were looking at the inevitable demise of this place. Then lo and behold came the unthinkable. A large group of red invaders came charging into the blue's flank breaking their ranks and with us still shooting from the wall, sending them scurrying for their base. Red had spread themselves thin and we quickly turned on them and sent them on their way as well. With both teams gone I stood in the base taking a breather, glanced at the clock and saw three hours had passed. Holy shit I thought before logging out. What a time!
I think this is one of the things that allows GW2 to stand out! I remember the great battles in DAoC. I havent' found another MMO that could compare to them until GW2.
The WvW is just allot of fun! AND you advance your character. You get an immediate top of the level your character can be. AND you get to keep everything you find!
I think it's worth saying, that I dislike PvP. Intensely. But I ~LOVED~ GW2 WvWvW! I loved having things to do beside killing, ways to help the team and bog down invaders, I loved being able to dip in and out of pipes to avoid people or leap over walls to shortcut drop in on my victims. I didn't even mind dying! I hate dying in pvp! I was so into what I was doing that anytime I went zone it was just, get up, get back in, don't think about it. Because you're not just there for you, everyone is depending on you in some small way.
Great experience, really. All out, major warfare and subterfuge. That's what PvP should be.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
Yes there are many things GW2 does great, and I know it will be a better game than WAR, but that's only because I also like PVE. I was hoping for a "better than WAR" pvp experience, and what I got was about the same, minor improvements at best from a pure gameplay perspective. My biggest complaint with WAR was server imbalance, it was always 1 side having way more people than the other, and this seems like it won't be a problem in GW2, so that's great.
I dunno, I played WAR, and I think at least for the WvW (RvR) gameplay this game has it far superior to WAR's. I see where you're coming from, as far as scenarios, though. Not only did WAR have a lot more variety, it just had a lot more period. Afaik, we are launching w/ 4 battlegrounds, 1 of which is underwater. I dunno, I had some fun w/ them, but I think that at least for now, WvW is where it's at in this game as far as PvP is concerned.
That said, yes, WvW can get kinda zergy, but I think it's handled a lot better than it was in WAR. For one, as MikeB mentioned in his article, siege equipment plays a VERY key part in breaking up zergs. The folks over at team legacy also have a video out that illustrates this very clearly. They were able to take out a much larger force, and take a keep, with superior tactics and coordination.
Furthermore, I can say from my experience that melee aren't at as much of a disadvantage as a lot of people seem to think. I probably shouldn't be saying this (as my main will more than likely be a warrior), but if people keep complaining and get melee characters buffed, I can see a lot of QQing going around from people who will get roflstomped by any idiot w/ a greatsword. Melee characters already do sick damage if you know how to use them, the survivability factor comes down a lot to skill, and a lot of people don't realize this yet. Most characters have abilities that break / ignore CC, as well as skills that just flat out ignore damage completely. When you have a character that's invulnverable, charging at you, and can take you from full -> zero in about 1-3 seconds, that's scary enough already.
When it comes to zerg on zerg battles, getting in there with melee requires more thought than just charging in like a madman (like you could do in WAR). Some guardians can kind of get away with this, but you really need to try and break up the zergs for this (guardian's shield bubble is one way of doing this, so is waiting for an AoE volley, amongst others). Flanking is another important tactic, and one I use often. When it comes to zerg on keep gameplay. A lot of people haven't really grasped some of the map intricacies yet. There are some keeps where you can teleport onto the walls, and proceed to wreck / knock people off of them (most people don't expect this). There are also classes that can fear / pull players off of walls, putting htem in perfect range to be slaughtered by melee. There are options. Most players are just trying to do the most obvious tactic of 'lets all charge head first into this group. Oh no, I died, this game clearly has some balancing issues.' I've seen it happen over, and over, and over again during the BWE.
I like PvP, and for the first half of the weekend I didn't go WvW for fear I might not like it because of the zergs.
Well, saturday evening i decided to give it a go and just see what it had to offer...
I was blown away. The sheer size of it (the points to defend or take over), the four different maps that you can decide to enter, and the drawn out battles that flowed back and forth got me hooked.
I only went back to PvE on sunday to unlock some skill pts to get a few extra utilities and have even more fun.
