Remember When for PvE

Mark of Pain before the AI AoE scatter update.

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The Europeans had favor...The Americans had favor every other Tuesday at 3:45 am Nuff Said we sucked

The henches had the ai of a tree stump But soloing was more challenging then Hard mode

20% sundering mods made you go Schawing!!!!!!

Thunderhead keep was the end of the game for most PVEers

Beating trolls for gold to buy elite armor that was the farm

and it being full of peeps looking to do Althea quests / selling ashes for 2k.


being able to get to THK (then having to change) with an epic bar of power shot troll unguent conjure phantasm ether feast and a couple others, 5 ranger skills and 3 mes :P was so bad, but at the time I thought it was the shiz (pre factions ofc.)

Ah well this also reminds me when you couldn't see on the chat the color of what mobs were giving you....

Like in sorrow furnace runs , people could forget picking some green item because they didn't have time to read it on the chat...

I remember doing the Althea's ashes quest and just charging up the pyramid over and over again at 60 DP until I finally got luck enough to be able to pick them up.

...warriors were the only decent runners.

...the rumors of epic-rare "red" items were believable.

...FoW chest runs, where people would actually help teammates to survive to "just one more chest".

...being a warrior with healing breeze meant you were invincible.

...fearing nothing more than some noob in your pug aggroing 2 entire towers in Riverside Province.

...you learned new skills by using consumable "skill gems" and had dozens of duplicates of the common ele gems filling up your entire (extremely limited) inventory.

This one I do not remember. I remember respecing costing skill points, and hating when I was trying to make a new build and running out before I finished, thus having to use a subpar spec until I leveled again.

I remember meeting some of the most awesome people during FoW chest runs. Someone else who remembers skill gems? I wasn't there for it, but I remember a friend telling me about them and it sounded like the most ridiculous idea I ever heard.

Well lets start of from the beginning.

From the start my brother and I trained to group togheter later. Me as a ranger, he did the warrior thing. And both told each other how much "damage we did with each hit". We moved a bit through the storyline and when we saw the "expensive" armor at ascalon city (a staggering 30! (for casters) or 50! (for warrior) armor compared to the begining armor) we used it al the way to I thought Lion's arch. (well the warrior and ranger part).

We experimented a bit with ele's and necromancers. Our jaws felt wide open what damage an elementalist could do (necromancers potential became very "interesting once you could enrage an complete minion army). With the combined might of the MM and Ele we swept through tyria with this combination.

I loved the stop in Beacon's Perch because you saw that devourer again alive!(remember you did slaughter the bull quest, picked up an egg for the poor farmer and found him later in the middle of charr infested area?)
And had to gather food for him!
Well the walk to the next "mission" was a mission on itself.

Villany of galrath, i loved it. But once you made it so far to that evil villain galrath you wont quit (mostly during your voyage a person disconnects). And had to die 10 times before you actually reached that boss. Especially when a MM helped you the chances of succes dropped a lot at the end.

From here the missions started to pace up the speed. First you fought with, then against the white mantle (personally i prefer with them once you have fought against the darn damage tanking warriors/monks) and avoided the towers (when stealing the scepter) as much as possible.

In the crystal desert i had to renew my armor for most of my characters wich was (even if you saved cash for it) a darn expensive trip.
I did thirsty river with 2 friends while hearing of my friend that this is the hardest mission ever! To my astounishment we succeeded the first time (beginners luck or good overall party i guess).
Once arrived in droknars forge i raged because of the prices i had to pay for the armor (again!).
From there we pulled up towards droknars forge.

Mursaat got burned into your memory once you actually saw them in Ice caves of sorrow. The only "remedy" against those darn spells was protective spirit + healing breeze. (back then 90% of the monk bars didn't had protective spirit)

I had to do 4 times thunderhead keep with my friends. (we figured out that 4 warriors and well of blood was "uber" since everyone got a "free" healing breeze.

After thunderhead keep my friend (who was now MM/blood) was shocked he could not use minions effectively. After much cries of frustration it had a sort of blood/curse build each skill that was bought hurted his wallet (and ours) with "well of power" we capped in the far north (wich was a pain 2).

We prayed there was no monkboss in the ring of fire mission at the 3rd gate. And we used 1 party member (i thought ranger)as a movable corpse for well of power (that the casters need so much). 1 monk was spamming ressurect.
After finally seeing the end scene i thought that was it. But nooooo, there was a final quest that gave you OMFG much experience (why did we needed so much experience and had so little gold?). Their was to little time left after factions came out to fully walk through the quest chain of Sorrow's Furnace.

Well then i drove my other characters towards the end and factions came.
There you didnt do not even one quest at the beginning of factions (as a prophecies character) because you had to walk through a maze-like city. Everytime you followed the quest marker as straight as you could you walked up in a dead corridor, good times ^^.

