Guild Wars - Monkey Breath Dreams of Treasure

[hammerfist]

Please use this thread to discuss the "Guild Wars - Monkey Breath Dreams of Treasure" article authored by hammerfist and located on the front page of the site.

[TwystTye]

Woot! We're going to the Underworld in fancy underwear! Gotsta make our FPS friends wonder WTH we do all day in GW.


I love this story - and am looking forward to more!

[Snagrom]

I too had a good laugh...Thanks Hammerfist .

Should we do a short thing on what's going on? Or do we just leave everyone else wondering what the heck we are talking about? lol

[wytefang]

Now you're on to something.

[TwystTye]

For the un-initiated, there are several specialized builds that, when wearing certain "flimsy" (low-level or low-health armor), work like a charm with skills and spells that reduce damage based on a percentage of your character's total health - therefore, percentage to total, an extremely low-health build, coupled with the high-power base damage reduction, turns what would ordinarily be a back-line character into a solid tank, with damage output on top of it.

So these builds get used for farming gold, weapons, materials, etc., all the goodies we enjoy (but don't really need ) in Guild Wars. Some ppl enjoy the farming so much they just do it for fun.

As for me, I still spend many an hour puzzling over where the term "farming" started being used instead of a more appropriate word such as "scavenging" or "hunting" or "gathering." ... But that's just a throwback to the fact that my mother was once an English teacher; I'm permanently warped.

The persons who create such builds have an in-depth understanding of the concepts beyond the surface of the skills and see the potential in the math, and work out how to use them in conjunction with various set-ups, and they test and post these builds around for others to try. And then we have our entertaining story writers like hammerfist who can weave the whole thing into something humorous.

[wytefang]

Thank you for the very in-depth explanation. I had no idea what this was all about. One of my concerns, however, with MMOs is that people get just way too into the minutia of how things work and attempt to min/max everything. For me that just takes away the fun of playing the game. It's too much like lifting up the hood of the car to see the engine. Sort of ruins the mystique in a way to have to figure every formula and algorithym out.

But to play devil's advocate to my own remarks above, it's kind of cool in a way, also, I suppose, that people are so into the game. I personally consider GW to be the only kind of 'good' MMO and I really don't consider it any kind of true MMO, which is probably why I like it.

Thanks for listening. I'm curious as to what you die-hard GW players' thoughts are about these comments.

Merry Christmas and best regards!

[TwystTye]

Originally Posted by wytefang

It's too much like lifting up the hood of the car to see the engine. Sort of ruins the mystique in a way to have to figure every formula and algorithym out.

Yeah, I'm more of a put-the-pedal-to-the-metal girl: the hows & whys don't make me happy - just the squeal of rubber and pull of the thrust. But the downside is that's a quick way to burn through two V-8 engines in one summer as a 17-year-old. But I digress.

I've watched DS mess with builds in MechWarrior for years. So many different combos, hearing him talk with his buddies about ErLLs and gauss rifles and jump jets and auto-cannons and armor, and oh lord, they'd talk about all that stuff for an hour getting ready to go into to an assault.

I don't get into the builds in GW so much, I just tinker, and neither does DS - probably burn-out from all the years of messing with builds in MW.

~~

And a Merry Christmas to you too.

~~

[Rajil]

So many different combos, hearing him talk with his buddies about ErLLs and gauss rifles and jump jets and auto-cannons and armor, and oh lord, they'd talk about all that stuff for an hour getting ready to go into to an assault.

I do hope they were using clan and not IS technology...

[Snagrom]

lol, I think for the most part, TOG GW players seem to have enough time spent on family and other real life matters that they don't (on the whole, there are always exceptions) get into the minutiae and maths of how to set builds up. We do, however, enjoy messing around with other people's builds.

I must admit that I tend to stick to certain skill sets. I guess the other side is that in Guild Wars you have great freedom in picking skill sets as by the time you are halfway through the game you can change your secondary profession. So instead of being an Elementalist/Monk you can become an Elementalist/Necromancer. So the list of skills to play with is constantly open for change and tinkering. Also, unlike WoW, you are not locked into a certain talent path. You can change the allocation of your "attribute" or talent points at any time whilst you are in an outpost and not adventuring.

The fact that it is relatively easy to level up a character to the maximum level 20 also encourages people to play several/many/different characters of different professions. So if you start getting bored of your warrior, you can go for an entirely different play style by switching to a mesmer or a ranger. The farming builds, being generally unsuitable for use in general grouping, just provide another alternative to the usual PvE, PvP, elements of the game. The farming techniques/areas/builds are constantly changing as Anet is *very* active in keeping farming of gold by professional farmers as limited as possible. So it's always a challenge and good fun is to be had by all.

To me the versatility and ease of levelling characters up without the massive time committment is the attraction of GW over WoW. But both are great games to play.

[Revan]

Great article! The role playing point of view is a nice touch.

Originally Posted by TwystTye

I've watched DS mess with builds in MechWarrior for years. So many different combos, hearing him talk with his buddies about ErLLs and gauss rifles and jump jets and auto-cannons and armor, and oh lord, they'd talk about all that stuff for an hour getting ready to go into to an assault.

Originally Posted by Rajil

I do hope they were using clan and not IS technology...

Ooooh! MechWarrior: the games I cut my "gaming teeth" on! I never compared GW to MechWarrior before, yet in both games, your build definitely determines how successful you are. Heat build up/climate, what the enemy mechs weapons/ranges are, what you need for the mission: speed or armor & firepower. And always taking Clan weapons, when possible! More damage, better range, etc. Hmm, getting a little carried away there. haha

Man, now I want to break out my joystick and go save Kentares IV again!