The Maddening Grinds

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

Apparently opening sealed, magical coffin-like boxes wrapped in heavy chains that radiate evil is a bad idea. This particular one contained the vengeful son of the Mad King, and if there's anything I know about spirits it's that they can hold a grudge! Fortunately his only weakness is plentiful this time of the year, and we easily pushed him back into his prison because we're such nice guys.

Oh, how I missed thee clock tower!

 

The Mad King himself is about too, and with him returned his clock tower - still one of my favourite jumping challenges around. I did prefer racing against charrs and norns instead of wisps though but that's ok. It's all muscle memory now. The Labyrinth also has more bosses too, which alas, do not scale down and do not cater for the solo roamer. Even some areas the "regular" mobs there who can do a combination of push, pull and paralyze (in addition to just killing you) are pretty dangerous meaning it's not very productive to be there alone.

This meant that after I did what I needed to I headed back over to Neverwinter to grind up some Coins of Waukeen (a special event this week). Boring? Slightly. Just a little worse than the current living story achievement grind in GW2. Difficult? Nope, and very appealing since you can participate solo instead of relying on a zerg. Rewarding? Still very luck based, but in my case it paid off to the tune of five hundred twelve thousand astral diamonds (and a bunch of other gear)! That's worth quite a bit more than a silly pail or useless minature offered in Tyria, and for a much heavier grind I might add.

Where to Next?

My brothers and I recently finished Diablo 3 (finally) and of all the enemies it was Belial, the half-way mark boss, that caused us the most trouble. Everything else pretty much got curb-stomped, the titular main baddie included. So what's next outside of Guildwars 2 where all the heroes will ignore Scarlet's threat to Tyria to return to the wacky world of the Super Adventure Box (I know I will) and the slow progress of Neverwinter Online's Fury of the Feywild (it decided to let me log in again)?

I'm not that bad, honest!

Well, there are rumors that World of Warcraft may be going F2P - if that's true then the guild would probably check out Azeroth if given the chance. Funny reading angry subscription players posting on their forums "Well, if it goes F2P I'll stop giving them money!" Yeah. That's the point. Whether WoW actually makes the switch is another matter. Also was somewhat interested in trying Granado Espada out upon stumbling on some of its awesome music again but caught myself thinking do I really need another MMO (which I'd probably play solo) right now? Instead I am just hunting down all the tracks to listen to.

What else am I looking forward to then? The Thief reboot for sure (which looks a lot like Dishonored), and to a lesser extent the next game in the Witcher series. I didn't actually play the first two but I watched my brother go through them and it was cool. Lastly I was introduced to some D&D cosplaying silliness which I found to be rather entertaining and funny: The Gamers: Dorkness Rising. Worth a look especially if you are or were a pen and paper RPG player. :)

Treasures of the Crown Pavillion

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

Been playing lots of GW2 lately due to this update mainly because of the amount of gold I'm getting zerging around the Crown Pavillion, and when there is no zerg - upstairs in the arena. I'm not the most efficient farmer but in comparison to my normal income in the game this its like I won the lottery. During my "balloon hunt" I secured Noxious Castrum in Fireheart Rise solo and decided to buy 500 units of deployable mortars as my reward and  have used up half so far in the Pavillion. Their mileage varies, some being destroyed quick or shooting (automatic) in useless directions but when placed properly they sure net me a lot of extra loot!

Other people have been bringing in ember pets or ogre whistles which also help them out (more so in the solo arenas) but the best I've seen is people intentionally TWO manning "solo" arenas. I think they queue up to fight the same guy then one of them runs faaaaar away which then teleports them in together to face one opponent. These two guys fought the Norn and the Dog as a pair and then went in together to face subject 7.

Wonder if they both get rewarded?

Of course it is very bad when two people unintentionally drop into the same arena with different matchups because it seems that both bosses spawn! I'm not talking about the crowd favourite gambit either. I'm talking about Liadri + Dead Eye Dunwell combo. So... just dodge the shadow falls, shades, sniper shot and avoid the mines all at the same time. Goes without saying the two fellas that went in didn't last that long. :P

I also was fortunate enough to get a Royal Pass during a zerg run. This little scroll (which expires over time unfortunately) acts as an instant teleport to the Royal Terrace that really does hold all the handy vendors (except black lion traders) in a tiny area. Crafting stations, bank, guild utilities, a mystic forge and most importantly an asura gate that lets you decide where to go via dialogue prompt. Basically it removes the need for Lion's Arch entirely, and I am still hoping they nuke that city and all its residents into the dirt - sooner rather than later. If you have no royal pass, then just hop to the borderlands -> shop -> drop to character select -> pick same guy to reappear where you last were (prior to borderlands) for a similar experience.

