Guild Wars 2

[th3squirr3l]

I'm not at all an MMO person, so I have no say in any of this.

Did I hear mention of an open beta?

[RollCasket]

I haven't even played it, just had friends say you could solo everything. I was more talking about the fact that there's always healing in some form and more defensive classes/abilities/stances. I don't see the point in being so adamant about not calling it what it is. No matter how you look at it, someone will always be "tanking" as in taking the dmg for the party and someone healing, even if people are switching it up or it's done in creative ways.

Part of the reason I have all classes at 85 in WoW is so I can fill whatever role is needed that's why I don't see why it's such a big deal. There will always be people that enjoy those roles so you're never waiting to fill them.

[ThePaul]

Yeah, but I think the mention was, "There's going to be an Open Beta at some point... so... yeah... that's neat... look at it when that happens...."


Anyway, I actually read the article on the GW2 website, and yeah. You should read the second half of this if you want to actually understand it, instead of getting our weird conjectures and not telling it rights.
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/c ... ing-death/

[RollCasket]

Yeah...that's what I was talking about >.> Acting like they feel dirty even mentioning dps/tank/healer and then putting them in in a different way doesn't mean they're not still there. We're arguing symantics basically.

I'll put it this way, classes that do better at range are generally not going to be up in the face of the enemy and can focus on just using their big dmg moves, the classes in melee are the ones up in the face of enemies, and are more often having to use more defensive and regenerative moves instead of just dealing dmg, while the support class is doing what they can to suppress incoming dmg...much like a WoW disc priest. It's still the same thing, just done differently, which is fine.

Or I can put it this way...Phantasy Star Online doesn't have those same roles...but when you're in a group what happens? Usually one person draws the enemies, a force does healing/buffs/debuffs, and the other two focus more on damage. In a group game it's just going to happen.

[Bear]

One of the big differences though is that ArenaNet said that enemies will have dynamic, situational AI that will not allow for ranged classes to just sit around only focusing on damage, nor will melee classes need to be worried about healing or keeping aggro like other games. The fact is, everyone will need to be keeping an eye out for what to dodge and what to take hits on (because there is a dodge energy bar that all classes have).

Everyone has self heals to keep themselves alive and encounters wont be forced to use certain classes, which is the beauty of it all. I think the big idea is that if you want a party of 5 guardians because that's the playstyle your group prefers, you can do that. Or 5 elementalists. Not a fixed Guardian predominantly in defensive stance, Elementalists predominantly in water attunement and 3 whatever for DPS.

[th3squirr3l]

Ok, maybe there's a better way to word it to clear it all up: Each class is capable of being each role based on their equipment, but is allowed to change at any time and is not stuck being tank/healer/dps the whole game. Every weapon set that a profession has will have slightly different focus on the trinity.

The end.

I've watched so much gameplay footage, but it's always been people at cons, so they're all at the same spot xD Whatever, still cool to hear what they all think of the game. And, they might have done this on purpose to make the game look better for the showcase, but quests were popping up every 10 seconds or so. Damn. The only thing I don't like about a persistent world is the fact that I know I'll be missing something sometime xD

[ThePaul]

I don't see it that way. They're trying to open up the Support role and Controlling role to more things.

Say what you want, but support has become almost completely linked to healing these days. Almost every MMO has someone sitting back, hiding in the corner, doing nothing but heal. Some people might enjoy that, but there's no guarantee that enough people enjoy that to the point that they'd play a character that can only do that and needs at least one teammate be able to even level up in game (because it is totally that way in some MMOs). By giving everyone self heals, you remove the need for a class that only heals and open up a person that still likes to support the team to do other spells. Also, giving every class the ability to switch to a more support type role, makes it so you don't have to wait around for that one guy to start your team or visit a re-trainer/log on an alt.

Likewise, Tanking has become the only way most MMOs let you control the flow of battle and stop your enemies from attacking the squishier doods. But that is by no means the only way to do this and there's no digital aggro meter for human controlled enemies. Spells that force you to attack a certain enemy aren't the only ways to make a human player attack a specific character. Just look at what separates a Tank from an Off-Tank in League of Legends.

Damage is DPS is Damage is all the same. But it all classes are allowed to do support and control type things, then everyone's doing damage, so you don't really need a dood focusing it to make up for his pals doing other things.

[Tehwilburforce]

Like the Squirrel, I am not an MMO player. I guess I just really don't agree with the viewpoint on games one has and the expectations one goes into the game with when one plays an MMO. I enjoy multiplayer a lot, but, to me, really popular MMO's just seem like stat-tracking on a gargantuan scale. All I see is more effort put in to increase stats and numbers on your character. I'm not saying that's wrong. I just don't like games that are played just for the sake of stat-building (only exception I make is for racing games because race car). However, I do like games like Terraria because one is able to make something of their own creation out of those supplies that you have to work for. Otherwise, I just prefer story-elements in my game and that makes me happy. Alright. I just had to get that off my chest. Sorry if anyone is offended. I am not trying to hate on MMO's and I am not trying to start a flame war. I'm just disagreeing with the way MMO's work. Thank you and have a nice day.

[Bear]

You don't have to apologize Wilbur; I think that is one of the greatest things about a forum is that we don't all have the same views and opinions. I mean, you can see that Roll has some pretty high levels of speculation for GW2 whereas some of us (especially me haha) might be hyping it beyond reasonable expectation. It's good to have different perspectives and even some friendly debate.

I really don't think that stat tracking is a big draw of MMOs though. I mean, that is a part, because just like how awesome it can be to deck out a car with after market mods and fine tune it, it can be equally exciting to invest yourself in creating a character and developing your own personalized story for them.

What makes MMOs so appealing to me is that they are typically games with a lot of depth that can be enjoyed with many people. Sometimes, even if the game is lackluster or isn't the best thing ever, the community that you can be a part of can be a huggggggge reason for you to want to keep playing. MMOs have a really excellent way of building friendly communities of people with similar interests that many times extend well beyond the game. If you become really attached to a guild full of great people, I think you would really see where a MMO can get it's addicting qualities; more so if you are really passionate about the game itself.

[RollCasket]

Yeah don't worry about it Wilbur, as is apparent I clearly have the unpopular opinion here so I'm dropping it for now esp since I said my points anyway, and either I'm not saying it right or it's not being understood but whatever x.x

Latching onto what Bear said, a large part of what will get you into an MMO is your experiences while playing. If you get in with a group of friends, or meet some cool people while playing, you can overlook some of the game's shortcomings and that's why sometimes the fans can be especially rabid and you just don't see why. I've played problably 20-30 different MMOs by now some for a short while some for a few years or so and I got tons of good and bad stories from all of them.

Ragnarok Online for example...well we could fill a whole thread full of stories from that. I played in the alpha, beta (Korean and English) beta 2 and release (Japanese and English) and met tons of cool people including Pie and my last roommate to name a few, and lots of fun and interesting stories. The game itself though? Super simple, grindy, punishing at times...let's just say the game has problems...yet I loved that game to death lol.

So yeah, I guess that's why I keep playing them. You never know what might turn out to be really fun and awesome.