We all have things we love about Guild Wars 2, places that make us cheer out and say “yes, this is my ultra-mega place!” We all have classes, abilities, and features we’re passionate about, either negatively or positively. This is a place to share all that. Once a week I’ll be raising a Guild Wars 2 question to the community– hopefully an interesting one– and we’ll share our opinions. I’ll start off with my opinion just to get the ball rolling, but these questions will not have any right or wrong answers, so feel free to argue with me to your heart’s content!

So, organized group content. Raiders sometimes receive a lot of flack because of how raid-centric and loot treadmill-like many MMORPGs have become. Want the shiniest gear? Better get your raid group together, clear three nights a week off your schedule, and get ready to stand in–er, avoid fires. Despite the negativity that some gamers feel towards raiding, however, there’s no denying the fact that a challenging raid or 5-man dungeon run with friends can be an extremely fun way to spend an evening. Challenging group content– when made well and completed with the right group– promotes teamwork, communication, leadership skills, and it makes us want to become better players.

On the other hand, there’s a very fine line between that first challenging, adrenaline-punched raid night and that night, you know, five weeks later, when the group is facerolling the same six bosses, complaining about the same pieces of healer loot, and spamming DPS meters while half-hardheartedly punching keys and watching TV. This second scenario is why raiders receive so much flack, in my opinion. Challenging group content is awesome. Repeating that same content for days on end for no reason other than to collect the shiniest item or X amount of currency is, well, a loot treadmill.

Now, a lot of gamers enjoy the treadmill affect. The more power to them, I say. Where does Guild Wars 2 fit in? Here’s where it gets interesting. We knew right off the bat that the game wouldn’t have raid content. It does, however, have challenging 5-man content that rewards currency that can be farmed in order to make your gear extra shiny. Stats eventually cap out, of course, but the pretty gear treadmill keeps on rolling. It’s a slight departure from the norm. But is it enough? Isn’t running dungeon after dungeon for currency the same thing, effectively, as running the same raid instance weeks on end?

And what about the whole ‘holy trinity’ thing? Sure, we don’t have taunts and spam-able heals, but we definitely have professions with more control abilities than others, more healing abilities than others, and different types of armor. Some Explorable dungeons benefit from certain group compositions more than others, and doesn’t that fact kind of… imply the same concept as the ‘holy trinity’ philosophy? Make a smart group and win. And be sure to roll around a bit, remember those support abilities, and stand in– er, avoid fire.

I guess what I’m saying is– despite ArenaNet’s hopes, some players are finding themselves disappointed in Guild Wars 2′s dungeon system. Personally, I do understand the viewpoint. The first time I did a dungeon, my cloth-wearing friends exclaimed excitedly how much easier AC was with my Guardian there to generally hold the attention of the bad guys. No, I wasn’t “tanking” exactly, but the effect was oftentimes the same. I distracted things. My friends killed stuff, and sometimes had to run around when mobs decided that asura were tastier.

Dungeon running in GW2 feels kind of familiar at times, yet not so much that I feel the need to farm dungeon after dungeon for the prettiest gear. I enjoy the lack of a non-cosmetic, currency-driven gear treadmill, yet at the same time, I often find myself wishing the loot off bosses wasn’t quite as random, and for the most part, useless. I like bosses that have a chance to drop certain special items because it gives us another reason to look forward to killing a boss. Yes, boss fights can be fun, but rewards at the end of a fun fight are twice as good! To be fair, that might be the old school raider in me speaking.

When it really comes down to it, I enjoy the challenges most Explorable modes present, but I don’t see myself wanting to run them day after day. When a dungeon opportunity strikes, I take it excitedly, but GW2′s system lends itself to be one more casual in nature, in my opinion, and honestly, after years of running the more hardcore-natured dungeon and raid treadmill– I’m good with that.

What are your thoughts about Guild Wars 2′s dungeon design and reward system? Like it? Hate it? Sound off in the comments section below!

We all have things we love about Guild Wars 2, places that make us cheer out and say “yes, this is my ultra-mega place!” We all have classes, abilities, and features we’re passionate about, either negatively or positively. This is a place to share all that. A couple times a week I’ll be raising a Guild Wars 2 question to the community– hopefully an interesting one– and we’ll share our opinions. I’ll start off with my opinion just to get the ball rolling, but these questions will not have any right or wrong answers, so feel free to argue with me to your heart’s content!

