Guild Wars 2 diary: Brave new world

We track the trials and travails of Ozzie's Syvari Mesmer as he gets comfortable in his new surrounding of Guild Wars 2.

Ozzie Mejia

August 29, 2012 1:00 PM

I should have expected this. Rarely does an MMO launch without a hitch and, sure enough, Guild Wars 2 continues the trend. The masses wanted to dive into GW2 as badly as I did, which meant I ran into some connectivity issues throughout the day. It took a few tries, but I eventually managed to jump into the GW2 character creator. After playing through most of the races during the GW2 beta, I opted to restart my journey with the Sylvari. The game's resident plant-like people, the Sylvari have only been in existence for 25 years, first coming into being long after the events of the first Guild Wars. Considering my own status as a Guild Wars newcomer (I never played through the first GW or any of its expansions), I found it fitting that I take the role of a race exploring Tyria for the first time. The character creator is expansive, a must for anyone looking into a long-term journey. I chose a male Sylvari Mesmer, since I've often had an affinity for the power of illusion magic -- illusion more in terms of Doctor Strange, not so much Criss Angel. Then came the mind-boggling task of determining a color scheme for nearly every single piece of skin and attire on my body. I dyed my Sylvari's skin color blue (any resemblance to certain other blue-skinned creatures is purely coincidental, I assure you) before giving my character's outfit a mixture of jalapeno greens, autumn reds, and buttercup yellow eyes. He's clean-cut, but I'd like to think of him as a baby-faced avenger.

My Guild Wars 2 character

With that in mind, it's time to come up with a personal biography, so I picked answers all based on my own personality. I was asked which mask to select, opting for the Fanged Dread, which looks suitable for a brave warrior. When asked how I overcome trouble, I opted for Dignity. Then came the Sylvari-specific questions. My character dreamt of a quest and saw a vision of The Shield of the Moon, the image of healing and magic whose protection I'll strive for. I found Ventari's most important teaching to be that all things have a right to grow. Still on a bit of a Transformers kick, I kept hearing Optimus Prime say in my head, "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings!" Finally, I answered that the Pale Tree awakened me during the Cycle of Dusk, the cycle of thought and curiosity. After all, I originally chose to undergo this journey out of a curiosity for what's out in the land of Tyria. What is this world that I hear the masses, both Shackers and non-Shackers alike, rave about so much? With my character's backstory prepared, I signed in as The Eye of Carumba (a play on my gamertag) and prepared to begin my journey. I began the game fully-armored inside the Dream, which was being invaded by Nightmare Hounds. I spoke to Caithe, a firstborn Sylvari of the Cycle of the Night, who informed me that the Dream was being invaded by nightmares. To protect the Dream, I had to take out the nightmare plaguing it. In this case, it was a large enemy called the Shadow of the Dragon. With the help of fellow Sylvari, I quickly made short work of the Shadow. If I could take a giant creature down this quickly with a few strangers, surely this would bode well for the journey ahead. That's when I woke up from the Dream. Another fellow Sylvari named Mender Serimon, who congratulated me on being called for a Wyld Hunt. He instructed me to start out in the forest and get some training in before heading out. With that, I ventured out, fully confident in my ability to master the Sylvari Mesmer. Although now my character was now half-naked. I'm guessing he would need some clothes.

Shacknews' Guild Wars 2 diary series follows Ozzie Mejia's journey into NCSoft's online world. Read the ongoing series here.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

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August 29, 2012 1:00 PM

Ozzie Mejia posted a new article, Guild Wars 2 diary: Brave new world.

We track the trials and travails of Ozzie's Syvari Mesmer as he gets comfortable in his new surrounding of Guild Wars 2.
- SinisterInfant
  
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  August 29, 2012 2:10 PM
  
  Character backstory.......that sounds awesome. Still on the fence.
  - rosewood
    
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    August 29, 2012 2:45 PM
    
    Still on the fence of buying this game? Then get off and buy the game already.
- Onumis
  
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  August 29, 2012 2:29 PM
  
  I've been having a lot of fun. Only level 5 right now but it's such a fresh take on a mmo. The world of beautiful and fully of detail. Combat is very interesting and there's different play styles based on the weapons you choose which i found awesome.
- Wiz74
  
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  August 29, 2012 2:33 PM
  
  loving GW2 so far. Currently playing a Asura Necromancer and am sitting at lvl 14, having a ball. Not so fussed on the crafting system at the moment though, seems hard to find the right ingredients to make anything other than more crafting materials at the moment. Although I did make myself a slightty better Trident than I had equiped and a better Focus.
  - ]aratex[
    
     reply
    August 29, 2012 2:48 PM
    
    Crafting will get better/easier when the trading post opens up, I think..
    
    Also, there are a TON more recipes than you're given that can be found in discovery mode (especially for cooking).. You can also look online if you're too impatient to go trial and error, GW2DB.com has complete recipe lists. You also get a huge boost of xp for each recipe you discover, so it's worth it to branch out. Helps your skill go up a lot faster.
- Visceral Monkey
  
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  August 29, 2012 2:46 PM
  
  It's a pretty amazing game to be honest. It's up there with Rift, if not better, in terms of recent MMO's. The fact that a game of this quality doesn't require a $15 monthly fee pretty much puts the nail in the coffin of that model..there is no way I'd pay that for a game that is probably going to offer less than GW2 does in terms of quality and content. I'm looking at you future EQ Next.
- OzzieMejia
  
   reply
  August 29, 2012 2:52 PM
  
  Sorry about the low res video, guys. That one's totally on me. I think I've got FRAPS figured out now, so next one should look better.
- Mecha Tofu Pirate
  
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  August 29, 2012 3:03 PM
  
  Are you in the shack guild? You better be!
  - OzzieMejia
    
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    August 29, 2012 3:11 PM
    
    Unaffiliated for the moment. Still getting my roots wet.
    - OzzieMejia
      
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      August 29, 2012 6:21 PM
      
      I'm on Sea of Sorrows for the moment, but I'm going to talk to my partner in crime about switching over to Maguuma with Frozen Pixel and the rest of you guys.
- CyCo_PL
  
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  August 30, 2012 12:20 AM
  
  This is an excellent game. I buy pretty much every MMO that comes out (I have a problem) and this one is the first in a while to really impress me. It doesn't completely break the MMO mold casted by Everquest, but it really reaches an unprecedented level of polish and innovation within the genre. I have the feeling GW2 will be my MMO for a while.
  
  I'm going to try the FFXIV reboot--I bought FFXIV when it was originally released, and previous buyers will get a free month to try the new game, but I'm just not expecting much. I was excited about it, but GW2 has just killed that.