GW:EN First Impressions

[Pass The Towel]

Thought I'd post some pictures for those who were at the preview event to see, or for those who weren't to see what's coming up!

Beneath Lion's Arch


Big thing in a Norn outpost


Important looking Norn statue.


Looks cool, not sure what it is. This was in one of the new dungeons.


The lair of the fluffy rabbit and friends.


Reindeer. Incidentally, somewhere in this explorable area there were snowmen and grentches having a fight. The snowmen won.


A Stome Summit warcamp.


Ssissth the level 28 Leviathan looking awesome outside Frostmaw's Buurrows.

[Dela Darklodina]

First Impressions:

Hall of Monuments. Sort of disappointing. It doesn't show your personal elite armor, it shows a reprensentation of a couple of classes. I thought it would be my toon wearing it.

Honor Monument only tied to PvP titles. Yuck.

Mini Pet Monument? WTF. It's funny though. It shouldn't make you pets customizable to you though. I plan on keeping all my mini's so it didn't matter to me.

Hero Monument: You have to have the elite hero armor to even get them to show up. Then they aren't even wearing the elite armor. What's up with that?

Weapon Monument? Meh. Only for Eye of the North stuff.

Lot of complaints about the Hall everywhere I went.

Dwarven Boxing. Fun, but you can't lose unless you are totally uncoordinated.

Norn Fighting Tournament. Fun, but once you figure out a spirit spammer totally owns everyone, this is a breeze. If they fix the enemy AI to where they come and fight you instead of standing there waiting for you, this will change. I got my crown.

New Heros. OK. Koss has been replaced with Jora as my main tank. She's big! More heros? I have enough thank you. Vekk is cute, and I'm sticking with Dunkaroo for my main monk.

Armor and Weapons tied to titles? At first, I thought this really sucked, because, as Towel is well aware , I am an armor freak and wanted to parade around in an EotN set as soon as possible. I even farmed cash the week before the preview so I'd have enough to purchase any materials I may have needed. But, NO! I have to be a Slayer of Heros! Oh my gosh! Grindfest. But, it sort of makes it more of a challenge and even the normal armor will have some sort of prestige tagged to it.

Story? Blah blah, big evil thing gonna kill us all, need to rally the troops. Haven't I played this three times already? If the Lich, Shiro and Abaddon show up at the end of this game I'm gonna pull my hair out. Dead Rurik needs to show up too.

I was also a little disappointed because I felt the enemies were a little weak. I regularly went out with my usual compliment of heros and henchs and had very little problems anywhere. so much so, my own toon did nothing but regular attacks while everyone else just wailed. Other than the Destroyers, which looked really cool, there weren't that many enemies that I thought were creative. It seems they just borrowed a bunch of monsters from all previous games and gave them some new skill sets and a new name. I did appreciate some of the builds the enemies had, especially in the Norn Fighting Tournament. It was nice to see them adapt and put in some unusual builds. I LMAO when Alesia PWNT me in the tourrnament.

Graphics. As usual, they looked great. No complaints at all, as Towel has posted some screens to attest to the fact that EoTn is eye candy for sure.

Sound and Music: It's turned down most of the time while I listen to music so, whatever. I did listen to it for about the first hour of playing, then decided it was nothing spectacular and turned it down.

Dungeon Crawling? GREAT! I loved that. It was my favorite part for sure. Yes, it's been done before, key hunts and random barrels, but it hasn't been done in GW and personally, I loved it. Big chest at the end of a dungeon, cool stuff in it! Ahh, it makes it worthwhile.

New Skills. Wow. I haven't really had time to look at or mess with them but "I am unstoppable" will surely replaced Balanced Stance for running builds. Being an ele, only the cracked armor skills interested me right off the bat. Some of the Norn skills are goofy. Why in the world would I want to LESSEN my effectiveness by using some lame bear skill, then have ZERO energy when it runs out? The Dwarven skills might be fun to mess with in some build though.

Im sure others have some different opinions about EoTN but overall, I like it.

[Thalion Orbdrin]

For liking it, that sure is a long list of complaints Dela. <.<

Agree on the Hall of Monuments, parts of it REALLY need to be fixed. a.k.a. I'm cheap and don't want to do clothes shopping for my heroes. Can sorta understand the decision to make armor display a random class of the same type though - devs probably dropping a hint that you can change classes (and race for that matter - imagine an Asura in human armor...) in GW2 and still inherit cool stuff.

Armor being tied to titles I can understand, IF said armor is elite and is meant to be roughly unlocked by the time you're done with the campaign (hence advancing your title via regular map traversal and bounties).

Enemies - Months of honing HM builds smacks most of 'em all flat. Sure hope there's a HM to be unlocked for GWEN.

