[GW2] I'm an undying star!

Myth of Ragnarok has finished exploring Tyria - including the world versus world maps - without dying!

This journey was an absurd amount of fun. The game felt much more alive with megaservers. I feel genuinely connected to my character. We've been through a struggle together, and endured. It definitely kept me motivated to play GW2 during this lull between Living Story seasons.

Orr, surprisingly, wasn't as big of a challenge as I'd expected.

Straits of Devastation was straightforward. (Can puns kill?) The only hiccup was the Lightfoot Passage vista. I saw player after player fall to their deaths on the vista, and psyched myself out. I had to swap to another warrior to practice the jumps before continuing on my hardcore character.

Malchor's Leap was once my least-favorite zone. Apparently, Orr isn't so bad without risen. We owned the temples, which made completing the skill challenges trivial. Champions were instantly killed by roving hordes of players. Even the chicken events were instantly completed. Megaservers may lead to the extinction of the risen. I'm fine with that.

But what to do next?

I love this character. Playing without the trading post has breathed new life into the game. I'm enjoying the challenge of completing content without dying. I like that my character is deliberately undergeared (self-found equipment only) since it gives me a sense of progression. And I don't want to abandon the character at the end of a jumping puzzle somewhere.

So I've decided to find new challenges to tackle.

Next up:

• Full exotics without dying or relying on vendors / the trading post. I'll gear up via the new world boss schedule and maybe a champion train or two (ewww). The yellow weapons I loot will get thrown into the mystic forge in the hopes of getting some shiny level 80 exotics.
• Achievement hunting: I'm going to get some more experience by finishing progessing my slayer and weapon master achievements.

Once I'm fully-geared, I'll go back and finish the personal story - including Arah! - without dying.

...

EDIT:  Or... I'll die to underwater combat.  Le Sigh.

[GW2] Ironman Challenge: turning it up to 80

Myth of Ragnarok is level 80!

I hit 80 with around 80% of the world complete, but was having too much fun, and so completed a few more zones. This put me at 93% world completion. This just leaves the three zones of Orr: Straights of Devastation, Malchor's Leap, and Cursed Shore.

Her story so far...

Each trip through Plains of Ashford starts an extended conversation of whether the charr or the humans are to blame for the destruction of the zone.  Originally the land belonged to the charr. But when the gods brought humans to Tyria, they drove the charr from the land. Until the charr took it back. Which the charr nuked with the searing. So we have plenty to argue over.

Knock knock, now let me into the Crystal Desert.

I dreaded this vista (by Sorrow's Embrace in Dredgehaunt Cliffs) from the moment this challenge began. On my first character, I died to it oh so many times. There was swearing. Vows to never return. Developer hatred. Shame. This time? Straight to the top without issue. My friends say they made the tower easier... I think I'm just that awesome.

This heart - in Fireheart Rise - is undoubtedly the single worst quest in all of Guild Wars 2. You're supposed to help escort the ghosts of loggers back to their bodies. Or defend charr children from a witch. Nope. The heart and event are both bugged. Except for one solitary logger. Every couple minutes a quest mob spawns, which can be killed for credit. Spent about a half hour sitting there to get the zone done, whispering everyone I saw to camp the spawn with me. Whoo.

Timberline Falls. I enjoyed returning to this tower. Nothing like krait with pull, immobilize, and knockback to send adrenaline through my system.

A foreshadowing of what awaits me in Orr. I also learned a valuable lesson. Don't step on the fish heads by Tequatl. They insta-downed me, leading to terrified screams and the hope I could res before the head respawned.

After hitting 80, I decided to give a couple world bosses a try. Jormag was fun... right up until players started getting downed / dying. I decided to hide in the back.

Along the way, I've also been looking into whether others have explored the whole map without dying. I found someone who hit 100% world completion pre-level 80. I've found someone else who hit 80 without dying. I also saw one claim of a player exploring all of Tyria, excluding the WvW maps.

But, so far, I haven't been able to find someone who completed the map without death. Makes me wonder how horrible Orr will be.

[GW2] Ironman Challenge Update: Halfway There!

