Guild Wars Characters

[Main_Brain]

Nekro / Monk All the Way!
Nekro Blood Magix and Completly avoiding all Monk Skills except for Resurrect.
And Yes i die alot ;=)

[DrSpike]

And does that tell you something about your choice?

[Traianvs]

Originally posted by Kinjiru
I like it a lot. I have been (and still am) playing WoW since launch and have just recently added GW to the rota.

GW is a completely different game. Lots of people compare it to Diablo II, but honestly, it 'feels' more like Dungeon Siege, but with lots more depth.

The PvP is the main thing, but it is not a gank-fest, nor is it a situation where you are getting beatdown by a 12-year old with a big sword. In PvP only mode, all chars are equal. Period. Equipment doesn't play a huge role either. All the skills are pretty much equal as well. You don't get a Fireball 1 spell that you won't use past level 3. All your skills are effective for the whole game.

This game all boils down to choosing the right skills for the right situation. You can only take 8 skills with you into any encounter, so you must choose based on what you expect to face.

This makes the PvP a very tactical battle, with a serious strategic planning stage.

Well the fact that you can only take 8 skills with ya at a time, and the fact that everybody is somewhat equal in strength makes it kinda monotonous to me... and that's what I've read in reviews too. I heard it's possible to create a high level character in the beginning of the game to fight other players immediately.. but seriously where's the fun in that. MMORPGS are all about levelling and finding great artefacts which is why I think they stink . I don't really see the tactical possibilities to be honest.
Simply clicking an enemy to attack him and cast your most destructive spell at the right time doesn't sound much like a challenge. That said, the BG games were awesome, because there were endless possibilities there, with numerous tactics to challenge almost every action or spell

[DrSpike]

I don't think I've ever seen anyone miss the point so badly.

The fact that PvP is more skill based than based on who spent the most hundreds of hours farming equipment is intentional. The fact you can jump into PvP (with other PvP chars, PvP is distinct from the PvE game) without having to grind through fifty levels you might not want to if you are into PvP is also an intentional difference with standard MMORPGs.

And there is the need to find good artefacts, as in all RPGs, in the PvE game. You can also unlock stuff for 'instant' PvP characters this way.

Personally I think it's an innovative approach and they should be commended for raising the bar, which they undoubtedly have done.

[child of Thor]

This does sound an interesting game. All they need is a single player non-internet connected version and i'm in

[Traianvs]

No, you missed the point. I don't like either way of playing. Not playing hours of levelling, and not just jumping in with a high level character.
The only thing that can make such a game cool to play, is the interaction between people, good graphics and some original monsters. But other than that I really can't see the fun in just clicking an enemy so your char starts whacking away, and then wait for the right moment to cast your meteor shower, or your heal spells.

It would be a lot better if it were first person and if some skill was involved. If you want tactics you won't find it here, you'd better play chess, an rts or civ2

imo

[DrSpike]

The whole point is that by making the characters relatively even (for hours played) you have to use more tactics to win PvP encounters.

As RPG combat goes, it doesn't get much more tactical.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Trajanus
No, you missed the point. I don't like either way of playing. Not playing hours of levelling, and not just jumping in with a high level character.
The only thing that can make such a game cool to play, is the interaction between people, good graphics and some original monsters. But other than that I really can't see the fun in just clicking an enemy so your char starts whacking away, and then wait for the right moment to cast your meteor shower, or your heal spells.

It would be a lot better if it were first person and if some skill was involved. If you want tactics you won't find it here, you'd better play chess, an rts or civ2

imo

Trajanus, the point is that this is NOT a clickfest. It's not a game where you just "click to cast your biggest spell" at your enemy.

You have precisely 8 skills, which are very balanced, and once you hit level 20, which you do inside a week or two, everyone is equal in terms of game abilities - meaning the only reason you will win, is if you did a better job selecting a party and using the right skill at the right time.

It's not just repetitive clicking - if you are a monk/necro, you have to decide when the right time is for you to raise some skeletons and/or whatever else you have to raise, when the right time is to cast a healing spell, and when the right time is to cast a buff or a debuff- because you have a limited selection of skill points to use, and they don't regenerate fast enough to just 'cast your biggest spell' over and over again; and there IS no biggest spell, just a lot of evenly matched ones.

The POINT, that Dr Spike rightly said you missed, is that the game is determined by your skill, strategy, and tactics, NOT by how long you've played, or how much money you put into the game. Yes, Chess is more a test of pure strategy - but this is a different experience, and not just pure strategy, but other kinds of skill as well.

If you don't like MMORPGs, then fine; but acknowledge that you don't like the genre, and stay out of discussions of whether a particular game is a good one. You don't see me going into Halflife discussions, and telling people how much halflife sucks; I don't like the game, but that's because I don't like the FPS genre, with rare exceptions.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Trajanus
It would be a lot better if it were first person and if some skill was involved.

And to make a more specific point: third person doesn't mean there's no skill involved. (And I think you can go 1st person if you want to, can't you? Been a while since I played the beta...) Nor does 1st person mean it is involved; Morrowind was primarily 1st person, but the hits were dice-calculated.

Yes, there is no 'aiming'; but that means there's no aiming skill involved. OTOH, there is skill in choosing which skill to use, and who to use it on; I personally see that as far more relevant than my hand-eye coordination. If I want hand-eye coordination tested, I'll go play baseball, outdoors ...

[Traianvs]

I simply figured that because of the limited skill choice there was little variation and tactics involved... It's what I read in reviews, don't kill me for that

[Main_Brain]

Originally posted by DrSpike
And does that tell you something about your choice?

No, it only tells me I am pretty bad at this
Im a Lover not a Fighter

[snoopy369]

Made it up to level 6 Ranger/Necromancer. I'm not sure how well the combo is going to play, but it's fun at least. I have plenty of allies in any fight as a rule.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Trajanus
I simply figured that because of the limited skill choice there was little variation and tactics involved... It's what I read in reviews, don't kill me for that

Most reviews are pretty flattering though. It might have been the IGN one you read as the guy seemed to be (as you are) under the mistaken impression there were 8 skills in total per class, when in fact there are something like 75 per class, and you have 2 classes per character.

[DrSpike]

Btw I orderer GW this weekend. If it comes in time I'll be playing next weekend.

[snoopy369]

Yeh... this game gives me the feel of a CCG in a way. Just like in a CCG, you have a ton of skills, any one of which would be fantasticly useful ... but you only get to choose 8 total (can be 8 from one class, or 4 and 4, or usually somewhere in between), so it's the selection that is the difficult part.