New Sylvari Warrior - 1-80

Hi!  My name is Yellowblack (or Andrew :)).  I played EQ for a long while, then WoW for along while, and have bounced around recently,mostly in Rift and SWTOR.  I want to try something new, and rejoined Gaiscioch in GW2 to give this game a shot.  It's fun for me to write about my experience as I go, so I'll do so here as well.  I'll try to update this as I go every 5-10 levels as I discover what this world is about.  Tried GW2 for a few levels at release, but didn't stick.  Going to try to get to 80 this time, in a world and game I know little about.

See you in guild and in game!

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PT. 1: CHARACTER CREATION

After all this time in MMOs, I know I have a tendency to create the same types of characters over and over. Warrior or mage, usually human, usually with the same basic look in each game. To spice things up from the start, I’m going to rely on random.org to help build my character.

A)     Race:

#1) Charr             #2) Human          #3) Norn              #4) Asura             #5) Sylvari

 random.org chooses: #5, Sylvari. So I’m a plant person. Ok.

B)      Gender

 #1) Male              #2) Female

 random.org chooses: #2, Female

C)      Profession (class I guess?)

 #1) Elementalist               #2) Warrior         #3) Guardian      #4) Engineer

#5) Ranger          #6) Necromancer             #7) Thief              #8) Mesmer

 random.org cho                oses: #2, Warrior. I was kind of hoping for something more exotic, like mesmer or engineer, but warrior will be fun too.

D)     Body Attributes (all randomized)

 random.org chooses: Very tall. Pink skin with clay patterning. (My uncle in New Mexico has pottery that kind of looks like my character.) Faint riverlet glow, but I can’t really see it. No hair. My ears are basically cabbage, but again, I’m a plant, so ok. Orchid eyes.

E)      Armor Dyes

 #1) One color     #2) Two color     #3) Three color#4) Motley (no color twice)

 random.org chooses: #1, One color. 4 – Ebony. I was hoping for something else, something brighter. Ebony doesn’t initially fit my image for a plant warrior with pink skin, but the point of randomizing is to throw off my equilibrium so I’ll build on it.

F)      Background Story/Personality (an interesting set of elements to pick at character creation. I like the added customization)

 random.org chooses:

 Head gear: Spangelhelm. Defensive, inspires respect.

To overcome trouble, relies on: Charm. So inspiring, but pleasant and upbeat.

Vision quest (?): Green knight. Not sure if this means I have to fight him or save him.

Ventari’s most important teaching: Where life goes, so too should you. Intrepid.

Awakened during: Cycle of Dawn. Outgoing, connected, empathetic. This fits with the spangelhelm and charm story elements nicely.

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So that’s my character. Yellowblack, a Sylvari warrior. The opening cinematic was pretty great. Beautifully drawn, and I liked the style of how it was like cutouts or moving paintings rather than a movie. Womb-o-Vision was a bit strange, but I have a feeling that after seeing a bit of the Sylvari background (grown, not born), I’ll have to get used to strange.

Psyched. :D

PT 2: LEVELS 1-10

I love raiding. Since WoW’s “Burning Crusade” expansion, it’s been one of my favorite parts of all my MMOs. It’s also why I’m loving GW2 so far.

I enjoy the coordination involved in raiding, but I think the biggest thing I love is the engagement it requires on my end. I have to be aware of the enemy’s attacks, of what spells it casts and what to interrupt, of what ground effects to dodge and how to maintain my own attacks while doing so. That’s what GW2 has just in the normal leveling so far, and I’m only level 10!

Dodging takes some getting used to, but I mean that in a good way. Weapon selection and the whole skills-tied-to-specific-weapons thing does too, and I also mean that in a good way. Part of why I was nervous about rolling a warrior was that I thought it would involve just planting myself in front of a mob and spamming whatever GW2’s version of “Heroic Strike” is for like the first 30 levels, but now that I’ve opened up each weapon’s abilities, combat is a blast. Judging distance, mixing ranged attacks with melee, single target with aoe, and playing with distance as necessary… yes please.

And I know I’ve just scratched the surface.

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Story notes: Well, the Green Knight thing was dispatched pretty quickly. At first I thought he was just a jerk/bully, but turned out he was with the Nightmare Court. I think the Nightmare Court is bad. They should’ve called themselves the Hugs ‘n’ Puppies Brigade or something if they wanted to at least seem a little non-evil, but up to them. So I broke his armor, killed him, and now it’s onto hunting some dragon whose name sounds like Satan. Like the Nightmare Court, I think it’s safe to assume that Satan is evil.

(Side note: I’m pretty sure the couple attacked by the Knight was gay. Cool. Bravo, ArenaNet.)

PT 3: LEVELS 10-15

Now that I’ve filled out my weapons, I want to try to make sense of them. There’s so many abilities!  They overwhelm me.  I'll try here to  lay out my best first-glance understanding of the gist of each weapon:

Sword – MH: Good single target damage, and the finisher is a beauty. Savage Leap, with the mobility (leap) and cripple, is nice for chasing mobs and probably useful for PvP.

Sword – OH: I really enjoy block effects. They give such a high reward for paying attention in battle, and it’s satisfying to time them juuuust right, prevent damage to yourself, and make the enemy pay. This seems like a great dueling/1v1 weapon, as the torment stacks from impale shine when kiting.

Axe – MH: The AoE vulnerability and cripple seem nice for group/single pvp.

Axe – OH: I really like the raw damage on this. The ability to move while whirling is fun, and prepping it with the crit boost is great. This interests me for PvE.

Mace – MH: Lots of fun for dueling! (When I use that term, I mostly mean 1v1, for both PvE and PvP.) I have had trouble with it so far because I still feel fuzzy on what tells to look for, but when I land a block I get to trade lots damage. The weakness condition seems PvP-ish.

Mace – OH: Perhaps for group PvP. AoE knockdown must be useful there.

Shield: I don’t quite understand this. The raw block without any resulting counterattack feels limited, but maybe it’s great in pvp (or situationally in PvE) when getting targeted by some channeled heavy hitter.

Warhorn: In most game, I lean towards support roles.   I enjoy acting as an amplifier of other people’s abilities and damage, and I have a feeling Warhorn will be a go-to in large group PvP.

Greatsword: This has been one of my primary fallback weapon in my leveling. Phenomenal mix of mobility, single-target, and AoE. I don’t like not being able to move during the Hundred Blades channel, but if I’m in a situation where I can afford to trade hits, it’s nice.

Hammer: I like this similarly to the Greatsword. It’s mostly AoE with a bit of single-target, and sacrifices offense for control.

Rifle: Great single-target ranged damage, and the utility (slow and knockback) make it my primary means of single-target kiting, or at least pulling a mob before swapping to melee after it finally closes distance.

Longbow: Strong ranged AoE.

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I’m sure my read on some of these weapons is wrong, that I’ve overlooked crucial skills or uses of skills, but it seems like a reasonable starting point. My main leveling set-up so far is Rifle and Greatsword (though in more AoE heavy situations, I swap out Rifle for Longbow. It feels smooth for both single target and AoE.

I’ll leave aquatic stuff for another post.

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Story notes: Not much to say here. I completed the stunningly beautiful Caledon Forest and just entered the Brisban Wildlands. The Nightmare Court went after some dude titled “The Harbinger,” and unless a dimensional rift opened from Telara, I don’t know what that means yet.