12 – 18 August Weekly Digest

Late once more.  I’ll tell you this, I’m never moving again – this house we’re buying is going to be my ‘death nest’ because I can’t go through all this stress another time!  Luckily Tyria is my sanity spot, a welcome distraction from the real life frustrations.

12 August

Phizla, my second mesmer, has been parked on the shelf for a couple of months now.  As the patch for Dragons Reach Pt 2 didn’t come down the pipe until late on my time I spent a bit of time with her.  Reaching level 60 she was rewarded with some new cultural armour, also helping with my ongoing project to populate my wardrobe with skins.

Phizla models her new threads.

13 August

Sinking my teeth into the new patch, I loved the party in Divintiy’s Reach, some great writing and lots of stuff to enjoy.  Plus, bonus Chauncey!  The inquest fight with Taimi was ok although I did feel a little emotionally battered after it was through.  Then it was on to the summit itself, a procession, a bunch of dialogue and finally a pretty dangerous boss fight.  I wasn’t prepared for all that AOE and went down more then I’d care to admit.

Summit Procession.

14 August

I went back to the story to rewatch the Pale Tree’s vision again – there’s lots of stuff to take in and I am so curious to see how it all ties in with the second half of LS – whenever that gets picked up again.  I was going to use a different screen shot for today until I noticed the face – can’t believe I missed it whilst watching the vision in game – I think this is so clever and well done.

I know your face from my dream…

15 August

I had the forsight to continue making plant food after I completed the first stage of the vine backpiece so I was halfway there when the new recipes came out, plus I was sitting on a mountain of Firefox Clusters.  I know this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but I really like the vine, plus it’s so nice for Tulaah to have a backpiece at all after her haircut I figure I’ll show it off for a while.  Now to make more food for the final Mawdrey version.

Tulaah demonstrates her ‘green fingers’.

16 August

House buying stress levels reached a peak on the 16th and all I wanted was distraction – thank you Anet for EoTM, mindless zerging was exactly what I needed.  Thank you to the numerous commanders I followed and to the opposing teams for their many loot bags.

A nice relaxing zerg – just what the doctor ordered.

17 August

Sunday dawned and the rain was falling – perfect GW2 weather.  I’ve got a long term goal to fill up as much of my wardrobe as I can so today I picked up a project that has been patiently waiting for months – spinal backpieces!  I already had one normal tempered ascended version and I’d made sure that during the Battle for LA content I collected 10 of each coloured power core and enough blade shards ready for the day when I had resources, time and inclination to make two more Gift of Blades.  It took most of my stock of Elonian leather but I used up nearly all my saved blade shards (yay! more bank space) and I am really pleased with how they look on their chosen wearers.

Personal project #179 – complete.

18 August

Another personal project one step closer to completion – Dungeon Master!  After an epic TA Aetherblade run with some very patient guildies (it started on Sunday night and ran into the early hours of Monday morning) I now only have one path left to achieve my DM title.  Look out Arah 4, I’m coming to get you…Soon™.

Suspiciously quiet in the Aetherblade hideout.

 

5 – 11 August Weekly Digest

Bit late this week, apologies, but I’m here now and that’s all that matters.

5 August

Diving back into fractals, I can’t end the year on pretty much the same fractal level that I started it at…for shame.  So I’m hoping to be at 30 by Halloween, not particularly ambitious but I have a house move (with possible lack of internet) and a wedding anniversary to fit in between now and then.

Colossal Tuesdays – Bring your hammers!

6 August

I’m in a love/hate relationship with the new LS achievements.  I love that they do present a challenge, particularly if you can resist the pull towards Dulfy.net.  I hate that I’m faced with mountains of un-skippable dialogue when I’m just trying to repeat an instance for the second or third time to get an achievement.  I also think that achievement rewards should be obtainable by each character once per account, although the achievement points themselves can only be awarded for the first character to complete the achievement.

Tulaah – 1 : Ghosts – 0 …after many replays

7 August

The deeper we delve into Dry Top the more we see the devastation to the Zephyrite fleet.

