Gaming Guild Wars

[Boba Fett]

[color=green]I've created a ranger primary (Jedgar Nieta) and I'll be active ingame starting on Monday.[/color]

[Dodeca]

Woah... haven't played this in a lo-o-ong time.

I got to the ascension trials, but couldn't find a good team. Everyone kept dying. : P
Though it probably was more my fault.

I've played a little since then, but mostly just in PvP, as a Hammer/Air knock-em-down Warror or a... err... knock-em-down Monk.

[Saya]

[QUOTE=Dodeca]Woah... haven't played this in a lo-o-ong time.

I got to the ascension trials, but couldn't find a good team. Everyone kept dying. : P
Though it probably was more my fault.

I've played a little since then, but mostly just in PvP, as a Hammer/Air knock-em-down Warror or a... err... knock-em-down Monk.[/QUOTE]Well while many of our members aren't all that active, we're becoming more and more active each day. I've been bringing in some dedicated pvp and pve players into the Guild so hopefully they'll be something for everyone.

I'm sorry but I couldn't find any of the names of your Guild Wars characters on this thread. If you're interested in playing with the Guild let me know and we'll send an invite your way.

Guys remember, [b]tonight at 12 pm EST[/b] is our first look at Chapter 2: [b]FACTIONS[/b]. All right, just had to say that. *Drooling over the music at the moment* Remember to keep a close eye on the [URL=http://www.guildwars.com/news/gameupdates.html]GW Updates Page[/URL] for more info!

New to pvp? Check out the Temple of Balthazar for more information and if you wish to practice pvp before actually entering it they have the Isle of the Nameless where it teaches you basic pvp skills. All part of the new Factions update, I don't know how long it'll last for but try it while it's out.

Why buy Guild Wars? [URL=http://www.guildwars.com/gallery/movies/default.html]GW Official Movies[/URL]. Enough said.
[size=1][right][i]GW Signature...[/i][/right][/size][center][b]~~~~~[/b][/center]
[center][IMG]http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/5220/bangbang7hp.gif[/IMG][/center]
[center][SIZE=1][b]No res signet? No fun.[/b][/size][/center]
[center][b]~~~~~[/b][/center]

[Brasil]

Short and sweet post here.

Leofski, if it's at all possible, we'd prefer you to be on the American servers. It's fairly easy to switch if you haven't changed regions more than four times now. After you log-in, go to Account Options, then...Region, I think. It's somewhere on there. We're all on the American region.

Boba, I sent out a guild invite yesterday. Maybe it was today, who knows. I sure as hell don't. lol

When you get in-game, hollaback. =p

Regarding builds, the game is pretty versatile in what works and what doesn't. Pretty much just mix-and-match and find what suits your fancy. You mentioned R/Mo, which sounds like a pretty solid choice for now. Through some of the game, you might not be using lots of Monk skills, because until you start leveling-up, if you play a "pure" primary class, you often perform better, but not all the time. Any questions, we're always around.

So...yeah. Short and sweet post. lol

Oh, good to see a few more people interested in PvP. =D Awesome weekend coming up, by the way. Free preview for Chapter 2 content. Check it out!

[Ben Holiday]

The new assasin class is pretty cool I wish they would at least have given us the first one or two skills though so we can really get a feel for it. I hope they have a suit of armor as well without the blades sticking off the sides it seems a little much after looking at the henches in the new area I'm hoping that the female warriors armor is one of the ones that will be availiabe and that the male version is just as impressive.

[Saya]

[quote name='Ben Holiday']The new assassin class is pretty cool I wish they would at least have given us the first one or two skills though so we can really get a feel for it. I hope they have a suit of armor as well without the blades sticking off the sides it seems a little much after looking at the henchies in the new area I'm hoping that the female warriors armor is one of the ones that will be available and that the male version is just as impressive.[/quote]They do, follow the templates in character creation (although I think I mentioned it online so oh well, if anyone doesn't know that... just follow the templates). Not only that but there are 3 different armor sets in total for Assassin, as is the case for Ritualists.

I love both, although Assassin is just my "go in and fight" part of me speaking. A fun, kiting profession which has attacks that are similar to a Warriors and yet much more potent (dexterous movements seem to be key). Defense is key as well, so playing one correctly requires slightly more finesse than your standard warrior tank.

Ritualists are a real pearl, truly amazing for both healing purposes (mostly as a secondary, as a primary their healing is so off beat that it just comes across as too slow against a good team). The heal spirits they can use to heal an entire area are neat but too costly so with a high recharge it seems a bit silly.

However, with Ritualists there are a lot of great things to unlock from the knock down spirits to other such things that do a lot of damage (a lot of damage but of course on the slow side). Ritualists are truly amazing in my opinion and it opens up a lot of different opportunities for secondaries (Mo/Rt with the RT elite Tranquil Was Tenesen, and yes part of one of my builds).

So all in all very cool - I certainly hope more faces and such become available with the release of the final game. But I don't mind... one thing I sort of looked forward to is other races other than humans, but we'll see.

