Factions: So. Who else is enjoying it? What do you like about it?

I've read enough threads where people are complaining about Factions. So now I'm interested in all those people who are actually enjoying the game. I know your out there. As I absolutely love the game.
The difficulty spike over the last GW had me going crazy at first. Once you get to the mainland, your not in Kansas anymore. 320 damage from a Dragon's Stomp anyone? Yeah... After some worthwhile playing, I got to love the new difficulty. Every new group feels like a challenge now. I actually feel fear when approaching a group! Excellent work .
Even the material shortages were fun. It completely sold me on the dynamic economy of the game. The runes also. 16 player missions!! Loadsa' fun.
The ritualist class is just fantastic! I truly am in love with the play style. Part Necro, part Monk, part Ele, and then some. The item skills are a brilliant idea. As are the weapon skills. I have not had the opportunity to try out the assassin properly, so I'll reserve judgement. I will say that teleporting is far too cool. Especially the effect it has on item spells.
example:
cast Tsungrai ashes. Spirit Walk to a spirit you created earlier (at the rear of the battle or something). Bam! Out of aggro, automatic drop of the ashes, resulting in instant, high-end healing.
Or for Offence. Cast Daoshen ashes. Deaths Charge too the nearest group of foes (or Spirit Walk if they use spirits) Bam! As soon as you port, your priority is to get the hell out of there, as your ashes have dropped automatically. Ingenious design. Also, unlike Ele's with adjacent, Burst spells (crystal wave, aftershock, flame burst etc.), there's no stupid pausing either.

The art:
Fantastic. The Ritualist animation is lovely. Casting spells has never looked so good. Their overall visual design just rocks. The quality of the environments are a fine achievement. The beauty of the first island is easily on par with Pre-Ascalon. If not surpassing it. The stark contrast of the mainland is also refreshing but equally as beautiful. It's like China Town on steroids. Great stuff. As an artist myself, this is really important for me.
However, the monsters I have seen so far aren't that great (I'm only up to the mainland). I have always hated the whole Doom flesh-metal thing. It just reeks of little imagination (something Anet can't really be accused of in other parts of the game, but can sure be blamed for here) hopefully we'll get creatures that are as cool as the Bladed Aatxe and the freaky Storm Riders later.
Also the animation and the general look of the assassin's kinda' sucks. They just don't move right and their bodies are uninteresting (both male and female). Some of the later armour they get looks cool though.
Still, Factions on the whole is a great achievement.

What else did you guys like specifically?

I like the upped difficulty alot, especially in combination with making people play the game via the locked gates. Though people are female-dog'ing about how there are no more runs anymore, it benefits us all in the long run in the form of better groups with better players.

The art is fantastic. I like to wander the different areas just for fun without doing anything.

Teleporation with shadow arts is a blast. Learning how to massage its skills (I made an E/A) so as to inflict maxium damage but still escape requires tons of imagination, timing and spacial planning. It keeps me engaged every second of a battle.

I like the better, more frequent drops. One of the lamest things about prophesies I thought was how much good equipment cost to the average player. Someone who plays for a hour or two a day cannot pay 100k for a +30 sword pommel. The only way you can is to go to E-bay. the new system allows everyone to have equal enjoyment of the game and more equal equiment. Like preventing running, evening out equipment focuses the game back on skill not time. Go play WoW if you want to hoard money and have better stuff than everyone else.

The one thing that bothers me alot though is henchies getting stuck behind NPC "Canthan Peasents". I once got into a battle with some Am Fah only to die suddenly and find out that Professor Gai and Sister Tai are back behind two blocks stuck in the middle of 5 peasents standing in a circle staring at eachother. They need to either fix hench AI in this regard or make the peasents ghost like (can be run through).

What I absolutely do love is the seperation of function and design with armors. You can get any function in any design, you can mix sets as much as you like (functionality-wise) and try to get the most benefit from all sets, without looking like a clown afterwards! Oh the joy! No more Gladiator's with Ascalon/Knights Boots mishmash!

The environments are amazing. They really went all out on them. And being able to have pre searing monk armour, at max stat. It was enough to convince me to keep my monk. No more tattoos.

New character appearances, armor, scenery, everything. I love how sweet my new Mesmer's armor looks, I love the henchie chatter, I love the new pictures of the NPCs while they're talking, and I love the fact that I feel like there's so much to do. I personally feel it's a simply stunning game.