The 2nd Zephyrite Crash Site

 8 August

I know it isn’t everybody’s cup of tea but personally I love a scavenger hunt so crafting this new backpiece was a lot of fun for me.  I even enjoyed some rather intensive firefox farming in Orr for a couple of days.  I’m pleased with how it looks, it certainly suits my Sylvari and I’m hoping the next stage doesn’t go too crazy/big with itself.  Also, I thought the flavour text on the backpiece and the resulting second seed were great.

This vine, while appearing to be touched by Mordremoth, has been grown from seed under the good influence of a hero of Tyria.

9 August

When the first section of Dry Top opened for us back in Episode One I quickly said that Prosperity was my favourite part.  Now, a few episodes and map reveals later I haven’t changed my mind.  Fair enough it’s a little more viney these days and could use a trim but I still think it’s one of the best constructed areas in the map.

Prosperity through the storm.

10 August

Those of you (should you exist) that have been following this blog since it’s start will have come across the game of Witch Hunt before.  For those who may not have you can find an explanation here.  We went back to a traditional ‘evil witch’ theme this time and I decided to fully embrace the spirit with a bit of cosplay – ok it’s not very original but it was the best I could come up with on short notice.  Turns out I wasn’t even a witch, just an innocent villager murdered with a flaming arrow to my wooden heart…

Evil witch you say?…To cliché or not to cliché.

11 August

More fractals and I was totally surprised when we got to the forth – I’d forgotten these guys even exist, it’s been that long since I last drew them.  A pretty smooth run and a fond reminder of LS season 1.

Hey guys, how you been?

 

29 July – 4 August Weekly Digest

Preview day and Arenanet have already released the new teaser trailer – looks exciting, can’t wait.  But what about the week just finished?

29 July

Episode 3 kicked off with a visit home to see the Pale Tree, well home for Tulaah anyway and then on to recruit some race leaders to attend a special ‘How to solve a Problem like Mordremoth’ summit.  It was nice the story has taken us back around to our old pals in Destiny’s Edge, although we didn’t get to catch up with all of them this episode.  Braham and Eir seem to getting on a little better too…

Reunion

30 July

Rumour reached me that things were still afoot at Fort Salma so I had to go check it out – look who I found still standing guard!  I love this little detail and I hope that it features in a later story episode.  I wonder if anyone’s told Marjory yet?

I stand guard still.

31 July

So with the latest release came the discovery of Foxfire Clusters (your guess on the name is as good as mine…) but it did trigger a gold rush style player exodus to Orr, chopping down every tree in sight.  I’m guilty of joining in, only because you need 48 of the things and I’m too cheap to buy them and too impatient to wait for the price to drop.  Along the way I rediscovered the beauty of Orr, not always obvious as you wend your way between shambling risen and lumbering abominations, but when you get to stop and look around you are always rewarded.

The wondrous ruins of Orr.

1 August

I think we can expect to see the odd GW1 picture featured in the project as we go on, I’m really getting into the story and the gameplay in general.  This week I finally hit level 20, whilst on my way to find the Bloodstone in Bloodstone Fen.  For some reason none of my trusty bunch of heroes seemed to want to look me in the eye now I was level 20…

Level 20 at last!

2 August

Pushing on further into the Maguuma Wastes I finally got to meet Ventari, the centaur I’ve only ever seen before represented as a Wintersday toy.  I have to say I found him particularly unhelpful at out initial meeting but I’m hoping I get to talk to him a bit more as I go on.

Ventari

3 August

Back in GW2, or so I thought, when I come across a personal story boss with a distinctive yellow aura – just like the bosses have in GW1.  I did do a bit of a double take and checked which game I was playing, I’ve never seen another boss with an aura in GW2, was it a little nod back to the bosses of old or just a co-incidence?

Chieftain Tochzotl and his strange yellow aura.

4 August

Trying to do some of the achievements for the Dragon’s Reach story I found myself in this instance quick a lot – those stupid balls of light with knockback caused me much frustration.  I’m intrigued with where the Rytlock story is going to go, will he pop up in EOTM or Fractals?  What’s he getting up to in the Mists?  I hope we get to find out in later episodes.

Ghostbusters!