Guild Wars: Syncopation

So, the other night I headed in game for my nightly PvP practice – I don't have a lot of time to play these days but I want to keep going so my skills don't atrophy so every day I try and get at least an hour's playtime in. Lately, I've been practicing as a Monk for pretty much the same reason I picked up Monking in the first place: Teams need healers and most people don't like to play them so it's easier to find a group if you're even halfway decent at keeping people alive. So I figure if I can run the whole ZB/Infuse or RC/prot thing that I'll be able to pick up some rounds in Tombs or TA or wherever if and when I ever have the time. I've been sticking with the same Mo/W build I've been using for a while (Which is unusual for me) because I think it's working pretty well. And by keeping the skills the same I can concentrate on other things I need to work on – like kiting and pre-kiting and weapon swapping and all the other things you need to do to Monk these days. Things that, you know, were almost instinctual at one point but I'm struggling with at this point because I just haven't played enough.

No Emotion But Fear

Divine Favor – 10+2
Healing Prayers – 8+1
Protection Prayers – 9+1
Tactics – 9
Dead Points - 1

1. Zealous Benediction {E}
2. Gift of Health
3. Shield of Absorbtion
4. Dismiss Conditions
5. Holy Veil
6. Reversal of Fortune
7. Shield Bash
8. Balanced Stance

• Armor – 3+hp (Heads, Hands, and Feet +15hp total), 2+en (Chest and Legs +5en total). Runes of Superior Vigor, Minor Divine Favor, Healing, Protection, and a Vitae.

• Equipment Slot #1 – Axe of Fortitude with -5 energy, Shield of Fortitude with +10AL vs slashing
  
• Equipment Slot #1 – 15/-1 Wand with Shield of Fortitude with+10AL vs slashing
  
• Equipment Slot #1 – 15/-1 Wand with 15/-1 Focus of Fortitude
  
• Equipment Slot #1 – Axe of Enchanting with +5 energy, Shield of Fortitude with +10 vs slashing

Nothing too fancy, as you can see. I debated having a few different shields to swap between but decided that being able to shift my energy pool up or down was more valuable – what I'm really worried about is being spiked out by Axe Warriors and Assassins, as you might be able to tell so I went with the slashing shield. Not every weapon those types swing does that type of damage but the basic PvP stuff does so it's good enough.

Basic idea is to spam the RoF as the main go-to heal and follow it with Shield of Absorption if someone's getting pressured. Gift of Health is like a mini-infuse which helpfully doesn't cost me half my health (Although there's a nice trick with that with ZB I don't like such a move in RA). Dismiss Conditions for removal but it can also serve as a nice backup heal if it follows on the heals of a RoF or Shield of Absorption. Holy Veil is my only hex removal which means I can get burried under a stack but short of taking Divert Hexes there's nothing I can do about that. I try and cast it at the beginning of a match and keep it up – means Dismiss Condition is always a self heal for myself – but if energy's becoming an issue or there aren't any hexes on the other team it gets dropped (Having to double click it is a bit of an annoyance but I've set up my interface so it's never far from where I tend to rest my mouse. I guess I should also explain, at this point that I've remapped the skill buttons to circle the WASD keys. #1~4 remain the same but #6~8 are mapped to the R,F, and V keys respectively while #5 goes on the Caps Lock. I then slot my skills based on how easy they are for me to reach from those keys as well as how likely I am to use them. The 5^th slot I tend to reserve for my rez skill because it's a bit of a stretch yet I want it close by in the event that I need it. My most commonly used skills go in the 2,3,6, or 7 slots with those on the right side of the bar tending to be the defensive skills whose buttons I want to rage on in the event I have a crisis. This gets flipped a bit when I play a Monk but since I also have all the commands to select party members mapped to the numerical keypad, I change how I input a bit as well – I play almost entirely by keyboard while normally I keep one hand on the WASD and the other on my mouse. It's convoluted and I'm not sure I'd recommend it but it works for me – I've very apt to change it if I can think of something better, though.). Balanced Stance I try to keep up and running as often as I can – not only does it keep me from getting knocklocked it also prevents anyone from landing a massive crit which helps. Shield Bash is there to throw up when I'm getting spiked down – more than one Assassin or Warrior's gotten in my face only to find they're suddenly sucking dirt. I need to get better about targeting them and timing it just right but, generally, they'll swing away even if I just toss it up haphazardly.

ZB, though, is the real star of the build. I don't tend to use it all that often – relying most only RoF and Gift of Health and such – but when someone's really in trouble I bust it out. Not only do they get a massive heal (About 170 with my attributes) if I time it right I get to do it without spending any energy. It's amazing what having effective energy management like that within the Monk lines does (And before anyone starts in, Peace and Harmony and previous Monk e-management options were and are a joke.). I pretty much wouldn't be going with a Warrior secondary if I didn't have that skill to help me pump out the healing in the middle of a lot of pressure. Or, you know, I'd be dropping the energy eating Holy Veil and losing any and all protection against hexes. I mean, I knew it was a good skill but having used it I can see why people like it so much – it's just that awesome.

But even though I've been sticking with the RA, I'm not adverse to playing with other people. It's just hard to commit to a set time because I'm stealing an hour here and an hour there whenever I can and I have no idea in advance and I have no idea when that will be. And when I do log in, I want to spend my time playing not fiddling around waiting for people to log in and get their characters set up and form a group and everything before we start playing – templates have speeded up that process but it's still there and still annoying to me. So, when pal Clamatius whispered me up and asked if I was interested in some TA I was down. Even though it meant leaving my RA group which had gotten on a bit of a roll which I've always held to be bad luck (Hello! My name is foreshadowing!), I'd much rather play with people I know and can talk with rather than dick around with random strangers. Clamatius has been working on his Rangering just as I've been working on my Monking so we hooked up in the TA and started looking for people to play with.

