Guild Wars 2 - Beta Weekend June 8-10

[Flooxim 49]

ArenaNet seems to be ready for this BWE : LINK

 

 

 

Max

[Wygram 23]

Just a quick note, if you have not updated your GW2 in a few days you might want to check it. Mine is downloading another 83000+ files right now. Must be prepping for the weekend.

[lujate 574]

Just a quick note, if you have not updated your GW2 in a few days you might want to check it. Mine is downloading another 83000+ files right now. Must be prepping for the weekend.

I was at about 90 MB when the progress bar hit 1%. You are right that it is a significant update, and one best done before this weekend.

[Wygram 23]

Just a quick note, if you have not updated your GW2 in a few days you might want to check it. Mine is downloading another 83000+ files right now. Must be prepping for the weekend.

I was at about 90 MB when the progress bar hit 1%. You are right that it is a significant update, and one best done before this weekend.

 

I am at 55% with 3,240 MB downloaded. Heck I know I downloaded last week too.

[Flooxim 49]

Just a quick note, if you have not updated your GW2 in a few days you might want to check it. Mine is downloading another 83000+ files right now. Must be prepping for the weekend.

 

Thanks for posting it here, it looks like quite a big update. I know there will be at least 1 new zone (that can be seen in Lujate's post earlier in this topic).

 

EDIT : Update completed with 3822MB of data.

 

 

Max

Edited June 5, 2012 by Flooxim

[Schot 407]

Just a quick note, if you have not updated your GW2 in a few days you might want to check it. Mine is downloading another 83000+ files right now. Must be prepping for the weekend.

 

 

Whew! Thanx for the heads up!

[Dragon Brother 619]

Looks like I have a wee bit of updating ahead of me this week...

[lujate 574]

Looks like they may have fixed the party/overflow issue.

Improved Overflow Servers

 

We listened to a lot of the input we received from players regarding their experience with overflow servers in the first Beta Weekend Event, and we’ve implemented a new party UI that tells you when party members are on a different overflow world. We’ve also given party members the ability to fast travel to overflow worlds where other members of their party are located, and we’ve made it easier to keep party members together when moving between maps. It’s all designed to give you as smooth an experience as possible.

 

That and more in a new blog post.

http://www.arena.net/blog/the-big-beta-weekend-preview

[Wygram 23]

Checked again today and received another 175 MB download. GW2 folder now up to 15.4 GB.

[Flooxim 49]

Very interesting blogpost about the new cool stuff we will experience during next weekend. I can't wait.

 

For today's update, I can't really say how much data I downloaded, since my client crashed halfway through the download. I launched it again and everything was okay.

 

I can't wait for the weekend!

 

 

Max

[lujate 574]

3 files remaining and keeps crashing...

[lujate 574]

After many attempts last night, the update completed. There was another update today, but it went on without issue.

 

ArenaNet did a Q&A session today. Here is an unofficial transcript.

[Flooxim 49]

I read that our skills points will be reset, in order to test the new skill tiers, I can't wait to try it out!

 

 

Max

[lujate 574]

I read that our skills points will be reset, in order to test the new skill tiers, I can't wait to try it out!

 

 

Max

I have not had a chance to read to entire transcript yet, but I did see that existing characters will be able to respend all their points. That, and the fact they have tweaked the Mesmer, will probably cause me to spend just a little time with my existing character.

 

 

On top of the Q&A, they also posted a new blog today. The thing that caught my eye were the 500 free gems for all players, no credit card required. Plus you can still get the 2000 free gems by using a credit card.

[Kiyeri 34]

Max you ROCK for sending me that email regarding the huge update. And thanks to everyone else for all the info.

 

I checked and received another small update today too.

 

Now I'm torn between playing my ranger, which I love and creating a new char. /sigh decisions decisions.

 

I'm so excited and looking forward to seeing ya all.

[lujate 574]

...

Now I'm torn between playing my ranger, which I love and creating a new char. /sigh decisions decisions.

...

The charactcer decision is a tough one. My goal right now is to play a little with my Mesmer from last time just to get a feel for the changes and spend most of my time with a new Elementalist. Only time will tell if my willpower holds out.

 

 

Saw a couple of updates on the GW2 Twitter feed tonight.

 

Mike Ferguson on WvW Updates

[Flooxim 49]

I've been able to login for a few minutes to take a look at all the changes. Everything looks good so far. Maybe the ones that have been there for a longer time will be able to share their experience of this second beta weekend.

 

 

Max

[Dragon Brother 619]

I logged in before but it just wasn't drawing my interest enough when I had the prospect of playing D3 instead. It did seem like something that could get better if I tried to get into it, but the controls really are offputting...

[lujate 574]

I logged in before but it just wasn't drawing my interest enough when I had the prospect of playing D3 instead. It did seem like something that could get better if I tried to get into it, but the controls really are offputting...

The learning curve for GW2 is its Achilles Heel. I joked to Kiyeri yesterday that the learning curve was so steep that it was more like a sheer cliff face.

