Skill Based MMOs

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Originally Posted by DeviousToast

Nonsubscription... skill-based... MMORPG... hmm...

I have a question for the Guild Wars proponents. I played a lot of WoW. And I tried the Guild Wars beta. So I know a lot about WoW (which I've heard is pretty standard from an MMORPG perspective) and next to nothing about GWs. Could someone who has played both, or at least is super GWs gung-ho give me a run down about the game?

I read their FAQ. And it was yawn. Tell me how I gain equipment, how PvP fights and teams work. Are there different "specs" or ways to make certain moves more powerful? Counters to certain moves? I know literally nothing about the combat system other than it's click-to-move business (which will take a lot of getting used to) and when last I played, it's lack of a jump button.

Ok.

Armour: Is crafted from materials that are either bought or aquired from defeated enemies. The types of armour and the various effects which they hold are far to numerous to list here, but it basically depends on what you want from a particular character. Armours can be upgraded with runes which are dependant upon character class, which either boost stats, increase health, or give extra energy. There are also some upgrades that allow for other more specialist effects, such as increased knockdown times for hammer warriors and the like.

There is no "uber set" that will keep someone alive forever.

Weapons: Can also be bought, but the best weapons (Gold and Green) are found when fighting enemies or in locked chests found in every instance. They too can be upgraded. Each weapon type (swords, hammers, staffs, etc) can basically be upgraded in 2 seperate components (swords= hilts and blades, staffs= heads and wrappings, etc).

Nightfall also added inscriptions to weapons which can increase damages, or add points to health/energy under certain situations.

Leveling up: The max level in GW is 20. This does not take long to reach and can be reached easily enough just by doing the main story missions. For every level you go up you gain attribute points which can be added to you attributes.

Attributes: These differ for each class. Example; a warriors attributes include Strength, Swordsmanship, Axe mastery, Hammer mastery and Tactics. Every proffession has 1 primary attribute which can only be used by that proffession. Usually this attribute is the most important. In the case of the warrior, the primary is strength. Every time you level these attributes up you use up a certain amount of attribute points; level 1 Swordsmanship - 1 AP; level 2 Swordsmanship - 2 AP, and so on, each increment increasing the cost in AP. By the time you get to level 20 you basically have 200 AP to play around with (points can be added or taken away, and levels can be increased or decreased and tweaked whenever you are in a town or outpost).

This allows you to "build" your character however you want, whenever you want. Just because you started out with points in Swordsmanship doesn't mean you HAVE to always use swords and sword skills.

Skills: These are the reason you upgrade those atrributes. As you increase/decrease you attribute levels you affect any corresponding skills accordingly. For instance (don't quote me on the levels of this, I'm just using it as an example), the warrior skill "Sprint". At level 0 (no points in strength) this strength skill will allow you to move 50% faster for 4 seconds. At level 7 strength though (1AP+2AP+3AP+5AP+8AP+13AP+21AP), this skill will allow you to move at 50% faster for 12 seconds.

This is how most skills and attributes work, and this is where creative build design comes in to play. You only have so many AP, and you can only have 8 skills on your skill bar at once. Adjusting levels and taking appropriate skills into play that contemplate each other are the key. You cannot max out all of you attributes, and the more attributes you spread your points over, the weaker you will be. This is even more true when you pick a secondary proffession and have access to that proffessions skills as well (though not the primary of the secondary). Do you only want the mesmer primary attribute "fast casting" to increase your spell casting speeds for your healing monk, or do you want to instead have the elementalist primary "energy storage" for the same healing monk. You wont cast spells as fast but you will have more energy for those spells. It may not seem like a huge difference, but it affects your choices immensely.

That is about as well as I can explain the general ideas of the battle concept without you actually seeing it for yourself, but I will now talk a little about the PvP side of things.

Tell me how I gain equipment,

done that

how PvP fights and teams work.

will come on to that soon,

Are there different "specs" or ways to make certain moves more powerful?

covered,

Counters to certain moves?

Yes of course, everything can be countered! So long as you have the right skills, from the right proffesion, you can counter any build. Rangers are th bane of warriors with crippling conditions and poison, mesmers are the bane of all casters with interrupts, elementalists may be the heaviest hitters but they are also 1 of the weakest classes, and so die easily to warriors. But all of that can change depending on what skills those characters are actually running. This is where the player skill comes in to play. Recognising what others are using and acting to counter them. Monk/assasin being difficult to hit? Use energy denial skills to stop him teleporting. Ranger placing traps everywhere? Spike him as he sets them up and stop him from doing his job.

There are many variables to take into account in PvP and you really have to see or experiance it directly to fully understand it. And I'm perhaps not the best person to explain it all.

Oh and one last thing; you don't have to click to move, you can use the keys just as easily and everyone has their prefferance on that.

And who cares about jumping? Frankly it looks ridiculous when people keep jumping about a battle avoiding attacks in games. It doesn't look right and you wouldn'y fight like that in real life, so why would you in a game which for all it's magic and spell casting abilites, is still distinctly "realistic"?

[Arlia Janet]

Originally Posted by Lord of Joshelplex

I mioght give GW a try, but my friend really hates it and said if I played it he would hate me so yeah.

Someone that petty doesn't deserve friends.

[Eltargrim]

Arlia beat me to it, but I'll chime in; that's not a real friend.

HoB, I've just started playing again myself, and I only have Prophecies; will I be able to use Inscriptions in PvE or PvP?

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Originally Posted by Eltargrim

HoB, I've just started playing again myself, and I only have Prophecies; will I be able to use Inscriptions in PvE or PvP?

Inscriptions are Nightfall only I'm afraid. As are insignias and all of the new runes of vitea and the like.

They did however re-address several core skills to counter balance this in PvP, for those who don't own NF.

[Lord of Joshelplex]

Im gonna rephrase my request, waht are online gmaes hta tare fee free and are based entirely on the skill of the gamer, nit the stats of their character?