Guild Wars 2

There’s Just So Much To Do

stargrace October 24, 2015 3 Comments

Yesterday I sat down and finally got into the ‘meat’ of the Guild Wars 2 expansion. Wow. At first I was frustrated. I felt like I couldn’t actually accomplish anything or make any progression without dying in a million new ways. It started when I couldn’t get back to the proper zone in order to work on my masteries. See, there are two types. Both “level up” by you participating in events. Personally I feel that they take way too much experience in order to ‘level’ but I suppose that’s the point, extend the content. Anyway. The masteries for the expansion are things like gliders, unlocking some languages for merchants, and being able to use the random mushrooms to bounce on. They also include things like being able to use the updrafts with your glider. When you finish the opening scene you’re expected to go back and start doing events so that you can level up these masteries. Of course for the ‘good’ ones you need to do it in the proper zones (ie: the new ones). Turns out that I just missed the entrance to the new zone, and a guild mate came along and fixed that for me. Took me over an hour of wandering around The Silverwastes to have a small tiny door pointed out to me. Sigh.

Once I was back in the right location it was time to find events. Of course with my map not even started I couldn’t port around to any of the happening places, and things hurt. Eventually though, I did manage to unlock my glider. That made things a bit easier. I began working on unlocking mushroom jumping, which is required for story progression. Again it took me a while (longer than I feel is necessary, but c’est la vie) but by the afternoon I had also unlocked that. Once those two things are unlocked the zones got much ‘easier’ in terms of survivability, though they were still incredibly confusing because there are different ‘tiers’ to them. I progressed the story to the second map, and I think I’m still only about 33% done the first one (there are four maps total).

The story is amazing, and I won’t get into any details about it here but if you’ve ever been a fan of the GW2 lore it won’t let you down.

If that wasn’t enough to keep you busy, there’s also the Halloween event going on right now. I took a run at the Mad Clock Tower (and failed, utterly, I am just not a jumping puzzle person) and then attempted a few runs through the labyrinth. We spawned the skeleton lich but we didn’t have near the number required to take him down. I did get a few achievements and about 300 candy corn. Unfortunately you need at least 1,000 before you can even get anything useful, so. I’m not sure if I want to spend that much time farming it. I may just look on the broker for the handful of items that I want.

Besides the things mentioned above, there’s guild halls (which I haven’t even looked into yet in any capacity), there’s the new class (I have no intentions of  making one, it doesn’t really appeal to me), there’s the new specializations for your current class (I haven’t gotten the 60 points required yet to unlock the Chronomancer but I do plan on going that rout one of these days), a new crafting class (Scribe, in order to get to that point you need a guild hall) and a number of other QoL changes and additions.

Over all I’m having a great time, and I like the way the content is presented. It’s still a bit confusing as far as “how can I progress my gear” – because I haven’t the slightest idea. Right now I’m wearing exotics, but I’ve got no clue how progression for gear actually works. If anyone happens to have a handy site that explains it, please let me know!

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

Mesmer-ing Around in Guild Wars 2

stargrace October 21, 2015 2 Comments

A few months ago I started a brand new account for Guild Wars 2. This meant that I would be retiring my old characters and leveling up new ones – hopefully before the expansion was due out. Because I’ve already done a good portion of the content prior to starting this new account I was in a rush to get to 80 so I ended up picking 4 craft schools and leveling those all to 400/500 respectively and then using a few of my spare level up scrolls to boost myself the last few levels I needed. My first character to 80 on the new account was a mesmer. I grabbed a few pieces of gear and set out to complete My Story before moving on to Scarlet’s War and the Living World Season 2 (which is where I’m at now). Because I leveled up through crafting rather than exploring, a lot of my map hasn’t been uncovered (still) and there’s lots of things to do.

I haven’t looked into what’s coming with the expansion this Friday at all, even though I have heard tidbits here and there (it’s hard to be a part of a gaming community and not hear anything at all about these things). My mesmer wasn’t playing quite how I wanted her to, so I set out to start another guardian, which has been my class of choice. About half way through leveling that character I decided (as is my way) to just stick it out with the mesmer. It’s not that I don’t enjoy the class, I do, it’s just that this time of year I’m constantly restless, and it shows in my gaming.

Once again I’m left with the feeling of ‘well, what now..’ when I return to GW2. I wish they had a better introduction for players who have been away for a while. So much happens in this world that when I come back I’m not even sure where we’ve left off or what’s going on or what I should be doing. There’s no easy way to tell what’s the ‘best’ gear to get, what goals one should be working towards or what direction you should be headed in. This has always been the number one issue I’ve had with GW2. Of course I’m also not as familiar with it as I am with say, EQ or EQ2, so returning to those games is quite a different experience.

That being said, the game is still as beautiful as ever, and I am excited about the new guild halls and other HoT features coming this Friday. I imagine there will be quite a nice turn out. Maybe I’ll go level up that guardian after all…..

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!