My EYE OPENING First Day in Guild Wars 2!

We are kicking off project MMO - our mission to play through the biggest current MMOs and see how they set themselves apart from games like WoW and FF14 and to clear the current raid content in each game. In this video Mike begins his journey into Guild Wars 2 completely blind.
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Gear: preachgaming.com/shop/
Twitter: @Preachgaming
Live Stream - twitch.tv/preachlfw
Website: preachgaming.com/
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00:00 - Intro to Project MMO
04:00 - Character Creation
06:40 - Zone Levelling & Gameplay
12:40 - UI & Inventory
17:45 - Combat & Class Gameplay
21:35 - Daily Quests & XP
24:20 - World Bosses
25:50 - Story & Voice Acting

[@Preachgaming]

Hello everyone - if you've been watching stream lately you'll know Mike has been working away on Project MMO; his journey to try out and complete a current raid in all of the major MMOs. Now he is finally ready to chart this experience for our folks on KZbin. Today Mike talks about his first day playing Guild Wars 2 - he played it completely blind and wasn't even reading chat to try and get as authentic an experience as possible. Guild Wars 2 happens to be the preferred MMO of our own Lady Bex - what has your experience been of the game? Disclaimer: In the interest of disclosure, ArenaNet provided us with Heroic editions of the game once they heard about our project. Otherwise was not sponsored or anything.

[@tubetrollin]

Fun fact: ArenaNet actually added the hearts into the game to help guide players to the events, rather than the other way around. I'm so glad you're playing GW2... it's a stunning game and the world exploration can't be beat. Little things hidden around every corner, jumping puzzles to complete, and an end game centered around experiencing the game rather than grinding the next +3 ilvl in gear.

[@403gtfo]

GW2 was awesome to level in... but I felt lost when I hit max level so I stopped playing.

[@Fiercesoulking]

You know you picked everything yourself with the background story and also the voice of you character ? D

[@tubetrollin]

@@403gtfo I could see how that would happen if you're used to the usual MMO progression system. I felt like not having to do the gear grind was liberating. Not only was crafting important because I literally crafted my BIS gear, but I was able to just go work on whatever I wanted to without feeling like I was getting left behind.

[@Vilisith]

/wiki is the best command you will ever see in gw2. Sends you to the games official wiki page which explains every item in detail.

[@FornaxTheHerald]

Thank you for taking the time to give Guild Wars 2 a chance. As a dedicated creator for the game, the attention you bring to the world is very very welcome. As a long time fan of your content it’s also just lovely to hear your thoughts. Thanks ❤

[@dragonsieu76]

They should hire The Krytan Herald for voice acting, her voice alone makes her videos epic.

[@tuck295q]

It was a good game especially the first installment. But expansions later have a lot of miss and miss to stories and boss designs including Zhaitan final fight. Like…Malyk is missing still and stuff wheree the character should be impacted by modrem the most for example. Dont know if it’s because of not enough resource or what. Had every expansions have personal stories like the first one, and big bosses are like Kralkatorrik at minimum, I dare say it would be better than ff14.

[@derpderpin1568]

@@tuck295q Hate that everyone tries to boil it down to being better or worse than another MMO. It's just different. GW2 blows FF14 away in gameplay and builds. FF14 blows most MMOs away in story. They're both really good regardless and it's not a competition.

[@MichaelPohoreski]

@@derpderpin1568 FF14 is an RPG trying to be an MMO, WOW is an MMO trying to be an RPG, GW2 is both. =P

[@FornaxTheHerald]

@@dragonsieu76 thanks for the love ❤️

[@Ragameth]

I would like to point out though that this feature can be overlooked, is that story missions can all be done with a friend or a group of friends. Where as in a lot of MMOs, they have the story be singleplayer sprinkled with group content like dungeons, GW2 has their stories that can have your friends participate in. Me and my friends did find that being a person being added in to someone's story mission can add different experiences (i.e. the main player is disguised in a golem and the added players became floating drones to help the main player get through the mission). It can be a lot of fun simply to go through the story with friends.

[@Jhunta]

I recently just had this experience with a new friend joining the game. I went into his story mission, my skills were changed and my role was different than his, yet I added to his personal story experience. we were both impressed by this, and even tho my friend just started, I've been playing since beta and this was new to me and I rather enjoyed the experience.

[@rotaryking100]

WoW does this now with group questing. it syncs everyone up to do the same quests with your friends.

[@vukkulvar9769]

Not being able to do the story with friends is a big downside of FFXIV.

[@itsjustdom378]

This game is so underrated. I feel like people are always so surprised by it when they first try it after putting it off for a long time.

[@theminister1154]

Especially given that you really have to dig in to GW2 to even find what there is to do at high levels. No one really tells you about free Ascended weapons for each spec etc.

[@ripleyhrgiger4669]

@@theminister1154 This is bad design not a good thing. The game has A LOT of content that has been abandoned that many new players just assume other people run. Like dungeons. The word dungeon is almost a swear word in GW2 because people think you're trolling.

[@Phenomatron]

The game is shit for veterans but for a new player skys the limit honestly. There's 1000s of bots skewed across the living world maps fucking the economy the balance team has never been good and theyre constantly afraid to make you feel powerful as a player despite the lore but god damn on launch day and for a few years the game was magic even to this jaded veteran.

