Guild Wars Is up and Running.

[FoxBat]

Not only are there serious balance issues right now, but the warrior types don't require nearly as many brains to get working. :rolleyes:

[WarLocke]

Is this beta only running during E3? I don't want to try downloading the thing on my dialup connection if so. <_<

[LochnarITB]

I'm going to go cry in a corner now.&nbsp; The one game I most want to play, and I can't run it :(

I just came back to to ask if you were Condoner on the Guild Wars forums and then I saw that you had posted this. The reason I asked is that they are using the same avatar as you. BTW, it might be good that you can't play it - you might actually enjoy it and then they would yank the rug out from under you Friday. :( Or maybe you are of the same mind as me - better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. :P

[SwissMercenary]

As of now, I've played for a good bit with an elementalist/monk, and also a little with the mesmer/ranger.

Now, with the mesmer/ranger, I can obviously use the slowing spell, and the(very nice) haste spell. Also, I have a good ranged attack - works for even taking down bosses solo.

With the elementalist/monk, on the other hand, I switched out Gale, due to the slow duration, and low casting time, while the paralysation lightning spell lasts for about a second. I can't really figure out what to do to avoid unwanted aggro... I didn't notice too much of a pattern for aggro, as in some fights, I heal left and right, and spam spells, yet the warriors are targeted over me, yet in others, I am immediately mobbed/torn to shreds by archers. Can anyone shed any light/offer suggestions for those problems?

Also, I played a good bit of PvP with both characters. I noticed that my elementalist would just slaughter warriors (Up to 136 damage with lightning orb :D ), thanks to their -60% lightning resistance, and to my Armour of Earth, while rangers would tear her to pieces. On the other hand, the mesmer could do a lot of hit+run, while spamming her thorns-like and DoT spells all over the enemies attacking my allies. It seems that if the enemy left her alone, she could do quite a bit of damage to casters, while if a warrior (or two) chased her, it resulted in her spamming some spells at enemy casters, but the warrior was unable to do anything against her slowing spell and haste. :P

Overall, though (Aside from getting stuck at times), I'm really enjoying the demo. This is one game I'm looking forward to. :D

[yangman]

Yes, the "E3 for Everyone" event, aka Guild Wars open beta, is only open during E3.

[Iolair]

It is definitely a game I will keep an eye on. It appeals to me, espesially since it won't require a monthly fee!!

This is normally what turns me off on mmorpgs. This version 'E3 for everyone' is very stunted, but still I have fun. That in itself says a lot. For instance, normally I despise PvP (not duels though) but I have had quite some fun with it in this game so far.

In one of the cooperative missions we had to scout for a general. That region hadn't seen any Gnarrs lately and was afraid what they were up to. So our little team of 4 were sent out to scout. We met some resistance underway and then suddenly stands atop a plateau where we can see down on a huge camp of these Gnarrs. Then hell breaks loose, we are discovered and have a few minutes to reach back to the camp to alert the general. Then we can see this huge mass of creatures running towards us, and all we can do is run in desperation back to our own camp. We barely got back and suffered losses underway. But we warned the camp! Yeah!

If I remember right though, there is not so much to download. But I could imagine dial-ups will have a problem anyways.

[LochnarITB]

OK, these guys are clever! I was looking for more soloable areas and was coming to believe that all solo play was going to be in the initial area (ascalon wilds?). Reading some boards I saw mention of other solo areas, in particular one that had a lynx that my ranger could charm for a pet. The bad thing was that this new solo area was linked to the staging area for the 4th cooperative mission. Therefore, in order to get to it, I had to play through some coop missions to open that staging area to my character. I got there only to find that it was not populated with monsters for the alpha. I wandered around a bit anyway to see the layout and the graphics were as gorgeous as other areas. It was a good thing I decided to look around because I stumbled on the one occupant, a lynx. Of course, I didn't have my charm skill equipped so I had to go out and come back to find it again but now I have a big kitty cat as a pet. As to the clever part - by forcing me to try some coop to open other solo play, they allowed me to come to my own conclusion - even the coop can be fun. :o When this does finally come to be, I will probably still mostly play solo but I will be willing to do some coop too. I guess I really should have realized that, since that is pretty much the way I play(ed) both Diablos, some coop but mostly solo.

