Worst MMO Ever? - Guild Wars

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I came looking for copper, and I found gold.
Guild Wars 2 is a better MMO
Guild Wars 1 is a better RPG
After 8 hours of playing guild wars, I don't think I'm going to stop, and you may be forced to watch me twitch stream this for a while because its juts a fantastic game.
Thank you to the supporters on Patreon and Twitch who keep the channel alive :D

GW was a game from the era where you bought a game, and you got a huge physical how-to book next to it that you could read in the car while your parents were divorcing, that's why it's hard for new players

[@Renagadezzzz]

While your parents are divorcing lmao.

[@MsHojat]

"era where you bought a game" yes. "got a huge physical how-to book" no, I think not for Guild Wars (I think JSH was mistaken about this. That was the PDF that was large, not the printed booklet). "hard for new players" I've never heard this claim before, and would disagree as well. One thing that is remarkable about the game is that it's one of the very few buy-to-play online-only central-server-based multiplayer-only games. At least for it's time and for a long time. I suppose that a lot of first person shooters have gone this way now too.

[@stealthis]

I started Guild wars after people had thought it was not so hot anymore, in 2009, right before blew back up to its highest population. Everybody was so nice and knowledgeable and besides them, the two wikis and Guild wars guru forms were incredible resources

[@youtubintrotter]

Yes! That was me! Still have the book.

[@freshrot420]

@@MsHojat The printed book was pretty big, as far as manuals you used to get with games go.

[@perchetuvali243]

I was fortunate enough to play this game at its peak, and it was wonderful. Thousands of guilds, players all around (The city hubs), no heroes, mercs were pretty bad, so you had to group, the dreadful Rurik mission, the hall of heroes, the incredibly complex guild vs guild. Anet created some amazing memories for thousands of players that will never be celebrated enough.

[@wnxdafriz]

yea, when it first came out i had lots of fun... especially when our guild lead in the rankings at rank 1 for quite a while only to inevitably fall due to win ratio slowly lost out to total wins.... you could have a 50 percent win rate with 1000 battles rate you higher than a 90 percent win rate (half of the losses to your own guild due to matchmaking lol) but with only 200 battles

[@TheSpicyLeg]

I miss monk so much.

[@AgatBro]

@@TheSpicyLeg ohh. a healer. thank you for your service. lol. i was your average wamo that ran straight into mobs to pull aggro. *tank run’s off using menders enchainment build- fuck yeah!.... rez pls😁

[@BenoHourglass]

@@wnxdafriz What guild were you?

[@ash0787]

Yes, it was very easy to find a group for any cooperative mission, especially in prophecies, not so much quests but certainly for the cool quests like villainy of galrath, but pretty much playing with other players if you want to, all the way through the game, and it was a good idea to play with other players because the missions were HARD at that time, and other players knew what to do ! some even knew how to do the bonus or a special strategy to make it easier. You could pick up advise on your skills or weapons while forming groups, or even find guilds this way. In many other later mmorpgs players often don't play with others at all, or until they are high level, or at endgame, its just not the same.

[@DakanMisty]

My dad was one of the top players in GW1 and would completely agree with you on the GW1 vs GW2 comment, it was so vastly different in terms of mechanics and playstyle.. He passed away a few years ago and this video brought up all the old memories of being a kid sitting on a dining room chair, eagerly watching everything he did and waiting for the moment when he would go back to the Character Select Screen, select my Mesmer and tell me it was time my story continued... (Anybody remember the CandyCaneMan??)

[@ChaoticNeutralMatt]

That's pretty epic. There's a few stories I've seen that. Pretty damn cool.

[@igson-in4rd]

God that brings back memories of when me and my dad played GTAIV or Assassins creed together, he also passed away a few years ago 3 to be exact. Good to remember the great times we've had.

[@andydataguy]

Beautiful memory. May your dad rest in peace 🙏🏾

[@lSeKToRl]

I still have tons of CandyCane left from 2005 event.

[@starsnstrife]

I think I remember someone by that name.

[@janussft]

this game was an experience , that after 20 years later, none other game has made me feel again, simply amazing

[@IceStationZebraAssociates]

Same here. The exhilaration of playing GW1 has not been matched yet. GW2 is a completely different game. Still good but to me GW1 was just an entirely different level of video game enjoyment.

[@tbone9474]

it welcomes me after my military service, got me back into civilian life. Absolutely love the game, still do

[@cautemoc4624]

It shaped my whole expectation for co-op gameplay and nothing has ever gotten close to it. I can't believe it's been so long and there's no spiritual successor to the gameplay model. Really just want a remaster of it, and more expansions. GW2 just is not the same at all.

[@bjm1777]

I agree. For me, a big part of it is the soundtrack by Jeremy Soule

[@milago53]

thats why i played gw1 again. and now for 5500h

[@blippedyblop]

"I'm going with Necromancer, because I'm hoping to raise an army of minions" -Laughs in remembering when there was no cap on minions.

[@rangerkrista4103]

Those were some crazy days.

[@criran]

I mean, there was an effective cap because their health degen would eventually be so high you could never hope to keep them all alive.

[@rangerkrista4103]

@@criran This is true. I still think it was better as a skill cap without the minion cap cause it took quite amount of skill to keep minions on alive. But in terms of balance and for later minions that was added, it was best for them to cap the minions.

[@killahbunnie]

@@rangerkrista4103 Was done for PvP becuase Issah Cartright hated necros and getting his a$$ handed to him by them, same as every other nerf for PvP that totally gimped PvE builds as well. Minion degen was never an issue until they broke Veratas Sacrifice and rendered it useless.

[@allthatishere]

Dude, I remember those days! I had 2 friends helping me with minion hp regen, I had like a 25+ minion trains going on. Fun times, I wish I still had my screenshots of it.

[@TomPVideo]

So many ridiculous niche builds in this game. I still remember the 55 monk: drop your total health to 55 with monk tattoos, use a spell that prevents more than 10% max damage in 1 hit, and load up on health regen enchantments for a near-indesteuctable monk for grinding.

[@masc2fighter]

Don't forget to add smite 😂

[@Trancecend]

They did end up adding a lot of anti-enchantment enemies, that were the bane of that build.

[@SharienGaming]

@@Trancecend yeah quite a few of those just delete you instantly XD there also was a funny support build for late game dungeons - the 1HP BIP necro... dropped the HP to 1 and suddenly sacrificing 33% of your health to boost allies energy recharge becomes a trivial price to pay...you just gotta...stay way behind because youre dead if anyone looks at you XD

[@Trancecend]

@@SharienGaming Didn't know you could get to 1 HP. Was it achieved using a high death penalty?

[@SharienGaming]

@@Trancecend yup - doesnt need to be maxed out, but you need some death penalty to maintain the 1hp

[@templargfx]

Ill never forget GW1. I played on release day, moving through the story with players from all over the world at the same time. no one knew what was coming, no one knew what the best builds were etc. It was a magical experience Ive never had replicated since then. A truly amazing game

[@borissimeonov9764]

I'm jealous!

[@youtubeistryingtocensorme]

You can still play the game

[@Calley07]

For anyone wanting to get into GW and seeing how the main hub being completely empty of players. You need to change the district to "America - English - 1" this is the main hub that everyone uses ever since the population went down. If you make sure you change district you will find plenty of players who are keeping the game alive.

[@jannik3556]

+1

[@snookers5123]

Also the Prophecies campaign is kind of the slowest experience of the three. The experience gain is slower and the maps aren't as refined as the other two, with Nightfall having the most players in hubs as well. Because of this, if you're going back to GW1 I'd 100% recommend trying a different campaign first.

[@Ensenoman8]

@@snookers5123 I agree, I started WITH Nightfall then Factions then Prophecies. That's what my guild mates told me to get in that order. I think it was because of the skills earned and having all professions. I hated Prophecies and never had a character that started there lol. I tried with a Mesmer and gave up. I think not having heroes and being spoiled with Nightfall made it very annoying to deal with

[@prieston]

​@@snookers5123 Questionable. With less players around there are less reasons to rush it. Factions provide the fastest leveling experience but it's down (bad?) overwhelming. Doing Eye of the North without researching Prophecies is weird. GW2 base game constantly refers to things that happened in Prophecies. However then it also refers to things happening in Nightfall and with expansion - a lot of Nightfall. I would say if you are more into story - do the Prophecies, then Nightfall. Vice versa if you want to see the gameplay and what this game have in store - Nightfall provides all the latter added features like reputation spells and heroes; you don't have them in Prophecies. But it's mostly about where to start. Joining an expansion would throw you with a skip of noob stuff - you skip the whole Ascalon story if you join Prophecies (it's hours of content); you don't really skip much if you join other expansions (Nightfall noob zone was kinda cool tho).

