User talk:71.80.211.213

I liked that post. Why add and them remove it? (T/C) 14:29, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

Simple...It was about 7:30AM PST here, and I finally got in, but things are a tad laggy, however it seems to run fine...

I know my point was probably pretty good, but it does nothing but embroil another flamewar, and no matter how passionate people get over an issue such as that, no one can resolve it asides from those causing the problem itself. Unless people start holding themselves (and even their employers if needed) to accountability standards in the entire computer industry, these problems will just get worse...

I could go on about the royal screwups that are many pages long since Vista was conceived of, and when it was finally executed, and Gates basically gave them the bird and told them to hose themselves, well, that was almost as bad as when certain people went into self-imposed seclusion when Shrubby was elected the first time, much less the second...So many screwups were made since then, that no one wants to talk about the issues, because short of giving all these people pink slips and re-hiring the people who knew what in the hell they were doing, nothing is going to be fixed.

Say what you will of slick willy, but hey, he knew better than to try to piss in the middle-east's pond, he knew full well that if anyone did that, they'd just hike the prices of oil and refined gasoline so high that we'd suffer an economic and social implosion from it...Shrubby probably knew it, but hey, he wanted to fill his daddy's shoes, so he just declares victory 4 days after we drop 25,000 mini-nuke bombs all over the place, as if those people aren't experts at hiding under their natural defenses. Sand just goes to glass when subjected to high enough heat, but since Shrubby was dunk and stoned when he should have been learning simple lessons like that, taking fake pictures of him in a fake airman's uniform...

I could go on, but I think I've made my point...I'd love to start the same type of anti-M$ flamewar I've started over at the largest Mechwarrior 3 community (www.mechwarrior3.org), but GW seems to work, asides from some very odd lag (I'm on a fiber trunk, thanks, my speeds are probably faster than those you get from GW's servers), so I'm letting it go.

However, there are some major problems I see with GW2, and if they keep removing things instead of adding and/or improving them, I'm going to get forced into fighting against that issue...GW2 has the feeling of being rushed, but there is NO need to rush it, I'd be perfectly happy if they would hold it until 2010 or late 2009 at the soonest, that way they could improve GW in that time, and take lessons learned from tweaking GW and port them to GW2, not to mention the potential for another expo or something minor...Maybe a bridge between the huge-arse gap of time between GW and GW2, since a lot would have to happen during all that time...

There are so many issues around GW2 that I'd have to make a website just for dealing with it all...GW has enough trouble, at least it seems that way to me...GW needs some huge improvements with balance between health degen and actual damage totals...Now, it's all degen no matter who you play against, unless you degen spam like it's the Nasdaq (lol), you can't beat half of the builds in the game now...Take a look at almost all of the bosses after Prophecies...All of the Zinn's golems, POX, NOX, ROX, they have massive regen and unless you build specially to degen them, they just keep going in eternal battle with you...I spent more than two HOURS trying to bring down POX with my Mox/Vekk/Ogden and henchies, and while all I had to do was avoid that silly reactor overload thing, the golem just kept on regen so hard that he'd go to like 25% health, and then be back to 80% in a half-second...I won't even discuss ANY of the 50K EXP bosses...

It should be possible for warriors and monks to actually beat their foes without having cheapass degen spam builds all over the place instead...

GW2 also needs MUCH better AI...Instead of letting the AI always do everything itself, you should be able to order your AI allies to do everything that a normal player could, if you're good enough at micro...Like telling a caster henchie to carry some quest item rather than having my warrior char lug the thing around, constantly having to drop it just to survive the fights that come with those quests...Just one example among about 80 that I've come up with regarding AI alone...

I design games myself, right now I'm trying to finish up a huge total conversion for an old Star Wars flight simulator called X-Wing Alliance...It may be old, but there are artists now that are making graphics that vastly exceed ILM's standards, even the stuff in Episode 3 couldn't hold a candle to much of the latest graphics from the XWA Upgrade Project...I don't do graphics, but I do coding, scripting, creative writing, sound engineering, and anything else needed to do what I do...I'm not that great at artwork, so I leave that to those who know it best...Anyway, my project has been constantly re-designed from the ground up well over 100 times in the last 12 years since I started getting serious with it...Yeah, that long. Back when I first got started, it was back in the DOS era with X-Wing and TIE Fighter, and every time a new version of that simulator engine would come out, I'd have to entirely re-design every single aspect of the project, and until very recently, the XWA Upgrade had not reached a high enough level of completion to allow me to complete my work, so again I had to constantly re-design the basic coding elements around the graphical changes...

