Monday, April 30, 2007

I'm Unreliable

Welcome back. It's been a bit of a while between updates hasn't it? Definitely not making it to 100 posts this month. I had been meaning to take a break to pause and re-evaluate more than a few things. Just not one lasting for several weeks. Got a bit out of the blogging habit but I'm going to be getting back into it – this place isn't going to be yet another forgotten and abandoned project. And this voice isn't going to be fading back to be yet another ghost in the machine. The last part of April was always going to be a bit difficult because I was set to do some traveling but some unexpected surprises – pleasant and unpleasant - meant I had to get out of town before properly wrapping things up, so sorry for the unexplained break in regular blogging. Rolled back into town late last night and I was too tired to fire up a post. And now? Well, I just want you to know that I am blogging hardcore. Threw my back out some time earlier today and it's an effort to do anything more than lay flat on my back and writhe in pain. So, this is going to be all for tonight but I should have more tomorrow. So, to sum up: Rex: not disappeared. Blog: not dead. Me: In horrible, horrible pain (Not boil bursting through the skin pain but, you know, I'm a wimp.).

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Stanley Cup Predictions

Ah, it's playoff hockey time. Given how successful I've been with such things in the past, you'd think I'd have learned my lesson but, no, it's prediction time.

The vagaries of fate have conspired to keep me from a word processor before now so you'll just have to take my word for it that I did, in fact, make these predictions before tonight's drubbing of Pittsburg by Ottawa began. On a ratty scrap of paper. Honest.

In any event, I love the NHL playoffs because they're so hard to predict. Unlike, say, the NBA playoffs where it's rare for a low seed to beat a high one, in the NHL, you expect at least on 6,7, or 8 seed to advance every year. It's just a given because even in a seven game series a goalie can get hot or a forward can play above their level and just carry their team to those four wins. So, every year you pretty much throw the records out the window. More so than ever this year when only a few points separate the top teams from the last teams into the playoffs. It's all about that matchups and the intangibles.

Anyhow, predicting the NHL playoffs is something I've done for a long, long time. It's a tradition I've inherited from my father who, along with his father, used to try and guess the outcome of the playoffs back when there were only two rounds and six teams in the whole league. I can't say I've ever had much success but, you know, it's all about having some fun with it all. Onto my predictions.

EASTERN

  • #1 BUFFALO vs #8 NEW YORK ISLANDERS
  • Sabers over Islanders in 5.

The Isles were a big surprise this year. And the subplot of Ted Nolan versus his old team is an intriguing one. But Buffalo was amazing wire to wire. No team had more depth or balance this year. The Islanders are going to give them everything they've got but I don't see the Sabers having much trouble here.

  • #2 NEW JERSEY vs #7 TAMPA BAY
  • Lightning over Devils in 6.

I'm calling for the upset here because New Jersey's had several key injuries and they're not at 100% entering the playoffs. And although you can never count out a team with Broduer, they Devils are one of the lowest scoring teams in the league, that's not going to cut it in the post season. Not against an offense as potent as the Lightning anyway - they nearly won their division before pissing it away in the last week. This promises t be a tough fought series. And, well, I still hate the Devils.

  • #3 ATLANTA vs #6 NEW YORK RANGERS
  • Rangers over Thrashers in 6.

This one's a battle of playoff experience. This is Atlanta's first playoff series and their only previous experience comes from players they've only added this year. While the Rangers haven't been in the postseason for a while but they've still got some steady veterans of their own - including one of my favorite players, Brendan Shanahan. The Rangers have been on a roll since adding Sean Avery and while the Thrashers are loaded I think if the Rangers can steal an early game or two, they can take this series. Could go either way, but I'll back Shanny.

  • #4 OTTAWA vs #5 PITTSBURG
  • Senators over Penguins in 7.

The Senators have had a long history of playoff disappointments. But once again they've loaded down with talent and experience. While the Penguins are sure to be a sexy pick what with their resurgent play and the emergence of Sidney Crosby fueling a run to the playoffs. And it would be nice to see them do something, if only for their long suffering fans. But I think Ottawa's going to be just a little too much for them to handle.

WESTERN

  • #1 DETROIT vs #8 CALGARY
  • Red Wings over Flames in 7.

I'm such a homer that I've just completed a story about a wooden horse, so it's pretty much a given I'm going to go with the Wings here. That said, this series has me nervous. The Flames are the kind of scrappy team that's given the Wings trouble in the past - epitomized by the fact that they've got former grinder Darren McCarty on their roster even though he's not likely to see much play. And the Wings enter this series with a rash of injuries to key players. And all the pressure is on them to get past the first round for once. This one could induce multiple corronaries throughout Michigan but I still have to go with the Wings.

  • #2 ANNAHEIM vs #7 MINNESOTA
  • Mighty Ducks over Wild in 5.

Annaheim is probably the second or third best team in the league. Their blue line corps are especially scary. They very nearly overtook the Wings for the President's Trophy - not that that means much in the post season - and few teams ended the season stronger or had better records at home. They're a definite contender for the Cup. On the other hand, the Wild have excelled this year with a lot of plucky play and a goaltending carosel. This one has the potential for a sweep, if you ask me.

  • #3 VANCOUVER vs #6 DALLAS
  • Stars over Cannucks in 7.

It's a contest between two low-scoring teams. I'm going with Dallas to pull off the upset on the basis of two factors. First, when you slow the game down and keep things low scoring strange things can happen and that's a good recipe for a shocker. Second, this is one of those "well, all the top seeds can't make it through, can they?" picks because, again, it would be odd not to have at least one lower seed advance.

  • #4 NASHVILLE vs #5 SAN JOSE
  • Predators over Sharks in 7.

Simply put, the Preds have to win this one. The franchise is in trouble and it'll take a miracle run throught the playoffs to respark the fading interest in a decidedly non-hockey market. I'm a sucker for a good storyline like that, so I'm hoping they'll make that run. They are well equiped to do so with Kariya and Forsberg, who can both carry a team on their backs, and Vokun to backstop them to victory. San Jose is similarly loaded and this has the makings of a great series.

That'll set up some intersting matchups for the second round, of course, here's how I see them going:

EASTERN

  • #1 BUFFALO over #7 TAMPA BAY in 5.
  • #6 NEW YORK RANGERS over #4 OTTAWA in 6.

WESTERN

  • #1 DETROIT over #6 DALLAS in 5.
  • #4 NASHVILLE over #2 ANNAHEIM in 7.

So, the #1s advance while so, too, do some fan favorite underdogs. Detroit has a match with hated rivals Dallas, if things go according to plan, which should make for some fun viewing.

On to round three:

CONFERENCE FINALS

  • #1 BUFFALO over #6 NEW YORK RANGERS in 6.
  • #1 DETROIT over #4 NASHVILLE in 7.

I've got both #1s in the Stanley Cup Finals, which should be a warning sign because it'll never happen. But, oh well, this is my little make-believe world. I think New York makes it pretty far thanks to the weak Eastern brackets but they'll just stall out against the Sabres machine. In the other conference final, it's another divisional rival for the Wings which should make for a great series but I think if the Preds make it that far, they'll have been too worn down by the playoff grind while the Wings will have had at least one easy series.
Championship round:

FINALS
  • DETROIT over BUFFALO in 7.

Like I said, I'm a homer.

Anyhow, I'm off to watch some more hockey. There's one good thing about where I live and that's CBC coverage. At least I won't have to figure out where Versus is on my TV again.

Rain Today

Had class tonight and a burning desire to watch some hockey with other people so I had to venture out into the elements. To use a hoary old cliche, it's not fit out for man nor beast. Or at least was, now that I'm safely in the warm the vertical lake I was forced to drive through seems to have cleared up.

Ah well, while I was driving through the misting spray from other cars, defrosters working overtime because it's still too damn cold out for spring, observing the outside world only through a few small windows cleared of fog, navigating only by familiar landmarks, I came to the realization that it was a bad night to loan out the crossover I normally drive and borrow someone else's tiny Honda. Now, don't get me wrong, I like that kind of car just fine, but it feels like an engine strapped to an set of aluminum crumple zones - lots of pickup. It rides a lot lower than I'm used to so it feels like I'm dragging my ass over the ashvault at 50mph. Or whatever speed I was getting up to, it was one of those "the speed limit is how fast the car in front of you is going because you damned well can't see the lanes or the signs" driving situations. That's not exactly a fun feeling when the roads are slick, you're not sure of just how well you can stop, and you're surrounded by the brakelights of half a dozen SUV monoliths as you cruise down the freeway hemmed in by canyons of steel. I thought you'd like to know that.

Anyhow, lots of good hockey so far tonight. The Preds look to be makin a game of it at the moment. While the Sens just hammered the Penguins, like I expected they would. Dallas/Vancouver looks to be a tight match, too. At the moment I've got my laptop set up and I'm about to keep an eye on those games while playing one of my own. Life, she is good tonight.

Oh, and flipping through the channels because, you know, I'm not missing the Daily Show no matter who's playing, I caught a bit of tonight's South Park. They were doing a 300 parody, if you can call it that, and, yes, it was about as bad as you imagine. So, yeah, that whole thing's just moved from becoming a tolerable, if overused reference to a played out fad.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Link Bloggy: Ooog

Not feeling well again today. So, no bloggy for you today. Instead, hot link action:

Don Imus is a jackass. This is surprising to people how?

Prosecutor scandal: The subpoenas are set to fly. And, irony of ironies it looks like the DoJ is going to argue privacy concerns in an attempt to shield those documents.

Congress to Bush: We're willing to negotiate. Bush to Congress: Go fuck yourselves. Congress to Bush: We're still willing to negotiate. Bush to Congress: Why don't you come to my office so I can tell you to go fuck yourselves in person. Congress to Bush: ... Media to Nation: Congress rejects Bush's cordial attempts at bipartisan outreach and hurts our troops by refusing to pass a bill which he won't veto. Also, Anna Nicole's baby daddy revealed! Me: I need more cough syrup...

Puck drops on the NHL playoffs tomorrow night at 7PM EST in Ottawa. I'm actually pretty excited about this as there look to be a lot of good match-ups this year. This has nothing to do with the fact my not-so-beloved-anymore Wings might actually make it out of the first round this year.

Guild Wars. New skill balancing today. Hot on the heels of the one earlier this week, it's short and to the point but still sweet. This is about the size and frequency of updates I like to see, by the way. Haven't seen a dev post on them, though, which is puzzling. The highlights:

  • Natural Stride and Mending Touch both took a hit but not big enough ones to really matter. They're just a little bit worse now. Not enough to get people to stop using them but to the point where Natural isn't constant immunity from harm and Mending Touch will have a harder time keeping up with the current meta of condition spam. I suspect this is a further attempt at Ranger "diversity" which I read as "not every Ranger needs to be a BA with Mending Touch, Natural Stride, Apply Poison, Troll, D-Shot, and Savage, pls."
  • Black Spider Strike, as you might expect, took a nerf. This only provides more fuel to the theory that the devs want the Black X stuff out of the picture. But since it's only a decrease in damage, it kinda misses the point - go after the energy or the recharge, that's how you get people to stop packing it.
  • Odder is the change to Mirror of Disenchantment, it's back up to a 20 second cooldown. Because...Aegis chains are good?
  • On to the good nerfs. Brutal Weapon was just insane, it's now back to sensible levels. Burst of Aggression now lasts for only 2 seconds unlinked, say good-bye to BoA Sins. Icy Veins gets its energy cost doubled which puts a further nail in the coffin of any SBRI type build. And Wearying Strike gets its recharge upped to 6 seconds. Not far enough for my tastes, since that's still a non-elite Eviscerate on a condition immune tree every six seconds. But it's better than once every four, so a step in the right direction.
  • Interesting buff: Order of the Vampire. Again, the damage additive stuff is getting better. It caused a bit of a problem with Brutal Weapon but is already leading to some interesting places.
  • Stuff I don't care about: Another minion spell, Golem this time, gets the Soul Reaping tax repealed. Wells are cheaper, and so is Spiteful Spirit.

Monday, April 9, 2007

This is Not What is Meant By April Showers

It was barely above the 30s today. It's supposed to snow within the next few days. After that brief flirtation with glorious Spring, it seems the calender has been pushed ahead to August. Because, really, this weather feels like mid-Fall not early Spring. It's playing havoc with my still lingering cold – I have a persistent, hacking, phlegm-filled cough that just will not go away to go along with the normal symptoms. This would be fine for a day or two, but it's going on two weeks now, I'm a bit sick of being, well, sick.


Anyhow, my Easter plans kinda fell through this year. I wound up grabbing way too much ham at the last moment and throwing together a quick dinner for myself and a few close associates but, generally, like most holidays Easter is a time for family in the Rex household. But this year there was no Sunday brunch, no gathering of the clan, no taken Grandma and her resplendent Easter bonnet off to church. For the first time I can remember, I didn't even dye an egg. About the only tradition I kept was receiving a bunch of candy. Which, you know, given how my pants are fitting lately is about the last thing I need.


I've been wanting to get out there and do some jogging but what with the weather and being sick and all, I really don't feel like it.


On the other hand, I did manage to get in some more Sealed Play this weekend. It's, as promised, pretty damn fun n matter whom I've played with. I've been thinking about it a bit lately, obviously, and hopefully, I'll have some stuff to say about it tomorrow. But, for now, it's time to call it a night.


Oh, editing the CT stuff is proceeding apace. At this point, we're running into my perfectionist streak – I've spent enough time on it that everything has to be perfect now. I have a feeling the only way I'm going to get this done is by reverting back to some earlier, simpler, sloppier version and just hammering it out.

Reprehensible

Like most liberals I've been disgusted by the treatment of Speaker Pelosi and her trip to Syria at the hands of the noise machine and chattering classes. But, the slings and arrows of the opposition and the media “elites” they've somehow managed to cow into submission are only to be expected. However, as you might have noticed I read the TPM quite regularly. It's an excellent website, I feel. Where a place like DailyKos has built itself into the ultimate message board, the combination of journalism and opinion flowing from the TPM is at once getting back to the broadsheets roots of newspapers and pointing to a possible direction for that fading medium. In any event, they generally have interesting opinion pieces posted by all manner of people. This, however, has to rank among the worst. What annoys me so much is not the message but the messenger. The author is a Democratic consultant arguing for a maintenance of the status quo, and the continuation of the imperial presidency – a concept which certainly predates Mr. Bush and has never been a good one. But more than that, he's feeding right into the hands of the conservative noise machine by detracting from what should be a glorious moment for not only Democrats but democracy. I would expect I'll have more to say about this eventually but for now, I'm too choked with rage.

Boss Tweed Would Be Proud

One of the best things about the ongoing prosecutor scandal is how it's ripped the lid off of the administration's corruption and the lengths to which the Rupublicans have subverted the mechanisms of government into their own, private political machine – the sheer scope and audacity of which dwarves past greats like Tammany Hall. But the politicization of the Department of Justice is surely only the tip of the iceberg. Such rule twisting and altering to get “Bushies” into places of power has happened in the DoJ, the Coalition Political Authority, and the only question now is where it hasn't taken place. Eight years of Republican rule under Mr. Bush will have left us with a bureaucracy full not of competent, dedicated professionals but of loyal ideologues. And we're going to be paying the price for it for years to come.

Guild Wars: If I Entered the Design-a-Weapon Contest

Sadly, didn't get a chance to what with everything going on and all. I can barely scratch out a few hours to play each night, setting aside several more to draft a weapon design was beyond me. And I believe the deadline for submissions has passed. I doubt anything I would have come up with would have made it in game – I tend to prefer an austere simplicity over the sparkling gewgaws and garish ornamentation that people seem to like. But I'd at least have liked to have some fun with it.


For example, I think I would have sent this in for my first submission:



With the following note:


Wooden Sword (Call it a Waster, a Bokken, a Suburito, or even a Dussak, I don't care.). To make it all you'd have to do is reskin the standard Short Sword with a wooden pattern. But the important thing is that it has to have the following maximum stat line: 15~22 blunt damage.


Just to see what happens. My second submission would, of course, be this:



And you can guess what the damage type would be.


There've been some attempts made along these lines with piercing Battlepick Axes and Daggers which go either slashing or piercing – there's even already a sword that does blunt damage, the Jitte, if I'm not mistaken – but they haven't been very successful. I'd really want to push it to the limit and see what breaks.


I'd just want to see what would happen if you could introduce weapons with different damage types than normal, I guess. It's probably pointless because, like Block/Evade, while it's an old mechanic that's been in the game for a while it's never really been made of much use. Beyond dividing damage into physical, elemental, and armor ignoring, there's really not much point to subdividing further except to create more shield swaps, I guess. As with Block/Evade, it's not much use because while there are a few skills – like Shields Up or Bladeturn Refrain – that deal with specific damage subtypes they're not particularly....what's the word? Ah, yeah – good. Not when there are skills that are just as effective which apply universal armor bonuses or just straight damage mitigation. These specific skills need to be extremely strong to make up for being so narrow but they're really not. It has the potential to enrich the game by providing a mechanic for players to try and outguess each other and mix and match damage types to the best effect. But as long as there are ways of bypassing that matching game, it's pointless.


Ah well. If I could slip a way of exploring that design space past the gatekeepers, my next step would be something like a mace. Think about it, a one-handed blunt weapon that you could use with hammer skills while still lugging a shield. It'd require some serious tweaking of existing skills but I think, I'd start by putting it at 11~22 damage with a 1.33 swing rate. Then I'd say that when you use a mace as opposed to a hammer you'd just outright half any knockdown times. Normal KD times would then be a second while Backbreaker would be the hammer-normal 2. Add Stonefists and you'd add that additional second. You'd have to look at the extra damage from skills, then, and maybe screwing with condition durations for the one-handed version as well. Then there's two-handed axes and swords to think about....

Guild Wars: The Hero Battle Ladder

I haven't talked much about the Hero Battles and their new ladder. And it's for a very good reason. Can't stand the format. Don't think it brings anything to the game. And, if anything, detracts a lot from what makes Guild Wars special. I had a passing flirtation with it and, you never know, but for the moment it's over.


However, there are undeniable games being played and it, hopefully, takes some measure of skill to be able to micro and abuse the AI of Heroes better than the next player. As a veteran of countless Arena battle,s I'm not exactly going to write a format off just because it's not “high end”. Sure, GvG is more complex and, deservedly so, more rewarding to play and succeed in but that makes it different not better. No, I think having tried the format and experienced it I'm qualified to say it's not for me, but that doesn't mean it's not for anyone. Or that those efforts being put into it aren't worth examining. I know a few people, after all, who are hooked on it and spend as much time playing in the HB when they have nothing better to do as I do laughing it up in the RA.


Anyhow, a quick glance at the Hero ladder shows that even with the higher k value, the person holding the top spot, someone named Java Is An A, has run away with it. When I looked they'd played 231 battles and had 424 rating out of those. That's a blistering 1.8PPG pace while most other in the top 10 are around the 1.0 mark. However, I'm not exactly sure that's cause for praise. In fact, it's pretty much what I was afraid of with this ladder – the top player on it is someone who can spend enough time to play over 200 matches in only four days. Granted, it was the weekend and they've got a stellar win-loss ration in those games but that's still nearly 60 games a day. There's just no way a casual player like myself can compete with that. Not without, you know, HB obs mode, anyway. So, it's seem to be rewarding unhealthy behavior. Yeah, I think I'll be staying the hell away from the HBs.


One thing I did note with interest, though, is that I actually know someone in the top 10. We're not exactly good friends or anything but somebody I've dealt with and talked in the past and it's good to see them doing well sort of thing. I'm talking about Tony Blair, currently at number 5. Unless I'm mistaken, he's also the guild leader of Cats the Musical. They seem to have fallen on hard times lately – haven't had a ladder game at all since the 3rd and their forum's dead - which is a shame because they seemed like nice guys when I've played with them.


Still, nice to see he's having fun at least. I don't expect to be paying much attention to the Hero Ladder in the future but, you never know, the eventual championships could be interesting to watch.

Guild Wars: Why the New Crippling Slash is So Good

Like most right thinking people, I've been very pleased with the fallout from the latest mega-patch. Again, I wish these updates were happening faster and in smaller doses but this time around, it seemed almost note perfect - about the only thing I didn't like was how it screwed up my UI. I had to revert to default to get the morale bonus and score count notifications back from wherever it was that they'd been stashed away and now I'm in the middle of tweaking it into something I can live with again. Annoying.

One of the things that most surprised me was the excellent change to Crippling Slash. When I first looked over the new skills, Crippling Slash was one of the ones I quickly dismissed as useless – it was a four adren Hamstring and, you know, there are better ways to spend an elite slot. But with the addition of Bleeding on top of that Cripple, it's now pretty much the best sword elite ever. The reason is as simple as it is complex: it's now an elite version of Sever Artery.


Let's face it, for all the new bells and whistles each chapter, the standard Warriors have changed shockingly little from the game's inception. It's an old stereotype but it still remains true, sword Warrior bars start with Sever+Gash and go from there. It used to be Final was a given there but these days I'm of the school of thought that Sun and Moon is strictly better. Everyone runs a lot of +health so it's harder to get below that 50% mark and even when you are a good, effectively with Deep Wound 200+ damage isn't the killing blow it once was, at the same time there's a lot of blocking stuff around and Sun and Moon chews through that while charging your adrenaline faster – and, most importantly, costing less to build up and not draining your pool when it's used.


But, throw in the default IAS, speed buff, healsig, rezsig and you're quickly running out of slots to play with. You either give up one of those extremely useful utility skills or you have exactly one open slot on your bar. And for your average Sword Warrior, that used to be the elite slot. Other weapon lines have effective elites that fit into their typical attack chains but Sword Warriors, generally speaking, had rather lackluster elites. Nothing to compare with Eviscerate or Dev Hammer, say. You can run those roles without those elites you can use those strong elites to make you better at that role. While, on the other hand, Sword had a perfectly good attack chain even without an elite. Which is why, I think, Sword Warriors would typically be the ones to run the other stuff. Things like Charge! or Bull's Charge or YAA! found their way onto those Sword bars because they weren't tied to any one elite.


And this created the situation where each weapon line had its own flavor. Axes were, hands down, the best for DPS. While their average damage wasn't much higher than a sword's they had better crits to boost their damage. And they had the easiest access to the deadly Deep Wound – no other weapons could lay down a Deep Wound and follow it with a strong hit as fast as an Axe. Hammers could deal a lot of damage, too, but their slow swing rate and lack of a shield meant they weren't really well suited for face raging. No, where they excelled was in disruption. Their job, much like it is now, is to disable a character and go to town. The knockdowns and how they can blow up an opposing character are how they earn kills. Whether that's because they've flattened a Monk or they've linebacked an opposing frontliner, it's the same basic idea (As a bit of an aside, I'm not exactly too keen on the concept of a linebacker or a Warrior who's whole job is to disable an opposing frontliner. While that's certainly a fine tactic, I don't think it's something to be built for. Essentially, you're making an even trade – one of your frontliner's for one of theirs – but such a tradeoff isn't helping you to win. It's the same thing as loading up your Mesmer with interrupts and telling them to stick to an enemy Elementalist like glue – that Ele isn't going to get off many spells but there are better, more effective ways to use that type of character. A disruptive character that can only disable one opposing member of the enemy is about as useful as a defensive character that can only hold off one attacker. It's making uneven trades that leads you to winning, not trading pawns for pawns.).


Sword Warriors, then, were the utility Warriors. They kicked out a decent amount of damage and were threatening enough while that flexible elite slot meant they could carry a lot of different things. Maybe not quite as much as other Warriors but when you wanted someone big and scary to kill people while still doing something else, well, odds are it was a Sword Warrior you reached for.


There were attempts to give Sword Warriors an elite to match what other Warriors had. But when your core role is flexibility, it's hard to come up with something to augment that. The closest any skill came, I think, was Dragon Slash. But then, it's place was to supercharge the adrenaline and, thus, DPS, of the standard sword chain. It made it faster and, therefore better, but, like any other sword elite, existed outside of that chain.


