GW:EN Sneak Peak: Live Thread 9, Lazy Morning

Commence to jiggling people, we're back. I had some thoughts jotted down to flesh out into full fledged posts but, eh, I'm feeling lazy. There's only one day left in the preview and I want to get rolling on it. I'll save those for tomorrow - or never - when I intened to post on the aftermath.

So, today, I wanted to check out some PvP action. Not play it myself because I'm horribly rusty, but scope out some obs mode. See what people were doing with the new skills. Looks like last night while I was in PvE heaven, there was a Monthly Championship. Rebel Rising vs some Korean team I'm going to call #12 because that's what they're ranked, on the Isle of the Dead. As I understand it, the new GW:EN skills were disallowed so I'm only going to check out the championship. Let's give her a watch.

Rebel Rising [rawr]
W/E - Eviscerate, Conjure Axe
D/A - Melandru's Derv with Disrupting Dagger?
P/W - Defensive Anthem, Spear attacks, WY, and I'm going to guess Shield's Up.
Me/Rt - Hex Eater Vortex, and a lot of Dom stuff - Diversion, interrupts, etc.
E/Mo - BSurge air
Mo/E - Shield of Deflection prot
Mo/E - LoD/Infuse
E/Mo - Shield of Regen water runner

Korean [Korean]
A/W - Shadow Prison
D/W - Melandru's derv
N/E - Corrupt Enchantments?!? Seriously? Wards with.
Me/Rt - Migraine hexer with Humsig
A/W - Shadow Prison
E/Mo - Sheield of Regen, water with a lot of Monk stuff
Mo/E - Shield of Defelection with...Divine Spirit? Seriously?
Mo/A - LoD/Infuse

I guess Tiger's Stance is the new BoA? Makes sense. The Korean meta has to be really screwed up because that is some janky shit #12 is running. [rawr] on the other hand look to be in a pretty sweet setup. I'd guess it's the latest version of a balanced build. The only thing I don't like, really, is the Parapants. I'd sub it out for a Ranger with some interrupts, but that's just me.

Came into the room a few minutes into the match. [rawr] is taking it to them. They're getting a lot of kills and pushing #12 back to their base. Secured a morale boost with #12 on the defensive, trying to break out of their base. Looks like this could be a slaughter but, no, the Koreans are going to split.

8~9 minutes in they've worked off a lot of the base NPCs, all [rawr] has left is the core guarding the Lord. And they're got a pair of Sins in their base to harrass the Rebel runner. Meanwhile, at #12's base, they've been stuck defending it but they haven't lost many NPCs. The split is really paying off for them. [rawr] has to respond and the now the main team can't kill anything, #12 is just running them around on the many paths of the Isle of the Dead, while their Sins go to work.

Nearing VoD, which is at 18 minutes now, making for quicker matches. Not sure how I feel about that. By this point, #12 has gone full out split. They've got a four person team with the Sins and their E/Mo and the Mes, I think, constantly trying to slip into [rawr]'s base. They can't get to the Lord but they are really killing off the people [rawr]'s sending back.

I'm still not so sure about the new VoD mechanic but, I'm seeing it in action. [rawr] seems to be able to pound #12 whenever they get them in a fight. But #12's splitting has taken out a lot of [rawr]'s NPCs. I'd have to say it's even heading into VoD and the score chart, for what it's worth, agrees with me.

[rawr]'s able to take out the NPCs and #12 is crumbling. Yeah, this one's over. Just a matter of a time before they kill off enough to take out the Lord. Congratulations to [rawr]. Good match.

Yea, no new skills there. And I'm itching to get some playing in myself. Nobody on the list for the GvG is ranked above 70 and I don't rankSo, we'll close the obs mode for now

Ran Defending the Eye of the North again. Mostly on a whim. This time, though, I beat it hands down. And I attribute this to three factors. First, I switched all my Eles to pack Meteor Shower. I had to go micro and tell them when to cast it, but it was a big help. Second, I had them pack wards as well. Especially Ward of Stability. The centaur around the Eye of the North have this Trample ability which is an AoE touch range knockdown. It was really giving me fits last night on the narrow confines of the ramp. With Stability up, nothing got interrupted at a crucial time. Like the long casting of a Meteor Shower, say. And finally, I decided not to fight on the ramp at all. As soon as the map loaded, I ran off to the side onto the ice. Picking off the groups cost me the NPC allies because they ignore the henchie flags and would rush right in to aggro everythign but I was able to just roam around the perimiter and handle the groups one at a time instead of altogether as I'd had to on the ramp. Also, fighting on the ice slowed me down, but it snared the centaurs, too. And since my plan was to sit in my wards and hammer them with SF and Meteor Shower, that didn't exactly bother me. So, for that I get some funny money, a Powerstone, and a new skill.

Ebon Escape. Spell. 5en, 1/4cast, 10recharge. Shadow Step to target other ally. you and that ally are healed for 40 health. Vanguard.

You can apparently rerun the Gate Too Far semi mission as many times as you like. It's only 2.5k XP and 500 Norn points so it's not really worth it.
Nope, I was wrong. You can. If you go to the Scrying Pool in the Eye of the North you can look at all the old cuscenes and you can also add any of the mission quests to your log. If I have the time, I'll run Blood Washing again because I want that Healing Light, dammit. Not because it's a useful skill or anything but I'm going to get at least one elite capped this weekend or so help me...

Then, I hunted down the Low King of the dwarves to turn in my primary quest. He was in a place called Battledepths which, aside from beign a cool name was off to the west from the Eye of the North. It's an underground cave place. Looks very cool, different from Sorrow's Furnace but still reminiscent. But being underground it means my map is all screwed up which sucks.

Although I'm still getting my Norn rep bonus (which is +63hp now. I guess it's 54+(3xNorn) health. Which is weird.) but the bounties here are for Dwarf points. Work just like the Norn bounties except you don't have to fight a Norn to get them and, hopefully, there'll be some different bonuses. I'm pretty close to my first rank so I smell cookies.

On second thought, I just ran the numbers and I'm not getting my Norn bonus in here. Must not be "Norn lands". Forgot I had installed a few Vitae runes I'd salvaged.

Annnnd, that sucks. If you wipe in the Battledepths you get returned to outpost. How'd I wipe? Deep Freeze spike along with hardhitting Dervishes, combined with the henchies tendency to cluster up. I didn't get killed but there's not much I can do by myself. I really need to slot a rez here. The Dervs use Vow of Silence, too, which is really screwing up my offense.

New enemy. Chromatic Drakes. A reskin of the old Drake model, of course, but the interesting thing is their special ability. They're eles but they have somethign called "Elemental Shift" which attunes them to a different element. Interesting. They, of course, die before it becomes important.

I investigate a barrel and an ooze monster pops out. This really is a dungeon crawl.

And there's the King. He's holding a cutscene for me which I gratefully accept. My Dwarf hero, sadly bereft of a nickname, is called on the carpet by his leige. The game forces me to stick up for him and say he was invaluable. Just one problem. He's never been in my party. He's about as useless as Norgu to me.

Not much else to see here, I guess. There's a quest to get Destroyer Cores, so I guess there's a reason to rerun a Gate Too Far, after all. And a master instanced quest with another eye-popping reward. A nearby portal leads to....Varajar Falls. That's by Olaf's bungalo and there's a Dwarven merchant and material crafter nearby but I've no real reason to be here.

I see a little skill icon has popped up. Looks like a big eye. Sadly, it's not the Eye of Sauron casting its baleful gaze upon me, but a little reminder that I should head to the Eye of the North and do something with the tapestry I just got, I suppose.

Sounds like as good a point to break as any.