the hero panel in GW2

just checking out this page in GW2wiki

looks cool...

1st tab is pretty standard - what the i key does and what the k key does (in parts).

2nd is all your traits -its interesting - they are saying that its all missions and events in GW2, but traits will be achieved through a list of things you need to achieve - closest to quests by the sounds of things.

3rd is your story. they've tried introducing this a little in EotN with the books. They really want to make GW2 much more of an RPG if you want it to be... I know Ziggy will be keen on this.

the 4th tab - achievements - looks like it will contain everything about titles etc. I particularly like the example of the slayer title - which records the various types of creatures you slay. By the looks of things, if you are friends with someone, they will have access to all this info too.

well... i imagine no one will read this, but whatever...

enjoy

the information drought

as over the top as my obsession with information on guild wars 2 has been, there is no denying that there has been an information drought that pretty much started in early October when the hall of monuments calculator was released. The last profession reveal was in August, and there have only been a few tid-bits since then.

Whilst ArenaNet are seeming to imply that the info will stream out pretty quickly come February, it's been a bit nuts.

There are however, a couple of little bits and pieces worth looking at.

1 - There was an interview done with kill ten rats this week. Looking at a few interesting things like skills, energy, PvP and group dynamics - there are links to it here at massively's GW2 page. The info I found the most interesting is how they are redefining builds. What they were saying is that it is very easy in GW1 ti make a bad build - we've all done it (some of us more than others). In GW2, every weapon gives you 3-5 skills that work well together. There will also be a lot less other skills.

Elites, is one thing that will change. I think elites will all have a really long recharge (10 minutes ish) - closest thing i can think of is the forms that dervishes can use in GW1. They will "be a n ace up your sleeve"...

anyways... worth reading.

and

2 - Ten ton hammer have this article on release date theories

anyways, dunno if you care... but thought i'd throw it out there...

oh and lastly... i reckon the next prof will be announced next week, i know i've said it before...

treasure, somethings i didnt know

heres the GWW treasure page

click on a location and the explorable area page will have a map for how to get to the treasure

i knew that bit

i thought that you could only get the treasure once per character

wrong

it resets, they reckon every 60 days is safe to check it out

considering in the top area you get around 3k plus an item its well worth it... something else to keep a record of i guess (i got the vabbi and istani ones tonight)

something to show for all the hard work

after over a months worth of farming and jade quarry runs, tonight i cashed in on it all and bought my Luxon armor, taking my hall of monuments count to 24 points...

Yeah Baby!

i think I want to get to 30 points, so i can get a black widow spider for a certain character of mine... i was thinking of calling the spider "spider from mars"

7 hero builds

so, whilst they havent announced when we'll be able to have 7 heroes, they have told us we'll be able to.

any thoughts on builds...

i have one i'm working on - me, a MM, a healer, 2 Paras, 3 Rangers - 5 Pets in all!

jade quarry

another one to file under - things i love about guild wars. I'm getting into things i've never done before, and I'm loving it. Here's how it happened...

I was looking to buy jadeite shards for the luxon armor i'm trying to get, and found out that yo

u can trade faction (5,000) for one shard. Well... the Jade Quarry competitive mission is a great way to earn faction. If you play kurzick, you can trade faction for amber chunks at a kurzick

beaurocrat (the shards are from a luxon scavenger).

so here's what i suggest

step 1

pick the armor - kurzick need amber, luxon need jade... which ever side you choose you start the jq mission from their outpost.

luxon warrior - jadeite shards

kurzick warrior - amber chunks

luxon ranger (jadeite shards)

kurzick ranger (amber chunks)

step 2

pick a build

there's a couple of ranger one's in the meta category - burning arrows and crippling shot

there's lots of warrior builds... gale axe, a strong heals build (info in spanish i think), devastating hammer and earth shaker

step 3

head on over to the Jade Quarry (on the side that suit the faction you are after), enter the mission and go crazy...

i find that it takes between 1 and 2 runs to get the 5,00 faction needed.

