Guild Wars

[Obi-Rak Kaeliri]

So, Jere and I've been playing Guild Wars a little bit. She started out playing with her sister, and eventually I made a character to play with them. Jerelyn is playing a dervish-ranger, her sister's been playing a elementalist-mesmer, and I've a paragon-necromancer.

My character, Avrad Dal, is not very bright. He's all shiny armor, striking poses, and well-groomed hair, because everyone looks up to him. He needs to be a leader, to set an example, and he takes his role very seriously. Which, under different circumstances would work out great... he certainly has that greek hero thing going... except he's dumb as a brick. Much hilariousness ensues.

Here's Avrad. That's Jhiri, ready to kick ass!







Avrad is a positive thinker. He never gets upset, nobody is ever upset with him, and people around him certainly never argue, because of his positive influence.







Avrad is a performer. He's a natural leader, and knows how to look good while doing it!




(Of course a performer needs an audience, and he's well equipped: if there aren't enough people around to appreciate his supreme leadership, he just turns a few corpses into bone minions)



Besides Avrad and Jhiri, we have a second set of characters. We leveled so quickly past Jamie's character, thanks to old EQ habits I'd guess, that we created a new pair to team up with her while she caught up with Avrad and Jhiri.

Meet George Aidendale, a former accountant (present monk-adventurer extraordinaire), and his trophy wife, Miss Fluttershine!




(Yes, she's much taller than him)

[Jerelyn]

except he's dumb as a brick. Much hilariousness ensues.

Dear gods yes. Story time!

In EQ Kael was always our strategist.  His plans took a lot of coordination, but he was good at putting them together and executing, and gods forbid he mess up his own plan.

So the other day we three encountered a new named mob that had us very excited. It killed us several times and we were determined to come up with a better strategy to take this guy down.  We worked out a good plan and were talking over the final touches, when Avrad says "Enough talk!  Let's just CHARGE!"  And he proceeded to do so.

We wiped horribly.  I asked him if he'd been doing such-and-such, and IRL he says chirpily "heck no! I just charged."

"WHAT?!"

"I was in character."

I didn't know whether to throw my keyboard at him or give him a big hug and laugh.

Meet George Aidendale, a former accountant (present monk-adventurer extraordinaire), and his trophy wife, Miss Fluttershine!

I'm pretty sure he used the throw blanket from the couch for his "adventuring" garb...

[Anker Steadfast]

Heh ... a trophy wife, eh ?
So, what does she do ... just look good or what ?

[Jerelyn]

Pretty much. She improves morale (buffs).  And occasionally throws barbs (spears) if she's the slightly-smarter-and-thus-catty trophy wife variety.

[Obi-Rak Kaeliri]

The trophy wife idea was hers, by the way

[Anker Steadfast]

Heh, I bet she just wanted a monk with great pecks as her plaything.
Soon she'll give you two half coconuts to bang together.

[Jerelyn]

Heh, I bet she just wanted a monk with great pecks as her plaything.

For some reason when I look at that I see "man boobies" and not pecks. 

Soon she'll give you two half coconuts to bang together.

Jerelyn's Internal Dialog:

"He could be making a Monty Python Reference. Oooor he could be his usual gutter-minded self.  Monty Python...or Being Himself...Monty Python or Being himself..." 

*comes to a conclusion*

Jerelyn --> <-- Anker

[Obi-Rak Kaeliri]

Kael -> <- Anker

[Anker Steadfast]

*cough*

Neither actually.
For shame though, you didn't catch a reference to your very own messageboard.
Instead you went and dented my poor helmet .... well, scratched it really .. sort of ... almost ... well, I really need to polish .. uhm, clean it for twigs 'n' leaves now.

Though admittedly, I remembered slighty wrong, it should have been two pumpkins he bangs together rather than coconuts.
Oh well.

[Jerelyn]

You are right, I totally forgot that reference.

You win this round.

[Anker Steadfast]

He he he - I win!
Damn I'm good.


On a sidenote, I loved Irianta's line :
"Supreme executive power derives from tank switching at optimum bandaging points, not from some complete heal. Get some skill, newb."

Somehow I've always wanted to see a fight against some boss done that way.
Attack of the mummy-tanks!

[Jerelyn]

I just figured out what I adore so much about Jhiri Lin's "look". She makes me think of a deranged farm girl, with her bangs and center part, her ankle-long skirt, her freckles, and the scythe. Like Laura Ingolls just lost it one day, grabbed the scythe outta the barn, and started whacking at the shrubbery (you fight a lot of, um, evil plants in this game).

But seriously, she's the most absurd adventuring character I can imagine.  Clothing that is both seriously in her way and also doesn't protect? Check.  Long, grabbable hair full of elaborate jewelry? Check. Bizarre weapon that would never work in any capacity?  Check.  And yet I love her so.  I love this whole game (the PvE aspect). It's so gorgeous and shallow and goofy. 

