Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? (Guild Wars)

[Chardok]

Anyone still playing this - I started back recently. I do not have EotN, but I have a couple old prop characters, and have started a couple nightfall ones (I'm an altaholic) I think I MAY have convinced STRAK to start up again, too. So anyhoo....I may be returning in earnest, who's in?

[Enigma]

Maybe but it won't be for a little while. I've only have the vanilla and Factions though. Haven't bothered yet with the other two. Concentrating now on getting ready for my move to the States, actually going to the States, unpack, sex with wife, get settled in, reformat my computer, install GW, then play.

[Venator]

Man, I haven't played GW in ages... I've got all four campaigns, just never get around to playing these days. It's on my extensive "to do" list.

Oh, I've currently got a guild with hall and a total one one member (I had a bored/antisocial/"my alliance sucks" day about six months back). Any takers?

[Schuyler Colfax]

Anyone still playing this - I started back recently. I do not have EotN, but I have a couple old prop characters, and have started a couple nightfall ones (I'm an altaholic) I think I MAY have convinced STRAK to start up again, too. So anyhoo....I may be returning in earnest, who's in?

Geee, I've only mentioned this to you in chat how many times?

I have Prophecies, Nightfall, and Eye of the North. My friend isn't using his factions account, so maybe if I asked him, he might let me use it. Anyway, I haven't played Guild Wars in ages, but I guess I could use this as an excuse to get back into it. So I'm up for it if you guys are. Unless, anything comes up, I'm usually free Saturday (during the day) and Sunday.

My main character's name is Legendm Pve.

[Isil`Zha]

I've been sporadically on - just too many games and not enough time lately...

Isil Zha if you wanna add me. Usually when I do get on, I'm able to grab most of my friends. I have all campaigns including EoTN (which I never finished, I mostly got it for the skills to PvP with.) Heck, I do pretty much nothing but PvP anymore.

Although I never did get into GvG, mostly cause I never got enough friends on it to have a full team for GvG - oh, and other people suck. We tried at one point to recruit people, but anyone that wanted to GvG... had no life. This was when we played GW a *lot.* Which was apparently not enough for pretty much anyone we recruited - we got a lot of "you guys aren't on enough" because we'd be off for... 12 hours. Because yeah, we don't have jobs or anything.

Now I have full time job and full time school, and a 2 year old daughter, and tons of games on my to do list....

I should jump back on there though.... (Until Halo Wars shows up... hah.)

[Lagmonster]

I haven't played seriously since my son was born, but I keep meaning to get back around to it. I remember stopping because I ran out of cash and didn't feel like engaging in hours of mindless grinding just to build resources back up.

[Jade Falcon]

I've only got the base game and nothing else. I just felt it got monotonous pretty quickly, unless there's something in the supplements that would tempt me.

[Isil`Zha]

I got bored of PvE, too - getting money in GW is freaking RIDICULOUS. It was made exponentially more ridiculous in an update about 2 years ago which tanked the in-game economy - they made gold even rarer - prices of everything dropped substantially, and as such, you could not make nearly as much by selling loot - which is still true.

What didn't change, are the set-in-stone prices of the higher stuff, like 15k armor.

Anyway, half-way through Factions, I got sucked into PvP. I did actually enjoy Nightfall, but basically quit PvE and went back to PvP again after beating it. I never finished Factions (I hated that god awful story anyway.)

Even with lousy teams (most of the time, unless they REALLY suck) I still have fun playing PvP.

For a while, I used my faction points to get jade and amber to sell, and made pretty good money until the aforementioned economy nerf, where they dropped from 500/piece to 120/piece in about a week. Then they added the Z-Keys and those sell for 4.5-5k, and still do - now I've stopped even bothering since I don't do PvE anymore and I'm sitting at 150k in cash, and my chest is basically full cause I haven't' bothered to try to sell the crap.

[Lagmonster]

For a while, I used my faction points to get jade and amber to sell, and made pretty good money until the aforementioned economy nerf, where they dropped from 500/piece to 120/piece in about a week. Then they added the Z-Keys and those sell for 4.5-5k, and still do - now I've stopped even bothering since I don't do PvE anymore and I'm sitting at 150k in cash, and my chest is basically full cause I haven't' bothered to try to sell the crap.

I have the opposite problem; I was trying to fill my Hall of Monuments, which is a monumental feat accomplished only by deep wellsprings of cash. Consequently, my storage is void of absolutely anything and I rarely had more than a grand on me.

