The Shocking State of Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars 2 is an award-winning online roleplaying game with fast-paced action combat, deep character customization, and no subscription fee required. As promised, I have sunk a few hours into this MMORPG to give my first impression and the state of the game. Enjoy.
{0:00} Intro to Guild Wars 2
{1:50} GW2 Gameplay
{6:05} Is Guild Wars 2 a Social MMO?
{8:30} GW2 PVP
{10:20} GW2 Monetization
{15:00} GW2 Community
{17:20} Guild Wars 3?
{18:10} Final Thoughts
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Guild Wars 2 / Guild Wars 2 Review / GW2 in 2023 / GW2 Review / MMORPG Review

[@sawmanUK]

Reminder: 1069 Likes to Review the first Guild Wars!

[@humblebee1895]

I loved Guild Wars! It was my first mmo. I did try GW2, twice, but bounced off it both times. I'd love to see how GW is doing these days.

[@FoundaPeanut]

I made it to level 80 in less than 48 hours, got a guild mate to make me some ridiculous gear, now I’m a human thief working towards deadeye. Thanks for your previous video.

[@jordansims7838]

Guild Wars 1 was amazing. It was an entire experience. Underrated but such a large player base. Worth while expansions. I don't think anything will ever come close because it was just 1 of those games at the right place at the right time with the right playerbase.

[@trancendentresurrextion8720]

spent $10k to get this certain item to upgrade a ring in PWI and i haven't gotten one yet. You guys don't know loot crates like that game, this item to get it has a 0.00001% chance btw and it's how some players have spent over 400 thousand u.s dollar in it xD

[@jordansims7838]

@@trancendentresurrextion8720 perfect world international?

[@jeankirchstein2552]

Fun fact: the reason the game is called guild wars is because in the lore the human race were split up into fractions called guilds and fought amongst each other

[@TwelveTables]

Lore drop for those who care: Humans arrive in Tyria. Humans establish dominance with King Doric w/him being the one in charge of the world he chills with the 6 gods for fun. Then Abaddon (a god) starts freely gave out magic to everyone in 1BE (start of the modern calendar). Magic caused fighting so King Doric begged the other gods to take away magic. Instead, the other 5 gods split magic into 5 bloodstone and seal them in the largest volcano (now called Abaddon's Mouth). Abaddon didn't like this and he beats up 2 of the gods. In return the 5 gods group up and go power rangers on him. Thus sealing Abaddon in the realm of torment. This ultimately results in the exodus of the gods and the calanader swapping to 0AE (after exodus). About 100 years later, Abaddon's Mouth explodes sending the blood stones all over the world causing magic to seep into the world. The greed for these starts the guild wars. These last about 1000 years being split into 3 major wars. The first being the initial fight over the bloodstones. The second was fought between Ascalon and Kryta with Ascalon winning. And The third started in 1013 and involved all 3 fighting. The guild wars end in 1070AE with the Seering taking place. Which is the event that starts the game GW1. *edits for grammar and spelling*

[@jordansims7838]

Factions 😮

[@alchemxstxavier5225]

Stupid humans always gotta start wars

[@returnMarcco]

Sounds like our countries in the real world

[@xddTREExd]

so basicaly race wars

[@Tillionz]

Quick thing to mention, gw2 is a Western MMO made in the US not a Korean MMO.

[@TheExyle]

You say it's tedious to level. Wtf! This has got to be the easiest MMO to level up in. Literally everything you do gives xp.

[@brandoncreek5709]

You can literally hit max level in a day of doing the achievement journal. It's so easy a Norn could do it!

[@AdelinaMessina]

Agreed. New player here completed leveling in a weekend

[@K44ne]

@@brandoncreek5709as norn player im kinda offended lol

[@brandoncreek5709]

@krystianstefaniak2822 Don't worry I'm also a Norn player so I offended myself lol

[@hiiipowerbass2337]

You haven't played retail in a while I see haha

[@xezzee]

Correction to 4:18 The level 1 Story Mission can be started by anyone and when it has gone to far enough the door to the boss closes and stays closed until the boss is killed. You entered after the door had closed and had to wait until previous group killed the boss 👍 Your mission Literally was to wait for other people to kill the boss and I'm not even joking here! You could have gone afk until the door opens and then continued.

[@labdG]

As a veteran of GW2 who helps newbies in dungeons alot, I see way too often other veterans just run ahead and play like a speedrun. They are often used to farming the dungeons over and over so that's how they usually play. Even if they want to help new players they are so stuck in their veteran mindset that they can't seem to understand that the newer players should get to take their time and that it isn't fun for them if they can't understand what is happening. When I play dungeons with newbies I mostly play a healer build to help them stay alive while they figure out and get to do all the interesting stuff. I also explain certain mechaincs that can be hard to understand immediatly. But sometimes another veteran joins and they just turn it into a speedrun. That's how they always play and they can't understand that other players might want to enjoy their first time in a dungeon.

[@jordansims7838]

Did you ever play GW1 by any chance? Down to take on an apprentice?

[@labdG]

@@jordansims7838 An apprentice for GW1 or GW2? xD I have played a bit of GW1 (mostly Factions) but I'm not good at it.

[@BailOfTheVeil]

Hero

[@Faendryla]

I would love to meet someone like this in the game. Almost all dungeons it's just speedrunning and I'm sorta just stuck way behind. Really makes the dungeon not that fun.

[@jordansims7838]

@@labdG Apprentice in GW2 :D I've maybe put in 8 hours. Just got a PC again for the first time in about 12 years so there's a lot of catching up to do lol sorry for the very late reply. Personally I think Factions was the best GW1 campaign. Great choice on that

[@dew_b_dew]

GW2 is not at the end of its life cycle. The devs have always prioritized the buy to play approach. They just offer the base game for free since they have expansions to get a box price on. They are switching to more frequent dlc releases actually. Anet is kinda all in on GW2, they canceled other projects and put more focus on GW2.

[@R3s0n4te]

Too little too late imo, they let this game rot away due to neglect. It had so much more potential.

[@jsedge2473]

@@R3s0n4teAgreed, they're like a decade too late. Lost all the OG's.

[@madmagus7693]

You had many valid comments about the game. You did not mention one of the main reasons that I like GW2: Horizontal progression. I can take 6 months off, come back, and I will still be fully viable to play the game. I played WOW for 10 years and absolutely hated the constant gear grind. You never felt that you achieved your gear goal unless you played constantly, grinding, grinding, grinding. Then the next expansion hits, and here you go again.

