Guild Wars Nightfall ships
And more importantly, I have a copy. Looking at the latest skill tweaks, time to go roll up an Elementalist.
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Friday, October 27, 2006
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Guild Wars: Massive updates pre-Nightfall
Massive changes including the stuff I wrote about previously and then some. A phenomenal update. So much is in there that I just don't have time to write about it right now.
If you're playing GW, go read the changelog right now. If you're not, you should be. If you were playing but aren't, go read the changelog just in case you need to start again.
Glyph of Elemental Power is looking hot. Boon Prots are looking sad. So many skill updates it's hard to take in.
If you're playing GW, go read the changelog right now. If you're not, you should be. If you were playing but aren't, go read the changelog just in case you need to start again.
Glyph of Elemental Power is looking hot. Boon Prots are looking sad. So many skill updates it's hard to take in.
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Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Guild Wars: Nightfall PvP updates
Despite Nightfall's announced "PvE focus", there's quite a bit on offer to PvP players and the latest GW Insider gave out some more juicy details.
- Build Templates.
With the click of a button you'll be able to:
* Save to Template. Save a build of skills and attributes to your computer. You can even access these files outside of the game, allowing you to transfer them from computer to computer.
* Load from Template. Upload a build from a saved file on your computer into the game.
* Manage Templates. Rename, delete, and move saved templates. - Hero Battles.
To win a Hero Battle, you must outscore your opponent. Points come in two ways: [1] holding the center control point and [2] killing members of the enemy team. In addition to the center control point, each Hero Battle map has additional control points that confer bonuses such as additional Health or control of an NPC ally. Control points are captured much like the points you can capture in Alliance Battles.
- Near-equivalence between PvP and PvE characters. Previously, really competitive PvP players had to grind their way to getting the best PvE equipment.
Part of our goal was to make it so players didn’t have to delete and remake PvP characters so often, so we’re also adding a “PvP Equipment Builder.” You can use this Equipment Builder whenever you’re in an outpost with a PvP-only character and make any item you could make during PvP character creation. Unlocked a new rune at the Priest of Balthazar? You can immediately make yourself some armor with that rune in it. Want four full weapon sets? No problem.
- In-Guild Observer Mode.
And for everyone out there who likes to play a little GvG, we’ve upgraded Observer Mode to include recent GvG battles by your guild.
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Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Guild Wars: Nightfall release party
Trundled around behind Tey (my wife) for a couple of hours and knocked back a few Moorish-themed cocktails. Unlike the Factions release party, there wasn't any real Nightfall PvP action. Alas. Instead it was really a party for the devs - drinks, music, belly dancers and a rah-rah "Making of Nightfall" video.
They had a few machines set up but when I took a quick look everyone was just playing PvE. I have a pretty good idea of how that's going to work from the preview weekend - I was hoping to get some juice on the build template interface or the Hero PvP but no dice. Ah well.
Alright, full disclosure. I already know pretty much exactly how the build template stuff will work but since they weren't displaying it on the party machines I guess it's not fair game to talk about it yet.
Anyway, it was nice to talk to some of Tey's ex-TSR and Wizards friends (e.g. Jeff Grubb, Will McDermott). Jeff seemed pretty pumped up about the new cutscene stuff in Nightfall - apparently the cutscene tools for the previous chapters were fairly basic. I hope he's right to be excited - the cutscenes in Factions & Prophecies were pretty weak.
Not much actual information in the "making of" film - just the usual "this is how you make an AAA title stuff" which I already know. The only tantalizing tidbit was Jeff talking about how they listen to fans about things they want like easier party forming. If they added a better party forming interface, that'd be big news but given it hasn't been mentioned before odds on it's still in development.
That's about all I have to report this time round. Thanks to Izzy for rescuing me from MapQuest's disastrous directions!
Update: courtesy of atray & Avoc over at GWOnline, a pic of one of the belly dancers.
They had a few machines set up but when I took a quick look everyone was just playing PvE. I have a pretty good idea of how that's going to work from the preview weekend - I was hoping to get some juice on the build template interface or the Hero PvP but no dice. Ah well.
