Invisibility is difficult, but most systems that try to address it handle the situations that
1. Invisibility ends when you try to attack - obviously you are "less invisible" when you are hitting someone :P
2. Invisibility doesn't work so well in the heat of battle - i.e "going stealth" shouldn't really be possible, or should have a very high failure rate if you are in the middle of enemies.

On that note, we should remember that the Character Class is not Ninja, but Assassin. An assassin is a silent killer, who kills after preparation. A ninja is a warrior with specialised skills for death (not tanking, or brawling, or taking on 5 people at a time, just killing one on one perhaps).

Anyway, I think the opportunity to have a balanced class with some kind of stealth option would be very cool.

whoops i guess it is an actual class, my bad

oh and when is chapter 2 coming out?

All ninjas are assassins, but not all assassins are ninja :P

Ninja were highly trained in stealth. The Nika may not be a Ninja, but I would say it is close enough. It's kinda like Rogues in WoW. They're not called Ninjas, but they certainly could pass for one... at least in the right costume.

Not soon enough :P

The last word I heard was the first-half of 2006. So, that leads me to think second quarter. Game Developers rarely say "first-half" when they mean January or February. Knowing ArenaNet and deadlines, it's probably more like May or June. That's right Guild Wars fans... you're in for a long wait.

A prime comparison would be Sorrow's Furnace. It was promoted as a Summer Update. It was technically released during the summer, but it was released after labor day. The original schedule for expansions was supposed to be 6-9 months. That doesn't seem likely, as Guild Wars was released roughly seven months ago.

It's going to be one long winter. :/

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Michael Garofalo
Webmaster - http://photics.com

lol thnx

i liked the idea of a martial artist proffesion. I was kindof questioning the truth of the profession and the magazine, but if its on GW's site i guess it must be true. cool!

Im personally concerned of this new class.

If the assassin is some sort of melee damage dealer, this game will become much more like all others, with warriors being nothing more than meatshields. I really dont like this. Even if they max AL is 60. I enjoyed this game because it brought back the concept that the warrior must be expert in close combat, not some piece of plate to get hit while others do the job.

In other hand, dualwield can turn some skills very unballancing at pvp. Just think about..

- A mesmer/assassin comes at you with that purple glow on his hand. For next seconds you will get about 80dmg/turn without defense! in 2 or 3 seconds a mage full of sup runes will go down.

- then what about vampiric weapons draining twice the HP? a warrior/assassin gaining twice the adrenalin per round?

- And what about Order of the Vampire? Order of Pain? Barbs, etc..

Time will tell what this class will become

...and what exactly is a Warrior right now, other than a one-trick-pony for IWAY builds?

ArenaNet needs to decide what kind of game they want to be...

a) MMORPG
b) Counter Strike - The Medieval RPG
c) Hybrid

Right now, Guild Wars is a Hybrid. You can see how both groups of players are pleased and disappointed at the same time. I don't know what CORPG is supposed to mean... you can file that away with other catchy video game terms... like Sega's "Blast Processing" for Sonic The Hedgehog.

MMORPG is a dirty word to many people. True, level grinding is bad. Monthly fees suck. Guild Wars doesn't have that. I'm totally cool with that. What I'm not cool with is the sense of immersion. The storyline doesn't move me. I don't feel like I'm in an epic struggle for the ascalonians. Except... EXCEPT... for pre-seering. When ArenaNet made level design more open-ended, the immersion felt better. Sorrow's Furnace is a bit like this as well... also a great area. Missions are not bad, but they feel too linear. Instancing is used too excessively.

PvP... it's lacking. You can't just pick up and go in Guild Wars. I'm sure ArenaNet truly believes in their idea for PvP. Yes, it is an interesting element to gameplay... but it's just too freakin' difficult for the majority of players. So... instead of dynamic combat, we have gimic builds. PvP should be about a WAR.

With that in mind, you can think of balancing for the Nika.

