Beta PvE impressions. The feel of the game is... Very much like a generic MMO.

[CHIPS]

I am very late to this thread. But I am not too worried about the heart quests, solo personal story quests, and world events. None of those has anything to do with the game play itself. They are just quest delivery methods.

What I do worry about is the AI. I only played in the beginners areas, but it seems the mobs do nothing but zerg you. They don't dodge. They don't cripple or knock down. But once again is the beginning areas.

Like the OP said the party game play was what separated GW1 from other MMORPGs. With party game play there were cooperation and synergy. That seems to have been taken away in GW2 with a lack of partying. In the beginning areas, it seems we have humans zerging and AI zerging. There were a lot of players but teamwork was minimal.

[Alaris]

I noted a number of AI moves even in early areas. One type of foe used a blocking stance that bounced my ranged attacks back at me. Another charged at me and I could move out while it was preparing to charge to avoid the KD. Others yet stealthed or went underground.

I have to wonder why I am the only one to report those. Oh yeah, that's probably because I am a psychologist and I work on AI in my own game. I have a keen eye for those things.

Now I'll admit that for the most part, you can safely ignore all that and hardly notice. These AI behaviors are balanced in early areas so if you don't react properly to them, you will take a bit more damage and be slowed down a bit at killing them, but you should be able to kill them pretty quick regardless just spamming.

I mean, if they charge, you can take the blow, get up, and continue fighting, or you can move out a bit and keep attacking for that extra 2-3 seconds you would have wasted getting up. Or if they block, you can keep attacking with ranged attacks and have 1-2 of your attacks do no damage to it and bounce back in your face to damage you, or you can stop attacking and take no damage and let your skills recharge. I managed to interrupt on purpose a DoT AoE skill. That means I take less damage during the fight, and possibly am not forced to move out of the AoE.

[CHIPS]

I noted a number of AI moves even in early areas. One type of foe used a blocking stance that bounced my ranged attacks back at me. Another charged at me and I could move out while it was preparing to charge to avoid the KD. Others yet stealthed or went underground.

I have to wonder why I am the only one to report those. Oh yeah, that's probably because I am a psychologist and I work on AI in my own game. I have a keen eye for those things.

Now I'll admit that for the most part, you can safely ignore all that and hardly notice. These AI behaviors are balanced in early areas so if you don't react properly to them, you will take a bit more damage and be slowed down a bit at killing them, but you should be able to kill them pretty quick regardless just spamming.

I mean, if they charge, you can take the blow, get up, and continue fighting, or you can move out a bit and keep attacking for that extra 2-3 seconds you would have wasted getting up. Or if they block, you can keep attacking with ranged attacks and have 1-2 of your attacks do no damage to it and bounce back in your face to damage you, or you can stop attacking and take no damage and let your skills recharge. I managed to interrupt on purpose a DoT AoE skill. That means I take less damage during the fight, and possibly am not forced to move out of the AoE.

It might have been the different starting areas. I was playing an Asura mostly and foes there were very straight forward.

[shadowhand]

Humans meet centaurs pretty early on (in fact that's the first type of foe they meet.) They typically attack in pairs at first. One ranged and one melee that tries to knock you down. Later they become more devious - the ones in the level 11 to 14 area will have ranged centaurs that apply conditions (or was it weakness to conditions, I forget) and melee guys that try to keep you from the ranged foe by keeping you on the ground. For a melee fighter that means you'll need to pay attention or die often. (helps to bring anti-knockdown stances or just beat them to the punch and knock them down first.)

Moving out of the way is also a good idea but not always possible if you're surrounded.

[Alaris]

It might have been the different starting areas. I was playing an Asura mostly and foes there were very straight forward.

I played all areas except sylvari...

Worms going underground were in human or norn areas, I forget, maybe both. Those are quite common. I saw some foes using stealth, I think that was norn areas. Shield foes were ghosts, so charr areas. The AoE I interrupted was also charr area. The charge was centaur so human area, but I saw other races do it possibly in other areas, that ability is also fairly common.

Honestly, I don't remember what foes did in asura areas, and I have not played the sylvari areas either.

(...)

Cool stuff.

[shadowhand]

Nah, what I was trying to say is that you need to be more aware of your surroundings in the human starter area if you're a melee class than if you start in one of the other zones. At least that was my impression, having tried all the starting positions.

Guess I phrased it badly, but I made that post at 7am, my time. That is, about 2 hours after the last stress test and a night without sleep.

[edit, AM in the morning? WTF brain? - my bad, used to normal 24 hour days, not strange 12 hour ones.]

[sorudo]

just stick with the 24H value, it's easier to understand anyway and less likely to misunderstand

[raspberry jam]

perfect world lets you play a panda.....

Oh. I see. That makes me smile Blizzard really can't come up with anything on their own nowadays!

[shawn]

They've come up with several successful methods to lose subscribers.

OHHH I WENT THERE

[Смерть]

They've come up with several successful methods to lose subscribers.

OHHH I WENT THERE

No shame there - amen.