It was back in early-mid 2012 when I first played a variant, that is truly a variant in the sense that it significantly changes the way my friend Attila and I viewed the game.
Two years prior, my guildmates, including Attila invited me to do a purist run. I didn't know then what a purist was, but I was getting burned out on the usual endgame life, full xunlai, etc. I was a pat rack, pack rat, and it was how it was. That run carried another restriction: Proph items, skills, etc. only. We dubbed it proph mode and it really felt like when I was discovering the game for the first time. I also made a proph mode ranger not much later, who almost-finished the game I think.
Then two years later, even prophmoding got a bit old: There was quite a lot of equipment laying around, and finishing Hell's Precipice meant we were pushed into GWBeyond content whether we liked it or not. GW2 was around the corner too, so when Attila invited me to do some low level questing, I brought out my low level warrior I planned for proph-moding but never bothered to level up to the game, and the variant was born along the way as we played. Here I'll recount the tale how it went.
Participants:
Grasping Ghoul, Ranger/Warrior --Attila
Olara Csilag, Warrior/Elementalist --Boro
Rules:
Purism: no use of account-wide skill unlocks, Only items found in the variant, no xunlai.
Prophecies-mode: Proph skills/Items/Runes/insignias.
GW2 style: No heroes (obviously), and no henchies. No dedicated healers: we bring our own healing, and live or die with that.
Burned ascalon was routine: A warrior around level 11 can solo it without issues, so a level 8 Warrior coupled with a lower level Ranger using axes meant a piece of cake. The way the pets were buffed up in previous updates to deal 33% more and take 33% less damage also helped. We got the important outposts, I got my skill quests done, and it was onto the hard part, Northern Shiverpeaks.
There I really paid the price for choosing elementalist as my secondary. Howlers transferred conditions to me, Sages cast Empathy (and could shatter armor of eart, so I didn't consider that either), Axe wielders and crushers had enough damage to wear me down, ice golems and scouts could slow me down. Ettins had weakness, and neither Warrior nor Elementalist skills had an answer to ALL of that. I only had healing signet for healing too!
Grasping Ghoul on the other hand, was in his element: With blocking stances, elemental resistances troll unguent and healsig, a pet, and the low energy costs of adrenaline skills (0) he was all but unbreakable.
So we switched tactics. Whereas in ascalon I could happily frenzy away and eat charr for breakfast, here I needed to stay in the back and let my elementalist side out. I slotted in Glyph of Lesser Energy, Phoenix and Fireball (And phoenix still had this double-damage deal with one hit at your adjacent enemies and one hit at the target, so I was dealing some SWEEt damage), pumped my fire magic and focused on dealing that first burst of damage that gets them down. This got us through Borlis Pass and Frost Gate. Same deal with the ettins in Griffon's Mouth and Gates of Kryta since the undead were weak to fire. Let ghoul get their attention, and let me assassinate the targets, and we were fine.
We made one arrangement after our cap signets: To capture Defy Pain, since I was really little more than a crippled 2pip elementalist at this point.
Getting the boss was time enough, as he doesn't always spawn near the Beacon's Perch outpost gate, and clearing the way took all of Attila's skills and my support, but it was done. He took care of the ice imps, then we finally collapsed on the boss.
I also got an upgrade from fireball, to Inferno, in north kryta province. It cast faster and dealt more damage of course, and it was perfectly in line with my Glyph->two ele spells->cyclone axe->chop away fiery warrior assassin MO. Grasping ghoul also gave me a fiery axe, to go with the conjure flame skill I bought in Lion's Arch.
Afterwards we had to decide where to go next, and decided against doing the missions and the long trip around the Maguuma Jungle. The local fauna is problem enough and we don't have the self-heals to survive that. Instead we decided to take the "easy" way to Sanctum Cay and try to cross to the crystal desert from there. Bergen hot springs was a convenient next stop, offering an easily done skill quest, and then we went onwards to the Temple of the Ages.
A bit more skill questing, running from enemies, and lot of feeling like a warror-mage later, we stood at the Sanctum Cay outpost. True, we skipped a lot of missions and skill quests, but hey, we were going to cross to the crystal desert without ever having used as much as a henchie!
For most of the mission i carried the scepter of orr and used it's energy regen to good effect. Through Attila's tanking and my magic power, the undead were being pushed further and further back. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and for the second part of the mission, I had to go without that sweet +1pip. Now I don't remember if we did the bonus or not, but I know that I died at the last stand where we were protecting the vizier, defying pain till my last breath. Attila remained standing however, and we won passage to the crystal desert.
There we tried a bit more fighting, but the scarabs and d-shot trapper devourers weren't impressed by our low-support duo, so once again it was guerilla warfare and lots of running that saw us reach Augury Rock.
It was at that point that we concluded this variant, finding our limit with just these two characters and these two secondary professions, but decided to continue our characters in a relaxed fit, and not much later schooled Glint with only three henches (Alesia, Orion, Dunham) present, a ranger without an elite, and a warrior without his best armor.
