I’ve written about some of what I like about Guild Wars. It’s not a perfect game, though, and there are a few things about it that bug me. On balance, I’m very favorably inclined towards the game, so this list is considerably more… nitpicky and superficial than the Goodness list. I’m also only partway through the game, and I haven’t tried all the classes, so I’m sure that I could add to both lists as time goes on.
First and most annoying from a gaming standpoint, I can’t issue simple commands to my henchmen. I can tell my pet to Attack, Guard or Heel, why not henchmen? I play as a Ranger, and often, I want to pull an enemy from its friends, but I can’t do that when my henchmen start attacking whatever I target. Even a simple “stop” or “go” command would be great.
Second, and more generalized, the skank factor. This is present in nearly anything these days, but I’m tired of the relentless oversexualization. It’s mostly women who suffer, but even some of the male dance animations are tasteless. (Monks have some cool kata moves, though.) Elementalists suffer the most here, but really, all of the women have an uncomfortable “look at my chest” stance and most have attire more suited for a harem than serious adventuring. I blame Boris Vallejo and decades of testosterone oversaturation in the industry.
Third, Necromancy. In GW, like WoW’s Warlocks, the Necromancer class seems to want to be the prototypical “antihero”, but even in-game the portrayal is fairly schizophrenic, ranging from sociopaths to cosplaying undertakers. It’s almost like the designers are tossing a bone to the emo herd, when what they really need is a slap upside the head and a job in a soup kitchen. If you want to see “necromancy” done right, read Sabriel by Garth Nix. GW’s pasty white emo rockers are shallow and ridiculous. Beyond that, antiheroes are overdone, even when done well. What’s wrong with being a real hero?
Fourth, characters by the numbers. Yes, the storytelling is a notch above WoW, but still several notches below the giants of the fantasy genre. The “rebellious strongheaded prince vs. his stubborn antiquated king father” trope was tired when Arthas went all Dark Side on his daddy. I just can’t care all that much about Prince Rurik or the King when both are phoning in their lines based on writing from Cracker Jack boxes. I didn’t jump into GW for a literary experience, but it could at least be better than this.
Fifth, forced grouping. I absolutely detest forced grouping. An early PreSearing quest requires making a party to acquire an inventory expansion. (OK, it’s not necessary to the gameplay, but it’s still annoying since it’s a high demand item.) There’s another quest that requires another player to go open a gate by pulling a lever, despite an NPC soldier walking past with absolutely nothing better to do. These two quests are a big part of the chat spam in Ascalon; people offering to be “gate monkeys” for gold, and others asking for party mates to go get the belt pouch. I can understand forcing groups to assemble to do raids and such, but as a general principle, forced grouping annoys the snot out of me, especially when it’s so… vapid.
Sixth, the Searing. Yes, I have a “permanent PreSearing character” because I happen to like that world. It’s very much like going back to a beloved save game in an offline RPG, as I described here. It’s funny, since the Searing really does give a sense that the world has changed, something that many (including myself) seem to think is missing from the narrative of MMOs. I’ve just gotten used to other MMOs and their static worlds, with the ability to go pretty much anywhere if I feel like it, since things never really change. This is only a complaint because of what I’ve come to expect (static worlds). When taken as a part of the narrative of GW, it’s actually very effective, and a nice departure from the static MMO worlds that have become the norm. Still, I like having the option of leaving a character in the PreSearing world.
Seventh, the habitrail effect. Shamus describes it well here, but in a nutshell, PreSearing Ascalon is pretty much free range adventuring, but once the world burns, suddenly the topography is all over the place, with walking paths through narrow valleys and plateaus. It feels more constraining than it should. Ultimately, this doesn’t bother me all that much, since I’ve gotten used to it, and it does make it easier to find things in missions, since the paths don’t often have a ton of branches. Still, for a wandering soul accustomed to going anywhere with minimal rerouting, it’s a bit… cramped.
Eighth, dead NPCs. I play a Ranger/Monk, and I usually have a Monk henchwoman along. Why in the world can’t we use our handy resurrection spells on the occasional NPCs who lend a hand, or quest NPCs who have the gall to die (usually because they rush into combat instead of following along like good little escortees)? They aren’t in our party, so somehow the magic doesn’t work? Lame, lame, lame.