I'm halfway there!  My new warrior just hit 50% map completion in GW2.

Her story so far..

I decided to finish the cities first. While exploring Divinity's Reach I ran into a naked dance party at the city entrance. Human cities, huh?

I'm really enjoying the journey so far. Because of megaservers, there are players everywhere I go, which really makes the world feel alive. I was surprised to see that even Lion's Arch had players hanging out / exploring.

Leveling (yet another) warrior, I'm surprised at the number of things I discover about the class. Just after hitting level 30, I noticed strange brown bubbles around my character. Apparently they're an effect from equipping Signet of Rage. The effect is so small on my asura that I never noticed it, and I never cared about the charr enough to look closely. Another reminder of why I'm rerolling.

Gendarran Fields was the most boring map I completed. Since so many players are hanging out in Vigil Keep, most of the zone feels completely deserted. Felt like pre-megaserver leveling.

Fort Vandal in Kessex Hills was a close call.  Since the end of Living Story Season 1 suggested this area is about to become important, I wanted to explore the fort and hop over the walls. I reconsidered when I noticed the large numbers of level 80 champion poisoners on the walls. Apparently they're pretty tough.

I went rooftop hopping in Ebonhawke instead.  Just beneath this screenshot are two players engaging in either sappy-romance RP about returning from war... or some about-to-get-steamy ERP. Either way, it was awkward when they looked up to see my character perched like this.

Finishing Lornar's Pass gave me 52% map completion at level 47. I'm being much more adventurous than my last character, who hit level 80 with only 61% of the map explored (no deaths). I think this new challenge is really encouraging me to take more risks exploring the world.

Definitely looking forward to what the other half of the world has to explore!

And yes, I'm still alive.

[GW2] Ironman Challenge, Again

Just about two years ago, I started leveling Clawswitz to 80 without dying or crafting. You can read his origins tale, or the update.

I didn't blog about it, but shortly after coming back to GW2 I finished leveling Clawswitz. I didn't write anything because immediately after Clawswitz hit 80, I felt unsatisfied with the character. Normally, I'd start setting him up with a fashionable outfit. But Clawswitz felt clunky. Charr look hideous in virtually every piece of armor; except the cultural gear, which is a bit too spiked for me. Unable to find the right look, I just abandoned him at the end of a jumping puzzle.

With the roll-out of megaservers, I decided to level another warrior to 80 without dying.

Meet Myth of Ragnarok.

Updated challenge ground rules:

• Death is permanent (on death, reroll).
• No getting carried by friends
• No crafting
• No crafting gear with other characters
• No use of the TP
• No food
• No champion train farming to 80
• No experience bonus buffs (Birthday, Killstreak,...)
• No Tomes of Knowledge
• No dungeons
• Any tough fight I run from must be admitted to
• Challenge ends when I'm at 100% world completion, including WvW

While the new challenge greatly restricts access to gear, I decided to allow purchases from karma vendors. This pushes me into a risk-reward situation for getting new pieces of gear, which I enjoy. It also pushes me to unlock more skins for the wardrobe.

Progress so far:

1. My first character died while doing Eternal Battlegrounds at 23. I was trying to meet up with a group taking the enemy keep, and ran into two thieves instead. Never had a chance.
2. The second character died at level 2, this time in borderlands. I was outfought by a 80 warrior.

Attempt #3 is still alive, now at level 32. 

I've already had two terrifying near-death experiences on the character, of course.

The first was at the spider-themed skill challenge in WvW.  I decided to keep fighting with 1/20th of my hp left, and got downed. I couldn't rally off the spider-adds, since they were behind the challenge. Fortunately, I pulled off a vengeance-rally.

The second was at the Darkhoof Heights skill point. I was under-leveled, and decided to attack the boss that guards the point. I wasn't paying attention, and barely made it out.

For the moment, at least, I'm still alive.

[POE] Hardcore

Time for some ARPG shenanigans.

I've been playing Path of Exile.

Its probably the best game I've picked up in a years. I could write pages and pages on why I love this game. The races. The skill trees. The complexity. But this blog is about being a video game data nerd, not persuading others to play awesome games. So instead: a video.

