Nightfall

[WarBlade]

From the description so far, I'm guessing it's going to be a couple hotkeys with simple commands like "attack anything in aggro" and "retreat," since those two seem to be the biggest downfalls of hench ai (just standing there and doing nothing as long as you're not attacking, no matter what the enemy is doing; and staying in a fight a lot longer than they should). Really, I'd be surprised if it was anything different than what you normally get in an RTS game. A "stay here" command would be great for pulling, but I don't want to get my hopes up; there have been a few upgrades that sounded great when they were announced but left a feeling of "big whoop" when they were implemented (the recent stash upgrade, for example).

In my case I think I will allow myself to have my hopes up for a "stay here" command. After all, the ghost king used in Dunes of Dispair clearly shows the capacity for such already built into the game, so all we need now is an instruction to be added to get the same or similar effect on henchmen.8)

What's got my interest is the first part of the thing: the customizable henches that level with the player. I wonder if this means each person gets their own set of henches that will stay with them throughout the game, levelling with them simlarly to pets.

That's one option. Diablo II did it.

Another could be that they're simply referring to the way the henchmen have increased levels outposts further into the game. Thinking on the subject of attribute requirements I'm inclined to start thinking something like a DII-style Mercenary might well be on the horizon.

Another thought occurs to me about all this: Does this not set a precedent for Ranger pets to attack on command rather than loosely follow weapon attacks finally?


And in further news on Nightfall, this week's Scribe speaks of more updates.

[Lurker Wyrm]

For those wondering, you can play the new classes for the weekend now.

Lots of downloading to ensue (60+ MB).

edit: A review after playing the new classes for about 20 minutes.

Paragon: Has 80AL armor that gets either energy (standard +8 over normal setup) or +10 vs. elemental and an additional +10 vs. a specific element (lightning or fire). Gets 2 pips of regen and 30 energy. Basically warrior armor with a bit more energy and elemental instead of physical. I don't really get why, if it's supposed to be a mid-range fighter, but whatever. Their primary attribute, Leadership, is a little weird. What it does is, whenever you use a shout or chant, you gain 1 energy for each ally that's effected by it (there is a limitation of 1 per 3 ranks but I've gotten 5 energy with 11 ranks, so I think it's closer to 1 per 2 ranks, if it's even there to begin with). And yes, non-party allies work with the attribute.

Spears have staff range and most spear attack skills use adrenaline (wow, another class that uses adrenal attacks). Spears seem like a mish-mash between swords and bows. Well, that's about all there is to say about spears.

The Paragon has 2 new types of skills available: Chants and Echoes. Chants all work based on a "the next time target ally/foe uses a skill of some sorts, this happens;" for example: Lyric of Zeal: the next time target ally within earshot uses a signet, they gain energy. Some add damage or conditions, some heal, some have other battlefield effects. Echoes work a bit differently. They have an effect while in place, and every time a shout or chant ends on the effected person, they are re-applied (Mending Refrain gives health regen that is re-applied when one ends); either that or they last a specific length of time and have an effect each time a shout/chant ends (Finale of Restoration gives health each time one ends). The majority of skills are Shouts, Echoes, and Chants, with some spear attacks and plain skills, and very few signets.

A few notable skills:
"We Shall Return!" - gives bonus health and energy to res skills.
"Go for the Eyes!" - 4 adrenaline and gives a massive bonus to the critical chance for your allies' next attack.

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Dervish: Basically has Assassin armor (70al, 4 regen, 25e)with a pretty big health bonus (+40 chest, +10 leggings, +5 hands/feet) or a smaller bonus (+25 on chest and that's it) with elemental resists (same as paragon only vs. cold and earth). This one baffles me: the frontliner gets 70al and the mid/backliner gets 80al; the frontliner gets 4 regen and the backliner gets 2. I don't quite get ANet.

Their primary attribute, Mysticism, gives them energy and health every time an enchantment on them ends (3 health per rank and 1 energy per 2 ranks). Ending their own enchantments seems to be the way this class works. There are a plethora of skills that consume an enchantment and just as many enchantments that have effects when they're activated and another when they're removed. Combined with Contemplation of Purity (even though it's DF based), this can produce some massive results.