Next update is the Queen's Speech where the "villain" who many assume is Scarlet and whom I believe to be Trahearne's evil gender swapped twin from the steam dimension will no doubt cause a minor disturbance. I'll probably take a look but in the end the path of least resistance to lots of gold will always win out. I also suspect another armor tier will be coming in again due to the current abundance of mithril ore (literally cheaper than carrots at the moment). Lastly I'm still wondering why Liadri didn't just slay Zhaitan on her own and save us all the trouble? They sort of break their own lore by adding ridiculously powerful NPCs in the world like that. Or... she couldn't be bothered doing that but is ok fighting as a spectacle in the arena? Guess she's just an attention whore.

Achievement Based Play

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

The new change in GW2 of rewarding achievements and more importantly, the new achievement interface has seen an increase in play time for me now. Suddenly I -want- those APs and Laurels because those ascended items have suddenly been put within my reach - and who doesn't want to better their character right? ANet is just going to keep adding item tiers and make the hamster wheel bigger and bigger I think. Anyway, more importantly is I suddenly have a goal again. The clever little change in the UI that displays what achievements I'm close to is a real driving force for me, even for the grindy ones. After doing the daily/monthly I look to that to see which one I can tick off the list. I alternate this with Neverwinter Online where the quest structure and story is pretty rigid, and wonder what I'll be doing there once I finish all the content... oh yeah, making foundry missions! Kinda slacked off on that due to XCOM.

Anywho back to Tyria where the council seat election looms and while I know who I'm voting for, the whole thing seems structured for grinders to have a larger say - given you need to kill stuff or do "x" to acquire vote tokens as opposed to one vote per account/character. Fair enough given that it is the 24/7 grinders who will be most affected by whatever change takes place. I'm not sure if it is better to hide or show the current vote count as the event goes on but either way, based on the forum noise it has already generated I think ANet are onto a winner release. Sounds very PvP-oriented this round though, and again with backpiece skins as rewards - Really? I think that's the only piece ANet enjoy changing. Anyway the little list will keep me busy - I think I'm shooting for 100 laurels all up and that's gonna take me awhile. :P

Aspects of Fun

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

After a nice break where in I got to do other stuff (including exploring a vertically challenging aetherblade base within a holographic mountain) while the rest of the populace helped capture Aetherblade Captain Mai Trin in her dungeon, I returned to news that a bunch of flying merchants had docked at some difficult to reach cliffs to display their wares. I like exploring places so I headed on down via ship to visit the spectacularly beautiful (yet deviously deadly) Labyrinthine Cliffs where these Zephyrites had parked. Not only do they have interesting goods (most of which are dangerous - where do they get this stuff and more importantly why are they selling them to unsuspecting folk?), they also have developed a form of travel using aspect crystals to either dash quickly, jump high, or jump far and pray to god you don't end up as a splat on the ground as you climb higher up the dizzying heights. Being sadistic bastards they also setup a scavenger hunt for sky crystals in the zone to encourage self-termination via gravity.

Insane and Insanely Pretty!

High atop their anchored sky ship (which have diving goggles on the prow... as I said, these people are psycho) you can participate in their "aspect training" which comes in the form of a race. A very fun yet very annoying race. Took me 28 tries before coming first, mainly due to aspect lag (a skill ANet didn't forsee nor cater for). I did come up with a short list to help others overcome it though. The Zephyrites were also victims of robbery, not just from random Aetherblade raiders but from skritt running off with a bunch of their kites. The bastard rats even took the time to hide in various jumping puzzles, one within a fractal and one in the PVP Obsidian Sanctum.

Ofcourse I did all the above and kind of regret not chasing down the Aetherblade Caches in the other JP's and mini dungeons previously because I forgot how much fun they were. My favourite was the final kite at Obsidian Sanctum. Upon entering the Eternal Battlegrounds to find that an enemy server, Drakkar Lake, had complete dominion over it (them Germans are good at war). I had to aid my Gunnar's Hold compatriots in violently capturing our low lands corner including three nearby towers and the keep before making my way into the puzzle proper itself, solo. Inside I encountered maybe ten more Drakkar Lake players (in various small groups), any of whom could have really ruined my day but through salute/dance truce (opposing servers cannot hear chat; you can only communicate through action) I freely passed all of them without any aggression whatsoever.