Great, now that everyone is playing, here comes the data.

Like most ARPGs, Path of Exile has a hardcore league. A single death kicks you out of the league, and into default. Since staying alive gets comically difficult, the hardcore league is super competitive. Players speculate on the best builds, watch the top characters, and get global announcements when a top 25 player dies. They debate whether duelists are viable, marauders overpowered, witches death-prone...

Of course, the best way to answer these arguments would be to track the progress of characters through hardcore, recording when they die, how quickly they gain experience, and whether class choice matters.

Fortunately, the PoE website lists the top 15000 characters in the hardcore league. By periodically recording this information, I can get a timeline of characters, as the league progresses.

Classy Breakdowns
Here is the breakdown of default and hardcore characters, by class:

While witches are the most second-most popular option on default, they're the second-least-popular class in the hardcore league. Hardcore is dominated by Templars, Marauders, and Rangers. Duelists, who have the weakest starting position, are the least popular class in both leagues. (They've recently been buffed, though.)

But why are there differences between the two leagues?  Is hardcore just harder for some classes? Are witches just too squishy? Or do players just prefer some classes over others?

Changing Classes
Minimally, if hardcore was harder for some classes, you'd expect to see dramatic changes in the proportions of each class over time.  So, if witches were really weak, at the start of the league there would be a ton of witches, they'd die, and the result would be fewer witches over time.

Here is the distribution of classes over the past month.

Over the past month, there have been small changes in the class distribution of players. Witches have increased their share, while duelists have steadily declined. Marauders have fallen in popularity, only to rise again. Rangers and templars have remained remarkably stable at the top.

Overall, though, class proportions have remained fairly stable. This suggests that whatever imbalances exist, they are small, and being amplified via player choices.

The Final Death
Another way to look at difficulty across classes is via deaths.  If POE is harder on some classes, then those classes should die more. In particular, if a class is harder in the mid or late-game, then there should be relatively more deaths for those classes at the higher levels.

Here, I'm looking at the average chance a character dies for every 15 minutes that they're online, by level and class.

Overall, gameplay becomes less lethal as characters level up. Characters in the 60s are less likely to die (per minutes played) than characters in the 40s.

While *slight* differences exist between the classes (witches die more frequently than rangers, for example), they're relatively small, and not large enough to explain overall class divisions on their own.

There are, of course, other ways to look at differences between classes: experience gains, survival analysis, etc... but for the moment, I need to keep leveling in merciless difficulty. =D

[GW2] Clawswitz: Still Alive, Still Reckless

#3 on my list of places to not bring a hardcore character.

I'm something of a map completionist.

Even on my alts, if I start doing a zone, I want to finish all of it.

This has caused some problems with my attempts to take a character to level 80 without dying or crafting. Here, for example, is Clawswitz (the Cautious Cowering Charr) standing on top of a vista in Timberline Falls.

Some falls from this tower are perfectly safe, and land you in water. Others send the character to a painful death on the scaffolding below. But that wasn't a big deal. Neither was the champion krait witch at the top of the tower.

The problem was Krait Nimross - level 60 mobs with pull, bleed, immobilize, and knockback. They're strategically placed right at the top of the tower, along the one log you follow to the vista. I took one look, and wondered whether this would be the source of another hilarious death.

Grrrrrr.

Fortunately, Clawswitz survived the vista... by waiting for everything to path away, and being thankful nobody else was around to pull mobs randomly. He's level 65, and very much alive.

Unfortunately, he's also neglected - recently, most of my time online is salvaging or dungeons on my guardian for gold. Hopefully I can find some time to push him the last few levels. (Ideally, time without my ISP dropping out on me randomly. It went down on Saturday while I was killing separatists with Clawswitz. The couple minutes until it came up were... awful.)

As far as hardcore challenges go, I'm not alone in the insanity - at least one other person is trying for 80 without dying or crafting. (The OP in that thread hit level 70 without dying - so doing it better than I am!)  A ranger hit 80 without dying (but some crafting). And a possibly-related youtube series has another ranger working toward 80. Of course, there are a couple skeptic threads on whether this is even possible.

