And Level 80 again!

My PC has gone the way of the dodo, the laptop doesn't really handle Guild Wars 2 too well and my motivation to play has somewhat abated. Otherwise, my 2nd toon would have hit the level cap considerably faster. This is something I haven't done in any other MMO - and since people seem to think there's a point in bragging about this, I have been around since UO.

To me, playing an online game isn't just for fun, it isn't just a hobby - it's escapism in its highest form. I roll that one character, who I believe matches my play style and personality and then I stick with that. I'll play him to the level cap, get all the gear, titles and crap I care about having and that's that. I don't do alts. Sure, there has been the occasional "I'm bored, let's roll a rogue" phase on WoW, but those characters are more of a fun side project whilst waiting for new content, they never get off the ground and generally phase into nothingness within just a few hours.

Grimclaw The Slayer. Battle-hardened veteran, destroyer of dragons, insanely fucking boring.

My problem with my first maxed out toon on Guild Wars 2 was twofold: First of all, getting all the most powerful gear, the best upgrades, runes, sigils and crap, all the sexiest stuff - it took absolutely no effort. You can just buy all the most powerful weapons and armor right off the auction h... ahem, trading post. The sexy flaming stuff you can see on the screenshot required some token farming. Mind you, that stuff is purely cosmetic and in no way more powerful than the stuff you can craft and buy. And once you're fully geared up, you're done. My personal story has ended, I have slain the final boss baddie, it's all happy happy joy joy until the next content update is done.

Of course I could just continue exploring the world, help the guild mates and noobs around Tyria, take part in events, blah dee blah. Fuck that. Greatsword guardians rely on their auto attack, a situational leap and a ridiculously overpowered AoE attack, that's it. You literally mash one fucking button. Hurrdurr, simplification to the max! I don't care how awesome and powerful my character is, he's just no fun to play.
Incidentially, I had the exact same problem when I rolled another warrior - the class I originally intended to play. You use two, maybe three hotkeys, over and over again. I'll admit things get a lot more intersting in pvp, as thinking, moving enemies generally provide a greater challenge and demand a more  varied style of play, but that won't stop the pve combat from being so dreadfully boring.

I'm not entirely sure what today's game designers are thinking when they "revolutionalize" MMO combat. On SWTOR, your warrior types had about 250 different attacks, each and everyone of them too situational to be really useful. An attack, that only works on stunned enemies, one against baddies you've just knocked down, one that only works when you've built up rage points, one that generates said rage points, one you only use when you're out of rage, but your rage-building attacks are cooling down and one when your opponent is under 20% health. I actually had to write a guide about that shit. Describing how to operate a fucking space station couldn't be any more complicated than this.
And then there's the heavy melee classes on GW2. Leap, auto attack, AoE, rinse, repeat. Derp!

And then I started having fun

In my boredom, I did what I do on all MMOs after maxing out my first toon and just before I quit them for good: I rolled some random toons. I created an engineer, because they look insanely cool with their leathery steampunk pirate coats and their dual pistols and because I don't like thieves. But the engineer was too complex for me - flamethrowers, turrets, potions... I can appreciate their quazillions of abilities and play styles that go along with them, but it simply didn't work for me.
So I tried a thief for their ability to use stereo pistols and gave up again, because I still don't like thieves.

I didn't really want to play a ranger, because they don't get to use guns. Let me repeat that. Rangers. Cannot. Use. Guns. Fucking RANGERS! A warrior uses rifles, even the fucking spellcasters get to carry a pistol and the RANGER is not allowed to use the coolest RANGED WEAPONS. But I didn't want to be a spellcaster, all the other classes didn't make me happy, so ranger it was. Whee!

You know what? Fuck guns. You know why? Because there's a fucking massive battleaxe in my main hand. You wanna know what's in the other hand? Another fucking battleaxe! Because fuck you! Yes, sure, I get to do exactly the thing I criticize about warriors and guardians: I can whirl around like a moron and take down a dozen baddies in a ridiculous, whirling AoE attack. But unlike my buddies in full plate, I'm not limited to that one dumb trick.

Enemy is running away? Throw the fucking axe at him. Whole bunch of enemies running around? Throw five goddamn axes! The really satisfying part about hitting a sucker with your axe isn't even the nice slashing noise or the floating damage numbers. The axe will bounce right off and hit the next enemy. In fact, the axe will fly around and hit a whole lot of enemies, if they're close enough to each other. Add traps, debuffs, various DoTs, the ability to deflect projectiles and the fine art of circle-strafing and suddenly I'm single-handedly taking out whole camps of baddies, where my other toons would get their asses kicked.

I miss the cool-looking plate armor a bit. But come on. Black leather coat. And a stylish hat. I'm a sucker for that sort of thing, both on and offline. Ahem. Anyway. I like being in the middle of the action, fighting at the front, tearing baddies apart left and right. That usually means warrior. Turns out it's the ranger for me on here. Oddly enough, I get a 50% larger health pool than the guardian, on top of powerful healing abilities, an optional healing passive and even one of my pets can cast a small HoT. Sure, rangers are all about survival, but what they're doing with this class goes way beyond Bear Grylls. Do I smell a potential nerf here?

One thing that usually kills my fun when leveling alts on most games is repetition. I've already done that quest, I already know the story here, I've seen this before, I don't wanna do it all over again. I don't watch the same movie twice. By the time I'm watching a Simpsons episode for the 3rd time because there's nothing else on TV, I've already memorized most of the dialogue, which annoys Claire to no end. I tend to get bored. It's worse with games. Downing a spectacular boss baddie may feel awesome the first time around, but the second time around it feels like a chore. Yeah, I'm weird like that.

GW2 mitigates the problem to some extent, since you get to choose your own path through your personal storyline. My guardian is a member of the blood legion, death before dishonour, go in, kick ass, that kinda thing. Naturally, his sire was an honoured soldier and when he had to choose whether to side with an order of scholars and spellcasters, a network of spies or the militaristic vigil, he'd obviously pick the last option. When given the option to lie in wait and ambush the enemy or attack them head on, he'd always charge right at them, which usually resulted in some dramatic casualties throughout the entire storyline. Brute force all the way, not very stylish, but he got the job done.

With the ranger, I've picked an entirely different course through the storyline. I've sided with Ash Legion and the Order of Whispers, both of which rely on intelligence and stealth and generally operate as assassins and spies rather than soldiers. My ranger's old man is a rogue shaman, who has sided with the enemy. Of course, even with all the different faction and background history choices, the whole story still escalates towards the same end, but all the way to the final mission you get to choose a course of action and each route plays out differently. On my guardian, I chose to escort a bunch of tanks (actual charr tanks, not guys in heavy armor!) across the battlefield. As the ranger, I decided to take out a whole army whilst testing out a heavy battle-suit with fancy lasers and explosions and all kinds of freaky explosive stuff with shiny particles. Eventually, I even came across that same group of tanks, which was now getting wrecked, as I chose against fighting alongside them on that playthrough.

Of course, one problem still remains: The first half of my gear is complete and I'll probably max out the rest within the next 1-2 days. And then? With wvw queues still taking several hours and new content still being far, far away, there really isn't much to do besides traveling around the world, playing Events as I run across them and help the guild mates with their stuff. I'm not sure if this will keep me entertained for long.
But with no subcription fees and no need to un/re-subscribe, taking the occasional break really won't hurt much. Yay!

-Cat