August 2017

Slow and Steady

stargrace August 26, 2017 No Comments

I love achievements. When I can’t figure out what I want to do in a game I can look at the list of achievements and usually find something that appeals to me. Since I’m playing Guild Wars 2 on a newer account that has very little completed, I decided to spend some quiet time chipping away at map completion.

As an example of how very little I have completed on this account – I may have four level 80 characters but they certainly didn’t get there from leveling the traditional way. Rather, I crafted my way to 80. I have 5% world map completion on my main – and of course I want to slowly change that.

I started out easy. I never know when I’m going to have to jump away from the PC so I wanted to begin in a city. I haven’t explored much of Lion’s Arch since the destruction (and rebuilding) after Living Season 1, so I decided that was as good a place as any. I had about 50% of the map already unlocked, waypoints visited and two vista. It took less than an hour to complete the rest, and gave me a nice 2% bump to my overall world map completion.

The best part is that it was completely relaxing and very immersive. I lost myself in the music of the zone, and just bounced around. It was exactly what I wanted to do with my time, and I’m really glad that I did. Was it character progression? Not in the traditional sense of the word, but I did get a little experience for getting it done (cities give very little, I’ve found) and again, it was fun and just what I needed. Next I’m headed to Gendarran Fields, where I have 12% of the map completed. I expect this one will take me a bit longer (hearts, so many hearts) but again it’s a fairly relaxing pace where I can just run around doing my thing and not have to focus too much.

Now I just have to find the time..

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

Dragon Wings

stargrace August 24, 2017 No Comments

In the market place today I noticed that there were some chests for sale – but the first one was free (one of each type that was being offered). I love free things (who doesn’t!) so of course I excitedly claimed them to see what was inside on each of my accounts.

I got an account bound pet, some food and oils, and some bits and bobs that you could use to claim other things – if you wanted the really good things you’d have to invest in more chests though. It just so happened that I had enough to purchase some awesome looking holographic dragon wings that fit over the backpack slot as an appearance item. Neat!

I don’t plan on purchasing any more of the chests for gems, but it was a great way to entice players to spending some gems (or gold, or real life cash) that’s for sure.

Pictured above is my Chronomancer (Mesmer) – Blesse. I haven’t played the character for quite some time, not since HoT came out I believe. I think at the time I was finding the class too difficult, and I wanted to swap back to my guardian so that’s the character I made next. I boosted a Charr ranger to 80 with my PoF boost, and I had enough random boosts to move my elementalist to 30 (from 20) which wasn’t too shabby. I also created a norn necromancer bringing the total characters on the newer account to 5, one of each race. I’ve never really played anything except my Guardian and the Mesmer, so I don’t have a lot of experience with those classes, but it’s always fun to have options.

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

Before You Know it, 10 Days Have Passed

stargrace August 23, 2017 No Comments

There’s a saying I’ve heard a few times now since my husband left for depot, and that’s “the days are long but the weeks are short”. I haven’t seen him in 5.5 weeks now, and it’s been 10 days since I wrote here on my blog. The days are incredibly long and very difficult as I attempt to raise our 11 month old son alone, but then I look back and wonder where the time has all gone. I can only hope that I’ll have the strength to keep pushing forward like I have been. Some days are filled with nothing but tears – but they end, and the next day begins and it’s not usually as difficult as the previous one.

People keep telling me it gets easier but I’ll be honest. It doesn’t. Having my partner gone has not gotten easier at all. I cry just as much. I find doing certain things just as difficult. When my little one picks up his Cat In The Hat book and yells for ‘da da’ over and over, it breaks my heart and I cry no matter how many different days he does this. Sometimes it just doesn’t get easier and I truly believe that this is one of those times. That being said, the days DO still pass, time keeps moving forward, and so do I.

I had a bit of spare time today and I was able to log into GW2 – yay! These little moments help keep me sane. I mentioned before that I have two accounts, and I recently acquired PoF on my second (newer) account – a deluxe version of the game, which meant a new outfit and a special area I could get to. My older account has more history (Hall of Monuments, more birthdays) but doesn’t have collectors edition nor does it have any gems. Thing is, I’ve got a lot more “completed” on the old account, but a lot more perks on the newer one. If I stuck with the newer one I wouldn’t be able to catch up exactly (no hall of monuments and no making time pass faster for birthdays) but I could at least catch up in story / world discovery etc.

It was nice to play. I love looking at my characters, working on crafting, exploring the world, and just relaxing. I haven’t actually DONE a lot – I haven’t been working on my dailies and I still don’t know what I should aim towards as far as weapons go (legendary? I have no idea) but I still really enjoy myself in game. There’s still tons to do waiting for me if / when I want to work on it, and again the fact that there’s no subscription to pay for means I never really feel that much pressure. The world is beautiful, the story interesting, and I’m glad I decided to stick with it as my game of choice while life is in this really weird phase.

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