It's been a while since I last played Guild Wars 2, and I still think the game is not as good as ArenaNET said it would be. But with all the patches and updates of content done the last 4 months and time gone by, I hope it might be worth to play now. I hope it's like most MMORPGs out there that suck at launch (Lord of the Rings online comes to mind ) and need a couple of months to iron out the bugs and user complaints. There is only one problem now. When I started playing Guild Wars 2, I mostly played in the morning (before work) and was too tired to play during the evening. By now I'm used to my work schedule and play more during the evening than I do during the morning. This means that my then server choice (US) is no longer good for me and I might need ot hop to a EU server now. And that server hop is just the problem... I have a 927 gems now (iirc) and a server hop costs me 1.000 gems. With the old prices that would not be a problem to obtain (300+ for 1 gold), but with the current exchange prices it's a real problem. Frankly I need an other gold to be able to get enough gems to hop server. I also can logon daily and just check the prices and hope they've dropped again and hop in then. Oc source, with the change of a server, I'll also change guild. The one I was in (Knights of Beowulf) I have already left and the moment I can hop to a EU server, I'll search for a good (and active!) guild there to enjoy the game during EU times...

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I haven't really played Guild Wars 2 lately. Looking at my xfire profile, I noticed that I've spend only 2 hours in GW2 the last 7 days against 12 hours in TERA and 5 hours playing Dragon Age: Origins. This made me wonder what the possible reasons are that I'm not really playing Guild Wars 2 anymore, while I am very positive about the game as ArenaNet has put it on the market. Not to mention, what has TERA and DA:O that appeals more to me than GW2? Time to take a look... Questing Lets start with the most important thing... Questing in GW2 had been totally overhauled. The old questing systems have been removed and instead you have heart quests and dynamic events. Heart quests are fun to do, but though promoted as no 'kill 10 rats' activity, in most cases it actually is. Only a couple of times you actually can do something else than kill those 10 rats. This compared with most (MMO)RPG's really makes no difference. The only thing that does make a difference is that with heart quests you mostly have a choice of what you'll do to make progress in it, where in regular (MMO)RPG's you're forced to do a single task to complete the quest. Dynamic events are probably the thing I don't like. Though at first they are fun to do, they are actually party quests. So far no problem, but the problem is that in Guild Wars 2 you don't need to party and thus no one will party. Because of this, a dynamic event is yet an other solo quest you stumble upon Guilds & parties Yet an other thing and I've already mentioned it above as well as in a blog post 2 days ago. Because of the nature of the 'social game-play' in GW2, there's no real need to players to party anymore. The only reason players will party is to get into one of the few dungeons out there or as a bunch in Wv3, but there a party is not even really needed. For the same reason, guilds are not a real issue either. I've been in a couple of guilds already, but most are very silent after a couple of days. I'm missing the regular chit-chat from other MMORPG's, as well as the help-requests from other guild members. The latter is pretty easy to exlain since there's no real reason to party in GW2 (here it comes up again). The first however is a bit odd though. You might expect that in any guild chit-chat will be there, but in GW2 it's not really the case. I personally think that because of the solo-oriented nature of GW2, a lot of players actually start to behave that way, even when they're in a guild... Bots & gold sellers An issue in every MMORPG, yet in GW2 it's a real big issue, and it feels like ArenaNet is doing nothing about it. I haven't seen many bots myself in GW2 (only a couple), but I hear reports of players who see a lot of them everywhere. This is a bad thing for every MMORPG. Though ArenaNet tells their players that they are working on the bot problem, so far, I haven't seen (heard) of real proof that the number of bots are less than before. And with bots come the gold sellers... Those are real annoying in GW2. They started by yelling in the major towns to promote their 'cheap gold'. Next they started to spam in Wv3, and now they are even sending mail to players. Last time I played for a few hours, I had 5 of these messages in my mailbox And as a side effect of the players buying gold, the price of gems has gone sky high already. Where I could buy almost 400 gems for 1 gold in the past, by now the price has gone up to 220 gems for 1 gold. Repetitive content I've heard this reason before on the MMORPG.com forums and I said that they were nuts. Well, after a 150 hours of playing GW2 I'm feeling that same way as well. Though GW2 has no grind, the lack of character progression (you can already have most skills you want/need at level 20) really makes GW2 feel like a grind at times. Doing yet again a heart quest of a dynamic event. As always you're doing it solo. Though these game-play elements are well thought through, the lack of social interaction when doing them gives them quicker the feeling of being repetitive than when you have interaction with other players. I can know this after playing Lineage II for more than 5.000 hours (3800+ recorded on xfire). Lineage II is said to be a real grind game with lots of repetitive content (mob grind mostly). But because of the social interaction (parties, accosionally random PvP) it didn't feel like that. GUILD? WARS? Last but not least... The title of the game would suggest that you do need guilds, and that these guilds have wars. Guilds having wars would implement open world PvP. Well, nothing of that is there. GW2 is a real PvE 'MMO'RPG with only 2 ways to PvP. The first one is Wv3, which you can enter after a massive queue, the other one are grouped arena matches (sPvP). In short, if I want to play a single-player RPG, I think I'm better off playing DA:O, and when I want to play with social interaction, TERA is the better one over GW2. Basically, GW2 has no real meaning to me because it's completely an 'in between' of single-player RPG and MMORPG. With Guild Wars (1) I knew what I was up against, and playing is as a single-player RPG it was a lot of fun. With GW2 though, playing it as a single-player RPG makes me feel bored rather quickly, while there is no reason to play it as a real MMORPG, unless you go into a dungeon or Wv3.