[@madmagus7693]

Making a smart a.. response by name calling isn't making a valid response to my comment. It's just you being a tool. Your criticism of my reply doesn't even make sense. If you had any intelligence, you'd have realized that all I was doing was sharing my personal preference, my personal experience, not criticizing all of gaming.@@YannicFox943

[@bank869]

its the opposite for me gw horizontal is why i left gw2 and stick back to wow because i feel that i achive something

[@jdgual]

Mastery points is my stand-in for increasing level cap in other games. If I see someone who's not at 530MP (as of DEC 2023) , they're not at max level in my mind.@@bank869

[@Midaspl]

@@bank869I am sorry, but you achieved nothing in wow 😅

[@bank869]

what u think is not what i think. i felt like i achivement nothing in gw2 everything is like a large pool but too shallow. and i'm sry u achived nothing in gw2@@Midaspl

[@MrGhosty0091]

The first time I left ESO was to swap over to GW2 and I loved it. The game definitely isn't perfect and I would say that their decision to not have quests throughout the zones means you have to do a lot of the puttting the pieces together yourself which can be annoying. If you listen to NPC dialogue that plays around the renown hearts and what is said during the events it does actually tell you a full story but it's hard to find if you come in at a different point. For WvW you tend to get the best experience if you time your arrival to be just after the map resets (not sure on times anymore). You will see a mix of ball groups and small group/solos running around taking stuff. They're also in the process of redoing the server matching system to make more balanced fights and other optimizations. The bit I really liked about the PvP in this game is that as long as you play through the main story of each expansion/living world episode you unlock the reward track for those places in PvP. That means you can grind for the resources you need to craft stuff, get skins, etc by only engaging with your preferred mode of play. Additionally there are quite a few PvP centric items to grind for as well. WvW is one of those modes where when it works its really fun and time flies, but when it doesn't work it is just so tedious. It's also worth mentioning that GW2 might be one of the best games for casual play in the mmo space. Because they don't increase the level cap, gear you crafted up several years ago will still be usable when you jump back in. You'll still have to grind masteries to unlock the new, shiny stuff but you won't have to regrind your equipment to begin that chase. I'm with you on the monetization, especially after my time in ESO but I do tend to give them a lot of passes because theoretically everything can be acquired in game and their prices for the most part are pretty reasonable when you consider that there is no sub and prior to this latest expansion they regularly added content that was free if you were playing during the time it came out between expansions. Even this new model seems pro consumer, you buy the expansion once and they release content over the course of the year. Only time will tell if it pans out to be enough content or not but I'm hopeful. The open world content gets much more difficult in the expansion and living world zones, enemies have a lot of mechanics to dodge and are fairly punishing if you don't play your class well or try to take on stuff solo. You'll also need those expansions to unlock gliding (heart of thorns) and mounts (path of fire, End of Dragons, Secrets of the Obscure) as well as the elite specializations which create some really fun gameplay and are also very powerful. It's also very niche/nerdy, but the gameworld is one of the few I can think of where you have something like 300 years of history between GW1 and 2 and the places and characters from the first game show up in GW2 with impressive overlap. The most obvious being Ascalon and the site of the Searing, and the locations you can visit in GW2 do exist (for the most part) where they existed in the prior game only now they're ruins etc. It can make for some fun exploration looking at all these locations and then hopping into GW1 to see how they looked before. None of the references ruin the story you get in GW2, but they provide really fun "oh look! it's so and so" moments that give you a sense of history in the game. GW2 may not be for everyone, but IMO ANet are one of the best game devs out there for respecting player time and actually listening to their playerbase.

[@stargirl5194]

i honestly like more ESO guild wars looks so old they need to make GW3 in new engine

[@jgkitarel]

Oh, I agree that GW2 is very casual friendly, as well as friendly to returning players, due to it not having a gear treadmill and a nice lack of FOMO. There is some FOMO stuff, but if you miss it, it will often be back within a year. And the FOMO is often the seasonal stuff, which can be fun or not depending on the seasonal event and how you interpret it. I should note, GW2 is not the only MMO I play, there is another F2P MMO I play, and often more regularly (for now), but that's because I haven't gotten overly bored with it. Same could be said for GW2, but it is also a game I know I can put down and pick back up whenever I feel like it and miss nothing, meaning that new content, I can go back and enjoy it. Maybe continue to do so, as I did get a friend into the game, so we now play two games together online. As for the model they have done with the latest expansion and their intention to continue along those lines to give out expansions on an annual basis, time will tell on that. Of course, with all the content in the game, and the fact that you can go anywhere and do older content and it still be relevant, this might work well. It might not as well. But it is still in its early stage, so we won't know for sure on it for another year or so.

[@MMTechnicalGeek12]

Do you still play ESO? I currnetly play ESO as my main mmorpg and i am trying gw2 but it feels so slow to me at the start and the art is kinda bleh.... I have grown to like gw2 more as I really sat down and just played focusing on the quests but after the human quest where you kill that two sword man in the tavern it didnt really give me anywhere to go..

[@MrGhosty0091]

You'll get a story quest every ten levels, so 10,20,30 etc. You can also open up your story journal by hitting H and then clicking the "story" tab to see what level you're on. It does start a bit slow when you first start playing but things get more challenging as you level up. As far as getting more "story" goes make sure to listen to ambient conversation as you run around zones, the NPCs will talk about stuff that relates to dungeons, main story, etc which helps fill in the gaps a bit. Once you've hit max level that's when you can start doing some of the meta map stuff which can be a lot of fun. You'll get Orr, Dry Top, and Silverwastes as part of the base game but the more involved metas will be tied to the various expansions. If you keep an eye out on the GW2 webpage, they frequently discount the expansions but even without discounts their expansions are less than ESO Chapters. Hope this helps!@@MMTechnicalGeek12

[@MMTechnicalGeek12]

@@MrGhosty0091 yeah if I like the game I was considering the bundle of all the expansions for $100 because that’s still cheaper than buying a brand new AAA title that has little to no content

[@riotwrrrwolf4590]

little mistake at 10:40 : Expansions are the only thing you can't buy with gems/gold, you have to use real money. The mounts are in the expansions, so you can't buy those either, but you can buy SKINS, very important distinction ;)

[@vekk134]

True , but expac are like 25% of one from yearly eso chapter, and hot and pof usually has a bundle deal

[@Violetbunnyfish]

Just to clarify for people who don't know: Yes, the mounts are in the expansions, but once you buy the expansion you can get a free basic mount of each type by going through the story and quests. More elaborate mount skins cost extra from the cash shop. All the mounts are recolorable, though.

[@keithcraig506]

I know I'm coming into this hella late, but... Just to clarify a little more. Once you unlock a mount with one character, all of the characters on that account have access to that mount. Mounts, as well as bank space, dyes, wardrobe unlocks and skins purchased from the gem store (and some other stuff) are all available to all the characters on that account.

[@sneky1723]

Quite liked your review of guild wars 2. Here are some additional informations for some of th ethings you mentionned: - The main reason while player are being scaled down is also so that world bosses can still be a viable and fun experience, meaning that new player wont have trouble finding ppl to do it with them - I do agree that the monetization in the cash shop is sometime quite annoying, there was even a backlash not too long ago because they put hero points as things you can buy with gems (where normally you can go get all the necessary HP in like 90 minutes of gameplay whithout much pb) - For WvW, you will usually find quite a lot of person on EBG (Eternal Battleground), especially in the evening, and under a commander tag (the small cat head or helmet icons on the map), where groups of 50+ player go around and capture towers and keeps - The story is honestly not great in the core game, but really gets better in the expansion, especially in heart of thorn

[@saul94923]

As a new player i really enjoyed the core story. I dunno why people keep saying it's not good.

[@Prawnsacrifice]

​@saul94923 cause its not very compelling and the choices you make give the illusion of choice rather than actual choice its a good story for a mmo sure but when youv played proper rpgs its all abit lackluster 😊

[@saul94923]

@@Prawnsacrifice having the option to choose missions is pretty cool ngl. I dunno maybe I just set my expectations low for MMO stories.

[@rarausa405]

In regards to level-scaling. The main reason they have this mechanic is so that higher level players can still receive xp while playing in lower areas. This was a comment by Anet when the game was in early days. So, higher level players didn't miss out on xp when playing with lower level friends, or helping out new players.

[@ricardovieira5100]

​@@saul94923as soon as u get in the expansions story line, u Will actually see what a good story is 😂

[@Faendryla]

My first week in this game, I joined a new guild and the guild leader had dipped to play a different game. He spent 100$ on buying all the expansions, including living world seasons, with the exception of secrets of the obscure for me. Just so I could take over the guild and play more into the game. Literally had a guild dumped on my head within a few days of playing. Two months later and I'm still playing and the guild is small but we have an amazing group of people.

