f13.net

List yourself here.

I never dropped my subscription.

:P

Ok. Reinstalling. Don't know if I'm starting a new character or not.

The Lady Valarian is me.

I jump into random 4v4 when the mood strikes me.

Yea i play every now and again. I've only one character so far (circa level 13), and i'm mostly waiting for some other people to go through the storyline with me. The name is 'Megrim Ur Felar' and the guild is Catass to Victory.

There's a Catass to Victory Guild? heh.

Yea, i'm the leading (non) catass founder.

It was fun playing with you guys again this weekend.
I am a much better healer than that, but I forget to switch my stats!
Maybe, we can set up another day to play and get you guys to the point where we can survive in the the comp arena. 

It'd be great to set aside one saturday afternoon a month to get together and do comp/tombs.

(Schild, because its fun.)

I'd be in, my friend has been playing GW seriously recently, I tried to get my necro through the single player but I started hitting missions more and more often that would wipe me + henchies and getting into a group even with a necro monk (after upping my heal skill) was a bitch and people are broken.

So I have it installed and I'll post back after I check what mission I'm on, I'd love to power through the content (once you do it once you can unlock everything else via pvp without too much hassle I'm told) with you guys.

Guild Wars once a month would be great. That, I can agree to.

I'm playing again now and got Factions.  Having fun again, so I'd be in for some monthly stuff.

I'm still in the F13 guild btw (EVIL).  Only a couple others seem active now.  Tazelbain was one of them.

My guild is sooo not active right now. I hope people trickle in soon. A bunch of them are playing SB until close so a couple more weeks. Mesozoic is in the guild right now, too. Maybe we could do a guild alliance or something?

Are you Sis Necro, Modern?  That was the only other guildie I saw on yesterday. 

I don't care about aliiances really.  I'll just get into whichever guild is active.  This game gets old really quickly without other guildies around.  If I need to contact somebody for a good guild, let me know.

I'm playing the new exp as well. The new classes are interesting to play and I'm having fun, but the first few zones aren't impressive. Graphically they are good to great, but the content is lackluster. I believe it could be even duller than the original campaign.

The first few levels are really fast and it seems the items and money are much, much boosted up.

I'm hoping that the majority of the content is reserved for the last levels, for now I like the setting and I'm also having fun (the zones are more "open" and feel less like labyrinths) but I wish they were more dense of things to do instead of large expanses of nothing with a couple of mobs moving on rails on a straight line.

With the new exploration titles, my PvE assasin feels the need to completely map every zone.

What's the other class that was released? I have this game sitting in it's plastic still.  Don't have the heart to open it, as it was somewhat of an impulse buy.

The ritualist. It a strange class dealing in spirts( like ranger sprirts but more active) and some damage dealing.  It can playing healer role kinda. It seems like the class is meant to be a part of group builds than as stand-alone like the assassin.

Yeah, I'm Sister Necrophage.

In theory we're supposed to have some of our regulars playing now. I say in theory because they're not. Most of the officers in our group all know each other in real life so I'm going to go start screaming at them for buying the game and still not logging in. Fuck, come play or release me from my bonds of loyalty since I actually really like Factions.

I actually beat it today which probably makes some of you raise your eyebrows but it was with my Tyrian character. Was already 20 and did nothing but the storyline missions. My wife is also on a business trip so I've done nothing but catass for about three days straight. The game is shorter than GW but denser and there are also alot of optional missions.

The game seems better laid out than the original in the sense that it just flows a little better (even though the storyline is still hokey). I also really, really like the way it looks. The starting area is pretty mundane but the city really feels like one big slum and the Kurzick areas are awesome. If anyone has ever played anything to do with Legend of Five rings the game feels like that; a bit more oppressive but with some of the same themes.

Are items more diablo-y? I mean, is the loot system cranked up a notch? I mean, will I LIKE IT?

> Kurzick areas are awesome.

FUcking goths.

> I mean, will I LIKE IT?

No, items are still capped and still play a minor roll in battle.

The game is what it is: a single player game with some multiplayer trappings and fun, fast PvP. So long as you treat it like that then yeah, I think it's fun. It stopped being fun for me after I played it like I would any other MMOG and wondered why I was running out of things to do, why my guild and every other guild was completely anonymous, etc, etc.

They HAVE upped the loot system a bit. The max stats are still the same and reachable fairly early on since anything else will upset their holy grail of PvP balance but there are neat skins and more complete item stats. When you beat the game you character gets to choose one (and it's only one per character) green item. Best bonuses and stats with a cool skin.

I have a photo of Rozz Williams tattooed on my forehead.

As I mentioned before, I'm getting loot much quicker and at higher quality than the original campaign.  I'm finding it much easier to get the things I need with gold too.  It isn't too easy, but feels just right this time around.

