This Week in Guild Wars 2

Every Friday, Raphia at GuildMag goes through all the community articles for the week and rounds them up into one giant article. Every week I like to go through this list and pick out my favourites to share with you guys. The articles I pick out tend to compliment the content that I have here on my blog. I also try to sneak in some Red Posts and news from Arena Net that I may have missed earlier in the week.

Straight from Arena Net

Posted to the main Guild Wars 2 site was a new article giving additional details about the new PvP map called "Spirit Watch". The map is the first to bring capture the flag elements to Guild Wars 2 PvP and has a number of people quite excited.

Arena Net updated their February patch preview adding in that item previewing will be available through the trading post at the end of the month. I know I have been waiting for this since launch and will be happy to see it in game. Now if they can just get item effects to appear in the item preview everyone will be happy.

A lot of players have noticed that since the maintenance period on Wednesday that a number of their achievements are no longer displaying the correct numbers. For example, a number of my slayer achievements that were at 1000 and complete and now are listed at 999 and not complete. Stephane Lo Presti took to the forums to ensure players that this would be corrected in the patch at the end of the month. Still a lot of players are still confused as to how such a thing could even happen. More details from Arena Net on the cause of this would be appreciated by many.

Finally, the Guild Wars 2 community team shared this fan made video via twitter on Feb. 14th.

MMORPG interviews Colin Johanson

The crew over at MMORPG.com was lucky enough to get some of their questions answered by Colin Johanson. Topics discussed include: the new PvP map, the new daily system, guild missions, and the Living Story. I particularly liked the bits about guild missions and am starting to get more excited about this content release. Colin had this to say during the interview,

The system allows people in a guild to work together to unlock guild upgrades that allow them to go on missions together. These missions can be kicked off by the specific guild that has researched that mission, but once they are activated, anyone can jump in and participate to help the guild finish the mission if they wish. The missions are designed such that some components of the mission can only be completed by the guild themselves, but each of them has aspects other players can assist with as well, so everyone has something they can do during the mission.

This sounds great! I hope the guild specific components are strong giving more reason to be in the guild. For the rest of the interview and more from Colin Johanson check out MMORPG.com's article.

Guild Mag returns with Dynamically Spoken

This week was my first time listening to Guild Mag's podcast Dynamically Spoken. It seems they are back from a long hiatus to bring the folks of Tyria all the latest news. I really enjoyed their discussion of the various content coming at us in the February patch. They did not simply present what is coming but took the time to detail the good and the bad as well as add their own personal feelings. I will be looking for this podcast in the future. The cast is available as an MP3 and in the YouTube video below,

Guild Wars 2 Hub on Karma Farming

Guild Wars 2 Hub has an excellent article up on the best way to farm karma. The author, Lewis B, goes through the various items that give karma, the different boosts available, and finally, the best places to farm karma. I haven't seen a good guide like this anywhere else lately, so this comes at a good time. I still remember the days of farming the Plinx event in Cursed Shore all day long, but things have changed since then and new karma farming methods are surfacing.

Guild Wars 2 Trading Post on Player Purchasing Trends

When trying to make gold on the trading post the first thing that you need to know, in order to be successful, is what are people buying? Markco at Guild Wars 2 Trading Post has a short article on determining which items to flip based on the items players are most likely to purchase. For example, are players more likely to buy power based armour or condition damage based armour  The key is too look to your own play styles in order to answer this question.

If that wasn't enough Markco has another great article this week discussing when and by how much to undercut your competition. Some great discussions ensues in the comments on this one as well.

Taugrim on the state of the Engineer

This is my favourite article of the week and kind of makes me want to roll up an Engineer to play. Taugrim explores what many call the "weakest" class. He begins this discussion by pointing out that the Elementalist used to be thought of as underpowered, but now is seen as one of the most powerful. In his article Taugrim explorers the steep learning curve around an engineer and the vast array of abilities that they have. For his conclusions head over to his blog.

Hunter on Food

Hunter's Insight has a great post on food and potions in Guild Wars 2. Hunter goes through the different categories of potions and various food types and shows which are best for a given situation. He also provides cheaper alternatives to the more expensive choices. This is a great article for people like me who have not really explored what foods are available. I think I will have to diversify my characters diets.

Inventory Full on Kill Variety in Plains of Ashford and Server Pride

If you are ever looking to get your daily kill variety done in a hurry Bhagpuss at Inventory Full has your back. He has a great article this week showing you where to find 15 different types of enemies in Plains of Ashford.  While you are over there why not check out Bhagpuss's other article on server pride. Is splitting a game up across multiple servers a good idea? Did Guild Wars 2 get it right? Bhagpuss answers these questions and more on his blog.

Asura Dreams of Being Charr

This screenshot showed up on Reddit and I thought I would share. Is it the dream of all Asura to grow up to be as strong as a Charr?

AnEvilBag gets Jailed in Rata Sum

Do I need to say more? I saw this on Reddit and had to share. Basically a player, AnEvilBag, is exploring Rata Sum trying to get places he isn't supposed to be and ends up in jail for his crimes. Don't believe me? Watch his video.

Wooden Potatoes on the Living Story

This was my first Wooden Potatoes video and after this one I will for sure be going back for more. My attention was drawn to this after seeing a bump in traffic to my blog and tracing it back to a link from Wooden Potatoes. I am very happy that he linked to me or I would have never seen this great video for myself. Mr Potatoes goes through all the new content to be found in the open world added with the Flame and Frost patch.

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That is it for this week. If you have worked through all this and still want more be sure to check out Guild Mag's full round up here. What was your favourite article this week? Did I miss anything huge? Let me know in the comments.

