My full Guild Wars 2 review l A Final Fantasy 14 Player's Perspective.

I have reached end game in guild wars 2 so here is my final review
#guildwars2 #gw2
Social Media:
Twitter: / mm0_sky
Twitch: / mmosky

[@chimeraarts4635]

I played gw2 for six years as my main mmo, from 2012 to 2018, found my passion in raiding and (self-made) challenges. CM, speedruns, low-man clears, in the last few years I was even in a 'seller guild' where we did raid clears with 7-8 of our own people and carried 2-3 deadweights through the content in exchange for gold. I moved to ffxiv more or less when gw2 started phasing out raids (there was more than a year when nothing new was coming out, we just did the same 5 raid wings every week and my group was beyond burnt out). I have returned briefly when they released the last two wings, played the story on and off up to End of Dragons and by that point I was just so spoiled on Shb storytelling that the EoD story felt shallow and empty. So, as a 'hardcore' raider who doesn't have the schedule to hold down a static anymore and does his raiding primarily in PF, I'm now coming up on my sixth year in ffxiv and I don't see myself ever going back. There are a lot of things I love in gw2 and even more things I wish I could love as much as I want to, but ultimately they are mismanaged or fall short in ways that I can't enjoy anymore. This is going to be anecdotal, from EU and about 5 years out of date, but I'm glad you found a way to dip into gw2's raids with a helpful group (I heard things improved a lot once the community moved to discord) because it used to be the most rancid, horrible black hole of a community I have ever encountered and I have cleared DSR in party finder. Having all those wings concurrently and the incentive to keep clearing them all every week - for the gold, for the rare skins, to constantly gear out other classes - fostered an insane level of toxic min-maxing in the group finder, because the weekly clear still easily took up to 3 hours even with optimal dps and no breaks. To even get into a group you had to prove that you have already done the content, with two separate tokens - at least 150-200 LIs OR a full legendary armor set to prove that you were an experienced raider and the boss-specific 'kill proofs' which were these rarely used materials for like guild hall statues OR titles from the CMs - and even if you managed to get into the group you still needed to have 2-4 fully geared meta-compatible characters and god forbid you stumbled in your rotation because someone would keep an eye on the dps meter and kick you if you if you didn't perform high enough. I remember clearing the last wing the week it came out, but not having luck with the kill proof. The last boss dropped between one and three tokens at the time and I only got one - and every week 2 group demanded at least two, because it was 'harder to fake it' that way (there was this complicated 'test of authenticity' where they demanded that you split and merge stacks as you were instructed and had to ping the items really quickly). I think that was the moment where gw2's 'hardcore' content died for me once and for all. All of that toxicity, all those hoops to jump through and for what? Something that was maybe as complex as a slightly higher end EX (my go to comparison is on release Seat of Sacrifice EX, I don't think any of gw2's raids get any harder than that even at a CM level). I occasionally check in with my friends still playing to see what they are doing with strikes, but honestly? Nothing I have heard made me even a little tempted to go back. Especially with that whole ass shitshow around Cerus CM recently.

[@MMO-SKY]

Ahh a fellow 14 enjoyer I spent 4 years in ff14 up until last year myself and have also cleared dsr with zepla. Can't imagine trying to pf a ultimate so hard off to you for being able to do that. yes I have heard the stories oh how hard it is to get into raiding ...it still kinda is. Only reason I went through the trouble is because I am a content creator and wanted to include the experience in this video. If I were just a normal player not making videos I wouldn't touch raiding in this game honestly too much jank and wayyyy to difficult to find a group for something that is normal mode difficulty from 15 at best

[@etiennepot8475]

on w2 first boos the camera zoom because the tunnel behind you colapse when you start the boss forcing the camera to go to the edge of the rumble/ edge of the boss arena, this is not a bug , it does not happen if your camera is angled differently.

[@NotSeregnar]

Great review, I think you hit all the most important bits! As someone who only ever really does open world stuff this really does feel like the most rewarding MMO, but like you said, some of the bugs and monetization decisions can be grating. I'm also an altoholic, and going through the story instances multiple times is...not always fun... I need to try WvW though. I hear you can get lots of transmutation charges from that. I'm a PvP coward across all games, but I think I could maybe make for a decent zergling.

[@TaLa7aMcHo]

About W2. Actually its not a bug. Its just that the wall behind you closes and camera cant go behind it. So it's not a bug!

[@Geronmy]

The dude i've done w2 with always tells us to stack in a place so the camera doesn't get funky on us and so far i haven't seen it.

