"the game is the game" is a good way of putting it. I try to explain this to people. When we played games back in the day, like Golden Axe or Mario, we didn't get anything for playing-- there were no rewards beyond winning. You just play the game because it's fun to play. If there were no loot or progression I would still play GW2.
@@fargonthebrave Some of us play MMORPGs to channel our hoarding tendencies where they don't actually block doorways to vital rooms. Like toilets and kitchens. It's also annoying when such a large amount of stuff is shoved directly into your pants without your consent. And it's extra annoying when you need to devote as much time and attention as we do to manage that shit adequately. Never mind that there's no sort button and the search bar is a really poor way to browse your shit. Compare and contrast to another game that drops an overwhelming amount of loot: PoE. In that game, all you need to do to prevent yourself from having to even devote that much energy to manage the loot is by simply installing a loot filter. Sure they don't have the same kind of inventory system, mostly, but the end result is the thing that matters and if the end result is a feeling of dread whenever loot drops, there's a big disincentive to do anything at all. TL; DR: It's not that inventory is hard to fix. It's the fact that you have to "fix" it as much as we need to is why we call it Inventory wars.
inventory is easy to manage you just have to know how. Fashion Wars is the true endgame. That's where it all leads to. I can care less if you're a Raid God. Show me the drip
pro-tip: when in-game, you can type /wiki followed by a space and then shift click something or just literally type something in and when you hit enter it will open a browser and search the GW2 wiki for w/e you put after "/wiki "
caffenaited dad is not a good source for beginner, he make alot of gw2 vids but really, his experiences from it is so little to properly make "guides", i suggest mukluk, laranity, and ayinmaiden (pretty sure caffeinated dad just copy alot stuffs from them, he doesn't really understand game mechanics, but still make vids since gw2 playerbase love to watch guides so it's easy to farm views and clicks) edit: always check his comment section, you will see there more experienced gamers pointing out where he's wrong and explaining the mechanics, because, you know, he doesn't really understand most of it
I stopped trusting caffeinated's opinion when he started doing his ffxiv video comparison series. he didn't even get to level 100 in *any* job in ffxiv and he tried comparing them saying that ffxiv "doesn't have a meta" 🙄 the dude has no idea what he's talking about half the time and his build guides are so bad
@@bobthedestroyer6205 oh yea, plus our pope woodepotatoes too! same, i dont like mightyteapot, he talks too much and mean so little, as in he speaks in 2-3 paragraphs of things other people can explain in just few phrases
@@Whats_Up_Dot I had a similar experience, except with WvW (my gamemode of choice for several years). One day, he was talking about being new to WvW. Maybe a week or so later, he posts a guide on how to WvW. I wouldn't have been hung up on it if he didn't have very inaccurate proclamations in the video. Was disappointed to say the least, and now I have to correct people who like to watch his content.
Also regarding your headaches from the complicated systems, I want to share a little experience I have that may help you: I bought the game back in 2014 and played for like a month, really enjoyed it, but IRL came along and I put it down. I got back into it in 2019 due to quarantine, and because I’ve forgotten all about the mechanics, I remade the same character and started over. Since I didn’t delete the older original character, I thought I was smart by boosting the old one to level 80, while keeping the new one as my main, so I could flip back and forth between playing the two. _I did not understand anything about the elite specs, the skills, the mechanics, and I was being wrecked by even the ambiance mobs in the new expansions, dying right outside the city gates to things like wild boars and beetles, it was terrifying and also a little embarrassing._ Then I leveled my newer character to level 80 manually, I got my first set of exotic gear and set foot into that same expansion, fully expecting to die to the ambience mobs as I did on my boosted alt, it- didn’t happen. I had no trouble at all, I knew what my skills did and how to position myself, what skills to use and in what sequence. It blew me away. GW2’S system has a funny way of sneakily teaching you things that you didn’t realize you were learning as you play, and it all comes together slowly and satisfyingly like the pieces of a puzzle falling into place. They weren’t being metaphoric when they said the core game is an extended tutorial. It literally teaches you and builds up your muscle memory. So for that reason I’d say this: don’t stress too much about understanding the elite specs right now, it’ll fall into place seamlessly as you continue, the skills and weapons and mechanics and traits will all make sense by the time you get to level 80. Don’t rush it and enjoy the ride, coz you only get to experience a game for the first time, once :)
What a nice response. I have a friend who's having the same issue, and I think I will share this with him. We've been having talks about what the game could do to help new players, and I definitely think it should make certain changes. However, I do think giving ourselves our own guard rails from wanting to just skip ahead, and allowing ourselves to naturally learn as we go along is also incredibly valuable.
@@jhmi7877 Aww I'm glad you found my comment then^^ I really hope this will help your friend. I have to say, the moment I suddenly realized I had improved, was incredibly satisfying. It was like that wax-on-wax-off scene in karate kid: you didn't know you were learning things all along!
I got this "problem" where I cannot get into other MMO's because Gw2 was my first MMO, no other game is like it. 🙃 I tried wow, eso, neverwinter, bdo, archage and other but I keep going back to gw2.. And I get so happy when I see new players trying it out!
@@SwedudeEPIC that's exactly how i feel i play others MMO i cheat to her but always comes back to her because there's nobody like her my GW2 love is real 😂
How do you eat a monster sized pizza? One delicious bite at a time. Every day, log in, have some fun and move the needle a little bit. Log out. Having fun is the key part. If something looks fun, go for it.
yer that's the part i see him missing he is looking at it like normal mmos where gw2 is a far more chillid exploration mmo and he seems to want to do end game content before even getting to lvl 80 i dont think gw2 is as complex is he is saying it is.
I have been 'stuck' with various characters on story steps for years at times. I put that step aside, try using different weapons/builds or even (gasp) ask for help from strangers or guildies. and I accept that there are some things I won't be able to do, ever. It like life itself.
One thing people who are new to GW2 don't usually understand is the sheer amount of wiki'ing that happens on a daily basis for most experienced players. The wiki is built into the game accessed by the /wiki "search here" command and it is incredibly useful. The combination of that and gw2efficiency for crafting guides/ stat tracking have made this game playable for me.
This is so true. Once I got into the habit of using /wiki on basically every item I didn’t recognize, my game improved massively. I barely have to do it anymore, but you learn so much about the interplay between every item and system/vendor. Or use it on a skill or for something on the map, the wiki is amazing!
I feel like so many people here are just reading the title and commenting without understanding the video. Being overwhelmed is a normal reaction when realizing the depth this game has, he’s just getting to it early. For someone who enjoys puzzles/challenges/new experiences, it’s a _good_ problem to have. It makes you want to dive deeper to understand. The gw2 mindset of focusing on all the interactions of the game and exploring/learning instead of just rushing to endgame is there, and the fact that it clicked basically immediately is great. Yes, he does need to play more of the game and experience everything for it to make sense, but that’s why he’s playing/streaming it pretty often, and he’ll get there over time. I’m really enjoying both the react content and the gameplay
@@jasster8 yeah dude, apparently thumbnail + title + caffeinated dad is all anyone could take. I am super positive about this game and play it all the time.
From someone that watched all of the new videos he put out since starting and some of his streams live, I get why people keep saying that he is inundating himself with a lot of information all at once. And honestly, I don't blame him. Some people are wired that way - that desire of reading/watching everything about a topic to make an informed choice about class, preferences and what not ingame to maximize enjoyment etc. However that being said, there is merit in going semi-blind into the game without getting outside input because it allows us to form our own experiences without some preconceived notions at the back of our minds. I went into GW2 blind, knowing nothing about the mechanics and allowing myself to enjoy it from a place where my gamer instincts haven't kicked in yet and just enjoyed the journey through core tyria. That's what people are trying to say here, and I don't think they are coming from a unnecessarily critical point of view. Most of us want to see newer players enjoy the game too, and that seeing it from fresh eyes is part of what makes the GW2 experience unique and enjoyable.
Today my oldest character turns 12, and another half dozen will in the next week. I have done exactly one dungeon, zero raids, zero strikes missions. I have maxed my mastery points out at the highest level you can get without raiding, and have nearly 35,000 achievement points. You are correct about some of us never seeing some of the content even though we've been around from the start. Edit: I've never done a pvp match and have around 20 hours of WVW playtime as well. I do have 2 accounts with a total of around 30 level 80 chars.
@@Boo-nx4wk ha I love this comment because I’m similar. Been playing for 12 years, have around 11.5k achievement points and have barely touched fractals, and have never raided or done strike missions etc. Most of my time has been in open world content and then WvW. There’s something for everyone!
@@Gobbledi_Gook I forgot about the fractals. I've done 3 total. I stay away from group content as I'm afraid that I won't play well enough and get shamed for it. It's a fear that's been with me my entire GW2 career. I ran mythic raids/dungeons in Wow though. Just something about GW2 that has me convinced I'm not a good player and I should keep that to myself.
The main reason why new f2p accounts are so throttled is to combat the rampant gold sellers that would otherwise take over the game, making it unplayable. Now gold farmers will need to fork out a lot of money for the expacs, and they would be banned within a couple of hours or less of plying their trade, making gold selling in GW2 not very profitable for them. You can make as many f2p accounts as you like, which is normally a gold seller's dream. They get banned on one, make another one. Throttling the f2p accounts counteracts this.
I think there's an interesting paradox happening here. You talk about how the game is the game and not rushing the end game and yet, you mention getting a headache about looking into the endgame systems when you are not there yet. As you say "just play the game", learn the things as you go and enjoy being in an online world rather than rushing through it. My experience of playing GW2 at launch was that there were a lot of people that came from WoW saying they wanted a game that was nothing like WoW, and then complained that GW2 wasn't WoW. I genuinely think the end game mentality is a problem in MMOs because it takes up so much of the discourse. What I think GW2 does best is its open world and how it brings people together to do things on a map be it 2 people or and entire squad of 50 players. That part gets overlooked in my opinion.
I think there's a difference between simply looking into things because you're interested in what's waiting for you at end game, versus players who literally rushes through to get to end game. Compare a person who's still enjoying their ride to 80 (even though they already know some of what awaits them when they get there) versus a person who buys the game + expansions, then takes a lvl 80 boost to "skip the grind". I do agree wholeheartedly with your other statement. End game mentality is really pervasive, and honestly, games haven't been helping in this regard either. Anet could revamp their new player experience, instead, they give level boosters like candy and even have systems that incentivizes using the lvl 80 boosters.
I had that just last year - had a guy rushing to 80 from WOW, getting lots of help from guild on the way and advice and many warned him about 80. He got to 80 and HOT where there is a big step in difficulty and gear needed. He gave up. When I did that, even without a guild or much advice I just kept working and did more work on alts and core zones until I got decent gear, better skills and more knowledge. Then I went back and could play the other zones well.