With a boost in achievement points which will help my later achievement unlocks I also was rewarded a permanent quartz node as a symbol of my awesome ambassadorial skills (I don't recall doing any ambassadoring though). Plotwise the newly appointed Captain and ineffective ex-Lionguard Investigator/Policewoman Ellen Kiel is going head to head with Black Lion Company founder Evon Gnashblade. Both trying to secure a trade agreement with the flying salesmen to help their claim to the vacant council seat, made that way from the events last month. I didn't really pay attention to the politics. There were cliffs to be climbed! :P

Dragons Bashed

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

With the Dragon Bash Festival coming to an end I thought I'd post a little write up on how I found it. In short, better than the Southsun arc that's for sure. There were many pointless activities like betting on moa racing, lighting/watching fireworks, whacking holographic monsters and pinatas, burning effigies and eating candy.

The pvp event "Dragon Ball" was also good fun (coming from a non pvp person that means something) and I was really dominating the matches later on when I knew what I was doing. While fun for a bit the main problem is repetition, bloody repetition - especially if you wanted some of those achievements which had pretty high rep count numbers. Obviously they got old fast.

Took a bit of time before the actual story element came into play and while overall it was still "meh, pirates" the opening cut scene was very well done and the general flow much improved from before. There was a murder and people had to help a private investigator find the culprit who ends up having ties to the featured enemy group of the next arc.

Not sure why I'm only fighting one group of pirates and not the entirety of Lion's Arch, since most of them are pirate scum anyway. Or ex-pirate scum. Makes no difference to me. It's not like people let ex-nazi's go free either. So... yeah, a step in the right direction but disappointed there was no actual dragon to bash (other than the ones who already regularly show up). Did bash a green dragon with my brothers in NWO though, and while he was a lot smaller than the ones in this game I think he put up just as much fight (if not more) than some of the ones here. Haven't gotten any more foundry stuff done yet though due to other distractions. :P

Your reward is Crabs

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

As the "Secret of Southsun" draws to a close I can only speculate on the many questions left unanswered by this living story arc, mainly "WTF was this crap?". With the cowards (ahem, refugees) from the previous storyline relocated into Consortium slave-labour of Southsun Cove all the action was taking place on that not so little island paradise/hell. Quelling riots and running about re-exploring the island for weird flora samples were actually the highlight for me, but really there was not a lot of quest direction given at all so for achievement hunters the best bet was still to go ask Dulfy. A new PvP game called Crab tossing was also introduced where you basically use the young of the highly dangerous local crustaceans as a ball which for me was ok entertainment but got dull really quick since I'm not a PvP sort of guy.

Story-wise there were basically only two main things to do: recapture the sylvari terrorist Canach personally (because the Lionguard and Consortium are completely inept) and escort the contract papers out to a waiting ship, which is a little weird given there was a working asura teleporter right there. Both of those were solo quests which is great, and the second one was actually pretty fun and had a good twist. The first one was quite crap, given that regardless of your class/previous experience in the game - the only thing you needed to be now is a minesweeper. Literally. Canach was on god mode, and the only way to beat him was with his -own- mines. If that doesn't make sense, wait till I tell you about the new Karka Queen Mega-Meta event where the only way to remove her armor is by throwing her own eggs at her. On second thought, I won't bother. It's amazing people are paid to make this stupidity.

His defences are down NOW! Attack quickly before he gets a towel!

I guess the storyline was successful in that it managed to bring people back to the island, but if people are going to voluntarily stay there afterwards despite the terrible wildlife and faecal rewards (an ANet staple as they have a serious aversion to handing out gold, or letting people gain wealth other than from the Trading Post) is another matter as there are easier places to get already. Coming up next, the Dragon Festival in the only city that matters to Anet: Lion's Arch... again. Starting to wonder why they bothered making the other cities to begin with. They could always cycle the location of the festival/events but nope.