Unfortunately, we didn't have much luck. My buddy list was full of people who were rudely not interested in playing at that moment or were already involved in GvG matches. Clamatius told a similar tale. We decided that we just weren't going to find anyone quickly even though he's in [XoO] which is one of the larger guilds that I know of (And probably a real driving force behind getting alliances implemented. I know they were thrilled with it at the time, anyway.) with plenty of members to call upon. We didn't, though, for the same reason we didn't start spamming the local channel and trying to find someone standing around in the TA to play with – you just don't know what you're getting. XoO has a lot of divisions, after all, some of them are very competitive and PvP oriented, others are...well, not because they're more casual or they focus on PvE. At the time Clamatius and I were trying to find two other warm bodies, part of XoO was trying to win the Hall (Which they did, by the way) and I gather another part was setting up for GvG and so on. It's a mixed bad, in other words, and the organization is large enough that you don't really get to meet everyone and get to know them as well as you do in a smaller guild. Still, I think I'm in the market for a larger guild rather than the smaller more tightly knit ones I tend towards – with more people there's more chance I'll find a team to play with and I won't feel as bad about not being able to take part one night or another becaues there'll be someone else to fill my spot. Anyway, there were people around but they weren't people Clamatius had played with and we figured by the time we figured out what kind of build they wanted to run and everything it would be too much of a hassle.

So, we did what any resourceful players looking for their PvP fix would do in such a situation – we headed to the RA and went for the sync.

For those who are unfamiliar with the practice, it's easy to pull off. Works in any area that has random grouping, too. You and whoever you want to play with pull a joinspike. Get on vent or whatever, count down 3...2...1 like any other spike, and try to hit the “Enter Mission” button at the same time. The way random grouping works is once you press that button you're placed on a waiting list – new players are added in the order the press the button – and whenever there's a team looking for another team to face or there's a slot that opens up in a team, then the top of the list gets warped into the Arena. By pressing the button at the same time as your friend you're hopefully placing yourselves right next to each other on the list. That greatly increases the odds that you'll be on the same team when the next match starts – doesn't guarantee it, of course, but it's a lot more certain than just pressing the button and hoping for the best (As a way of comparison, Clamatius and I tried to sync four times and we succeeded three times and failed once. That's about as well as it normally works – really depends on just how active the RA is at the moment but I'd say an 80~90% success rate is my normal average.).

Some people don't like syncing because it means some teams aren't quite random. I guess they figure there's TA for that but, personally, if people want to play together and can't find enough for a full team I don't have a problem with it. Complaining about team balance in the RA is really wasted effort – sooner or later you're going to get rolled so just hit the enter mission button again when you bomb out. What bothers me is the people who'll miss a sync and quit out leaving their team short a person – that, I think, is a legitimate grip but there's not much you can do about it without hammering people who have to leave for legitimate reasons (Me, I try to wait until the round's over but I can see why someone might need to get up and go right that minute.). Now, the bots and AFKers, on the other hand, that infest places like Aspenwood, those need fixing and I don't care what's done at this point. Just that something be done about them.

There is one little trick I'll pass along that doesn't show up in any guides or resources – use the International Districts. They're generally a lot less populated so it's easier to sync up with someone. Clamatius and I weren't the only ones doing so last night – ID One is basically the district for two-person Team Arena.

Even if you're on your own, the IDs are the place to be. There are a lot of semi-teams trying to sync up. Chances are you'll luck your way into a team with them. They're much more likely to be a good team than three random strangers. And, as far as I can tell the grouping system prefers to place you with players from whatever district you start off in. That means if you start off from your home district you'll play with others from there. But if you start off from the international district you'll play with others who've also found their way there. And getting to the IDs takes a conscious decision – you have to put your mouse on the district bar and make the choice. That means you're standing in a place with others who have made that choice, too, and therefore put at least a little more thought into things than the average player who just loads in and hits the enter mission button. They're much more likely to think that way about their builds and their tactics and everything else. In short, they're probably better players. If only because they think a little more about things.

You tend to wait a bit longer for rounds in the International Districts and have more chance of that dreaded dayglo orange “no opponent found” message spoiling your day. But the people you play with tend to be better. I like that tradeoff and I make a point of using the IDs unless I'm being really impatient.

The night didn't go so well, though, as Clamatius already beat me to talking about. We went winless before he was called away to GvG. Part of it is on our shoulders, I think, but a large part of it had to do with the menagerie of creatures from the Random Reserve that we were lumped with – one of our teammates was a Mending/Retribution Monk for crying out loud! Could have been worse, could have been a 55, I guess, but still.

Deciding I wasn't going to end my night on a sour note I headed back in for some truly random grouping – wound up getting on a streak. Ended at nine wins, unfortunately because I still have problems fighting off hex stacks. So still no Gladiator points but I finished the night up another few thousand faction.

Clean and Simple. Like a Knife Cut.

It was cold today. Teeth chillingly cold. Just sapping the heat and the energy away from me with every breath. Just getting out of my car to walk into a building. The kind of day where I just want to find a warm blanket, a good book, a nice cup of something, and burrow into myself for a while.

And maybe it's that change in the weather but, lately, I haven't been feeling it. Just feels like I'm slipping back into some old bad habits. You know, a rut.

I'm sure I'll get over it but I'm not happy with myself lately.

Outlook: Frustrated.

[1] - 10 minutes. Yeah, I'm not doing good at the moment.

The Link Bloggy Returns! Today...I Shall Be a Warrior

Like this blog it's all Guild Wars, all the time!

The evasion mechanic was taken out of the game during the test weekend. This was supposedly a permanent change but one that was reverted (Along with EVERYTHING ELSE!!! Not that I'm still bitter or anything.) when the weekend was over. At the time the change was made I said in effect, “shame to see it go, but, yeah, I think it's for the best.” And at the time it was unmade I was puzzled. Then, of course, I poked around and found threads like this one. Signal to noise ration approaching the infinitesimal there.

And, yet, that represents the vast majority of players who are going to be giving feedback. I hope the developers have a way of weeding these things out but, me, I find it difficult because, you know, I try and do the reasonable thing and give everyone's opinion fair consideration – wisdom is everywhere, after all, seek it and you'll never know where you'll find it (This is probably a large reason why you'd have to pay me to get me involved in staffing another forum again. I micromanage - I'm the sort who just has to check every thread and read every post, I'm constitutionally unable to live with not knowing something. I suspect that's what, I hope, makes me a good moderator but it's also what drives me insane while I'm doing it. Sorry, Guru gets me all introspective as I try and figure out what went wrong with me.). Because, of course, the vast majority of people have absolutely no idea what they're talking about when it comes to the game but given a stage and a microphone they're happy to play armchair designers (Hi! Nice to meet you!). Most of them hardly even consider it in terms of systemic design. I, you know, try to which is why I'm not too broken up by evasion being removed. It's a mechanic, nothing more, and the only reason to keep it around is if it improves the game more than having it creates trouble. Whatever flavor reasons exist (like skill names and such) can be slapped on later. What really matters is what it does for the game's ruleset. Maybe having been a tester and seeing what happens when things really change quickly has made me unsentimental when it comes to mechanics or dropping in and out of the game has desensitized me to radical alterations but there it is.

If you ask me, evasion has nice flavor and it potentially adds a lot to the rules. Unfortunately, the design spaces evasion opened weren't being exploited. There was a bit of an attempt with old skills like Irresistible Blow or Griffon's Sweep to create some separation but, for the most part, the idea that there were two ways to avoid a blow that each had their own distinct identity had been abandoned. And “evade” was just another way of saying “block”. Not a particularly useful way thanks to skills that ignored both. And not a particularly interesting way because there weren't skills taking advantage of the distinction. In the interests of simplifying a complex game, I say throw it right back out. Yeah, some skills are going to have to be tweaked and maybe even renamed but it's for the best. Really. I could explain why but, you know, I have in the past and I've got better things to do. The people who really need to hear it wouldn't understand, anyway.

That might make me sound elitist. Like I'm some kind of PvP snob (Sorry, I'm just a plain old asshole.). That, you know, I believe there's a vast pool of average people who just aren't skilled or intelligent enough to understand. And, certainly, that's the sort of thinking that can lead to the ivory tower. I don't think so, though, because rather than saying this is a bad thing – that these people need to be shepherded, protected, from themselves – I think it's a good thing. That vast and thundering herd of newbs has just as much right to an opinion – and, of course, to having other people take their opinion seriously - as anyone else. And to have a say in things as well. It's the job of the so-called experts to translate their knowledge and bring it to the ears of those masses. Not to cloister themselves away and pat themselves on the back for their superior understanding. It's their responsibility to give everyone else the helping hand up not to push them back down. Chuck, as usual – the bastard – gets it right.

By the way, Chuckles has said I'm the only one who busts his chops so hard (I kid because I'm filled with burning hatred. And assault's still illegal.). I'd like to think I've earned the right. Really, people, he's not going to learn unless you argue with him. Thing is, you'll probably learn something, too. He's a dick that way.

Interesting that we're both hitting on Soul Reaping, though, isn't it? It's not like we've ever stooped to co-ordinating our efforts in the past or anything. Not once. Actually, this time it's just a coincidence - Soul Reaping's and things like Bloodspike have been bothering me for a while and I just figured out how to express it. Honest.

Speaking of leadership, indulge me if you will while I talk about one of my old guild leaders. You know, I'm proud to say that I've been in a guild with Adam Sunstrom once upon a time. He's one of the people in the community that I really respect (Not just, you know, like) because his burning desire makes my enthusiasm for the game look like a match next to a bonfire. Ran one hell of a Warrior, too. It's a good feeling to know that he's still around and still taking the time to encourage others. Not just to play the game but to get better at it. Awesome guy and his latest State of the Game article for the official Guild Wars site is, likewise, awe inspiring. If you're interested in Guild Wars PvP on any level check it out. I don't care how leet you think you are (or aren't) – read it, learn it, and love it.

You know, I want a little bio like Adam has at the bottom of all those articles. Something like... “Sausaletus Rex has been playing Guild Wars on and off since May 2004 when he participated in the E3 For Everyone preview event. Mostly off. He spends most of his time not playing the game and wishing he was. He's been a member in poor standing of many fine fansites and guilds most of which have gone on to great success after he left them. Now and forever, he remains king of the scrubs. Long live the king, baby!”

Have to disagree with the UI remapping, though. I like Q and E as they are by default – straffing keys that help you to maneuver as you move. I've remapped 6,7,8 to the R,F,and V keys and 5 to the Caps Lock. Almost as easy to reach while keeping the movement scheme I'm accustomed to. Depends on what kind of character I'm playing, of course, but I really do try and put some time into coming up with an effective interface. Helps immensely.

Really, if the game had UI templates that you could swap in and out like the skill and equipment templates I'd be a happy person.

Speaking of templates this article on the official site makes me see blood. I'm not going to give up on stringing out a post on that one just yet but the gist? Skill templates are nice and all but I want a way of being able to trade them in the damn game. Nine freaking steps! Shouldn't be longer than – Step 1: Have someone give you a skill template. Step 2: Click on it/Accept it/Make offerings to our dark pagan god! (Ignore that last one). Step 3: Open up your template list and load it up. Just needlessly complicated like so much else in the game.

Are you impressed I didn't say fuck there? I'm not.

Participating in a Guild Warrior's Favorite Sport

As I said somewhere else, "We're PvPers. We fight about everything."

Tip of the straw boater (Or however this works) to Clamatius for finding this thread in the weave.

Let me just say, what...the...hell.

It's going to take two weeks for the next rebalancing to go live? And in the meantime we're going to be dealing with skills in the same state they've been for months now? Seriously?

I mean, I can understand the need to have a reassessment period. I can, even though I disagree with it, see why a rollback would be needed. But two weeks is just way too long. As I've said before, these sort of balance changes need to happen more rapidly.

I'm in agreement, though, with Wasteland Squidget who goes on to say in that thread that such changes happening too rapidly (The given frame was every week, but I'm generalizing. I've seen what happens when the game is rebalanced every week, by the way, we called it “beta”.) is just as harmful as them happening too slowly. If skills are constantly in flux then the game becomes a race to find what's imbalanced and to exploit it. It takes some time for a metagame to be established as counters to counters to counters are explored and developed. The problem right now is that certain things are grossly overpowered (You can argue about just what they are, of course, but personally, I'd flag Shadow Prison and the Melandru's/Wearying Strike combination. The whole Soul Reaping nightmare is something that requires a redesign and isn't really the province of a simple matter of rebalancing a few skills – you have to gut a class, reshape it into something new, and deal with the fall out. That happens over the course of a few patches, not just one.) – there are no effective counters to develop just better ways of running the standard – and they're not being addressed.

