GW2 General Updates
Let's see... what to talk about with GW2?
I did finally get a story run through the final "personal story" dungeon of the game - something I'd been annoyed about lacking for the months since I finished the otherwise-soloable personal story. The experience was actually sort of lackluster. The first part is a lot of running around fighting risen, which is boring after any time spent in the last two or three plot-related zones of the game. The latter part gets higher marks for 1) being a little different and 2) being more cinematic, as you defend/assault from an airship, with some use of cannons. Unfortunately, the novelty really only just balanced the awkwardness of it for me. And the final fight with Zhaitan, again from the airship, felt more like watching than doing. You get some closure to the Destiny's Edge storyline, and the post-dungeon celebration is sort of nice (not unlike in GW), but the battle didn't have any of the emotional impact of a narrative climax to me. Maybe waiting so long to get there was a factor? I'm not sure.
I also got a chance to try out the Fractals of the Mist dungeon - which was added a while back and, if I understand correctly, has three sections which are somewhat randomized. We caught a couple of the least favorite sections to those with experience (uncategorized, underground, snowblind, and solid ocean if I recall). We did things on a difficulty over ten, meaning there was some semi-random Agony damage thrown at us (and me without any resistance). It was a bit hectic at times, and AOE blasts while trying to ascend a jumping puzzle was rough. It took... kind of a long time, really. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 hours. No particular luck with rewards of note, but it was interesting to see.
I've spent a fair bit of time exploring various jumping puzzles, particularly when it came up as daily/monthly goals. Finish one puzzle? Well, okay, I'll go do this short one. Finish 12 in a month? Eh... maybe I'll try something I haven't done. I think I'm down to two left on the regular achievement list. The skipping stones one in Southsun Cove, though... I'm daunted by the mere thought of going back there and trying it.
And... I think I've decided that joining Kwaidan in WvW play is sort of like following Tashiro anywhere in GW was - ultimately doomed to failure. ;)
I had the chance to experience several guild missions over a couple hours spent in another guild. That was... interesting. They definitely favor larger guilds in several ways - being easier to unlock and activate as well as being easier to accomplish. You generally get half an hour or so to find the one or two active missions (starting point of a "race" or targets of a bounty) and then a set timeframe to actually do the mission(s). So I saw a bounty mission - finding and killing two of the marked targets, which were very tough and spit out a lot of damage, even against a large group, a trek mission which involved finding a bunch of viewpoints matching images given, and a guild rush. The rush was a checkpointed "race" of sorts where people had to do the course transformed (into quaggan in this case), with hazards and monsters along the way that will knock you out of your transformation that necessitate some people remaining out-of-form to distract and/or kill some of those things. So you pretty much have to run it several times to get everyone through (I believe 15 had to complete for the guild to get credit, though there's and individual chest reward too), with people taking turns. It was interesting, but chaotic and rushed, with lots of guild channel chat that I felt largely out of the loop on. I'm a little put off, though, by how much the design of the missions favors large guilds.
The quest for a legendary still continues, technically, but with the realization of how hard a precursor weapon is to come by, I've let progress become very slow on other things. Maybe someday...
I did finally get a story run through the final "personal story" dungeon of the game - something I'd been annoyed about lacking for the months since I finished the otherwise-soloable personal story. The experience was actually sort of lackluster. The first part is a lot of running around fighting risen, which is boring after any time spent in the last two or three plot-related zones of the game. The latter part gets higher marks for 1) being a little different and 2) being more cinematic, as you defend/assault from an airship, with some use of cannons. Unfortunately, the novelty really only just balanced the awkwardness of it for me. And the final fight with Zhaitan, again from the airship, felt more like watching than doing. You get some closure to the Destiny's Edge storyline, and the post-dungeon celebration is sort of nice (not unlike in GW), but the battle didn't have any of the emotional impact of a narrative climax to me. Maybe waiting so long to get there was a factor? I'm not sure.
I also got a chance to try out the Fractals of the Mist dungeon - which was added a while back and, if I understand correctly, has three sections which are somewhat randomized. We caught a couple of the least favorite sections to those with experience (uncategorized, underground, snowblind, and solid ocean if I recall). We did things on a difficulty over ten, meaning there was some semi-random Agony damage thrown at us (and me without any resistance). It was a bit hectic at times, and AOE blasts while trying to ascend a jumping puzzle was rough. It took... kind of a long time, really. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 hours. No particular luck with rewards of note, but it was interesting to see.
I've spent a fair bit of time exploring various jumping puzzles, particularly when it came up as daily/monthly goals. Finish one puzzle? Well, okay, I'll go do this short one. Finish 12 in a month? Eh... maybe I'll try something I haven't done. I think I'm down to two left on the regular achievement list. The skipping stones one in Southsun Cove, though... I'm daunted by the mere thought of going back there and trying it.
And... I think I've decided that joining Kwaidan in WvW play is sort of like following Tashiro anywhere in GW was - ultimately doomed to failure. ;)
I had the chance to experience several guild missions over a couple hours spent in another guild. That was... interesting. They definitely favor larger guilds in several ways - being easier to unlock and activate as well as being easier to accomplish. You generally get half an hour or so to find the one or two active missions (starting point of a "race" or targets of a bounty) and then a set timeframe to actually do the mission(s). So I saw a bounty mission - finding and killing two of the marked targets, which were very tough and spit out a lot of damage, even against a large group, a trek mission which involved finding a bunch of viewpoints matching images given, and a guild rush. The rush was a checkpointed "race" of sorts where people had to do the course transformed (into quaggan in this case), with hazards and monsters along the way that will knock you out of your transformation that necessitate some people remaining out-of-form to distract and/or kill some of those things. So you pretty much have to run it several times to get everyone through (I believe 15 had to complete for the guild to get credit, though there's and individual chest reward too), with people taking turns. It was interesting, but chaotic and rushed, with lots of guild channel chat that I felt largely out of the loop on. I'm a little put off, though, by how much the design of the missions favors large guilds.
The quest for a legendary still continues, technically, but with the realization of how hard a precursor weapon is to come by, I've let progress become very slow on other things. Maybe someday...
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