Love the fact I’ve found this channel as you’re just starting to look into GW2, I love the game and seeing people explore it. Planing on watching back the live vids and seeing it happen in “live”
I've clocked over 15k hours in GW2 and have been playing it since day 1. Hardcore players who don't have anything else to do will beg for constant content. I however am aging, with the game, and my free time and priorities have changed. Now I find myself wishing there is less new content coming in, because I've fallen behind some stuff that I'd like to complete before rushing for new stuff. On the plus side: Once you own it, it is yours. It is a game that respects your time and even you quit it for a while you can always go back to it and you can enter end-game content without having to grind for new gear or feel guilty for a missed sub-fee. Path of Fire expansion lasted 5 years! But I didn't feel it as we were getting Living World Seasons every now and then. End of Dragons, while lasting two years, felt just about right. Now we are getting smaller scale expansions, but more frequently (Every year), but it is a struggle to keep up sometimes. Inbetween these content updates you have returning seasonal/holiday events. Which bring new rewards. So you have to stop what you were doing and focus on those in order to grab the new reward which is only available during that time (or you have to wait until next year to grab it). Content is plenty. In a way I am jealous of new players as they have 12 years of content to explore! A note on the pricing of the game: Yes the free-trial is throttled, but for a good reason. You don't want thousands of bots coming in and start advertising gold-selling and other services in map chat and messing around with the auction house economy (which is player based). And the expansions? For the base model it is anywhere between 25-30 bucks! It is still cheaper to own than any other MMORPG. A new player might need to spend 80-100$ to unlock them all, but as mentioned earlier... That is 12 years of content you are paying for! So compared to WoW, where you have to own the base game, plus the latest expansion (or multiple of them) and plus the monthly sub-fee.... GW2 is cheap to play. And the free-trial is still a lot better than the others.
At this point I’m going to be _expecting_ to see a video from you everyday on GW2, I love it XD I’m enjoying seeing your reactions to this so much, it REALLY reminds me so much of my first time getting into GW2 and sticking with it (I had the same experience as you where I played it years back but didn’t continue, then came back years later and reallly got into it this time). I was so completely blown away and couldn’t get enough of it, and I was just watching video after video after video of other people talking about the game (especially when I was busy at that moment and couldn’t play it right then) and just excitedly nodding to what they were saying. I imagine this is why you’re also so excitedly reacting to everyone’s videos too. Don’t mind some of the other commenters, there is a ton of us who just can’t get enough of your reaction videos like this. We see in you the same starry eyed new player venturing into the world of Tyria for the first time that we were ourselves those many years ago. Please keep making content that you enjoy and have fun making, because your genuine excitement and wholesomeness really shines through. P.S. to address another thing you brought up in a previous video: your decision to level one character to 80 on your own, and then boosting the second alt to 80, is IMO a good call, especially if the personal story quests don’t particularly interest you. It is a completely viable play style to barely touch the story and just romp around in the open world doing random quests, discovering points of interests and vistas and completing the map. I got to level 80 on my first character doing random map completion in starter areas, stumbling into world bosses, following dynamic event chains and doing jumping puzzles even before I finished the personal story, and I had such a blast and have absolutely no regrets. I have 5000++ hours in GW2 and if I had to go back in time, I’d do it all over again. It truly is the “set your own goals, go do them, and have fun doing them” type of freedom that a lot of other games tend to not have.
As to the part at 3:10 Active players in the game. Many don't realize that the Steam counter is not an accurate representation as it only shows number through Steam. Many of us get the game right from A net to avoid the random bugs you get dealing with Steam as a third-party server setup. So being as the game opened on Steam far into its current iteration, those on Steam are seeing a small portion of the totals.
when they say "casual", they mean how easy it is to do what you want to do without having to grind a ton or stress about playing as much and efficiently as possible; how easy it is to take breaks and not "fall behind". thats really what ppl mean when they say gw2 is "casual". on the flipside, you can make the game as grindy as you like by setting yourself certain goals, like legendary gear, certain achievements, completionist content... and oh boy, depending on your ambitions, it CAN get grindier than any other mmo out there. also in the context of casual: gw2s hardest content reaches its cap faster than mmos like ff14 or wow for example. sure, there is really hard content, but not as super difficult as ff14s ultimates or wows + x mythic. and there isnt a lot of it aswell. the focus for releasing content is more on the "casual", "do it all" type of player.
I started playing gw2 last year , after playing all the big mmos (wow , ff14 , eso , etc... ) bought the whole thing was on sale , and man , what a huge game , like there is no wrong way to play the game , lots of content , story rich expansions , best mounts in the genre, best open world content , i can talk so much more about the game , i really enjoyed every minute i played
20:15 "...try to figure out what it is you want out of a video game" This is such a major point right now, both relevant to the lack of direction in early GW2 and to the state of MMOs in general. Gamers have gotten so used to being told what to do that many of us have stopped asking "What do I want to do?"
@rubeuscubeus please make sure you play the living world series youll do yourself a great diservices if you dont experience season 3 after hot leading into pof and then after pof season 4 because yout mind would legitimately be blown away at the interim content between expansions cause frankly it shits all over the other mmo's IMO also at the inventory menagement can be fixed with equipment, crafting and invisible or safe bags these can be used to fix inventory hassles
"Casual" doesn't mean easy. It pretty much means that you don't have to commit 24/7 like other MMOs to get something. You can spend 1 hour a week to get a legendary for example, it will take time but you can do it. Getting the best gear in any other MMO requires time commitment and dealing with a deadline to get that gear, since every other patch you'll getting better gear to grind for and if you didn't grind the previous one than you're far behind the others to gain the new one. Gw2 is "casual", because you can play at your own pace, gear treadmill is an alien concept in this game. And that's the beauty of it, you can do whatever content you want and you'll never be getting "behind" the sweats to try new content whenever is released.
What is wrong with ppl ?? "This is a free game, so therefore i want, everything the developers make for us, FOR free".. Come on ppl . Nothing in this world is free, and they did say "Core game is free" which it is. We can't expect the the coders to work for free , for years and years and years. If you don't like Gw2, then don't play it. And if you DO like Gw2, you can save up a bit and buy one or more of the expansions. You can play and save in-game gold , convert it to gems, and buy the quality of life things, little by little, you cannot expect to get everything in one go. I'm sorry to sound angry :) I'm really not, i just love Gw2 and guild wars, with passion. Thank you Mr. Rubeus, for nice and interesting videos.
Frankly I never do fractals or raids on GW2. I did all of that on 10 years of WOW and don’t miss the grind with low drop rates of relevant gear drops. I love open world exploration and even after ten years, still haven’t visited every zone. The newest expansion Janthir Wilds is truly their best game content. I was surprised at how much fun the Warclaw mount is.
I happen to juggle playing between FFXIV, WoW and Gw2 and honestly, I only know that they are supposed to be more people playing the first two by numbers and estimations on the internet, because only in Gw2 I haven't seen a map truly devoid of players. My leveling experience in WoW is definitely the loneliest, but in FFXIV the population only concentrates in the main cities and the rest of the maps (aside from the ones in the current expansion) have more of a single player feel than anything else
Yes, this is a game where you have the freedom to approach this game and just take it for what it is. It's very diverse, with so many different content but it leaves it up to you to find what you want out of the MMO just by playing the game. I really enjoyed the creation and customization I can do. I have up to 19 different character's now. Each one unique styles as I thoroughly enjoy also the fashion, so many options. I can create, imagine what I want. This game give's you so much freedom and liberties to learn to do things that uniquely you. There's so much cosplay too with the characters, I seen like Ronald Mcdonald, spiderman, sailor moon characters to name a few. You find out I really like open world exploration, I like fractals or raids or WvW, PVP. I like creating builds and seeing how the mechanics work in that situation. Every one is different and this game allows you so many different options. There's a community of GW2 of guilds of like minded for all the different options and how you want to approach it and learn.
I have to disagree to the statement "you can't never be as good as the best person who has been there for...". In fact, I've seen many newcomers learnt extremely fast and master their builds or their class(heck even multiclassing with high skills) and veterans from day 1 being kinda mediocre. If you are new to GW2 and wanna master your main class and be extremely good at it my best advice would be: READ and USE eeeeeevery single skill your class has, even the ones that seems useless. Read them, use them, comprehend them and you'll see you can make that class that others may mock into a God of PvE, PvP, WvW or OW.
I love having a lot to do. I played the hell out of this game when it first came out, but stopped playing after I finished the core game story. Came back for each expansion and did the same thing. After Path of Fire, I hadn't played this game until about a couple of months ago and I had not even touched elite specs. In the hunt for hero points, I ended doing a lot of world events. I'm having more fun now than I have in other MMOs. I'm not rushing to anything. I'm just gradually racking up currencies and masteries, enjoying the environment, and killing stuff.
inventory management is definitely a learning curve. much of it is just knowing what all the items are. once you learn which to keep, sell, salvage, or trash it's much much easier and faster and you'll gladly welcome new loot. one piece of advice I would give new players for this is always open unidentified gears last. you will get tons of bags/chests/ crates/ ect. that contain mats, items and things as well as more unidentified gear. so many new players always open the unidentifieda first not realizing opening the ten bags right next to it will just re-stack it again then they feel overwhelmed and confused.
Man, when you talk, I just can't but agree with almost everything you say completely. I know you always state it as your opinion, but I think your way of seeing things is in depth, accurate and so knowledgeble. I saw just a couple of videos, but I am already a sub. intending to stay. you are great. and you are one of the people that I actually find value by seeing their reaction content. because your takes are so informative and knowledgeble.
You completely right about the game being so big tou dont know what is happening me myself played before EoD till lvl 60 no mounts etc because i played f2p i came till lvl 60 without ever encountering a world boss or meta event. Really unlucky but at the time that shaped my perception of the game being to grindy and to much traveling. Came back during soto and bought a expansion from the start and had a totally different experience
As an on off GW2 player since beta i really like following ur journey and opinions on the game! Glad u like it und hope u continue doing some GW2 content. Keep up the work :)
Hey man, found your YT throu the First-Time GW2 stuff :) Welcome to the game! As a veteran I really enjoy the nostalgia watching you experience all the stuff. It's a bit tought to not explain everything to you tho :D Keep digging! If you think the inventory management is bad tho...check the little "Wallet" you have in your inventory ;) It will get your head exploding in Endgame.
You just need to start at the beginning and play your way through - theres so much stuff that trying to put everything in your head up front really isnt the way. Core tyria is like a starter and very basic the content that comes after its the real meat and the best maps generally. It's not a endgame pumper rush rush meta pump go game, its a chill game you need to enjoy the journey where the max level stays the same. The thing about GW2 is that over a few years you will prob end up with one of almost every class because you keep getting ideas of builds and want to see if it better for you than the previous lmao and thats really only where you will be able to really know what you like - what you are able to get onto those classes and try it yourself. The real endbosses are content(map) completions (if you are a completionist) and legendary gear farming and ofc fashion. The original char i played and really loved (mesmer) got nerfed and changed in ways that outraged me and i kinda left for 1-2 years but i came back later and since them i let go of this idea that i need to find my perfect class and so much more fun since and just building builds and trying to find what i enjoy most at the current balance.
one thing about GW2 that i love is that in general the "end game" is what you choose it to be, for some that is PvP, for others it is WvW, raids, Strikes, fractals, world bosses, legendary crafting, fashion wars, and so on for example for me, my eldest character just turned 9 years, i have 9055 hours into the game, and i barely touch PvP, WvW i enjoy but it burns me out very quickly for months, fractals i love doing, so that's where i spend most of my time, and my goal really is achieving "max convenience" which i'd say i'm very close to reaching it.
The game becomes casual as you become more comfortable with it. You gain the clarity of knowing what to do with the next 5 minutes to an hour and a half of your life. Like you learn how to focus on a specific armor set or weapon or legendary and make small amounts of progress each play sessions. It is one of the few games I can load up today, enjoy playing for 10 minutes, and feel accomplished. As a father, who wasn't a father when he started playing... I cannot tell you how incredibly casual I can play this game today all while playing an ele as my main... probably the class closest to playing a piano...
