#7 Hoelbrak, Norn Capital City

Shortly after you've entered Wayfarer Foothills, you will receive a directive to go to Hoelbrak to continue your personal (Norn) story.

The first time that you travel to Hoelbrak from Wayfarer Foothills, you will travel through a portal (seen in the background above). In addition to the waypoints, if you are traveling by foot from one 'zone' to another, you will pass through portals. Either way, you will encounter a loading screen as you move from place to place.

You may have noticed a number in parenthesis after your quest title, and as you may have guessed, this is the quest 'level'. Generally these will coincide with your current level, but there are certain times or areas where this may vary significanlty. As I ran through the starting area for a while prior to going to Hoelbrak, I was level 6 when I decided it was time to catch up on my Personal Story quest. Ok, so this is going to be a walk in the park. Not necessarily. You see, Guild Wars 2 'downgrades' your stats to be level appropriate to the area/quest you are currently in. So, if you are a level 80, and you enter a starting area, you will be downgraded to a level 3, or whatever is appropriate. This makes questing with friends who are not the same level as you non-trivial and a lot more enjoyable. By the same token, don't expect to go gathering resources uncontested as a level 80. You will only be a level 80 in a level 80 zone. (It should be noted that you do retain all of the weapon and other skills that you have earned.)

Like everything in Guild Wars 2, Hoelbrak is stunning. Nestled in the Northern Shiverpeak Mountains, a gentle snow is falling, fires are burning, and lots of citizens are going about their business, having random conversations, adding to the atmosphere and immersion into the world. One does get a bit tired of hearing the "This is a bad time to be traveling' greeting that is universally heard. Considering that's all you're doing in this game, you'd think something like 'Good luck in your travels' would be more appropriate. 

Way-points are scattered around the city, and as soon as you discover any of them, you will no longer need to walk through the portal, you can just use the way-point system both within the city, and from whatever zone you may be in.

In addition to pusuing your personal story, the capital cities are central locations for all types of merchants, craftmasters, guild... um... setup persons, the bank and Trading Post.

Sigurd has elected to go into Weaponsmithing and Armorsmithing. These are items that a Guardian can use. Weaponsmiths can create melee weapons used by a number of disciplines (Axes, Daggers, Swords, Maces, Shields, Spears, etc) and Armorsmiths can create the heavy armor used by Warriors and Guardians, along with boxes (containers you can use for inventory, just like bags that tailors make). You can learn only two crafting disciplines (and cooking is a crafting discipline, NOT a secondary craft that everyone can learn as in other MMOs).

Next post I'll go into the personal story just a bit and perhaps crafting. Feel free to suggest topics that you would like to see discussed, either by leaving a comment or for those of you who know who I am, you know how to contact me by text or email.

Ciao!