GW:EN Sneak Peak: I Wanna Play!

Alright, I'm about to shove off from quote unquote work and get this party started. I've been dicking around all morning, dreaming of the moment when I can get home and get my Guild Wars on. I'm all set and raring to go with all the links and files and resources I feel I'm going to need on hand for the weekend – I've been jealously watching this GuildWiki page grow all morning, for one. The fridge is stocked, I've got a list of delivery places and enough sustenance to see me through the winter months.

My goals are as follows:

• To sample all the available content. To run as many missions, visit as many EAs, and all these things like Dwarven Boxing as I can in the next few days. I also want to check out the various quests to get to the place, which is easy with all the characters I have.
• To get as many of the 100 new skills as possible. And maybe some of the PvE only ones.
• To have fun.
• I'm hoping that I'll be able to post some thoughts and observations as we go along but no promises.

I've chosen to take my least used character on this journey. The recently level 20ed Monk, Sausaletta Regina (Feel free to buddy, contact me, etc. I'm not always the most personable or reliable but, you know.).

My poor little match-girl of a Monk, the wayward child of the long and storied Pepperino Dynasty, doesn't have much to work with, as you might imagine. I went Mo/Me with her way back in the days when boonprots rocking Mantra of Recall were all the rage. It's not the flavor these days but I haven't seen any compelling reason to switch just yet. I should probably go Slash E and pick up GLE to power out some costlier skills or something but, eh, I think the few moderately useful e-management options from the Mesmer line that I have at the moment will serve me well enough and she's not really a Shield of Regeneration, Heal Party kind of girl. Mostly because she doesn't have those skills. I've only spent 22 skill points, after all, so she's missing quite a few things. I don't even have many elites, although the ones I do have – LoD and ZB are pretty good ones. ZB less so at the moment but it's still a big powerful heal in the Prot line that I favor. Energy concerns from protracted battles are less of an issue when it comes to PvE so the draw from ZB is the inexpensive emergency heal – I find I use it like an Infuse except...not.

I need to tweak my bar, but I've got a crummy little prot thing going on. I boon, that's how bad it is. It's been working well enough so far, though. And I haven't come across any PvE Monk builds that I really love, anyway, so I'm just going to run with it, see what I can pick up and go from there.

I've been going over the scant details available on the new skills and there's really not a whole lot that I want. For this character anyway. Oh, I'll be getting them all, but it's not like I've got an amazing Monk bar that just needs Cure Hex or anything to work. For one thing, there's jack-all as far as prot's concerned. And, as I said, prot mon fo lyfe heyah. Aura of Stability is a keeper but that's more of a PvP/farming skill. Of the bunch, Healing Ribbon is probably the best.

And I don't really see much in the way of secondary skills that really works for a Monk. So, I'm not really hunting for anything there. I'm going to prioritize getting the new GW:EN skills over filling out her options with better skills, but I might just make that Mo/E switch after all.

First thing I'm going to do, I'm going to pop into the Battle Isles and dump some faction, if I can. Grab the best skills as far as I can see, for PvP so I can play around with them if I get bored or someone asks.

Then I'm going to work on the bridge quests. Take a character from Tyria, Cantha, and whatever the hell Nightfall's region is called through to the Far Shiverpeaks. They're probably all the same but I'd like to see what they're like, at least. Not sure who, just yet, but the priority's on those character who have the most free skill points. Worst comes to worst, I'll find out where the skills are hiding and run them through to buy them up before the weekends over.