 

 

I postponed the Elementalist and rolled a Guardian instead. In this first video, my greatsword Guardian demonstrates stick-and-move against some drakes.

[lujate 574]

My thoughts on the Guardian Profession

 

My plan going into this BWE was to test a close-combat/support Guardian. My plan was to use hammer and staff. The hammer worked OK but was just too slow, and the staff just did not seem worth the effort. I then tried mace & shield but was none too impressed. Then I came on to greatsword. That weapon seemed to be just about perfect. That is until I tried to take on the Wasp Queen. In the first BWE, I understand Area of Effect on bosses made melee impossible. This time I did not have any trouble, except for the Wasp Queen. Enter scepter & shield, problem solved.

 

Overall I was impressed with how well it worked.

[Flooxim 49]

I also really like my experience with the Guardian in BWE1, and Scepter + Shield is an amazing combination, which I used for most of my playtime. Staff is looking good too, you should give it some more time.

 

For this beta weekend, I've only been able to play for about 3 hours. Me & Lujate had a good conversation about GW2 inside Diablo 3 (how ironic!) a few days ago, and we decided to switch professions, so I played Mesmer and Lujate played Guardian. We had lots of fun as usual. It took me some time to get used to the Mesmer staff and how the illusions/phantasms worked (though Lujate said they were kinda bugged this weekend). Overall the Mesmer was a fun class to play, and we had a good time.

 

There were some changes in the beta that affected our game experience a bit. The skill tiers is the first thing that comes into my mind. I don't exactly hate this new way of getting skills, but when I logged back with my Guardian to re-purchase my skills, some of the skills seemed pretty useless, and I still had to buy some of them to get to the next tier.

For the mesmer though, skills looked all useful at some point, and it was easier to decide which skill to pick.

 

The second significant change that comes into my mind is the numerous changes to the user interface. I like the new mini-map, and the new trading post interface is looking cool and pretty simple to use.

 

I didn't take a lot of pics and videos, but here's what I got :

 

We're ready to go underwater and fight some sea enemies:

 

 

 

I'm on the top of the world!

 

 

 

 

 

So this was my (short) experience of this second Beta Weekend Event. How was your experience?

 

 

Max

[lujate 574]

Going into BWE2, I thought the staff would be an excellent support weapon for the Guardian. I guess the trouble may have been that I did not have anyone to support.

 

 

The Mesmer Revisited

I liked Mesmer even before the first beta. In BWE1, I played a staff/scepter-focus Mesmer the entire time. I thought it was a group support character. I had intended to test out a Guardian all weekend, but the Guardian proved itself quickly, so I decided to test something else. I opted for a sword-torch Mesmer.

 

Now a melee Mesmer seems like an oxymoron, casters are not intended to melee. It actually worked out (although not as well as the greatsword Guardian). The sword gives you melee attacks and the torch gives you a brief invisibility skill for escaping when things get too hot. For my second weapon, I started with a greatsword (which is a ranged weapon ). Running solo, that will most likely be the combination I carry. For parties, the staff works as a replacement for the greatsword. The boons and conditions applied by Winds of Chaos and Chaos Storm (and to a lesser extend, Chaos Armor) are well worth it.

 

Unfortuneatly, the Mesmer is going through some growing pains. As Flooxim mentioned, there were some new bugs that I discovered on Sunday. Clones should actually do damage, and they did in BWE1. In BWE2, they did 0 damage. I also thought that the shatter skills were not doing damage. After taking a video and going frame-by-frame, I discovered that the damage is being done, it is just that the shatter animation is delayed. Here is that video:

 

I was comforted by this official post made on the GW2 beta forums.

As this was the last profession we got in, you will notice it is probably still the roughest around the edges. We aren’t going to rework how the whole thing works, but you will see him get a lot smoother as we head towards release. This gives you a pretty big insight into our iterative process, but also requires mesmer players to be a bit more patient. The feedback in here has been great so keep it up and we will keep working on improving your profession.

 

Jon

[lujate 574]

In this video, we have to defend a logging camp from a band of theiving skritt. We won, but it was not a spectacular victory. We discussed in-game why the skritt seem so tough. I think the main reason is that there are just so many of them. In addition to the ones you see, there are likely others off-screen pelting you with missles. Also I personally forgot an importatn lesson I learned as a kid from Top Gun, "never leave your wingman".

 

[gogoblender 3,068]

Love the video an narrative! This actually makes battle in GW2 more meaningful for me as compared to those huge fights with so many peeps on at once, I found myself just getting lost in so much action...but I'd forgotten that guild wars will come down to smaller parties, and at that moment, for me, the game has shined and become highly personable.

 

I'm still addicted to diablo 3, but it's getting to be so intensely intense with hc deaths, small sojourns to ascalon with videos like this and later on in person will as refreshing as cold ice cream in the summer.

 

 

gogo

[lujate 574]

This BWE had more servers and a lot of people playing higher level content. Those two things helped cut down on the"zerg effect".

 

 

Edit:

On top of the world!