Guild Wars 2 - Beta 2 Weekend Coverage 23-25 March

[Rushster]

A compiled list of the second Beta weekend's coverage.

GWO

• How to gether, how to craft - by Gorani
• Running and Waypoints in GW2 - by CMEPTb
• Musings of an Armchair Mesmer - Changes between beta tests - by Thalanor Thorndale
• Guild Wars 2 Passes the Cheetos Test , but barely by Alaris
• The Mesmer experience by Alaris
• Swapping Attunements more fun for Elemenalists by Gorani
• Beta Reviews me by CMEPTb
• Rofltations, Spam on Recharge, and other Terrible Ideas by Alaris
• Death Becomes you by Alris
• Returning to Tyria… Again by Fae
• Guild Wars 2 Beta Crafting a Coat and a focus [Video]
• Guild Wars 2 Beta, Elementalist Drowning [Video]
• Guild Wars 2 Beta, Elementalist Slot Skills [Video]
• Guild Wars 2 Beta Elementalist Underwater [Video]
• Guild Wars 2 Beta, Elementalist Elemental [Video]
• Guild Wars 2 Beta, Elementalist Weapon Skils [Video]
• Guild Wars 2 Beta, Drowning Ranger
• Guild Wars 2 Beta - Night to Day [Video]
• Guild Wars 2 Beta, Norn Elementalist Hero Panel [Video]
• Guild Wars 2 Beta, A Run Through Old Ascalon [Video]
• More to come...

General Press

• Incgamers.com written preview
• Beefjack were not too impressed with GW2 in their preview.
• Videogamer preview
• mmorpg.com preview
• Massively preview
• VentureBeat Preview
• PlayerAttack Preview
• RPGSite preview
• El33tonline preview
• Gamespy Preview
• MMOGames

Video

• IncGamers Plays - The Human Storyline Area Video with commentary
• TB on the thief.
• IGN plays the Ranger
• IncGamers Plays - Necromancer Character creation

[Alaris]

I guess the embargo is lifted then.

[Nohjo]

I've read and heard about the complaints of Beefjack from other beta-players as well.. Too much spamming in combat, too much chaos, no thought etc..

While others comment on the combat system as being positive. Saying it does require thought, especially on higher level combat. That working as a team is necessary, etc.

So much conflicting information all the time.

One thing they all agree on though is that the world is beautiful and immersive. Thats good.

[Lady Rhonwyn]

I've read and heard about the complaints of Beefjack from other beta-players as well.. Too much spamming in combat, too much chaos, no thought etc..

While others comment on the combat system as being positive. Saying it does require thought, especially on higher level combat. That working as a team is necessary, etc.

So much conflicting information all the time.

One thing they all agree on though is that the world is beautiful and immersive. Thats good.

I don't agree with this remark that the game doesn't encourage real partying. Several times, I was simply helping people (actually sticking my nose in where it didn't belong ) and we ended up partying up for the rest of the quest. And finally ended up first on a moa pet hunt and then a bear pet hunt.

[teina]

I've read and heard about the complaints of Beefjack from other beta-players as well.. Too much spamming in combat, too much chaos, no thought etc..

While others comment on the combat system as being positive. Saying it does require thought, especially on higher level combat. That working as a team is necessary, etc.

So much conflicting information all the time.

I think it depends a lot on the situation. If you're in a smaller group, coordination obviously works much better than leeroying and spamming. On the other hand, if there are 20+ people in a world event, yes, well, it's pretty much spam and chaos. Sure, you can try to be tactical, but when things are blowing up faster than you can aim, the event pouring in more mobs, and people running all over to stop the new adds, then coordination tend to take a backseat.

On the other hand, in WvW, large groups need to have some level of coordination, even if unspoken. Randomly throwing yourself at the opponents is a quick way to earn you a large armor repair bill, since your body may end up some place where nobody can get to you to res.

