Author: Ethic

[Guild Wars] I took my warrior/monk (W/Mo in GW terms) up to level 7 last night, still in the “pre-searing” area. I did not realize how much content I had missed here, there is a lot of map to explore.

I found 2 new cities as well as finishing several quests. I gave up on one quest where I had to keep someone alive while they hunted down someone else. She kept charging into a group of 8 bad guys and I could not keep her alive. I want to finish this one however as it is a part of a line of monk quests and they grant more skills. Instead of staying back to heal her, I’m going to charge into battle myself. That might do it.

I managed to find all(?) the collectors that would trade warrior armor for items that different creatures drop. The only piece I have not upgraded is the helm and I’m not sure there is an upgrade. I like the idea of the collectors, it pays to save the odd stuff dropped if you can.

One thing I will say is that (so far) a W/Mo combo is very strong. I can outlast most anything and if I am in a crowd I have several area effect skills to help take them down. I now have a few warrior skills that work in a combination and it does very nice damage. The first is a bloodletting skill and the second only works if the person is bleeding. To use these skills you need to let them build up (rage? adrenaline?) before you can use them.

I have every intention of exploring the whole map and doing every quest I can find before I leave. Perhaps I will be level 10 by then, hehe.

– Ethic

[Guild Wars] I decided to roll up the last remaining class I had not yet tried in GW and that is a Warrior. But let me go back a little first.

I took my Monk/Mesmer through the “searing”. It was quite amazing and once it was over I immediately found myself longing for the old towns and fields and streams. I felt like my home town had been destroyed. It was something I wished I had waited longer before going through and thus decided to abandon him for a while and go back in time (pre-searing) since I could. Thus the Warrior was born.

Fast forward to Saturday night. I rolled up my Warrior and went out into the world. It didn’t take much time before I was level 4 and had chosen Monk as my second class. I was given a quest to find someone inside a nearby dungeon. It was this quest that really sucked me into the game. It felt like a classic dungeon crawl from my old pen and paper days. What a treat.

As you work your way deeper into the underground, the scenery changes. The lighting gets darker, the air even seems stale. You find yourself confronted with undead creatures at first. Eventually I found myself in a creepy area. It was in this area that the spiders attacked. It was great. They would drop from the ceiling on a strand of silk. The further you went in, the more would drop so you had to pace yourself. It was pure joy to watch. After getting through that area I came to a corner where my radar lit up like Rudolph’s nose, red everywhere. I did not want to meet up with whatever was on the other side of that wall, and luckily I didn’t have to. The guy I was looking for was just around the corner.

I’ll sign off with this one nitpick. Please put in a feature to autolog people that /dance for more than 30 seconds. These nutjobs dance all around the merchants and the other NPCs and it is driving me nuts. I beg of you.

– Ethic

[Guild Wars] Oh boy the number of losers playing GW is awfully high. Every time I turn around some dude has stripped down to his shorts and is asking all the “girls” nearby to dance with him.

Now, most of the dance moves are downright stupid, but the people playing this game have reached a new low braincell count record. Honestly. In fact, I think the “no monthly fee” thing is going to turn this game into a loser-fest of the highest magnitude. When people don’t have a financial obligation, they must turn into total idiots. And really guys, those girls you ask to dance with you, you know the ones with the suggestive names, are not girls.

If it wasn’t for the instances, I would never get a moment’s peace. Blissfully, I run into the swirling portals…

I rerolled a few times because I clicked “accept” instead of “decline” on a few quests that offer you a 2nd class. It’s tricksey and false and it fooled me more than once. I know I should spend some time reading what they are saying, but sometimes a dude just wants his phat xp and loots and wants to move on.

I love the instant travel, open the map, click on a town, boom you are there. Sweet mother of mercy it rocks. I hate those damn worms that go back in the ground once I start attacking them and then they pop back out and my autoattack has to be reset. I hate that I can’t tell what will aggro and what won’t. I hate the way I have to walk around invisible barriors. I hate the way the game puts you on rails and won’t let you explore too much. I love the cost. I love the graphics. I love the skills and the quests. I hate how every character in a class looks like every other character in the same class. It seems like everyone can use every weapon, that is interesting. I totally love some of the quests I have done so far, they are really well done.

No, I have not settled on any specific class yet. They all are fun yet they all suck. Necromancer is still the most fun for me, but why do they all look like Prince? And all the warriors look like Conan, I mean they have the Conan hair selection so I guess people like that but why? All the female characters look like some anime sex pervert’s wet dream. Haha man I need a drink. I wish I could remember who first called this game “Gwar”, I think it fits.

[Guild Wars] Since I feel no rush to level in GW, I have been playing around with the different characters. I level one up to about level 3 to get a taste of the class and try another. They are all pretty interesting. I am liking the necromancer the most so far, but the monk is not far behind. I mostly played a ranger in the preview weekends so I am not playing one right now.

I hope to have more free time later this weekend to really play some, but I only have a few hours in so far and it’s hard to say much about the gameplay. It still has the new shine on it right now but I can see it is not something I can play a lot of. But so far so good.

[Guild Wars] Since I preordered Guild Wars, I was able to play for free the past two days and I must say it has been fun. I will certainly get this game. For the cost, it is worth buying. With no monthly fee, I can play whenever I want.

I also like the option to create a PvP-only character that starts at level 20. Makes it easier to play with some hardcore friends. All the classes seem fun, so I’m not sure what I would choose yet.

Now the question is, will Best Buy honor my preorder since I lost (idiot) the receipt? I have the box and it says Best Buy right on it. I figure I’ll take it in and tell them they can either get $40 from me right now (and make a happy customer) or I’ll just pay $50 online from Guild Wars for the key and Best Buy will get $0. I’ll let them decide.

UPDATE: I called Best Buy and they told me that since I purchased with a credit card they will be able to pull up my order and credit me for the preorder. Possible good news there…

UPDATE to the previous UPDATE: Best Buy comes through. They pulled up my account and found the $10 preorder so I bought the collector’s edition (I’m a sucker for CE’s). The CE comes with some stuff I don’t care about, but the hard cover art book (while a bit small) is very nice and worth the extra cost. Any game that comes with an art book is almost a guaranteed buy for me.