Hail*NOR/

While the heat of summer may be encouraging some of us to slow down and take it easy, it certainly hasn't impeded ArenaNet's support for Guild Wars 2, and our NOR branch has continued to grow right alongside of it. Since the May newsletter, we have graduated from our provisional status and re-affirmed ourselves as a full Duchy. After a series of little teaser events popping up from maintenance patches, ArenaNet have officially launched Living Season 3 to begin on July 26th!

We have continued to make steady progress with Guild Hall upgrades, working our way up to level 20! The dueling Arena is completed and we have added a very useful Guild Portal, several types of resource nodes, and a magic find boost to the tavern. We have upgraded several other areas and added decorations. We will continue to chip away at additional upgrades and post the current list of items needed in the "Message of the Day' from the guild panel, as well as posting on the forums. Please take a moment now and then to see how you might contribute. As we move into the higher level upgrades the demands also increase, so distributing the load will certainly help a lot.

We have revised our weekly event schedule, which now reserves time for Guild Missions on Monday, Dungeons on Wednesday, Raiding on Friday, and a Sunday afternoon "S.I.E.G.E" that changes focus on a rotating basis. Sign-ups are posted in the events sub-forum, which is a great place to reserve your spot and/or suggest any specific things you would like to do during an event. While we're still short of having ten people who are willing and able to raid on a regular basis, we have added a time slot to reserve it. We will consider filling in empty slots with pickup groups if we have around 7 or more NORbies, otherwise we will look at doing some other kind of challenging end-game content on those nights, such as Arah explorer paths or Twilight Arbor Aetherblade. If you are interested in raiding, please take a look at our Raiding Requirements and Group Composition discussions and let us know. We're happy to help people get ready if they are interested and willing to put in the time.

New content is on the way with Living Season 3, starting July 26th! ArenaNet will be starting episodic releases with new personal stories, a fractal, the return of a revised PvP map called Revenge of the Capricorn, and several other changes that should make for exciting times ahead. The LS3 story will pick up where Heart of Thorns ended, and they have discounted the game by 50% for the week of July 20th through the 27th. If you have not purchased the expansion yet, this is a perfect time to upgrade your account as it comes with some great content in itself, and will also permanently unlock your ability to play LS3 for free so long as you login during the time it is active. For more details on Living Season 3, check out Dulfy's summary, which includes a link to a very spoiler heavy trailer - so fair warning!

The near future is looking bright for Guild Wars 2 and we're thankful to have everyone in NOR to help us enjoy it. If you have been thinking about trying it out, now is terrific time to do so and you can always try it for free. Happy gaming!

Duke Windemere
*NOR/DK BL:GW2

Hail*NOR/

The biggest news for Neverwinter in the past two months is the implementation of formal guild alliances. Guilds are now able to ally with up to 12 other guilds to form grand alliances. Not wanting to miss out on the fun and opportunity, after careful consideration, we joined the Tuxedo T-Shirt Alliance.

So, what is life in Neverwinter like now that we belong to this alliance? Some of the biggest changes:

• We now have an overflowing pool of eager, friendly, and talented people to join us in the largest multiplayer content. 40-player Dragonflight runs, where we fight and defeat four dragons simultaneously? We do it weekly now. 25-player Tiamat runs? Also weekly. It's been a pleasure to see these big runs coming together on a regular basis with such easygoing, competent, cooperative, and friendly people.

• A vastly increased pool of resources for stronghold construction. While there are no expected or required donations from anyone - worth repeating -  there are not expected or required donations from anyone - the alliance has evolved an informal tradition of voluntarily earning and donating Influence for a different member guild each Wednesday. (Influence is a critical resource for building the stronghold, is labor-intensive to earn, and is always in short supply.) This started out as a way to help out the smallest member guilds, and there are so many players who contribute across the alliance - over 100 - that it really gives the spotlight guild a shot in the arm. This is the sort of generous ethic we prize in NOR, and it's really cool to see it being valued in the alliance we belong to.

• Thanks to the relative ease with which we can conquer the toughest massive content now (i.e. Dragonflight), many of us have earned our Dragonflight armor now. Which is good, because...

...Mod 10, Big Nasty Giants Who Smash Things In Another Corner of R.A. Salvatore's World* is just around the corner, bringing with it a brand-new dungeon featuring what is promised to be the most difficult content ever seen in this game, plus a brand-new set of best-in-slot armor. (Just in time to obsolete the Dragonflight stuff, lol.) Mod 10 will also feature significant reworks of the Hunter Ranger, Guardian Fighter, and Scourge Warlock classes, which the devs promise will allow for a more diverse selection of effective builds and playstyles.

