Guild Wars: A Journey

The Early Months

Chapter 1: Welcome to Guild Wars (June 16th, 2005 to July 4th, 2005)

Pre-Searing

    I first heard about a game called Guild Wars in early 2005 back when I frequented the Battle.net forums. A lot of people seemed to be waiting for it to be released and it was apparently made by some people from Blizzard. Months pass and I never really gave the game much thought. I had already retired from Diablo II and Warcraft III was starting to bore me. It wasn't until one random day in mid-June 2005; I was standing around in a Best Buy and I saw a game on the shelf. Guild Wars. Hey, I've heard of that game. I don't really have anything I'm really hooked on at the moment. Why not give it a shot? I purchased the game.

    Just like in the early days of Diablo with the hordes of Barbarians, everyone and their dog in seemed to have a warrior. But warriors don't suite my style of play. I like using spells. So naturally my first choice for a character would be an Elementalist. I don't have any screenshots for these first few days of mine but my memories are rich enough. Using the /age feature I've narrowed my actual starting date to June 16th, 2005.

    After talking to nearby NPCs, I sent my Elementalist out on her own to do the initial quest. I loved the scenery of the world around me right away and enjoyed running around in a fresh new game exploring all of the nuances. After killing a few Skales and doing some quests I gained a level. I was used to playing Diablo so I was confused at first that I had no attributes to raise my life and energy. But the concept quickly grew on me. After messing around for a while in pre-searing, I came across and NPC that transported me to an arena. Unfortunately I was not paying close enough attention and before I knew it I was in some kind of awful post-apocalyptic world full of mud and mayhem. Appalled by the sight of everything around me and feeling I had not yet finished exploring the previous world, I deleted this character.

    I recreated the Elementalist and this time decided I would fully explore all of pre-searing. I went through each of the quests, explored what at the time I considered vast distances, and even delved into the depths of the catacombs. I decided to make Necromancer as my secondary as it sounded interesting. I also spent a lot of time chatting with people in Ascalon City and even did a few quests with them including over the wall. After a few days I began to run out of quests to complete and places to explore. I started to spend more and more time idling in Ascalon City and simple talking, playing with emotes, and basically just messing around. Eventually I came to the decision that it was time to finally leave this wonderful place and continue on with the game...as dreary as it seemed at the time. I bid farewell to everyone in the city and entered the Ascalon Academy. Before long the Charr burst through the wall...the searing had begun.

Follow the Leader

    After my new Elementalist became accustomed to this world in ruin, she began questing. It wasn't long before she came across a small party of people that agreed to let her tag along. The group wound up in Regent Valley and wandered around for probably an hour clearing the zone of enemies. After awhile the leader asked everyone what they wanted to do and the others decided to go to Fort Ranik and do that mission. I had no clue what a mission was and I had never even been to The Great Northern Wall. I just followed behind the others and beat the mission. I added the leader to my friends list and we parted ways for the night. I found my way to the Great Northern Wall and completed it with good ol' henchmen. Over the next couple of days I explored the ruins of Ascalon and did many quests with henchmen as well as get accustomed to things like materials, crafting armors, and so forth. My friend would come online periodically and he formed parties that led us through the Ruins of Surmia and Nolani Academy.

    Suddenly my Elementalist found herself high up in the mountains. Gone was the scorched lands of Ascalon and the depressing atmosphere it created. Everything looked fresh and exciting up here in the snow. Apparently we were fleeing Ascalon with Prince Rurik and heading west over the mountains to Kryta...where ever that was. Again while my friend was offline I explored the surrounding area with henchmen. These stone summit dwarves were much tougher than the enemies I encountered in Ascalon. I eventually made my way to the Iron Horse Mine, a place that still haunts my mind to this day. I found nothing but a slow grinding death up there. The Ettins were merciless and the Stone Summit had hordes of troops at their disposal. I don't remember if I completed the quest up there or not, but I quickly tired of that place.

    My friend came back online again and led us through Borlis Pass. Throughout this journey I just played follow the leader. I fired my many fire spells at whatever enemies were close to me and tried not to get myself killed. Finally our group entered The Frost Gate mission. Up to this point I rarely even looked at any maps and just did was I was told to. I really had no clue where I was at or what I was doing exactly. It was when our group attempted to do the bonus that things started to go bad very quickly. We went down the path to the ballista when we were overcome by Stone Summit. The entire party scattered and fled the scene. Many of us died but were resurrected in time. I ended up alone and had no clue where the rest of the party was or what I should be doing. Eventually though we regrouped and were able to complete the mission. Phew!

    Once again while my friend was logged off I continued to explore the areas I had been brought to. When he returned we traveled southwest and entered an icy cavern. After fighting through scores of Ettins, which I will always feel a grudge against, we finally arrived on the sandy beaches of Kryta! Our journey was long and not without loss (if you consider losing Prince Aggro a loss) but we finally reached the Gates of Kryta. What I quickly noticed was that the undead in these lands had levels far higher than any dwarf or monster I had seen in the mountains. They proved to be a decent challenge but our group marched through the mission and defeated the boss at the end. Just as everyone was getting credit for the mission and entering Lion's Arch, I was hit with an err 7. To my dismay I had not been given credit for the mission and I was still at the Gates of Kryta.

