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Flameseeker Chronicles Extra: The spotter's guide to the Fractals of the Mists, part two
Hello, volunteer, and welcome back to the Spotter's Guide to the Fractals of the Mists! We're here to teach you the difference between an Urban Battleground and an Uncategorized fractal, a Bloomhunger and a Mossman, and a chicken and a Charr. Part one came out earlier this week, so be sure to check it out if you're looking for the full guidebook for Guild Wars 2's newest dungeon; otherwise, let's move on!
Flameseeker Chronicles: The spotter's guide to the Fractals of the Mists
Welcome to the Mists, volunteer! What's that you say? You didn't volunteer? Well, you're here, aren't you? I'd say that's good enough. Now, if you and your party will be so kind as to pop into these unstable fractals and clear out all the ravening monsters inside, I'd be... "What are fractals," you ask? The Fractals of the Mists dungeon has been out and playable for a couple of weeks now and is possibly the greatest content addition in the Lost Shores patch. If you have around Lion's Arch for more than a few seconds, you're likely to see scads of LFG requests in mapchat. Don't let the number of people looking for level 21+ runs scare you off! Everyone starts somewhere -- in this case, it's at level 1. Let's take a look at what awaits you within Guild Wars 2's fractals.
ArenaNet on future content updates and learning from Guild Wars 2's Lost Shores
Guild Wars 2 recently got its first big non-holiday content update, which added a new zone, a new PvP map, a new dungeon, and a bunch of items. In addition to the permanent content (which seems, with a few glaring exceptions, to be very well-received), ArenaNet threw in a one-time event over the weekend (which was not received very well). In response to player reaction, the team has posted a new blog post that acknowledges the pitfalls of the Lost Shores event and laid out plans for moving forward. We've seen people saying that they really liked the principle of using events to unveil new content, but we need to tighten up the methods by which they are deployed. We take these comments to heart, as it is our goal to always deliver content of the highest quality. In the short- to mid-term future, ArenaNet plans to revamp and rebalance existing dungeons, add new dungeons to the Fractals of the Mists, fix existing content, add new content and progression for guilds, keep adding features to PvP, add new WvW content and rewards, and continue to add to the dynamic content around the world. There's no mention of one-off events in that list, which hopefully means the team is taking time to make sure that the technical problems have been hunted down and sorted out before another attempt is made.
Behind the Mask: Practical indestructibility
It's not very commonplace to showcase a single build on Behind the Mask. In fact, aside from the Archetypes, I've never directly addressed any of the millions of build options in Champions Online. However, one build in particular has garnered a lot of attention lately. It's infamous for its incredible survivability, and many people consider it the benchmark of all builds. The main permutation of the build is Invul/dodge, but the core idea is using layered defenses to ramp up survivability to ridiculous levels. This week, we'll cover what Invul/dodge is, how it works, and some popular variants. We'll also discuss its limitations and counters. While Invul/dodge is probably the most situationally durable build in the game, it has its weaknesses. Some players might delude you into thinking that Invul/dodge is good at everything, but that couldn't be further from the truth.
The Daily Grind: Does a class' popularity influence your desire to play it?
There are a few constants that dog my adventures into every MMO. I will play a female character even though I am a man, I will go nuts over pet classes if they are available, I will probably create a legion of alts before ever hitting the level cap, and I will wear stylish hats even if the stats aren't the greatest. But above all of that, the biggest constant in my playing career is that I almost always refuse to pick MMO classes that are extremely popular. I think it's because I -- like probably most of you -- like to feel unique in games, even though it's usually difficult to achieve. Choosing a class that's in the minority helps with that feeling, and conversely, going with the FOTM or whatever the kids are calling it these days makes me feel like I've got my unique snowflake status revoked. So is this insane? Do you allow class popularity to influence your desire to play it, or do you just go with whatever sounds like the most fun? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Soapbox: Grinding skill instead of gear
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. One of the most troubling things I see in gamers these days is their incessant pursuit of loot. If you happen to play World of Warcraft, you know that getting into a pick-up raid involves a lot of people waving around GearScore like it's an actual measurement of player ability. Ever tried to get into an Ultra-Max Security group in Global Agenda? I hope you've got top-quality token gear and are level 50 because the time you spent getting those things matters a lot more than actually having any sort of skills. As a tournament fighting-game player, I take offense to this. You don't need to have an epic'd-out Chun Li to win in Street Fighter. In online games, gear is important, but it isn't the first thing you should be pursuing.
Behind the Mask: Those good old (PvP) days
Well, the holidays were a bit tight on my time, so for those of you who did send me messages regarding our hoped-for Andrith (and maybe Mandragalore) runs were probably a little disappointed that we couldn't find the time to run them last week. I'm still trying to get a run going before the end of the holiday event (on the 4th), so if you're interested in the boss-kissing perk, let me know! This week, I'm going to reminisce about the development of Champions Online, but with a twist -- I'll be talking about only the PvP changes and the changes that indirectly affected PvP. Why, you may ask? CO has evolved quite a bit, and sometimes we don't realize the problems that existed (and were fixed) when we complain about what's currently in the game.
The Daily Grind: What class will you never, ever play?
Even the most stalwart class-monogamist among us is tempted from time to time to take a peek at the forbidden fruit of another profession. That class selection screen, it is a cruel joke played upon our sensibilities! What should I pick? How do I know I'll like it 500 hours from now? It's like trying to choose a lifelong mate by only reading his or her personals ad. You need a bit more to go on. Where was I? Ah, yes. So while we often give in to our altoholic nature -- or at least flirt with it by rolling up a new class just to see what it feels like -- sometimes there's just a class that is so repulsive that we can't ever imagine playing it. Maybe it's a role, like a healer or a tank or a stealth-based DPSer, that you've disliked in the past and are not inclined to experiment with now. Perhaps you don't want to be one of the crowd when it comes to uber-popular classes. Or maybe it's just a profession that offends your sensibilities as a connoisseur of fine gameplay. So what class will you never, ever play in your game?
Weekend reading: flavors of the month, yea or nay?
If you're like us, you can always use some good reading for a lazy weekend, and we here at Massively are always happy to oblige. We stumbled upon an interesting point of contention on the City of Heroes forums this weekend, one that has given us serious pause. The question at hand? Are so-called "flavors of the month," classes or specs that are made popular by patches, gear, or just by chance, bad for MMOs, or are they just a harmless side effect of a ever more alt-happy subscriber base?For my part, I think the flavor of the month classes serve a necessary, if completely unintentional, part in the development and balance process. From what I've experienced, the most prominent reasons underlying most flavors of the month, as in the case of the dual blade scrappers in Issue 11, is that players want to try out new content for themselves. There's no better advertisement for a build than seeing it in the patch notes, and there's no better way to test the new builds for balance than by having thousands of players jump on it on patch day. For all the headaches the FotM crowds cause, I think their contributions are worth more to the greater community.So what do you think, flavors of the month, yea or nay?