[@Notsoshady4891]

Thank you.

[@tempestwinterstar9629]

I remember spending hours upon hours exploring every little bit of the pre-Searing map, growing fond of the NPCs and the idyllic environment, and naively thinking the "you can't return" warning just meant I'd wave all my friends goodbye and skip off on an adventure. The Searing was downright traumatic.

[@hedizaoui609]

Yeah I didnt expect it at all, I had spent so much time pre searing just rerolling classes, exploring and just gazing at the sights and then 11 old me saw it all get destroyed and it really pumped me up to continue playing, cuz I didn't want them to have died for nothing

[@kingprone7846]

thats how nice mmorpgs get when you take out the boring leveling/grinding aspect and instead just explore, play with smaller parties for loot, explore big dungeons (i.e. the mine)

[@galatyn61]

I did too!

[@shamanz3943]

It really was

[@ZyphisV]

Same here! Pre-searing was the only part of the game i enjoyed. Everything after the searing was boring and tedious. Factions and Nightfall were also not very fun, I played them purely for the new classes, but would spend most of my time on my pre-sear character hanging out in Ascalon or that tiny other town.

[@silasgs9257]

I jumped into this game in 4th grade… about 17 years ago…. God… no idea what i was doing, or going. Just in awe at this beautiful world and enjoying playing at my pace. Always in amazement everytime i arrived somewhere new. Being horribly bullied at school, neglected by my family i honestly was so thankful for this game.

[@seacowlover1375]

I had a similar experience. My dad got it for me for my 9th birthday to play with him and my brother. I became obsessed and eventually my friends became so good that we even discovered bugs and got world records in speed clears ( I think it was 7 minute fissure of woe at the time) My friend even ended up programming GW toolbox which is a super helpful add on that lets you customize a lot. One time we discovered that minions will hit you through the barriers in Factions that normally prevent you from getting to an outpost before you finish the quests required.

[@myoak108]

Can we all trauma dump for thumbs up now?

[@alexanderlovellette318]

Cant speak for the commenter i replied. But my post has no trauma in it

[@tschichpich]

Funfact: In the tutorial area you can get to level 20. But the enemies are too low level to give you xp so you die to them so they get xp and level up and then you kill them to get xp

[@calipp5774]

This technique changed years ago when they implemented a rotation of daily vanguard quest that popped higher level ennemies and gave reward xp for completing, but yeah death leveling was impressive. The moste impressive title now in eden is legendary survivor which has been done 2 times only I think

[@ChaoticNeutralMatt]

That was the old way to do things, but they officially added some revolving missions with scaling so that you can do so WITHOUT dying. Incredible achievement.

[@ChaoticNeutralMatt]

@@calipp5774 only two times? I feel like it has to be more than that.

[@calipp5774]

@@ChaoticNeutralMatt to my knowledge only 2 times, maybe more

[@anthonytoulemonde6425]

@@calipp5774 No a lot more than twice ! but still impressive tittle !

[@wesir427]

True pain in GW1 was playing a necromancer minion master and watching as all your minions die before a boss fight because one person in your party wanted to watch the cutscene and they continued to lose health during the entire thing.

[@fipah5817]

😅😅💯

[@jdog2302]

That and when they limited the number of minions you could have. Use to be able to get 25+ in certain dungeons while farming and roll

[@vladdracul5072]

That's what henchmen are for. They don't put their personal wishes before those of the group.

[@wesir427]

@@vladdracul5072 true but a mediocre player was always better than a henchman in combat, you could grab multiple mob groups in a player party but with only henchmen you had to be super careful and pull one pack at a time

[@manzanasrojas6984]

Thats why ppl played Ritualist/Necro, mate lol

[@Kuhndog94]

Just a tip for newcomers: Everyone, even European players, hang out in North American districts (specifically US 1). There's actually a lot of people still playing.

[@Oriztomakilaz123]

If 100 players is a lot, then yes!

[@inordirection_]

​@@Oriztomakilaz123 It's more like a couple thousand, probably at least 5-10k weekly. I mean, the biggest alliances still have thousands of players and they kick weekly/monthly for inactivity

[@jamiewilkinson2323]

This was my first mmo since it was the only one my parents wouldn't have to pay 15 a month for and I was there for every new story line as it dropped and then hopped into gw2 when it dropped. Read the books, have all the lore books - love this series

[@ferrifs]

I put over 7000 hours into this game, including top 100 GvG and playing through all stories including getting God Walking Amongst Mere Mortals. This game has always been incredible and because of the henchmen / hero system the pve story is replayable too. Absolutely the best game I've ever played.

[@quidquopro1185]

Holy mother of god! I do not think I have played games in general for 7000h yet. Seems like I need to try it out!

[@Valli0o]

shout out to every KOABD (6) in the world!

[@JackoBanon1]

Unfortunately I experienced PVP in GW1 pretty late and had to reach Gladiator rank 2 or 3 before anybody even took me seriously and invited me to their groups. But yeah, I spent thousands of hours into this game and its PVE and PVP are still unmatched until this day. This game is almost 2 decades old and I still wait for a better experience in this genre.

[@BoyoLoco-rd2fi]

How do you know if a person pvps? Let them type one sentence before they bring it up.

[@Micahlopl]

@@BoyoLoco-rd2fi ahahahahahaha

[@MerlinDeLyon]

it breaks my heart to walk around in the now empty major cities of this game

[@debackersian]

in a city, you have the option to be in the Europe or America server. Everyone hangs out in the America server it's still quite active there.

[@howdo3151]

Kamadan is a nightmare during peak hours still.

[@KlaustheViking]

@@howdo3151 I second that. Halloween was PACKED. Not to mention I came across ultra toxic chat lol.

[@thecrowcook]

i logged in yesterday for the first time in over a year, kamadan, maybe 150 ish people, but i got to see one of the super rare panda pets!

[@Titantitan001]

The memories are there forever though

[@caramelconundrum9280]

My favorite game of all time. Most hours put in a game for me. It makes me so happy that I can log in and play my characters from 2007 right now.

[@AdonanS]

I recently found my old disk with the access key after Josh announced he was playing. I just hope they can find my old account info.

[@KidDynamite22]

Mine too, I got heavily addicted a few years ago, loved it so much, then I got hacked and everything for destroyed and sold my legendary survivors got killed etc, was very vindictive. Felt so dirty I stopped playing for ages. I recently logged on to try get some HoM points for GW2 and was completely lost. I'm still part of my old guild though and it looks like some old guildies still log in... was so happy.

[@Remi-gm4fx]

Community is pure gold Always here to teach you or help you They understood that to keep the game alive they have to teach new players about awesome contents Actually one of the best game in the world

[@justjosh11]

I lost my original account :((( Old 'champion hector', will never be seen again in the world of guild wars.

[@OverBlackSands]

Yeah man, my first MMO when I was a kid. So glad it hasn't been shut dowb

[@Sir_Gallant]

Fun to log on every couple of years and see all the players in the Pre-Searing Ascalon area. Real OGs still there showing off their pets from the birthday presents.

[@dylanisonfireOG]

12:46 Yes, yes you did. That whole map is explorable, and doing all the quests are 1.) Just pretty fun and interactive, and 2.) You really feel the impact even more when you participate in the destruction of Ascalon and everything changes... forever. 20:53 Did you try dropping them in the trash bin that's kind of obviously located to the right of the bags? Dropping is used to give other players loot, so if you want to get rid of something because of space, you use the trash can primarily. 21:43 You can find the majority of quests/main missions just by following the quests you were given. Was able to play the whole game without looking stuff up basically, which was nice, being completely involved without having to look up everything 24/7.

[@captainxorro8553]

It was so painful seeing him leave pre at level 2 without even visiting the Catacombs or the Northlands.

[@pippin254]

I was terrified when I saw the title. Then I realized what this channel was. Then I watched the video. As a near 20-year veteran of the Guild Wars franchise, thank you. I'm glad this gem is getting more positive attention.

