New For Old: Hunting Hero Points Aross Tyria : GW2

When ANet announced a reduction in the number of Hero Points required to complete the new Elite Specializations I was mildly interested. The option to add a new weapon type to each of my characters and strut about calling myself a Dragonhunter or a Herald might be fairly low on my list of Things To Do When The Expansion Arrives but at least it's on the list.

The fuss and fury over the 400 HP requirement was frenzied for a while. It would have been almost impossible to play and not at least be aware there was an issue. Still, I hadn't really given much thought to what it would actually be like to try and get those four hundred points. More specifically, it hadn't hit home to me that the 400 came in addition to the 398 required to complete all the skills and specializations in the main game.No wonder people weren't happy.

Theoretically, those of us who've been paying attention have known for most of this year that we'd need all the Hero Points we could get when Heart of Thorns arrived. We've had the best part of nine months to go round all the maps, doing all the Hero Challenges and filling everything out. Unfortunately, doing that would have gone against all my instincts and preferences; so I didn't bother.

I have asbestos pockets. I don't like to spend anything unless I have a very good reason. I'd always rather have money in the bank and that attitude transfers to just about any and every kind of in-game "currency". As I level my characters in any game I tend to look at what they have to have to progress and leave it at that. I see spending any points on skills or traits I'm not using as a waste even though in practice those points rarely have any other function beyond being spent on a set range of options.

Consequently I came into HoT with a whole load of level 80s that appeared to be sitting on a pile of unspent points. When the requirement for Elite Specs was reduced to 250 several of my characters were there or thereabouts already. So I thought.

The extremely salient fact I'd overlooked, of course, was before you can start spending the 250 points on the Elites you must have spent the full 398 points on all the other stuff. That came as a bit of a shock, particularly since I only worked it out when I went to spend the 250 points I had in the bank. In a bleak moment of clarity my Ranger went from job supposedly done to finding himself still well over a hundred points shy of becoming a Druid.

Hero Challenges in Heart of Thorns maps are worth ten Hero Points each (Core Tyria challenges give just a single point per) so on the face of it that doesn't sound so bad. In practice, though, it's not as easy as it appears.

It's not entirely because of the supposed difficulty of the challenges themselves. It's true that some of them do spawn Champion mobs that are unlikely to be within the capabilities of most soloists but as previously discussed you generally aren't alone in GW2 even when you do solo. Someone will usually be along to help within minutes at worst. And in any case many, perhaps most, of the "Challenges" turn out to be "Communes", which require you to do no more than press F and wait for a few seconds.

No, the main problem is finding the darn things. Exploring in the new maps is incredibly good fun in and of itself providing you are doing just that and that alone - exploring. Set out to get to a series of specific objectives with anything like comfortable efficiency, however, and your patience can wear thin. Not only is it hard using a two-dimensional map to traverse a three-dimensional space but many of the locations require specific Masteries to reach, some of which I don't yet have.

Also, I'd already picked off most of the readily-accessible ones as I wandered about over the preceding few days. I spent about four hours hunting HPs I'd missed across all four maps on Saturday with some success but come Sunday morning I was still fifty-five points short. Diminishing returns had kicked in and I rationalized that it would be faster to find fifty-five single-point challenges in the Old World.

Which is how I came to spend eight hours in Orr. Over much of Sunday my Ranger found and completed every Hero Challenge in Straits of Devestation, Malchor's Leap and Cursed Shore. He'd done a few already but it still clocked in at nearly forty. And it was a real pleasure.

Orr may have been a nightmare in the old days but now it feels like a holiday. With time to stop and admire the scenery it becomes unmistakably clear that these are heart-stoppingly gorgeous maps, something Jeromai tried to tell us long ago. The art design is as good as anything in the game, which means as good as anything in gaming I'd say. Just stunning.