I actually got a purple drop last night and my new character is only level 4.  So, I'd say they have pushed closer to D2 droppage, but a long way from it. (Pure quantity and depth, etc.)

I also noticed that the hirelings for the first city are at level 6.  They've finished off several quests for me while I lay in the dirt dead.  I don't remember them being that high level in the first campaign. /shrug

The game levels you alot faster now. It feels a little frantic and rushrushrush at times but, oddly, it seems to fit the urgency of the storyline. I'll not give any spoilers but you have a guy come back from the grave and he wants to do Very Bad Things to some people. He's on the move so you have to be as well. So the rushed feel can sometimes leave you a little lower than you should be on a couple missions but I like it overall.

Almost all the skills are bought now. That's offset by the fact that they fling gold and skill points at you. More than enough skillpoints but, honestly, not enough gold.

 Up until about midway through the game the missions are just brutally fucking hard. What's interesting is it's because of the players and not anything else, I think. There are two missions which seperate the men from the boys in the game so with me beating it early I got to see that, yes, there are competent players in Guild Wars. Not many, mind you, but some and they had al beaten those Hell missions while the idiots and rage quitters were still struggling.

It was sort of cool being probably one of the first hundred odd people to beat the game in the States. Not that anyone will either notice or care but I've never done anything like that before. I think I have a boner.

Yeah, I got to 7 on a R/A without really even trying.  Also earned well over a plat.  My W/A, also now 7th, recently ran into a quest by accident while in-world.  It involved running to a spot 20 secs away and killing a group of level 5s with the help of a level 12 Yeti.

The reward was 3,000 XP, around 500 gold, and I think 2 Monastery credits.

Incidentally, Mesz, most of the guys who formed the leadership of the guild will be joining us shortly. They ordered the collector's edition which had a production delay. I expect them in the coming days

NCSoft kinda shot themselves in the foot with the timing on this.

I was literally in Best Buy yesterday holding a Factions box, looking at the $49.99 price, thinking, "Do I really want to blow that much money on this?"

Then I remembered.  Issue 7 just hit the test server on CoH.

I put it back and said, "Maybe 4 or 5 months from now."

Yeah but 4 or 5 months from now will be Chapter 3. Already well into development.

I'd agree if there was a sub.

A.net is a wierd beast. They do some good work but it's impossible figure out whats going through their head. I think they are schizophrenic from trying to serve 2 masters.

I think they blew it by waiting a whole year, too much of buzz of GW has died down.

Yeah, waiting a full year was not the best idea. I know what I gave the game up the first time back in September or so. Simply ran out of things to do. If you're going to have a game like GW which isn't meant to be played through a kajillion times, a game which is more a traditional rpg with an online compnent, you need to crank the stuff out as fast as possible with this business model. Full year shouldn't surprise me, though. They ARE ex-Blizzard people.

Or they could have made a game more like Diablo II, which -is- meant to be played through a kajillion times.

I haven't bought Factions, but I still drop in to rule the Random Arena twice or thrice a week. Assasins, Ritualists, and a pile of new skills for old classes haven't made my old builds any less effective. If I lose enough to get frustrated I pull out my monk and cheer right up.

-=Pxib's Random-Arena Monk Build=-
Life Bond, Balthazar's Spirit, Divine Boon
Protective Spirit, Aura of Faith
Blessed Signet

Reversal of Fortune, Draw Conditions

Bond everybody, Balthazar's yourself. You get energy every time you take any damage and any time everybody else takes physical damage. Aura of Faith and Protective Spirit yourself and anybody else who starts taking heavy damage. They're expensive, be wise. Heal yourself with reversal of fortune. Heal everybody else with draw conditions. Blessed Signet whenever you've got time to spare.

Get a staff with +20% enchantment duration. I recommend +3 Divine Favor and +3 Protection. Either you won't need the hitpoints or you'll be dead and can play again.

This build works well against big piles of warriors, assassins, and rangers when nobody brings enchantment removal. Witness the random arena.

Unless you play me since I always bring at least two chant strips. I eat monks.

Oh absolutely. Get ye into the random arenas and teach me a thing or twos. I originally made the build as a joke... it's wildly impractical. It only works because the random arenas are such a melee fest. I had enchantment strips on my necromancer and my mesmer, but I often feel a little silly because I'm usually just pulling mending off of paladins.

I'd love to see more effective variety in my random matches.

(A lifebond monk... HEALING WITH DIVINE BOON! HAHAHAHahahaha... oh it works. Oh dear.)

It's interesting how the size of the matchup plays such an important role in build strategies.

My Death Nova Necromancer, for instance, owns  like hell in 4v4 matches.  I always get compliments on the build, and I've done some impressive things (like in one match, my entire team died and only took out one of the opposing team, and I soloed the rest of them... still don't know how I did it, but I did).

In an 8v8, though, it's useless.  They might as well get a merc instead.

