Hall of Monuments Synergies

[Confused? Start here.]

There's a number of different combinations of things you can do to simultaneously work on earning multiple points towards your Hall of Monuments. They're similar to the synergies possible between multiple titles (themselves useful for HoM points, of course), so you may already be familiar with these, but it might be worth reading through just in case.

Earning Money for the HoM and/or Profit

[Confused? Start here.]

If you've read the other posts, you know that various Hall of Monuments progress can take a fair amount of money: for miniatures, for elite armor, for certain titles, and possibly for weapons and hero armor upgrades. You may be wondering "just where am I going to get all that money?"

GW2: What I don't like to hear

[Edited 22 Oct.]
It occurred to me today, as I looked at the latest PC Gamer article, that GW2 had until recently only released news I was either felt fully positive to, or neutrally to with a "let's see how they actually do this" sort of feel. Now it feels like it's going downhill.

I've already mentioned how much I don't like the inflexibility of dungeon team sizes despite the flexibility of other places and the already included robust scaling system. What I forgot to mention is that I also don't like the way you'd have to run the same dungeon 7 times to get a full armor set out of it (first time in 'story mode' gives you a weapon, then one armor per run, which feels like it's tilting to WoW repetitiveness).

Now I'm starting to feel really uneasy about the microtransactions.

Or.... not (GW2)

Before I get bitchy, I should note that PC Gamer did a pretty good cover story on GW2 in their latest issue, which they've now put online. For the rest of this week, they're publishing supplementary material online as well. Which is where today's quote comes from:

From the roles you’ll assume, to the dungeons you’ll brave, to the NPCs you’ll interact with, ArenaNet’s flexible design diminishes barriers in an effort to empower players to play how they want to play.

Unless, of course, you want to play dungeons with anything less than a full group (or, Heaven forbid, solo). Then the barrier is still there.

Guild Wars 2: Two good things, one less so

A few things from the Guild Wars 2 front: dye, dungeons, and the Hall of Monuments (which is also news on the Guild Wars 1 front).

Faux Open Letter

Dear Designers of the Domain of Anguish,

I get that you want "elite" areas in your game. I do. Here's my problem: you basically made the Domain of Anguish, which is contained in the expansion in which Dervishes were released, impossible for a Dervish to run thanks to the fact that your ridiculously overpowered Mesmers that can do twice as much damage as my mesmer ever possibly could with Shatter Enchantment can simultaneously remove my enchantments (the central mechanic of the Dervish, I remind you) and and deal approximately half my HP in damage per enchantment removed. This isn't just ridiculous. I need a whole new word for what it is.

I hate you and die in a fire.

Love,

Me

(PS: I don't hate you and you shouldn't die in a fire. But if you do this in GW2, I am going to be very, very angry with you.)

Guild Wars 2: Wishlist, further comments

Some more post-demo thoughts:

Guild Wars 2: Info from gamescom demos

I'm gonna summarize what I've learned from the official GW2 demos (both what tiny amount I can understand in German and what I saw in the demos visually) and the vast wealth of info from fans and media alike. Many props to the fine people at Guild Wars 2 Guru who have provided a great deal of the info and pointers to info sources that I'm basing this post on. I also will be, of course, putting in my opinions on what I've learned.

Guild Wars 2: Need Moar Info

So, there's this GW2 forum I hang out on. A lot of people are asking "What are you going to play?" The answer I have is, "Don't know. Ask again when we know the rest of professions." [Blather follows:]

Guild Wars 2: Ghosts of Ascalon (spoiler-free)

So, for those of my imaginary readers who aren't either Guild Wars players or just aren't keeping up on the Guild Wars 2 news, here's the sitch: They're releasing books. The first one officially came out this past Tuesday (I've had my copy since Saturday, though) and it's really pretty good.