I took over seventy screenshots as I roamed and I could have taken 700. Or 7000. After a while you realize there's just no point - the wonders are never going to stop. When the HPs ran out I flipped around a few more maps and cherry-picked the ones near waypoints until I had my 250. Since that character had barely 40% map completion even after Orr there was no shortage of options.

So now he's a Druid, which seems fun so far. In more than three years I've never felt the least need or desire to work on map completion and I don't plan on starting now but the coming of Heart of Thorns has perversely kick-started a fresh desire to see more of the maps that came with the base game.

Just as well. I have half a dozen more level 80s lining up to be next and a couple more wannabes behind them. What with that and all the new collects and crafting it looks as though ANet's plans to keep the original maps alive has legs. And, as a result, the whole game feels more solid than it has for an age.

A Sunday Morning Stroll Through Orr: GW2

Since Monday's update I've been meaning to take a trip down to Orr. I hear it got a makeover. Adjusted population density, improved loot, reduced crowd-control abilities and new animations for the Risen, the works. Probably trimmed Zhaitan's claws while they were about it, keep the old boy looking fresh.

Sometimes changes like this don't quite come across but I'd heard good things. Jeromai at Why I Game was waxing positively lyrical. The first time I ever went to Orr (and how long ago that seems) was on a Sunday morning, so with some symmetry I woke up the same character who made that journey, my ranger, and sent him off to do what rangers do best; explore! (Quiet in the back there!).

I took the waypoint express to Signal Peak at the easternmost tip of Orr's most northerly promontory and from there I meandered all the way down to Shipwreck Rock, which is the furthest south you can go. Took me about four hours.

The three maps known collectively as "Orr" are Straits of Devestation, Malchor's Leap and Cursed Shore. Straits begins as lush swampland and ends in bare, brown rock. Malchor's Leap is a weird, ghostlike, ruinous landscape. Cursed Shore looks like it sounds. The northern end of Straits is relatively normal but the further south you go, the fewer living things you meet. By the time you get to Cursed Shore about the only things left alive are players and The Pact.

All the colors of the rainbow, in oils

It's been so long since I last went to Orr, for reasons I outlined all the way back in October, it was hard to tell if anything had changed. Truth told, I barely remember the place other than to recall that while I didn't outright hate it I did find it wearing. Back then I summed it up as "laborious, unattractive and somewhat dull".

Well, it made a better impression this time. The northern half of Straits of Devestation almost seemed like a pleasant place for a picnic. Whole areas had no aggressive mobs at all, just harmless, flittering insects and grazing herbivores.

A bridge too far?

That all changed once I crossed Compass Bridge to the Shark's Teeth Archipelago. From there on the Risen undead start to swarm, although nowhere near as thickly as they used to do. I remember having some considerable difficulty on this stretch of the journey last time, as evidenced by the skill points left undone. This time I wasn't just able to fill those out, I even completed a longish escort event flagged for "Group" almost entirely solo. Ok, a couple of people joined in for a while as they passed through but pffft! Pretty much did it all on my own.

Orr just makes me feel blue...

Straits gets a thumbs up and I'll certainly be going there again to have a good poke around but then it was always the most accessible of the three. Malchor's Leap, however, seemed just as bad as I remembered it. Lot of undead chickens, everything painted purple or midnight blue and crowds of Risen blocking every possible path. If there's anywhere in Tyria I dislike more I can't bring it to mind right at the moment and if it's gotten any better with this polish pass then I couldn't spot it. I didn't hang around long. After a couple of failed events and less than half an hour I put my murrellow on passive and ran for the border.

Wow, you just shot up since last I saw you!

So it was that I came at last to Cursed Shore and my, how it's changed. Fewer undead, better map markers. That about sums it up. The roads are clear enough to travel and the undead grew a lot bigger, which means they not only look more interesting, they're a darn sight easier to see.

