1. The Wilds
Man, I gotta admit this quest gave me troubles at 1st. Then again, it was my own stupid fault for forgetting every single thing I'd learnt previously! LOL made me feel like a real n00b..
First attempt I got wiped out.. and it was my own stupidity which caused it
Ok.. after killing the initial critters I ran into the area with the mantle knights.. and triggers a whole huge mob of spiders... that was 1 tough fight.. but somehow I managed to beat them without anyone dying... yet.. hehe Next I went north where the Scout was hanging out without paying much attention to things... *HUGE* mistake.. as I triggered not only the spiders hanging around that area.. also got the spiders which were up by the scout... and not only that.. I triggered spiders which dropped!.. pfft!Needless to say that fight didn't go very well! Somehow me & the henchies managed to beat them with just a few of us dying.. ie Alesia, Stefan, Thom, Claude.. oh and myself.. bah! stupid -15% dp
only one who didnt die was Reyna.. go rangers! hehe.. ok.. so I picked up my loot and followed the path the scout went on.. ran into the trap like a bloody moron.. and of course triggered all the hidden nasties all at once..Pfft... How I managed to get past that point I don't know.. did a lot of running around, self-healing and rezzing.. actually managed not to die.. although just about everyone else died.. although again I believe Reyna somehow survived.... LOL Man I was cursing and swearing.. and wondering why I was sucking and like saying "damn this mission is rediculiously hard!".. LOL
So moved on and got the cutscene... then ran at the enemies.. and of course I went after the hunters while the warrior's slaughterd Alesia, Claude.. and poor Reyna finally died as well... killed the rest and rezzed those who had died... moved on and somehow managed to kill a roving band of critters without anyone dying. No idea how that happened since we all had DP's by then.. hehehe
And then came the party wipe.. pfft! I should of seen it comming.. but I was frustrated and annoyed.. saw a mob up a hill, and another mob comming down towards them. now instead of waiting for the 2nd mob to move away... I charged... managed to kill the 1st mob without any losses again.. but stupid Stefan aggro'ed the 2nd mob... So in I race and attack the Warrior.. just to never see it's health bar dip vary far.. and I'm like "WTF! I can't kill it"... duuuhhh.. there's a healer... by the time I work out what was doing the healing.. only me, Reyna & Alesia were alive... then I died.. then Reyna.. and then alesia decided to attack rather than rez anyone.. and party wipe.. blah!
Man I felt like such a n00b when I got back to the outpost.. was going to call it a day and go do something else.. but said.. nooo, I was stupid and died because of it. I thought about my stupidity and decided I could do better.
So try again... and this time I used every trick I had learned. I went slowly through area's to only trigger small groups.. I used pulling tactics to get manageable groups to fight.. I even worked out how to empty out the trap spots so that I could fight the "trapped critters" piecemeal rather than all at once.. and boy did that trick come in handy.
Was it easy? No way. Even with everything I had learnt from my 1st experience coupled with my experiences prior to this I found it a real challange. However, I did it correctly the 2nd time.. using henchies even. Yes, there were times when the henchies did die and I had to rez them.. but that was mainly due to either henchie stupidity, stupid "lets kill Alesia" enemy AI or poison. I don't carry condition removal.. which in hindsight is a silly thing to do since I face so many damned things which apply conditions.. LOL
The second time was hard, it wasa challange.. but it was fun.. I found it really enjoyable to find ways to beat different groups and use different tactics and actually get them to work. I also became more used to using the tab key to select around targets .. cause half the time when I pressed "C" I got their moronic spirit's they had put down.. pfft.. useless to kill that when I'm under fire. I found myself gowing the wrong way a few times, but it was ok since I ended up killing a few bosses and getting some damned fine loot from my side-trip.. heh
And I know things are just going to get harder.. and I know it'll be a challange, but I'm going to give it a shot.. and I'll get their eventually. It's fun
2. Who needs a healer?
On a diversionary note.. was playing my Ranger just recently and went to do the Fort Ranik mission. Not too hard I know... but was an extra challange for me this time round.. heh
entered the mission with henchies as usual.. and started.. got to the 1st grouping of Charr when all of a sudden a firestorm started falling down on the charr.. I'm like "WTF, I don't remember any elementalist's being on the Ascalon's side..".. looked arounf... and there was Orion looking at me withg a funny look... as if to say "You looking at me punk?"
I checked.. and yep.. I had taken Orion instead of Alesia. Duh!.. and I had *no* healing spells of my own.. all I had was Comfort Animal for my pet.. So no healer and no healing spells.. i'm like ARRGGGGG!!!!.. Thought about going back and restarting the mission with Alesia this time...
But decided.. what the heck, it'll be a challange to do the mission with no healer... just gotta be slower and more careful... and definately helps I'm a long distance ranger rather than a close up warrior.. So on I went..
and to be honest, Orion is sometimes very, very good and other times we were dancing in a celebatory firestorm LOL!. Seriously tho, for that mission Orion is actually a very nice choice. Especially when you get to that part where the path runs under the bridge.. me, Reyna & Orion could shoot the charr with our bows.. but Orion made it so much easier by dropping firestorms on their heads.. heh
In fact, he rocked against targets that I could force to be stationary.. either by the layout of the area (ie the bridge example earlier) or using stefan and my pet to blockade the enemy or get the enemy to target them.. when that happened Orion was 100% deadly.. because his Firestorms really, really kileld them fast.
