[GW2] The Announcement

There’s a ton of speculation happening about ArenaNet’s latest teaser that dropped yesterday, showing – well, not a lot. A bit of map, and the promise that more information would be coming June 5th (that’s Friday).

My thought is that this will be a stand alone single player game set in Tyria. I don’t think it’s specific to GW2 or GW1 because it was mentioned on all of their socials, everywhere. I don’t think it’s GW3 like a lot of people do, because I simply don’t think enough time has passed to make that sort of announcement.

I do think it is an announcement about an announcement.

In a perfect world, I do wish this would be a Guild Wars 3 announcement, but I just don’t personally feel that it will be. I also see how Crimson Desert is doing (basically a single player version of Black Desert Online) and I think there’s absolutely money to be made with these single player games. Am I excited? Eh. Well. I’m not really keen on a single player version of Tyria. I do enjoy supporting ArenaNet, and I imagine we’ll just have to see what happens Friday.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

[General] May Gaming Wrap Up

As always, statistics come from TempusGameIt though I will admit that a week or so of statistics are missing because I keep forgetting to start the program once my computer restarts. Normally I restart my computer very little, but we’ve had a few storms that knocked the power out, so it is what it is.

This month saw a huge shift in my gaming – all of the sudden Guild Wars 2 became my #1. There’s a number of reasons for that, really. I’ve been floundering a bit all over trying to find community in World of Warcraft (unsuccessfully, so far) and I had some definitive goals that I wanted to accomplish in GW2. One of those being, a legendary – which I did manage to obtain. I am still posting auctions over on WoW, but I really need to restock, which I have been procrastinating on.

There was a little bit of EVE in there – basically just me logging in for the Capsuleer Day rewards, and a tiny bit of FFXIV. After playing for a season or two I decided that I simply did not have the time to dedicate to this game. It’s hard on me physically (the forced dungeons / trials, etc) and I have no community over there either, so it felt like I was replacing one game for another with no different outcome.

In GW2 I also swapped over to the EU servers – this means the game is incredibly busy during my actual hours of play. I am not an evening person, so my play times tend to be sporadically throughout the day and end around midnight in the UK. Having so many people around has been amazing, and I like that I can just dip in, run a few boss fights, and leave if I have to. Getting in to the content is quick, unlike FFXIV where I waited for 2h for a DPS queue to pop when I needed a trial. Oof.

Anyway. There was no mention of Wurm Online, but I did dip in and play there too. I just didn’t have TempusGameIt running, so it wasn’t recorded. I have not been playing there much, I mostly just check and see that everything is still standing. I tend to wander back in the fall, so we’ll see if that holds true. I am also still waiting for EverQuest Legends to release to the public. I’m unsure about this one, but I think it will be a good thing for all involved.

Anyway, that was gaming for the month of May. Here’s hoping I can actually get more blog posts out in June. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

[GW2] Kudzu (almost)

Getting a legendary in Guild Wars 2 isn’t nearly as hard as it used to be, but it can still be time consuming depending on which one you’re going after, and how you go about it. A while ago the ‘wizard’s vault’ became a thing, where you could get a bunch of components for 1st generation legendary weapons. I picked up two (so far), one for a dagger that I never made, and another for bolt (which I also don’t plan on making, at least not yet).

Thanks to the generosity of a friend, they got me the precursor (these days it’s only around 16 gold, so not the huge amount it used to be in days gone by) and with the bits I already have I’m actually very close to owning my first ever legendary – Kudzu. A longbow. I’m currently playing my guardian, and she is an absolute beast with her longbow.

One of the main components I still require that I am VERY nearly done obtaining is the gift of exploration. 100% base map completion. Those little heart events are the bane of my existence. I dislike doing them and actively avoid them. These heart type events were phased out on later maps (thank goodness) but that doesn’t help me out very much right now.

Once I finish off the exploration portion, I’m basically done. I have three zones left, and all of them are at various stages of completion. I am hoping to get it done today (Sunday) but who knows, life being what it is. That SHOULD mean that I can obtain the legendary. My first ever. I’m sad that it took me this long, but again you have to actually play the game to make any progress, and let’s be fair, I’ve barely played since 2019. In fact I think I have made more progress these last two weeks than in the last 5 years.

