Guild Wars

Wayfarer’s Reverie #GuildWars #GW

stargrace August 17, 2012 0Comment

ArenaNet added a new festival to the world on Friday, the Wayfarer’s Reverie. This is a celebration of exploration (and in preparation of GW2).

The Wayfarer’s Reverie honors the traveler inside each of us, encouraging revelry and revisitation. The world is yours to explore—again or for the first time. Join the celebration!

• For those looking to walk the Wayfarer’s path, festival coordinators have been added to Lion’s Arch, Kamadan, Kaineng Center, and the Eye of the North to offer festival quests for their respective regions.
• NPCs will be dropping by the major towns—as well as a few locations off in the wilds—to share their insights during the festival.
• Special drops and bonuses will be in effect throughout the Wayfarer’s Reverie, which will run through August 30th.

I picked up the quest in Lion’s Arch to explore Tyria, and set out to explore. The lower level areas were quite easy, and I had no issues soloing my way through them, picking up some spare crafting material and money. I had a lot of fun wandering through areas I had not been in for quite some time. Of course, it got harder. Much harder.

• Visit the Searing crystal near Serenity Temple.
• Visit the Flame Temple.
• Visit the Wizard’s Tower.
• Visit the Mausoleum in Majesty’s Rest.
• Visit Anvil Rock.
• Visit the Falls in the Maguuma Jungle.
• Visit the ancient temple of Lyssa in Mineral Springs.
• Visit the ruined statues of the Arid Sea.
• See Festival Coordinator Teron for your reward.

Before I knew it, it was 1:30am and I was practically falling asleep at my keyboard which never bodes well for my heroes (or myself) so I gave up on the location I was trying to get to, and called it a night. When I had logged in to play I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was my character’s 4th birthday, and I had a new miniature to add to my Hall of Monuments, the miniature Nian, which is an uncommon. Looks pretty good in my collection, too.

There’s no way I’ll get anywhere near 30 points by the time Guild Wars 2 releases, but I’m not going to stop trying, and might be able to eek out another point or two here or there. We’ll just have to see. In the mean time I’m still in awe at how beautiful this game looks, especially for its age.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Aurora Glade and Battling the White Mantle #GW #GuildWars

stargrace July 18, 2012 1Comment

I’m still happily working my way through prophecies, and the story has gotten pretty interesting. As the story progresses, the missions become a lot harder as well. So far I’ve managed to complete every bonus stage, but I’m only on 12/25 missions so there’s plenty of time to fail.

Right now I find myself in Aurora Glade, I started out helping the White Mantle, and then found out that they’re actually the bad guys. It was actually amusing because in the first cinematic with the White Mantle I didn’t think anything of them, they seemed pleasant enough. You know when you meet a ‘bad guy’ in a game there’s usually a sign that they’re evil. Their voice is deeper, they cackle, they’re dressed all in black. That sort of stuff. It wasn’t until after I discovered the truth about them that the cinematic suddenly changed to incorporate their new evilness and I thought to myself ‘wow these guys are evil!’.

One thing that truly has been a life saver while working through Prophecy is the fact that I have access to four heroes from Eye of the North (due to me jumping around in the expansions to unlock the hall of monument). I think had I not picked up these heroes the missions would be MUCH harder, which is saying a lot because they’re not always a cake walk to begin with.

The latest missions have me picking up seeds that need to be placed at specific areas to grow vine bridges. I have to pick these seeds up from all over the place, and I’m never certain if I’ll need another or if there’s a seed location just up ahead where I can get one. It’s interesting, but walking around carrying a seed slows your speed down, so it takes twice as long to get anywhere. Plus you’re followed by that gigantic NPC army trailing after you, and it can get confusing.

Another great resource I’ve come to always have open on my 2nd monitor are the Massively articles tagged with ‘The Road to 50‘ – you may not be aiming for 50 points (and I’m not, I’m trying for 30, I’ll be lucky if I get 10) but knowing what / where you can earn those points is important in the process, and it’s nice to know for future reference.

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

Into The Wilds #GuildWars #GW

stargrace July 15, 2012 0Comment

As the release date for Guild Wars 2 (quickly) approaches, I’ve been meandering my way through prophecies in Guild Wars 1. Completing all of the major story lines as well as the bonuses you can find in each mission. So far I’m not very far, I’ve completed up to the wilds, which is mission 10 out of 25. Still, I’m pretty happy with my progress, and the story is getting quite interesting.

My Mesmer / Ranger (I went back to my original character) is level 18, and since I’ve dipped a toe or two into Eye of the North already I have a few heroes at my disposal which makes doing these missions MUCH easier. Even though I am using the wiki as a guide the cut scenes and story are still really great and I haven’t skipped through any of them yet.

One ‘difficulty’ I’ve had (if you can call it that) is reading the map to follow along with where I should be headed. Because the map is partially blurred until you traverse over the land, it makes reading it and comparing it to the wiki map quite difficult. Combine that with the fact that I simply get lost by turning around in most cases, and it’s a wonder that I’ve gotten this far at all.

You can add me to your friends list in-game (N) as Silhouette Reveur, I’m still looking for a lot of mini pets if anyone has any duplicates they wouldn’t mind sparing. I’ve got three of my own collection but for once I’ve no alts so I have none to spread around.

Now that I’ve adventured through a significant chunk of the prophecies chain I’ve come to really appreciate the game a lot more than I did when I first purchased it. I don’t even miss the ability to jump (much).

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

From Yak’s Bend to Grooble’s Gulch #GW #GuildWars

stargrace June 14, 2012 0Comment

The learning never stops – today I finally figured out that each map icon that is a shield is actually a mission hub, and if you complete it your shield gains a sword icon – if you complete the mission and the bonus, the shield icon has two swords crossed. An easy reference to figure out what I’ve completed and what I’ve not. Unsurprisingly my previous character has many of these shields revealed on the map, but absolutely none completed. The monk / warrior combination is doing far better. There’s only one mission where I didn’t complete the bonus, although I wish I had (it’s a LOT of experience).

I’m now level 10, and the story has taken me into Grooble’s Gulch, where I’m seeking shelter for the Ascalon refugees (being lead by Prince Rurik still). In the mission previous Prince Rurik sort of went crazy running around and it was really difficult for me to keep up with him. Thankfully he seemed to handle himself just fine (while I lay there dead waiting for Ninga to rez me) and we still completed the mission. I’m having a bit of difficulty with the camera angels, it’s really annoying to keep it centered on my character, but the longer I play the more I get used to it.

I’ve also discovered the joys of identifying gear (and weapons). I’ve broken down a few really nice pieces where you’re able to strip the enchantments from them and use those on other pieces. Then you can eventually strip down the weapon itself and use the base components to craft better gear later on. I had gotten salvage items before, but nothing magical or impressive, so you can imagine my squeals of delight as I was able to remove + dmg from a hammer and apply it to the weapon I was currently using.

Now that I’ve reached level 10 I can begin (once more) working on Eye of the North tapestry collections, although I know this will throw the story out of order it’s still my main ‘goal’ and my primary reason for playing through the game right now.

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