Guild Wars: I Am All That Is Newb

Sadly, other engagements meant that I couldn't spend as much time in the Brawl as I wanted. Of course, I wanted to spend 72 hours straight so maybe it's a good thing I took the time out to eat and sleep.

I struck with the Ranger the whole time. I'm starting to feel a bit overly comfortable with it and it might be time to switch things up and see things from another side but, as far as I can tell, the Ranger is still the top bar. It's got the entire toolkit. You might not have the best defense or the greatest damage or rank first in terms of self-healing but you've got it all in one convenient package. And, best of all, you get it at range making it easier to escape if it all goes wrong.

The strength of the Ranger is really on the split where, alone, they're almost invulnerable - as a Ranger you only die when you get careless. Any character, really, can take you out and you can always be ganged up on but if you're on the stick, you should be able to stay out of those situations or hit your panic button and kite away. Unfortunately, it's getting harder and harder to split. It seems like most teams, especially the successful ones have figured out how to stick together and this mostly turns the Brawl into a miniature version of GvG - one massive scrum with the winner continuing to roll as they pick off the weaker team and, then, pound them again when they rez or at the next set piece. Personally, I like the format a lot more when it's not 5 on 5 and more about the individuals happening all over the place.

It might have something to do with the new map, which I finally got a chance to see. It's another 5 shrine map and it's the largest yet. It's set up like a large circle, with a track around the outside with one narrow path leading to a central pit running through the middle between them and another narrower path going perpendicular to that which leads from one side to the other but won't let you get to that central spot. Unlike the other 5-shrine map, which takes place between a shore and a burning woods, it's got a slightly different set-up of shrines - an Energy Shrine and a central super-morale booster replacing two plus pip morales. The big difference, though, is the placement of the starting bases and the all-important resurrection shrines. They're located across from each other at the bottom of the map, separated only by a single shrine. It makes for a lot of early combat since both teams can rush out to the same spot in close order. After that, though, the size of the map means that there's a lot of running around to get from shrine to shrine or to chase down a stealth capper or even just to mop up the strays. There are a lot of high vantage points but not a lot of good opportunities to snipe - the shrines are too far away for you to really set up shop and rain fire down on your foes and there are enough obstacles and impediments that your targets are going to be obstructed anyways (Meanwhile, you height doesn't really protect you from opposing casters who don't have to worry about line of sight). The large map also means that, if you get killed, it's a long run back to the fight and you might just get caught before you can join the safety of your team. As a result, the best thing to do seems to be to move as a group, taking care not to get separated, and work your way around the circle until you get close enough to your opponents. And, at the same time, the large size and difficulty in getting from point to point means that one opponent running around and keeping things capped while you're tied down with the rest of their team can be a real headache. You just can't kill quick enough, in most cases, even when you've got the numbers and those pips of morale add up.

I actually prefer the smaller maps, especially the smallest 3-Shrine one. Not only are there fewer enhancements cluttering things up, there's also a lot more opportunity to engage in the splitting and small scale fighting that are, to me, the real draw of the game. When it's a huge scrum then you just have to see who's teammates are best - who can follow targets better or who's going to throw the healing off first. But when it's one on one as the the teams are spread all over the map then, well, it's really a contest of skill and who can manage the game the best. That adrenaline-fueled moment of living on the knife's edge, of having to decide on the fly whether to push or break off, to have to juggle skills and range and terrain as you work to get an advantage, that's what I play for.

So, yeah. New map. Do not want. Looks pretty enough, though. Very Factions, if you ask me. Crumbling and moss-eating ruins in a remote, shaded forest. Cthonic, really. A place of quiet mystery and menacing suspense.

One things I'm getting sick of, though, is having to rearrange my skill bar every match. I really wish there was a way it could keep track of this for you. It's like this, I'm very particular about where I put my skills because, over time, I've trained myself to hammer certain keys by reflex. If they're not there then I'm just going to be all fumble-fingered misclicking everywhere. Early on, for example, I found myself continually running out of energy. At first I blamed it on the poor allocation of attributes - a bit less Wilderness and a bit more Expertise, if you please. But then I figure out that it was because D-Shot and Savage had been transposed. I'm used to having them in the opposite spot and I was running myself out of energy by relying on the more expensive Savage when I was meaning to D-Shot. But, of course, this was after I'd made sure to move them to where I like it, because the bar resets every time you zone. So, now, at the start of each match I have to very carefully drag my skills around until I'm happy. It means enough to me that my skills are in the right place that I don't have to think about them but it's a pain I'd rather not have to deal with.

Still, I'm up a ton of tote bags and a few hundred gamer points already. I'm at rank 4 so it's a long, slow crawl to the next plateau and I probably won't even get there. As for the Trick or Treat bags, well, I don't have much of a use for them and, since I don't play anymore, I don't really have a use for the money I'd get selling them off, either, so they'll probably just take up inventory space. I will say, though, that the faction flows cheap and easy in the Brawl. I've already filled up my bar a few times and dumped it off by buying up Zaishen Keys. Those, too, I don't have much use for but, then, I've been UAX for a long time now. For those who aren't or who are even just looking to level up, the CB is fast and a furiously good way of pumping their accounts up.

Also, fun. I'm not sure where I'll go from here. I'll likely try to steal a few more hours here and there to play before the end of the event. At the moment, I feel like experimenting a bit and giving the different disguises a whirl. But, either way, I'm not done with the Brawl just yet.

Guild Wars: The Simple Pleasures

It's a beautiful autumn night. I've got a bowl full of musamun curry and a bottle of a pumpkin spice pale ale that I've been saving up laid out in front of me. In the fridge, I have the last of a crisp made from bitingly sour apples, from fall's first snap, and, in the freezer, the last scrapings of the vanilla ice cream left in the carton. It's cold enough that the furnace is on and I can hear its low, soft rattling behind the walls. Outside, the rain is falling and the wind is whipping, stripping leaves and branches from their trees. It's cold enough that I can hold my hand just away from a window and feel the faint ghost of a chill. There is no moon and clouds hide the stars. Tonight is a night rich in mischief. A night where mortal man is feared to tread. One that seems tailor made for witches to ride and goblins to prowl.

And for this gamer to spend a few hours in the Costume Brawl.

I think I'll take the Ranger for a spin tonight.

It's what I used this afternoon when the format unlocked and I was quite pleased with the results. If anything, it's better than last year since you have an even better snare available in Melandru's. It's a bit more conditional but it's a poor Ranger who can't pick out a target that's moving. The beauty of Melandru's is that it's multi-purposed. You can use it to pound on foes or to cover a retreat. With it and that flexibility, the Ranger's still the same as it was back then – you've got the tools to take down anyone if you play your cards right. The CB is a split format, one where movement and reaction and evaluation on the fly are key and there's a reason Rangers have always been favored as split characters.

I was planning on taking the tempting looking Elementalist for a whirl but my experiences earlier revealed that my love of Shatterstone is probably clouding my judgment. I'd probably be able to play the Ele better than the opponents who glyphed right into a D-Shot while I was anticipating their casts but it looks like a tougher bar to run right. I want to get into the flow of things and why not use a bar that's both comfortable and easy to play?

One bar I'm going to be staying away from is that of the Warrior. The other thing I learned from this afternoon is that a Warrior is easy prey. They don't have a way to cleanse themselves of conditions. Or a way of avoiding attacks other than the one shot of Shield Bash. And, more importantly, they lack an on demand speed buff. So you can keep them chugging and puffing as they degen away – no heal, either, so you can just chip away as they struggle to get into range. Funny, if you ask me, but likely frustrating to play.

I was looking forward to this but I didn't think I'd be quite this excited. I kept looking at the clock and wondering when I could get out of there and back in front of my gaming rig – such as it is – for some more. Now I've got food, good food, but it's only going to be barely noticed fuel as I'm sucked once more into the flow of the game. This is looking like a lost weekend, in so many words. After that the games go on and I'll have to move on to other endeavors.

But, for now, for this night, I'm ready to ride on with the ghouls and the ghosts and the other creatures of the night.

Guild Wars: Spooky Quest

Bloody motherfucking hell.

Apparently the master level difficulty of this quest is figuring out just where the hell you should go.

Oh, hello. In between obsing matches and just generally counting down the minutes until the Brawl started again, I've been working on finishing up Spooky's Quest. You know, the series of encounters that picking up that Golem hero MOX leads you to, I talked about them before. My old pal from back in the day at Guru, the guy I'll forever know as Spooky, well, he worked on it apparently and that fills me with no small amount of misplaced pride.

At the moment, though, my appreciation for his fine craftsmanship is starting to fade. Having conquered the three bosses I'm trying to find the annoying little quest giver so I can reap my just rewards. 50K XP and 10k GP is nothing to sniff at, after all, even though I can't really use either. At this point, it's about the principle of the thing.

But I have absolutely no clue where I should be going. There's no guide, no help,and I refuse to look up the answer at some website. This is between me and the game, I don't need no damn help. But there's no quest arrow or anything. I forget sometimes just what a welcome feature those little glowing arrows you get nowadays were. There was a time (Back roughly around when we had to climb ten miles uphill – IN THE SNOW – just in order to log in, of course. Also, snow leopards would eat you if you entered the wrong password.) when you had to figure out just where to head yourself, teasing out the knowledge from the quest text. One way of getting people to pay attention to it, I guess. I suppose that's what I'll have to do now because I have no idea where this Zinn guy is hiding.

(Not Really an) Update:

I think I found the guy. There's a picture in the quest book that reminds me of somewhere I've been before. Can't place it exactly but it's definitely in the jungle somewhere. I'm actually a little pleased with myself now for having puzzled this out.

Another (Not Quite an) Update:

The Falls. It's in the Falls. I thought it looked familiar. I remember traipsing here way back when. Maybe it was in the test. Maybe it was back when I still had the urge to explore and see the wonders that lay in store. Whenever it was, it was well before they came up with things like Explorer tracks or Totem Axes or any other rewards than simply having accomplished something.

Yet Another (Sort of ) Update:

Okay, so, I've found the picture in the book. I'm at the waterfalls depicted and I don't even want to talk about the long trek I had to take through three blasted zones to get here – after having combed through the Strade and other areas already in vain. I'm not going to complain about that at all. Because the question I have at the moment is, “Now what?” I'm here, I've tried every emote I can think of, I've clicked everywhere remotely interesting, and I've paved enough critters that I'd wished I turned on Hard Mode and went for the Vanquisher track. Now I'm banging my head against the keyboard in frustration because I haven't figured out what comes next.

Final (Really) Update:

....

I was running around for ages until someone kindly mentioned to me in passing that you had to have MOX in your party to even get into this secret lair place.

So, I warp back into town all the way three zones over and switch out one set of AI for the hulking brute of a Dervish. Fucking useless piece of junk. And then I trek all the way back. Fight my way through the spiders and trolls and wind riders and, yep, there's a big, fat bit of yellow text to click on. Figures.

There's not even any enemies to fight inside. No climactic boss battle. Just a straight walk to pick up the reward. Oh, and a Invader Zim joke that almost made me smile. Almost. Might have if it wasn't a fucking Asura. Those piranha faced little rug sharks have always put me off. It's like I told the guy, I'll take your gold, sir, but I don't have to like it. Accepting a reward has never made me feel so dirty.

And thinking about doing this all over again with my other characters has made me extremely depressed.

Guild Wars: CB Glee Me!

It's back, it's live, Halloween has returned as the Costume Brawl has returned for another round. I'm not sure why I'm typing this out as I could be playing right now. Maybe because I promised myself that I could get back to the fun if only I tok care of some other obligations first.

I've just gotten back from a brief, exploratory session to check out the possibilities available. And where I mostly got my rusty ass kicked up and down the field. Well, actually, I don't think I did too badly. One 20-18 loss and a seemingly endless streak of wins I had to bow out of before too long. I took a death during that loss but only because I was testing my luck repeatedly pushing up to cap a point. Got caught, ate an attack through my Stride and that was that.

As far as I can tell, the details of the Costume Brawl are exactly the same as last year. Buff to set attributes and health. Shrines to cap – I've heard there was a new map but in the ten or so games that I played I haven't seen it yet. Weapons can't raise your health or your stats but they can do pretty much everything else.

But, it seems that not only is Halloween here, Christmas has arrived early as well. I've gotten my oft-repeated wish and the character builds have not just been tweaked but completely revamped. My beloved Ranger bar from last year, for example, is gone and replaced by one with Melandru's Shot. Some changes are minor, like the Monk switching up a few skills on your basic Signet Smiter's bar. While some are drastic, like the Warrior shifting from a CripSlash sword to a Shock-less axe. Some facts remain constant, though, like the Paragon being a sucking vortex of suck that sucks. It's not a good build, I'm saying. But I don't care because at least I get to play that Shatterstone/Steam Ele that's been making the rounds. It looks like an earlier winner when it comes to improved builds.

Here, then, are those builds and a few of my thoughts on them:

WARRIOR

• Axe Mastery - 14
• Strength {P} - 13

1. Eviscerate {E}
2. Executioner's Strike
3. Disrupting Chop
4. Bull's Strike
5. Rush
6. Tiger Stance
7. Lion's Comfort
8. Shield Bash

This is what a Shock Axe bar looks like without Shock Axe. I actually prefer last year's CripSlash because that packed in a lot more movement control - something that's essential in a point capture format like the Costume Brawl. This has the de rigeur Bull's Strike and you can't go wrong with Rush but there's nothing to stop an opponent who can really kite. I'd rather have Frenzy than Tiger Stance but, you know, this is a newbie-friendly format and Frenzy takes some getting used to, so I can't really complain. I'm more concerned about dropping HealSig in favor of Lion's Comfort. I like my healing on demand, not dependent on my adrenaline. But, hey, Evis and Executioner's and D-Chop, and it feels like old times again.


RANGER

• Expertise {P} - 11
• Marksmanship - 12
• Wilderness Survival - 12

1. Melandru's Shot {E}
2. Savage Shot
3. Distracting Shot
4. Sloth Hunter's Shot
5. Troll Unguent
6. Apply Poison
7. Natural Stride
8. Antidote Signet

I think I'll miss last year's BA Ranger. Not because this bar lacks Burning Arrow - Melandru's Shot is an attractive alternative (Nice damage and a decent recharge although a bit less certain when it comes to delivering that all important Cripple than Pin Down. Also, it seems to me to be more of a pro skill than something well suited to the rank newbs.) and the addition of Sloth Hunter's over Pin Down means better damage. But I had a lot of fun with that bar so I'll shed a nostalgic tear. Still, this has the interrupts and speed boost it needs to once again dominate, so I'm sure I'll get used to it again.


MONK

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

1. Reversal of Damage
2. Smite Hex
3. Smite Condition
4. Healing Breeze
5. Vigorous Spirit
6. Bane Signet
7. Signet of Judgement {E}
8. Castigation Signet

Roughly the same although a little more straight-forward than last year's bar. More damage, less annoying healing. I'm especially glad to see the back of Divine Intervention. Vigorous Spirit, its apparent replacement, is underrated, being nice and cheap but it's not going to keep anyone alive for long. Still, while you might pack a bit of a punch, it's a weak one and this remains a defensive character. It also remains one of the main sources of hex removal in the format and that alone makes it invaluable (Condition removal is fairly common but as far as I can tell it's this and...well, Smite Hex is the ball game when it comes to getting rid of hexes). But I think it's a good bar since packing a Monk on your team won't result in an instant win. It's a nice bonus but so is having a lot of the other characters, too.


NECROMANCER

• Soul Reaping {P} - 14
• Curses - 13
  

1. Faintheartedness
2. Parasitic Bond
3. Signet of Lost Souls
4. Rip Enchantment
5. Insidious Parasite
6. Foul Feast
7. Plague Signet {E}
8. Suffering

Well...it's not last year's bar, a Reaper's Mark kick. Might actually be interesting with the combination of Foul Feast and Plague Signet (Plague Signet!?!?) and without a lot around to zap hexes, they spread around a lot of pain. But, still, I think the same problems as the Necro did last year. These are unavoidable since there's nothing to deal with them in their class. But there's no snares here, no speed boosts, and no way to completely shut down an attacker, either. That leaves the Necro as a slow moving, sitting duck who might work well in a co-ordinated team but isn't going to be much good by themselves.


MESMER

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

1. Overload
2. Wastrel's Worry
3. Cry of Frustration
4. Power Spike
5. Energy Burn
6. Ether Feast
7. Lyssa's Aura {E}
8. Empathy

Looks to me like an improvement over last year's Surge/Burn bar although I don't really play a good Mesmer so what do I know? The idea seems to be interrupt happy with some nasty hexes in a format that lacks a way to easily remove them.


ELEMENTALIST

• Energy Storage {P} - 11
• Fire Magic - 9
• Water Magic - 14

1. Glyph of Immolation
2. Shatterstone {E}
3. Steam
4. Freezing Gust
5. Glowing Ice
6. Glyph of Restoration
7. Ice Spikes
8. Water Attunement

A water build that kicks out decent damage. I'm so there. My only concern is that they've dropped Aura of Restoration for the Glyph thereof. Since I imagine you want to keep ImmoGlyph up as much as you can, that's probably not a good trade. I'd rather risk the strips in exchange for that constant healing. Still, the pew pew and some decent snare in a format that's suddenly lacking in them should make for some fun times.


ASSASSIN

• Dagger Mastery - 14
• Deadly Arts - 4
• Shadow Arts - 11
• Critical Strikes {P} - 9

1. Hidden Caltrops {E}
2. Death's Charge
3. Iron Palm
4. Falling Lotus Strike
5. Twisting Fangs
6. Black Spider Strike
7. Blades of Steel
8. Heart of Shadow

Looks nasty enough. Definitely a change from last years Aura of Displacement build. Looks like they want you to go Caltrops into Charge into Palm and so on, running your fingers across the keyboard, but I think it might be better to go a different way - Follow the Charge with a Spider then a Fang then Palm to knock down for the energy boosting Lotus into a finishing Blades - if the energy works out, of course. I hate Sins so I can't really tell. Still, there's little condition removal and precious less hex removal in this format and this bar packs a powerful snare... Tempting. Sins are probably going to be a huge pain.


RITUALIST

• Communing Magic - 9
• Channeling Magic - 13
• Restoration Magic - 12

1. Caretaker's Charge {E}
2. Nightmare Weapon
3. Wielder's Boon
4. Weapon of Warding
5. Essence Strike
6. Protective Was Kaolai
7. Ancestors' Rage
8. Bloodsong

A Caretaker build. I've heard about these but have never had the opportunity to use one so I really can't say. I looks interesting. And, at least, an improvement on last year's model with its defensive Spirit. A bit of healing, a bit of offense, sounds like a real Rit bar to me. The odd thing here, though, are those points in Communing. This bar, as far as I can tell, doesn't have any Communing skills. Those points would be better off in Spawning so you could get more out of those spirits and weapon buffs, if you ask me.


PARAGON

• Spear Mastery - 14
• Command - 9
• Leadership {P} - 11

1. Cruel Spear {E}
2. Spear of Lightning
3. Disrupting Throw
4. Anthem of Flame
5. Remedy Signet
6. Fall Back
7. Never Surrender
8. Go for the Eyes

There are always some constants. Like Paragons sucking massively when it comes to small team formats. They're like anti-Rangers – someone you don't want to be on the split. This is basically the same as last year's Cruel Spear bar, it's just dropped Anthem of Weariness and Leader's Comfort for Disrupting Throw and Never Surrender. I'm not sure that's a good thing but it couldn't be any worse.


DERVISH

• Scythe Mastery - 14
• Mysticism {P} - 9
• Earth Prayers - 6
• Wind Prayers - 10

1. Wounding Strike {E}
2. Chilling Victory
3. Crippling Sweep
4. Signet of Mystic Speed
5. Attacker's Insight
6. Watchful Intervention
7. Vital Boon
8. Heart of Fury

No Avatar. That's interesting. Not having walking trees around makes a lot of sense but since most of the other builds have lost their snares it probably won't matter all that much. It's also lost Rending Touch which might be more of a loss – although there aren't that many key enchantments around, being able to strip them off was a definite plus.


All in all, some nice changes. There are some big misses and, as always, choices that make you scratch your head (Lion's Comfort? Points in Communing? Plague Signet?!?) but, overall, I'm impressed with the effort that's gone into these. I figured, at best, we get some attribute tweaks and maybe the odd skill swap to deal with those that have been patched in the past year. But this is a full on reworking so that things are up with the current meta but also a tweak to how the format will play. The new characters, the new archetypes on display should make for a different experience than last year. All while still keeping the same frantic and inexperienced friendly style of play. Some significant work, more than just a slapdash effort, went into these builds and I'd like to applaud that while I can. For the moment, though, I don't want anything more than a few more hours with which to play and I'll have to look if I can't steal some more.

Guild Wars: The Return of the King

Has been surprisingly underwhelming so far. I reinstalled the game yesterday and left it running to update itself overnight. Headed back in for the first time in a long time. I can't remember the last time I logged in actually, although a quick check reveals that it's only been since the summer. It feels like longer.

It feels weird, actually, like stepping into the middle of a high school reunion. About five minutes after everyone's realized that the class clown died some years before. I can't quite put my finger on it but all the air, the energy on which a game thrives, seems to have gone out of it all. Or maybe it's just me reflecting my own apathetic attitudes onto events.

Anyhow, I've been away long enough to have accumulated a pile of birthday presents. I've only opened one so far to find it was filled with grape flavor, so that was nice. I haven't opened any others yet, as I've set them aside for a rainy day.

I was still in Dark Alley, much to my surprise. I'm thinking of quitting now since a high rated guild's tag might not be a good asset since I, you know, suck and months of rust aren't going to help much. Wasn't expecting to have to deal with that, though, as I figured I would have been kicked to the side for inactivity or during a roster shuffle at some point in time. Not so, though, as a quick glance at the guild panel shows that I'm not the only one who'd taken an extended sabbatical. Indeed, I haven't seen signs of any of my friends just yet - probably all off playing WAR or something else.

Didn't have much time to do anything much yet, just a quick peek around to see the lay of the land. Took in a few obsed matches, listed to the chat in some of the larger towns, rearranged a bit of inventory to make some space. About the biggest thing I've done is pick up the Moxon Man. Ran through a bit of what I'm going to call Spooky's Quest.

For what it's worth, I thought it was generic if workmanly done. The bit in the beginning with the priests and the bonus gave it all a nice twist but there's only so much you can do with the old defend a point quest. Nice rush with waves of enemies crashing down, some scrambling as spawns headed for a precious NPC, but, really, it's just slaughter. After a bit of initial fumbling until I figured out that I didn't need to have an oversized Dervish henchman in my group, I loaded up on the wards and other wide area anti-melee (I'm pleased to report that a good team of Paragons with support still makes a mockery out of PvE.) and, after that, it was just wading through corpses and picking up loot.

Although I'm, perhaps, being a little bit harsh because I hated the end boss so much. I had the misfortune of being on the old CripSlash build I'd been on before I quit the last time around so running into a horde of non-fleshy creatures was a bit of a kick in the pants. But ROX or SOX or CUBBIEs or whatever he was called was evidently from the "raise the challenge by giving him a ton of health and a bunch of obnoxiously overpowered attacks" school of boss design. Not that he actually got to hit much since he was constantly blinded, hexed up, or hammering into Aegis or Defensive Anthem wall. But it was kind of annoying to watch his health bar go down pixel by pixel while he was one-shotting my idiotic henchmen in those rare moment he'd broken contain. A quick scouting trip to the next Golem bounty on the quest list confirms that I can expect more of the same. It was a long fight, in other words, but not especially challenging. And I know this because I was completely useless, running around and trying to remember the basic things like how to target and what the icons meant - this is how I can tell I'm rusty or just growing increasingly decrepit, everything in the game is happening in a blur that I can't understand. At least, not until it's gone past. If I was on top of things, the game would be slowing down and I could not just tell but influence what was happening.

So, the heralded MOX quest line looks a lot less impressive than I'd thought. It's more like a series of boss fights and not like the addition of hours of new content as with Sorrow's Furnace.

Ah well, I'll likely steal another hour or two tonight. Or maybe tomorrow. Need to check out the ABs or get my ass handed to me for a bit in the Arenas. I'm not exactly up to speed, after all, but that's why I logged in before the grand event started. Still a few hours to get some practice in and sharpen those old reflexes. But, as the old saying goes, you just can't go home again.

Guild Wars: Oh Good

Word from on high is that there might be some build tweaks for the Costume Brawl, after all. Good thing since last year's models are getting a little long in the tooth.

But, rather than simple revisions, I'd like to see a comlpete overhaul. New builds for a new year. Different roles for the different professions. Even a split in the genders and have a template for each skin (Maybe the men could be the new ones while the females could be the old models.). Or have several different possible disguises for each profession with a different build for each.

But, instead of a CripSlash Warrior, even a reworked one, I'd like to play a Hammer Warrior. Or maybe a Shock Axe. Instead of the venerable split-friendly archer, a Touch Ranger or a Spear Chucker. Instead of the same sorry old SF Ele, whip up something with Shatterstone instead. Instead of whatever unholy monstrocity they inflicted on the Mesmer bar, let us run around with IW or just anything else.

Mix the bars up, in other words, throw everything for a loop. Make it random, make it unpredictable, and give everything a different feel this year. You wouldn't go to the same Halloween Party in the same costume every year, would you? So why have the same old soup when we could stir the pot?

It'll never happen, of course, because it smacks of work. But, still, it's nice to dream.

Guild Wars: Feeling the Urge

I'll admit it. I've been looking forward to this announcement. Looks like the Halloween festivities are going to be back, starting this weekend. The Costume Brawl re-opens for business on the 24th, this Friday, with the promise of a brand new map to play.

Unfortunately, although they mention a new map what they don't say is whether any of the format's skills will have been reworked. Last year the Ranger was ridiculously overpowered while some others, like the Paragon, were miserably weak. I, of course, played the Ranger as much as I could. We've had a year's work of fixes and balancing, too, and, no doubt, some of those prefab builds are feeling their age. I hope someone's taken the time to at least spruce them up a bit. And what I'd really like to see is completely new templates. Last year we had the BA Ranger, this year give us a Bunny Thumper, the next year something completely new. Switch around the costumes, in other words, breathe new life into the format with each iteration.

Alas, that smacks of effort so it's probably just going to be the same old characters running around the same old maps – there were only two last year so adding a new one isn't really going to add much variety to the rotation. If you play a lot in the Brawl, you'll know them inside and out before long.

And I will be playing a lot. The Costume Brawl is about as close as it gets to my ideal PvP format. No muss, no fuss, just head in and have some fun.

So busy at the moment, though, but I'll have to find time to reinstall and steal a few moments for some Arena or AB matches before this weekend and, maybe, connect with some old friends. I haven't played in a while and I'll want to shake off some rust before it's game time again. I'm probably not going to have much time to enjoy myself but I'm at least going to try.

Guild Wars: I Continue Not To Play

A quick check reveals since my last visit that VoD has been reworked, yet again, by the simple expedient of removing it, skills have been rebalanced featuring the biggest, hardest nerf of a skill since, well, Ether Renewal (I still get sympathy pangs about how hard that one got buffeted by foam.), and with MOX finally having been released there's a new henchman to obtain and a string of quests to go with him.

So....when's the Costume Brawl coming back?

Guild Wars: Temptation

Update fairy is go! You can read Brinny's patch notes here.

At least, I'd like to think they were written by the old friend of the blog formerly and fondly known as Brinstar because I'm sure she catches no end of grief doing a thankless job for a spiteful community and I'd like to see that she's doing a good job in spite of it.

Anywho....looking at the notes, well, whoa.

Sweeping changes to underpowered and obsolete elites, especially the criz-zappy ones from Prophesies? A monkey wrench in the metagame that's sure to result in tons of interesting buildcrafting in the coming days and weeks? The deathknell sounded for Ursan Blessing? A reduction to the necessity of title grinding? And the utter and absolute removal of Victory or Death entirely?

It's like they want to get me interested in coming back or something...

I think I'm still going to hold out until Halloween time and the chance for more sweet, sweet Costume Brawl action. But that's the kind of update that takes guts to make and that I'd have loved to see more of.

But, as someone said, at this point, it's all alpha testing for GW2 anyways, so there's not a lot of reason to bother.

Some of those changes, though... Like Lyssa's Aura? Or Quivering Blade? And I never thought I'd see a day when Unyielding Aura even looked like playable. Of course, that's only the PvE version and we come right back to why I'm not playing again...

Guild Wars: Keep Ruining the Game, Please

Makes it so much easier to stay away when the game's turning into a flaming wreckage of its former self.

Anyhow, I was getting all set to rage all over this Monty Hall update for to make glorious and improved rank flashing because, well, I hate titles and hope they die a horrific death involving lighter fluid and spiders.

And then I saw this.

Yeah. Fuck it, I'm out.

Guild Wars: Whitewater Strategy

See, this is why I think Tobold's at his best when he stops talking about which dungeon he's running in WoW and starts talking about other games. He gets much more into more general issues of design and implementation that I actually care about. Then again, my level of care for WoW has to be measured in imaginary negative numbers because it's strongly apathetic enough to have broken several physical laws.

But, anyway, the gist of his post is that it's really dumb to try and replicate WoW's success by replicating WoW's basic formula. Players already have that game and they like it (And, I'd argue, a big part of the appeal of WoW is how inclusive it is. You can run it on age old computers and it still looks nice. We're past the point where a new graphical engine is a huge selling point for games now, I think, so making WoW with better graphics just means you've made a WoW that fewer people can use and limited your customer base out of the gate.). And that it's better to follow a blue water strategy of seeking out unexplored and relatively inexpensive territory to grab for yourself instead of coming up with another clone.

It strikes me that this is exactly what I don't like when I learn more about GW2. It seems like the developers are doing everything possible to take what I like about Guild Wars and junk it in favor of making it more like WoW. But, as Tobold says, Guild Wars is actually WoW's biggest competitor. And they got there not by copying an admittedly successful and excellent game but by being different. But rather than capitalize on their position as the un-WoW and reinforcing those elements that make it different, make it special, they're instead trying to make yet another clone. A clone that's going to have no subscription fee and probably be miles more different than AoC or WAR but still nothing more than the same game with a fresh coat of icing on the top.

Look, it's like this. A bluewater strategy seeks out fresh territory but what copying a proven juggernaut is doing is to not make things easier on yourself but, instead, to raise the bar of difficulty. Like the difference between paddling your canoe out into a calm, blue ocean and trying to slalom your way down the biggest, fiercest whitewater rapids that you can find. There are dangers and pitfalls at every turn because you've set yourself up for failure. It might seem like striking out for parts unknown is the riskier strategy but trying to mimic someone else is anything but the safe option - it's only the cowardly one.

The strength of ANet has always been in their strong ideas. They've just been marred by mediocre implementation - as the saying goes, it's that last 10 percent that's the hardest to obtain. It's just sad to see that they're heading in the wrong direction (At least, as far as I'm concerned. I'm sure plenty of people will be happy with the game. I'm just worried I won't.) from the concept on down.

Guild Wars: Thoughtful Commentary on the Latest Patch

You know, in that last post when I wrote "Heck of a job, Brinny" I was doing so in a completely non-dickish manner.

I meant nothing to it beyond that Brin kinda sounds like Brown. This is what we call a punne of a play upon wordes. After which we all share a hearty laugh, sniff our brandy, and then inform our manservant to bring the horseless carriage about because we should like a jaunt about the countryside where we may scoff at the peasants at work in their fields. Also, crumpets fit in there somehow as well. What I didn't mean was for the context of that alusion and the self-negating irony of the original quote to apply to Brinstar who, I'm sure, is, in fact, doing a heck of a job.

But, I can see how it might be taken the other way especially after I took a closer look at the dev notes and saw the following:


"This month's update is unique. It is a "temporary tournament update" targeted at the final cash-prize tournament, which will take place at the end of April. The skill changes are temporary and will be in effect for only two weeks. They are all geared toward addressing the most immediate issues with Guild Battles.

In order to reduce the possible negative impact on PvE play, we will be reverting the changes on May 1st. For future tournaments, we aim to focus on changes that will not impact PvE play at all. ""

Time now for some of that thoughtful insight and well-reasoned commentary that discerning people have come to expect from me. My trademark rational and evenhanded approach to thoroughly, even exhaustively, covering a subject as well as I'm possibly able in my own iminitably wordy style.

Ahem.

What. The. Fuck.

Well, so much for Guild Wars. Looks like I got out of the game in time. That's pretty much the sixth seal opening right there and now the apocalypse draws ever nigh.

Look, it is one game. A commonality of rulesets is vital to the game working as a coherent whole instead of a lot of little gutters strung together by common art assets.

But instead of recognizing that, instead of sticking to their guns and keeping the game consistent through its variations, the developers have, instead, listened to the screaming of those people who are somehow offended that the skill bar they hadn't changed for 16 months was affected by a patch. I want to take those people into a back alley and beat them about the head with their Collectors Editions and mini-pets because they're playing the game wrong. That is not the game I cared about, worked for and with for so long, and devoted so much time to but a strange pervesion of it. Which was fine so long as it didn't touch upon me and my enjoyment of a flexible game, always changing and forcing me to adapt fueled by its system of quick and easy streamed content.

Now, it seems, the chasm between PvE and PvP is not only recognized but going to be reinforced by the game's makers. Instead of working to channel the dwindling pool of players back and forth across the divide, they're going to wall each off and let them get on with their own little games.

Sadly, this was a bridge we'd long since burned with the addition of PvE skills. But it's a move that leaves me deeply concerned. I've heard a lot of things about GW2, the game that's in development right now, and most of it has been getting further and further away from the sort of game I'd like to play. How it's going to be getting away from instances so I'll have to put up with the horde of clueless idiots I'd rather not deal with constantly getting in my way and stealing my kills or fouling up my quests. How the skills are going to be simplified and dumbed down. How there are going to be even more PvE only skills. The Asura. I'd been willing to give the developers the benefit of the doubt and at least try the game before recoiling in horror. But now? I'm not so sure.

Guild Wars: Skill Update (4/17/08)

The game that dare not speak its name was updated the other day, if you're the sort of silly person who cares about that sort of thing.

I think I'll refrain from any sort of detailed commentary this go-around since I'm so far out of touch, I forgot Hex Breaker had even been changed into a skill instead of a stance in the first place. Too wrapped up in other games and other projects at the moment.

This is also a temporary update, for the latest - and, I take it, last - tournament which will be rolled back at the start of last month. I suspect some of the changes that prove successful may stick around in some way, shape, or form but I wouldn't count on it.

Still, some quick hit impressions.

Dark Pact is insane now.

Wards no longer affecting GvG NPCs is huge. Along with the nerfs to Splinter Weapon and Ancestors' Rage and others they really hammered that whole VoD farming thing that I so despise.

Surge/Burn getting stronger along with Chaos Storm (probably really brutal in the Tombs these days) means e-denial makes a big comeback. You know, I've long thought that the best way to deal with the passive webs of defenses (Also hit with the changes to the Resto chants and Aegis.) that have so clogged the game is to give e-denial some teeth again so I like it.

And I like upping the cast time on skills like Harrier's and Ermite's. What that does is cut down on the damage compression that makes for wicked spikes in the middle of your pressure.

Cutting back on the efficiency of the frontline is probably why B-Surge got a slight nerf, too. It's now much more energy intensive to keep someone blindlocked - but easier to race removal - for long periods of time making it much more situationally tactical, so that's all to the good, too. It goes along the same lines as the change to Disarm - you want to be able to screw someone over but the developers don't want you to be able to do it for too long. Landing that disruption in the small window you have for it to be effective is one of, if not the, basis for skilled play.

Anyhow, that's enough for me, if you want more you can check out the developer's own notes. If I'm not mistaken they were written - or at least posted - by a certain new community manager. Let me just say, since I think that's exactly the kind of feedback the developers should be providing: Heck of a job, Brinny.

Guild Wars: Brinstar Rising

I'm unbearably late to the party but, yes, I certainly want to offer my congratulations to Brinstar for her new position as one of the Guild Wars Community Managers. In lieu of sweet, sweet cake (which is a lie, anyway), I'm thinking of saving up to send her a flak jacket. She'll certainly have need of it - her talk page at the wiki is already filled with complaints and calls from what I will charitably call the unwashed masses who will soon taint the purity of her essence and task the selflessness of her patience with the unending filth pouring ceaselessly from their ill-formed minds. Way to go, Brin!

Guild Wars: Had To Do It

Had to do it. Had to. Had to go. Couldn't not. It was like an invitation to a wedding for one of those friends whose path through life took a sharp turn from your own some time ago. An obligation you're not sure you should have, let alone honor, but one which you - nonetheless - still feel bound by. So, you grit your teeth and put up with everything that goes with it, even though you'd honestly rather not, because, sometimes, that's what it takes to be human - to put someone else's need to feel loved and accepted above your own, if only for a brief while.

I'm talking, of course, about the Farewell to Gaile event that was held over the weekend.

I've put off writing about it because, honestly, I found it to be pretty underwhelming and I didn't want to be spoiling someone else's moment with my complaining. I knew going in that there wouldn't be much for me to enjoy. No festival mask, no interesting new mini-games offered up for a few days of whirlwind fun, just a bit of Simon Says with some scripted bots and a chance to inflate a title that I don't even care about.

And, as expected, as my chosen district crawled with players and their mini-pets it turned into from a celebration into a lag fest. I thought I'd been smart by picking one in the middle of the list, one that people wouldn't flock to but it still slowed to a crawl as people clustered together, dancing and shooting off their party favors making my attempts to follow along with the prompts more like blind stabs from someone who'd lost their sense of inner balance.

I tried to take a bunch of pictures but, you know what? I deleted them all since there really wasn't all that much to it. Just a window a few minutes long to pump up the new Party Animal track. At least it was a chance to empty out some of my junk from storage and free up a few more slots.

Although, I have to say, some of the scripted lines were brilliant ("I roll up to the Xunlai, my account at maximum. You could call me King Jalis by the way I drop platinum." It takes a certain type of mad genius to come up with that. My kind of mad genius.) and the frog effects on the sparklers and fireworks were a nice little touch.