I am really going to be looking forward to an open beta and then the final product. It is going to be hard to give this up after tomorrow and waiting until the next chance to play! :(

[Artega]

Heh, I figured it was only a matter of time before I (or someone else) found someone using the same Charmander avatar as I ^_^

Regardless of the balance issues right now, I'm going to play Guild Wars rabidly; it's pratically Diablo III!

I don't have a problem with Warriors being the big guys; I suck with those snooty spellcaster-types, anyway. I'll take plate mail and a big sword over flashy pyrotechnics and a staff any day ^_^

[TaiDaishar]

Well, it has ended and I, after playing feverishly during the five or so days the game was up I can definitely say I LIKE IT.

Things are incredibly straight-forward and the variety of spells is amazing, so many options, ones are insta-cast with low cooldown or long cast with high cooldown and vice versa, I started out a Monk/Mesmer (didn't think he was a Priest-type, I saw "divine powers" so I took him :D) and, if I may say so myself, I helped countless lives of being taken (Party Heal is awesome in the Tombs missions :) ).

After the Monk I decided to take someone more heavy-power oriented, I took Elementalist/Necromacer which was incredible, did a few quests and got myself 3 fame points (also made around 40 wins in a row at the Arena and only 1 game 2 of our members died) and decided to go solo, needless to say with my poor set of skills I was butchered mercilessly in solo against almost every group that wasn't Elementals.

Taking my high death ratio not so kindly I decided to spend a lil dough and some Skill Points (At the end I earned roughly 16 SP) and get myself some solo'ing spells like Soul Feast, Chiron's Balance (This can really be nasty, can heal you to 80+ HP while damaging opponent for the same amount) and Demonic Flesh (I fell in love with that spell, 100 health bonus for more than 60 seconds).

Changed my skills for solo play I went to have a blast and managed to take down huge groups (5 or so at a time), a nice thing to note is that the monsters do not like each other and are attacking each other on site, which can give you quite a nice position to just blast them all away.

Overall the game is great, some issues still need to be handled (The Exotic Gem Trader exploit for example) and I believe more quests should give rewards, not just the solo or cooperative missions, the competitive missions are probably the hardest and should be rewarded for completing.

I liked immensely the tactical decisions I needed to do with skills, suiting my skill set to every mission and play style that would give me the most out of my skills, balancing is of course still an issue and some buffs/debuffs just don't cut it with their LOW duration but I guess that with levels and attribute points you could get them to last a lot longer.

[Jim]

Hi

I think everything to be said about game play has been mentioned in the above posts, so I will post on Down time since there are no Potions in the game. I played a Warrior/Monk/Tank with Sword & Shield 80% of the time, I tried a Elementalist/Monk & a Necromancer/Monk, Magic is not my Thingy...in character creation you choose a primary & secondary skill tree or call it a dual Class character.

Note in the above posts most had a Monk as their second choice mainly because the Monk comes with 3 Healing spells...a Self Heal "BEWARE" it's an AOE spell that also Heals the "Monsters"<... Ouch !!! so you have to wait to use this spell until "After" you Kill the Mob your fighting & use it "Before" starting battle with the Next Mob,...90% of the time you soloed 2-5 Mobs at a time, I could handle 3 & yes I died alot & Ran alot to the guards if they were near by...Mobs were lv 8 - 10 Bosses lv 16...I was lv 15 [your level was locked] however the last day the Devs added the Big Mobs average lv 12 + I had a hard time with only 2 of these :P

There is also a Monk Heal Party spell. Every toon comes with a Heal self spell so there is no "DOWN TIME" :D ...however for a Melee/Tank toon this spell will not go off if you are in battle, If it does you do not get it's Full healing effect of 50 HPs, you need to break off the fight or run IF you can, then Heal your self, Melee fighters have a difficult time healing in battle, so having the Monks Healing Wind or Group heal helps since they do go Off in battle :D :D :D

