Tuesday, February 18, 2014

New Patch is Loading

Making this quick blog post as the Escape from LA patch loads. Soooo excited!

I made sure that all my toons had their LA map completion done, so I've spent quite a bit of time in the big city. Talked to some NPCs I hadn't seen before, including a centaur exile near the Minister's House, some Grawl refuges, and Ellen Kiel. Had a drink at every bar in town. Got some screens of my favourite places, and went to a Farewell Party on top of the tower! Good fun and good memories, LA! We shall rebuild, if given the chance.
Spiral views the fountain for the last time.
She has returned to The Grove for safety, but will fight for L.A. with all her leafy muscles!

Many people have said they want the Mystic Toilet to burn and not come back.  :)

I love this pirate ship bridge. 

Butterscotch Ripple says, "I don't wanna jump! It's so FAR!"

Mistress Madheart met this poor villager who was so overcome that he just stared at the wall.

Took a portal to the top of a tower and partied like there was no tomorrow!
(I'm on Agga in this pic. She's an Asura so she's too short to see!)

While I was waiting for the delayed patch, I farmed BL keys. Here is Subject OneFourSix.
She is an alien visiting Tyria for research and observation. :D
When she met this Sylvari, she didn't feel so strange after all!

Monday, February 17, 2014

Made Me Smile

I met the descendants of the henchmen from GW1! Too funny. Have you found them?
My ele met this fine group and right away knew what they represented! Talk to them sometime. :)

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

No No No No NO!

They can't possibly destroy Lion's Arch! They can't. I'm actually honestly upset. I mean, they can muck about with it, and mess it up a bit, but they'd better not destroy it completely. That's not Living Story. That's... changing the whole freaking game!
Massively has info here.

Monday, February 10, 2014

Vote For Your Fave

Hey, faithful readers. I have a dilemma. I've been making alts and running them to level 10 to get Black Lion Keys, then deleting them quite mercilessly. Sylvari, Norn, human and Asura have fallen to my ruthless ways.
But I think I'm stuck now and I need your help.
I've made a Charr ranger. Her name is Butterscotch Ripple. (I know, right? I can't believe that name wasn't taken!) I adore her. She is the sweetest little kitty. :)
But I already have Lazuli, my Charr ranger, who is also lovely. And level 41, as well.
So I'm not sure if I'm just favoring Butterscotch because she's shiny and new, or if I actually like her more. They are pretty much identical: same race, same class, same gender. How do I choose?
That's where you guys come in. Who should stay and who should get the delete? I can't keep them both. I need the empty slot to farm more keys. Besides, I don't think there's a point having two rangers.
Butterscotch Ripple, the contender. Lazuli Madheart, the defender.
Hmm, looking at the pics, I realize they even have the same basic face.
Here are some extra things I'm pondering: Lazuli is level 41, so I've put a bit of time into her. But then again, leveling is not at all hard in this game. Lazuli also has unlocked some dyes, which I will lose if I delete her. I think I can transfer her cultural armor to Butterscotch though, if she goes, so I won't lose that.
Also, honestly, Butterscotch Ripple?? What a great name! So amazed when I pressed enter at character creation and it didn't say the name was in use!
So yeah, I'm a crazy cat lady. I love Charr. And I think there is a serious dearth of pretty female Charr in the game. I have Mousekin as well, my guardian. She's all white with super-pretty lavender eyes. But she's vicious! She's always hated that she was told she was too small and too delicate to be a fighter, so she's scrapped her way to the top of the Blood Legion to prove her mettle.
Okay, can you tell I'm a bit of a role-player? I can't help it! My toons have back stories and personalities. Must be the writer in me. I can't just make a toon and not imagine some history to go with it.

Lazuli is a friendly Charr who loves making jewelry and singing, although she doesn't think she's very good at the latter. She's Ash Legion, because she gets a thrill from sneaking around and watching people. Her favorite colour is blue. Her first pet was a hyena named Shenzi.

Butterscotch Ripple is a bit of a goof, but also a brilliant Iron Legion maker. She is comforted by the warmth of the forges, but also enjoys the quiet of the forest when the clang of metal gets on her nerves. Her first pet was a lashtail named Snippers.

Who should stay? Who should go? ARGH! So torn. :(

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

I Want New Stuff to Fight

Ugh, I thought that the stupid Marionette fight would be over today. I saw on the GW2 news that they were introducing The Edge of the Mists, and I thought it would mean they would get rid of the Marionette. Apparently, that's untrue! Bah. So tired of that fight. We lose far far FAR more than we win. The only nice part is getting all the keys and unlocking the chests in the Secret Lair. I've gotten a few nice things that I sold on the TP.
Speaking of gold... I mistakenly threw mine away! I went to the Sylvari Cultural Armorsmith and thought, "Oh, I'll just buy the Tier 3 armor for Spiral to get the achieve." Yeah, two clicks and all my gold is gone. I neglected to look at the prices before I clicked! Turns out a total Tier 3 cultural armor set costs 119 gold. The dumbest thing was I don't even LIKE the sylvari Tier 3 and had no plans on wearing it. I just wanted to unlock the achievement. Sigh. Silly Spiral.