Lion's Arch

    I was mad at this point. I absolutely hate having to do something twice when I completed the task just fine the first time (not just in the game, but in life). I had heard of Lion's Arch back when I was still wandering around Ascalon. People I talked to made it sound like reaching Lion's Arch was a big step. Lion's Arch was some kind of hub of activity...where all of the fun and "cool" people were to be found. And here I was, not at Lion's Arch. One thing was for sure, I was certainly not going to do that mission over again. No way! I decided to investigate some maps online and charted out a route that led from the Gates of Kryta to Lion's Arch. I could simply skip the mission! After all, I had once skipped The Great Northern Wall. It was no biggie. Besides, in reality I had already completed the Gates of Kryta anyways.

    My defiant Elementalist grabbed some henchmen and set out on her own through Scoundrel's Rise. While the enemies were numerous, she managed to carve her way northwest and entered North Kryta Province. From there it was a nearly due south trek through the swamp, fighting scores of Skales along the way. I kept stopped periodically to check the map I found to make sure I was headed in the right direction. The journey probably ended up taking longer than the actual mission had taken with all of the stops I made. But at long last, a towering city came into view. My Elementalist had finally reached Lion's Arch.

    As it felt at the time was the same as it really was, Lion's Arch is where the true game of Prophecies begins. After fully exploring the city and the surrounding area, I moved on to the next mission, D'Alessio Seaboard. When my friend logged on I asked him if it was possible to do the mission with henchmen. He said it would be difficult and suggested using real players. I decided to ignore the warning and took the henchies into the mission anyways. I completed the mission just fine on my own. I had finally taken the game into my own hands and felt confident enough of my playing ability to not just follow other people around anymore. My friendship with that person didn't last more than the few days it took us to transverse Ascalon and the shiverpeaks. As with many friendships born out of a Pick-Up Group, we just went off in our own directions.

Tales of Tyria

    From that moment on my Elementalist tended to stick with henchmen for everything but the more challenging missions. She had little trouble with Divinity Coast (I skipped most if not all of the bonuses). She got through most of the Maguuma Jungle with relative ease but when it came time to do Aurora Glade she joined a PUG. After a few failures she finally joined a group that was successful and continued on her way. When it came time for Riverside Province I became worried when my mission instructions told me not to alert any of the tower guards. I didn't realize that alerting them would not cause a mission failure. I very cautiously moved through and completed that mission. Sanctum Cay though was more challenging, especially the end. Once again I had to join a PUG to get through the mission. But as always I kept trying until I found a group that worked and before I knew it I was in the Crystal Desert.

    It took me probably about a week, maybe even less, to reach the desert. Except for the honest mishap of doing The Great Northern Wall out of order and the err 7 at the Gates of Kryta, I had been doing the game in order as it should be. Dunes of Despair turned out to be pretty easy but Elona Reach and especially Thirsty River took me many PUGs to complete. An entire day was probably lost on Thirsty River alone. After the three ascension trials were behind me, I came up against the Doppleganger. Unfortunately this time I could not just join a PUG to get past it. After countless attempts at fighting the beast, I finally beat it and continued on to The Dragon's Lair. This turned out to be the easiest part of the entire desert. I felt powerful as for the first time I was able to add 7 henchmen into my party. I ran into the lair and destroyed everything before me...except for Glint. Not even knowing how to trigger the bonus, I left her well alone.

    In the Southern Shiverpeaks I was a bit intimidated that most of the monsters now were well above level 20. I had reached the plateau of level 20 during my travels through the Maguuma Jungle and I didn't fully understand how I was going to be able to continue to win if I always remained the same while the enemies kept gaining more and more levels. I joined more PUGs to get through Ice Caves of Sorrow and the Iron Mines of Moladune. Ever since I arrived in post-searing I had been able to complete at least one mission every day. But when I reached Thunderhead Keep my progress came to a grinding halt. My attempts to use henchmen never even made it out of the city and every PUG I joined ended in disaster, usually at the point where the Mursaat boss spawned. I was stuck.

15K Armor

    Between my failed attempts at Thunderhead Keep, I explored the Southern Shiverpeaks. While listening to the tales of those around me, I learned about the expensive armor sets known as 15K armor. They were the same stat-wise, but looked a whole lot better in most cases. I loaded the henchies into my party window again and made the harrowing treks to the Granite Citadel and Marhan's Grotto. The Frozen Forest quickly became the second explorable in the game which I considered to be the bane of my existence, the first being the Iron Horse Mine. The zone is full of large numbers of large mobs and bosses and patrols moving every which way. Plus the pop ups by Copperhammer. But nothing would stop me from reaching the armorers and gazing upon what could be mine. I decided on the fire elementalists 15K set since I myself was a fire elementalist. There was only one problem. I had virtually no money and the price tag was 60K.

