GW2 so far
Sep. 10th, 2012 01:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tanithryudoI figured I'd write something up about my thoughts about the game.
Just to give some background, I have a ranger that's closing in on lvl 40 (halfway through!), an elementalist that just hit 30 (31 after crafting her new clothes), a guardian that's probably going to sit for a while at level 20, and an engineer at lvl 13 (everything above lvl 11 from crafting).
Stuff That's Good
I love that I don't have to worry about content in this game. There's no big hurry to level up to max as there was in GW1. In fact, I'd prefer to stay in lower level zones because I'm often building up the mats to keep up my crafting. Also, I've only completed two starter & lowbie zones each on my ranger & ele, which still leaves a little under 3 other racial zones that I haven't done (sylvari & asura share the 15-25 zone).
As to replay value... well, I often find myself running through starter zones (especially Queensdale) cuz I'm too cheap to waypoint from town to Kessex, and it usually takes over an hour to do so cuz I keep getting distracted by STUFF! (mostly events... random non-event bosses... and people needing rez/rescue... and gathering...) This even after I've completed the starter zone in question. And most importantly, it doesn't feel like a chore/grind! Which is great!
I love resource gathering and management. It brings out the OCD in me. I don't know how long I've spent trying to figure out how to get to that one herb...can't...jump...incline...zomgfellanddied! Or the one time I kept looping back to the cave with the bandit champion guarding the rich ore vein, despite 3 groups of random people having tried and gotten their butts kicked and giving up, before finally a large/skilled enough group of people finally came along took him out (I did help each time!). Also great is the feature to immediate send all crafting mats to storage. It just feeds this habit to gather everything. (And yet, I still need moar silver. Silllllveeeeeerrrrr...)
It's very easy to get decently statted equipment for minimum cost - exactly as advertised and what we expect from GW1. Even before the trading post was up, I was able to get what I needed from the karma vendors, even occasionally splurging for masterwork versions of good looking stuff. Now that the trading post is up, it's even easier. It's been noted that there's a LOT of people out there that's pretty much selling all their drops for the minimum price (which is actually lower than what you get selling to a NPC after accounting for the listing fee & tax). People who are leveling crafting also tend to create more than they can actually use, and that also gluts the market. Sometimes even masterwork pieces of armor & weapons are sold fairly cheaply. Quite a few runes are decently priced as well, and the sigil prices are a ridiculous 17-20 copper at the current levels. Not sure how the prices increase with level, but for armor/weapons, I don't forsee them increasing by much. My ranger exclusively lives off the trading post because she goes through stuff so fast.
As to the cosmetics, I know people complained about getting always the same skins from armor drops (and I'm pretty sure it's that way all the way to 80). But differently skinned stuff is available from the normal karma vendors (cultural vendors being hideously expensive now); you just need to remember to check them when you're done. Kessex has the nice non-trenchcoat-y medium armor for the humanoid form (which I'm waiting to upgrade my actual gear for stats first before getting one to transmute onto it). My guardian is halfway through collecting the Roman centurion looking heavy armor from Snowden Drifts.
Stuff that Needs Improvement
The major major big thing here I'd have to say is underwater balance (only talking PvE), especially given the fact that Anet obviously wants underwater to be a major thing and not just an afterthought.
I'll echo the thoughts of many players who feel that underwater combat is bugged. My ranger does over 100 damage per hit (critting at 200+) on land, but underwater she does less than 60 damage per hit. Even if her speargun is slightly lower level, it's not *that* low!
Even more importantly, for the elementalist, we still do not have *one* *single* *elite* that functions underwater! Even if you fix Tornado/Whirlpool so that it's working in PvE as it is in PvP, remember that this is a tier *2* elite. Which means you need 50 skill points at level 30 to unlock it (2x10 to unlock tier 1 and then 30 to buy from tier 2). Even adding all the skill points from all 5 starter zones and all 4 lowbie zones, and accounting for all the utility unlocks needed, is it even possible for any character to do that?
