Alwan is a disgrace

[Student of Trinity]

That's it, I've had it with this wretched wanna-be Guardian. I've tried really hard to like him. I've carried him on my back through all these zones of havoc, paid for his training and his equipment, and buffed him constantly with magic. He has over four hundred health points. But can he hold on to them? No, he cannot. A strong breeze practically wipes him out. He talks big, and he does hit okay (after all I've done for him); but he simply can't take the heat.

 

He ran off in the middle of battle in Icy End, crying about how badly wounded he was, leaving me to take all those Drayks and Glaahks and Rotghroths all by myself. Which I did. And I am not going all the way back to the reeking Bulwark Inn now, just to have the pleasure of nursing him through the next little tussle.

 

Greta was different. Greta was cool. Greta was worth taking care of, because she could usually take care of herself.

 

Alwan is a toad.

 

Any disagreements?

[Savarius]

If he had some kind of ranged attack (baton, like the warriors that fight with you on Dhonal Island), then he might be worth it. Maybe if he got better and better damage reduction as he levelled, then it would make sense for him to be pure melee.

[Dolphin]

I completely agree, and have said similar things from time to time. He always dies before Greta, even when they have equal HP. His complete lack of ranged attacks makes him fairly useless against creations that like to shoot and run. As a guardian he should have both a sword and javelins.

 

While playing a Shaper I expect the Guardian to protect me, but I had to take care of him. I like Greta's more liberal standpoint better anyways.

[I_am_a_Minotaur]

I donno what i did to get him good but he was a real help when i kept him with me.

[Delicious Vlish]

Quote:

I have severe issues with Alwan. There are dialog points where it says that Alwan grasps his baton angrily, but he has no baton. No means of any sort of ranged attack what so ever. Greta has both melee and ranged covered. Alwan seems to be good at one thing. Dying. Even Augmented and fully buffed, he goes down to quickly for my liking on Torment. I can make creations tougher than he is. For being so close to becoming a true shaper, he has no quick action or parry at all. He is a liability. He should have at least had a baton as a ranged option, with a chance to upgrade later to something a little better. Keeping him alive is at best, an irritation and distraction.

Told you so. Alwan sucks monkey balls. I have said all this before. He both sucks and blows.

He's a worthless piece of offal.

[Student of Trinity]

Yeah, but I was in denial. I kept hoping Alwan's inadequacy in a ranged game would be less trouble for melee Guardian. And he actually was able to close with the enemy alongside me, and get in a swat or two. He just couldn't take more than a couple of hits, on Torment, despite his hundreds of Health, and generous rations from me of Armor Potions and Augmentations. A ranged attack would make him too hard to distinguish from Greta in behavior, for my taste. But he really needs some better armor.

[Delicious Vlish]

I have fully buffed Alwan with Steel Skin, Augmentation, pretty much every buff one could muster and he still dies. With ease. I have seen Battle Alphas last longer than he does. I have seen THAHDS that last longer than he does.

 

Greta has him in by leaps and bounds. Come endgame, she has a mass kill attack. She can really thin down the incoming mobs. Alwan can do no such thing, other than just stand there, look stupid, and DIE.

[VCH]

I agree that little ***** did nothing for me. Eventually I just let him die for good. I believe it was at Dhonal's keep when I was stealing stuff, he gave up pleading he was overly hurt or some such rubbish. So I went back to the Inn and dropped Alwan with my own sword. What's up now!

[Lord Nargil]

When I was playing as a loyalist Shaper Alwan did alright,

once you get him his acid dripping sword and a mass Energize then he can really take things out quickly, and a Major heal every few turns, mind you I also had to powerful creations with me also.

[I_am_a_Minotaur]

That's why he was good for me.

[Student of Trinity]

Could be an issue of difficulty level. On Torment, my high Parry, good armor, and life-stealing sword let me go toe-to-toe with squads of bad guys without getting more hurt than I can handle with the occasional pod. Alwan lacks these advantages, so the massive damages that get dealt out on Torment wear him down really fast. And his own attacks, while decent enough, never take his enemies down before they land a hit or two on him. (And my incarnation of Alwan is pretty much maxed: all abilities maxed out, and he has come all the way to Icy End, mostly with just me for company, so his level is about as high as it can get.)

