Things #GuildWars2 isn't doing superb in PvE

As much as I fanboi about Guild Wars 2, something that is very easily done if you, like me, play primarily PvE, there are a few things I don't love.
How many of these are beta? Honestly I don't know, and although I read a lot of the news coming out, I miss a lot of them as well.
But enough disclaimer, here is a list without any specific order.

The age of humans

When creating your human character you will see a very low amount of grown ups, specifically among the female characters. They look like girls. Girls that has spent quite a bit of time at the salon.

I tried to create a streetrat ranger, something my personal story allows, and this was the most unkept I could make her. The third one is a guildie that tried to make a streetrat necromancer, hoping to find someone looking scarred and ratty.

I may be complaining about small stuff, but streetrats, and especially rangers, would likely not be spending a large amount of time and money to get their hair done. And a necromancer living in a sewer, seeing if she can make a conga-line of ratcorpses, will not benefit from big 80's hair.


And it's not only the player characters that feel a bit too young for who they are. Below are an old man and old woman (as you can see by their names).

I'm not sure if this is to symbolize that humans are under constant attack and have a very short lifespan or if there is a strong presence of magicians specializing in cosmetic surgery.

Invisible walls

I am not a fan of invisible walls. And no, I have no idea how to do it in a better way.
But when you do add an invisible wall, don't put the most interesting thing you can imagine behind it!

Fortunately it seems that there is a reason for this flying castle though, as the citizens in the small village below it speaks of it frequently.

Insta-spawns

This is a problem that's been present in both betas so far. Hopefully it's just a beta thing in order to provide as much content as possible for players, but it gets ridiculous at times. There are several examples for when this was gamebreaking.
Me and a guildie were doing a jumping puzzle, ending in a long corridor with oozes. At the end of the corridor was a large room of a few ooze bosses and we decided to stop for half a minute to empty our bags.
This was enough time for the entire corridor to be repopulated and we were crushed between the bosses and the respawns.


After having saved Fort Salma me and four guildies decided to continue the event chain (which was an excellent chain by the way) and finally ended up in a large centaur fort.
We got the event to kill their three lords and did so (this was timed) and when they were down a new event was heralded about a centaur champion coming to the camp.
After a really fun fight he was down and happy in our triumph we started to take down the large trebuchets in the fort, killing the centaur engineers.


And this was when it got ridiculous again. While taking down the third trebuchet (about 2 minutes or so after having taken the first down) we suddenly found ourselves under fire from the first trebuchet. 


As there were several in the fort, it's not possible to "liberate" the centaur fort.
And all of a sudden the three lords event was active and immediately after the champion was coming.
Not all that immersive when it takes about a minute for a large siege weapon to respawn when there are no enemies around.


This is of course a strange thought when thinking of other MMOs, but since kills aren't that important in Guild Wars 2, where at least all heart events have some sort of alternative to fighting mobs, being stabbed in the back by the guards you just took down is not optimal.
I'm looking at you Blood Witch barracudas...

Playing with yourself when you're alone

This weekend we played on server Boreal Station instead of Far Shiverpeaks, and the somewhat lower population and my characters high level meant some time alone in the world.
And it was obvious that large parts of the world is not made for this.


To be honest, I don't feel this is that big a problem as I did right after the weekend and I certainly don't want them to dumb down the game, but it could get frustrating to see events pop up and realizing you had no ability to help out.


But I was also aware that it was much better than from the previous beta, as a large event with krait slavers in the port next to Viathan Lake was now soloable if you went slow and finished it by freeing the slaves at the krait tower.

Conclusion

There is not a lot of issues I have with Guild Wars 2 right now from a PvE standpoint.

Human character models could use with an uglyfying and perhaps some fabric in their outfits.

This is not a good idea of how a human should look.

Picture borrowed from thefrisky.com (no idea what site it is, did a Google image search for her).

As for the other races, I really like their looks. The norn has some different styles and the sylvari look really great with their leaves lighting up during nighttime.

Invisible walls when underwater breaks immersion very quickly, as there is no indication on when one will arrive, in fact there is often something beyond the wall that intrigues a lot.

I really hope the insta-spawning is a beta thing. When entering a boss lair I have no desire to have the guards stabbing me in the back and when crushing an enemy fort I want them to spend a bit of time to rebuild so I can gloat, perhaps get a few screenshots, and have some time to look into every nook and cranny of the place.

The difficulty of soloing was a feeling I got when playing, but after having digested the beta weekend I am actually quite pleased with it. I shouldn't be able to win every largescale war when alone. Perhaps I need to look around and find another way to help out instead of Leroy Jenkins everything.

Cash shop

I'm giving this its own headline as so many people think the game is pay to win and a money-grabber.

It isn't. Trust me on this, you can't buy gear to win in PvP. You can't win against other players in PvE, period. There's a different between Players vs Environment and Players vs Players for a reason.