This is why I favor skill balances that happen on a monthly schedule, by the way (And shortening the various PvP seasons to go along with it. But my biggest suggestion would be to post the changes well in advance.). That's long enough for new tricks to prosper but quick enough to shake things up before they get too static. Gross imbalances like Destructive Was Glaive get fixed on a much quicker schedule – perhaps not the next day but soon enough that they don't warp everything. And evaluations of the process are going on all along. Start every month with a test weekend, roll back the changes, mull over them, get that mythical feedback, and put them back in place with whatever tweaks you want the next weekend. Watch what happens and take the foam bat to anything that's getting out of hand but otherwise let things develop. See how things are headed and where changes might impact things – what are people playing? What aren't they playing? What strategies are unpopular? What's the reason skills aren't getting used? What are people saying on the boards? And the answer to those questions and more are how you start planning for the next month's changes.

But that's just details. Pick any timeframe you want, really. The principle is not that it's taking forever for skills to be rebalanced and it needs to be happening faster but that it needs to be happening in less monumental updates. These patches shouldn't be heroic endeavors, they should be course corrections. If that means updates happening every day, I'd be fine with it. Just as long as they're a lot smaller than the list from last Friday. While it might look good that so many things are being addressed and tried, I take it as a bad sign. All those changes, all those experiments, all those updates, are ones that have been waiting for who knows how long? That they come in a lump like this means that there's been things that have needed correction but have been allowed to continue. The more problems there are in such an interlocking system the harder it must be to find a solution – you can't fix just one thing without affecting so many others. And that makes the job of addressing the game's balance much more difficult than it would be if there were smaller updates happening constantly. Each one addressing a minor point and being allowed to play itself out to see how it performs. Taken in total, they'd add up to the massive sort of restructuring it seems we're in for on the 2^nd but the process (And any errors that creep up along the way) would be much easier to control.

Because that's the real problem I have here. Skill balancing shouldn't be an event. It should be a process. Going on constantly and subtly to shape the game. There's a point where you go too far, of course, and in days past when updates flew around and nerfed things during the middle of competitive seasons we were at that point. But we seem to have swung too far in the opposite direction – towards the hands-off approach that resembles nothing so much as apathy. The ladder's useless. The promised tournament system hasn't materialized yet. And now the metagame's going to be stagnant for another week – right after we got to see how refreshing a breath of fresh air could be?

Remind me why I play this game again. Someone.

Snowy Day

Class was pretty rough tonight. Not the class itself but getting there.

Today was one of those slightly snowy days when the snowflakes hang suspended in the air. I swear, a little of snow falling from the sky and it's like people forget to drive. I know, I know, it's the cascade effect - one car slows down a bit, the next one slows too, and so on until you have too many cars on the road at once and everyone has to slow way down. Made driving out to school a real pain. Normally, when I'm stuck in traffic I find it's a good time to write a poem or sketch out a story but today I couldn't because, you know, I actually had to concentrate on not running into the car in front of me or into a snowy embankment. Trapped in traffic, I was running late and rushed to get to the class room on time. So, of course, the teacher was about half an hour late. Sigh.

There was much discussion of invoking the mythical ten minute rule (Or fifteen, or twenty, or whatever it was. You know, I've heard it before but I don't think I've ever actually seen it happen. Of course, I was stunned to find out they even took attendance at this place and that it mattered for your grade - really not what I'm used to.).

Anyhow, between that and the prospect of having to shovel on the morrow, I'm exhausted. Managed to sneak in a little bit of Guild Wars time and stuck with the Monking. Another day another couple thousand faction - same old same old. And now I'm off to see if I can't get any more writing done before I crash.

Outlook: Cold and sleepy.

[1] - 15 minutes.

The Nam-Shub of Rex

If you're looking for some sort of response to the State of the Union you're going to have to look elsewhere. Honestly, I tried to watch like a good little member of the informed electorate should but oh my fucking god, I wanted to tear my eyeballs out by about the fifteen minute mark and had to turn to other amusements.

So, I switched off on the game of kings, grabbed a beer - to dull the pain - and loaded up the game of nerds. Figured I'd been avoiding it long enough so I rolled up a Monk and headed to the RA. Because, baby, if you can Monk in RA, you can Monk anywhere - totally unsupported, no idea what your teammates have, running for your life, being targeted with everything the other team has to throw at you. It's controlled chaos at its finest (I'm reminded of something I once wrote in a guide to Monking that, for one reason or another, I never got around to finishing. "A Monk has to be, above all, calm. A placid sea of rationality amidst the roiling chaos around them. While other characters are about speeding up the game, a good Monk tries to slow it down. The first rule is not to panic. To take a measured look at the situation and apply the right countermeasure at the right time. Good reflexes help but so does an ability to triage: help the ones you have to, ignore the ones you don't , and forget about the ones who are already gone." Sigh, I really struggled to find another word for "measured" there, you know. So much wasted effort.). In other words, a lot of fun.

It's something I've been meaning to do for a while ever since I picked up Zealous Benediction with some faction I had laying around. Build wasn't anything too fancy - ZB, Gift of Health, RoF, Dismiss Condition (another nice pickup I've made along the way), Shield of Absorption, and Holy Veil formed the core of it. None of this twitchy Infuse stuff for me, I'm not quite quick enough for that yet but just straight out power out the healing and scramble to keep your team afloat (And it's not like people spike in the Arena anyway.) that's right at my speed. Rode high on Divine Favor and equaled out Healing and Prot. For my secondary, since over the weekend I saw a lot of Assassins carve up Monks like no buddy's business, I went with Warrior. I figured a combination of Balanced Stance and Shield Bash would blunt spikes enough for me to prot my way out of them.

For the most part, I was right. My timing's a bit off and I missed getting Shield Bash up in time to catch them as they tried to port i but it usually caught them on the dual which works just as well. And Balanced Stance was great for keeping from getting knocklocked while also preventing those huge Dervish crits. So I was Monking it up alright but my teammates were another story. One of my friends likes to twirl around the RA as a Monk (Pretty much for the same reason as I do. Way back when the game came out someone once asked me why I'd Monk around in RA so much. I told them it's the only way I know of to make sure that the person keeping me alive knows what they're doing there. My best streaks have always come when I'm playing as a Monk. Go figure.) named "Kill Someone Please". As I told him tonight, I completely understand where he's coming from now.

There was the one team comprised of two Monks and a defensive Rit with a warder which was fun. Topped, though, by the team of four, count 'em, four Monks - if you've ever played around in the Arena wanting to trade your kingdom for a Monk, I'm sorry but I think we just used up the supply with that team - other team, much to their grumbling, couldn't kill us until everyone on my team quit in frustration (Sadly, I'm not uber-Monk enough to handle the pressure from three or four characters indefinitely yet. I did hold out for a while, though, and that makes me feel good. Hey, let 'em call me a n00b and other names for kiting them around and making them work for it. I call it practice.). Another team had me and another Monk along with an Assassin and a touchy-feely Ranger - we went up against this team featuring some kind of weird Signet based MesMo that gave them fits, I guess. Because they couldn't get a kill for eight freaking minutes (Which, um, is a long time in the Arena). And by the time it was over another three minutes later we still had a flawless.

Beyond that my real problem was fighting off hexes. Holy Veil's nice and all but just doesn't do the job of mass removal - getting burried under a stack of hexes is something I don't have much defense against. And damned if I know what else I can do about it. Because it's not like there are any hexes out there that really hurt and can be covered up easily at all.

So, I didn't get a lot of faction on the night. But I think in the brief time I played that I was getting into the flow of things.

Speaking of which, writing's going great, thanks for asking. I didn't get much of that done tonight because I've been trying to get caught up on my Math studies which I've been neglecting. But I've got outlines and blocks of text for several stories knocked out and waiting for me to pick one to run with. Short stories are the way to go at the moment, I've decided, instead of jumping back into things with a novel. It's a format I'm much more comfortable with anyway. With luck I'll have at least one done by the end of the week which is my goal. Not quite back to the days of churning out 10k at the drop of a hat but I'm getting there which makes me feel good.

That, I think, is why I just had to tune out the SotU and the ensuing coverage (Which I also just made the mistake of trying to watch. I think there's another case of beer in the fridge. I'm going to need it.). It's just been so depressing lately. Following the giddy high of that marvelous election and those rays of morning sunlight peaking over the horizon in my heart, it's come crashing back down into reality. Just settled back into routine the way the world is want to all the time. It's been hard to hold out hope as opportunities are being squandered. Hard to stay interested when the whole process just sickens me. But, you know, I think that just means it's time to try even harder - because if I stop who else will? No, things are a mess but things are always a mess. And working to make them better is the only way they'll change.

Outlook: Energized.

Time to work harder.

[1] - 30 minutes.

Test Weekend Wrap-up in 4000 Words

Part of the implicit agreement of the PvP Test Weekend just held was that those who took part would be giving feedback on various and sundry forums. Well, screw 'em, I'm posting mine here. Part of the reason I started this blog, after all, was to avoid having to remember to post on half a dozen boards (Out of who knows how many boards I'm registered at) on any given day. Forums represent the top-down organization which is a relic of the past, I've cast off those shackles and embraced this new medium. Imagine my eyes rotating counter-clockwise and some blather about the hive, the wisdom of the commons, and the future about getting smaller not larger at this point if you want but I'm moving on.

Now, at the start of the weekend I set out to play as much as I could in the Halls – because that's where the biggest changes were happening, of course. Didn't quite work out so well and I spent most of my time in the Arenas because, as usual, it's really hard to find group if you're a casual player (which, sad to say, at this point is what I am. I'd like to be more but I don't have the time and energy to expend on making that happen. Not if, you know, I want to have food and shelter.) - and relying on PuGs in the Tombs had me looking for a door to slam my head into just to relieve the pain. It's an endemic, structural problem that in-game tools for communication and grouping are weak but it's one that really needs to be solved. I've been meaning to talk about it but the Party Search just isn't working. Perhaps I'm in the wrong areas or something but in PvE I hardly see it used except for trading. And in PvP zones it gets used by a fraction of people to say they're looking for a group – not by groups looking for members, usually. Most damningly, it hasn't done anything to cut down on the number of people who simply shout such things over and over (Which, stones in a glass house and all, but I did my fair share of it as well over the weekend. But it's the most efficient way of getting things done.) and filling up the Local channel with information that poisons the well and drives out other conversations. Look, I could have found a group (Maybe. I, you know, suck at the moment and aren't likely to get much better in a hurry without a lot more of said time and effort involved.) by crashing voicechat servers, IMing contacts, or by hanging out in the IRC channels I still know about. That I didn't is my choice (Hell, if I can do all that I'm going to go play GvG which is a lot more rewarding on any number of levels.) but my point would be that the average player shouldn't have to carry around such a complex web of metastructural information to play a few rounds. I'm lucky I already have some fame ranks or I might not even have found any groups at all.

It's hard for new and casual players to get drawn into the game. Even when you've advertised and promoted this whole PvP free-for-all weekend. It might just be me but I think this isn't a good thing.

I know it's been said before and by others and, you know, probably a whole lot better than that but until it gets fixed then it's a message that bears repeating into the ground.

As for what actually happened during the weekend I think it was marred by any number of bugs and missteps. The late start to the event which still hasn't been acknowledged on the official site was a problem. And to avoid it all it would have taken was a few well placed words of contrition. Yes it was a big update. Yes there was bad weather in Seattle during the week that disrupted things. But ANet's a professional game development company, aren't they? They promised the event would start at a certain time and failed to deliver. And failed to explain why they hadn't delivered. And I'm presuming they knew in advance they were going to be a bit late so explain to me why they couldn't have slapped a little message on the client or the official site (Same difference, really) the same way they slapped up the message that the weekend was going to take place. If they want to be taken seriously then they can't act like it's alright to half-ass these things.

Even the weekend itself was marred by bugs. I noticed two myself. First was the fact that the patch notes said Resilient Weapon would have an altered cost – it didn't. The second, of course, was Glaive – the same one almost everyone caught. I'm sure there were others. These sort of things happen and it's not to say every patch has to be perfect but the important thing is what the response is made. The developers caught Glaive and fixed it satisfactorily quickly (Although, I'll note that they didn't bother to let anyone know – via a patch note – that they'd fixed it until much later because the “web team” was out of the office for the weekend. There was a big in-game event and the potential for patches to be flying if things were broken and they let the people who update their site, in effect, knock off to the pub? For that matter, just how hard is it to update the website? What was I saying about this being a professional company? Just, argh, sloppy.) but my biggest problem is that these temporary changes that brought such a breath of fresh air are now gone and we're back to the old, evidently imbalanced skills. I mean, I just got handed a bunch of new toys to play with and now they've been yanked away and replaced with my old broken ones? Yeah, thanks.

Which means, of course, that Guild Wars is really just sitting around doing nothing while WoW's just released its new expansion with improved PvP options that's no doubt draining away players (Which I find believable just based on anecdotal evidence. I mean, really, this is the time when the game needs to be rolling out something, anything, just to prove it can. A new dungeon, a new format, whatever it is. Just something. Something I can throw in the faces of all my friends who are telling me to quit and play WoW with them. Please.). Some of the skill changes made were interesting experiments, sure, but some of them were necessary ones that have been waiting in the wings for months while the last PvP season played itself out. The game languishes while everyone's waiting for those kind of changes to be made. Which, again, points out the importance of making these kind of changes much more often. And, of course, for greater transparency in the process – as I said on Sunday, I wouldn't mind these patch notes being posted well before they go live just to get a chance to plan. Not such a problem when the changes are permanent but when there's a ticking clock then I either get to pour over the list and figure out what might be good to play or I get to head in game and tinker around with actually using them. Put it up a week or a day in advance, though, and I'll be spending all that time looking at the possibilities and potentials and getting excited about the upcoming event – it's much better advertising than a blurb promising change is coming. If such a test event is going to take place in the future, and I think it should, then that's something that should be taken into account.

As for the actual changes some were interesting to see and probably needed to be tried but weren't exactly going to fly. I gather there was a lot of gnashing of teeth once people saw the change to Divert Hexes, for one, but I was pretty happy. Divert Hexes is unarguably grossly overpowered compared to other hex removal options so I, for one, wanted to see what happens when it gets nerfed out of the game. The answer? Bad things. Because, of course, the problem isn't that Divert Hexes is too good it's that compared with, say, condition removal the ability of teams to fight through hex stacks is extremely limited. And hexes are pretty nasty right now when you get right down to it. They rolled that change back when they fixed Glaive (Which, let's face it, even if it hadn't been bugged would have been extremely powerful doing something like 180 raw damage when fueling the improved Channeling Strike. It's an elite Cruel Was Daoshen. That sucks but some skills get crazy when they're anywhere resembling good. Not just because they're good but because they make already good skills into imbalanced nightmares. I think Glaive is one of those skills that needs to be in the game and needs to be weak.) and that, in and of itself is illustrative.

I was initially in favor of the change to Weakness but, in practice, it's too hard to tell who's riding the breakpoint on their attributes and will be really hurt by it. I like the mechanic but I think it would be best split off into a new condition with perhaps a harder hit to attributes – say a -2 or -3 drop. Weakness, to be better, I think, should also include a decrease to attack speed. That way not only do you attack for less, you attack sower, too, making it harder to gain adrenaline or spike out targets. That, I'd think, would put it on par with Blind as something you don't want to land on your physical attackers but don't care about hitting anyone else with. Hurting the melee characters is its role, this whole attribute idea is nice and spreads it out to other characters but the effect just isn't strong enough (And would be pretty imbalanced if it got stronger) and is too difficult to see the impact of.

Getting rid of “evade”, I'm in favor of. It does bring up some challenges in fixing all the skills that had been relying on the difference between ways of avoiding attacks but unifying them makes things simpler and easier – while the complexity wasn't really adding much to the game (Which is backed up by the large number of skills that simply avoided the issue and couldn't be stopped by either “block” or “evade”. It could have been interesting if it was really developed but, as it was, certain professions specialized in one or the other meaning if you were going to be fighting against more than one of them – like in any PvP environment ever - you wanted something that would cut through both. Interesting quirks like Swift Chop just weren't enough. If the two concepts were going to be anything other than just two ways of doing the same thing they needed a lot more to distinguish them from one another. It wasn't there and this way the “evade” mechanic can be shelved until it can be better developed and reimplemented, perhaps, in name or spirit down the line.).

The alterations to Tombs were a mixed bag. As I said, any group I joined seemed destined for a round-way trip back to the lobby so I didn't get a lot of first hand experience but, hey, that's what observer mode is for. They did shake up the status quo and I like the idea of the Hall being an actual contest of skill rather than who can outgank who the best. As I've said, the random way the rules were picked is troublesome, though, as are some of the formats themselves. I'd rather that the Hall was always played under the point control shrine capturing ruleset – that seemed to lead to the most interesting matches as well as create the most intriguing design concerns (Do you split? Do you stick together? Take the Hero? Leave the Hero defending a point? Is it better to be highly mobile or to pack a big punch?). And it meshes best with earlier maps too being similar yet something special at the end of that climb up the ladder – scoreboard kills works, too, but it turns the game into a 3-way scrum that I don't like while point control places a lot more emphasis on being able to out-think as well as outfight your opponent. Supper Happy Fun Ball while being, well, a lot of fun (At least on observer mode. “3....2...1...Yes!” “Relic go boom!” "Did you see him 'splode!” “Yowtch!”) but really needs some serious tweaking before it would be ready for prime-time.

Anyhow, I'd rather the rules for the Hall were the same. But if the devs wanted to have different formats there they could switch them daily or weekly – just rotate them in and out every so often.

Overall, most of the skill changes were positive. The vast majority of tweaks were spot on (Or near enough the spot that I can't tell the difference). Spiritual Pain, for instance, got toned down enough to make it sensible without making it completely unplayable. Beguiling Haze was a nice change that opened up some possibilities for non-Shadow Prison users. Although it was very strong when you're competing with Shadow Prison, it pretty much needs to be. Down through the list there were just a bunch of nice, sensible changes that turn marginal skills solid or underplayed skills into playable status. Mark of Rodgort, say, I was looking at as being surprisingly useful for my PvE ele now that its cost actually makes sense (Having recently gotten Searing Flames I'm looking for nice ways of causing Burning and a long-lasting hex like that with a huge area could be a good one.) the increased area of effect only made it better. Not sure if it's worth anything in PvP but some skills just are never going to be because of their mechanics.

It's the nonsensical changes that stand out, of course. Like Searing Flames – if you're trying to tone that skill down it's not the Burning that does it, it's the fact that you can get three or four people to benefit from that Burning and wreck one target in rapid fashion. In other words, it's the additive effect that's the problem (As it so often is with Ele skills) but I actually thought it was in a pretty good spot for the individual SF caster. So just chopping a second off the Burning left me scratching my head about what the point was. And Reaper's Mark – the energy's not the problem there. It's the extremely low-cost, relatively high degen that lasts forever and can nearly kill someone on its own unless its dealt with (And, of course, that hex removal, in general, is wretched. Cover that baby up and apply some pressure and you've got a kill or a Monk running on fumes. If they haven't brought one of a few elite hex removal options then they're screwed.). The energy's an extremely conditional bonus that, while nice, doesn't really matter. I mean, take off that energy gain and I'd still use the skill as is.

