User:Cynique

Characters

Dances In Dungeons - Warrior/varies, currently Elementalist - Factions, accumulating Luxon Faction so he can raise my Kurzick title - 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 - Ascended in Prophecies, backfilled all the pre-Kryta missions, going to do Hell's Precipice - four pieces of Monument armour, a Highlander Woad, a pair of Slim Spectacles, and four pieces of Vabbian armour, all infused - 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), Survivor(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, trying to find a better build for a mid-level Mesmer - 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 - Legendary Survivor(3) - 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 - made it to Lion's Arch, then went to Boreal Station and the Eye of the North, then to Kaineng Center to buy some max armour (Canthan) that's more exciting than the rather blah Tyrian stuff that's available in Boreal - now back in Kryta to wander around until she Ascends and gets her attribute point quests done, then back North to get through to the CTC for Silver Eagle armour! - current step is travelling to The Wilds.

Deux Rubans Bleus - Elementalist/Mesmer - Prophecies - the first of my Prophecies characters to reach Lion's Arch, Kamadan, Kaineng, and Boreal Station - utterly crushed Consulate Docks - now has a full set of Elite Sunspear armour, although there isn't really enough of it to be "full"

Juste Deux Rubans - Ranger/Ritualist - Factions, escaped the monastery to run around in Kaineng - or in Istan, or elsewhere - Tiger pet

Visiteur Du Futur - Mesmer/Ranger - Prophecies - finding the last 2500 points-worth of drinks - Legendary Defender of Ascalon(1), Drunkard(1), Party Animal(1) - Melandru's Stalker pet 'Custard'

Le Lezard Vert - Mesmer/Ranger - Prophecies, ready to go to Ruins of Surmia - The rare South-Of-The-Wall Warthog pet 'Lightfoot', Miniature Prince Rurik for his 1st birthday

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

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

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

Ami Des Mammouths - Monk - Prophecies, preparing to leave Pre-Searing Ascalon having discovered the secret to having a ranger pet and a necromancer minion while being a primary monk

Mystere Des Os - Warrior/Necromancer - Prophecies, now in post-Searing Ascalon biffing stuff with a max/r9 spiked War Hammer - Charr Shaman miniature for his 1st birthday

Cleopatra Aegyptus - Paragon/Warrior - Nightfall - currently in EotN getting ready to do in Cyndr, that'll be fun (not) - Survivor(1), Slayer of Wurms(5), Stealth Agent(3), Not Too Annoying(5) - Norn Spear, Norn shield, four pieces of Norn armour (notice a theme here?), and a pair of shades - Miniature Burning Titan for her first birthday

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

La Petite Tama - Warrior/Paragon - Nightfall - stumping round Kourna - now in a full set of Elite Sunspear Armour.

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

Manga Girl Gone Bad - Necromancer/Mesmer - Factions, preparing to do Zen Daijun - that's "gone to the Dark Side", not anything X rated

Hildebrand Reynbird - Warrior - Prophecies, wandering around pre-Searing, trying not to learn skills

Kylarina Quatre - Ranger - Nightfall, working up through the beginning parts around Kamadan - "quatre" (four) because I have three characters called Kylarina (composite of Kylara and Katerina) in other games - Flamingo pet

Other Oddments

Nick

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

Professions

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. I have a screen-shot somewhere of a primary Monk with a minion and a pet! (This, by the way, is only possible in the Catacombs or Churrhir Fields, by switching from experimental ranger to either experimental or full-time secondary necromancer, then finding a corpse and creating a minion from it. Furthermore, it is possible in Churrhir Fields to have a pet, a minion, and a pair of professions neither of which is either Necromancer or Ranger.)

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 in Kamadan, which also makes life easier.

Armour

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...

Words

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

Skills

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.

Appearances

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.

Aggregation

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.

Charr

Charr group names in the Northlands:

1. The Pikens - the group of four near what becomes Piken Square
2. The Blacks and the Whites - the two groups to the right as you enter the map. The Blacks are the group that runs back and forth behind the black wall, and the Whites stand outside the white building
3. The Path Guys - the three charr who walk up the path towards where the Blacks and the Whites are
4. The Opens - the four in the large open area up the hill from the lake
5. The Bridgies - the four at the end of the bridge at the end of the lake
6. The Slopers - the three halfway down the slope that leads towards the back entrance to the Cup
7. The Outers and the Inners - the two groups outside and inside the double gate that becomes the lever-operated gate in The Great Northern Wall mission
8. The Brokens - the group at the end of the broken-looking bridge that becomes the final bridge you cross at the end of The Great Northern Wall
9. The Gaters - the group by the gate downhill of the Slopers
10. The Tops - the patrol that goes from the Cup to the long ledge at the top of the cliff inside the back entrance to the Cup
11. The Bottoms - the patrol that goes from the Cup to the Gaters along the bottom of the cliff
12. The Lake Patrol - the patrol that walks out from the Cup along the back edge of the lake
13. The Shorts - the patrol with the short path from the Cup along the cliff

The Cup is, of course, the cauldron at the top of the altar.

The charr themselves are axe guys, sword guys, chasseurs (French: hunters), chaots, shamans and griffies (from French Griffe = Claw). The bosses are known by their first names, Blaze, Ghast, Red-eye, and Jaw.

Skills, or rather, no skills

Characters with no skills, except for some specific things, don't benefit significantly from spending attribute points. Those things are:

• Martial weapon attributes, which give the expected benefit for using the relevant weapon
• Attributes that match the requirements of any weapon, focus, or shield you are using, giving the expected benefit
• Attributes that match special functions of Insignia such as Prismatic.
• Critical Strikes for Assassins gives an increased chance of critical hits
• Dagger Mastery for Assassins gives an increased chance of double strikes
• Mysticism for Dervishes gives an armour benefit if someone or something else enchants you

All other special benefits of attributes relate only to the use of skills.

Quest locator

What else does Runes of Magic have that GW does not? A quest locator. In any zone you can click a button on the map display and get a list of quests available to your character in this zone. You can then click on one of them and get a quest-marker to show you where to go to get it.

But on the other hand, if you start casting a spell at a mob, and during the casting time, the mob walks out of spell range, in Guild Wars the spell still works, but in RoM, it fails.

Rhinos, shields, and /bonus

The items offered by the /bonus command are just weird, especially when used in pre-Searing. For pS characters, the obvious choices are to take the feathered bow for rangers, the spiked shield or the Rhino's Charge hammer for warriors, and the Soul Shrieker for all spellcasters, especially when you don't have enough attribute points to get 9 in the relevant attribute for one of the other items. However, you can also create a very effective caster/Ranger using the bow, able to one-shot level 1 Skale at level 11 or so while retaining a good power reserve in the caster-profession's attributes. But overall, the weirdest thing is definitely the selection of objects available for warriors. Seriously, a hammer (two-handed weapon) and a shield (only usable with one-handed weapons), while the Hammer Mastery skill set available in pS contains only one skill, and that skill is a relatively expensive adrenaline-powered skill, so most fights are over before it is ready.

Why 'Hildebrand Reynbird'?

A man by this name lived in mediaeval England. He probably could not have told you the correct spelling of his name, as literacy was relatively uncommon among 13th/14th Century English peasants, and I'm pretty sure that I haven't spelled it the way that the records showed. What records, though?

He enters the historical record following a dispute with the local authorities. A little background: a manor at the time was typically ruled by a lord of some sort, and administered on a day-to-day basis by two officials, the steward and the reeve. Both, ultimately, were appointed by or on behalf of the lord, but the steward was, in effect, the lord's representative, while the reeve was the people's. The steward would have been able to read and write, while the reeve, being one of the peasants, would most likely have been illiterate.

Anyway, the post of reeve carried heavy responsibilities, and it appears from the historical record generally that being appointed reeve was often not particularly welcome, in part because of the responsibilities but also because it confirmed absolutely your status as a peasant. Certainly Reynbird was not happy about it. The origin of the dispute is not clear, but on the night in question, Reynbird gathered together a bunch of his fellow peasants, and visited the steward to convey his displeasure at being made reeve.

What multitude of sins hides behind those words? The peasants assaulted the steward, set fire to his barn, molested his horses, and killed his cockerel. The festivities finished with Reynbird threatening the steward with an axe to extract a promise that he would no longer be reeve.

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.