Indiana Jones or the Crazy Sword Guy?

 

Remember the scene in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Arc where the swordsman is flipping his sword around and ready to slice and dice Indie? Yeah it was cool. But then Indie pulls out his gun and shoots the guy. Okay remember that scenario.

I was reading Siadina's post over atTripping Tyria titled, “One, Two ,Three.” She was describing thechallenge of apply FPS principles in GW2. i.e. dodging and strafing. After commenting on the post, I thought of something. (well twothings but #2 is fun surprise.) One of the issues brought up duringthe beta events has been that ranged classes have a dodging advantage overmelee classes.

 

Ranged classes are farther away fromthe bad guy and have a greater view of the battle. Rangedclasses can see incoming attacks and have time to react to them; as aresult, they can more efficiently preserve the limit dodge resourceor decide to prepare a counter boon/condition, and reduce damage. In PvPrange can kite melee quite easily as the game currently stands. Onmy guardian, I had to run down range units so I could get in a“gap-closer”. Unfortunately, range classes can dodge away thensnipe me down. Think Indiana (range) and the sword guy (melee). Now, I can swap my melee weapons and go to range but see whatjust happened? I'm a melee fighting at range. Why play melee when range currently has an advantage?

 

I think the following solution canhelp fix the problem - Increase melee classes' dodge capability byeither increasing the number of times melee can dodge before dodge ison cooldown or increase melee classes' dodge bar recharge rate.

In PvP, melee could use dodge to close-in or as damage mitigation inprep for a skill based gap-closer. In addition, it still will alldepend on the timing and skill of the player. For PvE, it wouldprovide more damage mitigation opportunities since melee are up closeand personal. Most of the typical mobs don't have charged attacks,many are insta-cast and they simply just deal out face-shots and layyou flat on the floor. Having a few more opportunities to avoiddamage increases survivability.


 

Now, having said all this, its stillBETA and who knows what will happen. I know the the second BWEincreased melee damage in part to address the issue, but again, melee needs to get in close. If it can easily kite melee, it won't die.

Sword guy or Indiana. Big up close and personal sword or "Bang!", your dead at 20 yards away. Unfortunately melee lovers it's a situation of being amazingly cool, but, as the l33t vernacular puts it, "pwnd."


 

Posted with Blogsy

Does the Black Citadel Rust?

     Oh what an interesting question. You have this amazing, massive structure made out of ,what... iron, mithril, black steel, orichalcum? Maybe it's an iron-ghost dust alloy, that ghost stuff is everywhere and in pretty endless supply. Either way it's made of metal and lots of it and if it rusts somecharr has got to maintain it. I imagine the number of warbands needed to work on it is at least a centurions worth of them, maybe two. Maybe it's considered a pretty honorable job. Maintaining the citadel where the leaders of the Charr Legions meet and organize Charr victories.

“Centurion, I request duty on the Oxidation Removal & Eradication team.”
“What are your qualifications?”
“I've developed a black steel oxide inversion gun. It fires a measured, semi-coagulated spray of ignitor fuel, Old Claw's ginger marinate and Quaggan spit”
“You got Quaggan spit and ginger marinade to mix into a stable mixture?  That alone is note worthy." "Report in tomorrow and we'll see what you can do.”
“Yes Sir!”

Then again, maybe it's made up of disgraced gladiums or better said janitoriums.

Tribune Uberfierce - “For your cowardice I sentence you, Danus Lameclaw to rust and polish patrol!”

Danus - “No, anything but that!”

Tribune Uberfierce - “Report to Prefecture Miyagi Bottlebreaker immediately.”

You'd have to feel for those Charr thrown to the rank of janitorium, always being in proximity to some of the greatest Charr warriors and leaders but nevermore one of them. 

     I am more inclined toward the first example.  I mean, this is the Black Citadel, the symbolic representation of Charr power since 1112 AE.  Its the Death Star of Tyria for crying out loud!  You want the best Charr in there.  You want every visitor from the different races in awe of both the structure and it's personnel.  (Is it appropriate to say "personnel" when referring to charr?  Charrnel?  No, sounds like a bad cologne.)  Yes, it would have to be the best of the charr who make it to the Black Citadel and of those only a select few are allowed to maintain it.  What would the their name of their unit be?  How about the Iron Legion's Oxidation Removal & Eradication team or, the Iron ORE brigade?  Sounds catchy.     

