Guild Wars 2

The druid thread was the greatest ranger thread since ranger haiku.

No fun allowed.

Did you miss the asterisk in the manifesto, OP? I’d suggest you go watch it again.

“[sic] play the way you want to play*”

*Within a very narrow, ever-shifting set of confines.

Axialbloom.8109:

Ya. People tend to vote what they are playing.

I don’t necessarily disagree, but I suspect if you asked around you would find a number of folks like myself who stopped playing ranger somewhere around the turn of 2013, when it became painfully apparent that the devs had neither the ideas nor the inclination to actually fix the class.

1. Ranger
2. Ranger
3. Ranger

Mitlerkaiser.1470:

fanfic

I die a little inside every time Thorn is indirectly compared to the Living Story.

From the same guys who brought you their number one hit for thirty-seven weeks in a row, We’re Nerfing Shortbow Twice to Make Longbow Look Better by Comparison, Rather Than Just Fixing Longbow! comes their new single—and it’s bound to be a smash. Here’s Time to Nerf ’Zerker, Instead of Reworking Encounter Design and Buffing Other Playstyles!

I, for one, cannot wait. Good job, whiners.

My apologies for dragging the spirit of Casey Kasem into this.

Only six months overdue, but finally, the second teaser is posted.

I’d love an invite.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

In Guild Wars 2, the monsters raid devs troll you.

It’s like I’m really back on the ranger forums again.

Thanks, Jeno! (You can see how often I find the time to log into the forums or the game these days.)

I hate to admit it, but I’m way behind on Leaves and Embers, along with every other bit of reading I’d love to get done, but I plan on catching up soon when I have some free time. In the meantime, I suggest folks go check it out.

Also, the first teaser of the new version of Thorn is up, along with a vague status update. Exciting stuff and moving along as a ridiculous clip.

Oh, hey. An update.

Jaall.3420:

snip

In my world consumers are allowed to voice their discontent with a product or service regardless of whether it cost $0.60, $60, or $60,000. These aren’t the Bioware/EA forums.

Wow. Props for making such a unique and out-there backpiece, but . . . man, can I not imagine using that on any of my characters.

Time to make a necro?

Pretty sure all of the T3 sylvari models clip terribly with everything back-related. :\

dinominator.9862:

Bearzu, obviously people are willing to gamble. Who are you to make the moral judgment for them on how to spend their money?

I don’t think it’s the fact that people are spending their own money that you really care about. Cut the humanitarian crap. This is about YOU getting the skins without having to gamble.

Conversely, who are you to make a moral judgement about me? I haven’t wanted a single one of the random weapon drops from chests they’ve come out with since release, and that continues with this round. I have however, purchased a fair number of the better cosmetic town clothes items they’ve posted in the gem store since release, and will continue to if they come out with more worthwhile models, so…no, it’s really not.

I’m sorry if my having a differing opinion than yours on the subject of gambling is so offensive to your delicate sensibilities.

dinominator.9862:

Bearzu Smash.5962:

Vol.5241:

Remember before release how everyone was all happy that GW2 would have stuff that would be sold as novelty, and nothing would be pay to win?

Well look now, there are people complaining for the sake of complaining because they can’t get their novelty stuff for free or for cheap.

No, consumers are attempting to make their voices heard because in a game where it’s all about the cosmetics for the majority of the player base people are being asked to gamble for a chance at cosmetic items rather than being allowed to straight-up buy them.

What’s the alternative? You can offer the cosmetics as a straight purchase, but then everyone has them and they’re completely worthless. You can maybe make them expensive, but then everyone complains about the up-front cost.

How does making them purchasable devalue them in any way? Does it devalue my experience that gasp! other people run dungeons and have the same armor and weapons I do? Or that someone else had the gall to join the Order/Vigil/Priory and put together an armor set with some clever use of transmute stones with those, too?

(Answer: No, not one bit.)

Vol.5241:

Remember before release how everyone was all happy that GW2 would have stuff that would be sold as novelty, and nothing would be pay to win?

Well look now, there are people complaining for the sake of complaining because they can’t get their novelty stuff for free or for cheap.

