Nude Beach recruitment

[Hawkmoon]

I'm trying to think of what secondaries to give them. Also, what's the word on pets? Out or in?

If in, I might use ranger secondary and pump points into BM and take the pet along...although that would seriously hinder some of my primary abilities...but it'd give us a viable tank.

Otherwise i might go necro or possibly mesmer. I'll tinker around with it in my mind a bit.

Pets are in. Zed's E/R, Ember Buffy, brought her furry feline along for the fun last Tuesday, and it sounds like KoP is bringing along a N/R (after rudely ditching Jill Flash - fie!). Not to try to nudge you one way or the other, but another monk would be a Good Idea for the team(s).

Welcome to Realms Beyond!

[WarBlade]

Pets are in. Zed's E/R, Ember Buffy, brought her furry feline along for the fun last Tuesday, and it sounds like KoP is bringing along a N/R (after rudely ditching Jill Flash - fie!). Not to try to nudge you one way or the other, but another monk would be a Good Idea for the team(s).

I haven't read all of the discourse relating to the nude team yet, but taking a quick glance at just this part I'm inclined to think a pet might top a monk for team protection in nude teams. The more pets there are, the more the damage gets split away from players and the more emphasis applied to the ranger on healing the pet. Crank Wilderness Survival up and you also get Healing Spring thrown in for a localized team heal.

I could be wrong. It could go either way and that's before saying R/Mo's and Mo/R's are available.

Until Iron Mines.

Pet = Infused
Nudist = Cowering a safe distance away from Spectral Agony.

[Seijin]

Okay, I love challenges, but maybe I should have read that other thread before throwing myself into this one.

From what I've read in the "Items are for Wimps - Nakedness Rules" thread, we basically have no armor AND no weapons or focii. I thought it was just no armor. I was under the impression we could still use weapons and focii to do some regular dmg plus increase our energy pool since everyon's energy regen is going to be 2.

That being said, I have a few comments:
I just went out and did a test with the mursaat and their Spectral Agony skill. It doesn't matter what piece of infused armor you wear or its armor rating, they still do the following dmg along with its degen:

0 piece = 100dmg
1 piece = 42dmg
2 piece = 29dmg
3 piece = 22dmg
4 piece = 16dmg
full set = 9dmg

Also absorption runes and dmg reducing armor have no effect on the dmg from spectral agony.

I think no armor already makes for a big challenge in and of itself.

Warriors have defensive stances utilizing shields. With no shield, you negate these skills.
Allow casters the use of focii, and wars and rangers (primary or secondary) to use any weapon they please of any dmg lvl.
Weapons - They have the weapon attributes for a reason. If an Elementalist is allowed to pump up his fire magic to do as much fire dmg as possible with no restraints or a necro to pump up death magic to create many minions, why can't a warrior or a ranger use a max dmg weapon along with his skill to deal as much dmg as he possibly can with no restraints? I find that unfair to take away their strength with weapons because that nerfs many of their skills in that weapon's attribute. Sure both rangers and warriors can be used to spread conditions...but that can also be accomplished with hexes by mesmers and necros...and some conditions can be done by elementalists from spells. I know the idea is to make it a challenge, but negating weapon usage cripples the classes with those attributes. The use of starter weapons doesn't really make those skills in that weapon that much more useful. Sure they can use the skill, but it won't do much.

An elementalist gains a fair amount of dmg from putting just 1 pt in that elemenent for single attack spells (maybe about 3+ dmg), and for AoE, they may gain 1-2 pts of dmg, but its a duration spell that usually lasts 5-10 seconds. A warrior or ranger will only gain 1-2 pts of extra dmg with each pt in that attribute and won't even hit for full dmg unless they have at least 12 in that weapon attribute.

Here is my suggestion:
Going on the honor system. We use only what we find with our nudes during our travels or what we trade amongst each other within the nude teams. We can forge weapons or items at cities, but we cannot buy materials, focii, shields, or weapons from players. We cannot share gold amongst our nude characters and primary characters via the vault system. We may sell items to other players. Everything we use must be worked for fair and square as if that character were independent from any of our other characters. With exception to bags and runes of holdings. And of course, no armor, except where we may face mursaat.

This at least allows our weapons to move up in lvl as we progress, just as we gain lvl's and earn attribute pts which allows casters to increase their strength in spells.

I just had to throw my two cents in on the issue of hand items. Sorry if I'm the only one thinking about weapons and focii from this perspective or if I'm just totally lost in the concept of the nude group because I'm a reallly new member to this guild. I'd still like to participate with or without the items, just to see what we can accomplish. I just really feel that all classes, whether primary or secondary, should have full advantage of a vast majority of their skills.

Oh yeah...one other thing, i don't have newbie armor anymore...I traded them for the pre searing ascalon armor. I hadn't read that other thread at the time...I don't think 2 armor will make a big difference once we hit the mursaat anyways.

BTW, I'm monk primary right now, I'm ready to crossover ( lvl 7, almost 8 ), but I'm still thinking about what secondary to choose.

[Drasca]

Hi, Sanskirt here

I am sorry to say I won't likely be able to attend tonight (Oct 4th). Amazingly, I have a date! I hope she doesn't cancel. Wish me luck. Maybe I can bring her to the Nuddhist way.

[Zed-F]

Ember Buffy may or may not be able to make it tonight, as well. It will depend on what the wife's plans for the evening are.

[Hawkmoon]

Congrats on the date, Drasca! Good luck, and I hope she's nice... (liking GW and D2 would be a plus, of course) We'll miss you.

Zed, we'll miss you if you're not there.

Seijin, it looks like we'll be in sore need of your monk tonight, if you can decide on your secondary. Mesmers are always good for shutting down duties, and we currently don't have anyone with mesmer abilities. But ranger is also good for interrupts (if you haven't already, you might want to read WarBlade's post about "no one understands my characters!", with special reference to his monk/ranger - a character like that would be useful for the team). So it's up to you. There, wasn't that helpful? Usual starting time is 8:30 Eastern time - hope to see you there!

Oh, and I've updated the Nudist Journal (at RB Guild Wars) with an account of the major things we did last week. If any of the other team members would like to add or correct things, feel free. Enjoy!

[soul]

Likely will miss out once more.. ended up going to see a friend the past couple days and even if I get home tonight, I havent managed to get a character through presearing..Really sorry for missing out a second time in a row.

Like I mentioned I was thinking of going as a summoning necromancer, but I may try out a healing setup, utilising soul reaping to make up for the lack of regen. Will try summoning aswell, but I''m not sure how well it will work given the lack of energy since summon spells are so expensive.

Also, was thinking that, against the mursaat, maybe we should only use headpieces for protection from agony. Other things give bonus energy or energy regen, and I don't believe that the starter headpieces give any attribute bonuses. Also, iirc the head takes the least hits.

Long as I know where the teams get to tonight, I'll be ready to join in next week.

[Hawkmoon]

Forgot to reply to the substantive stuff earlier:

Warriors have defensive stances utilizing shields. With no shield, you negate these skills.
Allow casters the use of focii, and wars and rangers (primary or secondary) to use any weapon they please of any dmg lvl.
Weapons - They have the weapon attributes for a reason. If an Elementalist is allowed to pump up his fire magic to do as much fire dmg as possible with no restraints or a necro to pump up death magic to create many minions, why can't a warrior or a ranger use a max dmg weapon along with his skill to deal as much dmg as he possibly can with no restraints? I find that unfair to take away their strength with weapons because that nerfs many of their skills in that weapon's attribute. Sure both rangers and warriors can be used to spread conditions...but that can also be accomplished with hexes by mesmers and necros...and some conditions can be done by elementalists from spells. I know the idea is to make it a challenge, but negating weapon usage cripples the classes with those attributes. The use of starter weapons doesn't really make those skills in that weapon that much more useful. Sure they can use the skill, but it won't do much.

Warriors are allowed to carry whichever type of weapon they like: hammer, sword/shield, or axe/shield.

As far as upgrading weapons or other handhelds goes, we'd have to do some testing to see how much a warrior with a starter weapon (of whichever type) can do, damage-wise, with the various skills. Is it really unbalanced WRT the casters? Especially when you factor in energy costs for the casters - maybe they can unleash lots of damage, but not very often (with only 2 pips of energy regen, definitely not very often!). We'd really need to look at average damage per unit time to decide whether adjustments need to be made. I'd vote for sticking with starter weapons for a while, to get a feel for how we're progressing. If the challenge turns into the impossible, then we can make adjustments.

My $0.02.

Hawkmoon

[Lurker Wyrm]

But ranger is also good for interrupts (if you haven't already, you might want to read WarBlade's post about "no one understands my characters!", with special reference to his monk/ranger - a character like that would be useful for the team). So it's up to you.

Well, while Somewhat Zen is good at what she's designed for, she can't handle solo healing (Heal Party is not going to cut it, especially with the 15 energy cost), so if someone does Mo/R, it probably should just be for things like having a pet, Symbiosis, etc..

If you're unsure about what to take as a monk secondary, I'd recommend mesmer for the inspiration line. Not only is it a good source of energy gain, but it also has a few skills like Mantra of Resolve and Mantra of Inscriptions, 2 stances that can make things a lot easier. Resolve because it prevents your heals from being interrupted (very good for the desert and on where Cry of Frustration and other interrupts get spammed). Inscriptions because it cuts down signet recharge time, and Signet of Devotion is probably going to become a critical skill on this team since it's a way to heal without using energy.

I should be able to make it tonight with Angela Adams, an E/Me.

[Lurker Wyrm]

Sorry for the double post. Hawk should have been faster. [insert smilie here]

As far as upgrading weapons or other handhelds goes, we'd have to do some testing to see how much a warrior with a starter weapon (of whichever type) can do, damage-wise, with the various skills.

With 12 points in a mastery you deal 100% of the listed damage on a weapon. For starters, that's generally in the 3-5 range. Since higher end enemies have higher end armor, you can assume that without skills, they'll generally be dealing 0-3 damage (this is basically against enemies from the desert on) to warriors, 1-4 or thereabouts to rangers, and probably close to 3-5 for casters. Using skills, which all basically average out to about +24 (yes, I know a lot of them do more and a lot do less, but this is average), which, when combined with the strength armor penetration winds up to about 30 damage. Thog (my warrior) generally runs 16 hammer mastery with a max damage hammer to wind up dealing on the average of 50-70 per hit with skills and somewhere in the ballpark of 20-30 without.

I think a weapon and focus/shield should be allowed. If we want to keep the whole "crippled" thing going, we can limit focuses so that if you're going to use one, it has to be a +15 ene/-1 regen focus, so the person would have to choose between the added energy and the even lower regen. Personally, I think it'd be nice to just allow any/all focuses/shields.