User talk:Gares Redstorm/Archive1

The Beginning
I had bought Guild Wars in May or June of 2005, I believe. I remember starting to become interested in NWN PWs around the same. I had started my first character, Verse Lightbringer, a Warrior, and got him to level 5, but was a little unfamiliar with salvaging, IDing, and so forth. So, I went back to what I knew best, playing NWN and RPing.

The Guild Wars case became dusty through the months I played on a NWN PW. Made some friends, became a trusted and valued member of the PW, and had a blast. It would so happen that this good thing did not last and I decided that it was not the place for me. Before that, however, I met a woman who I eventually fell in love with, and she had talked about Guild Wars. That she played it and was in a very mature and friendly guild. Seemed that I was destined to play the game, whether I understood it or not.

I had told her I had bought the game some time ago and had made a character. She asked if I was pre or post, and when I said "what?", she laughed at me. Seemed there was more to learn than I had once thought. So, I started a new character, Gares Resdstorm, and began to play Guild Wars once again. Being the kind woman she is, she answered my questions or with the help of her other guildmates. now mine as well, got the answers for me. I quickly learned and became a decent player with Gares, my W/Mo. I had deleted the past(Verse) and created the future(Gares). This was my beginning and I see no signs of the ending yet.

The Here and Now
Almost a year I have been playing Guild Wars. I have became an officer of my guild, Elite Danger Society(EDS), a mainly PvE guild. I have even become the webmaster of the EDS website. I have a passion for creating new builds(I have about 20-some unique builds on paper and have started creating builds for the Ritualist and Assassin classes. I also enjoy exploring as my Gares has uncovered every piece of land I could. There is some great scenery out there, you just have to look for it. :D

My hobbies away from GW vary, from playing Dragon Quest 8, to being the lead scriptor for a new Persistant World coming out for NWN 2, to having the love of a very special woman. Its all about the fun things in life, just as Dave Matthews sings, "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die."

Welcome
Welcome to the wiki, and thanks for the heartwarming story ;) Shandy 22:36, 20 February 2006 (CST)


 * Always good to be apart of something fun and that helps others :D --Gares Redstorm 07:04, 21 February 2006 (CST)

Wow, four accounts! How do you find time to care for and feed all of them? &mdash; Stabber 22:04, 6 March 2006 (CST)


 * I'm just glad they are all potty trained. --Gares Redstorm 22:33, 6 March 2006 (CST)

Characters
That's an impressive list! 14:27, 17 February 2006 (CST)
 * Seconded. Wooow! A lot of time and skill must've gone into it. (Are you going to be putting Factions on all of them, too?) --130.58 00:50, 21 February 2006 (CST)


 * Thanks! Many hours sitting at the computer and many soft drinks later and there is still so much to do with my lower level characters. Been on a farming kick for the last week or so, but I hope to get them done and have their info on my guilds site.
 * And yeah, I plan on putting Factions on all my accounts. Hopefully we won't have to buy Factions for each account we have, but from what I hear we might. --Gares Redstorm 06:58, 21 February 2006 (CST)
 * A lot of time and skill indeed... Would you mind posting your '/age' across all characters. I'm dying to know. --Fenris 09:55, 20 April 2006 (CDT)

Hurt vs. Hurl
Are you sure that it wasn't Hurl Foulspine that you ran into? --Rainith 12:14, 26 February 2006 (CST)
 * Probably was. I put it up for deletion. Although Hurl says its a Necromancer and the color I saw was Ranger green. There is already a Necromancer level 9 devourer named Fester Fang. I got his skills and such, just didn't take a pic, so I'm leaving him off for now. --Gares Redstorm 12:23, 26 February 2006 (CST)
 * I'm not saying you were wrong, I was questioning it though because Hurt Foulspine also doesn't show up on the list of bosses here: Bestiary/RawDump. --Rainith 12:26, 26 February 2006 (CST)
 * Not what I meant at all :P. I've been mispelling boss names all day. What I was commenting about was I think the class of Foulspine is mistated. I just wanted to say something in case you or anyone else had any reservations about it. EDIT: I like that RawDump list though and I didn't even notice Fang is already on the list for Eastern Frontier. Either I'm tired or I need a smoke :D--Gares Redstorm 12:31, 26 February 2006 (CST)


