User:XT-8147

A bit about me
I'm not on for very long anymore because Guild Wars seems to fill up my pagefile and things get really sluggish or stop responding entirely. I don't know why this is happening, but I wish it would stop. This issue has transcended a drive reformat/OS reinstall, and it's really irritating.

I'm currently doing one of two (maybe three) things when I'm on:
 * SS/LB farming outside Ruins of Sahlajah (or however that's spelled)
 * Running around charming pets to add to my menagerie
 * maybe doing a Zaishen quest (the rewards cost too many damn coins, I'll never be able to afford anything I actually want (moss spider egg, the 20 item equipment pack))

Nobody in my guild ever really does anything anymore. I have guild chat enabled and it's always quiet. The guild announcement says they're playing Perfect World :( Anyone have a PvE guild that's active and can send me an invite?  I'd prefer a Kurzick guild since that's the side I actually have rank 4 of its associated title track for.

Birthday updates
ANet is bipolar about my birthday.

Nothing in 2006.

In 2007, they nerfed pet corpses just to fuck with people farming tombs.

In 2008, we got the title rebalance which only slightly reduced the fucktons of grind they mistakenly introduced.

What will next November hold for us?

Rie Tanaka
Named after my favorite Japanese voice actress, because Nami Tamaki (my favorite Japanese singer) was already taken.

Usual class combos: Necromancer/Monk, Necromancer/Mesmer

Armor: Full 1.5k Scar Armor, dyed blue. Separate head scars for Blood/Death/Curses (use red dye to turn those head scars blue). Alternate foot armor (Bloodstained Boots) for MM or when I want to speed up a well with blood magic, the one energy difference between the foot scar and the boots isn't all that problematic, and bloodstained insignia is going to be a permanent part of her armor once I have Fissure armor.

Fissure armor checklist:
 * Required:
 * 60 platinum - check
 * 350 Tanned Hide Squares - check
 * 35 Elonian Leather Squares - check
 * 105 Globs of Ectoplasm - have 45
 * 105 Obsidian Shards - check
 * Extra:
 * Tinted Spectacles (to look cool) - Need to farm Asura points, will buy once I have ectos
 * lol materials for tinted spectacles - will buy when ectos happen
 * 2 Perfect Salvage Kits (for transferring old runes/insignias) - have one, will buy the other once I have ectos
 * 4 red dyes (duh) - have three, will buy once I have ectos/shards, if the last one hasn't dropped by then

Builds I usually play:
 * PvE Blood Spike
 * insert minion master here (lol an attribute generalized down to a specific task it performs, ignoring the rest of the valuable support it provides)

Pedro No Es Pequeno
Small explanation: besides the fact that Pequeno really should be Peque&ntilde;o (yay for English character limitation), the name translates to "Pedro is not small". When I made him, I set his height as short as possible so he'd be in denial. This name itself originates from my archer named Pedro that I had back when I still played Champions of Norrath. That was most likely a reference to the character from Excel Saga.

Usual class combos: Ranger/Ritualist, Ranger/Monk

Armor: Full 15k Druid's Armor, mask undyed, coat/gloves dyed silver, leggings/boots dyed blue. Separate (1.5k) gloves/boots for swapping in/out superior runes (I usually run two superior runes, I've found that if you stay the hell back like you're supposed to that the health hit really isn't that much of a problem)

Pet: Something or other. Death levelling various pets while SS/LB farming.

