WoW Veteran Reviews Guild Wars 2's Instanced PvE (Raids, Strikes & Fractals)
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- čas přidán 19. 06. 2024
- In this video I share my first impressions and review of Guild Wars 2's Endgame PvE including Fractals, Strikes and Raids in 2023. I have raided in World of Warcraft for over 10 years and have recently started playing Guild Wars 2.
0:00 Intro
0:30 Fractals
4:14 Strikes
7:36 Raids
12:13 Overall thoughts
after years of wow and other mmos now me returning the past week to GW2 after nearly 4 years it feels amazing. it actually feel like a mmo, there is so much stuff to do. AT YOUR OWN PACE!
those who never tried the game, def should try it.
Absolutely, I've just started bumbling my way through the Legendary amulets and accessories in the Living World content and each day I can just log in and chip away at some of the legendary with a purpose but no particular rush or anything. Very fun
Just a quick correction: GW2 already had fractal instabilities way before wow "borrowed" the idea in mythic+
That's a good point, I technically knew that but had kinda forgot. I just meant for those who play WoW it's a comparison they'd understand
@@WilstormGaming That's fair enough. Great insight and spot on recommendations for new players looking to try these game modes.
thanks glad you liked it!
Wow took it from Diablo 3 tho, they had greater rifts.
No one knows where they got the idea for M+ WoW in general has been known to steal ideas from other MMOs and just morph them into something better lol.@@sebastiansvensson9638
I have been playing GW2 for 11 years and I never did raids. I did some low lvl Fractals and some Strikes. That’s because there is so many other things to do (masteries, achievements, meta events) that I don’t have time to do it all.
One of the best parts about GW2 and its horizontal progression, there is so much content
Same here, never touched raids but still lots of enjoyable things to do
I would point out that instabilities are not FROM mythic+, wow stole it from GW2
Also don’t forget fractals have some challenge modes you can activate just like strike missions
Did it convert you?
i never do raids as well, i cant, since too many disturbances irl may happens so i cant be too focused on a gameplay where i cant afk when needed, my internet is a problem as well so i dont wanna inconvenience other people with my shytty internet lmao
Great thing about GW2 though is there is plenty of other content, doesn't feel like you have to raid and from what I understand a lot of players never did raid
Harvest Temple is just such a wonderful strike mission to me from both a gameplay and lore perspective. No less than 11 distinct phases acting as the culmination of 11 years of the Elder Dragon storyline. It’s just *chef’s kiss*.
Something you're unaware of with Fractals is that aside from increasing health and damage the abilities are also made more difficult and/or new ones are added that are an expansion on the old.
For example, Nightmare on 22 is vastly different from Nightmare on 96 and Nightmare 96 CM where the bullet phase becomes bullet hell phase and if you fail the "easy" first round it's Ikaruga-town until all the orbs are taken or you die.
Oh that's cool, glad to know the abilities and mechanics also get more challenging inherently by stepping up tiers. Thanks!
there's a reason why some people consider t4 challenge modes harder than some raids/strikes. i also highly suggest pushing the ranks since doing t4 dailies also gives you the rewards for t1-3 without need to backtrack to do them.
I was a bit worried, because (as a typical WoW player) you didn't consider open world as an element of endgame content and were looking for a competitive aspect within the pve content, but was relieved when you mentioned it at the very end. Like others said, in regards to PVE endgame content map metas and world bosses done in this way are still pretty unique in the genre in my opinion. They may not be the hardest mechanically, but as a complete group of strangers needs to coordinate a little bit, it can't be the hardest content obviously. Still it is important, fun and quite a spectacle in many cases.
Overall I think GW2 is not the best choice for the most hardcore competitive PvE raid enthusiasts. And that is okay, because in fact most players aren't. Most (as in way more than 50%) GW2 players probably still haven't even tried raids at all. One reason might be that raids tend to be very time consuming.
This is why I like strikes and think it is a great way going forward, since they solve some big problems: You first encounter these bosses in story mode and get a first idea about some of the mechanics involved. At this time you also learn the story of this encounter. Typical raids also tell stories, but nobody cares (and those people who do care feel pressured to rush with the group) and waiting for the story elements within raids feels bad even for story enthusiasts when you do the raid for the 50+x time. Strikes remove most this "story burden" from the encounter.
Also raids do take place on maps exclusively designed for these raids, while strikes now reuse the map of the story instance; which sometimes is also part of the open world anyways. So it is wasting less map designer time on maps, that only a fraction of players ever see.
If they keep adding strikes and make them challenging enough (at least in challenge modes), I can totally see them accumulating to a number where you don't need to worry about classical raids, as you have a lot of bosses to fight that fill an evening like a raid did, just much more adjustable to the skill of the group at hand.
By the way: PvP and WvW are also part of the endgame and - even if this may not be your focus - have some qualities worth mentioning:
- PvP is purely skill based, as equipment is equalized.
- WvWvW (which is the full name) is still one of the best iterations on an open world objective based pvp clashes for big groups of players that actually work (you may consider adjusting your settings though).
Thanks for the comment, I agree with all of that. I didn't forget about open world, this video was off the back of my previous "10 Amazing Features" video where, supplier alert, #1 is open world content - I think it's amazing.
Strikes are definitely a good model more suited to the more casual playerbase of GW2, no complaints there I think they are fun and hope they continue to keep them coming regularly.
As for PvP and WvW I'm yet to fully dive into those but I do plan on doing a bit of a review on those as well, lots of people have asked for the WvW to be looked at in my other video comments.
Well, personally, I don't get bored of it, as there are so many different ones, and your daily fractals change every day :D
Furthermore, it's not the only content you play, I go strikes, raids, fractals, some gathering, open world meta events...
Every day I choose to do different meta events, so today I will do 4 maps of HoT maps for meta events, tomorrow some bounties in PoF, next I will go drizzlewood coast and Bjora Marches...
It can never get boring to me because GW2 has actually too much content and it all stays relevant in endgame.
To be honest, I wish GW2 had fewer maps, because there is absoulutely no time to visit most relevant maps in 1 day
and that's the beauty of the horizontal design, if you're choosing your own goals it really opens up so much content!
