When you’ve adopted MMOBomb for any size of time or seen me on a podcast right here (or wherever else), you doubtless already know that on the subject of MMORPGs, I am far more of a “theme park” man than a “sandbox” fella. It isn’t that I do not see the enchantment of open world sandboxes, I actually do. Nevertheless, I am simply extra of a narrative, dungeons, and raids MMO participant than a “make my very own journey” fan. Once I need to go and create my very own story, I am going to play sure extra “survival” than “MMO” video games with my children.
Except a theme park MMO is simply merely horrible or crowded with crappy F2P MMORPG monetization, I can often discover one thing I like a couple of sport. Many video games on this class flip into my “backup” MMOs. These are the video games that I am going to play between patches in FFXIV (my fundamental MMO). At any given second, there could also be 4-5 MMOs put in on my PC at any given time.
Nevertheless, there’s one MMORPG specifically that I’ve performed fairly a couple of occasions and it simply by no means appears to stay with me for longer than a day or two. Usually, I’d simply chalk this as much as the sport “not being for me” and transfer on. This one sport, although, appears nearly made for me particularly, but it surely by no means will get its claws into me and I do not know why. Nevertheless, it additionally by no means manages to get uninstalled when doing my regular PC cleanup sweeps.
ArenaNet’s Guild Wars 2 has an terrible lot going for it. First, the bottom sport is F2P. It gives PLENTY of hours of leveling, world exploring, and extra for anybody that has by no means tried the sport earlier than. I’ve really performed since day one and presently have a number of stage 80-boosted characters because of expansions. Nevertheless, most of these boosted buddies have simply been sitting in The Silverwastes, an space the place you’ll be able to check out your boosted character to see when you prefer it and re-roll when you do not.
Jason Winter and I’ve carried a operating joke now for years based mostly upon the variety of boosted characters I’ve sitting there.
So what do I like about it?
The world is great and exquisite. I like the appear and feel, and I quite benefit from the form of “watercolor” theme the whole sport has, particularly throughout dialogue scenes with NPCs. The courses on provide are nice and messing with builds is extremely enjoyable. Stay occasions, whereas possibly not nice on the subject of repetition, do make the world’s zones really feel “lived in” your first time by them. A large record of discovery factors, achievements, leaping puzzles that result in stunning vista overlooks, and a strong fight system are all nice options. We will skip PvP as that is not content material I actually play in any MMO, so I do not maintain how good or dangerous it might be in opposition to Guild Wars 2.
To date, so good.
I feel the very first thing I ever discovered that I did not like about Guild Wars 2 was most likely dungeons. This is a vital piece of MMO content material for me. Now, it is essential to know that Guild Wars 2 would not assign courses with explicit “roles,” per se. You do not have a devoted tank class, for instance. That is to not say that you may’t construct a category that is extra tank-y than different builds for that very same class, it simply signifies that every class often has efficient therapeutic or tanking choices mixed with their harm choices. Sure builds could do higher at sure items of content material than others, however you do not queue up for issues as a “healer” within the MMO.
Initially, I assumed this design could also be form of good. No roles meant you would not ever have to attend for a particular function when queuing up for content material. Once I did run my first “dungeon” method again when, although, it was simply chaos. It felt like we weren’t a lot of a celebration. We have been extra just some people who occurred to be clearing out the identical space on the identical time. It was a slight flip off, but it surely was additionally an early “dungeon,” so I stored taking part in regardless of not having the perfect expertise there.
Within the years that adopted, ArenaNet has modified fairly a couple of issues. Extra dungeons, Fractals, and different PvE instanced content material has been added and raids have just lately returned. These raids do require (typically) you to be a bit extra “function” specialised, however not at all times.
These are all nice modifications, however I nonetheless simply do not play for lengthy. I get that the “true” finish sport is trend and that side is not for me, but when I boot it up now, I’ve SO a lot story content material to complete and an entire world of PvE content material ready on me that I KNOW I am going to most likely take pleasure in fairly a bit.
I benefit from the time spent taking part in, however the subsequent day after I take into consideration booting Guild Wars 2 up, I often find yourself going to play one thing else…often The Elder Scrolls On-line to run some dungeons.
Have I simply not discovered a category and construct that resonates with me for all of those years, or has my preliminary impression of dungeons all these years in the past simply tainted what I “suppose” the occasion content material provides…despite the fact that I do know a TON has modified since then?
So I ask you this as one MMO fan to a different. In case you are a Guild Wars 2 junkie and also you have been speaking to somebody that beloved PvE content material and had by no means as soon as touched Guild Wars 2, what class would you say I’d have probably the most enjoyable with, and which growth (or base sport) story ought to I play first when you needed me to have the absolute best impression of the sport?
It is time to strive once more, and this time I might love some recommendations. If it’s worthwhile to know what courses I “desire” to make your suggestion, I are likely to go in direction of ranged magic customers, however I additionally play tanks and healers in different video games, so I am not one which’s FULLY locked in on one class kind.
