Guild Wars

[CoM_Solaufein]

Is this game any good? I've seen good reviews in the magazines and I am debating whether to buy it or not.

[LoneWolf16]

Level grinding, socializing, hypnotizing.

[Shadowstrider]

Guild Wars really loses its novelty after a month or so. You can play through the main "story" in about 2 weeks, from then on its grinding for the p|-|47 l3\/\/7, or PvP.

 

Although the game has bountiful skill set for each of the 5 classes, you can only use 8 at any one time, which is a huge detriment to the game's longevity. Additionally, after awhileall the characters begin to look the same, and you see duplicate character builds all over the place.

 

Thankfully there is no monthly fee for Guild Wars, so if you enjoy MMO games this could be a winner for you.

[Nick_i_am]

for team based PvP at it's best, this game is the bees-knees.

 

However, if you are after PvE (player vs monsters) games like WoW have far more to offer. PvE quickly becomes boring, and collecting skills etc can be a chore.

 

The *only* reason I play this game is for the PvP, which kicks butt, but you need a reliable guild of intelligent people to even think about being competative, and if you dislike putting up with idiots then there are plenty of them around (the majority of the playerbase forms a community much like that of Counter-strike) 'HEAL ME MONK NOOB' 'i'm a smiter idiot, I told you that before the game started' 'YOU'RE A MONK LOL, MONKS HEAL NOOB'. Then again, every MMO will have this problem.

[><FISH'>]

I dont understand what you just said...but i think its funny :D

[GhostofAnakin]

I've heard pretty good things about this game, as compared to other similar games in the genre.

[Llyranor]

As Nick said, if you don't like PvP, forget about this game. If you enjoy teamwork and coordination in a PvP setting, you'll find GW has much to offer. GW rocks. It's a shame PvE is forgettable, but that mainly has to do with it being so repetitive. More diversity and challenge in PvE would make it more fun. But anyway. PvP, though, is freaking awesome.

[Guest Fishboot]

It's a group PvP game, as has been said, and most enjoyably played (by far) with a persistent, voice-linked team. The other properties of the game are just a little corona of fluff.

[alanschu]

Although the game has bountiful skill set for each of the 5 classes, you can only use 8 at any one time, which is a huge detriment to the game's longevity.

 

I consider the 8 skills limitation to be a boon to the game.

 

There's always a different combination out there.

[Shadowstrider]

No accounting for taste. I will never agree that "in addition to limiting the player to 2 classes, they can also only have 8 skills at any one time" is good design. I disagree with it fundamentally.

[alanschu]

You'd rather have everyone have everything?

 

But I thought you didn't like the 8 skills because they were carbon copies?

[Llyranor]

Which leads to the necessity of complementing one's skills with that of one's teammates. I think the 8-skill limitation is a boon as well.

 

BTW, alandude, you in a guild or something?

[alanschu]

I haven't played much for a while. I'm too busy and it takes up too much time to play

 

If I remember correctly, I'm part of the Philosopher Kings (we were gonna create gimmick Alternates that were all named after Greek Philosophers).

[Shadowstrider]

You'd rather have everyone have everything?

 

But I thought you didn't like the 8 skills because they were carbon copies?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I hate the limitation and that it breeds carbon copies. 8 is too few. If it were 8 from each class I'd be fine with it. Or even 6 from each class...

 

Actually, I pretty much dislike the system entirely, and the limitation there is just the pinnacle of its lameness.

[alanschu]

So you'd rather that everyone had access to every skill of their class?

 

Why is 8 too few?

[metadigital]

So you'd rather that everyone had access to every skill of their class?

 

Why is 8 too few?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not total of eight. More options to choose from.

[Guest Fishboot]

No accounting for taste.  I will never agree that "in addition to limiting the player to 2 classes, they can also only have 8 skills at any one time" is good design.  I disagree with it fundamentally.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Totally disagree. My hunter in WoW had easily 50 abilities/triggered items (and thus buttons) to manipulate. I basically had to learn a small scripting language to create triggered states that would cause my buttons to appear/disappear and swap hotkeys based on conditionals (the Flexbar plugin, dunno if its been superceded by now). If you're going to have quick-thinking, fast fingered elements in your game you had better have an action interface, not some mouse driven slop, which means limited buttons. On top of that you can easily create nice strategic metagame using limited skill slots - is this guy using the "rock" or the "scissors" skill loadout? It's an analog of a collectible card game like Magic: The Gathering.

[Calax]

the people who's minds can actually deal with this (the ones who use EVERY SINGLE HOTKEY in any given game) do pretty well in WOW. The ones like me, who use only a few hotkeys, are maginally good because they can still toss out a quick spell or two. Then there are those who you want to beat with a stick because while your lying right in front of them (dead) and begging them to rez you they ask "where are you? I can't see you..."