I tried PVP and found it too particular; Part of the thrill in Guild Wars for me was what I call the 'bad build experience', where you take the worst possible skills and try to create synergies with them, and you can't do that in PVP. Frankly, some of my favourite builds involved 'bad' elites, up until the update where they completely changed the function of many of the so-called 'unused bad elites', at which point I said, "well shit, where's the fun now?" and gave up.

[Thunderfire]

I still play GW every sunday nearly evening with my guild. I mostly play PvE and sometimes simple PvP settings like team/random arena , alliance battles and heroes ascent.

[Isil`Zha]

I have the opposite problem; I was trying to fill my Hall of Monuments, which is a monumental feat accomplished only by deep wellsprings of cash. Consequently, my storage is void of absolutely anything and I rarely had more than a grand on me.

Oh FFS, I looked at that and said "fuck that shit, more PvP!" I did Fissue of Woe once. Before Factions came out. I monked, and the team I went with, we did the entire thing. ONE guy got 7 shards, someone else got one... that was it. I didn't feel like trying to farm that shit.

I tried PVP and found it too particular; Part of the thrill in Guild Wars for me was what I call the 'bad build experience', where you take the worst possible skills and try to create synergies with them, and you can't do that in PVP.

Sure you can, sometimes I do ridiculous things in PvP just because, and some of them turn out pretty good! Like my Dervish bomb - nothing makes an opponent go "WTF!?" when they throw tons of anti-melee on me, only for me to teleport to them, not swing even once, then suddenly "explode," teleport away, and laugh as the degen finishes of the rest of their health.

Hell, because I want to be different from everyone else, a lot of my builds use "bad" elites and I still kick ass.

Frankly, some of my favourite builds involved 'bad' elites, up until the update where they completely changed the function of many of the so-called 'unused bad elites', at which point I said, "well shit, where's the fun now?" and gave up.

I've had a few builds that got destroyed by total elite skill changes to what they considered "bad elites", but oh well... by "unused bad elites" they were always referring to PvP. For a while now, though, they've separated many PvP and PvE skill updates. The most recent I can think of is Aura of Faith - I had a few fun builds for my Monk with that... which got completely destroyed in the total skill change they made to it (had 600+ heals for 5e.)

Anyway, I mostly do Aspenwood, Jade Quarry, and Alliance Battles.

RA is full of retarded idiots.
TA is full of gimmicks - you see the same thing again and again, and if there's some exploitable imbalance with the current build, EVERYONE in there will use it.

I hate both of those.

[Thunderfire]

Anyway, I mostly do Aspenwood, Jade Quarry, and Alliance Battles.

There are alot of idiots there too - with leechers added to the mix.

[Chardok]

I have apparently been "doing it wrong" with my builds. Or maybe it's just early yet. For instance - I like wind prayers for my dervish, but... they're apparently the worst, also, I picked monk secondary for the protection spells, when I apparently should have picked warrior...Or my Assassin/Mesmer....or my Necro/Ranger (I did that for the permanent pet which is, if you ask me, absurdly overpowered.) is there a way to unpick your secondary?

[bilateralrope]

You can change your secondary once you are far enough through the campaign.

[Isil`Zha]

Anyway, I mostly do Aspenwood, Jade Quarry, and Alliance Battles.

There are alot of idiots there too - with leechers added to the mix.

True, but then that's a universal rule when it comes to multiplayer gaming.

Most of the time, I don't care so much about winning as even with mildly retarded teams I still kick ass (but I can't push forward and win the game alone.)

There are of course games where your team is so grossly incompetent that you die due to constantly being pitted, alone, against the entire opposing team.

I'm not saying that I don't play to win - I do. The biggest problem with idiocy is people not going for the objective (like sitting out in the middle of the field in Aspenwood, only killing players and never advancing.)

I have apparently been "doing it wrong" with my builds. Or maybe it's just early yet. For instance - I like wind prayers for my dervish, but... they're apparently the worst, also, I picked monk secondary for the protection spells, when I apparently should have picked warrior...Or my Assassin/Mesmer....or my Necro/Ranger (I did that for the permanent pet which is, if you ask me, absurdly overpowered.) is there a way to unpick your secondary?

I've used a few Wind Prayers Dervish builds, but I mostly stick to Mysticism/Scythe strong builds such as:Wounding Strike + Heart of Fury + Ermites (?) Sweep + Mystic Sweep = rape. Can easily kill squishy players in 3-4 seconds, if not less.

Similarly - Avatar of Lyssa + Heart of Fury + Ermites + Mystic also = rape (+50 damage on foes when they activate skills - combined with attach skills and increased attack speed results in multiple 150-200+ hits in a short time.)