No, consumers are attempting to make their voices heard because in a game where it’s all about the cosmetics for the majority of the player base people are being asked to gamble for a chance at cosmetic items rather than being allowed to straight-up buy them.

(Reposted from a thread in the General section.)

Ever been in a convenience store and watched someone who, frankly, looks like their money would be better spent on the basic necessities rather than the state lottery buy scratch ticket after scratch ticket after scratch ticket?

I get the same sort of vaguely sick feeling every time I hear people throw money at these keys.

If people stopped doing it, maybe things would change, but as it stands right now it seems like every time they come out with a new set of chests with a “rare chance for something cool!” people can’t get their credit cards out of their wallets fast enough despite months worth of evidence showing that the odds of actually getting something are vastly skewed again them.

And lest you think this an anti-cash shop rant, I’d be more than happy to pay $10 for an outfit or a cool weapon skin I couldn’t otherwise get. But to gamble for it? No way.

(Well, ok, maybe not “more than happy to”, but certainly willing to.)

Ever been in a convenience store and watched someone who, frankly, looks like their money would be better spent on the basic necessities rather than the state lottery buy scratch ticket after scratch ticket after scratch ticket?

I get the same sort of vaguely sick feeling every time I hear people throw money at these keys.

If people stopped doing it, maybe things would change, but as it stands right now it seems like every time they come out with a new set of chests with a “rare chance for something cool!” people can’t get their credit cards out of their wallets fast enough despite months worth of evidence showing that the odds of actually getting something are vastly skewed again them.

And lest you think this an anti-cash shop rant, I’d be more than happy to pay $10 for an outfit or a cool weapon skin I couldn’t otherwise get. But to gamble for it? No way.

(Well, ok, maybe not “more than happy to”, but certainly willing to.)

I went with a 10/20/0/30/10 build with healing shouts and Soldier runes for condition removal on shouts. No complaints about damage, and the extra heals and condition removals have been pretty slick (in addition to the might, fury, and vulnerability, obviously).

Certainly not tanky with ‘zerker gear, but I’m pretty sure you’re never going to able to face-tank as a warrior anyway. A mix of Knight and Valk gear would certainly up survivability, however.

Vargs.6234:

Bearzu Smash.5962:

In before “turn off autoattack”.

Still unnecessarily awkward and awful while defeating the purpose of a higher dps weapon.

Preachin’ to the choir, brother. I won’t go near it.

Then again, I’ve more or less given up on the ranger as a whole until some serious changes for the weapons come down the pipe, along with some sort of AoE mitigation for pets.

(Not holding my breath on either count.)

In before “turn off autoattack”.

Ah, the sweet kiss of disappointment—how I’ve missed you.

I suppose I’ll grab my morning coffee and wait for the white knight brigade to show up and tell us why this was such a great patch.

Linnes.2678:

Arena Drone Count: 3

I like the cut of your jib.

Wasting so much time on my ranger.

JonPeters.5630:

I can assume that they will be happy, but you know what happens when you assume.

Considering the thousands of posts and tens of thousands of page views regarding the actual problems this class has that have gone, for the most part, unanswered and seemingly disregarded except for a brief period where Robert Hrouda seemed to take some interest, it’s probably much safer to assume they won’t be.

Thanks, Zyger. It was a pretty emotional thing to put the final touches on and call it done—however, my well-earned break from writing lasted exactly one day before I started in on the ‘original work’ version.

I’ll post an update here soon, as well as on the blog, and apologies for not replying sooner. I’ve been more than a little distracted with the insanity going on back in my hometown. (Luckily they’ve caught that piece of garbage, and we can all breathe a little easier now—even those of us 3,000 miles away.)

To sign off on an upbeat note, however: I had a Library Sciences and English major, currently working as a librarian (and a voracious reader) finish up Thorn yesterday. To paraphrase her words: “It was the best book I’ve read this year, and that’s over quite a few NYT Best Sellers, so take that for what it’s worth.”

…and it made her cry.

Here we are after ten months, bringing Mozu and Cordelia and Linebaugh and Olcán’s story to a close. 19 chapters, 504 pages, 157,259 words.

I’m not even entirely sure of what to say at this point, but I’ll have a go at something, so bear with me. After those ten months of work I think I’ve earned a bit of a ramble.