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It's taken a while for me to find out what I'm missing in Guild Wars 2, but it finally it me after I was playing TERA today: playing in an actual party with someone. Don't get me wrong, the way GW2 handles the player cooperation is very well done, but as a former Lineage II player (and this a pretty old-school MMORPG-player) this system that GW2 implements feels wrong and empty... Lets just take a look at two different DUO kills of monsters in both GW2 and TERA. In the first movie I kill a Champion troll in GW2, where in the last few hits 2 other players come help along (read leech XP and event). The second movie is a Basilisk Big Ass Monster (BAM) in TERA that I thought I could solo as healer class. During my attempt an other players tells me he needs these basilisks as well for the same quest and we team up. I hope you see the difference in game-play in the two movies - I do for sure! It is as I started above, in GW2 each player does his thing (read: DPS as much as possible and heal self when needed), while in TERA (and most other MMORPG's) players really have to cooperate to get the job done. In my role as mystic in the TERA movie, I'm doing a lot of DPS, but as you can see, I'm also dropping healing motes so that both the nuker and I can heal when we take too much damage from the basilisk. And it's exactly *THAT* what I'm missing in Guild Wars 2 Now, I'm not quitting GW2 at all, but I'm glad I know why I'm feeling less appealed to it right now. But it will mean I'll be playing less though, because such a fundamental thing is missing for me...

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I know that the minions of the necromancer are undead and not supposed to be smart. But when I summon them, I do expect some control over them. In Guild Wars 2, as necromancer you have no control over your minions at all. In other MMORPG's you at least have some basic control about them (attack, assist and fall back). In GW2, all they do is assist you in your attacks. Well, assist..? Lets take a closer look at what happens with my minions on a regular basis... As said above, the minions are on a default assist in GW2, and when I attack, the minions attack as well. Luckily this happens in most of the cases. But when I attack a target on the maximum range of my staff (1200), only the ranged minion assists me. The other 2 (melee) minions just stand there and play dumb. Then you'd expect the 2 dumb minions to get active when the target comes close... Well, think again! Even with the target practically kissing me, those 2 dumb minions stay where they are, not doing a single thing! And then we have that at times those 2 dumb melee minions are ona killing spree... Even when I'm not attacking or have nothing targeted at all! They see an aggro monster (though far away, not bothering about me at all) and move toward it to kill it. And with aggro monsters not being alone most of the time, they hop from one monster to the next, killing them one by one. Nice for the XP, but not what I was aiming for at all... Yeah, clearly the AI used for the necromantic minions lacks brains. As I started with, undead aren't the brightest bunch to control, but this has nothing to do with control. According to each & every lore on undead that are summoned show that the summoner has at least some basic control about the minions. Looks like the Guild Wars 2 developers didn't really dive into the 'standard' lore for undead at all. Now, I'm not asking for my necromancer to have full control over the minions as a ranger has in GW2, but some better AI on my minions would really be nice!

