Did I Miss Out on Guild Wars 2?!

Fishing is indeed a mini game. And you can even level it and get gear for it AND you can get your own little fishing boat! If there was anything I could remove from the game, it would be fishing. But a lot of people enjoy it, so I am happy for it to stay. It's tied to the end of dragons expansion, if you want to try it out.

No : you didn't miss out. GW2 is an mmo in which it is ridiculously easy to catch up to other players in terms of gear.
The best in slot only has 15% total stat more than the 2nd best. That means that for a gear with 3 stats : each stats will be 5% lower than on an elevated/legendary gear.

If you think you can immediately jump in and do end game content in GW2 just because you played other MMO's, like skipping the initial 1-80 leveling, you're wrong. A lot have tried that and became really disappointed in how lost they are after skipping the initial leveling. No other resource can teach you how to play the game but playing the game itself.

I believe she said the world the "least exciting" part is because in comparison world events and such in other mmos are straight trash when compared with GW2. FF14 may as well not even have an open world imo.

No you dont have to play the base game to get to the dlc content u can buy the expansions and skip right to them. You will need to be max level but when u buy the expansions they give u a level 80 boost that will make u max level so u can literally buy the expansions and play them the second you hop into the game

you did not miss out on anything
been playing since gw1 > gw 2 beta
with each expac the game becomes more casual friendly
an gen1 legendary used to cost an part of your soul
now you make a gen 3 legend a week < with knowlage how to >> for profit

You should watch GW2 videos by Roze, they are much more entertaining so it will be worth your time even if you don't end up playing the game.

"it doesn't stand out enough" isn't an argument you can make about GW2 solely, all the others have samey concept and content.
There's no less reason to play GW2 than there is to playing any competitor, personal attachment aside
Not wanting to play it is ok, but making up reasons that apply to games you're playing too isn't honest

GW2 is the biggest meh MMO out there imo. Doesn't do a lot of things bad per ce, but also most of the content isn't doing anything better than other MMO's. It feels like a retirement home for MMO players who are still addicted to collecting stuff and doing fashion.

honestly, if you want the closest comparison to get use of your experience for GW2 : GW2 is ESO with better combat but less content.

Hey... Not taking anything away from Laranity.... Look at some of Mukluks videos. I think that Mukluks videos will give you a more full idea in conjunction with Laranitys video. I think you will find it has more than what you think and what Laranity explains. Oh and you can walk away with NO fees and come back days weeks or years later and just pick up where you were.... I would definately look at a profession guide or 3 before playing... Remember not only a warrior uses a great sword, so do Guardians, Rangers, Necros and Mesmers... Look at them and see the differences they each have.

guild wars opens up its combat around lvl50 and then it legit opens its legs and reveals all the juicy bits at level 80, actually the most interesting thing about weapons in guild wars is each class has a set of weapon skills and utility skills greatsword warrior is extremely different to greatsword mesmer/illusionist skills

as for gear treadmills its more work you way to legendary and then collect fashion or experiment outside the meta

with that said ill be honest i love all mmos, but honestly gw2 is the only game that isnt going to charge you when your not playing alot of it, you can just jump in and out with ease and thats why i like it

you're gonna love Warrior and Necromancer :>

Im a wow fan, so I appreciate the insane amount of love they gave the old zones , so leveling up once is definitely worth it

Not really alot of explanation on some of the stuff. As an avid MMO player from WoW, Swtor, terra, BDO, RS, GW2 and Archage I really like the combat of GW2, your first 5 abilities are based on what your weapon on the main hand and offhand and you can switch to a secondary to switch to another set while the other 5 skills are based on your choice of skills on class and specializations. Plus combat on PvP and PVE content requires either good team coordination for a good combo like lets say if you want a team buff someone has to lay down a fire field and someone has to use a leap skill on that fire field to spread the Might debuff, or a water field and leap to do an aoe heal to people around the field. One thing about World vs World on Reset day on active servers you can usually find 50 players max on each server so 150 players total on each map. World vs World also last an entire week and the point system is based on how long each server hold territories. Also yes each of the mount has different skins and most things you unlock cosmetic wise are account wide. Legendary gear and ascended gear you can trade between accounts so if you havea really nice gear that you can use on a specific build for two different classes you can use the same gear. Bank/storage is also account wide which makes it easy if you're an altaholic.

started playing gw2 1 month and a few days ago and i'm at 320hours :) i'm in love with this game

Ah yes Guild Wars 2, best MMO open world and mount system also best community I've been with.

