GW:EN Sneak Peak: Live Thread 2, Gettin' There

Annnnnd, we're back. New play session, new thread. Had to clear my head after staring at all those skills. And the new build was a perfect excuse. Haven't been able to find out what it was actualy about, though.

Anyway, I've dumped my faction out while still keeping a strategic reserve to spend later. Now, it's time to figure out how to get to the sweet, sweet, GW:EN content. I've been avoiding spoliers so I have absolutely no idea how to start. I'm going to guess, though, that I'll find out in one of the big towns.

I'm on my Monk, who's on the Nightfall map, so I guess I'll go from there. I'm hoping to check out the other ways some time later but starting from the Jewel of Istan will do for now.

Here's my crummy skill bar, by the way:

Sausaletta Regina
lv20
OwAT0mHD5piIQmJ1jBwlukwRAA
Mend Condition
Guardian
Reversal of Fortune
Protective Spirit
Signet of Capture
Zealous Benediction
Signet of Devotion
Divine Boon

That's right, kids. It's a booner. And a lousy one. But in my defense, I've only spent 20 odd skill points with this character and I don't have much to work with. ZB is my elite because it's either that or LoD. My attribs are all in Prot and DF.

It actually doesn't work horribly. Boon powers up the spamming of those spells and I don't tend to have energy problems with the short nature of most PvE combat. I use Mend Condition instead of Ailment because I don't have Dismiss and because I can target myself with it. I need something better but it gets the job done for now.

She's got no runes but a set of 60AL armor dyed a pleasing off-red rose color. I prefer the simple look so it's just the plain old Ascalon look. I really need to get a set with a better innate bonus but I'm waiting to find one that I like. She's also rocking a nice green staff. Although it's one that's best for a healer, so, yeah, I really have to switch to a Mo/E HP/LoD person one of these days.

My selection of heroes is pretty slim so I'm rocking a group with Zhed and Naruto, the two Eles set up for some SF, and Meloni who's trying out Wounding Strike for me with some protective buffs. Only four persons per party in Kamadan so that's it. If I had a bigger group, I'd throw in Olias or something but I don't, so I'm just going to try and steamroll.

Found the quest guy easy enough. And away we go.

I am now looking for a hole. Fun.

I don't recall putting in the rumble pack but my screen is shaking. Must be something to do with those earthquakes. Pretty cool effect, actually.

Found the fissure and I'm going in. Pretty slick little way of linking the campaigns, if you ask me.

And a pretty sweet loading screen here as well. Very, um, angular. Almost art deco. But ruddy like.

I guess I should have run -image again because I hit a loading screen there. Not a long one but, still, I hates to wait.

Time for the little sub-mission thing to fight my way to the new content. I'm getting crazy mad graphical lag, though. Looks like I need to restart my shitbox. But I want to get this done with first. Pretty nice little cathedral place I'm in, though.

A little exploring and I found some NPCs, including some allies.

Cutscene time. Oh god, it's an Asura. The voice actor for him is completely not what I was expecting. I was figuring something like Jar Jar and instead we get the Brain.

Oh boy, a timed run. Fun. I've got three minutes to get someplace and I have no idea where to go. It's okay because I just clicked on the dwarf guy leading the way and hit space. Eep, big nasty lv28 guys. Popping up all over the place. Acolyte Uzimaki, I mean Souske, just caught some aggro. He's a goner. Shit, shit, where's Holy Haste when I need it? Screw fighting, run away. Break the aggro dammit! Oh man, that was close, almost wiped. Obviously I typed this afterwards, we reached the portal just fine and I'm loading the next area.

Short sweet little quest but a good introduction. I liked it.

Another cutscene. Whoa, mama, that's one big hunk of girl. Thank you exposition fairies for explaining the Norn and the political/ethnic situation in the north as crypticly and thuddingly as possible.

In the next area. I see I've unlocked a new hero and....shit, it's the damn Asura. I'm not using him on general principle. Also, I need to level Uzimaki and Godiva, I mean, Zhed. Oh, hell, the thought of three SF spammers is too much for me, and I'll probably need him for the next quest or something, I'm going for it.

