Celeste is back from PAX South and joins Allona in the HYYYYYPPPE of an expansion! They go over the points of the Heart of Thorns announcement. As an extra bonus, Allona shows her lack of research and/or memory about basic GW1 lore.

Audio Version

What We Did This Week

 

Allona

• 
  
• Last Wednesday I was joined by Saint from MoCK and streamed Guild Wars Nightfall!
  
• Fungeons and Fractals on Saturday! We tried lvl 10 but it was a no-go. Agony, man, literally it was agony.
  
• Guild missions with Maven and Wardens of Destiny
  
• Completed the Gift of Mastery (I had almost everything, but needed Obsidian shards – got 140ish with Karma in the Straits of Devastation … still have over 3 million) so a wee bit closer to a Legendary! I get so confused by the process and Hunter talked me through this part. So helpful!
  
• PvPed a bit … still a Dolyak though. Is it just me or is mesmer REALLY low on the daily rotation?
  
• Defeated the Vinewrath … once. Only one attempt though … need to get in more.
  
• Watched the Twitch livestream of the PAX South Hearth of Thorns stream! It was a bit of a party…
  

Celeste

• 
  
• Steak N Potatoes Man stuff
  
• PAX.
  

 

Livestreaming Wednesday’s at 9:30pm EST/6:30pm PST at twitch.tv/mmoreporter.

You can also subscribe to the audio version of the podcast on iTunes! Remember to rate and/or review Guild Wars Reporter.

 

Report from Lion’s Arch

 

GW2: Heart of Thorns Feature Presentation

http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/c/5954011

• 
  
• M: “Mordremoth has already corrupted much of the sylvari race…†C continues.. “as the fleet entered the jungle, the jungle came to life and the sylvari race began to turn against them [the pact] they heard the call of Mordremoth and many of them joined with the dragon. Within a matter of minutes the entire pact fleet was destroyed.â€
  
• “every major feature in that expansion packâ€
  
• horizontal progression – no level increases, no new tier of armor levels, aka no grinding
  
  • 
    
  • “Grind: To us, grind means being required to do the same boring activity over and over again. In particular, the biggest reference we’re talking about here in traditional MMO’s is having to kill the same creatures over and over again to farm for levels or gear.†… “Hope that helps a bit, that’s our philosophy and definition we’re going by when we make those statements. They may not align to your definition of grind, and that’s ok – we’re fine with that! It’s just important you know what we mean when we make that statement so you can make decisions about how you view Gw2 and judge us by our actions/words.†https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/No-grind-philosophy/page/4#post4733273
    
  
  
  

 

The Heart of Maguuma

• 
  
• Three distinct biomes: underground (root), ground-level (core), canopy (littered with ruined pact fleet airships)
  
• Find Glint’s legacy that was left as the story of gw1 concluded, AKA the baby (probably)
  
• New challenges! Solo, group, guild (the R word wasn’t used at all, so anticipate it being open world (speculation))
  
• New creatures! Bugs! New open world bosses!
  
• New civilizations! We saw at least the Hylek (frog people) and the Mursaat
  

 

Mastery System

• 
  
• Account-based PvE “endgame†progression system and is available to every character you have above lv 80
  
• Earn mastery points by completing objectives in the jungle (to earn skills exclusive to the Heart of Maguuma areas)
  
• Works similar to collections/achievements and will be retroactive
  
• Spend mastery points on each character that is level 80 (akin to current wuvwuv points)
  
• Includes being able to hand  glide between the 3 biomes, this ability will only be available in Maguuma expansion zones
  
• trait unlocks being reworked https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Game-Updates-Traits/page/78#post4733414 Colin Johanson – “In doing so: we’re going to be removing the current trait unlocking system currently on live and replacing it with a more simplified system that supports where skills-traits-specializations are going in the future.“
  
• Ex: Lore hunting – learn new languages, history and hidden locations
  
• Essential in order to complete the upcoming challenges in THoM
  

• 
  
• Pre-cursor “craftingâ€
  
  • 
    
  • finally 2 yrs later we have a final valid product that takes throughout the world to earn a precursor of your choice including new precursors for new legendary weapons that will be introduced with HoT
    
  
  
  

 

Specializations

• 
  
• Modification of your current profession down another ‘skill tree’
  