Guild Wars 2 is filled with some very gorgeous maps and locations, and not just locations situated plain in sight, open to the air. Even hidden caves and light-filled crevices can be quite beautiful, which kind of adds to the whole exploration theme the game has going on. Another place of beauty is underwater. The oceans and inlets around Lion’s Arch are some of the most beautiful underwater spots in the game, full of tropical life, plants, and just about everything you’d expect in a real ocean. Props to the environment team! The ice-covered lakes out in the middle of the snowdrift-covered areas are also particularly enchanting, in my opinion.

Despite the beauty of GW2′s underwater areas, many players aren’t as enthusiastic about the actual combat underwater. Most of the underwater weapons make logical sense (it’d be pretty difficult to spin to win with a greatsword underwater, I’d imagine… though Garen might still be able to pull it off!), but some of the mechanics themselves are a little clunky to work with, especially given the 3D environment.

Some of the underwater weapons also seem fairly underpowered compared to others, which surprised me initially. It’s also interesting that ArenaNet chose to put in an underwater PvP environment (Raid on the Capricorn), which just seems to make any clunky mechanics and/or weapon balance differences stand out even more so.

I originally found underwater combat a little frustrating, but now that I’ve been playing the game a while, I’m actually enjoying it more. I’m a simple person, and I’ll be the first to admit that the immersive nature and exploration-encouraging qualities of underwater combat are my primary reasons for enjoying the plunge. Those are some mighty fine kelp beds and corals. Okay– sold! Now, how do I go about buying some oceanfront property?

And how about you guys? Are you a fan of underwater combat in its present state, or does it need some heavy adjusting before it might be considered fun?

We all have things we love about Guild Wars 2, places that make us cheer out and say “yes, this is my ultra-mega place!” We all have classes, abilities, and features we’re passionate about, either negatively or positively. This is a place to share all that. A couple times a week I’ll be raising a Guild Wars 2 question to the community– hopefully an interesting one– and we’ll share our opinions. I’ll start off with my opinion just to get the ball rolling, but these questions will not have any right or wrong answers, so feel free to argue with me to your heart’s content!

Early on during headstart, I noticed quite a few players questioning their order choice (you know, that whole Vigil, Durmand Priory, or Order of Whispers choice). The decision comes fairly early in the personal story quest line, and interestingly enough, affects a large portion of the nature of the story quests that follow the decision.

Durmand Priory characters, for example, are given some quests that require the player to make use of gadgets while continuing the storyline. Vigil characters, naturally, are given quests that follow the whole “shoot first– ask questions later” philosophy. Order of Whispers characters follow a more sneaky route, but still get the job done. The three orders also gain access to different armor sets.

Personally, I was really happy when I found out that the story quests can vary due to our chosen order. I haven’t RP’ed in Guild Wars 2 yet, but I always kind of attach personalities to my characters regardless, and I instantly looked forward to creating alts to play the part of all three orders. My main, a gruff-yet-protective charr Guardian, went, of course, with the Vigil.

There was really no other alternative for her, and I’m quite happy with the story quests I’ve received as a result. The Vigil heavy armor set isn’t bad, either. As for my alts, I’m thinking my Engineer and Thief will have to be Order of Whispers, and my little Necromancer may do well under Durmand Priory. I still haven’t quite figured out how my adorable asura Necromancer with a bow in her hair manages to summon demons, but hey– it’s still magic, man! Just cool magic! Something like that, anyway.

How do you stand on your order choice? How did you decide, and are you still happy with that decision? Do you love or hate the armor sets? Sound off in the comments section below!

We all have things we love about Guild Wars 2, places that make us cheer out and say “yes, this is my ultra-mega place!” We all have classes, abilities, and features we’re passionate about, either negatively or positively. This is a place to share all that. A couple times a week I’ll be raising a Guild Wars 2 question to the community– hopefully an interesting one– and we’ll share our opinions. I’ll start off with my opinion just to get the ball rolling, but these questions will not have any right or wrong answers, so feel free to argue with me to your heart’s content!

So, this past week I’ve been doing quite a bit of crafting on my main. I’m rounding my way to level 40 now as a weaponsmith/jeweler, and still finding myself needing iron and silver (along with, of course, fine materials (fangs, vials of blood, etc.)). I’ve managed to keep my crafting fairly current with my level, but it does take some extra ore farming occasionally. I don’t mind this. In fact, I find it somewhat refreshing that crafting takes a bit of work sometimes. Having goals is a good excuse– er, reason– to explore if you ask me, and it keeps me wandering eagerly.

