Thinking of buying, coming from WoW

I've been playing WoW now for years, but due to getting my account and my wife's banned for a reason unknown to me, I'm done with Blizzard.

Can any of you guys that came from WoW give me some perspective on what this game is like?

Is leveling to 20 an extremely tedious process like in wow?

How does gameplay compare?

Disclaimer: I have only played Nightfall so far, so these only pertain to that game.

Leveling is very quick and not tedious in the least. In fact, you will likely be in the level 16-20 range before your character even leaves "newb-island". Gameplay is not based around your level, 90% of the game has been balanced on the assumption that your character will be level 20. Instead of being based on levels it is based on what skills you have and how you combine them to make your character effective for a given encounter.

Skills are purchased, elite skills are learned from killing boss enemies scattered around the continent. Builds can change anytime you are in town- drop/add whatever skill you want to (only 8 can be active at a time), reset your attribute points, change your secondary class, etc. This lets you always be creative trying out new builds to see how you like them.

Gameplay (fighting) is much faster than WoW in my opinion. I enjoy it more, it has a different feel, it doesn't feel so much like the D&D dice roll type of combat that WoW has under its hood.

Some people that I have spoked to like WoW better because it dangles more tantalizing carrots in front of the players (epic l00tz.) The carrot in GW seems to be more the gameplay itselfs, whether it be PVE or PVP. If you require the type of reward that 40-man raid DPK farming/grinding gives you (like my boss does) to enjoy a game, you might not think GW has enough to offer. Unlike my boss, I think GW has more to offer than WoW simply because I enjoy the gameplay better, and I don't think that grinding for epic gear == good gameplay.

I came from wow. The game graphics in my opinion actually look real compared to wow's cartoonish graphics, also I am lvl 9 and it was pretty easy getting there. Also as you may already know, no monthly fees. I like guild wars. The only downside I see is when you go out side of town you can not see other players accept your party. I would recomend getting it though.

You will find things are much simpler in GW. lvl-ing to 20 will take from 1 day to a week depending on which chapter you buy. Gameplay is fun but u might feel restricted as u r only allowed to bring 8 skills with u when u go out of town. scenery is awesome. i would suggest you do a search for "WoW" or something like that as there are a few threads similiar to urs.

Note: Sorry about the formatting, I can't seem to add spaces between points. :P

I've played WoW using a trial-key but later decided I'd go with GW instead since WoW seems to need an awful lot of commitment (due to the pace of things). I'll try to give a comparison between GW and WoW as best as I can.

-------

1. Leveling up to 20 doesn't take very long since mobs are always in abundance and quests/missions do give experience as rewards (in Prophecies, leveling may be somewhat slower than the other chapters). No grinding required at all from my experience through all 3 chapters. A character still levels up post 20 to get skill points for buying skills but character level will never exceed 20.

2. GW has a start and end of story. It works like Diablo II where you have missions (quests in D2) that take you through the storyline. IIRC, WoW does not have this. It might be worth noting that different chapters of Guild Wars play somewhat differently, you may find some chapters rather mission-oriented (such as Factions, where you can't travel freely to another place).

3. GW is dungeon-based in that all explorable areas are instances. On the other hand, the world of WoW is in 1 piece except dungeons which are instanced. As such, you won't see any other players except your own party members when adventuring in GW world but neither would you need to wait for mob respawns.

4. GW is less interactive than WoW in that you don't really interact alot with your environment. Not many things you can really do with your character other than using emotes and killing stuff. For e.g. can't swim, can't sit on chairs.

5. The feel of the world is alot less than WoW due to instancing. Towns are full of standing NPCs, there aren't any shops or buildings that you can virtually walk in and look around. Towns/outposts are the only places where you'll get to see other players. There are also no steeds so running is the only way to move around. However, when you have acquired a new location, to get back to that location, you can open up your map and immediately 'teleport' back (without having to run all the way).

6. GW does not feature any life skills (i.e. professions in WoW) but I think (don't take my word for it though) it has been discussed that ANet may consider introducing them in the future.

7. GW user interface currently isn't as advanced as WoW so it may be tedious to perform certain actions, however, ANet is always trying to improve it so it may change to become more efficient in the future.

8. GW professions (similarly to WoW classes) are more balanced for PvE, even if you use a monk, it has powerful offensive skills to make a kill. I was under the impression that it's nearly impossible to solo in WoW as a priest. In GW, you'll have to pick a primary and secondary profession. Secondary professions can be altered later on in the game if you decide to change and try out something else. Secondary profession change works like 'unlocking' in that if you change from 1 secondary profession to another, you can always change back to the old one with all the previous skills acquired remained intact.

9. Statistical points (known as Attributes) in GW are different than most games in that they are levels of mastery of a certain category of skills. Attributes affect directly how effective your skills become, they behave quite differently form stat points in that of WoW (they resemble more of Talent points). Attributes are re-adjustable at no additional costs so you can never make a wrong character (unless you picked the wrong hair or face you'd have liked).

10. There's no permanent death penalty, however, there is a temporary one if you die while adventuring in an explorable area. Per death costs a -15% in health and energy to a max of 60%. This affects your effectiveness while adventuring but will reset whenever you visit a town/outpost. Gaining experience during adventuring will help to reduce the penalty slowly.

11. Graphics in GW are pretty good but lighting effects aren't as realistic as WoW. Toons in GW definitely look way better than in WoW, albeit the latter is more interesting (different races). There's also an absence of weather and time effects in GW, however, I vaguely remember seeing rain and night time in Nightfall.

12. Enemy AI in GW generally behaves the same. In WoW, enemy AI has more personality.

13. Fights in GW is more exciting as it occurs at a faster pace. You can only equip 8 skills at any one time so there are only 8 skills to manage; this also means that you have to give it some thought as to what skills you wanna bring since skills can only be changed at towns/outposts.

