as a Guardian, who does not have nearly as many skills as an Elementalist or Engineer, I could:
<death by awesome>
Yeah, I'm a bit disappointed in how bland mesmers feel compared to that. Couldn't feel they had anything visually distinctive other than turning illusions into butterflies.
I think this is precisely why I stopped playing Mesmer and looked for a different class to play
once I revealed every skill available, I found Mesmer to be pretty two-dimensional, even BEFORE playing the Guardian
some of it is around the fact that it's heavily based on the illusion/shatter system, which feels incredibly limiting and it feels like you're "doing it wrong" if you don't choose your utility skills to support that mechanic
reVerseAttack and Dethrone GodRegistered Userregular
edited April 2012
In most fights, shattering is pretty useless. Just keep your illusions around for the tiny damage, distraction and whatever additional effects they may have (such as 2h sword phantasm with the AoE cripple).
What I wish they would change is make the illusions not die when their target dies. It's really annoying using a 20 second cooldown in an event that spawns a lot of relatively low health enemies and have the phantasm out for 3 seconds max.
Also, I'm pretty sure that when you do shatter them the effect is single-target only, which is just garbage. edit: Actually, the damage one and confusion one are supposedly AoEs.
reVerse on
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VivixenneRemember your training, and we'll get through this just fine.Registered Userregular
What I wish they would change is make the illusions not die when their target dies. It's really annoying using a 20 second cooldown in an event that spawns a lot of relatively low health enemies and have the phantasm out for 3 seconds max.
Yes, this was a definite complaint of mine.
Also, I'm pretty sure that when you do shatter them the effect is single-target only, which is just garbage.
Thing is, I don't see a fix for this, because otherwise it is extremely difficult to control them on a battlefield... but maybe the issues around this goes away if they fix the illusions dying after their target does, which means you can use them to nuke at a given opportunity.
That said, I can see how changing the illusions' lifespan to what we are suggesting would make Mesmers rudely overpowered, so a fix may not be all that simple.
Still no idea what class I'll be playing later on. I'm pretty sure I won't know till launch day...
Also, I has a sad face that it'll probably be 3+ weeks before I can play GW2 again.
steejee on
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I kind of hate it how a full damage-specced warrior deals ~15k damage in about 1.5 seconds with frenzy and cyclone axe/flurry when I have a good amount of hp/toughness while being about as tough as I am as a scholar.
I definitely had a lot more fun with ranger than I did with anything else. I want to like elementalist, but I didn't really have time to understand the skills. With elementalist, it seems like you'd need to know all of your stances almost as muscle memory, because you have so many more skills to access at any given time than the classes that just swap weapons. I tried mesmer but I just couldn't get into it, and I touched warrior very, very briefly.
Next BWE I'd like to try out necro, thief, and warrior for realz.
Also, I feel like I really need to upgrade my computer to play this. I could mostly play on balanced, but when I got into wuvwuv even just running the game on the lowest settings possible was a slideshow.
Obligatory screenshots linked because I'm too lazy to change their size.
I don't know if you can tell, but my armor is dyed with two rare colors. I spent my free crystals on dye packs. I am terrified I will spend real money on that exact thing.
Speaking of gem purchases - I found two mystic boxes and one mystic key, so it seems that you can find the keys out in the wild too - guess it's a bit like if you could buy lockpicks from a store in GW1.
The Great DAMNED STEAM SALES AND WII/U Backlog Just Finished: Borderlands (waste of $7)/Mario Brothers U/The Last Story/Tropico 4 Currently Playing: NS2/ZombiU/PlanetSide 2/Ys/Dota2/Xenoblade Chronicles On Hold: Prince of Persia: Warrior Within/GW2/Scribblenauts Coming Next: Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones/X-Com Classic
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KlykaDO you have anySPARE BATTERIES?Registered Userregular
I respecced my Structured PvP Thief to have maximum power, crit chance, crit damage and gain Fury all the time.
It was glorious. I only had 10000 HP but my dual pistol unload would crit every shot and take down any of the "softer" classes from full health to almost dead in one use.
My Elite Skill (The dagger whirlwind thing) took down the ENTIRE ENEMY TEAM when I used it.
People on my team were actually commenting on "How crazy that Thief is"
Loving it!
I am miffed though that we only get BWEs. I mean, why only a weekend? Where is the problem with just letting it open?
