How is Guild Wars?

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fade

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I have a trial code, and I have some time coming up in which to play. Is this any good? I also have Lineage II. Are either worth playing?
 

Cajungal

Staff member
I like it ok. One reason why I like it is that, aside from the common towns, every time you enter the wildnerness it's your very own map. You don't have to play with anyone else around unless you choose to join a group. I just prefer that. I haven't played it in a long time, but I probably would again.
 
GW, IMO, had AMAZING graphics.

But the appeal for me stopped there. The skill system was weird, (quests to get a skill?) you needed to have a friend with you (or multiple) to do most of the quests as henchmen are absolutely no help and solo is impossible, and therefore I stopped playing after two months.

So yeah.
 
Wahad said:
GW, IMO, had AMAZING graphics.

But the appeal for me stopped there. The skill system was weird, (quests to get a skill?) you needed to have a friend with you (or multiple) to do most of the quests as henchmen are absolutely no help and solo is impossible, and therefore I stopped playing after two months.

So yeah.
^ This ^
 
I like it. Really, though, it isn't a traditional MMO. If you are looking for something like WoW, you won't find it in GW. The gameplay is almost (at least in higher levels) more akin to a game of magic the gathering - you take 7 skills which work well together into combat, instead of having the entire group of skills your class has, like in WoW.

so yeah, it isn't everyone's cup of tea, but i for one enjoy it. Give it a try at least.
 
I enjoyed guild wars for awhile. Note though, that I never played any of the expansions, so this all has to do with the core game, which could have been changed through patches by now for all I know.

The class system of having a major/minor class is fun, and can lead to some fun characters. The level grind isn't really all that bad, as you hit max level fairly quickly, but then continue to gather new skills. The game plays like Diablo, in that it's not really an MMORPG. It's what I believe is categorized as a Competitive-Cooperative RPG, in that you use the towns as meeting places to form a party and then travel out into your own instance.

The real meat of the game, though, was in PvP, which was done in an arena-style with group vs. group combat, many maps having a specific goal for victory, or just a simple death-match with most points winning. The game even allowed you to create a special pvp character, with access to all of the skills you had unlocked on your other characters, allowing you to quickly make a character of whatever type you needed for your group. You also had the ability to unlock skills by spending pvp earned points, so the pve aspect of the game was completely optional.

All that said, I soon afterwards started playing WoW, and then never looked back.
 
Ravenpoe said:
The real meat of the game, though, was in PvP, which was done in an arena-style with group vs. group combat, many maps having a specific goal for victory, or just a simple death-match with most points winning. The game even allowed you to create a special pvp character, with access to all of the skills you had unlocked on your other characters, allowing you to quickly make a character of whatever type you needed for your group. You also had the ability to unlock skills by spending pvp earned points, so the pve aspect of the game was completely optional.
I thought the PVP only characters made started at max level with all the skills open to them. I thought that was a great way to get to the PVP crowd that could really care less about the PVE aspect of the game.
 
Bowielee said:
I thought the PVP only characters made started at max level with all the skills open to them. I thought that was a great way to get to the PVP crowd that could really care less about the PVE aspect of the game.
Not exactly. while it is a lot easier to get skills for PVP chars, (you can turn in points you earn by winning matches for skills) you only start with the skills that you have unlocked in PvE.

That said, you CAN pay NC cash money for skills, korean mmo style, at around 10 bucks/expansion skillset (each expansion has it's own pool of new skills.)
 
R

Rubicon

Bowielee said:
I thought the PVP only characters made started at max level with all the skills open to them. I thought that was a great way to get to the PVP crowd that could really care less about the PVE aspect of the game.
FUCK NO!

At least when I played, they didn't. I bought GW the week it was released in 05'. I bought it based on reviews and of the promises by ArenaNet that "skill will be rewarded, not time invested". The instant-max-level-for-pvp drew me to that game. Yea you could make a lvl 20 toon with some basic gear but you got VERY basic skills, thats it. You got enough skills to fill the skill bar (8 if I remember) out of HUNDREDS of skills. You still had to grind through pve to "unlock" those skills to be used on a pvp-only toon. Sure, they later added "faction points" to the game a couple months after release, but then again you had to be in a top guild to really consistantly rake in a good amount of points to unlock all the class skills.