[@gagethompson5299]

17 year veteran here, I felt the same when I clicked lol

[@OkamiG15]

@@gagethompson5299 lol, same here, down to our first names. GW was my first MMO, and I stuck around 2 for a bit before I got burned out on MMO’s.

[@BruceCruce]

2 days veteran here, same

[@themaster2764]

@@BruceCruce lmfao

[@PrimalSanctum]

17 yr old vet here man I spent countless hours on this and still hop on to this day for nostalgia. Factions and nightfall were superior! Need more videos of this to get more players back to the game. Was really ahead of its time. Gw2 went down the same WoW style path sadly. Need gw1 to get people coming back or trying

[@demonclaws3000]

GW1 still beats most modern online games/MMO's to be honest, and is still one of the best MMO's ever in my book. The music was also incredible!

[@jprec5174]

Just logged in and yep, it’s still good. Looks better than I remember too.

[@tektof5649]

@@jprec5174 That's cause they did a huge graphics update like 2 years ago.

[@darkphoenix2004]

I think a lot of playing the whole story again, just becouse it makes so much fun and it is just awesome.

[@motherpigeon1582]

If the best part of MMORPG is music, you know the game was great xD

[@fartloudYT]

it beats gw2 as well.

[@momomunsta8887]

One thing I noted playing recently for the first time is that abilities have more weight, it feels so good getting a new spell or skill, you don't have this 20 button rotation where each spell is just a random note in the song, each note is the song. This makes each spell/skill feel so much more powerful and important due to the fact that you have to choose which ones you can have on your bar for your build. I found my self looking at the low poly spell and animations and thinking "that's so cool" like a little kid because I appreciate them.

[@T.elegram__me__Meloniemacgo]

Contact me for your reward immediately 🥳🤝

[@nlb137]

And it turned out to be such an easy balance to break. GW2 lost that feeling *hard* with having just 10 skill slots (technically, it's more like 15 or 13 due to rotating weapons, but the 1st skill is just a basic attack). They turned elites into MOBA ults instead of the heart of your build, and then your other skills are just a roll-face damage rotation optimization game.

[@Barnesofthenorth]

Honestly the fact you can play this solo, combined with how fun it looks to play as a single player game has convinced me to give this a go, I bought the last part as a kid and was expecting an MMO so never gave it a fair chance, with the mind-set of a more standard RPG I feel like I'd enjoy it a lot more.

[@TheNzFox]

"this game comes from a era when your parents would buy you a game and you would sit in the back of the car eagerly reading it [the manual]" That statement was so accurate it was almost metaphysical, looking back on it half the fun I had with games was reading the manual on the car/bus ride home and imagining the worlds I was about to get to play

[@callukcraft]

yup when he said that , he remember reading them , also i tried to find all manuals and posters in charity shop ever since.

[@DraconasTenZHG]

I do have a memory like this with both LEGO Star Wars 1 and 2 (the complete saga edition wasn't a thing back then which is basically 2 games in one but with a little more content and some changes like nerfs and buffs for levels that were either too hard or too easy)

[@callukcraft]

@@DraconasTenZHG I remember having both those games for the ps2 , pc games where only times i really got excited about stuff in box though.

[@virginiepcht1051]

I have a memory of reading the Zoo Tyccon's and Pokémon manuel while waiting for the game/GBC to charge

[@sinjidsotwsin]

I remember the day I talked my parents into getting me the game as it did not have a subscription like WoW did.Soon as I got in the game, I opened the bad boy up and read that manual. I wanted to know everything about the game by the time I arrived home and have my class choice decided. I started however with Factions and got Prophecies later so my first class was an Assassin. Beautiful games and I think back on it all with a strong sense of nostalgia.

[@magusonline]

I got so scared when I saw this on the "Worst MMO Ever?" series. but after watching it, I'm glad my time playing GW1 back in the days were validated

[@LinkEX]

I mean, it's not like the fun you had back in the days would have been invalidated if this were the case. That said, I got baited by the title into clicking this video, lol.

[@magusonline]

@@LinkEX haha yeah. It was moreso wondering if I was just blind to the game inherently being bad and me having low standards haha. We both bit the bait

[@TheKotfu]

Josh is a funny fella, isn't he

[@8015908]

The good MMO's on this series are praised.

[@fires2398]

Incidentally it is just the name of the series. There are some real bangers on the list. Loved GW1, it was great and nothing came close to it in my opinion even years later. That game made me feel things I never felt before. I miss good game design...and no p2w elements.

[@pieriniedoardo5839]

I had the collector's edition with the OST on CD and used to put it on in my room when reading, the stereo got moved to the living room when I stoppped using it and forgot the CD inside it. One day I come back home from school and find my dad happily listening to it. It's one of the weirdest experiences I ever had.

[@xXxJashuaxXx]

i love this game with my whole being, it was the first game to actually get me into multiplayer games, and i still remember so many good memories I made with people during my times playing.

[@kiratastic7048]

“There’s a bunch of charr behind us and we cannot fight them all.” So one time, I was playing with my parents, and we were doing this mission just to get a special reward for the anniversary stuff, and my mom is like “hey, what if we actually fought them all.” I’d like you know know, this was a party of 4 level 20 characters. We absolutely DECIMATED those charr, but the timer ran out. So new plan: we made my dad run away while my mom and I just started absolutely obliterating these tiny, level 8 charr. It was the most insane power trip ever. We got so much loot. It was absolutely beautiful.

[@genericpinesol]

Cool story bro

[@NickeltonV]

Love it :)

[@DustinBarlow8P]

You got your parents to quest with you?! My mother still refers to my PS4 and XBOX One as "My Nintendo's"

[@rikk319]

@@DustinBarlow8P I've been playing MMOs with my son since he was 9. LotRO, DDO, TERA, SWTOR. He's 19 now and we play more Apex Legends than MMOs, but it's a blast. All started when we played the original Legend of Zelda together on an NES emulator when he was 5. Gaming is a great way to connect with your kids.

[@TheLethalIntrospectionCrew]

Lol I used to run this mission for low lvls for like 100 gold a pop. So much fun

[@marzatplay]

Use tab to find the healer then ctrl + space to ping him so your henchmen attack them. That's how you prioritize targets. Applies to PVP as well so your team hits T and the target you selected is targeted by all members...damn, how do I remember this so many years later LOL

[@yahyamusseb]

That's how you know its a good memorable game

[@NateisJung]

Wow. As I'm reading this I remember it to. So many memories flooding back watching this video.

[@jordanBetts01]

So glad I found this comment bc I didn't know it was thing and its just what I needed

[@sidina1085]

"target in three two one"

[@marzatplay]

@@sidina1085 Haha, yeah. My Guild used the in game clock to make sure spikes were flawless. Ah the good days.

[@redsnabba4947]

A couple of things for any new player interested in the game: -Skipping the pre-Searing stuff is not a big deal and probably how most people will play the game if starting with that campaign. Contrary to what Josh said you do not lose out permanently on skill points. There's only one thing you can permanently lose out on: A title obtained by reaching max level in pre-Searing Ascalon. It's relevant for "full completion" but most people won't do that and even if you choose to go for it you do have 8 character slots and i would recommend not starting with this as it's a long process and you won't see much past the tutorial for multiple months that way. Instead play the game normally and make another character dedicated to earn the title which while you can't display account-wide you can use it account wide for the sake of completion. -The game is kinda dead but slightly less dead than Josh seems to think. At the top right of his screen there's a little box saying "Europe - English - District 1" meaning he's playing on the European server. Most players have moved to America when doing anything so if you switch there you'll still encounter a decent number of people. -UI elements are moveable and there are quite a few options most noticeably the option to always show names so you don't have to press alt all the time -The game is pretty difficult. Get ready to die a lot. Don't get too demoralized by getting your face mashed against the floor. We've all been there. Good luck with the game!

[@sioncasdin]

Thank you so much for this video. It's so hard for me to find an MMO I like, but the craving for one is always there for me. I watched this video almost a year ago and have been playing GW1 on and off since then, and it's the first MMO I can genuinely say that I love.

[@Terminarch]

Howdy! Way late to this, but I'm looking for a small dedicated group to do every campaign from scratch with. Interested?

[@sioncasdin]

Heya, sorry for the late reply but I'm done with the game for now since I struggle a lot to stick to one game. I hope you find an awesome group though! @@Terminarch

[@steveno4244]

If you are still searching i would be up to it.

