#when althea goes to ebonhawke and is talking to people about various identity issues and uneasily realizes | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

anghraine · 2 years

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Mesmers are my one true love in both GW1 and GW2, and in general I lean towards squishy spellcasters in virtually all games (my level 14 D&D character is currently a sorcerer with 12 AC, lol).

That said:

I made a Guardian in GW2 (short version: heavy armor+most weapons+AOE support buffs+holy damage) years ago because I do have a great fondness for clerics and paladins in a sort of archetypal way and the class fits that vibe really well. I only played her to around level 50 (out of 80) and then mostly did nothing until I realized a few months ago that she already had some levels in the Weaponsmithing crafting profession and I could use her to make cool weapons. So I still didn’t play her, but would work on advancing her Weaponsmithing when I didn’t have the brainpower for anything else and eventually got her to max level in Weaponsmithing. GW2 crafting levels also gives you some standard XP, so doing nothing but crafting with her had gotten her to around 70, and I just used her to craft high-level materials that my other characters couldn’t make.

Then I realized that she had to be level 80 to access some account-wide features that would let her craft even more things. She’d only halfway completed even the beginning maps, so I just put on an XP booster and ran through Queensdale (human beginning map) doing events and getting exploration points. And it was super fun to play her, actually, because she’d just run around to low-level groups struggling against various bosses or actually dying, heal/resurrect/buff everyone/absorb damage enough for them to take out champions and such. My mesmer can’t usually do much for other players, so it was really different and the other players were like “oh thank you thank you,” so a nice experience all around.

...She was still stuck at 79, but then the Shadow Behemoth spawned, lol. So now she’s 80 and I’m going to outfit her with awesome equipment and run her around some more when I don’t feel like living on the edge as a mesmer.

#also i'm fond of her storyline even though it's not my number one favorite #hers is basically an au of althea's because she actually is a character in althea's story but obviously not the commander in that one #when althea goes to ebonhawke and is talking to people about various identity issues and uneasily realizes #that her cousin victoria probably wouldn't be accepted as much because she's adopted and there's this more ascalonian than thou shit #that victoria is my guardian! and she has the whole backstory around being adopted as a little kid #and never knowing what happened to her bio parents until the spies of the crown arc plays out #and i imagine she relates to langmar and ascalonian identity in subtly different ways than althea even though they're quite close #and they're quite different in personality—althea can be aggressive at times but she's a lot more slippery than victoria #victoria just looks around and is like Something Must Be Done (Preferably With a Large Hammer)#so although their starting backgrounds are similar (both blessed by kormir etc)#althea ends up in the order of whispers (i think even non-commander!althea in victoria's story would end up there)#and victoria in the vigil #it makes a certain amount of sense tbh that althea would end up going to ebonhawke because it's her birthplace and she has family there #and a lot of emotions for it in general—but ultimately she goes because she /wants/ to #while victoria has never been there in her life when the vigil sends her there to help and she's trying /not/ to have Emotions #anghraine babbles #long post #anghraine's gaming #ascalonian grudgeblog #victoria langmar #althea fairchild #honestly i do like missing sister much better than the dead parents backstory on the writing level BUT i do like the possibilities of both #anghraine's headcanons

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