DeathscytheX

Since my ranger was already at the level 70 story, I had a friend that got the F2P version and I finished the story for the 3rd time as well. I already did living story on the ranger as well...

Looking at the reddit, I agree about the hero system needing a buff... One of two things needs to happen. The health drain needs to go, or it needs to be slowed drastically. I'd rather see the first.... if anything the spawn needs to be fixed.... spawning at the line with Vader, you'll lose a good 25-35% of your health before you even get to where they action is at once its reaches the second line.

Oh yeah... I'm ready.

Vader is really slow. He basically has no sprint. I also noticed Luke's force push range was nerfed significantly from what we've seen in the trailer and alpha footage. Doesn't seem to be much point in it. Luke can get around the map a lot faster by jumping and using the R1 dash. Vader should have this attack and Luke should have the saber throw. The AT-STs are monsters now that I've use them enough. You really have to stay out of tight areas. If you end up on a valley like area, everyone just pops ion blasters on and its end of story from there. Keeping your rotation fresh on the L1/R1 is key. I'll wait for groups to pop those, and use the standard attack for stragglers I see running around. I think the game is a blast, but if it wasn't Star Wars I don't know that I would like it as much. On top of this, I don't know what DICE has against a full map playlist rotations. The way that its set up, you can only choose a game mode and keep playing the same map until you want to do another game mode. That's what aggravated me about BF4 when new maps came out, they were all on their own separate playlist. Now that I'm level 5 and got the heavy blaster, There isn't much for me to do with the beta. The squad thing is a letdown. I didn't realize you couldn't squad up until you guys said something about it. Squads would give the Rebels a better chance at winning Walker Assault. The spawns are COD bad. My first match today I spawned into 2 orbital strikes and then right in font of an AT-ST... 0-3 within the first 10 seconds of the match. It was very frustrating. I've also bottlenecked the other team into their spawn as well. The arcade feel comes from the battle pick ups... they are really like the "kill streak" rewards for this game. On a match where I don't get any pick ups I'll get 15-20 kills... but sometimes I'll get a hot match where i get 2 hero pick ups, an AT-ST, and an AT-AT... I'll get over 40 kills these matches. I might wait on this game. HoT is going to take up a lot of my gaming til at least after the new year.

Sadly they'll never make it like a BF game. Too many overly nostalgic fan boys will cry about it being a reskin. Walker assault def need some balancing. The uplink times need to be reduced drastically or AT-AT armor needs a heavy nerf. A lot of people don't like the fact that imperials have tie fighters, but without them, they would be no defense against snow speeders.

