The May Upate is now live, bringing us the new Southsun Cove content. Jump in and enjoy the sun and surf as it will only be available through June 4th. Don’t get too close to the animals though…
A few highlights from the notes:
New weapons skins and minis added
New Guild Treks for Southsun Cove area
WvW EB Jumping Puzzle now a separate map
WvW now has traps
New Gem Store item How to Dance 400 gems
First Skill Lag fix is in (more to come)
Follow the little red icon link to the right to read all the notes, or check out the full notes in our forum. Then come join us in discussing the new Southsun Cove content here.
Reginal also posted a short “things to do list” for the new Southsun Cove content here.
Finally, GWOnline’s Alaris created an interesting article about Rangers’ (generally bad) Dungeon reputation vs their actual performance in a more casual or medium level ability group, which has sparked a very lively forum debate. Come on in and join the fun. And check our RD’s piece on the problems with Town Clothes and then let us know what you think in the forum!
ArenaNet has released some short videos to help introduce the beta versions of Custom Arenas and Spectator Mode which will be in the April 30th update. (Also, scroll down a little for some developer comments about these new features and Leaderboards, SAB and a few other things including a great parody SAB achievement guide.)
Custom Arenas:
Spectator Mode:
Looks pretty polished to me. You’ll see below there are some things they are already thinking of adding. Come to the forum and tell us what you think of shoutcasting or any other features you’d like to see added to these new features!
John Corpening, our PvP team coordinator, is in the first vid. I’m in the second vid. Jon Peters, also a design lead, also does a lot of help w/ PvP and balance. Hope that clears it up!
If you don’t want people to see your builds, just disable spec mode when setting your Custom Arena parameters. Source.
Other notes: Leaderboards and Trial Accounts. Trial accounts will be removed from the leaderboards, but if you upgrade your trial account to a full game, then your trial account activity will be retained and count toward your account’s leaderboard activity (if you link the full game to your trial account. Per Martin Kerstein.
The actual April 30th update is what will make SAB disappear. It is not going away at a set time. Source.
Speaking of SAB, you have to check out the following fan made parody achievement guide video. I thought it started off a little slow, but around the 3 minute mark, it starts creating GW2 comedy gold! Amazing work ZoCks!
Lastly, here are links to some of our most recent GWOnline created content. Hope you find them interesting and you can just click the forum link after each feature if you want to comment or see discussion about the topics. The 10 Tips link in particular has some great follow up posts by our members.
GuildWars2Guru.com held a State of the Game on Friday with Jonathan Sharp & Karl McLain from Anet focusing on the tPVP changes in the April 30th update.Click here to watch the 120 minute video on Youtube. (They started late, so the link skips about 1:35 of not much happening.) Great stuff about changes to signets, Warriors, traits for a few different professions, WvW and PVE effect split for Retaliation and Confusion and lots more. This will be a big balance update too. To give the meta time to settle down there will not be many balance changes for the May patch; they will be focusing on bug fixes instead.
There will be Wiki Maintenance (GW1 & GW2) on May 8th from 4pm to midnite UTC (9am to 5pm Pacific). For the first two hours of the maintenance, both English wikis will be unavailable, then in read only mode for the rest of the time. All non-English GW2 wikis will be read only during the entire duration. They will be upgrading to MediaWiki version 1.20.4
Gamersbook is giving away copies of Guild Wars 2 and some TteSPORTS gaming peripherals. While the first copy of the game is being awarded today, they have 4 more copies being awarded throughout May and after that some nice gaming peripherals. There are a few steps to take, but hey, free stuff! Click here to see the rules and to enter.
Laura Vk, Loes Schubert, and Kelsey Hendriks have done some amazing cosplay costume work and put it up on Laura Vk’s Facebook page. Amazing amount of detail, you should really check it out.
See you all in game and don’t forget that Super Adventure Box goes away with the April 30 patch in just a couple days and while the full version of World 2 should be out in a few months (ie. “when it’s done”), there’s a good chance the World 1 skins won’t be coming back any time soon.
Southsun Cove – Warm sun, sandy beaches, exotic wildlife*, and new adventures.
We will be taking down the commerce system for maintenance at 5:00 AM PDT (12:00 UTC) on April 24th for 3 hours. The following systems will be affected by this maintenance:
Gem Purchasing
Buy Guild Wars 2
So load up on those gems now before it’s too late! Or…I guess… you can just wait for the maintenance to be over. Yeah, that would work too….
The Flame and Frost page has been updated with highlights of the April 30, 2013, update information.
The standouts are a new Dungeon to tell the final part of the Flame and Frost Living Story, and Custom Arenas and Spectator Mode for the sPVP players.
…you come into my house on the day they release this update, and you uh ask me to do murder, for money.
The new dungeon will feature only one path, and ArenaNet has tried to set the difficulty level between that of the Story and Explorable modes in regular dungeons. However, like the Flame and Frost Living Story, it won’t be in the game forever, so you’ll want to get in there before it’s gone.