Ab was fun. From here i can sum it up pretty straight,

Island of Death with a ritualist,
And the 16 man missions was epic (especially with 16 reall players).
slaying shiro and looked to all the green weapons like a small boy in a toyshop.
nightfall, brother + me heroe'd all the way (with 2 monks) towards the tormented land. From their we decided to pug (^^).

From their it was 90% AB time (as any character).

Back when the limit was 4 (6) character slots per account, it got old fast with the constantly swapping skill sets and having to earn back attribute points, that I'd created different chars for different jobs on two accounts. People who started playing GW after July 2006 couldn't understand why I made 2 x monks, 2 x warriors on the same account.

I remember exploring/fighting my way through Diesaa Lowlands and a party wipe near the tar lake (upper NE corner of DL) would cause 1/2 to 3/4 of my party of henchies to jump up and fly (running actually) across the sky, over the lake, until they vanish.

I remember the days when I would run mending to counter vamp weaps

-Hanging out in Piken Square.
-Hearing of that fabled place called Droknar's Forge, and being amazed when I actually got there.

When Elona's Reach was rage-inducing for all unable or unwilling to learn patrol patterns.

I miss all the above but the #1 thing I miss was every outpost being full with peeps grouping for quests and missions. Way back then peeps could run any build and get away with it and the game was just lax and fun.

Piken Square being the small outpost it is, so full of people that you could hardly see the NPCs in the crowd.

Watching my sister's boyfriend fail at one of the Crystal Desert missions and thinking: "Wow, the game must be so hard, they are all level 20 already, but still got wiped." I was somewhere around Lions Arch at that point and being level 20 looked like something really special.

Finishing THK(August 2005) with a group of 7 and a N/Mo acting as the only healer for the whole party. And that was after I-don't-know-how-many unsucceessful tries with groups having two monks in them.

The skill gems/crystals and associated ring and charm were the method of 'capping' skills during the early preview event (E3 for Everyone, and possibly the 2004 World Preview Event), they were removed by the time of the Beta Weekends.

Edit: Actually the skill gems were kinda cool in a way, being able to trade skills with your friends and such, a much worse mechanic was the attribute refund points... just terrible.

I started playing Gw when I was around 11, so I have alot of little memories.

I was stuck on aurara glade (sp?) so i spent three hours one day trying to go south from ascalon over the mountains and to the desert. My brother had to sit down and expain to me how instances work

I remember bring mending and watchful spirit on my war in ra, and then just filling the rest of by bar with adrenal skills, thinking that nothing could kill me (+5 health regen ftw!)

I remember whenever me and my brother played together, and we were stuck in a difficult spot, he would send me in on my ranger into a large mob as a meatsheild/to distract enemies/a portable corpse for his minions. aaah, brotherly love

EDIT: I completely forgot about b/p TOPK. I would do love doing b/p TOPK builds on my ranger (my first and still favorite character) and would get jealous whenever I saw the other rangers with their black widows. I had tried several times to get one myself, but always failed, which frustrated me further. So on my birthday my brother said he had a surprise for me, and when I logged on, I realized he had charmed a black widow on my character for me the day earlier. Best gift ever! (yes, we were nerds )

I remember being new to the game and having these two folks pick me up in Piken Square, befriending me immediately. At time I took their kindness for granted as I much later realized it was not so common to have people just be good to you for the sake of it. As the game progressed, people became much more concerned with playing the game for themselves rather than helping others (not necessarily something I condemn, just a reality). Anyways, I probably would have not continued playing Guild Wars if it weren't for these people that I enjoyed spending time with. What astounded me was how they (both Level 20 Eles) could kill charr with one skill!! I kept asking them, "Whoa! How do you do that? I want to do that!" They kindly reassured me that when I got to level 20, I'd be able to do the same. Boy, I could not wait to get there!

"then the monks went on strike." Messy,
LMAO I remember that, all the Monks standing around refusing to help anyone with the ThunderHead keep mission. The good old days

The firsts are always the best.

Leaving pre for the first time and talking in team chat to hench not knowing they were just bad ai....

Finding a collector that gave me a hammer with +25 dmg vs Charr...

Exploring on my own and finding an almost completely unknown outpost - Ice Tooth Cave.

Stumbling down Lornar's Pass with 60%dp only to run into my very first Frost Wurm.

Entering FoW with a group for the first time, as a War/Monk, level 17 and half my skill bar were smiting skills.

Killing Glint for the first time with only Hench! Was so very proud of myself at the time.

Looking up at the GW poster cut from the original guide book and trying to figure out where on the map this new place called "Sorrow's Furnace" was and how to get there.

Sad to say but after Factions was released there just weren't any firsts that stuck in my memory.