[@insanemang9983]

They said "its your problem now" 😂

[@ralaphal]

I feel like i need to bring additional information, as the video might not give, or even have the correct context : - GW2 is not quite a F2P, but rather a "Free to Try", with the base game being the trial content, and with the expansions being the main course of the game's content. It comes with the problem that said trial that is the base game is... really mediocre, at least compared to the DLC/Expansion's content, in a way that the core game, which is what sir Sawman has most likely only been through. Another thing that the game doesn't do well, is to inform the players of things, of what can be done or what there is to do, or simply, what the game is about in the different gamemodes. - Said DLCs/Expansions bring much more consequential and innovative mechanics : firstly, as mentioned in the video, the Mastery system, which hasn't been quite explained : It's a leveling system past lv80 that doesn't bring power advantages, but rather, account-bound exploration advantages (ability to interact with new things, unlock shortcuts, or in the 2nd DLC, "Upgrade" your different mounts's abilities). Secondly, you get (for the first 3 DLCs) sub-classes, that drastically changes the core mechanic of your class, and adds a lot of new ways to play the class, and new ways to approach the game, which is a huge part of GW2's build crafting. - WvW really is a flip-coin when it comes to new player experience, and Sawman has fallen into the wrong side. It is because WvW is the gamemode with the most "unwritten rules". And by that, i mean that it can be the least clear on how to approach it. First off, WvW is a 50v50v50 pvp game mode in an open world, and with places to capture, and towers and castles to claim from other teams. It's mostly meant to be approached with a squad, with a Commander as a leader. There's also the option for "Roaming" in solo. It's... simply unlucky that Sawman wasn't able to come accross a commander with a big team, because this is the essence of WvW's fun. Overall, the video IS GOOD, just not quite for the right reasons : it somewhat pictures how... unbalanced the core game is, and how wrongly it can lead to assumptions, and this is mostly because the core game is dated. The game IS GOOD, but most of the real reasons aren't mentioned here (The mount system has been mentioned, but not that they could be "upgraded", the sub-classes, the world-bosses and map-sized Meta events, the game being player-friendly due to its gold to cash shop conversion,... and i'm probably forgetting some in the moment). I just hope that Sawman will see this, and hopefully give the DLCs's content a fair shot.

[@kiratastic7048]

Weird little nitpick: gw2 is not a Korean game. Well, not fully. Their parent company is ncsoft, which is Korean, but the actual developers, arenanet, are USA based.

[@Nyce-Gaming]

Loved the combat. The ‘hybrid’ tab targeting felt great. The story is ok. the cosmetics and mounts are awesome. Bought a couple of dlcs and love just getting lost in the open world. PvP wise I liked the arenas as the world v world was soo many ball groups as a first impression

[@Jannah_2k]

Yeah, takes a while to learn in WvW where/how to find other solo roamers or small duo-trio type of action. Learns to know where the big blobs move, then moves outside their ppt route (and obviously tactical retreat if see them come your camp route). :D Took me a couple weeks of almost non-stop world vs world to learn, and joined a small group (and big guild group also as a healer, that Stability jail lmao), but still mostly play solo and do find solo action. 1vX is harder than in ESO, but doable and when pulls through its nice. ^^ But yeh, pvp Arenas are cool too.

[@naapsulusmurmurusmurmurus2392]

i think these days wont come back but after launch , wvwvw , server started to lag so bad , 3 huge zergs , that we could kill everyone and they could do nothing lmao, was fun time to play

[@Akeche]

For the bag stuff, it isn't to try to push you to buy more bag slots. Between having the material storage and a button to auto-send that stuff into it, and then being able to salvage anything you don't want to keep for even more materials, and finally just being able to sell on the "auction house" from anywhere means you shouldn't have any real bag issues.

[@themooniscoming]

Most likely, the reason the players went ahead, didn't die, etc in the dungeon is because they have more experience with the game. GW2 has a very steep learning curve.

[@sawmanUK]

yea i get that, but it would of been nice to be matched with some noobs and get to explore it more is all

[@themooniscoming]

@@sawmanUK I totally agree. It's a thin line between helping newbs and ruining their experience. I honestly find, that as much as GW2 comunity wants to help, they end up ruining a little bit.

[@themooniscoming]

@@sawmanUK oh, and you don't get matched with people in this game. Not like in other MMOs. People need to actively look for groups. Dunno if this is good or bad, tho

[@asile8259]

@@sawmanUK it's not matching, people look for groups themselves so the way you advertise your group effect people join you. Just say first timer|| watch everything no skip no rush etc if they don't respect it even if they join as they see that explanation start a kick vote for rush people or leave and find a new group

[@thegenxgamerr]

GW2 is a great game. That said its far from perfect. This is a fair assessment of the game IMHO. Some of the classes in this game are pretty unique and they are a joy to play (Mesmer and Necromancer).

[@hanneskarlbom6644]

About the inventory system, it's quite a funny reason why it's the way it is. The game suffers from item creep, as in, over the years they have added many items as the game is developed and as such it was very different back in the day. Many of the junk items are a result of an old item stat that they have removed, like an ARPG it increased the chance for better loot but since they removed it now, you only get the worst items, they replaced it with another much better system that only appears later on in the game, unidentified gear and loot bags. And pretty much every expansion they increase your inventory space in some way to overcome the ever-growing issue of item creep. Anyways, nice video, it's fine to not like a game, everyone has a different taste.

[@monalisa-bs4zs]

realistically, you can't play for free outside of pvp. But the paid expansions add a considerable amount of cool content. But after about 5k hours in gw2 you notice the larger problems with monetization. 5k hours in eso and i have basically unlimited materials, gold and transmutes to do whatever i want in game for as long as i want without paying any extra, pretty much retired and dont need to pay cash anymore. In gw2, when you have done an ungodly grind like finished full legendary gear for all armour types, backpack and jewelry you are met with the inconvenience of no build space and will be pretty much broke (many end game grind rely heavily on spending gold that can be bought in shop). Where eso went sideways with build storage and still allows mods like alpha gear, gw2 removed build storage mods and only have payable ones now. All in all, gw2 has some awesome and unique open world content that all should try, but it also sells gold for cash while having a literal casino as an in game gold sink..

[@Arrow333]

Great video, was looking forward to it. There were some minor misunderstandings, but that is not surprising given the playtime you invested. So let me sort out some of these. - You can not buy the expansions using gold -> gem conversion. You only get the upgrade to the "deluxe versions" of the expansions, meaning getting some extra stuff. - The rumor of a Guild Wars 3 stems from a job posting about two years ago for an unannounced project in the guild wars universe using unreal engine 5. That is all we actually know, and I personally think it is more likely that it is more of a spin-off game than an actual successor. - The base game of GW2 has been free 2 play since Heart of Thorns, their first expansion, which was released 2015. Due to the limitations imposed on free accounts I personally would more describe it as a free trial that includes the whole base game. There is no traditional questing in this game. Instead you get a few different systems. It is not that uncommon for people familiar with other MMORPGs to misunderstand these systems 1) You get "renown hearts" as some sort of region bound quests usually offering several ways to contribute to the quest. You do not need to talk to the NPC to start or end the quests most of the time. Quests NPCs turn into merchants after quest completion, even though they rarely have any interesting stuff in the base game. This changes in the expansions. 2) You have dynamic events - these orange or red circles on the mini map. They are public, meaning other players can and most of the time will join you. They might chain and lead to bigger boss fights - those chains leading to a boss fight are called meta events and really shine in the expansions. 3) Personal story (the green star) is the main story and comes the closest to traditional quests. It starts slow, picks up at level 50-60-ish, but overall the story starting from living world season 1 gets better. 4) Some side quests are hidden as "collections" within the achievements. This is more hidden stuff and a treat for people who want to get deeper into the lore or uncover some secrets. I respect you trying the game out and you are right: GW2 is not the right game for everyone. But it is kind of common that it doesn't click the first time you are playing it, while falling in love with it the second or third time you are trying it. This is at least what I have observed. In case you do revisit the game at anytime, I think it would be good to reach max level and get a chance to experience expansion content, as it is a complete game changer. But now I am looking forward to your GW1 experience.

