Snowball Fights: Fire Is the Only Way To Be Sure

If Saturday was lagtastic then tonight was drop-a-rific. I've begun to suspect that my mother's connection to the network is made from tin cans and a long string and said network is powered by narcoleptic hamsters. Although, I'm probably fortunate as thousands of people in the area lost power last night because of the high winds. I tend to blame my connectivity problems on the poor network but it's conceivable that wires whipping around in the breeze could have been the cause. Either way, it was unplayable as I'd get maybe five, ten minutes of everything seeming fine, then a few more minutes of connecting and reconnecting when I wasn't rubberbanding all over the place, my skill icons activated but not casting. Then I'd drop entirely only to have the connection come back, safe and apparently perfectly fine after only a few minutes. Eked out a few wins that way but felt like a total asshole for all the teammates I was stranding at random intervals so I quit early. Also why I didn't bother to blog yesterday, by the way.

A few matches early this morning brought my combined win total up to 20. Which puts me at around 100 since Friday or right at my daily goal of 25. With 5.6k Gamer points it's only 140 wins to go until my next rank and it's looking increasingly possible that I'll get there before the end of the holiday season. Stacks of candy canes and a fistful of keys to show for my efforts, too. Haven't managed to use any of those keys yet. I'm pretty much saving them up for one blow-out event of chest drop charting fun.

I doubt I'll get much playtime in tonight, though, although I might sneak in some matches late. Don't feel I've had a decent enough test just yet of the Warrior. At least, not compared with the Ele and Monk I've tried so far so I'll probably be sticking with that. Am itching to make a change, though. By now, I want to give every prof - even the poor, neglected Paragon - a whirl. It might seem otherwise because I'm making a big deal of noting my win totals but that's just a way of marking my progress and giving myself a reason to quit for the night. I'm past the point ofcaring, overmuch, about my victory total and I just want to have some fun with it. And, you know, sampling how each character plays and seeing if I can't figure out how to use them effectively is fun. To me.

Even sharpening my skills has become of secondary importance. Because, really, I know the level of competition is a concern but I feel like they're pretty sharp already. I'm definitely a strong player, definitely tough to play against (Still having a bit of trouble winning the scenario where I'm running the present and I'm running two attackers when I'm on Grenth's side. Just can't deal well with the snares without some support where, on the other side, I feel like, more often than not, I'm going to put that point on the board. Might take a while, might take some take-away cycles but it's a fight I can win. Not so when I have Shitball instead of Avalanche. And I don't have a good, go-to strategy for dealing with it and nothing I pull out of my bag of tricks really works well. But I suspect that's more of a structural problem - the inequality between Grenth and Dwayna's skills cropping up - instead of any personal failings.), and while I'm not going to single-handedly win the game, I'm making a solid contribution and I win the vast majority of matches I'm in.

In fact, I'm so confident in my skill(z) that I've entered into the newb hating phase of thinking I'm far better than I actually am. You know, the point where I look at my teammates and think the world could use a nice cleansing dip in a lake of molten fire because there's no hope for humanity. Sure, I've been on good teams with decent players but some of the randoms I get stuck with make me want to ragequit more than just the game. You know, like the ones who'll focus on running a present, valiantly holding off a single attacks like they should - if we weren't down 4 to something and the other teams has a runner moving down the pike while I'm trying to fight off half their team and desperately prevent the score. It doesn't matter if we cap ten seconds after they do because at that point, we've lost.

It's not things like the Warriors who don't use their shout at the beginning of the match in order to charge up their heavy snowballs or the teammates who run around the map, apparently exploring the place, who bother me. Those are hopeless causes, people who don't know what they're doing. But it's the people who are close to getting it but make those minor to middling tactical errors that just set my teeth on edge. The kind of mistakes that it takes to long to explain through the chat buffer, in other words. I'm sure it's because I've overestimated my mastery of the snowball arena and I think I know what I'm doing better than I actually do. But they just don't get it. And they could if they cared enough to get better.

Of course, when I started in the Snowball Fights last year, completely unsure of what to do, I'm sure I was much, much worse. The sort of mistakes that bother me are the ones that can be corrected, that you can learn to avoid, but the way I did it was to play through them. So, I think the sad fact is, that if I played with my self of a year ago I'd probably be just as frustrated.

