Guardian Report Card: Post LU13 with Recommendations [Archive]

Pry

10-02-2005, 01:08 AM

<DIV> The Guardian Report Card This report card is post LU13, a level 50 Guardian with Handcrafted/Treasured/Legendary gear. 39% Avoidance and 2000 mitigation. The hope of this post is to provide a constructive method including commentary to playing a Guardian post-LU13. Soloing: 5 hours were spent in the Sundered Splitpaw: Delving into the Darkness. Stances: <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> 1. Defensive Stance with Tower Shield and 1-Handed Sword: Soloing with a shield/1H/Defensive is near impossible. The tower shield doesn't block as it should, and the damage output < the amount of damage taken. I was able to get to the first group of 4 3-down arrow blue level 48 mobs before I had to flee. <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> Grade: D-</BLOCKQUOTE> 2. Offensive Stance with SSOY (Main Hand), PGT (Off Hand): Much better, most times in yellow or orange at the end of the fight. Taking out Casters, Healers, Tanks respectively this method worked the best. I was able to go through the entire thing only having difficulty on the final group of mobs which stunned me excessively. <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> Grade: B</BLOCKQUOTE> Recommendations: Defensive stance could be useful if you were to get near the red. However, by the time you are in the red, you are probably going to die. A nice effect would be to provide a ~500 hp heal when switching from Offensive to Defensive while in combat. I believe there is something wrong with shields. Not just tower shields, but all of them in general. They don't seem to provide the adequate protection they should. </BLOCKQUOTE> Experience: <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> 1. Experience was abysmal. Pre LU13 I was able to get 10% per run through, this time I was able to get 3% per run through. It took 15-30 minutes longer to complete the run through than Pre-LU13. <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> Grade: F</BLOCKQUOTE> Recommendations: Increase experience modifier for Solo Dungeons. If I spend 1 hour doing a solo instance, and I get 3% experience it will take me 198 hours to level from 50 to 60. For someone that doesn't like logging in and LFG, it eliminates fun for someone that gets their experience primarily through solo.</BLOCKQUOTE> Loot: <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> 1. If you are level 50 in a solo zone, you should get comparable gear. All of the chests I opened contained level 45 - 48 adepts not for my class. <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> Grade: D</BLOCKQUOTE> Recommendations: Make chest drops pertain to your class, or at least make them drop more cash loot rather than adepts that cannot be used. The final mob did drop some gear, which was a nice change. <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> Overall Solo Grade: D</BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE> Grouping: I spent 5 hours in The Sanitorum with an SK, Wizard, Inquisitor, Ranger, Brigand where SK was tanking. Stances: The group asked for me to dual wield (again SSOY and PGT) and do DPS. <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> 1. Defensive: I did switch between offensive and defensive when I was off-tanking mobs. It worked well for what it was worth. It would be nice to be able to switch gear more easily (clearly, using DW while in defensive is silly and difficult to switch to defensive gear while in combat). <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> Grade: C</BLOCKQUOTE> 2. Offensive: I did pretty well with Offensive. I had a hit of 797 at one point and seem to put out adequate DPS (I didn't have a parser so I wasn't able to compare with other classes). The Wizard commented that he hit for 4000 at one point, so effectively I was doing ~15 to 20% of what the wizard could do. <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> Grade: B</BLOCKQUOTE> Recommendations: Allow gear to be assigned based on stance. Allow gear to auto equip if desired when stances are switched. </BLOCKQUOTE> Experience: <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> 1. I got 25% experience through the entire Sanitorium zone. It doesn't seem to bad, but based on the 3 hours I spent in there it would take me 120 hours to level to 60. <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> Grade: D</BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE> Loot: <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> 1. Decent. There were a few good drops in there, and it seemed to be leveled appropriately. Risk Vs. Reward seemed adequate in the area of loot. <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> Grade: B+ Overall Group Grade: C</BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE> Guardian Abilities: <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> 1. I put Vigilance on the SK. I placed Assuage on the Inquistor. This seemed to work out ok. Guardian Sphere, when used only intercepted damage from the SK (bad) and nobody else, even though they were taking damage. I would say that Guardian Sphere should come with an aggro reducer, and have a greater range. Overwhelm should come with a debuff like it had pre-LU13. I definitely see these as utility skills nevertheless when you are not in the role of MT <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> Grade: C</BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE> Miscellaneous: Zones: <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> 1. The zones are beautiful compared to other MMOG's. It's difficult to get to some areas, but doesn't make it impossible. Mobs are still getting stuck in walls, which decreases the grade. <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> Grade: A-</BLOCKQUOTE> Recommendations: Fix mob pathing</BLOCKQUOTE> Factions: <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> 1. The factions are difficult to understand, and more even difficult to increase. The rewards for increasing faction are obtuse, making it not really worthwhile to persue one, added with the fear of making a mistake. <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> Grade: D</BLOCKQUOTE> Recommendations: Make the factions a little less difficult to get, and make them easier to understand. </BLOCKQUOTE> Raiding as MT: <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> 1. Forget it. Mobs are doing 1-2 hit kills with this gear level and making it impossible for healers to keep up. Where I could raid any mob pre LU13, it's near impossible now. Expect a lot of debt and associated costs. <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> Grade: F</BLOCKQUOTE> Recommendations: Either raid mobs have to hit for less, or Handcrafted/Treasured/Legendary gear has to mean more with buffs applied. With a 6 MT system, gear has to drop more frequently, or Handcrafted gear has to be easier to get without hours and hours of harvesting. Solo questing Fabled gear would be a good way to even the disparity.</BLOCKQUOTE> Gameplay: <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> 1. The mobs are still not gender specific in their speech. All of them say "Rip HIS heart out" or "Kill HIM" even if you are a female toon, rather than to be gender/class/race specific. This would add some flavor and lore to the game. Balance racial traits for all races, rather than punishing one in all areas. I would love to see some uniqueness with my toon, rather than be a carbon copy of every other Guardian out there. Hate that my gear sometimes looks mismatched, like I got it from the Salvation Army. <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> Grade: A-</BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE> Dueling: <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> 1. As a Guardian you will find difficulty beating any class due to your lack of personal utility. Therefore, you are probably better off not wasting your time. <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> Grade: F</BLOCKQUOTE> Recommendations: Grant individual utility to the Guardian Class</BLOCKQUOTE> Solo Questing: <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> 1. Much more difficult I found than pre-LU13. The quests are often high risk low reward, and that should be evaluated. <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> Grade: D</BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE> Overall grade post-LU13: C- Conclusion: Given the LU13 changes a chance, there is potential. Some things need to be evaluated and fixed, but the game can be playable if things are properly done. These changes are my views only after 20 hours or so of playing, YMMV. Feel free to add your own opinions and I will update as I can. I don't play so much anymore, but I do get on once in a great while. I feel like it's less fun than it was before (thus lack of playtime), but that doesn't mean it can't be streamlined, and if it is I will certainly get on more.</DIV>Message Edited by Prynn on 10-01-2005 03:34 PM

