Originally posted by Diovidius

Originally posted by Mechanism

I was hoping they'd have a monk but make it an actual martial artist. That's a niche they haven't filled yet.

A Martial Artist can easily be added by giving a unarmed option to thieves or warriors. I don't see a real reason to add a compelely new profession based around unarmed combat. But I'm biased against adding any new professions after release. I think Anet should instead focus on adding races and new options to existing professions for the sake of balance.

The monk class wouldn't have to be limtied or based around Unarmed Combat.

Fact of the matter is that monks who did/could fight (such as Shaolin) , had a variety of tools. I know its not the best link for their weapons, but it does present a few options.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Deadliest_Warrior_episodes#Episode_7:_Shaolin_Monk_vs._M.C4.81ori_Warrior

Emei piercers could be daggers, twin hooks are obviously swords, the staff could be a spiritual-based weapon so the class isn't purely physical. Heck, you don't even have to limit yourself to that, weapons of all kinds pop up in Martial Arts flicks.

As for this game, why have a monk in the first place? A support-specialist directly defies the whole point and design of Guild Wars 2. Every class can support and heal, but the fact of the matter is that you don't rely on ONE person for it. It's always been an odd design choice to have one spot in a group at the least dedicated just for the bar-filler. You can't honestly tell me it's fun standing around waiting while you try to find ONE specific type of player.

The fact that you have to actually work together as a group as a whole to support each other, that everyone can revive one another, puts more emphasis on "group play", moreso than the trinity ever did.

Originally posted by watchawatcha

He's going to get burned by the getting stuck with darkside points comment.

But the Corso thing and the story critique was so spot on.  I completely agree.  The smuggler story is rubbish.

 

Eh, there's usually a point or two he tends to overlook in all of his videos. I know I've noticed more than my fair share over the course of his videos. I don't necessarily blame him though for not noticing it, because they could make it much more obvious that you still got the Dark side points even if the action you see was light side.

Originally posted by Swoogie

Originally posted by WhiteLantern

Hmmmm, making a lot of cuts lately. Smells of going against the mantra of "releasing when it is done" and moving to "get it the frick out the door, NOW!"

 

I guess there's always paid expansions for the things being cut.

 

/feeling cynical today

 

I think they are actually cutting stuff to rework it and then release the game. As opposed to removing unfinished features and releasing. There was a blue post about the size of a disertation on this a week ago. 

They aren't, they are cutting this content so they don't have to worry about it when they push the game out on release day. Whether or not it means we see it down the road with the obligatory expansion who knows.

And I'm saying this because this is exactly what happened with Blizzards last major release, WoW: Cataclysm. Remember they gutted out what had to be half of the promised content mentioned in the announcement trailer for release, which led to one of the most dull, uninteresting, utterly horrible Archaeology profession as it is now.

Originally posted by Zeppelin4

I'm surprised you didn't mention Lord Of The Rings Online. That has to go as one of the biggest flops compared to the fame of the books and movies.

Eh, honestly I think Lord of the Rings Online flopped after it went F2P. Not in the conventional sense of course, but the way the game is being handled now, every aspect of it is being boxed up and sold in the store. You want more content to level up through? Have to buy it. You want to be able to use mounts? Have to pay for it. Want items that are required for a mini-game? Have to buy them (because any other way to earn them is inefficient).

There was a perfectly fine game there, it didn't need such a divisive store, but instead Turbine decided they could treat it just like they treat Dungeons and Dragons Online, when in fact they can't. The two MMOs are on opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of how they play, so treating it like the other end was bound to screw things up.

Originally posted by Serelisk

When was Halo on the table for being made into an MMO? o.o

It was a while ago, you can find stuff on that around if you google enough. It didn't get very far if my memory serves right.

And great article Mr. Coyote. It reminded me of why I grabbed fifty copies of the Matrix Online. They are my invincible army, and one day they shall march. It might be Dennis Dyack (though in his ignorance he'd love the game), it might be Peter Molyneux (though he is a lover of horrible design decisions), it might even be you...

That delivery truck outside? That girlscout knocking on your door? You won't know... you'll never know, until you rip open that brown package or shove your hand into that seemingly innocent box of snicker-doodles. They WILL come.

Originally posted by aithieel

Ah, and some of the things, for example opressor weapon you can get by yourself just by playing War of Kryta quest series.