I started this project, as I’ve said, to get back to doing a little writing after a decade-long hiatus, but the project and the characters quickly took on a life of their own, and even as I was finishing up chapter one, I started to realize this would be a much larger project than I’d imagined. Still—nothing close to the more than 500 pages we’ve ended up with.
         Sure, I grimace at a lot of the writing in the earlier chapters, but at the same time, it’s pretty entertaining to go back and see the progress I’ve made as a writer over the better part of a year—progress I’ll continue to make going forward as I try and turn this hobby into something vaguely resembling a career.
         Writing has allowed me to do something that music never could for all the years I poured into it—to create something I can stand back from and take an objective look at and still be truly proud of, and to create something that’s touched other people’s lives as well.
         It’s been an amazing, exhausting experience . . . but it’s only just begun. For quite some time, and then in earnest shortly before the New Year, I started to realize that this project—or rather, these characters and the continuing stories of their lives and adventures—needed a venue unfettered by someone else’s lore, and I began to plan.
         So, while I say “here we are”, what I really mean is, “enjoy this for a bit—when you see Mozu and Cordelia and Linebaugh next, they’ll be on a grander stage,” and there’s plenty more to be told beyond the story of Thorn.
         Honestly, as tired as I am and worn out by the whole thing, I absolutely cannot wait to get started again. I’m looking forward to watching this, their first story, expand and evolve and flesh itself out even more, what with a whole new world to run rampant in, and I fully expect that Thorn will end up as two books instead of one with—as I’ve said—plenty more to follow.
         And so, please allow me, for one last time, to present the next final chapter and epilogue of Thorn. Thank you all so very, very much.

How strange to be posting the penultimate chapter, and how strange to see ten months of work coming to an end of sorts. I’d be feeling pretty maudlin right now if this wasn’t really more of a beginning than anything.

Chapter 18 is probably my favorite to date, and it all came together with surprising ease. I’ll admit, I had more than a little trepidation at the prospect of finding myself at this point—needing to wrap things up—but once I’d started, the words just came.

I’m still getting a kick out of the milestones, I’ll admit as well, and chapter 18 finds Thorn blowing past the 450 page mark—and I have no doubt that when all is said and done, we’ll have passed the 150,000 word mark as well.

For now, though, please enjoy chapter 18, or as Linebaugh so aptly puts it, the calm before the storm. See you in a couple of weeks with the final chapter.

Y’know, I had a big post all ready to go, but I’m really kitten excited, and I think I’ll just let this chapter speak for itself. Seventeen down, two (and an epilogue) to go.

As always, I am very proud to present the next installment of Thorn—chapter 17.

Giving a shout out to the Tarnished Coast Times for their Thorn plug!

Also, I expect chapter 17 to be posted within the next couple of days, editor’s schedule willing, so stay tuned.

I’ve been waiting to check this out. Grats on getting the first chapters up!

Things are moving quickly now in these final few chapters of Thorn, but even with the ending looming in sight, it’s still fun to point out the milestones along the way.

With the release of chapter 16, Thorn has now passed the 125,000-word mark, and stands one page from a hefty 400. I think it’s pretty safe to say we’ll be well past 450 by the time you read the last few words of the epilogue sometime in the next month or so.

Chapter 16 was a surprisingly easy write—even the final scene, which I’d been imagining and re-imagining for months now in various forms and settings—although quite a lot of time was spent in the rewrite and polishing phase, bringing it up to the standard I feel was set by chapter 15.

While I was looking forward to a few days mental rest, I think my excitement at getting started on 17 will probably win out in the end, and even during my “night off” last night, I spent about an hour making some fairly extensive notes.

Not much else to say aside from the usual: I’m very proud to present the next installment of Thorn. Here’s chapter 16.

As far as ranger goes?

Disappointment.

And back to business.

Chapter 15 feels a bit special—partly because of the reception that Thorn has received as of late, not to mention the ridiculous priase heaped upon it from my editor, as well as a gut feeling that a lot of what I’ve been striving to do with my writing since somewhere around chapters 5 or 6 really clicked and came together this time ’round.