This Week in Guild Wars 2

Every Friday, Raphia at GuildMag goes through all the community articles for the week and rounds them up into one giant article. Every week I like to go through this list and pick out my favourites to share with you guys. The articles I pick out tend to compliment the content that I have here on my blog. I also try to sneak in some Red Posts and news from Arena Net that I may have missed earlier in the week.

Habib Loew on WvW

Earlier this week Habib Loew took to the forums to discuss WvW related rankings changes. It was originally thought that the rankings would be reset for a fresh start on Friday. The idea behind this was to allow the match ups to reach an equilibrium quicker than if there was not a reset. Here is their new take on it,

In light of the strong community response to the idea of a WvW ratings reset, the results of our ratings formula investigations, and our data on the current matchups we have decided not to reset the WvW ratings at this time. All existing WvW ratings will be preserved and the rating calculation methodology will remain unchanged.

This 360 degree turn leaves me kind of baffled. I felt Arena Net had a lot of confidence in the ratings reset and the benefit it would have for the game when they first announced it. The back and forth makes me question that confidence.

GW2 Audio Team Video

Posted to the main GW2 site was a video with Arena Net sound designer Drew Cady. In this video Drew shows the viewer how he used fire to make a number of the sound effects in Guild Wars 2. It was surprising to find out how many different noises could be made just based on the shape of the burning object. Check out the video and article to see for yourself,

Guild Wars 2 Trading Post - Levelling Experiences & Attitude

Markco from GW2 Trading Post is always on the look out for new ways to make gold in Guild Wars 2. This week he had an article re-iterating some advice that I have given on my blog in the past. When looking for opportunities to make gold always look back to your experiences levelling your character. What levels did you buy weapons? What type of armour did you focus on? etc. Using that kind of thinking led Markco to a great market to make money in. What is it? Head over to his blog to find out! But, remember the main take away from this is not this one market, it is the general philosophy of using your levelling experiences to inform your trading in game.

Of Course I'll Play It - Takes the Fight to Zhaitan

Dusty Monk decided to take on the final task in his personal story and completed Arah story mode. He also provided an excellent review of the dungeon on his blog Of Course I'll Play It. The review is relatively spoiler free and still manages to get across the good and the bad sides of this dungeon. If, like me, you have yet to take on this task, Dusty Monk's article might give you the encouragement you need to finally get it done. I have my personal story entirely complete on two characters with the exception of this dungeon. I think I might finally finish it up.

Inventory Full - A Sunday Stroll Through Orr

Bhagpuss wrote what is my favourite article this week in which he visits Orr. From the Straights of Devastation up over Malchor's Leap to the Cursed Shore Bhagpuss visits them all and shares his thoughts about the "new Orr" post patch. He also took some wonderful screenshots which along with his witty writing style make this article an extremely pleasant read. The article was tweeted by @GuildWars2 it was so good. Need I say more? Go check it out and Bhagpuss's other articles on Inventory Full.

Sailor Scouts 

Posted up on Reddit and Imgur were a series of pictures of players that managed to make their characters look like the Sailor Scouts from the anime Sailor Moon. The resemblance is striking! Here are some images from a third party that happened to see them on an overflow server, and here are some pictures from the group themselves. Hopefully as the wardrobe in Guild Wars 2 expands we will see more of this kind of in game cosplay. We can add this to the Power Rangers, Mickey Mouse, Darth Vader, and the Storm Trooper seen previously.

Four-year Old Plays GW2

Definitely winning points in the cute category, this video of the four-year old playing Guild Wars 2 along with the post made by the Dad on Reddit is the kind of thing that makes me wish I had kids! In this video the four-year old takes on two worlds in WvW. Definitely an entertaining video to watch. I can tell you one things, this kid doesn't care that the WvW updates were pushed back a month. He is having fun playing the game and being a part of something.

Ascalonian Catacombs - The Naked Version

An enterprising crew decided to take on AC Path 3 without armour! The video puts things into perspective. Like do you really need "the best" gear to run dungeons in Guild Wars 2, and do you really need all 80's? The opinion one gets from this video is that stats really do not matter THAT much. What is more important is coordination and skill. It also reminds me that to have fun in this game you do not need to finish the dungeon in record time. Just running the dungeon with some good friends and focusing on fun can go a long way.

Matt Visual - Easter Eggs

I am keeping it visual again this week with another video from Matt Visual. This week he takes a look at a couple of the Easter Eggs that are hidden away in Guild Wars 2. I had heard of the cat room before but the secret face room in the CM dungeon is completely new to me. Check out this video to have your mind blown!

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That's it for this week in Guild Wars 2. Remember to check out GuildMag for the full round up of this weeks community articles. What were your favourite articles this week? Let me know in the comments.

This week in Guild Wars 2

Every week on Friday, GuildMag rounds up all the community articles into one big post on their site. Here on my blog I like to pick out my favourite articles of the week to share with you and add in a couple of my own links. This week had a lot of information about the latest patch released on January 28th but there were also a steady stream of articles on other topics.

Official News from Arena Net

Arena Net has a number of blog posts up on their site explaining the changes to the game with the new patch. The first blog post discusses the new items in the gem store through the voice of the character Even Gnashblade. Matt Wuerffel, one of the game designers, describes the new rewards and achievements systems, Robert Hrouda, content designer, writes about the current and upcoming changes to dungeons, Jonathan Sharp, the "pvp guy, discusses Temple of the Silent Storm week, Angel McCoy, narrative designer, talks about the Living Story, Martin Kerstein, Community Manager, explains the upcoming required password change, and finally, Isaiah Cartwright, lead game designer, outlines the changes to the dynamic levelling system. The developers have also been busy on the forums and I recently rounded-up their post patch posts here.

