Category: Guild Wars 2

Jeromai and I must be on similar wavelengths, even though I know I do not have anywhere the gumption required to solo a dungeon. He writes this morning on how in six days that was all it took for the community situated around the Molten Facility to distill down to “mostly tired, lazy or focused on getting as speedily to the end as possible”. I was thinking the exact same thing over the weekend where I ran it one more time and decided I was likely done with the dungeon (especially since our guild is unlocking guild challenges this week).

Six days, indeed. Continue reading [GW2] The Molten Function

My guild has started doing guild missions every day. Guild bounties are still the basis for things, but we have guild treks and guild rushes unlocked too. Yesterday we did a few bounties, wiping on the first bounty thanks to bear vs. 2-MULT, but I felt the main event was the Chicken Run guild rush in Fields of Ruin.

I had an absolute blast with my first ever guild rush. This, this is where I think guild missions should have started. Guild bounties are work. It seems I am cursed to randomly get Prisoner 1141 on almost every guild bounty, and that is a frustrating 15 minutes trying to tag down the speed demon, and communicate it. There is confusion in communication, especially since I did not have a mic ready for Raidcall. Don’t get me wrong. Guild bounties are a good challenge, but guild rushes are more about fun. Continue reading [GW2] Speed of the Chook Run

The Flame & Frost arc in Guild Wars 2 is capped off this month with May being split in to two parts. The first part revolves around the attack on the Molten Weapons Facilities (plural) with a 5-man dungeon and a finale to revolve around a celebration of burning stuff in the city streets. Then the second half of May is… absent Flame & Frost? The dungeon, being a dungeon and not soloable, is only available for the first half of May, and this has caused a little inferno of rage from many.

Regarding it being a dungeon, Jeromai covers the inclusivity aspect of the Guild Wars 2 activity du jour. He does it with science, and I tend to agree with my personal experience below. ArenaNet’s response is that they like people playing together. Regarding the time-limited aspect, while I do enjoy ArenaNet’s monthly focuses, two weeks just seems… scant. People have been crying for new fractals, zones, events, etc. since last year, and the biggest piece of story content this year is a dungeon that will go away. In fact it’s all going to go away on May 12^th it seems since players will no longer be able to earn achievements from previous chapters of Flame & Frost. May 16^th is when the city guards tell people to stop throwing stuff on the bonfires and go home. The war is won.

Anyway, the dungeon itself. Let’s talk about that. Continue reading [GW2] Disconnecting the Molten Facility

The preview for the next monthly patch is up. There are a bunch of much-needed “beta” additions to PvP, a few additions to the WvW progression, and some additions to guild missions including a quaggan guild rush. All of these things will permanently raise the stock of Guild Wars 2.

With the exception of possibly the WvW progression, these are very noticeable, permanent additions to Guild Wars 2. I expect a year from now guilds will still be able to turn in to quaggan and race around Frostgorge Sound. I hope that spectator mode and custom arenas in sPvP will turn the tide for the PvP community. Did I miss something?

Molten Weapon Facilities, a new Living Story dungeon. The Guild Wars 2 Flame & Frost Retribution page talks about fighting alongside Rox and Braham against the combined forces of the dredge and Flame Legion with an epic boss battle. Sounds like a great reason to log in, right?

Except that apparently with the press previews, Molten Weapon Facilities is not permanent. It is limited to be available only a set amount of time. Continue reading Guild Wars 2 Limited

Guild Wars 2 has vistas and jumping puzzles as Explorer content. And then, because zone design is hard, Guild Wars 2 has invisible walls. There are places where you can sprint up 60+ degree cliffs and places where you cannot reach despite seeing your character jump high enough to get to next platform. “I’ll just hop up this gentle slope. Or I can slide down the cliff and start over, that’s fun too.”

: Zubon

As always, the Guild Wars 2 gem store additions have caused controversy and counter-controversy across a variety of mediums. I feel that this month’s Flame and Frost update went aggressive in terms of getting players to bolster the gem/gold exchange rate or simply spend some cash. It is interesting though because at the same time there was a competing interest in game with the Super Adventure Box. ArenaNet keeps on presenting ways to spend money and time in different ways, which is both exciting and tiring.

Fused Weapons

Might as well start with the most controversial piece, in my opinion (not the unbreakable pick, but we’ll get there). The Black Lion Chests, the bit of the gem store everybody loves to hate, has “for a limited time” a Fused Weapon Claim Ticket. This is a rare chance, but people seem to be attacking the chests with fervor. The rarity and the random-number generation (“RNG”) involved seem to be making sure some players open dozens and dozens of Black Lion Chests to receive no fiery, golden ticket. Of course those few blessed that opened one or two chests and received one or two Tickets have a valuable thing they can’t trade away. Continue reading [GW2] Funding Flame and Frost

My goal this month in Guild Wars 2 was to get a Super Adventure Box skin. The most relaxing way, I felt, to do so was to run through the first three zones on about 9 days. Each zone gets me 2 bauble bubbles, of which I would need 50 to get my virtual tourist t-shirt. My “daily” was a nice refreshing jaunt through the first world.

Along the way I started to consider the achievements for Super Adventure Box. I had already read Jeromai’s pleasure and pain of completing some, and to be honest it didn’t sound like fun. But, I needed help finding where to buy upgrades, and I noticed that the dedicated Guild Wars 2 wikites had been super thorough with producing a guide for each zone. I did not feel up to using hours of my time to find all the baubles or shops in a zone myself. I was more than happy to follow a guide. Continue reading [GW2] Super Achievements

While Guild Wars 2 fans abound with glee over the Super Adventure Box, I do want to make sure to highlight the story instances that came with the March update. They are very good quality, especially in comparison to much of the personal story. The instances were fun, and I finally felt that I had something substantial to latch on to for Flame and Frost. Continue reading [GW2] Heroes of Flame and Frost, Prelude

The joke is that there is no joke. Perhaps the timing of the latest addition to Guild Wars 2 was done to ease the pain and let them have their “lols”, but for April, Super Adventure Box is here to stay.

What is Super Adventure Box (“SAB”)? An asuran genius, Moto, created a holographic video game using patented solidification hologram technologies. Players can go in to this “training apparatus” to learn about basic techniques in a closed environment. By closed environment I mean all the players stats and gear is virtually gone. Health is replaced by hearts, and gear is replaced by a few SAB items such as a sword-like stick or bombs. The graphics in SAB… well my kids were asking me how I was playing Minecraft in Guild Wars 2.

The first time I interfaced with SAB, I hated it. After a night’s rest and poking around with it a bit more, I have grown to love it. Continue reading [GW2] Super Adventure Transition