GW:EN Sneak Peak: Live Thread 3, Onward!

Finally getting somewhere. The storm seems to have passed for the moment although there's still thunder in the air. I've battened down the hatches just in case.

Back in game, back on my Monk. Going to start running through the game here. Looking at my quest log it seems I have to find big mama Norn.

And she's right outside, so that was easy. Norn are very tall and apparently they're Werebears. Ursinthropes? I don't know what you call it but they turn into bears.

My first look at the outside in GW:EN. It's pretty. Appropriately Shiverpeaky but the look is nice. It's all sloppy and slanty and really conveys a sense of the big mountainous space. I am apparently heading for the Eye of the North but at least the scenery is nice.

Damn pop ups. The path looked clear but then there were all these worms under the snow. Guess they're not hostile, but I'm getting bad flashbacks to Prophesies. But since the areas are linked, I suppose that makes thematic sense.

I'm liking the way the Norn title works so far. Fighting to have to get it is a nice little flavor touch. And getting the bonuses for killing stuff gives some carrots beyond just grinding for favor. Plus, you know, it's like Unreal. RAMPAGE BONUS!!! Headshot!

Outside of the destroyers in the prologs, I haven't seen any new enemies yet. Just new skins for old ones. Which is kind of disappointing.

First encounter with one of these newfangled bosses, looks to be a Ranger surrounded by a pack of wolves. And, holy crap, he hits for like 300 damage. Which really hurts. He just one-shotted half my team. Hello pre-protting. Oh, wait, I'm wearing the wrong set of armor - I've only got 30AL. Well, that explains part of it. I could have sworn I had 60AL armor but looks like I was wrong. PS is now perma-cast on me, by the way, and I'm going to have to upgrade at the soonest possibility.

First wipe. Another boss pack, this time an Elementalist surrounded by Ice Elementals that cast Deep Freeze. Five or six of those landing at the same time is rough. Especially when your pack of AI dweebs isn't spread out.

Ventured near the Eye of the North and it's an inline cutscene which is pretty cool. Looks like I just met Gwen. Warping to into the Eye afterwards, less so. I was in the middle of clearing out the zone for Norn points. Doing so, I was up to 75 kills which put me into the bonus round and, along with talking to all the guys, netted me something like 600 Norn fun bucks. Over halfway to the first rank. You ge more points from talking to the Norns you crush depending on how many kills you have so I guess I should have waited a little while longer but, oh well.

An armorer! My e-kingdom for an armorer! Tell me there's an armor guy in the Eye. Oh, sweet, there's one and...wtf?!? I need some title rank before I even talk to the guy. Bullshit. I'm wearing newbie armor for fuck's sake, I need an upgrade! Sigh, it's just as well. The armor I get would probably get locked or something. Looks like I need to take a trip back to the past.

Bah, that put a dent in my budget. I was short on cloth and parchment, exactly what you need to craft Monk armor, so I ad to buy it plus shell out a plat per piece. Messed around with dying it, I wound up going with a Silver+Red on the cloth and some unholy combination of red, brown, and purple on the head and shoes. It's nice, understated.

Back to the Eye of the North. I'm going to go for that Norn rank before I do anything else so it's back to the Ice Cliff Chasms to clear out that zone again.

First bug to report. Hunt Rampage bonus enchantment seems to be broken. It's supposed to give you double fun bucks but I only got one with each kill. Like those scrolls it runs out if you don't kill anything within a few seconds. Norn Hunt Levels which gives you an additional points per kill are working just fine, though.

Ah, it's the little discoveries that make exploration worthwhile. On the West side of the Eye of the North there's this little patch of green with a well and some flowers and the pet tamer guy. It's totally out of place with everything else yet as a serene oasis of nature in the midst of the frozen wastes, it works. And it's also a nice callback to the Guild Wars past because of the flowers. Those are what Gwen used to pick/carry. And I can imagine a homesick Gwen having carved this little area of peace out to remind her of the home she lost.

Cleaning out the zone has netted me another 600 or so Norn party favors, just over double what it did before - as I said, I was close. I now stand at 1200some fun buck and am a slayer of Imps (Ice Imps who are damned annoying with their Deep Freezes and Maelstroms on the ice), so rank 1 is pretty easy to get. Now, on with the plot!

But first, to lighten my inventory. Selling off all the crap I've looted gets me some quick cash. I could convert it into crafting materials but it's generally not worth the time, I find, and cash rules everything around me at the moment.

Ohp, found the skill dude. And, yep, he's got every one of the new skills. Getting those 100 skills is going to be easy, I just need to scrounge up the cash money. I had 13 skill points walking in the door and I now have all the new Monk skills unlocked while I'm 10 plat poorer. I'll save the Mes stuff for someone else. I'm unable to switch professions at the moment, so I can't start the transition to a Mo/E just yet. No real changes to my bar. Although I gave Cure Hex to my hex hating E/Mo for a trial run. I'd been using Remove Hex which is faster but he's also slanging Convert to deal with mass hexes so I don't mind so much. Cure might be more useful in spot duty because of the heal.