Anyway, I'm rushing a bit to try and get the base mod released by the end of this year, with the full 87-mission campaign set coming along ASAP after that...Of course, my quality standards forbid me to release anything if it has problems like those I blame M$ for creating ;)

Anyway, thanks for the support, but I think it'll be far more important to give these passionate speeches when GW2 is actually in development and not just a myth...GW2 is going to be the real deal, and all of the things that have gone wrong with GW, you can be sure I'll be one plane ticket from NC's headquarters, if they don't fix all of those issues the way they should be...GW could be fixed with a bit of patching, but since I know they won't do it no matter how much their customers protest, I'm waiting for GW2 before I start using the artillery...I may living in a gambling state, but I never go off the defensive until I'm sure of making things work right...Too many people gamble early and go on the offensive, and that's how people always lose, in any number of games of 'real life' (tm) ;)


 * There are Walls of text. and then there's this. :) (don't take that offensively, I'm just astounded how much you managed to write in 2 comments) GW-Viruzzz 18:06, 28 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Quite a nice read. One comment though, on "It should be possible for warriors and monks to actually beat their foes without having cheapass degen spam builds all over the place instead... "

/


 * Yeah, degen, huh. That build waltzes over foes without degen. Scythes are awesome :) Or take Cleave (or DSlash, Earth Shaker, Eviscerate...) and a Conjure. That'll let you pump out more damage than some obscure degen build would. Another fun build is the following (Albeit less effective than the above, more Warrior):

/


 * Maybe swap Res for some more damage if your team is strong enough. --- [[Image:VipermagiSig.JPG|Ohaider!]]-- (s)talkpage  19:20, 28 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Oh, I see...well I don't think we have any defenders of Vista here. :)
 * @_@ I loved that old Star Wars game (or one very similar to it - was on Mac?). Also, what Viper said. Warriors have never relied on degen as far I can remember (that's Ranger/Mesmer more)...and Monks I'm not sure what you mean since they only get Smiting and they are inferior to any other class to play any other build...except maybe using things like Judge's Insight and Decapitate.
 * The bosses you mentioned are all easy as cake (as long as you shut down their super skills) and I am not sure why you would be using degen against them. Degen is most effective against targets with obscenely high defense (read: true Defy Pain-type tanks, such as Rabid Bear), or when you spread it around to many many targets (Apply Poison Rangers). This causes pressure on the enemy's healing. Against most other foes, degen is useful as additional damage. But I'd much rather get my immediate +38 damage from Executioner's Strike than 38 damage over ~11 seconds from eg. Bleeding. Degen maxes out at -10, which is a DPS of 20 (2 health per second per pip of degen)...that is about half of what is considered good for PvP, let alone PvE. You get much better DPS using direct damage. And when all else fails, there's lifestealing.
 * I agree with you that GW could make many, many improvements to the current AI...not just of monsters and NPCs and Heroes, but just in general. For example, a number of things in PvE can be easily done with a dedicated tank to grab aggro and soak up damage. In PvP, no one is dumb enough to use a tank, because players are not stupid enough to keep attacking it. I understand that like everything else, the AI is controlled by algorithms and complex scripts, and I do appreciate that it is better in GW than many other games I have played. (The mere concept of Henchmen was a HUGE factor to me choosing GW.) Still, there is always room for improvement. But I think one also has to think of balance. If the AI gets too good, then it will almost always outperform a human, and then there will be no more reason to ever PUG or for that matter play with humans. That would destroy the game at its most fundamental level as an MMO. It is already like this for Heroes and Interrupts - they are unbeatable with them, and so there is no reason anymore that a player has to learn how to interrupt, except for special situation where you don't want everything interrupted (Great Destroyer for instance). So the average skill level of players deteriorates and that furthers the PvP/PvE split.
 * But yeah, you're right that all this talk doesn't make a difference to ANet. Best of luck to you when GW2 comes out, since knowing ANet I am sure you will have things to take them to task for. I'll be supporting you at least. :) [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 01:04, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

Well, I just swapped out to Vista 64 again (I have the hardware to push it hard, erm, or whatever analogy you prefer ;))....

