User:NuclearVII/Nostalgia

So, this is the part of my userpage where I talk about things of the past. Now, it's been... what, alomost 2 years since I played Guild Wars on a serious level, and about a year since I played GW at all. So this stuff is old. And I mean old. This tale begins the day I pick out that plastic box on the new arrivals shelf of my local games store. A nasty looking (though visually appealing) woman stared at me from the the packaging that spelled Guild Wars in golden letters.

And so it begins...

Now, because of my memory, some of the finer details of the story are addled. I don't even remember the name of my first guild, nor the second one, nor the third one, nor the fourth one (whom I rode to the halls numerous times, no mean feat when we didn't have stuff like Savannah), nor the one I made and abandoned after a single week's worth of fruitless recruiting, so take my ramblings to be what they are.

Chapter One
Back then, I always knew I wanted to be the guy who blasted stuff to tiny tiny pieces. I wanted to be the powerhouse, the nuker, the go to guy when shit hit the fan. It was a naive dream, but 'twas one I hung on for the first month or so because, damnit, I was young then. I'm young still, but the difference of 3 years is significant.

At any rate, I think what I'm driving at is the fact that my first character was an elementalist.

Oh, I experimented plenty with other professions. I must have tried every single profession at least 5 times (I kid you not!) until deleting them at the funeral pyres of old ascalon. Remember Diablo? I know I must have went through at least 20 characters before deciding on my final one (three guesses which class). But that's boring and standard behaviour, so I'm skiipng those bits.

But it is important to note my first character, for that was how I saw myself, and, more importantly, I observed the game and the updates from the perspective of an elementalist. This is something I keep doing to this day, and although it's not the soundest method of observation, it is the only one I have.

I enjoyed presearing, and, to those newcomers out there, we didn't have perma-pre characters back then. The legendary permas originated long after my time, and the defender of ascalon title came long afterwards. No, pre was much simpler then, and the highest level you could see was 12. It simply wasn't logical to keep building up to a greater level, and many adventures were to be had after that little bout at the ascalon arena. Me and a couple of my friends (with whom I have lost contact with during periods of inactivty) partied through pre, grabbing black dyes, selling them for little over 200g, and generally having a blast by torching helpless skale with flare. It is a simple time.

Again, for some perspective, this is long before any serious considerations entered the game. We didn't have powerlevelers in pre, we didn't have green items and whatnot - pre was just that, target practise with skale for targets.

But as with anything, my elementalist (whom was named - quite angstily - Burning Babe(yes, I know, bad name, thank you very much)) left that time of bliss with nothing but snippets of fire on her fingertips. With a nickname of BB (again, thank yo very fucking much for mentioning the corniness of it all) she was ready to take on the world.

My, and what a world it was!

Chapter Two
Oh, I remember my first PvP game. Ascalon Arena. Level 8. Primary Offense - Flare. Primary Defense, Aura Of Restoration. Plus Fireball, but I didn't like fireball cuz flare was win.

The first couple of games were just flare-flare-flare - the same thing with skale, but with more people doing the same thing. One side wins, the other moves on.

Though I remember this one game when a warrrior decided to make a totem out of my head and began bashing me in. I remember that he used cyclone axe - and it took half my health away! My mighty flare could only do 5 damage - and he looked pretty bulky, too, wearing teh furry ascalon armor and all. Right then and there I realized - I should be doing this.

Then comes my warrior. I want through quite a bit of names - finally settling on Fueled by Anger. Pretty lulzy, yeah, I know, but it felt right at the time.