But, no, this weekend wasn't about the 100 odd points I now have in yet another worthless fluff track. Instead, it was about Gaile.

More precisely, about the community paying its respects, confirming its gratitude, to someone who's worked so long and so tirelessly on its behalf. Gaile isn't quite gone but her moving on is as good a time as any to reflect on just what she's done over the years with bittersweet fondness.

While I've had my run-ins with her, I'll refrain from rehashing those things that are truly better off left in the past. I've always respected Gaile even if I never quite liked her (It's one of those mutual things where I didn't like her because I was sure she didn't like me. I have no idea where I picked up that impression but it's always lingered and, perhaps, unfairly colored my perception.). She had a grueling job riding herd on the mangy collection of ingrates and crusaders - zealots with their pet causes and an inflated sense of their own privilege - who call themselves the Guild Wars community for the longest time.

But, not, I'd think, a thankless one. Because even way back when we all knew just how hard she worked and just how good she was at her job. Gaile was part of the community, the ever-present figure watching over our shoulders. Helpful, friendly, but always ready to be firm when it was called for. The early days that I remember so fondly just wouldn't have been the same without her.

That's why, out of all the choices I had for faces when I activated my nearly forgotten account and logged on for the first time in ages just to stand around for a few minutes waggling my avatar in some kind of poorly choreographed puppet show, I picked my first - my eponymous Warrior, the first character I'd ever created and the last one I'll ever delete. And out of all the destinations I went to the place it all started for me, Lion's Arch. Not the Khylo of the E34E, that had been wiped out long before it had been rebranded Ascalon City. Paved over by wave after wave of changes to the game and its environs until all it's lost all the landmarks that once made it familiar to me. But LA was, when I joined the test (Back when it was still the player-named Hakewood), where every character you made started out. And although it, too, has changed (I don't, for example, remember any gulls flying around in the air. Those came later, part of a change I had long dreamed of to add more life and vibrancy to the various lobbies by adding that smallest touch of motion. A minor addition, hardly the most important and certainly one long forgotten among all the other causes and concerns I've had over the years - but one that I had and, I hope, suggested all those many years ago. I might even have never bothered to share it, I had so many ideas back then that I never fleshed out for lack of time or interest and I can't recall whether I pitched a fit on the alpha boards about it or not. But it's still nice to see that it was one of the ones that I had right.) the vistas have remained the same. There's still the same ornate, arching towers in the distance, promising mystery and adventure to come with their ancient grace, that I remember slowly loading into that first time. Lion's Arch was where it began for me because being there it felt like I finally belonged.

And Gaile, ever-present, tirelessly helpful Gaile was one of those people who welcomed me in and made me feel like I had been there all along. Whether it was hanging around town or rushing through some press event or another or even just crashing down on the boards, Gaile was an intrinsic part of that whole scene.

It felt only too right, then, to spend a few brief moments, pouring out my rockets and glowing flares, like someone tipping out a bit of liquor to a fallen friend. Because those days are gone. And never coming back. And with Gaile leaving it means they never can be. So many things have happened, so much time has passed since then, but it's still worth it, to me, to celebrate what was once so right.

So, like all partings, it was a bittersweet affair. A chance to remember, to pay homage to those fleeting ghosts of feelings and emotions haunting our minds from the past. Sad, because we know they'll slip even further away, following that person into some place far from our reach. For me, that's how it is. A farewell party is just a wake for that part of your life that's well and truly over now.

Though it's also sweet because every leaving brings a chance for new greetings. It's hard to be too sad because that person is moving on. To something new, maybe even something better even as they leave a hole behind. But that hole can be filled in time, by someone new. Like Brinstar, who's stepping into the shoes that Gaile leaves behind - big ones to be sure but at least they'll be filled by someone who's been a part of the community for a while now. It's one of those bits of news where I knew about all the pieces but never quite managed to put them together. But, since this is a post about Gaile and the day we said good-bye to her, that's a non-surprise I'll leave for another time.

Guild Wars: April Fools?

Yep, it's that time again. This year's trick is not as awesome as last year's gender-bending statement on the role of sexuality and identity in video gaming, of course. Not even worth my time to bother logging in, if you ask me (Maybe when they have the 3rd birthday presents out. Actually, my Factions characters should already have gotten their seconds. But, eh, it's not like I'm goint to waste the time trying to figure out how to sell them, anyway.).

But, what might be is an even subtler move to throw a party for Gaile Gray, longtime community relations manage, who'll be leaving the company soon. It'll either be real in which case you can sit around districts playing boardwalk games or simon says under Party Time for fun and prizes and a faster track to a title. Or, given the time this was announced, it's someone working the long con.

On the off chance that this is real, let me just say that I've had my disagreements with Gaile over the years. As has pretty much everyone in the competitive scene at one time or another. But there's no denying the lady is damned good as what she does. No one's worked harder or more diligently over the past few years to keep the game healthy and its players happy. And it's hard to imagine a CR who could have done better at such a thankless job. Gaile was one of the first people hired by a fledgling ANET and there's a reason for that. If she really is going, it'll be a shame but I'd still wish her well whereever (And whenever) she does move on.

Guild Wars: I Choose Death

Alright, so I've established that, like 911, VoD is a joke. What I left unanswered was the question of how it might be fixed. That might have been because I'm trying to be more humble and less of an armchair designer. And the problem is a deep and complex one to which I don't have a good answer. That doesn't really sound like me so it's more likely that I ran out of time and/or burned up another keyboard with my lightning fast typing and decided to come back to it later with another post.

Like this one. Which is about how I'd fix VoD.

As I said, I think the problem with VoD is that it's too derivative. It focuses the long, complex, and downright beautiful chess match of a GvG match into the narrow corridor of that final scrum by the flagstand. The chaos and confusion when the normal rules are suspended and the game's mechanics take a sharp turn.

To me, a GvG match should be centered more on the time spent getting to VoD if not outright trying to avoid it entirely. It's the skirimishes and combat in the intervening 10~15 minutes that should determine the outcome. Not who's best at getting up Splinter to mow down hordes of NPCs.

I want, in other words, GvG to be much more tactical with players having to deal with threats and come up with proper responses on the fly - or risk losing the match well before the Lords come ambling down for a stroll and a little slaughter. A fluid, moving affair that's about gaining and losing momentary advantages. With VoD lurking in the background as incentive to hurry up and do something.

Now, how to do that?

I think the answer is to make the advantages gained in the middle of the game (As opposed to the beginning of the game that's setting up your team and strategy - slotting your skills and equipment. And the end of the game that is VoD.) more important. Longer lasting, more decisive, and better able to swing a game in your favor.

Which the Victory is Ours shout does (Or did. You know, I'm not playing and I'm probably talking about things that have already been dealt with in the community. Chewed and rehashed and abandoned as the game's moved on. I might as well give up and hit the backspace button now. But, screw it, this is my blog and I'll talk about what interests me.). It just does so in an incredibly stupid way. Not by making those advantages count in the middle game but by making a super advantage that comes into play in the endgame I'd want to de-emphasize.

Instead, I think the advantages you want to create to reward players for taking risks during the lead-up to VoD have to be relevant at that moment. You make a nice play, you get your team in an advantageous position, and you should be able to capitalize. To turn that momentary edge into another advantage and another and another in a cascade effect that leads to your opponent collapsing.

Just like a wipe should be the result not of random luck - the Monk miscasting or missing a save - but of a string of smaller victories that result in a team's backline collapsing with dire consequences for their morale. Whether that's because you've spiked until their energy engines are seizing up and they've run short of healing juice or because you've disabled and disrupted them at a key moment or simply because you've built better and they can't handle your pressure, it doesn't matter. What matters is that a backline failing is grown and nurtured from a dozen tiny, discrete decisions. Windows of opportunity for failure that are opening and shutting all the time as a battle rages. Good teams, skilled players, know how to find them, how to use them, how to crack them open, slip through, and start with the smash and grab. But instead of a stereo system or your mother's pearl necklace what they're grabbing is victory.

So, yes, I think if you play well you should be rewarded. Innovative, I know. What this means for a GvG match, though, is that we need to get a little more swingy.

This means games are going to seesaw back and forth a bit more, that there'll be lucky wins and improbable come-backs. Because we're going to have to create more stress points where teams can possibly fail in order to create more times when they can possibly succeed.

If I could totally redesign the experience, I'd redraw all the maps. Alter the playing field. Reposition the NPC guards around the base. Tweak their skills and AI until they were effective (And maybe not so lemming-like at VoD). But that's an extremely difficult (And no doubt costly) undertaking. So for starters what I'd do is make two or three simple changes with, I hope, wide-reaching implications.

First, I'd do away with the whole "added damage, lowered healing" of Victory of Death. Instead of it cranking up your team's lethality I'd make it so it helped you fulfil the victory condition. Normally, the Guild Lord has a ton of health and armor. That makes him hard to kill under the best of circumstances (And is necessary, along with his Medallion thingy, to prevent quick ganking from ending matches before they even start. Ah, for the days of Necrotic Traversal and Grenth's Balance. I think the devs might actually have been a bit quick to put the hammer down on that one. Quick-gank splits could have been the game's version of a Zerg Rush, forcing teams to think about defending their bases and punishing those who went heavy towards the stand. But the tricky bit is how you allow for that but dissuade teams from going for the all-out gank. You don't want it to turn into a DPS race at the Lords, in other words.) and means you need several uninterrupted seconds of pounding away before you can finish him off and check your new K-value. I'd keep that during normal play but when VoD hits, I'd dramatically lower the Lord's survivability. Cut his health and armor to something like what a player has, maybe a bit more.

What this should do is make it a lot easier to spike out the Lord. Makes splitting for your opponent's base when the NPCs leave much more attractive - especially if you've cleared the way by eliminating them from one gate or the other (This is part of why I'd want to look at the Footmen and Archers and, perhaps, change their behavior a bit.). But does so without up-ending the way your team works. You still do the same damage, you still have the same healing potential, the Lord is now a fat juicy target and you can either go for the insta-win with a spike or work down your opponents so they can't save him.

Second, I'd alter the way the rez shrines work. At the moment, someone dies and, as long as they don't have 60% DP, they come back at the shrine on every even minute mark. This puts them out of the fight and they have to run back to the fight but it's not a terrible drawback since it's about a :45~1minute transit time and they can push up a flag or defend the base. The morale penalty they'll take is more troubling as they'll be down a bit of resources and closer to being out of the match but it's not a terrible drawback. With kills as hard to score as they are and rez skills as powerful as they are, it's really hard to DP someone out.

What I'd like to see is kills turning into real powerplay situations. If a team is lucky or good enough to down one of their opponents, that gives them a numerical advantage they can use to press. But, at the moment, I think the autorez happens too quickly and the matches are too short to really take advantage once you've managed to burn off their sigs and knock out their hardrezzer. So, what I'd do is increase the autorez timer. Say, from two minutes to three. Creating more time to work with. If that wasn't enough then I'd switch the timer from being tied to the game's clock to being individual. In other words, if you died you wouldn't be resurrected on a three minute mark regardless of when that is relative to your demise but three minutes from when you died, period. Unless your team manages to rez you, of course.

Overall, the changes should normalize gameplay while still creating an overtime situation with an easy win condition. It might take a bit more but if I were given the reigns tomorrow (Which, you know, I shouldn't be), those are the first steps I'd take.

Guild Wars: Why I'm Not Playing, Again

I mentioned the other day that 'm not interested in playing in a metagame that sees corner blocking as a crucial GvG tactic. But, in a fit of atypical subtlety, I failed to explain why. Allow me to correct this oversight.

People like Ensign and JR and the like discussing the most effective ways to abuse the AI in GvG is a bad sign because it means that VoD is fundamentally broken. It's become, in part, an exercise in who can farm NPCs the most effectively. If I wanted a competition about killing mobs, I'd challenge someone in a race to see who could clear the Salt Flats the quickest. Because that'd probably be more difficult than beating up on the shortbus squad that defends your guild hall.

But VoD time being busted open like an overripe melon is bad because it was already pretty lousy.

Now, having been involved with the game before the Victory or Death mechanic went in and having endured the hour long matches of attrition that were GvG contests in those days, I'm not saying that VoD is, in and of itself, a bad concept.

It's, in fact, a necessary one by acting as sudden death overtime. Tightening everything up, stressing certain points harder, and shortening a game that might otherwise extend indefinitely. The way it does that - or did that before they started tinkering around with it - was by tilting the balance between offense and defense. With the simple change of more damage and less health kills become a lot easier and keeping red bars up becomes a lot more difficult.

But, at some point, VoD changed from being the end of the game to being the game itself. It was, in all likelihood, when the time VoD hit was lowered to eighteen minutes. But I like to think it was one august day when some old friends of mine managed to shock the world with glyphsacs and a shower of fiery doom from the heavens.
[iQ] beating [Te] through turtling up until the Lords walked and then crunching them with chains of Meteor Showers showed that all you had to care about was the final few minutes of the match. You could concede everything else, play as passively as possible, and still wind up winning. The same way that if you were in the old Hall of Heroes (The king of the dias one we had before the rotating format change) all you had to worry about was getting your Lord to cap before the gong sounded zero and, so, could stand in the doorway blinking at your opponent as the clock wound down.

GvG is a little more complicated than, of course. But understanding that you won the game not before VoD but in VoD and, therefore, VoD was the critical environment you had to prepare for was like realizing that in playing the HA game you design for the Hall, not for getting to the Hall.

Strategies, tactics, shifted to the point where the GvG game is about setting yourself up for VoD when your damage goes nuts and your spikes actually work. Defenses responded by getting massive and harder to punch through. Making them extremely stout without the VoD boost.

As it is now, you either win in a few minutes because it's a noobstomping party that you'd win under any circumstances. Or the game is going the distance. There's very little middle ground. There are few ten minute wins or fifteen minute comebacks as the wacky time approaches and that, I think, is a real structural problem.

In a game that's focused on heading towards VoD not on preventing VoD (Because it's feasible to win without it) then what you do to get there isn't as important, as valuable. What you'll do is run around and try to gain an advantage. To set yourself up to be in a better position once you can actually hammer it home. More realistically, what you're doing is trying to keep your opponent from gaining those advantages. You'll trade flags, you'll defend your base, but what you won't be doing is pressing the fleeting advantages you gain from playing well.

After all, what's the point if you can't win then? It's better to play it safe, play it conservatively, and keep from making the blunder that's going to cost you that edge when it actually comes time to make your move.

There's another way of putting that and it's playing a boring game. A game that relies on a very slender window, a single point of failure in which you win or lose. When you could be playing a fast-paced, exciting one where failure points lurk around every corner right behind the chance to swing a game in your favor.

So, I've long thought that VoD could use some tweaking. And there's a lot of merit to the Victory is Ours approach. In other words, making the NPC advantage count for something which force more decisive fighting in the stage where you're trying for that edge. But I think the initial implementations of ViO were disastrous since they placed too much emphasis not on working up that advantage by outthinking and outmaneuvering your opponents. But, instead, made it even more important to plan and prepare not for the run-up but the launching pad that is VoD.

The format needs some tweaking but ViO wasn't the right direction. It's hard, though, to see what is the correct path to travel without the kind of massive changes that would be difficult at this late stage of development.

Guild Wars: Why I Really Stopped Playing

Any meta that has top players talking about corner-blocking as a high-level GvG strategy is one in which I want no part. Because it's one that means VoD is fundamentally broken.

