Gamma Testing: Guild Wars Nightfall - Taking the Plunge

So, I'm about to fire up Guild Wars as soon as I'm done here for the first time in a long time. (With the exception of letting it run in the background last night to stream all the updates I've missed). It's been a while. And I was surprised to find out that I still had the game installed on BaseStar One – normally something like that would have been purged out a long time ago. The game really was sitting and waiting for me to get back to it. And, actually, that caused me some troubles because for whatever reason I couldn't connect to ANet until I got rid of my old GW.dat file. Messed around with port forwarding and ip addresses and proxies and nothing worked. Took one file out of the folder and, bang, piping hot content streaming into my computer.

You know, it's kind of funny what I'm remembering right now. The first time I loaded the client in the test was right around when the patches were cracking the 5,000 mark. It was a somewhat big deal at the time. Now? We're past 20k. And I remember when the .dat file was a mere 500 megs. Now, it clocks in at around 3 gigs. Still small by comparison to most games these days but, man, look how far we've come and I haven't even gotten in game yet.

Anyhow, there's only one last thing to do before playing and that's deciding what kind of character to roll. I've decided that rather than use one of my existing accounts – even my secret “prince and the pauper” account that no one knows about...well, until now I guess – I'm going to be creating a new, disposable account just to test out the game. Sure, I'll lose any progress on my character but it's only 10 hours worth, that's nothing to me. And not having the resources of my established characters to draw on means I'll actually be playing the game the way someone who just bought it off the shelves would. And if they can enjoy it then so can I, is what I figure. This way I'll pay less attention to PvP and picking out the perfect skills and relax and enjoy the exploration. I'll be able to make mistakes without paying for hem and that really appeals to me. So, no storage chest full of gold, no twinkalicious items for low level characters, no reading through message boards, or whispering long lost friends for advice, I'm flying under the radar and with my instrument panel blacked out.

Alright, so I'm going to be flying without a net, but I'm not going to be completely random about this. At this point, I've got five characters – a Wammo, a R/N, an Elemes, a Momes, and an Assassin/Ritualist from the last expansion. In case you can't tell that's a cross-section of every available profession and a good sampling of the available roles – all I'm really missing is a primary Mesmer or Necromancer for support duties – and that's no accident. I'm also UAX (Maybe, I forget if I broke down and burned good faction on the Sundering mods or not. I'm going to guess I didn't.) or close enough that it doesn't matter. Nothing from the latest campaign, of course, but more than enough from everything before it. As well, all my permanent characters are created with an eye on eventually tricking them out for PvP. Oh, sure, the PvP only characters work fine but if I take a PvE character in there then not only do I earn faction for unlocks, I'll be earning XP which will go towards skill points for the next expansion. So, I want a character that works but I also don't want to repeat anythign I've already done. That leaves me with two options, really. A Dervisher/Paragon or a Paragon/Dervisher.

And there I'm torn, so I hope you don't mind if I try and convince myself a bit here. My initial impulse is to take the Dervisher/Paragon because that's what I'll likely be rolling if and when I get the expansion. If I play one now I'll be able to try one out and see how they tick. That's what I did with the preview for the last expansion when I played an Assassin. I like to play the melee classes, of course, it's just my comfort zone. Especially in PvE which is, unfortunately, completely brainless to me at this point. I've just done so much of it that I can barely pay attention to it so playing a class where I can just target and press space works best. However, I also wouldn't mind stretching my limits some and the more supporting Paragon might be interesting to play. If I get bored I can always reroll and switch things around.

PvE is definitely what I'm going to concentrate on. I've heard Nightfall's progression is slower than Factions (Which, you know, wouldn't be hard) but I figure I can at least run through the tutorial area and the first few missions in ten hours. If I want to PvP, then I can go and fire up my actual account. But what interests me are the mechanics of the new classes, and the new systems like the improved party grouping and the heroes. Not so much the templates as I know if I get involved with those I'll wind up spending a whole lot of time putting in all the builds and things I've only been storing in my head. Maybe I'll pop over to an arena for a few matches, see if they've fixed premades yet, that sort of thing. But, no most of my time's going to be spent playing Guild Wars as a solo RPG. So, I'm going to look at each class strictly from a PvE perspective and see which one pops out at me.

Dervishers look to be another melee profession – that makes three with the previous expansion's Assassin and the core game's Warrior. Since that's the kind of class I like, well, I'm not too upset about that. The unique design space of the Dervisher, though, is that they attack multiple enemies at once and they use a lot of magic while doing so. That sounds a lot like how the Assassin played in the last expansion (For me, anyways, I spent a lot of time and effort trying to figure out how to take the Assassin's ability to devastate a single opponent and spread it around – PvE is generally about beating up large packs of mobs with the occasional boss thrown in. The conditional damage and debuffing that makes the Assassin so good doesn't really work well against bosses, though, because, well, they cheat the normal rules of the game. I did come up with a few things but, really, I was probably trying to stretch the class where it wouldn't go. Still don't see much point for primary Assassins in PvE, though, except as weaker armored Warriors or some kind of weird hybrid debuffer support deal. And their attribute locks them into attacking for energy management so doing anything but specializing in melee is counter-productive. And, no, I'm not talking about imitating a Warrior and trying to slug it out with anything, the Assassin lives or dies on its ability to hit and run and I'd like to think that's how I play mine – I don't like shadow stepping away so much as I like their ability to snare with, say, Dark Prison and port in for a big chain before kiting away. But I don't care if you're a master Aura of Displacement 'sin stalker, you still play the melee game, you just do it in a different way. And that way? Not so good in the PvE.) and I'd rather try something new. What you can get a Dervisher to be once you have all the pieces in place looks really nice but I'm only going to be running through the lower levels and what's available there isn't exactly thrilling me. Still, I know that I'm going to try and grab a scythe – the chosen weapon of the Dervisher – as quickly as possible. If there's anything I've learned from playing Guild Wars tutorials it's that every class should start out with a melee weapon as their primary attack. At low levels it's faster and does more damage than anything else – the scythe's ability to hit multiple foes is just gravy. Everyone – I don't care if they're a healing Monk or a minion mastering Necromancer – should pick up a sword or something and just charge into battle. Once you get four or five levels under your belt and start to have some actually useful skills it quickly drops off as a good thing to do but before then it's definitely the way to go.