There's also the fact that things like Power Attack, Flare, Stone Daggers and the like were improved. Sure, those skills are underpowered compared to some others but, really, that's the whole point of them. They're the baseline that other skills are bounced off of. Of course they don't get used much because other skills do more. They're just bland and uninteresting and that's their whole reason for existing. Once players get into the game they're going to gravitate away from them and towards skills with more intricate effects that can be combined in interesting ways – all those sorts of skills can do is deal damage and that's important but not sexy when you only have 8 slots to play with. Unless, of course, they're broken. They've definitely been trending upwards but I'm not sure I want to play a game where the best thing for an Elementalist, say, to do is to chaincast Flare (I've, you know, played it and the answers to it aren't very interesting. “Hmm...Backfire? Well, I'll just keep casting Flare through it and it'll disappear eventually. Oh noes, I died! Backfire is totally imba!”.).

But what really bothered me were the changes that weren't made. Granted, the changes were temporary and only for the weekend but I'm working under the assumption that these were a preview of the next permanent skill rebalancing with the odd curveball thrown in. Shadow Prison, for example, is just crying out for a nerf. It's the gold standard of elites amongst melee characters now and just makes things far too simple – a skill that transports you into range and keeps them from getting away solves too many problems for melee characters. And it's grossly underpriced. By way of contrast, Aura of Displacement – which the enemy can strip to send you bamfing back to wherever you came from – has the same recharge and casting but lacks a snare and it still costs 10 energy with upkeep to boot. Me, I'd kick the price up – one way or another. A bigger energy tag is necessary so that it's harder to unload afterwards. A longer recharge keeps teams from respiking with it too quickly. And a longer casting time gives room for people to react and get their protection up. Just pick one or more and figure out where to run with it.

Wearying Strike needs a big hit. There's not so much a problem with the Avatar of Melandru as there is an incredibly cheap way for them to spam an effective Eviscerate without penalty every four seconds. Throw in the added health so you can't spike them down and immunity to conditions so several methods of shutting down melee goes out the window and you've got a monster. Rather than fiddle with the Avatars as with the increase to their recharge times – which, I think, misses the point – you want to hit the skills that make them so overpowered. Because, I think they're actually a good thing for the game. Having played around with a Grenth's Dervish a bit I can see why they're so strong - easily as threatening if not more so than the Melandru's Dervs around and yet costing far less to set up. They, like Shadow Prison, solve a lot of problems that melee characters have. But, I'm pretty much okay with that because those are problesm that can already be solved if, of course, you've got a lot of experience – having a cheap way of keeping your melee characters clean or busting through prot Monks levels that playing field a bit and gives less experienced teams a bit of a leg up into what the better teams have been doing all along (Which, yes, doesn't quite josh with what I'm saying about Flare earlier but there's a delicate line to balance here between getting new players involved, not discouraged by dauntingly complex and arcane techniques that seem natural to the “pros” and in eliminating the complexity that makes the game interesting and not a button mashing fest. And, for me, that involves making an alternative to the complex stuff – with the appropriate trade-off, of course. Not dumbing down the easy stuff.). As long as it comes with a cost – and, I think, with the Dervishes lower armor and all, it does, I'm fine with opening up the game like that. It's just I don't think the god forms are costing enough. That and the current condition/enchantment heavy metagame is why people play with Grenth and Melandru to the expense of Dwayna and Lyssa (Balthazar, I think, is a PvE gem but not all that useful in PvP compared to the others. You want to buff an avatar, buff that one.) not any deficiencies in those skills. So why they got a boost, I have no idea. It's the overpowered nature of what comes out of Grenth's and Melandru's that's the problem not that those two are underpar – because, you know, they're really not.

Beyond the skill changes there are also some structural problems. Assassins, for one, do way too much damage far too cheaply. I know that's their whole deal, of course, but when they have things like Shadow Prison and can spike someone down in seconds that's not doing anything good. If a skill like Blades of Steel is going to deal 2x80+ then it needs to be priced through the roof. Otherwise the turnover is just too rapid and people die too quickly. I'm not necessarily talking about energy costs here, although that's certainly one way to go but it concerns me how quickly they can unload and then do it again.

Probably the biggest structural problem, though, is Soul Reaping. While trawling around various resources I read, somewhere (Though damned if I can find it at the moment.), that Soul Reaping originally didn't have any skills attached to it because the developers thought it was stronger compared to other primary attributes – that it, in so many words, was so good it didn't need any skills to make it better. Well, it has a few skills linked to it now but that doesn't mean it's not still relatively stronger than others. Or, to put it another way, overpowered. Perhaps it took until Ritualists were around for people to realize it but Soul Reaping gets crazy good when things are dying (I gather that there's been a change in my absence that halves the energy gained on spirits . Which, you know, good. But not minions. Enter, of course, Jagged Bones.) and that fact that when things aren't dying it doesn't do anything doesn't change that. If you can guarantee things dying – which you can with minions and spirits and such (Look, I mean, when I was playing around with my Hero Necros my first thought was to give them Animate Bone Minions at very low levels of Death Magic. Just for the energy management. That's not a trick that should be working.) – then you can have skill bars that you shouldn't be able to support otherwise. It really needs a change, I think, so if you'll permit me to step into the way back machine and resurrect an old idea (Not sure whose it was but I still like it), I think Soul Reaping should work on energy regeneration not flat energy. Everything you kill gives you a few seconds of additional energy regeneration. The more you kill and the higher the rank, the longer that lasts. But that slow, gradual process prevents a lot of the abuses that backing up the Brink's Truck with bags of energy cause. I'd favor having it so that there's just a bonus psuedo-enchantment applied to a character that gives them a set number of pips of regen whenever something dies – it lasts for a number of seconds equal to their Soul Reaping length, of course – and when something else dies, it's reapplied and its duration is refreshed (Opposed, to say, just simply tacking that duration on the end of the first dead creature's regen boost.). The other way to go is to have each dead creature provide a boost of +1 regen and allow the effects to stack so that when a lot of things are dying you get more energy faster. But, for me, the whole point here would be to nuke the whole Minion Master idea into the ground. Necromancers have enough to recommend them that they don't need it and making things that simple hurt the game.

