Planeswalker Analysis 1: Kraken

I have been playing GW2 on and off whenever I can, totally enjoying WvW with the lack of culling (although replaced by lag in huge fights, which is to be expected), ready for new rounds of spvp (scenarios)with my new phantasm build for my mesmer and getting in a bit of map exploration and T6 mat grinding with my girlfriend.  Although it is thoroughly enjoyable (hats off to Arenanet by the way), I don't feel like there is anything particularly interesting to write about. So I thought it might be a nice exercise to write about the decks that i've built for Magic: The Gathering, to show the type of player that I am.

This first deck, is one of my oldest and (thus) favorite, besides my Dragon deck. The Kraken deck was originally stacked with countless enchantments, but over time, i've changed it to be more of a combo-type deck. A 60-card deck, built to be a multi-player deck, rather than a duel deck, it gets increasingly stronger at end game.

A mostly blue-green deck, it has a splash of red for one card in particular that you'll see later. It has one of my favorite enchantments which allow me to use my incredibly powerful creatures a second time:

I like using Back from the Brink so that I don't feel so bad having incredibly strong creatures such as:

I've played quite a few games where when i've been able to protect this creature, the game comes to a grinding halt and my opponents are not able to do anything at all, but watch me sweep over them.

The main strategy of this deck is to use vast amounts of mana to destroy my opponents with one timely card. I try to get all my mana out with Boundless Realms.

Typically, if you can get this card played on turn 7 (or earlier), and cast it again, all your mana will be out and everything else are spells or massive creatures.. which will eventually lead to the following cards:

 The reason for the splash of red...basically.

Imagine doing 24 direct damage to a player.. or making them mill 24 cards late in the game.. pretty devastating. My type of playstyle, high risk (a simple counter will make me cry), but high reward.

Stay tuned later this week for a look into my second favorite (although possibly most powerful) deck: Dragons.

Guild Wars 2: Bounties

Ok!

So I had my first taste of the Guild Bounty System in Guild Wars 2 on Tuesday night and i'm reporting in. I won't drone on about it and just say:

- basically, you find 1-6 npcs out of 15, all over Tyria that wanders the whole map (although in a set path). You'll be able to distinguish them as they'll have a unique name and have a sheriff's badge symbol over their head

- the best thing to do is have 15 guild members (preferably more), run in the opposite direction of the path to find the npc, THEN start the mission. This is the best course of action (at this point) b/c this mission only lasts 15 minutes and even with a full guild, it can take atleast 5 minutes to kill each bounty (champion lvl).

- if you're one of the unlucky (?) people to have found one of the bounties, no worry, by still tagging your bounty, you'll still get rewards. That was my case and I still got 2 commendations, 2 rares (both surprisingly for my class) and 50 silver.

- be aware, you can halt the npc from moving by interacting them ("F'ing them"), BUT when the guild leader/officer turns on the mission DO NOT interact with them, otherwise they will turn hostile on you!

All in all, I like the rewards, but it took far too long to setup this mission. We started looking for our npcs at 8EST, and started the actual mission at 9:20.. and finished in less than the 15 allowable minutes. I wouldn't exactly call it fun either.. reminding me of the Rifting (from, duh, Rift), where its a zerg of people smacking on one boss. 

- it obviously requires a TON of guild members to do: 1) to have enough guild influence (gained from active players) to purchase the mission and 2) to actually find the bounty in a timely manner.

I want to see in the future, some sort of king of the hill type of guild mission, where you defend a certain spot from unlimited (maybe limited) waves of enemies. Or one where you have to defend your camp, reach the enemy npc camp, escort some npcs back all the while fighting endless waves.

Back on Track

Its been a LONG time since i've written an entry, but i'm mostly moved in now and I figure I better get writing again before I lose the habit. Its harder than normal because i've been working, unpacking and been extremely busy with RL duties, encountering internet, then pc issues which restricted gametime. 

My main distraction these days, pc-wise is still Guild Wars 2. I've tried making a *gasp* Norn Necromancer, and just like each new character i've ever made, the initial gameplay was extremely fun.. but I always seem to hit an 'unfun' zone/threshold by where your character is doing everything (hearts, gathering, crafting, events, etc) possible, but still ends up underleveled for the next progression-able area. This requires you to either keep farming lower level areas, events, die from higher lvl areas, or go to another starting zone to level up there. I hit that area with my necro and I understand (again) what my cousin said about the limited ways to play the class. The limited ways to play a class is boring to me which helps my alt-o-holism and will allow me to play with my much more enjoyable Warrior.

