20160610: Leveling 1 to 80; gaining XP methods

A new character starts the game at level 1. Through the Heart of Thorns (HoT) expansion, the level cap is 80. One gains level by obtaining XP (experience points). Each leveling costs more experience points than the previous leveling.

1. Personal Story.
When setting up a character, one fills in the parameters for the character's personal story: profession, race, regrets, social level growing up, sometimes the Deity of closest alignement. These determine (to a point) the quality of the stories that the game urges you through.


1. Your character and the game's NPCs participate in various exercises that deal with your character's race and its issues.  Part of this is automatic: you and the NPCs have discussions, you make decisions, and mini-quests are given.  
2. After a certain amount of effort, milestones are reached, and one gets lots of XP, gear, and materials.
3. The XP is substantial.  Leveling up is common during 'My Story' efforts.  Occasionally the gear is quite helpful.
4. 'My Story' goes forward in brackets: some in levels 1 to 10, some in 11 to 20, 21 to 30, and so on.  The benefits of the free gear and materials is stronger if one keeps up.  That is, do the story for say 31 to 40 while you are level 31 to 33 for best results.
5. Executing the story pieces also stimulates exploration.  'Meet me at location x,' is often the beginning of required actions.  To continue, one must find x, then go there.  This often uncovers new territory, which results in more XP being obtained.


2. Exploration.
1. Stepping into a region where one has not been before produces a small amount of experience. 
2. Just walking or running around in the same region does not produce more XP.  Instead, one needs to reach certain points and interact with them in certain ways.
3. POI: points of interest.  Just getting near them is enough.  The POI is sometimes surrounded by enemies of your level.
4. Views: again, one needs to get near the point.  Press the 'View' (F) key when near, then see a cinematic.  Only after pressing F, does one get XP.  As with POI, the Views are often surrounded by enemies.  More frequently, though, climbing and jumping is involved.
5. Hero Challenges: There are two basic types.  At one, your character just communes with a place of power.  The other involves fighting with a Veteran or Champion NPC.  With Champions, I would recommend getting at least one other real player to fight with you.  Both with get a hero point for the combat win.
6. Tasks: are given by an NPC.  Once the Task is complete, one gets XP and karma points (a currency of sort).  Further, after completion, the NPC becomes available as a merchant.
7. Waypoints: are Asura teleportation devices.  Getting near a waypoint the first time yields XP, and activates the waypoint for your character.
   
   Travelling from waypoint to waypoint within a major city is free of charge.  Travelling to or from a waypoint not in a major city costs money.  The higher your character's level, the higher the cost.  Also, the longer the distance, the greater the cost.  
   
   The big Star Gate style disks in the major cities are also teleportation devices, with Lion's Arch being a major hub; travel using these is free.


3. Gathering.  One gets XP for the three types of gathering: harvesting food stuffs, chopping lumber, mining metal ores.    These tools have levels, which are copper, iron, steel, dark steel, mithril, and orichalcum.  One typically buys these from vendors.  The higher the level, the more expensive the tool set.  Usage consumes tools, so they have to be bought repeatedly.


1. One needs sufficiently high level gathering tools to be equipped before one can successfully gather anything.  For instance, if one tries to mine iron ore with a copper mining pick, the result is 'ruined ore,' which cannot be refined.
2. The harvesting sickles (vegetables, fruit, herbs, mushrooms, nuts) need to be equipped in the 'Foraging' slot.  The logging axes need to be equipped in the 'Logging' slot.  The mining picks need to be equipped in the 'Mining' slot in the character's equipment page.
3. Gem store alert: one can buy gathering tools that are never consumed and are sufficient to all gathering operations.  However, to get these, one needs to spend gems, which are available through real world money (ouch), or by trading in-game gold for gems. 
4. In the higher level regions (like level 75 or so), individual gathering operations might yield around 500 to 1000 XP each.