Malchor's aside, then, all in all I felt it was a much improved experience. Whether its sufficiently improved to merit regular visits, that's another question entirely. I enjoyed my day out and with more time to stop and look around in relative peace it's easier to see that the same exquisite care and attention to detail has been taken in Cursed Shore as on any other of GW2's gorgeous environments. It's still almost all undead all the time, though, which still wears out its welcome after an hour or two. And its still mostly purple, except where it's brown.

While I was down there I took a punt on one of the new Orrian Jewellery Boxes. Had I looked at Dulfy's guide beforehand I probably would have saved my Karma, but hey, what else do I have to spend it on? I spent 4550 karma on my Jewellery Box and inside I found three drops of liquid karma worth a total of 1200 points and three pieces of nameless junk that sold for fifty copper each. Shan't be doing that again.

Still, what kind of a Sunday stroll would it be without a few coins thrown away on ice cream and buns, eh?

Orr Is A Bore: GW2

Azuriel over at In An Age has been doing due diligence and taking another run at GW2. I think it's fair to say he's not enjoying it much more than he did the first time. Which is absolutely fine. Everyone doesn't have to like everything and what a dull world it would be if we were all the same, wouldn't it, my little one? Lawks-a-mussy!

Ahem...getting back to the point, Azuriel alludes to something mentioned by several people (I was one) in his comments section: "a lot of people are suggesting that the zones/enemies/storylines get dumber the farther South you go". Which puts a finger neatly on one of Guild Wars 2's real problems: Orr.

I vaguely remember reading about Orr before launch. How it was where all the promise of the Dynamic Event system would bear fruit, how it was GW2's equivalent of raiding, how it was going to be a step-change from the rest of the game, which was really only there to prepare you for Orr. Yadda yadda and indeed yadda.


There's a good discussion at GW2Guru which goes over most of what's wrong with Orr in some detail. The thread's called "I Hate Orr" but there are posters there who don't and make a fair case. Everyone, different, see above.

I don't hate Orr but I dislike it enough that I've been there just twice. I'd say that having three large maps at launch, which quite few people visit once or twice and cross off their list of "Places I'd Like To See Again" is a fundamental problem.

Issues that I have with Orr from just those couple of quick visits include:

• It's frickin' ugly, especially the lighting and color scheme.
• It's chock-full of the same mobs over and over and over again.
• Mob density is overcooked.
• There's far too much of it.

To sum up, it's laborious, unattractive and somewhat dull. It's not, as has been claimed, particularly hard or testing. I didn't find it significantly slower to open up than any other map, nor did I die any more often. It's just not very entertaining.

I didn't stay long enough to confirm whether the other big complaint is true, namely that for such a supposedly important area, nothing much that matters happens there. I also have sufficient concern for my blood-pressure not even to have attempted the underwater parts which by most accounts are truly awful.

Orr wasn't all bad. The undead chickens made me laugh out loud. The way the dead Zhaitan raised carry on their now meaningless lives is mildly affecting. I may even go back for another look, some day, although it's a long way to go just to laugh at a chicken. As an aspirational set of end-of-game zones, though? I don't think so.

Since I'm not there I can't estimate from experience how well-used Orr is. Is it busy down south? Let's hope not, because if and when we get new maps it's going to be a disappointment if ArenaNet attempt to emulate or even outdo Orr in "difficulty" and "challenge".

There's been no word that I've seen on what part of the map might open next, but my money's on Crystal Desert. In Ebonhawke the guards at the Southern Gate are already fielding questions from interested adventurers:

Let's just hope that when that gate does open there's something more interesting behind it than a barren wasteland filled with mindless husks.

Coming Next: How It Should Be Done or "North with the Charr!"

Dragons Vs Airships : GW2

So, I went to Orr. It took me two hours from Straits of Devastation to Cursed Shore, at which point I discovered Mrs Bhagpuss, on her new Charr Warrior, hadn't been representing, didn't know I'd left and hadn't heard a word I'd said as I oohed, aahed and wtf'd my way across Southern Kryta.

We stopped for lunch and re-started.

