Curse

LifeInfusion · Jan 19, 2011, 03:35 PM // 15:35

Re: Spark of the Titans .... Mesmers and Rangers and YMLAD (You move like a dwarf). "Stand your ground!" if you have a Paragon on your team. "Save Yourselves!" if the paragon is a human.

Kunder · Jan 19, 2011, 03:43 PM // 15:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by LifeInfusion

Re: Spark of the Titans .... Mesmers and Rangers and YMLAD (You move like a dwarf). "Stand your ground!" if you have a Paragon on your team. "Save Yourselves!" if the paragon is a human.

All excellent recommendations for a person playing with pure henchmen on a warrior character

aelesia · Jan 19, 2011, 07:34 PM // 19:34

Prophecies is painfully slow, boring and dry. I honestly have no idea what ArenaNet was thinking when they designed those maze-...I mean levels. Honestly, it seems like every single mission was all about making you run around in huge circles as much as possible before reaching your destination. There were several missions where you basically stand your ground and defend it. I pretty much AFKed for about 20 minutes for those missions.

Incredibly boring, pretty much all the areas look incredibly blend (sorched lands, deserts, snowy mountains), silly missions that make you run round in circles, stupid quests that fail because NPCs keep dying or getting stuck. Yup, I had to drag myself to finish the Prophecies campaign, and I was so glad that it was finally over.

Seeing how I was bored to tears even with my epic PvE skills and OP minion masters and spirit spammers, yea, I'm not surprised that I quit it before I was even halfway through the game. It's no surprise either why all my friends quit it too and ended up playing WoW.

For the record, I did enjoy playing both Factions and Nightfall, although I hated how most of Nightfall were boring deserts and how they shoved you into the slums in Factions. I absolutely loved EotN and found it really fun, especially when I reached Asuran lands. Their forests were absolutely stunning.

Cool Name · Jan 19, 2011, 10:57 PM // 22:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by aelesia

...

Seeing how I was bored to tears even with my epic PvE skills and OP minion masters and spirit spammers, yea, I'm not surprised that I quit it before I was even halfway through the game. It's no surprise either why all my friends quit it too and ended up playing WoW.

...

I think you've missed the point that the challenge was what made it fun (for lots of people, anyway). When power creep allows you to steam roll a level, of course it's boring. Also, it isn't meant to be played from start to finish as a level 20 character. If you play through it with a prophecies character from the beginning, you will most likely only reach level 20 when you reach the desert.

So it isn't despite the fact that it is incredibly easy that you found it boring, it is because of that.

Kunder · Jan 19, 2011, 11:14 PM // 23:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pthoms T

I think you've missed the point that the challenge was what made it fun (for lots of people, anyway). When power creep allows you to steam roll a level, of course it's boring. Also, it isn't meant to be played from start to finish as a level 20 character. If you play through it with a prophecies character from the beginning, you will most likely only reach level 20 when you reach the desert.

So it isn't despite the fact that it is incredibly easy that you found it boring, it is because of that.

Indeed, and this is downplaying the intended Prophecies power curve. The vast majority of players were lvl 18/19 until Ascending, with an armor level of 45, no elites, and lvl 17 henchmen that also had no elites. That was if you were lucky enough to have the foresight to salvage items and prepare to buy armor, otherwise you might even be stuck with an armor of 30 (which is buyable within a few hours of starting other campaigns). Of course, there was also no good community information on missions/elite captures/reasons why mending is bad. On top of that, skills were significantly weaker so that you had to make due with less.

Boogz · Jan 19, 2011, 11:23 PM // 23:23

Overall prophecies is very, very boring. The only "fun" parts are the last mission with imps doing spikes with rodgort's and the crystal desert mission where you protect ghostly while runnig to kill the extra bosses.

