Celeste and Allona had a short show planned… Then PC Gamer article! Then Lunar New Year Festival! Then bonus Points of Interest! Then awesome listener tips and questions!

Audio Version

What We Did This Week

 

Allona

• 
  
• Fungeons and Fractals
  
• Made the gift of the Minstrel! SO CLOSE TO MAH LEGENDARY!
  
• Some semi-successful PvP
  
• Guild missions with Maven
  
• Lunar Festival fun-ness (or badness if you are describing my ability at Dragon Ball. Why can’t I be a savant at it like I am at the Labyrinth in Silverwastes?!)
  
• Found a special surprise treat from a few guildies in my mail! Misforawesome, Saint, Mira and Hunter pooled Black Lion scraps to get Allona the Lovestruck shield! She is gonna look so flash when she get to use it with the expansion! It was such a nice surprise…
  

Celeste

• 
  
• Some pvp
  
• played through the lunar festival
  
• dragon ball is terrible and i hate everyone.
  

 

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

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Report from Lion’s Arch

 

PoI Episode 15 – Regular type

Gameplay with Steve Hwang and Anthony Ordon (Expansion Content Designers)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXZqjgyPFWI

• 
  
• Shows off the Verdant Brink – which is totally not verdant.
  
• Presumably a canopy section of this map where you start off by trying to help secure areas of the pact fleet wreckage
  
• The map-wide objective for this map is to help the pact fleet to regroup during the day and shore up defenses for the nightly onslaught of mordrem
  
• Outpost claiming and UI will be map-wide so that you’re able to see exactly where you need to be to experience content and contribute to the fight
  
  • 
    
  • Don’t cap and walk away, once you cap is when the story/events really get started
    
  • the cast of characters should be much more consistent, smaller, and easy to follow
    
  • events. upgrades, waypoint services, etc will advance the longer it’s been held, “resource farmsâ€
    
  
  
  
• Mordrem breacher (?) – monster that spews monsters
  
• Assisting Laranthir & Pale Reavers to destroy monsters
  
• Adventures are like an evolution of the renown hearts, challenging experiences, littered throughout the map
  
  • 
    
  • teased races, JPs, shooting gallery
    
  • performance based & repeatable
    
  • leaderboards
    
  • objectives are instanced to you, similar to resource nodes in open world
    
  
  
  
• Demonstrates an adventure (as of yet unnamed) where you burn away vines from a ship while fighting off mordrem as you advance further
  
• most adventures are going to have a fair amount of “tensionâ€
  
• hit the x to restart the adventure, kinda like challenge motes
  
• maps are meant to highly replayable, have a lot of contents
  
• will be within pax east demo
  

 

PoI Episode 16 – Bonus Type

Masteries in action with David Webb (Expansion Systems Designer) and Nellie Hughes (Expansion Content Designer)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH4oaJx_Hr0

• 
  
• Heart of Thorns jungle activity book is SO full of win
  
  • 
    
  • A: The Maze! Mordremutt!
    
  
  
  
• Props on the secondary PoI icon at the upper right for “reasons†(A: What is this?C: It was blocking the names of events)
  
• It also appears as though they were playing a beta client specifically branded to be so.
  
• Gliding
  
  • 
    
  • looks like it’s run by a timer that decreases over time, like endurance
    
  • thick wings – fly further, more “endurance†to last longer
    
  • updraft – fly over and they’ll shoot you up so that you can access other areas, restores some/all of your gliders’ endurance
    
  • A: Definitely got an Aion vibe from how gliding worked.
    
  • https://twitter.com/Clouded_Chimera/status/565671486477058048 C: Couldn’t agree more!
    
  
  
  
• You get one point straightaway with masteries
  
• wait so… you earn a point and spend it and it’s spent along all characters? (A: I thought you could spend individually but earn account-edly – like WvW… questioning that now) (C: There was something that david said that made me question my preconception that it would be spent like wvw points individually, until we see a UI or further explanation we really don’t know..)
  
• maguuma and old world mastery areas – collections for a precursor named specifically.
  
• mushroom
  
  • 
    
  • kinda like the air attunement from the zephyr
    
  • events that you can’t get gold without having the ability to jump up
    
  • healing mushrooms – timing to heal/condi heal
    
  • speed mushrooms – help you move quickly
    
  • skill recharge mushrooms
    
  
  
  
• other mastery lines – friendly races and lore, learning language
  
  • 
    
  • discover new areas in the world
    
  
  
  
• showing off exploration masteries
  
• masteries that will help you pierce mordrem armor
  
• new masteries will be added for forever. “avoids having to add a new profession or new trait lineâ€
  
• number next to your name will change to your mastery numbers -> instead of 80, maybe you’ll see 2.
  
  • 
    
  • Kinda like the old school “game+†mode (A: ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Game_Plus generally you restart the game with all the items you had before, increased difficulties, sometimes different gameplay (castlevania inverted the castle so taht it literally turned the game on it’s head) and a chance for different achievements/choices)
    
  
  
  
• notice that there was no show of the UI
  
• https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/reimagining-progression-the-mastery-system/  If you want to read more about masteries…
  

 

Stronghold News

http://www.pcgamer.com/guild-wars-2-heart-of-thorns-stronghold/

• 
  
• New map called Champion’s Dusk, traditionally 5v5 but can be accessed via custom arenas and thus can be changed to different numbers
  
• The ultimate objective for each team is to break through the opponent’s Stronghold and kill their Lord. To do this, players must first work their way through their opponent’s defence. The action takes place on two lanes – one attacking and one defending. To push an offensive lane, a team must gather supply from a central depot and spend it on NPC characters. Meanwhile, in the other lane, the opposing team will be sending NPCs of their own.
  
  • 
    
  • C: Breach the gates, keep the other guys from doing the same, kill the lord
    
  
  
  
• “We’re very cognizant of the fact we want to keep this PvP centric,” says Corpening. Rather than fight players, NPCs are designed to help a team push forward through the map. Players can spend supply on two different NPC types: Doorbreakers and Archers. Doorbreakers are a team’s Skritt bomb squad. The hyperactive rat people deal massive damage to the gates protecting each Stronghold and Lord room. They’re fragile, though, and won’t fight other characters. One hit from an NPC guard will take them down.â€
  
  • 
    
  • C: The skritt doorbreakers are pretty adorable and are definitely, like the quaggan, are a fan favorite.
    
  
  
  
• Spawned archers will do a small amount of damage to the gate, but a large amount of damage to its guards. As such, each team has a number of options that will define their early push. Do they spawn archers, and let them harass the opponent’s NPCs while defending their own gates, or do they pick doorbreakers, and personally shepherd them to their target?
  
• As well as NPC guards, each team has a trebuchet that can fling boulders across the map. Teams can use the trebuchet to control key points across the map – locking down the supply camp, or harassing an offensive push.
  
  • 
    
  • C: Trebs are cool, for reasons.
    
  
  
  
• “I think we learned a lot from what we’ve done in the other maps,” says Corpening, “and also the community has given us a lot of feedback on the elements they’d like to see.”
  
• [Corpening] “They mentioned that it’d be cool if we had something that was like a condensed World vs World experience. They mentioned that we should try some more traditional game modes. People have been talking about their nostalgia for Guild Wars 1’s Guild vs Guild. People have suggested that we look at MOBAs, that sort of stuff… Really what we did was we took all that feedback, and we looked at the mechanics that we’ve seen have worked for our game mode, and the mechanics that didn’t work for our game mode, and really looked to make something that was right for Guild Wars 2 and the amazing combat we have. We took influences from all of those things, but it’s not specifically any of those things.”
  
  • 
    
  • C: This whole amalgamation is I think what Colin was trying to pin down during our interview, it’s like Fort Aspenwood, it’s like a MOBA, it’s like the clocktower, it’s like ascalon..
    
  
  
  
• Where Conquest revolved around intense team-fights, Stronghold is designed for a more fluid, tactical style of competition. The hope is to balance multiple mechanics on a map that is easy to understand – both for players, and for viewers of Guild Wars 2’s growing e-sports community. As with other elements of Heart of Thorns, ArenaNet is hoping that Stronghold will set the tone of the game for years to come.
  
  • 
    
  • C: So super complicated until you experience it? Good to know.
    
  • A: It does seem like there’s more strategery (yes, strategery) to this. Voice chat highly recommended.
    
  
  
  

 

Patch Notes – The Lunar New Year Festival

https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-February-10-2015

• 
  
• Celebrate the Year of the Ram
  
• Play in the Dragon Ball Arena – with new achievements and special rewards available only during the Lunar New Year event. To compete, see Finolla in the Queen’s Pavilion.
  
• Lucky Envelopes – Share and trade lucky envelopes with your friends.
  
  • 
    
  • Divine Lucky Envelopes can be purchased from Phaedra in the Crown Pavilion and traded on the Trading Post. Purchases are limited per day, with additional purchases available to Dragon Ball Champions.
    
  • Homemade Lucky Envelopes can be earned from daily achievements and can be traded on the Trading Post.
    
  • Little Lucky Envelopes can be earned from Lunar New Year achievements.
    
  • The rewards in these envelopes are affected by account magic find.
    
    • 
      
    • Essences of luck
      
    • Valuable trophies
      
    • New food items with a bonus to magic find during Lunar New Year and additional stat increases depending on the food
      
    • Fireworks with a range of visual effects
      
      • 
        
      • These fireworks also provide a bonus to experience from all sources (except consumable items) during the event
        
      • These fireworks cannot be used in WvW
        
      
      
      
    • Two new backpacks with unique skins—the Lucky Ram Lantern and the Lucky Great Ram Lantern.
      
      • 
        
      • The Mystic Forge has been updated with a new recipe to convert Lucky Ram Lanterns into Lucky Great Ram Lanterns.
        
      
      
      
    
    
    
  
  
  
• Players will receive a bonus of an additional 15% magic find during the event. This stacks with luck, food, and other bonus magic-find sources.
  
• World vs. World siege skins have been temporarily changed in celebration of the Lunar New Year.
  
• Costume Brawl toys can no longer be used inside themed activities such as Toypocalypse or Dragon Ball Arena.
  

 

Gem store updates

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/new-weapons-outfit-and-mail-carrier-in-the-gem-store/

• 
  
• Crimson Lion Weapons – 1 black lion claim ticket
  
  • 
    
  • C: My favorite is the warhorn because of the way he’s posed “draw me like one of your french girls :3â€
    
  • A: Honestly I like almost all of them, I’m just not sure they’re worth one of my precious, mythical Black Lion Tickets.
    
  
  
  
• Imperial Outfit – 700 gems
  
  • 
    
  • A: INSTABUY!
    
  
  
  
• Red envelope mail carrier – 600 gems
  
  • 
    
  • A: I haven’t bought any of the mail carriers yet … I like them, just not enough to spend gems on them … yet.
    
  • C: I thought this was cute but not really sure if I would like to use it all year? It seems rather seasonal.
    
  
  
  

 

Ask an Asura

 

Second Question from Mark! 

I have been working hard to craft my ascended gear, but the runes that I want are so expensive. What is the easiest way to get the superior runes like runes of the traveler. Currently on the TP, this beast of a rune is like 8G and I need 6. T_T

• 
  
• A: I’m going to let Celeste answer this one, since I am the player who finds the cheapest runes and tries to make a build around them (which is really fun and I recommend people try it!).
  
• C: My initial thought was that you could use temple armor, but really to get the runes from those pieces you’d need upgrade extractors, which if you did the gems to gold conversion would mean you would be spending (as of this AM) 28G per rune extraction.
  
  If you’re looking specifically for the Runes of the Traveler, you might have a better time price watching armor pieces, it’s a little bit cheaper and if you have a black lion salvage kit you’d be able to get the rune out very easily. Or watch this search string http://www.gw2spidy.com/search/traveler?sort_min_sale_unit_price=asc&rarity_filter=5&min_level=60&max_level=
  
  You can also go the route of throwing low priced superior runes into the forge and hoping for a good one to yield a profit, but really there’s not a lot of good results with that.
  

 

Map Completion and Masteries?

Hey ladies! So I just started listening to your podcast and find it incredibly relaxing and informative, makes these long days at work much more tolerable.