I didn't play any drop zone so I can't comment on that... but my first impression of the beta is great. I started out with the Survival Mode... I thought it was cool that there will be multiple solo/co-op modes. What I played was good, the first three waves were pretty laughable in difficulty, but 4 and 5 started getting intense only to be brutally cut off after finishing wave five... what a tease DICE... I was just starting to get into it and you took it away. I wish they would have at least given us 10 of the 15 waves. Kinda sucks for those more interested in these modes. Walker Assault is a blast. Its kinda easy to get lost on the map though. everything is white with a bunch of trenches. The big turrets are ultra powerful, but I think they are in a good place because they over heat faster than anything in the game. I ripped off a 10 kill streak in one by carefully pacing my shots. The other team was terrible, no one was shooting at me and I even took out an AT-ST that was right in front of me. The AT-ST is slow and clumsy, but that's perfectly fine. The rocket and the other special attack are deadly. The armor could use a small buff. I'm terrible at flying... I wish Dice would allow two stick flight controls. That's what I grew up on, and I'll never get use to it all being on one stick. I'll avoid these pick ups mostly. The AT-AT system is pretty fun... but its really hard to see anyone. You basically provide cover fire on the up-links with them. You can place orbital strikes down, and swap between big blaster fire and a smaller yet faster blaster fire. I think 4 minutes is a fair amount of time to be in one. I got to play as Luke twice. I couldn't find hardly anyone when I played as him. You are devastatingly powerful but not invincible. Don't shoot with you primary when you run into a hero. Use you star card weapons and you can inflict some damage before you are killed... or even take them out if they are low enough on health. Vader and Luke can deflect blaster shots back automatically as long as you aren't sprinting. It will be interesting to see how Boba Fett works without this semi-auto defense. The pickups are indeed completely random. The first one I got popped right behind a friendly player as he ran forward, and the second I basically spawned on top of at the start of the round. I really love the random spawn system. You can tell what the pick ups are, and everyone has a fair chance to mad dash to them if you happen to see them. I also like how vehicle/hero pick ups have a cool down timer to use them so you can't horde them, but equipment pick ups stay with you until you use them even after you die. This is really great, and takes off the pressure to panic use them. People that can't stay alive get a chance to use powerful tools in a good situation instead of just placing an anti-personnel turret randomly to get some free lucky kills, or wasting a smart rocket on 1 enemy ground troop. My only gripe is that on Walker Assault you can get useless equipment. If you are playing as Imperials, you have no need for an anti-vehicle turret. Rebels only have air vehicles which I don't think these turrets have a chance to lock on to. I really like the customization of the star cards. And I like the purchasing system too. I didn't get to use the Jump Pack in in mulitplayer yet because it requires rank 5, but I can see that its going to be a necessity. Regular jump is a joke, and after using the jump pack in solo play, I feel it provides an aspect of mobility you just can't live without in this game. As I stated, the Cycler Rifle is a beast. Even after it gets some nerfs I will keep this thing on me. I'll definitely have a montage of my long shots by the time the beta ends. I do think it needs a damage nerf against vehicles and stationaries. I took out multiple turrets and AT-STs with it... It's not a thermal detonator so it shouldn't be able to be on par with other star card weapons designed for those purposes IMO. It was made for anti-personnel and should be only good at that. I'm glad this game has ADS... they said it wouldn't and that kinda worried me. ADS is not a necessity, and could cost you 1v1 close up... but its great for distance shots when you get the drop on someone. Its great for solo/co-op to ping those headshots perfectly too against AI enemies. The one thing I've noticed about Walker Assault is that K/D and personal performance only benefited your leveling up. There are no tickets to deplete... everyone on one team could go 55-1 and still lose. You must play the objective to win, and its the only way to win. People can laugh at your 10-40 K/D but they can rest assured that when you're name pops up at the end of the match for most up-links defended/disabled, you're one of the main reasons your team won.

I liked it overall, but I wouldn't be upset if they never made another episode. 3 of the 6 eps were decent while the other half was just meh. We could have done without the neighbor drama, because we never see the husband again after his walker wife got put down in his arms. Same goes for the guy that was freaking out and abandoned his family.... that seemed like a waste of time too... both of those characters are dead, no one cares enough about them to bring them back like Morgan in TWD. Travis turned out to be a good character in the end, but hey took too much time developing him. Daniel was a great character, and if the show continues on he should be one of the stronger ones now that his wife is out of the picture. He has what it takes to survive. Strand is super shady. I don't like him or trust him. He's clearly out for himself and only feels obligated to the group because they saved him. He made that clear during his introduction. They need him though because of his resources. Nick is a bit cliche... I liked his character, but he reminds me of Charlie on LOST. The rest of the characters are very meh.... The ex wife died, so what... Madison is just there, same goes for her daughter and Travis' son. Ofelia was a big stronger, but she didn't get enough screen time, and was overshadowed by everything else that was going on.... if it wasn't for the whole solider relationship thing, she would probably be as bland as the rest. The last 2 episodes finished strong, and there is potential there. Something would have to go wrong with the ship. I suppose the current issue is that someone needs to swim to it and bring it back. but I don't see how the show would work with them holding up on a ship, and only being in danger on supply runs when they have to dock. What is really messed up is that they are the reason the city is the shape its in. They let all the walkers out to save their family members. If there was anything to take from the show, it gave us an idea how quickly everything went south in Atlanta when Rick was in a coma.