Other fun builds: All-monk team that me and my friends like to use in Alliance Battles - 3 smiters, 1 healer. 1 Smiter is the "wrath" monk and just keeps holy wrath on entire party, which returns 50% of attack damage delt, back to the attacker. Besides Holy Wrath, bar consists of nothing but signets and when not sitting way back, does some support healing, and smiting with Sig of Judgment for KDs.

Healer can be any decent healing build.

The other two are the primary smiters - any good smiting build should work, though evil things like Balth's Aura + KD are FTW.

As for secondary: Only the original GW was hard to change your secondary - about 4/5ths through the game you finally get quests open to you to change to whatever - each of them is rather lengthy, and you have to do one for each secondary you want to add to your list of possibilities. From Factions and on it's fairly early points in the game where you just buy more secondary professions, for not all that much (cost comes from having to buy skills.)

BTW, PvP-only characters can use any Primary/secondary combination and have all skills you've unlocked across all characters available to them.

[Chardok]

Hey - would anyone be willing to run my monk down through the undercity so I can cap Ray of Judgement? I know, I know, I'm begging. But I want to unlock it for my heroes so I can check out that "Smiteway" build. Hopefully this will make me less impotent in PvE - where I get wiped CONSTANTLY. I really only need to kill one of the afflicted, then we can call it a night, and you're welcome to all of the drops, of course. I only want the skill.

[Chardok]

Never mind, fockers. I GOT IT MYSELF WITH OnLY HENCHIES AND MOX MUAHAHAHAHAH!

[Isil`Zha]

What's your name on there anyway so I can add you?

[Venator]

Anyone who wants to add, my main character is Trerinor Whiteoak; I'm almost never on, but I wouldn't mind an excuse to be.

[Thunderfire]

Besides Holy Wrath, bar consists of nothing but signets and when not sitting way back, does some support healing, and smiting with Sig of Judgment for KDs.

Holy Wrath makes more sense on a mesmer. They get fast cast and mantra of inscriptions and several other usefull signets. 12 smite 9 fast cast 9 inspiration before runes works pretty well for a signet mesmer.

[Chardok]

I am Interferon Zpak or Zolpidem Tartarate. Tonight I will get my Daggers of Xuekao - then all I lack is a Pywatt's Talons - I need that zealousness.

[Isil`Zha]

I am Interferon Zpak or Zolpidem Tartarate. Tonight I will get my Daggers of Xuekao - then all I lack is a Pywatt's Talons - I need that zealousness.

haha, Xuekao were the first green daggers I got for my Assassin, way back when Factions first came out.

Actually, since I do mostly PvP, I only have a few greens for a few of my characters - only what I really want.

For my 'sin, the other greens I have are just Lou's Karambits, and the Deldriomor Steel Daggers from the end of Nightfall. Mostly for my PvP Temple Strike build...

Besides Holy Wrath, bar consists of nothing but signets and when not sitting way back, does some support healing, and smiting with Sig of Judgment for KDs.

Holy Wrath makes more sense on a mesmer. They get fast cast and mantra of inscriptions and several other usefull signets. 12 smite 9 fast cast 9 inspiration before runes works pretty well for a signet mesmer.

hmm, I'll have to try that..

However, part of the idea is just to confuse the shit out of people with a full team of Monks running around.

[Venator]

However, part of the idea is just to confuse the shit out of people with a full team of Monks running around.

Go Team Cleric!

On a related note, has anyone else faced that all-Ritualist TA group build? It's perhaps the single most annoying experience I've ever had with this game...

[Broomstick]

I don't play Guild Wars, but I am interested in knowing more about it. Where can I go to find more information on the game? Are there YouTube videos? Forums that aren't full of retards? Trial accounts?

My MMORG experience has been World of Warcraft which attracted me because I was a long-time Warcraft player (I still have my original copy of Warcraft: Orcs vs. Humans a.k.a. "Warcraft 1" which I bought when it first came out). However, I am interested in the other variations of MMORGs and I've been told GW has some similarities to WoW and some significant differences.

Also, if I did get just the first campaign (I think that's the word, the first chunk of GW) would I still be experiencing interesting game play, or ghost towns?

Not that I need another time sink, but whatever.

[Thunderfire]

However, part of the idea is just to confuse the shit out of people with a full team of Monks running around.

People expect some kind of spike e.g. signet of judgment followed by holy strike and soul stone strike. Pretty nasty - especially when assassin skills are added to the mix.