I've met some really good people just through the first mission after coming over from Tyria. I felt like we really bonded through the screwed up experience that was that first mission, and we went on to quest around for a bit together, chatting, and having an hilariously fun time.

my new guild hall

i new there was going to be some new ones, (though i didnt expect 2 good and 2 less good lol, but that preferences) so i scraped enough together and saved the sigil till after factions went live
Now i have a wonderfull gothy Hall with my own bonfire to dance around and a waterfall to wash in ^^

as to those....i predict that the imperial hall will be popular with those that like open spaces for their battles (its a huge open plaza floor, with a couple of teleport pads in the sides and a sneaky surprise when you run round the corridoors heheh)

the Jade isle will be a strategists prefered (to reach the Flagstand , you have to run through a ton of that spikey coral stuf..it played havock with my tights heheh)

those that liked the warriors isle will probably all swap for Isle of Meditation...(looks similar to the wamo isle, but has a more monkish feel to it, a stream running thru and theres even a couple of beaches you CAN get to heheh)

as for my weeping Stone isle....its a better Goth paradise than the isle of the dead....a small hedge garden with a statue in it, a bonfire for headbanging around (for all the necro boys hehe) and even a few grotto shaped sections that are almost rooms, albeit with massively high celings

also enjoying the banter of the henchies.....at least right now....and poor Mhenlo getting it in the ear from his Cynn....gee, but that lady is green now he is in Cantha....the old cassanova him

I love the fast lvling .

I love the graphics detail and the Asian themes. I used to play GW-P with the camera zoomed all the way out, but in Factions I like it zoomed way in to better see all the richness of the game.

I love the quests on the starter island. And I love getting tons more skills unlocked so quickly. I feel I know how to play my lvl 12 Rit/Nec better and have gotten to experiment with more skills than I ever have on my lvl 15 and 13 chars in Tyria.

I'm enjoying the hell out of the game, even if did temporarily put my newly-created Ritualist away to play with a shiny new Canthan Mesmer (Canthan Mesmers, lookswise > Tyria Mesmers). I love the easy way of making money, the fast leveling, quick skill point acquisition, how you have to buy skills so you can come up with unique builds, etc.

Monastery credits were a stroke of genius (ditto Imperial Commendations) -- I can't praise those enough. So far, I'm loving all the quests, though I'm sure the repetitious back-and-forth running will get extremely tedious two characters down the road.

The scenery is beaaaauuuutiful; I've taken so many screenshots it's not even funny. Both the island and the mainland cities I've seen so far are gorgeous in different ways. The island is just pretty and the mainland is very epic; Kaineng Center is awesome to just run around in.

Separation of function and design in armor: I have guildmates that went through squee fits upon realizing they could have max AL pre-Sear armor.

Love the henchie chatter. It's still making me giggle. Lukas' arrogance is astounding; he should meet up with Orion or Cynn. They'd either hate each other on sight or get along fabulously.

Speaking of Cynn... glad to see she's still around and as fiercely abusive as ever. Mhenlo must have the patience of a saint to be able to deal with that on a daily basis. And who knew he was such a popular guy?

Great job, Anet

The favelas, reminds me of one I visited in Brazil, though the Canthan one has very tall houses.

The standard, expert master reward, getting master with henches on a mission later in the game feels great.

As has been mentioned the fast leveling is neat.

The surroundings are very neat, Kinya Province makes me smile.

The new armors are gorgeous,

Keep up the good work Anet!

Lukas cracks me up. He sounds like Ron Burgandy at the beginning of Anchorman: "I don't know if you know this, but I'm kind of a big deal."

Hehe, Lukas... I really hate Taya, both for her quotes and her skill. The mesmer henchmen cracks out things like "Dont be illusioned... you still can't beat me." I really like the 'sins, and the new weapons and monsters. I <3 the whole game, actually. Never ever gonna stop playing.

Yeah, I completely forgot about the armour thing. That was a nice change indeed. Another interesting point, is how some of the normal armour has now become quite expensive in general to have. Due os course to the materials stock issues.
This will probably change later on as the economy settles, but I quite like the 'tier' system. It's not jus a matter of if you can afford it, you need to be lucky enough to get the materials for the most lavish items. Also, the armour mixtures this time around seem a whole lot more compatible than before. No more looking like a freak wearing different sets together.

The NPC bantar, the writing seems to be better, storyline is promising, and the art is absolutely great.

