What have I been up to?

Playing FFXIV: Stormblood, of course!

I believe I posted before talking about how I had managed to get past the Raubahn blockade late on the first day of early access, but I'm not sure if I've posted about what happened after that.

After that, I got stuck at the Pipin blockade, but got through that early the next day. From there, it was smooth sailing. Leveled quickly. I was the first level 70 in my FC. By the time I was 68, the first few other people from my FC were getting through Raubahn. I had just hit 70 and was on my way to do my last job quest when the FC called me in to give them my speedy healer queue for Susano.

From there, I did EX roulettes over and over for Verity, and fairly quickly got a full set of Verity gear. Didn't touch the EX Primals because I was scared.

Omega Deltascape normal came out. I cleared it early on day 1. I've done it the past two weeks too. I have my hat, gloves, and my full right side gear is done. My guild finally talked me into doing Lakshmi EX, but I'm not really going to bother to farm it.
Capped my Creation tomes today; bought the ring, so now my right side gear is really and truly as high as I can get it for the moment.
I should probably consider farming Susano EX for the weapon, but I don't want to really. An FC buddy said he'd go along with me for my first time in there, but our schedules haven't lined up, so I'm kind of just waiting Which I don't mind. EX Primals stress me out, so I'm not in a big rush to do Susano.


I'm feeling good about my healing though. I feel like my old healing anxiety has mostly passed. It's probably mostly because right before the expansion I was doing a ton of roulettes trying to get WHM to 60 / finally work on getting better gear, and I kept getting Chrysalis and Titan HM (both of my old nemeses), so I kind of became desensitized to rough healing.

Probably also helps that White Mage just feels great right now. I've been trying to level AST too, but the healing feels so much harder. With White Mage I know I can heal through practically anything thrown at me, and still have more than enough MP to spare (if you run out of MP / die, just hit Thin Air + Lucid Dreaming, and boom, full MP, and in battle your MP upkeeps itself with Assize. Thin Air + Swiftcast + Raise for a free raise. It's insane). With AST I can get through the same pull, but I'm going to have MP troubles and it's going to be messier.


All this said, there will be no Omega Savage for me. My FC isn't a raiding group, and I'm not particularly interested in joining a static anyway. It also just sounds like too much pressure. I raided for a short time in WoW, and I just don't like having the set times. It stressed me out and just felt like too much pressure. Plus, my schedule is weird and erratic. I'll stick to running "casual" content with random people and occasional FC runs of things, thank you very much.

I'm...confused?

I've been playing Animal Crossing: New Leaf recently because I found all my DS games that have been missing for 2 years. Started a new town. So I was trying to look up a list of villagers just so I could look through and find some ones I would really like to try to get.

Um, google had an interesting suggestion for me...?

Everything's normal. Except for suggesting Canberra, which makes sense as there's a character with that name. But...Meat Chop? That doesn't really fit with everything else...

Dragomon Hunter Review

I've been in a game-trying mood lately, so I decided to try Dragomon Hunter, since I noticed it was in open beta, and then I figured "Hey, why don't I write a review about it?" and so here we are.

Please be aware that this review is written during the Open Beta, and therefore some things are bound to change between this review being written and the full release of the game.

So first off, let me give a couple quite bullet points before going more in-depth:

Good

• The dialogue is well-written and comedic
• The sheer amount of references to other media (primarily anime) is great.
• The game itself looks quite nice from an aesthetic point of view. I thought the character models are nice (aside from the wonky hair, but I'll get to that later).
• The concept of capturing monsters to use as mounts and to raise on your Ranch is interesting.
• I really like the concept of Dragoncite inlaying.
• I like the concept of crafting.
• The Hoppalongs are adorable.

Bad

• Weird plot holes (talking to a character like you've already met them when in fact you never have).
• Lack of tutorials / explanation for the game's more complicated things such as crafting.
• Combat is kind of boring.
• The game overall feels a little too easy.
• No armor skins, just costumes.
• Holy gold spammers!
• Main town has a weird layout.

So first, let's talk about the good things about the game.

First up, the dialogue. The dialogue is magnificent. Usually I just skip over dialogues in these free imported MMOs because the dialogue is typically terribly localized and all around boring. This game, however, has quite enjoyable dialogue (most of the time at least). To top it all off, the dialogue and quest names frequently references to something or other (usually anime), which gives me an extra giggle when I get the reference.