Always Polymock, though!

Guild Wars: Why I Stopped Playing

The other day I mentioned, in a fit of uncharacteristic brevity that I will now try to overcompensate for, that I had quit playing thanks to Sacnoth Valley. Really, the whole Charr Homelands region. Because when I'm finding reasons not to log on instead of hunting through there to track down yet another copy of Tryptophan Signet or reporting to the Ooze Pit, well, that's about when I need to give up the ghost.

You see, I think we can all agree that Sacnoth Valley is an evily brutal place but my ennui goes so much further than that. I hate the Charr Homelands. I don't simply not like them. I don't sigh and shrug my shoulders as I grind my way through them the way I can with the Crystal Desert or the Frozen Sea of Jade. It's not just a zone that doesn't work for me. It's a zone that bothers me. And fills me with a deep weariness in my bones whenever I have the misfortune to venture there. The place irks me.

Which I find really odd because if I had set out to design a Guild Wars region it would look terribly not unlike the Homelands. It's all right there.

There's a connection to past chapters, past stories, a deep immersion in the game's lore. An attempt to build on that lore, to use it as a springboard for new stories, new adventures, rather than simply retreading the same old ground. Familiar faces, old friends, past enemies, taking another turn on the stage and not just for old time's sake. Creating a sense that I'm part of a living, breathing world.

More than that, a world that changes, that grows and adapts. A place that relies on the power of instancing to alter itself in response to my actions. Where my past impacts my present and unfolds into potential futures. It's a mutable place. One that constantly surprises you with a new spawn or quest.

And those quests are strung together, pearl-like, on a string stretching from start to finish. Together composing a cycle, an adventure. One completely optional, but one that draws you into the setting that's been established.

You even get to ally with and explore the experience of one of your former foes. I always thought it should be the Centaur but you get a chance to see what the Charr are really like when they're not trying to chop you into little bits. Either way, it broadens and expands the scope of the game, casts everything in a new light, folds in needed moral ambiguity while opening up fertile new story ground.

And in a mechanical sense, it's a region that forces you to adapt to it, even as it adapts to you. One where you'll need to slot new skills, perhaps for the first time in a long time, to struggle and try and fail to understand it. Because it's also a place that cranks the difficulty up and does away with some old familiar strategies - those SF spammers I'd been rocking since NF just wouldn't cut it against the fire immune critters of the burning woods, after all. I needed to come up with something else. And that means maybe coming up with something better.

It reads like a laundry list of the features that I've long asked for and even longer wanted. But those very features are what bother me about the place so much.

I don't know, maybe it's because I'm overly sentimental about the past to which this new zone ahas attached itself. I'll cheerfully admit that I spent so long caring so hard about Ascalon that I have huge rose-tinted glasses when it comes to Pre-Searing. Even though, perhaps because, I haven't played there in years - I devoured the place during the beta and the months both before and after release. And that's what the Charr Homelands are, for me, Bizzaro Pre.

The monsters are similar, you have the Charr and Elementals and even the pathetic Grawl, just amped up, tougher versions, suited for a high-level zone. Those mobs have, well, character. A pedigree born from having been there from the very start. A familiarity that buys a certain fondness even in the scripted things like the Charr rank flashing you after they score a kill.

The NPCs are similar, familiar characters from Ascalon now years past the cataclysm and settled into new lives. Lives that you get to catch up with and, once again, improve. Even the music is straight out of Prophesies.

But that's just it, I think, I'm too invested in that forgotten region of the game's primordial past that I wander around this new zone, this continuation of what came before, going, "Wait, that's not right. That character wouldn't do that. This one wouldn't say that. This is all wrong."
While the story of the ragtag Ascalonian resistance that is the Ebon Vanguard and the Charr rebellion war you help them ferment is many things, for me, it's not interesting. It doesn't mesh with what came before.

The Ascalonian refugees, the people left behind when I scaled the Shiverpeaks and lost Rurik to cutscene permadeath all those long years ago, a group that I've wanted to catch up with for so long, well, they become nothing more than a footnote. Shoved to the side, passive and unimpressive.

And the Charr were the enemy. The great other. The destroyers. The defilers of the unspoiled Eden that was Old Ascalon. Enslaved its people, slaughtered them for sport, conspired with the dark forces that nearly ruined the world. I don't want to reconcile with them. I don't care what the plans are for GW2 or how many furry fans there are out there. There can be no reproachment with that. There can be no forgiveness. There never should have been. Instead, the game has me wandering around a Charr settlement in relative peace when I should be showering myself in heart's blood or unleashing fiery waves of destruction from my fingertips.

Which is really disappointing, that the game doesn't at least try to rectify that dissonance (Outside, I know, of a few cutscenes and some angsty posturing from Gwenny Bear, the World's Saddest Mesmer. I'm talking about me. I'm talking about the hatred, the fear, the game built up in me, personally for those promising early level foes that it then so quickly abandoned.) especially in a zone that's built around interactive feedback.

I was amazed the first time I retraveled the zone after having completed a mission to find that the towers I'd blown to itty bitty pieces were still burning husks. And would always remain so. In a game that's built around the instance, that promised to let you tear down bridges and change the course of rivers because you could, in your game, that's shockingly rare. And it's not just cosmetic either as the NPCs you quest for also float and shift around depending on what you've done and how much of their quest cycle you've completed.

But rather than being the awesome I expected, it turns out that such heavy use of instancing to personalize your gameplay isn't enriching. Instead, it's just annoying. Because it means I can never tell where, exactly, anything will be. I have to remember which NPC is where for each of my different characters. Worse, on the first go around, when I haven't dealt with them before, I have to hunt them. Trekking all over the zone, popping in and out of outposts, sniffing in obscure corners, when all I want to do is turn in a quest and get started on the next one. The fluidity, rather than serving to draw me deeper into the story, only serves to take me out of it by making me focus on the mechanics of the game and not the flow of the story.

As for those mechanics, in Scanoth, the game deals you a wild card, forces you, perhaps, to shuffle your formerly successful strategy back into your deck, by fiat. Not because the monsters in the valley are tougher or smarter or utilize a few key skills intelligently. But because they've simply had the "immune to fire/burning" switch turned on. And the "Increased health and attribute levels" toggle set. It pushes you but not to find a better strategy simply the broken one that works for that area as opposed to every place else.

Which wouldn't be so bad except it's the rare exception because those broken strategies - like SF spam or the old-school dual echoed Meteor Showers - work everywhere else. If the Sacnoth was one of a string of areas that forced you to deal with their gimmick, one of a series of places that had the mechanics and systems in place to thwart a single focused strategy rather than just a vague ambition towards difficulty it would be different. But it's not. It's one of the few places where you have to respecc to get past - and most of the rest of those are missions where you're already investing some time in preparation. So it becomes an annoyance because you have to remember to switch your stuff up instead of barreling forward the way you usually do. Not because it's doing something wrong but because, for once, by forcing you to delve - however lightly - into the wonderful depths of the game's flexibility it's doing something right.

Which goes to show, I suppose, that players often know how to ask for what they want but not what it is they need.

That I know very little about game design and should leave it up to the professionals rather than continue my armchair diatribes is, I should think, well established at this point.

Still, why does that place so drain away my precious bodily essence? It could be just that all I've long asked for was a mistake born of my misunderstanding. A colossal, fundamental failing to understand the principles of design and the ramifications of their implementation.

Or it could be that I've built the zone that turned in the Charr Homelands so many times, in my mind, that the actual product could never live up to my expectations. And by coming so close it manages to fall all that much farther. But, in my head, where I've written the story so many times, erasing and refining it to suit my own personal tastes, all I can hear is, "That's not how it should have been. That's not how it played out. This isn't right."

That, and Blisterbark and his pack of high-speed spike artists are a bunch of grade-A asshats.