Menagerie:
 * 7 Tyrian pets left
 * All Prophecies pets (Stalker, Moa, Wolf, Lynx, Warthog, Dune Lizard, Black Bear)
 * Missing all EoTN pets except Jingle Bear, Mountain Eagle, Polar Bear, and White Moa
 * I capped a Snow Wolf and then went and got a regular Wolf (one of the level 15 Elder ones normally charmed by the stone summit rangers in the southern shiverpeaks) only to find that the menagerie considers them to be the same pet. Oh well, at least I got the level 12 evolutions (and 15 elder) unlocked.
 * 6 Canthan pets left
 * Missing everything except Black Moa
 * 0 Elonian pets left
 * These were all within a reasonable distance of a town or were easy to run to.
 * Lulziest run: a Hyena out of Crystal Overlook, running in a junundu ftw.
 * Only really had to fight for the Lion, outside of Chantry of Secrets since I couldn't run through three Kournan mobs in a row with no break between them to heal. The Lioness on the other side of the zone was a lot easier.
 * Getting a Crocodile out of Lahtenda Bog was difficult with all the Mandragor pops, but I managed it.
 * 2 exotic pets left
 * Torn between saving up for the hueg equipment pack and the moss spider
 * Need a quick UW run to clear one reaper's area I guess

Kind of annoyed that the Balthazar faction costs for the pets can and do exceed 10,000 (and the non-Faction costs are gold zaishen coins which take forever to get). Kind of elitist don't you think ANet?

Max titles obtained:
 * Legendary Cartographer
 * Protector of Cantha
 * Protector of Tyria
 * Elonian Grandmaster Cartographer
 * Canthan Grandmaster Cartographer
 * Tyrian Grandmaster Cartographer

Titles he has displayable: (current progress)
 * Spearmarshal (rank 9)
 * Revered Lightbringer (rank 7)
 * Slayer of Wurms (rank 5)
 * Companion of the Kurzicks (rank 3)
 * Not Too Clumsy (rank 3)
 * Stealth Agent (rank 3)
 * Gutsy Delver (rank 3)
 * Seeker of Wisdom (rank 1)
 * Treasure Hunter (rank 1)
 * Adventurer of the North (rank 1)
 * Kind Of A Big Deal (rank 1)

Titles he's going for: (current progress)
 * Protector of Elona (18/20) (Dzagonur Bastion and Nundu Bay)
 * Drunkard (701 minutes)
 * The elite skill tracks (not a lot, though I have all Ranger skills, elite or otherwise, including Factions duplicates)
 * The Guardian tracks (a few Tyrian, one Elonian, none elsewhere)
 * The Vanquisher tracks (a few Tyrian, none elsewhere)

To-Do list: (items in no particular order)
 * Max SS/LB titles - farming away, my computer shits bricks after a couple hours of running GW and requires a reboot
 * Get Black Moa Chick - have incubator filled, need party for Final Assault.
 * Finish Sorrow's Furnace - I've done Killroy Stonekin and Galen Trask, need the other two and then Final Assault.
 * Get Master's bonus on Dzagonur Bastion and Nundu Bay
 * Dzagonur Bastion - I can never find a good time to break away from defense to go kill a boss
 * Nundu Bay - Mission-critical NPC dies while out doing the bonus
 * Get Tormented Tactics Shield for my Mesmer to use with Illusionary Weaponry - I'd need to find an active guild that would do DoA regularly enough.
 * Organize this mess of a user page. Project started! Click the link to see.
 * Screenshot all characters to add some variety to things
 * Use mini skill bars for builds
 * Add two 2px height table cells above and below the Characters row just for uniformity
 * Finish getting ectos for my Necro's Obsidian armor

I can be found more often than not in Remains of Sahlahja between HM SS/LB farming runs with H/H. Wow, that was a lot of abbreviations. Now that I've turned in Sticks and Stones, I have a somewhat decent drop rate on Inscribed Shards. Go figure.

When I'm not SS/LB farming, I usually run a party build centered around Order of Pain. I have Livia set up with a general purpose build that's pretty much random skills thrown onto her bar but is really easy for the rest of the party to synergize with:

12 + 3 + 1 Blood, 12 Soul Reaping

I've also been known to run splinter barrage, apply poison/burning arrow, or my build designed for soloing the Ascalon area missions. On that note, anyone need NM mission/bonus for Great Northern Wall, Fort Ranik, Ruins of Surmia, or Nolani Academy? On a good day I can also do NM mission/bonus for Borlis Pass, but it requires a fairly different build (lol Vanguard anti-Charr skills become useless).

