August 31, 2012

Harathi Hinterlands? I Just Don’t Like You. #GW2 #GuildWars2

stargrace August 31, 2012 2 Comments

We all have our favorite zones. Those places we just want to visit over and over again no matter how many times we’ve been there before. We look forward to them, share stories about them, and think fondly of all the memories we’ve created for our characters in those places.

Harathi Hinterlands, is NOT one of these zones for me. In fact so far it’s the zone I like the least amount, and one that frustrated me to no end.

In the zone there is a constant war going on involving many, many, many centaur. When wars go on, gate points become contested and prevent you from gating. Mobs spawn and rampage and pummel you to death. The vista you were trying to get to for the last hour becomes a dangerous place to hang out.

I think these dynamic war events are really neat – but – if you don’t have a lot of people in the section of the map you happen to be hanging out in, they’re also incredibly painful. This was the problem with most of my evening last night as it became too late for the majority of gamers to be up on a Thursday. It’s hard to get things done when there are 100 rampaging angry centaur beating you to the ground with their hooves.

As such, it took me far longer to complete this zone than any of the others. It also seems like the mentoring system is a bit borked because at some points I would be fighting level 46 centaur, but the game had me boosted DOWN to 42. Ouch. This does not make for happy times.

With a lot of deaths I made my way to level 45, completed the zone, and happily left. I’ve now uncovered 20% of the map, and Velours (my Asura Guardian) is glad that she can move on.

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

Caudecus’s Manor (Story Mode) #GW2 #GuildWars2

stargrace August 31, 2012 No Comments

When I wasn’t getting thrown over ledges, I spent the better part of yesterday determined that I would finally find my way into a dungeon. The problem was that most of the time I found a group (which was an adventure in itself) we would end up in different instances, on different servers. Finally last night it looked like this problem was solved, and when someone mentioned in Harathi Highlands that they were looking for a few more, I eagerly volunteered.

I was level 41, and had never been to a dungeon before so I was really looking forward to it. At 30, the first story mode dungeon opens up. At 35 you open up exploration mode. The same goes for 40 and 45. My first dungeon was Caudecus’s Manor, which is the level 40 story mode. Hard to tell in the screen shot, but we did have a 71 auto mentored down, and they had been there before which was a handy thing. They were able to tell us the mechanics of the bosses and help us out with a few tips and tricks. I don’t want to spoil the dungeon at all but there ARE some new bits of information that you’ll want to keep in mind when doing these dungeons.

Number one: Always revive your group mates DURING battle. If someone has fallen, get them up asap, don’t try to continue the fight with people down.

Number two: Designate someone to tag mobs so that you can all focus your efforts.

Number three: Don’t just run off without your group, take your time, make sure everyone is ready before moving on. This is important because you never know what’s just around the corner, and unlike other MMOs you’re not going to be able to simply one shot it.

Number four: Dodge. Dodge. Dodge. Dodge. If you are not used to double tapping to move out of incoming damage, or to help reduce damage, learn fast. You can use the V key as an alternate. It’s so important in dungeons, I can’t stress this enough.

I also learned that dungeons reward an insane amount of experience. 20,000 in fact. I dinged while there, got some neat loot, and had a great time. The dungeon itself was unexpected and fun.

Finishing up Harathi Highlands (which I’ll go into more detail in another post) brought me to 45. Not a bad night at all.

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