Ninth, arbitrary party sizes. Yes, I can respect them as pacing tools. I can even respect them as tools to minimize relying on henchmen too much. (Though I’d disagree with that; I love the henchmen mechanic.) But seriously, if I can scrounge together three of my closest friends to play together, I want to be able to party with them in PreSearing Ascalon. But nooooo, I’ve got to wait until the Searing to be able to have a party of four people. Lame, lame. If my friends and I want to zerg the heck out of the lowbie mobs, let us!
Tenth, plodding PreSearing. This was part of “sixth”, but then I realized it’s actually its own concern. (Notice to English handicapped readers: those are two proper uses of the different words “it’s” and “its”.) This article from the GW wiki illustrates the trouble: in order to progress to level 20, you must “death level” and resort to weird timing on quests and other gymnastics. There’s even a title for it, so the designers know that people are doing it. Bizarre. All I want to do is be able to grab a henchman and go hunt Charr north of the Wall, exploring all of the map while I merrily go on my genocidal way. Only, there are no henchmen, you need another player to open the gate, you’re limited to two in your party, and the Charr hunt in groups of four or more. Lame.
Oh, eleventh, no crafting. After playing Atlantica Online, Puzzle Pirates and WoW, I really miss the vibrant economy that a full crafting suite can create. Of course, that means that GW would need an auction house/market as well, which isn’t currently present.
The game plays fine without crafting and a player-driven economy, but the world would benefit greatly from such.
Ah, twelfth, LOD popping. In a game that looks so pretty most of the time, it’s a bit strange to see very low LODs (Level Of Detail) that don’t correlate well with their high LOD parents. This can create graphic elements to shift around as the camera gets close to them. It’s disorienting and a little… sophomoric from what is otherwise a top notch product.
Thirteenth, there are some binding issues for clothing. The geometry for the clothing doesn’t quite animate with the skeletons of the characters in the same ways that the skin animates, so some motions of the characters can “break” the clothing meshes. Some of this is unavoidable because of different topology of the 3D meshes, but savvy modelers and animators design with these things in mind. Again, this is just sophomoric, or a sign of budget slippage.
Oh, and one of the most embarrassing examples of this sort of clothing breakage is on full display in the Nightfall manual; a female Paragon (I think) is shown in the /kneel emote, and her upper front thigh is breaking through her armor. Come on guys, if you can’t be bothered to make it look right, at least don’t put the breaks in your manual!
These are pretty common in the 3D game industry, though. I specialize in art, especially animation and LODs lately, so these are more obvious to me… and not unique to GW.
1) I think the flags work sufficiently well to get them to stay put so I can pull back to a camp. They will wander a little ways from it, but its doable.
As for the rest of your points, I agree wholeheartedly.
Lars, thanks for the comment. I do need to tinker with flags to see if I can get them to behave the way I want, or to train myself to make them work. I’m just wishing for pie in the sky to have some sort of keybinded shortcut to tell them all to “Stop Here” or “Come Fight by Me Right NOW, You Lazy Bums”!
Like I said, nitpicky. Overall, I’m happy. 😀
Yeah, “Stop Here!” for me is to set the flag on myself, before I run in for the pull. Assuming I haven’t already drawn aggro, they won’t wander into aggro range. Then after I pull them back, I hit the X to get rid of the flag. Then I hit Ctrl+Space to get them to focus fire on whatever I’m targeting and kill the mobs. Then I move on to the next camp spot and repeat.
At least that’s the idea. Just a moment ago, I died because I ran ahead into battle but I had forgotten to unset the flag so they didn’t follow me. Oops.
The title for death levelling in Ascalon is “Legendary Defender of Ascalon”. What totally irks me is that my Warrior who really fought and died a lot for Ascalon cannot get this title anymore, as he left pre-searing before it was implemented. My second gripe is that it is acquired in a grindy and really silly, almost exploitive way. I doubt I will ever have the time nor the will to go for this title with my pre-searing char. Third – macroing this title is way to go.
Do you know of the titles to eat 10.000 sweets or drink alcohol worth 10.000 minutes of being drunk? It takes days or even weeks of real time to achieve this (if you play 24/7)
Bottom line, there are some achievements that are not only extremely time intensive, but also incredible dumb and really asking for botting.
BTW, I sometimes wonder where Blizzard got their achievement ideas from… not only LOTRO, but also GW, it seems.