Snowball Fights: A Good First Day

Going to call it 45 victories today. I figure I need to average 25 a day for the next 10 days if I want to reach my goal of the next Gamer rank. So that actually puts me a bit ahead of pace. I'm now at 5.05k gamer points which means only 195 wins to go. Also earned about 135 candy shards that I have absolutely no idea what to do with. They've now joined the three and a half stacks I had left over from last year to clog up inventory space but at least they give me a good way of counting how many wins I've had. And I picked up enough faction to buy 5 Zaishen keys to go along with the one I bought for some faction I'd been leaving around for emergencies - at this point, I'm not exactly sure what those emergencies could possibly be but I always feel a bit weird completely emptying my faction, need to have that little reserve left in order to feel good about myself.

Considering I haven't PvPed in months now, I'm relatively pleased with how I've been playing. Definitely winning more than I'm losing although I only had the one win streak push past 20. More importantly, a lot of the little tricks I picked up last year like putting up an Ice Fort just before a Hidden Rock lands when I'm holding the present so I don't lose it or pysching out Mesmers with the cancel dance I'm managing not just to remember but to put to good use. Still making a lot of boneheaded plays but my starting point is a lot better than it was last year. I'm feeling much more comfortable and it's only a matter of time before I shake the rust off.

Pleased to report, by the way, that the hordes of leavers and leechers that so plagued last years event seem to be largely missing. A couple leavers have spoiled matches fo me but only because of a non-load and someone not wanting to fight an uphill battle or a late attempt to map out of a run because of pressing engagements elsewhere, like on your mattress and those are perfectly understandable as far as I'm concerned. I noticed the same thing in the Costume Brawl so it seems like the anti-leaving measures that have been put in place are actually working. It's early yet and we'll have to see how things go but so far so good. Haven't seen many sync teams around, though, although there was one memorable squad with a couple of obs mode All-Stars running a 3xMonks and a Warrior build that just crushed me. Otherwise, if they were syncing, I just didn't notice. And if there are any differences between this year's battle and the last, I haven't noticed them.

Anyhow, off to pick up my brother at the airport. More to come, eventually.

Guild Wars: Like a Kid on Christmas Morning

Logged in today for the first time in a while on the off chance that Wintersday had kicked off in earnest. Sadly, while it seems the reskinning bunnies have torn through the old, familiar place that the reasons I actually care (ie the Snowball fights. Although I suppose I'll check out the Lair of the Snowmen to see what's up there as well.) have not yet made their way to where I can click on them yet.

The season, though, is in the pregnant air. Decorations have been hung, by the villages, with care. The santa hats are on the Lions' heads, while visions of candy canes dance in the heads of those strange little players who should be on meds.

Right, I will stop that now before we get to the "On Shock Wars, on B-Surge! Now, Crip Shot, now Poison!" bit...

In other words, the event is tantalizingly close. But the good stuff won't go live until some time later this afternoon. My time, anyway. Noon-ish Guild Wars Standard. Although it'll probably run a bit late, following the usual pattern. As of now, it's just the chirstmassy decorations that are up in LA and Nightfall-LA, none of the quest givers.
Interestingly enough, although I didn't stop in at each and every GW:EN outpost none of them seem to have been redecorated. I mean, I suppose at least the ones in the Far Shiverpeaks are already appropriately themed. But, well, at least even Drok's gets a bit of eyecandy around this time of year. I would have thought at least Olaf would be down for the party, if nothing else. Granted, it would take some workhours to create the new artwork instead of simply reusing the old ones but it still seems like a bit of a waste.

Anyhow, before I go, I thought I'd mention this gem that showed the lat time I checked my guild's battle history. Did I mention I'm in a guild yet? No, probably not since it happened over the November that time remembered. But, yes, I'm guilded again. Except that I'm not. It's rather complicatedly simple but it's actually a fairly good one. Good enough that I worry I should quit and drop the tag before I suck it up Snowballin' and make them look bad by association. And I hesitate to mention it lest it seem like, you know, bragging. Eh, I worry too much about these things. I think I'll keep the tag, save my friends the eventual reinvite cost, and see how it goes today . Whether or not it gets me a lot of unwarranted attention and unwelcomed focus of fire, in other words.

Why did I get off on this tangent in the first place? Oh right, I saw this great guild name under the status tab which has since presumably been nuked by the censors and I just have to preserve it for posterity's sake: Your Mom Is My Epic Mount.

Sometimes, I really love the people who play this game.