Super Duper Update Part 4 - On Jade Quarry

If there's one thing playing on Jade Quarry has taught me, it's this: people who are really, seriously into world PvP are really bottom-of-the-barrel tier scum.

It's a little harsh, but I can't think of any polite way to put it.  These guys are willing to extoll, at length, the virtues of world PvP, but they are all invariably ego-driven idiotic chucklefucks of the highest caliber.

Special thanks to JadeQuarry.com for helping me finally attain the conclusion to something about MMO players that's been itching at the back of my mind for a while.  Not a lot of time spent lurking the forums there makes how much of a retarded ego circlejerk the WvWvW "community" really is quite apparent.

I unwittingly got wrapped in the still-fresh MMAC/AoS debacle.  Menaace, the "franchise owner" of MMAC (Mixed Martial Arts and Crafts--an absolutely brilliant guild name) tried to depart from JQ.com's shithole by creating a new site for more serious, on-topic WvWvW discussion called the Emerald Council.  I sent him a big message telling him how I agree with his disgust with JQ.com and wishing him better luck with EC; he eventually hooked me up with a guild invite to MMAC.  Little did I know, the people he had charged with leadership of the GW2 guild were on the cusp of demanding Menaace step down from leadership because of all the retarded, retarded forum drama.  Menaace responded by clear cutting all of the dissenting leadership, who promptly responded by creating their own guild and dragged most of the active membership of MMAC with them.  I'm sitting on membership in both guilds (but only representing my own now) while the dust clears; I wish MMAC and EC success still but it's clear that MMAC is now going nowhere, and while I became fast associates of several okay dudes in what is now Army of Shepherds, I firmly believe they're another drop in the pond of the sea of leaderless shits who run around Jade Quarry's WvWvW thinking they're tactical geniuses.

I'd also tried to start a guild to use as an impromptu Looking For Dungeons channel, but after about a week and a half of recruiting (managed to get just shy of 100 members at its peak), I basically gave up since it was turning into too much work for how useless it turned out to be and anyways Lion's Arch general chat serves the same purpose.

Aside from all of the above, I have my own lil personal guild that I enjoy some peace and quiet in whilst I accumulate influence.  I now have my own private guild bank and am close to having my own set o' guild armor available.  Also, some teenage kid keeps messaging me to ask my advice on random subjects.

UPDATE 11/28/2012: I discovered probably about a week ago that Menaace has since transferred to another server to join some other guild and he's deleted both the Emerald Council and MMAC websites.  Lending further credibility to the argument that he's a complete whackjob, he was caught fervently pretending to be a member of AoS on GW2Guru.  All this made the decision on which guild to stick with that much easier.

Super Duper Update Part 3 - Meanwhile...

Though I still consider myself to be on the Guild Wars 2 bandwagon, I'm not still playing it a ton aside from running a few explorable mode dungeons a day for tokens for gear and leveling random (literally, I've taken to dice rolls to pick which to play on a given day) characters to power through the (what would now be referred to specifically as the PvE) daily achievements.  Actually, I've taken to listening to girlwriteswhat's videos (the MRM is an interesting subject) to extend the life of each play session before I get tired of clearing the same maps over and over.

Aside from that I've been bouncing between an assortment of games including Torchlight 2, Borderlands 2 (shout out to my old FFXI buddy Margulis, who hooked me up with a spare copy), Orcs Must Die 2, AI War: Fleet Command, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and Dota 2.  Been killing a lot of time watching through the 2012 Dota 2 International (actually, I wrote a huge post on my Facebook that I oughtta copy over to here at some point about how fucking awesome one of the matches was).

Alice and I made very quick work of Torchlight 2 and then quickly lost interest in it.  We've been kinda floundering trying to find some other game to co-op in now that SMNC is basically dead.  Payday has gotten some interesting updates recently, but unfortunately the game has mostly run its course with me already.  Been trying to get him to give OMD2, AI War, or GW2 a try but no dice so far.  Actually, I just came across Natural Selection 2, thinking of getting it, wonder if alice might find it interesting.