• One new specialization per profession for HoT (along with 1 new weapon)
  
• Examples given were Ranger becoming a Staff-wielding Druid, or necro using greatsword
  
  • 
    
  • New Heal skill, New elite skill, new set of utility skills, modification/changes to “F skills†and a new trait line
    
    • 
      
    • When you specialize to be a __ the previous trait line will be unavailable to you (speculation: most likely marksmanship for the druid)
      
    
    
    
  • swappable when out of combat
    
  
  
  
• Speculative based on the trailer: engineers using flying turrets and hammer, mesmer with shield offhand
  
• C: I wonder if new profession will have a specialization available as well.
  

 

New Profession: Revenant

• 
  
• Heavy profession
  
• Rytlock is the first revenant after his time in the mists chasing sohothin
  
• Ritualist-esque – channels power from the mists, from great legends from the past: Jalis Ironhammer (power of the dwarves), Mallyx from the DoA (condi combos)
  
  • 
    
  • Legends will cover utility, heal, and elite skills
    
  
  
  

 

WuvWuv: New Borderlands

• 
  
• Borderland rotation?
  

• 
  
• Multileveled and much larger
  
• auto siege like in eotm
  
• lava pools similar to wurm tunnel in eotm
  
• various buffs are added as you hold on to shrines near your keep
  
• holding objectives will be a bigger part of victory in wvw – stonemist won’t just be turned over repeatedly all weekend
  

 

sPvP: Stronghold Game Mode

• 
  
• Fight for Supply, Hire Troops, and kill the lord to win
  
  • 
    
  • kinda like an evolution of fort aspenwood
    
  
  
  
• Guild leaderboards register only from the new game mode
  
  • 
    
  • C: It isn’t the GvG that ppl were hoping for, but it is a nice step out from the norm
    
  
  
  

 

Guild Halls

• 
  
• New Guild Challenges & Progression
  
• Area for your guild to meet and socialize
  
• Most likely highly customizable but we didn’t get a LOT of detail about this particular feature
  
• “Livespartan235: oh in an interview with ZAM colin confirmed Guild Halls would be actual locations on the world map you will enter just like any zone but it will be an instance for your own guild â€
  

 

Tuesday Patch Notes

https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-January-27-2015

Rewards

• 
  
• Mordrem eye and kidney extraction devices are now available for purchase with bandit crests in the Silverwastes.
  

BALANCE, BUG-FIXING, POLISH

General

• 
  
• Might: The power and condition damage provided by this boon have been reduced from 35 per stack to 30.
  
• Confusion: The effect of condition damage on confusion has been increased by 33% in PvE.
  
  • 
    
  • C: YES.
    
  
  
  
• The Log-in Reward Track is now visible from the achievement summary page inside the Hero panel.
  
  • 
    
  • C: I was looking for this today and hadn’t read the patch notes and was pleasantly surprised to find this panel with information
    
  
  
  

Items

• 
  
• Superior Sigil of Battle: The might granted by this item has been reduced from 3 stacks to 2 stacks.
  
• Major Sigil of Battle: The might granted by this item has been reduced from 2 stacks to 1 stack.
  
• Rune of the Nightmare: The duration of fear applied from the sixth piece of this rune has been reduced from 2 seconds to 1 second. Its recharge has been reduced from 90 seconds to 60 seconds.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused warhorns to drop from the Piece of Guardian Gear boxes in Log-in Reward chests.
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed certain items purchased from karma vendors to be salvageable.
  
• Updated the icon for the Superior Sigil of Blight.
  

Profession Skills

Elementalist

• 
  
• Drake’s Breath: Burning applied from this skill has been reduced from 3 seconds to 2 seconds per pulse.
  
• Lightning Whip: The attack point of this skill has been delayed around .1 seconds on the first and second attacks. The aftercast has been reduced by 0.2 seconds. To compensate for the increased attack-rate potential, the damage of this ability has been reduced by 10%. When used with Signet of Restoration, this ability will only heal if the second attack executes.
  
• Comet: The radius of this skill has been increased from 120 to 180.
  
  • 
    
  • C: So with my staff skill radius being traited even larger… SCHWEET!
    
  
  
  
• Shatterstone: The casting time of this skill has been reduced from 1 second to 0.5 seconds.
  
• Dust Devil: The velocity of this skill’s projectile has been increased by 66%.
  

Engineer

• 
  
• Shrapnel Grenade: Bleed duration on this skill has been reduced from 12 seconds to 10 seconds.
  
• Throw Mine: The proximity trigger for this skill has been increased from 60 to 120. Additionally, the explosion radius has been increased from 180 to 240.
  
• Launch Personal Battering Ram: This skill now has a 1 second daze.
  

Guardian

• 
  
• Litany of Wrath: The percentage of health returned from this skill has been increased from 20% to 25%. The aftercast of this skill has been reduced by 0.5 seconds.
  
• Shield of Judgment: The cooldown on this skill has been reduced from 30 seconds to 25 seconds.
  
• Shield of Absorption: The cooldown on this skill has been reduced from 40 seconds to 30 seconds.
  
• Zealot’s Fire: The increased cooldown component of this skill has been removed.
  

Mesmer

• 
  
• Deception: This skill no longer requires a target in order to cast.
  
  • 
    
  • A: Now if they could do something with it teleporting you further INTO danger and also making the #3 downed skill more viable (seriously, I’ve only ever managed to kick it off successfully maybe four times EVER and it always ends with me being defeated because I should have either just been auto-attacking or healing)
    
  
  
  
• Phantasmal Mage: The illusionary mage summoned by this skill now applies 4 stacks of confusion instead of 3 with its attack. The duration of the confusion has been increased from 3 seconds to 4 seconds. The illusionary mage’s rate of fire has been reduced by 1 second.
  
• Time Warp: The cooldown on this skill has been reduced from 210 seconds to 180 seconds.
  
  • 
    
  • C: I wonder if a few of these changes are being made in anticipation of the reveal of the other trait lines which would help to negate the trait that makes time warp recharge faster.
    
  
  
  
• Illusion of Life: The cooldown on this skill has been reduced from 130 seconds to 120 seconds.
  
• Phantasmal Defender: The cooldown on this skill has been reduced from 30 seconds to 25 seconds.
  
• Confusing Images: The duration of confusion from this skill has been increased from 5 seconds to 7 seconds.
  

Necromancer

• 
  
• Locust Swarm: The casting time of this skill has been reduced from 1 second to 0.5 seconds.
  
• Corrosive Poison Cloud: The casting time of this skill has been reduced from 1 second to 0.5 seconds. The cooldown on this skill has been reduced from 40 seconds to 30 seconds.
  
• Signet of the Locust: The cooldown on this skill has been reduced from 60 seconds to 40 seconds. Base healing has been increased by 4%, and bonus from healing power increased by 108%.
  
• Signet of Undeath: The passive life-force gain of this skill has been increased from 1% to 2%.
  

Ranger

• 
  
• Throw Torch: The projectile travel speed of this skill has been increased by 25%.
  
• Bonfire: The base area of effect of this skill has been increased from 120 to 180.
  
• Heal as One: The casting time of this skill has been reduced from 1.25 seconds to 1 second.
  
  • 
    
  • C: Maybe this skill won’t be interrupted so often now.
    
  
  
  
• Hunter’s Call: The casting time of this skill has been reduced from 1.5 seconds to 1 second.
  
• Call of the Wild: The cooldown of this skill has been reduced from 35 seconds to 30 seconds.
  

Thief

• 
  
• Blinding Powder: This skill no longer interrupts your own skills.
  
• Dancing Dagger: The projectile speed of this skill has been increased by 33%.
  
• Needle Trap: The bleed duration of this skill has been increased from 3 seconds to 10 seconds.
  
• Shadow Pursuit: The duration of might granted by this skill has been increased from 5 seconds to 10 seconds.
  
• Invigorating Precision: The health gain from this trait on a critical strike has been increased from 8% of damage dealt to 15%.
  

Warrior

• 
  
• Kill Shot: The casting time of this skill has been reduced from 1.75 seconds to 1.25 seconds.
  
• Arcing Slice: The damage from this skill has been increased by 10%.
  
• Brutal Shot: The casting time on this skill has been reduced from 1 second to 0.5 seconds.
  
• Rush: Adjusted the animation and attack radius of this skill to hit more consistently.
  

Structured Player vs. Player

• 
  
• Added Rune of Scavenging.
  
• Added Superior Sigil of Torment.
  
• Added Sentinel Amulet.
  
  • 
    
  • A: Pretty excited about all of these.
    
  
  
  

World vs. World

• 
  
• Fixed an issue in Emerald Sanctum and Sapphire Sanctum that allowed the Enormous Mistwrought Chest to be opened without keys.
  
  • 
    
  • C: DAMN. I missed this. :P
    
  • A: (╯°□°）╯︵ â”»â”â”»
    
  
  
  
• Fixed an issue with Garnet Sanctum’s Enormous Mistwrought Chest that prevented it from opening with a key after an attempt to open it without a key.
  
  • 
    
  • A: ┬──┬ ﾉ(°—°ﾉ)
    
  
  
  
• Added Empyreal Fragments to WvW jumping puzzle reward chests.
  
  • 
    
  • C: … and nobody wanted them.
    
  
  
  

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE

• 
  
• Our end-of-season sale for Living World continues. Check out all the specials in the Promotions category of the Gem Store.
  
• The Pact Fleet Survival Pack is now available in the Special category of the Gem Store for 1600 gems.
  
  • 
    
  • “containing five Black Lion Claim Ticket Scraps, five Black Lion Chest keys, five Enchanted Combat Boosts, a Home Portal Stone, a Captain’s Airship Pass, two Revive Orbs, and ten Silverwastes Shovels!â€
    
  
  
  
• Lovestruck weapons are available from the Black Lion Weapon Specialist for a limited-time price of 2 Black Lion Claim Tickets. Tickets and ticket scraps can be found in Black Lion Chests.
  
  • 
    
  • C: I wonder if we’ll be seeing the old skins take a few laps through the specialist before HoT launches. New daily deals so you’ll need to press O and check them out!
    
  
  
  
• Black Lion Chest drops have been updated. Keys are available in the Special category of the Gem Store for 125 gems each.
  
  • 
    
  • A new Mini Kasmeer Meade has been added as a rare drop.
    
  • Home instance resource nodes for mithril ore, platinum ore, ancient wood logs, ghost peppers, and Orrian truffles have been added as very rare drops.
    
    • 
      
    • C: I like the idea but I know “very rare†means never for me.
      
    
    
    
  
  
  

Bug Fixes

• 
  
• Fixed a bug in which outfit dyes reset when changing outfits.
  
  • 
    
  • A: YAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY!!!!!!!
    
    • 
      
    • A: YAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY!!!!!!!
      
      • 
        
      • A: YAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY!!!!!!!
        
        • 
          
        • A: YAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY!!!!!!!
          
          • 
            
          • A: YAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY!!!!!!!
            
            • 
              
            • A: YAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY!!!!!!!
              
              • 
                
              • A: \o/
                
              
              
              
            
            
            
          
          
          
        
        
        
      
      
      
    
    
    
  
  
  
• Fixed a bug in which finishers would sometimes reset to the default finisher after interaction with the Hero panel.
  

 

Ask an Asura

 

Good evening ladies.

I am a new GW2 player. I have some background in WoW but haven’t played in over a year, and just picked up GW2 during its recent 10$ sale along with my sister.

Do you have suggestions for a new player? How to level, things to be on look out for? Is it better to spend or horde my karma and other currency ( looks at Allona)? Thoughts on PVP now that both of you have dipped toes in?

I know it’s a lot of questions but found your podcast and thought i should make up for the weeks of no ask an asura.

Also any engineer specific tips would rock.

A New listener and GW2

Zack 

C:

• 
  
• I would say it’s good to initially use your karma as you get it. It’s your best source of on-level gear now that the personal story doesn’t start until lv 10.
  
• When it comes to PvP I almost feel like unless you’re an experienced player with it in other games I wouldn’t really touch it until you hit lv 30 in PvE. Yes, it’s a very different experience but that gives you some time to nail some of the more basic aspects of the game before you move into a competitive game mode where you could end up easily overwhelmed. Could you still make a character and go straight to PvP? Sure! It all depends on how high you want to dive from at the pool.
  
• Engineer specific tip: don’t ever bother with using your weapon. Just kits. Someone told me that when I started mine and I absolutely 100% agree with that now, at the time I thought they were crazy.
  

A:

• 
  
• Thanks for writing in! I’m so glad you got such a swanky deal on the game!
  
• The easiest suggestion for any new player would be to take your time. Don’t feel rushed or worry that you’re doing things ‘wrong’. You are a leaf on the wind… enjoy it! (before the inevitable spearing through the chest).
  
• So much has changed in the levelling process since I last created a character! Exploration and dynamic events are still the best options I think.
  
• Spend Karma as you go for sure. I’m not really sure how I ended up with so much (or with the aversion of spending it). :)
  
• PvP has been a real surprise for me. I’m enjoying it and, honestly, it’s the fastest way to do dailies. If you are a pretty relaxed person and don’t take being trounced too personally, I would say pop in to practice or unranked whenever you feel like it. (mini-tip: ‘glhf’ means ‘good luck have fun’ and ‘gg’ means ‘good game’ [not ‘good going’ as in ‘thanks for making us lose’ which is what I originally thought]. I like to type ‘glhf’ into map (/m) at the start of the match. I think it starts the match off on a friendly footing that often seems to go over well.
  
• My engie is my lowest level character so I certainly don’t have any pro tips. I am going to disagree with Celeste though! I LOVE rifle on my engie … love it. Also the shield … I find it fun and interesting. Just find your play style. Grenades are a super popular choice — they are very effective so it’s hard to argue against them, but I can take or leave them. I do enjoy running the elixir gun but I find I stick to my rifle the bulk of the time.
  

 

Listener Tips

I heard you mention making sure listeners are caught up on living story in one of your previous episodes and wanted to offer some help in keeping caught up.

People who don’t have all the episodes unlocked and don’t want to or can’t unlock them can still experience it as a guest in someone else’s instance who has unlocked the episode. Any major cutscene still shows your personal character in it so the only downfall is being unable to interact with NPCs.

Vinesear

 

Greetings!

I LoooOvE the podcast! I have a tip for Ask an Asura!

For those veterans that plan to start a Revenant but don’t want the starter grind opening day gather the following things NOW.

• 
  
• Tombs of Knowledge
  
• Scrolls of Knowledge â†- Skill Points
  
• Writs of Experience
  
• Exotic stat armour and weapons â†- for your new lvl80
  
• Total makeover kits â†- to give your Revenant STYLE
  
• Transmutation charges â†- For when you find your dream armour
  
• Consumables ie: Buffs
  

Respectfully, Rune Lockhart :)

 

Celeste’s Tip: There was an awesome sale on the game this past weekend that coincided with the HoT announcement. Go to a starting zone and offer to show players the basic ropes. It might not be for you new players but it’s something that ppl who have been playing for a decent amount of time should aspire to help keep everyone included and the playerbase ever expanding.

Allona’s Tip: If you’re being attacked by a hostile (red name) creature and you either don’t have time to fight it or are pretty sure it would defeat you, you can sometimes use a neutral (yellow name) creature to take aggro away from you. This does work best with ranged enemies, but is doable with melee attackers as well. All you have to do is get the yellow creature between you and the incoming attack, if the yellow creature is struck by the attack meant for you, it will fight the enemy chasing you. It’s sometimes just fun to try do this for no real reason at all …

 

Tales of Tyria

 

Foostival!

Hi,

first of all thank you for the many hours gw reporter has saved me from  long and boring train journeys.

I wanted to email you to make you aware of a Guild Wars 2 fan day that is happening in the UK on 21st March 2015 

If you’ve not heard of the Foostival before it’s our first time in the UK. Quaggans have assembled from all over the EU in previous years, see https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/foostival-2014-a-celebration/, to celebrate Guild Wars 2 for a day and get to know their fellow players.

As this is our first event in the UK  and we are the English speaking arm of theis European wide fan day  I was wondering if the foostival, details at http://eu.foostival.com might be able to get a quick mention at some point during your podcasts.  We are running this event for the community most likely at cost to ourselves and any exposure to spread the word is appreciated

thanks for your time

Screenager

 

• 
  
• A: I’m kind of jealous of the UK and European communities having the festival all to themselves! Wouldn’t it be fun to have something like this in Canada and the US?
  

 

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If you’ve got a burning question for our Ask an Asura segment, please let us know!

 

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