Hail*NOR/

The Guild Wars 2 branch is in full swing on their Oakheart essences and we bring you this report hot from Draconis Mons. ArenaNet released episode five of Living World Season Three, entitled “Flashpoint”. This is the penultimate chapter leading up to the expansion later this year and it unveiled some significant plot developments as well as the largest new map of all the episodes this season. It also introduced one of the most celebrated mastery skills to date, providing an unparalleled degree of freedom of movement in the new map. There are a host of new achievements, an epic jumping puzzle, and a new collectable back piece. They really did a fantastic job of blending interesting story and fun mechanics into this release so we encourage all owners of the Heart of Thorns to login and make sure that they bank this episode to their accounts.

Some of the new content has found a permanent place in our Guild Hall. Thanks to the generosity of Squire Honor Crux, we have our own Oakheart essence right near the entrance waypoint! This provides really quick movement and tons of exploratory fun throughout the area. To add even more enjoyment to your Guild Hall experience, he has also donated Uzolan's Mechanical Orchestra. We are grateful for these new additions that really spruce up our living space, so thank you very much Crux!

We also want to thank everyone for their frequent contributions to the Guild Hall upgrades. Poor Baroness Teigra could hardly keep the message of the day current, as donations would come pouring in every time it was updated. We’ve been spending as much time waiting for aetherium to refill lately as anything else. We finally finished Workshop Restoration 2 and have proceeded to upgrade several of the synthesizers that will provide you with opportunities to harvest higher tier materials from them.

With all of these upgrades to the Guild Hall, what else could one want? Well, perhaps your very own plot of land within it to decorate! Baroness Teigra has invited all full members of NOR to choose a spot within the Guild Hall to decorate as they please. If you think you would enjoy this roleplaying activity in the game, please read her post on the forums and get in touch with her to indicate your interest, or to ask any questions.

The GW2 branch has continued to enjoy more progress with raiding. The progression group is clearing bosses with greater efficiency and regularity and getting close to their first Slothasor kill. The first Sunday Raid Training run successfully completed the escort mission in the Stronghold of the Faithful and then made really good progress on Vale Guardian given their first time seeing it. Congratulations to all who have enjoyed success with this fun and challenging content. We look forward to more challenges to come and in getting acquainted with some new rotations after the recent balance patch from ArenaNet.

Finally, we have continued to grow in terms of promotions and new recruits. Congratulations to Crux, Cosmic Teapot, and Leodwolf on their well deserved promotions to Squire Honor. We also enjoyed seeing Ultraviolet get squired and join us as a full member. We warmly welcome a new influx of high quality recruits with ArthurLanceway, Titus, Rampagerg, Vandane, Tyler, Jemper, Goark, Skynless, SylviaLea, and Luxophian. We hope you find a home here with us in NOR and enjoy your time with us for years and many games to come.

Duke Windemere
*NOR/DK BL:GW2

Hail*NOR/

The current mod saw the introduction of loadouts.  This means that one can have two different specs for their characters, and deploy each spec depending on the situation.  This is a boon to all of us, but especially for those of us who play more of a support role in dungeons but have a hard time questing.  Many of us are also trying our hands at a different playstyle.  Now we can all have our cake and eat it too!

We've also made our first foray into two of the hardest endgame dungeons in the game: Fangbreaker Island and Spellplague.  While the fights in there were a bit slow, but it was pretty smooth kind of slow.  The write ups are on our section of the NOR forum.  We haven't quite finished these dungeons as full NOR groups yet, but now some of us have some concrete reasons to gear up even further.

Our guild hall has finally opened its doors, and we now can try our hands at playing interior decorator.   Many of the decorations can be purchased with guild marks that we can earn by donating to the guild's coffer.  In time, we'll have a fireplace, banners, and table cloths!

Until next month,

Duchess Phelaia Fiendline
*NOR/DC BL:NW

Endgame Survey Results:

With 10 in, pretty much everyone said dungeons with 50% having Thursday open. Going to say Dungeon Thursday. Large group has 5 responses and the results are still scattered across Tues, Sat, Sun and Fri with 1 any day so in that regard I'll set a 4 week rotation for large group. If one day starts too seem best, that one will become the permanent.

Week 1
- Large Group Tuesday
- Dungeon Thursday (May 25th "Malabog Castle" & "Temple of the Spider"

Week 2
- Dungeon Thursday (June 1st "Valindra's Tower" & "Gray Wolf Den")
- Large Group Friday

Week 3
- Dungeon Thursday
- Large Group Saturday

Week 4
- Dungeon Thursday
- Large Group Sunday

Knight Ziek
*NOR/KT-NW

Hail*NOR/

Many exciting things have occurred since our last newsletter! The cartel market is having some cool sales this week, the 16th through the 23rd, so get the goodies before they are gone at swtor.com.  Some of what’s available is the credit flip emote, mounts, and the Steadfast Champion pack.

Join us in fighting the new boss, again! As is not uncommon with NORbies, not having seen the fight before did not stop us.  We attacked the new boss and were successful in our spectacular one-shot style.  The healers had a ton of fun kiting the adds while Duke Intisar did his best to keep everyone on track.  It was a successful run and we look forward to running it again.  We have no doubt that when Duke Intisar is more practiced with that boss fight, there may be more “accidental” deaths.  Galaxiya looks over her shoulder often, just in case. J

Gearing should be less of an issue now after the latest patch upped the drop rate of set piece gear.  The xp boost for command points helps the leveling go a little faster and we are happy to help anyone wanting to level up and gear up.

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