GW2 I Have Not Forgotten Thee

But I have had a heck of a time a) finding time to play and b) deciding on a character class.

 

You may remember that I am playing STO incessantly – but that’s rather easy with my schedule.  Even on busy nights (there’s been a lot of those lately) I can log on at 9 or 10pm and crank out an hour of dailies and duty officer assignments on STO, or just que up for a scenario for some extra Fleet Marks.  But for me, GW2 has not been a game to just drop into for an hour.  When I want to play GW2 I want to settle in and enjoy the scenario, have enough time to travel and check off some of those points of interest and what I have come to call “Helping Hearts” (The gold ones…you know what I’m talking about).

 

And I also have a hard time deciding what to play.  Some nights I feel Necromancer-ish.  Some nights I’m loving my Thief.  My two initial (and highest level) characters, a Ranger and a Mesmer are really two of my least favorite at this point.  The Mesmer’s disturbingly low DPS and utter squishability has me very distressed, because I thought that was me all the way.  And I was running the Ranger solo (and still am) – but its not quite as satisfying as I thought it would be.  So right now I’m mostly playing catch up, trying to get another character where the first two were so that my brother and I can take up arms together again.

 

Chat clipped because wedding planning details are boring.

 

The Mesmer has been the real sore spot.  I just cannot figure out how to play one effectively in a group setting.  Solo I just roll out a ton of illusions and stand off with my great sword and damange mantra.  But in group play I’m lucky to get one illusion out before a target goes belly up, and controlling them is a pointless endeavor on such a short window.   Some of the weapon skills are just wonky too.  I saw a player with a scepter/sword combo the other day.  I have no idea why that would be effective – 2 of your 5 weapons skills are used for blocking at that point.  And your only utility dps can only be used twice before it needs recharging, and it hits for so little, it doesn’t seem worth it.

 

I tried to figure out a trait line to make it a little better, and I did.  So let me pause at this point and deeply, highly recommend this site to you.  It is the best, most useful skill/trait calculator out there, as far as I have seen.  Using it put me in the drivers seat to letting me make the Mesmer viable and helping me choose what class would be “best” for me.  So far its a toss up between the Thief, Necro, and Ranger.  The Ranger I think I will keep as my solo fun toon (the Wild Boar’s Forage skill…so much fun), so the other two are on tap to be my new group main at some point.   I have yet to really try the Warrior, Guardian, or Engineer.  The Engineer I’m not really keen on – looks cool, but I’m just not sure its for me.  The Guardian looks fun, but my brother is running one so if I do one it will be another solo toon – and I like the Ranger too much for that.  Warrior – well, that would be something different for me, I may have to try that at some point.   That leaves the Elementalist of course, but there’s just too many choices there.  I know that’s a good problem to have usually, but I cannot puzzle out a build that would give me everything I want out of the character, so I’m setting it aside for now.

 

All in all – it’s a little weird to have alt-itis after the last couple of games (TSW, STO) pretty much nipped that in the bud!

Khhaaannnn!

Oh hell no.

I’m trying to make that toughest of decisions about what character to play on Lucan D’Lere, in hopes of  having, you know, people to play with.  But not Ysharros, because, you know, she isn’t into that. (Just kidding!  Heh…no seriously, don’t hurt me! ::runs::)

So anyway, I decide to do a Shadowknight, and when getting myself familiar with the ability list again, I start to twitch.  They didn’t.  Tell me they didn’t make the same mistake again.  They did.  They took away the Shadowknight’s pet.

See, when EQOA came out, many of us were surprised at some of the changes to the classes, given that this was just supposed to be EQ on the PS2.  But the EQOA Shadowknight had no undead pet.  The outcry was strong.  That was a trademark of the class, something that made it unique and made it stand out from the other tanks, and especially stand out from the Paladin.  They both got something from outside their archetype right?  Pally’s eventually get a raise, SK’s eventually get a pet.  It was part of what defined them.

The outcry was strong enough that when they launched the first EQOA expansion six months later, they added a pet back in for the Shadowknight.  Sure it was a buffing pet, and you had to wait to epic to get it, but dangit, at least it was an option!  Here in EQ2, it was a “limited pet” but at least, again, it was something!  But we don’t learn from our mistakes! Oh no…that would be smart!

Listen up: the pet was the only reason I play a Shadowknight.  Because without that, there is no reason for me to do it instead of one of the other tanks.  Does the Shadowknight get a Rez or Heals? No.  Dual wield? No.  So what do they get?  What’s their cool bonus ability?  Why are we determined to make them less unique and more like every other tank out there?

So thanks SOE, thanks alot.  You’ve managed to piss me off royally.  And I was *this* close to resubbing.  *This* close.

::grumbles::