[Cobalt Katze]

Rofl. Yeah, I still have my account with the original game... never got the expansions. The storyline was fun, but once you go through it and you were max level... you realize that the storyline was just bs leading you to discover how to PvP and that PvP was all that you really could do at that point.

I dunno how the expansions panned out as far as new storyline, but it seems like it's a big part of it again which is good I got so annoyed when I realized the above. Because I was really digging the plot...

[Jerelyn]

I, err, never barely made it past pre-searing ascalon the first time around.    And I hear the first expansion has a very short PvE storyline, with a weak plot. But this latest one is getting praise on all fronts for giving a good solid storyline and PvE experience, and I can say it certainly is working for me. Perhaps the north african setting is just more fascinating than the typical euro-medieval-high-fantasy of the first. 

Oh, I do have one bad thing to say. The NPC hero Melonni, who is also a deranged farm girl, gets much better outfits than the PC dervishes can get.    There's gonna be a hair-pulling, mud-throwing knock down fight one of these days, I'm telling you. 

[Cobalt Katze]

Pardon the really shoddy Paintshop Pro border I was obsessed with when I took these screens Just wanted to share some oldschool GW nostalgia.



My rockin' character, a Mesmer/Warrior named Malus Taer



One of the final areas in the original game. Did I mention I love its art direction?



Pretty solid battle shot out of Ascalon



Dwarf statues: "Ohhhhhhh"



The dragon Glint. Really cool design

[Anker Steadfast]

Dang, that dragon looks way neat!

On a sidenote, I always thought that rangers and druids were deranged.

[Martilena]

We're not deranged!

We're just seriously off center.

I mean plants and animals are much more worth protecting that silly humans and humanoids. =D

[Feydir]

Leave it to a Barbarian to mistake dedication for derangement.

[Anker Steadfast]

Pfff, as if, they are complete nutters.
Hugs trees 'n' stuff ... I mean, seriously!

Weeeird!

[Feydir]

I was always more into the killing poacher end of the business really. Hugging trees always gave Fey splinters anyway

[Brierlea]

Dang, that dragon looks way neat!

On a sidenote, I always thought that rangers and druids were deranged.

*Bonks Anker over the head with her ale*

I RESENT THAT!!

[Anker Steadfast]

*manages to drink Brierlea's ale*

[Starrydance]

So how does Guild Wars work exactly?  Im sorta looking for an easy to fit into weird schedules, yet fun and shiney game.

Are they all stand alone? Which is the best? So confused! =D

But man, shiney screenies <3

[Anker Steadfast]

*points accusingly at Starrydance*

Necromancer!!!

[Jerelyn]

So how does Guild Wars work exactly?  Im sorta looking for an easy to fit into weird schedules, yet fun and shiney game.

A couple of soundbites as they come to mind:

- THe only place you interract with the greater world is the town hubs, like in diablo. So it's not a true "world".  But on the upside, there is only the one server, so you can always find your friends.
- The bulk of GW is, supposedly, the Guild vs Guild.  I don't bother with it myself, though, and from what I gather on the message boards, a lot of other people don't either. However, the PvE content is something you really need to treat as a single-player game, because I hear tell that PUGs are almost non-existent, thanks to the henchmen and heroes (heroes are like henchmen, only you can mold them to your liking, and they grow with you). 
- Max level is 20. The game isn't really about levelling as much as acquiring skills.  And learning how to choose 8 skills from those you have that enhance and play off each other well is what sets the skillful players apart from the bunglers (myself being the latter...I have no clue other than "oh, this sorta works well")
- At higher levels you can change your secondary profession at whim, and armor looks are mostly decoupled from armor stats, so you can't easily screw up in character development. Though armor can get pricey.  THe "high end armor" is only different in that it costs a lot, not in stats.

Are they all stand alone? Which is the best? So confused! =D

Yes, all three "games" are stand alone, so you only need one, but you need all three if you want access to all three continents, obviously. 

For someone new to the game I'd recommend Prophecies (the original) or Nightfall (the latest).  Prophecies because it has the most pure story content and is the easiest to solo, Nightfall because it has heroes, is absolutely gorgeous, also has a great story (though it is shorter and more challenging towards the end, so I'm told), and has gorgeous starting character models.  Factions also has gorgeous character models, but it has a very weak story and is more pvp-centric. 

Prophecies stands a good chance of being the cheapest, since it is the oldest.

Oh, and paragons and dervishes are only available if you start in Nightfall, and assassins and ritualists only in Factions.  I'm told that none of these classes are particularly beloved by guilds, though, so if you would plan to be  social and join a guild, don't choose a game based on those.  The core professions (monk, warrior, ranger, elementalist, mesmer, and necro) are available in all three. 

If you have specific questions, ask away. It's a complex game at this point, and I don't really delve into all of it, but I'm sure there's more I can answer.