Guild Wars - Third Edition

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Kassiopeia
Sir Ralph, I keep wondering the same thing. I guess people don't think sticking in the background keeping the group alive is fun. It may also be that they're intimidated by the responsibility you'll have: screw up a bit, allow the tank die, and the party wipes. I personally enjoy playing a healing class.

As a player of several MMORPG and similar, and ALWAYS playing a healing class as my primary, I can say that you're on the right track here.

• Healing is boring to most younger players, and many older players as well. They're playing the game to kill monsters, and they're not killing anything when they're a pure healer.
• Healing is hard. It takes a lot more work than just mashing a button; depending on the game, it at MINIMUM requires mashing four to eight buttons, and generally requires a larger degree of skill than that.
• Healers ALWAYS get blamed for the party wiping. If the tank goes down, it's because the healer wasn't focussing on the tank enough. If some random weakling gets too close to the baddie and goes down, he/she'll blame you. No matter why the party goes down, the healer will get the blame. This is worse at earlier levels than at later (at least in games where it's hard to get to "later" levels), but it exists everywhere.
• Healers have to put up with the crap of the dumb players. As mentioned above, if some random weakling tends to get too close to baddies, you HAVE to protect/heal them somehow, or they'll die, and you'll lose the all important nuker or AoEer or whatever. If the tank casts Healing Signet, you have to protect him. You can't just ignore the dumbest players, if you want the party to survive... (well, most of the time anyway).

Basically, Healers are rare largely because they do a lot of work and get blamed when things go wrong, but don't get much credit when things work out. This is of course not always true, and I love finding parties that understand the value of the healer, but it's true often enough to discourage people from playing healer.

On the other hand, I play healers ... because it's a lot of fun, for the right sort of person. It's a constant battle to keep people healed, and to use the right healing spell, and not run out of mana or whatever. It's far harder, and thus more enjoyable for me, than nuking or tanking (except in FFXI, where both were quite interesting due to the extreme way they dealt with monster aggros, but that's a different story). It just takes a hard skin at early levels...

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
GW isn't exactly a MMORPG, it's way too shallow to hold this title. Even the developers say this, calling it CORPG - cooperative online RPG. And considering the fact, that you'll hardly find any RPers in it, the correct abbreviation would be COG.

But in the "bang for the buck" department it's lonely in the lead, considering that it is often extended with new features (zones, quests etc.) without having a monthly fee.

Bang for the buck is key

[Nostromo]

Btw, have you ever tried Neverwinter nights? Its hard to beat in the bang for the buck department

[Imran Siddiqui]

Nope... but when I played the demo I didn't think it was all that special. Maybe there are other redemptive features.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Hmmm... just got a new PC, and read about Guild Wars. It sounds very intriguing. Though Oblivion is coming out soon...

So... I wonder, I love RPGs, never done the MMORPG stuff. Hardly play multiplayer at all, really, even though I do have cable internet connection. How's the game in terms of a RPG player who loved Fallout, Baldur's Gate, Planescape Torment, Morrowind, and even, for a bit, Diablo?

They are almost a different genre. Online RPGs are more about the tactical element, especially in GW. In WoW that's partly true and also the competitive element is more in evidence.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
Why is it, that in almost all games healing classes are the most sought after, when it comes to high level content?

It's the same in GW. "Don't upset the monk, he may quit the party and then we're screwed in the mid of nowhere." Many monks abused that and obviously enjoyed, that they could be the biggest jerks without being kicked from the party.

In most MMOs its because although these classes are great for high end group content they suck for soloing, and thus it often takes longer to reach the endgame. Also, depending on the game, healing can be boring. CoH defenders? Yawn.

In WoW they neatly sidestepped this by allowing full respecs and having some dps priest skills. Plus, from what I hear, healing isn't boring. Still people want priests most though - some of Snoopy's points ring true.

In GW it's all about the group content anyway. There isn't necessarily a huge shortage of monks, it's just when they are missing you notice it a lot. You have less leeway with monks for coping with what they can provide other ways.

[Kassiopeia]

Ah, DrSpike has a point there, soloing a healer would be very difficult. In GW they sidestepped this with henchies and generally encouraging going out to the wild in a party anyway and the ability to go smite if needed, in WoW they did this indeed very handily by the Shadow tree, which basically allows a priest to "melt faces". My priest is staying firmly shadow until he reaches 60 (or perhaps 58, depends on when I start doing the endgame instances), because mobs don't die no matter how much you try to heal them. It's also useful when the random Horde decides he wants some honour off my back.

The healing power of a shadow specced priest is quite sufficient for all but the endgame (L59-60) instances, anyway.

[Barinthus]

Originally posted by nostromo
If I would try a MMORPG, it would probably be WOW. And it features huge-ass monsters! A friend of mine sent me a picture of this bad boy. He's 200 feet high! Just look how tiny the character in the background looks in comparison (hint: he or she is on the right) !

My friend, you know what they say. It's not the size that matter, it's how you do it that matters.

SirRalph - if you are not gung-ho about pvp, why not join mine? It's a nice mixture of European and American players and so far I like them. While we do have PvP hardcore players, generally it's more of a PvE guild.

As for healers - I love playing my monk on GW. Didn't have much problem since I have a thick skin and have no problem not rezzing jerks.

Funny thing last night I was playing my necromancer and we didnt recruit monks so I volunteer to go monk (secondary was monk) and at last minute we got a real monk but I stayed on as a healer. Turned out I was much better at healing than that monk - he doesn't seem to know what he was doing. I was like man I'm a necro and I heal better than him?!? ha. Heck I had to heal the monk on several occasions to keep his sorry backside alive.

[Barinthus]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
GW isn't exactly a MMORPG, it's way too shallow to hold this title. Even the developers say this, calling it CORPG - cooperative online RPG. And considering the fact, that you'll hardly find any RPers in it, the correct abbreviation would be COG.

But in the "bang for the buck" department it's lonely in the lead, considering that it is often extended with new features (zones, quests etc.) without having a monthly fee.

?

There are roleplayers in my guild. They are in the game, you just need to look in right places.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I assume in any MMORPG (or whatever ), there will be some players that do want to roleplay in the throngs of people yelling for help in l337 talk and just wanting to level. You just have to search them out.. or bring your friends in the gameworld with you.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Hmm.. it appears that the a new stand alone version of Guild Wars "Factions" is coming out. I wonder which one I should get? Is "Factions" supposed to be for more advanced players?

Maybe if I wait a few months, I can get a 'combined' package of both games?

[Nostromo]

About the "expansion pack that's not an expansion pack"

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/guild-wars-campaign-2/695508p1.html

I admit, if my computer was up to it, I would probably try it. The skill system is intriguing.

[Nostromo]

dp

[Imran Siddiqui]

Apparently "Factions" can run in the same graphics mode as the original, if you want. You can choose the original DX8 style graphics or the new DX9 graphics.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by Barinthus
SirRalph - if you are not gung-ho about pvp, why not join mine? It's a nice mixture of European and American players and so far I like them. While we do have PvP hardcore players, generally it's more of a PvE guild.

I might consider that, if I get back to the game. But considering that I just started Folderol (which I like) and both NWN2 and Vanguard SoH are coming out this year, that seems rather unlikely, at least for the moment.