At least we're not forced to do all missions to get the last reward

CirdanValen · Jan 20, 2011, 04:59 AM // 04:59

So tonight I finished Abaddon's Mouth on my second try, and I had a friend take me through Hell's Precipice...so I've completed all the prophesies campaign for the first time! What I want to do now is work on getting elite armor(primarily for HoM), complete all the bonus missions (currently at 12/25), and try to get 100% of Tyria explored (currently at 52%).

Now, since those goals are probably going to bore me to tears for the most part, should I start the factions campaign and just switch between the characters when I want to do something different? Should I go ahead and do EotN?

Aeronwen · Jan 20, 2011, 09:33 AM // 09:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by CirdanValen

So tonight I finished Abaddon's Mouth on my second try,

Well done

Quote:

Originally Posted by CirdanValen

and I had a friend take me through Hell's Precipice...so I've completed all the prophesies campaign for the first time! What I want to do now is work on getting elite armor(primarily for HoM), complete all the bonus missions (currently at 12/25), and try to get 100% of Tyria explored (currently at 52%).

Now, since those goals are probably going to bore me to tears for the most part, should I start the factions campaign and just switch between the characters when I want to do something different? Should I go ahead and do EotN?

I would go ahead and start EOTN and get the first few heroes and rune them up. You will find getting the bonuses much more enjoyable with heroes. Also going to Factions will make more skills available to you. Check out the skill trainers at Eye and at Kainang .

If you are going to explore Tyria I would suggest using Texmod, I did Tyria before this was out and it was extremely painful. (Hmmm but then again the satisfaction when it was done was much greater than when using Texmod ^^)

dancing gnome · Jan 20, 2011, 11:52 AM // 11:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by CirdanValen

So tonight I finished Abaddon's Mouth on my second try, and I had a friend take me through Hell's Precipice...so I've completed all the prophesies campaign for the first time! What I want to do now is work on getting elite armor(primarily for HoM), complete all the bonus missions (currently at 12/25), and try to get 100% of Tyria explored (currently at 52%).

Now, since those goals are probably going to bore me to tears for the most part, should I start the factions campaign and just switch between the characters when I want to do something different? Should I go ahead and do EotN?

Do go to EotN and get your heroes. You can quickly get a monk, mesmer, ritualist, dervish and elementalist with little to no effort at all, whether or not you have unlocked the skills you will need to make them useful is another story though. Once you have them I'd say give Factions a go. The henchmen in Factions are infitely more intelligent than the ones in Prophecies and their builds are a lot better. The missions can mostly all be done in less than 20 minutes so you won't feel like things are being drawn out like in Prophecies.

aspi · Jan 20, 2011, 02:54 PM // 14:54

Had much fun going through prophecies, don't know what you guys have against it. I even finished it without touching the other campaigns first. It's slower than the other campaigns but since I wasn't in any hurry no problem.

Skyy High · Jan 20, 2011, 05:34 PM // 17:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by aspi

Had much fun going through prophecies, don't know what you guys have against it. I even finished it without touching the other campaigns first. It's slower than the other campaigns but since I wasn't in any hurry no problem.

5 years. That's what we have "against it". The mobs and challenges in Prophecies are simply outdated compared to all of the other areas of the game.

Voodoo Rage · Jan 20, 2011, 05:58 PM // 17:58

The Ring of Fire mission absolutely kicked my ass my first run through the game. Going as a touch ranger didn't help matters either.

Hells Precipice was my first ever experience with a pug that was absolutely legendary. We couldn't find a monk, so we just said, "Everyone bring some sort of self heal". We literally did not even make it off the first bridge. I did not go back to that mission for almost a year.

chuckles79 · Jan 20, 2011, 06:28 PM // 18:28

I got serious about beating prophecies in early '07 with my ranger. It took over a month to get from Old Ascalon to Yak's Bend without knowing about wikis, paying for runs, or even that it would be easier to beat the quests to get there.

I think Prophecies is still very challenging if it's the only campaign you own, do not join a helpful guild, and don't know what resources are available for info (much better since they linked in game help to wiki LOL)

Post-searing Ascalon drags on, the Maguuma Jungle REALLY drags on, and the Southern Shiverpeaks is not non-stop excitement.