I'm all caught up with A Song of Ice and Fire now.  I started reading through some books from my younger days to see if they've stood the test of time, chiefly books by Robert A. Heinlein.  I found Citizen of the Galaxy to be pretty pleasant, but found that I didn't really like Stranger in a Strange Land.  I did, however, seriously enjoy Starship Troopers and it has deeply informed some of my thoughts on the structure of society in general (made a big, interesting Facebook note about that too).  Lately I started watching through Death Note again to kill time.

I started taking tri-weekly half hour walks about 3 weeks ago.  Figured it was time to at least make a token effort towards a more healthy lifestyle.  I'm able to gauge a little progress so far, so it's really encouraging.

Super Duper Update Part 2 - SWTOR

http://www.swtor.com/free/features

Look upon Bioware's works, ye mighty, and despair.

Callsign's been sending me several sad messages about how he was really excited in the days leading up to SWTOR going free to play.  Then he sends me some messages this morning pissed at how the exp rate is half for free players.  But that's only the tip of the iceberg--the SWTOR free to play model is riddled with mind-boggling shit like emotes and the ability to toggle off your helmet being options that require real money transactions.

Every so often I peek at the MoX Mumble server's user numbers and they're always pretty high, which I guess is good for them.  I was actually so tempted to find someone to ask whether the latest patch and/or the free to play conversion has managed to wreck the game even further that I went and signed up for the MoX Facebook group again.  I was really tempted to make a post to that effect, but was dismayed to find that I recognized virtually nobody from the group any more (think I recognized Clausy and Darkhorse, but that's basically it).

Actually, I thought I had more to say about SWTOR, but maybe not.

Oh, they JUST RECENTLY released Nightmare Mode Denova.  It is now early November.  1.2 was released on 4/12/2012.  Holy shitfuck that was about 7 months ago.  Jesus tittyfucking Christ on a stick, that's outrageous.

I still get a weird number of hits on my Denova loot list page despite having it hidden on this blog except for direct linking.

Super Duper Update Part 1 - Preface

So clearly this blog has fallen somewhat by the wayside, but I thought I might at least make a minor effort to bring things a little more up to speed.  A lot of the info on GW2 that I've previously posted here is quite out of date and/or inaccurate, however I've chosen to just let them sit since there's now plenty of up-to-date and more oft-updated resources for many of the things I've covered previously.  And what is relevant to be updated I'll cover in relevant posts to follow.

I have 4 big topics I'd like to address that I'm going to split into separate posts: where my characters are at in GW2, some writing about my goings-on/history on Jade Quarry so far (especially with respect to the WvWvW environment), non-MMO things I've been up to, and SWTOR.

I plan on tackling the last of those first, being that my impetus to write this is a result of having taken a look at the free2play matrix for SWTOR and being absolutely floored by how horrifying it is.  Then a lil nostalgia led me to reverse my childish decision to leave the MoX Facebook group (though whether I may again remains to be seen).

On that same train of thought I'm going to cover my personal progress in GW2 last with a gigantic post about my characters in GW2 since that's probably what I have the most to write about, especially since I'd like to talk gearing and skill/talent builds.

So here we go.

Legendary Weapons: Clarification Edition

According to this post all of the steps and components to creating Twilight, a legendary greatsword (apparently there's another, Sunrise) are now known.  Here's the gist of it:

-It's crafted at the mystic forge from Dusk, the exotic greatsword, and Gifts of Mastery, Fortune, and Twilight.
-These require an absolute minimum (not including the cost of purchasing any of the mountains of crafting materials you need) of 120g and 525000 karma.
-Each of the Gifts are created from combinations of other Gifts (which all also have ridiculous requirements) and certain rare materials.
-The only components of this process that are soulbound are the Obsidian Shards and the dungeon specific tokens required for the dungeon's Gift.  All other bound items are account bound.
-The components which require some form of grinding include the dungeon Gift, Gift of Exploration (requires 100% map completion, note that the Gift itself is account bound), Bloodstone Shard (requires 200 skill points, but also account bound), Gift of Battle (requires 500 Badges of Honor from WvWvW), and the Obsidian Shards (soulbound and bought with karma).

There's another thread here compiling information on the other legendaries.

Legendary Weapons: More Rumors and Speculation Edition

Back when I made this post I didn't have a lot of information on Legendary Weapons, so here's a few more notes to fill in some gaps:

-All legendary weapons are made from two "Gifts" + Bloodstone Shard + a specific exotic weapon.
-The Bloodstone Shard is, ironically, probably the easiest to get as it only requires 200 skill points.
-Many of the gifts are created from max level craft skills but are reportedly bind on account, which should mean that having tradeskills on multiple characters won't hinder creating the legendary for one particular character.
-The gifts also have some pretty obsurd requirements themselves (Gift of Metal reportedly requires 250 of orihalcum, mithril, darksteel, and platinum ingots), and each weapon requires at least one Gift that in turn requires a material bought from several hundred (500 apparently?  I could verify this but I'm not logged into the game right now) of a certain explorable mode dungeon's token--so I was partially wrong about explorable mode dungeons not being endgame.
-It's not yet clear how exactly the required exotic weapons are made.
-It's not clear how much of the process requires stuff that is soulbound or if the weapons themself are souldbound.  Obviously many of the crafting materials are not soulbound, however I'm aware that the explorable mode dungeon tokens (Tears of Ascalon et al.) are soulbound for sure.

Here's the current list of legendaries being tossed around the internet:
Frostfang (Axe): Gift of Frostfang(Jeweler) + Gift of Metal(Weaponsmith) + Bloodstone Shard + Tooth of Frostfang of Rage
Incinerator (Dagger): Gift of Incinerator(Cook) + Gift of Metal(Weaponsmith) + Bloodstone Shard + Spark of Rage
Sunrise (Greatsword): Gift of Sunrise(Armorsmith) + Gift of Metal(Weaponsmith) + Bloodstone Shard + Dawn of Rage
Twilight (Greatsword): Gift of Twilight(Armorsmith) + Gift of Metal(Weaponsmith) + Bloodstone Shard + Dusk or Rage
Juggernaught (Hammer): Gift of Juggernaught(Jeweler) + Gift of Metal(Weaponsmith) + Bloodstone Shard + The Colossus of Rage
The Moot (Mace): Gift of The Moot(Armorsmith) + Gift of Metal(Weaponsmith) + Bloodstone Shard + The Energizer of Rage
The Flameseeker Prophecies (Shield): Gift of The Flameseeker Prophecies(Armorsmith) + Gift of Metal(Weaponsmith) + Bloodstone Shard + The Seeker of Rage
Bolt (Sword): Gift of Bolt(Artificer) + Gift of Metal(Weaponsmith) + Bloodstone Shard + Zap of Rage
Maw of the Deep (Spear): Gift of Maw of the Deep(Leatherworker) + Gift of Metal(Weamonsmith) + Bloodstone Shard + Maw of Rage
Kudzu (Longbow): Gift of Kudzu(Leatherworker) + Gift of Wood(Huntsman) + Bloodstone Shard + Leaf of Kudzu of Rage
The Dreamer (Shortbow): Gift of The Dreamer(Jeweler) + Gift of Wood(Huntsman) + Bloodstone Shard + The Lover of Rage
Predator (Rifle): Gift of Predator(Tailor) + Gift of Wood(Huntsman) + Bloodstone Shard + The Hunter of Rage
Quip (Pistol): Gift of Quip(Armorsmith) + Gift of Wood(Huntsman) + Bloodstone Shard + Chaos Gun of Rage
Dragons Maw Torch: Gift of Dragon Maw(Unknown) + Gift of Wood(Huntsman) + Bloodstone Shard + Dragons Claw of Rage
Howler (Warhorn): Gift of Howler(Leatherworker) + Gift of Wood(Huntsman) + Bloodstone Shard + Howl of Rage
Frenzy (Speargun): Gift of Frenzy(Cook) + Gift of Wood(Huntsman) + Bloodstone Shard + Rage of Rage
The Minstrel (Focus): Gift of The Minstrel(Jeweler) + Gift of Energy(Artificer) + Bloodstone Shard + The Bard of Rage
Meteorlogicus (Scepter): Gift of Meteorlogicus(Armorsmith) + Gift of Energy(Artificer) + Bloodstone Shard + Storm or Rage
The Bifrost (Staff): Gift of The Bifrost(Cook) + Gift of Energy(Artificer) + Bloodstone Shard + The Legend of Rage
Kraitkin (Trident): Gift of Kraitkin(Leatherworker) + Gift of Energy(Artificer) + Bloodstone Shard + Venom of Rage.