True enough, you get 7 of the 10 medals needed for the Opressor Weapon just from the quest rewards, and are pretty much guaranteed the last 3 with the supplies you earn from the earlier part of the quests.

Originally posted by MikeB

Originally posted by aithieel

Originally posted by MikeB

Ahhhhh...Need to get 30/50! :(

 

It's not THAT hard but it's devourer of time, and It's fun :). 

 

Here's a question for you: I have a friend who has tons of money in the game and can basically help me acquire anything for the HoM that can actually be bought. How far do you think that would get me? And how much time do you think I'd have to put in for the rest of it? :)

Depending on how much money he has...

100 Platinum to outfit all heroes in 1 Alternate Costume for the display purposes.

Destroyer Weapons are roughly 40 Platinum or so, while Oppressor weapons require a stack of 250 War Supplies (goes for 60 Platinum roughly).

Set of Kurzick/Luxon Armor runs around 100 Platinum as well. Luxon and its required Faction-specific material is half the cost of Kurzick though, so you could get it for less. You'll have to put in some time to gain favor with the faction of your choice for this one though, in order to craft armor from them.

Eye of the North displayable armor is relatively cheap as well (I believe its about 60 platinum generally speaking).

You'd have to put a little time in for the Black Moa and Black Widow pets. Moa is a quest in Factions, while Black widows are spawned from completing certain quests in Underworld (you'll need a group for that). The Pheonix pet you'll have to beat Factions and capture it in the extra zone right afterwards since you can't warp there. Fear not though since you just need to beat Shiro again to get there.

So with a full Pet/Hero display, thats 8 points, plus the 3 initial points for 11. If you grab the Kurzick armor, and get a full display for the armor that puts you to 16. Using just the Destroyer and Oppresor weapons to get a full display will nab another 6, bringing you to 22. Beating each campaign should get you up to 5 statues at the least (if you do the bonus missions as well), which is an extra 5 points so you'll be at 27.

You can buy an undedicated Black Moa (Rare pet) for 60 plat, for one point, as well as one point for just having any pet. Which means you'd either need 9 more white minis or one Unique. I don't know the price of any unique mini pets, but lower year white mini pets are cheap, even when undedicated. So... there's 3 points for 30!

Originally posted by Naucano

A glove ? Is that all?

Why not a suit ? With changing leds and build in micromotors with forceback possibility. Should go ninja on your ass together with a kinect equipement. A sort of Crysis armor with extended functionality ? The possibilities would be unendless.

Hm ... and what if you looked to your porn-channel with that ?

You mean a suit like this...?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAtrkMGNp0o

Originally posted by Arquiteto

This does divert attention from the fact that they were supposed to launch in december. Can't wait to try it out. Hopefully sooner than later.

 

The only stated thing about December was that it was going to most likely see the release of the in-game store, as well as another round of beta invites. They have not once said December was going to be the games official release date. Instead, if people ever bothered to actually read anything, that the game will just continue to open up its beta until they just remove the tag and let everyone in.

It's a F2P title anyways, and how many F2P titles are ever "fully" released? 70-80% Just stay in "beta" because there is no point to announce a release date once the shop is open anyways.

Originally posted by nycplayboy78

I  have never played Guild Wars but I am looking forward to Guild Wars 2. So I guess I am assed out then when it comes to having nice armours and shinies....SIGH!!!!

Not at all. Its not too hard to get a decent chunk of points, and again you only really need 30 (technically 27) to get all the "shinies". There's always some player-ran event taking place, or being planned, so checking the Guru site and its event board is bound to lead you to a couple. The player events are one of GW's strong points, and also a good chance to nab a thing or two. The past few I've attended have been giving out large amounts of things for contests or even trivia (like 200 keys for the PvP 3-point title).

Some people just like to make it look like its so bloody difficult. As someone whose against grinding completely I've yet to

1) Grind Vanquishes

2) Grind books

and/or

3) Grind anything.

And yet I'm at 28/50 right now. Was some of it luck? In a way yea, I've nabbed a few free unded mini-pets here or there from people who didn't need them, but that was it. The most I ever grinded was during the New Years festival, and all that really amounted to was doing the new years quest chain on two characters.

30 is actually pretty darn easy to reach, and easier if you have help.

You'll get 3 trophies for just finishing each campaign, as well as 1 trophy per campaign for its NM bonus missions. That there is six for the Honor set.

