August 13, 2008

Who Ordered Extra Crispy?

Pitney has some issues. Actually, Pitney has a lot of issues. I stumbled across this npc in.. I believe Lakeside County. It’s a quaint little village and wild birds seem to roam around. There’s a field not too far, and it’s been infested with worm. Not just your average worm either, oh no. That would be too easy, lay down a little pest control and you’d be set.

These worms are the people eating sort. They probably chomped on a few of the roaming birds too. I could see a chicken or a small wolf being dinner. Anyhow, Pitney has worm problems to start. So you adventure around taking care of the issue. Looking for materials to lure out the Queen worm. That’s exactly what you want to do after all, right? The little people eating worms are just not enough. Anyhow, you eventually get lead (by Pitney himself) over to the Queen worm, and hopefully don’t get smashed to bits as you take her out. The field is filled with all sorts of other critters, wolves and smaller worms. Having an AoE or two helps take things out fairly fast (or a partner in game to play with, which is my option).

After you take care of the worm incident, Pitney mentions that his prized bird has flown the coop. Or he’s been stolen, or lost, something along those lines. He wants to send YOU (brave adventurer that you are) into the catacombs, to rescue his rare bird.

Oh boy!

So off I went to Ashford Abbey (I love the traveling in guild wars, very easy — but how come when I travel me and my group mate have to disband? Every time it gets more and more annoying, is there a way around this?) I went, to go to the catacombs.

I’ve been spending a lot of time in this little zone. Spiders, and animated skeletons and other little gooey bits of fun hang out there. A lot of the necromancer quest stuff is in there. I’d already been there once to light some ritual candles and again for some other necromancer stuff. I am an elementalist with a secondary profession of necromancer, and my partner in crime (from time to time) a warrior, also with a necromancer secondary profession.

Anyhow. We meandered our way through the catacombs, had a few close calls. Oh, how do you revive if your group member forgot to swap in their revive spell? The only method I could find was to open the map and port back to town. That does not really sound right to me. Eventually, we came to a ritual room, and there in the center, was Pitney’s rare bird.

Smushed. A little pile of legs and feathers on the floor. That’s what the screen shot is showing though I’m standing in front of what’s left of him (or it). Great. So now after all that hard work I had to go back to Pitney and tell him that his rare bird (after already dealing with worms) was dead, used in some sort of necromantic scheme.

That’s right, it was me, I was feeling hungry after all that adventuring..

I think I’m sitting at level four now. Maybe part way through it. I did a few other quests, including lugging a huge honeycomb over a bridge for someone. I had to make sure I moved slowly, so that the bees could keep up. Good thing my skin is almost like plastic (oh that reminds me, I turned off the ambiance setting or whatever it was that caused my skin to glow as though I had just eaten a candle.. much better now).

Still having lots of fun with the game, for once not worried at all about the level grind – and just listening to everyone’s stories. It’s great!

A Mixed Bag

Yesterday I finally completed the warden epic. Glad to have it done? You betcha. One thing I dislike (but also understand) about the epics, is that they all follow almost exactly the same time line. However, doing this also ensures that you have multiple classes working in the same zones and areas so that they can garner interest to help as others work on their own epics. The last three portions of just about every epic match, with the names of the mobs changing slightly and perhaps a rotation between which RoK instanced zone it’s going to use.

I admit now that I didn’t read the story line too well. The first few quests didn’t especially grab me. In fact the only quest where I did read the story line in depth (aside from troubador, because I read that on Tipa’s blog as she worked on hers) was the coercer one that pulled me in (or pulled someone into me, quite literally) from the very first quest.

None the less, all of the epic quests were well done, and players should take enormous pride in completing theirs. Hopefully the level cap stays at 80 at least for one expansion so that people can actually enjoy their epics before they get replaced by the next tier of gear (unlike my soulfire, which was replaced almost right away once I’d gotten it finally).

Silhouette dinged 74-75-76 crafter (thanks to anime) and I made quite a bit of coin selling some master drops. Chelsith last night was especially friendly. Two master chests dropped (though nothing came of any use) with a bruiser master that Shadowgeist sold for 100p and a fury master that the winner will no doubt be able to sell for quite a pretty penny (their main single target nuke). A handful of ornate chests dropped and Arysh got herself an earring upgrade, which was great. Since her epic procs on critical heals, I’m trying to boost that as high as I can. Adornments should help out, a bit.

Hopefully Silhouette will get 80 carpenter before too long, then I can work on her crafting epic. Having the earring that grants run speed would be really nice. After she’s reached the maximum level I need to get Arysh to 80. Then whoever is left (there are a few). It’s always nice to have a plan!