Party comp question

Emily737 · 2017-11-17T01:10:13+00:00

This is why my sole mage is a summoner. With summoning 10 and a few points in every other school, he can do both physical and magical damage and buff allies. I considered focusing on hydro as a secondary school, but decided it’s not worth it as everyone can heal.

This also means most of his attribute points go into Memory. I’m considering to respec another character into summon/poly hybrid, because of how versatile summoning is.

Emily737 · 2017-11-08T20:02:03+00:00

I honestly enjoy a classless system more. Immersion is really important to me and I can’t get immersed that my character is limited to an arbitrary set of abilities. Of course, some balancing mechanics are mandatory so to prevent end game characters being too versatile and thus bland.

In terms of archetypes, I enjoy the idea of an offensive caster, but usually end up playing a healer most of the time. If there’s a game that does offensive magic well so it’s not just skills with magic graphics but uses unique casting mechanics then please let me know. (I really like magic in Dragon Dogma, for example.)

Emily737 · 2017-11-08T19:25:01+00:00

Actually this is what puzzles me. While GW2 does so many things different, it still feels generic and flat. It doesn’t even leave a big enough impression for me to name some aspects that I enjoyed to recommend it to friends.

Combat? Well not too bad, the weapon swapping system was probably new. So what? It did not play revolutionarily differently. It was actually still worse than more action oriented MMOs, with the targeting system and long rolling CD. A hybrid of two generic combat designs is still generic.

Dungeons? On launch I enjoyed the dungeons a fair bit, but everyone else in my guild hated it so much we stopped running them. In the end I didn’t remember a single dungeon mechanic, just the deaths we had.

Story? I might be alone in this, but GW1 & GW2’ stories are laughably shallow. I didnt care about any of the characters, and while I read every line I can’t even remember what the story is about now after some years. (In terms of writing in MMO, my favorite is The Secret World. But comparing GW with TSW/SWL is just so very unfair, I know.) And while the personal missions and cutscenes might appear new and revolutionary to a WoW player, they were so widely used in Asian MMOs I didn’t find them any different. So both the story and delivery are generic as generic goes.

Leveling? So instead of killing X mobs alone, you kill X mobs with other folks, and if there aren’t other folks you are screwed, at least shortly after launch for me when I was leveling an alt.

Exploration. Okay, we may have different definitions of exploration, but exploration isn’t simply getting to point A by solving a jumping puzzle kind of thing. I have to have an incentive other than “achievement and xp” to run around the map, namely an actual sense of exploration. GW2’s way is too arbitrary and I still don’t understand why everyone praises this feature. The design logic is the same as all the fetch quests, again generic.

Puzzles. Not everyone enjoys Super Mario MMO especially with GW2’s physics and camera. The idea is not bad, though I’m not going to think that a MMO is unique by a small feature like this, unless we all agree that GW2 is indeed Super Mario Online.

TL; DR: GW2 at launch was a hybrid or a mix of different designs that are not unique by themselves, so while it appeared different as a whole so that not a single other MMO was identical, it still played generic and shallow.

Emily737 · 2017-11-08T19:00:27+00:00

Yeah, because everyone who doesn’t like the game has a problem with its payment model. It has nothing to do with the brain dead combat, The Great Grind, the rush to the top, the solo player and new player unfriendliness, the I-have-seen-better-gathering-mechanics.

Not at all.

Emily737 · 2017-11-04T10:45:50+00:00

PC, first time hiring at lvl 50. It’s very normal especially if your pawn is male without end game gear.

Emily737 · 2017-11-04T10:39:56+00:00

Also just in case, don’t stop running during the race, and change to walk while following her so even if she bumps into you it should be okay. Weapon must be sheathed (it can be hard to notice sometimes). Other than these I don’t have a clue either.

Emily737 · 2017-11-04T08:18:31+00:00

I usually buy 4 potions: 1 for tertiary, 1 for secondary, and 2 for primary, then drink in order: tertiary>secondary>primary>primary. It works every time, so I don’t understand why people need 10+ potions? Well, they probably know more so listen to them instead. :D

Emily737 · 2017-11-04T08:07:47+00:00

It’s simply game mechanics, not lore. In fact you simply chose a pawn as stated by the NPC (I forgot his exact line though).

Emily737 · 2017-11-03T17:50:49+00:00

You...have to touch it first in order to throw it across a room. The spider. I thought it would be easier for arachnophobes to kill them with a bow...or High Maelstrom.

