Questions from noobs

[Thanamira]

1.  Despite the name, is PvP completely optional?  (I do PvP vicariously through Vylin.  Otherwise, it stresses me the hell out.)
2.  Crafting: awesome?  Sucks?  Enh?  Note that my comparison points are few: WoW, a bit of LOTRO, Skyrim.  I like: being able to craft useful stuff, not having to grind for mats or recipes.  (WoW fails, LOTRO sorta failed, Skyrim was pretty good although a bit tedious having to do merchant runs to make enough money to buy ore.)
3.  If I want to play a WoW-mage equivalent, I want an elementalist?

I'm open to other thumbs-up or thumbs-down comments.  Remember that I'm a low time (the D3 Nepthalem Valor thing bugs me because by the time I get a 5-stack, I want to logout), don't care about gear, ooh crafting!, ooh sparkly animations! (I got sold on WoW watching the Arcane Missile animation -- sad but true), stands in fire due to slow reflexes, kind of player.

(Not that I'd be joining until at least January.  Need new computer to arrive first.    )

[Wren]

1. PVP is completely optional, you can decide it doesn't exist if you so choose.  (I certainly happily ignore it)

2. Crafting is hmm, I think it's one of the better crafting experiences I've had although how difficult or grindy it is can depend on how far you want to push it. I like that you gain experience from crafting, in fact there are people who leveled their alts that way. Resource nodes (mining etc) exist for everyone so there's no competition on that front. So if you see a silver node and I'm running from the other direction and see the same node, there's an instance of it for each of us. No swearing involved.

3. WoW mage equivalent....Elementalist would probably be closest. You might also like some versions of mesmer. The thing to realize is that your abilities are tied to what weapon you use. So you can have people playing the same profession in very different ways because of what weapons they prefer. For example I can play a mesmer with a staff or scepter that is very castery or swap to dual wielding swords and have a very different experience. You might want to peruse youtube for different profession videos to see some gameplay.

I think it's a fun option for someone who wants to play once in a while since there's no subscription. They do regular content expansions/holiday events so you can always stop playing and wander back for updates.
For similar reasons you might want to peer at The Secret World although I don't know if the modern setting interests you at all. I can shoot you a 24 hour trial if you want to try that out.

[Vylin]

1) PvP is optional and completely seperate from the game. In Structured PvP (sPvP), everyone has even stats and the gear options you can buy and earn are only there for cosmetic reasons. You can respec any time and test out your spec on dummies before queueing up.

World vs. World vs. World (AKA WvW or Dub Vee Dub) bolsters you to 80 upon entering, but does not gift you with balanced gear stats or abilities. A 79 player will still have a distinct advantage over a level 50 player. This is basically a persistant Alterac Valley and is a HUGE base capture game. The advantages of owning more of the map equates to small bonuses for your Realm (Server) such as bonus XP.


2) Crafting is more fun in this game than others to me. You don't learn all recipes right off the bat, rather you have to discover them by combining different components. Also, for everything you make you earn experience. Depending on your professions and skill level, you can craft gear that is equal to or better than what you can find off enemies. Although, honestly, its usually cheaper to sell the mats on the AH and buy a completed product from another crafter.


3) Honestly, there is not much close to a WoW Mage. That being said Elementalist is the most Mage-like. Its going to be much more mobile though, and is arguably the most versatile class in the game. If you play it right, you can have an answer for any situation.

[Wren]

Oh and Vylin made an excellent point re: mobility. Gameplay in general is a bit more mobile than WoW since you can attack/cast while you're moving and you have the ability to dodge attacks. It doesn't require you to have twitch reflexes but it may take an adjustment if you're really used to standing and casting.

[Thanamira]

Okay, very important question: are there NC pets, and if so, are there bunnies?

[Wren]

yes there are pets, they never become soulbound, so you can freely trade and sell them. I think they're primarily bought as a miniature set from the in-game store (you basically purchase a random set 3) BUT because they are tradeable you'll also find them on the auction house thus allowing you to not have to spend real moneys. You can also combine some common pets together in the mystic forge to get a rare pet so if you do buy the mini sets and get duplicates you have something you can do with them besides sell or trade them. I don't remember if there is a bunny....I will find out!

update: so far the closest is the jack-a-lop it's a bunny with antlers

I do know there are several bunny-centric quests that I ran across. So there's that.

[Thanamira]

Anyone using the Mac client?

[Glognar]

Hmm... just saw this...

I am using Mac client. Works surprisingly well, although a few anomalies when I was last on.

Glog

[Aviel]

People in chat keep asking about doing an event or something and using the word "troll.' WTF do they mean?

[HeidiB]

People in chat keep asking about doing an event or something and using the word "troll.' WTF do they mean?

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=troll

Like that?

[Vylin]

People in chat keep asking about doing an event or something and using the word "troll.' WTF do they mean?

Depending on the zone, there are a couple of big ass trolls that require a group to fight...which brings me to one of my biggest gripes about this game, the enemies scale with group size. This sounds cool until you realize that all that means is an increased health pool and spending a boring 15min using the same abilities over and over and over and over in a very non-epic battle. But anyways, yeah they were probably referring to a Dynamic Event encounter where a giant troll spawns.

[Thanamira]

Yeah, there's one in the early elf area.

I've never had a 15 minute battle.  5, maybe.  More, so far I've found, is helpful: most of these events are hard to solo, so having at least 2-3 buddies makes it doable.  I can see if you have 40 newbies zerging a boss, that's gonna be boring, although actually, you can just contribute some damage and then wander away: when the boss dies, you'll get a Bronze level of stuff.

Also, most DEs tend to be waves of dudes, so having people spread out over a farm beating up bandits as they enter from different areas is kinda nice.  And hilarious, in that "12 people just threw AOE effects at 4 guys.  *burp*" kind of way. 

[Gwyddyon]

I may have made the mistake of making my first class the Engineer, which appears to be one of the more complex classes to play. Also, I can't seem to do significant damage without grenades, which requires ground targeting, which makes me cranky.

Q: Will I get enough skill points to buy all the skills eventually or do I need to hoard them only for the specific skills I think will work best?

[Aviel]

Q: Will I get enough skill points to buy all the skills eventually or do I need to hoard them only for the specific skills I think will work best?

Ohh good question, I just sort of started dumping points into beast mastery without really thinking about it.

[Wren]

I'm rusty because I haven't been in the game for a bit but I believe you end up with 70 trait points

As a sidenote, their wiki is actually a great place for information but easily overlooked:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Trait