Monday, April 28, 2014

Filling out the Collection

Hi,

Yep, that's the goal. Having read this: http://www.guildwars2hub.com/features/editorials/80-things-do-level-80

I decided that I'd really try the goal of filling every single collection slot with at least 1 of the item. I said last week I was selling all Tier 1 and 2 items, but I made sure to have 1 of everything from that tier first:


So, I'm going well, but it going to be really hard collecting all the rare stuff, and I don't even want to think about the miniatures :) I'll treat this as a side project to my usual leveling and stuff.

Blondy got quite a bit of play time. Doing the Queensdale Champion Train, and also spending some time in Orr advancing her personal story. She did complete Malchor's Leap recently, and has moved on to Cursed Shore. I also made sure to do the 6:45pm Shadow Behemoth every night, to help make some money.

Ranger got some good play time too. She completed Timberline Falls, and has moved on now. She's level 63 now. Silvy moved ahead of the other 27s and got to 30 (I do enjoy my Rifle Warriors :)). Everyone got a bit of play, and advanced just a touch, with the exception of Charrly.

One other thing I did was really try to level Cooking. I had to go to some out of the way hearts vendors to get some mats, but was progressing nicely until I needed Oranges. Yikes, only drop off mobs in bags. So, I decided to carry on leveling characters to get those drops. Since then I have picked up 3 Oranges, but need tons more.

Another thing I tried was creating a new character just to get to personal story level 10, and get a Black Lion Key. I did this, and gathered tons of low level mats as I went, but what I got with the Black Lion Key didn't seem worth all the effort. I deleted that character and won't be doing it again.

I did get the monthly this week, but was dismayed when it didn't give any Laurels. Oh well, we got them in the first half of the month, so it wasn't too bad.

Blondybrit (Norn/Warrior) Level 80
Map: 60% Bags: 8/8/12/15 Crafts: Armorsmith 227 Weaponsmith 325
Rangerbrit (Human/Ranger) Level 63
Map: 28% Bags: 8/8/8/8 Crafts: Huntsman 202 Jeweler 177
Asurabrit (Asura/Elementalist) Level 47
Map: 18% Bags: 8/8/8/10 Crafts: Chef 252 Tailor 175
Mesmerbrit (Sylvari/Mesmer) Level 40
Map: 15% Bags: 8/8/8/8 Crafts: Artificer 153
CharrlyBrit (Charr/Engineer) Level 27
Map: 14% Bags: 8/8/8/8 Crafts: Leatherworker 152
Silvybrit (Sylvari/Warrior) Level 30
Map: 13% Bags: 4/4/8/8 Crafts: None
Necrobrit (Asura/Necromancer) Level 28
Map: 6% Bags: 5/5/4/4 Crafts: None

So, I'm 315/560 on levels now. That's a 16 level improvement over last week.

The goal for next week is to level more and try to play Blondy less. I want to try to get as many Tier 3 mats as I can, so that I can be done with Tier 3. This will probably take a few weeks though. Still haven't bought anything with Laurels yet, so may do that this week.

EDIT: I just realized I made a major mistake. Even though Iron Ore is listed as a Tier 2 ore, it is still used as a Tier 3 ore in many Crafting Disciplines. So, I'm going to need to hang on to what I get now.

Cheers.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Please Welcome......Necrobrit!

Hi,

My 7th character is now up and running:

Necrobrit
I started her out, and played to about level 5. But then her Personal Story was level 6 and I felt like it was a grind to get there. Then, I remembered I had 3 scrolls of boost to level 20 in the bank. Done! level 20. Since then, she's been continuing on the Personal Story, and has got it to level 26, and is level 27 herself. I must admit, Necromancing is pretty fun. All those undead minions you can bring out.

Something else I did last week was concentrate on Crafting. I got all my crafts to at least 150, and thus was completely done with Tier 1 and Tier 2 Mats. I sold all the leftovers on the TP and made in excess of 20 gold. Now I want to get all my characters in Tier 3 zones, so that I can get all the mats needed to continue my crafting.

Blondy got a bit of play time, doing the Queensdale Champion train most of the time. But she also did one dungeon, just to see what it was like now. Got in a really good group, and managed to complete it (AC explorable). It does seem like a good little gold earner, doing dungeons.

I was also playing Ranger quite a bit. She will be the next 80, so I wanted to make some progress. She was having a blast in Timberline Falls. Only a modicum of progress was made on the other characters.

Blondybrit (Norn/Warrior) Level 80
Map: 57% Bags: 8/8/12/15 Crafts: Armorsmith 227 Weaponsmith 325
Rangerbrit (Human/Ranger) Level 58
Map: 23% Bags: 8/8/8/8 Crafts: Huntsman 202 Jeweler 177
Asurabrit (Asura/Elementalist) Level 45
Map: 18% Bags: 8/8/8/10 Crafts: Chef 178 Tailor 175
Mesmerbrit (Sylvari/Mesmer) Level 35
Map: 13% Bags: 8/8/8/8 Crafts: Artificer 153
CharrlyBrit (Charr/Engineer) Level 27
Map: 13% Bags: 8/8/8/8 Crafts: Leatherworker 152
Silvybrit (Sylvari/Warrior) Level 27
Map: 12% Bags: 4/4/8/8 Crafts: None
Necrobrit (Asura/Necromancer) Level 27
Map: 5% Bags: 4/4/8 Crafts: None

One fun way to look at my progress is to see how I'm doing towards all of them being level 80. That's 560 levels. Adding it up, I'm 299/560. I'll report on that each week too.