[@jamesstewart6219]

If you plan to do any group content do yourself a favour and join a guild. You should be able to find people on a guild who are friendly enough to go through a dungeon with you in story mode and allow you to watch the cutscenes or help you out with a group event in the open world. It’ll also make the experience a lot more fun since there’s a lot of features in this game that enhance the multiplayer experience

[@Draxynnic]

As a historical note: the base game of Guild Wars 2 was made free-to-play in 2015, in the leadup to the release of the first expansion. It's formally a buy to play model (expansions are one of the few things you have to use real money for), but when they introduced the first expansion, they decided to turn the base game into a demo. So it wasn't one of the common cases where switching to an FTP model was something that happened as a last-ditch effort to make the game profitable - it happened when they had an expansion to sell and wanted to bring as many people in as possible to sell the expansion. So it in itself is not an indication that GW2 is winding down. Rumours of GW3 are probably more indicative, but I'm suspicious of that as well - ArenaNet recently doubled down on GW2 after having a couple of major cancellations in the studio. It's likely that they were planning on moving on (there was a point in the story where they made sure to land on a strong climax because there was a real likelihood it would be the last release of GW2) but current indications are that they seem to have decided to stick with GW2 for the foreseeable future.

[@hudy2735]

They are making a new online game, probably an mmo (even mentions in job posting that candidate should have played mmos before) in UE5 of an established IP for both console and PC, that is a fact just by looking at the job postings over last 2 years. Only question is if it's GW3 or Horizon mmo that NcSoft is reported is in production. NcSoft being owners of ANet. But there were rumors that Horizon mmo is developed in internal studio in Korea. This is speculation unless stated otherwise: Most of technical upgrades can be traced back to the fact dependencies used were simply running out of support, stuff like TP upgrade as banks weren't supporting their old stuff anymore (tp upgrade was stated in post by anet), some updates also make game easier to run in the background like GW1. Smaller expansions make it easier to switch production capacity to new game easier... etc Also they don't abandon their revenue stream. Still it seems to have been in production for no more than 2 years if even, which leaves if ANet stick to it, another 2-3 years of expansions (with something new releasing in 4-5 years), but game will probably run until ANet exist.

[@rebeloutlaw9466]

ArenaNet, LLC is an American video game developer and subsidiary of NCsoft, founded in 2000

[@irishsage2459]

I can't help but compare the comments about GW2 to how the players of BDO reacted. Not sure if GW2 players are level-headed people who have a strong sense of reality, or BDO players are just brainwashed bat **** crazy who couldn't grasp reality if is stuck itself in their hands. Big cheers for the GW2 community.

[@sawmanUK]

Honestly , it’s like night and day 😹

[@icata12345]

i tried to get lvl 80 atleast two times through the years and i always got bored midway, ON MY Third try i had a raptor and it was doable i clawed my way to 80 ^^ and then the game finally became intresting, i had to gear up for end game contents learn encounters, learn what my charachter does and how it fits in, long story short the game starts after 80

[@xyr3s]

First tine I'm seeing feedback like this :) normally everyone enjoys the open world because of the map exploration and dynamic event system. Although if your plan was to grind to 80 by going from map to map doing hearts, I can see how that could make some one want to walk off a cliff lol.

[@ToyLatrine]

Pro tip, if you find leveling tedious or feel like your doing fetch quests, you’re doing it wrong. Lose the wow mindset and just pick a direction and go. I promise you 3 hours later you’ll have had the most grand adventure you could possibly imagine. It’s almost never the same twice.

[@rept7]

Guild Wars 2 is the most fun MMO I've ever played solo. But I don't really want to play a MMO solo and unfortunately, the game's build system leads to "You're better off just stealing someone else's" and the combat leans towards rotations over action whenever you do something actually challenging. So it goes from a fantastic solo experience to a terrible multiplayer one, at least for me specifically.

[@afly4167]

A verry big and important part of GuildWars2 is indeed the guilds. You can join multiple diferent guilds, with specific game modes in mind. As solo friendly as this game is, nothing beats a couple of online buddies to mess around with ingame.

[@Dontgankmeplx]

Hey thanks for the vid and trying out the game. I have been an on and off player since release and one thing I find is that while there is actually loaddddsss of content overall it can be quite hard to engage with it fully without other players guidance or checking other online resources/content creators. For example I didn't know wtf was going on in wvw until I joined a wvw guild and got into some crazy team fight situations. To date I still haven't even tried a raid!

[@BryanRobinson0909]

I have taken several breaks from this game over the years, and when I come back it's always refreshing to me. It's nice I don't have a long gear grind either. There is so much to do. A lot of it is not super challenging, but it's still fun and fulfilling. I looked for other cozy games and found that I can have that kind of experience in Guild Wars. 2, and then go get into a strike mission or a fractal for challenging content. There are days where I just want to work on my fishing and that's available too. I try to avoid the cash shop as much as possible. I'm happy they have occasional sales for QOL stuff. Overall, this video is a fair assessment in my opinion.

[@CHIPICHIPICHAPACHAAPA]

since when is getting skyscale on other maps refreshing. u need so many mats, so much gold and so much time to sink into just flying in other maps. gw2 devs should really think if thats fun for anyone. vets maybe. new players? not really.

[@BryanRobinson0909]

They did streamline and simplify the process with the new expansion. There are worse grinds IMO, especially in this game. Anything legendary is an investment. I feel the skyscale mount is kind of like that. Again, this is all my own opinion. Others may differ and that's cool. 😊

[@Jermexmachina]

Great vid bud. I was a long timer GW2 player. Had a great experience with it. Keep em coming Sawman.

[@samkln123]

The game can be very chill, but there is a very hard content in the game as raids and fractals. Getting legendary gear from achievements can take weeks or months of weekly raids. There are raid guilds with weekly runs, that can be very meta and hard core. About World vs World pvp, you need to be in a server with active WvW, it can be very fun if you like it, I don't like pvp, but I spend hundred of hours in WvW. Also for some people the end game can or will be achievement points. If you go that route you will always have things to do.

[@simplebook8138]

Hi, how can I convey this to you effectively? There's a moment in the game when everything clicks, revealing the true awesomeness. The core game seems like a demo or tutorial, and like you, I invested numerous hours in Guild Wars 2 without the expansion. However, when I purchased my first expansion, everything fell into place. Words can't quite capture it-new class, zones, mounts, raids, gearing, WvW, PvP, exploration, and an incredible story.

