Nuggetty Goodness

Earlier today, I switched to International District to sync Vizunah Square with someone, then, like most senile people, forgot to change it back.

A couple of hours later, I wandered over to Lion's Arch, and found a whole bunch of pink-clad people bouncing around, dancing and whatnot. Now, spontaneous strange dancing does happen (I think) in every MMO where there IS a /dance in the first place. However, spontaneous strange dancing of people all dressed in varying shades of pink is... not so common. Add this to the fact that random people kept asking when the 'Pink Dye Guy' would show up, only to be told, 'In 8 hours', I decided to investimagate!

And this is what I found. O.o
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Pink_Day_in_LA/PinkDayArchive

Introduction

Well, guys and gals, it's about that time of year again. Saji here and I'm going to give you a little information about this year's, Pink Day in LA.

We're going with the theme that, "Gamers Care Too." Why? Well, with all the recent news stories about how people who play video games, especially violent ones, are bad people, and when a crime is committed, such as a shooting, you will no doubt hear about how the person was playing the newest Grand Theft Auto game, or some other violent game. But, obviously, not everyone who plays games is violent or bad. We're doing this event this year to show others that an online community with players from around the world can get together and support a worthy cause. We want to show the world that GAMERS CARE TOO!

Now, remember last year, where I gave a little speech on the subject of Breast Cancer? Well, it was awkward, trying to get people's attention with others constantly spamming. So, this year, there won't be any big speech on the subject, but instead, DRGN is making a site dedicated to informing gamers about Breast Cancer risks, treatments, and more. Check it out over at the Pink Day in LA Website.

"But what about in-game?" - I hear you ask. Well, to show support, like last year, we want everyone to get their armor decked out in brilliant pink. We want to see everyone in the district wearing pink, but, you'll have to supply your own dye! Sadly enough, last year we had many people take the free handouts of dye for granted, along with the fact we had rude players who interfered with other aspects of the event (such as the end photo-ops).

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to reply to this post or email me at, mastersaji@pinkday.draconus-united.com or you can reach me on AIM or Yahoo IM at, Tooker311

And they've done it for 2 years already. O.o

As a former WoW player, all I can say is... wow. Not without respect for BBB's Raid from the Heart recently, I never saw anything even vaguely like this when I was playing WoW. Player-run events, sponsored by guilds, for no other reason than they find something important. Just... wow.

I think it helps greatly that in GW, as opposed to WoW, you can switch servers whenever you like. So there's no, 'Oh I would love to but I'd have to organise it on MY server, or I can't make it on YOUR server because I don't have a toon there that's high level enough, that can get there, etc'. I had a poke around another player-run event earlier this year - Mantlecon, which was rather fun as well.

Somewhat related is GW's Canthan New Year, where alliances will sponsor districts... just because. They'll go farm up all the stuff the chefs need, so all people have to do (if they don't want to / care to / haven't farmed enough to help) is stand around and chatter and get presents.

This is one of the things I really love about Guild Wars, that I don't think I ever experienced in World of Warcraft.

It's strange, really. How is it that an MMO where you can choose to spend almost all your 'gaming' activity time with your own AI encourages so much more player-run social interaction than one where people are forced to group with each other? Or did I just answer my own question?

This banner is just disturbing on so many levels...

Having been horribly, horribly lazy about sketching for the last month, I am attempting to get back into the habit.

Back when I was a wee, crispy nugget, I used to read a whole lot of comics. One of the graphic novels I really liked was Elektra: The Lost Years, by Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz. Sienkiewicz is still one of my favourite artists.

And so to get back on the sketching wagon, as it were, here's Elektra.

Face it. Zmobies are smelly. The poor things can't help the pungent odour of decay that clings to them. Plus, they're kinda clumsy and slow, and they tromp on toes without meaning to.

All of which means, given a group of Generically Normal Humans, the Minion Master tends to get left behind. Oh, they give excuses. They claim that they forget that it takes time to raise zmobies. That they didn't realise they'd left you, and your zmobie army behind, that they didn't see you casting Death Nova. Whatever.

We know the truth. They're just trying to avoid our smellies. :(

But now, my fellow Minion Masters, with this build, you can foil those selfish GNHs, and keep you and your loving zmobie army in the middle (or in front) of the group, where you're supposed to be!

Introducing my new masterpiece...

No Zmobie Left Behind!

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The Concept
Minions galore. Fall Back! to make sure you can always keep up (or run in front if you so desire). Go for the Eyes! for gobs of allied happiness all round. Death Nova for Zbombies. Blood Bond to keep your army and allies alive longer. Dark Bond + vampiric horrors = near no-maintenance survivability while you have minions (see initial point).

