Nightfall WPE 9/22 - 9/24

[Zed-F]

So that they can build a chapter with Jatoro and Suwash and all the other pirate-wannabes going up against a squad of assassins (i.e. ninja?)

[Seijin]

I liked the Dervish, but didn't get to try the Paragon.

I had no problems staying alive. I actually didn't die at all until some point I got bored and just started aggroing stuff to see if me and my heroes could pull through.

I went primarily scythe mastery and evened out earth and mysticism. I only made it to about lvl 15 and I didn't even use my monk secondary for anything except rebirth.

I think the skills I liked using were:

1. Pious Assault 5e
   
2. Chilling Victory 15e
   
3. Eremite's Attack 5e
   
4. Mystic Sweep 5e
   
5. Dust Cloak 10e
   
6. Heart of Holy Flame 10e
   
7. Vital Boon 5e
   
8. Res
   

I mainly had fun putting up an enchant like dust cloak or Heart of Holy Flame with a mob around me hitting them all for some quick dmg. Then using Mystic Sweep or Eremite's attack, whatever would do more dmg. Then use Chilling Victory if I had the energy or Pious Assault for dmg and the enchant after effects and then Pious Assault again since it automatically recharged.

[WarBlade]

Speaking of those, I went through the skill lists looking at the new elites and there were a couple that really need better descriptions.

Weapon of Fury:

-snip-

Balthazar's Pendulum:

Both have already been reported in recent days

Oh, and someone might want to take a look into this one:
http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/5708/mdsciz4.th.jpg

Placeholder.

[Lurker Wyrm]

I had 40 AL chest armor and starter other armor for most of the game.

That right there was your problem, not Chillbains. Frontliner with lousy armor = lots of dirt naps.

Except Boon/Prots aren't in the front lines which makes me question the Dervish's design at times.

No, but they have had to learn to deal with mass enchant removal and other such forms of enchant hate such as NR.

I was somewhat confused on the mechanics of the tribunal scene. What exactly do you get if you have the higher score? I got 20 to their 17 or 18 but I didn't notice anything special.

If you don't win (aka get the lower score) then, from what I've heard, General Morgahn will kill you. I'm not sure what effect it'll have on future gameplay if you win/lose, but it could be fun to find out.

Edit: Oh yeah, Amazon has the pre-order packages for $4.99. Either there or Gamestop for $9.99 if you just want the bonus stuff (i.e. you want to wait for a price drop before getting the whole thing).

[Roland]

Just some Dervish skills I had great luck with. Some of these made me virtually invincible, to the point where I got careless and died to a much-higher-level mob group because I let all my Henchies and Heros die without even noticing.

Vital Boon (Earth) - +Max Health, with strong healing when the Enchantment ends? A constant-use skill; never left my skillbar, and was always active. Great combined with Twin Moon Sweep (lose 1 Enchant, two attacks + heal) for some strong spike damage and massive healing. Can bring you back from the brink of death instantly, while hammering at your opponent. And, + max health is always good, especially for Necros who use a lot of Sacrifice skills (provided, of course, they have enough current health to compensate).

Balthazar's Rage (Mysticism) - PvP only use for me, but very valuable. AoE Holy damage, attacks become Holy (harder to resist, yes?), and when it ends, you gain + health per hit while you were Enchanted with it. What's not to like? Great spike heal while chewing through opponents, especially when combined with an attack speed increasing skill (even ones that increase damage taken).

Faithful Intervention (Mysticism) - Again, PvP only for me, but another must-have, just about. No duration Enchant that gives you a strong spike heal if your health drops below 50%, or the Enchantment ends through other means. Again, useful for Twin Moon Strike for excellent spike heal, although more difficult to pull off, since this was always first on my list (and thus last one out). A nice saving grace when you're on the brink of death.

Meditation (Mysticism) - With no Enchants on, provides good healing. Useful for right after an Enchantment removal chain, as this is when you're most vulnerable.

