Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Azeroth vs. Tyria part 8: A Mage That Uses More Than One Element? That's Crazy Talk

It's time to talk about another Tyrian profession. For today's post we've got two people chiming in: Malador the team's fire mage and Daikaja, our resident shaman. Before we begin, I'm curious why the two of you are looking at the same profession. I understand why Mal's looking at the elementalist seeing as he's a mage and all, but why would it interest a shaman?

Well there's not exactly a shaman profession available over there, so I have to look elsewhere. As for why I'm looking at this and not something else, it just feels like a better fit. There's no healer profession, so that's out. I could go dual-wield melee as a warrior or a rogue, but both of those are all physical combat. I'm a shaman and maintaining that tie with the elements is important to us, so the only real option available is elementalist. That being said, it's not as big of a stretch as you might think. I have been known to dabble as elemental dps from time to time, so I'm familiar with being a caster. At least I know how to use more than one element...

How dare you! I'll have you know that I've had plenty of experience with other specs.

Okay, that's enough from both of you. You're not spending this whole post bickering. Mal, let's hear why you're looking at the elementalist.

Certainly. As you know I'm an experienced mage in Azeroth. I've spent my whole life practicing with the elements and the arcane, using them to freeze, incinerate, or blast my foes. Given all of that experience with being a cloth-wearing wielder of the elements, I feel that it's an obvious choice that I should be the one to discuss this new profession.

That establishes why both of you are interested, so now let's get into the details. Weapons have seemed like a good place to start with the other posts, so let's have Mal talk about the elementalist's weapon selection given that he's familiar with the mage offerings.

The weapon offerings for the elementalist would feel very familiar to a mage looking at the profession. Staves are the only two-handed weapon available and those are primarily an AoE weapon, offering such skills as Meteor Shower and Chain Lightning. For main hand weapons, elementalists cannot wield swords like mages in Azeroth, but we gain the ability to wield scepters. These provide a variety of medium range spells both single and multiple target, such as Phoenix and Shatterstone. There's also daggers for the main hand and those are mostly close range attacks (e.g. Dragon's Claw) as well as many of our self-defense techniques (e.g. Shocking Aura).

Little more impressive than making a glowy red patch on the ground, huh?

For off-hand weapons, the elementalist can choose an additional dagger if they want more supportive abilities such as Fire Shield or Geyser. Alternatively they can use a focus like the ones we had in Azeroth. Rather than merely providing raw spell power though, these give access to powerful close range abilities like Flamewall or Lightning Field. In addition to merely being strong point blank techniques, these are also typically used for setting up cross-profession combinations. Have you addressed those yet, sir?

Sigh... no. That's another one to add to the pile. Back on task though. It sounds like you've got quite a few options there. Not only do you have all those weapons to choose from for your combat sets, but it sounded like you have spells from all four elements to choose from on each weapon as well. So how exactly are those elements mixed up amongst the weapons? Is it like one skill of each element or are there some that are heavy towards a specific one?

I'll take this one. It's actually neither. For each weapon, we basically have four sets of the five skills - one for each element. The elementalist can attune himself to an element and that switches out his skills. The attunements give the caster some passive bonuses and the skills tend to have a general theme to them. Water for example can heal your allies passively and the skills focus more on slowing foes and providing additional healing, whereas fire is heavy burning and AoE damage and causes fire damage to anyone that touches you. Air's a lot of lightning damage and blinding attacks in addition to shocking nearby opponents, and earth provides the caster with more passive defenses and lots of skills to protect themselves and their teammates. As such, an elementalist basically has four weapons for each weapon they own.

You have no idea how hard it is to resist using every electricity pun I know here

Nice, so in combat you essentially have eight different skill sets you can flip between with your second weapon?

Unfortunately no. We can change attunements, but we cannot change weapons while in combat. If you start combat with a staff, you're stuck with it until everything's dead. On the plus side though, switching attunements basically serves the job of switching weapons anyways. You might not have the perfect weapon available at all time, like if you start at range and everything's closed to melee, but you'll be able to find skills within the four attunements to accomplish the task just fine.

Hmm, not fond of being restricted to just one weapon at a time, but that's the warrior in me talking. Still seems like you'll have options in a fight, so I guess it all works out. Let's move on to some of the stuff that makes the elementalist different from the mage and shaman. Mal, you're up.

There's a few areas, though the attunements that my shaman "colleague" mentioned are the primary difference. Another area would be the use of glyphs. These are temporary enhancements the elementalist can use to augment their abilities. They can be simple bonuses like the Glyph of Elemental Power (simply makes all of your attacks critical hits for 10 seconds) or they can be a little more imaginative like the Glyph of Elemental Storage (allows you to store a skill from your current attunement for use while in a different attunement).

Signets are another difference between elementalists and mages, but those have been covered in the other profession posts. I can give a few examples, but there's not really anything new to discuss there.

Ah, forgot about conjuration for a second there! While elementalists may not be the "vending machines" that many consider us mages to be, they do have some ability to conjure for others. Rather than being limited to food and drink however, these conjurations serve a combat purpose. Each element has a different conjure spell that can be used to create elemental environmental weapons such as the ones you discussed last week. For scenarios where you're placed up against a foe with an elemental weakness, either natural or caused by someone in the party, equipping everyone with an elementally attuned weapon could significantly increase your damage output.

The last major difference that I can think of would be in area of effect spells.

What is there to be different? I think I only ever saw you two cast a couple different types of AoE. Mages summoned it on one spot or did that Arcane Explosion thing. Maybe once or twice you guys used a cone attack. Shamans dropped a totem to make it pulse fire, then they dropped Chain Lightning on things. What exactly is different?

Well, all of those things are still available. We just have more options for them. I know I certainly would; Fire Nova just hit whatever was around my Flame Shock target and Chain Lightning would hit whatever it felt like hitting in the area. I suppose they did get Earthquake, but that was while I was running around as enhancement.

The shaman is correct about the expanded options. Bear in mind that while mages may have had all of those different types of AoE available to us, the options in each category were limited. Point blank was Arcane only unless you dropped one of the channeled spells on your head. Targeted area and frontal cone had two choices, but they suffered from the other problem mages had: our spec limited our options. If you were arcane, then you really only wanted to use Arcane Explosion. Frost mages preferred Blizzard and Fire mages just used Flamestrike. Well, technically just Blast Wave since Improved Flamestrike made using the actual Flamestrike spell meaningless unless you were desperate to conserve mana. Regardless, as much as the shaman will make jokes at my expense over this functional restriction, it was one built of class restraints over personal preference. When your fire spells hit 40-50% harder than anything else, then it's hard to justify using those spells.

