Hi!
What's so special about Pre Searing that people still staying there? I mean, no offence i'm on my way too now to make a LDoA with my Necro and it makes a lot of fun (it's a beatiful area tho). But, what to do next after lvl 20? Isn't it boring?
Posted Jun 20, 2018, 5:53 PM UTC
Presearing is a place of returning. Very few have stayed here continuously since launch. Those that do are very very specialized gamers. The rest of us find we take breaks of a few months every couple of years till the Longing returns and we start digging for that notepad with all the account details.
The word microcosm defines it pretty well. If you like the basic mechanics of the game and aren't always on the hunt for new content you can spend years here just refining the bulletproof charr run you stumbled upon or were taught long ago. The drop rate mechanics haunt you like a slot machine fever dream. You get an itch between your shoulderblades right before that 3rd kit of the day drops.
You run out of the simple goals pretty quickly. Long term survival in Pre is about how crafty you are at picking new goals, preferably before the glow of the prior begin to dim. The basic titles were won through petitioning the devs over the years, getting creative after that leads to oddities like skill less Survivor's and LDoA's. Stacks of Black Dyes and Rare Asian Mini Pets, and carefully curated collections of old glitch and singular antique items. I've been slowly adding to a stack of Tapestry Shreds that will help complete my collection of every Presearing Quest Item for ages now.
Lastly Presearing is about the Community. For the first 5 years that alone was enough to keep people logging in daily. For certain personality types you find you naturally hover over the ctrl and alt buttons at all times. You scanned the crowd in Ascalon for familiar names and with the faintest flash of someone zoning in on the periphery. Friend or foe you never had enough friend list space for all the locals you wanted to keep track of day to day. Some of us were hall monitors, some of us shady dealers. We all knew immediately when someone or something new appeared in game. Time changes things, and Pre is even sleepier during this summer despite a period of heavy changes that make things easier for new solo players. In the end perhaps deep down each of us secretly wants to be the lone figure visible when the servers one day die, and the true last day fails to dawn.
TLDR: Perma Pre isn't for everyone, but if it is. You will know it.
edit: words,words, TLDR.
I even purchased 1 char slot for a pre toon. Long time ago, though. For one side another LDoA is cool, but due to pre being the first area to get in touch with GW and this lovely ambient, it just feels right to be there. :D I enjoy hanging around there from time to time. :)
There are many reasons I guess but the biggest, at least IMO, is the Legendary Defender of Ascalon title. You have to reach level 20 in pre to get it.
He said he is going to do is LDoA Title, which is Legendary Defender of Ascalon. :P
Doh!! 😁
How do you handle with monotony for example if u did LDoA already? Is there anything what lures you there to still hang on?
Pre makes sense if you have heavy nostalgia for that early part of the game, especially since the music, lighting and feel can't be found anywhere else in the game (except the charr-homelands, and Ascalon in GW2). If you start with a proph character, you take your first steps and make your first friends and experiences there.. it's the original GW experience. In your first run through, it's really not effective at that feeling though. You should move on with your very first character in Proph. If you want the fuzzy feels back, make another character for pre-searing.
Especially if you follow the prophecies storyline, it becomes clear that pre-searing is the happy childhood of your very troubled (and likely mentally unbalanced) character.
Edit: fixed spelling issues and removed ambiguity from first paragraph
This.
There's monotony, that's true, but you wouldn't want to go hunting charrs all day. It's something I do like to do and relax, maybe once a week. Started my first pre char, when there were no quests yet. Was almost lvl 16 when they introduced them. She's lvl 19 now, will never get 20, so I can use my imp (<3) till the servers will go offline some day... Started a new pre char just 2 months back, to play with a friend. It's just for old times sake. It's great
I always keep a character in Pre ... since 2007 anyway. I like to come here after a stressful day ... like to come get Nick Gifts [for the Sweet and Party and Drunk points] ... like to come hear Father Broderick tell tales in Foibles Fair [yep, he's still there some evenings.]
Good place to go to de-stress ... that and Bergen's Hot Springs .. and Yaks ... and a couple places in Tarnished Coast ... and Shing Jea ... and ................
Peace and Nostalgia
The community in the Presearing was what really got me hooked for ages to come. My oldest character in there should be turning 11 soon I believe. I have many others that are 6-10. The most personable people I met in the game we're in the Presearing. And when LDoA was actually a challenge that took months as a kid, it was incredible.
It's hard to pinpoint what makes it so special. There's just something so tranquil about this place, especially if we compare it to post-searing.
Pre is GW's version of twinking. Place is like a game within the game, has its own economy and everything.
It's also the only place in the game where I feel every drop matters, and trying to get some amazing purple weapon is still a driving force for me sometimes.
Tranquility is really what I enjoy. I haven't gone for LDoA or anything but I do try to do everything I can before moving on to the Searing. The area just has everything. It feels homely, the little towns are great, the music and scenery are beautiful. I still remember the first time 13 years ago having to go through the Searing and finding devourers and seeing ruins of the places we just came from.
I got a nostalgia bug last weekend and reinstalled GW1 because some tranquil music on youtube reminded me of the music from pre-searing.