Right off the bat too, you get 3 free points just for linking accounts, then 2 points for just putting a statue in. Add in those other 5 and you hit "Five displayed", which will net you another 3 points for a full display. That's 8 points for some mostly simple work.

Next easiest to get, I would say, is either a toss up between at least 20 mini-pets and the heroes. Unded white pets can make up the bulk of it since you only 1 rare and 1 unique pet for the two non-number based ones. Miliage to get those will vary but there are still plenty of ways to get some. Worry about white mini's though, since the prices there will range from like... 1 platinum to 5-10plat, depending on the year (might be a bit off on prices for later years though). Don't worry about purple-named pets, you only need the green and yellow.

You can get a Green mini from a scavenging quest (its not too hard to solo for me so far, and I'm almost finished)

The yellows tend to come from events. The new year event is a great chance, since you can easily grind out the fortunes that can give you a celestial pet (yellow). Depending on your luck, you might get more than one too, which you can sell. That's another five points there once you get a unique, rare, and 18 other pets.

The hero/ranger-pet one can be just as easy, if not easier depending on you. You do need a group to take you into Underworld for the Black Widow spider, but the Black Moa can be found through a quest and the phoenix at the Factions end area. These guys will need to be lvled up to 20 before they can be displayed, but its not too hard if you do other things with them out (even dead they gain xp). Plus, they also count for the generic pet display.

That leaves the 25 heroes who you need to unlock their unique armor skins for. MOX comes with his already, so he can be displayed right off the bat. Each armor piece, going for the cheapest, is only about 4-5 plat each, and the only requirement to display them with the armor is to get up to the point you can "Craft" it, as well as getting them to lvl 20. Altogether, this last part will cost you roughly... 100platinum, which is rather nice and cheap.

This puts you at 21 points.

When you go for the armor points, don'g worry about the Kurz/Lux set or specially the Vabbian and Obsidian armor. Instead, aim for the Eye of the North armor sets, since they come about 5plat per piece cheaper than the rest, and the materials are on the cheaper end as well. If you want the unique-point armor, then best bet is definitely the kurz/lux set. Luxon tends to be cheaper than Kurzick to make as well for the most part too so if you can, make sure you got some Luxon love through Factions.

The reason I say avoid the Obsidian and Vabbian armor is, quite frankly, because they are the grindy sets. Obsidian being the worst culprit. The 105 ectos alone will cost upwards of about 600-1000 platinum alone. Vabbian isn't far behind on the price point either.

Also, never grab the helmet if you are just aiming to finish a set. You only need the chest, gloves, legs and boots to display it. So unless you are going to wear the helmet, never craft them.

That puts you at 25-26 points.

If you do the GW beyond content, and did finish a lot of the Eye of the North content, you'll easily have enough to get a couple of weapons. Destroyer weapons can be on the cheaper end, and you are guaranteed at least one Oppressors weapon just for doing War in Kryta. That is 3 points right there.

which means you have 28-29 points!

edit: Also make sure you nab story books too. They can be turned in for Exp and gold/plat (always useful), but several also add to rep. One of the easiest to probably finish would be

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/File:Young_Heroes_of_Tyria.png

You could turn in books to the Lux/Kurz faction until you hit 500k, which will let you display their trophies, then put the rest to Gordon Ecker. You'll likely need 25-30 books in all, but this will nab you the Kurz/Luxon trophy displays, as well as eternal survivor and a good chunk of platinum.

Originally posted by eyelolled

So how does the HoM (lore-wise) work with Sylvari characters?

You remember that one time you got really, REAAALLY smashed next to the pale tree getting your ultimate boozehound title...? Yeah... don't ask, and just feel bad because that one unfortunate Sylvari ended up gaining memories of that rather awkward experience...

And yes, the Pale Tree was upset you never called back.

Originally posted by Requiamer

Honestly i didn't wanted to read the rest of your post Op after the first few sentences, i guess everything can be taken badely. But when you have a decade of a half of mmos that were throwed out the window because they needed to be launched before being finish for financial reasons obviously. And you have some companies says "fuck the investor directives, we'll do it our way because thats our job", then its bad? *roll eyes*

Well, trying to make sense of your post caused a rather painful aneurism to develop in my skull, but...

[Mod Edit]

edit because the mod edit frakked up the entire point of my post:

The article was for the idea of "when it's done", so next time actually read through the article instead of basing it all on the first paragraph, especially when the point of the article is made clear in the very beginning of the second paragraph.

