What are you most looking forward to in GW2?

[CelticAngel82]

I like the fact of no monthly fees, perfect for the casual gamer such as myself who will be short of time due to studies and whatnot. Also, I LOVE exploring areas and going off doing my own thing, rather than being forced into following quest chains. and the no "holy trinity' and waiting around for a tank or whatever if you decide on doing some dungeons

[SuBw00FeR]

I think the no holy trinity thing is much better, but it also means that you'll need certain spec'd party members to get through some stuff (similar to guild wars 1) we'll see how it pans out anyways.

I'm most looking forward to pretty much everything put together, it's a refreshing change to playing wow for years on end only thing that kept me away was RIFT and that's cos it was alot harder and you had to progress through things, not just one shot like 4/8 bosses on the first night. I know raids aren't the same in this, it's mostly group events but none the less, I think it will be challenging, at least I hope so, because Guild wars 1 was (played it recently to get the Hall of Monument stuff).

[CelticAngel82]

i like the thought of no elitism.. no competing / grinding for gear etc.

[SuBw00FeR]

i like the thought of no elitism.. no competing / grinding for gear etc.

Eh, there's always gonna be elitism, while the grind for gear isn't as apparent in GW2, there's still gear, I think there was an inspect, I can't quite remember. Before all that though people had blacklists anyways (In Vanilla WoW) if you suck, people will know, if you're doing guild runs, you'll be booted etc. (this is all assuming the people are elitists.)

The no competing for gear is a mixed bag for me, as far as I remember in gw2 bosses drop loot specific to you, ie. no one else can loot it. They did this in SW:TOR for the raid bosses, and I don't know if I like it or not, I like the excitement of "omg a super rare weapon dropped and I got it no one else" on the other hand it gets rid of the disappointment when you lose the roll.

[Disco LT]

There are no monthly subscription fees?!

One of my major beefs with MMO's is that I'd have to buy a game card, but then either don't get time to play or not in the mood to play it 24/7 and I feel like I'm being ripped off .. this has piqued my interest exponentially!

[Mythor]

i like the thought of no elitism.. no competing / grinding for gear etc.

Eh, there's always gonna be elitism, while the grind for gear isn't as apparent in GW2, there's still gear, I think there was an inspect, I can't quite remember. Before all that though people had blacklists anyways (In Vanilla WoW) if you suck, people will know, if you're doing guild runs, you'll be booted etc. (this is all assuming the people are elitists.)

It's an MMO, of course there'll be elitists!

With gear tending more towards parity I'm expecting a bit more skill selection related elitist ****. Like Rangers should always have X healing skill and Y signet equipped. And maybe in terms of gear, people will be expected to use a certain weapon/combination to provide specific skills. Like Warriors having to use a two handed hammer for the stuns or Thieves needing to be dagger/pistol for versatility or...

There'll always be people around to tell you you're playing the game wrong.

I'm hoping the WvW system takes off. There's so much potential for fun in there and if I buy the game I don't want to find it completely empty all the time.

[CelticAngel82]

There are no monthly subscription fees?!

One of my major beefs with MMO's is that I'd have to buy a game card, but then either don't get time to play or not in the mood to play it 24/7 and I feel like I'm being ripped off .. this has piqued my interest exponentially!

That's right, no monthly subscription fees. Also from what I heard, it doesn't matter what server your friends play on, you can all join the same guild, and you can be part of more than one guild.

[Disco LT]

Now thats interesting, mind you I only know one person who plays an MMO and he's so addicted to WoW I don't see it changing >.< I'll probably give GW2 a shot after it comes out and I see what it's like and read some reviews.

[SuBw00FeR]

That's right, no monthly subscription fees. Also from what I heard, it doesn't matter what server your friends play on, you can all join the same guild, and you can be part of more than one guild.

That you can my friend. Basically you can join an unlimited(?) number of guilds, but you "represent" one. And you can represent which ever one you want on any toon, also this does away with omg i rolled an alt but no officer is on to invite me. ALL you characters are in the guild if you choose to represent the guild, (this is done through the UI and it's very simple) you can then chat away with your guild, switch to another guild chat or if no ones on, switch back to represent the other guild.

WvWvW will be amazing, Warhammer was good with the RvR? I think it was called, but it was destroyed by 1fps as soon as you got near anybody. having played WvWvW already, it runs really well with alot of people on screen at once, combined with siege weapons crashing down gates to keeps, it's gonna be super fun.

And yes no subscription in this, there is a Cash Shop BUT, it's only for stuff like character slots etc. You can also trade Gold for the Gems that you get in the Cash Shop, then you can buy the stuff in the Cash Shop, so you don't actually have to spend any money at all in it, you can just farm gold and trade gold for the gems and vice versa, if you're low on time, you can buy gems then trade for gold.

edit: @Disco, there's plenty of reviews around because of the Beta weekends, it's pretty polished atm so you can pretty much take the review as is, there's bugs of course as with any MMO, but it's pretty solid. If you're into watching Youtube "reviews" I recommend TotalBiscuits views on the game, he compares it to WoW alot but that's only because he's played the game for the last 6ish years (Can't remember if he mentioned he raided in Cataclysm or not) http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=EL ... ature=plcp

That's the playlist, IMO start from #17, as I think that's about when the Beta Weekends started and there was a lot more polish on it.

[Slazza]

5v5 structured pvp tournaments & WvWvW.

Not even going to bother with PvE in this, it's complete garbage.

[Mythor]

there is a Cash Shop BUT, it's only for stuff like character slots etc.

There's keys to unlock looted crates in there too. Super original.
The cash shop does seem pretty well done for the most part though. Extra dyes and whatnot, nothing anybody will need but plenty of things people will want. Must remember to look around in there next beta weekend.

As for review things, I know Tim's written about it for GON before and I think someone else did as well (James Pinnell, maybe?) but with the site update those don't seem to be available right now.
Bane's hands-on with the Asura race can be found here: http://games.on.net/2012/07/guild-wars- ... the-asura/

I've written lots of words on GW2 but can't link them as that would be advertising. Booo.

Not even going to bother with PvE in this, it's complete garbage.

There's some fun to be had in PvE, some of the multi-part event chains keep things rolling along. The key seems to be just skipping anything that sounds boring and go do one of the other events/quests. Because you can just keep repeating them all there's really no reason to complete the **** quests, unless you're a completionist.

[SuBw00FeR]

There's keys to unlock looted crates in there too. Super original.

You can still find the keys as well though.

[Marius]

The 'no trinity' thing is honestly a lot of hyperbole.

There are still specialized classes. Thieves are still backstab assassins, guardians still are leaned towards healing. Classes still work together in ways that are trinity-like.

The nail in the coffin for the 'no trinity' thing is that you cannot easily respec in GW2. If a thief is traited into direct damage, she cannot simply respec into toughness for tanking, without paying an awful lot of gold.

The only real way to 'kill' the trinity is through creative encounter design, where people are almost required to solve puzzles in fights, like we're startign to see across a whole range of games. Otherwise, you're always going to have one class tailored to take hits for another. Good luck, for example, taking any hits on a backstab-specced thief, and good luck again respeccing her easily to do anything but backstab.

[Mythor]

There's keys to unlock looted crates in there too. Super original.

You can still find the keys as well though.

Oh?? I never found any, just bought some here and there with my free crystal things.

This is awesome news.

[Angeredsoul]

im still unsure of what class to go with on release, been liking the thief but the constant nerfs were pissing me off, warrior or necro look to be the top 2 choices for me.