Okay, that's just me being snide while testing the tool. XD It is a great tool though - I might actually have to use it for something serious. Srs!
Latest update: 5 September 2013
Note: This is primarily a PvE Healer build for less geared toons. It is a Gentle Sway hybrid precisely because it is for the less-geared. Logic suggests that going pure light, and taking 3/3 Healing Melody will scale better in end-game gear, with enough Crit Heal %. However, I suspect (if anyone knows for sure, please do comment) that the point at which Crit Heal % starts to consistently return more than 4/4 Gentle Sway is at a total of about 20-25%. That's a lot of Crit Heal % gear when it comes to bards, and is definitely not going to come cheap.
This build will allow you to solo heal every gear instance *at level* with a reasonable party. 10-13k HP at 70+ is NOT reasonable. I'm not saying you won't sometimes be able to carry these people, but especially once you hit FP, if your whole party is like that, things can be... interesting.
Gear is also very important for this and *any* Light bard healer build. You NEED NEED NEED Healing Effect - HE. Light bards get amazing returns from HE because of so many bonuses to Healing %, but if you do not gear for HE, then you are simply a crap DPS who can't heal. Unlike priests, the healing power of light is not INHERENT in light, but is in the gear, then hugely hugely magnified by the Light tree itself.
I'm not even joking here. I've seen a L78 Light with wings, NOT PvP eva build, heal for LESS with baptism than a L70 glacial with Angelic Harmony, no Sympathy. (My glacial.) So pleeeease. If you choose to be a light bard, YOU NEED TO GEAR FOR IT.I would also recommend AFKing (get to 10, Dragon-Order leech / AFK train) to 57, because before then, Lights are crap healers and crap DPS. ._. Srsly.
This is what my planned build looks like. I am building primarily for PvE, and of course, I'm not an expert. =) This is just what I've found works for me.
This Dyos build uses 19 rune talents total, that's the maximum number of runes you can socket. The maximum number of *yellows* you can socket is 9, but that's only important in that you need at least 7 yellows with 35 wisdom in total between them to gain the 35 Wisdom bonus from the Dyos Trew. At 35 Wisdom, and you do Max Heals per Second rotation, you should be able to bubble your whole party every rotation (with luck) rather than every other rotation (innate, guaranteed with just 1 wisdom rune). Bubbles appear after you get 6 stacks of the buff from Sonata of Life, and you cannot build up stacks while the 10s bubblebuff (not to be confused with the bubble itself) is active. The 70 bonus is great - but it'll take a lot of money - and this guide is for the lower geared.
The talent tree I've shown here is base, without runes. I will indicate how many points should be filled in by runes. Obviously, the +s from runes will come at a slower pace depending on time and money. Note that you CANNOT get a +1 from runes in a talent that has pre-req talents, without first having the requisite points in the prereq talent.
Rune List, courtesy of Aely from Illyfue, FW forums.
That being said, here we go. =)
http://www.aesica.net/fw/?race=1&profession=1&level=80&talent=144010004||50003334333023020011222302
Why choose this stuff? Here we go...
Light Tree [47 Points]
TIER 1:
Advanced Harmony of Light 5/5
This Light build is NOT DPS. In fact, it's so not DPS that it is utterly pathetic. You'll make a Divine Priest look like DPS, and I'm not even joking. So why 5/5? Because unless you intend to have a DPS alt account run around kill everything for you (as opposed to just Dragon Orders), this will help things be a tiny little bit less painful.
Blessings of Light 0/5
This is a crap talent because it doesn't scale. 200HP per E chord, whoop de whoop. HE doesn't affect it. E-chords from Melody of Healing do, but... ._. It's stupid. Consider that by Level 50 you should have 10k HP, and 15k HP at 70... 200HP. Erm. Yeah.
TIER 2:
Shine 0/2
This is a PvP and DPS talent. This build is PvE and healing.
Tuneless Light 0/3
This is a PvP and DPS talent. This build is PvE and healing.
Divine Music of Light 3/3
This is situational, but I find it's important when I do use it. Obviously it has a PvP usage, but I'll just explain the PvE usage here. When AoEing things down, someone commonly gathers the mobs, and then the AoEr(s) AoE them down. What this talent does is buys you time, and helps the AoE kill things faster. Usage goes something like this: 1) Gatherer gathers mobs, 2) You follow, when mobs are gathered, cast Divine Comedy, this gives you breathing room to... 3) Set up Baptism powered by Solo of Light before the mobs wake up, 4) AoEers toast the debuffed mobs and everything dies. Of course, this is the ideal scenario but... ;)
You heal and protect via your Hymns. Longer is better, gives you more breathing room.
TIER 3:
Stare 3/3
In higher level dungeons, interrupts are common. It's a filler talent, but a useful one.
Solo of Light 4/4
You'll end up AoE tanking a LOT if you PUG. Seriously. A lot. ._. This helps.
Halo 3/3 [4/3 with runes]
Some higher level dungeons will require players to spread out. Especially if you are the only healer, and you need to be a little further from the tank - this will help immensely.
TIER 4:
Divine Shower 3/3
Defence is great in PvE, not so much in PvP - this is a PvE healing and defensive build.
Light of Life 3/3
Dispel every icky thing EXCEPT those that only wind can dispel (or can't be dispelled at all). And since you'll be spamming Sonata of Life - assuming Max Heals Per Second... Take it.
Melody of Light 0/4
This is a PvP and DPS talent. This build is PvE and healing.
TIER 5:
Angelic Chorus 2/2 [3/2 after Runes]
Key talent - take it. You'll be spamming Sonata of Life every CD at higher levels, because of the mana reduction you gain by doing that, and the buffs from Dyos. This build is a main-healer. Baptism ticks every 4 seconds, you fill the seconds between those seconds with Sonata of Life, and it means that you have heals going out every 2 seconds. You have no single-target heals (other than on yourself), so you HAVE to keep heals high and constant. Additionally max HP/S after 70 will spend LESS mana than any other rotation. It'll spend so little mana, in fact, that you'll be able to easily counter it by drinking L50 mana pots on CD. More on this rotation in the questions section below.
Advanced Solo of Light 3/3
Max this. It won't just protect you - you're also going to be using Solo of Light at every opportunity to make sure your heals ALWAYS have at least a 20% increase in healing via Soothing Beat.
Melody of Healing 0/3 [3/3 After Runes]
Defensive skill, but unlike Blessings of Light, this scales with everything you have. Not worth spending points on, but runes make it nice.
TIER 6:
Notes of Light 2/2
Defensive skill, situational. Best used after you've used Divine Comedy, and set up Baptism and Majesty in an AoE damage situation. This will help you live if your AoErs are fail.
Halo Resist 0/4
PvP defensive talent, Light Attack isn't a huge factor in other situations.
TIER 7:
Improved Chord of Light 0/3
This is a PvP and DPS talent. This build is PvE and healing.
Hymn: Song of Life 1/2
This is a filler talent. I rarely use it - and when I do, I use it to counter specific things, such as boss HP debuffs on the tank. You CAN work it into a max HP/S rotation this way: Baptism, Majesty, Courage, Song of Life, Baptism, Majesty, Courage, Baptism, Majesty, Courage, Song of Life. But you cannot spam it... because of the CD on note of rest. Generally in PvE, except in boss debuff situations, I don't bother using it.
Song of Saints: 1/2
Evasion buff is meaningless unless your entire party is eva, speed buff is too short. You're left with the extra healing done - which is a 'may as well' since you took the Song of Life as a filler anyway.
TIER 8:
Bath of Light 2/2
Baptism is your main healer. Nuff said.
Chant of Revival 2/2
1/2 at first, only max this AFTER you've gotten Gentle Sway to 4/4. If your party is reasonable and you're healing properly, you shouldn't need to cast this very often. If your party is unreasonable (or a few members are), you can cast this, and even if they don't immediately die on being rezzed due to being at 15% HP, half the time at least, their HP are so low the next AoE will kill them outright, from max health to 0 anyway. ;) Max it in the end, because mistakes DO happen in smart parties, and in those instances, it helps.
Softening Melody 2/2
Helps your healy things heal better, AND (I believe) doubles the amount of healing done to you, personally, when you have surge up. (I don't always.)
TIER 9:
Life Awaken 3/3
This skill is the reason you AFK to 57. At 55, you get Baptism, but it just doesn't have enough sheer power, and you don't have enough Es to be able to keep up max heals per second. Once you get this, you will. =)
Lightblade Switch 0/3
This is not an Evasion build. Evasion is useless if you don't dedicate yourself to it totally. You need at least 350 eva unbuffed at 80 in order for Evasion to even BEGIN to work. This means, if you have 345, you may as well have 100.
TIER 10:
Advanced Chant of Revival 2/2
All the things said in Chant of Revival apply, including waiting until you 4/4 Gentle Sway.
Glory 0/3
This is a PvP and DPS talent. This build is PvE and healing.
***NO FURTHER POINTS IN LIGHT***
Wind Tree [14 points]
TIER 1:
Zephyr 1/5
To open up the C-chord CD in Wind Melody Knowledge
Infuriate 4/5 [5/5 After Runes]
You will never match Inspire, and do NOT cast Courage when there is a decent Wind Bard in the party with you. But if you're the only bard, this talent shines.
TIER 2:
Wind Melody Knowledge 4/4
This makes your C-chords faster and therefore more versatile, which I prefer. However, it's also viable to 0/4 this, and put the points into 3/3 Acoustic Stretch and 1/2 Art of Music instead.
This is a PvP and DPS talent. This build is PvE and healing. Art of Music 1/2
Adds on top of Halo, for same reasons given as for HaloAcoustic Stretch 0/3 [3/3 After Runes]
IMO Light Bard courage is pretty unimportant, and you can drop if if forced to, so why put talents into it? That being said, if you disagree, feel free to put points into it. Just remember that the aim is to get 10 points in the first 2 tiers, so you can get Gentle Sway.
TIER 3:
Wind Shadow 0/3
This is a PvP and DPS talent. This build is PvE and healing.
This really isn't why you're in the wind tree for this build.
Gentle Sway 4/4
YAY! 20% more Healing from Baptism, 20% more Defence from Majesty, on top of the stuff you already get as mainly Light. Oh and 20% more from your laughable Courage. XD
Dyos Rune Talents (17 points, not including advanced rune slots)
Light Talent Runes
3 - Melody of Healing
1 - Angelic Chorus
1 - Halo
Wind Talent Runes
3 - Acoustic Stretch
2 - Ferocity of wind
1 - Infuriate
3 - Windblade Shield
Water Talent Runes
3 - Inspired Appearance
Bot Setup
This setup is for HEALING. It'll let you botheal ToK, ASNM, ASHM, and anything below. It'll let you botheal any WB. It is useless at killing. However, you can still use it to get (mostly) full rewards in GT2 if you slot Melody Mastery (0sec) in the first slot.
My gem priority in an IDEAL situation, my gem priority would be...
Bloodstones, Solareflare, Crit Dodge%, Crit Reduction %
Gear IDs
Life (formerly Renewing) or Rousing Stout all the way, with HE or HP IDs.
Max Heals per Second Rotation *Doesn't require Light Sonata, but you can use that once you get it. DOES require at least L57.
Baptism > Majesty
Baptism: D > E > Solo of Light > Sonata of Life (boosts both Sonata and Baptism via Soothing Beat)
Majesty: D > Solo of Light > Sonata of Life > D
I used to include Courage in this rotation for the additional boost to healing Light gets from putting up a movement. After testing, I've found that not casting Courage greatly increases Sonata of Life spam, and the healing from that outweighs the healing bonus from having a movement up. However, depending on how much HE you have, YMMV.
Baptism > Majesty > Courage > Song of Life
Baptism: D > E > Solo of Light > Sonata of Life (boosts both Sonata and Baptism via Soothing Beat)
Majesty: D > Solo of Light > Sonata of Life > D
Courage: [Your Sonata of Life is now reset by Majesty...] Sonata of Life > C > C
Song of Life: Light Sonata > Chord of Light > Solo of Light > Sonata of Life > Note of RestYou cannot spam this every rotation, it's every alternate rotation at best. The reason is the CD on Note of Rest - it's too long.If you have a good wind bard in your party...
DO NOT cast Courage, replace it with Fantasy. If you cast Courage with a good wind in the party, you're basically negating their attack power bonus, which is huge, and overwriting it with your own, which is puny, every other tick. And if they're good, they're probably annoyed at it, even if they don't mention it. ;)
Where I'm Currently At
Non-crit baptism ticks for 6.5k-7k. HP over 30k.
Is 850ish base HE really enough at 70-74?
It is, if you play smart, and always go max Heals per Second. Of course, more is better and sexier, but what I've done is balance HE with HP, so I'm fairly survivable.
Does Light mastery increase my healing?
No.
I have no idea. From observation, I doubt that it's additive, but if you know more / for sure, please share.
Is the AS set any good for Light?
No, it can't surpass building up Renewing Stout and Rousing Stout.
ZOMG! How much did you spend on this one?!
Nothing. Zero. Zilch.
Hay, if you don't CS for gems and don't sell mercs for moneh, how did you get those HP pre-75 (I was 18k pre 75)?
Part of the reason my HP are so decent is - arena neck. 50-59 bracket, ?66? HE, ?360?HP with a 150HP+ ID. Arena jewelry - especially necklaces - is something you should aim for. It's REALLY easy to get, and even a noob can game the system. No, really.
Game the system? Lil 'ole meeeee?
Yup. You see, you have to do at least 10 arena matches per week to qualify for points, and in order to buy gear, you need at least 1000 ranking (the absolute beginner's ranking if you don't lose), in order to buy the low end green items like the necklace mentioned above. Which is far and away better than ANY necklace you'll find in the AH, short of an epic one that costs a couple of D.
So - just play ONLY 3v3 or ONLY 6v6. That way, it doesn't matter if you lose (though of course, winning gets you more arena points per week.) Even if you lose, you'll still get points based on your 1000 rating from the arena you didn't touch. You can then use your points to buy gear that has a minimum 1000 req for that arena. So all you need to do, really, is go over and over till you have the rep level you want. It took me two weeks to get to L3 rep, which got me the 50-59 slot green necklace. L4 if you want 60, L5, etc. It's worth it. Of course, once you start winning, you switch over to the one you haven't won in yet, to rake in more points. I'm just putting it out there that even if you ALWAYS LOSE NONSTOP... you can still benefit.
It's too hard to get all that gear and all those gems. :(
DO NOT RUN GEAR INSTANCES FOR GEAR.
All chars over 60 now get 2 gem boxes a day from GL, so if you have massive altitis like me, this may help you. I have 3 over 60 atm, and may have 5 in a few more weeks. We'll see.
And if you think this is expensive, just go play a vampire, a priest, or a warrior. XD Perspective. It halps.
***
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The real issue is that the game throws you all over the place, speeds you through everything, and never teaches you a damn thing.
While the Grumpy Elf is talking about WoW here, I find it applies just as much to Forsaken World. Levelling has become so fast at low levels, and even faster with 'mentor' stuff that PWE has put in. With 'mentor' stuff, highbies are rewarded for running lowbies through instances and stuff. If you're a real newbie, and if you take advantage of all the mentor things available - you'll probably have real trouble learning to play your class properly and effectively.
This is exacerbated by the fact that most highbies don't actually WANT to mentor. They just want to get their rewards at the end. This is based on the newbies feeling like what they've asked for has been accomplished - and it usually works. The instance gets run, the goals get finished, the newbies get gear. But do the mentors TEACH? Rarely, from what I've seen. Nor do the newbies expect actual imparting of knowledge vs imparting of quest completion and gear. This is no way to learn.
And so, both parties go on their way 'satisfied', but I'd say the real newbies are hardly ever well-served.
FW's instances are decently challenging as far as Dance-Dance-Revolution games go *if attempted at the proper level, with that level of gearing*. They remind me a lot of vanilla WoW, without anything quite as innovative as Dire Maul Coffer Runs. However, mentoring just turns the whole instance setup upside down, since as a newbies, you're basically just standing to the side looking pretty while the high levels gank everything.
If you're a high level and for some reason you've never done this content at the level of er... level and gear it was designed for, you, too - have never learned the skills and the lessons taught in the content.
And some of these skills you're expected to know later on, in level cap dungeons.
It's a vicious cycle. O.o
That being said, the whole mentor thing is wonderful for more experienced players who just want to level alts fast for whatever reason...
For these players, the learning curve is much easier if you've already played one talent tree of a class, no matter how different the talent trees (possible exception, switching from DPS to healing). But if you're totally new to the game... Oh dear.
While some folks may like it, I find bard armor to be way too over the top for me. I mean I'm all for bishonen and luxury and flounce but this... this isn't just a matter of too much, it's also too ugly. Lol.
Male Bard High Level Armor:
Still, for my boy bard, that was wonderful! I was able to turn him into this
Unfortunately, girl bards aren't so lucky.
Female Bard High Level Armor:
So I've written a couple of posts about Forsaken World's economy. Here's where I explain how currency is gated, and how much things are worth in USD, and here's where where I talk about how PWE has elegantly solved the 'gold faucet' problem that's plagued the genre since MU* days. This post has more details on how the core Pay-2-Win stats are tied to the game's economy and currency.
Since I wrote those posts, PWE has made some brilliant adjustments to the entire game economy that I'm willing to bet a month's salary ;) has boosted their profit appreciably, and possibly massively.
It's also led to this being the first time I've seen a virtual economy model the RL problem where the rich get richer, and the poor, poorer.
Best of all, these adjustments are so Machiavellianly (lol word?) brilliant that, instead of causing players to blame PWE for these changes that benefit the few at the cost of the many, PWE has cleverly framed it so that players blame EACH OTHER. Not PWE. Not the instigators and architects of the changes who stand to gain the most.
People were blaming each other, calling each other greedy, having occasional (it's died down a lot now, 6 months later) rages on World Chat about how avaricious other players were. And not a single time, not in a forum post, not in world chat, not in local chat - NOWHERE have I seen anyone point out why and how PWE is at the heart of this change - not mercenary, greedy players who 'overspend' in the CS and then 'lord it over everyone else'. ;)
Such brilliant framing and manipulation of psychology cannot go unsung!
Sing it here, in all its glorious goldenness, I shall!
The Back Story
Before PWE 'tweaked' the economy (about 8 months or so ago), people could only convert a maximum of 5 Mercury Statuettes to gold, per day, per character, via a quest - and (iirc) how many times you could do this was also linked to your level.
For purposes of clarity, I will do a direct conversion from gold to USD. This is NOT how PWE does it, PWE gates you through 4 different currencies, and if you're not from the US, you can count that as 5, because you have to think about it in your own currency as well.
This means that people could only gain a maximum of 25g (US$2.50) a day on average per character via direct gold conversion.
This in turn meant that 'whales' would buy Mercury Statuettes in the hundreds from the cash shop, and then vendor them to other players for anywhere from 3g50s to 4g. The reason for this (if you didn't read / don't remember my previous posts) price range is: If you buy a Mercury Statuette from the Cash Shop (US$0.50) and sell it to a specialised in-game NPC, the NPC will give you 3g (US$0.30). If you do daily quests x 5, you'll get anywhere from 4g80s (US$0.48) to 6g (US$0.60) per Statuette+quest.
Whales were thus buying wholesale, then selling to minnows and plankton, because it was the fastest and most profitable way for them to get a lot of gold within a single day.
Of course, this meant that the only people seriously spending in the Cash Shop were the whales.
The minnows (small spenders, say... US$15 a month...) were only spending the bare minimum, and might not even be spending that much a month, because they had no incentive to do so. Because *in general*, unless they were looking for a large chunk of change NOW for a big purchase - say a mount, or a skill scroll - they could slowly build up their cash via Statuettes bought from the whales. Not much reason to purchase anything from PWE, other than impulse.