[@kirasternenfeuer6198]

a few missconceptions about the store: black lion chest keys: There are actually 3 lion chest keys you can unlock once per account per week by doing different steps of the personal story of a character. This is basically the level 10 level level 40 and level 60 personal story chapter they also have a chance to be part of the loot of completing a zone as completing a zone is rewarding you with one of different black lion items. As this is not bound to any limits you could just delete and recreate characters to do so however it is quite time consuming all items in the black lion chest can be bought in the trading post from other players except the figures which are not only drop from the chest but also you gain them on the birthdays of your characters beginning with ther 3rd birthday (also you will be granted shop colours for free there which you can select for yourself out of changing stocks each birthday. lastly there is an actual dropchance for black lion chest keys from enemys however it is absurdly low I give you that. So in general you do not buy the keys themself but the skins and items you want from the trading post or directly the skins from the gemshop in case of the rare mount skins Is it a good practice with the black lion chests? Well I'm used to it but the game would not loose anything if it wasn't there. Did I bought Keys myself? Sure the reason for that is simple gold is worth nothing and everything in this game ^^ There is no other MMORPG I know of that has such a solid buypower for ingame currency. In fact it is rather rare to have increasing market prices outside of certain events and most of them are quite reasonable as well. The only thing that really get worthless are some common found recipies and materials without a real need in creating endgame buff food as most other materials are constantly used in various endgame crafting like ascended or legendary gear for example or upgrading your guild halls and decorate them..... The next missconception you have is the bank slot and bag slot one as you are thinking of it the wrong way. Theese upgrades provide you not with new bags but with the slots that hold those bags so they are quite important if you want to improve your character. Then we have the issue with the scrap items which is quite funny if you know why they are actually a good thing. As the most efficient way of dealing with your inventory needs is not buying more bagslots and increasing the size of those bags but actually to dismantle all items that are not worth selling by the trading post instead. Not only provide this method a solid income in materials for your own craftmanships but the materials can be send to the bank from anywhere any time so you can store them on the go, furthermore you gain luck essence which you need for a passive magic find bonus or you can sell during a few festival events like the lunar new year or even use in some mystic forge recipies. Also there is a small chance to gain some really pricey materials even from low level items as well as long as they have runes or sigils on them ;) Overall 95% of the gemstore are skins some are quite shiny and most of them are quite expensive if you want to buy them with real money like 20 bucks for a rare Mount skin for example. the 5% are first of all convenience items not needed but can be of help to make some tedious things easier. I'm absolutely on your side when it comes to the craftmanship upgrade that allows for additional craftmanships per character. This is an item that shouldn't exist at all the way you mentioned is the best method just create additional twinks and let them handle the crafting instead + additional char slots are more worth than this bullshit upgrade. Another missconception you have is the scaling system of GW2 in fact it is genius! 50% of the loot you get is based on the maplevel this also includes material bags and direct materials the enemys drop the other 50% are based on your character level + a few enemys only drop their best loot if you are in a certain level range up to max level which is usually level 72+ Therefore it is not only a good thing to play with friends by going in lower level zones for high players they are also rewarded by doing so in some cases items worth up to 400 gold because of their rarity and need for some achievements can be found this way. This leads to a beneficial scenario where all maps stay relevant for players of all types including veterans which might even benefit from other players during scaling events which might provide much more enemies to fight and loot for example. Some very simple farming methods can be done in a few events in low level zones piling up an easy 10 gold per hour if enough players are arround to participate. Something most new people also do not get is how events work: In general those events are rotating in a 10 minute recovery cicle but have additional phases based on the progress of those events. The outcome further determines the countermessure for the upcoming event. For example ther is a pump station in queensdale attacked by bandits the event has 4 different posseble outcomes: The bandits try to destroy the pump station and you defend it nothing happens at first but later on they will try to poison the water instead. or you do not defend against it and the pump station is destroyed so a repair mission is issued if the poison mission is started you can again fail which will lead to a mission to get rid of the poison in form of defeating slimes or you suceed which will restart the rotation with bandits trying to sabotage the pumps later on. Some other events might occupy even waypoints or lead to big meta events with a big daylie reward as well as daylie rewards per character (which normally include the chance for those former mentioned rare and high worthy items) In general I doubt that anyone in the game has ever seen all possible events up to this day and even after 8k+ hours it is not hard to find stuff I never did before in GW2 for that reason. (I even found new big NPC scenarios going on during a 3 month stay in the black citadel because they have their own time to start and some can be extremly funny to follow) On top of all of this Arenanet also include new events in old zones that are bound to stuff going on in the newest content of the games story progress that people can join. This also includes enemy invasions in starting areas for example that not only offer good rewards but also show some of the tougher enemies lurking in the future to fight with. By the way there is actually a zone that promotes you to scaled level 80. Finally there is one missconception about the business model as no you can not buy everything with ingame gold. The gemshop only provides you with additional stuff and allows you to purchase things others got for free during their first implementation like the living story chapters which connects the expansions with their own storys to follow and additional bonus stuff like new mounts for example. The expansions themself are buy to play and only available for hard cash ^^

[@myselfme767]

I love the fact you can play the game in many different ways, cap level is not just the same dailies or the same 3 raids, there 10 nore things you can do and all progress your char. I love exploring the world, I'm happy thins makes sense in GW2.

[@sunlesss401]

Anyone knows what item set is that in the vid template?

[@nicktaylor935]

I fill like the real end game is the horizonal progression at 80 to max out your player stats masteries and map completion for legendaries. Either way getting fuel ascended at end game can be a stretch to.

[@FoundaPeanut]

I made it to level 80 in less than 48 hours, got a guild mate to make me some ridiculous gear, now I’m a thief working towards deadeye. Thanks for your previous video.

[@TangEhuang]

GW2 is an unique and fun game. The combat, the best MMO mount, challenging open world content, underwater combat, water-paint liked art theme, the best designed MMO map. And you don't have to chase equipment power level even you come back the game 3 years later. Oh the other hands, it is a bit lack of content because of its slow update progress after I completed all the main quests, side quests, DLC and acquire one of the legendary weapons. But it is still one of my favorite MMO even I quit this game 3 years ago.

[@kingvonderwelt5090]

Fair review, I also had to give the game a few go's before it fully clicked. As many people here have already said, the game gets quite a bit more fun once you get into the xpax zones and the high end pve content is actually quite challenging. Nowadays I almost exclusively play the game as an arena brawler. The combat is clearly designed for pvp and the community for the gamemode is very dedicated and sweaty.

[@MMTechnicalGeek12]

I am on my third playthrough because i felt like it would click too, the last two times i deleted my game because i just couldnt get into it but this time i will reallyy try to understand it. Any tips?

[@mustardjelly1813]

Setting your own goal/motivation is very important in this game and learning how to reach the goal is main source of fun in my opinion. I would say (assuming you have reached lv 80) unlocking exotic mounts like roller beetle may be a good goal. Also, for me, discovering every meta event in Event Timer was my endgame.

[@MusPuiDiTe]

It's unfortunate you didn't get to enjoy it enough, but as you said, to everyone their own! About lore and story, I wonder if you played some of the story, and in that case, if you just did the core story or tried a little bit of Season 1 also, since the storytelling and story focus changes greatly

[@Trickster42a]

Main cool thing in this game regarding lore for me - is the Charr race!

[@FayJolien]

Recently I bought myself some GW2 DLCs on sale for the days when I finally truly burn out on ESO. (/cry) I agree with your points about questing. It's not something that can hold my attention for hours, but unlike with eso there is no additional sub so I don't feel like I have wasted my time/money if I go play something else. The game is fun but not grabbing me like ESO still does. I do like that there are jumping puzzles and secret areas to explore, even in the base game. They really designed the world in a 3D space even back then in the base game and I appreciate that, compared to ESO - which is copy paste in zone design, and you glide of every building just because. The art style is both gorgeous but dated. However, the amount of cosmetics that are too flashy or sometimes look out of place annoys me sometimes. But this is the result of an aging MMO. Hmm what else.. Oh yeah, the UI is really cluttered and bloated, waaay to many submenus. Lastly, for keeping the word out there that ESO's monetization is one of the worst out there. I will never tire of you calling out Zenimax awful greedy practices.

[@crow_buddy]

Unless I missed it, you didn't mention the "Character Adventure Guide" achievements, which gives an insane amount of experience for new folks. This makes leveling significantly better and includes far more to do than grinding. Players can quest all over the open world and complete Hearts for exp - many of those aren't grinding enemies. In my opinion the GW2 dungeons are bad, they're incredibly dated and suffer from poor scaling, they desperately need reworking. In PvE, everyone these days does fractals, strike missions, raids, and meta events (you showed Fire Elemental, another big one is Tequatl, etc.). If GW2 is guilty of anything, it's not educating a new player on all it has to offer, and how all its various systems work. For example, using the GW2 wiki website is a must-have resource. The wiki changes how you play/interact with the game and your overall goals. There's also an add-on called BlishHUD: this 100% changes the player experience, and makes navigating the world, collections, and questing much better.

[@Sir_Scuttles]

I think you critique is fair for a new player perspective, the content has gotten better over time so unfortunately the new player experience isn't really reflective of the end game experience. WvW is defintely hit or miss based on the server and time you are playing on. In 2024 they are looking to remove the server based match making and replace it with guild based match making.

[@insanemang9983]

Oh thats cool! I wonder how that will go

[@bjrnpost4633]

A lot of the junk you drop can be sold at vendors with the sell junk button. It is there to help you gain some gold. Some junk items are quite lucrative

[@airstry2828]

if you liked dungeons you should try fractals, maybe try a couple strike missions & raids too

[@egoszmotyike]

I would like an example for an MMORPG that is not as you said "dated" (not talking about graphics obviously) all the big names I can think of right now have more traditional questing systems and most no dynamic events at all, so not sure what is dated about GW2, genuinely curious

[@gg05irgm]

Gotta say most of the features of the game you have quite misunderstood, because you simply haven't played enough to understand it.

[@SquallSwift]

A totally fair review, and I'm glad you gave it a fair shot with the playtime too. It's true that to a new player, there's a lot of dated content that still needs revisiting by the devs, symptomatic of being an 11 year old MMO without up-to-date social MMO features. I don't hold out much hope that they will remove the biggest quit moments, but I'll continue to enjoy this game and the community while it lasts.

[@shadhunter]

Korean? Where are you getting that from?

[@Fydron]

12:05 the inventory filling never stops its not really just for the new people experience its for all to suffer.

[@ffightmarvel8732]

We can agree on that we dont have any good mmo

[@K-Von]

Good job doggo. I have played a couple MMORPGs but the most I have invested hours in are GW2 and ESO, around 3K on both. Overall I think GW2 is better than ESO and also arguably one of the best MMORPGs ever made. What keeps me hooked to GW2 is: - The high fantasy setting, we can find from medieval races to cyberpunk ones (akin to WoW and similar). - The devs have improved the game to become more and more respectful towards players' time, this is one aspect where GW2 crushes ESO not having all that shitty FOMO. Just to give an example, they rotate the cosmetic items from the cash shop really often so it's not that hard for players to get what they want. - The most important for me, the combat. It's really fluid, smoth, engaging and above all, FUN, it's where the bone and meat, where the spinal chord of GW2 resides. That's what keeps me coming back to GW2 just to smash more stuff, like in any good ARPG. Obviously it's not perfect but one of the best. We don't have to do animation canceling to be "something" at the game, there's animation canceling but it's on mostly PvP where it finds its place to made the opponents rekt. - GW2 is the king of PvE overworld (you have to buy the expansions so it becomes more evident), there's always something to do, although it can become tiring or monotonous after so many days in a row. It's like Cyrodill in ESO, we don't have to sign up with anyone, just join whenever we want (in theory). It really hooks you, one can be just a silent heroe, not having to interact with anyone, contribute with the event/world boss, get rewards and watch players playing with each other, fucking around, whatever, all at the same time. - And so on... SORRY FOR OVEREXTENSION And about the negative aspects, the most noticeable one for me: - Anet recently upgraded GW2's engine to directx11, they were using 9 for like 10 years. It's here where they are lagging behind really hard, on the optimization aspect. The expansions look nicer but even ESO stomps GW2 on the engine improvements. - Anet have a history of identity crisis they have developed a lot of systems and abandoned a lot of them, for example, content cadence, raids and a lot of niche map mechanics. - The game could have more structured side-activities, a lot involve on frenetic action like time racing (adventures, races, smacking more and mote mobs). We need more chillax competent stuff, they recently released fishing with EOD expansion but a good QoL patch for it is missing. We have housing but it's on a guild level. Again even ESO stomps GW2 on the side-activities stuff but also ESO is lacking. WoW is a good example with and without the systems they have left behind due to becoming obsolete. - And so on... With recent expansion they have launched a reward system akin to battle pass but players only require to have the SOTO expansion to enjoy it, no FOMO. The rewards are armour skins, mount skins, QoL stuff for your account, if you don't buy them on current season they're saved for buying later similar to Deep Rock Galactic. GET REKT ZOS Endeavor system. You can even farm a a free weekly crate (and more if you continue leveling up) only thing needed is a free character slot. TLDR: Every player self-called "MMORPG enthusiast" is a fucking joke if they haven't sinked their canines on GW2. Thanks for reading my wall, I woke up really inspired.

[@urud591]

You can reach the level cap in 35 hours, playing normally and doing quests, without any boost. I'm not sure if it's "too slow"/grinding. I mean, not even single-player games can be completed in 35 hours these days. And the level cap never increased in 11 years. But I understand that even 35 hours for an MMO can be too many for some player.

[@velithiusalexander2413]

As a long time WoW player and Eso and Swtor I find Guild Wars 2 to be very refreshing in many aspects including its lack of sub fee. The fact that it can have so much content and replay value and not have a sub fee makes me feel scammed by all the other top mmo's out there especially when I find myself having a much better time.

[@omengamezone1195]

you can farm BL key anyway without spending money

[@jackal3770]

I'm here to vibe to a remix of Balamb Garden

[@zer0c00l5]

Bit does it have fishing?

[@user-fv4wh4pr3g]

main theme of fable on the background

[@xyr3s]

Only mmorpg i played that i never felt like i wanted to boost a character. I still have my 3 boosts in my inventory lol.

[@alwaysZonqd]

I playeed ESO from 2015-2022. I started GW2 in Summer of 2023, I already clocked 800 hours cuz the game is so good, completely shits on ESO. The mounts are fucking awesome and the PvP/WvW is mad fun too! You get rewarded for actually playing PvP/WvW too! 1vXing is much harder than ESO tho so keep that in mind.

[@Jannah_2k]

I played ESO also 5 years before finally did quit that despair (as a Cyrodiil player), now been playing GW2 for half a year, been fun and got addicted. ^^

[@MalcomMalediction]

3:22 almost catfished us there sawman 😂

[@dew_b_dew]

Dungeons are kinda killed by power creep. The explorable mode versions were the original end game content at launch. They were much more challenging back in the day. The better end game instanced content are raids, strikes, and fractals. Those are much more challenging and require you to contribute.

