“Tyrian Adventures” – Episode 2: ‘Fall of the Frog King’

It’s time for the second episode already?

Because we felt bad that we couldn’t beat him last time around, Aristeia, Yoritus (@GavinTownsley), and myself return to the “Super Adventure Box” to revisit World 1-3 and have another go at the Frog King. This time, however, we come prepared with the knowledge of how to defeat him.

What do we get for beating him?

We get some nifty treasure, a new heart (extra health = yay!), and another challenging area to explore. In fact, the whitewater-filled canyon level and the ensuing river rafting experience is really, REALLY fun!

Stay tuned for more Tyrian fun and entertaining guests in Episode 3!

Please also visit these great affiliates:

http://www.anjelsyndicate.org
http://www.nerdybutflirty.com

“Tyrian Adventures” – Episode 1: ‘Mired in the Muck’

The first episode of the new “Tyrian Adventures” vidcast series is here!

“Tyrian Adventures” is a new series run by Allahweh’s Domain in which the focus is on documenting my fun in “Guild Wars 2″ while bringing entertaining, interactive content to both the players (my guests) and you, the viewers. I will, often with the help of Aristeia, host various events that are open to the public where we will scour dungeons, scale jumping puzzles, enter the fray in World vs. World, and much more while offering unique challenges and awesome prizes. The goal is to do something different each episode while having fun with and getting to know various players (both new and recurring).

Think in terms of a podcast crossed with gameplay crossed with gameshow elements!

In this introductory episode, Aristeia and I host a romp through the new “Super Adventure Box” in Rata Sum. We are joined by Jeremy Stratton (@jeremy_stratton), Oakstout, and Yogitus (@GavinTownsley) and the challenge this time around is to be the last person to get a “game over.” The prize? Each person donates 50 silver and so the winner gets 2 gold and 50 silver as the reward.

Things are a bit hectic in places here due to the nature of this level, so if you think things are chaotic, in this area that is part of the fun! Other challenges will likely be a bit less so. In future episodes, we’ll likely try to interact with the guests a bit more before and after the video and thus focus on “hosting” more, but this video was long and so it was necessary to just press onward.

Fun times!

Enjoy, and don’t forget to check out these awesome affiliates: Anjel Syndicate and Nerdy But Flirty!

“Super Adventure Box” is Here in GW2!

Many players were really convinced that the Super Adventure Box that ArenaNet talked about would be nothing more than an April Fool’s joke.  Well, as it turns out, even if it was meant to be a “joke,” it has actually become something that was put into the game!

Players who log into the game and head to Rata Sum will be able to take part in a brand-new jumping puzzle mini-game world, offering lots of great platforming fun that is reminiscent of games of old.  In fact, they’ve even released a trailer for the experience!  Sure, it may not be from the 1980s, but it does capture the look and feel of the early-3D titles that began to appear on the Nintendo 64, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and others, and it’s just a lot of fun!

Since 1983 marks thirty years since the release of the original “Mario Bros.” arcade game, as well as the Japanese Famicom, it seems apt (doesn’t that make you feel old?).

So, if you own the game, hop on over to the Asura capital and check it out!

Accidentally Junking Gear >.<

Now that my thief, Runa Olafsdottir, is level 80 in “Guild Wars 2″ (my third character in the game to reach that point), I’ve been working on gearing her up with Exotic weapons and armor.  It’s true that I actually have a decent stockpile of gold saved up, however, I didn’t want to completely drain that yet.  For the gear Runa needs, which favors condition damage as a primary stat, I could either get it from one of two dungeons (via tokens from Explorable Mode) or through purchasing it on the Auction House.  I opted to do so from running Citadel of Flame because doing so is at least decently fun, relatively fast for each path, and nets a decent amount of gold each time around.

Anyway, after hitting it pretty hard on Sunday and yesterday, I had enough tokens to buy three pieces of armor.  While looking through the armors that were available at the merchant in Lion’s Arch, I was advised to be careful that I picked the correct thing.  So, I scrolled up to make sure that what I had selected (the medium armor called “Shaman”) was what I needed, and after being distracted I scrolled back down, selected the pieces I thought were what I had before, and bought them.  I then tried to transmute the pieces with the armor that had looks that I liked…

…Only to find out that I had indeed, in trying to be careful, made the mistake of picking up the wrong pieces! >.<

So, that was 540 tokens worth of gear that was completely wasted and cannot be recovered.

Well, maybe that’s not totally true.  I did salvage it and got about 3 gold worth of materials out of it that I used to pick up a second Exotic pistol, but even so, that still doesn’t make up for the time running the dungeon.

Still, after hearing about a friend who accidentally salvaged a Legendary precursor item worth over 200 gold, I don’t feel quite as bad about it, but it still sucks and ultimately waned my interest yesterday evening in running the dungeon again.

Oh well, hopefully I’ll pick back up with that soon and finally get Runa geared up.

Another Desktop-Worthy GW2 Pic!

By now it should be no secret that I enjoy taking screenshots while playing the various games I am into, and often I will find images from my exploration and whatnot that really stick out.  Often, images like these end up being used as a desktop background for my PC.  Of course, I also might use pictures I take in real-life for this purpose too as generally I try to have my desktop reflect my own interests.

But, I digress…

For a while I had this image as my desktop background, having really enjoyed the overall look of it, but recently I was looking through my screenshot directory for “Guild Wars 2″ and saw this awesome image.  In it, I had positioned the camera just right so that when my Guardian, Catherine Valentin, did her leaping greatsword attack, she jumped right towards the camera and I captured the glowing flash of the sword.  I think it turned out really nicely!

So, this will be my new desktop background for a while, and feel free to enjoy it yourself if you like it!

A Map of Possible GW2 Future Lands

“Guild Wars 2″ is a game that has a huge potential for expansion in the future.  Some of you may recall my excitement back in September of last year when I found out about the discovery of actual, in-game maps and globes that showed how large the world of Tyria actually was.  This was something that we never got a glimpse of in the original title, and although later I discovered that there were globes of the world available in places like the main base of the Order of Whispers, I had never paid attention to them before.

A good example of what the overall world looks like can be seen here.

Before I talk about the map above, I should point out that the globes the Priory has in-game are actually not complete at all.  They seem to be created by simply stretching the current, in-game map onto a globe, which gives a strange effect.  This is in no way canon because Elona, Istan, and Cantha, among other places, are not represented there.

On Friday, it was pointed out to me that a fan had come up with a map that projected where some future content would be.  This was accomplished by the fan paying attention to where currently sealed-off gates in the game could be found, such as the gates that lead into the Dominion of Winds or beyond the walls of Ebonhawke and out into the Crystal Desert.  But, what is really interesting about this map they came up with is the fact that they have estimated where some of the currently unused Asura Gates in Lion’s Arch might lead.  This was accomplished through noticing that the gates that exist point in the relative direction of where they lead.  Thus, the creator of this map looked at where the unused gates in Lion’s Arch were pointing and projected lines from there.  As we can see, one looks like it leads southeast towards Amnoon Oasis (from GW1), one leads in a more easterly direction, possibly to that area in the southern part of the mountains. Another leads off towards the Maguuma Wastes, one up towards Janthir, another up towards the north, potentially to the area north of Divinity’s Reach or even beyond there, and finally one leading up towards the frozen north, maybe where Jormag is at.

Very neat, if you ask me, and I think it is something that does show where the more immediate future of the game might take us!

Dungeon Fun in GW2!

Lately, I have been having a lot of fun in “Guild Wars 2″ really getting into doing dungeon runs.  Back when I was playing my Sylvari Ranger as my primary character I did do some of the Story Mode runs of the dungeons, but I never bothered to do any of then in Explorable Mode.  I must say that the explorable versions of these dungeons are quite a bit harder than the story ones and yet they are quite profitable.  Not only do you get special dungeon currency (unique to each dungeon, I should add) that you can spend on special Rare and Exotic armors and weapons, but you will get some neat drops and a bunch of karma along the way.  I’ve found that I can usually make about 1 to 1.5 gold per “path” through a dungeon (there are three paths in each, and with an efficient group we can do them in about 20-30 minutes each) and the equivalent to a full level of experience points.  It’s quite lucrative.