No real problems asides from EAX being greyed out no matter what it's status is with Alchemy, fortunately for me, I have the Auzentech X-Fi Prelude, so I don't need any EAX to get 5.1, just use Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect and I'm set there...

Anyhow, I recently started troll mining outside of Droks again (lol, I know, it's an old farm that doesn't drop the way it used to when I was playing 4 years ago...I had surgery and many complications with it for 2 years, so I left GW in 2004, just got back into it), and it still farms well, but the payoff is nerfed like everything else from before all the expansions..

What I meant about degen: I was specifically talking about P.O.X., the Golem boss in the Zinn quests, and no matter how long I fight him (I could sit there hammering him for about 4 hours if I wanted), he just hits about 30% health, and somehow ends up with 80% health in the space of about 1.5 seconds...I don't belong in a guild, so I use the AI, which is dumb I know, MOX just waltzes in and gets nuked, but everyone else is a nice distance back, and I just hammer him relentlessly after he tries his reactor overload thing, but he insta-regens like nothing else I've played against in this game...It's just damn strange...I know half my problem is that my henchies don't use degen tricks (which seems to be a requirement no matter what you play against in this game, PvE or PvP, everyone is whoring degen builds like they are 55/ss monkeys...I have only had 6 days since getting this far into the game after all these years, so yeah, I'm not informed that much on all the 500 or so new builds that have been made since I left in 2004/5...55 monks were not even considered a build back then because some of the equipment needed was not existent)...

I'd think with a team of 8, well-ranged between my seemingly unstoppable W/Mo, MOX in a D/Mo build to help Ogden in his Mo/Nothing build, with Vekk spamming his air magics, then I have a team of henchies, including the mesmer and necro that are available out of Marketplace, with an Assassin and Ritualist taking the slack...

I know POX is designed to be one of the hardest enemies to take down, seeing as he's one of three solo bosses you have to kill to get a 50K experience quest...But even the damn Lich Lord and everything else at the end of Prophecies when I was playing, was never that hard to bring down, it did not take four+ hours to knock out one damn boss...

It's been suggested to take mass degen, but since I don't have any human mesmers or necros on my team, and I don't have those classes of heroes yet, I'm stuck like cheddar cheese on a paper towel ;)

I know MOX/Ogden/Vekk are probably the easiest hero team to get, seeing as how MOX comes to you way too early for a new player, and Ogeden/Vekk both come from just running through one dungeon area that has no enemies to speak of...

I'm trying to reach a point where I can get a Mesmer/Necro hero team so I can just degen spam everything so my warrior rapes it within minutes than hours, but Factions is a damn odd area, they really did not design the maps well, there are paths that seem to lead through to the next area, but you run into a brick wall made out of hitzone mesh boxes that physically don't show up in the game, so you have to spend a half hour just trying to find the next under-detailed graphical bridge to the next area...It's nuts.

I think Factions has it's place, but they need serious work on the maps to make it more playable, because having to constantly run around trying to find a path that is on a map, but not there in the game, is just silly, because all that while, you've beaten all the enemies in the zone, and you still walk around for a half-hour just trying to find something that's on a map, but not in the game...ugh, makes me feel like asking Gaile (whom I have met in person), if they hired some GPS company to make the maps for Factions :rolleyes:

Plus the maps in Factions are really under-detailed, they could have done, and still can do, far much better...I've seen better detail on games from the mid-1990's that had more texturing work than those maps in Factions ;)

Agh, anyhow...I know solo UW was fairly profitable back when I was active, but I'm not so sure now, with all the massive nerfing they've done to everything...I've talked to a few people that all say UW has been nerfed almost as badly as the Droks Troll mining has been, and now the only runs that make more than 20P per week are 55/ss monkeys running about in the new dungeons, since no other build can solo them that easily...