If you gonna start from scratch any game. Do yourself a favor and try GW2 first, and please take out the WoW filter so you may enjoy other games.

Get the full game and the first two expansions so you get access to the raptor mount. Game is a lot better with mounts.

All DLC require lvl 80, so you will have to play the core game until lvl 80. There is a lot of ways of getting max level without finishing the main story, you dont even need to do it. Then you may skip to any part of the game.

Also people been playing this game for 12 years, so what you experience is gonna be totally different, this gonna sound stupid but don't try to catch up, cuz like she said 12 years and still no full legendary gear.

Wow defender LOL

What she meant with the open world is that maps on early levels dont die out. People still go to low level maps for meta events and new players can get help and possibly join a guild to prep them for end game contents

GW2 has THE BEST mounts.

i get where is is coming from, i also used to compare GW2 to other MMOs; by all means is not the best but its my fav and once you play it you will find yourself comparing the other way, now I compare all to GW2. oh.. i wish this was like GW2, ugh.. gw2 made it better, why are things so slow.... its not the first but it is one of the pioneers imo and there are a lot of other MMOs that copied or emualted GW2 style and since these are more pupular most feel like gw2 is the one copying. give it a try, I consider the free/base game as the toturial and all gets better(including graphics)

The type of content it has doesn't really break the mold of what you expect from an mmo, but it simply does all the things you want in an mmo well, and doesn't put any barriers in front of you to prevent you from enjoying it.

The biggest thing that separates gw2 from other mmos is that it actually respects your time. Whether you have 10 minutes to kill or an entire afternoon, you'll be able to log in and have a satisfying play session. Had 2 weeks off of work and lots of time to play, but almost no time when you return to work? No problem, you can jump in whenever you have a moment and pick back up right where you left off.

The big downside to gw2 imo is that even though it isn't one, it kind of has the same issue that sandbox games can have...too many option and nothing to direct your focus. You might end up logging in and staring at your screen for 10 minutes unable to decide what it is you want to do, and then end up logging back out. Gear grinds in other mmo's tend to help with this because theres a very clearly defined goal and path to reaching it. But unless you can set goals for yourself, or really just enjoy wandering around and letting fate decide what you do that day, you can end up feeling bored at time with gw2.

You can never miss out on Guild Wars 2, it's not wow with shitty eternal progression, you leave for 3 years and come back and all your gear is still relevant.

Check "Why does EVERYONE Simp for Guild Wars 2? | First Impressions" from Roze

I started a month ago I have so many things to do and it’s not too late I find tons of people to do everything

GW2 and ESO share a lot of commonality. Both have action oriented combat though GW2 keeps the tab targeting and is more versatile with the loadout. Both will scale you accordingly to the map but ESO is universal while GW2 will only scale you down to lower level maps. All GW2 DLC content is max level (80). Very much like ESO, you can venture to any GW2 80 content at anytime. The gear treadmill after 80 is all about aesthetics for transmog or obtaining a specific gear stat for a specific build. GW2 is a game where you kind of have to set your own goal. Story? PVP? Legendary equipments? Achievements? If you ever get bored of your current activity, just switch your objective. Lastly, GW2 has an 'action camera' mode where you can pretty much play the game like ESO (mouse=mouse look, left click to attack, right click to highlight/select, double tap direction to dodge). Just make sure to set the keybind so you can toggle it on or off. I like both GW2 and ESO. If you've played one, it's always worth a look to take a look at the other especially since the entire base game of GW2 is free.

Riders of Icarus?

To your question at the end - if you buy an expansion, you get a level 80 boost and can jump right into the expansion content, if you don't care about leveling.

To the question about fishing mechanics - it's a bit like stardew valley's system though not quite as good imo. You get a green bar that skates left to right that you have to keep "inside", and increasing your "fishing power" increases the size of that bar.

What makes GW2's open world special is the dynamic events system. Rather than talking to a quest giver who gives you a blurb and then sends you to do X, the events will appear in the world with the NPC arriving at a location trying to do X, and you and other players can join in and help them. Often times, events chain one after another, giving a really natural segue into the next thing to do, and narrative exposition occurs in bits along the way rather than all at once when you talk to the quest giver. In some regions, these events will even be part of a map-wide event (what laranity referred to as "meta-events") where multiple chains of event coincide to a big event with lots of players such as a big boss. The system is really fun imo, especially compared to the game's own more traditional quests which are fairly dull.

One final thing I'll note is story. The base game's story is honestly mediocre. However, things improve a lot in the game's expansions and add-on content. In particular I would say that the Living World add ons are overall the best narrative content, and the expansions proper ranging from okay to excellent.

The biggest selling points for gw2 are the open world events, the world vs world game mode, the combat system, the mounts, and the horizontal progression.
The biggest downsides for gw2 are the small amount of raids, dated graphics, lack of ui customization, tons of junk items due to the horizontal progression.

I think regardless of what you are looking for the base game is worth trying out just for the awesome combat since it's free.

GW2 has an amazingly mixed community yes it has more women than "normal" mmo's but also more old people and family guilds. And because it's a sandbox it's never to late to start. And the cool thing is core gw2 is free to play.

I just started playing two weeks ago. I am an idiot. I should have started 12 years ago. This game is so ridiculously good.

need to see you react to GW2 as a new player by Rozemmo

It sounds like you'll probably enjoy GW2. As far as the treadmill at the end, it's not just about cosmetics. GW2 is all about constantly building account value and a big part of that is convenience. I've been playing for 10 years off and on as well and usually what I end up chasing is enough gold to fund a new build on either an existing character or a new character. The best gear is set.. however the costs are set too. So for instance, if you main a warrior and want to try a healing warrior build, you'll need to get all new gear w/ stats to facilitate healing and that will take about ~150g or so to build that set with exotics. You'll then need to get ascended so you can progress through the dungeon system (fractals).

Legendary gear is great because the ability to stat swap for free enables you to use that gear on all your characters in any stat.

sPvP is like battlegrounds, WvW is more like realm vs realm in Dark Age of Camelot.

Anyways if you try it, hope you enjoy it. Also it's world exploration is unmatched in the industry, imho. It's a game about grinding account unlocks and achievements, not going for higher end gear.

This game is nothing like world of warcraft. Played wow for 15 years, became sick of gear treadmill and dead old zones. Moved to GW2. Its my new main mmo for almost 3 years now

GW 1 > 2 is a based take

Responding like the main question you seem to have about the game's real difference to every other MMO out there. The main difference would be the progression, the gear treadmill that every other MMO has it's non-existent in Gw2, because to reach ascended gear you don't require more than a month being a new player (which is the best gear in terms of stats, legendary has the same stats but has the QoL where you can change stats at will), so it is unlike any other MMO where content becomes almost obsolete, since there's no real gain to do previous content, in Gw2 you can do any content at any time. Most game's main focus is to get a better gear, the problem with that is that it makes players lose interest if there's nothing else to gain. Since in Gw2 this perception is lost, you do every other content just because it's enjoyable, and you decide what to pursue in base of that. A lot of players are completionists, so they pursue achievements, others like running meta events to gain money or just for the sake of killing bosses, others go do end-game raids, fractals or strikes for the challenge or to enjoy group content (which includes every raid, strike, fractal to ever be released, since they don't lose value) and others do WvW (large scale PvP) or sPvP (the low scale PvP). In any of those game types you can get legendary gear just for the sake of QoL and also pursue more fashions (transmogs), which the game has tons of options, also having dyes to change them even further.