Graphics - Very very beautiful. I liked the music a great deal more as well this time, I always thought the original GW scores seemed too subdued.

Mini-Games - Was fun to figure out a Ranger build to beat up Magni, but lost its appeal after awhile. Dwarven boxing sorta got old after the antics of Mr. Kilroy wore thin. Looking forward to Polymock though.

Skills - Haven't really used most of them. Ebon Vanguard assassin is great for taking down monks in my book though.

[Pass The Towel]

deladarklodina said:

Big chest at the end of a dungeon, cool stuff in it! Ahh, it makes it worthwhile.

Heh, that made me chuckle.

That was quite a critical analysis, but all very true! I agree though that overall it is great fun, and it's nice to have some new content. A bit cheap that all the monster skins are re-used, but being in stunning landscape with good background/battle music is good enough for me! ;D

deladarklodina said:

Dunkaroo

[Thalion Orbdrin]

Update on the title tied to armor thing - armor unlocked is indeed prestige armor. Just so you know.
Linkage: wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Norn_armor

[Dela Darklodina]

Ewww. Norn armor for ele is ugly...Not gonna get it.

I've ALWAYS called him Dunkaroo.....lol

[Zalis]

I enjoyed the GW:EN preview.

Graphics: Improvements were noticeable. Nice touches to the aging game engine. (wavy heat effects for the fire, improved "bloomy" lighting in selected areas, etc)

Music: More epic and fitting than before. (gotta love Jeremy Soule if you actually listen to game music... which I do)

Gameplay: Rather grindy, but I really enjoy the dungeons, story, and PvE skills. It was nice to see some Prophecies characters in another atmosphere, along with meeting new races and potential allies. The cinematics were better, though GW will always suffer from some awkwardness. Still, they're leaps and bounds beyond most of the original ones.

The solo-type missions and activities are quite fun, but that doesn't help a game that's built on player interaction and cooperation. Also, I suspect they'll get old after everyone masters them.

New Skills: Great stuff, though I probably won't be using many of them in PvE thanks to how great the title-linked ones are. Definitely some useful ones coming up for PvP as hex removal improves... among many other needed additions. (better warrior/paragon stuff, etc)

Hall of Monuments: Only PvP, KoaBD, and Gamer titles are listed... but that seems fine to me. I think for simplicity's sake of carrying merits over to GW2, they decided which ones would matter and which ones wouldn't. For instance, Canthan Protector probably wouldn't mean much in the world of GW2... but "People Know Me" would mean you've maxed 10. Easier to incorporate as a bonus when the next game comes out. (just my guess... yes I'm sure you're disappointed that you can't display your random maxed title in the HoM... but eh)

Otherwise, the HoM needs some work. Neat idea, mediocre execution... so far.

Overall: I think I'll enjoy GW:EN. My verdict is still out on GW2, until I see & hear more.

[Anomander]

Thank you Previewers!

For sharing your findings with those who either had not pre-ordered GW:EN or those who did but never received the entry code despite several attempts to get them after all .

From what I read I do hope that during the months to come the HoM will be upgraded to bind more faithful players of the 3 'old' Campaigns. More focus on PvE players may be a good advice.

I am sure the new races will be further developed because GW2 is still a long way from here and if Anet want to keep their customers they should put in some more effort over time. And I think they won't wait long before upgrading the levels of the enemies; after all it is designed for lvl 20 players who mostly have been experiencing HM challenges.

I still look forward to start GW:EN myself, at least if the real package DOES arrive, and explore all the new stuff.

Anomander

[Stormy Eve]

I just can't get why ANet adds 10 more new heroes when each of us has only 3 hero slots to use? It will be REALLY nice to expand the number of heroes in party up to 8 if we have 3 warrior, 3 monks, 3 eles, 3 necros, 3 rangers and etc...
And I was hoping for one more storage page...

Otherwise enemies seems weak. But with the new aggro tendencies I don't know how it will look in HM. (May be I'll watch Stormy's pants most of the time lyingbreathless...)
Didn't tried solo stuff.
Grafics look good.
Sound is ok. Epic and inspirating for medieval hunt of beasts.
Quests are nice. Could not get if there were some missions (Curse of the Nornbear?!) or just marking for some important quests on the map. Got some panic when first cleared dungeon got an opened chest icon. Though I won't be able to use the end chest again
Don't like much the new armors. May be the only that catch my eye is the female paragon (for Stormy who has Sunspear still).
Was dissapointed that most of the game was locked away. Not that ANet said otherwise, but was hoping to be able to go whereever I want. Dissapointed that there are no more new elite skills too. I got legendary skill hunter some months ago and was eager to get some more...
Despite the bad thing in the post im going to look for GW:EN when it comes. (Friday = 4 days away! ;D)

[Pass The Towel]

la said:

I just can't get why ANet adds 10 more new heroes when each of us has only 3 hero slots to use?