I guess it's the randomness I don't like... the jumping around in time is what was getting to me. I would be interested in what was happening on the train, and then it would jerk me into another flashback... and I would be interested in that side story to be moved back onto the train, and then into someone else's side story. Blood+ was so good. Blood-C was so meh... I didn't like that incarnation of Saya at all.

LMAO. Taking the hentai out of a hentai property is a recipe for disaster. You've basically lost your core audience while trying to capture another audience with some snoozefest. its like taking the action out of an action series or comedy out of a comedic series. There are series like Sekirei, Maken Ki, Ikki Tousen, High School of the Dead, and High School DxD that thrive on full nudity fan service just to do it. But all of those series really don't really need it and could use basic fan service and still be great series that would appeal to a more broad audience. Sounds like Fate/Stay can't do the same. What you've described is how I felt when I Watched Blood-C after watching Blood+. Fate/Zero is on my radar, but I've been pushing it off because I've heard some concerning things about its ending from other people that have watched it. After watching The Future Diary (Mirai Nikki), its been hard to get into another anime because the end of that one set the bar super high for me. I tried watching Black Butler and got bored half way through it, Baccano! barely held my interest, but I'll probably finish it later. Tokyo Ghoul was a letdown in the end. I started watching A Certain Magical Index and its keeping my interest so far.

I hope they start working on making the game compatiable with DX11. That is why the game suffers so bad no matter how good your rig is. Its still stuck in the DX9 era and can't take advantage of mutli-core processing. I normally always get 60+FPS in GW2 unless its a world boss or Lions Arch... and in VB i was getting 26-30fps... def concerning for those with older hardware.

Reaper made Necro go from worst to first. It constantly wins reddit polls about what is the best or what are you most excited for. Brutal DPS, high HP, boon strip/corruption, and vulnerability stacking. Reaper was clearly made for raids. Even in full zerk, it can drop 15 stacks of vuln on anything. Reaper can still use the zerker meta, but will be better off suited with Valkyrie. I really need to power through WC with my Ranger. Druid is almost a tie for me with Reaper. The community is 50/50 on it only because it wasn't what they expected and half of them are salty about it. Druid is an amazing spec. Staff is a monster utility weapon... its probably the best utility weapon in the game. Being able to turn enemy projectiles into healing is outstanding and Ancestral Grace is a crazy mix of quick escape, gap closer, and quick save. Vine Surge could use a reduced cast time and I'd argue that Solar Beam should hit 5 targets like most other staff AAs, but other than that its a perfect complementary weapon to Longbow's raw DPS. Glyph of Tides is my favorite utility skill as it provides a 360 knock back. It has great synergy with the grandmaster trait Ancient Seeds that entangles foes when they are dazed, stunned, or knocked down. This also gives legit reason to use Point Blank Shot. Natural Stride is really OP, but I rather have the condition reduction nerfed than the maxed baseline speed. The +33% movement speed is the game cap. All swiftness is pointless because you are already going as fast as the game allows. This frees up utility slots that would be used by Signet of the Hunt and Quickening Zephyr and allows you to use Lightning Reflexes as your stunbreak and 3rd dodge. Druid surpasses Thief in mobility with the right build. All the new pets are amazing too... so amazing that all the old pets are garbage... they really need to rework the old pets to get them up to par... but the best news is that bear is def no longer the best. Smokescalebows FTW!. Now that there are pets that do some legit damage, I find myself commanding them more to retreat and attack... the older pets really didn't do much so I let them do their own thing for the most part only hitting F2 on CD.

Yeah same here. GW2 beta, I have some stuff to do with my Ranger before the HoT launch while I'm on vacation, and then come Thursday the Battlefront Beta.

The Heavy Blaster should def be that deadly close range... it makes sense because the overheat rate is pretty quick. Maybe an accuracy nerf will suit it better at long range than an actual range nerf... that way its still great for large targets/objectives, while negating the ability to pop players at that distance. The shot spread could easily be adjusted. Not too worried about it though, we all know how committed DICE is to balance. That grenade launcher (thermal detonator launcher?) is pretty wild too. I'll def have that in my set up. I hope we get to test out a large array of weapons. The Heavy Blaster is OP, but I have a feeling the middle of the road blaster will suit my playstyle as always. A bowcaster would be interesting too. I'm looking for decent overheat tolerance with a decent range. AT-ST play looks fun, but they look very vulnerable as well... its to be expected as they have overwhelming firepower... I just hope they aren't as vulnerable as BF4 choppers . Smart Rockets are rolled in battle pickups.... lucky for everyone else, I'll def be going for Tie Fighters when I roll it.

The buddy system is really neat, but suffers fatal flaws unfortunately. Instead of giving each buddy a unique advantage, they mostly crossover or multi-task to the point it makes another one useless. My rankings. 1. D-Dog: By far the best buddy in the game. D-Dog can sniff out enemy targets at a range that is an unfair advantage to the enemy... he is also largely ignored by enemy soldiers unless they tell him to shoo. D-Dog comes with a lethal knife getup and stun getup... telling him to attack will allow him to jump an enemy and either slit their throat or stun them. You can do this while hiding in cardboard boxes. He can also draw aggro a close range by biting enemies. His enemy spotting is what makes him better than any other buddy, as he spots reinforcements, vehicles, weapons, and finds harvesting materials. 2. Quiet: Quiet is a lethal sniper buddy. She can spot like D-Dog but not as effectively, and only on command. Just roaming with Quiet, she only spots enemies she has her scope on and once she moves to a new target the previous target is no longer marked. You can command her to scout bases up ahead, and she will permanently spot the majority of targets, but not all of them at times if the base is large. She also wont spot reinforcements like D-Dog can. Plus, telling her to scout ahead leaves you blind to near by enemies until you reach the destination she is scouting. She can draw aggro off you better than D-Dog by sniping loud, or she can take out targets once you develop suppressed weapons for her. Her AI has some flaws however, as she can be too aggressive when equipped with lethal weapons. I've found myself trying to knock out a high graded target only to have her pop his head off in the process. If I am not on a mission I keep the tranq rifle on her. 3. D-Walker: D-Walker does a bit of everything... unlike D-Dog and Quiet, you can ride D-Walker for fast transit to locations.... it has a walk mode and a fast mode where it uses wheels implanted on its legs. D-Walker is unmatched for missions that you intend to go loud on. You can develop a heavily armored body along with an array of weaponry from gatling guns and flame throwers, to lock on rockets. D-Walker also has a very limited enemy spotting ability that you can command him to do when you are not on him. It's severely lacking and mostly useless. When not using D-Walker or D-Horse, you generally deploy a vehicle you stole... the advantage of buddies you an ride on however is that you can call them too you rather than having to run back to your parked vehicle. 4. D-Horse: Poor D-Horse. He is the first buddy you have access too.... he can't spot and he can't kill... The only advantage he has over D-Walker is that muddy/poor terrain doesn't slow him down. He is the most mobile and fastest way on any surface. Sadly this advantage is useless compared to the benefits of the other buddies. The only other minor advantage D-Horse could be considered to have is that when you are getting away with a hostage/prisoner/VIP, you put them on the back of D-Horse behind you, while D-Walker holds them out front for the shooting gallery.

The heavy blaster needs a range nerf or a damage drop off nerf. Around the 2:20 mark he just stands there and gets a 15 kill streak. Seems a big ridiculous. I'll be exploiting the hell out of it until its fixed if it hasn't been already before Beta. This spawn camping tho. WTF.

This game seems too complex for those that eat potato chips and play loud music in the background while playing even though they are wearing turtles and can't hear it.

Raids

Here is the launch trailer for GW2: Heart of Thorns! This post has been promoted to an article

More than half way through, one of the more interesting aspects about the AI is how they adapt to your playstyle. After exclusively sniping, all soldiers wear hard helmets, armored vests, and have riot shields. If I don't shoot them in the much smaller window of the face, their helmet will fly off and they will be dazed for a second, if you don't take them out by then they can alert the base they are under attack. This took place over a decent timeline and when I listened to enemies talking to each other they even discussed the new equipment they heard was going to be issued and how they hoped it would be soon.

I should be on vacation. As soon as it downloads I'll be on testing extensively!