[@MMO-SKY]

It's terrible design regardless

[@graqon_4400]

if that means thats intentional camera behaviour, makes it worse tbh

[@MMO-SKY]

@@graqon_4400 exactly I would rather it be a actual bug lol

[@Baelikor]

When my fps drops in WvW, it's helpful because it drops for a moment and that tells me a lot of players are nearby and it's wise to assume they're the enemy. Silent warning to ensure head is on a swivel

[@Nex123]

17:08, it's not a bug. It's your camera angle. When the boss starts, there's a "wall" that spawns which blocks you in, and your camera won't allow you to view through walls. That's why your camera angle seems zoomed in. If you turn it 180 degree and fight, you won't have that problem

[@MMO-SKY]

Ah gotcha well it's still not the greatest design to raids in other mmos

[@DocOverlord]

@@MMO-SKY The camera of Guild Wars 2 is it's own unique brand of annoying weirdness. It's particularly "fun" on jumping puzzles (one of several reasons I try to avoid those puzzles lol) It's definitely not one of the strong points of a mostly very entertaining MMO.

[@jakeb019]

Did you do any PvP? Curious what your thoughts were on that. Thanks for the vid

[@MMO-SKY]

i love the pvp in this game compared to other mmos i rate it top 3

[@battlebots1]

Personally have never ran into those story bugs you mentioned

[@MMO-SKY]

I did more than mention it. I provided footage of it happening and a source from the games wiki stating a player work around for the one on end of dragons

[@battlebots1]

@@MMO-SKY I wasn't saying you were lying! It's just really unfortunate that you and others have encountered bugs. I'm glad to not have had that experience.

[@v8rockz]

But WVW lacks the most and Anet gives a f.. Nice video, thx.

[@ryukjoga]

Man, taht's weird. I guess i never had those bugs, it all went fine for me. You can actually get lost but bugs? It's very rare...

[@MMO-SKY]

@@ryukjoga the experience from what I'm told is very random some people play the whole game and experience nothing and some like myself experience bugs in the main story of the game. What I can tell you is that the game has a list of 1,000 unfixed bugs currently in the game listed on the games wiki

[@MMO-SKY]

wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_bugs right here

[@ryukjoga]

@@MMO-SKY Thanks, i'll check it out! I believe you, but i'm quite surprised. I've noticed some minor bugs, but for the scale of the game, i think it's in a quite good state

[@dewilton7712]

I have played through the stories multiple times over the years. I did not have any bugs. Someone is doing something they shouldn't be doing to break the stories. The open world does have some bugs for sure but it is rare.

[@MMO-SKY]

No I simply played the game and encountered bugs in the story ....also stories shouldn't even be breakable in the first place..try to break the story in ff14 ....you can't it's impossible lol ....also someone just informed me in my discord that they experienced bugs in living world season 4 when I did not so there seems to be some rng involved with what bugs you experience in this game

[@PrypeciowyHovnozer]

how the hell a player is supposed to know what they should and shouldn't do? do players need to have background in software testing, level design before picking up the game? and what kind of business do you have in defending poorly made story quests?

[@MisterNo1111]

I agree on all wot you say. Open World and WvWvW are soooo good and fun. One if not the most enjoyable content i have had in GW2 wos playing trou achievement 'Retourne to' (i belive its named). Just before End of Dragons relised it wos deleyed fue times and thay gave us this achievement with great reward {[(LEGY AMULET)]} . Its play trou whole GW2 story while doing bunch of achievements on each mup and story step. Lots of players where doing it and wos really cool exp...definitlly recomending for all. It opened the Legendary jurney for me. 🕊🐣🕊

[@ajbackfromthedead]

Have you tried Strikes?

[@MMO-SKY]

Yes they are pretty good but I didn't enjoy them more than the other things I liked about guild wars 2 so I didn't include them in the video.

[@NikeGipple]

I have to admit that I haven't followed your whole journey but from some of the phrases and behaviors seen in this video I feel like I didn't quite understand what a horizontal progression is for you @mmosky. I ask because a lot of the feelings I hear expressed don't seem in line some times with what the game proposes.

[@MMO-SKY]

I did not speak about horizontal progression in the video so not sure what you are referring to.

[@ZettaSlow]

As soon as you said the camera get pulled. I didn't like the sound of that..

[@MMO-SKY]

Yea it's awful raid design honestly lol

[@xoawolf]

Having played GW2 since it's beta, ya I completely agree with all your points. It's a solid game, but it has its issues. For W2 Slothazor boss, it's not that your camera zooms in necessarily, it's that a wall spawns behind you (to stop you from just running out). And since it's a wall, your camera is forced closer to your character, much like any wall would do in a 3rd person game.

[@RedNuii]

Living world seasons are sold in a pack on the gem store and apply a 15% discount when purchased in a bundle. Whereas the hero panel is individual episodes so you pay full price. Raiding is different but Preachlfw from WoW played them and said he really enjoyed them and some of their encounters were really great however the ups and downs in difficulty as he progressed through the various wings caused some awkwardness throughout his clear of the raids because some where easier and harder than expected, it was a really randomized difficulty scale. Polish is one thing the game has been neglected for years but hoping the new release model will be able to produce better polished features. We will truly see the outcome of the new release structure in expansion 5. ALSO I LIKE GREEN BAR FILLING

[@MMO-SKY]

This i understand but why not remove it from the hero panel and sell them as a full pack in the gem store only ...this would cause way less confusion..instead of you having to charge more for individual episodes.

[@KuroSy]

@@MMO-SKY since it's possible to convert gold into gems, a lot of people used to farm gold and then buy one episode, then farm again and buy next. Other people not interested in having the whole expansion just wanted map X because it was easier to get ascended trinkets there. Having the single episodes is super handy. But they should really add clarity about the exhistance of a bundle discount. Anyway the loss is little because the bundles are going to update themselves calculating based on how many episodes you unlocked already.

[@warlocksm1]

@@MMO-SKY There is one more reason. If you have been in game when episode of living world is current you got it for free, so there is a lot of people who got few episodes of season for free and only need 1 or 2 episodes. For them its cheaper to buy individual episode than to buy bundle.

[@MMO-SKY]

@@warlocksm1 yes I have heard this reasoning before and while this is great for people that have been playing a while this isn't really something that applies to new players unfortunately

[@Deadperson94]

I usually don't comment, but I just wanted to say I appreciate the review. GW2 is definitely a good game in a lot of respects, but it has plenty of downsides as well. While I personally have rarely run into any bugs, it is true that many others do, and it is a major pain point in the community. I have played almost all of the major MMOs, and somehow GW2 is the one that works the best for me. Your ending is also very accurate. If you like horizontal progression, this is one of the absolute best MMOs for you. Here's to hoping they keep getting better with time!

[@MMO-SKY]

For sure I really hope they improve in the future

[@henseltbrumbleburg3752]

I adore this game, it's for sure my choice of MMO and I completely agree with you on the story bs, the no checkpoints and the jank, causing you to restart instances, I've wasted so many hours to that bullshit. The past few expansions have been dipping on the story, super light and very weak. But I disagree about the MTX, this is hands down the best value for money MMO and consumer friendly (for sure not perfect, i.e. the build templates). I was able to enjoy the game for months without buying EoD (Just couldn't afford it at that time, not because I didn't want it.) There's still plenty to do, you don't need the new stuff, unless you're into PvP then you could say with the specs, but the strongarming is very fair compared to what other games do. yeah LFG sucks. Wish it could be more like a server browser that focuses on getting people grouped up, like in the private server Warhammer RoR. That group finder is great. I play this game for convenience, I can pick it up, play whenever I want, always stuff to do and the build craft is awesome.

[@MesmerAloofly]

Popularity does not equal quality

[@MMO-SKY]

Depends on the game hell divers 2 and pal world did Amazing and those are high quality great games Made by fantastic developers which lead to them becoming super popular

[@joshuahng1]

Gw2👏👍🔥

[@joaomachado9105]

Super fair review, as a long term GW2 player i agree with pretty much everything you said

[@Geronmy]

This was more fair than i was anticipating. Good review overall, would be great but you didn't shit in transmutatiom charges /s.

[@MMO-SKY]

You are right I forgot about those when I was making the video ...I could have said a lot more but I didn't want a 40 minute video lolol

[@Nuh]

He was doing WVW and transmutation charges rain in there. Not needed in PVE once you have legendary gear, too. But yeah, for new players, its a bit of a trap.

[@wolfstadt_]

Left FF14 for GW2 and could never go back

[@MMO-SKY]

Ff14 is giga boring once you clear all the ultimate raids and guild wars 2 has way to many damn bugs 20 bugs fine whatever....but 1000 bugs I'm sorry but I can't tolerate that so I'm either waiting for throne and liberty or ashes of creation or the riot MMO in 10 years lol

[@periltanbir2162]

Man I can't even get angry at u those r the things i also hate. A very good review 👍.

