GW:EN Sneak Peak: Live Thread 4, Mini-Games Ahoy!

Caught the new build. Time to catch a few more hours of play before sleep.

So, I'm in Gunnar's Hold and the quest book says I need to hunt down the man himself. I follow the green arrow and whom should I see but the injoke of injokes, Mr. Stoneskin himself. Looks like the Dwarven Brawling mini-game is available here. Checking out the rest of the place, I find that my Norn title will bestow me with some extra health. +53, it seems. Which is nothing to scoff at and shold only grow in due time. And there's another solo dueling mission. Gunnar - all by himself, this place is huge, lots of walking - says I need to schlep all the way to another map pip, looks like. Which, yeah, after slogging through Norrheart, that sounds about as fun as ramming a pipecleaner up my johnson.

Gentlemen, it's time to play some mini-games.

I'm going to start with the Dwarven Brawling because punching little people is just how I roll.

Set up back in my wimpy Smite build again. That's mostly for when I go for the dueling again. Because Kilroy hands me some brass knuckles, sweet, and it's on to the training. Punch-out! Loved that game.

Yep. All new skills. Six so far and some empty slots. Here we go:

Brawling Block. Stance. 4recharge. For 2 seconds, you block the next attack. This skill ends if you use an attack skill. You cannot use this skill if you are dazed. Brawling.

Brawling Jab. Melee Attack. Deal 10 damage if Brwling jab hits. Brawling.

Brawling Straight Right. Melee Attack. 1/2cast, 8recharge. If this attack hits, it deals 25 damage and interrupts an action.

Brawling Hook. Melee Attack. 4adren. Target foe takes 30 damage. Brawling.

Brawling Uppercut. Melee Attack. 10adren. You deliver an uppercut to your foe, dealing 80 damage. This attack cannot be blocked.

STAND UP! Shout. When knocked out, use this skill repeatedly to gain energy. You must be at full energy within 10 seconds or you will pass out.

Global enchantment, 500 health and 15 energy. Only brawling skills deal damage. KOs give you 200 health. Instead of dying when you reach 0 health you're KOed and can use STAND UP to get back up. Sounds fun. Doesn't say it but you have to equip the brass knuckles you've been given. They're two handed melee things that do 5~5 damage, not that it matters.

There's been a challenger patiently waiting while I finish reviewing everything. Time to kick some ass.

Whew. Emerged victorious. Didn't go down once even though they threw foes at me two and three at a time. Plenty of Shield Bash practice makes for leet blocking action. For my troubles I get Brawling Headbutt, a skill which looks pretty awesome for the brawling action.

Brawling Headbutt. Skill. 7adren, 3/4cast. You headbutt target touched foe, dealign 30 damage and knocking down that foe if it hits. Brawling.

Don "Kilroy" Stoneking has set up another match for me, so time to get my punch on. Awesome, I get Killroy with me. And, wooo, this is fun. Oh, that's a nice littel touch. When you die your energy increases, making it harder to get back up if you're KOed again. And, boom, finished off Irontoe with an uppercut. Time to ride by the waterfront with Doc because I just beat the world circuit.

Judgement on Dwarven Brawling? Insanely fun.

Another new skill from that run. Low Blow. And an armor of salvation, whatever that is.

Opened up my inventory and an Armor of Salvation. All party members get immunity to critical hits, +10 armor, +1 regen and DR of 5 for 30 minutes. Holy crap.

Low Blow on the other hand, is middling to fair.

Low Blow. Skill. 6adren, 3/4cast. Strike target foe for +30 damage. If target foe is knocked down, that foe suffers from Cracked Armor for 10 seconds. Dwarf.

Ah, that was so fun, I'm going again. Anotehr round, if you please, Mr. Stoneskin. But first I have to get rid of some inventory. Mad drops when you're rolling with the Roy.

I'm really beginning to hate the layout of this town. It's too big, for one thing. And all the vendors are behind these counters that make it really hard to get to them to talk. It looks nice, but it's limiting the functionality so it sucks.

Back to the hardcore punching. Looks like we're up one on some Norn this time. And he's a tough mother, too.

Took a few KOs, and had to rage all over the STAND UP button but I finished him off in the end. Got some fancy brass knuckles to use as daggers. And a new skill, Ear Bite.

Ear Bite. Skill. 4adren, 3/4 cast. Target touched foe begins Bleeding for 10 seconds. Dwarf.

Next round is eight straight opponents. It's Punch-out time. I forgot to mention, last round there was another new Brawling skill, Combo Punch which does 50 damage twice on a 45 second recharge.

Argh. Ran into a Jotun the first time around. I was doing pretty well up until then, a few KOs. But he's immune to KDs and has like 8 of his own, plus Irresistable to cut through the blocking. By the time he was done with me, I was up to 80 energy. Second time around, he didn't show up. In fact, all random opponents and I fairly well breezed through it - had some problems with a Luxon with Healsig becaues I kept screwing up the interrupt but not much.

And that's it for Friday Night Fights with Killroy. 700 Dwarven rep points, a few new skills, and some nifty items later and I'm good. Hope there's some more boxing matches later on, because that was a hoot.

Now for some Norn dueling. Apparently it takes 100 gold to enter, that's pretty lame.

And so's the tourney. My second round I got matched up against Norgu. He wasn't doing much that was impressive and I had Cure Hex to deal with his hexes, but he had Ether feat meaning there was nothing I could do to hurt him. It was a wand fight and it lasted for five minutes before I gave up.

Tried it again and, indeed, the opponents are random. But this time first round I was matched against Little Thom who doing the Hamstorm mambo. I couldn't damage him past his heal sig, he couldn't hurt me through my healing. Same song and dance as last time. I'm going to need better skills before I try this again.

Oh well, so the tournament was a wash. But the Brawling was a sweet ride while it lasted. Let's see, what else can I do without going questing. Oh, I know, I've got a quest to turn in. So, it's back to the Eye of the North to get some Vanguard points.

Not only do I get 10k XP but killing all the Char in Norrheart for a quest got me a skill reward, Winds.

Winds. Ebond Vanguard Ritual. 5en, 5cast, 30recharge. Create a lv1 spirit. All foes within its range have a 15% chance to miss with ranged attacks. This spirit dies after 30 seconds. Vanguard.

Checking the quest giver dude, he's got another quest and it looks like the Vanguard track is as much of a mini-game as the Dwarf and Norn tournaments are. This time, for another skill and some rep points, I have to kill 20 Practice Dummies in 3 minutes, solo. Which doesn't sound to bad except I'M A MONK AND CAN'T KILL FOR SHIT!!! I try it anyways with my ball of smite crap and it's actually doable since you get three offensive NPC allies to help you out. We just barely made it by the skin of our teeths, but it worked and I scored Ebon Vanguard Assassin Support.

Ebon Vanguard Assassin Support. Spell. 10en, 1cast, 30recharge. Summon a level 10 Ebon Vanguard Assassin that has Iron Palm, Fox Fangs, and Nine Tail Strike. This summoned Assassin Shadow Steps to target foe. If target foe is a Charr, the Assassin lives for 20 seconds. If target foe is not a Charr, the Assassin lives for 10 seconds. Vanguard.

That is the most wordy skill description I've yet seen. Hooray for clarrity, but sheesh. Next up is another quest, this time a Master one to defend the Eye of the North. It's 250 rep, a skill, and an item, so what the heck? Figuring this is going to be a bitch, I'm switching up my team somewhat. Still going with the Ele heroes but I'm subbing out my henchies. Adding in Lina along with Mhenlo for a three monk line. Herta who's hopefully lay down some fucking wards from time to time. And I'll keep Eve for the battery.

And now it's a big battle against some centaur. Groups of cannon fodder with some lv20s. They come in waves. And we stand and blast them to pieces. Not in our wards because Herta puts those every fucking place except where they'd be useful. Stupid Herta. And then I got wiped by a snowball. Grr.


Yeah, this isn't working. Think it's time to call it a night. I'll pick it up on the morrow.