Guild Wars 2

[Mattson]

Not sure if anyone has a thread elsewhere but I'm in the beta this weekend. It is AWESOME!!! As I know there are several fans of GW1, I will offer in invite to the guild I set up - Shadowline. Contact me via IMs or in game. LordMattson in game. Lord0Mattson on AIM or Lord_mattson on MSN.

The changes to the game are fairly easy to adapt to and its feels so much larger then in the past. The theif is a far more durable version of the assassin. The necromancer doesn't need corpses to be nasty. The norn are awesome to play as. Skills are a lot tighter and its just fun meddling about in the game. I now vanish once more to get food and burn the remainder of my day off.

[Quaxo9]

SWEEEEEET!!! I wish I was in game with you!!! Keep us up with the updates as you can!!!

[Mattson]

Now that its done.....

My four characters (out of 5 possible) were human necromancer, norn thief, char engineer, human ranger. You basically get a starter mission, get tasked to help out in the starter areas, get a bit on your personal story. Personal stories are determined by character creation and give you several missions tied to choices you made. My necromancer had bits involving her barmaid friend while my ranger had to deal with her fellow street rat getting into gang trouble. Different tales but both move you ahead as a hero.

Views on starter regions -
Human - It reminds me of Pre-Searing in a good way. Mostly light missions of helping people, dealing with small threats. Its both very cool and slightly annoying to have a mass of other players about to help with quests. For me too many players caused lag. The most obvious was in the windmill fight. 20+ PC and 20+ bandits just made it a spam attacks and pray bit. If chasing a rogue bull, killing wurms, removing spiders from an apple orchard sounds familer, well, it is but its also new. The wurms move underground at you (dodge is your friend). The bull causes collateral damage that you have to deal with too. The spiders have egg sacks on the ground and in some cases call in the big daddy.

Norn - This is probably my favorite area. But this might also be due to my enjoying the Norn far too much. IMOO, its the easiest to not wander into a higher level then you are set of tasks. And while the initial starter mission might be the weakest, its very Norn. I do greatly enjoy the addition of Snow Leopard to the major spirits of the Norn as its the right one for a thief. Lots of old foes from EotN but at far lower levels and its also very cool to see Jora have several statues about.

Char - This is the area I explored the least. I will say the char starter mission is visually the best. Giant ghost possessed statue is just freaking cool. However, my GW1 character has beat Propehecies. Its hard for me to enjoy running about Ascalon thats a mix of war torn wreckage, militiary industrial complex, and haunted ruins.

Views on classes -
Necromancer - Less durable then in GW1. It is still fairly easy to get minions up but mastering is limited by level. I had 3 minions most of the time. Its going to take me a bit to get used to all the changes to the class and how to make it work for me. Was starting to get there once I got a dagger. Staff abilities are a lot of target area bits but they do work fairly nastily. The death shroud bit takes getting used to but is a life saver at time and being able to sacrifice minions for secondary effects is very nice too. Healer undead not healing you fast enough - no problem, kill it for a quick heal.

Thief - This is what Assassin should have been. More durable. More insane in combat. I was flipping over people with stabbities. Props for giving them poisonings. Swiping stuff for random effects is very cool and at times very useful. Their inherent heal is a go stealth and heal. Wish it lasted a bit longer or gave a movement bonus to use as a 'tactical withdraw' bit. Dagger and pistol tricks is just nuts.

Engineer - Only started to mess with this. It feels very supporty in applications. Though dual pistols is pretty fun. A lot of it does help allies and hurt foes.

Ranger - They are even sicker then in GW1. Long bow rangers with rapid shot is a great way to chew down a foes life very quickly. Barrage is now truely fighting in the shade as its a target area, rain arrows bit. Your pet is now more effective and levels with you. Certain attacks can give it bonus effects. And a two axe ranger or greatsword ranger are still fun to mess with too.

Mesmer - I only got to see my buddy use it and they're insane. Making solid halogram copies to rush into a fight, storms of chaos, or even just throwing a great sword as a boomerang; its something to see.