4. Crafting. 
1. There are nine types of crafting.  Eight are available to any character over level 10.  The ninth, 'Scribe,' is only available to guild members.
2. Crafting has its own skill leveling, mostly independent of character leveling: 0-74 (novice), 75-149 (initiate), 150-224 (apprentice), 225-299 (journeyman), 300-374 (adept). 
3. In parallel with the crafting levels are rough levels for materials used to craft products.
4. As one's skill level rises, new (higher-level) recipes yield XP, but older lower level recipes will eventually yield zero XP.
5. One of the better ways to increase crafting skill as well as to increase character level is to discover new recipes using available materials and new materials one has created through lower level recipes.  At the higher skill levels (like above 325), such discoveries can generate 7000 to 15000 XP, which helps character leveling and increasing crafting skill level.
6. The crafting types are
1. Weaponsmithing: build swords, maces, shields.  Needs: metal ingots, 
2. Armorsmithing: build metal armor (head, shoulders, chest, gloves, legs, boots).  Needs: metal ingots, fabric.
3. Huntsman: build wood weapons: harpoons, bows (cross, long, short).  Needs: metal ingots, lumber.
4. Leatherworking: build leather armor (head, shoulders, chest, gloves, legs, boots).  Needs: leather, fabric, thread.
5. Tailor: build cloth armor (head, shoulders, chest, gloves, legs, boots).  Needs: cloth scraps, thread.
6. Jewelmaker: makes trinkets (accessories, amulets, rings) and higher order gems.  Needs: gems, metals (copper, silver, gold).
7. Artificer: makes potions, transforms luck, makes scepters, tridents, foci, and staffs.  Needs: lumber, metals, fine crafting materials.
8. Chef: makes ingredients from harvested raw foods and from commercially available (karma merchants, usually) supplies (salt, sugar, yeast, water, and so on).  Makes consumable foods that buff players.  Needs: a wide variety of food types. 


5. Events: cooperate with other players to accomplish a goal.
1. Rewards in terms of XP and drops are greater than in individual combat.
2. Many events occur at regular intervals.  Google for times.
3. Some events take a while, but are usually well worth the time fighting.
4. Event rewards vary.  If you fought hard and killed some enemies, you will likely participate in rewards at the Gold level.  With less involvement, perhaps the Silver level.  If you showed up in the last 15 seconds and cast 3 spells, perhaps the Bronze level.
5. With several events, there is Chest available at the end.  Look for this, especially if you participated at the Gold level.  Also, try to loot the boss monster in a successful event.
6. In a failed event, one might still get some XP reward, and perhaps loot the sub-boss monsters.


6. Solo Combat: your character against monsters with no aid from others.
1. This is slow, and the XP rewards and drops are not as good as with events or crafting or completing 'My Story' segments.
2. Solo combat is hard to avoid with exploring, though.  Be good at it.
3. Individual monsters seem to me to be easily killed, especially if your armour and weapons are more or less up to date.
4. Two monsters at once are not all that much more difficult.
5. Veteran monsters take longer.  Veteran monsters plus allies can be disastrous.  Try to approach veterans plus allies with a player friend of your own.
6. Champion monsters: oi, run if you are alone.  Champions are often the centres of events, and are best dealt with along with six or ten live players as allies.

20160524_lundi_Toplevel_intro

Guild Wars 2 (2012) is the successor of my old favourite, Guild Wars (2005).  Here are some of the differences.  I compare GW2 at times to World of Warcraft (2004), which I usually refer to as WoW.

1. Physical and political geography has changed.
1. A great deal of time has gone by since GW1. There have been large scale geologic upheavals on the planet Tyria due to the elder dragons.
2. The vast continents of Cantha and Elona are separated from the northern continent of Tyria for one reason or another.  The action in GW2 is all in the continent of Tyria.
3. The region of Orr (with its multitudes of undead) has risen from beneath the sea.
4. Old Lion's Arch was covered by rising water.
5. Divinity's Reach grew and became the centre of Human activity.
6. The Charr actively run the areas formerly controlled by Ascalonian Humans.
7. New alliances have been forged to combat the evil elder dragons and the undead.
8. The Norn, the Sylvari, and the Asura found places to live in the continent of Tyria that were not used in GW1.


2. Game physics has changed in GW2 to include some further possibilities.
1. Characters can jump.
2. Gravity has consequences: one can fall off cliffs, and damage can occur, up to and including death.
3. Characters can swim. Surface swimming deactivates the skill bar, while underwater swimming activates skills particular to underwater weapons.
4. If one has the Heart of Thorns expansion, and has done a certain number of tasks, the characters in your account can glide.
5. Unlike WoW, there are no mounts yet, flying or otherwise.


3. There are five playable races instead of one:
1. Human
2. Norn
3. Charr
4. Sylvari
5. Asura


4. Each race has a designated capital city:
1. Human: Divinity's Reach
2. Norn: Hoelbrak
3. Charr: The Black Citadel
4. Sylvari: The Grove
5. Asura: Rata Sum


5. Exploration is shared instead of instanced, so monsters and resources routinely respawn.  The metal node that you mined yesterday you can mine again tomorrow, though the location might be slightly different.  The monster you killed 90 seconds ago might respawn (same or nearby location) and kill you while you are AFK getting coffee.


6. Shared towns and outposts were dropped except for the capital cities listed above, and a short list of hubs like Lion's Arch.  Most settlements are porous: enemies including swarms of enemies can pass through, killing NPCs and players alike.  In capital cities, enemies basically do not exist, and damage can (usually) not be inflicted.


7. In GW2, detailed, intertwined crafting exists.  One can build armour, weapons, buffs, potions, and food and skills that come with practice.  A particular character can usually only have two crafting skills active.


8. In GW2, each character has one primary 'profession,' but no secondary profession, as yet.


9. There is no analog to the Monk class.  All classes have healing abilities including self-healing.


10. The Black Lion Trading Company in GW2 serves much the same function as the Auction House in WoW.  One can sell (most of the time) items obtained from crafting, harvesting, drops, or rewards, and buy similar stuff from other players at auction prices.


11. GW1 did not have player crafting; in GW2, there are eight crafting specialties:
1. Weaponsmith
2. Armorsmith
3. Leatherworking
4. Tailoring
5. Jewelmaking
6. Huntsman
7. Artificer
8. Chef


12. To facilitate crafting, there are three types of harvesting, plus cloth grinding:
1. Mining (metal ores that usually need refinement)
2. Lumbering (various levels of wood)
3. Harvesting (herbs, fruit, vegetables, spices, meat)
4. Cloth is obtained from drops for the most part, and not by harvesting.


13. Metals, lumber, and cloth are ranked in terms of the level of crafting in which one uses them. For instance, copper < iron < steel < dark steel < mithril, and so on. Copper is only used in the lowest levels of crafting. Similarly, jute < wool < cotton and so on.


14. There are nine professions in GW2:
1. Light armour: Elementalist
2. Light armour: Necromancer
3. Light armour: Mesmer
4. Medium armour: Ranger
5. Medium armour: Thief
6. Medium armour: Engineer
7. Heavy armour: Warrior
8. Heavy armour: Guardian
9. Heavy armour: Revenant


15. These roughly correspond to the ten professions in GW1:
1. Light armour: Elementalist
2. Light armour: Mesmer
3. Light armour: Monk
4. Light armour: Ritualist
5. Medium armour: Ranger
6. Medium armour: Necromancer
7. Medium armour: Assassin
8. Heavy armour: Dervish
9. Heavy armour: Warrior
10. Heavy armour: Paragon


16. Ritualist, Monk, Assassin, Dervish, and Paragon from GW1 were dumped in favour of Thief, Engineer, Guardian, and Revenant in GW2.

Yuck. Odd choices. Dump the Thief. Dump the Engineer. Dump the Guardian.

20160527: Exploration 1_Home Cities and Lion's Arch

In Guild Wars 2, exploration is counted not by how much territory your character has walked on (or very, very near to), but on how many point locations have been reached and dealt with, namely

1. POI: Points of Interest, locations that GW2 marks as important. In the home cities, these points are safe to visit. Outside the cities, POI are often in areas that are dominated by fierce enemies. Your character many have to kill 1 or 5 or 20 enemies just to reach the POI.


2. WP: Waypoints, points that one may teleport to (for a fee) once you have reached the point by walking. Teleportation strictly within each individual home city (or Lion's Arch) is free, but travelling to any WP outside those areas costs your account in-game money. The further the teleport, usually, the greater the cost. Also, the higher your character's level, the greater the cost.


3. Views: a view is a location where the auxiliary function (the one actuated by pressing the letter F on your keyboard; has a golden gear by it) will activate with 'View.' Some views are easy to get to: just walk up to them when on the same height in the game surface. To reach other Views often requires climbing, sometimes together with jumping and finding particular routes that work.  After you see 'View' filled in for the value of the 'F' function, you have to press F to get credit.  Doing this invokes a cinematic which shows local activity in a 3D, panoramic style.


4. Tasks (marked by a golden heart): are offered by a local NPC outside the cities.  After performing some work for the NPC (collecting items, killing enemy NPCs, destroying enemy structures, protecting something or another), your character gets in-game money and karma points.  Also, the NPC then becomes a merchant who sells items for karma points.  


5. Heroic Challenges: one speaks to an NPC, or communes with a relic, or fights a veteran NPC or whatever. Your skills will be challenged moderately or significantly. For some of the harsher challenges, wait for another live player or two to help with the fighting.


6. As of 27may2016, there were
   303 Tasks,
   189 Hero Challenges,
   486 Waypoints,
   226 Views, and
   652 POI
   to reach and complete in Tyria, for the entire game, that is.  If my addition is correct, that's 1856 points in Tyria.  


7. To get your exploration percentage to go up by one percent, one needs to reach 18.56 points (that is, 18 or 19, depending on rounding).

For beginners in particular, it's good to start with the home cities so as to gain experience and to have the WP active.

1. Divinity's Reach (Human)
1. DR is in a wheel structure, with a spoke for each of the six Gods.
2. DR has vertical three layers that go through the wheel structure.
3. There's a WP for each God where the spokes meet the perimeter of DR.
4. Offices of the Queen, the high military, bankers, and politicians tend to be toward the centre of the wheel and up.


2. Hoelbrak (Norn, really large humans)
1. Hoelbrak is a sprawling city, with a large central structure, plus buildings for each of the four totem animals (raven, wolf, bear, snow leopard).


3. The Black Citadel (Charr, the cat people)
   12 WP, 5 Views, 17 POI
1. This is one of the ugliest hell holes I have seen in video gaming.
2. The Citadel has three layers.
3. Top: the command offices of the Ash Tribune Quarters, the Command Core (includes Iron Tribune Quarters), and the Blood Tribune Quarters are on this layer.  Access them through instances.  These contain several POI; make sure to root them all out.
4. Middle: has plenty of twists and turns and ins and outs, plus a few instances to visit.
5. Bottom: just a few points to pick up; it's very crowded and oppressive.


4. The Grove (Sylvari, the plant people)
1. The Grove has four layers, with elevators and ramps to get from one layer to another.


5. Rata Sum (Asuri, the rat people):
   9 WP, 5 Views, 19 POI
1. Rata Sum has four layers in the main cube, plus outliers not in the main cube.
2. The outliers have to be reached via gates or instances.
1. Snaff Memorial Lab: 1 POI
2. Rata Sum Port Authority: 2 POI, 1 WP, 1 View
3. Idea Incubation Lab: 1 POI, 1 WP
4. Applied Development Lab: 1 POI


3. Top level: 1 POI
4. Second Level: 1 View, several POI, 3 Waypoints
5. Third Level: 1 View (at the cooking station); several POI and WP.
6. Fourth Level, bottom: 2 Views; several POI and WP.


6. Lion's Arch (hub city; connects home cities and many other locations)
   13 WP, 11 Views, 25 POI
1. Every home city has an Asura gate that connects to Lion's Arch.  One should find this early on and test it out.  That is, go to LA, see what's there, and return home.
2. LA is a full-featured city, with crafting stations, a bank, a Trading centre, a laurel merchant, and Asura gates to the Mists.

20160602: Non-playable sentient races of Tyria, 1

In Guild Wars 1, the number of non-playable races was large, and the number of playable races was one: Human.
In Guild Wars 2, the number of playable races has increased to 5, but this number is still exceeded by the number of NPC races.

This list is about sentient races.  That is, races that can

1. Build and use tools, armour, weapons, housing, clothing.
2. Prosecute farming or hunter/gatherer operations to feed themselves.
3. Use language to communicate and to teach from generation to generation.

Here are some of the sentient non-playable NPCs in GW2.

1. Avian races.  Usually allies.
1. Caromi.  Observed in: Kessex Hills.
2. Tengu. 
3. Quetzal Tengu.
4. 
   


2. Frogs. 
1. Insular and tribal, the Hylek groups are sometimes allies, sometimes enemies.
2. Hylek.  Observed in : Kessex Hills.
3. Itzel Hylek: HoT
4. 
   


3. Krait: snakes with articulate arms and hands.  Always enemies, often slavers.
1. Damoss.
2. Nimross. 
3. Hypnoss.
4. Neoss. 
5. Oratuss.
6. The above come in with the Toxic modifier or the Veteran modifier, or both.


4. Quaggans.  
1. Aquatic.  Construct underwater villages.
2. Usually allies or victims to be protected.
3. Become violent if agitated.


5. Centaurs: body of a horse, torso and head of a Human, roughly.  Always enemies.
1. Harathi.  Observed in: Queensdale, Gendarran Fields, 
2. Tamini. Gendarren Fields, Harathi Highlands, 
3. Modniir.  Harathi Highlands
4. 
   


6. Jotun.
1. The Jotun are a race of giants older than the Norn.  
2. They are uglier, more savage, and less sociable.  
3. They tend to inhabit the colder parts of Tyria, notably the Shiverpeaks.
4. Were once grand and civilized; now wield primitive weapons and barely clothe themselves.


7. Harpies.
1. Flying female bird warriors; always enemies, never allies, never neutral.
2. Said to be fallen servants of the Goddess Dwayna.




8. Skritt: another race of rats, but far less advanced than the Asura.  
1. Skritt are short in stature, very slender in build.
2. Sometimes enemies, sometimes allies.
3. Considered vermin by the Asura.
4. Like to gather or steal cool stuff, which could be anything.


9. Ettins: race of giants.
1. Barely sentient; two arms, two legs, two heads, enormously strong.
2. Prefer clubs as weapons for bludgeoning enemies.
3. Almost everyone is their enemy.
4. 
   


10. Grawl: two-legged goats.  
1. Widely dispersed.
2. Often hunters or trappers.
3. Usually enemies, but sometimes allies.
4. Tribal housing, weapons, art, and religion.


11. Dredge: another race of rodents, moles this time.   Dredge are enemies by and large.
1. Observed in, among other regions: Harathi Hinterlands, Snowden Drifts, Gendarren Fields, Lornar's Pass. Dredge are often seen actively strip mining the Shiverpeaks.
2. These folk are roughly Human sized, with thick, almost convex bodies; cave dwellers, tunnelers, miners, weapon-makers.
3. Since they were long enslaved by the Stone Summit Dwarves, the Dredge have strong dislike of any Dwarf, including the Deldrimor.


12. Kodan. 
1. Snowden Drifts and other parts of the Shiverpeaks.
2. Evolved from polar bears.
3. Usually allied with the playable races.
4. 
   


13. Troll.
1. Barely sentient; strong on ferocity and blood lust.
2. Usually determined to kill any individual from the playable races.


14. Seldom seen in GW2, though well known in GW1:
1. The Forgotten: elder serpent race who guarded the imprisoned God Abaddon.
2. Stone Summit Dwarves: extinct, I think.
3. Deldrimor Dwarves: still exist in some sense underground.
4. Djinn: ethereal beings now extremely rare, especially since the continent of Tyria is cut off from their native continent of Elona.
5. Mursaat: largely wiped out in GW1. Always enemies of Humans.