My necromancer Lady Akivasha prefers “Lirael” over “Sabriel”, but actually she is inspired by Robert E. Howard. 😉
http://www.enworld.org/Inzeladun/conan/akivasha.htm
http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/akivasha.htm
It is a shame that she is such a pushover in Age of Conan! 😦
She has seen and done everything possible in GW, but she is still 4 titles away from “Goddess walking among mere Mortals”. The only titles left are drinking, treasure hunting, item identification, making a party and eating sweets. And only treasure hunt and item identification make at least some sense. I could also go for Legendary whatever of the Kurzicks.
I share your sentiments about the clothing issues/breaks/clipping. They turn off a lot of people. Do not sit down in some armor, you will regret it! 😦 The most shameful error is the PISS SPOT on the male gladiator armor skirt:
It is for sure not a problem to correct this. But well, this armor set was in from the very beginning, so I do not have any hope.
Check here for some more issues:
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Talk:Art_issues
Tell us when your guild of friends ventures to the EOTN expansion! It features dungeons and some other innovations like siege devourers as some kind of player controlled tanks. The storytelling there is a bit of a letdown, as they decided to scrap GW:Utopia and mixed it together with the Eye of the North areas in favor of starting work on GW2. This is a pity, EOTN is nice, but a case of “it could so easily have been so much better” if they would have had the time to work some more on it.
I share your sentiments about the clothing issues/breaks/clipping. They turn off a lot of people. Do not sit down in some armor, you will regret it! 😦 The most shameful error is the PISS SPOT on the male gladiator armor skirt:
It is for sure not a problem to correct this. But well, this armor set was in from the very beginning, so I do not have any hope.
Check here for some more issues:
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Talk:Art_issues
Tell us when your guild of friends ventures to the EOTN expansion! It features dungeons and some other innovations like siege devourers as some kind of player controlled tanks. The storytelling there is a bit of a letdown, as they decided to scrap GW:Utopia and mixed it together with the Eye of the North areas in favor of starting work on GW2. This is a pity, EOTN is nice, but a case of “it could so easily have been so much better” if they would have had the time to work some more on it.
I know you’re just being nitpicky, but I’ll nitpick your nitpicks nonetheless :p
1) For heroes you can direct each one precisely using the flag system and activate each skill whenever you want to via access to their hotbars (click on the number next to their name in the party list). Using the hotbars you can also control their AI modes just like with pets.
2) I’m one of those unfortunate males who makes hot female characters so I can ogle them during downtime :p Each to their own!
3&7&10&12&13) Fair enough, each to their own, I never really noticed problems with these
4) I found the story to be meh as well in that I didn’t read it. I was a pretty hardcore GW player yet I skipped most of the cutscenes. But this isn’t different to any other MMO – I think it’s a problem with telling stories in a multiplayer environment in general, which is sad.
5) I’d argue that worse than forced grouping, would be not knowing how to group. The grouped quests in the tutorial area are the only instance of this in the whole game!
6) I think you argued against this one sufficiently yourself :p The ability to go back would be awesome, but only if it de-bolstered your level (kind of like a ‘flashback’ thing)
8) It would make it a bit easy, since some of the missions/quests see you have to defend said npc’s. You could just let them die and hide behind the bushes until the enemies are gone if you could res people not in your party (there would also be various PvP exploits, but I’m sure they could disable it for PvP if need be).
9) Good point. Perhaps a better system would be a ‘point-buy’ in terms of X number of levels to fill out a party.
11) I actually quite like the crafting in that you don’t need to level it up in order to use. You get to choose what artwork and stats are going to be on your new gear but it’s as minimally grindy as it can be. I hated WoW’s crafting, so GW crafting gets a big thumbs up from me.
Longasc, I mention Sabriel as an example of a “good” Necromancer. It looks like your lady there is more on the “evil” side. I suppose that either is more effective than “I’m just misunderstood, wah!” 😉
The drinking and other frivolous titles are a bit silly, but I suppose that at least it’s something to strive for. Even Bacchus was a deity. (Not my first pick for a guildmate, but apparently some folk liked him.) I’m pretty ambivalent towards the titles. Way too much effort for something that really isn’t going to help me. I don’t care for bragging rights… but I don’t mind those who do. It’s just not my cup of chocolate, though I’m kind of glad that they exist.
I’m not sure when we’ll get to EotN as a guild. We’re all casual, and may take a good year to get through the base game. I’ll definitely chime in if and when we get there; I’ve heard the game gets better as you go.