 

For ordinary little battles, I could either leave him out until the end, or retire him around a corner after the first round, then heal him up. But for major engagements where the enemies kept coming, I couldn't keep healing him fast enough and survive myself, and there was nowhere for him to hide.

[mok]

I agree with Lord Nargil. I took Alwan with my shaper and he was often my only creation. There were definately times when his melee-only style was a pain in the arse, but for the most part, if I buffed him w/ Aug and Stone skin, threw a heal or 2 his way, he was a great meat shield for me while I tossed some spells into the general fray.

[Lilith]

Why in God's name were you using a Shaper with no creations?

[mok]

Well, mostly b/c Alwan was enough for a lot of it. Any time I hit a tough spot I usually created a big bad glaahk (or ur-glaahk) or several vlishes and a big thahd. Of course, once I hit the monastery, I had to bring out a pair of Gazers, b/c at that point Alwan *is* a useless wimp.

Mostly it's my playing style -- I'm not a fan of sitting on the bleachers hoping like hell my team wins and takes care of all the big-baddies before they wander over to sample the taste of my limbs. I like to jump in and help. To do that, I need some of my essence for dropping essence orbs and searers into the mix.

Essentially, I played a shaper weaker in shaping and stronger in spells than most people do. I went for a "well-rounded" approach.

[Lilith]

Ever tried an Agent? If you can give up shaping entirely, it might be more your style.

[mok]

Yeah, I like the Agents the best. But... I found them a little too easy. I took my agent and used lots of blessing buffs and then went in and took stuff out hand-to-hand.

(And I also tried making a Guardian who could toss spells, but by the middle of game he was a pathetic wuss who kept getting is *ss handed to him until I pumped his melee up and went back to some tried and true.)

[Marlenny]

I agree with all of you, Alwan sucks. I honestly hated him. He was such a wimp; He is supposed to be a Guardian for God's sake. It didn't take long until I let him die. He is def not worth the shared experience.

[Delicious Vlish]

Well, to be fair, he might be somewhat better at lower difficulties.

[Dolphin]

I find low-level creations comparable to Alwan.

[I_am_a_Minotaur]

I was playing tricky and he was as good as a rotghroth.

[Student of Trinity]

Maybe that's my problem: I've never been able to get any creations to keep up with my Guardians, either. I think maybe it's because the Agent-style speed tactics are entirely sufficient for beating the game with a solo Guardian, if you pump your personal combat stats enough, but they're incompatible with caring for creations.

 

I mean, my solo canister-free Guardian just whacked Akhari Blaze toe-to-toe on Torment, using 18 AP, a life-draining Claymore, and a number of Steel Spines. This has convinced me that solo melee Guardians are as capable in G3 as ever. Even my Agent had more trouble with Akhari, because he had her beat on Quick Action and she couldn't stand a single hit from him. My Guardian just shrugged off all his attacks and kept trimming him down. I have yet to see how he fares against the Alpha Creator, but I expect he'll be fine. He has built up enough Mech to shut off the Monastery Caves spawners.

[starmonkey]

can we be careful with name dropping which are kinda spoilers? just a simple <spoilers> warning would be nice. thanks.

[Delicious Vlish]

Hmm how much mechanics does it take to shut off those spawners again? I recall doing it once... But I don't remember. I think I had somewhere around 15 mechanics plus some items.

[Student of Trinity]

Ah, I was forgetting that we now have an influx of new Windows players. But I don't think mentioning those few cryptic names is really much of a spoiler. Anyone who even knows what they might mean knows enough to already know that things like that are bound to be in the game somewhere.

 

Here, though, is a SPOILER answering DV's question:

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It takes a Mech of 20. I'm planning to bring every doggone Mech-raising item in the game in with me in my backpack, and put them all on just for the spawner job. That's +2 each from Tinker's Gloves and Infiltrator's Ring, and +1 each from Infiltrator's Charm, Shield, Vest, and Cloak, and +1 from Tinker's Bauble, for a total of +9. So you only really need a measly Mech of 11.

