Heller:After our first day in Tyria, Tom and I were more than ready for another hour of adventuring. Yesterday we faced off against giant rock hands, bandits, spiders (shudder) and I got to feed some lovely brown cows. So far Guild Wars 2 was everything I wanted, and then more!
Each class has their own story to follow, meaning Tom and I would have to split up if we were interested in seeing the story develop a little further. We weren’t ready for that, so we decided to take to the fields and complete some more sidequests.
We met some smelly trader at an outpost who needed protection on his way to a garrison point. We fought of waves of centaurs, and then we were tasked with taking down a set of catapaults who were assaulting the front wall of the garrison. To say this side quest was epic would be an understatement. Tom and I stormed the utterly demoralized battlefield, pushing back the front lines of enemy centaurs and destroying these gigantic structures in the name of king and country. It was a special moment, one that unlocked a series of quests in the same area that continued our frontal assault, and made our actions feel like they were part of something much bigger than a simple side quest.
Tom: Combat got a whole lot deeper as we hit the 7th level of our journey together - we were able to switch between sets of weapons. As a thief, I picked the weapons that allow me to have the highest output of damage I can possibly get, so naturally double daggers and a shortbow was the natural choice.
A caveat to the GW2 combat system is that your first 5 skills on your hotkey bar - traditionally 1-5 - change depending on what weapon you have equipped. That generally means that, when you hit level 7 and unlock your alternate set you can use, you generally will have a whole new array of abilities you can use to destroy anything in your way - cow or wurm alike.
Heller: ”I can have two weapon sets? Are you freaking serious?” I said to Tom as I quickly equipped a longbow as my secondary weapon. Now I was armed with a gigantic greatsword which messed up everyone in my path, and I had a longbow to pick off enemies at a distance. The variety in combat for each class is mesmerizing, and is one of my favourite features of GW2 so far.
Tom: I don’t think that was a pun, because Heller’s playing a warrior, not a mesmer.
Crafting in GW2 is a huge part of the game, and one I don’t think I fully understand. The way it works is you farm materials - you use them to craft other materials and then from there you create the items you want. Unlike others MMORPGs and games where crafting is kind-of a sideshow and a lot of the gear you can craft is relatively useless, GW2 allows you to make some pretty epic gear once you level up to where you need to get.
One of the more-popular choices I have seen is the Cooking skill. This is because you can use real ingredients you find to make stuff that give you pretty nice stat bonuses and you can make dyes and other cool stuff. Cooking is really useful. Heller did not know this, so after we fetched him some items he could go harvest materials with, the first thing we stumbled upon was... a blueberry bush.
Being the country bumpkin he is, blueberries was a whole new game for him. Honestly, blueberries are pretty cool - not only are they delicious in real life, in game they’re used to create blue dye. How can you not like blueberry? Well, everyone likes blueberries. It just seems that some people like them even more than others.
”BLUEBERRIES! I LOVE BLUEBERRIES!”Heller screamed over TeamSpeak as he made a mad dash towards the blueberry bush.
Heller:: First feeding cows, now I can harvest blueberries. What the hell is the world coming to? This is the greatest game I have ever played!
Tom: I honestly could feel the satisfaction seep through the microphone. Of all the things you can enjoy in GW2, it turns out picking blueberries and feeding cows is the most enjoyable. Go figure.
Heller: Before long we made it to a point where it was obvious we would have to go our separate ways, complete a few story quests before meeting back up and pressing on. I gave Tom’s character a kiss, he didn’t like that, despite the fact his character is a girl, and I set off for Divinity Reach, a place of nobility.....and circuses.