Since I knew exactly what time to get there I thought it would be cool to try and catch a shot of the Claw as he lands. The nearby Vista proved most useful!
 |
| Blue is a theme |
I also got this one
 |
| Very angry |
Tuesday, 29 April 2014
Dragons!
I have had the urge to re-fight the Dragon lieutenants in the pass week. Managed to do Claw of Jormag today and I think is one of my favourite events once you know what you are doing.
Since I knew exactly what time to get there I thought it would be cool to try and catch a shot of the Claw as he lands. The nearby Vista proved most useful!
I also got this one
Since I knew exactly what time to get there I thought it would be cool to try and catch a shot of the Claw as he lands. The nearby Vista proved most useful!
I also got this one
Thursday, 24 April 2014
The megaserver is jumping
I'm finishing up monthly part the second with jumping puzzles. I'm not a huge fan but using the guide at dulfy.net to identify the easy ones it's much less of a chore. Turns out, of the 10 I have done so far, I've done 9 of them before and remembered how to do them surprisingly well!
I've also had a LOT of company! Sure JP are one of those places where you'll often bump into someone, there's only a finite number of them, but this morning I did the Wall Blitz with about 6 other players.
So I guess we'll chalk that up as a megaserver plus point.
I've also had a LOT of company! Sure JP are one of those places where you'll often bump into someone, there's only a finite number of them, but this morning I did the Wall Blitz with about 6 other players.
So I guess we'll chalk that up as a megaserver plus point.
Thursday, 10 April 2014
As it turns out...
There was!
Oh, the conclusion of the Living Story was a drag. The Marionette fight was entertaining once. I just skipped the rest.
Oh, the conclusion of the Living Story was a drag. The Marionette fight was entertaining once. I just skipped the rest.
Monday, 6 January 2014
Back to work?
I've had a great time playing GW2 over the Christmas break. I've dabbled doing all sorts of stuff: some crafting, a fair few dungeon stories, a bit of personal story and I've also tinkered with a few alts. I've also run Guild Puzzle/Challenge/Rush etc and had a great time with my Guild. It's all been really relaxing and enjoyable.
Why is this notable? Well, I'm slightly concerned that the reason I found it all so enjoyable and relaxing was because I completed all the Living World achivements before Christmas. So, I basically had a week (of higher than normal) playtime to do what I like.
So, did Anet effectively give us a Christmas holiday too? Is there a back to work slump looming in the not to distant future...
I hope not.
Why is this notable? Well, I'm slightly concerned that the reason I found it all so enjoyable and relaxing was because I completed all the Living World achivements before Christmas. So, I basically had a week (of higher than normal) playtime to do what I like.
So, did Anet effectively give us a Christmas holiday too? Is there a back to work slump looming in the not to distant future...
I hope not.
Thursday, 26 December 2013
Nemesis' Necro Hybrid for cheapskates
Following this post by Anatoli Ingram I got in touch with him to find out which builds he referred to as "a traditional dark caster" and "a blood ritualist". He very kindly replied and linked me to Nemesis' Hybrid Build and Succubus respectively. These both look like fun builds but the latter is maybe a bit too much like Clott's Daggermancer, which I have been running (with mods) for quite a while, and since I really wanted to try an axe build I decided to investigate the Hybrid build in detail.
Having watched Nemesis' video thoroughly (and hopefully understood it), I started looking at what it would cost to buy the build. I quickly realised it would take a BIG chunk of my modest wealth to replicate the build exactly. Those Runes of Divinity are more than "a bit expensive" and since I recently splurged on an alt I don't have the Laurels for the Celestial Ascended trinkets either. Aside from that I'm a "try before you buy" guy. I'll happily drop 100g on a build if I think it's worth it but I have to know if I like it first!
A quick search revealed that I could probably avoid the Celestial trinkets, which would let me keep the Berserker stats, and that in turn would help avoid the Divinity runes. I used the gw2skills.net builder to experiment (intothemists.com has some notable errata) and I present, after a few hours work, The Nemesis' Hybrid for Cheapskates aka "the ghetto version". Let's be absolutely clear: I am in no way saying this is a better build. It is a shit load cheaper, though! Probably. The main differences are:
If, like me, you are coming from Clott's Daggermancer you can make a significant change by replacing your Cavalier's Rings directly with Celestial and exchanging a few orbs. This makes a better Hybrid than pure Zerker trinkets, boosting your vit, toughness and, most importantly condition damage. Loses a bit of power, though. Natch.
