Anyone still playing?

[SuperPopTart]

List yourself here.

[schild]

I never dropped my subscription.

[SuperPopTart]

:P

[schild]

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

[SuperPopTart]

The Lady Valarian is me.

[Krakrok]

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

[Megrim]

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.

[schild]

There's a Catass to Victory Guild? heh.

[Megrim]

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

[tazelbain]

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.)

[Hoax]

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.

[schild]

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

[Dren]

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.

[Modern Angel]

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?

[Mesozoic]

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

[Dren]

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.

[HRose]

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.

[tazelbain]

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

[MrHat]

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.

[tazelbain]

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.

[Modern Angel]

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.

[schild]

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

[tazelbain]

> 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.

[Modern Angel]

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.

[Modern Angel]

> 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.

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

[Dren]

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

[Modern Angel]

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.

[Mesozoic]

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.

[Modern Angel]

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

[Llava]

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."

[Modern Angel]

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

[tazelbain]

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."

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.

[Modern Angel]

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.

[pxib]

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.

[Modern Angel]

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