Guild Wars 2

[Harperella]

I made a few characters Friday night. Didn't get very far into the tutorials. I was a little disappointed to have to run around with a mask on as a mesmer or a monocle as an engineer. Are these cosmetics permanent?

--Harper

[Anarwald]

Harperella wrote:

I made a few characters Friday night. Didn't get very far into the tutorials. I was a little disappointed to have to run around with a mask on as a mesmer or a monocle as an engineer. Are these cosmetics permanent?

Nope -- you get better-statted (and better-looking) headgear as you level up and complete the "story" quests.

[Alinniel]

Harperella wrote:

I made a few characters Friday night. Didn't get very far into the tutorials. I was a little disappointed to have to run around with a mask on as a mesmer or a monocle as an engineer. Are these cosmetics permanent? --Harper

You can also turn them off under your the Hero (H) tab. I'm not in game so I can't remember excatly how, but I think it's on the top right corner of the Hero screen.

[Kaerri]

*late*
You can turn off the appearance of headgear (and shoulders) at the Hero screen by right-clicking on the item currently equipped (the column in the middle, not the group in the top left) and clicking show/hide. (Or possibly hide/unhide, I can't remember.)

Sadly, the engineer's backpack appears to be permanent, at least for now. Though I don't mind so much now that I'm running around with a shield, as it replaces the backpack. :)

[Harperella]

I spent a few hours in GW2 this weekend. I had a lot of fun with the character creation, but soon found myself getting annoyed with the female light-armor wearers. Do I really have to get panty-shots of my avatar everywhere I run? I ended up rerolling a Human male Mesmer named Harperkeegan.

My impressions were that the world was really lovely, but that the playerbase was an absolute zoo. I was on a RP world to start (Tarnished Coast), but quickly got bumped to an overflow world. There I found character ripoffs from every SF and fantasy franchise known to man. I saw Duncan Idaho, Aria Stark, and even Evil Snow White running around. On top of that there were lingerie-clad female characters battling in their undies. I'm starting to regret my decision to pre-purchase this game. I was really hoping for something I wouldn't mind playing with my kids in the room.

I did figure out how to hide my Mesmer mask soon enough. I've got two main characters right now--Harperkeegan the human male Mesmer, and Harperathwyn the female norn ranger. I also made an engineer, whose name and race eludes me now.

It has been a long time since I've played any MMO other than LOTRO on Landroval, and the experience made me happy for what I've got! I still expect to visit GW2 periodically, but LOTRO is still my first choice.

--Harper

[Keli]

Harperella wrote:

I still expect to visit GW2 periodically, but LOTRO is still my first choice. --Harper

Exactly my take on it - its something to dip in and out of when the need for a quick hack 'n' slash comes upon me or when the Lotro servers are down etc.

[CGriffin]

I must confess that I had no interest whatsoever until this thread came along... so, I started poking around. I've not purchased it yet, but from what I've seen (and not played) so far:
Pros:
Pseudo-FTP (buy the game, but no subscription)
Capped at 10 action buttons
VERY flexible in skills (looks like 4 different skillsets to choose from on the fly, with each one further differentiated by weapon)
Flexibility built into "quests" allowing you to complete them many different ways
Dynamic and impacting "events"

Cons:
Up front cost - not a huge issue
Very clunky NPC interaction - animated cutscenes of two beings standing in front of wallpaper? Why bother with the cutscene, then? Hopefully, this will change by launch
VERY mobile combat - a con for me, because I suck at this... :)

So, I will be trying it out too, but like Harp and Keli, I see it as a backup, periodical thing... Here's where I get confused. The GW2 website says this past weekend was their second Beta Weekend Event. So, you people who have actually played, are you just participating in these beta weekends, or is there something I'm missing? Should I rush out and buy it now?

[Keli]

The two beta weekends are all thats been available to play until now. Likely to be at least one more weekend before launch, maybe more.

They did make quite a few changes between the 2 weekends and there is still stuff not fully implemented yet.

Like you, I don't think much of character interactions. As well, it can sometimes be difficult to see who players and NPCs are. Hoping they allow some customisation on UI.

Some of the classes are an absolute blast to play and I am no nearer deciding on which class to play first.

My guildmates swear by the WvWvW (not done it myself yet).

On the down side, my first weekend was fine but the second I had a lot of disconnects.

[Anarwald]

My take on it is exactly the same as Harp's... I'll probably visit GW2 periodically, for a few days, but LotRO will always be my main MMO.

One of the main issues that's been affecting me is lag. I had a LOT of lag and very low FPS during the first beta weekend event. It had improved slightly by the second BWE, but I still got about 10FPS in crowded areas such as Lion's Arch and Divinity's Reach. Unless they fix this, I can't see myself playing very regularly.