I think they either need to give certain farming areas popular with 55/ss builds a spell or two to ruin the 55/ss's spam-casting chain, or they need to change the equipment used on 55/ss builds so that they are not the only build that can really obtain good items or platinum...Plat is worth nothing to me, but I want good items that accomodate my W/Mo build that can solo most melee mobs that don't nuke degens like mad...I've heard that Griffin mining can be good, but again, I've not been able to verify this stuff since niether this WIki or the PVX wiki says one is better than another...

I know, farming is kinda lame, but alas, to accomplish anything without a guild, you have to be able to get good items, and getting good items normally means buying them off other players, or spending $10 on the quest packs to get those max items from Gwen runs and so on...I don't like spending more money than what I pay for in a store, and I never liked buying fake game items off ebay, I thought all of them were witless cowards for even offering 100Plat for $75+ back when it was popular to do that...Now they ban it, which I think is probably a good thing, but it drastically up-scales the difficulty level of obtaining good equipment through NORMAL gameplay...You have to have a rich-ass guild that has people willing to help out newcomers (or in my case, newcomers that are really old-comers, I gave my old account to my old guild, but it was so long ago that I can't remember how to get that account back, ah well), just to make it in normal gameplay.

I don't have real problems with guilds, but it seems like a lot of them today are only doing it for money, usually ganging-up for farming runs, most PvE guilds are like that, I joined a couple, but left because most of their people were too inactive to help either the guild or it's members, and those who were online were only doing certain runs, usually mining dungeons that I have no access to right now, and could not properly farm them even if I did because I lack the gear to be that helpful.

My chests are filled with max weapon upgrades, many of which are for staves and bows, which of course my W/Mo can't use at all, but I don't know anyone who wants to buy bow upgrades or staff upgrades and be honest about it...I have a few good hammer mods, but I'm skeptical about using a W/Mo hammer build because most Hammer builds are all W/E to abuse the hell out of KD and so on, which isn't helpful in PvE for many reasons...

I feel like giving up on GW, like I have just missed too many of these changes to be able to keep up...

I know there are probably some great W/D builds, but I know almost nothing about the Dervish stuff because I have not even gone into Elonia just yet, too busy trying to finish off Prophecies before really digging at the other campaigns...Gah...I just don't know these days...I know there are lots of Permasin's on PVX that are very competitive with 55/ss and so on, but I don't have much Plat after only 7 days, and the guys I used to know in the community are gone now...

Don't think I'm asking you for anything, really...I have this thing about doing things on my own, and once I do Proph, I'll see where I sit, but for the 10 months or so that I was active with GW back in the glory days, the best I could manage even with guild help was Drok Troll mining (probably because that was the best people could do back then without being super-rich and UW mining, UW was probably the most profitable area back then too)....

I used to also do Zealot runs back then, whenever I got tired of killing 5,000 trolls per day, but when I played through those Kryta missions this time, almost nothing dropped that was worth a damn thing, and of course you can't really solo Zealots now with a W/Mo because of all the degen-spamming mesmers that they inserted into those areas specifically to nerf people like me...=/

They did give those Trolls interrupts, but if you time things right, and have under 150 ping, you can avoid it almost always, and if you get interrupted, just throw up health buffers like endure pain...Dolyak Sig would probably be better on this build, though...Maybe I should try that...*shrug*

Still, the drops are just ugly compared to the old days, and the collectors who used to take Mountain Troll Tusks have been moved into areas that are far away from Droks now...So selling them does nothing, and no one wants Bones it seems...Not enough Necros I guess =/

I think that's a bigtime problem with GW that needs to be taken care of with GW2: Stop allowing people to make stuff like Permasin and 55 monks, because that is all everyone does now, and for a newcomer to compete with that is almost impossible without help...I would consider PvP, but I have to unlock all the new PvP skills in PvE first, and there are like 500 new skills across all classes that have come about since I've played...Agh...

Heh, at one time, I had a pretty stable W/R build, but farming with it was tough, it was mostly for PvE, with or without guild...