Guilds War

I want to write a bit about the paradigm shift of player community interaction in Guild Wars 2, and as someone who has had an administrative hand in guild and groups in nearly a dozen MMOs I have some advice for people trying to build a Guild Wars 2 guild. The "paradigm shift" I speak of is the fact that a single player (or, more specifically, their account) can be a member of multiple guilds.  This isn't new to MMOs, except perhaps to one as "mainstream" as Guild Wars 2.  Final Fantasy XI had linkshells, which was that game's equivalent of guilds, and you could have as many as you had inventory spaces for (since they...literally took up inventory space).

The thing I'm looking for and hope develops in Guild Wars 2 is the compartmentalization that occurred in FFXI.  By either design or the game's social evolution, individual linkshells had very specific specializations.  Players had their social LS, their ENM (endgame) LS, perhaps a Dynamis LS if their ENM one didn't also do Dynamis (or they might have had a separate LS just for Dynamis with the same members).  I'm not yet committed to a guild (or circle of guilds) and so I'm trying to collect solid guilds, but whenever I see a recruitment message that touts that they intend to be super duper active in everything, PvE, sPvP, WvWvW, endgame, leveling, et al. all at once it's an immediate turn off.  This is an old school mentality that comes from WoW-style MMOs where your guild was really your only social circle, so by necessity guilds had to do everything to attract members.

Anyways, to get back to that advice I referred to in the first paragraph.  If you want to build a successful guild, start by doing what nobody else is doing: specialize.  Pick the thing you like doing most, whether it be PvE, sPvP, or WvWvW and get the word out that your guild does nothing but that.  Let's use sPvP as an example.  Get the word out that your guild eats, drinks, and farts sPvP and discusses and engages in it ad nauseam.  In time, wise players looking to play with others focused on sPvP and improve and talk sPvP will like the idea of joining a guild that does nothing but that.  Players who would like to sPvP more but are stuck in ho-hum guilds where only one or two other people are sort of vaguely into it will eagerly jump on board as well.  So far I've found guilds that sort of casually only do WvWvW and PvE, but I'd still like to find guilds actively committed to only doing them.  I still haven't found a guild full of die-hard sPvPers which is frustrating because I want to do it more but can only take soloing through the server browser in small chunks, and thus I don't have anyone to talk PvP theorycrafting with at all.
"Representing" guilds is an issue that throws a kink into my desire for specialized guilds, as representing a guild for influence does encourage a certain amount of guild loyalty.  Right now guilds really want you to represent them for influence, though I think this'll probably die off over time as guilds finish all the upgrades they want.  Right now a lot of guilds are very adamant (or at least passive aggressive) about it; early on there's a lot of incentive for guild leaders to persistently ask their members to either exclusively or semi-exclusively represent them.  I just had an officer from my WvWvW guild send me faux-sad tells asking why I wasn't representing.  I had to explain to him that when I was in WvWvW, grouping with members from the guild, or particularly starved for conversation, I always represent the guild, and furthermore that in a game like Guild Wars 2 where you have a neigh-infinite choice of guilds a player is only holding themself back by sticking to one.  As a guild leader there's two ways to ensure a steady flow of influence: either recruit like mad just for sheer numbers, which will maybe give a short term boost unless you can create a truly steady large community (which can happen, shout out to All Shall Perish), or do as I advised above.  Like I said before, guilds used to be the only social circle a player has.  Now you need to create the need or incentive for a player to choose your guild over others and right now I believe specialization is the best way to do that.


Fortunately for me, guilds are a very accessory part of GW2, so I've not urgently needed one for anything and have had the luxury of not being desperate to shoehorn my way into an existing community.  I actually made my own tiny guild to invite a few friends I know who play and to dump small bits of influence into when things are dry in other guilds.  Since I don't feel attached to any of them yet, I'd rather my influence be my own right now.