Still playing Guild Wars, despite the Tuesday N00b Club having effectively 'completed' it all. In celebration of all that, we actually went and set ourselves up as a proper guild - better late than never! This was quite easy, and simply required that I pay some NPC in Lion's Arch a whopping 10gp. I didn't even need to get nine random strangers to sign a bit of paper, and it seems guilds of one are quite allowed. The hardest bit was thinking up the obligatory witty and faintly abusive guild tag. We settled on 'The Tuesday Noob Club [Tue]' in the end, which is neither witty nor abusive, but seemed to fit.
Guild Cape is a bit more pricey, at 2pp a go, but well, you've got to really. The really expensive bit of it all, is the guild hall itself. Available via the Canthan Ambassador in the major towns, this is actually an entire extra map instance for your guild to loaf about on. The Ambassador lets you tour all the various types available before buying one, and we settled on the Isle of Solitude in the end. (Anyone can go on the tour, even if already in a guild, so do have a chat with the chap if you haven't already!)
A Nightfall based island, this is done out in a combination of Kournan and Vabbian styles, and consists of two opposing forts, with a bit of no-man's land in between - teleporters, flag stands, all that jazz. You may also recognise it from Round 2 of the Dajkah Inlet Challenge Mission. You need to give the Ambassador a Celestial Sigil to buy the thing, which you get for winning The Hall of Heroes big PvP ladder event thing. Luckily for us, there's a Sigil Trader on hand so carebears can pay up and get one that way. Cost 19pp, making the guildhall possibly one of the most expensive things you can buy in the game. Worth it though, considering it's an entire zone. It's a pleasant enough place to stand about chatting, and can even be stocked up with even more expensive NPC merchants, traders and the like. The real point of the place however, is PvP.
While on the island, a new button shows in the Party window; 'Guild Battle'. I'd been in a guild before, with a hall, but had never actually pressed the thing, for fear of instant and humiliating death at the hands of virtual strangers with mad skillz, but since it was just us this time, we dabbled. The button opens up options for various types of guild-vs-guild battles, ranked and unranked 'friendly' matches. More interesting for us, was the Scrimmage option, which basically just makes you host up a PvP bout, using whatever party you currently have. The Isle offers the usual four Henchmen; Mage, Fighter, Ranger, Healer, and of course, whatever Heroes you have on board too.
First we had at it with just ourselves - quick 1 v 1 matches. This was fun to a point, but the Island Scrimmaging is really aimed at teams. Each of the forts has a sizable contingent of NPCs on each team too, and while the mindless beating on each other was enjoyable enough, you can only really win the match by killing the enemy team Guild Lord, a feat which is nigh on impossible with a team of one. Like much else in Guild Wars, this is a job for 4-8 bodies, AI or otherwise, so the next session saw us doing 4v4 matches - one player and three Henchmen each. This went much better, and seems to be very much what the thing is about.
Another refinement was the use of 'PvP Characters'. Lots on what those are all about here, but in essence, they're born as Lv20, have all their points, get a special window in which they can build free equipment to spec, and have access to all skills and items that any normal, 'RP' characters on the account have ever seen. On the downside, they are only allowed in the PvP venues, and the guildhalls. All this means that you can roll up a new alt in a spare slot and hit the ground running, ready to compete at full power in PvP events - a very civilised way of doing things. And if it doesn't work out, you can delete the character and make another without having lost anything, as it was all given to them instantly and for free in the first place.
I went with a PvP Mesmer for the first few matches. My Nightfall Mesmer Main is already quite well set up, but having a PvP version of themselves allows me to quickly alter gear and equipment at 0 cost or risk of destroying expensive clothing. I really like the flexibility of this PvP Character system, and would almost call it Nifty!
My Nemesis went with a variety of characters over the next few matches, but things refused to go well. I started with the usual Me/A Illusionary Weapon build, but this lacked the raw dps needed to get anything done, and it quickly became apparent that the real problem wasn't so much outwitting my opponent, but outdamaging their Healer Henchman! My own Healer was powerful too, but my Nemesis had gone with a Mage, instead of my Ranger, and was doing more damage than me anyway. I think they were also being a lot more clever with target switching and spike damage and whatnot. Switching to a more conventional Domination damage build didn't help much either. Still, got to start somewhere!
Frustration set in a bit as my opponent changed from Ritualist to Elementalist to Ranger and I still got trampled, and although I suspect Mesmers are actually very good at PvP, I think they aren't up to leading the charge, and are more of a support type. Which is all very well if you're on a proper team of four players, but not as a solo player with three henchmen. Trouble was, I'd charge in and start on the enemy Healer, and then just get a Warrior in the face, which, as someone who fights in a ballgown, is a Bad Thing. So I'd either stand there getting beaten on and hope my own healer was up to the job, (which ended up with my healer getting spiked), or I'd run away to preserve my life. In a player team that would be fine - the others would cover me, but with three AIs in tow, this just causes the whole team to disengage and follow my cowardly retreat. This in turn typically resulted in the Healer getting picked off, and then the rest of us. Most dissatisfactory!
Seeing the basic nature of the problem, I promptly deleted my character! I've no doubt Mesmers have great PvP potential, but not in this specific type of combat, so I rolled up a Warrior instead, to test out my theories on AI behaviour. I feel dirty, but things greatly improved almost immediately. With a ridiculous amount of armour, and a fairly standard Swordmastery skillbar, I was soon charging right into the thick of it, and more crucially, staying there. This in turn allowed my AIs to stay put too, and actually get on with things in a much more effective manner.
While I still lost my fair share, the whole thing became a much more even thing, and eventually, we settled on me as Warrior and my Nemesis as Ritualist, and toward the end of the night, mostly thanks to Hundred Blades, I even seemed to be gaining the upper hand. The Double-hit on Adjacent targets works wonders against Rits, able to take out the spirits and the Ritualist, if they put them all on the same spot, as my Nemesis seemed to be doing. Probably effective against Minion Masters for the same reason.
Quite enjoyed the whole thing actually, with the instant readiness of the PvP Character disentangling it all from the traditional grind involved in getting anywhere near competitive in a more usual PvE-meets-PvP hybrid affair. In Guild Wars, it really has been designed in from the ground up. The private nature of Guild Hall sparring helps a lot too, allowing me to make all sorts of gaffes and newbie mistakes, with only minor mockery from my Nemesis.
Next job ahead is to bulk out my Warrior skills a bit by unlocking more Elite, and regular, skills using my more usual Nightfall Mesmer. I never did come up with a Comedy Mesmer/Warrior build... look out for that soon! With a bit more practice and patience, maybe we'll be ready for something a bit more public soon - Alliance Battles, GvG and the like.
There's all sorts of PvE stuffs left for us to fill in still, but it is interesting, seeing this whole other half of the game that I never really paid much attention to before...
(Incidentally, if you do play Guild Wars, can be online between 8pm and Midnight on Tuesdays (UK time), and feel you have the mediocrity that is the hallmark of the Tuesday N00b Club, do get in touch via the contact link on the sidebar. We do all sorts, sometimes finish with a positive morale bonus, and then I bitch about it here! Fame, Fortune, Glory! One out of three can't be bad! Service guarantees citizenship!)