The game looks nice. I really like games with vibrant colors, and this game certainly has that. The character models look quite nice in my opinion, although I know not everyone likes the chibi look. The game has a day/night cycle which is a nice change from other F2P MMOs too. The monsters in the game are well done and unique looking. I'm playing on Medium graphics settings and it plays decently. I do get some lag spikes, but they are mostly in town where there's tons of people, with the occasional spike in the instanced quest areas. But I also recognize that my computer is terrible, so there's that.

Character creation is a bit disappointing. There are a few hair and face options, plus eye colors and hair colors. The variety of the female hairstyles felt a bit disappointing though. I didn't feel like I really found one that I liked all that much. Faces were a bit better variety-wise though. The game also has voice options, but personally I turned off all voices in my settings because the game talks just a little bit too much. Also, the hairs have a bit of a physics issue sometimes. They go crazy in the character creator when you turn the character, and act wonky in-game sometimes when you turn quickly or enter a zone. They calm down significantly during normal play though (or maybe I just get too distracted to notice?).

Classes are pretty simple to grasp. You can select one of four base classes. You can use a different weapon with them at level 20, and at level 30 you can specialize into one of two specializations per class. The base classes are Mercenary, Mage, Scout, and Cleric. These are your typical Warrior, Mage, Rogue, and Healer classes. Mercs use Battleaxes or Greatswords, Mages use Staves or Magic Horns, Scouts use daggers (I think they have a different name though) or Rifles, and Clerics use Hammers or Cestuses (if you are familiar with FlyFF, they are the same things as Knuckles). Mercs can specialize as Barbarians or Vanguards, Mages can become Arcanists or Symphonists, Scouts can be War Dancers or Sharpshooters, and Clerics can be Crusaders or Monks. Personally, I've been really enjoying my Cleric, leaning towards Crusader.

Dragocite Inlaying is quite neat. Basically, every time you kill a monster you get a chance to pick up its Dragocite (it's rare though, as far as I can tell). These are gems that can be inlayed into different equipment. When you pick them up, they have an effect that isn't all that great on its own. But then you can take it to a Master Craftsman along with some materials and Transform it to give it more effects (such as an attack boost), and then they become significantly more useful. You then inlay it into the equipment type that it specifies and there you go! You are also able to separate the equipment and Dragocite at no cost and at no risk to either piece, so the Dragocite are reusable! You have 10 tries to Transform your Dragocite before you can't do it anymore, but it seems like those tries are hardly necessary if you aren't too picky. As an example of what I'm talking about as far as stats, I have, right now, a Rhinosker's Dragocite inlayed on my Frigid Cone Hammer. The base effect of this is +15% damage to Shellomon, but because I transformed it, it now also gives me +49 Attack, +54 Penetration, +20 Crit, and +5% damage to Humanoids. And at any time, I could remove it from my hammer and apply it to my Quintus' Devestation cestus.

Crafting has a neat concept, I think. Every time you kill a monster you get a chance to get materials from it. These materials can then be used to craft more gear. As far as I can tell, gear can only be made from dungeon boss materials, but I could be wrong. You can also Refine and Evolve your gear to make it more powerful. I don't know too much about this process yet, because I figure I'll wait until a higher level when my equipment will be more permanent than it is during the leveling process.

Hoppalongs are adorable bunnies that are adorable. You customize your own personal Hoppalong during character creation complete with naming. You can also change their class later on, but I haven't figured out how yet. I know it has to do with some books you can win in the Hoppadrome, but I have a couple classes unlocked for mine and can't figure out how to change his class.

And a lot of this leads into one of the big negatives of the game. That being a lack of explanation and tutorials! Yay! The game introduces you to these concepts like crafting, Dragocite, the Hoppadrome, your Hoppalong, the Ranch, etc. but then doesn't really go into detail about them. The only reason why I figured out how to use Dragocite was because I looked it up. And I still do not understand the purpose of the Ranch or how to use it properly at all.