The Fall of Zhaitan

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

After my prolonged absence from Tyria due to other games and my old PC not letting it run anymore, I finally returned there to finish off the elder dragon Zhaitan. DL, Thaldir and I warped out to the Anchorage Waypoint and we got lucky in that the pact forces had secured (sort of) the entrance to Arah. After sprinting past some angry undead we were joined by two random warriors to accomplish this mission. At first Zhaitan's powers were really holding us back in the form of people having to go afk and difficulty all being put in the same dungeon instance.

Zhaitan uses Meta-gaming to slow us down! :P

Once we got through there it became a case of repairing an airship with the reunited Destiny's Edge, because that's obviously the best use of a pact commander and his resources. Surprisingly the guardians of the airship bits were actually the most dangerous in the entire mission, the champion lich who acts as the first boss being the worst of the lot. Fortunately DL managed to pick us up during that encounter because the new dungeon mechanic (no more res-rushing) really would have been a pain against him.

Seemed to just get easier after that though, fighting monkeys, slimes, giants, and various other undead until finally we went up into the clouds to join other airships to battle a whole flight of dragons. Well, we assume they were fighting anyway as we blasted three of the winged beasts to hell. Some very beautiful scenic stuff up there too. When Zhaitan finally decided to show up he was very awesome but not very dangerous at all, meeting his defeat through cannon fire. I wanted to pursue him down into Orr and hack him up but everyone else just decided to celebrate. *shrug*

The victory party back at Fort Trinity was very nice with some familiar faces in the crowd, and I got a Pact Spear to commemorate the triumph - that being the only functional weapon that had better stats than what I already had. For me the final song, a lyrical version of the Grove theme, was the best reward though, and I stayed at the celebration to listen to its entirety. I usually complain about GW2 music with themes from Mabi, UO, Uncharted Waters and hell, even Wizardry Online being more memorable but for this piece - they got it just right. ^_^

Edit: The Skalds of the Internet also have their version of the song - Fear not this Night. (Laraplays, Taylor, Malukah/Malufenix)

Week #14 - Hibernation Elsewhere

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

This is probably going to be my last "weekly" blog for GW2 since I'm not playing it enough to warrant it anymore, especially with Christmas coming up I'm expecting to have a few other things to do. Not to worry, I'll still update this journal though, just when I have enough content for it.

Managed to run Honor of the Waves explorable with DL, Yue, Elena and random asura Pompi. Sure felt super safe having 3 guardians on the team and sure enough, we managed to go through it and defeat Wullam the Plunderer in underwater combat suffering only one death (and zero again when we fought the Claw of Jormag once we exited). While it was fun it also means yet another bag slot is not occupied by dungeon tokens that I probably won't use unless I grind for more of them. And here I thought Arenanet didn't want to make a grindy game? They could have at least either made the things tradable, or stack "outside" like coin and gems.

It might be sinking, but it's still awesome.

Speaking of which, in preparation for my Christmas time absence I've spent time this week converting karma into gold via the mystic forge, then stocking up on gems since the value of gold seems to just continously be getting crappier. Hopefully the upward trend of gem prices continues so I'll have some funds when I get back - Still have to finish the main quest afterall.

Turns out I did that just in time too, because as of this posting for some reason I can no longer log into GW2. Everytime I attempt and verify access I get taken to a black screen where the mouse cursor becomes a hand... and then nothing. Breaking out of that and trying again results in the loader sitting at Downloading 0/0 kbs. Not sure what is causing this behaviour but I suspect it's my own compy giving up the ghost. :(

Week #13 - Out of Content

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

Less GW2 this week as I finished off Dawn of War II: Retribution and the Walking Dead. Both of them were very cool but it is unlikely I'll play through them again as I feel it will be unrewarding to just be covering  the same content as before which is exactly the problem I'm having with GW2 - there's no real drive for me to do anything since I've already played through most of the story with one character, fully explored the map, and am not really interested in pvp, crafting or grinding dungeons. Also I'm in a timezone that doesn't suit their "one time events" which just further turns me off so we'll see if ArenaNet manages to hold my attention.

Did manage to finish off the last of the jumping puzzles in the game with Scavenger's Chasm being the damn long finale for them. Not real good rewards for going back to any of them but there are 8 chests all up that are pretty easy for a thief (6 if non rogue) to get to daily, not counting the ones in WvW. 3 at Lion's Arch, 1 at Straits of Dev (just swim around that forcefield), and 4 at Southsun Cove (2 per jump puzzle - the second in each is guarded).