[@gabycashy5]

I tried the game again after 10 years and had to quit because I didnt know where I was or what to do and didnt want to have to learn everything again plus my bad was full of things I didnt know what to do with

[@north_borne]

@@Phenomatron Pretty overly hyperbolic take my guy.

[@ErikTaylor]

Guild Wars 2 is my favorite MMO of all time! I've never managed to get my core group of friends who I play games with to stick with it for any length of time, but I am always drawn back to it. It's interesting to hear your complaints about the UI. The very spartan UI is one of my biggest loves of the game.

[@malicious0072]

I was thrown off when he bashed the UI. I love the art style and the character panel is amazing.

[@GuildMM]

Love seeing your blind playthrough of this, figuring most of the stuff out, as you do with other games Excited to see when you get to the higher raid and strike content!

[@jamesbaggett3655]

The king himself

[@GuildMM]

@@jamesbaggett3655 Hello gamer!

[@Ecoxiss]

THE guild mm here? lol wow

[@cascade1788]

Race makes a relatively big impact on the early story. I tried the Human and Norn first and really didnt enjoy them due to the very basic quests you get, but the Sylvari, Charr and Asura starts were 10x more engaging. As a Charr (the werewolf kinda race) you have to rebuild your warband (as theyre very much a war focused race) you have several choices of the type of warband you make and you hunt down potential candidates that are all interesting. The Sylvari have a more mystical protect the forest vibe, and the Asura are a race of midget masterminds with incredible technology that you discover and use.

[@Mordy.]

Truth is, each race for the first two acts of personal story have 3 different stories entirely (3 for first act and 3 more for the second act), so while you got stories you enjoy for those races you cite, it might just be that: this specific stories you picked were interesting. It doesn't mean Human or Norn don't have their own interesting ones to pick and Preach just got unlucky. Though personally I just like the Norn story where you got drunk with a Charr warband and then go around the countryside to find the tank they lost in the process :D

[@vittoriolanziani8141]

The asura are midget mastermind with incredibly poor self-control when it comes to thinking for 2 goddamn seconds if what they are doing will kill them. basically they always ask if they can do in, They never ask themselves if they SHOULD.

[@JohnSmith-rr3jt]

Charr was by far the most boring I rekon

[@alextygesen3101]

Human - Politics Norn - Tribalsm Charr - Warfare Sylvari - Nature Asura - School These are the general vibe of each entry questline

[@lonzie]

Werewolf? How dare you, we're obviously cats...

[@TheOdMan]

I would say the thing I love most about Guild Wars 2 is the exploration. There is no MMO out there to this day, that can match GW 2 when it comes to creating that feeling of discovery. The world design is just amazing, the sense of scale that GW 2 creates with some of it's architecture, walking into a absolutely huge cave or finding long lost ruins in the deep waters, there is no game that does it better.

[@Ditronus.]

Eso does a pretty good job about exploration and immersion. Not sure how gw2 compares as I haven't played it in many years.

[@Servidor_Publico_do_Ancapistao]

Tibia?

[@JathraDH]

Any MMO without a map does exploration better than GW2 ever can. Old games that didn't have one you could genuinely even get lost in and had to navigate by landmarks etc. The worlds also felt extremely massive because of this. Yet another thing we have lost over the years.

[@TheOdMan]

@@JathraDH Well I have played games since 1985 when I got a NES by my father and played Legend of Zelda for the first time, and while there may have been games that felt as rewarding to explore as GW 2 in the past, I can't really think of one, did Zelda feel as epic back in the day? Most likely but it was so long ago I can't really remember, and it's still just personal preference. Should maybe have stated more clearly that my original comment was purely my own take on it, and not hard scientific facts. And while there may be other games that also feel great to explore, Guild Wars 2 is my clear favourite in the past... I don't know, 15 years, or forever, I just can't think of a game world I enjoy more.

[@JathraDH]

@@TheOdMan I also wasn't saying GW2 is bad. It certainly has the best open world experience of any modern MMO. But, when you word it as being the "best to date" then you must compare it to every other game that ever existed in the genre. Personally I find the exploration in GW2 to be a bit too forced and not legitimate. It's not exploration for wanting to know what is around the next corner, its exploration because there is xp/loot/rewards involved and you have a nice map pointing you at the general area to go. I do like the metroidvania approach they have taken to the maps in HoT onwards, its a fun playstyle as well as their brilliant use of verticality and you having to figure out exactly how to get to that shiny point on the map. To me though, exploration is at its finest simply when you are exploring for your own curiosity without anything pointing you in any given direction. Otherwise you aren't really exploring, you are following a carrot on a stick. This is why games with true exploration don't have maps or Skyrim arrows.

[@illmattic024]

I started GW2 several months ago and have been completely blown away by it. The open world exploration is such a magical experience. So many surprises to discover and the way small parties form organically to help each other take down a tough mob or complete an event has made for some really special moments of teamwork. I will say the core game can feel a bit slow at times, but once you progress into the expansions and start unlocking things like masteries, gliding, mounts, it just gets more and more fun the further you get. I wish I had started playing years ago. One of your criticisms I agree with is the limited bag space. Constantly running out of space to hold items was easily the most frustrating part of the new player experience for me. For the most part, the gem store is pretty fair, and is limited to cosmetic skins and quality of life items. But the monetization of item storage is a huge turn off for me. Yes, eventually you will unlock bigger bags but I think new players should be spending more time playing the game and less time managing their inventory.

[@pezdispencer113]

That's cause you are meant to salvage anything you don't want to use. You leave town with half your inventory as salvage kits and you be good for hours.

[@lkx5257]

U need to start salvaging items and put your ressources in your bank automatically with the wheel Symbol in your inventory

[@maschk2]

Quick solution: buy 20 slots bags in the auction house. Not so quick solution: engage yourself in crafting, craft the bag yourself and gain experience and valuables on the process. And use the "sell junk" button in the vendor windows.

[@Earendilgrey]

The story you are currently doing is the Personal story, it's a kind of walk thru and wholly based on the options you choose in character creation and acts as an introduction to the world. The real story comes into it later. The Dailies really just give you an easy 2 gold per day and over time, Achievement points which at certain milestones will grant you armor and weapons. Map comp rewards actually rotate from time to time, but for 100% of the World Map as a whole will get you an item you need to craft the Legendary Weapons if you want to go the craft route.

[@TAZMASTA40]

Gw2 was the only other mmo I enjoyed. I love how weapons are important to your build and not just a skin for your damage.

[@zpokie123]

That is the thing with guildwars that actually made me dont like it. I am a really visual player and having to use like a mace and a warhorn made my character look like a retard.

[@SPECTR_Eternal]

Speaking of weapons. GW2 should be viewed more like an action game. In fact, it even has an action camera, which makes it much easier to use weapons such as bows and rifles, as it allows manual aiming (with projectile auto-adjustment, of course) and much easier target selection: with action camera your left mouse click becomes your singular 1st-slot weapon skill (pressing 1 on the keyboard makes it auto-attack with 1st slot weapons skill) and your right mouse click becomes target selection using a crosshair you adjust just like in any other 3rd person game with weapons/guns. Also, for those who are wondering about weapon skill/class variety. There's 2 classes - Elementalist (Shaman/Elemental Mage) and Engineer (Machinist/Gunner) that have as many as 25 active action buttons. Engineers get access to kits their select in their right control panel, which when selected provide them with a special 'weapon" with its own 5 weapon skills. An Engineer can equip two sets of normal weapons, gaining 10 weapon skills, and 5 Kits, gaining 5x5 another 25 weapons skills when they switch to those specific Kits. Elementalist cannot weapon-switch, but instead they Attune to 4 Elements - Fire, Water, Air and Earth, each element providing their weapon with a new set of weapon skills, related to the magic used. A specific Subclass of an Elementalist can even combine 2 Attunements at once, gaining 2 Main Attunement weapon skills for their 1st and 2nd skills, 2 Secondary Attunement weapon skills for their 4th and 5th weapon skill slots and a unique Dual Skill for their 3rd weapon skill slot. There's... A lot of buttons to press if you want to. And there's also Low Intensity builds, which deal comparable damage but with the least buttons possible for people who want or have to play in this way. It's flexible, reallly

[@JoshSweetvale]

@@SPECTR_Eternal Exactly. If I want to mindlessly blast away at shit as a Dragonhunter (Bow-Guardian) I still swap between melee and ranged constantly and dodge like I'm playing Dark Souls. I'm also buffing nearby randos with Shouts so we can ignore _some_ dodges as well as DPS even harder. When I'm playing Firebrand (Caster-Guardian) it's like I'm playing the damn piano: [cone buff 1] [cone buff 2] [cone buff 4] (dodgeroll) [bubble shield] [group defense boost] (Dodge roll) [cone buff 1] [cone buff 2] [cone buff 4] [sword teleport to target] [stability shout!] [sword spam-attack] [torch spam] (while backpedaling) [buff group with fire attacks] [fiery implosion] -BREAK [shield Bubble] --BREAK [Axe yoink] -MAX BREAK, ENEMY STUNNED All while moving around constant bullet hell attacks and keeping track of allies. And then there's Willbender, which _I haven't learned yet_ and is basically Street Fighter/Dragon Ball Z with its endless box of lunges, punches and teleports.

[@mmorkinism]

Haven't seen mmo yet where weapons are only cosmetic.

[@kickedfromcampaign]

@@mmorkinism they mean its just a different stat block, not actually changing your abilities like this game does. in a sense, other than a statblock, weapons are cosmetic and dont change gameplay much other than how fast or slow you white dps.

[@dfg12382]

I don't watch many LPs. But your GW2 playthrough is actually great fun.

[@throwaway450]

Great to see you jumping around, love the varied content! Much love from Florida

[@mpales9431]

Your style of playing these dauntingly convoluted MMORPGs and showing it from a newcomers perspective but also progressing as thoroughly as you have has been a wonderful watch. GW2 was way off my radar until I watched your streams and I have fallen in love with it! Keep up the good work

[@artrayus3]

I'm glad you came over to the dark side 😉

[@Riaining7]

Welcome to GW2! You have chosen the best game ever made, with the best community. It's a better community than any other game out there, even eve online. (Don't waste your time in EvEonline p2w/timegating nonsense!)

[@chilliewhk]

GW2 was my first proper MMO experience. I basically ended up playing WvW and PvP for the better part of 5 years. Glad to see you covering it on the main channel.

[@TheProstum]

Same. Played some chinese mmos growing up but it was the first game where i joined a community and it changed everything

[@glorifiedboxkicker]

Hell yeah WvW was the best, I was in the one of the most hated servers back in the early days of WvW which was Yaks Bend because our server usually fortifies things that we capture with siege equipment for defense and people hated it.

[@BobbyStein]

Thank you for giving the game a shot. Means a lot to us! Excited to watch your journey.

[@Nebarus]

Hail Preach, welcome to Tyria :)

[@Alran109]

The story takes a turn around level 50-60 and gets more interesting each expansion and living world season from there.

[@grymlohke9919]

GW2 has been my main MMO since college. Glad you had fun Preach! There is some fun events and challenges at endgame that keeps me coming back for more.

[@Dracounguis]

I like that little tongue in cheek... _"I have a fondness for experience bonuses"_ since he got a temporary ban for abusing that potion in WoW. 🤣

[@SoloBluePrints]

I think it’s amazing that he got to pick his story while making his character (probably the ferocity and I got drunk parts) and he as a player is hating what his character did. That from a story point is really magical, because after he finished I bet he really will change his characters outlook and behavior inside the game

[@hmtack]

I was watching another review from a youtuber named Roze and it was funny to see how he and Preach kind of picked those character creation options thinking they'd be meaningless, when they actually drive the entire first act of your character's story

[@karamarakamarama]

Oh my hecking gosh it is GUILD WARS 2

[@bjorndekoning1338]

Love that you give Guild Wars 2 a try! More vids about GW2 please!

[@MrXhukari]

I've been waiting for this for so long! Great to hear your thoughts on this game!

[@deucewildegaming]

Only thing I would say is don't worry about the points, your going to unlock every trait and skill eventually, then make builds from there. Glad your playing GW2 Preach! Enjoy the ride!

[@nathanw4897]

I tried GW2 when I was on a break during shadowlands and I loved the leveling style. Totally felt like a living world. Some people said there wasn’t much of a story but I feel like the story feels really authentic like what a real world would be.

[@dezm1]

Welcome to the lovely world of Tyria! You picked one of the best times to jump into the game. Content is getting pumped out at a healthy rate again and they are revisiting older systems that they “abandoned” in the past (such as dungeons) Hope you enjoy your stay and fall in love with the game as much as I have.

[@kampfkeks6619]

I hope you get to interact with the community! They are all lovely people and it’s a positive space. Enjoy your stay in Tyria and be patient with the game it pays off

[@gogadantes8699]

I LOLed at your description of the story. And of course you had the luck of choosing the silliest one in character creation. The other 2 Norn story branches are actually more heavy metal, fitting to the Norn's warrior and shamanic background. You pickes the Dude, Where's My Car story😄

[@lordgrey5223]

As a general rule, any item can be linked to ingame chat after "/wiki " to see what its use is. I know this isnt ever explicitly said, but think of the wiki as you would mods for wow. The game is almost unplayable (or at least really inconvenient) without either.

[@Dontgankmeplx]

I'm really enjoying watching Mike discover the game. Even for me as a veteran there are so many parts of the game I havent touched still (mostly a PvP & WvW player myself) so I'm still learning and discovering things, I love the open world in this game. I can relate to what Mike says about playing with other people but still solo, that's how I play mostly. Prob should find a WvW or PvE guild to get more involved with group play again!

[@joaomachado9105]

Amazing to see you try my favorite game :D Thanks for the content

[@micheljolicoeur6094]

Read the trophy descriptions, they usually say who to turn them in to. The GW2 story changes based on your decisions, there is a huge flowchart for "My Story" showing all the paths your story can take.

[@mithanelan]

I noticed story changes based on a choice in the beginnings of the Sylvari questline on who to save. Thats a really nice touch.

[@tomashruby9349]

Ohh, so many fascinating misconceptions. I really hope Preach gets to talk with some of the GW2 content creators later on.

[@wiziek]

Well he recently started, think about how you'd start in WoW or FF14, a lot of systems that aren't clear.

[@hazelvine]

One of the greatest things with GW2 is its community. When you're not sure what something does or what its for (i.e. the trophies) just type /m for map and ask your question. You'll find lots of players will be more than happy to help and answer your questions (especially in starter zones). Also keep an eye for players with an apple above their head (or on the mini map) those are often players who marked themselves as mentors to assist new players or provide players with an special location for an event. Glad to see you enjoyed the game and welcome to Guild Wars !

[@CTallant]

Love the review Mike! I love these deep reviews 👍

[@SilentGman]

The Charr story is awesome, and the best part of the game is the lack of handrails when exploring. My favorite things trundle were the random mazes which had a rare item at the end of them

[@de_sherwin]

it's pretty crazy that the first thing they introduce new players to is the long abandoned 10 year old story and dungeons, the game could be a lot better off if they gave those areas some love

[@Byhythloh]

I hate to think how many new players come to this content, can't find a group, or get into a group, only to get speed run through while they have no idea whats going on, then quit the game become if feels dead or not fun. It's one of Anets biggest mistakes imo.

[@Eldar7431]

Yeah, if u read about it and know what to expect dungeons can be decent fun, u just have limit your group size and or player lvls, which can in turn make seaching for ppl take a while

[@jarzz3601]

I have still never done a dungeon in gw2 I didn't know they were important to the story until recently when the game informed me I had unlocked pieces of group content I went no thanks I have a huge open world to explore leave me alone :D

[@yenthewitch]

Absolutely. Even just moving into Heart of Thorns content is such a massive step up in quality. The team can clearly make engaging stuff now so I hope they at least give the basic main story a fresh coat of paint.

[@OryxAU]

@@iSailorBoat Yep, they've never revamped it. They've added like three other content things instead. Fractals (glorified dungeons), raids, and strike missions (easier raids). It makes no sense, and they don't even really offer anything of value besides the experience of it tbh.

[@MusPuiDiTe]

Glad you got to have fun in Guild Wars 2! Trophies usually are related to dynamic events, and can be discarded, no worries 😊 (and dungeons get presented while leveling, so you'll get 'em at the right level)

[@irevisibel9237]

Great video 😊 Nice to see you jump in unprepared

[@rafagd]

Man, I want all the other MMO's to steal GW2 gear coloring system.

[@vaellxju]

So happy you're digging into GW2, enjoy your journey

[@danielsteinkele5120]

The one thing i have always loved about guild wars is their drawing style. Every loading screen is just beautiful and their art outside the game is amazing aswell

[@Tillionz]

Appreciate you checking the game out with an open mind and very interesting seeing your impressions as a new player. The little things that most veterans take for granted like knowing what items are worth keeping/selling/throwing away, what all the boons, buffs, condition, debuffs mean from the tiny image. Also in terms of the vanilla story; it definitely is not that great compared to the stories we have gotten through the years so that's a pain point that probably won't be fixed with out an expansion that changes to base story or something. A lot of the stuff you have outlined here as problems are definitely things that vets would love to see fixed and have been asking for a while (hopefully now with the new leadership and statements from anet about fixing older systems) Can't wait to see the rest of this series.

[@nyyue]

GW2 will always have a special place in my heart

[@NighDarke]

Guild Wars 2 is highly under rated by the gaming community at large. It's an awesome game. They have the BEST mount system in any game too.

[@chronalvault8046]

For your info Mike, dunno if you noticed later on but in your inventory, you have a box icon in the upper right corner. This puts all of your crafting mats in the crafting inventory. Very very useful :)

[@s0ulb0und]

Preach! Thank You for this brother! As the underdog of the MMO industry, it's nice to see someone like you take some time and put some spotlight on GW2. Welcome to the world of Tyria my brother!

[@Silhouette775]

Those cutscenes do disappear pretty much after the base game. I know you criticised the voice acting, which, early on, I think is fair. However, the direction the storytelling and voice acting has evolved into is truly immersive. I've been brought to tears more than I care to count by the emotion and nuance in the game. The story gets incredibly gritty and in some cases can be quite dark. Please keep going, you're barely scratching the surface of what this game has to offer you.

[@arivana10]

I am also a WoW player who also plays GW2 and I got to tell you that there are so many things in the game that Blizzard really needs to take a closer look at that Arenanet does way better. The horizontal progression, the mounts, the story, the gear/legendaries and lastly their monetization. Don’t get me wrong WoW will always be my mmo since 2006, but GW2 is something very special.

[@niklasstahl98]

Their monetization? No, having all kinds of QoL and every skin in the game locked behind a cash shop is definitely not better than a consistent sub where you know what you get lol. Also gear is definitely not worth looking at compared to WoW, the gear progression is one of the main pillars of that game

[@skryah]

Miss me with the garbage monetization that GW2 has. All QoL goes in the store. The vast majority of things you should earn in-game go in the store. Mount skins go in the store. Even some raid boss items (cosmetics) go in the store. Yes, I'm aware you can buy them with gold, but it turns the whole game into "do the most efficient gold farm and get your rewards from the store" which is extremely boring, on top of nickle and diming you at every step of the way with bank tabs, inventory slots, shared slots, build slots, etc.

[@Lsano32]

@@niklasstahl98 also you have to upgrade your bag slots which is litterally like 50$ for it yes you can do gold to gems exchange Its box price game which is understandable just a little to much on it tbh and you can get shared inventory slots that shared across every charc and almost everything is account bound which is awesome imo even the daily achievements.

[@trxe420]

Same, what is really nice about GW2 is it is the perfect side MMO imo due to the no sub fee. I literally can hop on it after a year of being away and it feels like I never left. We know they straight up stole dragon flying from it, so maybe they are looking at other aspects that the game does well.

[@OspreyRed]

To everyone complaining about the cash shop: everything can be purchased with gold. Everything you do in game is profitable and there are many different efficient farms including open world events, end game PvE content and crafting. Gold becomes a non-issue and you can play the game without a sub and still unlock everything. I’ll take this model over a sub fee every time.

[@DrPanda-kf8cu]

its so cool seeing someone who has no idea whats going on and pointing out problems and me being able to go in my heads "thats not quite how it works" cant wait for you to figure stuff out more =)

[@DrPanda-kf8cu]

i will also add, every single thing you do is a group quest except hearts i think, but everything else from the start to the end is open for groups however instance content like dungeons is another thing, i think this doesn't count as a spoiler either just a bad take of misunderstanding

[@EpicKillstreak]

Awesome, love this project of yours. Would love to see you tackle ESO as well! : 3

[@seekittycat]

Played GW1 and GW2 good times

[@SlavBruh]

So glad he is playing GW2 I feel like the game doesn't get enough recognition. I been playing on and off since release and its a great game

[@Odysseus123]

I'm pretty stoked for Mike to dive deeper into Destiny 2. I enjoyed the couple of streams he did during the initial Witch Queen launch and he seemed to have a lot of fun.

[@Luaren]

So fun seeing the experience as a new player, makes me wish I could go back and re-experience it all blindly again!

[@cattysplat]

Holy cow, Preach played Neocron! My first MMORPG too, was a heck of an experience in 2002. Cyberpunk FPS MMO with friendly fire, with gear drop and xp loss on death, was so hardcore and insanely buggy, but immersive soundtrack and heart pounding PvP. Then WoW came along and everybody quit...rest is history. So cool to hear it still being name dropped to this day, it played a big part in my first real MMO experience as a teenager.

[@Wulfgeir]

It's so refreshing seeing a streamer actually play the game as intended. What a crazy fecking concept not having chat or the wiki do your thinking for you. I appreciate this. Thank you.

[@godofdun]

Haven't played in years, glad you're having fun!

[@goldenducky12]

gw2 was my first real mmo that i got into and sunk my first 1k+ hours, the exploration and zone leveling and events were so fun and i found the voice acting and music to be superb

[@marajango]

While I was there at the launch of the game it never really hooked me enough to keep playing it but your playthrough actually motivated me to give GW2 another shot. I created a new character to have a fresh experience and am currently about to finish End of Dragons after playing through the entire story. And man, you do have a wild ride ahead of you. I'm really looking forward to seeing you experience the evolution this game is going to take from update to update. Love your content, keep going strong.

[@gr33dl0cknein3]

great stuff. So happy you've discovered this MMO. Small correction: Stuff scales downwards but not upwards. Killing stuff is the slowest xp rates, so after completing most map objectives you'd naturally gravitate to the next zone. The HUD will also push you towards unexplored areas.

[@snakeman830]

Experience scales with level and loot partially does. I say "partially" because you can still get some low-level loot in starter zones at level 80. This is all intentional, as they want max level players to still have reasons to play in earlier zones, and those lower level zones are the best place to get the lower-tier crafting materials to start a new profession or to make the ascended/legendary gear..

[@Jonathan-fw6ty]

Killing stuff that hasn't been killed in a while, such as random yellow mobs, is the fastest way to level up. The fuck you mean slowest xp rates? lol

[@michaelcoffey1991]

@Preach this is one of the videos I ALWAYS wanted and NEVER thought Id see. I look so forward to your thoughts on this gem of a mmo who gets almost no help from its publisher for people to come fall in love with it

[@reapercushions]

Me and a friend entered into gw2 blind less than 2 weeks ago. Sine then, about 40hrs gametime and I reckon an equivalent amounts of watching youtube guides, we're full immersed in the rabbit hole. I haven't been drawn into an mmo in this manner since starting wow vanilla. This is So well made. Very happy it came to steam and showed up in my discivery queue.

[@haiuuu7]

Hero points are a progression thing, the more you unlock them the more builds you have access to on PVE and WvW. In sPVP(ranked) you have access to everything from the gecko depending on your expansions. I had same problem with "My Story" but I think Living World 1 gets way better XD

[@cas6382]

I started GW2 a few months ago since I wanted to play something different and was honestly surprised by how much I enjoyed it especially the further I went into the story. The MSQ functions a lot like FFXIV by unlocking more features the farther you go and while I found it pretty weak I got more into by the end of the first expansion Heart of Thorns. I recently hit max Mastery Rank which means I basically had to do a bit of everything and I by far enjoy the meta map events and the Strike missions which are like the FFXIV extremes.

[@bailz5277]

The later game events will chain into bigger events that will unlock vendors for you. This is my favorite MMO. Thanks for covering!

[@arrxzon]

over here from seeing teatime, this should be a fun watch. kinda wish there was more commentary from the stream as an experienced player I love hearing the true first experience, but still very well put together on the voice over

[@jordanuecker7744]

I just picked this game a week ago and I’ve been so impressed. It’s been my first online game I’ve felt no pressure or stress. It’s almost like playing an MMO Ubisoft game (I typed this in as you said it). I used to put a lot of stock into wows gear progression thinking there is no other way. It TRUELY feels like you are free to experiment and do wtf you want to reach the end goal

[@StoneEdges]

Welcome to the game! You probably found this answer already but most trophies are tied to those heart shape quests/tasks and once you've completed them you can just delete/sell them! There is so much amazing multiplayer content in this game that I can only imagine that if you already really like the core games content, you'll be head over heals with it once you start playing the expansions! You strike me as someone who loved figuring out but if there is some stuff you'd love to understand a little faster, don't be a stranger! Have a great time!

[@ShakeyMac18]

I am excite for this series.

[@Killem911]

So good to see a fellow Neocron player (which was my very first MMO!)

[@otone7seven]

Glad you're enjoying GW2! Hopefully we can show you more of the WvW at peak times. Something I always return to. Great game

[@refreshazure]

Thank you for giving the the game a try so many people base what they think about GW2 based on 8+ year old misconception and not what the Guild wars 2 grew into now.

[@Tessa_Ru]

I'm glad you started this game, I played it a bit last year and then put it down and forgot about it. Picked it up again when you started your streams lol

[@asdasdasd9269]

Stuff I dont understand why it wasnt stolen by every other MMO outthere: 1. Combo fields - Have you spells interact with others spells is like the coolest most intricate way of cooperating ever! 2. Fractals - Small dungeons usually with puzzles where mind matters more than gear. 3. Jumping puzzles - Because reasons. 4. Map completion - Another nice minigame in the game that takes you vonderous places you had otherwise not seen.

[@wyvernkraehe6879]

This is a wonderful review. The 'trash' sold by some Gold Heart NPCs can become important much latter down the line. Either as something that can be used when crafting something or something that needs to be picked up when trying to complete an achievement. Emphasize completely with the UI frustration! I really enjoy playing GW2 but it is endlessly frustrating that I can't modify it at all so the location of the skills makes sense to me and to make it easier to do combat while keeping an eye on things. The loot spam can be a bit confusing at first. For most trophies, you can sell trophies you have (They are logged in your achievements if they are a collectable and you don't need to keep it anyway)- and destroy the ones that were meant for gold heart quests that you already completed. There are some story missions later on (after you finish your primary story missions) that introduce you to more of the multiplayer stuff, but you can join in them at any time. There is also World vs World and PvP that you can join by selecting the icons at the top left of the screen and going. The voice actor is gender and species dependent. if you change your species y our voice actor will change.

[@mier0]

Forever mourning Wildstar, it was really special in it's own way where one guy turned his housing plot into an entire fucking city

[@iSouleyx]

absolutely rip to a good game that was so poorly mismanaged and plagued with bugs.

[@styxzero1675]

Wildstar was too ahead of it's time honestly, if it was released today it would have been a huge success.

[@hurpdurp916]

Wildstar was tragic for sure, I adored so much about that game. I hate that it was never truly given a chance to shine.

[@cattysplat]

NCsoft is brutal to their MMOs that don't make enough money. RIP City of Heroes, Tabula Rasa, Aion, Auto Assualt, Dungeon Runners.

[@iSouleyx]

Honestly, my only hope is someone sees how the medic healed in WildStar and recreates that. I've honestly never had as much fun healing in any other game than that.

[@musicandaffection6363]

14:00 Learning to manage your inventory is something youtube videos helped me with. Even in the good ol maplestory days there was no tutorial on managing your inventory. It's just something you either learn yourself or you look up methods. I'm a recently new player also.

[@icy8868]

I really enjoy watching your gw2 content, looking forward to your thought on endgame.

[@synmad3638]

I'm really surprised to hear you didn't like the UI, it's always been one of my favorites (and I'm a zoomer)

[@WoWRefugee]

OMG the UI is soooo terrible! It's been probably the most off-putting part of the game for me and is pretty close to ruining playing the game for me!

[@abdosssupardi8676]

yes, one of the selling point for me bc UI

[@wazzupwceend]

I like the UI, i even use it in WoW

[@Themostfluffiest]

@@WoWRefugee Talk about melodramatic

[@warhammerguy]

12:50 When it comes to the UI design i will take the old school rpg window design with dirt and grime on it anyday over the sleek and clean but soulless overused ui design we see in almost every modern triple A game, live service or ubisoft game. PS: 15:20 the very first merchant in the zone you start in has a bag merchant that only sells bags and you can buy better bags from npcs as you progress through the game aside from making them yourself.

[@snozbucket]

I agree. I don't understand why some games now obscure the actual game while changing certain settings. Not everything has to look "Elvui" Even given wow's redesign you can still say it's as tacky as the day they launched it if you're not into that sort of design but GW2 ui is solid and uniform whilst being clear what options do.

[@a.r.1611]

I love the GW2 UI, I ran the mod that transforms the WoW UI into the GW2 one for a good while

[@HizzerPeews]

Speaking of voice actors, the female Sylvari player character is voiced by Jennifer Hale who also voiced FemShep in Mass Effect. She performs well and made the story more bearable. I'm glad I'm not the only person who doesn't vibe with female Norn.

[@Orthus100]

Haven't played for years and I still have "I'm fast as the wind" stuck in my head.

[@kxmode]

Your GW2 videos are genuinely fascinating to watch from my perspective of having played GW2 since launch (actually, since the third Beta Weekend Event between July 20-22, 2012). 🙂

[@ZianaSue]

Most trophies can be sold to vendors with the "sell junk" button (heart NPCs are good for this as they are more convenient than going to a city to find a usable merchant), others are actually event items and can either be turned into the event npc the next time that specific event is active or discarded. As far as inventory management goes that is where crafting comes into play, there are a few crafting jobs that can make bags are varying sizes. Making your own bags, although can be expensive if you don't have the materials (should be stocking up on these as you play using the "deposit material" button in the inventory), it's not as expensive as buying the bags (the biggest bags are 32-slot). Note: regarding bags: some bags are called invisible bags because anything you put in them is considered invisible. The game won't sort items in them, won't salvage anything in them, won't sell anything from them, won't show those bags when in the trading post sell window, and won't deposit anything in them into the bank (via the deposit materials button). Everything you do with items in invisible bags has to be done manually. The GW2 story gets better towards lvl 30 when the personal story and the three orders (vigil, priory, and whispers) stories start to combine into the true main story of GW2 (Essentially from the beginning of the Zhaitan (an Elder Dragon) chapter). The story at the beginning of GW2 is essentially an introduction to: - your character - how they started making a name for themself - your comrades - the starter enemies

[@aidanfenton4377]

bad advice, the trophies that he is very likely referring to are quest items from heart NPCs which he CANT sell, best advice is to just delete them from your inventory, if you have enough of them and they are account bound you can transfer them to another character to instantly complete the heart NPC for them

[@ZianaSue]

​@@aidanfenton4377 Like I said "most trophies can be sold" as junk to vendors. Some can't, and those are usually event items or miscellaneous trophies (some of which are part of collections). In my 5 years are gw2 gameplay experience, it's close to an 75% (sellable trophies) - 25% (non-sellable trophies) split. At the lower levels, the majority of trophies are junk items that can be sold or discarded.

