It's been a while since my last substantial post. In truth, not much has been going on in terms of gaming. I've been out of town for work 2 of the last 4 weeks is one reason. I've been spending more time teaching myself new jewelry making techniques in real life is the other. In the next couple of weeks, I'm embarking on the journey of hot-joining metals and hope I don't burn down my house! I'll need to make sure that my house insurance is in order. (jk)
GW2 Maintenance Mode
My life in GW2 marches on. No new friends have joined me in the game. Boooooooooo!!! Niece, nephew and daughter returned to their lives on XBox. The large but WvW focused guild I'm in has gone silent or tits-up, not sure which. Doesn't really matter, I'm cruising along doing what I do at end game - crafting, exploring, romping through my favorite zones, playing dress-up and making gold.
I love my Mesmer more than Tyria itself. She's so amazing and fun to play. My poor Guardian has been relegated to sitting in Southsun Cove in between farming and crafting sessions. She makes all the money but the Mesmer has all the fun and adventure. *sigh* She so pretty. Okay, she does contribute to the coffer. She farms all the other zones and battles bosses for rares to salvage into Ectos.
Just the Monthly Please
I'm not on enough to worry about doing Daily Achievements anymore. They had been a little touch-stone for me to check in every day and seemed to happen more naturally. Post the recent series of changes, it's less organic and often requires me to go specific places, not part of my normal routine. Going to places you hadn't or wouldn't normally is all well and good when you have the time, which I don't so much right now. Playing less means, I'm less inclined to do the detours.
Conversely, I like the changes to the Monthly Achievement system. The wider scope and longer completion time, means it's something I can reach for each month. I don't even care about what you can buy with the laurels very much. I like how I look in the gear I have. I don't need the best stats in the game to do what I do, so the reward isn't a huge incentive. Regardless, it's good to know I'm getting something better/more than before, for the effort.
I took a gander at doing my first ever Reddit post. I hope they are kind! :-) Besides hoping and waiting for ANet to add more RP-worthy clothes in the gem shop, I'd like them to have more functionality. I started a thread on Reddit to discuss the idea of there being a costume for each of the crafting professions that spawns a temporary station. I think it would be a blast.
My Mesmer and newly finished crafting professions have me back into the honeymoon phase in GW2. The class provides better support and versatility for the aspects of game-play I focus on at max level. Plus her animations are flashy and her gear options are much more feminine, which adds to the overall appeal.
Harvesting on EZMode
I find harvesting nodes a relaxing thing to do. In most MMOs, its how I like to end my gaming sessions – bit of unwinding. Most of my harvesting is to support crafting but I don’t mind farming profitable items for resale.
The Mesmer class is much more adept at convenient harvesting in high level zones. She has a nice arsenal of skills for “Don’t mind me, I’m just passing through.” She has sweet sweet anti-combat maneuvers too. A typical configuration for me is Scepter + Focus, Sword + Torch, Decoy, Boons, + Boon Durations and Mass Invisibility.
The value of the Focus run buff is a no-brainer. It helps me bypass mobs and traverse the landscape more quickly. I use the #5 iDefender Phantasm to take aggro before I get close. Usually the mobs nearby don't even notice me. Other times, I cast it if the mob is on top of the node or notices me as I’m harvesting. In either situation, the Defender Phantasm takes aggro and whittles the mob down while I’m harvesting. Depending on the mob, I can choose to continue on to the next location or kill it for a chance at useful loot or salvage.
The Torch is mostly for the Prestige skill which is a form of invisibility. I pop it and keep running. If I’m still in range of mobs or have aggro, I’ll follow up with Decoy and disappear again. It's also the only time I like have a melee weapon on the Mesmer. If stuff gets in my face while I'm harvesting it's tag you're it, slash-slash, you're dead.
I save Mass Invisibility for hastening by a large swarm of NPCs or as a “hail Mary” escape. I also love running with the Signet of Inspiration for the random boons. The speed boost pops regularly and combined with Signet of Midnight for improved boon duration, it helps to length all of my combat avoidance tricks. To complement the Signets, I adjust my trait skills to reduce the refresh rates as well.