During beta they had an 8v8 random arena. It was a disaster. Not only is it harder to make a build that'll do anything to eight random people (other than AOE! AOE! AOE!), what little tactical intelligence was possible for four people ("That one's a monk.", "The mesmer is stealing all my energy.") was just impossible to communicate to the larger group. At least four people would be calling targets, and would continue to do so for the entire match.

If you killed somebody you could be proud, but it was the pride of a soldier on a battlefield.
It had nothing to do with whether or not you won the war.

Picked up my collector's edition. Gonna start here in a few minutes.

The greatest strength and weakness of Guild Wars is that it's PvP is so balanced around team play. It's great because equipment and levels don't play a role and because there's a counter for everything. The problem is that because of this it takes for fucking ever to get a team together. And the Hall is a fucking nightmare now. Since it's all gimmick builds now you can make up your team to counter one of the popular ones and get absolutely reamed by a balanced team if you meet one.

Just an update:  My AS/MO is now level 18 after a couple weeks of casual play.  I'm still having fun with the PvE quests and missions and have a long way to go.  At some point, I'll actually start trying the PvP.  :wink:

For some reason, I'm more hooked on the game with this expansion than with the core game back at the original release.  I guess it just doesn't seem near as grindy as the original.  I always have enough money and resources to get the items and skills I need.

Yeah I like how the leveling up is faster so I could get my character into PVP faster.  I started playing last week again after not playing it for about 6 months.  It seems like you get a birthday present for a 1 year anniversary of your character.  I got some weird armadillo looking creature that follows me around.

I picked up factions and have been playing off and on.  The PvE is still frustrating.  There is no way to actually control mobs.  They warp all over the place and seem to always agro on the healer with no real way to peal them off.  Henchmen are still dumb as a rock and offer minimal damage. 

At one point a few nights ago me and one other henchman got whacked.  The healer henchman rezed the dead henchmen, and then just sat there.  I waited about 3 minutes before fast traveling to the nearest city and quitting out.  It's just really frustrating after playing everquest for so long with a solid group of people who knows what they are doing.  I know I could just join some pick up groups and ignore the henchman, but I tend to have terrible luck meeting people in these games.  I usually end up in a group full of 13 year olds who talk a lot of smack and really play no better than the henchman. 

I think I may create a PvP character next time I log in and ignore the PvE all together.  That is frustrating in it's own right though considering I spent $50 on the game.

I usually let the npcs fend for themselves when when I am not a healer.  The new henchies are better able to defend themselves, so focus on eliminating the enemy casters like I would in PvP.

I've had no issues with the hirelings.  In fact, they usually out last me.  I got to lvl 20 with full groups of hirelings too.  Everytime I went out I had a full 8 group.

It took me approximately 12 hours of play in this manner to reach level 20 with my assasin/monk character.  I'm still cleaning up quests to get more skills and cash and items though.  There is plenty of PvE game left to play at this point.

The only thing I really have trouble with in the game is having lots of money.  Lots of people seem good at it and they get tons of stuff.  I get good items every now and then but they're items that a lot of people don't use like axes and hammers.

How I made money in Guild Wars:

I had a Necromancer RP character.  I took him to the 8 man mission with the White Mantle and Stone Summit fighting each other right near the beginning.  I would lay down disease and putrid explosions on all of them, then snap up whatever they dropped.  On average, maybe 4 minutes per run.  Being that I was in there alone, drop and experience rates were vastly increased.  I sold golden runes and high priced dyes to the appropriate merchants, and stacked up the money over time.  Usually I did this when my guild was doing HoH but was full up, and I was waiting for a slot to open.

I'm sure most professions can find a similar farming method for that mission.  I'm positive my Ritualist could do it.  Maybe not an assassin or warrior.  Rangers should be able to pull it off with traps.

But I doubt anyone could match the sheer efficiency of the Necromancer doing it.  One guy drops.. BOOM... BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM.  20 guys dead all in a few seconds.

Dude I'm gonna try that.  It sounds so freaking awsome.

I still play Guild Wars almost every day. I've got five fully maxed out toons (R/E, Mo/Me, N/E, A/R, W/Rt) and almost every skill in the game unlocked for use in PvP. However with the recent "ladder lock" for the playoffs, as well as their cute little Dragon Festival, PvP activity in my 300-ranked guild has ground to a halt. You need 8 to enter a guild battle and we never seem to have more than 5 or 6 on at once.

So lately I've been experimenting with other MMOs. City Of Villains was $10 at my local computer store and I'm liking it a lot so far, also I got Lineage II for $3 which, after reading about it, seems to be an insane grind-a-thon unless you join a private server (which I guess I'll do).

But I think I'm sticking with Guild Wars long term, at least through the next couple chapters. It's reassuring to be able to go back to being uber any time I want after slumming it up as a n00b in some other MMO. One of my coworkers keeps trying to get me into WoW but I haven't buckled under yet :)