 I've touched upon the topic before, but a guild (in mmo's particular) can really enrich a player's experience in a game. The drawback is that it can be easily corrupted though by negative, vocal players. That happened last week while struggling to get a good connection and preventing my pc from overheating. While soloing and testing my connection, I saw in guild chat how one officer was fed up with 'begging' people to join in World vs World and called us 'carebears.' For those that don't know, that is derogatory language to describe a person that likes PvE and doesn't like PvP. While I respect the person's leadership abilities and understand the hardships of leadership on an online mmo game, berating your guildmates and calling them names doesn't make for a healthy guild. It totally turned me off, making WvW the LAST thing i'd want to do; I would do WvW because I want to, and not to please the person that was name-calling. If WvW (or certain aspects of a game) is so important to you, as a leader, it is your responsibility to entice people into participating. Make sure people are aware of the event, making it fun to participate, easy to participate and accessible. In this case, unfortunately, the person didn't want to put forth that effort (totally their decision) and joined another guild. Guilds are a flowing and ever-changing entity and while our guild may have been considered a WvW or PvP guild before, with new membership, it has changed to a PvX guild. A PvX guild is one that does everything ("solve for X"), questing, dungeons, crafting, pvp, everything. Be aware of what guild you're in or what you're thinking of joining so that their culture meshes with the way you play.

My alternate distraction these days has been our old love: Magic The Gathering. The newest expansion of Gatecrash, coupled with my friends wanting to play it again (thanks to the end of their fantasy football league) has renewed my interest, before that, it was gathering dust. One thing that always makes it exciting is opening a set of booster packs to find you're extremely lucky and get a high percentage of mythic rares (the most rare type of cards). This happened in a recent purchase and will hopefully be incorporated into some new decks.

I wanted youuuu!

Frost and Flamers

So. New content: Flame and Frost. Go read it.

Whats with mini pets? So much for a cat with a hat, and a mini wolf.. that reminds me of a fox/dog. I hope alot of people spend their laurels on that instead of gear. I like the new dailies you need to complete CONCEPT, but hate it in practice. If you asked me the thing I hate most in GW2, I would shout out: underwater combat. While better and more immersive than other mmo's, underwater combat sucks imho. Having do a certain number of dodges to complete your daily, while easy.. is also a bit annoying to complete as well. Lets give it a few weeks and see how it turns out before we start flogging ANet on trying something new.

Somewhere Else

Goodbye old server.. you were good, but some of you are a incredibly immature and short sighted. I wish those that caused such problems, to see how heavy the burden of leadership really is for you and realize how lucky you were to have  our GM facilitating everything. I know you'll just give up and leave the community anyways. I truly hope to find you on the battlefield and we shall camp you incessantly.

On a better note, love the art from Magic: The Gathering. This picture makes me want to keep playing my Ranger.. but for the third (yeah) time, I can't learn to love the class. For more art, checkout the article and the official site.

Kinda wish I felt the enormity of the game as strongly when I look at this photo compared to the actual GW2 cities.

Release the Flying Kraken!

I asked for it and then a few days later it was up on an article at the Wizards Website.

This will be perfect.. as I typically lack fliers in my Kraken(slash Leviathan) deck. Coupled with the fact that my Kraken has a high emphasis on mana ramp (I use up all my lands).. we could be looking at an impossibly huge creature. I do miss the unblockable or shrouded krakens though as it'll be a juicy target to be used against me.

Just an updated pic of my mesmer.. I like how the Midnight Fuscia matches my skin color.. but I personally like the white and gold color combination better.. white looks great tho. I understand the reasoning to it, but I would prefer to be able to see my enemies dyed in the color that they chose and not depending on the color of their server side(fully red, green or blue). Its cooler to make a name for yourself if they can identify you by your look and color: "oh no, white and purple? thats probably that unkillable mesmer!" or "hey guys! easy kill! its that kamikaze mesmer!" Fyi, currently its the latter lol.

A Whole New World

Guess what?

Chickenbutt!

I really never understood that 'joke' or reference when my coworker told it.

