Week #9 - Racing the Clock

Part of my Explorer of Tyria journal - you can find the rest here!

The arrival of the Mad King really side-tracked me this week, and while my first attempt to join in was just an uber lagfest last week it was better this time around as more of his zones got unlocked - spreading the population. After killing a Shadow Behemoth in Queensdale who I stumbled into while looking for a "pumpkin" haunted door the very first bit I participated in was also my favourite - the Mad King's Clock tower, a timed jumping puzzle.

For me - Hours of Fun!

Took me over three hours to finally clear it but it was incredibly enjoyable more so because of all the people I met and talked to while running the thing. I was fortunate enough to also be able to assemble the full story behind King Thorn, explore his labyrinth, fight him during his ascent, play a few rounds of Mad King says, and do each of the event themed pvp related activities of which I found costume brawl to be the funniest (and most fun). There was promise in the Inquisition one though, I hope next time they make it a coop event where people are the villagers looking for environmental weapons and possibly have to protect their village against waves of attackers because that would be better for me. I also took the opportunity to spend 10 gold and buy the whole set of Mad King armor and am laughing now when I summon the flocks of ravens against hordes of orrian scum.

Did manage to progress the main plot too again with DL and Thaldir, cleansing an Ossuary then pushing forward through risen giants and princes with Vigil Tanks and chatting to an avatar of Grenth at the Cathedral of Silence. While it is easier to wander the Cursed Shore as a team, it makes slower going since we kill -everything- in the way. Ofcourse that means my charr warrior didn't progress his path at all - however I still made him explore all the cities and clear out hearts in Queensdale, Wayfarer Foothills, Diessa Plateau and the Plains of Ashford. He finishes this week on level 22.

Week #4 - Memory of a Flame

Part of my Explorer of Tyria journal - you can find the rest here!

Yikes, a bit late on this post so expect week 5 to be up in a few days too! Anyways I lost a number of days due to playing Mabinogi this week (AP potions are just too rare to pass up!) but I still managed to clear out the Diessa Plateau, the massive Lornar's Pass and the centaur controlled region of the Harathi Highlands where I helped run major offensives against the four hoofed fools. Also managed to join my guild for another event run, camping Queensdale and the Kessex Hills.

When I was back on my own again I continued up into the Iron Marches which are mostly controlled by "branded" critters I think. However the flame legion did have a massive base there, and during my infiltration I found they had summoned an old friend of mine - a massive fire elemental, just like the one at the Metrica Province a few weeks back! This time I was aided only by a small squad of NPCs (otherwise solo), which turned out to be a good thing - because it meant I didn't lag and could pretty much avoid his attacks. It took me forever but I finally killed that sucker.

Yippee Ki-yay!

 

Erebos has been busy recruiting on Henge of Denravi so I actually lost count of how many new guys we gained. One of them, Rufio is already level 80. I, on the other hand, just reached level 58. Lastly, did you know they are making a new Die Hard? :D

Edit: Forgot to mention the Guild also had enough points this week to get a guild stash and hire a guild armorer! Woohoo!

Week #1 - Where am I?

Part of my Explorer of Tyria journal - you can find the rest here!

Arrived in Queensdale (Gunnar's Hold) with my standard rogue class and after the "tutorial" mission began exploring the countryside and unlocking my weapon skills on various hapless creatures. The graphics are pretty damn good, and I quite like the art style for the cutscenes with what I call "reserved animation". I also find the dynamic events to be really fun and a good innovation to mix things up while travelling through a zone, the highlights for me this week were helping the Norn in a full on assault on the Sons of Svarnir with my brothers and DL and I getting wiped out by Krait slavers in a particular village. Best of all I like how low-cut the Queen's dress is! ;P

Something like this!

My brothers (DL and Jim) also assisted me with my "story" missions a few days in, which involved rescuing Riot Alice and convincing her to stop working for evil bandits then stopping said evil bandits from poisoning a well at the cost of an idiot's life (sorry Quinn you had it coming) and finally killing the bandit boss. I do like the that we were given the "choice" of what to do though. Proceeded to then look for missing kids at the circus and passing clown college (very fun) to track down a crazy hypnosis inducing ringmaster. Later on I helped Jim infiltrate some mole men WMD construction plant via pretty funny costume wearing. As interesting as it is, the story mode didn't seem to yield as much xp as plain old exploration though so I left mine alone at that point to go wandering and get some easy exp's exploring the main cities.

The vista thing is a nice concept (which seems stolen from Assassin's Creed) but some jumping puzzles are just annoying - deadly annoying. Anyway, by the end of the week I had 100% completion on Divinity's Reach, Queensdale, Hoelbrak (barrel brawl was fun), the Grove, Rata Sum (mess to explore), Black Citadel (even messier), and the central hub of Lion's Arch where I completed the Ghost Pirate's cave too as a bonus. I know I'm probably still missing treasure chests in some of those areas but I can always go back for those. Finished up on Level 22, while fellow guildmate Rammy had already reached Level 80 (though he did start a few weeks earlier). Our guild also gained 1 new member.