Curse

Kaon · Oct 22, 2009, 11:11 PM // 23:11

It's a 4v4 where everyone has the same pool of skills.

- Kill each other off on ta/ra maps.
- Skillpool changes daily. Props to anet for this.
- Each class gets 5 elites and 15 regular skills + res signet.
- You can't have 2 the same primaries in your team.
- You can't take elites from your secondary.
- You can take multiple copies of skills but because of the primary restriction it will have to be on secondary characters.
- There is a tournament npc but there are no tournaments yet, I guess they will come though.
- It has it's own title track that works like gladiator. The first rank is called initiate if i'm not wrong.

Looks great. The class and elite restrictions are new to me and I won't comment on it whether it's good or bad. At first glance it saddens me that now i can't run a monk with devastating hammer.

One other issue is that there is no way in seeing all the skills in 1 big list so you get a good overview. Right now you have to change your secondary all the time if you want to see the list of skills, but even then you can't see the elites so you have to switch characters a lot. It would be awesome if there was an npcs that would do this.

zelgadissan · Oct 22, 2009, 11:18 PM // 23:18

I haven't hopped on my ranger or my assassin yet but I wonder if there are other set skills like the Res Signet - I think they had mentioned Charm Animal, Jagged Strike, and Fox Fangs were automatically there to complete combos.

Only played two matches since I'm on my way to work but I thought it looked pretty sweet. I would really like to see that skill listing you mentioned, it was annoying flipping through all my attributes of all my secondaries trying to look at what was available.

I Angra I · Oct 22, 2009, 11:32 PM // 23:32

Seems like a pretty good format and should be pretty fun. I do agree with having an NPC there giving you a full list of the skills available for the day or whatever, it seems really tedious to switch characters just to see what there is.

Also, they aren't using HB maps? I thought they said they were going to.

Ec]-[oMaN · Oct 22, 2009, 11:33 PM // 23:33

Now where's the 8v8 version of the format they promised, GvG AT's were suppose to also have sealed deck. Or maybe I read wrong and the own format itself 4v4 would have AT's.
Even if it's the later 2+years ago they stated the reasons for implamenting ATs with the intent of streamlining things like sealed deck/variables, could give some life into the stale state of GvG.

erk · Oct 22, 2009, 11:39 PM // 23:39

We probably need a sub-forum for the Codex Arena.

I was impressed to see 10 districts full of people there minutes after the update!

Anyone know what title track is associated with wins there yet?

Oster · Oct 22, 2009, 11:44 PM // 23:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by erk

We probably need a sub-forum for the Codex Arena.

I was impressed to see 10 districts full of people there minutes after the update!

Anyone know what title track is associated with wins there yet?

It has its own title track thats supposed to replace the commander title track. Not entirely sure how it works, theres a little bit more info on the GW site about it but not much.

Killed u man · Oct 22, 2009, 11:46 PM // 23:46

sealed deck delivers.

Kaon · Oct 23, 2009, 12:03 AM // 00:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oster

It has its own title track thats supposed to replace the commander title track. Not entirely sure how it works, theres a little bit more info on the GW site about it but not much.

edited the opening post.

Windf0rce · Oct 23, 2009, 12:44 AM // 00:44

Rank 1 is Codex Initiate at 100 'honor points'. Points are gained each 5 consecutive wins, progressing like RA, 1 for 5 wins, 2 for 10, 3 for 15, then 4 for longer streaks.

Edit: I had 1 Command point from the only match I ever did in HB (no title). The bar has vanished from my title screen.

Wyndy · Oct 23, 2009, 12:48 AM // 00:48

Can someone explain what "multiple copies of skill" means?

Iotan · Oct 23, 2009, 12:58 AM // 00:58

I'm quite surprised that this was implemented in a fairly intelligent way (although I haven't had a chance to play it yet). Daily change+profession cap look like the meta should actually stay fresh.

I assume they are trying to balance the arena before putting in ATs, which is fine by me.

erk · Oct 23, 2009, 01:31 AM // 01:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mia Wynd

Can someone explain what "multiple copies of skill" means?

It means more than one player can equip the same skill (usually as a secondary), when you remember that you can only have one of each profession in a team it makes sense.

God_Hand · Oct 23, 2009, 01:34 AM // 01:34

I've been waiting for this since ANet announced it. Time to see if it's any good!

Let's get crackin'!

EDIT: It's not.

Evil Eye · Oct 23, 2009, 01:44 AM // 01:44

it needs some ats

God_Hand · Oct 23, 2009, 01:55 AM // 01:55

Joined. Mesmers had Illusion of Pain. Quit.

Being able to pick that skill completely unbalances things.

OH AND APPARENTLY PARAGONS ONLY HAD ONE SPEAR SKILL. ONE. UH, YEAH.

I Jonas I · Oct 23, 2009, 02:07 AM // 02:07

@God's Hand: Uhhhhh... you do know that the skill selection is random and that it will change tomorrow. Don't discredit the arena just because you didn't get the skills that you wanted on this particular day.

DarkNecrid · Oct 23, 2009, 02:28 AM // 02:28

It's incredibly good and it's hilarious to see people who don't get it at all. Yes, some skills don't work very good or don't make much sense, no they shouldn't make sense, the idea is that you get a COMPLETELY random pool of skills.

I had my doubts, but this is one of the best things ArenaNet has added to PvP in quite some time. 10/10.

deluxe · Oct 23, 2009, 06:56 AM // 06:56

Got my first 10 wins on the first try, was fun!
SD kind of separates the good from the bad

I Ether I · Oct 23, 2009, 08:26 AM // 08:26

Sealed deck is not my first choice of game mechanic. I would much rather seen about a dozen options be done to HB to fix it rather then this. But the point of sealed deck seperating the good from the bad does have merit. I reviewed all classes skills yesterday and the problem I saw was hardly any of the classes were balanced in their skill selection.

Examples:

Paragon: had a single spear attack and minimal support skills for the team.
Dervish: had only 2 attack skills each a deep wound.
Mesmer: lacked a single elite in domination
Necro: Not to bad but a skill set over all but this class is primarly anti-melee or degen pressure. PLEASE NO MINION MASTER SKILLS.
Monk: heals like divine healing should be replaced with divine intervention. I understand it is sealed deck but possible/functional build construction should be taken into account.
Assassin: Probably one of the hardest class to run in a seal deck environment. DPS and spikeability has gone out the window.
Elementalist: one of the better skill selection in sealed deck.
Ritualists: probably the best over all skill selections i saw yesturday.
Warriors: Honestly unless you force their attributes 4 ways its hard to screw this class up so long as shock, a shadow step or rending touch are avalable in the secondary.
Ranger: Did ya really have to give almost every skill required to make a touch ranger.
aside from that not to bad a skill selection.

IMO i would change the format to allow choice of 2 elites per attribute line and 5 skills in each attribute line and stop changing skills daily. as it was yesturday many builds were spreading attribute 4ways on the casters and leaving no option to counter stancing along with minimal prot.

Sealed deck can be fun just please make buildconstruction a bit more viaible.
oh and please please please force a res signet to every bar unless its a monk.

urania · Oct 23, 2009, 08:48 AM // 08:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by deluxe

Got my first 10 wins on the first try, was fun!
SD kind of separates the good from the bad

oh mighty one, please elaborate exactly on how running 4 copies of armor of sanctity a signet of midnight and wounding strike (yesterday's skill list) separates the good from the bad in terms of actual skill when the means you have available to counter that cond overload are limited to mend ailment and weapon of remedy. For what its worth, its good for griefing ppl with multiple healers and eventually killing those with 1 healer.

one thing that SD certainly does make is promote multi healer teams, mainly rits+monks or dervs (today's derv heal - imbue health =win)+rits or dervs+monks, for obvious reasons.

Quote:

Assassin: Probably one of the hardest class to run in a seal deck environment. DPS and spikeability has gone out the window.

Shindy got owned. ;D