GW2 New Lion's Arch Vista: Farshore Ward

This one's kind of tricky, if only because you do not expect how to get there.
As a note, if you've done this one before in the previous incarnations of Lion's Arch, you already know how to do this one.
The closest waypoint is the Farshore waypoint.

So, you can't see the vista because it's hidden. But the important thing here is the windmill. Head up there, and around until you see some hay bales.

These hay bales, specifically. Jump up the ones to the right.

Then jump down into that little area there with the hay bales.

Turn to your right after getting down there, and look at this bush. Now walk through the bush. Just trust me here. Walk through it.

You'll come out in this grassy area. Jump up this little hill here.

When you get up here, walk through another bush that's up against the wall, and kind of run to the left too, because it's not exactly straight through.

Head up to these rocks, and then go up to the one to your left that is flat and leads up.

At the top, turn around and climb up this one last rock, and you'll have reached the vista!


As an added note, if you go past the vista up there you'll reach the entrance to the Sharkmaw Caverns jump puzzle. Which I'm not writing a guide for because jump puzzles are hard. Go look a guide up. There's tons.

GW2 New Lion's Arch Vista: Postern Ward

This one's pretty simple.
Closest waypoint is the Guild Bluff waypoint.

See the big black rocks?
Climb them.

And there you go.

GW2 New Lion's Arch Vista: Inner Harbor

Here's the Inner Harbor Vista! If I remember correctly, this one is identical to a Vista from the original and destroyed Lion's Arch. It looks like it's pretty much right in between two waypoints, so either should work. Gate Hub Plaza waypoint or Guild Bluff waypoint.

It's down on a rock in the middle of the water. No, you can't simply jump down there. Sorry.

Take note of the asura sitting right near you here. Talk to him, and he'll give you a gun with a single attack: a ground targeted jump.

Maneuver your ground target over to the rock where the vista is, and use that ability!

And there you go, you have the vista.

GW2 New Lion's Arch Vista: Eastern Ward

I don't really know what to call this one, but "Captain Theo Ashford Memorial Bridge Vista" seemed way too long and it's not even really over there anyway. The closest landmark is the Inner Harbor, but there's another Vista that is very clearly the real Inner Harbor Vista, so I'm calling this one Eastern Ward Vista. The closest waypoint is the Gate Hub Plaza waypoint.

Okay, so you can't see the Vista here, but you can see it on my map, and this is where you need to go to start the Vista.

Head through that archway and down some steps until you see the Vista itself.

Climb up onto the tallest box, and then jump across to the Vista.

You may miss this jump because it is rather far. If you do, just warp back to the waypoint. It's really not far, so it's not a big deal if you miss.

 

GW2 New Lion's Arch Vista: Grand Piazza

Waaaay long ago I attempted to make a completion guide for Lion's Arch, and I got bored and stopped doing it. And then Lion's Arch got destroyed. And now it's been rebuilt.

So, let's try and do that guide again, shall we?

Let's begin with the Grand Piazza Vista.

So, here we are, looking at the Vista. The closest Waypoint is probably the Gate Hub Plaza waypoint. Or Trader's Forum waypoint. They look about the same distance, honestly.

Now this one is actually kind of misleading because it looks like you can totally just jump up that stack of boxes to get up to it. Well, you can't, because that last box that it's sitting on is too high up to jump up to. So you have to find an alternate route.

That alternate route can be found on that rather large boulder to the left of it, behind that lamp thing.

 

Climb  up to the top of the boulder and then jump across onto the top of the lamp.

And then jump from the top of the lamp onto the box.
This might take a couple tries if you misjudge the distance.

Then just jump up onto the barrel that the vista is sitting on, and you have it.

I caved in and bought Total Makeover Kits in GW2

Just thought I'd share my updated characters. Oddly enough, I did not alter Keiana Xiphium at all because I think she was already perfect. Nothing else looked right for her.