Linear maps + Stealth = easy win. That means ArenaNet has to get away from the "Follow the Yellow Dirt Road" syndrome. Stuff should blow up. Players should feel like they're fighting their way through a stronghold... or perhaps players should defend a stronghold. You know why Thunderhead Keep is such a hard mission for so many? It's because you actually have to think on that map. You can't just focus-fire and hope for the best. You have to watch troop movements, man the catapults, defend your borders... now that's what I'm talking about.

If you can just hide, what does that mean for PvP? The Underworld map in Tombs of the Primeval Kings is a perfect example. If I could just hide, I'll wait for the other team to get bored and drop. Don't tell me it won't happen. I spent hours holding players hostage, just to prove a point. That means Stealth will either be weak for PvP... or the rules of PvP will have to change.

I prefer the second option, as I really think Guild Wars could benefit from a global conflict. In a global conflict, stealth is useful... but not too overpowering. When you fight for territory... not kills... stealth is as it should be.

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Michael Garofalo
Webmaster - http://photics.com

What about an ele or mesmer spell to dispell unseen enchantments within an area? (very large area).

i.e dispell magic, or reveal hidden X?

Many other gaming environments (at least the old fashioned paper ones I played MANY a year ago now) had this.
It was quite useful, and is a good counter... i.e you have to bring it to be useful, and if there are no stealth characters, it is a wasted skill slot...

Heh... so you get to waste a skill slot to combat a new profession?

EverQuest had something like "See Invisible". WoW has Hunters, which can launch flares. That's all well and good, as you weren't limited to just 8 skills. In EverQuest, if you knew there was a need to see hidden enemies, you could use a special item or you could quickly memorize the spell.

YOU CAN'T DO THAT IN GUILD WARS

If you are randomly put against a team without stealthers, you just wasted a skill slot. If you are put against stealthers, you had better hope you have your counter. In other words... THERE IS NO SKILL. You choose your skills and you hope you get lucky. This new profession underlines the need to improve PvP. Guild Wars need to become more dynamic. Players need to be able to adapt to the changing face of battle. Yet, to allow that would undermine a key design choice of Guild Wars. The game was designed around Pokemon / Yu Gi OH / Magic The Gathering gameplay.

That works for card games. I don't think it works for online games.

I think Star Wars Galaxies is a good comparison. I'm no stranger to telling Online RPG developers how I feel about game design. I loved the Star Wars Galaxies community. I used to post for hours about the game design. Yet, I had two major complaints with design.

1) It's Star Wars... why are there so many crafting classes?
2) I thought Creature Handlers were overpowered.

Keep in mind, I never even played the game. Yet, here we are today. SWG is going through a major revamp. Surprise surprise... look at what they're doing. That's why I get frustrated with game developers. I give them sound advice, but it doesn't seem to be well received.

Anyway, back to Guild Wars. Do you expect a major change for Chapter 2? Will we see major changes to PvP and PvE?

I don't think so, but I think many of the concerns in this thread are valid. Stealth classes can be unbalancing. I think this situation is increased by how Guild Wars PvP is set up. That means one of two things... PvP will become broken or Stealth will be fairly gimpy.

The true answer is to make Guild Wars live up to its namesake.

__________________
Michael Garofalo
Webmaster - http://photics.com

Comrade Photics,

You talk this game?s storlyine doesnt compel you. But, thell me about a MMO who even got a storyline?

About wars, have you ever tried Lineage 2? The sieges are everything you seem to like: Loads of players on fierce battles, defendind and invading.

IMHO, stealth is to act without being noticed, like splinter cell or MGS.

Some invisible dude that backstabs you 3 times in a row is not steatlthy, you actually KNOW hes there. I On this matter I hear a lot of about WoW Rogues BS.

And warriors in GW can pack quite a punch, I remember using weaken armor+ executioner strike and hitting a monk for more than 100 dmg. And hammers are even more powerful. GW warriors are not only punchbags. Depending on build warriors can be good in offense and defense.