Without a doubt Guild Wars 2. From playing the 3 beta weekends so far, I have to say it's just superior to diablo in every way :/
And I have never played WoW, but it seems like it has it's own problems and I wouldn't be thrilled paying a subscription fee for a mostly PvE game.
PvP is my main attraction, and GW2 is completely structured around PvP, while also having amazing PvE (most games are the other way around unfortunately, or having no PvP at all)
GW2 seems very limited, the idea of skills associating with weapons is neat but you don't get to choose the skills. There aren't like 20 sword skills and 20 axe skills to choose from for their respective weapon. It's "you are using a sword, your first 5 skill slots with be this and only this" which is aggravating.
This fact, while frustrating, was one I was actually willing to look past, trying to keep an open mind because I admire that they're trying something unique. My real issue with GW2 was when I was wondering why it seemed to take far longer to level from 5-6 or 6-7 than it should in a game that has 80 levels. Don't jump to conclusions, I'm going somewhere with this.
So the extremely low level leveling process seemed to be counter-intuitively taking longer than it should, all things considered (I've played many mmo's and the like). What could be the solution to this mystery? I kept exploring the beta anyway. Finally, while just trying to explore the different features I discovered, to my horror, that they implemented a "Pay To Win" system that they call something like "Black Lion Trading Post". The point can be argued that it's not a necessity to play the game but it's hard to believe that when it the leveling process actually feels like they hamstring your xp gains just so that you'll buy the bonus xp buffs with real money in a game you already paid for. There's even a buff that you buy with real money that increases your MF by 50%, like you would ever want to be without that buff. With things like this added, nobody can convince me that the game isn't "pay to win" like most quote unquote "free" games.
TLDR: I prepurchased gw2, during the beta I discovered they made it pay2win even though it's a game you have to purchase, immediately decided to get a refund(their customer service was spectacular though)
*edit - I thought it might be noteworthy to add that I absolutely loved GW1 and wanted with all my heart to enjoy GW2 but...eww
I totally understand where you're coming from, but a few little misconceptions that I feel like i have to point out
1. Yes the skills are based on your weapon type, however, each class has different skills associated with those weapons. Like an engineer's are completely different from a theifs, and each class has a variety of weapons which actually comes out to a pretty massive amount of skill variance for each class. This actually synergizes really well with the fact that you can equip an off hand and switch with one single key, to access 10 or so more skills at one time, then key back to your other weapon, or simply quickswitch to duel weild mid combat which it allows you to freely do. (A lesson I think Blizzard should take note of, this kind of freedom is a good thing, it promotes actual strategy)
2. Each level in guild wars takes exactly the same amount of time as the previous one. I understand that you think it's going to take an extremely long time to level up to 80, but that's actually not really the case at all. I was able to casually level up to 20 or so on brand new characters in just a few hours doing World v. World pvp, not even grinding, that's not even trying to level up, I was able to do that as a max level character right from level 1, but it was actually contributing to my overall character level for me. I thought, hey this is amazing, you mean I don't have to do all that boring grinding, and the levels dont progressively take longer and longer each time? Nope.
Pretty damn innovative in my opinion.
3. Items have very little actual value. Gear in GW2 isn't like gear in diablo 3 or WoW, not really at all. As a matter of fact, the actual gear hunt is completely an aesthetic thing. It's for style and collecting rare LOOKING items, that actually don't give you an incredible game breaking advantage over other players who simply invested more time into the grind, such as every other MMO out on the market.
You can literally log in as a level 1, enter structured PvP or World v. World, and it automatically boosts your character to max level so you can enjoy playing PvP without feeling like, omg this guy just has better gear than me i'm getting destroyed. Instead, it becomes so much more of a skill based game, where player ability and intuition is the actual determining factor for success, rather than a random meaningless item you had to grind for weeks to get, or somebody simply bought with real money. That actually doesn't matter.
4. So the cash shop does provide boosts, in terms of exp, karma, and those things for your character through the use of gems. But these things really will have no bearing on whether a player succeeds in GW2 or not, because going back to point #3, gear actually doesnt' make a huge difference in the game, you automatically are given level 80 items for the duration of playing PvP, but then vanish once you come back to the real world. So if PvE is actually mostly just farming for items for fasion purposes, or neat flashy items that are rare and stylish but don't make you godlike just because you're carrying them, who really cares who buys what from the cash shop. It seriously doesn't make a difference, more power to them for supporting arenanet.
