The Official Guild Wars 2 thread *** First non-NDA beta is live! Impressions inside

[Buzzi]

Rainbird said:

Buzzi said:

Well, I'll play today to, I plan to try PvP and some WvW, and go on with the human character too (maybe I'll create a Norn before the time elapses). Feel free to ask questions :D

And that I will!

What's the highest you got in level? Does things get more difficult as you level up? 

I think the difficulty looks like a good balance between challenging and fun, but I hope they do have a tutorial in the final game.  

Did you get a feel for dodging and how important positioning is? 

I know it's pretty important, but I'd like to hear your impressions none the less. ^_^

I got to level 8 with the Charr and to level 5 with the human. Things get more difficult every now and then, after the first two story-quests you are free to go around the world map, and you encounter events for a range of levels...for example at the southern entrance to the Black Citadel there was an attack by harpies, i was starting to battle when I saw the suggested level for that event was 10, and trust me, it's not easy evenat that level. The story-quests are challenging, I don't know if that's caused by brocken balance (as I said I fought a really hard battle in a ruin setting, you really had to play strategically to avoid death...but I died two times :P) or is a choice of developers.

A tutorial is needed, for example i found out about the dodging system only after one day of playing, no one tells you about that or how it works. I'm still figuring out how to use it well, but it's a nice addition to the game...right now, I wouldn't say it's necessary at all.

Two main concerns for me are the animation (at least the one of the charr) when you run, and the system of targeting/engaging combat. The former is annoying, it looks like there's no gravity, the cursor on the map procedes speedly, but the character moves sooo slowly in the enviroment! The latter could be another choice of developers...I was expecting something similar to WoW, where you know when an enemy is at range of a skill, while in this beta you can use a skill without an objective, or when he's too far away...for many skills this is a problem, if you use them in the wrong moment you'll pay that. The targeting of enemies should also be improved, right now you only see the enemy's name over the targeted character, and in a giant battle that's not enough.

I just tried pushing the settings of the game to "high" and it still runs quite smoothly, I hear many people saying it gived problems to them, but I find it very enjoyable and completely playable in most of the map.