Don't forget that before this you can only have heroes if you own Nightfall. For people without NF, these are going to be the first and only heroes available to them. I also prefer some of them to the current ones. I think Ogden will be replacing Tahlkora in my ranks. There was only so many times I wanted to see her tell me that Vabbi was safe from Abbandon.

Could not get if there were some missions (Curse of the Nornbear?!) or just marking for some important quests on the map.

It looks like there are no missions in GW:EN, but rather big, important, repeatable story quests instead (the three Norn ones were the playable ones in the preview). These quests have a little standard icon on the map. When you complete it you get an animation of an unfurling standard (like the sword icons in the other campaigns). So for all practical purposes they are missions, except the game treats them as quests. I think the main difference is that you get the little green star/arrow to tell you where to go on the map. You also get a part of the reward for doing it again (not the xp, but you get the Norn faction).

[Zalis]

biscuits said:

It looks like there are no missions in GW:EN, but rather big, important, repeatable story quests instead (the three Norn ones were the playable ones in the preview)

My thoughts on the lack-of-mission status in GW:EN... amongst other things...

1) Way easier for ANet to incorporate (similar to only KoaBD title track for HoM), in that this lets them skip any kind of standard/masters titles for the missions. It's the same reason why there are no elites or cartography titles in GW:EN. It's all rolled up into one title track - the Defender of the North.. or whatever it's called. Makes sense to me, and I won't complain.

Anet really had to pick how to keep titles but not screw things up for how they shift over to GW2. By avoiding new, individual expansion titles and limiting the HoM title displays to KoaBD, Gamer, and PvP, they keep it easy and open for however they want those to help players in GW2. Instead of several dozen individual titles to think of for giving bonuses in the next game, they just have a handful. PvE accomplishments, Gamer, and the 5 pvps.

2) It's a nice change of pace. I don't really want GW:EN to be like everything else we've played for the past 2+ years. Seriously.

[Radicc Tyranntt]

Important info:
Destroyers are immune to burning and have high armor versus fire damage. This means searing flames and other burning based skills are completely useless against them.



Perhaps dual attune is the way to go for gwen?

[Mazz]

I only had a 3 hour peek into GW:EN and I like what I've seen (and done, and heard) I saw that some of you went already deep into the game.
The Hall of monuments looked promising but surely A-net will update the conditions/mechanism to still the storm of protest.

Towel - can I upload your pictures to the Scouts Gallery? or do you claim artistic rights? Give me a shout.

Great tip Rad!

Mazz

[Dante Reims]

radicc said:

Important info:
Destroyers are immune to burning and have high armor versus fire damage. This means searing flames and other burning based skills are completely useless against them.



Perhaps dual attune is the way to go for gwen?

I pretty much played through GW:EN with an Air Spiker build and it seemed to work pretty well due to the high amount of (from what I could tell anyway) melee enemies around. Blind was pretty much a godsend most of the time. I wasn't even tempted to use Fire magic for some reason, but if Destroyers are immune to it then you can bet you'll see a few new Ele builds popping up sometime soon.

Just got a message from play.com ... GW:EN is on it's way to me now ;D

As far as my first impressions go, I liked it. I wasn't around for when any of the other campaigns first appeared so I only got to experience the buzz of new content this time.

The graphics are a slight improvement and probably the best they could do with the engine they are using.

The sound reminded me of a cross between Star Trek and Star Wars for some reason .... but to be honest I don't really listen to the music much when i'm playing.

Dwarven Boxing was fun for a bit but got repetitive and was almost impossible to lose except when that bug hit you where you couldn't "Stand up". I didn't get a chance to go in the Norn Fighting Arena but i'm looking forward to trying that and Polymock when it is available.

Contrary to other opinions, I actually quite like some of the GW:EN armour. The Dervish armour and I think it was the Ranger armour caught my eye.

Loved the Dungeon crawl through Raven's Point. Brings back memories of the old days of playing Gauntlet and the original Zelda games. I agree with Dela that the Big, fat, gold chest with booty at the end makes it all seem worthwhile.

Was dissapointed with the Raven, Bear and Wolf skills ... I was expecting to actually change into said animals ..... bah!

All in all I thought it was pretty decent and am looking forward to it when it arrives!

Dante's honest opinion.

[Christian Veritas]

Maybe I just suck at Dwarven boxing, but I had some trouble. I get the concept of block, attack, block, attack, but I think that maybe my timing was off.

