More Guild Wars 2 sPvP

I've done a little bit more sPvP and I wanted to check in on my blog to say that it is still fun. It is refreshing how easy it is to jump into a match, have a little fun, get some rewards, and then return to real life. Matches last at most 15 minutes, meaning you can be confident you will complete any given match within 15 minutes from the time you start it.

On top of that, the reward system for sPvP actually feels pretty good since they recognize you whether you win or lose at the end and give you points in a nice little pop-up. Most games I've played, I've even one of the top contributor awards for something. That could just happen because my team members aren't very good at standing on capture points, so I get the most credit for doing it, but it still feels rewarding and fun. This is the first MMO that I've actually had fun playing PvP modes casually.

First Impressions on Guild Wars 2 sPvP

I decided a couple days ago that I needed to give the PvP in Guild Wars 2 a try. I mean, they have daily achievements for it, and they probably give you something good in terms of rewards for participating.

It turns out that the daily achievements are super easy to complete. You just play 3 matches, which requires about 30-45 minutes of time, and they play one after the other. You get placed on a team against another team, and most of the games seem to revolve around controlling points on a variety of maps. Of course the real focus is beating up the other guys and keeping yourself from dying.

ArenaNet does a good job of keeping things balanced by upleveling all characters to 80 and giving them a full set of PvP gear that can be used only for PvP. All of your PvP items are unavailable for use outside of PvP. Somehow they manage to still offer item rewards through the use of alternate stat allocations and item runes. These additional items don't fundamentally change the balance of the game mode, but do provide additional variety and a method for rewards beyond just the stats on your profile. Overall the mode seems fun, and I feel like I should play it a lot more.

Guild Wars 2, World vs. World

Guild Wars 2 has a fun game mode called World vs. World or WvW for short. The way it works is everyone from your world (server) can join together and fights against the players from 2 other servers for control of 4 maps. 3 of the maps are called "borderlands" for each of the worlds, where one world spawns in the middle and the others spawn on the edge and fight to control the nodes on the map. The fourth map is called the Eternal Battlegrounds and consists of 3 spawns around the edge of the map along with 3 keeps to control along with 1 castle (bigger than the rest) and many towers and supply camps. Supply camps are worth the fewest points, but they are the only way to increase the amount of supply in your larger buildings. Supply is important, because without it, you cannot repair buildings, build siege units, or upgrade your buildings to have stronger walls and greater defenses. There are NPCs that will help defend points you control, and you can hire more using supply and a small amount of in-game gold (usually only costing silver).

While I think this is really one of the best game modes for PvP in any MMO yet, it's not without issues. Probably the primary issue is when there is a huge player count imbalance between the worlds. It's not immediately clear what the right solution would be to having the wrong number of players from each world, but at least World of Warcraft tried something with Wintergrasp (even if it didn't always work the best). Another issue for WvW is that it split among 4 separate maps, and there doesn't appear to be any easy way to call for help from players on the other maps when you need it. Guild Wars should build in better tools for commanders to communicate with each other in order to organize the war. Even with these weaknesses, I still believe Guild Wars 2 WvW is one of the best PvP and PvE combined game modes I've seen.

Guild Wars 2

In the last 2 weeks, I have played quite a bit of Guild Wars 2. In my opinion, it is currently the best MMO on the market. This post will just be a few brief words about my first experiences with the game. As my highest level character is only 30 (out of 80 levels) and I've played very little of the PvP or WvW game modes, this should not be considered a comprehensive review.

First, the movement controls in GW2 feel very tight and as I would expect based on my experience in playing World of Warcraft, which has perfect MMO movement controls in my opinion. The abilities are on a hot bar from 1 to 0, with a couple other skills mapped to F1-5 and the ` key depending on the profession (class) you are playing. Unlike most other MMOs, you are restricted to only this number of active skills at any given point in time, making it much less obnoxious in terms of key bindings in comparison to others. Keys 1-5 are based on your currently equipped weapon and profession. Key 6 is a healing ability, 7-9 are basic profession skills, and key 0 is an advanced skill.

Weapon abilities unlock as you use the weapon. When you dual wield, the main hand weapon decides skills 1-3 and the offhand decides 4 and 5, while 2 handed weapons come with all 5 abilities. Every profession starts with a healing ability, and can unlock others as they level. The basic ability slots unlock as you level, with abilities costing skill points to unlock. Skill points are earned on level, and can also be obtained through skill point challenges throughout the world. The advanced skill becomes available at level 30, and you can unlock those skills with a larger number of skill points.

Based on your choices during character creation (and some decisions as you progress through the story), your character develops in a personal story with the major characters in the universe. Almost all of the personal story quests develop through well voice acted sequences, with reasonably well lip-synched characters. Then on top of the personal story, each place you travel to in the world has regular events that you can participate in, or choose to leave on your journey. Your character naturally levels down to whatever area you are in, so adventuring remains a challenge even as you gain levels. This also makes it easy to jump in and quest with a friend who is lower level.

To top this all off, there is no monthly fee and the game can be had right now for only $60. If you know me personally and want to play with me, I'm on the Eredon Terrace World.