Same if anything only time i get bored is if no t4s or strikes or raids to do. Guess you can say even though im pretty chill in group content i like the challenge of raids strikes and fractals.
Things changed for me when I realized GW2 is a collection game. Start making legendary armor and weapons and you'll get hooked.
I've already started bumbling my way through the Legendary amulet with the return to achievements, very enjoyable just chipping away at my own pace through the maps
I think the standout endgame content of GW2 (in PVE) is open world events.I love fractals, strikes and raids (though my experience on those is limited), but all mmos have stuff like that. But the very thing that pulled me into GW2 was strolling around Queensdale (starter zone!), weirdly running into a huge group of players (like 50-60 idk), being confused for a minute until... bam! frickin massive Shadow Behemoth shows up. And stuff like that just happens on every single one the many many maps. I just love it. + I am kinda addicted to the structured PVP tbh... :-D
Yeah absolutely, the Open World is incredible - if you havent watched my other video "10 Amazing GW2 Features" its my top thing that I talk about. I love it
Open world event is cool but calling it "endgame content PVE"lmao,theres no such thing as challenging in open world,you can group up bunch of new player with exotic gear and lack luster build to clear almost every meta event,how is it endgame?,there was dragon ends meta when it first introduce,its challenging but apparently open world player cant handle that so anet need to nerf it
@@joyboy6067 See, content does not need to be challenging. ;-) Players come in different flavours and only a small portion is looking for constant challenge.
@@schmidt_gaming yes content doesnt need to be challanging,but your original comment and the video is talking about pve ENDGAME,worldbosses can be beat with group of fresh player who just play the game for a week so its not ENDGAME,i beat shadow behemoth the first day i touch the game at level 20,how is it endgame if level 20 can clear it?
the dictionary " video games) The gameplay available in a massively multiplayer online role-playing game for players who have completed all of the preset challenges" so unless you misinterpreting between "endgame" and "its awesome content you miss and tou should try" then fractal/strike/raid Cm's are true GW2 pve endgame
@@joyboy6067 Even Endgame does not need to be challenging. ;-) Sorry to burst your bubble. There are reasons why games like Sims, Farming Simulator and Animal Crossing are hugely succesful. Not everyone wants challenge in a game. Not even after a long time of playing the game.
I guess the thing I like the most is that most of the things are relevant even after years of existing. I still had to do -world boss name- to do the thing to get -insert item name- for the grand thing I wanted. And there are packs of people doing it for their own reasons.
Hi. I was watching random GW2 vids out of boredom, and I see you’re in my guild and we raided together because my toon is in the party. Lol. Cheers! I’ve been playing off and on for years and I do always come back. I’m glad you’re enjoying GW2. I need to come back and do more guild stuff. I’ve been on a break for the past few months.
Fantastic GW2 content, as usual
Thank you, glad you liked it! I appreciate the feedback
Wonderful video, as a relative vet(only playing since 2018 and not from release... so not an OG player) of the game i'm glad you are enjoying it :)
A word salad to compliment your video: (it ended being a novel of salads lol)
LFG stuff: NA LFG is indeed kinda dead, from what I gather grouping is mostly done in discord groups. In EU on the other hand the in game LFG is really alive and the way groups are formed except for maybe the top % of speedclearers, depending on the time of day. Raid lfg is so full on Monday evenings(after weekly reset) that I sometimes struggle to fill my group because there are like 5 other groups in the LFG for the encounter I'm trying to fill...
I mean you probably won't find HT CM groups in 7am on a weekday, but you might be able to fill IBS easy 3.
As for KP requirements - depending on the group and the encounter, coms might still require some sort of experience proof. A general recommendation is that if you don't even know wtf the LFG listing is saying, don't join it (you can ask the com tho!). Some groups might require a lot of experience while some will accept someone as long as they know the mechanics and aren't griefing. (asking the com if you can join with lower amount of experience is ok, but don't take it too personally if they don't wanna)
I personally NEVER require any kill proof, but I do expect people to not meme me and for dps to not dps race the healers. And I will kick someone who is so lost they wipe the group. One person isn't entitled to 9 other peoples time. On the other hand, I also put people who shittalk other peoples minor mistakes in their place as it's a no-req group - and if someone wants the speedclear experience my group isn't it :)
Raids are indeed "abandoned" content as in anet shifted to making strikes instead. Raids are/were completely new content (RP experience included, IMO wing 6 has the best voice lines 👀). As you've noted, even when raids were being released they'd have a maaasive time gap between em. Strikes are re-used story encounters, which makes developing them much "cheaper".
Personally as a gw2 player who does endgame content I don't care how it's called, boss is boss {insert food is food meme}. Sometimes the RP in raids gets tedious, the 100th time you've done that raid and you just wanna skip the pre-events already lol. So normal mode strikes are "easy mode" raid equivalent, and CM strikes are closer to actual raids.
IBS strikes were kinda questionable in quality, with the easy 3 were basically dps golem. Whisper of Jormag is buggy as hell (although it is good design!) and memeskinner the way people do it is actually "incorrect" lol - as there's a mechanic we outheal by adding an extra healer instead of doing it (not unheard of, even in ancient Vale Guardian there's a mechanic everyone outheals instead of doing). EoD and onward strikes are much better. We're now waiting for the two new CMs for CO and temple of pepe and that's gonna be interesting.
As for interest/difficulty - the aim is for most people who do instanced pve is to reach a balance of doing encounters cleanly and quickly. That requires everyone in the group to git gud, and you start seeing roles get consolidated. Something really common even in low skilled groups is for the healer and tank to get consolidated - one extra DPS slot means less mechanics overall (more dps = less mechanics, because you phase faster) and faster kill time. But, it also means harder work for the tankheal because they both need to stay alive and keep their sub alive :)
Once you start "climbing up" in skill levels - you see people in all roles min-maxing, tankheals start dropping self-survivability for more group utility. You even see boon support tanks or pure dps tanks!(alacren tank is an old favourite of mine) A tank flex is whats called "5 toughness tanking" - you take just enough toughness to get the boss aggro and you minmax your build to have the lowest possible survivability you can get away with.
Very high skilled groups even drop a healer all together and run with just one or even no healers. As the meme saying goes, "just dodge".
