Guild Wars Reporter
Guild Wars Reporter Episode 117 - Dragon’s Reach: The Part One-iest
Celeste and Allona experience The Dragon’s Reach (Part 1, dontcha know), talk about its potential ramifications, and discuss the week’s news for GW2. Note: thar be spoilers.
Audio Version
What We Did This Week
Allona
- Alt’ed a bit
- Stayed up waaaay to late last night to get the episode completed. A podcaster’s job is never done.  :)
- While waiting for some of the story bits to get unbugged, on a hot tip from Hunter farmed foxfire clusters; made 8ish gold.
Celeste
- Finished my monthly
- Key farming extravaganza to get the leyline staff skin (still need 1 more scrap after 5 chests)
- Finished The Gift of Wood
- Got through Living Story before everyone else :P
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Report from Lion’s Arch
PSA: About the Living World
- Having a full queue of items to pick up in the Black Lion Trading Company (100+ items) will block the new LS episode. If you are the kind of guy who buys lots of items, pick up your items before the update hits (if you pick them up after updating, you’ll get the episode upon picking up the last full tab).
- Allona: I may have laughed more than was strictly necessary at The_Russian’s response to a question.
- Celeste: Another worthwhile PSA, don’t bother starting Episode 3 without having world completion (or very nearly so)
Patchnotes!
https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-July-29-2014/first#post4249390
The Dragon’s Reach, Part 1
- With an Elder Dragon’s corruption spreading, the heroes of Tyria set out in an attempt to gather allies to meet this new threat. But with problems of their own close to home, will world leaders add their support or just introduce more challenges?
Achievements
- After completing The Dragon’s Reach, Part 1, players can showcase their tactical mastery as heroes of Tyria by completing challenging episode-related achievements.
- There are also explorer achievements rather than episode achievements, so be sure to keep your eye on the other tabs there as well.
Rewards
- New kites can be found in the Buried Locked Chests throughout Dry Top. Kite types include:
- Crystal Shard Kite
- Ventari Follower Kite
- Prosperity Mine Kite
- Allona: They apparently give a 5% speed boost, unless there’s a sandstorm, and then they’re 33%. So… yeah. I’m a bit pouty about that. More on this later in the show…
- Gentt now trades Sandy Bags of Gear for Unidentified Fossilized Insects.
- The ambrite short bow, Vespidae, has been renamed to Culicidae.
- The ambrite weapon recipe and ambrite fossilized insect descriptions have been updated to better describe the weapons they make.
- Players will be able to obtain a mysterious seed. Through hard work and cultivation it could sprout into a unique new back item.
- Celeste: This looks pretty cool but it also looks like a HUGE gold sink.
Items
- All recipe unlock items have received new icons. Icons now match the rarity and type of the output item. Similarly, the rarity of all recipe items now matches the output item’s rarity.
- Fixed a bug causing Chaos of Lyssa, Chaos of Lyssa (Infused), Light of Dwayna (Infused), and Shadow of Grenth (Infused) to become soulbound when equipped. All soulbound versions of these items will become account bound.
- Updated the karma vendors at the Orrian temples to each sell armor sets with a single stat combination.
Stealth update!
- Not listed update includes:
- Some lightning type effects around dry top (http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2c2m7y/spoiler_hidden_update_to_dry_top)
Gem Store Items and Promotions
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/mini-scruffy-and-more-in-the-gem-store/
- The new Endless Monkey King Tonic is now a very rare drop from Black Lion Chests.
- Mini Scruffy – Take Mini Scruffy with you on all your adventures! This miniaturized golem might not be combat-capable like the original, but it’s as faithful as can be.
- Home Portal Stone – There’s no place like home! Keep a Home Portal Stone in your inventory for free, instant travel to – and from – your home instance from anywhere in the world of Tyria.
Our thoughts on the episode
- Allona: This definitely felt like a “part 1.†Although the ending was not AT ALL what I was expecting. I liked that the story directed to a few different areas, even though the Iron Marches was bugged for a bunch of yesterday. I enjoyed the final fight mechanic, which actually took me far too long to figure out… that was a long, long solo fight.
- Celeste: It’s all been blurred together to be perfectly honest. I don’t know how I feel about the ending. I get that they wanted to get our attention with trying to solve problems for the other races but I feel like it only sets us up for disappointment. I feel like Rytlock having the sword and still not telling us how or why is a deus ex machina, having Rytlock jump into The Mists was silly. I don’t know that I’m okay with what happened. I’m still itching to find out what happens later and I definitely feel like it’s a 2-parter.
