Thursday, April 4, 2013

Being Saleh: The Bounty Gambling

A month ago Guild Wars 2 upgraded it's guild system, fitted it with guild missions, which is (sounded) awesome and (almost) ridiculuously expensive, but since we have almost 300.000 unspent influence on a guild we quickly unlocked the first guild mission: The Guild Bounty

Represented by a drunk 300 spawn points Asura
Guild Bounty will have you hunt down and capture 2-6 (Tier 1-Tier 3) wanted criminals spreads all across Tyria, most of them wandering around a certain zone and have fixed paths, some of them like the dreaded Sotzz the Scallywag spawned in a barrel on one of 300 spawn points in Gendarran Field, sweeping the area often won't yield anything due it's vastness, if it was not enough you only have 7 minutes to defeat one target and 15 minutes time limit to find and defeat all the bounty (two, four, and six targets on each tier) if you succeed your guilds are awarded merits that can be used to unlock next guild missions (Trek, Challenge, Puzzle, and Rush) and some neat new banners. You also get rewards when you helped defeat a bounty, on a form of guild commendation (also some neat rares and a 0.000000000000<insert zeroes here>1% of a precursor) that can be traded with ascended accessories, influence for guild and some cosmetic items.

My guild was... training (yes, we're that hardcore) to beat Tier 3 bounty hunting, we did it at the second week, until the fourth, faster than the week before, but it looks like Arenanet noticed our (I'm being a narcissist now) progress and decided to fix something to slow the progress, on the latest patch: The Razing they fixed some randomly spawned bounty like Scallywag, Anders and the newly added Yanonka and Mayana to become active and can be found only by a guild member who have that bounty active on their mission list, thus avoid target camping, they also fixed some bounty targets with higher DPS, can't be stalled on a waypoint by talking to it, and new fighting system

It's kinda annoying and engaging at the same time, annoying because our home-made system for bounty camping blew away by the new patch, when Scallywag and Mayana appeared on your bounty list you'll know that it'll become a gambling because you still have four other target, if three or four appeared then you'll know that RNG trolled you :D

It's also engaging because it adds to the flavor, new bounty now have new abilities that can seriously injured your attempt by becoming a wall that receive only 1% of your attacks, swallowed you whole and force you to play a little whack-a-mole game inside it's stomach, Evades and running away, kill you with 24 bleed stack, kill you with rapid attacks, and many more 'kill you fast' tricks

Well it's only costs 300 inf, totaled like 1000-2500 (I can't count) to speed up bounty tiers if it's needed, I think Anet's done well enough by inventing new ways to kill us the bounty system, a little rough now, but still enjoyable after a month.

Note: Dulfy has a great guide for the bounty and other guild missions

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

A Brief Look at the Living Story

I love game stories, started with Adventures, RPGs, and now MMORPGs, well some RTS has good stories to like War/Starcraft, nevertheless it's really good to actually play in the stories rather than watching it (Xenosaga Episode 1 included, go away haters). And I also really tempted for The Secret World since the subs gone.... I still contemplating about it though, Funcom is still my number one storytelling game company (The Longest Journey FTW)



7 hours of cutscenes is the proof
 
Since last January Guild Wars 2 released updates called Flame & Frost and tied-in quests called Living Story, which tells how a whole new enemy activities threaten Tyria after Zhaitan's defeat, it started with lots of earthquakes and portals opening, Dredges and Flame Legions combining force, refugees from Diessa Plateau and Wayfarer Hills flooded the Charr and Norn's capital, and lastly on March Anet introduces new main characters: Brahm from Norn and Rox of Charr

On the first update, there's only vague clues about the events, you have to help refugees on some way (lots of it, including mend their legs and repair signs), you'll get your volunteer title for it, on the next update portals are spawned throughout the area, and stream of flame legion and dredges pour out, the next update there's an all out attack on some settlements of Tyria, and Brahm and Rox come to the picture

What I think is.... it's SLOW and borderline boring, only the last story update keep me hoping for more and I almost overlooked it because of the boredom of the last two living story updates. But I think overall Living story is a good idea, it didn't require player to do it and yet it creeps into something larger and can be felt gradually for players (the last update at least), instead adding new dailies like WoW they're just added new short cutscenes, several achievement-based quests, and two short instances, but then again... it's TOO SLOW for me and it keep me wondering whether it can ended like Karka event (forgotten and dead and buried 5000 feet under) or ended in a new content that can be enjoyed by all players (a large part of it hopefully)

Monday, April 1, 2013

The Five Temples of Orr: Temple of Melandru & Temple of Grenth

Since Temple of Melandru is the most straightforward event (and a very bugged one) I'll post it with Temple of Grenth's strategy

