The Only MMO I've Played is WoW - Will I Like Guild Wars?

Consider these statements... ARR!
  • I want player skill to be more important than gear.
  • I don't need gear stats linked to gear models that I can show off to total strangers in order to make me feel good or viable.
  • I want to beat content (and people!) because I'm better at playing the game than them, not because of my gear.
  • I want to PvP with people who PvP for the love of it.
  • End-game is about testing myself, and improving my skill as a player. I am the most challenging boss I can fight!
  • Too much of WoW PvE depends on the tank, the tank, the tank, and the tank.
  • I want to be able to effectively defend myself as a healer, while still remaining a healer.

If you don't agree with any of these statements:
Guild Wars is definitely not the game for you. You won't find it fun. You'll be one of those people who goes, 'Ok I've finished the storyline and have 1 (or 2 or 3 or whatever) set of elite armour. There's nothing to DO in this game!'

If you agree with some of these statements:
You might like Guild Wars, give the Free Trial a try. 

If you agree with all of these statements:
You'll probably love this game. I know I do. =)

(P.S. The probability of this 'assessment' being accurate depends on being honest with yourself. There's nothing wrong with liking statted shinies. After all, Sacred Gold, which I looooooove is packed with statted shinies! OTOH, it's not an MMO.)





NugWay! a.k.a. If I were Livia, I'd hate me

Hi Livia! We're going to assassinate Willem the Demeaning in Hard Mode, and we're going in through the front door of the temple. 

Why? Because Hard Mode's more fun, and I'm too lazy to get the back door keys, of course!

And you'll be the sole healer, with 5 healing skills, and no healing elite as usual.

Oh, and did I mention that there'll be Mursaat, and Orion and Dunham aren't infused? No? Well I just did! *beams*

I wuv you too Livia!

*runs off cackling madly*

NugWay - A Short Explanation
I've tinkered around with the classic DiscordWay team on PvX till I've found something that works much better for me.

Nugway:
Player:
The Classic Caller - Monk Variant:
OwcU40HCFPTLQ2kxk7i1DgMWfyEA
Assassin's Promise {Elite}
You Move Like a Dwarf!
Finish Him!
Ebon Vanguard Assassin Support
Protective Spirit
Enduring Toxin
Castigation Signet
Rebirth (Optional)
Runed Stats: Smiting Prayers - 14; Protection Prayers - 8; Divine Favour - 2; Deadly Arts - 12

OR

The Necro Caller:
OABDQsx3Q1M3gDNfCgNVVDCAAA
Spoil Victor {Elite: Hard Mode} / Icy Veins {Elite: Normal Mode}
Necrosis
Blood Bond
Weaken Armor
Oppressive Gaze
Signet of Lost Souls
Barbed Signet
Optional
Runed stats: Blood Magic - 16; Soul Reaping - 13; Curses - 3

OR

The Ritualist Caller:
OASjcMiMJTvlfCVT7iLTlTXT0gA
Asuran Scan
Weaken Armor
Painful Bond
Ebon Vanguard Assassin Support
Essence Strike
Bloodsong
Signet of Spirits {Elite}
Summon Spirits
Runed stats: Curses - 3; Channelling Magic - 16; Spawning Power -12

Heroes:
The Minion (Melee) Master/Blood Ritual eManagement:
OABEQZxWezEzOqVhhmaAs1JqqA
Discord {Elite}
Animate Shambling Horror
Animate Bone Minions
Blood Bond
Rotting Flesh (alternative: take Weaken Armor if fighting many humans)
Oppressive Gaze
Blood Ritual
Signet of Lost Souls
Runed Stats: Blood Magic - 10; Death Magic - 14; Soul Reaping - 9; Curses - 3

The Minion (Ranged) Master + Death Nova/Protector:
OANEQSxG+KFzoASFgGUVVPEQ0SA
Discord {Elite}
Putrid Bile
Animate Bone Fiend
Death Nova
Signet of Lost Souls
Protective Spirit
Aegis
Remove Hex
Runed Stats: Death Magic - 16; Soul Reaping - 9; Protection Prayers - 10

