f13.net

So I got up early to play before work, it was pretty slick and running good.  The load times were pretty short, which was a fear I had given all dynamic stuff.  The real test will be primetime.

Too bad many of you have already moved on, but I guess that's the danger of long betas.

Whats a good minor for necro?

So I loaded up the game yesterday and was as completely underwhelmed as I was a couple months ago. The game seems lifeless and dull. I have a feeling beta weekends did more to harm the game than help it.

I played a bit, and will probably go buy my and my wife's pre-orders tonight.

In fact I am sending you out to do just that.

You have your orders!



s i r


lol

I'll be ready to crack some skulls when I get home at ~3:30pm EST.

Also, a Mesmer might be a good secondary for Necro, with the mana taps and such.

Going to pick my copy up at lunch.  Did the guild stay intact or we starting from ground zero again (which would be my guess)?

Xilren

I'm thinking ground zero, but I didn't check. I only got to level 2.

Looks like I am going to be late on this one too. Can't get myself fired up about it at all. I am sure you will all rave about it, seduce me into buying it, then quit en masse the day I get it installed.

Not that I am bitter.

I was and am fired up, however the usual suspects have prevented my login.

I played a bit last night.

I thought I found some fun.

It was a hill.

I logged out.

I got my discs in the mail on Monday, spent an hour fiddling with the installer (disc 2 hates my DVD drive, apparently). Played for a couple hours with some friends last night and had an OK time trying to get oriented and figure out how stuff works. Formed a guild (House of Spite). Managed to get out of the newb zone towards the end of the evening and went out into the first part of the "real world". Was summarily owned by two enemies half my level on the city's doorstep. Went to bed.

I'm having serious Diablo flashbacks from the little labels that appear when there's takeable loot. Other than that, it seems to be a fair blend of the standard MMO/Diku formula with the Diablo/Action-RPG formula; probably will be fun to play with a group of friends, but I expect it'd break down if you tried to solo or randomly group.

Edit: Forgot to note that there was definitely some lag when I was playing; not much when I started (7 PM PDT) but it seemed to increase as the evening went on. Probably because the server opened to the idiot brigade rest of the world around when I logged off.

I played some yesterday. Had two big lag spikes which lasted for 30-60 seconds and then finally a disconnect at which point I switched over to Planetside. Made it to level 3. "Krakrok" seems to be a banned name now though my beta characters still have the name. The quests show exactly where to go on the map so you don't even have to read the text of them. You don't get to choose your second profession until later. I'm not sure you even have to take a second profession though. Seems optional.

Beta account seems to work fine. Gamestop hasn't bothered to ship my copy yet.

Gamestop didn't send mine, either.  Turns out the credit card I used expired between my order date and now, so I gave them the new expire date over the phone and voila, it's now in transit.

I played before you needed the preorder to play, and really enjoyed it.

Played yesterday and had fun, but it wasn't quite as much fun.  They slowed down the levelling, but then I didn't play from level 1 the last time.

So I meandered around and got to level 6 questing and so on, and then got my ass handed to me in the pvp portion when I moved from pre-Searing Ascalon or whatever it's called.  I suck as a warrior in pvp.

Planning on trying an elementalist now - what's a good minor for the wtfpwn elementalist I'd like to be (but due to a lack of skill and fumbly-fingers, never will be)?

I got to level 3 yesterday and while looking through the art book I passed out from lack of sleep and working too much. Going to play like crazy today. Ezuret in game if anyone wants to shoot me a message. I'm an Ele. What compliments an elementalist?

Got the level 5 in three hours.  Having lots of fun on my ele just running around exploring things.  The art is goregeous in sort of an real-but-exaggerated sort of way.  My guess is that GW, at least for me, will be like D2 - pick up and play start to finish once every 8-10 mo., spiced with some multi play.

Also: Anyone else do the Prized Moa quest in the Cats yet? The end to it was friggin awesome.

Z-axis seems sorta gimped after CoH; invisible wall are teh suck.

After COH I find it really hard to forgive crappy z axis implementation.

kaid

Gotta agree here. I was firing off arrows and stuff at a bear in Regent Valley last night, with the little flute girl following me around. The ledge I was shooting off of was maybe 1 foot off the second level, but there was one of those invisible walls there. After killing the bear (and he drops the quest item I need), I turn around and discover the damned little girl is blocking the path out.

Unfortunately, there's no "move the hell out of my way you little twit" key, nor could I incinerate her and step over the corpse. And, naturally, a one-foot drop down a cliff might bruise my ankles, so I couldn't jump down the other way.

Sigh, teleport back to Ascalon, walk all the way back (sans little girl this time), kill fifteen bears before getting the damn item again. :(

I didn't pre-order and didn't see any copies locally anywhere.

However, high marks to NCSoft. I was able to simply buy a keycode online and the download was quite quick.

Not bad IMHO

Bought the collector's edition.

Worth it just for the art book.

I have no time and will now play.

- A broken haiku, by schild.

Okay NOW you are going to play?

P.S... Who is starting the Bat Country guild?

After the abortion that was the guild cape in the last one, I guess I can start it, I'm gonna play all afternoon and night once I get this shit done. Anything I need to know can be sent to me in game, where my name will probably be "Autoleveler Schild."

Hey, you don't ask color blind (red/green) people to make guild standards and expect anything good to come out of it.

As for the game, heh, I think I'll ask my wife if it's cool that I pick up my pre-order.  If not, I can always blame her for not picking up a game I've lost total interest in.  Just can't think of anything to shift my preorder to.

I'm sure this game can only get better. I think. Goddamn, I hope.

You people don't have to play the game.  Just come dance with me and PopTart!  We need at least 15 necros to form a pyramid to  do the Thriller dance.

Need a director and a cameraman, too.

I'll bring refreshments.

Okay my name in game is: The Lady Valarian

Find me or die. Or at least no dancing. Signeeeee! Hugs.

I'll get John Landis on the phone.

And send over a host of prepubescent boys for the head undead.

Forgot to mention: my In game name is Bael Bloodfire

Played a bit today, got to level 7. The guild I had made in beta was still intact, sans cape.

No cape makes me a sad panda.

Having the cape cost 2,000 gold makes me weep.

Also, realising it may be some time before I can properly make my build work (illusionary weaponry) is somewhat discomforting. I'm not eager to spend points on a weapon type and have to blow refund points.

The character I am playing is a Me/W named Veronica Zemanova.

Yes...I went there.

Yay for me. I think I can resist this one.

Now, let's see how long this can last....

So I'd not played long enough to see the game transition from pre to post-searing Ascalon. And I have to say.

That's Really. Fucking. Cool.

Now I'm getting into this shit.

Motherfucker.

(Not you schild)

Let the rest of us know.

I liked this part a lot - newbie levels with a really motivating twist at the end. Totally surprised me as well. First time I think a mmorpg needs spoiler protection !

Imagine playing WoW in this way as a human newbie in darrowshire, an orc in an internment camp, a tauren on the run. Its really sad that we have to get our motivation and lore from a website instead. Show, not tell.

I suppose a matrix mmorpg done this way would be the best game ever - of course you'd have to sell it as a totally different game to make it work.

I love the henchman, to. You can learn about your skills and party play without bothering others.

Me too.

Must.....  resist.....

If Schild likes it though... it's just like the Life cereal commercials.

"HE LIKES IT... HE LIKES IT!!"

schild can't resist the shiney because deep down he's like Corky from Life Goes On.

He is setting you guys up, just like Lucy. Don't kick the football, Charlie Brown!  :-D



I might pick it up this weekend

Now I can't play with my beta account anymore.  Have to wait for the FedEx guy to come with my pre-order package.

Weird that I was playing last night without even opening my box, but today I installed it via client download on my corporate laptop (nyuk,nyuk) and it asked for a key.  I'll kick this monkey in his nuts once I get home.

Otherwise, I'm pretty pleased with the retail version.  I'm hopeful that I can complete 100% of the newbie content this time.  Also, I need to read the manual since I don't know how to look for my friends in-game.  If you see Twinkle Muffin or Hank Scorpio, give a wave.

Preorder/beta clients were allowed to play on the 27th and up until midnight on the 28th. I just got back from the store with the CE in my hands. Yay me.

BTW, the store (Best Buy) had a LOT of copies, both CE and regular flavored. I mean, a LOT.

Weirder still that I could play this morning without a key but after logging out and in again, it asked for a key.


I don't know how to look for people in-game either, and I don't have any friends playing that I know of.  Either playing my W/Mo Sweet Xanthippe in old Ascalon or Ele/Mes Sugarpie Honeybunch in pre-Searing Ascalon.

Would enjoy grouping up with whoever doing whatever.

Now taking Schild attention-span bets.

Four days and, just for a laugh, I've added you to my dead pool.

What's funny is I have about 2 weeks which I have to pack house/pack bags because I'm moving.

Yet, I'm still very very very tempted to pick this game up.

I do miss gaming with you all.

Is "just for a laugh" something entirely different than "for a bit of a laugh"?

I'd love to know.

What a shock, the servers are fucked.  And right after I bought it too.

Im enjoying it enough to cancel my WoW sub for a while. 
I just need a short MMORPG fix and the no subscription costs bit sealed the deal.

Im still in the newbie zone as a level 6, doing as many quests as possible for my Fighter Monk.
Its like he is a paladin in all but name.  Was nice seeing that Holy Smite power do double damage
to the nasty skeletons in the catacombs.  Look for Sir Guido.

You all need to get in touch with me schild or Haemish for invites. We have much ass to kick.

Are the numbers enough to make a worthwhile pvp squad? I've been out of MMOG's of any sort (intentionally!) for quite a while, but I'm allmost interested in this one...was why I was asking earlier about the loss of interest.

I can't promise cattass level dedication, but I would probably be interested if there are some folks that play reasonably regularly...

Well, I know there are certain arenas that are "Constructed 4v4 Teams", so I would say Yes.

I'm a weak man.

I'm Indomitable Andy, XXXXX Andy.

Walker Treadmill, level 4 Monk/Ranger.

I can be located as either Vern Freymuth, who gets reset to level 1 a lot as I swap builds around trying to find a fun one that doesn't overlap with my other character, Elhany Freymuth (L9 ranger/elementalist). I'm usually grouped with a guildmate, but I'd welcome extra intelligent hands over random server idiots any day.

Well, I've gotten to a level 7 mo/me, moved on to the old Ascalon city, but at this point a bit lost!

Looking for a guild invite from whoever can do it.

Valrith Malagance

Got a Mo/N and a Me/W.  Tirias Elentirmo and Trias Elentirmo respectively.  I'd like to join if at all possible.

What are the names in game of those that can invite again?

Veronica Zemanova (Strazos) invited me.  There is also Autoleveler Schild or something strange like that.  And Haemish Mclellan or however he spells his last name.  Maybe we need a Bat Country thingy to keep everyone straight.  (you know what I mean)

I'm sure I spelled everyone wrong but I'm feeling incorrect tonight.

Man, soloing PvE sure got a hell of a lot harder, hehe. Getting equal+ mobs in 2-4 at a time pulls!

Gimmie an invite so I can actually group!

You know about henchmen, yah?

I downloaded instead of buying. I get get henchmen during/post-searing. lost them after logging. Took me two days to figure out how to get them again.  I guess there is something to be said for buying the game via a store and not downloading.

If anyone could direct me to the manual pdf (or whatever), I'd be grateful.

This is the only manual online that I know of:
http://www.guildwars.com/manual/default.html

It's pretty basic.

Kyldaely Macicerath lvl 7 War/Rng. I've got a weird bug on this toon. I've been attempting to play GW on my laptop (been too busy/lazy to install on the big comp yet), and it just randomly crashes the computer. One crash occured in the first part of Ascalon Academy. When I logged back in, I was at the final part of the Academy mission, just before the Searing. I think I may have crashed out here once or twice as well, but did at some point make it into Post-Searing Ascalon. Ran some missions, crashed out. Now, every time I log in, I'm back in that final Ascalon Academy mission. I feel like I'm Bill Murrey in Groundhog Day. The upshot is, I continue to get gold and exp from that mission, and always have henchmen for when I get into Post-Searing Ascalon.

Since there is no reason to start a new, I'll add my thoughts from playing over weekend.

7+ leveling really bites.

lack of fur squares gimps warriors in the first arena.

push a broken patch was funny, but they fixed it quickly.

going back to town drops you from the group. Weak.

Traveling through places Regent's Valley is tedious with all lowbie npcs you battle trough even though you get little exp.

I suck at PvP. In the beginning, I was doing good but everyone seems to have got better or all the other bad people have given up.

PvP is so twitch.

I think what makes me bad is my inability target quickly and reliably.  Can't count the times I have ended up on a pet or a teammate.

Do you guys have a guild I can join?  Does it matter that I suck?  Not interested in joining the random guilds that invite me.

Healing in this game is crazy; chain healing creates never ending battles.


Quintox Tey, lvl 9 N/Me
Quintian Tey, lvl 9 W/Me

Try using the keyboard for targeting, using the mouse is hard.

'C' for closest. Or tab real fast until you get the right one. (Sometimes I just tab around to find whoever is lowest in health and help take that player out quickly).