An example from your video is Deimos, and esp the relation between the tank and the hand kite - as the tank drops in self-tankiness(because they wanna invest more in group utility or pure healing) - the HK also gonna need to drop their own tankiness and relay fully on active damage mitigation. 0 toughness handkite is big gaming 👌👌. But - 0 toughness HK is also way harder than more afk builds like soulbeast hk who have 1200 or 1380 toughness and a bunch of 'oopsie' options.
I mentioned in the previous word salad paragraph that sometimes you'd out-heal a mechanic instead of doing it, it's a choice indeed - which requires your healers to be pretty good at their shit. Although in recent strikes anet makes sure you can't out-heal mechanics :)
What an absolute novel I wrote ☠RIP whoever gonna read it.
Well I read it! Thanks for taking the time to engage. As you'd know from watching I'm nowhere near the groups that are fully optimising for speed runs and duel roles like the tank-heal but it pleases me to know that people do this. I think GW2 gets a bit of flack for being too casual but there is certainly challenges in some of the speedrunning optimisations and CMs.
Glad you liked the video 😁
You should try the elementalist ;) If you like hardcore gameplay ahha. It's quite challenging to understand how elemets mix up with each other but once you get it it's really satisfying. Definitly a must try :p ( I play as a Weaver and it's really cool , a mage with swords as main hand weapon! :D)
another very good video... thank you for this :D
Glad you enjoyed it!
The challenge modes for fractal lvls 97-100 are a lot of fun.
Great video, and very thorough! Most content is on open maps. Check out the Drizzlewood Coast meta for example!
Yeah absolutely the open world content is incredible, I talk about it in my "10 Amazing Featuresx" video
For fractals, at higher tiers you get more "fractal instabilities", debuffs that will persist through the whole instance, and mobs will be more tougher and stronger, but not much difference besides that...but you will get the challenge modes too, and THAT is a much more interesting thing!
Nice, I knew about the instabilities but I had kinda forgotten about Fractal CMs, definitely keen to give that a go when I farm up my agony resistance.
@@WilstormGaming one tip I have for you, since I saw you using +3 AR infusions - go for +9 infusions, they're relatively cheep and will give you, obviously, 3x the AR per slot. Also, you can put additional AR slots in your rings and backpack by using the mystic forge. Check it out :)
Thanks I'll check it out!
Raids in GW2 are definitely not the primary endgame content. They've never been particularly popular. I believe that groups on the EU data centre use LFG more than on NA, but for both, groups primarily work through guilds.
There are some very large guilds which focus exclusively on training players, Raid Academy and another, one for each data centre. It's really good thay they exist, but it does add a barrier to new players, who may not know where to go to find groups.
Yeah it's a shame raids are less approachable for new players because its really fun content, I guess as Anet is moving away from Raids and towards Strikes its not a big deal but I love that due to the horizontal design we can still go back and do the raids even years later.
welcome to GW2 !
you forgot to say that some fractals have Challenge Mode for Extra rewards and Titles !
I did! I mentioned the strike and raid CMs but completely forgot to mention the fractal CMs which as I hear are quite tough
As someone who has played the game since early beta. I come back to gw2 at least once a year, however...over the years, I always drop off because of gw2 endgame. I am not someone who wants to only run open world content. The climb to T4 CM fractals is fun, but once you get there, and your running them regularly, you soon realize this is what you'll be doing for the next 3-5 years for content, because they have not added new dungeon content for YEARS. It seems like they are changing that with the latest expansion, and new strikes are cool. However if I was Anet, at this point, I would shove any dev power into reworking the dungeon/fractal system to be more repeatable or rewarding for the player base. If Gw2 had good repeatable 5 man end game content, I would rate it as potentially the best MMO around these days.
Interesting, thanks for the opinion, I'm looking forward the climb up to T4 fractals and CM but as I suspected it sounds like Fractals will stagnate eventually. I'm also keen for the new content model A Net is going with this expansion, will be good to see how it turns out
So, I've been mythic wow raiding for years and only just "retired" after 10 straight CE kills post Sark. And yet I'm still hesitant to join a random lfg for a fractal. Why, why am I like this hahaha.
New stuff is always a bit more scary hahah I'm the same I didn't want to join the LFG strikes and raids in the experienced tab so I joined a guild haha
It's a general misconception, that many ppl believe, that Fractals where made AFTER Mythic+ from WoW
But the reverse is actually the case
ive just reached lvl 80 after 3 days and im gonna buy the expansion packs tommorow. Im somewhat still confused on how to join the raids/fractions/etc. and how alot of features still work. Its my first ever real MMO after DCUO and im having alot of fun. Might have to resign as a fps player haha. Either way good video! keep it up.
3:56 you can get some thoughts from Teapot in Preach's interview "Guild Wars 2 - Skyscale Unlock Grind - Part 75" at 1:30:10 ;D
What a nice vid
I'll have a look thanks!
Having raided in other games, there's just something about GW2 raids that I really loved. I honestly can't pick my favorite raid because they're all so good. Every boss is so different and I loved the story and mechanics to all of them. I really wished that you would've been there at the start of raiding. DPS meters weren't a thing and you had to figure it out without any knowledge. Builds and comps were much weaker to the point that killing a boss after 15 pulls or near enrage was not uncommon. They were extremely challenging back then where there were no min-maxing or strict team comps. It was a sh*t show and I loved it. Now they're easily done because people have figured them out and found the best strategies to play through them. With that being said, if you really want to live that time, I'd suggest just taking a group of 10, and not having any idea what they do and just go in and figure it out. Maybe take 1 experienced person who can give you hints when you're stuck. You will have a blast.
Also, to answer your question, Fractals at the highest level (lvl 97+) are probably on the easy raid level. With challenge motes on, I would say are harder than almost all normal level raid bosses including Deimos but it is close to it. The only exception is Dhuum, where Fractal CMs should be roughly around Dhuum level.
Thanks for the comment! Yeah raids are always a bit easier with time after the community has figured out the 'generally accepted strat'. But I agree there's nothing quite like those first few months when people are still figuring that stuff out.
Good to hear about fractals that there is some level of difficulty there, thanks!
