It's time for that pre-release bonus pack to do some good! 8)

GW:EN Sneak Peek Weekend is nigh upon us.

Now you will finally get to see the expansion. See you there!

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics...e#contents

Last week, when Tropical Storm Erin wandered into Texas and dumped a mess of rain onto Houston and points West of there, my dad called and asked how we were.

I was surprised, since we had seen just a few inches of rain each day in the run up to Erin showing up, and it was my cousin, up in Houston, who really got some watter.

So, Hurricane Dean had my folks calling me again with "are you going to evacuate." Of course I wasn't, and it looks like Mexico is gonna take Dean in the face. Good for them, I expect to see a multinational relief effort undertaken after it passes through, it will probably rebuild to CAT 3 or 4 after it hits the Yucatan and loses some energy.

But generally, no, I am not going to leave town, for any storm. OK, maybe if we see another Gilbert Show up and it is due to land at Baffin Bay and hit Corpus Christi with the infamous right hook, and is a CAT V.

I have enough bug spray, water, ammunition, and canned food to last me a few weeks, me and the dog. Tina will of course leave town at the slightest hint of a hurricane, even though she survived Celia and Alicia as a kid when her family stayed here.

So as this season progresses, rest assured that you will be able to find me here. Katrina, thanks to the added mess of the levee breaking, seems to have spooked a lot of otherwise level headed people.

Occhi

{God! I hope this is the right place to post this! - I followed the redirector from here :/}

Guild name and tag: High On [LIFE]

Guild leader (contacts): Our leader is Martyr Dienekes, but I have been made leader whilst he is indisposed for a few weeks in RL, so ... Bruver Marauder [IGNs = Bruver Marauder/Snotty Kid/Spoilt Little Brat/Mark Currie] [MSN = MarkCurrie@NTLWorld.com]

Guild size: 22 members

Guild site/forum: A temporary forums has been set-up here, after our last one 'died' :/

Tell us something about your guild: We are in the main remnants of the now defunct 'Seraphim Martyrs [BURN]', the guild I first created with a few friends of mine (Richard = Martyr Dienekes, Adam = Balric Ironhide and Kevin - Rain Walker), during the October 2005 BWE (wow! that long ago! sheesh!).

Quite a few of us then joined ZoS, where we stayed for some considerable time. After certain events beyond my control, some members, incl. myself left for differing reasons (some RL, some not), I found myself 'guildless' and accepted an invite from the now phoenix-like resurgance of most of the BURN members, who had formed themselves into LIFE.

We are in the main an American guild, on the American Territory, but a few of us (incl. my wife, myself and Richard) are resident in the UK. We are mostly a PvE guild, though enjoy FUN GvG/TA/AB etc.

That's about the long and short of it.

Why do you want to join this alliance? Apart from being invited by some ex-members of ZOS, and therefore once more being 'hooked-up' with some great folks that we used to love gaming with, we are a lone guild, but have been looking for a suitable Luxon-aligned alliance, with which to enjoy our gaming with.

Peace out,
/\/\

I wrote up this little essay after someone told me I was wrong about stalwart insignias being more useful than survivor ones.

I consider it worth reading (o rly?!), so check it out. Plus, you might find something wrong with the (rock solid) mathematical foundation of my argument. Bring it. If I'm wrong, I'll run naked through every town in the game while screaming that I eat babies.


... actually, I might do that anyway.

Register for an account at the official HGL site.

Go to the Alpha Tester page and login.
Click on Sign Up For The Alpha HERE banner.

Note, this is not advertised on their front page, I have only stumbled on it peeking at the Are You An Alpha Tester.

KoP

Feel free to add some links. Please make the title descriptive of link(s) you are posting so they are easy to find.

KoP

Here are the preliminary results for Adventure 21:

http://www.garath.net/Sullla/adv21results.html

It seems as though this game was somewhat lost in the release of Beyond the Sword. No big deal, as there's nothing wrong with our community members wanting to jump into the expansion. I'm sorry that I wasn't around last week to comment on the reports; I did read them and enjoyed the responses, especially Ruff's creative portrait. And scooter's non-Conquest, non-Domination victory definitely brought a smile to my face.

Saw a Diablo 1 variant on the LL called PaiN (hence the topic title) that limited healing to only Heal Other and also cut out the high power imba spells (if you've ever played D1 you know which ones those are) and I thought that would make a pretty fun GW variant if anyone wanted to try it. Credit goes to Hariel of the Lurker Lounge for the Diablo variant rules.

Guild Wars rules:
- Non-monks are not permitted to bring any healing of any kind. No paragon healing chants, no resto rit spells, no heal sig, no nothing. If you're not monk primary, you're not allowed to aid the red bars. This also includes condition and hex removal. That may only be performed by monk primaries.
- The only spells a monk is allowed to bring are the target other spells. If a spell is able to affect the caster, it is not allowed. This includes, but is not limited to: Orison of Healing, Heal Party, Reversal of Fortune, Guardian, Aegis, Holy Veil, Dismiss Condition, Healing Breeze.
- No skills that have an effect on the user are allowed. This includes, but is not limited to: Dolyak Signet, all stances, Energy Tap, Auspicious Incantation, Attunements, Glyphs, Nature Rituals, non-offensive Binding Rituals (Shelter, Union, etc.), shouts, chants, echoes (Watch Yourself!, Anthem of Flame, Aggressive Refrain) that will affect the user (note that targat other shouts such as Brace Yourself! are allowed), etc..
- No elite skills are allowed. Your entire bar must consist of non-elite skills.
- Every team member must have a vampiric weapon equipped. This is to prevent natural health regeneration.
- Quest rewards, consumable items, divinity shrines, etc., are not allowed.
- You may not use PvE only skills.

This does not need to be a team variant and since the only equipment restriction is a vamp weapon to negate natural regen it is easily manageable with heroes. It is suggested that people go in at least groups of two, though, so that you can avoid the use of henchmen. If you do not have enough vampiric weapons for all of your heroes, you should move at a faster pace between battles to limit regen. Waiting for characters to heal all the way is unacceptable.

Well, there you have it. I think it could be pretty challenging to try and play with such limited healing, especially when you think of how many staple monk skills are outright not allowed (RoF, Mending Touch, Dismiss, just about every hex removal skill in the game). Without any elites, damage and healing will be cut quite a bit, but not by an unreasonable amount. Again, the ones taking the biggest hit will be monks (losing WoH and RC) but it also prevents such skills as Searing Flames that are a bit imba. Also, I cut out the PvE only skills because some of them are a bit imba as well.

One of the last limitations I put in that I was a bit back and forth about was the disallowing of any skill that could affect the user. On the one hand, there are a lot of skills in the game that completely negates, some of which will almost rule out playing certain classes entirely (Paragons, for example) but it does tie in with the original rules from the D1 variant and will make things a lot more challenging.

The only rules I'm not carrying over from the D1 version are that in D1 you weren't allowed to twink chars at all and you couldn't res in town (had to either be ressed or leave the game and start a new one). The item restriction I'm not carrying over because the only real way to do that would be to say no taking anything out of storage, which makes this too much of a more restricted LoL than a variant of its own. You are allowed to buy whatever you want, though, so that right there eliminates the main restriction of the LoL, but the idea behind this one is that it's more of a skill restriction variant than an item restriction one. The other restriction about ressing is a bit moot with the GW version since the only way to carry that over would be to say no using res shrines, which is a bit hard to avoid since they're automatic.

So, to sum up:
- No using elite skills.
- Only monk primaries can heal.
- No using skills that can target or have an effect on the user.
- No using PvE only skills.
- No natural regen (attained through vamp weapons).
- No removing DP with anything other than fighting.
- No blessings from divinity shrines.

As some of you know I left the alliance and will soon be coming back. I have missed you all and found I can't stay away.

Jude

That being said: Uca and I are planning a Scavenger Hunt. I (Jude) would also like to invite Amazon Basin. More people means more fun in my eyes. This being the way that it would run.

1.) Teams and proctors would all meet in a certain GH and would be given a certain NPCs name. You would then have to seek out that NPC (Wiki Permitted). In that same town you will be given the name of the Real Person that will give you your next clue. First team to get to the last clue is the winner.

2.) Number of people on a team will rely on the number of people that RSVP to play.

3.) We would like to have this event on the 8th of Sept at 7pm est

Could we please get some RSVPs and even some comments if you like? We will need players and helpers so please put what you would like to do.

Thanks,
Jude

BTS Patch 3.03 was released. I'm not quite sure why, it doesn't seem to be necessary. Make sure you don't patch until you've finished Potluck.