    I had no clue on how I was going to earn the money I needed. I was not good enough to start farming some of the higher end areas for loot...or even the moderate areas. But my mind was fixated on that armor and I was going to do it the only way I could. I don't know why I chose Scoundrel's Rise, but that was the zone I decided I would farm to death repeatedly until I earned 60K. I spent most of two days straight doing nothing but entering that zone and killing as many enemies as I could before my inventory filled up with drops. My Elementalist was capable of going solo and handily cleared out the various Mergoyles and Skales. She would pick up every drop that fell and sell it in town for a small profit. I must have repeated this process hundreds of times. When I finally reached 30K I couldn't wait any longer and bought the body and legging pieces of the armor. After dyeing them I went back to work and finally earned the other 30K to finish off the set.

    It's funny how often new players are seen begging for money to buy armor or weapons. So many of them don't want to work for anything and really earn their reward. Others still claim that making money is too hard and sit around complaining instead of going out and actually trying to earn it. I can look back and feel good about myself that even when I was new I worked for everything that I got. It only took me two days to earn 60K. And that was just farming an insignificant zone like Scoundrel's Rise...

The Underworld

    I was still having no luck with Thunderhead Keep. At some point I met up with someone who invited me to join them on a trip into the Underworld. Fortunately at some point during my explorations I managed to reach the Temple of the Ages. It wasn't easy for me as I had a lot of trouble with the tightly packed mobs of undead and the roaming patrols of the Black Curtain. The group was formed of mostly people that knew each other with my Elementalist just kind of filling a gap. I hadn't even owned the game two weeks and here I was already plunging into the Underworld. Surely no good can come of this...

    We started off well enough by clearing the initial room. We headed in a general southwest direction toward the Twin Serpent Mountains. Unfortunately the group didn't make it very far before at least two people, my latest friend included, suddenly announced that they had to leave. Deaths quickly started to become a common occurrence and that led to two more people bailing on the group. We were down to four people and we had only been there maybe ten minutes. Time to quit right?

    Nope. The rest of us decided to continue on anyways and just see how far we could get. So our party of one ranger, one monk, and two elementalists began their long climb up the mountainside. Due to our lack of offensive firepower the groups of Obsidian Behemoths took several minutes each to kill. Add to that that none of the rest of us really had any clue where we were headed made the trip up the mountain painfully slow. It took probably two hours of shear grind before we finally reached the summit and stood triumphant over the lands before us. Later on we all left the mountain and eventually wound up in the Chaos Planes where we were quickly wiped out by hordes of mesmers. But it was fun while it lasted. Our undermanned clueless group can always look back on that screenshot from the top of the mountain...

If at First You Don't Succeed...

    So here it was, the first of July and there I was, still stuck at Thunderhead Keep. I had been on that mission for about a week now with no end in sight. If only I was good enough to be able to beat it with henchmen. But since I wasn't that meant I was relegated to joining failing PUG after failing PUG. Since my trek through the Underworld my Elementalist had changed her secondary to Monk. My thought was that since the groups I joined kept dying, I would try to deal damage and toss out a few heals at the same time. I joined up with another random PUG and gave it a try. Unlike the usual groups, this PUG had three monks. Lots of healing! What could go wrong! We went through the city and fort part of the mission without too much hassle and then set out to guard each gate as the Mursaat siege began (fortunately most people nowadays have the common sense to just camp the king). We were doing alright as many groups before have...until the dreaded Mursaat boss came into view. This is it, time to fail the mission again. But then a strange thing happened. We killed the boss. We finished off the rest of the waves. And that was that. We won. Wow!

    At long last I could put that nightmare mission behind me and finish up with the story. I grabbed the henchies and made my way to Ring of Fire. The end of the game was within my grasp! All I had to do was...uh oh. My attempt at Ring of Fire quickly ended in a loss. I'll try again. Loss. I'll try henchies. Loss. Maybe another PUG. Loss. Not again! Fortunately this time I would only have to wait two days before finally finding a competent PUG.

    Abaddon's Mouth turned out to be very easy in comparison. I can't remember now if I henched the mission on my first try, but I know it didn't take me very long before I could hench my way through it. I was lucky enough to always have Willa spawn at the second location allowing me to simply walk around the back and ignore him.

    Hell's Precipice offered a pretty good challenge and an interesting array of foes I had never experienced before. At first it seemed like every time you killed one of them one or more would spawn and crush your party. After a little while though I figured out that certain enemies spawned certain other enemies and that you should only kill one at a time to lessen the odds of being overwhelmed. I was lucky on this mission because before the day was out I managed to find a PUG capable of beating it. All in all I completed the fire island missions in a time spanning less than twenty four hours.

    It had been a wild eighteen days since first picking up the game at Best Buy. My young Elementalist traveled to every corner of Tyria. She battled countless hordes of Charr, Undead, Dwarves, Mantle, Mursaat, and Titans. She worked tirelessly to forge a set of 15K armor to proudly wear during her adventures. She visited the Underworld and did battle with some of the fiercest monsters in the game. She learned self reliance and was able to complete at least half of the game with henchmen alone. And at last she was victorious over the final mission and prevented the Lich from conquering the world. Not too shabby of a start. This game is a keeper.