What the addition of Bleeding to Crip Slash does is break that long-standing chain. It slots right into Sever's place in the troika. And earns that elite spot by providing a low-priced snare that leaves a target ripe for Frenzying on with impunity. While at the same time putting down that Bleeding which unlocks the Gash part of the chain. It instantly rivals D-Slash as the great, elite sword attack. At the same time, it's not insanely overpowered to the point where Sword Warriors become the go-to model. It's within balance while being powerful enough to matter.


But the real brilliance of this change to Crip Slash is how it keeps that core flexibility at the heart of the Sword Warrior. By replacing Sever on the bar, it leaves that critical slot free while you've still got your attack chain, buffs, self-heal, and rez covered. That last remaining slot can be used for, well, everything. Stay pure Warrior and you can add a Shield's Up or a Bull's Strike or something to help you kill faster. Go W/E and you can put a Shock in there. W/Mo and you can slot a Mending Touch or Holy Veil. Whatever you want, whatever your team needs, you have the space to pick it up.


Like a lot of people, I think, I've been running one in the RA the past few days. I tend to go WaMo for the Mending Touch to deal with blindbots. But it's RA so I try to be as self-reliable as possible because, you know, Vengeance Monks. However, when it's TA time, I'd go with something like this:


  1. Crippling Slash
  2. Gash
  3. Sun and Moon Slash
  4. Disrupting Dagger
  5. Rezsig
  6. Frenzy
  7. Dash
  8. Healsig


I'm a fan of disruption on my frontliners, in case it's not obvious. But here you have a nice ranged, non-attack interrupt to blow up an Aegis, pick off a critical hex, or stop a rez. And Dash recharges nice and fast for a stance toggle for Frenzy while being great as a short term distance chewer. With Crip Slash, after all, you only need to get in range before your target gets snared and you can switch to an IAS and lay down the pain.


It's not quite as solid as the venerable Shock/Axe or Dev Hammer but, you know, give the Crip Warrior a few months of shakedown. It'll get there eventually.


The new way of handling skill templates is great, too. Forget being able to post them in chat and trade them in game. Just the fact that you can organize them into folders now is a revelation. That's a whole 'nother post, though.

Guild Wars: Because I Can

Let's take a closer look at yesterday's list of potential GW: EN skills. As pal Clamatius went to great lengths to point out, these are in a very raw form and the devil about what each skill will eventually become is in the details. Beyond any grand, sweeping changes prior to release which fundamentally alter how they play – I remember during the Factions preview, Death Blossom's AoE counted as an attack, but come release that had been changed a sort of sourceless damage so it wouldn't do crazy things like trigger hexes or your zealous mods anymore. Things like that will happen but these skills can all be made or unmade based on a simple shifting of the numeric values attached. So, my counter-point to the bi-valve's would be that focusing on whether or not these skills are good based on the numbers is, of course, a fundamentally flawed approach. What really matters at this point is the design space each skill occupies. Whether or not they actually succeed at wat they're trying to do is less important than what it is they're going to be doing. Because, presumably, what they'll be doing is adding something to the game that wasn't there before. With that in mind, here are some of my thoughts on those skills since I didn't have the time to go into any depth with my last post on them.



ASSASSIN


  • Lotus Strike 10en, 12recharge - Off-Hand Attack. Must follow a lead attack. If it hits, this attack strikes for +x damage and you gain x energy. Dagger Mastery.


This one's pretty nice, actually. It's a non-hex version of Black Lotus strike meaning you'll need to use a lead attack first but when you do, you get rewarded with a lot of energy. I'd still rather, say, Shadow Prison -> Black Lotus -> Twisting Fangs silliness but there are ways of building a Sin that use a lead attack so good off-hands are a plus. Nothing to write home about but a solid skill that should see some play.



  • Assassin's Thirst 5en, 8recharge - Dual Attack. Must follow an off-hand attack. If this attack hits, you steal x Health. Deadly Arts.


Health Stealing is useful as it cuts right through armor and protections, although you'll have to land a hit first. A Dual attack in Deadly Arts is just weird. To make this skill worth it, no matter what the final numbers settle on, you'd have to invest decently into Deadly. There's, at the moment, only two attack chains available through Deadly Arts - either Dancing Daggers to Mantis Touch or Iron Palm to Mantis Touch. So, to get decent damage you're going to have to buff up Deadly - otherwise, why bother? But to do so you'll need to give up either a lot of Daggers or Critical Strikes resulting in a very odd Assassin. This is one that depends a lot on what other skills are going to be available, I think, but doesn't seem to promising at the moment.


  • Misery Signet 1cast, 8recharge - Signet. You gain x health for each Condition on target foe. Deadly Arts.


Moderately useful heal that synergizes with all the conditions Sins lay down. Yawn.


  • Shadow's Embrace 10en, 1/4cast, 45recharge - Hex Spell. Shadow step to target foe. For 10 seconds, this Hex does nothing. When this Hex ends, you return to your original location and that foe suffers a Deep Wound for x seconds. Deadly Arts.


Meh. A Deep Wound isn't very useful unless you're attacking - the biggest benefit is how it maximizes your damage output by making you hit for higher percentages (while reducing the benefits of healing). Aside from bamfing in, laying down some pain, and letting the Deep Wound combined with some degen kill your target, I'm not seeing much of a point here. Might have some use with applying a hex to replace Shadow Prison but I'm unimpressed.




ELEMENTALIST


  • Shell Shock. 10en, 1cast, 10recharge - Spell. Target foe takes x damage and has Cracked Armor for x seconds. Air Magic.


Really depends on how good Cracked Armor is, doesn't it? At first glance, though, it's something like Enervating Charge. Not going to kill anybody by itself but could be a useful follow-up in Air spikes.




  • Grasping Flames. 10en, 2cast, 15recharge - Hex Spell. For x seconds, target foe moves 66% slower while Burning. Earth Magic.


With all the ways of causing burning these days this could be very nice, indeed. Just imagine SF spam with snares. Or a team with this, Mark of Rodgort's, and a a bunch of attackers with fiery weapons. Brutal.


  • Ward of Weariness. 10en, 2cast, 20recharge - Ward Spell. You create a Ward of Weariness at your current location. For x seconds, foes within that location become Weakened for x seconds whenever they take elemental damage. Earth Magic


So, here's how I see this skill being used. You run up in range of the enemy, cast it, then try and cast some PBAoE to cover as many of them as you can with a moderately useful condition that really only hurts the sort of big people with pointy weapons who are going to be beating on you during said casting. I can see this having a lot of use - in PvE farming builds. Otherwise? Not so much.


  • Glyph of Immolation. 5en, 1cast, 10recharge - Glyph. For 15 seconds, your next 3 spells that target a foe also cause burning for 3 seconds. Fire Magic.


Very nice. If I can throw around some numbers here, 3 seconds of Burning is 42 damage. It's hard to see the duration going much lower or higher than that – although I'll be stunned if it's not tied to Fire Magic eventually, so let's do a little crunching of that damage. Damage that doesn't care about armor and flash off a bit too quickly for most condition removal. So, that's 126 damage for only 5 energy and a second's worth of casting time and a big boost to any Ele's damage output - Not just Fire, as I read the skill you could put this on Water Trident or even Freezing Gust. Your Fireballs get to cause more damage. And imagine Incendiary Bonds causing 3 seconds of Burning when you cast it, then dealing damage and another 3 seconds of Burning. Sexy. The only thing that worries me slightly is the wording about "spells that target a foe". Hopefully that means anything you cast on an enemy and not just single target skills.


  • Winter's Embrace. 5en, 1/4cast, 10recharge - Hex Spell. For x seconds, you and target touched foe move 66% slower. Water Magic.


For a primary Ele, this is a dumb skill. For, say, a W/E depending on the recharge, duration, and cost this could be nice. I could see it being used the way Shock is - although I'd still prefer the KD myself - on a W/E. As we've seen with Flail, knot being able to move yourself isn't much of a problem if the enemy isn't moving themselves.


  • Glyph of Swiftness. 5en, 1cast, 10recharge - Glyph. For 15 seconds, projectiles from your next 2 Spells moves 66% faster.


Well, changing the projectile speed on Water Trident really improved that skill. However, I can't think of many other projectiles that you really care about - again, there could be some nice ones that we haven't seen yet but, you know, Lightning Orb and Ebon Hawk and Fireball and the rest work just fine as is. So, given all the other glyphs around, it's hard to see this one finding a spot on a bar. It's one of those skills where if you had a ninth or tenth spot you might consider but, as is, there's just not enough room for such a minor effect. Now, if it was something like "Your next two projectile spells cast 50% faster and move 66% faster"....




MESMER


  • Aneurysm. 10en, 1cast, 20recharge - Spell. Target foe regains all Energy. For each point of energy gained in this way, that foe takes x damage. Domination Magic.


Another conditional Dom Mesmer skill. The stats I saw were that each point of energy didn't reward you with much damage - you might be able to really pound an Ele but on most people, at best, you're talking maybe 40~50 energy burned off their pool so at 2~3 damage a pop, you'd expect something like 80~150 armor ignoring damage. More than 3 points of damage per energy and I think this skill gets far too scary. And I think, like Power Return, that giving someone energy is going to scare a lot of people off this one. An okay skill that might be something to really abuse.


  • Power Lock. 10en, 1/4cast, 15recharge - Spell. If target is casting a Spell, that Spell is interrupted and disabled for an additional 1 second. Domination Magic.


Clamatius's objections aside, I don't like this one. It's probably going to be another of those "so so but use it with MoR and it goes crazy" skills. For me, though, it doesn't pass the "Would you take it over Power Spike" test - P-Drain is the interrupt of choice but it's in a separate attribute line. Not unless the skill disable is in the 10~20 second range, in other words a Distracting Shot for Mesmers. Maybe it's just me, but I don't like the idea of Mesmers having a D-shot. There's plenty of counters for Rangers from flight time to LoS issues to even things like Shield's Up or Blind. Not so much for Mesmer interrupts which are instant, go through any obstacle, and you're not likely to be wasting the Migraines, Backfires, and such that disable casters on a Mesmer. Combined with all the other avenues they already have for screwing over a caster, the ability to D-Shot stuff almost at will gets frightening.

  • Signet of Distraction. 1/4cast, 20recharge - Signet. If target foe is casting a Spell, that Spell is interrupted and disabled for 1 second for each signet you have equipped.

Oh look, another moderately useful signet skill for Mesmers. Maybe if they keep adding enough of these someone will find a use for Keystone Signet one of these days. I don't think it's today, though.


  • Calculated Risk. 10en, 2cast, 10recharge - Hex Spell. For x seconds, target foe has 50% chance to miss with attacks but does +10 damage. Illusion Magic.


It's Reckless Haste for Mesmers. Has a chance to be pretty good, especially if Price of Failure stays playable.



  • Inadequacy. 10en, 1cast, 8recharge - Hex Spell. For x seconds, the next time target foe attacks, that attack is interrupted and all nearby foes take x damage. Illusion Magic.


More melee hate for the Illusion line. It's not exactly going to keep anyone from swinging but it is pretty nasty and is no doubt going to make me grit my teeth when I run into the RA idiot who decides to build around/with it. A lot like Clumsiness today, really.


  • Logic Bomb. 10en, 1cast, 10recharge - Hex Spell. For 10 seconds, target foe suffers from -3 health degeneration. When this Hex ends that foe has Cracked Armor for x seconds. Illusion Magic


Phantom Pain except it deals Cracked Armor instead of a Deep Wound. I'm guessing that Cracked Armor is going to drop someone's AL insted of health. Depending on how much it drops, that's actually a pretty daunting prospect. So, this is a skill that's nasty while it's up and nasty when it's taken off. I like it.


  • Sum of All Fears. 10en, 2cast, 20recharge - Hex Spell. For x seconds, target foe moves, attacks, and casts Spells 20% slower. Illusion Magic

Nasty on just about anything you can put it on. Should see a lot of play on Migraine-type Mesmer if that's still a viable archetype when GW:EN comes out.


  • Signet of Recall. 1cast, 20recharge - Signet. You lose all Energy. For 10 seconds, you have -4 energy regeneration. When this effect ends, you gain x Energy. Inspiration Magic

Screw yourself on energy for 10 seconds and you get a slight amount back. Unlike Mantra of Recall, you can't mess around with the duration to get that energy back ahead of time, probably. Also unlike Mantra of Recall, it's probably not an elite. About the only way this is useful is on a build that doesn't require a lot of energy in which case, why do you need the energy? Again, one of these days they're going to create a Keystone monster. Don't think it's today but...


  • Wastrel's Feast. 5en, 1/4cast, 20recharge - Spell. If target foe is not casting a spell or attacking you gain x energy. Inspiration Magic



Now that's what I'm talking about. Gale someone, pop this off, and revel in your newfound energy. Probably be able to catch other people with it at times, so it could be decent e-management. Depending ont he recharge, you might or might not want to risk just tossing it out there, though.



MONK


Balthazar's Signet. 1cast, 20recharge - Signet. Target foe takes x holy damage. If that foe was attacking you gain x energy. Smiting Prayers.


Monks are always getting beat on so if they're specced into Smiting this could be useful for e-management. The key words there are , "if they're specced into Smiting". So, yeah, another useless Smiting skill that farmers might love.



This could be interesting. It's a Holy Veil for conditions. I'm not quite sure it sees play right now but I can see where it could come in handy - preprot yourself with this in the RA and you don't have to worry so much about being Dazed, for example, and all those Thumpers can go sit and spin. Might help your frontliners with a Blindbot, too, depending on how quickly it scales down the duration of conditions.


  • Smite Condition. 5en, 1cast, 8recharge - Spell. Remove one Condition from target ally. If a Condition was removed. Foes in the area take 5 damage. Smiting Prayers.


It's Smite Hex but with Conditions. I'm sensing a theme here with the Smiting skills but, again, that line has to get a lot better overall before people take it seriously. And there's enough effective condition removal out there that you don't have to rely on unattributed stuff like Smite Hex.


  • Cure Hex. 10en, 1cast, 12recharge - Spell. Remove one Hex from target ally. If a Hex was removed that ally is healed for 102 Health. Healing Prayers.


I'm actually liking this one. The heal will be nice as will having another low recharge, single use hex removal out there. But the real draw here is that this is in the Healing line. Healing doesn't tend to get a lot of utility skills and this is a skill that can heal and deal with moderate hexing, sounds promising.





NECROMANCER


  • Masochism. 5en, 1cast, 10recharge - Spell. Steal x health from target foe for each Condition you are suffering from (maximum 60). Blood Magic.


Er, yeah, it does damage based on the amount of conditions you have. But it's capped so you can't go nuts with it. Fairly useless, if you ask me.


  • Cacophany. 10en, 2cast, 15recharge - Hex Spell. For x seconds, whenever target foe uses a shout or Chant, that foe takes x damage. Curses


A skill like this should really shut down a Paragon. I'm actually surprised they don't have something like it already. But it looks to be a fairly narrow and fairly powerful counter - you might not need it every time you bring it but when you do need it, it'll really work overtime. That's in line with other highly conditional counter skills. I see it falling into a similar place as Rust, Ignorance, or Soothing Images. It's not going to be used very often but it's going to be there as a safety valve and people who really hate shout spams will run it. If it ever does see serious play, it means there's something seriously wrong with shouts and chants.


  • Entropy's Grasp. 5en, 1cast, 3recharge - Enchantment Spell. For x seconds, target ally's attacks cause Weakness for x seconds. Death Magic


Meh, it looks reasonably spammable but I'm not too high on Weakness as a condition. So, something like a weaker version of Tainted.


  • Putrid Bile. 10en, 1cast, 12recharge - Hex Spell. For x seconds target foe suffers -1 health degeneration. If that foe dies while under the effect of this Hex, all nearby foes take x damage. Death Magic


Moderately useful hex. There are already skills that deal damage when someone's health bar pops and they don't see much play. The real draw here will be the casting and recharge along with just how much degeneration this kicks out - it could be useful as a cover hex for stronger degen skills.



RANGER


  • Rapid Fire. 10en, 2cast, 12recharge - Preparation. For x seconds, you attack 25% faster. Marksmanship.


Another IAS with the potential to really get crazy. I'm guessing it's restricted to Archers only but the main drawback here seems to be that you can't use Apply Poison.



