I’ve been accumulating news snippets about the as-yet-to-be-formally-scheduled release of Guild Wars 2 for an email newsletter I send out to my friends and acquaintances in the Guild Wars community.
Part 1: Discussion of previous news
- Rubi asks if ArenaNet’s introduction of Mercenary Heroes to Guild Wars is approaching the pay-to-win line.
Part 2: Guild Wars news
- There was a game update on Thursday to fix a bug that ended the “lucky weekend” early. The event will now end on Friday.
- Skill update preview. “In an update next week, we will address some PvP issues that came up as a result of our latest Dervish update. To give our tournament players time to plan ahead, we’re releasing all the skill-related update notes in advance. After the last MAT, we decided to tone down several Dervish skills that proved to be stronger than intended. Additionally, this update will address the power of Blood Magic Necromancers and some other builds that have gotten a little out of line. Finally, we will make a few small buffs to Mesmers and Elementalists.”
Part 3: Guild Wars 2 news
- Here’s a thought for you, especially if you use one of the Guild Wars wikis for more than just looking up stats: if Guild Wars 2 is going to be non-mission/non-quest in the traditional style (that is, pretty much everything in PvE play is driven by dynamic event chains), will you still find the wiki to be as useful?
- Fifteen things we learned from last week’s Guild Wars 2 combat footage: “Last week we posted a massive 10-minute long video of pure, unadulterated carnage in Guild Wars 2. Of course, the GW2 fan communities rabidly analyzed every tiny detail of the video in the hunt for new info, and we were right there in the trenches with them. In particular, we chatted with the the fans over at Guild Wars 2 Guru as they discussed and debated everything they found in our video.”
- I already mailed this one out separately: a series of Twitter updates by the GuildMag folks, and a video of the panel from which they were sending the Tweets – http://quotulatiousness.ca/blog/2011/03/13/twitter-updates-from-a-guild-wars-2-panel-at-pax-east/
- Ravious at Kill Ten Rats tries to consolidate all the information we’ve been given about the Thief class. “The best thieves are going to live on the razor’s edge having a sustained skill barrage with going as close to zero initiative as possible.”
- Randomessa pores over all the videos to discover clues to things that haven’t been directly discussed by ArenaNet. “New dynamic events will be added on the fly after the game’s release, and not publicized, for explorers to discover on their own. I have no intention of wiki-ing these.”
- “Dynamic Events” a Guild Wars 2 comic.
- Hands-on preview of the Guardian class. “The guardian is easily going to be a class that will be for masters of the game. High leveled dungeons and the hardest of missions will put the pressure on this class and make him a needed commodity. I only got a taste of this class and I am already dead set on having him as my primary character when the game arrives.”
- PAX East interview and demo. “I would be a bloody liar if I said that Guild Wars 2 wasn’t one of my major reasons for going to PAX East. I’ve been playing the original Guild Wars since the launch of GW: Factions back on April, 2006. Guild Wars is the game I always fall back on when I’m in-between games, and as a result, I’ve logged over 2,000 hours in the game. It’s safe to say I’m pretty darn excited about the sequel.”
- Martin Kerstein’s wrap-up of PAX East on the official site. “We’ve safely returned from PAX East to ArenaNet World Headquarters here in Seattle, weary but exhilarated after such an incredible show. I wanted to take a moment to share some of the highlights of our PAX East experience with you.”
- Ravious had a fascinating interview with ArenaNet staff at PAX East: “there was one dominant theme in my talks with Peters and Sharp, they are still iterating on nearly every mechanical feature in Guild Wars 2. It is important to keep in mind that even things fans “know” now because of the demo, interviews, or official articles might be obsolete on launch.”
- Top honours for two ArenaNet artists in the Spectrum 18 awards.