What I personally like about GW2, is that it allows you to put it aside for a long, longer time and when the itch is there, jump right back into it. It's not totally free, I bought the expansions, but still it's buy once play forever (did you hear that LiveService sh*ts and the rest)? Anyway, the world is still nice not being cutting edge, but at least - every expansion - it tries to bring in new things. I really like this philosophy. I just picked it up again like a month ago and I might be playing it for another month, another year, heck maybe forever. Edit, forgot to say: I've been an avid WoW-player for at least 15 years, all due to the perfect community we had founded. We raided a few times a week (weren't even bad at it) but then the Dailies came, you had to grind every single day to get your potions for the next Raid. Now, I guess GW2 has the same thing regarding the grind for 'professional' raiding but still. Loved WoW for years but at a certain moment, it became a product instead of a game and I burned out because of it. First time in all these years that I'm not even excited for the new expansion. Haven't even bought it. Contrary to the latest GW2 expansion. Oh well, rant over 😀
The biggest issue with GW 2 is boon stacking and bag slots. You have a pile of all these fashion wars players with all kinds of different effects covering the screen just spamming a rotation sitting on top of each other.
there are actually /wiki entries and sites on how to optimally salvage the loot you pick up, what specific salvaging kits to use for different quality items in order to max your returns. Might be worth browsing through that at some point when you get a chance.
Guild Wars strengths as MMORPG are in the RPG part, and the MMO part is cooperative instead of competitive. Meaning - it's not a "meta MMO". So a weirdest thing happened.. there were alot of MMO players constantly asking for something fresh and different in the MMORPG genre, but when Guild Wars gave that - noone saw it. Such an interesting phenomenon.
I feel bad pointing this out but Caffeinated Dad is notorious in the GW2 community and not exactly for the best reasons. Mainly his content is fairly uninformed. He hasn’t been playing for very long yet pumps out a ton of videos pretending to have insight. I’ve seen multiple people be steered wrong by his content because it either gave them the wrong idea of the game or straight up told them how to do something in a completely inefficient way. I would take *everything* he says with a grain of salt, even the things you agree with and might think are 100% true on the surface. This video is mostly fine but when he gets into proper guides watch out
I would recommend guides from creators like Laranity, MukLuk, MightyTeapot, Kroof, and WoodenPotatoes. All long time veteran players with great knowledge under their belt.
yep, hes not a good source for information. some videos that dont have a lot of substance are okay, but if you want actual guides, tips and advice, dont watch him.
Most important unlocks in the game: - core masteries: the first thing to do in the game is unlocking auto loot and fractal masteries which happens in vanilla areas - fractal progression represents dineros and initial pve progression as you'll understand how to position yourself, how to deal with mechanics, build dps(which is different than in more streamlined mmos like wow) and ultimately understand how to position yourself into the meta (which to a lot of extents apply to pvp as well). It requires maturity and it is obtuse. Fractals, especially cms are FUN - credit card confort: bank space, salvagers, premium tools, premium hubs all that shit that should be free is still costly. - understanding the achievment system and basics of economy and it is complicated - understanding maps and the functioning of the world, a minority(which is still numerous) of players understand the system, some also rig it to their advantage, most suffer and play a quasi 0 sum game Oh also: Janthir Wild is extremly small and the way that the content is set in it is BAD, last expansion was a mixed bag and ended in a very bad note. If it keeps going like that, this game won't last many more years. In terms of sheer gameplay, GW2 has imho the best gameplay of any mmo on the market, there is no gcd and has incredible high skillcap, getting good at pve is a very tall endheavour and I've seen many really godlike players there. PVP is a blast, for pvp players it is imho the best mmos. I played ranked with friends who are gladiator subscribed wow players and we have more fun on gw2 than in wow, one of them ask me regularily if I want to do ranked in gw2 because of how much he loves it. It's that good.
I think there are exceptions to what you said about new players not being as good as veterans. You're right in most cases but there will always be extremely skilled people who pick up a game and instantly click with it while quickly understanding the design concepts. Most people shouldn't expect that but it happens. Some people are just crazy.
I am new to online gaming, and also new to all PC gaming (had consoles before). I have wanted to play GW2 for forever. I now have a Steam Deck and downloaded GW2 but I am having a hard time figuring out how to configure my buttons on it to play it. I've found the community shared setups, but none are really how I prefer it to be set up. So I got a bit discouraged and haven't been back yet.
one of my issues with gw2 is that it intentionally holds itself back to have cash shop qol that should be in the game for everyone? Why limit salvage kits to 25 charges and give an infnite one in cash shop? why not get rid of a lot of the trophies and replace them with silver/copper drops? to sell bag slots and bank space. everyone would be happier if they made these changes but they wont cos they will lose money, its been 12 years come one man...
The game is not super complex, but then again, I was coming from playing Eve Online for the better part of 10 years when GW2 was released. Blasting water fields for heals and dodge rolling through attacks is by far simpler than coordinating Basilisk or Guardian logistic capacitor transfer chains while keeping your signature radius small and transversal velocity up. Kiting is universal, but signature tanking by moving faster than someone else's guns can track and keeping yourself in optimal range of your weapons starts getting harder and harder when fighting unfamiliar targets with unconventional builds. I play this game instead because it is easier and it still has an interesting combat system.
The /wiki command is very useful for that, as you can add an item to the search. So, say you have Bloodstone Dust in your inventory and material bank is full... /wiki (link item) enter OR /wiki (write name of item) enter. That pops up the wiki for you directly from in game, and then you can read it to find out what you can do with your excess Bloodstone Dust. /wiki et brings up the event timer.
The “casual” term is so frequently with this game and it is truly casual in the sense you can play it and walk away and come back. Yet it is one of the more complicated games to truly master and casual people will never achieve the mastery of the game if played in this fashion.
Dudes too used to Care Bear games that lead him to everything. Here's a silly tip. Everything you need to know is actually on the Internet. Beyond that, just play and adventure. Try different toons and classes. It's not this hard. 😂😂🤦🤡 Find your Happy arse to LA ( Lions Arch) and shoot some bugs or something. 😂😂😂 Then we can talk about GW2 and it's silly accomplishments or being hard.
I'd recommend playing the base game for free, get through to the end until it makes an offer for LWS1, then come back and make the review video. Would be interested to hear from your personal journey and experiences, and it'd be extra content for the channel.
I don't know about lack of direction being one of the reasons new people quit GW2. Maybe it's just me unfamiliar with newer MMOs, but for me there are plenty of direction throughout the game. When you level up, you look at your level, look at zone's level and decide if it is alright zone for you to level up or you should find a new one. There are story missions that take you through the world, so even if you are not sure where you have to go, just do story missions and go where they say you need to go. Hearts are basically quests, they show appropriate level, they are easy to spot on the map, so there should be no problems. Events are fun distractions and a great way to supplement your leveling. After you reach level 80 and did all the story, and all the post-core story in living world, there are expacs with their own progression (masteries), story, events and meta events, hearts and other stuff. I mean, I don't even know how long would it take to reasonably finish up all released content (reasonably - not 100% completion, but most of the story, events and masteries). Only after that you can say that there are no directions. I've been playing gw2 for over 11 years, and when I started it, there was no content after the core game. The only instanced "endgame" content were dungeons, and i wasn't really interested in them. So what did I do - I started doing world boss trains, I found the guild that specialized in killing "hard world bosses" because I couldn't kill them with random people, I ran around last map, doing events, killing mobs and earning money, I crafted and traded on TP, I dabbled in pvp, and when I got bored, I quit for like 2 years, until there was enough content for me to play. And it is normal.
I've played GW2 since release and I still havent done all the dungeons, skyscale, lr any of that stuff. Reality is without am active guild, you *can* be quite limited incterms of available content, especially if it's a timegated world event. Regarding deadzones, yes, they absolutely exist, and I think thats normal in any mmorpg. My personal opinion is the character creation has heen dated, the content is good but sometimes bugs mean titles cant be completed and a perfect example was the 8+ months the asuran "not so secret" jump puzzle was broken. For me, as someone who HAS left GW2 snd come back, it is the massive time investment required to get the results to do raids. As someone who played Runescape since 2006, you and I both know that without the auto level items, ot takes a long time to get to 80. It actually used to be much worse, and mounts didnt exist at all on release!! I guess to pull this back to RuneScape, over time, faster experience methods are placed into the game to help bring players up to speed. I do firmly believe that the level 80 instant level ups are a bit ridiculous. Part of the game is character growth, afterall. I enjoy these videos and I'd be interestedin making a response to this video if that was cool with you. Caff. Dad has made a looot of gw2 videos if I rmemeber correctly so whole they make have some insight, they are also a bit biased. At the end of the day, he is right on what he discussed. Lack of direction is a huge barrier to people who probably xant even decide what they want for dinner. Inventory simulator is also true, but hear me out, the beauty of the game os you dont need to follow a meta to be "successful". Sure raids have metas, but for the person who doesnt know what meta even means, the fact that you cam build just about anything and be "ok" for most content speaks a lot to the balance of the classes. Classes! Some are wayyyy more involved than others. That's ok, but when people are making characters they are thinking, "elementalist or mesmer or necromancer sounds cool!" Something he didnt mention is the incredible amount of keyboard shortcuts, but honestly the entire game is playable without the keybinds and the fact that it is free is a huuuuge value to anyone who wants a free game and I wish more games did that sort of like RuneScape. The other thing is, yea the game is dated, but who cares? People should be looking at mmorpgs as unique games, not a genre to throw everything under simply because they are online role playing games. The Original Guildwars for example is still available to play, is also an mmorpg, and the whole game is completable on your own. I think if I had to direct someone to an mmorpg, for me, the most important thing is quests and storylines. Yeah, guildwars 2 has some of that, but guildwars 1 was overall a much better and linearly laid out game while guildwars 2 took a more world of warcraft style approach, with the open world design as opposed to open world hubs only. The musical scores on both guildwars games are amazing. I think the people leaving guildwars 2 being a problem is a bit overblown. People leave games all the time, and frankly I think the reason single player games seem to be doing so well in previous years is mmorpg are a massive amount of ongoing work and upkeep that most game companies arent willing to commit to, so we should be thankful that they value those experiences as much as we do to keep the genre alive. They dont have to keep developing multiplayer games. Sorry for the long comment. I too, have struggled, and loved, Guildwars 2. Every game will have things people like and don't like about them, and that's ok. I dont think that needs to be a discussion. What I do wish was a discussion is how do we get people excited about these games to begin with, and in the end, it boils down to Livestreaming and content creator excitement, trials, and tribulations that they can share with their viewers. The core problem with these games is they lack good narration and order of events. In RuneScape, you're locked behind quests. In GW2, this is also true, but you can show up and kill endgame bosses without actually soing many of the quests or understanding whats going on, and without a skyscale or certain mounts, navigating terrain by foot can be difficult for a new player, time consuming, or virtually impossible/impassable despite you maybe having a quest in said area thst you want to complete. Idk. I just play videogames. When something is bogus, call it out! When it is awesome, give it praise! That's how we end up with better games and better sense of who we ourselves are and enjoy and dont enjoy as gamers.
What I’m struggling with is what to do at endgame. Once I have full ascended gear what do I have to work towards now? I can push higher level pve content, but to accomplish what? I both love and hate that there isn’t a gear treadmill, because I think after years of playing games where I’m always looking for my next upgrade I’m left feeling a lack of purpose with gw2. Maybe I just need to adjust idk
One thing you can do with your full ascended gear is climb the difficulties in Fractals, working towards conquering the Challenge Mode of all the fractals. Or you could work towards legendary gear which is super helpful if you play more than one character. There are collections to complete, *hundreds* of achievements to hunt down, and there's also the fun of exploration. There are so many easter eggs you can only encounter by doing exploration, like references to Futurama and old Looney Tunes. Experiences and challenges are the endgame, whether it's through fighting other players in PvP or WvW, or seeing what the world has to offer! Hope you enjoy your journey!
