Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Races of Tyria: All These New Options And You Chose Human?

Seriously, you two chose Human over all of the other races?

What's wrong with choosing Human?

Odd seeing Humans without those little red names floating over their heads

Seemed like a perfectly serviceable choice for our professions. Besides, it's not like it's Alliance against Horde on Tyria.

I know that. I mean why, when we're looking at a world with four race options that are new and exciting, would you two decide to go with something as plain as Human?

Well, as a thief, human honestly makes the most sense. While there's no statistical or racial bonus as far as I'm aware for the race choice, there is the unspoken quality most Humans have: they tend to blend in very well in urban environments. The Charr that you're looking at stick out like a sore thumb. Same with those giant Norns Solagar was talking about. The Asura are really too comical looking for most people to ignore and I know it'll be hard for most people to not notice the walking, talking plants that are the Sylvari. In the grand scheme of things, a Human is the plainest being you're likely to meet in a city. First rule of being a thief: don't stick out. Seems like a logical choice to me.

Hmm you make a good point. I suppose I hadn't considered the whole "hide in plain sight" trait Humans had, but the only one I've ever really worked with is Tuknir and I don't think he's a good example.

True, that one's not quite right in the head. He'd probably make a good Norn though.

You want me to give him access to a race that dedicates themselves to booze, battle, and what the majority of us would call insanity?

He'd be in good company.

I'll think about it. Back to the whole Human choice thing. Mal, you always struck me as a pretty proud Blood Elf. I would've thought you of all people would be averse to going Human.

You are correct on the Blood Elf pride front. However given that my race of choice is unavailable in Tyria, I'm left with the five options available. After careful consideration, the Humans were actually the best fit for me. The Charr may have Elementalists and Necromancers in their ranks, but they make no attempts to hide their distaste for most magic. The Norns have a slightly stronger connection to magic, but their general outlook on life doesn't quite match mine.

What about the Asura? They're pretty heavy into magic and magitek or whatever they call that stuff.

Yes, but I just can't bring myself to be one. I'll admit that I'm not the most humble Blood Elf in the world, but even I consider them to be a bit over the top. That and I can't help but see gnomes when I look at them. Big eyed, lizard mouthed gnomes. Seeing that face every morning would give me nightmares.

That still leaves the Sylvari.

I was considering them for a while, but in the end I just couldn't bring myself to do so. They remind me too much of Night Elves. I realize it's an unfair comparison, but it's there and I have a hard time not seeing my tree-hugging cousins when I look at them.

So it was Human by default then?

Yes, but that's not to say that I don't appreciate the race's qualities or history. In fact it sounds like an excellent match for a Blood Elf like myself. Nobility, political intrigue, magically-caused catastrophes - sounds like a good chunk of our history books. Plus I like their architecture. It's a far cry from the wonders of Silvermoon, but for Humans they do a passable job at being artistic.

Fair enough. Sounds like you two have put some thought into your choices. I apologize for being so sarcastic; I was kinda expecting a response like "we threw darts at a wall full of names and that's what came up."

Perish the thought.

Of course not! We have more respect for our work than that.

Good to hear. Guess that's it till next time, folks. Talk to you later.



Psst... you think he bought it?

Yes, but he won't if you keep talking about it.

Lips are sealed.

Good. Be sure to take down the rest of the names and darts from the wall of the breakroom. Pretty sure it was a lucky guess, but we don't need to give him proof.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Azeroth vs. Tyria part 11: A Guild For Every Purpose

Quick little break from the race posts to talk about something people might actually be interested in: guilds.

For our little group, we've looked at most guilds as sources of work. We'd take up a contract with whatever guild was willing to pay and treat it like a normal job, just with dragon murder instead of meetings. I'd say no paperwork too, but the boss never gets to avoid that stuff. Once we were off the clock though, that guild tag might as well not have been there. Sure, we had friends in the guilds we worked for; usually they're the ones that recommended us in the first place. There's a difference between being a guildmate and a contract laborer though. A guildmate will usually put the guild's needs ahead of their own. Contractors however look at the bottom line: if someone on our team wasn't being sufficiently compensated for their work, we either renegotiated or cancelled the job. Friendship is great and all, but we're running our own business here and I can't pay Orgrimmar rent with friends. Well, maybe if I was a goblin.

We were in an actual guild back in the old days though, The Greyside Gang. We weren't the biggest guild in the world (setting up a Karazhan run took a bit of creative planning some weeks), but we had the most important thing I've found for guilds that last - we actually liked each other. Whether it was from a shared sense of humor or just the timing of everyone finding a group where they could complain about their old guilds with others that shared their pain, this small group just clicked.

The only guild runs we've done as a group since those days have been a few Sartharion runs back in Northrend and the occasional 5-man dungeon there and after the Cataclysm. Some of us, like my team, have moved on to working for other guilds in the years after we stopped raiding. That didn't stop us from hanging out though. Even after all these years, we still get together to talk about other work we've found or to reminisce/complain about the old days. We may not have been on the cutting edge of raiding, but I'd be hard pressed to find many guilds that still do that after all these years. After some nights of raiding with other guilds, it was nice to head over to our meeting place and vent about some of what I'd seen.

Speaking of other guilds, you might ask why we ever did the contracting thing if we were perfectly happy with the Greyside Gang. Well, it's the same reason why anyone might go job hunting despite really liking their coworkers - if there's no work, you're not getting paid. There's also the matter of staying on top of your game too. Hanging out in a bar in Orgrimmar is fine for the occasional brawl, but it's not exactly up there with fighting a dragon. You usually lose money at those brawls too (that or in the drinking beforehand), so it kinda compounds the whole "no income" problem. As such we all had to take up with other guilds that weren't quite as good of a match for us personality-wise. Sure I got along with most of the officers and usually the other tanks, but we're talking big guilds here since that's what Sol and I usually got called for. It's hard enough finding nine people you like that know their jobs, let alone 24 plus all of the backups. Combine that with some of the rougher learning nights and there was usually a chain of whispers going between me/Sol and whichever one of our friends was on to laugh at our misery.

Looking at this, you can see the dilemma we've got: run with the guild that your friends are in or run with the guild that gives you work. You can only have one guild in Azeroth and, with the addition of guild reputation/leveling/achievements/etc., it made the decision to stick with one that much more of a pain. Tyria handles things a bit differently though.

Let's stick with my example of a guild for work and a guild for fun. Normally I'd be stuck having to choose which of the two I would represent. Whichever one I chose would be the only one I'd show up for on the guild roster (everyone else would have to "friend" me) and that guild would be the only one to benefit from any of my exploits. In Tyria however I'm no longer constrained to just one guild. Yes, I can only represent one guild at a time, but I can choose between them at will. Whichever one I'm currently representing will see me on the roster or talk to me through guild chat and I'll be able to use the tools they've unlocked through achievements and influence, such as the calendar or guild storage. Once I'm done there though, I can switch over to the other guild and do things with them. You could have a guild for running dungeons, one for structured PvP, one for world vs. world PvP, one for friends - as far as I've been able to find, there's no set limit at the moment.

I know what some of you are thinking though. You're looking at all of these lists of people and thinking, "I'm never gonna get a moment's peace in Tyria. There's always gonna be a list of people that can bug me to go do something from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep." Worry not! You'll also have the option to go incognito and represent no guilds. We've all had those moments where we just want to get something done without interruption and the Tyrians have seen fit to allow for just such an occasion.

That about wraps it up, but I do have one more quick thing to say about guilds. Remember the world vs. world PvP I mentioned earlier? I haven't talked a great deal about it yet, but those details can wait. The important thing here is how it's related to guilds. Right now there's no guild halls in towns like some of the bigger guilds have been requesting, but for those guilds that are into PvP? In those zones where world vs. world PvP occurs, there are keeps. Keeps that your guild can conquer for themselves and proudly display their flag for all to see. Keeps that your guild can use influence to upgrade and fortify against enemy incursion. I'm not sure how big of a role these will play in the grand scheme of the battles, but the idea of having a fortifiable base of operations in the middle of a battlefield sounds great. Would've been nice to have somewhere to coordinate from during the handful of battlegrounds I did in Azeroth, rather than using BG chat and hoping they would read it.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Races of Tyria: The Spirited Norn

Do you have to use terrible puns for the bulk of your post titles?

Yep, got a pun quota and we don't post often enough to use witty ones, so puns it is. Anyways we're here to talk about another race and Solagar is here to present his choice for the trip to Tyria. So what race are you leaning towards, Sol?

Well, since I don't have a direct analog for a return to my old Blood Elf state, I've been looking through the options available. Out of the five you've shown me, I believe the Norn to be the optimal race for my travels there as a Guardian.

