Guild Wars 2

Completion of the Living Story (So Far) #GW2

stargrace March 18, 2013 No Comments

I’ve slowly been leveling my elementalist, and having a pretty good time of it. There’s a few differences of course, she’s MUCH more fragile than my guardian. I’ve had to adjust how to take on encounters (they involve a lot more kiting and a lot less bam in your face) and I’ve had to get more help in doing my personal story. She’s level 23 so far, leveling has been a bit slower than I had expected as well. Of course that probably has more to do with the fact that I’ve also been playing Wurm Online, and EverQuest, and did a dungeon with my 80. There are only so many hours in a day after all!

One thing I did manage to complete was the progress so far in the living story that has been going on. It’s quite interesting, there are refuges all over Shiverpeak looking for help. It was a bonus that I’m a norn and happened to be exploring through that area to begin with. There’s a fantastic guide and general information over at Dulfy.net so I won’t get into the specific details, but needless to say I managed to return all four of the lost refuge items, kill 150 of the invaders, and aid 75 of the refuges by building signs and lighting campfires, oh, and returning lost mementos. You get a title for helping out 75 refuges (volunteer), and you get a child’s drawing in thanks for helping kill 150 invaders. The drawing can be consumed for karma, so I’ve been hanging onto it because next weekend we’ll be using some guild buffs that increase the amount of karma you get when you consume an item. I’ve been stock piling all of my karma items for quite some time now, so I’m excited to see how much I may have saved up. I’ve been hoping to get a nice pile for when the elementalist eventually hits 80 – she will get there, eventually.

Have you completed the living story that is available yet? What did you think of it? Do you enjoy these sorts of little mini quests? Let me know in comments! As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

The Combat Wombats take on Sorrow’s Embrace #GW2 #GuildWars2

stargrace March 2, 2013 No Comments

The Combat Wombats were down by one, so I volunteered to fill in the empty spot on their weekly dungeon run. This week we were exploring Sorrow’s Embrace, a level 60 dungeon located in Dredgehaunt Cliffs. The moletariat running the place became corrupt, influenced by the inquest, and enslaved their own kind into mining forever. So that’s where you come in. Or a group of you in any case.

This was one of the most fun dungeons I’ve been to in GW2 so far, but I haven’t completed them all yet. I think the guild had a great combination of classes and we did pretty well. There was really only one tricky fight and that was a particular boss who liked to spawn a golem every 25% on us. Each one would have a unique tactic, like fire or poison. It took us three attempts to get him down, but we did it (and there was much rejoicing).

The final boss fight was the best yet, as you can see by the Terminator 2 tribute in the screen shot above. It was a fight where it didn’t matter how “good” you were or what gear you were wearing, what mattered was paying attention to where you were standing, and then hurling these giant boulders at the named throughout the encounter to damage him.

Since the zone is level 60 and my guardian is 80 the final reward wasn’t of much use to me, but I still had an amazing time playing with fellow Wombats, and the rest of the loot was nice. None of it was really an upgrade but it’s great to be able to clear story mode dungeons so that you’re ready for the exploration mode ones (which I have yet to do). I’m still contemplating what I’d like to level up next. I’ve been playing more EverQuest than GW2 lately but that’s one of the pleasures of not having to pay for a subscription to GW2. At least I don’t feel like I’m ‘wasting’ any money. In any case, there’s the mesmer I’ve been leveling up as well as my new found love for the elementalist. I’m not sure if either of them will ever actually make it to level 80, but at least it’s a project to work on.

Another Trip to Caudecus’ Manor with the Combat Wombats #GW2 #GuildWars2

stargrace February 17, 2013 No Comments

Ah yes, Caudecus’ Manor. It wasn’t that long ago that the members of Combat Wombats were taking our first stabs at dungeons, and while we may not be the ‘top dog’ type of player, we’re still having a lot of fun. Last night was another dungeon run evening, which is all the more important these days because they’re a requirement for the monthly achievement. I’d almost rather do the PvP achievement than the dungeon one, but that’s got nothing to do with the guild and more a personal preference of my own.

We ran the dungeon twice, and while it was easier this round because we knew what was going to be going on for the most part, there have still been some tweaks. For example you can no longer ‘zerg’ fights any more, when you’re dead you have to stay dead until someone else revives you or until combat ends so you can port to a waypoint. I remember when we did Ascalionian Catacombs zerg was an important part of our combat. It will be interesting to see how it works out now.

Of course with time also comes knowledge. Our characters are better geared, and we’ve all developed at least some sense of what to do, that just happens naturally over time.

I’m still not ‘feeling’ the guardian as much as I had at the beginning. I’ve started playing an elementalist, which is a LOT of fun, and more suited to my play style. Of course the issue with this is that I’ve put a lot of time and coin into the guardian, so switching characters or even simply leveling up another character is not that simple. I’m sure if I can just manage to stick with it for a while the class will eventually become my new main. We’ll just have to see!

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

Combat Wombats Take On WorldvsWorldvsWorld

stargrace February 6, 2013 No Comments

It’s hard to tell by the mess of colour above, but that’s the proud Combat Wombats, fighting at the entrance of a keep in World vs. World vs. World last night. I really wish we could turn off particle effects.

I haven’t done much pvp since the first month GW2 released, I did it then mostly because I wanted to earn my monthly achievement. It’s hectic, and fun, but it’s one of those activities I only feel like doing here and there for an hour or two, not all evening long.

It’s basically a map of castles and locations, outposts and supply depots, and the more you capture and secure, the better. There are two sides, the attackers and the defenders. Combat Wombat spent most of their time attacking, as the defenders seemed to have a fairly good grip on things – except then we lost a few locations because those that we had taken over no one stayed around at to defend. So the enemy came up behind and “back capped” as you’ll hear it called. It’s always best to leave a few people from the main force behind to help defend.

I suppose one of the reasons I enjoy WvsWvsW so much is that I do enjoy pvp and am quite used to “battlegrounds” from world of warcraft. This is a much larger and more complicated scale, but in the end it’s still a mass of killing anything red.

I did go with my 26 (now at least) mesmer, I think I actually prefer my guardian, but we’ll just have to see.