Blood and Madness - Coming October 15 to Guild Wars 2 - Teaser Trailer

Guild Wars 2 - Twilight Assault Patch Preview

Hey everyone, I am sure alot of you have seen the developer livestream on new level 80 path yesterday and got a taste of what to come. Here are a bit more info on the upcoming patch that was shown. 

Below is a version in points form for easy reading, you can find a paragraph version here as well: http://dulfy.net/2013/10/01/gw2-twilight-assault-patch-preview/

Background

• Brand new level 80 path replacing the F/U path. It is alot longer than the other explorable paths and will be rewarding 2 gold at the bonus chest in the end.
• This path houses an Aetherblade base and both Lionguar & Caithe want you to take it out for different reasons.
• Scarlet says she knows some secrets about Caithe that she is going to reveal to the rest of the world, Caithe wants to know exactly where she has being getting those "secrets".
• If you have not done the FU path in Twilight Arbor for your dungeon master achievement yet, you will need to the new path for the achievement.
• Combined effort from the teams that designed Molten Facility and Aetherblade Retreat, expect plenty of traps and bring projectile reflects.

Achievements

• Two sets of achievements like with Tequatl Rising. There is the meta achievement under Living World that require you to do dallies or completing achievements inside the new path. Rewards Slickpack backpack skin, a backpack wore by one of the bosses. This achievement will go away after the 2 weeks period.
• A second set of achievements under dungeons and will remain permanent. Completing the meta for it will reward you with a mini Clockheart, which resembles the last boss of this particular dungeon path.

Beginning bits

• Dungeon starts off like any other TA path - volatile blossoms, nightmare husks, nightmare vines etc. Luckily they are not as annoying as the other paths and the volatile blossoms are a bit off the side.

Ooze puzzle

• This puzzle was feature on the dev livestream yesterday but the idea is you need to escort two oozes from one end of the room to the gate on the other end to grease two gears at approximately the same time.
• Lava fill sections of the room, limiting the path you can take and lava elementals constantly spawn to harass your party and the oozes. Projectile reflects work great against these lava elementals.
• Oozes are hostile but will follow party members with the ooze pheromone, which can be obtained from plants around the room. Split your party into two halfs, with a member on each half with the pheromone. Whoever has the pheromone will see a blue heart above their head.

Razed Forest

• Next area after the puzzle, briefly shown in the livestream yesterday.
• You will meet the Aetherblades here, they are working on chopping down the forest for Scarlet, who appears in a holographic form.
• Aetherblades have being toned down a bit to be less stun heavy
• New enemy type - Steam Watcher. If he aggros you, he will sound an alarm that brings all the Aetherblades to the yard. Kill him ASAP and mark your targets so your party members can assist right away.

Spark and Slick

• First boss encounter in the dungeon, Slick is a norn that loves to spew out black goos while Spark is an asura in a dredge molten firestorm suit that loves to burn stuff.
• Very similar to the final boss encounter in Molten Facility except if your party wipe after killing one, both will respawn. Also killing one doesn't seem to completely heal the other.
• Slick constantly spew out black goos on the ground, these need to be cleaned up by using the oozes who will slurp these up. Attract the oozes by using pheromones spew out by Slick or from the plants around the room. Black goos put a constant ticking DoT on your party so if there are too many around they will tick really hard and wipe out your party
• Spark has a spinning projectile attack (called Fire Lob) similar to Old Tom in uncategorized fractal. Also pulls players in and do a Fiery Oveload attack that you don't want to be anywhere near. She also sets the black goos from Slick on fire so you have less room to move around.
• If you kill Spark first, Slick will spew out black goos more frequently. If you kill Slick first, Spark will do more frequent Fire Lob and also activate the Hot Feet debuff similar to the last fight of Volcanic fractal where you need to move constantly to avoid damage. Killing Spark first seems like a valid strategy.

