Celeste and Allona had ANOTHER short show planned… Then Polygon article! Then official GW2 blog post! Then EVEN MORE awesome listener tips and questions (seriously though, thanks guys)!

Audio Version

What We Did This Week

 

Allona

• 
  
• A few Silverwastes Bandit Chest nights. Once with TWIT guild and once with Wardens of Destiny … with WoD I got THREE boot boxes!
  
• Guild missions with Maven on Monday
  
• PvPed a bit. More importantly got Misforawesome from MoCK in to try it, and she didn’t hate it! Oh and I made a PvP buddy! Baelin … they’ve been really fun to PvP with (I think we just happen to be on and wanting to PvP at the same time).  \o/
  
• Fractal’ed on Saturday with MoCK. We got a bunch that we hadn’t seen in forever, so that was fun!
  
• Got ANOTHER Bonetti’s Rapier … I am, like, a magnet for those things!
  
• See Celeste’s second bullet …
  

Celeste

• 
  
• PvE’d on my baby necro – a couple hours in Caledon
  
• Lunar Festival upkeep – I still hate dragon ball
  
• silverwastes on my ranger
  
• finished silverwastes track, got my light carapace gloves,
  
• progress on legendary frenzy – waiting on about 100 dungeon tokens to finish gift of frenzy, still need to farm the crap out of T6 mats for gift of fortune (AKA get all the monies), finished gift of mastery, finished clovers with the reward track.
  

 

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

 

Revenant Details

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/revenant-the-master-of-the-mists/

http://www.polygon.com/features/2015/2/18/8061219/guild-wars-2-profession-reveal-revenant-pc-mmo-arenanet

• 
  
• “We talked a lot about where we’d been going with Guild Wars 2‘s professions,” says ArenaNet game design lead Jon Peters. “We were moving further and further away from Guild Wars 1. We looked at our whole set of eight professions and tried to figure out what archetype was missing. It took us back into our past. We started looking backward at the first game.” (polygon)
  
• “Revenants are heavily armored masters of the Mists with abilities that allow them to harness and manipulate energy in order to perform immense attacks. They invoke powers from legends of the past to dominate foes and unleash chaos on the field of battle.â€
  
  • 
    
  • C: A Medium-HP Heavy-armor that can be successful while ranged and has extreme energy management. It’s bizarre to see people say that this brings GW2 into the trinity system. HOW IS THIS A TRINITY CLASS?!
    
  
  
  
• Quick overview: unique profession mechanic, unique resource system, heavy armor, medium health pool, color scheme – red, black, and misty white
  
• “A revenant can select from a pool of legends—epic characters from the past that you can invoke power from—and slot two different legends at a time. With this constant connection to the Mists, you’ll always have one active legend and one inactive legend. The current active legend will determine the skills on the right half of your skill bar. It’s similar to weapon swapping, but instead it affects your healing, utility, and elite skills. Not only will the legend you select determine your skills, but you’ll have an energy bar tied to your currently invoked legend.â€
  
  • 
    
  • C: Cue the folks who will whine about the lack of weapon swapping
    
  • A: But it totally makes sense! One light and one medium profession are ‘non-swappers’ … this is the heavy ‘non-swapper’!
    
  
  
  
• C: Energy at legend swap will start at 50% and then move from there as you use skills. As with old GW1 casting skills, using more energy usually means having a skill that will be more powerful. This also means if you swap in-combat you can gain 50% energy on the other slotted legend. All skills on the legend side are also reset (i.e. heal on mallyx, swap, heal on jalis)
  
• “Certain legends have skills available that will cause you to lose the ability to regenerate energy or even put you into a degeneration state while they remain active. These skills will last until you run out of energy or toggle them off. As you can see in the screenshot, there are pips that represent your current state of upkeep.â€
  
  • 
    
  • C: This REALLY feels like having to manage energy and maintain boon skills like the old Monk skills. Anybody else remember being the LB monk? For non GW1 players you may be comparing it (crudely) to the death shroud mechanic?
    