Temple of Melandru

Melandru: Goddess of nature, earth, and growth worshipped by her Orrian's follower on the Cathdral of Verdance, the events leading to the cleansing of her temple is probably the most bugged events in Guild Wars 2

a. Escort Magister Izzmek to the site of the first signal beacon
Magister Izzmek resides on Gavbeorn's landing, and it has to be reclaimed before he can move out (though due to some bugs he won't budge), it's straightforward, just escort him through three beacons and you're set, though sometimes he's bugged and will halt halfway

b. Legendary Fight: Destroy the Risen Priest of Melandru
he's though, but his attacks aren't deadly, the most annoying thing when his HP is depleted he'll turn everyone near him into animals and summon five acolytes to regenerate his health (he's invulnerable to attacks at this state), you must quickly dispatch these acloytes in your animal form to prevent his HP to go out to full
BUG: sometimes he won't turn you into an animal and you can continue to hit him until he's down

c. Defend the Pact interrupter device while it charges to cleanse the temple
Another straightforward mission, just defend the device, it has some HP and can withstand some blows, get ready to kite the Champion Abomination around due to it's stacking frenzy, kill the Champion Risen Spider before it can spawn smaller spiders

After the device is online Lightbringer Surefoot will light up his karma store for you

Note: every now and then the risen will tried to destroy the pact interruptor with the event Defend the Pact interruptor from Risen attacks, it's Risen Priest again combined with Champion Spiders, Abominations, and Gorillas

Temple of Grenth

Grenth the God of Ice and Death, his temple is the Cathedral of Silence on an island in the southwest corner of Cursed Shore, and it's cleansing event is the most engaging event ever. first and foremost you must escort the pact from the northernmost tip of the island until it reaches the first event below


c. Ensure that Keeper Jonez Deadrun reaches the Cathedral of Silence
This is where the fun begins, Jonez has a small amount of HP and by the number of people joining the event it can scale up into where the mobs can one hit Jonez, keep them away from him at all costs, especially those bow guardian that can inflict confused condition

d. Legendary Fight: Protect Keeper Jonez Deadrun and destroy the Champion Risen Priest of Grenth
Welcome to hell! there's a LOT of things that you have to remember and DO at this fight

1. Champion Risen Priest of Grenth will one shot Jonez most of the time so keep him at the back of all cost, far away from Jonez, his attack are deadly, it'll spawn AOE brown whirlpools that will throw player up to the air where they'll receive falling damage (on slow connection it'll inflict MULTIPLE falling damage and you'll be defeated instantly), another is spawning ice fields that WILL kill you and inflict chill if you're somehow survived, this is the main problem, dying on this fight is dangerous and annoying since it'll push your ressurrectors to the limit while evading those attacks

2. Shades is your number two number one problem, it has much HP but it didn't do much damage but again it'll give you a stacking corruption when they hit you, after you gain 25 of it you'll be downed instantly. The Shades cant be damaged through a normal means though, there are two brown whirlpools on the left and right corner of the room you must step on it to gain "Entered Grenth Realm" debuff which will give you deathshroud-like appearance, now you can damage the shades but be careful they will inflict more damage to you and stack more corruption when you're in this form, also the brown whirlpool can be re-entered, effectively removing you from the "Entered" debuff which can be annoying when you're shooting shades from afar, since it can't be re-entered again immediately, when you're down you're losing the corruption stacks and the entered debuff. in the past patch you can't ress someone in this state, now you can, thank you Anet, although no thanks for you for giving us endless waves of shades, yes endless, they won't stop spawning although the last wave has not been dispatched, giving you a black nightmare

3. Mobs: there can be hundreds of them, spawning around Grenth's Priest and on the corner of the room, spectral, shades, risen, everything, be sure to get rid of them before they fill your screen (literally)

4. There's no waypoint near this area, the nearest is Anchorage Waypoint which sometimes contested due to bug or assault to Arah, so when you're defeated don't wait for ress because it'll be a long walk for you
 

e. Cover Keeper Jonez Deadrun as he performs the cleansing ritual
No, all the chaos hasn't over yet, now come the finale, ress everyone, take any buffs, since hundreds of mobs will spawn from every corner of the temple and tried to take out Jonez, kill them, kill them immediately, sometimes they'll spawn RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF HIM which will give you a headache, just interrupt them, launch, knocdown, or whatever your arsenal can do, watch for Champion Risen Spiders and Wraiths that can summons reinforcement, well actually the true enemy in this fight is the lag and the culling which can hinder your performance on this fight

Note: If Jonez defeated on any event he'll come back to his tent on Death's Gaze Touch and sleep for approximately 15 minutes before the event restarted from point a. again

Congratulations! wipe your sweat while enjoying Karma items from Jonez, it's practically the same with the other temples but since you've beaten the most difficult of them you deserved an achievement, there's one? No, let's petition Anet for one =))