I was here a while ago and shifted my mindset to that of an "adventurer". I picked a legendary and then treated every game night like I was picking up a contract from a quest board in an adventurers guild. Went out and completed another step on that leggy achievement. 7 leggy's in so far and have been enjoying the new mindset
@@nlcousin One of the best mindsets to have! It's why I have so many alt characters. I log in and decide what sort of gameplay I want that session, pick a character with a build that fulfils that. Then I either work on my latest project, like a legendary, or just randomly bumrush my way across a few maps at random doing any events and stuff I encounter along the way. Even the random map stuff still progresses things like legendaries through the gaining of materials. I love that even after playing the game since launch, I STILL encounter stuff in openworld I've not encountered before. like NPC dialogue and even some dynamic events I've missed on every previous trip through some maps. The adventure is definitely the fun :D
@@nlcousin I think this is what I need to try and do. I’ve got a mindset that has been ingrained from thousands of hours of other mmos, which is to focus on the reward I’m going to get. Gw2 just doesn’t work that way
@evanmildrum897 First off, I apologise if I say something you already know, because I'm going to assume you don't know anything about legendaries (just in case). I have been grinding to become full legendary for years at this point, and I'm not there yet. According to Gw2 Efficiency, I have 61 legendaries unlocked. That includes 3 sets of armor, at least one of every weapon type, trinkets, backpack, relic, sigils, and a rune. I have to craft one more longbow, two more spears, six more runes, and four more sigils before I've reached my goal. After that, I'm going to craft one more scepter (although I will never need more than one) because I simply couldn't decide between Meteorlogicus or Xiuquatl. I already have three greatswords, because of Eternity being Sunrise and Twilight combined (it's the only legendary that is made out of two other legendaries). I've sold a couple of Gen 1 and Gen 3 legendaries as well (Gen 2 are accountbound on pickup, just like the armor pieces, trinkets, sigils, runes, relic, and backpack). This made me a decent profit that I could sink into my next legendary project. It's a good thing I am a fan of both World Completion and World vs World, as you need one gift from each to craft a Gen 1 legendary. A lot of the legendary weapons have stories attached to them, and some of them give you something a little extra on top of the weapon itself. For example, the gen 2 short bow called Chumpa and Champawat takes you on a journey to find two elusive tigers, and when you're done with the collection you get a unique tiger mini plus a novelty item that lets you carry a tiger cub around on your back. The Gen 1 focus called the Minstrel and the Gen 2 warhorn called Verdarach gives you novelty instruments that you can play music on, etc. Legendary crafting requires time, money, and patience. It takes you to Fractals, world bosses, World vs. World, and more. After your first one, you'll probably tell yourself never again, and yet, before you know it, you'll be at it a second time. And a third... And they're totally worth the blood, sweat and tears. They're the best in slot, alongside ascended tier. They give you max Qality of Life as you can swap stats whenever you're out of combat plus swap enrichment, runes, sigils and infusions without destroying the old ones. You can also have the same legendary item equipped on multiple characters at once, making them even more convenient.
If they rework the core game I might actually start a new character. I've been playing since the beta access before release, quit a few years back due to discontent with what happened with the legendary armor fiasco. Still hasn't been fixed.
Make sure after you finish the base story you should buy Living world 1 ,2 and 3 before you start doing the first expansion Heart of thorns well worth it.
BROooo, I'll say it again: I have advice! Don't think too much about it. Just lvl up necro to lvl 80, and time to time try to USE all his abilities, perks and weapons. Once you checked all this stuff, open Reaper spec, play it a little bit, then
GW2 would be ideal for me if you could not buy endgame gear so easily for 3g a piece. This kind of spoiled things for me, I was so happy when I crafted my first orange weapon, spent a lot of time farming materials and had a blast. Then I learned that I could just buy it for 3 gold. It killed character progression for me. I know there is legendary gear to craft but from what I understand it has basically the same stats and it's not really that much of an upgrade. It's like you could buy mythic gear for 1K gold a piece in WoW. That's my only complaint about GW2 though. Funny thing about population: GW2 feels much more populated than WoW, there are people everywhere I go including old content whereas WoW zones are dead. Even the new ones 2 weeks after TWW release, I mostly see only bot druids gathering materials in the open world, another real player is so rare. They divide them in too many layers I guess.
You're constantly saying the game us too complicated, saying new players shouldn't expect to be as good as veterans in two months, while ingurgitating as many informations as drinking water from a water hose... I don't understand here.
It's an amazing game, isn't as complicated as you think just go and play and have fun, 12 years playing this game and i tell you is my favorite ever, it has a lot of things to do but you play at your own pace, its a beautiful well made game 👌♥️
The problem with gw2 is that any kind of progression begins to feel really meaningless. The thing that i really appreciate about Runescape is that every kind of progression helps you out in all aspects. I think this is why gw2 gets really boring because the pay off of your grind begins to only affect a small aspect of your game and is meaningless elsewhere.
Stumbled upon 2 of your videos now and both are just reacting to a “Caffeinated Dad Gaming” vid 😂 go play the game, also check out some other GW2 creators, there’s a ton of them that are better choices than that dude 😅
I don't get it... ANY game that you're new to has this... what should I keep, what can I sell, does those stats correlate like I'm used to from game xyz...
You said you could never see a dungeon.... I Literally have a character I levelled 1 -80 through craftiing.. it sat in town bought from trading post and crafted.. never left town.. 0% map completion
I think we call GW2 casual is because you dont need to invest a lot of hours into the game or even be close to decent to see a return in the game, and when you take a break and come back, all of it is there waiting for you as you left it.
I think what you say starting at around 11:15 is heavily influenced by you deliberately consuming content about the endgame while not even being close to it.
3:22 im sorry but imho that is a terrible argument. some of the best experiences and most fun ive had in mmos have been in games with low populations. such as Project Gorgon
You're missing the best part of this game! WVW! World vs World is the fight between clans and alliances to control maps within the mist, unlike PVP where the use of armor and upgrades is more structured in WVW, it depends on your equipment, runes, etc.
I play the game for 11 years, the amount of bull shit I just heard from the video you saw is astonishing, it is to show how lazy and lack of a autonomous attitude people have...
Ive never ever seen anyone struggle as much as you to get into Guild Wars 2 you seem to over think everything Guild Wars 2 is an exploration game stop thinking about ( End Game ) i would say focus on main story first and exploration and dungeons are part of the story's once you get to lvl 80 then move towards a content you want to try there are a lot of things but you dont have to play them all at once PvP, WvW, Fractals, Strikes, Raids and PvE just mess around with one at a time also you need to remember Guild Wars to is not a Subscription based game so content is going to take longer then games like FFXIV and WoW. And the reason people leave Guild Wars 2 is because there lazy they want to just uses the Credit Card to bypass everything sad but true.
Funny thing you should mention the "Sniper on the Roof" as an example and wonder how that feels in an MMO. In HoT you'll find out. No joke. There are two events where you use sniper rifles to take out targets below you.
I just don't think Caffeinated Dad is a good source of info. This guy is a typical MMO hopper with barely any deep experience in the game. Anyone who plays GW2 can tell he's only got a surface level understanding. The core game is not as bad as he's making it out. There are so many puzzles to do. Quirky random items to find. Easter eggs and jokes to discover. World bosses to try. Story dungeons and path dungeons to explore. If you want a game where playing it is just a means to get into raids, then GW2 is just not for you. The whole journey is the game, from level 1.
I've had the game since it came out tried to get into in many times I just find the game boring all the open world content is just face roll. Also the weapon swamping PI hate this mechanic in any game.
I played for like a year at launch, disliked the lack of combat roles and how trying to become a healer just wasn't possible, felt the huge experience cuts in zones 2-3 levels lower ("every zone is good at every level!!!!1") and then dropped it. Since then, learned that I missed many events and exclusive stuff, saw the price of the new expansions, and decided I'm not going to try to force having fun with it again.
Sounds like you didn't know how to play, wasn't interested in learning how to play and just gave up. Because every class was a combat role and most classes could be a full healer at launch.
@@cresentj If by "full healer" you mean Engineer could heal once or twice for negligible health and then need to drop his special weapon, you're still wrong, and trolling.
@@JanderStrahd I don't need to argue with you on what core specs could be healers. People were playing full healers and keeping their parties alive for the hardest content in game from the inception of gw2 in 2012 all the way to today. If you couldn't heal yourself and others well, then that's a skill issue with you, not the game. It's clear you're just a hater (yes hating, not constructive criticism), so I'm just going to block you, and continue playing my HEALER elementalist.
I am sick and tired of trolls saying "gw2 is a dead game." New players. Make a goal; legendary crafting. Legendary armour. Fashion Wars. etc. For me is legendary armor, personal story and completing achievements. When explaining "Free to play" I explain that there is a no fee each month and the blocking of free accounts is to prevent fake accounts/spamming. Plus when I meet new players I always telling them "hey need extra help? type /wiki " like /wiki Hungry cat scavenger hunt . the gw2 wiki will pop it. a live saver really.
"the game is the game" is a good way of putting it. I try to explain this to people. When we played games back in the day, like Golden Axe or Mario, we didn't get anything for playing-- there were no rewards beyond winning. You just play the game because it's fun to play. If there were no loot or progression I would still play GW2.
unintended GW2 mini-games: Inventory Wars and Fashion Wars
Inventory really inst that hard to fix its far less then it uses to be i think people who say this just like to uses it as an excuses
@@fargonthebrave Some of us play MMORPGs to channel our hoarding tendencies where they don't actually block doorways to vital rooms. Like toilets and kitchens. It's also annoying when such a large amount of stuff is shoved directly into your pants without your consent. And it's extra annoying when you need to devote as much time and attention as we do to manage that shit adequately. Never mind that there's no sort button and the search bar is a really poor way to browse your shit. Compare and contrast to another game that drops an overwhelming amount of loot: PoE. In that game, all you need to do to prevent yourself from having to even devote that much energy to manage the loot is by simply installing a loot filter. Sure they don't have the same kind of inventory system, mostly, but the end result is the thing that matters and if the end result is a feeling of dread whenever loot drops, there's a big disincentive to do anything at all.
TL; DR: It's not that inventory is hard to fix. It's the fact that you have to "fix" it as much as we need to is why we call it Inventory wars.
inventory is easy to manage you just have to know how. Fashion Wars is the true endgame. That's where it all leads to. I can care less if you're a Raid God. Show me the drip
@@zumasa9991 Oh yeah, no doubt. 100% of my grind decisions were driven by the drip.
inventory always hard after a longer break
pro-tip: when in-game, you can type /wiki followed by a space and then shift click something or just literally type something in and when you hit enter it will open a browser and search the GW2 wiki for w/e you put after "/wiki "
caffenaited dad is not a good source for beginner, he make alot of gw2 vids but really, his experiences from it is so little to properly make "guides", i suggest mukluk, laranity, and ayinmaiden (pretty sure caffeinated dad just copy alot stuffs from them, he doesn't really understand game mechanics, but still make vids since gw2 playerbase love to watch guides so it's easy to farm views and clicks)
edit: always check his comment section, you will see there more experienced gamers pointing out where he's wrong and explaining the mechanics, because, you know, he doesn't really understand most of it
+ WoodenPotatoes
- MightyTeapot, can't stand that guy (am not hating tho)
@@bobthedestroyer6205mightys zero to hero is reaaaally great, so it might benefit him to check it out.
