Changes to the game

[Nebu]

Ok... I started playing again and have all of the expansions, even the new one.  My mains used to be a Paragon, Warrior, and a Ritualist. 

What happened?  The game has changed a ton with regard to abilities and class balance that my head is spinning.  Some examples:

- My Paragon is now strictly support.  It's the third best class with a spear (behind warrior and ranger).

- Elementalists are now the fotm healers? 

- Ritualists are becoming a pet spam class.  They used to be great for burst dps. 

- Assassins are now the new farming class? 

I think I'm going to start playing my warrior again as it seems to be a consistent dps generator with good survivability.  I'm just wondering what class will be best for a mix of pvp and pve.  Everything is different from what I remember when Nightfall released. 

[Triforcer]

[DLRiley]

I'm guessing by that your refering to the pve/ra/ab metagame. In which case i guess your probably leveling pve characters instead of making pvp characters. From this stand point I can say the game as far as the low end spectrum as far as the competition is concerned. Don't worry 99% of the player spends the majority of their time there. The game as a whole simply has gotten more options when it comes to that side of the spectrum. Paragons are support characters and can be godly in physical damage orianted groups, but that still do the second best spear damage. Spear chucking warriors with say 12 spear and 12 strength don't do as much damage as Paragons with 12 spear and 12 leadership. And because you will probably spread the attributes out more the Paragon makes the warrior cry like a baby. Rangers do more damage with a spear then a paragon because of bar compression. You can chuck spears and use a pet as a ranger.

Ele can be a healer because of energy management being better that's all. It also means you can pump more damage with far less down time as well. Now as far as pve is concerned it doesn't matter, but pvp is a different story. Ele's do a bit more damage now but it is simply easier to keep yourself alive then attempting to kill the average guy you meet in ra/ab. You will see a lot of E/rt or E/d who carry just enough healing to allow enough time for a kill and probably decide whether to run away or not. More popular in ab then ra, Ele's work best in large scale still.

Rit pet spamming? That's pve my friend lol or i need to spend more time in ra. The basic idea is that rits are still good healers and support, and offer alot of flexibility because of synergy with other classes. It's not hard to find a working rit bar.

Assassins always been the farming class, i don't like how anet butchered the class in the higher spectrum of the game so...

If your used to playing warrior the warrior is still great. Warriors do the highest damage for the least amount of energy or even effort for that matter, has utility (mostly speed buffs, interrupting, and knock down) and the highest armor which means if you good at warrior you only need 1 defense skill in ra/ab. You can also freely switch between tanking and dps on the fly by switching up a few skills, which is ideal if your planning on making a pve character usable in pvp. Rangers offer a lot of options, and is really easy to use in the pve/ra/ab section of the game because of the high armor, high survivability without investing a lot in defense skills, plenty of utility (interrupting, snares, conditions) , and now a shit ton of damage.

[Nebu]

If your used to playing warrior the warrior is still great. Warriors do the highest damage for the least amount of energy or even effort for that matter, has utility (mostly speed buffs, interrupting, and knock down) and the highest armor which means if you good at warrior you only need 1 defense skill in ra/ab. You can also freely switch between tanking and dps on the fly by switching up a few skills, which is ideal if your planning on making a pve character usable in pvp. Rangers offer a lot of options, and is really easy to use in the pve/ra/ab section of the game because of the high armor, high survivability without investing a lot in defense skills, plenty of utility (interrupting, snares, conditions) , and now a shit ton of damage.

This was very helpful.  Thanks for taking the time.

[Yegolev]

Here's a really dumb question: any point to me giving this game a shot again without buying any expansions?  I'd like to know if it sucks or not without paying any money, and I only have the original release CDROM.

[Nebu]

Here's a really dumb question: any point to me giving this game a shot again without buying any expansions?  I'd like to know if it sucks or not without paying any money, and I only have the original release CDROM.

Without a steady group of people to play with, I wouldn't.  Factions and Nightfall allow you to collect powers and heros that make the game much more solo friendly than just using henchmen.  Henchmen just don't cut it anymore. 

You might find the original game entertaining for a little while, but I fould the pace of it to be way too slow. 