So first off, here's Keiana Xiphium. I used some of the Transmutation Charges I'd been saving up from map completion to change her armor because I was kind of sick of Masquerade armor. It's all Cabalist except for the Seer Mask. And I changed her greatsword to a Glyphic Greatsword too. Didn't change her Staff because I don't care about her Staff.

This is my second highest level, Lucia Snapdragon, who is a level 26 Elementalist.

My level 9 Necromancer, Dahlia Strelitzia.

And my level 2 Guardian, Lucinda Strelitzia.

I figure that spending real money on them will keep me from deleting them.

I don't know what to do with that last slot. I just can't get into Ranger, Thief, Engineer, or Warrior.

I'll make a Revenant when it comes out because I really like the concept of the Ventari's Tablet's supportive abilities, plus heavy armor has always been my favorite armor type in games (even if I naturally gravitate towards lightly armored character classes...), so it seems like it might go well for me.

Very busy!

So, our puppy, Pacha, arrived yesterday, and I've been wicked busy with him. He's very sweet and not at all a troublemaker, but he is very clingy, specifically to me. He is also luckily very easily distracted. He is very excitable and active when he first gets up, but soon wears himself out and is sleepy the rest of the day (which the rescue center representative said is typical for Chihuahuas). So the problem isn't that he's trying to get into everything, it's more that he only wants to sit on my lap no matter what I'm trying to do!

Also yesterday, my beloved twelve year old cat was diagnosed with liver cancer. They didn't give us any sort of timeline, but he's on homeopathic medicine for now to ease the pain and hopefully make him feel a bit better. I'm absolutely heartbroken, and yesterday was a weird day because I was excited about the puppy, but also feeling like I was going to cry all day for my cat. This cat has been my best friend for so many years, and it's heart-rending to see him in pain, and to know that it's approaching the end.

Gaming-wise, I'm switching my time between FFXIV and GW2 because I am still enjoying FFXIV, and one of my close friends was begging me to play GW2 with him. So yeah, splitting my time.

Well, that's a conundrum

First and least importantly (to the conundrum that is), my family is getting a puppy tomorrow. Wicked exciting. He's all neutered and ready to come home. He's a rescue, so we aren't certain what kind of dog he is exactly, but the rescue center knows he's half Chihuahua; they just aren't sure what the other half is. He's a bit larger than a typical Chihuahua, so that's the interesting thing.

Now, to the conundrum, which I'm posting here because I couldn't find any information that was useful, and I tend to find that typing things out helps me think things through better anyway:

My boyfriend's internet often has problems. He lives in an apartment, so there's lots of other Wifi signals passing through that are likely interfering with his, and such. Works fine when plugged into the modem and all that, it's just his computer and mobile devices that have an issue (even then, some days they work fine, and others they don't).

But here's the conundrum-ey bit. On our 3DS systems the local wireless doesn't work at all when the internet isn't. As far as I knew, local play didn't require internet since we're sitting literally 2 feet away from each other. We get error code 018-0000, which means it couldn't connect to the internet, but I don't understand how it's relevant when we're literally sitting next to each other? He doesn't even have his apartment set up as an internet connection for his DS, so I don't know why his internet would even affect it.

Especially since we can go out to the park or something, where there's no internet, and it'll work fine. And it isn't our systems because they work fine anywhere besides in his apartment. It's fine at my house, the park, friends' houses, etc. Just not his.
It works if his internet is working fine, but if it turns off from whatever is causing the shut-offs then the systems stop working too. What's weirder is that it works fine if the power is out.
We make sure that there's isn't anything else on in his apartment that could be causing any extra interference too. It's just really, really odd.
My smartphone is still able to access to the internet no problem (it is not connected to his wifi either though), and I've been using my phone there for far longer than this issue has been happening, so I would doubt my phone has anything to do with it either (I've also checked and turned off my phone when we're testing the systems, and still nothing).