I'm still going Charr, but pictures like this made the choice kinda hard

Really? A Norn?

I take it you disapprove?

Not so much disapprove. It's more that the race isn't really, well, you.

Why would you say that? They're an honorable race of warriors and the guardian seems like a perfect fit for them.

For the class, yes. For you, not really. You are correct that they're an honorable race, but did you read any beyond that? Let's take a look at that first paragraph: "Boistrous, strong-willed, and passionate". I'll give you the second one. The third one's a bit of a stretch, but I suppose you can be passionate about your work at times. I'm gonna have to call you out on the boistrous part though. You're not exactly the rowdy party type, Sol.

You don't know that for certain. I had my moments during Blood Knight training back in Silvermoon and I've participated in events the guilds I've worked for put on.

Participating doesn't mean showing up, grabbing food, and leaving before someone makes you be social.

Fine, but the other parts of that paragraph work for me. "Steadfast allies and implacable foes" - that seems perfect for me.

You're right, there are parts that fit you better. It says right here they're "quick to anger, even quicker to smile, and treat each new day as a personal challenge". Dunno about the smiling part, but the rest of that seems spot on.

Very funny. Let's look further down, shall we? How about the connection to the spirits they have? I may not have the shapeshifting part, but being connected to the world and spirits? That I have plenty of experience with.

Video's kinda old, but it's worth it to see the story bits at the end

I'm not sure a stolen, then freely given, connection to the Light really counts there, but I suppose if we look at the fact that you've trained some with the Sunwalkers, it could loosely count. Before you say it, your old connection to arcane magic doesn't count; it was a side-effect of your race's magic addiction. Besides you only ever used the stupid thing as an interrupt anyways.

So are you telling me to choose another race or not?

Nah, there's nothing wrong with your choice. I'm just giving you a hard time. Personally I think it'll be good for you to spend some time with the Norn. Besides giving you a good supply of war stories to pass along, they might help you loosen up a bit. You've always been too high strung, so maybe being around a bunch of impulsive shapeshifters will fix that. Plus you're certain to pick up some new combat maneuvers from working with them to share with the rest of us.

Ah. Well, thank you for being supportive. For a second there I thought you were trying to talk me out of this.

Of course not! Where else am I gonna find someone to get me tickets to Keg Brawl games?

...

Monday, September 12, 2011

Races of Tyria: Charr Do It With Steel, Not Spells

I take it we're not going to talk about the other possible worlds we saw at PAX then?


Maybe if we find time, but it's been a few weeks so we should move on. Besides, that Firefall one (not sure what the actual planet's name was - Urth or something like that) we looked at is supposedly letting other people get more hands-on time in the next couple months, so I might as well wait for that. As for the other one, I'm reluctant to talk about it.

Didn't care for it?


No, I liked what I saw. The problem is I didn't see enough. You and I got to check out Tyria and the WildStar world for 40 minutes. In that 40 minutes we had time to check out combat, questing, gear itemization - pretty much enough time to get a feel for everything we care about. Here I only got 20 minutes and half of that was talking. Don't get me wrong - the quality of the talking was good. I was interested in what everyone had to say. Unfortunately I was also interested in doing non-talky things and there wasn't really enough time for both. I could comment on what I tried, but I feel that would be unfair with the little I was able to see.

Understandable. Where does that leave us for today's post then? I know Lokaja hasn't finished his Ranger profession post because neither of us has seen him for a while.


Actually got the idea from the guys that have been giving out all of the details about Tyria. They're doing a week of posts about one of the five races we get to choose from in Tyria, seeing as how the bulk of us can't just hop over there and expect to fit in.

Ah yes, I'd been wondering when we would get to discussing that. Will we be focusing on the same race everyone else is talking about at the moment?


Where's the fun in being topical? Nah, we're gonna do this the way we talked about the professions: we'll talk about the ones that we've picked out for ourselves. It just works out here because I know you and I are planning on the same race.

Correct. I cannot speak for the remainder of the team, but the two of us at the very least will be adventuring through Tyria in the guise of a Charr.


Seems a little more intimidating than Med as a Blood Elf, huh?


