Mastering tanks, one boss at a time.
I’m sorry guys. I’ve been waiting for this game for two years, ever since I was lucky enough to find a stray nVidia booth offering a 40 min playthough at PAX, and now it’s little more than a day away. I have to vent my excitement somehow. (I can’t imagine how the people who have been waiting the full five years since it was originally announced are faring.)
So here are my favorite screenshots I took during the many beta weekend events and stress tests. Beware, there are a lot of them.
This is the second in an MoP series on tank comparison. I’ve asked several tanks for improvements to this list, but it’s still possible that I’ve missed something. Please comment if I’ve forgotten or improperly evaluated something. Next I will cover passive bonuses and masteries.
My plans for this series are as follows:
In this post I compare defensive abilities for all tanks, which I define as situational skills with long cooldowns (greater than 30sec) that keep you alive through extreme damage. Raid utilities are included if they help keep the tank alive as well, though it should be noted that they cannot always be used this way. Also, passive cooldowns like Purgatory are included because they have internal cooldowns and can normally be depended on just like a traditional cooldown.
Only one week until those of us who pre-purchased GW2 can play it! So here are my plans.
This is the first of an MoP series on tank comparison. I’ve asked several tanks for improvements to this list, but it’s still possible that I’ve missed something. Please comment if I’ve forgotten or improperly evaluated something. Next I will cover long cooldowns.
My plans for this series are as follows:
In this post I compare active mitigation for all tanks, which I define as rotational skills with short cooldowns (less than 30sec) that keep you alive through average damage (i.e. melee hits or spells that are used very often), or consume resources that would otherwise keep you alive. Some of these abilities are more situational than others, but my goal is to include everything that fits the above definition.
Everyone knows that you have to marry just one MMO. With subscription fees and time commitment, there’s only room in the average person’s life for one massively multiplayer time sink. No woman or man can have it all. So for those of us who don’t want to be monogamous to our MMOs, we have to be (dun dun dun) casual. Or just really good at managing time.
So what’s a GW2 and WoW lover supposed to do? I can’t be a progression raider in WoW if I’m (shudder) casual, but I can’t become a PvP superstar in GW2 if I spend all my time dying to the disconnect boss in Mogu’shan Vaults.
This is a common question for people new to GW2. I can see why people ask it, as jumping into Guild Wars 2 structured PvP right away can be pretty overwhelming.
So here I’m going to answer the most common questions I see or had myself. If you want the quick answer, just talk to the NPCs with a chalkboard icon above their heads. They actually provide a lot of information.
Continue reading “Where to find weapons in PvP and other Guild Wars 2 Tips”
I think everyone needs an opportunity to be the victim of their own earth-shattering stupidity. It’s a great learning experience.
On the eve of my eighteenth birthday (many years ago), I was hanging around in my free-to-play MMO of choice. I was relatively well respected on my server. Not super famous, like the 13 year old Israeli kid who was the highest level person in the game and once asked me to hold his farming spot because he had to hide from bombs. But people sort of looked up to me. Random, awe-inspired whispers were pretty normal.
This is my particular brand of crazy — some may even call it a gift. The truth is, I can wipe many, many times without become too frustrated, at least before we score that first kill. (Wipes after that first kill…well no one’s patience can last that long.)
Since I am nearly done wiping in Cataclysm, here are my all time high scores, complete with recent pictures I’ve taken while wiping.
For too long, lady pandaren have been forced into a very strict fashion trend. We all tied our red or black hair into pigtails, slapped on some premade gear, and adventured forth as an army of unfortunate clones. It sort of reminded me of middle school, where looking up-to-date and fashionable was incredibly important, but no one really knew how to do it properly so we all just copied each other.
But no more, ladies! With the latest beta update, female pandaren can not only customize their fur color, face, and hair style, but we can also choose from eight vibrant highlights and six styles of earrings.
I am one of those people who is hilariously bad at PvP but for some reason keeps on playing with the hope that they will eventually get better. After much desk pounding and foul language that embarrasses even the most aggressive PvPer, I do get a little better, but it only happens after I scare away all of my teammates.
Now, I love Guild Wars 2. For this second beta event weekend, I spent most of my time participating in rage-inducing structured PvP. I did a little World vs World vs. World, which is sort of like Wintergrasp except 50 times bigger and has three servers fighting each other. That’s not really PvP in the truest sense, because you spend most of your time tearing down walls, but it’s like entry level PvP that doesn’t have high stakes and it’s fun even if you’re losing (unless you’re getting dominated, though once servers get ranked that should be rare).
Continue reading “A Competitive Failure’s Guild Wars 2 PvP Experience”