Lurker's Lair

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smells like a new forum lurk

More HP farming on more chars. The mechanist elite spec is pretty good. All total, I'm over halfway done now.

* lurk *

I'm liking the engineer a lot, she's even past my warrior now who I stuck in Lion's Arch making heavy armors when he reached level 80. So I'm doing the campaign in Orr now, for only the second time ever since my guardian was the only one I've done everything with so far. I'm working towards Mechanist as well, and I'm looking forward to redoing the Living World content now that they've put the early stuff back in. After all it's almost been a decade since I played that! But right now I'm thinking of continuing the Canthan story with my guardian since my friend still hasn't turned up after all this time, even though he'd said he would be playing again early March. I can't wait forever. 

Risen lurk

Yeah, I'd say continue with Cantha's story, if only to unlock everything.

HP farming has hit a weird snag at times but I figured out what the issue is. Some of the enemies are tailored to be very anti-melee. Attack with range and it's a night and day difference in difficulty. Only problem is, while it's easier, it's also more tedious and annoying.

* lurk *

Darkened Angel wrote:Yeah, I'd say continue with Cantha's story, if only to unlock everything.

HP farming has hit a weird snag at times but I figured out what the issue is. Some of the enemies are tailored to be very anti-melee. Attack with range and it's a night and day difference in difficulty. Only problem is, while it's easier, it's also more tedious and annoying.

That's why I like builds where you can do both melee and ranged and switch as you please. My guardian uses greatsword and longbow now, for instance, and when longbow wasn't an option yet he had a scepter. When I still did WvW it was the only option to hit people out of melee reach on top of fortress walls for instance. I rarely switch to longbow though, it does less damage, most skills are targeted which makes you stand still, and it's usually easier to just rush in with greatsword and dodge when needed unless you're fighting some nasty anti-melee world boss. 

My flamethrower engineer is somewhere in between, with long range and melee not out of the question but optimal use is at short range, pushing melee attackers away or walking backwards when fire-hosing them and with the occasional rocket turret taking care of enemies further away. It's not perfect, the turrets hinder your mobility somewhat but my build revolves around the flamethrower simply because it looks cool, I've been using it since low level.  I even got Balthazar's armor when I got access to it in Orr which prolongs burning time. I'm not impressed with the healing turret though, it can't deal with spike damage so the mechanist's healing signet might be much more practical. It will take a while before I unlock all of those skills, but even without advancing in Cantha I can still continue to pour points in the mechanist line. Simply having the expansion is enough to unlock the elite line once the base game skills are done, so that's nice.

And for a nice diversion I take out my low-level (20-ish) necromancer. The minion skills are easy to use but I'm not sure if I like having all those little monsters tag along (or get stuck) all the time, with only a weapon skill or two to do spike damage with. So I'll probably change that up once I have a better picture of what the other skills do. Using the same easy to use skillbar on my guardian for years has made me lazy.

tactical lurk

Since my guardian is my main character, yeah. I know how that can be. I have to stop and check my skills on others because I don't really play them actively. However, with all the different elite specs available, some of them have more appeal when going through them, such as when I do HP farming or wanting to get them through the base storyline, which is something I'm intending to do. I have them all except my necromancer at the last story mission.

Here's my list of characters and their elites and what info I know.

Guardian - Dragonhunter: I originally used a staff for range but longbow is better for me, the ground targetting sucks at times, yeah, but it's the best we have IMO for ranged DPS on the class.

Elementalist - Weaver: I stick with fire and lightning on a staff. Not the best, apparently, because my preference for build setups doesn't mix too great with it, but I can do decent damage when the target's distracted by the fire elemental summon I use.

Mesmer - Virtuoso: Ranged DPS with a dagger and pistol combo. Bladesongs can serve as all-purpose options depending on which one you use. If you want a power-based mesmer setup, that's the one to go with.

Thief - Deadeye: Ranged DPS with a rifle. Kneel for added damage when you're safe enough, kite the target otherwise. Basically just spam your big damage whenever possible.

Engineer - Mechanist: Ranged DPS with a rifle and the mech using ranged attacks. With my setup, and having the signets instead of turrets, my mech is essentially the Terminator. It's insanely durable and can deal some decent spike damage while I'm gunning things down on the side.

Revenant - Renegade: Double swords, with shortbow for range. I stick with Shiro, using the elite spec's F2-F4 abilities to add more options in combat. Just switch between melee and range depending on what you're fighting.

Warrior - Spellbreaker: Double daggers, with rifle for range. It's all about using your dagger skills in the right combo for big damage. The rifle is really just for the times I'm dealing with anti-melee enemies.

Ranger - Soulbeast: Dagger and torch, longbow for range. I stay merged with a pet that gives me a power boost and the same tactics as revenant and warrior apply.

Necromancer - Reaper: Greatsword, with staff for range. IMO, it's like an inverse guardian, with more offense than defense. Utilizing chill for bonus damage and spamming the greatsword's spike attack when the target is below 50% HP makes short work of just about everything. The shroud ability helps when you need some extra defense for a while. The staff is just for anti-melee enemies.

Overall, I'm pretty satisfied with my current setups. What I'm hoping for in the future is that they'll give us a rifle for guardians, maybe call it a dragoon, serving as a reverse deadeye. Instead of the kneel mechanic and malice, it'd be all about shooting while moving, flanking attacks, etc. to power through a single target. IMO, that'd be the perfect concept for a ranged DPS elite spec for the class.

* lurk *

That's a nice overview. Of most professions I don't even know what their possibilities are for elite specs and what weapons they use, but the necro greatsword looks like a nice spec to aim for since I'm leveling that one right now. As a mechanist my engineer will probably need to say goodbye to her flamethrower. While it's been a lot of fun during levelling it does have its limitations (like no effect on fireproof enemies) so I won't mind changing it. With my revenant I skipped levelling with that boost to level 80 you got with the expansions, but that was a mistake because I'm still confused with how the stances and skills and abilities work. He's parked for now but I'll get back to him later, once my guardian gets back to crafting duties after the expansion and story content. I'm really enjoying the game now so I'm aiming to do it all.

ambitious lurk

My original 5 are the only ones I levelled. All the rest got boosted.

But yeah, you'll probably like the mechanist for its survivability and ranged potential if you trait right. I had a breeze doing the HP farming in Cantha with it. I never once had to actively heal and my mech was taking damage in the single and double digits while having more than twice my own HP total.

The worst point to do is the one in the graveyard near Arborstone in Echovald Forest. I just sat on top of the thing shooting the enemies and letting my mech tank everything and it was insanely easy. It was just a matter of elite enemies being damage sponges with their insane amounts of HP.

* lurk *

Talking about insane, I've been walking and fighting around in Kaineng some more, and that place must have been thought up by Arenanet's resident megalomaniac because everything is just huge! The 2D map doesn't help much with navigation in the vertical so it's often just guesswork which turn to take when trying to reach some marker that seems close on the map. 

But the worst thing is the invisible walls in random places. I wanted to jump and glide down somewhere to get from top level to the ground floor somewhere and I was stopped, I had to go around and take the stairs down first. So annoying! By the time I get to know my way around the place the story will probably move me out of there, so I might as well enjoy the detours, dead ends and the back-to-where-I-started déja-vu experiences.  

a-maze-ing lurk

Echovald is so much worse to navigate, IMO. Kaineng is bad, but at least you don't get clutter in your way once you're above it all. You're meant to use the zip lines and other stuff, but they're just as hard to find sometimes, which kinda defeats the purpose. Sometimes I'll just brute force climb on my skyscale to get over a giant wall instead of spending the time looking for the proper way through it. Odds are it's quicker doing that anyways. There's also the raptor taxis, but just like in Seitung, they follow roads and might take longer than going straight on a different mount.

Of all the Canthan maps, Seitung and Dragon's End are the best in terms of easy navigation, and I prefer Seitung overall for the scenery.