There's also the occasional plot-hole, although I might have messed something up, maybe. The big one that I can think of is when I got the automatic quest to visit my ranch and there I met Fate and the dialogue acted like I already knew her when in fact I had never even met her until a later quest.  Or how the main quest sends you to visit Marvin/Martin/whatever-that-con-artist's-name-is long before he introduces himself. On the topic of quest, I also did not appreciate the automatic pop-up quest that led me to a quest that required me to purchase something from the cash shop. I promptly dropped that quest as soon as I figured out what it wanted. I also do not like this quest I have in my quest list that is listed as a main quest and wants to require me to join a guild. I can't get rid of it either because it is an auto quest. I'm going to hold off on it for as long as possible.

Outside of crafting, the game feels a little bit too easy. I feel like I just use Sovereign Blessing to give myself a buff, start the fight with Hammer of Judgement, and then just spam all my buttons until something dies, occasionally moving out of easy-to-escape attack telegraphs. And if I take damage I just use Healing Prayer and I'm done. I don't know, I went into this game expecting a little more difficulty than that. Maybe it'll get harder later, but the only decent challenge I've gotten has been in the Hoppadrome, but the only way I can tell to get tickets for that is through the daily quests, so I can only do Hoppadrome so many times a day.

Finally, my biggest complaint is that the game has some of those wonky MMO systems that I despise. Things like auto-movement to automatically bring me to my quest objectives. Or how I can pick up new improved armor but that armor does not include a skin, instead I need to get a costume to change my outfit skin, and those are few and far between in-game. This game takes this a step farther by having costumes actually have stat-bonuses on them. Not cool. If you're going to make me use costumes instead of gear, do not put stats on them and most certainly do not then sell said statted-costumes in a cash shop. Not okay. The game is also currently plagued with gold spammers, and when I say plagued, I mean an absolutely insane amount of gold spammers. I also cannot seem to find a report button and I've heard that there's a limited amount of space on the block list, so that's no good.

All in all, the game has the potential to be really, really good. It has the concepts and the bones, but it suffers from issues that plague many F2P MMOs. I'll be keeping an eye on it, for sure.

Progress Update?

Hello, sorry, I've been quite busy in the past two weeks.
I had begun college classes for Hospitality and Event Planning, but then, due to various reasons, decided to switch to Programming.

Long story short, I felt quite uncomfortable in my hospitality classes since it seemed like everyone there was very outgoing and we were told that we shouldn't be in this class if we aren't a "people person."
I am not a people person and I am incredibly shy and introverted (and anxious!).
So, I decided to switch to Programming instead, which is honestly probably a better fit for me anyway due to my computer background.
So, we'll see how this goes. Hopefully, this will be my last major swap, and I can just get through with this. It's just a certificate course, so it's not like it's a huge time commitment.
This all hinges on if I get a decent grade on my computer skills accuplacer tomorrow though. Which I'm extremely nervous about. I've never actually had a computer class; everything I know about computers I learned from my dad or I taught myself. I just hope it's enough. It'll be discouraging to have a basic computer skills class blocking my way to the good stuff.
I'm particularly nervous since I haven't taken a test in...oh my goodness, 6 years. My high school wasn't traditional and we didn't have tests. And my animation school also didn't have tests. Well, that's suddenly more nerve-wracking.

Sorry, just venting a bit. I'm a nervous wreck.
Oh well, the cure for nervousness is playing Mass Effect, so I'll happily go do that. I'm doing a new playthrough this week and I'm about in the middle of ME2 right now. Just did the Collector Ship, and I'm off to complete loyalty missions before Reaper IFF. I really need to get around to getting the ME2 DLC. I have all the ME3 DLC (Citadel is the best thing ever), but I've never gotten around to getting the ME2 ones. I've watched my boyfriend do parts of Shadow Broker, but that's about it. I need to get it. Maybe I'll ask him for it for my birthday / Christmas.

And I'm back!

Hello, it's been a while!
I've been very busy with other things and haven't had the time to write on here, but I'll try to get back into the swing of things starting now.

Let's see...what's happened since I last posted..

I had the flu, which was initially made me stop writing for a while because I was just sleeping all day and couldn't really even play games. And when I'm not playing any games I don't really have too much to write about.

And then I got absorbed in GW2 for a while. I had another abnormally productive week and Keiana Xiphium, my Mesmer, is now level 80. Yeah, I don't know how that's possible either.