Take two and as a duo we covered the same ground in twenty minutes. As reported, Orr is all undead all the time. I recognize this theme from several previous MMOs. Really, what is it about the undead? Maximum level means Undead, Dragons, Demons or The Void and that's about it.

Seriously, someone come up with something new.

Still and all it was hella fun. And when a shadow passed over me I looked up, and...

C'mon ArenaNet. Don't tease. If Allods can do it, you can. Let us up there!

Hail, All-Powerful Hero! : GW2

Last night my Charr Ranger dinged 80 and one of those wordy, somewhat stilted letters popped into my mailbox. My mysterious Herald spamming me again.

Just who is this guy anyway and where does he get off styling himself "Your Herald"? Did I hire him at some Charr hiring fair one morning after Meatoberfest, when I was so badly hung-over I'd have put my paw-print on anything just to get him to shut up and go away? Is he some petty functionary of the Charr military-industrial complex, locked away in a windowless back-office deep in the Black Citadel, endlessly checking dispatches on field promotions and scribbling details of new deployments?

Whoever he is, he always knows how to find me and boy does he love to gossip. I've long-since screwed up and thrown away most of his missives, but re-reading the most recent ones he seems hell-bent on keeping me informed on the state of mind of a bunch of people I recall meeting just once in Lion's Arch.

Boy, what a day that was! I kept my head down and stared at my claws while they bickered and postured and rehashed old glories or poked each other's old wounds. Metaphorically that is, although come to think of it literally might have been less embarrassing.

This Herald seems to think I have some responsibility for these people, that I should be doing something to help them with their mental health issues, death wishes, personal grudges and plain lack of judgment. He tries every trick in the passive-aggressive, co-dependent book to try to get me to care. He was calling me "Mighty Hero" for a while but now I've hit eighty he's upped that to "All Powerful". He flatters me with references to things I don't recall doing: "Whatever you did at the Citadel of Flame, it seems to have taken". Was I ever even at the Citadel of Flame? Maybe it was that pub in Ebonhawke. That might explain why I can't remember anything about it.

Then he tries to press all my buttons with vague hints that Eir (who I barely know) is going to "do something rash" (She's a Norn! Tell me when she's going to do something reasonable. That would be news!). Not only do I apparently need to be guilt-tripped about this, but he's volunteered me to sort it out. "I said you would catch up with them to help Eir", he writes. Well, thanks! Now I'm going to look like an ass if I don't go.

Yes, well I'll just have to look like an ass, then, won't I? I am not dropping my plans, which include wandering aimlessly all over everywhere taking lots and lots of snapshots and randomly slaughtering everything that doesn't run away fast enough so I can see what it's got in its pockets, just so I can match up to this frankly hysterical image you have of me as some kind of Warrior Psychotherapist.

The Herald, of course, is but the most insistent of my coterie of correspondents. Living in Tyria sometimes feels like waking up inside an eighteenth century epistolary novel. Everyone writes letters all the time. They've all been so well brought-up. Even the roughest frontier guard knows the importance of a "Thank You" note. No good deed must pass unremarked, or unrecorded.

The mail system in Tyria outdoes even Victorian London, where there were up to a dozen deliveries a day. I get my mail anywhere, anytime, immediately and not only does everyone know where I am, some of them even know my name. Here am I, trying to be a cross between the Lone Ranger and The Littlest Hobo, the mysterious stranger bounding into town on all fours with a snout-hankie over his face, righting wrongs and moving on without waiting for a word of thanks, and what do I get? A neatly-written note addressed to me by name, thanking me for my efforts and with a couple of silver pieces slipped inside the envelope by way of a tip! I'd be insulted if it wasn't that I need the money.

So here I am at eighty, a trail of wrongs righted and thanks accepted stretching all the way back to Smokestead. What now? My Herald tells me it's off to Orr. Do I listen to him for once? Well, he mentions airships and I do have a thing for airships. Maybe I will go take a look, this one time. Just don't think I'm making a habit of it.