Quotulatiousness

March 7, 2014

This week in Guild Wars 2

Filed under: Gaming — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 11:36

We’ve been having technical issues at GuildMag over the last 24 hours, so I’m temporarily posting my weekly Guild Wars 2 community round-up here. The last chapter in the Living Story season one is underway, and players are fighting to regain control of the city of Lion’s Arch. In addition, there’s the usual assortment of blog posts, videos, podcasts, and fan fiction from around the GW2 community.

GuildMag logo

Update: GuildMag is back online, so I’ve cross-posted this round-up (with some updates) here.

My initial reaction to the Battle for Lion’s Arch was pretty bad. I got into a very low-population instance and we just couldn’t muster enough firepower to take down any of the bosses. A second attempt was just as bad: I seemed to be constantly knocked down, then downed, and repeatedly interrupted every time I tried to heal. I ended up logging off in disgust at the miserable results. My experience on Wednesday was significantly better — I killed *SPOILER*, thanks to Daarkfalcon (who helped me get past the first day’s efforts) and Zen Nightwing (who revived me several times over a very short period of time). That said, I’ll only be doing this content for long enough to get the meta achievement (unlike the Marionette and Escape events, which I did right up to the end).

Spoiler Warning: There are lots of posts and videos in this round-up that contain spoilers. If you haven’t completed the current Living Story arc, you may want to avoid clicking on any link that shows a spoiler indication. Even in items that are not specifically marked, there is enough given away that even the title could count as a spoiler. Don’t say we didn’t warn you…

Official Guild Wars 2  news

  • On the official Guild Wars 2 forums, Colin Johanson posted on the topic So much negative: “I think the thing you’re talking about are “constructive” threads and discussions, this discussion in this thread is related to negative threads. I don’t view the fantastic feedback and constructive ideas and suggestions as negative personally, they are how we all improve, the entire CDI process for example exists for entirely that reason. Negative is giving feedback with nothing constructive to build on. “This game sux i luv mt.dew and doritos more than it hahah lulz” for example doesn’t help us learn or make a better game (though it does make me want doritos and dew.) To me, those are the negative style threads, and they deserve about as serious of a response as people are coming down off the Seahawks epic win.”
  • GuildWars2.com — March: Daily Sales in the Gem Store! “Each day in March we’re running special promotions in the Gem Store! You’ll get 31 chances to save big on different Gem Store items or pick up a popular item from the past! Each sale begins at 12:01 a.m. and ends at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.”
  • On the official Guild Wars 2 forums, Angel McCoy posted on the topic How important is Lore for you: “Konig, we devs walk a fine line between giving too much lore, thus spoiling players’ in-game discovery, and not giving enough. If I’m cagey about something, it’s because I don’t want to give you spoilers, and I’m confident that when you activate your superpowers, you’ll find the right conclusions yourselves—and have a lot more fun than if I had spoon-fed it to you in a forum post. That’s the key. It’s all about you and your experience. Eight hours a day, five days a week, and often more than that, we’re all here, working to make your in-game experience as good as it can be.”
  • Twitter — @GuildWars2. “Guild Wars 2 Developer Guide: PvE Guardian: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcGuhizHEnU&feature=youtu.be&a via @YouTube”
  • Twitter — @GuildWars2. “Today may be a good time to read Scarlet’s Briar wiki article to be better prepared for Battle! http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Scarlet ^SL”
  • Twitter — @GuildWars2. “Hey @ScarletBriar we are coming for you… ^AT”
  • On the official Guild Wars 2 forums, CC Danicia posted on the topic Game Update Notes – March 4, 2014: “Lion’s Arch has been battered and razed, but as long as there are those who’ll take up arms for our city, it will not be beaten! Scarlet and her armies — the Aetherblades, the Molten Alliance, and the Toxic Alliance — may have pushed us out of our city, but now the winds have blown her vile miasma out to sea. Lion’s Arch belongs to all Tyrians. It’s time to regroup and rally, liberate our besieged city, and take the fight to Scarlet to end her menace. Remember this day, for this battle will be worthy of legend!”
  • GuildWars2.com — The Battle for Lion’s Arch. “The time has come for the final confrontation with Scarlet Briar. Retake Lion’s Arch and put a stop to her monstrous plans!”
  • GuildWars2.com — Fantastic New Items in the Gem Store! “The tides of battle have changed, my friends! The Lionguard – generously equipped by yours truly – is working side-by-side with heroes to retake Lion’s Arch from that evil sylvari and her villainous crew. Fight in style with this week’s new offerings!”
  • Twitter — @GuildWars2. “Battle on The Breachmaker, our newest in-game music, is now live on our SoundCloud page! https://soundcloud.com/arenanet/guild-wars-2-battle-on-the ~RB2 #GW2 #GuildWars2″
  • Twitter — @GuildWars2. “The Escapist is giving away a copy of Guild Wars 2: Collector’s Edition and they really want you to win it! ~SL http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/132641-A-Copy-of-Guild-Wars-2-Collectors-Edition-Could-Be-Yours“
  • Twitter — @GuildWars2. “‘The Arch or nothing’ – 14th Lionguard Security Force: http://www.flickr.com/photos/arenanet/12946392735/ ^AT”
  • Twitter — @GuildWars2. “Guild Wars 2 PvP Developer Behind the Scenes: Ready Up 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srIg7bLSmFQ&feature=youtu.be&a via @YouTube”
  • On the official Guild Wars 2 forums, Anthony Ordon posted on the topic CDI- Fractal Evolution: “It’s no surprise that the “add more mechanics” idea comes up a lot for difficulty scaling. Not only does it sound really great, it was also the original plan. Unfortunately it’s just about the heaviest approach we could take because it implies that every boss in the fractal needs to be updated and rebalanced for every tier that we add. Assuming 2 bosses per Fractal (and we never added new Fractals), every time we add a tier of difficulty we have to do this 30 times. I’m not saying we can’t do it; I’m saying it would be slow. Much slower than say, adding one or two new Fractals per tier with entirely new content.”
  • Twitter — @GuildWars2. “Game update notes, March 5, 2014: https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-March-4-2014/first#post3723242 ~RB2 #GW2″
  • On the official Guild Wars 2 forums, Chris Whiteside posted on the topic Collaborative Development: Ranger Profession: “Hi All, I want to re-emphasize a few points i have made recently in regard to the CDI”
  • On the official Guild Wars 2 forums, Autumn Frazee posted on the topic Battle for Lion’s Arch Open Issues and Tips: “I’ve seen the many posts on both this forum and the Game Bugs forum reporting issues with the Assault Knights and I’d like to take a few minutes to respond to you all. We are certainly not ignoring the forums, the lack of red posts is because I have been running around trying to get the issues you report fixed as quickly as possible and I have not always had the time to follow up on your threads and let you know!”
  • On the official Guild Wars 2 forums, Autumn Frazee posted on the topic Battle for Lion’s Arch Open Issues and Tips: ” The Assault knights were intended to be a fight that players had to split up and fight at the same time, it is one of the issues we are currently looking at. The Scarlet Holo fight begins 5 minutes after the first Knight’s death; originally, this was not an issue because a map divided into groups of three would take down the Knights within 5 minutes of each other. However, with recent player tactic changes, the first Knight is dying as much as 10 minutes before players get up to the Breachmaker, meaning that you will portal up into an active fight, possibly die before you load in, and you can lose time on the Scarlet Holo Fight timer. We are working on ways to make sure that players will have much less risk to portal up to an in progress fight.”
  • On the official Guild Wars 2 forums, Allie Murdock posted on the topic Collaborative Development: Ranger Profession: “I’ve tried to summarize most of the feedback we’ve been getting. Most of this are the big points that are being made and the high level with a few smaller suggestions and tweaks for inspiration. Now, many of you might disagree with some of the feedback that others have been giving, but if you guys are going to take the time to write it, we’re going to take the time to read it. These are some of the notes that I’ve been passing around to the balance team. Please know that this is not all of the feedback we’ve seen from you or from this thread.”
  • Twitter — @GuildWars2. “Now the 14th is waiting…waiting for reinforcements, for the enemy’s next move http://www.flickr.com/photos/arenanet/12946500463/ ^DO”
  • Added GuildWars2.com — Get Ready for WvW Spring Tournament 2014. “When we first announced WvW Spring Tournament 2014, I mentioned that we’d have more details to provide about it. To begin with, we’ve decided to extend the duration of the tournament to nine weeks total, so the competition will run from March 28 through May 30. I also want to discuss three things in particular that are changes from how WvW Season 1 operated that we think will make the experience even better than it was before.”

