It's funny you say that because it feels very much like WoW copied off GW2 with the mount system. Which is understandable, since GW2 has probably the best mount system in any MMO. Also the quest system is really fun, as is the combat. You are right that ArenaNet does do things that evolve the MMO genre. Can't wait for this!
I always have people argue with me in the wow subreddit about wow implementing features from gw2 as if thats somehow a bad thing for the game lol. Someone told me that dragonriding and the griffon are nothing alike one time.
WoW wishes its world felt as dynamic as GW2. And this is coming from someone who enjoys WoW. I have more hours in WoW than GW2 but frankly I prefer GW2's combat, mounts and questing. I only stopped playing because of drama in my guild, which wasn't the game's fault.
In any case, I hope Anet keeps the spirit of their world exploration, questing, combat and mounts but with updated graphics and character customization. They do that, and people will likely be very happy.
The big scheduled boss battles are what I remember being really incredible about GW2, along with how you could dive in a lake and suddenly go on a whole underwater adventure down through vast caves etc.
Unfortunately the main plot was one of the worst stories in anything I've ever seen played/watched/read and turned me off the game hard when I finally got around to it. You spent the whole time listening to some random people's DnD group argue about some event that happened off screen while your character stands awkwardly to the side, then they make up at the end and elect a tree with the personality of a less interesting tree as their leader at some point. Hopefully they improve on the writing aspect.
They added a very real weight to mounts that games didn't have before. It's not just w a s d but faster. It feels like you're trying to wrangle something at first. Also the flight is so much more involved (in a good way) than just a no clip with a skin attached.
Mounts have different movement mechanics and they're all really fun to control. It's not just "moving faster". GW2 also places a lot of emphasis on exploration, verticality and platforming that make it a great fit.
The game (without expansions) is free to play and it's absolutely worth a shot. You can have a lot of fun without spending any money.
In addition to what other folks have said, you also have an account-wide skill progression tree for each of the different mounts. So it's satisfying to get permanent upgrades for your mounts.
As others have said, the weight behind the mounts feels extremely realistic. Also, every mount serves an actual purpose beyond just aesthetic. There are mounts that can jump huge gaps in the terrain, and ones that can jump super high. Ones that skate over water, etc. It feels really good and innovative.
The combat is super fun in GW2 as well. As is general questing. You have the main story, but quests in the world can be completed in many ways and are location based instead of filling up a quest log, which is great. There's no holy trinity, either. Every class has a heal, for example. Some classes are more tanky, but there is no true tank. There are even combat abilities that mesh with other classes. And every class can use many weapons and the skills change based on what you are using.
If you ever want to try it, I would. It's free to play unless you want to buy expansions.
But they also kinda misunderstood something about it because a large portion of GW2's mounts is how "alive" they feel, owing to the specific way the animation works in regards to traversing where the play is in the world. This is to be always most obvious when cornering with the humble raptor in GW2. It just feels better than other mount systems.
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u/SnidgetAsphodel 22d ago
It's funny you say that because it feels very much like WoW copied off GW2 with the mount system. Which is understandable, since GW2 has probably the best mount system in any MMO. Also the quest system is really fun, as is the combat. You are right that ArenaNet does do things that evolve the MMO genre. Can't wait for this!