That's right, though I assume for different reasons. I'll be going with the Charr partly because, well, they're the closest match I have to being a Tauren. They're big, they have horns, they're fuzzy - seems kinda obvious to me. They're a bit more warlike than my people, though that's probably going to shift some because of Garrosh (I'm not bitter, no...). To be honest though the bulk of their fighting is retaliatory since this Ascalon place did apparently take their land first and this Flame Legion group of Charr was apparently subjugating the whole race for a while there. When you listen to some of them talk though and hear how much they enjoy their work, you can't really mistake them for peaceful folks. Really though, I think that's the main reason I like them.

As much as I consider myself a Tauren, we're a race of druids, hunters and shamans with some outliers. I'm respected, sure, but you know you're always on the edge of society to some extent when you take up the blade. With the Charr though, everything that makes me who I am is considered a virtue. They value strength in battle and fearlessness. They strive for discipline in everything they do. Most important to an old smith like me though, they honor being industrious, particularly when it comes to working with metal.

Ah, now you're getting to the good part. Sure they value skill in combat and discipline, but most importantly they strive for technological advancement. It just so happens that being in a constant state of war is a great way to make said progress. The Charr have made great advances in engineering and metallurgy over the years, making them militarily and technologically superior to the other races of Tyria.


I'm sure those Asura guys might question us on this.

I know a warrior should prolly be Blood Legion, but I like the attitude of these Iron Legion guys

Bah! Let them argue the point! It doesn't change the fact that they're behind. While they waste their efforts on technomagical constructs like those golems they all have, the Charr have proven their dominance not only with their war machines, but with their finest work: the Black Citadel. The entire city is a vast foundry and haven for crafting and engineering work. While some members of the Charr do practice magic, the bulk of the race places their faith in steel rather than spells. Honestly after reading what you sent me about them, I couldn't find any compelling evidence to choose one of the alternatives.


Yeah. I'm gonna have to find volunteers for the other races. We'll all be able to work on the same stuff, but it's always good to try and spread resources in case we're missing something. Might have to ask one of the gnomes to be our Asura rep though; I can't think of any of the regular crew that would want the assignment. I could be wrong though. For the next post we'll ask Sol which way he's leaning. I'll be the one doing the asking though, not you. Pretty sure he's still sore about the whole "transforming him into a Tauren" thing.

Sigh... It's been months. Sometimes scientific progress has a few side effects. Nobody died, so it's not like anything that bad happened. Besides he'd just have to change for Tyria, so really I gave him practice. He should be thanking me.


Yep, I'll definitely be the one talking to him instead of you.

Monday, September 5, 2011

PAX Hands-on: WildStar

Ready to talk about the other world you checked out, Med?

Indeed. While I may not have been able to try out Tyria due to someone pulling rank, I did have one other world I was interested in. The week before we left for PAX I heard reports of a new potential world to investigate.


So what's the name of this place?

Well, the world is called Nexus, but all of the information I found was labeled WildStar. A codename perhaps, because honestly who would name a planet WildStar? Name aside I looked for information about this new world. The main feature was the trailer included below, but they gave a few details about the world itself.


Guessing man-eating plant dragons and hordes of robots weren't in the travel brochure


I'll discuss the world when I get into my demonstration, but suffice it to say I was intrigued and put it on my list of places to check out on our trip. Like your Tyria expedition, mine was also 40 minutes so I actually had time to work. It's still early, so the only race/class combinations available were those shown in the trailer: the Granok Warrior, the Human Spellslinger, and the Aurin Esper. I chose the Esper and began exploring Nexus.


*chuckle*

What's so funny?


Oh nothing, just the idea of you running around as a bunny girl. For some reason that's amusing.

Sigh, if I could've chosen male, I would have. I thought about trying the Warrior, but I was actually talking to someone working at the show and when I asked for a recommendation, he suggested the Esper. I believe he said he was the lead combat designer or something like that, so I assumed he knew what he was talking about. Nice fellow by the way - he was pretty much talking to me the entire time I was waiting for my turn and he answered quite a few of my questions.


The demo began with me in the middle of a crashed spaceship. Before you say anything, no I didn't cause said crash; it was like that when I got there. I was resuscitated by someone else on the ship, then sent off to begin the normal adventurer process of running items around and killing the indigenous population for quest givers. There was one small difference in that though and that would be the path I chose.


You mean your class?

No, that's separate. In addition to choosing a race and class, you also have to choose a path. Basically a path is somewhat of a supplemental way of gaining experience and treasure. You still have the normal quests that everyone does and there's always monsters and the like around to slaughter, but you can tailor it a bit to reward you for how you would prefer to work.