Guildwise I went with DL, Yue and Thaldir on separate occasions to run Ascalon Catacoms story mode (again), and 2 exploration paths to fight the Howling King and Ghost Eater. It was pretty fun, but what would be MORE fun was if the entire dungeon was another "world" map that everyone could enter. Mandatory instanced stuff works ok for scripted story but there was nothing in the explorable paths they couldn't do with their already set Dynamic Event system. Anywho we also made a play for Zhaitan on the weekend, miraculously getting a full party only to find the dragon had wised up to our plans and bugged/froze the quest chain leading up to opening the gates to Arah which meant no finale for us.

Frustrated, I took it out on his minions instead who were also frozen in the quest chain, sending endless waves of their number at a particular Pact position only to be met by a small army of players (and one robot I think) farming them for high level supplies. Apparently it had been this way for a number of days now said one of the farmers, and not just on my server if the forums are to be believed. Beginning to doubt Arenanet's capabilites in general if they can't sort out something so trivial.

Week #12 - High Forces

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

The opening of Southsun Cove and investigation into the new Consortium led to some higher guild member activity this week, but alas due to timezone mismatches I think only Yue and Austea were able to participate in every event, including slaying an ancient karka! I kept myself busy too by pretty much attacking every single jumping puzzle and mini dungeon in the game with my alts (in the low level zones for cheaper respawn fare) and main (everywhere else) and have now completed the vast majority of them, with Yue helping me through the visually impressive Obsidian Sanctum. Stand-outs for me were the also incredibly pretty Hidden Garden (which Faiotan, who I had met in a Fotm PUG last week, helped me access), Sector Zuhl which was quite forboding since the dredge dug too deep (soloed that Giant Destroyer Troll!), and the new Skipping Stones which is incredibly fun (but just short of that Clocktower). 

The Dark Reverie, while not so fun is a painful but necessary lesson in air-kiting apparently and if you are attempting Coddler's Cove make sure your graphics settings are higher than "low" because when I went there there were a ton of orbs missing. Managed to also get into a random team to run the Ascalon Catacombs story mode which was entertaining but what I found even more fun than that -or- the jump puzzles was the dwarven ruin at Dredgehaunt Cliffs. DL and I went in not knowing what to expect and it was FUN! They should make more open-world dungeons like this in my opinion. They can even share the same "darkness" mechanic. Much better than having to get 5 people to run one of the instanced places, making it quicker to organize.

Lastly Yue, DL, Thaldir and I managed to encounter AND defeat the Claw of Jormag (twice) this week. He's certainly the most annoying of the dragons thus far but that also makes him the best "boss" battle having extra abilities of both the Sunless one and the Shatterer. Well, when people aren't just farming his summons that is.

I'm gonna farm that dragon good... eeeheheheh!

Week #11 - Setting the Board

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

My ranger finished her story segments this week, ultimately joining the Vigil on level 25. Gotta love all the little side stories that each race gets to do and I'm glad I did them. If you ever wonder where all the steam creatures are coming from, ask an asura who has an "infinity ball" background. I got her to run more jumping puzzles and grab more dive goggles afterwards, and positioned my other mules to do the same - my thinking being that since gravity doesn't really discriminate, it's better for my lower lev chars to do the lower lev jumps leaving the 75% in the harder zones for my main.

Speaking of jump puzzles, I'll briefly mention Pig Iron Quarry which my thief and DL ran this week. Very fun, just wait for the screen to stop shaking before you jump! :P However there is something I love more than jump puzzles and those are mini dungeons! We raided a large shiney treasure guarded by lotsa golems, as well as a hylek temple with Yue. These really encouraged coop play rather than the individual skill that is also fun, but in a different way, for jumping segments. Looking forward to finding more!

We also ran Twilight Arbor Explorable this week with Austea Scarlet and a random fifth. Quite tough, especially the spider queen and whipping vines - too bad the main boss was a bit of a loser (easy), unlike the bosses I faced with a pick up group (PUG) at the new fractals dungeon. Very pretty place those fractals. Our first spot was the swamp, but after failing a few minutes we restarted and got the cliffside which was spectacular! Alas our fighter glitched out into space so being the nice people we were, we left to get him. Next one was funny, since we were all turned into dolphins, though i didn't particularly enjoy that - why the frig would I want to -sneak- past things I would otherwise easily kill? Whatever. Blizzard map was next and that was awesome, and we finished off with the dredge base which was challenging but very fun especially when we finally got that legendary drill-suit down.