  
  
  
• Ranged Hammer
  
  • 
    
  • “Revenants use their powers to enhance the hammer in order to use it as a ranged weapon. That’s right—you’ll use these unique powers from the Mists to throw a magical hammer at foes, create massive zones of destruction, and preemptively control your foe.â€
    
  • Coalescence of Ruin – Skill – “Slam the ground with your hammer, creating a cascading eruption of energy.â€
    
    • 
      
    • “ It creates a cascading attack that starts at your character and extends forward over time. This specific skill’s damage increases with distance. This allows us to create very impactful attacks that have a lot more play to them for both yourself and the foes you use it against.â€
      
    
    
    
  • Field of the Mists – skill – “Create a field from the Mists that blocks incoming projectiles in front of you.â€
    
    • 
      
    • “This skill creates a directional wall in front of your character, blocking incoming projectiles. Even better, it follows your character!â€
      
      • 
        
      • C: Like M said to me earlier, it’s going to depend deeply on how long this skill lasts on whether ppl find it useful or worthless
        
      • A: Sure, but how cool is it that it follows you around!?
        
      
      
      
    
    
    
  
  
  
• Melee Mace
  
  • 
    
  • Requires you to pay attention to your directionality
    
    • 
      
    • A: So it has a ‘cone’ damage area basically?
      
    
    
    
  • Manifest Toxin – Skill – “Deliver a crushing blow that sends toxic energy chaining to enemies behind each target.â€
    
    • 
      
    • The 3rd part of #1 skill “In this case, the attack is a melee blow that hits an initial foe but then looks for additional foes behind that one. If there are additional foes, it will chain the attack to them as well.“
      
    
    
    
  
  
  
• Mixed Axe
  
  • 
    
  • It’s also a hybrid weapon, but it’s much more about utility than damage
    
  • Also very directional
    
  • Temporal Rift – Skill – “Slice into the Mists, creating an unstable rift. After a short duration, this rift will collapse in on itself, pulling in enemies.â€
    
    • 
      
    • “ It will always create a rift directly in front of your character, so be aware of where you’re facing. It also has a slight delay with a unique visual tell that allows enemies a chance to escape.â€
      
      • 
        
      • C: Maybe this will be a more useful version of the Mesmer skill?
        
      • A: I LOVE THIS!!!!! LOVE!!!! There’s nothing about this skill that doesn’t sound amazing!
        
      
      
      
    
    
    
  
  
  
• Legendary Demon Stance – Mallyx the Unyielding
  
  • 
    
  • Demon Stances focus on conditions – condition manipulation. “Instead of dealing with conditions in the traditional sense—mostly by removing them—your approach to conditions as a revenant is all about accumulating them in order to empower your attacks. The more conditions you have, the stronger and more impactful your demon legend skills will become.â€
    
    • 
      
    • C: This really only works if you’ve got the new boon as well, which negates the effects of having conditions on your character
      
    
    
    
  • Skill – Embrace the Darkness – Upkeep – Elite
    
    • 
      
    • “Summon the power of the legendary demon to transform into a powerful avatar. Increase all attributes, and copy conditions to nearby foes every few seconds.â€
      
      • 
        
      • “This is an example of an upkeep skill. You can activate (and deactivate) this mode at any time as long as you have the energy necessary to keep paying the upkeep cost of the skill. “
        
      
      
      
    
    
    
  • Skill – Unyielding Anguish – When used, players will be able to target an area on the ground. Then they’ll leap at that area, displacing all enemies from it. (polygon)
    
  • “All Legendary Demon Stance skills apply a condition to the revenant, similar to a necromancer’s corruption utility skills. In this case, you’ll apply torment to yourself so that, at a minimum, you will be pulsing out torment to nearby foes while this skill is active.â€
    
  • “Not all the legend characters are humanoid,” Cronacher warns before introducing the second character that can be channeled: Mallyx the Unyielding, a demonic powerhouse that players actually fought in the first Guild Wars.
    
    “This ties in to bring Rytlock back as the first revenant,” Peters says. “He has a very ‘whatever it takes’ attitude. If he can get powers from Mallyx, he will use them. He’ll do whatever he needs to in order to be more powerful. Revenants are a little bit darker in that way.”
    
    Peters stops short of calling revenants actually evil — “we don’t do that for player professions” — but compares them to playing as a necromancer. He says revenants will be more of an anti-hero profession. (polygon)
    
  
  
  
• Legendary Dwarf Stance – Jalis Ironhammer
  
  • 
    
  • When a revenant calls on the power of Jalis, they’ll be transforming into what Cronacher calls a “dwarf brawler kind of playstyle.” They’ll be a tank in the massively multiplayer sense of being able to take a lot of damage, but they’ll also be incredibly aggressive. (polygon)
    
  • Skill – Vengeful Hammers – Upkeep – “Invoke hammers to circle around you, damaging foes.â€
    
    • 
      
    • “While it’s active, you have dwarven hammers spinning around your character and following your movements.â€
      
      • 
        
      • C: Like the revolving axes for Ranger (blocks projectiles & damages foes) or with more effect?
        
      • Clarification: “They actually work like projectiles in the game,” Peters says, praising the new tech ArenaNet created specifically for skills like this. “They can collide with stuff. All the stuff we can do with an arrow, we can now do with something that spins around you.” (Jon Peters, Polygon article)
        
      
      
      
    
    
    
  • Skill – Rite of the Great Dwarf – Elite
    
    • 
      
    • Long-time players may recognize the significance of that skill name from original Guild Wars expansion Eye of the North. When activated, the revenant will turn themselves and their party members into stone, presumably boosting defense and power. (polygon)
      
    
    
    
  
  
  
• New Boons, Conditions, Status Effects
  
  • 
    
  • Resistance (boon) – “conditions currently on you have no effect; stacks durationâ€
    
  • Slow (Condition) – “skills and actions are slowerâ€
    
    • 
      
    • Different from chill that slows the character and recharge of skill, this actually slows the animation and cast times of skills
      
    
    
    
  • Taunt (Status Effect) – “Involuntarily attack foesâ€
    
    • 
      
    • “For example, when used on players, it will force the taunted player to run at their target with their skill bar locked—minus stun breakers—and only use their autoattack skill to attack. This gives us the opportunity to use taunt in multiple ways, not just as a player skill, but also as a tool to create interesting creature encounters that utilize this taunt effect against players.â€
      
      • 
        
      • C: I forsee a lot of myself screaming at a mordrem for using a taunt on me (forcing me to keep a stunbreaker on my bar at all times). I also feel like “Taunt†is the wrong word for the way this works… Taunt is almost like a redirect towards yourself. If you’re redirecting to a different character that’s almost like a more advanced fear.
        
      
      
      
    
    
    
  
  
  
• Peters also confirms that the revenant will have a specialization, one of the other new features of Heart of Thorns revealed in the expansion’s announcement. However, the studio is still nailing down precisely how specializations will work, which means it isn’t ready to reveal how that will interact with legends if at all. (polygon)
  
  • 
    
  • A: As Traveller of Tyria mentioned on Twitter, I really like that Anet was open with the fact that Specializations are a work in progress and that’s why they haven’t talked TOO much about them.
    
  
  
  
• While the revenant is very story-driven compared to other professions in the game, ArenaNet says it will not make class-specific story content for them. (polygon)
  

 

Gem Store things

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/crimson-lion-dye-kit-dragon-and-lion-mask-skins-and-ram-balloon-in-the-gem-store/

• 
  
• Crimson Lion Dye Kit – 125, 5/500, 25/2500
  
  • 
    
  • A: I promise not to buy them. Pinky swear even.
    
  
  
  
• Lion & Dragon Mask skins – 300 gems each
  
  • 
    
  • C: Much Nostalgia
    
  • A: I love that these are both a direct port from GW1.
    
  
  
  
• ram balloon – 250 gems
  

 

Ask an Asura

Send us questions and they will be answered in the order they are received ~cues muzak~

 

Third Question from Mark! 

For my friend who is playing with me. He has been having a difficult time in WvW playing a Guardian of all things. I think his problem is gear, but I don’t know how to get him a cheap set of exotic gear to get him started. What should I recommend for him? Should he use the TP to get the gear? Is there something else he can do to get the gear he needs? Maybe dungeons is the right way?

Mark

• 
  
• C: Allona is the queen of cheap gear! (A: HA!)
  
• A: I would say craft exotic gear is probably the best if you are also looking to level the crafting profession itself. If you happen to run a lot of dungeons, then that is also a decent way to get exotic armour. If you are running in Orr at all, you can buy exotic armours with karma from temple merchants (but that can be a wee bit tricky depending on how active a map you’re in is and whether the merchant that has the stat set you’re interested in is open or not. This is how I kitted out my ranger when she hit 80. Note: these armours cannot be salvaged so you may not want to pop really expensive runes in them). Lastly, the TP can be a good source for cheap exotics, BUT that’s only if you’re willing to buy the least desirable armour in the game … which I am … for science!
  

 

Surf on Spinal Blades?

https://twitter.com/Kalabajooie/status/563719414009593856?cn=cmVwbHk%3D Semicolon Octothorpe â€@Kalabajooie ponders… “A thought on gliders: How will they interact with back items? I’d love to surf on Spinal Blades. Or Zephyr Rucksack.â€

• 
  
• C: I think this would be awesome but I think it’s unlikely to have your back item showing while gliding. Plus the spinal blades would cut up that glider to hell.
  

 

Masteries in point form

Dear Celeste and Allona, possessors of all the adjectives of alliteration,

I have recently leveled up my reading comprehension to over lvl.9000 and was hoping illuminate the shadows surrounding the mastery system! First off;

• 
  
• these points are just condensing words from Anet, and do not include any speculation.
  

• 
  
  • 
    
  • mastery points are earned by completing various forms of content, and can be earned before a character reaches level 80.
    
  • mastery points can only be spent after level 80.
    
  • mastery points are earned one time per account
    
  • mastery points are spent to “unlock” a mastery track.
    
  • once unlocked as XP is gained the mastery is progressed for you entire account, permanently.
    
  • players can spend additional mastery points to unlock higher tiers of a mastery once a certain level in the track has been reached through XP.
    
  • once a track is unlocked, as you play “leveling up” progresses your ‘account’ along a particular mastery track (this is why each of your characters cannot spend each mastery point differently)
    
  • any character on your account can progress along any unlocked mastery just by playing the game!
    
  • masteries will be tied to regions: heart of magumma, or the core ‘Tyria’ maps. as your characters switch between these regions the mastery they are progressing in will automatically switch for you!
    
  
  

I hope this has helped dispel the confounding limbo these new systems have been submerged in. I find fruit juice helps.

Effervescently,

~ Ozz The Powerful, Explainationist

 

• 
  
• A: I totes read this like it’s from an actual Asura! Some of these I know we covered — or knew and then forgot that we knew — over the few weeks we’ve had of information being revealed. I think this is a pretty great ‘cheat sheet’ of what the community’s been told thus far. Also, I demand MORE speculation! Did you know masteries are going to (something ludicrous here).
  

 

Floating tower postulation

Hi Celeste and Allona.

Happy Valentines. I hope you feeling the love, whether in-game or out.

I discovered your podcast a few months ago, and love the fun and vivaciousness that you bring to it. So many people try to be cool when they are presenting, but you both put your real self out there. And it’s very engaging.

My two/three questions:

One is a lore question. Can someone explain the lore (if there is any) behind the floating city that you see south east of Wizard’s Fief in Kessex Hills, and it’s owner, Isgarren. I was always hoping the game would expand the area of Garenhoff.  It is beautiful, but somewhat wasted.

Two is a play question. I don’t understand how to get Black Lion Scraps, which seem to be the only way to get Black Lion Tickets, which unlock some lovely gear.  What’s the story morning glory?  Maybe a third question (if I can get that lucky)…I’ve also heard of key farming. Is this related?  What’s that about?  Does anyone recommend it?

Anyhow…. hope to see you in-game

Bigtime Topbanana

• 
  
• The Wizard’s Tower has long been a tease of Guild Wars. Lore wise it appears to be a depository of magical tomes
  
  • 
    
  • From a Dolyak express lore post – “Jeff Grubb: The idea of chaining down your tower makes sense for when you are dealing with particularly powerful powerful magics allows you to move the tower away from populated areas when you are experimenting with particularly powerful energies, and, of course, to move away once something has gone horribly, horribly wrong. The tower in Kessex Hills was in a nearby location in GW1 and was towed to the present location.â€
    
  • The little that we do know is that it’s in Garrenhof and owned by Isgarren, a wizard who dwells within
    
  • A: Wooden Potatoes has a bunch of GW2 Mysteries videos and he has one on the floating tower! Watch! Enloy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xslnnsNAUPA&list=PLdxmChRD2epfdYYvA9q7WbpK29FgBOjKh&index=3
    
  
  
  
• Black Lion scraps and tickets are able to drop from the Black Lion Chests, this is the only way to acquire them. Key farming is done by taking a character through the first set of personal story quests as quickly as possible in order to get black lion keys to open the black lion chests. It’s an RNG nightmare but if you’re especially lucky you can turn a tidy profit from doing this.
  

