I'm a sucker for the special events. As beautiful as Tyria is, I had to see what ANet was going to add for Halloween. For my personal tastes, I wasn't disappointed.
It's Full of Stars
The first thing I did was run around Lion's Arch. OMG it was gorgeously decked out for Halloween. I did a couple of quests, won a few costume battles but lost way more than I'd won. I heard about mysterious doors appearing throughout the world so I ran to two of my favorite zones, Queensdale and Gendarren Fields to find them. Unfortunately, every single door I found was bugged. They were stuck in the open position with no interactions available. *Sad face* I chalked it up to server load and early bugs. I meant to go back the next day to try again but found something better and never bothered.
You need to see the doors for yourself, however. Find one if you haven't. The door's interior is a view into the cosmos which immediately reminded me of the movie, 2001: a Space Odyssey. All of the content added is stunning. PLEASE add player housing. Just imagining the visual detail and art style makes me salivate.
Ding Dong the Witch is Dead
ANet does itself a GREAT DISSERVICE with the vague Cash Shop item descriptions. I absolutely love RP inspired dress up. Unfortunately, the style (clothing) descriptions don't tell you what skills/animations you're getting from the outfit. It's a generic " comes with 5 skills" blurb. The Witch's outfit in particular, appealed to me. I just wasn't sure it would be worth the price. Luckily for ANet, the impulse to buy was strong that day. I was in the halloween spirit.
I'm very happy I went forward with my impluse purchase. I ADORE THIS OUTFIT!!! It was worth every single gem. I've done anything and everything possible wearing this costume since I purchased it. I'll be wearing this puppy long after Halloween. I've said this before, but ANet could get me to part with cash by including more varied RP costumes. I mean full costumes like this and the Chef;'s outfit which I also own, not the glasses and hats. Pooey on those. By the way, a hotkey to change into town clothes wouldn't be remiss or at least add an option for me to bind them to a key. In and out of Hero Pane gets old when your outside of the cities.
More Costume Love
My witch's outfit sports 4 fun interactions and one kill feature. Forget the fact that I get a skill that let's me produce the Trick-or-Treat Cauldrons which allows other players to receive a trick or treat. Never mind that I can melt like the wicked witch from the Wizard of Oz, a childhood favorite musical, where I wore my family and friends out reciting every piece of dialogue and singing every damn song for months on end. No, none of this compares to riding on a broomstick. Pure gold. Screw your jumping puzzle and Mad King's Clock Tower. I can glide on a broomstick, dance around Tyria in my witch's garb colored with rare dyes and drop cauldrons to pick fights, which is exactly what I did. That was more than enough to please me for the 1st holiday event in GW2.
Max Level Jeweler
I also dinged 400 Jeweler over the weekend. I sat in Lion's Arch, dressed as a Witch of course, and ran through my huge inventory of components. The fact that I actually enjoy wandering the zones harvesting items paid off in spades. I could have hit 400 a while ago. I was pretty sure I had enough materials to simply sit at the station and do it but hadn't made the time. Hanging out in Lion's Arch during the holiday event provided the necessary motivation and eye candy to get the job done. Woot! It didn't feel that difficult. I enjoy the little mini game of crafting in GW2. I estimate that 95% of my XP came from new discoveries. The only XP obtained from repeating the same items was the initial processing of the ore.
Next I want to max out my cooking which is currently in the high 200s. Then it will be time to figure out which items have decent profit and start to enter the actual crafting market versus selling off the raws I don't use.
I went through the door a number of times. I participated in the battles, but when I asked what the points where for no one seemed to know. In the end there didn't seem much point to the Halloween pvp.
I did enjoy the way they decorated Lions Arch. Perhaps if I had a high level crafter I would have enjoyed the Halloween fun a bit more. After getting smacked around in a food fight I found myself saying "meh" and logging off.
I hate to say it but I enjoyed World of Warcraft's past Halloween events alot more. This one sort of turned me off.
Posted by: Julie Whitefeather | October 30, 2012 at 02:58 PM
I was just the opposite. I HATED WOW HOLIDAY EVENTS. OMG. Other than the NY's Eve fireworks the first year I played, I detested their run around quest-type events. HUUUUUUURL. I hate go fetch activity. I can not stomach it.
I ignored most of EQ2's as well except for all things having to do with crafting. Add something that lets me make more unique furniture for my then house decorating business, I was all in. :-)
But Blizzard knows their typical player. They're completionists, like collecting items and don't mind running hither and yon. I'm sooooo the opposite. I'm very much over completing questing checklists. I don't know how I'll level in another MMO after the freeform method in GW2.
Posted by: Alysianah aka Saylah | October 30, 2012 at 04:33 PM
P.S. Plus I can play cooperatively with others without needing to speak to them at all. GW2 solved the PUG in the open world scenario. The requirements speak for themselves. That's music to the ears of this INFJ Myers Briggs girl.
http://www.personalitypage.com/html/INFJ.html
Posted by: Alysianah aka Saylah | October 30, 2012 at 04:37 PM
I didn't get excited about the costumes as much as I did in other games because I had to buy them and couldn't earn them. Also, there isn't any sort of cosmetic costume abilities. I am not sure if the system of making one set of armor have the qualities of another but I doubt it. It would be fun if it did.
Once I was done walking around Lion's Arch I sort of stood there and said "so now what?"
Posted by: Julie Whitefeather | October 30, 2012 at 05:15 PM
P.S...and the more I think about it the more I feel like my best friend threw a big party and I was not invited.
Posted by: Julie Whitefeather | October 30, 2012 at 05:16 PM
LOL. You so silly. I do hear ya about the purchase aspects but since there's no sub I can't hate 'em over it. There were fiery pumpkin backpacks (fit back slot item) to be had from some quest or other.
You didn't miss much. I'm easily amused by certain things while completely bored by some that others thoroughly enjoy.
Posted by: Alysianah aka Saylah | October 30, 2012 at 08:01 PM