Guild Wars 2

January 28

The sky falls and the ground shakes in the lands of the north. Charr and norn refugees crawl from the wreckage of their homes in the Wayfarer Foothills and Diessa Plateau, struggling to find shelter in the south. The call goes out for volunteers to assist the victims in this time of need, when earth and sky seem to have become the enemy…

Flame and Frost: Prelude is the prologue to a multi-stage narrative that will bring big changes to Guild Wars 2 in the months to come.

Temple of the Silent Storm Week

From January 28—February 4 the regular eight-team/three-round paid tournaments will be replaced by two-team/single-round paid tournaments in the Temple of the Silent Storm map. After the week is over, we’ll add Temple of the Silent Storm to the regular rotation of both free and paid tournaments.

Improved Achievement System

We’re adding a new rotation of daily achievements to add variety and encourage you to explore the open world. You’ll get different achievements every day of the week and a new achievement tracker in the UI to make it easier to track your progress.

New Achievement Laurels

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You’ll earn these brand-new laurels as a reward for daily and monthly achievements!

Redeem these laurels for rewards like the new Ascended gear and Infusions!

Guesting

With the new guesting system, you can play with friends on other worlds in the same region (North America, Europe) without changing your homeworld. Guesting is free, but going forward there will be a gem fee for transferring home worlds, so make sure you’re on the home world you want to permanently play on before 28 January!

New Utility Infusions and Ascended Amulets

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We’re adding a wide range of new gear that can be purchased with the new laurels.

With 5 new Utility Infusions and 30 Ascended Amulets to choose from, there’s something for every style of player.

More Upgrades and Improvements

We’re making a ton of other improvements to the game this month, such as enhanced performance in WvW, adjustments to side-kicking balancing, and UI improvements, which will be detailed in our release notes.

New Items in the Gem Store

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It’s a new year, which means all-new items and a redesigned favorite in the Gem Store!

From Baby Quaggan Backpacks to Riding Brooms to the revamped Box o’ Fun, you’ll find it all in the Gem Store!
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https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/january-2013/?update

Wooo! Big things are afoot! :D Needs me some Ascended Amulet action!
 
HeX said:
They are adding some kind of personal ranking system, a bit like PvP has the animal ranks and special emotes.



First stage of Culling fixes due at the end of the month.



There are new WvW maps in development.

They are working on changes to make zerging not as popular.



Blueprints are being unbound, so they can be sold/traded.

https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/pvp/wuvwuv/Willing-to-share-WvW-details/

AoE is being looked at as they believe it to be OP in WvW.



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Brilliant, thanks for that. I'll be keeping a close eye on what they do re. progression as that was the main thing I felt the game was missing.
 
Guys. I've been thinking of playing GW2 again. Quick question before I do.

Has there been any change to the endgame? Or is it still a case of grinding karma in Orr? I've got a 80 necro, and if that is the case I won't bother. Unless I decide to keep leveling my Mesmer alt.
 
There's new dungeons called Fractals - a rotation of 9 maps I believe where you do 3 at a time with increasing difficulty after each successful run. This leads to owning Ascended gear/trinkets that have higher and varying stats than those exotics you already have.

There's also some improvements and changes to WvWvW apparently which can be read on the official forums or somewhere in this thead recently too.

Keep going with your Mesmer too, once you get past level 40 or so it becomes increasingly more enjoyable.
 
Endgame atm is Fractals of the Mists. Which is a set of mini dungeons that increase in difficulty the more you do them.

There are currently 8 different fractals:

Volcanic (Grawl)
Cliffside (Bandits/Giant)
Swamp (Traps/Coordination)
Snowblind (Sons of Svanir/Area Effect)
Urban Battleground (old Ascalon type area)
Oceanic (Krait/Underwater)
Uncategorised (Asura/Jumping)
Underground (Dredge/Coordination)

Each fractal run selects 3 from those at random, if you complete them all (back to back) you progress to the next level of fractals, which will be harder (more enemies, stronger enemies, different paths, enemies use different skills, area effects etc).

Every even numbered fractal level has a special 4th fractal which is a boss fight against the Jade Maw. Killing it gets you an extra chest, and at higher levels (10+) a chance for an Ascended quality ring or a Pristine Fractal Relic.

At lv20+ you also have the chance to find Fractal Weapons, which have unique skins.

Also every fractal you complete nets you Fractal Relics, which can be traded for special back pieces (Fractal Capacitor), which can also be upgraded to Ascended quality.

Past lv10 a special mechanic called 'Agony' comes into play, with boss creatures using Agony skills against you or your party. These REALLY hurt, to mitigate Agony you have to equip items with Agony Resistance. These items are the Ascended quality rings and back pieces, which you slot 'Infusions' in. Infusions reduce the damage received from Agony skills allowing you to progress to the higher fractal levels.

The higher the fractal level the better the loot you find. They can be very good money makers, and not half as boring as farming Plinxx due to the rotating and random nature of the mini dungeons, plus the fact you are working towards something (levelling fractals, ascended quality backpiece and rings etc).
 
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dogmanstaruk said:
Guys. I've been thinking of playing GW2 again. Quick question before I do.

Has there been any change to the endgame? Or is it still a case of grinding karma in Orr? I've got a 80 necro, and if that is the case I won't bother. Unless I decide to keep leveling my Mesmer alt.
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I split my time between a few Orr events (still enjoy them) levelling my alts (hunter and Mes) and a lot more wvw these days.
 
No1newts said:
Nice. Was hoping to hear something more on an ETA for the next dragon, must be second half of next year at least.
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I really hope before they go adding more dragon battle's that they make them more then just the dragon standing there while people just basically shoot at them till they die. Makes me laugh sometimes when people bitch and complain about getting blues/greens, tbh it's not like what you just did was even remotely challenging.

Also there seems to be a rising amount of people who afk 3/4 of the Claw of Jormag fight then all the sudden spring back into life for the final part of the battle.
 
I meant the dragon storylines rather than the boring dragon world events. They should add a huge chain (like mega destroyer) to dragon events making then more engaging. I was on about more story development into the dragons threatening the other races.
 
After much build tinkering, I've gone back to a confusion/glamour mesmer for pvp. It's just so mindlessly powerful - unless you're mobbed by two or more skilled opponents, you can comfortable hold your ground, and group support potential is incredible.

Here's the build for any interested. Feedback and nullfield become weapons of mass destruction.
Damage against static targets is low, and crits are negligable. But then it is for pvp after all.
Sceptre 2 and torch 4 are particularly useful. The signet is an odd choice, but I like the small aoe blindness (and yet more confusion).
 
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