Guild Wars: All Access Weekend

The manatees have brought us another special weekend and it's one I'm actually somewhat interested in. Because, this weekend you can access the Fissure of Woe or Underworld without favor and without the 1k entry fee. So, I think it's a good time for me to see if my old farming skills and builds are still up to snuff since I won't have to worry about spending a fortune to practice.

I'm sure I've said this before, though, but of all the misguided mechanics from the original game, the whole favor system has to rank among the worst. Born, no doubt, from some desire to merge the PvP and PvE side of things. From a PvE perspective it keeps people away from the end-game content and back when FoW and UW was all there was to experience, that's not a good thing. And from a PvP perspective, gaining favor for your region is the worst kind of reward – one you can't enjoy at all and gives you no direct benefit. I've long thought the biggest benefit to winning the hall was having your name broadcast to everyone playing (And I've also thought it was a shame the ladder wasn't better reflected in game. Some statue or monument where you could view the top 100 guilds or something else good for the ego and recruitment), you could care less about the favor yourself. So, it becomes meaningless for the people getting it and totally random for the people who actually want it. Just a waste, really.

But this weekend I don't have to deal with it so there's ectos to be made.