Guild Wars: Bobby Sucks

Bobby's in. The Costume Brawl is on. I haven't gotten many matches in and now my game is freezing up with frightening regularity (Lot of lag, I suspect I wasn't the only one counting down the hours until the pumpkin dropped), but here's what I know so far:

You talk to Bobby, you're teleported to the Arena. There, you get your disguise.

As I feared, there's only one set of skills per profession. Which skin you get depends on which gender your character is. So, there's only ten characters to pick from in this rumble. Worse, you don't actually get to pick your disguise, it's automatically chosen for you based on your primary class. Go in as a male Paragon, for example, and you're Morghan. Not a big deal since you can just roll up a PvP character but a bit of a letdown.

With your character you not only get a look but you get a skill bar and a weapon set. There's a global enchantment that fixes your attributes and such. You can adjust your attributes but they're set right back. And any equipment is replaced with bland, generic PvP stuff. Either a 15^50 weapon or a HCR staff. No fortitude or vamp mods and nothing to switch to, either.

The best part is if you click on that global enchantment. You get a message saying, "I've got [insert your disguise character's name here] on me." It's just asking for some lewd photoshopping.

The skill bars are, by and large, alright. I'm going to have to constantly move the skills around to fit my wacked out control scheme. But, that's a secondary concern, they're not exactly what I'd call optimized and a few of the skill choices are awful. But they're serviceable and only one or two are just poor ideas on the merits - like the hybrid Smite/Healing Monk which makes Jesus, baby Buddha, and several minor pantheons cry. Don't get me wrong, these are builds that would get you laughed out of any PUG but under the design constraints - which seem to be single profession with only one line and your primary attribute and reasonably self-sufficient back-up - you're not going to be saddled with a bag full of crap. For the most part they're heavy on the offense, light on the defense. The biggest thing here is the lack of any real healer. You get the Monk and Ritualist who are support healers but for the most part you'll be relying on your self-heals. Which makes for good, quick fun, and gives skillful players who know how to take care of themselves after, say, working a lot on the split or the gank, a leg up.

And, since there's no helpful NPC to explain the rules to you, I guess I should tell you what's up in the actual battle. As you might have guessed from the inclusion of HvH maps, it's a cap fest. You earn points for kills and points based on how fast your meter fills up - the more points you have, the quicker it goes - and whoever gets to 20 first wins. There's no DP and if you're killed you rez in a few seconds - every half minute, I believe - so it's very newbie friendly. It's basically HvH without the Heroes. The only difference being that it's 5 person teams. I've only seen three of the four maps but from what I can tell, there's a lot of running around and avoiding combat but the maps are relatively compact and the paths between each point mean you'll run into the enemy soon enough.

I'm maxed on Faction and I don't care but for winning you also get 7 Gamer points and a Trick or Treat bag.


ASSASSIN

• Dagger Mastery - 12
• Shadow Arts - 9
• Critical Strikes - 11

1. Aura of Displacement {E}
2. Golden Phoenix Strike
3. Horns of the Ox
4. Falling Lotus Strike
5. Twisting Fangs
6. Shadow Refuge
7. Dash
8. Signet of Malice

• 15^50 Daggers

AoD Sin. Ah, that takes me back to the GWFC days. Remember you can cancel your Aura to bamf out if you get in trouble but, otherwise, it's rush in, pwn people, kekeke, hope no one on the other team is anything resembling good or else you're screwed. Experienced Sins will have a ball, while scrubs are going to die a whole bunch. Anyhow, the chain here is Golden Phoenix to Horns of the Ox to Falling Lotus to Twisting Fangs. There's no cross-attribute splurging so there's no Impale (And no Shadow Prison because....well, I guess that makes too much sense.). Even though I'd throw Impale on there unlinked for the Deep Wound and grab another Dual.


DERVISH

• Mysticism {P} - 11
• Earth Prayers - 9
• Scythe Mastery - 14

1. Avatar of Melandru {E}
2. Wearying Strike
3. Chilling Victory
4. Vital Boon
5. Pious Fury
6. Imbue Health
7. Rending Touch
8. Pious Haste

• 15^50 Scythe

Melandru's Derv. Okay, so the devs pass the sanity test. If not the creativity one. It's, you know, a big tree that's immune to conditions that hits like a Mack truck. It should be fun. Vital Boon is your only enchantment and you're going to be sacrificing that away really often. That's a good thing because when you put it on its timer, it becomes a halfway decent self-heal. If you want to be pro, remember you have Rending Touch. If you want to be really pro, understand it really only matters if your target has been coated by Divine Intervention and that your best skill is probably going to wind up being Imbue Health. Why they didn't scale it up one more point for Mysticism 12 is beyond me.


ELEMENTALIST

• Energy Storage {P} - 12
• Fire Magic - 12
• Water Magic - 11

1. Searing Flames {E}
2. Glowing Gaze
3. Steam
4. Flame Djinn's Haste
5. Aura of Restoration
6. Glyph of Lesser Energy
7. Liquid Flame
8. Fire Attunement

• 20/10 HCR Fire Staff

SF guy. And, once you get past the "I'm not going to put my Fire magic attribute as high as possible because I eat lead paint chips", not really a bad one, all things considered - I want Mark of Rodgort but I'll live. The problem is that this is PvP and Air is a much better line. You're not sure of catching people in the AOE and the secondary effects of Air skills like B-Surge and Enervating Charge are much more valuable. Plus, Gale. Here, you're stuck with the much more conditional Steam if you have a Warrior raging in your face. But, condition removal is weak here so you can reliably set them on fire and blind them. It's just the only skill you have to set them alight is Searing Flames. The way to use this guy is to make sure Flame Djinn's is up, bury it under RestoAura if you can, and kite around throwing the big nukes at people. You should be a pretty effective offensive powerhouse that way and if there's another Ele on your team you'll be even better. Your big problem, though, is going to be the utter lack of defense and healing.


MESMER

• Fast Casting {P} - 9
• Domination Magic - 14
• Inspiration - 11

1. Energy Surge {E}
2. Power Spike
3. Ether Feast
4. Shatter Enchantment
5. Empathy
6. Energy Burn
7. Leech Signet
8. Complicate

• 20/10 HCR Dom Staff

It's all Dom while I'd rather have a mix of Dom and Inspiration. That would mean, for example, you could pick up P-Drain instead of Power Spike. But otherwise this is going ot be a nasty character. Surge/Burn is a nice combo and you can shatter-spike. The interrupts could be better but this is a shutdown character who's going to be swimming in a barrel of fish. I wish I had better reflexes and/or a better system because I suck at landing interrupts at present - otherwise, this would probably wind up my favorite.


MONK

• Divine Favor {P} - 11
• Healing Prayers - 9
• Smiting Prayers - 14

1. Healing Breeze
2. Signet of Judgment {E}
3. Divine Intervention
4. Signet of Devotion
5. Smite Condition
6. Smite Hex
7. Banish
8. Bane Signet

• 20/10 HCR DF Staff

This is just awful. Really, I can't convey just how sad looking at this build makes me. Smiting sucks, in general. And this Smiter is a really, really bad example of the breed. You can at least try to keep people healed with Breeze and DI and DevoSig but it's not really going to work. So, I guess you're stuck attacking every 15~20 seconds with your weak (but armor ignoring) attacks. The draw here, though, is the condition and hex removal which are things other characters are sorely lacking. But, basically, I'd just forget this character exists and be much happier.


NECROMANCER

• Soul Reaping {P} - 11
• Blood Magic - 12
• Curses - 11

1. Reaper's Mark {E}
2. Life Siphon
3. Enfeeble
4. Strip Enchantment
5. Signet of Lost Souls
6. Faintheartedness
7. Plague Touch
8. Barbed Signet

• 20/10 SR Staff

Sticky hexer! Better yet, sticky hexer when hardly anyone has any hex removal. This one's probably the MVP of the lot. I'd drop Barbed Signet for Parasitic Bond but that's only because I'd like another cover in favor of some direct damage but that's just being picky. You have a lot of melee hate, of course, and even some condition recovery. But you want to throw up Reaper's Mark, keep it covered, and hex up the Warriors, Paragons and anyone else who likes to attack.


PARAGON

• Leadership {P} - 12
• Spear - 14
• Command - 8

1. Cruel Spear {E}
2. Spear of Lightning
3. Blazing Spear
4. Anthem of Weariness
5. Leader's Comfort
6. Fall Back!
7. Remedy Signet
8. Go for the Eyes!

• 15^50 Spear
• Command Shield (By the way, 8 Command means you do not meet the req on your shield.)

Hey, a Paragon build put together by people who have no idea what makes a Paragon good. Or broken, depending on how charitable you want to be. So, it's definitely made by the devs. If I were to make this character I'd keep Fall Back (which is really, really nice here), GftE and Spear of Lightning and that's about it. RemSig and Fall Back I'd have to think about but it could come in handy given the environment. Cruel Spear maybe. I'd rather have Defensive Anthem or Crip Anthem but this is a random arena so it makes sense to focus on making your character better than on support. Okay, so I guess I'd keep most of the build except I'd be sure to stick in Anthem of Flame and Aggressive Refrain, even the new one, somewhere. Basic idea here is to...stand there and chuck your spear at people, try to catch them with Cruel once you've got the adrenaline, use Go For to keep your energy up, and use your other shouts to boost your team up. Oh, and pop off Fall Back as often as you can so everyone can race around the map.