RITUALIST


  • Pure Was Li Ming. 10en, 1cast, 30recharge - Item Spell. Hold Li Ming's ashes for 5 seconds. Whilst you hold her ashes, Conditions on you expire 10% faster. When you drop her ashes all allies within earshot lose 1 Condition. Restoration Magic.


Fairly interesting. Just looking over the skills we have so far, I'm guessing conditions are expected to factor largely in the next expansion...



  • Energetic Was Lee Sa. 10en, 2cast, 30recharge - Item Spell. Hold Lee Sa's ashes for 5 seconds. while you hold her ashes, you gain +1 energy regeneration. When you drop her ashes, you gain +1 energy. Spawning Power.


Could be moderately useful e-management. Still doesn't really want to make me use item skills - it's just not a very attractive mechanic no matter what they do with it, if you ask me. Mainly because it keeps you from weapon swapping and attacking for only a moderate, long lasting effect. But anything more powerful than that gets crazy so, you know, blah.

Saturday, April 7, 2007

Guild Wars: GW:EN Skills Leaked?

Apparently, during testing of the ATs which is going on this weekend - basically, they're using the new Hero Battles to test it since it's the same basic system - a few new heroes from the new campaign were available. And new Heroes means new skills. Caveat lector here. I wasn't involved in the testing and this is second hand information. Also, skills tend to change before release especially since we're so far away here. But, submitted for your approval, a list of what's potentially 30 or the 100 new skills:


ASSASSIN

  • Lotus Strike 10en, 12recharge - Off-Hand Attack. Must follow a lead attack. If it hits, this attack strikes for +x damage and you gain x energy. Dagger Mastery.
  • Assassin's Thirst 5en, 8recharge - Dual Attack. Must follow an off-hand attack. If this attack hits, you steal x Health. Deadly Arts.
  • Misery Signet 1cast, 8recharge - Signet. You gain x health for each Condition on target foe. Deadly Arts.
  • Shadow's Embrace 10en, 1/4cast, 45recharge - Hex Spell. Shadow step to target foe. For 10 seconds, this Hex does nothing. When this Hex ends, you return to your original location and that foe suffers a Deep Wound for x seconds. Deadly Arts.


ELEMENTALIST
  • Shell Shock. 10en, 1cast, 10recharge - Spell. Target foe takes x damage and has Cracked Armor for x seconds. Air Magic.
  • Grasping Flames. 10en, 2cast, 15recharge - Hex Spell. For x seconds, target foe moves 66% slower while Burning. Earth Magic.
  • Ward of Weariness. 10en, 2cast, 20recharge - Ward Spell. You create a Ward of Weariness at your current location. For x seconds, foes within that location become Weakened for x seconds whenever they take elemental damage. Earth Magic
  • Glyph of Immolation. 5en, 1cast, 10recharge - Glyph. For 15 seconds, your next 3 spells that target a foe also cause burning for 3 seconds. Fire Magic.
  • Winter's Embrace. 5en, 1/4cast, 10recharge - Hex Spell. For x seconds, you and target touched foe move 66% slower. Water Magic.
  • Glyph of Swiftness. 5en, 1cast, 10recharge - Glyph. For 15 seconds, projectiles from your next 2 Spells moves 66% faster.


MESMER
  • Aneurysm. 10en, 1cast, 20recharge - Spell. Target foe regains all Energy. For each point of energy gained in this way, that foe takes x damage. Domination Magic.
  • Power Lock. 10en, 1/4cast, 15recharge - Spell. If target is casting a Spell, that Spell is interrupted and disabled for an additional 1 second. Domination Magic.
  • Signet of Recall. 1cast, 20recharge - Signet. You lose all Energy. For 10 seconds, you have -4 energy regeneration. When this effect ends, you gain x Energy. Inspiration Magic
  • Wastrel's Feast. 5en, 1/4cast, 20recharge - Spell. If target foe is not casting a spell or attacking you gain x energy. Inspiration Magic
  • Calculated Risk. 10en, 2cast, 10recharge - Hex Spell. For x seconds, target foe has 50% chance to miss with attacks but does +10 damage. Illusion Magic.
  • Inadequacy. 10en, 1cast, 8recharge - Hex Spell. For x seconds, the next time target foe attacks, that attack is interrupted and all nearby foes take x damage. Illusion Magic.
  • Logic Bomb. 10en, 1cast, 10recharge - Hex Spell. For 10 seconds, target foe suffers from -3 health degeneration. When this Hex ends that foe has Cracked Armor for x seconds. Illusion Magic
  • Sum of All Fears. 10en, 2cast, 20recharge - Hex Spell. For x seconds, target foe moves, attacks, and casts Spells 20% slower. Illusion Magic
  • Signet of Distraction. 1/4cast, 20recharge - Signet. If target foe is casting a Spell, that Spell is interrupted and disabled for 1 second for each signet you have equipped.

MONK
  • Cure Hex. 10en, 1cast, 12recharge - Spell. Remove one Hex from target ally. If a Hex was removed that ally is healed for 102 Health. Healing Prayers.
  • Balthazar's Signet. 1cast, 20recharge - Signet. Target foe takes x holy damage. If that foe was attacking you gain x energy. Smiting Prayers.
  • Purifying Veil. -1maintain, 5en, 1cast, 8recharge - Enchantment Spell. While you maintain this Enchantment, Conditions expire 25% faster on target ally. When this Enchantment ends, one Condition is removed from that ally. Smiting Prayers.
  • Smite Condition. 5en, 1cast, 8recharge - Spell. Remove one Condition from target ally. If a Condition was removed. Foes in the area take 5 damage. Smiting Prayers.

NECROMANCER
  • Masochism. 5en, 1cast, 10recharge - Spell. Steal x health from target foe for each Condition you are suffering from (maximum 60). Blood Magic
  • Cacophany. 10en, 2cast, 15recharge - Hex Spell. For x seconds, whenever target foe uses a shout or Chant, that foe takes x damage. Curses
  • Entropy's Grasp. 5en, 1cast, 3recharge - Enchantment Spell. For x seconds, target ally's attacks cause Weakness for x seconds. Death Magic
  • Putrid Bile. 10en, 1cast, 12recharge - Hex Spell. For x seconds target foe suffers -1 health degeneration. If that foe dies while under the effect of this Hex, all nearby foes take x damage. Death Magic

RANGER

  • Rapid Fire. 10en, 2cast, 12recharge - Preparation. For x seconds, you attack 25% faster. Marksmanship.

RITUALIST

  • Pure Was Li Ming. 10en, 1cast, 30recharge - Item Spell. Hold Li Ming's ashes for 5 seconds. Whilst you hold her ashes, Conditions on you expire 10% faster. When you drop her ashes all allies within earshot lose 1 Condition. Restoration Magic.
  • Energetic Was Lee Sa. 10en, 2cast, 30recharge - Item Spell. Hold Lee Sa's ashes for 5 seconds. while you hold her ashes, you gain +1 energy regeneration. When you drop her ashes, you gain +1 energy. Spawning Power.


It's a pretty mixed bag, if you ask me. The Mesmer skills are full of crap - I mean, an interrupt that disables a spell for an extra second? Why bother? On the other hand, some of the Elementalist skills look pretty interesting. Grasping Flames, a snare when things are burning could have a lot of uses, as could ImoGlyph - that's adding 42 damage to your next 3 spells for only 5 en, a pretty good deal, if you ask me. And Winter's Embrace could be nice for frontliners.

The most interesting thing, though, is the references to "Cracked Armor" which I can only assume is a new form of condition. Probably something like Weaken Armor. If there are some new conditions to play around with, that could add a lot to the game.

Friday, April 6, 2007

Easter Break

With the holiday coming up, I'd expect some infrequent updates around here. At least, infrequent for me. See you on the other side.

Guild Wars: Stepping Into Sealed Play

So, yesterday, I was just fooling around in the TA, minding my own business when all of a sudden an old friend whispered me and said “Sealed play Sausaletus?” And, well, so much for my long held belief that I'd never get to experience Sealed Play formats because I came a' running. I wound up playing with some old friends and notables from around the PvP community, including my frequent commentator Lemming. Okay, my only commentator Lemming. But, still, it was a pretty fun event.


Sealed Play seems to be in the air these days. It reminds me a lot of when Dodgeball became popular, it's just being discussed and sampled all around the place. Hopefully, as with Dodgeball, it'll lead to some official in-game version. In this instance, however, we used a website provided by the Servants of Fortuna (Which you can find here.) to randomly generate skills for two teams of eight players. By using a random seed everybody can draft from the same pool of skills. 20 per player which are distributed according to rarity – each player gets 3 elites, 7 uncommon, and 10 common skills to work with. Everyone on a team puts together their build from the full 160 skills and if a skill appears multiple times in the draw, it can be used that many times by a team. As per the official rules there were some free skills available, too. Everyone could pack a rezsig, any Ranger could pick up Charm Animal, and any Assassin could grab Desperation Strike and/or Fox Fangs to fill out an attack chain, if need be. A new wrinkle, for me, though was the “wildcard” - each player could select one skill from their primary profession to add to their bar. The only limitation being that it couldn't be an elite.


As you might expect, it took a while to get 16 people together and then to roll up our builds. I neglected to remember the night's seed number but here's a sample of what we had to work with. There were actually some decent bars to be had, actually. My team went with a bonding Monk and a Healer's Boon Monk with a smattering of so-so healing skills along with a BiPping Dervish and an Assassin we were going to send off on the gank – he had Shattering Assault which we thought would come in useful if the other team was likewise running a Bonder and picked up Impale as his wildcard so he had a pretty decent Sin spike to throw down. For myself, I had my eye on an earth Ele build at first. It would have been an odd one with a core of Unsteady Ground, Earthquake, and Churning Earth but with Ward Against Foes sitting there, I figured it might be a good flagstand character. We decided to go another way and roll up a Fire Ele runner with the new Armor of Mist as his run buff and I decided to go with a Necro instead. There were several nice curse skills lying around and I could use Energy Drain as my elite to power them out, and since I was in Inspiration pick up one or two other skills to round out my bar. After some dickering about which caster was going to get one of our multiple Power Drains, I wound up with a bar like this:


  • Faintheartedness (Curses)
  • Enfeebling Blood (Curses)
  • Suffering (Curses)
  • Insidious Parasite (Curses) – Wildcard
  • Plague Sending (Curses)
  • Rezsig
  • Energy Drain [Elite] (Inspiration)
  • Power Drain (Inspiration)


Can't quite remember the attributes. It was likely high Curses, high Inspiration, a token amount in Soul Reaping (maybe a bit more, there was a Signet of Lost Souls that I'd been looking at and I might have left it pumped a bit up).


Which, you know, is a halfway decent Necro bar. Lots of melee shutdown and some AoE stuff for covering hexes. Plague Sending found its way in there because our draw was very weak on condition removal. We figured it might come in handy because there was a Toxicity sitting on the board along with Poison Arrows and we were certain our opponents would make use of it – we'd eschewed the Toxicity but were running a pair of condition spreading Rangers as there was also a Barbed Arrows to play with. Not exactly ideal, but not Lightning Hammer on a Warrior awful either.


With both teams set up we headed in game on our chosen map, the Isle of the Dead. As usually happens with people who don't play that map, we ran around a bit figuring out which ramp lead to the bridge and which down to the tar. Never fails. Once we met up, well, we got crushed. Turns out our opponents had forgone the Toxicity route and instead used their wildcards to get Heal Party and Extinguish into their build with a BiPper to fuel their Monks. Our split off Sin failed to do much against their Fire Ele runner and we just couldn't deal enough damage to be a threat, it seemed. Not when all our degen was being wiped out, anyway.


After a brief pause, we went right back in again. It became clear that we were, in fact, outbuilt and we resigned out. That was about it for the night as we started to drop players and no one was much interested in recruiting more at that time of night. But, still, it was a blast. As Lemming said when discussing this before, the setup time was immense compared to the actual time spent playing but that time was spent discussing skills and builds with some very successful players. Time well spent, if you ask me. And, to me anyway, hammering out a build and seeing if it works is a big part of the fun in the sealed play format. I'll definitely be hoping to experience it again.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

It's Game Time

Well, I have some more things I've been meaning to get to but it's time to go play around with the new update.

Editing the Celestial Tournament blogging is taking, as you might expect, a while. I'm making slow but steady progress and, hopefully, I'll have it done and up by the weekend.

Before I go, though, I just want to say that a few days ago it was t-shirt and jeans perfect outside and today? Snow. It's not exactly doing wonders for my lingering throat problems, I can tell you that much.

Update:

I've just spent the last several minutes shuffling around my inventory thanks to the new storage. And I've come to the conclusion that I have way too much junk. Since I have all the campaigns that's three whole new boxes for me. They're all full now. On the other hand all of my characters have a lot more room even though they still have a lot of space eaten up by equipment swaps. With the exception of my mule, who I guess I'm not going to be able to get rid of after all, anyway.

Guild Wars: A Little Litmus Test

Here's a quick little test to see whether or not you're the sort of mindless Arena drone I don't waste my time with.

Do you get this joke?

My pet, when I'm playing a Ranger, is named "Shop Boys."

If not, then, yeah, you need to stop playing video games, grow some pubic hair, start looking into members of the opposite sex (Or same sex, if you happen to swing that way. No judgment here you dumbass motherfucking scrub.), and leave me alone.

Guild Wars: Tournaments Announced

Mr. Gills, ArenaNet's Tournament Coordinator, delivers a lengthy article about what to expect from the automated tournaments and more. As pal Clamatius has already noted, there's a lot to be excited about here.

Let's review.

Okay, the first page is taken up with talk about the 1v1 or Hero Battle Tournaments. I could care less and I'll never quite understand why they're trying to make this big push to legitimize such the format - I'd rather have a 4v4 Team Arena ladder or something but, whatever.

The next page is when we get to the juicy stuff. The highlights:

  • Looks like they're shooting to get the tournaments off the ground in April. As in this month. Hopefully, they wouldn't say something like that without having it be a done deal. And Live Testing of the tournaments should begin soon while the first official season start sometime around May. Awesome.
  • Depending on how many teams enter - and it's likely they're not going to match the turnout from the CT anytime soon, there's going to be around 5 Swiss rounds follow by 3 elimination rounds between the top eight teams. So, eight rounds or so and they expect each tournament to take around 4 or more hours.
  • Entry into a tournament will cost tokens which can be bought for 1k Faction. Finally, a way to burn off faction when you're UAX. It's a low barrier to an established team - a win in a rated ladder match will get you at least 1k faction for up to eight players, after all - but it's an important one to keep riffraff and smurfs away. These tokens might even be valuable enough to be worth trading though I doubt it.
  • Tournaments will be held three times a day, staggered across the week so that they'll be one at every hour so most teams will find at least one to play in. Each month there'll be a monthly tournament where the top teams compete. You'll earn your way in through qualifying in the daily tournaments.
  • Those monthly playoffs should be fiercely competitive but not actually all that hard to get into. You only need 20 qualifying points to get an invite. And there's going to be approximately 84 tournaments (21 each week over a 4 week timespan) to play your way in. Each daily tournament gives out up to 36 qualifying points in the elimination rounds. It's not likely that those are all going to be evenly distributed but if they are, that's upwards of 150 teams competing in the playoffs. And, if I were the developers, I'd offer some other ways of qualifying for the tournaments, too, further increasing the field - like automatically extending an invitation to the winner of the last one, for example.
  • Only a 14 day waiting period when joining a guild instead of the previously announced 30. That's good and the shuffling of people sick of their CT guilds can now commence. The phrase "thus, the end of smurf and tank guilds" is laughable, however, as long as the most successful guilds are penalized in the information war by being placed on observer mode.
  • The k rating for tournament wins is going to be 30. Or what the old ladder value was. So teams that do well in the tournaments are, in fact, going to shoot up the ladder. The k value in the monthly tournaments is going to be 50 so the top teams are going to be even more successful.
  • Beyond that, the math to figure out how you're doing in the Swiss rounds looks mighty complicated to me.
There's some other interesting stuff on the next page, including the in-game reward system. Looks ripped straight from WoW but the idea of tiers of PvP-only items (which, of course, don't provide any bonus you can't get through PvE items) is a great one. Continuing the whole Xunlai thing is a good move, too.

The $100k tournament sounds intriguing, of course. Looks like we're getting a Guild Wars: Nightfall Championship (hereafter referred to as GWNC) after all. Although I, for one, am going to be sad that it's not going to take part in some far off exotic local.

So, at first glance some really awesome things. Looking over the time schedule, though, I'm probably not going to get to play in many of these tournaments. About now is really the only time I have to play unless I'm going to a) find another team and b) completely rearrange my life and, you know, starve. But, if I'm doing the time conversions right here's how the schedule looks if you're in America:


Timezone

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

Sun


GvG - 1

GMT

6:00

5:00

4:00

3:00

2:00

1:00

24:00


EST

(GMT-4)

2:00

2AM

1:00

1AM

24:00

Midnight

23:00

11PM

22:00

10PM

21:00

9PM

20:00

8PM


PST

(GMT-7)

23:00

11PM

22:00

10PM

21:00

9PM

20:00

8PM

19:00

7PM

18:00

6PM

17:00

5PM

GvG - 2

GMT

14:00

13:00

12:00

11:00

10:00

9:00

8:00


EST

(GMT-4)

10:00AM

9:00

8:00

7:00

6:00

5:00

4:00


PST

(GMT-7)

7:00AM

6:00

5:00

4:00

3:00

2:00

1:00

GvG - 3

GMT

22:00

21:00

20:00

19:00

18:00

17:00

16:00


EST

(GMT-4)

18:00

6PM

17:00

5PM

16:00

4PM

15:00

3PM

14:00

2PM

13:00

1PM

12:00

Noon


PST

(GMT-7)

15:00

3PM

14:00

2PM

13:00

1PM

12:00

Noon

11:00

11AM

10:00

10AM

9:00

9AM



Looks like I'm going to be a weekend Warrior, so to speak. There's just no way I can stay up and start a tournament at, say, 1AM if these things are going to last for 3~4 hours even if you don't place in the top. And anything much earlier than 6~7PM is out, too. So, I'm limited to being able to play from Thursday through Sunday, barring extraordinary circumstances. We'll have to see, though.

Guild Wars: Now That's an Update

The big news is undoubtedly the AT announcement - which we'll get to in a little bit - but not only did the skill update go into effect today, there's a host of other updates to mull over. And there are lots of nice new features:

There's the preparations for the upcoming tournaments which sound promising.

Pet controls which should now make a player's pet at least as responsive as Heroes.

Extra account storage which just makes me happy.

The usual twists and tweaks to missions and quests. Apparently it'll be easier to get Razah now so I might up and do that one of these days. And now the inexplicable Xunlai Agents who somehow managed the trek into the Desolation will now be gone - always weird how hard it was for any living thing to survive in that place yet there were the good old Xunlai guys to watch your stuff.

And, of course, the massive list of skill changes. Again, some interesting stuff that mostly hits the mark although it's yet another huge skill rebalancing at the end of the season when I'd been hoping for smaller, faster changes. Maybe with the upcoming tournaments that'll change.

But, for me, the biggest new additions are some of the smallest ones.

First, now anyone you group with or trade with will show up in your Friends List for a while. At least until you log out. That should make it a lot easier to keep track of people who you have a fun time with. And easier to make those elusive connections between people that create a community.

Another is the simple fact that you can now copy and paste your templates to and from the chat box. That should make forming up a party or a PUG even easier.

And the final one is an addition of counters to the effects menu. No more guessing how long you have until that hex runs out. Or trying to keep the expirations of multiple enchantments straight in your head.

Just a lot of awesome stuff. The game's nearing two years old at this point so it looks like the developers decided to give the players a big part of their gifts list.

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Grab 8? Time to Go!

One of the interesting things about XoO is their history of so-called “grab eight and go.” The idea is, basically, having a detailed intricate build doesn't matter so much as having good players who know their roles and individual builds. So, you get a bunch of people in a guild hall, each of them bringing whatever character they want, and then you just grab enough of them to make a well-rounded team and you go. It's a good place to practice new roles or even try GvG if you haven't before. They've been trying to bring it back recently and, well, I don't want to miss out so I'm about to head in game.


The repercussions of the skill rebalancing bomb are still being felt, however. Lots of interesting changes and it covers pretty much all of the commonly voiced (and not eyes rotating counterclockwise crazy) complaints recently. It's, you know, great.


Also, word is we're going to be getting more storage which I, for one, welcome with open arms. Maybe I can get away with deleting my mule now. Or maybe I'll just fill it up with more random crap and complain that we need yet more space.


And I'm slowly but surely working my way through the CT match reporting I've done – there's official versions up at the official site now – but it's going to take me some time, obviously, before everything's neatened up and ready for prime-time.


Other things before I head out. Looks like some others noticed the disparity between Democratic and Repulican candidates this money primary. And there's plenty of craziness what with the release of British sailors being greeted as a bad thing or how the right is treating Mrs. Pelosi's Syrian negotiations but, you know, I feel like killing some pixels. See you tomorrow.

Guild Wars: Why You Should Still Use GLE

After a rebalancing the natural impulse is to flee from those skills that are seen as being nerfed. If that holds true here people are going to stop using things like Diversion, Reckless Haste, and especially Glyph of Lesser Energy. That's a shame because those skills are still eminently playable.


Glyph of Lesser Energy, for example, has been linked to Energy Storage, one of the most useless primary attributes, no doubt because it was fueling all sorts of wackiness among people who'd go secondary Elementalist just to pick that skill up. That's a sure sign that something's wrong with a skill, of course, and in this case it was giving any caster too much energy management from such a cheap, unattributed, and non-elite slot.


Now, the patch notes are usually written in 1...15 attribute layout notation. Why, I have no clue, but that's the way it's always been done. So, if I'm doing the math right that means the breakpoint for getting a GLE to function at its former efficiency of 15 energy per spell (And that's really all you need to get to. 16+ is only important for 25 energy spells and not only are there precious few of them, most characters aren't going to be slinging around multiple ones. Maybe with high enough Energy Storage this changes but I doubt it.) is somewhere around the 8 or 9 in Energy Storage mark. That's high but not unreasonable. If it's in 1...12 notation then it's somewhere around the 6 or 7 ES mark, by the way. Otherwise, you're talking about a skill with far less efficiency than it used to have.


For a secondary Elementalist who doesn't have access to Energy Storage, now GLE will only take 10 energy off of the next two skills. That still means a potential saving of 15 energy for the cost of 5 every 30 seconds or roughly 1.5 pips of regen. Before this “nerf” it used to be 2. So it's worse, but that's still great e-managment from a non-elite, if you ask me.


Take, for instance, a common Reaper's Mark Necro bar and their energy costs


Reaper's Mark – 5en

Parasitic Bond – 5 en

Reckless Haste – now 15 en

Price of Failure – 10 en

Faintheartedness – 10 en

Shadow of Fear – 10 en

Resurrection Signet

Glyph of Lesser Energy


You've only got one skill on there that's not going to get the full discount from the new model GLE. And that's only because it was tweaked in this skill update. The probable way you were using GLE would have been to pop it off and then cast Price of Failure and Faintheartedness, say, before covering with Parasitic or Reaper's. There's absolutely nothing different now about how you can do that. Sure, if you were running Suffering or Rotting Flesh you'd be having more of a crunch but, again, it's only a difference of .5 en and you likely weren't hitting enough 15 energy skills already to be that efficient. Pretty much the same thing for weapon rits and other casters.


Where this actually hurts most is with the Monks. It's going to be a lot harder for them to keep up an Aegis chain (Although, with the change to Rending Sweep that might not matter so much.) or spam Heal Party now. It's still got plenty of use though to help with things like Divert or Shield of Regeneration. But, as always, Monks get shafted when it comes to energy management.



So, it's still playable and doesn't do much about secondary Elementalists abusing it. But I think the root cause of that would be this statement here: "Glyph of Lesser Energy has been very successful in diversifying elite selection on Elementalists and bringing more high-cost skills into play" The reason it's been successful in bringing high cost skills into play is because they're overpriced. And the reason why it means people can use non-e-management elites is because the only way you'll play the expensive, overpriced stuff is by having the energy engine to make it affordable. Fix Elementalist pricing structures and you won't have broken crap like GLE.