-T

[Nohjo]

And how is the combat system when you are solo'ing? Is it how people described it, that its just wait until the cooldown is finished and mindlessly use the skill again? What was your experience in small (friend) groups? And how did highend compared to lowend combat?

Thanks. :)

[Lady Rhonwyn]

And how is the combat system when you are solo'ing? Is it how people described it, that its just wait until the cooldown is finished and mindlessly use the skill again? What was your experience in small (friend) groups? And how did highend compared to lowend combat?

Thanks. :)

I'm not a high-end player (far from it, I prefer to lay back and enjoy the scene mostly ) but at one point we decided to go to Kessex Peak. This was a lvl15-25 area (we were all lvl30). We went in search for the mystical gate to Lion's Arch (but those evil devs had closed it and redirected it to the Shiverpeaks ). In short, we were just exploring and having fun. We did have some nasty spots where we had to really fight our way through, but mostly got through okay (ignoring most of the events on the way as it was an exploration mission). I later retraced our steps while alone. And didn't really notice a difference between going alone and in a group. Except the lack of help if you needed it (for example nobody around to revive you) I still had some nasty spots but got through okay. Also, this was a rather empty world now, I don't know how many invites were sent out in total, but if you spread that over 6 areas (3 low-level, 3 high-level) and the PvP and WvW, you'll find that the total population was rather low. But still you met people all around the maps to help and aid you (or you to help and aid them).

[Gorani]

And how is the combat system when you are solo'ing? Is it how people described it, that its just wait until the cooldown is finished and mindlessly use the skill again? What was your experience in small (friend) groups? And how did highend compared to lowend combat?

My experience on that subject:

Mindless spamming will not get you far, when you are alone, or at least it will slow you down (either by having to fight longer or spending some time in downed state or having to re-portal to a way point). You will use your skills #1 on auto attack (kiting repositioning, if you play well), your skill #2 probably on recharge and #3-#5 wisely.
e.g. Fire/Staff #1 Fireball - #2 Lava Font (you have to know where to put that small AoE spell, if displaced it is useless) - #3 Flame Burst on really dangerous groups of enemies (just blasting an area can be useless or less effective) - #4 Burning Retreat is wasted on recharge, as it is your get away from melee foes skill (& kill them if done correctly) and finally #5 Meteor Shower with its huge AoE radius can be wasted if put into the wrong spot. After that you have to wait 30 sec for the recharge.
Clever swapping of attunements on my Ele worked very well adventuring alone. Having a partner was better in a few situations, because someone could always fall back and revive.
I had the impression that some "wildlife" needs a little tweaking with their respawn times. There was a cave filled with spiders & a skill point challenge I could not master, because I got overwhelmed by the fast respawns, no matter how fast and efficient I had become at killing them

[teina]

And how is the combat system when you are solo'ing? Is it how people described it, that its just wait until the cooldown is finished and mindlessly use the skill again? What was your experience in small (friend) groups? And how did highend compared to lowend combat?

I think it depends on your profession too. Softer professions will get rewarded more for skilled play while soloing, in the form of dying less. Heartier professions, like the Guardian, can get away with mindless spamming while soloing. I'll address the Guardian play more in a write-up.

Low end combat (really low end), you really don't have a choice. You get one skill to start with (other than self heal), and you pretty much spam that till they die and until you unlock other skills. Sure, you can dodge and kite, but as far as skill activation is concerned, there just isn't much choice till you've unlocked more skills. Once you've unlocked the skills for your weapons and offhands, as well as weapon switching, then things get more interesting. Utility skills add more dimension to the gameplay, but again, those slots are unlocked later. I wonder if some of those people just didn't play up very high. If they just tasted levels 1-10 on various professions, I can see why they would come away with the impression of button mashing on recharge is the way to go.

With regards to Gorani's point about respawn rate, it would be nice if the respawn rate is scaled, like events. I've been on the other end of the respawn rate where we had a large group of people just standing around, waiting for things to pop, then killing them before you even have time to activate a second skill.

-T

[Alaris]

I guess I'll publish the article on "rofltations" first then.