That’s a lot of graphic glitches. I suppose it’s no surprise, but the tech artist in me figures that at least some of them are either easily fixed or easily avoided in the first place with some sharp work. *shrug*
Melf, I’m looking forward to playing around with Heroes. I’ve read their controls are better, so that makes me happy. Regarding story in MMOs, I’ve voiced concern before, and I’m coming to believe that MMOs just aren’t the place for strong storytelling. The mechanics of multiplayer don’t mesh with a strong narrative.
It’s true that those grouping missions illustrate how to group, but I think that the belt pouch one would be sufficient. It’s not like grouping is rocket science. As for rezzing NPCs, I’ll readily concede that some missions would be easier, but it’s one of those things that made me scratch my head and think “y’know, that’s kind of stupid”. It’s definitely not a dealbreaker, though.
Crafting is a mixed bag. On the one hand, I agree that the streamlined crafting (appearance is more important than stats) is welcome for when I just want to play the game. I’m just conscious of the depth that economies and crafting can add to the game world, and I sort of miss it in GW. (Though I’ll also agree that WoW’s crafting isn’t the epitome of design.) That said, it is nice not to have yet another reason to get sucked in. 😉
Thanks for the comments, all! I hope that I still give the sense that I like the game, because I do. I just have a critical eye for things, at least partly because I’m employed in the field and think about such often.
Interesting list. I think some of your points are a little misplaced, especially about being able to control the henchmen. I’ve never had a problem with this. I think it’s just a matter of learning to use the micro-management tools such as flagging and calling targets. Once you get to heroes you wont ever have a problem.
I agree able some of the silly titles, but I think they just threw them in for a bit of fun.
On the issue of forced grouping, I actually thought Guild Wars did an excellent job of allowing the player to solo. There is only one quest that requir1es you to group, and I think they threw it in as a kind of tutorial. It doesn’t take very long to complete, so I probably wouldn’t consider it as an issue.
I have to agree with Melf on the crafting (and not just because we share a blog =P). I much prefer how GW does it to WoW. No grinding involved. Salvaging is based off random luck, rather than how many points you have in a trade.
Good point on not being able to use resurrect on the dead NPCs. You can actually use healing skills and enchantments on them, but not res 😦
Most of your other gripes are centered around artwork, models and storyline. Each to their own on this one.
I was surprised that you didn’t mention any of the following points:
* No Auction House
* No item linking in chat
* Lack of storage
* High learning curve for the PvP
* Inability to swim, jump or fall
* Instanced content, which means friends can’t join you mid quest unless you return to town.
* Doesn’t support addons (although I’m not a fan of addons)
* No contribution stats from PvP or PvE
I could go on, but you can read about them here and here.
Funny that you picked a Ranger/Monk for your first class. It also happened to be my first choice. 😉
I suggest creating a guild even if it is only for the sake of having a guild hall.
It is often more easy and convenient to travel there than to go to one of the major cities just to get insignia, dyes, sell stuff, and so on.
I suggest the “Isle of Meditation”. Not only because of the looks, but because most trader NPCs and storage are just in front of you when you travel to this hall.
I have a guild and I’m the only member. It’s very convenient if only because I can instant travel to find my Xunlai agent and instant travel back. Sometimes those guys hide in the weirdest corners of the instances, and I don’t like hunting for them. 🙂 Plus I have a cool cloak.
Of course, it does get rather lonely but I manage to maintain good conversation with myself. *twitch*
I had a great time running around in GW and in a way, I will always cherish it- it was my first “mmorpg”.
Your analysis of the Necromancer class was excellent, and I felt the same way at the beginning of the game. Why does my character always have to resemble the emo kid on Halloween night?
One of the things that bugged me the most about the GW franchise was being prohibited from jumping down a ledge that was even 2 inches high. My character can kill dragons and wield swords made of flame, but couldn’t step down a baby ledge. wtf….
I loved the henchmen feature as well and would have liked to see that mechanic used more in even single player RPG games.
CS, I definitely need to tinker with the flag system. My complaint there is likely just one demonstration of how much I still have to learn in the game. (Though I’d still like stop and go hotkeys.) Actually, speaking of tutorial quests, I can concede that the belt pouch quest is good for teaching about how to group (and I’m glad there aren’t any more forced grouping quests), but to my mind, teaching the flag system for henchmen would have been more worthy of a quest than the “pull the gate lever” bit. I am definitely looking forward to Heroes.
I think I did mention the lack of an auction house, but really, considering just how streamlined the “crafting” system is, the customized (and non-reusable) armor, perfect weapons and Xunlai Storage (which is annoying absent in PreSearing), I don’t see a huge need for one. It would be nice, sure, but I just don’t see it as necessary. The game feels rather “bare bones” or streamlined in its approach to the world setting, crafting and the economy. I don’t really mind that, as it does make for a more focused game experience… but it does mean that I don’t really bother much with the buying and selling of stuff. I loot, salvage, identify, and vendor. Interesting stuff I jam in storage for play with an alt.
I haven’t touched PvP, and it doesn’t interest me as a player, but I can understand that a high learning curve would be a problem. Any suggestions to making the curve easier?
I don’t mind the no swimming, jumping or falling. I’m a Final Fantasy veteran, so that sort of thing always seemed like a luxury when I ran into it in WoW. It’s not necessary to gameplay here, so I don’t mind not having it. Sure, it would be nice to be able to swim or hop down a cliff (alleviating the habitrail effect), but it’s not all that annoying to me. I imagine a player with a heavy WoW bent would find it incredibly stifling, though.
I like instancing, but yes, it would be nice to be able to “zone in” a friend that logged in.
Addons never sat right with me. They indicate a failure of design in my mind, or borderline hacking. Either should be addressed by the company, not third parties.
Contribution stats don’t mean much to me. I play for fun, and now that I’m out of the WoW OCD DPS check, I’m actually just playing the game more. It’s nice. That said, I can understand that some players love the numbers, and GW does have a rather minimalistic approach to them. Titles don’t do all that much for the OCD Achiever.
Yay for Ranger/Monks!
Longasc, one of the first things I did was make myself a guild. (Back in PreSearing, in fact.) I’m angling for a guild hall, but I’ll get to that after I play through the story. For now, it’s just my wife and I in the guild, so conversation is less a function of typing and more talking across the room. 😉
Wolf, I do kind of wish for a “good” Necromancer done right, like Sabriel… but GW doesn’t do it. *shrug*
Y’know, jumping in plate or even chain armor would be a bit difficult, now that I think of it. Jumping down a cliff would be dangerous with that much metal bringing more force in the fall. Not that realism is the best metric for this sort of thing…
I definitely love the henchmen mechanic. Heroes look even sweeter. I think they would be a natural fit in something like Oblivion or Fallout 3, and could even create greater storytelling opportunities.
I’ve never seen a need for neither player crafting nor an AH in the GW series. It’s an action RPGs at its heart. (More “it’s” and “its” for ya!) I already have to bring all the materials (and possibly grind reputation) to have an item crafted. I’m an ADVENTURER not a tradesman. Besides, most crafting systems consist of a) acquire materials (which often directly or indirectly come at a financial expense) b) combine materials c) click the CRAFT button d) *poof* your item is made. All four steps are in GW’s crafting, the only difference is that I am paying the crafter NPC the fee and he is the one allegedly doing the crafting even though it’s still click OK then *poof* the item is in my inventory. And I don’t have to watch a progress bar, or worse: hundreds of progress bars crafting garbage to level my crafting to make what I actually want only to have out-leveled the item I wanted while killing all the mobs around the nodes I needed to harvest.
Gold drops off trees in the game once you’re in the “real game” (ie. level capped) zones, so I’ve never seen the point of people sitting around for HOURS in Lion’s Arch and the other hubs spamming trade to sell stuff. In the time it would take to sell some item I could easily have made that amount simply by playing. Gear maxes anyway, the only real difference is the skin. The exception would be certain mods you might seek to maximize a certain build. Mods are harder to come by than items, but most constructed weapons also have a green counterpart and it’s easier to just go get the green in my opinion.
I’ll disagree with Pre-Searing Ascalon being “free roaming” as well; it’s very much on-rails just like all of the game is. You’re restricted to certain paths, it’s just how they designed the game. While I certainly enjoyed the Searing bit, and the whole “finally, someone destroyed the generic bright colorful Euro-fantasy world for something post-apocalyptic!” feeling, but “brown fever” certainly sets in with so much of the initial zones being in Ascalon. It gets much better (greener and more colorful) once you get to Kryta and the rest of the campaign. But I do love the bright colorful Euro-fantasy world of Pre-Searing too, and Eye of the North gave it back in the Charr homelands and with the updated graphics EotN has, it looks even better than Pre-Searing Ascalon.
As for henchmen controls, well… consider them just hired help, that’s what they’re supposed to represent. You don’t “control” your plumber, you just ask him to do his job and fix the toilet. Heroes, on the other hand, are *yours* to level, equip and build upon, so you have much more control over them. Despite having that control, I *usually* find myself giving them builds that the Hero AI can handle on its own without my having to micromanage things, except in certain situations.
Being disinclined to check your archives at the moment, did you ever say if you had other campaigns or just Prophecies? I know a lot of vets say Prophecies was the best of the bunch (and I’ll always have a sweet spot for it) but it’s also the slowest, most plodding one, as well as the most graphically dated of the bunch. The others give you henchmen from the start, a party of four from the start, Xunlai storage from the start, etc. as well as separating the leveling/tutorial/noob content where you play through the backstory from the real content and story of that campaign.
Scott, I just recently purchased Eye of the North, so I now have all four “chapters”. I’ve only played Prophecies so far, and even then, only to the Shiverpeak Mountains. These are just as much “initial impressions” as a look at game design. That’s why I don’t have experience with heroes yet and why I’m still learning the flagging system. I’m hoping to nab M.O.X. in Kryta, but thus far, I haven’t seen any Heroes.
I don’t really mind the lack of crafting, but I do like the crafting/market subgame in WoW and Puzzle Pirates, rudimentary as they are. (I keep hearing I should check out EVE’s economy, so I’ll look into it later.) You’re right, though, I don’t really think that GW needs that or an AH to be enjoyable.
My impression of the free roam nature of PreSearing Ascalon is based on some of the wide swaths of plains with trees, say the northwest corner or even some of the area just outside of the city. You’re right, the Catacombs are a warren of trails, and there are similar mountain path and cavern habitrails elsewhere, but I haven’t really seen anything like the rolling plains after the Searing. At least not yet. I’m looking forward to Kryta.
Oh, and the only time I’m really fussed over having control over my flunkies is when I’m pulling or trying to do some tactical positioning. I’m happy to let them manage their builds and gear, I just don’t want them wrecking a perfectly good pull and getting us all killed.
Honestly though, GW “pulls” aren’t like “pulls” in your traditional MMO. Nearly all mobs are social in GW — you pull one, you pull them all. At least of certain types, ie. you might aggro one drake who brings every other drake with him but none of the mobs of other types who were standing right next to him.
I dunno, I pretty much don’t bother with pulls (at least in the sense I do in a traditional Diku-MMO) so much as determining a priority list of mobs to focus fire on. With Heroes, I can set a warrior on one to “tank” it, although in my opinion that is best done with a dedicated interrupter instead, while everyone else takes down the other mobs. The closest thing to a pull I do would be trying to position the battle away from other roaming mobs I’m not fighting, since the mobs in GW like to kite the players. But I can only position the battle once the fight has started, unless I send in a Hero to get aggro then bring him back to us, but that approach often gets dicey as well.
So, perhaps it’s more about me learning how to actually play the GW game rather than expecting it to behave like WoW regarding the tactical considerations…
I don’t have a lot of experience, just some rather dicey moments in a graveyard where I’m almost certain that I could have pulled some Ghostly Warriors from the herd to take them down, but my team rushed in and brought the horde down about our heads.
I love tactical games, and I prefer a real time game to actually employ tactics, rather than “my zerg broup is bigger than your zerg group, RAWR!”. Maybe I’m expecting too much. *shrug*
Yeah, other than it’s a 3D game where you can use WASD (or click) to move and 1-0 (or click) a hotbar to use abilities, pretty much throw out your WoW expectations here, GW is a completely different-playing game.
Sometimes you’ll zerg in GW, sometimes you’ll use tactics. I’m fine with that because, given my attention span, I like options instead of *always* doing one or the other. PvP in particular is very tactics-based, at least in my opinion.
The real key to playing GW isn’t to “level” (there are only 20 of them and the game isn’t a levels-based game) or to chase after the carrot that is raiding for gear. It’s collecting skills, from adventuring, from skill vendors, and from bosses. Gear comes into it more as cosmetic, though certain weapons or weapon mods can wonderfully complement a certain build. That same weapon/mod can be a detriment to another build, though.
I treat GW very much like a CCG, it’s all about how I decide to setup my skills, and I might look at other builds to give me ideas and merge their build with my own playstyle. I’m not really a min/max guy as long as I what I’m doing fits with my playstyle and I’m able to hold my own or do my job as well (or nearly so that no one can tell) as a min/max build.
Once you reach 20, or in Prophecies once you reach Droknar’s Forge, you have access to maximum armor. There is no such thing as the next better tier of armor. Each class gets a maximum armor rating and that’s it. Same with weapons, each weapon type has a maximum dps it will ever do. The only difference is cosmetics after you’ve achieved maximum, which is very easily done. After that, it’s all how you use your skill deck (perhaps combined with weapon mods, though Prophecies didn’t have those so it won’t be a factor until you move on) and get weapons or focus items that help your build (reduce casting times on your most-used spell school, etc.) so once again, it all boils down to your skill deck. Much of the game is spent trying to acquire more and more skills so you have more of a repertoire to draw from when making your skill deck.
When I was reading about the game years ago, that’s the vibe I got from it; choose your “deck” and maximize the use of your limited options. I like that aspect of the skill system, and I’m looking forward to tinkering more with it, finding synergies and improving my use of skills and timing.
My Necromancer was born in Cantha. And funnily, this chapter was and is initially so biased versus the classes that came with it: The assassin is not really made for mass combat, but nowhere else you fight as many large and numerous mobs as in Cantha. Ritualist spells and gameplay was changed so often that I want to exclude them right now from this comment and focus on why Necromancers really shine in Cantha:
1. Lots of corpses for “minion masters” (Death Magic summoning specialists)
2. Lots of mass battles, the Prophecies Elite Skill “Spiteful Spirit” and other spells that affect multiple opponents at once really shine there.
3. The special Black Moa pet there is a nice and thoroughly evil alternative for the Black Widow as pet (though it is not really useful for a necro to have a pet or use it at all…^^)
4. The Flesh Golem elite skill might not be the most efficient, but the golem itself is a very strong and fun minion.
From a game designer point of view you might note that Necromancers that are quite weak early on in Prophecies mutate into incredible killing machines in this kind of environment.
I envy you that you can explore GW nowadays… as an old veteran of the game I am quite done with it.
But it is/was such a great game, I have actively played it for ages! Much much longer than my combined WoW subscriptions lasted.
Enjoy the journey. And do not be too disappointed about M.O.X. – you did not play Nightfall yet, so your Dervish Hero will be missing quite a lot of the better Dervish skills. But I am sure he is still more effective than Little Thom! 🙂
Heh, I’ll just be happy with the opportunity to play with a Hero, and a Dervish to boot. I don’t know what I’m missing, so it’s no big deal.
Y’know, my objections to the Necromancer class are less about the mechanics and more about the lore. From a pure gameplay perspective, they are unique and interesting. I appreciate that, even if it’s not likely to be a class I play. It’s just the schizophrenic characterization of the profession and the ridiculous presentation that bother me. I’d really like to see a “good” necro class like Sabriel’s Abhorsen, and see how they play.
Meh I enjoy playing my necro, even though I rarely do. When I’m feeling emo or goth, I’ll get him, LOL.
But I will say I very rarely go without a necro Hero, especially one with a Minion Master build (I can’t play one myself, I can’t manage to click all my little minions to keep them going but the AI is godly with it) or some of the other uber necro builds, depending where I’m adventuring at the time. Sometimes I’ll even bring 2 or 3 necros along. One of the necro henchmen (Eve maybe? I forget.) is awesome at keeping everyone else’s energy up so I tend to bring her along in an area with mobs using heavy energy-denial.
But my first character (and still my main) was a Monk/Necro just because from a lore or personality philosophy I found the duality appealing. I suppose that was my little bit of “RP” or whatever. But since I got into EotN, Fissure of Woe etc. with my alliance (months ago) I switched to a full-on Healer’s Boon build so had to switch my secondary to Elementalist to pull that off.
Tesh, you must live with the way the artists and designers envision Necros in GW. Goth & Emo style is not my favorite either.
But take a look at male monks. They are all apparently from some kind of Shaolin Monastery. I would prefer a bear-brewing monk of the Middle Ages, but unfortunately they only offer a fat Sumo wrestler/Shaolin. 🙂
*chuckle*
Indeed, the MMO world needs an influx of Gregorian Monks. 😀
Did I say bear? I meant beer, of course. I have no idea what Freud would say to this. 🙂