I respecced my Structured PvP Thief to have maximum power, crit chance, crit damage and gain Fury all the time.
It was glorious. I only had 10000 HP but my dual pistol unload would crit every shot and take down any of the "softer" classes from full health to almost dead in one use.
My Elite Skill (The dagger whirlwind thing) took down the ENTIRE ENEMY TEAM when I used it.
People on my team were actually commenting on "How crazy that Thief is"
Loving it!
I am miffed though that we only get BWEs. I mean, why only a weekend? Where is the problem with just letting it open?
yeah, Dagger Storm is kinda fucking absurd
i don't know why you'd even use any of the other thief Elites
Speaking of gem purchases - I found two mystic boxes and one mystic key, so it seems that you can find the keys out in the wild too - guess it's a bit like if you could buy lockpicks from a store in GW1.
And sometime you can get a mystic key from a mystic box.
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SarksusATTACK AND DETHRONE GODRegistered Userregular
I'm starting to get a sinking feeling about combat.
As I leveled my weapons from levels 1-15 I unlocked more and more of my combinations, at level 12 I had almost all of them unlocked. By level 15 I had my rotations down and it was simply a matter of watching my rear when kiting and figuring out on the fly what to do when something bad happened.
....
The top level is level 80.
What's left to make me interested in those 65 other levels of combat and fighting?!
This worries me too because honestly, looking at the skill bar, what you have is like 3 utility skills and 1 elite? And those 3 utility skills typically have a very long cooldown and typically don't gel with each other. So pretty much by 20 (when you get your 3rd slot unlock) you can pretty much choose the 3 skills you want and then never change them ever except for very specific situations. Heck, the only time I changed my stuff around was to get in a run speed skill to move from point to point.
If the combat itself (or events, PvP and your personal story) isn't keeping you interested then you're going to have a problem. There's stuff like traits that you can unlock, and experimenting and honing your build will be something you'll be doing, but the game is not about covering itself up with progression mechanics like other MMOs.
I'm just going to treat the game like a regular multiplayer game. The leveling is just to pace your character and to make customization less overwhelming. To me, it's really nice not having to worry about leveling to unlock most of my skills.
I am miffed though that we only get BWEs. I mean, why only a weekend? Where is the problem with just letting it open?
ANet gains nothing from just opening it up 24/7 and stands to actually lose a bit by doing that. One weekend will give them enough data and bugs (on top of the many bugs/notes they already had internally) to last them for weeks/months, and leaving it open requires resources and could interfere with their own testing. Plus leaving it open means you'll have people sorta wearing themselves out on an unbalanced/upolished game rather than the release version.
I'm starting to get a sinking feeling about combat.
As I leveled my weapons from levels 1-15 I unlocked more and more of my combinations, at level 12 I had almost all of them unlocked. By level 15 I had my rotations down and it was simply a matter of watching my rear when kiting and figuring out on the fly what to do when something bad happened.
....
The top level is level 80.
What's left to make me interested in those 65 other levels of combat and fighting?!
This worries me too because honestly, looking at the skill bar, what you have is like 3 utility skills and 1 elite? And those 3 utility skills typically have a very long cooldown and typically don't gel with each other. So pretty much by 20 (when you get your 3rd slot unlock) you can pretty much choose the 3 skills you want and then never change them ever except for very specific situations. Heck, the only time I changed my stuff around was to get in a run speed skill to move from point to point.
If the combat itself (or events, PvP and your personal story) isn't keeping you interested then you're going to have a problem. There's stuff like traits that you can unlock, and experimenting and honing your build will be something you'll be doing, but the game is not about covering itself up with progression mechanics like other MMOs.
I'm just going to treat the game like a regular multiplayer game. The leveling is just to pace your character and to make customization less overwhelming. To me, it's really nice not having to worry about leveling to unlock most of my skills.
The whole 'most everything is available pretty quickly' aspect is one of my favorite parts. Other MMOs I feel like I'm just burning levels to 'complete' my character. While the Support abilities do have longer cooldowns, I never felt I was waiting for them, at least with Ranger traps. Longest CD I saw was a 4min CD for an Elite, which is perfectly reasonable (especially since a lot of elites last for 30s+).
steejee on
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I am miffed though that we only get BWEs. I mean, why only a weekend? Where is the problem with just letting it open?
Well, you probably noticed the immense amount of bugginess that still exists to be worked on. Keeping the game live requires extra staff and spending money on the servers, which they could instead be spending/using to have the team working on the bugs that've been identified.
Speaking of gem purchases - I found two mystic boxes and one mystic key, so it seems that you can find the keys out in the wild too - guess it's a bit like if you could buy lockpicks from a store in GW1.
Sure you didn't get that from a personal story quest?
Edit: In regards to ANet getting data, they couldn't have gotten better data than when they threw down that end of beta event and EVERYONE was wailing on the Legendary difficulty rabbit and it was all a laggy mess which somehow still allowed me to fight a bit but did eventually kick me to the login screen.
Speaking of gem purchases - I found two mystic boxes and one mystic key, so it seems that you can find the keys out in the wild too - guess it's a bit like if you could buy lockpicks from a store in GW1.
Sure you didn't get that from a personal story quest?
That's...entirely possible. Thought I had gotten it from a drop. I would be a little miffed if there were only a few set drops in the game and then no others except from the shop. Wonder if they're bind on account? Could roll an alt whenever I needed a key if they were
steejee on
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So apparently you can send crafting materials to your bank from anywhere. I was just vendoring everything since it was beta, but that is pretty important information.
If the combat itself (or events, PvP and your personal story) isn't keeping you interested then you're going to have a problem. There's stuff like traits that you can unlock, and experimenting and honing your build will be something you'll be doing, but the game is not about covering itself up with progression mechanics like other MMOs.
Yeah, this is very much a "make your own adventure" game. It won't have a convenient breadcrumb of quests telling you where to go and what to do.
It took me some time getting used to it, because it's just so different from what the other MMOs do.
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SarksusATTACK AND DETHRONE GODRegistered Userregular
Wasn't too keen on limited charges on the gathering tools, but thinking back it makes sense considering you can send back basic materials. When you run out of axe uses you know you have at least 50 wood planks to play with (likely more due to salvage).
It's a bit of a shame that you get so much bonus exp from discovering "new" recipies - I ended up making modifiers of stuff my thief couldn't use like torches and warhorns, I was hoping I'd be able to just focus on things I actually wanted to use. It's also a little rigid - it'd be nice if you could make an item without requiring an inscription (be it a dowel or the raw material).
If the combat itself (or events, PvP and your personal story) isn't keeping you interested then you're going to have a problem. There's stuff like traits that you can unlock, and experimenting and honing your build will be something you'll be doing, but the game is not about covering itself up with progression mechanics like other MMOs.
Yeah, this is very much a "make your own adventure" game. It won't have a convenient breadcrumb of quests telling you where to go and what to do.
It took me some time getting used to it, because it's just so different from what the other MMOs do.
I kinda dub it a 'Guided sandbox' game. While I wouldn't consider it a true sandbox, it does sorta take one of the best aspects of them and merges it into a more streamlined RPG experience.
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So apparently you can send crafting materials to your bank from anywhere. I was just vendoring everything since it was beta, but that is pretty important information.
Yup, just add it as a Collectible. That definitely made it easier once I noticed it, but fortunately I noticed it quick enough that I didn't have to vendor anything. I tested it a bit with cooking mats to make sure I didn't somehow lose them permanently. I also learned a lot about how to correctly craft (i.e. get the most skill for your mats).
I figure from here I'll just keep watching and see if something or some feature jumps out and spurs me into pre-purchasing.
All I'm missing about that feature is being able to craft using materials that are in your bank so you don't have to run back and forth due to inevitably forgetting to get one component in the bank.
All I'm missing about that feature is being able to craft using materials that are in your bank so you don't have to run back and forth due to inevitably forgetting to get one component in the bank.
I agree, that would really make it better. Also, if you could add the "special" ingredients, like the Tiny Venom Sacs, Bone Chips, etc. (stuff you use to make the enhancement part of the item) to your collectibles.
Edit: For this reason, I preferred crafting in Divinity's Reach. You had a waypoint right next to the crafting area (for armorsmith) and right next to the bank, so you could just bounce between them quickly. Lion's Arch wasn't bad, as you had one right in front of the bank, but then had to run to the crafting area. Also, Divinity's Reach Bank and Trading post were really close together, whereas the ones in Lion's Arch were a bit of a run apart.
am0n on
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KlykaDO you have anySPARE BATTERIES?Registered Userregular
If the combat itself (or events, PvP and your personal story) isn't keeping you interested then you're going to have a problem. There's stuff like traits that you can unlock, and experimenting and honing your build will be something you'll be doing, but the game is not about covering itself up with progression mechanics like other MMOs.
