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| No, this is not my screenshot. As if I would become branded. Filthy, branded, zombie/dragon scum. In all seriousness, found via Guild Wars Insider, credit Twitter user Kookie_C. |
Before I start diving into individual articles on various
topics at length, I wanted to provide a convenient view of an array of
overarching aspects of gameplay from this Beta Weekend. Pull up a chair, it's time for some long, whimsical, sometimes even philosophical views of Entombed, the human thief.
First, class balance.
In the first BWE, there were many professions that excelled in specific
areas. For example the burst of warriors,
the defense of guardians were verging on blatantly overpowered. During the second BWE these professions
maintained their strengths, but were nerfed to slightly decrease the extreme
burst damage/survivability of every class.
My thief was capable of bursting, but now I wasn’t able to hit for
12-16k like last beta. These changes
were completely welcomed, and I’m amazed at how fast the balancing is coming
along. However, please note that there
are specific builds that do need to be tweaked.
A supportive guardian, a venom-built thief, are two specs that could use
some balancing, both are simply too strong.
There are probably a variety of other builds, but I only spent 3 hours
in structured PvP this weekend.
Second, WvW balance.
I cannot stress how important this aspect of the game is to success of
Guild Wars 2. If done right, this game
can unite two groups of players, namely the PvPers and PvEers, that for years
have been playing apart. (Unless of course you played DAoC, but I somehow doubt
many have.) My realm and many others
(from at least viewing the forums) were extremely under-matched against either
under-populated or unskilled servers.
All three days, and all three matches, my server dominated every map controlling
at least 90% of the points at all times.
I feel for the servers that were matched against us, and the extreme
imbalance really did hurt the game. Often for us there was nothing to do, and
even worse, for them there was nothing they could do.
Third, the leveling pace was perfect this beta. I felt like
I was making significant progress from crafting, gathering, doing events,
PvPing in WvW, and gaining achievements and all were relatively equal in
progression. If I had to change
something, WvW experience could be toned down a little bit. If you are having a good night and in a
relatively competitive group, you can gain half a level in about 20-30
minutes.
While the leveling pace is great, the down-scaling/up-scaling
of players could use some more work.
This beta, I continued playing on my thief. I never, not once, lost a 1v1 in WvW. While I would like to consider myself
better-than-average/good at PvP, I know I’m not that good. I like that my “real” gear, level, skills,
traits matter in WvW, but I think they could tone down the disadvantage of
lower leveled players by upscaling theirs stats a little more. I read a forum thread on Guru detailing two
level 50’s taking down close to 10 players.
That’s a little excessive I think, but I think we all know that this system
is far better than other MMOs.
The down-scaling seems to be a little imbalanced as
well. I joined one of my friends in the
opening Charr area, only to find myself two-to-three shotting mobs. This was particularly frustrating because I was
using a shortbow, a ranged AOE weapon, and he was using a melee set. I could down everything before he even
reached a mob, and I had to actively stop attacking so he could start. Last BWE held the opposite side of the
spectrum, so I’m hoping that third time will be the charm and they will get
this right. It will be important and
fundamental to the longevity of the game.
Fourth, jumping puzzles, open world dungeons, Ascalion
Catacombs (at least story mode) do not give exciting rewards. Yes, yes, even I have said it, the journey is
more important than the achievement.
However, I just would like to see my two-hours of dedication really give
me something of at least of good value.
I’m tired of opening a chest to find out that I got two blue weapons
that I cannot use. Could we at least
receive an item that is our armor class?
Fifth, finding aesthetically pleasing gear is quite a
challenge at the moment. My gear has
probably changed my appearance at most 3-4 times and transmutation stones were
bugged for me. I could be doing
something wrong, but I would like to see my hard-earned karma change my
appearance more often. (And yes, I went
to many Renown “Heart” vendors.) They may also want to provide a little advice
on how to find appropriate vendors. Only
on the second day of this event (i.e. roughly 50 hours in) did I realize I
could buy gear with Karma in WvW. The
gear offered by the vendor changes as you level, which is quite a nice
idea. However, the gear (at least the
green Masterwork gear) looks the exact same as the gear I was wearing. I spent 15k of karma, and while I had better
stats, I’d like to see that reflected in my appearance.
Sixth, currency. The
fiscal rewards of nearly all aspects of the game seem appropriate. I’d like to see them increase the amount of
Badge of Honor’s given in WvW. The
rewards are for level 60, but I spent at least half of my time in WvW, and I
still hadn’t received enough for a single piece of gear. I haven’t been in the explorable mode of
Ascalion Catacombs, so I’m not sure how currency works there yet. However, the gear on the vendors for each of
the dungeons in Lion’s Arch looks simply gorgeous.
your arguement that the level scaling needs to be made even stronger is a slippery slope in my opinion, if you completely adjust avatars levels and gear both ways than whats the point of levels at all? why not have everything in the world scale to a little challenging but doable to anyone at any level.