I was twiddling my thumbs before the Marionette fight and had a sudden burning question: How do you sex a Charr? Do you have to pick them up by the tail and look at their bums? *grin*
Of course, being the kook that I am, I asked that exact question in map chat, and I actually got an answer! Apparently, female charr have a fluffier tail. Never the one to take an answer at face value without researching it myself, I went to character creation to check it out. It's true!
Female Charr always have fluffy tails. Male Charr have lion-like tufted tails.
Spiral's ring
The next object that caught the attention of my bored mind was my gloves. I don't usually have Spiral's gloves shown, because most gloves are too ornate for my tastes. But I had this pair on that included a ring, so I tried to match the colour of the gloves to Spiral's, um, leaf-skin so that it appeared she was just wearing the ring. It looks pretty good in this picture but whenever the light source changed, you could see that the glove was a solid colour and not the shading of her leaf-skin. Plus, there's the seam at the wrist.
But it made me think that it would be cool if your jewelry showed up on your toon. I mean, we all wear amulets and rings and earrings: why don't they show? I guess it would be a nightmare to draw. But if that's not possible, it would be cool if some gloves were just rings, like I've tried to do here.

Spending so much time in Lornar's Pass can be dull. So I've taken the time to talk to a lot of the NPCs that hang out in the area. Most of them have nothing new to say, but I found this one Charr sitting in the Priory who said something that I didn't know about: the five races that originally fought the Elder Dragons. Figuring that everyone else in Lornar's Pass who was waiting for the Marionette to start was bored too, I asked about it in map chat, and ending up starting a lovely animated discussion about GW2 lore. There are some hardcore players out there who know so much about the history of Tyria! Pretty cool.
Scholar Trueclaw (a female Charr, I checked her tail) ponders the Elder Dragons.
I started another map chat discussion yesterday while I was bored and crafting in L.A. I feigned ignorance of the classes of GW1 and got a bunch of people talking about dervishes and 55 monks and which class they miss the most. It was fun. :)
But then that made me think about what if there is a new race and not a new class? Panic!! I have all eight classes right now, and I'm smart and have one extra character slot open. But what if they come out with a new race, like the Tengu (the current front-runner) and no new class and then I have to make a Tengu that is a duplicate class? Or would I have to delete one of my toons???? I can't do that!! I love them. My mind started churning and I decided that if that happens, new race, no new class, I'd have to delete either my warrior or my ranger. The rest are too awesome.
But hold the airship! If they introduce a new race and a new class, do I really want to do that combination? Won't everyone be doing that? Like there will be a bazillion Tengu Ritualists out there. I like to be different. Anyhoo, according to my Google search, a new race and/or class isn't coming anytime soon. So I can put aside my needless panic for now. :)

Moving on! I have been obsessed with achievement points. I go into the Achievement panel every day and I try to get one or two of the missing ones. That means a lot of jumping puzzles and a lot of exploring. I actually finished up all the Explorer achieves yesterday (woot!) and now it's down to JPs and figuring out what one dungeon I haven't done story mode on. (I think it's Honor of the Waves.) Oh, plus fractals and slayers and weapon masters and crafting. Lots to do!
Dierdre's Steps, way high up! The wind was blowing the grasses.
I have actually enjoyed the last few JPs that I've done, which is odd because I suck at jumping! Dierdre's Steps was wonderful. I wanted to stay there. I also spent a lot of time in The Collapsed Observatory, although not because it was wonderful, but because (I repeat) I suck at jumping. Was totally lost and ended up jumping back to the spot I just came from. I repeat, Silly Spiral. Goemm's Lab was totally fun and not too hard. I had Dulfy's help though. :D

I also thought that the explorer achievement Tears of Itlaocol was pretty cool. It's nice when there's elements of the game that aren't just about hacking and slashing. I was really fond of the Asura starting zone for that! The math questions for that one heart-quest were fun, and that little hologram who talks to you and then quizzes you on what he said -- very cool.

Have you ever picked up environmental objects to fight with? I remember when I first starting playing that I was fascinated by the fact that you could grab a boulder or a bottle or whatever that was just lying around and use it to fight. But the skills were a bit disappointing to me, so I stopped doing it.
Until yesterday when I found a starfish!! I wanted to keep it as my underwater weapon, instead of my lame-o trident. Check it out! Fearsome and stylish all at once. Although, I imagine the starfish isn't too impressed. Have you ever touched a starfish? When I was in Cuba, a Cuban guy dove in the water and got one for me and let me hold it. It was hard and very sharp! Not something to mess with.
Beware of me!