Any ideas for a new W/Mo, other than giving up on my wishes to solo the game and getting with a guild? ;)

... ... ... ... ...When P.O.X. or any of the Golem foes get down to ~30% HP, the quest is completed and they stop fighting. You talk to it then and take its power crystal. >.> If they keep fighting for you, then you have a serious bug and I'd suggest getting the full "-image" update. Btw, P.O.X. is cake compared to N.O.X. P.O.X. isn't even as hard as Glint, I'd say, mostly since he has no range attack. Getting to him is the hard part...

Three Elementalist Heroes is far better to use for most things. You should check out Savannah Heat for instance. Why bother using degen when you can kill with brute force? Having your own Healing Prayers and Protection Prayers Monks is also a great boon, since the henchmen ones are generally incompetent.

Factions is just the worst campaign for PvE, and also has the absolute worst graphics until you reach the Jade Sea/Echovald Forest/Raisu Palace-type places. The rest is cardboard boxes and sewers...I have the same problems navigating in Factions. It took me three hours to navigate the Tahnnakai Temple (sp?) explorable area, to find this one quest NPC who I could see on the radar...and I could see their name in the distance...but I couldn't determine a path to him. >.> This is why I love this Wiki, is often for all the maps which show exactly which way to go in complexly pathed areas. Probably the greatest problem with Factions maps is the reliance on Z-Axis elements like "bridges" and different levels of ground, which do not reflect at all from an aerial view...

Drops, like most everything else, have been nerfed over the years. Troll farming is a relic of the past but you can still do it for good XP and Mountain Troll Tusks. There are still some farm runs around, such as the 55 and permasin in some dungeons. One thing you may consider is "Keg Farming" - that is, killing monsters in Norn lands with the help of Budger Blackpowder. This works best on a permasin, but a Warrior tank could probably work also. As to UW, there are still a few builds that you can farm with it, but they are slow and take some skill/patience (plus a competent friend). Desert Griffon farming was nerfed a long time ago, but I suppose you could still do that. Bone is worthless these days, but once in a while you will still see someone buying mountain troll tusks. Some will even pay you 25g or more per tusk.

A 55 takes a bunch of superior runes, a Cities of Ascalon cesta, and a Totem Axe or equivalent. All of these are pretty cheap nowadays, and you could probably afford it with <10 Plat. A Permasin also technically doesn't need much equipment; it can even share the Totem Axe with the 55. With one rune of superior Shadow Arts and the Totem Axe, you can maintain Shadow Form forever with Arcane Echo and Deadly Paradox, or Glyph of Swiftness and Deadly Paradox. The rest of the equipment is usually stuff like Radiant Insignia and Runes of Attunement, which you'll be able to afford eventually as you farm; and they're not uncommon as runes off salvage armors.

There is plenty of other ways to get money than farming, although that is one of the fastest and most reliable if you can do it. Just playing through a PvE campaign to completion nets you quite a bit of money and usually some good drops (except for Prophecies; but there you make it up with the massive number of free skills, which is ~1 plat saved per). Eye of the North in particular offers huge amounts of cash in many places. In Nightfall, using the "Buried Treasure" items scattered around the campaign is also very profitable and can result in great drops. One other popular commodity at the moment is Zaishen Key, which is "bought" for 5,000 Balthazar faction. Many players get rich through the selling of these. Finally, if you can get a group into The Deep or Urgoz's Warren, or even a group for completing UW or FoW, that is reasonably profitable. I know there are a number of people on this wiki who do those places fairly often.

...Anyway, I am in a guild which only has myself, because I like capes. It's been that way ever since I started playing the game in the days of just Prophecies, 2+ years ago...I've never gotten help from others. Always I just did things with Henchmen. When Heroes were invented then I was very happy, and ever since then I have done everything with Heroes and Henchmen. And I do mean everything - I've completed all three campaigns, Eye of the North, gotten Bonus/Master's on every mission, and done every quest in the game. Slowly I'm working on completing the Dungeons as well. I've only ever needed to ask for help in places that using Henchmen is prohibited (such as FoW). When you are not in Hard Mode, 99.9% of the game can be done solo or with Heroes and Henchmen. You already have Ogden, Vekk, and M.O.X.; getting Gwen (Mesmer) takes about five minutes more of the Eye of the North campaign. You can also quickly get many more Heroes in Nightfall. Koss (Warrior), Tahlkora (Monk), and Melonni (Dervish) are almost immediately available for a non-Nightfall native. You can also get Acolyte Sousuke (Elementalist) or Acolyte Jin (Ranger) nearly as fast. Then there are Olias (Necromancer) and Zenmai (Assassin); they have a quest each which is a bit long and minorly difficult, but Olias at least is well worth getting as then you can always have a Minion Master with you.

