Fansite Friday/France

Fansite:  France Guild Wars

Date:  17 December 2004

Number:  26

url:  http://www.france-guildwars.com/FF26.html

Q&A
Question: During the beta weekend events, the Ranger had no primary attribute. In the beginning it was planned to provide Stealth for this class. Do you think you will keep this attribute or change it? What use will this primary attribute have?

Answer: You are correct. The primary attribute for the Ranger has changed and is now Expertise. Expertise affects all sorts of things. First, it dramatically reduces the Energy cost of attack skills, traps and preparations. Secondly, Expertise also aids finesse-like spells, such as Dodge and Whirling Defense.

At the present time, if you look at the mouseovers for each skill, you will note that they always show a related attribute. In the case of Poison Arrow, for instance, it currently reads as follows:


 * Apply Poison: Energy 15
 * PREPARATION
 * For 12 seconds enemies stuck by your attacks become poisoned for “X” seconds. This action is easily interrupted.
 * Attribute: Wilderness Survival.

If you play a Ranger, it’s clear that pumping points into the Wilderness Survival attribute will give you a greatly improved attack by extending the duration of the poison affect. But in truth, the Ranger will also benefit from the lowered cost of skill use through the placement of points in the primary attribute: Expertise.

Each primary attribute will affect a large number of skills. For example, Strength, which is the Warrior’s primary attribute, adds armor penetration to all melee attacks, while Divine Favor, the Monk’s primary attribute, increases the effectiveness of any healing skill.

Question: Is it planned to create PVE missions or explorable areas in interiors? Such as caves, caverns, crypts... Even if Guild Wars' skies are really beautiful.

Answer: We do have a few interior areas at present. You can explore and engage in combat in the ice caves that are part of the Shiverpeak Mountains area. I recently traveled that area with my Ranger/Monk and it was quite exciting. As I recall, my party suffered a number of deaths at the hands (claws?) of the beasts who lived within the subterranean depths. :-) Anyway, the caves have the look and feel that you’re asking about, that of a dungeon or other explorable interior area, and while it is true that the mission map as a whole is not entirely inside, this significant map feature do provide that indoors experience.

The last time I asked about areas and levels, I understood that we probably will not have entire missions in an interior setting for Chapter I of Guild Wars. But we will have areas, such as the ice caves, that present an interior setting as part of a mission. It may well be that we will see extensive interior settings in a subsequent chapter of Guild Wars.

Question: Do you think you could add equipments that would be reserved to the different class combinations, with more balanced characteristics? For example, an armor for W/Mo which would provide less defense but a little energy bonus?

Answer: The armor for various professions is getting more and more stylized in both appearance and function. For instance, the armor at one point simply added defense. Now, it adds pluses to specific elemental damage, or pluses to hex defense, or a variety of different defenses in addition to the straight “this will protect you by ‘X’ amount” sorts of armor defense.

In your example of a Warrior/Monk, I think I understand what you are asking, which is “If I am willing to give up some defense on my armor, may I attain an increase in Energy, either through a straight ‘+ to Energy’ or through, perhaps, a faster regeneration rate?” The answer to that is “yes.” In fact, there already is such an option in the game. Take the Ranger’s Druid Set. When you read the description – and I sure hope I read it properly since I just bought part of the set ;) – you get a defense of 75 and a +1 to Energy Regeneration when you wear the armor. This means that if my Ranger usually regenerates Energy at a rate of 3 “pips,” (arrows on the Energy bar, or the symbol showing the rate of regeneration) with this armor she will regenerate at a rate of 4 pips. The downside to this armor, the price that I will pay in using it, is that there is a -10 to defense against fire attacks. You will want to review the pluses and minuses to an armor set and of course weigh which type of armor is best for your particular character.