Fury

[Merlinios]

I am so sick and tired of those days being proclaimed as if they were the bestest-best ever, when all that people played back then was IWAY in HA, and Ranger Spike in GvG. :rolleyes:

Indeed they were common, and so-called "gimmicky" builds will always be common, and have been common since they were invented. The difference here is that right before Factions, it was entirely possible to win at least 80% of your matches playing a skill-intensive, fun-to-play setup if the rest of your team was good. Right now you'd better be damn amazing if you want to win a Broken Tower against Ritualist Spike with just about anything, but if you go back in time and run the usual Gale Warriors + Domination Mesmer + Boon Prot + Ranger and/or Elementalist utility, it was entirely possible to just outplay both IWAY and spikes, even if the opposing players were very strong. Ranger Spike was much stronger in Tombs than GvG (and it showed). IWAY wasn't particularly strong in either, but a lack of offensive disruption and mediocre Monks made Tombs pretty easy to farm. People didn't play IWAY and Ranger spike because they were good; people played them because they were easy, and generated a fair number of wins. I don't know that the same can be said for the modern counterparts aside from the easy part (Ritspike, Hex overload, and no doubt some that I'm missing).

You saw weaker teams farming both Tombs and the ladder with these builds, but you also saw these teams (I'm looking at you, Eternum Pariah) fold once they hit real teams (Te, iQ, EW, wM, EviL). Ranger spike was pretty disgusting, but there was enough offensive disruption to keep it in check if you were smart. But most of those tools, which were all skill-intensive, were powered down right around Factions (along with Ranger spike). The skills that require timing, positioning, game/tactical knowledge, and even just reading your enemy have all been hit with the so-called nerfbat since the oft-referred to Golden Age of Guild Wars. Short list for emphasis:

-Crippling Shot (cost increased, SHADOWSTEPPING introduced)
-Diversion (Recharge increased)
-Blackout (effect decreased)
-Energy Drain (hit at least 3 times, 3 different ways)
-Distracting Shot (buffs to passive blocking skills--Shields Up!, etc with introduction of more skills of this nature)
-Gale (cost increased)
-Bull's Strike (Damage decreased, I believe--could be wrong on this one)
-Blinding Flash (Condition Removal better--Mending Touch, Signet of Remedy, etc.)

All of these skills are arguably semi-effective if you just randomly spam them around, but become infinitely better if the player behind them knows what he is doing in terms of both targets and timing. Arena.net is moving away from this trend and towards skills that just want to be spammed around. Does it really matter who that Reaper's Mark goes on? Natural Stride is another good example of a newer skill that needs work. It's up ~50% of the time and offers up a crapshoot, rather than Whirling Defense, which comes up for a slightly longer period, recharging every 45 seconds instead of 10, and can be used to force through key skills (Resurrection Signet, penetrate their backline to D-shot Aegis, etc.).

The problem is not just restricted to skills, but entire character classes:


-Monks (Reactive skills become stronger as proactive skills become weaker--Introduction of Spirit Bond, LoD0--leading to twitch-Monking instead of intelligent Monking)
-Assassins (Shadowstepping destroyed Water Magic, Cripple as mechanics, though they are still marginally usable)
-Ritualists (Broke Soul Reaping wide open, lengthened games with skill-less skills by making everything hyper defensive)
-Paragons (See Ritualists, replace Soul Reaping with Energizing Finale)
-Dervishes (Avatar of Grenth, Melandru, Scythe AoE at VoD, to a lesser degree, Mysticism)
-Necromancers (Soul Reaping goes infinite (finally fixed to a degree), Hexes are too "spammy" in general. I'd rather see a Freezing Gust than a Reckless Haste, if that makes sense.)

I can't comment too much on the other classes because I have not played them extensively as Monk, and they aren't nearly as broken as the new classes or as obvious as Necromancer. None of the new classes brought much to the table except broken or un-fun (in most peoples' opinion) mechanics.

But wait, there's more! Jade Isle was introduced. Yes, it is necessary to have maps that discourage certain tactics (or you will just see everyone using said tactics and the game stagnates), but you don't want maps that make it literally impossible to do something like split. It's still entirely possible to run 8v8 on Frozen Isle, despite the fact that it's almost perfectly built to split, but unless you're all running Recall, good luck on Jade.



I will agree with you that nostalgia plays a huge factor in the game seeming better back in the day, but there are reasons behind the complaints. While some people complain about individual skills, I would like to see a philosophy change so that the game plays like it did. Freezing Gust is an excellent skill at the flagstand. It's a snare, or damage, and when applied correctly is very powerful. When applied incorrectly, it does nothing at all. You could argue that it's a little overpowered in gank situations, but I can live with that. I want to see short-duration skills that require intelligence for good effect, not AoE hexes that last for 30 seconds and completely incapacitate the other team's offense (Reckless Haste).



And despite all of this, I would argue that Guild Wars is STILL the best PvP on the market. I like a good RTS, but they're a bit micro-intensive, which can overshadow tactics. Imagine what Arena.net could do if they fixed it.

--me, parenthetically