Hall of Monuments

After reading Hunter’s post and having a relatively lax weekend, I broke my ~ 6 month GW hiatus and started looking over my Hall of Monuments (HoM). I am currently at 40 points (got my last 4 minis tonight) and I have made a list of things to do (or acquire, as the case would be). Note: My hiatus was due to being busy in life, not due to burnout or what have you. I’m slowly working my way through Winds of Change as well–very slowly.

Hall of Monuments Progress:

I need 3 more titles for God Walking Amongst Mere Mortals and at the moment, the front runners are sweets, party, and prolly survivor. I have a drawn out plan for survivor of doing Factions missions for books since that, while time consuming and head-bangingly boring, will at least pay dividends in Kurzick faction and gold, as well as drops along the way.

I also need a PvP title for HoM. Now, I don’t have time to PvP and it’s not something I’m terribly excited about anyway, so I’ll prolly opt out and buy the Zaishen title for ~200 Z-Keys (or 178 at the moment). I’m really wishing I hadn’t sold all those keys back in the day.

That takes care of titles. The rest is going to be expensive (right, because sweets and party are both cheap!).

I need 2 sets of armor, including my obsidian set. That’s 60k per set. I already have all of the basic materials and I need 64 more ecto before I can go ahead and purchase it. Once I get those ecto, I plan on buying both sets and crossing them off my list. I think I’m going to go with Elite Canthan for the other one.

Finally, there’s the monument of valor. This is what is going to take the longest and be the most expensive. Of the 15 weapons required to max this out, I have 4. I’m torn on this one though. On the one hand, I want to continue to get the weapons I use (i.e., staves, scepters, and foci) and get one of each variety like I have with staves (i.e., destroyer, oppressor, and tormented). On the other hand, destroyer and tormented weapons are expensive. Also, I’m not sure if I have to get 1 of each weapon (i.e., sword, axe, staff, bow, focus, etc) to meet the full criteria or if I can get 3x staff, scepter, focus, and fill the other 6 with whatever. That’d be nice to clarify.

That’s it for now. I’m not sure when I’ll be in game again next but I’ll keep updating on my HoM progress. I’ll take any advice anyone is willing to provide and any in-game help (and gifts!) as well.

The Iterative Process, or “how we plan to bring you the best game possible”

[Originally posted on Talk Tyria]

Iteration, or the iterative process, is something ANet has discussed many times. It accounts for changes between versions of their games. Each GW update involves iteration and iteration accounts for the content and mechanic changes we see between GW2 status updates. Put simply, the iterative process is simultaneously responsible for what makes the Guild Wars franchise worth playing and what is delaying the release of GW2. Over the past years and coming months (I refuse to think of GW2 as over a year away) we have enjoyed teasers, concept art, videos, updates, interviews, profession reveals, and demos of GW2. One thing has remained constant about the information we receive about GW2: nothing is set in stone.

Isaiah “Izzy” Cartwright (left) and Martin Kerstein (right) at Gamescom in 2010 (from ANet’s Flickr)

Iteration in Guild Wars 2

Case in point, Izzy, that is Isaiah Cartwright from ANet, not our own personal Izzie here on Talk Tyria, posted an article today talking about changes to the attribute system and some of the skills we’ve seen in profession reveals and gameplay from PAX Prime. For details of those changes, give the article a read. Izzy was primarily responsible for balancing skills and other systems in Guild Wars, but now plays a larger role in the development of Guild Wars 2. He has talked a number of times about changes made to yet-to-be-released GW2 content and the above article talks about some of the content from GW2 that we are already familiar with, including some of the necromancer and warrior skills, that have changed since we last saw them. A quick example is the necromancer skill Grasping Dead which was changed from a line effect to an AoE. The skill video on the GW2 necromancer profession page is therefore outdated and incorrect–a constant reminder that everything is subject to change until, and after, the game is in the box and on shelves.

The aforementioned article focuses primarily on changes to the attribute system in GW2. The short version is that ANet is interested in simplicity and versatility regarding attributes. This is explained in detail in Izzy’s article. Here is a quick visual of the old and new attribute systems:

Attributes as we saw them at Gamescom and PAX

Attributes as we will see them at PAX East

Iteration in Guild Wars

The iterative process still plays a big part of the original Guild Wars game. A recent major update added lots of new features to GW and changed many others. It is under constant debate even here on Talk Tyria. The update can be boiled down into three major changes: 1) Parties/Grouping, 2) Pre-Searing, and 3) Titles. Here’s a quick breakdown:

Parties and Grouping

Embark Beach is a location that functions simultaneously as a guildless guild hall for the purposes of venders and a hub for Pick Up Groups (PUGs). It is accessible from the map like the major ports of each campaign (i.e., Lion’s Arch, Kamadan, Kaineng Center, and Great Temple of Balthazar) and allows every character to join groups who are interested in completing any/all missions across any/all campaigns. Of course, you can’t participate in mission you haven’t yet accessed in the game. The major purpose of Embark Beach is to help people group together more efficiently and cut down on group splitting (moving from larger to smaller areas and having to split the party up to enter the area because it only allows parties of 6 or 4 instead of 8). This will ideally save people time when working to complete missions and progress the game.