Skills
Aura of the Lich {Elite}
Animate Vampiric Horror
Animate Shambling Horror
Blood Bond
Go for the Eyes!
Death Nova
Dark Bond
Fall Back

Stats
Command [5]
Blood Magic [8]
Soul Reaping [9] + [1]
Death Magic [12] + [4]

Gear

• Superior Death Magic rune
• Minor Soul Reaping rune
• Survivor insignia
• Superior vigor rune
• Bloodstained insignia (just one will do)
• Vitae runes to finish off
• Death magic weapon of your choice. (I use a staff that's 20hsr, 20hct Death magic, 10hct general, 20% Death magic - but really, anything death magicky will work. Don't discount wand/shield if you're broke from spending the money on runes. ~_o)

Campaigns Needed
Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall,

How to Use

• Use AotL when you're just starting out, if you aren't presented with a fight the moment you step out the door
• Keep Dark Bond up
• Animate Shambling Horror and Animate Vampiric Horror when AotL is on cooldown
• Maximise on AotL by casting it when there are lots of corpses around - use Animate Shambling Horror and Animate Vampiric Horror as fillers
• If you're running with another MM (hero or otherwise), don't be greedy once you have 10 zmobies; you can run this build with another mm hero with you, if you stay in control of your zmobielust
• Pull/Initiate zmobie-charge with Blood Bond, then add Fall Back! (if not on CD) and autottattack till you can yell Go for the Eyes! Even if Go for the Eyes doesn't hit all your zmobies, it'll hit your party members, and *they* won't mind
• Spam death nova on zmobies, particularly bone horrors, to turn them into Zbombies
• Recast Blood Bond on recharge - then back to Zbombies
• Fall Back! if those pesky GNHs attempt to leave you and your fragrant zmobies behind
• Fall Back! (and make sure you have Dark Bond up) if you want to lead the pull with your zmobie army - the 75% damage reduction from Dark Bond lets you pull more or less with impunity (but beware of enchantment stripping)

Variants

• Blood Ritual instead of Go for the Eyes! If you have human healers, bring Blood Ritual over Go for the Eyes! And then molest them a lot with it. They'll love you for it. If doing so, then make it Command [3] and Soul Reaping [10] + [1]
• Well of Blood instead of Go for the Eyes! Find that you can't fit auto-attacking in enough to make Go for the Eyes! worth it? Use Well of Blood for extra allied regen instead. Yes, it's a well-spell. It needs a corpse. But it works great if you use it judiciously. And it usually catches much of your zmobie army in the well area as...well. As above, make stats Command [3] and Soul Reaping [10] + [1]
• Well of the Profane instead of Go for the Eyes! Find that you can't fit auto-attacking in enough to make Go for the Eyes! worth it? Blood Bond is good enough for allied heals? Annoy your enemies by sploding their enchants with Well of the Profane! Yes, it's a well-spell. It needs a corpse. But it works great if you use it judiciously. As above, make stats Command [3] and Soul Reaping [10] + [1]
• Well of Suffering instead of Go for the Eyes! Find that you can't fit auto-attacking in enough to make Go for the Eyes! worth it? Blood Bond is good enough for allied heals? Annoy your enemies with health degen from Well of Suffering! Yes, it's a well-spell. It needs a corpse. But it works great if you use it judiciously. As above, make stats Command [3] and Soul Reaping [10] + [1]

Counters

• Corpse denial (AotL can only do so much...)
• Standing in the fire when you have no zmobies
• General caster hate

Additional notes
Don't you have e management problems? You don't have any e management.
Nope. Zmobies dying to the left and right. What's there to manage? And besides. Necros? Emanagement? AHAHAHAHAHAHA. Ahem.

This build is so expensive! :(
Yes, I'm afraid minion masters are expensive by nature. :( They need the Superior Death Magic rune, and the Bloodstained Insignia, and then they need everything else to offset the HP loss from that rune.

Can heroes use this?
I haven't tried this on a hero. My suspicion is that they don't have enough of the contextual sensitivity to know when to do what, that it needs to run at greatest efficiency. On the bright side, heroes are great at Death Nova. If you try it out on a hero, I'd love to know how it does. =)

 

Digging through all those Guild Wars screenshots has made me realise afresh just how lovely the game's art direction is.

...and so I've come up with a little mini-GW project.

I aim to take at least one screenshot (hopefully aesthetically pleasing ~_o) of every explorable area, mission, outpost and city in Tyria, Cantha, Elona and the Eye of the North.

I won't be editing these screenshots at all - what I get when I press Print Screen is what you'll see here.

Incidentally, does anyone know if the Guild Wars world has a name? The planet, that is? Or do they just call it 'Earth' the way we call the Earth the... uh... Earth?

And so here we start off with - Nahpui Quarter!