I'm in.  Nazrat Wanderer.  Still a newbie, so Level 1 Warrior.   :roll:

Pretty sure you can get this in post-Searing Ft. Raurik or Ranik or whatever.  I'm playing El/Me so unverified.


Map travel drops you from the group, not entering a town.  The paradigm has shifted beneath your feet, you take 20 damage!


Heh, this is true.  One Charr boss's health bar was yo-yo-ing forever, but we finally wore him down.  Kinda satisfying, actually, when he went down and the tension broke.

We really need to start recording some of our PvP. I'm sure some of it would be, at worst, funny to watch. Especially if you could also get in the TS conversations.

 Fur squares drop 10% of the time when using an expert salvage kit on a Charr Hide. Note that expert salvage kits are only available from Yak's Bend onward and cost 400 gold. :roll: The other way would be to sit around in town trading, but fur squares tend to go for 300g or more.

 Not sure if this is fixed yet, but I find it really annoying how the game resets your chat filter when you close the client and resets the chat tab you're on to "world" when the party zones. This latter one has led to some, er, 'colorful' party banter accidentally getting broadcast to all of Lion's Arch.


 Actually, I think it's kind of weak that, if nothing else, the party leader doesn't get a "teleport whole party" option; since they can obviously 'port an entire party given party-zoning, there doesn't seem to be a technical reason not to do it, nor can I think of a gameplay reason for it.

Fortunately, you can select what district you pop into on the travel dialog box, so my group uses "the Two Protocol" - whenever there's a choice, we always go to District 2.

My only gripe so far has been that if the leader (or maybe any party member, not sure) zones out of town, the whole group goes with him immediately without prompting.  Twice now I've been interrupted while trading, and once while swapping skills out.

Had better luck in noob PvP last night, even went 11 in a row once.  Having a group that works together helps, but still many people just run off to do their own thing.  Turned my video settings to rock-bottom and moved "target next" to better location.

One battle was, my team, 3mo/1w vs 2w/1mo/1e. it lasted 13+ mins. The match could have gone on forever if the enemy monk hadn't got bored and decided to fight instead of heal and run.  The game needs some "battle fatigue" to end to some of these battles.

Sometimes, battles are really a war of attrition.

We should just make one MP3 of schild calling me a 'dumb cockwhore melee shitbag' over and over again to the sounds of the Mortal Kombat soundtrack, interjected with random 'Fuck Korea, KEKEKE' screams for color.

And it's Haemish MacLennan.

Heh.

Yea, I did call you that a couple times.

Melee is death in this game. Unless you're a Korean hivemind.

Melee is not death.

Taking on the whole opposing team by yourself?

That just gets a sigh frmo your team.

lol @ Korean hivemind.

Ok, that seals it. I am buying GW. That kind of fun comes once. maybe twice in a lifetime.

You all really missed the gems. I love Haemish to death but I was ready to reach through the internet and make him eat SPIKY THINGS.

It's not his fault, he loves warriors and we all know it. But I swear to god, I will divorce his ass if he doesn't embrace a finger wiggler. Not in a pervy way.

I'm finding even in the PVE game, that ranged > melee almost all the time. With my ranger skills, I can pop a favorable wind, ignite arrows and a power shot, BAM, dead mob. With a pet, it's even nicer. The warrior side is nice in that once I get multiples on me, I can soak the damage, but until I get a better weapon, I can do more with ranged and buffs than I can with my axe and style attacks.

And to be fair, that last game where my Warrior/Monk died so quickly, SOMEONE called out a target in TeamSpeak, so I went for it, thinking I'd have support. I wasn't just running off by my lonesome.

It was still funny how fast I died though.

Someone did call a target, that target was you.

My longest run in the ascalon arena last night was with 2e/1n/1w.  We were going through most teams in 1:30 to 2:00 just by taking the high ground and nuking whom ever the warrior (me) targeted.  So focus fire is brutal but can be counter by skilled healing which is how my team lost after 13 rounds. 

I have been the focus of all the rangers and elementalists. Many times I live, but even when when I don't, I've drawn all their attention away from the squishies allowing them to do their job.  And with a good team, I get a rez in a few seconds and I am back in game mopping up the left overs.

Picking this up tomorrow night. Feel free to quit sometime tomorrow afternoon, ya bastards.

Don't worry, these fucktards guilted me into buying this as well. I almost got an hour of playng in last night. Almost.

