GW:EN Seak Peak: Live Thread, The Skills

Okay, here we go. This, by the way, is liveblogging. I'll be updating this post as I go along, at least for the first few hours or so, with my thoughts and impressions.

The login/select screen has grown on me. It might even have been changed because I thought I remembered it being a rather dingy cave. It's now a majestic view from a mountaintop at a rising or setting sun. Snow is gently drifting through the darkened sky. Pines rise into the slowly twisting borealis in the sky. There are some pack animals relaxing near the warm glow from a lodge in the distance and a roaring cauldron of flame that occassionally scrolls into view. It's definitely got a Shiverpeaks vibe to it. when you go to the character screen, you're standing atop a long, twisting flight of stairs, buried under the snow, near that signal fire. Very cool. Very picturesque.

Okay, done looking at the pretty graphics. As I said, my first stop is the Battle Isles to find a Priest of Balthazar ie Mr. Unlock. I'm going to very carefully ensure that my local chat is off before I load into the Great Temple because I don't want to get any stupid on me. It burns, you know.

Huh, that's a new loading screen, isn't it? Looks nice. Takes me a minute to grok that it's a big statute of Papa Balthy standing in front of some cliffs and soaring over a little town/temple. If the actual temple looked anything like that it would be three kinds of awesome.

In the Temple. I'm on a monk so it's three microseconds before I get a party invite.

At the Priest. Ooh, new organization to the runes tab. Since I'm trying to check for any new runes that might have been added, though, it's actually kind of annoying since I have to click through each little button for each prof. But I hope that's how the rune trader looks at the moment. As always, my rule is to unlock equipment before skills because getting the equipment from PvE is so chancy and I'm going to wind up unlocking skills in PvE anyway. I don't expect there to be any new ones but I just want to make sure.

Yep. No new item mods. The new Heroes are available for 3k a head. I'll pass.

Alright, here's the money stuff. The new skills. I've done a little advanced research but I've been trying to keep spoiler free so this might take me a while.



There aren't really many skills this time around, really. Not compared to the usual 15 normal plus 10 elite and 75 for each new prof that we usually get. Means the game isn't going to be changed all that much. But, really, I like it. This feels like a good size batch of skills for an update.


Somebody got Legendary Cartographer and now we have the blessing? Huh? I thought the Hall winning announcements looked funny and now I understand the reason. They don't mention the favor of the gods anymore. What gives? I'm going to have to put that aside as something to look into later. Must...loook....at....skills...

I have a full store of faction and a few title ranks and each new skill costs a mere 1k, so I have enough to buy up all the Monk skills and make a good dent in another profession. I'm not going to do that, though, since I'm not sure what I'll be picking up. Instead, I grabbed one skill from each profession. The one I thought looked the juiciest. And I'm going to save the rest of my faction points for spot buys for emergency PvP action for the moment.

Here's what I got:

• Assassin Trampling Ox
• Dervish Farmer's Scythe
• Elementalist Glyph of Immolation
• Mesmer Signet of Distraction (almost got Shrinking Armor just to play around with Cracked Armor with my heroes)
• Monk Steadfast Soul
• Necromancer Masochism (almost got Withering Aura)
• Paragon Spear of Redemption
• Ranger Disrupting Shot (this was my most "Do I really have to pick one? They're all awful" list)
• Ritualist Weapon of Renewal (close call with Weapon of Aggression)
• Warrior Pulverizing Smash

I think my priorities are clear. When it doubt, energy and interrupts. Farmer's Scythe looks sexy. And Pulverizing Smash looks awesome for a hammer war. Trampling Ox looks like it could be useful. Spear of Redemption is mad crazy pressure and it screws blindbots as a bonus. Weapon of Renewal looks like it could be interesting with a weapon rit although I'd like a shorter cast time. Glyph of Immolation isn't as good as I hoped but I still like it. Steadfast Soul looks to become a PvP staple. Signet of Distraction could be an interesting little interrupt. Disrupting Shot less so but it's one more interrupt to slot on a Ranger's bar. Masochism is meh but it's e-management, so...

Okay, I've reviewed the new skills and it's an interesting crop. No elites at all, as promised which is....I don't know. I hate elites as a mechanic but I love them as an electronic cookie so I'm a bit disappointed. I've jotted down some information on the new skills but I think I'll save it for later. I've got plans. For now, it's time to move on.

Two hours into my playtime and I've...manged to look at a bunch of skills. That's just great. Lots of fun, though.


Whoops, new build. Several messages in the chat log that was buried underneath my windows. That's a good enough sign as any that I need to take a break. Time to get something to eat and take care of some business. I shall return.