[@khorrenfae8824]

Pretty fair first day impressions! It's been a blast watching you play and you figuring stuff out. As far as the racial stories go in the beginning, it's really hit or miss whether you get a good one or a silly one. But hey, this is why a lot of the community has tons of alts, so you can see all the parts of the personal story :D Anyone watching and thinking of trying it out, please do, and please get invovled with the community! Lots of friendly, helpful people!

[@TangoFormica]

Because I've never played WoW I've never gotten a chance of seeing your content. Finally, I can hop in the wagon! Enjoy your time in gw2, thanks for giving it a chance

[@agamersinsanity]

Preach you did the right thing to try it out. I played since the beta and I enjoyed it a lot..

[@styxzero1675]

The reason peoples don't do the normal dungeons that often is because they are quite bad, they feel very outdated for gw2 today. But once you get to max level you unlock fractals which is like mythic+ in world of warcraft that is when group content start to get good. You got raids (that are very challenging), fractals, pvp, world bosses/events and certain lesser version of raids.

[@mugszy7101]

Dude. Finally. Welcome aboard!

[@CrystronHalq]

GW2 is one of those MMOs that is unique. Most of the things they do, you dont find in other MMOs. Its refreshing. It truly stands out within the Genre. And me having finished HoT (1st expansion) recently, I can say without question that GW2 has fully grabbed me now and provided me with some of the most unique experiences within the Genre. Somebody like me who has played MMOs for longer than 15 years and still getting surprised, excited and challenged by MMOs on a consistent basis? HoT did just that. Never thought that would be possible. Youre in for a wild ride. Awesome video Mike, looking forward to more GW2 content!

[@NoggDogYT]

Welcome to GW2, Preach! Hope you enjoy your stay.

[@21vicroy58]

My condolences for destiny 2 being on the list. My friend and I tried to jump back in after a good while, it was an absolute mess on what to do and where to go.

[@NeisanMo.]

I only hope that he's brutally honest how fucked the "New Player Experience" is for him and literally anybody else who decides to play the game. Imo that game is litered with issues from it's foundation to the Endgame.

[@Sirium100]

Interesting to see that you did not like the UI, i really love the UI in gw2^^ never wished for any addons for that tbh unlike in wow

[@arykaas]

For the Reveneant Class, is a specific case for the utility skills (toolbar 6 through 0, at the right of healthbar). Every other classes can mix and match theirs with anything unlocked (through the Hero points). Revenant get the utility skills of the legends its currently on, but in exchange they get a second set of Utilities in combat by switching legend. on the Heart quests and Chaining Events : as you progress in the game and reach higher level zones (and later expansions/Living world zones), You'll encounter Zone wide, Meta events, that consist on multiple chaining events. As an example (without spoilers) : the 1rst zone of Heart of thorns, the 1rst expansion, is on a 1h30 Day/night cycle. You have 45 mins of day to complete events all over the map to create defense points, then 25 min of night "Defense" of these points, then 20 mins of night "Boss-rush"-style events. If everyone does well on the whole night-part of the cycle, everyone who participated get more loot as reward at the END of it. All content after the Base game transition to some manner of this style of cyclic Meta-Events. For the Story, we have a case of FF14-ARR ... the Base game Personal story is not that good. It has good, some even touching moments (Tybalt), but overall pretty meh. It gets better with the expansions. Also the VERY early story is race dependant ... maybe you are just not feeling the Norn stuff :)

[@XODuke]

map completion was my favourite thing to do in the base game i loved every moment of it !

[@tangentkatz]

It's been fun watching Mike discover GW2. I have such a weird relationship with this game: it's the most fun game I forget exists. Anytime I play it, I love my time in it and wish other MMOs learned from its systems. But then I don't login again...for months. For some reason it just doesn't grab me. I have no emotional connection to my character or the story like FFXIV or SWTOR, but I also don't have the group content/healing throughout leveling that I do in WoW, or the nostalgia factor in ESO. I don't know what they could do better because it's fun...and forgettable for some reason.

[@scottbarnett3566]

That’s exactly how i felt when it launched

[@anonamarth4291]

I think a big part of that is probably the fact that there's no sub forcing you to play constantly or consistently in order to stay up to date with gearing and whatnot.

[@hoarahloux9326]

A Info about the heart quests, in the basegame they only sell trash, but as soon s u go to the 1st addon nd living Story they are worth to check

[@anonamarth4291]

Eh, they sell some useful items. The accessories are good if you've got karma from a high-level character and are buying them on a low-level character.

[@DawnChatman]

The world boss (Dragon) events were always my fav thing to do in GW2. There are some area's (like elite events) that are almost impossible to solo if no one else is around that comes to help. I played on launch so it was more WoW like where we had to follow zone levels... watching this makes me want to jump back in and run through with another character.

[@SpanishProgressive]

It’s crazy how much better the new content is than the starter zone stuff, but it’s good to see that it still kinda holds up.