Curse

Sekkira · Aug 24, 2005, 02:09 PM // 14:09

Also, the UW is a bad place to generate gold.

saphir · Aug 24, 2005, 03:10 PM // 15:10

i play gw for it's challenges and will continue to play gw regardless of what happens. i developed my monk tank w/ some friends after we finished every single uw quests w/ a monk who aggro tanked for us 5 elems and 2 monks. i was about halfway thru the game w/ my healing mo/w which i had created because i've always wanted a tiny monk wielding a huge fellblade. i ascended quickly so we could experiment and test our builds with these prot monk skills i had never used before. i prefer my build to the popular 55/mending one - mending is for babies =)

i solo w/ my mo/w because it's fun and challenging, and because for a change i might actually see some gold items drop that i hear so many talk about. challenge is same reason that i offer to run players to different towns and mission in the crystal desert w/ my e/r char. i not only get to play w/ ranger survival skills, but i'm always up for a challenge running thru mobs of the mesmer squids near seekers passage.

with over 3mil xp on my elem, i've been to UW & FOW countless times and have cleared all UW quests down there once. In that crazy 4 1/2 hour run in which we finished UW hoping for some magical doors to open or some special reward I got 2 gold items and maybe 3 ecto. Honestly, even though the challenge of UW paled after that, I still went down there to help out parties because i just love nuking and managing my energy to keep those nukes constantly raining down.

However, with my monk, UW is exciting again and the drops are better because they're all for me. Clearing all the smites in under 10 min w/ an xp scroll, finishing wrathful spirits, clearing 2 monuments, wiping out all the coldfires and taking on a mob of 15 graspers with 6 bulls singlehandedly still has its challenges. admittedly i've never tried the 55/mending combo, perhaps all the challenge vanishes with that?
Also never having farmed before this, I know now what it's like to actually have more than 1 gold item drop and have it be for me.

I also solo the first FOW quest and kill random mobs after that. On days I don't feel like running around in UW, I see how quickly I can tank a pick up group to the FOW crafter, currently around 70 min.

As long as GW provides challenges and the possibility of a cool drop (like a gold smiting monk rod), I'll still be around nuking, healing, smiting, tanking, stealing blood and energy.

Jessy · Aug 24, 2005, 03:18 PM // 15:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hookecho

... You want to know why I made a solo monk for the UW?....not for untold riches...not for Ecto....I made it for skill points ...

Hehe ... me too (I am currently paying almost 4K per skill I purchase, call me a skill collector).

Regarding the original question, it really depends on whether the game will continue to offer me something that allows me to continue my ambitions. I really don't care if I get tons of gold quick, after all, gold comes to you regardless, you can't avoid it, only spend quicker than it comes in.

Having said that, if all areas get bombed in such a way that gaining XP and consequently skill points becomes too much of a hassle, I would certainly consider moving on.

Algren Cole · Aug 24, 2005, 03:20 PM // 15:20

can we stop calling this build a "hack" or an "exploit"..neither of which are accurate. The skills was designed a certain way and the math for the algorithm was done so that at lvl17 you cast a protective bond that takes 1 energy away from you...it's not an exploit, the skill is working properly....it doesn't need to be "fixed" it needs to be reworked and the algorithm needs to be changed.

at the same time can we stop calling the Henchamn "AI"...that terms also incredibly false.

saphir · Aug 24, 2005, 03:26 PM // 15:26

To me, the reason why everyone and their grandmother is all riled up over the 55/105 monks is because of one thing - ecto.

As sekkira said, UW is not the best place to solo for gold. Before items (99% of which is just junk for salvage), in one smite run (~20 min), gold averages to 2.5K after the 1K payment to get in.

FOW is easy to solo as well but no one ever complains about how the shadow crawlers should rend enchanments and how there should be a mob of mesmers+necros right when you zone in. Maybe if shards ever hit 10k per piece, they will.

just think of what would happen if ecto were removed from uw. i'm sure most solo monks aren't in uw for the drops. i get more gold drops from running around the crystal desert - unless you're looking for monk rods and staffs. the only gold and purple monk rods i've ever found have been from the smites.

as long as there is something in UW that can be sold for a tidy sum of gold, there will be uw farmers, whether they be mo/w, mo/e, e/mo or some other ?/mo using prot spirit or a whole other class combo i've yet to hear of.

uw can be solo'd w/ a lvl 16 prot bond, or a prot spirit, or whatever combo of skils out there that still lies undiscovered. as has been proven over and over in the case of solo farming or the hunt for gold, as long as there is a will there is a way.

Elistan Theocrat · Aug 24, 2005, 03:28 PM // 15:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Algren Cole

can we stop calling this build a "hack" or an "exploit"..neither of which are accurate. The skills was designed a certain way and the math for the algorithm was done so that at lvl17 you cast a protective bond that takes 1 energy away from you...it's not an exploit, the skill is working properly....it doesn't need to be "fixed" it needs to be reworked and the algorithm needs to be changed.

at the same time can we stop calling the Henchamn "AI"...that terms also incredibly false.

