Kingsmouth Quests - The Secret World

Still working my way through the myriad of quests available in the Solomon Islands. I had just left to Egypt, when a rousing debate in Mumble made me decide to backtrack to see if a few of the guild members and myself could uncover ALL the quests that FunCom has planted throughout the first three zones. 

This is the list we've come up with so far for Kingsmouth - 62 quests.

I do love how The Secret World you can actually go back and repeat quests (for AP/SP), so 'running' with a friend is actually fun and worthwhile.

**This does include the quest for Polaris (Dead in the Water and Dead in the Water revisited) that apparently counts as two separate quests.

GW2 Race sizes

Admittedly I'm a total fan of GW2 (Guild Wars 2).  I hadn't expected to be so thoroughly drawn into a game.  There is so much to do, I'm going to be totally surprised by those that say it's boring or a 'fail' game.

One of the items on my 'to do' list this past beta weekend (BW3) as to see which races I wanted to play and come up with something that will work for launch race/profession wise.

Many people I'd spoken to were convinced they wanted to play Asura (especially for PvP) as the smaller size would be an advantage.   This would have made all sPvP and WvW full of Asura only as the male Norn would have been so easy to spot and kill if it's hitbox was the size of the actual character.


From an interview on GuildWars2 Junkies:

Eric Flannum: Every player character in Guild Wars 2 has the exact same sized collision cylinder. For asura this means that the cylinder is larger than they are and for norn it means that it is smaller. Very early in the process of making the game we knew this was going to be the case, so the min and max sizes of our races are heavily influenced by this. 

I'm glad of this specifically for PvP.  There will be some tactical advantage playing an Asura as far as sneaking around the map, but there won't be an advantage to being smaller as far as targeting goes in PvP.  One of my guildies made a male Norn Warrior one BW and we still laugh watching him run across the map in the Borderlands - Sasquatch on the move!


For my own reference, I did do some size comparison screenies using my Sylvari Thief right before I lost my Internet on Sunday night.  Here are a female Sylvari against a few of the other races.

Sylvari and Asura

 Sylvari and Charr

 

Sylvari and Norn

(this is from a previous beta weekend but shows the size difference of the Male and Female Norn)

So, based on playing around with the professions and start zones I've pretty much mapped out my race/professions.  The only race I won't be playing - but will do the start zone - is the Charr.  I love the lore, but I can't stand the way they move.  Reminds me to much of Worgen in WoW, which IMHO run like rabid dogs and was the only Alliance Race I couldn't play.

For launch:
Norn - Ranger
Asura - Necromancer or Elementalist (I'm still not sure which I prefer)
Human - Mesmer & Guardian
Sylvari - Thief

I'll be adding the additional three after launch.  Engineer, Warrior and the other caster will be added post-launch.

Only a month until Head-start for GW2 - w00t!

The Secret World (TSW)

TSW Links, Writeups and Blogs

FunCom Links

The Secret World | Funcom website
TSW Wiki 
CGN: The Secret World Uncovered
FunCom YouTube Channel
FunCom News
FunCom Store
FunCom Community Site


Dulfy.net - individual articles on zones, instances, etc., listed below (personal favorite site)

Decks and Builds

TSW Loot Table
The Deck Builder
Yokai's Guide to Talismans
Bad Omen:  Calculators - abilities, gear (talismans)
End Game Gearing


Blood/Assault Rifle - Healing Build



Missions, Quests and Zones  (some spoilers)
Yokai's Guide to Understanding the Mission System
Kingsmouth Quests Walkthru (hints; uncoverable spoilers)
Savage Coast Quests Walkthru (hints; uncoverable spoilers) 
Blue Mountain Quests Walkthru (hints; uncoverable spoilers)
Scorched Desert Quests Walkthru (hints; uncoverable spoilers)
City of the Sun God Quests Walkthru (hints; uncoverable spoilers)
Besieged Farmlands Quests Walkthru (hints; uncoverable spoilers)

Mortal Sins (Transylvania) Quest Walkthru
The Shadowy Forest (Transylvania) Quest Walkthru
Carpathian Fangs Quests Walkthru