[@MMO-SKY]

appreciate it

[@kiratastic7048]

Sorry but I just can’t get behind your PvP in open world take. There are plenty of people out there who hate PvP (myself included) and as such stick to PvE modes. To see PvP infiltrate it would be majorly upsetting.

[@MMO-SKY]

Yea that's fine I know a lot of pve players would get upset and that's fine. It's just something I prefer to make it more fun. Nothing wrong with disagreeing with that take as that one is just personal preference

[@alancode2147]

The only negative thing I disagree with is your complaint of the gem system. The other stuff yeah I agree and some ppl can take it or leave, but I think the gem system is fine. You buy the whole season on the store. You buy chapter by chapter in the journal. If you were playing actively when they were released they were free, so some people may have only missed 1 chapter for example and don't need to buy the whole thing. So I think that's more just bad design of it not discounting in the journal based on how many of the chapters you are missing so that they come out the same. Also, I think the bag slots thing is just personal preference they're not required, but at the same time. You said you play FFXIV and you have to pay to keep access to a game you already bought so... =) I don't think you considered that the game is free to play each month and only required a one time purchase. At the worst rate of conversion, for every $15 you spend on FFXIV you can buy at least 1 bag slot worth of gems if you wanted to, something to consider.

[@MMO-SKY]

sure over a lonnng period of time 14 is more expensive . The whole it was free on release argument doesn't apply to a new player unfortunately since ...they are new. Out the gate it cost me 180 dollars for all the living world seasons and all expansions in my first two months of guild wars 2. in your first two months in 14 you are spend nothing since the free trail is 300 hours of content and the first two expansions are free. Remember this is the new player experience i am comparing not the veteran experience.

[@alancode2147]

@@MMO-SKY you can do 300 hours of content without doing the living world seasons though, so that's still not an apple to apple comparison. If you are going to quantify your review to just a new players perspective of the story content that's one thing, but you didn't say that.

[@MMO-SKY]

@@alancode2147 I did say in the video I have 300 hours of play time in the video which in a mmo as I'm sure you know is no where close enough to be considered the opinion of a veteran. I'll be more direct about that next time I appreciate the feed back

[@alancode2147]

@@MMO-SKY I'm saying you didn't say you were comparing specifically the story in each. Otherwise you don't need to buy the living world stuff at all. You're comparing buying all that stuff to the ff14 free trial which isn't a fair comparison. It's not mandatory.

[@MMO-SKY]

@@alancode2147 if you want to experience the entire mmo and all the systems in gw2 it is absolutely mandatory, how would you even level mounts or do the other strikes without the full game which includes the expansions?

[@darkwindwaver]

9:05 to be clear, you don’t have to back all the way out or repeat anything. you just have to leave the story instance and reenter (relog on the character). It's not a workaround that players found, it's just using the existing checkpoint system that devs implemented in other words, you could go there right now and continue from that last room

[@MMO-SKY]

Yes I said this in the video.

[@MMO-SKY]

As for it being a " check point system" that's certainly not what the guild wars 2 wiki said it's literally there classified as a bug in red text.

[@darkwindwaver]

@@MMO-SKY Oh, it definitely is a bug. I just wanted to make clear that the "workaround" is just leaving and reentering the mission and it puts you back in that last room.

[@TheGreenDeath8914]

As a fellow raider, I do wonder why you speak negatively of them. There are several long-term and short-term goals that raids offer. 1) Magnetite Shards, a currency used to buy ascended gear with any stats you want. 2) Weekly Mystic Clover purchase for Magnetite Shards. 3) Legendary Armor (Perfected Envoy armor) is a great goal to grind raids for. 4) Coalescence, a legendary ring. 5) Liquid Gold and other valuable things are good rewards from raids and a reason why players come back to raids every week. The combat system is so good it can pull the weight of badly designed encounters by a huge margin. Personally fell in love with raids years ago and am enjoying speedclearing for nearly two years now, getting a smooth and fast clear, applying advanced compositions and strategies is a ton of fun for me. Not everyone's cup of tea of course but also not necessary, even a simple weekly clear with a static group is faster and more fun compared to pick-up groups. The LFG system is bad, sure, and the NA Server is less alive compared to EU for multiple reasons, for example America is operating on a wide range of time zones and therefore busy-hours don't align for all players well.