Scarlet's Factory

• Last area shown in the preview, of interest is the holopirate generator which spawns a constant stream of explosive holographic pirates.
• The generator cannot be damaged via normal means so players must kite these holopirates to the generators and have them explode to kill the generator.

Post dungeon objectives

• Five optional post dungeon objectives - each one is soloable and rewards achievements. If all party members remain after completing the dungeon and complete all 5 objectives in one run, you get a special achievement.
• You will get Aetherblade key pieces from the dungeon chests and also as a random drop from the Maguuma Jungle maps. Combining 5 pieces will give you a key. There are 5 Aether chests in one of the post-dungeon objectives and if you open all 5 at same time (i.e. if you have 5 keys or everyone has a key), you get a special achievement.

Weapon skins

• A blue more glowy version of the Nightmare weapons drops off here. They are actual weapons with rare/exotic stats (sorry no Ascended weapons here). They can be traded and sold on the TP if you are not lucky with the drops.

 

By: Dulfy

Super Adventure Box Back to School Patch Preview

Hey everyone, as you all probably know, SAB Back to School is coming later today. While alot of info has gone out with th embargo mishap yesterday, I thought I would summarize it for those who havn't seen them yet and put my own spin.

This is just a TL : DR summary, there is also a longer version with artwork hand drawn by my friend and a vine video I stole from Lord Vanquish: http://dulfy.net/2013/09/03/gw2-super-adventure-box-back-to-school-patch-preview/

World 1 and changes to loot

• World 1 will return with all of the achievements. Those who completed it last time will retain all of their achievement and get a King Toad Green Backpack cover if they have completed the meta (new players will do as well)
• New secret locations added to world 1 for players to explore
• All chests and dig spots are now account bound daily to prevent mindless farming.
• Old SAB skins are not returning but the 9 other weapons not shown last time will be coming (Mace, Axe, Warhorn, Focus, Torch, Pistol, Rifle, Dagger, Hammer)

World 2

• Zone 1 was largely finished from last time but you will need to do it again for the new achievements etc.
• Zone 2 is distinctively asian themed with mountains, dojos and palaces. It is also more exploratory than other zones with multiple paths you can take. Harder the path better the rewards.
• Lots of interesting mobs such as ninjas, frogs that swallow you, stealth owls that steal your baubles etc.
• Less baubles along the main path this time so you will have to really go out and find them.
• Environment is quite deadly and filled with dart traps on various passages. You will soon learn to watch out for them.
• Lots of puzzle this time, including one where you need to balance a scale to gain entry to the next checkpoint.
• Dojo master mini boss that pays homage to Megaman - defeating him gain you a giant glove of wisdom, which allow you to push blocks around to act as mobile platforms or break wooden barriers blocking your path.
• Push Block puzzle where you need to use your giant glove to push blocks around while avoiding dart traps.
• Roll a gong from top of a temple to the bottom while using it to block dart traps. Similar to the scene from Indiana Jones and Temple of Doom in the Chinese nightclub.
• Secret shop that sells Wooden Whistle for 250 baubles that can play a couple songs. 
• World 3 isn't finished but you will get a sneak peak at it.

Tribulation Mode

• For those who seeks a challenge, designed for small group of players who find Mad King Clock Tower easy
• Anything can and will kill you in one hit.
• Flowers that explode, rocks that jump up and slam you, even checkpoints will kill you. Invisible traps everywhere.
• Basically force you to find a new path from what you are used to. You are going to die alot and waste alot of lives so you will need to farm baubles.
• More checkpoints than normal modes thankfully so you don't rage and break something.
• Full set of green color variant weapons available to those who completed world 1 on Tribulation mode, yellow for world 2 and red/purple for world 3/4 (not in this release).

Achievements

• Same achievements in world 2 that have you hunt down secret rooms and collect all the baubles.
• Complete 13 of the World 2 achievements and you can earn yourself a new title (Honor in Applied Jumping) along with a new backpiece (Storm Wizards’s Backpack Cover).
• Tribulation mode also have its own separate set of achievements but doesn’t seem to offer any titles or rewards beyond the special weapon skins and the numerous achievement points.

