Guild Wars 2

Slow and Steady

stargrace August 4, 2017 1 Comment

When I stopped playing Guild Wars 2 previously, I was on the final quest in my personal story chain – to defeat elder dragon Zhaitan. There was no way I was going to be able to handle it alone, and I got frustrated because most of my personal story up to that point had been solo material.

These days things are a bit easier, at least where that story is concerned. With help from girlvsmmo we went back to that period in time and together we defeated Zhaitan, completing what was (to me) an enormous amount of progression. I was so excited to finally be doing it. The cut scenes were top notch, the story telling fantastic, and let me tell you, when my character marched through the crowds – I felt like a hero.

The music in the final instance was also pulling at my heartstrings, it was incredible.

I can’t complete living story 1 any more because it involves content that is no longer available (way back from 2014-2015) but there’s an NPC who will tell me about it and then I can continue on with living story 2 – I also have Heart of Thorns to work on, and then yes, there’s the expansion coming out in September.

This time around I’ve been paying far more attention to the story being told and listening to what the NPCs are saying. My previous playthroughs involved a lot of skipping – and it’s probably how I got so burnt out.

In any case, it’s really nice to have my personal story completed (at least on one character) and it feels amazing to be back in Tyria. No pressure about having a subscription, no guilt if I don’t get a number of hours in each day, no worries if I have to randomly leave because of real life (I would love to do some group content, but my time is pretty restrictive).

Can you tell I’m excited?

You better believe it.

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

So That’s a Sand Storm..

stargrace August 3, 2017 No Comments

I was doing a vista during living season two, and apparently there was a sand storm going on, because this is all it showed me….

Lots of sand.

Bring on the Dragons

stargrace August 2, 2017 No Comments

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve returned to Guild Wars 2 with their latest announcement of an expansion and some encouragement from friends (girlvsmmo, that’s you) and I’m pretty pleased about that choice. When I returned I decided to work on the story line of my level 80 guardian who I leveled up through crafting, so she was on a level 10 story. Now she’s on a level 60 story which is where things get interesting (or at least it would be, if I hadn’t already done these stories a few times before on a previous account).

You know the deal, Dragons, Zhaitan, etc.

One thing I’ve noticed is that I’m getting a lot more dye rewards than I used to, and that’s pretty nice since I’m rebuilding everything. I still don’t know exactly what I should be doing that’s current, but with an expansion in the upcoming months I doubt it matters too much. So I’m working on simple achievements, unlocking sections of the map, progressing my story line and all that good stuff.

I’m playing my Asura Guardian, and even though I’ve played quite a few classes to 80 she’s still my absolute favourite (which is why I remade the exact same class / race combo on the new account). I love swinging my giant 2h sword around, and Asura just make everything fun.

Anyone else return to the game in the hopes of playing the expansion when it releases? What are you doing to keep yourself busy between now and then? Let me know in comments, and as always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Expansion Excitement

stargrace August 1, 2017 1 Comment

Like a handful of other friends, I tuned in this morning to ArenaNet on twitch to listen to their announcement about the next expansion. It has been some time since I played GW2, but not because I dislike the game by any means. My issue is twofold. First, I am constantly struggling to figure out WHAT I should be doing. Because the game does not go up in levels, progression is an odd and fickle creature and is marked by other means. I have no idea what the current story is and whether or not I should be doing it – and why I should be doing it.

Second, I actually have two accounts. One is 4+ years old, started playing when GW2 released. I have a number of level 80 characters that I took through the game, unlocked the map on one of them, lots of crafting, etc. Then I worked for NCSOFT and one of the perks of that job was getting a copy of the game – and it came with a few bonuses, like the last expansion, some gems, and extra character slots. Things that I really wanted to make use of, so I abandoned my original account and created new characters. I got to level 80 on two of them by crafting, and not adventuring since I had already done the content on my original account. Of course that meant that I now had two level 80 characters who had unlocked zero waypoints, done zero personal story, and had done pretty much nothing except browse the auction house for gear and buy crafting supplies.

That’s where I stopped playing. I didn’t want to re-play through content that I had already completed on my old account, but I had no idea where to take the new characters.

Enter 2017. My time is incredibly limited and I’m trying to save some cash by not paying for a subscription. I’d really like to invest in a gaming laptop so I’m on a pretty strict budget. Anyway, GW2 doesn’t have a subscription, the game is beautiful, and why not return right before their next expansion comes out.

So here I am.

My level 80 Guardian (my favourite character to play) is currently working through her level 30 personal story. I’m not sure if I should be doing these in a different order (ie: latest content first, then backwards to personal story when I run out of stuff to do) but for now I’m going to do things in order. We’ll see how long that lasts. I only have an hour or two to play a day, but it should be enough to make a little progress. Today I managed to get from my level 10 personal story to level 30, so that’s something.

Playing? Excited about the expansion? Already bought it? Let me know in comments, and as always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

GW2 – Getting Familiar (Again)

stargrace June 10, 2017 No Comments

Last night I decided to dive back into Guild Wars 2 and see what I had missed. I played briefly when HoT released, but it has been some time since then. My stream had a rocky start (a pretty bad stuttering issue when I first started the stream, and then some issues with the music being louder than me talking) but it didn’t take long to get off and running.

Literally.

I checked out my guardian and noticed that her personal story was at the level 10 stage. I had leveled my characters up by doing crafting instead of adventuring, so I missed out on pretty much everything. This is my second account so I just wanted to level up as fast as possible and move past the content I had already done (many) times before on my old account. I headed off to do my level 10 story and… got completely stuck. I had NO idea where the instance wanted me to go to progress the line. I walked all over the place but was constantly told if I walked any further I’d be outside the instance lines (looking back, the NPCs wanted me to go under the water.. I just didn’t grasp that at the time).

Instead I headed out to do the opening sequence that leads you to HoT. Lots of information about lost troops and the bad guys basically destroying everything.

I didn’t get too far into it before my hour of game time was up, but it was nice to be playing. I really enjoyed GW2 when I had more time to play. I still saw players everywhere, and while it may not be as busy as it was, it’s still a pretty hopping game. I always smile to see things like that. I never want a game to fail. Sure, there are games out there that I don’t particularly like, genres I don’t enjoy playing, but that’s perfectly OK. Not all games have to be for me.

My characters all passed another birthday so I picked up the goodies from that, too. Scrolls, miniatures, everything deserving of cluttering my bags. If you missed the stream and want to take a peek, you can head on over to my twitch channel: http://twitch.tv/stargrace. If you like what you see, please consider giving a follow! I stream Tuesday-Friday 7:30 PDT-8:30 PDT.

Have you recently returned to a game and if so are you enjoying yourself? Let me know in comments! As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.