The Minion (Melee-Support) Master/Restoration Ritualist:
OAhjUoGYITxMHVRTSTDTcijTXMA
Discord {Elite}
Animate Shambling Horror
Soothing Memories
Mend Body and Soul
Protective was Kaolai
Rejuvenation
Life
Flesh of My Flesh
Runed Stats: Death Magic - 12; Soul Reaping - 9; Restoration Magic: 12

How NugWay differs from DiscordWay
Nugway is much lower on direct healing power than the classic Discway.
I changed the 'Curse/Resto' N/Rt to a 'Minion Master/Blood' N/whatever. Obviously, healing power is lost. However, Blood Bond adds much greater survivability for minions, as well as any physical dps (or any wanding casters). Oppressive Gaze reduces incoming damage, Rotting Flesh adds pressure, and Blood Ritual is always nice to have. Blood Ritual may not be a good choice if you're a front-liner... but then bear in mind that NugWay is very much a mid/back-liner's setup. When I use melee classes or builds, I don't run NugWay at all.

Nugway is more versatile than classic Discway.
The Blood Ritual and Death Nova Discords work fine as a pair. If you don't bring the Resto Rit Discord, your spike power may be a little lower, depending on what you DO bring. But leaving the Resto Discord at home means you can bring anything in the third slot, and have it work well. I favour Broad Head Arrow or Unsteady Ground, but really, it can be anything. Makes it particularly good for missions in Nightfall where you're forced to bring a particular hero. Don't worry too much about losing the healing, the Protection and Healing hench monks do just fine in any mode.

How tested is NugWay?
 I've been using it more or less exclusively, if running a Discord base, since the changes to the Blood Magic line. In that time, I've acquired Legendary Vanquisher (finished Cantha and Nightfall with it), Legendary Guardian, and am at the last rank of Legendary Master of the North. Been too lazy to pursue the last one since the War in Kryta event, because all I do now is kill Mantle for fun!

I've been vqing all the 6 man - and some of the 8 man - War in Kryta areas with NugWay Livia as the sole healer - 5 healing skills and no elite. Things have been great! The last time I took a healing human monk in Livia's place, we wiped within the very first pull. XD Livia power!

Go forth my battery minions, and NUG THE WORLD!

Killed in a Smiling Accident. » Blog Archive » From the KiaSA Catalogue.

Lil Questalot – Kill Ten Rats Edition (Ages 2+): Consists of one Lil Questalot Interactive NPC and ten Lil Questalot Ratbots with Shoot’n'Loot action. Each Ratbot comes with its own RFID enabled body part that can be collected and returned to the Lil Questalot NPC. Will you be able to find enough of the right parts to complete the quest? Additional Lil Questalot Ratbot parts sold separately.

via kiasa.org

I wuv Melmoth!

In, as I mentioned at his blogplace, a non-scary golden-battered way. >.>

Guild Wars: PvX Wiki, Babysteps and Ur Doing it Wrong!

The Great Thing About PvXWiki
If you're not familiar with a class, it's a great resource for finding out what generally works. While many of the builds assume you have all three campaigns and access to every skill there is, it's still pretty easy for newbies to look at the builds 'til they find one they can vaguely match, and use it.

Alternatively, if you're not new to Guild Wars, but just new to the class, you probably do have a bajillion skills unlocked, in which case - Skill Tomez to da rescue!

Toddle along in babysteps, learning the class with a decent build, and perhaps eventually becoming able to write one of your own! YAY!

The ARGH Thing about PvXWiki
Unfortunately, some people don't evolve. -_-

It doesn't matter if you've tested your build thoroughly, know its strengths and weaknesses inside out, and know when to use it, and when to bring something else. It doesn't matter if you've done more stuff than them, know the content better than them, or whatever else!

Nooo! What matters is when you link your skillbar, they see that it's, 'ZOMG THAT'S NOT ON PVX! U NOOB!' -_- Even if they haven't the slightest ability to read (and by read, I mean understand) your bar. They'll only feel safe if the build is on PvXWiki because PvXWiki is the be all and end all, and God forbid people might actually make effective builds that they're too lazy to share because they don't feel like signing up on PvXWiki. *whistle to self*

When confronted with such strange people, I usually just change to a PvXWiki bar so they'll shut up and leave me alone. I know some people might view it as cowardice but hey... I can always leave the group and use my trusty Animated Love Dolls (Heroes and Henchmen)! So since I presumably signed up to be social, why not be social. After all, anyone howling at a bar that they obviously haven't a hope of understanding is probably just insecure and new.