I enjoy also the item discovery system immensely. The first time I tried discovering a cooking recipe during beta, I instantly fell in love. At first glance the system appears complicated, but it also makes sense. Cooking uses real ingredient combinations, and axes don’t just need ore– they need wood, too, for the handles. The collection tab and the fact that we can now craft from it and our bank adds to my enjoyment of crafting overall. The game’s salvaging system is also solid, in my opinion, since it gives players a few options when it comes to obtaining needed materials.

That said, I’ve heard quite a few complaints about Guild Wars 2′s crafting system lately, especially on the official forums. Some crafting disciplines naturally need more fine materials than others, which I imagine could be frustrating (this may be true for cloth/leather disciplines as well). There’s also the fact that down-leveling and playing crafting catch up isn’t everyone’s idea of fun. Also, it’s a little difficult to play the Trading Post smartly at the moment, thanks to the market’s general saturation of certain goods, which is something that will ideally shift in time.

As a result, I’ve kind of formed the opinion that crafting in Guild Wars 2 is something that isn’t going to satisfy all types of players, but those who enjoy it seem to thoroughly enjoy it. Why, yes, I’m gleefully gathering onions and carrots for when I plan on leveling my charr’s inner chef. On second thought, I may have an MMO addition to collecting onions. I RPed in LotRO as a goofy, onion-farming Guardian. Dang, my secret’s out…

How about you? What’s your take on the crafting system? Is it fun and worthwhile, or is it lacking in one regard or another?

We all have things we love about Guild Wars 2, places that make us cheer out and say “yes, this is my ultra-mega place!” We all have classes, abilities, and features we’re passionate about, either negatively or positively. This is a place to share all that. A couple times a week I’ll be raising a Guild Wars 2 question to the community– hopefully an interesting one– and we’ll share our opinions. I’ll start off with my opinion just to get the ball rolling, but these questions will not have any right or wrong answers, so feel free to argue with me to your heart’s content!

Last week I talked a bit about leveling areas. This week my brain’s still stuck in leveling mode, mostly due to my super slow (yet super fun!) leveling style. So, what’s your leveling style? Have you been 80 for a week or so, or are you taking your sweet time to smell the roses– er, cow pies and herds of grazing dolyaks?

My highest level character, my guardian, is only in her mid 30s. I’m slow– I admit it. I’m also thoroughly enjoying taking years attempting to complete jumping puzzles (I’m ridiculously terrible at them), complete map objectives, and futzing with crafting. I’ve done more than one starting area on her, which is actually quite enjoyable. I’m usually not a big fan of doing content I’m out-leveled for, but in Guild Wars 2 that problem isn’t an issue! I’ve also, of course– like the goof I am– created a handful of alts who I randomly have fun on. My favorite alts so far are my warrior and necromancer.

How about you? Has the “alt itch” struck you yet? Sound off in the comments section below!

I know. You’re thinking this title’s crazy. It probably is, but hey– you can’t totally fault me. I was inspired by a piece of in-game architecture! An old pillar in Metrica Province reads “Given asura ‘Place of Ultra-Mega-Importance’ status in 1325 A.E.” When I first found the pillar a couple hours into my Metric Province leveling adventure during Headstart, I instantly fell in love with the area, and everything to do with the asura race– even though, you know, I’m really a tiger-striped lumbering charr. No matter. Awesomeness is awesomeness, right?

With that attitude in mind, I come to you with a brand new Guild Wars 2 Junkies feature. You can call it the Question Box. You can call it whatever you want, really, but what I’m calling it is a “Place of Ultra-Mega Awesomeness.” We all have things we love about Guild Wars 2, places that make us cheer out and say “yes, this is my ultra-mega place!” We all have classes, abilities, and features we’re passionate about, either negatively or positively. This is a place to share all that. A couple times a week I’ll be raising a Guild Wars 2 question to the community– hopefully an interesting one– and we’ll share our opinions.

I’ll start off with my opinion just to get the ball rolling, but these questions will not have any right or wrong answers, so feel free to argue with me to your heart’s content!