ReplyDeleteOblivion did that with its release version, in theory it sounds cool in practice it was just awful, by far the most downloaded oblivion mod was the OOO one that made the world mobs have a set level, personally i dont even care for the current system, it negates from the long term challenge/benefit of really taking the game to hardcore playing levels.
Fair enough, I agree it's a tough balancing act. Let me clarify my view, I like that there is slight imbalance in WvW and PvE, I just think the current scaling needs to be slightly stricter. I'm not asking a level 10 to be on equal setting with a level 80, sorry if that was not clear. Thanks for the comment!
DeleteWell for starters, I don't think wvw will be balanced ever in a bwe. The influx and movement of populations is unpredictable . I expect that it will take several weeks for it to balance when the game goes live (I'm hoping they do mini wvw for the first couple of weeks, like rebalance every three days).
ReplyDeleteAs for appearance, I don't think it is suppose to be easy to obtain pretty armor sets. That might kinda be the point. In other mmos, you work for stats. In gw1, end level armor was all same stat wise. However you would have to put in some significant effort to obtain pretty armor that you wanted. I am expecting something similar in two. For example say you want the weps and armor from the catacombs, you will probably have to run it a lot. You might even get one of the ghostlies you cannot use, so you end up heading to lions arch (aka the new spamaden) looking to trade it for one you want.
As for class balance, Idk due to missing this bwe. I was kinda hoping that they would update the wiki with tiers info. I haven't really seen any phenomenal pvp videos from this bwe yet, so time will tell us more.
Yeah, it probably is pretty hard to predict. But you think by the third day, the match up's would be at least respectable. However, Crystal Desert is rather terrifying, we had a group of around 50-70 siege golems on at the same time in the same location. I missed seeing it, but people were talking about it for the entire length of the beta weekend. It must have been amazing. You will see tiers updated eventually, and the traits are relatively predicatable. The traits that are often considered "must-haves" are normally tier 3. Niche seems to be tier 2, and common, useful traits seem to be tier 1.
DeleteI have yet to find a karma vender for armor. I finally broke down and bought armor off trade, and could do so fairly inexpensively. It was a little underwhelming to buy level 30 armor off the regular armor venders only to have it look the same as starter armor. I'm wondering if it's just a place holder. All told, I've seen 5 different skins for scholars, no idea about the other armor classes. The original didn't have the greatest amount of diversity, either, but that was only 20 levels.
ReplyDeleteStill, it's all nicely designed armor especially relative to other games. I had a seer's mantle that scared me a little as it looked a little too WoW-ish but I later received a few other shoulders that were nice and sleek.
Aly, most of the karma vendors are only available after completing a "heart". You then have to actively look for the vendor (at the hearts location on map, and they occasionally have gear for you. If the heart is appropriate for you, then the gear is normally an upgrade.
DeleteBut yes, I think the WvW armor needs to look different from starter gear, and I would like to see an upgrade every 10 levels or so. I do agree though that every piece of armor is amazing. I just wish I could find a nice looking shortbow. Around level 25 I found a nice one, but I couldn't get transmutation stones to work.
Its interesting how you describe the warrior and gaurdians as almost overpowered, one look at the official forums shows this ongoing massive debate about the viability of melee combat as a whole, many complain that melee, best personified by the war is currently suicide in the game at large, mainly because of the ranged professions ability to move around while attacking, while thw war is largely stationary, relying mostly on the 2 use dodge mechanic.
ReplyDeletePersonally i didnt find melee war so terrible but i only reached lvl 18, forum users stated (at length) that these problems are prevelent at WvW and high level PVE like the catacombs, if true, and the majority view supports it to some extent, melee combat has serious drawbacks in these scenarious, i was quite disheartend to see people stating that the wars most powerful role was a rifle/bow wielder, lets hear it for chopping people into small bits i say.
My view on guardians, warriors, and venom thieves was meant in a structured PvP setting.
DeleteIn PvE,specifically higher end PvE, and in WvW,there is a slight ranged/melee balance. They have fixed this balance to a degree since the first BWE. Melee is still relatively viable in WvW in certain builds. However, I would never recommend having two melee weapon sets, at least have one for the time being. In the dungeons, like I said I have only played story. And yeah, you will have a hard time meleeing 100% of the time. However, you can make use of a ranged/melee build and take advantage of melee when you can. Some damage in the game just seems unavoidable for melee, you simply cant see the animations of the target because of all the bright colors flying around. I used a shortbow, dagger/dagger build and was able to get in close several times. I was forced to back off very frequently when my hp became low. Aggro is based on proximity to the target, and this can be detrimental to many melee professions.
I just wanted to add that I saw many successful dagger/dagger thieves, dagger/dagger elementalists, and greatsword rangers in WvW. I think right now, the success of melee weapon sets seem to require mobility.
Delete