Category: Guild Wars 2

I made sure to be in Lion’s Arch at noon, server time, on Sunday. I was not disappointed. The animation and eruption of the Mad King out of the lion fountain was just breathtaking. I was on the edge of my seat. Then it was over. I saw a lot of fuss over the fact that there would be such an event, and ArenaNet made sure that it was a non-essential, momentous experience. For those that missed it, YouTube provides.

There is an inverse relationship between commonness and That Special Feeling. If the cinematic was present at the beginning of each entrance to the Mad King boss battle, it would be less special. If people entering Lion’s Arch for the first time on Sunday saw the cinematic, it would be less special. That people were coming together for a single shared experience that could not be spoiled… that was special. Continue reading [GW2] …Because he was hung over!

A downside of making the Mad King’s Clock Tower time-limited (both the 90 seconds per run and the 1 week per year) is that it is beautifully done. It has just enough kaleidoscopic phantasmagoria without being too busy. You get a ruined clocktower where the ruins hang in the sky, with gears and rubble swirling, along with green mists, skeletal arms, and constant movement. It feels like there is more than there is, but except for the initial jumble of rubble, it has an elegant simplicity. You want more time to stand in that initial jumble and appreciate the art.

I had hoped for a vista at the top or some way to regard the structure, but you end up inside the tower. You do start with a vista of sorts, a quick pan up the side that shows the path of the jumping puzzle. (There is not a lot of “puzzle”; execution under adverse conditions is the hard part.) It is definitely worth visiting for a look, although do not expect to finish a 90-second run in under an hour.

: Zubon

We have a new contender for the worst piece of content ever put into a game. The Mad King’s Clock Tower is the holiday jumping puzzle for Guild Wars 2.

Begin your mix with every problem caused by character models and camera movement. Add in a map with lots of spinning, with ups and downs, so the camera will definitely be moving around things and objects will be between the camera and your character. Add in a time limit.

Now come the brilliant part: make it impossible to run alone, so that other players’ characters block your view of your character and the platforms. Let any of those characters throw up a speech bubble to block the rest of the view. Implement it during a holiday event and make it available for a limited time so that more players will run it, and all the Achievers and completionists will keep running to make sure the population stays high. Just in case they pass it, add a great reward at the end that is available per-character so they have a reason to keep coming back, with little rewards along the way to give them even more incentive to keep filling the map and blocking the view. Don’t advertise that the jumping puzzle is not a requirement for the holiday meta-achievement.

Take a game designed around the idea that we are all on the same team, then make it so that having anyone around makes things much harder, especially the 2/5 of the races that are much bigger than the others. Not only does having other players around make the content harder and worse, there is no way to avoid them except moving to a low population server and playing during off hours so that there are fewer.

Note that there is no combat. This is actively anti-social Socializer content.

: Zubon

Update: many people (mostly elsewhere, since we do not have many comments yet) are confusing the argument “hard because of bad design” with “hard means bad design.” The difficulty is not the problem — the source of the difficulty is what makes it a problem, somewhat the interface issues but mostly the design that makes the content worse as more people play it. That is a rather critical flaw in a multiplayer game.

This week has been all about playing through the first Act of the ongoing Guild Wars 2 event. So far it’s been really nice, but at the same time I am wondering if there is something meatier coming. Act 1 is definitely the opening scene, but I feel it’s a tad weird for the opening scene to last for half of the whole play.  Act 2 starts tomorrow, with things ramping up fast after that.

Much of Lion’s Arch and the Heart of the Mists were changed to add Halloween paraphernalia. There are pumpkins and candles everywhere. Children wearing costumes run about, and the evil Zommoros “The Sink” Genie, has turned into a huge witch’s kettle. Like most of ArenaNet’s art, it is a beautiful sight to behold. My favorite are the floating candle bridge lights. New music has also been added, which is very evocative of the Halloween celebration. I am not sure why this isn’t playing constantly in Lion’s Arch. Continue reading [GW2] Prepping for Halloween

This is becoming a running joke in our dungeon runs. You can help it become a meme.

In the Ascalonian Catacombs exploration mode, path 1 is guided by the NPC Hodgins. By the middle of the path, he is dual-wielding flaming scepters. The usual approach is to sprint through rather than clearing all the enemies. At several points, Hodgins is having none of this, whips out his dual scepters, and goes berserk on whatever enemy he feels like, caring not a whit for his own (surprisingly good) survival. Group of gravelings? Hodgins wants to solo them. Gravelings fighting oozes? He’ll take all comers. Ghosts, trolls, whatever you can find? Hodgins wants their flaming blood on his boots.

Hodgins is hardcore.

: Zubon

[Update: as of 11/15/2012, blast finishers were removed from Evasive Arcana, eliminating most of the ability to create and then exploit fields with a staff. It is not clear if the elementalist will remain a viable support class.]

• Best roles found: group support, event AE damage, WvW siege weapon destruction
• Pros: skill variety, combo fields and finishers, ranged area effect attacks, area effect healing, area effect buffs, high mobility, moderate control
• Cons: damage, damage resistance, health, underwater combat, elite skills, high attention needed for effectiveness
• Difficulty: low for leveling, events; high for late game effectiveness
• Not tested: sPvP dagger/dagger builds

The elementalist is one of the two best group support classes and the worst solo class. To get the most out of it, you need to be with other people. To get the most out of it, you need to constantly switch attunements and use all 20 skills. You will love this class if you run dungeons, if you attack towers with a zerg in WvW, or if you like to hit large groups of enemies with giant, flaming rocks. You will love this class if you draw satisfaction from seeing others succeed. You will hate this class if you play a lot of underwater content, if you compare your damage to others, or if you need to see the big numbers on your screens rather than the combo effects telling you they are on others’ screens.
Continue reading [GW2] Elementalist Review

How are your server’s WvW match-ups? Ours have been dramatically one-sided, with one server wiping the floor with the other two. This week, we are the victors; last week, a different server held 75% of the map consistently.

I am told that one of our competing servers had an exodus last weekend, with a major guild or seven leaving Eredon Terrace. (There are stories about what happened, but never trust Us when they tell you what is wrong with Them.) Numbers disparities are hard to overcome, and once your server is losing that badly, people stop trying. You cannot build the momentum to get past your own gates, while people flock to the winning team. The winning server has a long queue for WvW and your WvW team is half-full at best.

Bandwagons are a problem that will continue as long as free transfers are available (to more populous servers). People generally want to be on the winning team. Without server transfers, this just means that people are more likely to hit B and join WvW if they are ahead. With server transfers, people leave losing servers and join winning servers. Any swings are exaggerated by immigration. Continue reading [GW2] Unbalanced