I stopped trusting caffeinated's opinion when he started doing his ffxiv video comparison series. he didn't even get to level 100 in *any* job in ffxiv and he tried comparing them saying that ffxiv "doesn't have a meta" 🙄 the dude has no idea what he's talking about half the time and his build guides are so bad
@@bobthedestroyer6205 oh yea, plus our pope woodepotatoes too!
same, i dont like mightyteapot, he talks too much and mean so little, as in he speaks in 2-3 paragraphs of things other people can explain in just few phrases
@@Whats_Up_Dot I had a similar experience, except with WvW (my gamemode of choice for several years). One day, he was talking about being new to WvW. Maybe a week or so later, he posts a guide on how to WvW. I wouldn't have been hung up on it if he didn't have very inaccurate proclamations in the video. Was disappointed to say the least, and now I have to correct people who like to watch his content.
Also regarding your headaches from the complicated systems, I want to share a little experience I have that may help you:
I bought the game back in 2014 and played for like a month, really enjoyed it, but IRL came along and I put it down. I got back into it in 2019 due to quarantine, and because I’ve forgotten all about the mechanics, I remade the same character and started over.
Since I didn’t delete the older original character, I thought I was smart by boosting the old one to level 80, while keeping the new one as my main, so I could flip back and forth between playing the two.
_I did not understand anything about the elite specs, the skills, the mechanics, and I was being wrecked by even the ambiance mobs in the new expansions, dying right outside the city gates to things like wild boars and beetles, it was terrifying and also a little embarrassing._
Then I leveled my newer character to level 80 manually, I got my first set of exotic gear and set foot into that same expansion, fully expecting to die to the ambience mobs as I did on my boosted alt, it- didn’t happen.
I had no trouble at all, I knew what my skills did and how to position myself, what skills to use and in what sequence. It blew me away.
GW2’S system has a funny way of sneakily teaching you things that you didn’t realize you were learning as you play, and it all comes together slowly and satisfyingly like the pieces of a puzzle falling into place. They weren’t being metaphoric when they said the core game is an extended tutorial. It literally teaches you and builds up your muscle memory.
So for that reason I’d say this: don’t stress too much about understanding the elite specs right now, it’ll fall into place seamlessly as you continue, the skills and weapons and mechanics and traits will all make sense by the time you get to level 80. Don’t rush it and enjoy the ride, coz you only get to experience a game for the first time, once :)
What a nice response. I have a friend who's having the same issue, and I think I will share this with him. We've been having talks about what the game could do to help new players, and I definitely think it should make certain changes. However, I do think giving ourselves our own guard rails from wanting to just skip ahead, and allowing ourselves to naturally learn as we go along is also incredibly valuable.
@@jhmi7877 Aww I'm glad you found my comment then^^ I really hope this will help your friend. I have to say, the moment I suddenly realized I had improved, was incredibly satisfying. It was like that wax-on-wax-off scene in karate kid: you didn't know you were learning things all along!
I got this "problem" where I cannot get into other MMO's because Gw2 was my first MMO, no other game is like it. 🙃
I tried wow, eso, neverwinter, bdo, archage and other but I keep going back to gw2..
And I get so happy when I see new players trying it out!
Yes i play like 6 year,5000 hrs+ with 10 char,no mmo like gw2
same , i notice the other mmo world are so dead that it's not even funny ? while gw2 npc are constantly either talking or screaming at you
I've SWTOR as my second MMO, there I'm really casual and I've lots of fun, but only because its Star Wars and I love the SW IP
@@SwedudeEPIC that's exactly how i feel i play others MMO i cheat to her but always comes back to her because there's nobody like her my GW2 love is real 😂
yeah same, gw2 was my first mmo and no other game can compare
How do you eat a monster sized pizza?
One delicious bite at a time.
Every day, log in, have some fun and move the needle a little bit. Log out.
Having fun is the key part. If something looks fun, go for it.
yer that's the part i see him missing he is looking at it like normal mmos where gw2 is a far more chillid exploration mmo and he seems to want to do end game content before even getting to lvl 80 i dont think gw2 is as complex is he is saying it is.
I have been 'stuck' with various characters on story steps for years at times. I put that step aside, try using different weapons/builds or even (gasp) ask for help from strangers or guildies. and I accept that there are some things I won't be able to do, ever. It like life itself.
@@christophersmith8316 just do story with a friend
One thing people who are new to GW2 don't usually understand is the sheer amount of wiki'ing that happens on a daily basis for most experienced players. The wiki is built into the game accessed by the /wiki "search here" command and it is incredibly useful. The combination of that and gw2efficiency for crafting guides/ stat tracking have made this game playable for me.
This is so true. Once I got into the habit of using /wiki on basically every item I didn’t recognize, my game improved massively. I barely have to do it anymore, but you learn so much about the interplay between every item and system/vendor. Or use it on a skill or for something on the map, the wiki is amazing!
but if you are alone and new noone will show you. unless you dare asking in chat and get mocked lol
I feel like so many people here are just reading the title and commenting without understanding the video. Being overwhelmed is a normal reaction when realizing the depth this game has, he’s just getting to it early. For someone who enjoys puzzles/challenges/new experiences, it’s a _good_ problem to have. It makes you want to dive deeper to understand. The gw2 mindset of focusing on all the interactions of the game and exploring/learning instead of just rushing to endgame is there, and the fact that it clicked basically immediately is great.
Yes, he does need to play more of the game and experience everything for it to make sense, but that’s why he’s playing/streaming it pretty often, and he’ll get there over time. I’m really enjoying both the react content and the gameplay
@@jasster8 yeah dude, apparently thumbnail + title + caffeinated dad is all anyone could take. I am super positive about this game and play it all the time.
From someone that watched all of the new videos he put out since starting and some of his streams live, I get why people keep saying that he is inundating himself with a lot of information all at once. And honestly, I don't blame him. Some people are wired that way - that desire of reading/watching everything about a topic to make an informed choice about class, preferences and what not ingame to maximize enjoyment etc. However that being said, there is merit in going semi-blind into the game without getting outside input because it allows us to form our own experiences without some preconceived notions at the back of our minds. I went into GW2 blind, knowing nothing about the mechanics and allowing myself to enjoy it from a place where my gamer instincts haven't kicked in yet and just enjoyed the journey through core tyria. That's what people are trying to say here, and I don't think they are coming from a unnecessarily critical point of view. Most of us want to see newer players enjoy the game too, and that seeing it from fresh eyes is part of what makes the GW2 experience unique and enjoyable.
Today my oldest character turns 12, and another half dozen will in the next week. I have done exactly one dungeon, zero raids, zero strikes missions. I have maxed my mastery points out at the highest level you can get without raiding, and have nearly 35,000 achievement points. You are correct about some of us never seeing some of the content even though we've been around from the start. Edit: I've never done a pvp match and have around 20 hours of WVW playtime as well. I do have 2 accounts with a total of around 30 level 80 chars.
@@Boo-nx4wk ha I love this comment because I’m similar. Been playing for 12 years, have around 11.5k achievement points and have barely touched fractals, and have never raided or done strike missions etc. Most of my time has been in open world content and then WvW. There’s something for everyone!
i always assumed people with 20-40k AP are hardcore and done everything game has to offer lol
And that, is why i think GW2 is amazing, there's so much freedom of choice, u do what u want to do! simple amazing
Congrats!
@@Gobbledi_Gook I forgot about the fractals. I've done 3 total. I stay away from group content as I'm afraid that I won't play well enough and get shamed for it. It's a fear that's been with me my entire GW2 career. I ran mythic raids/dungeons in Wow though. Just something about GW2 that has me convinced I'm not a good player and I should keep that to myself.
The main reason why new f2p accounts are so throttled is to combat the rampant gold sellers that would otherwise take over the game, making it unplayable. Now gold farmers will need to fork out a lot of money for the expacs, and they would be banned within a couple of hours or less of plying their trade, making gold selling in GW2 not very profitable for them. You can make as many f2p accounts as you like, which is normally a gold seller's dream. They get banned on one, make another one. Throttling the f2p accounts counteracts this.
I think there's an interesting paradox happening here. You talk about how the game is the game and not rushing the end game and yet, you mention getting a headache about looking into the endgame systems when you are not there yet. As you say "just play the game", learn the things as you go and enjoy being in an online world rather than rushing through it.
My experience of playing GW2 at launch was that there were a lot of people that came from WoW saying they wanted a game that was nothing like WoW, and then complained that GW2 wasn't WoW.
I genuinely think the end game mentality is a problem in MMOs because it takes up so much of the discourse. What I think GW2 does best is its open world and how it brings people together to do things on a map be it 2 people or and entire squad of 50 players. That part gets overlooked in my opinion.
Definitely. This matches my own observations as well!
I think there's a difference between simply looking into things because you're interested in what's waiting for you at end game, versus players who literally rushes through to get to end game. Compare a person who's still enjoying their ride to 80 (even though they already know some of what awaits them when they get there) versus a person who buys the game + expansions, then takes a lvl 80 boost to "skip the grind".
I do agree wholeheartedly with your other statement. End game mentality is really pervasive, and honestly, games haven't been helping in this regard either. Anet could revamp their new player experience, instead, they give level boosters like candy and even have systems that incentivizes using the lvl 80 boosters.
I had that just last year - had a guy rushing to 80 from WOW, getting lots of help from guild on the way and advice and many warned him about 80. He got to 80 and HOT where there is a big step in difficulty and gear needed. He gave up. When I did that, even without a guild or much advice I just kept working and did more work on alts and core zones until I got decent gear, better skills and more knowledge. Then I went back and could play the other zones well.
Love the fact I’ve found this channel as you’re just starting to look into GW2, I love the game and seeing people explore it. Planing on watching back the live vids and seeing it happen in “live”
Tomorrow at 6pm EST there will be a live if you want to participate! :)
I've clocked over 15k hours in GW2 and have been playing it since day 1. Hardcore players who don't have anything else to do will beg for constant content. I however am aging, with the game, and my free time and priorities have changed. Now I find myself wishing there is less new content coming in, because I've fallen behind some stuff that I'd like to complete before rushing for new stuff. On the plus side: Once you own it, it is yours. It is a game that respects your time and even you quit it for a while you can always go back to it and you can enter end-game content without having to grind for new gear or feel guilty for a missed sub-fee.
Path of Fire expansion lasted 5 years! But I didn't feel it as we were getting Living World Seasons every now and then. End of Dragons, while lasting two years, felt just about right. Now we are getting smaller scale expansions, but more frequently (Every year), but it is a struggle to keep up sometimes.
Inbetween these content updates you have returning seasonal/holiday events. Which bring new rewards. So you have to stop what you were doing and focus on those in order to grab the new reward which is only available during that time (or you have to wait until next year to grab it).
Content is plenty. In a way I am jealous of new players as they have 12 years of content to explore!
A note on the pricing of the game: Yes the free-trial is throttled, but for a good reason. You don't want thousands of bots coming in and start advertising gold-selling and other services in map chat and messing around with the auction house economy (which is player based).