Yeah, this is very much a "make your own adventure" game. It won't have a convenient breadcrumb of quests telling you where to go and what to do.
It took me some time getting used to it, because it's just so different from what the other MMOs do.
To be fair, I noticed that the personal quest does a pretty good job of sending you to all corners of your races zones.
So you DO have that breadcrumb trail you can follow, but it's not like "this is the way and the only way" as it is in other games.
So apparently mixing that magic powder that drops from things like ghosts with leather, let's you make a magic bag that wont auto-sort when you click the button, and anything in it wont show up on the sale menu.
All I'm missing about that feature is being able to craft using materials that are in your bank so you don't have to run back and forth due to inevitably forgetting to get one component in the bank.
I agree, that would really make it better. Also, if you could add the "special" ingredients, like the Tiny Venom Sacs, Bone Chips, etc. (stuff you use to make the enhancement part of the item) to your collectibles.
The absence of this was one of the things that confused me most about the beta. It took me a little while to realise that there were two distinct types of crafting material.
So apparently mixing that magic powder that drops from things like ghosts with leather, let's you make a magic bag that wont auto-sort when you click the button, and anything in it wont show up on the sale menu.
That's pretty awesome. I liked the "lock" feature in LOTRO. This is a little less fiddly.
So apparently mixing that magic powder that drops from things like ghosts with leather, let's you make a magic bag that wont auto-sort when you click the button, and anything in it wont show up on the sale menu.
That's pretty awesome. I liked the "lock" feature in LOTRO. This is a little less fiddly.
GW1 had a more manual version where you could check/uncheck bags from the vendor selling window which was sorta like an on the fly locking system.
If the combat itself (or events, PvP and your personal story) isn't keeping you interested then you're going to have a problem. There's stuff like traits that you can unlock, and experimenting and honing your build will be something you'll be doing, but the game is not about covering itself up with progression mechanics like other MMOs.
Yeah, this is very much a "make your own adventure" game. It won't have a convenient breadcrumb of quests telling you where to go and what to do.
It took me some time getting used to it, because it's just so different from what the other MMOs do.
To be fair, I noticed that the personal quest does a pretty good job of sending you to all corners of your races zones.
So you DO have that breadcrumb trail you can follow, but it's not like "this is the way and the only way" as it is in other games.
Just really comes down to when you do the story quests - if you do them a level or two over their recommended, you probably already visited where they send you, if you do them at or below level, the location will probably be new to you.
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0
surrealitychecklonely, but not unloveddreaming of faulty keys and latchesRegistered Userregular
Speaking of gem purchases - I found two mystic boxes and one mystic key, so it seems that you can find the keys out in the wild too - guess it's a bit like if you could buy lockpicks from a store in GW1.
Sure you didn't get that from a personal story quest?
That's...entirely possible. Thought I had gotten it from a drop. I would be a little miffed if there were only a few set drops in the game and then no others except from the shop. Wonder if they're bind on account? Could roll an alt whenever I needed a key if they were
I found two keys, one from a personal quest and the other just a random drop out in the world, then in what is probably the luckiest streak in my game life got a key from each of the 5 boxes I had in my pack at that point.
Other than that, damn I miss the game already, I spent the weekend as a Norn Engineer since it was one of the classes I had thought I would probably not roll in live. Five character slots is not going to be enough.
The game still needs work, polish, systems made stable, etc, but I just fell in love with it from the art style to the combat, clunky as it can feel at times when the difficulty curve decides that it wants to be a cliff and blindsides you. I loved the overall difficulty as well, with the difficulty blips the devs have acknowledge as an exception, although in the personal stories I found ways to beat even those without repeated defeats.
Basically, I want to carry on playing it, even in an unoptimised and unfinished state as it is, so things can only get better as ANet work on it and refine/polish everything.
Oh and put me down for another vote to be able to craft straight from your bank, that one just seems like a missing feature from a game that is trying to remove the busy work from mmo's.
"You don't stop playing games because you get old, you get old because you stop playing games."
I used the personal story quests as handy guides for exploration. I'd finish one, do other stuff until I hit the recommended level, then head towards the next one. It was a good way to find activities appropriate for my level.
As for the difficulty level, I noticed a huge difference in the personal story quests between my characters with a lot of AoE and those that didn't have it. My elementalist just laughed at large Sons of Svanir packs as they ran through her flame wall, caught on fire, then ate a phoenix to the face. My poor mesmer, on the other hand... his level 10 charr personal story quest was just BRUTAL with the packs of ghosts that would take out him and his companions before he was able to set up his illusions.
It isn't going to be easy to get an optimal difficulty level for the personal story quests, since they're largely solo affairs in a game that generally encourages group play. I'm sure some of the rougher segments will get altered a bit, though.
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reVerseAttack and Dethrone GodRegistered Userregular
I think this is almost true. I noticed that I had both Illusions and Phantasms out. If I recall correctly, illusions disappear but Phantasms remain. Or was it the other way around...
as a Guardian, who does not have nearly as many skills as an Elementalist or Engineer, I could:
<death by awesome>
Yeah, I'm a bit disappointed in how bland mesmers feel compared to that. Couldn't feel they had anything visually distinctive other than turning illusions into butterflies.
I think this is precisely why I stopped playing Mesmer and looked for a different class to play
once I revealed every skill available, I found Mesmer to be pretty two-dimensional, even BEFORE playing the Guardian
some of it is around the fact that it's heavily based on the illusion/shatter system, which feels incredibly limiting and it feels like you're "doing it wrong" if you don't choose your utility skills to support that mechanic
Different strokes and all that.
I enjoyed mesmer the most. They are sooooo hard to pin down if built that way. I was rolling around with a dual sword mesmer in the arena and never died. And I could dish out good damage. I built specifically to NOT shatter illusions.
It was AWESOME. But as I've seen builds have a HUGE effect on the classes and how different they can be.
DemonStacey on
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surrealitychecklonely, but not unloveddreaming of faulty keys and latchesRegistered Userregular
Posts
I think this is precisely why I stopped playing Mesmer and looked for a different class to play
once I revealed every skill available, I found Mesmer to be pretty two-dimensional, even BEFORE playing the Guardian
some of it is around the fact that it's heavily based on the illusion/shatter system, which feels incredibly limiting and it feels like you're "doing it wrong" if you don't choose your utility skills to support that mechanic
What I wish they would change is make the illusions not die when their target dies. It's really annoying using a 20 second cooldown in an event that spawns a lot of relatively low health enemies and have the phantasm out for 3 seconds max.
Also, I'm pretty sure that when you do shatter them the effect is single-target only, which is just garbage. edit: Actually, the damage one and confusion one are supposedly AoEs.
Yes, this was a definite complaint of mine.
Thing is, I don't see a fix for this, because otherwise it is extremely difficult to control them on a battlefield... but maybe the issues around this goes away if they fix the illusions dying after their target does, which means you can use them to nuke at a given opportunity.
That said, I can see how changing the illusions' lifespan to what we are suggesting would make Mesmers rudely overpowered, so a fix may not be all that simple.
Also, I has a sad face that it'll probably be 3+ weeks before I can play GW2 again.
Just Finished: Borderlands (waste of $7)/Mario Brothers U/The Last Story/Tropico 4
Currently Playing: NS2/ZombiU/PlanetSide 2/Ys/Dota2/Xenoblade Chronicles
On Hold: Prince of Persia: Warrior Within/GW2/Scribblenauts
Coming Next: Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones/X-Com Classic
Next BWE I'd like to try out necro, thief, and warrior for realz.
Also, I feel like I really need to upgrade my computer to play this. I could mostly play on balanced, but when I got into wuvwuv even just running the game on the lowest settings possible was a slideshow.
Obligatory screenshots linked because I'm too lazy to change their size.
Me posing
http://i.imgur.com/WUjhR.jpg
Me and Entaru Phenyhelm waiting for the damn wuvwuv train.
http://i.imgur.com/87jhL.jpg
I don't know if you can tell, but my armor is dyed with two rare colors. I spent my free crystals on dye packs. I am terrified I will spend real money on that exact thing.
Just Finished: Borderlands (waste of $7)/Mario Brothers U/The Last Story/Tropico 4
Currently Playing: NS2/ZombiU/PlanetSide 2/Ys/Dota2/Xenoblade Chronicles
On Hold: Prince of Persia: Warrior Within/GW2/Scribblenauts
Coming Next: Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones/X-Com Classic
It was glorious. I only had 10000 HP but my dual pistol unload would crit every shot and take down any of the "softer" classes from full health to almost dead in one use.