I have to also admit being a ranger with Orion made the bonus of that mission dead easy. When I tried it as a wariror.. I struggled to kill them because of the darned things healing themselves and each other. I wasn't too bright then but managed to do it by waiting for full adren and energy and then just using my skills 1 after the other...
My ranger made it look all so easy, esp with Orion there. Dropped the spirite which increases arrow speed, hit ignote arrow's and then attacked.. using dual arrow everytime it was charged. between that and the lovely firestorm that Orion dropped... those 2 self-healing gits died a very, very fast death.
Continued on with the mission.. taking each group slowly and surely. When I got stationary groups or managed to get the majority attacking stefan and/or my peyt.. Orion really decimated them... potherwise we had a nice firestorm to dance in over the remains of the enemies.. heh. more often than not he was on the mark and helped out.
I have to say that the mission was a lot easier than I had feared it would be without Alesia and without any form of self-healing either. Maybe it's simply because of my experience.. I am fighting better (generally.. LOL).. or maybe it was the style of play that I have with my ranger.. generally use ignite arrors with dual-shot and another arrow attack skill for damage.. it's especially good at taking out groups...
3. Henchmen AI
No matter what they say, the AI can be bloody moronic at times. Especially with Alesia runnign ahead of you and triggering mobs that all go for her. too often when I'm trying to mvoe around she'll run off ahead of me... duuuhhh...
Or in a fight where there's Reyna, claude and alesia in the back.. me, stefan & thom out front duking it out with some critters (nothing behind us except them).. what will Alesia do? Not stay where she is nice and safe... no.. she runs around to be behind the monsters...
and then follow's the benny hill effect as she either triggers the nect mob.. or some/all of the critters attacking me, stefan & thom decide to attack her... at which point she runs away.. 80% of the time in the right direction mind you... and yes.. she has once run away from a critter right into a huge mob and died - and she had a clear run the other way behind us.. and the monster was attacking from the direction she ran to.. you figure out that logic!
Henchmen are smarter than they used to be generally, and they will follow better... and you can actually pull critters better now since they will follow if you run away. But boy they still can act 100% stupidly at time. Heh, as stupid as me on my 1st attempt at The Wilds! LOL!!
4. Critter attack priority.
Ok, I really, really wish they would do something about this. I now I've said it before.. but i'll say it again. It's really, really frustrating when virtually everything goes for alesia.. even if she's not in aggro range at all.
I've gone into fights with her like 2 aggro circles away from the fight.. just to have the critters completely ignore me, stefen, thom, reyna & claude to run all the way over to where Alesia was (and she was still running to try and catch up to us).
it just gets beyond a joke somewetimes. Especially when it's obvious she's not in their aggro but they will ignore you and go for her instead. I can understand why they do it.. and I can understand switching targets to her when she gets in range and/or shows she's a healer.. I do the same thing when I spot a healer type critter..
but the sheer level of critters going for her, and only her to the exclusion of all else.. heck I know I've been saved from death because the critters which were killing me decided to attack a fully healed Alesia.. which lead to me killing them of course :P
5. Chat channels.
I now see what people are saying. Whats the point of local chat when 90% of what you see is WTS! WTB! etc.. Lion's Arch.. blah.. all that is is local channel for trade.. pfft
I still keep my local chat open.. because sometimes there's a conversation that actually interest's me.. well what I can see of it between all the WTS! WTB! spamm.. pfft! LOL
course another reason is to laugh at all the garbage people are buying/selling. Really, makes me laugh.. and wonder that people are that desperate for such items that they will pay gold for them. *shrugs* Guess for them it's easier to buy then go out and kill stuff.. then agin, some people don't find Farming to be very much fun.. so guess for them it's easier to buy than farm.. but your not going to make much money doing that if you want to pay what some of these players are charging..
6. Groups
What's up with people looking for groups to do quests which just require you to like follow a line and get to someplace? I just don't get it..
Like people looking for group's to do the muder quest in Kyrta.. all thats involved in that is getting to a certain outpost and then back to the npc. not too hard to either fight or sneak past the critters on the map with just henchies..
and that's just 1 example. I just don't get it.. or is it that these people refuse to play with henchies and will only do things if they can get a PUG going? I personally don't see how it can be fun sitting saying "LFG for xx quest".. for ages before getting out and doing something that mght only take a few minutes anyways...
And boy I've seen some whopper LFG thingies... "lfg! no n00bz, we've died too many times to want n00bsz!".. "lfg, bonus only, meatshield needed".. "lfg, need 3 monks to keep me alive!" .. or "lfg, I'll pay 1K if you come and suicide on mobs for me!".. *shakes head*.. some of the lfg comments are quite funny. and some just make me wonder.. oh and "lfg, you must be better than henchies! or else!".. LOL
Ahh well, thats all my tired brain can think of right now. Thank you to anyone who actually bothered to read the whole post. Don't know why I'm posting this.. guess I just want to share some more of my experiences in GW. I'm having a ball and loving the challange, even if I act like a right idiot at times in the way I play.. LOL but I learn from my mistakes and get better all the time.