As for the HoM, I was not very impressed, especially after all the hype about it. I would say a less than mediocre implementation. I think it should be account based, but that brings it's own set of headaches for Anet. Imagine how much bigger things would have to be in there for those of us with 11 characters. I also imagine that the reason it is character based is because you will have more than one GW2 character, so you can use different things from different characters on your multiple GW2 characters. If that is not the case, then you will definitely hear me cry foul. I've been thinking on this a lot, and as long as the current way is shown to fit advantageously into GW2, then I suppose I am fine with it. If not, then they need to make it account-based in my opinion.

I do agree with the sentiment that mini-pets not be customized and the same thing with weapons. I also think that you should be able to display any of your favorite golds in the weapons display and not just "GWEN High-end Weapons" (WTF is that?) I also think you should be able to display any kind of armor that you want to display, elite or not. Bottom line is that I think that if you cultivate a certain look in GW for whatever reason, then you should have the opportunity to maintain that look in GW2. I happen to (somewhat) like my 1k druid armor (Christian) and think that I should be able to carry it over if I choose. They talked about the HoM being a way to maintain your uniqeness, so I think that they should fully deliver instead of giving us this limited, "you can only do it if you've got this stuff" crap.

*Steps down off soapbox*

Missions seemed like they were GTG and the monsters seem to be on par with what I would expect of early level 20 content missions in NM. I imagine that HM will be a real doosy once it is unlocked. Didn't do any dungeon crawling outside of the storyline, but am eager to try it after hearing the rest of you talk about it. Title tracks seem to be balanced grind-wise because of the increasing bonuses that you get as you kill more and more enemies. Definitely gives you a reason to do Vanquisher style stuff.

What the hell is going on with the new armor? The Norn male Dervish armor not only reminds me of the 80's when fur was in, but without the headpiece displayed (which is the way I wear all of my armor) it looks like a strapless dress. Come on, Anet, throw me a bone here. I will say, though, that I think that I have found new armor for my warrior and my Mesmer. I think that the male Norn armor for both porfessions looks pretty sharp. I'd like to see how blue looks on the Mesmer though. I'm still interested to see what the Ebon Vanguard, Dwarf, and Asura armors look like, though.

Christian

[Dela Darklodina]

radicc said:

Important info:
Destroyers are immune to burning and have high armor versus fire damage. This means searing flames and other burning based skills are completely useless against them.

That reminds me:

I LOVED it when I found out they were immune to burning! I thought to myself, "WOW! Now I can use some other type of ele build! Hooray!"

I'm going to mess around with a cracked armor, weakness, air spike thing.

Looking forward to this weekend. My son has a soccer game in the evening though, so looks like I'll be on mostkly Saturday!

[bobrath]

Of course, my first thought on the destroyers was... looks like Winter becomes an essential part of my Ranger bar again!

[Thalion Orbdrin]

Psht, don't diss the Norn armor. It's one of the few decent looking sets for male rangers out there imho.

[Zalis]

I guess it depends how often Destroyers are encountered. We can reasonably assume they'll be bigger factors as the expansion progresses. Prophecies Titans causes burning to adjacent foes, but they weren't immune to burning themselves... right? So far, I'm liking the unprecedented features of GW:EN. (Burning immunity, lack of missions poper, solo challenges, etc)

Regardless, a 2 SF Ele + "They're on Fire"/Command Morghan worked pretty well for most of the GW:EN preview. Enough to hench the Sepulchre Dungeon boss and some other tough places. Then again, that might not work as well w/o being a warrior who can park his heroes and tank to maintain aggro.

PS - I want this shield or an inscribable equivalent.

gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Destructive_Shield

[Thalion Orbdrin]

Quick update from gaile on GWW in case anyone's interested:

"Hi. I grabbed a couple of minutes of James Phinney's time just now and he would like you to know that we are still working on the Hall of Monuments. Some of the concerns that players have voiced have been or are being addressed, although obviously not every change that players have requested will be made.

Adding to that a bit, I think it's important to remember that Guild Wars is a constantly-evolving game. What you saw in the Sneak Peek Weekend is not what you will see upon release this Friday. And what you see upon release may be different than the HoM a few weeks or months down the line. Your thoughtful and constructive comments are welcome, and you know that we do listen to feedback and suggestions. There are certain core design objectives -- "visions," if you will -- that I sense will not be changing, even if there are a number of players who wish it so. However, there are other elements that may very well change, although I do not have specific information about that right now.

I hope this info is helpful, and that you are reassured to know that you are being heard and that your input is being considered."

"We have read your concerns about miniature customization. In the near future, we will be making changes to the Hall of Monuments system that will allow your character to receive credit for miniature ownership while still retaining the opportunity for any of the characters on the account to access and display the miniature. The design team is currently considering a few options for this change and they anticipate that they will make an update within the next several weeks. Those miniatures that were already customized will be retroactively included in the update and therefore will become accessible to other characters once that update is made."