User:Cynique

Characters
Dances In Dungeons - Warrior/varies, currently Ranger - Factions, accumulating Kurzick Faction - Black Moa pet - Miniature Charr Shaman for his 1st birthday (Feb14), Miniature Celestial Rabbit

Kylara Nightsong - Necromancer/various, currently Ranger - Nightfall, still just two missions left to complete Nightfall - back in business running around the Maguuma Jungle - four pieces of Monument armour, a Highlander Woad, and four pieces of Vabbian armour - White Moa pet 'La Terreur' - Miniature Necrid Horseman for her 1st birthday (Feb17), Miniature Celestial Rabbit - Sunspear Castellan(8), Daring Delver(6), Slayer of Demons(6), Underground Agent(6), Sweet Tooth(1) - Completed Eye of the North.

Belisarius Deka - Dervish/various, currently Ranger - Nightfall, working towards Kodonur Crossroads - Dune Lizard pet 'Spice' - Miniature Necrid Horseman for his 1st birthday (Mar8)

Katerina Slipspeed - Mesmer/Necromancer - Prophecies, ready to do Ruins of Surmia - Miniature Temple Guardian for her 1st birthday (Mar9)

Oswald Northumbric - Paragon/Necromancer - Nightfall, preparing for Consulate Docks, Miniature Siege Turtle for his 1st birthday (Mar26)

Serizawa Akira - Assassin/Ranger - Factions, recently arrived in Kaineng City - Tiger pet 'Shere Khan', Miniature Prince Rurik for his 1st birthday (Apr12)

Philip Of Ashdown - Ranger/Mesmer - Prophecies, ready to head off to Ruins of Surmia - Strider pet 'Emu'

Je Reste En Vie - Monk/Ranger - Nightfall, slaying wurms in Hard Mode by Boreal Station - Survivor(1), finally past the 300K mark - Dire Raven pet 'Huginn' (Thought)

Gris Et Bleu - Necromancer/Ranger - Prophecies, crawling across towards Lion's Arch - The rare South-Of-The-Wall Warthog pet 'Petit Porc'

La Madeleinoise - Warrior/Mesmer - Prophecies, recently passed across to post-Searing - La Madeleine (just outside Lille) is where I live, and a female from there is une Madeleinoise.

Deux Rubans Bleus - Elementalist/Mesmer - Prophecies, gearing up to leave Pre-Searing Ascalon

Juste Deux Rubans - Ranger/Ritualist - Factions, ready to go to Minister Cho's Estate - Tiger pet

Visiteur Du Futur - Mesmer/Ranger - Prophecies, suspension cancelled, now doing Pre-Searing Vanguard Quests - made it to level 18 - Drunkard(1), Party Animal(1) - Melandru's Stalker pet 'Custard'

Bleu Et Gris - Dervish - Nightfall, preparing to choose a secondary

Xanos Carneval - Elementalist - Prophecies, preparing to leave Pre-Searing Ascalon

Le Lezard Vert - Mesmer/Ranger - Prophecies, ready to go to Ruins of Surmia - The rare South-Of-The-Wall Warthog pet 'Lightfoot'

Serpent Des Bois - Ranger - Prophecies, preparing to leave Pre-Searing Ascalon - Wolf pet

Ami Des Mammouths - Monk - Prophecies, preparing to leave Pre-Searing Ascalon

Mystere Des Os - Warrior - Prophecies, preparing to leave Pre-Searing Ascalon

Cleopatra Aegyptus - Paragon/Warrior - Nightfall, about to start Flames of the Bear Spirit - Survivor(1)

Dr Henry Castafolte - Mesmer - Prophecies, preparing to leave Pre-Searing Ascalon

La Petite Tama - Warrior/Paragon - Nightfall, levelling up before trying Jokanur Diggings

Trebuchet Des Dieux - Ritualist - Factions, working on early Shing Jea Island quests

Manga Girl Gone Bad - Necromancer - Factions, working on initial primary profession training on Shing Jea Island - that's "gone to the Dark Side", not anything X rated - needs to get rid of the boots from Canthan necro armour, since they make her feet look weird

Other Oddments
I wrote a Python script to generate new totals for the Gift of the Traveler/Drop rate page.

Results of a survey: where can you have a primary and secondary profession that are both not Ranger, and still have a pet?