My Elite Skill (The dagger whirlwind thing) took down the ENTIRE ENEMY TEAM when I used it.
People on my team were actually commenting on "How crazy that Thief is"
Loving it!
I am miffed though that we only get BWEs. I mean, why only a weekend? Where is the problem with just letting it open?
yeah, Dagger Storm is kinda fucking absurd
i don't know why you'd even use any of the other thief Elites
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And sometime you can get a mystic key from a mystic box.
If the combat itself (or events, PvP and your personal story) isn't keeping you interested then you're going to have a problem. There's stuff like traits that you can unlock, and experimenting and honing your build will be something you'll be doing, but the game is not about covering itself up with progression mechanics like other MMOs.
I'm just going to treat the game like a regular multiplayer game. The leveling is just to pace your character and to make customization less overwhelming. To me, it's really nice not having to worry about leveling to unlock most of my skills.
ANet gains nothing from just opening it up 24/7 and stands to actually lose a bit by doing that. One weekend will give them enough data and bugs (on top of the many bugs/notes they already had internally) to last them for weeks/months, and leaving it open requires resources and could interfere with their own testing. Plus leaving it open means you'll have people sorta wearing themselves out on an unbalanced/upolished game rather than the release version.
The whole 'most everything is available pretty quickly' aspect is one of my favorite parts. Other MMOs I feel like I'm just burning levels to 'complete' my character. While the Support abilities do have longer cooldowns, I never felt I was waiting for them, at least with Ranger traps. Longest CD I saw was a 4min CD for an Elite, which is perfectly reasonable (especially since a lot of elites last for 30s+).
Just Finished: Borderlands (waste of $7)/Mario Brothers U/The Last Story/Tropico 4
Currently Playing: NS2/ZombiU/PlanetSide 2/Ys/Dota2/Xenoblade Chronicles
On Hold: Prince of Persia: Warrior Within/GW2/Scribblenauts
Coming Next: Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones/X-Com Classic
Well, you probably noticed the immense amount of bugginess that still exists to be worked on. Keeping the game live requires extra staff and spending money on the servers, which they could instead be spending/using to have the team working on the bugs that've been identified.
Sure you didn't get that from a personal story quest?
Edit: In regards to ANet getting data, they couldn't have gotten better data than when they threw down that end of beta event and EVERYONE was wailing on the Legendary difficulty rabbit and it was all a laggy mess which somehow still allowed me to fight a bit but did eventually kick me to the login screen.
That's...entirely possible. Thought I had gotten it from a drop. I would be a little miffed if there were only a few set drops in the game and then no others except from the shop. Wonder if they're bind on account? Could roll an alt whenever I needed a key if they were
Just Finished: Borderlands (waste of $7)/Mario Brothers U/The Last Story/Tropico 4
Currently Playing: NS2/ZombiU/PlanetSide 2/Ys/Dota2/Xenoblade Chronicles
On Hold: Prince of Persia: Warrior Within/GW2/Scribblenauts
Coming Next: Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones/X-Com Classic
Steam (Ansatz) || GW2 officer (Ansatz.6498)
Yeah, this is very much a "make your own adventure" game. It won't have a convenient breadcrumb of quests telling you where to go and what to do.
It took me some time getting used to it, because it's just so different from what the other MMOs do.
Wasn't too keen on limited charges on the gathering tools, but thinking back it makes sense considering you can send back basic materials. When you run out of axe uses you know you have at least 50 wood planks to play with (likely more due to salvage).
It's a bit of a shame that you get so much bonus exp from discovering "new" recipies - I ended up making modifiers of stuff my thief couldn't use like torches and warhorns, I was hoping I'd be able to just focus on things I actually wanted to use. It's also a little rigid - it'd be nice if you could make an item without requiring an inscription (be it a dowel or the raw material).
I kinda dub it a 'Guided sandbox' game. While I wouldn't consider it a true sandbox, it does sorta take one of the best aspects of them and merges it into a more streamlined RPG experience.
Just Finished: Borderlands (waste of $7)/Mario Brothers U/The Last Story/Tropico 4
Currently Playing: NS2/ZombiU/PlanetSide 2/Ys/Dota2/Xenoblade Chronicles
On Hold: Prince of Persia: Warrior Within/GW2/Scribblenauts
Coming Next: Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones/X-Com Classic
Yup, just add it as a Collectible. That definitely made it easier once I noticed it, but fortunately I noticed it quick enough that I didn't have to vendor anything. I tested it a bit with cooking mats to make sure I didn't somehow lose them permanently. I also learned a lot about how to correctly craft (i.e. get the most skill for your mats).
I figure from here I'll just keep watching and see if something or some feature jumps out and spurs me into pre-purchasing.
I agree, that would really make it better. Also, if you could add the "special" ingredients, like the Tiny Venom Sacs, Bone Chips, etc. (stuff you use to make the enhancement part of the item) to your collectibles.
Edit: For this reason, I preferred crafting in Divinity's Reach. You had a waypoint right next to the crafting area (for armorsmith) and right next to the bank, so you could just bounce between them quickly. Lion's Arch wasn't bad, as you had one right in front of the bank, but then had to run to the crafting area. Also, Divinity's Reach Bank and Trading post were really close together, whereas the ones in Lion's Arch were a bit of a run apart.
To be fair, I noticed that the personal quest does a pretty good job of sending you to all corners of your races zones.
So you DO have that breadcrumb trail you can follow, but it's not like "this is the way and the only way" as it is in other games.
The absence of this was one of the things that confused me most about the beta. It took me a little while to realise that there were two distinct types of crafting material.
That's pretty awesome. I liked the "lock" feature in LOTRO. This is a little less fiddly.
Steam (Ansatz) || GW2 officer (Ansatz.6498)
GW1 had a more manual version where you could check/uncheck bags from the vendor selling window which was sorta like an on the fly locking system.
Just really comes down to when you do the story quests - if you do them a level or two over their recommended, you probably already visited where they send you, if you do them at or below level, the location will probably be new to you.
Just Finished: Borderlands (waste of $7)/Mario Brothers U/The Last Story/Tropico 4
Currently Playing: NS2/ZombiU/PlanetSide 2/Ys/Dota2/Xenoblade Chronicles
On Hold: Prince of Persia: Warrior Within/GW2/Scribblenauts
Coming Next: Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones/X-Com Classic
and the damage shatter is 100% an aoe
observe
I found two keys, one from a personal quest and the other just a random drop out in the world, then in what is probably the luckiest streak in my game life got a key from each of the 5 boxes I had in my pack at that point.
Other than that, damn I miss the game already, I spent the weekend as a Norn Engineer since it was one of the classes I had thought I would probably not roll in live. Five character slots is not going to be enough.
The game still needs work, polish, systems made stable, etc, but I just fell in love with it from the art style to the combat, clunky as it can feel at times when the difficulty curve decides that it wants to be a cliff and blindsides you. I loved the overall difficulty as well, with the difficulty blips the devs have acknowledge as an exception, although in the personal stories I found ways to beat even those without repeated defeats.
Basically, I want to carry on playing it, even in an unoptimised and unfinished state as it is, so things can only get better as ANet work on it and refine/polish everything.
Oh and put me down for another vote to be able to craft straight from your bank, that one just seems like a missing feature from a game that is trying to remove the busy work from mmo's.
"You don't stop playing games because you get old, you get old because you stop playing games."
As for the difficulty level, I noticed a huge difference in the personal story quests between my characters with a lot of AoE and those that didn't have it. My elementalist just laughed at large Sons of Svanir packs as they ran through her flame wall, caught on fire, then ate a phoenix to the face. My poor mesmer, on the other hand... his level 10 charr personal story quest was just BRUTAL with the packs of ghosts that would take out him and his companions before he was able to set up his illusions.
It isn't going to be easy to get an optimal difficulty level for the personal story quests, since they're largely solo affairs in a game that generally encourages group play. I'm sure some of the rougher segments will get altered a bit, though.
Untrue.
I think this is almost true. I noticed that I had both Illusions and Phantasms out. If I recall correctly, illusions disappear but Phantasms remain. Or was it the other way around...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=lgdyvUry3F8#t=48s (NSFW)
Different strokes and all that.
I enjoyed mesmer the most. They are sooooo hard to pin down if built that way. I was rolling around with a dual sword mesmer in the arena and never died. And I could dish out good damage. I built specifically to NOT shatter illusions.
It was AWESOME. But as I've seen builds have a HUGE effect on the classes and how different they can be.
But you know what? I'm happy if most people don't really mesh with the mesmer.... they'll be much more surprised when I'm kicking their arses!