Fractal Dungeon - more fun than these.

Ofcourse this also meant the new enemies, the Karka, were beginning to appear with the Lost Shores patch. Alas since one of the NPCs during the investigation phase was not spawning, I couldn't really do much here but DL and I did bump into a Karka "raid" at Morgan's Spiral which served as a good introduction to our new crustacean enemies. Lastly Juris is now also level 80, which hopefully means we'll have enough people to attack Arah, and Zhaitan, soon.

Week #10 - Different Roads

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

My charr warrior finished his business this week, hunting down an asura necromancer and defeating the rebel Ajax to earn me the Vigil Banner (which, comparatively speaking was the easiest path I found). After he finished on level 31 I decided to see the stories of the two remaining races, and why not - there were free achievements to do so anyway so I made a Norn engineer who was very fun to play. Obviously more fragile than the warrior but she did alright saving a minotaur spirit, repaying a debt to an Iron Legion platoon for taking one of their tanks on a drunken joyride (LOL) and defended the last remaining dwarf, Ogden Stonehealer from the Dredge. That was awesome - at least I got to see and talk to him, something even my level 80 thief hadn't managed to do. Since she didn't need to go after a banner she finished off on level 24.

Next up I made an asura ranger which I am finding super strong - stronger than the warrior in fact! Haven't done much of her story yet and instead was focusing on leveling up AND thanks to the Mad King's Clock Tower, I've decided to hunt down the jumping puzzles that I haven't yet done. Morgan's Spiral was pretty easy, unfortunately the one after it in Nightmare Court territory is proving a bit too tough for her at the moment, I'll have to come back to it later. She is currently level 14.

Gravity is not my friend.

Guildwise DL, Thaldir and my thief managed to help Trahearne cleanse the Heart of Orr so all that is left now is to wander into Arah and kill the dragon. We also attempted 3/4 man Cadecous' Manor (Story mode) with Juris which wasn't that bad despite a few deaths. Good to see that Thaldir, who came late (we were already 60% of the way through) was still able to join the instance and though he didn't get some of the chests was still rewarded for his participation. It's a very awesome mechanic indeed. :)

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 #8 - Miserable Mesmer

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

As the title suggests I was not having a lot of fun using my mesmer. I found him weak, his illusions kinda useless and in general a slog to level up. It's almost like you are required to weapon swap using him and long story short, you need a lot more key presses to kill an enemy. To be fair, they have some really nice long ranged attacks but the minute you gain a tactical advantage (like stand where an enemy cannot hit you) the game makes your target invulnerable (even in instanced missions). THIS IS STUPID. If it is a method of anti-botting then sorry, this just kills the entire game for ranged classes.

Found a good vantage point? Too bad. It's useless!

Stuck it out with him and pushed to level 28 still, hitting storyline missions way above until I finally needed help to retrieve a sword made from Jormag's blood. DL's assistance was required to finish that and upon completion the mesmer completed his job of gaining me the Priory banner, meaning he now goes into the barracks. It will be my warrior's turn next to get me that last banner but he's just level 6 and still working on an anti-ghost rifle.

Main story wise DL, Thaldir and I (main thief) killed a Mouth of Zhaitan in a very buggy mission. Open the doors from ON TOP of them if you get stuck here too. Since that took us long (due to the bugged doors) that's all we got done apart from smashing events at the Straits of Devastation. The first part of the Halloween event also started up but I found Lion's Arch way too laggy to participate. Nice to see the place all dressed up though.

Fastest 100% World Completion

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

Now that I've done it myself I thought I would write up a guide to help others complete their own 100% world completion achievement the fastest way possible.

Be like Snake! :P

The Scout:
Fastest paced character from what I can see is the Thief. Remember your mission is to scout, not to fight every critter that happens to be in your way. I won't go into traits as you will be able to work out what you like best with this, but the skills you'll want to be using are:

Steal covers a lot of ground and useful for escaping mobs if you use your targetting correctly.
Hide in Shadows is useful when things get hairy, go invis.
Signet of Shadows but never actually activate it. Passively it will give you +25% speed continously.
Shadow Refuge - Switch out with Signet of Shadows when you are going for a commune or combat skill point. 7 seconds invis is more than enough to commune!
Shadow Trap is useful as distraction while you flee, or as another damage dealer if you choose to fight.
Thieves Guild the same as above but x2.
Roll for Initiative - gets you much needed init and more importantly is another -moving- skill you can use to escape.