Having watched Nemesis' video thoroughly (and hopefully understood it), I started looking at what it would cost to buy the build. I quickly realised it would take a BIG chunk of my modest wealth to replicate the build exactly. Those Runes of Divinity are more than "a bit expensive" and since I recently splurged on an alt I don't have the Laurels for the Celestial Ascended trinkets either. Aside from that I'm a "try before you buy" guy. I'll happily drop 100g on a build if I think it's worth it but I have to know if I like it first!
A quick search revealed that I could probably avoid the Celestial trinkets, which would let me keep the Berserker stats, and that in turn would help avoid the Divinity runes. I used the gw2skills.net builder to experiment (intothemists.com has some notable errata) and I present, after a few hours work, The Nemesis' Hybrid for Cheapskates aka "the ghetto version". Let's be absolutely clear: I am in no way saying this is a better build. It is a shit load cheaper, though! Probably. The main differences are:
- Rabid instead of Rampager armour (obtainable with Karma and BoH)
- Keep Berserker Ascended trinkets (everyone has those, right?)
- Use random mix of orbs instead of the Runes
If, like me, you are coming from Clott's Daggermancer you can make a significant change by replacing your Cavalier's Rings directly with Celestial and exchanging a few orbs. This makes a better Hybrid than pure Zerker trinkets, boosting your vit, toughness and, most importantly condition damage. Loses a bit of power, though. Natch.
Monday, 2 December 2013
Crafting on the cheap in GW2
I heard about http://gw2crafts.com/ from the GW2 Reporter podcast and it's a really well executed idea and a really clever bit of work. But is it the cheapest way to level a craft?
No. It's not always and here's why.
Firstly, the clever thing about the site is that it gets you to craft the items that give the smallest loss while preparing to craft items in the next tier. So, in Tier 1 of each rank you convert raw mats to processed mats and components. Makes sense, right? No, not always.
I am currently using the site to level Huntsman. To get me from 225 to 300 it had me set to do the crafts in Figure 1. Now, what you can't see here is that, today, Hard Longbow Staves sell at a decent profit. As do Darksteel Rifle Barrels. Most of the other things that it asks you to make are a net loss. You can use gw2spidy to check these things, for example. To level from 225 to 250 in the cheapest way possible you should probably just convert logs to planks, make longbow staves and sell them at a profit. Yes, that does mean you won't have any components to craft in Tier 2 but it might be cheaper to buy them straight from the TP anyway! It is today and that's the thing about GW2 it pays to research.
Secondly, to get to level 400 gw2crafts NEVER recommends you make an item using a vendor purchase recipe. As you should know, in the last "tier" of your current "rank", usually what I would call Tier 3, you can make Rare weapons using recipes bought from the crafting masters with karma. These recipes are nearly always profitable because they either make unique looking weapons and/or are best in slot for that level.
What that means, again, is that the components you crafted in Tier 1 might not make the most profitable Rare weapons. So what the guide recommends for Tier 1 may not even be useful if you decide to craft Rares instead.
Thirdly, in my case, levelling Huntsman, you would never know from gw2crafts that you can make unique Rare weapons at level 250 using a Sun Beads. If you make 6 of these weapons you'll be at 275 and they sell for a profit.
For my final push to 300 the guide recommends making 8 Sigils. These will cost me 34.46s a pop to craft. However, looking at gw2spidy again, I can see at least 7 recipes I can make that will yield a profit instead of a 2.59g loss.
Like I said, it's a great site and a pretty convenient way to level a craft but even the "slow" guides could lose you a small fortune and if money is tight it's a mistake you can ill afford to make.
No. It's not always and here's why.
Firstly, the clever thing about the site is that it gets you to craft the items that give the smallest loss while preparing to craft items in the next tier. So, in Tier 1 of each rank you convert raw mats to processed mats and components. Makes sense, right? No, not always.
I am currently using the site to level Huntsman. To get me from 225 to 300 it had me set to do the crafts in Figure 1. Now, what you can't see here is that, today, Hard Longbow Staves sell at a decent profit. As do Darksteel Rifle Barrels. Most of the other things that it asks you to make are a net loss. You can use gw2spidy to check these things, for example. To level from 225 to 250 in the cheapest way possible you should probably just convert logs to planks, make longbow staves and sell them at a profit. Yes, that does mean you won't have any components to craft in Tier 2 but it might be cheaper to buy them straight from the TP anyway! It is today and that's the thing about GW2 it pays to research.
 |
| Figure 1 - Huntsman 225 - 300 |
What that means, again, is that the components you crafted in Tier 1 might not make the most profitable Rare weapons. So what the guide recommends for Tier 1 may not even be useful if you decide to craft Rares instead.