It speaks to what a grind players found it to be (many quit in the first year) when they overcorrected grind issues with Factions (4 hours to get to lvl 20 if you are motivated, and all att. points b4 you leave Shing Jea).

Painbringer · Jan 20, 2011, 06:43 PM // 18:43

Its completely doable with standard skills (even without a elite skill) and hench team although the bonus can get harder. read the wiki page by hitting f10 in the game select the mission from the menu that pops up. it gives hints.

Keep your team away from the energy deleating towers it will kill your team...Pull your enemy out its range kill it. then attack the tower by its self. your monks become useless in a few seconds when you are in its range

Use a long bow of any req to pull enemies to you and your group

LordDragon · Jan 20, 2011, 08:19 PM // 20:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Voodoo Rage

The Ring of Fire mission absolutely kicked my ass my first run through the game. Going as a touch ranger didn't help matters either.

Hells Precipice was my first ever experience with a pug that was absolutely legendary. We couldn't find a monk, so we just said, "Everyone bring some sort of self heal". We literally did not even make it off the first bridge. I did not go back to that mission for almost a year.

Had a team just like that on my first win in Hell's Precipice! It was about 3 months after the game came out and most of us could not find a way to beat that mission. Not a monk in sight so we all took the best self healing that we could and managed to make it through. A few people had monk secondary and someone had Protective Spirit that they would cast on people getting smacked.

My wife heard the ROAR/YEAH! all the way in the living room. I have no clue how we made it through, but we did.

aelesia · Jan 21, 2011, 07:29 PM // 19:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pthoms T

I think you've missed the point that the challenge was what made it fun (for lots of people, anyway). When power creep allows you to steam roll a level, of course it's boring. Also, it isn't meant to be played from start to finish as a level 20 character. If you play through it with a prophecies character from the beginning, you will most likely only reach level 20 when you reach the desert.

So it isn't despite the fact that it is incredibly easy that you found it boring, it is because of that.

I'm inclined to believe that the number of people who got frustrated and quit GW is more than the people who enjoyed the challenge, but there'll never be any way to prove it either way so let's just forget about it.

And yes, I know it's not meant to be played from the start till the end with a level 20 character, or with heroes, or for it to even be completed with just henchmen. I did buy the game in 2005 and I have a level 19 Ranger still in the Crystal Desert. That character has clocked 50 hours of gameplay and still isn't level 20 yet. With 50 hours of gameplay, I could finish the entire Nightfall campaign.

And no, I did not find it boring because it was easy. I found it boring because it is boring. Playing through Prophecies missions was like walking from the start to the end in a hedge maze which takes about 30 minutes, because that's how the levels were designed - to make you walk as much as possible before reaching the end. Doing this in 2005 would have been like crawling through the maze without any clue where you're going. On top of that, you would have had to spend 20 minutes before entering the maze to look for 7 other players who want to crawl through the maze with you. Oh, and one of them must be a monk.

Defending a point in missions is like staring at an hourglass for 20 minutes straight. Missions where you have to escort people is like balancing a glass of water on your head trying your best not to spill it or that it doesn't explode by itself.

Cool Name · Jan 21, 2011, 07:38 PM // 19:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by aelesia

I'm inclined to believe that the number of people who got frustrated and quit GW is more than the people who enjoyed the challenge, but there'll never be any way to prove it either way so let's just forget about it.

And yes, I know it's not meant to be played from the start till the end with a level 20 character, or with heroes, or for it to even be completed with just henchmen. I did buy the game in 2005 and I have a level 19 Ranger still in the Crystal Desert. That character has clocked 50 hours of gameplay and still isn't level 20 yet. With 50 hours of gameplay, I could finish the entire Nightfall campaign.

And no, I did not find it boring because it was easy. I found it boring because it is boring. Playing through Prophecies missions was like walking from the start to the end in a hedge maze which takes about 30 minutes, because that's how the levels were designed - to make you walk as much as possible before reaching the end. Doing this in 2005 would have been like crawling through the maze without any clue where you're going. On top of that, you would have had to spend 20 minutes before entering the maze to look for 7 other players who want to crawl through the maze with you. Oh, and one of them must be a monk.

Defending a point in missions is like staring at an hourglass for 20 minutes straight. Missions where you have to escort people is like balancing a glass of water on your head trying your best not to spill it or that it doesn't explode by itself.

I never found missions to be that much of a maze. If you wanted the bonus then it was quite bad. But if you were just doing the mission, wanting to complete the campaign, then I found in most cases you could just follow the path in front of you.

I completely agree on the escort and protect missions though. They are frustrating and having them be outside your party, so that monk henchmen/heroes don't heal them is pointless.

Also, I've never been as frustrated as walking around the maze of canthan slums. If I could delete one area from Guild Wars, that would be it. It's not nice to look at, and every texture is so repetitive I found it hard to navigate. Certainly much harder than any prophecies mission.

Kunder · Jan 21, 2011, 09:10 PM // 21:10

Quote:

And no, I did not find it boring because it was easy. I found it boring because it is boring. Playing through Prophecies missions was like walking from the start to the end in a hedge maze which takes about 30 minutes, because that's how the levels were designed - to make you walk as much as possible before reaching the end. Doing this in 2005 would have been like crawling through the maze without any clue where you're going. On top of that, you would have had to spend 20 minutes before entering the maze to look for 7 other players who want to crawl through the maze with you. Oh, and one of them must be a monk.

There has never been a time you couldn't finish missions with henchmen. Waiting for (crappy) pub players to join has never been a problem. The annoyingly convoluted missions are pretty much universally hated by all guild wars players I'm sure. Its clear Anet figured that out in time for the release of factions.

Quote:

Defending a point in missions is like staring at an hourglass for 20 minutes straight. Missions where you have to escort people is like balancing a glass of water on your head trying your best not to spill it or that it doesn't explode by itself.

Blame crappy players who forced Anet to nerf every defense mission that they have ever put in the game. I'm not kidding, every single mission/quest/battle that requires you to defend a point has been nerfed because crappy players didn't know how to kill things fast enough.

Protecting the NPC missions have never been hard. What game are you playing? I've never had an NPC die on me unless my party was already half dead.

Quote:

I'm inclined to believe that the number of people who got frustrated and quit GW is more than the people who enjoyed the challenge, but there'll never be any way to prove it either way so let's just forget about it.

If players don't enjoy challenges they shouldn't be playing games, they should be watching movies.

Age · Jan 21, 2011, 09:19 PM // 21:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by LifeInfusion

I ran air+earth in 2005. I even dabbled with Deep Freeze and Maelstrom.

Glyph of energy/Glyph of renewal meteor shower is too slow for my tastes. Dug up screen:
http://i52.tinypic.com/nflny8.jpg

Before Monks had UA + Healer's Boon the only options for party heals was heal party. Divine healing/Heaven's delight were 60 cooldown and neabry range or something. No Light of Deliverance either. So in PvP you had Heal party on a Ether prodigy ele. There was no scatter.

For a short time there was ER smite, reminiscent of today's ER infuse.

You might of wanted to black out those names before posting that screenshot.

Ellix Cantero · Jan 21, 2011, 10:08 PM // 22:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain Bulldozer

First, I'd like to note that if you managed to complete Thunderhead Keep with just henchmen, you're already doing better than 90% of the 2005 Guild Wars players.

Truth. I'm pretty sure that if around 1.5 million people bought the game around launch (sounds reasonable) then about 1 million of them quit playing because of Thunderhead Keep (250k had already quit because of Arora Glade and Elona Reach). The sad thing is--it was actually easier to complete with the crappy uninfused henchmen of the day than with a full pug 9 times out of 10.