Originally posted by Morcotulcon

Originally posted by Vorthanion

It wouldn't hurt if game companies would stop doing press releases about their games four years in advance.  They shouldn't let anyone know it's even in the woks till year two of the development cycle at the earliest.

 

Well, I think Arena.net and NCsoft decided to go with the choise of doing press release for GW2 in advance because they knew that having the opinions of much more people (more than just game testers and hardcore players) is much more important for develloping a game.

 

Actually, ArenaNet announced GW2 and its existence back around 2007-2008 because the original plan of the game would be for something called "Guild Wars Utopia". Instead, because they felt like an expansion was just too limiting for them, they announced both Guild Wars: Eye of the North, and Guild Wars 2. Utopia and its ideas were split off and into either game, and a major part of Eye of the North was the fact it would give a way for people to transfer their accomplishments into the true Sequel of the game.

Hence why they felt Guild Wars 2 should be announced as well, since people would of figured it out rather easily anyways. This is all from memory though of course, so I might have something wrong or missing.

Originally posted by moosecatlol

The next book comes out in April, the previous Guild Wars was released in april, my money is either April or May.

 

To those saying "Oh man, oh man, I wish I was in the beta right now, I want to play it so badly" well obviously you don't want to play it that badly, because if you really had possessed the drive you claim to have, then you would have done everything you could have done to get into the beta, and you would have been successful. Again, it's not impossible, is all you need to do is get invited.

Considering the invites for Beta currently are not exactly open, it's hard to do "anything". There is no sign-ups, and all that has been confirmed is that the game has entered Closed Beta (or at least Closed Beta ready). The only way to get in now is if ArenaNet decides to let you in.

I want to play the hell out of GW2, I really do. But short of breaking into their main office with an Asuran bomb strapped to my chest demanding I get a key, I just have to wait.

Originally posted by Ecoces

Merry Christmas Coyote ... heres a new fitness game because we all know how much you like games at this game will actually help you get in shape!

 

great article as usual.

I think you forgot to tell him about the Build-It-Yourself fitness board that comes with it, as well as a gift card for a store that sells exclusively cassette tapes!

And agreed, loved reading it through and its delightfully sarcastic tones.

Just saying but...

8/10 sounds far too kind, specially with a "F2P" game that charges you for content, specially for more than half of the game's content. It sounds more like a desperate attempt to "normalize" the cashflow from a F2P title than it does a favor to the players. Hence why you NEVER see a true F2P game doing it.

At least, the dozens upon dozens of F2P titles that I've gone through never did such a thing. And before anyone brings it up, no. Dungeons and Dragons Online, Lord of the Rings Online, and other Abrupt F2P titles don't count.

Originally posted by Corrupted

The most absurd service I have ever heard of. You're pretty much  renting a friend for x amount of time. Just play with your friends, join a squad, make friends online, something else!

Then you obviously have never heard of the "rental services" that offer you the chance to play games with "hot girls". THAT, my good sir, is absurd.

This on the other hand? Meh. It sounds like both a "paid helper" and "tutor" situation. I don't necessarily agree with it, but then again at least the person is getting something out of it, and the "bodyguard" is trying to help and teach them to get better at the game. He isn't getting boosted in levels/kits, he isn't gaining some absurd advantage over the team, and its his own dang money to use.

Originally posted by Shroom_Mage

I was expecting it to be able to use swords, but pistols, swords, and greatswords? :O

Still wondering if torch is an option. If not, it'll be a pretty unused weapon.

Might be, who knows.

All I care about is the last minute. A mage-type class WITH A FREAKING GREAT SWORD. That's all you had to show to get me interested. Then I see him doing some crazy tricks with it that freaked my mind, so now I must try it out...

As it has been stated, the final class is returning and with a focus to apply best to the Mesmer fans. Mesmerism still exists within the GW2-era mythos (shown a few times through the books).

Besides, the Ritualist and its spirit summoning has been reworked, and partially taken into the Guardian, who summons spirit-based weaponry to aid him in combat and the like.

As for Geomancer? I heavily doubt it. All the "elemental" forms would have to be able to perform some of the same basic roles, instead of specializing completely like that. Also... last time I played a "Geomancer" class was in Final Fantasy Tactics, and my god was that ever a horrible choice... It could be fun, it could work, but its definitely not going in at launch.