GW2 Loving, liking or err not so much

 Well I cant seem to connect at the moment but thats ok. I'm sure it will be back in a few. I figured this would make a good time to try and start a thread about peoples opinions on GW2 thus far. 

My opinion thus far is it's an absolute fantastic game.  It took a little getting use to. The game play is not like any other game I've played thus far. It's very refreshing. Definately a heads up kind of play but oddly enough pretty easy to learn.  It's really a lot of fun to play. Gone are the days of " LF heals." and "LF tank".  Nobody to blame but yourself if you die...... which I have done many many times lol. But each time I caught myself saying " Dang.... I was operating at about 3 watts on that fight."  I have only done PVE so far. Mainly trying out as many classes and races as I can.  Thus far each class plays very diferently but they all seem to be pretty easy to learn.

 Looking foreward tonight to trying out PvP in our WvWvW event. I'm normally not too much of a PvP'er but I'm looking foreward to trying it out in this game. Where you dont have a two or three healers in the background keeping everyone alive.  Gonna be heads up, better keep moving, hitting and healing myself.  I'm thinking the PvP in GW2 WvWvW is going to be a numbers game. If you turn around and find yourself alone...... your gonna be in trouble.  On the other hand, where we are a very large guild, with established practice in group combat and have learned to listen to instructions. I can see us being quite a force to recon with in WvWvW once we get the hang of it. 

 Before I end my post here I really have to comment on the enviroment and graphics of GW2. All I can say is "Damn ArenaNet, what an incredible world." Just breath taking. I am able to run GW2 with graphics all the way up and have zero lag. Both in large group combat as well as the busy cities and just wow. I can see why it's taking them so long to make this game. The amount of detail and over all mass scale is mind blowing.  The cities can only be discribed as "Massive". If there was no map I would no doubt wander for hours on end before I found the exit again.... Once again the only way I can discribe it is simply "Breath taking". Hats off to ArenaNets team. But no enviroment would be complete without the fun content.  The quests... which I guess would be better discribed as events really, has been nothing short of a blast. Even when going through on a second or third character. The story, the voice acting and the characters have all been very memorable. It's an enviroment that is fun solo but even funner with freinds.

  My only complaint is no Asura or Sylvari for this weekend. But hey I cant really complain. It is after all a Beta weekend. And it will no doubt leave me drooling even more for the game when it is released on it's infamous date of "When it's done".  Which oddly enough I find to be a perfect release date.  The market is flooded with incomplete or hurried or budget cuts or came in under budget type games and expansion packs these days. More then willing to wait for a finished product.  

Personally the little bit I have played, I love it. I think when it is released it will be a very complete and very well polished game. This beta shows (to me at least) that perhaps the release date might come sooner rather than later. I haven't seen as much of the game as I would have liked so far, but it definitely seems very well done for any beta event.

And to think what you see in beta is only with 20% of the features turned on just wait till you see the whole project.

I know this isn't going to be a popular opinion, but if I had just preordered instead of prepurchasing, I'd be getting my money back. First thing -- right out of the gate. Do we really need female characters running around with their buttcheeks hanging out? Are we 12? After gaming for 17 years, I am SO tired of this. I can't tell you how tired of this I am. Rawr! Secondly, I just can't find a flipping class to play without getting my arse handed to me wherever I go. After, embarrassingly enough, 17 years of gaming, I just found my niche a few months ago. And it is: the EQ2 Illusionist. Basically an AoE CC class that nukes from range (when it isn't CCing) and a pet that is basically a mini-me. But sorry, missy, you can't have AoE CC in a PvP game. (*scowl* PvP ruins everything. When is some game company going to come along and build TWO completely different systems? Please, huh, with sugar on top? I'm sick of your PvP in my PvE and I'm sure you're sick of the inverse. Mind you, I do like to PvP once in awhile, and if it's really good, a lot. All I did was open PvP in Warhammer.) Anyway, I thought the Mesmer would be a good fit. Still kind of unsure, actually, because IF I COULD ONLY SURVIVE WITHOUT HAVING TO RUN AROUND IN CIRCLES WHILE MY USELESS PETS THROW TWIZZLERS maybe I'd find out. Wait... is this game all about running around in circles (kiting)? Urgh. So then I tried the Ranger. Pet was dead in two hits, and here I am RUNNING AROUND IN CIRCLES AGAIN. Next up, the Elementalist. No pets. Oh well, I figured at least I'd have some CC with ice spells. Yeah. They last about enough time for the global cooldown to be up, so... useless. And then I spend the rest of the time... well, you know. I don't want to play melee. Especially since there is nothing that lets you know if you're in range of your target or not. miss miss miss We're supposed to be heroes, right? I feel like a no-talent peon. Cannon fodder. And no, I don't want to be forced into grouping with someone just to be able to survive. I guess this translates to -- Hey, ArenaNet, your stuff isn't scaling down properly. As it stands, though, I have bought the game, and it is beta, and it has no monthly fee. So things can only get better for my purchase in the long run. Sorry for the rant. I guess I was expecting a modernized EQ2, or even a SWTOR with a bit more world, when really all I need to do is just go back to those, I guess. :(

I'm loving it :D (just like I knew I would hehe) Correction, elementalist do have pets :) You just have to wait till level 5 to use one as long as you spend (I think) 4 points to acquire the ability then slot it (on right right hand slots) (hit 'h' then the second tab down on the left hand side and finally 'slots' tab to spend points you earn.) They stay out for 60 seconds at a time and depend which stance you are in. ie. fire you get a flaming DPS bird.. squishy, air you get a wisp.. also squishy, water you get an ice golem.. not so squishy and earth you get an earth golem (my favorite tank) I managed to solo my human elementalist story line with only moderate difficulty (and yes I also did kite ;P) I call it a challenge myself and I enjoy challenges :D Not sure how many of you realize, but classes like elementalist can switch elements (after you learn them even at level 2) and other classes can switch weapons (I believe at level 7) which opens up even more combinations when you are fighting. Each type of weapon has different abilities and depending on if you use a 2nd hand item/weapon.. you can change your abilities around at will. (though elementalist can not change weapons in combat, you still have 4 elements to choose from) You can go from DPS to healing to control and whatnot just by hitting a button :) Of course you will have to level up the abilities on the different styles of weapons (ie staff, scepter, shortbow, rifle, focus, torch, etc.) but once you learn them, you know them forever. Don't forget your abilities also change under water as well. Most important it trying to time dodges. Doesn't matter if you PvE or PvP, you can avoid attacks and damage just by double-tapping the same direction. Hopefully some of this info may help. I know I had a harder time before figuring out some of this stuff myself lol.