 * I think you're probably right. I created the article originally, and if he had no skills, then when I used an SoC with my W/R I probably would have assumed that he was a necro and not a ranger.  --Rainith 12:38, 26 February 2006 (CST)
 * Seems we are playing mistake tag. You found one of mine, I found one of yours :P. Btw, the smoke didn't help. I must be tired. --Gares Redstorm 12:49, 26 February 2006 (CST)

PvP
Well, I was bored for a little bit and decided to take a stab at PvP with my new character, Agrias. She was level 10 so I went to Ascalon Arena. Went through one game, lost, but I got a feel as to what it was about. As I had never been in or been up against real players, at least real players with post sear weapons, armor, and skills.

Got back in there and paired with some level 8s and a level 9. 2 Rangers, a Necro, and myself, a Warrior. Needless to say I ran into every group and made them attack me. With Healing Signet and Ether Feast I was a hard character to kill, and even dished out my own damage, with the use of Battle Rage, Executioner's Strike, and Disrupting Chop.

Needless to say I was not suprised at the Droks Armor and 15k Armor I saw. Or all the Elite skills being cast. As I also had 15k Platemail and the Elite Battle Rage.

That team of ours won 12 straight games, most of them flawless. I think that means no one on our side died. My take...it was alright. If I was to do it again, it would have to be HoH where if you win you at least get prizes. What am I, a PvE person, going to do with Faction Points?

What was funny, was a ranger on my team, said "All Hail Agrias(me)" and we died that game. :P --Gares Redstorm 00:21, 11 March 2006 (CST)


 * Wow. That is a very long list of characters for no PvP. And here I was sitting, thinking "How did he ever find the time to unlock all his skills, while getting 15 pve characters up". --Xeeron 01:34, 16 March 2006 (CST)


 * I love to explore and build new characters. I also love to farm. I can farm for hours and I don't get tired of it. I guess its the thought of, "what will this monster drop, or this one, or this one, etc." I think its all those years of playing RPGs like Final Fantasy and Dungeons and Dragons.


 * Right now I am on a crusade to aquire and have in my possession all the green items in the game. I'm also collecting rare materials and mods, such as ectos, rubies, +1 mods, deathbane mods, etc. Rarely do I sell to the public. There is nothing more boring than sitting for an hour spamming the same "WTS ...." message. If I don't want something and my guildmates don't want it, I shop sell it.


 * And the list will get longer. I plan on creating a new character this weekend or so, if I can decide on a primary class. Need to do some testing in Pre Sear for Wiki and Pre Sear is so relaxing to play in too. :D --Gares Redstorm 06:12, 16 March 2006 (CST)


 * Faction points: Remember that they changed the game a while ago, such that you now can get any non-elite skill you've previously learned from any trainer. So one way to spend Faction Points is to unlock a late-game skill that you want to use on your new character in the early game, since all you need to do is take any of your characters to a Priest of Balthazar. This might be a nice way to get a leg up with Factions characters, if you have a few spare points. &mdash; 130.58 (talk) ( 10:05, 23 April 2006 (CDT) )

Factions
Well, I went to EB today and reserved 2 copies for 2 of my accounts and got the last 2 free disks. :D When I get home from work I will see if the Collector's Edition will be worth to preorder or just get 2 more regular editions for my other 2 accounts. I'm not really so ready to play the new classes as I am to see the new land and see what new items and monsters are in store. The new skills to the first 6 classes will be interesting. I hope they give Hammer Warriors some skills to increase attack speed. Its almost, as I call it, a dead weapon. But I love my Hammer Warrior regardless. --Gares Redstorm 02:58, 21 March 2006 (CST)

Avoiding Scales?
Hey Gares, I noticed that you changed the Crafter in Stingray Strand to say that you can avoid the Skales if you time it right. Do you have any suggestions for how? I stood in the area for a decent amount of time and they looked like they had it pretty well covered. --Rain Over Pebbles 06:05, 1 April 2006 (CST)


 * Unless they changed the AI, its easy. Let me go in-game and check it out. --Gares Redstorm 06:08, 1 April 2006 (CST)


 * Rain, just left from Sanctum Cay going to crafter trying to avoid Bog Skale Blighters. I did 4 runs. It depends on the spawn of the Blighters if you can get by or not. I successfully got by without aggroing them 2 out of the 4 times by waiting till they bunched up together and hugging the leftmost wall. 1 time they appeared right at the exit of the pathway and blocked it completely. The other time, they were not far enough to the right(even when bunched up) to pass safely by.


 * So the orginal author was wrong in stating it can be easily done, but it can be done with a good spawn and the right timing. I hope this helps. --Gares Redstorm 06:20, 1 April 2006 (CST)


 * Thanks! I think between the two of us the article is where it should be now, based on your research, so much goodness :) --Rain Over Pebbles 06:32, 1 April 2006 (CST)

Image overwrite problems
I think the issue you're having with the image overwrites is a cache problem. After you upload the newer image and go to the image's page, force a re-load by holding down your left shift button and hitting the refresh button on your browser. Each one that you put up for deletion has had the newer image that you uploaded showing in it. --Rainith 21:41, 14 May 2006 (CDT)


 * I thought it strange myself. Every image overwritten the previous on the image article, but didn't change it in the article. Not being a digital image expert, or novice, or anything really, I had no idea what the problem might have been. Nor did I do any research on the subject(too busy trying to get to an Abassador for my guild). I'll try to be less impatient from now on. At least the images are better. I try to help take the load off you admins, but I guess I added a little bit more. I'll make it up to ya. --Gares Redstorm 07:03, 15 May 2006 (CDT)


 * No problem. The same fix should work on the pages that use the images.  Hold down left shift and click the refresh button.  I know that this at least works for IE and Firefox if you use either of those browsers.  :)  --Rainith 11:10, 15 May 2006 (CDT)

weapon templates
Please see Style and formatting/Weapons. -PanSola 07:52, 17 May 2006 (CDT)


 * So that means that almost every weapon template out there is wrong. --Gares Redstorm 07:57, 17 May 2006 (CDT)
 * "Outdated" would be a more accurate term. The armor articles are in a similar state, though Mesmer, Warrior, and Ranger have been cleaned up quite a bit.-PanSola 07:59, 17 May 2006 (CDT)

Green Item Collection
Are you going to be collecting Factions greens, to? I'm wondering because I've found a few cool-looking but unpopular ones that I can't seem to sell but really don't want to just turn into vendor trash... any chance they can be preserved in the Gares Redstorm item museum? &mdash; 130.58 (talk) ( 02:06, 19 May 2006 (CDT) )


 * Actually have started saving Factions greens. Factions came at the wrong time. It has put a delay on my Prophecies missions, like collecting all the greens there. I believe I still have 42 more + the new versions of the 20/20 AP greens(I believe there are 4 new Tyrian greens, Bludgeoner, Drago's Flatbow, Victo's Axe, and Razorstone. I have found a way to solo Jade, Am Fah, and some other areas, although I've been on a kick to get titles under my belt.


 * I'll be in-game all weekend, so just get up with me. Thanks. And I do wish greens would cost more than 35g from merchants, but I won't get started with that little pet peeve :D --Gares Redstorm 06:37, 19 May 2006 (CDT)


 * Woops! I forgot to check whether we had a pic up for Bazzr's Wail before I gave it to you? Mind snapping a quick screenshot for the wiki when you have the chance? (I feel so irresponsible ;) ) &mdash; 130.58 (talk) ( 13:22, 23 May 2006 (CDT) )


 * Your not the only one. I even looked to make sure it was on Wiki and didn't notice the pic was missing. Seems you need to take a break from the homework and I need to take a break from work. :P


 * I'll take a pic when I get home. --Gares Redstorm 14:02, 23 May 2006 (CDT)

Thanks for the welcome, and I hope I'm doing this right and responding by editing your talk page. I've migrated to using an account named for my main char (see my talk page). Anyway, I have a Tin_Dao's_Staff for you if you are collecting Canthan greens.