With the elementalist however, our area spell selection is expanded to all four elements. The bulk of these being staff spells as I addressed earlier, but there are a smattering of other AoE spells amongst the other weapons. In addition with the trait system we read about, we'll be able to work on all of our attunements at once, rather than being forced to use merely one or two elements due to a lack of talent points.

Ixnay on the aits-tray. Still digging stuff up for that post.

Ah yes, sorry about that. That about sums up the elementalist, I think. Anything else to contribute, Daikaja?

Nah, I think we got it. Only elementalist stuff left to cover really is the cross-profession skills and the traits and it sounds like the boss is gonna be writing up that stuff.

Yeah, I'll be taking care of that stuff, though anything you guys can dig up will be appreciated. Won't be until after I get back though.

Off on your own research trip?

Something like that.

Do try and "research" something other than the bottom of a beer mug.

I make no promises. See you guys in a couple weeks!

Monday, July 25, 2011

Azeroth vs. Tyria part 7: The Thief - Making Stealing More Than Part of Your Ambush Macro

Time to cover another one of the professions we're all looking at for our move to Tyria. We've got three left to talk about. Well, technically four, but anyone who knows about that one is apparently sworn to secrecy, so we'll deal with that when I've got more to go on than idle speculation.

For today's post we've got something from our resident rogue, Takkal. I'm going to assume that you're here to talk about the thief, right?

Might as well stick with what I know, right?

True enough. What's with the accent? Well, lack of one.

Something else I've been practicing. Believe it or not, there's not exactly a lot of trolls like me in that place. That and I've yet to see a single group over there that talks like I do.

So they all enunciate?

...Yes.

Sorry, couldn't resist. So you're doing this to fit in more?

Correct. After all I'm not a very good thief if I stand out and if I'm the only guy around who talks like this, then I'll be remembered and that's never a good thing in my line of business.

Makes sense. Guess we should start at the beginning. What drew you to the thief profession? I'm well aware of what the name implies, but let everybody know what the similarities are between being a rogue and a thief.

Well, the general feel is the same between the two. I mean, the two names mean the same thing to most people: we've a group of men and women who specialize in sneaking around, stealing, and attacking from the shadows. Both the class and the profession involve proficiency with dual-wielding. I suppose there's a few other areas that are sorta similar, but it's a bit of a stretch considering just how much is different in those areas as well.

Sounds like almost every other report we've had so far on the professions. Let's move to the weapons since those define most of your combat skills. What're you looking at as a rogue?

Well, I've still got swords and daggers like I do as a rogue. For ranged combat though, I've got pistols and shortbows. Like the rest of you found, all of these weapons serve their own specific purposes. I can only wield a sword in my main hand, but it gives me skills for enemy control and evasion like Crippling Slash and Dancing Blade. A dagger in my main hand lets me jump into the fray with quick attacks like Twisting Fang and Backstab, while an off-hand dagger can help me cripple foes as well as vanish from their sight. Pistols can be used to make my opponents vulnerable for further attacks as well as aiding my mobility or hindering my opponent's. Finally there's the shortbow for moments where I need AoE attacks as well as letting me shadow step around the battle.

So you'll still have access to your old rogue Shadowstep?

Yes and no, though calling it my old Shadowstep is somewhat wrong since there was no chance in the Nether of me ever going Subtlety. Back on topic though: while this shadow step still serves the same function as the old one, it's not locked to one ability for one specialization of the profession. There's a variety of skills that serve the function of helping the thief move around the battlefield and not all of them act the same. Infiltrator's Arrow lets me pick a location and fire an arrow to teleport there, while the Shadow Step utility skill just teleports me to the foe. There's even some dual-skills that mix the two: I could shoot my foe with a pistol then teleport in for a dagger strike, or I could reverse that with a melee opener that ends up with me attacking from range.

For some reason this video makes Fan of Knives seem a little underwhelming

Dual-skill?

Correct and here's where dual-wielding gets interesting for thieves. Back in Azeroth a dual-wielding rogue for the most part was only concerned with his off-hand so far as making sure it was the correct speed for his spec and the correct weapon type: daggers for Subtlety and Assassination and anything but for Combat. Looking at Tyria, we've moved on to actual weapon techniques like you showed in that first post and for a few of you, you've even learned how to use two different sets of skills if you're wielding two different weapons at the same time. There's no mixing for you guys though: it's always something like your first three skills are from your main hand and your last two are the off-hand. For thieves though, we've learned how to mix the two together.

Instead of three skills from your main hand and two from the off-hand, we've got two from each and that middle skill is now a dual-skill: a combat ability that mixes traits from both weapon types. I gave a couple of examples earlier in the section on shadow stepping, but we've also got some fun ones like Leaping Death Blossom for double daggers, Unload for a pair of pistols, and Pistol Whip for pirate wannabes with a sword and a pistol.

Tag, you're it!

Looking at those examples you gave earlier, it sounds like both techniques used a dagger and a pistol. How do you have two different techniques for the same weapons?

It's simple really: it's which weapon's in which hand. If I've got my pistol in my main hand, then I'll be using Shadow Strike so I'll need to be in melee range at first to use that ability. Reverse the order of the weapons and now I've got Shadow Shot and I don't have to wait until I'm in melee to use it. In essence these dual-skills serve as one of the two ways I can expand my weapon options, the other being through stealing.

So stealing actually has a purpose for you now other than a way to get free copper and vendor junk?

You have no idea how frustrating that was. The only reason any of us ever bothered to pickpocket back in Azeroth was to get lockboxes or we'd make it part of our normal Backstab or Ambush opener. Suppose that's why we went with rogue for our class name instead of thief. That or they thought it would be funny to give us a class name that would be constantly confused with a type of women's makeup. I swear half of Orgrimmar doesn't know how to spell...

I've tanked with people who spelled "gonna" with an H in the middle. Figure that one out.

Stupidity of some of our fellow Horde aside, most of us really didn't give a second thought to stealing. In Tyria though, stealing opens up a world of new weapon options for us. You know that last post you did on environmental weapons?

Yeah, they act like normal weapons and give us a new set of skills to work with. We've all got access to those. You find a boulder, you can throw it. Find a stick, you can beat someone with it.