Recent GuildMag  posts

  • Guild Wars 2 Community Event Calendar. “This post is intended to help you to publicize your guild or alliance event, and as long as your event is open to the whole Guild Wars/Guild Wars 2 community, we’ll list it here.”
  • Has Guild Wars 2 Ruined Every Other MMO? “Massively Multiplayer Online games (or MMOs) have been an addiction of mine for as long as I’ve been a gamer, I’ve always loved the idea of coming home from a day at work/school, logging in, and disappearing into another world. I enjoy being part of a community, and working with other people, or on my own to lead a character through another world. I remember being part of World of Warcraft a long time ago when it was first released, and marvelling at its huge open world, vast player counts. I could go wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted, in a world that didn’t just belong to me, it belonged to everyone. This epitomises, and still does, what an MMO means to me; it’s a way of releasing and being somewhere else for a few hours, it’s freedom.”
  • Twitter — @GuildMag. “Alright, bickle up! We might’ve lost Lion’s Arch but we’ll take the fight to Scarlet tomorrow! Are you prepared? #GW2 http://www.flickr.com/photos/arenanet/12913694495/“
  • Twitter — @Ollannach. “Eek, 3 days until it’s 4(!) years ago that I proposed to make a ‘Guild Wars Magazine’! #TimeFlies #GoingStrong”
  • The Battle for Lion’s Arch Now Live. “The end of the first Living World season has arrived! Rally together and help take back Lion’s Arch from the clutches of Scarlet’s minions in this latest patch.”
  • Twitter — @Ollannach. “‘Personal story missions will always exist in the most current version of a map, … is intentional and will make sense later in the story.'” “How exactly does it make sense for stuff that happened 1 year ago happen still in current time?” “@DragonSeasonCom @MalchiorDeven They only way they can clarify this is by saying Zhaitan is just another ‘Rank’. You can’t defeat corruption” “@DragonSeasonCom @MalchiorDeven Any other way would mean that the current players play past content a year forward. But meh.”
  • Twitter — @Ollannach. “Seriously, that ending. Really curious about what will happen next.”

