Guild Wars 2 – Page 21 – A Pixel Nomad

Saturday: Video Game Roundup

I didn’t get that much gaming in this week, but of course we gamers always seem to find a bit of time here and there. Without further wait, here’s what I’ve been up to this week.

Minecraft

Most of this week was spent playing FeedTheBeast Infinity. There are 164 mods in this pack (165 on my server as I added one I really wanted) and it’s got something for pretty much everyone. Instead of setting up a village outdoors as I typically do, I created an enormous house within a rock mountain, and carved out each room. Then as I upgraded my tools and obtained a chisel I customized the home further. The screenshot above is my crafting room. Lots of space. I’ve also created a portal to the Twilight Forest, and to The Nether. There are Runic Dungeons that I haven’t explored yet, and just so much to do. The mod I added includes a way to level up your tools and weapons so that they get better and progress. You have to upgrade them in order, and it’s just a lot of fun to add this level of customization. Of course on the downside my axe for chopping trees now smelts things it hits – and that means wood just instantly turns to coal when I cut down the tree instead of giving me wooden blocks. Had to make a new axe because of that.

WildStar

Closed Beta Testing has begun and so I’ve been spending most of my time on the beta servers sending in bug reports. I copied my character over from live, and have been playing around with all of the new things that have been added. Got a few new pets and some new costumes so far, I’m really looking forward to the game moving to free to play so that more people can experience what an awesome game it is and not get hung up on the monthly price tag.

GuildWars 2

In a surprising turn of events, my mesmer managed to ding level 80 this week. In part due to crafting, and also due to those daily loot boxes you get to open every day. Today when I logged in I was given 2 ‘level’ tokens that let me climb to level 79 instantly. Now I need to finish my personal story, I’m at the level 60 ones now where the giant dragon comes down and things all go crazy for a while. I’m glad that I reached 80, and now I’m debating whether I want to level up another character right away or just continue to do things on the mesmer. I do have a few other level 80 characters but they’re on a different account, so I’m glad I managed to level this one up. I picked up some level 80 gear but now that I’m 80 I have absolutely no idea what I should be working on, aside from finishing off my personal story.

Wurm Online

A few new things have been added to the game, black sheep and some rams. I’ve been working on my priests still which is pretty slow work but I enjoy doing it. I’ve also been breeding more animals and working on meditation which is a really slow skill to try to level up. Right now I have four active accounts, but I expect that will drop down to three before too long. I have a year of premium on my Vynora priest along with my main character, Stargrace, and included a year on my Najho priest. I do have a battery that I’ve been using for the Najho, but I really don’t want to have to pay to keep them all active. That’s one of the downsides of Wurm, you have to pay per character.

That’s it for this week! What has everyone else been playing? Let me know in comments.

That Summer Burnout

It happens every year around this time. I can’t figure out what I want to play and so I spend the majority of my time bouncing in and out of various games, hoping one will catch my attention for longer than 20 minutes. Then I feel bad when it doesn’t. It could be the amazing weather, stresses from work, watching friends and family all do their thing while I’m across the country, or something else. I have no idea. I just know that normally when I have a bit of free time (and I’m at home) I think nothing of what game to play and I just do it. These days though I’ll log into 4-5 games only to wander around aimlessly and then decide they were not what I wanted to ‘do’ after all.

I managed to resist every sale on steam – even though there are quite a few DLC I’d love to own on my wishlist. I just didn’t think I was gaming enough to justify the cost at the moment. I’m tired of Early Access games. While I understand that crowdfunding and EA games are a fantastic way to get indie developers into game releases, I’ve just been burned and frustrated too many times. The latest is with Windborne, which sat on my wishlist for over a year before developers announced that they just don’t have the funds to continue.

I can understand that. I understand that we live in an age where there are lots of games out there, and to create something that’s going to be profitable is hard. It’s still frustrating as a player and as a potential investor in these games. I miss the day when I could purchase a completely finished game (or at least what I would consider ‘finished’). There are some great Early Access games out there, but the chances of me being interested in them when they finally release are pretty slim.

What have I been playing lately? Well. The list isn’t that long, but like I said I haven’t been doing a lot of gaming.

Wurm Online: In summer my Wurm interest flags a bit, but I’ve still got two active accounts and deeds, and I still check in daily to take care of crops and animals. I know my interest in this one will pick back up after summer, it always does.
FFXIV: I keep trying to be interested in this one, and it’s just not happening. I still have 44 days active on my account but something about the game is just not appealing to me lately.
WoW: I still have time left on my account, but honestly I just haven’t been playing. Garrison grind is a thing, and I just don’t like it. Not even pets are able to keep me entertained these days.
WildStar: I play daily, and I still enjoy it quite a bit but I limit my time so that I don’t get burned out. Since I work for NCSOFT on WildStar it’s also pretty much a given that I’m playing it daily.
EQ/EQ2: As much as I love the Ragefire server, it’s hard to get into if you’re not already in a community or with established friends. I was hoping it would be more like the communities of days gone by, but so far it hasn’t been and that bugs me to some degree. Instead I’ve been playing EQ2, my old haunting grounds. I’ve been clearing out older heritage quests and playing in my guild on my own, we’re level 78, and I’m having quite a bit of fun with that. My defiler is still only level 96, but I’m not really in a rush to reach level 100. I don’t even know what is available to do at level 100.
EVE Online: I don’t play nearly as much as I should / could / want to, but I do have an active subscription for a year, and in the meantime my skills are training up. I know this is a great game to pop into when I can here and there, so I haven’t been concerned about my lack of playtime.
GW2: Still working on my mesmer, on a new account. Right now she’s 49, which is great but I’d still ideally like to reach 80 before the expansion hits, and maybe get another character or two up there on the new account. We’ll see how that goes. It’s hard when I don’t really have any inclination to play.