Okay, now picture that a thief can pretty much take one of those from every single opponent he fights. For example I could be fighting a bird and try stealing from him. Some possible examples of environmental weapons I could take are an egg that I could use to heal myself or some feathers that I could use to blind the bird. This even extends to fighting humanoid targets as well. If I were fighting a warrior, I might get access to a rifle or a axe, while stealing from an elementalist could give me a staff or perhaps a scepter.

Wait, so a thief could take my weapon?

Not quite, it's more like I borrow the abilities from it. It's kind of an odd system. Since my notes all say that I only get access to these new abilities until I use them, my guess is that in the case of weapons, it's more likely that I take it and hit you quickly before you regain control of it.

That makes sense, I suppose. Sounds like that about wraps up weapons and stealing. What else makes the thief stand out?

Well, there's stealth which all of us rogues are familiar with. It does operate a little differently here though. Rogues are used to one flavor of stealth that's either on or off and we stay there until either we're detected or we stab something. Here though it's meant as more of a combat action. Stealth is a short-term state, so you can't just switch it on and make your way across the entire battlefield without being seen. For thieves it's meant as a way to either escape from a battle or to set up for another technique. There's even multiple ways to go into stealth. Hide in Shadows is probably the closest to what we're used to: you go into stealth and you come out after attacking. Shadow Refuge however allows the thief to go into stealth and heal himself, but it breaks if moves. Depending on the situation the thief finds himself heading into, he or she might wish to prepare a few different methods of going into stealth.

Another technique thieves have that we rogues do not is the ability to lay traps. Similar to the hunters back in Azeroth, these are simply something that is placed on the ground that can be triggered by one's enemies. Once triggered they can cause effects from poison and immobilization to allowing the thief to shadow step to the target.

Finally there's initiative. For most of the professions, if they use a weapon technique, there's an associated cooldown before they can use it again. For us though there's no such cooldown. If we want to use a weapon skill continuously, we're perfectly able to do so. The limiter here is initiative. Each of our weapon skills (with the exception of whatever the first technique for our main hand is) requires not only energy like all of the other professions do, but they also have an associated initiative cost. We start with ten initiative points and regenerate another one every second or so.

Using dual-wield pistols for an example, my first skill costs no energy, but Body Shot takes two, Unload is three, and Retreating Shot and Head Shot both take four. Even accounting for the fact that you can only use abilities so fast, there's still going to be a resource choke if you do nothing but use Head Shot over and over. This means that a smart thief needs to plan ahead. If you believe that you can burst fire your target down quickly if you stealth and get the drop on him, then you can do so. If it looks like a pretty lengthy fight though, you might want to sit on a few of those initiative points in case you need to use something like Retreating Shot to put some distance between you and your foe. Since your first skill always requires no initiative to use, it can be considered your filler skill while you wait for the right time to use another attack. Kind of like Mutilate or Sinister Strike, except they're not 50-60% of what you're doing during the fight.

So to wrap things up, a rogue looking to find work as a thief won't be disappointed, but there's going to be some retraining involved, particularly to get over the whole "why would I bother stealing?" idea. I imagine that's going to be a big hurdle for most of them.

Thanks for the report, Tak. That puts us up to five of the professions covered. Don't suppose you heard if anyone else is ready with another profession, did you?

I believe Lokaja's working on his ranger report, though he's still looking for info on pets. As for the elementalist, Malador and Daikaja are arguing over who's going to cover it.

Seems fairly obvious, I'd think. Elementalist is pretty much a mage, so that sounds like Mal's territory.

Yes, but Azeroth mages tend to be single element and Dai's arguing that since elemental shamans are more accustomed to working with multiple elements, he should get the job.

Sigh... fine. When you get back there, tell the two of them to just work on the report together. If they manage to write something halfway competent, I'll find work for both of them.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Azeroth vs. Tyria part 6: A True Warrior FIghts With Whatever's Available

Still have three more known professions to cover and eventually whatever the super-secret eighth one ends up being, but I figured I'd take a quick break to cover something else. Certainly not because anyone on the team's too lazy to have finished their notes, no... I'm certain that the ranger, elementalist, and thief articles are complete and they don't need me to cover for them at all. We'll just consider this a slight break to allow them to start, er finish going over their articles for any last minute changes.

A few weeks ago I started this whole Azeroth vs. Tyria series with a wall of text about how attack skills in Tyria were tied to your weapons. Using an axe gives you different abilities than a greatsword and so on. Plenty of variety here, but you can see the horizon for learning new skills. There's only so many weapons your profession lets you wield, right?

Let's say we've got two trained warriors sitting in a bar. The first guy says, "Okay, I've worked with all of my weapon styles now. I know how everything works and how to chain everything in the most efficient manner. I've got combat in the bag." In this case, he'd be correct... right up to the point where the other warrior clocks him over the head with a barstool because he figured out how to use environmental weapons.

The name environmental weapon makes it kinda obvious where you find these things, but it doesn't really tell you what they are. To most of us from Azeroth, the only time we interact with the environment is either when there's something glowy for us to mine/herb/search or when it's actively trying to kill us like in every dungeon we've ever stepped foot in. Weapons hanging on the wall, braziers full of coals dangling from chains, or even something as simple as a mug of beer on a bar - as far as all of us were concerned, these might as well have been either painted on or nailed and bolted down. We couldn't use any of these things if we wanted to, so for the most part you just learned to ignore all of it.

Tyria's a bit different though. If I'm walking along and I see a boulder lying on the side of the road, I can go pick it up. When I do that, whatever skills I would've had available from my weapon are now replaced with a different set for what I'm holding (the boulder). Now some items are going to be fairly simple in how you interact with them. Not much I can do with a rock other than bash someone with it or hurling it at a target. An elementalist on the other hand sees different possibilities. He could use his magic to hurl that boulder into the air, then bring it crashing down on his foe like it was a meteor. Depending on the item and who's using it, you may see vastly different uses.

Some are a little simpler than others though. Barstools are meant to be broken over someone's head. Jars of bees are meant to be thrown at someone; I can honestly say I never thought I'd see the day when bees became artillery. Powder keg is meant to be carried over to a target and then set off. There's even wooden planks you can take from fallen Oakhearts (picture a treant), so you can smack someone around with a stick for a different effect from hitting them with your sword.