By: Dulfy

Guild Wars 2 - Queen's Jubilee (August 6, 2013)

ArenaNet is seriously intending to keep up with their promise of content every two weeks and their newest living story, Queen's Jubilee, promises even more exciting things for us to enjoy and comes to us on August 6yh. The Jubilee promises new rennovations in Divinty's Reach, an introduction of new technology sweeping Tyria and even some awesome changes to the game itself which includes a new Account Wallet!

To further accent all of this news we will even get an early look at the upcoming update on their Twitch Livestream on August 5yh, before the content releases on the 6yh! Keep a close eye on the livestream at www.twitch.tv/guildwars2 for even more one-on-one time with the developers and creators behind the game. 

Events

Hot Air Balloons

Hot Air Balloons will be scattered about Tyria to transport any and all to the celebrations in Divinity's Reach. These balloons will be in the open world and players will be able to up in for a “fun, quick and stylish ride to the party”. I'm going to go out on a limb and state it's probably going to be some sort of free cinematic transportation to Divinity's Reach.

 

Opening Ceremony

A new gladiatorial arena has been commissioned for the celebrations, come to see the inaugural contest! Maybe we'll get to see Logan Thackeray go toe to toe with Trahearne! At least then one of them will earn some adoration for once! Poseurs. They don't know the crap us adventurers have to deal with like Zommoros mocking us behind his themed fountain!

 

Enter the Crown Pavilion

In the new Crown Pavilion players will be put up in an arena-like situation of facing against humanity's enemies. Players will be able to represent the various cities of Tyria and possibly even named as Champion of a Nation and gain access to unique reward vendors. I'm going to assume this is going to be somewhat similar to Candidate Trials but with more interaction and reward for players.

 

Fight in the Queen's Gauntlet

Players will be put in single combat situations against increasingly difficult challenges and bosses. Taking risks with special conditions will earn better rewards. This I like. This sounds like some fun ways to see just how good a player is.

Rewards

 

Watchwork Mechanisms: Watchwork Technology

The newest innovation in Tyria! Players can use watchwork parts in crafting recipes, or as currency to buy new rune and sigil recipes or the new Sovereign Weapon Set. This I don't know how I feel about. More crafting stuff to confuse me! I'm already drowning in Candy Corn!

 

Mini Watchknight

The standarad affair of getting a mini for completing the meta-achievement tied with this Living Story. Looks pretty sweet, though! I'm calling it now, too, that we'll end up fighting these buggers.

Features 

Account Wallet

Players can keep all currencies in one wallet across the entire account for all their characters. This wallet includes dungeon tokens, karma, glory, Badges of Honor, Fractal Relics, Guild Commendations, Laurels... pretty much the whole nine yards, folks. Uncertain how they will “stack” or if these things will just be made solely into numbers instead of items.
 

Bonus Rewards for Dungeons

Dungeons will now have it so that finishing any unique path for any explorable or story dungeon will reward the players with a gold (for explorable paths) or fifty silver (for story paths) as the bonus reward for completon. These rewards will replace the guaranteed coin rewards that previously dropped from bosses in dungeon. All other drops from bosses have not been changed.
 

Permanent Finishers

Want more finishers? Want them permanently?! FINE! JEEZE! The new Permanent Finisher system makes it easier than ever to acquire Finishers and change which one you use! Pwn your nub problem with awesome flair!

PvP Solo Queue 

Players can now queue up for matches without having to worry about going up against pre-formed teams. This will also have it's own leaderboard, to allow players the pleasure of random chaos and not worry about their pristine team standings!  

Mini-Game Rotation System

The new mini-game rotations will now be on a daily rotation as promised by the Captain's Council Candidates. The initial rotation will be: Sanctum Sprint, Keg Brawl, 
Southsun Survival and Crab Toss.
 

New WvW Mastery: Supply Mastery

Just like it states we've been informed of a new Mastery for WvW: Supply Mastery. All we know is that it will “allow players to be more efficent than ever in their use of Supply!”.

