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[Preview] Guild Wars 2: Playing Heart of Thorns is Like Coming Home
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
It’s no secret I’m a fan of ArenaNet’s Guild Wars 2. But, like many of you, I’ve been dying for something meatier to chew on than the Living World for some time now. There seem to be so many features and additions we’ve all be waiting for ages to see added. With Heart of Thorns, the first full expansion to Guild Wars 2, ArenaNet seems poised to offer us all those things and more.
Read more of Bill Murphy's Guild Wars 2: Playing Heart of Thorns is Like Coming Home.
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Temportal Rift, baby!
Comments
You actually like running around in zones where you are lvl 500 and the zone is designed for lvl 2? No challenge, noone visits zones which are too lowlevel for them....it's like WOW where 99% of the zones are empty.
"going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"
Well the Revenant is obviously not a part of the lore but he is stretching to make it sound like it fits.
The truth about the Guildhalls is whatever they have done by the deadline is what makes it into the game.
There is no open or cool about large siege war fare,it is sloppy spam gaming and nothing more.
This really sounds to me like this is just a small xpack that is trying to give a single zone more playability through pvp.
He is showing that giant Wyvern fight but no matter how much he mentions skill,you can see it is still a ton of spamming and never seems to move from that one spot.
What does jump puzzles have to do with the game's LORE?Turns a serious rpg into an arcade game.
Bottom line is i get the feeling these guys just WING IT on game design,including their living story.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
All Time Favorites: EQ1, WoW, EvE, GW1
Playing Now: WoW, ESO, GW2
First time I have smiled reading an MMORPG article in a while now.
Originally posted by Arskaaa
"when players learned tacticks in dungeon/raids, its bread".
This is one of the main reasons I don't play WOW anymore! I love downscaling, and I wish every MMO had it!
"If I offended you, you needed it" -Corey Taylor
I'm glad this game is getting an expansion. It may not be my cup of tea, but it has definitely filled a void in the mmo space and is a welcome addition to the genre.
Smile
With some games it's optional. If you want to participate you can level sync.
If I've grinded levels and power out, level scaling diminishes that. If the game adjusts my level to be equal to that of the zone I am in, why do we have leveling?
Except downscaling in gw2 dont work like Anet like sold
you still much more overpowered
Same to upscaling you still weak and feel like ANT
in special wvw
Because players are so used to levels in games now they treat it as essential. GW2 could be done completely w/ out character levels, but most gamers would lose their sh@* or be completely lost / confused if they went that route. People are too hooked on traditional progression methods.
Thanks for the coverage Bill, and great work!
I've been kinda on the fence about this expansion (I really hope it's good, but trying not to get my hopes up too much). I'm definitely looking forward to the new bosses, the new class, and the new pvp mode.
I just hope some of the specs (esp mesmer) turn out to be much more awesome than I'm dreading. Especially mesmer, why did they have to give them a shield!? ><.
Nice job on taking down Angry Joe there
. I think I have to go over to his site and check out if he commented that as well.
But is it just me or do Bill and John look pretty similar? The beard, hair and even the glasses? Evil twin?
great article and vid, I can't wait.
(and thanks for the 400 gems BTW).
Don't get this wrong. I really like GW2. But this is one of the mechanics I'll don't like. The leveling mechanic itself is irrelevant. The problem I have is that the game removes the progress you make. You can start in your race's 1st starter zone. Then move on to another race's 1-15, then the 3rd race's 1-15 etc etc. Do that for all the races then move on to the 2nd zones and do them 1 at a time. You can theoretically hit level cap running DEs in starter zones without ever upgrading a single item, learning a single trait or changing anything on your character what so ever. How you showed up in your tutorial, is how you can ding 80. What's the point?
Leveling is pretty much the same in almost all MMO's now. There isn't any sense of progression to leveling anymore (if there ever was), except for the next "talent point".
Everyone is forced down a linear path anyway, although there has been some progress into non-linear leveling these days (Archeage and WoW). At least with GW2, it's a little less linear, since you can visit multiple zones to level in, and also level by pvp, crafting, personal story, events, etc.
How would you change leveling anyway? Would you want it linear? There isn't that many alternative ideas to a leveling system that hasn't been done before.
I just explained why the game has levels.
But levels are not the point. They are basically there as a means to transition players who are used to 'WoW' into a different type of gameplay. It's the same reason the game has hearts, which a lot of people criticize as being 'the same as quests', because they are supposed to be. People just couldn't handle a game being that drastically different when it was released. That said, the game could exist without levels if it wanted to, but it doesn't because there's no point.
For example, I have a friend who recently started playing GW2 again. He mentioned that he played it around when it first launched, but couldn't really get into it because he 'just didn't get it'. He had trouble finding the right class and couldn't figure out what he was supposed to be doing. So recently, I pointed him towards the ranger. It's the one class that feels the most like a traditional class from other games. You have a pet, and you can sit back & let it hold aggro while you press buttons on your longbow. Since then he's really enjoying the game, he's found enough of a comfort zone that he is no longer relying on hearts to level, and is branching out into other aspects of the game, even enjoying more non-traditional classes now that he understands the game a bit better.
The point is, you don't need to like levels. Heck, I would prefer it if the game had no character levels at all. But leveling isn't the point of this game. It never has been. They're not much different from how GW1 worked, except instead of 20 you now have 80. They are basically there as a transition period. The people more familiar with the game fly through those levels in a matter of days (or hours if you're doing it via crafting or exp scrolls). The newer players still benefit from it, because it prevents the game from feeling 100% foreign to them. The progression of this game comes much more from achievements, skills, acquiring unique skins, exploration and pvp. The levels are basically there to just help people transition into the core gameplay. They can largely be ignored.
So it would be better if all zones turned grey?
The whole level mechanics is rather silly, you lsaughter dragons in one zone but as soon as you move to the next tier you get killed by wild animals.
GW2 have no good solution for this but it still handles it better than almost any MMO I played since 1996.
Levels really should go altogether and so should most of the powergap there is between new toons and vets. No game really have done this right yet, UO still was the best try (sadly enough). Until someone gets it right this is at least an acceptable way too handle it.
Besides, leveling is just a tutorial in most MMOs today anyways. A long and grindy tutorial that uses and greys out 90% of the game as you do it.
GW2 should be better on rewarding you for doing stuff the first time though, besides achivements you really should get XP and extra rewards to encourage people discovering more of the game instead of running a few zones and dungeons over and over. On the plus side they at least killed the stupid Queensdale farming train, that really was a disaster.
GW2 can be improved in many ways but I still havn't seen a more fun game in many years. Now if they just could add servers with harder difficulty and higher loot droppings...