Ahead of the curve

It is true that since Christmas i have played very little Guild Wars, this is mostly the fault of Borderlands and Torchlight, that does not however mean that i have been any less obsessed, with some Guild Wars Related thoughts plaguing me night and day.

Recently we have seen the release of Champions online, one of the first games released that has single server architecture. meaning everyone can play together. – Guild Wars does this already, and always has.

We now hear that Star Trek Online has 50-60 player instanced areas, and a single server architecture. – Guild Wars does this already.

There are rumours flying around the web, unsubstantiated at this point but none the less a popular idea that the up coming Star wars The Old Republic MMO will be free to play after an initial box purchase and that it will have a Real money shot to unlock things. – Guess what game has done that for years already?

I can now say (as the NDA has been lifted) that i am playing Global Agenda, a game that is very different from other MMO’s (and barely an MMO if we are honest) is a PvP game with factions dominating areas of a map (GW, Alliance battles style) and a minor PvE segment that is little more than scenario's (but fun) – Guild Wars PvP is just like this (granted less sci-fi action based) and the original design model for GW was PvE scenario, it was only when the developers fell in love with the environments that it became a more full MMO

what i am trying to say is that Guild Wars has not only been ahead of the curve for the last four years but people actually used these now mainstream features of the game as a reason NOT to play it.

maybe ArenaNet should engineer a re-launching of the game, after all it has all the features of a brand new cutting edge super popular game.

Guild Wars is still playable, still populated and still fun, i hope you see my point here anyway.

Unlocks?

There is allot of talk in the Guild Wars In-Game shop about Unlocks. but what does this really mean? well let me explain this and how you can get your unlocks for free.

When you load Guild Wars for the first time you have only the most basic skills for each profession and through playing you ‘unlock’ more from skill trainers and quest rewards.

Every time you unlock as skill its available account wide, this confuses people because every new character has to get the skill from a skill trainer, but ‘unlocked’ does not mean its given freely to any PvE character, it means that its available for all your AI heroes and for all your PvP characters.

Buying those unlock packs from the store would not give you instant access to every skill on every character but it will make you a much better PvP player as well as give your Heroes more snap crackle and pop

But here is the good news, you don't have to pay to unlock skills. your skill unlocks are for the lazy player, because you can unlock the skills by playing PvP and winning Balthazar Faction points. you can take your faction points and talk to a priest, yes, a priest, he can be found in your guild hall or in the Great Temple of Balthazar (Battle Isles)

You can use your points to unlock skills, Elite skills, items and heroes. you may not have the time or desire to unlock every skill the way the shops unlocks do but you can probably get all the skills you need for your heroes builds with little effort.

Its especially useful for getting those elite skills for your heroes, after all capturing every elite skill you want may take you a while and at 1,000 Gold her signet of capture it can be expensive. saying that though at least the signet of capture will give your PvE character access to it.

PvP Thoughts, part 2, RA and the PvP dude.

For the second part of my PvP discussion I have chosen to talk about my second favourite PvP type in the game, this seamed to make sense to me.

The Random Arena is one of the first PvP arenas that most people try, this is partly because it is a part of the first game and partly because you don’t require a group for it.

Once you enter the random arena outpost (in the battle isles) you have a nice and clear button that allows you to enter a battle. you will then almost instantly be doped into a team (of 3 other people) where you will do anything from a kill count game mode to a flag stand game

Because there is no need to get into a team for this mode it has stayed very popular and you can usually enter a game within seconds, if your team wins then you stay in that group for another round, if you fail you are kicked back to the outpost.

As simple as this sounds there are some really basic tips that increase your survivability.

Take a fast healing skill. the faster you can raise your downed team mates the better chance you stand.

have a surprise build, don't go in there with ‘cookie cutter’ builds if people have a good idea of your build there is a good chance they will have a good way to ‘down’ you.

Talk to your new friends, these maybe random strangers but if you can work as a team then you WILL always win.

Not a deep talk through I know but there is not much to say really, its pretty straight forwards.

The PvP dude.

This is pretty straight forwards but there is some confusion about it. if you want to play PvP you do not need to level a character from scratch.

You can simply create a new character and select ‘PvP Only’ from the menu when offered the choice.

There you go, you have a level 20 PvP character, you can then enter the inventory and select the ‘equipment’ button and get access to anything unlocked on your account. Easy, I know, but that new character can not access any of the PvE content, its a real PvP only dude.

Its worth playing PvE with any class to unlock new skills unless you want to pay some money in the in-game store to unlock skills.

If you are new to the game there is no need to hold back. try that PvP, its awesome i promise.

Also, remember guys some kills have different effects in PvP mode, this is indicated by the PvP tag in the skill selection menu.