Arena Net's communication to the player base has improved a great deal since launch. The only thing left for Arena Net to get write is the timing. A good number of players did not understand the subtle, ever growing nature of the living story at first. A lot of us expected to have new events the day of the patch and new story to explore. A better explanation of this system before it was release would have helped.

Relics of Orr - Shotgun Interview

A quick interview was posted on Relics of Orr. Ten questions were sent in to Arena Net and ten answers were sent back. The questions range a variety of topics from achievements and home instances to magic find and Zommoros  My favourite question concerned the addition of more activities to the game specifically Bar Brawl. "The Bar Brawl is the next activity that we hope to be releasing in 2013." The article goes on to describe the event as a free-for-all fisticuffs match. Achievements for Bar Brawl have already appeared in game on under the activities tab where we can see the ultimate prize for participation in this activity is the titled, "Bouncer". A title that will surely bring your characters respect across Tyria. Head over to Relics of Orr for the full interview and the answers to the other questions.

Project Tyria - Lion's Arch Photos

A series of brilliant photos has been posted up on Project Tyria. Actually, there are two amazing series of photos. The first compares Lion's Arch as depicted in Guild Wars to as it exists now in Guild Wars 2. For those not in the know Zhaitan awoke in the year 1219 AE according the the Guild Wars 2 lore. When he awoke Orr rose from the depths of the seas creating a large tsunami which destroyed the Lion's Arch. In Guild Wars 2 it is now 1325 AE over 100 years later. Project Tryia's first series of photos directly compares various districts and areas of the city in the two different times. It is fascinating and worth a look.

The second series of photos shows the ever changing fountain in Lion's Arch since the launch of Guild Wars 2. I have a number of shots of the fountain but my collection is no where near as complete as Project Tyria's. Head over and check it out for a bit of nostalgia. 

Many Laughs - Are Black Lion Keys worth buying?

I have never been to this blog before reading this article but I may have to keep going back as this one is a good one. The author of this blog, titled manylaughs, takes an in depth look at Black Lion Keys and discusses whether they are worth buying. He looks at how to obtain them, their costs, and the rewards and comes to a solid conclusion. For the answer you will have to go read the article though.

Guild Wars 2 Trading Post - On Failure

Markco at GW2 Trading Post has a short but important article on learning lessons from your mistakes. When you are trading on the TP it is important to not only make notes about the items that you had success with but to also note your failures. "Identify why something did or didn't sell and you'll start learning how to improve on the GW2 trading post." This is the kind of simple genius that you can expect from Markco and why I read his blog on a regular basis.

Dulfy - On pretty much everything

One site has started to become the go-to place for information on Guild Wars 2 when a new patch is released. No one seems to have more accurate information up faster than Dulfy. She does an amazing job and is a credit to the community. Since the release of Flame and Frost Dulfy has been busy accumulating everything we need to know. Be sure to check out her articles on the Volunteer Achievement, Daily Achievements, Laurels, Ascended Amulets, Orrian Jewellery Boxes, New Orr Temple Exotics, and Legendary Weapon changes.

Shoddy Cast - Onyx Lodestone Farm

The Shoddy Cast has an excellent video on farming Onyx Lodestones in Orr. It is a farming route that I have not tried as of yet, but it looks promising. Just remember to take into account the fluctuating prices of Lodestones on the trading post before you commit time to this farming path.

Matt Visual - Flame and Frost Overview

I have been following Matt Visual on Youtube for a while now. He creates extremely entertaining videos about Guild Wars 2. Although he does not post as often as others his videos are of exceptional quality. This week is no different as he puts together his best video yet reviewing the Flame and Frost patch contents.

Dontain - Three videos on Flame and Frost

One of my favourite Youtubers is Dontain. He plays a number of games on his channel but always comes back to Guild Wars 2. This week he put out three excellent videos that I believe are worth sharing. Firstly, is a video about the volunteer achievement and how to obtain it. The second is a discussion about items in the BL TP and what Arena Net should be selling. There is also a dancing Quaggan in this video that is must see material. Finally, is a video about the Orrian Jewellery Boxes something I have yet to discuss here. Anyway, head over to his channel and check out his videos.

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That is all for this week. Don't forget to head over to GuildMag for the full round up of this weeks community articles. Let me know what your favourite community article was this week in the comments below. Is there a topic you would like to see covered more? I am always looking for article suggestions and would love to hear your suggestions.

Last Week in Guild Wars 2

*links fixed, sorry about that

Every week on Friday, GuildMag.com rounds up all the community articles into one big post on their site. Here on my site I like to pick out my favourite articles of the week to share with you and add in a couple of my own links. This week this post is coming late due to my internet outage, thus, I call it Last Week in Guild Wars 2. There are some great articles this week which I have linked below.

I got a virtual "high five" from Raphia at GuildMag for this series of posts.

I like the co-operative nature of this process: I do the rough-hewing by gathering everything I can, and Phil selects the ones he likes the best and polishes them. It's like teamwork without needing to be on a team.

I am glad Raphia feels that way, as I too enjoy the process of going through the post on GuildMag every week and pulling out my favourites and giving you guys a brief on those articles. Raphia does a great job pulling the community together and deserves tons of respect for the work he does. I find out about all kinds of new sites and news through this weekly post. It is an invaluable resource in the community that everyone should be checking out!

ZAM.com and MMORPG.com Interview with Colin Johanson

There were two interviews with Colin Johanson. The first was done by Jarimor, aka Scott Hawkes, was posted to his site ZAM.com. In part one of the interview they discuss guesting, raiding, party size, boss mechanics, personal story, to name the major topics. In part two, they mainly discuss PvP and WvW, but there are some other gems hidden in there as well.

I already mentioned MMORPG.com's interview with Colin Johanson here before. It is a good interview and you should check it out if you haven't already. In the video a bunch of other MMO news is covered and Colin is present the entire time giving his feedback. It was cool to see him outside the GW2 world. The GW2 stuff starts at 18:00 into the video. Dulfy has a transcript up here. In this video Colin talks about improvements coming to WvW with respect to the culling (more about that below), balance issues, WvW progression, the new laurel system, guesting, changes to Orr, and some player Q&A.

Upcoming GW2Guru State of the Game

Also, while we are on the topic of interviews, GW2Guru has announced that the third edition of their monthly State of the Game stream will be on February 7th, 2013 @ noon PST. Attending will be some competitive players as well as Arena Net developers Jonathan Sharp and Jon Peters. The show will be streamed live on twitch.tv. For all the details check the GW2Guru page.

Habib Loew on WvW Culling

The WvW developer, Habib Loew, took to the forums to explain the upcoming changes, in the Jan 28th patch, to the culling system. The post is detailed but can be summed up quickly. Firstly, the engine will start using "fallback models." Essentially, these fallback models are less detailed version of the player models currently used. Habib says, "there is a distinct fallback model for each race/gender/armor-class combination". Loading this fallback model will mainly help lower end machines. This should help fix some of the problems. 

Also, they will be switching back to the December culling trial. What this means is that enemies and allies will be "culled" separately  Currently, for example, you see the nearest 20 players to you. That means if there are a large number of allies near you, and a group of enemies comes into range, you may not see the enemies at all because your allies are using all the culling slots. With this change, that was tested in December, the game will be sure to load a minimum of the nearest enemies too you as well as the nearest allies. This distinction should help some of the silliness currently seen in large WvW fights. Check out Habib's post for more details.

ArenaNet SoundCloud Page

Regina Buenaobra posted on the forums a link to Arena Net's SoundCloud page. It has archived music from the holiday events and some outtakes. My favourite bit was the little "undead hunter" jingle in the outtakes. If you are really into the music of GW2 or up for a couple laughs then you should definitely check this page out.

GW2 Hub Crafting Guides

Crafting has never been my favourite thing to do in any MMO. I do not like fiddling around with all the ingredients and figuring out what I need to level up. I particularly do not like thinking that I have wasted silver. That is why I usually look for a guide to help me make the choices that I do not find fun. GW2 Hub has recently posted articles just like this for five of the crafting disciplines, with more to come I am sure. For now they have weapon smith, huntsman, jeweler, artificer, and chef. The guides are simple and straight forward guiding you through levels 1 to 400. I particularly like that they show you what you can expect it to cost and what you can expect to recoup through sales through the levelling process.

On another note, crafting guides like these are a great thing to look at for items to flip for potential profits. Typically a crafter will "buy now" and "sell now" just to get the crafting and levelling done. Watch the markets around the items mentioned in these guides and look for opportunities.

Inventory Full on Alts and GW2

Bhagpuss at Inventory Full has an article discussing his experiences levelling up alts in Guild Wars 2. This article is my favourite this week as it touches on something I have been feeling lately too. Bhagpuss has just got his fifth character to 80 and discusses why he is moving on to his sixth right away. These are similar thoughts that went through my head when I got my Elementalist to 80 just recently. Although I geared the toon up (with yellows) and ran some dungeons, I have already pushed the character to the side and moved on to a Mesmer. Personally, I have a more optimistic view of the future, but it is interesting reading someone else's take on the game.

Black Lions Profit 10 markets in 10 days

In a similar vein to Markco at Guild Wars 2 Trading Post, Black Lions Profit has started a series of X markets in X days. Black Lion has decided to tackle 10 markets, and is already up to market nine as of the writing of this article. These series are a great way of highlighting markets with potential for flipping and bringing a readers attention to markets they may not have thought of before. I have also thought about doing a series like this, but guys like Black Lion and Markco have this down so I will focus more on ways to make silver while playing the game, like my series on converting skill points to silver.

GuildCast Episode 58

Gary is back this week for an extra long two hour GuildCast over on Gamebreaker. I try to catch this every week as it is a fun review of the weeks Guild Wars 2 news and events. If you haven't been watching this show I highly recommend it. Gary, the shows host, loves to speculate on everything Guild Wars and always keeps the show entertaining.

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I hope you have found something hear that you haven't seen yet. Don't forget to head over to GuildMag.com  for the full list of community articles this week.

This Week in Guild Wars 2

This week was a big week with a lot of new coming out of Arena Net on their site, blog, and forums. I had coverage of these events here on my blog this week. As did a lot of others in the community. Every week on Friday, GuildMag rounds up all the community articles into one big post on their site. Here on my site I like to pick out my favourite articles of the week to share with you and add in a couple of my own links.

Eggbaron - A busy week

Here on my blog I had a busy week trying to cover all the news released. On Saturday, and Monday I covered some interesting red posts on the forums discussing a wide range of topics. On Tuesday, the "big post" from Colin Johanson was released and I discussed this here on this blog. Wednesday we received the news about guesting coming and I wrote an article about promoting common crafting materials. Yesterday I had coverage of the GW2 livesteam which was broken into part 1 and part 2. Tomorrow I am planning on taking all my discussions on promoting crafting materials and discuss converting skill points into gold.