Seven (7) hero parties and Mercenary Heroes are another change for groups. This is primarily a change that will affect solo players, but is also a perk for people who want their alternative characters (alts) to be heroes. Seven heroes allows a player to make whatever party they want/need for pretty much any situation. Mercenary Heroes allow for people to have additional control over the heroes in their party and allows for truly unique parties of 4+ heroes of the same profession. It puts a whole new spin on Discordway for sure. Again, the benefit of additional heroes is to streamline the PvE process. For people playing GW once GW2 goes live, this will be almost a necessity considering GW will likely be a ghost town for sometime for anyone not seeking titles.

Pre-Searing

Pre-Searing got a nice shot in the arm. ANet provided an alternative to death leveling with daily quests. Now people can get Legendary Defender of Ascalon in a slightly more appropriate, if completely non-epic, way. Props to all of the death levelers out there with LDoA. Now I can go for the title because it doesn’t take hundreds of hours at the screen that I just don’t have. Additionally, now perma-pres (people who keep their characters in Pre-Searing permanently) can put titles in the HoM and have access to barred secondary skills from a vendor. Things are looking up for the past.

Titles

Changes were made to the Survivor and Drunkard titles. Everyone now has a second chance for Survivor based on the time span between the last time you died and reaching the XP requirement. This means that all of us old school GWers who made characters back in the day before Survivor can earn that title on those characters (FINALLY!). Also, there was a minor change to the Drunkard title that made it the same as Sweet Tooth and Party Animal. Essentially, use the item and get a point for it. The old way (the way I did it) was maintaining a “level of drunkenness” for one minute per point. That amounts to a minimum of 10,000 minutes sitting at the computer. Most people I know did this by playing the game regularly and occasionally clicking on the booze. I did it by watching season after season of Scrubs and clicking the button every three minutes on a timer while sitting in my guild hall. To each his/her own I guess. I’d personally love to have that time back. Additionally, there was the addition of Zaishen Vanquishes that encourage vanquishing. Despite the title and the minuscule rewards of XP and gold following a successful vanquish, this daily update allows for more significant rewards for killing all the baddies in a given zone. Incentive and reward: they’re what make the world go around.

Summary

Iteration, however, is what makes the GW world go around. Without it, the game would stagnate and become very unbalanced. Though we balk at game balance updates and skill nerfs, they are there for a reason. I wasn’t happy when they added a minion cap based on Death Magic and I was very outspoken with all of the changes to Soul Reaping, but in the end it made the necromancer more manageable and less of an overpowered energy and minion factory. We all have fond memories of the “good ol’ days” and times pre-nerf or pre-updates. They bring us together as a gaming community and give us something to talk about on the forums. Ultimately, however, the iterative process and subsequent changes make GW and GW2 better, more efficient, and more fun to play. And really, who doesn’t want to have more fun?

Vanquishing Kryta in Style

Let me start by saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” That being said, let me also say “Variety is the spice of life.” There are hundreds of zones in Guild Wars to vanquish and to undertake a task such as Legendary Vanquisher, one must have a plan. I’ve blogged about vanquishing before and there are many other blogs devoted to the subject (e.g., A Tyrian Odyssey), but I haven’t blogged about it in a while and according to my year in review, that’s what people are reading about.

Now, about variety. Sabway, Discordway, Spiritway, and all of the other team builds ending in -way (see here for all the “great” vetted team builds on PvX wiki) work well. Many of them will allow you to breeze through the majority of areas in hard mode and offer a “let the hero do the work for you” style of play. This is fantastic if you’re going to vanquish the world. In fact, I’ve ctrl+c, spacebar’d my way through gobs of areas while watching reruns of Scrubs and How I Met Your Mother. It works too well and, frankly, makes for boring game play.

I don’t play games to be bored.

So, I decided to do something nice with the remaining areas. I have less than 20 and they’re all in Tyria. I finished the Shiverpeaks over Christmas break, because who could pass up all that snow? What remains are about half-a-dozen areas or so in each of Kryta, Maguuma, and the Crystal Desert. Why not have some fun with it?

I intend to use the same group of 3 heroes for the remainder of Kryta (more on that in a moment). As for the dozen or so zones remaining in Maguuma and the desert collectively, I think I’m going to work my way through my heroes and try new things. I have many of my heroes equipped, but not all of them. I foresee this costing me a small fortune in runes and weapon mods (yes, I know I can recycle to keep the costs down). I’ll post about them as I vanquish with them.