Fan articles and blog posts

  • Reddit — How in the world is the average player supposed to save up for a precursor? “My wife recently started her quest for the Bifrost, and while she’s hopeful about getting the materials in a few months of play, she and I both don’t know how the hell she’s going to get The Legend. If she grinds it out via dungeons, resource gathering, and other conventional means, she’ll never be able to keep up with inflation. She’ll be grinding forever.” [Raphia: The only way I’d start working toward a Legendary is if the precursor dropped for me along the way. Without that, the amount of grinding is antithetical to how I like to play the game.]
  • Twitter — @DragonSeasonCom. “You can now earn 40 Bags of Alliance Supplies by winning a match in Team Arena and 20 from winning one in Solo Queue. ~Tilion #GW2PvP”
  • Quaggan’s Press — Game server optimizations incoming. “Bill Freist, one of the many game play programmers over at Arena Net posted on the official forums that the team is working on some major optimization. Bill hasn’t put a release date on the optimizations, yet it seems like they should be coming sometime soon.”
  • manylaughs — Going for 1000 gold – Hit me with your ugly stick. “I got this, the other day. It’s called The Ugly Stick. Whatever you want to say about Guild Wars 2, you can’t say the development team doesn’t have a sense of humor. :D”
  • Twitter — @HuntersInsight. “Bleh, what they needed to do on that stream was show people how to break that zerg strategy up.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Hub — Does the Living World Need Us? “With the Finale of the Living World Season One around the corner, and the discussions of Season Two finally on the table, we have to wonder if the story elements of the Living World truly need the players. Lee B takes a deeper look into player interaction with the Living World to answer if we are vital components to a Living World.”
  • ZAM.com — The Scrying Pool: For Glory! “With the impending doom of glory, what does the Scrying Pool suggest to using it on?”
  • Guild Wars 2 Trading Post — Price Rising for Endless Quaggan Tonic. “These went from 1 gold to 2-4 gold buy orders in just two days. I am wondering if word is getting out finally about these awesome items. I have a few just from farming but now I wish I invested in them at the start of the escape from Lion’s Arch event!”
  • MMORPG.com — Is There a Better Way to Enjoy an MMO? “They say opposites attract, and that’s definitely true of my husband and me, especially in regard to the way we play MMOs. While I spend hours customizing characters and combing the Internet looking for suitable names for them, he zips through character creation and slaps names like “Snackfood” on his avatars. This natural opposition extends well beyond character creation to define the way we play. It’s also caused a lot of contention as we attempt to push our individual play styles onto one another. Try as we might, we continue to wrangle over the question: whose approach is better?”
  • Reddit — [Guide] Stacking in WvW – How it affects the damage you take, and the common misconceptions. “Stacking will NOT reduce the amount of damage your squad takes from AoE – in actuality, you take increased damage from AoE attacks while stacking and is the primary downside to the strategy. Stacking will not make you immune to red rings, and thinking it does will only get you and your squad killed.”
  • manylaughs — Going for 1000 gold – Use the forums. “Are you looking for ideas on what to sell? Curious why orichalcum has jumped in price?”
  • Twitter — @HuntersInsight. “@GuildWars2 People should be given the info about how long a release lasts, I really hate the current policy of keeping us all in the dark.”
  • Reddit — Will Guild Wars 2 set the standard for years to come? “Guild Wars 2 was highly speculated for a very long time. I myself was hoping for this game when I first played GW1 some years ago. The graphical aspects of Guild Wars were sublime for its generation. The depth of gameplay was massive, without compromising the ease of play. Any user could jump straight in and play for hours without getting bored.”
  • Reddit — Inside Maeva’s home (The bubble house of L.A.) “I was able to get into the bubble house via the experimental rifle. There was a stairway down after you jumped down onto the roof of it. I didn’t take as many photos as I should have, but here’s a quick peek inside.”
  • Reddit — 2 SPvP Guardian Builds – Support/Bunker and Damage.
  • Nerdy Bookahs — 3 years of Nerdy Bookahs – and 2 giveaways! “It’s that time of the year to get all nostalgic again. Nerdy Bookahs is celebrating its 3 year anniversary on March 12. As we have recently “expanded” and added a German blog, we are also going to host a giveaway in each blog. If you don’t care about my nostalgia and only care about the giveaway, click on the images. Otherwise, read on and click on the images afterwards. ;)”
  • Inventory Full — Build Or Bust? “Just a few more days to go before we find out what Scarlet Briar’s been planning this last year, although, when you work it out, it’s been even longer than that. The Living Story blew in with a whimper January before last, when not a one of us had ever heard of the over-achieving, under-socialized Sylvari who was destined to become, not entirely for the reasons her creators intended, Tyria’s Public Enemy #1.”
  • Reddit — Guild Wars Stories – App containing all short stories. “So it really striked me that too many players don’t go to anets website and read some of those awesome short stories they released. I decided to make a little app containing all of those.”
  • manylaughs — Going for 1000 gold – Lucky is as lucky does. “I got the Endless Mystery Quaggan Tonic, yesterday. It dropped from a blue Bag of Alliance Supplies. This is the premier drop item from this event, selling for about 17 gold, right now, though the price is dropping.”
  • MMORPG.com — Lion’s Arch is Under Attack! … Everyone Go About Your Business. “Yesterday I wrote a piece loosely arguing the importance of narrative to an MMO experience. With that in mind, I thought today I’d talk about the successes (and failures) of Guild Wars 2‘s latest Living World episode, Escape From Lion’s Arch.”
  • Reddit — Some Advice For The Guild Wars 2 Community. “If you are just starting out, or if you are an older player, here is some candid advice to fully maximize your Guild Wars 2 experience.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Speculator — Speculation Dilemma. “To sell or not to sell is the question in hand. If you already sold your invested Watchwork Sprockets when they peaked at 90 copper 2 weeks ago, you would have made a comfortable profit, more than doubling your money. However, many people, me included, are in it for the long haul on this particular investment. Sprockets have hovered between 60 and 80 copper for about 10 days now, and while they have dropped a little from their peak, it is clear there is still sufficient demand.”
  • Under the Pale Tree — Release Communication. “So it used to be that for new releases, we would get a page on the Guild Wars 2 website that outlined some of the info for the release – some basic stuff about what the release was about, some info about other things that were coming in it than just living world, and so on. I loved these pages. I liked having an idea ahead of time of what was going to be happening – especially if skill changes or other balance changes were coming. I liked having an idea of what the new content was going to be, especially as my life got busier and I had less and less time to play.”
  • Cantafrond — Final Thoughts About Escape from Lion’s Arch. “The Escape from Lion’s Arch ends tomorrow, and with its conclusion begins the Battle for Lion’s Arch. I gave some initial impressions of the event as well as my feelings about it after a week, so it’s only fitting to offer some final thoughts on the update.”
  • Reddit — Guild Hall – Ideas. “Going to keep this simple. I just want to toss in a few ideas of what would make Guild Halls somehow useful in the game if they were to come out. Having a Guild Hall is like having a Home instance for your guild, if we barely use our personal home instance, what’s the point of Guild Halls? What can be done to make them needed?”
  • Guild Wars 2 Trading Post — Old Strategies Work with New Escape from Lion’s Arch. “A lot of players use scrolls to get from level 0 to level 20 on new characters along with playing Escape from Lion’s Arch to get additional levels from tomes purchased for 100 lost belongings. So it makes sense to play the event instead of leveling elsewhere. Survival is important, so players are likely to buy gear in the level 20-40 range during this event.”
  • MMORPG.com — Evaluating the Living Story. “Ah, the Living Story. Fast-paced and exciting. Slow and simplistic. Jam-packed with drama. Tiring and dreadful.”
  • manylaughs — Going for 1000 gold – 900 gold. “Well, I hit 900 gold, yesterday. The end is in sight. I’m thinking I might push a little and sell some stuff. When I hit 1000 gold, I’ll convert a chunk of it to gems to buy stuff off the market. Those Black Lion Keys are awfully tempting. : )”
  • Guild Wars 2 Hub — Is It Worth Saving Lion’s Arch? “Tomorrow we assault Lion’s Arch in full force to drive Scarlet and all of her Alliances out once and for all. We’ve seen the strategies, we know who will fight with and ultimately who we’re going to fight against. If we take back the city, will it ever be the same for us?”
  • Reddit — Are we ever going to have more attainable in-game armor? “I can’t recall the last time (if even) – we had a full set of armor attainable by playing the game. All of the new armors are gem store armors or glove/shoulder/backpiece items that gets released with Living Story. If you want to get into the nitty gritty – the only released armor set was the “Ascended set”.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Trading Post — How to get 1 Gold Per Laurel. “If you purchase Heavy Crafting Bags with Laurels (1 each) then you should get around 1 gold per bag. The items you can get are all Tier 6 crafting mats currently worth around 20 to 35 silver each and you get three each time you open a bag. Since the vast majority are 30+ silver (pile of crystalline dust is the only one worth less than 30 silver) you should be earning close to a gold average per Heavy Crafting Bag.”
  • ZAM.com — Battle for Lion’s Arch Community Q&A. “The Final Battle Begins in Guild Wars 2 as the Battle for Lion’s Arch content goes live later today. Last week we asked the community to submit their questions and ArenaNet’s own Mike Zadorojny was able to join us to get those questions answered.”
  • Reddit — If the Pact doesn’t appear in this patch, Arenanet might as well admit they have no idea what they’re writing. “All I’ve heard up till now is excuses for the inaction of the Pact.”
  • Project Tyria — The Fall of Lions Arch (Part 4). “Today is patch day and I promised a fourth batch of pictures. It’s not very many, but I had to explore Old Lions Arch and see what kind of destruction Scarlet has created there.”
  • Reddit — Upcoming features and chat codes from Battle for Lion’s Arch. “These are the new features and chat codes from Battle for Lion’s Arch.”
  • The Road Less Pwned — Tasty Tyria – Spicy Cheeseburger. “With winter (finally) ending soon, grilling season will soon be upon us. So I decided to dig up an old favorite recipe from my old gaming food blog, Cooking Up Geekdom, just to celebrate the fact that we will soon be able to use our grill again. You know… once it’s no longer buried under a foot or more of snow.That recipe is for the Spicy Cheeseburger.”
  • Dulfy.net — Tormented Weapon Skins Gallery. “A gallery of the new GW2 Tormented Weapon Skins introduced with the Battle for Lion’s Arch patch on March 4, 2014.” [Raphia: I loved the Tormented Shield in Guild Wars, so I’m going to get one of these … too bad none of my characters uses a shield regularly.]
  • Guild Wars 2 Hub — Tormented Weapon Skin Gallery. “With the culmination of the Living World story upon us, we’ve put together a gallery of the newest weapon skins: Tormented.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Hub — Battle For Lion’s Arch Guides and Content Coverage. “Here we have all our collection of all content that has to deal with the Living World release: Battle for Lion’s Arch. Check back often for updates!”
  • MMORPG.com — Day of Reckoning: The Battle for Lion’s Arch. “They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and never has the adage been more frighteningly proven than through the evolution of enigmatic Guild Wars 2 villain, Scarlet Briar. Like many a mad scientist before her, Scarlet’s sought facility without judgment, mastery without wisdom, and hasn’t spent much time at all considering the consequences of this search. Not surprisingly — and like so many mad scientists before her — her efforts have ended in cataclysmic results.”
  • Quaggan’s Press — Battle for Lions Arch: Weapons and armor preview. “Here are the chat-link codes for the newly added weapons and armor in the Battle for Lion’s Arch update, plus a few pictures of the items themselves!”
  • Twitter — @HuntersInsight. “Oh ffs. Queue to leave overflow comes up, a third of everyone on the drill LEAVES. Really so done with mass events like this.” “Not only that but nobodys doing the miasma events, nobodys doing the rally events. One of the champs keeps spawning on a legendary fight.” “I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s like being forced to PUG.” [Raphia: I was in a very low-population overflow … we couldn’t take down any of the bosses quickly, so I didn’t see any of the cinematics or get beyond being a punching bag in LA. Lots of armour repairs when I gave up in disgust.]
  • Twitter — @Apsup. “#Guildwars2 was designed to maximize friendly co-operation and helping each other and still it makes me hate my fellow men.”
  • Twitter — @Peter_Chan. “Overall the journey to bring down Scarlet has been a massive fail, full of disappointments and probably worth uninstalling from. #GuildWars2”