Hall of Monuments, I could care less. I talk to Gwen and she tells me I look familiar and I tell her we've met before. Which would be true, for several of my characters. But not this one. She started in Cantha and never went through Pre-Searing, unless there's some backstory I don't know there. Minor quibble, I know, but it's annoying little details like that which sunder the suspension of disbelief. Scrying Pool sends me on a cutscene, though. Looks like the plot branches here but there's only one choice for the Sneak Peak. So it's not really a choice at all. But that's okay because helping out the giant hotties of the Norn instead of stomping more Charr is exactly what I would have picked.

Looks like it's back ot the Ice Cliffs again. But wait, what's this? A quest as I'm going out the door? Hmm, it's a solo quest, a duel which promises a PvE skill and a lockpick. Interesting. I'm a Monk, though, with jack all as far as smiting goes so a duel is a little problematic. What the hell? Okay, I've loaded up the few smite skills I have. Retribution, Bane Signet and the new castigation signet. Plus, I'm packing PS, Guardian, and ZB for healing. I'm going to give Smiter's Boon a whirl, too even though it won't do me much good. I'm just going to have to hope my healing can hold out and wand the fucker to death with the ocassional blast from a sig.

Well, that didn't work so well. I won but it was a close run thing. He had healsig so it was a slow but steady chipping away process while scrambling for the ZB button. He also had Irresistable Blow so Guardian was a bad call.

Deft Strike is crap. But, here:

Deft Strike. Ranged Attack. 5en, 1/2cast, 8recharge. If this attack hits, target foe takes 10+? damage. If that foe has Cracked Armor they begin Bleeding for 10 seconds. Vanguard.

1/2 is what really saves this. But it's like Prot Strike, I'm not using it for the text.

Putting my party back together, I see I unlocked Gwen. She's a Mesmer. Meh. I'm sure she'll be important, story wise, and it fits with her but a Mesmer hero isn't going to see much play.

Okay, big hot Norn mama is right outside. She's tall, huh huh. Leather thong, right at eye level, too. Looks like I'll be on a series of quests to help her find this Nornbear thingy. I'll be on my own quest to grind up some ranking. It's 4k for Norn lv2. And 1k for Vanguard 1 (I got 100 for the quest I just completed, which is nice.

It's on to the Norrheat Domains. First impressions? Well, it's more of the same. A little darker. A little more forboding, but it's the Shiverpeaks, I've seen it.

First picked lock. I was away when that change went in with the hard mode. Annnnnnd, broke it. Grape soda, too. Oh well, it was a quest reward so it's free money. Bow turns out to have...Increased sale value and a Crippling String, not bad.

Quest is pretty easy, spotted the bear right away - thank you very much railroad plot handholding - and chased it away. Rather than follow the green arrow, I'm cleansing the zone of all that lives and seeing what's to be seen. Ran into some centaur up here. Maguuma version, without the dog heads. I think my biggest complaint so far would be the mobs which have been nothing but old models and refirbished ones with slightly new skins, names, and skills. Which, really, is all you need to have a new monster but with an expansion I've been conditioned to expect brand new, visually interesting critters to slaughter. It's a minor issue but going in, I'm not sure this expansion is worth it. And I need to be convinced I should spend my money. Wet paint on an old sow isn't going to do it.

Okay, the little snowball fort, Ice Dart tower thing is genius.

Now these Giants, the Jotun, that's what I'm talking about. They're close to Giants I've seen before of course, but slightly different enough to be interesting. These guys are KD fiends and they pack a Mesmer with them, too. I hate them already. In the best way possible.

On second thought, those giants are rough. I guess I need some melee hate or something but I ran into a boss pack and they DPed me up in a hurry.

Here we go. Simple, effective game design. There's a little cave in the middle of the zone. Outside is big honking sign that says WARNING TO TRAVLERS. You go, "Well, I'm a traveler" and click on it and it warns you that inside the cave are some evil beasts from hell. You go, "Huh, I scoff at evil beasts" and you head inside and it's a boss battle against some hyperwolves called Fenrir. Separate area with a different look from the rest of the zone makes for a nice little layer. A mob type makes it relatively unique. And that little warning sets the stage nicely. It makes for a memorable encounter in what would otherwise be a routine boss fight.

Ditto for the Charr encounter in the middle of the zone but that was a quest so it doesn't really count.

Well, that's another zone farmed to exhaustion. Got over 1000 Norn points so I'm sitting at 2.7k at the moment. Back to the quest track and into Gunnar's Hold ot follow the Nornbear's trail. I think this is as good a poitn as any to take a break. I'm getting sleepy and the law of diminishing returns is setting in. Need to ingest some fuel something. The storm's over but the night is still young.