I've heard a number of complaints about people not wanting to shell out $50 for the expansion containing only two professions (the Assassins, who are your basic warrior characters with some neat bonuses, and your entirely original Ritualists). Again, we don't really know if there will be more - as it stands the Gaile article has contradictory information from newer interviews, so we can only see what happens with Chapter 2 in the future.

Very cool experience. I'm loving the new GW layout... the maps in pvp areas are interesting? they sure do make things more interesting. Also one cool plus as exhibited is now henchies actually attack called targets and can change targets as you call them.

Neat stuff.

[Boo]

[size=1]The assassin is overpowered. The boat to the pvp islands is funky... I don't like GW in Asian style, please stick with the European (Dark Ages) style. And the pvp looks like a disco...
The login stuff looks better though.. >_>

I'm not quite fond of the updates, as you may have noticed. -__-[/size]

[Saya]

[QUOTE=Boo][size=1]The assassin is overpowered. The boat to the pvp islands is funky... I don't like GW in Asian style, please stick with the European (Dark Ages) style. And the pvp looks like a disco...
The login stuff looks better though.. >_>

I'm not quite fond of the updates, as you may have noticed. -__-[/size][/QUOTE]Why do you feel the new Assassin class is overpowered? I mean relatively speaking with the current game changes that have been made and in light of Ritualist skills - the whole bloody lot of them.

Don't get me wrong, if played correctly I believe the two professions are extremely potent and perhaps, as you said "overpowered." But that applies to both of them... by themselves there are quite a number of counters against them.

Ritualists for instance have that annoying time delay. Ritualist healing is, to be quite frank, rather an annoyance. The heal area spells are probably the only cool thing there, everything else is a bit of a pain in bum. Ritualist healing [b]must[/b] (as far as I'm concerned) be from a Mo/Rt as a Rt/Mo is quite useless.

See I think the combinations themselves are quite dangerous. And yet still you find Assassins limiting in the same way Warriors are - composing Warrior builds has always been a challenge because only certain skills mix well with other professions, other than that they are almost too stand alone to work with. I think this aspect of Assassin-play should keep your mind at ease.

That is to say, a solid team with a guild build in pvp will almost always be able to knock out Assassins in the same way Warriors can be handled (and more so because Assassins are far more vulnerable... weaker, in essence, with more swift attacks and evasiveness over solidarity).

Now do I think the new professionals are "equal" to the core professions? No. Already I can think of a number of ways in which expert plays can combine Ritualist skills to form (quite literally) unstoppable healing characters, or unstoppable KD spikers.

When I say unstoppable I mean unstoppable. Do not forget the power of the no interrupt Tranquil Was Tanasen with the +25 armor bonus and 5 energy cost. But you needs to remember that to use this properly you need to work in into a strategy as a secondary. No Ritualist primary can carry Tranquil Was Tanasen (don't quote me on it but it would be of greater benefit to a standard Orison/Infuse healer as opposed to a primary Ritualist).

But there are a lot of builds that are similar (from the core builds)... but they've undergone changes since the games release. Likewise changes will occur undeniably to my most loved Ritualists when the game comes out. My important point is the [b]least[/b] of these powerful characters are Assassins. In fact I find Assassins to be pretty pathetic in the way of a solid character type that can be incorporated with other builds.

The only thing they seem to be good at is hard hitting kite blows (and everyone knows how useless that would be against a solid pvp team... useful in that it will be annoying, useless in every other capacity). So not sure that I share the same thoughts as you.

As for the look *shrugs* I like the clothing of the Ritualists, the look of SOME Assassins, and then that's about it. I don't care one way or the other for the "asian" look (if anything I like it, after all it is a Korean game). But I do hope they add more appearance options for characters in the future.

At first I was disappointed in Factions as I thought Assassins weren't really that great of an improvement to warrant the fee of an expansion, but seeing the Ritualist skills and their ability to blend in well with any build as a secondary, I've changed my mind about that.

Double post needed.

[color=#4B0082]No it wasn't. :p - [i]Desbreko[/i][/color]

I hope this spawns some sort of interest in fusing Ritualist with other professions. Unlike Assassin, Ritualists can be used in a number of different ways (not saying Assassin's cant but they're much more limited in what they do after all their true power is in their amazingly strong kiting attacks and skills).

As you can see you can use Ritualist skills for almost anything (so yes, please do read my "Alternatives" notes for more information on that aspect of the skills mentioned).

Enjoy the build.

Dedicated to Alex:
This is what I do when you're not around! Damn her computer. ;)

[quote=Me - St Mary's Tranquility Build][size=4]Tranquility: A Mo/Rt Heal Monk Build[/size]

The off beat healer for the new Ritualist profession.

REASON FOR BUILD:
Rt/Mo healing is the pits, seriously. Around two basic skills you can use to heal others. True you can have cool spirits heal the entire area for you but truth be told in an organized pvp game this can be a big problem as one can easily either kill the spirits or simply draw the team away from them (plus healing with the spirits doesn't even do that much healing).