Gear to Bring:
Double Daggers works well for mobility, since you can Leaping Death Blossom "through" incoming enemies and cloak and dagger into stealth for an additional escape. Remember, you run faster -out- of combat though and if you are fighting try land your first strike from hidden to your target's back for maximum damage. A shortbow is handy too to help with some heart tasks, like shooting dredge turrets and such but if you prefer something else go for it.

Underwater primarily use a spear. In close quarters and one on one, you should be unstoppable (unless you are poking a megalodon you idjit). Spam your block attack (3) to regain initiative then (5) to spend it all while dodging.

The Zones:
This may seem counter productive but do not scout zones geographically - like, don't start at Rata Sum and work your way across to the Blazeridge steps. The level difference can hinder you quite a bit if you are not in an appropriate zone. It's easy enough to work around though. Your first rule is to never move on until you've completed a zone entirely.

Now to your actual scouting sequence: Start out by completing each city - including Lion's Arch.

Then use this listing here.
Do all the lowest level zones. Then do the next lowest level and so on, leaving the level 80 stuff for last. As you complete each "tier" (like all level 1-10 zones) return to Lion's Arch for some crafting for a small level boost. You'll be able to gauge when to do this anyway since your bank will be filling with mats as you go - this is if you are harvesting majority of nodes on the way (and you should especially if they are unguarded).

Hearts:
Always chat to the heart person first as half the time the fastest way to complete a heart is a non-combat method. A good rule of thumb for "collection" stuff is get 10-15 items first before heading back to hand them in.

Skill Challenges:
Memory Test - easily accessible for anyone anyway
Food - if it is guarded, throw down a shadow refuge AT the food as you are running at it. Take and eat it, stealth out.
Commune - Same as food. If it is very well guarded throw a thieves guild and shadow trap to keep the enemies busy on your approach. Underwater you will need to kill the guards. You can still bring thieves guild if there's a nearby shore.
Fight - Use thieves guild and shadow trap followed by steal if you have "thrill of the crime" as your NPC pals also get the bonus. Follow up with cloak and dagger and backstab. If the enemy survives just kite while throwing daggers (and/or caltrops) and stealthing until your thieves are ready again. In cases with many opponents just aim to kill one at a time then flee/recover. They hang around for awhile anyway so don't rush.

The Mists:
As the old adage goes: If you can't beat them, join them. Make use of the free server transfer and hop onto the dominant of the 3 warring realms. You need to move fast though as the landscape of who holds what is prone to change. Dedicate at least 2 hours to finishing everything here and hop between the three borderlands and the eternal battlegrounds each time you hit a "block", coming back later to see if your side has retaken what you've not yet scouted.

Week #6 - Falling from High Places

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

Played a bit more GW2 than usual this week and completed the flame legion stronghold of Fireheart Rise, along with Sparkfly Fen and its resident winged beast, Frostgorge Sound (didn't encounter the dragon here), the Dredgehaunt Cliffs and its very evil vistas (deaths +++), Timberline Falls and Mount Maelstrom which is home to a very impressive volcano - and very annoying destroyers allied with Inquest. I still wonder about those Mole-men Dredge sometimes. For "blind" critters they seem to have an unusual liking for rifles and very high, easy to fall off places.

Also continued the main story a bit, participating in the loss and subsequent recapture of Claw Island which involved slaying another death dragon - perhaps a twin to the one of Sparkfly Fen? Anywho, the Risen aren't so bad. I prefer them to the burning destroyers any day. In fact I think the Risen are the weakest/least annoying of the dragon slaves, or maybe a close second to the Branded. Certainly gives room for expansions though.

Also I still feel I'm getting promoted way too quick. From Initiate to Agent was just one task. Interesting to note that it was an Agent and not a Lightbringer who was assigned to protect Queen Jennah. Guess she's not that important? :P

The guild had our usual point-gathering session this time at Bloodtide Coast though we started a bit late due to disconnects. We also gained no new members this week and our count is on 19 members, though almost half are not on Gunnar's Hold and are not representing us. I'm wondering if it's time to kick them?