As for Kryta, I have the Shining Blade Dream Team. I am a N/X running my traditional SS PvE build consisting of Spiteful Spirit, Pain Inverter, EV Assassin, EV Sniper, Enfeebling Blood, Weaken Armor, Barbs, & Mark of Pain. I am also decked out in my Shining Blade Uniform.

Left to Right: Belzan, Livia, Gwen, Kieran Thackeray

For my heroes, I tried to cover my bases. Livia has always been my N/Rt, but for this case I specced her as a bomber/prot hybrid (Jagged Bones, Bone Minions, Death Nova, Masochism, Reversal of Fortune, Prot. Spirit, Aegis, & Renew Life).

Gwennie has always been my interrupter, and that hasn’t really changed. I’m essentially running a Keystone Mesmer build with her and have enjoyed running signet heavy builds in the past on my own mesmer (though I haven’t played her since this build became popular). Her exact build is Keystone Sig, Sig of Clumsiness, Unatural Sig, Sig of Disruption, Sig of Distraction, Mantra of Inscriptions, Symbolic Celerity, and Sig of Return. I am a big fan of Symbolic Celerity and love the guilty pleasure that comes from maxing out my Fast Casting and getting the bonus to my Sig of Return.

As for Keiran (hooray for a new hero!!!), I saw no sense in putting a spear in his hand, so he will forever be a P/R. I’m running a modified Motigon build that emphasizes using a shortbow and zealous string to recoup some of the energy loss from the build. His skillbar is as follows: Volley, “Go For The Eyes!”, Song of Restoration, Aria of Resto, Ballad of Resto, Aria of Zeal, Aggressive Refrain, & Signet of Return.

The way I see it, I can’t split up Gwennie and Keiran. They’re married afterall. Livia is a member of the Shining Blade and I’m vanquishing in Kryta. Based on my Shining Blade logic, however, I should prolly switch Gwen out for Hayda and run a Command Hero build. How funny would it be that I’d be running 2 necroes and 2 paragons though?

So that’s that. I’m not sure what order I’ll vanquish in, but I’ll be sure to blog about it. I’ll post my builds and (hopefully) my success stories. I am happy to indulge any hero combination ideas. I plan to take triplets out for some of the zones (i.e., all 3 warriors, all 3 rangers, monks, eles, dervs, and paras). In fact, I think I might make it my initial goal to find a successful team build for each trio of like-professioned heroes (clearly that has been done to death, pun intended, with necroes). To be continued…

Canthan Vanquisher

I vanquished my last 4 Canthan areas and 1 Elonian area tonight, earning my Canthan Vanquisher title. I have added all of the areas remaining to the Belzan Tab. I plan on knocking out Elona region by region starting with the Desolation. I’m on sporadically so I’m not sure when I’ll do my next run. Ruptured Heart is next.

After I complete Legendary Vanquisher (47 more regions at the time of this post), I will have 27 titles. I’ve given some thought to which one’s I’ll work on next. Party and Sweets sound logical and are likely the most achievable. After that, it’s a toss up. I’ll prolly alternate between vanquishing in Kurzick areas for faction and running with Kilroy for chests/golds/lucky. Really, any/all of those titles are beneficial. I think, rather than spending all my money on sweets/party, I’ll buy lockpicks and open chests. I want the Wisdom title, but I’m aware of how expensive that one is. I’m likely to get both my chests and lucky titles while I work on that one. Ha. That’s my new plan. Chest runs with Kilroy for 3 titles. Sweets and Party will happen on their own.

Glad that problem is solved

It’s been a while

Wow,  life came at me for a bit there.

I’ve made some in-game accomplishments, primarily 2 GM Cartographer (still have Tyria to go) titles and I’m up to “I Have Many Leather-Bound Books” now. I also have nearly enough booze for Alehound.

In other news, I think I’m going to reformat Chronicles. I have so much I want to tell, but I’m not necessarily writing it in a linear fashion, either on paper, on my compy or in my head. I’m thinking of going with a timeline with links approach. I’m gonna mull over that for a bit.

Legendary Delver

I earned Legendary Delver this weekend polishing off the rest of my EotN titles (thank you EotN title weekend). I did a few CoF runs for cash and deldrimor points, but it was less than efficient and the groups were less than effective. I then turned my sights to slaughtering snowmen. This worked much more quickly. I found a group with a permasin and everything looked up from there.

I am 2 titles away from I have many leatherbound books. I’m not sure at this time which 2 titles those will be, or when I’ll earn them. I’m trying to farm to get more lockpicks so I can do chest runs. I have about 1/2 as much alcohol as I’ll need for Incorrigable Ale Hound and I should have what I need by Christmas. Throwing my focus into vanquishing/mapping will move things along at a steady pace. That is prolly the way to go.

I’ve been playing a N/Rt build as of late that focuses on healing. I’ll post more on that when I find time.

That’s it for now.