(also to clarify, gear gives you a slight advantage it's not non existant, but it's not going to be the huge determining factor of whether you live or die such as the case for diablo 3.) It's basically the perfect game for PvP enthusiasts and working class gamers who don't have 40+ hours a week to invest into an mmo, but are rewarded just for playing, you never really "fall behind".
I totally understand where you're coming from, but a few little misconceptions that I feel like i have to point out
1. Yes the skills are based on your weapon type, however, each class has different skills associated with those weapons. Like an engineer's are completely different from a theifs, and each class has a variety of weapons which actually comes out to a pretty massive amount of skill variance for each class. This actually synergizes really well with the fact that you can equip an off hand and switch with one single key, to access 10 or so more skills at one time, then key back to your other weapon, or simply quickswitch to duel weild mid combat which it allows you to freely do. (A lesson I think Blizzard should take note of, this kind of freedom is a good thing, it promotes actual strategy)
2. Each level in guild wars takes exactly the same amount of time as the previous one. I understand that you think it's going to take an extremely long time to level up to 80, but that's actually not really the case at all. I was able to casually level up to 20 or so on brand new characters in just a few hours doing World v. World pvp, not even grinding, that's not even trying to level up, I was able to do that as a max level character right from level 1, but it was actually contributing to my overall character level for me. I thought, hey this is amazing, you mean I don't have to do all that boring grinding, and the levels dont progressively take longer and longer each time? Nope.
Pretty damn innovative in my opinion.
3. Items have very little actual value. Gear in GW2 isn't like gear in diablo 3 or WoW, not really at all. As a matter of fact, the actual gear hunt is completely an aesthetic thing. It's for style and collecting rare LOOKING items, that actually don't give you an incredible game breaking advantage over other players who simply invested more time into the grind, such as every other MMO out on the market.
You can literally log in as a level 1, enter structured PvP or World v. World, and it automatically boosts your character to max level so you can enjoy playing PvP without feeling like, omg this guy just has better gear than me i'm getting destroyed. Instead, it becomes so much more of a skill based game, where player ability and intuition is the actual determining factor for success, rather than a random meaningless item you had to grind for weeks to get, or somebody simply bought with real money. That actually doesn't matter.
4. So the cash shop does provide boosts, in terms of exp, karma, and those things for your character through the use of gems. But these things really will have no bearing on whether a player succeeds in GW2 or not, because going back to point #3, gear actually doesnt' make a huge difference in the game, you automatically are given level 80 items for the duration of playing PvP, but then vanish once you come back to the real world. So if PvE is actually mostly just farming for items for fasion purposes, or neat flashy items that are rare and stylish but don't make you godlike just because you're carrying them, who really cares who buys what from the cash shop. It seriously doesn't make a difference, more power to them for supporting arenanet.
(also to clarify, gear gives you a slight advantage it's not non existant, but it's not going to be the huge determining factor of whether you live or die such as the case for diablo 3.) It's basically the perfect game for PvP enthusiasts and working class gamers who don't have 40+ hours a week to invest into an mmo, but are rewarded just for playing, you never really "fall behind".
Reading all this leaves me with the impression that it is truly devoid of what most fans of WoW want. If they are fans of WoW, they like to raid - get gear - participate in co-ordinated boss kills with friends in a raid - be it 10 man or 25 or back in the old 40 with tons of derps.
And it's all fine and dandy that GW2 is like it is, but if all you can get is visuals and no actual major impact of gear progression - How is it that you feel you do progress? You LOOK more bad-ass? Well.. Not to be rude, but that's kind of shallow. I want my character to feel more powerful - Stronger - More awesome - To feel the strategic need of choosing my stats (even if this is extremely limited in WoW - I prefer it much more in DoW II).
I think that point is valid if you consider gear as actual progression. For myself, and many other gamers, gear grinding just feels pointless, you get more gear to kill more monsters, for more gear? To me that seems shallow in all honesty. It seems like an endless waste of time.
The depth of GW2 is in the mechanics, and actual player skill. You do get better gear to help you, but it's really not the main determining factor. Learning harder and harder Boss mechanics, learning to use groups to take down bosses that require you to get to a certain level and use teamwork to defeat them is basically exactly the same as WoW, except the emphasis is placed on teamwork and coordination instead of being a gear check. (to reiterate - I'm not saying raiding has no skill, it obviously has a ton of it, what i'm saying is that the point of WoW seems to be an endless gear hunt that seemingly has no real point at all. If you find value in that, great! But I think that's a real turn off for most gamers in 2012, the facade of purpose has kind of been figured out and is no longer attractive)
The depth is still very much there, as i said you do get gear upgrades, and they are GOING to be required for progression in the PvE world, but gear isn't the point of the game. The point of the game is PvP, and World vs. World combat, dominating another server through the use of real talent and ability, the challenge of taking down another human is infinitely more rewarding than taking down a raid boss simply because you grinded the gear to do it.