BETA the Second

Unfortunately, I did not get to play much during the last round of open world testing.  I had plenty of house work, work work, and play work that needed attention.  However, I did get an hour or two in and dabbled around in Tyria and it was exceedingly enjoyable.   (I didn't get to play my charr engineer because I wanted to try some other classes so no fun there.) 

Hunters...mmmm well.  Uh, yeah about them.  I think WoW spoiled me regarding hunters cause when it gets down to it GW2 pets are squish.  They probably are amazing at range but for now, not for me.

The guardians are actually pretty nice. I enjoy the mix of melee and magic.

Stab the ground! Make lights appear! There is a rule of anime at work here.

The personal stories have me. I can choose to rescue my friend or not!

In the Charr area, ghosts patrol at night. During the day they do not! Another, “Oh Cool!” moment. Wait a minute, the humans in Queensdale actually go inside at night, or to the tavern. Anybody else notice this?

Trying out the elemantalist. Got to be a human, don't know why but its the only playable race that seems to “click” with me.

Can I just say that a good elementalist will be a force to be reckoned with. Weapon swaps plus attunements will creating a high number of attacks/options. I was just having a blast figuring out what everything did and I still didn't see a fraction of it.

Deleted the human thief and creating a norn thief for fun. I mean come on, a big lumbering guy like that sneaking around.

SMACK! The norn thief looks cooler than the human. His get-up looks more ninja like. Yes, I named him Stabs McStabby. Why? Because its beta and I can. :)

I may keep Stabs around. He is so contradictory yet amazingly cool looking.

Just a quite shot of thoughts.  As a stated, I didn't get to play much, but the game time was exceedingly enjoyable.

Quick Impressions of BWE 1

Starting in the human area was dramatic.  I've seen it a couple times but going through it with a ton of other people around me, all of us semi confused and swarming was pretty fun.

I'm in an event?  How'd I get into an event?

Villagers can actually die, or are they in a "down state?".   What are the purple triangles that appear when you tell the villagers to go to the inn? Oh karma!

Quest guy says, "Go here!"  I went another direction and ran into centaurs and mesmerized them, LOL!   Okay bad joke. Point being I ran everywhere but the "Go here" spot and was still part of the over all excitement.

The second learn Mesmer skill is sweet.  Invulnerable will striking multiple times/targets. Third Mesmer skill (teleport with clone) is a pain with lag.

I'm the jump master general!

Do my legs adjust when I'm on a slope?  Caramba, they do!

Okay the end boss was big, my laptop went into graphic cardiac arrest, I'm glad every class can heal it's self.

Zerged boss equals a dead boss.

Running around fields helping farmers.  I can water plants, stomp worm hols, feed cows (them cow loves me, big hearts above his head) and...a new event!  Bandits are burning the farm I just got up and running. Grumble.
Wow.  The event was successful.  I put out hay fires with a bucket and then beat up bad guys.

"Someone's poisoned the water hole!" That's the line I think of with the well poisoned quest. We barley stop the poisoning. They are blowing it up now!  We got Al Queda in Kryta?

Okay a thief.  Oh I like this, I'm afraid more than the Mesmer.

I just realized I can swap main hand off-hand and get different skills.  One of those precious "Oh Cool!" moments.

There is a Charr in Queens!  And he is helping humans.  What a changed world.

Charr area
I Love The Engi!  Or maybe the engineer charr combo but I had a blast in the charr area. I'm making the charr Engi.  My son named him.

More people are rezing others compared to the human instance.

Dodge rocks. Saved my fuzzy tail many times.

Lvl 2 vs manny lvl 6 baddies equals insta death.  On this note, you really have to apply ground movement tactics.  DON'T EVER LET THE ENEMY HAVE THE HIGH GROUND!  Your shots are "obstructed", theirs are not.  I must use this to some advantage in PvP.  Skill really plays a part in this.  If you've play a WoW hunter and knew how to kite that skill will translate well into GW2.

How do you get to PvP any way?

I haven't even left the general starting area, the one after you fight all the ghosts and yet I'm still finding things to do.

Some of the events repeat, maybe because it is a lower level area.

This is too much fun and it's still beta, really beta and this polished. Oh and guess what, I don't have to pay a dime extra.  TAKE THAT SUBSCRIPTION FEES!

Last thought-it maybe too early to really assess this but this has never felt grindy.  Not once. That alone has me hooked.