DEATH: after you die you respawn at a nearby Res Circle & not in a town, your penelty is a 15% across the board reduction in Attributes that is reduced by killing Mobs...or you could Re-enter the area and start a new mission/game...if you choose to restart the Penilty is gone/removed...I sent a bug report/complaint about this...I feel you should ALWAYS keep the penelty till you Work it off even if you Log off for the night, but since it is not really a MMORPG I guess it does not matter :P

The game is Major Fun & taking into consideration that it is in ALFA testing it ran Great with very few bugs to report...in fact my first report was the same as the WoW bug of getting Stuck in the enviroment like a tree ;)

[Bolty]

I played a little Guild Wars, and I can say by comparison: Guild Wars seems a heck of a lot more interesting/exciting than WoW. Can't wait for the beta to get a better look at things.

-Bolty

[Jim]

I played a little Guild Wars, and I can say by comparison: Guild Wars seems a heck of a lot more interesting/exciting than WoW.&nbsp; Can't wait for the beta to get a better look at things.

-Bolty

Hi

How did Combat differ ?

I found myself "LOCKED" in battle once engaged. I tried to Run using Left/Click & move or my Arrow keys, but that Never worked...the Only way I was able to move was using W-S-A-D key movement, mostly by backing up turning and Running like hell, altho most Mobs followed you till they killed you, some only followed to the edge of their Spawning zone. If you got surrounded "Forget About It" Dead :D

What was a Very nice change, we started at lv 15 an were Not fighting in a Newbie zone with Worms, Cats & Dogs...in GW we did Battle with some Neat /Scary looking kick ass MONSTERS :P

[Swiss Mercenary]

I always use WASD to move - engaging from combat was easy by pressing them. You could have also pressed X to target yourself, breaking the target lock on the monsters.

Maybe you had difficulties due to lag?

[LochnarITB]

a Self Heal "BEWARE" it's an AOE spell that also Heals the "Monsters"<... Ouch !!!

I spent quite a bit of time in the frozen mountain area that was accessed way out in the wastes or off the mission 5 staging area. There were baddies there called stone mountain(?) menders. It was fun beating them up. As soon as they got to a certain health, they started flashing that spell (healing breeze?), healing me while I continued to beat on them. :lol: I wish the miners would have extended the same courtesy. Instead they just laid me out flat every time.

I played right up to the time they slammed the door at 2:08 AM CDT - "Guild Wars could not complete an operation - Err 7". At least we went down fighting. We were in the middle of a huge griffon battle in mission 5. One player was down, I was trying to restore life to them and flinging poison arrows and called shots and BAM! Noooooo..... Thankfully, I earlier had skipped 5 to try the bone dragon mission. The second party I tried managed to do it, after being beaten down from 8 players to just me and one other guy a couple times. It was great running around raising my fellow players knowing we still had a chance to finish. It felt like we were really accomplishing something. I haven't had that feeling in a game in a long time.

I just have one other question for the rest of you. Have any of you also started shaking heavily and feeling the need to curl up in a ball in the corner or is it just me???

[Jim]

Hi

No I had zero problems with Lag I have DSL, X did help a bit...but maybe it was because I use the Arrows keys to move around in Asheron's Call 1 for the past 4 years or because I'm getting too Old & my manual dexterity is waning...which ever I died many times because I could not back out of a fight & Heal or Run.

For ME Heal-Self did not go off if I were either Stun-locked or getting Interupted by getting beat on by 3 to 5 Mobs at the same time...all in all Great Fun !!! :o

ps: LochnarITB...Coronus is a waste of time IMHO...Back to Ryzom, which has become a tough game to play because the Mobs are toughter than before.  I'm still learning this Very complex game, I just made my fisrt Combo attack Hot key Icon, the game Rocks...The LOOT Stinks, I'm tired of Body parts reminds me of DAoC :D

[LochnarITB]

ps: LochnarITB...Coronus is a waste of time IMHO...Back to Ryzom, which has become a tough game to play because the Mobs are toughter than before.&nbsp; I'm still learning this Very complex game, I just made my fisrt Combo attack Hot key Icon, the game Rocks...The LOOT Stinks, I'm tired of Body parts reminds me of DAoC :D

I haven't installed Cronous yet but I will probably give it a shot anyway. I uninstalled Ryzom. I just didn't get a warm fuzzy from it and after it hard locked my system the second time - POOF! Maybe I'll give it a second chance. I never got far from that initial town so maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance.

[TaiDaishar]

they started flashing that spell (healing breeze?),

It's Heal Area :)

Oh, another thing I want is some sort of better descriptions! "Do 3+ damage for 12+ seconds" is just too general, it could be an awesome spell with some points in the right skill but I have no bloody idea! To know I'll have to buy it and try and toss some points in the skill...

[vor_lord]

I played a little Guild Wars, and I can say by comparison: Guild Wars seems a heck of a lot more interesting/exciting than WoW.&nbsp; Can't wait for the beta to get a better look at things.

-Bolty

Can you elaborate a bit? Why does GuildWars seem more interesting and exciting? I haven't heard anyone yet make a comparison between the two, and not being able to participate in the WoW beta I can't make any kind of comparison myself.

I played for the final 3 hours and enjoyed myself even though I only did the first two coop missions and a few single player quests. I haven't bought a game since Diablo 2, but it looks like I'll be getting this one when the time comes.

My old computer was not quite cutting it--couldn't run in full screen mode, and when large clusters of enemies showed up I got awful frame rates. Luckily today I just put in an order for my 'graduation' present (I just completed my master's)--a new machine.

I thought the camera could use quite a bit of work. I seemed to lose sight of what was going on at the worst moments.

[FoxBat]

I haven't heard anyone yet make a comparison between the two, and not being able to participate in the WoW beta I can't make any kind of comparison myself.

Well having been in WoW beta for a few weeks, and also having spent much of the E3 time playing GW, I could through in my 2 cents.

Despite advanacements, WoW still shares many qualities of MMOG to some degree: long bouts of scenery-watching as you travel without nary a thing to do, distance, faction (and later realm) seperating you from your old buddies, occasional camping issues, quests that have little impact on the world, boring corpse runs, and still a good bit of grinding. Whenever I bring these up to other WoW testers they usually start talking about "no this is great, EQ had this really bad" etc. etc. but not being an MMOG fan I can't stomache these de-provements over RPGs or even action-RPGs as justifiable.

Guild wars circumvents this by removing travel time between locations, and giving each party their own an instanced mission where you play an important part in some story. Not a great story necessarily :rolleyes: but it sure beats yet another "kill X" quest. You're also usually taking on a larger number of monsters than would be survivable in WoW.

Guild Wars has a lot of innovative concepts right... but the bottom line was that I didn't enjoy the PvM aspect myself very much. I was literally falling asleep the fourth time I had been through a mission, and it's not because the missions were too easy (and I was through all of those in E3). It might be being forced to repeat the same mission with the exact same monsters in the exact same plaice time and again that's an issue, it might be that consumable emergency items don't really exist, maybe players don't get much in the way of rewards, or the sameness that washes over the beautiful landscapes. Maybe it's even that you're less likely to meet long-term friends on the playing field. I'm not really sure.

WoW had a lot more downtime than guild wars PvM, but overall I liked it better for some reason. WoW's monsters aren't always scary, but they are varied and entertaining. Surviving a small group of monsters is much more taxing in much of WoW, and you've always got a billion (mostly lame) quests to keep you busy. Guild War's monsters being suprisingly stupid doesen't help, wheras WoW's arent that bad. I would characterize my experience with WoW as "fun in between boredom" wheras Guild Wars PvM was just mostly boredom.

