User:Ab.er.rant/Thoughts on GW2

Hit level 80, but haven't actually finished the whole story yet. Did some PvP, but that's mostly just WvW.

Personal story

It was off to a shaky start, as I was severely limited in my biography choices for my main character. I liken this to the "Choose Your Own Adventure" style - the story isn't really personal at all, just a series of paths through a book. A lot of times it totally did not mesh (like the respectable and honourable noble-born necromancer who raises the dead...). As a street rat... being honourable and duty-bound felt so out of place. My character actually feels more personal if ignore these back stories, since I didn't particularly like any of them.

Still, I found the story acceptable, until Trahearne united the Orders - and that's when my rants started, totally taking out any enjoyment I had with the story. I don't mind him being the Marshall, that's fine, he's the neutral party, makes sense. But in order to prove himself... he leads a rescue party... How exactly does a resuce mission prove his leadership and strategic brilliance on a macro level? That really put me down. It was amateurish. Like with the Fort Trinity mission, where the two highest ranking officeers goes to check on a lumber camp. And then the part where I'm the only person capable to closing gates and setting a bomb to blow open a gate. I facepalmed. I know they had to come up with things to do in a mission but... seriously? A fort with veterans from three Orders and none of them knows to close gates when under siege?

Funny why Trahearne had to prove himself when important NPCs the world over seems to know who he is, trust him, knows of his knowledge, owes him favours, etc. even a member of supposedly deadly race of assassins, the largos, owes him a favour. In books, this is called "plot convenience". Used too much and it just turns sour. I understand that this is a game and I shouldn't expect any literary excellence, but it was touted as a "personal story", so kind of disappointed that it didn't flow well.

The best part of the whole personal story experience was when I was Hero of Shaemoor. That gave me a GW1 feel. As the story went on, it lost that shine. I'm not the hero anymore, Trahearne is, Destiny's Edge too. I'm just an exceptional commander capable of taking on field missions.

Renown hearts and events

Right down in the essentials, they're really just single quests and repeating quest chains - the only difference being that you don't have to accept it manually - you're in it by being in the area. Ironically, while the concept is to enable you to reach an area and starting contributing to the quest and see actual in-game changes of the event outcome, I found myself doing exactly the same thing as standard quests - I always run up to the NPC(s) and read their dialogue before participating. At least there isn't any world-spanning fetch/delivery quests.

Map completion

The way points, vistas, skill challenges, and points of interest are just an extension of the GW1 cartography achievement. By giving you access to travel, additional experience, and skill points, they sort of encourage you to run around the map. But of course, because they give you benefits (and that map completion bonus) they've become something that's not entirely optional. Whether you like this approach to map completion or not depends on whether you liked exploring or not. Vistas though can sometimes be a bit tedious, since they're like mini jumping puzzles and you either figure it out easily, waste time trying to find the route, or just google up a youtube video to be done with it.

PvE Combat

I had to keep moving. Always. Standing still is suicide, since most anything just runs up to me and starts smacking. Or I can choose to take on just 1 foe at a time and let auto-attack do its job. It's a bit busier than I would've liked in an MMO (unless I play a guardian in PvE, then it becomes much easier, but that's an entirely different issue).

Underwater combat is not fun at all, especially for necromancers. I avoid it where possible. Playing as a ranger was easier, but still not fun. Manoeuvring for melee attacks is just so cumbersome that I just go ranged unless foes swim right up to me.

Necromancer minions

One word: weak. They've lost much of their power and usefulness from GW1. On land, I don't even bother, except maybe Flesh Golem in some situations. But I do use them underwater, but that's because necromancer's suck even more underwater than on land, and I need those minions as meat shields. With no ability to recreate them, destroy them, and them having long cooldowns, they're not fun to use.

Crafting

It was okay for a while, and interesting to unlock new recipes, but then realised that those low-level items I created are nothing more than vendor trash. Haven't bothered crafting (except Halloween) since I realised that if I want equipment upgrades, I can get better items for a much cheaper price from the trading post. It's like Diablo 3 all over again, except that I did get a few drops that was an upgrade over what I was using.

Jumping puzzles

Some people love 'em. Some people blow through puzzles like it was nothing. I seriously admire them. Personally, I fail at jumping puzzles and I hate narrow spaces where I can fall off. I hate heights. Those time-based ones are even worse (did a couple of hours of the Clock Tower and never made it to the first chest). Don't like the feeling that I'll always have to miss a portion of the content. I wish they wouldn't make it such a prominent feature and actually work on other kinds of mini-games.