Source: http://www.guildwars2hub.com

Fight for your chosen candidate in Guild Wars 2's Cutthroat Politics update

Whether you're a fan of the Black Lion Trading Company's Evon Gnashblade or you're rooting for Lionguard-investigator-turned-airship-captain Ellen Kiel, chances are pretty good that you like playing games. Heck, even if you don't like either Kiel or Gnashblade, you probably still like playing games. On the other hand, if you hate games and just like to vote, you're in deep trouble because the Lion's Arch political process is all about games, which sounds like a great way to let off steam when you feel likeliterally pummeling the supporters of the candidate you hate. Maybe Tyrians are on to something.

In a recent conference call, ArenaNet released plenty of details about what Guild Wars 2 fans can expect to find when they head to the voting booth on July 23rd. Or is it more of a voting arena? Either way, jump past the cut to find out exactly what you'll need to do in order to exercise your ruthless, hardcore, no-holds-barred right to democracy.





Candidate Trials

The Candidate Trials will be a challenge mission that players can enter alone or in a party of up to five others. You'll choose to support either Kiel or Gnashblade at the start of the challenge and then hold out against against waves of Aetherblades. The bad news? You and your party will be the only thing standing between the sky pirates and a downed airship that they'd like very much to loot. The good news? The more Aetherblades you manage to defeat, the more loot you'll get. More good news: That loot has a chance to include those really cool Aetherblade weapons fans have been looking for since they were first introduced.

The challenge has an increasing difficulty level, split into four tiers. The first tier will definitely be soloable, but beyond that it'll take increasing amounts of awesome on the part of players to defeat the Aetherblades. If you're looking for a group PvE challenge, you may want to head for the Candidate Trials.




Aspect Arena

Captain Kiel will be hosting a capture-the-flag-like activity called Aspect Arena, which will expand the aspect skills adventurers have gotten used to traveling with around the Zephyr Sanctum. After choosing to gain the powers of wind, lightning, or sun, you'll have five minutes to capture three crystals scattered around the map and deliver them back to three areas in your own home base to
power them up and gain points for your team.

Each of the aspects corresponds to a different playstyle, which will mean varied tactics and ways of getting around the map. Sun skills are tailored for longer-range combat and include heat beams, exploding fireballs, and even black holes that suck in opponents. Wind skills are mid-range, with skills such as wind boomerangs and balls of wind that can be volleyed back and forth between players and their opponents for greater damage. Lightning skills are meant for close-range combat, and players can use them to control their foes and force them into melee. The familiar aspect-based travel abilities will also come in handy for navigating the arena itself.






Southsun Survival


Evon Gnashblade's hosted activity, Southsun Survival, is the spiritual successor to Hunger Royale, an event from GW2's third beta weekend that fans have been hoping to see make a return. Starting with only a bow and their wits, up to 20 players will do their best to survive as long as possible (reportedly, around 8 to 9 minutes) in Southsun Cove's unforgiving environment by scavenging supplies -- or hunting other players for theirs -- to stave off the Hunger debuff, which stacks over time to tick down health.

If you're the type to turn predatory when threatened, you'll need to arm yourself with arrows for your bow before giving into your baser instincts, but be careful because a missed shot might mean arming your opponent with your stray arrow. If your plan is to hoard supplies, you may not be any safer; you'll have to watch out for traps set by foes that will knock you down and cause you to drop everything you've collected. You'll also need to be wary of alarms and fake supplies, both of which can quickly ruin your chances of survival. If you die, though, you won't be out of the game: Players who wind up in the Mists can collect "revenge motes" that will let them torment survivors from beyond the grave, including summoning one of the worst punishments we can think of for anyone... karka. Ugh.

How will the voting process work, exactly? Players will collect support tokens, which can then be turned in at the Zephyr Sanctum to show support for their chosen candidate. Doing this will grant the voter a support button, along with an hour of support for the candidate that will allow progression of one of two achievement tracks. You'll need six achievements total to complete either the Gnashblade Supporter or Kiel Supporter meta-achievements and receive your very own tiny versions of these important political figures (unfortunately, they're not wearing swimsuits this time). Other players will also be able to see whom you're supporting, something that in no way could possibly end badly in the midst of a bloodthirsty pirate campaign.

GW2's Cutthroat Politics content update will go live on July 23rd and run through August 5th.

Via: massively.joystiq.com

Guild Wars 2 - Sky Pirates Patch Preview/Guides/Achievements

Achievements

• Around 20 achievements, divided into 3 categories 1) Kill x aetherblade pirates in various regions of Tyria, 2) Achievements for getting aetherblade cache in 7 existing jumping puzzles/mini-dungeons 3) Achievements for the new dungeon - some are for completion, others are more skill based
• Kill based achievements require you to interact with the same hologram projectors you encountered in Dragon Bash. They now have a 50/50 chance to spawn Aetherblade pirates when you walk near them (some of them will still spawn holographic minions). You can also get these achievements by killing the pirates guarding the various caches if you don't feel like running around.
• Cache based achievements are basically a bunch of existing jumping puzzles/mini dungeons with a new cache (jumping puzzle chest) placed into them. They don't give any special loot but getting them give you an achievement. It is a way to recycle content basically. You will need to do Goemm's Lab, Obsidian Sanctum, Vexa's Lab, Fawcett's Bounty, Hidden Garden etc to name a few. Some caches are located near entrance but others are located at the very end.
• Dungeon achievements - some are the standard killing bosses achievements while others are more skill based (i.e. avoid a boss mechanic or kill the boss within a time limit).
• Completing 12 of the achievements will reward you with a mini pet modeled after a boss in the new dungeon: http://imgur.com/a/7yOu2

Dungeon - Aetherblade Retreat

• Like molten facility, if not harder. Very interesting boss mechanics not unlike raid boss mechanics seen in other MMOs
• Temporary dungeon, only here for the duration of Sky Pirates but may appear in some form later on
• You get a guaranteed rare from the boss chest and 1 gold every time you complete it. The dungeon is hard enough that Arenanet feels it is justified to give 1 gold for every completed run.
• 5 player dungeon, will upscale players to L80 but low level players may have a hard time.
• Boss chest has a chance to give you an exotic, tradeable monocle headpiece with berserker stats:http://i.imgur.com/MmLXHPW.jpg
• You may also find the recipe for an infinite tonic that will transform you into one of the bosses - you can jump with it and the tonic is tradeable once crafted: http://i.imgur.com/rYDUxRd.jpg

Aetherblade Armor (gemstore)

• I think alot of you have already seen this from datamining. You get 3 sets, one set for each armor type (i.e. light, medium heavy). They are suppose to be purchased from the gemstore I was told.
• Unfortunately both Charr and Asura uses the male model for both sexes.
• Here is a preview of some of the armors you can expect in case you can't access the link above:http://imgur.com/a/QKgRM

Scavenger Hunt

• Ingame scavenger hunt to promote the launch of Sea of Sorrows book, not really part of the Sky Pirates theme.
• Need to find 12 Marriner plaques. You can find all 12 of them using clues given inside the book (or just look for them blindly like I did) . You get an achievement and one time use consumable that give you 5 skill points.

Jumping Puzzle

• Not released until second week on July 2.

Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2

Video preview of Guild War 2's Dragon Bash Festival

ArenaNet's content train for Guild Wars 2 continues to chug along at full speed, and the next stop is the Dragon Bash festival. Unlike the Dragon Festival of the original Guild Wars, this festival won't find anyone revering dragons. The Elder Dragons put a kibosh on any warm sentiments that the humanoids of Tyria might have had for them in the past. Dragon Bash is all about unifying the races in celebration during these dark and terrifying times by distracting them with fireworks, gambling, and candy-filled dragon piñatas!