Watching this and your switching from WoW video just made me want to get back into this game. I haven't played End of Dragons came out but I didn't even play even though I got it. I got more sucked into fps at the time. But watching your videos makes me want to go back and just start fresh from the beginning all over again
Great Video
Thank you glad you liked it! 😁
Great video!
As a high-end Raid player, here's my/our impression: YES, there are too few raid encounters in the game.
And YES, some of them are easy, but the fact remains that you need to farm these raids to obtain your equipment. When compared to WoW or some other MMOs, speedrunning these bosses becomes a significant factor. A substantial (and challenging) aspect of Raids is executing a "clean" and swift kill. This is considerably tougher and more demanding than merely defeating the boss for the rewards. It necessitates 10 organized players, with a well-adjusted composition that changes with each encounter. And let me tell you, it's an absolute blast.
If you're interested in seeing what W4 looks like when tackled this way, I'd be delighted to take the time to demonstrate and explain the intricacies behind these seemingly simple encounters.
Thanks glad you liked it! Yeah I've heard a few people talk about speedrunning raid wings, I'll have to check some of that out on CZcams, it definitely sounds fun.
As of quantity of content, it seems that Guild Wars 2 will have at least 1 new fractal and 2 new strike missions each year, not much but better than before if the difficulty will be high
Especially if they incorporate staggered releases of the CMs too!
Great video and I did the new strikes in Soto and they are fun the first one is easy but engaging and the second one is harder though not to hard and it 2 is a really fun fight and you can tailor how the fight goes
Thank you! Yeah I've done a cosmic observatory which was cool, longer than expected our maybe our dmg was low in that group, but I haven't done the Temple of Febe yet. I'm hoping for some really tough CMs when they come out
the reason for the long duration on that first strike might be the egregiously large health pool of something like 52 million hp, quite a bit higher than most standard normal mode strikes, however i dont mind too much as it gives newer players longer time in the fight to learn the mechanics@@WilstormGaming
Ah yeah thanks, I did wonder that because I didn't it again and it took a while again in a group with better damage even. Makes sense thanks!
I love setting up training runs for peeps who are either new or haven’t done “end game pve”…. This includes fractal spam runs to get agony for peeps. For me, it’s super exciting seeing people “grow” as we progress through the content.
I also randomly set up HP/Mastery runs (usually with guild), but I open my commander tag regularly for peeps to come for a ride and have some fun whilst they “vertically progress”!!!
Heck. Sometimes help with map completion and getting a griffon too…. Because we all know real endgame isn’t fashion, it’s griffon courses! Lol
Well as a new player who has leaned heavily on commanders like you in the past few months, thank you!
@@WilstormGaminggday mate!!! Awww. It’s what keeps me logging in! Love it when peeps get excited clearing stuff. Or eventually seeing a mechanic after 10+ pulls!! 😂
Glad you having a good time (I too was a hardcore wow raider until bfa then gw2 consumed me!)
I'm a veteran player since launch of the game. Concerning fractal difficulty:
Fractals 97-100 in challenge mode are considered as one of the hardest contents ingame. Even harder than most raid bosses in my opinion. They also reward a lot more loot than low-level fractals. I don't know the endlessly scaling reference from WoW but fractals are not scaling endlessly. If you have a well coordinated group where everybody knows their stuff, those high-level fractals can be done daily in about 1 hour. Then the new challenge is speedruns to shorten the time you need to complete all of the dailys.
Also concerning raids: Raid players are mostly active in the evenings. So finding a group on lfg at 9 am is difficult indeed... Starting from maybe 16:00 to 01:00 the raid-lobby is absolutely full.
Hope this helped! Enjoy the game :)
Thanks for the comment, it definitely helps! That's good to hear that fractals do definitely get challenging, looking forward to those high level CMs.
And yeah I've seen some raids in LFG but generally not as much as strikes - also 9am for me (Aus) is about 1800 on the NA server I'm on, but I was just using that clip to support the statement from my experience.
Glad you like it. As a "Fractal Prodigy" title holder, i can confirm that high level fractals eventually become stale, especially considering the most rewarding ones are the challenge modes of 96 - 100, which in turn are run daily. The progression up to thst point, and getting consistent at the content is a very rewarding experience however.
After jumping on alot of MMOs, GW2 finally satisfied me.
Started playing few weeks ago
Ty good vid!
I am so glad you are enjoying your time in Tyria
A lot of other games still promote fractals or raids as endgame content (as thats the only way to get the best gear). But gw2 is quite different as it offers many ways to achieve the same outcome.
For many gw2 players, legendary gear, collections and achievements are the end game and open world metas, strikes, fractals, WvW, PvP are the paths to it.
Hi there! First time viewer here, thanks for a great video. I can't believe you managed to do all that in two weeks! Gj.
I'm a 43 yo mother of two. Quit WoW in 2010 when I was pregnant with my first child. Been playing GW2 almost since launch with a break in the middle. Between family and a full time job, GW2 is my haven for relaxation and some me-time. And I'm not alone, there are teenagers, parents and grandparents playing this game, adding to it's variety.
I would love to see you try WvW, if you're up to it, as it reminds me of my favourite PvP in WoW (Alterac Valley), only much bigger and with siege weapons. It's my primary game mode, but i have plans to start raiding... soon... I promise! I loved raiding in WoW but I didn't have kids then.
Thank you, appreciate the feedback. Yeah raiding can be very time consuming! I'll definitely do a WvW video soon, still need to dive into that game mode!
when it comes to challenging end game content you already mentioned the strike mission _Harvest Temple_ in CM - but unless my ears deceived me you never mentioned _Old Lion's Court_ [CM]. in recent weeks we got a new lv100 fractal which is available in CM too and was a real pain due to many bugs. the two new strike missions courtesy of SOTO will see a challenge mode very soon and we can expect it to be tough
I didn't mention OLC but it's also a great encounter! I'm really hoping the two new SOTO CMs are super tough when they come out that'd be cool!
Great video, I enjoyed watching another WoW gamer perspective.
I quit WoW a few years ago because of "carrot & the stick" which I got burned out of and chose GW2 for "respect your time" idea and I can say for sure that content wise it just cannot compete because of their model probably, they just don't consume enough $ from players, especially with gold can buy gems and BTP.
As for endgame once I've mastered and became a toxic elitist I've turned my cheek to a new challenge , completing raids with lowmen which I'm having a blast, you can check this channel and take a peek x). So some are creating their own challenge in speedruns, lowmen to stay engaged but the casual "only clear" don't really care much I guess.
Thank you glad you liked it, appreciate the feedback!
Yeah at the end of the day we can't forget that ANet is just another company that runs off the hard work of people who all have lives to live and mouths to feed and all resources are finite - they can't compete in that sense which is why I think its good to remember that because of that purchase-once model we all enjoy there just won't be as much content as regualrly as something like WoW with a Subscription model.
Are you able to Que into all content in game or look/build a premade ? How wow let’s you que for BGS/DUNGS/LFR.
Gr8 vid
GW2 is a lot friendlier than WoW. I however found it difficult to find groups at times as a new player for older content, most people that have been in game for a while have groups they work with regularly and rewards can only be awarded once a day, so most won't do a pug group. When a group was found and formed, I don't think I ever had a toxic or unfriendly group. Defiantly a much better community.
wasupp, i just wanna add one more + for gw2 :D even if you ware missing a few years , your gear is not getting old . You don`t feel the game like a day by day hard work(like WOW ) to gear up., farming 8to10 h a day to raid a few hour a week. In Gw2, you just log in and enjoy the content.
Absolutely, it's the brilliance of the horizontal system
I think the balancing factor of why they can release so few raids is because the content is evergreen - once you get full ascended (or the raiding legendary armor set), that's it. You can't outlevel or overgear the raid; you can only get better at executing the mechanics. Maybe a new expansion mastery will help, but not often. Other MMOs have to keep releasing new raids because the level cap increased. Experienced players do run the raids weekly as part of their gold farming, or just for fun, but there's no compulsion to keep running them just to keep up so you aren't behind when the next expansion comes out.
After 10 years of playing gw2 I still haven’t finished everything I want to do. And wvw is so much damn fun it could be a game by itself.
Welcome to the community
Fun fact, fractals actually pre date M+. So its more like WoW M+ affixes are like fractal instabilities and not the other way around. Add it to the list of things that WoW was implemented from GW2.
Yeah a few others mentioned that which is cool, like anything most of these MMO competitors take things from each other.
I lead t4s and recs daily there are some groups if you dps isnt perfect will kick you. However my groups are mostly chill. As long as we kill bosses first try and have fun even joke around sometimes people can join our group. Only Req is 150 AR because thats the req for 100 fractals. I am a power untamed named Flora and i often have a friend that likes to join on her mechanist. We joke around a lot to keep things fun.
Two nights ago i did have to kick someone because they was in t4s and tried to order everyone around yet had no experience in fractals. Like not using the hammer in cliffside fractal after we killed trash mobs just standing there holding it. Yet if we told him to help out he called us noobs and not how he did it. He got to the point that the person who tried to heal left the group. We kicked that guy out asked the healer why he left then told him we kicked him because grew tired of his attitude. So we added the healer back.
I have done all them fractals in 4 years and my logic about them is you need team work to work well one person doesnt act as a team the whole group suffers. To me fractals teaches that importance of team work for strikes and raids. given im a raider as well. We had to redo that fractal for a fresh joiner but we had fun.
Yeah unfortunately there will always be a small % of people who are toxic or just ruin it for others, but sounds like you handled it!
great video
if you like challenges, pls remember to try last 4 t4 fractals on CM ^^
Yeah I'm keen for fractal CMs and hear they are quite tough which is exciting
There's only one true end-game: World versus World! :D
Nah, these modes are cool too - and great vid!
But -for me- WvW is the GW2 end-game. It's why I get gear, why I buildcraft, where I spend most of my time in the game. It's a shame that WvW doesn't reward you with as much items/rewards as many of these game modes, but I find it to be soooo much fun.
GW2 has solid end game that offers some challenge in challenge mode.
Then addictuon is to get better and once you clear all raid bosses next step is to join static raid to speed clear em.
In training you light aee three healers in some bosses but when you get good You run Solo healer trough all bosses trying to clear all bosses in less than 3 hours.
There is also option to try all elite specs and roles in end game which I am doing. The CM difficulty fluxuates from "smaller arena" to Harvest Temple CM 😂
Also ANet is givin us two strikes and one fractal during 4th expansion which is nice. Rip Raids 😢😅
Yeah I'm really looking forward to playing through the remaining Raids I haven't seen yet and then completing all the challenge modes!
@@WilstormGaming It is sad that ANet fails new players so hard. There should be new lvl15 or lvl25 story mission that goes trough the basics explaining power, conditions, boons and CC before adding new enemies around the core world. That would help a lot. New players joining a end game group content don't know that they are supposed stack on top of each other to provide boons which can triple your DPS someone doing 10k should do 30k with boons and so on.
On addition GW2 has like five main types of end game: Other / Open World PvE / Group Content (dungeons, dragon response missions, fractals, strikes and raids) / PvP / WvW
Other include things like Story, Achievements, Racing and my personal favored Jumping Puzzles for examples.
Every zone has a jumping puzzle. Every Lobby including PvP and Fractal loppy has a Jumping Puzzle. Even Lion's Arc has three Jumping Puzzles (I think.) I just love Jumping Puzzles.
Yeah I agree I've found that most MMOs don't actually explain endgame content very well and it's pretty normal for group content to be quite daunting for new players
I've played GW2 since the beta weekend events and in that time, I've never really done any fractals, raids or strike missions. I've pretty much just played WvW, PvP and the completed the Story content for the base game and each expansion. The biggest upside for me is that I can decide to go and try those things whenever I want, without being gatekept by an arbitrary item level.
Sure, I may have to stat-change an armour set here and there in order to have an optimal build, but my WvW Legendary Gear is usable across the entire game and even without that, it wouldn't take too long to craft the correct Ascended set.
I think there are other aspects of GW2 that fall into the Endgame category also, such as Legendary crafting and Masteries. But I think most people would agree that the true Endgame for GW2 is Fashion Wars 😂
so for raids the lfg will not help you if you are not in weekly reset as that is the time raiders raid at, since they reset weekly for you to grind them, usually they dont really play raids during the whole week after having done whichever are the best option.
You've failed to mention The Most Important Endgame of GW2. Fashion Wars.
Their adding strikes more consistently now and changing their release schedule with secrets of obscure so hopefully no more strike/content droughts.
Yeah I'm really keen for new strikes more consistently and the challenge modes too staggered a few months later
if youre doing endgame cm fractals, that can get repetitive since youre doing the same cms everyday and youve minmaxed the content, so that even on highest level on cm they still take as long as lower level fractals for less experienced groups or even less and youre doing the same thing over and over each day to get your daily stuff out of the way
its interesting to hear deimos being challenging when wing 4 and 1 are the easiest wings there are :D
harvest temple on cm on the other hand is currently the most difficult gw2 encounter where you need 10man group over few months to learn to kill it, and thats if the players are good
I have a question though if you found the lfg confusing since some new players i got to talk to were confused what all the lfg shortcuts meant to the point they look like different language
The raid lfg being dead might have been a wrong time, in evenings they blow up on eu, especially weekends
as a wow player myself, this is very informative
I think the trap many players fall into is limiting themselves to just one game mode in GW2 where the game was designed from day 1 to have varied endgame content and pushed players to try multiple modes.
If you are a purely instanced pve player, a purely spvp player or a purely wvw player, there's no shot that you will not crave more content and keep on making comparisons to other games. GW2 is truly the PvX game and best experienced as such.
Have you looked into open world meta events yet? There massive 50+ map wide content. They act as a map wide chain of events that accumulate to a big fight at the end. Silverwaste is usually farmed on loop even to this day. I prefer farming Dragon's Fall while Dragon's End is still considered the hardest to successfully complete.
If you're used to retail wow then no content in gw2 will compare in terms of complexity and difficulty
Hello friend. Nice video.Fractals, Strikes and Raids are just farming content though. The true Endgame of GW2 is World vs World. This is where the actual "Guild Wars" are happening :)
Yes I'm super excited to give WvW a really good look and do a video on WvW to let you know what I think
I've heard that the NA LFG for raids is very dead. I have done plenty raids through LFG in EU, but have found playing with friends in guild so much more enjoyable that pretty much only use LFG to fill the squad.
A big difference between Gw2 and other mmos is that every raid and every strike is always current content in the aspect that u always get neat rewards unlike other mmos where they just become obsolete with time
Absolutely! I talk lots about that in my "10 Amazing Features" video
The party finder is one of the most amazing thing about gw2. Ive played so many different MMOs like wow and ff14, it gets annoying that i have to play a certain class to get into a a party for a dungeon and etc. I can play whatever i feel like playing on gw2 and get into a party and no one complains. Gw2 community also has some of the nicest people ever.
Ive gotten to 82 in fractals and it does require more team communication.
Yeah I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that you don't need to sign up for groups you just join immediately - no needing to have the right meta spec or class or the right score just to get invited
Gw2 is deffinetly my favorite MMO ever, and I'v played wow 15'000 hours, and played a lot of newer ones too.
I started Gw2 at launch 2012 and have been playing it since with a few breaks only for a total of maybe 1,5 year out of 11.
I have come back to wow many times during the years, only missing the last expansion so far, but I keep quiting after 1-2 months after I find it super boring, and so tired of the geargrind mentality.
No other mmo fufill the same MMO sense anymore like making it feel like a living world, Vanilla Wow did do that for me back in the day, but it's no longer the case, and going back to actully replaying vanilla wasn't fun either as it was just too dated.
Gw2 has a world that feels active, and worth exploring / playing.
it also helps that ALL the content released for GW2 ever, is stil relevant end game content in 2023.
Max level remains the same, max gear levels remain the same.
This means that while Raids, Strikes, Fractals aren't TOO many compared to lets say WoW, in wow only a handfull will ever be relevant.
The HUGE variety of gameplay Gw2 offers to me during a 2-3 month period is just amazing, other MMO's even if it releases new content more often, just gets stale WAY faster, since you'r ONLY farming that new content for like 3-4 months.
Imagine if ALL raids in wow ever released, All dungeons, all the maps, map currencies, map dailies, all of it were still RELEVANT MAX LVL CONTENT! thats GW2 for ya, sure it has less total then WoW have accumilated over the years, but still a really big ammount!
Example maps, WoW has around 4-5 base maps and +2 more per expansion that kinda are endgame content, plus halfway through no one cares about them anyway.
Meanwhile in GW2, people play all 75-100+ somewhat maps depending on if you count low lvl zones, as even those spawn content / events / world bosses relevant to a max level player.
And where ever you go, you run into people, and benefit from grouping up to tackle challanging randomly spawn events around the maps, that often lead into further events that are linked, sometimes leading up towards "META" events that require 20-75 people to defeat!
Also another thing this video didn't mention are the normal dungeons, I'm not sure they would count as part of challanging end game content now adays, but it's still something to do.
Not talking about those Fractals, those are uniqe, I mean normal dungeons spread out around the world you can do, they are max lvl content, just not that challanging, you can deffinetly die to them, and there are strats, but it's like doing normal dungeons in wow challange, still "end game content" for many.
I absolutely agree, the horizontal progression and endgame design is brilliant. If you watch my other video called "10 Amazing Guild Wars 2 Features" I talk about a lot of the points you just raised!
first mistake, thinking that its all about the endgame :D
It is absolutely a mistake, but its what lots of people think about because thats what they enjoy in MMOs. Although GW2 bring unique open world etc to its endgame that I spoke about in my previous video.
This is only a very small part of the engaging content available at max level.
Yeah, one downside is the rate at which new end game content is introduced to the game. At some point, if you're a dedicated player, you will run out of new challenges.
The upside to this that there is enough end game content in the game to keep you busy for a very long time. Even as "limited" as it is, I can see even the most no life, "plays it like it's a full time job" player can spend hundreds of hours, if not more, working their way through end game. Keep in mind that this game is very alt friendly and every new character you make can give you a different experience in game.
Another upside is that when you do get bored you can take a break without fear of falling behind. When you do decide to come back your gear will be just a relevant and viable as it was when you left. This, for me, is the best part. No more gear treadmill. I played WoW for just over a decade. Due to circumstances I was forced to put it aside for about a year. When I finally came back, as you'd expect, my gear was woefully outdated and I literally dreaded going through the re-earing process. I just couldn't bring myself to go through that endless grind again. It felt more like a chore than a game at that point. That's one of the primary reasons I play GW2 now. Most games use that gear-grind carrot on a stick to keep you playing. GW2 is all carrot, no stick.
if you ever step a foot into the pvp Area, its gonna be a whole new world of gw2. for me personaly its the most progressable part of the game, with one little lack of Fun : you need a team.
HAHAHA yeah I remember my first bone skinner with a friend. He was nervous about posting it was our first time trying it. We were all new except one person who was nice enough to guide us on how to do it. It took us 8 tries to kill it. He was super nice about it and we all laughed when we realized the AOE he had warned us about, was the wrong one in our heads. We were dodging incorrectly. xD Omg good times.
*That's why I always tell people, if you are nervous about learning fractals, strikes, raids, or dungeon paths* There's always people willing to teach. Infact there are guilds and groups who even plan these things. Including for map meta's.
Yeah Boneskinner was a fun experience hahah put me back in my place. I think especially in GW2, people seem very willing to just teach you the mechanics, no getting booted just because you don't know or are a new player.
So have you tried the more challenging content yet and what's your impression?
Deimos CM is actually not too diffrent from NM. You need Aegis against the Mind Crush and you can't heal Saul so you have to keep the spirits esp. Prides under control but that's basically it. Blacks are still the biggest danger.
The end bosses of wings 5-7 can be pretty fun in CM.
And poor dungeons, not even worth a mention.
Guild wars 2 has a decent Endgame but it definitely is very casual, it is accessible in ways that sometimes are actually detrimental to the experience, like you mentioned running past enemies is common, many strats are very cheesy as well, personally i find this playstyle boring and makes me feel like there's no reason to do the content if the methods employed are simply skipping through enemies or mechanics, i keep coming back to GW2 as a casual player and haven't put emphasis into its endgame as i don't find it worth it, but it's still one of the best most fun mmos out there, good video :)
Thanks, glad you liked it. Yeah I agree, skipping enemies really urked me in the Fractals. Oh well nothing's perfect, it's got some great bosses to make up for it and I'm still having a blast
If you're in EU, the LFG for raids should be very much active
Your raid tab was empty cause there was a new build and people patched and went to new build
Oh maybe, but I do often find there is nothing in raid, much easier to get into strikes for me usually
@@WilstormGaming ah are you on NA server?
Yeah NA server
I don't understand the purpose of raids, fractals or whatever in GW2. if your character never gets stronger what is the point? Just more skins?
I think you are absolutely right, Guild Wars 2 is not the Game youre looking for if you want challenging Raids that take you a lot of Pulls to figure out. if you like that style of Content then Ultimate Raids in FF14 and Mythic Raids in WoW are probably more what you are looking for. However, if you enjoy quality of Life to a ridiculous level, a very chill community and Open World Content with interesting Stories, then GW2 is most definetly a Game one should check out.
Yeah as I said if mythic/ultimate raiding is ALL you want to do them GW2 probably isnt the game for you, but I think GW2 has a great mix of other MMO elements like story and open world that i never engaged with much in WoW.
ive played gw2 since the beginning, 98% of that time is only on pvp and WvW, incredible game
I'm yet to really dive into those game mades too! Looking forward to giving them a try!
I love GW 1 and the world of GW 2 to be sure, the aesthetics, Jeremy Soule's timeless soundtrack, world design all works wonders. It is what I called "Medieval Punk" since I was kid playing GW1 (probably horribly inaccurate but I was grasping at what made Tyria unique, a charming quirky and at times sublime aesthetic), and action of GW2 is great! It is snappy and lovely in the weapon combos you can do (I like staff hammer for beginning for buff and smash but I can already see there is a great build variety like original GW1). But I cannot play the game, there is one thing that ruins it for me.
It is all the people in their shiny gem mounts rolling around and raining fireballs and doing all kinds of technicolor party shit. It totally ruins the world experience for me as wonderfully done as it is. I tried, even spurred onwards by the awards that was waiting for me all these years due to my GW1 play, but just could not get over the barrier of twinked out twinks lazoring the world.
gw2 end game is the only part worth playing imo.
Yeah it's certainly fun and got plenty to offer especially with WvW which I haven't covered yet! Lots of people also enjoy just doing open world stuff too though
8:00 Empty LFGs makes me sad :'( Especially the raid ones. Are you playing on NA or EU servers ? Because NA got some serious LFG issues where people are too afraid to create a squad or even join one because of "many reasons" (But mainly because the skill level in NA is not great at all, and everyone is playing with a guild or a specific roaster to be sure to clear content). While in EU, LFG is always full, and training squads are often created, the game definitly feels more alive on EU ^^", at least on the LFG side of thing. (but we got more elitists as a drawback)
Yeah I'm on NA servers, you can sometimes find groups for raids during peak times but not as often, I found it was easier to join a guild that run regular training groups which I would recommend anyway, MMOs are always better with community.
not only the art but indeed DOING SHIT AT YOUR OWN PACE, is why this game is so much better then Wow and everything else.
I don't have anyone to play endgame or fractals with :(
I'd recommend joining a guild! I know it's a bit daunting at first but having a community all linked in on discord probably is one of the best parts about MMOs imo
You state that Mistlock Instabilities are basically affixes from M+, but I believe this is another idea that WoW "borrowed" from GW2.
As a veteran I can tell you that this is literally the best MMORPG you can play if you're a new player. But one of the worse if you're a veteran player. And the problem is precisely endgame content.
1º You haven't mentioned dungeons. ANet released 8 dungeons with the game and never again released a new one. I loved them, many people did, and they just dumped them.
2º Fractals was the second endgame released. If you check the wiki for each fractal release date you'll notice that they started well but not long after fractals became a rare sight. Lots of promises about 3 months for each new fractal. But again... Check the dates. More promises now about fractals, let's see for how long are kept.
3º Raids were dumped just like dungeons. Don't wait for more raids, won't happen.
4º Strikes are the new thing. But we're talking about a single raid boss fight. 3 bosses for each expansion. That's very little endgame content in my book.
So yeah. In short: bad for veteran players. That's why so many players only come to play the new content and then leave again. They started focusing too much on new maps, events, masteries and legendary farm... And that's what the game end up becoming. My advide is: enjoy it for as long as you have fun with it, and once you get tired of it, move on to other MMO that cares about endgame. Well, that's my opinion. (been playing GW since 2005).
Yeah I don't disagree with any of that, as I said the biggest problem is the cadence of the content and if endgame pve is all you play for (as many do) then gw2 may not be the game for you, or at least by itself, there's no reason you can't play multiple games. Also worth remembering that what we get for the $ we pay is still good, SOTO was only $25 so value for money is still decent.
and yeah I'm aware dungeons were dropped from the get go, which is why I didn't even bother speaking about them they are barely part of the game nowdays. Raids i guess stay relevant-ish because of horizontal design but strikes is the way forward for ANet
I still think it's wasted potential. Any of the endgame content has fantastic design and it's super fun (much easier now after so many patches, but you can still notice it). I raided GW2 more than any other game and still.... They keep dumping endgame. Endgame that people love. Mysteries of the universe.@@WilstormGaming
after 10 years of gw2, my end game content has become killing people with my cringe builds in eternal battlegrounds!
solid vid btw
Well, as I said, everyone likes different stuff! Thank you glad you liked it!
Watching this and playing other mmos recently trying to find a new home away from wow.
Jesus how much content did blizzard just yoink from other games lol.
Trying out gw2 now, feeling a little overwhelmed currently lol
GW2 has an endgame?? Been playing it for years and wasn't even aware it had a particular endgame.
Well if you've been playing for years I assume you enjoy something in the game at the very least!
The biggest issue with GW2's endgame content is the players themselves, specifically those that have not done any of it or done very little of it (with none of that being the top tier endgame like CMs).
The issue being that these players fill the open world from starter zones to max level meta events where they routinely doomsay in map chat that either endgame content is too hard and inaccessible, or that it is too easy because they've already done some of the early stuff and it wasn't a big deal.
If you got carried through the first half of wing 4 non-CM by being a "Hi DPS" at the bottom of the meter and likely the arena floor, you haven't done raiding yet. If you haven't had to infuse a single piece of gear with Agony Resistence, you haven't done Fractals yet. If you haven't done Strikes outside of Easy 3, you haven't done strikes AT ALL yet.
Yeah absolutely, I think there's a decent bit of challenging content if you're willing to give it a go. Lots of the GW2 community seems daunted by raids though so things like emboldened mode and easy 3 are good for accessibility.
Emboldened mode :x so bosses roll over because of pity, not because you're good enough. Not a fan.
Yeah lot's of people are too daunted by raiding so I think its good to have an "easy mode" for accessibility still.
remember its just optional.
I play the game for the FLUID COMBAT that all other MMOs can't seem to get right. The fluid animations and movement. I love fractals because Tier 4s can get a little spicy from time to time and the rewards are 10-20 liquid gold a day (selling trash items from opening encryption boxes). But again, I play because of the COMBAT. Not a "competitive speed run" or for gear drops. GW2 is not about the grind, it's about the journey and experiences. It's like playing CoD for the cosmetics... uh, no, I like the act of aiming and controlling firearms. I actually have a life and GW2 is a casual friendly game that fits my schedule. I hate FOMO and subscriptions.
And honestly, if you are committing a crap ton of time to a MMO then you have a problem. You must not be truly successful in the real world if you are 1000% focused on a gear grind like in WoW or BDO, or trying to go for that speed run... Spend some of that time working on a side hustle like me... I make 6 figs at a day job and extra side money doing professional photography/video production. Yes, you can have more than 1 hobby.
Yeah I love the combat style in GW2, its a strange mix of targeting and freestyle combat that feels really good.
Huh, you managed to make a video about GW2 endgame without mentioning its most popular endgame activity, Fashion Wars? Also Open World maps/metas are way more popular endgame activities than instanced PVE in GW2. Seriously, OW and fashion are where the endgame shines for most of the game's playerbase. The OW is amazing and doesn't get old for many of us. Also, I think WVW is on par with instanced PVE.
Yeah absolutely, this was a follow on to my previous video about GW2 best features where Open World was my top.
TLDR: YES
fractals did get boring after a while(and by a while I mean I played them for years before getting bored, now I still play them occasionally but prefer wvw since this is player driven content)however a lot of vet players will still do them because especially at the higher levels the gold output is really good.
+3 agony rezist LOL
Haha yeah I know its easier just to buy the +9s to start but I just wanted to demonstrated the system.
gw2 is good for casuals, terrible for anyone that wants anything remotely close to a challenge, as a result you've seen the lfg for raids being dead yourself because everyone that actually wanted to have a challenge went and played ff14 or wow after the last raid wing got released more than 4 years ago, after which arenanet fully stopped developing raids, having 4 boss raids that release every couple of years that are normal boss level in wow or early heroic raid isn't worth for anyone that wants a real challenge, same for fractals, going up in difficulty means nothing except the fact that you've got some AR on your gear, and the only challenge that somewhat exists is in the fractals that have challenge modes
Personally, gw2 is like an offline game that you play whenever you like, doing whatever it offer within and player coop/interaction is entirely optional. Since you don't need to actually progress your gear after getting full set of ascended and +9 infusion, it is so relax and fun to play. Rather than other MMO that u need to do all the thing it require to stay relevant. I'm nearly 8 years in the character age and I've only logged about ~3k hours. Was off the game for like a year, came back and can still do everything new, that to me is precious and what make me keeping this game.
GW2 is a good game,but it didn't age well.
Outfits and legendary qeuipment looks nice,but character animation and environment graphic looks horrible.
That being said,i played GW2 since release,up until 3 years ago when my accounts worth almost 300 k gold was hacked . I was never able to retrieve it.
Bought GW2 5 months ago, logged in,and after 10 minutes i refunded because it looked horrible on high end pc.
You are heavily underestimating low players. By orange they'll be able to catch onto patterns you're spamming at the very least. Some of them can punish consistently.