Gaming etiquette

The other day i jumped into Guild Wars with the intent of doing a mission (it was Jokanur Diggings if anyone was wondering) but upon loading i saw the elusive ‘LFG Mission’ being spammed into the chat, so, i joined a PuG.

in-case you don’t know, a PuG (Pick up Group) is the common name for those random people you meet and group with, the ones who you don't know, the ones who almost all the time turn out to be on the edge of sanity and often could be more accurately described by the bellow image.

now we are at the point where i am going to give newer Guild Wars players some simple tips to make them better PuGer’s (is that a real word?)

When you get into a new group, find out who the leader is, ask the question ‘who’s going to choose/call targets?’ this makes life easier.

you should make sure that everyone knows everyone else's ‘build’ this is done by ‘pinging your build’ you do this in an outpost by holding ‘CTRL’ and double clicking your skill bar.

the reason that this is important is not to judge people on their builds but to see what people have equipped, for instance it may be of use to know that an Elementalist-Monk has a resurrect equipped, or that a Monk is a smite monk not a healer or protector.

Don't judge those builds people show you, just because you don't understand how skills relate to each other does not mean they don't, often a complicated build that requires deep understanding of skills can look like a random mash of skills to the uninformed.

However all this said, if some one has no resurrection skill equipped then that can be a problem, maybe worth pointing out as most people do not equip a ‘res’ for solo play. they may have forgotten to switch it in.

Looking at a ‘Pinged’ a build is also a great way to learn how to construct your own build, you can get a sense of how they are constructed and how different professions work (great for your heroes')

You can call targets by selecting a target and holding the ‘CTRL’ key while double clicking, or holding ‘CTRL’ while pushing the space bar. The target can then be selected by the whole group (push ‘T’ to select it) making battling faster and more usefully take out healers fist.

The next thing to remember is to keep an eye on that compass, anyone who is not on voice communication with you (99.99999% of all PuG’s in GW will not join you in voice chat) will franticly draw directions on the compass to get your attention quickly.

Examples of this are lines over a portion of the map (do not cross) or an arrow (this way) or even pinging the map (double click on the compass to make it show something as a red expanding circle, known as pinging) there are lots of other reasons to use the compass as well, such ass seeing approaching enemy.

Drawing on the compass is a great way to get attention to a specific thing and to get everyone travelling the same path, because its no noticeable and fast it is more effective than typing.

The most important thing i can say about PuGing is that you do not leave (or Rage Quit), there is nothing more frustrating than gathering a group of people for a mission or quest and then two of them leave half way thorough for no reason. its irritating as hell.

The other thing is that you should listen to other players, just because you think your a good player does not mean that the people your with aren't better. in some cases the people you have PuGed with maybe fantastic players who know the game better than anyone you have ever played with before. imagine how irritated this person would be if you ignored their called targets.

I hope this was was informative and remember, play nice and get the job done.

Unlocks?

There is allot of talk in the Guild Wars In-Game shop about Unlocks. but what does this really mean? well let me explain this and how you can get your unlocks for free.

When you load Guild Wars for the first time you have only the most basic skills for each profession and through playing you ‘unlock’ more from skill trainers and quest rewards.

Every time you unlock as skill its available account wide, this confuses people because every new character has to get the skill from a skill trainer, but ‘unlocked’ does not mean its given freely to any PvE character, it means that its available for all your AI heroes and for all your PvP characters.

Buying those unlock packs from the store would not give you instant access to every skill on every character but it will make you a much better PvP player as well as give your Heroes more snap crackle and pop

But here is the good news, you don't have to pay to unlock skills. your skill unlocks are for the lazy player, because you can unlock the skills by playing PvP and winning Balthazar Faction points. you can take your faction points and talk to a priest, yes, a priest, he can be found in your guild hall or in the Great Temple of Balthazar (Battle Isles)

You can use your points to unlock skills, Elite skills, items and heroes. you may not have the time or desire to unlock every skill the way the shops unlocks do but you can probably get all the skills you need for your heroes builds with little effort.

Its especially useful for getting those elite skills for your heroes, after all capturing every elite skill you want may take you a while and at 1,000 Gold her signet of capture it can be expensive. saying that though at least the signet of capture will give your PvE character access to it.

They never respawn.

often people have said to me that instancing is not a good thing, that instancing detracts from the immersion of a game. well, i can see why some people would say that but here is my take on it.

What’s an instance?

An instance is a private version of an area that just you and your party share, you will not bump into random players like you will in World of Warcraft or other more persistent MMO’s.

You would think that when you exit the outpost and neater an instance that it would be a lonely feeling but far from it. Because you can still access guild and alliance chat you you still feel engaged in the world, even when you are in a party of AI henchmen you do not feel alone.

