The beta weekend event finished with an event where “harder mobs” spawned everywhere (and the legendary white bunny. Seriously… another rabbit? Really? It made me laugh so hard… although I’d kind of expected it and would have been very disappointed not to see it among the epic end-event mobs ^^). We ran around in a huge zerg that sooner or later got split by respawning mobs . Part of the group went further north. I have no idea why and we never found anything special there… except for annoying moa birds that were a few levels above most players. Not dodging at the right moment meant you were dead within a few seconds. And while a respawn/waypoint was just behind us, not too many people had walked there in order to get it. Oh well… ;)
Bookahnerk took a video of everything and uploaded the moa fights to our YouTube channel. If you want to know why we think dodging is more than just a nice gimmick ArenaNet added and is instead the difference between killing a mob and not killing it, watch the video! :)
Nerdy Bookahs 
I didn’t know about finishing event for the beta weekend. I just explored as much as I could of the newbie charr zone, did all that was necessary to complete the map and then logged off. Only thing I didn’t do was to explore the rest of the personal story.
Seems like you guys had fun though. And next time I will hang out until the end! :)
Also, agree about dodging being important and not just a gimmicky. Other things I learned during the beta weekend, not in any particular order:
* Always keep moving. Moving is not the same thing as dodging though.
* Always read the abilities below the mobs HP bar. It can help coming up with a plan to defeat it.
* Always keep a ranged weapon as the second weapon set (if you are a melee class). You never know when you will meet a mob that has the ability of doing damage to anyone that stands nearby. Like that giant charr burning effigy.
For that last one, the contrary may be true for ranged classes in some situations. But I guess I will find out during next beta weekend and roll a thief with dual pistols. Have I said how much fun that play style looks? :)
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The end event felt a bit… grindy. ;) Nothing happened apart from us running around killing tougher mobs. But the bunny and the moas stood out. The bunny per se and the moas because the fight was interesting. So we didn’t regret getting up early to experience the end event. ;)
My warrior had her axe + shield but didn’t use it often. Instead, I preferred the gun. It was just easier that way in most cases. But Jon Peters wrote a great response to people complaining about melee being too hard: http://www.guildmag.com/jon-peters-talks-melee-vs-ranged-combat :)
Edit: I want to try out that thief playstyle as well now! Haven’t done much with a thief during this BWE but I need to at least give it another try before I rule out that class.
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Well, a giant bunny is enough to make it interesting to me. But that might be because I haven’t had many chances of fighting giant bunnies yet. @_@
With my warrior I kept switching between melee weapons depending on mood and what kind of mobs I was fighting. However I was surprised people thought that melee weapons were weaker than ranged ones. With my warrior I felt it was the opposite but it seemed to be natural since in my head a warrior would do more damage with a melee weapon than with a ranged one.
Thieves of the world unite! Let’s all band together to steal all the houses in Tyria!
….
You know… to give to the poor. Or some thing. Yeah… It is totally not to fatten our own pockets. *shifty eyes*
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Does a Thief have more endurance by default that other professions? Or am I imagining things. :P
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Thieves have numerous skills (weapon, healing, and utility) that are similar in effect to a dodge… it’s possible you’re seeing some of those used in between actual dodges. Several different professions also have traits/skills that increase the speed that they recover endurance – allowing uses of dodge more frequently. (The boon “vigor” doubles the recovery of endurance and is associated with several different skills…)
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Vigor
All professions start the game with exact same amount of endurance, and the same recovery speed… where they go from there…
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Also note: the only profession without access to “vigor” through either skill or trait is the necro… after playing one for much of the first public BWE, I can only speculate this is because THEY don’t need it ;-p
*evil laugh*
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Hmm…. really need to try one. Post-release, I’d play a sylvari necromancer. Or, well, I WILL play one. The real question is just: How often and how much? ;)
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I have the strange feeling that sylvari necromancer will be a fairly common class choice. I too want create one, but I read the first book. I will try too a sylvari guardian and a sylvari ranger…
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I’ve read the first book as well. :) She made a great impression on me especially with her naiveté.
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My sylvari necromancer will be roleplayed this way: “death is part os the cicle of life”, “we need mantain the soil fertility, you know, plants need nutrients…” and mostly “If you die, I can use your corpse for craft an eating brain zombie? I really like when zombies say ‘BRAINS!’…” and “but that not make me afraid… I have no brains, just leaves…”
And some eventual jokes about photosynthesis… if I find something funny about photosynthesis, maybe “The sunlight is really sweet this morning!”…
Sylvari will be very nice for roleplay… mmmm… “I only eat meat, fish, eggs, milk, and cheese, to eat vegetables is cannibalism.” and “All vegans must die!” and ” Are you eating a salad? You are a monster!”
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You know, I was considering playing a sylvari necromancer too due to the whole contrast of being an intelligent, walking, plant and the whole dealing with the dead thing. Plus all the innocence and what-not of the race. But since it seems like will be popular I might just choose something else. A sylvari thief maybe?
And João Carlos makes some interesting points about eating vegetables being as the same as cannibalism to them… Or that necromancer might be an actually quite fitting class considering that all dead things end up becoming fertilizers. O_O
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Well, I can see my sylvari saying to zombies: “I have no brains, but that my asura friend have a lot.”
For now I intend play a sylvari guardian (“I was seeded for protect the green and the Pale Tree!”), a ranger and a necromancer (“everyone someday will die and will be fertilizer for us plants… it is a fact of life.”). For some strange reasons I think that classes fit sylvari better. Maybe too sylvari thief and elementalist.
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