User:Foul Bane/rants/Toroxus

Amazingly long overview of the Ursan problem/blessing, I like this rant cause it can be rephrased into "Ursan is bad!" ;-)


 * Taken from Ursan Blessing Talk Page.

Ursan Overview
Dear Anet and Anyone,

Ursan: what a mistake. This skill needs a formal sit-down and talk about. I’ve played all campaigns. and ever since this skill came in GWEN, I must say it really needs a rethink. Locations + Farms

From running Shing Jea Island, to slaying Shiro, to Urgoz. From Kamadan to Gate of Anguish. From Ascalon City (PS) to Hell’s Precipice. Sure it’s a nice skill, but over powered to the max destroys the gameplay. I’m all about balance, and I play some skill bars that are very powerful and even though I love them, I think they should be nerfed. This is ridiculously overkill. Everywhere I go, I see “rX ursan LFG ” or “ursan glf rX+ and 2 HB monks.” For example. Fissure of Woe and The Underworld were elite areas. Although the Elementalist, Monk, Warrior, Necromancer, and even Ranger were the most popular options for groups, everything else fitted in. Yes, some people were ignorant and wouldn’t take a Mesmer, just because he was a Mesmer, not because of his skills or skill level. My friends and I have made every single profession shine in FoW, UW and DoA, but not many people want to play them there because they are more difficult to play in such areas. Any profession can be made to work anywhere. With the introduction of Ursan, that’s all that is there. It’s impossible to get a group of people without using Ursan that is any good, because the hardcore farmers see that Ursan clears Fissure of Woe in 1 hour and UW in a similar time, with almost no screw-ups, and everyone has the same skills so skill checking and using the wrong skills is impossible with Ursan. And the newbies don’t have to get skills or learn how to use them, just get your norn title from farming outside Olafstead and your set to do everything in the game using the same skills.

Then, there is Domain of Anguish. What a joke that place is now. 5 Ursans, 3 Monks, 3 hours = full run. Then you go to kill Mallyx in 20 minutes, and take the quest again, and there you go. Rinse and repeat. That place is nothing but “Glf Ursan or Monk” as well. If you want to do a mission, and decide to bring some humans along, like Gate of Madness or even Venta Cemetery, and you went with 8 humans. I’m sure that at least 3 of them will be Ursan. And if asked why, many respond, “it’s so easy.” If you go do the Cathedral of Flames run with a full team, the 600 and smiter aren’t ursan obviously. But if the 600 gets into trouble, you can bet your life that at least 4 other Ursans are going to run into battle. That’s how widespread this is, not even in a place where they would normally not fight like the Cathedral of Flames farming run, people bring Ursan. And you can snap your fingers and they’re in battle, wrecking everything with the same few skills. Then that was that fallout at Hell’s Precipice. Upon the update to add the new end-game area. I went to Hell’s Precipice about 5 minutes later, and about 10 minutes after the update, there were already 3 districts, and what did I see? Ursan this, Ursan that, HB monks, HM, 20 minutes. Half an hour later, there were 8 districts of them. Now I’m sure not every soul in there was Ursan, but the dominating group was them. Now what about everyone else? I was on my Ritualist, and I do have Rank 10 Norn and Ursan. But damn me if I use it. Used it a few times, but it hurt my soul too much to ruin the fun in the game. As a Ritualist, I damn knew that no one was open minded enough to bring a Ritualist, who has skills that they don’t know about, when they could bring a Ursan, skills that they know about, and plow through that mission. There were so many Ursans, that I felt isolated, and I knew that I would not look for a group of non-ursan humans, because I would never get one, and I would probably get laughed at. So I went with 3 of my friends and heroes. And just for the recond, one of them was Ursan as well.

I feel very bad for the people who do not have GWEN (For Ursan) or Nightfall (For Healer's Boon). Because they have a lot of problems getting groups of people they do not know, without using Ursan.

Economy + Simplicity

And talk about an economic disturbance. Obsidian shards and Ectoplasm have fallen through the floor as they are farmed so much in FoW and UW. Even the Gemstones in DoA have dropped in price. Feathers, used to make consumable sets to make ursan flawlessly overkill, have skyrocketed. As well as all the other materials needed for them. And a new market of selling Consumable sets to people has been made. Speaking of easy, I had my 9 year old cousin over a month ago. I showed him this Guild Wars, and he’s never played it. He wanted to play, so I picked out something easy for him. He would play my Ritualist as an Ursan, doing Hard Mode Fissure of Woe. Saying the words "Ritualist" in "Hard Mode" in "fissure of woe" was a joke to most people, let alone doing it in an hour. And that's what it is now: Hard Mode Fissure of Woe: a joke. Told him to follow the green dots, and push the buttons for the first 5 minutes. After that, he did fine by himself. No one else was complaining or telling him to keep up with the group of anything. No one died. And other then having to guide him through getting the quests, he did it all on his own. That's all you need, Ursan, and you’re as good as it gets, time playing doesn’t matter much now. He was just another mindless Ursan drone, clicking the same skills, with the same targets, and the same farming runs.

