Hey Duders,

Leading up to Guild Wars 2, I was "hyped" to say the least. Once it was released, I kind of fell off the wagon after about a month of playing (mostly due to academic obligations). I had qualms with the game including the limited number of spells available in total for each profession and the fact that the only enjoyment I was getting out of the game was found in just exploring the world. I tried out sPvP and WvW, but found both to be marginally exciting, but when I heard that spectating is now available for sPvP, I logged back in for the first time in months and proceeded to watch people play my profession of choice (Ranger) for about an hour. I found it to be fun enough watching, that I was enticed to continue leveling my ranger from where I left off (level 52).

Now that I'm playing again, I wanted to find out more about the game. I dipped my toes in crafting and PvP, as I mentioned, but I feel as if I am completely lost. Is there a dedicated competitive PvP following? What if PvE is your thing? What is the endgame like if there even is any? If you've been playing for a while now, what has kept your interest for so long?

This is less of a direct question and more of an open forum to gauge the opinions and impressions of my fellow duders.

Cheers,

Michael

My pro tips:

1) This game is huge. Heeee-uuuge. That means that if part of the game isn't enjoyable to you, then you don't have to do it! You'll still have plenty to do, and each part of the game is different enough that you're almost guaranteed to have a good time with something. There are a lot of aspects I've barely investigated, and soon as I made myself be OK with that, I was able to shed any anxiety that can come with dealing with choice overload.

2) When exploring, bring a friend. Having someone along for the ride changes the game dramatically. You can get a little crazier with your builds (since you no longer have to manage every role yourself) and it's crazy nice having someone on hand to revive you.

3) Try different classes. I think ArenaNet did a great job of making each class feel different, and sometimes the thrill of learning a new class can rekindle your love for the game mechanics.

4) Hit level 80. Once you're there, it's a lot easier to care about your itemization (since it won't become outdated in a few levels). For me, crafting didn't really grab my interest until I hit the level cap, at which point it became a fun little obsession.

Hope that helps! I'm in the "on again, off again" boat myself, and the good news is that GW2 is pretty accommodating of that.

Bow Skins. ALL the bow skins. I have a bank tab that is basically dedicated to bow skins.

The GW2 PvP scene is going to grow with the new changes to sPvP (spectator mode, revised tourney ticket system), so if you've been interested in that then I think right now is a good time to be playing. As for the PvE endgame, grinding dungeons/fractals and doing dailies for skins/pets is pretty much all there is to do at the moment.

Regardless of what in the game interests you, in the end what keeps me (and many of the others who still regularly play) going is playing and hanging out with friends. Most of the regulars on the Lincoln Force mumble still play the game because we just like hanging out and chatting about inane things while running around the world.

@peezmachine: Thanks for all of the tips! I totally agree that having someone, anyone with you makes things infinitely more fun. I have met random strangers (usually trying to find the same vista point or trying to solve the same jumping puzzle) that have just been fun to chat with.

@shinboy630: Haha, I'll keep that in mind.

@halcyontwilight: That's good to hear about the PvP. Unfortunate that PvE seems neglected by ANet.

@michaelfossbakk: It's not that Anet does not care about PvE, it is just that (with the exception of a dungeon finder), there really are not that many PvE-specific features that are needed, while sPvP really needed an overhaul with spectator mode and the like.

@shinboy630: Will they be adding hardcore raiding content, like WoW, in the future?

Most likely no. It does not fit the way they decided to set up PvE and classes. A 25 or 40 person raid, if the world events are any indication, would just be a mess. Not to say that world events are a mess, just that the lack of a hard trinity makes it kind of a free-for-all.

I like the smaller group stuff personally. IMO it lends itself to more flexibility in content design. I could maybe see them adding something for like 10 people (2 separate groups of 5 matched together), but nothing more than that.

If your looking for hardcore raiding content stick with WoW or check out wildstar, those are raiding mmo's

@shinboy630 said:

That's actually a cool idea. For how fucking janky they were, those 2-party Factions missions could get incredibly intense.