3 Years of Guild Wars

• ARF Today
  
  It's been a pretty long while since any new articles have been posted on the guild blog, but that doesn't necessarily mean that ARF guild activity has been dead. On the contrary, ARF has never been busier than before. Some members who have went away for their students and work have been seen returning to continue their adventures in Eye of the North, while most of the officers themselves have been busy working on their Kind of a Big Deal title tracks.
  
  For the most part, our members have been involved in what we call, 'Daily Dungeons'. Daily Dungeons for the most part take place over the weekday, usually scheduled on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (if no one's heading out for the weekend). We've been at it for several months now, crawling through the numerous dungeons in Eye of the North and helping each other fill out our Master Dungeon Guide books. Most dungeon crawls have been exceptionally rewarding, usually end-chest drops leaving us with Onyx Gemstones (for those pricey Destroyer Weapons) and nifty green items for keepsake.
  
  I think that dungeons were generally designed for group-adventuring, and it's certainly much more fun to clear them as a guild of friends as they can be extremely frustrating and painful at times. The last thing you ever want to happen, having spent 4 hours late into the night, struggling with some really tough boss (like Fendi and his undead crew members), is to have someone quit on you. That's an extremely common thing to happen with PUG (pick-up groups) and something that really makes you appreciate all the teamwork and commitment a guild group has. Seeing how everyone plays their part constructively and cooperatively really gives a rewarding sense of achievement in every crawl. No matter how hard the dungeons may be - the obstacles and bosses they present, (not to mention insanely tough mobs) - it's always great to know that you have patient and willing friends to support you all the way.
  
  For most of the ARF officers, we've maxed out most of our EotN titles, including Legendary Master of the North, which is an exceptional feat considering the amount of time and effort dedicated into attaining those titles. It's also opened up opportunities for us to fully utilise the new EotN PvE-only skills which all all dependent on your EotN faction ranks, and presents new faction-based armor choices as well.
  
  
• Events & ARF-coming Adventures
  
  It's kinda funny and weird at the same time when you log into Guild Wars like you normally do, only to discover that all your characters have been turned into stickmen. It'd been the case for everyone else in every town, city and instanced map for the 1st of April, as a rather silly, but altogether good joke by ArenaNet themselves.
  
  Following that little prank, 6th of April marked the day when the well-loved-by-all, Gaile Gray and her best companion, The Frog left her current role as Community Relations Manager. Festivities were held to celebrate Gaile's incredible 7-years of service in ArenaNet, a new title called the Party Animal track was even added for the occasion and to top it all, a very special minipet limited only to Gaile herself was made and presented to her. Hopefully we'll still be able to hear from her sometime soon in-game or on the forums. It's simply remarkable the bonds she has built with the GW community, something rarely seen in large syndicated game companies.
  
  Looking ahead, everyone in ARF is all eagerly awaiting for the slighest word of Guild Wars 2. For the most part, we're still at it with our title-farming, hoping that our efforts won't be wasted and prove to reap some really fun benefits in GW2. This coming weekend, ARF will be venturing back into the Domain of Anguish to settle their score with Mallyx the Unyeilding, and hopefully earn a nifty monument in the Eye of the North.
  
  In our next article for the Scratching Post, we'll be hearing some stories and experiences from the ARF members themselves and hopefully have more interesting screen captures to post...
  
  
  For now, that sums up very briefly all the activities that we've had as of late. Oh, and not to forget, everyone's getting their 3rd-year Birthday Presents and it's been a lot of fun seeing what interesting mini-pets we're all getting. It's amazing we've been at it for 3-years since our enlistment into National Service and we're still begging for more GW goodness. Hopefully next month's PC Gamer will reveal some stunning, eye-popping news bites!