Anyways; great fantastic, amazing news: We've switched to cable internet and its as fast as it was advertised. No longer does one need to start a video, pause it right away to let it buffer. No longer do I avoid Steam purchases for fear that it'll take over a day to download. Now there is no pressure to sneak some gaming in before one of my siblings come home and causes massive lag. Welcome to the future; i'm never going back to the type of internet plans I had before.

My good friend Kossi sent me some mail yesterday and she wanted me to post a picture of how I look; it was Midnight Fushcia.. which as you can see is a wicked dark purple. Still trying to find the right color that will mix well with it. Maybe a red.. or gold. Maybe its just the cheapo armor I have on where the color doesn't seem to pop out at you.

 By the way, one of the coolest (and unique) features of Guild Wars 2 is the ability to both chat and send mail to people in different servers. So altho Kossi and I are in different servers, we're still able to send each other mail (her dyes to me, and I sent her some birthday cake). Come the 28th, ArenaNet will be implementing guesting, meaning you no longer have to change servers to party with your friends (if they're on all different servers), and can just join their server for that session of gameplay.

Don't know how many people (doubt any of my friends are) following the card previews for Gate Crash.. but there are some wicked cards.. although i'm waiting for a cool Kraken-type card to add to my Kraken themed deck. Krakens totally fit the Simic (green-blue, watery experiment) theme.

Elusive Krasis! I choose you!

Glacial

Its been a lonnnng time since i've written an entry (in my blogging world) and I attribute it to a very frustrating experience i'm having with my internet. Last week, we were without internet for two days and I spent it watching episodes of Homeland with Claire Danes and the guy who played Captain Winters from Band of Brothers. I absolutely love Guild Wars 2, but am thankful that i'm not addicted to it that it was only slightly missed versus some sort of crippling experience. In the times that it WAS working, I have been able to swing dungeon runs with guildies (a good reason, but not the only to be guilded), Twilight Arbor and Citadel of Flame when not beset with lag that would make you cry in a pool of your own tears.

Fear not though; my household is switching to cable internet this week which could increase my speeds anywhere from 3-18 times faster than what it currently is.

 I've always been a solo mmo-player, as ironic or counter-intuitive as it sounds. While it doesn't seem to be an uncommon case, an mmo is meant to be played with people, rather than as a solo experience. I've always generally partied with my girlfriend which always increases the enjoyment tenfold. After all these years, we've taken 2 more steps that have enhanced that enjoyment: 1) using skype/teamspeak, 2) becoming guilded.

It might surprise many of you, but I personally haven't ever felt the need to use skype/teamspeak or some kind of voicechat while playing mmo's as my job 8 hours a day, 5 days a week is purely technical support on the phones. So any time not being chained to a headset is relief. But if you haven't done it yourself, its something I'd highly recommend trying with your friends. Its easier to communicate to your party members (say if they go in the wrong direction, or explain things quicker) and it leaves your hands to play the game instead. It really changes the way that you play and makes you more effective.

I've been in a few guilds in mmo career and was the GM of the one in Warhammer Online but i've also never felt the urge to be in one. Probably stemming from the part that I've played all the time with my girlfriend, so I always had someone to travel and quest with. We normally weren't interested in dungeons, but had we been, it would have been a bit difficult(if not a unpleasant experience) to pug. With all the responsibilities (and they aren't even that stringent) of being guilded, the benefits far outweigh them. They are not only a group you become close with but also become a great resource; you'll never be alone essentially. Someone is bound to have the answers to your questions and there will be those that will join you in questing, dungeons or organize pvp.

Like Everyone Else: Highlights 2012

I liked MMOGC's (why do I want to type mmogoc?) format to the highlights of her year of 2012, so I thought I'd have an entry myself on it. 2012 was a great year for both gaming and photography, for me and in general.

I had my first official photoshoot in 2011 and I loved it; I had spent 8+ hours doing something I absolutely loved. I was creative.. tried new things.. struggled with lots.. (beautiful women! lol)but was very successful with many of my photos. I craved more (photo)shoots in 2012. My vacation coincided (luckily) at the same time when my parents were away, so for 3 days in August, I had 4 photoshoots at my house. I had one of my oldest friends, my photoshoot stylist, with me, helping me build confidence, so that I had the mental fortitude to have 3 additional shoots all one my own. 

I'm afraid though; there i've said it.. or atleast this is the first time that i've written it out; I'm afraid of making photography a full time gig. I've seen my photos and think they're good, but I see what other photographers have done and theirs is very good as well and it makes me wonder if I can make that a full time job.