NOTE:
Starting pvp chars will notice problems early on with setting Divine Favor, Restoration and Healing attributes correctly seeing as how it is a 3 way split instead of a standard two way (Divine Favor and Healing for instance). Do what you think is best for the skills selected.

EXAMPLE OF STAT SETUP:
14 Heal with sup rune, 9 Divine Favor with minor rune, and a max of 12 Restoration Magic. Why the 9 in the Divine Favor? Unfortunately the weapons for pvp, insofar as Heal monks are concerned, start with a req. of Divine Favor 9. This was regrettably unavoidable as I too would have liked to have made Healing Prayers higher. Suppose just have to go with earning XP if it matters to you.

Soothing Memories
5 m, 1 cast, 5 recharge
Target ally is healed for x Health. If you are holding an item you gain 3 energy.

Orison of Healing
5 m, 1 cast, 5, 2 recharge
Heal target ally for x points.

Dwayna's Kiss
5 m, 1 cast, 3 recharge
Heal ally for x points and for an additional x points for each Enchantment or Hex on that ally.

Healing Touch
5 m, 3/4 cast, 5 recharge
Heal target ally or self for x points, health gain from Divine Favor doubled.

Holy Veil
-1, 5 energy, 1 cast, 10 energy
Hexes take double time to cast on a target ally, but if you pull it off fast it removes one Hex.

Mend Body and Soul
5 energy, 3/4 cast, 3 recharge
Target ally healed for x, ally loses one Condition for each Spirit in your area.

Tranquil Was Tanasen (Elite)
Hold ashes for a total of x seconds (max 17). While you hold his ashes you have +x armor (max 22), and cannot be interrupted.

___________________
Alternatives
___________________

WEAPON CONFIG:
Try a PvP Holy Rod which halves skill recharge of healing 20, and an Ankh which is 20/20 recharge/time.

ALTERNATIVE WEAPON CONFIG:
Carry a +5 energy, +5 armor, Insightful PvP Holy Staff of Defense with a cast time 20/recharge 20. You won't need it so if you want to swap this for something which grants some sort of protection feel free but it doesn't matter. What you might want is a PvP Ritualist Focus, time 20/recharge 20. So carry that on the off-hand 2nd weapon slot.

TRANQUIL WAS TANASEN:
You may use this for other things other than a monk build. I'm mentioning this elite in particular not only because it plays an important role in this build but because the incorporation of it in other builds can be monumental for obvious reasons.

NOTE ON ASHES AND URNS:
Ashes are stored in urns, likewise you cannot attack a target with any sort of weapon while holding the urn (you may cast spells but that's it).

SPIRIT ALTERNATIVE/ADDITION:
Mend Body and Soul works wonders when spirits are present. Feel free to subtract a healing spell of your choice for a long lasting/low energy spirit. A good way to incorporate this approach without actually using the skills is have another party member bring spirits (yes, you can use them since they are in the area).

WORD OF HEALING ALTERNATIVES:
Sub out Tranquil Was Tanasen for Lively Was Naomei, and since you have an elite free go ahead and take Word of Healing. Take your res signet out and feel free to put in Contemplation of Purity or whatever else you want (note: blank skill box).

NOTE ABOUT WORD OF HEALING ALTERNATIVE:
More taxing and in honesty not needed. Feel free to use Lively Was Naomei if you want but incorporate it in another way. Some people are comfortable with Word of Healing elite, this choice is for you.

LIVELY WAS NAOMEI/INSTA-RES ORB:
15 energy, 6 cast time, 20 recharge, you hold her ashes for 60 seconds at max. When you drop them (and yes that means death), all party members are resurrected with 63% Health and zero Energy. Technically with a good team this means you will never die, unfortunately it is taxing as energy wise you res with zero energy. If you were the one to die and be res'd this could be dangerous as monks need their energy.[/quote]

[Guest Tigris Tusha]

[B]From Persocomblues since he wasn't able to get on: [/B]

To increase the healing potential of the build with the given skills that I've mentioned, I suggest lowering divine favor to 4 which would normally be 3, but with a minor rune it becomes 4. And raise Healing Prayers to a total of 16 with a superior rune. You should do this after creating your character with the desired weapons. You won't be getting the most out of your weapons, but that?s irrelevant. But it will allow your heal potential to dratically increase.

[Brasil]

I'm somewhat with Adam here. So far, I'm kind of underwhelmed by the Assassin class. I just can't figure it out in PvP. It's the rhythm or something. Maybe it's because it's a brand-new class philosophy, I don't know. I know for a fact I'll be needing the PvE portion in Chapter 2 to get used to Assassin, and while I can't do PvP worth a damn, I figured I'd browse through a roughly complete skill listing.

Keep in mind I have had no experience with Assassin yet, except for a tiny bit a few days ago. Here are some Assassin skills I like the sound of:

From [b][u]Critical Strikes[/u][/b]:

Unsuspecting Strike
10 energy, 10 recharge
Lead Attack. If this attack hits, you strike for +1...+25 damage. If your target was above 90% Health, you deal an additional 10...34 damage.