The goal for next week will be to continue to level Ranger, and to get the lower level characters into Tier 3 territory. Oh and playing Blondy when I need to complete the daily, and I think I will get the monthly this week too. Really debating what to do with all the Laurels. Whether to save up for ascended stuff, or buy Tier 6 mats and sell them.

Cheers.

Monday, April 14, 2014

The Master Plan

Hi,

After coming back to GW2 on April 3rd, I remembered what I was doing when I left the game over a year ago. I leveled Blondy to 80, and was leveling Weaponsmithing at the same time. However, I hit a brick wall when I didn't have enough fine materials to continue. I tried farming for them, but diminishing returns made that pretty impossible. So, the Master Plan was bors to level tons of characters to 80, and have them deposit all the fine materials they come across. This would enable me to continue with Weaponsmithing, and to continue to level the other crafts too.

Why not buy on the TP, you may ask. Well, I have this aversion to spending anything on the TP. Maybe it's time to let go of that, because I could probably make back what I spend by selling the weapons. Oh well, I'm going to give the TP a miss for now, and see what I can get by leveling.

So, what did I get up to this week? A lot of time was spent on Silvy. She completed Brisban Wildlands (with a couple of pretty tough Skill Points near the end), and advanced the Personal Story to level 26. I also played Charrly a bit, and leveled Leatherworking to 126. My other time was spent mostly on Blondy, doing a bit more map completion, and also running the Queensdale Champion Train and trying to build back up Karma, after having spent it all.

One thing I'm also doing is building up my Guild, which has all my characters in it. I bought Architecture level 1 and 2, and then got the Guild Bank up. There aren't many things I can put in there though, because a lot of stuff is Account Bound. A bit of a disappointment actually. Influence is gained so slowly though, even though I'm making sure to at least log in to each character each day.

I bought another Character Slot with the gems I had left over from last week. So, I now have 8 slots and am thinking of starting another character. I think it will be a Necromacer, Necrobrit.

Here are my current characters:

Blondybrit (Norn/Warrior) Level 80
Map: 56% Bags: 8/8/12/15 Crafts: Armorsmith 125 Weaponsmith 325
Rangerbrit (Human/Ranger) Level 51
Map: 23% Bags: 8/8/8/8 Crafts: Huntsman 202 Jeweler 177
Asurabrit (Asura/Elementalist) Level 44
Map: 17% Bags: 8/8/8/10 Crafts: Chef 104 Tailor 175
Mesmerbrit (Sylvari/Mesmer) Level 34
Map: 12% Bags: 8/8/8/8 Crafts: Artificer 100
CharrlyBrit (Charr/Engineer) Level 24
Map: 12% Bags: 8/8/8/8 Crafts: Leatherworker 126
Silvybrit (Sylvari/Warrior) Level 27
Map: 12% Bags: 4/4/8/8 Crafts: None

Let's now see what they all look like:

Blondybrit


Rangerbrit

Asurabrit
Mesmerbrit
Silvybrit
Charrlybrit
And there they are :)

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Reconnecting with Tyria

Hi,

I left Tyria over a year ago. I was annoyed at Diminishing Returns on farming for stuff, and really annoyed at the difficulty of Dungeons. So, I went back to WoW, and gave up GW2. But, I'm back!

Getting to know all about GW2 again was daunting. I obviously had all my characters, but playing them was very challenging to start with. But gradually, I got to know all about the game and how to play the different professions again.

Here is the list of my 6 characters now:

Blondybrit (Norn/Warrior) Level 80
Map: 56% Bags: 8/8/12/15 Crafts: Armorsmith 125 Weaponsmith 325
Rangerbrit (Human/Ranger) Level 51
Map: 22% Bags: 8/8/8/8 Crafts: Huntsman 202 Jeweler 173
Asurabrit (Asura/Elementalist) Level 44
Map: 17% Bags: 8/8/8/10 Crafts: Chef 104 Tailor 175
Mesmerbrit (Sylvari/Mesmer) Level 33
Map: 12% Bags: 8/8/8/8 Crafts: Artificer 100
CharrlyBrit (Charr/Engineer) Level 21
Map: 11% Bags: 8/8/8/8 Crafts: Leatherworker 75
Silvybrit (Sylvari/Warrior) Level 16
Map: 6% Bags: 4/4/8/8 Crafts: None

Anyway, I've been doing the Queensdale Champion Train on Blondy. I've been leveling up my other Warrior, and also been playing my Engineer and Elementalist again. I make sure to do the Daily tasks each day, and actually completed the abbreviated Monthly last night, Doing Completionist, and the 100 events.

So, I'm accumulating Laurels, and gradually gathering gold and Karma. I did blow nearly all my 250K Karma on a weapon and 4 Exotic armor pieces for Blondy, but am building back up and have about 50K again now.

This blog will continue to detail my experiences in Tyria with my characters, what I get up to week by week, and how I'm progressing. I will update it every Monday.

BTW: The Sylvari Personal Story is so awesome, because of the British accent of my character. Every character I create from now on may be Sylvari :)

Preview for next week. Trying to put a screenshot in:

Blondybrit