I had a bunch of links to builds here but most of them are old and the rest were impractical. I kinda want to put together an R/D scythe+pet build, just to be kinda reminiscent of the old Thumper builds while being reasonably creative. And so my pet gets to get some use. I used to run a pure beastmaster with Symbiotic Bond+Call of Protection to make my pet outlive me, but... yeah.

I have a couple of mildly useful builds for farming holiday items in low level areas. The better of which works beautifully in North Kryta Province:

10 + 3 + 1 Expertise, 10 Healing Prayers, 11 + 3 Marksmanship

Dance The Nite Away
Named him that solely to make fun of the Mesmer's dance.

Usual class combo: Mesmer/Monk

Armor: 1.5k Enchanter's on everything but the feet, Courtly boots for the +15 armor while casting SCREW YOU ANERF. Dyed random colors using the dyes I had available at the time, actually looks semi-decent.

I'll update the text above the next time I actually play my mesmer. Which will never happen because I'm 85% Ranger, 10% Necromancer, and 5% Monk now. All the FoW armor materials for my necro were obtained primarily by my ranger. Whee.

Builds I usually play:
 * My own piece of crap build that needs to be thrown out and redone entirely
 * That general purpose mesmer build I think PanSola had somewhere here
 * Illusionary Weaponry - IW + Cyclone Axe is teh sex, and a Totem Axe works beautifully with the build, so...

Mesmers are so much more fun in PvP (specifically AB), where you can call an ele target and Echo Blackout on them while all the warriors in the area descend upon them. Before the 30 seconds of Blackout are done, you have one dead ele.

But even then, I kinda like Apply Poison + Burning Arrow in PvP. Specifically Jade Arena whenever I can get in there. JA is so much more Ranger-exploitable due to all the different altitude levels that FA only wishes it had. Someone will be trying to cap a mine and you can just peek over a nearby cliff and rain down poisoned burning arrows on them.

Holy Sheryl
Name intended to have the first syllable of Sheryl stretched when spoken, just for fun.

Class combo: Monk/Mesmer (doesn't typically use her secondary)

Armor: 1.5k Kurzick armor, dyed red, with a set of Spectacles that I ground the hell out of the Asura title track one night to get. Also has a set of cheapie Ascetic's Armor (Star) for 55 monking, and some Tinted Spectacles for prot should I ever need to run a prot build.

Builds I usually play:
 * healing. duh.
 * Enchantment-based healer - Giving Peace and Harmony somewhat of a use! LOL THANKS FOR REDOING THE SKILL AND RUINING THIS BUILD
 * 55 monk

All the crap that was here about my old monk build and whatnot... I tried to play that build again recently, out of curiosity, and could not figure out how on earth I made it work before.

Bob The Victorious
Bob is possibly the best name ever. He's Bob The Victorious because Bob The Warrior, Bob The Fighter, and Bob The Gladiator were already taken. He's a hammer warrior because I like to play the builds that aren't the most popular.

Usual class combo: Warrior /Monk

Armor: 1.5k Canthan, dyed red. One Stonefist insignia, the rest Survivor.

Current build:

Retired Builds:
 * Friendly Neighborhood Hammer Tank
 * Farming build

His weapon is a Victo's Maul that I had lying around. I liked the look of the Summit Hammer he had before that better, but oh well. I actually want a Mursaat Hammer for him, just because I like the skin, but thanks to the wonders of random number generators, I can never get a decent one to drop.

He also carries a crappy fire staff with an innate Energy +10 on it so he can weapon switch for two quick Rebirths.

I did tests at the Master of Damage for the three variations of this KD chain build I've run so far (FGJ!, Berserker Stance, and Backbreaker/Staggering Blow), and this version edges out Devastating->Fierce->Heavy->Crushing ever so slightly in terms of overall damage and DPS. It was sad to see "None Shall Pass!" go, but I barely used it as it was. The change to Berserker Stance simply put FGJ! to shame. Even with Backbreaker needing as much adrenaline as it does, Berserker Stance still charges it before it ends.