Paragons, on the other hand, are a pretty mixed bag. I don't much like their starting options, either. But they do have some interesting quirks. They're basically a support class built around buffing and enhancing the abilities of their teammates with some ability to deal ranged damage thrown in. What's nice there is that their weapon – the spear – is one-handed so they can carry an off-hand item like a shield or focus. At a glance I'd say their ability to deal damage is pretty lame and their real usefulness lies in their chants and shouts. The way to play them, then, is as a more Cleric-like buffer than the typical Monk. They can chip in with the offense and they have enough defense to survive for a bit but they'll be best suited to making the rest of the party better. I imagine they're beasts in PvP maybe even to the point of having been toned down some – but from what I can see I'd be working on some unholy combination of Paragon/Ranger/Warrior spike if, you know, I was still playing the ladder game (I fully expect that I'm not the only one to be intrigued by this and what I know of the Paragon has been nerfed back to the Foam Age by this point. Sigh, always behind the curve...). The support role, on the other hand, doesn't. Not that I haven't played Monks and Clerics and whatever else your average healer's called to great effect before. It's just that, for Guild Wars, PvE – where this characters going to be spending most of its time – is incredibly mindless to me at this point. Playing in windowed mode, I'm reading through websites, typing something out, chatting with someone, or even just looking through my character's various screens. In other words, doing everything but paying attention to the actual game. The net effect is that I'm a horrible healer in PvE (My poor Monk's just a glorified mule, really). I just can't pay attention long enough and people have this awkward tendency to die while I'm just standing around doing nothing (I expect my meatshields to take care of themselves, dammit. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. I consider it to be excellent help in getting people to stop relying on their Monks. Never trust the shifty buggers myself.) And I imagine an indirect support role with an indirect sense of feedback is only going to be worse.

Still, for ten hours, I think I can put up with it. Paragon/Dervisher it is. Looking over what's available to a Paragon/Dervisher in the first few levels I'm not terribly impressed. There's some nice Paragon stuff. And some nice Dervisher stuff. But playing as a Paragon/Dervisher there's about one skill from the Dervisher that I'd want. And that one's tied to the Dervisher's primary attribute. So, looks like I'll be concentrating on the Paragon side of things while I figure out where the Dervisher can be added into the mix. The sad thing is the best skill I can see is Mending Refrain which, just, you know, I'm sure that 4 or 6 health a second is just going to be crucial (Fuck Mending. Seriously. It's still not a good skill. I've used it, of course. But I also would pack Flare as a low level Elementalist. Doesn't make that skill good, either.). But with Anthem of Flame I can keep it running on the entire party (If, of course, low level Nightfall parties are in the 3~4 person range) constantly so it's actually extremely good value. Couple AoF with Signet of Aggression and Barbed Spear and that's mad degen – which is lethal at low levels – and I'll be able to pop that off rapid fire fashion. Wild Throw could be nice, too, depending on things. And as long as I'm in Motivation I can grab Signet of Synergy for the healing. Add a rez and I've still got two skills to play with. Like I said, about the only thing I see on the Dervisher's side (unless I want to pump up the Scythe Mastery and get into melee which I really don't.) that I instantly want is Imbue Health – but that's linked to Mysticism so I wouldn't be getting much out of it. Still, at lower levels that's not as much of a concern and it gives me two heals and an unremovable healing buff with a nice damage buff for the whole party. It'll work until I actually get in game and see what can be done.

So, got my prof, got my build, the only thing left is a name. And that's no dilemma at all. In naming my character I shall pay homage to the greatest band ever: Rod Torfuleson's Armada featuring Herman Menderchuck. Which, unfortunately is a little too long to fit into the name buffer. So, if you want to catch me in game look out for “Mend Our Chuck”. My main account's rocking the same name as I write under here, “Sausaletus Rex”, by the way. Feel free to buddy list me as I could always use someone to chat with.

As you can see, I haven't really put a lot of thought into this. For me, anyways. Just going to be flying by the seat of my pants – that's when I have the most fun, lately. But I've been poking around some various resources. So, on the off chance that anyone stumbling across this would like to get some more information on Guild Wars, I'll pass on some links.

• There's Guru, of course, if you can wade through all the noise to find the signal it's still the best forum around. (Just, you know, I have nothing to do with the site anymore. And nothing against the fine people keeping that ship sailing, but I really don't want to.)
• The Guild Hall's smaller and a bit more rough and ready but good place, too. Especially if you want to get a look at the PvP side of things.
• GWOnline's another big forum. They focus more on the PvE side of things but, hey, that's a big part of the game.
• Guildwiki is the go-to source for any skill or item in the game.
• It's a small blog and not as frequently updated as I'd like but Clamtius's place, “Games. Tech. Musings.” has been one of those places that's kept fanning the flames of my passion for the game even in the darkest of times. Don't know when or where I stumbled across that pad but I'm glad I kept the bookmark around.

Most of the rest of the places I've kept around are for the seriously hardcore PvPer in me. Places to talk strat or see recorded matches, that sort of thing, and I doubt they'd be much use to anyone who doesn't already know about them.

And, now, if you'll excuse me I have some time to waste.