RANGER

1. Expertise {P} - 12
2. Wilderness - 11
3. Marksmanship - 12

1. Burning Arrow {E}
2. Distracting Shot
3. Savage Shot
4. Apply Poison
5. Troll Unguent
6. Natural Stride
7. Antidote Signet
8. Pin Down

• 15^50 Recurve Bow

It's a BA build, for sure. Burning Arrow got nerfed, though, and it's no longer anywhere near as good as it was. But, you know, big numbers make scrubs happy so it works. There's no secondaries involved here so you've got to put up with Antidote Signet in favor of Mending Touch but there are also fewer conditions being spread around here. There's no blindbot who's going to hit you with cover conditions every five seconds so it should be serviceable. I think the key to using this well is to forget about trying to damage the crap out of things and focus on the D-Shot and Savage. Disrupt, disrupt, disrupt, and spread that poison around and you'll be doing a lot more good than if you try to be the fearsome sniper.


RITUALIST

• Spawning Power - 9
• Channeling Magic - 14
• Restoration Magic - 11

1. Preservation {E}
2. Nightmare Weapon
3. Bloodsong
4. Essence Strike
5. Spirit Burn
6. Mend Body and Soul
7. Splinter Weapon
8. Ancestor's Rage

• 20/10 HCR Channeling Staff

Oh, look, it's a crappy spirit elite. Preservation blows. It's, however, probably the best healing skill you're going to find in the Costume Arena. This build features Splinter Weapon and Ancestor's Rage, though, and that makes up for a lot of ills. I'd want to ditch the elite in favor of, say, Weapon of Remedy or something but, otherwise, it's just like the Rit builds I've been toying with lately. A bit of healing and a bit of offense and you make all the melee characters on your team really, really happy. Spread Splinter around, chip in with your nukes, and try to use your heals judiciously.


WARRIOR

• Strength {P} - 10
• Swordsmanship - 14
• Tactics - 10

1. Crippling Slash {E}
2. Gash
3. Sun and Moon Slash
4. Enraging Charge
5. Healing Signet
6. Bull's Strike
7. Tiger's Stance
8. Shield Bash

• 15^50 Sword
• Tactics Shield

First, I would give a lot here for a secondary to pack something like Mending Touch. For that matter, I'd love to drop Tiger Stance in favor of something actually, you know, good like Flail or Frenzy. But it's a CripSlash build. People use it, it's good, and it's not hard to understand. Pick a target, hit Enraging Charge, rage in their faces with your chain as needed. And hope nobody puts a hex or condition on you, I guess.

I've yet to spend a lot of time on any of them, but at first blush I'd say avoid the Paragon, Warrior, and Monk. And learn to love the Ritualist, Ranger, and Necromancer. The others are generally good if you know how to play them, not so much otherwise.

UPDATE:

I should probably get around to re-writing this now that I've, you know, actually played the game more than twice. For starters, I was mistaken about the maps. There aren't four, there are actually only two - I mistook the mirrored version of one for a whole new one. Also, there's a whole section that needs to be added about equipment.

The thing about equipment is it works. Except when it doesn't. Which is what happens with most mini-games except the Brawl is the only one where you're using actual weapons in the same way you'd actually use them elsewhere in the game. You can actually switch your weapons and, contrary to what I said earlier, it does do something more than switch the apparent skin. Different bows have different attack ranges and firing rates and you can even do something stupid like equip an axe when you have a sword Warrior's bar. More importantly, you can upgrade those weapons however you like. Certain mods are disabled while others have an effect, still others I have no clue about. Here's what I've noticed works and what doesn't:

Doesn't work:

• +HP mods: Vigor runes, Survivor insignia, Vitae, don't bother to put them on your armor. Same thing with Fortitude or those mods that give you health when a condition (Like, say, hexed) is trigger, they just don't work.
• +En mods. Radient armor or runes of attunement are worthless. Likewise you won't get any extra energy from your staff or a +15/-1 mod. Not beyond what you get from the default staff anyway.
• +stat mods. Attribute runes in your armor don't work. Neither do items that proc a bonus +1 to its attribute every once in a while.

Does work:

• HCR weapons. This is the default option available from the basic equipment.
• Vamp weapons. You might as well for that extra burst of DPS.
• Zealous weapons Probably not that useful but can't hurt for some characters.
• Elemental weapons. Switching your damage type can help against targets like Warriors, of course.

I have no idea:

• +AL mods. This is what I run with, for the most part, since nothing else valuable works. Increased AL insignia on the armor, defense option on my weapons. Might not actually do anything but sure makes me feel better. Using shields certainly works to decrease some damage but I don't know if the different mods attached to them work, either.
• +duration weapons. Since I use a Ranger, I take a Poisonous bow and hope for the best. Crippling, Cruel, Barbed, might all work, too, but I have no proof.
• -duration runes. Again, I have no conclusive proof, just the sneaking suspicion that studding my armor with those runes that reduce the duration on things like Cripple and Poison work and are, therefore, an incredible advantage in an environment where conditions are plentiful and removal is weak.