There's some skills for the different professions that create these environmental weapons. Elementalists can make Bows of Frost, Fiery Swords, and Lava Axes which can all be picked up by their party members and used against the enemy. There's also some items you can use that, while they're not weapons per se, they do give you new skills to use. If you pick up a rabbit for example, you could use it to get a speed boost. Not entirely sure how shaking around a bunny makes you faster, but I've learned not to question some of these things. Most of them make a bit more sense though, like a bucket of water letting you put out fires or a bag of feed letting you feed animals. Rather than these things just showing up in your backpack when you start a quest, you'll have to go over and pick them up to use them.

I saved the best for last though: siege weaponry. Like in Wintergrasp or Baradin Hold, we'll have access to different weapons we find in the environment like mortars and cannons. Most of us are used to seeing these in PvP only, with the sorta exception of Flame Leviathan in Ulduar and Gunship in Icecrown Citadel. For the most part though, if you stuck to killing dragons and the like, you didn't work much with siege weaponry. In Tyria we'll be seeing a fair bit more though. You'll still being seeing siege weapons in the PvP areas of the world too (I'll get to those when I have more information), but the monster-hunting crowd will get to play with them as well. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy fighting with sword and axe just as much as any warrior. There's just something really satisfying about using artillery on an enemy. That and looking at the size of the dragon in this video, a little extra firepower probably isn't a bad idea.

Whole video's good, but skip to about 1:40 if you just want to hear about siege weapons

I'll try and wrap things up here. All these posts me and the team put up about the weapons each profession gets to use? Don't take those as your checklist of things to learn. If you want to be the best at what you do, be prepared to use the tools around you. That's not to say that you'll always want to drop what you're doing and use any weapons you find around you. Just like how you'll want to use the weapon that's best for each fight, you have to learn what those environmental weapons are capable of and when it's appropriate to use them.

Most importantly of all though, if you don't know how to use environmental weapons, you'll never make it in Keg Brawl. Honestly that should be motivation enough for all of you to figure out how to use these things, but if it's not, that just means more brew for me. Gotta love a group that plays games built around a keg of ale. It's almost enough to make me go with the Norn. Almost.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Azeroth vs. Tyria part 5: All The Fun of Summoning The Dead, But Without The Plate

I've talked about the warrior, Medeleth lectured everyone on the engineer, and Solagar managed to fit in some Guardian details in between all the complaining about becoming a Tauren. That still leaves four more Tyrian professions (well, five but we'll deal with that when there's more than hearsay) for us to cover. This time we've got Mordigg ready to talk to us about the new job he's looking into. Let's see what it is...

Little more intimidating than all those squishy casters in Naxxramas and Stratholme

Necromancer, huh? Gotta say I wasn't expecting to see you go with a cloth class.

Well, truth be told, it wasn't exactly planned. Like the rest of you, I was planning on finding something comparable to my current specialization to minimize downtime. However, such a thing does not exist in Tyria to my knowledge.

Yeah, the whole lack of a Lich King probably makes finding more death knights unlikely, huh?

Correct. As such I have found myself perusing the other offerings for a reasonable facsimile. My research currently shows the necromancer as being the best option available, though there will be numerous adjustments I will have to make to become accustomed to how they operate.

Bear in mind we're all going to have to make adjustments when we go to Tyria, so it won't be just you. I've probably got the easiest transition of the lot and I'll have my work cut out for me once we get there.

This may be true, but the core of their warrior still generally meshes with the class you're familiar with. For myself there are a few elements that are similar, but the bulk of it will require a change of thinking on my part.

Okay, let's start with the similarities then. Tell me what drew you to the necromancer.

The obvious answer here would be the beginning of the profession's name. A necromancer is someone who specializes in dealing with the dead. As a death knight that's one of my areas of expertise, though my own knowledge and abilities have primarily served to supplement my martial prowess. I can raise the dead, create spots of death and decay on the ground, and cause a variety of debilitating conditions in my foes, but I would never consider myself a specialist in these abilities. My ghouls are the best example of this: the one barely holds together more than a few minutes unless I feel like doing damage instead of tanking and my army of the dead serves as little more than cannon fodder.

I suppose the best way I can phrase this is to say that the necromancer is somewhat like a death knight who's forsaken his plate armor and warrior-style weaponry in order to further develop his other powers. Yes, I will have to make sacrifices to walk the path of the necromancer, but in exchange I will gain my own identity. No longer will I be considered a warrior that happens to use DoTs or summon a ghoul that barely qualifies as a pet. I will be a master of death, bending it to my will to defend my allies and drive my enemies from the land.

Makes sense to me. How about we discuss weapons now? We've already established that weapons dictate your available skills in Tyria, so what kinds of weapons does the necromancer have to work with? I assume you won't be swinging any two-handed swords or axes this time.

Correct, you will not see a cloth-wearing caster swinging a two-handed sword in our future. As one might expect from professions of the sorcerous type, the only two-handed weapon I might be wielding is a staff. Wielding a staff will provide me mostly with a variety of abilities, many being area-of-effects, that cause different debilitating effects on my foes. Reaper's Touch allows me to weaken a foe while at the same time providing one of my allies with a boost to their swiftness. Chilblains, unlike the old passive slowing talent I'm familiar with, is now an AoE ability that poisons and chills my enemies. Necrotic Grasp is just a basic attack, but the last two bear a little more mention. These two are Mark abilities.

A Mark is similar to a normal AoE ability like Death and Decay in that you choose where to cast it, but they have an important distinction. Marks are somewhat like timebombs: you place the Mark and then after enough time has elapsed, the Mark will trigger and cause its effect to those who were standing on it. Reaper's Mark causes vulnerability and bleeding on foes while Putrid Mark will actually take negative conditions you or your allies suffer from and transfer them to your enemies. There's also Mark of Blood which will not only harm your opponents, but also provide healing to your party members inside the Mark.

Sounds useful, but the timer could be problematic. What if your enemies start to split up before the mark's ready to go off?

This is not a problem. In addition to the normal timer, Marks can be manually triggered at any time the necromancer wishes. The timer is merely to allow for "set and forget" usage. For close quarters combat, a necromancer could drop his Mark on top of the group as it's fighting and immediately resume casting his other abilities. If there was more room to work, a necromancer could drop a Mark in front of him and then pull a group of monsters. He could continue casting until they all ran far enough to get within the Mark, then trigger it to hit them all with its effect before they reach him.

Nice, controllable AoE is always welcomed and it sounds like you'll have a little more variety this time besides "hit them with high-threat unholy damage". Back to weapons then?

