Fansite Friday/Rageblade

Fansite:  Rageblade (site no longer operating)

Date:  20 August 2004

Number:  11

Q&A
Question: At this point of development, which skills do you like the most and why?

Answer: Well, I’ve often chosen a Ranger as my character of choice, a character preference that goes back to my first game-playing experiences many years ago. And with the dual-professions of Guild Wars, I have that second choice to make, of course. I’ve rather surprised myself by falling in love with the abilities of a healer. In other games, I never chose such a role, feeling it would be too passive and a bit of a bore. But in Guild Wars, the combination in Guild Wars of a (profession)/Monk or, less often, a Monk/(profession) calls me so much that I have to remind myself to occasionally choose another profession for testing purposes.

I’m enjoying the same Guild Wars Ranger/Monk character I created two years ago and I confess she is a pretty non-complex character model. After this much time, she has a lot of skills at her disposal, but I seem to have latched onto some of the earlier skills and I’m having so much fun I can’t give them up! Let’s take a look at her skill belt for most missions, starting with her Ranger skills. First of all, I simply love the effectiveness and the visual effects of enhanced arrows. Why play a Ranger if you don’t get to play with fancy arrows, eh? :) I find that Apply Poison is a very pleasing skill to use, and the combination of Ignite Arrow and Dual Shot is quite effective, as well. (Keep in mind that things change daily, and the arrows that might be ultra-effective one day could be modified the next. The choices that I am mentioning now are those that I like to try to use, even if sometimes I make skill changes based on the current build.)

With arrow enhancements for the first through third skill slots, I have as her fourth for somewhat random choice: Sometimes it’s the famous Tongue Biter skill, effective against those rascals who try to cast upon me as I go about my business. At other times, I select Pin Down, which is greatly helpful against Sprinting Warriors, or I select Exploding Arrow because of its AoE range, giving me lots of fried skeletons in a single spell. Called Shot is nice, Distracting Shot can be most useful… I really love the variety of spells that the Ranger has going for her. I’ve not tried out what we used to call World Enchantments in some time, and I intend to experiment with them soon. It’s interesting and worthwhile to test them again because they no longer possess the limitation that I considered a drawback, which was the fact that the Ranger could only cast the spell one time in a mission. Now, they can be cast more than one time per mission, if I am willing to accept the “costs” to my character in a modest death penalty.

To round out my preferred Ranger skill list, I have to say that my absolute favourite of all is the Charm Lynx skill. I find it utterly … charming :) that Rangers have the ability to tame a wild creature and then have it as a pet. My Hearty Lynx, George XIV, is a great source of pride to me and he is part of what makes me love the Guild Wars Rangers so much. (I am secretly hoping for a raccoon pet someday. Don’t ask me why, it just sounds fun.)

I usually seem to divide the skills for my characters about 50/50 between her professions. In the case of my Ranger/Monk, I often do have four skills from each profession, but naturally there is no requirement to divide in this way, and you may choose eight of a single profession if you so desire. And sometimes, depending on the mission, I might use just three Ranger skills and give an extra skill slot over to an additional Monk skill. I might choose Mending, for instance, which is a spell that aids in keeping alive essential party members or NPC’s.

But let’s move to the other side of the belt, the side dedicated to Monk skills. On that side, I usually have four spells: The first is my personal health regenerator, which on this girl, because of her age is the Healing Signet, but which would be the Troll Unguent on a newer Ranger. Coupled with that is Heal Area. I’m not sure how many players are using that skill - I certainly see it being cast less often than it was earlier in testing. Some have changed to other types of healing, but I find Heal Area very useful for aiding friends and/or myself when on the brink of death. The third skill I choose is Infuse Health. This spell was actually recommended to me by a tester, and I initially declined to use it, thinking, “Take a 50% cut in health? What, are you crazy?!” But now, I love Infuse Health and find incredibly satisfying to use. It allows me to sacrifice 50% of my current health and give it as an instantaneous boost to my party member. I can’t tell you how many teammates I’ve pulled from the jaws of death with this skill and I love that feeling of “saving the whole team!” And lastly on the Monk side of her belt I have Resurrection. I am adamant about taking Resurrection on missions. The thought of a party member lying dead, and me saying “Oops…. I forgot to bring Res” is too sad to bear. (Heck, I take Resurrection on single-player romps when there is no one with me to resurrect! :) )

Question: Given that at level 20 a character reaches ascension ( the maximum level ), in which ways will the character be able to improve furthermore ?

Answer: First of all, there are some story-related elements related to ascension and to character development after ascension that I won’t go into because we really want you to discover them for yourself. But there certainly are several things that you can continue to strive for after ascension.

Guild Wars characters who have reached ascension will definitely be able to improve. One area of character growth will be in the attainment of a greater inventory of cool items. I happen to think that cool items are great, and I do enjoy going on missions and entering combat in our Hunting Grounds simply to see what I can find in the way of items. Even if they are not strictly more powerful, I enjoy adding items to my inventory that have art that particularly appeals to me or that round out a set or type. My quest for every possible bow in the game continues!

Another area for continued character growth is, of course, skills. With all the skill points and skill gems that I have acquired, I still really only have a relatively small number of Monk skills on my Ranger/Monk and Elementalist/Monk. I’m planning to grow the Monk list by acquiring many other Monk skills, so naturally this is another improvement that I can make to my characters. One group of skills that intrigues me about the Monk - and something that I need to explore - is the “Smiting Skills” set. I need to check those out.

As you reach ascension and as you continue acquiring skills, you will be able to invest in a broader range of strategies. If your Elementalist is basically a spellcaster who uses water magic at the present time, with the acquisition of more skills she could become a triple threat with Water, Fire and Air skills. A Mesmer can learn to practice all kinds of denial magic, a Necromancer may find ways to manipulate death magic in numerous different ways. Now you probably cannot play all variants of a profession at a single time, but you can certainly vary your gameplay according to the mission, according to the makeup of your team, according to your opponents, and even according to the way you feel like playing on any particular day.

Lastly, the continued draw of character development is improved tournament play. Backed by the items, the skills and the varied strategies that you acquire through character growth, players will be able to develop as better tournament players, and many feel that the ultimate attainment of an ascended character will be excellence in tournament play. Continued character exploration and improvement can lead to a crown as Guild Wars World Champion.

Question: Will there be special rewards or awards for completed missions? Can you give us some examples ?

Answer: Yes, there will be special rewards for completed missions and again, there is story-related depth to those missions. At present in the alpha test, the successful completion of a mission usually results in the character receiving a specific number of experience points. The experience points may, depending upon your current level, be enough to actually raise your character level, although that doesn’t happen with each mission completion. In addition, as a reward for the completion of a mission you might receive a skill point. Skill points, as you know, are necessary in order to acquire a new spell, skill or special ability.

Beyond missions, there are also NPC-related quests that result in the rewarding of items. Today, one quest earns you a rune which, placed in armor, raises your character’s maximum Health. Another NPC quest earns you gold, a third gives you a piece of armor, and another provides you with special crafting items.

So in Guild Wars at present, the list of rewards includes experience points, skill points, refund points, upgrade components, crafting items, runes, salvage materials, items, and gold. Upon release there will also be special event rewards; for instance, during a seasonal event there may be a new item to acquire or a new bonus to receive. And of course, this is just a starting list and the design team will be adding to the available rewards as development continues and we include more missions and quests in the game.

Danke, Rageblade, for the fine questions, and for your continued support of Guild Wars.