The big thing about this class, the transformations, leaves me a little worried. Each transformation is tied to their primary attribute (makes sense), lasts 1...48 seconds, and recharges in 5. As of right now, they're all elite. Why they have the 5s recharge listed, I don't know, because the description says the skill is disabled for 120 seconds. The nearest I can figure is that if the transformation is interrupted, you can try again quickly. The 120 second recharge is a bear though, because that leaves you untransformed for about 70 seconds, which is a bit iffy considering it's using up your elite slot. There are no non-mysticism elites available at the moment, so I can't comment on any of those. One of the elite skills looks pretty overpowered at the moment: Vow of Silence. This elite makes it so that you can't be the target of spells with the drawback that you can't cast spells while under it. Any non-spellcaster can really abuse this one with a +20% enchant modifier since it lasts 5...9 seconds and recharges in 10. Unending Spell Breaker? Why, thank you. Also worth noting: forms are not enchants and therefore cannot be broken.

Wind Prayers and Earth Prayers are closer to the monk side of things, offering various heals and protections, although the heals are pretty weak and no substitute for monk skills. Some of the earth skills are really nice (Sand Shards deals damage to nearby enemies when you miss -- hello blind counter), as are some of the wind ones; but for the most part they're pretty useless. Wind Prayers has the distinction of having your only attack speed booster, Whirling Charge, which increases run and attack speed by 33% for 5...9 seconds and recharges in 15, so it's not too bad. The downside is that it auto-ends if you're not under an enchantment.

Scythes are pretty nice. They do 9-41 damage and automatically hit foes adjacent to you when you attack someone. A lot of scythe attacks (and other non-attack skills as well) remove an enchantment from yourself, so be careful to not get carried away. There are a couple throw-away enchants available (one is 5e, 3s recharge) which can make things easier. One skill, Twin Moon Sweep, takes an enchantment away and attacks twice, making it sound a lot like a non-elite Hundred Blades (since the adjacent foes thing is built into scythes). Unless otherwise specified, scythe attacks will damage all foes hit by their attacks (for example: Mystic Sweep deal bonus damage to everyone hit, Crippling Sweep will only cripple the targetted enemy).

Other random things I've noticed:
- Neither new class has any hex spells, I guess those are unholy or something.
- You can only play as a male paragon or female dervish right now (with very limited head customizations).
- Dervishes have a lot of melee attacks that require spear mastery but not a spear (i.e. you can use them with any melee weapon equipped).
- As usual, the ANet designed prebuilds leave a lot to be desired -- most are useless.
- Bringing a Dervish with Avatar of Balthazar form and a scythe into Prophecies can cause some serious damage (auto-AoE holy damage).
- Dance emotes don't work yet.
- You don't get faction for individual Zaishen kills anymore. Makes getting that free 1k per day a bit harder.

Pictures of the transformations (haven't unlocked Lyssa yet):

[Havral]

Aww. Can't make female characters right now.

At least for Paragon primes. Oh well.

[Zed-F]

Any individual dervish heal might seem relatively small, but there are a lot of them and they do add up. For instance, a D/Mo can stack Live vicariously, Vigorous spirit, and Mystic Vigor to get massive heal-per-attack (combined with auto-AoE attack for multiple procs per attack) and then add something like Mystic Regeneration or Dwayna's Touch or even Mystic Healing (if you are feeling generous to your allies) on top of that.

I expect the plethora of enchantment-based heals will make Dervishes seem quite capable when it comes to tanking... providing they don't get stripped.

[WarBlade]

I was thinking about enchant stripping just before reading that. Looking at the Paragon I think we have another avenue opening to us to put a protector of sorts into areas like Tombs. 8) Given the limitations of Warrior shouts, and the nuke bait of Ritualist spirits, that could be a good thing.

Incidentally I also found that the Factions PvE Beta keys are functional again. I just used that 'temporary' account again after all this time to have a look at the Paragon. Try those if you're like me and clean out of spare character slots.

[Lurker Wyrm]

For all the Lyssa fans out there:

Well, that's 12k Bal faction wasted, but meh, it was worth it. Avatar of Balthazar is my favorite so far, but an Avatar of Dwayna can make a self protection giant. Every time you use a skill in that form you get health.

Oh, and the long cooldowns on transformations make more sense now that I'm using them more, they'd be pretty imbalanced otherwise.

edit: Oh, and for those wondering, they're working on the GW store option for character slot purchasing. The last I heard, you'll be able to buy up to 26 new character slots for an account. I doubt anyone but Seijin will need that many.

[WarBlade]

Only 26???

Why are they hamstringing us that hard?

[Lurker Wyrm]

The event ended an hour ago, will post thoughts on it and new classes later.

[Seijin]

The last I heard, you'll be able to buy up to 26 new character slots for an account. I doubt anyone but Seijin will need that many..

26?!?!?!???!!?!?!?

That's it? I'd need so much more than that.

[Jamby]

But at $10 a pop, why would anyone buy more than 2(enough to get 1 of profession)? I've already bought one, and it was a pricey purchase for just a new character slot. Its so hard being a consumer sometimes