 * Sure, I'm always in-game now as my main character, Gares. And yes, I am still on the hunt to collect all greens in the game. Funny, most of my characters use gold or collectors items, but I'm a packrat. I have roughly 10 Canthan greens so far, and still need around 40 Tyrian greens. I'm going to need more mules. :P
 * However, these newly implemented titles have killed my green hunting for now. I feel my 2 main characters, Gares and Raine, deserve these honors and I plan to get them both the "Kind of a Big Deal" titles. --Gares Redstorm 11:58, 22 May 2006 (CDT)

Ban template
Don't forget that goes on the user page, not the talk! &mdash; Skuld  11:11, 6 June 2006 (CDT)


 * Was in a hurry. It will never happen again Lord Skuld :P --Gares Redstorm 11:13, 6 June 2006 (CDT)

Request for adminship
I added a bit of a comment on your rfa, just wanted to say that I'm not having a go at you, your worth to the GuildWiki is unquestionable because of your tireless contributing and I think you'll make a good admin. But over at Wikipedia they have quite an involved rfa process where the candidate states why they're "worthy" and users are allowed to ask a whole lot of questions etc. You're under no obligation (or even expectation) to respond, I just thought you might find the feedback useful. Good luck with your rfa (although you look like a shoe in, I'd better stay on your good side :P ) --Xasxas256 22:51, 5 June 2006 (CDT)

Addition: I should say that the other reason why you can just read this (ie there's no need to respond) is that it could just be me. I couldn't remember really bumping into you much so just had a look over your contributions, seeing how many of your edits were to talk pages (and having a look at a sample of your talk page edits) and precieved a lack of visibilty from you, but others (and yourself) may disagree and think I'm crazy. That's ok too, I like being crazy, normality is for chumps! Besides it's not necessary for admins (or potential admins) to have massive community involvement, as I said above, it's just feedback. --Xasxas256 22:59, 5 June 2006 (CDT)


 * I hope your not having a go at me. My girlfriend would go nuts. Hehe. Really though, I love feedback. Don't know if you are doing something wrong till someone tells you or you blow something up. :P


 * Here is one of my recent rambling episodes. I'm more for the collection, validation, and protection of the data that is found here at GuildWiki. But I do keep tabs on all the discussions. I don't want to be a step behind in something. ;) --Gares Redstorm 23:12, 5 June 2006 (CDT)


 * "Don't know if you are doing something wrong till someone tells you or you blow something up." Can't you do both!? Anyway it's a shame you don't write on talk/user talk pages more, you seem pretty laid back and fun. However your example of "rambling" is way off, check out some real ramblings I've put on the user page of poor (yet tolerant of my general craziness) Karlos. User_talk:Karlos and User_talk:Karlos. They were a bit before I took a short wikibreak and went off the boil a little. I wouldn't bother reading it because it's a dead discussion from a time I was angry and annoyed but look at the sheer length of those comments! You've got a long way to go mate, also your "ramble" actually made sense! --Xasxas256 23:41, 5 June 2006 (CDT)

Categories go at the bottom
Whoah there cowboy. :) I do believe the current consensus is Style_and_formatting. One of the reasons is that categories on top disrupt spacing on the page. --Bishop (rap|con) 06:35, 8 June 2006 (CDT)

For the rest of this discussion see User_talk:Bishop.

Skill icon RVs..
If there's a question on whether or not we should use those skill icons in skill listings, then I suggest you raise the issue on a talk page. Reverting what seems to be a nice edit is really uncalled for. Do you have any concerns about listing the skills with the tiny icons next to them? The format is simple enough and it looks a lot prettier. This is how a lot of good looking things on this site started, just someone tries them on a few things, people like them then propagate them.

