Progress Report

Guild Wars

I was right; the ability to have 7 heroes in your party makes a huge difference for the War in Kryta.  I still managed to use all 9 of the Powerstones of Courage I had, but that's because I had a low bullshit tolerance and was using them to get rid of partywide death penalty as soon as it was acquired.  The quest I was stuck on, A Little Help From Above, turned out to be a rather large difficulty spike in the difficulty curve of the War in Kryta quests, as the one immediately following it was easy and I did it first try.  For reasons unknown I stopped after that, even though I'm on the second to last quest.

There's a trick for speeding up A Little Help From Above, which also allows you to avoid 50% of the quest's bullshit.  The first objective is all the way on the other side of the map from the rest of the objectives.  You kill your way there, kill the target boss to get the key you need, and under normal circumstances turn around to find the path you just cleared now has hidden groups of White Mantle that appear unpredictably as you try in vain to work your way back.

The trick is simple.  There's only one resurrection shrine in the entire zone, and it's where you start.  After killing the boss and getting the key, die.  You will resurrect back in safety.  Pop a Powerstone of Courage or other death penalty removers for the party, and carry on like the hidden groups of White Mantle never existed in the first place.

Frozen Soil is as required as ever.  The White Mantle and Peacekeeper enemies simply have too much resurrection.  If they're allowed to use it, fights will drag on and since their groups are bigger, they'll win.

As for Hard Mode, I warmed myself up with a rather flawless Gates of Kryta mission+bonus, then proceeded to fail hard on D'Alessio Seaboard.  The first time it was because I rushed to the NPC that triggers the bonus, who is under attack when you get to the town he's in.  The second time through I cleared out a bunch of the attacking undead before going to help him (he doesn't start taking damage until you get close enough to him), and it worked beautifully.

Paved my way to the Temple of Tolerance along the bonus path, and proceeded to fall dead in my tracks.  For some unknown reason, Arenanet thought it would be funny if the NPC whose life you have to protect in the temple was under attack immediately as soon as you get within radar range of him.  You have to take a somewhat winding path to get to him, and I have yet to get to him before he dies.  Once I figure that out, I then have to stay there and defend as several waves rush in from two different directions, so who knows how well the mission will go if I can keep him alive long enough to find out.

Secret of Mana

Levelled the girl's elementals up to 6.  Realized I really needed somewhere with enemies to do the rest of it, so I hopped on Flammie and went to Ice Country where the enemies are relatively weak and I can just mow through them quickly.  Got the sprite's elementals up to 6.  Got the weapons to 6 as well, with the sole exception of the sword, whose sixth orb I'm currently lacking.

You know what this means?

Story!

Imagine that!

...or so I thought.  My next stop was in fact the Moon Palace, to get yet another elemental.  Which meant only one thing: More grinding!

Realized that the Wind Palace is the best place to level grind for the girl (free MP refill, plus elementals level up faster if weapons are out).  Got all the elementals for both the girl and the sprite up to level 7.  No more levelling to do until I get the sword's orb in the next area.

So, now.  Story.  Well, next time.  I'm tired of pressing buttons on a controller.

Real Life

I'm getting a haircut today.