* lurk *

Yesterday my friend and guildmate finally turned up, but he wasn't ready to do the new expansion, so he told me I could just continue to explore Cantha on my own. He did want to do some of the free Living World content, apparently he'd skipped a bunch of it, and my engineer was ready to start with LW1 so we went and got going on that. A lot of fire was involved because his main is an elementalist with mostly fire skills, and I brought my flamethrower engineer so it was pyro-paradise!  Even with some fire-resistant enemies they still take enough damage to go down quickly. The instances go a lot quicker when you're doing them with two players, I must say. So now my engineer's progress is basically tied to his ele's for the time being and I'm free to dive back into Cantha, with some relaxing leveling action of my necromancer on the side.

back on track lurk

Rough day. I was sick yesterday, ended up in bed for a really long time with broken sleep, and all day I've felt like I shouldn't have bothered getting up. Hopefully the worst is over now. This sucks. The pollen's really bad right now around here, so that's likely part of what's making me sick.

I used to like spring, but ever since I had to start the treatments and all, my condition has made it the worst time of year for me. I miss winter already.

* lurk *

I'm ready to leave New Kaineng now, and about to enter the forest, Echovald. (Vald already means forest as far as I interpret the name, so "Echovald Forest" would be superfluous. ) I haven't fully explored the city yet, especially not the Hero challenges but I'll catch up with those later, I want to focus on the story first. It occurred to me that the city feels more like science fiction than fantasy like the rest of the game. Quite a contrast with the first GW, that's for sure. Although the feeling went out the door when the power went out, and more so when I ventured into the ruins of Old Kaineng. As for the enemies, especially the Aetherblades and others using similar skills, I found out that I could beat them a lot easier using my longbow than with my greatsword, so that was nice. Let's see what the forest will bring.

babe in the woods lurk

Yeah, New Kaening is like going from fantasy straight into Blade Runner, then you enter the forest and it's right back to fantasy. Kinda weird, but it makes sense considering that NK is essentially the center of all the jade tech as well as the central city of Cantha, so naturally it's gonna be packed with everything.

I'm about done with the HP farming now. I've only got my last char to do it on.

* lurk *

Hello, hello, I am still here!!  I hope everyone is well!!!

Saturn Celeste wrote:Hello, hello, I am still here!!  I hope everyone is well!!!

Who are you again? Oh, right!  I am well but how are you?

long time no see lurk

Well... I'm a well of well-being... maybe.

* Just taking it one day at a time lurk *

I found how to enable the missing Steam overlay in Lust Epidemic, which is the prequel to Treasure of Nadia. I'll start a new playthrough and start posting the story progress.

* More naughty stuff coming lurk *

Not doing all that great myself. Sleep issues, seasonal crap messing with me as always, and other things making it where I don't ever wanna get outta bed.

Hopefully it'll pass soon.

* lurk *

Halgard counts himself lucky he was wearing a helmet at the siege of Danustica in today's episode of the chronicles of clan dey Urs.

* Always protect your egg. Safety lurk *

Safety first. Always lay siege with caution. A safe warrior is a warrior that can loot and pillage afterwards.

[image of standard safety message, but with a Viking-looking character giving a smile and thumbs up]

* lurk *

I just realized, I played Lust Epidemic before. It was some time ago and I think it wasn't finished at the time though. I reached a point where I couldn't find any way to progress and got bored with it, then forgot about it since.

It was on a site that had all kinds of adult games. Most were utter crap, but a few were decent outside of just looking at sexy images.

I know there was one that unfinished because I did every possible thing in it. I forgot the name now but you play as a girl that decides to go punk and runs off on her own. There's school to go to during weekday mornings, but afterwards you're mostly free to explore other areas.

* lurk *

I guess the rason why vikings never used horned helmets in history must be 'cause the reason they may poke someone's eye out or something

* Lurking beneath the lurker *

How do you like Lust Epidemic, Treasure of Nadia and Tales from the Unending Void? I picked those because they got some good stories to tell, imo.

Well, as I'm only vaguely familiar with Lust Epidemic, I guess it's alright. My problem with some of those types of games is that they can sometimes go too far into either end. Sometimes it'll be a complete joke of a story with no real logic behind anything for the sake of porn. Other times, you have entire story chapters worth of dialogue or text to go through between even the most trivial actions you take, which can get very tedious and boring.

Unfortunately, I've seen far too many of such types that I tend to not really expect much from those games in general, so I can easily overlook a good one mixed in with a bunch of crap.

Generally though, I prefer ones with more RPG elements, that give 'em a nice proper game feel. There doesn't seem to be enough of 'em that fit my particular tastes though.

* lurk *