The only thing I can think of is that perhaps something about his modem itself is interfering with the DS signals, or there's some sort of outside interference (which I highly doubt would be intentional)?

Just throwing it out there, but I don't suppose anyone happens to know why this could be happening?

I also just thought I would put this out here because I read about people having similar issues but there were never any responses to their forum threads.

Um?

So I got my White Mage pants.
Kind of.
They aren't really pants.

Those aren't pants.
Those aren't even remotely pants.
And they don't even look anything like what they did when I clicked "Try On."
I kind of hoped they'd be a long skirt or something for White Mage.
But I guess no pants is okay too.
I'm really embarrassed walking around now. The Au Ra thigh scales just make it all the more obvious that my pants are not sufficient.

And Garuda is down!

Successfully beat Garuda today!

Well, by successfully I mean it took at least 5 tries, but it got done none the less. My group was very patient (all but one of us was new), and I don't think we did as terribly as we could have. I feel like a lot of our issue was that I just didn't have enough MP to sustain us, but I feel like a much better healer now that I've done it, and I feel like I have a better grasp for conserving MP. On our final attempt I didn't even come close to running out of MP until the start of the second phase because our Bard was very nice and kept Mage's Ballad up for me when he could. In the second phase I used Shroud of Saints to regain some, and I didn't end up running completely out of MP (I didn't run out to the extent that I couldn't Swiftcast + Raise one of our DPS when he died though, which I feel bad about).

Now, excuse me while I hyperventilate and regain my composure. I don't want to do Garuda ever again, so I'm a bit nervous about queuing for the dungeon roulette now.

Now I can continue on in the game though! Yay yay!

Not doing that again

SO I TRIED TANKING TODAY.
NOPE.

Not doing that again. Not ever. Nope nope nope. I felt really bad, but I had to leave my group after the first boss because I just could not handle it. Nope nope nope nope nope. It wasn't there fault at all, and they actually said I was fine, but I was on the verge on tears and I had to leave.

On a better note, my healing resolve has been strengthened. I feel like I can heal anything now since doing Titan and Brayflox for the first time were 100% less stressful than doing Sastasha as a Tank for the first time. I'm going to go do the three more levels I need on my Thaumaturge for Swiftcast, and then go back to my White Mage (with the occasional break for my Pugilist, because I really enjoy Pugilist too).

So, my classes are now:

White Mage level 41
Scholar/Summoner level 33
Pugilist level 27
Thaumaturge level 23
Gladiator level 15 (never touching again)
Lancer level 15
Archer level 7

White Mage is obviously my main. I leveled up Scholar thinking I'd like to try a different style of healing, but then I remembered that I really don't like pet classes, so now it's just kind of stagnating. If I use it it'll probably be as Summoner. If at all. Pugilist is my main DPS class, I think. I really enjoy it. Thaumaturge is really just being leveled so I an get Swiftcast. I don't know if I'll continue it after. Never touching Gladiator again. Lancer is just so I can become a Monk later. I really didn't like Lancer at all though. Archer will be leveled eventually because I like archery.

So, Ayame Miyumi is now primarily a White Mage / Pugilist (very soon to be Monk). And I'm pretty happy with that. Someday I'll get Astrologian too, and I'll probably enjoy that one. Maybe. Hopefully. I do like buffing people. I feel like I've tried most of the classes sufficiently enough, and if I ever feel like playing one of the others then I will (except tanks. Never again).

FFXIV Progress Update!

Still going strong!
Although I have to do Stone Vigil next for the main story quest, and I'm nervous about that one. I swear that dungeon guides are useful to learn about the mechanics, but they are terrible for anxiety. I just hope I get an experienced party that can easily blow through the dungeon. Please. Oh goodness, please. I'm generally okay with dungeons once I've gone through them once, but the first time is killer for me. I practically shake the whole way through. After one successful run I'm fine though. I still panic a tiny bit if Titan pops up in my roulette, but I get through it without issues, so even that's fine. And Brayflox? Psh, easy healing now. The only one that I would say still gets me a tiny bit anxious is Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak, but I only feel anxious on Graffias. To be fair, I rarely get a group that doesn't stand in the poison puddles, so I think that's an acceptable nervousness.