Other bits -
The attention to detail of the world is quite impressive. I wasted several minutes reading tombstones as they're interesting or amusing. Each area has its own style as does each race including the enemy races. Having multilayered cities is disorienting at first but works well. Character face and body designs are more varried and allow you to get looks that aren't the typical fantasy ones. I will say that my only complaint is that armors seem a lot more universally designed. Two characters with the same armor class and the same armor will look very much alike. Dye expansion is HUGE. And Guilds now matter. Seriously. You can get access to goodies via the guild you're in and what your guild leader has invested your reputation points in including a guild bank. Yes, thats right. you can leave a weapon for another player in a central deposit area. Takes work to get to but should be useful.

The finale event to the beta was crazy too. The crystal dragon attacks and you have to face down corrupted players or face down the noncorrupted once you've fallen.

Overall, I wish I had taken a vacation day so I could have explored more. I didn't even try to do crafting, didn't get to look at 4 of the classes, and didn't even get to check the big dungeons.

[Quaxo9]

Great review, Matts! Thanks a lot! Especially handy considering I'm planning on playing a Norn thief.

Out of curiosity, what world are you based out of?

[Mattson]

Currently, the Isle of Janthir (sp?) but that will likely change on actual release. Characters, Guilds, and banked stuff will be erased at the actual release. There will be a 3rd Beta test so anyone who prepurchases before then can get in. If you end up with bad luck, like my buddy who got his at Best Buy, I can provide the link to register with.

I am very much hoping that the other two races are open in the 3rd test. I have a horrible Asura idea I want to use. And I so so wanna play with the Mesmer.

[Mattson]

Release date of GW2 - August 28th this year.

3rd and final beta-test - July 20-22

Shameless link for geeking:
http://www.arena.net/blog/announcing...-2-launch-date

If you prepurchase (not preorder), you can get in the beta and can get a 3 day headstart on the game. I hope to see some there. Would like to have a nice Guild there.

[Quaxo9]

Woot Woot!

Right on! I don't know if I'll be able to get the game right away as my time is kinda eaten up - and I should be looking for a fall job - but I do plan on playing. Do you know if we would need to be in the same world to be in the same guild? Just askin...

[Mattson]

*checks GW2 wiki* No. Up to 100 members, any number of worlds.

[Mattson]

After finishing working with my Guild mates and a friend who 'retired' from GW, I've got some minis for trade. I figured rather then stand around an area shouting, I'd offer the players here a shot at the minis especially if they need a few for the HoM rewards. I have a list of what my friends have and what I have for quick refrence. As for whats up for trade -

Necrid Horseman -1
Siege Turtle -1
Whiptail Devourer -1
Fire Imp -3
Forest Minotaur -1
Raptor -3

I will also give to help others have another goodie off the HoM rewards if you don't have any minis to trade.

[Mattson]

Beta Weekend 3 Update

So yeah, everything from before was whiped but no biggie. Just lets me start up playing with the races and classes I haven't touched.

First off, Vistas are very very cool. I am a sucker for the whole video pan around and see all the pretty images bit and this makes it fun to check out. Found 4 in the Grove and they take a bit of jumping to get to most of them.

Secondly, Syvari. What might have started as 'plant elves' has evolved into a wholely new and interesting race. Burning time checking out pretty much _everything_ around could eat half my weekend easily. To give you a small idea, take the cooler aspects of jungle areas from GW1 and crank it up. See through bridges, flower pod elevators, some of the cooler looking armor about. And the initial story has been filled with mystery, wonder, and a fresh feeling. I'd say the development team did quite well here.

Thirdly, Mesmers. This is not your GW 1 Memer, which is the class I got Survivor with when it was a single chance., and the master of deny thy enemy. They're less shut down and more welcome to status nightmare. The staff is a fantasticly nasty weapon for them. And then they start making dopplegangers.

I largely breezed to L7 and only had a few ugly spots along the way. The Syvari's root racial ability is just EVIL.

When I awaken - Asura.