Guardian | Secret Agent Cat

Posts Tagged ‘ Guardian ’

Not A Guardian… Yet!

Wake me when it’s Guild Wars 2 time, I’m going back to bed.

An odd thing has begun happening amongst myself and the friends I play with most often in Guild Wars. We’re already playing Guild Wars 2, in our minds. The amount of anticipation and excitement has been percolating for so long that, unconsciously, we’re shoe-horning our Guild Wars playing experience into the Guild Wars 2 mold.

Our two monks are revolting against support. I play an echoed Ray of Judgement smite build and Odin is running Signet of Spirits. When we can’t pawn off heal/prot duty on a hero (like the other night when we were farming for Canthan New Year) we pack resurrection scrolls, a self-heal apiece, and Csquirrelrun, our token ‘healer’ fills up spaces in his healing build with smiting.

I’m a bit safer when I’m shooting lasers from the sky, but when I’m protting I have to keep reminding myself that I’m not a guardian yet. The reason for this is in the way I play protection. The vast majority of my skills are area-of-effect. Since Guild Wars doesn’t have the awesome ground-targeting that Guild Wars 2 will, in order for my spells to benefit our casters and our melee I often have to place myself in the middle of the action.

I’ll tell you what, tattoos don’t do a very good job of stopping a blade.

So there I am, laying on the ground, mournfully wishing that: “If I must play bitch duty/ support, why can’t I have heavy armor? If I must mother my group and save them from themselves, why can’t I have the luxury of being able to see the battle instead of constantly monitoring health bars and a minimap?”

Is it Guild Wars 2 yet?

Guild Wars is fun, but I’ll be damned if Guild Wars 2 doesn’t look like a game I really, really wish I were playing instead.

2011: 02/08
CATEGORY: Stories
TAGS: Guardian
Guild Wars
Guild Wars 2
Monk
2 comments

My Shield For You

Isn't she adorable?

The Guardian both did, and did not surprise me. I’m a little disappointed that my speculation about auras turned out to be false (artistic license for the win), but the functionality of the Guardian was pretty much what I (and most others) expected.

He’s a magical melee who’s fantastically good at pulling his buddies’ bacon out of the fire and making things difficult for the unsavories. He is also frighteningly similar to Paladins in other games. My knee-jerk reaction would be to not even have a character like this, for fear of appearing to steal ideas and lack imagination to come up with something more unique. But after careful thought it’s obvious that the Guardian paradigm is a strong one that not only has stood the test of time, but fits in quite well with the Guild Wars universe.

Together, the Guardian and the Warrior make up two sides of the same coin. Both wear plate, both have melee and ranged attacks, both can deal damage and protect allies. The warrior specializes in martial weapons and rallying war cries. The Guardian instead is drawn to mysticism, is master of spiritual weapons, and tosses around magic like he’s the sugar plum fairy. The Guardian is the magic to the Warrior’s martial.

I’ve noticed a lot of comparisons being made between the Ritualist’s weapon spells and the Guardian’s ghostly weapons. While I can see the connection, I don’t think it’s the strongest similarity between the Guardian and the Extinct Classes. Nor do I agree that the Guardian acts like a Paragon. That role seems to me to fit solidly in the Warrior’s bailiwick with his shouts and banners.

No, I think the Guardian draws most heavily from the Dervish. Both are melee fighters and both have a marked affinity for the mystical and holy. To play a Dervish is to load yourself up with enchantments and then strip them away for single, devastating attacks.

The Guardian has Virtues which confer a passive effect, but can be stripped (for a time) to provide a large benefit for nearby allies. It’s a streamlined version of the Dervish. Instead of trying to juggle energy between loading up enchantments and stripping them away, the Guardian is able to activate his Auras with a simple click of the mouse.

The ability to choose between three virtues reminds me of the Elementalist’s attunements. I don’t believe it’s been answered weather the Guardian can switch between virtues on the fly, but my best guess is no. That’s as much as I’d like to say about the profession itself. There are plenty of other bloggers giving recaps of the raw information.

