User:Darwin Iznang

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General Info

 * Handle: Darwin Iznang
 * Location: Pennsylvania
 * Age: Old enough to hurt in the morning, young enough to still want to play games
 * Gender: [[Image:Male.png]]

My GW history
I thought I would write down the history and progression of my playing characters.

I used to play Mafia Wars on Facebook, but grew tired of the lack of strategy and skill required to actually play it. Instead, you need lots of real-world cash. My search for a new game lead me to Guild Wars. I started playing in August of 2010. I carried over my old character name of "Darwin", and decided that all my new toons would use that word somewhere in their name.

Darwin the Lesser
My first character was a Pre-searing Warrior called Darwin The Lesser. My intention was to learn the game with him, and then move on to a new character. I was convinced that Warrior was the profession for me, as I loved the idea of being front-line, right in the mix of things. It seemed brute force was the dominant trait to have.

I got him to level 12, and decided I knew enough to start a real attempt at a character. Thus came Darwin the Greater, another Pre-searing Warrior.

Darwin the Greater
It was on this character that I joined my first Guild, Custom Low Riders [hogs]. Mickey, if you are out there, I want to say that I enjoyed my time in your guild, and that there is something to be said for alliance-free small guilds. I learned a lot about the game in [hogs].

This character finished Prophecies, and I had purchased Nightfall by now, so I had a few heroes. My first hard mode experience was trying to vanquish Old Ascalon. Well, lets just say it didn't go too well. Those Grawl Ulodyte's are stout healers, and needless to say, I just could not kill them. My knowledge of interrupts and such was limited, and I had yet to really understand the need for anything other than brute force.

Frustrated, I began to question if Warrior was indeed the one for me, or if other professions would provide better utility for different foes. Mickey always told me that Warriors were not the best class, but I thought he just had a personal bias. After all, weren't casters weaker?

But, I had somewhat tired of the Warrior game play anyway, so I began a search for a new profession.

Darwinius Maximus
After some research in the Wiki, I decided that Elementalist sounded like a good class for me. I had remembered the ease with which the Ele class had killed foes in Pre-searing. Do you remember how you could try out the classes in Pre for your second profession? I guess the ease in which you could kill ice creatures with fire magic stuck with me. Little did I know that ice creatures take double damage from fire damage.

I still had straight up damage dealing on my mind, so I made a Nightfall Ele, deciding not to go though the slow leveling of Prophecies again. I charged in, and got as far as halfway through Vabbi. I can't say that I was in love with Ele, and The Drought made me question if I still had work to do to find my true calling. I could kill him and finish the mission, but could not manage to capture his Elite skill, Sandstorm. It was here that I really began to see the value of a well-placed interrupt.

Plus, the Ele profession was not without its limits to me. Yes, you could deal lots of damage, but you could find yourself ineffective against certain foes. I hadn't yet mastered the art of altering your builds for certain foes, and when I did realize the need, it seemed Ele was going to be too specialized to really be a good all-around character for me.

Darwin Iznang
So I began a hunt for another profession, one that would not bore me eventually and one that would provide the utility I was seeking. After more research on the wiki, and after talking to Mickey a little, I decided to give Mesmer a try.

I really didn't know if I was going to like it, but the fact that Mesmer was ignored by a lot of players made it appealing to me. The class sounded like it had a good mix of skills.

So Darwin Iznag was conceived. (A little trivia, the Mesmer name comes from Franz Mesmer, and Iznang was the village in Germany where he was born)

I made a Nightfall character again, and went headlong into it. Wow, what a difference in gameplay! The Mesmer had me hooked, and it still does to this day. I bought Factions and Eye of the North, and finished all campaigns. My true calling had been found.

This is still my main character today, and the profession I best identify with. I play other professions, I am a Mesmer.

I farm Zelnehlun Fastfoot with this character, and decided one day to go for the Survivor Title with him. I got to 765K Xps using scrolls, and then had him die trying to run past that first group when you exit Rilohn Refuge. Oh well....maybe down the road I will try again.

Darwina the Blessed
Mickey had convinced me that I needed to try a Survivor at some point, and I agreed. Monk was a profession I had not tried yet, and it seemed to be a good one for a Survivor attempt. So a female Factions Monk was born.

She did make it to the first level of Survivor, but I did not take her any further. ArenaNet has since changed how Survivors are done, so the appeal of this character somewhat lessened for me.

Her Survivor progress was stopped one day by a bad aggro in EotN. I could have jumped to the Guild Hall, but I just let her die. Having a character with no deaths was just too much mental strain for me. She still only has one death to this day, but the strain is gone. Whew!

As you will see with the next two characters, I like to dedicate specific roles to certain characters. Given that thinking, I plan to start using this character to farm ecto's solo in UW.

Darwina Bladestorm
I was in a Guild that was heavy into Kurzick faction farming after I left [hogs], so I decided to build a Sin for Mtsc purposes. Well, by the time I got her far enough into the Echovald Forest to reach Morostav Trail, I was no longer in that guild. Oh well.

I found that Assassin had more utility than Warrior, but I still wasn't sold on the class. I find the success/lack of success of your skill chains to be a little bit too random. I guess it is telling that I no longer had any desire for mastering front-line professions.

Bladestorm is now my dedicated Vaettir farmer.

Darwina Spiritz
I had noticed that Ritualist was a profession with great solo farming potential. So I built one, having the desire and need for a good solo farmer. After all, aren't the drops supposed to be better?

Well, I can't say that I have played her much in groups with other humans, but as a farmer, I totally respect the class. The Rit is also unbelievable at certain quest in EotN. She killed the Glacial Griffon in less than one minute, and defeated Magni the Bison on the first try.

Spiritz does all my feather farming, and farms the items needed for Nicholas every week, if I don't already have them. The Nick items gives me a reason to take here into a new area, thus progressing her through the game. Her heroes aren't too great, but they don't really have to be.

Darwina Adelaide
This is my perma-Pre character, a female Ranger with a Strider pet named Flappy. I find that Pre is a nice diversion when you need a change from the main game. It is also a great source of income, as farming trophies for Nick is very easy in Pre. After muling those Gift of the Huntsman items out, they can be sold for a tidy sum in Kamadan.

I bought a second GW account, just so I could be my own gate monkey and have some disposable mule characters. My 10 year old daughter has since hijacked the account, and got into the game herself.

I routinely clear the Shrine in The Northlands with my Strider and my Fire imp, but have yet to get a Charr Salvage Kit. Bugger! Maybe one of these days....

I am going for the LDoA Title, now that Pre-searing has that available without the need for death-leveling.

Other Characters
I have a total of 20 characters, including 4 slots for PvP characters (love the Jade Quarry), with the rest being storage accounts, including my original Darwin the Lesser character. I have one for Prophecies/EotN, one for Factions and one for Nightfall trophies. I am only really storing the items that Nicholas the Traveler has not yet requested. The rest hold various items of importance to me. This includes runes, salvaged inscriptions and weapon mods, scrolls, dye, tomes, mini pets, festival hats, etc.

I find it imperative to periodically evaluate what you are storing, and see if it really has a value to justify keeping it. Otherwise, you are soon overrun by your own stuff.

Credits
Thanks to Affian for the overall page layout ideas; and to Lensor for her Character tables

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