With that said, I hope to have even more photoshoots and even better quality photos this year.

As my friends have gotten older, we've stopped doing outdoor activities (frequently) and clubbing (thank god) and have transitioned to having game nights. We used to play Trivia Pursuit.. Settlers.. Agricola, but this year we changed our retinue and had a whole slew of new games that we tried. Dungeon!, Ticket to Ride, Guillotine, Bonanza, Risk.. tons of new games. I like how we have so many different kinds of games available to us.

MAGIC! lol. In the first half of 2012, we (my group)must have played Magic: The Gathering, every. Single. Weekend. And from the stories, one of my friends played it with her husband, every. Single. DAY. But the start of the football season, came a waning interest in Mtg and a new passion (for all the guys except myself[I like watching, not doing]) for fantasy football. I love the multitude of strategies, rich story and could literally spend hours on deck building; probably something you can do with fantasy football, but as I wrote, I would rather watch the game, than do anything more with it. Its not the main reason, but a big thing that kept me even thinking about fantasy football was:

All the video games that came out this year! Borderlands 2, X:Com Enemy Unknown and Guild Wars 2. Borderlands 2, Game of the Year, by the way by some people's count, is a fantastic game.. very similar to the original, but improved across the board. Still a few issues/bugs.. some incredibly hard parts.. *cough* people duping (not me but friends, which takes the fun out), and it was partially GW2 and a crappy 1st dlc that kind having me let dust settle on the Borderlands 2 cd. I used to play (10+ yrs ago) X:Com: Terror from the Deep. An incredible, but punishing game that never let up on you and made no apologies if it beat you. I was almost deathly afraid that 2K would either keep the insane difficulty (I basically never won and lost 75% of my squad on every mission) or/and ruin the game and the nostalgic parts that made it a great game. And I was so surprised that not only did they do a fantastic job (although a bit shortish, research-wise), I was able to finish the campaign! The only problem I encountered, once again due to GW2, was I didn't have an urge to play another campaign.. whether for keeping my perfect record.. or just boredom from a completionist first-time play-through  For the longest time, I was trying to resist GW2.. mostly because I don't have the willpower (yet) to become addicted. I have good enough willpower to do daily self improvement (stock research, career opportunities, learning a new language, blog etc), but I still spend more time than I want to.

Winter's Day and Gate Crash

If you're like me, you like recipes.. b/c I don't like guessing what collectibles combine into what (mostly the having to buy extra components from NPCs and then having too much extra). Thats why Dulfy's website is so good; it has guides such as this one which shows you recipes for these special live events.

I still can't believe I hit lvl 80 yesterday.. and according to the pic, I've only scratched the surface (52% map completion???). As I said, working on my Mesmer (mostly for pvp) and if I somehow find the time, try the Elementalist. 

------------------------------

So! We haven't talked about Magic in a while and lucky us (?) there are a few new previews of the upcoming expansion of Gatecrash. The 4 new guilds include Orzhov, Boros, Simic and Gruul. With the exception of Orzhov.. all my favorite guilds are in this expansion! Lets take a look!

So, an Orzhov card; I don't particularly like the Extort mechanic.. seems a bit weak to me, but when you look at it closer, it seems to shine in multiplayer games with lots of enemy opponents. Still.. white and black color combinations.. I've never made that combination..

Boros! I like the militaristic, lawful good.. (zealotry) feel of this guild and the mechanic of Battalion seems to fit the flavor. Kind of requires you to have a few fighters.. better if they had vigilance and good toughness.

Gruul.. many of my decks are a Red/Green combo as I like direct damage, dragons, mana ramping and big creatures. I have one deck (Kraken deck) that has an easy way to nearly always have every land out.. using Bloodrush would just be game over.. and rage quit for some people.

Simic! The basis of my Kraken deck.. Blue/Green. I imagine creatures with this Evolve mechanic will be typically 1-3 mana more expensive/weaker than a creature of the normal cost.. a double edged sword.. requiring many creatures.. but making your chump blockers into a greater threat.

Finally

It took forever (thanks to my alt-o-holicism), but I finally did it!... The Guardian is a fantastic pve class, especially if you have a Ranger or Engineer partner who can agro all the enemies to you. Greatsword them down and reap experience much faster. I'm still unsure of his effectiveness in pvp; but now that i'm at max level, I can slowly get better gear for him and see how strong he can be. But i'm working on my Mesmer now as the class seems incredibly strong for PvP.