[@Terminarch]

@@steveno4244 I am still searching but my schedule has been totally whack recently. Can't even guarantee that I'll be around on the weekends. Eventually I'll look for a Discord group or something to find a couple more people... but it'll be a bit until I can make that kind of commitment. Sorry.

[@michielankersmit8656]

@@Terminarch I'd be down

[@smogix9630]

That child looking for her flute carried teams as a mesmer. Broke my heart when I found Gwen's grave stuffed in a corner in Ebonhawke...

[@adherry8142]

Oh yeah, a pocket mesmer really made a large part of EOTN much easier.

[@lukaastraearose5227]

..she died..? :')

[@adherry8142]

@@lukaastraearose5227 Between GW1 and 2 were like 300 years. Of course she faked her death so noone noticed that she was the Archdemon

[@methanbreather]

@@adherry8142 and then she comes back and makes a certain Charr very uncomfortable. Loved that.

[@Silvanfan]

Isn't she Logan's great great grandmother or something?

[@AndrewCoyte]

Dug out my old guild wars discs, installed it the guessed my old account login and my characters from 2005 are still there. Props to the developer for keeping it active so long.

[@Ennocb]

Really? Accounts were not wiped? Gotta find my discs and check out my old chars!!

[@domiasmoth]

@@Ennocb Annnnnnnnnnnd you still got birthday presents on every character.

[@Ennocb]

@@domiasmoth Got my account back through support. It's apparently been hacked at some point and only had PvP chars. So I had to start over. I've played throught Factions and EotN with a new character this past week. My titles remained and a few items in my chest. Got my Asura armor just now! I think I'm gonna be playing some more. As for the presents: you may call my Xunlai chests mini pet chests now.

[@theharlequin7280]

Playing a Anti-Mage Mesmer is still one of the greatest RPG experiences in videogames I had. I'm not a big PvP fan in general, but denying mages their abilities and making them implode was so much fun. Same with supporting the team during quests by negating all those nasty spells. Truly a unique experience to this game and good times I remember very fondly.

[@eintyp4389]

This sounds so cool. I love the idear of a anti-mage or devination specialists (anything thats not just a flat mage dps). Whats the closest you ever got to this experience? And how was the Pvp when you were playing? What was standing out?

[@theharlequin7280]

@@eintyp4389 I was in a more casual guild back then, so no hardcore raid of PvP schedule. But we did make the Hall of Heroes, which is the final PvP arena, on a few occasions. I don't think I ever played a mage class that was really alike to the GW1 Mesmer. At least not in its unique focus. Caster classes with a strong debuff / curse tree may be the closest thing. PvP was all about timing, watching and anticipating the opposing casters. In GW1 you get a casting indicator when an ability is being used, giving you a short window of opportunity to actively counter it. Besides these interrupts, there were also debuffs you could put on them. Like if they cast a certain type of spell within the debuff window, their mana burns, they take damage or get cooldown on all the spells in that category. There are also abilities that steal enemy spells, extend their cooldowns, cause fear or mess with their movement. So as you can imagine, a decent Domination/Illusion Mesmer can cause severe, glorious chaos amongst enemy ranks. Honestly it was really fun and after watching the video, I'm kinda tempted to try and solo the campaign. Since NPCs also use the same arsenal of abilities, PvE can be equally rewarding, if a little less satisfying without the human element.

[@mrdavisdance]

I am a FART GOD 😎💪 and I agree with you. Thank you for posting

[@sunrisemonk]

Have you ever heard of Ragnarok Online - Sage/Professor is basically the same thing but much older :) And you needed to have a good timing to break casts of enemy wizard or absorb his aoe spells and many more.

[@IAmTetsuo1]

It's been decades....but Mesmer is the best RPG class I've ever played 🥹🥹.

[@Anonymality]

Wish there were vods of josh playing through guild wars on youtube. I would watch the hell outta it. Really want to see how his view changes on things as he goes through factions, nightfall, and eotn

[@SomeOne-ex7hk]

This was my first MMO. Every game Ive played after this was measured against Guild Wars 1. This game was a masterpiece.

[@markup6394]

Same :D

[@jamesmaclennan4525]

It was my second after Classic Evercrack but I still have fond memories of my first guild

[@jesse9710]

Same for me, started playing this when I was just a little kid, now I'm almost 10 years into gw2. I've tried so many other mmo's, and enjoyed some of them, but none will ever be as good or fulfilling to play as gw1

[@TheNemesis442]

@@jesse9710 so true. loved running players through CoF on my 600 monk.

[@innosoul7837]

It was my first too. I have so many good memories of this game. I remember spending so many days tracking down elite skills to add to my characters and creating new builds to use for various situations. I miss my old alliance buddies too but adult life hit them and they stopped playing after a while. Damn makes me want to track down my old account and see if I can log in again.

[@diegovuillermoz5189]

i shed a tear. i loved GW skill system, it was absolutely perfect

[@memnarch129]

Yep doesnt overload you allowing 16 seperate action bars. 1 Bar, 8 Skills thats it.

[@MinqApoc]

@@memnarch129 1 bar, 8 skills, only one of them could be an elite skill and you could combine them and way you wanted. We spent HOURS debating over builds and ideas for new builds and synergies between builds...

[@SiborgGamer]

I like the idea of combat having more strategy and mobs being more dangerous. Sounds like it would make a game way more interesting

[@AlwaysANemesis]

My experience with Guild Wars was bittersweet. When I was first getting into it, I was incredibly young, a bit too young to fully appreciate the game's design aspects, or really socialize like a decent human being in an online setting to begin with. My efforts at playing the game were more casual, slowly learning the game with each character I played and eventually dropped. My estranged father, however, was a different case: he was _obsessive_ at exploiting every nook and cranny of Guild Wars, relentlessly pursuing titles and hoarding ultra-rare items; and while that alone isn't bad, per se, the way that he went about it was...mechanical. Like there wasn't any enjoyment from it, simply an act of busywork. It got to the point of dictating how I and my sister played the game, and even played my characters *_for_*_ me_ without my permission (he owned the accounts we used, we didn't have much say in the matter). I actually learned what "Meta builds" were because he would constantly insist that I use whichever one came out that week for my character class; I'd keep saying I wanted to experiment with the game's mechanics, and he'd tell me I was being stupid and to just do what already works. I eventually stopped playing because of him. He probably still plays it, even now. Looking back in retrospect, I can't discount that he could've been a gold farmer, but I've no proof of that.

[@chacecrowell3638]

I had a raid leader that trained me for awhile on another game that was similar to that. Annoying but gave me some great skills and tips

[@AlwaysANemesis]

@@chacecrowell3638 Oh, no doubt that he probably taught me some reasonable strategies for playing that game. The problem was that he made it hard to enjoy actually playing.

[@chacecrowell3638]

@@AlwaysANemesis I hate that it was your father that's rough. My current guild mates that were also trained by him still joke about the trauma hopefully you and your sister can at least have a laugh

[@OneMorePotion]

As someone who still plays this game today, thank you very much for bringing attention to it. It's still one of the best games in my opinion and there is nothing else recreating this specific gameplay I fell in love with 16 years ago.

[@pclewisnz]

I only stopped playing because the people I played with from all over the world moved on and

[@neocodex3]

@@pclewisnz same me too. It still is so much bettet than gw2. Why am I not playing it?

[@fingreen2663]

I love this game so much when they close down the Taiwan server I got so angry….

[@Sumoniggro]

@@pclewisnz I kick myself because I was the one who moved on, in 2008 I started playing wow with my girlfriend at the time who I met on GW1.

[@xSaraxMxNeffx]

yo i thought they stopped running the servers

[@keevansixx4185]

i feel the most unique and creative aspect to the entire GW franchise is that even after all this time, a new player to GW2 could go back to GW1, play all that content, do all the things to unlock everything in the hall of monuments, and have that carry over into GW2 as a legacy with rewards and achievement tracks. No other game has done this.

[@prinstyrio0]

GW games has some of the best achievement based feeling, and not merely cause of GW2's achievement system, but feeling that doing something is rewarding in someway, with GW1 it's the connection to GW2 but also how it being so horizontal almost everything you can get holds some meaning or worth. That said, there's no game out there like GW2's achievement system and how it incorporates it into how you're rewarded things. Everything you do feels like it is an accomplishment for something, even if it's just a point for your next general reward.