The four path options are Soldier, Explorer, Scientist, and Settler. At the demo only Soldier and Explorer were active, so I don't have first-hand experience with the latter two though I have seen reports of how those are supposed to work. Starting from the top though, Soldier is pretty self-explanatory: you like to kill things. The Soldier path will support this by giving you the opportunity to prove yourself in combat. Everyone has some opportunity to do this: there were experience bonuses for kill chains and some pseudo-quests popped into my log while I was working that said, "Hey, you're good at killing these monsters.  Think you can kill another eight in two minutes?" The Soldier however can take this one step further. At certain points he can basically drop a challenge flag and waves of monsters will come towards him. If he survives the waves, he'll then have to fight a mini-boss of sorts and should the Soldier survive that, he'll be rewarded.


I chose the Explorer path since Scientist wasn't available. I'm not normally the explorer of the group (that's more Lokaja and Daikaja's preference), but I enjoyed myself with the few explorer missions I was able to accomplish. Basically you'll be running around and every so often you'll receive a call over your radio asking you to place a beacon somewhere or investigate an anomaly. When you go to the spot on the map where the quest is marked, you'll see some sort of environmental obstacle.


The first one I found was a mountain with periodic landslides that I had to either dodge by hiding behind rocks or I had to time my double-jumps to leap over the waves of snow. For the second one I ran into what looked like a sheer cliff face, but when I inspected it further I found a secret path that led to the top of the rock where I could place the beacon. Finally the third one had me following a strange energy signature. When I reached the first spot where the floating energy ball had been sitting, I was infused with power that allowed me to leap to great heights which allowed me to follow the energy ball up to the top of the rock spire it had flown up to. In each of these cases, I received treasure and experience for doing something that many of us would've done on our own simply out of curiosity or boredom.


Yeah, I remember my old wall-walking days back in Vanilla when I had nothing to do in-between raids other than sell Lionheart Helms and Stronghold Gauntlets.

The other two paths are similar from what I've been told. Scientist examines things out in the field and they can unlock bonuses like extra damage against monsters or finding items in the environment to heal their party members. They also find out more about the world itself since the path is all about digging in for more information. Settlers are a bit more social - you get tasks like using an item to buff nearby people or to fix something that's broken in a settlement. I still believe I'll be going with Scientist when I get another chance to work with this, though I did have fun with the few Explorer missions I was able to work on. Would've actually liked to finish the last couple I found, but I had priorities.


Not enough time to do all the quests?

For more than one reason. Back to my demo though. Combat was somewhat of a mix between what we're used to in Azeroth with a little from Tyria. The Esper was a caster class like I'm used to, but it had combo points and finishers like rogues. The nice part about the combo points though was that pretty much every ability that wasn't a finisher generated combo points, so you didn't feel like using heals or self-shields was a waste of a GCD. There was a bit more standing around than in Tyria since my main combo point building attack had a cast time, but it was significantly more mobile than Azeroth due to the dodge mechanic. It operates similar to how the Tyria dodge works, but it had an additional bonus. Remember how I said there was an experience bonus for kill streaks? There's more bonuses like that and not all of them were limited to experience. If an enemy was charging up for a big attack (for example, the yetis had a cold breath attack you didn't want to be hit by), you could dodge the attack completely. When you did this, the enemy would be vulnerable for a few seconds and you could do bonus damage to him during that short window. This worked two ways though: if you didn't dodge that attack, it would probably knock you prone and it would be you that suffered all that extra damage.


Since I couldn't really play and film at the same time, watch TotalBiscuit's video


All in all I probably did a bit more stationary work than your druid friend that was trying the Warrior, but it was probably something like 50-50 and most of the movement was me dodging. A nice change of pace from the raids we've seen where it's "stand still until this happens, then run to the other side of the room and stand still until the next movement trigger".


Sounds pretty good so far. Shame you didn't have enough time to do everything though.

Depends on how you look at it.


I thought you said you couldn't finish the Explorer missions.

Yes, but those were side missions. There was a main storyline through the bulk of the missions and that's what I focused my time on.


Story was that good?

It was good, but it was less because of that and more because of what the people at the demo said.


Which was?

Well someone at the booth mentioned extra swag, so I asked that combat dev I'd been talking to about it. He said that everyone got a shirt, but that if you were able to finish the demo before the timer expired, you'd get something extra. I took that as a challenge.


Were you successful?

What do you think?


