Guild Wars 1

[KörangarTheMighty]

I want to get back into this game at some point but every time I log into the post-searing wasteland I feel all the enthusiasm drain out of me. It's so grey and dull. How big is this black burned wilderness, and how do I get out fast?

~2 hours. If you just wanna get through it, you've got me on Steam, I'm happy to lend a hand.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

gates of madness

is it a story mission? if so, it's not that hard, because i did it at least 10 times, between all my alts.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

is it a story mission? if so, it's not that hard, because i did it at least 10 times, between all my alts.

It's the hardest mission in Nightfall. Especially if you're attempting the bonus.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

then it's not that hard, nightfall was my favourite main quest and i did it before the hero flood, which means with just 3 heroes and 4 henchies.

 

[Average Manatee]

Doing it solo was pretty easy if you knew how to handle it. Doing it with a pug where there's always one person who doesn't listen is where you can fall apart quickly, either from a bad aggro or messing up vs. shiro. Especially on hard mode. And it gets a lot harder if your lightbringer rank is low.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

then it's not that hard, nightfall was my favourite main quest and i did it before the hero flood, which means with just 3 heroes and 4 henchies.

If it's your first time through the game your heroes will be complete shit so it really doesn't matter how many you have. The reality is, until the player convinces himself to spend cash on skills and equipment for those heroes (a hard sell for a new player who has goals for his own character) he's going to be languishing in henchmen hell for at least 2-3 characters worth of campaigns or more depending on his class choices. God help him if he rolls some combination of ranger, warrior, sin or derv as his first few mains.

Double-edged sword really, relying on hench at least forces you to learn a lot about aggro, timing, when to engage, when not to. You have to be a lot more resourceful with the lack of flagging options and you also learn the horrors of certain elementalist nukes and therefore who to focus first.

 

[BoroMonokli]

I don't know about assassin: The dagger spam chain can be bought on the starter island (you get fox fangs, you buy jagged strike and death blossom in Shing Jea and Seitung Harbor), you can supplement it in Kaineng Center with Critical Strike (a dual attack that gives back 3 energy per hit and always crits, for a total of 12 energy regained). With critical eye on you should not even need anything for now. You can cap a decent elite in Bukdek Byway (Palm Strike) (and Flashing Fangs in the undercity if you bring a cap sig for a quest.). This will set you up for the next 2 missions, which are very hench-able.

After doing Nahpui Quarter, you can get your secondary changed to monk, unlock other campaigns if you haven't already, get smiter's boon and smite condition in EoTN, Reversal of Damage in kamadan, and smite hex in kaineng center (if you dont want to do the kryta missions). finally you go out to cap RoJ in the undercity. congrats, you have a build for 3 heroes now.

 

[Average Manatee]

That assumes players are reading guides on builds for classes they don't even play and are intent on spending time and money to improve those builds. I can totally see how the average player starting in nightfall will have heroes worse than the henchmen until after they've finished the campaign.

 

[Kev Inkline]

Found my old pvp guilds:

https://www.gw-memorial.net/guilds/56-Frozen_Flame-ICE

https://www.gw-memorial.net/guilds/145-Prizewinning_Hogs-oiNk



Is there any sort (preferably organized) pvp going anymore?

 

[what am i doing]

Is there any sort (preferably organized) pvp going anymore?

Not really. HA is full of syncers. GvG too probably (or dead). RA is ok I guess, but full of tryhards who just want their chests and get pissy if you don't run a meta build.

I go and play Jade Quarry sometimes, but most of the "players" there are just bots. Still, it can be fun, and you do run into actual human players on occasion.

 

[Black]

Fort Asswood is made of live players but it's only on weekends during burger evenings.

 

[hello friend]

I want to get back into this game at some point but every time I log into the post-searing wasteland I feel all the enthusiasm drain out of me. It's so grey and dull. How big is this black burned wilderness, and how do I get out fast?

~2 hours. If you just wanna get through it, you've got me on Steam, I'm happy to lend a hand.

I might take you up on that someday soon bro

 

[Mary Sue Leigh]

Every now and then I'm itching to play again as well. However the only thing I wanted to play was Mo/P (or Mo/A for PvP) with protection spells mostly. While that was great back in the day since I could have free pick of what party I wanted to join in scenario missions or Alliance Battle, it might be less awesome now with only henchies and companions.
Incidentally I was the kind of player apparently that aNet devs hated because dedicated healers weren't really a thing in the sequel anymore and every class had some kind of half assed heal idk.
But I also missed collecting elite skills and coming up with new combinations of all the skills for my primary and secondary class and then just switching secondary class and trying out a whole new thing.
Yeah GW2 was not meant for me even though I absolutely loved 1.

 

[what am i doing]

Every now and then I'm itching to play again as well. However the only thing I wanted to play was Mo/P (or Mo/A for PvP) with protection spells mostly. While that was great back in the day since I could have free pick of what party I wanted to join in scenario missions or Alliance Battle, it might be less awesome now with only henchies and companions.

I did GWAMM with heroes only on a monk (twice), you can do it with any class with heroes. Playing as Monk basically you'll have less offense to contribute to the team, so your heroes do the actual killing of stuff, but conversely because your defense is better you're a bit safer from wipes, can get away with being a bit less cautious, etc. Or you can just run some damage build, ie SoS which basically any profession can run effectively, or Death Blossom spam, etc. It's obviously not the best profession for playing with heroes only, but it's not un-fun either.

Also, the nice thing about Monk compared to other professions is that it has a much bigger range of effective builds and useful elites, where it's hard to point at any one build and say "this is optimal, anything else is relatively bad". So you'll tend to get less bored because you can switch up your build to something different without losing effectiveness. In fact, it's often a good idea to tailor your build this way, because different areas will have different sorts of threats which can be countered better by different skills. Whereas for most damage-dealing professions, you just run whatever has the highest DPS and there's seldom a reason to change.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

However the only thing I wanted to play was Mo/P (or Mo/A for PvP) with protection spells mostly. While that was great back in the day since I could have free pick of what party I wanted to join in scenario missions or Alliance Battle, it might be less awesome now with only henchies and companions.

There's always room for monk players in Zaishen dungeon bounties. Half the time groups spend at least 5-10 minutes waiting on one to turn up. Might not be your jam, but that goes on practically daily or at least the days when the bounty is up.

 

[Average Manatee]

The one problem with playing a defensive character with heroes is that it becomes a lot harder to call targets constantly, and doing so is a big part of being able to quickly and safely defeat a lot of groups.

 

[Black]

 

[BoroMonokli]

That eternal grove run was... pretty poorly thought out, to say the least.

 

[Average Manatee]

His builds and strategy really aren't great. Masters on Eternal Grove with pure henchmen is not hard at all. I was running legendary survivor characters through Cantha pre-heroes with no problem and practically always got full masters. Especially with a MM hero (which does have Fall Back!, something I approve of and run myself), you're better off not splitting. Instead just run back and forth as a full group to quickly wipe enemy mobs while the minions can stay behind and clean up 2 or 3 enemies if you need to move to confront the next approaching group.

He is right in what he says about Guild Wars being a game that is primarily just about understanding the game basics and applying knowledge well. Missions and bosses aren't weird minigames that wipe you if you don't follow arbitrary rules thought up by the devs, it's mostly about having lots of damage to wipe things quick.

 

[BoroMonokli]

compare and contrast:

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

If you have to rely on the most OP build comps to make it manageable with heroes, all claims of it being easy are bunk. Eternal Grove, especially with the bonus, is the hardest mission in Factions. Credit where credit is due.

 

[BoroMonokli]

well, it's "hard" (i.e. build-check) mode, naturally OP builds are preferred there.

 

[Black]

The Leechsin​

Alternative title: ASSassins the abysmal gimmick class as bad as Paragon, Perma Imbagons they sat in a tree and KISS. Good for nothing gimmick classes.

This essay is not to be taken in jest, neither neutrally and is in fact very serious. Daggersins are like a hyperactive chihuahua leech that needs a constant CLEAN source of blood to feed from or else it'll have a heart attack and die. ASIDE from that 1 deadly arts build that goes through any defense like any spellcaster class... pure dagger sins are useless together with the whole mechanic behind daggers. Daggersins are like leeches and are designed completely around other game mechanics that are not compatible with Guild Wars.

leechsins must follow 1,2,3 , they cannot cast 3,1,2 and 2,1,3 like other normal in the head professions. Sane professions do not have a chain attack requirement. Chain attacks are obligatory and do not reward you with good damage, energy, bonus adrenaline, free shadow steps, attack speed, armor, anything at all. Chain attacks are a redundant pretentious requirement. Criticals are useless in Guild Wars, barely providing 50% extra damage and daggers are the worst weapon in Guild Wars.

Most leechsin abilities rely on conditions "refresh this defense if you successfully land a hit, gain +30 hp per critical hit, heal +100 if you're attacking, gain +15 bonus armor if you're attacking, deal +30 dmg if you're being attacked" A leechsin is a leech. A hungry handicapped leech that cannot stop sucking or it will die. A leechsin can be left all alone with even 1 hex on it and he will die because has nobody to feed him. A leechsin needs constant feeding from something like a miniature punching bag to sit the hell still and take it. The leechsin is a picky eater too. -the punching bag must have infinite amounts of health -to sit still for him to feed on OR IDEALLY the punching bag should follow the sin all the way to his primary target. -and to have 0% chance to deflect attacks -and for the punching bag to die only on the leechsin's final blow after he completed his chain attack -ideally the punching bag should not deal back any damage so the leechsin's progress on healing himself or dealing damage to the punching bag was not wasted this entire time. When a normal spell and healing in GW1 comfortably deals/heals 200 points worth of health and damage in under a second, meanwhile a sin takes 6 seconds to barely deal 170 damage.

The leechsin's weapon of choice are these puny daggers that deal a maximum of 17 dmg(non-armor ignoring damage) when Guild Wars is primarily a game that relies armor-ignoring damage because spellcasters are the dominant class in this game, it also relies on protection spells that reduce 90% of the damage, chance to block 50% and 75% and most importantly insane instant heals for 200-350 points of health. Compare 200-350 heals to 17 dmg. Said 17dmg also takes 1500 milliseconds to deal and it's 7-17, that 17 isn't a 100%.

The scythe and hammer's without any attack skills deal a comfortable 40 damage per hit and with the attack skills they can reach 150 damage in under 1 second.

The average melee skill, range skill, spell deals 150-200 damage comfortably with the ranger often dealing like 4 sources of damage in 1 blow just like the dervish.

Meanwhile an asscuckoo is lucky if he reaches 100 damage from 1 hit or 2 sources of damage. His asscreedcuckoo soiboi ability tells him the enemy must be above 90% HP to deal over 100dmg from 1 hit which also costs him double the energy. The leechsin is incapable of combining his sources of damage in 1 hit or in a very quick succession. And 33% is not quick, nothing is quicker than instant attacks.

THE WORST OFFENSE OBJECTIVELY For some handicapped reason the sincuckoo's abilities are not instant like the warrior and ranger's, together with the attack skills requiring to hit in a specific combo they also take time to end and you can easily interrupt yourself like a retard.

A hammer warrior can nuke you for 400 damage in under 1 second because he can combo his 3 abilities in under 1 second. A sintard similar to the dervish(but not as bad) takes around 1.5 seconds per an average attack and 3 seconds per DUAL attack ability, making sins incapable of nuking.

Only the basic female dog 17dmg per dagger is capable of doing 2 sources of damage in 1.5s , meanwhile attack skills which state "automatic double hit" takes 3 seconds because each attack waits its turn like a good boy.

This prompts assassins to use abilities which give them +33% attack speed otherwise they are completely goddamn useless. Even with the +33% speed they're still trash because they don't compare to a hammer nuker, or a dervish or a ranger with the same speed. With the speed on he finally feels acceptable. The speed is wasted on the leechsin because every melee and physical range attacker attacks as fast as if they already had the 33% speed buff. The leechsin needs a 150%-200% speedbuff to play good.

Funnily enough there is an ability that lets them deal double strikes on a 50% chance , but the ability clearly states "no other attack abilities might be used, only basic female dog daggers with 17dmg) Factions skill designers were communists.

The dagger leechsin gets dunked on by its own deadly arts assassin which teleports in and out after dealing a massive 450 non-blockable damage with hexes on that deal an additional 250 damage after 10 seconds. Sadly Deadly Arts sins only have 1 viable build, but at least its good. Dagger sins have like 2-3 different builds and they're all terrible, they have so little builds & variety because of the handicapped mechanic where you need abilities A,B,C to follow each other, so you will always need ability A in your build.