Hopefully I climb out of this rut I’ve found myself in before too long. I imagine when fall rolls around I’ll be back to my ‘typical’ gaming self, whatever that is. In the meantime, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

The Art of Leveling

Last I left my mesmer she was level 43, and I was working through my story quests to get caught up. I leveled to 43 mainly through crafting, which I mentioned in a previous post. I picked up a set of tailored gear, a new weapon, and some new trinkets and accessories, ready to face the world.

One thing I really appreciate about Guild Wars 2 is that no matter where you’re leveling, the experience gained equals out. So lets say you’re playing in a lower level area and you’ve auto mentored down (the entire game works this way) so that you’re level 16. Whether you’re playing in that level 16 area or a level 40 area, the experience you gain balances out, so you don’t feel as though you’re wasting your time in that lower level zone. By working on catching my story up to my actually level I managed to ding 47, and all I did was work the story quests which ranged from level 10 to 40, I didn’t go out of my way to do anything else. It was refreshing to know that I could still gain a healthy amount of experience this way and I believe I’ve just started on the level 40 story quests, so I still have a ways to go before I’m completely caught up.

I had a thought to get into some WvWvW but I have absolutely no idea where to start or how things are working in that regard. I think I’ll give it a bit more time before I start to pvp. I had done some way back when on my other account but it has been ages. I’m hopping to gain a level or two a day until I hit 80, and continue working my way through the story quests that are available to me. I know at 80 a whole slew of things opens up and I don’t have the faintest idea where I should begin, but I’m looking forward to it nonetheless. I bought a few things from the gem store this week too, of course. I picked up the spring kitten that trails after you (non combat pet), an extra row of bank slots, allowing my items to stack to 500 rather than 250, a package of dye (I got a black, very pleased), an item that lets me salvage, and I think that was the end of my spending spree.

It’s nice to be able to log in for a few minutes here and there and feel as though I’ve accomplished something. I may not be running dungeons yet (I really want to) but seeing the experience creep up is nice. I also like the daily incentives to logging in, I haven’t been playing in the proper zones in order to get the dailies completed, but there’s always a little bag of ‘stuff’ waiting for me at least. It feels a bit like a loot pinata, but I’m not complaining.

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

Bypassing Content

I recently started playing Guild Wars 2 again, blame it on the hype surrounding the expansion that was announced not too long ago. I’ve already got a level 80 guardian and an elementalist, as well as a handful of alts. I also recently started a new account that doesn’t have any characters on it so I’m trying to get an 80 or two before the expansion comes out. I began with a mesmer. I have one that’s already level 51 but I’d like to get to the level cap. Since I’ve already got a handful of characters at max level and I didn’t want to spend a great deal of time leveling through content I’ve already played, I decided to work on my crafting and enjoy the ‘free’ levels that comes with it.

In the gem store you can increase your active tradeskills from 2 to 4, so that was the first thing I picked up. I decided to go with weaponsmithing, armorsmithing, cooking, and jeweler. Thanks to the handy guides out there it was easy to raise each one to 400. Along the way it meant that my baby mesmer managed to ding 42, which allowed me to bypass a bunch of the older content that I’ve already done a bunch of times.

Now, I know not everyone thinks that content should be bypassed and honestly I’m torn on the debate myself. I would never suggest that brand new players skip content because they’re missing some great storylines as well as the time it takes to learn how to play the class. For veteran players, I have less of an issue. If you’ve already gone through the story and you already have a max level character, bypassing the content isn’t going to be that big of a deal. Most characters play similar to one another and it doesn’t take much time to learn from a guide. In my case, I’m really just interested in reaching level 80 and then I can go back to anything I missed that I consider important, and I can always go back and get older achievements that way. With the ‘mentoring down’ that Guild Wars 2 employes, this is even easier. I never have to worry about being too high level for any content in the game, I only ever have to be concerned about being too low level. If I’m level 80, that becomes a moot point.

I also created my first ranger. I’m not sure if I’ll actually level the class up, but it’s nice to have one. The world is as busy as ever and I’m always running into other players. I’d like to get into some dungeons and exploring more pvp, but for now I’m just having fun doing things as they come.

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

Too Little Time

A lot has been going on and keeping me busy, so of course something had to give. In my case it was gaming and updating this site. I’m hoping things are under control now, but we’ll just have to see.

With the announcement of a Guild Wars 2 expansion on the horizon excitement started to flutter past my typical means of social media. A few friends were playing here and there, and I decided to get in on the excitement. I’ve always enjoyed playing GW2 but my problems with the game are two fold. First of all, I have no idea what you’re supposed to do at level 80. I can understand the leveling process and earning gear and crafting, but once I hit 80 I couldn’t figure out how to keep myself interested. On that same note, I have no idea what has changed and what the story is and what I have missed in the history of the game. For example, Lion’s Arch is a huge disaster. There are NPC scattered all over in small groups crying. The place is in ruins. I have no idea why or what happened. I wish games better handled those who are returning.

I did pick up a second account when they had the $10 weekend sale, because that was just too good to pass up. It gives me some room to make new characters when the expansion comes out along with giving me some extra bank space. I love buy to play games where you get to play the entire game for the simple cost of the box. Of course GW2 also has a shop, but I haven’t really felt pressured to use it.

I deleted two of my older characters off of my main account (they were low level and characters I had never played before) and re-created them on my 2nd account. I have more potions (especially experience ones) than I know what to do with, and I figure these will come in handy down the road.

Have you recently returned to GW2? How are you finding it? How do you find motivation to continue playing once you reach level 80? Let me know in comments!