Alright, full disclosure. I already know pretty much exactly how the build template stuff will work but since they weren't displaying it on the party machines I guess it's not fair game to talk about it yet.
Anyway, it was nice to talk to some of Tey's ex-TSR and Wizards friends (e.g. Jeff Grubb, Will McDermott). Jeff seemed pretty pumped up about the new cutscene stuff in Nightfall - apparently the cutscene tools for the previous chapters were fairly basic. I hope he's right to be excited - the cutscenes in Factions & Prophecies were pretty weak.
Not much actual information in the "making of" film - just the usual "this is how you make an AAA title stuff" which I already know. The only tantalizing tidbit was Jeff talking about how they listen to fans about things they want like easier party forming. If they added a better party forming interface, that'd be big news but given it hasn't been mentioned before odds on it's still in development.
That's about all I have to report this time round. Thanks to Izzy for rescuing me from MapQuest's disastrous directions!
Update: courtesy of atray & Avoc over at GWOnline, a pic of one of the belly dancers.
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Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Guild Wars: Nightfall release party tonight
The Nightfall release party is tonight. I already had an invite this time round before the contest was announced so unlike last time I didn't suck up one of the fan slots.
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Monday, October 16, 2006
Guild Wars: I Fail
Possibly my least-skilled bit of PvP ever last night. Since everyone was busy farming green items in Cantha during the triple drop weekend, noone wanted to play any real PvP.
So I was once again playing a couple of rounds of Random Arenas using the Razorwire ranger I wrote about previously. One particular round came down to me killing the 3rd guy on their team at the same time the opposing team's last guy finished off our 3rd. I'd used my res sig, so now it was just me against him.
He was playing a toucher variant with Life Siphon instead of Throw Dirt. Razorwire really ought to win this matchup since you can Distracting Shot the Life Siphon and just kite around shooting him occasionally. If you get time you put up Melandru's Arrows for a bit of bleeding. He can't actually do damage unless he touches you so that should be pretty much game. Just have to make sure you don't use Pin Down when he has a defense stance.
I lost.
Why? I started out with 50hp after I got rid of the previous guy and so I was focused on my health - one Vampiric Bite and I'd die. I stayed thinking about using Pin Down to get far enough away for Trolls Unguent so much that I spaced out and totally forgot about interrupting his stuff. Dumb.
The moral of this story is that you have to find time to make sure you have a plan for winning even while dealing with micro. I'd have to disable the Life Siphon to win so I'd have to cancel Troll's if necessary to get an interrupt on it.
One last note on this sad tale - when you're playing against touchers, you can normally keep Frenzy up the whole time since Frenzy's double damage drawback doesn't apply against life stealing effects like Vampiric Bite and Touch.
So I was once again playing a couple of rounds of Random Arenas using the Razorwire ranger I wrote about previously. One particular round came down to me killing the 3rd guy on their team at the same time the opposing team's last guy finished off our 3rd. I'd used my res sig, so now it was just me against him.
He was playing a toucher variant with Life Siphon instead of Throw Dirt. Razorwire really ought to win this matchup since you can Distracting Shot the Life Siphon and just kite around shooting him occasionally. If you get time you put up Melandru's Arrows for a bit of bleeding. He can't actually do damage unless he touches you so that should be pretty much game. Just have to make sure you don't use Pin Down when he has a defense stance.
I lost.
Why? I started out with 50hp after I got rid of the previous guy and so I was focused on my health - one Vampiric Bite and I'd die. I stayed thinking about using Pin Down to get far enough away for Trolls Unguent so much that I spaced out and totally forgot about interrupting his stuff. Dumb.
The moral of this story is that you have to find time to make sure you have a plan for winning even while dealing with micro. I'd have to disable the Life Siphon to win so I'd have to cancel Troll's if necessary to get an interrupt on it.
One last note on this sad tale - when you're playing against touchers, you can normally keep Frenzy up the whole time since Frenzy's double damage drawback doesn't apply against life stealing effects like Vampiric Bite and Touch.
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