(meanwhile dervishes have 30 different builds, warriors have 15 different builds per sword, hammer, axe)

Together with the attack abilities being separated into categories A,B,C making the pool of A abilities very small ... Sins also have a very small pool of abilities to begin with. A sin gets like 30 melee abilities, a warrior gets 100 per weapon, so the sin ends up with at most 4 A-category abilities to start their combo with.

Meanwhile every class in the game absolutely does not require this autistic mechanic. Sincuckoos are like a handicapped class with no rewards, dagger sincuckoos are a genuinely handicapped class when faced against other melees. Nevermind that in general melees are already handicapped against spellcasters.

The combos offer absolutely nothing, no extra energy management, meanwhile the warrior and paragons have adrenaline. Adrenaline is a second type of energy that resets to 0 if you stop hitting, this would had made sense for the Assassin. Ranger has a mechanic where any attack and spell costs -50% and -75% less for him. Assassin has a mentally handicapped mechanic where he gains energy if he deals critical strikes ... and critical strikes are uncommon as hell. Only 20% per hit with 2 skill buffs.

The assassin has abilities costing him 5, 10 even 15 energy. All his attack abilities cost 5-10 energy, never 2-3 energy or 6-7 energy. ANet is really autistic about making every ability cost increments of 5.

Meanwhile the paragon and warrior has abilities that are free because they cost adrenaline not energy. The Ranger's abilities that say 5-25 energy actually cost 2-9 energy due to their primary attribute mechanic just like elementalists can have 125 energy. Dervishes have numerous abilities that give them energy back and also have attack abilities that are free(cost adrenaline). Sins' attack skills deal trash for damage in the 50-70s under 100 when other professions deal 120-150 and even 180 easily.

So let's review from order of importance for why dagger sins are a fascist's creation/a sadistic loser who hates daggers and wanted to make daggersin's life a masochistic living hell: -No instant attacks -Low damage -Low ability pool -Retarded requirements/conditions for ability effects. -No energy management -No instant healing -Redundant combo mechanic -Redundant critical strikes mechanic

Dagger abilities, dagger sins, dagger as a secondary, dagger weapons are absolute trash. Sins are a F tier class that have no place not just in Guild Wars but in any game. leechsins are insanely pozzed/sabotaged.

The lack of instant attacks is really what makes the dagger sin an absolute unworkable mess and makes Deadly Arts look good by comparison. Everything else is """""""manageable"""""" with huge quotes, but it makes your life a living hell for no reason.

Leechsins can only be good if everyone else was sabotaged like them. The remaining things like abysmal energy management, ability effects that heavily rely on your enemy sitting the hell down for 10 seconds so you can heal off him or reset your defense's cooldown is there to make your life a living hell and pretend "you just need to git gud bro" "You just need to git gud bro" No. No NO.... okay? NO. Dagger sins are a trap, an absolute fool's errand, a Greek tragedy. Dagger sins were made by a sadistic pile of feces who most likely got ganked too hard by Rogues in WoW.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

heh, dagger spam go ching clang clang

 

[what am i doing]

Despite maining Ritualist back when the game was active I have to say expansion professions were a mistake. Should have just given some new stuff to the existing classes.
Give Ranger and Mesmer a melee skill line each (Ranger gets something like Crit Strikes which he can use with his bow or with other professions' weapon lines, Mesmer gets daggers). Necromancer gets the Ritualist's general utility line of spells (Restoration, weapon spells, item spells) since he ended up using them anyways; maybe tweak them a bit to synergize more with minions. Elementalist gets the spirits, which can maybe be fluffed differently as constructs or elementals or something. Monk gets the Scythe along with flash enchantments for survivability, plus convert some useless smiting prayers skills into useful offensive flash enchantments; Divine Favour modified to reduce cost of flash enchantments. Warrior gets the Spear and some team buff shouts but without the weird Paragon mechanics that made them impossible to balance, but perhaps give him the energy gain from party members when doing shouts thing.

Then worst case you can't balance the new skill lines you just nerf them but at least the profession still has all their other stuff and you don't have weird professions that wobble between overpowered or useless because their mechanic set wasn't part of the original Prophecies design and doesn't mesh well into it.