From [b][u]Dagger Mastery[/u][/b]:

Black Mantis Thrust
5 energy, 12 recharge
Lead Attack. If this attack hits, you strike for +5...+17 damage. If target foe is suffering from a Hex, that foe is crippled for 3...13 seconds

Fox Fangs
5 energy, 10 recharge
Off-hand attack. Must follow a lead attack. Fox Fangs cannot be "blocked" or "evaded" and strikes for +5...+17 damage if it hits.

Falling Spider
5 energy, 10 recharge
Off-hand attack. Must strike a knocked-down foe. If it hits, Falling Spider strikes for +5...+29 damage and target foe is Poisoned for 5...17 seconds.

Wild Strike
5 energy, 4 recharge
Off-hand attack. Must follow a lead attack. If it hits, this attack strikes for +5...+17 damage and target foe loses all stances.

Exhausting Failure
5 energy, 10 recharge
Dual Attack. Must follow an off-hand attack. Target foe's action is interrupted. If that action was casting a spell, target foe suffers from Exhaustion.

Blades of Steel
5 energy, 20 recharge
Dual Attack. Must follow an off-hand attack. If it hits, this attack strikes for +1...+6 damage for each recharging dagger attack.

Horns of the Ox
5 energy, 12 recharge
Dual Attack. Must follow an off-hand attack. If it hits, Horns of the Ox strikes for +5...+13 damage. If struck foe is not adjacent to any allies, that foe is knocked down.

From [b][u]Deadly Arts[/u][/b]:

Enduring Toxin
5 energy, 1 cast, 10 recharge
Hex spell. For 3 seconds, target foe suffers -1...-3 health regeneration. If that foe was moving when Enduring Toxin would end, Enduring Toxin is renewed for another 3 seconds.

Entangling Asp
10 energy, 1 cast, 20 recharge
Spell. Entangling Asp must follow a lead attack. Target foe is knocked down and becomes poisoned for 5...17 seconds.

Expunge Enchantments
10 energy, 3/4 cast, 30 recharge
Skill. All of your other non-attack skills are disabled for 10...6 seconds. For each skill disabled in this way, target touched foe loses one enchantment.

Impale
5 energy, 1 cast, 15 recharge
Hex spell. For 10...30 seconds, next time target foe is hit by a dual attack, that foe is struck for 10...58 earth damage.

Scorpion Wire
5 energy, 2 cast, 30 recharge
Hex Spell. For 8...18 seconds, the next time you and target foe are more than 100' apart, you teleport to that foe and that foe is knocked down. This spell has half the normal range.

Shameful Fear
10 energy, 2 cast, 20 recharge
Hex Spell. For 10 seconds, target foe moves 10% faster than normal. For each second, if that foe is moving, that foe takes 5...17 damage.

Siphon Speed
5 energy, 1 cast, 5 recharge
Hex spell. For 5...13 seconds, target foe moves 15% slower and you move 15% faster.

Siphon Strength
15 energy, 2 cast, 30 recharge
Elite hex spell. For 5...10 seconds, target foe deals -15 damage with attacks and all of your attacks against that foe have an additional 33% chance of being a critical hit.

From [b][u]Shadow Arts[/u][/b]:

Beguiling Haze
10 energy, 1/4 cast, 20 recharge
Elite spell. If target touched foe is casting a spell or suffers from Exhaustion, that foe is interrupted and becomes Dazed for 5...10 seconds.

Blinding Powder
5 energy, 1 cast, 20 recharge
Spell. Must follow an off-hand attack. Target foe becomes blinded for 3...13 seconds.

---

It's late, I'm tired, and I'm having trouble typing on this laptop, so I'll be brief.

I think the Assassin has some nice potential here. There's some wicked Caster-Hate in their (Exhausting Failure+Beguiling Haze, anyone?), and I could see some use for Enduring Toxin and Shameful Fear for Melee-Hate.

I'll have some time to kill on Sunday night, so I may try to squeeze in some testing.

[BanditJing]

I was wondering what u guys think is the most overpowered class and i got to say it is probly the mesmer^^. also anyone cheak out assassin and Shaman really cool new classes <3Assassins fill my dream of being a ninja like Kakashi Lol

[Annie]

[size=1]Only if you know how to play them ^_~[/size]

[Darth Vectis]

[COLOR=DarkGreen][SIZE=1]Hey, how do you become one of the new classes? I havent played in like a month and I am so lost in what is going on![/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Ben Holiday]

You have to make a PvP character to play with the new classes.

Can anyone tell me how effective a Nec/Mes or Mes/Nec would be using blood magic or curses and illusion as the main attributes?

[Boba Fett]

[color=green]I'm currently at level 12, and am stopped somewhere north of Borlis Pass.

I'm wondering about my choice of bows; as a ranger I'd like to be standing as far back as possible from combat, and the Half Moon bow I'm using doesn't have the range of a longbow. Any ideas on where to get a good longbow? I've got 9 in marksmanship, but I can raise that if the skill becomes an issue.

As far as pvp goes I'm waiting until I get crippling shot and the like before doing anything serious.