Not comparing this to any other game out there, not saying it's better or worse than any other games' PvP but I simply fell in love with it and I do believe that other than unlocking the skills with the challenges and what not, I'll be spending ALOT of time in the Mists.
Sitting down to what I knew was to be my last session during BWE I logged my guardian and went right for the WvW. I found myself running east outside the walls of castle stonemist, which we held, and I came across Darius Gulch, a small keep that was under siege by around 25 blue invaders. As I saw them pounding the gates with a fiery battering ram for whatever reason I didn't think twice about running for the gate to get inside to defend it. Half way through their ranks several of them saw me and started laying me low and for a moment I thought I was a gonner but in a last ditch effort I through up a shield of absorption and somehow made it inside with 800 health. Once inside it hit me that I was all alone! Shit! Despite I ran up to the top of the wall and manned a ballista there where I began poppin off at these scumbags. I was able to pepper them decently but couldn't bring any down, just sent them running a ways away to recover. After a few I ran back downstairs and examined the gate to see it was at about 30%. I looked over to the supply area and saw it empty. Aww damn I was thinking, I'm so fucked. So I threw out a /team need help Darius gulch! Within moments 4-6 people arrived to help and we managed to pepper them a bit more from the wall before finally the gate broke. We fell back to the lord and miraculously somehow just the 6 or 7 of us held off that entire group. Before long more teammates showed up and we completely sent them packing and set to repairing the gate. They tried again and got pushed back. And then again they came and now with significant numbers we took the fight to them outside the walls and later to take the nearby supply camp. We got beat back to the keep one more time and it seemed like like their numbers had swelled significantly. Our keep was back under attack with maybe 15 of us inside and while we attacked from the wall we all were looking at the inevitable demise of this place. Then lo and behold came the unthinkable. A large group of red invaders came charging into the blue's flank breaking their ranks and with us still shooting from the wall, sending them scurrying for their base. Red had spread themselves thin and we quickly turned on them and sent them on their way as well. With both teams gone I stood in the base taking a breather, glanced at the clock and saw three hours had passed. Holy shit I thought before logging out. What a time!
I spent the weekend just running around doing PVE and making 5 different classes and had a ball, but after reading this post I WANT TO HAVE A BLAST!!!!!! Roll on next beta sounds like a weekend of mashing faces on the cards. Awesome post man thanks
Can MMORPG actually get someone who likes to PvP to report on PvP? I can't even bother to read a summary of the PvP action by someone who isn't a full-time dedicated PvP player.
My take on GW2 is that it is a good secondary PvP minigame mmo. Can just jump in and it is a lot of fun. Probably the best part of the game as near as I can tell.
As someone who pvps a lot i can tell you its interesting but quickly becomes more of the same. Its best feature is that it doesn't have a monthly sub but nothing is new here and even world versus world quickly becomes the same pvp grind.
Not saying its not fun just saying there is no reason for people to brag like its in anyway innovative.
Comments
One of the most exciting surprises for me was how possible it was to drop down into a mass of players attacking a wall, have some great back and forth - maybe even finish my target off, and then retreat out of the mess without dying (mostly).
In any other game that's almost always instant death. They got the TTK and survivability almost perfect as far as I can tell.
Which is great, as normally melee is limited in those scenarios. To actually be able to take part and serve a purpose really opened up my list of potential classes. I'd intended to quickly check out WvW for a half hour or so but that quickly turned into 5 hours - 5 hours of a wide variety and scale of activities.
I was more impressed than I expected to be, for someone who's been looking for something similar to DAoC this game was perfect.
Thanks Boardwalker. My use of the word fanboy was to refer to the irrational fans who can't abide any criticism, not fans in general. I was not referring to everyone who likes GW2, I like GW2.
I'm a unique and beautiful snowflake.
I don't think that's a fair comment, WoW sucks. GW2 is great! No stupid grindy shit, or lame raids.
Are you a Pavlovian Fish Biscuit Addict? Get Help Now!
I will play no more MMORPGs until somethign good comes out!
I think this is one of the things that allows GW2 to stand out! I remember the great battles in DAoC. I havent' found another MMO that could compare to them until GW2.
