Nomadic Gamer

June 2012

Gaming

Picking Up My Second Tapestry #GuildWars #GW

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In my effort of ‘catching up’ my Hall of Monuments so that I’m ready for Guild Wars 2 I actually discovered a few things. First of all, I apparently picked the worst class combination for PvE ever. The Mesmer / Ranger combination (with Mesmer being my main ‘profession’). I was looking for some builds for this combination and about 99% of the posts I found were all about how this was the worst possible combination ever for PvE and is made for a PvP setting. Great.

I thought about how much effort (long term) I had put into reaching level 15. Not that much, in fact barely a weekend when all is said and done. So I decided to start over with a combination that was more suited to my play style. This time I took the easy road, and made a monk / warrior combination. I absolutely adore the monk, and when I’m playing with my friend Ninga Turtle, I make great use of my heals. When I’m soloing I switch the spec around a bit and stick to being a warrior with mercenary and a few heals. I need to be level 10 before I can do the quest to unlock the Hall of Monuments (again), but at least this time around I’ll know what I’m doing. I also already have 4 points, and they accumulate account wide so it’s not like those will be wasted. Four points unlocks a few pieces of gear according to the calculator.

Since I used my first tapestry from Gwen after visiting the hall for the first time in the wrong monument (not wrong per say, but not the one I wanted to unlock) I decided (before making the new character) that I’d unlock a second one. Thankfully there’s a great Guild Wars Wiki that I made much use of. I decided to work on ‘Northern Allies‘ since it was one of the new quests I had picked up, and after a lengthy quest chain I was rewarded with a lot of experience and the new tapestry, which I used to unlock the miniatures monument.

Of course now I’ll have to do that all over again once the new character reaches 10, but at least I’ll know what to expect. Ninga was also brave enough to run me all the way from my starter city over to Lion’s Arch, so now I can port there. It was quite an adventure, too. Hopefully I’ll get caught up before too long. It’s been neat getting back into the game. I feel a bit more confident at my ‘skill’ and I’m having more fun this round than the first few times I played. One huge enormous bonus to me is the fact that the game has no subscription fee, and during these times I really appreciate that I can pay for the base game and then not have to pay anything extra. Granted, Guild Wars does play much more like a single player game to me than an MMO, but the ability to group with others is there.

I’m looking forward to sharing more of my adventures, as always!

Gaming

Vanguard Loyalty Rewards #VGD #Vanguard

stargrace 3 Comments

Thanks to some wonderful posts by Ardwulf, I decided that I should log into Vanguard for the loyalty rewards they are offering until the game goes free to play – and I’m very glad I did. I missed the May rewards which included a boat for players, but June was just as exciting. On my players below 50 I received a free small house (you still have to purchase the plot, but this saves a lot of building should I ever decide to move), as well as some appearance gear which my 50 monk is showing off above. It’s a plate graphic which doesn’t really suit her style, but there’s a lot of details in the pieces which I really appreciate.

There’s a bit of controversy about the level 50 rewards, which include 2 chests with augments, and 5 crates that you have to use a special mallet from KDG to open. The mallet costs 1g each, and you must be level 50 to get to the zone to begin with in order to purchase these. I was able to save up the crates on my level 47, but I only have one level 50 character at this time, so only she was able to open them. The crate rewards were various pieces of (to me) awesome gear, some yellow and some orange. Sadly, none of the pieces were of any actual use to me, being better suited for plate classes, but perhaps I can save them for alts or put them up on the broker.The controversy comes from players who argue that giving away these augments as loyalty rewards trivializes farming / raiding for them. On one hand I can understand their perspective, however, personally, I don’t raid nor do I farm, so this is a chance for me that I would otherwise not have. I still think players spend too much time worrying about what everyone ELSE is doing with their characters, rather than enjoying the game themselves and being preoccupied with their own business. How someone else plays the game or what gear they have shouldn’t have such a dire impact on how you view things (personal opinion only here).

It would be great to get my blood mage to 50 (55 ideally, as that’s the new cap) so that she could participate in these rewards, but I’ve little to no idea of where to level these days. Still, my interest in Vanguard is once again piqued (along with my ever wavering interest in Guild Wars) which is never a bad thing. I’ve loved Vanguard from the very start, and I’m pretty excited at the prospect of getting to share that love with others as they realize what a great game it truly is. I hope the free to play model goes well.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Gaming

Starting My Hall of Monuments #GW #GuildWars

stargrace 2 Comments

I’ve played Guild Wars off and on since 2009 – not that long, I know. I own all of the expansions, and have never before made it past level 9 in prophecies. Something always held me back, and I never really gave the game a ‘proper’ chance. When Guild Wars 2 announced that trophies from your Guild Wars monument would carry over in some fashion to the new game, I instantly thought to myself “oh! I’ll need to work on that!” and then never did. Of course now the game is almost ready for release, and I’m just getting started. Not only that, but I’ve been completely in the dark about everything Guild Wars related, and didn’t have the faintest idea at all of what I was doing. So grabbing my trusty google search engine, I set forth to figure out what this whole ‘Hall of Monuments’ was about.