  • Reddit — “Someone with more engineering experience will have to figure it out.” Like…an engineer maybe? “Very mild spoilers. After completing the personal instance, I was looking at the mechanical panels as an ele, and got the message that someone else would have to look at them. Since my engi friend was in his own instance, I had him read the same panel. And, well…the pictures speak for themselves!”
  • Dulfy.net — Guild Shield Finisher and Scarlet’s Champion Minis. “Videos and pictures of the Guild Shield Finisher and Scarlet’s Champion minis 3-pack from the gemstore.”
  • Dulfy.net — Battle for Lion’s Arch Achievement Guide. “A guide to Battle for Lion’s Arch Living World achievement.”
  • Reddit — Legendaries and other “epic” skins should never have been purchasable. “To quote the pixar animated movie, The Incredibles, ‘Once everyone is super.. No one is.'”
  • Reddit — I am not a storyteller, but here’s something I’d like to share regarding the new tormented weapons. 🙂 “My thoughts as I found out about the new, nostalgic throwback to gw1, Tormented weapon skins, which are super great… and heartbreaking to me.”
  • Reddit — I felt sorry for Scarlet (Spoilers). “By the end, I felt sorry for Scarlet. Hear me out.”
  • Quaggan’s Press — March 3rd gemstore update. “Today ArenaNet has released the following two items in the gemstore.”
  • Why I Game — Battle For Lion’s Arch – First Thoughts (No Spoilers). “ArenaNet has learned a lot over the past year. It shows.”
  • manylaughs — Going for 1000 gold – 1000 gold! “I won’t keep you in suspense any longer. Yesterday, I started at around 917 gold and decide to just go for it. I started today over 1000 gold. Yay!”
  • Cantafrond — Initial Impressions of the Battle for Lion’s Arch. “While I was fairly impressed by the Escape from Lion’s Arch update, I’m completely disappointed by the Battle for Lion’s Arch.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Hub — Battle for Lion’s Arch Achievement and Strategy Guide. “The newest Living World update, The Battle for Lion’s Arch, brings us the ultimate finale to the first Season of the Living World which rallies the heroes of Tyria to attack Scarlet and her Alliances head on within the battle-torn Lion’s Arch.”
  • Reddit — [SPOILERS] Discussion of an old theory? [SPOILERS]. “[ONCE AGAIN, SPOILERS FOR LAST LIVING STORY, BEEN WARNED]”
  • Reddit — Skill-gated content. “TL;DR – Should there be more content in the game that requires skill, rather than time to achieve?”
  • Reddit — Scarlet and the LS ending [spoiler]. “Spoilers ahead, obviously.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Trading Post — New to Making Gold: Where Do I Start? “A lot of people come to this blog with no idea how to make gold. This group can quickly become turned off if I’m only talking about speculating on here. If you’re one of these people, fear not! I have much better advice for you than the speculating and investing that has been going on of late.”
  • Reddit — [Spoilers] Scarlet, Sylvari, and Caithe’s Secret.
  • Guild Wars 2 Hub — The Battle for Lion’s Arch Rewards Guide. “The Battle for Lion’s Arch pits us against a whole set of new enemies, and with those new enemies comes some awesome loot. Check out this guide to figure out what drops where and how to get the items you’ve been hunting for.”
  • Reddit — A proposal for a participation based reward structure for boss and event rewards. “In the last living story patch we’ve seen commanders and players AFKing for the full event and still getting full rewards. This patch is no different with several dozen people at times standing at the HOLO entrance, waiting on the masses to do their work for them.”
  • Inventory Full — Living Story – First Annual Report.
  • Chronicles of Tyria — Comic: Overburdened.
  • Reddit — [GUIDE] Six Minutes to Knightfall.
  • Reddit — We have slain a foe! what next? [Spoilers inside]. “Okay, so we slayed Scarlet. After getting my stomp in and gaining access to the area behind her, I noticed a couple things. The Console on the Right was a map of the probe locations throughout Tyria. The next one over showed the Drill and leyline diagram, then the Marionette Control Panel, and then another map with probe locations… The last console is what interested me the most.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Trading Post — The Ridiculous Battle For Lion’s Arch. “The Battle for Lion’s Arch is now a giant boss stomping ground and loot fest. Scarlet’s generals roam around the map waiting to get picked off and each time you kill one another deluxe gear box enters your backpack. If you do all three robots that appear then you will receive 15 more boxes of gear! Each one contains multiple items and only reduces the price of Tier 6 materials further.”
  • Twitter — @Mordremoth. “I was afraid my fangs would get rusty from all that beauty sleep. Anyone else hungry? #GW2 #GuildWars2 @GuildWars2 http://twitter.com/Mordremoth/status/441264379489558528/photo/1“
  • manylaughs — What to sell, now. “Now, that my little quest for 1000 gold is done, I’ll be giving you a more in-depth look at how to make your own, but I’ll keep giving you tips for making gold, as well.”
  • Reddit — [Theorycrafting] On sylvari corruption. “Good morning fellows, After reading yet another thread that had the line ‘sylvari are dragon minions’ in it I became a bit annoyed. Nothing personal but this is something I don’t believe to be true and I can’t understand why people don’t see that.”
  • Reddit — [Spoilers (sort of)] Anet’s communication on twitter. “Anet’s community managers are so cool. I advise you guys to get a read on Mordremoth’s twitter page they just created. It’s hilarious.”
  • Reddit — CDI: GW2 Combat ruined by design choices – PvP ( WvW) Dodgeroll vs Immune. “Hi guys i chose a threadname that would hopefully get some attention.. this is not a flame thread – this is how i genuinely feel about some of the decisions regarding class skills / balance and the great combat system of gw2. If someone could repost this on the official forums i would appreciate it – maybe use a different thread name -i’m bad at naming things.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Hub — Prime Hologram Boss Guide. “The Prime Hologram is Scarlet’s last line of defense before finally putting her to answer for the crimes she’s committed. This guide will teach you how to get to this final fight quickly all the strategies and details to the fight itself.”
  • Kill Ten Rats — Scarlet Letter Sendoff.
  • Reddit — [Minor Spoilers] Future Living Story Speculation: New Zones? “Now that all six dragons have awoken, it’s time to start travelling outside the known borders. I’m sure many of you have noticed portals/doorways leading to new, unexplored territories, but most of them are either blocked off or otherwise inaccessible.”
  • Reddit — Gotta love Dragons arguing. “Note: Only @Mordremoth is official.”
  • Reddit — [Possible Spoilers] Future of Maguuma and our next Dragon Campaign. “With the ending of The Living Story Season 1 we now have some leads as to what could potentially be in store for the future. Through some research I have tied together some details that I believe may be part of our next campaign against the dragons.”