And the expansions? For the base model it is anywhere between 25-30 bucks! It is still cheaper to own than any other MMORPG. A new player might need to spend 80-100$ to unlock them all, but as mentioned earlier... That is 12 years of content you are paying for! So compared to WoW, where you have to own the base game, plus the latest expansion (or multiple of them) and plus the monthly sub-fee.... GW2 is cheap to play.
And the free-trial is still a lot better than the others.
At this point I’m going to be _expecting_ to see a video from you everyday on GW2, I love it XD
I’m enjoying seeing your reactions to this so much, it REALLY reminds me so much of my first time getting into GW2 and sticking with it (I had the same experience as you where I played it years back but didn’t continue, then came back years later and reallly got into it this time).
I was so completely blown away and couldn’t get enough of it, and I was just watching video after video after video of other people talking about the game (especially when I was busy at that moment and couldn’t play it right then) and just excitedly nodding to what they were saying. I imagine this is why you’re also so excitedly reacting to everyone’s videos too. Don’t mind some of the other commenters, there is a ton of us who just can’t get enough of your reaction videos like this. We see in you the same starry eyed new player venturing into the world of Tyria for the first time that we were ourselves those many years ago.
Please keep making content that you enjoy and have fun making, because your genuine excitement and wholesomeness really shines through.
P.S. to address another thing you brought up in a previous video: your decision to level one character to 80 on your own, and then boosting the second alt to 80, is IMO a good call, especially if the personal story quests don’t particularly interest you. It is a completely viable play style to barely touch the story and just romp around in the open world doing random quests, discovering points of interests and vistas and completing the map. I got to level 80 on my first character doing random map completion in starter areas, stumbling into world bosses, following dynamic event chains and doing jumping puzzles even before I finished the personal story, and I had such a blast and have absolutely no regrets. I have 5000++ hours in GW2 and if I had to go back in time, I’d do it all over again. It truly is the “set your own goals, go do them, and have fun doing them” type of freedom that a lot of other games tend to not have.
As to the part at 3:10 Active players in the game. Many don't realize that the Steam counter is not an accurate representation as it only shows number through Steam. Many of us get the game right from A net to avoid the random bugs you get dealing with Steam as a third-party server setup. So being as the game opened on Steam far into its current iteration, those on Steam are seeing a small portion of the totals.
when they say "casual", they mean how easy it is to do what you want to do without having to grind a ton or stress about playing as much and efficiently as possible; how easy it is to take breaks and not "fall behind". thats really what ppl mean when they say gw2 is "casual".
on the flipside, you can make the game as grindy as you like by setting yourself certain goals, like legendary gear, certain achievements, completionist content... and oh boy, depending on your ambitions, it CAN get grindier than any other mmo out there.
also in the context of casual: gw2s hardest content reaches its cap faster than mmos like ff14 or wow for example. sure, there is really hard content, but not as super difficult as ff14s ultimates or wows + x mythic. and there isnt a lot of it aswell. the focus for releasing content is more on the "casual", "do it all" type of player.
I started playing gw2 last year , after playing all the big mmos (wow , ff14 , eso , etc... ) bought the whole thing was on sale , and man , what a huge game , like there is no wrong way to play the game , lots of content , story rich expansions , best mounts in the genre, best open world content , i can talk so much more about the game , i really enjoyed every minute i played
20:15 "...try to figure out what it is you want out of a video game"
This is such a major point right now, both relevant to the lack of direction in early GW2 and to the state of MMOs in general. Gamers have gotten so used to being told what to do that many of us have stopped asking "What do I want to do?"
@rubeuscubeus please make sure you play the living world series youll do yourself a great diservices if you dont experience season 3 after hot leading into pof and then after pof season 4 because yout mind would legitimately be blown away at the interim content between expansions cause frankly it shits all over the other mmo's IMO
also at the inventory menagement can be fixed with equipment, crafting and invisible or safe bags these can be used to fix inventory hassles
"Casual" doesn't mean easy. It pretty much means that you don't have to commit 24/7 like other MMOs to get something. You can spend 1 hour a week to get a legendary for example, it will take time but you can do it. Getting the best gear in any other MMO requires time commitment and dealing with a deadline to get that gear, since every other patch you'll getting better gear to grind for and if you didn't grind the previous one than you're far behind the others to gain the new one.
Gw2 is "casual", because you can play at your own pace, gear treadmill is an alien concept in this game. And that's the beauty of it, you can do whatever content you want and you'll never be getting "behind" the sweats to try new content whenever is released.
What is wrong with ppl ?? "This is a free game, so therefore i want, everything the developers make for us, FOR free".. Come on ppl . Nothing in this world is free, and they did say "Core game is free" which it is. We can't expect the the coders to work for free , for years and years and years.
If you don't like Gw2, then don't play it. And if you DO like Gw2, you can save up a bit and buy one or more of the expansions. You can play and save in-game gold , convert it to gems, and buy the quality of life things, little by little, you cannot expect to get everything in one go.
I'm sorry to sound angry :) I'm really not, i just love Gw2 and guild wars, with passion. Thank you Mr. Rubeus, for nice and interesting videos.
Frankly I never do fractals or raids on GW2. I did all of that on 10 years of WOW and don’t miss the grind with low drop rates of relevant gear drops. I love open world exploration and even after ten years, still haven’t visited every zone. The newest expansion Janthir Wilds is truly their best game content. I was surprised at how much fun the Warclaw mount is.
I happen to juggle playing between FFXIV, WoW and Gw2 and honestly, I only know that they are supposed to be more people playing the first two by numbers and estimations on the internet, because only in Gw2 I haven't seen a map truly devoid of players. My leveling experience in WoW is definitely the loneliest, but in FFXIV the population only concentrates in the main cities and the rest of the maps (aside from the ones in the current expansion) have more of a single player feel than anything else
Yes, this is a game where you have the freedom to approach this game and just take it for what it is. It's very diverse, with so many different content but it leaves it up to you to find what you want out of the MMO just by playing the game. I really enjoyed the creation and customization I can do. I have up to 19 different character's now. Each one unique styles as I thoroughly enjoy also the fashion, so many options. I can create, imagine what I want. This game give's you so much freedom and liberties to learn to do things that uniquely you. There's so much cosplay too with the characters, I seen like Ronald Mcdonald, spiderman, sailor moon characters to name a few. You find out I really like open world exploration, I like fractals or raids or WvW, PVP. I like creating builds and seeing how the mechanics work in that situation. Every one is different and this game allows you so many different options. There's a community of GW2 of guilds of like minded for all the different options and how you want to approach it and learn.
I have to disagree to the statement "you can't never be as good as the best person who has been there for...". In fact, I've seen many newcomers learnt extremely fast and master their builds or their class(heck even multiclassing with high skills) and veterans from day 1 being kinda mediocre.
If you are new to GW2 and wanna master your main class and be extremely good at it my best advice would be: READ and USE eeeeeevery single skill your class has, even the ones that seems useless. Read them, use them, comprehend them and you'll see you can make that class that others may mock into a God of PvE, PvP, WvW or OW.
brother take a breather , no one is gonna kill u lol.
I love having a lot to do. I played the hell out of this game when it first came out, but stopped playing after I finished the core game story. Came back for each expansion and did the same thing. After Path of Fire, I hadn't played this game until about a couple of months ago and I had not even touched elite specs. In the hunt for hero points, I ended doing a lot of world events. I'm having more fun now than I have in other MMOs. I'm not rushing to anything. I'm just gradually racking up currencies and masteries, enjoying the environment, and killing stuff.
inventory management is definitely a learning curve. much of it is just knowing what all the items are. once you learn which to keep, sell, salvage, or trash it's much much easier and faster and you'll gladly welcome new loot.
one piece of advice I would give new players for this is always open unidentified gears last. you will get tons of bags/chests/ crates/ ect. that contain mats, items and things as well as more unidentified gear. so many new players always open the unidentifieda first not realizing opening the ten bags right next to it will just re-stack it again then they feel overwhelmed and confused.
Man, when you talk, I just can't but agree with almost everything you say completely.
I know you always state it as your opinion, but I think your way of seeing things is in depth, accurate and so knowledgeble. I saw just a couple of videos, but I am already a sub. intending to stay. you are great. and you are one of the people that I actually find value by seeing their reaction content. because your takes are so informative and knowledgeble.
You completely right about the game being so big tou dont know what is happening me myself played before EoD till lvl 60 no mounts etc because i played f2p i came till lvl 60 without ever encountering a world boss or meta event. Really unlucky but at the time that shaped my perception of the game being to grindy and to much traveling. Came back during soto and bought a expansion from the start and had a totally different experience
As an on off GW2 player since beta i really like following ur journey and opinions on the game! Glad u like it und hope u continue doing some GW2 content. Keep up the work :)
Hey man, found your YT throu the First-Time GW2 stuff :) Welcome to the game!
As a veteran I really enjoy the nostalgia watching you experience all the stuff. It's a bit tought to not explain everything to you tho :D Keep digging!
If you think the inventory management is bad tho...check the little "Wallet" you have in your inventory ;) It will get your head exploding in Endgame.
You just need to start at the beginning and play your way through - theres so much stuff that trying to put everything in your head up front really isnt the way. Core tyria is like a starter and very basic the content that comes after its the real meat and the best maps generally. It's not a endgame pumper rush rush meta pump go game, its a chill game you need to enjoy the journey where the max level stays the same. The thing about GW2 is that over a few years you will prob end up with one of almost every class because you keep getting ideas of builds and want to see if it better for you than the previous lmao and thats really only where you will be able to really know what you like - what you are able to get onto those classes and try it yourself. The real endbosses are content(map) completions (if you are a completionist) and legendary gear farming and ofc fashion. The original char i played and really loved (mesmer) got nerfed and changed in ways that outraged me and i kinda left for 1-2 years but i came back later and since them i let go of this idea that i need to find my perfect class and so much more fun since and just building builds and trying to find what i enjoy most at the current balance.
one thing about GW2 that i love is that in general the "end game" is what you choose it to be, for some that is PvP, for others it is WvW, raids, Strikes, fractals, world bosses, legendary crafting, fashion wars, and so on
for example for me, my eldest character just turned 9 years, i have 9055 hours into the game, and i barely touch PvP, WvW i enjoy but it burns me out very quickly for months, fractals i love doing, so that's where i spend most of my time, and my goal really is achieving "max convenience" which i'd say i'm very close to reaching it.
The game becomes casual as you become more comfortable with it. You gain the clarity of knowing what to do with the next 5 minutes to an hour and a half of your life. Like you learn how to focus on a specific armor set or weapon or legendary and make small amounts of progress each play sessions. It is one of the few games I can load up today, enjoy playing for 10 minutes, and feel accomplished. As a father, who wasn't a father when he started playing... I cannot tell you how incredibly casual I can play this game today all while playing an ele as my main... probably the class closest to playing a piano...
What I personally like about GW2, is that it allows you to put it aside for a long, longer time and when the itch is there, jump right back into it. It's not totally free, I bought the expansions, but still it's buy once play forever (did you hear that LiveService sh*ts and the rest)? Anyway, the world is still nice not being cutting edge, but at least - every expansion - it tries to bring in new things. I really like this philosophy. I just picked it up again like a month ago and I might be playing it for another month, another year, heck maybe forever.
Edit, forgot to say: I've been an avid WoW-player for at least 15 years, all due to the perfect community we had founded. We raided a few times a week (weren't even bad at it) but then the Dailies came, you had to grind every single day to get your potions for the next Raid.
