Guild Wars: Eye of the North Sneak Peek Weekend commenced yesterday at 3pm. This preview of the expansion is for those who got the Preorder Bonus Pack and the event will end on Monday at 3pm. It’s hard to resist playing as much as possible in order to get the most out of the preview.
My initial enthusiasm was quickly curbed, though, as I spent most of my first two hours downloading files. It ordinarily doesn’t take me that long to snag 70-plus MB on my 1Mbps connection but I was only getting 16KB/s yesterday. Staring at a loading screen for 50 minutes is not a great way to kick things off.
A time for Heroes
Players will quickly encounter and obtain two of the GW:EN Heroes, an Elementalist and a Monk. This is great for players who don’t own Nightfall as Heroes are indispensable for harder areas. The fact they can be customised and controlled to a fine degree means they can often turn the tide of battle.
Nightfall veterans would practically have an army of Heroes at their disposal so the new ones would seem completely superfluous. Why would I want to take the GW:EN monk along on quests when I have a fully tricked out Tahlkora to call upon? I suppose I could simply salvage the runes and armour insignias from the Nightfall heroes and transfer them to the GW:EN ones but I have thus far not been provided with a compelling reason to do that.
Perhaps ArenaNet could provide each Hero with a unique PvE skill that confers a party-wide bonus (sort of a watered down Celestial Skill) as an incentive to use a particular Hero.
The Pale White North
The Sneak Peek Weekend allows access to the initial areas of the game. I ended up in the Far Shiverpeaks, land of the Norns. The Norns are your basic Vikings.
So, as things stand now, the Shiverpeaks is home to the Norn, who are very tall white people, and the dwarves, who are very short white people. There’s such tremendous diversity in the region.
Aside from their height, the Norns are notable for being fiercely independent. They also enjoy fighting and hunting in order to prove worthiness. Meet a Norn on the outside and you invariably have to prove yourself to him or her. It’s a good thing the Norns in outposts don’t have the same policy because I’d hate to have to prove my worth every time I visited the merchant.
“You’re all alone!”
There are two quests early in the expansion which require players to go one-on-one against foes. This isn’t the first time players have had to do this in Guild Wars. There was the Ascension battle against the Doppleganger in Prophecies and the Tihark Orchard mission in Nightfall. But the GW:EN solo battles take place fairly early in the game. It’s an indication the expansion requires players to know their skills and profession well.
One of the solo quests was actually a six-round tournament featuring battles against some very familiar characters with highly unusual builds.
I’m embarrassed to say I had a lot of problems with the final foe of the tournament. This was especially disheartening since I would be informed I was not worthy in giant green fonts after being defeated. Gee, thanks, ArenaNet. Would you like some salt to rub in my wounds while you’re at it?
After tweaking my Mesmer’s skillbar and getting a core skill which I had previously never required, I finally managed to beat the guy to win the tournament.
It was deemed a “Decisive Victory!” but considering I had 24HP at the end of the battle, I’d say the phrase “by the skin of my teeth” is more apt.
I’m having trouble with the Earth Elementalist Argo. Any suggestion for a Ranger to beat the tournament ? I heard trapping is quite effective…hmm.
I rarely encountered Argo but my Mesmer had no problem with him on the two occasions I faced him. Backfire plus Cry of Pain will bring down most NPC spellcasters.
I haven’t touched my Ranger for a while. I have my doubts whether traps would be a good idea. It would be decent against melee foes but I’m not sure you’d have time to set them up as the casters cycle through their attack skills. Choking Gas might be a better way to shut down casters.
Also consider packing the Ebon Vanguard PvE skill Ebon Vanguard Assassin Support. It summons a level 10 assassin who lasts 10 seconds. That might not sound like much but he interrupts foes with his Iron Palm knockdown and assuming he makes it through the full 10 seconds, he should inflict about 100 damage. The major bonus is he will probably distract your opponent, buying you valuable time.