User:InsomniacViper

Thoughts
WoW is a good game, but has just a bit too much grind to my tastes, and I don't like buying my game every month.

GW2 does away with the latter, and hopefully the former. Other than that, it seems to be surprisingly similar.

I've played a lot of Median XL (Diablo II mod), and have seen it change over time. One thing pretty much every forumgoer notices it that the amount of novas increases almost every patch. In the end, a nova will always kill faster than a single missile, after all. The problem with this is that the game becomes less tactical, because, well, you just cast your nova over and over and stuff keels over. For Diablo II, it's quite fun really. It's about looting stuff, killing big bads, or many just slightly bads. It's uncontrolled mayhem (that's me).

Now back on topic. Take a look at Arcing Shot, and Arcing Shot. Single-target, AoE. Barrage vs. Barrage. Target foe(s) vs. target area.

With Barrage, there's no need to choose a specific primary target anymore to maximise damage output, because it just covers half the screen anyways. Sure, you now have to choose where to place it... but everything is going to come near you anyways, so just place it close to yourself and wait for stuff to die.

Spread Shot: long range conical damage. Whirling Defense: Automatically returns damage. Hunter's Call: Birds come down from the skies and find their targets. Stomp: Nova centered on your character. Gamescon demo featured a D2-Whirlwind skill.

AoEs and novas are useful, but eventually you just lose tactical value.

Oddly, the Elementalist, world-class nuker and screenwiper galore, seems to have the most tactical skills. You have Meteor Shower, which has a fairly small AoE and long activation time, and Phoenix that travels to a target and boomerangs back. With clever walking (positioning!), you can multihit foes. Yes, the Ele also has the brainless skills (Churning Earth for example), but they're still nukers. They have a reason for it.

The Shatterer (Gamescon demo) looks pretty badass, sure. He's standing there with approximately sixty other players. Not even WoW reaches those numbers. You can see the framerate at times, and oftentimes he can hardly see the boss because the camera just doesn't lend to looking up well, and thus clips into the terrain and innocent bystanders a ton.

I'll definitely play GW2 a lot, but to me, it won't be Guild Wars when I look at the skills they've released. I like positioning, cherry-picking targets and having a bar with 7 damage skills and Frenzy (if you need a cancel stance, you just need a better prot monk!). Positioning still exists, but with knockback, your control over it is somewhat diminished. Choosing a target? LOL, noob, just shoot everything on the screen.

Oh, btw. Some skills they plan to show for the Necromancer later this week: Doom, which seems to be similar to Barrage. Grasping Dead; long line damage (and imo looks pretty bad). Putrid Explosion: Still a nova. Seems to blow up a minion, rather than a corpse; much more aimable AoE bombing. Locust Swarm: Locusts attack foes that come near you while it is active (movie also features another unnamed nova, which reminded me of Unholy Feast). Life Siphon, which is still single target. Holy poo, a single target skill?! Oh, right, it's their healing skill.

Random stuff.