  • Reddit — [Spoilers] Careful what you read on twitter! The following are not official (including Scarlets). No Spoilers in Title Edition. “Sorry the other post got removed because I had spoilers in the title. Sorry about that. So recently people have been arguing with me that the Mordemoth page and Scarlet Page are official twitter pages.”
  • Reddit — [Spoilers] Upcoming season – people’s expectations. “Hey guys, so everyone seems to be hyped because of the “trailer” we saw on the Breachmaker. It is almost certain that the upcoming season 2 of the living world will be about an elder dragon (obviously Mordremoth). Nonetheless, I’m a bit concerned about the expectations I am confronted with. Almost every post seems to indicate that the OPs want to fight Mordremoth right away. I for my part think that this would be a terrible idea!”
  • Reddit — [Spoilers] Scarlet’s Motivations. “So there’s two main theories I’ve seen circulating around here about why Scarlet was trying to tap into disrupt the ley lines. The first is that she was fully under Mordremoth’s control by this point and was simply doing his bidding. The second is that Scarlet was still holding onto hope that she could force Mordremoth into a confrontation and hopefully kill it.”
  • Twitter — @HuntersInsight. “I dont’ wanna spoil anything ever, so stop reading. But that data-mined mini llama? I gotta have it. Got to.” “Made an ascended cooking post and didn’t make a single bacon as ascended food joke? I’m slipping.”
  • Twitter — @KasmeerMeade. “After this is over, I really think we should take a vacation @MarjoryDelaqua. Somewhere warm, where things don’t want to kill us.”
  • Reddit — Jeremy Soule will NOT be returning to score new music for Guild Wars. “I think we can all appreciate the soundtrack Jeremy Soule laid down for both Guild Wars 1 and 2. Collectively they have taken us to new worlds, new dimensions and helped to forge memories unlike anything else.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Hub — What the Finale Did Wrong. “This update was the last for the first Living World season. This was the grand finale that would wrap everything up, give us some information into what is coming up next and blow us all away. Lee has some things to say about what they did absolutely wrong for this update and why.”
  • manylaughs — How to make 1000 gold – Leveling up. “If you’re just starting out, you want to get to the endgame, and you probably want to get there fast. There are lots of reasons for doing this, almost all of which affect how fast you make gold. Once you’re in the endgame, you’ll make more gold, get better drops worth more money, and you can take part in pretty much every aspect of the game.”
  • Twitter — @DragonSeasonCom. “With the 1st season of the LS coming to an end, I’d like to pinpoint a few things that, in my opinion, should be addressed before s2.” “1) ArenaNet should establish a proper testing ground.” “I know that the live environment is not identical to dev servers, but all those bugs just ruin the experience of the first few days.” “Are they afraid of story leaks? Just do not implement the story tidbits in the testing server.” “2) Speaking of leaks, they should stop putting story in advance into the client in places that it can be datamined.” “It simply ruins everything. One way or another you’ll found out about what’s going to happen prior to experiencing it.” “3) No more zergy content!! Goddamn my eyes bleed to this mindless facerolling through bazillion particle effects.” “Is it really fun? No, it’s just an easy way of producing content like in, let’s say, a two to four week window.” “4) The story and the concept of the living world is brilliant! What it lacks is immersion.” “There have been quite a few times that you stumble across the same NPC twice in two different open world instances.” “A spreadsheet of some sort could easily showcase which NPC is available for each period of time and place.” “5) On the same concept the Personal Story should get retired. Its timeline is obviously limiting the design of the Living Story” “6) Anet’s marketing approach is failing harder and harder every week that goes by. They are not invested in the players at all.” “Taking examples by what they did back in the days of GW1 they could do miracles on that aspect today.”
  • Reddit — [Spoiler] Marjory Delaqua. “I’ve been thinking of this ever since I finished the Scarlet Arc and it just doesn’t sit well with me. Let me just get straight to it: Why did Marjory survive the Scarlet encounter?“
  • Reddit — [NEWS] In Case you Missed It! – Guild Wars 2 Weekly News Round Up #12: March 1st – 7th, 2014. “This week, I will be breaking tradition and talking about spoilers from this weeks update. It’s a little avoidable, to be honest. If you are not wanting to read spoilers, I will be using spoiler tags whenever I feel they are necessary.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Trading Post — Sold All My Silk Today. “Well holding on to my silk from the Lion’s Arch events has finally paid off! I know I’ve been hammering you with the idea that Silk will eventually rise, and thankfully it finally reached the 2 silver mark! I hope that you were saving all the Silk when it was only worth a silver or even when it rose to 1.7 silver.”
  • Reddit — Critique of Take Back Lion’s Arch patch (minor spoilers). “Since returning to the game in August I’ve been a strong supporter of the Living Story. Sure, it hasn’t always been brilliant, but I’ve had fun participating. Take Back Lion’s Arch, though, is a poorly implemented mess riddled with bugs and mechanics that are simply not fun. I find it so frustrating that, for the first time since coming back, I don’t want to log in. Allow me to explain…”
  • Kill Ten Rats — Harmony and Discord in the Season 1 Finale. “Lion’s Arch is now open for battle. Instead of being forced out due to miasma for a 15-20 minute break, the ruined city is now a constant battleground between the players and Scarlet’s armies. On the hour, Scarlet’s three legendary assault knights descend from the Breachmaker UFO to smash some players good. The chink in Scarlet’s armor is that if players can kill all three to attune themselves to the Breachmaker’s energy, they can warp up.”
  • Relics of Orr — What Ever Happened to Dungeons? “In the beginning of the game there were a total of eight dungeons, offering both story mode and explorable mode with many different paths to choose. While not overly difficult the dungeons presented a way of telling a story and allowing players to work towards various goals via the token system.”
  • Twitter — @Mordremoth. “All this energy flowing to me and yet my hunger grows more fierce…” “Myth-busting: I am not in Orr. That wretched place reeks of Zhaitan, why would anyone go there?” “Soon Tyria… You will tremble like never before. Enjoy the calamity before it reaches its peak. http://twitter.com/Mordremoth/status/441961931046649856/photo/1“
  • Twitter — @DragonSeasonCom. “Mr @Screenag3r describes the events that took place during the Battle for Lion’s Arch (Spoilers galore!): http://mmobuff.tv/blog/season-1-final-cadence ~Til #GW2Cm”