 

Useful links are useful

Hello Reporters,

Thanks for the work you do for the community. I think the show is great, you too are wonderful. I have a couple of websites that may help you out.  I don’t think that these were on the list mentioned on the show a few episodes back.  Here they are:

• 
  
• MetaBattle – http://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki
  

This is a build database for ALL THINGS GW2.  This is the best GENERAL build collection and info site that I have come across. It looks pretty and it’s easy to use.  Even has builds for world bosses.  Pretty dope if you ask me.

• 
  
• Gw2 Legends – http://gw2legends.net/
  

This is a site that gives you the entire recipe and cost of making a legendary AS WELL AS tracking your progress!  You both have mentioned working on your legendaries and how much there is to track.  I don’t know if you’ve seen this site before but I used it while making my legendary and LOVED IT. It updates every 15 minutes so it can let you know a good time to buy T6 mats n’ such.

I hope that you find these websites useful.

I have one request of you two.  Could you please do more discussion on meta trends for WvW and PvP during the show?  I know that you like to focus on the lore and that’s what a lot of the listener base likes, but there are a number of us that would really like to have some more of that discussed.  More time on these topics means more time in research and game play, so if it simply can’t happen then I understand.  But please, if it’s possible, include more of it.  There are a couple GW2 podcasts that I listen to and none of them discuss pvp or wvw trends in detail.  One podcast in particular seems to have a tone of contempt for pvpers and it’s a pretty big bummer, especially since it’s a growing aspect of the game.

I would be happy to assist in any way that I can.  Also, if you would ever like to do some pvp, don’t hesitate to ask me while I’m online.  I friended Allona in game but Celeste, I have not friended you because I wasn’t sure if I spelled Sal – ee – oo – key correctly (saliuki?).

Thanks again!

— Ultra

• 
  
• C: Thanks for your email!
  
  • 
    
  • I’d looked at meta in the past and it seemed to be lacking so I’m really glad to see that it’s been filled in quite a bit!
    
  • I thought we had talked about gw2legends before, my bad, but really the reason I don’t usually bring up the calculators and managing sites for legendary progression is that I switch between my tablet, surface, pc, phone, etc and the cookies just can’t be kept straight.
    
  • When it comes to PvP & WvW we feel like we aren’t going to be able to do it justice. That’s why we’re so reluctant to cover them on a more specialized basis. So this is our chance to put out the open call for someone(s) to cover a periodic feature on the show “News from The Borderlands†which will be covering WvW exclusive content, features, builds, etc.
    
  
  
  
• A: Oooh! I like it and the title is great! … Maybe Ultra would be willing to pick up the torch?
  

 

Celeste’s Tip: Eat your lunar new year food, it’s only going to be good during this time of year anyways. Festival will likely be ending on the 24th (since that’s when the free unlock for the point of no return ends).

Allona’s Tip: Don’t eat yellow snow … even in Tyria. Especially in Tyria. (I got nuthin’)

 

Tales of Tyria

 

Everyone loves a mystery

Since it’s been mentioned earlier in the show, here is the link to the GW2 Mysteries playlist that Wooden Potatoes has created: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdxmChRD2epfdYYvA9q7WbpK29FgBOjKh

 

Have I mentioned I love culinary cosplay?

http://culinarycosplay.tumblr.com/post/111408394344/kralkatorrik-cocktail-kralkatorrik-slumbered-at

http://culinarycosplay.tumblr.com/post/109926702269/glints-diamond-gin-fizz-this-was-an-idea-born

 

Oh, this post made my day SO MUCH BETTER.

http://gw2ambiance.tumblr.com/post/110909884954/note-fishmonger-gilbert-pauses-between-each-line

 

MUSHU!

http://mantraswag.tumblr.com/post/111350146559/great-stone-dragon-mask

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

twitter: @gwreporter

site: guildwarsreporter.com

voicemail: 616-666-6778 (or use the widget on the right hand side of the website)

youtube: mmoreporternetwork (remember to ‘like’ our videos and subscribe to the GW Reporter playlist)

facebook: gwreporter

tumblr: gwreporter.tumblr.com

patreon: http://www.patreon.com/mmoreporter.

 

Visit us on Twitter!

Celeste: @celeookie

Allona: @onebigpear

 

Say ‘HI’ to us in-game!

Allona: OneBigPear.1249

Celeste: CeleOOKIE.5046

 

Our PAX Prime 2014 Official Sponsor: