I really like AoW, I think the justice system is one of the nicest I've ever seen (including MUDs), and they've done many, many things right. The above still holds true though. ;)
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!
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
Defence is not 1:1 with damage - it's 1:1 with ATTACK.That means that if your opponent has 2000 atk and 3000 bonus damage (5k total), and you have 900 def, the base damage will be 4100 AND THEN masteries/resistances/wrath will apply.
And that means that , in your example, the damage recieved with 900 defence and 500 resistance would actually be 2050, not 1400.
But let's not forget that there are tons of variables. For example: how exactly does resistance work? Does it subtract from the opponent's mastery or from the damage output? And thus, if the opponent has 0 mastery, does that mean that 500 resistance will reduce damage by 50% or will it not have ANY effect at all.Bottomline: Defence would be a good stat to gem-soccet/refine/id IF solarflares and ragefires, bonuses, base stats etc offered the 2 stats in a 1:1 ratio, or at least close (like with acc-eva) but since both atk and defence effects are buchered down a lot by wrath, and since def is very low compaired to atk+bonus dmg to begin with... It's not really worth it in PVP.
But in PVE there is no wrath effects. Moreover, instead of 1-2 players hitting for much there are many mobs hitting for little, so defence's effect is multiplied. Thus, it's an excelent PVE stat.
Because this makes perfect sense, tallies with my own experience, and I'm sick of people spouting stuff that they obviously don't understand, with an utter disregard for context.
One of the worst things about being a monk healer/protter/hybrid is e-management. IMO, monks have the worst e-management in Guild Wars. When playing a Ritualist or (lol) Necromancer/Ritualist healer/protter, I never feel as if I'm constantly starving, or about to starve for energy. Even when I'm not starving for energy, there's still this energy-paranoia that I don't feel when playing non-monk healers.
Of course I have a Zealous Benediction and Word of Healing bar (or two, or three), but then, every monk does. ;) However, Zealous Benediction encourages you to wait until your target's almost dead for optimal use, and for reasons of latency, poor reaction time, bad luck, or a combination of all three, this often results in either a target that's too dead for optimal use, or not dead enough.
Word of Healing bars, which tend to be hybrid bars, lack a certain synergy within the bars themselves. They try to cover all bases, which they do to some extent, but at the same time end up covering none of them particularly well.
All that, and I just like tinkering. So - enter the Air of Enchantment Prot-Infuser.
An almost pure Protection build based around Air of Enchantment, it lets you spam Reversal of Fortune as often as you like on a single target, for only 1e per cast. Use Infuse Health to catch spikes / when your target is below 25% hp, then Watchful Healing on yourself to regain the hp lost. The +3 regen from Watchful Healing lets you continue to spam-prot your target, and if it gets stripped early by a siege turtle, no worries - you get healed for +90hp - win/win situation. Mighty Was Vorizun in tandem with correctly used Air of Enchantment and Reversal of Fortune means you should always have the energy to Infuse Health, all while giving you a passive +15 armor. What's more, the recharge for Air of Enchantment is shorter than the duration - meaning you can renew Air of Enchantment on a target for only 1e. Plus, if you have any other healers with you at all who use enchants, they'll love you. Even if they don't realise why. ;)
And to top it all off, this build, used wisely, can hold a gate against a siege turtle by itself.
Fort Aspenwood (Kurzick) Air of Enchantment Prot-Infuser
Skills
Air of Enchantment {Elite}
Reversal of Fortune
Guardian
Infuse Health
Mighty Was Vorizun
Deny Hexes
Dismiss Condition
Watchful Healing
Stats
Protection Prayers [11] + [4]
Divine Favour [10] + [1]
Communing [10]
Gear
Campaigns Needed
Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall
How to Use
Variants
Counters
Additional notes
Where have you tested this?
Fort Aspenwood, Kurzick side. That's what I wrote it for. I might test it in other places, but this is essentially a Fort Aspenwood, Kurzick build.
Weapon of Renewal / Life Healer
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The Concept
Great defence from physical and degen builds. Never run out of energy. High mobility. Life as a bonus ally-wide heal with amazing range, and secondarily to power mend body and soul.