This week’s question darts back to my original topic– places of awesomeness. What’s your favorite racial starting zone, so far, in Guild Wars 2? Don’t worry if you haven’t explored them all yet. Out of the ones you have seen, which do you love most, and why?

You may have guessed Metrica Province is my favorite. It isn’t, ironically, but I do adore some of the asura architectural designs. The golems are also adorable. I’d probably rank Metrica as my third favorite starting zone. My second favorite zone is Caledon Forest, the sylvari starting area. It’s simply stunning. Peaceful, expansive, and full of plenty of lush greenery to explore– er, get lost in (getting lost in MMOs is a personal hobby of mine). My absolute favorite? Plains of Ashford, the charr starting area.

Plains of Ashford was the first zone I explored during BWE1. I knew I wanted to play a charr, but wasn’t sure I wanted to main as one. All it took was a brief sweep of the Black Citadel, and me pawing my way on all fours through the first couple waypoints to realize that I’d found my home. The sharp contrast between the quiet, autumn-colored scenery of Plains of Ashford and the raw, steel-infused reminders of wars past fought painted quite a beautiful image in my mind. One that closely resembles the charr themselves– harsh, brutal, yet fiercely loyal and proud of the place they call home.

Your turn! What’s your starting area of choice, and why? Sound off in the comments section!

Psst, over here! Just in case, you know, you’re taking a break from the game– I’m here to distract you from work, er, chat about Guild Wars 2! Or specifically, headstart. The game’s off to an interesting start so far. I say ‘interesting’ because– let’s face it– not everyone has been pleased with their headstart experience. Despite ArenaNet managing to pull up the servers exactly when they said they probably would, it seems the servers had a hard time keeping up with the player load, and produced quite a large number of issues and game lockups.

Over the course of the weekend, players have experienced issues with logging in, staying logged in, account validation, guilds/guild membership disappearing, the trading post, the Black Lion Trading Company, HoM deliveries, WvWvW, and more. At the same time, not everyone experienced every issue, and in fact, quite a few players experienced a weekend of worry-free gaming. Some players were able to put in about seven hours of stable playtime before problems arose, and for the most part, those same players were able to log in a couple hours later. Not bad, right? Perhaps. But let’s dig a little deeper, shall we?

And yes, I’m going to talk about the launch of headstart as the game’s “launch” for this article. In all practicality– that’s what it is to a large portion of long-time fans and avid gamers.

I’ve been through quite a few MMO launches now, and I have admittedly become a little jaded in my semi-old age. Take that how you will, but also know that my overall experience with GW2′s headstart has been positive. I’ve experienced some minor guild issues and a bit of area lag, but nothing over the top. I do, however, keep a close eye on the community and industry as a whole (hence my babbling!). I also hold ArenaNet to fairly high standards. Why? Because GW2 has been in production for quite a long time, they’ve had a while to watch other MMO launches, and it seems that the company has taken some extra-long steps to ensure the stability of their product.

Yep– I’m talking about the stress tests. On the surface, it would seem like those frequent (and random) tests would have boosted the stability of the game’s launch by leaps and bounds. Yet after this weekend’s headstart launch, a whole new slew of issues popped up. Frequent stress tests were a good idea in theory, but they were unfortunately limited to pre-purchasers of the game and players who were able to log in at those random times.

The player loads during the stress tests simply weren’t close enough to what was actually experienced during headstart. If the team had given more notice on the later stress tests, allowed all testers to return, and ran the tests for more than four hours at a time, they might have had larger numbers, and thus better data to work with.

While ArenaNet has been very good about keeping in touch with the playerbase on Twitter, Facebook, and on their official support page, one thing they’re not offering at the moment is forum communications. The company was very selective about when they allowed players to post on their forums throughout the public beta process, which was actually quite unfortunate for players who enjoy giving feedback and taking part in a game’s community in that fashion. And now we don’t even have official forums post-headstart launch.

I imagine this was done to shuffle more staff members toward Customer Service roles in other mediums, but I still disagree with the decision. Official forums are important to maintain a sense of community with players. Sure, forums will get inevitably swamped around a game’s release and will have to be moderated properly, but it’s kind of… expected at this point. Players love getting to know members of the staff community team, and forums also give developers an easy way to quickly get feedback. I hope the forums are made public sooner rather than later.