Professions

So if you are still reading this wall of text, I applaud you, and I hope you work at Anet and are taking this issue seriously. Let’s talk about the 10 professions. You can find out what professions are good at by looking at a summary of them in the manual. Everyone knows that, but now there are entirely new and much more important reasons to be certain professions because of Ursan. Let’s take a look:

Warrior: Highest Armor. Some skills/stances last into Ursan.

Ranger: Higher Armor.

Necromancer: Soul reaping gives you energy to keep Ursan blessing active.

Monk: Can be Ursan and can heal Ursans through Healer’s Boon (popular choice, get the build from anywhere.)

Elementalist: High energy to keep Ursan Blessing Active.

Mesmer: Some mantras, and energy gaining skills to get back into Ursan quickly.

Ritualist: Some skills give energy once out to get back into Ursan quickly.

Assassin: Higher Armor. Critical Strikes is nice.

Dervish: High armor.

Paragon. Probably the best choice. They have the highest armor, plus their Refrain skills last into Ursan via being refreshed by the Ursan shout.

Those are the major factors that make you choose a profession now. You be Ursan or a healing of Ursans, rocket through the games and farm like mad, and pick wisely from the above, or you don’t be Ursan, and you’re just a lowlife poor non-farmer. Welcome to Guild Wars: If you don’t have Ursan Blessing or Healer’s Boon, stay the heck out.

Fixes

As for a fix: It’s so overkill it’s hard to think of one. It sounds radical, but it’s way too powerful to exist in this game. I wouldn’t mind it being deleted. Yeah, you’re going to have a lot of backlash from all the hardcore farmers who are rich because of it, and don’t care about preserving the balance as much as they do money and items. The only option I can see, that could balance this skill is a complete remake. Something like this:

'''Elite Skill. You take on the aspect of the Bear. Your Energy returns to maximum and you have –3 Energy Degeneration. You have +0…10 armor and +10…100 maximum health. All enchantments, stances, and echoes upon you are removed and can not be applied. Your attributes are set to 0. Bear attacks replace your skills. This skill ends when your Energy Drops to 0. Recharge: 60 seconds. Cast time: 2 Seconds. Energy Cost: 15'''

There is just way too much armor and health gain. The energy degeneration is not enough. And the energy gain should be tossed. Any Ursan with half a brain still functioning used Zealous weapons to get more energy when they hit at no downside anyways, so they’ll still gain some energy when they hit. The enchantments, stances and echoes have to go. And the attributes as well. The recharge, cast time, and energy cost is comparable to the normal Elite Forms. But since I trashed the energy gain, Ursan recharges fast as a balance since it can’t be kept up as long as a Elite Form with little energy gain. I mean, it’s just a screwed up skill that should never of made it into this game, let alone last this long un-nerfed. It need radical changes, and it will upset the farmers. But it really has to be done. Kind of like how Ford pardoned Nixon. You just have to do it, you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t. Players are going to be bad at you no matter what you do, at least preserve the game play in the process.

Game Popularity and Diversity

I remember bringing the issue up with Gaile. Her response (not exactly) was along the lines of, "Some people say it's great, some people say it's bad." Of course, everyone who loves to basically not play the game (not use any skills other than Ursan or skills to help ursan) and not do anything but farm for money don't care about balance. All they care about is their money, and I'm sure they are praying for a buff on Ursan to make it so it's easier. On the other hand, there are the people who wish to preserve the balance, like myself, who value more about the gameplay than the money. Along with me, are all the people who don't have GWEN or Nightfall, and can't get in those groups. Sure, you want them to buy the game, because that gives you money, but how do they feel? They feel scammed that they bought Prophecies or Factions, and can't play it with other humans because it's Ursan this, Healer's Boon that. How would you feel if you bought a game and everyone wanted you to do one thing and that thing only, and you could only play that part of the game? And go figure, that made the game boring, and so simple that Solitaire is more diverse.

Conclusion (congradulations, you made it through reading all this!)

I want to walk into Temple of Ages, and see a group, looking for anything, ANYTHING other than Ursan. I want to go to Dzagonur Bastion, and see a group, looking for something, something not Ursan. And you can eat your shorts if you think that Volfen and Raven blessing won’t get overplayed if Ursan gets nerfed. And I don’t know the intensity of those skills, because they are not on half of the skill bars in Guild Wars like Ursan is, but I’m sure they will become very popular with a nerf to Ursan. So they need a tone down as well, not as severe, because they are not as overkill as Ursan.

If I could, trust me I would, I would sit down with the people of Anet, and show them, and explain to them, just what this skill is doing to the game. Every day Ursan becomes more and more of a REQUIREMENT to play this game. You either have Ursan Blessing to be Ursan, or you have Healer’s Boon to heal Ursans, other than that, good luck finding a group to do things, let alone elite areas.

Thanks for your time for reading that. I pray it inspires people to take action. I really welcome Anet to talk about this and solutions, and if Anet doesn't believe a solution is needed, I would like to intelligently discuss why or why not. Please, if you have any questions, say them here in a respectful manner. --Toroxus 15:42, 26 May 2008 (UTC)