I think the main difference is that GW2 is structured toward PvP, where as WoW and D3 are structured toward PvE, for PvP lovers, you are going to find a game like GW2 just so much more rewarding.
For example, there is a built in Tournament system, where a team of 5 players competes with other teams for an eventual reward to the champion, these run all day long (You get the tickets to compete in them through the Structured PvP system. There is obviously World v. World, and also Structured PvP which is more E-Sportish, which is infinitely entertaining, the same way Starcraft 2 or Counterstrike is, the PvP mechanics are crazy complex and deep.
The main reason i believe more power beats "better looks" in actual terms of gameplay - is simple. How much can you prestige with your gear? How well can you manage to trim the edges? That is the prominent feature of gear and gear choices. Where as of looks.. Well. It speaks for it self.
I don't know why people pretend that they don't like seeing their character gear up and become more powerful. Having a toon in full DS Heroic gear it's kind of enjoyable in a retrospective "how far have I come" way to go do a Wildhammer daily and realize those mobs used to take me 10+ seconds to kill and now I damn near one-shot them. That feeling of reminiscing about the expansion through a then-and-now comparison has never gotten old in WoW, ever, and I just can't fathom why anyone would pretend that it's not a fun, enjoyable thing.
I mean I don't doubt that not everyone gets their kicks from stuff like that, but even for those people it has to still be somewhat enjoyable. I simply can't imagine how anyone could go through a scenario like that and think "MAN THIS SUCKS!!!!!!"
I'm quiting D3 until a new patch appears. Playing D3 is really unrewarding at this point - in one game sension i'm not able to improve my character, my possessions or my skill. I think D3's gameplay lacks the depth modern game asks, it's all hit, run and use skill in the right time.
I don't know why people pretend that they don't like seeing their character gear up and become more powerful. Having a toon in full DS Heroic gear it's kind of enjoyable in a retrospective "how far have I come" way to go do a Wildhammer daily and realize those mobs used to take me 10+ seconds to kill and now I damn near one-shot them. That feeling of reminiscing about the expansion through a then-and-now comparison has never gotten old in WoW, ever, and I just can't fathom why anyone would pretend that it's not a fun, enjoyable thing.
I mean I don't doubt that not everyone gets their kicks from stuff like that, but even for those people it has to still be somewhat enjoyable. I simply can't imagine how anyone could go through a scenario like that and think "MAN THIS SUCKS!!!!!!"
It is kind of an illusion though. You do 10% more damage and the monsters get 10% more HP. Unless you go back to obsolete content like you said, but by the same token I could go back to Elwynn forest and own the hell out of some gnolls if I wanted...
The main reason i believe more power beats "better looks" in actual terms of gameplay - is simple. How much can you prestige with your gear? How well can you manage to trim the edges? That is the prominent feature of gear and gear choices. Where as of looks.. Well. It speaks for it self.
Having a toon in full DS Heroic gear it's kind of enjoyable in a retrospective "how far have I come"
Why do you think it has to be D3 or WoW? D3 is free, no monthly fees, its a casual hack and slash game with no kind of daily or even weekly play requirements. Why would anyone have to choose one or the other especially when a brain dead monkey can easily figure out how to make D3 pay for their WoW account once they allow battle.net balance to be used for subscription fees?
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I totally understand where you're coming from, but a few little misconceptions that I feel like i have to point out
1. Yes the skills are based on your weapon type, however, each class has different skills associated with those weapons. Like an engineer's are completely different from a theifs, and each class has a variety of weapons which actually comes out to a pretty massive amount of skill variance for each class. This actually synergizes really well with the fact that you can equip an off hand and switch with one single key, to access 10 or so more skills at one time, then key back to your other weapon, or simply quickswitch to duel weild mid combat which it allows you to freely do. (A lesson I think Blizzard should take note of, this kind of freedom is a good thing, it promotes actual strategy)
2. Each level in guild wars takes exactly the same amount of time as the previous one. I understand that you think it's going to take an extremely long time to level up to 80, but that's actually not really the case at all. I was able to casually level up to 20 or so on brand new characters in just a few hours doing World v. World pvp, not even grinding, that's not even trying to level up, I was able to do that as a max level character right from level 1, but it was actually contributing to my overall character level for me. I thought, hey this is amazing, you mean I don't have to do all that boring grinding, and the levels dont progressively take longer and longer each time? Nope.
