GW2 Feedback ONE

Edit: Typos and Such

Player Vs Player

1. Pvp Lobby

The mist is a good way to allow players to test out various skills. I did not spend a lot of time here other than to teleport to various capital cities but it seemed like a very good way to allow players to test their builds, skills, check out armor, etc. I would recommend a tutorial or tool tip explaining where to get PvP armor, the upgrades, and various other aspects of PvP especially how to enter World Vs World Vs World as I had a hard time trying to figure out how to enter as well as several other people I tried to help out to get there. Also, it was difficult to test out my own damage because there were several other people trying to do the very samething and I can only imagine it getting harder when there are more people in the game. Also, maybe add a parser to help see the amount of damage that is being done?

2. Competitive PvP

Honestly, I was sadly disappointed in the Competitive PvP arena. It seemed just too slow for my liking. If Arenanet truly wants to make Guild Wars 2 an eSport I think that it should be a lot quicker in terms of killing/damage/overall speed of play. Look at some of the leading eSports out right now, Starcraft 2, WoW, LoL, etc. These games are relatively quick in terms of twitchyness. I noticed that the matches were relatively short and it never seemed to be a solid 5v5 it was usually a 2v2 or 1v2 or something to that affect. Obviously, the more people the better this would be but as I said it seemed rather slow and I will be address the reasons why I think so further down the post mainly cooldowns, movement, and some other things.

3. WvWvW

Again, I was sorta disappointing in my overall experience with WvWvW. Getting to a fight was overall a nuisance. Unless I was missing something, there are hardly any waypoints to get into the action (assuming this is to allow balance between offense and defense when assaulting a keep). Most of my time in WvWvW I did not have much of an idea as to what was going on. Again, some type of tutorial would be great. When I did reach a battle I was usually on the defensive side and just stood on top of the keep raining down fire (I played an elementalist). I did not feel really engaged in the combat at all. I played on Sorrow’s Furnace and we had like 95% of the map controlled throughout the entire beta and for having so much capped the bonuses didn’t seem like having a 95% map control was a big deal. Again, I understand that more people would probably increase the quality of the gameplay.

4. Overall Impressions on Player vs Player

The whole entire PvP experience seemed rather stale. The main problems that stood out was if you were not Range you were already at a disadvantage. I played Ranger and Elementist and almost was unkillable at the amount of movement I had and the range I had. As a Warrior, I was flat out dead when trying to compete with a range dps unless I got the jump but it was rare. Also, the time it takes to kill someone is insane. I had several times where I would go 1vs1 with another player only to end up in a draw until someone came in and killed me or him.

Player Vs Environment

1. Personal Story

A. I am not a big fan of stories in the majority of MMORPGs. The are usually sloppily thrown together just to give the players something to do. I did however, enjoy the personal stories of Guild Wars 2. They seemed engaging and interesting. I made several different characters to test out the stories and they were all different from the beginning. Some people do not enjoy the cut scenes, not sure why, but I enjoyed them a lot. They follow the keep it simple stupid principle and helps add feeling and personality to the characters. I really enjoyed the story.

B. The personal story quests jumped levels quicker then I could keep up. For example, I was level 15 when I beat the demo personal story on my Elementalist and the quest is suppose to be 20ish. I just kept lagging behind even though I tried to keep up in levels. Sometimes being behind made the personal story harder, which in turn made it more fun. But, sometimes it was near impossible to complete when you are too low a level.

C. The personal story seemed really easy if you were on level with what the event said you needed to be. I had a great time as a Ranger trying to do a story line 6 levels above me. Maybe add a “select a difficulty level” for each part of the story with increased rewards to give incentives for making it harder?

2. Dynamic Events

Really awesome! I think this is the way to go from now on in MMORPGS. Even though there are not any typical quest hubs, you can still go to the yellow hearts on your map for a quest which will usually link you to another quest, which takes you to another, and so on. It is very easy to lose track of time, in a good way. Some of the dynamic events seemed not to happen a lot, for example the giant worm boss in the farm area at the start of the human zone. I only saw it once or twice but saw the bandits setting fire multiple times. Maybe increase the chances of some dynamic events? Also, the scaling seems to be off. I was playing a Charr Warrior doing the Fire Shaman World Event and there was probably 15 people there and I kept getting 1 shotted.

3. Leveling

A. Seemed extremely slow. Like I said I could not keep up with the story which I was really interested in. I played my elementalist almost all day Saturday and only managed to get to 15. Maybe I am doing something wrong but it just seemed overall very slow progression wise.

