Should i play from steam or from the official launcher ?

[Alex998]

Total noob here who recently got suggested to try the game out, but i'm kinda undecided because some people said i should play from the laucher (they said the game runs smoother from there) and others from steam (because of better transictions if i plan to get the full game with expansions).
I'm kinda confused now so... which is generally considered the best between the two to play this game from ?

[Grungethefallen]

I would say definately play on the launcher as I regret not playing on the launcher since the game doesn't tell you but if you get gems from a gem card thing then you cannot apply it to your Arena.net account as a steam user.

[John Hayabusa]

I would definitely play on the standalone client for the reasons the other posters recommended, but you can use all the benefits of Steam apart from Steam Wallet via the "-provider Portal" command.
Thats what i do. My Screenshots appear in the community tab, playtime is tracked, i see the Steam News updates for GW2, etc.

Another reason for the standalone version is, should you ever buy Guild Wars 1 (has achievements/vanity items/titles to carry over in GW2) , either via Steam or standalone, you can't link it to a GW2 account created via Steam. But you can buy GW1 via Steam and link it to the GW2 Standalone account that you are playing on via the command. It's as stupid as it sounds..

[Tyrian Mollusk]

Publicado originalmente por mont3000:

I picked steam because there is some made controller configurations that works good

You can use those with a standalone account the same as a Steam account, or you can use them with GW2 as a non-Steam game. I've got both set up, since it's easy to do now (you can add the Steam install as a no-Steam game, and it simply works the same as having the standalone install around).

Publicado originalmente por RUNEZ:

Pretty smooth and not awkward?

Probably depends how you feel about shift keys on controllers. My partner and I always play on controller, and enjoy it quite a bit.

[LLZwerg]

Another reason for using the ANet launcher (at least for me) would be that when I play GW2 then others whom I shared my library with (e.g. my nieces) can play games from my library while I'm in GW2. When I would play GW2 via Steam, my library would be locked for them.