Pretty damn innovative in my opinion.
3. Items have very little actual value. Gear in GW2 isn't like gear in diablo 3 or WoW, not really at all. As a matter of fact, the actual gear hunt is completely an aesthetic thing. It's for style and collecting rare LOOKING items, that actually don't give you an incredible game breaking advantage over other players who simply invested more time into the grind, such as every other MMO out on the market.
You can literally log in as a level 1, enter structured PvP or World v. World, and it automatically boosts your character to max level so you can enjoy playing PvP without feeling like, omg this guy just has better gear than me i'm getting destroyed. Instead, it becomes so much more of a skill based game, where player ability and intuition is the actual determining factor for success, rather than a random meaningless item you had to grind for weeks to get, or somebody simply bought with real money. That actually doesn't matter.
4. So the cash shop does provide boosts, in terms of exp, karma, and those things for your character through the use of gems. But these things really will have no bearing on whether a player succeeds in GW2 or not, because going back to point #3, gear actually doesnt' make a huge difference in the game, you automatically are given level 80 items for the duration of playing PvP, but then vanish once you come back to the real world. So if PvE is actually mostly just farming for items for fasion purposes, or neat flashy items that are rare and stylish but don't make you godlike just because you're carrying them, who really cares who buys what from the cash shop. It seriously doesn't make a difference, more power to them for supporting arenanet.
(also to clarify, gear gives you a slight advantage it's not non existant, but it's not going to be the huge determining factor of whether you live or die such as the case for diablo 3.) It's basically the perfect game for PvP enthusiasts and working class gamers who don't have 40+ hours a week to invest into an mmo, but are rewarded just for playing, you never really "fall behind".
I think that point is valid if you consider gear as actual progression. For myself, and many other gamers, gear grinding just feels pointless, you get more gear to kill more monsters, for more gear? To me that seems shallow in all honesty. It seems like an endless waste of time.
The depth of GW2 is in the mechanics, and actual player skill. You do get better gear to help you, but it's really not the main determining factor. Learning harder and harder Boss mechanics, learning to use groups to take down bosses that require you to get to a certain level and use teamwork to defeat them is basically exactly the same as WoW, except the emphasis is placed on teamwork and coordination instead of being a gear check. (to reiterate - I'm not saying raiding has no skill, it obviously has a ton of it, what i'm saying is that the point of WoW seems to be an endless gear hunt that seemingly has no real point at all. If you find value in that, great! But I think that's a real turn off for most gamers in 2012, the facade of purpose has kind of been figured out and is no longer attractive)
The depth is still very much there, as i said you do get gear upgrades, and they are GOING to be required for progression in the PvE world, but gear isn't the point of the game. The point of the game is PvP, and World vs. World combat, dominating another server through the use of real talent and ability, the challenge of taking down another human is infinitely more rewarding than taking down a raid boss simply because you grinded the gear to do it.
I think the main difference is that GW2 is structured toward PvP, where as WoW and D3 are structured toward PvE, for PvP lovers, you are going to find a game like GW2 just so much more rewarding.
For example, there is a built in Tournament system, where a team of 5 players competes with other teams for an eventual reward to the champion, these run all day long (You get the tickets to compete in them through the Structured PvP system. There is obviously World v. World, and also Structured PvP which is more E-Sportish, which is infinitely entertaining, the same way Starcraft 2 or Counterstrike is, the PvP mechanics are crazy complex and deep.
I don't know why people pretend that they don't like seeing their character gear up and become more powerful. Having a toon in full DS Heroic gear it's kind of enjoyable in a retrospective "how far have I come" way to go do a Wildhammer daily and realize those mobs used to take me 10+ seconds to kill and now I damn near one-shot them. That feeling of reminiscing about the expansion through a then-and-now comparison has never gotten old in WoW, ever, and I just can't fathom why anyone would pretend that it's not a fun, enjoyable thing.
I mean I don't doubt that not everyone gets their kicks from stuff like that, but even for those people it has to still be somewhat enjoyable. I simply can't imagine how anyone could go through a scenario like that and think "MAN THIS SUCKS!!!!!!"
It is kind of an illusion though. You do 10% more damage and the monsters get 10% more HP. Unless you go back to obsolete content like you said, but by the same token I could go back to Elwynn forest and own the hell out of some gnolls if I wanted...
True of all RPGs I guess.
WOW Gear...pfftt...overated...