User:Queen of Spades

I discovered this game in July 2005 because I needed something to do when the other remaining Return to Castle Wolfenstein (RtCW) player quit.... By that time, I had come a long way from a timid FPS single-player. When my teenage sons saw me play the multiplayer online version of RtCW, they said, "Dad! Get a grip! Stick to the single player. You suck!" At one point, I was rated #1 player of the Banimod version of RtCW. I was a First Person Shooter player all the way, and only one game would do me. (Talk to me on my user talk page about RtCW, Banimod and especially Bani's Instagib Goldrush version, which my clan and I rocked at!)

Now Guild Wars is my first RPG of any kind, whether online, computer-, video-, or board-based. And it seems to be taking that one-game-will-do-me role!

I LOVE the teamplay aspect to Guild Wars. The fact that, like in RtCW, you need players to fill different roles in order to accomplish your mission. I love playing the roles that many people either don't understand (Mesmer), or underappreciate (Monk) because they don't kill people and break things.

I LOVE the intellectual pursuit of learning to play my role better with better skills and combinations. I love learning to play roles I didn't even know existed. And I especially love that "Eureka!" moment when I learn that someone has put to awesome use that certain skill I had discarded as judged to be complete crap. The flexibility and tradeoffs that the designers of GW have allowed/forced are truly wonderful.

Bor Dammerung /
Bor D was my first character. My kids said, "Dad, you won't understand how to play complicated RPG characters like casters. Be a Warrior, all you have to do is just run up and whack dudes with a sword." That made sense to an FPSer like me.

The name sounds exotic, but I couldn't think of a good name when I decided to to try this game for the first time. I was just bored, Damn Bor-D.

I picked War/Nec because my oldest son said, "If you are going to be a warrior, you are supposed to be a monk secondary, cause that's what everyone else does." ---> Yeah, right! We'll see about that. >:(

I found my best damage combo with Mark of Pain and Flurry. I use Insidious Parasite for healing, Bonetti's Defense for...well, defense and energy regen, and Plague Touch to pass the blindness off to the baddies. I always load either Watch Yourself or Shields Up for team defense, because Bor Dammerung is always looking out for his soft target teammates, not being that Leeerrooooy warrior/monk that we have all learned to hate. And I always throw in Rez Sig for good measure. "Plays well with others." And with this build, I rarely even have a sword skill, so all my attrib points are in Tactics and Curses, so I do some pretty heavy damage in the right situations, while having decent defense and heal.

industry leader
As far as I know, I started an industry from scratch--well, a niche industry. Specifically, leading PUGs through ascension missions for pay. From first hand experience, I knew how many times I had failed the same mission. Even when I learned how I was SUPPOSED to do it, I still couldn't seem to pull it off. Once my guild leader and I passed those missions with our first characters, we were called on to help other guild members and friends thru the same missions, meanwhile getting pretty decent at the missions.

Eventually I noticed how many people stand around in, say, the Thirsty River mission outpost saying, "LFG that doesn't suck like my last 10 groups." (I figured there was a good chance that they were the pot calling the kettle black.) Or, "Please, somebody help me, I have failed this mission 15 times in a row, I am about to delete this crappy game!"

I had previously noticed that certain players would hawk their services "running" people through certain missions for pay. I figured there would be people willing to pay me to (a) LEAD, not run, them through the mission, and (b) TEACH them a strategy to beat the mission to help them play it better in the future. And I have made some pretty decent plats doing just that, and more often than not, get some great compliments after leading a PUG to victory that they had nearly given up hope of achieving. And many will say afterward, "Well, I would not pay to be run through a mission, but the way you do it, you taught me a lot, and it was worth it!"

and finally /
There is a great guy in our guild that was the first runner I knew, Tau Deathbringer. He started spending money like crazy, and I wondered how he got it. I went "farming" with my guild leader in the desert, and on my best day, I got like 3K in 2 hours, because of having a partner and at least a hench healer, if not another hench. This runner says, I don't farm anymore, I just run. I asked if he could teach me. Yeah sure. So we spent about 1/2 a Saturday, and he taught me everything he knew: it didn't take. I guess it was the War/Nec business. Or just that I was a newb. So I switched 2ry prof to monk, and got the skills he used. Still an utter failure. So I just resigned myself to scrounging for the odd mission-leading score, and developed other characters (see below).

Then a few months later my guild leader, now named Marie Amaranthine, said I needed to learn to run. I said, "You too? Get off my case, I can't run and I can't farm! But I can fight and lead and teach. Leave me alone." But I guess that by that time the experience on this character and my three other characters all came together to gel into a great learning experience. Marie spent about 2-3 hours with me at most, and I was a running fool!

I now had a source for some relatively quick and easy money, so I got excited about playing warrior again and trying new things. Next on my list is actually FIGHTING with Bor D as War/Mo and learning to solo farm with War/Mo. What is this world coming to? War/Mes, anyone?

Queen Of Speydz
QoS has her own page User:Queen of Spades/Queen of Speydz where I get to yadda, yadda, yadda....

Queen of Spades is her spiritual (real) name. Really pissed about A-net's bad word filter keeping me from naming my character "Queen of Spades".

I chose Mesmer for my second character and you can read why on her page. She was my favorite character to play for a long while. Even though I play monk much more than any of my other characters, I would not say I like Monk better than Mesmer. However, as things change from time to time, I have been coming back to QoS and Mezzing around. I finally have her Drok's Enchanters armor dyed a very nice shiny copper color.

Lately I have been playing around with Mesmer builds, including an InvinciMesmer, a 55hp Mesmer build. She is about ready to try to duo the Underworld.

Teaming Up With Another Mesmer
I had fun recently when I was desirous of capping the Mesmer elite Mantra of Recovery in the Dunes of Despair mission. I just shouted out for a team when I saw another Mesmer LFG, so I teamed with a 2nd mesmer instead of the normal caster. I don't recall if we just got henches for the rest or what. However, in the mission to protect the Ghostly Hero while he incants, when the waves of enemies come to an end with around 3:00 left on the timer, I have taken to attacking a Siege Wurm, in hopes of getting a Bleached Shell. With this dual mesmer combo with interrupts and big DoT, this was the first time I had been able to kill two wurms before the time ran out! And both dropped shells! (But not with my name on either.)


 * Gimme a holler ingame (Queen Of Speydz) if you want a Mesmer to help you with anything (or for that matter any of my other professions). I would love to play some more on a multiple Mesmer team!
 * For more about QoS, check out her page: User:Queen of Spades/Queen of Speydz
 * Any SS/SV necros want a good looking Mesmer partner for a UW smite run?

Momentarily Mortal
I think this name is cool, there is more about it on MoM's (User:Queen of Spades/Momentarily Mortal) page.

With my 3rd character, I took a shortcut to ascension, so due to missing certain skills, I became comfortable in a healer role but not a protection monk role. Going to the Fissure of Woe quite a bit, where monks are often in short supply, I quickly got more than 500K total experience on Mortal entirely in a 100% healer role. Lately, I have explored and gotten comfortable with a Life Bond build filling the protection monk role even more often than a pure healer role. I have also developed a Heal/Prot build that seems to come in handy for quests and missions where I am the only monk.

Most recently, I have been learning the Invincible Monk build. Though Mortal has not even been to UW yet, I have about 90K invested in his 55hp monk setup. It is time for some return on that!

The way my small circle of friends and guildies works, I foresee that Momentarily Mortal is going to be a dominant character in my GW gaming experience.
 * Please feel free to whisper me ingame if you want Monk help or just to talk. I love discussing and improving builds, and I like to teach & share what I know to whoever will listen.


 * For more of my blab about Mortal, see User:Queen of Spades/Momentarily Mortal.

She Makes You Burn /
I enjoyed finally getting around to a straight damage dealer for my fourth character. Naturally, a Fire elem, I had the name all picked out well before creation. (See her page User:Queen of Spades/She Makes You Burn.)

After getting her ascended and game "finished" at least before SF update and Vision of Glint quests, I have not gotten to play Burn much. There has been too much demand for my monk (User:Queen of Spades/Momentarily Mortal), as well as time I have spent in developing various builds for Mortal and QoS (User:Queen of Spades/Queen of Spades). So lately, I have gone out of my way to do some skill capping to make Burn into a heavy nuker role, with the odd interrupt thrown in occasionally.


 * Please whisper me ingame if you would like Nuker help or any of my other professions.
 * For more about Burn, check out her page: User:Queen of Spades/She Makes You Burn

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