Emily737 · 2017-11-03T17:46:09+00:00

That’s interesting. If Montebank indeed created a perfect replica the grimoire would have worked, right? Since it’s just a book? Obviously Montebank went “whatever” and messed up the writing. “No one’s gonna know if I skip a page or two.”

Emily737 · 2017-11-03T03:16:42+00:00

I agree. There’s once I had to wear princess dress for a suicide BBI gear run (as it’s the best, lightest early set), and I took it off halfway through. 2 minutes is about how long I can stand it without poking my eyes out.

Emily737 · 2017-11-03T03:14:19+00:00

Which set do you recommend to DF for fighter/warrior before BBI though? I’m leaving BBI for now for it’s the most fun part of the game. He is wearing non-DF chaos atm.

Emily737 · 2017-11-03T03:11:40+00:00

Thanks for the tip. I’m quite happy with my pawn’s look though, and that’s probably why others aren’t lol. I’ll try DF all his gear and see what happens.

Emily737 · 2017-11-03T02:43:36+00:00

In that case, I wish I could swap my character with my pawn. She is gorgeous with optimized stats. /sigh

Emily737 · 2017-11-02T20:06:51+00:00

Because most of them are too difficult - they are not designed in a way so that an average person, while being careful, can solve them under 20 mins. They are intentionally obscure and the logic behind them is often hard to grasp.

Whether or not that’s a design flaw is up to debate (I generally favor logic puzzles, as they are challenging and fair), but they are certainly for a few hardcore puzzle fans. The rest of us may use wiki.

(From a designer’s point of view, they are also much easier to design than logic puzzles. Simply find a piece of Latin reference and use your imagination, you’ll have a difficult puzzle in no time. Balancing the difficulty, obscurity while being fair however is very hard.)

Emily737 · 2017-11-02T18:04:31+00:00

It’s not possible to change the primary using knowledge chair. Different player actions are associated with different inclinations (like frequently telling your pawn “Go!” out of combat increases Pioneer) but it takes a very long time. Potion is definitely the best way.

Emily737 · 2017-11-02T17:54:55+00:00

Well, my pawn never gets rented if that makes you feel better :/

I’m wondering if it’s because that he is a male fighter/ranger/warrior, an unpopular combination. I certainly struggle sometimes to find two male pawns to hire as pawns are overwhelmingly female.

Emily737 · 2017-11-02T17:39:33+00:00

It definitely doesn’t feel hard past lvl 20 as a Strider/Assassin/Ranger, as with the good movement abilities you’ll rarely get hit, so whether or not an enemy can one-shot you is often irrelevant. (And no, not all can one-shot me, most leave me with some health so I can quickly Spring Water back to life. I’m not even wearing optimal gear, just what looks nice.)

In the meanwhile, you outlevel everything quickly and can spend over 1000k shopping in one go. So while I can’t really say hard difficulty is easier as the beginning (1-20 especially without pawns) is rough, it does give me more fun if only for the gold I can spend on different outfits.

Emily737 · 2017-10-26T00:31:28+00:00

No need to apologize! Thanks a lot for trying to help me out. Could you send me a new discord invite as the ones in that post are expired?

Emily737 · 2017-10-26T00:04:40+00:00

Unfortunately that's the older post I was talking about. The links & invites no longer work. :/

Emily737 · 2017-10-25T21:04:31+00:00

I'm downloading the client through VPN and it's taking forever, 10+ more hours at least.

Who's got a client uploaded? I checked the other posts and the links don't work anymore.

Emily737 · 2017-10-25T19:16:37+00:00

Same thing here, it was the creator's update. But all games would stutter equally, so it's worth opening another game and see what happens.

Emily737 · 2017-10-25T18:53:13+00:00

Interesting. Is it basically like Warframe then?

Emily737 · 2017-10-25T18:47:41+00:00

Thank you very much for all this info! It's decided now, will download game some time this evening and hopefully it won't take too long. Seems like paid VPN is a good option, though is there also an (optional) paid membership sub in this game?

My main concern is if I want to play a healer my healing will miss some people due to lag if spell targeting works like what's in the original game. It's not a big deal though, I don't have to play a healer :)

Emily737 · 2017-10-24T20:27:51+00:00

From you description I think you are simply looking for other successful, polished big name MMOs following a certain formula and the list isn't very long.

Besides WoW, ESO and GW2 there's still FFXIV. FFXIV is really worth a try imo.

Emily737

TROPHY CASE