Oh, I got Ogden, the Dwarf Monk, too. I can field three Monks now, too, so that's nice.

He's set up with some healing crap and Holy Veil, which I'm sure the AI will use just *great*. Bleh. I'm going to have to come up with a nickname for him. My impulse is for Oggie but that's not going to work.

Bleck, on the other hand, I'm just going to call whatever insult pops into my head. For example, the little Shitecunt starts out as Air/Water. Got Blurred, Blinding Flash and some spike stuff. Not exactly thrilling but not piss awful, either.

However, there's really only one attribute for Eles in PvE and that's Fire. So, he's set up as an SF now. Unlike Zhed and Uzimaki, he's not an E/Mo packing some ancilary things like condition and hex removal, but an E/Me. He's packing a few AI powered interrupts that'll come in handy.

No new henchies, looks like a mix of the old hits from the past. I've picked up Mhenlo, the healer, Cynn, to go along with my SF blasters, Devona, to smash people in the face, and Eve because I like that sweet, sweet energy so much.

Time to figure out what to do next.

NPCs now have canned voice comments when you walk up to them. That or I need to play with the in-game sound on more often.

Why hello nice person, you have a quest for me? Thank you very much. I mean, I know how to use the heroes but free 1k XP is 1k XP.

Well, that was fun. Since this is an expansion to all the chapters,only one of which had heroes, I can see why they did it, but lame. Doesn't tell you anything about targeting or other tips and tricks with Heroes, either.

Whoops, dinner's here. Time to eat. Four hours in and I've...done a tutorial. Yep, I'm really burning through the content here.

Ack, brownout. I heard the power's been spotty in the area - rain. Time to back up everything. I might as well restart while I'm at it. It's not bad once I get going but the lag when I zone into a new area is crippling.

Dinner was a great slightly sweet cocconut curry from a nearby Thai place in case you're wondering.

Looks like another storm is brewing. I can hear the ominous roiling of thunder outside my window. And the occasional sudden crack. My electrical wiring is extremely flimsy and my power will go off at the slight squall, it seems, so I am now officially worried. If my power goes out this weekend, I'm going to be so pissed. I will march on the power company, for starters.

I've restarted now and things are running smooth, my electrical woes aside. I've taken the opportunity provided by the logging out to sample the paths to the Far Shiverpeaks from both LA and Kaineng. They're virtually the same except for the different enemies you fight and the size of your party. They're all wimpy Korsairs for your 4 man group in Kamadan. A suprisingly tough mix of undead (At least the initial lv16 Hellhounds with Endure and Monk support, even though my fire ele was doing like 400 damage a hit between SF and Meteor Shower.) for your half a dozen from Krtya. And some street gang thugs - the Am Fah - for your full party in Cantha. Same fissure located just a bit outside of town because of an earthquake, you fight a few weak enemies, find the NPCs, and then get your running shoes on. I got smart this time around and brought some speed buffs so it wasn't a problem. Still consistently lost people to pop-up aggro, though.

For those quests I first used my Elementalist, Milly in LA. She's my official backup plan. I figure if the going gets too tough, I can switch to my best PvE grinder. With four SF spammers (and Cynn) I should mow through my enemies with a hail of fire. For Cantha I went with my Ranger, Reg. She'll be able to run, if need be, and like Milly she's sitting on my fattest stash of skill points. If worst comes to worst, I'll just speed through things with her to pick up the last bits of stuff before the weekend's over. Of the three, I think I liked the Cantha one best. I don't know, a lot of people seemed down on Faction's designs but I kinda liked the Blade Runner vibe from the imperial city. So I thought it had the best look. And you were up against lv20 foes that actually gave out XP and a moderate challenge so it felt more like a gateway to lv20 content. Kamadan's was the worst. Farthest to hike for the portal, and complete non-challenge from the enemies.

Shit, another brownout. My power is going to go, I just know it. The trees outside are just being whipped around. Annnnd, I just Err 7ed out. Perfect.