Videos and podcasts

  • Guild Wars Reporter — Episode 97 – Et Tu, Tengu?! “Celeste and Allona drag people out of Lion’s Arch, wear a tin foil hat for most of the episode and wonder why no one else says gif like we do.”
  • YouTube — obal100: Thief 52K Backstab and More. “Here are some big numbers on a fully buffed Thief using 30/30/0/0/10.”
  • YouTube — WoodenPotatoes: Buddy Blitz: Tarkkakt P1. “With world of enders as ever, heres a link for his perspective! Extra Rules: To note: * The level 80 cannot mail the level 1 player anything * The level 80 cannot use their bank * No consumables are allowed * Automatic leveling items are banned. * The final skill challenge CAN’T be triggered by the level 80, it must be the level 1. * It doesn’t matter if the level 1 is given credit for completing the skill challenge or not, as long as the boss dies, the team wins. * If two teams reach the final boss at the same time, it’s the first team who triggered it that wins when it dies. – If the first team were to wipe on the boss though, then the second team may step up after it breaks combat. So feel free to sabotage your enemies!”
  • YouTube — WorldOfEnders: BUDDY BLITZ! w/ WoodenPotatoes (Match 1 – Part 1). “Here it is! The rules are relatively simple, the game is ridiculously fun. Woodenpotatoes explains the rules in the first bit of the video, so I’m not going to post them in the description. But basically, in teams of two it’s a race to defeat a randomly chosen skill point encounter. One LvL 1 character, and one LvL 80 who starts with no gear or traits have to help each other along to finish the race. My teammate with time is the spectacular DAETHA, an we are against WoodenPotatoes and the incomparable TobySpyo.”
  • YouTube — Scion Storm Gaming: So We Are 80 What Now? – Ep.41 “Do We Want LA Back?”. “I’m going to keep it short this week. Now that we have got our fill of zerging for justice in LA. If we take it back do you even want it back? I think the home towns are better done. And make better hang out spots. The new temp spot we have now is rather uncomfortable looking. Reminds me of those private servers people make. Where they have shops for damn near everything in the game there. It looks cheesey and plain wrong. I’m assuming we will get a wrecked LA back. And then spend a few patches rebuilding it. But now that it’s gone maybe it’s better to make a new place. A better place that has a better races coming together feel. Like with horse Depot’s and Airship Depot’s. Of course have a docking area. Just my look at it while I farm this event. “
  • YouTube — Chargwyl: Destiny’s Edge – Guilty Caress. “Warning – Spoilers to the level 55 personal storyline and to the book Edge of Destiny. Another quick (this time more feelsy) fan-video 🙂 Based around the events in the Edge of Destiny and what could’ve been if Destiny’s Edge hadn’t re-united (mainly in regards to Caithe falling to nightmare) and the past events that occurred in the Edge of Destiny story”
  • YouTube — JamEngulfer221: How to Level Warrior in Guild Wars 2. “This is a guide to getting your Warrior class to level 80 fast in Guild Wars 2! Just follow this guide exactly and gain all of your xp in no time. (Legendary not included).”
  • YouTube — MattVisual: VisualWood Podcast EP27: In Space Jamming With The Atlas.
  • YouTube — WoodenPotatoes: Buddy Blitz: Tarkkakt P2. “The conclusion of our race! Super glad you guys all enjoyed this so much, we’ll have more soon (and possibly more rule tweaks as things go along too!)”
  • YouTube — Killchained: Warrior Build vs Wurm. “Hey guys, here’s a run down of Attuned’s recommended Warrior build, for the Triple Trouble Wurm event. Hopefully you guys find this useful. Videos will start being more and more regular. Hope you guys have a good one!”
  • YouTube — Circle of Nine: [CoN] In hunt of Dextérité. “Hello everyone. This video is a bit different to our regular ones. Will be a bit more aggressive towards a certain guild who is saying a lot of crap about us. We can assure you that we’re absolutely fine :)”
  • Reddit — The Traveling Bobos – Hobbit Theme on harp. “So i met these two awesome guys rolling their harps and i wanted to share this awesomeness with everyone. They are called “The Traveling Bobos”.”
  • YouTube — WoodenPotatoes: Dragons Are Not Stars in the Sky – QandA EP18. “Thanks very much for the questions last time guys! I had a load more I wanted to cover but ended up talking about making a staff healing build… oh well! Leave more down below and I’ll be sure to read them :D”
  • YouTube — Flatypus Films: NO ESCAPE from Lion’s Arch. “A server message warns the players of Lion’s Arch of the impending update. They overreact a little.”
  • YouTube — Killchained: *SPOILERS* Battle for LA Story Instance. “Hey guys, holy mc shit balls a bloody epic new cutscene to finish up our LS season 1. Pretty damn awesome. Barely had a chance to touch on the new content at the moment but looking like some unique new bosses to kill synchronised. Unsure how difficult it is so far but might show / make guides on it if Attuned [Att] does it.”
  • YouTube — Bog Otter: Tormented Weapons Comparison (GW2 vs. GW1). “In this video I show off the new Tormented weapon skins that were introduced to Guild Wars 2 during the Battle for Lion’s Arch patch. Included in this video is a comparison to how these skins looked in the original Guild Wars.”
  • YouTube — Wolfineer: The Last Fight.. [PvE]. “If you haven’t played this yet.. there are some serious spoilers, don’t watch this if you wish to experience it on your own. Whut? PvE?! Yes Indeed, this was just an incredible patch and I couldn’t just ignore it and just had to make a video on it. I wanted to do commentary at first but I think it did not fit the video well enough.”
  • YouTube — Gregory Ruhle: I Called It! *SPOILERS*. “Well guys I called it. And I’m just petty enough to shout it from the rooftops.”
  • YouTube — Scion Storm Gaming: So We Are 80 What Now? – Ep.42 “End Of Scarlet?” “It was quick it was fun now it’s done. I don’t know how I feel about all of that. We know Scarlet was being used. I did feel bad until she got rolled. Now I’m like yea new big bad guy. It’s more interesting then Scarlet so yea don’t miss her. We all knew what it was any way thanks to the week of spoilers. At this point one of the big fights was bugged. It has been patched I believe. So when it’s ready I’ll record that as well. As for this one good fight good night Scarlet.”
  • YouTube — Jonathan Wise: Battle for Lions Arch ~ No Where to Hide Achievement Tutorial ~ Warrior. “**SPOILER** Here is how i got the No Where to Hide achievement on Guild Wars 2 using a warrior. The achievement is to kill scarlet BEFORE her shield pops up. Good luck!”
  • YouTube — obal100: Volcanic Fractal Guide – Warrior. “Here is a Volcanic Fractal guide from a Warrior perspective.”