The items in their store are cosmetic or very short time boosts to XP or karma.

You can also buy more bagspace and character slots and character transfers, but aside from the bagspace, I'm not sure how many other games have this for free?

And you will be able to have 100 inventory-slots for free and in addition to that there's account storage with additional space dedicated to all manners of crafting materials and minis.

You can buy gold for real money through gem trade. This will make it possible for you to buy items in the auction house (even though it's not so much auction as supply and demand).

The following are items you CAN'T buy in auction:

Gear better than anyone elses. Perhaps better looking, but not with better stats.

Skillpoints. Or skills in handling your character for that matter.

Tigerblood. Even though that may be available in the Canthan expansion, there are very few tigers in Tyria.

Please add your own comments and things that annoy in the comments below.

My favourite #GuildWars2 event

The white lady


Very short blog entry showing a few shots of my favourite event in Guild Wars 2, the White Lady in Shaemoor Cemetary.

Shaemoor Cemetary is a serene place in the daylight.

A place with a mausoleum on top of a cliff, high above a lake.

After darkness has fallen, a visitor appears.

As the heroes we are, we decide to help her.

The rest of the story is something I leave for you to find out. May not be the most epic event or the longest, but the setting is splendid, like a horror movie from the 50's.

And you should visit, the headstones has some great texts and the gravekeeper is batters.

Adventuring in Guild Wars 2

How to adventure in Guild Wars 2

These are my tips on how to experience the open world of Guild Wars 2. I will not handle the personal story or WvW as I didn't really play them during the beta events I've attended.

What you see is what you get (to)

Standing on a cliff looking out across a seemingly painted back drop, keep in mind that what you see is where you can go. Take the road down the hill, or just jump out and hope to survive, and walk onwards.

The world is alive, and as you approach you will notice this. A farmer is asking for help herding their cattle or bandits try to blow up the dam, whichever it might be, you will notice it.

There are three main ways to find out what to do.

Go to a scout

At times you will see a NPC with a telescope above them, these are scouts. Talking to them, they will give a short explanation on what is happening in the are and mark your map with "heart events".

Updates in the interface

On the right side of your screen, right under the information on your next personal story step, a short description of nearby events will show up. The description will tell you what activities are available, progress bars and similar information.

Look around

Take your eyes off the health bar, look away from the map, stop staring at the heart event progress bar. As you walk around you will see things happen, a giant oakheart infected with parasites is making its rounds or a small asura is just waiting for you to offer to help in getting her dancing mini-moas get to Beetletun.

Things happen all around that are not connected to heart events or over arching stories, these are the stories told by the residents of the world, the individuals whose life you will pass through shortly. Take a moment off and help them.

By walking along a mountain side, not meant for traversing, I eventually found myself on a cliff where some players were fighting a huge worm queen. I helped them, and without talking to anyone, I was again engulfed in an activity.

What to do

The first thing you will see are the heart events. These are standard, always present activities in the world. These will have several different ways to fill. Some ways are always present, like watering plants, kill centaurs or pick rocks. During this however, some dynamic events will occur; For example, someone needs guarding from centaurs during a material run or a large boss appears while you're stomping out worm holes.

The dynamic events will provide some experience, karma and gold as well as providing a boost to the heart event.

There is however a lot of dynamic events not connected to heart events or larger event chains in the world. These will occur depending on specific triggers such as night falling which wakes a ghost walking the cemetery.

Skill point events are scattered throughout the world. Finishing these will, big surprise, provide you with a skill point.

Points of interest are points marked on your map that for some reason or other has been noted as interesting by Arena Net. Usually these are close to events or interesting NPCs. Walking to these will also provide an amount of XP.

Someone tested this out and managed to reach level 7 in Divinitys Reach, the human home capital, by just visiting points of interest and waypoints.

Waypoints, you do best in visiting these. Besides the small amount of XP you get for every new waypoint you visit, these are also places you can travel to instantly from anywhere. Open your map, or die, and you will be able to see these. Choose one, and for a small fee you will be able to go there.

Hidden areas, strange places and jumping puzzles. These are my favorites. All around the world you will find jumping puzzles, secret pathways and hidden enemies.

This ooze for example was found by my ranger pet, I started to look around, and eventually found a small hole in a wall, entering this, I found myself walking inside the top of the wall.

Underwater

And when you think you have seen everything and done everything, have you been underwater?

There is just as much to see and do here as there is above.

My tips and hints

Be prepared to be overwhelmed. You will set your sight on going somewhere, take for steps in that direction, and be sideswiped by a snowball fight with some kids.

This is not a game for those with problems leaving stuff undone, the game doesn't care that you want to finish everything, so why should you?