And don't forget that in roughly 2 hours my contest for two drawings of 5 gold will close. Get your entry in quick if you are reading this before Midnight on Friday, January 18th, 2013.

gw2tp.net - A New Trading Post Tool

I was recently contacted by the creator of a great new tool available to Guild Wars 2 players called GW2TP. This tool provide an easy way to quickly find markets in which you can flip items and make a profit. There are other great tools on this site as well, including a profit calculator, a LFG tool, and a guide database. This is a great site and I am glad that the developer took the time to contact me and share this great resource with us all.

Guild Wars 2 Hub - Honor of the Waves EM Guide

Over at Guild Wars 2 Hub we find two guides for HotW explorable paths, "the plunderer" and "the zealot". I just got my Elementalist to level 80 (more about this soon) and I will be looking to do this dungeon for the first time (never got around to it on my Thief and Warrior). I read through these guides and enjoyed the way it was laid out, especially the analyse of the enemies you will encounter. Anyway, check out these guides if you haven't done HotW. It hear this dungeon can be very rewarding.

Guild Wars 2 Hub - Round Table: Gold Buying

Lewis of GW2Hub, Ravious of Kill Ten Rats, and Elisabeth of Massively all got together and had a discussion regarding the "notorious gold buyer from reddit". This is an interesting discussion with arguments for both sides. Highly recommend checking out this article.

Black Lions Profit - Flipping Jewellery

I recently started reading and following Black Lions Profit and I am really liking it. This week they have a great article on flipping jewellery. I tried this method out and it works. You just have to shop around and make sure that you remember that markets are always changing.

Reddit - Star Wars Inspired Character

This is a great little post. A player named Theomancer has made his Asura look like a Storm Trooper. He has a ton of pictures up on imgur.com for you to check out, as well as a guide on how to replicate these results yourself.

Dulfy - Useful and Fun Consumables Guide

My favourite article of the week comes from Dulfy who has a guide on consumable items. Dulfy breaks the consumables down into five categories, utilities, buffs and debuffs, pets and turrets, improvised weapons, and fun. This is great article with a ton of ideas I never even thought of. Check this one out!

Guild Wars 2 Trading Post - Flipping Slow Moving Items

Guild Wars 2 Trading Post put out a great video on the difference between flipping fast moving items and flipping slow moving items. It is an excellent look at the varying approaches one has to take when flipping items. It isn't as easy as you might think. If you like the video be sure to go to youtube and give it a like.

I hope you like this look at the community this week. If you want more than head over to GuildMag and check out their TWIGW2 article where there are a ton more links to look through. What was your favourite article of the week? What do you want to see me write about in the future? Leave a comment below and let me know! 

GW2 Livestream Coverage Part 2

This is a continuation of my last post covering the GW2 Livestream that just took place on twitch.tv. They covered a lot more in this part than the first, so I hope I do not miss anything.

*Edit to add links to the archived versions of this video, here is a link to part 1, and here is part 2 (will link when available). Dulfy also has a rough draft of a transcript up here.

Balance inside and outside PvP

The developer's feel that a lot of the classes are close to where they want them. They want each class to have a number of different abilities and options in different situations. They would also like to see the classes balanced over all types of play, WvW, PvP, PvE, such that when you learn a class in one of these environments the skills will transfer to another environment.

When pressed specifically on the PvP balance and meta-game they agreed that there is work to be done. More roles are needed to make things more dynamic. They gave the example of the bunker builds (ie tanks) that can lock down a position in definitely. This makes for a stale game, where you need a person playing that position to win. They want to expand the game so that the meta-game can evolve new strategies to counter the current paradigm. Specifically, they name the bunker Elementalist build as being a potential problem that they had their eye on. 

They also mentioned the Mesmer's portal ability and how it was causing problems in WvW. They do not want teams to always have to have a Mesmer and the portal ability to be successful. They mentioned giving players access to the ability in other ways, for example, through class abilities, or potentially siege. They do not want to nerf it out of existence because they feel the ability is cool. This is a kind of theme when they are talking about balance. They want to avoid nerfs and figure out new mechanics to shift the game forward.

They also touched on the subject of the Area of Effect nerf's that were mentioned in the last part. They wanted to assure people that this is not going to be a quick fix where they just nerf AoE across the board. Instead they are closely looking at data and comparing abilities to get a sense of where to go. It is true, that AoE concerns them, but it concerns them because players can take AoE spells and use them in 1 on 1 situations as effectively as if they had chosen single target abilities. There is no down side to picking AoE abilities. They mentioned that the solution does not have to be nerf's across the board, but instead a potential solution could be to add a new mechanic such as certain mobs being resistant to AoE damage allowing for single target dps to shine.

WvW stuffs

The developers were pressed for quite a few details on WvW. Firstly, they were asked what they mean by progression in WvW. They were reluctant to provide details, but did say the goals were to encourage people to defend and get in the action. They want to try to break up zergs and show people how strong spreading out on the map can be. They want to focus on rewarding players for their individual actions. They also want to continue on the design philosophy of ensuring that the ways you are rewarded in all aspects of the game are similar in terms of reward and mechanics. 

When asked for more details about WvW specific abilities, they replied by saying that again these tied into their goals for adding progression. The abilities will be very WvW specific, relating to supply, movement speed, or siege skills for example. The abilities will only be used in WvW and that is also where they will be most useful anyway.

