Guild Wars delayed?

[Astromarine]

what the hell? I received this from Gamestop:

Dear Customer,

You have signed up to receive release date changes for:

Guild Wars

http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?pro ... 93&affid=1

Old Release Date - 2/1/2005
New Release Date - 3/22/2005

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[Sol Invictus]

No official mention. I think that the release date is still going to be on February, but I feel that for this game, the longer they postpone the game the better. They'll have more time to add content and balance the classes. Warrior/Monks really tear the shit out of things in PVP.

 

[suibhne]

At this point the game works relatively well, with the exception of one or two small but irritating problems (like player and enemy models occasionally hyperspacing 20 feet in a blink during combat, or ambient noise sometimes overpowering music and sound effects). They just need to concentrate on content, and lots of it.

Skills and items need continued balancing; fine. The cutscenes obviously need to be finished; no big deal. The game missions work pretty well, mostly, but I'm really hoping they'll add more secondary quests. The real lack of content is in the explorable areas, though. I wandered through a lot of wilderness in Guild Wars over the last few days, and it's one of the really cool features of the game, but there's basically nothing out there. Sure, there are a few enemies to fight (though some areas off the beaten track feel unifnished and strangely barren of monsters), and there are some absolutely spectacular landforms and discoveries to make - sprawling cliffside murals, massive crystalline formations in caldera-like bowls, etc. - but there's no content outside of that, and that's not enough. They desperately need NPCs, side quests, and maybe special items or crafting materials out there in the wilds, to provide more of a motivation to explore and discover the beautiful geography they've created.

And it is beautiful geography. I've logged a lot of miles backpacking through different ecosystems, particularly desert and semi-desert areas, and - despite the limitations in GW's terrain (where basically everything is rounded) - I've never seen a 3D game capture real landscapes nearly as well as this one.

 

[Mendoza]

That's probably my single biggest issue at the moment, the lack of any real point to the explorable areas. I think it's something they're working on and just haven't had time to sort out yet. This weekend there was a psuedo quest to a place called the 'temple of the ages' which was a good challenge. The world feels a lot more connected now compared to last month though, there are more places where you have to travel a short distance to the next mission, rather than just appearing there, which makes it more immersive.

Warrior monks can be tough to kill, but like everything they require the right strategy. If your team can't deal non physical damage they're very difficult to take down. If you have mesmers, necros and elementalists they're not tough at all. They're basically meat shields though, as they can't really deal damage and heal at the same time.

 

[Sol Invictus]

They also put the Healing Signet in Tactics and removed it from Strength, so Warriors intent on being meat shields have to spread out their points a little. Of course, they're still pretty nasty with the Healing Signet. I think that they should add longer cast time for Healing Signet, because as it is, it's too easy to use mid-combat and not suffer any repercussions for it.

The only time I managed to stop them from casting it was when I used Disrupting Arrow, but even then, it was pretty hard.

 

[suibhne]

They also put the Healing Signet in Tactics and removed it from Strength, so Warriors intent on being meat shields have to spread out their points a little. Of course, they're still pretty nasty with the Healing Signet. I think that they should add longer cast time for Healing Signet, because as it is, it's too easy to use mid-combat and not suffer any repercussions for it.

The only time I managed to stop them from casting it was when I used Disrupting Arrow, but even then, it was pretty hard.

Distracting Shot (iirc) is a great, great skill - works on Signets, Charms, Skills, you name it. Anti-caster Rangers can really shine. Mesmers, on the other hand, need that kind of love, as they currently have separate skills to target Skills and Signets. I don't know if they need to nerf Signets so much as make them easier to counter; right now my Mesmer has to use 2 or more skill slots to be able to deal with both Skills and Signets, and there should be at least some option that would work against both. (Perhaps there is and I simply haven't uncovered it yet.)

 

[Mendoza]

But then mesmer anti spellcaster skills are a lot more potent. Backfire at high levels is very powerful, as is shatter enchantment, both of which will do a lot of damage to a war/monk. Distracting shot is a great skill but it doesn't do much damage. Mesmer is the class I've spent the most time with, and they're anything but underpowered against anyone casting spells.

 

[Sol Invictus]

I'm mainly an anti-caster ranger so my secondary class is that of mesmer. Works out pretty well, especially Backfire. Granted, spells like Echo, Mind Echo and the like are pretty useless to me since I don't have any spells for which to use them on - but I guess they're there for Elementalists.

There's a lot of diversity in the game.

 

[Astromarine]

Erg. Doesn't putting the Signet in Tactics make it available to secondary Warriors? Thought that was the main reason it was in Strength...