In fact because of instancing you never have to queue up in line waiting for a ‘boss’ to spawn or continually miss those kills you need because some one else has come and murdered everything in an area.

I fact, there is one wonderful thing that instancing does. when you will something it will no respawn, once you kill something it stays dead until you exit and re-enter the area. meaning that if you are doing badly you don't have to battle your way through never-ending hordes of enemy's, just the 200 or so that are populating the instance.

It’s possible in Guild Wars to entirely clear an area. in fact thanks to hard mode vanquishing titles its actually encouraged.

once you have completed a campaign (finished the primary quest/mission line you unlock a little button that is visible in the party window called ‘hard mode’ when you click it you enter the instanced wilderness in a more difficult mode of play.

but once all members of the party reach –60DP (maximum death penalty) you are all tossed back to the outpost.  

there are two major reasons to tackle an area in hard mode, the first is to clear the area for your Vanquisher title (that you get once you have cleared EVERY area in a campaign) or to get a bonus on your title points. for example if you tackle an Asuran area you will get extra Asuran title track points (double in some cases) for the same number of kills.

 

This has been a very basic article regarding Hard Mode and Instancing, it is by no means all i have to say on the topic but it is all i have time to write at the moment, i will give a more in-depth look at Hard Mode (HM) at a later date, after all, its almost an art clearing those area’s.

Note: this weeks 404 Radio (Episode 36) will have an in-depth talk about the GW Bard posts. you can get 404 Radio from the RSS feed, here http://feeds.feedburner.com/404-Radio

PvP Thoughts, part 2, RA and the PvP dude.

For the second part of my PvP discussion I have chosen to talk about my second favourite PvP type in the game, this seamed to make sense to me.

The Random Arena is one of the first PvP arenas that most people try, this is partly because it is a part of the first game and partly because you don’t require a group for it.

Once you enter the random arena outpost (in the battle isles) you have a nice and clear button that allows you to enter a battle. you will then almost instantly be doped into a team (of 3 other people) where you will do anything from a kill count game mode to a flag stand game

Because there is no need to get into a team for this mode it has stayed very popular and you can usually enter a game within seconds, if your team wins then you stay in that group for another round, if you fail you are kicked back to the outpost.

As simple as this sounds there are some really basic tips that increase your survivability.

Take a fast healing skill. the faster you can raise your downed team mates the better chance you stand.

have a surprise build, don't go in there with ‘cookie cutter’ builds if people have a good idea of your build there is a good chance they will have a good way to ‘down’ you.

Talk to your new friends, these maybe random strangers but if you can work as a team then you WILL always win.

Not a deep talk through I know but there is not much to say really, its pretty straight forwards.

The PvP dude.

This is pretty straight forwards but there is some confusion about it. if you want to play PvP you do not need to level a character from scratch.

You can simply create a new character and select ‘PvP Only’ from the menu when offered the choice.

There you go, you have a level 20 PvP character, you can then enter the inventory and select the ‘equipment’ button and get access to anything unlocked on your account. Easy, I know, but that new character can not access any of the PvE content, its a real PvP only dude.

Its worth playing PvE with any class to unlock new skills unless you want to pay some money in the in-game store to unlock skills.

If you are new to the game there is no need to hold back. try that PvP, its awesome i promise.

Also, remember guys some kills have different effects in PvP mode, this is indicated by the PvP tag in the skill selection menu.

PvP thoughts, part 1, AB

Last night tired of playing my new Ranger and fetched my main character from the bench, he is a Mesmer primary and the secondary changes almost every time I play him. this is because i have seven Mesmer skills equipped and the eighth skill can be anything from an elementalist AoE skill to a resurrection skill.

but last night i joined my small but friendly guild in a spot of Alliance battling. Alliance Battles or AB as they are commonly known are a wonderfully fast pace PvP Type. (Player Vs Player Combat)

In this mode 12 people (that's 3 cooperating teams) face off in a king of the hill style match against 12 people from the opposite team.

There are 5 large maps that are chosen from the current wins and losses of each faction in the game.

for instance if the Kurzick aligned player win more than the Luxon aligned player the a map that gives the Kurzick players a slight advantage will load, and vice versa. then there is a neutral map for if the wins and losses are evened out.

Each capture is worth points awarded every few seconds, the game is over when one side reaches 500 points. There is no loot in AB and only level 20 PvE or PvP characters can play.

AB is part of the Factions campaign and only accessible to players with access to this or the PvP access kit.

To gain access to AB you have to talk to the Alliance Battles representative NPC who is found within your guild hall. the side you play for is dependant on your guilds allegiance.

