This past weekend’s Neverwinter beta event was a lot of fun for me, and seems to be generally considered a successful debut of the upcoming free-to-play MMORPG from Cryptic Studios. My favorite class from the beta event was definitely the Guardian Fighter. As a sword and shield wielding warrior it is your job to weaken your foes while distracting them and protecting your allies. The Guardian Fighter has a great set of skills available in order to fulfill that roll, and now Cryptic has released a short Guardian Fighter trailer which showcases this heavily armored defender in action.
This video is a short montage which showcases the ability set and combat animations for the class, and you can get a sense of just how epic it can be to dash into a group of enemies and bring the pain in this Neverwinter Guardian Fighter trailer. There is plenty of cleaving, dashing, overhead power swings, and shield bashes in this Guardian Fighter trailer, and it really shows off the power and weight of the action combat system. So let’s take a look at the top 3 reasons I think the Guardian Fighter is going to kick ass.
1. Action-Combat has real weight
The footage in the above Neverwinter Guardian Fighter trailer moves kind of fast, but you can still get a feel for the real “weight” of the action-combat. The developers have done a really great job of making combat feel visceral, and when you swing your weapon at an enemy the sound and animations combine to create a feeling that you are actually making contact and hurting the enemies. The Guardian Fighter dashes into the middle of a group of enemies, and they react to the sudden arrival of a giant hunk of metal and anger. Cleaves feel like they strike all enemies and the shield bash seems to throw the enemy off a bit. It’s just a good overall feel that with some polish over the coming weeks could turn into a truly great combat system.
2. Do more than just absorb damage
Watch that footage. Nowhere in it is the Guardian Fighter just standing there absorbing damage and auto-attacking while waiting on the next cooldown. Part of that is due to the action-combat mentioned above, but the other part is the great skill set the Neverwinter Guardian Fighter trailer gives you a sample of. Along with the basic cleave ability, the Guardian Fighter has a shield bash that weakens foes, a dash to move around the fight quickly, a large powerful overhead sword attack, and so much more. There is a mix of defensive abilities, offensive steroids, and control effects that come together to make the Guardian Fighter more than just a boring old tank and spank meat shield.
3. Simple yet Complex
Do you want to just be a flat-out unkillable beast of metal, sweat, and blood? You can do that. Do you want to be able to bring the pain to your enemies while mitigating damage turned your direction? You can do that too. As you level up you are given a small set of abilities that lend themselves to a well-rounded experience, but as you can see in the Neverwinter Guardian Fighter trailer there are several different abilities, and you can mix and match them into the action bar to create the gameplay experience you want. There are also feat points that you can spend to really specialize the way your Guardian Fighter plays, allowing you to either stick with a basic tank type skill set, or tweak and change the way your character plays, and really spend time trying new things and figuring out what does and doesn’t work for you.
If you’re looking for more from the Neverwinter beta we’ve got you covered with a couple of first impression articles, one which focuses more on the experience of running a dungeon, and the other more of a general look at questing and classes.
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