And last but not least, the 'I'm So Old I Know It All and Everything Has Been Done So You're a Nub For Not Using PvXWiki' (ISOIKIAAEHBDSYANFNUP!)
Those really annoy me too, since ArenaNet does change and rebalance skills, making some things possible, viable, and even downright sexy, that weren't before. And directly after such changes, it seems not to occur to the ISOIKIAAEHBDSYANFNUPses that things take time to filter into PvXWiki. Time and motivation. Just because someone loves to tinker with builds day and night (like a nugget!) does not mean these people have the motivation or inclination to put them on PvX.

~_o So while the builds I occasionally post may not have made it into PvXWiki, they have worked extremely well for me.

That being said, I promise to post some build love soon. >.< All that RL work, it's getting my batter soggy!



Linear Time: The Solution to Boredom!

Sooo I had a rather interesting conversation with an old friend, whom for the purposes of this exchange, I dub Mr Reasonable.  

Nugget: I dun get it. With the ability to poing from one Multiversal moment to another at will, why do you even bother with linear time? I mean, it's gotta be like having an infinite undo button for life right? Make a mistake? Undo! Wooties!

Mr Reasonable: *laughing* You're assuming that I make mistakes.

Nugget: *glare*

Mr Reasonable: Mm well. Those little sketches you've been doing lately - they're a good thing, by the way... Haven't you found that if you restrain yourself from repeating one particular stroke over and over, until you get it 'just right', that the flaws - if you must call them that - add up to a stronger, livelier piece?

Nugget: Um. Sort of. *Guilty face* I still undo a bit...

Mr Reasonable: I've noticed. *grins* But consider - you only started this lately, and you are, indeed, hitting that Undo button less often. And the pieces are certainly improving for it.

Now - apply that to life in linear time, if you will. For one thing, it's rather difficult to pinpoint that dramatic moment where everything goes to Hell. People certainly claim they can, but when you're able to pick a moment - a locus in an infinite number of outward points, it becomes much harder to see which one, precisely, was the source of the disaster. Not to mention, each fragmentary path starts so close to its kin that there's hardly a noticeable difference until you follow said path a rather long way. With each point along that path being the centre of yet another infinity of other paths, and so on.

What then, if having gone far enough along the diverging path you've picked, you find it isn't quite right in one, or even multiple aspects? Ah, well, you could slip back to that particular point you had in mind in the first place, and pick another path... and another... and another. All of them almost identical at their point of origin. And truly, the idea of ceaselessly repeating a near identical infinity of moments in the hope of undoing something unpleasant sounds like an exercise in utter boredom. 

Power isn't omniscience, sweetness. It's simply a widening of possibilities.

And besides, I'm allergic to boredom.

Nugget: OMMMMM. XD




Ze Weekly Nuggetsketch

This week's random head started out as Eurydiche from Tanith Lee's Faces Under Water, and ended up as... well, what you see here.

I find that for every piece that turns out the way I initially envisioned it, there's another 20 (or more!) that turn out nothing like what I had in mind in the first place. This, of course, is one of those 'nothing likes'. For one thing, Lee does mention that Eurydiche, when she wears a mask, wears a huuuuuuuuge butterfly. But I just couldn't get the butterfly to work. Alas!

ToME: Troubles of Middle Earth - Screenshots

via t-o-m-e.net

This is one of my favouriteststestest games ever. =) Trouble of Middle Earth - or T.O.M.E is based on Zangband the way Homo Sapiens are based on the Australopithecus. >.>

It's got its roots in Zangband, but it's a very, very different animal.

So much gamey goodness about T.O.M.E. that my nuggethead splodes when I try to think of where to start! XD

So instead I shall settle for the ravings of a Perfectly Normal Nugget.

Some highlights:

  • Epically cursed weapons (a-la Elric's Stormbringer) do really feel epically cursed.
  • You can play an Ent, a Death Mold (yes, a fungus!), a Quylthulg, and a whole bunch of other odd things, together with your normal High Elves, Men, and whatnot.
  • It's purely turn based - very much of a strategy RPG game.
  • Unlike many Angband variants, it has an overarching storyline.
  • It's the whole of the Middle Earth in ANSI!
  • You only get one life per character.
  • Unique character classes - lots of games claim this. T.O.M.E. is the only one where I've been able to play a class that can abandon its own body permanently, take control of a marilith, then wield a sword in every marilithy hand. Yes, you take on the gear slots of your new body.
  • Still not sold? >.> You're the symbol @, and your mission is to kill all the other letters of the alphabet. (I don't know who said that, but it rawks!)