These options combined, really improve the efficiency of my harvesting runs. I thought the Guardian was cool with the almost constant run speed buff when you trait for “Shouts” and use a staff. Her ability to ignore things beating on her while harvesting or by casting spirit weapons to fight pesky mobs was convenient. Even though there’s no danger of being downed, there’s the harvesting interrupts which are annoying. The Mesmer however, can simply avoid the drama altogether in most cases, making her a more efficient harvesting class.
I'm always exhausted the weekend I return home from traveling. I was also ravenous for GW2 and spent the majority of the weekend at it. My Mesmer reached 80 on Saturday. Finishing the last few levels felt like a chore I wanted to end as quickly as possible. This is mostly due to the fact that I CAN'T STAND ORR.
I might have skipped it altogether except that having parked the Guardian at the rich Ori node in Southsun, I need the Mesmer to harvest for her too when she's out. So if I had to be out leveling I should at least spend some time where I can get the top tier cooking items. OMG why are so many of them in Orr. I detest that place. I can tolerate Cursed Shore a bit more because navigating the area to harvest is a little less annoying but not by much.
When I wasn't gnashing my teeth in Orr, I was enjoying myself in Frostgorge Sound. This will go down as the only snowy zone I've actually liked enough to stick around in after hitting max level. I felt Rift was the first MMO to develop a compelling snowy zone but this tops even that design. It's relaxing, casual questing and harvesting. Not the frantic constantly under siege can't get to the waypoint you want of Orr. And there's Journag, one of my hands-down favorite world boss events.
The end is in sight. I’ve done AC and CM story modes twice each. I’m plugging away at these last two professions (Tailor and Artificer). They’re the last I intend to level for quite some time. For now, it’s something I do when I want to play but not in the mood to run around. It’s more costly following the “just buy the component” guides but it’s easy. I don't even take the time to dissect what I have mats for that I could make myself versus purchase. This time around, I’m stockpiling the supplies I harvested. I what I can for my Mesmer's armor, weapons and trinkets. But as far as leveling the professions, this time I'm following guides.
Inspired by Making it to End Game Zones
Amazed how far I got on my bid to open up waypoints at 55, the idea of going back to fighting against mobs my own level felt uninspired. I know that I don’t need a fraction of the remaining content to hit 80 so I’ve decided to revert to how I added spice to leveling in my later days in WOW. I’m cherry-picking zones with mobs that are 4 to 6 levels above me and fighting them 2 to 3 at a time. Sometimes its more since the level disparity creates a wider aggro radius. More often, it's that my careless strafing skills will pull more mobs during combat. This is especially true in areas with high mob density and fast respawns. Damn but the undead resurrect quickly!! A few seconds after I put one down, they're back in the frey while I'm still killing their other brethren.
Mesmer, oh my!
The Mesmer is something else. Especially considering that my gear is generally up to 5 levels behind because I do en masse upgrade every 10 levels. I don’t kill quickly, but I can sustain/kite for a very long time. Sometimes I end up fighting waves because I’m still killing one or two when my aggro radius or careless strafing pulls more adds. There are also some areas with unusually fast respawns which can catch you unawares.
It’s not fast. It’s probably not efficient either. I could kill faster in my own level range. It’s just more exciting and fun. There’s more of a sense of adventure, higher stakes and risk. I’m basically setting my own bar and goals. I make a conscious effort to complete hearts if slaying nearby creatures satisfies the requirements. I’m buying stock piles of the Karma account bound cooking ingredients as I unlock the associated vendor. Figuring out at the end of my leveling on the first pass through the content, that I needed to go back and unlock these NPCs for their wares was annoying. I unlocked just enough of them to max cooking and then only the ones I needed for exotic and rare food recipes.. Makes sense to capture more of them as convenient, while I’m out doing hearts again.
What’s Next
New role at work that will require a bit more travel which will curtail some of my gaming. I’ll be out of town next week but am confident I’ll be 80 before or shortly after my return. From there I’ll complete tailor and artificer. After that, I want to continue crafting for profit and start playing the Black Lion market.
Ravious has an excellent post on Kill Ten Rats - Black Lion PVP. I’m exploring more of the offline tools players have created and have a plan to work on dumping data from GW2 Spidy into a visualization tool I use for performance management projects at work.
I want to create a template dashboard to view and analyze trading post data that will support overwriting the existing data store with a new dump from GW2 Spidy. The tool I use, Tableau, has a free reader available so I’ll be sharing the end result for others to use if you're interested.
Beyond crafting in GW2, I’m waiting for and crossing my fingers for player housing. I can’t seem to motivate myself to play other games. GW2 fits my personal style the best of any MMO to date. If you're new to my ramblings, here's my 2009 manifesto on why I tend to solo MMOs and why people who insist it should only support grouping, should burn in hell! :-)
More EQ2 Housing
It’s almost certain I’ll be making a return to EQ2 to decorate my “hobbit hole”, Vale of Halfpint Delight prestige house. I purchased it several months ago but haven't been back. I need to resubscribe for at least a month to unlock my bag space so I can move out of all the huge rental homes I maintain. I want to make a warehouse of sorts in the Halfpint property where I can place my inventory. This way I can return to F2P and still have access to all my items and only needed the reduced bag space.
I might buy the ship recently released as a prestige home, Galleon of Dreams. The idea of building out my own version of a shire and connecting the wharf to something visual that ports you into a real ship sounds SQUEELICIOUS!!
My posts have been a bit behind my current level in game. When I have the time, I often write several posts related to screenshots I’ve taken and schedule them to be published at regular intervals. All my holiday/vacation time postings are done. Boo! Back to work, growing my skills as a crafter in real life and playing a bit less of GW2.
Boom 55 Mesmer / 200 Artificer & 200 Tailor
On this second tour of Tyria, my map completion goals are more relaxed. I only intend to complete maps for my favorite zones. I hop around a lot more than on my first character. I poke my head into zones I didn’t level in the first time around. I spend more time than necessary in zones that yield essential crafting materials for my professions. Before exiting a map, I make a conscious effort to make my way to zone crossings to get the closest waypoint on the other side.
The evening after I reached level 55, I wanted play GW2 but wasn’t in the mood to do anything specific. I started doing the daily quest but lacked the patience to zone-hop looking for events. Scanning the world map for ideas, I decided to see how many waypoints I could get into the high level zones I’d need at level 80. I was especially interested in the ones I need to farm for my Guardian’s crafting. Since starting the Mesmer, I sidelined the Guardian. For now she’s parked at the rich Ori node in Southsun Cove. Once the Memser is 80 her activites will provide harvested items for both characters.
On the Road
To make the trek, I equipped a Focus for the run buff, my two stealth utility skills and Mass Invisibility as my elite skill. The plan was to run through zones, avoiding as much combat as possible. I was level 55 wearing mostly level 45 gear. One of my weapons was only level 40. My Focus was level 36. I upgrade my items every 10 levels into a full set of rare armor, weapons and trinkets. Consequently, I wasn't due to upgrade again until level 60.
I expected to make it into level 60 zones without much bother. Run, stealth, drop clones and keep running as needed. However, making it safely to level 70 waypoints, this was a surprise. I sure as hell didn’t think I’d make it into Frostgorge Sound and the Journag spawn point but I did! I giggled inside when I made it that far and happened across the two Ori nodes in areas I could reach on the Mesmer. HA!
I'm using a clone/phantasm build for my Mesmer. It's really the bomb. It might not be the best DPS but who cares. It's fun. I keep flipping between a build focused on Staff and Scepter/Pistol and one that uses Sword/Focus and Scepter/Pistol. For the latter, I enjoy having a run buff that's on a short timer. It's extremely convenient for harvesting.
The Warden does excellent damage but the fact that she doesn't move is a bit of a pain. It also feels strange opting to be in melee range in cloth!?! Having started as a Guardian in heavy armor opting for melee range, doing the same in cloth feels odd. The Mesmer doesn't seem to take any more damage than when I'm using all ranged weapons but I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around it in general.
Both builds are enjoyable and suit my prone to solo anything style. I can take on more mobs at once with the 1st build since I continue to damage regardless of distance from target. For the second build, I have to remember to kite to the stationary Warden which I often forget to do so she's only melting face on the 1st cast where she runs up to the target. I just can't make up my mind which build to trait for long term. I'll use both weapon sets for different situations but I want to trait for one of them specifically.
Non-shatter builds feel like when I multi-boxed in WOW. I use similar strategies of trying to place the clones around the mob so that they have to ping back-and-forth when aggro shifts. This forces them to spend time traveling to and from, if they're melee. It works for range opponents as well, though there's not as much delay. They're still forced to turn this way and that, to hit targets. For easy targets I just spread them out a little. The opponent dies too quickly to worry overly much. For myself, I circle strafe so that new clones continue to be spaced around the target.
It's good fun. I love the pistol's Magic Bullet that stuns/dazes/confuses multiple targests. I'm a bit of a pistol whore which leads me to want to trait into the first build I linked. Once I hit level 30, I ran around the other racial zones cherry-picking skill points to obtain my elite. Turning opponents into Moas is muhahaha goodness. But nothing beats having mass invisibility!!
If the rumors are true, famed
cyclist Lance Armstrong admits to using performance enhancement drugs during an
interview with Oprah Winfrey. Oh Lance, I thought there must be
something to the allegations when he stopped fighting the charges. I can
understand the cost of being tried in the court of public opinion but for me at
least, I'd go down fighting until I was deaf, dumb, blind and broke, before I'd
let false accusations silence me.
I sympathize with his plight, as
his life's story is now tainted with the fallout. This confession if
true, will cast a pall on the great humanitarian work he did outside of the
sports arena. As a fellow cancer survivor, I feel some affinity there and respect for the money he's raised for that cause. Sadly, although we can forgive, we can't rewrite history.
We can't undo how he himself, potentially changed the course of sports
history, and lessened opportunities for others who were overshadowed by his fame
and glory.
Life is hard. It's a snake
pit waiting for any of us to make the wrong decision. To be tempted down
a road whose actions will reverberate louder and farther than we dared imagine
when we put the first footprint on the path. Unfortunately, many of
those choices cannot be undone, nor the bell unrung.
Late in life with soul shaking regrets is a tough suit to wear. Perhaps this public admission is
his first step to forgiving himself, asking for the same from those impacted
directly and indirectly. Making peace with his past and moving forward
into a more resolved future.
What the hell happened to having a bonafied nighttime in MMOs? Have I lost my mind, or didn't WOW actually get dark in Vanilla??? From my recollection, we only have EQ2 and LOTRO that present a full on night cycle in the AAA MMO arena. I don't know what started the trend of dusk substituting for darkness but I AM NOT A FAN. No one followed AC2's lead with actual seasons which was A-may-ZING! Can we at least have nighttime!?!
GW2 in particular, should have opted for an actual night cycle. There are things I've encountered in Tyria that only happen at "night". If you visit the Ascalon Settlement at night, and go to the area with the vista, you'll see the ghosts of fallen soldiers. How sad and simultaneously facinating. This was wicked cool the first time I ran across it.
I'd already done the vista and hadn't seen the ghosts but happened to go back to the area to farm and it was "night". I was like, "Wait a second, these people weren't here before. What gives?" Tilting my camera upward I realized it was nighttime. "Ah ha!"
It was neat little suprise but made me wonder all the more, why the hell don't they make it, you know, DARK since it's night? I find this trend annoying and disappointing.
I hit 35 on my Mesmer the other evening. Wow, that came quickly. I dinged it just before completing the Gendarran Fields map. Almost half way to having a 2nd max level toon and it still feels like leveling is so easy breezy.
I haven't done Ascalon Catacombs on her and I haven't touched sPVP or WvW. I have the same concern now as I did on my first character, my Guardian. The levels zoom by so quickly only doing the PVE and crafting, what the hell would happen if I completed all the instances and went to war against other players. I found a concise leveling guide for Artificer which I intend to use. That will be several levels achieved just standing at the crafting table. There's no real mystery in discovering the recipes for anything other than cooking so I might as well do it efficiently this time. I did all the crafting on my own steam the 1st time around.
Mind you, I'm not complaining. It's just that it continues to surprise me, how easy it is to level merely wandering around doing "stuff". I don't get focused on map completion until the hearts are all done and then I take inventory of what else I didn't happen to run into while questing. I take a session or two to complete those elements and bam, another map completed.
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