I've gotten my R/E up to 14 with a really nice yellow bow (Gates of Kryta, pre-nerf); I haven't actually tried a war, so my numbers might be off, but it would seem to me that a W/R would be handier than a R/* in terms of actually dealing decent damage to hardened targets. The actual energy savings from Expertise is kind of low until you get it up to around 8, whereas the additional ~10% armor penetration would be really handy - fighter/tank-types halve my arrow damage or worse, making Penetrating Shot a necessity.

Hey, it's a one-time charge, no recurring credit card charge, and it's got consensual, even team PVP with lots of flexibility in character builds. You could do a lot worse.

Look me up when your RP character gets up to around level 7 or 8. At my rate of play, I should still be there days from now. We'll tag team something.

Now I am starting to wonder if waiting until tomorrow night is feasible. I might have to make a run to the software store during lunch hour. My inner fanboi needs feeding!

And I thought I was weak.

Circuit City has it on sale for $39.99 this week.

Sweet! Circuit City is the closest retailer to my office that might carry it. It is also near the mall with a decent food court- 2 birds.

Don't worry, sappy WAPpy.  Righ's box came today and he's starting this week, also.  The two of you seem to last a bit longer in games than most around here.  If you want to spend the xtra tenner, you can even buy it online from NCsoft.  I'm the perpetual n00b and I live almost exclusively in n00bville so look for me whenever you start a new character.  I'm sure to be lurking around somewhere.  I bought the CE for Righ, too, and it comes with a headset.  His only excuse for not using TS now is that he really, really hates it. 

I am at a blazing level 9 right now.  So there are a lot of us in the guild that are slow.   :oops:

Crap- CC and Gamestop were out. Gonna have to go foraging after work. Either that or raid Furiously's house for his extra key. But there is a Fry's between his place and mine...too many decisions!

I haven't leveled one char past 7... but I have 6 characters!  My name is Signe and I am an altoholic.  :oops:

Hi Signe!

How do you have 6 characters!  You must tell me.

I have two accounts. 

Duh.

Ok, got in and leveled a Ranger/Warrior all the way to level 2 (Antolin Vakalas). Still trying to figure out how to contact the guild folks. I bet RTFM will help.

You'd lose that bet.

Yeah, I found that out...god that thing is worthless. Decent art in it, but the content is useless. I still have almost no idea WTF I am doing. Up to level 6.5 though!  8-)

The real manual is online. (http://guildwars.com/manual/default.html)

And on a completely unrelated note, some of my friends still insist EQ is a good game and want me to come back.

I don't know how to explain to them how Bad it actually is.

The thing with warriors is you can't just have one run in.  You've gotta have 3-4, all attacking the same target.  If they don't have some way to AE debuff you, you'll rip them apart.  Just make a few snare/knockdown warriors, and a few damage warriors, and you'll be set.

OK, lvl 3 so far. When does the fun begin?

I don't want to make a new post to shit on the game, so I'll just do it here (real quick like).

Mind numbing autoattack Dungeon seige like combat, with and an added bit of "too many quests and NPC's for it's own good" Morrowind (but at least both had voiceovers to keep me awake). Would grouping help? Something?

You don't need to group (at least not for the pre-searing stuff). The fun starts coming as you get more skills than you know what to do with. Also, make a PVP-only character, fuck around with templates. The PVE is decent when you get more skills, especially the mission parts, which you haven't seen yet. The pre-searing stuff is really just a disguised tutorial.

I don't ever see making an RP-character again, once I'm able to unlock most of the other class skills at 20.

I can't wait for the expansion where they offer centaurs and vampires.

I want my rogue, damnit.

Amen. I need backstabs and stealth. I still miss my thief in SB- backstabbing sitting healers in PvP was beyond fun. Not to mentioning picking the pockets of enemies.

dammit, now people are going to see the correct spelling. I love the comedy of "Level 39 rouge looking for dungeon group."

Hmm. 

Maybe the first expansion comes out with Rogues, and the counter-rogue skills are unlocked in expansion-only quests.

Evil.

That would fit with their bussiness model.

If I could have a necromancer/rogue or assassin/necromancer, there's a chance I'd never leave my house again.

Now if I could have a Ninja/Pirate - you'll see me on the news.

Shiver me timbers! (http://disney.go.com/pirates/online/index.html)

Yea, it's gonna suck. We'll have Haemish review it.

Caveman/Lawyer would rock!

Haemish suffers for the sins of others. He is the 'Net Jeebus!

I think Abagadro called dibs on that.