One neat thing about the weapons and armor, at least for my current main (a Guardian), is that they have stat combinations that you really cannot get anywhere else.  For example, in Ascalon Catacombs and a couple of the others you will have the option to get weapons and armor that have Power/Vitality/Toughness as the three types of stats.  The only other place for you to get that combination is in World vs. World by turning in badges of honor, but it takes an insane amount of those to get anything.  However, if you are looking for Exotic armor with those stats, you can find full sets at karma vendors out in Orr (just a friendly FYI).

I’ll be doing lots of dungeons going forward, I think, and I’ve really enjoyed it!  Anyone that wants to tag along at some point is more than welcome to – just toss me a line in-game!

With Wintersday wrapping up tomorrow, I will try to post something later this week about the fun I had with that series of events.  But, meanwhile, I’ll see you guys in-game!

Wintersday Comes to Tyria!

Wintersday, one of the popular seasonal periods from the original “Guild Wars,” has come to the lands of Tyria in “Guild Wars 2!”

Wintersday, the second seasonal event to come to GW2, features the “Wondrous Workshop of the Toymaker Tixx” – a massive airship that serves as the toy shop for an Asuran inventor named Tixx.  Starting on December 15, Tixx begins his journey by visiting each of the major cities in Tyria and is scheduled to arrive in Lion’s Arch on December 20, where he will remain until January 3, 2013.  Tixx is being hosted as a guest in each city (and has been invited to be the guest of honor by the Captain’s Council in Lion’s Arch) where he will be making unique items for those players who approach him.  But, fear not: Should you miss out on one of his visits to a particular area, you will be able to visit him in Lion’s Arch throughout the remainder of the holiday and will be able to craft those objects you missed out on.

Other fun things of note for Wintersday include a special, magical area called “The Snow Globe” where you can participate in a special PvP snowball fight match or play an instrument in a holiday choir, a new jumping puzzle that is located in a special area of the Snow Globe, special holiday items for sale in the Gem Store, special random holiday events spread all throughout the game world, new crafting recipes, and a few other fun things!

As stated, you have through January 3 to enjoy the festivities, so, if you play “Guild Wars 2,” take your time and enjoy Wintersday!

Oh, and enjoy the actual Holidays too!

“The Gaming Goddess” Podcast – Season 2, Episode 10: “To Ascend or Not to Ascend?”

So, this is it, the end of our journey…For Season 2, that is!

Indeed, with Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, and all of the stuff that it all entails, I won’t really have gads of time to donate to keeping the podcast going in the meantime. Yet, if all goes as currently planned, “The Gaming Goddess” podcast will return for its third season sometime in late-January of 2013.

What will this new season be like? You’ll just have to wait and find out!

In the meantime, today’s episode focuses on the Lost Shores event in “Guild Wars 2″ that starts on November 16 and we are once again honored to have Mark Matthews (aka “Virtual Aristeia”) on the show to discuss it with us. We also talk about the fact that people seem upset that this new area and its new dungeon will introduce a new tier of gear at level 80 called “Ascended” – an obvious reference to GW1. These people feel it is either way too early to introduce more to achieve like that or they feel lied to about GW1′s whole thing about vertical progression.

And, of course, we even muse about possible Holiday events for the game!

If you would like the full quality MP3 to enjoy whenever you wish, snag it here:

https://www.onlinefilefolder.com/4sZ6WI1lnzv6Tt

A Cat on a Boat!

Be sure to view the full-sized version!

Since a lot of my friends seem keen on posting random daily images from “Guild Wars 2,” I thought I would post one of my own today!

This picture is of my character Catherine Valentin (a Guardian on Tarnished Coast) standing on one of the new ships in Lion’s Arch.  I like how the zoomed-out camera captures the scale of the ship as well as the city, and really shows just how wonderfully-done all the environments in the game are.  I particularly love the water areas in GW2 and this picture shows how awesome they can be!