Guild Wars: Factions free weekend

[Roland]

That's my main account, but with evening classes, evening housework, and too much spare time in the day, I'm on at odd hours. Which is pretty much the biggest reason for why I'm no longer playing as much as I used to - few people in my guild are on at those times.

I think I've only played the R/A for two or three rounds. The E/A's interesting, so I was too quick on that.

I've unlocked enough ritualist skills to make the Rit/me somewhat useful. I think.
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E/A: I hated it. I found it to be utterly useless in PvP play. I could deal damage, sure, but nowhere near enough to outdo a good healer, plus I had to get right up next to my targets, making me easy prey. Just didn't work out as well as I was hoping. Interesting thought on paper, but poorly executed, IMHO.

A/W, OTOH, featuring 100% Assassin skills, rocked the house. 7 consecutive wins (5 of which were Flawless?), only to be stopped by, of all people, the Basin crowd. ;) A worthy opponent, for sure, and I'm glad it was them who finally knocked us off the charts. I still think we could have taken them, but I think we all were a bit tired by that point (it was somewhere near 2 AM).

I must say, I LOVE the Assassin. Ritualists are a PITA, and I could see them becoming a powerful force if used properly. Assassins just OWN anything non-Warrior. Even with a good healer, very few opponents stood up to my twin blades. I chewed through casters like bubble gum. All in all, a most enjoyable evening. :D

I'm very much looking forward to the expansion, especially now that I've gotten myself hooked on Guild Wars. I still have many of the same gripes I had before, but some of them I think are "teething pains" - things that you just have to get through early in the game, when you're too weak to do much of anything, before you can really start to enjoy what's being offered. I still get my rear handed to me every so often, but at least now I have the firepower and tactics to overcome it, if I'm smart enough to see the path.

Pathfinding still sucks, and unlocking everything for PvP is horrendously tedious, but I suppose that's to be expected when I primarily got the game for the PvP side, and all I want to do is PvP (thus anything non-PvP, ala the whole RP side of the game, is just mindless grinding to me). I'm spoiled by WoW, though - they definitely need to do more with quests and the UI. They ought to have quest GIVERS have markers on your map, as well as the quest locations themselves. WoW spoils me like this, but once you have it, it's very hard to go back to not having it.

The new expansion looks to add a lot of variety and excitement to the game, and certainly keeps up (if not improves) the level of tact needed to play this game. I look forward to it greatly, especially since WoW is, unfortunately, out of my budget for the time being. Debt-paying crunch time does not afford even the smallest of expenditures, especially when I have free alternatives. WoW will lure me back sooner or later, but until then, I'll enjoy GW, and keep pushing to unlock more content so I can finally get to the "good" stuff - PvP! :D