The forum issue is, of course, pretty minor. As are many of the issues players are facing in-game. For the most part, the major issues, such as not being able to log in at all, seem to have been resolved for most players. That’s a good sign– a very good sign. There may be some level progression issues that ArenaNet will need to look into, since there were accounts yesterday of players hitting level 80 using not-quite-natural methods, but unfortunately all the beta testing in the world won’t always uncover issues like these.

All that said, I don’t think Guild Wars 2′s headstart launch was terrible. I do think it also wasn’t entirely smooth, however. It was kind of middle-ranged in my opinion, worse than the launches of SWTOR, RIFT, and The Secret World, but definitely better than Age of Conan’s and World of Warcraft’s. Can ArenaNet make up for the somewhat-shaky headstart launch with a better “official” launch, improved customer service, quick bug fixes, and a stable– and fun– game for years to come? You bet.

Welcome to This is My Story, a brand new column on Guild Wars 2 Junkies where I’ll be diving deep into the corner pockets of Tyria and showcasing interesting tidbits I happen to find along the way. For the most part, this column will focus on the PvE adventures of a casual gamer with a raiding past who’s a bit of an altaholic and very much an exploration nut. Colorful nuggets to hunt for in the wild and dangerous battles to charge haphazardly into are among my delicious recipes for… happiness? Disaster? A bit of both, sure– but think of the potential! Join me as I bring a little randomness to the GW2 scene.

As we make our way toward the much-anticipated GW2 headstart, I’ll be talking a bit about what there is to look forward to once we’re unleashed in Tyria. If you’re thinking something along the lines of, “Duh– everything!” right now, you’re probably correct, but hey, let’s narrow it down a bit, eh? First up this week, let’s talk about how awesome the different races of Guild Wars 2 are, and what a difficult decision it can be to choose between them.

As you can probably tell from my far-off gazing charr in the title image, yep– I’m a kitty lover. The charr race spoke to me immediately upon first stumbling into news of Guild Wars 2. Their models amazed me and still do, and the lore and philosophies they stand for ring ridiculously true to my RPG roots. I’m a tank and honorable-yet-reckless protector by nature in MMOs, and once my paws ran over the raw, industrial area known as the Citadel– I was home.

The charr female models are among the best in the genre, in my humble, not-so-mainstream opinion. Charr females are gruff, ferocious, yet still uniquely individual. I’ve pretty much seen enough frilly female characters in miniskirts to last a lifetime, so for me, my female charr Guardian is a breath of fresh– if somewhat steampunk-scented– air (wow, I should take that idea to Scentsy…). As a bonus, charr look pretty dang awesome swinging a greatsword around.

My other two favorite races in GW2 are probably the sylvari and asura, although norn rank highly as well. I was skeptical of the asura at first, but man– they’re quite unique for what at first glance may seem like a stereotypical “short” race. Asura are not the gnomes you’re looking for (this might be the wrong MMO for a Star Wars joke). Plus, the race is backed with great lore (their underground roots are fantastic material for a fantasy MMO), and their emotes are simply adorable. Both the male and female asura models are equally enchanting, and I may have to actually roll one of each.

The sylvari race is both courageous and beautiful. Simply put– a compelling combination. I ran through the starting sylvari area during the last BWE, tracking my journey along the way in the form of a goofy guide of sorts, and the sylvari forests are quite a sight to behold (even more so during yesterday’s stress test thanks to optimization tweaks). Caledon Forest has been one of my favorite exploration areas so far, and I look forward to traveling there again.

The lore behind the norn race is quite compelling, and I love the spiritual nature and the emphasis on the natural world behind the area’s storyline. The snowy mountains were one of my favorite locales during BWE2, and although I wish the female models were a little less “supermodel-esque”, there are still many, many solid reasons for rolling one (the females do have the height– I’ll grant them that!).

Ironically enough, the race I least explored during the BWEs was the human race. The starting area looks picturesque, that’s one thing I do know. I will definitely have to remedy this at some point, but for now, I’m ecstatically pleased with the racial ranges Guild War 2 offers. And… it looks like I’m shaping up to have a whole army of alts. Oh well. Nothing wrong in that, right? It works extremely well for the number of professions that interest me, anyway.

Speaking of which, we’ll move on to professions next week. For now, how’s everyone else settling down with their racial choices? Was the decision like second nature, or did it take a bit of trial and error and coin tossing to reach that final decision? How about those of you who are still pawning over screenshots and lore bits, trying to come to a conclusion? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.