I dunno if they improved on it but when I saw that one expansion added two new classes, I was done with the game. The developers flat out fucking lied (check print magazine advertisements circa 2004, the tag line literally in the ad's was "players rewarded based on skill not time played"). Worst $50 I ever spent.
 
Cajungal said:
I like it ok. One reason why I like it is that, aside from the common towns, every time you enter the wildnerness it's your very own map. You don't have to play with anyone else around unless you choose to join a group. I just prefer that. I haven't played it in a long time, but I probably would again.
That is the major thing I didn't like about it. I like to randomly run into people in the gameworld, I like to see someone and just go up and gank em :)
 
HoboNinja said:
Cajungal said:
I like it ok. One reason why I like it is that, aside from the common towns, every time you enter the wildnerness it's your very own map. You don't have to play with anyone else around unless you choose to join a group. I just prefer that. I haven't played it in a long time, but I probably would again.
That is the major thing I didn't like about it. I like to randomly run into people in the gameworld, I like to see someone and just go up and gank em :)
See, that's why I did like it. I didn't have to deal with assholes if I didn't want to.
 
Mav said:
Bowielee said:
I thought the PVP only characters made started at max level with all the skills open to them. I thought that was a great way to get to the PVP crowd that could really care less about the PVE aspect of the game.
smurf NO!

At least when I played, they didn't. I bought GW the week it was released in 05'. I bought it based on reviews and of the promises by ArenaNet that "skill will be rewarded, not time invested". The instant-max-level-for-pvp drew me to that game. Yea you could make a lvl 20 toon with some basic gear but you got VERY basic skills, thats it. You got enough skills to fill the skill bar (8 if I remember) out of HUNDREDS of skills. You still had to grind through pve to "unlock" those skills to be used on a pvp-only toon. Sure, they later added "faction points" to the game a couple months after release, but then again you had to be in a top guild to really consistantly rake in a good amount of points to unlock all the class skills.

I dunno if they improved on it but when I saw that one expansion added two new classes, I was done with the game. The developers flat out smurfing lied (check print magazine advertisements circa 2004, the tag line literally in the ad's was "players rewarded based on skill not time played"). Worst $50 I ever spent.
Ladies and gentlemen, an opinion from Mav, a man who thouroughly enjoys Shadowbane.
 
S

Selgeron

Interesting but you need a group of dedicated players to do the end game, most missions are too hard for random pick ups to enjoy.

However the skill system is really fun, and although Mav seems to find fault, it really does pretty much balance you- None of the skills are really that hard to get (You can get about 90% of them before being even 1/3rd the way through the single player content) as well as getting the best equipment around that time as well. After that point farming and playing for day after day just gets you PRETTIER equipment
 
R

Rubicon

Selgeron said:
Interesting but you need a group of dedicated players to do the end game, most missions are too hard for random pick ups to enjoy.

However the skill system is really fun, and although Mav seems to find fault, it really does pretty much balance you- None of the skills are really that hard to get (You can get about 90% of them before being even 1/3rd the way through the single player content) as well as getting the best equipment around that time as well. After that point farming and playing for day after day just gets you PRETTIER equipment
Like I said they may have made it easier after the expansions but in Prophecies at the beginning.. oh lord.. Before you could get faction points to buy skills, the only way to unlock them was pve. ok the pve wasn't that long BUT only certain mobs would "drop" the skill, you would have to go to a specific instance, pray that mob spawns, then "absorb" the skill from him. I know, instance hopping is common in most mmos when you're farming gear and such but at the beginning of GW, a boss type mob that had a skill, wasn't guaranteed to spawn. Wasn't a bug, wasn't a glitch, thats the way the game was made. You'd have to reload an instance a ton just to get the mob to spawn at all.

Now multiply that x7 classes, almost what, 500-1000 skills counting both basic and elite skills? talk about a treadmill..it got way easier with faction points, I was in a top 5 guild for the first three months of the game, we were always in the top of the ladder, so every GvG was netting me a few thousand faction points and we'd gvg every night. I think I got half the skills unlocked by the first couple months but the grind and everything just wore us down.

GW has its strong points. no monthly fee is nice but the character customization is fairly low aside from color changes on armor, the pvp can be fun but after a while it becomes rock paper scissors (i'm used to way more depth in pvp options) and the grind was atrocious for a game advertised as skill rewarded.

To each his own I guess.
 
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