Curse

Mimi Miyagi · Apr 28, 2006, 06:48 PM // 18:48

To begin, I'll start by remarking on what my plans were, and how it's going so far.

First, I was never really impressed with the new character professions in Factions. I have seven characters across two accounts (going ot abandon the 2nd account) and have unlocked just about all of the skills and items prior to Faction's release.

My main character, the first one I played and still play almost every day, is my Ranger. It's the character I've spent the vast majority of my time with, and probably have spent the most money on. Thus, it's not really surprising that I'm "rewarding" this character as the first one to experience Cantha with.

My long range (heh) goal (long range as in, by the end of the preview event) is to get to the Armory to buy 15K armor for Mimi Miyagi (the Ranger in question). I haven't gotten there (yet) but I'm close.

Graphically, Cantha is much more beautiful (in places) than Tyria ever was, even in pre-searing. You have to admit, Chapter 1's graphics are, well, mono-chromantic. Desert areas are all brown, Krytra is basically nothing but green, shiverpeaks are just white, etc. Pre-searing was the only location within Tyyria that had any variety in color - and that lasts all of an hour or two of gameplay. In Cantha, while sections display this same problem (especially in the marketplace "rooftop" section, at least when the art designers opened up more than one tube of color, they went nuts. If you haven't seen any of the new Guild Halls by now, you're missing out on some flatout stunning graphics - easily the most beautiful and color rich sections of any game on the market. Of course, you need a high end graphics card to see it in it's real beauty, but it's worth it.

Since I was playing with a fully developed level 20 character, things in some respects went a tad faster for me, even with a henchy party.

Once I made the boat trip to Cantha - one of the first things I did was purchase a new set of Cantha armor (the 1.5K version) just to have it. Since I have two sets of 15K armor (I told you I spend a lot of money on this character) already, having yet another set isn't that big of a deal. It was relatively cheap, and looks really nice. I plan on junking it once I get the new 15K druid set at the armory, but that is for later.

The early missions are kind of a grind. They are mostly just go here, kill this, defend that we've all played a billion times in Chapter 1. Coupled with the bland graphics in the marketplace area, and the design of long snaking corridors and paths to get one place or another, it's not very fun. We (my guild, TSF, that I was travelling with) putzed around with some of the side quests then went and started the "Welcome to Cantha" primary quest, which gets you to the next location on the map.

Once you get to the area/missions right after completing the "Welcome" quest, things ramp up fairly significantly, and I'm curious how newer characters would survive, especially new players that never played GW before. Think of THK, except about 100x more frantic, with wave after non-stop wave of monsters. The mission itself isn't all that hard for experienced players (I joined a PUG and finished it the first time, then went back and helped some guildies do it again, and had little difficulty) but I was either lucky or fortunate, a lot of players were complaining about how hard it was. It didn't help matters that the game's bugs are starting to crop up - players are err-7ing a lot more, especially transitioning from towns to mission areas - at least from what I've seen and heard. I haven't, but guildmates have, as well as folks in PUGs I've played in.

We (Guildies and I) have unlocked about 25% of the map, at least that's where I've left off at 11pm last night. From the new titles, it says there are 13 missions to complete in total, I've done approximately 2/3rds of them so far. But as we've gone on, the PVE missions have actually been a bit interesting. One particular mission features a mission area inside a large temple-ish building that starts to collapse, nothing like taking falling rock damage every couple of seconds while being attacked by granite monsters to spice things up.

Things I'm not happy about...

Drops still suck. I've seen one green item drop (but not for me) from a boss, and a small handful of rares - and the rares have been mostly non-max damage, which is stupid IMO. 90% of the chests are purple. I didn't see a ranger boss (to cap an elite from) until halfway through the game. You can't join a faction until you have 10,000 faction points, which forces you to grind out pvp play because you don't really start earning faction until halfway through the game, and it's in very small amounts (at least so far). Thus, to advance, and to get the armor, you need to grind out faction. At least this is what I've been able to tell.

And anyone figure out what a Forbidden Key is for?

MysticoN · Apr 28, 2006, 06:57 PM // 18:57

Ive almost just played at the first place (the Island) where you have to lvl up to 20 to have a chance in marketplace. My impression is very positive. They have done the scenery alot better than in chapter one , alot of times I just stopped and enjoyed the magnificent view there is. Also the quest in cantha is alot better. Now in beginning you HAVE to do quest in order to reach lvl 20 in a fast way. The quests are very good and some of them is really hard actually , some of the quest is so hard that if you have some dp its almost impossible to finnish them. Thumbs up !

Gli · Apr 28, 2006, 11:38 PM // 23:38

First impression:

Disappointing. I started an assassin thursday night who's level 18 right now. I just arrived at Zen Daijun and even on my first play-through with henchies only, the Shing Jea part offers no challenges whatsoever so far. I've only ran into a single mission so far and it was a frigging tutorial. Replayability value 0.00.

Witchblade · Apr 29, 2006, 12:52 AM // 00:52

10000 factions points to join one of em ????
oh well since i dont do any pvp..

Tuesg · Apr 29, 2006, 01:05 AM // 01:05

Theer are some PvE challange missions that give factions depending on how well you do, on top of that i have about 8 quests that give something like 750 faction each.