  • YouTube — LeeryDestroyer: Escape From Lion’s Arch. “The living stories are events that span over a long time frame. They only happen once and then the world moves on. I’ve decided that for players that missed out on what happened in past living stories, and for those who just don’t know what to do in the one going on right now, that I’ll make a video sort of summing up what is going on and what there is/was to do. Whatever it is that Scarlet’s been looking for, it’s underneath Lion’s Arch. She’s moved her giant drill into the city’s harbor and begun drilling down for it. To cover for her drill, she has sent the Aetherblades, Molten Alliance, and Toxic Alliance into the city as well as flooding the city with a poisonous miasma. Lion’s Arch has fallen.”
  • YouTube — SignsOfKelani: Battle For Lions Arch Patch Intro! “The fight for the end has begun! Most of this patch seems to be about defeating Scarlet and her minions. Tackle the Assault Knights to head into the belly of the beast and take on Scarlets holographs. Will we succeed?!”
  • YouTube — SignsOfKelani: Tormented Weapon Skins! “Some of these skins are super nice, and a blast from the past for a lot of GW1 fans! The broken glass effect looks cool, but leaves some annoying jagged edges which really tick me off for some reason, but they might be something you’ll be interested in! :D”
  • YouTube — SignsOfKelani: Chat Codes! Extra Skins! “I really wish we could zoom in for some of these previews, that needs to be an option added asap! [&AgGT+QAA] Glowing Crimson Mask [&AgFw+QAA] Scarlet’s Rainbow [&AgFx+QAA] Scarlet’s Kiss”
  • YouTube — SignsOfKelani: The End! Living Story Spoilers! “[SPOILERS ALL OVER THE PLACE] So you can skip practically everything leading up to the final confrontation, which is interesting. You’ll need a spinal blade packback of some sort, even the first one will do.”
  • YouTube — Brazil: The Average GW2 Player. “Oh you know, casuals”
  • YouTube — Dontain: A Poem for Scarlet. “Scarlet, Scarlet, you little twit. Your roll in this story, i would omit. With all you’re knowledge you wonder why? It’s simple girl! You’re just a lie. You invent such boring child’s play. And soon you wont get to laugh it away. Talk, run, then hide. That’s you whole attitude. FINALLY LA burns, wow, dude! It took you this long to do something memorable. Tricked by a Mesmer clone? Heh…you ARE quite forgettable. Sure our home has burned to the ground. But heros will come in droves and bound. To shut your stupid drill down. And make you pay for wasting our town. Yeah LA is gone so lets move on. To bigger things! Please lets not bring Rox and Brahm. Anywhere is better than here. Tyria’s quite wide. Lets get in gear. Perhaps new adventures are in store? Or will season 2 be a bore filled with more junk in the gem store. Scarlet, Scarlet, you little twit. Players like me think you’re nothing but shit. When you’re gone, I hope, you will be dead. ‘cus hearing your banter is hurting my giant head. Don’t underestimate me little girl. I’m not one to anger in this world. I’d love to punch you straight in your grill. Just before I kick you off that stupid ass drill. Scarlet, Scarlet, you little twit. No one thinks you’re all that legit. As a villainess you’re just a unfit. So goodbye Scarlet, and oh…GET CRIT! “
  • YouTube — Dontain: (SPOILERS) Scarlet’s Final Battle. “This video has very little commentary so you can experience the final battle and story as is.”
  • YouTube — AyinMaiden: Battle for Lion’s Arch – Scarlet Achievements. “Achievements include… 0:14 Build Your Own Backbone 1:15 Commanding Heights 4:57 In a Cage Made of Steel & Lunacy 5:19 Nowhere to Hide”
  • YouTube — NewTooWho: Battle for Lion’s Arch – Complete Dungeon Run. “Winter Dragons is the Guild that im in and we had a blast of a time taking down Scarlet Briar :D”
  • YouTube — Bog Otter: Guild Missions #2 – Do WHAT to the ogre? “In this video, my guild and I do our weekly guild missions and tackle some of the Attack on Lion’s Arch content. Here’s a highlight of some of the funny moments that happened while we were playing.”
  • YouTube — WoodenPotatoes: END of Season 1 [HUGE SPOILERS INSIDE]. “I wouldnt read the comments either if you don’t want to be spoiled, but let’s talk about the finale!!”
  • YouTube — AyinMaiden: Battle for Lion’s Arch – Champion Achievements. “Achievements include… 0:17 Light Show 1:46 No More Magic; No More Poison 2:35 Out with a Bang 3:08 Putting Out the Fire 3:48 Keep Your Distance 6:10 No Free Lunch”
  • YouTube — Gregory Ruhle: The Tragic Sylvari Race. “After a long look at the living story, I came to the conclusion that the Sylvari have a tragic story compared to the other races.”
  • YouTube — Brazil: Brazil is an A**hole.
  • YouTube — SOACGaming: A Guild Wars 2 Podcast: Mesmerized – EP 19 Miasmic Mesmers. “In this week’s Mesmerizing episode, Pyro and Shan discuss the destruction of LA, touch on the edge of the mists and outline some builds, hints and tips to get the most out of the escape from LA events”
  • Reddit — Black Lion Key Duo Speed Run (15:35). “Decided to hop on the band wagon for the Black Lion Chest Key farm. No idea whether there’s an official record for the run, but we tried to see how quickly we could get it. There is definitely room for improvement, will probably upload a sub15 one soon. Wanted to bring a little of our dungeon community out to everyone else :)”
  • SOAC — A Guild Wars 2 Thief Podcast: Cloak & Swagger – Episode 6 “New Name Same Game”. “Revealed Returns as Cloak & Swagger – On the first episode of Cloak & Dagger, Thief players Nevermore and Lux talk shop about the roles of Thieves across the different game modes. But Of Corpse host Bhawb joins in as a guest. They talk suggested improvements to Thieves, quality of life improvements, and …”
  • Reddit — A basic guide for the triple trouble event. “This is a basic guide, in Spanish but with English subs if you need them (they were added at the end and get a little in the middle of the action, sorry for that). It’s pretty basic, and we did it just for fun, hope you enjoy it!”
  • YouTube — AyinMaiden: Battle for Lion’s Arch – Assault Knight & Prime Hologram Achievements. “Some of these achievements are buggy and may not be attainable but fixes are on the way! Achievements include… – Bigger, But Not Faster – Six Minutes to Knightfall – One Step Closer – No More Tricks, Scarlet – In Tune Skip to… 0:29 Blue Assault Knight 3:38 Green Assault Knight 5:11 Red Assault Knight 10:20 Phase 1: Prime Hologram 17:27 Phase 2: Split Coloured Holograms 21:34 Phase 3: Ultraviolet Hologram”
  • Twitter — @ChroniclesTyria. “CoT Podcast #86, Lag and Bromms talk about the end of the living story season 1 #GW2CM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxZr509Mb7Q&feature=youtu.be&a“

Streaming channels

Fanfic

Related posts:

  1. This week in Guild Wars 2
  2. This week in Guild Wars 2
  3. This week in Guild Wars 2
  4. Guild Wars 2 to be available on Mac OS X
  5. This week in Guild Wars 2 news

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