Author Archives: Izari

About Izari

Hi. I'm a nerd. Nice to meet ya!

Brace Yourselves… a Contest is Coming!

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Attention, Tyrians!

In celebration of the changing of the seasons (Soon™)  and cleaning out my small collection of GW2 swag I’ve been meaning to hand out, I’ve whipped up a pretty spiffy contest for all you awesome people.

What sort of contest, you say? Glad you asked!

Theme:  Uncanny Crossovers!
- Take your favorite fictional character[s] from any universe OTHER than Guild Wars 2 and stick ‘em in Tyria. What shenanigans would Elementalist Korra get into? Imagine the plots Darth Vader and Minister Caudecus could cook up! How would Rata Sum react to a dalek invasion? The possibilities are endless!

Format: Anything digital! It can be a video, comic, animation, piece of artwork, poem, short story, song, etc. Whatever medium you feel you can work with best!

Deadline: Saturday, April 6th, 2013!

Restrictions:
- Open to US / Canadian Residents only. Really sorry about this!
- Submissions must be deliverable online.
- Keep it family friendly! PG-13 and under.
- One entry per person.

How to submit:
Send us an e-mail at talktyria@gmail.com sub: TT Crossover Contest (be sure to use this subject, helps us organize the submissions way better!)
Please include:
– Full Name
– Age
– Country of residence (US or Canada)
– Nickname (what we will use on the site)
– Link to your submission (can be attached if the file is under 20mb!)

Prizes!!

First Prize -
Brand Spakin’ New Guild Wars 2 Collector’s Edition – Autographed by the ArenaNet team! (!!!!!)

Second Prize
Rytlock Plushie!

Third Prizes (2)
One of two American L GW2 T-Shirts.


Feel free to contact us regarding any questions you may have. Comment here, Twitter, facebook, and e-mail are our your best shots!
Winners will be contacted within a week of deadline (depending on number of submissions). Once all winners have been confirmed, we will announce the winning submissions on the site shortly after!
Special thanks to the ArenaNet team for the CE!

Get Crackin’! Good luck!

Guild Wars 2 Armor Guide – Basic Naming Conventions & Runes

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So I’ll be honest; I wrote this mostly for myself, because for whatever reason the naming conventions on armor in Guild Wars 2 had me completely befuddled until I had it explained to me like I’m 5 years old by my twitter krewe.

I figured if I went ahead and wrote an article on it, I could hit three birds with one post. First, by writing it out, I’d remember it better. Second, I’ll now always have this to come back to when I get confused again (and let’s face it- that’s gonna happen). Third, it’s now available for all the world to see just in case there are other players like me.

So, here’s hopin’ it’s useful!

I’m focusing on armor, here, as weapons do differ slightly, but most of the core ideas apply to them, too.

Why understanding the naming conventions is important

I guess, technically, it’s NOT required since you can just hover over items to see what they get you. But having a general / better idea of how gear is named and what it all means will make finding what you’re looking for specifically faster and easier. I’m not suggesting we memorize every single name and what stats that refers to, although if you WANT to, nobody’s gonna stop ya.

Honestly, though, it’s extremely helpful at higher levels, since you’re more likely to want to have more than one set for different roles or play styles.

Also; it makes you feel smart, and who doesn’t like that?

So let’s start with the basics.

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guild-wars-2-codex-preview-generator-2

Guild Wars 2 Community Projects Update – Episode 4 – Tools of the Trade!

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Well then! You’d think after such a recent Guild Wars 2 community projects update  it’d be some time before our next installment, but alas! This is one fandom that doesn’t rest. Over the course of the past few weeks I’ve been keeping an eye out and bookmarking any and every site of interest I’ve come across. The collection’s gotten large enough to warrant a new post!

Though i don’t normally go for themes, I decided this week we’d focus on tools of the trade. Most of these sites offer interactive apps or functions that allow you to dig through and find exactly what you’re looking for; from previewing high level armor, finding those pesky chests, or playing around with possible builds.

If you’ve thought about needing it, someone has, apparently, already made it happen!

So let’s take a look at these gems!

What’s new with the Guild Wars 2 community

Guild Wars 2 Spidy (Live trading post listings, statistics, and economic tracker)
Playing the global market in an MMO has always been a fun, albiet risky at times, way to make money. While the in-game economy is still trying to sort itself out a bit, people have been quick to learn a few tactics to get rich fast or take advantage of short-lived market booms. GW2 Spidy is a great site that tracks the flucuations of the economy from item prices, gem exchange rates, and availablity.

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Five things I don't like about guild wars 2

Five things I DON’T like about Guild Wars 2

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Many moons ago I had written a draft for an article that never made its way to the sunlight. It was kind of an open letter to the community in which I tried to explain how Guild Wars 2 was not going to be perfection, that no fan new or old should expect it to be, and how that didn’t matter in the long run because it was still going to be a fantastic journey.

I still stand by those sentiments. So before I go into my little countdown, I suppose I ought to start by saying how much I freaking love this game. So don’t get me wrong, universe, when I spend some time on the aspects of it I particular dislike or perhaps don’t understand.  And trust me, it wasn’t easy to come up with five points in the first place.

So here we have it, folks. Izzie’s top five gripes in increasing order of sad-panda levels, complete with enriching quotes that may just change your life forever.

 • Character-bound dyes. Runway rebellion. 

“I had a lot of dates but I decided to stay home and dye my eyebrows.”
~Andy Warhol 

The woe of fashionistas everywhere. Originally dye unlocks were proposed to be account-wide, but they’ve since changed that system to be character-based. Most other dye changes I was happy with (the whole seed thing being axed sparked an enthusiastic “HALLELUAH”) but this one still irks me. I understand this choice most of all my gripes, though. Dyes are actually pretty limited and only a handful highly prized. That and the fact that they are no longer consumable but forever-friends for your hero once you’ve got it pretty much means they need to be character based.

Having maybe 5-6 colors you actually care about readily available on all your characters would basically guarantee the dye market would eventually crash (both in the gem-store and in-world economy) so this was a necessary evil. You can snag dye packs from the gem-store, and at 200 for 7, with guaranteed 2 uncommon or rares, it’s really a worthwhile investment. Any colors you’re not crazy about, you can throw on the trading post to make a small profit.

I may not like it, but I’m willing to suck this one up for the team.

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Guild Wars 2 Community Project Update

Guild Wars 2 Community Projects Update – Episode 3

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Well, it’s been far too long since we’ve done a big Guild Wars 2 community projects update (last one was March 2011… jeez!), but I’m glad to pop-in and give you guys a quick update on the happy haps in the community.

Over the past year or so, lots of sites have come and gone. We bid farewell to some classic spots like Conjure Phantasm / Mesmer.me and GuildWars2PvP.com, as well as several of the pre-release spotlights from our first two posts. Sad to see these guys go.

We are happy, however, to say that many of our faves are still going strong (looking at you GW2Live, GuildMag, GWEN, etc.). Also, mad props to our girl Elixabeth for her gig on Massively as the new Flameseeker Chronicles writer  (yeah, yeah. We know that’s old news, but we can be proud anyways).

Now that the game is in full release, we can expect the fansite roster to swell and stabilize, hopefully along side the in-game economy (we can dream). So lets take a gander at some recent finds that we hope will be around forever. And ever.

 What’s new with the Guild Wars 2 Community

• Guild Wars 2 Riches
One of the greatest things about in-game worlds is the ability to be fithly, dirty rich. I’m talking piles upon piles of gold doubloons on which to roll around while cackling manically to one’s self. Guild Wars 2 Riches aims to aid us on that journey. Advocates of NOT buying from account-hacking, chat spamming gold sellers, the site aims to be a center for informative guides on crafting, markets, and the like to help players help themselves reach their wildest dreams without having to rely on the MMO black market. And they’re also looking for a few good ladies or gents to join, so if you’ve got a knack for economy and nerdism, give this site a go.

• Trading Post Calculator
And speaking of gold doubloons, this handy-dandy little tool (featured by the above site) lets you compare market and trade costs to figure out if you’d make more selling to players or just vendoring to NPCs.

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Final Beta Event Key Giveaway

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Hey ladies and gents of Tyria.

Guild Wars 2 is reaching a big milestone next weekend; the final beta event before release.

It’s hard to believe the game will be live in less than 2 months! It feels like just yesterday they announced the sequel at all.

Speaking of memories; we’ve got a deal for you. ANet has graciously granted us some keys for this last weekend event. To win a key, we ask that fans submit a favorite screenshot from Guild Wars 1 as a way to pay homage to game that spawned this wonderful franchise!

You’ve got til Sunday Night, 8pm eastern (DST) time to get your submissions in. We’ll send keys out during the day Monday.

Use the form below to submit images; please not do not submit links in the comments, they WILL NOT BE COUNTED. 

You can upload your screenshots to any major free photo hosting site like imgur, photobucket, flickr, and imageshack.

Congrats; and GOOD LUCK!

-Contest is closed-

* Key is only good for this one event and not any future stress tests.
* Only one submission per person, please.

Beta Code Contest Winners

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One thing’s for sure; Guild Wars fans are quite the… uh, creative types when it comes to funny little contests like these. We got over 90 submissions ranging from the “pun definitely intended” to the “well this is pushing the envelope of moral ambiguity”. It was really tough narrowing it down to just 20.

But you guys sure did give us a good laugh over the weekend!

Check out our winners; we’ve sent out all e-mails already but if you see your entry here and didn’t get your e-mail, let us know ASAP!

And without further ado… let the madness ensue.
*Warning: image heavy! 

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TalkTyria recruitment is open!

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Wow!

Thanks a ton for your interest in joining our team. But due to overwhelming response, we’re closing up applications for now.

It’s gonna take us a few days to sift through e-mails, so if you sent in an application, hold tight! We’ll be getting back   to everybody ASAP.

Thanks again; rock on, Tyrians!

~Izzie

TalkTyria Guild Wars 2 Video Bonanza!

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It doesn’t need to be said that since the first Guild Wars 2 beta weekend event, the floodgates, as they say, have been opened. And by opened, I mean busted down with a swelling tidal wave of chatter, media, rants, and raves. But most of all, media. In the lull between events, fans are eagerly devouring everything the ‘net has to offer to ease the pain (I know I am).

Our lovely resident videographer, LoremasterKaae (you may have heard of this fine lass before) was hard at work filming and editing some of her adventures over the weekend.

Thanks to her efforts, we’ve (finally) got some fun videos on our youtube channel. I thought I’d point out a few of my personal favorites for you guys to take a look at, if you haven’t already:

Guild Wars 2 Crafting – Leatherworking
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