Moontayle

10-02-2005, 04:55 AM

<DIV>This is less a Guardian Report Card as a General Game Report Card as seen by a Guardian.</DIV> <DIV> It also isn't terribly enlightening. Any Guardian can make your current class observations (solo, it's better to go Offense, group it's better to go Defense if you're tanking, etc), and people have been making your experience and loot observations for months.</DIV>

TunaBoo

10-02-2005, 06:06 AM

Lot of typing.. main problem is we have no utlity and no real benefit as a tank etc. etc. in other threads. <div></div>

Pry

10-02-2005, 04:06 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Moontayle wrote: <DIV>This is less a Guardian Report Card as a General Game Report Card as seen by a Guardian.</DIV> <DIV> It also isn't terribly enlightening. Any Guardian can make your current class observations (solo, it's better to go Offense, group it's better to go Defense if you're tanking, etc), and people have been making your experience and loot observations for months.</DIV> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV>Here's the issue as I see it. I made a lot of generalised comments knowing that stuff just wasn't right. In the meantime, I went to World of Warcraft to play. I decided that it wasn't fair for me to make comments on a system that "you just need to try out". So I did. And I posted my unbiased, rational comments about it here, just as I was asked to in several threads.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Now, you could read it and take it for what it's worth, or you could post jerkie comments like the one above thereby ensuring two things:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>1) One more person stays in WoW.</DIV> <DIV>2) The nerf isn't the problem, it's the community.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I wasn't trying to be original, just post my thoughts. Since you didn't read my thread (which is too bad really) and decided to make nasty comments about it, I just want to say thanks for making my decision so much easier. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></DIV>Message Edited by Prynn on 10-02-2005 05:09 AM

Grey-Cat

10-02-2005, 06:30 PM

Just wanted to agree with you, that pretty much sums up the guardain experiece, which is not very good. It is a rational analysis with constructive ideas, we need more people to post this way, if nothing else than to let the developers know we are still not happy, and we don't just need "to relearn to play our class" or "get used to the changes". The overall expereince of being a guardian isn't great, for some it isn't even good. <div></div>