They are rolling out Beta versions of the Custom Arenas and Spectator Mode this month too. Initially, only a small group of people will be able to create their own Custom Arenas. Everyone, however, will be able to play in them and use Spectator Mode. Just go to the Mists to check them out.
If that wasn’t enough, there are new WvW abilities, new Guild Mission content, skill balance and more. Check it out and them come to the forums and tell us what you think!
A quick heads-up that the Flame & Frost: Retribution page is now live on the official site.
In secret foundries deep beneath the Shiverpeaks, the Molten Alliance forges deadly new weaponry that combine the fiery power of the Flame Legion with the iron might of the dredge. There, Alliance weapon smiths test their creations on innocent captives, perfecting their cruel technology until it is ready to unleash on all of Tyria.
In the last chapter of the Flame and Frost series, you’ll strike at the heart of the Molten Alliance with your comrades Rox the charr and the norn Braham. Take the battle into the enemy’s weapons facilities and defeat a final hybrid menace unlike any Tyria has ever seen!
Never one to disappoint with the April Fools pranks, ANet has outdone themselves this year. Instead of a one-day prank, we got a whole month of new content. Check out the FAQ and watch the sweet commercial!
How do I get into the Super Adventure Box?
Moto has set up shop at the north end of Rata Sum, near the portal to Lion’s Arch. Round up a party, enter the Box and grab a super coin from the vending machine, and feed it to Virtual Moto. Make sure you save any baubles you collect in the Box, in case you run out of lives.
One of the twisted Quaggans the protagonists in “Heart of the Quaggan” will encounter – the wretched creature “Quaggom”
In honor of the recently announced Guild Wars 2 “Heart of the Quaggan”  expansion, GWOnline have decided we are going to change our Charr head logo to one of a mighty Quaggan! Not much is known about this new expansion yet, save the name, and that the story line will revolve around a young Quaggan and his three friends on a quest through vales, mountains and caves to vanquish an ancient enemy. During their travels they will join up with five others, one of each of the already playable races of Guild Wars 2, plus one mysterious character in a pointy hat who likes his pipe. Also, the Quaggans will become a playable race! Their race-specific elite skill? “Quaggan, Smash!” Our new logo will go well with the new direction ArenaNet is taking, making Quaggans the chief protagonists of their next expansion, and we could not be happier.
The soon-to be new GWOnline logo head – the fearsome Quaggan!
The March patch is finally here and it’s another big one! Check out the full notes below and as always, join our discussion and tell us what you think!
LIVING STORY
Flame and Frost: The Razing
A hybrid army erupts through fiery portals in the Shiverpeaks. This “Molten Alliance” between dredge and Flame Legion has created an enemy powerful enough to massacre any who stand in their way. One ranch, one homestead at a time, they’re wiping out all resistance. The razing has begun.
In Flame and Frost: The Razing, the third installment in this four-part series, we meet Braham and Rox, two fervent Tyrians who believe in doing what’s right, even if it means putting themselves in danger. They’re defending the people and places they love, and they’ll need your help.
As the 26 of March draws closer, ArenaNet has updated the Flame & Frost page with more information on what to expect including new WvW progressions and abilities, improved WvW performance, new guild Boiunty hunter targets, Leaderboards and more.
Check out the full update now on the official site.
A quick patch went up last night to address a few bugs. Notes are below.
LIVING STORY Flame and Frost: The Gathering Storm
Fixed an issue with Living Story invader events occasionally stalling.
Guild Bounties
Guesting players will now be eligible for personal bounty completion rewards for foreign chapters of their guild.
Guesting players will be able to start Guilder Content for foreign chapters of their guild as long as a guild member from the host world is present in the map with them.
Fixed a bug that would prevent some bounties from correctly scaling for additional players.
Fixed a bug with the Sotzz the Scallywag bounty that would allow it to be instantly retriggered.
Story
“Striking Off the Chains” – Fixed bug where Hywel could die, blocking progress.
“Striking Off the Chains” and “Liberating Apatia”- The ability to summon additional krait has been removed from the bosses in these steps.
Professions Mesmer
Fixed a bug that caused some melee attacks to behave inconsistently.
The Prestige: This ability now plays the blast finisher only at the end of the ability.
A new teaser page for the Flame & Frost: The Razing, which is due on 26 March, has been posted by ArenaNet.
A hybrid army erupts through fiery portals in the Shiverpeaks. A Molten Alliance between the dredge and the charr Flame Legion has created a force powerful enough to massacre any who stand in their way. One settlement, one homestead at a time, they’re wiping out all resistance. The razing has begun.
In Flame and Frost: The Razing you’ll meet the norn Braham and Rox the charr, two Tyrians who fervently believe in doing what’s right, no matter the risk. Join Braham and Rox in a desperate battle to defend their homelands from annihilation in the third installment in this four-part series!