Finally, they discussed showing player name plates in WvW. They came up with pros and cons for both sides. Against it they mentioned trying to build a sense of "us vs them" instead of "me vs that guy". They want the enemy server to seem like a faceless giant. Not showing name plates also prevents people from griefing and harassing others in game. They are not completely opposed to the idea though because it adds the  bragging rights that everyone enjoys when they are winning. If they system was added it would have to be voluntary, perhaps paying to display your name. Also, they would need to lock down harassment issues. They did suggest that if you are looking for that kind of glory than you should check out PvP because that is after all player vs player, whereas WvW is more about guilds and servers.

PvP and Custom Servers

The crew discussed what will be possible with custom servers. This was a time during the live stream, that they said they couldn't really release details, or say something was coming for sure, but their body language said, "yes, this stuff will be possible". Specifically, they talked about there being features and settings that the server host would be able to toggle on and off to create "pseudo" new game modes. Conquest isn't going anywhere. It is Arena Nets flagship PvP style that they want to continue to promote and build upon. The way I see it is that they are saying that if you want to play death match style, than a server admin will be able to setup a server where the only thing that grants points are player kills which would be team death match in conquest mode. They did not say this explicitly, but that is my interpretation from reading between the lines.

They also talked about how they were going to evolve the conquest mode going forward. They want to push the boundaries of this game mode in new ways. They have tried building stuff like a MOBA style arena, capture the flag, death match, etc. and tried playing them in house. They have to constantly ask themselves, "does this work in our game". A lot of the time the answer is no because it is not fun, but that doesn't mean these kinds of things won't make it into the game. Its just that if they do they will take a GW2 twist through the lens of the conquest system. This will help lower the barrier to entry by keeping everything on a similar frame work. The conquest system is the seed that they want to use to grow PvP into and eSport.

Evolving the game

A number of questions were asked that all tie into the idea of evolving the world as the game moves forward into the future. The first set of question on this topic were with regards to how Arena Net prioritizes changes to the game. They explained that their primary goal is to first build a stable foundation that works the way they want it to. Once they have this they can build on top of that. The use a feedback system of looking at data from newly released content, seeing how they can improve it, implementing that, and repeating. A good example is of the fractals release. They mentioned how much more dynamic the fractals encounters were compared to the other dungeons. On seeing peoples reactions to this they said, why not bring the bar up across the board.

Later on they came back to this when talking about how they would improve existing encounters. A lot of what they had to say involved looking at what they had done right and what they had done wrong and building on the good stuff. They want to make things feel more like the fractals encounters. Here things are always changing and you have to learn and play with the environment. This makes the encounters feel hectic which is what the developers want. They believe this will help make things feel less stagnant. Also mentioned  were new tools that now allow scripters and designers to create better encounters. This will allow they to revisit old ideas that might not have been possible in the past.

Finally, they touched on how the persistent game world will evolve going into the future. Again they touched on past successes and failures this time naming  the Karka Island events as an example. They mentioned changes that are coming to Orr that will build on what already exists there. There will be new events, encounters, rewards, animations, and effects here. All this will continue to build on the story that they have already been working on and encourage people to return to check it all out. With respect to the rest of the world they wanted to ensure us that they want you to go back to zones you have already played  and continue to have unique experiences.

Random Questions

There were a couple short random question that didn't fall under a specific category so I thought I would quickly cover them here. Firstly, when asked about new weapon combinations for existing classes all three developers started chuckling and saying, "that is a great suggestion," "maybe that is something we will see in the future," "this works great with out current system". They couldn't go into details, but by the way they reacted to this I would swear that we will see this coming soon. Also, when reflecting on the answers they gave to the balance questions about giving classes more options, this seems like an obvious route to achieving that. They should read my article on weapon categories and varieties.

The topic of Guild vs Guild came up. I never played GW1 so I am not missing these in GW2. They explained  that GvG was the primary competitive play style in GW1. Basically you battle and try to protect your guild lord while trying to defeat the enemy guild lord. The devs see this as being in GW2 in the form of 5 v 5 PvP and the primary competitive modes in GW2 have evolved to PvP and WvW. By the sounds of it there will be no GvG in Guild Wars 2.

Finally, there were some questions regarding the new crown system. Most were answered already in the forums by Colin, but there was some new stuff. Specifically what would be obtained in the class specific loots boxes that were pictured in Colin's "big post". They stated that this gear would not be cosmetic gear tied to a specific class, but instead would be a chance at guaranteed gear that your class can use. For example, Guardian and Warrior use the game armour but they use different weapons, so that would be the difference between their specific boxes.

Conclusions

This was a great little session with Arena Net where we got some honest answers straight from the developers mouths. Sure, they were limited to talking about specific topics, but the answers that were given elaborated on a good number of things and provided some unknown details. I hope they do this kind of thing again in the future. This recent media blitz from Arena Net has done a lot to calm some of my fears, but at the same time it has raised a number of new questions and concerns. That is another article though. Arena Net should continue this outreach as it shows they care about the community. I gained a lot from watching these live streams and in turn feel more connected to Arena Nets vision for the game.

Again I apologize about the wall of text. I wanted to get this posted as quickly as possible after the event, and skipped some of my usually editing steps. If anything is unclear or you have any questions please feel free to leave them in the comments below. I also tried to avoid giving my opinions and instead just reported what was said.

GW2 Livestream Coverage Part 1

The GW2 dev's just finished part 1 of their live stream on twitch.tv. They will be back at 2pm PST for a second session. You can ask your questions for them to answer in this second session on the forums. I just wanted to quickly go over some of the things discussed in the stream.

The devs discussed a lot of things that I have talked about previously on my blog here, here, here, here, here and here which were mostly things that have been mentioned on the forums in the past. A large chunk of this stream was dedicated to reviewing some of the information that was released over that last couple of days. I think it is good that Anet is getting this information out a number of media formats, but in this article I will only be mentioning the things I heard that were unique to this stream.

*Edit to add* Here is a link to the achieved video of Part 1 of this Q&A session. Also summary up on reddit and dulfy.

Rez-rushing

Firstly, with respect to re-balancing dungeons the first thing we can expect to see is the removal of "rez-rushing". Rez-rushing happens during encounters when party members that have died rez and rush back to the encounter while a single person keeps mobs from resetting. The best example I can think of is Citadel of Flame part 2 when you have to protect Magg as he sets up a bomb. Usually groups take turns kitting the mobs away from Magg and as they die a new party member replaces them while the one that died way points and runs back to the fight. The Alpha in Crusible of Eternity also tends to be a bit of a rez and rush fight.

Rez-rushing will be removed in two waves. The first wave will involve making it so that party members can not way point and rez while the party is in combat. At the same time the encounter difficulties will be reduced. Arena Net will then do a second pass on the encounters where they will be redesigned and properly balanced to a suitable difficultly. I imagine this will work similarly to the way that fractals currently works. If someone dies then you have to rez them in combat, finish the encounter and rez them, or wipe and reset at the last checkpoint. I have some mixed feelings about this, and hope that we get more details in part 2.

1 v 1 PvP Tournaments

Secondly, with respect to 1 v 1 tournaments in PvP. In previous places Arena Net has mentioned that they will be adding 1 v 1 tournaments to PvP but they have not released much else. For those that do not know the only tournament option available at the moment is an 8 team ladder tournament with 3 single elimination rounds. The plan is to add two team tournaments with a single round. The hope is that this will reduce the barrier to entry on these tournaments and prevent situations where not enough players can be found to make an 8 team tournament.

In the steam the developers mention that the cost to enter these tournaments will be less than the larger 8 man tournaments. They mentioned that they will be available as paid or free tournaments, but later said they will always require tickets which implies they are paid tournaments. Perhaps, I miss heard or misunderstood, I will try to clarify this after part 2. They also mentioned that, to start, 1 v 1 tournaments will only be available on the new PvP map Temple of the Silent Storm.

Balance

Next, with respect to balance they discussed some of their design philosophies and approaches to balance. They mentioned that their goals are to give each class multiple tools to use in any given situation, but to still maintain that each class has its own mechanics that make it unique. For example, stealth on thieves represents their way of mitigating damage, where as on a heavy class it would be their armor and buffs. They want to bring each class up to par by ensuring that each has a number of unique viable builds available to it. 

Also on balance, they talked about balancing AoE damage. They feel that AoE damage is being leveraged too much in WvW and PvE. Single target damage classes are not getting the respect they deserve and groups are clearing dungeons too quickly by stacking AoE. I can't say I disagree, but in AoE's defence, aren't thieves single target burst a big stand out? and doesn't it take skill to get mobs stacked up for AoE? We will see how Arena Net proceeds, but it sounds like nerfs are coming to AoE across the board.

Details

Finally, they discussed why they are reluctant to give more details, especially with respect to time frames. They summed it up by saying, first of all, that it is fully intentional. They do this because sometimes things come up. In a system as complicated as Guild Wars 2 sometimes strange interactions occur and it takes longer to ship changes then is intended. They do not want to disappoint their fans. Essentially they are trying to perform a balancing act between managing expectations and providing transparency. They also do not want to be pressured into delivering a buggy product early and instead they would like to take the time to get it right.

Conclusions

Well I hope that provided you some details on what happened in this stream if you were unable to view it live. Hopefully an archived version of it will be posted somewhere. In the mean time I look forward to part 2 and I will report on the contents of this stream as well. Also, sorry for the text wall. I tried to break it into sections to make it easier to read, but I wanted to get this out to you guys as quickly as I could. I skipped a couple steps with respect to my normal editing process, so I hope this article is not too sloppy.

If you have any questions, as always, feel free to leave them in the comments below.

GW2 Devs Livestream @ 12pm PST

Just a quick heads up. There was an announcement posted in the forums notifying everyone that there will be a livestream conducted by Arena Net staff members on Twitch.tv. This should be an interesting event. It takes place at 12pm PST. If you are unsure what time that is in your time zone click this link.

We will do a livestream on our Twitch channel tomorrow.  

Systems Designer Matt Witter, Game Designer Jonathan Sharp and Lead Content Designer Mike Zadorojny will talk about design and topics currently being discussed in the Guild Wars 2 community.  

The Livestream starts at 12:00 PM Pacific time, make sure to tune in: http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2  

And there is more! After a quick lunch break, we will be back on air at 02:00 PM, and our developers will answer questions from you, keep an eye open for a dedicated thread on our official forum where you can post them!

I am looking forward to this event which seems to be part of Arena Nets media blitz this week. Be sure to arrive early as Twitch can act up when it is under load. If you miss the event I am sure it will be rebroadcast and a copy posted to youtube. Hope to see everyone there in the chat!

GuildMag: This Week in Guild Wars 2

If you haven't caught GuildMag's TWIGW2 yet head on over and check it out. There is a lot of good stuff there as always and this will give you the chance to catch up on those stories you missed out on. I have my summary of some of my favourite articles and stories below. If you haven't entered my contest yet please head over to my contest post and leave a comment for a chance to win!

GW2 Info - Interview with Isaiah "Izzy" Cartwright

I didn't even seen this article, an interview with Guild Wars 2 designer Izzy Cartwright, on GW2 Info until I was looking through the TWIGW2. It is a great read and has Izzy discussing things like build templates, home instances, crafting, and more. After reading this article I have mentally added about a dozen things to Arena Nets to-do list that I didn't know were on it before. I also strangely now have the feeling that mini-pet battles are around the corner. Very interesting interview, highly recommend checking that out.

Under the Pale Tree - RNG Woes

Under the Pale Tree has a well written article on the woes of the RNG system in Guild Wars 2. Chests are compared with garbage cans, and Dungeon and Dragons are mentioned. Head over and check this one out for a couple laughs and a great point driven home by a great author.

Guild Wars 2 Riches - Economics Education

Craig over at GW2 Riches has a great article up on the merits of getting an education in economics in GW2. It's not what you might think! He discusses the various aspects of the game that are important to know as well as things outside the game world that can be used to leverage your position. It is an interesting discussion of real world knowledge vs in game knowledge.

Dulfy - Fractals Guide

Dulfy is known for quality guides and his most recent guide on Fractals is no exception. He discusses agony in depth and gives you tips on how to best avoid it and deal with it. We get break downs of loot expectations based on fractal level, as well as in depth guides to fighting each boss and dealing with challenging encounters. Dulfy also outlines the various reflect abilities and recommends taking them all. If you are planning on running fractals above level 10 I would highly recommend skimming this guide before your first run.

Guild Wars 2 Trading Post - Four Steps to Success

Marco at GW2TP has a great article on the very basics of getting involved in the Trading Post in Guild Wars 2. Whether you are an experienced player, or are just thinking about starting to play the TP this is a perfect read. It reminds us all of the core things that every trader should keep in mind with every purchase and sale, but that is what Marco does with his blog. If you are not already following this guy I really recommend it. He has been a great help to me personally with his site, but also behind the scenes with my blog and helping me get traffic.

Black Lions Profit - Price Watch on Armored Scales

A great new blog, Black Lions Profit, has an excellent article on Armored Scales. This is a brand new blog that I just started following this week and now have him in my blog roll on the right. There are some very well written articles on this blog that I recommend checking out. This week, however, he has an especially good article on Armored Scales. This is something I have been meaning to write an article about for a while now, but have not had the time to do the research. The market is very interesting and I have often felt it is a good indicator of Anet's successes against botting (see Barracuda Farming). Anyway, I could go on and write my whole article here, but now I do not have to. Head over to Black Lion Profit and check out his take on the Armored Scale market.

Youtube - The Karma Express

Finally I will leave you with this absolutely GENIUS video. I don't even know how to describe it so I won't. Instead I will just embed it here for you to click play on and WATCH NOW. Don't forget to head over to GuildMag for the full This Week in Guild Wars 2.

This Week in Guild Wars 2

GuildMag has their weekly round-up of the Guild Wars 2 communities posts and activities. Head over a check it out. I have some highlights and some of my favourites for you below.

Jumping Puzzles and Mesmers

GuildMag has an article up on Jumping Puzzles. Since January's monthly achievement includes doing jumping puzzles you may find some of the tips in this article helpful. They also have an article up on Mesmer's illusions. Since Mesmer's are always messing with me in WvW I found this article quite insightful. Next time I fight a Mesmer hopefully I will have more success fighting them.

Magic Find Etiquette

Hunter's Insight has a great article on Magic Find Etiquette. I thought about writing an article on this, but Hunter's Insight really takes care of this topic quite well. Basically, the gist of the article is, "is it fair for one person in a group to run magic find find gear while the rest focus on their core stats." It is an age old debate that will probably never end.

Ups and Downs of Ascended Gear

Guild Wars 2 Hub wrote about the merits and downsides of ascended gear. The debate has raged across the forums and I have read a number of threads on the forums about the topic. Guild Wars 2 Hub has two authors each take a side and give their opinions on it. It is a great summary of a lot of the stuff I have read on the forums and thought of myself.

Guildcast and Expansion Prediction

Gamebreaker's big article this week has a South Korean financial firm predicting the release of a Guild Wars 2 expansion in late 2013. The tin foil hats are out in full force on this one, however, there are some really good reasons for thinking that this prediction is legitimate. Head over to gamebreaker for the full article. Also, if you do not watch Gamebreaker's Guildcast you should check that out. They talk about this topic and more on this weeks episode.

Buy/Sell Toughness Trinkets

Marco over at Guild Wars Trading Post has a great article on buying and selling defensive trinkets. He makes a great argument for why these are perfect for flipping and why they are impulse buys. A lot of this comes down to thinking about how you make purchases on your characters when levelling. Now just imagine 100's of other players doing the same thing you do everyday. Levelling my new toon, an Elementalist, has illuminated this for me.

Community Sites

A great thread over at Guild Wars 2 Guru has a list of the community sites for each server. My server, Gate of Madness, does not have one but maybe yours does. Check the list to see if your server has a site and community. You never know what new people you will meet that might enhance your gaming experience.

Mana Bars

Taugrim has my favourite article of the week discussing mana bars. Where did mana bars come from, and are they good game design? These are excellent questions and Taugrim does a great job discussing them. If you haven't checked out Taugrim before I highly recommend it. His articles are of extremely high quality and he himself is an extremely good player. I have him linked in my blog roll to the right.

TehMaker - Livestream

Finally, I have been watching a guy named TehMaker on twitch.tv. He lives streams almost everyday and has a small community with which he interacts with via the chat. He plays a lot of sPvP which is an area of the game I have not really played much, so I find it really interesting to watch. Anyway, he is a great guy that even does contests for gold. I highly recommend checking his channel out. I have had a great time chatting with him and watching him learn sPvP.

Anyway, enjoy these highlights from the community and head over to GuildMag for their full roundup of all the articles and videos in the Guild Wars 2 community.