GW2: Crafting Answered!

Overview of Gathering

There are 4 major types of things you can gather in GW2:

- plants/herbs; depicted by a green bush type of node (for cooking)

- ore (for most weapon/armor crafting)

- leather (for light armor and ranged weapon crafting)

- wood (mostly for ranged weapon crafting/artificing)

While you can gather plants, ore and wood from nodes via tools (axes, sickles, pickaxes), you typically get leather from salvaging (via salvage kits) other items.

Like any MMO, gathering is important as a way to get the materials you need for crafting (duh, but it needs to be said). Otherwise you will need to spend alot of money buying it from the auction house. Both crafting and gathering skills are important as they upgrade your gear, have recipes that contain consumable buffs (to increases stats or experience gain), can be used to sell on auction house (for more money), and have achievements related to them. One of the best things about both crafting and gathering in GW2 is that you gain experience for it; if you max out a crafting skill, that will net you 10 levels. There are 80 levels in the game and 8 crafting skills, you do the math.

 Is gathering/crafting needed? 
If you want to gain levels faster, then yes. If you want to have more money.. maybe you don't want to craft. GW2 employs an interesting model for crafting; instead of buying a recipe from a merchant for the sole purpose of leveling your skill, you combine certain pieces of materials to form new recipes. If you're a very much a trial-and-error type of person, this will be for you. If you're the exact opposite, you'll hate crafting. If you want recipes, there are many websites with exact recipes.

Why are there so many materials?
Because there are many different kinds of weapons/armor/items that can be created. A crafted item can have many kinds of stat boosts (strength, vitality, toughness, precision, etc) and to make certain items, you need those specific materials. Depending on the level tier you're in, there are higher level versions of it. Ie. In tier 1, you may have 'tiny claws' while in tier 2 there will be 'small claws' while in tier 3 there will be 'claws.' Each type of claw providing greater boosts in strength.

Crafting in GW2 is different than other MMOs in that if you have the money, you can have every crafting profession; you can have 2 of 8 active at any time, but to switch, it costs a certain amount of money, depending on how many levels you have in it.

I've been told that Legendary weapons (the strongest weapons in the game) can only be used if you have the necessary crafting skills associated with them. Maybe they're bind on acquire. If you are hardcore and intend on getting Legendary weapons, then you'll need to invest the time/money to craft, otherwise you won't need to worry about it.

Remember: gathering can take up alot of your bag space (for cooking in particular), so always ensure you click on the gear icon in the top right of your bag window and select "Deposit Collectibles." You collectibles is a hidden bank in the sky that stores all your gathering mats that is share between all your characters and accessible from any crafting station.

Explanations for the Previous

Soo.. lets clarify yesterday's entry; what made playing (in particular) the Mesmer make me nearly (partying with the gf made it much more enjoyable) lose interest in the class and more terrifying, the game itself!

1. Not knowing the skills to use in solo pvp

- although I was able to get a true level 80 invader to 25% hp, it was all due to my confusion ability and didn't really know what other skill to use

2. Getting hit twice by catapults 

- in Kessex Hills zone, there is a centaur camp that has (rather smart) catapults

- it was only the second time to experience getting hit by one catapult, and fall onto the floor, only to get hit by another catapult

- while it didn't result in a death, it was incredibly annoying

3. The frailty of the Mesmer shown in Personal Quests

- there is a part in the PQ where you help the Vigil protect a small outpost in Kessex Hills from hordes of Risen undead

- by itself/solo, the Mesmer (at low levels atleast) seems to be very underpowered

- by time I had to face off against the ONE veteran, all the npcs were dead and I couldn't find a proper way to dispatch it

- I ended the PQ prematurely by running out of the zone 

- while when I had done the same PQ with my Guardian, he barely broke a sweat

4. Krait respawn rates

- getting killed by Kraits in an area in KH that was respawning FAR too fast

- I would kill 3, then another 4 would take their place

5. Getting owned in WvW and the severe lack of people doing it

- I think our server has become accustomed to winning and it has caused us to deal with losing badly to the point that they give up or atleast become more disorganized

An mmo isn't made with the intention of solo play; it needs to have that option, but has the gentle invisible nudge to play together. Thats why playing in even a party of 2 made the Mesmer more enjoyable. Not getting attacked and being able to more freely use his confusion ray and other skills, made him much more effective.