[@Houdm]

Borderlands does this

[@keevansixx4185]

@@Houdm wait, since when... was Borderlands a MMOrpg? I always though it was a mostly solo player game with the option to drag a couple of friends along in your instance. in that case, GW1 did it way earlier and much better than borderlands, with much more build variety than pre-set character models, and not depending solely on the power of the current weapon as your only combat mechanic to be rendered absolutely useless when the next expansion comes along. Borderlands is basically the non-anime version of power creep...where everything you have accomplished in one version of the game is rendered useless and moot with the next expansion. it's like comparing apples to oranges.

[@poncho7626]

@@keevansixx4185 Okay but you said no other game does it. You did not specify the genre, so John's comment remains accurate.

[@keimo02]

GW is nohting compared to Dekaron, GW actually has indepth content and lore and questline

[@HydrationMonitor]

So many good memories on this game between the 55 monk and running Heroes Ascent! Such a great game at it's peak. I am sad they didn't have an HA style PVP in GW2! Seeing your guild get an announcement saying you won the whole thing and climbing the guild ladder was such a fun experience

[@mynameswouldntwork]

"You cannot drop items within the first 24 hours of character creation. To clean out your inventory, sell items to a merchant or move them into the trash bin located above your inventory slots." While I agree you should just be able to drop them, it's not necessary to do so given the fact you can trash items. You mention the game not explicitly telling you where to find item trophies for NPC item collectors at around 21:15. While this is true in some cases, most trophy items have what you need to kill in order to acquire them in the name of the item. For example: Charr Hides are acquired from killing Charr. Adventuring around in Pre-Searing is actually enough to teach you this though it certainly doesn't apply to trophies that don't have mob names explicitly stated in the title but that's actually the exception here and not the rule. There's a section of the audio that I think is describing something other than what's on screen. You mention a crafting station and how it would be useful once you know where to get the required stuff. What you're scrolling through when the audio plays is your own inventory. You're at a customizer NPC which does sound like you can make customizations to the item but you actually just pay gold to character bound the item for increased auto attack damage. The negative here isn't that you don't know where to get the stuff, it's that it isn't explained to you what the vendor does. I'm sure this has been mentioned in the year that this video has been out but in regards to the stat screen you talk about near 31:00, It isn't really necessary. Having a full set of armor on ( depending on class) gives you the soft cap of mana regen ( sitting at 4 > indicators on your mana bar ) and, while it's possible to get more, the only sources of it are from skills and very particular consumables. While it would still technically be useful to have the stat screen, the game focuses so heavily on what skills you have equipped that the screen wouldn't matter. Unless you have a hot bar full of damage only skills or heal only skills, every skill you equip is going to have primary or secondary effects that are really only best understood if you read the actual skill. Damage types also don't matter as much to gameplay unless you're in the endgame or playing hard mode which, by the time you get to that content, you will have a basic understanding of. Sorry for the wall. This video is fantastic and I just wanted to clear up some of these minor misunderstandings.

[@fires2398]

You can alternatively salvage items to acquire runes and other useful things like material. There is a stash as well in the game that one can put stuff to get rid of inventory as well. He would need to buy a salvage kit though.

[@lordfleckelton9234]

On BIG design choice is missing in this review and its in my opinion the most interesting one. You are able to draw on the minimap and your teammates are able to see what you have drawn, just like a black board. This is genius design in my opinion and I never saw that again.

[@davidholmes3728]

As a map runner this is king if I draw a don't cross line you need to not cross

[@user-sd6zz2hm2u]

I believe you can do this in GW2 aswell.

[@davidholmes3728]

@@user-sd6zz2hm2u less well but yes

[@davidholmes3728]

@@kwith a straight line and if you crossed it the runner would fucking yeet you so hard

[@Bluecho4]

Ah, so that explains why the game doesn't show much on the map. The player is intended to mark it themselves. That's a neat bit of immersive gameplay.

[@killerkram1337]

"Worst MMO Ever - Guild Wars" *Begins typing furiously about how much he is wrong* *He really likes it... deletes everything* Yes I agree! I met my wife on Guild Wars and we still play to this day, 15 years later. Its such an amazing game with tons to do, the build craft is among the best of any game. Wait until you discover the elite skills and what they can do, just one of those can define your entire team and can make previously challenging and impossible areas trivial if you put all the cards together right. I play guild wars 2 as well a lot but always go back to guild wars 1 as the game has indeed aged like fine wine.

[@FlowerSong606]

Like he has said before not all games in this series are bad games He is just basically doing short critiques

[@Mripoststupidstuff]

Delete the first 4 lines, and you have a top comment...

[@Liondanceforme]

guild wars 1 elite skills are the best

[@killerkram1337]

@@Liondanceforme hundred blades is so fun

[@TheTundraTerror]

"Worst MMO Ever" is basically a brand name, at this point.

[@Ironfungus]

One of my favorite small features (which would be a solution to the problem mentioned at 21:00) was the ability to show the names of all NPCs regardless of where you are. This doesn't seem to be documented in the available hotkeys but I think it was ALT or CTRL by default. So if you're in a city and you want to know where a merchant is, you can hold that button down, then click on the name and your character will auto-pilot to that location. Although you could move with WASD, the game works much better IMO if you click to move. When trying to find your way down a slope (like at 19:10) if you simply clicked on the lower elevation you're trying to get to, your character will find the correct route automatically that way. It's been a while but I believe you can also set a route via the map for your character to run to automatically. My main was also a necro/mesmer and it was quite the power trip seeing my 20+ minions steamroll over the entire map and absolutely murder everything

[@finng.3694]

Its ALT for friendly NPCs and CTRL for enemies

[@MeRDied]

Your start was definitely very nostalgic for me as I started with a necromancer in Prophecies as well!

[@Ineluki_Myonrashi]

Pitchforks only 5 gold, get your pitchforks here! You can't be part of an unruly mob without your pitchfork!

[@linkofvev]

I'll give you 5 ecto and an ambrace, I have a guild to arm.

[@WDMurphy]

I loved GW1, the skill hunting the multi-class how you unlocked skills and get to pick your own "build". I miss the Ritualist, Necromancer, and the Monk so much.

[@ForeverDoubting]

Some of the most fun I had was being a monk in parties. Everyone loved monks.

[@ahrendtg]

Yes

[@monkohm6918]

@@ForeverDoubting Always prot. The other monk can heal. :P Or running Infuse in PvE for the lulz. Good times.

[@aflamealenor]

GW1 was my first love, no other game came close to it. I got GWAMM mostly solo, but teamed up with friends for 12 man raids. I loved everything about it! But ritualist class aesthetic and gameplay for me was soooo good. I would run COF farms for people on my 55 rit all day, was really good business especially during Wintersday. They replaced it with engineer in GW2 and it's not the same. I miss those days, thanks a lot for the reminder and a very good video.

[@trevster1314]

I loved Guild Wars, it was my favorite game through high school. I still to this day miss the GvG (guild vs guild) mode - I thought this was the peak of pvp content. To this day I haven't played another game with as fun of team based strategy and fighting. I was extremely disappointed to not see the same GvG mode in GW2.

[@blackjack21x]

We are still playing GVG

[@buttlesschap]

@@blackjack21x How often? Trying to recover my acc right now.

[@Landofwolves666]

It has been sixteen years since this game first released. I have played plenty of other online games with PvP in it, and I GUARANTEE YOU that this game still has the best PvP system I have ever played. It is SO GOOD that you can choose to make a character just to play PvP if that's what you are into.

[@terranova8890]

So true, I loved farming enough points to buy a new pvp build to try out.

[@Juiceb0xable]

Yup. Gvg was so good. The strategy from builds to in game and how that applies. Remember spikes? I haven't seen teams synchronized spike attacking in a game ever like that. 3 2 1 go. Everyone hits. Also the Mesmer in gw1 and the control and disruption mechanics. Nothing is like this.

[@matthayes533]

what upsets me is how long it took them to relearn the same lessons for gw2. I think it took at least two years to remember how to separate pvp skills from pve ones so that they didnt have to balance the whole thing. They still dont have target calling done correctly (it was awesome in gw1).

[@attila2246]

Agreed fighting in the hall of heroes for the favor of the gods was amazing and you would get people whispering you thanks if you succeeded. Defending your guild hall was super fun too. I could spend hours watching top guilds battle using the in-game replay system. This game was really so far ahead of its time in so many aspects.