Oh, and speaking of utility, for both ranger and elementalist, about 1/3 of their utility skills are unusable underwater too! That means they are much more limited underwater at adapting to circumstance. It also means that a new player who may not have looking up all the skills on the wiki may find themselves severely handicapped when going underwater for the first time, if they have been buying skills for their utility on land (such as a trap based ranger build or a summons based ele build).
Some of the class mechanics also need to be explained better. For one thing, I only recently found out that the attunement swapping on the ele (and possibly also the kit swapping on engineer) counts as a weapon swap for sigil procs. This is important since I'd originally planned on using one of those sigils that added some stat for each kill remaining in the current weapon set since ele only has one weapon slot. But if that gets reset with each attunement swap, then obviously it'd be better to use a sigil that procs on weapon swap. -_-
Stuff I'm not sure about
I know it's another much touted thing that GW2 was about removing the standard trinity roles and making everyone a combo of DPS/support. On the tanking & healing side, it seems to be working. On the nuking & support side... I'm not so sure. Maybe it's meant that some classes are still better at some roles than others and this is intended, or maybe some more balancing is still needed... But anyway, this is what I'm getting from the classes I've played so far, as well as from reading a lot of the feedback on the forums.
* Ranger - Seems to be the best class at soloing content but probably the least useful support class. I do notice that in downleveled areas, my pet's effective stats (it gets downleveled too) is still higher across the board than any of my characters at that level. This basically means you're always travelling around in a group of 2, and even if the other guy is a NPC 'henchie', it still makes stuff easier than just by yourself. On the flip side, the only reliable group support it brings is healing spring. Traps are too small/short, spirits had gotten nerfed (so I hear) due to PvP, and pet buffs can be unreliable. Not that they can't help complete content; but they do look worse for group play on paper.
* Elementalist - Has the exact opposite problem as ranger. It's the hardest class to solo, but is great in groups. The latter due to the large number of combo fields it can spam as well as its large number of AOE skills. Unfortunately, due to the fact that the skills are balanced for AOE, it means that they tend to do lower damage than other classes when just soloing a single mob.
To go into more detail, the soloing problem with ele is also made worse by the fact that it has less built-in defenses available than the other caster classes (necros essentially get a second life bar with their special ability; mesmer clones/phantasms actually do as good a job at tanking/distracting aggro as the average NPC and can be spammed). If a ranger or guardian gets hit by an equivalent level non boss mob, they can take maybe 3-5 hits before dying. If an ele gets hit by a non-boss mob lower level than it, it dies in maybe 2-4. I've watched vids of higher level "pro" eles and the strategy there is to use skills from every attunement in the fight to control/mitigate - even fights with equiv-level normal mobs. I personally think that's kinda ridiculous since I don't *need* to weapon swap on any other of my classes (including engineer) just to stay alive for a non-boss mob.
So how did I level my ele to 30? Simple. Run around being very carefuly never to aggro more than one mob. When a DE spawns, make sure that a good number of other players have already engaged first, before moving in. The AOE damage and the damage your combo fields add to other players damage will guarantee a gold even if you jump in halfway through the event. ...I still feel a bit like a leecher sometimes though. =/
* Guardian - Great at everything that you'd think they're the Mary Sue of the game (but no, from all accounts, that's still the warrior class). The greatsword is still...great...even after getting nerfed. I personally find hammer too slow but other people love it. I also have no problems getting consistent gold medals from DEs using just scepter/offhand so I don't see where the complaints about a "ranged option" are coming from. Yeah, if you consider the staff as 'ranged'... but staff's skill 1 is 600 range so I don't really count it as 'ranged'. It's got great group buffs (stability) and unique combo fields (light for condition removal). Low base health aside, it can still take hits much better than any squishy. Not surprising they're in demand everywhere.
* Engineer - Can't say much on this class from personal experience. But from what I've read on the forums, there haven't been nearly as many complaints about it as some other classes, if that means anything. XD In high level PvE, they and the thief are basically the designated debuff/blindbots (apparently there's a trait that perma-blinds, which I think got nerfed a little in the latest build) with a little less raw damage but more utility than thief.
Just to give some background, I have a ranger that's closing in on lvl 40 (halfway through!), an elementalist that just hit 30 (31 after crafting her new clothes), a guardian that's probably going to sit for a while at level 20, and an engineer at lvl 13 (everything above lvl 11 from crafting).
Stuff That's Good
I love that I don't have to worry about content in this game. There's no big hurry to level up to max as there was in GW1. In fact, I'd prefer to stay in lower level zones because I'm often building up the mats to keep up my crafting. Also, I've only completed two starter & lowbie zones each on my ranger & ele, which still leaves a little under 3 other racial zones that I haven't done (sylvari & asura share the 15-25 zone).
As to replay value... well, I often find myself running through starter zones (especially Queensdale) cuz I'm too cheap to waypoint from town to Kessex, and it usually takes over an hour to do so cuz I keep getting distracted by STUFF! (mostly events... random non-event bosses... and people needing rez/rescue... and gathering...) This even after I've completed the starter zone in question. And most importantly, it doesn't feel like a chore/grind! Which is great!
I love resource gathering and management. It brings out the OCD in me. I don't know how long I've spent trying to figure out how to get to that one herb...can't...jump...incline...zomgfellanddied! Or the one time I kept looping back to the cave with the bandit champion guarding the rich ore vein, despite 3 groups of random people having tried and gotten their butts kicked and giving up, before finally a large/skilled enough group of people finally came along took him out (I did help each time!). Also great is the feature to immediate send all crafting mats to storage. It just feeds this habit to gather everything. (And yet, I still need moar silver. Silllllveeeeeerrrrr...)
It's very easy to get decently statted equipment for minimum cost - exactly as advertised and what we expect from GW1. Even before the trading post was up, I was able to get what I needed from the karma vendors, even occasionally splurging for masterwork versions of good looking stuff. Now that the trading post is up, it's even easier. It's been noted that there's a LOT of people out there that's pretty much selling all their drops for the minimum price (which is actually lower than what you get selling to a NPC after accounting for the listing fee & tax). People who are leveling crafting also tend to create more than they can actually use, and that also gluts the market. Sometimes even masterwork pieces of armor & weapons are sold fairly cheaply. Quite a few runes are decently priced as well, and the sigil prices are a ridiculous 17-20 copper at the current levels. Not sure how the prices increase with level, but for armor/weapons, I don't forsee them increasing by much. My ranger exclusively lives off the trading post because she goes through stuff so fast.
As to the cosmetics, I know people complained about getting always the same skins from armor drops (and I'm pretty sure it's that way all the way to 80). But differently skinned stuff is available from the normal karma vendors (cultural vendors being hideously expensive now); you just need to remember to check them when you're done. Kessex has the nice non-trenchcoat-y medium armor for the humanoid form (which I'm waiting to upgrade my actual gear for stats first before getting one to transmute onto it). My guardian is halfway through collecting the Roman centurion looking heavy armor from Snowden Drifts.
Stuff that Needs Improvement
The major major big thing here I'd have to say is underwater balance (only talking PvE), especially given the fact that Anet obviously wants underwater to be a major thing and not just an afterthought.
I'll echo the thoughts of many players who feel that underwater combat is bugged. My ranger does over 100 damage per hit (critting at 200+) on land, but underwater she does less than 60 damage per hit. Even if her speargun is slightly lower level, it's not *that* low!
Even more importantly, for the elementalist, we still do not have *one* *single* *elite* that functions underwater! Even if you fix Tornado/Whirlpool so that it's working in PvE as it is in PvP, remember that this is a tier *2* elite. Which means you need 50 skill points at level 30 to unlock it (2x10 to unlock tier 1 and then 30 to buy from tier 2). Even adding all the skill points from all 5 starter zones and all 4 lowbie zones, and accounting for all the utility unlocks needed, is it even possible for any character to do that?
