Guild Wars 2

[Huw the Poo]

Yeah, Tpek's right.  I haven't seen an MMORPG that doesn't let you go back and do/get anything you may have missed.

More generally, Grim, crafting is pretty much just for making money (and some people enjoy it too!) but obviously if you can use what you craft it's a nice bonus.  Quests - do as many or as few of these as you like; the more you do, the quicker you'll level up but don't feel like there's any rush to 80, because there isn't - especially in GW2 which doesn't ask for a monthly fee!  Looting...you'll quickly get a feel for this.  You'll figure out for yourself what you want to loot and what you don't.  Some of it is just junk, and at any merchant you can click "sell junk" which is handy.  Some loot is useful for crafters and is usefully labelled as such.  Some is salvagable.  Look out for weapons and armour whose names are any colour except white, because they'll have better stats than common items.

[Grim.Reaper]

That is great to know it has that flexibility built in

[Tpek]

Yeah, Tpek's right.  I haven't seen an MMORPG that doesn't let you go back and do/get anything you may have missed.

More generally, Grim, crafting is pretty much just for making money (and some people enjoy it too!) but obviously if you can use what you craft it's a nice bonus.  Quests - do as many or as few of these as you like; the more you do, the quicker you'll level up but don't feel like there's any rush to 80, because there isn't - especially in GW2 which doesn't ask for a monthly fee!  Looting...you'll quickly get a feel for this.  You'll figure out for yourself what you want to loot and what you don't.  Some of it is just junk, and at any merchant you can click "sell junk" which is handy.  Some loot is useful for crafters and is usefully labelled as such.  Some is salvagable.  Look out for weapons and armour whose names are any colour except white, because they'll have better stats than common items.

Crafting has more purposes:
1) Make more powerful items.
2) Fun.
3) Experience.
4) Make new dyes and other stuff.
5) Some more activities to occupy yourself with.

[Nefaro]

Actually, you can often make more money not by crafting - but by gathering all the raw materials and selling them in stacks to crafters.  Takes a lot less time and focus off of the combat gameplay. 

That's if there are nodes where you must find and harvest the materials.  It also works better in MMOs where you are limited to how many gathering & crafting skills you can take since most people split those choices between both gathering & crafting skills.  In such cases, taking all gathering skills, and no crafting ones, allows you to gather more & faster than most people.

Also considering a good amount of MMO crafted items only work for people of lower character levels than yourself, you can just ask around for a crafter and tell them you already have the materials and they'll often craft you stuff more appropriate for your level at little or no expense.

[Tpek]

Actually, you can often make more money not by crafting - but by gathering all the raw materials and selling them in stacks to crafters.  Takes a lot less time and focus off of the combat gameplay. 

That's if there are nodes where you must find and harvest the materials.  It also works better in MMOs where you are limited to how many gathering & crafting skills you can take since most people split those choices between both gathering & crafting skills.  In such cases, taking all gathering skills, and no crafting ones, allows you to gather more & faster than most people.

Also considering a good amount of MMO crafted items only work for people of lower character levels than yourself, you can just ask around for a crafter and tell them you already have the materials and they'll often craft you stuff more appropriate for your level at little or no expense.

That's not a bad idea about getting others to craft for you in exchange for only the materials.
They get the XP, you get the item :)

[Huw the Poo]

Well, my ranger is a jeweller.  So far he's made a grand total of one ring. :)

[Nefaro]

That's not a bad idea about getting others to craft for you in exchange for only the materials.
They get the XP, you get the item :)

It's the most efficient use of the system that I've found.  But you mustn't enjoy the actual crafting part since you'll generally have to skip that.  Lots of people like to do that part, so that's what makes this strategy work well.

I regularly consider going all-gathering on my first character, depending on game mechanics.  It's just so much easier, and less of a headache.  Besides.. when my alts start crafting, I'll probably have leftover stacks of mats that didn't sell or weren't pawned off to the NPC vendors ready to go and can actually go get all those resources much more quickly and efficiently, having topped out gathering skills.

[Tpek]

That's not a bad idea about getting others to craft for you in exchange for only the materials.
They get the XP, you get the item :)

It's the most efficient use of the system that I've found.  But you mustn't enjoy the actual crafting part since you'll generally have to skip that.  Lots of people like to do that part, so that's what makes this strategy work well.

I regularly consider going all-gathering on my first character, depending on game mechanics.  It's just so much easier, and less of a headache.  Besides.. when my alts start crafting, I'll probably have leftover stacks of mats that didn't sell or weren't pawned off to the NPC vendors ready to go and can actually go get all those resources much more quickly and efficiently, having topped out gathering skills.

No gathering skills in this game.
Just tools.
They wear out after repeated use and have to be bought again (they're cheap though), plus you'll need better tools for higher level stuff or you'll just end up with junk that's
worth a few brass coins.

[Nefaro]

No gathering skills in this game.
Just tools.
They wear out after repeated use and have to be bought again (they're cheap though), plus you'll need better tools for higher level stuff or you'll just end up with junk that's
worth a few brass coins.

Well that ruins that whole situation.

I suspect that a lot of those MMO habits won't work with GW2 since it's not really a conventional MMO.

[Huw the Poo]

I suspect that a lot of those MMO habits won't work with GW2 since it's not really a conventional MMO.

One of the weirdest ones: any mob in the whole game could potentially kick your arse, no matter what level you are, if you don't keep your guard up.

[Tpek]

I suspect that a lot of those MMO habits won't work with GW2 since it's not really a conventional MMO.

One of the weirdest ones: any mob in the whole game could potentially kick your arse, no matter what level you are, if you don't keep your guard up.

Not really.
At least not with the tougher classes, where sometimes all you need is just set to the default autoattack and win :)

[Huw the Poo]

You know what I mean.  Trash mobs in GW2 aren't the same as trash mobs in other MMORPGs due to the level scaling.

[LongBlade]

So how many Grogheads are there playing the game at this point? I haven't been seriously looking at it but I'm starting to consider it.

[Grim.Reaper]

So how many Grogheads are there playing the game at this point? I haven't been seriously looking at it but I'm starting to consider it.

I am playing.....not well, but playing.  I was concerned about this type of game, but from what I can see it even plays well for single player minded people like myself.

[Bison]

I think there is around 6-8 or so LB.