There’s also an exhiliration at seeing in the end in sight now, at least from my vantage point. We’ve four, maybe five chapters remaining, and needless to say, I’m very, very excited about the prospect of bringing Thorn to its conclusion in the next couple of months before the real work begins.

But enough about that right now.

I am very proud to present chapter 15 or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the F-bomb. I hope you enjoy it as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it.

BobbyStein.2315:

. . . since we have plans for Trahearne and other existing characters in future live updates and expansion content.

Please. No.

diamondgirl.6315:

Trahearne is like JD Drew.

That’s an insult to one of my most hated players to ever put on a Sox uniform. At least Drew could manage in right field.

If Treehorn was out there, he’d just wait for Ellsbury or Pedroia to make the catch, then take all the credit.

saye.9304:

is that suppose to prove anything did u even read other ppl posts when they said they did try different build include yours but at the end they found it less effective in compare with other classes.
do u even know power and weapon skill combine and give dame out put (critics exclude) the problem comes from week ranger weapon who said low power is the issue.read description tool tip on ur charater screen before u post anything about this.
by the way i have 3100 power with 60% critics ur build with 4% is pathetic read other ppls post they are not bad palyers they did try all the builds. for god sake there is over 1100 posts read some of it before u post anything about this matter.

Where exactly is he shoving the build down anyone’s throat? Someone asked about his spec, and he posted it.

Also, keep in mind that some players like to bring more to the table than “LEET DPS, BRO.”

Check out Thorn, if you’re after another GW2 novel while you wait for Sea of Sorrows.

First, let me send out a huge word of thanks to everyone who voted for Thorn in GW2Guru’s ‘Biggest GW2 Fan’ contest–you guys really are the best, and the news was one hell of a nice way to start my day.

I’d also like to thank the writers and world-builders over at ArenaNet for giving my dormant imagination a jolt, as well as a great theme park to let these characters run around (or amok, in certain cases) in.

Always one for irony, however, I have a pretty huge announcement regarding Thorn today.

First, let me assure the readers out there that Thorn will be finished as a GW2 novel–no corners will be cut, there will be no sudden decrease in writing quality (no intentional one, anyway), and I certainly won’t abandon the project at this point.

Once Thorn is finished, however, it will be going through substantial rewrites to become a work of original fiction, which will probably be long enough–with all the extra world-building–to become not one, but two books, and I have plans for more story even after that.

Upon completion of the first manuscript, I’ll be looking for a literary agent to get Mozu and Cordelia and Linebaugh’s (and Olcán’s) story, or stories, published.

Not to take anything away from what’s been written, or from GW2, or from the readers who have come back chapter after chapter, and sent tons of notes, forum posts, or PMs, but sometime over the holidays, I realized Thorn was really, really kitten good, and deserved a better fate than lingering on the blog as a mostly unknown work of fan-fiction, so…that’s the plan, in a nutshell.

Published author.

I like the sound of that.

(P.S. – I suggested Fifty Shades of Blueberry as a working title, but was immediately shot down.)

(P.P.S. – Cap’n—I have a response to your jaw-dropping PM in the works.)

I think there’s very little I can say about chapter 14, aside from the fact that it was extraordinarily difficult to write, and I can only hope I’ve done it justice.

To be honest, I’ve been worrying about it since I’d sent it off to be copy-edited, as I’d spent an entire week just working on rewrites and polishing. By last Friday all I saw was WORDSWORDSWORDSWORDSWORDS—about 8,000 of them, and all seemingly intractable.

However, it’s come back into my hands today, and after a few minor fixes, is pretty excellent—at least, I sure hope so, seeing as it’s a somewhat important chapter, to put it laughably mildly.

I am, as always, very proud to present chapter 14 of Thorn.

Unlucky number thirteen.

It would seem that even our intrepid anti-heroes aren’t immune to the superstitious portent of doom. All is not lost, however, as with the release of chapter 13, we see Thorn pass a huge milestone: 100,000 words.

Most of them are actually pretty good ones, in my estimation.

To put it in perspective, that’s longer than To Kill a Mockingbird, The Hobbit, or Cormac McCarthy’s phenomenal All the Pretty Horses.