Yes, there's still plenty to cover there. Some of the one-handed options for a caster are fairly similar to the ones available back in Azeroth: dagger and off-hand focus for all cloth wearers and the scepter is like the maces used by priests. The others are a little different though. Necromancers get access to warhorns and axes. I'm not entirely sure of the reasoning behind axes, but I suppose for someone who works with the dead, an axe that can cut through bone makes sense.

As for the abilities associated with these weapons, it's similar to what you and Solagar discussed. Your main-hand weapon determines your first three skills and your off-hand determines your last two. The scepter provides mostly long-range attacks (e.g. Curse and Feast of Corruption) while close range abilities are the purview of daggers (e.g. Necrotic Bite and Dark Pact) and axes (e.g. Rending Claws and Ghastly Claws). The distinction between those two being that axes are primarily powerful tearing attacks, while dagger attacks tend to drain your foe's life force and make it your own. Off-hands provide some additional customization: warhorns can daze your foes as well as summon locusts to attack them, daggers can weaken your foes and allow you to use Mark of Blood to heal your allies while damaging the enemy, and finally the focus lets you chill your foes to make them vulnerable right before blasting them with any life force you've accumulated.

Little more intimidating than when a boomkin does it, huh?

From the sounds of it, life force is a new resource for you like adrenaline is for me.

Yes, this is correct. Various skills provided by my weapons allow me to accumulate life force from my foes. In addition my life force pool increases whenever an opponent is felled within my vicinity.

So what exactly does life force do for you? Does it boost your regular spells like adrenaline does for me or is it something different?

Something different - it allows me to enter a Death Shroud. Being in this form provides me with new abilities and I can no longer be knocked down, but it drains life force the entire time. As such I must refill my life force by attacking my opponents if I wish to stay in my Death Shroud.

Okay, what about Death Shroud makes it so useful? Are the new abilities it provides worth the effort of stacking all that life force?

Not in all circumstances, but the abilities available in the shroud are quite potent. Deathly Swarm sounds similar to my Locust Swarm attack, but when it lands it not only deals damage, but it also clears three negative conditions I may have on me. Dark Path is similar to Blink in that it will teleport me to a new location, but it will also blind any foes that happen to be standing in the vicinity. Doom is a fairly basic Fear like what Medeleth used to use. Finally there's Life Transfer provides me with a way to directly drain the health of nearby enemies to fuel my life force.

Alright, that takes care of weapons and what I assume is the unique resource necromancers have available. Anything else that helps them stand out from the other casters?

Well, as I talked about earlier, one of the aspects of the necromancer that drew me to the profession was the association with the dead. Like death knights, necromancers also possess the ability to control the dead, though their abilities are far beyond what I may have been taught at Acherus. Ranged or melee, the necromancer has the ability to summon minions to fill either role. These new allies can be summoned merely to add extra damage to the fight or more bodies to take damage or they can be used tactically. Bone fiends can bombard the foe from range, but the necromancer can direct them to become stationary so they can immobilize their targets. Bone minions seem like fairly basic melee pets, but for a competent necromancer, they also serve as a way to blow up the enemy's front line for extra AoE damage.

Good thing those rat corpse things are meant to blow up, because they are creepy as hell.

Lastly there's Wells. Similar to Marks, they are meant to serve as a method of controlling the battlefield. However while Marks are targeted effects, Wells are localized - the area of effect is centered upon the caster. Currently there are three known Wells: Well of Blood which heals you and your allies, Well of Corruption which will take a foe's beneficial conditions (boons) and replace them with negative ones, and Well of Suffering which simply does damage to any opponents who would dare stand inside the Well. Only one of these may be in effect at any given time, but all have their uses. Well of Blood would be great for any dungeon crawling involving tight quarters, while Well of Corruption would be useful against any opponents that make use of a lot of buffing abilities.

Sounds good. Anything else of note?

Yes, but those fall under either abilities that have been covered previously (Signets) or various items that require further discussion like healing and downed abilities.

Yeah, let's leave those for later. Thanks for all the info, Mordigg. Looking forward to becoming a caster?

I will acknowledge that the idea is somewhat strange to me, but I suppose it's not unheard of for a Tauren to wear cloth. There are priests wandering around Thunder Bluff now, so I won't be the only one.

Well, except for the facts that we're not going to be anywhere near Thunder Bluff and you're not going to look like a Tauren.

Excuse me?

Oh, did I neglect to mention that before?

Yes, somehow you managed to leave out a somewhat important detail like "you're changing races".

Oops. Well, we'll add that to the stack of stuff I need to cover later. In the meantime, that's it for us this time. See you guys when we've got another post ready.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Azeroth vs. Tyria part 4: So What's A Guardian?

Last week I talked about warriors and this week Medeleth blathered on about engineers. Now it's time for someone else from the team to step up and talk about the profession they're looking at. Luckily I didn't have to resort to threats this time since we've got a volunteer. Solannis, I mean Solagar, is our resident paladin expert, so I imagine he's been off looking for a profession with a similar kind of feel. Let's see what he's found.

You are never going to get tired of mocking the name change, are you?

No, probably not. Considering that you were the one stupid enough to let the engineers try that gun on you, it's your own damn fault you're a Tauren now and the name change was your own choice.

First off they told me it would be safe.

And you took four Goblin Engineers at their word, did you?

At no point did I lie. It is safe - you've still got all your limbs, don't you?

No, I've got cow limbs now.

Bah! Now you're just nitpicking. Sometimes sacrifices have to be made in the name of progress.

Sacrifices? I'm a cow now! I had to change my name so it wouldn't be so obvious that I used to be a blood elf! Do you have any idea how embarrassing it was to walk into Silvermoon and have to pretend I hadn't grown up there?!

Okay, both of you shut up so we can get back on task. You can kill each other later when we don't have work to do. Now would you care to enlighten everyone on the profession you've been researching, Sol?

Very well, I can return to this argument at a later date. As for my Tyrian inquiries, I've been looking into the guardian profession.

So I take it that's the Tyria equivalent of a paladin then?

Well, yes and no. It's not as clear-cut as that. For you, skill and weapon style differences aside, the warrior has a very similar feel to it. You're still all about hitting someone with a sharp/blunt object and wearing heavy armor. Paladins however are a little more varied than that. Some of us are tanks, some DPS, and some are healers - we've always been one of the more versatile classes in Azeroth. Strangely it seems that for Tyrians, those three roles are somewhat amalgamated.

Ah yes, the lack of dedicated tanks and healers. Gonna have to write up something about that later. For now just focus on the guardian, since the healer/tank discussion is going to take up more than its fair share of text.