Common tactics and tips for AB.

Mobbing – this is when all 12 player group together and take the various points on at a time. good if your opponents are disorganised but an organised opponent will capture many points in alternating order making it ineffective (you cant mob and be in two places at once)

Split Capping – this is when each of the three teams takes a different point as fast as possible then moves on to the next one.

Do not equip a resurrection ability for AB as player are resurrected every 20 seconds, also resurrection abilities are catered for a single group not cooperative team so they are largely ineffective anyway.

Necromancers are especially useful as the death toll mounts up very fast leaving many corpses to exploit.

There is no death penalty in AB so dying is acceptable as long as you are scoring points with each life.

Due to the large teams there tends to be a very diverse mix of professions so ‘monk 55’ characters are not very useful and die often (i will go into the 55 builds in more detail at a later time)

Rewards.

Every member of the winning team receives 1000 faction points (Kurzick or Luxon) they also receive points based on their end score. each kill is worth 10 faction points and 10 Balthazar points. (points are used for unlocks of skills and equipment for PvP among other things)

battle also effect a regions control line on the main world map that effects prices at merchants and in some cases access to outpost.

AB is allot of fun and as a PvP arena is stands up against the likes of Warhammer Online’s Scenarios battles and the combat found in LotRO’s ettinmoor area. if you have not tried it then please do, its fun.

if anyone is interested in some AB and does not have a guild or would like some help then please contact me in game as ‘Laird Hex’ or through Xfire as HexDSl

What happens to my dude in GW2?

 

There seams to be some confusion among some Guild Wars players regarding what happens to their character in Guild Wars 2. I have taken it up on my self to champion the war of education and get this straight.

When Guild Wars 2 is released it will be an entirely new game, you will need to create another character from scratch, this is a blanket rule, no matter how good you war at Guild Wars you will have to start with a new character.

The reason for this is that Guild Wars 2 will be using an entirely new system of game play and your little character will just not work. i am no game designer but i am sure this is a genuine issue and not a made up excuse for anything.

However when Guild Wars 2 was announced along side The Eye of the North (GW:EN, GWEN, TEotN, or whatever other abbreviation you may know) it was made clear that all your hard work would not be wasted.

An area was added to the game called ‘Eye of the North’ and this area connected to an instanced area called ‘The Hall of Monuments’ this area allows you to forever entomb ‘monuments’ ensuring they last forever, or at least the 250 years later that Guild Wars 2 is set.

It works like this, you enter the hall and place items, weapons, statues of Heroes and titles on the monument stands.

The hall can house destroyer weaponry (not green items), Mini Pets(miniatures), Heroes who have acquired upgraded armour, prestige armour sets and certain maximum level titles (as statues)

All of these things give descript ‘bonuses’ to the descendents of your characters in the future. This means that when you create a new character in Guild Wars 2, you can access the ‘hall’ belonging to a character and ‘claim’ the rewards. it is assumed by player that rewards will range from cosmetic titles to levelling advantages (XP boots) it is also assumed that the Mini Pets will be usable as the yare in the current game. This is all assumption however as little has been confirmed at this point.

In order to unlock all this wonder of course you must finish the majority of the Eye of the North Primary quest line, this gets you the ‘tapestries’  that unlock each monument area.

Another miner detail regarding The Hall of Monuments is that if you fill certain requirements you can get a unique pet companion called a Rainbow Phoenix, all details are at THIS web link.

so, in a nutshell, your current Guild Wars character will not be able to come with you to Guild Wars 2, but you will be able to show that you where a serious player of the original game and even gain some benefits from your hardcore Guild Wars playing. i know it is hard to let go of a character you play for such lengths if time but I'm sure the glory of Guild Wars 2 will make up for it…. eventually.

Here is all the current Guild Wars 2 news, this article is updated as new news is released and confirmed.

Meet my little friend.

All hail Tod! yes Tod, i went from level one to level 20 with the little fella, so i had to call him something.

 

But who is Tod and why am i so attached?

Tod or ‘Fire Imp (Summon)’ ah he is better known is an allied NPC that is available to players who have specific versions of the game, the list is pretty long but basically if you have all the campaigns (And the expansion) you get a Tod. You can also get a Tod by purchasing him from the in-game store, or having Guild Wars One Million edition (variant of the game that was released to celebrate 1 million sales) there are other ways to be eligible for one but those are the most common ways.

so once you have an account that's eligible you can log in on many character that is NOT maximum level (level 20) and in the chat box you can type ‘/Bonus’ this will add some various items into your inventory (depending on your account perks)

The item you should be interested in is something called an ‘Igneous Summoning Stone’ it looks a little bit like this…

Okay, it looks exactly like that does (as that is a screen shot). now once you are in a combat area (not a town or outpost) you can double click the item in your inventory to summon Tod. Tod is always your level and you can summon him once an hour (unless your change zone, that resets the timer) and only one Tod can be summoned at a time, so you and your friends can not have one each, well, not at the same time. It is also worth knowing that you can not use the stone at level 20, its a levelling aid nothing more.