Then I played Skyrim with my boyfriend. Fun fun. I'm playing a High Elf who uses no magic, is a Stormcloak, and would probably best be described as chaotic good. She also may or may not be a Thalmor spy. We're not sure yet. We don't think she's sure yet. My boyfriend also says that my character has powers to manipulate alternate universes due to the fact that I have a tendency to save, kill off a character, and then reload. So that was fun for a bit.

I'm a terrible gardener in real life.

My cat is going insane in his old age. We give him plenty of food. We keep dry food out for him and our younger cat all day, and it's special cat food from the vet's office because of my cat's urinary problems. We also give them a can of wet food at night, which he eats all of in under ten minutes and does not let the younger cat near it. And yet he is constantly acting like he is starving to death. He isn't. He has plenty of food. He is just picky and doesn't want his food that he's eaten for years. He wants everyone else's food. He tried to eat my pizza the other day. And my cereal. And my Oreos. And anything else we have to eat. He also tries to take the dog's food. If we turn out backs for even a minute he'll take food off the table. Weird cat.

I applied to a college but never heard back. :|

I applied for a job but never heard back. :|

The most recent event is that we had to have our 14 year old Dalmatian put down last week. It was very sad. We knew it was coming because of his hip and spine problems that he developed in his old age. There wasn't much we could do about it. We did what we could. The last suggestion the vet had for us was acupuncture, which is the one thing we didn't try. Regardless, it finally got to the point where he couldn't move at all. This had happened a couple days in the past where it seemed like he wouldn't be able to walk again and that it was time, but in the past he had recovered after a couple hours and been fine. He wasn't fine this time. He could not put weight on either of his back legs and he did not show any signs of being able to again, because in the past it had only been one leg that had been bothering him, but this time it was both. And his front legs weren't looking great either. At 9PM my dad came upstairs crying and saying that it was time, so my parents went to the vet to get it over with and I stayed home to console our other dog. RIP Tango.

 So yeah, I'll get back to work on writing some stuff for the blog. Hyperdimension Neptunia Rebirth: 2 apparently comes out tomorrow on Steam, so maybe I'll do something about that once I get it.

Update on the Update!

YES, I am still working on the guide update!

I'm splitting my time a bit though, because Story of Seasons just came out and I was really looking forward to that, so I'm doing PDP at night and SoS during the day inbetween homework and classtime.

For PDP I picked Rin Kaenbyou as my starter, and I'm just now at Kappa Valley. Just so we all know, I swear the week I wrote the initial guide was the most productive week of my life. I wrote a guide while also taking an intensive animation class (which I got an A in, so I wasn't slacking!).

I never complete games that fast. Like I said: most productive week of my life. I'm a slow game-completer. I like to think I'm not, but I am.

And let's finish this off with a couple quick tips for Story of Seasons, because I've been wanting to make a list of these anyway.

•  This one is kind of obvious, but look up you love interest's likes and dislikes. Don't do what I did and assume they like flowers. Because then you end up like me and realize halfway into Summer that they hated the gifts you were giving them. :(
• Get a Sewing Studio as soon as possible. Start growing Flax. Turn it into Gold Linen Cloth. Sell it. Easiest way to beat Conquests and make money.  (this one is credited to http://fogu.com/hmforum/viewforum.php?f=30 <-- That forum)
• Save 5 Turnip Seeds before you're done with Year 1 Spring. You need it to make the Seed Maker. (also from the above forum).
•  In the Fall, grow Sweet Potatoes. After they're fully grown, they are harvestable every day with only one water per day.
• Once you unlock them, carry some Carrots in your inventory to instantly travel on your horse to town or the Trade Depot. You can either grow the Carrots yourself in the Fall or buy them from the General Store starting in the Fall (I think that's when they start being sold). 
• Participate in Conquests regardless of if you think you can win or not. No harm in trying. Even if you don't particularly want the field, it's a good idea to try for it just in case you want it next Season or something and the lease isn't up yet.
• For that matter, renew your leases regardless of if you're actually using the field or not. It doesn't cost anything, and you don't have to do another Conquest for it.
• Remember to water plants twice a day. At least your main ones. I'm at the end of Fall and I only grow Flax in my main field and Sweet Potatoes in the Root Crops field. I water the Flax twice a day (6AM, 6PM), and the Sweet Potatoes once
• Clear out the trees to the top right of your property ASAP. There's a ton of space up there and you can put your workshops / coop up there or something.
• If you have the spare Stamina be sure to chop any wood and crush any rocks you see for the lumber and stone.
• Collect Weeds that you find and store them. You can turn them into Fertilizer once you have the Seed Maker.
• For Conquests, definitely try and get the Honey/Mushroom field. In the Summer, you can start picking up Giant Honey Bees. Put three in each box. They seem to be better than normal Bees. Check back every week or so for honey. Mushrooms you just have to plant and come back every once in a while to check on. You can fertilize them too, if you want. But, basically, that field is passive income. You barely have to do anything, but you get honey and shiitake mushrooms out of it.
• Don't overdo it on the crops. Even just your little pre-fenced field on your property gives you 99+ crops per harvest sometimes. It doesn't look like much when it's planted, but it's a LOT when harvested!
• Don't grow trees on your main property. One of the Conqest-able fields is an Orchard. I don't have that yet, so I personally planted four trees (one for each season) on those four plots you can use at Ida's farm.
• Feed your livestock treats! This can make it so they give you twice the amount of product (2 milks per day, 2 eggs, etc.).
• If you have Rabbits, make sure you brush them.
• Pick up your chickens and rabbits every day to raise their heart levels.
• Once you unlock the Safari area, mine there every day for gems and metals. They're so useful!
• Also check the grassy area and stumps for Downy Tufts, which can be used to make clothing in the Sewing Studio.
• Once you have the Seed Maker save some of your harvested crops to dry and turn into free seeds.
• Grow two patches of grass early on in the game. I had so many stacks of 99 Fodder saved up from Year 1 Spring that I still have plenty of stacks, and I haven't grown grass in 2 seasons!
• Early on, go diving whenever you have spare Stamina. You need Bricks and Iron to build many things! Fish can be sold. Any gems you find can be kept or sold.

Playing FFXIV again!

I've been playing FFXIV for the free days this week, and I'm thinking of renewing my subscription for this month.

I've restarted on the Mateus server. Name is still Cardboard Viking.

If you see me, feel free to say hello, just please do not stalk me and bow at me because that's happened to me twice now and it's really creepy. So please don't.

If I was not moving before you approached me, assume I am AFK. If I stop moving after you talk to me, assume I am formulating a response, which can be quite the process for me.

You know how if you see a deer in the road, they kind of freeze up and just stare at you for a second? I do that when approached, so please bare with me. :)

GW2 Beginner Dos and Don'ts.

Because it seems like there's probably / probably will be an influx of new players onto GW2 due to the announcement of the expansion, I wanted to write a newbie guide. I've been meaning to get around to it for a while, and it's possible in the works right now, maybe. But I thought I might start off by writing out a quick Dos and Don'ts list. Just a quick rundown. Maybe I'll polish this up later and just have this be my newbie guide. Not sure yet. Haven't planned that far ahead.

DO

• Do pick up a class that looks / sounds interesting to you. If you have no interest in a Warrior, don't play a Warrior. If you get into the game and see a whole bunch of other Warriors and it looks like fun, then make a Warrior and try it out.
• If you've played any other MMOs, think about what classes you liked to play. Using WoW as an example, the best equivalents I can think of are Paladin = Guardian, Warrior = Warrior, Mage = Mesmer, Shaman = Elementalist, Warlock = Necromancer, Rogue = Thief, Hunter = Ranger, and Engineers also have some similarities with Shamans because Totems = Turrets.
• Do Gather out in the world. It does not waste any time because you gain experience from it (and not gathering experience, actual player level experience), and you'll need all the materials you can get.
• On that note, do pick up two useful Crafting abilities. They are somewhat tedious, but they can help level up your character, and they are very valuable a max level. There's plenty of people who have gotten to max level just through crafting, so it does give you pretty decent experience.
• Do try out all the possible weapons for your class. Find one that you love and the game will be more fun for you. For example, I love Scepter for Mesmers; I find it incredibly fun, and even better when paired with a Sword.
• Do purchase cheap Food off the Black Lion Trading Company. There's a whole lot of Food that can be bought for less than 10 Copper. Just go to Trading Post > Buy Items > Other > Food Effects, and then find where it says Price and click on that to filter by Price, with the cheapest Foods being at the top. While leveling, don't worry about which foods you buy so much because you only really need them for the exp bonus from Nourishments. Actually useful stat bonuses will come at max level.
• Do complete all your Vistas, Skill Challenges, Hearts, and all other Map Completion. I know, I know, it can be tedious, but it gets you exp and free Transmutation Charges. And doing it as you're going through the area is so much easier than coming back to do it later.
• Do pick a race that you like. The benefits of the racial utilities aren't worth not liking the race itself.
• That said, do look at the customization options or each race. I thought I would only like Humans until I really looked at the Sylvari customization options, and now my Sylvari characters far outnumber my Human ones!
• Do save all crafting materials, even if they aren't applicable to your current crafting abilities. You can store them in your crafting storage and use them on a different character (Hint! In your inventory, click on the little cog wheel and then Deposit All Materials to deposit any materials in your inventory to the crafting storage automatically).
• Do salvage everything you can. Armor and weapons that you can't use (wrong armor/weapon type, lower stats than your current gear, etc) are commonly salvageable. There's also some items that you pick up out in the world that can be salvaged into crafting materials.
• If you find an interesting item, do check out the Black Lion Trading Company to see how much it is worth so you can weigh your options. Salvage or sell?
• Do look over the common viable builds for your class. This information can be found easily on the official forums. For PvP, look in the PvP forums for a thread called "New to PvP? Start here!". For PvE, check your class forums (listed under Professions). For specific thread titles: Elementalists should look for "Zelyhn's Advanced D/F" and "DPS Elementalist for PvE." Engineers should check "The Engineer Handbook." Guardians get three; "Guardian 101 - A Beginner's Text," "DPS Guardian for PVE," and "Guardian - Frequently Asked Questions." Mesmers should check out "Find your Mesmer Builds & Guides," "Lyssa's Grimoire: The Mesmer Handbook," and "How to Mesmer in Dungeons." Necromancers should look for "DPS Necro for PvE." Rangers need "New to Rangers? Looking for guides? CLICK ME!". Thieves should look for the "Guide to Thief Guides." And Warriors apparently don't have a guide, so check out the "Post Your Build Thread" for some inspiration, I guess...
• On that note, check out your class forums every so often; they are often filled with valuable information as to how your class is doing in all facets of the game, as well as how to improve your own playstyle.
• Do mess around with builds and Utilities in the PvP Lobby. To get there, click on the crossed swords on the top left of your screen, and click Enter PvP Lobby. Here, your effectively level 80 and so have access to all Talents and Utilities. There's training dummies for you to mess with your build and get a feel for it as well.
• Do learn how to dodge properly. I find practicing in underwater combat to be a bit easier than practicing out in the world because there are more ways to avoid attacks underwater and get used to dodge timing.
• Do learn how to switch weapons/kits/attunements strategically. If you are commonly using only one of your weaponsets (attunements for Elementalists), then you are probably doing something wrong. The exception for this is sometimes Engineers because Engineers are weird and are often built specifically for a certain kit.
• Do complete any nearby events with the exception of anything with the word "Toxic" in it. Events give you experience and items, and can sometimes give you credit towards Heart completion as well. Toxic events should be avoided at early levels unless there are a ton of players doing it, as they are generally more difficult (with the exception of Toxic Spider Queen because there's almost always other players there and/or you can call for help and people will almost always come).
• If you've never played an MMO, then do try out PvP and PvE. You may enjoy one over the other, and both are viable ways of leveling up and obtaining gear.
• Do try out World versus World. It can be a fun thing to do if you get into it.
• Do carry a weapon or equip a utility that allows you to give yourself Swiftness.
• Do learn about your Utilities and the best times to use them.
• Do keep Nourishment up on yourself whenever you will be killing enemies. You can get Nourishment by eating Food.
• Do open Black Lion Chests when you obtain Black Lion Keys. 1 Key = 1 Open Chest. You cannot sell Keys so this is their only purpose. If you don't have any chests, they can be bought on the Black Lion Trading Company for about 30 Copper or so.
• Do learn how to play your chosen class. Check out your class forums for this.
• Do use your 5 character slots to try out different classes. You don't have to keep all the characters, but it's good to try things out.

DON'T

• Don't pick a class just because it's supposed to be the "best." For MMOs, the best class is never permanently the best. The "best" classes change with every balance patch. It is best to pick a class that you enjoy many parts of, and that you feel like you can stick with no matter what happens balance-wise. Added onto this, every class has its niche. Necromancers may be terrible in dungeons right now, but they are very good in PvP and WvW. Also, who knows what will happen in the expansion, what with he class Specializations being thrown into the mix! Best to pick something you enjoy rather than the "flavor of the month."
• Don't pick professions that aren't useful to you. Armorsmithing on a Mesmer isn't really useful, but Tailoring is. Likewise, Tailoring is near useless on a Guardian, but Armorsmithing is useful.
• Don't forget to replace your Gathering equipment and Salvage kits every once in a while! Those things are limited-use, you know!
• Don't box yourself in to a single set of weapons. All classes except for Elementalists and Engineers can switch between two sets at any time, and you can always carry more weapons in your inventory for situational equipping.
• Don't attempt Jumping Puzzles until you have perfected the art of jumping. If you don't know what these are yet, then don't worry about it until you can get up to Vistas without an issue. Once you're confident in your jumping abilities, look them up. Attempting them without being good at jumping will only cause many, many deaths for your poor character.
• Don't pick your race based on Racial utility skills. They aren't worth it for a race that you don't like.
• Don't feel boxed into the "meta" build. Meta builds are best for speed-running dungeons, but it is possible to find a dungeon group that will accept any build. Or, you could make your own group!
• Don't feel like you have to follow a build to the letter. There is generally some wiggle-room unless you really have your heart set on the Meta build.
• Don't make nonsensical builds either though. An Elementalist that only uses a Staff will not benefit from a trait that increases the attack power of Daggers. A Mesmer that never uses Mantras will not benefit from Mantra Traits. Things like that. Use common sense, basically.
• Don't stay still if an enemy is obviously charging an attack. If an enemy looks like they're about to strike, dodge, guard, counter, or otherwise try your best to avoid damage. This game is very movement-reliant and almost all damage can be avoided. For that matter, if you have an ability/utility to do so, remove any Conditions that have been applied to you.
• Don't stand in red circles on the ground. This goes with the above, except for one difference: If you don't dodge a normal attack in time people will not be as frustrated with you as they would if you didn't avoid the very visible red circle of death under your feet.
• Don't be afraid to skip Events if you really need to get somewhere else, or if you just seem to be running into events everywhere you go to the point where it's obnoxious. That's happened to me before, and sometimes it's a bit more productive to just continue on rather than be aggravated by doing the same event over and over again.
• Don't feel pressured into playing all the game modes. So long as you find one that you like, then it's good!
• Don't sell non-junk items to NPCs. So long as it is not soulbound, it an probably be salvaged, crafted with, or sold on the Black Lion Trading Company.
• Don't forget that Utilities/Heals/Elites are not permanently decided. You can swap them out whenever you need to, so long as you are out of combat. Almost all of them are completely situational, and what works for one fight won't work for another. Look at your class guides/forums to check on things like this.
• Don't bother eating Food to get the Nourishment buff if you know you aren't going to be actively killing enemies / completing hearts. If you know you're going to spend 30 minutes crafting or doing map completion, you should probably save it because the experience buff only applies to kills.
• Don't feel like you have to be perfect at your class from the very beginning, especially in PvE situations. You have 80 levels to perfect your technique, plus some time to adjust to dungeon. In general, don't join dungeon groups looking for a speedrun, join ones that are listed as "anyone welcome," or things like that, and once in, let them know that you are new. Most people will help you along and show you the ropes. You will, of course, run into some jerks who will kick you because of it, but don't take it personally. There are tons of nice people on the game who will help you. If nothing else, ask around in guild.
• On the topic of guilds, don't forget that you can join multiple guilds at once. You can only represent one at once, but you can join quite a few. Guilds are also account-wide, so if you join a guild with one character, all of your other characters are automatically members as well. Guilds can be found for nearly any interest, and there are even race or class specific guilds to be found as well. Finding a class specific guild for the class of your choice may be handy because people there will definitely help you out, and will be more willing to teach you how to master that particular class.
• Don't forget that one character can technically learn all crafting skills, if that's the way you'd like to go. Only two crafting skills can be active at once, but you can deactivate them at any time and keep all of your progress in the craft.
• Don't go after anything labelled "Champion," or "Elite," on your own. You will die. Things labelled "Veteran," can be okay if you're decent at your class. Or a Mesmer with Scepter + Sword so you can spam Illusions out that hold aggro for you.
• Don't be afraid to make multiple characters to try out the classes. I recommend getting to level 10 and definitely messing around in the PvP lobby with traits, skills, weapons, utilities, and the training dummies and such before making a decision. Look up builds. Do your research. You might find that you hate the Meta build, but love one of the more obscure ones. Or, you may find that you just can't stand the class, and that's okay too. I know I can't stand Thieves. I've tried a bunch of builds, but I can't get into it. Same goes for Engineers, to some extent. I think I would really like Elixir Gun Engineer, but I don't know if I can bear the leveling process to get to the Elixir Gun.
• Don't worry about sticking with a specific build while leveling. Builds really only matter in organized environments like dungeons, PvP, and WvW. No one cares what build you use when you're playing by yourself. While leveling, do what feels comfortable and simple to you. As an example, many Necromancers use raised minions to level up, but switch to a different build at higher levels, although some will stay with a minion-based build. That said, at around level 40 or so you may want to consider at least switching over to the weapons for your chosen build so you can get used to the rotation, and then slowly faze in the Utilities and such as you gain the Talents to support them.

I hope this was useful to someone. Just got the idea while leveling today and felt like I had to write it out. And even if no one finds it helpful, it was worth it for me because I found it fun to write. So that's something, right?

Playing FFXIV again!

Started playing FFXIV: A Realm Reborn again! For some reason, my game just would not connect to the Adamantoise server, so I had to start over. Name is still Panha Fashonti, but I'm on Leviathan server now.

Currently a level 9 Thaumaturge and going strong! :)

I'm Back! + 5LP: Ariadust Level 50

Hello again! I'm back! I still am not sure where my games got to though...Which is very much not fun.
A couple exciting things have happened recently! One of which is that I got my very own Xbox360, so you may get to hear some wonderful Skyrim-ish things, because I got the expansions as well.
I also got a Parakeet! I love him! His name is Louis, and he likes to chirp along to Pokémon movies.

Right now, though, I'm playing WoW again. As Ariadust, my lovely Shadow Priest.

Level 50! Whoo!

...Okay, maybe this picture was taken at level 52...

Anyway! Gear!

Kelsey's Necklace, Oasis Mantle, Robe of the Thousand Needles, Evil Dolly's Cuffs, Earth Warder's Gloves, Send-Off Belt, Furen's Boots, Dangerous Machinery Piece, Frostleaf Band, Power of the High Chief, Chelsea's Nightmare, Power of the Treant (staff).
I also have the Guild Heirlooms, so: Tattered Dreadmist Mask, Ancient Bloodmoon Cloak, and Tattered Dreadmist Leggings.

What I've Been Up To

Well, I've been playing WoW, on Horde, mostly. Nothing special though. I've got a Balance Druid at 20 right now, and everything else around 10-ish.
I've been playing Toontown, which is a game I've been playing since I've been playing since 2003. Toontown is very, very close to my heart, considering that I've been playing it on and off for about 10 years.
I've also been planning a lot for what I'm going to do with this gap year I'm taking before I go to college.

I Still Exist!

Did you think I was gone? Nope! I just couldn't think of anything to write about!
I have to go get my blood tested tomorrow for anemia. I've never had my blood tested before. Is it going to hurt? I wouldn't be surprised at all if it turns out that I have anemia though. Makes sense.

I've been playing as Theeriyi again, although not so much leveling to 90 as I am leveling professions and pets at the moment. :)

Newest Game: Forsaken World

So, I started playing Forsaken World yesterday. I have a level 14 Kindred Vampire with the not-so-creative name of Elzabetheory.
I'm really rather fond of this game right now. I tried some of Perfect World's other games (Perfect World International and Jade Dynasty, to be exact), but neither of them really compared to Forsaken World. Maybe I'll do a review later?

Anyway, here's a picture of my character, the scantily-clad (by no fault of my own) Elzabetheory.