I’m also new to the game and I’m really excited for the expansion but I have a concern. Reading about the new mastery system it talks about mastery points unlocking on the whole account which is awesome for alts. But I have a fear, is there any information on if map exploration will be retroactive? I want to 100% each zone but when the expac comes out I worry that it won’t count and I’ll have to do it on another character for it to count. Am I being silly or do you think it won’t count on older characters?

Love the show! Keep up the awesome work :) 

– Crabsy – Tarnished Coastâ€

• 
  
• C: They have said that with world map completion, it would be retroactive. You’ve got 100% on the day of the patch: that day you will get the mastery point that is granted for that achievement, despite the world map having just increased. That’s what I’ve read at least, the proof is in the patch day.
  
• A: Go Tarnished Coast!
  

 

Fracking Fractals

Hey Celeste and Allona,

I am not big on group content, as I frequently have to afk for RL type stuffs, and have teh feels about leaving parties waiting. I have never done fractals and don’t know the first thing about them. What is the deal with the numbers i see associated with fractals, i think they are called tiers? and there is something that factors in that makes them more difficult and requires specific gear for higher tiers? Could you explain this briefly please? Also, what is the point to grinding for these types of gear when there is ascended gear, or is that not even the best stuff anymore?

Help a noob plz?

Sargorethâ€

 

A: I’m stealing the answer from the wiki to make sure I don’t lie!

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fractals#Difficulty_scale

Difficulty scale

• 
  
• Your personal reward level increases by one each time you complete an entire run at a difficulty scale equal or greater than your personal level.
  
• Increased personal levels offer increased rewards, even if the run is at a lower difficulty level.
  

Standard changes at higher difficulty levels

• 
  
• Standard foes spawn in greater numbers and at higher ranks, e.g. more veterans.
  
• Some foes will gain new abilities, e.g. in the Uncategorized Fractal, the harpies start to knock players back.
  

Major changes at different tiers

• 
  
• Fractals include more substantial changes at level 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50, so players also refer to difficulty “tiers”.
  

• 
  
• New items begin dropping at higher tiers; other items begin dropping more frequently.
  
• New challenges are added at new tiers:
  
  • 
    
  • Agony is added at the second tier (level 10-19) and it continues to increase with each tier.
    
  • Mistlock Instability is added with the fourth tier (starting at level 31).
    
    • 
      
    • A: I liked this one: Lvl 47 – Antielitism – Elite skills cause death.
      
    
    
    
  
  
  

A: I am at personal reward lvl 11 and don’t have any agony resistance … so … that’s not happening yet.

 

Listener Tip from Yuri Terrack – GuildWiki

If people have a question or wonder about how to craft something or need a walkthrough for a dungeon or whatever they can check there for help, if they don’t get help from other people.

• 
  
• C: /wiki is still a thing, so you can type into chat /wiki divinity and it’ll open a browser page with the search ‘divinity’ for you
  

 

Celeste’s Tip: If you don’t want/aren’t interested in opening fortunes, buy/sell/trade them on the TP to make yourself a tidy sum. 

Allona’s Tip: If you have the gold available, buy the Divine Lucky Envelopes from Phaedra every day. You get NEARLY all your gold back and even make decent coin with a lucky drop or two.

 

Tales of Tyria

 

Deby aka Fizzy Petal, GW2 Rangerette has set up a new recruitment/search site

• 
  
• euguilds.com is an EU English-language focused server guild directory.
  
• “The ‘Looking For…’ recruitment forums on GW2.com are a mess. Players and guilds all over North America and Europe all post in the same forum…very quickly posts are buried.â€
  
• “If you look at euguilds.com, you’ll find that each server has a category for each part of the game. We’ve also got a section for community websites to add links…:â€
  
• “The way it is meant to work is that guild/community leaders register on the boards to post and manage their own listing. Replies are disabled which should keep trolls away.â€
  
• “The disadvantage to being new is that people don’t know about the directory. The advantage to being new is that any listings that go up will be current.â€
  
• For now, the service is free, but may include a donation feature in the future.
  

 

The Orrator’s Advertisment Policy may need some new rules…

http://orrator.com/post/110643565194/make-gold

 

Some GW2HoT Swag giveaway

http://gw2fanart.tumblr.com/post/110544997834/guild-wars-2-heart-of-thorns-pax-south-giveaways

 

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!

 

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Allona: @onebigpear

 

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