While experiences such as yesterday lead me to believe that (atleast at low levels) the Mesmer isn't necessarily made for solo play(my Guardian will go out of his way to agro 5 enemies 'just to be efficient'). Knowing that had I been a true 80 (if I ever get there) with half decent gear, I would have been a force to reckon with in WvW/PvP.

Then you have today and you get some wicked armor from completing Heart Quests.. and the game turns around for you. Absolutely loving my new sinister looking Mesmer; before he looked a little too effeminate for my liking. For the longest time, even till your mid 40s, your character may not look too impressive. The trick is to right click on the Heart Quest reward gear, even if it is weaker than the gear you have on. By using your transmutation stones that you get from Dailies and getting 100% map completions from towns, you can look quite formidable in earlier levels (whether you want to waste consumables on that is another story).

Under-powered

Dear Mesmers of Guild Wars 2,
Thank you for making such a crappy class, that I have actually(temporarily) lost all interest in the game. Why do I keep finding these things out around level 30? /lesigh

The Urge

Dear Gaming Gods,
Please give me the strength to stick with only two characters in Guild Wars 2. Each class that I have has their own draws and the alt-aholism (which I attribute to the Robot Devil) makes it very hard to stick with one character. I just want to have one level 80, then i'll go crazy with the alts. I promise.

Would like a shirt like this lol.

Guild Wars 2: Newbie Questions Answered!

Item hierarchy

- white, BLUE, then GREEN, Yellow, Gold Purple (not really sure which one is higher lvl, gold or purple)

- this is the first mmo in which i've seen that Blue comes before Green in rarity

- i've found what distinguishes an item between blue and green is that green are upgraded with runes

- runes give special set bonuses if you have more than one

NOTE: you can use high level salvaging kits on items with runes in it to re-use those runes in other gear (every piece of gear i've encountered has a slot for an upgrade)

NOTE 2: you do not benefit twice from the same rune; only one benefit is received

ie. Rune A

Gear with 1 rune: +5 Power

Using gear with 2 of the same rune still results in only +5 power, not +10 b/c you have both. It only means you get the second bonus IF there is one.

-----------------------------------------

Attributes
There is:
- Power (direct damage)
- Precision (crit chance)
- Toughness (damage reduction)
- Vitality (health; 1 point = 10 hp for every class)

Extra stats (things to consider when speccing):

- Crit Chance

- Magic Find%

- +Condition damage; this is important if you have alot of conditions for your weapon skills (conditions = debuffs such as bleeds, burning, confusion, etc)

-----------------------------------------------
 
Zone wide rewards & when to move to the next zone
- you get experience for nearly everything you do: fighting/farming, crafting, gathering (materials from resource nodes), doing heart quests, personal quests, dynamic events, exploring new areas, discovering Points of Interest, Vistas, World vs World (aka PvP)
- there are no traditional quests in Guild Wars 2; there are 3 main kinds of quests which imho was created to develop immersion into the game:

1. Heart Quests
- appear in the top right area where the quest tracker normally is
- the npc to return to get rewards has a Yellow Heart symbol above their head and on the map
- each zone has more than 10 Heart Quests which are area quests that start by either talking to a certain NPC, but most of the time happens when you walk into the appropriate area
- similar to Warhammer Online's public quest, as you contribute to the heart quest, you gain 'influence' 
- you gain influence by doing one of many (up to approximately 5 different) things for the NPC
- normally there isn't a time limit
- once you have full influence, you get experience and a small amount of karma and gain access to some rewards you can purchase from the NPC with that karma (more about karma soon)

2. Dynamic Quests

- there are no NPCs that give the quest or to return to, there is only the orange text in the quest tracker to let you know what to do

- normally there are orange icons on the map: Gears (normally something to interact with), Crossed Swords (something to attack), or a Horned Helm (a mini boss)

- it is my belief that the (GW2)game system can tell where players are and it will spawn a quest in that area

- similar to a Heart Quest, but it may not always happen if you're in the area

- you can do a Dynamic Quest as many times as you like

- there are Dynamic Quest CHAINS, whereas a Heart Quest normally only has one stage

- unlike the Heart Quest, the Dynamic Quest SCALES in difficulty depending on how many players are participating

- depending on how much you contribute, results in you gaining either bronze, silver, or gold rewards which is always experience, karma and a bit of money