I reached level 80 this week somewhere during the Frostgorge Sound exploration, and DL reached it the following day. Most notable battle for me was falling into a troll infested canyon while looking for a vista, where it so happened another thief was already fighting the massive mob. Between the two of us, we killed ALL the hairy freaks including a veteran, and a champion troll. It was awesome. :)

And fails.

Week #5 - Dragon Down

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

Lost a few more days to Mabinogi until the event there ended but I still managed to clear out a bunch of areas including the Iron Marches, the Fields of Ruin, Bloodtide Coast, and the Blazeridge Steppes. I kind of like the idea that each dragon has their own type of followers: the risen, the destroyers, the branded, the icebrood - it keeps things varied, though I do question some of their choices - namely flaming crabs and undead fish. Haha! :P

Changed up the guild run this week to start at the Caledon Forest and proceeded through the Brisban Wildlands and then the Harathi Highlands. Strangely we got -less- influence than we did when we just camped our previous zones. I suppose easier events = faster events? Once I was back on my lonesome I also finally became a full agent for the Order of Whispers and was given my next task of gaining an alliance with the Skritt. I'm not really chasing down the story event at this point as you may have guessed.

Memorable battles this week were against a pair of champion wasps (with only 1 other player) and it was a good lesson in kiting with a shortbow. Took ages to kill those bastards. Not so dangerous was my first dragon - "the Shatterer". I actually battled him twice since it took me so long to finish that zone that he returned. Seemed safest to me to sit in a cannon and shoot at him/provide covering fire for the dudes below which proved to be easy wins. If only he was smart enough to land -behind- the cannons, then maybe he'd have a chance. ^_^

"Flanking!? What does that mean?"

During one of those battles I met and recruited a jolly cat dude so our guild count is up by +1, and now I'm on level 67. :)

Just thought I'd mention a few things I've found I don't like about the game too...
1) For some reason I can't log into their forums. I get an "unusual" error related to invalid tokens.
2) Can't talk while harvesting - or you can sort of, then it breaks both actions
3) Can't view vistas in combat mode. Long after you've gone out of combat mode. Relog to fix :/
4) Can't choose yourself to go into/out of combat mode - non issue if you can view vistas in combat
5) Gear breaks only when you are "defeated". Prefer it if it breaks based on damage - regularly.
6) NPCs don't revive you, though you -often- revive them.
7) Friendly NPCs regularly lose to enemies in their zone, which can be stupidly funny (death by mosquito)
8) The Mists count for exploration requirement. Not too bad if your shard is winning maybe, but thats a 1 out of 3 chance. Very annoying for non-pvpers like myself.

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 #3 - Late to the Party

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

Tried out a fair bit of crafting which I find really fun, especially the discovery section of it before going back to my main goal of exploring the world! Completed Caledon Forest, the Brisban Wildlands, Snowden Drifts and the Gendarran Fields this week. Also had our first guild "event" to earn us some influence - mainly cycling around the Kessex Hills region. I also got to see the intro to the Order of Whispers and the Vigil thanks to accompanying Thaldir and DL respectively on that part of their missions.

As tempted as I was to see the Priory's intro movie I ended up also joining the Order of Whispers and faced off against some stupid soldier carrying a cursed artifact as the finale to the first "act". The bomb plan was good, but couldn't we have found a less dangerous place to fight instead of the throne room itself? I'll just not think about all the commoners he may or may not have killed on the way up.

The funny cat mentor I was introduced to after made up for that though, and after out drinking a bunch of pirates and simple rescue op he found himself transformed into the gal we freed to decoy her pursuers - a mission I found very funny indeed! This week I also entered my first "dungeon", the story mission of Caudecous Manor along with DL, Yue and two RoF members. Yeah it was tough, but nowhere near the difficulty I thought it would be. Still, it is supposed to be the easiest place so there's lots of scaling to be had later on I imagine.

Finished off mid-exploration of Diessa Plateau, where I had immense fun solving the jumping puzzle at the broken wall to the South followed by intese deaths to a giant attacking a nearby town. I find I lag too much when there are lots of people which makes my point blank evasions a bit hard to do. Seems the game really wants me to pickup that short-bow and strafe shoot everything (becomes a bit -too- easy then). Anyway, the guild gained 2 new members and I'm now on level 47. Meanwhile our guildie Erebos on Henge of Denravi is now level 80.

Nothing to see here but Apples! :3