Is a heart event boring or not what you feel like right now, walk away. Leave it half finished, dive into the nearest lake and look stuff up. Does the area over there look nice, go there. It might seem silent right now, but walk around a little bit more, perhaps talk to an NPC or kill that grawl standing suspiciously underneath a pine tree. Go to the pub, perhaps the bartender needs a new bouncer?

And if you feel the next area is above you, travel to your capital, go through the asura gate to Lions Arch and from there the next portal to the capital of any of the other races. Outside these cities you will find a lot of new things to do and areas in need of a hero.

Or just stay in Lions Arch and look around, perhaps you will find a path into the sewers and at a far corner of these your new favorite underwater pet is residing. I'm looking at you armorfish.

In short, just run. Take a direction and start running, and I dare you getting to the other end of the world without finding anything interesting that stops you, if so only to help Linnea catch the jackalope.

Hantverk i Guild Wars 2

"Crafting" i Guild Wars 2

Mitt förra inlägg var en snabb genomgång av vad jag anser viktigast när man startar spelet för första gången.

Väldigt snabbt kommenterade jag där "crafting" och tänkte nu ta tillfället i akt att gå igenom det lite mer ingående eftersom man redan i ett tidigt skede kan skapa vapen som man behöver för att kunna få fram alla sina förmågor och kanske hitta den vapenuppsättning som passar en bäst.

Det tog mig en stund att finna att mina favorituppsättningar var långbåge samt enhandssvärd och fackla på min ranger eftersom man började med yxa.

Materialinsamling

Innan man kan skapa någonting behöver man material att skapa saker med. I Guild Wars 2 kan man få material på fyra olika sätt.

Harvesting.

För att kunna samla material behöver man endast redskap av korrekt effektgrad och att ens egen "level" är tillräckligt hög (inte level i specifik harvesting, din vanliga level).

De tre redskapstyperna är:

"Harvesting sickles" för mindre växter.

"Logging axes" för träd.

"Mining picks" för metaller.

Dessa köps av handlar runt om i världen och lägger sig på din karaktärssida.

Salvaging.

Med ett "salvage kit" kan man få material ur rustningsdelar, vapen och vissa "drops".

Drops.

Det "droppar" specialmaterial ute i världen mest hela tiden som behövs för att skapa rustningar och vapen med mer specifika egenskaper.

Från "Master [hantverk]".

Detta handlar enbart om specifika material som tråd till tyger, tenn för att förfina koppar till tackor, kryddor till matlagning och liknande. Titta igenom vad den du lärt dig ditt hantverk av har i att erbjuda.

När man nu har fått tag i sina material kan det kännas lite jobbigt att de tar plats i väskorna. Det finns dock en lösning på detta, helt enkelt högerklicka på materialen och välj "Deposit Collectible".

Det finns även en speciell del av din bank som är specialiserad för mini-pets.

Recept och materialförfining

Så snart du accepterar ett yrke för du en hög med recept som du kan utnyttja direkt.

Det man först bör göra är att förfina råmaterialet. När man gör detta går det fortare för varje del man förfinar för att slippa sitta i två timmar och se en mätare röra sig över skärmen.

Recepten man får i början handlar främst om enklare utrustning. Vill man göra ett par stövlar får man göra stövelskaft och sula. Sedan finns ett tredje recept där man kombinerar dessa båda med något extramaterial, i början kommer de flesta recept begära "weak blood" som droppar från fiender.

Det finns dock ytterligare sätt att få sina stövlar. Om man först gör en uppgraderingsdel, till rustningar handlar det främst om runor, kan man använda denna istället för den rena ingrediensen. Gå till "Discovery" delen av crafting panelen, lägg in dina två stöveldelar och runan du skapat. Nu kommer du få upp en ruta som säger att du kommer kunna skapa något, samt vilken nivå som krävs på din crafting för att du ska kunna genomföra det.

När du använder discovery-panelen så kan du själv testa olika ämnen och om det finns något recept att upptäcka. När du valt ditt första material, kommer du bara kunna välja av andra som passar med det materialet för att till slut ha ett möjligt recept. Dock är det inte säkert att du har rätt nivå på din crafting för att kunna skapa saken i fråga. men spelet kommer informera dig.

Du kan aldrig misslyckas med en crafting (vad jag känner till). Har du fel nivå eller material kommer du inte kunna skapa saken, och om du har rätt nivå och material så kommer du få resultatet i dina väskor.

Själv lyckades jag t.ex. skapa en väska med egenskapen att "vendor trash" främst hamnade i denna. Kan meddela att det fungerade mycket bra, både att skapa den och även funktionaliteten.