The 5,000 faction will also contribute to your friend of the... title.

and it doesnt matter if its not the same as our alliance (kurzick).

step 4

save up all the materials you need, and of course a heap of gold... get your armor and throw it into you're hall of monuments! 2 points!!

shweet?

let me me know how you go.

say goodbye to henchies for good

there is going to be a game update soon with a couple of new additions.

the first is a new area in the battle isles - embark beach. the whole point of this area is to be able to meet up with others wanting to do missions. I dont really get it yet, but it sounds ok.

the other big one, that will impact us is that they are introducing the ability to have 7 heroes in your party. i imagine there will be some ripping builds on pvx to work from!

Xyla - progress in hall of monuments

2 weeks ago our worlds were shaken by the hall of monuments reward calculator announcement.

Since then, we've all been up to some unusual guild wars behaviour. Buying mini-pets, farming for gold again, challenge missions for hero armor and getting new pets. I'm pretty happy with my progress. The announcement was made, and I was on 18 points. My first step was to get a black-moa and progress to 19 points, then i posted this... with the hope to get to 26 before GW2 came out.

That day I also gained the tyrian skill hunter title, and breathed a sigh of relief.

Since then... I had some luck in the shadow nexus and dakjah inlet to gain an extra point with hero armor goodness! Then... today... after having to buy onyx gemstones from randoms as all the collectors had sold out... look at a ridiculous 600g for 10 granite slabs, and keep farming to get all that (plus diamonds might i add) and 5k... I got everything I needed for a destroyer staff - and now I'm sitting on a pretty 22 points in my hall!! wooo!

So... I need one more max title, some more armor and maybe more weapons to get where i want... good luck with that... no quick ones from here... just a hard slog

thinking i might spend some time on the war in kryta content and try to get a confessor weapon... more gold (for armor) and then more gold for some caps to max another one of those...

wooo... how good is guild wars!

character names for GW2

I have started an idea list for names... I just want cool names, none of this throw together stuff...

You know my bowie related one...

Was thinking something like "Flehmm Forestcough" for a Charr (as it kinda like some of the charr names).

My idea for a norn name is based around their scandanavian-ness... And that would be to come up with a name entirely from names of Ikea furniture!!

other than that... I was thinking about plants that i love and sylvaria, and as for asura... not sure... they all have names like Blimm and Rojj... Actually I think i just came up with an idea based on the word "Klink" hmmm....

return of the PUG

read something the other day that confirmed that most storyline missions will require groups of 5.

No heroes or henchies available... means pugging boys!

Not sure how i feel about this one. Maybe we could look at getting a 5th, what's Dave Eagles do on Tuesday nights...

Actually i think Copland is right, and we should just stick to 4, unless the right person shows up...

Call me Old Skool....

Call me old skool, but i decided to finally finish off the skill capping.

so here it is:

chase this

i met some random today at kodash... very helpful indeed. we started talking about vabbian armor and somehow led to him giving me advice on how to do the shadow nexus challenge mission. Well... after I got a build together, I got a mysterious armour piece, put in on zenmai and snap - she's in my hall...

the guy told me to go for a build w 2 good healers and 2 good damage dealers. Remembering that lightbringers gaze worked, and adding a could of cool mes skills i was gtg. I put a sweet w/d scyth build on goren, a n/rt healer build on olias and finished it off with an e/mo ether renewal protector build on sousuke. i got about 100 points in the challenege, and one of these bad boys!!

So... I think glint's challenge is one we can do together, but shadow nexus might have to be a go it alone sorta thing. Or maybe in a pair, as we dont have the healers.

oh... try this page for the builds i used. I added weapon of remedy and weapon of warding to this one. heres the ele, and here's goren (which i added sprint to). I'd stick to those healers, but think about eles for damage maybe?

materials and crafting

they are worth a bomb, so i imagine what i'm saying here is a little null and void... but there's a few things i'm looking for over the coming months, that i imagine you guys will all be after too.

amber chunks

jadeite shards

sapphires

rubys

globs of ectoplasm (yeah right)

obsidian shards

diamonds

onyx gemstones

i'm trying to farm some of these bad boys, but it aint easy. these are all the stuff needed for some of the elite armor and destroyer weapons (well the hard stuff anyways). Having just a few of these bad boys could save you a fair bit of coin in the scheme of things.

One more note of armor - if you are aiming for elite armor you dont need to buy all 5 pieces to be able to display it - you only need the bottom 4 (shoes, pants, body, gloves), not the headgear. It's not huge, but will save you a few materials and possibly 15 plat (again depends on the armor). I imagine particularly for you warrior types the helmets are cool as, so it might be worth doing it just so you look awesome.

Last thing to note, that is somewhat related is some info that had been popping up in a few articles. Each character in guild wars 2 will also pick a crafting ability. So, instead of going to weapons makers (for example) you will possibly be able to do it yourself. I reckon a blog article will come out in the coming months about this. I think it would be the sort of thing that we should talk about before choosing so we can have a few bases covered. I have no idea how it will work, but it might be good to be able to spread the love.

things we should work on

3 challenge missions that we should be able to get some drops to upgrade our hero's armor

Dajkah Inlet (which we've done a few times, so may be less drops)

Glint's Challenge

Shadow Nexus

check em out and we'll get stuck in this week.

some help for hall of monuments

throughout my over the top research on guild wars 2, i've found a couple of particularly in depth and useful sites that focus a fair bit of energy to gw2... namely ten ton hammer and massively.

massively has a blog called the flameseeker chronicles... as part of that they have written a series of articles called "the road to fifty" - which is all about getting the full 50 in your hall... now... i'm not saying we do that, but the articles are helpful... and i think 30 may be within reach.

the one I thought was most interesting was the guide to mini-pets. goes on about which ones can be found in drops, worked towards etc

the other articles are on heroes and pets, titles, armor and weapons. check em...

some thoughts on... you guessed it... gw2

So, I was talking to Mick the other day, and it looks like I was just making stuff up, or something.

There are 5 starter cities - one for each race. You only have access to your own city at first. Once you get to somewhere around level 30, all races meet at another city. "Lion's Arch" - it better not be a pain in the butt this time!! From there you travel north and into the lost city of Orr, and into the end game.

Once you get to Lion's Arch, you can travel through the other lands into the home cities of other races.

I guess the main thing this highlights is that if we want to play together, we will need to all be the same race. I'm not sure yet what I want to be, but I'm happy to have two characters going at once. I was thinking it might be cool to have us all have one type (say human) and then all have different types that we can join together later, so I might be asura, copland - charr, caine - norn and mick - rollerbeetle. roflcopter.

the new's / blog has been silent since releasing the hall of monuments info. i was hoping that there would have been another profession announced by now. Oh well, you'll hear from me when it happens. I'm guessing tomorrow, but who knows.

The good thing about hall of monuments rewards is that you can add them after gw2 comes out. So... in particular to mini pets... once you get more... you will still be rewarded for them.

Last thing...

Release date? I'm thinking just before the big school holidays in the states. Mind you... they seem to have put the breaks on... 7 weeks between prof announcements - if that continues... then... they wont have announced them all til April!! gee!! Then who knows...

anyways... that's a random rant...

ummm... yeah....

so, this is a teaser post

i just got 3 gold items, and sold all my loot (including gold items)... including gold i picked up...

3.1 plat

25 minutes!

will fill you in on my next 2 runs and then spill the beans!

Before GW2 - The Stamp

With the help of the Rewards Calculator The Stamp is sitting on 16 points.

I'm doing ok when it comes to devotion (mini pets) though the prices have gone insane since the HoM info came out.

Fellowship I'm2/8, but that could be bumped up a bit by doing a few basic hero type quests, which is something I'm keen to do.

Honor is 9/18, my highest score but also the one with the most possibilities. There are others I'd rather work on than this one to be honest.

As for Resilience and Valor - 0! Possibly some easy work to be done on these ones.

I don't have any specific ideas about what I want to do, but I have put a bit of time into trading mini pets and working on building that up, as you can see...

happy birthday to me

Xyla Nu - what i want before GW2

Here's my to do list - get me up to about 26 points i reckon, currently on 19.

Devotion (5 points currently)

4 extra companions ( a couple of rare pets, a couple of hero upgrades) - for 1 extra point

Fellowship (5 points currently)

9 more mini pets - will wait and see on this, but may buy a few if i have cash - 1 extra point

Honor (8 points currently)

2 more maxed titles for 1 extra point

Resilience (1 point currently)

1 more elite armor - a really good one that'll cost about 140k - 2 extra points

Valor

1 or 2 special weapons. Probably Tormented and Oppressor Weapons - oppressor is a lot of work, tormented is about 40k i think. - 2 or 3 extra points.

sell everything!!!