- these quests will recycle over and over, even if you've already completed it

- there is sometimes a time limit

3. Personal Quests

- denoted by the Green colored text under the quest tracker

- what makes it special is it is a special quest only for your own character, although your party can help you

- each race has their own Personal Quest which is special and personalized at the beginning by the background choices you make

- each Personal Quest will force you to make choices that has an impact in your world/instanced home setting/story

- the PQ increases in difficulty after each consecutive quest

- PQs give the greatest lump sum increase in experience, other than possibly capturing a major keep in World vs World

- PQs also give money, gear for that level (not YOUR level), and other materials (Black Lion keys, gathering materials)

Each zone is appropriate for certain levels; when you zoom out a bit, it'll show you the appropriate level bracket (1-15, 15-25 etc). The game is great for partying with new players as when you go to lower levels to play with them, your character is de-leveled for that area so it is still challenging. Best thing is you still get rewards for the area. By questing in the appropriate level for your character, you'll get better experience, although it is normally easier to do lower level tiers.

------------------------------------
An important thing to remember:
1. Daily Quests
- Every day you can complete the same 5 challenges:
1. Kill X different kinds of creatures
2. Kill X amount of creatures total
3. Gather X amount of different times
4. Participate in X amount of (Dynamic) events (does include doing many WvW captures)
- completing a daily quest will give money, experience, a transmution stone and a Jug of Karma (gives 4500 karma)

2. Map Completion
- you'll notice to the left of the major map (M), the game tracks the different things you've done (Heart Quests, Points of Interest, Vistas, Skill Point Challenges, Waypoints etc)
- if you complete everything and get 100%, the game rewards you with a zone appropriate (not level) reward of usually gear, gathering tools or materials, money and experience
- it doesn't feel like the reward is that impressive, but it does reward a completionist

Click me!

How to read the basic map

- Basically, put your cursor on everything and anything

- the Green Star is for where your Personal Quest is

- a black weight/money scale is to denote the Auction House (called the Black Lion Trader)

- the black round bag denotes the bank

- A diamond is a waypoint, which are used for fast travel (for a cost that increases with distance and level)

So that is just part one, of many. I wrote this a bit later than I wanted, but I was busy leveling my character. Please feel free to correct anything in the comments section or add more things you'd like me to write about. Cheers!

The MMO Gamer: Short Attenti... ooo! Shiny Penny!

Now.. I figured i'd post this article first while its sort of still fresh.. don't worry, I'm still going to write up a newbie intro guide to Guild Wars 2! I like to post screenshots anyways and I haven't taken any yet for the guide anyways.. so possibly the first part of the guide will be up Friday evening.

One of (the many talented)bloggers on my bloglist, Bernard at Diminishing Returns, writes a short entry on how ArenaNet has failed to stick to their 'unique philosophy' of creating a game with near limitless ability to keep the attention of their audience. From the way it is written, it seems to me that he is implying that the game is boring already.

I really can't believe the short attention span, coupled with the insane addiction people have to games. Its only 3 months into the life of the game and people are complaining of lack of things to do. Granted, if i played with only 1 character(alt-aholic), i'd be close to max level in my near 1 month of playing; but this is free content and it looks like ALOT of content. I don't doubt people have 100% completion in this game, from the amount of hours I see put into it (8-10 hours a day; don't you have work people???).

I feel sorry for developers, for they seem like they are always stuck in a lose-lose situation. They must say their mmo is different (like suggesting unlimited attention grabbing ability), but a mmo cannot contain unlimited hours of gameplay, even with pvp, for people simply play too much, and eat up content too fast. These are also the gamers that are the first to complain and complain the loudest. Maybe it comes with the territory (being a mmo game developer), that you just take the good (developing a game you're passionate about) with the bad (trolls and mmo player demands).

Its a bit unreasonable to be bored if you haven't:
- watched every vista cutscene
- got 100% for every map
- got max gear from pvp and dungeons
- completed every dungeon
- watched every personal quest dialogue cutscene
- got max lvl for all crafting

At that point, I would say there are still more things to do:
- there is 4 other character slots (plus expanding it) to make alts for other races, other classes
- you can help other people with their quests, dungeons, etc
- you can become more dominant in pvp; defeating greater foes with lesser numbers (or do you like zergs?)
- people in COH boasted a great community; you can do something and make your server in GW2 a great place to play with friendly, helpful people

Publishers/Developers would absolutely LOVE to make a game that had unlimited hours of content. Why? Then you keep 'paying' (less so in this case of gw2: no sub). If they knew how to, they would. Its their goal to make a great game, but also keep making money. I'd say be happy with what you have, slow down and enjoy the game infront of you.. and worst case scenario, keep complaining or better yet, get off the pc and do something else with your life and get a real life achievement. 

