Anyone still playing?

[pxib]

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 I originally made the build as a joke...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.)

[Llava]

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.

[pxib]

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.

[schild]

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

[Modern Angel]

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.

[Dren]

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. 

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.

[pyi]

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.

[Moaner]

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.

[tazelbain]

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. 

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.

[Dren]

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.

[pyi]

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.

[Llava]

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.

[pyi]

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

[kb3edk]

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 :)