[@opusfluke2354]

Shame you didn't enjoy it. Been playing for a year and having a laugh. Spend most of my time chatting with guildmates as I play. But if you ever go back your character will still be there and Living World Season 1 will give you a laugh. Then you'll hit "Heart of Thorns"- or rather it will hit you. Again and again and again until you either run away crying or learn to hit back. Challenging? Two words will make even a GW2 veteran tremble: "Pocket Raptors." I still hate those evil little sods.

[@N7xVoss]

I watched the full video! I tried the story and part of me knows it's good but the choices I make don't feel like they matter that much I play SWTOR also and it feels like the choices my character make in that game matter more. So I never could get into the gw2 story even though it has great voice actors and I looked up some of the lore online and it's great and epic but it wasn't for me. I started playing this game in 2014. Before mounts. I fell in love with pvp but mainly did unranked because it was more casual and less hardcore try hard IMO at the time. So I could get away with trying dumb stupid build ideas. xD (like a warrior with double mace and hammer and trying to cc my oppenant for days). I did a bit of WvW but soon left gw2 I think it was in 2015 or 2017 I don't recall correctly I was going through a hard time. Came back in 2018 and then in 2020 playing unranked pvp learning to fight all these new elite specs and trying to make me a better player at combat. But then I did WvW again and I loved it. Pvp for me you can easily run into condi builds in there and I hate fighting against condi and I hate using it. I prefer power builds. Condi I feel like can be cheap at times. Just apply 3-6 things and the person is dead. I ended up playing specter the theif spec which is a challenge, I believe daredevil could be argued the best theif spec. But i am playing specter from EoD a power build and I love it watched a video or two to get better at power specter. Another reason why I love wvw is dueling/1v1 or just every now and then joining a big zerg. In the video you showed the engi taking the sentry and they didn't want to fight just behind it is a dueling location sometimes you can wait around there and another player will come and fight you both of you will bow to begin the fight. Dueling has made me a better player overall. But I get what you are saying and the points you brought up make sense. I don't think you are being too critcal or to hard. Being honest is a great thing. This game I love it but I do admit it's not perfect and has its faults. Also about the black lion chest I never got into that because I don't care i just login in to fight players xD and get better in my dodging skills or trying to excute my abilites in a order to land a burst. I don't log in to open some chest that is going to give me some reward I don't care about half the time and is probably junk. Recently I turned off my rewards so they won't appear on my screen unless I press a button and I rarely look at them like I said I just play this game for the pvp and sometimes I socialize with one of the guilds I am in but i have lot of work so that is kind of rare.

[@enkeny]

Some things that I missed. Hearth (quests) can be done different ways. Well each do different progress. Like you can kill 50 mob or bring 3 box. yes, some gives you 30-50% of progress. The name is actually misleading :( It is not referred to the players guilds. It is a historical event in Tyria. Helping a world boss is balance thing. It is hard to balance when there are players that can do 10 times more then an "average" player. Black lion key can be farmed. You will get some in the story (it is fixed, not random). So do a key farmer character, do the story to that steps, the recreate your character. ;) GW3 is not going to happened. it is high risk with not high reward. All in all, thanks for this video. Everything, that I wrote can be skipped easily. That is why new players can make mistakes. But it is good, that there is no game changing mistakes. (Like misplacing a point somewhere and you have to recreate the max level character)

[@SquishyEggo]

Great video!

[@uch1gatana]

Is the first song Final Fantasy 8 Balamb Garden? LOL

[@redmanmain2204]

When you said the grind was tedious or the quests are monotonous I find that really disingenuous of you, questing in GW 2 is by far the best and it can be done in many ways also it’s the most diverse and there are no traditional questing tasks and no repetitions each one is unique in its way. As for the grind it’s meant to be that because it doesn’t matter what lvl are you in GW and later on you can get a new character to lvl 80 in 1 min.

[@Jannah_2k]

I wanted this, and i loved this! Came for memes, stayed for the big content as always! ❤It sounded and looked like you had fun trying GW2 again, even with it's flaws and that it's quite not your thing, it still sounded like you were mostly smiling while playing, even when suffering. :D That's a good boy, doggo! * *pets* *

[@devilsmessanger]

I will say , i do remember GW2 primarily for pvp being good ,that is why i kept suggesting it to you to try .

[@jacknapier2089]

Guild Wars 2 is an enjoyable standardized MMO. It never dipped into experimentation as much as Guild Wars 1, and it probably was for all intents and purposes, to be clean and smooth from the usual time wasting, drama loot drama. It is a theme park, but you can ride it again and still get fun out of it how loot goes. The 1 to 80 leveling and accelerated very much, where getting a toon to 80 takes less than 24 hours for those who know the systems, probably around 30 hours to those who start new. I've done fresh start account with an Ele. class, got 1 to 16 level in less than two hours, using karma bought food&utility buffs, using the adventure guide to blow lvls quickly, plus the overall DPS buffs to all classes, compared to the exp map trail grind of aug 2012. I would say control of character and movement, regardless of class, is a higher requirement than most mmos.

[@gatwick127]

Playing and enjoying Guild wars requires a certain mindset. You mentioned how it feels like quests are boring and outdated. The heart and story quests kinda are. At least at the beginning. But if you like playing in the open world and doing random events and meet lots of people there it is by far a better mmo than even I dare say it, classic wow. I added about 10 friends of which some actually messaged me after 1 week of adding them. I can actually feel like I might make some friends here compared to classic wow where that is hardly the case unless I reach 60 and get into a guild and raid.

[@Thejoker-ss6lx]

Solid review! Definitely a bit dated, but it is an 11 year old game.. the cash shop doesnt really bother me because it is mostly cosmetic and the price of gear and weapons varies so much that you can easily get a viable end game build without have to be a gw2 economics expert. Overall i like the game a lot and have been having fun with it for about 3 months now. My biggest critique is how complicated the currency systems are.. its pretty ridiculous to get the hang of what you should and shouldnt keep and how to get it all

[@eelge]

Oh boy, here we go..

[@koztra]

GW2 averages anywhere from 200-400k players on at any moment and Steam accounts for less than 5k of those lol still a fair video with lots of valid points. really surprised you didnt talk more about combat since thats what stands out to me about GW2 compared to other MMOs other than the amazing monetization system. Never been much of an MMO player but the fast paced, movement heavy fighting game style combat is probably the only reason I gave the game another chance and stuck around. Much better to me than the slow "click and wait" feel of WoW or Runescape

[@JandJFitFood]

Final fantasy 8 Garden Music I love it

[@RandoReign]

gw and gw2 were always free to play in the sense there was no subscription fee. that was the whole shtick between wow and gw players back in the day. when the base game of gw2 went f2p the devs came out ahead of it and stated, and have lived up to the idea that people who love the base game would be more inclined to purchase future content (which is arguably a steal considering the size of the content being on sale in the gem shop or on their website frequently). idk gw2 has always been about rewarding players who put in the time and work, more so than any other mmo ive played and its honestly as refreshing now as it was 10 years ago when i made my first toon that i STILL play to this day. things evolve and grow over time, there are still "loot trains" albeit not quiet the same as it used to be, people having fun and making jokes or rallying up in Auric Basin for bigger world events. it sure can be a grind if you let it obviously, but in my experience, its far more chewable than a WoW grind. the game isnt overly complex and uses simple ideas extremely well to where most tasks feel like a mini-game. anyway sorry for rambling. i just love the game

[@insanemang9983]

As a somewhat veteran player they need to incorporate the dungeons into the story. Just make it soloable and it will be way better.

