GW2- Learning The Ropes

Doh... I just noticed that tell in the window when posting this. /facepalm I am so bad about watching chat.

It's been a busy couple of days, they've seemed to of flown by. Yesterday I was offered a position with EA as a Game Advisor, which was very flattering and exciting. It was a contract position and one I couldn't make a move for, after some thought on it. Bittersweet I suppose, I needed a lot of cheering up after that, GW2 helped some. Plus, I've been very tired too, my son started back to High School again, so I'm trying to keep up with him and his grades too, and then there is that awful time of the day to be awake, five o'clock am, it seems to show up every day... I still need to log into WoW and check out the patch, more on that in my next post hopefully.

Last night Dire and I had a good run in Guild Wars 2, once we finally gained access to the server, we kept getting stuck in different overflow zones, the join part option wasn't working at the time. I'm sure things will calm down soon, at least we got to play right? I'd much rather playing than sitting in a queue, any day of the week!

Nightshade showing me his awesome pets!

We met up finally and spent an hour or two running around working on hearts, vistas and skill points. He really seemed to have a blast, as an engineer. Pun intended. I've stuck with my ranger, I can throw out some healing here and there, with the founts on the ground, I have to remind him to stick close to me when I do.

When Dire first sat down to play he couldn't seem to wrap his head around the fact that you travel around and do the events, that you could do them again as well. He got the hang of it though and was dragging me around, calling for me to keep up, lol. I tend to get trigger happy with the bow and pull extras while he is running off.

Dire and I, he made a scrawny character who's from the streets.

So, today I wanted to sift through some more points I do like, with day three. Weapon swapping, loving it. It is like switching up your class or spec in doing so. Love the fact that I can go smash things with a giant sword or stand and pick things off from afar with the bow. It really keep me interested. I like the class selection and races too, very happy with what I chose.

With the ranger I like the pets also. My friend, Nightshade, plays on the same server (Tarnished Coast) and showed me his plethora of pets, last night, thus I had to go tame several this morning. I enjoyed exploring the other starting areas while looking for pets. I like the fact that you can swap them out on the fly and you don't lose them if you tame another. And my ranger whines if his pet dies, it's so cute. 'I can't lose my pet!' The funniest pet so far has been my pig, he's really fat and round, heh. There seems to be a decent selection for pets.

The music is pretty enjoyable. Love how my character says random little things when I learn or use a skill, gain an achievement, or the pet dying, it's really an endearing touch. I like underwater areas too, no more being scared of drowning, they were made to enjoy. So far the underwater areas have been really neat.

Things that have given me trouble. Cities. I get so lost and run in circles. It's to the point of being embarrassing, well, if I did get embarrassed about those things I guess I would be, I have no sense of direction these days and it just annoys me. Maddening, I tell you. I wish the guards would point you to the EXIT. That is what I've had the most trouble finding, especially in the multi-level cities. I'm getting better.

Very fun stuff here, big bad troll and tons of people all about! Almost like mini-raids!

What else? No first person, not a huge deal but I thought it was odd not to have it. The only thing I'd use it for would be screenshots, I still need to look up how to hide the UI.

I love the fact that I am happy when there are tons of people around. The mechanics allowing us all to gain xp and completion of the events, simply awesome. It is a big change, no competition, just FUN. Everyone working together, it is really different especially when compared to WoW. Call me a Carebear but it really makes me enjoy the game more so without strife and competition. I'm not watching a rotation- I'm reacting to situations. I'm not watching a meter- I'm helping people around me. This was why I fell in love with MMO games, this type of play.

As I leveled my DK in WoW I had to wait on re-spawns because someone else beat me to the mob I needed, or perhaps someone would rush over and AoE the mobs before I could grab one. Things like that do wear you down. Guild Wars 2 hasn't reinvented anything but taken a step forward and I think it's pretty damn classy. I give ANet major props for having the guts to cut out so much crap from the past. Holy trinity? Not missing it. I was a healer for years and years, I am so burnt out on the whole thing. That isn't to say I don't like it, it's just nice to get away from it. I can help heal a little bit and DPS now :)

So, those are my thoughts on day three. I like the game-play and combat- It's just enough to where you have to pay attention but the combat is fast paced enough to be good. Having a fantastic time, great if you like to explore! The game isn't the magic transition people keep hoping to see from each new release, it is good though, it takes a whole lot of great ideas and mechanics and combines them into something really unique. I think this is one Dire and I will be playing for quite some time. It's like a diet Sunkist, no calories- cutting all the bull- but still so sweet, no cruddy aftertaste. Yeah, I drink a lot of that stuff. Or maybe a Sugarfree Redbull, those things are amazing... Anyhow, safe adventures.