[@Juiceb0xable]

@@attila2246 yo when the game would say who won too. If this game was released the same year as StarCraft 2 it would be an e-sport

[@rafaelbordoni516]

I love how this series is slowly becoming about any non mainstream MMO instead of just bad MMOs. Who knows, maybe you'll become the greatest gem finder of the MMO world!

[@ChaoticCircuit]

GW1 actually was a "mainstream" mmo, it just was running parallel to WoW at the time as its' only real competitor

[@railgun1]

What I love the most about this channel is that you get to see old gems you would have never seen as well as that one MMO you picked up yeaaaaars ago and forgot about. Then there's this, some truely great games. It's also a lot of fun to see awful MMO's being tried. Man JSH is such a gem in the KZbin community!

[@ModeMan90]

I thin at some point Josh said this series became more of a way to preserver/document old games. Such as GW or Otherland.

[@Biouke]

@@ChaoticCircuit Iirc Prophecies came out before WoW, but I might misremember.

[@Atropabelopa]

@@Biouke about 6 months after WoW

[@kasenrin3]

This is a game that has the most special place in my heart. I was in a Roleplay guild for a bit and despite things not ending too well with them overall, I really enjoyed my time with it. I still play it, where I am the lead of a prequel guild to my friends and I's current guild in GW2. There's so much fun to be had still and I absolutely love it. ♥

[@littlebadassgaming]

Ooh. Do tell.

[@brandalfthegrand]

Just started Guild Wars again after 10+ years, it truly is a remarkable RPG. I never paid attention to the writing, my small gamer-boy brain wanted to kill stuff and get loot. I'm rediscovering how truly excellent this game really was, and still is. This game is 100% worth a play-through in 2022 and beyond.

[@d0tsf0rlife]

GW1 is arguably the greatest “instanced” mmorpg ever imo

[@stinky9067]

I actually liked gw1 more than gw2

[@m.poppins4843]

@@stinky9067 yeah gw2 might be a good game, but its a very bad sequel of such a great game gw1 was.

[@Anon72782]

final fantasy online.

[@d0tsf0rlife]

@@Anon72782 both 11 and 14 are good as well. I play 14 these days. Love em both!

[@orthrusthetoad]

@@Anon72782 imo is okay at best.

[@ofosho2907]

When you die to mobs, they gain experience for killing you. People are able to reach max level in pre-searing by leveling up the enemy by purposely dying to them so that they're worth more experience.

[@kereminde]

There was an achievement for doing so, I think.

[@EatMyAngus]

@@kereminde There was a title for doing it. "Legendary Defender of Ascalon"

[@kereminde]

@@EatMyAngus Yeah, titles, been playing GW2 much lately (It's "Festival of the Four Winds" time again!) so my mind said "Achievements" when I meant "Title Track" ... I still need to go back and fill out my Hall. But what's left are things I simply cannot do alone. (Obsidian Armor, Vanquishing...)

[@Bluntoze]

I never knew that. It is amazing. Imagine , having a boss keep killing parties and getting better and better :P. That would be awesome.

[@joelclodo925]

In 2011 they added a cycle of daily quests in the pre-searing with enemies matching your level to help people going for the "legendary defender of Ascalon" title. I done it some month ago. What a journey !

[@kobrraful]

I miss this game. still one of my favorites, and if anyone would ever remake this game as a remaster I'd play the every living hell out of it again and again.

[@BrinIoca]

Honestly a remaster as not an MMO but with multiplayer that people could join in with friends lists and parties and stuff (and maybe some quality of life changes so the early post-searing hours of prophecies isn’t so slow…? Please?)

[@midnightblue3285]

@@BrinIoca with the new ui and spell animations

[@BrinIoca]

@@midnightblue3285 yeah! That would be so much fun! I love love gw2 and the whole world of Tyria, so I really want to experience what the world was like centuries before that. I tried playing prophecies but that unfortunately shows its age and isn’t much fun if you’re on your own in the early parts. I heard single player stuff gets better in the expansions.

[@Beutimus]

When you brought up the mob difficulty, so many flashbacks of trauma from the Jade armors and the Underworld area. Granted when I played, finding people to play with was really hard.

[@mrozzdude]

16,877 hours played over 199 months, still playing and loving this game! I was poor growing up so convincing my parents to get this relatively cheap game without a sub was easy. it was the only game I had from the ages of 13-19 along with the expansions and such. Saw me through a lot of tough times, made a lot of great friends. There is still a very active community and it's never too late to join. if you're ever playing, I am Faithless Arrow in game, join in!

[@_XR40_]

"...still a very active community..." Where? I log in out of nostalgia every few months and never see anyone anywhere - Except Kamadan, where people are just cybering and selling stuff. No one seems to actually be playing the game...

[@theautisticartist9370]

It's all in one server

[@jedpratte]

My wife who recently got into pc gaming asked about games for us to play and i thought of this game. I played it on and off with WOW for so many years. I was a player from launch till the end. Never even tried GW2 knew it was not the same. Her and i may just try it again. I remember the best day ever was when i won our guilds 1v1 pvp off we did. I got enough Plat i think it was called its been so long. i finally was able to dye my armor black i think.. witch back then was a huge flex lol. I remeber for the laughs taking my farming build witch allowed me to solo mobs and running it in pvp to annoy the other team. Could literally have my hole team die and my 1 vs all of them they could not kill me. i remeber i think it was warrior monk i think and was based around dodge chance essentially none stop.

[@retaora4281]

Lmao bro you need a life that's kind of sad

[@wambamshookeran9759]

Imagine if you had a hobby that paid you a small amount, even $15 an hour, that you dedicated yourself to for the last 16 years. Hell even just working out for a quarter of that time over sixteen years would have you absolutely shredded.

[@SadeGames]

Guild Wars is legendary. Even went back to it recently with a friend and it was still a lot of fun

[@LydiaAlcyon]

You had me going in the first half, not gonna lie. Lol. I'm glad you had a great time playing this. It made me very nostalgic and i would definitely give this another run through. All my characters are lvl 20, and i have a character who never left the Pre-Searing area, also lvl 20. She is what we called a "perma Pre." I still log in to check my characters birthday presents. Lol.

[@justintime7439]

"im going to try and finish this game" as a gw1 vet i almost spit out my drink when i heard that. i wish you the best of luck. GWAMM hayes

[@TheShabick]

I applaud if he just finishes Prophecies.

[@Bryon_Turner]

@@TheShabick I'll applaud if he finishes Prophecies with just henchmen.

[@AND-od5jt]

Hmmm... I don't really get the point - there's that one mission in the western jungle that sucks in the main-game (if you can't get 1 or 2 other players) and some miserable ones in Nightfall once you get into the fissure. Otherwise there weren't all too many hard ones there once you know what you're doing. I miss you, Mhenlo...

[@300lbcanary2]

@@Bryon_Turner Folks are doing it....calling it Irom Man play. Can only use Henchmen or other Iron Man players. OG and fun.

[@Bryon_Turner]

@@300lbcanary2 Actually iron man challenge also requires not dying.

[@cool_sword]

If you listen closely, you can hear the sound of a million Gamer "reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees" as they process the title.

[@teufeldritch]

@Im Toa Same here. GW1 was a awesome game.

[@TheBlubba13]

Yep. I'm reeeeee'ing

[@Methillo]

REeeeeeeeeEEe.. wait what?

[@breakerskillz2712]

Reeeeeeeeees!!

[@TheGUARDIANOFFOR]

soooooooo true

[@borntodie297]

Small correction on the DP. It does not go away over time perse, it is the killing of mobs that reduces the DP. So sometimes it is just better to reset the map or mission, because a party with nearly everyone at 30-45% (or heck even the max of 60%) is an absolute death sentence pun semi intended.

[@Jammonstrald]

Guild Wars 1 is still one of my favorites. The PVP was absolutely the best, it's a shame not enough people play it nowadays.

[@JoyfulJester]

This was without a doubt the game that influenced me most in my life. Staying up late to create builds no one had thought up before, killing bosses over and over in hopes of acquiring that rare gear/loot, the amazing story, the amazing soundtrack, the players were fantastic, the skills were unique. I was part of the pre-searing community with a lvl 20 and just the fact that this game had such a community within it was so amazing to me. I consider this game to be one of the best investments I ever made.

[@ryanrodely7402]

Amen brotha, what a game, was hooked throughout my childhood lol, I still playing GW2 but definitely not the same

[@Nurofaen]

I agree. I still believe me and my friends were personally responsible for the hp regen cap they brought in for PvP. We made Ele/Dervish builds with Air attune, Ele attune, and the 2 Dervish buffs. Then once you hit the Dervish 'regen +3 per enchant on you', and the hugely reduced mana cost of your air spells (the deadliest single target spells) you could 1v4 in the arena. 4 of us doing that won tournaments for 3 weeks before suddenly they brought in a 'max 2 enchants' modifier on the dervish regen spell :D

[@jsedge2473]

100% agree. I spent so much time playing this is a kid. The replayability is literally infinite, shown by the fact that TO THIS DAY, 16+ years later there are still people hanging out in pre-searing, which was meant to be nothing but a starter zone. Perhaps the most special part of this game was the community. I have never come across a game even CLOSE to the same caliber of community GW1 built. The game is entirely playable now and is still fantastic, but the saddest part is the community that naturally shattered when GW2 was released and the passage of time.

[@memnarch129]

While mine wasnt not thought of before its one VERY few dared to do, a Necro Warrior. Why? For those NOT in the know certain capabilites where only available as a Primary Class. Warriors was being able to Use a shield and having a attribute buffing your Armor for using a shield. SO anyone playing Warrior USUALLY took it first and the other classe second, Warrior Ele, Warrior Mesmer, Warrior Hunter. Also your AC was different, Warrior maxed at 80 from what I remember Necro only at 60. So NO ONE ever took the light armor class before Warrior, except me a a very few others.

[@anormos7270]

My Derwish/Monk full selfbuff build that i loved like nothing else^^

[@orian151]

The fact that this started with you saying you loved this game... makes me so glad, because this was one of my favorite games of all time in this genre. It was big for me the way WoW was big for so many people (though I eventually played WoW also).

[@chrisrose323]

God damnit, that music in the opening cinema :') Gwen and her flute ^^

[@ThatOneGuyJet]

As a die hard old skool GW fan, this was very nostalgic. That Jeremey soule score alone gives me shivers, the good kind mind you. One thing I have to correct you on; You can in fact get rid of items with a new account, you just can't drop them on the ground. See that bin icon on the right hand side of the inventory, below the weapen set button at 20:54? Drag an item onto there and it will destroy it.

[@ericjentsch8301]

Watching this brought back a ton of memories and, truthfully, some tears.

[@Corcky54]

My brother and I got in the beta for Guild Wars. It then became the only game we really played for many, MANY years. This game was amazing at launch, at its peak, and even the ending times. A lot of people play GW1 even after GW2 has been out for a good amount of time. Very good memories. My first black dye drop... When they added the unique green boss items... My adventure to get my first perfect IDS (Icy Dragon Sword). You know when someone asks "If you could erase your memory of a game and restart it, which one would it be?" I will always say the launch of Guild Wars. Best video game experience of my life. Great video btw!

[@notthatguy4062]

1000% agree with this. Put thousands of hours into this game with my brother, starting from age 9…the simpler times. Droknars forge runs, wintersday in LA, the mad king, the green weapons, platemail armor…Greatest game ever made. Will never forget the memories, the feelings & the friends this game gave me.

[@chuckp342]

gahhh, I remember farming those imps for IDS's back in the day. I actually just reinstalled the game - I'm loving it.

[@jackers1234]

Recently found this channel and man...GW1 was my life for a couple of years. The flood of happy memories from watching this video is amazing. The PvP (GvG and HA) was where GW1 really stood out imo. I have so many good memories of fighting to maintain win streaks in HA to get the tiger emote with some random spike or pressure build, or having epic 15 minute clashes in the middle of a Guild Hall. This game was genuinely something special.

[@DanKxxx]

I played this at high level back when it came out. I was in one of the top gvg guilds and played me/mo, and sometimes mo/n or mo/me if I had to sub for someone. It was so fun. GVGs were so tactical because of range. If their monk got out of position as a mesmer I could punish them so hard and we'd win the fight.

[@gaiusbaltar8915]

Wasn't there a video by JSH a while ago in which he mentioned that MMOs moved from being social facilitators towards being more solo-friendly with other people being optional, but not required? This Guild Wars 1 game truly was quite ahead of it's time.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Makes me feel of more classic RPGs like Sacred 2 or Neverwinter Nights (both offer coop mode btw), but with multiplayer social spaces and some sort of online matchmaking for when you don't want to play alone.

[@TacTicMint]

It wasn't really a solo game. Henchmen existed so you didn't have to wait around for the perfect party makeup to show up. Just to fill a slot or two because the other MMOs of the time had this problem.

[@_XR40_]

@@TacTicMint Henchmen and Heroes were developed as a result of the "Monk strike" at the _Thunderhead Keep_ mission. It was almost impossible to complete the mission without a decent Monk-player, so monks started hanging around the starting area for the mission and demanding that they be paid to participate. When the rates got too high, other players started getting pretty pissed so Anet devised AI-helpers. Monks were actually considered pretty crappy people for quite a while after that... EDIT: This is also, btw, why GW2 completely dispensed with Monks as a class.

[@Spelfaut]

I've played GW1 to death. I was extremely sad when they went to GW2. I loved the transition tho, you could farm some titles and you would get extra items in GW2, mostly cosmetics. Every now and then I look back at my GW1 days and I'm very happy to have experienced those years. I hope you continue playing this, because it's a gem!

[@Gymnasiar]

i still log on every other month just to see what presents my chars have gotten.

[@monkohm6918]

@@Gymnasiar I should think I still have a couple of characters in Pre-Searing who existed just to have birthday presents to sell (unopened of course because I was never going to roll that bone dragon) for silly ecto/vambrace out of pre.

[@Gymnasiar]

@@monkohm6918 i logged in like a week ago and opened like 8 presents. It was wonderful

[@artofgameplaying]

I found the playlist, enjoyed couple of videos and here I see my favourite game ever. Clicked on it, fully open to getting my pink glasses destroyed. But nope! You even recreated my early game mistakes and frustrations. Leaving Pre-searing early, failing the northern wall... Or being frustrated about the merchant locations before my guildmates told me about the alt key. Huge hit of nostalgia...

[@JakeSezz]

I just happened across this video (and channel thanks to various reacts to any JSH videos) and it warms my heart to see someone enjoying this game, all this time later. It was my first MMO and I remember playing it in early autumn ‘05 on a Toshiba laptop, using Skype for Comms with my friends (as TS and Vent sucked, in our opinion). I spent a great many, enjoyable hours playing all 4 stories of the game and am disheartened that I still haven’t come across the “Hall of Heroes” in GW2 that was promised from our GW characters. (I realize this may be due to the short time I’ve spent in GW2, but still.) I thought the game had been pulled and was no longer online; once I return home from this deployment, I may have to redownload the game and stream it myself. See how much I can recall, as I haven’t played it in 10+ years. Great video, sir!

[@chickenbroski99]

I really wish gw2 had kept the same structure as gw1. One of my top 5 games of all time. Such unique and fun design.

[@Trancecend]

Same, was pretty disappointed that GW2 went more of the traditional MMO style. Ended up liking 2, but for different reasons. Will always love GW1 more

[@Butelish]

no no, gw2 is good as is

[@-Ryu-]

I was playing in the world top 10 (ranked gvg pvp) when the game was at its peak, the pvp of gw1 was something glorious, even today it is difficult for me to describe it in words, I'm sorry for those who could not live this experience. I'm glad you made this video, it made me shed a little tear.

[@DodgeThisBam]

I played early and created a team that we call Teh Pet Build. 7 Ranger Primaries with one Nerco Primary. Everyone had a pet. We found so many cool things running this, such as the warrior skill "I will Avenge you!" at the time have a stupidly small range (You pretty much had to be standing on the corpse) having NO ATTACK SPEED CAP. If three or more pets died in the same spot our hammer ranger could manage three swings a second. Because everyone was a ranger primary we always ran Quickening Zepyr which affected everyone. Dropping cooldowns but increasing skill costs. We also discovered that the Edge Of Extinction spirit was one of the most broken things ever. When somebody died, EVERYONE in the area took a relatively small amount of damage. At maximum investment 1/7 of the average HP bar. The thing was if that small damage killed another player it would trigger again with no gap. There were times in the large scale PVP where we'd have a member break off and drop this near two other teams fighting only for him AND EVERYONE ELSE die instantly because the chain reaction of deaths now = an entire hp bar. The WTF and rage that flooded into chat when that happened was glorious.

[@-Ryu-]

@@DodgeThisBam the original IWAY was pretty broken

[@jasonwaltman3566]

Oh the good times in Jade quarry with Necro bombers and RoJ monks. I do miss it so.

[@deathshotzzraven223]

JADE sends their regards

[@fenriders7008]

I do think GW had the best pvp of any MMO I’ve played. If it had been released later, when esports was more established I think it could’ve been absolutely massive; huge skill expression, team and skill build variety and a fast pace ticks all the boxes for an engaging esports ready game.

[@CrimsonessCross]

I just came across this video. One of my favorite forgotten features is that you can draw on the minimap to communicate. It just felt tactical to be able to tell the team to flank or circle around, etc.

[@GileadMaerlyn]

28:26 Oh, I remember this mission! I used to do it alone with my lvl20 warrior, and stand and fight when you're supposed to run away, to kill as much charrs as possible 😆

[@BlogTheRob]

For Josh/anyone wanting to get more involved - Guild wars legacy is a great online forum for trading, guilds and findings other players. There's a small but very dedicated player base left, most can be found on the American districts which you can change to anytime. The most populated place is the nightfall starting city Kamadan. I was in a guild called lgit, which has an insane amount of the player base in an alliance on both sides of two opposed factions.

[@janpawedwa4590]

Oh my god. I remember that day that my mom bought me GW: Factions. I was 12, and I just spent 2 whole weeks in a hospital, being sick with pneumonia. And I never complained once, so you see, I was ENTITLED to get a videogame next time we went to the supermarket (it had like 10 different games stocked, it was back when physical copies existed for pc)! We went to the store, there was a bunch of nothing really, but I had to choose something. It was a toss-up between GW and Lego Star Wars II: TOT. My friend already promised to lend me his copy of Lego, so I picked up Gw. I mean, the lady on the cover was kinda hot for 12 year old me. The box was white. That kicked off my addiction to MMO games. We played and played and played with one of my frieds, until he found out, that there is a way to play Wow The burning Crusade, on a private server, FOR FREE! Mobs aggroed through walls, and paladin's mount didn't work, because server owner hated paladins, but... for free! And it was all downhill from there. Oh man, thanks for the nostalgia.

[@HepauDK]

I don't know if there are different versions of covers depending on standard/collectors, but the ones I have, the Factions cover is red-ish with a ritualist on it. My Nightfall cover is white with a dervish on it...

[@Iris_1217]

Enemies don't only self-heal. Later on, they'll actually resurrect dead members of their parties. Giving enemies classes and access to the same abilities that players have is a great way to make the game challenging, but not in a "Enemies either mob you or just do lots of damage" kind of way. Depending on the makeup, a pack of four or five enemies can be VERY threatening, because they have all the same stuff you do and they know how to use it. I also really like the elite skill hunting feature where you have to go out into the instanced areas and find certain bosses that use the skills. You defeat a boss to capture the skill, and it's really cool because you get to have that skill used AGAINST you first. It's a really neat way to demonstrate how your character is evolving throughout the story. The henchmen system, and the Hero system, are both fantastic, because it isn't just "Here's a random NPC to fill a slot". They're all characters who have at least 'some' degree of plot relevance, and you'll either go through the story with some of them and see their own narratives develop alongside yours, or you can chat with them in each outpost to get an update on how they're responding to the events going on around them. Plus Mesmer Heroes are absolutely broken because the AI is still really solid, and can land the quarter-second/half-second interrupts for one second cast times that a player might struggle with. A full team of heroes can't only "help" a solo player through endgame content, sometimes they're 'better' at it than a group of seven other actual humans would be.

[@pcjedi240]

if you hold alt while in the town it will display all the npc names in that town and npc names had service titles as well i.e. Tam [Blacksmith] - Liam [Merchant] and as far as henchmen you can control them to a point by using the ctrl button. When holding ctrl and using a skill or just double clicking an enemy your character shouts "Using SKILL on TARGET" or "Attacking TARGET" which causes your henchmen to also focus on that target as well.

[@TheSnoodPenguin]

Haven't played Guild Wars in years but this really makes that itch come back.

[@bellystraw]

I love it when online games actually think about their solo fanbase or just how the game will play when the playerbase starts to dwindle.

[@Tzhz]

Man I never thought I would get nostalgia from being reminded of reading game manuals in the back of the car on the way home

[@hassunakar2275]

there are so many good memories with this game that i have and it was a blessing to see it many years later. In fact you hit me so hard with the nostalgia i grabbed my old disks and its installing right now. Even if im staying for just some hours to take a breath i will cherish it. Thanks for covering GW1

[@aqg7vy]

The archetypal goth gf instantly makes it the best mmo ever

[@TheOdMan]

I was actually thinking of buying this the other day, just to play through the story, and the expansions as well. Now I definitavly will do that.

[@Boom3120]

Hope you enjoy :)

[@TheOdMan]

@@Boom3120 I am! I just started two nights ago as a lowly a Mesmer and so far I am really liking it. And I just love the graphics, I mean really, there's something special about this era of gaming graphics, it might just be nostalgia for other games with similar looks, but I really do love it.

[@BoBo-rf1cb]

DO ITT !!! :D BTW useful tip(s) - if you need info about something in the game type in the game chat /wiki "whatever you want info for spelled correctly" and press enter. Game will tab and start your browser. Btw on the top left corner you can change realms of sorts. Players hang in America English 1. GL. Game is tough especially on hard mode. You can press alt and see all NPCs in town. I have no idea why everybody plays with WASD i prefer click to move and map all action keys. You autoattack with space btw.

[@codyseibert1914]

Shout to the 55 monk build and henchman boss farming. Love grinding them greens to sell!!

[@goettee5430]

Just a tip for navigating cities when looking for a specific NPC, holding down ALT allows you to see all of their names through walls, holding CTRL allows you to see all enemies within a certain zone as well.

[@LckyNumberSlevin]

You can make this permanent in settings.

[@Presearing]

Shout out to the Perma-Pre community, best area out of any MMO game, with Rookgaard closely behind.

[@criran]

Death-leveling is such a big brain mechanic. It's so old school and you just never see stuff like that anymore.

[@rangerkrista4103]

Long Live Ascalon! I legit got scared the first time I went through the searing and remade my character. XD

[@etheusrook6242]

Not even the best area in Guild Wars 1. The Echovald Forest and Jade Sea are the real MVPs.

[@rangerkrista4103]

@@etheusrook6242 For sure. It's so hard for me to decide which areas I love more between Prophecies, Factions and EotN. But the Jade Sea/EF are in my top 3. I really loved the story of Factions and how those areas came to be what they are. Absolutely fantastic as settings.

[@Theinvalidmusic]

Good grief, you've basically just described the MMO I was hoping somebody would make. In particular all the talk about feeling like the world existing outside of your actions, being there for the adventuring rather than the level grinding, and the overall late 90s, early 00s D&D feel. I had no idea this is what Guild Wars was like. Definitely going to have to give it a try sometime, thanks for the video!

[@mortalhordewarrior9285]

Hey of you end up playing, comment here. I've actually been having trouble on the last few story missions with henchmen alone rip lol

[@1IGG]

Guild Wars was amazing on release. It is nearly 20 years old now, though. So no action combat, tab target, very old design.

[@99Pierogies]

@@mortalhordewarrior9285 you can solo those with heroes, but it is a grind to get all the skills youll need

[@MeteoBahamut]

The teambuilding and skillbuilds are so important, I remember the Tengu in the shiverpeaks that had some of the best enemy teambuilding and they would totally destroy me when I wasnt careful. Later on I felt a lot better about it when I saw that they destroyed the titans as well.

[@neonshadow5005]

The artist decisions in this game are amazing. It's a really old game now, but when you see it, you're still like "wow, that's beautiful .."

[@ItchyClover]

This absolutely made me get the dusty CDs and get back into the game. Thank you for reminding me that GW1 is still a great game

[@debackersian]

When you are in a city, in the top left of your screen you have the option Europe or America, this game used to have multiple districts (servers) for Europe and America but now it only has one for each. Everyone seems to hang out in America, you can always freely change between them.

[@jeremysmith7176]

So the districts scale with how many players are in an Outpost. If enough players are in one Outpost more districts will appear. This really only noticable in Kamadam on some days and during festivals. I saw over 20 districts in Shining Jea Monastery during the Canthan New Year.

[@HepauDK]

@@jeremysmith7176 *Shing Jea... ;)