3 things, 1 comment 2 questions

[Rilandune]

3 things:

1) just last night i followed sir tydus's instructions and ended up in the arena in a 4v4 battle. first time doing this so i had no idea it was actually taking me into post-searing if i completed it.

anyway the doors opened up and our opponents rush in. they were a bit scattered, no real organization, until I took out their ranger and their caster, then as soon as they all rez'd, they all targeted me :D it was actually pretty nice to feel like that much of a threat. i was the only one that all 4 targeted at once. we won the battle 5 to 1, mine being our only death. what also was funny is how i died when my teammates were 2 secondary monks and one primary monk :p

so needless to say, i love my mesmer, i can dish out the dmg and for a little while at least, stay under the radar.

thanks to all on these very forums for the help!

2) is it possible to go back to pre-searing, i only ever got one extra bag, would like the other 2 and i don't seem to see any collectors in the post-searing offering bags.

3) i'm nearly lvl 5 and i'm thinking it'd be good to get into some rogue armor for the +energy and +physical AL. a lot of stonies in post searing ascalon. so should i bother getting new armor, and if so, where do cloth bolts drop?

thx everyone as always, these are probably the most helpful community boards i've ever read!

[Phaeax]

Glad you enjoyed your first foray into PvP. That Academy battle usually catches new players off-guard and unaware of what is happening. I know the first time that I played it I had absolutely no idea that I was playing against other people!

As for your questions...

2) Once you've gone to post-Searing, there is no turning back I'm afraid. Ascalon is ruined and there's no going back to happy times. Fortunately, merchants in the game do still sell bags, although I can't remember exactly which ones. Worst case, if you wanted to get them from a collector, you could start a new character, trade for the bags from a collector, enter the Academy, and then share the bags via your account storage.

3) With my mesmer, I didn't end up crafting any new armor until I hit Yak's Bend. I even did some missions there with the old AL's of 5 and 7. But I sure did take a lot more damage. If you can afford it, getting some or all of the 30 AL armor is an investment that will last quite a while. As for the crafting components, you can either salvage some items to start learning which produce things like cloth or trade for them from players or the material trader.

Hope all this helps!

[Rilandune]

ohhh, yes the salvage kits, i always forget about those. i was thinking "what the heck kind of monster would drop a bolt of clothe" lol. ok, have to buy a few salvage kits.

can't go back :( but pre-searing was so pretty! hehe, darn. maybe i will do that, make another character and get them through storage.

and yes, my first experience of gw pvp was quite enjoyable. different, every other mmo i've played i'm always a rogue of some nature, so playing a caster in pvp was a very different experience for me. i loved it! can't wait to get the skills i really want for my build, the ones i have now are a bit lacking other than empathy, conjure phantasm, and firestorm i think it is.

thx for the info! i hope to get into some good groups in ascalon, think i'll need them since i went to post with only being lvl 4. the henchies are good, but i like community feel and interaction.

[Downward]

A good source of cloth, since you could use it, are the Devourers outside Ascalon in the post-searing. They drop something caled Half-Eaten Mass, which can be refined with the Salvage Kit into Cloth. A word of warning though: the 30 AL Rogue's Armor takes Leather Squares AND Cloth to craft, and the Leather Squares must be crafted outside the city at the Special Crafter...forget his name atm, he's SW of the city I believe. If I remember correctly, they cost 100g per square, so it is kind of expensive. I went for the 15 AL Rogue's, and the 30 AL Stylish, and meshed them together, gaining +20 AL and only losing 1 Energy as opposed to the 4 Energy you lose when you get a whole suit. Hope this helps you make a decision.

[Phaeax]

The crafter that sells leather squares (the first one at least ;)) is named Artisan Daved and sits right outside Sardelac Sanitarium.

For the armor, the effective AL of your armor depends on the piece that is randomly selected to be hit. The chest is the most likely to be hit, so if you can only afford to upgrade one or two, I'd go for the chest piece first.

[Darc.Syde]

dare i say it! another pvper is born. :p

[Drakenbow]

lol....

I also had no idea that I was in a pvp battle when progressing from pre-searing. However, I did determine I was grouped with real people which was cool. I thought the warrior that was charging us was npc though lol. He fell early... we ended up with myself and one other surviving. :happy34:

[Mayella]

Haha

That PvP bit caught me by surprise too :D Was, at the end of the timer, 'last man standing', without dying once. Shut down the healer constantly, so the other 3 of my team could go for the rest. I don't think the other team realised what I was doing, but that was the second day the game was out. If I go into the arena now, I'm one of the first to get targetted :mad: