The Battle for Lion's Arch

ArenaNet has outdone themselves with the finale to War in Kryta - the Battle for Lion's Arch. It's just brilliant in so many ways.

1) Choice of Location
Setting it as a Master difficulty quest in Lion's arch means that players can a) Try to do it with just their heroes (effectively depriving them of 2 team members); b) Try to do it in Hard Mode, for the level 20 henches - I tried this for shits and giggles, let's just say I had the shits and the Mantle had the giggles XD; c) Actually brave the waters of going with humans, and ZOMG have FUN! This is the most fun I've had with humans on GW in ages, not counting good friends. It rawks!

2) Epicness!
The two leadup quests, and the final battle feature HORDES of enemies. All those red dots against your pathetic numbers of green dots (unless of course, you have a minion master to make more green dots...). It's fast and intense and just plain fun. It really shows off the great skillbars ANet wrote for the Peacekeepers. Whoever wrote those, kudos to you guys - they are beautiful, beautiful bars. Especially since they don't rely on spamming 'monster skills', which I've always found to be a bit of a cop-out, no matter what the game.

Contrary to the impression people demanding certain classes or builds tend to give, they aren't necessary. Being a decent player with a good bar is. But no specific class is necessary. But what about monks, you say? Well, the monk bar I'm running could also be run with no problems as a secondary, by anything but a warrior or paragon. (Yes, even a ranger could run it). There's only one skill they'd have to change, (a pve monk skill), and it's replaceable with a slow-casting pve equivalent.

3) The drops are good - if you have time to pick them up
I don't personally care. I'd do this if there were no drops! But the drops make it better! =) I got a superior vigor rune my second time round healing this.

In fact, I love this finale so much that if I'm not busy, I will most happily monk for it if you want a human monk. Soooo. Poke Wren Brownfeather (or variants thereof) if you're thinking of doing this quest. I'd love to come along! *smooch ANet* Be warned though, I don't run a conventional bar. And for this finale I don't want to run a conventional bar. I use a build that I find works better for me than the standard WoH/ZB/HB, even though it's not a PvX build. And keeping it isn't negotiable.

I need to post up a few of my 'Man, that looks weird but it works' monk bars at some point. I'd post it here (I'm not just being all SEKRIT LEETIST NUGGEET!), but it does need a tiny bit of explaining if you've never explored beyond HB/ZB/UA/WoH before. And a hero can't run it - it needs judgement to use. So I won't put the build here for now. If you really really want-a-zigga-zig-pie it, just PM me in game, and I'll explain it. =)

:( Only thing that makes me sad is completing this quest removes WiK content except when you have a bounty. For someone who's been killing them near nonstop cause they're so fun, that makes slightly sadpanda nuggets. ~_o Oh well. I can use the bounties to get my kill-vanquish fix!