Friday, January 4, 2013

Guild Wars 2: October - Present (very image heavy)


So, with my decision to update my blog more often and keep up with that sort of thing as a part of my new years resolution, I hope to be updating here more often! Hopefully at least once every couple of weeks, as this is a gaming blog after all, and I'll be busy once school starts to pick up. Nonetheless, time to do my update on GW2, OCT-PRES!

October:

After getting settled in to my new guild and getting acquainted to my fellow guild members through chat and mumble, I finally started to run dungeons! At first, I was hesitant; I felt as though my guild leader + others thought too highly of my abilities as an engineer, because in my world... I was still learning the class I had yet to solidify my skills and traits, and I had no idea what to do with my gear... like, at all. My guild leader suggested COF (Citadel of Flame, the level 70 dungeon) would be ideal for my class.

A screenshot from some of my first ever dungeon runs in explorable mode: COF.
Sometimes, you just have to do things in the nude.
Goodbye COF, hello TA!
After getting two pieces of the gear, I realized that I would prefer a Condition Damage/Precision build, so I started to run Twilight Arbour (TA)... a lot. Above is a screenshot of when I first started doing TA. Thankfully, my guildmates were very helpful and provided a lot of instruction for me, so I quickly picked up all three runs of TA no problem! ... little did I know that I would be running TA whenever I had the chance between studying and writing reports for school. ヽ(#`Д´)ノ

Towards the end of the month, Arenanet launched the halloween event, featuring Mad King Thorn! The beginning of the event was fairly simple, and much like a scavenger hunt. It was interesting learning some lore about the Mad King, and I'm quite the lore junkie so I indulged several times over a couple of characters. Among the scavenger hunt, there were pumpkins scattered everywhere to carve, candy corn nodes to mine, and trick or treat doors to open! There was even The Mad King's Clock Tower, a horrid jumping puzzle I could never master... so it's the only achievement from Halloween that I don't have. There was also a sPVP game style called Lunatics Inquisition, where one team are villagers, and the other team is ghosts... it's kind of like Halo's game type of zombies. It was hilariously fun. Oh, also, when the Mad King appeared, he destroyed the Lion statue in the Piazza! To this day, it is still being built! I love how it's progressively being rebuilt, rather than all at once with an update. 

In addition to all these event activities and running dungeons, I also started taking part in more dynamic events, such as dragon champion events!

Jormag's Champion
The Shatterer, Khalkatorrik's Champion
 November: 

I knew November was going to be a busy month, as the Lost Shores event was announced prior to Halloween. Even though the weeks leading up to it were busy for me (midterms, lots of reports to write, and some struggles with work), I still found time for the interesting event. ANet told us we would be getting a new map, and some strange new enemies to fight, as well as a new dungeon, Fractals of The Mists (my favourite part about the event!). The event was about the Karka, ancient crab-like creatures that were invading the bay and subsequently destroying the lighthouse in Lion's Arch. During the weekend, we followed another scavenger hunt to learn about the Consortium's involvement with Southsun Cove and the Karka, as well as how to take them out safely, as they have incredibly thick shells that prevented them from taking much damage.

Exploring a new, untouched map was very interesting. We got to see some deforestation (no, I'm serious) and some jumping puzzles. It was neat to be on a map that we were all visiting for the first time.

Cutting down trees to make paths and camps with the Consortium, as a part of the multi-hour finale to the weekend.
The final day of the weekend was the longest, as it included a multi-hour event that took us through Southsun cove as we built paths and bridges and camps. At the end of the event, we had to blow up the Ancient Karka's hive and kill it so that we could live in Lion's Arch peacefully knowing that the large threat was gone.  The final fight was strenuous as essentially a large zerg fest, but it was also incredibly fun.

WHAT 9000??!!!
At the end of the event, we were awarded with a 20 Slot Box and an Exotic Accessory... and if you were lucky, a Precursor to make a legendary weapon!! My friend got Dusk (the precursor to make the legendary greatsword, Twilight). I got a named rifle. 〜( ̄▽ ̄〜)  It didn't sell as well as my friend's Dusk, but it was neat to get something named!

Comparing the rifle to my rifle at the time.
After the event, I purchased a Young Karka transformation potion for karma. Worth it.
But, as mentioned before, my favourite part of the weekend was the new dungeon becoming available! Basically, you run three instances (four if you're doing every even number) that can take a few minutes, to an hour or more depending on how coordinated you are as a unit. What I really love about FOTM, is that it really  requires team work and communication, unlike TA (if you've done it a few times, you've done it a hundred, and you can do it without talking almost...) Also, it gets marginally harder with every new level!
Even though FOTM introduced a new gear type (Ascended), I still don't feel affected by the gear-grind. I mean, I just don't care if I have to grind - even if I was told that I wouldn't have to do it. I like working with others for a common goal, and helping out others who might not know what they're doing.

Just before our first fight with the Jade Maw (at lv2 Fractal)
Seriously, all these fractals are so interesting! This is climbing up the Colossus fractal.
And just for fun, my guildie's bear, who he now calls "Happy" per my request :3
 Once the weekend was over and people were tired of trying to catch others up to our fractal level, a lot of people became inactive. :( I had been promoted to an Officer's position in my guild, so it was frustrating we had fewer members than ever. This is still a problem, but it doesn't stop the few of us who are still active from having fun. We regularly WvW in our "serious business" (pink&purple coloured armour ONLY) colours and run dungeons and level up alt-characters.

We're super serious; don't mess with us.
Norn Dance Party

In addition to the event that happened in November, I also got my world completion star, and finished my personal story! 
So shiny (*´▽`*♥ 
Finally!
 December: 

School ended fairly early in the month for me, just in time for Wintersday! In anticipation, I made friendly with some randoms on my server, and we danced like Kodan for ... a good hour and a half before the server updated with Wintersday fun.

Dance, minions, dance!
I even completed my TA armour set at last!

Merry Wintersday, Tyria!
When the server finally did update, there was snow everywhere! I loved running around building snowmen and throwing snowballs at other players ♥. I was excited for Tixx's workshop too, since it was supposed to be like a mini-dungeon where we could earn materials to make new minis for our collections. My favourites were the Plush Griffon and the Toy Ventari. Other than doing the jumping puzzle and each toy instance, Wintersday was okay but I made more use of my time running other dungeons or levelling my Sylvari Ranger. But below is a picture of my struggles with a group of randoms.

At least I died a very cute death!
Present: 

Currently, my guildmates are fairly inactive. Most have moved on to other games, or are waiting for more content updates to bring them back. This leaves the guild with only a half a dozen or so players, including myself and some close friends I've made, which is somewhat depressing at times. To combat this, we play on our alternates a lot and run fractals (we're finally at level 10!), which is just fine. As long as I still have people to play with, I'm content. ♥

ANet said in an interview recently that the content updates this month and next month will equate to almost a full expansion's worth of game content! They've also eluded to some new WvW maps... I can't wait! Even though I'm taking seven courses this semester, I'm still finding enough wiggle room for some game time.
I don't know what Anet has in store for the GW2 community, but I am very, very excited.

With all that being said, phew! I think I summarized and caught up my blog on my GW2ing... I'll be posting my Engineer Build soon, I think, so I can keep track of it somewhere. Also, with DMC coming out in a week and a bit, I'll be posting about that too! In the meantime, back to levelling my Ranger and playing Dead Island.


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