Skills
Soothing Memories
Mend Body and Soul
Weapon of Remedy {Elite}
Weapon of Shadow
Mighty was Vorizun
Remove Hex
Resilient Weapon
Life
Stats
Communing [9]
Restoration [12]
Spawning Power [9]
Gear
Campaigns Needed
Factions & Nightfall.
How to Use
Variants
Counters
Additional notes
Don't you have e management problems? 70e doesn't mean infinite e!
It does, if this build is used right. Even being the only healer in FA/AB a few times, e wasn't much of a problem unless I forgot to renew Mighty was Vorizun before it ran out. With judicious use of Soothing Memories and Resilient Weapon, and putting down Life whenever available, your e is effectively infinite.
Xinrae's Infusion Spiritless Healer
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The Concept
Good timing with Xinrae's Weapon limits damage to 5% of HP - siege turtles can't strip it. Powerful spike heal with infuse (roughly 300+hp). High mobility. No spirits / no dependence on spirits. Great self-defence.
Skills
Soothing Memories
Wielder's Boon
Infuse Health
Weapon of Shadow
Xinrae's Weapon {Elite}
Remove Hex
Resilient was Xiko
Generous was Tsungrai
Stats
Healing Prayers [8]
Restoration [12]
Spawning Power [10]
Gear
Campaigns Needed
Factions & Nightfall.
How to Use
Variants
Counters
Additional notes
Personally, I've found that resto rits work best with at least one spirit. However, if you hate, hate, hate HATE how slow spirits cast, and how they tie you to locations, this is definitely a workable build. It's not as powerful as a build that has even one spirit to power its synergies - but you are vastly lighter on your feet. It's a matter of personal preference, whether or not this tradeoff of power for mobility is worth it.
Xinrae's Infusion-Life Spike Healer
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The Concept
Good timing with Xinrae's Weapon limits damage to 5% of HP - siege turtles can't strip it. Powerful spike heal with infuse (roughly 300+hp). Life for ally-wide periodic heals. High mobility.
Skills
Soothing Memories
Mend Body & Soul
Infuse Health
Weapon of Shadow
Xinrae's Weapon {Elite}
Remove Hex
Generous was Tsungrai
Life
Stats
Healing Prayers [8]
Restoration [12]
Spawning Power [10]
Gear
Campaigns Needed
Factions & Nightfall.
How to Use
Variants
Counters
Additional notes
Eh... none at the moment. XD
One of the things I dislike about Ritualist healing in PvP is that the spirits are so, so slow to cast. It feels like I'm standing there with a big, 'HAI INTERRUPT ME NAO!' neon sign flashing over my head. And I dislike the lack of mobility that results from using spirits.
At the same time, I recognise that spirits are an appreciable plus... if used right. The idea is to maximise on spirit use for healing while minimising on cast time. That's where these builds come in. This is the first in a series of builds I've written and tested over the last two weeks. ;)Preservation Physical Pwner & Healbot
The Concept
Great defence from physical and degen builds. Never run out of energy. High mobility.
Skills
Soothing Memories
Mend Body & Soul
Spirit Transfer
Weapon of Shadow
Mighty was Vorizun
Remove Hex
Resilient Weapon
Preservation {Elite}
Stats
Communing [10]
Restoration [12]
Spawning Power [8]
Gear
Campaigns Needed
Factions. That's it. =)
How to Use
Variants
Counters
Additional notes
Don't you have e management problems? 70e doesn't mean infinite e!
It does, if this build is used right. Even being the only healer in FA a few times, e wasn't much of a problem unless I forgot to renew Mighty was Vorizun before it ran out. With judicious use of Soothing Memories and Resilient Weapon, and putting down Preservation whenever available, your e is effectively infinite.
HAHAHA NUB! PRESERVATION SUCKS!
Well yes, usually, it does. This is the only place where I use it, because in FA/JQ, it's great. Everything is an ally, it's incredibly cheap, and you can leave it as a miniguard at gates and shrines. People don't bother to kill it that I have noticed. Additionally, it doesn't take damage when it heals, and lives a long time. This means it powers spirit transfer, when you need it, for a 200+hp heal. Not shabby at all.