The plankton (truly free players) were obviously spending nothing! Because if they were willing to sloooowly increase their cash via Mercury Statuettes bought in-game from whales, and playing longer / smarter / etc... they had absolutely no reason to buy from PWE at all. Patience and buying stuff from whales was always cheaper than buying from PWE. And of course, buying from whales costs no RL cash.
The Change
PWE studied the situation, doubtless came up with a much more nuanced analysis than I gave above. They then quietly, strategically, and subtly changed one thing - with a ripple effect that I'm pretty freaking sure boosted their profits immensely.
They made it so people can now convert 25 Mercury Statuettes a day, rather than just 5.
The Results
Statue prices shot up from 3g50s to 4g75s minimum. 4g60s you can get... if you find a special whale to do a special deal with.
This was met with an initial massive outcry from the plankton and some minnows... not against PWE, but against the whales. GREEDY WHALES! OMG U PPL! SO GREDY. NO1 WILL BUY UR STATS! OMG! etc etc blah blah. This particular noisy state of affairs lasted for at least 2 months, but now, 10 months later, it's a non-issue.
4g75s. Suck it up, or buy your own from the cash shop.
And not once, not anywhere, in-game or out of it, did I see players blaming PWE, instead of each other, for the price increases. Simply brilliant.
But Wai Nuggeet, Wai Brilliant?
Because in one fell swoop, PWE:
Converted some plankton to minnows.
You see, with this change, and the corresponding hike in prices, it's no longer viable to try to get your cash via Statuette quests if you're a plankton. Minnows with a nice little nest egg (which I was), and whales (should they choose to buy from other whales) weren't all that hard hit by the change.
In truth, both whales and minnows benefited - the changes made it possible for them to trade in bulk. So if you had enough gold on hand (minimum 1Diamond - US$10), you could invest, buy at least 25 statues a day, and either not be affected by the price hikes, or else, get even more back - since more statues can be converted.
If not - then as plankton, you'd be best served by *buying* US$10 worth of statues from PWE as your starting capital. And, you know, it's almost never 'just a this time' after you make that first purchase.
Made sure being a plankton was a lot less attractive, and a minnow a lot more so.
No capital to make the initial purchase, and can only buy one or two Statuettes at a time? Tough luck, suck it up, peasant. ;) Watch 'everyone' getting richer while you get poorer.
Acquired a lot more paying customers, and changed their economy to encourage paying customers from the ground up - without alienating their existing customers, whether plankton, minnows, or whales. There was no community perception of PWE as the greedy one, and certainly no hostility. Some, in fact, widely viewed this move as doing 'everyone' a favour.
Ahhh PWE... if you can't grow up to be good, you may as well grow up to be good at being evil. ;)
“Decision fatigue helps explain why ordinarily sensible people get angry at colleagues and families, splurge on clothes, buy junk food at the supermarket and can’t resist the dealer’s offer to rustproof their new car. No matter how rational and high-minded you try to be, you can’t make decision after decision without paying a biological price. It’s different from ordinary physical fatigue — you’re not consciously aware of being tired — but you’re low on mental energy. The more choices you make throughout the day, the harder each one becomes for your brain, and eventually it looks for shortcuts, usually in either of two very different ways. One shortcut is to become reckless: to act impulsively instead of expending the energy to first think through the consequences. (Sure, tweet that photo! What could go wrong?) The other shortcut is the ultimate energy saver: do nothing. Instead of agonizing over decisions, avoid any choice. Ducking a decision often creates bigger problems in the long run, but for the moment, it eases the mental strain.”
via northtemple.com
Yes, yes, not all F2P models are evil.
But of those that are (even the amazingly beautiful luscious evil that is PWE's Forsaken World), I suspect a lot of them depend on decision fatigue pushing people to buy impulsively without calculating the costs, whether in-game or in actual cash.
It would also explain why I simply can't understand some of the Auction House prices in Forsaken World - where I've seen people selling stuff for half of what it's worth in actual currency, if you were to convert actual to FW's currency.
...people are tired, impulsive, don't want to do the math (gated through 4 currencies), and they want money NAO. So they buy a high-priced item and undersell it, because they honestly don't know it's worth / are too tired to think through its conversion.
I have personally worked out these numbers for some in-game acquaintances when telling them to buy/sell higher/lower, and they simply don't want to listen. That's too much work! Games should be fun! Let me spend my moneh how I want! Fairynuff.
I don't mean to imply I'm immune to this too. In FW, converting currencies (through all 4 gates) has become second nature for me. But in the other PWE games I've played, decision fatigue from constantly WATCHING myself (can't do this can't do that) contributed hugely to my dropping the titles.
...PWE are like the evil marketing gods the evilmarketingbits of nugget want to grow up to be.
via mememaker.net
Ok, ok. I also CS occasionally, so it should be 'some' FW CSers. ;) But adding subtlety to trollface is just not done!
People who have played GW1 will know why "balance" is bad.True, a PvP system based on skill only and nothing else is fair. However, such a system has three fatal flaws.
Firstly, it is uninteresting, because the skill gap between players in an online mmo is never going to be large enough. People switching from gear-based MMOs like Forsaken World to skill based and super balanced games like GW2 tend to see themselves as the under-appreciated "pros" that could easily beat the "noob" CSers, if only there was no gear difference.
Lol.
These same people will probably get their asses whopped roundly and soundly by real "pros" in GW2, and feel more worthless and have less fun than they did in Forsaken World.
Anyone who made it past rank3 hero and r1 gladiator in GW1 will know that only a select handful of r11/g7 players in GW knew how to play the game at a level truly above the masses. To attain their level of skill, one must practice interrupting/KD locking/synchronized damage spiking with their teams constantly. Getting to this level of skill in GW is much more difficult than getting level 3 wings in Forsaken World. GW PvP is much more selective than Forsaken World PvP.
The second problem with these "skill based" games where gear does not matter is the lack of connection between the player and his character. If all your achievements and efforts in PvE will never contribute to your combat effectiveness in PvP, then what is the point of accumulating wealth/power, which is what an mmo is all about? Characters are created and deleted every month to catch up with the new meta-game. A player can be any class and any spec. Nothing is permanent. Long-term investments mean absolutely nothing. You might as well play a FPS or RTS game.
The last problem is best demonstrated by a quick example:
An extremely skilled and experienced warrior who has played GW since its release for 4 years faces a necromancer who just recently bought the game and knows nothing about it. The necromancer click on two hex skill, and the warrior is now removed from the game. Thats right, removed from the game. He is effectively deleted from the server for the duration of the hexes. Oh and one more thing: these hexes can be chained. No amount of "skill" could save the warrior from his natural counter class. That is how bad it is. In Forsaken World, an assassin could still kill a warrior through BoR if he has the situational advantage with superior gear/red hand. A priest with barely any damage can still solo a vampire with lvl 2 wings if the vampire has 0 mana. In GW, there is not even the remotest theoretical possibility for a player to defy the iron rules of "balance" imposed by the developers. You WILL get countered by your natural counters, and thats that.
Whoa. It's always interesting to read something that is right on the opposite end of the pole when it comes to what you believe.
This guy isn't trolling. And where he's coming from... I can understand due to the kind of point of view that he is espousing.
Which I can sum up in one sentence:
Balance is bad because making skill the cornerstone is too elitist.
His original post detailed why FW is superior to GW and will be superior to GW2 in every way.
(What I'm getting), FW is better because:
Cash-bought power is easier to acquire than skill, and therefore not elitist.
And no, nugget is not any kind of GW PvP god. Poster says he has R4 Gladiator, which is certainly a mark of GW PvP skill.
To be honest, I'm not even sure quite why I posted this other than, 'Wow, that's a lifeform so totally different from me that I'm surprised we share superficially similar skins.'
XD
P.S. The last scenario he's describing isn't balance, it's IMbalance. It's precisely what ANet mucks around with PvP and PvP skills SO often to try to put right.
Moar thoughts:
Maybe his view stems from a frame of mind which says, 'If I'm not proving that I'm better than someone else, then I'm not interested. GW takes too much time and effort to be better than someone else. FW just takes money. Therefore, I like FW better.'