The upped difficulty isn't too bad if you're in a full human group, and makes for some really exhilirating fights. Having played some WoW before this GW's combat mechanics are really superior and a lot more fun. Now if they'll just do something about the henchies...

Oh yes, I do like the changes to armour too. Now you can wear what you like, not what is effective!

The new classes seem to be quite fun, once I get the hang of them. Still not doing too well with the Assassin here. :P

I love the new missions. Granted, I've only done the 1st 16man mission and challenge mission so far, but both were amazingly fun.

Both new characters are really nice. Now most assassin's are noobs, but people don't know how to play them yet.
I was helping a guildie with some quests, he was lvl 6 at that time. we came across a monk boss of lvl 14. with 1 combo, he took half the boss his health, it impressed me.

the graphics, atmosphere and environment: just wow.

new guild hall: they are very very nice.

added difficulty, now you have the whole game a challenge instead of the last 2 areas or so.

Alliances sound amazing too, they just released it. my guild leader hasnt been on yet, but I can't wait to form some alliances.

As much as the new missions suck because of their difficulty and requirement for teamwork, I still really enjoy them.

I think that new players rolling in on Faction will be better educated as players rolling in on the prophesies. Much better training in the begining IMO. (Even if it's annoying as a player that already is "wise in the ways" of gw).

One thing I did like (beat the game last night) was that by forcing you to play through the storyline (by having locking gates), as you got further and further along, people would form groups to go beat the missions and most of the time, continue along. It was fun going into the next area... and nobody was there (or maybe one or two). Also, it seems people were more accepting of picking up a henchie healer or two due to the lack of players in the end (and more lack of monks - who were probably all playing new rit/assassins).

I like the ability to trade faction for the jade/amber (but please get it running) for the 15K lux/Kar armor, or you can beat Shiro for the 15K Canthan armor. You just have to take your pick what you like best. Personally, I like the Kurzak armor best, but I've got the Canthan right now just to 'have it', and to show off.

The lack of some materials, most of which can be crafted, is a nice twist. It ticked me off at first, but then didn't take me too long to just go and get. For instance, last night I needed steel to buy the new armor, but everyone was out (and I went back to Tyria to look). Steel takes Iron and Coal, but there was no coal either. So, you needed wood to make coal. So I went to right outside Fort Ranik and the materials girl does both... so no more throwing away wood planks like I have done in the past! It may even make a player market for steel for those too lazy to go do it themselves...

Scenery and plant life was great! Some of the animals to charm were interesting looking. If I didn't have a elder black widow from FOW I'd have tried a few. Has anyone tried to charm one of those Giant Turtles ? I'd love to see if it was possible. The end game part has a phoenix that is charmable, but again.. I already had the spider and elder ones are hard to come by, and I paid for the run to get it.

I've got a few gripes with the game, but not anything that anyone else hasn't said already. Overall, now that I've gotten to the end of the storyline, I like it.. I was a bit aggrivated at first, but it has kinda grown on me.

I started a new character for Factions. Weirdly I've enjoyed not being powerful and also not knowing exactly what to do next or where to go.

I've played GW for about 11 months now and - first time through - I went as fast as I could. This time - with the new character - I'm taking it slow, following quests and bumbling along. I get lost, get killed and get confused and that adds to the fun.

The selection of new faces and styles seems more pleasant than Prophecies.

factions as a game is not even finished, why the hell dont the faction traders work, all the time it took to get to the kurzick armour and i cant buy it due to the game being bugged, talk about how to piss customers off

I just love the whole new feel of Factions and that they improves alot of the things that i didn't like in Prophecies - You definitely can see that GW is a learning experience for the devs, too and they are doing a really good job imo. Good enough that I spent my money on their great product. I know that such a post is very untypical on an online board like this and i'm only posting because all that whining on boards gets on my nerves and if theyre are any Anet ppl reading this i want to express that there are a lot of players who really appreciate their effort to make GW an enjoyable Game for everybody, these ppl are just playing the game and not posting on boards like this most of the time so don't let all the negative feedback get you down and keep up the good work.

The new level of challenge is frustrating at first, but it grows on you - so I like that.

I love the new GUI and titles.

I love the new armors and items. I am foaming at the mouth for the new celestial items. (Which means they'll be common before I get any. *sigh*)

I love SOME of the new scenery. The temples and shrines are just mesmerising. I can't wait to explore more of the starting area and the jade sea region as well.

I love the birthday mini's! I just wish I had bought that jade armor for 90k when I had the chance. *kicks self*