So, my White Mage is level 41, I have Scholar/Summoner at 33. Thaumaturge is currently 23, and I'm working on getting three more levels there for Swiftcast. I'm not going further in dungeons until I get that, so that's priority number 1 right now.
I also have Puglist at level 18, Lancer at level 8, and Archer at level 6 because I was too lazy to do dungeons last night, and I woke up today wanting to play a Pugilist, so I leveled it today. I'm not sure about it. I think I enjoy Thaumaturge more, but it certainly wasn't a terrible experience. Can't get into Lancer though. Not as fun to me.

So yup, still going strong over here. I have to work tomorrow,  so no Stone Vigil tomorrow, but perhaps Thursday.

In other news, my family is getting a puppy. He's a rescue, and very cute (we already did the home visit). The rescue center is having him neutered on Monday, and then they'll keep him while he recovers for a few days, and then he's ours. Very exciting!

Ok, yeah, I'm shaking

So, as an update to my FFXIV-ing (which is still going great with no sign of me losing interest yet, by the way), I'm doing very, very well.

Ayame Miyumi, my Au Ra on Adamantoise, is now a level 34 White Mage and level 32 Scholar. I'm working on leveling up Thaumaturge too for Swiftcast, but I just don't enjoy it, so it's slow going there. I also thought about attempting tanking for all of two seconds, so I have a level 2 or so Gladiator before I went back to healing dungeons again.

As I stated in a few prior posts, I'm almost completely cured of dungeon-phobia, and I'm running at least 3 dungeons per day with great success. Everyone is wicked nice and I haven't run into anyone rude or mean. I think I've only encountered two wipes total, and I don't mind telling the stories about them. The first was when I was DPS leveling up my Arcanist, and we were in Toto-Rak. We ended up wiping because the tank didn't pick up the adds during the final boss and they were attacking the healer, so he ultimately died, and the rest of us with him, but we cleared it the second time around.

And the second wipe I've been a part of was entirely my fault. 100% my fault, and I can't apologize enough to my party. It was literally 5 minutes ago from my time of typing this, and I was doing Titan for the first time. We died not even half way through because the tank let me know that I still had Cleric Stance on (hadn't even noticed, so embarrassed), and I turned it off and tried to type out "Oops, sorry. Fixed." I am a very fast typist, but I got hit with some bad luck there as well and happened to end up in the middle of one of Titan's Landslide (I think that's the one. Not the one where he jumps, the other one), and I tried to move, but I didn't realize I hadn't gotten out of the chat box yet, so I was trying to move but instead I was typing "wwwwaaaaaaaaawwawawa," and I got killed. I felt so bad. I apologized profusely afterwards. That was totally my fault, and I still feel really bad for it.

AND the reason why I'm shaking right now is that, on top of the fact that I also just did Brayflox for the first time a couple hours ago, and everything I had been reading about these two encounters is that they're really rough for the healer. As much as I appreciate the existence of guides for dungeon encounters, they also, at times, make me all the more anxious with all the warnings. I would never in a million years enter a dungeon blind, but I would perhaps be better off skimming the guides and then taking notes to memorize from rather than reading and rereading the guide to memorize things.

I also have no idea what to expect from dungeons past this point because I honestly didn't think I'd make it this far. Up until five minutes ago I didn't think I'd make it this far. I was saying earlier today that if I didn't "man up" so to speak (not a man, but you get the idea) and do the encounters today that I would end up quitting the game tomorrow out of fear. So I did, and now I can get on with the game. And I suspect this game will last me considerably longer than most, if only because I've invested so much emotional turmoil to it at this point that I don't feel like I can abandon it at this point.