First, I discovered it’s in the expansion ‘Eye of the North’. Great, I owned that at least. First step down. Next I found this great FAQ which answered most of my basic questions. Most importantly, the NPC I needed to talk to to get started in this whole adventure. Since I was still in prophecies I was off to talk to Len Caldoron in Lion’s Arch. Good thing my friend brought me to Lion’s Arch a few years back, or else I would have no idea how to get there. As it was I was able to instantly port, and found myself in the Eye of the North. Continued on with the quest chain. I picked up henchmen and along the way earned my first two heroes. Heroes are like henchmen but better. You choose their skills, and you can give them gear. Other than that I haven’t figured it out yet.

When you do the main chain to access the Hall of Monuments, you’re given a tapestry. This tapestry is then used to unlock one of the monuments, either devotion, fellowship, resilience, and valor. Honor is already unlocked. Each one of these monuments holds a particular ‘thing’ from your character. For example, devotion is miniatures. I made a mistake and didn’t understand this whole concept, so I unlocked the monument for armor sets, which of course I have none of. Then I spent the rest of my weekend working to unlock another tapestry, so I could place my miniatures, which I do have a few of.

The quests were fun. Because I had so many heroes and henchmen working for me I barely got any loot but I didn’t mind because I was there for the story, not for neat items. The experience gain was crazy. Eye of the north basically sets your character at level 20 (but without any extra skills) so my level 11 character was level 15 before I knew it. I got involved in the story, helping the Norn become my allies, and loved the introduction to my heroes. All in all? Great weekend of gaming!

 

Gaming

Finding Myself in Guild Wars 2 #GW2

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I’ve never been one to ‘spoil’ games by participating heavily in betas – although don’t get me wrong, I love betas and I do take part in them. I just tend to stick to specific testing grounds instead of ‘completing’ the entire game. For the past few months my inner circle of blogging / twitter / G+ friends have been talking about Guild Wars 2 and I showed very little interest. I always had plans of picking the game up, but I would get distracted with Diablo 3 (briefly) or Wurm Online (constantly) or something else would come up that prevented me from looking very far into the game.

Until this weekend. I could hold back no longer. I pre-ordered the game, which automatically allows access to all of the beta weekends. It was a fast download (for me at least, 3 mb/s) and I was ready to go when servers opened on Friday. The problem initially was that my friends had already picked a server and by the time I logged in ready to create a character – it was full.

Gah!

I hate the idea of servers. I always have. The main thing any one person wants to do in game and I have said this countless times is be able to play with their friends without limitations. New friends and old friends alike. No matter when someone has started playing the game. In GW this was easy, there are no servers only districts and you simply port to a new one and ta da you’re with your friends. I hear there are ways around this in GW2 with guesting and server transfers, but they’re still just band-aid solutions to the greater issue (imo).

Looking past this – I was incredibly impressed with character creation. My character has a history. A ‘life’. She is not just made up of statistics and dye colours, but has a background. I instantly felt bonded with this beta character, sad by the prospect that hey, it’s beta. Having played a mesmer in GW, that’s what I created for GW2. Then I spent the next hour running around, exploring. I didn’t do anything else. I don’t know how anything works in game. I was enthralled with the spell graphics, and with all of the graphics in general. It runs wonderfully on my machine, and looks amazing. For now, that’s all I need.

I can’t wait for this to go live.

Gaming

Mad Lady Arysh (Part II) #WurmOnline

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Across the mountain, construction still continues. The sounds of hammering and building last well into the night, and those passing by have drawn their eyes upwards towards the newly formed castle walls, wondering what could lay beyond them. There are rumors circulating, rumors of expensive lavish belongings being purchased. Flags, and banners of the finest silk, created by Master Tailor Yetian, renown for his work on Deliverance. An order has been placed for a mine door – but not any mine door would suit Lady Arysh, she demanded that this door be made from gold and shipped to the far shores of Deliverance.

It seems that only one type of creature dares venture near the castle walls these days, angry unicorns, who glare from beneath their wild manes, unused to having their land disturbed. All mountain lions, spiders, and wolves have vanished from the hill tops.

As you venture closer, you can make out a ‘pick pick pick’ sound, it echoes constantly, overlapping. You see no one, but a faint glimmer in the rock leads you to believe that someone still toils away. The base of the mountain seems to be changing shape. Flattening. Perhaps a road is in its future? One can only speculate…

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