Guild Wars 2 Worth Playing Again
I have a strange history with Guild Wars 2. I roughshod hard for the pre-launch hype, and when it finally arrived, I loved it and played heavily… for a couple weeks. Then I lost involvement, feeling aimless in a game where I wasn't invested in the story or the earth. I've poked my head in a few times since then, but for all practical purposes that was the terminate for me.
Until now.
I've attempted returns to GW2 a few times over the years just ever bounced off afterward an hour or two. Many years agone when I wrote for a different site, I said something to the event of, "Guild Wars ii is a peachy game that is wholly ignorant of its own strengths." Past this I mean so much of its post launch decisions — from raids to the Living Earth — accept run counter to the freeform, casual play the game was congenital on.
However, a friend of mine is a big GW2 fan, and between a dearth of other things to play with her and the growing hype effectually End of Dragons, we've decided to offset playing GW2 together about once a week. I've also washed a niggling solo play, including checking out the recent elite spec beta events. It's a unique opportunity to explore what information technology's similar to return to an MMO after a very long time abroad.
One thing that I've noticed right away is how large a difference playing with a friend makes. I know a lot of people say that playing with friends is always the all-time style to experience an MMO, simply I'grand a loner by nature. I usually play mostly solo, and even when doing group content, I tend to discover the presence of other players at all-time a value neutral cistron. I've never found playing with other people to make such a big divergence in my enjoyment of a game.
Bluntly, it's partly that Society Wars two generally isn't enough to agree my attention on its own. I similar the combat and general gameplay well enough, and it does many things very well, but as I've said the story and setting just don't practise information technology for me, and that ordinarily prevents me staying invested in a game longterm.
Chatting with a friend adds the missing slice to make it a fully worthwhile experience. It helps that it's a fairly simple game, and the gameplay strikes the residuum of being engaging enough to be fun but non so taxing every bit to distract from conversing with my friend.
Merely also I find having someone to watch your back makes the game much smoother. I wouldn't say GW2 is an especially challenging game, but the higher-level enemies and events are a bit over-tuned for solo play. Even the ostensibly solo personal story can be a flake of a slog on your own. It'due south non difficult to complete the content, but information technology can be tedious. Having another person in that location makes it much easier to cleave your style through the hordes of mobs this game loves to throw at you.
It genuinely feels as if playing with another person (or two) is what the game is designed around, and that's not really something I tin say about any other modern MMOs. Nifty for playing with my friend, merely it does help explain why I bounced off before.
On the other hand, something I actually practice appreciate is how like shooting fish in a barrel it is to get back into the rhythm of play. The design of my principal class (Thief) hasn't inverse to whatever significant degree since I started playing. I'thou sure the numbers accept been tweaked over the years, and we'll get to elite specs shortly, but the gameplay for the base of operations class is essentially equally I call up it. It'south not like World of Warcraft, where nearly a decade away would likely render a class so changed equally to be unrecognizable.
There are new toys for veterans in the form of elite specs (more than on those momentarily), but as a returning actor, I can easily pick up where I left off. It's the perfect balance, and other games should accept annotation.
And that brings me to the matter of the elite specs themselves. We had quite a fence about elite specs in the Massively OP work chat recently. If I might oversimplify the debate slightly, some folks felt unlocking them presented an unwelcome barrier to new and returning players, while others felt that leveling is so petty in GW2 that it doesn't matter, or that letting people play elite specs off the bat might be a trap for new players.
I think at that place'southward some good points on both sides. I've e'er felt that horizontal progression like unlocking new playstyles is much more than appealing than vertical progression similar disposable gear, and that's what elite specs are, so in theory I should be a fan… but I gotta say every bit a returning histrion the grind to unlock them withal kind of rankles.
It is true that leveling in GW2 is quicker and easier than almost any other MMORPG, but it'southward still not nothing… and that misses the whole point anyway because the barrier is not leveling and then much as it is hero points.
I spent all the hero points I'd accrued on my principal, and I notwithstanding got far enough into Daredevil but to render information technology barely functional. As a level-capped character all the same doing base game content, hero points come up very slowly, and so unlocking the rest of the spec — to say nothing of other elite specs — feels daunting.