The WvW is just allot of fun! AND you advance your character. You get an immediate top of the level your character can be. AND you get to keep everything you find!
Outstanding!
I think it's worth saying, that I dislike PvP. Intensely. But I ~LOVED~ GW2 WvWvW! I loved having things to do beside killing, ways to help the team and bog down invaders, I loved being able to dip in and out of pipes to avoid people or leap over walls to shortcut drop in on my victims. I didn't even mind dying! I hate dying in pvp! I was so into what I was doing that anytime I went zone it was just, get up, get back in, don't think about it. Because you're not just there for you, everyone is depending on you in some small way.
Great experience, really. All out, major warfare and subterfuge. That's what PvP should be.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
I dunno, I played WAR, and I think at least for the WvW (RvR) gameplay this game has it far superior to WAR's. I see where you're coming from, as far as scenarios, though. Not only did WAR have a lot more variety, it just had a lot more period. Afaik, we are launching w/ 4 battlegrounds, 1 of which is underwater. I dunno, I had some fun w/ them, but I think that at least for now, WvW is where it's at in this game as far as PvP is concerned.
That said, yes, WvW can get kinda zergy, but I think it's handled a lot better than it was in WAR. For one, as MikeB mentioned in his article, siege equipment plays a VERY key part in breaking up zergs. The folks over at team legacy also have a video out that illustrates this very clearly. They were able to take out a much larger force, and take a keep, with superior tactics and coordination.
Furthermore, I can say from my experience that melee aren't at as much of a disadvantage as a lot of people seem to think. I probably shouldn't be saying this (as my main will more than likely be a warrior), but if people keep complaining and get melee characters buffed, I can see a lot of QQing going around from people who will get roflstomped by any idiot w/ a greatsword. Melee characters already do sick damage if you know how to use them, the survivability factor comes down a lot to skill, and a lot of people don't realize this yet. Most characters have abilities that break / ignore CC, as well as skills that just flat out ignore damage completely. When you have a character that's invulnverable, charging at you, and can take you from full -> zero in about 1-3 seconds, that's scary enough already.
When it comes to zerg on zerg battles, getting in there with melee requires more thought than just charging in like a madman (like you could do in WAR). Some guardians can kind of get away with this, but you really need to try and break up the zergs for this (guardian's shield bubble is one way of doing this, so is waiting for an AoE volley, amongst others). Flanking is another important tactic, and one I use often. When it comes to zerg on keep gameplay. A lot of people haven't really grasped some of the map intricacies yet. There are some keeps where you can teleport onto the walls, and proceed to wreck / knock people off of them (most people don't expect this). There are also classes that can fear / pull players off of walls, putting htem in perfect range to be slaughtered by melee. There are options. Most players are just trying to do the most obvious tactic of 'lets all charge head first into this group. Oh no, I died, this game clearly has some balancing issues.' I've seen it happen over, and over, and over again during the BWE.
I like PvP, and for the first half of the weekend I didn't go WvW for fear I might not like it because of the zergs.
Well, saturday evening i decided to give it a go and just see what it had to offer...
I was blown away. The sheer size of it (the points to defend or take over), the four different maps that you can decide to enter, and the drawn out battles that flowed back and forth got me hooked.
I only went back to PvE on sunday to unlock some skill pts to get a few extra utilities and have even more fun.
Not comparing this to any other game out there, not saying it's better or worse than any other games' PvP but I simply fell in love with it and I do believe that other than unlocking the skills with the challenges and what not, I'll be spending ALOT of time in the Mists.
Nice write up BTW.
only one map for WvWvW ???
sorry i dont see any news after i play both.. DAoC and WAR
Can MMORPG actually get someone who likes to PvP to report on PvP? I can't even bother to read a summary of the PvP action by someone who isn't a full-time dedicated PvP player.
My take on GW2 is that it is a good secondary PvP minigame mmo. Can just jump in and it is a lot of fun. Probably the best part of the game as near as I can tell.
As someone who pvps a lot i can tell you its interesting but quickly becomes more of the same. Its best feature is that it doesn't have a monthly sub but nothing is new here and even world versus world quickly becomes the same pvp grind.
Not saying its not fun just saying there is no reason for people to brag like its in anyway innovative.