ArenaNet implemented Hard Mode last week for its recently released Guild Wars expansion, Eye of the North, together with a whole bunch of skill changes.

Leaving aside the question of why Hard Mode wasn’t included at the release of GW:EN, I’m delighted it’s here. The challenge is welcome since it forces players to consider tactics and fine-tune builds.

GW:EN in Normal Mode has its challenging moments but I felt I was playing the expansion on auto for the most part. My Heroes and henchmen were doing most of the work for me and I was left pointing and directing. C-spacing, the kids call it.

I sometimes livened things up by experimenting with my Mesmer’s build. At one point, I came up with a build I called “The Borrower.” Revolving around the Mesmer skill, Signet of Illusions, the build let me cast Sandstorm, Light of Deliverance, have a level 26 Flesh Golem as a personal bodyguard and use a foe’s spell against it. It was hardly the most effective of builds or the most efficient but by golly, it was hellacious fun.

Better healing through death

Of late, I’ve also been experimenting with my Hero/henchman team build. I linked to this Hero team build a few weeks ago but I haven’t had a chance to try it myself until recently. Now that I have tried it out, I’m going to strongly recommend it to PvE players who play exclusively with Heroes and henchmen.

It’s been called PvE on auto and in some circumstances it really does feel like that.

Even in Hard Mode.
Continued…

I have faced the purest of evil and its name is … Blarp?

Blarp is an ancient Asuran word meaning “he who performs intimate acts on other male Asurans.” Or at least I’d like to think it is. Now, you might get the distinct impression I am not fond of the little fellow. Your impression is entirely correct. I spent 1 hour and 45 minutes battling him today and I do not like him. I do not like him at all.

My real problem is I completely hate Polymock, the Asuran minigame. It’s been repeatedly described as “Pokemon on steroids” but this didn’t help me grasp the concept any better since I’ve never played Pokemon and have never taken steroids. I think “Pain In the Ass” is a better description because that’s what it feels like.

What happens is you choose three creatures and pit them against three of your opponent’s creatures in one on one battles. The owner of the last creature standing wins the match. The interesting thing about this is that you control each creature in battle. This is probably another attempt by ArenaNet to nudge PvE-exclusive players towards PvP.

I would simply forgo Polymock but I’m keen on getting the Asuran skill Pain Inverter and the only way to get that skill is to get a quest from a guy in Tarnished Haven. I don’t have that outpost on my map right now — none of the primary quests go through it — and none of the quests in my log go there.

I could simply look up the map location and run myself there but I’d rather play GW:EN the straightforward way by jumping through the designers’ hoops. From what I can tell, the only way to get to Tarnished Haven through a quest is to battle Polymock masters, one of whom is stationed there.