Thanks Guybrush, a permanent golem will be nice.

Raiini asura elementalist in starter armor

Raiini in street clothes

Made this asura elementalist just to hear what female asura player characters sound like. May not keep her since I already have a sylvari elementalist.

The Asura are so cute.

Raiini's turn at diving platform

Tip for rangers: anywhere you find a juvenile animal you can charm it (as long as its not another ranger's pet). Even in the cities there are some animals to charm. My norn ranger just charmed several new pets in Hoelbrak and Divinity's Reach. Including a pig. Probably not the best fighter, but the pig's special ability is to dig up magic items. I got a potion and a healing seed just trying it out. Not much use in side a city since nothing can attack you.

Charming animals was my favorite part of playing a ranger. I have them all except the pvp ones and one that is only in a level 50 area.

I still have a long ways to go on collecting ranger pets.

On another topic, I bought a set of mini pets and got Eir. My norn ranger has it of course. My charr thief has Rytlock. I don't have Logan yet. Oddly there are no minis of Caithe or Zojja. Perhaps they're being saved for the first anniversary.

You can find out what mini pets are available by looking in the bank under collectables, there you'll find slots for the minis, including the HOM ones and Rytlock (Deluxe Digital and Collectors Edition).

You can buy mini pets from gem store, or trading post if players selling. I haven't tried it but you can also put minis in the Mystic Forge. Most of what I get from putting weapons and armor in the Forge I just end up selling to merchant or donating to guild, though occasionally I get something I can use.

Guild Wars 2 top seller - this article says game sales in general are down. Doesn't cover casual games though.

Cincept Artist Spotlight: Naomi Baker

and the big news:

Guild Wars 2: Shadow of the Mad King


Oh in charming pets in Divinty's Reach, I felt like a thief. I mean I walk into a government official's mansion and walk off with his dog and into a poor refugee farmer's yard and take his pig. However, in Rata Sum the asura actually want me to take the animals. At leas the land ones. I didn't talk to anybody about the jellyfish.

Sounds like lots of fun

A few basic questions about Guild Wars 2 - are there different realms or servers that you sign on to for playing, like in WoW? Or is all just one big happy family on one server? If there are different servers are there any that you would recommend being on?

Would you say that the graphics are about the same as for Elder Scrolls:Skyrim and Lord of the Rings and Wow? The pictures that I see on the Internet seem to be fuzzier but perhaps that is just in the reproduction.

And finally, is it okay to just jump into Guild Wars 2 without having played the previous Guild Wars games? Since they are already four years old I figured the graphics, etc. are a lot poorer and may have problems running in Windows 7.

Thanks for your input.

Hiya Oldfeeble, yes there are different servers to pick from. As for picking one, I'd assume a higher population server would be preferable to a lower pop so there'd be more folks around for the world bosses, etc....but that is just my opinion.

The graphics are better than WoW's I think, and I'm a confirmed WoW fan.

It is really easy to jump into GW2 without having played GW1. A lot of the past lore is given in-game.

I played for a bit and was very impressed. Currently I'm playing the Pandaria expansion of WoW, but I'll be back to GW2 once I've seen the new content on WoW.

Different servers are for the World vs World vs World form of PVP. There is no attacking other players in the PVE world. In PVE everyone is on the same side, even humans and charr who hated each other in GW1 are finally allies.

I'm not best judge of graphics since I've only played GW1 on high and GW2 on low. Never played any other MMOs. But I have a better computer, with better graphics card, coming that should let me run GW2 on high.

Some lore in GW2 will make more sense to GW1 players. For example: one of the skill challenges is the grave of Gwen Thackeray. To GW2 players who haven't played GW1 she was just the great grandmother of Logan. Those of us who played Prophecies and Eye of the North, knew Gwen (last name before marriage is still a mystery to me) as a little girl in Ascalon and as a young woman in the Far Shiverpeaks. We helped bring her and Keiran together (I still think he was crazy to marry her). The charr turned Gwen from a sweet litle girl to a crazy woman. I could never forgive them for that. Those who play charr and have played GW1 will recognize the first boss charr face, a ghost of a GW1 NPC. The first dungeon has ghosts of GW1 NPCs as well.

BTW anyone found out what happened to Keiran? Gwen's grave is right there in Ebonhawke, but no sign of her husband's grave.

Oh part of the norn personal story reveals that a well known to Eye of the North players, dwarf has survived all these centuries, though he's living stone now.



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I've been so busy playing GW2 I let a Big Fish free coupon expire To keep a second one from expiring I had to use it on a game without playing the demo. But its part of a series I like so it should be okay.

Personal story;

Sylvari:
Prologue: Fighting the Nightmare
Part 1: Waking from the Nightmare
Part 2: A Season of Growth
Part 3: Branching Out

Asura:
Prologue: Explosive Intellect
Part 1: Graduation Day
Part 2: Legacy Code
Part 3: Something Lost, Something Gained

Charr:
Prologue: Fury of the Dead
Part 1: For the Legion!
Part 2: Bloodying the Past
Part 3: From Howl to Silence

Norn:
Prologue: The Great Hunt
Part 1: Rising to the Challenge
Part 2: Things Best Left Behind
Part 3: Brawn over Brains

Human:
Prologue: Defending Shaemoor
Part 1: Crime and Punishment
Part 2: Family Reunion
Part 3: Storming the Castle

Members of the Vigil:
Part 4: Some Must Fight, That All May be Free

Members of the Durmand Priory:
Part 4: Defending History, Informing the Future

Members of the Order of Whispers:
Part 4: To Know the Unknown

All Characters:
Part 5: A Friend In Deed
Part 6: This Far, No Further
Part 7: The Cost of Victory
Part 8: Savior of Tyria

Each part has multiple "quests" (for lack of a better word) some of which branch out in two or three directions. Part 4 is the shortest, part 8 the longest.

When you complete the last quest of each part you'll see a brief message on the bottom of your screen announcing that you've completed that part.

My sylvari elementalist has completed 1/3 of part 8. My asura warrior is just about done with part 4. And my norn ranger is 3/5ths through part three. Those are my most advanced characters.

All of those section titles, except for the prologues are titles you'll find under your characters achievements, under "Hero".

When they add other playable races (tengu), they will presumably add more titles.

I really enjoy the personal story aspect. We discovered that some choices led to much harder battles than others.

My norn ranger just joined Durmand Priory. Already had two characters in the Vigil and plan to have charr thief join Order of Whispers.

Great! That way you can experience them all