any progression ?

[Nicbloub]

Is there any progression ? how does it works ? I heard everyone had the same skills in a class, the gear doesnt really change....whats up with a mmo with no progression, how does it feel ?

[Angoril]

There is no meaningful progression, no. Once you reach 80 there are 2 gear rarities that you are gonna bother with, Exotic which is super cheap and can buy from the trading post or Ascended which is slightly better than Exotic and can be crafted... or be super patient while RNGesus decides whether you're worthy of a drop or not. Legendary gear is the same as Ascended with fancy skins and the ability to stat swap on the fly. The only reason you would change gear in GW2 would be if you wanted to play a different build, otherwise your 7 year old character will still be as up to date as it was 7 years ago.

The weapon skills don't change. 1-5 are determined by the weapon(s) you have equipped and the class you play (aka an axe has different skills on a Guardian and a Necromancer, but all Necromancers have the same exact skills while wielding an axe) which can be good due to the skill variety and annoying at times due to the complete lack of customization. 6-0 can be chosen as those are class specific skills. Every class has access to all the class skills at level 80 and unlike other MMOs the points you get are more than enough to unlock everything so there is no way to mess up and need to start over or pay for respec. Makes experimenting a lot easier.

As for how it feels... it's good and bad. It's good because you never feel pressured to do something. If you have 4 hours total in a week to play, you can still enjoy everything in the game similar to everyone else without needing to slave away farming the same dungeon until you have the "latest and greatest" gear. You can also ignore complete sections of the game if they don't interest you without missing out on anything. It's bad because the moment you achieve your personal goals or get bored of aimless farming there is nothing interesting in the game. There is a lot to do for achievement hunters or people who enjoy unlocking/purchasing skins but if those ain't your thing, GW2 becomes dull fairly fast.

[LoliNoxTan]

Originally posted by Nicbloub:

Is there any progression ? how does it works ? I heard everyone had the same skills in a class, the gear doesnt really change....whats up with a mmo with no progression, how does it feel ?

You have 10 skills, 5 tied to your weapon and 5 tied to your profession/elite spec (1 of which is an Elite)
The progression centred around skins & AP score (which allows you to make more gold)

Content revolves around player skill & not a gear score number

[-Morogoth-]

Originally posted by Nicbloub:

Is there any progression ? how does it works ? I heard everyone had the same skills in a class, the gear doesnt really change....whats up with a mmo with no progression, how does it feel ?

Once level 80 your progression starts. You have to gather mastery points, so when you first get into the games you'll see people being "level" 300, except it isn't their overhaul level, it's just the number of mastery points they have spent.
Mastery points don't give you more damage done or else, it changes slightly your quality of life ingame (such as picking up the loot from bodies automatically, bonus loots in dungeons, or improving your mounts)

[Nicbloub]

hmm i see, not sure its my type ! thanks a lot for the replies

[LoliNoxTan]

Originally posted by Nicbloub:

hmm i see, not sure its my type ! thanks a lot for the replies

Fair enough mate. The base game is F2P so it's worth giving it a go to see if you would enjoy playing casually from time to time

[Nicbloub]

yea that might be a good idea

[SinisterSlay]

Yeah you have to actually get better at the game. You don't just get gear that is stronger.

People with the same builds and same gear could have very different DPS numbers just because of skill rotation.
And builds can be customized. Maybe you suck at dodging? Sacrifice DPS for defense and healing so you can take more hits without going down.
These are things you can choose as a player. It's not just looking at that one conveniently placed merchant in the town that happens to sell a weapon and armor that is slightly better than what you have.
And then a year later a new town with a new merchant is added, but he won't sell to you unless you hunt the evil mushroom minions and kill 250 of each variety of his minions, collect their heads, take them to the volcano and run a raid every day once a day to convert all 5000 heads one at a time into cooked shrooms that you then give to the merchant who tosses a coin and decides if he will convert your current gear into something better or something worse.

[Tiberius]

Honestly, defense stats are worthless in gw2.

Originally posted by SinisterSlay:

Yeah you have to actually get better at the game. You don't just get gear that is stronger.

People with the same builds and same gear could have very different DPS numbers just because of skill rotation.
And builds can be customized. Maybe you suck at dodging? Sacrifice DPS for defense and healing so you can take more hits without going down.
These are things you can choose as a player. It's not just looking at that one conveniently placed merchant in the town that happens to sell a weapon and armor that is slightly better than what you have.
And then a year later a new town with a new merchant is added, but he won't sell to you unless you hunt the evil mushroom minions and kill 250 of each variety of his minions, collect their heads, take them to the volcano and run a raid every day once a day to convert all 5000 heads one at a time into cooked shrooms that you then give to the merchant who tosses a coin and decides if he will convert your current gear into something better or something worse.

