Things you were surprised to not find in Guild Wars?

What commonly occurring elements of fantasy/mmorpg/asia/africa/evil god were you expecting to see in Guild Wars which didn't end up being in the game?

I realized sometime ago that Guild Wars didn't have a wizard with beard and pointy hat. I suppose Master Togo comes closest looking that way, but he is certainly lacking the hat element. Certainly different from other fantasies such as Lord of the Rings, where you have many bearded wizards with different colored robes running around everywhere.

Elephants in Africa. I mean, it's Africaaaa!

Elves. Dwarves > Elves? Surely, giving human characters pointy ear would be easier than creating a badly proportioned bearded men.

Ground-targetting AoE spells. In most games, per say, if you were casting Meteor Shower, you could just selected a patch of ground and cast over there even if no one was around. I was a bit surprised that Anet required AoE spells to require a target. (AoE, not PBAoE)

Potions. I prefer not having them available though.

Jump Jump Jump

A fun PvE system. Yes, I think the PvE system sucks. PvP is the shit, though! (I want more balance for it, but not everyone wins.)

Dronte beat me to it.

No jumping. I'd like to jump before I bring a hammer down on a baddie's head, or jump over a rock formation that is six inches high and blocking my progress.

I would like it if there was an item or ability to map back into a zone where I left off. You know, go to town, empty your bags and get back to it, that kinda thing. But that would mess up other mechanics . . .

It wouldn't bother me to never, ever see another elf or dwarf in a game. I'm from the Conan/Black Company mindset. Guild Wars enemies remind me more of something from a Moorcock tale, and I'm fine with that. Please, no elves, ever.

PvE PKing.

I don't miss it, but yeah. O_o. Instances ftw... most of the time. No idiot can get in once in the zone... nor can get out, mind you. Unless he leaves and if he was a key party member, you're eff'ed though.

Oh and multiple guilds/clans per account.

Yeah, this was a big surprise to me.

Random loot. I kept searching ruins and likely-looking nooks and crannies searching for treasure, but there weren't any to be found (chests were added later in the games history; yeah, I've been around since forever, and the game I started playing is hardly at all similar to the game today).

Mounts, I guess. In the Elder Scrolls games you could both map travel and ride a horse / walk, and since I knew nothing about GW before I bought it, I was a bit surprised to see that walking and map travel were the options for going places.

I actually think it was a good thing that Guild Wars did not have the cliché standard RPG elements at times (so few). I like unique ideas that don’t play to everyone else’s rules and boundaries (thinking outside the box). Unfortunately, some of this is changing for GW 2 in which the more typical is being accepted for unique. Of course, everyone has a different opinion on this, and that’s mine.

However if there was one thing I was not expecting from GW, was the fact the economy is so dependant on rare materials (e.g. ecto’s) that goes beyond the normal gold toon cap. I always believed there has to be another way in doing this and be able to fight off real- money-gold-transfers in game at the same time.

Waldo

12 Characters

The inability to fall/push off cliffs.

Just one damn thing-physics.There was tehnology to implement any kind of damn physic in game 2005.
So,in the end-no jump,character always die same way no matter is he died from wand sparcle or meteor in the head.
Cant forgive them also animation fight system-if anyone ever played Sw KotoR he would know what im talking about,i cant see over and over how some guy sqeeze some guys head with the hammer and after all that hit is blocked...cmon.

From a technical standpoint, I was first surprised over lack of item durability, encumbrance and typical RPG stats (str, int, dex, etc.). Visually, I was a bit miffed that male Warriors had to look like brutes and male Elementalists lacked the usual spell casting persona. I'm not saying these aspects are bad, per se, but they could have used a bit more polish.

Other portions of GW which stand out are the lvl 20 cap and the limitation to 8 skills. As an MMO junkie, I first thought these ideas were absolutely terrible. Once I delved into the game deeper, however, I came to realize that the system works wonders.

Different professions use different skill/weapon strike animations. See a Ritualist with daggers? A Paragon with a sword? An Assassin striking with a caster weapon? These are options which were not necessary, but I think they should be appreciated all the same. I haven't seen another online RPG that has this function.

Agreed. This is one reason why I refuse to touch WoW...everything it offers has been done time and time again.

Ah, for the days of pre-Trammel Ultima Online. Fun, fun times.

The whole instance thing didn't really shock me at first. I thought it was a nice feature, but having played instances extensively in Dark Age of Camelot, I was already somewhat accustomed to it. I do, however, miss meeting friends while exploring. In past ORPGs, I made a lot of friends (and a lover or two!) by helping strangers in a struggle, or vice-versa.

When I started playing GW, I had JUST moved from Diablo 2. I did not read anything about GW before I started playing. All I knew was from word of mouth. So naturally I was suprised about several things.

I was suprised to not see any uber weapons of everything-slaying, doing 5000 damage and having a stack of mods so big it goes off the screen. I was suprised to see no PKing. And I was suprised to see that all armor has to be crafted, and no "special" armor pieces drop. So yeah, I was suprised (in a good way) to not see any of that.

Mwahahahaha! We agree, ah how do we agree (this came up in one of the GW2 threads, somebody thought that my opinion on Elves mattered to Anet as well, which was highly amusing).

I was surprised by nothing, I guess. Having not played any games like this (MMO's and such) before I had no idea what was going on, it was great. Though I do think I wanted a hairstylist, can't remember, my memory's crap.

Didnt ment like that....thats all nice,but when i see 'BLOCKED' i want the damn animation how sword blocked axe attack,thats why i enjoyed in kotor so much

An Atomic Gorilla.

Wait....

The fact that this game isn't a real MMO. It's much more like a RPG with very limited multiplayer.

Yeah. Very hard to find a group of 8 people playing. Most of the time it a HUGE group of 2 or 3 at the most. Hero's and henchies never did anything for me.

Ahh...gotcha...blame the vicodin, please. Yes, I agree with you on that. Some skills such as [Brawling Headbutt] could also use specific animations. And just imagine if [Flashing Blades] got a visual representation.