Flameseeker Chronicles: War in Kryta continues
While it may have been a bit overshadowed by the gaming feeding-frenzy known as E3, the War in Kryta in Guild Wars did not slow. I'm fairly certain that Salma, the Shining Blade, and the White Mantle do not care what's happening in Los Angeles, so they carried on issuing bounties, leaping out of trees, and waylaying travelers.
The war events received another hefty update this last week, complete with some interesting hints about what is to come -- we'll be visiting some familiar locations. Despite another week of trotting around obediently slaying things that need to be slain, I still do not have a miniature Salma. We're also still in the dark about what these medals are for.
[MVOP] had an eventful Thursday as well, and moved along in Prophecies quite a bit. Follow along after the jump to hear all the latest news from Tyria.
War in Kryta
The War in Kryta continues to escalate, and Princess Salma has a new quest for us this week in the ongoing Covert Operations quest series, Temple of the Intolerable. This time we're revisiting D'Alessio Seaboard and the Temple of Tolerance, where we previously saved Confessor Dorian from hordes of undead. Of course, since the Mantle are no longer allies, you'll find some pretty hefty resistance.
As always, there is no additional reward in hard mode, so normal mode will get the job done -- normal-mode Mantle are much easier to battle on the way to the Temple of Tolerance. Once you arrive at your destination you'll find Koril the Malignant, the Mursaat boss whom Salma has asked you to kill. Koril's a tough foe on several fronts. As he loses health, mobs of White Mantle will spawn and come to his aid, so keep an eye out.
The other factor that makes Koril so difficult is the skill bar. Koril's elite is Life Transfer, a powerful life-stealing skill that can send his health regen into overdrive even as it drains your health. He's got two monster skills: Spectral Agony, of course, but a fun new skill called Sacrifice Pawn is added to the mix; it "Drains the life of target ally, killing them and healing the caster for an amount equal to that ally's current Health." Those Mantle mobs that keep spawning are suddenly a bigger threat than originally planned. On the plus side, Koril will take some of them out for you. On the minus side, doing so gives him a nice health boost, so it may be to your advantage to just kill them yourself.
Life Transfer and Sacrifice Pawn have casting times of 1 second and three quarters of a second respectively, so packing some interrupts and using them at the right time will be a huge help in taking this latest boss down. Once he's dead, the 15-second timer kicks in and you'll be transported back to Lion's Arch.
This is the third such quest in the War in Kryta updates, and you may be starting to wonder if this is it. Regular daily boss bounties and weekly Inquisitor hunts are fun and all, but is there more? This quest gives a few hints, both from Dinas when you begin it, and from Salma upon completion. Dinas already has a few clues as to the next step: "Toriimo flew into an uncontrollable rage when he heard that his pet Inquisitors had been taken out. Now they are sending men every day to Demetra in the North. That's where we are headed as well. Something is happening up there. I'm not sure what, but I'll be in touch. Now, go! Koril is in the center of the Temple. He should be hard to miss. Good luck!" We can assume the next quest will lead us in that direction. Demetra is where Saul D'Alessio's base camp was located way back when, so it will be an interesting spot to visit.
Salma has a clue for us at the end of the quest as well: "Now three Mursaat have been eliminated and four remain, if our intelligence is accurate." Only four Mursaat inquisitors remain, so we can assume that another quest to eliminate one is coming later this week -- unless the events in Demetra are something completely different.
I want to touch briefly on one other War in Kryta update source: Murro. Murro the scribe has been faithfully reporting from the front lines of the War in Kryta since the beginning of April, and has fallen silent as of late. It's been nearly three weeks since his last report -- where is he? I honestly do not see ArenaNet just absentmindedly forgetting to update an integral part of the these events. "Hey, has anyone updated Murro lately?" "Who? Oh. Um, no, I forgot. I'll write something later today. If I have time." While I don't want to see harm come to our humble scribe, it would be a great addition to the plot to find that his silence is war-related.
[MVOP]
Massively Overpowered, Massively's Guild Wars guild, had a quiet week thanks to E3. Enough members made it in that we had to split into more than one group, and we were joined by some of our new allies. The first order of business was to take on Gates of Kryta, save Justicar Hablion from himself, and arrive in Lion's Arch -- where the vast majority of us nearly trampled the skill guy to death in our haste to improve our bar.
From there it was on to D'Alessio Seaboard and Divinity Coast. The great thing about our long-awaited arrival in Lion's Arch is that it's opened the doors for Canthan and Elonian players to join us. If you've been anxious to join us in our travels, but didn't have the first half of Prophecies accessed yet, now is the time. Feel free to send an email to me at rubi at massively dot com, or add Rubi Djinn to your friends list in game. We meet every Thursday night at 9 PM Eastern. Next up? The Wilds, Bloodstone Fen, and Aurora Glade.
I'll see you in game!
