Of Course I'll Play It

Guild Wars 2 - Southsun Cove Survival Guide

noreply@blogger.com (Dusty Monk) — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:21:00 +0000

Welcome to Southsun Cove! A tropical paradise with miles of pristine sandy beaches, spectacular coral reefs for diving, and face-eating crab monsters! So the Southsun Cove Living Story is in full swing, and we're all descending upon the newly revamped zone to help the settlers get resettled and to put down the frenzied wildlife. And for many of you, this may well be the first time you've been to the southern isle. And if this is your first time, you might have found yourself in for a unpleasant surprise, because Southsun Cove is, without question, the most difficult general PvE zone in the game. The monsters of Southsun have more hitpoints, hit harder, and use nastier abilities than those you'll find anywhere outside of a dungeon instance. So if you've found yourself making trips back from the waypoint after taking on a single, general mob, I thought I'd throw together a few tips on the things to look for when fighting some of these nasty denizens.

This guy is always here!

Reef Rider
After arriving in Southsun Cove via Asura Gate, and familiarizing yourself with some of the locals, and perhaps even getting a drink or two down at the beach bar, probably the first example of local fauna you'll come across is this guy - the resident Reef Rider, terrorizing the locals at the Sunset Pavillion. You'll find Reef Rider's scattered throughout the Dappled Shores. You'll notice that, unlike the other Wind Rider derivatives you've previously encountered, Reef Riders have lots of hitpoints. Other than that, they're not too bad. The main thing to be aware of is that their projectile attack steals boons from you. This can be especially dangerous for a Guardian, as they'll steal retaliation right off of you. Projectile blocking abilities will shut these guys right down.

Vet Reef Rider with Projectile Reflection
Shield up

Veteran Reef Rider
The slightly larger cousin to the Reef Rider, the Veteran Reef Riders add their own projectile reflection ability to their bag of tricks, so Rangers beware! They also add a spinning charge type attack that inflicts a good amount of damage if you get backed up against the wall. The biggest danger with Reef Riders is there are so many of them. You'll be finishing off one and then find you've aggroed several more over your shoulder.

Two stacks of Confusion, taking
Confusion damage!

Reef Drake
The ordinary looking Reef Drake is another example of a mob that is easily underestimated. The Reef Drake's spin attack inflicts confusion. In fact, all of his attacks inflict confusion, and it's not difficult at all to get four to six stacks of confusion on yourself in short order. Condition removal is very helpful, though against a single mob, sometimes you can just dps him down while soaking up the confusion damage. But if you get two or more mobs on you, it can turn very deadly very quickly.

If there is a Veteran Reef Drake variety, I have not encountered it. There is a brood mother that roams Southsun Strait.

Young Karka webbing inflicts Cripple!

Young Karka
By far the most prevalent mob found though out Southsun Cove is this little scourge. Individually, they're not too bad. They have a projectile attack that inflicts cripple, and their basic attack inflicts weakness. They don't have that many hitpoints (comparatively) and will go down pretty quickly. But as is the case with all the Southsun creatures, there is always another one close by, and if you're running about, it's not uncommon to find yourself fending off three or more. Use projectile reflection to shut them down, and beat them down.

Veteran Young Karka
You mostly encounter these in events, and often in the Crazed variety. Besides being slightly larger, they add a trample ability that will knock you down to their list of abilities.

Like the Triffid, this variety of Veteran Karka
shoots poison that kills!

Veteran Karka
Make no mistake, the Veteran Karka are the masters of the island. They roam the Scoured Plains and dominate Seashell Hills, and you'll encounter them quickly enough as you traverse the isle. At first you're all - oh, just a veteran mob - no problem, I can take these guys! Don't be fooled! Occasionally, a kiting master like a ranger or elementalist can take one down if they do everything right and get lucky, but mostly, you'll almost always need at least two or three people to bring one down comfortably. So why's that? Because they're downright nasty!

This Vet Karka has just spewed a stream of
hatchlings - and they're headed my way!

The first thing to be aware of there are actually two varieties of Veteran Karka, though they are named exactly the same. One of these shoots immobilizing projectiles, and spawns eggs that quickly hatch into Karka Hatchlings, which latch onto you, inflicting blindness, cripple, and weakness, as well as the normal, damaging attacks. The other shoots exploding projectiles that leave poison pools, also immobilizes you, and will shoot a projectile that dumps all of it's current conditions directly on you. If all that wasn't enough, this variety has a rolling dashing attack that will pretty much one-shot you if you are unfortunate enough to be in its path, and both varieties have a high, leaping attack that evades everything while they're in the air, and when they land inflicts a double knockdown.

I'm taking retaliation damage! I need to strip
that boon, or at least stop attacking!

The second - and probably the absolute most important thing - to be aware of are the boons these guys carry. They all start with Armored. Which essentially means you have to kill them twice. While they're armored, they cannot be knocked down, rooted, or snared in any way. Additionally, they also gain Stability, and most damaging - Retaliation. If you are slamming the mob and getting pummeled with numbers that have the fist icon behind them, stop attacking! Strip that boon! More than anything else, when fighting these mobs, you must watch their boons, and strip them off as much as you can. And often even if you do they'll immediately re-apply it, so keep at it. The Armoured boon cannot be removed - it only goes away after you drain the mob's hitpoints down to zero the first time. Then his hitpoints restore, and the boon drops.

Get if off of me! I can't see!

Getting Rid of the Crabs
Inevitably, when fighting these mobs, you'll find yourself with one or more nasty face-hugger crabs attached to uncomfortable spots of your body. These guys inflict a variety of conditions, but they can't be removed by condition stripping abilities. Typically though, a good dodge roll will take care of the pesky buggars.

Other Mobs
There are a variety of other mobs found throughout the zone - Reef Skelks lurking in the holds of wrecked ships, Skale roaming through the many streams and rivers, and a variety of underwater life. These though are mostly of the mundane variety, and shouldn't pose any more threat than they do elsewhere.

Final Words: Icon Awareness
When you first got to Orr, you learned the importance of condition removal. Those mobs poison, root, snare, and knock you down in a variety of ways. When you get to Southsun Cove, the designers are using the mobs here to teach you something new. Now it's not enough to just see what conditions are applied to you, but it's absolutely imperative that you see what boons the mob has, and to get rid of them. More than any other general PvE zone, you have to watch those boon and condition icons, be aware of what's happening, and take action to prevent it.

Hope that helps you in your endeavors in Southsun Cove, and enjoy your stay!

Guild Wars 2 - A Recounting of Flame and Frost

noreply@blogger.com (Dusty Monk) — Wed, 15 May 2013 02:35:00 +0000

In which Syrene Harmony, she who fought alongside the members of Destiny's Edge to bring down the dragon Zhaitan, recounts the events leading up to and through the Molten Alliance Uprising.

28th of Zephyr, 1327
Wintersday was behind us, the bulk of Colossus passed, and Zephyr's winds whispered promises of a new year. Barely a season had passed since Zhaitan was put down, and though the dragon was gone, his corruption still ran deep through the land. I had spent the season working with Pact Forces out of Caer Shadowfain, ferreting out the pockets of risen that still plagued troops and travelers making their way through Pursuit Pass.

But news travels fast and far, and even more so bad news, and word had reached us that catastrophic events had been reported along the borders of Old Ascalon and the Shiverpeaks, forcing Norn and Charr alike to flee their homes and make for the relative safety of the capital cities. After conferring with Lightbringer Ives, and agreeing that they had matters safely in hand for the moment, I set out for Wayfarer Foothills.

45th of Zephyr, 1327
Though Asura Gate technology has greatly reduced the time required to traverse the lands of Tyria, supplies had to be gathered, old friends checked in on, and tasks completed. Thus it was over a fortnight before I found myself in the Great Lodge in Hoelbrak, and the situation there was indeed dire. Refugees already were camped outside its walls, and filling its interiors. They told stories of wild storms sweeping across the foothills, and volcanic eruptions of gas and flame. There were others there as well, volunteers like myself, just trying to help in whatever way we could. We set out into the foothills proper, and all along the way we found settlers and refugees making their way along the dangerous roads and passes. The work we did there was neither glamorous nor heroic - but necessary. We assisted those refugees as we could, lending aid, escorting them along the roads, and even preparing waystations along the route.

86th of Zephyr, 1327
Weeks of backbreaking work, travelling through both the Diessa Plateau and the Wayfarer Foothills, assisting the refugees and the displaced. The stories surfacing began to have similar themes. Rumors of Dredge attacking the settlements in Wayfarer, but using flame magic. And in Diessa Plateau, the Flame Legion were driving charr from their homes, but doing so with dredge machinery and engineering. And then the portals began to appear. Fiery gateways, out of which poured dredge and Flame Legion alike. And these forces were armed with wicked new weaponry, fused from dredge technology and Flame Legion magic. Volunteers became militia, and we worked together over the coming weeks, traveling through these lands, fighting back the invaders where ever we could find them.

The battle against the Molten Alliance had begun.

15th of the Phoenix, 1327
There were many stories that would come out of this time. Stories of heroism - acts of sacrifice. I personally though, can only speak of the ones that touched me. One such story was that of a young Norn named Braham Eirsson. I happened to be in the blood legion headquarters that day he came to Rytlock seeking aid for his village, which was being overrun by the new Molten Alliance. Rytlock was up to his eyeballs in refugees, and could spare no help, so I traveled with Braham to seek assistance from his own kin, Knut Whitebear. But the Wolfborn were also too over run with battles already being fought, and no aid would be sent to Braham's village of Cragstead. I was stunned the son of Eir Stegalkin could not get the aid he so clearly needed even from his own kin, and so I alone returned with him to Cragstead. The devastation we found there was immense, but we fought as we could, and eventually drove the invaders from his home. Once the battle was over though, as we made our way through the remains of the village, it became clear many of the villagers were missing. Taken captive, it would seem, by the dredge. Braham was no longer a hunter, but a warrior, and he vowed to not stop until he found and rescued his people.

There was one other whose thread crossed mine in those dark days - that of a young Charr gladium named Rox Whetstone. Rox had lost her warband during the Molten Alliance invasion, and seeking to redeem herself, was tasked by Rytlock to secure an important devourer hatchery against the Molten forces. Though I personally was not there to witness the battle, I'm told she fought valiantly to save both the hatchery and the other charr that were stationed within. But as was the case with Braham's village, it was clear that many of the charr within the hatchery had been taken prisoner. Rox, too, vowed to find her people, and rescue them if she could.

20th of the Phoenix, 1326
While Rytlock and the Iron Legion fought the Molten Forces in Diessa Plateau, and Knut Whitebear and his Wolfpack had their hands full in Wayfarer Foothills, the Ash Legion and the Order of Whispers had also been busy. The Order of Whispers had managed to infiltrate the Molten Alliance, and began gathering intelligence on their comings and goings. Additionally, it was learned that the Molten forces were using a series of sonic periscopes to communicate with. Adventurers and volunteers fanned out through the borderlands, seeking and destroying these devices where ever they could find them. Additionally, often times they were able to gather sound logs from the devices, which were delivered back to Whisper agents.

It was through this intelligence that we learned where the weapons for the Molten Alliance were being built. The Molten Alliance had been working together for years, it turned out, creating a series of vast underground facilities. These complexes served not only as their weapons production facilities, but also as their headquarters and gathering locations. If we could infiltrate these facilities, and destroy or damage them enough to render them inoperable, it might be enough of a blow to break the back of the Molten Alliance for good. Several teams were assembled and dispatched to the entrances of facilities located throughout the Wayfarer Foothills and Diessa Plateau. Some of us had fought in the war against Zhaitan, and some of us had just lost homes and families to the dredge, and wanted to see this thing to its end. I led one of the teams, and among the numbers on our team were both both Braham and Rox. As intelligence suggested that prisoners were being kept within these facilities, nothing would keep these two away. Rox was a more than capable ranger, and I wanted to fight along side Braham once more.

And so it was, on a windy cold morning in the beginning of the second season of the year of 1327, our band made its way to one of the confirmed entrances of the Molten Weapons Facilities, and descended into the earth.

The story of what we found there, the battles we fought, the people we lost - that story alone is enough to fill the pages of a book. But that tale will wait for another day. It is sufficient to say that, in the end, we did indeed emerge victorious. Braham and Rox did in fact find their people within the prisons of the facility - they were being used as test subjects for the manufactured weapons! Their people were freed, and we ended up using the Molten forces' own explosives to bring their facility down upon their heads, while making our escape.

Throughout the Ascalon borderlands the word was much the same. Over the next few weeks we hit facility after facility, and though are losses were many, the devastation to the Molten Alliance as complete. Without the means to manufacture their much needed weaponry, the Dredge and the Flame Legion soon turned upon each other, and the Alliance was broken. The invasions, battles, storms and portals had at last come to close.

45th of Phoenix, 1527
The Molten Alliance is broken - the conflict over. But the struggle has only truly begun. The number of displaced and homeless charr and norn number in the thousands. They fill the lower areas of the Black Citadel, Hoelbrak, and many have even moved to Lion's Arch. Hundreds upon hundreds more are camped outside the cities. Their homes are destroyed, their farms burned, their villages devastated. They cannot stay within the cities, but there is no place for them to go. A massive cleanup effort has begun out in the fields of Diessa Plateau, but something must be done for the refugees.

In a surprising move, the Consortium has volunteered to lend assistance. The Consortium doesn't have the best of records, and those of us that were in Lion's Arch the day they brought the Karka with them from Southsun do not hold them in the highest regard. But in these desperate times, one doesn't turn away help from any quarter. A good number of the refugees have agreed to accompany the Consortium back to Southsun Cove, where they have been promised assistance in the building of homes and the establishment of settlements.

Still, I remember well the trouble I found in Southsun when last I visited, and am wary for the well being of those that travel there. I think next I might make a visit to the Pearl Islet, just to see if I can lend any assistance.

-- From the journals of Syrene Harmony, Avenger of the Dispossessed

Guild Wars 2 - Choose your Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Dusty Monk) — Sun, 12 May 2013 15:43:00 +0000

This morning I was watching the PGA Championship while exploring Snowden Drifts in Guild Wars 2. And it occurred to me one of the things I really enjoy about this game is what a good job they do of providing not just a variety of experiences, but experiences that require different levels of intensity. And it is that variety that is part of the game's appeal.

A bit heavier level of intensity in a dungeon

The Quad Core
If you look at the game as a whole, there are primarily four styles of activities that you can participate in. They are General PvE, Structured PvP, WvW, and Dungeons. Of these activities, only the Dungeons are level gated - everything else can be participated in - in a meaningful fashion - from the moment you create your character. For me at least, each of these activities requires a different level of interaction and intensity.

sPvP
Structured PvP, for instance, is for when you are hell bent for leather into the game. No looking away, no interruption, non-stop action from the moment you press Play Now until the end-of-match scoreboard comes up.

Dungeons
Dungeons are a similar level of intensity, though a bit more broken up. You have mid-level intensity during the trash fights, high levels of concentration and situational awareness required during the boss fights, punctuated by a bit of rest and regrouping after boss fights as you loot the chests. Of course, this experience will vary greatly based on your group. PUGs tend to be a bit more frenetic as they're often adopting a Go Go Go speed-run approach.

I just kill what they tell me to kill in WvW

WvW
The WvW experience can also vary greatly, depending on your level of involvement in the campaign - though similar to playing on a PvP server in a general PvE environment, you can never truly relax while playing WvW. If you're leading the campaign, or playing key roles (building the trebs, manning them, organizing counter-attacks, etc), then your involvement is quite intensive. But for many of us, we can simply be one of the people following the zerg around, attacking whatever we're attacking, or defending the thing we're defending. And in that sense, it can actually be a quite low intensity, follow the leader and kill all the things kind of activity.

General PvE
And then there's the rest of the game, just leveling your character as you explore the lands of Tyria. And for the most part, this can be completed in a completely leisurely, take-at-your-own time pace. And the game needs this. It needs to have a part of the game where you can, actually eat a sandwich and converse with your spouse while playing, or stop whenever you want and then pick back up when you can.

Experience A La Carte
But doesn't every MMO provide this sort of choice? Guild Wars 2 is not so different than other games of this genre. Well yes and no. I do certainly believe that the successful MMO's do. WoW provided a great variety of experiences of varying intensity, as has LOTRO, SWTOR, and Everquest II. I think however, more niche MMO's might struggle with this. In games like Defiance, for instance, there is no point at which you're not running and gunning or driving and then running and gunning. There is no leisure time activity in Defiance. The other aspect to this game experience a la carte is how compelling are the various activities? It doesn't matter if you provide a variety of things for people to do if ninety percent of your player base isn't interested in doing two of them. Wow struggled with this as the game matured, and more and more people had multiple max level characters, and fewer and fewer of their populace was interested in participating in the leveling portion of their game. A huge part of the incentive for the cataclysm was to get people back out into the world, and out of the instance-lobby central cities, by revamping those zones and freshening up the content.

Re-tooling the rewards and adding new events
got people back into Wayfarer Foothills

Guild Wars 2, as young of a game as it is, was already struggling with much the same, as people reached max level very quickly, and most of the early and mid-tier PvE zones started emptying of people. There's a reason that most of the Living Story content took place in two of the least-used starter zones in the game - to get people back into those zones, playing. And it's worked! These days Diessa Plateau and Wayfarer Foothills are crawling with people on a continual basis. Now I have no doubt that as the Living Story wraps up and moves on, those zones will certainly revert somewhat back to their low visitation status, but you can see that as the story moves into Southsun Cove, ANet is clearly eyeing another low-pop zone with the intent of revitalizing it.

But There's No End Game!
You certainly hear that all the time with respect to Guild War's experiences. Traditional MMO's have taught us to expect one experience as we level our characters, and then to switch to a different kind of experience after we reach the max level. As a result, a huge part of the population not only expects, but looks foward to this sort of shift of the experience, as a reward for reaching the max level. In fact, a huge part of the player population in WoW regards the leveling part of the game as punishment, something you have to endure before you can get to the good part of the game at max level. This was why heirloom items and friend-exp boosts were created - to allow people to get through this content as quickly as they could if they aleady had a max level character.

Guild Wars 2 has always taken a different tact. It essentially gives you all of the experiences pretty much straight up, at the front. So you can participate in their alternate activities - the WvW, the sPvP, and the dungeons, as you participate in the original, primary experience, of leveling your character. There is no "Wait Until you get to the end of the game to experience the rest of the game". There are of course up sides and down sides to this tact. On the up side, you really don't have to wait until you get to max level to find out if you enjoy what Guild Wars 2 has to offer. There is no getting to "end game" and going.. but I don't like raiding.. so now what! On the downside, if you're a progression oriented, gear-leveling kind of person, that likes to see a continual and non-stop progression of your character, even after you reach the max level, Guild Wars 2 doesn't provide a lot of satisfaction in that regard. And so for a lot of people, who do crave that experience, they get to max level and go "This is it?"

There is no easy solution to the dilemma, and though Guild Wars 2's answer is certainly one solution, it's by no means the only one. It certainly appears though that ANet is cognizent of the fact that people, while still enjoying their experience, also want to have some bit of progression, and so you're seeing things like WvW ranks being introduced, and perks for those ranks, and of course the ascendancy gear, which produced such polarizing responses in the community when it was introduced.

Freedom of Choice
For me, I really enjoy the choice of intensity levels that Guild Wars 2 provides, and I'm getting better at actually choosing and playing all of them. I've played more WvW and sPvP in the past few weeks than I have since the game launched. It did require me to leave my comfort zone a bit, but in the end, I've found I really do enjoy these experiences immensely - as long as I realize the varying levels of interaction involved, and so plan accordingly.

Seven Nights of Neverwinter

noreply@blogger.com (Dusty Monk) — Tue, 07 May 2013 14:27:00 +0000

Last week Cryptic and Perfect World Entertainment took the wraps off of their take on the Dungeons and Dragons universe, releasing Neverwinter Online for everyone to play that hasn't yet ponied up some cash for the title, in what they refer to as Open Beta. That is to say - they launched the game. I wanted to take a bit of time with the game before writing up the prerequisite blog on it, and while level 21 is hardly anything that resembles mastery, I do feel comfortable enough now with the game's systems and mechanics to put up some impressions. So let's get to it!

All This and a Bag of Chips

Neverwinter launches with a surprisingly robust MMO feature set. And furthermore, it's actually pretty darn solid. You might think that launching a game that actually does everything an MMO should, and does it relatively bug-free wouldn't be a big thing in describing a new MMO, but if you thought that you haven't been through very many MMO launches. There were definitely some server hiccups on launch day, and once the launcher and servers did get up, there were some performance problems. But the folks at Cryptic worked through the night, released a fairly big patch right away, and performance was vastly improved the very next day. And since then, with only a few annoying glitches here and there, I've been able to play without problem.

The Neverwinter Home Page

In terms of features, all the big pieces are here. There are PvE quests, that occur both in open world and instanced environments, there are 5-man dungeons at the conclusion of each chapter of the main story arc, there are PvP scenarios, and there are a cool sort of casual form of instanced cooperative group content called Skirmishes, which can typically be completed in less than 20 minutes. In fact, if there is anything Neverwinter excels in doing it's providing you with bite-sized chunks of content that are self-contained and can be completed in under an hour. In fact when you first log on, you'll be presented with a Home Page of the various kinds of content available and how to get to them. And for most of that content, a robust LFG queuing tool is available, and works really well. So whether for skirmishes, dungeons, or PvP matches, you can queue up, and typically within less than 20 minutes or so, be whisked away to the instance of your choice.

And User Generated Content

I'd be remiss to give an impressions blog on Neverwinter and not mention Cryptic's user generated content tool - The Foundry. Now, I'll caveat this with saying that for me personally I've never been a huge fan of UGC in MMO's. But because every few hours Cryptic awards extra XP for completing a Foundry mission, as well as offering daily rewards of astral diamonds for doing them, I did check a few of the most highly rated missions out. And I will say, I was fairly impressed with the rich set of features and versatility offered in the missions. For those that would like to try their hand at crafting their own adventures, and those that enjoy experiencing those, the Foundry delivers on that promise.

Three Rogues walk into a bar..

A Question of Choice

So we're set, right? Well yes and no. As good as Neverwinter is at presenting you with a variety of choices in content, the choices you make in developing your characters are a bit more limited. First, there's the class choices. There are, currently, exactly five. A healing choice, a tanking choice, a control choice, and two DPS choices. And that's pretty much exactly how you'll play them. Each class gets exactly one kind of weapon to use, and like most MMO's, exactly one kind of armor to wear. Furthermore, though you'll find armor with different stats, the armor will look exactly like just about every other armor piece for that class. For the first fifteen levels or so, the class you choose will play and look exactly like everyone else that chose that class. As you get deeper into the powers tree, and start to unlock feats, you'll start to gain more customization for your character, to be sure. But feats are mostly along the lines of a few more percentage points for this ability or that stat, and the fact that the powers are tiered by level, a good deal of your power choices are along the lines of Do I put two points in this power or two points in that one?

Once you've equipped your weapon and made your power selection, only seven will ever be on your hotbar at any given time. Two At-Will (instant) powers, three Encounter powers (cooldowns), and two Daily Power - limited by Action Points, ie., a Limit Break. The ability to quickly swap out bars pre-loaded with different powers would have been a welcome addition, but if such an ability was present I couldn't find it. So as it was, I would manually remove and re-add the powers I wanted to use for PvP, for instance, versus the powers I'd use for Dungeons. And with rogue, some powers are more suited for single target, and some for AoE, but you'll have to choose and manually set up which configuration you'll go with at any given time.

The Return of Classic Mechanics

A number of classic MMO mechanics are back in full force in Neverwinter. For instance, the Holy Trinity of tank, heal, and DPS is certainly prevelant. The skirmishes can be done with any group though, which is nice, and even the lower dungeons I think don't really require them too much. But certainly as you get higher in content and level, all indications are that you'll need balanced groups of the prerequisite roles to succeed in that content. Loot rolling in groups is back, using the classic Need/Greed/Pass system, along with the annoyances that are commonly associated with that system - People rolling need on things they can't use, what do you roll on consumables, etc. Resource nodes are littered about the world in both instances and in the open world, but they are first come first serve, so you'll see people abandoning combat to make sure they can tap the node.

A new definition to the word Domination

PvP in Neverwinter is implemented using Warhahammer Online's scenario implementation. That means the matches are bracketed by level, with level's 10 to 19 going in one bracket, 20 to 29 in the next bracket, etc. This comes with the both the good and bad parts of that system. You're auto-leveled up to the top level of the bracket in terms of hit points and damage, but of course you'll have none of the powers that the natural levels in that bracket bring with them. You'll own in these brackets when you're at the top of them, but you'll want to avoid them when you're at the bottom of them. I became sharply aware of this when I turned 20 and attempted my daily PvP, and realized I was still on foot while my enemies were using mounts, and I was being blasted, rooted, snared, and tossed about the match like a dog's chew toy. One tip - you get some horse rental tokens when you hit level 20. If you're going to participate in the PvP - use them!

You want me to pay what?

Crafting

While many of the traditional MMO mechanics are here, the crafting implementation in Neverwinter is completely new. Or at least it was new for me, inside of an MMO. It's the first time I've seen what is pretty much entirely a social game collection of mechanics implemented inside of an MMO. Crafting in Neverwinter is essentially Mafia Wars. You have agents. You start with one for free, but you'll need to acquire more as you advance. You send those agents on quests, or tasks, to complete items. After some amount of time the agent completes the task, and you're granted some experience, and the "reward" for the task. This is entirely abstracted. The agent never appears in game, it's just a UI construct. The completion of the "task" is just a progress bar, and by spending a considerable (for me anyway, a free player), amount of astral diamonds, you can "auto-complete" the task. They make no attempt to explain that abstraction, by the way - how you can "hurry your agent up" by spending some money. It's a facebook game, plain and simple. That's not to pass judgement per se. It is what it is, and if you've played those kinds of games before and are aware of the tricks they use to entice you to play more, then you can accept it, and either work with it or not. If you've completely avoided the facebook craze while it was at its height and never played those games, well then allow me to just say caveat emptor.

Foundry Grinds and Gearscore

Each hour Neverwinter promotes a different type of content. A chest full of astral diamonds and extra loot if you complete dungeons during this hour, extra Glory if you complete PvP matches during the next hour, etc. As such I settled down into a routine of logging on, and seeing which activities were currently being promoted. If it were foundry missions or professions, I'd use that time to advance my story and do quests. If it were PvE, skirmishes, or dungeons, I'd queue for the appropriate activity and hang out in Protector's Enclave. One thing to be aware of - much of the story mission content is instanced. If you're in an instance, and accept an activity queue (say for a PvP match), then when the match it done, you'll be put back into the common world outside the instance you were in, and it will be reset. So you typically don't want to queue for things while questing, unless you don't mind replaying your quest instance over and over. So when I was queuing, I'd often be hanging out, and watching zone chat. And there were two trends I noticed that were already prevalent, just a week into the game.

The first, was the excessive amount of spam for foundry XP grinds. This was a huge problem when the Mission Architect was introduced in City of Heroes. I had assumed that through STO Cryptic had ironed out the problems with this and limited the capabilities for people to grind out levels using AOE farms, but it appears that there is a significant contingent of people doing exactly that in Nevewinter. If this is the most efficient way to level your character, then these people will be the first ones participating in the epic level dungeons, and be the ones forming the groups for those dungeons, which leads me to the next troubling trend - gearscore.

I've never been a fan of gearscore discrimination. It is not a measure of competence, but is only a measure of your ability to acquire gear. In WoW, where gear is mostly bind on acquire, there is at least some indirect correlation to player accomplishment though. You can't acquire the gear in WoW without having either completed those PvP matches, or completed those heroic level dungeons. In Neverwinter though, all of the equipment that drops is bind on equip. Which means it can be put up on the auction house and bought for astral diamonds. This has two chilling effects. First, people are more incented to roll need on boss drops, because even equipment they can't use can immediately be put up on the AH for astral diamonds. In the very first dungeon I ran there was a cleric that rolled need on every blue drop - all of which were for rogues. And she won every single one of them. The second is that with enough astral diamonds, you don't have to do content at all to get that gear - you can just purchase it from the auction house. The thing is, because gearscore is built directly into this game, it's a good bet its been built into the encounter design of the dungeons. At the upper end of the game, certain gearscores probably actually are required in order to have a chance at succeeding in those dungeons. So at that point, not only is the gearscore descrimination prevalent, it's justified.

Now to be perfectly honest, I think if you play the game casually, enjoying the foundry missions, doing the mission content, and participating in the skirmishes and occasional dungeon, you can pretty safely ignore both of these aspects - the people level grinding through foundry xp farms, and the gearscore descrimination. But I think the more you choose to participate in group content, the more these things become an issue. And again, this isn't a condemnation, just an observation, and one I think you should be aware of going into the game.

The Final Word

Honestly, I would recommend you give Neverwinter a try, if you haven't yet. There's a robust full fledged MMO here. Due to its actiony combat system and heavily instanced content, I've seen some people liken it more to a multiplayer action RPG, but honestly I think that's just splitting hairs. This is a full blown MMO, and it's style of gameplay, it's familiar content, and familiar mechanics means I think many people will find it quite comfortable for the long haul. And the awesome thing is, it really is free to try. It costs you nothing more than the time to download it to check it out.

If you do decide to stay, I personally would also recommend picking up the $60.00 founder's pack. This is for two reasons. First - as I've said - this is a big game on launch, for free. If you're going to stay and play, reward the people that made it so they can continue to add that additional content you know you want. Second, the founders pack gives you a case load of astral diamonds to play with, as well as a mount, a companion, and a nice weapon (if I recall correctly). The economy right now is being shaped by people that have purchased those packs. You don't want to put yourself at the bottom end of the economy struggling to catch up. Give yourself an equal footing as everyone else that's playing, and give yourself a little cushion to get the game going.

Hope this has been some what informative, and enjoy the game!

Guild Wars 2 - Casual Crafting Guide

noreply@blogger.com (Dusty Monk) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:54:00 +0000

I'm always a little hesitant to write posts like these, because you think well six months into the game, who needs a crafting guide? But the fact is Guild Wars 2 crafting system can be more than a little obtuse. It feels similar to crafting in other MMO's, but it's just enough different that you get into and you're all.. wait.. I can't progress at all! And even now, I still see enough myths being pushed around, things like crafting is worthless before you're level 80, or you can' produce anything useful while crafting, that I have to think perhaps a fundamentals guide is, in fact, still useful.

What this Isn't
This isn't a 0 to 400 guide. If the only thing you want to know is how to get from 0 to 400 in crafting profession X as quickly and efficiently as possible, there are a number of fine guides out there for that. What I want to is to help to show the patterns in GW2 crafting, and to go into a bit more explanation into how it works. Because once you recognize the patterns, you'll find you probably don't even need a guide.

Cynderette in fully crafted gear

Why Craft?
There are two main reasons to engage in crafting while you're leveling your character. The first is gear. You will find that for a leveling toon, crafting is one of the most reliable ways to keep your character outfitted in top-end level appropriate gear. This is why I always recommend taking an armor or weapon producing discipline appropriate for the toon you're leveling - unless you already have that discipline maxed on another character. For instance, recently, when elementalist reached level 20, I was able to deck her out in a complete full set of Masterwork, level 20 armor pieces, compliments of my tailor. I also crafted full masterwork level 20 weapons, studded them all with gemstones, and additionally crafted a full set of jewel studded trinkets. Two of those crafting disciplines - artificing and jewelcrafting - were displines she was leveling. And that gear is pretty much top end for that level range, and most of it will stay in place right through the next ten levels. A few pieces will get replaced here and there, but most of it will remain. At level 30, I'll upgrade her entire set.

Now, you might say, why bother? I can make more money by gathering components, selling them, and then just buying the very low cost items I need for my level on the Trading Post! And while I'd argue it probably ends up being a wash in terms of making money, you can certainly do that. But then you would miss out on the other, and probably more important aspect to crafting - experience. Crafting produces an extraordinary amount of experience. So much so, that it's not uncommon at all for players with large quantities of resources at their disposal to knock out 10 or 20 levels (or more) on their character entirely through crafting. But even if you're not twinking your character, you want to take advantage of the experience gain you get through casual crafting. And this is important. The leveling curve for zones assumes a certain amount of experience gain through crafting. If you completely ignore crafting, (and gathering), you'll find that you have completed a zone, but are still considerably below the suggested level range for the next zone. You'll have to find another level appropriate zone (ie., move to another starter zone) to get the rest of the levels recommended for the next tier zone.

Only Pick One
What you won't do, however, is make money crafting while leveling. Make no mistake - it is a drain on resources. It's not a huge drain, per se, but because there's no real specialization like you might find in other MMO's, anything you craft while leveling has also been crafted by two hundred thousand other players out there, and in the unified auction house, will be selling for mere coppers above their vendor value. That's not to say you can't sell them, and some items you might be able to turn for a slight profit over the cost of resources plus trading post fees. But I wouldn't go into crafting with the expectation of making money. Because it is a resource drain, if this is your first character, I highly recommend taking only one

The reasons to craft are that it provides a nice break from exploring zones, it provides you with level appropriate gear, and experience.

Gather Gather Gather
You probably already know this, but it bears repeating. Gather all the things! If this is any character other than your very first one, the second you step out of the opening tutorial, you should make two stops. First, the bank, where you'll pull out a few silver from your account funds, and second, the vendor standing beside the bank (there's one at every bank in every town), that is always a full service vendor. Pick yourself up a basic salvage kit, and one each of the copper resource gathering tools, and equip that. That way you can start gathering right away. Remember - when you're gathering, you're not just harvesting resources, but you're harvesting experience as well! And then I recommend stockpiling everything. Because all gathered materials are account wide, you're not just gathering for this character - you're gathering for all your characters to come.

Chef - The Black Sheep of the Family
So let's get this out of the way up front. All of the crafting disciplines follow a straight forward, standard pattern of discovery - except for chef. As fond as ArenaNet is of symmetry (and they are fond of symmetry), they're also not at all afraid to break their own rules, and as a crafting discipline Chef breaks the rules. So the rest of this guide is talking about all of the disciplines in a general way except for cooking. Curiously enough, because many of the components are available for karma, and coin from vendors, Chef has largely been considered one of the cheapest disciplines to level.

Discovery - the Unlisted Recipe
So enough with tips and myths and exceptions - let's get to the heart of the matter. The key to effective leveling in Guild Wars 2 crafting is Discovery. And the key to understanding Discovery is realizing it's not discovery at all - it's just an unlisted recipe. By now, all the discovery are readily available online through the wiki and other sites. But because Guild Wars 2 likes patterns, the vast majority of the discovery recipes you can just deduce.

Discovery earns both production
experience and discovery experience

It's worth a paragraph to explain why discovery is so important. When you discover a recipe, you not only get the experience for producing the item, but you also get an additional truckload of experience for the discovery itself. So you gain twice the experience from discoveries as you do for production. Discover everything - including the things you'll make for yourself. Keep what you want for yourself, and vendor or trading post everything else. If you're very short on resources, you can salvage the pieces you make to reclaim a small portion of the resources. Pretty much the only time you should be producing a piece that's not a component is when you are making something for another player or character.

Patterns of Discovery
Every crafting discipline (with the exception noted above) follows this basic pattern for discovered recipes:

Crafted Item = Stat Enhancer + Component 1 + Component 2

The Stat Enhancer (my term) is the thing that gives the item its characteristics: inscriptions for weapon producing professions, insignias for armor producing professions, gemstones for jewelcrafting, etc. It's also the thing that consumes Fine Crafting Components, and those, in turn, will quite likely be your limiting resource.

Because you can only discover each piece one time, what you want to do is to discover one each of each crafted item, for each type of stat enhancer that you can craft, at each tier.

Gannon at 153 Weaponsmithing

An Example
So let's look at an example. Gannon here has 153 weaponsmithing. That is, he's just crested over into the 150 bracket. Our job is to get him to the next tier - 175. As you can see, he can now produce Steel components.

Three new inscriptions are available - Ravaging, Vigorous, and Pillaging

Scrolling down a bit, we see that three new inscriptions have unlocked for us at 150 - Ravaging, Pillaging, and Vigorous Seasoned Inscriptions. Weaponsmithing allows you to produce 8 items. Our goal is to discover one each of these 8 items for each of these inscriptions. By doing so, we should easily get the amount of experience necessary to unlock the next tier of inscriptions.

So the first thing we need to do is to make sure we have enough of the raw materials for the weapon components. I'll spare you the math, but to produce the necessary components to make 8 weapons, I'll need 8 planks, and 33 ingots. We can choose any of the three inscriptions to make 8 of, but I suggest you look over those available and choose the one you have the most components for already gathered.

If you're short a component, buy it from the trading post
directly from this interface

In my case, I've been gathering quite a while, so I have enough to make 8 of 2 of the three inscriptions. But suppose I didn't. Here's a useful shortcut you may not know about. It takes 3 Bones to make each Vigorous Seasoned inscription. So I'll need 24 to make 8, and I only have 20. If you right-click right on the component, in this dialog, you'll get a prompt to Buy more at Trading Post. How cool is that? You still have to go to the trading post to pick the items up, but through this one interface, you can go through and purchase any supplies that you're lacking. And this works for all of the crafting windows, so you can pick up whatever you're short of for your entire crafting batch, and then just make one trip to pick up everything you need. No more running back and forth as you realize you forgot something else.

And I want to emphasize, use the trading post. Yes, you can go out there and spend hours farming the actual crafting components you need, rather than spend the money purchasing them. But nothing will suck the fun out of your experience faster than mindless grinding on a particular mob looking for drops. And in the time you spent farming, you will gather more money from drops than you probably need to purchase the items from the T.P. anyway! The only time you should consider actually grinding for drops is when you get to the high end materials, and you're looking for specific, expensive components for specific recipes.

Back to our example. I also need to produce dowels for the inscriptions. 8 dowels for 8 inscriptions, each dowel takes another plank, so 8 more planks for a total of 16. Steel is one of those lovely ingots that requires additional component (lump of coal) from the vendor, so I pick up enough of those to allow me to make 33 ingots, and get about producing my raw materials.

We get to 165 producing the raw materials alone

By the time I've produced the planks, the ingots, and the dowels, I've already gone from 153 to 165. I personally try not to produce any more basic components than I absolutely need for any particular batch. Two reasons: First, the raw components typically tend to sell better than the refined versions. Second, once the refine process turns grey, there's no more experience for this character on that refinement. But some other character that I might level in something else that also uses that refinement could benefit from the orange experience. So produce only what you need.

Producing the weapon components. Be careful to only
produce one of each item.

I now produce 8 ravaging inscriptions, and incidentally, level up just from the crafting experience. The next to last step is to produce the item components. I'll go through each piece, and produce one each of each component as necessary to produce all 8 weapons. Here's where I find out if I did my math right.

And now "discover" 8 weapons

Hey what do you know I did. Finally, the discovery phase, where I put all 8 of my weapons together, one for each inscription, and rake in the experience. Drag over the inscription first, and then any single component, and it will show you the other component necessary to make the discovery. By the time we finish our 8 weapons, my rating is 179, almost to 180. The current crop of inscriptions has turned grey, but look, when we hit 175, we unlocked four new inscriptions!

Weaponsmithing 179, new inscriptions unlocked

And Done!
And that's pretty much it. Rinse and repeat for each tier of inscriptions and weapons. You won't always need to produce all 8 to unlock the next tier. And sometimes you'll want to produce a set for your character.

But you'll find that this pattern holds pretty much true for all of the disciplines: 1.) Produce inscriptions, 2.) Produce components, 3.) Combine inscriptions and components in "discoveries" until you get to 400.

There are of course, a few exceptions you'll encounter along the way. For instance, to get that final tier (375 to 400), you'll have to buy a few high end, yellow inscription recipes from the merchant, and "discover" those items to push you over the top. You'll probably spend the most on material components for that final push as well. I have found I typically have to spend more money getting from 375 to 400 than I do for all of 0 to 375 - that's just the nature of the economy. But I hope, overall, this gives you a better understanding of how the system works, and more specifically, a pattern to follow to work your way right through the crafting tiers, while still producing items that are useful for you.

Defiance Beginner's Guide - Arkfalls

noreply@blogger.com (Dusty Monk) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 02:56:00 +0000

So once again, granted, this may be a bit late, and most of you folks that stop by probably know everything I'm putting out here already. But it does seem like more people are purchasing Defiance and checking the game out, so I'm hopeful that at least some of this may be useful. Arkfalls, unlike the weapon modification system, are actually pretty straightforward. But there are some finer points to them, and there are certainly plenty of opportunities for confusion when the skies darken, the wind blows, and red icons start popping up across your map, so hopefully this will get you on the right track and have you rackin' up the damage numbers like a pro! Or, if nothing else, at least allow you to have a good time.

What's an Arkfall
Well in the lore of the game, it's this: Currently, in orbit about our transformed earth, are the shattered remains and husks of fleets of ships that brought several alien races to our planet some thirty years ago. These alien races are referred to collectively as the Votanus Collective. They were, themselves, fleeing there own solar system, where their homeworlds were destroyed by some solar catastrophy, and so their ships were known as Arks. As the orbits of the remains of these ships decay, entire pieces of them plunge to the earth, and these are referred to as Arkfalls, and represent huge opportunities for scavengers and collectors such as you and I - Ark Hunters, to reap the rewards.

From a game mechanic's standpoint, they represent giant, collective, dynamice PvE experiences where you work with everyone in the zone to defeat the creatures and entities that spring up out of the ground, drawn by the cascading chunks of alien technology crashing into the earth. If you ever played Rift, ArkFalls are strongly reminiscent of those events, and as it's the same development studio that built both games, it's a good bet they are built upon most of the same underlying technology.

Arkfall spotted! Moving out!

The first indication that you'll probably see of an arkfall occurring is an arkfall indicator showing up right in your HUD. You'll want to tap 'M' immediately and bring up your map when you see one of those. Arkfalls come in two varieties - Minor and Major. If you only see a single arkfall marker on your map, then it's just a minor fall. Head on over, they're still great for experience and loot drops. If you see a giant red circle on your map and a multitude of arkfall markers within it - that's a Major Arkfall. A Major Arkfall is essentially a collection of minor arkfalls for the first part. Once all of the minor arkfalls are completed (successfully), a final, grandiose arkfall event will be generated. More on that in a bit.

Major Arkfall in Mount Tam

Minor Arkfalls
Minor arkfalls come in a couple of different varieties. As you approach the arkfall, check out the objective at the top - that will tell you how much time is left on that particular arkfall, and what you have to do. One of the variations is Defeat the Waves of Hellbugs. That's a pretty straightforward objective and easy one to complete. Just stand around, and destroy everything that moves.

By far though, the most common minor arkfall you'll encounter in Mount Tam and Madera is the Destroy the Crystal objective. The objective here, obviously, is to destroy the crystal.

Shoot this thing!

The key here though, is shoot the blisters! The blisters will appear at the side of the crystal, and only last for a short time. Circle the crystal, dodge and roll as necessary, and empty your clip into each one of those blisters as they appear.

Don't be one of those guys that just stands back lobbing grenades at the crystal. First, you'll do far more damage by actually shooting the crystal blisters than hitting it with rockets and sticky bombs. And second, splash damage from grenades kills the scitterlings, which is the second most important thing to know:

Don't kill the skitterlings! They bite the crystal and create the blisters. The more skitterlings, the more blisters, and so the faster the crystal will go down. So leave 'em alone! Everywhere else, of course, you should blow them away merrily.

There are other varieties of minor arkfalls as well. Later on, you'll encounter one that is associated with the raiders. For that one, you want to gun down the rocket launcher guys. They will drop their rocket launcher, which you then pick up and use against the crystal for a few shots. Rinse and repeat until crystal is destroyed. I'm sure there are even more later on. The key is to find the trick, and use it.

Major Arkfalls
When you enter the area of a major arkfall - you'll know it! The sky darkens, and hot cinders blow across the sky! Remember Arkfalls are timed events - each minor arkfall is timed, as is the major arkfall. For the major arkfalls, they've fixed the rewards system, so you are pretty much guaranteed a green and a blue weapon at the conclusion of the event. So besides in general just being a ton of fun, they are worth your while. When you see one, jump on your vehicle and join the caravan!

Arkfall Convoy!

The final event of a major arkfall is divided into multiple stages. It essentially goes like this. During the first stage, the giant, sluglike Hellion erupts out of the ground. It is ringed by many mouths, and you want to shoot the mouths. Put away your shotgun, and get out something with some range.

Start by shooting the mouths

During phase 2, a Giant Hellbug Hellion will appear - it's essentially a giant wasp. You'll want to focus damage on it like crazy.

The Mature Hellion

By now, you've probably noticed that all of the hellbugs have a sweet spot - a crack in their carapace. In fact, all of the mobs in Defiance that I've encountered so far at least have critical hit areas. The Hellion is no different, but it can be tricky getting into position to shoot it without getting blasted about by the various other hellbugs, or by the Hellion itself.

Shoot the Hellion in the underside of its tail!

Once you've done enough damage to the Hellion, it retreats back into the Behemoth. Now you'll need to dps down the various mobs around, and specifically, kill the Monarchs that will appear. At least one will appear at this time, but there may be more.

Defeat the Monarchs

Once you've defeated the Monarchs, the Hellion will appear one final time. Again, focus fire on it's tail - use everything you have, and when it goes down, the event is over!

She's gonna blow!

Final Tips
A couple of other tidbits that are good to know for arkfalls, and for that matter the game in general.

Turn on Damage Numbers
If you haven't already, go to your options screen, choose gameplay options, and turn on damage numbers. Besides the fact that seeing those numbers roll off is just plain more satisfying, the color of the numbers tells you you're hitting the sweet spots of mobs. Critical hits are in yellow, normal damage in white. Getting those sweet spots can be tricky if you're at an angle, so you want that feedback.

Get the Hell Out of your Vehicle!
This is probably one of the more noobish things many people do - drive around arkfalls trying to smash bugs or run into crystals with their cars. It's a bad idea for a variety of reasons. First, any mobs you kill with the vehicle don't drop loot, and don't give experience - so you're depriving not only yourself, but everyone else at the arkfall of the opportunity for loot and experience. Any mob hit by anyone with gunfire has the potential to drop loot for that person - unless the mob is killed by a vehicle. Furthermore, especially at the minor arkfalls, squashing skitterlings with the vehicles is counter-productive! You don't want to kill the skitterlings as that's what allows you to down the crystal faster! And finally, it's just bloody annoying - giant vehicles roaming back and forth blocking everyone's line of site and messing up their shots and aiming. So don't be that guy (or girl)! Get out of your vehicle at the events, and start unloading your clips!

And that's pretty much Arkfalls in a nutshell! Hope it helps, and see you in game!

Defiance Beginner's Guide - Weapon Mods

noreply@blogger.com (Dusty Monk) — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 14:11:00 +0000

So quite honestly, I think most of you that read my blog (all six of you), that are also playing Defiance (a subset of two) probably already have this all figured out. But I'm going to go ahead and write it up, because well really, for no other reason than I when I was trying to suss this out, I wished someone else had written something like this up already. So if you are actually just getting started - if you've seen enough screenshots and tweets or whatevever and the post launch discussion has got you interested enough in giving this a try, then maybe this will help you with what is probably one of the more useful, but least well explained aspect of the game - modding your weapon.

First, I'd be remiss to say that there aren't already a few pretty darn good guides out there - like this excellent article over at TenTonHammer, and this blog will undoubtedly repeat some of what's already been said. But I'm going to focus specifically on modding the weapon, and specifically on the parts of the interface that aren't intuitively clear - or at least, weren't to me.

The Basics
So just to get us going, weapons can have up to four modifications attached to it. They are in order from top to bottom: Stock, Sight, Magazine, and Barrel. In order for a weapon to receive a mod, it has to have a mod slot, and the particular weapon you're interested in may or may not have any particular slot.

Let's look at an example:

My AR-216 Gladiator has the following properties: It has modification slots for the stock and the barrel only. It cannot receive modifications for the sight, or the magazine. I have already placed a modification in the stock slot, so it appears filled, and you can see the effects of the modification beside it. By the way, Bloom is the qualifier that describes how much the weapons shot spread out over a single sustained burst. More bloom means the shots spread out more as you hold down the trigger. You want less bloom, so the modification above (.9 multiplayer) reduces the bloom of the weapon by a tenth.

And that's really the most important (and least described) part - understanding those icons. The rest is pretty straight forward, but I'll go ahead and walk through the process.

A Sample Mod
So you have some weapons that have mod slots, and you have some mods, so you want to see if they match up, and you can use them. The first thing to do is to check the mod itself. Specific mods only apply to specific classes of weapons.

So for example the mod above, can be used on shotguns only, and it modifies the Sight slot. I have a shotgun.. and it takes a sight modification, so let's do this! You want to go to the Salvage Matrix tab of the Character screens. I typically hit 'L' to bring up the Load Outs, and then click on the Salvage Matrix tab.

Hit the big select item button, and select your Weapon of Choice (Fatboy Slim fans you're welcome). Once you've picked the weapon, you pick the slot you want to modify. It was a bit confusing to me here, because orginally I wasn't clear if I was actually selecting a slot here, or an actual mod. You're selecting a slot. Once you select the slot, if you have a mod (or multiple mods), you select that.

You can actually repeat this action for all the slots and mods you have available, so for instance in the picture above I'm slotting two mods into the weapon in one fell swoop. When you're ready to go, you press the big "Start Action" button at the bottom. Note - the act of performing any salvage on a weapon - whether you're adding mods, or breaking down the weapon, or adding a slot - takes time. How long it takes is displayed here at the top of the screen. You can see from the time here that this is an instant action. But some actions, like adding a weapon slot - take time. When an action takes time, it goes into a queue slot, of which you have five. I'm presuming at higher EGO levels you'll be able to queue up more than one thing at a time, as there are five spaces down there, but I haven't verified this yet. But at least when you're starting out, it's important to know that if the action does take time, you can't do anything else in the Salvage Window until that completes.

And that's it! Here's my newly modded shotgun, with modified stock and sight!

The Bane of Inventory Management - Secondary Loadout Screens
Besides modding your weapons, you can also break down items for Ark Salvage - it's the green brick currency. ArkSalvage is in turn consumed by some salvage operations, like adding mod slots. But occasionally, you'll see something like this - and there's no clear indication as to why you can't break this down!

Now some items simply can't be broken down. This mod above is an example. But in many cases, and you'll see this especially with shields and grenades, it turns out it's probably because of your second loadout. At a relatively early stage of your leveling, you'll get a second loadout - apparently you'll eventually get five.

When the load out is given to you it automatically equips whatever you currently had equipped at the time. No loadout can ever not have something equipped, except at the very beginning of the game, when you're getting your first weapons and vehicles. But as you gained new weapons, shields, etc, you've been modifying your primary loadout, and most likely ignoring the new, alternate one. But those weapons and items are still equipped in your alternate loadout. And that will prevent you from deleting them from your inventory, or breaking them down into salvage.

So if you're trying to make inventory space, and are selecting things to delete, but it won't let you delete them, or you're trying to salvage some shield or weapon, but it won't let you salvage them, check your alternate loadouts - chances are they're equipped in one of those.

And that's about it. Hope this has helped at least a few of you hit the ground running with Defiance's weapon mod system.

Good luck and good hunting!

Defiance Beta Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Dusty Monk) — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 17:16:00 +0000

So this weekend Trion took the wraps off of Defiance for real, activating their last beta weekend before launch, and lifting the NDA. I played Defiance during one previous beta weekend, and at that time the game really didn't grab me. As we're so close to launch, I decided to update my client, and give the game one more shot. I'm glad I did. Hit the break for the details!

I'm Not Here for the PvP
So I played probably 10 or 15 hours over two days. And in that time, I did not participate once in any of the PvP battles. I most assuredly will, but honestly between games like Planetside and APB Reloaded, there are already really good choices for massive alliance vs alliance PvP shooters. What I wanted was to see if there was a good PvE experience here, so I spent my entire weekend doing exactly what I would do in any other MMO - leveling my character.

More than Meets the Eye
Defiance is a deceptively big game. I say deceptive, because it's easy to get into the game, and do some stuff. They put a gun in your hands, then you shoot some stuff, and you get good things (currencies you won't recognize, salvage you won't know what to do with, and experience points in a system that won't make sense) for killing those things. After you do that for awhile, you're tempted to dismiss the game as - is that all there is? But once you start peeling back the layers, and digging in a bit, you come to see there's rich complex game under the covers there, full of character customizations, weapon customizations, vanity itesm, vehicles, and a surprisingly good story. On the other hand, once you do start going through load out screens and the first time you see the EGO Matrix, you're quite likely to be so overwhelmed by the dizzying array of weapon mods, perks, and weapon choices that you might decide it's just too much, and to walk away without even feeling like you want to scratch the surface. That was, to be honest, exactly the response I had after the first beta weekend. Both responses I think are a mistake - if you're looking for a fun, comtemporary shooter MMO.

But with the exception of a few mentions in the tutorial, which, brief as it is, you'll want to do, like so many MMO's, there's a ton of information about this game you'll want before you get started, that's not really explained by the game. Fortunately, now that the NDA has lifted, I suspect a ton of weapon mod guides, build guides, and levelling guides will start popping up, and you will definitely want to visit them. I managed to find one short guide that was done before this weekend, and it gave me what was arguably a game-changing tip. I'll pass it on at the end. But yeah, this game is going to need guides.

The Good Stuff - Context
Early on, your character - an Ark Hunter - which is essentially an alien tech scanvenger - is brushed up against the main characters from the series. This is cool, and I think once the series gets going, is going to be even cooler. In fact, for me at least, the interesting thing about Defiance is the more I learned about the fiction of the setting and the world, the more I wanted to play, and the more I wanted to know. And that's a good thing. For a lot of people, context has no value. That is, they couldn't care less about the reasons about why your character is there, what they're doing, or about the world in which they play. But for many more people, myself included, context _does_ mean something. We actually do care about the lore, the stories, and the people, and one thing Defiance has in spades, is a rich, fully realized fiction. It may not be the most original story, but it's still a full world, and one of the things I enjoyed was unfolding the story, both in the primary missions, the side missions, and especially the episode missions.

The Gameplay is Good
It really is. The minute to minute gameplay in Defiance is spot on fun. The only times it becomes really not fun is when you're overwhelmed by enemies - more on that later, or just from technical server problems, like lag spikes and packet floods. And unfortunately, there was still quite a bit of that, although at no time for myself at least, did the game become downright unplayable. Though it did get close a few times. But enemies explode satisfyingly, weapons are cool and fun to use, there's a ton of different effects for different weapons, and there's even quite a bit of strategy involved in how you play. There's plenty of room for smart players to distinguish themselves from not-so-smart players in taking down difficult bosses and enemies.

Vehicles are Awesome
Oh and the driving is a blast! They were smart in allowing you to kill bad guys with the vehicle, but they've also smartly toned it down considerably since the early betas. It's no longer the best, overpowered way to kill enemies, and you get neither credit nor loot from enemies you run over. But just the driving around, getting your vehicle, and blasting away over the countryside is pure fun. There's lots of back and forth in this game, but zooming over the hillside and flying off of ledge in your ATV makes even that process enjoyable. You'll get a completely free vehicle early on, and eventually you'll find weapon vendors that sell the upgraded ones - in a variety of colors to match your taste! I hope that as the game evolves, vehicles become an even larger part of the gameplay. But what I experienced so far was quite good.

Dynamic Events, Ark Falls, and a Changing World
The guys at Trion took pretty much everything they learned about dynamic content and placed it into Defiance. Tons of small, mini-missions pop up all over the place - Help the Scientists, Rescue the Relief Workers, Root out the Hellbugs, Raider Roadblocks, etc. You're free to stop at any of these and participate, or bust your way through and ignore them. Additionally, often areas of the map come under the effects of Ark Falls, which essentially are the 'Rifts' of this game. They come in both minor and major versions, they are beaconed on the map in giant red markers, and serve as a rallying call for people across the zone. You'll get the same feeling of vast, epic cooperation at these locations, or you may find (if the zone is empty), that the best you can do is delay them for awhile, because there aren't enough people to assist in taking them down. They appear currently to be tightly balance, and in fact I would say may be a tad too hard. On Saturday night we had a large group working on taking down several arkfalls, and in several cases, we made it with only seconds to spare, and in several other cases, we failed with only miniscule amounts of life left on the arkfall crystals. In short, these things do need (and obviously will get) tuning.

They also, by the way, come with some of the baggage of Rift's Rift system as well. You might find supply depots overrun with hellbugs, and not enough people around to take it back. You might find arkfalls that are simply too powerful for you to complete. And the nature of dynamic spawns means you might get double trouble as a dynamic event appears right in the middle of an existing spawn area, resulting in an overwhelming number of enemies all at once. These things happen with fairly regular frequency, and sometimes you just have to be prepare to bail.

Fortunately, the death penalty in Defiance is negligible and they do a surprisingly good job of extracting you to a location that's near enough that even if you die, you can usually continue on and finish the mission or event without losing progress.

The Not So Good - UI
Definance's UI is, well, in a word - a mess. It's obtuse, poorly laid out, and difficult to parse. Everything you do in it feels clunky and cumbersome, from managing perks, to upgrading your weapons, to equipping weapons, to finding the bits and pieces of your story and pursuits, hell to even figuring out how to log out of the game. It's all there, but just be prepared to take a healhy helping of patience pie as you muddle through it to suss it all out. Or better yet, wait until some people post video tutorials on sorting it all out so we can actually get good explanations of how it all works. After two days of trying I'm still not exactly sure on which weapons I can modify, which ones I can't, and how and why when I have a mod that says it works on pistols, and I have a pistol that says I can mod it, why the system refuses to let me mod it. Yes, you can see even my own frustration here, and I'm just trusting in the fact that it'l get better, and eventually - similar to crafting in GW2 - someone that actually understands how it all works will make videos to explain it.

A Failure to Communicate
Due in part to the clunkiness of the UI, it's surprisingly difficult to communicate in the game. There is apparently voice chat in the game, and I actually heard, at one point, while grouped up, someone attempting to use it, but I certainly never saw the options for it, nor attempted to use it. Perhaps if they get that working to some extent, it'll be better. But there is no Map chat that I can see, and Area chat quickly disappears from your viewscreen. There is group chat, but just activating it, bringing it up, and typing in it was clunky.

After playing awhile, I got the hang of the Quick Chat choices, and started sussing how to switch from area to group chat and back, and even joined some groups and actually communicated with other players. And when I did, it was fun! But none of the flow was very intuitive, and for a game that wants to succeed as an MMO, this should be dead solid. It still needs work.

Grouping
I did join some groups, both being invited to and forming some. The interface for managing them - again back to the interface issues - is a bit clunky. But it works. Unfortunately, I didn't really witness what the benefit of grouping was, save seeing your groupmates on the minimap, and having your own chat channel. I guess those may be reasons enough, and I'm sure are probably a ton of other things I just didn't know about.

One thing I hope they do have and I just didn't know how to use it, but if they don't they definitely need, is a way for the group leader to set a waypoint for the group to follow. If you want your group to be able to run around together and knock out missions, there has to be a way for someone to set those goals. But if there was one, no one in the groups I joined knew how to use it - including myself.

The Final Word - For Now
Overall, I found myself having a lot more fun this weekend than I did previously. So much, that I think I'm going to pre-order and get some perks. The minute-to-minute gameplay is a lot of fun, and once I started getting a little momentum behind my character - her perks, skills, and weapon choices - I found myself wanting to play more. I know they have the notion of instances, and I want to try some of those. The game makes heavy and extensive use of Rift's dynamic events, and it comes with all the benefits - and baggage - of that system. You have to be okay with buying into that I think to really enjoy the game.

There are a ton of UI issues, they still have server problems, and grouping and coordination in general still needs lots of help. I'm trusting player guides, developer crunch, and Trion's reputation of tweaking and responding to problems over time (which imho, I think is pretty good, considering the changes they've made in Rift) to handle these issues. Additionally, I was already interested in watching the show, and now I'm even more interested. I think these things can really serve to re-inforce each other. If the show is good, I'll be even more compelled to play the game, and as I play the game, I'l be more interested in learning about the characters and stories through the show. And just seeing how in-game representions of things end up being in the show work out is interesting. Will they have mutants? What will the Hellbugs look like? I'm now actually interested in finding out.

So in short - see you April 15th Ark Hunter!

Oh one last note - if you take nothing else from this article, but decide to play the game - use Map Waypoint. Each time you get a destination, right-click on the map at that destination, and it will create a vehicle navigable route (mostly) to take you to that destination. This can save you tons of backtracking as you come across unnavigable canyons, giant concrete walls, etc. Use Map Waypoint!

Guild Wars 2 - Honor of the Waves - Story Mode

noreply@blogger.com (Dusty Monk) — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 15:16:00 +0000

Our group has been working their way through all of the dungeons in story mode, so this is now the sixth one I've completed, and it only occurred to me yesterday that I haven't written a blog on a single one - which arguably makes me the worst MMO blogger evah! I'll attempt to remedy that in the future, so we'll start with last night's dungeon - Honor of the Waves. We ran this one twice last night, and though the first run had a few hiccups along the way - mostly because it was the first time in the dungeon for all of us - we finished successfully without too much mishap. And the second run went smooth as butter, without a single wipe from beginning to end. Also, sadly, out of two runs, I didn't take nearly enough screenshots to make a decent guide, so you'll have to endure with mostly must my written description.

Honor of the Waves is the name of one of the Kodan Sanctuaries, which are essentially cities built into and on top of giant floating glaciers, and are in my opinion some of the coolest looking content in the game. This one is sinking, and the Voice - the spiritual leader of the Kodan tribe, is under assault by a lieutenant of Jormag - The Huntsman, and is being driven mad. The Claw of the Tribe, along with Eir and Caithe, have enlisted the help of your party to attempt to save The Voice. It is a fool's errand, as Caithe tells Eir, but Eir is so distraught at her inability to reconcile the gulf between herself and the rest of Destiny's Edge, she is willing to take on any task - even a suicidal one.

The Corrupt Ice Shard

After the opening cutscene, a short staircase leads to a set of double doors, which will promptly open, and a stream of icebrood and elementals will come pouring out. Hang back a bit, and clear out this first wave. Our first party, following my (poor) advice, which was gleaned from other guides, tried to force our way in and only focus on the Shard, and we were overwhelmed and had to start over. Take long enough to defeat that first wave, and then enter the room with the ice shard, and focus down the shard. Yes icebrood will spawn continuously while the shard exists, but they don't spawn so fast that you shouldn't clear them out a bit.

Once you defeat the shard, the chest will appear, and the door leading into the next area opens. Be careful here though. Stepping even a little bit past the chest will aggro the Champion Icebrood Seer that awaits you just beyond, and it's quite likely you'll find yourself in combat while a midst looking over your loot. Either just pull the champion into the room and deal with him, or be careful to not go past the chest until everyone is ready.

The next area is a bit confusing, but essentially you'll follow the passage up and around. You'll meet a group of trash mobs at the top of a staircase - pull them back down to the bottom of the stairs and fight them below. Once you get to the top of the stairs, a bridge leads across the area you just came up from, and towards the chambers of the Voice. Quite a few trash mobs (including elites) patrol the opposite side, so pull them back across the bridge and clear them a bit at a time. Once the opposite shore is clear, cross over and enter the chambers of the Voice.

Kulag the Fallen

One of the tribe's elder warriors has already been corrupted by Jormag, and informs you that the Voice is now the prey of the Huntsman. She has already fled the chamber, and you are left to face him.

Kulag can be a pretty tough fight, especially for melee. His biggest threat are the multiple ice spikes he places all around the tight chambers that he is within. You'll see multiply stacked AOE rings, and once they land, they leave a frozen patch that continues to do both damage over time as well as re-apply chill over time. We found that, surprisingly enough, ranged can stand just at the bottom of the stairs where you enter the room and hit him safely throughout the battle, and mostly avoid the rings altogether. If melee fight him in the center of the room, you'll notice the AOE rings are typically one side of the room or the other. Dodge roll forward or towards the opposite ramp from the one you're fighting on, away from the AOE rings. I would not suggest ranged move into the room and spread about the back sides of the room, as the AOE ice spikes will literally go all the way to the walls.

After you defeat Kulag, you go back the way you came, and back across the bridge. A champion Icebrood Goliath awaits you on the other side, and a few lieutenants. Make sure everyone gets across the bridge double time, and fight him in the area on the opposite side of the bridge.

Hirvela the Lost

Entering the next area will bring you back into the Gallery of Peace, and into the chambers of Hirvela the Lost - another one of the tribe elders that has been corrupted by Jormag. Are you sensing a theme here? Kulag the Fallen, Hirvela the Lost? Yes well you're right. Both of our groups found Hirvela to be an easy fight. You can melee him down safely, in fact this is a fight where the more melee the better, as he reflects projectiles, though honestly that wasn't much of a problem for us (our rangers just kept at it). He does place conditions, so condition removal is useful. At around 20% he will change forms, and become an Ice Beast. Just keep wailing on him and he'll go down quickly.

Once you defeat Hirvela, you go through and down and around a narrow icy staircase, past a waypoint (yay!), and into a large icy chamber. Across the floor of the chamber are groups of icy stalagmites - don't step on these. Against the opposite wall is an ice door, and two torches. As you near the torches, a number of icebrood trash mobs, including several elites, will spawn. Light the torches, and then deal with the trash. While you're fighting the trash, the door will melt away. The important thing here is that just beyond the door are more groups of trash waiting for you, so be sure to not back through the door while you're fighting, and accidentally aggro the mobs waiting there. While you're fighting these mobs, pay attention to the giant ice paths they lay across the floor. Those things will explode, and not only knock you back, but do a ton of damage. You can easily find yourself quickly downed by one of those. As is always the case with these groups, be sure and call targets and make sure your group focuses on one elite at a time. Those guys can be surprisingly resilient.

Once you've taken out the trash in the large chamber, pull the Elite Icebrood Hunters that await beyond the door through the door, and take them out (along with the non-elite trash that comes with them).

Lani Winterfist

As you enter the next room, past some wooden columns, Lani Winterfist will scream something about you being too late, and flee the room and head into the next room - through a short corridor lined with ice turrets. Obviously, don't follow him. There are six turrets that line that corridor. Use ranged to take out the first two. Then use ranged to pull the trash mobs that lie just beyond, and Lani will come with them. Pull Lani back into the room in which you're in, and fight him there. That way you're out of the line of fire of the turrets, plus this room is larger and you have more room to dodge and to kite Lani around.

Lani is a tough opponent. He has a massive AOE attack that does decent damage. He melees and hits quite hard, and he has a ice-breath AOE-cone attack. Avoid the AOE rings, dodge out of his big windup attacks, and avoid his ice-breath. All the while you're fighting him, non-elite trash mobs will spawn and join the fight. The nice thing about the trash mobs is they make good revive mobs. If you find yourself downed, see if you can find a trash mob close to death near you and target him and try to down him to get back up. In all likelihood one or more of your party will go down in this fight. Have one person kite Lani around, or use a pet to keep him busy, and get your crew back up. This is a very active fight - lots of movement. Stay on your toes!

The Voice, the Huntsman, and His Pet

Once you defeat Lani, you'll enter the Sanctum of Justice, and at last, find the Voice. Sadly though, you are too late, and The Huntsman (with terrible voice-over dialogue) transforms him, and you must fight him. Sadly for the Voice, as far as boss mobs go, he's cake. Just DPS him down. It doesn't take long, and save your big cooldowns for the next fight.

Upon the loss of the Voice, the Claw feels that he has failed. But Eir recognizes that you only lose the fight if you refuse to fight on - and in a flash of inspiration draws parallels from the Claw's loss to her own situation, and in doing so finds the strength to carry on the fight to kill the dragon! Thank the gods!

For the Huntsman and his pet, have most of your party just wait in the room where they killed the Voice. Have one person move into the chamber, trigger the the short cheesy dialogue for the Hunstman, who will in turn summon his pet - Bane's Teeth. Target Bane's Teeth, and pull him all the way back to the room where you fought the Voice. The Hunstman will (should) drop aggro, and stay in his chamber, allowing you to focus down Bane's Teeth alone. Even if he doesn't, focus on Bane's Teeth first. Bane's Teeth is a drake, and has that drake PBAOE knockback attack they all share. Additionally his breath attack leaves an AOE poison pool on the floor that remains for some time. Stay out of the poison, use stability if you have it, and get him down. Then return to the chamber and finish The Hunstman - Kodan's Bane.

It's possible to pull the Hunstman from his chamber as well, back into that same room, and it's a good strategy. If you fight him in his room, you are fighting on a giant deck, and in the icy waters below the deck are a half dozen - that's right.. a half dozen champion ice sharks. So you do not want to fall in. As this is an active fight, pulling him back out of the room means you can just avoid the worries about the sharks.

Supid Birds!

The Huntsman has some powerful melee attacks - but they are preceded by pretty big windups, so you can generally avoid them. By far though his most annoying ability is that he summons flocks of birds that latch on to you, and drain a ton of your health. You can evade roll and reduce some of the damage when they get on you, but mostly you just need to save your big #6 heal for when the birds get off of you and pop it as soon as they do. Additionally, he places boons on himself often, so boon removal is a plus. If you have a mesmer in your group, Arcane Thievery combined with Signet of Inspiration will rip those boons right off of him and then give them to everyone in your party. Extremely handy!

And you're done! Watch the final cutscene, collect your loots, and take the prerequisite screenshot at the end of the dungeon! One final tip - don't go after the sharks! We did, just for fun. They have zero loot, and are far more trouble than they're worth.

Until next time, Good Hunting!

Someone's Stealing my Content

noreply@blogger.com (Dusty Monk) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 13:17:00 +0000

This'll be a short post. When I stopped hosting this site on my own, and switched it over to blogger, I let the original domain name for the site expire. It was immediately picked up by one of those domain name squatting companies. No biggie I thought, it's not like I was making a huge amount of money off of the domain name.

But now I see that whoever is using the domain name is now also copying my blog content and reproducing it at their location. Not all of my content, apparently, but they have some of my oldest articles, and they have my most recent article, complete with photos linked directly back to my blogger site.

I'm not sure exactly how to proceed. I'm going to start with contacting the hosting company and asking them to cease and desist. And if that doesn't work, maybe file a complaint with the DMCA. If you have suggestions, thoughts, or comments, please feel free to comment below.

In the mean time, please update your links to the link above, and to delete any references you might have in Reader or anywhere else to the original domain name. I actually discovered this yesterday when I noticed my twitter profile was still linking to the old original domain name, and I followed the link and discovered to my surprise most of my content.

An Update to this - 3/14/13

I left a message at the number listed at the domain registry asking the owner to take down the content. Within minutes I received a text reply saying they would pull the content down today. So there ya go. Hopefully they'll follow through, but I appreciated the quick reply, and am glad to see that people are willing to do the right thing.

Nike Kinect Training

noreply@blogger.com (Dusty Monk) — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:58:00 +0000

So you're thinking.. what the hell is an article on Nike Kinect Training doing here amidst what has become pretty much an entirely Guild Wars 2 blog! Well it's still a game, technically, and it's something I'm doing. And as I've spent no small amount of time trying out various exercise games and programs, thought I'd write up some comments on why I've settled on this one.

First, make no mistake, I'm no fitness guru. In fact, just the opposite. I'm a 47 year old white male who leads a largely sedentary lifestyle. I'm 6'4" tall, and weigh 225 lbs, and that puts me in the overweight category. Not hugely so, thank you very much, but still not ideal. And like most everyone I know, from time to time I get fits of enthusiasm for getting into some sort of shape, and for me, the most direct route to do that is to adopt some sort of morning exercise program.

A Brief History of Exercise (Attempts)
Over the years, I've tried a number fitness games for both the Wii and the Xbox. Here's a short list:

Wii Fit
NFL Training Camp (for Wii)
EA Sports Active 2 (for Wii)
Kinect Your Shape Fitness Evolved
Biggest Loser Ultimate Workout
and Nike Kinect Training

I know right? It's like a mini hobby of mine. My wife just rolls her eyes. And the thing is, for all of these, I gave them serious consideration, with jaunts that lasted weeks at a time.

How I Evaluate
So when I'm using one of these things, there are really just two major considerations. The first is Can I Tolerate the Workout Environment. And that may seem a bit superficial, and I suppose it is, but for me it's important. The setting that you workout in, the voice, style, and presentation of your coach and/or trainer, how you are presented in the program, and just the general style of the program. One of the reason I quit Wii Fit was that it was just too cutesy, too coddling. And NFL Training Camp, with being coached by NFL stars, and working out in NFL stadiums was, for me at least, awesome!

But the absolute main evaluating point is simply this: How well does it recognize your exercises. More than anything else, this is the absolute override factor in whether or not I will use and continue to use these programs. If the recognition is too generous, then you end up sitting on the floor drinking a beer while the program congratulates you on a Job Well Done and Way to Kill That Routine. But worse by far is when the program fails to recognizes your repetitions. Nothing will kill your drive and will to work out more than doing the exercise, but having the program fail to recognize that you've done it. When you art struggling for the eighth push-up, and you do it, and that rep counter doesn't recognize it.. so you do it again.. and it's still saying "Keep your back straight" or whatever, or "Let's get started!" and you have started already, well it's quite likely a controller-throwing rage inducement moment.

The Has Beens
So before Nike Kinect Training came out, my favorite program was NFL Training Camp (for the Wii, not the Kinect). It had a couple of great things going for it. First, it came with the EA Sports Active sensors, which consist of a leg sensor and an arm sensor that you strapped on. These did a decent enough job of recognizing your routines, and as a bonus, the arm sensor was also a heart rate monitor. That, combined with the Wii Fit board meant that the program has a truly accurate representation of your weight and your heart rate, and thus calorie calculations where spot on. But EA discontinued NFL Training Camp in 2009, and so now the teams, players, and stadiums are all dated. Furthermore, even with the sensors, NFL Training Camp would often struggle with recognition. It was worse with two players, but even with one, some routines it just simply couldn't read.

But I really wanted something that would work on the Kinect. Unfortunately though, everything I tried, until Nike Kinect Training, just fell short. With Biggest Loser, you had the double negative of the fact that you were playing something called Biggest Loser (never mind that the show is a hit. I've never watched the show and have absolutely no interest in it), and the fact that your avatar in the game was a paunchy, scary looking person shaped in a realistic fashion (who exercises with these things and wants to actually see an overweight representation of themselves, regardless of how accurate it is?). But I bought the program anyway, because in the demo it did a damn good job of recognizing my routines. But once I got into the program, and as soon as you started doing routines on the floor, it would stop recognizing your activities - either giving completely false positives, or utterly failing to recognize successes. And at the time it came out, it probably had the best exercise recognition of the Kinect programs.

Nike Kinect Rules
And that's where Nike Kinect comes in. Make no mistake - Nike Kinect Training has the best exercise recognition going for it on the Kinect right now. It has lots of other stuff too. It provides a nice variety of workout environments that aren't too clean and sterile (I'm looking at you Your Shape). It lets you select a primary goal (strength, endurance, or weight loss), and then tailors a workout program based on that goal, and it doesn't ask you to pick your own exercises. You just show up, and follow the trainer through your routine. Which for me, is perfect. But the absolute best thing, the thing that makes it a keeper, is that Kinect, after years of failures, finally delivers on it's promise. And does so for just about every exercise it presents. In three weeks of use, only one exercise, during one routine, did it fail to read what I thought it should read. And the nice thing is that, for those cases when it isn't reading quite right, you can switch to a timed routine instead of a number of reps routine, so that you can still continue with the routine and get credit for it.

Now Nike Kinect isn't perfect. For me, actually, the biggest detractor is that the trainers' models run right square into the uncanny valley, with too much of an attempt to model the real life professional trainers that they represent too accurately. But the voice acting is excellent, and the way in which the trainers demo the exercises is spot on. You get a nice variety of drills, with no fluff, presented in an appealing environment.

In short - If you can get past the uncanny valley trainers, Nike Kinect Trainer offers the absolute best exercise routine for the Kinect right now. Or to wax a bit cliche..

Just Do It.

Guild Wars 2 Casual 80 - Runes & Trinkets

noreply@blogger.com (Dusty Monk) — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 14:37:00 +0000

So in my previous casual 80 article, I talked about evaluating your options for getting your first full set of exotic armor, and setting some goals based on that. Once you get your armor, well then what? Well that leaves upgrading your armor, filling out your trinkets, and getting your hands on some sweet weapons. I'll save weapons for yet another post, and this morning we'll talk a bit about filling out your trinkets and selecting armor upgrades.

Armor Upgrades

So you've got your 6 pieces of exotic armor, and you know you want to upgrade them, but you're faced with a confusing array of terminology and stats, and no clear direction on how to get what you want. I spent quite a bit of time reading up on this myself, and it took me some time to make sense of it all. As such, I can't for a minute profess to be an expert, so if any of my information here is incorrect or incomplete, please feel free to (politely) correct me in the comments.

First, to be clear, for this article I'm talking about armor and trinket upgrades only - not weapon upgrades. They use their own system of upgrades. However, it is important to distinguish between armor and trinkets as well, as the rules for updating them are slightly different. Let's talk about armor first.

Your six armor slots (head, shoulders, chest, pants, gloves & feet) can take one of three different upgrades: Runes, Gemstones, or Crests.

Gemstones

In researching upgrades for my own character, I discovered an important, semantic distinction. It's easy to refer to both gemstones and jewels for upgrading interchangeably, but there is actually an important difference. Gemstones can be used to upgrade both armor and trinkets. Jewels, the crafted, upgraded version of a gemstone, can only be used to upgrade trinkets. So - gemstones can go in any slot, jewels only in trinket slots.

Gemstones follow the standard three stat upgrade model, offering a major stat of +20 (or +3%) upgrade, and two minor stats a +14 (or +2%) stat upgrade. A comparison table of gemstone upgrades can be found here.

I went with Runeof the Infiltrator for additional
Shatter Damage

Runes

Runes are a bit different. Runes offer a cumulative upgrade for each successive piece you place in a piece of armor. So place one Rune of the Eagle in one piece of armor, and you get +25 precision. Add a second Rune of the Eagle to another piece of armor, and you'll get the +25 precision and the +3% condition damage. In general, the thing you're paying attention to is that 6th piece bonus. It's usually a cool ability or proc, and offers the chance to make your character interesting and distinctive - as well as just being damn useful. Say you want precision and critical damage. You could slot Ruby Orbs, which will load you up with power, precision damage, and critical damage. Or you could slot six Runes of the Golemancer, which will also grant you precision and critical damage, but also a 5% chance to summon a golem. You could be a sylvari ranger that also summons golems! How cool is that? Here is the list of runes, ordered by major attribute.

Crests

Crests, for all intents and purposes, are just gemstones by a different name. That is, they can be placed in both armor and trinket slots, and they offer the standard trio of stat upgrades - one major, and 2 minor. The nice thing about crests is that they offer stat combinations not available in gemstones. Here's a great table that compares the stat allocations available for both gemstones and crests, together.

Which to Choose?

It's actually really difficult to make an apples to apples comparison between the benefits of runes versus the benefits of gemstones, but that doesn't keep people from trying. (Coincidentally, that forum post is a classic example of a person saying Jewels when they mean Gemstone.) If you're looking for pure stat upgrades, gemstones will give you the most stats for your money. This is especially true considering that gemstones are typically much cheaper than their closest rune equivalent. But runes offer some incredibly useful and interesting abilities that are not available in any other way. For instance, I myself, for my mesmer, slotted Six Runes of Infiltration, which only grant me a paltry +50 to precision, but more importantly, a total of +10% damage to foes below 50% health, and I cloak when my health falls below 50%. As I typically shatter foes when they are close to death, this just makes my shatter that much more powerful. And an automatic cloak when close to death is just useful for both PvE and PvP. So my advice is to read over the big list of runes, and see if there's something there that catches your eye, and seems appealing. But if you prefer the hard reliability of a straight up stat increase, then by all means save some money and slot out in gemstones or crests.

How to Get?

You're most likely going to just straight up buy your runes or gemstones off of the trading post. It's certainly the easiest (if not the most efficient) means of acquisition. But anyone can go out and gather gemstones, so it's certainly feasible to collect those. And crests are found in chests fairly often. Runes can be salvaged out of armor drops, though superior runes don't drop terribly often. Additionally, runes can be crafted by 400 level armorsmiths, leatheworkers, and tailors - but each of those professions can only craft a small subset. However, if say you're an elementalist, and the Rune of the Elementalist looks to be exactly what you'd like, you quite likely already have 400 tailoring - so no reason not to craft your own.

Trinkets
So you got your six pieces of armor and thought you were done? Pffft! You still have six more piece of armor to fill out - those easily overlooked trinket slots on the right hand side of your character sheet! For trinkets you have one back piece, one amulet, two accessories (usually earrings, but not always), and two rings. And selecting trinkets is a bit problematic, as they don't really advertise them in sets like they do armor (though as we'll see they actually are offered in some sets).

Ascended gear now available for Laurels

Ascended Gear
The most important thing to know about trinkets right now is that the best in slot gear are the ascended trinkets. Ascended gear was introduced in the Lost Shores patch, along with the Fractals Dungeon. They offer a slight upgrade over their closest equivalent exotic, and because they don't have a normal upgrade slot, the upgrade stats (ie., those that would typically come from the jewel commonly crafted into the upgrade) are built right into the piece. When you're selecting Ascended gear, it's important to pay attention to the type of Infusion slot that the piece has. In the shopping list at the merchant, you'll see three pieces that seem to offer identical stats, but the difference between them is the type of slot. It will typically be an offensive slot, a defensive slot, or a utility slot. These types, in turn, determine the type of Infusion Upgrade that you can place in that slot. I know - don't ask me, I don't design this stuff I just report it. But you don't want to spend your hard-earned Laurels or Pristine Fractal Relics and get something that you didn't intend. One more important thing about the ascended gear - if a piece is marked as unique, they mean it. You can't equip two of the Red Ring of Death, no matter how much you might want to.

Acquiring Ascended Gear
Currently ascended items are only available for the back slot, the amulet slot, and rings. Until the recent introduction of Laurels, you could only acquire these pieces by running the Fractals dungeon, in Lion's Arch. And in fact, for the back piece, it is still only available through Fractal dungeon runs. The somewhat convoluted path of converting fractal relics into ascended gear is left as an exercise for the reader, but suffice it to say it requires much running of those Fractals. However, ArenaNet realized that not everyone wants to run dungeons every day, so they introduced ascended amulets and Laurels in the Frost and Fire Prelude patch. Now you can purchase ascended amulets and rings from the Laurel vendors, as well as infusion upgrades to go into the slots of that new gear. Just see the second and third tabs at the Laurel vendor. The pieces typically range in price from 30 to 35 laurels for each piece. Which, isn't chicken feed, but for no more than the price of logging in a bit and doing your daily achievements, you can over time be rewarded with the very best gear in slot for those pieces, which I think is a fair trade.

What about Exotic?
So the ascended gear is, indeed the best in slot, but that's really more of a long term goal. For now, you should be concentrated on putting some exotics on those ears and around your neck. And in truth, no one is going to yell at you for not having ascended gear unless you're in the upper echelons of fractal dungeon runs, and if you're doing that you're no longer remotely a casual 80, and this guide is useless to you anyway.

Exotic trinkets can be acquired most easily through the trading post, or crafted by your favorite level 400 jeweler. Back pieces are available in a variety of ways, and seem to be a favorite reward of the designers for completing holiday event achievements. Spending some time perusing the trading post is a great way of seeing the kinds of stuff that's available, but because there are so many unique trinkets that drop from loot, it can be a somewhat time consuming and daunting task.

Trinket Sets
So though they really aren't advertised as trinket sets, sets are what they are. You can collect a set of trinkets that have exactly the stats you want in one of two ways. The first, and most versatile, are the crafted sets. Though you can't fill the back slot, you can get a matched set of every other piece from the level 400 crafted pieces. Refer here for a list of the various pieces the jeweler can craft for you, and that you can in turn find on the trading post for sale. So for instance, say you're looking for Berserker stats (Power, Precision, and Critical Damage). Then you want the Ruby Orchalcum Blank of the Berserker, where Blank is one each of an amulet, two earrings, and two rings. It should be noted though that the jewelers are pretty proud of these pieces, and they'll run on the average from about 2 to 5 gold per piece.

Another option though, are the karma trinkets. Each of the karma merchants at the various temples in the Orrian zones (Dwayna, Grenth, etc) offer a full set (including a back piece) of exotic trinkets with the stats that are associated with that deity So for instance if you visit the Temple of Balthazar in the Straits of Devastion, and talk to tactician Deathstrider, you can purchase a full set of Cavalier trinkets, which offer Toughness, Power, and Critical Damage in each slot. One of the really nice things about these pieces as they come with empty upgrade slots, so you can still augment them further with the jewel of your choice. This is the route I took, by the way, for my trinkets, outfitting a full set of Rabid trinkets upgraded with Emeralds, augmenting my toughness and precision in all of my trinket slots.

Now these trinkets aren't cheap - each one is the same price as a piece of Karma Armor - 42,000 karma. So to outfit in a full set of these trinkets you'll spend as much as you would for a full set of armor - 252,000 karma. But as we already know, with daily and monthly achievements offering karma jugs, it's pretty easy to accumulate a truck load of karma. Here is a list of the six temples and their merchants. You can view each of these to see if they offer a set with a stat combination that you like.

And that pretty much wraps up my discussion of upgrades and trinkets. They're not quite as easily packaged as the armor pieces are, as there are so many options and different pieces. But hopefully you now have a better understanding of the options available to you to fill out those six slots, and some goals to work towards to finish out your equipment. Comments, questions and additions are welcome below!

