Choose My Adventure: Guild Wars 2, Tyria and beyond

Last week's polls were interesting to watch. I wasn't sure which Guild Wars 2 class I was going to end up with. As it turns out, I'll be playing a male Asura Mesmer. The Mesmer won out by a measley seven votes, thus changing my fate from a turret-dropping, technological mastermind to that of a magical duelist.

My illusion-shattering Mesmer made its first steps into Metrica Province. I didn't want to accomplish too much without you voting for me, but I did want to get the cube spinning. Check out my initial adventures after the break be sure to and vote on next week's polls which cover weapons, zones, and more.

Pippy Peat

I didn't get very many suggestions for how my Asura should look, but there was one reader who dared me to make him sadder than his Asura. What do you think?

Apart from specifying charm, ferocity, or dignity, the number-poll worked out really well in deciding my Mesmer's overall personality. I am in the college of Synergetics, I overcome adversity with my charm, and I wear a mask of sorrow. My advisor is Zinga and my first invention was the VAL-A golem robot thingy.

My first steps into Metrica Province were immediately met by an event. Some robots were rampaging through the city and I had to dispatch them quickly. I continued to jump around from event to event to see which events I could trigger in order to complete a couple of hearts. All in all, I made it to level 7, but I didn't want to ruin anything that you could vote on this week.

The starter area was definitely less crowded than at launch. I saw a few players and we even teamed up to complete some events, but the majority of my time was spent soloing with no one else in sight.

Since it's Halloween in Tyria, I thought I'd hop over to Queensdale, find a haunted door, and try out the Mad King's labyrinth. That was a mistake. I went at level five, and even though they bump you to level 80, I could barely scratch anything. I spent a long time whittling half the health from a skeleton only to have a buddy of his join. It was all over then. I ported back to Metrica.

I ended my game at level seven with 478 karma points, seven silver, and 67 copper. Not too bad for playing only one night, eh? I also have three inventory bags: the 20-slot starter and two four-slot bags. They do fill up fast, especially during the Halloween season with all the extra candy corn and other holiday drops. It's neat that you get a shared bank, but it's not super-awesome. I think it becomes super-awesome when you buy more bank pages, but that will cost you real money or a hefty amount of gold that any new player is likely not going to have for quite a while. Still, I recommend increasing bank and bag space, whether you decide to spend real money on it or not.

Last week, you voted for me to get the ball rolling in PvE. I've tried to do just that, but now it's time to go beyond the newbish borders of my hometown, strap on a Golemstreak 2000 backpack, and blast off for places unknown. Or not. There are multiple zones in every level range, so this week you get to choose which of these zones I must explore. Do I stay and fully explore Metrica Province, hang out with the Humans in Queensdale, or tend to the gardens in Caledon Forest? Or go somewhere else?%Poll-78631%And where should I go, after the starting zone?%Poll-78641%And just in case a minor miracle occurs and I manage to get above level 25, where should I go?%Poll-78646%

So, what else did my sad-looking Mesmer do? I mentioned over 400 Karma, and that's a lot at such a low level. I basically got caught up in the idea of leveling to around 10 before calling it, and events are a really good way to advance quickly.

I could definitely be just as happy killing critters somewhere off the beaten track, and the mob bonus could help a lot, but events are a staple of GW2. Speaking of, I could be wrong, but I could swear the early event of protecting those holo-pods was different. I can't be positive, but I'm guessing the devs have tweaked or changed some starting-zone events since launch.

Weapons are also plentiful for a Mesmer. A variety of two-hand and main-hand-plus-off-hand variants exist. I thought I'd keep the weapon poll manageable by choosing between the greatsword, staff, sceptor or pistol. I'll play around with any choices you give me and we'll make next week's weapon or skill polls reflect that.%Poll-78649%While we're talking about skills, I'll be needing to buy some soon. Instead of trying to pick through every single skill I should buy for the early stages, I just want you to pick the ones that you feel I can't do without.

Which healing skill do I have to have?%Poll-78654%And which utility skill is the absolute best?%Poll-78657%That's gonna do it for this week. I expect to get a lot of playtime in, so look forward to me showing you lots of stuff in the near future.

Jeremy Stratton needs more MMOs to play. Seriously. The imaginary doctor who lives in his head gave him a prescription. The problem is, he's too flighty. He never knows just what MMO to try or how long to stick with it in order to get the most of it. That's why he needs you to tell him what game to play and how to play it every Wednesday in Choose My Adventure!