True enough. Aside from the tank/heal/DPS options, paladins were known for our more iconic abilities: enhancing others through Blessing spells, auras to provide passive bonuses for everyone in range of us, healing, and our holy-powered weapon attacks. Yes, many of us identified with our chosen weapon styles, but our power came from enhancing those weapons with the power of the Light.

So how does the guardian compare? Are you looking at the same tools, modified for the way Tyria works?

There's some similarity, but a lot is fairly different. I'll start with familiar ground. Like the warrior and engineers you and Medeleth discussed earlier, guardians have their own sets of weapons available and skills associated with said weapons. Many of these weapon skills keep with the "infused with holy power" theme that paladins are accustomed to: Shield of Judgment, Leap of Faith, Smite, and Cleansing Flame are but a few examples. There are some differences in the variety of weapons available through which to channel our might.

As a paladin my options included all manner of swords, maces, and axes in addition to the use of shields and caster off-hands. Daggers and staves were apparently considered unsporting and were as such unavailable. In Tyria however, my options are expanded. I still have the bulk of my old selections, though now they break the off-hands up into torches and focuses and now scepters are considered separate from maces. I do lose the ability to wield axes for some reason (considered uncivilized, perhaps?), but in exchange I gain the ability to wield staves.

So after all these years, you finally figured out how to wield a stick, huh? I always wondered what would've happened to a ret paladin if the end of his mace broke. Would he forget how to swing it?

I didn't make up the rules, I just followed them. For all I know, we weren't allowed to use staves or daggers simply to give casters something we weren't allowed to use. I remember a good stretch of time where healing paladins would dress in cloth instead of plate mail simply because healing plate just couldn't compete with the magical bonuses of the cloth. It made a mockery of our class, but sometimes you have to swallow your pride if you're going to perform your assigned tasks.

Let's get back to the weapons, shall we? Similar to how your warrior weapons have different strengths, ours also provide us with varying skill sets. A two-handed hammer is great for close range AoE attacks, while the one-handed mace allows for attack chains and some support abilities. The scepter seems like it should be similar to the mace, yet it provides the guardian with more of a offensive spellcaster skill set. A greatsword in the hands of a warrior is a potent AoE tool, but with a guardian it allows for more control techniques in addition to enhancing one's allies with a speed boost through symbols.

A symbol? Is that like the guardian version of a blessing?

Not quite. A blessing is a simple single-cast spell that provides a benefit to the target for a long duration. The idea behind blessings is that you cast one on everybody before the fight begins along with all of the other buffs being cast, then everyone tops off on mana before beginning the fight. Symbols aren't really targeted on allies. A symbol is placed on the ground and activated by someone stepping on it. Some can be beneficial like Symbol of Swiftness which is the greatsword speed enhancing skill I mentioned earlier. Some can do damage to your enemies, like the mace skill, Symbol of Wrath. Some even do both, like the staff skill Symbol of Protection; this symbol will damage one's foes while providing a Protection buff to your allies.

Okay, so symbols are more of a combat buff. What about pre-pull buffing?

There lies the interesting bit. I don't think they actually have that in Tyria. It's possible that there's consumables of some kind; I haven't done much research into that particular area. As for the kinds of buffs we're used to where I'll hit everyone with Blessing of Might and a priest would cast Power Word: Fortitude, I don't think those actually exist here. Other than the more short-term benefits like my symbols and your shouts, I don't believe they do long term buffing here.

Strange, but honestly that's fine by me. Before they did the consolidation in Azeroth, it was always annoying to make sure that your raid had every buff covered. I remember in those few situations where we didn't have more paladins than auras, we had to organize things so the correct groups got Devotion Aura or Concentration Aura.

Thanks for bringing up auras. That actually leads into my next point. Guardians don't have auras. Instead they have three virtues: Justice, Courage, and Resolve.

Well, at least Righteousness isn't one of the words.

You have no idea how right you are. I swear half of my spellbook had that word in it. Regardless, these virtues provide the guardian with some rather potent benefits. Courage periodically blocks attacks against the guardian. Justice makes every fifth attack cause the target to burn. As for Resolve, it gives the guardian some level of health regeneration. There's no duration on these buffs, but they're self-only. Kind of like having an aura that can only affect you.

So no party buffs other than the signets then?

Not quite. The guardian has the ability to activate these virtues. When doing so, he can then share these benefits with his allies. Courage lets everyone block their next incoming attack, Justice makes their next attacks cause burning, and Resolve will clear any conditions your allies may have in addition to providing them with regeneration. These party benefits are only temporary though and they come at a cost: activating a virtue will disable it for yourself and it will remain disabled for a duration of time, depending on which one you activated.

Interesting, that should lead to some tactical decisions while out in the field.

Indeed, rather than simply having an aura that you only consider if there's another paladin in the group, now you have to think about when you should buff your party versus when you should keep all of the power to yourself. One example of a situation where activating an aura would be in conjunction with another ability, Wall of Deflection. This ability creates a wall which will deflect projectiles. In the case where you find yourself besieged by ranged opponents, you could place this wall and have your team run behind it, then activate Resolve so everyone can regenerate out of combat. Another might be if you need to use your self-healing abilities. You could activate Justice and let everyone else add some fire damage while you patch your wounds, then jump back into the fight and regain your virtue whenever it's off cooldown.

All those years of not being able to catch a hunter in a BG make this kinda satisfying

Yeah, I can see a few good opportunities to mix in those virtues during a dungeon run. How about the rest of your abilities? Anything else interesting to add to your pally bag of tricks?

A few other odds and ends here and there. Wards are similar to symbols in that we place them on the ground, but rather than causing damage or helping our allies, they serve as a method of control. They can create impassible barriers for our foes, such as the staff skill Line of Warding, preventing them from physically crossing the threshold. They can still attack through the ward if they have a ranged attack, but this still provides a manner of control in case you want to block off enemy melee from cloth wearers or you're escorting someone that has a tendency to put themselves in harm's way.

Spirit weapons are fairly self-explanatory. Guardians can summon ghostly weapons to temporarily assist them. The only one I'm aware of at the moment is Hammer of Wisdom, but I'm told there are others. The hammer has a useful ability to knock down a foe, but using this ability will dispel the hammer regardless of when you used the skill.