Oh, and speaking of utility, for both ranger and elementalist, about 1/3 of their utility skills are unusable underwater too! That means they are much more limited underwater at adapting to circumstance. It also means that a new player who may not have looking up all the skills on the wiki may find themselves severely handicapped when going underwater for the first time, if they have been buying skills for their utility on land (such as a trap based ranger build or a summons based ele build).
Some of the class mechanics also need to be explained better. For one thing, I only recently found out that the attunement swapping on the ele (and possibly also the kit swapping on engineer) counts as a weapon swap for sigil procs. This is important since I'd originally planned on using one of those sigils that added some stat for each kill remaining in the current weapon set since ele only has one weapon slot. But if that gets reset with each attunement swap, then obviously it'd be better to use a sigil that procs on weapon swap. -_-
Stuff I'm not sure about
I know it's another much touted thing that GW2 was about removing the standard trinity roles and making everyone a combo of DPS/support. On the tanking & healing side, it seems to be working. On the nuking & support side... I'm not so sure. Maybe it's meant that some classes are still better at some roles than others and this is intended, or maybe some more balancing is still needed... But anyway, this is what I'm getting from the classes I've played so far, as well as from reading a lot of the feedback on the forums.
* Ranger - Seems to be the best class at soloing content but probably the least useful support class. I do notice that in downleveled areas, my pet's effective stats (it gets downleveled too) is still higher across the board than any of my characters at that level. This basically means you're always travelling around in a group of 2, and even if the other guy is a NPC 'henchie', it still makes stuff easier than just by yourself. On the flip side, the only reliable group support it brings is healing spring. Traps are too small/short, spirits had gotten nerfed (so I hear) due to PvP, and pet buffs can be unreliable. Not that they can't help complete content; but they do look worse for group play on paper.
* Elementalist - Has the exact opposite problem as ranger. It's the hardest class to solo, but is great in groups. The latter due to the large number of combo fields it can spam as well as its large number of AOE skills. Unfortunately, due to the fact that the skills are balanced for AOE, it means that they tend to do lower damage than other classes when just soloing a single mob.
To go into more detail, the soloing problem with ele is also made worse by the fact that it has less built-in defenses available than the other caster classes (necros essentially get a second life bar with their special ability; mesmer clones/phantasms actually do as good a job at tanking/distracting aggro as the average NPC and can be spammed). If a ranger or guardian gets hit by an equivalent level non boss mob, they can take maybe 3-5 hits before dying. If an ele gets hit by a non-boss mob lower level than it, it dies in maybe 2-4. I've watched vids of higher level "pro" eles and the strategy there is to use skills from every attunement in the fight to control/mitigate - even fights with equiv-level normal mobs. I personally think that's kinda ridiculous since I don't *need* to weapon swap on any other of my classes (including engineer) just to stay alive for a non-boss mob.
So how did I level my ele to 30? Simple. Run around being very carefuly never to aggro more than one mob. When a DE spawns, make sure that a good number of other players have already engaged first, before moving in. The AOE damage and the damage your combo fields add to other players damage will guarantee a gold even if you jump in halfway through the event. ...I still feel a bit like a leecher sometimes though. =/
* Guardian - Great at everything that you'd think they're the Mary Sue of the game (but no, from all accounts, that's still the warrior class). The greatsword is still...great...even after getting nerfed. I personally find hammer too slow but other people love it. I also have no problems getting consistent gold medals from DEs using just scepter/offhand so I don't see where the complaints about a "ranged option" are coming from. Yeah, if you consider the staff as 'ranged'... but staff's skill 1 is 600 range so I don't really count it as 'ranged'. It's got great group buffs (stability) and unique combo fields (light for condition removal). Low base health aside, it can still take hits much better than any squishy. Not surprising they're in demand everywhere.
* Engineer - Can't say much on this class from personal experience. But from what I've read on the forums, there haven't been nearly as many complaints about it as some other classes, if that means anything. XD In high level PvE, they and the thief are basically the designated debuff/blindbots (apparently there's a trait that perma-blinds, which I think got nerfed a little in the latest build) with a little less raw damage but more utility than thief.