So, yes, it is not our standard monster template, but that monster template can always change if someone comes with a nice idea to add to it. These colorful little icons are certainly a nice idea. I won't counter revert your reverts, but I will start the discussion if it's not already started. --Karlos 00:34, 10 June 2006 (CDT)


 * Its already started. --Gares Redstorm 08:18, 10 June 2006 (CDT)
 * Personally, I think because the discussion hasn't finalized yet, and there are already other articles in that state, your reverts are as pointless as the person's edits. Of course, reverting yoru revert back tot he person's edit is equally pointless etc.  It sufficies to let the person know the matter has not been finalized.  Reverting his edits places you on the same level as he was. - 12:43, 10 June 2006 (CDT)
 * After the first edit he made, I explained it to him. I can't make someone read their talk page. See what I said here. I can only explain that there is a discussion in the works and that his edits, whether they are in good intentions (and I believe he does think he is doing the right thing), is still under review. So until that review is finalized, I feel his edits on skill icons are not necessary at this time until policy has changed. Whether I am depicted as the bad guy on this topic is not my concern, my concern is to try my best to keep the Wiki as uniform as possible until a consensus has been finalized. --Gares Redstorm 12:52, 10 June 2006 (CDT)


 * Personally, I think until the decision is finalized that the articles should conform to what we have listed in the S&F pages. Otherwise, why have the pages at all, just make a talk page and let people discuss things there endlessly and do what they want with the pages.  <-insert sarcasm as necessary  --Rainith 13:26, 10 June 2006 (CDT)


 * Personally, I think the beauracracy is getting to us. The boss maps, how were they started? In the boss template or just good intentioned people adding maps to boss articles. Did we RV the ones added until the community approves the addition of (yes a more useful feature) those maps? This is no harm, look good, quick IDing of most skills, why not? This is not the beast box that has to be all migrated quickly, this is an alternate listing, I don't care if we have half the pages using one and the other half using the other. Anyways, let's get off this poor guy's talk page and keep it in its thread. --Karlos 03:22, 11 June 2006 (CDT)


 * Poor? Hehe, I am far from being poor, although if I keep buying lottery tickets, I might be one day. It's nice when people visit my talk page, I don't keep it clean for nothing :D I'm not one for much discussion, I'd rather see action, so I say let's just take a vote and be done with it and let the cards fall where they may. --Gares Redstorm 05:12, 11 June 2006 (CDT)

For your consideration
I should have posted this here last night, but I was tired and I forgot, so please let me know any ideas that you might have. Also if you could add whatever text you are using to seperate the categories from the main article to my example I'd appreciate it. Original message follows:

Don't know if you're at all interested in this, but I'd appreciate your feedback here about this. --Rainith 15:53, 15 June 2006 (CDT)

Hey hey
I couldn't help but notice you jumping onto Talk:Game updates/20060615. So has the slow transformation from hiding in the shadows to standing on a soap box begun? :P --Xasxas256 21:58, 15 June 2006 (CDT)


 * Hehe. When I see something wrong, I will speak out. No soap box though, just stating an observation out loud. --Gares Redstorm 22:02, 15 June 2006 (CDT)


 * Well it seems to have died down now, although Stabber isn't back yet though I've noticed. I'm not entirely sure if I'm happy with how my comment on Stabber's talk page has come out but it was something I saw unfolding and I did have an opinion that was worth expressing. Strangely I probably wouldn't have said anything (including the mildly critical stuff about Karlos) had it not been for Karlos telling me to stand up for what I believe in a while ago. My this comment is all very serious isn't it!? Perhaps I can liken it to Perillos and his Brazen bull, you know when you show someone something then it gets used against you. You know because torture devices are really really funny aren't they!? :P --Xasxas256 23:08, 15 June 2006 (CDT)

New PvP view from a PvEer
I noticed after finishing all my Luxon quests, that I will need 55 more Jadeite Shards to get my 15k Luxon armor. What is a PvEer to do? Repeatable quests, Challenge missions with hench or find a way to solo them, or do competitive missions such as Fort Aspenwood. Hmmm... I had heard from some guildies that competitive missions are the way to go, but that they are like the Random Arenas, thus PvP.

I am not one to shy away from something new, so I entered Fort Aspenwood (Luxon), check my skills and attribs, and hit Enter Battle. I had no clue what to do when I first went in, though I knew one thing, to kill the opposing team. I lost my first time, though my PvE build worked excellent in PvP as well. I was highly suprised with all the talk about different builds for both types of play.