Home Portal stone commentary
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2c4e5h/home_portal_stone_behavior/cjbxgb1
- Theoclymenus “I feel like part of the reason this is purposefully gimped is to stop the contract items (bank, vendor, TP) from having no use. It’s a shame but it kind of makes sense. What doesn’t make sense is the completely sickening 900 gem cost. A cost purely designed around the fact you can only buy gems 800 at a time. I hate monetisation teams.â€
- MangyCanine “I’m going to be damned for saying this, but you can already get to bank/vendor/repair/TP for free, and you also get the ability to go back to where you were. Just go to your borderlands (but please don’t do so if there’s a queue).â€
- “So… Stupid question here, but I honestly don’t know the answer (and I’ve been a daily player since beta): where EXACTLY are the home instances? I have heard the term used but don’t get what it really refers to.â€
- AilosCount “part of the city, where you are coming back conferring with Order representatives in your personal story for example. It´s also the place where you have Candy Corn, Krait Obelisk shard etc if you finished respective meta achievements when these stories were online. For example, in DR it´s Salma district, in Black Citadel I think Hero´s Canton (not sure), in Hoelbrak it´s the instance in the Great Lodge, in the Grove it´s a house right at the bottom, in Rata Sum it´s some sort of lab at the edge of the city (don´t remember the name). btw, this really shows how Home instances are badly used when people playing since launch don´t know where and what they are.â€
Ask An Asura
20 Awesome tips for players
http://www.guildwars2hub.com/guides/basics/tips-and-tricks-every-guild-wars-2-player-should-know
- Allona: There are some good tips here, #20 was something I just heard about last week and thought it was amazing.
- Celeste: I think my favorite is to use your fractal relics for bags/boxes “Fractal Relics should be used for: 20 slot equipment boxes, Obsidian Shards and upgradeable back pieces.†150 for the cheapest one is quite reasonable. ((Another really great thing to do with relics is to buy obsidian shards (1 shard/15 relics  for clovers, legendaries, whateves))
A: Stuck in Dry top?
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2c57r2/prosperity_waypoint_in_dry_top_is_busted/
- I feel that most of the time I waypoint to Prosperity Waypoint from any map other than Dry Top I get stuck in the vine near the point. It wouldn’t be so bad if I could jump my way out or wiggle a bit to release myself, but I’m forced to spend the waypoint cost again to the same location to get unstuck.
- popsicleguy: You don’t have to pay the waypoint cost twice when that happens. If you do a quick F12, hit character select, then log back in, you’ll be outside of the vine.
Allona’s Tip of the week: Get in the habit of reading your story journal! I found it to be helpful to read both just after finishing the episode, AND again right before starting a new one. Also, if you’ve taken a break from your personal story, refresh what’s happened before. In both the Personal Story and the Living World I have found tidbits that I forgot or totally missed; or had suspicions confirmed! (As an example: Prof Enzo wondered about Rox’s opinion of Taimi, and the journal is actually pretty clear that he’s right; Rox seems to be annoyed by her!)
Celeste’s Tip of the week: Material Promotion! The mystic forge allows you to input certain material combinations to upgrade them to the next tier. For example, you’ve finished Novice tailor and you still have stacks of jute left, you can upgrade them to Wool. This is much more applicable (and profitable) if used in the higher tiers so you certainly could use this if you need some money but have an abundance of skill points.
Tales of Tyria
Some great panoramas of Kessex and other areas
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2c14xe/i_often_find_kessex_hills_to_be_the_most/
- Celeste: So pretty! Especially for all you multi-monitor users out there!
And another really nice one from freemasen of the two dragon corruptions meeting up in Iron Marches
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2c39vg/from_one_corruption_to_another/
Scarlet Briar’s machinations
http://hellotrickster.tumblr.com/post/93033843847/vid-title-scarlet-briar-everybody-wants-to-rule
- Celeste: I know it’s already been featured on the GW2 tumblr/fb/twitter but it’s really quite good!
Request for community events of the week/bi-week. Send us an email!
If you’ve got a burning question for our Ask an Asura segment, please let us know!
Contact Info
email: gwreporter-at-mmoreporter-dot-com
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Celeste: @celeookie
Allona: @onebigpear
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