[Shadowstrider]

I'd recommend you play City of Heroes, if only to see how they handle the game play, skill tray loadout, and such. First you pick your Archtype (read class), then you pick your primary power set within the Archtype. Once you have your primary pool picked you pick up the secondary, unfortunately your forced to pick the first power in the secondary but it is always a useful power, so not all bad. The difference between the primary and secondary is that you can pick primaries earlier, and they are inherently more powerful than a secondary.

 

Once you reach level 6 you can begin picking generic power pools, only 4 of these power character. These are inferior to either primary or secondary; if you havea heal primary and a heal generic, a heal primary will always be better, unless you spend your enhancement slots in the generic and not the primary (which is usually silly). Each of these generic power pools have 4 powers in them.

 

The final power pool you pick up is the ancillary power pool (only available to the basic ATs). These give your Arch-type something that it wouldn't normally have, like giving a tanker some control options or a controller some damage or defense options.

 

In the end you end up with 24 chosen powers, and a few minor (mostly unimportant) inherent powers. All of these (unless they're always on) can be turned on/used in battle.

 

The power tray layout is fairly simple, you can have upto 3 trays of powers on screen at any one time, each tray has 10 slots.

 

The interesting thing about the system is that even though you could have a cookie cutter build, based on how you "slot" your powers, you could be very different from another build.

 

I like the system, I just wish the Devs would stop changing the powers every issue (update), gets very annoying to have to reslot my powers.

[DemonKing]

I'm just playing through the adventuring side at the moment (I'm yet to delve into PVP).

 

It's not a traditional MMPORPG like WOW - instead there are city/town non-combat areas where you an chat, trade, buy skills etc and then all of the adventuring areas are "instances" (ie exist only for you and your party). You can solo using henchmen if you don't want to form a party with other players.

 

The combat is pretty mindless and repetitive, but the graphics are so lush and the desire to "just do one more quest" so compelling that I haven't really noticed. Plus not paying to play rocks, as you can leave it aside for a while and come back without any fear of losing a character.

[Llyranor]

CoH stuff

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

So, basically, you get 24 skills total, but you're stuck with them unless you make a new character?

 

With the way GW works, I'll take 8 skills that can be switched on the fly before a battle over that setup any day. Give me access to all skills in the game, then allow me a limited number to bring into a single battle. This allows me to make a specific character designed to complement the skills of everyone else in the team, and allows for experimenting, trying out new tactics, etc, instead of being stuck with the same skills (even if 24 of them) no matter which battle I'm in.

[Shadowstrider]

CoH stuff

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

So, basically, you get 24 skills total, but you're stuck with them unless you make a new character?

 

With the way GW works, I'll take 8 skills that can be switched on the fly before a battle over that setup any day. Give me access to all skills in the game, then allow me a limited number to bring into a single battle. This allows me to make a specific character designed to complement the skills of everyone else in the team, and allows for experimenting, trying out new tactics, etc, instead of being stuck with the same skills (even if 24 of them) no matter which battle I'm in.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

No. You can "respec" your hero 3 times by doing a trial. Also, if they release any patches that signifigantly modify powers they give out free respecs (or freespecs, as I call them).

 

Since you've clearly never played you should withold judgement. Try out the 14-day trial and you'd understand.

[Squidget]

No.  You can "respec" your hero 3 times by doing a trial.  Also, if they release any patches that signifigantly modify powers they give out free respecs (or freespecs, as I call them).

 

Since you've clearly never played you should withold judgement.  Try out the 14-day trial and you'd understand.

 

I've played CoH. It has the character customization hands-down over just about any other game, but I didn't really like the skill system much compared to GW.

 

With GW there are so many skill options that the 8-skillslot restriction creates a huge amount of tactical choice before the battle starts. Do you want to use that extra skillslot on self-healing? Self-defense? Damage? Energy management? How does whatever you choose combo with your other skills?

 

Likewise, it makes a good build that can do several things effectively through combinations of skills very difficult to make, and much more interesting than a CoH build. The ability to tweak your skill selection between missions is even more important, because you can experiment and use what's best rather than being stuck with one skill selection and a few chances to change it throughout the many hours you spend on the game.

 

The downside of this is that there are less tactics to skill selection in battle. Because of the limitations it's usually quite clear what skill you should use next without a great deal of thought (though now and then there are tough choices - do I raise the party healer or try to finish the last critter off on my own?)

 

Personally I haven't found this too horrible, as GW battles keep me busy enough as it is. Managing aggro, keeping the party alive, and dealing damage through my skills as well as watching my energy and skill recharges takes pretty much all of my attention.

[CoM_Solaufein]

Thanks for the posts. Now I'm going to sit back and read them.

[alanschu]

No. You can "respec" your hero 3 times by doing a trial. Also, if they release any patches that signifigantly modify powers they give out free respecs (or freespecs, as I call them).

 

In Guild Wars, you can respect almost whenever you want. You just need to acquire refund points (which isn't all that hard, but prevents you from dynamically changing whenever you want) for your attribute points.

 

You can also completely change your secondary class if you want.