I've been a bit negative so far so let me close on a positive note. The flawed implementation and all, this PvP test weekend was a great idea. And one that I hope is followed through on. Inviting the whole community into the process of rebalancing things is wonderful and can hopefullydrive a lot of interest. What I quibble with is how it was done, not that it should be done, and that only so that it goes better the next time. The developers wanted criticism thought they called it feedback and I only hope that mine is the constructive sort of criticism; the kind that can be built upon into something better. This sort of rigorous PvP testing is best done with a lot of hands in as competitive an environment as you can get. There's no more people and no more competition out there than the people who're already playing the game. You can't duplicate that in any sort of closed testing environment. And if people feel the developers are responding to their concerns or even if they learn to think a little more critically about skills and how they're balanced (I'm avoiding the boards in no large part because I fully expect to see people talking about these things from only their limited perspective and complaining that their favorite character or class was nerfed or wasn't buffed enough. That has its place, sure, and more power to them. But following that kind of advice isn't going to lead the developers anywhere. It's the same kind of thinking that gives Blood Elves a bodybuilder's physique.) then no matter what kind of feedback comes out, it's been a worthy endeavor. And if it happens to get some people's blood pumping about PvP who might not have been interested before, then, well, what more can you ask for?

In the end, I had fun this weekend. And I don't think I was the only one. GG and all but let's definitely have a rematch on this one.

Going Into Sleep Mode

I promised myself I could take part in this weekend's festivities if I cracked down and got some writing done this wee. I've been shooting for a goal of 100k a month and, well, I've got a few thousand done so it's time to step it up (Shame I'm not counting blog posts or, you know, I'd have rocketed past that mark already, in all likelihood.). That means I'm going to be cutting back on the blogging and some other things for the time being. Not taking a complete break because if there's one good way to atrophy your skills it's to stop abruptly. No, I'm still going to try and get some blogging in every now and again. As well as steal a bit of time here and there to game but I've been letting some things slip and they're going to be taking up more of my time. So, expect light blogging (by my standards, anyway) for the rest of the week.

Outlook: There's no day so bad that a nap can't make it better.

[1] - 7 minutes.

Abuse 'Em While you've Got 'Em

The other day, when looking over the (temporary) skill rebalancing, I glossed over the Ritualist list. It's the biggest section of the changes, though, so the next morning I cast a critical eye upon it (Must...resist....urge...to...make....critical hit....joke! Gasp, too late!) and decided to spend some time trying out Rittualist builds. Turned out to be a great decision because it meant I was just in time to get in on the absolute brokenness that was Destructive Was Glaive. It's one of the skills I picked up in my mad cap last weekend. But I hadn't given it much thought because before the test weekend it, well, stunk.

For the test weekend, though, it had been given a little something on top of its AoE lightning damage – it would bestow Air Elementalist like armor penetration on any Ritualist damage spells. That 25% armor penetration it promised basically means Warrior level 80AL turns into caster level 60AL. (And a Ranger's built-in elemental bonus practically disappears) so that's a pretty good buff.

Problem was, though, that the armor penetration was bugged. Did a lot more than it should have. Combined with the recharge decrease on Channeled Strike that leads to some pretty amazing spikes. Something like 250 damage with a 4 second recharge with an item spell that you can keep up constantly (If you've got the energy, of course, but who cares when you're killing people in two hits?) with some pretty nasty after-spike possibilities, too.

So, I had some fun with that and so did some other people. But I had to, you know, actually leave the house and, like, talk to people and be a contributing member of society and all so I had to log off. Got back just in time for a new build. Which, of course, changed Glaive to something approaching sanity. Last I checked it now adds 5% (That's about 12 extra damage on a Channeled Strike against a 60AL target, by the way.) armor penetration and is working correctly.

Oh well, it was nice while it lasted. If the devs were trying to test and see just how quickly people would catch something like that and break the game wide open, I think they got a good answer. What's nice to see, though, is how quickly it was noticed and corrected by the developers. I mean, obviously broken skill and all but I'm hoping they do more of that in the days and weeks to come.

Test Case

I kinda forgo today was my sister's (Well, the one I'm still talking to anyway) birthday celebration. Not her actual birthday but a gathering of the clan to eat and, you know, do what families do. Sorta threw my plans into chaos. But, on the plus side we went to a nice Indian buffet (I have three ways of telling if an "ethnic" restaurant I've never been to before is good. 1) People of that ethnicity eat there - you won't see many Mexicans at Chi-chis, after all. 2) Chinese people eat there - For whatever reason they, as a people, have a great sense for places where you can get a lot of quality food cheaply. 3) Families especially ones with small children eat there - for pretty much the same reason as #2. This place hit all three.) where I stuffed myself on naan and butter chicken. And a lovely little fruit custard with a recipe I'm totally stealing.

And the afternoon's football games ate up some of my attention, too. Especially the end of the Pats-Colt game. Man, that was awesome. My predictions turned out to be wrong (I saw some of the factors involved in each game but drew the wrong conclusions, I think.) but I don't really care.

One of my friends also returned my copy of Snow Crash and I went ahead and started to re-read it. Amazing book that's very interesting to read 15 years after it was first published. I've already burned through the early chapters and it's hard to put down.

As for Guild Wars and the wanning days of the PvP Test Weekend, well, my goal of getting some meaningful HA in has been thwarted. It's just too damn hard to find a group that doesn't make me want to claw out my eyeballs. In its stead, I've been hanging around the RA and TA a lot. Definitely prefer TA. I'm about to head in and see if I can't find any more games before the final bell sounds. Today I've mostly been playing around with the Dervish - using a fairly standard Grenth's build because that's what people seem to want in the HA and I figured I'd better learn it. Having a little trouble adapting it for Arena play but it's a lot of fun especially when you can sneak up on people training on a Monk or something. I've also been trying to relearn the healer's role with a Ritualist build (Sigh, so many roles, so little time.) I plucked from a friend. I've noted that although the game updates say Resilient Weapon should be 5en, it's actually still at 10 energy. Not exactly the kind of bug that affected Destructive Was Glaive but, still. Kinda put a crimp into the build which was based around using Wielder's Boon and Soothing Memories along with Wielder's Remedy and Weapon of Warding - not exactly a stellar healer but good for backing up a real one, I think.

Outlook: Playing with people is so much better than playing with yourself.

[1] - 30 minutes. But I got sidetracked looking into Stephenson.