For the "explorer" type there are some truly beautiful and unique places in WoW that the Guild Wars demo didn't show off really. Even though farming bashal'ran for some relics was a painfully dull experience, at least I was awake for it. And while you are sinking in a monthly fee, I doubt guild wars will be a quarter the size of WoW; the amount of content in WoW is staggering.

However, I was really suprised by the PvP aspect of guild wars. The toruneys were absolutely fantastic! WoW has some arena-style PvP planned as well but it still hasn't been implemented, so that is hard to compare. But for unreal-tournament style fast-paced team combat with a good dash of tactical strategy, I don't think WoW will stand up as well. The "collectable" skill system, diminishing returns rewards, faster pace of combat, and the mere fact that they've already got PvP in now, leads me to believe that WoW will not compete well here.

It may turn out that the long-term interest in Guild Wars is the PvP aspect; the vs computer might almost turn out something like Starcraft/Warcraft. Unless arena.net plans on expanding the world dramatically with their periodic expansions, I have my doubts that playing the completely identical PvM missions over and over again will stay fresh. WoW circumvents this by giving you so many quests, that it would take at least a year to get through all of it, and you'll be on an expansion by then. On the other hand, a tiny PvP map tends to last much, much, longer, as can be seen in any FPS or RTS game.

P.S. WoW's interface is equally annoying to us spoiled by Diablo so I wouldn't take that as a point of comparison. :rolleyes:

[Thecla]

I found myself "LOCKED" in battle once engaged.&nbsp; I tried to Run using Left/Click & move or my Arrow keys, but that Never worked...the Only way I was able to move was using W-S-A-D key movement, mostly by backing up turning and Running like hell, altho most Mobs followed you till they killed you, some only followed to the edge of their Spawning zone.&nbsp; If you got surrounded "Forget About It" Dead :D

Combat vs. monsters in GW seemed well worked out and quite challenging. At least, my ranger had a hard time taking on more than one monster of a comparable level on her own once they got into melee range. The movement controls need to be worked on -- no good mouse control on directions plus collision detection meant that in combat you really had to use arrow/wsad keys to move in the directions that were possible (assuming you have any left :) ). I also found the camera angle annoying to control in combat or in flight (or otherwise, though it didn't matter so much then!).

Maybe the most memorable moment I had was in the mission where a large mob was guarding a catapault part -- the rest of my party rushed in and got killed (it was hard to coordinate good strategy in pick-up games), although they did take out out many of the monsters. I was left with two Charr warriors on my tail. I ran a long way with them right behind me -- they seem to keep aggro almost indefinitely, and either I hadn't figured out how to use the skills to get them off me, or the skills just didn't work properly in the alpha -- until I got cornered . Fortunately, it turned out that only one of them could attack me in my cornered position, and I was able to keep healing myself enough to recover the damage inflicted from one guy and take them down one by one (if both of them had been beating on me at the same time, I would have been dead). Then I could go back and use my one rez to revive a dead monk, draw the other monsters off the other two, so the monk could rez them as well. All in all, it was a pretty exciting battle, and a bit like D1 in that you're ok if you manage the combat properly, but if you don't, you're dead.

All the classes were effective, but warriors (tanks) and monks (healing + rez's) seemed to be pretty essential for almost any mission.

They still have to work on the skills (e.g. for rangers, poison arrow was quite powerful, but as far as I could see ignite arrow made a nice explosive ring and did absolutely no additional damage). But, for an alpha, there were remarkably few bugs, even though I never did find a Lynx.

Overall, I think it's a very interesting and well done game. The PvP aspect (which I didn't try) seems well worked out as a competitive part of the game with no griefing. Given GW's (IMO) basically non-MMORPG design (like Diablo, and this is not at all a bad thing), I think they will be able to offer it for free and have people pay for additional content which will be easy for them to plug in. Personally, for PvE I'm not sure that GW's emphasis on missions -- with enforced grouping and specific goals -- and the de-emphasis on character building will give it the longevity that Diablo had; but then again maybe the possible variety of class/skill combinations and tactics will substitute for that.