 * The Catacombs (after taking Necromancer as your secondary profession)
 * Green Hills County (after taking Warrior as your secondary profession)
 * Wizard's Folly (after taking Elementalist as your secondary profession)
 * Lakeside County (after taking Mesmer as your secondary profession)
 * Linnok Courtyard (after taking any non-Ranger secondary profession)
 * Churrhir Fields (after taking any non-Ranger secondary profession)
 * Command Post (after using the Profession Changer to change secondary away from Ranger)

In essence, the only place this can be done is an explorable area where there is an NPC who changes your secondary profession to something not Ranger while you have a pet-carrying skill equipped. Pre-Searing characters who want to do this cannot change to Monk, because Brother Mhenlo stands in an outpost. The six core professions can be switched to later in Prophecies, but the zones where this happens are also outposts, as are the Great Temple of Balthazar and Senji's Corner.

The Command Post is the only place where secondary Rangers can do this - the other six locations can only be used by new characters who try out Ranger skills then select another profession.

Speaking of secondary professions... We know it is possible to be level 20 without a secondary profession. For Prophecies characters, it's just tedious, and used to involve lots of death levelling. For Factions characters, don't forget that there are some level 15 Crimson Skull in Panjiang Peninsula, so you can get to level 20 without death levelling. Note that you cannot leave the western side of Shing Jea Island without doing Minister Cho's Estate, and you cannot do that without taking a secondary profession. Nightfall characters have it easy. Get to level 10, then take the Hole of Istan quest from Bendah and stomp on the Snow Wurms until you are level 20. For reasonably skilled players, it isn't even hard to do this while staying alive. Also, Nightfall characters can acquire Mercenary Heroes by going to the Great Temple of Balthazar, which also makes life easier.

Did you know that the black parts of female Necromancer Monument armor, despite initial appearances, aren't very black at all? To show this, wear Vabbian boots instead. The black parts of them are properly black, and make the Monument stuff look positively washed out...

Experiments in unusual portmanteau words:
 * Necroranger: a Necromancer with Ranger secondary
 * Parrior: a Paragon with Warrior secondary, powerful even without Save Yourselves because of "For Great Justice!" combined with adrenaline-powered Spear attack skills.
 * Warragon: a Warrior with Paragon secondary
 * Mesmonk: a Mesmer with Monk secondary, but not a Resmer
 * Paramancer: a Paragon with Necromancer secondary, especially when combining burning/bleeding Paragon skills with Necrosis

Awesome skills:
 * EVSS: What more needs to be said? Any skill that can cause 180+ damage versus AL140 has to be good.
 * Necrosis: Find a way to give the foe a condition or hex, then give it a good-sized wodge of armor-ignoring damage that works through anti-spell defences! Fast recharge and cheap activation makes it double-good.
 * "For Great Justice" plus the Spear attack that causes bleeding - while FGJ is active, you can cause/extend bleeding on every attack.

How to improve the look of things... Upgrade your computer. I just did this, and went from 20fps at best on 1380x780 (? approx, 16:9, anyway) on medium high detail to 60fps on FullHD 1920x1080, with max detail, reflections, 4X antialiasing, etc. In fact, nothing I've done yet has lowered the frame rate to less than transiently 59fps.

Bah, that's not true. Any antialiasing at all dropped the frame rate to 45fps while in the Secret Garden, but it didn't matter whether it was 2X or 4X.

I've been playing a bit less Guild Wars recently, because I wanted to try something different, specifically Runes of Magic. Guild Wars needs one thing you can get in RoM: the Aggregator. Imagine, you've found a weapon with rubbish stats but a cool skin, like the Spiked War Hammer (Mystere Des Os has one of these, found in the Northlands. By pre-Searing standards, it's not bad, but it's pretty lame by the standards of top-end weapons), and a weapon with a severely dull skin but awesome stats. What to do? In RoM, you stick them in an Aggregator, and you are left with one weapon with the cool skin and the awesome stats. Result! (Just be careful not to put them in the other way around, because then you are left with the dull skin and the rubbish stats.)

Guild Wars needs this.

Guild
I am the leader of Guild:The Bloodstained Hand.

Location
Being English, I naturally live in France and of course play mostly in the French districts of the game.