B. Learning weapon skills is very annoying. It is odd how it works. For example, in the VERY beginning starting area killing ghosts on my charr I could get 1-3 weapon skills super quickly, no problem. But when I got out into the world I would what seemed like forever without getting another weapon skill using the same weapon. I stopped playing my Engineer because the basic weapon attack was so boring – and I did not get anything unique until I was far too tired of spamming Auto-Attack to enjoy the class.

3. Skill challenges

Are really fun! Enjoyed those immensely I like the hidden ones makes it unique.

4. Gathering

Really enjoyed gathering. Its simple, but satisfying. I did not have to worry about other players taking my node because we all share nodes. I also liked the bonuses you get from gathering, like mining, I would get crystals that would improve my gear by 1-3%. Or herbs that would give me bonus stats. Really liked that

5. Crafting

A. I enjoyed how the craft speed would increase with the amount of stuff you are trying to produce. It is relatively easy to level up and for the most part, like gathering, simple yet satisfying. I did not like how I would keep finding recipes that were way above my level so it seemed like even though I KNEW it was a recipe I could do nothing about it. Maybe if you discover a recipe, and it is red to you, allow the player to craft a weaker version of it that increases stats based on skill level? Overall it was alright. Nothing ground breaking, but simple and satisfying.

B. Just an idea, have crafting dynamic events. For example, a group of warriors needs gear before they go out – craft said gear before they push out on an assault against centaurs. This will make it so crafting is more engaging.

6. Dungeons
Wish we got to do the dungeons.

7. Overall Impressions on Player vs Enviroment

Really enjoyed the PvE as a whole. If it were not for the PvE aspect I probably would not be playing GW2. The story is super interesting, dynamic events are exciting, overall the PvE is really great and easily my favorite part there are a few things I mentioned above that would make it better but for the most part its great.

Art Visuals

1. Characters

I really liked the way the characters looked. I created A LOT of characters, probably over 20+, because I could not decide on what class I liked. Needless to say I did not have a hard time making a different looking character. Character customization was great, but more is better in some cases, and I think the Charr should have more hairstyles, and the Norn Males should have bigger beards. Overall the character custimization was really well done and I enjoyed it a lot but maybe add more options just for the heck of it.

2. Weapon/Armor

I played my Elementalist to level 15(or 16?) somewhere around there and it never seemed like my armor was ever different. Now, I saw a lot of AWESOME looking armor that I really wanted to try on but it never seemed like it changed with new gear that I got from the story or drops. For example, some of the gear in the character customization screen looked amazing. However, as I was playing I never really got anything that looked hugely different from my level 1 armor. Not sure if this is a visiual or drop rate problem, but, looking the same for almost 20 levels gets a little bland.

3. Creatures

The art component of the creatures was pleasing. It did not seem like there is a lack of creatures from what I’ve played so far. Not much else to say other than I really enjoyed some of the monsters I’ve seen and hopefully they get better as I level up because they are really neat now.

4. Environment

Absolutely stunning! The environment was one of my favorite parts about the entire game so far. I wish I could have taken pictures and uploaded them for you guys because some of the things I saw were absolutely amazing. Really really enjoyed the Catacombs area where the Charr started. Again, the environment is incredible.

5. Animations

A. The Charr and Norn seemed to move a lot slower then the humans, specifically the human females. I doubt that it is the case, but it just seemed that way and I’m not sure why. I’m assuming it is because the Charr and Norn are a lot bigger and their animations take bigger steps then the humans but the overall movement seemed slower then that of the humans. Not only did those feel slower, but overall characters seemed extremely slow moving. The +10% movement Signet buff Elementalist get seemed to make the running feel a lot better. I would recommend increasing the movement speed of player characters by 5%-10%.

B. The characters seem floaty when moving at an angle. It looks like the player is moving their feet and the world is what is actually moving. It is just really odd looking – and several other players have noted this as well.

Social

1. Guild

There was really no tutorial explaining guilds or anything. By chance I just so happened to stumble across the feature and created a guild for testing. I liked how it was really easy to set up and you didnt have to be level 10+ with, 20 signatures, and spend 100gold or something on it. I’m not sure how influence is going to work since you can swap guilds rather easily it seems but I did not get to test it out as much since I didn’t know anyone in the Beta. I do however, like that you can create your own ranks. Maybe next Beta have an Arena Net guild players can join to test out the different features like you had for the Press in the previous Beta.

2. Friends

The interface seems like a standard friend interface – so nothing really out of the ordinary there.

3. Party

Not having to party is a good and bad thing. I never once partied while playing. Don’t get my wrong, I’ve played with several other people doing World Events but just because we are together does not mean we are “playing” together. No one really ever had to communicate, and basically it just seemed like people were getting together for a common goal and that was it. I come from old school FFXI where grouping was required so you HAD to know people. I enjoyed the fact that I was not forced to group, but I do miss the sense of community you get from having to group up – maybe dungeons will provide that? Either way, I liked it more than I did not like it. However, I would prefer a reason for communication like explaining tactics, or coming up with a plan, instead of 20+ people zerging a world boss.

4. Chat

The chat seemed nonexistent. Very rarely did people talk unless there was a Dev in the Mist answering questions. Being able to communicate seemed rather simple – so not much else to say.

Skills

1. Skills

A. I felt like there was a lot of unnecessary skills and that primarily if you did not go into some sort of Range DPS you were at a disadvantage. Also, there seemed to be a HUGE cool down on some really minor affects. My best example would be the Ranger’s Quickening Zephry ability. The benefit lasted for 4 seconds and the cool down is on 60 seconds if I remember correctly. It seems like the benefits should either be increased on several abilities or the cool downs reduced. I was constantly watching my toolbar waiting to use an ability other than the auto attack.

B. Range classes are far superior. Mainly Elementalist and Ranger since their class is mainly build around Range DPS. Of course you can be pigeon holed into range like a warrior bow/gun, necro staff, etc. But those who are not built solely around being Range DPS do not have any good abilities that come with it. For example, Elementalist that have a staff have incredible range, lightning form has the Speed Buff, has lightning that bounces off 3 enemies, can kite, has AoE abilities that you can drag enemies through, teleporting, a free fire dodge, its not hard to kite several enemies without being touched. I cannot tell you how many times I would have died if I was not ranged. Same with Ranger. Axe + Warhorn, just kite in circles and use the Warhorn speed buff and mobs can almost never touch you. I tried doing something similar on my Warrior and I kept dying because I HAVE TO STAY STILL TO ATTACK UNLESS I AM RANGED – and the ranged version of Warriors are less effective because they revolve around doing DPS and not DPS + Escaping close range. I wish I could play how I want and be just as affective but that is not the case. If I want to be able to solo multiple mobs, mobs higher level then me, or be optimized for PvP – range is the way to go.

C. Sticking with Range – I felt that there needs to be a better indicator of whether an enemy is in range or not – I know you can look at your toolbar but its not very noticeable in the heat of the moment

D. I think the problem I had with picking classes was it was so difficult to choose what you wanted to be because you did not get but 5 skills per weapon (except Ele and Engi). A lot of MMORPGs, you get every skill no matter what weapon it is you have in your hands. It just felt very lacking – from a balancing standpoint I can see why there is few skills. But, I can’t help but notice that I kept being pigeon holed into a weapon set just to be useful. Some weapon combos are obviously a lot worse then others. There isn’t a good balance – and like I said some skill just felt useless.

E. Useless Skills – A lot of the water attunement for elementalist felt terrible. The damage was bad, the healing was barely noticeable, it just did not match in effectiveness compared to the other attunements.

F. Speaking of healing abilities, the Guardian’s heals felt even worse then the Eles.

G. Skills also seem to have way too many affects but the affects are so minor that they just feel useless.

2. Traits

I played around with the took calculator on a website. The system seems to be interesting. I do think there needs to be a tutorial explaining where to get your Adept Book, unless I missed it. Overall, I like the system but did not get to use it to its full potential except for in PvP and under those circumstances it seemed to work.

3. Cross-Profession Combos

Completely forgot about them. There definitely needs to be some kind of tutorial explaining how they work, what combos with what, etc. I played all day Friday and Saturday before realizing that you could actually combo off other peoples abilities – I did not see anyone doing it either. Definitely needs a tutorial for testing.

UI

1. Chat

Simple and easy to read and understand. Did not notice anything worth fixing. It works.

2. Functionality

The UI worked really well – did not have any problems.

3. Window

The graphic style of the window panels and everything else is really well done. I enjoyed it.

4. Text

During some of the quests in the story line a lot of the text and in voice dialogue did not much. I reported it through the Bug button.

5. Skills

A lot of the skills have a ton of affects and some of them seemed like I was reading a novel instead of a quick “This causes bleeding damage” there were several skills where the tool tip bar was huge trying to explain everything.

6. Usability

A. I think there needs to be a better range indicator, also make it more noticeable of what enemies are green, red, and yellow. Targeting seems to be way off – I could be targeting one enemy and it suddenly either dies, or I lose the target for some reason and blow a skill on attacking air. Also, autoattack would randomly cut off during a fight when I lose the enemy UI panel. There should be a way to continue attacking enemies that are attacking allies or yourself without having to retarget and start the auto attack over. I also think there should be a way to target a target so that everyone could group up on an enemy if necessary.

B. There definitely needs to be modifier keys. Luckily I have a mouse with 10 buttons on it so I could just reassign though but allowing Shift + 1 would make things so much easier and more efficient.

Audio

1. Skill Effects

The sounds were really well done – I did not have a problem with any skill sound effects and I thought that it sounded well. The guns seem louder then most of the other weapons though.

2. Ambient

1. I kept getting a hissing / breaking up noise in the Catacombs. It was odd it sounded like my speakers were going bad but I tested them out and it was not my speakers or my headphones.

3. Audio

The sounds in the game were nice – they added to the stunning scenery.

4. Voice Over

Voice overs were really well done. Some people might like the ability to change the way your character sounds. Also, like I said, some of the voice over and text do not match.

5. Music

Absolutely stunning. Amazing music… incredible. When I first downloaded the client and got onto the log in server all I could think was that the music was amazing. And it truly is great. Very very nice.

Economy

1. Trading Post

I did not get to use it that much but I did try it out and it seemed relatively simple and easy to understand.

2. Mail

I really really enjoy the mailing simple. Super quick and effective. The only problem I had with it is I was unable to mail to my own characters which makes no sense to me? I found a nice Axe on my Ele and wanted to send it over to my Warrior and it said I was unable to send to my own character which strikes me as odd. Overall, I liked how the npc would send you mail with your rewards and the system worked out a lot better then I expected.

3. Gem Store
Again, something I thought worked out a lot better then I expected. I traded 20 silver, which was relatively easy to get for about 170 Gems which I felt was a lot comparing it to the things inside the store. It seems like the conversion works out well and overall I think the gem store idea is going to work out. I also liked the fact that you randomly get some of the Gem Store items as quest rewards like the XP Boost or the Golem.

4. In-Game Browser
Simple and effective that’s about all I can say.

Classes

1. Elementalist

Class I played the most. I believe it is going to be one of the most played classes just because it can do everything. Some of the water spells feel useless – the healing / damage they do is terrible. Some could argue that they can do everything well because they are squishy, I would argue that they have so many defensive abilities, speed boosts, reflecting attacks, that it is doesn’t matter. I played a lot of matches of competitive PvP with my Elementalist and I think I died maybe once?

2. Ranger

Similar to the Elementalist – kiting is king. I played a lot of competitive PvP and I know I only died twice as a Ranger. Their abilities just transfer over well in PvP and they can kite easily. Their pets, as of right now, are completely useless. They do not attack when you want them to, they do not use their special when you want them to, and overall the Pet AI is lacking.

3. Warrior

I tried my hardest to enjoy this class. But without the ability to kite enemies and having to fight 1 on 1 it just wasn’t much fun. The Warhorn Regeneration did not help sustain the amount of damage I take from not being able to kite. Also, the Salvage leap range is incredibly too low.

4. Guardian

Did not play all that much – I did notice however that their heals did not help at all. The raidius that some of the heals have are entirely too small.

5. Engineer

The shooting animations seemed way too slow – did not enjoy this class. I did see several people playing them and they do look interesting but the class, in the beginning, just seemed really slow.

6. Necromancer

The class I was going into GW2 wanting to play the most. The weapons for Necros are just odd – and a lot of the abilities seem to overlap. I went in wanting to enjoy Necromancers – I did enjoy my army of pets I had in PvP, but in PvE they just don’t seem to be able to hold their ground until they get a lot more of their abilities.

7. Thief
Did not play more then 5 minutes.

8. Mesmer
Did not play.

I would love to hear everyones opions and comments regarding the GW2 Beta. I know what I have said are just that, opinions, and everyone has different thoughts. If you have any questions regarding what I said feel free to ask and I will try to verify everything better.

Overall, would I purchase GW2 when it comes out? That is a really tough question. GW2 is known to be a PvP game and the PvP just feels bland at this correct stage. However, I really enjoyed the PvE aspect and with a group of 4-5 buddies I can see myself having a really good time. I’m not sure how long PvE will last – I know there will be people who blaze through the story in a week. It just really depends on how PvP will shape up to be and how much content is out there for the PvE players.

about 6 hours ago

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ARENANET DEVS RESPONSE IN THREAD
Martin Kerstein

“Overall, would I purchase GW2 when it comes out? That is a really tough question. GW2 is known to be a PvP game […]”

This is just not true. And seeing that 2/3 of your feedback is PvE based, i am surprised that you still think like that.