14. Can't really comment on PvP as I haven't done much of it on either games.

15. As for economy, I guess every game has their own problems with it. Currently, there isn't any auction house implementation in GW so trading is done through spamming in the trade channel and using the trade interface to commit.

16. I find that WoW has more depth in the overall gameplay while GW has clearly more depth in terms of fights.

17. Most of the things you'd find in GW will occur to you as 'non-hassle', mainly how ANet had wanted it. There's no need to buy arrows since they'll never run out, no need to constantly run from one town to another (if you've been there before) since you can 'map' into the spot, no need to feed pets since they have 'absolute loyalty', etc.

------

To sum it all up, the action in GW is definitely more exciting and fast-paced. On the other hand, variety in gameplay, realism of the environment and immersion into the world is something WoW is better at. Being more hassle-free, it's faster to accomplish game tasks in GW and thus, requiring lesser commitment. GW is not MMORPG in any case so it doesn't offer most of what MMORPG has. Nevertheless, GW has alot to offer, but depending on where your primary interests lie, it may not be as much as what WoW could've offered.

Hope this helps to give you a rough idea. You can also try requesting for a trial key in this thread if you wanna try out the game before buying: http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10067073

@ Thallandor:
Eh bro, good idea. Thanks! :P
Dang, linespaces don't seem to work with lists.

Nice summary and comparison birdfoot.

Thanks for sharing

Well having played WOW on a 2-week trial, I still prefer GW for better graphics overall, faster gameplay and less dependence on items than skills.

If I wanted immersion, such as browsing shops, eating, swimming, day and night etc, I can always fall back on Elder Scrolls 3 & 4, which by the way have stunning graphics.

Well I bought Nightfall. So far I like it, I'm only level 5 though. When does the storyline really pick up/you feel like you're doing something other than just running random errands for people? dungeons(or something the equivalent of an instance in wow kinda), quests that really need a good party, etc?

Just keep following the primary quests which lead to the missions and things will progressively get harder as you go. This is meant as the tutorial area so obviously isn't designed to kick your butt just yet.

Played 2 years of WoW just came over to Guild Wars in early October. I had Guild Wars installed for the better part of a year but hadn't really played it. (was still in Pre-Sear)

I currently have all 3 Campaigns and I am hooked. There is so much to do in the game.

Leveling to 20 is the least of it, trust me.

I mostly agree with Birdfoot's comprehensive post

I'd like to differ a little bit with the following:

The interface isn't bloated, and it is spartan by design. Guild Wars does not support macros or UI mods of any kind. Every player is on the same level playing field. There will be a learning curve, but it is more like an "unlearning" curve. You will have to learn to do things yourself that the WoW UI used to do for you.

It's all a matter of opinion, but I am convinced Guild Wars offers more depth to the player. Guild Wars ties your character into the storyline. The explorable areas change depending on the actions of your character. missions define the over all arc of the story line. In WoW the world remained mostly unchanged, in GW it does change in different ways depending on where you are at story-wise.

Also, you are not constantly fighting respawns. With very few exceptions, mobs don't pop back. When you clear an area of Foes it stays cleared while you are in the instance. This makes it much more believable for me.

I would add that it will be a great game for you and your wife to play together.

My only criticism of Guild Wars is that it can be difficult to find friends in the game because of the tendency of the game to fracture the social scene: instanced areas, Heroes and Henchies, 3 vast campaigns...these things spread people out or sometimes present obstacles to meeting new people or grouping with them regularly. But, they can be overcome.

Give me a holler in game, i will be glad to help with whatever I can.

There are many WoW refugees in Guild Wars.

Are you the same person they have mentioned in the holiday issue of pc gamer?

Dammit, now I want to know what you are talking about.

I came from WOW when Guild Wars came out in 2005. I first tried it on a whim but stayed due to the way it is set up (the no fee to play didn't hurt either). Depending on the chapter you buy like others have said it can ake from a day to a week to get to lvl 20. Unlike WOW Guild Wars is based more on howskilled you are at using what is given to you. My suggestion is to get the first chapter (Prophecies) and start fro the begining to learn the complete story. Then later get the other chapters to further you education on Tyria,Cantha,and Elona. The main quests can go quite quickly but the fun is in doing the side quests where you can learn several other facits of the game. Some of the side quests tie into later parts of the main game and can be fun to find them.

As far as PVP and GVG, you will have to get a feel for the mechanics of the game before I can recommend them, they can be fun if you have a good team thogh.
Have fun and I hope you enjoy Guild Wars.


Mega Mouse

YES, Elder Scrolls online, the story of Morrowind the graphics of Oblivion omfg that would own evrything.

I would suggest you also get prophecies as it has key skills that you will not br able to get from the other 2 chapters.
For instance if you like playing warrior you can only get a key axe skill called eviscerate and a major over site in my opinion for hammer users crushing blow is only available from the 1st chapter

Still playing Lvl 7 right now.

Once you do actually get to lvl 20 and have completed the main mission sequence, what is there to keep you playing? Is it just pvp? Or is there some equivalent to endgame instances in wow?

There are yes. Once you have ascended there are special areas called the Underworld and Fissure of Woe which are the nearest this game has to WoW's endgame instances. There are special items that only drop there and armour to collect. If you end up buying all three campaigns though it would take you a good while to complete everything. I have been playing since launch and have yet to finish every mission there is to do, and there will always be skills to cap and builds to try to occupy your time.
Also, since they have been releasing new expansions every six months you always have something new to look forward to even if you do manage to burn through everything the game has to offer in that time