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I haven't played Guild Wars 2 for the last week. I think I've played it a bit too much and was in dire need of some variation. That's why I picked that 3-day trial of The Secret World, and am not on that 7-day trial for TERA. But that 1 week break I took also had to do with Guild Wars 2 itself. I was busy with my personal story and with the Reconnaissance mission I kinda got stuck. I tried it twice last week, but in both cases, the instance was bugged for me, and I was unable to complete the instance. I made it a post on the GW2 forums, but no one replied, so I really was stuck there That was till today, when I finally had a reply on the topic I made and I was informed where to find the last monsters to kill. So I logged on, gave the instance an other try and... No luck (again). The last part of the instance was still bugged for me The second time today I was in more luck. Though I died the first time because I had too many monsters up my ass, the second try I went through it without any problem! ...and once again I've been given a choice on what to do next... This is what I love about Guild Wars 2. You really make your own story as you play. Right now I'm not sure if I made the right decision to get that weapon that professor Gorr made, but I figured to stand by my krewe, and I feel he's one of them Lets get on with the show and kick some dragon ass soon!

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In the last part of the personal story of my Asura necromancer, I found out that the dragons were using undead to create their army. When I reported that, I was taken of the current case and had to search for Yeng Isen, who hasn't been heard of for a while. We started at his house... Damn, that was one tough undead minion there - wish I could add it to my own forces. But now is not the time to admire this one, it's time to alert the guards of Lion's Arch that we have found a scout of an undead army and that the army itself might already be on it's way... That was one damn tough part of the personal story. The movie shows my 3rd try, and I am surprised it took me only 3 tries There weer 2 awe inspiring moments  for me in this movie. The first one was when the undead ship emerged from the depths (it did kinda remind me of the Flying Dutchman from the Pirates of the Caribbean series ), and the second was when that dragon made it's entry. For a moment I was afraid I had to actually fight it there...

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After my server hop and finding a guild with former Lineage II players, our guild leader was up for a forum and ventrilo server. That ventrilo server was no problem for him (still have to install vent on my system and connect to the server), but the forum was a bit of a problem. He ended up on some free phpBB forum, but he wasn't real happy with it. Mostly because of the very misleading ads (no Google ads for sure) that were on the forum, luring you to very suspicious sites. He was looking for alternative forum sites (in a thread on the free forum), but he came on pretty high costs. Well, high... About $8/month, but to pay that for only a forum, he thought was too much (I though the same BTW). At that point I dropped a reply that I'm with a pretty good and stable webhost (bHosted.nl) and that I can drop almost unlimited domains here. The only thing I have to do is register a domain (and pay the annual fee of around €18) and I'd be good to go. With this news he was real happy, so this morning I registered knightsofbeowulf.com for our guild forum and started to setup the phpBB forums. I also was lucky to find a nice looking GW2 skin for the forum, and by now it seems to be running smoothly. The guild-leader has already registered on the forums, and I gave him admin rights as well, so he can manage the forums as well (good thing, he's from the US, so we have almost 24/7 admin coverage on the forums ). Now it's up to him to promote the guild and make our guild grow

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I've always said I'm not a real archer player, or ranged DD for that matter. But with Guild Wars 2, the general mechanics of the game have kinda changed that. Where in general MMORPG's one has to dodge a lot as archer, in Guild Wars 2, you have to dodge with every class (some more than other though). And dodging actually DOES lower (or even negate) damage. Not to mention, when you dodge in Guild Wars 2, you're stepping back (forward, or whatever direction you dodge to) quite a distance. And unlike most MMORPG's, the monster really has to 'find' you again after you have dodged. This while in most MMORPG's, the monster has you constantly 'targeted' and a dodge is quite useless, and kiting is the only way to keep the monster away from you. With Guild Wars 2 somewhat forcing me to dodge (and kite), I thought to make myself a ranger. Mostly because I found out that rangers have pretty good control over their pets (unlike the totally no control a necromancer has over it's minions). But the choice of weapons was one I had to think about a couple of times. One set I was already pretty sure about early on when leveling: an axe and a torch. This combination is semi long range (900) and has a lot of AoE options. The other set however I was not so sure about. I started with a sword and dagger combination, but that gave me the problem that I had to be in close melee with the monsters. Since I'm only a medium armor wearer, I thought this was not a good idea. I also heard a lot of rangers using a short bow. Well, Though it's fast, damage is ...meh... I finally gave a long bow a try, and I do like that one as 2nd weapon. This one is an almost fully 1-target weapon (aside from one massive AoE skill, which does ellude me a bit) and has the best range available (1200).  With my pets doing most damage, I give supportive damage to the pet and heal it a bit when needed. Today when I was wandering through the Caledon Forest, I stumbled upon a troll champion (group event), and some one thought he could take up this one solo *LOL* I decided to hop in and see if the 2 of us could kill this one. Well, up till I died (my bad, I got stuck in a rock when dodging, and I could not loose aggro when knocking on heavens door), we had the troll down to around 25% (not bad IMO). 2 more players tagged along and then things went real fast. I think after this troll, I'm ready to play any archer class now available. Personally I think I did a good job on dodging and kiting there and it was a good lesson (the hard way ) on how to use these evasive maneuvres.

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After the server an guild hopping I started 2 days ago, I ended up on the Eredon Terrace server. Since this is a low population server *LOL - it's medium loaded but still pretty crowded* I thought it would be a good home to start searching for a guild. I went to Eredon Terrace because on a medium populated server, the Wv3 queues are very low (if no queue at all). Along the way I've had a couple of guild invites for both the Eredon Terrace server and a couple of other servers. The guilds that invited me on the Eredon Terrace server were very small (one even had only 2 members so far...), while the other guild invites I had were players from games I'd never play (MOBA's and shooters) or ex-WoW players. Well, the 1st would be a problem because of a totally different mindset of playing a MMORPG, and the second might become a problem next week (with the release of the MoP expansion and lots of WoW-addicts possibly returning). But one invite did stand out of the rest: If you haven’t found a guild yet, let me know. We are a small guild yet, but sound like you would be right up our alley. Knights of Beowulf (Sorrow’s Furnace) are so far made up of Ex- Lineage 2 players who have been playing L2 for the last 8+ years. Not sure what server you were on, but we were on the original Bartz server, which is now Chronos, and we came from the ArcaneGenesis Clan (Hopefully you weren’t an enemy ). Haven’t talked to many of the L2 players into moving over here yet, but still working on getting a few more to move on over. We consist of a Guild Leader from Scotland, and the rest of us so far are from Canada/US. We are looking more for casual players that are here to have fun, and not rush to Lvl 80. Our ages range from about 30-65. We are doing more PVE at the moment, but once we get to a decent level, will partake in the WvWvW alot more. I will be setting up a forum in the next few weeks, and we do have a Ventrilo server already in place. If your interested let me know. You can leave me a message on the forums, or message Psyzin or AntusGully in game I was like OMG! Though not on the server I'm on now, it is an opportunity I just can't let go. Play with players who used to play Lineage II in it's 'toughest' times. Not to mention, it takes a certain 'mindset' to play Lineage II to start with. It is (well, was ) such a different MMORPG compared with all the rest on the market, and the PvP is so much different than most MMORPG's as well. Yes, I did hop to their server immediately and asked for an invite. Though the guild is still rather small, I think I have found my new home now!

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With my working schedule I'm mostly playing from 6am to 10am and only a few hours later that day I'm thinking I'm missing out on most fun in the game (Wv3 and dungeons). And playing on an European server doesn't help me with these gaming hours either. With my current guild I've done a little Wv3 action, but that's been in the early hours, and at those hours Wv3 is not much fun. Mostly it's doing some events that are there and capture (not protected) checkpoints and with luck even a small structure. When I am on-line during the evening, the queue to enter Wv3 is massive and it takes hours to get in to start with. And those hours are the time I don't have with me being mostly way too tired during the evening to concentrate on playing or play long for that matter... Then the dungeons... I've done the Ascalonion Catacombs once with the guild, and missed out on a lot of other dungeon runs because they're done in the evening and, well... as said above, being too tired then So I decided to leave my guild and post a message on the MMORPG.com forums that I'm looking for a US guild on a US server, with my transfer pending. Of course, I've been browsing the US guild recruitments there as well, but so far I haven't seen one I'd like to join instantly. An other thing to consider is transferring to a lower populated server (if any is really low populated ) and seek for a guild from there. This I can do so that Wv3 queues will be low and I can join the fun in that mornings as well, team up with other players and hope to get in a nice guild that way.

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