Guild Wars 2 - Gettin' Your Daily On

noreply@blogger.com (Dusty Monk) — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 16:25:00 +0000

So in the most recent round of patches at the end of January, ArenaNet introduced some changes to the Daily Achievement. And, as often is the case when change is introduced, if you were to spend any time on the Guild Wars 2 forums, well the new changes have done nothing less than destroy the game! For whatever reason, I haven't found the new dailies all that onerous, and I actually like the fact that I want to spend some time thinking about how to satisfy them.

But it is true that you do actually have to pursue them. The new dailies aren't going to complete themselves in the typical process of just running around a zone completing renown hearts and doing dynamic events. So to assist in that, I thought I'd put up some suggestions for how to complete some of the more challenging daily achievements. Oh and to give credit where it's due, these aren't all my own suggestions - but are gathered from a number of threads and responses I've come across in both G+ and various fan sites.

Daily Healer
To achieve Daily Healer you have to revive 10 allies. To achieve this, I myself have even resorted to some cheesy tactics, like paring up with a pal and throwing ouselves off a cliff so the other can revive us at the bottom, or escorting some NPC's and letting the monsters kill the NPC's so I could revive them. But honestly those types of tactics aren't at all necessary. There are a wide variety of places you can go where fallen allies are in abundance, and you can get your 10 ally revives in no time at all. Here's a few:

Seraph Observers Waypoint, Brisbane Wildlands
This little outpost at Brisbane Wildland's northernmost waypoint is pretty much under constant bandit attack. At any given time, when you walk into this camp, you can almost be assured that most everyone is down and in need of revivement. But there are bandits aplenty here, so be prepared to take out the trash before you get to the task of reviving.

Oldgate Waypoint, Diessa Plateau
These old ascalon ruins are littered with ghosts.. and with Iron Legion soldiers that are constantly being defeated by said ghosts. They won't necessarily show up on your minimap, but if you wonder around the ruins, you can likely find ten allies to revive in a relatively short time. Diessa Plateau is in general a great place to do your daily revive. The village of Nageling is constantly under attack, and the road from Nageling to Butcher's Block is littered with hunters and farmers that have fallen to the many worms that line both sides of the road.

Hunting Lodge, Queensdale
The hunters around the hunter's lodge have their hands full. The numerous boars, wasps, and spiders that litter the forest make it a dangerous place, and they're often in need of being revived. What makes the Hunter's Lodge especially attractive are those Dire Boars that litter the surrounding woods, which I'll discuss below.

Those are just a couple of places that have been suggested or that I've come across that seem really good for finding folks to revive. But for the most part, getting 10 revives isn't hard at all, just find any outpost or encampment that's often contested, (Hirathi Hinterlands anyone?), and you'll find plenty of allies to revive.

Daily Veteran Slayer
A lot of people are up in arms about this one because they claim that it reduces your chance to solo. From my own personal experience, in taking three difference classes to 80, and five classes to level 40, I've never encountered a single class that couldn't easily handle solo veteran mobs of my level by level 10. But when you're faced with completin this requirement, you're all Man, I know I've seen some veteran mobs.. but where can I find some reliably? Here's a few places:

Hunting Lodge, Queensdale
So while you're reviving hunters around the hunting lodge, you'll find plenty of Veteran Dire Boars roaming the woods as well. Now make no mistake, these guys hit hard, but Queensdale is usually very well populated, so you'll likely find some help, and these guys are in plentiful supply.

Godslost Swamp, Queensdale
Another fine location in Queensdale is the swamp. Find a portal, run over to it, destroy it and the few mobs around it, and voila! You'll often be rewarded with a level 15 to 16 veteran Aatxe. They're pretty easy to kill, and you can fulfill your requirement in almost no time.

Hidden Garden, Mount Maelstrom
This one isn't quite as reliable as some of the other places, as the entrance to the garden may or may not be active when you pop over there. But it pops up pretty often, and in my own experience, it's typically there more often than it's not. I usually pop over to the Criterion Waypoint, and go a short ways southeast from there. There are two veteran mobs you kill to activate the entrance, and then once you're in the entrance, there are plenty of veteran earth elementals standing around the lower part of the zone, easy to pull off by themselves and pretty easy to kill. Have at it!

Again there are tons of veteran mobs in plenty of supply littered around the zones, so just do yourself a favor, and the next time you come across a couple of them, jot down the location! You only have to kill five to satisfy the requirement, and having your own favorite location will make this event short duty.

Daily Dodger
So Daily Dodger was the only new requirement that really gave me a bit of a hard time trying to complete. That is, until a friend of mine reminded me that dodging catapult landings satisfies the requirement! So to complete Daily Dodger, just find any location with catapults! Don't worry, stand quietly, wait for the redcircle, count a few beats, and dodge just as the rock is about to land. There are a variety of locations with catapults scattered about the zones.

Overlords' Great Camp, Kessex Hills
One great location is this camp. Simply pop in a Halacon Waypoint, head south, and stand around just outside the perimeter of the camp. In short time you'll be surrounded by red rings, dodging out of the way, and completing your requirement.

Vale Waypoint, Queensdale
If you don't like dodging trebuchet shots, then your next best bet is any mob with a long, slow windup attack. Ettins are great mob for this, and there's a group easy to get to just north of the Vale Waypoint in Queensdale. Also, any of the centaur snipers have long windups that are easy to avoid. And of course, there's Risen Brutes, of which you'll find no shortage of in any of the Orr zones.

Daily Crafter
Daily crafter is what it is, it's pretty obvious. But the only thing I wanted to say about this is that remember that converting refined goods counts for "crafting an item". So even if you don't want to build anything, chances are you have some quantity of low level logs, leather, or cloth that you can refine 10 of to get your fastest, easiest route to daily crafter.

I hope that helps a bit in finishing off some of those dailies. As is the case of all things, it really boils down to a matter of respective. You can view it as a chore, or you can view it as something new and interesting to go and do, the choice is really up to you. These are just a few locations that I've come across, and there are tons more. If you have your own favorite spot that you have found to satisfy a requirement, please add it in the comments below!

Until then, Good Hunting!

Victory at Last

noreply@blogger.com (Dusty Monk) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 17:24:00 +0000

So it's been only, what, six months now since the game has released, and just last night I finally finished my personal story with one of my characters. I gathered four brave companions.. okay two brave companions and two complete strangers, but still, five of us ventured into the lost city of Arah, and took the fight to Zhaitan himself. The ensuing experience was both extraordinarily gratifying while at the same time somewhat disappointing.

I'm going to post just a few screenshots from the dungeon here in the blog, and none of the dragon himself. In story mode, I think a huge part of my gratification comes from actually seeing Zhaitan, and brother do they do a fantastic job of presenting him. However, I'll also put up a public album with all of my screenshots from the dungeon, so if you don't mind spoilers and just want to see what you're in for, you can head on over to the album.

The Good
I didn't participate in the dungeon of Arah before the most recent round of balance changes, and the introduction of the new waypoint change, so I can't speak to how the dungeon originally was. For us, last night, overall it felt fairly well balanced. I took the time beforehand to read up on the boss fights, just to have an idea of what to expect, and was really glad I did. I think we would have sussed out what was going on fairly quickly anyway - none of the boss fights were particularly crazy or obscure in their mechanics, but not having to spend that time figuring it out, and just going into the fight knowing somewhat what to expect allowed us to get through the entire dungeon without a full party wipe - though we did get mighty close at one point.

During the second half of the last part of the dungeon there are quite a few cinematic moments - and they are, in a word - fantastic. Seriously. My entire family stopped what they were doing and started watching during this part. Your jaw will drop. I know mine did. I also very nearly died a number of times turning off my interface and trying to get some good screenshots during the battles, lol.

The Not So Good
So this next part is a bit spoilery, but here goes. The last battle - the battle against Zhaitan himself - the culmination of the entire story - is a complete and utter disappointment. Granted, the designers are faced with a monumental task. How do you tackle the idea of battling a creature the size of a Manhattan and bringing it down in such a way that seems even the least bit reasonable. Well, having watched my son do raid after raid against Deathwing, participating in giant battles on the back of the dragon himself, tearing out corrupted scales while beasts and demons erupted from the dragon's corruption itself to thwart the group - I gotta say, in the battle of the dragons, WoW wins hands down here. To defeat Zhaitan, you and your group of heroes are reduced to cannoneers - doing what any Bloodcoast Pirate could do, pushing a single button over and over until the dragon is dead. The worst part, is that you're not even using your abilities and skills. Yeah, the things that you spent the last 80 levels developing and honing. No, to defeat Zhaitan you just need to fire a cannon. My son, watching, threw up his hand and walked away in disgust, and quite honestly I couldn't blame him. It's a disappointing ending for what is otherwise a fantastic dungeon.

In Retrospect
The hardest part about finishing your personal storyline, is, to be honest, putting together a group to do it with. I think it was a mistake to require a group to finish your personal storyline, when the other 99.9% of it you did solo - in fact was encouraged to do solo, as you couldn't simultaneously complete other player's personal story quests even if you wanted to. But I'm not the first to say so, and it is what it is. And once you do get a group together, overall the experience is a lot of fun. It's challenging without being impossible. And the amount of gratification you feel for completing it - not to mention the awesome victory celebration and cinematics you receive upon the conclusion - more than make up for the somewhat disappointing final boss fight. So don't let that deter you from doing the quest. As soon as you can get there, I encourage you to put together a group, and do it. I think, overall, you won't be disappointed.

One other final thought. Last night I went back and re-read my posts from when I finished the Nightfall campaign and the Eye of the North campaign in Guild Wars 1. And I was reminded that this is a kinder, gentler ArenaNet. And despite what some may say, I believe overall that this is a good thing. The next to last mission in the Nightfall campaign I must have attempted at least some 20 times. And that was with reading every guide I could get my hands on and trying a variety of hero and skill builds. I have yet to encounter anything in Guild Wars 2 as tough as that mission was. The story line ins Guild Wars 2 is made for ordinary people - people like you and me - to actually be able to complete. And that's a good thing. If you haven't yet, I encourage you to give it a shot.

If you wish to view the entire album, you may do so here.

Guild Wars 2 Casual Solo - Armor at 80

noreply@blogger.com (Dusty Monk) — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 14:16:00 +0000

So you're level 80. Now what? If you've been doing dungeons, or participating extensively in WvW and sPvP, you quite likely already know what to do. You're just going to keep doing what you've been doing, and get some great gear in the process of doing it. But what if you're like me? What if you're a casual player, that mostly plays solo, who's reached level 80 purely through the process of just playing along, completing renown hearts and dynamic events, with maybe a bit of crafting? You know you want to improve your character, but you're not entirely clear on just exactly where to go and what to do. There are a myriad of choices and options available, but it's all just a confusing mess. Do I grind dungeons now? Should I be farming orichalcum? How do I get a crazy weapon? In this post I'm going to attempt to sort out some of your options, and hopefully give you some hints on how to get started.

So most likely you'll want to gear your character up a bit. This means better armor and better weapons. I personally, would focus on armor first. While having a super cool weapon and doing crazy damage is the sexy choice, it's been my experience that in general, you should focus on survivability and defense before you get teh deeps. Plus you'll get more of an overall benefit by having a full set of exotic armor than you will just by equipping new weapons.

How Armor Works
So the discussion on exactly how ArenaNet's armor ratings and stat allocation works is worthy of an entire blog itself, and fortunately quite a few of them have already been written. I highly recommend this guide as a fairly exhaustive guide on armor and stat allocations. I'm going to give you the very short version. What you need to know is that, at level 80, exotic gear is still pretty much the best in slot, stat-wise. Recently ArenaNet introduced ascended gear, and it offers some slight improvements over exotic pieces. Currently there are only rings and backpacks are offered in an ascended form, though they have promised more ascended pieces are to come. The ascended pieces are intended to give you something to work towards after you've outfitted all your exotics, so for now my recommendation is just to not worry about them.

The other thing to know is that all exotic armor (with a very few exceptions) will offer three stats - one primary, and two secondary. The sum total benefit of those three stat values is the same for any particular piece. The only difference is how those stats are allocated.* So you can pretty much rest assured that any particular piece of exotic armor is is just as good as any other piece of exotic armor. All you have to do is to decide which stat combination you want for your character.

Acquisition
For this decision, let this chart be your guide. As you can see, for each armor set available in the game, it gives you the name of the armor set, the stat combination, and more importantly, how you get it. And that's the key thing to realize. Where you go to get your armor will depend on what stat combinations you want on the armor. I'll talk briefly about each of the choices.

Crafting
This is probably the easiest way to get your armor - it's the way I got mine. Getting to 400 in your armorsmithing profession of choice isn't too bad. With a good guide, you can reach 400 without bankrupting yourself. Once you get to 400, I suggest making a shopping list. You'll have to buy the recipe for the insignia of choice from the Master Armorsmithing vendor for your profession - it costs 896 karma - a pittance. But then you'll need to gather up all the ingredients for the insignias and armor pieces, and that's going to cost a pretty penny. So take inventory of what you have, figure out what you'll need (that's right.. 30 globs of ectoplasm), and how much you need to acquire. For my armor, it was about 12 gold total. I had just finished crafting my rare set of armor, so I was pretty much flat broke at the time. It took me about three weeks of just logging in and playing a little a night, and selling much of what I found on the trading post to get me to 15 gold. Your mileage may vary, of course, but you can accumulate that gold over a pretty short time just by playing the game. One thing that can really help is getting zone complete for any of the Orrian zones or other level 80 zones. Zone complete will grant you a couple of exotic pieces that you quite likely won't be able to use. Put those up on the TP - even if they're not level 80, they'll sell for anywhere between 1.5 to 5 gold.

Karma
Various karma merchants around the world offer full sets of karma gear. At first, blush, the price for these karma pieces will seem.. insane. But nowadays, getting karma is actually pretty easy, and the nice thing is, again, you can acquire it just by doing what you already are doing - playing the game. Your main route for getting karma is the Jug of Karma that is now awarded at the completion of doing your daily achievement. And with the most recent patch, those achievements vary from day to day, which keeps it fresh and interesting. And you now get laurels, which are also awesome, so there's even more reason to just log in from day to day and play the game. The key to remember about Jugs of Karma is to not consume them when you get them. Save them up, and either buy or wait until you have a karma booster. Each Jug of Karma awards 4,500 karma, unmodified. However, when you combine a karma booster, guild karma booster, and consume some ice cream, you can achieve a total of 7,875 karma per jug. An entire suit of armor costs 252,000 karma. That means, with enhancements, you can have all the karma you need with as few as 32 jugs of karma. And you quite likely aren't starting from zero karma.

Dungeons
If you're casual solo like me, it's quite likely dungeons aren't your thing. But with the most recent changes to dungeons, they're actually not too bad. But if you're looking for a particular combination of stats (or appearance), there's nothing for it but to figure out which dungeon has the armor you want, start hollaring for a group (or organize a group with your friends) and get after it. A full set will cost 1200 tokens from the dungeon of choice. The first run of each path per day awards 60 tokens. The subsequent run that day will award 20, and there are diminishing returns after that. That's at least 20 runs of the dungeon to acquire the full armor set. With a regular group, that's actually not too bad.

Loot & WvW
Well those speak for themselves, and I won't go into too much detail here. Loot pieces essentially equate to "Buy on Trading Post", and your price may (will) vary. Doing WvW grants you Badges of Honor, and you use them to buy your WvW armor. It'll cost you 1889 Badges of Honor to buy your entire set.

Deciding on a Look
Of course, if you're like me, you're quite likely to want two sets of armor. One for the stats, and another for the looks. Thanks to Guild Wars excellent transmutation system you can make any armor piece look like any other piece of the same type. There are a ton of videos and sites out there for reviewing armor sets by their appearance. There are two great sites I recommend for this: Guild Wars 2 Armor Gallery, and GW2Armor. Head over there, and start shopping the racks for the appearance that suits you best!

So there you have it. By now you should have a good idea of how to figure out which armor you want, the goals you have for acquiring it, and how to get after getting it. And the very cool thing of course is that it is entirely possible for a casual solo-er like myself to acquire best-in-slot pieces, doing just what I like to do - play the game. Of course, armor is only one part of it. You still have trinket decisions, runes to put in that newly created armor, and of course weapons. But those can wait for future blogs. In the mean time, hope this helps get you on your way to getting some sweet gear for your freshly minted level 80 character.

*In the interest of absolute accuracy, I feel compelled to mention that the ratio of percentage points you get for boon duration, condition duration, critical damage, and magic find to points you get in the other flat stats are slightly different from piece to piece. If you want to make the best comparisons for what you gain and give up by swapping out a piece that offers critical damage as the secondary stat versus say, toughness, refer to this table.

Keepin' it Fresh - GW2 Dual Sword Mesmer Build

noreply@blogger.com (Dusty Monk) — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:45:00 +0000

So it's been a few weeks since my last post. Three, to be exact, but that's not for lack of something to write. There have been a ton of exciting news announcements and things going on - especially with respect to Guild Wars 2 - I've just been too tired to lazy to get off my duff and write about them. And too, I was feeling a bit of gamer malaise. I took some time off from Guild Wars 2, just because I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do next with Syrene - my level 80 mesmer. But after dabbling in a few other games, I came back, and came to the realization I'd been playing this scepter & sword phantasm build for like - forever. Maybe it was time to change things up a bit.

Changing up your build from time to time is a good idea for a couple of reasons. First, it does indeed freshen things up a bit. The selection of weapons and traits that you choose for your character in Guild Wars 2 don't just define the abilities you have at your disposal - they define an entire playstyle. You can go from being a back line aoe casting support character to an up front in your face damage dealing whirlwind. In fact one of the reasons I chose the mesmer to continue to play is that I felt like of the three level 80's I'd developed, for me she felt like the one most able to take on a variety of roles. Well it was time to put that to the test.

Another reason it's a good idea is that it can give you a new appreciation for the build your currently playing. After doing the same 'ol thing for the past three months you are probably starting to wonder - is this it? Maybe there's something better? Try on some new weapons and a different playstyle for a bit and you quite likely might come back to your original playstyle going Hey this really is the best playstyle for me - I really do like this weapon selection!

The Numbers
So I thought I'd talk about the numbers first for just a bit, and then talk about how she feels. Here's my current build:

Syrene's Phantasm Build

This build is strictly for general PvE, and is intended to hold up well enough in a dungeon as well. The idea is to have strong phanstasms and plenty of survivability. In the Domination line, we go just far enough to get Empowered Illusions, for the +15% damage for my phantasms. We go all the way down the Dueling line. This gives us Phantasmal Fury, for the increased crit from my phantasms. With both scepter and sword being wielded, I have two blocking abilities on my bar. This gives me plenty of opportunities to avoid damage, and Retaliatory Shield becomes extremely useful. And of course, Blade Training, for even more critical chance. And then we went all the way down Inspiration. For one, this gives us a great health pool with all that vitality. And second, everything in the Inspiration line is about improving phantasms. We pick up Persisting Images so Phantasms live even longer, Compounding Celerity for additional mobility, and Malicious Sorcery, just to improve our bleeds from Sharper Images.

I've used this build reliably through 40 levels, and quite honestly my mesmer was even more survivable than my guardian. And for dungeons, having 30 points in inspiration gives you plenty of options for support, including some things like Medic's Feedback, and Mender's Purity.

So for the new build, I wanted to do something a little more damage oriented, and a little more up front. I thought about doing greatsword, but staff is so good I honestly just can't imagine not using it for my secondary, and going greatsword primary then meant I'd be, well, ranged and ranged. No, the thought of a dual sword wielding caster has always appealed to me (it's why I tried dual dagger elementalist right off), and I've been missing some of the active gameplay I had with my thief, so I decided to try Sword/Sword.

So I spent a bit of time perusing some builds, and here's the first one I started working with:

Syrene's First Dual Sword Build

If you spend a few minutes looking at it, you can see that it's a pretty much straight up shatter build. It's all about power and precision. Of course we have Mental Torment for the shatter damage, Rending Shatter for vulnerability, and Signet Mastery. The Signet Mastery may seem odd, but we keep it for Signet of Illusions, which we use the active ability to recharge our shatter skills.

For Dueling of course we still take Phantasmal Fury and Blade Training, and Deceptive Evasion, which gives us one more way to quickly get another clone up. We put just enough points in Illusions to squeeze even more damage out of our Mind Wrack.

This build is all about throwing down clones as fast as possible and popping them at just the right time. I picked up a rare sword from the trade post, and headed out to give the build a try.

How it Feels
I played for about an hour, rummaging about in Gendarran Fields, which gives a nice variety of mobs and events. I participated in some group events, some skill challenges, took on some elite mobs, and ran around with a few large groups, as well as just some solo grinding. And I found the build to be, if you'll pardon the allusion, a double edged sword. The damage output was truly astonishing. with a full set of clones and one phantasm, blowing them up dropped mobs within a 10 meter radius with alacrity! But damn - I was so fragile! I went down three different times in that hour, and more than a few times found myself having to switch over to staff and kites. When you've played for so long with a huge health pool and multiple blocks on your bar, it can be tough to make the switch to glass cannon. In fact I decided there was too much glass for the amount of cannon I was getting. Granted, you can make up for a lot of that with gear, but I hate being completely reliant upon gear.

I went back to the trainer, and respecced again. Here's the build I have now:

Syrene's Final Dual Sword Build

So as you can see, things are distributed around a bit. This is still very much a shatter build. But it's a little less specialized, and a good deal more survivable. We keep the best parts of Domination and Dueling. Especially Deceptive Evasion and Blade Training. Ten points in inspiration gives us a nice health boost, and grants vigor (100% endurance regeneration increase) to allies on shattering. And ten more points in Illusions allows our shattered illusions to create confusion, and Compounding Power gives a good bit of umph to Blurred Frenzy (#2 on the primary sword). I took this build back out in the field and liked it a great deal more. I was still doing fantastic damage with shatters, I like actually swinging a sword and using it to damage things (something you don't get to do with greatsword), and yet I didn't feel like I would collapse like wet noodle at the first drop of damage. It's still taking me a while to get into the swing of playing the build, but I think I have a good general rotation now, and am really starting to gel with the playstyle.

The Slot Skills
I didn't talk too much about them, because I largely consider them to be interchangeable, based on the circumstances. What you see on the build screen is my general purpose selection. Blink because I've read that some mesmers find it indispensable While I won't go that far, as I've started to get used to using it more, I will say it does a great job of getting you out of roots and getting you around the field. Mirror Images because duh, more clones. Signet of Illusions to get shatters back even more quickly, and Moa Morph because its awesome.

Sometimes you need to change things up. I'd become very secure in my build, and as such, a bit bored with it as well. This dual sword build is even more active, and requires you to pay even closer attention if you want to both stay alive and be effective. This build feels a bit more PvP oriented, so I think I'll take it out to the Eternal Battleground and see how it fares out there. And I'll continue to use it in PvE and see if it's as fun and as effective as it seems like it will be.

If you have comments, and thoughts, as always, I welcome discourse! Please feel free to comment here or in the discussion in G+! And until next time, may your sword be wet and your bottom dry!

My New Year's Resolution

noreply@blogger.com (Dusty Monk) — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 19:52:00 +0000

I'm going to chat just a bit about new year's resolutions. A lot of people like to blow off new year's resolutions, because they have no realistic expectations of actually achieving them. For myself, that's never been a reason not to make them. I relish new years resolutions - I usually make two or three a year at least. I've been making the same two default ones - Eat Better, Exercise More, for the past five years. But for once, I want to talk about one I'm actually endeavoring to succeed in.

My new year's resolution is something I started working on back in 2009. I suppose the fact that I've been working on it off and on for over three years now is testimony to just how much I want to succeed at it. In some years I've had a great deal of success, and in some years I not so much. So enough talking around it - let's get to it.

My new year's resolution in 2013 is to be a better finisher.

You see, as I said, this started back in '09, when I started working on Atomic City Adventures. It was August of '11 before I finished that game, but finish it I did - lock stock and barrel. And when I completed that titanic effort, I realized that I could finish things. All my life I have been a fantastic starter of things. I start games, I start books, I start writing books, I start working on games. But traditionally, I have been a terrible finisher. Too many times, and too often, I'm distracted by something else that comes along, or worse, I'm just lured by the appeal that comes from the beginning stages of a project - when the sky is the limit and everything is fresh. Too rarely do I finish the things that I start.

This blog is called Of Course I'll Play It, because, for a long time, I was known among my peers as the guy that will play just about every MMO. Regardless of how crappy, or how foreign, or obscure, you could count on me as the guy to pick it up and give it a try - and usually for even a few months. Well I'm not changing the name of the blog, but quite honestly I've decided to work harder to not be that guy. I'd rather be the guy that actually finishes the things that he starts.

As some of you may have noticed, since pretty much September, I've been playing exactly one game. It's not so much that Guild Wars 2 is the end-all be-all of MMO's. It really isn't. It's a fine game, and so far I'm still quite enjoying my time with it. But I'm not willing to run off and try other games until I've finished Guild Wars 2. How do you finish an MMO? Well quite simply, you achieve your goals. My goals with Guild Wars 2 are thus: I want to have at least three level 80 characters with one max crafting profession for each of them, for one of them to be fully outfitted in exotic armor and weapons, to have fully completed the personal story on at least one of them, and to have at seen each of the dungeons in the game. Overall, a pretty modest set of goals, actually. But I haven't achieved it yet, and so, I suspect, you'll continue to see screenshots and anecdotes and design analysis for Guild Wars 2 from me for some time yet. But there's a reason for this. It's because I'm not done yet.

With luck, I can carry over some of this attitude into the rest of my life. I have a fence that needs repair. I have a shower that needs caulking. And don't get me started on projects at work that need finishing.

Anyway.. enough philosophizing. That's what I am going to try to accomplish in 2013. And where ever you are, and what ever you're doing, I hope you and yours have a truly fantastic year.

Happy New Years

Guild Wars 2 - A Look at the Guardian

noreply@blogger.com (Dusty Monk) — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 18:02:00 +0000

And so it is that Erianna Steele, of Kryta, who traces her ancestry back to the earliest refugees from Ascalon, and in fact considers herself Ascalonian to this day, has achieved the rank of Warmaster within the vigil, and now joins Trahearne, and others from the various orders, in taking the fight to Zhaitan. In short, my guardian is level 55, and I thought I might take some time to talk about my impressions of the class so far.

Try Before you Buy

Even more so than the other classes I have played, it took me quite some time to really get into the groove of my guardian. There are a number of reasons for this, and I'll get into those in a bit, but for me, it really underscores a notion that I have - and that is that you really shouldn't make a judgement on a class until you've given it an honest go. I'd say playing it at least until level 20. I know that for both my mesmer and my guardian, at level 20 I was still trying out different weapons, builds, and playstyles, before finding the right combination for me. And something that isn't talked about as much as it should be I think, but a class playstyle is not shaped by its weapon choices alone. It is truly shaped by the combination of your weapon choices and your utility and trait selections. It's not until you have 3 or 4 utility skills, and 10 or 15 trait points reinforcing those selections I think before you get a good feel of how a particular playstyle will feel.

So though I've said it before, it bears repeating again. Re-allocating trait points is easy and cheap - don't be afraid to do it. A lot of people advocate using the training ground in the sPvP lobby to play with builds, and I also think that is a fine idea. But for me personally, I can't get a feel for a playstyle against an attack dummy - I have to get out in the field and use it and use it. So if you're struggling with a class - visit your trainer - change things up. Find other builds online that sound like something you might enjoy, put them together, and then modify to taste - that is what I do. You might find a build and a playstyle for a class that you didn't even know existed - and that you enjoy!

Avoiding the Default Spec

I really think just about every class has sort of a default, or go-to way of playing. I don't have any data backing this up more than just my own anecdotal observations, but it certainly seems to be the case. For instance, I think for mesmer's in PvE it's greatsword. For elementalists it's staff. For thieves it's dual-daggers or sword/pistol, and for guardians, it appears to be greatsword. And this is nothing against those players that play with that playstyle (I myself play my thief almost exclusively dual-dagger), but I tend to generally look for playstyles that are a bit off of the mainstream. Also, I knew that I specifically did not want to build a DPS guardian - but rather one aimed more at a strong support role. I mention this so that you know where my choices below come from, and why I'm not your standard leap-and-whirl guardian (though I did give that a go for a bit, and it is lots of fun in its own right!)

You Are Not a God

So as I mentioned above, early on I struggled quite a bit with my guardian, and here's why. You see, what most people that don't play guardians don't know about guardians is that we actually have the lowest initial hit-point pool of all the classes. Yeah. We have a ton of ways of mitigating damage to make up for it, but once a mob or group of mobs gets past those defenses, you will go down, and go down quick. And early on, when you haven't got many of your traits, or you're struggling to figure out exactly how virtues work or you're just (as was the case for me) plain stupid and throw yourself into situations where you are faced with overwhelming odds, well you will die. I'd read so much about how godly guardians where, how they were these unstoppable defensive juggernauts, and I kept throwing myself at three and four enemies at a time or leaping into a pack of centaurs by myself, and 15 seconds later finding myself sucking air, and going Double You Tee Eff?? I never died this much as a mesmer! Well as a mesmer I was bit smarter about how I played as well. So just a word of caution if you're starting a new guardian, or thinking about playing one. Those defensive capabilities do kick in, and eventually you will find yourself easily defeating five or even six opponents at once, but only after you've earned some traits, and only after you've got a good feel for the class. But in the early stages - like before level 30 - take it easy.

Understanding the Weapons

Guardians have a lot of weapon choices. And the thing is, the effects of those choices are often not intuitive. For instance, you might have in your mind a mental image of the guardian as this plate armor wearing sword and shield wielding defensive tank, but in reality, when you start looking at the skills associated with the weapons, you might find that scepter and focus might be better for you, or sword and torch! Additionally, many of the weapon abilities have somewhat subtle, secondary effects, and understanding and utilizing those secondary effects can be key to your - and your group's - survival. This is especially true when it comes to combinations - but more on that in a bit. So what do I mean? Well here's a for instance:

Shield is, as you would expect, a defensive weapon. But it may not be defensive in the way that you expect. For instance, shield doesn't offer any block. What it does offer is a way to grant protection to allies, and a dome that pushes enemies away, blocks projectiles, and can be detonated to heal allies in it's confines. The focus, on the other hand, with Shield of Wrath, offers a fantastic triple block in what is arguably one of the best personal defensive abilities in the game. And it offers condition removal and regeneration for allies. The upshot of this is focus is actually a better personal defensive weapon, whereas shield is more of a group-oriented defensive weapon. Sword on the other hand, is primarily an offensive weapon. It offers a variety of offensive attacks and a gap closer, but almost no group utility at all. So if you pair sword with shield, you're pairing what is essentially a personal damage dealing weapon with a group-oriented defensive weapon. That's not to say it can't be done and you can't make good use of it, but you need to be aware of exactly how those things work to take best advantage of it. There are a number of weapon combinations that are like that. The important thing though is to drop any preconceptions you might have of how particular weapons should work, and instead learn how they do work, and then put that knowledge to best use.

On Virtues

Virtues are the guardian's signature ability - the thing we can do that's different than what everyone else can do. For whatever reason, I never felt like virtues where really well described in the tooltips, and I actually had to do quite a bit of reading to figure out exactly how they work. It's really quite simple - just not very well described. Here's the skinny: The stuff that's listed under the "Virtue" keyword in the tooltip you get for free, all the time. You never have to do a thing. The stuff that's listed under the "Activate" keyword is a group wide buff that applies to you and your nearby allies when you activate it. That giant glowing flames that appears around the virtue bars is nothing more than a vague and not-very-helpful indicator of when Virtue of Justice is going to go off again. The flames get larger as you get closer to it going off.

The biggest thing to remember about Virtues is to not forget about them. Those group buffs are significant - granting Aegis to everyone in your area when Kol Skullcrusher is about to slam his foot down can make the difference between wiping on him and defeating him. Every time someone starts to help you out in a fight, or a group forms adhoc around some event, start using those virtues. The second thing about the virtues is to realize that, combined with the Renewed Focus elite skill and the Virtues trait line, you can create an entire build around virtues that can provide an incredible amount of group utility. I'm playing around with just such a thing now.

Ka-Ka-Ka-Kombos!

I saved this section for last, because I feel it's far and away the most important. More than any other class I've played so far, an absolute key to playing a guardian well, and enjoying the guardian, is to understand how you can create combos, what those combos provide, and recognizing the synergy between the combo fields and finishers provided by your weapons. Centurian, over at Guild Wars 2 Insider, has written an excellent and exhaustive guide on the various combos guardians have available, and it is highly recommended reading. Of course I've known about the combo mechanic since BWE1, but I always thought of combos as mostly bubble shields you can get for a small temporary bonus. Guardian combos are a whole different thing. I started noticing when using my weapons I was often kicking of Area Retaliation. That made me aware of the combo, and once I became aware of it, I switched up my weapons and rotation in such a way as to take advantage of it as much as I could.

For instance, here is my current build, and how I'm using it. I typically try to start the fight with mace and shield current. I don't use any gap close, just swing the the mace to get them mob's attention. The first attack is usually blocked by the Aegis that is up from the virtue. Immediately hit Protector's Strike, to gain a block on the second attack, which is usually the mob's heavy hitting ability. This also sets the mob on fire due to Defender's Flame in the Valor line. Follow up with Symbol of Faith which paints a light field and grants regeneration. Immediately switch to hammer, and hit Mighty Blow, which creates the Area Retaliation blast finisher. Wait a few seconds, then hit Purging Flames from the utility line, and Mighty Blow again now for a fire blast combo finisher that gives myself and nearby allies three stacks of might. If it's up, I might also hit Ring of Warding, which also generates a light field (though it doesn't say so in the tooltip), hit Mighty Blow again, for another stack of retaliation. If not, wait for the third attack in the hammer attack chain which grants another light field, and again use Mighty Blow to finish the combo. Switch back to mace and shield, allow the auto-attacks to get some regeneration going, and again use Symbol of Faith. In the first 10 seconds of a typical fight, I've applied multiple stacks of regeneration, retaliation, and might to myself and my nearby allies. And that's in addition to whatever I fire off from virtues. Rinse and repeat as necessary, applying fields and finishing them, to continue to grant your allies a number of boons. Again, it can't be stressed enough, to really get the most out of your guardian, know and use your combos.

Unsung Hero

Sadly, due to the rather poor UI implementation of boons and conditions, many of your allies will never even be aware of how much you're doing. The good ones will. The good ones will realize what you're providing, and the really good ones will even take advantage of it - like firing projectiles through your light fields for AoE condition removal. But this isn't WoW, where people see big green numbers with your name attached to it to realize how much you're providing. Through the right combination of weapons, traits, and abilities, your guardian can provide a variety of roles, and it's one of the few classes that can truly excel in a support capacity. But just don't expect a lot of praise for it.

Guardian Groove

I've used my guardian in almost an exclusively PvE aspect. I hear they're great in sPvP at holding locations, and even useful in WvW. I've participated in all of the winter event dungeons - though admittedly those are hardly dungeons - and thus far done Caudecus Manor in story mode with a pickup group. I'm really starting to jam on the guardian now, and feel like I've found my footing, and am really enjoying the class. I feel that I truly make a difference when I show up to group events, and have "tanked" a number of champion mobs, using the variety of control abilities in my spec. I look forward to getting further down my trait lines, and doing more dungeons with her at 80. In fact, it's quite likely this may be my go-to gal for doing fractals, and starting to work on that Ascended gear. Thoughts - comments - your own favorite guardian build? All are welcome in the comments!

Guild Wars 2 WintersDay Event

noreply@blogger.com (Dusty Monk) — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 16:23:00 +0000

So Guild Wars 2 Wintersday festival is upon us! And as has become customary for ArenaNet, they have dumped a _ton_ of content in the world, all for us, all for free. Though I haven't come anywhere close to mastering well, any of the events, I have at least participated in them, so thought I'd jot down a few thoughts.

Tixx the Toymaker Events
Each day for the first five days of the festival, there is a Tixx the Toymaker 5 man instance that will take place in different capital cities. One of the things people have voiced concern over (to put it in polite terms) is that the capital cities have been largely devoid of people, as Lion's Arch seems to be the center of all activity in Tyria. The developers have heard these concerns, and have promised to start having more events and activities take place in the capital cities in order to draw people back to them. This appears to be the first of those attempts, and it certainly appears to be working. Yesterday the Grove was bustling with activity, and probably hasn't seen this many people within its confines since Launch Day.

The dungeon itself is extraordinarily easy. It's really not so much a dungeon as it is just a series of instanced, group events, with a champion at the end. As such, pretty much any group of five can do it, so feel free to join with the first group of five that forms up at the dungeon entrance and go. I did it twice yesterday. There's an achievement called "Smash The Town" that is awarded for the wanton destruction of every single building in the toy diarama that makes up Tixxe's toyshop - including the trees! If you can, ask your group if they want to do the achievement. It can be completed after the champion has been defeated, before folks exit the instance.

The Bell Choir Ensemble
The bell choir is essentially a little Guild Hero melody game. You pick a part to play, (low, medium, or high), and this puts you in the center of a big wooden wheel. Musical orbs will descend from the top, and it's up to you to hit the appropriate note as each orb reaches the inner blue wheel. I played this long enough to learn that, well, I suck at it horribly. :) One thing to be aware of. You may have remapped your keys to be keys you can more easily reach, especially on the right hand side. But that particular setup is probably not conducive to succeeding in the Bell Choir. So for instance, my right hand ability keys are mapped to 'T', 'R', 'G', and 'B'. I quickly realized if I wanted to do well in this I would need to map those back to '7', '8', 9', and '0'. So I moved on to another event.

Snowball Mayhem
Snowball Mayhem is a 5 man PvP event. When you start the game, there's a snowman next to you, and you can talk to him to choose one of three classes to play - Scout, Heavy, or Support. Each class gives you a unique collection of abilities. The game itself is Capture the Flag kind of scenario, in which you go out, capture gifts, and bring them back to your base for points. I didn't play a great deal of this, but the few games I played, it appeared, at least anecdotally, that most everyone goes scout. And if the group agrees to stay together in a zerg, it can be hard to take down. Of course, due to the nature of pickup PvP, the chances of the group agreeing to do anything together are pretty low.

Winter Wonderland
And of course, there's the jumping puzzle. And here is where we really see the ArenaNet team putting together the lessons learned from the Halloween event.

Here are the basics. When you enter the instance, you'll be at a platform where you wait for the next event to start. Similar to the Clocktower, the puzzle is run in groups, and the time to the next start depends on how long it takes the current group to either finish or all fall off the puzzle. When you start, you'll be placed on one of three platfroms. Within a few seconds, the snowflakes will appear, and you set off along the puzzle. Midway up the three starting paths converge, and you combine to make your way up to the very top. Throughout the puzzle, you'll have a debuff on you that slowly ticks away your health. Spend too long on any part of the puzzle, and you will die - ie., fail.

Now let's look at some of the little things done for this puzzle that show some of the lessons learned - or at least, the efforts to appease the most vocal complaints.

Something to Do
First, there's the platform itself in which you start. One of the smart things they did was to give players something to do when they fall off the platform, while waiting for the puzzle to start the next time. There are snowball piles laying around, and you can pick up a snowball, and throw it at other players that want to play. If you're hit by a snowball, you fall down. But here's the genius part - you only are affected by snowballs, if you pick up a snowball! Picking up a snowball gives you a buff, and only players with that buff can be affected by the snowball attack. So if you don't want to play, don't pick up a snowball. Second, due to the way the platform is placed, you can actually see the players making their way along the puzzle. So if you fall off, you can go over to the edge of the platform, and watch the other players make their way through the puzzle. And you can cheer (or jeer) appropriately as the other players in your group proceed.. or fail. Finally, they smartly took away the opening cinematic at the start of each run of the puzzle. If you've done this puzzle 423 times (as some of us may have.. ahem), you aren't gaining anything by watching that cinematic for the 424th time.

Multiple Starts
This is a huge difference. One of the most vocal complains throughout was that the larger bodied characters were ruining the experience for the smaller characters. However, you still want to keep the event timed (so people don't hang out on the puzzle and grief people coming up the puzzle - because they would), and you still want people to be able to do it as a group, because that sense of accomplishment and camaraderie as you set out as a group but only so many of you make it so far is a huge part of the experience. This solution, of splitting the group up among three different platforms goes a long ways towards addressing the central problem of overcrowding, while still keeping this a shared, group experience. A number of times in running the puzzle I was the only one on my platform, or only had one or two other people with me.

Is it Easier?
The prevailing sentiment for this puzzle is that, due to these changes, it is significantly easier. I think, overall, that I would have to agree. But I wouldn't go into this puzzle thinking it's a cakewalk. All of the pressure spots are there, and I consistently died trying to navigate those little candy cane posts along the snowflake path. The fact that there are three starting paths actually prevents your muscle memory from kicking in as quickly, and doesn't allow you to establish the rhythm of the puzzle quite as quickly. In the clockwork tower, I very quickly pretty much could do the first part of that puzzle almost entirely through muscle memory.

However, once you get past the snowflake path, the remainder of the puzzle is definitely easier, and less stressful, than any portion of the clockwork tower was. But make no mistake - it's still quite the challenge. I went in thinking I could waffle-stomp this thing, and it slapped me about the head and shoulders quite a few times before I finally scored the achievement.

In any event, hope you're enjoying the festivities, and until next time, Happy Wintersday!

Hidden Garden - A Design Perspective

noreply@blogger.com (Dusty Monk) — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 14:43:00 +0000

So a few weeks ago I posted up a bit of a story on how I stumbled across The Hidden Garden jumping puzzle, and the adventures I had in exploring it and uncovering its secrets. But as I moved about the garden, I couldn't help but notice all the little designer touches here and there that made it such an enjoyable experience. I've been a game developer for some 15 years, and though I'm not a content designer by trade, I've spent more than my share of time thinking about and building zones in games. For Atomic City Adventures, I developed four entire city zones, and then had to think about the best ways to repurpose them in such a way that made sense. Because Hidden Garden is more than a jumping puzzle - it's almost a mini-zone in and of itself, it makes a great candidate to examine some of the subtle and not-so-subtle methods designers use to assist you through the level.

Let's start with when you first enter the zone. Hidden Garden has four entrances, each one from a different location within Mount Maelstrom. All of the entrances are located on the perimeter of the zone. Regardless of which way you enter the zone, two things immediately stand out. First, there's a towering hill dominating your view, in the center of the hill.

Second, you can see at least one or two of the other entrances from where you enter the zone. So already you've been given some direction. First, the tower in the center of the zone serves as a natural focal point, inviting you to explore it. You're drawn to it because it's the most prominent feature in your view. Second, because you can see the other entrances, you can see that regardless of which portal you use to enter the zone, you're going to be presented with the same grand view.

So given the large focal point in before you, you set out to make your way to the top of that hill. Regardless of which direction you come at it from, you will encounter enemies. And some of them are possibly veterans. Now normally you might think yeah, so.. enemies. All zones have them. But it's important here, because of the way you found this area. Because you teleported here from somewhere else, and it's, well, hidden, you might suspect the rules might be a bit different here. Some jumping puzzles have platforms that disappear. Some puzzles have wind traps, all sorts of things. The thing is, the designers do like to change things around a bit for the puzzles, present you with interesting challenges, and right away you are informed that this zone has challenging foes.

So you make your way up the side of the hill, and already there's a couple of little jumps and opportunities for missteps along the way. Again, you're being informed that you need to watch your step and pay attention to the terrain. About halfway up, you encounter a lone Sylvari sitting on the tree, and just beyond her a chest.

And if you didn't see the chest, well that's okay, because she promptly tells you about it.

Instructions are not the place to be subtle, and the designers know that. Through her conversation, they pretty much tell you straight up what you need to do. You need some elemental clusters to open the chest.

And if that weren't enough, of course you're going to go over and try to open the chest anyway. And it gives you more information. You need four elemental cantles to open the chest. Now, if you're like me, you probably don't know what the hell a cantle is. But you know that it has something to do with the elements. And you passed some elementals on the way in. So at least some of what you need is likely in this zone. And you need four of them. So the first thing you do is to look about for some hint as to where to go next.

And this is key. This is a crucial point for the designer, because you want the player to feel like they're exploring and finding things on their own, but you don't want them to feel directed, but you also don't want them to feel lost. And again, the designers hit it perfectly here. Because if you turn slightly to your left.. from where you are standing, whats this? Is that a jumping puzzle leading directly away? Why yes, yes it is.

The particular stages of this puzzle are again pretty straightforward. At each point along the way it's pretty clear where you need to go next. And while none of it is particularly difficult - for instance nothing is shooting at you, and there's no traps for forces trying to blow you off the leaves like there are for some puzzles, you are afforded some dizzying views that will quicken your pulse as you make your way up.

So you get to the top, and look - there's the Cantle of Light. It's clearly labeled, and you interact with it, and you receive the first cluster.. cantle.. whatever it is. You don't really care you just know that you have it. So once again, now that you have one objective completed, you're going to look for clues on where to go again, and once again, the designers are aware of this. It's a very small promontory that you're standing on up here, but even in this small space the designers have packed it with clues.

From one side, as you gaze across the incredible vista that you are afforded, observing the beautiful waterfalls, you can clearly see the cantle of water, dancing atop some cliffs below you. And on the other side, looking across to the other side of the zone, you can clearly see the cantle of wind. And then finally, and this is most important, from where you gather the Cantle of Light, you can clearly see some diving goggles. The presence of Diving Goggles is essentially a message from the designers that it's okay to jump from here. Or at least there's a smaller chance you'll die if you jump from here. So in just a very small space, you've been told where two of the three remaining cantles are, and how to get down.

Plummeting into the water below, when you go to make your way out, there's only one way out of the pond. And though you don't know it at the time, you've been dropped into a location that is quite close to the fourth cantle - earth. All you have to do is walk around to the top of the pond, in either direction, and you'll immediately discover some earth elementals, and right next to them you'll see the Cantle of Earth.

Again, none of this is by accident. The designers have gone to great length to put you in situations where you can discover what you're looking for easily, but without just telling you directly where it is.

So where you go next doesn't matter too much, you've been given clues for both of the remaining cantles. As you stand there looking up at the very obvious Cantle of Water, you can see an opening in the back of the cliffs below the cantle - behind the waterfalls. And upon entering, you find yourself in a picturesque grotto, filled with wildlife, giant plants, and sparkling waterfalls. Now, I have to admit, I didn't pick up on the giant leaves right away. For whatever reason, unlike mushroom pads, which are clearly designed for jumping pads, the leaves to me seem like something that would give when you stand on it. But a little bit of experimentation, or perhaps another adventurer chancing by, and you quickly learn that the leaves are the key to this puzzle.

Again, making your way to the top isn't too difficult, and you're given some beautiful views along the way. At each stage it's pretty clear where to go next, and eventually you emerge at the top. There is your objective, and another breathtaking view of the zone.

All that remains now is the Cantle of Air. And you've already learned approximately where it is and on which side of the zone it is. A bit of exploration on this side of the zone reveals a cave, that invites further investigation.

Now, here the designers get tricky. They're going to send you a message here, but it might take you a bit to get the message. Especially if you're a bit dense.. like me. As you enter the cave, you're immediately set upon by spiders. So of course, you begin to fight them. And you kill them. But then more appear. And then more. If you continue to fight, you are going to eventually get overwhelmed. Because here's the message. The spiders keep coming. Eventually I got the message, and I fled the cave. And again, there's a subtle bit of help here. Just outside the cave is a deep pool, and as soon as you jump into the pool, the spiders immediately drop aggro return to the cave. And over a short amount of time the spiders will despawn. So now you're faced with a decision. Either re-enter the cave, and explore more of it to learn if it's really where you're supposed to go, or to explore more of that portion of the zone, looking for an alternate route.

Well further exploration reveals no obvious ways to make your way up. So if you run past the spiders, you quickly see the very obvious beginning of the jumping puzzle, and as soon as you make your way up a short ways, the spiders quickly drop aggro and you leave them behind. So now the intent is clear. The designers put the spiders there just to make it interesting. They're not there for you to fight, but to give you a sense of urgency to move along the puzzle. It's important that you've learned this lesson, because further up, along the puzzle, you're going to encounter some more. And by now, hopefully you know not to try to stand around and fight them, but to get on with the puzzle.

Once again, once you're on the puzzle, the direction on where to go next is pretty clear. It's worth mentioning that, where jumping puzzles are concerned, this isn't always the case. Several of them have branching (no pun intended) paths along the way, and some of them require you to detour down one path before you can continue.

Once you emerge at the top, the Cantle of Air is surrounded by air elementals. This requires you to either kill them off before getting the cantle, or if you have some distraction mechanism, like, say phantasms, you can distract them long enough to perform a smash and grab, grabbing the cantle and then flinging yourself over the cliff to the large pond below - again, placed there specifically for you to land in. Which is what I did, which is why the only screenshot you see of me getting the Cantle of Light is the one of me plummeting over the cliff with my ill-gotten gains.

And you're done! With all of the cantles in your possession, all that remains is to make your way back to the chest, collect your booty, and gain your achievement. Just watch your step along the way!

So that's that. I hope you enjoyed looking at the zone through a designer's perspective. And more importantly, I hope you gain some appreciation for the hard working guys and girls that develop that content. There is almost nothing that happens in these virtual worlds in which we play that happens completely by accident. That waterfall, that sweeping view, that fortuitous pool at the bottom of that cliff, those spiders you encounter along the way - all are there for a purpose. And somewhere, someone spent an extraordinary amount of time thinking about just exactly the right way to present that content so that you can enjoy it in the most satisfying of ways.

Wherever you're gaming, I hope you enjoy!

This Game Still Surprises Me

noreply@blogger.com (Dusty Monk) — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 13:39:00 +0000

So last night, I sat down to a bit of Guild Wars 2, expecting nothing more than to knock out a few karma hearts, and to advance my way a bit through Mount Maelstrom. Low key, casual gaming at its best. Towards the north end of the zone, there was a dynamic event entitled Defeat the Keepers of the Earth, and you had to take out these two veteran Keepers of the Earth, that are just standing around, chillin'. Now I'm a mesmer - defeating two veterans isn't trivial, but still doable. But I put out a map call all the same, and sure enough, several people showed up within moments, and we handily defeated the mobs. Once the mobs were defeated though, a portal showed up behind them, that wasn't there before. Upon interacting with the portal, you're given the opportunity to pass through it. When you say yes, it follows up with..

"It could be dangerous.. are you sure?"

Heck yeah!

A mini-zone deep within the Maguuma Jungle

So through the portal I went, and found myself in a gorgeous, waterfall lined zone with towering vistas, and deep shimmering pools. I immediately set off exploring this little mini-zone. Somehow, I completely missed this event when I came through here with my thief, and so this was completely new to me. It's hard to describe the satisfaction that comes with the feeling that you are truly exploring something that is completely new.

There was a high promontory in the middle of the zone, so I made my way towards that. And a short ways up, I found a sylvari sitting on a large mushroom pad. She explains that she doesn't get many visitors - typically only people that are lost. Or cartographers. Or lost cartographers. I got a chuckle out of that. A short way behind her was a chest. And upon talking to her, and interacting with the chest, I learned that the chest could be opened if you gathered four elemental cantles. Now, I had suspected already that this was a jumping puzzle. But it was more than that. It was a four part jumping puzzle! With a healthy dose of exploration thrown in!

Just beyond the chest was a very obvious beginning to one jumping puzzle, so though I couldn't see my objective from there, I set out. First step - turn off double-tap to evade! This has you climbing to truly dizzying heights, walking along narrow roots, and leaping from location to location. Of course, the truly challenging part of this zone is that there are no waypoints anywhere in it. One misstep, and I was going to have to go all the back to Mount Maelstrom, and I didn't even know if I would be able to get back.

Oooh goggles!

I finished that puzzle without too much difficulty, and was looking about for a way down when I spotted a tiny pool of water far below, a large mushroom pad, and diving goggles. Diving goggles! Did I dare? I couldn't even hardly see the tiny pool so far down! Of course, I did. And survived! One cantle down, three to go!

The next cantle was down in the bowels of the earth, and surrounded by earth elementals - many of them veteran. And they have a nasty area of effect earthquake attack that does a knockdown and obliterates my poor illusions. Now here's the weepy part of the story, as I died here. I got overwhelmed by these earth elementals trying to get to the next cantle - which isn't a jumping puzzle at all, just some challenging foes. However, upon beaming back to the waypoint that was close to the portal entrance, I found the event that spawns the portal right back up. So I tackled the two veteran keepers, defeating them handily, which respawned the portal, and back I went! This time I opted for the better part of valor - discretion. That is, I ran in, grabbed the cantle, and ran out, leaving my illusions to occupy the nearby elementals. Two down!

From this windswept promontory, you can see the Cantle of Water.
Also, bugs..

While at the very top of the zone, retrieving the first cantle, you're afforded a sweeping view of the entire zone. And from there, you can actually spot the other two cantles. So I had a general idea of where to go next. Now this next cantle was actually the one that gave me the most difficulty. I found a small cave against the edge of the zone, and figured that was the entrance I needed. As soon as I entered the cave though, spiders began dropping from the ceiling. No problem I thought.. clear the cave of spiders, then make your way up. So I killed those spiders, but some other, smaller ones joined. And then some more dropped from the ceiling. And oh yeah, in the fighting I aggroed some giant mosquitoes too! Suddenly I was overwhelmed with spiders and bugs! After defeating over a half-dozen, I eventually fled, as they didn't seem to be getting any less. Once they returned to their lair, I came back. I wanted to at least see if this was the start of the puzzle indeed, or just some nasty red herring. I entered the cave, ignoring the spiders as they again returned, and ran to the back. Sure enough, some very obvious pads leading up. And that's when I realized the trick here. The spiders aren't intended to be defeated.. they're just there to provide encouragement for you to get on with the puzzle. Oh, and if that wasn't enough, half way up the puzzle, another group will spawn. Again, encouraging you to get quickly about the business of leaping from one tiny floating rock to another over vast gulfs of space. But some mercy is shown here. A giant pool resides below much of the puzzle, and if you fall (which I did once) you land in the deep water. Again through the cave of spiders, up the puzzle, leaping from spot to spot, and again at the top, I ran in, grabbed the cantle, then flung myself over a dizzying cliff edge, to land in the pool below. One to go!

The most challenging part of the last cantle was just finding the start of the puzzle. I might have remained stymied, or forced to resort to the internet for the solution, when another pair of adventurers showed up, and for this part at least, they sussed it out quickly. I will offer only this clue - it turns out leaves can provide as much support for jumping pedestals as mushroom pads can! A short time later, the fourth, and final cantle was retrieved.

Achievement Unlocked!

Immensely satisfied with my accomplishments, I made my way back to the sylvari and her chest in the center of the zone. Of course, the chest rewards were trivial. If you've ever done these things at all, you know that you don't do them for the chest reward. But most importantly, I was rewarded with the Hidden Garden jumping puzzle achievement!

One final footnote to the story. After over an hour of successfully navigating precarious leaps, narrow catwalks, and battling angry mobs, flush with excitement I began making my way to one of the portals I'd spotted about the zone that undoubtedly led back to Mount Maelstrom. And of course, failing to pay close attention to my footing..

I slipped through a crevice and plummeted hundreds of feet to my death.

I'm totally not kidding.

Ah well, even the quick death at the end couldn't dampen the enjoyment I had at discovering this hidden gem, and spending time exploring it and solving its riddles.

Wherever you're gaming, I hope you're having a blast!

The Lost Shores - Hits and Misses

noreply@blogger.com (Dusty Monk) — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 03:22:00 +0000

So now that the Lost Shores weekend events are coming to a close, I wanted to put up some thoughts on the weekend in general. Unlike some of my peers, I do not by any means consider the event a total fail, as it has been characterized by some. In fact, just the opposite. By far and large I'd consider the event a success. But clearly not everything went according to plan, and plenty of people are writhing their hands in righteous indignation, so lets take a look at what worked, and what didn't.

Like birds on a wire we perched on every surface..

Phase 1 - The Invasion of Lion's Arch, and The Investigation
Upon logging in on Friday, we noticed right away that two new POI's had been added to Lion's Arch, so a number of people began gathering there. Shortly before the event was to begin, word spread through the zone that something was going to happen at the lighthouse. So we all rushed over to the lighthouse, and like crows on a wire we perched on every square inch of space waiting and wondering what would occur. And then.. a short cinematic, and the Karka were here!

And the servers struggled!

Actual number of objects greater than those shown!

Over the weekend this was probably the single most persistent problem that would plague almost all of the big group events, and that was just simply that the back-end architecture was pushed to its very limits, and beyond them, for every event. There's a pretty big take-away from this, and I'll get to it at the end of post. But during the event, mobs were constantly not showing up, abilities were taking forever to fire, and framerates fell through the floor. As the invasion wore on, things got a bit better, and for myself, it ended up being fairly playable, but for a lot of people they couldn't see anything and couldn't do anything. Of the massive events, I think the tight space of Lion's Arch combined with the instant spawning of so many massive veteran mobs made for this to be the worst of the group events. It was playable, but only just barely so.

The invasion event itself gets a C.

Somewhere in this mass of bodies is an
NPC that refuses to fight..

Following the invasion, some new NPC's appeared in Lion's Arch, and they want answers! There's two separate NPC's, each of them start a scavenger hunt style quest that will have you traversing a couple of zones, talking to NPC's. Several of the NPC's, when you talked to them, would switch states and require you to attack them, and upon defeat, would switch back to friendly and give you the next part of the quest. Unfortunately, the state switching code also simply fell down under the weight of hundreds of people trying to activate and complete these quests, and several of the NPC's were quickly put into an unadvanceable state. This was simultaneously the most visible falldown of the weekend, and at the same time actually the least important. Quite honestly there wasn't much of a reward, nor was the event in any way connected to the monthly achievements for the event. It was a nice something to do, but if you didn't finish it, you really didn't miss out on very much of anything. This didn't keep people from foaming at the mouth at not being able to finish. ArenaNet fixed 2 of the NPC's that were broken that night, fixed the 3rd one later, and extended phase 1 past the launch of Saturday's event. I know my experience wasn't everyones, but I was able to log in Saturday morning and finish both quests.

The phase 1 scavenger hunt quests get a C-.

The assault halts momentarily as the Lionguard
construct a bridge..

Phase 2 - The Invasion of Southsun Cove
Saturday it was time for us to take the fight to the Karka! Our investigations had allowed us to create an alchemical solution that would weaken the armor of the Karka! When they invaded again on Saturday, we were ready for them. We coated our weapons with the solution, and quickly dispatched the Karka in town. We were then instructed to board boats, and we launched an all out assault on Southsun Cove!

This event was, in my opinion, an absolute success! The server again struggled in Lion's Arch, and in some areas in Southsun, but overall everything was plenty playable. We followed the Lionsguard Lt's into battle, we built bridges, we cleared roads, and slew many, many Karka - big and small. And the new zone is truly a unique and interesting looking zone. We had some difficulty in that when we zoned to the new zone, some of our group was dumped into different overflow servers than the rest of us. If the game had kept our game together, I would give this event an A+. But with some of the difficulty the servers had, and the fact that it couldn't keep our group together, it gets an A-. Epic event, several hours of fun.

After hours of battle, the final
attack commences!

Phase 3 - Defeating the Ancient Karka
Sunday began the third event, which was to seek out the head honcho of the Karka, and defeat him! The event started in Southsun Cove. We were gathered at various waypoints, and we got an e-mail promptly at 2:00pm telling us where to go. The zerg set out, and the event began! This was a multi-hour event, as we marched across the zone, first setting some explosives, then herding the ancient Karka across the zone, before a series of epic battles in which we defeated the him! Again the servers struggled under the load, and though the majority of the battle was playable, we definitely ran into the lag issues which had plagued the other group events. This was especially prevalent at the early parts of the event, when we would see dozens of people die to mobs that we couldn't see. Additionally, our group of five was again split across multiple overflow servers. Three of us were together, but the others were split across different zones. Regardless, overall everyone in our group agreed that we had a blast of a time - and not just because we played together - though playing with friend always makes an event more fun. But the event itself felt suitably epic, and most importantly, though none of us were really expecting to get much of anything by way of loot, the final boss resulted in a chest that, quite frankly, dropped some of the best items in the game. Overall, phase 3 gets a B+. Some lagging and server problems, but in general a great time, and our time was well rewarded!

Some of the underwater fractals are truly amazing..

The Dungeon
I hear the Fractal Dungeon had some problems launching, but they were quickly resolved, and I saw people doing runs all weekend. I myself participated in one run. The three fractals we participated in were interesting and challenging. In fact I think initially it might be a bit too tough, but honestly all of the mechanics we encountered in our fractals at least, were things that, once you knew what to do, could probably be defeated fairly easily. Take out the arrow carts and oil before approaching the door.. take a light from the coral plant with you.. put your pets away and lead the ice behemoth under the lava. There is going to be some tuning to do, but I definitely think the fractal dungeon will be a success. It certainly served well over the weekend.

What Do We Learn?
It's a reasonable question to ask as to whether or not these one-time events should be held at all. They're great in that they give a sense of progression to the game, and allow the players that can participate in them to get the feeling they're participating in real changes to the game. But they can just as easily breed a sense of resentment and dissatisfaction for those players that can't participate. Personally, I think they're worth having, but I certainly understand the sentiments of those that can't make it. Putting aside that question for the moment, what are the big take-aways that come out of the weekend?

We're fighting a lot of mobs here,
you just can't see them.

Back-End Needs Work
It's as simple as that. The single biggest problem, by far and away over the entire weekend, was simply that the servers struggled to keep up with the load. ArenaNet needs to do either one or two things: Either they have to continue to improve the server infrastructure, or they have to design around their existing server capabilities. And it's unlikely that Design is going to say "Yeah, you know, it's fine, we'll just redesign so that we don't put as much load on the servers." Unfortunately, by this point, it's a safe bet that there aren't any low-hanging fruit left in this regard. So the server crew still has work to do.

Don't Make the NPC's the Event
You know, the NPC in the swamp in Metrica Province didn't have any problems. Because he wasn't the event. He gave you some tasks to do, you did them, and turned them in for the completion. But the NPC's that have to switch states, that go from neutral, to enemy, be defeated, and then back to friendly, are just prone to breaking. Make the NPC have to do something like run an escort mission, and you're really asking for trouble. Some people on the forums suggested that these NPC's should be instanced - but I strongly disagree. The game is instanced enough as it is, and a huge part of the fun of an event like this is being in the world with a crowd of people, and taking part in the mayhem. But just design the events in such a way that the NPC isn't directly involved in the progress of the quest itself.

Three Events in One Weekend is Two Too Many
I think ArenaNet was a bit overly ambitious with this rollout. Having everything in one weekend presents a couple of problems. First, it forces your players into an even heavier concentration than such an event might typically draw, which exacerbates the load on your server. Second, as we saw, when things do go wrong, it gives you even less time to fix them. And finally, it reduces even more the opportunity for more of your population to participate in the event, by focusing it all over just a few days. This isn't an easy problem to tackle - too long and players lose interest or grow bored or resentful at having to wait. But I think the sheer volume of content they rolled out over the course of this weekend would have been better served using a few more days - maybe a week, to allow the players to consume and enjoy each phase a bit more, before pushing into the next.

I Had a Blast
The event wasn't without its difficulties. And yes, a number of things went wrong. But at the end of the weekend, the end result was that I had an absolute blast. I loved seeing the Karka invade Lion's Arch.. I loved following the zerg as we invaded and conquered Southsun Cove, and had a blast participating in the destruction of the Ancient Karka. And at the end of the weekend, I have some nice exotics and rares for my character!

I understand that people some people had a less than ideal experience - but people need to learn to relax, recognize that things go wrong, and participate in the moment.

Looking forward to the next!

Mesmerizing

noreply@blogger.com (Dusty Monk) — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 15:28:00 +0000

So my mesmer Syrene Harmony, descendant of Kaytte Harmony, she who fought in the War in Kryta, hit level 40 yesterday. Half way to max level. I haven't blogged in a bit, but I have been playing plenty, so I thought I might talk a bit about the mesmer class, and my general impressions so far, especially with respect to how it compares to my thief.