Could be why his viewpoint seem to be the antithesis of a nugget's. Nugget is all about proving to nugget that she got better than nugget. =P That nugget beat nugget! *beat self* Beating others is just icing. From this, we can see that nugget has a much larger ego than quoted-fellow, for to nugget, nugget is the only important milestone. XD
Yes, a subs-based AAA fantasy MMO is not even half as fun (or IMO) even half as good as an asian F2P AAA fantasy MMO. (Not to say that I think there is anything wrong with F2P asian MMOs, just that the focus of their studios tends to be a little (ok a lot) different and the general perception of them seems to be bad.)
And this is despite these two being more or less polar opposites with where their studios and dev teams are coming from.
Rift just glows with love love love... in every aspect but its art direction, which is honestly, quite terrible.Forsaken World just glows with love love love for profit... in every aspect, including its art direction, which is very strong.
Why do I think FW is better, and more fun?
FW has better combat mechanics.
The classes are better thought out, and combat flows more smoothly. Rift combat feels incredibly clunky and unwieldy for some reason. None of the souls I've played have really seemed to 'gel'. Be it from the press eleventy billion buttons builds that some mages have, to the press just two buttons builds that some ranged rogue builds are. FW classes, in contrast, have *flow*. Once you get into the groove, once you know what you are doing, they just *feel* right.
FW has better sound.
FW has great sound - with some classes showing it off better than others. If you have played a bard to a highish level in FW (60+), you'll KNOW the difference between how water/wind/light bards sound just by listening to them play (assuming proper play) - no need to even look at the screen. Contrast this with Rift, where everyone sounds the same. ._. Not just the players, even the mobs sound the same! As someone who usually turns off the music, but leaves the sound on, and who depends on the sound for cues on what to do next, the fact that everything in Rift sounds more or less the same is a big downer.
FW has better art direction.
FW is an attractive, vivid world. While there are some stylistic choices I may not personally like, (hrmm Stonemen), I cannot argue that they are beautiful in their own way. Whereas Rift is bland bland BLAND. And don't even get me started on mage gear. Good lord, I'm convinced Rift mages have the ugliest gear in the MMOverse, even when you discount rendering engines (of which Rift has a rather good one).
I would say those are the three main things that stand out for me. FW, while I played it, was an MMO where I looked forward to jumping into the game world. Rift is just kinda blaaaaah.
This makes me feel sad, because Trion so obviously loves its game and cares about its community. But that isn't enough to overcome the three points above. It's like eating a dish made with the finest ingredients and a great amount of love which has unfortunately, somehow turned out tasteless.
Needless to say, I won't be renewing Rift into month 3, though I wish Trion and the Rift community all the best.
...here's to hoping GW2 won't break my gameynugget heart.
One of the things I've noticed about the F2P model is that some peeps seem to think that F2P (P2W) games are inherently inferior to subscription games - and that the only reason why people could possibly be playing F2P games is because they haven't got the cash for a subscription.
<.< Let's ignore that F2P games can cost a lot more if you aren't careful.
I'm not playing Forsaken World because it's F2P. I do use the cash shop - but I make sure that I don't spend more than a subscription would cost (in fact, I spend less right now, but that's just me).
The thing is, even if FW and WoW were both subs, or both F2P, I'd play FW over WoW in a heartbeat.
I am, however, a jaded ex-raider, who won't even pick up an MMO if it has 'endgame PvE raiding' as a feature. I'm also self-reliant to the point of neuroticism in MMOs. XD
So for me, FW is better than WoW. Not just 'better because it's free'.
Outright better.
Oh yah, for those who want 'support' for my statements about WoW... I played it for 3 years, starting in Vanilla. Stopped for 2 years just before WotLK came out. Had 10 70s at that point. Some very geared - since I mention raiding, that's a given. Went back for one month when Cata came out, levelled a holy priest from 1 - 85 on a fresh account. Cancelled after that one month. So I'd say I have a fair amount of knowledge when it comes to WoW. ;)