Hack is not an appropriate term for this build. It arguably has shades of "exploit" to it depeding on your defintion. I'm not going to go into detail as to why, as I've a thread that went huge on that matter, but I consider prot bond in need of a fix because of the unlimited damage reduction possibilities with it. I really dont want to argue this again, and I certainly do not mean to derail this thread. So understand I know the arguments for no fix to probond well, and I simply disagree in my opinion.

Along with the inaccuracy of the henchman "AI" we might as well ask Anet to change the character creation screen to read more accurately. You'd have the PVP-only choice, and the Unlock things for PVP-only choice. Its a misnomer to call it a "roleplaying" character. It shouldnt be, but it is.

Nikita Firestorm · Aug 24, 2005, 04:15 PM // 16:15

Nerf all "farming", add more and better cooperative content.

Rossaroni · Aug 24, 2005, 04:28 PM // 16:28

Jeezus. There is nothing in the EULA against farming. The frog objects not to honourable farmers. What is so freaking dishonorable about getting a monk, ascending him, getting shield of judgement and some other skills, buying 5 superior monk runes, and finding a -50 offhand focus? You guys should be thanking the 105'ers for driving the cost of ecto down so that more people can afford fissure armor--that is, people who can't farm UW solo.

There's more than one solo build in this game. I've seen rangers solo huge amounts of grawl outside of Port Sledge. My 55 monk can't do that. Do I want whirling defense nerfed because of that? Nope.

Again I ask, why does prot bond need fixing? Is it making your PvE gameplay worse because there are monks on your team that are great tanks? Come on. The 55 build is the most fragile build in the game. It's not an issue in PvP. It shouldn't be an issue in PvE, except for this reason alone:

All of you people who can't make the money on your own think you have a right to make that money, but you don't want to do the work, so you ask for ANet to nerf this build. I worked hard to get the money for those runes, I worked hard to get the rest of the stuff I have at this point. But you know what? I earned it, fair and square. Didn't cheat, didn't buy gold off eBay, didn't use exploits, just used the tools that ANet put into the game for us to use.

NOW SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT IS WRONG WITH WANTING TO MAKE MONEY.

Algren Cole · Aug 24, 2005, 04:31 PM // 16:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nikita Firestorm

Nerf all "farming", add more and better cooperative content.

nerf the whole game. when I log in I don't want to see things to do....I just want a black screen that says in "NERFED" in big white capital letters.

coleslawdressin · Aug 24, 2005, 04:35 PM // 16:35

nothing is wrong with it. be careful what you wish for you whiny bastards. be prepared to ebay some gold to pay for the 20k+ ecto if they would actually nerf it badly.

farmers will still have other spots to make gold and pay whatever going prices are. whiny whittle baybeez will still be here complaining about something. if they make 8 person groups worthwhile and a better party UI that shows all players' currently equipped skills, good players might actually embrace pug's

ElderAtronach · Aug 24, 2005, 04:37 PM // 16:37

#1 reason why I dislike the 105 build: it artificially drives up the cost of superior monk runes.

I mean seriously, would some of you even have bothered to buy superior monk runes at all if this build did not exist and was abusable on such a level? Or even made a monk at all? My "normal" monk would like to have one or two superiors he can choose to use if the need arises (i.e. if he has a specific role of healer or protector in a party), but the things are too damn expensive. The supply/demand curve for sup runes is shot to hell now.

Rossaroni · Aug 24, 2005, 04:38 PM // 16:38

I'm gonna make another post real fast, because something the frog said (hinting at changes in the combat system) reminded me of something. I don't mind if they nerf the 55/105 build, as long as the nerf isn't aimed at killing farming outright. I am almost positive that what's going to happen is some part of the 55 build will get changed so that it doesn't work as well, or doesn't work at all, and then everyone's gonna moan and whine etc. etc., meanwhile, there will be people out there finding new ways to farm with the new changes, and eventually someone will find a new way to farm. Inevitably, everyone will find out about this new efficient way to farm, everyone will rush to do it, and then the cycle will begin anew.

There's nothing wrong, though, with earning as much money as you can.

Sekkira · Aug 24, 2005, 04:41 PM // 16:41

Ecto: 9.5 Plat atm. For a few weeks it has been sitting at about 10 plat. -500g, gg, this has hardly effected the market, if at all.

Nikita Firestorm · Aug 24, 2005, 04:48 PM // 16:48

There's already enough games that are only about "earning as much as you can"...

It would be cool if the monsters would addept their strategy, which means they would currently get an enchant remover, and loosing some other important skill, and people could find some other way to beat them.

Yamat · Aug 24, 2005, 04:57 PM // 16:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sekkira

Also, the UW is a bad place to generate gold.

Oh yeah, so bad that in 1 hour last night I generated 5 plat and an ecto...

Yamat · Aug 24, 2005, 04:58 PM // 16:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sekkira

Ecto: 9.5 Plat atm. For a few weeks it has been sitting at about 10 plat. -500g, gg, this has hardly effected the market, if at all.

Remember when ecto was at 17k? That was just as the monk solo-ers were starting en masse... so it's gone from 17k to 9.5k in about a month. That's not bad going...

Algren Cole · Aug 24, 2005, 05:04 PM // 17:04

Quote: