Hearing that Lion’s Arch has been changed today, I want to take a look. Had to download a pretty large patch (again, I haven’t played in months) and logged in.
I popped up outside of my Home area, and was greeted by a popup to show my skills and traits have been changed. It claimed it tried its best to keep my stats as they were since I last logged in.
In my Hero panel, there’s two new tabs; Build and Training. The Build tab shows a LOT.. I mean.. wow. Blown away. I’m going to do my best to explain what I’m seeing here.
So there’s three panels, and three buttons on the upper left. The first one is called your Weapon Skills.
The first panel shows every ability available to your current class. It allows you to pick and choose which build to best go with. It also shows your abilities when you have fallen and you’re trying to kill that one asshole to get a Second Wind (like in Borderlands). Really like this.. a LOT.
The second panel shows your current abilities (your ‘Skill Bar’), and your pet’s abilities (if you have a class that has a pet).
The 3rd panel are your current specs for your class. Like WoW before MoP (the whole “cookie cutter build” thing) you can put points in all three specs. It shows a line going through each spec to indicate what you’ve selected. You can also change these on the fly, unlike in WoW where you must purchase a powder to remove a specific spec.
Going to the second tab, the left panel changes to your utility spells, healing, and ‘Elite’ skills.
And the 3rd tab, shows all available talents you can pick with your Specs.
Very nice Build GUI. I really, really love it. And I’m sure there’s even more that I haven’t covered. Now to go over the Training tab;
Now the Training tab, shows your Mastery with these abilities. I remember this was mentioned in an interview. It looks pretty.. weird, though. But I actually like it.
Everytime you “level up” for now on, you’re given a ‘Hero Point’. You can spend these points on teaching your char special, and your standard abilities (and utilities).
You can also get two more specs just by buying them with Hero Points, such as Wilderness Survival and Nature Magic for Rangers. Basically… Hero Points are the former Skill Points. The icon has even been changed.
That’s basically it. Now the other change is to Lion’s Arch. Some like it, others do not. Most say it looks like Disneyland or Seaworld. And from what I’m seeing on the World Map, it definitely has a sea life theme to it. I’m seeing a large octopus, a giant seashell. Even a giant crab.
I teleported in, and I’m seeing an intro of the new Lion’s Arch. It definitely looks different. Leaving the intro, I look to my left and see two players spazzing out while watching the intro. Hilarious bug.
Anyway… let’s see what’s new. Immediately, this looks nothing like I remembered. It doesn’t have all the portals to every start area as before. Looking at the world map now, I see they’ve been moved. So now it’s not so easy to check out the other starting areas. Hmm. Oh well.
Also, where Tybalt used to be, has been changed. It looks like some kind of bar now, with Whispers agents everywhere. There’s a robot here (called ‘Captain Smash’) where you can “buy some apples”(aka Tybalt’s thing). It mentions the place is ‘being scrubbed’, and thanks me for the work. So it seems they haven’t forgotten what I’ve done to save the planet. Good to see some respect.
That same ‘respect’ can be seen by others. There was a guy ‘selling’ things when he claims he isn’t, then tells me to “go back to your dragon killing”.
So I completed my tour around the new Lion’s Arch. In some ways I like it, others I don’t. The wall textures just look… I dunno. I just don’t like them. They look bland. Don’t like solid white. Plus I’m not really a fan of the whole “Seaworld” theme.
I also went on this guided tour around the place. We reached an area where the guide says that beyond the portal is another part of the place, and to go through it and she’ll meet us there. So I did… and she wasn’t there.
But something did turn up (it wasn’t the Tour Guide, but it sure was awesome). So I’m preparing to head back, then I see one of those miniatures. This one.. was Tybalt. They actually created Tybalt as a miniature!! 😀 I wonder how much he is, because to have him go with me.. it’ll be like he never left, and I’ll literally have his memory with me.
The only way to purchase him is the Trading Post (aka the Auction House) of the Black Lion Trading Company. Hopefully I can get one. That’ll be the best thing since getting this game. To honor his bravery and sacrifice as a miniature (plus it’s better than trying to as a Warrior…).
EDIT: On an unrelated note, I’m thinking of actually playing the game again as a Necromorth, as it has pets. Then again it could possibly blow up in my face. Not sure what race to be. Maybe an Azura, as I never went with one before. Or a Charr and get rid of my Warrior.
Decided to go with another Charr, and level him (aka ‘Deathclaw Ragefist’ as I named him) higher than my Warrior was.