I'd heard something most hero points existence more mutual in Middle of Thorns and Path of Fire content, and I'd already unlocked POF for the sake of a mount, and then I tried farming some points in that location, just it was all the same painfully irksome, in role due to the hero point sources being so often gated behind various mount abilities I don't take still. It really feels like you're meant to play through the whole expansion every bit a single unit. And that'due south fine, unless yous're a raw recruit who wants the elite spec sooner rather than afterward.
This is ane of the best examples of GW2 working at cross-purposes to itself. So much of the gameplay is all about jumping in whenever and wherever, but the content is deadset on everything being in a linear order.
It's likewise worth noting that absolutely zippo in the game tells y'all hero points are more plentiful in expansions. Any new or returning player who'due south less plugged in than me (which should exist most everyone every bit I write about these games for a living) is unlikely to fifty-fifty know there'south an quicker manner to go the elite specs.
I'm also not sure I agree that aristocracy specs would be confusing or overwhelming to new players. While I oasis't made an exhaustive study of them, most of the ones I've tried so far are not noticeably more complex or challenging than the base game'south builds. At to the lowest degree one of Finish of Dragons' currently previewed elite specs (Mesmer'south Virtuoso) is significantly simpler than the base class. And so I really don't come across any reason why new players shouldn't have the pick to dive straight into aristocracy specs.
The one advantage I do see to the current organisation is information technology gives veterans something new to unlock, but that doesn't need to come up at the expense of the rest of u.s.a.. My preferred solution would be to keep elite specs roughly equally time-consuming to unlock, but without tying them to levels or hero points. Brand them something anyone can piece of work toward at any time, mayhap with special quests or collections.
Only I suppose that wouldn't sell expansion boxes.
Anyhow, I don't hate the elite spec arrangement, although it'southward rough around the edges. In terms of my specific elite spec, I'one thousand pretty happy with Daredevil so far. Of all the builds on all the classes I've played in GW2 to date, it feels the most consummate and cohesive. I find myself using virtually all of my staff skills intelligently to make use of their debuffs and motion furnishings, instead of just spamming my best nuke like I did with my previous Thief build.
Some other new toy for me to play with is my new raptor mount. I've been trying to experience the story in order, but a mountain is such an essential convenience that information technology couldn't wait. Again, the game works against itself, with less progressed players forced to cull between a disjointed story experience or the lack of an essential convenience.
I say at least one basic mount should have been available for anybody even earlier, prior to the first of the storyline. It's fine if some of the fancier mounts are gated backside Path of Burn down's story, but non all of them.
That said, the mounts in this game are actually great. This is a instance of edifice a better mousetrap. The movement of my raptor feels so much more than fluid and natural than mounts in other games, and the mount abilities really add some spice to the experience.
1 last new system that has enriched the game for me is the action camera, which allows GW2 to role every bit an activeness gainsay game a la Elder Scrolls Online or Neverwinter. Bizarrely, there's no advert of this feature in-game — it's buried deep in the settings — and it seems to have been added with fiddling or no fanfare. I only constitute out almost it by accident while Googling something unrelated.
But man, it feels great. It's personal preference, I suppose, simply being able to freelook to target enemies and utilize my basic attacks with the mouse only feels and so much more natural than GW2's standard tab target system.
Overall, my opinion of Guild Wars 2 hasn't much changed. Information technology'south a generally solid game with many splendid designs somewhat hampered by minor but constant self-sabotage. For at present, I'm having fun with my friend, and that's plenty.
There'south an MMO built-in every day, and every game is someone's favorite. Why I Play is the cavalcade in which the Massively OP staff members boot back and reminisce about all their favorite MMOs. Whether information technology's the new hotness or an quondam fan favorite loaded with nostalgia, each title nosotros embrace here tugs at our heartstrings and keeps united states coming back for more.
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Source: https://massivelyop.com/2021/09/29/why-i-play-returning-to-guild-wars-2-and-exploring-elite-specs-after-nine-years/
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