[Yegolev]

I found the search for skills to be ridiculous if that's what you mean by slow, although I might have been doing it wrong.  I'll think about getting the expansions, I don't have a solid group and would be soloing or PUGing.

[Nebu]

I found the search for skills to be ridiculous if that's what you mean by slow, although I might have been doing it wrong.  I'll think about getting the expansions, I don't have a solid group and would be soloing or PUGing.

If you're considering an expansion, Nightfall is the most interesting and gives you access to two new classes: Dervish (ae dps) and Paragon (support).  Factions will give you access to Assassin (the best melee dps and farming class) and ritualist (support/pet) but is a bit more challenging to solo.  The Eye of the North appears to be level 20, so I wouldn't bother with that until you see if the game is enjoyable to you.

As for getting the abilities from bosses, some abilities are easier to get than others.  The fast way to play is to find online build resources and then go to the bosses with the skills you're after.  I prefer doing it the long way (exploring and finding things as I go) as it makes the game feel more content rich. 

People are also playing AoC again... may want to consider that if you have the disks. 

[Yegolev]

People are also playing AoC again... may want to consider that if you have the disks. 

Downloading AoC trial now.

[Nebu]

Downloading AoC trial now.

Good call.  I've been playing GW for the past few days and find that going back to AoC may be a better choice. 

[DLRiley]

There are plenty of casual guilds out there for pve'ers. Just go to any of the major cities and ask around. But in general if you want to play solo, just buy nightfalls.

[Yegolev]

New plan is to wait for GW2.

[DLRiley]

New plan is to wait for GW2.

AoC owned your optimism that fast?

[Lantyssa]

If you get any Expansion I would recommend Nightfall first.  Adding Heroes to your party makes a huge difference, and it has the best story (at least up to where I've played) of any of them.  Eye of the North adds some neat things, but it's mostly better for characters looking to expand their abilities beyond their base skills.  While it does have some really powerful ones, they're based on your reputation, so you won't want to use most of them right away.

One thing about GWEN is it will allow some bonuses in GW2 based on your achievements.  We don't know what those are yet, but if you're going to be playing anyways, it's something to consider.

[Yegolev]

New plan is to wait for GW2.

AoC owned your optimism that fast?

No, AoC is still downloading.  It was the posting here.

One thing about GWEN is it will allow some bonuses in GW2 based on your achievements.  We don't know what those are yet, but if you're going to be playing anyways, it's something to consider.

Ah, damn you!

[Lantyssa]

Guild Wars did too much right for me to not tempt others.  I think of it as putting other people's wallets where my mouth is.

It's the only game I put down after I get tired of it then pick up later as the mood strikes.

[Yegolev]

So far, AoC is not making a believer out of me, so there's hope.

[Nebu]

Been playing my war quite a bit lately and just don't seem to find it very fun.  I'm going to see what my paragon and ritualist feel like after the recent changes.  I realize that this will put me in a support role, but I don't mind that.  I also hear that ritualists have become a pet spam class of sorts, which is a big change from when I last played almost 2 years ago. 

GW is a good game.  I think it just takes a pokemon/MtG mentality to enjoy. 

[Lantyssa]

That's perhaps an apt description.  When they recently opened the Zaishen Menagerie I went out and caught all the animals I had access to.  Now I'm leveling them up as I go about doing other stuff.  (It's really awesome having a Black, White and regular Moa following you around.  Still need to get my Moa Chick though. )

[tazelbain]

The regular henchmen may qualify as a copout.  The customizable hero henchmen are very cool and added a lot to the game.  Every game should have allies as smart and configable as them.

[Yegolev]

Did someone say pokemans?

I played the Pokemon CCG for a little while.

[Lantyssa]

You have to collect skills through quests or signet capture for your character.  (Heroes can use the skills you've unlocked across all characters, plus you can buy extra for them.)  There's some other collector aspects, too.

[Fordel]

You can also equip your heroes with the skills you unlock through the PvP portion of the game.

[Ingmar]

Yeah, so if you were to spring for the 'unlock all skills for PVP' package things, your heroes would have everything unlocked.