Mystic Vigor (Mysticism) - For each hit, you gain +healing per active Enchantment! How can you get any better than that? Combine with Balthazar's Rage (+healing / hit at end), and Twin Moon Sweep (two attack + heal), and especially an IAS skill, and you have sustainable healing while damaging your opponent that gets stronger the more you build your Enchantment chain up. This skill alone just about made me invincible in PvE. In PvP, damage is much more spikey and faster, so it wasn't as strong, but still could prove very useful.

Pious Renewal (Mysticism, Elite) - 8 seconds duration, each ending Enchantment grants Energy and Healing. Very powerful when combined with an Enchantment chain (I will get to this term later).

Watchful Intervention (Mysticism) - Strong version of Faithful Intervention that can affect any ally, except at 25%, and with a duration. If it ends prematurely, no inherent effect. More useful for saving an ally (like Imbue Health - a potent ally-healing skill)

Dwayna's Touch (Wind) - Touched ally gets some healing per Enchantment. Max of 120. Can be used on self, I think (touch is usable on self, right?), providing some solid healing.

Natural Healing (Wind) - Strong self-heal, but at cost of 5 additional Energy if you're under the effects of an Enchantment. Useful for post Enchantment chain.

Pious Restoration (Wind) - Lose an Enchantment. Gain healing. If still under Enchantments, lose 1 - 3 Hexes. VERY useful self-heal with powerful Hex removal. 1/4 second casting, 5 Energy, 4 second recharge. Powerful for the cost, when used right.

Offensive skills like Twin Moon Strike (Lose Enchantment, two attacks + heal) and Penitent Strike (+damage; if foe less health, lose Enchantment; if Enchantment lost in this way, + healing), and Reap Impurities (+ damage, + healing if hits a foe under a Condition - easy for any Dervish) can also provide some healing, creating a buffer. When combined with certain Enchantments, you can create some very nice healing abilities.

Conviction and Mystic Regeneration both offer (potentially) +health regeneration, although neither did I have the splendor of using. Still, they could be very useful, especially Mystic Regeneration, due to its ability "When this Enchantment ends, lose 1 Enchantment". This is useful for triggering multiple procs of "When this Enchantment ends...", i.e. using Pious Assault (with Mystic Regen being the last cast - last in, first out - Enchantment), to trigger the instant recharge, while also ending another Enchant (preferably a damage and/or Condition-inducing one), and setting you up for another Pious Assault. Makes for some GREAT AoE spike damage. Or combine with Twin Moon Sweep for two attacks plus some decent healing.

Enchantment Chain:
Ok, now to get into what I mean by this. For those of you unfamiliar with the Dervish, there is a very common thread in his skills: use of Enchantments. Most of his skills revolve around Enchantments in some way. Sometimes, it's removal of enemy Enchantments. Sometimes, it's "If you are under an Enchantment". Most often, it's a beneficial (to you; sometimes harmful to your foes) effect when an Enchantment ends. Combining this with Enchantment self-removal skills, especiall Scythe attacks, can create some very powerful combos. Irresistible Sweep, Penitent Strike, Pious Assault, and Twin Moon Sweep are all attacks that remove Enchantments. Combined with such Enchantment skills as Aura of Thorns (bleeding), Dust Cloak (blinding), Mirage Cloak (earth damage), Staggering Force (weakness), Veil of Thorns (crippled), Vital Boon (+ healing), Heart of Fury (burning - nearby), Heart of Holy Flame (burning - adjacent), and Grenth's Fingers (crippled), you can create some very lethal spike AoE damage and nasty Conditions.

For example, say you wade into your enemies with Mystic Vigor (20 seconds, + healing per hit per Enchantment active on you), Pious Haste (stance, 9 seconds max, 25% faster movement, removes Enchantment on ending) and Heart of Fury (17 seconds max, 33% faster attack, on ending Burning for 3 seconds max to nearby foes) active, cast in that order. You rush in, cast Raging Renewal (51 max Holy damage, at end +1 Energy per hit) and Balthazar's Rage (51 max Holy damage, at end + healing per hit), in that order. You now have 25% faster movent, 33% faster attack, have dealt ~100 AoE Holy damage, and will gain healing and Energy back when some of your Enchantments end. Let's say you get in a good 3 swings before Pious Haste ends. This will grant you 6 x 5 = 30 health per swing from Mystic Vigor, with 3x swings making 90 health. When Pious Haste ticks off, you lose Balthazar's Rage, granting you 27 Health (plus 12 x 2 Health and 4 x 2 Energy for rank 12 Mysticism, totaling 141 / 8). This leaves you with Mystic Vigor, Heart of Fury, and Raging Renewal left on you. Using a skill like Pious Assault will grant + damage and remove an Enchantment, instantly recharing it. Raging Renewal will end, granting you at least 4 Energy (plus another 12 / 4 from Mysticism attribute, and another 12 health from Vigor), and Pious Assault will be ready again. Another use, and you lose Heart of Fury, dropping your 33% IAS but Burning nearby foes (not Adjacent, but Nearby - important difference), and granting you another 12 / 4 from Mysticism, and 6 from Vigor. Pious Assault is again recharged, and if you can get it off for a third time before Mystic Vigor ends, you'll get a third + damage attack that instantly recharges, and another 12 / 4 Health / Energy from your Mysticism attribute. By now, you should be at or near full Health and Energy, have dealt significant Adjacent AoE damage (from your spells and your Pious Assault, which can hit up to 3 Adjacent foes), and be ready to start on another Enchantment chain.

It is this power which grants the Dervish his true strengths. Just as we build characters around Skill combos for our bars and Professions, so to must we learn to combine Enchantments with other skills in the Dervish class (if not others), to provide significant benefits to us and our allies, and detriments to our enemies. There are Enchantments that heal allies, cause Conditions, deal damage, etc. all upon ending. One spell in particular can be used to davastating effect: Mystic Sandstorm (Earth) - lose all Enchants; deal 10...30 Earth damage per Enchantment lost in this way to all adjacent foes (130 max). Combine this with skills like Aura of Thorns (bleeding), Heart of Fury (burning), and Dust Cloak (blinded), you can leave your foes with a nasty 90 Earth damage spike, bleeding, burning, and blinded. Throw in a defensive skill like Mirage Cloak for another 53 + 30 (Sandstorm) Earth damage, or Veil of Thorns for Crippling, and you can severely weaken an entire team if they are clustered together. This has great potential in both PvP and PvE.

A Dervish well-equipped for Enchantment chains can wreak havoc on the battlefield. The only downside is a severe Energy limitation (which can be gotten over through the use of the right skills, and general skill management), and potential vulnerability when the chain has ended. Alone, a Dervish can be a fiersome weapon. Supported properly, it can be outright deadly.

Now, I'm far from any expert, on the Dervish or GW itself, but I played extensively as the Dervish, in PvE and PvP, throughout the whole weekend, so I feel I can speak on my observations about the class. I do not feel it is overpowered; there were plenty of times where I got my rear handed to me (Knockdown is brutal; Warriors and Mesmers are the bane of Dervishes), but there were also plenty of times where I simply CHEWED through the opposition, when I was supported properly by my team (when we all worked together :P).

Personally, I'm greatly looking forward to the Dervish. I have seen his strengths and weaknesses, and I cannot wait to try his hand some more at PvP.

[Lurker Wyrm]

I just thought I'd post all the pre-order deals I know of for Nightfall. If you've got one also, feel free to mention it. Oh, and these are all for online purchases, since posting local deals would be kinda pointless.

Gamestop/EB - Everyone should know by now that Gamestop bought out EB, so they both have the same deal. You can get starter kits for $10 and the CE now comes with one for free. Also, ordering the starter kit version of the game includes a free poster (whatever that winds up looking like) which is an online only deal.

Outpost.com - Regular for $50, CE for $65. Neither version includes the starter kit.

Amazon.com - CE, Regular, starter kit. No special prices or anything, the presell starter kit is out of stock from Amazon itself.

Best Buy - Standard prices ($50, $70) and the starter kits are free. No free poster like at Gamestop but it's a better deal if you just want the standard + starter. Also, if you buy the standard you can get $10 off with purchase of WoW: Burning Crusade. Not sure if anyone here plays WoW, but if you do it's a pretty good deal.

Those are all the major online stores that I can think of. Unfortunately (thanks to ANet's wonderful release date) if you want to play the game the weekend it's released you have to get overnight shipping, which is $10 at most stores. If you don't care about that then Gamestop and Best Buy have the cheap $2.99 value shipping you can use (5-10 days) and Amazon has a free shipping option. Outpost's cheapest shipping is just under $7 for ground.

Edit: Gamestop is offering Free 2-day shipping on Nightfall. Not sure if it's a 24 hour deal or if it's going to stay until release. It also seems as though they're no longer offering the starter kit (not 100% sure, but whenever I click a link that has the starter kit, I get a page not found error).

Edit 2: Well, it seems as though Gamestop has taken the starter kit off their website, so I guess that means you can't get through them anymore.

Edit 3: Gamestop has the starter kit versions available again, but the free shipping is no longer active.

Edit 4: Gamestop has now lowered the price of the Starter Kit to $4.99 even if you don't buy it with the game.

Edit 5: Price on the starter kit standalone is back up to $9.99, go figure.

Edit 6: Gamestop is shipping Nightfall starting Weds. 10/25. There have been reports on Guru of some B&M (brick and mortar, aka the stores you drive to) stores already having it in stock. Go figure. This is also my record for most edits about the updates to a store website.

[Zed-F]

I was just looking at Guildwiki and realized that my air ele may need to convert to fire for at least a while in Nightfall. You thought echo fire nukers were bad before? I have 4 spells for you.

1) Searing Flames (elite.)
2) Arcane Mimicry. (I predict we'll see a lot more of this spell in Nightfall!)
3) Hero ally with Elemental Attunement.
4) Arcane Echo.
Flavour to taste with standard Fire ele support spells, such as Fire Attunement, as well as meteor shower for when KD is important.

All enemies in a nearby radius start on fire and take 7-91 fire damage EVERY SECOND. That will thin out a mob real fast. In fact it might be too fast -- triggering the AoEDoT flight behaviour. Fixing that is simplicity, though -- just forget the arcane echo and sub in other nifty single target quick recharge spells like mark of rogdort and immolate to keep everyone on fire so Searing Flames can do its work. Or use the echo on a different fire spell, such as good old MS.

[Lurker Wyrm]

So I guess Arcane Mimicry is finally going to have a use. Normally it's comepletely worthless because of the long recharge and because henches don't really bring anything worth mimicing.

Mind Blast looks to be really abusable as well. When combined with Mark of Rodgort it'll very easily outdamage Mind Burn and not have the exhaustion downside. In fact, if you've got high energy storage, you won't even need an attunement to keep using it constantly since it gives you more energy than it uses.

Monk signet smiters are also going to become pretty nice as well. With the reduced recharge on Sig of Judgement and the combination of that, Bane Signet, Signet of Rage and Signet of Mystic Wrath along with Mantra of Inscriptions, you're going to have a pretty neverending supply of smiting signets. Really, you could even ignore one of the sigs and use a couple maintained enchants to keep Mystic Wrath's damage pretty high.

I suppose we're just going to have to wait another week (or two, since getting all the skills might take a while) before we start experimenting and also to find out how many skill have been changed since the preview event (although I somehow doubt there will have been that many changes).