Lornar's Pass was epic the first time I set foot out there. I think I was like level 10 or something. I got tooled so badly I had to take a Silkwood shower afterward.

It's the same for me. Seems like Factions+ gives less of the excitement I felt with Prophecies.

Now I feel old since I know th exact scene you are talking about. Please use the polished brissles oh pretty please

Skill gems were E3 4 Everyone only - they were gone by WPE. It was a neat idea, but a terribly implemented mechanic.

when hard mode was first introduced, getting our butt's kicked by the charr outside of ft. ranik. oh, and lot's of ppl doing fow chest runs

I started the game about the same time NF was first coming out, but only had Proph. I remember getting to the Forge with my Ele (still not knowing you could get another 30 attribute points) thinking "I hate this place..." and it was full. Low level Flame Forged armor WOOOT!
I wish that people would go back to this style of playing. Where every thing was so chill.
Doing missions with friends and having no idea what to do, so you slowly work your way through mobs, being careful to turn and run when something big even moved toward you (forget agro, if it looked at me funny I would run scared)

I remember when i leaved Ascalon with Rurik and crossed the Shiverpeaks.It was such a great journey and when i arrived in Kryta it was an epic change of scenery.Loved those times.

My first character leaving pre-searing and heading to Ascalon, I was in ahh of it's greatness and how big it and the map after Pre-searing was. And playing with real people oh the good old days

When everyone carried a resurrection signet.

I just remeber this while lvling up remember when people would congratulate you for lvling or getting a skill point? now they only do it when you get a max title

REAL PEOPLE?!! lol jk those were the days.

I remember falling in love with the different landscapes - from sunlit fields, to desert mesas, to dense jungles, to broiling magma plumes, and down into the dark places beneath the world, finally exploring the Mysts themselves. The secret shrines and places of power that remain hidden to all but the most dedicated of travellers. The explorer titles were a challenge, but it was almost a compulsion for me to finish them (even on multiple characters).

I used to have a pet bear in pre. You used to be able to use a bear to get ales from the Bear Hunters by letting your pet die, then rez, then die again. Over and over, a bit tedious, but it used to net a lot of ale which could be drunk or sold. Those were the days, back when Hunters Ale was the drink of choice (cause it was the only one lol)

I also really dug the prophecies murals of each god. I was always on the lookout for them.

Here's one of my favorites...

I remember how excited I was when I played in the Beta weekends omg

Playing for 24 hours straight when the game was finally released!

Leaving pre for the first time and discovering all the new outposts.

Getting my mesmer back after she was banned for a few months for having a bad name *rolls eyes* this was back before the 72 hour ban we have now lmao.

Getting my mesmer her first 'nightie' enchanters armour.

Monking with pugs up to Sanctum Cay couldn't deal with it so finished off the game with guildies lmao.

The monk strike in THK good times!

Trying to cap an elite when the boss was casting it gah.

Paying a plat at a statue in TOA not realising where I was going to be sent - getting my butt kicked by a really angry looking aataxe 5 seconds or so after.

I also hated factions I remember doing the fed ex quests in the tunnels of crap ewwww!

When it took ages to finish off a FOW or UW run

Sorrows furnance - loved that place when it first came out.

Hardmode was like a huge kick to the face at first.

Like others I miss how much fun people were in the beginning now I keep local chat off and load up my hereos as most of my friends have stopped playing

Even though I did take a break for a bit the last 6 years playing GW has been a blast.

Yeah, that really resonated with me. I really felt a sense of despair straggling over the Shiverpeaks with Ascalonian refugees and finally making it to the haven of Lion's Arch. Jumping from there to the drab Nightfall campaign was a letdown.

Speaking of firsts...

Getting to Maatu Keep for the first time, and realizing "WE'RE FINALLY OUT OF THE CITY!!!"
...only to have to go back in three missions later.
Ugh.

The Nightfall Beta weekend, when no one knew what the hell any of these skills did.
I heard there were people who finished the campaign before the weekend was over, and I kinda cringed that people who can just shut out all other responsibilities and play for 48 hours straight actually exist.

Getting out of presearing a day or two behind my friends (I started after a group of ~5 told me to get it). They told me in school the previous day that the tutorial was tiny compared to the rest of the game. This being my first MMO, I was like, psssh, how big could it be? So, I got into burnt out Ascalon City, hit M, and was very unimpressed. "It's the same thing as I just was, except burned?" But my friends had said that they were in some mountains to the West, so I scrolled...and scrolled...naturally I didn't have any cities on the map, but it sure seemed like it took a while to get to the white area. So I started scrolling back to where I was, just to see if the scale had changed...

Then I accidentally clicked the map. WHOOOOOSH!

To this day, that's still my favorite moment in GW.