See you in Bryn Shandar,
Count Tyrandil

*Not actual title

Hail*NOR/

A Return to RIFT

I know, the branch is closed - but I am playing nonetheless. I always rather liked RIFT but unfortunately, most of my friends did not; and while I was a seated member of the HC, I felt it was my duty to the guild to go wherever the members wanted to go (SWTOR, GW2, NW, etc.).

Anyway, I'm back on RIFT and seeing "what's what" - and doing some reporting to NOR.

RIFT went F2P quite a while ago and when it first switched over I felt that the system was excellent, with just a few exceptions. Trion's system seemed to be more about rewarding subscribers, rather than punishing F2P accounts and I liked that.

There are a few restrictions of course, among the most annoying is the limitation on Bag Slots, which I suppose was intended to curb "Farming"; but is nevertheless vexing to honest players. At the time the largest bag was a bit smaller, now with 24 or 28 slot bags it's not quite so bad. You get three (3) open slots on your toon, plus a bank vault with 64 slots and you can purchase additional bank bag slots for ingame money (gold), the first one is cheap at 5g; second is 30g, not sure after that.

They also recently restricted the LFG and warfronts que for F2P players to random, so you can no longer select a specific Dungeon or Warfront through those tools; although, all you need is a single subscriber at the head of the party to defeat that limitation.

My F2P account can't yet venture into the new zones, but I think that is either a level, quest or port issue, not the state of the account. From my understanding, all of the zones are available to all players.

A few other things have changed, in no particular order: You can still use Dyes, but there is now a color collection tool so you are not required to purchase an individual bottle of dye for each item. You no longer have to hold onto a pile of gear for the Appearance, once it goes into your bag, you "collect" that item's appearance and can reuse it any number of times to customize your look.

The Auction House also has a few handy changes. First, once an auction expires the item returns to your mailbox (same as before), but now you can repost to the AH from your mailbox. There is also an "Ordering" system that I haven't quite worked out yet, but it appears as though you can request wanted items via the AH and other players can fulfill your order.

Right now the Summerfest World Event is going on (until August 3rd); with it, you get a free 3-Day Patron Pass which gives you boosts to your XP, tokens, currency, and all kinds of rewards, not to mention a "Trove", which you get every 10 levels that contains some pretty serious loot - epic level weapons, +160% XP boost potion (2 hours game time, lasts through death - and appears to stack with other XP boosts), among others.

That Trove is earned retroactively, so when I logged into Las, I ended up with 6 of those chests (level 60).

Anyway, I don't want to go too long, I've only been back playing RIFT for a few days really and so far I like what I see.

Lasarian
*NOR/LE:WoW

Also there are 3k or so keys left for a lvl 40 Boost with some bags if you sign up for mmorpg website **thanks Braagi for the tip***

Hail*NOR/

Many exciting things have occurred since our last newsletter! The Dark vs Light Event is in full swing! There are rewards for each level and many things to do to earn those rewards.   Most of us are participating in this event and are helping each other with the achievements.  If you’ve been thinking about starting new characters, now’s the time and the rewards are a plenty!  To learn more, go to:  http://www.swtor.com/dark-vs-light/home 

Swtor.com posted “Start a new character and master challenges to earn increasingly more epic rewards – Choose your path to Legendary beginning June 28! Plus, the outcome of players’ choices will impact the state of the galaxy this fall. Check back to see which side is dominating and stay tuned for more details.

Some rewards such as titles and pack rewards are delivered as earned. Others, such as the Companions, Victor’s Trailblazer and Titan vehicles are delivered at the end of the event this fall. Find out more about the rewards you can earn with your heroic efforts: www.swtor.com/blog/dark-vs.-light-event-and-rewards-blog.”

Join us in the raiding fun!  If you have not had the opportunity to run some or all of the Ops, join us on Tuesday evenings, 9pm server time for a fun time!  Anyone level 55 and up is welcome.  Don’t let “potato” gear or “I haven’t ever run before, I don’t know what I’m doing” stop you.  We’re here to teach you the ropes and get you killed….er we mean help you have fun!  If you’d rather be a little better prepared before a run, talk to Intisar, Galaxiya, or Vasinar and we’ll chat with you about what it’s like to raid and what you may want to know beforehand that would be helpful.  There’s always something to learn in SWTOR and we’re happy to help.

As the Branch moves into the next exciting phase, we invite everyone to keep contributing in whatever ways you can. The NOR Spirit is flourishing here, and we hope that together we all can continue to pull together and take the Branch to new heights. Good luck in your gaming adventures and we hope to see you in game! May the Force be with You!

Countess Galaxiya
*NOR/CS-swtor