I don’t know what that thing was, other than something disgusting. We universally decided it was disgusting when we engaged it. I can’t recall its name because I was a bit overwhelmed thinking of what it must smell like and being thankful this is a video game (smells are out).
Last night we made a foray into Gunbad and explored a great deal of it. We first joined an allied war band of forty and pressed into the right wing, clearing it. I enjoy allied war bands, and usually PUG war bands, in which I have a handful of my guild-mates with me. We have tightened down to a very small, very tight team. We stick together and support each other. We’ve grown accustomed to one another’s strengths, weaknesses, and styles, and as a result we make a very effective strike team. (It helps that we are primarily healers and tanks, I think.) In RvR, I often find it’s either myself or another member of my little guild taking command. I’m not sure what’s more marvelous: that the suggestions my guild-mates make are often good ones, or that people in our warbands often listen. We are small but so far seem memorable, which is precisely what I wanted from this game: a small, manageable, tight-knit guild that people recognize and like. I still get /tell compliments on the name. =) We did five PQs with the alliance (two of them twice each, as there are only three PQs per wing so far as we’ve seen), and I came in top three for contribution in all but one (in which I was fifth). I wondered if it was the fact that I was carrying the standard around as well as healing my brains out, but I honestly don’t think the standard – despite it’s extremely helpful buffs and awesome look – nets contribution at all. I’d be curious to hear if anyone things otherwise?
After the first wing we parted ways with the allied team to attempt to push ourselves; we had nearly-cleared the right wing of Gunbad by ourselves before, so we felt we had a shot at the other two wings, thus we tried both. The ugly picture above (and one that follows) was in the far left wing; he came after we killed a few dozen nurglings (a.k.a. snot monsters) and extremely hard-hitting trolls (not pictured, sorry; I was too busy healing to screen-shot).
Recently I’ve read a lot of things across blogs. The first thing is the upcoming patch, which I’ll address elsewhere. The second thing is lack of community, which I’ll address now. I’ll grant you it can feel a bit lonely when I log on and none of my other Science team members are logged in; I find I’ll be the only person speaking in scenarios. Sometimes my instructions are followed, but whatever cheers or bravos I raise seem disregarded. Perhaps it’s because all those that used to speak with me in scenario chatter have moved on to T4. Perhaps. However, when the team is on, I have a very strong sense of community and belonging. We really do make a good team; it’s remarkable how we will oftentimes gain several unexpected adds and still be able to claim victory. It really only takes a team of six (in some cases a team of five) to get somewhere. Frankly, if you feel lonely, I don’t know what else to do for you. Just re-roll and join us. ;)
In this last area (the middle land-bridge down leads to this, in a not-so-but-nearly roundabout way) we discovered that we are freaking elite; we also discovered that it’s a bad idea to engage the plinkas at stage center and left, as they spawn within seconds of one another, can draw LOS through anything, and can agro for no reason in particular. We very quickly found ourselves surrounded by a seemingly immortal swarm of goblin archers; one of many occasions last night where each of us was a bit surprised we weren’t eaten. It is a much better idea to hit a sharp-right out of this cave mouth and to engage the melees you find there instead. Your goal are the undead things that are over the bridge…but when you get over there stay stage right, because to your left are undead archers that are just like the plinkas. Just like them, except that they were able to one-shot me in addition to their other super-plinka powers. Our random-drop reward is pictured below. Is this a coicidence, or an omen? You tell me.