Guild Wars 2: Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda

I always meant to, but I never did when the screenshots didn't come out like I thought they would (it didn't show the little popup when you hover over gear).. but I wanted to write a little 'how-to' guide or beginner's guide for Guild Wars 2. I know that its a tad late, but there 'are' new players every day and I was very lucky to have very experienced friends who would answer my very noob questions. 

The worst thing when playing a new game is being lost and not knowing the things that makes a game great that everyone else seems to know. So per the request of one of my closest friends (that's you Brown Magic), i'm gonna do my best to answer all the questions he has and provide a newbie friendly guide in nice bite-sized entries versus one huge entry where TL:DR will naturally happen.

I'll be answering the following areas below:
- differences between solo play, group play, world pvp, etc
- item hierarchy (blue, green, gold, purple, etc), and important attributes
- zone wide rewards and when to move on to the next zone
- how to read the basic map
- basic overview of races and classes
- what to do from levels 1-15, then 15-30 etc (not just grinding but types of things you can experience best)
- overview of gathering; purpose, do you need it, why there are so many mats, zone equipment
- overview on skills vs traits and how to spend
- some setup options, moving gathered items, how to access bank
- overview on karma, mystic coins, and other currency; how to get, why you need it, how to spend
- differences between personal quests, heart quests, dynamic quests

I guess I partially didn't end up writing alot of this b/c i'm by no means a master of the game, but I am passionate about it and won't go on to brag about how it'll never be cancelled.. unlike some games.... b/c it eventually will.. but I would have moved on a long time ago and playing Guild Wars 4.
If anyone has any questions they have (ill answer them to the best of my limited knowledge) or would like to see me write something, please leave a comment and I'd love to try to get it posted for you! 

You picked the right server..

Boom.

Yeah.

Now granted, it was one.. of many zergs like below..

We were very well organized; constantly flanking our opponents. I would have preferred to see a bit more defending at the end. People got so confident at our huge zerg, that they took off all their armor.

Guild Wars 2: Personal Quest

Lets get straight to it people: I am still loving (see: addicted) Guild Wars 2. Its a great game, but not a perfect game. I question frequently why I can't trade items with players.. I can't think of an mmo game that i've played where there were issues with it. But when you have a free mail system.. it doesn't cause too much of a bother. The main issue i'm encountering these days is the Personal Quest system.

 I love the Personal Quest system in that when you customize your character, you have a background story which affects your actual over-arcing story in the game. You experience your story via a Personal Quest, which is a persistent quest that is always available to you; you can zoom through it (although it increases in level difficulty) or wait til you hit max level to tackle (it will of course de-level you so that it is still challenging). Your friends can join you and it will take you to the appropriate map areas that you normally would visit anyways, so its rather convenient. It gives a good chunk of experience, has good loot rewards, and you can save the gear for transmuting in the future.

While I haven't encountered how indepth/special your story gets (thanks to my alt-oholicism), the beginning always seems to be very tailored to how you chose your background story. But after you get over that beginning part, it seems to become a generic storyline of you needing to defeat the dragons.

That isn't my main issue I have with the game b/c I don't expect Arenanet to develop such a detailed questline for the many ways you can customize it. My beef is that the dialogues between you and NPCs are not engaging. I wish it was more like SWTOR; in SWTOR, you got to pick your responses, finding a balance(or extreme I suppose) between Light and Dark side choices. In GW2, there is a preset dialogue that you must just listen to. I guess we should be happy that your character has his/her own voice and isn't just a silent mute.. but its really boring to just listen to these preset dialogues. I would have loved to see (we can never expect to have choices in the future; NEVER! I have thus predicted it) dialogue options implemented in the future, but doubt it will ever happen.

To nitpick a little more, your party members that join you on your personal quest have no input (a la dice roll per SWTOR) and get no rewards other than the loot and xp of the monsters you kill in the instance. So very little reason for them to join you, other than to be helpful and participate in one's personal story.