A Different Slant - 'Book Trick' Gets Tanked
Edited and Published by: Magi
A lot has changed in the past few days, what with the release of Factions, the skill buffs (and nerfs), and various new systems including a re-done drop rate. There is no possible way a single article could talk about all of these changes in any reasonable length of time, so instead I'm going to just focus on one that has been almost forgotten as far as forum attention goes: the "book trick", or more precisely, the removal of said trick.
Anyone who has spent time in high level PvE (player versus environment) areas like the Fissure of Woe or Sorrow's Furnace knows about this trick; it was the greatest asset to a farming team and the bane of everyone who didn't fit into the cookie-cutter farming builds that revolved around such farming. A Warrior with stances would pick up an item like a keg, a gear, or a book and instantly become an agro-magnet; no matter what the rest of his team threw at the mobs, he would never lose agro. Throw in a Monk or two and that Warrior would never die, leaving the remainder of his team free to wipe out the stupid AI mobs. Five man groups revolved around this principle, and made clearing Sorrow's Furnace much easier than it should have been.
Now, the removal of this particular feature of the monster AI was an absolute necessity in my eyes, and not just because it would have made Ritualist urn spells suicide for Ritualist primaries. That particular change could have been brought about simply by flagging urn items differently than every other kind of item; instead the entire thing was removed from the game. Now, for the first time in a long while, it is actually possible to get a group in Deldrimor Warcamp without being a Spiteful Spirit Necromancer, a stance tank, or a minion master (which was nerfed anyway, but that's a different article). I am well aware that eventually there will be a "perfect" farming build that everyone accepts and runs, but for now the field is the most open it has been since I can remember.
And no, I do not subscribe to the theory that this will horrendously raise the prices of green items. For one thing, gold drops now actually have a chance at being perfect, so the demand for the perfect greens shouldn't be very high. Secondly, the supply for those greens already far exceeds the demand; it's difficult to even give some of those greens away, and this is including most of the greens from Tombs as well.
PvP (player versus player) is constantly being shaken up by skill updates and such, so it only makes sense that high level PvE is occasionally shaken up as well. Players adapted after the Area of Effect AI change, and they'll adapt to this change as well. Guild Wars - and high level farming - will survive; it will just be a while before the next "big farming build" comes along.
So what did you think of this article? Did you like it? Did you find it useful? Or maybe you didn't like it at all? Be sure to tell us about it on this thread!