Vilka hanterk finns tillgängliga

I Guild Wars 2 finns följande hantverk, och jag hämtar dem direkt från wikin:

•  Armorsmiths craft heavy armor pieces, as well as inventory boxes and runes.
•  Artificers craft magical weapons such as staves, scepters, foci and tridents, as well as sigils.
•  Chefs can prepare food which characters can eat for temporary buffs.
•  Huntsmen craft ranged weapons like shortbows, longbows, pistols, rifles and harpoon guns, as well as torches, warhorns, and sigils.
•  Jewelers craft jewelry, such as rings and necklaces, as well as transmogrify gemstones into higher levels.
•  Leatherworkers craft medium armor pieces, as well as inventory packs and runes.
•  Tailors craft light armor pieces, as well as inventory bags and runes.
•  Weaponsmiths craft melee weapons, such as swords, greatswords, axes, daggers, maces and hammers, as well as shields, spears and sigils.

Byta hantverk

Man kan ha två hantverk igång åt gången. Vill man byta kan man prata med en av de olika hantverkens "master"s för att börja med ett hantverk. Han kommer fråga vilket du vill byta ut.

Skulle du vilja gå tillbaka till ett yrke kan du mot en kostnad göra så. I senaste betan kostade det 10 "copper" per nivå i hantverket du hade redan. Eftersom jag hade nivå 36 kostade det således 3 silver och 60 copper.

Mina första steg i Guild Wars 2

Detta kommer helt och hållet vara mina egna åsikter om vad du ska tänka på när du startar upp spelet första gången. Eller i alla fall vad du ska göra efter du tagit dig igenom det första steget i världen och besegrat din boss.


Spelet vill nu att du springer vidare ut i världen, men om du gör en 180 gradig vändning bör du stå öga mot öga med en stor skimrande portal. Denna leder till din ras huvudstad, och om du inte har den rakt upp i ansiktet så lär den inte vara långt borta i alla fall.
Spring in här och ta någon av de "waygates" som du ser. Du har nu ett snabbt sätt att dig vidare ut i världen, eftersom alla huvudstäder är, förutom guild- och handels-center, även kopplade med portaler till Lions Arch som i sin tur fungerar som en portal-hub till hela världen.


Du står nu i din huvudstad och vill bege dig ut för att leva rövare igen, och det bör du absolut göra.
Spring runt i området, gör lite quester, njut av lite "dynamic events" och försök skrapa ihop lite silver. När du har en liten handfull, kanske 2-3 silver, leta upp en merchant och köp följande artiklar:
Salvage kit
Harvesting sickles
Logging axes
Mining picks
Du kan aktivera de tre redskapen genom att högerklicka och välja "equip". Du slipper då ha dem i din väska och kan faktiskt utnyttja dem, vilket du kommer göra.
Gå nu igenom din väska och se vilka föremål som kan utvinnas för material, dubbelklicka på salvage kit och klicka sedan på dessa föremål för att få arbetsmaterial. Sälja allt som är "soul bound" (som inte är vapen eller rustning) till handelsmannen.


Du är nu redo att plocka material ute i världen samtidigt som du springer runt. Varje resurs är personlig (ingen annan kan stjäla den), du kan se resurser på din "mini-map" för att lätt se om du springer förbi något. Du kan plocka alla resurser, oavsett level eller hur mycket du samlat tidigare, den enda begränsningen är att du med jämna mellanrum kan köpa bättre redskap, var dock inte orolig, dessa är billiga och väl värda inköpet även om du har en bunke gamla kvar.


När du har en liten hög saker, ta dig till en stad och leta upp den "master crafter" du är intresserad av att testa (var inte orolig, du kan byta närsomhelst utan att förlora din nivå, det kostar dock en slant ju bättre du är om du vill återgå till ett crafting-område) och börja göra saker.
Som exempel, huntsman kan göra pistoler, bågar och facklor (bland annat) och du kan göra bra vapen redan från början. Det är en viktig poäng i detta, eftersom det innebär att du väldigt tidigt kan få tag i de olika vapen som ditt yrke kan hantera, och du kan redan på ett tidigt stadium börja testa dina "range" och "melee" färdigheter. Att bli bra är att hantera båda (och "dodge").


Allra sist i denna "så startar du"-text; Vad göra när man är ute i världen?
Spring. Spring runt överallt! Titta på din karta [M] och se var en oupptäckt "Point of Interest" eller "Waypoint" finns och spring ditåt. På vägen kommer du möta saker, händelser, andra spelare och så vidare.
Ge dig tid att stanna och lukta på blommorna, testa lite vägar som verkar oframkomliga, om det sker något i närheten kommer du märka detta, och du kan alltid delta. Om en annan spelare slåss mot något, hjälp till. Om du ser en grawl gömma sig under en gran, räkna kallt med att någon vill att du piskar denne grawl. Du kommer få en notis ifall så är fallet, annars får du bara lite XP och guld.


Står du på en kyrkogård och en präst ber dig hjälpa till med nattvakten, spring runt tills det börjar skymma och ta dig sedan tillbaka till kyrkogården, något kommer säkerligen ske.
Ser du en dörr med någon som viskar bakom, se efter om det inte finns en hemlig ingång under vattnet.
Och så vidare...


Du kommer ha kul, jag garanterar detta.

My thoughts on the April GW2beta

My guild was playing on the Far Shiverpeaks server, a server that filled up early Saturday morning. Which also meant I was not able to play with one of my friends as the guest-system wasn't available and server-moves didn't work for me.


I'll actually start with four bad things because that's the way I roll. Three points are most likely beta-issues, one I have even seen responded to by ArenaNet. And oh yeah, I did love the game, read on or just jump to the good.
It was a real hassle playing with friends. When trying to access an area and the area was full it asked if one would like to go to an "overflow server", which sounded good. The problem was that everyone in the team ended up on different overflow servers, and it took literally hours before it asked if you wanted to go to your home server instance of the server.
And this queue system was also a bit offensive as you could circumvent it by continually trying to access the area without accepting the queue, and it would in turn let you in after only a few minutes.
The part about team members ending up on different overflow servers was commented on by Arena Net already during the beta.


Second point was the rewards for dynamic events. I can't remember how many times I got rewards, sometimes even gold, for events I did not take part in. I was only in the area, sometimes harvesting, other times killing something completely unrelated. This is not that bad, the rewards were not so big that I felt like people could take advantage of this. What did make me a bit annoyed, and a guildie had a similar experience during the Shadow Behemoth event, was that using about 20-40% of the time in a very large scale event with reviving players would only grant you bronze. I would argue that keeping players on their feet would be a good thing during a boss fight, but apparently not.


Third point was the respawn time of mobs. Usually not a big problem if there is a lot of room to jump out of the way, but on two occasions it hindered gameplay. Me and two guildies were going into the bandit cave underneath Shaemoor Cemetary, but the respawning time of bandits meant there was no way to advance after having gained entrance to the cave because as soon as we killed the bandits in front of us, we had to kill the ones behind us, and when they were down, it was back to the ones in front. A few seconds longer respawn would have helped.
The second time was after me and one guildie had completed the jumping puzzle and were entering the ooze cave. We made our way to the mouth of the cave, but when we started to attack the Veteran oozes and their cohorts, the oozes in the tunnel leading up came back and started attack from behind. In such a very closed off area and after a rather specific jumping puzzle, perhaps a little longer respawn time would be ok.


Last thing on my negative list were the "Mystery Chest"s. I have since seen that apparently the keys for these drop as well, though on much more rare occasions, and the ingame description only mentions keys as present in the Gem Store. I understand that these are not that bad, and that I can ignore the chests, but I really dislike when games with item shops have lottery-ticket items (and time limited clothing/storage/weapons).
I did open two chests and the rewards were ok. Mostly fluff in the shape of tonics so I won't be buying the keys. But the chests dropped so often it started to become an in-joke with my guild.


So, those were all my bad comments. The trading post didn't work for me, but I'm counting that as a bug.
And now for the good, and wow is there a lot of good in this game. Just WOW!!!


I could walk anywhere. And I don't mean "I can walk anywhere, I can even fly over all this land and never look back", I mean "I can walk anywhere and do things and experience things and there will be a reason for me to be there."
My best example was when I decided to just run into the wilderness after having helped some kids in a snowball fight. After a short while I saw some players and headed towards them, turned out they were doing a skill point event and were fighting some Sons of Svanir. I helped them (without a teamup or a word) and got a reward for the event, including the skill point. The players then started running in  the direction I came from, so I decided to try and climb a mountain side not meant for climbing. Halfway over I saw a Veteran Worm Queen under attack by some players on top of a hill. Not surprisingly, I made my way there and helped out.
After the Queen was down I looked around and saw a grawl hiding under a tree. Not acceptable and an offense punishable by death in Guild Wars 2, atleast if you're a grawl. As the grawl fell to the ground I got a notice saying I had helped out in an event and a short list of what I could do to help further. And that's how it continued.


Actually, it's not that hard to find things to do. Press [M] to get your map, it will show "Point[s] of Interest", "Waygate"s and continuous so called "Heart event"s. All of these should be interesting to you if you're bored. And then there's the thing I liked the most, and something I saw most players accept immediately, on your map you can see downed or defeated players and NPC's and if you run over to them and help them back up you will get a little experience points, as well as being a real hero to someone.
You will also get notices about dynamic events happening and an icon where this happens will show up on your mini-map. If you see an icon of a shield there is someone or something to protect, if it's a skull with horns there's a boss and if it's a basket with an arrow it's a drop off point for something most likely found nearby.


And the best about all these things? There was not a single time I had to run to someone with an exclamation mark, do something and then run back saying I did this. The only times I had to go to a specific NPC was when I had to drop something off (like rabbit food), had to get something for a skillpoint or during my personal story when people actually requested to talk to my character.


My best event was something not that large and not very rewarding, but the feeling was splendid and the voice of the NPC was superb. Right outside the entrance to Divinitys Reach is Shaemoor village with Shaemoor Cemetary to one corner. Me and two guildies came there during the day and spoke to a Priest of Grenth on guard there, as well as the not mentally healthy keeper. They both spoke of things appearing in the night, and me and my guildies felt this was worth an investigation.
We spent the rest of the daylight in Queensdale doing odd stuff here and there and as dusk fell we quickly went to the cemetary.
It soon started to fill with bats, the kind that would not attack if you did not attack them, and fog. A white, thick fog covering the ground and seeping between the headstones.
After a short while a transparent lady called "The White Lady" started walking up and down the isles, stopping from time to time to weep in an eerie, echoing voice. After a while she asked if we could follow her home and... I won't spoil the rest, but make sure to get there for the next beta if your missed it during this one.


That was the first point of good stuff, here's the second. During most of the weekend I played a ranger which was definitely not my plan from the beginning, but she stuck to me after a while and I wanted to see some areas for higher level characters. But this is not my point, my point was the gameplay.
In the end I used two weapon sets, one was a longbow and the other a sword mainhand and torch offhand set. I tried the different melee weapons, really working to liking twohanded sword, but onehanded sword and torch gave me a good AOE/Combo-field, a DOT-attack, a good simple melee and two dodge-melee attacks. The longbow in turn (I never got myself to try the shortbow) had a good spike-attack, some AOE, a knockback and the arrows worked great together with the flamefield of my torch and the healing field of my heal ability which created an AOE-heal for all friendlies to use.


And the best part about this? As can be seen by my skills, I was able to play both melee and ranged. This should be true for all professions, but I haven't tried the others. Depending on what enemy I fought and the composition of the players I was with, I could switch on the fly to what worked best.
I never really mastered it, that would take more than a weekend, atleast for me, but I found that if I swapped to my melee set when out of combat, I could start most combats by getting a fire down, setting my enemy on fire and then switch to my bow and continue setting the enemy on fire.
I was also an able melee-character, not the most armored, but with some good skills that allowed me to beat up my opponent at the same time as keeping away from too many hits.


And then there was dodge. Oh glorious dodge how I long to perfect you. From having been on my back in most fights with opponents much larger and hardhitting than myself, I started to find that a well placed dodge would keep me up and get them down quicker.


As an example of these mechanics I can recall the Champion Black Moa fights in the end event of the beta. Most fights we were a very large number of players, and in these I primarily used my bow, taking advantage of all the different fields players put up, as well as putting down my healing spring and using it to send a little health to the people on melee distance of the birds.
But in one fight we were mostly ranged attackers, and I swapped to my melee set, working the bird from close range while others pummeled it from afar. And this was when dodge became really important. I dodged out of fire fields, I dodged out of scorpion wires and I took a big beating from the birds beaks and feet. As I said earlier, I never did perfect it.


And my third point, yes there are less good than bad points, but the bad points were beta-issues, the good points are the game. And oh my are they good points.
Crafting and gathering. This was really fun. I've never been much for this as it always meant having to get weird materials that I had to level up gathering in order to get, and after that I had to grind the crafting table for days to get anywhere. And there are only so many mushrooms you can pick in order to gain more levels before you decide to go somewhere and do something constructive with your life.
In Guild Wars 2 it works like this:
Gathering can be performed by anyone for any material. The only restriction is that you need to have the tool for a specific resource node. Tools are bought in bundles of 100 as they break slowly. They are kept in three specific slots on your character, one for plants, one for metals and one for lumber. So, pickaxe, sickle and axe. As you go into higher level areas, the materials require better tools, better versions are bought from merchants in these areas. They are not very expensive, so you don't have to feel cheated when you trash 55 rough pickaxes because you need to buy 100 iron pickaxes.
If you gather a node, but your instrument is not good enough, you will get vendor trash with a comment that you need better stuff. Go to a nearby merchant and check out his goods and change up if he has better stuff than you.
All resource nodes are personal. I can not stress this enough, ALL RESOURCE NODES ARE PERSONAL. And you will not fail in getting a resource, but you might not get as much every time.


So, now you have your copper and your green wood and pieces of leather from having salvaged something salvagable and you go to your crafting station.
From start you have a bunch of recipes depending on what crafting cathegory you chose. Here's a tip, if you use your vial of blood to create a rune instead of using it immideatly when creating the weapon you can make better stuff. Just create your two parts for the weapon as well as the rune, choose the discovery pane, put your two weapon parts and the rune in three of the four fields and voila, you have a weapon with a better stat than could be done by following the recipe.
Actually, putting stuff in the discovery panes will tell you which other items you have that combined with the first might yield something. And if you have all materials, but lack the numbers, it will tell you so. And if you the material, but lack the crafting experience, it will tell you so as well.
And it's insane fun to work with. Stuff will not break, it will not be pointless and you can make it better by experimenting a little.


So, these were my thoughts on the first weekend beta event I was part of. And this is my story, and I'm sticking to it.

[Svenska] - Oredigerade funderingar efter aprils GW2 beta

Mina funderingar efter betan.
Det är svårt att veta vad som är beta-problem och vad som är saker de inte funderat på. Det mest uppenbara problemet var att spela med sina vänner och att kösystemet inte fungerade. De har en fast tråd på forumet om just detta, så förhoppningsvis var det en beta-grej.
Problemet uppstod när man försökte lämna stora städer alternativt den personliga storyn. Om man var flera som spelade tillsammans, men området var fullt så skickades man till "overflow"-servrar, tyvärr inte samma overflowservrar. Om man istället valde att sätta sig i kö tills en plats blev ledig kunde detta innebära flera timmar innan man kom in på sin hemmaserver, om man dock ignorerade kön och bara valde området upprepade gånger tog det enbart några minuter innan man kom till området på sin hemmaserver.


Det var problem med vilken ersättning man fick för events. Tror jag råkade ut för två event där jag ansåg mig ha fått för lite, speciellt vid ett tillfälle mot Svanir-shamanen. Däremot fick jag ganska ofta guld för events som bara var i närheten, utan att jag gjort något. Inte för jag klagar, men det hände relativt frekvent. Igen, troligtvis en betagrej.


En sak som det diskuterats om det var beta eller något de måste justera så var det respawntiden för mobs. Speciellt vid två tillfällen råkade vi illa ut på grund av dessa. Det kom nya fiender innan man hunnit slå sig vidare in i grottor och liknande. Det finns en tråd för detta på beta-forumet, så inte bara vi som ansåg att det var nästintill omöjligt på vissa ställen.


Sist av det negativa (att auktionshuset inte fungerade för mig var en ren bugg) är "Mystery chest" som droppar ganska så ofta och som kräver en nyckel för att öppnas. Som det förklaras i spelet är enda sättet att få dessa genom item-shopen, men jag såg i en tråd på beta-forumet att de droppar både av fiender och som gåvor från ens personliga story. Det är dock inte i samma mängd, så just de är jag inte så nöjd med.


Så till det bra, och det var en hel del sådant. 
Man kunde vandra varsomhelst och ändå finna saker att göra. Minns speciellt ett ställe i Wayfarer Hills där jag vandrade rakt ut i snön, såg lite folk och en skillpoint ikon på kartan, så fortsatte åt det hållet och snart hade jag gjort ett event. Valde att istället för att följa efter de andra vandra ut på en bergsvägg, och efter lite klättrande såg jag en "Veteran Ice Worm" som folk anföll och hjälpte dem att avsluta den. När den var nere tittade jag mig runt och såg en grawl gömma sig under ett träd, skickade min arcturos på den och upp kom en texten att jag nu hjälpte till att piska grawls, samt vilka andra saker jag kunde göra i området för att hjälpa till.
Om man nånsin kände sig lite uttråkad eller äventyrslusten tog man upp kartan och kollade var närmsta "Point of interest", "Waypoint" eller hjärta fanns, gick dit och väl där så fanns det alltid något att göra. Om så bara att man hittade några varma källor och en norn som var sugen på lite brottning.
Det gick så långt att det var svårt ibland att komma iväg för hela tiden hände något nytt, så det handlade mer om att lära sig att titta bort än att leta efter något att göra.
OCH INTE EN ENDA GÅNG VAR JAG TVUNGEN ATT SPRINGA FRAM OCH TILLBAKA TILL SAMMA J*LA QUESTGIVER! Faktiskt behövde jag inte prata med en enda person om jag inte ville, förutom i den personliga storyn.


Under helgen spelade jag främst en ranger, skapade först en mesmer, men han fastnade i limbo och när jag spelat min ranger ett tag hade jag svårt att lämna henne. Hon hade ju så många fina skills, och jag vill se områden med lite högre level-krav.
Just hennes skills var kul. Jag testade långbåge, tvåhandssvärd, yxa, enhandssvärd och som offhand yxa, fackla och horn. Slutade med att jag körde långbåge samt enhandssvärd och fackla i de två "weaponslot"'sen eftersom det innebar ett ranged vapen med lite AOE, pushback och nästan spikedmg och ett melee-set med dodge-skills och lite AOE/komboskada. På detta vis kunde jag beroende på fiende och mängd medspelare befinna mig olika i fält. Vissa fiender som stora och klumpiga men stryktåliga jotun var det enklast att köra melee mot, medans andra mindre och snabbare fiender var lättare att plocka med båge. Och var man många spelare med olika klasser körde jag båge eftersom det oftast innebar en massa kombo-skada/hälsa med pilar genom både eldväggar och mesmerväggar och min egen "healing"-pöl.
Vid ett tillfälle slogs vi några stycken mot en stor fågel, men eftersom alla var ranged så bytte jag och kunde hålla den relativt upptagen. Visst dog jag efter en stund, men jag hade spelat i två dagar och kunde inte skillsen fullt ut.
Något jag särskilt märkte av som kommer göra en spelare bra är om man kan dodga på rätt sätt. När jag började få häng på den mekaniken så innebar den väldigt ofta att man klarade sig undan att bli kastad som en vante alternativt grillad som en kebab.


Craftingen var riktigt kul. Man fick en del recept som grund och verkar inte som om man kan misslyckas med att göra en sak. Detta tillsammans med att man kan plocka från alla resursnoder i spelet (förutsatt att man har rätt verktyg med sig, en dyrköpt läxa) ger en väldigt enkel grundnivå på crafting.
Det som gör det mer avancerat är när man hittar egna recept. Det kan vara väldigt enkla saker som att en ordentligt runa ger bättre stats än att bara stoppa in special-materialet i det vapen/rustning man skapar.
Ady visade mig dessutom ett väldigt enkelt recept som innebar att man stoppade i en läderbit och en yllebit i craftingen och så fick man en runa som gav väldigt mycket crafting-XP till ett billigt pris.
Jag testade själv lite olika recept (den berättar ganska tydligt vad man kan göra och inte, så man förlorar inget i början i alla fall) och lyckades få till en väska som hade egenheten att vendor-junk helst hamnade i den. Fick aldrig tid att testa detta i praktiken, men det lät som ett bra koncept. Hade auktionshuset fungerat hade jag två andra saker jag ville testa, men ack nej.


Det var mina första funderingar ut ur betan.

Hittegods - En saga om frustration

Första inlägget på svenska, och av den enkla anledningen att jag bara ska klaga en stund.


Jag lyckades glömma min halsduk på bussen för ett tag sedan och fick den briljanta iden att kontakta hittegodsavdelningen. Här är mitt äventyr i korta drag.


Jag gick in på Skånetrafikens hemsida för att få kontaktuppgifter till den hittegodsavdelning som kunde tänkas ha hand om min halsduk. Efter en kort stunds letande fann jag att detta berodde på vilket bolag som körde just den turen, eftersom vi idag har en fri marknad för kollektivtrafik i detta landet.
Eftersom den finurliga iPhone-appen från Skånetrafiken självklart inte informerar om detta (eller vilka nummer stationerna har) så fick jag ringa Skånetrafiken och fråga. Efter en stund i kö svarade en mycket irriterad kvinna att just den turen kördes av Veolia transport.


Jag kontrollerade sidan för hittegods och fann en länk till Veolias egna sida där det stod:
Har Ni förlorat något ombord på tåget, bussen eller i pendelntrafiken, då är Ni helt rätt.
Så bra tänkte jag och tittade vidare. På sidan fanns totalt sex telefonnummer, två till Malmö, två till Göteborg och två till växeln. Det stod även att öppettiderna var mellan 10:00 och 18:00. Eftersom klockan var drygt kvart i tio så bestämde jag mig för att vänta eftersom jag nu befann mig i Malmö i andra ärenden.
Cirka 10:10 ringde jag första numret till Malmö och fick veta att detta nummer var ej i bruk. Jag testade andra numret och samma svar. Jag testade då första växel-numret med precis samma resultat. Det verkade alltså som om sidan behövde uppdateras något så jag kollade med Eniro om där fanns något nummer till Veolia, vilket det gjorde.
Jag ringde detta numret och efter en stund i telefonkö svarade en receptionist som skickade mig vidare till hittegodsavdelningen i Malmö.
Här fick jag då svaret att för saker som glömts på just den busslinje jag åkt så skulle jag kontakta Veolia hittegods i Simrishamn (Simrishamn som ligger en väldigt lång väg från, ja allt) men de hade i alla fall direktnumret dit.
Jag ringde detta nummer (klockan är nu drygt tjugo över tio) och fick en automatisk röst som svarade att man enbart hade telefontid mellan 09:00 och 10:00 på vardagar.
Dag ett var alltså över.


Dag två:
Klockan 09:22 ringde jag telefonnumret jag fått dagen innan, efter en stund av väntan får jag en kopplingston och en automatisk röst berättar att man bara har telefontid mellan 08:06 och 09:06 (något udda tider kan tyckas) så här avslutas dag två.


Dag tre:
Eftersom jag misstänker att man har telefontid mellan 09:00 och 09:06 så ringer jag drygt tio i nio och möts av en upptaget ton. Lysande! Då innebär det att det finns någon eller något som använder denna telefonen.
Detta är dock det enda livstecken jag får från hittegodsavdelningen i Simrishamn, eftersom när jag försöker ringa igen så är det stopp.


Nej, jag har fortfarande inte fått tag i min halsduk.