[DLRiley]

Been playing my war quite a bit lately and just don't seem to find it very fun.  I'm going to see what my paragon and ritualist feel like after the recent changes.  I realize that this will put me in a support role, but I don't mind that.  I also hear that ritualists have become a pet spam class of sorts, which is a big change from when I last played almost 2 years ago. 

GW is a good game.  I think it just takes a pokemon/MtG mentality to enjoy. 

Whats your warrior build and what portion of the game your playing (pve or pvp).

[Nebu]

Whats your warrior build and what portion of the game your playing (pve or pvp).

Been playing with a few of these.

[DLRiley]

Lol that's too many ways to get confused. Give me a build you gave yourself.

[Nebu]

Lol that's too many ways to get confused. Give me a build you gave yourself.

For pve this one is solid.

I'm still experimenting with pvp builds

[DLRiley]

You will do find as long as you keep these facts in mind. A warrior in pvp, only needs 3 attacks skills to kill anything, the weakness of the sword warrior for a long time (though you can still consider this to be the case, but sword warriors are very fun to play if you find how you want your opponent to die) they required 4 attack skills and even then it wasn't a "clean" spike. Warriors should almost always have an IAS skill (increased attack speed) and is speed buff skill is auto include 100% of the time. Deep Wound is the source of 50% of your damage, though be careful because some elite skills aren't always the best at applying it compared to your alternatives. You want a utility skill, sometimes it can be an attack skill, raw damage isn't going to kill everyone(or anyone for that matter), skills like bull strike is a great utility skill, in fact it is practically the best utility skill you have. Last but not least, a good warrior bar balances both adrenaline and energy consumption by the nature of the build. A warrior runs on 2 limited resources that can't be over used, spam too much adrenaline  and the real source of your damage suffers, spam too much energy and you can't react to any given situation on the fly.

[Nebu]

For pvp, I've been messing with W/D scythe builds and hammer builds for the knockdowns. 

If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.  My favorite build in the early days was a W/N hammer build, but the expansions have rendered that less effective. 

[Lantyssa]

Since you seem to be playing alot, you're welcome to friend me:  Siobhan Starcatcher

A skill I recently came across is Poison Barb Signet.  If you go W/R, it will work with any weapon and has a six second recharge.

[Nebu]

I'm currently playing my N/Mes to reacquaint myself better with the caster aspects of the game.  I'll friend you next time I'm on and see what my current friend title is.  I have a bunch of 20's that I cycle through. 

[DLRiley]

W/d is a bit on the inefficient side because a dervrish will laugh at your attempt to emulate its damage. Though if you use warrior endurance, you can spam scythe attacks forever. The reason why hammer isn't that good is because monks bring balance stance which makes you immune to kd for 5 seconds, but that is more than enough to remove 50% of the damage associated with the hammer warrior. Ele's carry distortion more in Ra, and even small amounts of self healing can ruin a badly built hammer warriors day. Besides the fact that hammer is incredible unfun for me to play lol.

If you really want to run a hammer but not necessarily a hammer warrior you can always look up Rampage as One (RAO for short) hammer rangers or I can just message the build if you prefer. I would say to get back into warrior an axe or sword warrior would be fun. Sword warrior for me is extremely fun, and this is coming from someone who hadn't played warrior in a while, cripslash is a all around good elite to build a build around and dragon slash isn't so bad either.

Another hit of advance try testing builds at the great temple of balthzar to test what they can do. If your warrior bar can't dispatch of the master of healing then your lacking.

[Nebu]

Another hit of advance try testing builds at the great temple of balthzar to test what they can do. If your warrior bar can't dispatch of the master of healing then your lacking.

That's a great little piece of advice!  Thanks for this.  

I've been playing other classes more, including my ritualist, paragon, and necro.  I also give my ranger some time.  I've also been playing primarily PvE as it appeals to my "get home from work and grind something without paying attention" senses. 

[EWSpider]

I still love me some Guild Wars.  If anyone needs help with a PvE mission or just about anything really shoot me a msg or post here with a date and time and I'd be happy to help out.  My Assassin has decked out Heros that can help get through any of the missions.