I didn't get a chance to try out the WvWvW, but the structured (arena-style) PvP is fun and engaging. In general, gameplay-wise, I really like it... the background story, however, feels kinda stale compared to the LotRO storyline. And I agree that the NPC interactions are pretty bad... especially the voice-overs, and the fact that the facial expressions seem to be completely unrelated to what's going on.

If a few other Banders do end up playing though, please post your character names -- it would be great if we could find each other. I was actually rather surprised to see Finaor during this last BWE!

[Alinniel]

Harperella wrote:

I spent a few hours in GW2 this weekend. I had a lot of fun with the character creation, but soon found myself getting annoyed with the female light-armor wearers. Do I really have to get panty-shots of my avatar everywhere I run? I ended up rerolling a Human male Mesmer named Harperkeegan. --Harper

I did see an option in the gem store to put the stats of one piece of armor to another piece of armor you like the look of. Hopefully there will be something out there that looks better, and you can make use of that option.

[CGriffin]

Anarwald wrote:

If a few other Banders do end up playing though, please post your character names -- it would be great if we could find each other. I was actually rather surprised to see Finaor during this last BWE!

Hear, hear! So, I'm signed up, downloaded and installed, but when the next weekend comes along, it would be good to know where to go and who to look for. I plan to try for 'Camara' and right now the thinking is a Norn ranger. I take it from the posts so far that the US world Tarnished Coast is the place to be? If anyone who has been in could post who and where, it would be most appreciated.

[Keli]

Be aware that the beta servers may not be the final launch servers (and current characters will be wiped anyway).

One of the great things about GW2 is the cross server communication, and even better the cross server auction house. Plus you can visit and transfer between servers fairly easily.

[Kaerri]

Harperella wrote:

I spent a few hours in GW2 this weekend. I had a lot of fun with the character creation, but soon found myself getting annoyed with the female light-armor wearers. Do I really have to get panty-shots of my avatar everywhere I run? I ended up rerolling a Human male Mesmer named Harperkeegan.

Armor appearances, from what I've seen, start changing fairly drastically once you're able to use green-tier gear (I think it's called Masterwork, and is, if I remember rightly, 3rd out of at least 6 tiers). I'm afraid I haven't any pictures to demonstrate, but my medium-armor-wearers got long coats, and I saw several mage-types also in long coat-type robes, similar to some of the GW1 mesmer outfits.

Harperella wrote:

My impressions were that the world was really lovely, but that the playerbase was an absolute zoo. I was on a RP world to start (Tarnished Coast), but quickly got bumped to an overflow world. There I found character ripoffs from every SF and fantasy franchise known to man. I saw Duncan Idaho, Aria Stark, and even Evil Snow White running around.

Well, GW has had lots of that sort of thing from the day I started playing (which I believe was about 6 months after launch). Really, any MMO that doesn't enforce the naming rules (which is most of them) is going to have that problem. I'm actually rather happy I haven't seen any Drizzt clones, which was apparently the most popular GW1 name variation.
On another note: I've heard that overflow is cross-server, which is probably why you saw so many non-RP types there. On the other hand, chat tends to be fairly polite and helpful, regardless of the name of the person "talking." And I am sooo happy they fixed the problem from the first BWE that made it difficult to link up with your party due to overflow!

As far as choosing a server (or "world" as GW2 is calling them):
Here is a list compiled by Reddit with the various worlds listed and some groups who've stated where they will be. Note that Tarnished Coast is the unofficial RP world for the US, there being no official one.
I've not actually tried visiting other worlds, but as it's to be a pretty easy thing to do, it may not matter what world you're on.

[CGriffin]

carimac wrote:

I did see an option in the gem store to put the stats of one piece of armor to another piece of armor you like the look of. Hopefully there will be something out there that looks better, and you can make use of that option.

I saw a vid of this someone had posted... There were three "components" that they were able to pick from one piece or the other. So, the appearance of A, the stats of B, and the uh... whatever the third component was from B also, and then poof. One piece of customized gear, where once there were two. Interesting idea... Apparently the items that allow you to do this come from either the store or something called mystical boxes.

[Harperella]

CGriffin wrote:

carimac wrote: I did see an option in the gem store to put the stats of one piece of armor to another piece of armor you like the look of. Hopefully there will be something out there that looks better, and you can make use of that option. I saw a vid of this someone had posted... There were three "components" that they were able to pick from one piece or the other. So, the appearance of A, the stats of B, and the uh... whatever the third component was from B also, and then poof. One piece of customized gear, where once there were two. Interesting idea... Apparently the items that allow you to do this come from either the store or something called mystical boxes.

I've really liked the face that female armor in LOTRO is not of the chainmail bikini type. I really haven't played many other games, and this is one major reason why. It just degrades the whole tone of the game IMO. In guild wars the style seems to be more of "Anime Cheerleader" for light armor wearers.

--Harper