GW:EN Sneak Peak: Fenrir Has Two Classes

Here's an interesting point that I failed to mention last night. Probably because I was tired. Probably because I was hoping to spin a post out of this. Probably because beating the bastard took me a few tries too many after get my death certificate filled out in triplicate by the Jotun. And probably because, at the time, I was more interested in the design of the encounter than the initial encounter itself. But, as I said last night, the battle with Fenrir is a memorable one because of that design. Those little beats of foreshadowing and anticipation the designers created leading up to it have ensured that, while the fight against the big dog and his spawn doesn't actually mean anything to me since it was just another slog through some trash mobs to get a morale bonus - didn't even get a green drop or an elite I could use out of it - it's a fight I'm going to remember for a while now. And when I thought back on it this morning, while mentally reviewing all my efforts from yesterday, I had a shocking revelation.

See if you can get it yourself. Take a look at this wikipage for the beast. Notice it yet?

It came to me when I recalled how he'd owned my RoF with a timely Savage Slash, leading to some problems for me. But it took me a while to realize how extraordinary that was because Fenrir looked like a Paragon boss. He even used Paragon skills and you know what that means, by now. He was dual classing. A P/W. Used skills from both.

That's interesting because it's so rare. Most bosses, hell, most monsters, draw exclusively from one class only. They don't mix and match their skills and profs the way players do. And the reason they don't is a long time ago, the developers made a decision that they wouldn't. Player characters were going to be "special". And, in game terms, that meant they would be the only people around powerful enough to draw from two professions. It also meant they'd have less work to do when coming up with creatures because they only needed to consider one skill list when picking out skills. And, theoretically, made it easier on the players since if they saw a Ranger critter they knew they were dealing with a bowslinger, possibly a trapper, and not, say, a Thumper or spirit shitter or whatever else. You knew what you were getting and mobs could be slotted into easily defined roles, making them easier to plan for and fight.

This was, in my opinion, a bit of a mistake (So's the lack of full skill bars, which is another unduly limiting decision, but one that's largely due to AI limitations, from what I gather and more understandable.). For one thing, the original campaign was supposedly a way of preparing players for their eventual transition into the endgame. Which, at that time, was either the hard to get to because it was only open randomly FoW or Underworld. Or PvP. So a lot of the design was given over to emulating PvP situations and environments within the PvE, and that extended to the monsters, too. But enemies in PvP draw from two professions, not just one, and players aren't taught, in PvE, how to deal with that. You don't get AI Monks slinging spellbreaker to foil your Mesmers. Or W/Mo using Healing Hands and Mending, with a hardrez, and just being annoying. No, to get those things in PvE you have to design a group. You have to mix and match critters - who fit together like Charr or Giants or Naga or whatever - and create a little mini-party that contains the right elements to challenge the players.

For another, it limits the PvE designers greatly. One of the things I'd hoped they'd do, when the game was still being developed, would be to ape the successful techniques and skill combinations which worked in PvP (I was focused on PvP, of course, but it's possible they could do the same thing with teams that were successful in running through missions and EAs, as well). It would be hard, given the AI limitations, but not impossible to ghost the skill layouts of teams that were ripping it up in Tombs or the Arenas and apply them to a group of AI baddies. This would help reinforce the connection between PvE and PvP. It would also give out a bit of a prestige factor to build makers - "Hey look, the devs just copied our build with this mob here, sweet!". And because the developers, while good at developing the game, aren't necessarily guaranteed to be good at playing it. Those PvP tested strategies would work. They'd be rugged, resiliant, and better than what some stressed out designer working on a deadline could rush out the door before starting work on the next set of monsters, and the next, and the next. They'd be more creative and more challenging, I thought, because they'd stem from actual play experience and not a top-down design goal.

Some of that has crept into the game like the Fragility/Contagion/Toxicity condi bombing Mandragor of the north, who run in packs which use a variety of Mesmer, Necro, and Ranger skills to apply massive degen on my whole party whenever I encounter them. Which is a tested, if outmoded, PvP strategy. But not to the degree that I'd hoped for (Indeed, I think I imagined that the game would be updated with new content and monsters a lot more frequently than it has been. I figured they'd be constantly tweaking and changing things with their vaunted streaming technology. I was, to put it bluntly, wrong.) and I blame the single class restriction. You just can't ape human teams with the monsters because the monsters can't pick up those key secondary skills. You can't have Warrior frontliners who're packing Disrupting Dagger. No Necro hexers who fuel their casting with GLE. And dozens of others. So, there are a lot of archetypes and templates that the developers haven't been able to touch because they can't bring the full beauty of the mixing and matching skill system to bear.

So, single class monsters are the rule. There have been a few exceptions. Mostly among highend bosses like Kanaxi who are already bending all sorts of rules and have their own special powers. But, for the most part everything only has one class and it's surprising to run into anything that has more than one. Fenrir, because he had those two professions, threw me for a bit of a loop. In a good way.

I had the same reaction in the Norn fights against Little Thom. He was a Hamstorm Warrior. A W/E who uses cripples with Hamstring and AoE DOT like Fire Storm and Breath of Fire, to deal a lot of damage. I just wasn't expecting that. Even the AI opponents in Zaishen are fairly well kept to one profession. So when he popped off a GLE, I was caught off guard.

Fenrir might be an exception. Like the world's saddest Storm Rider, Hoss Rainswell a Mo/E (Who uses Aura of Restoration, linked to the Elementalist's primary attribute. GG boss designers.) from Prophesies. But I hope not. Because bosses that have two professions have a lot of possibilities than the ones who don't.