Dragon Age Origins, aka The Bad PUG You Can't Get Out Of

I feel guilty. :(

A friend bought me Dragon Age a while ago, which was a big deal to me because it's the first non-work-colleague-given-present I've received in years. (Yes, I is a patheticnug.)

But to my horror I found that despite having played RPGs for years, once I started playing Dragon Age, I found that I just didn't like the game much.

I know this game has garnered rave reviews from lots of places, and good friends are raving about it too. They assure me that the bickering is funny, and that it 'gets better'. (I'm now... actually I have no idea where I am. I've forgotten because I've been avoiding playing the game. I do know that the last time I could bring myself to play it, I had just picked up that big brown party member with the white hair...)

I think the problem is I don't like ANY of my party members except my dog. XD The bickering isn't funny to me. I wish they would just shut up, permanently! And I wish I didn't have to pussyfoot around all their likes and dislikes, even though they can be bribed with gifts. In short, when I prod myself into playing Dragon Age, I feel exactly the way the title of this post says. AAAAAAAAAAAAGH I'm in a bad PUG and I can't get out!

And so I avoid The Bad Dragon Age PUG. And feel guilty.

Friend-who-bought-me-Dragon-Age, I'm sowwy! :(

Ze Weekly Nuggetsketch

One thing I've noticed about Asian games vs Western ones - Asian games have boys that are sooooo much prettier! (At least, to my tastes, anyway. ;))

It's rather interesting really. If you had, as a random example, a Western-based game with a guy who looked like Final Fantasy's Seifer Almasy, or, God forbid, Sephiroth, it would be a general joke that they just had to be gay. (Not that there's anything wrong with that. ~_o Being gay, that is.)

Just take WoW's Blood Elf guys, for example. It's pretty much a given that they look 'gay'. It just seems that when it comes to Western-made games, there's this impression that, 'If a guy is beautiful (yes! I used that horrible word to refer to a male specimen, ohnoes!) then he must be gay. And if you play such a fellow, you're either a gay guy, or a chick.'

Yet when it comes to Asian games, that issue rarely comes up, if at all.

And you know what? As a girly, I so, so much prefer the male eye candy provided by Asian games. It just seems to me that in Asian games, there's an understanding that when it comes to looks, while you can certainly pack a guy with so full of muscley macho cues that his whole look just screams, 'GWARRRR ME SMUSH!' (Street Fighter's Zangief, for instance,) there's still the understanding that speed, grace and elegance can also be masculine. (See other examples above, or Balrog/Vega, if you prefer more Street Fighter stuffs. XD)

For me at least, the argument that, 'If I have to stare at an avatar for hours, I want it to be cute!' rings totally true. Unfortunately, this means that in MMOs, I tend to play girl avatars. Not because I'm a girl, but because the boys look horrible or strange or unappealing.

But in Jade Dynasty, for example, that I play on and off (mostly off), I have 3 male toons and counting. Why? Because they're hawt!

WTB, moar hawt boys in games please!

Fine, fine, nuggeet, but what does this have to do with today's sketch, you rambling chunk of batter-covered chicken goodness?

Well... after all that raving about the wonder of Bishonen, I must confess...

I don't really like Manga style art. I think it's mostly because it gets Mang(a)led way too much. It seems some take 'Manga' as 'I can throw all knowledge of anatomy, proportion, and everything else right out the window, because after all, it's "my Manga style"'. That being said, I do like some very specific Manga artists - those like Yoshitaka Amano, whose abstraction of anatomy obviously comes from a sound knowledge of it.

So! Nuggeet likes the whole Bishonen thing, but she doesn't like manga, oh noes! Wut to do!?

...make my own I guess. XD

And that, my nuggets, is this rant's rather convoluted link to this week's sketch.

(Oh yeah, and so far it's  only heads cause heads come really easily to me, and I'm a really lazy nugget.)