Thirdly, in my case, levelling Huntsman, you would never know from gw2crafts that you can make unique Rare weapons at level 250 using a Sun Beads. If you make 6 of these weapons you'll be at 275 and they sell for a profit.
For my final push to 300 the guide recommends making 8 Sigils. These will cost me 34.46s a pop to craft. However, looking at gw2spidy again, I can see at least 7 recipes I can make that will yield a profit instead of a 2.59g loss.
Like I said, it's a great site and a pretty convenient way to level a craft but even the "slow" guides could lose you a small fortune and if money is tight it's a mistake you can ill afford to make.
Monday, 25 November 2013
Duck and Cover
This weekend I reached level 80 on my Engineer. Hurray!
One of the best parts about getting to 80 is deciding what your build will be and how your gear will look. I decided on my build a LONG time ago so this weekend I spent some time on the look. As a human engineer allied to the Vigil I wanted to include elements of both the cultural armour and Vigil gear. That was easy enough to work out but the coat was going to be a problem.
My build is focused very much on movement; damage mitigation through evasion, so having a long trench coat is impractical and thus immersion breaking. Looking at the female medium armour galleries there are only a few short coats. The best I could find was the Ascalonian Catacombs body and it was pretty much perfect! A quick check of my wallet reveals I have 69 Tears in the bank. Time to start running AC!
So, last night, after our guild event, the call for dungeons went out. I immediately piped up and said I needed to do AC and off we went. I haven't run AC many times so I apologised in advance. I should have been a bit clearer that I wasn't at all sure what I was doing but it was only when I got the achievement at the end of the run I realised I hadn't done the path before!
It wasn't the best run. It wasn't helped by the fact that one of our other party members AFKed suddenly, and for some time, mid-run but I generally felt more of a hinderance than a help and I think this came down to my build.
It's not a Berserker build but it's certainly not a tank build and it seems the strat for much of this path is to stand still and get battered by the bosses. Knowing that I won't bother doing AC Path 1 on my Engineer again. It's just not worth it. What was needed was just pure damage.
Sometimes I wonder if I should run dungeons more often but this makes me realise why I don't. I'm not an RP player but (as you can see from my gear choices) in my mind my toon has a character. If the rest of the community forces me to play "out of character" in order to participate in "content" then I think I'd rather not bother.
Of course, I could put some time into thinking about a boss/dungeon build, as opposed to a PvE trash mob build, but since PvE is where I spend 90% of my time I'm not going to make a priority. In the meantime I'll just run AC on my necromancer. Only an idiot dies on a necro.
One of the best parts about getting to 80 is deciding what your build will be and how your gear will look. I decided on my build a LONG time ago so this weekend I spent some time on the look. As a human engineer allied to the Vigil I wanted to include elements of both the cultural armour and Vigil gear. That was easy enough to work out but the coat was going to be a problem.
My build is focused very much on movement; damage mitigation through evasion, so having a long trench coat is impractical and thus immersion breaking. Looking at the female medium armour galleries there are only a few short coats. The best I could find was the Ascalonian Catacombs body and it was pretty much perfect! A quick check of my wallet reveals I have 69 Tears in the bank. Time to start running AC!
So, last night, after our guild event, the call for dungeons went out. I immediately piped up and said I needed to do AC and off we went. I haven't run AC many times so I apologised in advance. I should have been a bit clearer that I wasn't at all sure what I was doing but it was only when I got the achievement at the end of the run I realised I hadn't done the path before!
It wasn't the best run. It wasn't helped by the fact that one of our other party members AFKed suddenly, and for some time, mid-run but I generally felt more of a hinderance than a help and I think this came down to my build.
It's not a Berserker build but it's certainly not a tank build and it seems the strat for much of this path is to stand still and get battered by the bosses. Knowing that I won't bother doing AC Path 1 on my Engineer again. It's just not worth it. What was needed was just pure damage.
Sometimes I wonder if I should run dungeons more often but this makes me realise why I don't. I'm not an RP player but (as you can see from my gear choices) in my mind my toon has a character. If the rest of the community forces me to play "out of character" in order to participate in "content" then I think I'd rather not bother.
Of course, I could put some time into thinking about a boss/dungeon build, as opposed to a PvE trash mob build, but since PvE is where I spend 90% of my time I'm not going to make a priority. In the meantime I'll just run AC on my necromancer. Only an idiot dies on a necro.
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