Illuminati Faction Missions

TSW: Gravity - Investigation Mission

Instances

TSW Guides - Instance Guides
Polaris Dungeon Guide  
Into The Inferno - Guide for Dummies!
Hell Raised (Inferno) Guide
The Darkness War Guide
Ankh/Pandora's Box Guide
Hell Fallen Guide

The Facility (Elite Dungeon Guide)
Hell Raised (Elite Dungeon Guide)

Polaris - Nightmare Mode
Inferno - Nightmare Mode

PvP 

Fusang Projects Guide for Dummies!

Crafting

Crafting Guide (TenTonHammer)
Almars Crafting Guide
Gadget Crafting
Crafting Consumables
Stylish Corpse Crafting Tips

Fashion and Wardrobe

Sephoras Closet - clothing info
Women's Fashion's at Pangaea

Quests with Clothing Rewards

Misc 
Agartha Map and Portal Locations

Direct X11 Graphic Comparision
Secret UI - addons
Curse.com - addons
Rare Spawn Compilation Thread

GW2 BW3

Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekend 3 (BW3) gave us the opportunity to try the Sylvari and Asura races.  Both zones are fantastic definitely different, but lots of fun.

As our characters from the previous BW's were wiped and personal time didn't allow for much actual game play, I just did some exploring and locating of charmable pets for the Ranger once it goes live.

Juvenile Saimoth (Flamingo's were also in this area)

 Location for Juvenile Saimoth

 Juvenile Red Jellyfish

 Location for Red Jellyfish

Juvenile Marsh Drake

Location for Juvenile Marsh Drake

 I did find the Jungle Spiders, but didn't get screenshots.

Other than that I spent some time taking screenshots of the gorgeous vistas (which is another new addition this weekend). 

I found this one while exploring for pets.  I didn't get the exact location, but it was in the Asura area after you leave the start zone. When you locate what looks like old money hanging in the air, you interact with it and you'll get a beautiful cut scene of the well - vista!

ArenaNet has outdone themselves on the beauty in this game. The details are everywhere and totally incredible. 

Hammerfist Clan adds WoW

Hammerfist Clan, the guild I'm a member of, has added a World of Warcraft team to go along with the other sponsored games in the HFC lineup.  I know I'm biased, regarding HFC, but it really is great to be able to go game to game with people you already know and have built friendships with over the years versus having to start over each game trying to find a guild that works.



Currently HFC has teams in six MMOs:


LoTRO (Lord of the Rings Online) our oldest branch were we recently celebrated HFC's 11th Anniversary, LoTRO style - complete with fireworks, parade and freezetag. The LoTRO team has a ton of experience as many have played since beta and have a variety of max level characters. (Brandywine server)

 LoTRO team and other HFC members that came to celebrate

RIFT.  One of my personal favorites.  The RIFT team is pure awesome!  We're casual but do raid Mondays/Tuesday, and have other team activities throughout the week, including Crifting, Instance runs, pick up raids and PvP. (Faeblight, Defiant side)

RIFT team, Greenscale Blight Raid

TOR (Star Wars:The Old Republic).  HFC has two teams, one Republic and one Empire. Both are very active and have raid schedules.  I'm not playing TOR at this time but I believe they raid on Fri/Sat/Sun. (Canderous Ordo for the Republic & The Shadowlands for the Empire)

TOR Republic beating SOA

 
TSW (The Secret World).  With the recent launch of TSW, the team is still leveling, but we're all enjoying this game. It definitely is one of the different ones, but many of us have opted for lifetime subs, so the TSW team should be around for many years.  Currently the offiers are working on setting up days for Guild Instance Runs and team PvP. (Arcadia dimension)

 TSW in Fusang pvp

GW2 (Guild Wars 2).  The GW2 has been playing the beta weekends, while we impatiently wait for launch in August.  It will be a fantastic team, blending the PvPers (w00t), along with the team-mates that are all about PvE and the crafters. (Server selection is still being discussed, but we've been on Eternal Grove for beta)

HFC team, Borderlands PvP

Newest addition, WoW (World of Warcraft), to the mix is fantastic for the polygamerous, like me, that play a variety of games. WoW is still going strong and with the Mist of Panderia expansion out in the next few months, it will continue to be one of the foundation MMOs. I'll be relocating one (or more) of my toons there and likely rerolling a few to experience all things WoW! (Bealgun server, Alliance).

 Sithi on one of her many mounts

Overall, I'm very excited by all the new things happening with HFC. Recent additions to our already busy forum is a member article section were news and reviews will be featured, along with a new area of non-gamer topics, including interesting discussions on food, sports, books, movies and music.

So, if you're looking to connect with casual-core gamers that honor real life over gaming, but take our gaming serious - in a fun way of course -  check out the amazing community - Hammerfist Clan.

HFC is an 18+ age drama free guild. Currently using Mumble.


Team application

Code of Conduct for HFC teams

How HFC began - Gaming is theraputic.

Guild Wars 2 - blogs & links

It's wonderful to see more blogs appearing on the 'Net for all things GW2.  I spent some time today, collecting a variety of GW2 blogs (and info sites).



Dragon Season - http://dragonseason.com/Front/tabid/124/tagid/133/

The Tyrian Order - http://www.thetyrianorder.com/

Guardians of Tyria - http://guardiansoftyria.com/

Crossing Tyria - http://crossingtyria.com/

Guild Wars 2 Journal - http://www.guildwars2journal.com/

Angerina Warpride - http://angerinagw2.wordpress.com/

GWOnline - http://guildwars.incgamers.com/

Flame Throwing - http://flame-throwing.com/

The Feral Engineer - http://theferalengineer.wordpress.com/

Talk Tyria - http://www.talktyria.net/

Under the Pale Tree - http://thepaletree.net/

Sage Like One - http://www.youtube.com/user/SagelikeOne

Killabytes Online - http://www.killabytesonline.com/

Nerdy Bookahs - http://nerdybookahs.wordpress.com/


Other GW2 Links:

GuildWars2Fans

Guild Wars2.com

Guild Wars2 Guru

Guild Wars2 Hub

Guild Wars2 Junkies

GW2 Database

BandofBrothers - New Player Handbook 

 

GW2 Database

A guildie posted this on our guild forum.

The GW2 database is live. 

It's going to be an wonderful resource for all things  GW2 and our travels around Tyria.  It's a Curse.com site, (and I do love what Curse does - premium member here!), so should be well maintained and accurate.

The DATABASE includes:

• A scalable map (kinda Google mapish).
• Item list - everything from armor to crafting materials to gizmos
• Achievements list - heading but blank pages still
• Traits list - by profession
• Skill list - by profession, race and pet skills
• Skill Calculator - will all be crunching stats/numbers here

 And, the one I'm thrilled to see  - Recipes.  (All of them are listed.)

I've always love to cook in game, and  do plan on leveling Cooking.  Knowing when I reach that frustration point on discovery, there is a resource out there is great!  I tried cooking in beta, ArenaNet did not lie this is an advanced skill and quickly can suck up the resources for a low level character.

Database is bookmarked for future use. Wonderful job again Curse!


There is an updated list on GW2Guru (June 15 updated) of other 'unofficial' web apps (not addons), wikis, calculators and databases.


Now if we only had a release date....

Pre-launch, big patch, stress test = busy gaming week!

Busy gaming week coming up with three of my favorite games, The Secret World, RIFT and GW2.


The Secret World (TSW)
The big one of course is the head-start for pre-orders for The Secret World on June 29th.  We've been meeting to put the coordinate the guild launch (officially Templar) as the official launch is quickly approaching on July 3rd. 

The guild I'm is terribly excited as we were named one of the 50 founding guilds for TSW.  I don't know how much effect that will have playing but our team lead won a lifetime sub (we had a challenge match to see who won that!).   I had already pre-purchased a lifetime sub (learning from my big regret of NOT buying it with LoTRO!), but thought that was an awesome reward for the guild.

TSW has vastly improved over the past month (now that the NDA is lifted), and anyone that hasn't been back since the first open beta should give it another shot.  It looks really good now!


RIFT
The other exciting news, RIFT patch 1.9 launches on Wednesday, July 27th.  Three faction PvP, mentoring, a new world event and barbershop are the things I'm really excited about.  I'm really excited about all the new things TRION is adding to RIFT.  The three faction PvP that is NOT related to the two in game factions should be a novel approach.  That and adding crafted goods to PvP, awesome.

The addition of mentoring will be nice to play with new people to the guild (won't really help with my fourth toon four levels from 50, but it will be great to get XP while helping out guildies.


Guild Wars 2 (GW2)
Announced today on Facebook, another mid-week stress test.  Another Wednesday, July 27th (10-2PST).  A short window of play time, but enough to get a few hours of GW2 goodness in.  This game is like a bloody drug, and my guildmates and I moan for days after our withdrawals.

When GW2 goes live, I have a feeling my other MMO loves will be on the bench for a few days/weeks.  I've been totally in love with all aspects of this game in the two betas I've played. 

The beta tests (IMHO) have been very similar to the wonderful experience I had with RIFT during beta weekends.  TRION and ArenaNet really seem to be on top of what a quality MMO should be.

Guild Wars 2 - pet collecting

Guild Wars 2 has exceeded all expectations and I'm thoroughly loving the Ranger.  Part of the fun has been searching out the companion pets available for rangers in Tyria.

Over the two beta weekends, I and a few guild-mates managed to locate and charm 24 land and 3 aquatic pets. It has been fun locating and sharing the info with the other pet happy people in our guild.  I even ninja-stole one from one friend.  Never trust me when it comes to pets/mounts - I've warned them!

I didn't get photos of a all the pets charmed, but here are some that were:

Juvenile Whiptail Devourer (Charmed Plains of Ashford, Devourer's Mouth, Charr area)

Juvenile Lashtail Devourer (Charmed Diessa Plateau)

Juvenile Lynx (Charmed Snowden Drifts)

Juvenile White Moa (Charmed Snowden Drifts)

Juvenile Alpine Wolf (Charmed Outcast's Cleft)

see more GW2 pets >>

Rift Quest Series - Crocnard Mount

Just finished this for the third time (fourth time in 9.5 more levels!).

It's long, but fun and gives much of the lore about the Faceless Man and has some decent rewards including the awesome Crocnard Mount!   My opinion the best mount in the game.

Below is the write up on ZAM for the quest chain, followed by an excellent walk-thru from the Herding Cats Blog.

** If you don't have Dragonslayer rep to decorated, you will have a few hours of rep grinding mobs in Shimersand (repeatable quest at Wrymbane Spire turning in ritual firebrands) or running Charmers Caldera.

Water Saga - Crocnard Mount

Water Saga (Rift Quest Series) :: Wiki :: Rift :: ZAM

Prerequisites: Level 50.  To combat the Abyssal, Ascended can embark on the Water Saga, an epic quest series that unravels the origin of this lunatic cult. Guardians and Defiant must stop the Abyssal resurgence, save important members of their faction from the cult’s insanity, and learn more about the sinister Tidelords, the heroes who first imprisoned Akylios, and the Faceless Man’s secret past. Aimed at high-level Ascended acting alone and in groups, the Water Saga offers both epic loot and a swift and cold-blooded Crocnard Mount. ^[1]

This new Water Saga is a compelling story of heroes and traitors alike in the continuing struggle against the Abyssal Cult, released by the opening of the gates of Hammerknell. From the wreckage of Estrael and her companions, to the long-held secrets of well-known heroes, both Guardians and Defiant alike are beckoned to travel across Telara to engage in this fascinating saga!

Defiant
On the Defiant side, this begins in Abyssal Precipice with the Faceless Man. For anyone curious about his background, you will love this series.^[2]

Act I Achievement: Exploring the Deep

1. A New Era for the Abyssal
2. Meetings of Interest
3. Tomes of Madness
4. A Personal Request
5. Rescue Mission
6. Blood in the Water
7. Explorers of the Deep

Act II Achievement: Soggy Historian

1. The Wreck of the Novia
2. Hiding Among Dragonslayers
3. Last of the Zardonis
4. Out of the Fire
5. A Token of the Fae
6. Enchanted Wood
7. Heir of Nyx
8. Wishes of a Dominata
9. Reclaimed from the Storm
10. Remains of the Great
11. Bound in Death
12. A Mask for All Seasons

Act III Achievement: Lord of Madness

1. Joining the Cabal
   
   • Initiation
2. Traitor of Meridian
3. Seals Against the Deep
4. Unworking the Ritual
   
   • Ilchorin's Favor
5. Breaking the Bond
6. Faceless Gratitude

This is a good walk-thru of each step and what the requirements/rewards are:

From HERDING CATS BLOG
I love this easy write up on the Water Saga Quest chain.

Act One

• Start the chain by picking up a quest in Abyssal Precipice, a Tier 2 dungeon.
  5-man group required
• Head to Iron Pine Peak and go pick on a camp of baddies. This is marked as a group quest, but it was laughably easy with four people.
  solo or duo; reward: collectible book
• Run around a lot and listen to lore in Meridian and Freemarch. Spoiler: you get a “madness” debuff during this stage of the quest that allows you to see giant tentacles and other horrible things around Meridian. It was actually pretty creepy.
  solo; reward: collectible book
• Head back to IPP and meet a very neat new lore-based character, and escort them out of danger. This was marked as a group quest I think, but I completed it solo.
  solo or duo
• Grind time! You have to kill 100 cultists in Iron Pine Peak. Yes, 100. Yes, you can do it in a group to make it go faster.
  solo grind; reward: epic essence
• Go talk to the librarian at Chancel of Labours. Get used to it, you will be seeing him a lot.
  solo; reward: the title “Tidelord” and an achievement

Act Two

• Head to the coastline of Moonshade Highlands and kill some elite and non-elite NPCs to collect four items.
  duo
• Head to Shimmersand and talk to the Dragonslayer faction. You must be Decorated with the Dragonslayers to continue. For what it’s worth I did all my Dragonslayer quests while leveling up and probably three days of dailies, and was pretty much exactly Decorated by the time I got to this quest.
  solo rep
• Swim out to the middle of the Lake of Solace and loot a chest. Then back to the Chancel to turn it in!
  solo
• You now need to obtain an item in the Tier 1 version of Realm of the Fae. It’s just after the first boss, so your group can quit early if they want.
  5-man group required
• Time for quests and lore in Shimmersand! I had no problem doing these solo.
  solo
• Back to T2 Runic Descent, this time to kill a mob near the end of the instance. Completing this will give you a hat that is both delightfully ugly and, for my bard, anyway, best in slot.
  5-man group required; reward: the title “the Soggy”, an epic hat, an achievement

Act Three

• Head out to lake shores of Freemarch. You get to do a few cool quests while wearing a neat temporary costume. (solo)Kill a named elite dude in the middle of the lake. We had three people doing this quest, and he still kicked our butts the first time. Also, some kind of water breathing ability or potion will help a LOT.
  4-5 people
• Next up is an exceedingly neat series of quests that let you run around up above Meridian.
  solo
• Complete an air rift of level 44 or higher for a special drop. I did one solo in Iron Pine Peak, but it would be faster and easier with a group.
  solo/group rift
• Run around the world doing some solo quests, then kill a named elite in Moonshade Highlands.
  duo
• Go back to Shimmersand and lure five cultists to a watery death.
  solo
• Head back to the shores of Freemarch and complete a ritual. We had six people helping with this particular part, but five would have done. You want the fight to be as short as possible, so don’t skimp on DPS!
  5-man group
• Voila! Turn in that last quest back in Meridian, and congratulations.
  reward: achievement, epic shoulders, a crocnard mount, and the insanely awesome title “Mistress/Master of Madness”