Now, I guess GW2 has the same thing regarding the grind for 'professional' raiding but still. Loved WoW for years but at a certain moment, it became a product instead of a game and I burned out because of it. First time in all these years that I'm not even excited for the new expansion. Haven't even bought it. Contrary to the latest GW2 expansion.
Oh well, rant over 😀
The biggest issue with GW 2 is boon stacking and bag slots. You have a pile of all these fashion wars players with all kinds of different effects covering the screen just spamming a rotation sitting on top of each other.
there are actually /wiki entries and sites on how to optimally salvage the loot you pick up, what specific salvaging kits to use for different quality items in order to max your returns. Might be worth browsing through that at some point when you get a chance.
Guild Wars strengths as MMORPG are in the RPG part, and the MMO part is cooperative instead of competitive. Meaning - it's not a "meta MMO". So a weirdest thing happened.. there were alot of MMO players constantly asking for something fresh and different in the MMORPG genre, but when Guild Wars gave that - noone saw it. Such an interesting phenomenon.
over 2000 hours in and still love it, and havent done everything, and can jump into stuff and not know wtf im doing.
I feel bad pointing this out but Caffeinated Dad is notorious in the GW2 community and not exactly for the best reasons. Mainly his content is fairly uninformed. He hasn’t been playing for very long yet pumps out a ton of videos pretending to have insight. I’ve seen multiple people be steered wrong by his content because it either gave them the wrong idea of the game or straight up told them how to do something in a completely inefficient way. I would take *everything* he says with a grain of salt, even the things you agree with and might think are 100% true on the surface. This video is mostly fine but when he gets into proper guides watch out
I would recommend guides from creators like Laranity, MukLuk, MightyTeapot, Kroof, and WoodenPotatoes. All long time veteran players with great knowledge under their belt.
For non guide content, Evan4k and Athis are gold mines
yep, hes not a good source for information. some videos that dont have a lot of substance are okay, but if you want actual guides, tips and advice, dont watch him.
gw2 is a game of reaching self-made goals.
Most important unlocks in the game:
- core masteries: the first thing to do in the game is unlocking auto loot and fractal masteries which happens in vanilla areas
- fractal progression represents dineros and initial pve progression as you'll understand how to position yourself, how to deal with mechanics, build dps(which is different than in more streamlined mmos like wow) and ultimately understand how to position yourself into the meta (which to a lot of extents apply to pvp as well). It requires maturity and it is obtuse. Fractals, especially cms are FUN
- credit card confort: bank space, salvagers, premium tools, premium hubs all that shit that should be free is still costly.
- understanding the achievment system and basics of economy and it is complicated
- understanding maps and the functioning of the world, a minority(which is still numerous) of players understand the system, some also rig it to their advantage, most suffer and play a quasi 0 sum game
Oh also: Janthir Wild is extremly small and the way that the content is set in it is BAD, last expansion was a mixed bag and ended in a very bad note. If it keeps going like that, this game won't last many more years. In terms of sheer gameplay, GW2 has imho the best gameplay of any mmo on the market, there is no gcd and has incredible high skillcap, getting good at pve is a very tall endheavour and I've seen many really godlike players there. PVP is a blast, for pvp players it is imho the best mmos. I played ranked with friends who are gladiator subscribed wow players and we have more fun on gw2 than in wow, one of them ask me regularily if I want to do ranked in gw2 because of how much he loves it. It's that good.
there are times that certain zones look completely empty when there are no metas active
but that because the map is built around the meta
I think there are exceptions to what you said about new players not being as good as veterans. You're right in most cases but there will always be extremely skilled people who pick up a game and instantly click with it while quickly understanding the design concepts. Most people shouldn't expect that but it happens. Some people are just crazy.
Pls watch newer videos !!!
I am new to online gaming, and also new to all PC gaming (had consoles before).
I have wanted to play GW2 for forever.
I now have a Steam Deck and downloaded GW2 but I am having a hard time figuring out how to configure my buttons on it to play it. I've found the community shared setups, but none are really how I prefer it to be set up. So I got a bit discouraged and haven't been back yet.
one of my issues with gw2 is that it intentionally holds itself back to have cash shop qol that should be in the game for everyone? Why limit salvage kits to 25 charges and give an infnite one in cash shop? why not get rid of a lot of the trophies and replace them with silver/copper drops? to sell bag slots and bank space. everyone would be happier if they made these changes but they wont cos they will lose money, its been 12 years come one man...
I have the answer to all of your questions. It's Mechanist. Mechanist, and you win.
The game is not super complex, but then again, I was coming from playing Eve Online for the better part of 10 years when GW2 was released. Blasting water fields for heals and dodge rolling through attacks is by far simpler than coordinating Basilisk or Guardian logistic capacitor transfer chains while keeping your signature radius small and transversal velocity up. Kiting is universal, but signature tanking by moving faster than someone else's guns can track and keeping yourself in optimal range of your weapons starts getting harder and harder when fighting unfamiliar targets with unconventional builds. I play this game instead because it is easier and it still has an interesting combat system.
u mean u need to learn the game systems and mechanics :o ? that's so crazy :o
For me is about all diferent currency ... and dont know what to do if i get from chest ....
The /wiki command is very useful for that, as you can add an item to the search. So, say you have Bloodstone Dust in your inventory and material bank is full... /wiki (link item) enter OR /wiki (write name of item) enter. That pops up the wiki for you directly from in game, and then you can read it to find out what you can do with your excess Bloodstone Dust. /wiki et brings up the event timer.
Thats nice! Ty man
The “casual” term is so frequently with this game and it is truly casual in the sense you can play it and walk away and come back. Yet it is one of the more complicated games to truly master and casual people will never achieve the mastery of the game if played in this fashion.
Dudes too used to Care Bear games that lead him to everything. Here's a silly tip. Everything you need to know is actually on the Internet. Beyond that, just play and adventure. Try different toons and classes. It's not this hard. 😂😂🤦🤡 Find your Happy arse to LA ( Lions Arch) and shoot some bugs or something. 😂😂😂 Then we can talk about GW2 and it's silly accomplishments or being hard.
have you ever looked in the mirror for an extra second
I'd recommend playing the base game for free, get through to the end until it makes an offer for LWS1, then come back and make the review video. Would be interested to hear from your personal journey and experiences, and it'd be extra content for the channel.
I don't know about lack of direction being one of the reasons new people quit GW2. Maybe it's just me unfamiliar with newer MMOs, but for me there are plenty of direction throughout the game. When you level up, you look at your level, look at zone's level and decide if it is alright zone for you to level up or you should find a new one. There are story missions that take you through the world, so even if you are not sure where you have to go, just do story missions and go where they say you need to go. Hearts are basically quests, they show appropriate level, they are easy to spot on the map, so there should be no problems. Events are fun distractions and a great way to supplement your leveling. After you reach level 80 and did all the story, and all the post-core story in living world, there are expacs with their own progression (masteries), story, events and meta events, hearts and other stuff. I mean, I don't even know how long would it take to reasonably finish up all released content (reasonably - not 100% completion, but most of the story, events and masteries). Only after that you can say that there are no directions. I've been playing gw2 for over 11 years, and when I started it, there was no content after the core game. The only instanced "endgame" content were dungeons, and i wasn't really interested in them. So what did I do - I started doing world boss trains, I found the guild that specialized in killing "hard world bosses" because I couldn't kill them with random people, I ran around last map, doing events, killing mobs and earning money, I crafted and traded on TP, I dabbled in pvp, and when I got bored, I quit for like 2 years, until there was enough content for me to play. And it is normal.
I've played GW2 since release and I still havent done all the dungeons, skyscale, lr any of that stuff. Reality is without am active guild, you *can* be quite limited incterms of available content, especially if it's a timegated world event. Regarding deadzones, yes, they absolutely exist, and I think thats normal in any mmorpg.
My personal opinion is the character creation has heen dated, the content is good but sometimes bugs mean titles cant be completed and a perfect example was the 8+ months the asuran "not so secret" jump puzzle was broken.
For me, as someone who HAS left GW2 snd come back, it is the massive time investment required to get the results to do raids. As someone who played Runescape since 2006, you and I both know that without the auto level items, ot takes a long time to get to 80. It actually used to be much worse, and mounts didnt exist at all on release!! I guess to pull this back to RuneScape, over time, faster experience methods are placed into the game to help bring players up to speed. I do firmly believe that the level 80 instant level ups are a bit ridiculous. Part of the game is character growth, afterall.
I enjoy these videos and I'd be interestedin making a response to this video if that was cool with you. Caff. Dad has made a looot of gw2 videos if I rmemeber correctly so whole they make have some insight, they are also a bit biased.
At the end of the day, he is right on what he discussed. Lack of direction is a huge barrier to people who probably xant even decide what they want for dinner. Inventory simulator is also true, but hear me out, the beauty of the game os you dont need to follow a meta to be "successful". Sure raids have metas, but for the person who doesnt know what meta even means, the fact that you cam build just about anything and be "ok" for most content speaks a lot to the balance of the classes. Classes! Some are wayyyy more involved than others. That's ok, but when people are making characters they are thinking, "elementalist or mesmer or necromancer sounds cool!"
Something he didnt mention is the incredible amount of keyboard shortcuts, but honestly the entire game is playable without the keybinds and the fact that it is free is a huuuuge value to anyone who wants a free game and I wish more games did that sort of like RuneScape.
The other thing is, yea the game is dated, but who cares? People should be looking at mmorpgs as unique games, not a genre to throw everything under simply because they are online role playing games. The Original Guildwars for example is still available to play, is also an mmorpg, and the whole game is completable on your own. I think if I had to direct someone to an mmorpg, for me, the most important thing is quests and storylines. Yeah, guildwars 2 has some of that, but guildwars 1 was overall a much better and linearly laid out game while guildwars 2 took a more world of warcraft style approach, with the open world design as opposed to open world hubs only. The musical scores on both guildwars games are amazing. I think the people leaving guildwars 2 being a problem is a bit overblown. People leave games all the time, and frankly I think the reason single player games seem to be doing so well in previous years is mmorpg are a massive amount of ongoing work and upkeep that most game companies arent willing to commit to, so we should be thankful that they value those experiences as much as we do to keep the genre alive. They dont have to keep developing multiplayer games.
Sorry for the long comment. I too, have struggled, and loved, Guildwars 2. Every game will have things people like and don't like about them, and that's ok. I dont think that needs to be a discussion. What I do wish was a discussion is how do we get people excited about these games to begin with, and in the end, it boils down to Livestreaming and content creator excitement, trials, and tribulations that they can share with their viewers. The core problem with these games is they lack good narration and order of events. In RuneScape, you're locked behind quests. In GW2, this is also true, but you can show up and kill endgame bosses without actually soing many of the quests or understanding whats going on, and without a skyscale or certain mounts, navigating terrain by foot can be difficult for a new player, time consuming, or virtually impossible/impassable despite you maybe having a quest in said area thst you want to complete.
Idk. I just play videogames. When something is bogus, call it out! When it is awesome, give it praise! That's how we end up with better games and better sense of who we ourselves are and enjoy and dont enjoy as gamers.
What I’m struggling with is what to do at endgame. Once I have full ascended gear what do I have to work towards now? I can push higher level pve content, but to accomplish what? I both love and hate that there isn’t a gear treadmill, because I think after years of playing games where I’m always looking for my next upgrade I’m left feeling a lack of purpose with gw2. Maybe I just need to adjust idk
One thing you can do with your full ascended gear is climb the difficulties in Fractals, working towards conquering the Challenge Mode of all the fractals. Or you could work towards legendary gear which is super helpful if you play more than one character. There are collections to complete, *hundreds* of achievements to hunt down, and there's also the fun of exploration. There are so many easter eggs you can only encounter by doing exploration, like references to Futurama and old Looney Tunes.
Experiences and challenges are the endgame, whether it's through fighting other players in PvP or WvW, or seeing what the world has to offer! Hope you enjoy your journey!
I was here a while ago and shifted my mindset to that of an "adventurer". I picked a legendary and then treated every game night like I was picking up a contract from a quest board in an adventurers guild. Went out and completed another step on that leggy achievement. 7 leggy's in so far and have been enjoying the new mindset
@@nlcousin One of the best mindsets to have! It's why I have so many alt characters. I log in and decide what sort of gameplay I want that session, pick a character with a build that fulfils that. Then I either work on my latest project, like a legendary, or just randomly bumrush my way across a few maps at random doing any events and stuff I encounter along the way. Even the random map stuff still progresses things like legendaries through the gaining of materials.
I love that even after playing the game since launch, I STILL encounter stuff in openworld I've not encountered before. like NPC dialogue and even some dynamic events I've missed on every previous trip through some maps. The adventure is definitely the fun :D
@@nlcousin I think this is what I need to try and do. I’ve got a mindset that has been ingrained from thousands of hours of other mmos, which is to focus on the reward I’m going to get. Gw2 just doesn’t work that way
@evanmildrum897 First off, I apologise if I say something you already know, because I'm going to assume you don't know anything about legendaries (just in case).
I have been grinding to become full legendary for years at this point, and I'm not there yet. According to Gw2 Efficiency, I have 61 legendaries unlocked. That includes 3 sets of armor, at least one of every weapon type, trinkets, backpack, relic, sigils, and a rune. I have to craft one more longbow, two more spears, six more runes, and four more sigils before I've reached my goal. After that, I'm going to craft one more scepter (although I will never need more than one) because I simply couldn't decide between Meteorlogicus or Xiuquatl. I already have three greatswords, because of Eternity being Sunrise and Twilight combined (it's the only legendary that is made out of two other legendaries).
I've sold a couple of Gen 1 and Gen 3 legendaries as well (Gen 2 are accountbound on pickup, just like the armor pieces, trinkets, sigils, runes, relic, and backpack). This made me a decent profit that I could sink into my next legendary project. It's a good thing I am a fan of both World Completion and World vs World, as you need one gift from each to craft a Gen 1 legendary.
A lot of the legendary weapons have stories attached to them, and some of them give you something a little extra on top of the weapon itself. For example, the gen 2 short bow called Chumpa and Champawat takes you on a journey to find two elusive tigers, and when you're done with the collection you get a unique tiger mini plus a novelty item that lets you carry a tiger cub around on your back. The Gen 1 focus called the Minstrel and the Gen 2 warhorn called Verdarach gives you novelty instruments that you can play music on, etc.
Legendary crafting requires time, money, and patience. It takes you to Fractals, world bosses, World vs. World, and more. After your first one, you'll probably tell yourself never again, and yet, before you know it, you'll be at it a second time. And a third...
And they're totally worth the blood, sweat and tears. They're the best in slot, alongside ascended tier. They give you max Qality of Life as you can swap stats whenever you're out of combat plus swap enrichment, runes, sigils and infusions without destroying the old ones. You can also have the same legendary item equipped on multiple characters at once, making them even more convenient.
If they rework the core game I might actually start a new character.
I've been playing since the beta access before release, quit a few years back due to discontent with what happened with the legendary armor fiasco.
Still hasn't been fixed.
I heard the guild wars 2 live stream continues tomorrow (September 3) at 6pm EST 🤫
Gw2 is not complex. At all. It just does a horrific job at explaining even the base line systems
Make sure after you finish the base story you should buy Living world 1 ,2 and 3 before you start doing the first expansion Heart of thorns well worth it.
Speaking of Season 1, now I want to see him try Old Lion's Court. :D
Season 3 is between HoT and PoF
LW1 is f2p, LW3 doesn't happen til after HoT
@@katmannsson haven't done them in years was not sure they are good ether way .
Love your vids. Just started watching, when are you streaming exactly ?
BROooo, I'll say it again: I have advice! Don't think too much about it. Just lvl up necro to lvl 80, and time to time try to USE all his abilities, perks and weapons. Once you checked all this stuff, open Reaper spec, play it a little bit, then
GW2 would be ideal for me if you could not buy endgame gear so easily for 3g a piece. This kind of spoiled things for me, I was so happy when I crafted my first orange weapon, spent a lot of time farming materials and had a blast. Then I learned that I could just buy it for 3 gold. It killed character progression for me. I know there is legendary gear to craft but from what I understand it has basically the same stats and it's not really that much of an upgrade. It's like you could buy mythic gear for 1K gold a piece in WoW. That's my only complaint about GW2 though. Funny thing about population: GW2 feels much more populated than WoW, there are people everywhere I go including old content whereas WoW zones are dead. Even the new ones 2 weeks after TWW release, I mostly see only bot druids gathering materials in the open world, another real player is so rare. They divide them in too many layers I guess.
Fun fact: if you play for 0 seconds and have 0 fun and the game is free, then you made your monies worth!
You're constantly saying the game us too complicated, saying new players shouldn't expect to be as good as veterans in two months, while ingurgitating as many informations as drinking water from a water hose... I don't understand here.
The Steam numbers are really deceptive because the vast majority of players and I really mean the vast majority do not use Steam for GW2.
bruh are you just "reviewing" other people's videos on gw2?? Just play the game and give YOUR opinion on it...
Yeah, bro is doing/thinking too much
It's an amazing game, isn't as complicated as you think just go and play and have fun, 12 years playing this game and i tell you is my favorite ever, it has a lot of things to do but you play at your own pace, its a beautiful well made game 👌♥️
It’s for content. You wouldn’t understand 😂
Yeah I agree, but that's hard to do when everyone keeps telling you to react to this and this and that...
I think its totally fine to document your learning experience this way. Though id agree some of it has to be put into practice
The problem with gw2 is that any kind of progression begins to feel really meaningless. The thing that i really appreciate about Runescape is that every kind of progression helps you out in all aspects. I think this is why gw2 gets really boring because the pay off of your grind begins to only affect a small aspect of your game and is meaningless elsewhere.
Stumbled upon 2 of your videos now and both are just reacting to a “Caffeinated Dad Gaming” vid 😂 go play the game, also check out some other GW2 creators, there’s a ton of them that are better choices than that dude 😅
I don't get it... ANY game that you're new to has this... what should I keep, what can I sell, does those stats correlate like I'm used to from game xyz...
You said you could never see a dungeon.... I Literally have a character I levelled 1 -80 through craftiing.. it sat in town bought from trading post and crafted.. never left town.. 0% map completion
I think jumping in and being among the better players in half a year is very doable. The vast majority is pretty bad at the game.
I think we call GW2 casual is because you dont need to invest a lot of hours into the game or even be close to decent to see a return in the game, and when you take a break and come back, all of it is there waiting for you as you left it.
I think what you say starting at around 11:15 is heavily influenced by you deliberately consuming content about the endgame while not even being close to it.
I think a good step would be playing the game instead of watching people rapid fire throw endgame systems at you in videos
3:22 im sorry but imho that is a terrible argument. some of the best experiences and most fun ive had in mmos have been in games with low populations. such as Project Gorgon
Same here. I lived on ragnarok online private servers for years. Some of the best moments I've ever had were on servers with less than 1000 players
You're missing the best part of this game! WVW! World vs World is the fight between clans and alliances to control maps within the mist, unlike PVP where the use of armor and upgrades is more structured in WVW, it depends on your equipment, runes, etc.
I play the game for 11 years, the amount of bull shit I just heard from the video you saw is astonishing, it is to show how lazy and lack of a autonomous attitude people have...
Ive never ever seen anyone struggle as much as you to get into Guild Wars 2 you seem to over think everything Guild Wars 2 is an exploration game stop thinking about ( End Game ) i would say focus on main story first and exploration and dungeons are part of the story's once you get to lvl 80 then move towards a content you want to try there are a lot of things but you dont have to play them all at once PvP, WvW, Fractals, Strikes, Raids and PvE just mess around with one at a time also you need to remember Guild Wars to is not a Subscription based game so content is going to take longer then games like FFXIV and WoW. And the reason people leave Guild Wars 2 is because there lazy they want to just uses the Credit Card to bypass everything sad but true.
Funny thing you should mention the "Sniper on the Roof" as an example and wonder how that feels in an MMO. In HoT you'll find out. No joke. There are two events where you use sniper rifles to take out targets below you.
There’s also a sniping mechanic in Icebrood Saga during the first “memory” mission
@@ListenerDB No, that one is WAY worse since it has both you and the target moving. The HoT only has the target moving.
@@nielsjensen4185 now that I think about it the IBS sniper is more like your the spotter marking targets.
Are you done with osrs ? 🤨
Bruv, just play the game already lol
this games so dead I actively bought 8 accounts to do zero to hero 7 times over >.> for each content release
I just don't think Caffeinated Dad is a good source of info. This guy is a typical MMO hopper with barely any deep experience in the game. Anyone who plays GW2 can tell he's only got a surface level understanding. The core game is not as bad as he's making it out. There are so many puzzles to do. Quirky random items to find. Easter eggs and jokes to discover. World bosses to try. Story dungeons and path dungeons to explore. If you want a game where playing it is just a means to get into raids, then GW2 is just not for you. The whole journey is the game, from level 1.
But put the complicated videos away man, just play and explore! You're strangling yourself!
I've had the game since it came out tried to get into in many times I just find the game boring all the open world content is just face roll. Also the weapon swamping PI hate this mechanic in any game.
I farted in a bottle or pepsi and it fizzed up. I enjoy guild wars 2 as well.
Nice mental image, thanks for that
I played for like a year at launch, disliked the lack of combat roles and how trying to become a healer just wasn't possible, felt the huge experience cuts in zones 2-3 levels lower ("every zone is good at every level!!!!1") and then dropped it. Since then, learned that I missed many events and exclusive stuff, saw the price of the new expansions, and decided I'm not going to try to force having fun with it again.
Sounds like you didn't know how to play, wasn't interested in learning how to play and just gave up. Because every class was a combat role and most classes could be a full healer at launch.
@@cresentj If by "full healer" you mean Engineer could heal once or twice for negligible health and then need to drop his special weapon, you're still wrong, and trolling.
@@JanderStrahd I don't need to argue with you on what core specs could be healers. People were playing full healers and keeping their parties alive for the hardest content in game from the inception of gw2 in 2012 all the way to today. If you couldn't heal yourself and others well, then that's a skill issue with you, not the game.
It's clear you're just a hater (yes hating, not constructive criticism), so I'm just going to block you, and continue playing my HEALER elementalist.
@@cresentj RUclips hasn't let us block people for over a decade. What year are you living in?
I know so many people who have quit because of the hero points/masteries grinding. But you content creators never talk about that.
I am sick and tired of trolls saying "gw2 is a dead game."
New players. Make a goal; legendary crafting. Legendary armour. Fashion Wars. etc. For me is legendary armor, personal story and completing achievements.
When explaining "Free to play" I explain that there is a no fee each month and the blocking of free accounts is to prevent fake accounts/spamming.
Plus when I meet new players I always telling them "hey need extra help? type /wiki " like /wiki Hungry cat scavenger hunt . the gw2 wiki will pop it. a live saver really.