But yeah. You don't need a guild to play any of the game if you don't want. W/Mo is a pretty old (I don't want to say outdated necessarily) class combination, and as far as I know they have not had any changes to them since the Prophecies days. Some of the new skills that you might consider looking at are Crippling Slash, Triple Chop, and especially Flail. A W/Mo is a defensive character, but there is plenty of room for an offensive Warrior in PvE. Earthshaker is usually what you'd use with a hammer, but it's true that they are generally less effective in PvE. (T/C) 07:22, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

(T/C) 07:22, 30 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Crippling Slash is rather effective, but Dragon Slash (abbreviated to DSlash commonly) is so strong. If you combine it with "For Great Justice!" you can use DSlash immediatly after using it; or use some other powerful attack, like Sun and Moon Slash. Damage buffs like Conjure Flame/Frost/Lightning makes auto-attacking dangerous, and combined with spamming skills, brute force > degen :)
 * A little more on builds; Giving your Monk hero the Ele secondary gives Glyph of Lesser Energy (GoLE), which is great for conserving Energy if you use costly spells, like Heal Party or Healing Ribbon (might want to micro a bit if you plan to use it specifically for Heal Party :P ). You can also give it the Mesmer secondary, put some points in Inspiration Magic, and then take Power Drain and Leech Signet. When your hero is on Guard, it will use them as it sees fit, and almost always interrupts a skill with em, so receives a bunch of Energy from those. And interrupting is never bad :)
 * Groups to farm UW and FoW are all gimmicks, relying on Permasins (and E/A's) to clear either insanely fast (And for FoW: CoP for stupid-high damage). I myself roll along in UW as a Necro often enough, and an average run is 30 minutes. This means completing every quest in UW, on HM. Each succesful run automatically yields a Diamond, a Passage Scroll, an Ecto, Lockpick, UW Key (Phantom?), and alongside that 2 random drops. The random drops can be anything (well, nearly), from Duskblade Scythes (merch fodder), tp Eternal Blades (well over 100k+100 ectos, depends on requirement), to even more Ecto (4.5k or something? Haven't checked lately). To boot, almost everything you kill as a Necro has a chance to drop Ectos, and this goes for most Permas too. Golds are also rather common drops, so there's always a chance to get a neat item.
 * What I found really profitable, were Cathedral of Flames runs. This is done by using 2 Monks; a 600hp tank and a Smiter (Retribution and Holy Wrath). The people you run pay you 2k once you get to Murakai, and they heal up your Smiter (It takes damage from Reversal of Damage :P). This nets you 12k from just running the dungeon, split between the Tank and the smiter. If you take a hero smiter, and you tank, 12k right there :P Almost every run you get one stack of Bones (slightly less sometimes), which is 750 gold, and there's quite some nice items to be found. Sephis Swords can be worth a nice dime, and with the load of golds you can haul in there's a good chance to get some nice mods, too. The reason I don't do CoF runs anymore is because it's infinitly boring to run a bunch of egoists (really, it's amazing what happens on those runs sometimes). Sure, sometimes you get a cool group with which you can have some fun, but that's still only one run usually.
 * My current guild is 5-man big, counting myself, of which one is too busy with his study to play GW actively, and one basically quit GW... But it's a placeholder for GW 2.
 * So anyways, if you drop your in-game name, I could spare you some cash (I barely play anymore, let alone need any of the cash I have atm), maybe help you around a bit if you want :)
 * P.S.: I made a mistake in the W/R build above, fixed it. --- [[Image:VipermagiSig.JPG|Ohaider!]]-- (s)talkpage  14:26, 30 October 2008 (UTC)