First of all, I decided to create a Thief to find another back-up profession to my main. I chose a Norn and went out to explore the “starter world”. I had done the “heart quests” before, so nothing really new caught my attention in the Foothills. My personal story wrapped around Eir and a weapon smith that needed Deldrimor steel to forge a heroic weapon. I liked the concept of “Initiative” for the Thief profession. It took a while to find the weapon combinations that worked best for me. I settled for a melee set with a sword and off hand dagger and the short bow. The first set allowed me to slash & shadow step a lot, making the Jotun I had to fight dizzy, the ranged weapon to kite and cripple anything that would reach me.

The steal mechanic is not that great, IMO. At range, I used it to steal from the foe with a shadow step, fire off the stolen ability (not really caring what is was – some effect that would help me I assumed) and slicing my foe with the sword after that point. Compared to a Guardian’s Virtues or the Attunement swapping of the Elementalist, stealing was less exciting and useful. Perhaps you need more practice to appreciate it.

Talking about the Guardian and the Elementalist that survived from last BWE: The Guardian checked some hearts in the Charr lands, fighting ghosts, serving beverages to thirsty soldiers and getting her Blood Legion war band to stop infiltrators with cow bombs (yes, you have read correctly). I spend a lot of time burning every copper ore I could find on armor crafting and jewellery (Rhonwyn got some nice things made out of pearls on Sunday afternoon). The Elementalist explored all Points of Interest in Lion’s Arch, and checked all new changes for you (see updates in the Elementalist Forum). Finally I fought some battles in WvWvW with her and did OK, earning a Badge of Honor.

For everybody that played during the beta weekend, it is obvious where all the money from players is supposed to go: To some Arena.Net vault managed by Asura and guarded by little golems.

Unlike the first Guild Wars, where you don’t have to spend a lot of money just to play, Guild Wars 2 will be a game where you will have to spend a lot more “in-game currency”.
Money drops from foes are far less frequent in GW2, so you have to salvage & gather/harvest a lot if items for your every day life on Tyria. Of course, you might argue, doing your personal story quests, dynamic events lines and “heart-quests” rewards you with coin, too. But there are a lot of things that a pure money sinks: First the gathering & crafting. The pick, sickle & axe are the first tools you have to buy to be able to get a single ore, onion or log. Then there are all the way points, which charge just a small fee, but that adds up with other stuff, like damaged armor (especially in WvWvW, where your income is pretty bad), unlocking the use of traits for 10 silver, re-setting trait points, changing crafting professions …

The thing that bugged me the most and I am honest with that, is the limited access to the in-game bank account, which can only be done when you are in one of the big cities, like Lion’s Arch. Accessing the bank from anywhere else, requires the use of an Asura Bank portal, which costs 35 gems from the “commerce tab”. Yes, I can send basic materials, like jute or ore through a “free service” towards my storage tab in the bank, but I had hoped that at least some bank access would be scattered on the maps as well.

With all those commercial additions around gems, including the server swap for 1.800 gems, Arena.Net has left the “buy once, play free”-road and set its feet on the muddy path of “pay to play”. Not everybody will be happy about that choice.