Curse

Kaleban · Jul 01, 2005, 03:49 AM // 03:49

Just curious, but for the sake of unlocking items and skills, do you either:

A. Play multiple PvE characters with differing professions up through the storyline?

B. Play only one (or two maybe, one being a farming character) PvE character and switch professions after Ascension?

C. With the new PvP system of unlocking stuff in place, say screw PvE entirely?

I'm just curious, because while I enjoy the game, I find it difficult to find enough time to do A, unsure whether I can stand playing one singular primary as in B, and not sure if I'm good enough at PvP for C!!!

Just wanted to get your opinions...

Minwanabi · Jul 01, 2005, 04:35 AM // 04:35

I have 3 PvE characters, a Mo/W, ele/me, and a R/n, the first two have beaten every mission, and capped every elite, and are both probably 20-30 skills from having every skill from their two jobs. The ranger I just got to S shiver, and I'll probably finish him off in the next few days, so to answer your question, I suggest representing all 6 professions in 3 PvE chars, and remaking the PvP char over and over for whatever you want. I'll probably be spending my faction on weapon upgrades, since I have all the runes and skills =/ Still, better than farming, I suppose.

theclam · Jul 01, 2005, 06:32 AM // 06:32

It's so much easier and more fun to unlock through PvE, in my opinion, at least for your first couple of characters. After that, you'll very rarely unlock things, except for skills.

knives · Jul 01, 2005, 07:41 AM // 07:41

I keep two for pvp, and two for pve. Just because I like options. Get bored of one of them? Switch to the other. Get bored of pve? Switch to pvp, and then you can make another choice as to which you would like to play, and how to play it.

Rey Lentless · Jul 01, 2005, 09:09 AM // 09:09

Get the 6 profs from 3 pve characters and go through the game with them. That's by far the most efficient way to unlock skills.

The PVP skill unlocking is very inefficient. You can pick and choose what skills to go after in pve. The item and rune unlocking is random, and I'd spend all my faction on that if I was you.

Enigmatics · Jul 01, 2005, 01:44 PM // 13:44

I've got 3 pve, 1 pvp that I erase when I want a change. I've unlocked almost every sup rune for classes, plus a sup vigor, so I'm doing custom builds alot now. As for the pve characters, I just get my ranger to change secondaries when I wanna unlock something. Oh and you can easily farm sup runes... but I can't say where due to the chance of Anet rapelling down and nerfing it.

Kaleban · Jul 01, 2005, 11:13 PM // 23:13

Thanks guys, I figured it might be more fun and efficient to do 3+1 PvE/PvP, and I currently have a Mo/W (I picked this combo solely because I like the /dance command lol).

Between the other four classes, I was thinking of maximizing their PvE effectiveness for unlocking stuff. Is this a good idea, or should I shoot for PvP viability as well? I suppose its a moot point since I can make a PvP character at will...

So for fun and helping guildies and such, I'm thinking that there's only two real dangers in the game, quick melee mobs and enemy healers. Most of the casters apart from healers are not terribly effective, although I did see a Charr Mind Spark Shatter Enchantments on a W/Mo which killed him instantly, tragic but funny.

Probably, I'll want characters that can handle either or both of these situations. I'm sort of at a loss of which combinations to go with though. For example, my Mo/W can do multiple things, from being primary healer, an AoE Smite farmer, or even a weapon wielding front line combatant using Protection prayers and such. So I like versatility.

I was thinking of going with a Ranger primary and Elementalist primary, since both of their primary attributes seem more useful than the Necro and Mesmer, especially in PvP (although I've heard a Me/E is actually MORE effective a nuker than an E/Me with Fast Casting, but the energy deficit there scares me lol). Correct me if I'm wrong here, I see a lot of Necros running around, are they aware that tactically speaking, Soul-Reaping is bad in PvP?

Now we come to the problem then, which combos to choose? I like the idea of a Ranger/Mesmer combo, sort of the warden of the forest who has access to illusion skills to act as sort of a druid... guy. So the other combo is a Elementalist/Necro, which between the nukes, nukes, nukes, minions, curses, and nukes, seems fun. Although energy management is less than a E/Me.

R/Me = Caster suppression with Mez skills and Ranger stuff like Disrupting shot (is this practical, or does the arrow's flight time make it useless?)

E/N = Melee/Range suppression, using nukes to do damage and Necro skills to weaken and disrupt the physical damage dealers.

I think that about covers it, any comments?

four20life · Jul 02, 2005, 12:00 AM // 00:00

just a comment on e/n with my e/n i prefur to use blood skills such as life siphon and vampric gaze and for pvp well of blood and well of power for back up healing power to help those wonderful monks out cures's is decent but imo death magic is a total waste

i found blood to work best for this build

Kaleban · Jul 02, 2005, 02:09 AM // 02:09

You know, after looking over some of the skills of the various classes, it almost seems that if you're going to build a Ranger who wants to spread chaos and confusion, it would actually be better to take Necro as a secondary for some of the skills like Desecrate Enchantments, Rend Enchantments, Shadow of Fear, etc.

So a Ranger/Necro could sort of disrupt pretty much anybody, and spread the pain to various characters, not just casters.

A Ele/Mes is the standard nuker I believe, or maybe I should go Mes/Ele for a change of pace?

So out of the two combos below:

R/Me
E/N

R/N
E/Me (Me/E anyone?)

Which would be more effective in terms of battlefield disruption from the Ranger, and overall nuking ability with the caster?

Kaleban · Jul 02, 2005, 07:21 PM // 19:21

Actually, now that I think about it, the ULTIMATE PvP "controller" type would be a Mesmer/Necromancer, who could tailor his skillset around, while concentrating in Domination, Curses, and maybe Inspiration for the energy denial. In PvE he could go with Death/Blood Magic to make it a bit easier, but in good groups, the Me/N would shine I think.

Yeah, I'll probably do that. So that leaves me with the Ranger and Elementalist. Now here, I'm trying to decide between which Primary to go for. Elementalist would max out an element plus ES, then maybe put lvls into BM or WS for spirits/pet? Ranger would be a standard bow ranger with a Conjure possibly, of course only focusing in one element.

Man, decisions like this are so hard! Its like looking at a fourteen page long drink list in 8 font.