Nice seeing that spirit hammer do more than give me an interrupt once a minute

Finally we share two skill types with warriors: shouts and signets. Same basic functionality for these. Shouts either buff allies or debuff foes. Signets provide a passive bonus with an additional effect when used, but this will disable the passive bonus for a time similar to activating a virtue. The actual selection available varies from the warrior list however. Some examples include Hold The Line, a shout that gives Protection and Regeneration to allies, and Signet of Wrath which causes nearby foes to burn passively and will burn and blind a target when activated.

Oh yeah, forgot about signets in the warrior post. Didn't get the info on them until I saw that stack of notes Med turned in with his engineer research. So to sum everything up, while the guardian has some additional abilities you're not used to working with, in general it's still fairly similar to the paladin?

It's hard to give a definitive answer without any first-hand experience, but based on what I've found so far, that would be the case. Any paladin looking to move to a similar profession would not be completely overwhelmed by the guardian. While there's still quite a bit of new information to process, it's likely the shortest learning curve available out of all of the professions I've seen and my personal choice for profession out of the seven we've seen so far.

Thanks for the info, Sol. That puts us at three professions down, four (well, five eventually) to go.

Don't forget you need to write something up about healing/tanking/etc.

Oh yeah, there's that too. Guess I should get started on that one while I wait for someone else to finish their profession research. Hopefully that post won't be as much of a novel as these last four.

If any of us write it, that's not particularly likely.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Azeroth vs. Tyria part 3: Engineering For Fun and Profit

Last week I talked about warriors and the changes we'll have to prepare for heading from Azeroth to Tyria. Thinking about the basic concept of warriors, it seemed like it should have been a fairly short and simple post, right? The wall of text I wrote up for that post would say otherwise. The core of the class/profession is still there. We're still practicing the fine art of putting sharp things into bad people. It's just all of those little details that have changed like skills, movement, ranged combat, stances, etc. So you know, except for that list and pretty much everything else I was able to think of, it's all the same.

So now that we've covered what should have been the simplest comparison between the two realms, let's move on to something a little more complex. Yes, I know there's still at least one "this should be really simple" comparison left with rogues versus thieves, and arguably guardians and paladins could fall into this category as well. However I have to line someone up to do those posts, so they'll be ready when their corresponding "expert" gets off their butt and writes it. Solannis/Solagar is taking his time researching guardians (I think he's just pouting about the whole name/race change, but don't tell him I said anything). As for rogues, Takkal's not a very experienced writer, so I'll have to work with him on that one. In the meantime though, I do have someone that's done their homework.

Like I mentioned in our "we're not dead!" post, Medeleth has actually been the main person pushing for our move to Tyria. He's been putting in the bulk of his time these days into researching the world and hooking up everyone on the team with all of the pertinent information for their preferred professions. Now I could say that he's just a fan of the world or that he's finally taking an active interest in team business, but I'm not an idiot. I read his initial notes and I discovered his ulterior motives. Well, ulterior is probably giving it too much credit since half of that first memo he gave me could be paraphrased as "I can be an engineer instead of a warlock! Screw this magical nonsense, I wanna live here!" So without further ado, here's Med to tell all of you about engineers in Tyria:

First off, I was not that overly exuberant in my initial reports. It was simply a pleasant surprise to find a world that treats engineering as more than a mere hobby one does on the side to acquire a flying machine or a pair of goggles.

Care to clarify for everyone what you mean by "mere hobby"?

Certainly. As you're well aware, I think of myself first and foremost as an engineer. Given the choice, I would prefer to solve problems through the proper application of science. Well, and explosives. Regardless, my options for this method of problem solving have always been limited. The bombs I made had the potential to take out a foe, but for whatever reason, the laws that govern Azeroth dictate that I can only use one bomb every minute. I had other options for dealing damage with engineering, but those had similar cooldowns (if not longer). If I wanted to defeat an enemy of similar power through engineering alone, assuming that they never healed, such a battle would take about a half hour, if not longer. In addition, all of these tools required a significant investment of capital and resources to develop. As such, not only were my tools woefully inadequate for the tasks I was attempting, I was paying a premium for the privilege of failing at said tasks. This would be the primary reason I've spent the bulk of the last few years practicing as a warlock during tasks I've performed for our company. My warlock abilities got the job done, but I've never felt the sense of satisfaction from casting an Immolate like I have from making a mechanohog.

Okay, so what makes Tyria different? What makes you think that you'll be taken seriously as a professional engineer there when you've been less than successful back in Azeroth?

Numerous reasons, but I'll start from the beginning. For Tyrians engineering is not treated as a sidejob one does when they've got some downtime between running dungeons. In Tyria engineering is on par with professions like warrior and elementalist and one is expected to put in the same degree of dedication, if not more, to our craft as they would into learning your warrior abilities or a elementalist's spells. As a full-fledged profession, engineering has the same defining characteristics as any other profession: weapon selections, armor options, and combat skills.

Weapon selection are fairly basic and fit the profession: rifle, pistol and a shield, or dual-wielding pistols. This part actually covers one of the other issues I've always had with Azerothian engineering. Over the years I've made numerous rifles to advance my skills as an engineer. Some of these we've found a use for with different members of the team. However, the bulk of those weapons have either found their way to Matheion for disenchanting or to a vendor so they could be sold for a mere pittance. I'm not sure what was more insulting: the fact that I couldn't use the weapons that I designed, or the fact that there were so many of my fellow engineers working on their own skills that the effective assembly line they'd formed had devalued our inventions to the point where the finished product was worth less than its components.

You're preaching to the choir, Med. I'm a blacksmith - I'm used to basically throwing away gold for the sake of perfecting my techniques.

Yes, I know that you can sympathize with that particular problem, but you don't identify yourself first and foremost as a blacksmith. It's a point of pride for you, just like your Chef title, but you don't introduce yourself to others as Ragar, the blacksmith.

Point taken. So your weapons include firearms and a shield. We already talked earlier about how weapons dictate most of our skills in Tyria. Any details on your available skills?

Indeed, we'll start with the rifle. First you have Hip Shot, a fairly basic attack but one you can perform while on the move. There's Net Shot which is fairly self-explanatory: you shoot a net at your target. Blunderbuss is a bit more interesting; it's a shot meant to cause your target to bleed (well, more so than any wound typically does), but it's more effective at close range. This seems like it's somewhat counter-intuitive given that rifles are normally considered a long range weapon. However your other two skills include Overcharged Shot (an attack that knocks back both you and your opponent) and Jump Shot (you launch yourself to a target location and actually deal damage to enemies near your landing zone). When you look at these five skills as a whole, you start to see potential synergy. An approaching enemy could be immobilized with a Net Shot with Hip Shots until he gets too close. At that point you could use Blunderbuss for the maximized bleeding effect, Overcharged Shot to knock both of you back, then Net Shot him to start the cycle over again. Should your opponent then decide that he'd rather not stick around, you could combine Jump Shot and Net Shot to prevent his escape.