In a desperate search for coin to try and get the caps to get the skill hunter title sorted i resorted to cleaning out some old characters.

As long as they have one weapon left I could do something with I'm happy. So, I sold a few golds...

The other thing i did was use some of the things like monastary credits and battle commendations that i had lying around. Got me a couple of plat!

Desperate time = desperate measures

Rethinking the coming months. Titles vs Rewards

As you would know the rewards calculator for GW2 from your hall of monuments has been revealed.

It's making me think about where I put my effort.

I can get 1 extra point by slogging my guts out to get to 10 maxed titles. Or... I can work on more armour, weapons and hero items, and possibly get 5 or 6 more points.

I really dig what i can get for 17 points - the seathunder pistol. Also, I think a rainbow jellyfish would be off the hook for a ranger... I'm sure some of the swords / maces / bows interest you guys!

So... where to from here... What are our priorities??

Powerstones of PWNAGE

He peeps,

I bought 17 powerstones of Courage for 19plat today.

Thought i would let you know....

We got a few for the kitty now :)

I PWNed those sellers!

ch ch ch changes?

if you cast your eyes to the right of this post you will notice a couple of things i've added. 2 news feeds (GW2 and ArenaNet blog) as well as a few extra links.

they are easy to get rid of if you hate them, so let me know.

Also... I was thinking of re-doing the design. My options are either to change the colour scheme and picture on this blog, or... to have a dotcom that i could build with wordpress and have our own site... i think i could come up with whatever we want, so let me know what you think.

the third option is just to leave it looking how it is.

thoughts?

Guild Wars: Beyond

Last night I started a series of quests called "the war in kryta". It's part of guild wars beyond, which is... Any material that links the original guild wars with the gw2. EotN and that golem hero MOX are also part of it... Figure that I'm going to move xyla all the way, so I should do the quests.
Check it...

I'm on a dye-it

this article is worth reading for several reasons

1 - it has a good sense of humour

2 - it's quite technical and really interesting

3 - it shows some of the awesome, flexible colour combinations that will be available in GW2

4 - the hair on that warrior is wicked!

5 - the last shot of the 5 girls in undyed armour... have a look at the last one!!! i'm pretty sure that's a mesmer!! wooo!

4 elites!!

following copland's advice... today when i went to cap an elite ritualist skill i thought i'd check the area first to see what other elites i might be able to get...

well... armed with 3 caps (most you can take) i got 2 ritualist and 1 mesmer skills on one run into the domain of secrets!

makes up for the 5 runs into sorrow's furnace i had to do for one skill, due to several bosses sharing one spawn location

Title Stuff

Hey guys I was doing some thinking about title stuff and I was wondering what ppl thought about trying for the Master of the North title. The info is here.

Ian, how hard is it really? It looks (deceptively?) simple to get.

My other thought was to keep plugging away with our HM stuff, which will get us 3 separate Vanquisher titles as well as the Legendary Vanquisher title... see here.

So, I think most of us are on 7 or 8 out of 10 (Kind of a Big Deal to People Know Me). If we can knock over the HM stuff we will get the next big boy title, before GW2 comes out and steals us away from our first love.

Thoughts...

areas in vabbi i've vanquished

Vehtendi Valley

Resplendent Makuun

The Mirror of Lyss

Holdings of Chokhin

mirror of lyss was pretty hard

the other heavy armour class

name this class?

thoughts?

interface - good stuff

this article is worth looking at

it's probably one of my main things i think about - what keys will be used, etc

minpets in hall of monuments

added some today... lookin good!

vanquishing tips

there is a list in this forum thread that suggests key elites for vanquishing builds

start there,. then go to pvx wiki and find a build

im also trialing a new triple necro build

the one i was using is call sabway

the new one is called discordway

happy building

more thoughts... (plans?)

so I've been wondering... Will all races be able to choose all professions?

I just cant imagine a little asura wielding a massive hammer... i imagine they will be able to, but i really imagine that certain races will suit certain profs better.

There are somethings about Asura that suit me...

The asura arrived on the surface world not so much as refugees as settlers confident in their intellectual and magical superiority over every race they encountered.

ie. they are arrogant about magic...

but then I can see how being an Asura might suit Copland

Clagg was seated comfortably in a harness fixed to the front of his golem, the creature a masterpiece of polished and painted stone and fitted bands of bronze

As, no matter what class you choose, you can be involved in melee by riding your golem?

(quotes from the ghosts of ascalon)

I think most races fit well with Rangers, except maybe Asura. Certainly Norn and Sylvari anyways as they both have the whole "connection with the earth" thing going on.

I can see Warriors working nicely obviously for Norn (a 9 foot bloke with a 2-handed sword - shit! I'm running the other way) and Charr (a crazy beast in armor).

I've also had a random idea for a guild name and concept.

The concept is - we all make a human character to play together with (that shares a particular attribute). And then we can have other characters as well, but we've still got these other ones.

The guild would be called "The Bearded Few"

I just think it sounds cool... I do still like NWA, and know how much too-ing and fro-ing it took to get to that.

I've been wondering... do we just focus on one character to start with, or go racing in with several...

In the comments of this post - put up your 4 main characters (or less) and how many hours you have given to each (/age) that may answer the question as to whether several characters will work for all of us...

kotaku review of demo

this write up of the demo is very cool. Best one I've looked at. worth a read

I love this bit

I decided to dedicate the rest of my time to simpler pursuits. Grabbing a bag of feed, I fed a nearby cow, which caused someone to say, "The cow thanks you. I thank you. Beef-eaters everywhere thank you." Cute!

I pick up a watering can and water crops, causing them to spring to life. Watering the cows does nothing. Watering fellow players doesn't do anything either, but I spend a good five minutes doing it anyway.

I spent my last few minutes with the game wandering over to a city wall infested with harpies. There was a mission there to defeat them, but I just wanted to explore this beautiful new world, reach great heights, and then jump off.

I survived the fall, but have great hopes for magnificent falling deaths in the future.

leveling up

If you’re a casual gamer who plays for a few hours here and there, why should you feel like it’s going to take you a decade to finish your character?

this article explains how the leveling system will work in GW2. Basically, once you hit a certain level it doesn't keep getting longer and longer til you level up, but stays around the same. i like it.

name this profession

the GW2 concept art lists this as "female gunner" - so one could assume that they are not daggers, but guns. She does look a bit assassin like though.

thoughts?

wiki - you've done it again

guild wars 2 wiki is by far the most concise and well presented list of current known info about GW2

reading the articles on Warrior and Ranger might be on interest to you guys. Includes a lot of info discovered by people trialling the demo.

A few thoughts

By the looks of things I think Copland was right, and each race will start in a different home city. So maybe we all have a human that we play together and then each pick another race or 2?
I'm hoping xyla can be a Mesmer sylvari. Other that that, I might have to wait and see.

From what they've said, I imagine that mesmers may play more support with inspiration being about inspiring all around them not just themselves.

mini-games!

There are random areas in the cities where they have "activities". These are mini games that you can vs each other.

One they point out in a demo is like a sideshow shooting range

A list of current known activities can be found here

find your city

divinities reach, is a massive city! 7 separate areas (or districts)
One of those is your home region. Everyone gets their own (like hall of monuments). But... the people who move in and the way it looks is shaped by the way you play the game!
Cool hey?

warrior demo at gameson

ranger demo at gamescon

Necromancer!!

so, gw2 anounced the 4th class today - necromancers!

They are definitely a little different that the necros of old. I think some of us will find this very attractive.

For starters, they have a thing called life force, and once it reaches a certain point it gives you a very tasty advantage. When you die, you dont die!! You activate death shroud and become a ghoul that can keep attacking. When you run out of life force, you die, but if you get a kill whilst in this death shroud state - you re-enter your body... BAM!

OK, so onto some clips. This first one highlights a new condition that only necros can inflict. It's called "fear". Fear causes the bad guy to run directly away from the nerco for a short period of time. In this clip below we see the necro making some sort of well, and then using doom (the fear inflicting skill, he makes the bad guy run straight back into the well! Imagine using this with mark of pain, or combining with other classes - running into a wall of fire, a barrage or a meteor shower!!

Minions, i think will be a bit different kettle of fish. Each type of minions activates an extra skill, that when you use it, kills the minion(s) but does something awesome. So, by the looks of things - bone minions and putrid explosion are linked. So basically they attack for a while and then explode! Bombs on legs, yeah baby! Here's that clip.

Although there are a couple more clips on the site, the coolest in my opinion is grasping death. Where skeleton hands come up from the earth and grab at the bad guys! Just check this clip its funky!

Thinking, one of use might join the dark side with this sweet selection of skills and options. Thoughts???

yeah i'm a nerd

www.gw2fans.com

forums etc... come on and we'll speculate about the upcoming classes together

I'm predicting

necro, mesmer, some sort of engineer, and some sort of monk/warrior

GW2 Dye system...

so, this looks fantastic... look at ALL the options!!

it's a gas

Something to spend $$ on maybe - not monthly subscriptions but... in this article...

Microtransactions will be properly introduced in Guild Wars 2 enabling players to purchase in-game items with real money, though this won’t be mandatory. This system works with a lot of games, though some like Need for Speed world require a minimum purchase to get the most out of the game. It’s a good model for people who want to play MMORPGS more casually, rather than those who play constantly because they have a subscription.

the first videos

a compilation from gw2 fans.

and the fourth class is...

necromancer

this strange music clip shows a necro in the demo (filmed yesterday)

they only had 4 classes to choose from

IGN review of demo

here

first 5 skills

so, rereading some stuff...

you know how i said the first 5 skills are determined by weapons that are being held... well eles have some flexibility on that one. they can choose one of the 4 atunements (fire, earth, water, air, dur)... and that will change their skill set! awesome flexibility.

It also looks like a warrior (or anyone really) could change weapons between fights (or even during if they have the right traits), and change their skills too! nice to see some flex!

an example of this for rangers can be seen in the clip below for spread shot - she first holds a sword and torch, and then runs back and uses a bow.

and this... just cause its funny

need a monk... not anymore

no monks in GW2!

whoah!

It's a bit weird, but i think i love it

this article has all the info on the new triangle of support, damage and that other one...

10 out of 10 Australia!

does anyone else remember that ad?

anyways...

10 skills slots in GW2!

you got it 10

5 - based on your weapons

1 - elite

1 - self heal

3 - others

check it here

the pen is mightier than the sword... but what about 2 swords!!!

this article says:

One of the things that became apparent early in the development of Guild Wars 2 was that we needed a diverse set of weapons to support our skill system. The full list of standard wieldable weapons in Guild Wars 2 is as follows:
One-Handed: Axe, dagger, mace, pistol, scepter, and sword.
Two-Handed: Greatsword, hammer, longbow, rifle, shortbow, and staff.
Offhand only: Focus, shield, torch, and warhorn

each weapon comes with skills attached by the sounds of things - 5 for a 2 handed weapon, 3 for main hand, 2 for offhand - and i think some of the one handed can be used in off hand - 2 swords for example, and the rather obvious 2 daggers

more on skills etc later

wooo!!

excitied?

so guys, i'm basically wetting myself in anticipation of gw2 coming out

stay tuned for an inundation of posts from me about the topic

it's going to be amazing

igoogle... wiki gadget... nice!

OK two punches to the face

ok, guys, that is two weeks in a row i have been ditched? what happened?

My phone is lost, but i though we were supposed to be on last night?

Ditch me next week and i will find a new guild, i have many request for my tanking ability!

Cya

Chello?

So... What happened to the triumphant return of GW? I even went on early to preload some of the areas to save time! As did Caine I believe.

Let's lock in next week. Ill be on around 8:30- 9:00 Sydney time.

Who's with me?

Starting back

Hey Noobz,

So, I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday time. Just checking in for when we are starting back... and I'm thinking the 2nd of Feb looks good. The week before is Australia Day, and I think Mick is away then anyway (?).

So, have a look at you diaries and see if you can start back then!

Also just want to add how much I love playing GW with you guys. We talk about how its a bargain as far as entertainment value goes (and it is) but its also a regular catch up and just generally good fun (which I don't think it would be with a bigger guild - or worse, no guild at all!).

So, thanks for the mamories... (yes, I did it on purpose).