» Edited on: 2012-04-29 01:46:00

Did WvWvW last night till the weee hours of the night. And as far as I'm concerned that put it over the top. Had a blast but then again pvp always tends to be fun when on the winning side.... or in our case was the Jun Hoard side (beast master reference lol). Basically turning opponents into nothing more then speed bumps from one fortress to another. Still it gave me the over all grasp of WvWvW and I can easily see me being an attendant every time our guild does it. Dreamchaser: Weather your opinion is popular or not I'm still glad you gave it. Glad to read the flip side of the coin to be honest. Your right as far as kiting. But I figured it was going to be the type of game play where you move constantly. So I kind of expected it ( and to be honest was looking forward to it.) When playing a melee I don't really kite per say. I run around the monster. Unlike other games, in GW2 I found there was a lot of times that mobs have a sort of "cast time" (maybe only a half a second) where we as players dont. So when the mob is stationary while it is casting I'm already behind it getting my crits in. If I can offer any advice it would be Guardian. I know you said you didn't want a melee but a Guardian with mace and shield is almost made to play stationary. Walk up drop your area effect and just start crushing your mob. On the other hand I found a Guardian with a staff fighting from a distance to be fun as well. I hope you learn to like GW2. After playing WvWvW it is going to be a game where the more we are the merrier I think.

I won't talk about performance issues or anything like that, it was after all the first beta weekend. This game really feels like it has a focus on building a community - and I like that. You're not punished for helping people or for being helped. Somebody doesn't come along and steal your kill, they are simply just trying to complete the same public quest and get full credit as well as you everybody gets rewarded. I was also impressed by how often I'd have somebody actually fight through a ton of enemies just to come and revive me - and in turn, I'd often do the same. Inclusion - One of the reasons that I enjoy playing a more pvp centric game is that you don't feel excluded. Normally it's a case of just taking your whoopings as you work towards competing. However, I could still participate until we got to the city which had the PvE style gate-keeping with wards. In heavy PvE games like WoW and Rift, people can feel excluded based on the barriers to entry. Lockout timers are generally a big factor of this - I start the game fairly late and the raid groups are formed and working towards higher levels goals and it's next to impossible to join in since the lower level raids are obsolete. Simply put, it's nice to know that I'll be able to take part in the game even if I don't have a scheduled amount of time to put in to the game each week. The WvWvW areas were just absolutely huge, with interesting terrain. I liked it! The only thing that I miss is the way that in Camelot the areas felt a part of the world. I sorta feel like we're teleporting into a place that isn't really connected to the game world (if that makes any sense). I'm sure that part of it is that it's an arena for 3 entire servers to battle it out as opposed to 3 realms on the same server so there's no way to make it feel unique per side.

I see warhammer all over this game. The Yellow Hearts are pretty much one time public quest, while the Orange ones can happen anytime. The WvWvW is amazing! Really brought back the Warhammer feeling. Exploring exp everywhere with the gold squares. And you get down leveled when going into lower level zones with no exp penalties. I really like the class system and the combat system, a little more difficult to solo and survive, but in groups its awesome! I came into this game with a plan to own with a Flamethrower/Mine Engineer, but the extreme short range of the Flamethrower kinda killed it for me. So I tried all the classes, ended up loving a Staff Necromancer, pretty much AoE Traps in one skill. Overall It shall provide the guild an excellent home and bring us years of stories to tell.

I've been able to play off and on since about afternoon Saturday, but since Evergreen was full I had to chose a different server. Cons: As an engineer (my first choice) I found the lack of a tutorial jarring. There was a short area that was supposed to serve as a tutorial, but without meaning to I managed to slip out of it and found myself in some kind of "overflow" area. What it was was not explained, nor was there any explanation when I was informed that I could either leave the queue or stay in the overflow. A bit more explanation would have been great. I also couldn't seem to get the hang of the engineer, possibly because much of the lack of explanation on mechanics. The trade market could use some additional explanation as well, since the first time I saw it I got nothing but JSON errors (evidently because I wasn't near a merchant? I reported it). The graphics, while better than I would have expected in beta, were certainly not as... breathtaking as I had expected. I chalk that up to being a work in progress. The biggest "con" for me so far has been the perpetual Full nature, depriving me of the opportunity to play with my fellow guildmates. I truly hope that this is because of the beta nature of the game. Pros: Overall, the game looks great and even the rudimentary storytelling is somewhat compelling. The character creation was in-depth and allowed extraordinary customization. My wife and I both could have spent hours just modifying our characters. The unique nature of the skills and switching weapons is a great way of allowing new players to concentrate on story and what's happening on the screen. As a ranger, I couldn't get the hang of the longsword, but the offhand weapon choices allowed some customization and once I got a longbow I began to truly enjoy the ranger. I was able to follow much of the quest line, and the way I was able to continue to enjoy the starting areas is inspired. I didn't take part in WvWvW or PvP because I wanted my first opportunity to be in Gaiscioch (maybe next beta weekend). I anticipate that it will be much like WAR or DAoC, hopefully with improvements. Overall, I'm glad I prepaid and look forward to the next weekend and full release.

well so far i love it pve and story are nice pvp rocks and wvswvswvsw is pretty sweet aswell just like warhammer just perfect for me only thing wich worries me is the map not too small but maybe it only looks to me that way.Hopefully they add ofc more pvp maps and stuff to it but so far from the siege equipment pretty sweet ^^.Apart from that mesmer all the way of course just the perfect class for me ;).

I really enjoyed myself when I was able to play but I have to agree with Dreamchaser in that I felt like it was a bit too challenging. Maybe I just am not that great of a player but I felt that having to be totally paranoid about pulling that one extra mob was excessive below level 15 or so. I understand that the game is more action oriented but the learning curve is much too steep at the moment. I did end up really liking the mesmer and ele but it will definitely take some getting use to. Other BIG positives are the big push on community and helping each other out. That was so awesome to see and also I really enjoyed the dynamic events. It is such a beautiful game and ran pretty well on my moderate PC. Looking forward to seeing how things progress in Beta. :)

The biggest issue I had was the party bug/ overflow server issue... my wife and I were in a party but not once did we actually get to play together. I think once that issue is resolved the game will be amazing... As an example... my wife was on a quest where she had to protect some merchant... they were ambushed by spiders and she accidentally killed the merchants ox that was pulling his cart. In many other games this would have resulted in a failure... in GW2 the merchant had to lug his lock box around himself and the quest continued. Was so awesome.

I like it. All the classes I tried were fun(ranger, Eng, Elementalist) I will definitely do some running around in PVE first. Leveling from the get go in PVP was probably not a good idea. WvWvW lake is fun but you miss out on crafting drops and nodes. I wasn't able to handle the big fights due to lag but it should be fantastic when/if I get a new machine.

There are crafting drops and crafting nodes in wvwvw. The home maps have the lower level ones. Center has the high level stuff. Most npcs drop crafting mats in the lake make sure your looting the corpses.

I should have been clearer. There are drops but don't seem to be as frequent and I didn't see any nodes. Course it seemed like I saw more nodes in the Norn starting area than anywhere else. Luck? Also doing the starting areas you get enough coin to get started with. If you immediately go to PvP it is a struggle to get enough coin to get going with crafts. Or at least that was my experience. I also forgot to add that I LOVE the underwater combat. The underwater abilities are just so COOOL.

So far I really like this game. I only wish I was able to start on the Eternal Grove server with you all. I was unable to even transfer to it. I probably should've just popped into vent anyway to meet everyone. That aside I enjoyed the unique take on the MMO that ANet has created. I am motivated to go back to GW1 and earn some of the Hall of Monuments achievements for when the game does some out.

I will be logging back in to GW1 until release. I'm Amrytale Talasyon, and I'm 34/50 in my Hall. Let me know if you need help completing a mission and I'll be happy to help.

Well, I actually got to play the beta weekend more than I thought I would since my company cancelled. I admit; I had fun. It does take time a little time to get into it but I do find the way the game is developed it promotes helping others which is a good thing in an MMO. 1. It doesn't matter how much damage you do on a mob - as long as you do damage you get loot if loot is going to drop. So without even grouping you can jump in on any mob from a lowly deer or moose to an elite Scaledrake which spawned as an event. If it is going to drop loot - you get it. 2. Events can be jumped into at anytime - you don't have to be there at the start - just particpate while it is going on and you will receive some experience. The more people that are involved, the easier the event goes, but if your contribution is equal in scale to the others - you all get the most out of it. I have contributed what I thought was very little to the overall scheme of things and still received the maximum. Then I was in an event with only 4 other people and worked my ass off - and knew I was up at the top - and sure enough I was. So they have scaled it based on everyone's contribution to the overall. As an example... You have to collect ore that was stolen and return it to this guy who will then transport it to the forge... not sure how much he needs - but one time I only collect 8 pieces and still received the max exp. Another time I retrieved 30 - and received the max. Another time I turned in 8 and got the least. Scaling based on your overall contribution based on the other number of players contributing is really a great thing. It makes you want to participate. 3. Rezzing other players and even town guards or townfolk gives you experience. It is just a great way to promote helping others. Once people started to learn "I get exp. for reviving fallen comrades... wow!" Everyone goes around rezzing - during fights - after fights - running along a trail and finding a town guard dead - you revive them. Not only will they help in events... you get exp. for doing it. I started looking at my map just to see where dead people were so I could go rez them. Some classes are easier to jump into than others - and some are more complex and take time to develop. I didn't get anyone past level 8 since I was trying as many out as possible. I am not really sold on their narratives when getting quests or turning them in.... voice acting is not at it's best here nor are the cinematics. But SWTOR is what I compare it to... and SWTOR was far better. If I hadn't experienced that - then I might feel different. Dreamchaser: I actually had problems at first with the classes I wanted to try. Elementalist seemed to die a lot. I also had issues with the engineer. My hunter had issues - but then I got a bear and a bow - and had far fewer issues even in the beginning. I wasn't fond of the Thief but after I went dual pistols was entirely a different matter. I don't know how far you took any of the classes, but the elementalist didn't come into her own until I got a staff which had some great spells - and gave her much more range. The classes I tried had a lot of versatility based on the weapons they were using - and changing out the weapons gave me diversity for solo - or for groups. As an example... The Theif starts out as a melee - but changing to dual pistols made her ranged single target dps - changing to short bow made her ranged multi-target with dots and debuffs. It took me the better part of the weekend to find weapons and classes I really liked. There is more I could say, but I have said enough for now - and I'm hungry - time for lunch.

» Edited on: 2012-04-30 15:08:48

Do you need a guild invite Amrytale? We have Gaisicoch in GW1.

Loved the WvWvW we did this weekend on the Beta. Great times to be had by all. I played a guardian for the weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it. I like how this is a more active combat like reality. Having done real medieval combat styles before my disability stopped that, it felt refreshing to be able to do the same here. Yes, there is a high challenge level to this game, but I found that refreshing. I love the no way to kill steal in the game. Harvesting nodes can be accessible to all without penalty to the late comer. You get your full amount even if 4 of you go at it because it is designed so everyone gets their stuff. This adds to eh community helping instead because you can jump in on anything to help kill mobs and revive fellow players without someone complaining you did. Most times they are happy you did. I even had a guy ask me to group to help him out with a skill point. I did so even if I had it already knowing it was tough. I made his day because that was the last thing he needed for a map completion reward. I also love the story line and how you can start making some choices as you go. There is enough of them in this game you can't get them all with the number of characters they are going to allow even with gem store add on slots. I love how a lot of things are account based as well. Once one char is in the guild all the rest can chose to represent. You can be in multiple guilds. This makes for the awesome idea of Gaiscioch as a house with several rooms. Say you are just chilling crafting, if you want you can join the crafting "room"/guild. Or PvP and be in the that room etc. Lots more is to come and as Fog stated, only around 20% of the game capability was even turned on for this beta weekend.

