Guild Wars 2 - Six months after
So, this game has been out for a little over half a year now, and neither of us has mentioned it at all the past few months, so I thought I'd take a stab at it.
Have I been playing non-stop for six months?
Heck no, I've been about as casual as you can be without dropping out of the game altogether. I've mostly logged in every now and then, played for an hour here and an hour there, occationally interrupted by a few days of gaming marathon. Most of this has been spent with Leehra, my Asuran Mesmer, though I've dipped into a few other characters as well a few times.
I've mostly gone for completing each map, starting with the lowlevel zones and working my way up, and almost always been derailed from my plans every time by an event or a group of people doing something fun. But who cares? I get XP for almost everything I do, and as long as I have a good time I don't really care.
And that's what makes this game great for me.
I can log in, and before long I'm doing something I enjoy, many times something I've never done before. And there's no pressure from the countdown to the next monthly fee urging me to play more to justify the cost. :)
Last week a new patch arrived, and with it some tweaks to the dayly achievement system. This urged me into one of my marathon sessions of GW2-ing. I was level 34, and four days later I'm level 44. A huge part of this has been said achievement system.
Each day I can select 5 out of 9 tasks (kill x monsters, gather x materials, survive x dungeons, dodge x attack, etc). I then play normally and suddenly realize I've already completed 3-4 of the tasks without even trying, and then spend just a tiny bit more effort into completing that task just so I can get the extra XP and loot that grant me.
Doing this for two days I was suddenly level 41 and decided to do something new...
I got to the Plains of Ashford and legged it out to the Ascalonian Catacombs where I hooked up with a group looking for just one more member, and off we went.
Things started a bit rocky because I wanted to watch the opening intro (loads of cutscenes in the dungeons) and the others kept hurrying me along (which I didn't notice until AFTER my cutscene was played out). We killed a few ghosts and got spiked by a few traps when I ran into an annoying bug: I got stuck in a wall and had to wait five minutes until the group was out of combat before I could teleport out using the in-dungeon waypoints.
We got through the first few trash mobs and to our first boss, a cavetroll guarding a bridge... And we got creamed GOOD!
Not only did he fear us (one of the players ran off the bridge and to his death), but he had a massive AoE attack that hit like a brick against eggs. We got our butts handed to us several times until we FINALLY managed to get him down... And I'm not totally convinced it wasn't just plain luck.
Weirdly enough we had no major problem with the other bosses. Sure, one or two of us would be downed, but we'd manage to get them up again before they died. Even the final boss, King Adelbern, was easy in comparison.
After the dungeon was over I had netted a decent profit and several new items I could use.
Yesterday I passed a milestone for my guild. I have my own little guild (in addition to two others I have joined) called "The Rabbit Conspiracy", shortened [TRaC]. In addition to me I have two friends as members, whom mostly hang out in other guilds. That mean I only get a few points of influence very slowly, so when I hit 500 I was deliriously happy. And spent it all immediately...
Now, today, I have upgraded the guild with Architecture Rank 1. Why? Because it gives access to a guild vault. Sure, it requires a 1000 more influence points, but at least now I CAN build it. And that 50-slot bank might come in reeeeeal handy. Bankspace is at a premium.
I played a little today as well, hunting down vistas and skill challenges. I'm only 6 skill points away from getting one of the best elite skills. Which one do I want? I want to summon a BIG ASS golem to riddle my enemies so full of holes they can be used as sieves!
And sorry for cutting this blogpost short, but there's a cute little Mesmer waiting for me. Tyria awaits!
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Gladyou posted this! I completely forgot about this game. It sounds like they did a good job of making the grinding less 'grinding', especially if you completed so many achievements without even trying.
You say you can 'build' a guild vault. Is that just a button click or do you need to gather resources and stuff? I mean besides he points or whatever.
The guild function is based around influence. The guild you're representing gain influence points for each player that logs in and each event/dungeon they participate in. It's also designed so that if guildies complete events together they earn MORE influence for the guild than if they do the same event separately, thus encouragin teamwork. The more players together, the more influence.
This is the reason it's taken me ages just to get 500 points.
The guildleader (and officers he's given permission to) may spend these influence points to "build" structures and perks for the guild. They are divided into four categories: Economic, Social, Militay and Architecture.
- Economic upgrades give the guild bonuses to gathering, crafting and similiar skills, and may also allow access to bank and guildvault (if available) out in the field.
- Social upgrades include bonuses to PvE, usually in the form of buffs like +X% increase in Karma (a currency), XP gained or chance of finding magic gear.
- Militay upgrades does much the same as Social, but more focused on PvP.
- Architecture upgrades allow the building of guild services like guildvault, guild armorsmiths selling gear with the guild logo, etc.
Some of the upgrades are permanent, but many are simple buffs that last for anywhere from 24 hours to one month. Many upgrades also require some "building time" before they're activated.
The upgrade I got, Architecture rank 1, unlocked both guildvault and Architecture Rank 2 which I need if I want armor/weaponsmiths or to further expand the vault. It also took me 16 hours to build.
Nice post Gormash ? It’s good to see some GW2 love.
Apart from the past 2 or 3 weeks (just got back into Battlefield 3 again…HOOORAH!!, but then got surprise Gallstones problems so been away for a week or so), I have actually been playing more or less non-stop GW2 since release. That’s not to say that I know everything there is to know about it though – far from it. Mostly I’ve been keeping my head down and trying to make money, do map completion – or more recently just completing my “Daily’s” has taken most of my time up.
I like the new patch quote a lot as rather than being told what Daily Quests you need to complete, you now get a choice that you can pick from in your Hero Panel. Makes like easier when you don’t have to get 100% Dodge, although I’m not sure that killing 75 environmental creatures is any easier (i.e. rabbits, rats, etc).
I still only have one character – Asura Guardian - at max level as I have been using him to gain my gold with, but I am intermittently levelling up my Norn Ranger, Human Elementalist and others, however for sheer survivability in PvE I still swear you cannot beat a Guardian. Our guild has, at my continued persuasion, started doing guild organised events now. The argument was that “it wouldn’t get the numbers” or “we need time to arrange it” but I didn’t give up – I reckon I’ve made a bad name for myself among the officers for going on about it so much, but we have been getting the numbers and as I told them, it the events go well then more will come and frequently as word gets around. So far we have done the Living Story, a WvW night and a mining night. Pretty simple stuff to start with but the FUN of storming through a region with 20 odd guild mates, slaughtering anything in our path is fantastic. Also hilarious to watch us all trying to mine the same nodes or pick the same bunch of onions lol.
The state of the game as far as I am concerned is that it couldn’t be better. I don’t feel that anything has so far come along since release to threaten the player numbers. All that concerns me is how great Battlefield 3’s last DLC content “End Game” will be when it comes out on the 12th March as I will need to split my time.
....and now I've just seen the EvE new ships too and the longing returns...le sigh!
EVE. Like Age of Conan remains one of the awesome games. There is always love there.
Having not played this game at all, and recalling its predecessor, the first thing that comes to mind is: SHINY. (as in damn, that sure does look purdy) That was the first thing I said as I stared at the screen when Prophecies booted up, nothin' but a series of "oohs" and "aahs". If there were more hours in a day (chances are work would be all "your shift has now increased to an 18 hours!" or some such hehe) - I'd probably grab it up and have a go at it. Ah, nostalgia.
Not as nostalgia as you might think. ;)
The two games play EXTREMELY different from each other. The only thing they have in common is the setting.