Lest I make it sound like we’re at the end, however, fear not—we’ve still a ways to go yet. That said, and without further ado, I am very, very proud to present chapter 13 of Thorn.

(All of the chapter PDFs to date have been updated from A4 to digest format for easier reading—not sure why this one didn’t occur to me much sooner.)

Longbow is terrible, shortbow is possibly even more boring than the Big Red Pet hunter spec from back in Burning Crusade, and this GS tank/evasion build is easily the most fun I’ve ever had playing a ranger-type class.

Here we go—the beginning of the end; the start of the third and final act of Thorn. Chapter 12 is now live.

Not much I can say that reading it won’t cover. It’s long, as every chapter seems to be these days—close to twice the length of the earliest chapters, or longer—and it was an easy write, at least compared to more recent ones.

Hitting this point, though—passing the 300-page mark, starting to reveal what the hell’s actually going on, ramping up the tension and action, and bringing together a lot of puzzle pieces that may have seemed sort of tertiary and pointless—is incredibly gratifying, and very, very nerve-wracking.

For everyone who’s come along for the ride so far, I promise a kick kitten conclusion to Thorn, and for those still on the fence, get in the van already. We have candy.

And martinis.

shaedence.3517:

Call me weird. But Caithe is my personal choice. She’s a plant, I know. But…..

Caithe!? That tired, old, limp bit of asparagus?

tl;dr The new prologue is already up now and will probably take most of you about a minute to read. Keep going if you like a good ramble, however.

Yeah, so, I’ll be honest here.

I’ve never liked the prologue much—I frankly don’t like the way it’s written, and I think it’s really, really weak compared to anything else in the book. So, what’s the solution? A mostly rewritten and much shorter prologue, which I think segues much more quickly and naturally into the start of chapter one.

I know the prologue has turned off some potential readers, and hopefully they’ll give it another go. For those of you who’ve stuck with it, you have my eternal gratitude.

(I know I may say that a lot, but I genuinely mean it each and every time. You guys make this even more rewarding than the simple joy and satisfaction I get from telling this tale.)

If someone had told me at this time last year that I’d be close to 300 pages into writing a novel at the beginning of 2013, I’d’ve laughed.

Yet…here we are. I’m thrilled to ring in the new year by presenting to you, dear readers, chapter 11 of Thorn, A Sylvari’s Tale.

What started off as a painful grind to even get going on it—and praying I could even manage 5,000 words—turned into, in my opinion, probably the most well-written chapter to date, and nearly twice that word count.

And, so, with the release of chapter 11, we bring Act II to a close. Stay tuned for the start of Act III, and the conclusion of Thorn!

(Hey, ANet. What ever happend to those community spotlights? Three hundred pages, yo. Three hundred.)

Vecuu.2018:

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/66729-how-to-be-a-great-greatsword-ranger/

I started running this build recently after mistakenly rolling a thief alt—it’s totally breathed new life into my enjoyment of the class, and it’s pretty beastly.*

*In PvE. I could not care less about WvW or sPvP as it stands now.

He’s just excited that he gets to be in this chapter, even if he is right. That said…

Chapter ten is now live (finally)!

It may only have been a couple of weeks or so since the release of chapter nine, but ten felt like a tough write, even though I’m very happy with how it’s turned out.

The fact that it’s the Wintersday chapter is actually totally coincidental (seeing as I’ve had the bulk of this book planned out for quite some time), but I suppose it’s nice to be timely and seasonal all the same.

In any case, I’m very proud to present the tenth chapter of Thorn, A Sylvari’s Tale for your perusal. Have a wonderful, gift-filled, bug-free, bug-fixed, class-balanced Wintersday, all.

(Hey, a guy can dream, can’t he?)

Dear Toymaker Tixx,

I’ve been very good this year, and only called Caithe an old, limp bit of Cruella de Vil-loving asparagus once. I would like:

1. Bug fixes
2. Ranger fixes
3. Town clothes

I will be waiting on the rooftops of Divinity’s Reach with a flak cannon I have recently acquired cookies for you in case you don’t deliver. Hopefully it they will change your mind.

Oh, and please send ANet employees over to read Thorn.

Thanks,
Mozu