The closest we're ever going to get to "beating" a MMO

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Back from PAX: Guild Wars 2

Well, that was a fun trip and we finally got to try some Tyrian combat.

Correction: you got to try Tyrian combat. I got to do the rest of the work since there was a bit of a line and you called 'dibs' on going first.

Oh come on, that's not fair! We were both at PAX to check out some possibilities for places to move after we leave Azeroth. We had to hit everything we could, so it just made sense to split up the tasks and not have both of us trying the same thing at the same time. It would've been nice if you could've had a little hands-on time, but unfortunately it felt like every other adventurer in Azeroth was in line with me there.

I would have an easier time believing the sincerity of your words if not for your attitude after you finished trying it out. The sight of a giddy Tauren gushing over combat techniques and dodging is not a pretty one.

What? I had fun. It's important to enjoy one's work after all and I was certainly enjoying my time in Tyria.

I take it that means it was everything we've been hoping for?

Well, I wasn't able to try everything I wanted since I only had about 40 minutes before I got sent back, but what I was able to try was great. I chose to go in as a Charr warrior for obvious reasons. In that 40 minutes, I got to help fight back a ghost that possessed a giant statue (at level 1 no less!), help out at a forge and a junkyard by gathering tools and defending it from invaders, and help out at this lake thing by slaying giant lizards. There was also some giant thing that hurt like a truck that I took down with the help of some other adventurers wandering about. The last eight minutes or so centered around myself and a group of three or four other adventurers, all below level 4, trying to push our way into a cavern filled with fire turrets and level 6 Flame Legion Charr. It didn't end up going in our favor, but we managed to hold our own for quite a while.

Sounds thrilling. What about the weapons themselves? How did the new mechanics you mentioned work out?

They felt great. Switching weapons on the fly was quick and learning new techniques went fairly quickly. I think it was something like three or four minutes with my starter sword skill until I learned my second one and maybe six or seven for the next one. I didn't test the fourth and fifth techniques because I was trying other weapons, particularly the rifle. It's still not entirely natural to me to fight at ranged, but I was starting to get the hang of it during our epic struggle to enter the cavern.

Dodging is going to take some getting used to. It's easy enough to do, but you can only dodge so often until you need to let your energy regenerate. It's fairly quick, but it does mean that you need to pick those moments when you need to move.

Since you mentioned swapping weapons, did you get the chance to look at equipment?

Indeed and compared to what we've been working with all these years in Azeroth, it'll be a nice change of pace. You've got four attributes to work with: Power makes all of your attacks hit harder, Precision increases your chance of getting a critical hit, Toughness reduces the damage you take from physical and magical attacks, and Vitality gives you more health. No haste or hit rating to cap, no dodge or parry to balance against one another - just four numbers to work with.

There were upgrade slots in most of the equipment I found, but I didn't have anything to put there so I can't give a first-hand impression, but I don't believe anything's changed since last week's crafting post so that should still be valid. I also didn't have any procs to play with, but since I was in the Charr starting area, that's to be expected. An associate of mine got the chance to try an Asura engineer in one of the later zones, so I might ask him if he can write something up when he's not busy.

Really? An Asura? He seriously chose one of those overglorified technomages over the Charr, the proven masters of engineering and war machines?

I know, I know, it's weird but it's what he wanted to try out. I certainly wasn't going to follow him in his madness, but to each their own. Now lemme think if I've forgotten anything...

Oh yeah! All those public quests I was working on? Pretty much every time I did something to further the goal, whether it was killing Flame Legion or just gathering tools for the forge, I earned some Karma. Now we already knew that there was going to be a currency for the events, but I didn't realize it was the same currency. I got quite a bit of karma from doing that event and the one with the lizards, then found my way over to the karma vendor by the forge. There was also one out in the fields that sold some armor I would've liked, but the one by the forge had all of the different weapons and honestly that was more important to me. I had to try out the rifle after all.

I think that's about everything from my short excursion into Tyria. Definitely looking forward to spending some more time there though. I did find a few other contenders that we'll be considering though, but those are for a later post. You have any luck, Med?

Indeed I did. While I may not have been able to try engineering in Tyria, I was able to get some time in with two other worlds that suited my tastes for all things technological.

Sounds good. We'll save those for next time since we've already run a bit long. Well, that and nobody's gonna want to ready about two different worlds in the same post. You want to tease people with something before we head out?

I believe I may have something to pique their interest until next time: