Presearing Hardcore Ultimate Ironman Album
Apr 30, 2021 9:28:33 GMT -8
Ascended Prophecy, Lord, and 1 more like this
Post by ladyariadna on Apr 30, 2021 9:28:33 GMT -8
Hello!
After recently dying on my Pre main to a disconnect at 350k xp I wanted to make a new character to play while I slowly do my dailies and get back to where I was on the main. I really enjoy the concept of Ironman in games, and while it often means different things the unofficial Guild Wars one piqued my interest long time ago. I've never been much of a Post player so on my first ironman I got LDoA, left for Post and deleted it shortly after because I was so bored, so this time I decided I'll make a Perma-Pre Hardcore Ultimate Ironman and just do whatever my heart desires within these restrictions.
This has some changes from the "official" rules, most important being no partying up at all, I decided to go 100% solo, I have other characters if I feel like playing with others. This means that I can never finish "Adventuring with an Ally" and can't rely on others to save me if I go too far, also I can't scale down Vanguard Quests. The only times I will be partying up is with my alt to drop some items over. I will be obtaining nothing in return on this character and it's just so good items I don't need on ironman don't go to waste.
Second important exception is the "no consumables" rule. I decided that if I farm up consumables I want to be able to use them.
If you feel like you've seen this already, I also post these updates to the Guild Wars subreddit, but I'd love to have one place where I can keep all my progress. So, let's get started!
I was pretty lucky to get this bow as my first ever drop since it's a lot better than the one you start with and I can't craft the bow in Ascalon BUT we can get the 7-10 damage one from a collector so this is our first goal before we start grinding xp.
Level 2, first ding of the journey.
And bow upgrade #2. Since this is from a collector it's fair game. Getting 3 unnatural seeds wasn't easy at this low of a level and I wasn't lucky with the 1 Aloe spawn near Regent's entrance, so I decided to do a risky strat and lured some Grawl over to Kasha Blackblood so she tanked for me and I could kill some Aloes' in Green Hills.
Now with the bow it's time to go on. Next obstacle is decluttering the inventory - I only have the starting backpack and it's getting full. I'm selling stuff as I go and we're aiming for 100g to buy the ID kit which is the most reliable method to make money on a presearing ironman ("Improved Sale Value" mods)
Fastest way to get 100g is probably re-entering Ashford and picking up Red Iris outside, but I wanted to save all my flowers for later, so I grinded bandits. It proved to be useful too, we got halfway to 4 and some Worn Belts that will be useful later on. With the ID kit in the inventory there's just one last thing to grab before we farm mobs...
... and it's a pet and Read the Wind abilities that you can get by starting the quests. I will be starting a lot of quests for the rewards but keeping them in my log so I can turn them in at level 16 as it's the slowest level on the road to LDoA.
Inventory space is king! I was pretty happy when we grabbed this Belt Pouch early on, 5 slots is a godsend especially when I want to keep all Nick items for the future.
Level 5, it's going okay at this point, xp is plentiful and we can start collecting some of these Nick items as we go.
Oh hello! I wasn't expecting that. Black Dyes are a sort of currency in Presearing like Ecto is in Post, but since I can't trade I decided not to drop it over to alt but instead to collect them and dye my armor black once I get all 5.
Level 6, I think at this point we have explored the whole map apart from Northlands, grabbed all the outposts for fast travel and farm monsters that are required by Nick in next days so I can get Gifts of the Huntsman every day as they will be my main source of consumables for Sweet Tooth, Drunkard and Life of the Party.
And ding, level 7! I decided that starting at level 7 I'll start going to Northlands, I will pick up the "Charr at the Gate" quest from Rurik, run to the gate, clear the charr (this is a good way to get Charr Carvings if you're a low level ironman and you want to get Gift of the Huntsman that day) and venture into Northlands to clear Oakhearts. I didn't even attempt fighting charr at this point, I know they will be really challenging.
Level 8! I wanted to flex a little and kill a charr for the level up. There is one Charr in the entire Northlands that hangs out by himself and you can lure him and kill him alone. At level 8 I started pulling him and the 2-pack on the other side of the Altar in addition to killing Oakhearts.
Bow upgrade #3. We've been using the 7-10 collector bow this whole time, so glad to have a better one. This is dropped by the same charr I killed for level 8 btw.
First 5 Gifts of the Huntsman! You can get 5 a day per account, and since I won't be trading with anyone I can get 5 per day at most on this character. They will be vital in helping me get Sweet Tooth, Drunkard and Life of the Party titles, as well as Honeycombs which will be a very useful consumable to keep my health higher (+5% morale boost each).
And we got our secondary profession! I decided to complete all the other profession quests (but keep them in my Log to turn in at 16) and then finally complete this one to become a Ranger/Elementalist. Charr really take laughable damage from your bow if you're a low level or not using /bonus bow, so transitioning into Fire Magic will be key to deal with leveling in Northlands.
Level 9, flew by quick, I started using Firestorm to supplement my bow shots, but I'm still mostly marksmanship based at this point. I think I switched to max Fire after getting this level.
And we got our first purple! Even though I kept using my bow I should've just used this staff honestly, +5 energy, 12% HSR and 8% HCT are much better since I wasn't autoattacking pretty much at all at this point. I decided to include one 4pack of Charr by taking advantage of Ben Wolfson to tank for me (sorry Ben).
Level 10! Halfway to 20 (not really), still mostly done with Oakhearts, Ben's pack and single charr at altar. Level 10 is big because you can pick up a Vanguard Quest and the Vanguard Initiate buff you get greatly increases your armor, which pretty much opened up the whole Northlands for me.
So that's it for now, I have a healthy supply of screenshots but I don't want to post them all in one go, hope you guys enjoyed and I can't wait to share more of my journey with you!
After recently dying on my Pre main to a disconnect at 350k xp I wanted to make a new character to play while I slowly do my dailies and get back to where I was on the main. I really enjoy the concept of Ironman in games, and while it often means different things the unofficial Guild Wars one piqued my interest long time ago. I've never been much of a Post player so on my first ironman I got LDoA, left for Post and deleted it shortly after because I was so bored, so this time I decided I'll make a Perma-Pre Hardcore Ultimate Ironman and just do whatever my heart desires within these restrictions.
This has some changes from the "official" rules, most important being no partying up at all, I decided to go 100% solo, I have other characters if I feel like playing with others. This means that I can never finish "Adventuring with an Ally" and can't rely on others to save me if I go too far, also I can't scale down Vanguard Quests. The only times I will be partying up is with my alt to drop some items over. I will be obtaining nothing in return on this character and it's just so good items I don't need on ironman don't go to waste.
Second important exception is the "no consumables" rule. I decided that if I farm up consumables I want to be able to use them.
If you feel like you've seen this already, I also post these updates to the Guild Wars subreddit, but I'd love to have one place where I can keep all my progress. So, let's get started!
I was pretty lucky to get this bow as my first ever drop since it's a lot better than the one you start with and I can't craft the bow in Ascalon BUT we can get the 7-10 damage one from a collector so this is our first goal before we start grinding xp.
Level 2, first ding of the journey.
And bow upgrade #2. Since this is from a collector it's fair game. Getting 3 unnatural seeds wasn't easy at this low of a level and I wasn't lucky with the 1 Aloe spawn near Regent's entrance, so I decided to do a risky strat and lured some Grawl over to Kasha Blackblood so she tanked for me and I could kill some Aloes' in Green Hills.
Now with the bow it's time to go on. Next obstacle is decluttering the inventory - I only have the starting backpack and it's getting full. I'm selling stuff as I go and we're aiming for 100g to buy the ID kit which is the most reliable method to make money on a presearing ironman ("Improved Sale Value" mods)
Fastest way to get 100g is probably re-entering Ashford and picking up Red Iris outside, but I wanted to save all my flowers for later, so I grinded bandits. It proved to be useful too, we got halfway to 4 and some Worn Belts that will be useful later on. With the ID kit in the inventory there's just one last thing to grab before we farm mobs...
... and it's a pet and Read the Wind abilities that you can get by starting the quests. I will be starting a lot of quests for the rewards but keeping them in my log so I can turn them in at level 16 as it's the slowest level on the road to LDoA.
Inventory space is king! I was pretty happy when we grabbed this Belt Pouch early on, 5 slots is a godsend especially when I want to keep all Nick items for the future.
Level 5, it's going okay at this point, xp is plentiful and we can start collecting some of these Nick items as we go.
Oh hello! I wasn't expecting that. Black Dyes are a sort of currency in Presearing like Ecto is in Post, but since I can't trade I decided not to drop it over to alt but instead to collect them and dye my armor black once I get all 5.
Level 6, I think at this point we have explored the whole map apart from Northlands, grabbed all the outposts for fast travel and farm monsters that are required by Nick in next days so I can get Gifts of the Huntsman every day as they will be my main source of consumables for Sweet Tooth, Drunkard and Life of the Party.
And ding, level 7! I decided that starting at level 7 I'll start going to Northlands, I will pick up the "Charr at the Gate" quest from Rurik, run to the gate, clear the charr (this is a good way to get Charr Carvings if you're a low level ironman and you want to get Gift of the Huntsman that day) and venture into Northlands to clear Oakhearts. I didn't even attempt fighting charr at this point, I know they will be really challenging.
Level 8! I wanted to flex a little and kill a charr for the level up. There is one Charr in the entire Northlands that hangs out by himself and you can lure him and kill him alone. At level 8 I started pulling him and the 2-pack on the other side of the Altar in addition to killing Oakhearts.
Bow upgrade #3. We've been using the 7-10 collector bow this whole time, so glad to have a better one. This is dropped by the same charr I killed for level 8 btw.
First 5 Gifts of the Huntsman! You can get 5 a day per account, and since I won't be trading with anyone I can get 5 per day at most on this character. They will be vital in helping me get Sweet Tooth, Drunkard and Life of the Party titles, as well as Honeycombs which will be a very useful consumable to keep my health higher (+5% morale boost each).
And we got our secondary profession! I decided to complete all the other profession quests (but keep them in my Log to turn in at 16) and then finally complete this one to become a Ranger/Elementalist. Charr really take laughable damage from your bow if you're a low level or not using /bonus bow, so transitioning into Fire Magic will be key to deal with leveling in Northlands.
Level 9, flew by quick, I started using Firestorm to supplement my bow shots, but I'm still mostly marksmanship based at this point. I think I switched to max Fire after getting this level.
And we got our first purple! Even though I kept using my bow I should've just used this staff honestly, +5 energy, 12% HSR and 8% HCT are much better since I wasn't autoattacking pretty much at all at this point. I decided to include one 4pack of Charr by taking advantage of Ben Wolfson to tank for me (sorry Ben).
Level 10! Halfway to 20 (not really), still mostly done with Oakhearts, Ben's pack and single charr at altar. Level 10 is big because you can pick up a Vanguard Quest and the Vanguard Initiate buff you get greatly increases your armor, which pretty much opened up the whole Northlands for me.
So that's it for now, I have a healthy supply of screenshots but I don't want to post them all in one go, hope you guys enjoyed and I can't wait to share more of my journey with you!