One of Many Weapon Choices

Versatility is the Key
When I first started playing the mesmer, as I always do with a new class, I bounced around and tried a variety of weapon combos. And curiously enough, I really actually liked the feel of sceptre and focus. Ranged, but you still had to be mobile. And of course, I read plenty of guides, and watched plenty of guide videos. And though they all had various opinions on which particular weapon combination they preferred, they were almost universal in saying sceptre and focus was the worst. Typical internet. But I like to try to be as good as I can with a class, so I made an honest effort to try everything. Greatsword is mostly acknowledged to be the best DPS for PvE, especially at range. But honestly the greatsword playstyle didn't appeal to me much. Yes, it's a caster using a greatsword, which is an awesome idea, but for she's using it to hurl arcane bolts of energy at her enemy from a distance. I just couldn't get behind the notion of greatsword as a ranged weapon - at least for now. A lot of people recommended dual swords, or sword and pistol. These are both pretty powerful - and I like sword and pistol quite a bit. Dual swords though was a bit too melee feeling for me. I already have a thief, so I didn't really want another class that was in your face melee. Dual sword isn't quite like that, but it's definitely a short range DPS alternative.

While I was trying different weapon combos, I also tried a variety of builds. I wasn't entirely sure what role I wanted Syrene to fill - straight DPS, or more of a support role, or some combination between. I have seen shatterer builds, and those were pretty interesting. And I've seen illusion and misdirection builds. After respeccing three different times, I finally settled on a phantasm build (you can see it here), and boy do I love it! It uses a sceptre and sword as one weapon set, and staff as the other weapon set. But the important thing is - I don't consider this a sceptre/sword build. I consider it a sceptre/sword/staff build. That's what I mean about being versatile. I swap weapons a lot - pretty much two or three times in any particular battle. So with the weapon swap, I essentially have 10 weapon abilities on different cooldowns, plus my utility abilities. This build is all about using phantasms to dish out the DPS, and so I'm swapping between my weapon sets whenever one phantasm is on cool down so I can put up another one.

I honestly feel this perspective is key not just for the mesmer, but for all of Guild Wars 2. You should be prepared to change things up. And not just from combat to combat, but even as you're leveling up. Respeccing in this game is cheap. I know a lot of people that say "Well I picked my weapon set at level 15 and never changed again." And I feel like that's just leaving a huge amount of play mechanics on the table. Even if you try a weapon set early on, and decide you don't like it, I encourage people to give it ten or fifteen levels, and try it again. You may have learned more about how your class plays, or you may have acccess to some new utility skills to gain some new synergy, or some traits that make a previously dull weapon skillset seem suddenly revitalizing and powerful. I'm loving the build I have now, but even so in another half dozen levels I'm going to pick up a sword and pistol for a few silver and give that combo a try again, as well as greatsword. And if it means respeccing some talents to get the most out of it, no problem!

Behold!

Better Over Time
The thief was all about explosive damage spiked right at front. She's weaker through the middle of the fight, but then has some crazy finishers, as she has about a million things that stack damage when an enemy reaches below 50% health. The mesmer though, is curious, in that her power curve starts off relatively weak, and then ramps up through out the fight. It takes me a little while to get a few illusions and phantasms up. But once I have a full set, the damage is getting poured on! The problem, if you can call it that, is that as soon as the mob all your illusions are trained on dies, the illusions all disappear. And you start the process over for the next mob. So damage ramps up, then falls sharply off. Then damage ramps up, and falls sharply off. This results in this sort of interesting sinusoidal damage output wave over time. Curiously enough though, this allows her an amazing amount of survivability.

This Isn't Going to End Well

Energizer Bunny
I'm not sure if it's because maybe I've just gotten better at doing story missions, or they're easier in the human story line than they were for the Sylvari, or if the mesmer is actually just that much more survivable than the thief, but knock on wood - so far I've had surprisingly little trouble with my story missions. In fact I just did the level 37 one - it's the one where you have to run across a windy precipice - and if you don't time it it just right you get blown off the wall - and well, we breezed right through it. But though I can't call the class tanky by any means, the mesmer just keeps going.. and going.. and going.

Not For Everyone
Unlike the big three - Ranger, Warrior, and Elementalist, I can see where the mesmer is one of those classes that not everyone is going to love. In fact, for awhile as I struggled to sort of get her groove, I wasn't sure the class was going to end up being for me either. And I haven't dropped into PvP with her yet, because she honestly still feels a bit squishy, despite me being continuously surprised by not dying. But now that I've found a build I'm really enjoying, I'm loving the class. It's definitely a fiddly class, in that you want to fiddle with weapons and traits and utility skills to get the most out of the class - you can't just pour on the damage and watch the big numbers fly. But for me, I'm loving it!

Saying Goodbye

noreply@blogger.com (Dusty Monk) — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 13:12:00 +0000

After the announcement that City of Heroes would be shutting down, the community around the game rallied greatly. In-game events were held, petitions were created and signed by thousands, and e-mails sent. It was a pretty amazing thing to see, and I think even the developers were surprised and quite a bit humbled by the outpouring of support for the game. Unfortunately, NCSoft did at last, actually issue a reply to the support, and it left no room for interpretation. City of Heroes was going away. So this post is really more for myself than anything. At one time I had four subscriptions to City of Heroes, and I maintained a subscription and VIP status right up until today. I had so much fun in this game, and for me it has so many memories.

Over the years, I've created far more characters than I could visit in any single blog. But I wanted to revisit some of my most memorable ones, to record their images and their stories, to have a scrapbook, of sorts, for posterity.

NyteRaven

NyteRaven was the very first character I created in City of Heroes - the night that the game's servers opened in April of 2004. Back then I participated in role-play far more than I do these days, and so of course, she had a backstory.

Izusa Mitric was the third child of the half-tellurian Ice Wizard Dlangar and Zzaryn, the kindred chylde of Malgorzata, of clan Lasombra. Though the blessing of her birth broke the curse that was destroying her father, it was not enough to mend the rift that had grown between her parents, and in the wan hours of the night when she was but a babe her father kissed her on her forehead and dissapeared from her life forever. Thus it was that Izusa was raised entirely by her vampire mother, Zzaryn. As she grew, it became clear that she was steeped deeply in both the magic of her father, and the affinity for the shadows of her mother. She had neither of their powers directly, but instead a curious hybrid of the two that was uniquely her own. As Izusa came of age, she dropped her given name, and became NyteRaven. She is completely a creature of the shadows, like her mother. And she is not tempered by the love of the light her father should have bestowed upon her.

Allegra

In the first heady months after the game launched, most of my IRL gaming friends were also all playing - as we all did (and still do) whenever any new MMO came out. So my friends and myself made a supergroup called RX Force - and we all created superheroes with names of prescription drugs! It just made for good silly fun. RX Force progressed for a little while, we even created our own superbase, once that functionality was available. As a full empath defender, Allegra was the healer of our little group. She didn't get much play time, but is remembered fondly from the fun time in RX Force!

DarkCandle

DarkCandle is probably still my definitive City of Heroes character. He was my only character that made it all the way to the max level in the game - 50. And not to get all "Back in my day!", but I did it when the game was still pretty damn hard. I recall at one point having something like 7.5 million in experience point debt. DarkCandle was a katana scrapper, and I liked him because he was a bit of my own personal batman. That is, he had some supernatural power, but mostly he was just an armored guy with an incredibly special sword.

At first she was his slave, and he a strict master. But over time they become companions, then lovers. He taught her the way of the blade, and she was an apt pupil. They fought many battles, and defeated many foes. She was always his servant, he her guardian. There came a dark day though, when she fell to an enemy's sword. Mortally wounded, William Garateneel took his lover, Nikomi, to the greatest healer he knew. The shaman told William that he could save Nikomi, but at a cost. William agreed at once. Thus it was that William became an eternal servant himself, to the forces of Light. But it was only then that William learned that to save Nikomi, her spirit would have to be bound to a blade of bright steel, and her mortal body lost. With her last breath, Nikomi agreed to the ritual, so that she could serve her Master forever more. On that day William Garateneel became The Dark Candle. His sword is Nikomi. She is his only joy, and his greatest sorrow.

Hellbent For Leather

Like most people that played City of Heroes, I came and went from the game over the years. And though I played many archetypes and characters, Hellbent remains my favorite. She was a straight up fire/fire blaster. I loved her story, I loved her costume, but mostly, I loved the unbridled damage she was capable of dolling out. Hellbent had the distinction of being the most geared character I ever created. She had several full enhancement sets for blaster archetypes, and all of her slots were IO's of some sort. I never reached the uber-geared heights of the game, but Hellbent was always a welcome member to the group. Because when she was on your team.. things got dead quick.

All her life Stacy Middleton's life had been in the fast lane. "When Stacy is headed somewhere, that girl is hell bent for leather to get there, and heaven help you if you get in the way!" her father used to say. She did everything fast - quick to love, quick to anger. All that changed the night her and her boyfriend Kyle were attacked. One second they were walking to her car, the next they were bathed in green flames - Kyle screaming on the ground. Some guy in a costume drove off their robed attackers, then disappeared. Kyle needed a doctor, and fast. Police reports estimated Stacy's cherry red Mustang was traveling over a 110 mph when it collided with the jackknifed fuel tanker in Skyway City. The explosion rattled windows in Steel Canyon. That night Stacy lost her boyfriend, and should have lost her life. For reasons she never understood, she walked, engulfed in flames, from the wreck. That night a woman fused of fire and fury and speed was born. A woman hell bent. Hellbent for Leather.

Miss Hollowpoint

When new powerserts came out, it was always a reason to return to the game. Dual Pistols was no exception. Miss Hollowpoint was my dual pistols blaster, and I adopted a bit of a Desparado theme for the hero I created for them. Though by now I wasn't creating backgrounds as much anymore for my characters, she was still an incredibly fun character to play, and she was another I played up into her low 40's. I was so enamored, in fact, with the dual pistols animations in fact, I created a video to highlight them, and her. Such a fun class and character!

Kirei Na Kanjou

Kirei was the last, real, main character I had in City of Heroes. I created her to take advantage of the staff melee powerset. I loved the idea of a very small chinese woman, demure in demeanor, but wicked with a twirling stick. Keep your allusions to yourself! I had made scrappers and tankers aplenty over the years, and by now you could create both hero and villain archetypes on either side, so she was a hero Brute. And just.. goodness - she was a beast! With Kirei I found normal missions to be too easy, and would crank up her mission difficult to be the equivalent of three heroes, and include plenty of bosses. She just.. pretty much.. never died.

And All the Rest..

And there are so many others: Cypheress, the beam rifle wielding agent that first fought against, and then with her mirror self from an alternate dimension and saved Katie Douglas (one of the most memorable NPC's I've encountered) from the Seer Network; Glimmerblade, a dual-katana wielding soldier from another world; Sam Scorpion, cigar smoking, hammer-punching self-described ladies man with a distinct similarity to a certain character that gets into Big Trouble in Little China - well the list goes on and on and this post could go on for days. I will miss them - one and all. City of Heroes was by no means a perfect game. But in many ways it was a game ahead of its time. And though in a few short weeks it will be gone forever, it will never be forgotten.

Au revoir, mon amis..

Guild Wars 2 - Pulse Check

noreply@blogger.com (Dusty Monk) — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 14:41:00 +0000

So we're a little bit over a month since Guild Wars 2's launch, and though I myself am still absolutely loving the game, and playing at least a little bit just about every night, I thought it might be a good time to do bit of a pulse check on Guild Wars 2. We've now had plenty of time to get through the honeymoon stage, and for many people the honeymoon was all there was. And while there is still much to love about Guild Wars 2, as we'll see, it hasn't all necessarily been wine and roses.

The Hits
Let's start though, but taking a look at just a few of the many things I think we can safely say with surety that Guild Wars does right.

Cooperative Game Design
This is the big one. The one that hast been mentioned in just about every review and write-up of Guild Wars 2 since its launch. It's the one that I mentioned in my very first initial impressions of GW2 after my first beta weekend. Simply put - every game design mechanic in Guild Wars 2 has been built from the ground up to foster cooperative play - without having to group. From the way quests (karma hearts really are just an evolution on public quests) are designed, to the way combat mechanics work, to the way targeting works, to the way mob loot and experience are shared - it's not just any one thing, it's the fact that all the systems have been built with this goal in mind, make this nothing short of a revolution.

Some people claim they've gone too far. That because you can accomplish so much working with other people without having to truly group, that no real ties are formed, that communities aren't grown, and this "fake grouping" actually hurts the game more than it helps. Those people are, in a word, wrong. I have spent more time playing with other people - helping them, and being helped by them - in Guild Wars 2 than I have in any other MMO I've ever played. I may not talk to them, I may not form strong social ties to them, but the fact is, we do play together. And GW2's ability to allow players to organically come together to accomplish goals and then to part their separate ways (or not - once teamed up, I've often worked together with people to uncover half a zone), will serve as a benchmark on how to do social gaming right in MMO's to come.

Level Agnostic Design
While GW2's auto-levelling feature doesn't truly make the game level-agnostic, it does go along ways towards diminishing the importance of what level you are. Guild Wars does a remarkably good job of seamlessly transitioning your level down to match the content of what you're facing. But for awhile I was on the fence on whether or not this was really a good thing. For one, it meant I could never really out-level content, and thus allow me to come back and trivially finish difficult missions and tasks. And there's sometimes you want to be able to come in and just wafflestomp creatures that you are vastly overpowered for. But the more I play with this, the more I am convinced the pros outweigh the cons. It's very powerful to be able to pick any of the zones I haven't visited yet, and to go there, and know I'll still have a meaningful play experience. And the truth is, once you've acquired enough talents and utility skills, the presence of those really do make a difference. Make no mistake - when you are level 80, down-leveled to level 17, you truly are much more powerful than you are at level 17 naturally. So you still get that ability somewhat to crush the puny creatures below you. But the fact that you can never be up-leveled, means that there is still a great notion of progression. You are leveling up through the zones. But once you have leveled up, the vast array of zones and content you haven't explored yet are still available to you in a meaningful way.

Shardless Architecture
This one as well has been harder to call because so many of the pieces of this system have actually been broken, and are only just now coming into play. And some pieces of the system still aren't online. But enough of them have started working that you can get a sense of how it's supposed to work, and once all the pieces are in place, I think there will be greatness. Already, it's pretty cool. So what I mean by shardless is that, even though you pick a home server, and play on that server, the boundaries between the servers are remarkably thin. Already I can chat with, send messages to, and even send and receive e-mail to and from friends on other servers. People on other servers can even join my guild! And furthermore, we can run dungeons together - or at least we will be able to - I haven't fully tested this one yet. And once guesting is in place, I should be able to visit their server and they be able to visit mine to play together at any time.

Now, I haven't played The Secret World, but as I understand it TSW did an even better job, from what I hear, of building a shardless architecture. But if you're coming from games that have held on to a traditional notion of servers and realms, Guild Wars 2 does (or at least, will do) a remarkable job of reducing those barriers. Oh, and a component of this, that I absolutely have to mention, is the genius of allowing you to be a member of multiple guilds simultaneously. It's hard to overstate just how cool this is.

There are a number of reasons why Guild Wars succeeds I think on so many fronts. It's not unlike talking about why WoW was so good back in the day - you can't point to any one thing and say this is it. It's a matter of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. But for me at least, those feel like some of the bigger pieces of the puzzle.

So.. we're done here?

The Misses
But as I mentioned at the top, it's not all roses in Tyria. For many people, once the newness wore off, they found that the game didn't grab them, and didn't feel really compelled to come back day after day. And the interesting thing is, honestly I think for a number of these, they aren't even things that ArenaNet would consider problems, per se, but are in fact intentional design choices made on their part. Let's look at a few of them.

Where's the Fun?
Guild Wars 2 is an interesting beast, in that it carefully rides a line between directed and directionless content. Though there are karma hearts and dynamic events that give the player a sense of direction, outside of the player's personal story, there is very little to direct a player on where to go or what to do. So in that sense, it actually plays much more like a sandbox game than an amusement park game, wherein it relies on the player to go and find their own fun. There are no quest hubs. There are no breadcrumb quests that lead a player from one location to the next. And not only does the absence of those reduce the direction a player has when they log on to play, but it also greatly reduces the context of a particular zone, leaving players feeling like not only do they not know what to do in a particular zone, but they don't even know what the hell is going on in the zone, or why they are there! It's hard to find motivation to go kill a bunch of mobs when you have no idea who these polar bear people are or why they're there, or anything else going on around you. This has resulted in people logging on, and having this sort of scenario:

So I logged on, and I thought, what do I do? I could do a karma heart, but they're kind of boring, and the rewards are never anything I want. I tried to do a few dynamic events but there wasn't anyone else about and I couldn't complete them. I would do some WvW but the queues are too long. And yeah I could craft, but I hate crafting. So I killed a few monsters, and logged out.

That player probably isn't logging back on. Now for me personally, this hasn't happened yet. Even though I typically don't enjoy games in which you find your own fun, for whatever reason, in Guild Wars 2 I'm totally able to do just exactly that. In the above scenario, there are any number of things I would do. I would indeed find some karma hearts to do, taking the time to read the conversation before and after the event, to give me a sense of context. I'd head off in some direction of uncovered map yet, just to see what lies at the bottom of a cave. I'd attempt to tackle some dynamic events, even alone, because in my own personal experience, I've found that many dynamic events scale better than people give them credit for, and are actually quite doable solo. Not all of them, and I think ANet still has a lot of work to do here in making many of them scale better. But I think they actually already scale better than they first appear. I would check my daily progression achievement, and see if I'm close to getting that achievement, and set about doing the things I still needed to do. And failing those things, I'd pop back to Lion's Arch and see what fine crafting components I needed to progress in my crafting, which might in turn lead me to spending some time on the internet to find where Vials of Thick Blood drop, and then going to that location and farming some thick blood.

I'm not sure what ANet can do, honestly, to correct this perception. They definitely need to reduce the barrier to people getting into WvW, and you can rest assured they are working damn hard right now to try to fix that very problem. And as I said before, there is still much work to do on scaling dynamic events to be more doable when zone populations are low. But the truth is, none of those things are going to help, if you don't find the activity of doing those things actually fun. And even if you do, ArenaNet's philosophy is that they pretty much leave it up to you to figure out which of those things you want to do, and to go find them, and to do them. And I think, for many people, that's just going to miss.

No End Game Progression
Now here I have some bad news. Or at least, bad news for the people that want this. Because I'm here to tell you that ArenaNet doesn't consider this a miss at all. This is pretty much a straight up design philosophy on their part. Guild Wars (the franchise) has never been about building your character in power, primarily through acquisition of better gear, after you reach the game's max level. When you reached level 20, in GW1, here were your choices: (1) Continue to do the campaign, or campaigns, and explore content you hadn't seen. (2) Learn the skill metagame, and participate in the PvP. (3) Work to acquire hard-to-get rare skins for your armor and weapons by doing a combination of farming zones and running dungeons with your friends, to acquire the rare crafting materials you needed to create those armors and weapons. None of those, it should be noted, resulted in significantly improving your character (in terms of power, at least), through gear. Now if you step back and take a look at Guild Wars 2 - guess what. This is pretty much exactly what you do when you reach level 80 in Guild Wars 2. So.. from their standpoint I think, they're pretty happy. This design philosophy kept people playing in Guild Wars 1 - at least enough of them to be profitable - and so they are going to go with that in Guild Wars 2.

The problem, of course, is that hundreds of thousands of people playing this game never played Guild Wars 1, and they are coming into this game with one primary expectation - and that is to continue to have some way to actively progress the power of their character - through some sort of endgame activity - whether that be pvp or raids, or what not. Now it is a separate discussion altogether on the merits of one endgame philosophy over another. But the point I'm making is that - if that's what you're looking for, you simply aren't going to find it here. Only time will tell if they implement some sort of system that does fulfill that desire more so than they do now, but it certainly isn't here currently, as far as I can tell. Whether or not this is a hit or a miss is entirely a matter of perspective. For me personally, it's not a miss at all. I came into this game from Guild Wars 1, and as such my expectations were set around that design philosophy. But for many I think, farming dungeons for elite armor skins, and/or participating in the pvp simply isn't going to give them what they want.

The Personal Story - Spoiler Alert
Okay I saved this one for last, and I will caveat this with spoiler alerts. I'm going to talk a bit about the story past level 20, so if you haven't played the game yet, or are still very early in your first character's personal story and don't want to have anything spoiled, feel free to bail now. Please feel free to comment on any and all of what I've said above. Here's a nice picture.

If you're still here though - let's say it together right?

Fucking Trahearne.

This one, in my book, is truly a miss. I get why they made you a bystander in the personal story, but I absolutely do not agree with it. I'm at level 72 or so in my personal story, and am quite honestly completely uninterested in finishing it. Because once you get to a certain point, you are are relegated to tagging along in Trahearne's story. Really mostly observing it, witnessing it, and helping out with it. But it long ago stopped being your story. There are a number of reasons I can see why they took this approach. Chief among them I think is that it provides a more centralized, canon story for the lore of the world as a whole. They can write with authority of how Trahearne saved the world from Zhaitan, along with the assistance of the nameless hero. But goodness it seems like they could have done a better job of making you a central figure. I'll caveat this with the fact that I haven't completely finished the personal story myself yet, but I suspect the role I play won't change significantly over the next few missions.

I think the ship has already sailed on this one, at least for this story, but I can only hope that in future expansions and add-ons, they do a better job of making the personal story about my character. And if the world needs saving again, As long as I'm entering personal private instances for every mission anyway, then in my personal private version of the world, I sure as hell hope I'm the one that gets to save it!

TLDR
After a month in, Guild Wars 2 is still my game. I don't get enough time in my life to play it as much as I'd like, but it's still pretty much the only game I'm playing. I've lived through the honeymoon stage. I've seen the warts, and think I'm comfortable with the choices the game has made. Many things I like about the game, and some things I think could be better. Some of them _much_ better. But for me personally, I can say with complete confidence Guild Wars 2 is a game I'll be playing for a long time to come.