2012-05-03, 08:31 PM
Corn Wrote:I just realized how much I took Maplestory's vast amount of skills per character as granted. The thought that's I'm going to spam same 10 skills the next 80 levels is just...urgh...
I also don't like...I'm basically just spamming my skills whenever they're off cooldown. Then again, I haven't played in real PvP yet (just PvE and WvW). I mean seriously, I'm just button mashing 1 and 2452354432534253252 as fast as I can. I'm going to get carpal tunnel.
The music is amazing.
I dislike the controls. I didn't exactly figure out how to backpedal and attack the enemy. I prefer Vindictu's controls.
The quest is system is better than most MMO's systems, but I raised my bar too high, ha ha. Voice acting is pretty crappy (IMO human Street Rat has the best personal storyline so far). I heard the storyline picks up at 10 though. I can't wait.
Human females have a distinct lack of character customization (ha).
Holy crap the maps are HUGE. I initially thought that main part of Queensdale and the city were like the only points, and then I fell over when I discovered another town. It feels cool that I could walk from one to another without really seeing any loading screens.
WvW is a zerg fest. It takes forever to take fortresses without siege equipment =(. I do find it fun though.
Lousy chat system.
I think it gets a 7-8/10 in my book. Of course, it's only a beta, so I hope it gets bumped up to a 9/10 on release. I'm also not level 10 yet, which a lot of people are saying it picks up at.
Chat system was...weird, keeps showing off User ID's but you can't actually do anything with them. If they fixed up that I'd like it, would basically be the baseline chat system from every MMO ever, which works.
How to backpedal: Don't, circle-strafe instead. Provided what you are fighting does not have a ranged attack, you may actually take no damage at all. If you have something to momentarily disable the opponent (I had a blind), you can use it and dodge-roll past them as well, which works pretty well.
Storyline was pretty straight-forward and not really...I guess unexpected was the right word? It's like watching a very cliche movie, but you still enjoy it because it's actually not too bad by the end, and gave you a good ride. This is of course judging it just based off the quests available in the beta (did all of them).
Quest system...I'm mostly happy with it I guess. I think there's only really two problems with it that I noticed. Firstly, the areas for which the quests count for can be kind of odd to figure out. There was this wine-tasting thing in Kessex that I couldn't find where to do like half the objectives for. Afterward I found that way behind the church in some fields that were very much not connected to the area was where it all was. Secondly, turning a black heart into a gold heart (map marker for completing an event) didn't really...I'm not really sure how to put it. The quests evolve over time, if you complete quest X, quest Y opens, etc. The heart really doesn't reflect that. It tells you that you completed quest X, therefore you 100%'d that questline.
On the skillslots:
MS is actually a great example of where "so many skills!" has it's weaknesses, though you have enough abilities to fill an entire keyboard with all of the macros and skills, but really in a fight, how many do you use? Except when you're trying to use all of the trash just because? Limiting your skillset has disadvantages, but it's not really a bad system and I feel like anet managed to pull it off pretty well. Your five main skills are those "bread and butter" skills, the things that you use at all times. Same as in MS, except you aren't replacing them with something that does slightly more damage every time you would have class'd up in MS. You can pop them all on cooldown and just button mash, but for most classes there's reasons not to spam all of them on cd. Slots 6-10 are your customizable skills, the stuff that lets you really make the class your own, and gives the overall set variety. As an Engineer I had a lot of skills available to me. As an Elementalist I had tons as well. Within those hordes of skills are very distint subsets, for instance Engineer has Gadgets, Turrets, Weapon Kits, Device Kits and Elixirs. All of which behave differently and can make Utility slots very diverse. Basically the entire system of skill-limiting in games is based around making the player choose. Pokemon is a super-good example of this, there's a ton of things your prized companion could learn, but you are required to choose just four skills for it to use in combat. When you're not actively fighting, provided you've unlocked the means, you can switch up that skillset pretty freely, to better adjust to whatever you are fighting. Or to just run something different. Same applies to GW2, you have tons of options and possible combinations, but you are required to choose what you feel would best suit your current needs and playstyle. It's an extra level of strategy.
Long story short, the system is actually not bad, you just have to actually work with it, and use it as intended.
I think the only major problem I had in PvP, was that the downed ability thieves have, to turn invisible and teleport, is on a shorter channel time than the deathspike. I ended up just shooting any thief I saw to death, as it usually saved me time over attempting to spike them multiple times.