With Necromancer as my second profession, I do fairly well as far as healing if I can get into ranged combat and avoid melee fighters (pets as tanks do well there). I've put a lot into Blood and Curses, but avoided Death magic as it's easier to just use my ranger pet - currently level 10.

Ideas? Comments? Suggestions?[/color]

[Annie]

[size=1]I might have something you can have. The next time you see me in game, remind me ^_^

My Ranger is a Necromancer secondary as well; I, at the moment, focus whatever attributes I have left into Blood magic. For healing, I use Life Siphon and Well of Blood. It's all a matter of what makes you feel comfortable. [/size]

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]I'll keep an eye out for a max damage longbow for you. I have a max half moon that only req. 8 marksmanship, but that's it in the way of spare bows right now. If you're using many necro spells, though, you might considering a recurve or composite bow instead of a longbow, though. Longbows have longer range than spells do, but if you're having to run up to cast anyway, there's not much point to the longbow's range, and the arrow flight time on recurves/composites are a quarter second less. I'd check the [url=http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content/missile-weapon-properties-id1092.php][u]Missile Weapon Properties[/u][/url] guide on Guild Wars Guru to see what would suit your build best.

It sounds like you're spreading yourself kind of thin on attribute points, though. If you're going for marksmanship as your primary attribute, that's good for high attack damage output, but you'll still need some points in expertise or else bow attacks like Power Shot and such will drain your energy really fast. I might drop either curses or blood and put those points into your other attributes; a marksmanship, beast mastery, expertise and blood or curses build could work well. But spreading out across five attributes isn't really worth it.

Marksmanship will give you good damage output from long range, using your bow. Beast mastery will both increase damage output from your pet, as well as making it a better melee tank. Expertise will lower the energy costs for your ranger skills, letting you throw out more bow and pet attacks. And blood magic would be good for healing, with things like Life Siphon and Well of Blood. (I'd personally go with blood, since Well of Blood would also be helpful for keeping your pet healed.) Or, alternately, curses would be good for yet more damage output with things like Mark of Pain and Barbs, which would be even better when used in combination with a pet, and also a bit of healing with things like Parasitic Bond.

Oh, and out of curiosity, what kind of pet do you have?[/color]

[Brasil]

Dave, well, you said you have a 9 in Marksmanship? That's standard minimum requirements for most bows, but I'd advise pumping more into it, because I'm pretty sure higher Marksmanship grants more critical attacks and such. At level 12, with 9 in Marksman...how high are Blood and Curses? I'm thinking you've got both of them in the 6-8 range? And using a pet, too...so I'd imagine you're also doing a smattering of Beast Mastery.

If you're also using Expertise from Ranger, you're looking at five attribute lines used right now. Hmmm...seems pretty spread out. How many attribute points total do you have? I think at level 12, you'd have 60. Are you running at the following?

Expertise: 2
Marksman: 8 + 1 (rune)
Blood: 4
Curses: 4

Any Beast Mastery?

Just for a more or less extemporaneous build assessment...here's what I'd recommend.

[quote]The Edge - Guild Wars Utility
[url="http://www.sovereignlegion.com/downloads/theedge.htm"]http://www.sovereignlegion.com/downloads/theedge.htm[/url]

Class: Ranger / Necromancer

Attributes: (cost) '+' indicates Rune attributes
Expertise: 3+1 (6)
Marksmanship: 8+1 (37)
Wilderness Survival: 3+1 (6)
Curses: 4 (10)

Total attribute points used: 59/200

Skills: [Attribute] (Energy, Cast Time, Recharge TIme)
1) Power Shot [Marksmanship] (10,0,6) Bow Attack: If Power Shot hits, you strike for +16 damage.[Ascalon City (Sir Bertran); Quest: Ranger Test]

2) Penetrating Attack [Marksmanship] (10,0,3) Bow Attack: If Penetrating Attack hits, you strike for +12 damage and this attack has 20% armor penetration.[Yak's Bend (Captain Osric); Quest: Helping the People of Ascalon (Old Ascalon)]

3) Distracting Shot [Expertise] (5,1,10) Bow Attack: If Distracting Shot hits, it interrupts target foe's action but deals only 5 damage. If the interrupted action was a skill, that skill is disabled for an additional 20 seconds.[Yak's Bend (Captain Osric); Quest: Charr Reinforcements]

4) Read the Wind [Marksmanship] (5,2,12) Preparation: For 24 seconds, your arrows move twice as fast and deal 8 extra damage.[Ascalon City (Sir Bertran);]

5) Blood Renewal [Blood Magic] (5,1,10) Enchantment: Sacrifice 25% max health. For 10 seconds, you gain +3 health regeneration. When Blood Renewal ends, you gain 40 health.[Ascalon City (Sir Bertran);]

6) Troll Unguent [Wilderness Survival] (5,3,10) Skill: For 10 seconds, you gain health regeneration +5.[Ascalon City (Sir Bertran); Quest: Ranger Test, Endangered Species]

7) Weaken Armor [Curses] (10,3,30) Hex: For 18 seconds, target foe has an armor penalty of -20 against physical damage.[Yak's Bend (Captain Osric); Quest: Supplies for the Duke (Old Ascalon)]

8) Faintheartedness [Curses] (10,1,8) Hex: For the next 13 seconds, target foe attacks 50% slower, and that foe suffers health degeneration of 2.[Ascalon City (Sir Bertran);][/quote] It's an ugly build, definitely, and I apologize for that, but it's been a while since I've done lower level builds. I cut Beast Mastery, and I also cut most of Blood magic. Until you get Well of Blood, Blood magic isn't going to help too much I think.

But for healing...I think Blood Renewal is your best bet. Nice regen, plus it'll heal you for a bit after it ends.

Now, in certain parts of Northern Shiverpeaks, there's going to be Enchant Shatters, and that will put a dent in Blood Renewal. I think around there Shatter Enchantment (from Mesmer's Domination magic) does something like 30 or 40 damage, but don't quote me on that. Regardless, if I'm not mistaken, if Blood Renewal gets shattered, the "when it ends" condition still triggers, so you'll get 40 health back. So that may cover you well enough.

At this point in the game, using Marksmanship to its fullest extent will work very well, particularly with the two skills I selected from Curses. Weaken Armor will particularly be nice. The -20 armor vs physical attacks, combined with your Read the Wind preparation, combined with Penetrating Attack, should be boosting your DPS considerably.

Plus, Faintheartedness is a great skill for any errant melee fighters that wander in. Slower attack rate, plus some health degen. It'll cut down on Warrior attacks, for sure, because most War attacks are based on Adrenaline. Adre is gained through successfully connecting physical attacks, and taking damage. With a 50% slower attack speed, their Adre gain will be cut down by 25% at least.

Oh! Almost forgot. If you're none too keen on Power Shot, consider Lightning Reflexes. Granted, the recharge absolutely sucks with such a short duration, and vice versa, but L.R. is a godsend when you absolutely need it. If you can spot a melee aggro early enough, make sure to slap a Weaken Armor on him, Faintheartedness, then when he gets close, activate L.R. That should work pretty well.

So....yeah. I'm not particularly fond of Blood and Beast Mastery that early on, mainly because there's very little you can actually do with them if you can't easily get Blood magic up to 8 or 9 and still have your primary attributes at solid levels.

---

Next,

[quote]The Edge - Guild Wars Utility
[url="http://www.sovereignlegion.com/downloads/theedge.htm"]http://www.sovereignlegion.com/downloads/theedge.htm[/url]

Class: Mesmer / Assassin

Attributes: (cost) '+' indicates Rune attributes
Fast Casting: 3+1 (6)
Illusion Magic: 12+4 (97)
Dagger Mastery: 12 (97)

Total attribute points used: 200/200

Skills: [Attribute] (Energy, Cast Time, Recharge Time)

1) Black Mantis Thrust [Dagger Mastery] (5, N/A, 12) Lead Attack. If this attack hits, you strike for +5...+17 damage. If target foe is suffering from a Hex, that foe is crippled for 3...13 seconds

2) Jungle Strike [Dagger Mastery] (5, N/A, 12) Off-hand Attack. Must follow a lead attack. If it hits, this attack strikes for +5...+17 damage. If it hits a foe that was crippled, it does +1...25 damage.

3) Horns of the Ox [Dagger Mastery] (5, N/A, 12) Dual Attack. Must follow an off-hand attack. If it hits, Horns of the Ox strikes for +5...+13 damage. If struck foe is not adjacent to any allies, that foe is knocked down.

4) Falling Spider [Dagger Mastery] (5, N/A, 10) Off-hand attack. Must strike a knocked-down foe. If it hits, Falling Spider strikes for +5...+29 damage and target foe is Poisoned for 5...17 seconds.

5) Conjure Phantasm [Illusion Magic] (10,1,5) Hex: For 15 seconds, target foe experiences health degeneration of 5.[Ascalon City (Sir Bertran); Quest: Mesmerizing the Enemy (Sardelac Sanitarium)]

6) Distortion [Illusion Magic] (5,0,5) Stance: For 5 seconds, you have a 75% chance to evade attacks. Whenever you evade an attack this way, you lose 0 energy or Distortion ends.[Yak's Bend (Captain Osric); Quest: Supplies for the Duke (Old Ascalon)]

7) Fragility [Illusion Magic] (15,1,5) Hex: For 21 seconds, target foe takes 21 damage each time that foe suffers or recovers from a new condition.[Lion's Arch (Firstwatch Sergio); Quest: The Stone Summit Champion (Yak's Bend)]

8) Illusionary Weaponry [Illusion Magic] (15,1,40) Enchantment: For 30 seconds, you deal no damage in melee, but whenever you attack in melee, target foe takes 43 chaos damage. This is an elite skill.[Boss: Seer Windlash (Talus Chute), Didn Hopestealer (Snake Dance), Dirko Mustalker (Iron Mines of Moladune)][/quote] At this point, this entire thing is purely hypothetical. There are several variables that pretty much make or break this build.

One, whether or not Illusionary Weaponry (IW) counts as ?misses.? The Assassin attack skills function in a chain. If one link is broken, you need to start over. Lead Attack into Off-Hand into Dual into Off-Hand, possibly. When any of those opening attacks miss, the chain won?t work.

Two, whether or not Assassin skills will function like certain Warrior skills presently. Currently, I?m pretty sure Swordsman skills like Sever Artery will still cause your target to bleed if you use them with IW. Using Me/W, for example. Activate IW, use Sever, and even though you wouldn?t think it?d work, Sever Artery?s conditional status effect still gets triggered. I haven?t heard of any changes, so I imagine this tactic still works. But only time will tell. The description for IW doesn?t mention ?missing? your target, per se, just that you deal no damage in melee?should be interesting what happens.

I had a third variable?but I forgot what it was. lol

EDIT: Oh, my idea for this Me/A build, if you couldn't tell, was doing 43 armor-ignoring damage with dual-wielding weapons that attack pretty much faster than any other melee weapon in the game I think. In the attacks that are actually dual attacks...I believe I'd hit with both weapons...which means 86 armor-ignoring damage.

I think that's the third variable, actually:

Three, the Dual Weapon strikes actually strike with both weapons.

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]You get Well of Blood from a quest out of Yak's Bend, so he should have it or be able to get it if he's at Borlis Pass. So personally, I'd go with something like this:[/color]

[quote]The Edge - Guild Wars Utility
[url]http://renobrothers.waynereno.com/[/url]

Class: Ranger / Necromancer

Attributes: (cost) '+' indicates Rune attributes
Expertise: 4+1 (10)
Beast Mastery: 3+1 (6)
Marksmanship: 7+2 (28)
Blood Magic: 5 (15)

Total attribute points used: 59/200

Skills: [Attribute] (Energy, Cast Time, Recharge TIme)
1) Power Shot [Marksmanship] (10,0,6) Bow Attack: If Power Shot hits, you strike for +16 damage.[Ascalon City (Sir Bertran); Quest: Ranger Test]

2) Distracting Shot [Expertise] (5,1,10) Bow Attack: If Distracting Shot hits, it interrupts target foe's action but deals only 6 damage. If the interrupted action was a skill, that skill is disabled for an additional 20 seconds.[Yak's Bend (Captain Osric); Quest: Charr Reinforcements]

3) Read the Wind [Marksmanship] (5,2,12) Preparation: For 24 seconds, your arrows move twice as fast and deal 8 extra damage.[Ascalon City (Sir Bertran);]

4) Predator's Pounce [Beast Mastery] (5,0,5) None: Your animal companion attempts a predator's pounce that deals +9 damage. If that attack hits your animal companion gains 17 health.[Grendich Courthouse (Taltosh);]

5) Blood Renewal [Blood Magic] (5,1,10) Enchantment: Sacrifice 25% max health. For 10 seconds, you gain +4 health regeneration. When Blood Renewal ends, you gain 90 health.[Ascalon City (Sir Bertran);]

6) Well of Blood [Blood Magic] (15,2,2) Spell: Exploit nearest corpse to create a well of blood at its location. For 12 seconds, allies in that area receive +3 health regeneration.[Lion's Arch (Firstwatch Sergio); Quest: Renegade Necromancer]

7) Comfort Animal [Beast Mastery] (10,1,1) Skill: You heal your animal companion for 42 health. If your companion is dead, it is resurrected with 23% health and all your skills are disabled for 8 seconds.[Ascalon City (Sir Bertran); Quest: Endangered Species]

8) Charm Animal [Beast Mastery] (10,10,0) Skill: Charm target animal. Once charmed, your animal companion will travel with you whenever you have Charm Animal equipped.[Ascalon City (Sir Bertran); Quest: Endangered Species][/quote][color=#4B0082]The stats are assuming you have a +1 marksmanship mask and runes for your ranger attributes, by the way. If you don't have those, I'd definitely work on getting them.

Oh, and in my experience, Penetrating Attack isn't really worth it that early in the game. Things just don't have enough armor to make the 20% penetration worth it over the extra damage of Power Shot. And, without higher expertise, you won't have the energy to justify having both in your line-up.

[b]Edit:[/b]
I got a max damage, req. 8 longbow on a run into the new Tombs area earlier today, so you can have that the next time I see you in game. No mods on it, so it's nothing too special, but it'll be way better than anything you'll get around the northern Shiverpeaks area.[/color]

[Gavin]

[SIZE=1]I know I've been talking about getting Guild Wars for quite some time, at least to those of you who I speak to fairly regularly on AIM. Well today I actually went out and bought the Special Edition from Virgin Megastore, and a few hours later while travelling home I realised I may have inadvertently wasted quite a bit of money by buying it. Rambling aside, seeing as NCSoft don't appear to have covered the question and I can't seem to find and email address for their support section, the official OB thread seemed the next logical place to get troubleshooting help.

Is it possible to install Guild Wars on one computer, and then after an extended period of time, say two to three months, delete it and install it on another and continue playing ? I ask because when I leave for Tasmania in two days I was going to bring Guild Wars with me and play it there, then when I get home in about eight weeks install it again on my home PC, which should by then hopefully have access to broadband and continue playing. However I had read that the activation key will only work once, on only one PC, if this is the case then I might as well return the game as I'd be as well off to buy it online for quite a bit cheaper in a few weeks. Any and all help would be great appreciated.[/SIZE]

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]The CD key that comes with the game only works to create one account, but your account isn't tied to a PC. So you can install the game on one PC, create an account, and then install it on another and log into the same account from both PCs just fine. (Me and my brother did this when he let me try out the game on his account, before I bought it myself.) All your account information is stored on the server, so the game really doesn't care where you're logging in from.

In fact, once you have an account, you don't even really need the game discs. You can download the client from guildwars.com, install it wherever, and it'll stream all the necessary files to you as you play. Of course, that takes a while even on broadband, but it can be done.[/color]

[Gavin]

[SIZE=1]Thanks for the help Des, it's really a bit weight off my mind as I honestly had no idea how the system worked. Here's hoping I'll be a fully-fledged member of the QKT by Saturday. On that note, does anyone have any built recommendations for a first character, or is it really just whatever you think suits yourself ?[/SIZE]

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]I always just tell people to pick a combination of professions that they think they'll enjoy. You can find skills that complement each other in any combination, or just playing a pure primary build works as well. And the way the attribute point system works in GW, you never have to worry about screwing up and being stuck with a crappy character.

When you've got an account set up, post your character name and I'll send you a guild invite. :)[/color]

[Saya]

[quote name='Gavin][SIZE=1']Thanks for the help Des, it's really a bit weight off my mind as I honestly had no idea how the system worked. Here's hoping I'll be a fully-fledged member of the QKT by Saturday. On that note, does anyone have any built recommendations for a first character, or is it really just whatever you think suits yourself ?[/SIZE][/quote]If PvE is in your intentional aim then I'd start off with a profession that interests you. Later in the game you can select a secondary profession - if you have a specific build set in mind you can aim for that (that is a character that aims to perform a certain task given certain skills).

(If PvP is your intention to boot with no intention on going into PvE, usually a preset build is selected and then through earning faction you can use Priests to unlock skills and form builds? though I?m guessing your intention at the moment is PvE, which is fine since you ? in PvE ? will be unlocking skills for use if you ever decide to PvP).

In all probably you'll select something that interests you rather than something that achieves a goal (as you might not be aware of the different types of builds out there), that's what I recommend doing at first. Jump in the game, do what seems like it would be fun.

As always I should note that there is one thing you should stay away from: smiting monks. If by chance you made one you could always switch to Protection or Healing simply by reallocating attribute points, but keep in mind that smiting monks in particular are almost useless as new anti-farming regulations make most of their skills inefficient (beside farming they were really never that fun to play anyway).

Be forewarned against players who tell you to aim for "anything" you want and then say smiting monks are fine (game restrictions, regulations, and updates change the effectiveness of a profession?s skill selection). It might be a great idea to play a smiter for instance but you'll find yourself smacking your head quite a bit when you don't do nearly as much damage as you could be because your enemies are running away from you, running out of any wards you lay down, or just not taking enough damage (smiting monks are the only type of monks whose primary goal is more or less tanking, whereas other types of monks play more of a support role). I mention smiting because it was my first choice when I bought Guild Wars as I had some experience with playing a High Priest in Ragnarok Online and loved the idea of monks doing damage.

The distinction between support role characters and primary damage dealers is a big one which you should consider in time. Mesmers, Necromancers, and Elementalists all function as support role characters though Elementalists in particular have certain skills which allow them to function "as tanks," though not nearly as efficient (that means when partying with others you'll most likely be in the back of your group while your warriors run up and do the "tanking").

It should be said though that the higher level support role characters typically have a good amount of spike capabilities which make them well suited for solo missions as well. While not essentially "tanking," as previously mentioned, these characters can do their fair share of damage... such skill sets include Necromancers using Spiteful Spirit or Feast of Corruption, and Mesmers using domination against caster foes.

In the beginning these things need only be a brief consideration, the main consideration should be what interests you the most (keeping in mind the difference between casters, support monks, and tanks). With that said I wish you much luck in exploring the world of Guild Wars and sincerely hope that you pick something you'll enjoy playing.

- Me

Post script: The distinction between support role characters and non-support role characters was essential to make as if you select a monk primary for instance and decide later support role isn't the way to go, you'll find little in the way of a good time as most of the primary attributes in the monk profession are geared toward support role (with the exception of the previously mentioned smiting).

[Gavin]

[SIZE=1]Thanks for the info Saya, though as I haven't access to either broadband or a new enough PC at my cousins', I'll have to try and find a gaming net cafe before I can join you all in the land of Tyria. I'll probably start out as a Ranger as I've been reading Lord of the Rings again lately and it's getting me in that kind of mood. Once Factions is released however I reckon I might try out a Prince of Persia styled Assassin. [/SIZE]