Two years prior, my guildmates, including Attila invited me to do a purist run. I didn't know then what a purist was, but I was getting burned out on the usual endgame life, full xunlai, etc. I was a pat rack, pack rat, and it was how it was. That run carried another restriction: Proph items, skills, etc. only. We dubbed it proph mode and it really felt like when I was discovering the game for the first time. I also made a proph mode ranger not much later, who almost-finished the game I think.
Then two years later, even prophmoding got a bit old: There was quite a lot of equipment laying around, and finishing Hell's Precipice meant we were pushed into GWBeyond content whether we liked it or not. GW2 was around the corner too, so when Attila invited me to do some low level questing, I brought out my low level warrior I planned for proph-moding but never bothered to level up to the game, and the variant was born along the way as we played. Here I'll recount the tale how it went.
Participants:
Grasping Ghoul, Ranger/Warrior --Attila
Olara Csilag, Warrior/Elementalist --Boro
Rules:
Purism: no use of account-wide skill unlocks, Only items found in the variant, no xunlai.
Prophecies-mode: Proph skills/Items/Runes/insignias.
GW2 style: No heroes (obviously), and no henchies. No dedicated healers: we bring our own healing, and live or die with that.
Burned ascalon was routine: A warrior around level 11 can solo it without issues, so a level 8 Warrior coupled with a lower level Ranger using axes meant a piece of cake. The way the pets were buffed up in previous updates to deal 33% more and take 33% less damage also helped. We got the important outposts, I got my skill quests done, and it was onto the hard part, Northern Shiverpeaks.
There I really paid the price for choosing elementalist as my secondary. Howlers transferred conditions to me, Sages cast Empathy (and could shatter armor of eart, so I didn't consider that either), Axe wielders and crushers had enough damage to wear me down, ice golems and scouts could slow me down. Ettins had weakness, and neither Warrior nor Elementalist skills had an answer to ALL of that. I only had healing signet for healing too!
Grasping Ghoul on the other hand, was in his element: With blocking stances, elemental resistances troll unguent and healsig, a pet, and the low energy costs of adrenaline skills (0) he was all but unbreakable.
So we switched tactics. Whereas in ascalon I could happily frenzy away and eat charr for breakfast, here I needed to stay in the back and let my elementalist side out. I slotted in Glyph of Lesser Energy, Phoenix and Fireball (And phoenix still had this double-damage deal with one hit at your adjacent enemies and one hit at the target, so I was dealing some SWEEt damage), pumped my fire magic and focused on dealing that first burst of damage that gets them down. This got us through Borlis Pass and Frost Gate. Same deal with the ettins in Griffon's Mouth and Gates of Kryta since the undead were weak to fire. Let ghoul get their attention, and let me assassinate the targets, and we were fine.
We made one arrangement after our cap signets: To capture Defy Pain, since I was really little more than a crippled 2pip elementalist at this point.
Getting the boss was time enough, as he doesn't always spawn near the Beacon's Perch outpost gate, and clearing the way took all of Attila's skills and my support, but it was done. He took care of the ice imps, then we finally collapsed on the boss.
I also got an upgrade from fireball, to Inferno, in north kryta province. It cast faster and dealt more damage of course, and it was perfectly in line with my Glyph->two ele spells->cyclone axe->chop away fiery warrior assassin MO. Grasping ghoul also gave me a fiery axe, to go with the conjure flame skill I bought in Lion's Arch.
Afterwards we had to decide where to go next, and decided against doing the missions and the long trip around the Maguuma Jungle. The local fauna is problem enough and we don't have the self-heals to survive that. Instead we decided to take the "easy" way to Sanctum Cay and try to cross to the crystal desert from there. Bergen hot springs was a convenient next stop, offering an easily done skill quest, and then we went onwards to the Temple of the Ages.
A bit more skill questing, running from enemies, and lot of feeling like a warror-mage later, we stood at the Sanctum Cay outpost. True, we skipped a lot of missions and skill quests, but hey, we were going to cross to the crystal desert without ever having used as much as a henchie!
For most of the mission i carried the scepter of orr and used it's energy regen to good effect. Through Attila's tanking and my magic power, the undead were being pushed further and further back. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and for the second part of the mission, I had to go without that sweet +1pip. Now I don't remember if we did the bonus or not, but I know that I died at the last stand where we were protecting the vizier, defying pain till my last breath. Attila remained standing however, and we won passage to the crystal desert.
There we tried a bit more fighting, but the scarabs and d-shot trapper devourers weren't impressed by our low-support duo, so once again it was guerilla warfare and lots of running that saw us reach Augury Rock.
It was at that point that we concluded this variant, finding our limit with just these two characters and these two secondary professions, but decided to continue our characters in a relaxed fit, and not much later schooled Glint with only three henches (Alesia, Orion, Dunham) present, a ranger without an elite, and a warrior without his best armor.