[@camerynmaru]

Guild Wars 2's biggest - maybe only major - problem is that it's just not engaging or enticing for new players until you get to expansion content. That's when GW2 shines, from Heart of Thorns and beyond. I love the game and play it often, but man, those 80 levels are just dated as f. Happy you gave it a shot, though!

[@xX.D3DP00L_Xx]

I may give it a try

[@technicalactivity]

I used to play GW2 heavily as a high schooler in 2010-2012. I am trying to get back into it, buying PoF and HoT.. but the quests to grind the rep for HoT alone are so annoying. I just wanted to jump into modern content with a glider and good set of mounts. I dont mind playing the game for them but not to a World of Warcraft level grind. You have to put a LOT of things together. And this is coming from someone that has ascended weapons. I quit in 2012 before HoT because I wanted a legendary wep but seriously could not grind the materials for that. Time gated. Not to mention the MMO aspect is dead unless you are looking outside the game for a community. For example, world bosses are fun but you have to go outside the game to find the timer train to do them efficiently. information like this is just not avaliable in the game.

[@vekk134]

Ive played eso for many 1000 of hours, mainly bg and cyro....everytime zos dissapointed me, i gave gw2 a chance, ngl, it took multiple attempts, but now im hook, for the past 4 or 5 months ive only play gw2, the game as so much more depth , its insane how dev manage a really good balance in pvp/wvw , considering every class and elite spec has their unique complex mechanic( number of skills, or weapon access, etc) in eso....zenimax cannot deal with dk balance of 3 or 4 skill lol. I also prefer the gw2 artstyle, that is more fantastic

[@tanulcristian30]

You realy need to play after level 80 ,level 1 to 80 is the tutorial :))

[@MalcomMalediction]

looooool i luv the Josh Strife outfit u got on ur doggo

[@Kronosxviii1]

Thoughts: All of the pve content that sawmanUK interacted with, from what I can tell, is 11 years old. The video title of 'The Shocking State of Guild wars 2 in 2012' would be more accurate depending on where you are in the video. :3 So if you're interested in harder pve content like raids, strikes (what raids evolved into), and or 5man fractals (wow stole this idea, see 'mythic dungeons' but blizz made it worse), etc, the content is there and Preach Gaming covered most of it in his mmo in depth look series. 4:15 In the expansions they've moved away from having 16 heart quests per map. 4:52 100%'ing maps is entirely optional and is highly recommended to only do what you want. Unless you're looking to make legendary weapons, which is a very long term end game goal and even then it's not the entire map. It's dependent on the generation of legendary you're making; there's currently three generations of weapons that will require one of four map groups. 8:00 You can swap between all crafts without losing progress between them at any point in time, for a small fee in silver. 10:00 WvW population is entirely dependent on the time of day / day of the week. As when things get heated it can get up to 100v100v100. I'm not a wvw enjoyer myself and only dip in every once in a while but the game mode does feel like the old Wintergrasp of wotlk-wow. 11:00 Monetization: remember that gw2 is 100% free for core game content, and 1 time purchase for most expansions. Most, because the first 2 expansions are always bundled together due to their age. They're cheap and often on sale. $30 per expansion pack is far cheaper than the $50-70 crazy people are asking for these days. The Halloween sale that just ended had the hot/pof expansions combo pack going for $7, while the others were $15(?), and the newest was $25. 12:50 Black lion chests: really good loot? Hardly. The only things worthwhile are cosmetics for cosmetic enjoyers. 16:50 Dark secrets by devs: Closest thing that comes to mind is there was this one time where a cheaters account of usurped by the devs where they then threw the character to its death followed by deleting the account. Though that was deserved and the community was and is still 100% behind the actions. :3 18:45 True everyone can have their opinion and that's fine. Though the title of this video is inaccurate if you were to say it's a showing of the current 'state of guild wars 2' when you've only touched/covered 11 year old content in some areas and barely the surface in others. edit: typos

[@MrStubbs8157]

You can sweat in raids to a certain extent, but most sweating happens, if there is good times in WvW. You will have your casuals grouping to flip enemy castles and camps, but if there are enough competitive people, you will join fight zergs. These days its a doomer time and the quality between worlds are very unbalanced. Some servers stick around with their veterans and destroy the others. During Covid, we had quite something to fight on at least the best 3-6 server worlds. Currently in my world its dead, as u need some sort of community, organizing stuff and discord voice with active, good commanders. Kany of those commanders left for now (questionabl if they return). The game mode is crazy good because of how synergies work, the way your skills are tamed in comparison to more solo focussed games and the amount of skill synergy, timing, etc. can take people months or even years to acquire properly. Sadly, the for me signature gamemode isnt really loved by the devs to keep people around. Skill ceiling is great, combat, the way how wvw is structured (not too big) and easy to digest and quickly to go in and out of. Back in the day you hade your prime time commandersbrunning everyday and it was even problematic, because u had to sit in queues for half an hour to get to your favorite commander. I still think, that these zerg fights or guildfights are the best of any games that ever attempted this..mmand for me, that gamemode is all I wanted to play for years.

[@Mars-1995]

Guildwars is handsdown the best Mmo. Pvp is the most balanced among all Mmos, horizontal progression where you don't lose any progress like in WoW for example, WvW is just original and unique, Pve Content in GW2 is crazy good, Every Map matters in Gw2. Unlike in WoW for example every single map is populated. About the monetization (I bought a lot of stuff in the Gems store just with ingame gold. Now that secrets of the obscure is out it is just trivial to do)

[@bastebutze2690]

wow, first gw2 review i can't write a comment about what was wrong becauce it would be to long.

[@adenthayne5997]

Sad you didn't like it enough to stay. You would be one of the premier content creators for it. However, I love your videos and always get a laugh. So I shall stay tuned wherever you go.

[@gburger011]

anyone else hear the fable 1 music?

[@jaydunna2645]

new player here...sunk 100 or so hours and just quit. 2 things that i REALLY disliked about it, which were significant enough to make me outright quit the game - a.) flying being locked behind the most tedious chore i have ever done. b.) The most fun skills ( elite spec) being locked behind a system as ridiculous as hero point farm.

[@gndmofall]

I didn't dislike the game. It just failed to hold my attention. The combat wasn't bad. It just didn't feel amazing. On a scale of meh to meh, I give it a meh.

[@humblebee1895]

Same for me

[@THEWouter1212]

Agreed

[@michaeldmckenzie]

About 4 minutes in you talk about ‘the grind’. Not sure why you’re calling it a grind because you can easily make it to level 25ish in the starter zone without even completing it.

[@LyricSnowe]

grind

[@sawmanUK]

the quests are grindy, killing a heap of the same ad's is just not fun. I levelled up quite a bit just by exploring each zone, but its the general questing that is tiresome

[@djjordg2748]

@@LyricSnowe grind fr

[@ShinAnansi]

⁠@@sawmanUKthe game doesn’t really explain it. But u don’t have to do hearts. Do what u want to level. Best experience is dynamic events for me. U can also do pvp or craft a lil to level

[@dreagonr]

Your comment about only having 2 crafting skills per character is incorrect. You can technically have all the different crafting leveled up and maxed out without spending gems at all. you just can't have more than 2 active at the same time. which is extremely easy to swap crafting, just talk to it's respective NPC to deactivate and activate what ever crafting you want.

[@redbeard5598]

I didn't encounter the boring grind you mention, and I've played every race in GW2.

[@umberbeast8345]

The hero system in GW1 is goat status imo.

[@Prawnsacrifice]

While i enjoyed guild wars epssically for the way questing and exploration works however i really dislike the story quests and end game activities 😊