My little Guild Wars Obsession

Well, since February 2007, I've been playing Guild Wars. It's my first ever MMORPG and I chose it specifically because I'm just stubborn enough to refuse to pay to play every month a game I already bought in the store. Yes, I wanted the cake and to eat it too...This may change as my temptation and curiousity to try other MMOs grow.Well, I got the cake and I've been eating it since February and surprise, surprise...I still like it! LOL! I bought all three game versions-Prophecies, Factions and Nightfall. They can be played as stand-alone games but if you buy all three you increase your land-masses, weapons and armor and playable char classes. This past August, GW:EN or Guild Wars; Eye of the North came out. I bought this expansion as well and I've been playing it a lot. More than a lot...like ALL the time now. I've already reached level 8 of the dwarf title which is the most you can get until they introduce Hard Mode. OK, for those who have no idea what that means, it's just game talk for..."OOH, that's really special and hard to do and takes years off your life to accomplish!"

One thing that really helps to maintain that interest is joining a guild, kinda like a "club". Afterall, it isn't called Guild Wars for nothing. Seriously, joining a guild makes the difference between a boring experience and an excitingly fun interactive one. I joined the guild Veritas Invictus, also known as TRUE, back in February when I started playing. I am now an officer in the Guild. Our Official Guild Wiki Guild Page-(I'm listed as Lucien Thorn who is a Warrior char of mine)is at:

Veritas Invictus Guild Wiki Page: wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guild:Veritas_Invictus

I'm having tons of fun teaming up with guild mates to go dungeon crawling or completing quests and missions. It's one of those games where dying is fun and killing is satisfying. You and your party are always resurrected at a shrine or sent back to the outpost if a mission fails so you don't have to worry about your character being permanently affected. But with every resurrection, you suffer a death penalty which affects your damage/resistance ratio until you go back to a town or outpost.

You can have more than one character to play with, in fact I have ten total chars on my account. But between three versions of the game along with a fourth expansion, that is a LOT of game to cover. So most people tend to stick to raising one char to play the most with. Moreover, unless you specifically wish to grind, you will not find much required grinding in Guild Wars. The max level for any char is 20. While this may seem low in comparison to other games, it is instead the combination and use of skills that will be used to further develop a character and in essence make the char "stronger". It takes cunning and strategy to pick a combination of 8 skills out of literally hundreds to choose from in order to beat groups of monsters somtimes 10 levels higher. As you near the end of each game chapter, the quests and missions get more difficult. Teaming up in PUGs (pick up groups) or going with guild mates makes things easier to complete. For those who prefer to work alone, the game has introduced henchmen and heroes the chars pick up in the storyline who will lend their aid for battles.

My currently most played and furthest advanced char is a Ranger by the name of Lady Brenna Thorn. My guild mates call me "Thorn" in game since many of my chars have the last name "Thorn". Being a ranger has it's advatages and disadvantages just like any profession. I tend to specialize in interrupting spellcasters and causing degenerative conditions such as poison, dazing or burning. It's more of a support role so that tankers and heavy damage dealers can do their things. Of course, this means I try to stay in the back lines to avoid as much melee as possible. My ranger can tank some pain, but not near as much as say a warrior class. I suppose I prefer playing as ranger because it's more of a strategic combination of skills and relies on cunning. Instead of heading straight into a big group of enemies, we will attempt to "pull" or very carefully aggro only a few of them and then bring them away from the group to kill. In this sense, rangers can be indispensible party members where such big groups of enemies have been known to wipe entire parties within mere seconds.

Anyway, enough on that for now. I'll post some screenshots I've collected during my play with Guild Wars.

My ranger, Lady Brenna Thorn:
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Brenna and her favorite bow, the Icy Storm Bow:

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A cool shot in game of the Ember Light Camp area:
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Center Lady Brenna Thorn and some Guild Mates partied for mission:

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My other char, Lady Sienna Thorn, the Elementalist:
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