[Ald]

Why are you all complaining? You get what you pay for!

[Archmagus Micael]

I only got GF3's demo 3 days ago, and I've kept both him and Great with me. The Game's set to Tricky, but he's still okay. I've reached the end of the demo, but for now at least he's been worth his keep. All you have to do is War Bless and Protection him and Greta. At this stage, I'm finding that Greta dies more than he does. But I just go back and pick them up again. The real problem I face is keepin both of those two happy.

 

Also, a question...

 

In the Testing Grounds place, how do you do that "Special" training thing. I got the braceletty ring thing (looks like Sharon's Bracelet to me), but I can't do anything with it after I stood on that pedestal.

 

Is it even possible in the Demo?

 

- Archmagi Micael

[The1Kobra]

To be honest, i found alwan to be quite useful in battle.

What i did was put all his points into endurance, and had the rest of the party do all the damage. So,

maybe some of us arent using him right.....

[Delicious Vlish]

I have had Alwan with every single one of his stats raised to the max.

 

So... That line about not using him right?

 

He dies to easily in torment. That's all there is.

[Contra]

I think this is it: Activate it, go North and kill the Golem. Go back and stand on the pedistal again, go North and kill something new?

[The1Kobra]

First thing... If you are playing on torment, anything you have can die very quickly. And, about using him right, i meant tactically, if he dies easily, then have some battle creations go in first, take a beating, then have Alwan go in. I really havent found him to be that weak.

[Dolphin]

Quote:

Originally written by Ald:
Why are you all complaining? You get what you pay for!

Alwan is at the same educational level as the PC, and he sucks. Greta doesn't suck, and she got kicked out of school before completing her training.

Edit: what happened to the post I quoted? I was here a minute ago, no really it was

[Ald]

It is obvious that a follower, which development can barely be directed, won't be as effective as the PC. You should praise the developers for making Greta that strong. But you complain instad. What a bunch of ungrateful

[mok]

Quote:

Originally written by Dolphin:
Alwan is at the same educational level as the PC, and he sucks. Greta doesn't suck, and she got kicked out of school before completing her training.
:

Actually, Alwan has surpassed your training level. You are basically a kicking-boy/girl in the school, for which punishment you are allowed to read the texts and gets some mental training.

But Alwan, and I don't have the time to get the actual quote, is said to be "almost finished with his training to become a guardian".

Greta, it seems to me, also received a bit more training than you (or roughly equal), but was kicked out for her beliefs, not her abilities.

I think it comes down to the fact that you, even as an apprentice, show great potential. And this potential is brought to the fore by the simple fact that you have 2 choices, grow in strength or die trying.

[Travers]

But as a Guardian, Alwan should be able to:

 

use ranged weapons and batons, use magic (maybe), buff me, heal me, use items, wear armor/robes/belts/etc, pick locks, disable mines, carry my stuff so-that-I-won't-be-bogged-down-all-the-time, and finally, SHAPE!

 

The fact that he can do none of these things means that he should be pretty good at doing the one thing that he does do: i.e., being a melee tank. He is not.

 

On a side note, does anyone know how to edit him? I really want to take him, but he doesn't fit my playing style

[Student of Trinity]

Alwan would be okay, I think, if he were just given some armor upgrades as well as melee. A baton might also help, but he has to have weaker ranged attack than Greta, and stronger melee, or he isn't different enough from her to be interesting.

[Delicious Vlish]

Greta can do as much physical damage as he does. He does get a weak acid attack later.

 

Alwan is a plonker.

[Travers]

okay well, I gave Alwan a baton. And I'm much much happier with him now

 

If any of you are interested in that, edit: gf3itemschars.txt

 

Under Alwan's entry, change:

cr_abil_num 1 = -1;

 

to:

cr_abil_num 1 = 50;

[Timber-Wolf]

Thankyou for that Travers, Alwan is much more useful now with a baton and a sword plx.

[Athron]

Thank You!!! are there any other weapons alwan can use??

[Lilith]

If you mess around with that ability number, you can get him to use all sorts of crazy abilities. On one hand, it's cheating. On the other, Alwan really, really needs help.