So in summary, the real end-game in Gw2 is too open and many people don't like that, which is why I believe the game is not as big as it could be (that and the marketing, the marketing from Anet is almost non existent, is truly garbage xD), because most people like to be told what to do, which is why running the gear treadmill is the norm in most MMOs. In Gw2 you choose what type of content you do, and usually most players focus to one or two types of content that are enjoyable to them (for me is PvP/WvW and open world for example).

Also a small comment about the mounts, the mounts are pretty much the best in any MMO (words are not very useful here sadly, you'd need to play it to understand why).

Stared playing GW2 about 3-4 months ago and am addicted. It feels different than other mmo's but in a way that is hard to quantify. The point about the open world being the main attraction is def part of it. Having tried WoW the open world (outside of a few meta events in the latest expansion) seemed dead. In GW2 i can be in the middle of nowhere in the base world about to die and suddenly a level 500+ player drops from the sky and kills the mobs, heals me, and leaves without a word. This happened daily while I was leveling. People will actually help you with missions from old expansions or the base game which I always had trouble with in other games. The mega servers are also a new experience for me. If your in a low pop map a msg just appears and tells you its low pop and asks if you want to layer to a higher pop layer. One click and 2 seconds later I'm in a layer with people all around. I already purchased the new expansion and cannot wait for it to come out.

WoW Warrior Charge has 20s cooldown. WoW Warlock Demonic Circle: Teleport has 30s cooldown.
Most mobility abilities in GW2 have 10s cooldown. With the dodging system you can keep going in and out of melee. Casters have a lot of mobility too, almost every spell let you move and cast, they have mobility skills too.

Even if it is tab-target, it has a projectile physics. Shoot an arrow through a wall of fire and that arrow will also burn the target on top of the damage. But shoot it at an enemy wall AoE and it'll break, or worse be sent flying back at you. You can toggle for a more "FPS" camera to aim with your mouse.

WvW is not like battlegrounds, it's a week-long fight between 3 factions over 4 maps. It has siege engines you can build. You can either go "little army" with lots of players to pick at big targets or obliterate enemy teams trying to take your stuff, or go "spec ops" and take smaller targets. There are supply lines that are used to upgrade towers and fortresses into higher tiers (yielding more points).

Each class has variants. For example, Necromancer can be played like a Warlock with scepter and staff from afar, or a Death Knight in melee with a greatsword, or an Alchemist with a gun.

NHo, you can play them in any order you want, though taking it from Core is a good idea since you learn the basics from that. Any DLC also comes with the Core game.

The Core game is free, so you can easily try that out. The core trial is almost the full game.

The attitude is good as there are many things that look similar to other games and are played differently.

The nine mounts have many different skins. Almost all of them are from the Gem Store, though there's no sub fee and the story mostly sell cosmetics.

I've played a bunch of mmorpg type of games. Guild Wars 2 is the one I keep coming back to.

BDO I can't stand the NPCs and nothing but quick aoe stuff. WOW has a sub fee, but is really good. Also last I played they rekt my way of playing. Ff14 I didn't like how un unique you could be. All jobs get all the same stuff. NW just took gw2 (2) weapon swap system and made it fast pace with no depth. Just some of the nitpicking stuff.

Mentioning all of this stuff gw2 still has flaws. One is inventory is annoying to deal with. Profession "balancing" sucks a lot of time. I do wish for a little bit more balance on horizontal vs vertical progression. I do wish that earlier story line could be re done with their modern style. I also wish that the prestats on armor and weapons could be somewhat "reforged".

The main reason I comeback is achievement and story. I don’t have time for many games, but I can comeback and do these long term achievements to work torward a legendary weapon or armor. The combat loop is entertaining also. Beetle racing and jumping puzzles are fun.

It's not that they do something different. They just do it better and for no sub fee. None of the content is samey either.