Race played: Charr

Professions played: Mesmer; Warrior; Thief; Elementalist

My initial reaction to creating a character was a little tainted by the confusion of World selection; the common difficulties of server availability and log on proved to make coordinating with friends somewhat frustrating, especially when selecting a world will lock one into that world until a transfer can be secured. Thankfully, the transfers were capable over the beta and I was on my way to immersing myself into the game.

Character creation was rather enjoyable, especially with the ability to tweak the details of the character’s history to varying degrees; I can see it playing into the replay value for the game, as multiple venues toward storyline progression is certainly evident in playing through the story campaign. Something I could recommend in future development would be to include a brief introduction into the culture of the character’s race rather than focus solely on their personal story and nothing else – some of the decisions that I made in the story felt awkward as I had not played the original Guild Wars; I had no idea what might have been considered “dignified” in the Charr society. Dye options for armor were a nice touch; customization of personal armor is always a neat and simple way of adding uniqueness.

My entire first day was dominated by my initial character, a Charr Mesmer. I’ll admit – the Mesmer profession, its abilities and armor are a little … off-putting at first glance. Thankfully, I am certainly not one to let my initial gut reaction cloud my judgment to the point where I won’t even give the strange and unconventional a chance and was I thankful for that. The Mesmer is a light armor wearing, illusion specialist that focuses mainly on disrupting its opponent’s rhythm while providing utility and mobility to its allies. This may raise a flag to veteran gamers – utility class typically means “not that great at much of anything, will require support to be effective”. This is where the Guild Wars 2 weapon and skill system comes in to prove otherwise.

The game is built around choice. As I would soon experience throughout the weekend beta is that every class is based around utility – what tools you choose to bring to battle can either help or stagnate your progress, depending on how well you are in providing support to your allies. As I spent the majority of my time playing the Mesmer, I will provide testimony mostly based on my observations through its game play. I found that I could act as pure support for my allies if I chose, though Mesmer support is rather unique in itself – instead of merely providing buffs or healing as the majority of support roles are pigeon holed into, the Mesmer requires a mix of both offense and defensive abilities to be of greatest effect. For example, in WvW (PvP or whatever you want to call it) combat, a Mesmer’s goal is to disrupt and confuse your enemies. Illusion clones provide quite a major advantage to any fight, regardless of in a solo encounter or with allies; greater numbers always tends to impact morale and sow confusion in opponents, especially when those clones are capable of unpredictable assaults.

Clone AI leaves something to be desired, unfortunately. They are effective on open ground, but the majority of WvW combat typically involves height and surface difference; clone AI pathing does not know how to deal with walls, stairs or gates, so you typically end up with an army of clones standing around you doing nothing. This is especially frustrating when assaulting a keep, as the Mesmer’s ability to shatter its clones account for the majority of its damage capability. This will hopefully be fixed by release, as there were plenty of issues that require addressing in the game regardless.

The weapon system allows for situational adaptation in the majority of fights, but I personally found it a little frustrating to sacrifice precious inventory space in order to keep the various combinations of weapons on my person or in my bank, then constantly analyze what combination of stat boosts/relics/gem choices were better suited, not to mention the unique skills they brought. Eventually, I settled on my combination of choice: staff (set 1) and sword main hand with pistol off hand (set 2). Skills allowed for additional customization and thankfully, they can be changed on the fly as needed (though you are required to be out of combat, which is a good idea). Weapon skills must be learned over time, which is an interesting way to slowly introduce players to the abilities of the weapon; the frustrating part about this is that finding all of these weapons early on in order to unlock their capabilities is a challenge in itself. I didn’t find a greatsword until I was nearly level 12, if I recall – this made it a little tough to unlock its abilities, as many of the creatures at that level tend to flatten you if you are not prepared.

The story campaign is very fun, though I wish there was more options to choose your character’s dialogue during cut scenes; the majority of the story felt scripted and uninvolving of the player’s input, resulting in feeling more of the player going along with the story, rather than developing something unique to their character. There are quite a few different combinations of the main story that the player can choose through the initial character creation, but this lends to a predictable plot progression that will result in many players merely skipping through the majority of the dialogue rather than actively participating in it.

Events are quite interesting; they require the assistance of others, often times quite a few other people. I found it rather interesting to see the dynamic of players going out of their way to aid people, be it through reviving a fallen character or assisting in the defense against an otherwise impossible foe. Frustrations brought on by events, however, typically revolved around enemy respawn rates; there is a challenge to take out an enemy NPC in itself – the fact that it and the three NPCs around it will respawn within minutes after their defeat, if not sooner, can lend itself to some undue aggravation. Another frustration would be in the frequency of reoccurring events; I can understand that the majority of them can be ignored, but there are a select few that not only occur with surprising frequency, but also render waypoints (the main source of quick transportation and respawning) inoperable. In a game that attempts to provide the illusion of ‘changing the world’, having that world revert back to the way you found it in within an hour after leaving tends to dispel that illusion.

Effective level modifying is a very interesting design; it helps in balancing WvW to the point that, though lower level characters aren’t about to carve a swath of death and destruction through enemy lines, they can at least feel that they are adding a notable contribution without the fear of being swatted like flies by enemy players. It also allows for higher level players to help their lower level friends without the feel of merely steamrolling content for them. All in all, it is a feature that I found enjoyable and well intended.