[@TheGreenDeath8914]

The Slothasor camera isn't a bug, the arena is closed off by rubble falling behind the squad, which is why the camera adjusts to the new tarrain behind you. This is kind of on you, just place the camera differently and it won't be first person anymore.

[@MMO-SKY]

@@TheGreenDeath8914 dont misunderstand i dont speak negatively of them just nothing unique stands out for me when it comes to the raid design . its just if you are coming from lost ark or ff14 you are going to have high standards when it comes to that that doesnt mean they are bad though . as for the wall thing yes others have told me thats not a bug but rather its just bad design . you could just ...not have a wall there ...there is zero reason a player should be required to adjust his camera at the start of any fight ...to avoid intentional design by the devs if that makes sense

[@donkunes8630]

then don't play it ..guess we all can't be gems

[@luismatheu4496]

Bro with all respect but if filling a green bar for story quest in GW2 is nothing compare to FF14 story from 1-60 i just finish it and is the worse story by far compare to any other MMO super boring, slow and repetitive in paper u are saving the world but in gameplay u just running around doing the same thing for 60lvs.

[@MMO-SKY]

Hard disagree heavensward expansion in 14 is peak and made me sub to the game. But you are entitled to your opinion of course

[@MMO-SKY]

Saying ff14 has the worst story in any mmo is nasty work when that's what the MMO is known for and one of the reason is It sits behind wow for the number two spot in terms of popularity That's like me saying guild wars 2 open world is ass ....when that's literally what it's known for and it's mounts of course ...be fr lol

[@alancode2147]

@@MMO-SKY Harry Potter made JK Rowling the richest woman in the UK, but that doesn't mean everyone has to agree the story is good. I think her stories are all F tier, but that's because the genre, writing style, and concept just didn't sit with me. I don't like the questing 1-40ish (where I stopped) in FF14 either. The story is "you're saving the world", but a lot of the quests are "run over here and talk". Between that and seeing dudes running around with bunny ears, just isn't my thing. Glad others enjoy it and that's why there's several MMO's. I'm also not certain that FFXIV is actually behind WoW unless you add WoW retail + Classic + Season of Discovery, which are all basically different games at this point. It's kind of like adding GW 1 players with the GW 2 players to get their total players.

[@Yaeshi]

its good u didnt make it to SoTo xD ..... release story is mid at best and the rest of the releases are dogshit

[@MMO-SKY]

Yea so I've heard

[@Yaeshi]

@@MMO-SKY and every single one of those post releases have the "favorite" green bar at least once xD

[@MMO-SKY]

@@Yaeshi lol wonderful

[@angrypancake4358]

I mean, If anyone thinks FF14 is better than GW2, then he is objectively wrong.

[@MMO-SKY]

You know what.... I got time today.... my next video will be specifically for you..... "Please look forward to it"

[@angrypancake4358]

@@MMO-SKY Alright then. Looking forward to debunk it. And its not really, that I think GW2 is just an awesome game, rather I think FF14 is really bad.

[@Duneadah]

Sadly GW2s every new xpac just gets worse and worse :(

[@bilaliqbal4012]

the scale was expectedly to be smaller this time around as intended because they changed the expansion model. smaller but quicker expansion (as in 1 expansion per year rather than 1 per like.. 4-5 years) but the quality did indeed drop.. Really at Nayos. i'm not worried about the scale.. but the Quality through-out.

[@Duneadah]

@@bilaliqbal4012 I dotn mind the scale (even though every patch was like 1h long... rly. BUT the quality was eh. If it wa sbig xpac they could have done so much more / make it so much more interesting

[@Loki6669Alpha]

“I wish the meta event bosses had openworld pvp” Most L take I’ve ever seen. Go back to your flavor of the month dying MMORPGs please.

[@MMO-SKY]

okay

[@dragonspit77]

GW2 cannot even compare to FF14. GW2 is so trash and boring and uninspired. If anyone was thinking about trying the game I suggest playing FF14 since it does everything GW2 does better and then some.

[@johanphilip5067]

lol, sure.

[@sleepinganarchy3486]

the combat is garbage

[@kaelinvictus6039]

does everything better including pvp? I have never seen anyone praise the pvp in 14 OmegaLul

[@Dark_Wizard_of_Mu]

GW2 is a dead game, graphics is ugly and outdated, the endgame is just gold grind, and fashion is you just make your toon an ugly bright shiney gross mess.

[@MMO-SKY]

im not broke ....what gold grind? lol