Arcanist Michelle
My elementalist! Named after a character in a story I wrote about some mages (to put it simply).

Armor is 15k Sunspear armor, Survivor insignia, dyed blue. I celebrated getting her to Kodash Bazaar by buying her a Vabbian Glacial Eye. Now she has one of each of the eyes from all three continents, all with the same rune/insignia (Superior Water/Survivor), so I can swap around between them on a whim and the only thing that changes is the looks. Whee.

Rebirth seems like a waste of energy on an elementalist and I don't really want to spare the attribute points to make Restore Life viable, hence I stick with Resurrect. Since I picked up the game again, I'm taking her through Nightfall, despite my ranger being my cartographer/skill hunter.

She uses Flint's Wand and Flint's Artifact.

I've noticed that all the slow hexes available under Water Magic are fairly effective at aggro management. There have been multiple cases of enemies charging right past the warriors in the party to get to me/the monks, only to be whacked by one of my slow hexes, then they seem to retarget to whatever is nearest, which is the warriors. When I can time Ice Spikes correctly to do this, it works quite well. Against single enemies that are already moving towards the party, Shard Storm is much more effective and efficient.

I also farm with her every now and then using a Mist Form build.

I realize that by reading this character list you may have noticed that all of my characters typically have a Monk secondary. I much prefer having an easily reusable resurrection spell to a single-use "must kill a boss to use again" signet.

Factions Characters
I don't really care for either of the Factions classes, or Factions PvE for that matter. Cantha is too hard to navigate and you can't go 5 feet without getting attacked by 20 level 24+ enemies that all explode upon death.

That said, I'm giving a concerted effort to try out the assassin primary right now.

B K Ni Maru Ichi
Named after the messier code of the main character from Darker than Black. He was kind of an assassin, he had daggers, so... yeah. They were on cords and he channeled electricity through them, but whatever. Currently level 11 with a monk secondary for repeatable rez.

Cpt Stabs A Lot
A mule.

Erikkson The Cursed
Named after a character I played in a message board rpg. He was a wheat farmer with a scythe. Lots of back story. He is now a Survivor, thanks to insight scrolls, the igneous summoning stone, and those 13 pushover level 20 snow wurms outside of Boreal Station.


 * Faithful Intervention + Illusion of Weakness for tiered emergency self heals
 * Aura of Holy Might for pwnage, maintainable with Eternal Aura
 * Avatar of Balthazar + Eternal Aura for full-time armor boost/movement speed boost
 * Undead haet Avatar of Balthazar's holy damage

Aytwon Forsevin
Paragons are pretty fun.

Recreated with a better name. If you don't get it, say it out loud and look at my username.

PvP Character
nothing right now

Other stuff
I might write random articles from time to time that have no real place on GuildWiki other than my user page. They'll be listed here.

Skill reviews
Every arbitrarily-lengthed time period, I'll pick a skill, use it a bunch, and write up an article about it explaining strengths/weaknesses, good synergies with other skills, possible party builds, etc. This is because I have too much time on my hands.


 * Escape

Party Build Ideas

 * Synergy with Brambles

Token User Page Links

 * Elite Skills

Random stuff

 * Bonfaaz Pwntfur - exploiting level/armor differences to solo low level missions results in stuff like this.
 * To Familiar Lands - quest stemming from killing the above foe.
 * "Ni!" - Sleep deprivation combined with habitual reading of talk pages.
 * The Art of Skill Bar Organization - I attribute writing this to boredom.
 * Skill Wish List - It started as a way to bring more Monty Python and the Holy Grail references into Guild Wars, and then evolved into fixing every frustration anyone ever experienced.
 * Sandbox - Random build inspirations or what have you.
 * Userboxes - various ones I've made, free for the taking.