Flameseeker Chronicles: My Guild Wars 2 goals for 2018

It’s the time of year for spring-cleaning and goal-setting, where we look ahead to a fresh start filled with plenty of days left for accomplishing all the things we didn’t quite get around to in the previous year. I love taking stock of my yearly MMO progress, especially in Guild Wars 2, and using that reflection to form some new goals to keep my focus and make things challenging in the year ahead. I’ve decided to share my 2018 GW2 to-do list with you all in the hope that it might inspire you to create one yourself.

In this edition of Flameseeker Chronicles, I’ll explain my 2018 goals. Some of my goals are far more ambitious than others, while a few on my list are simply continuations of goals I set for myself year-on-year. I never truly aim to complete my entire list, but it does serve as a fantastic point of reference for times when I feel a little directionless or restless and need some inspiration. Don’t forget to share your goals with me in the comments; who knows, perhaps some of your goals would be added to my list too!

1. Get on board with PvP

This is a turn-up for the books, but I really want to give PvP pursuits more of a shot this year, albeit not really for my own benefit. I love gaming with my real-life friends and that includes Massively Overpowered’s own Brendan Drain, and he is far more interested in PvP pursuits than PvE. Although I can sometimes tempt him to join us on world boss trains and other light content, I know that what he’d really like is if our whole group gets to grips with PvP or WvW. I’ll make a full commitment as soon as I choose which character to rejig for the purpose and see where it takes me.

2. Keep better stock of my bank

I have a hoarding problem, people: It’s not quite at the MJ level of never throwing things away, but it’s close! This year, I want to be far more choosy with how I use my bank space and I want my storage to match how well maintained my character inventories are. I have a pile of things to condense, toss, or use up, so I’ll get on that at some point soon. The real trick will be keeping my bank space neat going forward, though, so I’m going to be far more selective in what I decide to throw in there from now on to prevent it being overrun again.

3. Log in daily

This is one of those goals that I aim for every year: MMOs are my relaxing space and I really enjoy logging into GW2 every day, even if it’s just to do a few dailies or some crafting tasks, for instance. At the same time, I don’t wish to become a slave to my PC and I do take breaks when I feel I need them or if I’m travelling, so my January gaming schedule was much lighter than I’d like due to being away. As long as it still brings me joy, I’ll strive to play daily in 2018.

4. Complete pending story achievements

For someone who enjoys the story so much, you’ll be surprised to hear that I’ve not completed all the achievements that go along with the story content. I never check the list before running content and don’t take the time while completing story to check in case it breaks the immersion or  Recent story drops have been much easier to max out the achievements in and it has made me realise that I can revisit the older stuff with a new lens if I simply go into the story with a view to completing the few achievements I missed along the way. I have a few friends who are new to GW2 so I will have company in doing this if I want it, providing I get started soon!

5. Record all the jumping puzzles!

I feel the need to get recording my exploits in Tyria this year: I think a good starting point for this would be recording each of the jumping puzzles throughout the year. I really enjoy them and would love to capture my less-than-perfect completions as a mere-mortals guide to getting by in the jumping puzzles. I might roll it into an article at some time during the year that brings the video series together with a general advice article with lots of little tricks and tips in it. I might also start recording my raiding exploits, but see point number 8 for more on that!

6. Complete a random achievement each week

This is another continuation for me: I always enjoy relying on achievement hunting to pass the totally rare, never-seen-ever rainy Northern Irish weekend. I definitely want to continue the tradition of getting friends and family to look through the achievement list and select one for me to accomplish. I love the range of tasks they cover and that achievements take such a varying amount of time to complete: Those who I ask to choose never know what they’re getting me into!

7. Start a new legendary journey

I have to preface this one by saying that I’ve not yet picked which journey to commence, but I do have a stack of materials that’s burning a hole in my bank. I could kill two birds with one stone if I use the bank clearing goal as a good excuse to complete this one. It’s always daunting to start on a legendary, but if you work smart it doesn’t have to be too painful a process. I might well document this in Flameseeker Chronicles and use my pointers to create a newbie’s guild to legendary building, but we’ll see! I’ll have to have a look at my characters — and their wardrobes — to determine whether any of them are crying out for a particular legendary to complete them. Feel free to bombard me with inspiration in the form of your best screenshots!

8. Refocus on raiding

I am a self-confessed raidoholic but I’ve recently taken a break as I was so busy this January. I’m going to recommit to my raiding this week, though, especially since my husband is also bursting to get back to it as well. I have a wonderful raiding guild within my set of five that make the content what it is and I’ll be so delighted to get back to enjoying raids with them. I am always nervous when it comes to recording my raids since there are so many players who already create dazzling coverage of much more precise kills than we achieve, but this year could be the time when I get over it and get recording some kills from an everyman perspective. You won’t see perfect rotation deployment or the cleanest runs in the world, but those videos or guides would give you a better idea of what mistakes are salvageable in any given encounter and which result in guaranteed wipes.

9. Work on overhauling those alts

Many of my alts are in a state of incompleteness that would make me blush if you could actually see them, in all honesty. I have four characters I use with any regularity and another four that are disasters that represent my brief experimentation and half-hearted endgame efforts with them. I want to get them in order this year: I find that picking an overarching personality in broad strokes or a coherent style makes the rest of my character plans fall in place, so that’s where I’ll begin. I sometimes find the blank canvas nature of alts a little overwhelming, so narrowing down my options by giving each character some definite direction always helps. This clean-up and redevelopment work will tie into some of my other goals, especially in terms of bank cleaning and exploring PvP content types. Maybe I’ll share some photos of the base characters in the comments and you can give me ideas on where you’d go with them.

Over to you!

I wonder if I’m maybe just a little bit obsessed with lists and this is just a Tina thing to do, or whether many other gamers make a plan for the year ahead or take some time to do some in-game spring cleaning? Let me know if you do anything special to refresh your GW2 account for a new year in the comments below.