What I loved 1) That you can even rez Ranger pets and get exp. It seemed like at times people were racing to rez my pet. 2) That up to level 15 I had a Drake, Hog, Eagle, and Shark in my ranger sack. I thought that was pretty cool and was constantly on the look out for other pets! I loved that we didnt need to fight them to charm them. Just double click and they were yours. 3) I loved that multiple events could happen at one place and that most could be completed in different ways. 4) The cities! Lions Arch was AMAZING!! 5) Like many have mentioned no KSing or node stealing 6) Different stories in each city 7) The different ways to get skill points. 8) Underwater combat and how even at lv 14 I could help at lv 20+ event 9) There was always something more to see. There was a number of times I came back to an area to find there were unexplored sections. I had simply thought that certain areas would just dead end into mtns etc but there always was a cave, lake, or path to explore. 10) That there are more BWE's to come What I didnt like 1) I didnt like the Char city at all but I kind of knew that and played there first as I was pretty sure I would not make a char in release. I also felt that the areas progressed too quickly there and accidentally got stuck for a few hrs with no way to get back due to having no $ to rez. Finally the Char Ele story I kept getting stomped on by a lv 6 enemy even though I was lv 8. I thought it was too hard at times for the level requirement where in ranger, necro, warrior I went through with only a few set backs 2) Do you always have to pay $ to rez yourself? The only way I saw to rez was to pay $ to go to a waypoint. What if you are out of cash and no one is around? 3) For rangers it isnt really detailed which pets are squishy. I picked a drake as it is amphibious. Unfortunately in or out of water it died really quickly with me to follow shortly afterwords. The ranger didnt seem to really shine until I got my Pig, "Bacon" and then I was able to tear some stuff up. Also the shark was surprisingly squishy also, is there a water tank pet? 4) Warriors had WAY too many weapons lol! I needed a whole separate bad section just for all of the weapons I needed to carry, so that I would have bag space for everything else. 5) I seemed to finish content too early even with story plots being finished. I guess this can be supplemented by PVP (which I avoided this time out) because unless an event is happening killing stuff for exp is really rough. I did explore alot for exp but I would often find myself in areas that mobs could kill me in one shot. Two more questions: 1) Was the dungeon in Beetletown near Divinity Reach accessible? I ask because it was in a low level area and it would seem that the dungeon would be within 5 levels of content? I didnt see many people near the town as it is pretty out of the way and the only reason I knew it was a dungeon was that when I moused over the area it said in small white letters "dungeon." 2) Was the crafting worth trying and was it an easily understood process? I had a blast this weekend and I am looking fwd to more. I am sorry I didnt meet up with you all, I had a wedding that evening to attend.

Sure Foghlada, I'd be happy to join up with you guys.

Nightfall, Well - it is still beta and even though that sounds trite - it is. I had trouble with an Engineer the same way in the Norn area - they just need to tone down some of the badguys a little - I actually had to report a quest since I tried it several times - even got two levels above the quest and still couldn't get by it - and it was a storyline quest. But that is what Beta is all about - letting them know what works and what doesn't. As far as finishing story line plots too early - that happend to me too - especially in the human area which seemed to have a huge population when I was on and made doing all the content go much faster... I found myself repeating many of the events to level up so that I could move to the next level without having my ass handed to me by the mobs. In a way that isn't bad - many of the events were fun.

» Edited on: 2012-05-01 00:28:06

Answer to Nightfall's question about the dungeons. Dungeons are not placed by level. For instance the one we could go into, Ascalonian Catacombs, is level 30, but you enter it from the Plains of Ashford, which is the 1-15 area for the Charr. The dungeons I believe currently start at L30 and the location is based on where it fits in the world and its lore.

I really enjoyed the game. Looking forward to the release. The end event was awesome. I was lucky to join up with some Gaiscioch guild members. We kept rezzing each other. The end event was a bit of a surprise with the mobs they had. Veriouse (spelling) pigs, dear and rats. Little things with enourmous amounts of health and big bites. They came into the towns and wiped out everything. The great big black Moa spawned every where. Including the rez point. Kept getting stomped by one. LOL I'm sure the developers were having a good laugh at all the people goinng after them. They were level 19 and most people were level 10-15. I'm sure this weekend really tested out the servers espeacially the end event. I really had issues with my pet. Ugh! I did leave feedback about this as well as I'm sure others did to. The AI for the pets is lacking. I really like the story quests, but there was a very high consentration of mobs that made it very difficult to clear. Thankfully a couple other people were doing the same part of the story I was on and we grouped up and tore through them. This was my second attept. For an open beta like this the game seemed good with issues of course and expected. Woke up Monday morning wanting to play GW2 and read the forums instead. :( I didn't do PVP and was perfectly happy doing the PVE and crafting. So there is someething for everyone. Saren did PVP mostly and was quite good at it. LOL He chose a ranger towards the end and had a different story. So the path you take doing the same class does change the path and the events you go through. I really like that. Enjoyed and really looking forward to getting more into the PVE aspect of it as I feel there is more coming and more detail. Kittara

Some great posts Ive found on the forums regarding suggestions for the Devs. Please head over and check them out so we can truly make this the greatest game ever! https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/suggestions https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/suggestions/Modifier-Key-Key/page/1 https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/suggestions/Implement-names-in-WvW-with-players-given-the-option-to-turn-their-name-on-or-off/page/1#post151408 This one is my own suggestion, feedback on the thread would be AWESOME! Those are just some addresses to some pretty good suggestions in my opinion. If you guys find any of your own give it a nice bump to get it seen by the Devs. Hope you guys enjoyed this weekend, im sure we will share many more!

The game is delicious. I enjoyed the previous posts about the proff's, and guildies exp with them. I am going to post a write up for the Elementalist. I spent the entire weekend playing it in pve and wvw. I hope to read more about the other proff's here. Good topic:}

» Edited on: 2012-05-01 17:13:39

enjoyed it somewhat, hated you couldnt group, everytime you zoned, you were in separate overflows. game killer for me and Jaz. I couldnt play at all Fri and Sat, wouldnt let me log in. Hoping for another weekend of playtime soon, to see more of the game and see if grouping will be viable.

Abbi, I think part of the problem we had in Beta 1 was that GameStop gave prepurchase codes for preorder games giving access to hundreds of people that weren't supposed to have it. ArenaNet didn't plan to have every server maxed out. I'd be interested to see how the next one goes.

I want to start off by saying that I am not the best, and do not think I am. I have never really played a caster class as a main. I have always been leary of the tissue paper armor, and my uncanny ablity to be in the wrong spot when a baddy lowers the boom. However I spent all weekend playing the Elementalist in the beta, and loved every minute of it. I applogize for any duplicate information from other posts. The best place to start is with the combat system. GW2 only has one hotbar. This hotbar is divided by your health orb. The attack slots 1-5, "based on weapon type," are on the left side, and the heal, 3 utilities, and elite skill slot are on the right. All classes have the range of their attacks defined by the weapons they have in their hands. When the range changes so do the attacks. Most classes have what is called weapon loadouts. These loadouts will allow you to switch weapons during combat. An example would be a Ranger having one loadout predefined with a long bow,"for max range attacks", and another loadout that duel weilds swords," for up close combat". In this example the Ranger can switch between these 2 loadouts at any time during combat. This is very awesome! :} Now I mentioned that most classes get this awesome ability. The 2 that do not are the Elementalist, and the Engineer. This means that you can not change the range of your attacks during combat unless combat ends, or you do.The Elementalist uses attunement to the 4 forces of nature: Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water, to compensate for the lack of weapon loadouts. When you switch your attunement your attack skills change to reflect the force of nature you decided to attune. Thus fire attunement has different attack skills than wind attunement, but the range is the same. This means that Elementalists get access to 20 different attack skills for the range defined by their weapons. While the other classes, with both weapon loadouts COMBINED, will only have access to 10. DYNOMITE!!! :} I am not sure how the Engineer compensates because I only played the Elementalist. When you change attunement 2 different cooldown timers start. One that is a global timer for changing attunement to the other 2 forces of nature not yet attuned. The other is for changing back to the original attunement you changed from. The global timer cooldown is only a few seconds at best. However the cooldown timer for the attunement you are changing from will be 15 sec. Most of the attack skills have less than 1 sec inductions, if not completely instant. This means that you want to have some combos in mind for each attunement, and then be ready to switch attunements as the fight calls for it. The pratical aplication is pretty simple, and I will use the 2 handed staff skill attacks, " max range", as an example. This example will start off with some big dmg aoe's, then switch to big group heals, and then to some single trgt fun. This is just an example of how to utilze the attunement system, and should not be considered the best rotation available. disclaimer disclaimer :} Starting attunement Fire 1)Meteor Shower / Call down a meteor shower on target area. 30 sec cd. Cast on biggest cluster of enemies. 2)Flame Burst / Burn foes at the target location. 10sec cd. Cast on the group when they relocate. 3)Lava Font / Make lava erupt from target area. 6 sec cd Cast again on same group, or new. Switch attunement to Water 1)Healing Rain / Call down a healing rain on target area, granting regeneration to allies and also removes conditions. 45 sec cd. Cast on biggest cluster of allies. 2)Geyser / Summon a geyser to heal nearby allies. 20 sec cd. This is a target area skill. I cast it on the fur ball of combat. 3) Frozen Ground / Coat target area in ice, chilling foes that enter it or leave it. 40 sec cd. This is a great area cc. Switch attunement to Earth 1)Shockwave / Create a shockwave that bleeds and immobilizes your target. 20 sec cd. Bleed and stun?, why yes thank you. 2)Unsteady Ground / Create unsteady ground that cripples foes that move through it. I put this around the stunned target. hehehe 3)Eruption / Shake the ground until it erupts and damages foes. 6 sec cd. I then cast this when they stop running from the unsteady ground. 4)Stoning / Hurl a rock at your foe and cause weakness. 0 sec cd. If they keep runing :} ***Now this is only an example, but you get the point of how to untilize the attunement system.*** While this example is a fun little rotation, it is designed around max range. I personally like the mid range and close quarter combat offered from the duel weild daggers and scepter / dagger combination. This play style requires more movement and strategy, but is oh so fun. I welcome any coments and crits about this post. If you have a rotation you want to share please do.

» Edited on: 2012-05-01 21:20:27

» Edited on: 2012-05-01 21:32:58

I played the entire weekend trying all 3 races and 5 classes, did a ton of pve events & exploring, and a bit of the crafting. I didn't touch the pvp or WvWvW because I wanted to have some idea of what I was doing first. Next beta though, I'll be there. ;) All in all, I did enjoy myself even when totally confuzzled on what the heck was going on, and am cautiously optimistic about my future in GW2. As most of my likes and dislikes have already been expressed by others in previous posts, I'll just add these points: Like : As someone with mobility issues in my hands, having the quickbars as they are - only showing those skills defined by the weapon equipped - it makes it MUCH easier to program my G13. Maybe I *will* be able to try some of the more dexterity challenging classes in GW2. :) Like: As an avid RPer, I see a lot of potential in the world design. While I didn't find any clicky chairs, I did find doors that I could open/close. The emote system right now is very basic, but its there with visuals. The 3 cities in this beta were HUGE and amazing - I spent hours Sunday morning just exploring them. Dislike: I know we have hearing impaired member in the family, and I have a friend looking to join me in GW2 whose own hearing is limited, so the cinematics that didn't show up in the NPC chat panel, or the text that showed up out of order in the chat panel were all bug reported. Anyway, very much looking forward to the next beta.

» Edited on: 2012-05-02 07:07:08

Oh yeah the hotbar. I love it. I program all my attacks to my numeric keypad. Was limiting in Rift because of the number of skills but this is working really well in GW2.

"I will say it was extreamly fun to watch the hoo-ha early this morning when a guy died and started cussing out everybody in the group for not healing him. He was, after all, THE main tank. No matter how much we tried to tell him there was no "healer class" he could not accept that since there was a dedicated healer class in EVERY MMO. His antics went to the general chat which garnered much razzing on him and a very interesting rage quit with threats of calling Customer Service and reporting all of us. Quite the chuckle-iscious moment." No main tank either LOL...

I think well see a lot of culture shock with this game. It doesn't play like games of times past. Its going to be difficult to throw away 10+ years of mmo experience and learn something new. But I remember a day when I was trying it convince my bbs friends to try out the www instead of gopher and they thought I was crazy then too. I think in the end if given a chance and approached with an open mind gw2's gameplay will grow on people. I like the difficulty. It makes you want to help others. It makes you think about your actions. I'm tired of games making everything so easy you can play half asleep. We need challenge to bring excitement.

I agree Fog. Games these days need to change. I remember gopher, veronica, archie and yahoo in the bbs days as well. Then came the graphical interface and people were in culture shock. (Met my hubby, Saren, online 18 years ago playing a text based MUD on a BBS through Telnet. May 13th will be 17 years of being married.) Glad GW2 is different. It maybe the change that is needed. IMHO Kittara

» Edited on: 2012-05-02 10:01:53

I flew across the country and to Canada to meet ppl that I played and chatted with on telnet MUDs and talkers(foothills)

Spend several hours questing and getting a feel for the combat system. PvP was and interesting twist ~ but I dislike the feel of the game. Can't put my finger on it ~ the dislike is just there. Anticipated the beta greatly and hoped to spend a lot of time with the family there (especially in WvWvW). Invested time in farming HoM in GW1. But I've thrown in the towel. We have to play what we enjoy. Started a fresh account in WoW ~ working on getting my Holy Paladin raid-ready for tier 13 and working professions until Mists of Pandaria. And don't forget the pets (gotta catch 'em all!) for the revamped pet system with pokemon(ish) combat. Massive shake-up of the talent point system and abilites as well. Will likely drop in once in a blue moon to see what you're up to in GW2. From my experiences with you in Rift I know you'll be a blessing to your server and the rest of the community ~ and a force to be reckoned with in WvWvW. GL & HF (:

Doovari, I wouldn't judge a game by the tiny little sliver they have right now. I do hope you give it a shot closer to launch. What you see now is merely a fragment of the whole game. Snap judgements are usually what get's us in trouble. Give it time come back and try again. I doubt you'll have the same vibe closer to launch.

My biggest beef? Transmutation stones are gem store only, which greatly kills a -lot- of the fun for me. Otherwise the game is good. PvP is extreme, Wv3 has the makings for a lot of the stuff I've missed from WAR, and for once, I actually -like- the PvE in an MMO and I wont be playing it just for Iso's sake.

Greetings All, long time. I hope that each of you are doing well. I read this article on Forbes and thought Id share it. http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolpinchefsky/2012/05/01/guild-wars-2-beta/2/ It sound like the buzz is getting louder and louder about GW2 (i know nuthing about it other than what Fog and others have shared with me). I have read many of your posts on this topic and I have to say that with all of the good/bad ... and all of the shared information has me thinking about buying it. Props, I was a nogo...and now I am a possibility. lol Anyway, I look forward to reading more about the game...and miss you guys on Rift. Hang in there and be at peace. Robb/Blister/Really good looking....justsayin

To be short and to the point, I liked the game. I believe it's going to offer something to all the different styles of gamers. Two thumbs up.

I only played the WvWvW, and not the PvE content (except the intro, of course). But the WvWvW is all I need. I knew I was home when I heard Fog say, "Let's pandora them to death!". Well, he didn't really say that. I'm just paraphrasing.

looking forward to this release. although i've prepurchased the game, not a lot i can do w/ the beta since i work every weekend. wish there was beta for 7 days. but - oh well. it will be a nice treat to have the whole family in one faction. there's a lot of you i haven't had the opportunity to get to know. look for my necro "fleur du mal" (assuming i can have three words in my name - otherwise fleur mal) in game @ release. hugs and biscottis,

According to the article about the gem store, you will be able to purchase gems with gold. Mind you, they probably wont be cheap...

Well after the GW2 beta I really now have an urge to play through GW1. Name is Corvi Dreamwalker, if I could get an invite to the guild in GW1, would love it ;) Funny the graphics arent what got me loving GW2..was the gameplay. I still think Rift has better graphics.

I have been following this game //extensively//, and can answer most every question presented in the thread. First of all, Dreamchaser: I'm sorry you had a rough time with the game. However, the game is not one where you can sit still and mash buttons and kill things. You WILL need to dodge (double-tap a direction or use a keybind), you WILL need to monitor your health and position, you WILL need to learn how your classes' mechanics work, and you WILL need to abandon the idea that each class only works at a certain range. Warriors have rifles and longbows, Rangers get swords and greatswords, every class has an option. And it IS a difficult game! They aren't going to baby you, even at level 1. The first big monster you fight in the prologue is designed to one-shot you so that you learn that running out of health doesnt mean you are rendered totally inactive. I do not mean to admonish or belittle you by telling you this; if all of that simply does not appeal to you, then that's perfectly fine! However, if you think you learned everything about the game from your time during the beta, you should reconsider. If you are looking for AoE control, you might try the Guardian. They wear heavy armor, but have access to magical ranged weapons, walls and projectile-reflecting domes, passive blocking, and other strong support tools. These tools are just as effective in PvE as they are in PvP because they aren't different environments. Some more notes: If you are out of range, the number on the skill icon will be red. A ground-targeted AoE ability has a crosshair over the number. The starting armor for the female mesmer, elementalist, necro, and thief are rather light, but not all armor in the game is so revealing. There's both conservative and flashy armor designs among all armor classes. Unlike, oh, say, TERA, where I have yet to see a female armorset that wasn't tailored to garner adolescent male subscriptions. There were several events that require some rebalancing before launch, to be certain. Some are also simply undoable by one person, save for one with a disproportionate amount of skill for how long he or she has been playing. This is why we were given the chance to beta test! I hope you return for the next beta test, Dreamchaser. Those seventeen years of MMO experience, I'm afraid to say, are a hurdle to overcome if you want to fully appreciate Guild Wars 2. ArenaNet has pointedly disregarded MMO conventions started by Everquest and reinforced by WoW, SWTOR, TERA, WAR, Aion, Rift, and any other progression-based MMO (as opposed to sandbox titles like EVE or Darkfall). I feel that should cover a lot of people's misgivings. Next post!

In regards to World vs. World, it is a region formed in the Mists, a sort of afterlife/nether region. Think of the Mists as the medium in which other planes of existence drift- Tyria, the Underworld, the Eternal Battlegrounds, the Fissure of Woe- they are all suspended in the Mists. Currently, there's no lore as to why WvW exists, but I suspect it is similar to the PvP in the first game, which was combat as tribute, run by the Zaishen Order, to the human god of battle, Balthazar. In fact, after Zhaitan's rising in the southern sea swallowed the Battle Isles (from GW1), Balthazar created the portals to the Mists in Lion's Arch as a replacement. So basically, the game worlds fight each other because Balthazar thinks it's totally awesome :D. The lack of tutorial was noted in the official forums, so they're going to work on that. Still, the lack presents an opportunity to take the community-centric nature to heart- ask people! I know that's a bit of a lame answer, but asking, especially now when EVERYONE is a newbie, can't hurt. Experiment before charging straight into battle- skills fire without a target, so you can see what each one does without threat of death. Also, remember that this is a radically different combat style- don't be discouraged if you end up downed, and fight until you literally can't move! If you kill an enemy while downed, you revive with half health and no cooldowns (unless its still on cooldown from before you went down). Overflow shards were another big issue during the beta. What they are is when an area in the game world (i.e. Divinity's Reach, Wayfarer Foothills, Plains of Ashford, Lion's Arch) has reached player capacity, temporary server space is made, called an overflow shard. They weren't numbered, nor could you reliably stay with a party when you traveled to one, but overflow shards are ANet's solution to the problem of server queueing. It was especially prolific because the entire player base was stuffed into all of 10 PvE maps. The lack of party-traveling and general overflow considerations caused a HUGE uproar on the beta forums, so expect that to be fixed by the next BWE. The Trading Post was flat-out broken this beta. It was largely unusable for the duration of the weekend. It's getting fixed as well, which I am pleased about- I need my crafting reagents! RE: Ranger pets: the pet AI is still buggy, and frankly I have no idea why they die so quickly. However I saw a lot of people running around with a dead pet. If your pet is dead, you can press F4 to switch to your other equipped pet (provided you've found one), even during battle! It will come out at full HP, and the dead pet will regain its health in a certain amount of time (I believe 10 seconds?). Also, each species of pet has a different ability it can use on F2- brown bears get an AoE condition removal, while ravens can blind your target. Whew, that's a lot of text! Should only be one more post.

There is still rebalancing to do, even in the personal story. Many people had difficulty with the charr personal story you're talking about. Still, did you try using different weapons? Staves are good in group fights but scepter/focus or dagger/dagger may be better fits for a solo adventure. Water Attunement also has a lot of light self-healing and support. What was said on the forums is that if you are out of money, the closest waypoint should be free to revive at. If you only have a few copper, it will take it and you can revive at the nearest waypoint. If your OTHER characters have money, it will take it from THEM and revive you. NO SENDING MONEY TO ALTS FOR FREE REVIVES! :P However this function was bugged and not working in the beta. Some people laid there defeated for dozens of minutes before someone revived them or they deleted the character :(. Warriors are masters of many weapons! Their versatility is through the large weapon selection, and the class mechanic (Adrenaline and the Burst Skill) supplements that. For, say, the Elementalist or Thief, the reverse is true, where the class is built around the class mechanic (Attunements and Initiative/Stealing/Dual Skills) and the weapon selection is limited. If you start to hit content too high for you, try heading in another direction. You may come across a Dynamic Event, or find a Scout to show you to new Heart quests. If you're really strapped for content, you can always take the Asura Gates from the Mists PvP lobby to Lion's Arch, and then go from there to another race's home city, for new waypoints, hearts, skill challenges, and points of interest. And yes, Caudecus' Manor in Beetletun is a level 40 instance. It wouldn't make any sense for his manor to be anywhere else, considering he is, in fact, from Beetletun. Fun fact, Beetletun is in the same location as it was 250 years ago in Guild Wars 1, as are most all relics of the past. Godslost Swamp, in southeast Queensdale, is centered around the old Temple of the Ages, where the statues of the gods have fallen into disrepair (and sunk into the swamp). I did Armorsmithing on my human Warrior, making heavy armor (and inventory boxes!) out of copper, Jute thread and the various trinkets from fallen enemies. Crafting in this game is immensely rewarding, even while you level, and many of the armor designs you create will be different than looted armor of the same level, so that you stand out as an artisan! Crafting in bulk gets exponentially faster after each round, meaning you can smelt 100 copper in about 7-9 seconds. Maybe a little longer. As an armorsmith I could create a metal armor panel and cloth armor liner of the same slot (ie gauntlet, boot, chest, helmet) and then combine them with enemy drops (venom sacs, bone shards, vials of blood) to create a piece of armor with a specific bonus on it. The blood vials gave Power (damage for all classes, no Intelligence/Strength/Agility to worry about), venom gave Condition Damage (burns/poison/bleeds did more per tick), and bone shards gave Toughness (reduces a flat amount of damage, like in WAR). Any armor crafter (Tailor, Leatherworker, Armorsmith) can create inventory bags. I can only assume weaponsmithing works in much the same way. Cooking has been pegged by the devs as the most expensive, world-searching, recipe-gathering profession, as it lets you make foods that confer stat buffs for a duration of time. No health potions! No mana potions (or mana at all)! Just wholesome meals made from actual real-life recipes. With some twists. Adding Glittering Dust to a stew of potato, carrot and water made a Potion of Bandit-Slaying. You learn basic recipes (for any profession) automatically, but can also experiment and see if you can make new things! For me, a copper bar and a bolt of jute cloth made a Rune of Life, which went in an armor's upgrade slot, giving me +20 maximum health. I love crafting in almost any game, but Guild Wars 2's crafting was the absolute most rewarding of all of them. Oh, and Gems! Gems are buyable with real money, yes, but you can also purchase them with in-game gold, according to market price. You don't have to trade with a player selling them either, its done by a menu with two big buttons: BUY GEMS WITH GOLD or BUY GOLD WITH GEMS. Even over the weekend, I saw prices fluctuate. Still, this means you can buy Cash Shop items (all cosmetic/convenience items, NO PAY 2 WIN ARMOR OR WEAPONS) without paying a cent over the game's original cost. Oh, another thing. A big thing! The mail you receive when you complete a Renown Heart HAS MONEY IN IT. I REPEAT, THEY HAVE AT LEAST 50 COPPER EACH AT LEVEL 1-3, MORE AS YOU GET TO HIGHER LEVELS. When I found that out, I had about 20 letters to pick the coins out of XD. Okay I think that's everything! I hope my mega-posts were helpful to some of you, and not just screen-filling messes! :D

Orgoch, Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions. In regards to the ranger pets. I know that due to the fact that I chose a drake I did not see any other juveniles for about 10 levels. I did see other river drake juveniles but as I already had one (human area) I couldnt tame two. So until I had my second pet it seemed useless to revive the first one just to have it die so quickly. However once I had two I would usually switch out at 20% health.

I personally love the game, I have the collectors edition pre-purchased. It is very refreshing compared to other games and I personally cant wait until the actually release. I have been awaiting it for a long time, unfortunately there have been some games, mainly Diablo 3, that has left me dont. Hopefully the high end content in Gw2 will match up with how amazing everything else is in the game.

Best metaphor I could come up with for GW2: If Skyrim and warhammer had a baby, GW2. I really loved the thief, I danced around a veteran boar for like 5 minutes, did not take a single hit and got some really really nice loot. Loved the crafting, though gathering was tricky to figure out. I seemed to have skipped the tutorial. There is only one thing I dislike about this game, and it's also the reason I really really like SWTOR; the NPCs had expression, or lack of, in GW2. In the cinematics the characters looked like robots standing there talking at each other. I think if Arenanet played SWTOR a bit they could improve the animations a bit. Also I really really hated the voice acting, it sounded like a bad anime dub, wait what am I talking about they are all bad hahaha. Other then that, loved it. Though, I hope that you can buy some clothing that would make my thief look like a Witch Hunter from Warhammer. Pilgrim hat and a sash = win

I saw some expressiveness in the cinematics, there was also the "work in progress" tag on most if not all of them as well. My experiences being in the human starting area. I'm a big fan right now, though not as much as I was before the BWE. Its the integration of Kiting into pretty much every form of combat. I don't mind some kiting. However I'm not always up to paying the level of attention that seems to be required to play in mostly melee range such as a dual dagger thief in the April BWE. Seems to me I'll be picking out a ranged weapon set to play around with mostly and only pulling out the daggers when its a good day for concentration. Then again I believe the Devs mentioned looking into melee vs ranged and some weapon sets being looked at like sword and dagger for thief.

» Edited on: 2012-05-06 03:08:43

cant wait

The BWE for me was a mixed bag. There is a Lonely Mountain sized treasure of things that are awesome about Guild Wars 2 but, man, there are still some frustrating tidbits that left me a little burned. The highlight for me was the gameplay. Absolutely superb. Each time I equipped a new weapon you could just feel the play style change dramatically. Brilliant. Pvp and WvWvW were (and are going to be) a blast. I intend to make this my focus when the game goes live. The sad parts for me is the PVE, particularly the quests and storytelling. Just because you switch a quest from kill 10 bandits to kill bandits till a bar is full doesn't mean you reinvented the quest wheel. That's just framing. I think the quests are going to get old for me. I guess I was expecting better from the hype. The story also seemed bland. I played a Norn and a Human and I couldn't really get into (or in the norn's case even follow) what was going on. I'm hoping the Asura salves this wound as that is the race I intend to play. Otherwise getting a max character might be like pulling teeth--I'm looking at you RIFT. That said, my mouth is watering for the next Beta Weekend Feast. Oh how the addiction sets in. And THIS TIME I will be on your guy's server. Muhahaha. ;P

» Edited on: 2012-05-08 00:41:26

» Edited on: 2012-05-08 00:57:34

I can say I found the stories and even talking to NPCs in the world more interesting due to reading the books and knowing some basic lore from GW1 that is the history to GW2. I can see how some of it may seem a confusing or bland in other ways. I know they are still working on these along with many other things. Remember, this first open BWE didn't let us play a whole lot of the game and input received from it is being evaluated. =) I bet we see more things with the next one. Of course, only other thing to remember, we all like different ways of doing things and see things differently, so the thing to do is see if there is something that will keep you with a game regardless of the parts that annoy you. ::chuckles:: I've always found various things that I did not like in a game along with things I did. The pros had to outweigh the cons and the BWE showed me that GW2 has more pros than cons.

I agree with what you said Briseadh. The pros overwhelmingly outweigh the cons on GW2. The BWE just made this game a reality for me where I was first introduced to the cons. I had known going in what the pros would be. As for the story, I have been watching the Gaiscioch GW1 youtube movies and I hope that helps out come release. BTW, who ever is making those TY TY TY. http://youtu.be/5aovyb0xtSM

Got a new one coming soon. Im recording entire plot sections now and meshing them together.

I can't wait for the release :) I will have to find a back alley in town to re-open Stoat's Tavern... heh heh...

They have scheduled a stress test for monday http://www.arena.net/blog/mike-obrien-on-the-guild-wars-2-beta

» Edited on: 2012-05-10 15:23:08

I have mixed feelings about GW2, largely echoing Dreamchaser's concerns. I've been playing MMOs in various forms for 14ish years now (long time EQ/EQ2 player), so perhaps it's just a need to break the mold. I spent most of the beta weekend event trying to find a class that fit my play style - I tend to do support classes through most MMOs, but being there's no bard here, I dabbled with ranger, mesmer, necro, and guardian, mainly settling on ranger once I got my hands on a long bow. The flow of the game was somewhat jarring, and I gritted my teeth when I realized I needed to grind some before I could move to the next area. I am intrigued, but my hype is somewhat tampered down for the moment.

Just remember this is early beta with 6-9 months before any assumed release date. A lot of the issues we saw it beta 1 will likely be fixed by beta 2.

Fog, Do you really think it is 6-9months out? I mean 6 months puts us in November and while I am sure they think they could do well against MOP they also will have to compete against the rest of the Holiday season. It seems like most MMOs dont have to compare too much against other big name games but as GW2 is B2P and it doesnt have a reoccurring subscription then it will directly compete against the big holiday titles. Do you really think their fan base would survive until 2013 especially when they pretty much promised it would be done in 2012? I know the "its done argument" but I think trying to get the game polished that much would be very detrimental to its sales. You can only tinker so much in a game. Having played almost every big name MMO out there since 99 either in beta or soon afterwords this game is more polished then all of them. I mean I only had two game-desktop crashes and only one time had problems logging in and I didnt experience any lag at all although I didnt PVP. The only reason they should delay that long is if their 30-80 game is so broken that they cant put their product out but if that is true then they should have waited 2-3 months before they had a BWE

Had a blast with the stress test yesterday. I made an elementalist and it really clicked with me, specifically dagger/focus with water attunement (although the big fire circle from scepter w/fire was nifty). Didn't get higher than 6 since I got the "loading stuck at 95% bug", and by the time I could try again the stress test had ended. I need to get more into the lore behind GW2, I've only read briefly on the official wiki to know it's a number of years in the future of GW1. Will be checking out the Gaiscioch produced videos this week!

Nightfall your only seeing 1-20 in 3 races. What about 20-80 content and the other 2 races? There's still a lot of work to be done. 2012 is definately the mark but I'm sticking by the sept-nov release date guestamite.

Yeah, I'm with Fog on this one. Let's see how much more they open up for the next full BWE. Looks like they are doing their best for as polished of a game as they can get without belaboring the point to death by delay. I think they got what they wanted out of yesterday's stress test, too, but don't quote me on that. The game is definitely coming together per what we can find out so far. Looking forward to seeing more of it.

I'll be happier with a longer release timeline, too many games have been rushed out the door and needed massive patches in the first three months to fix. EA particularly has been guilty of this, between Warhammer Online (where was my dark elf capital city?!) and SW:TOR, not to mention stand alone games (both Recokning and ME3 felt rushed to delivery). Sep-Nov 2012 sounds perfect for GW2!

Lets hope for a Thanksgiving or Christmas release for us to take full advantage of the threeday headstart. Fog, pls contact devs to htfu :p Should I resub to Rift? I still have Jepps on there :P