Shjade said:
2xDouble said:
Maybe you'll reach Guild Wars 2 zen, maybe you won't. Either way, you'll be having fun, even if it's only the fun of "proving" everyone else "wrong".
Play the game and see for yourself.
Proving others wrong isn't fun for me. It isn't even the point. I'm just asking for an explanation of what makes this game's combat so much different from that of other MMORPGs I've played when, from all descriptions and appearances, it seems extremely similar aside from maybe one or two mechanics that are emphasized more than where they are present in other games (rolling/evasion being an often-used low cooldown ability rather than a long cooldown panic button like a WoW hunter's Disengage, for instance). Thus far there hasn't really been one, just a lot of "it's great, play it," which is nice and all, but doesn't really support an argument.
How's this for an explanation:
In my experience with WoW, you simply did not have the abilities to survive against and kill anything about 3-5 levels above you. The fight was absolutely impossible, regardless of your spec, because the monsters would resist your CC and their attacks were unavoidable in any way, and they'd inevitably win the shin-kicking contest.
In my time in GW2, I used a thief (relatively squishy, medium armor and low health) class to solo lvl10 personal story quests as a lvl5, lvl13 quests as a lvl8, and lvl18 quests as a lvl12. These are quests that, if you read the forums like Guru and the official forum, other people were having trouble completing, even with characters of the appropriate level. Why was I able to beat them? Because you're given the tools to do so, and I used them. Yes, I'd get one-shotted if I ever got hit, and it was completely up to me to dodge, snare, evade, and kite. There are no percent chances to block or evade; every time that happens, it's because you used a skill at the right time to make it happen. The mobs don't auto-resist your CC (though you do do significantly less damage to higher-leveled foes), so if you play perfectly you can fight foes that are far above your level.
Yeah, if you fight low-leveled stuff, or stuff that's at or below your level, you can pretty much do any of the open-world content by circle-strafing and using your abilities on cooldown. That's basically what the review video shows. So what? It's an MMO, not everyone is a power gamer who wants to push themselves. The point is that the combat system allows for a very high skill cap even in PvE, because the game isn't cheating by making the mobs immune to all of your spells or making all of their attacks unavoidable. If you're sitting there bored spamming your abilities on cooldown, move on to the next area and push yourself harder; you absolutely are not expected or required to complete all the DEs in one area before you explore a different one.
And dungeons? Dungeons aren't going to pull any punches; they WILL expect you to play to the best of your ability. We have videos of players trying out the lowest level dungeon in the game, and it's brutally difficult.
So...yeah, that's the difference. GW2 combat is different because it gives you a set of tools and forces you to figure out how to make the best of them, and if you can use them well you can do a lot with a very limited skill set. If you die, you know exactly why you died, and you know that it was (probably) avoidable.
MetalHandkerchief said:
When I saw this claim, before the image loaded on the front page, I thought this article was about The Secret World, not GW2. Having played both, it's most true for the prior.
I've never played TSW, but I'm not sure how you can claim that GW2 doesn't make it easy to play with anyone around you. It's the first open-world MMO I've ever played where you're not actively punished for playing with other people in the open world, while just doing "normal" leveling content. Help kill a mob? Full XP and loot, no partying required. Help with an event? XP, gold, and karma based on participation, even if you came in late or left early. See a resource node? They're instanced for you, so no need to race anyone there. The overflow server issue definitely needs to be looked at, but other than that, playing together (not necessarily the same as grouping up) was so simple and rewarding for even the most basic of content. It's probably the biggest improvement over "traditional" MMOs in the game, IMO, in terms of PvE at least.