Is it sick that part of me is wondering whether an ironman challenge is possible?

[GW2] The Culminating Point of Defeat

I've realized one very important thing in my never-dying challenge. My subconscious gamer is better at staying alive than I am.

In the back of my mind, I keep thinking that after setting myself a goal of hitting level 80 without dying (or crafting), it'd only be sensible to play defensively and cautiously.

I promptly ignore this voice.

Instead, I'm running around with a greatsword, offensive traits, mostly offensive utilities. No survivability on my gear. And a big helping of stupid.

This has led to some rather predictable results.

Clawswitz Sr. At level 10 I encountered a 5-pack of level 14 mobs (two ogres and their pets). Charging in, I remember thinking that "this is probably a bad idea". It was. They were being leashed, and so their health was increasing. I fled... straight into a destroyer. One poison bolt later, I was back to character creation. And I take forever at the character creation screen.

Clawswitz II died in Hoelbrak. At a vista. Just after getting there, I thought "maybe I should go down the safe way". And then, I jumped... to his death. Not the brightest idea.

Clawswitz III died doing the dolak capture quest in Wayfarer Foothills. Yes, the one where all you do is shoot nets. I hadn't seen skelk there before. When 6 popped up on a calf, I charged into attack. They roflstomped me.

After Clawswitz III, I finally decided to to be sensible about things.

Clawswitz IV is a defensive powerhouse. Traits, utilities, even gear. All defensive. Its amazing. Veterans can't even dent the health bar. Regen keeps him topped.

It is amazing to me that just changing traits and gear - while keeping the same weapon - makes for a completely different playstyle. My level 20 signet-build warrior has 95% crit. Touch a mob, it explodes. Pull several... I explode. Swap to defensive. The greatsword is now a glorified whittling knife.  But it doesn't matter. I'm virtually invincible.

And I love that about GW2.

I'm finally making real choices about survival vs offense. I can go defensive... but that makes any fight so much longer. Trait and utility choices can cover some weaknesses, but my character always has vulnerabilities. And nearly everyone makes different decisions about these tradeoffs... so there are a much wider range of gameplay choices / specs than I've experienced in any MMO.

But don't worry, I'll find something hilarious to die to any minute now...

[GW2] Clawswitz the Cautious Cowering Charr

I've become vaguely obsessed with death in GW2.

It all started with the the Experience Survivor achievement for the monthly. 100k experience without dying.

I kept looking at the bar. But it wouldn't move! I wasn't dying, but it wasn't moving, either. So I started tracking things. Experience since my last downed state. Experience since my last overflow. Moving zones.

I realized that moving zones / logging reset the counter. Silly bugs. Started a fresh zone, got my 100k. Phew.

But the lifetime survivor achievement... it isn't moving either. Could it be that I need 500k experience on a character that has never died? Only one way to find out...

This actually struck me as a fun way to play. Remember Cautious, the warrior who leveled to the cap in WoW without dying?  Or Neverdied, the frost mage with a snazzy video? Sounds excellent.

Enter Clawswitz (the Cautious Cowering Charr).

Normally, he'd be running into the fire. Sword in hand, he'd scream out his warcry and charge right into the mayhem.

Instead, I'm trying to get Clawswitz to 80 without dying. Ever.

Ground rules:

• No deaths. Downed ok. Vengeancing from downed to come back to life, awesome.
• No escort services. I could cheese this thing by getting my 80 friends in a group and tagging what they kill. That'd be lame.
• No crafting. Stockpiling mats to just zap from 1-80 isn't quite the spirit of the challenge.
• Anytime I run from a challenge, I need to fess up to it. So that fire elemental in Metrica Province? Admitting it right now: I didn't go near it.

Some stuff I've realized.
Going with melee wasn't exactly my wisest decision. Soloing a skill challenge with a greatsword is suicidal. Soloing it with my rifle is cake. This might be different if I stacked vitality instead of power... but nobody said charr had to think things through. I'm a bit unsure how warrior will work out - I'm jealous of thieves and the ability to flee combat right about now.

I'm not rushing with this. More of a fun side project for when I want a break from crushing opponents in WvW.