My second time around, I figure I would prepare mentally. I went to Wiki to see the winning objectives and what the mines did. I took a drink of my soda, cracked my knuckles, and I was ready to go. I am not sure if it was because I had played already, or it was a better team, but we were dominating. I decided to keep the opposing players busy while my team broke through the gates, so I began shadowing the other team, especially one determined warrior. At one point, he was going to die so he ran. I did not understand it, because of the rez thing, but I followed to finish the job. He used Sprint and it so happens I had it as well. As he moved this way and that, I followed his every move, knowing his sprint would run out way before mine (I doubted his strength was 14, as mine was). Poor fellow lost the fight, but the war between the Luxons and the Kurzicks was far from over.

I decided to help my allies to lay seige on the Kurzick base. I had not noticed the damage Siege Turtles could cause. I was amazed as the Juggernaut I was slowly wearing down was suddenly destroyed. I imagined leaves, branches, and moss flying everywhere as the cannonball collided with the Juggernaut's hide. It was a short, but sweet victory as the leader was quickly dispatched, and I fell in love with competitive missions.

Why now do I find PvP so fascinating when I found a distaste for it earlier in Prophecies? I believe it was the fact that in Random Arenas there was not enough of a purpose other than to kill the other team, and that can get boring real quick. Another plus to the PvEer who decides to enter the fray, the rewards are not only PvP based. I found no satisfaction in receiving Balthazar points, but to gain alliance faction is something a PvEer can put to use. Kudos to ANet, nice way to mix elements of both styles of play. -Gares 11:41, 21 June 2006 (CDT)
 * You hated PvP because of RA? Oo That place is home of wammos and ppl tesing builds, if you want some half-decent you should have tried HA &mdash; Skuld  12:46, 19 July 2006 (CDT)


 * I do AB quite a bit now and some of my guildies are wanting to try GvG again, so I may be going back into there soon. -Gares 12:57, 19 July 2006 (CDT)
 * ahem, i wish some nice pair of wikified gentlemen would take me to HoH. i've a total of one fame to my name, and that was because the other team quit. --Honorable Sarah [[image:Honorable_Icon.gif]] 13:03, 19 July 2006 (CDT)
 * I haven't been to HA in a loooong time. Where is it now, the Crystal Desert? :P -Gares 13:52, 19 July 2006 (CDT)


 * Alliance battles, Aspenwood, and the quarry are essentially PvP-light. Even though ANet is probably trying to bridge the gap between the two groups with them, it's a one-way PvE -> PvP effort, though that's not unreasonable.  Most HA and GvG players have a certain disdain for those types of PvP since the teams are random (or, mostly random for alliance battles) since this destroys the teamwork that's necessary for the two "real" types of PvP.  Admittedly, I'm part of that group.  As for RA and rewards, everyone thinks RA is a joke and people PvP because... they want to PvP.  A PvEr might look at a mission (competitive or not) and do it to advance their character whether in terms of storyline or equipment.  Building your character is sort of the end goal of PvE.  PvP has just the game/match as a point.  That's probably why it's a one-way effort like I mentioned at first, there's no incentive a pure PvPer could want (or even have) to go the other way.  --68.142.14.19 13:35, 19 July 2006 (CDT)

Newbie question
You put gcc in some of your edits. The only time I've ever seen gcc is to mean GNU C Compiler. ;) Which I don't think is applicable here. What does it mean? --Chrono traveller 17:29, 3 July 2006 (CDT)


 * Hehe, I'm not compiling any programs here and I haven't used that in a looong time either. My gcc is an abbrevation for Gares' Category Crusade.


 * hehe, my same subconcious thoughts :p &mdash; Skuld  12:35, 19 July 2006 (CDT)

Byssha Hisst
Heh, wouldn't have unstubbed that normally, mind distorting-mass edits ftl &mdash; Skuld  07:22, 22 July 2006 (CDT)


 * I have to go back through and finish my gcc, so if you go a little crazy, I'll fix it. I just happened to be on and noticed. -Gares 07:24, 22 July 2006 (CDT)