[LoliNoxTan]

Originally posted by Tiberius:

Honestly, defense stats are worthless in gw2.

Originally posted by SinisterSlay:

Yeah you have to actually get better at the game. You don't just get gear that is stronger.

People with the same builds and same gear could have very different DPS numbers just because of skill rotation.
And builds can be customized. Maybe you suck at dodging? Sacrifice DPS for defense and healing so you can take more hits without going down.
These are things you can choose as a player. It's not just looking at that one conveniently placed merchant in the town that happens to sell a weapon and armor that is slightly better than what you have.
And then a year later a new town with a new merchant is added, but he won't sell to you unless you hunt the evil mushroom minions and kill 250 of each variety of his minions, collect their heads, take them to the volcano and run a raid every day once a day to convert all 5000 heads one at a time into cooked shrooms that you then give to the merchant who tosses a coin and decides if he will convert your current gear into something better or something worse.

Not necessarily. Stats like Nomad's has its place

[Han Alister]

1-80 it's epic. Endgame is kinda huge boring ♥♥♥♥.

[-Morogoth-]

Originally posted by Han Alister:

1-80 it's epic. Endgame is kinda huge boring ♥♥♥♥.

It is boring if you play solo

[SinisterSlay]

Originally posted by Tiberius:

Honestly, defense stats are worthless in gw2.

High defense gets aggro in raids.

[Tiberius]

Originally posted by SinisterSlay:

Originally posted by Tiberius:

Honestly, defense stats are worthless in gw2.

High defense gets aggro in raids.

it's still worthless cos your stats just need a bit higher than anyone else in your group. There's no instance where you need high amt of defense stats, especially when you have access to many traits and skill that give you invulnerability and flat dmg reduction

[Asgaeroth]

GW2 doesn't have a gear treadmill, which is what makes it quite a nice game compared to many other MMOs. You can take a break and be right where you left off. Content doesn't get put in the dumpster every year. I still wear my very first ascended set I made back in 2014 and it still wrecks. This is a huge draw of the game. That does not mean GW2 doesn't have progression. You progress by unlocking account features and more stat sets. Instead of replacing your one set of one stats with another identical set but with higher numbers on the same stats, you collect more sets. It is called horizontal progression, versus the vertical progression system used in games like WoW. It is a substantially superior and more useful and meaningful system. Everything you make means something for your account forever, all your work isn't turned to vendor trash every few months.

In GW2 I am at 366 mastery and have 5 minmaxed build templates for my main and still feel like there's a lot left to do, when I play WoW I race to a decent raid set and then there's nothing to do but complain about how boring the same 3 dailies are and wait until Blizz turns that set into vendor trash and do it over again. If that is all you want out of an MMO then GW2 isn't your thing. In GW2 you make things that are meaningful and valuable and not disposable. Blizzard copying the ridiculous vertical progression system from EverQuest brainwashed the masses into thinking a stat treadmill is progression, when it is the opposite of progression. You never progress in anything in a vertical system, you are just meant to be trapped in an arbitrary sawtooth.

[Angoril]

Originally posted by Asgaeroth:

GW2 doesn't have a gear treadmill, which is what makes it quite a nice game compared to many other MMOs.

Originally posted by Asgaeroth:

It is a substantially superior and more useful and meaningful system.

Originally posted by Asgaeroth:

and then there's nothing to do but complain about how boring the same 3 dailies are

Those are fairly subjective. I dislike the gear treadmill in MMOs as it doesn't allow me to play at my own pace, I LOVE grinding for gear in ARPGs though. That said, once you're out of personal goals GW2 can become a really really boring game as it has... nothing to offer. It's like a sandbox game if you were to remove all the depth from it.

Originally posted by Asgaeroth:

In GW2 you make things that are meaningful and valuable and not disposable.

We must have been playing different games because I have seen nothing meaningful and valuable in GW2. Even weapons and armor are nothing but the equivalent of vendor trash once you have a couple sets full. Only stuff "locked" behind layers upon layers of RNG are "valuable" but even those are nothing but cosmetic items and fairly ugly at that too.

Originally posted by Asgaeroth:

You never progress in anything in a vertical system

Did your hatred for gear grind remove all the logic? You get better gear, you become more powerful... what is that if not progression? You think grinding to unlock the ability to access 1 point on the map is valuable progression? Or grinding to learn how to unlock chests? Or to gain a stackable buff that you can use nowhere else? Or a new skill that is 100% useless outside of that 1 map you never bother with?