It's like Heroic Leap, but useful

Dual-wielding pistols is another option. While it's lacking a lot of the distance control options of using a rifle, it does still have Glue Shot for that basic immobilize effect. What it lacks in control however, it makes up for in damaging effects. Explosive Shot is a basic attack that explodes on impact with a target. Dart Volley fires a poisonous dart at the target. Static Shot is a lightning attack which includes a blinding effect. Finally there's Flamethrower, which operates similar to Blunderbuss in the "more damage the closer the target is" effect, but it's fire instead of bleeding.

The pistol/shield option is fairly similar to dual-wielding pistols, but you're trading Glue Shot and Flamethrower for Absorb (you can absorb a projectile from an enemy for use against them later) or Deploy Ballistic Barrier (place a static barrier to intercept enemy projectiles). If you're in a situation where projectiles are a major concern, then the shield option's there. Personally I have a hard time choosing that over the mobility options of the rifle or dual-pistol's Flamethrower skill, but it's there if you need it. Well, assuming you don't want to use the actual Flamethrower at your disposal.

Wait, *actual* Flamethrower? As in more than one?

Indeed, and now we're getting to the good part. You know the various non-weapon skills you covered in your warrior post?

Yes, utility, healing, and elite skills. For warriors we can choose from options like shouts, banners, and stances to support our weapon skills.

That is correct: your utility skills *support* your weapon skills. As an engineer, my utility skills *become* my weapon skills. Let's start with the categories our utility skills far into: weapon kits, backpack kits, and turrets.

Weapon kits are essentially additional weapon sets we can switch to during battle in addition to the normal two sets everyone can swap between. There are a few different options here, but my personal favorite is the Flamethrower Kit. When activated, my weapon skills are replaced with five new skills. Flame Jet allows you to spray multiple enemies with fire while on the move. Flame Blast fires a ball of plasma towards your enemies that will explode upon impact. Air Blast not only interrupts enemy casts, but also knocks them back and deflects projectiles. Napalm creates a flame wall that will burn and blind your foes. Finally, Backdraft will pull your opponents towards you, setting them up for your other attacks.

Backpack kits for the most part operate like weapon kits and replace your weapon skills with new backpack-related abilities. A Grenade Kit, for example, gives you a regular grenade attack in addition to a variety of grenades that cause status effects. However, some backpack kits don't replace your weapon skills. The Med Kit gives you the option of dropping medical packs that can heal your allies if they should run over them. In this case, you could have a rifle out and in between shots, you could use your Med Kit to drop a medical pack for someone, then immediately go back to shooting.

Turrets are closer to the Med Kit in operation in that they won't replace your weapon skills. Instead you simply drop your turret on the ground and go back to doing whatever you were up to before. However while the medical packs are single-use (your ally picks them up and now it's gone), the turret has a little more presence on the battlefield. Once used, it stays on the battlefield for a while and does its specific task. A Rifle Turret is pretty self-explanatory: it shoots whatever is in range. Other options include the Flame Turret, Thumper Turret, and the Healing Turret.

Would've traded that worthless imp for one of these turrets in a heartbeat

So the Healing Turret would give you a healing utility skill in addition to your self-healing skill?

Not quite. The Healing Turret would actually take the place of your self-healing skill. Your choice there would be between the turret, the Med Kit, and Elixir H.

Okay, so if the turret can heal you, I suppose that implies that you could heal yourself by running over your own medical packs from the Med Kit.

I cannot confirm that, but my instincts say no simply because of the Tool Belt.

What does a belt have to do with healing?

The Tool Belt is an engineer specific trait, kind of like adrenaline is for you warriors. The Tool Belt gives us the option of overcharging our kits.

So you won't miss out on all of that exploding from your Goblin Engineering days?

Very funny, but no. Basically it gives engineers a cooldown option to get an extra feature out of our kits. In the case of the Med Kit, you get a self-healing option. Grenade Kits can be overcharged for a grenade barrage. If I were using a Mine Kit and had a bunch of mines set up, I could use the overcharge to set them all off. Finally, I could overcharge a turret to get a more powerful attack (e.g. Rifle Turret would fire off a burst attack while the Thumper Turret would knock down nearby foes in addition to doing damage to them).

So to summarize, your profession's going from "a neat little hobby" to making you a full fledged Gnomish Army Knife in combat. That about cover it?

You're cutting out a lot of the nuance and emphasis, but yes, that describes the situation in layman's terms. However that doesn't quite cover the potential the new improved engineer has. A novice engineer could just grab a rifle and happily fire away at his foes. A true master however will be making use of all tools at his disposal.

Let's say that I'm using a rifle, Med Kit, Mine Kit, Flamethrower Kit, and a Thumper Turret; there's also the elite skill, but I'm missing information for those other than the Elixir Kit and that's not part of this example. Now with this loadout, we'll say that I'm getting ready to fight a group of enemies. Rather than just using my rifle right away, I could set up for the fight by placing mines and a Thumper Turret in between myself and my foes. Next I could start the pull either with a Hip Shot or, in the case of one target being a bigger threat than the others, a Net Shot to stagger him behind the rest of the group. Now that the group's heading my way, I can continue firing away while they run through the mines and the AoE from the turret. Once they start to get close though, I can switch to the flamethrower for AoE damage. Between the mines, turret, and flamethrower, this should be enough to handle the weaker parts of the pull. That just leaves the foe I immobilized and any potential survivors of the AoE assault. If I need to finish off the survivors, I could use Net Shot again and go back to AoE work. Once that's finished, I can switch over to the Rifle and use the rotation I mentioned earlier to take them down.

This is only one example of the potential of the engineer profession. I could go on about potential battle scenarios for pages, but this should set the tone for what's possible. Hopefully I've managed to properly convey the exact reasons for my excitement about moving to Tyria in this post.

I think you covered the matter fairly well. Thanks for your time, Med. If you come up with anything else that needs a post, let me know.

That should just about cover the engineer profession. That's two down, six to go. Time to start persuading the rest of the team to get to writing. See you next time.