Well, are you following so far? yes, great ill get to my point.

Tod, is a fantastic levelling aid, he is attacks your enemies with little remorse but in the process of doing this it becomes apparent that he makes your party (a good party at least) a little over powered for same level content.

Granted he is not a crazed killer Ninja with combat armour and a minigun but he does tip the balance in your favour, just enough to make mission’s easier and general XP gathering faster.

i am not sure i object to this in principle but while levelling my ranger i really did feel like the content had gotten easier. don't misunderstand i am not complaining about it, its nice to see content with less stress and this is probably a better way to get people to maximum level than an XP curve change.

you still have to go through all the content but you get to be it faster and with more success generally.

my only concern is how Tod effected the small percentage of pre-searing community. They can now use Tod to gather XP easier and die less. meaning its a definite aid to the Survivor and Legendary defender titles.

My other observation here is that with this kind of game addition making content easier (i know, not vastly) then ArenaNet are actually doing the opposite of keeping people playing until Guild Wars 2.

this about it, lots of people finish content and switch game or at least play it less, so shouldn't ArenaNet be adding one or two near impossible dungeons or making hard mode harder?

What is their game plan here? are we going to see some additional content like we did with the Codex Arena or the Zaishen Menagerie or is the game at the point now where they are simply leaving things as they are until the sequel is released?

This post is of course little more than the thoughts of a single player, and I'm sure there are many people who have still not touched the content that is already there.

The levelling curve

 

As you know i have come back into Guild Wars with a mission, and as part of that i have been levelling my Ranger, i rolled her out about six months ago and got her to level 3 before loosing interest in her. but now i am back into the game i have decided to get her through factions content (if only for ranger skill unlocks, i don’t want to but the unlocks, earning them would mean more)

so in three days i am at the Arborstone mission and am level 19 (click image for larger view)

 

I intent do be finishing the mission and hitting level 20 by the end of the day. It really is a wonderful thing to be able to create a new character and hit max level in two days, i know the GW levelling process is not at all like other games but lets not take anything away from it, at level 20 i can go into PvP arena’s with my PvE Ranger and be effective, that's great.

As I have not yet visited the Kaineng Center as I am following the main plot line and not ‘cheating’ by unlocking area’s early. i will get some max point armour and then try her out in PvP, this should all happen this evening (after i record a new episode of 404 Radio)

also i would like to take this moment to say that yes… i too heard that GW2 wont be launched until 2011, as much as it hurts i have to think, this gives me more time to collect stuff for my Hall of Monuments, but really, how can they expect people to stick with this game for this long with no new content? i think we may see a surprise digital download expansion within the next few months. That would be nice.

What do do now?

I have been playing Guild Wars for about 3 years,  I have gone through all the content, I have enjoyed every mission more than once, and I have met some great people.

then came the GW burn, the GW burn is what happens when you have done all that you want to do in the game, its what happens when you realise that as this game is free to play and they are making a sequel that there is no new content on its way, sure they may shake up the PvP arena’s occasionally but as for story, lore and general content, there is nothing coming.

so, I took a break, not meaning that I stopped playing GW but I only popped in occasionally while i played LotRO (Lord of the Rings Online) and i tried a few other MMO’s but in the end, the way GW is played made it my spiritual MMO-Home.

new, after almost a year of GW not being my main game, I am back, I logged in and once more found the ‘love’ i have given my self a mission, and in doing so i have reignited my dedication to the game.

I have a few things to accomplish before GW2, and I’m in no rush.

1) Fill all my character slots with lvl 20' PvE characters. and have those character experience all of the content. (main storyline)

2) On my ‘Main’ (Laird Hex, Mesmer, badass) i intend to get all skills unlocked for every class.

3) my ‘Main’ will Capture every elite skill.

4) PvP my way to Max Kurzick title. (no FFF, that’s cheating)

anyway i will post diary style entries once a week (ish) updating you all on my experiences in game as well as my desire to find a truly great guild again

also, when i play GW i tend to jump in a little heavy so im going to be playing Spellborn as my ‘alt’ game.

its new

its a new GW blog well actually its just a mirror of hte GW posts on my Lairds Lobby account

its new

its a new GW blog well actually its just a mirror of hte GW posts on my Lairds Lobby account