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Guild Wars "Hard Mode"
Photics
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I've been playing Guild Wars for over three years. I lead one of the oldest (if not THE oldest) guild in Guild Wars. At one point, we were 1000 players strong. (There would have been more, but there's a hardcap on Guilds / Alliances.) We held Cavalon for three weeks. I was an alpha tester / beta tester. I create Guild Wars video guides. But even with even all that, I lost to a Grawl.
A GRAWL! O_o
Hard Mode is INSANE! No really, it's crazy.
Do you remember the Great Northern Wall? That's the first Ascalon map after the Searing. I used to solo that map, kill all the Charr, then head back to the gate. Not on hardmode... even with a 33% run skill, the Charr caught up to me... and KILLED ME.
What do you think of Hard Mode?
If you haven't heard about Hard Mode, you can read about it here... http://www.guildwars.com/gameplay/hardmode/
A GRAWL! O_o
Hard Mode is INSANE! No really, it's crazy.
Do you remember the Great Northern Wall? That's the first Ascalon map after the Searing. I used to solo that map, kill all the Charr, then head back to the gate. Not on hardmode... even with a 33% run skill, the Charr caught up to me... and KILLED ME.
What do you think of Hard Mode?
If you haven't heard about Hard Mode, you can read about it here... http://www.guildwars.com/gameplay/hardmode/
Michael Garofalo - App Developer and author of [URL="http://photics.com/books/gamesalad-textbook]The Unofficial GameSalad Textbook[/URL]
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Annoyingly, they still haven't really sorted out loot in my opinion. The special locked chests that you can find still contain purples (IMO, they should have ditched purple a long time ago, and kept it green and gold).
I haven't played in a while but there have been some other nice new additions that people who don't play might have missed. Storage space quadrupled. Pet commands and some new tournament rules and shit that I've not really payed any attention to. Although sadly, a lot of this stuff are changes that should have been made a year ago, if not from the getgo.
Still, you've got to admit it's cool they're still adding significant stuff to the game, even after announcing the last installment of GW1. Hard Mode is a major addition, and they keep putting in more things that players have requested (more storage, pet commands, templates, etc).
Still missing an auction-house type feature, though.
> turn on light
Good start to the day. Pity it's going to be the worst one of your life. The light is now on.
I'm really not trying to bash the game. I still love it, but I just don't quite have the time that I think the game really needs to get the most out of it. I'm still kinda annoyed that basically the really strong section of the game, the PvP is basically inaccesible for any sort of casual play. That was something they really should have sorted out in factions but outside of Random Arena, if you just want to pick up and go then there really isn't that much there for you. The same thing goes with the auction house actually, I really don't have the time to go sell the stuff I'm picking up, and I shouldn't have to try and make that time just so I can go buy some shiney armour.
I should probably point out Nightfall: Collectors Edition £17.99 delivered.
Re: casual PVP... I've found AB to be a great outlet for that. I know a lot of "real" PVPers who scoff at it, but its not designed for them. You get PVP experience but in a PVE wrapper. But I think I see your point - for someone who's not interested in PVE, but doesn't want to get too into hardcore PVP, there are very limited options.
I need to get back to GW and finally finish Factions. Doing some of the Factions missions again in hard mode is a scary prospect (but fun... a challenge is always good).
> turn on light
Good start to the day. Pity it's going to be the worst one of your life. The light is now on.
I've gotten through Great Northern Wall, I get owned so hard at Fort Ranik.
But then they went and made the gameplay crappy and boring.
It pretty much is in a lot of respects. The world preview event was in oct 2004, whilst the e3 for everyone build was back in apirl 2004. Since the WPE they had beta weekends at the end of every month up to launch I think.
This does not seem like my kind of thing at all..
But this might change that.
I've not tried out hard mode yet - I don't really like the PvE part much anyways.
Guild Wars was officially released on April 28, 2005. I've been playing since February 2004. I find it amazing that I still enjoy the game. Running a fansite helps though. Sometimes, that aspect of Guild Wars is more fun than the game itself. HA!
Oh man... Fort Ranik was terrible. I eventually beat it with Heroes. Here's my build...
Photics - Elementalist / Mesmer
CODE: OgVDIrqsC+uLwFrwFcIA
Mark of Rodgort, Meteor, Meteor Shower, Fire Storm, Hex Breaker, Power Spike, Backfire, Res Signet.
I was basically going for interrupts. I'd target the casters, then set them on fire with Mark of Rodgort and my fire wand. All my henchies use Fire Wands, so the Mark of Rodgort works well. I'd use a combination of Meteor Shower and Meteor to chain interrupt the casters... or I'd lead off with Backfire. It depends on how many enemies are in the blast area. I'm not sure why I used Fire Storm. Heh!
Hex Breaker is crticital in stopping the Necromancer. They pretty much chain cast Life Siphon and some other Hex spell. That's when Backfire is really handy. Either way, I'm doing some pretty huge damage. It may not be the smartest of builds, but it's fun to play. I feel like I'm doing something when I interrupt the enemy and when I hit for triple-digit damage.
Tahlkora and Dunkoro have the same skills...
CODE: OwAT043A55uNT4IgEPSX8dqRAA
Signet of Rejuvenation, Reversal of Fortune, Divine Boon, Healing Breee, Heal Other, Heven's Delight, Renew Life, Word of Healing
These two heal... and they do a pretty good job at it.
Acolyte Sousuke
CODE: OgVDIbqsC0qKs5cRRKIA
Aura of Restoration, Earthquake, Ward Against Melee, Cry of Frustration, Power Spike, Shatter Enchantment, Hex Breaker, Res Signet.
Basically, this guy's my sidekick. Instead of Fire, he uses Earth. Ward Against Melee helps protect against the Charr Warriors. Earthquake is another interrupt spell. But even better are all of the domination based interrupts. The computer has flawless execution of interrupt skills. There are lots of slow casting Necros on the Fort Ranik map. Sousuke tears them up.
Basically, I just went really slow. I'd wait for exhaustion to wear off, then I'd move forward. Another important thing to do is to keep the NPC allies alive. I had two Ascalon dudes with me, for almost the entire map. It helped out a lot. I would have wiped out completely, but the Ascalon Archer held his ground. It was amazing. A level 20 NPC was shooting holes in a level 26 Charr.
Oh... and use the catapults to your advantage. There's a second one on the map. Just lure the enemies into the blast radius. It helps a lot with the last battle.
Zoolander and I tried it, nothing like 8 scarabs using vampiric touch for 89 damage each...
Just a matter of time before I figure out an awesome build for it though.
Overall thouroughly enjoying revisiting old areas that are now at least level 20 content.
Hard mode is quite fun - PvE feels fun again
I always found it fun myself. It seems a lot better than all the other MMORPG's using the same control system. Much faster-paced and less frustrating than WoW, and pretty satisfying.
I mostly miss how competitive the online play was, but playing shooters is basically the same thrill.
One of the problems with online play in both RPGs and RTS games is that the barrier to entry is so high, and it's not because of skill but a case of number crunching. At some point someone figures out the ideal way to do X+Y+Z and unless you copy it you miss out. FPS games never really feel like they have the same limitations because the individual skill factor becomes a lot more dominant.
I'll be really interested to see how they cope with the PvP in GW2.
Arena Net is an awsome company, despite GW problems I think overall its an awsome game and enjoyed playing it.
That's pretty much the big reason I stopped playing. I knew that unless I sat down and did all the number crunching and all that then I would be useless in PvP, but there was no way in hell I was going to do all that shit. So I just stopped.
[edit]Don't get me wrong, I love Guild Wars and everything, I just can't handle the stat and number crunching that is required to be effective in PvP.[/edit]
Can't Touch This is a horribly ineffective skill :P
I'm enjoying playing through the prophecies campaign again since its been so long since I've been back there, while Nighfall feels stale at the moment.
In the PC Gamer special, they recognized that the massive number of skills was dragging it down, so I think they're gonna at least think about it. Personally, I feel the number of skills afforded by Prophecies + Core to be about right.
Yeah, they've mentioned the problems with the proliferation of skills, and professions, a number of times in public. They're definitely very aware of the issue. Haven't heard how they'll fix it for GW2, though. It does seem that any fix would limit what they can put in GW2 expansions, to smaller numbers of skills less frequently, perhaps. And I wouldn't expect GW2 to have as many professions.
> turn on light
Good start to the day. Pity it's going to be the worst one of your life. The light is now on.
Sounds cool to me, though they still don't talk about how Skills might work.
If I were making it, I'd be tight lipped about it as well. The skill system is very very integral to the game, and even if they have some general idea of how to go about it, it really could change at a moment's notice. I bet they're waiting until they've got something more concrete.
I don't see why they'd uncap the level though. How would that possibly be balanced? I hate level-based stuff myself. It seems like a nonsensical way to run an MMO, because everyone wants to stand out and instead they just end up chasing ever higher levels, that predictably dictate combat outcome in a boring way.
Well, it's integrated with the "universe" in that it takes place in the same world, just much later.
But it is an entirely separate game, yes.
It all depends on what benefits levels give you. GW currently has 2 types of levels: displayed levels 1-20 that each give you more HP, attribute points, and skill points; and then undisplayed 21-unbounded that just give you skill points. That second set is never mentioned or calculated as a level in-game.
So, in GW2, as an example, they could easily have an unbounded or high level cap without wrecking balance if the levels are like that second type. Levels that give you more HP or attribute points or other significant benefits would cause a problem.
> turn on light
Good start to the day. Pity it's going to be the worst one of your life. The light is now on.
Also, for the competative PvP they did mention they would have a fixed level system. There's also a lot of ways you can have unlimited leveling and not mess up the balance too badly. E.g. having some sort of exponential decay on your returns for leveling up, and/or having equipment become more important, and just saving the new equipment for expansions or keeping level as an almost cosmetic thing. E.g. level 1000 and your armour is majestic, and your sword huge, whilst at level 10 you're still pretty much as good, you just look like a muppet. There's lots of room to play with there.