Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds | Gaming Moments
It’s no secret that hubby and I are avid gamers. We’re veterans in the MMORPG genre and gaming is where we met. It’s crazy to look back on all of the games in our time together. At this time in our lives, we currently rotate between two of them: World of Warcraft and Guild Wars 2.
We’re on hiatus from WoW until next week when The War Within, the latest expansion drops. Then we’ll split our time between the two games because the latest expansion for GW2, Janthir Wilds is nothing short of amazing.
Ffion Dew - Lvl 80 Scrapper
While both games share the core qualities of an mmorpg, for me, Guild Wars 2 excels beyond World of Warcraft. Since I love making lists, here’s my list of personal reasons why I put Guild Wars 2 ahead of World of Warcraft:
We’ll start with a no-brainer: there is no monthly subscription fee to play GW2. In fact, the core game is FREE to play.
For us, GW2 is much easier to return to if we’ve taken a break for months at a time. It’s something we do, especially during the summer. The switch between expansions as well as Living Story is seemless.
With each expansion, there isn’t another 10 levels to grind. You hit 80, you work on your build and gear, you’re good to go. With WoW, all the gear you worked so hard to obtain, becomes worthless as you start grinding through the next 10 levels for new expansions. That was a minor part of“The Squish” several expansions ago when Blizz overhauled item/gear stats which was the main reason. And much needed even if the community complained a bit. The community always complains. It’s part of MMOrpg culture.
The story over the years has been superior to WoW, and I love World of Warcraft. I played it for a decade before testing Guild Wars 2. There are always weaker moments in every storyline, but GW2 has far fewer than WoW.
Mounts. Mounts in GW2 are faster, more dynamic and more customizable than WoW. In WoW you have ground mounts and flying mounts. In GW2, I have a mount for jumping, one that glides over water and quicksand, one that moves through portals it creates. I use all of my mounts pretty much every gaming session for various reasons. Once could say that once you have Skyscale, the flying mount, there’s no reason to use the others. I hear that, but I dig my other mounts. In WoW I have hundreds. I used only flying mounts. Why ride a slow ground mount when I can fly everywhere. In GW2 there are 9 mounts for which I can earn or buy a plethora of skins to customize the look. You can also dye your mounts in GW2.
Crafting: It makes sense and it’s always relevant. It’s also user friendly. If I can craft in a game without wanting to throw a brick at my monitor, then it’s user friendly.
Housing. With Janthir Wilds, GW2 introduced Homesteads.
It didn’t cost millions of game currency. It didn’t require a lottery system. The homestead was part of the story and it’s a fantastic entrance into game housing for GW2. Elder Scrolls Online’s housing is better simply because of the amount of different housing styles you can purchase. Your homestead in GW2, is free. And who knows what the devs will introduce down the line. This is just the start and I’m looking forward to what comes next.
That’s my update on our gaming lives. We haven’t returned to HellDivers 2 because it’s going through growing pains. Destiny 2 is sadly in a state of flux and after playing Lightfall, we cancelled our pre-order for The Final Shape.
We still play Magic the Gathering regularly, but that’s for another post.
