Sup in TRUE?

[Jair of the Forest]

So - even though the Picture thread in the private forum and the 'what are you working on' thread in this forum have pretty much taken the place of a thread like this, I thought we'd have one anyway. After all, you can never have enough random threads for your +1 post counts.

Sooooo...what is happening in TRUE? I'll start off with telling about my online weekend with the best guild in the universe.

Jaïr's logbook:
Saturday evening [GMT+1]: Majesty's Rest vanquish with Yoshi, Dena and Shayta.
Knowing that this was one of the hardest vanquishes out there, we decided not to take any risks and we went from the Temple of Ages to get the full advantages of a 8-man party. We took of with a Stunning Strike R/P (moi), a Signet of Ghostly Might Spiritspam (Shayta), a (jeez Dena, what were you even running? ) .... , an Avatar of Dwayna Dervish (Yoshi) and 4 RoJ monks to counter the Undead and to keep us alive.

We ran all the way through the Black Curtain and Talmark Wilderness to get to Rotscale as quick as possible. Majesty's Rest was pretty much a breeze, because we saved the Dragon mob till the end of the vanquish. Brave luring from my side let to some near-wipes, but we managed to kill the 2 healers from the Dragon mob without too much problems (RoJ micro-managing, yay). Another RoJ spike killed all of the Dragons except for Rotscale himself, who we killed shortly afterwards after having been wiped by a spawn of Smoke Phantoms (bweh). I did get Rotscale's greenie though!



We decided to give Talmark Wilderness vanquishing a shot as well and even though Yoshi decided to leech the vanquish (with our permission) we pretty much nailed that one as well. My evening ended with helping some survivors get through Tahnakai Temple.

Sunday evening [GMT +1]:Diviner's Ascent vanquish with Shayta and Cutty.
We set up with 3 of the previous night's RoJ smiters, a Concshot spammer (yes, you run out of energy quickly), Shayta with the same build as saturday and Cutty on the WoH.
The heroes build up some nasty DP due to my (lack of) (horrible) interrupting on a couple of Earthquakes, but mweh, we didn't do too bad. The nasty bit started only when we were to find the last 3 foes of the area: a Hydra patrol with a gigantic patrol range. Our first try to ambush them resulted in a very smooth party wipe, but we succeeded the second time.

So - that was my weekend. Today I've been upto..nothing, really. What did I miss this weekend, TRUEbies?

(I really want to hear the SoO story)

[Kahlan]

Are non-TRUEbies allowed to post their sups?

[Jair of the Forest]

Are non-TRUEbies allowed to post their sups?

No..

Well maybe..

Perhaps..

I guess so..

Okay..

Fine.

[Shayta]

Great idea Jair!

This also gives propective TRUEbies an idea of the range of what we do as a guild here in TRUE.

I'll post some stories when I get home tonight, including our SoO adventure (unless someone beats me to it - hint hint!)

[Auntie I]

So I put 3 puzzles together this weekend, while I was visiting my parents...


Oh, you mean in game!
Whups, my bad!

*backs slowly out of thread, whistling nonchalantly*

[Rubi]

Several of us have been delving into HM dungeons lately - so much fun. I vanquish here and there when Kev is available, we're doing all the vanquishing together.

Otherwise I'm so random lately that there's not really a theme. I'll get a mission and a cap or two on my survivor, then do a HM dungeon, then wander over and help Sister with her survivor for a bit, then go keep Solange and/or Azra company on a mission, then chat with new guildies, then epicfail at DoA a few times, then wander around Pre for a bit...just having fun lately at whatever sounds good.

[Domitilde]

a (jeez Dena, what were you even running? ) .... ,

I like to spam as much as possible - Flare, Mind Blast, Fireball, and Liquid Flame while keeping up Fire Attunement (although Mind Blast is great for gaining energy), but then I throw in PI as soon as it recharges.

So I put 3 puzzles together this weekend, while I was visiting my parents...

My wife and I did one nasty 550 piece round jigsaw puzzle Sunday.

Otherwise, what I did on my own time was get that 100% mapping of Elona. I personally feel Elona is the worst place.

Tonight, I'll be with Shannon (Sister) and try to get both Ring of Fire and Abaddon's Mouth done. She needs those last three to be able to start vanquishing Tyria with us.

Last night, Shayta and I did one of our usual extra fast vanquishings in Cantha - Melandru's Hope.

[Shayta]

Ok Jair, I'll do this before heading to work I'll aim for a format somewhere between Jair's Logbook and Ari's overview.

Every group I run in is TRUEway - come as you are, bring your own build, no need for pinging builds (unless you want to look for synergy with others on the team or ask the team for suggestions). I love TRUEway. Almost everything in the game can be defeated without needing cookie-cutter wiki team builds, even in HM. (confession: I have never run a sabway team myself, tho many of the groups I'm in will bring part/all of one. I don't even run a MM, even when h/h vanqing). I run my usual MSA*build unless otherwise noted.

*Mobile Spirit Artillery / Mobile Spirit Battery, my own creation, TM Shayta



Sunday, March 9: Vanquish + Raven's Point + Shards of Orr
Jair has already covered the vanquishes. Much fun was had by all!

HM dungeons are good for a challenge. Plus, I'm trying to fill my book. A core group of TRUEbies make up our dungeoneering squad (US timezones) - but we're always trying to talk every guildie online to join us for the fun Ari and Yoshi have been in most of the groups I can remember at the moment, but Dena, Mars, Sister, Cutty, BA, and others join us when they can.

Raven's Point
Ari, Cutty, Xianli, and I took on this dungeon, her super-ele with Sabway, me with heal/prot Dunk. This was the usual stroll in the park - moderate challenge (bordering on easy), very relaxing and fun.

Shards of Orr
Yoshi, Mars, Ari, Sister, and I tried out some different RoJ variant builds on the way to pick up the quest in the swamp, restarting a couple times to change builds. Finally we mostly returned to our normal builds, foregoing holy dmg. Yoshi was his superderv, Mars an earth ele, Ari a super fire ele, Sister as a war, and my usual MSA. Since we filled 5 slots, we rounded out the party with a MM and 2 prot/heal monks.

I knew this mission would be a real challenge, so I brought powerstones and grails. Normally I don't use consumables (not even while getting Guardian or HM Frostmaw's, NM Duncans, etc). But this was gonna be an exception.

Once in the dungeon, we quickly learned to dislike undead mobs, especially Cleric + Priest + 4 ele + 2 war + 2 necro. Spiking the cleric first, then priest, then cleanup became the drill all night long. Many mobs and many wipes later, including a clever use of a solo run by Sister to a rez shrine to get us past one particularly nasty section (and Ari's candy canes and my powerstone + grail) later, we got to level 2. Sister had to leave (RL intervened), so we were left with 7 members for the remainder of the dungeon.

Level 2 went better. The high point was clearing the circular torch-filled popup room without wiping. The low point was trying to get to the key room through the next room. Another powerstone + grail later, we got to level 3.

By level 3, we had the mob-killing drill down. Sometimes we'd crush them only losing 2-3 of us, sometimes a full wipe. Was 11pm+ for all of us, 3+ hours since we first gathered to start, so tiredness began to take a toll. We got to the room of 6? torches just outside the boss's room. After lighting two torches, and hovering at 40 to 60DP each, facing at least 5 more supermobs + crazy hard boss, with just one powerstone left, and the clock ticking toward midnight/1am for us - we made the tough call.

I know we could grind that room at near 60DP, eating canes to keep from being kicked, then use the final powerstone to start fresh on the boss. But doing it that way would take at least an hour, probably longer. So we agreed to call it a night, and retry next weekend.

Even tho we didn't complete it this first try, we had fun. It was great having to figure out strategies to give us an advantage, despite our DP, like clearing the circular or key rooms on level 2, or routes to avoid the most mobs on level 3.

Before logging off we were tossing around new build ideas. An earlier start, using the backdoor to the dungeon to avoid the run there + 1/2 the first level, new builds, a full 8-man team, and enough powerstones to keep us all happily at full strength = fun success next time!


Monday, March 10: Vanquish!
I love vanquishing. Finally, back to the relaxing stuff!

Dena and I are vanquishing all of Cantha together, and we're always asking the Guild to come along. We have been vanqing together so long now, its almost automatic. Lilli and Sister are our frequent companions.

Tyria is my unplanned vanquish continent - I'm always up for tackling an area with anyone. Logen loves Tyria, so I'm looking forward to joining him whenever he has time. Its fun to hear his stories and have him show me all the cool sites. Jair is a tactician, picking out the most challenging areas or knowing which areas we can tackle with only a hour to play. So its always great to join his groups too. Dena and I vanq in Tyria together for a change of pace from our Cantha vanqs. Yoshi is often in our groups and always great to play with.

And if anyone else wants to vanquish in Tyria, I'm always ready! I know what I'm doing, having put together groups (and h/h'd some) all of Elona - so I have no problem leading or tagging along as needed.


Melandru's Hope
Dena and I kicked off the evening vanquishing Melandru's Hope (kurz) in Cantha. It went so easily, the whole thing is just a blur.

The Sage Lands + Mamnoon Lagoon
I vanquished in Tyria with Logen - The Sage Lands, then we zoned and knocked off Mamnoon Lagoon . Again, we just chewed through everything. Automatic success. Lots of time for joking around on Vent and in Guild chat.

[Jair of the Forest]

Great post, Shayta! I really enjoyed reading it!

[Shayta]

Thanks Jair! I'm really looking forward to the Sunday vanqs

Tuesday March 10

Skill capping - Realm of Torment
Solo activity - h/h in NM. Usually this is like sleepwalking, but I have to admit the cap in the Gate of Madness was beyond annoying. The others weren't bad at all.

Canthan Vanquish
Kev, Ari, Yoshi, and I vanquished The Eternal Grove and Mourning Veil Falls. Kev was on Pyros the derv, Ari the fire ele with her Sabway heros, Yoshi as his mesmer, and me as MSB with healprot Dunkoro. Nice and relaxing, with plenty of time for joking around. It was fun, as always!

Unfortunately Kev's game crashed, so he and Ari did not complete Mourning Veil Falls with Yoshi and I. If Dena doesn't have this one, I'll be redoing it with him as well. Starting from Amatz Basin will maximize the faction next time.

Okay - someone else's turn to write one of these. Cmon, its easy!