I’m having a lot of fun playing, and it’s nice to have goals in game. Once I obtain the legendary it will be back to working towards Skyscale and hopefully also working on the latest content so that I can “catch up” a bit. As I complete it I also want to work through the older content, but I’m going to go backwards from most recent to least. I think this will benefit me more than if I worked from the beginning, especially since I’m already familiar with the lore / stories.

Anyway. Back in 2019 I said I was “close to my legendary” and then that never happened. I think I mentioned in June that I was hoping to get it by December. Maybe I meant December 2026.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

[GW2] Velours – Once Again

An hour later, citizens of Rata Sum watched in awe as the infamous Harbinger descended into the malfunctioning lab district.

Mist swirled around her boots.

Arcane energy crackled across her gloves.

Her expression carried the exhausted resignation of someone who had really wanted to stay home pruning lavender.

The rogue golem burst through a wall with a metallic roar.

People screamed.

Velours yelped louder than everyone else.

Then instinct took over.

Her hands flashed through practiced motions. Alchemical vapor exploded outward in glowing green arcs while drones burst from hidden compartments on her belt. The tornado around Sergeant Cluckers intensified into a roaring cyclone, scattering debris harmlessly aside as the chicken spun through the battlefield with absolute composure.

The golem fired its lasers.

Velours ducked behind a planter box.

“WHY DOES EVERYTHING HAVE LASERS.”

She hurled a canister blindly over her shoulder.

The resulting explosion froze the golem solid mid-charge.

Silence.

Smoke drifted gently upward.

A crowd slowly gathered.

Someone whispered, “The Harbinger…”

Velours emerged covered in dirt, clutching a cracked flowerpot to her chest.

“My begonias,” she said weakly.

The crowd erupted into cheers.

She looked genuinely confused by this.

Sergeant Cluckers spun victoriously overhead.

A child approached carefully through the crowd. “Commander?”

Velours adjusted her goggles. “Uh. Yes?”

“You’re really brave.”

Velours opened her mouth.

Closed it again.

Behind her, emergency sprinklers activated unexpectedly, drenching half the plaza.

She flinched.

“I’m actually kind of terrified most of the time,” she admitted.

The child considered this very seriously.

“Then maybe being brave is doing stuff anyway.”

Velours stared at them for a moment.

Then she smiled.

Small. Awkward. Real.

“Huh,” she said softly. “That’s… actually smarter than most krewe meetings.”

Sergeant Cluckers clucked approvingly from inside his swirling techno-tornado.

Which, in Velours’s opinion, made it official.

[GW2] Velours – Continued

Her home workshop in Divinity’s Reach looked less like the headquarters of a legendary commander and more like a particularly aggressive greenhouse.

Copper pipes ran along the walls carrying heated water to raised herb beds. Small hovering drones misted basil and thyme with carefully calibrated humidity. Grow lamps swung from articulated arms overhead while potted tomatoes climbed trellises built from repurposed rifle parts.

Near the window sat a padded reading chair buried under quilts.

That was Velours’s true masterpiece.

Not the combat elixirs.
Not the tornado harness.
Not the portable barrier projectors she’d once deployed during a siege.

The chair.

It had heated cushions. Adjustable lumbar support. Cup holders. An integrated tea warmer. Hidden speakers that played rainfall sounds. And, perhaps most importantly, enough room beside it for Sergeant Cluckers’s containment vortex docking station.

Velours sat curled into the cushions with a book in her lap while rain tapped softly against the windows.

The tornado idled nearby at minimal intensity.

Inside it, Sergeant Cluckers pecked calmly at floating kernels of corn.

“This,” Velours announced to the empty room, “is success.”

A communicator on her desk immediately began screaming.

She stared at it.

The communicator screamed harder.

Velours pulled a blanket over her head.

“Commander,” came the voice through static, “there’s a rogue flesh golem in Rata Sum.”

“No.”

“We already told people you were coming.”

“That seems unethical.”

“It has laser eyes.”

Velours groaned into a pillow.

Sergeant Cluckers rotated slowly toward her.

“You’re right,” she mumbled. “Responsibility. Heroism. Terrible burdens.”

The chicken blinked once.

“Traitor.”