I’ve said in the past that it’s my intention to play as the sneaky assassinish character in Guild Wars 2. I also planned to play as a Ranger in Guild Wars 1 and we know how well that worked out. There’s something about the Guardian that pulls at something deep within me. I suspect it has to do with an abiding drive to help other people. It was for this reason that I offered to raid lead for my WoW guild, Unemployed. That decision eventually (and alarmingly quickly) led me to desert WoW forever. It was a good experience, but I’m absolutely certain that my temperament is not suited to leadership. I wasn’t a bad leader, I just hated almost every second of it.

But still, that deep and abiding need to care for my friends remains. Last night I helped my husband finish Nightfall. We killed Abbadon with a full group, but when sending out the call for others to join us I insisted someone be a healer (we already had another healer), because sure as summer follows spring, I wasn’t going to do it. I had a lot of fun with my layzorz (I always do), but constantly in the back of my mind was a kernel of guilt that I was foisting the healing/protection job onto someone else who would probably rather be performing a different job. Ryan ended up being this someone, and though he assured me that healing the Abbadon fight is one of his favorite things to do, that nagging little voice of mine couldn’t be quieted.

I desperately hope that ArenaNet is right when they say that the Guardian’s skill in protection will not lead it to be a required profession like the Monk is now. Because if that happens, I’m fairly certain that I’ll end up in that role when all I really wanted was to try something drastically new.

2011: 01/27
CATEGORY: GW2 Speculation
TAGS: Asura
Guardian
Guild Wars 2
6 comments

In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night

No Evil Shall Escape My Sight.

This post WILL contain Edge of Destiny Spoilers. Just sayin’.

I’m not much of a comic book fan. I also know next to nothing about Green Lantern. Perhaps that’s why I was the first person to draw a comparison between him and our lovely new Guardian profession. Apparently, the Lantern can do a heck of a lot more than make auras with his ring, but I didn’t know that when the idea struck me.

Admittedly, I’m quite a bit late to the Guardian discussion. Maybe yapping about it on Relics took away some of my burning need to tell the world what I thought. (Isn’t that why we blog in the first place?) Needless to say, lots of people beat me to the punch. (Some of you even did it twice!)

I don’t have anything new or interesting to say about weapon choices that hasn’t already been said before, or about armor (It’s going to be plate, duh), but I would like to expostulate on the state of Blue Mace Lady/Lad’s unique mechanic.

Which brings us right around back to that dashing fellow up there.

I’m not going to lie, as I was reading about Logan ~~Traitor~~ Thackeray’s antics, my mind couldn’t help but supply me with imagery, vivid in every lurid detail. (I’ll give Mr. King that, he’s got a firm grasp on describing action) My first thought was of Slimer, from the Ghost Busters.

To my mind, Logan was a walking source of ectoplasmic goo. Extruding it from his extremities at will and painting the air with— y’know what? Let’s stop that line of thinking right there.

Logan’s aura was his thing. It’s what he did. His martial skill was good, but it was his aura tricks that really stole the show. From trip-wires, to protective barriers, to enhanced weaponry, to being able to fly. (Or at least leap tall Destroyers in a single bound.)

My prediction is this: The Guardian’s unique mechanic will center around his manipulation of his aura. He’ll have some kind of alternate resource, perhaps it will be died in closely with energy, similar to a Warrior’s adrenaline and a Necromancer’s life force. This he’ll use to spin his spells and constructs.

He’ll make a giant blue pony out of aura to ride away from his friends with and leave them all to DIE.

I mean, where’d that come from?

But yes, auras. Making stuff from nothing, physical magic. Isn’t that part of my wish-list for Mesmers? Why I believe it was! I’m not interested in playing a Guardian (remember my thing against heavy armor?), but seeing what they can do whets my appetite for the inevitable Mesmer reveal, for certain sure.