Guild Wars Reporter

Guild Wars Reporter


Guild Wars Reporter Episode 127 - Echoes of Awesome

November 07, 2014



While Celeste rests her very, very sore throat, Allona is joined once again by Hunter, who keeps her excitement (mostly) in check as they discuss Echoes of the Past in all its glory … GLORY! (There are spoilers, go play chapter 5 now if you haven’t yet!)


Audio Version


What We Did This Week

 


Hunter



  • clocktower/labyrinth. bought 3 20 slot bags.
  • marathoned a few hours of the story and the new zone.

Allona



  • Mad King Labyrinthed, like, a lot (once with a couple listeners … hey guys, it was fun!)

    • Draft Notice for Minion-hood

      Dear Minion To-Be,

      As there is a 98% chance that you’re slightly more intellectually endowed than a Queensdale Skritt (not to be confused for an Asuran Metrica Skritt, which are 102.3% more intelligent) you are almost certainly if not definitely unaware that your employment status has been changed. You’ve been promoted to Minion 3rd Class.

      Report immediately to Commander Fa Jing for Labyrinth power levelling and candy corn farming duty.

      Signed:

      CDR Fa Jing

      Asuran Labyrinthian Guard


  • Fractaled on Saturday with MoCK … we were awesome! And entertaining to guildies in the chat who were not in the fractal.
  • Got Baby Bittermalt to 80 — in the Labyrinth naturally! Took a bit of time kitting her out (on the cheap of course, as is my way)
  • Aaaand did Echoes of the Past with Key from MoCK last night. Wow. Just, wow.

 


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Report from Lion’s Arch

 


Echoes of the Past Patch Notes

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Game_updates/2014-11-04


Living World: Echoes of the Past


As the Pact prepares for the war against Mordremoth, heroes unite in a mysterious land to hold the line against the Elder Dragon‘s encroaching forces. But as secrets are revealed, will Tyrians find hope, or only come to understand that the road to war is paved with points of no return?


— Official Guild Wars 2 Forum > Game Update Notes


Achievements


After completing Echoes of the Past, showcase your tactical mastery as a hero of Tyria by completing challenging, episode-related achievements.


Rewards



  • The new Carapace and Luminescent armor sets are now available, with distinct looks for light, medium, and heavy professions.

    • Beginning with the six shoulder pieces in Echoes of the Past, the full sets will become available over the rest of the season, for a total of 36 new skins to unlock.
    • By completing the story and playing in the open world, players can earn pieces of Carapace armor.
    • Prove your mastery of the area by completing item collections to upgrade your Carapace armor to Luminescent armor.

      • Allona: Can we discuss how awesome this is? I love, love, love this style for rewards; AND the upgrading to Luminescent by completing a collection is fantastic. It’s rewarding in-game effort! WOOOOO!




  • Completing events in the Silverwastes rewards you with bandit crests that can be traded for a variety of rewards, including:

    • Recipes to craft components for the new Sinister stat combo (condition damage, power, and precision).
    • An Endless Dust Mite Tonic.
    • The Bandit Combat Journal, used to unlock the Bandit Weapons Specialist collection.
    • Bandit Skeleton Keys, used to open Lost Bandit Chests buried throughout the area.
    • And more!

      • Allona: I like the idea of the bandit crests and geodes being zone-specific currency, I DO wish it went in to the wallet though.




  • Search throughout the Silverwastes for Lost Bandit Chests.

    • Complete events to receive Silverwastes Shovels used to find and uncover chests.
    • Once a chest is uncovered, every player in the map will have a chance to open it. Don’t forget your Bandit Skeleton Key.
    • Chests contain Embroidered Coin Purses, Lumps of Raw Ambrite, and a chance for the new Endless Arid Devourer Tonic and new high-level bandit weapons with a choice of stats.

      • Allona: I’m not sure I’ve ever mentioned how happy I am Anet has implemented locked chests to the game. Because I am! They were always one of my favourite things in GW1 … so yeah … More like this please. 





Black Lion Trading Company Gem Store




Balance, Bug-fixing, Polish




  • World vs. World: All siege weapon sites now display names with their build prompts.
  • World vs. World: Reduced the overall size of arrow cart and ballista build sites.

 


Our Thoughts on the Story (many spoilers)

 


Allona: Okay, the cinematic with Jory and Belinda? Holy crap that was some amazing cinematography, animation, acting, writing, everything. I admit it, I teared up. The expressions on Jory’s face just broke me. The new zone is great! The lighting! Have you noticed how amazing the environmental lighting is? It was almost too bad there were so many enemies because it really hampered my ogling of how cool everything looked. The archives in the priory was seductive, I couldn’t leave until I had read everything (although I did that after returning from our side trip to Glint’s Lair)! I am bummed I didn’t dance for Abbadon though (poo). Glint’s Lair was crazy cool. The textures and (again) lighting are mind-blowingly cool. The unique fight mechanics are fun and I think Anet does a great job of teaching them to you before each encounter. Basically I need to play though this again. Seriously.


Oh, and the new stat combo of power/precision/condi damage? REEEAAAALLLLY liking that. I am definitely going to to try that out on one of my characters.


I haven’t experience a whole lot of the Silverwastes yet, at least not tried to complete the zone objectives because I was concentrating on the story. I am looking forward to digging in to it.


 


Hunter: Glints lair has challenge motes that allow you to redo the achievements if you fail without leaving the instance and starting over.


thought the story was great, slightly marred by the dropped audio that was all over the place.


the new zone is hectic, love the integration of wvw, wish there was more to it, but i wish the events were more spaced out, no time to manage inventory, look for chests, breathe. I wish where you were in the event progress was a little more distinguishable, I can never tell when the legendary bosses have spawned due to all the things going on.


Necromancers and greatswords, wouldn’t that be a cool way to start introducing new weapon skills for professions, through the living story?


There are little manhole covers lit up by torches in a few different spots in silverwastes, Tucked away in corners. could be linked to certain datamined thingies.


Another currency, something I’ve complained about before.  Are geodes so tied to zephyrites that we couldn’t have used them in silverwastes? I suppose the idea is that they want to force players to not just use old resources to buy their way through the content.


First armour set you can get in game since launch that isn’t in the gem store!


Lots of little things suggesting white mantle involvement. Organized reports and discipline, tattered white robes, blueprints for the forts in silverwastes and a reference to “New Krytaâ€. The lost badges which have a white mantle emblem.


 


AaA

 


New Starter Area?

mingtoww via YouTube


This is a question for the ask an asurin segment. Some people think that Anet could add a new race at the end of the living story. My question is if they did that, where would they put the level 1-15 zone for the new race.



  • Allona: If we’re to assume that the next new race is going to be Tengu (and, hey, I am) then I believe their starter area and home city would be in the Dominion of Winds. For any other potential new race, well, there is a LOT of unexplored land and water out there …
  • Hunter: There’s not a whole lot of space left for the dominioni of winds to have both a home racial city and a starter zone but I figure that could be alleviated a bit by making thigns more vertical with an aerie like multi level city and a starter zone that goes underground a lot to deal with destroyers, but there’s no rule that says arenanet can’t go big and start tengu out in an entirely new area. Recent data mined maps show two new trade routes to the west and southwest, probably no coincidence.

 


Allona’s tip of the week: (sent in-game)


Hi Allona,


When you first start the game, change your keys. Even if you are a veteran player it is worth the effort to rememorize the new layout.


I keep WASD for movement (A and D for strafing)


Switch 1-5 to CXZQE which would perfectly surround your movement keys. Some people like ZXCQE. But I do love to press that 1st attack a lot …


Switch 6-0 to Shift + CXZQE. You will notice that Shift +E is conveniently the Elite skill.


Switch F1-F4 to 1-4.


Cheers,


Janmizzle


 


Hunter’s tip of the week: There is an event in the pact camp that require you donate bandit crests, rewards are trading post, and bank.  Great addition in my opinion, love having those resources in the zone. Nice sink.


 


Tales of Tyria

 


Gem Store Thoughts

Greetings magnificent Celeste and resplendent Allona,


I write to you today to discuss the tumultuous Gem Store, but not for the reasons most of the community has issues with at the moment. As an old connoisseur of the Gem Store, somewhat excessive connoisseur at times, I have grown slightly disheartened with the pricing structure of items. I understand that Arena Net needs to generate income, however I feel like this can be accomplished in a much more transparent way. I feel that the current pricing tiers of items, being 100-200 gems higher than a purchasable amount of gems, can be a hindrance to those, *ahem… like myself*, that would get much satisfaction from said items. I feel that the need is most dire for the pricing tiers of Gem Store items to match the purchasing tiers of gems. If this solution were not possible, mayhap individuals would be given the option to purchase the exact amount of gems required for an item. Just some food for thought. Anyhow, enjoy your night and keep the good work going.


Sincerely,


Tybolt


 


Allona: I guess I don’t mind the set purchasable gem amounts, even though you’re right, sometimes you end up needing to buy waaaay more than you would actually like to because of item prices. I never want for finding stuff to buy with ‘extras’. :)


Hunter: As long as we have the ability to buy custom amounts of gems it doesn’t bother me, part of the reason I was so angry when they recently restricted that option quite a bit.


 


10 Secrets of Queensdale

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2l2hrh/extended_secrets_of_queensdale_10_things_you/



  • Secret passage to the backyard of Claypool
  • Beggar’s Burrow near the graveyard of Shaemoor
  • The Guild Wars 2 Trivia
  • Hidden Jumping Puzzle
  • Secret Passage through sewers?
  • Troll cave: Bonegrinder’s Gully
  • Yogi Bear
  • Windmill and cat
  • Graveyard: Gravekeeper Dumpy
  • Graveyard: Lady in White
  • a little game near dungeon entrance
  • You can find them (“How to”) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLU1wPdkRBo

    • Allona: There are some nice additions to this list in the comments, particularly the dramatic gopher which I MUST SEE!



 


Arenanet Dev responds to reddit thread

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2ldz6w/jumping_puzzle_skips_part_2/



  • Hunter: OP posts Jumping Puzzle Skips Part 2, in which he outlines ways to skip large parts of jumping puzzles. The first comment is by PrinceSuperFly a verified Arenanet dev who simply states “Thank Youâ€.  I looked through their post history and noticed one of their other comments was about fixing jumping puzzle aberrations.
  • Allona: That’s priceless! I gotta say, I really like the level of dev interaction we’ve been getting on the various platforms.

 


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