Guild Wars Reporter

Celeste and Allona chat about the recent official blog post on the changes coming to Fractals in Heart of Thorns! And then they are entertained by community artwork ... particularly a dreamy Trahearne. They hate still hate Damask. Audio Version What We Did This Week   Allona Fungeons and Fractals with MoCK. Up to lvl 15! -- also got an achievement, and did two fungeons! Arah AND Honour of the Waves! Guild Missions with Maven … This one will have a shocking secret Silverwastes, like a bunch! Hunter helped me get a lot of mordrem parts I still need for Luminescent Armour (which made me take better stock of the parts I needed and Hunter gave me a great tip to buy all the extractors I needed to have them on hand!) Ran a few Drytop runs for geodes and that silky silky sand Quite a bit of PvP, even a few matches with Ultra and Spirit from Relics of Orr - I made a bad choice early on in one match that made me feel dumb. Even so, we won all five matches we played! Finished my medium ascended armour! Wooo! Finished Party Politics (Thank you Dulfy)! Making good progress with the Godskull weapons Speaking of … there was one day that the Claw of Jormag was a daily. I logged in about an hour before reset to do some Grawl killing (for large skulls, for Godskull weapons) and noticed Jormag was in 24ish minutes. GREAT! I kill me some Grawl and then randomly toodle around for gathering nodes, come across the jumping puzzle with the underwater entrance, decide to do that, “Hey ancient sapling right at the top!”, gather it, run to the edge to jump off and decide the lighting is great and proceed to take a bunch of selfies of my character … at some point notice a dragon flying around in the background … CRAP! JORMAG! Boot it over to the fight and it’s in the second phase and a quarter health left. Manage to get enough hits in to get gold (although I’m not sure how THAT works) and credit for the daily about 5-10 minutes before reset! YAY ME! So yeah, almost missed a world boss because of selfies. Totally unrelated to previous point: I gave Allona a new hairstyle. TOTALLY UNRELATED. Celeste Working on World completion on my ele Silverwastes on Monday with Pear and Hunter (which made me take stock of all the modrem parts I need to get still. Spoilers: it’s a lot) working on getting leatherworker to 500, which I thought I had done already Iron Marches Event completer means I got an explorer achievement done Been looking at my mesmer and being conflicted about whether or not to finish world completion on my ele before working on my mesmer in earnest   Livestreaming Wednesday’s at 9:30pm EDT/6:30pm PDT at twitch.tv/mmoreporter. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel and to the audio version of the podcast on iTunes! Feel free to comment, 'like', and review Guild Wars Reporter!   Report from Lion’s Arch   The Brand-New Fractals of the Mists, Legendary Backpacks, Ascended Salvaging, and More! https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/the-brand-new-fractals-of-the-mists-legendary-backpacks-ascended-salvaging-and-more/ “Our goal with these upcoming changes is to raise the challenge of the fractals on the top end and to make them more accessible to a larger group of players. In other words, we want to create an experience that is easier to get into and easier to learn but more difficult to master.” “One island from a static list” Do fractals as often as you want without the 90 minute time commitment “The lower scales will be adjusted to help make them more approachable to players to aid them in learning the mechanics of individual fractals before they scale up and become too difficult.” “To start with, we’re raising the maximum fractal scale from 50 to 100. In addition, after scale 50,

Celeste and Allona talk about The Tempest featured on Friday's Points of Interest, Tuesday's (kinda surprise) patch, and a whole swath of other GW2 news! And who does't love a free mini?! NO ONE! Audio Version What We Did This Week   Allona Fungeons and Fractals! Or rather Fractals and Fungeons … we reversed the order this week and I can’t recall why. Tried a listener’s build suggestion for my guardian, and I love it! (I will go more into that in AaA). Also, The Gallant staff skin looks pretty great for my Guardian, so I did end up nabbing one from this set after all. Silverwastes shovelling afterwards A couple temple runs in Orr with Hunter [explain for newer players] friday Had to play with my settings as I DCed during a few (yes, A FEW) world boss fights causing me to get nada rewards Maven guild missions … so stressful! Fun, funny, and stressful. Some zone completions, got one BL key from that, so yay! I never really mention it in this section -- even though it’s wonderful and fun, but chatted in-game with a few listeners. DRY TOP! Celeste Streamed a wee bit on Friday and Romo offered up a great build and even sent me armor to go along with it (http://de.gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQFAWnMIC9MgVPAmNA0RgBBAjeCJhMZEAKAHA5SGCSBA-TRBPwAA2fwr6PB1RIS5HMlgAA-e) Missed Fractals but caught up with fungeons (hotw) on Saturday followed up silverwastes shovel train Silverwastes again on Monday and zone completion on my ele turns out having a good build and armor really matter when it comes to playing a class. Did a keyfarm. Hunter reminded me when I was lv 8 that I could use tomes. I forgot.   Livestreaming Wednesday’s at 9:30pm EDT/6:30pm PDT at twitch.tv/mmoreporter. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel and to the audio version of the podcast on iTunes! Feel free to comment, 'like', and review Guild Wars Reporter!   Report from Lion’s Arch   Patch Notes! https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-July-28-2015 “Magister Ela Makkay of the Durmand Priory has been busy chronicling Scarlet’s War (known outside of Tyria as Living World Season 1). She’d like to share her research with you when you’re ready. Simply activate “Season 1 History Lesson,” located under Scarlet’s War in your Story Journal, to learn more. (Note: You must use a level 80 character to access this recap.)” Changed the color of squad chat to blue-green to make it more distinct from GM whisper. Fixed an issue in which equipping the Monk’s Outfit caused characters’ legs to disappear. Fixed a bug in which achievement points and titles for Hall of Monuments were incorrectly given to some players. The points and titles have been removed. Any achievement chests that were received as a result of this bug were kept intact but will not be given out a second time. Fixed a bug in the Story Journal that activated the most recently unlocked Living World episode upon Personal Story completion. The system will now check for the next available episode in release order. If that episode is already unlocked but not completed, it will be activated. If it is not unlocked, the user must manually select the desired Living World episode. Bug Bug Bug The Living World Season 1 recap video has English voice-over only. VO and subtitles for additional supported languages will be implemented in a future release. A: I checked this out just tonight. It’s such a good addition! I was reminded of a few key points that had entirely slipped my mind. Dreamthistle weapons have returned to Black Lion Weapons Specialists for three Black Lion Claim Tickets per skin. Black Lion Claim Tickets and Black Lion Claim Ticket Scraps can be...

Celeste's cat-herding skills are sorely missed as Ultra gets thrown into the metaphorical fire; taking on full co-host duties with Allona. They discuss Adventures, Shiro, changes to Revenant, ummm … what else? … Oh yeah, and THE TEMPEST! Audio Version What We Did This Week   Ultra Finished Spirit smith, aether was the last one I had to make Did like 1 hour total of wvw Farmed up over 400 gold Lots of dueling with guildies Allona Made medium ascended gloves; only headpiece left! Such slow going … damn damask! PvPed with MMO Reporter after last show! More entertainingly, after a Windows update I was PvPing and kept dying only to realize my mouse wasn’t using the right profile and I had no heal skill! Fungeons and Fractals with MoCK on Saturday was a lot of fun. We did a low level fractal to take advantage of the dailies. But more importantly, we did Twilight Arbour Aetherpath! Go us! Guild missions with Maven. I was extra chatty … for no real reason. After missions, ran two paths of Sorrow’s Embrace with some Maven guildies. Mattsta needed the tokens. Tuesday night MoCK ran Honour of the Waves, just ‘cuz and one single fractal for the daily (got Harpies of course … of. course.)   Livestreaming Wednesday’s at 9:30pm EDT/6:30pm PDT 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   Adventuring Forth https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/adventuring-forth/ “Adventures are small, fast-paced, single-adventurer events that challenge you to master a wide variety of skills in a race against the clock. What’s more, adventures are custom-built with leaderboards that allow you to compete against your friends and guildmates for bragging rights.” “Each Adventure showcases a seemingly simple path to victory that requires strategy, practice, and mastery in order to excel and ultimately achieve success.” Shooting Gallery Adventure in Verdant Brink - “The premise of this Adventure is simple—you have a short amount of time to shoot as many targets as you can before the nobles’ shoddy craftsmanship begins to show and the target dummies degrade. You’re given a rifle with a few shots left, and you can collect additional ammunition that’s strewn about the area. Additionally, the nobles will give you ammunition as a reward for accuracy and prowess.” “We’ve designed every Adventure around learning the skills necessary to perfect them, building replay into the core of the activity”. “Finally, we believe that rapid iteration, including the ability to quit and restart quickly, is another key aspect of the Adventure experience. If, for whatever reason, you want to restart an Adventure early, you can close out your Adventure and hit the restart button to be teleported back to the beginning of the Adventure. We understand that if you’re trying to earn a place on the leaderboard where execution is key and every second counts, the downtime between attempts should be as short as possible.” “Each and every Adventure in the world has its own leaderboard, allowing you to compare your performance with those of your friends and your guildmates and encouraging social interaction.” “In addition to bragging rights, leaderboards will also provide you with sweet rewards. Each leaderboard can yield a daily participation reward, but the meat of the loot is at the top. Each board has three tiers—think gold, silver, and bronze—that require a certain minimum score or maximum time to enter. Upon entry in those prestigious tiers, you’ll be rewarded for your efforts.” A: Teemu Makinin replied to someone on Twitter (I only screencapped it and can’t find the tweet). While pretty harsh, it taps into how I felt reading about adventures: Competition? Race against the clock?

Celeste and Allona are back to recording on Wednesday nights and talky talk about GW2 a day earlier than the official Shiro reveal. They also discuss the previous (lengthy and awesome-audio-guys-filled - no bias here) Points of Interest, and the Revenant/Stronghold beta weekend! Audio Version What We Did This Week   Allona 16k chest! Guild missions with Maven Chugging along with map completion on my warrior. Bought all the karma recipes for the Godskull weapons. Holy crap! They all take large skulls! No wonder the weapons are so expensive to buy from the TP! PvP a bit - only one match in Stronghold (left it up to chance!) Played around with Revenant. Opened all three chest of materials at once - BAD IDEA Fungeons and Fractals on Saturday! Again, they went really smooth … even with the addition of agony in fractals. MoCK is stepping up our game! Had a bunch of people on Tuesday night (randomly). Ran two groups around Malchor’s for daily and then ran a couple fungeons (I only took part in the first …). It was a really good night! Celeste 400 on weaponsmith, 114% magic find (I’d slowed down a LOT on salvaging), got up to 2 +5AR infusions Collections: worked on ogre (which I had to farm the ogre tooth for), krait, and godskull sets Revenant Silverwastes and PvP (even if it was only on Monday morning) Have tried to do Meeting The Asura completely stealthed about 10 times and get detected every single time in the boss room. Did TA Fwd path with Romo and his guildies before the show   Livestreaming Wednesday’s at 9:30pm EDT/6:30pm PDT at twitch.tv/mmoreporter. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel and to the audio version of the podcast on iTunes! Feel free to comment, 'like', and review Guild Wars Reporter!   Report from Lion’s Arch   Points of Interest 25 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI9PQjWoPV4 Rubi, Colin Johanson, Hugh Norfolk, Joshua Davis, Drew Cady (Sound Designer) and Jerry Schroeder (Sound Designer), Andre Becker (Overwolf App Design Winner), ROM (Orange Logo), Helseth (Civilized Gentlemen) and Chaith (The Abjured) Changes in the definition of beta across the industry Colin: “people write full reviews for beta weekends and to some degree making purchasing decisions [based on those]” Rubi: “people are upset because the game is not finished” Changes to Revenant Staff and Ventari Very healing-based core build C: Personally. I felt like the staff healing bobbles weren’t large enough to see easily The option to get gear that’s customizable A: The option to get them ALL AT ONCE AND OVER FILL YOUR INVENTORY! C: Yes, This. Also a lot of this. Revisions on the Holy Trinity Stance Colin: We never said we don’t want to have the, you know, dps, tank and the healer in the game and I think that’s a common misconception. We never said we don’t want those things. What we said is we don’t want people locked into one of the roles forever.” I.E. You’re a ___ you must ___ for encounters. That’s what they were trying to avoid. This whole issue and the reason that gw2 avoids a straight healer like gw1 had was because people don’t want to “wait for fun” by waiting for their group to have a healer or for a group’s fun/experience to be dependent upon one person doing a specific task/role/job. Why humans only? VO & Animation for other races hasn’t been completed yet. Doing beta events on live is “mindblowing” C: +1 Beta character gets a copy of your account, everything is added to that copy but that copy doesn’t get added back to your account when the beta character is wiped at the end of the weekend. A: I wish I had watched POI sooner to better understand this because I would have used a BUNCH of transmutation charges. 9 months to fix culling C: OMG. That’s crazy pants!

Celeste and Allona ramble about basic GW2 news: Mist Champions, the admittedly awesome PoI, etc. before getting to the meat of the matter with Ultra … TONIC SUGGESTIONS! Audio Version What We Did This Week   Allona Finished the LA Karka Exterminator all on my own! It was wonderful having Hunter guide me for the first 30ish, but completing it solo without any assistance felt pretty damn good. Found the super duper hard one even! I did the new LA jumping puzzle finally! With help from Hunter and Celeste. Broke 500 gold! Then spent a bunch of it on T3 cultural armour. Some zone completions on alts. No keys gorram it! Fungeons and Fractals with MoCK … we even did fractals with agony! Ooooh. Aaaah. Kitted out my Ranger with a new look. Which I love and may submit to GW2 Style. PvP … have news, which I will talk about in Surviving the Mists. Hint: Eye of the (blank) - rhymes with Liger. Oh! And completed one set of cheevos from LS: Season 2 last week when we streamed instead of having a show! Celeste Leveled my necro up to 80 (through the cunning use of tomes) finishing achievements for season 2 for the sinister jewelry/accessories Monk outfit and the mini pet rock, yes I know I’m a sellout but I really freaking loved that armor in gw1 and with the partially shaved head it was TOO GOOD for my mesmer uhhhhh some other crap that I totally don’t remember… I think some pve stuff? I crafted on my engi but I know there’s more.   Livestreaming Wednesday’s at 9:30pm EDT/6:30pm PDT 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   Mist Champions https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/meet-the-mist-champions/ https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/check-out-mist-champions-on-the-next-points-of-interest/ “Mist Champions replace heroes in Stronghold as the super weapons that help you punch through tough enemy defenses to push the game forward and secure victory for your team. In this update, each player now has a choice of which Mist Champion they will bring with them into the match. If you are the one to succeed at channeling the mist essence, your Mist Champion will join the fray.” Nika is the only mist champion so far that is exclusive to Heart of Thorns Turai Ossa - The savior of Elona War Cry - Shield of Elona - summons a protective shield that blocks incoming attacks on allies and the lord Passive - Desert Carapace - pulses aegis to himself and surrounding allies Elite - Bane of Joko - taunts all enemies in the opposing lord’s room, grants turai retaliation Grymm Svaard - Sailor and Sword-For-Hire aboard the Nomad II War Cry - Cannon Barrage - fires a cannonball at all enemies on the map, cannonballs knock down and burn enemies Passive - Steel and Fury - pulses fury, when an ally player crits there’s a chance for a cannonball to be called down Elite - Nomad II Broadside - Grymm’s ship will fire all cannons into the lord’s room Nika - Obsidian Flame Assassin, Avenger of Vizu War Cry - Furtive Glance - Stealths allies (including lord) If you attack from the stealth you will blind enemies Passive - Smoke and Daggers - pulses stealth, if you attack out of stealth you will blind your target Elite - Fade to Black - Nika stealths and damages the enemies with a blind and daze periodically You’ll be able to choose between 3 queues, conquest, stronghold, or both. A: Oooh! I want Pyre Fierceshot at some point! Or Vekk! C: CYNN AND MHENLO! A: yussssssssssssssssss. Flirt/fight!   Lion’s Arch PoI Summary

Celeste and Allona fall in love the new Lion's Arch! And there's other stuff they talk about too, oh yes, LOTS of other stuff! LOTS… Audio Version What We Did This Week   Allona Made Hunter sad and frown in disapproval again (but neither of us can remember why “To be fair, I disapprove of most of how you play this game.”) Fungeons (Crucible) and Fractals! There may have been some ‘good-natured’ arguing (cough M cough Hunter cough) Guild Missions! I didn’t come in last for the Rush, but it was close and my heart was POUNDING I was so worried! Also I beat Hunter. Killed the Spider Queen in Kessex a bunch of time with Panther and Celeste; it is only notable because Celeste was stuck in a ‘treading water’ animation for a long time and it was hilarious! Power levelled my Guardian with Tomes the night before the patch. Toured New LA … and ooh’ed and aah’ed Trying to work out builds for my characters Got 32/50 of the Karka hatchlings Got ripped off by the damn ecto skritt Celeste Fungeoned and fractal’d this week; I tried to Leroy Jenkins but Hunter stopped me. I was a sad panda. (M had to tweet a pic of her wallet to prove she hadn’t previously done a path) Almost 80 on my necro, who has levelled almost exclusively through crafting and tomes, when I do take her out to PvE I really enjoy it! Explored Lion’s Arch Did the Troll’s Revenge… kinda…. Finished the dragonite ore eater Started working on new builds for my characters (cue: the meta is changing at an alarming rate)   Livestreaming Thursday’s at 9:30pm EDT/6:30pm PDT 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   THERE WAS A PATCH AND THERE WAS A LOT OF STUFF IN IT. LION’S ARCH IS PRETTY AGAIN. GO PLAY THE GAME. GO HOME. BYE! https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-June-23-2015 Lion’s arch! Hunter’s Impression of the New LA https://huntersinsight.wordpress.com/2015/06/24/lions-architecture/ “Lion’s Arch in the original Guild Wars left something to be desired. I could never imagine that people actually lived and worked there. It was a settlement at best, but never felt like a city to me. 250 years later Lion’s Arch felt much improved in the sense of feeling lived in, and it certainly had a pirate aesthetic, something straight out of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney World. But I always felt it lacked something more. Here was the central city of the Tyrian continent, a megapolis that took in all comers, no matter the race, the creed, or guild. Yet there was little splendour, little wonder. A charming pirate shanty town that reminded me of Bree in middle earth, but not Minas Tirith.” C: Conversely, a lot of folks have told me that the piratical, dirty LA was much more fitting to realistic expectations. I don’t agree with them but it is an opinion. “Amazing how little real content Arenanet can put into a patch to whip up my hunger to play Guild Wars 2. The last 6 months have been pretty dead, but I’ve played for hours on end the past two days.” Verene Shares Her Thoughts on the renovations http://thepaletree.net/2015/06/24/everlasting/ “Luckily, with the rebuild of Lion’s Arch, both of these things are gone. It feels like a proper city that would be a trade hub for five races. It feels like the grand, wealthy city that such a place would be. And it has recovered a lot of the feel that GW1 LA had – the palm trees, the white stucco buildings, the decoration on everything – it has that flavor back again.”

Celeste and Allona are overwhelmed with all the guild halls news. SO MUCH NEWS. They briefly touch on the pre-purchase controversy. And, finally, Ultra's teacher-mode from previous Surviving the Mists pays off as we received a WHOLE BUNCH of creative and wonderful submissions! Audio Version What We Did This Week   Allona Fractals and fungeons, which kind of went smooth as silk. Did zone completion for Straits of Devastation on an alt and also made some decent progress on other maps … with other alts. Completed two more pieces of my medium ascended armour! Some PvPing. Listened to the Guild Halls pre-show and announcement with guildies and had a pretty great time. GUILD MISSIONS!! Celeste AC P1 with Romo and Irish story missions for my son, we did the whole quaggan set Ran to Orr to get my thief an aqua breather and recorded the trek in FPV (https://youtu.be/w8RvGKg-2ak?list=PLuF8h6vFT6oUdsRRsrAkCPv1-gK2h0NuP) Working on my weaponsmith, went from 50 to 130 and then I ran out of iron and soft wood… which lead to Farm Day 2015. I went through all the zones where these nodes spawn and collected. While I was doing this I finished off a few more zones with my Elementalist so I’m closer to world completion (I was at about 40% when I started focusing on it and am now at 73%)   Livestreaming Thursday’s at 9:30pm EDT/6:30pm PDT 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   Patch Notes: More on These Next Week http://www.dragonseason.com/activity/390/ Patch notes for next week have been released but I think we have enough of a show that we don’t need to go through them this week. We’ll comb through them on our next show to make room for all that we’ve learned about GH before our recording on Thursday (6/18).   GUILD HALLS (AKA: All Link Hughes, all the time) http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/b/669729815 (Colin begins at the 54 minute mark) Welcome to Guild Halls https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/welcome-to-guild-halls/ Six Pillars of Guild Hall Design Emphasize Community and Fellowship Guild Halls should bring “players together to forge friendships and communities through shared experiences” A Place to Call your own “You control who can enter your guild’s map, and it’s a place you can retreat to with your close friends when you want to get away from the crowds of the open world.” C: This certain makes it sound more like a player hub Build A Shared History This seems to be more about how your expansion/construction alters the environment in permanent ways Bring Guilds into the world “The guild halls of Guild Wars 2 exist alongside the public maps in the Heart of Maguuma region, and each has its own history to unearth.” C: Perhaps if you have some lore mastery for a certain faction you’ll be able to discover more about the map and share it with guildies? Activate player creativity Paraphrase: Make your own games up! “Over time, you’ll gain access to more tools to support that.” New ways to play together “Guild halls are a living system, and not just a place to unlock some vendors. To that end, we’re working to add new content for guilds to bridge the gap between the hall and the open world.” Frontier Ruins “The new guild halls were once inhabited locations, hidden on the outskirts of the Maguuma Jungle—their original inhabitants long since gone. You’ll need to mount an expedition to find these locations and wrest control from the Mordrem currently infesting them. Once they are under your guild’s control, you can begin acquiring services for them and building them back up to their former glory.” Two guild halls at launch Lost Precipice This is the one we see in the trailer “Who carved the dwellings, passages,

Allona returns! Celeste and Allona have quite a bit of GW2 news to discuss and, boy howdy, do they talk … there's wallet news, conditions news, Lion's Arch news, gem store news, news news, newsie news news news, etc. Audio Version What We Did This Week   Aetherized Allona 15.5K chest! 500 Armoursmith! And now I have all available crafting professions to 500 … whew. Zone events and CoF P1 with folks (Artphul, Celeste, Panther, Hunter and Romo) on Wednesday (note) Cal LOVED Particle Shift’s response to the previous game. We were driving when I read it to him and he laughed SO HARD. Celeste Some zone completion with my 7yo Zone events and CoF P1 with folks (Artphul, Allona, Panther, Hunter and Romo) on Wednesday   Livestreaming Thursday’s at 9:30pm EDT/6:30pm PDT 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   Lion’s Arch Update https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/come-home-to-lions-arch-in-the-next-update/ “The next content update is bringing changes to Guild Wars 2, and we’re excited to tell you all about them.” No date of when but that it is coming and will bring a new Lion’s Arch as well as the new specialization system C: They also announced the winning names from the player poll. A: I voted for all these but one, and I’m totes cool with what was chosen. Canal Ward → Commodore’s Quarter Lighthouse → Phoenix Roost Lion’s Court → Lion’s Court Air Base → Lion’s Arch Aerodrome Memorial → Field of the Fallen   Dots and Dashes (BTW: this title is very clever) https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/combat-changes-dotsanddashes/ Stack sizes for conditions will no longer be 25. This isn’t something new, we’d heard about this more than a few weeks ago during the first beta testing for HoT. Where we saw burning going up to crazy levels instead of just 25 and capping out. Condition removal isn’t changing however… “Condition removal will work just as it does now—using a skill that removes a condition will remove the entire stack of a condition, whether it’s two stacks of bleeding or four hundred stacks of bleeding. A player with four hundred stacks of bleeding would be a dead player, but you get my point.” A: I snort-laughed at this because I imagined 400 stacks of bleeding causing anyone to become an instant pool of blood. Duration stacking for some conditions is going away, namely poison and burning. They’re making the switch over to intensity stacking. ((From the article: “duration stacking, which increases duration for each version of the condition applied (such as weakness); and intensity stacking, which adds a stack of that condition for each version of it that is applied (such as bleeding)” )) “You can expect the damage per stack of these conditions to be lowered quite a bit, but we’ll keep the relative proportions consistent. For example, burning will still deliver the highest damage per tick.” “Poison will only stack its damaging portion on a foe. Once a stack of poison is applied, it will also apply the healing effect associated with it. Any further stacks of poison placed on that foe will only stack the damage portion of the condition.” C: So the healing effect is more like a duration stack and the damage is intensity stacking? As long as poison is present the healing (“heal potency decreased by 33%” http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Poison) effect will be active without stacking in intensity while the damage is stacking upwards. Changes to confusion Confusion is now essentially two-fold. It will still cause damage when the affected player attacks but this damage will be lessened as confusion is now also a damage over time (dot). C: This gives confusion a real boost to usability against enemies that can avoid attacking while the condi is active.

Celeste continues on with Ultra to discuss Legendary Centaur Stance and a whole of combat strategies. Audio Version What We Did This Week   Ultra Roamed in wvw way too much. But made some montages 1st montage 2nd montage 3rd montage some mapping and pve for the first time in… a month ish. experimented with some alts: ranger, ele, warrior a little stronghold   Celeste finished mawdrey stronghold beta random zone completions and such Went through Kessex with my son   Report from Lion’s Arch   Ventari Legend for Revenant & Melee Staff Reveal (Roy Cronacher) https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/revenant-compassion-as-a-way-of-life/ “The new legend will offer a supportive playstyle and push the boundaries of healing through skillful play. Today I’m happy to introduce the staff and the Ventari legend.” Melee Staff “This weapon imbues your attacks with the power of the Mists, using a mix of martial and magical styles to support your allies. It’s very much about damage prevention rather than directly offensive attacks, to fit the legend’s theme.” It acts more like a bo staff than a magical artifact Skills: Rejuvenating Assault - “Cleave foes around you with your staff, creating healing orbs for you and your allies.” Little healing balls pop out when you cleave on this 3rd part of the auto attack. “We wanted to promote healing through offense rather than as a passive effect.” Surge of the Mists - “Charge forward, knocking back enemies that cross your path” “This control skill is a Ventari-approved way to separate enemies from your injured allies.” For those not in the know Ventari never encouraged violence but, like martial arts teachings, enables you to protect for those who may be on the receiving end of a fight Ventari Legend “Ventari’s Tablet is at the core of every skill for the Ventari legend. All of the skills either do something around the tablet or modify it, so positioning of the tablet is the key to being effective. This requires the revenant to command the tablet, and to communicate and interact with allies so that they can receive the tablet’s benefits.” C: Again, with the revenant, Heart of Thorns brings in the environmental awareness in a big way You pop into Legendary Centaur Stance and you’ll need to pull out the tablet before you can do anything else. “After you bring the tablet into the world, your skill bar will fill with the five legend-based skills, all of which manipulate the tablet.” “There are two ways to dismiss the tablet when moving around between fights. Using your elite skill, Energy Expulsion, will overload the tablet with energy and cause it to disappear. The tablet will also automatically be dismissed if you move a certain distance from it. In both cases, your skill bar will flip back over to the previous state, and you’ll need to summon the tablet again to use the other skills.” Skills: Ventari’s Will - “Will the tablet toward the target location. As the tablet moves, it will heal allies it passes through.” U: Seems like it’d be nice in world boss fights and maybe wvw Protective Solace - “Summon a protective barrier around the tablet that destroys enemy projectiles.” A toggle skill that rapidly depletes your energy bar and resembles the Shield of Absorption for Guardian. You can use Ventari’s Will to move the tablet while Solace is active to both heal, reflect, and advance the line simultaneously. U: Use to defend casters against wall defenders? Energy Expulsion - “Force energy to erupt from the tablet, knocking back foes and leaving behind energy fragments that heal allies.” Dismisses the tablet, acts more like Shield of Absorption for Guardian (with the pushback), and sends out more healing thingies to the ground. C: The shards offering healing and such kind of reminds me of Supply Drop from an Engineer    

[EDIT: Apologies for the audio issues, I'm working on re-editing the show but it will be a bit before it's active. ~Celeste] Celeste and Allona were honoured to be included in this week's Heart of Thorns closed beta! They share their experiences and im...

We're 150! Celeste and Allona are happy to see progress in Lion's Arch and are joined by Ultra, who walks them though all the changes to WvW! Audio Version What We Did This Week   Allona STUFF! AND THINGS! I PvPed a bit more than I had in the last little while Guild missions with Maven and Hunter beat me … for reals … in fact everyone beat me so I had to make a sound of a creature of Tyria. My shame should be ready for viewing on Monday when Richie posts the Guild Missions. Got the last Grand Master Allona was missing. It was in the Ship of Sorrows in Straits … tried by myself but it was -- as Celeste says -- no bueno. Celeste came to help me though, and it was bueno! We didn’t have Fungeons this week so Hunter, Irish Dog and I levelled alts in Kessex Hills Did some more zone completions … Straits! Dwayna help me, I bought a bunch of the gem store dyes! I AM WEAK! (I did get Imperial Red though) Bought Shadow Orange from the TP. I kinda love it. (Note: It’s the least expensive shadow dye) Celeste did some world completion on my ele in that vein I’ve started working on getting my guardian at least to the world boss locations so I can do the rotation on her instead of my ranger all the time Dry Top on my engineer, as well as fire elemental where I immediately asked hunter to tell me what to trait in as my build is more “celestial” atm Crafting and dailies! Did some PvP with Romo Finished as much of the Explorer achievements as I could. Someday I’ll get the Iron Marches events ones and I’ll probably never get Twice Told Legend 9,500 cheevo chest~! 10k can’t come soon enough!   Livestreaming Thursday’s at 9:30pm EDT/6:30pm PDT 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   Lion’s Arch Renovations https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/lions-arch-construction-nears-completion-new-player-poll-announced/   “Anyone who’s visited Lion’s Arch today has already noticed some pretty exciting changes—the increased activity of the construction workers, watchful reviews by the surveyors, assembly airships, a construction yard, and a whole lot of scaffolding! At long last we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and our beloved Lion’s Arch—the heart and soul of Tyria—will soon be rebuilt!" C: Soon (™) “The plan of the city leaders is not to attempt to fully restore the landmark as it once was, but rather to implement an enhanced design that will more realistically serve the Tyria of today. In light of the lessons learned from the attack by Scarlet Briar ... the city will be a more fortified city, with a design intended to protect citizen and visitor alike.” C: “Because this is a living world, we can’t just give you old Lion’s Arch” A: Which is good because that wouldn’t make any sense. “And yet, the city will retain its distinctive beauty. There will be new gathering places, focused service areas, refreshed locations, and commemorative area names and place names that are sure to delight.” Naming Poll - https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5B7WMBF C: We’ll talk more about these proposed names further in a bit. But while we don’t have a date for the final unveiling, we can say that—due to the advantages of off-site construction—one morning in the next few months you’ll awake to a newly refreshed Lion’s Arch. C: Another Soon (™) A: I do like their loop hole of buildings just appearing though … clever “In the meantime, we’d like every guild, group, and gang of friends to consider how they’re going to celebrate the new Lion’s Arch. A poetry reading? A historical reenactment? A musical extravaganza? Or how about just…a party? Put on your collective thinking caps, and start coming up with plans for your group’s party.

Celeste and Allona talk more about GW2 elite specialization reveals, include this Thursday's Necromancer Elite: the Reaper! They continue to have brief thoughts about previous Elites … or not so brief in the case of the Chronomancer (coughcoughAllonacough). Audio Version What We Did This Week   Allona Forgot to keep track of everything I did this week … so this is going from memory Rank 37 in sPvP Got weaponsmith to 500! Just armorsmithing left to go… and I ran out of bloodstone dust. Fractals and fungeons! I was late and they went long, but always fun! Stuff with Celeste! A few times … this almost never happens! Guild missions with Maven … third in the guild rush! More! Probably ... Celeste More Silverwastes with my Ranger, never did get a Portal. Sigh. Cultivated vine is done for Mawdrey. Getting there! ((Thanks to Blaise/IrishDog for sending me some spare plant food and foxfire. Allona and Hunter too for making some food for me)) Did a round of dailies, Tequatl, Balthazar with Hunter and Allona Magical PvP with Allona and Khaladen Ran around Orr for Foxfire and for zone completion on my ele, did a lot of temples and stuff Sold Frenzy and am now working on getting candy corn bags (and 1 invisible per) on all my alts. Got my first ever black lion claim ticket (that wasn’t from scraps combining)   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   Dwagon Huntah! https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/meet-the-dragonhunter-guardians-elite-specialization/ http://dulfy.net/2015/05/08/gw2-dragonhunter-ready-up-livestream-notes/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9MKLqMdxwQ Gives a full rundown of all the traits, skills, as well as some gameplay examples They tried to show off some synergy in traits and the way everything interacts   Reaper (obligatory listening) https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/meet-the-reaper-necromancers-elite-specialization/ http://www.tentonhammer.com/news/guild-wars-2/meet-reaper-necromancer-elite-specialization (maybe) “This devastating melee brawler is at home in battle when surrounded by as many enemies as possible, cleaving through hapless foes for life-force sustainment.” “One of the most immediate things you’ll notice when you take charge of the reaper in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns™ is that the greatsword attacks are slow. In fact, most of the reaper’s attacks have a fairly sizeable cast time. Drawing on the themes of horror monsters, we wanted to express a sense of dread and weight behind each blow. This means that while the reaper doesn’t swing a greatsword as fast as other professions do, the damage modifiers and effects for each blow are much more pronounced.” Traits - Minor - Shroud Knight: new melee-focused skills for death shroud, gives access to Reaper’s shroud Minor - Shivers of Dread: “When you inflict fear on an opponent, you also inflict chill.” “By adding chill to fear, the reaper can easily close the gap on a helpless victim.” Minor - Cold Shoulder: “Chill lasts longer, and chilled foes deal less damage to you.” “Chilled foes also have a harder time dealing damage to the reaper, making the reaper an imposing foe for enemies without proper condition removal.” C: With these being the minor traits, I can’t wait to see a Reaper versus a Mallyck’s Revenant. While in Reaper’s Shroud you get to cleave, use a “scythe” (it’s a particle effect), and be up front Skill - Death’s Charge: spin and dash toward enemies, damages enemies in your path, and explodes into a poison cloud at the end Replaces Death Shroud’s Dark Path which was used to close the gap between you and enemies From Ten Ton - “Fortunately Death’s Charge still strips boons and converts them to conditions,

Celeste and Allona are back together again to go over what they know about the Chronomancer and also (ALSO!) discuss the newly revealed Dragonhunter! Ultra joins them to make us all better at WvW (and everyone has fun with the postcard game)! Audio Ve...

Allona is once again joined by Hunter to go over the Specializations news and speculation from Guild Wars 2! Audio Version What We Did This Week   Hunter Played a few hours in silverwastes trying to get a beta invite.  They don’t appear to have a good drop rate, in my opinion. Placed 13th in Maven’s Guild Rush beating allona for the first time in a few weeks. (I wasn’t there) SHUSH Spent a lot of time in Edge of the mists both Karma Training and Defending my keep.  Defending isn’t done often there and I can see why. Once you’ve defended the keep once from enemy players they are unlikely to return. I’ve been trying to raise my world experience rank so that I can max out guard killer and guard defense and still spec into other things I like before the new borderlands map comes out. Gave Allona several undedicated minis and 100k platinum in the original Guild Wars because I am wicked awesome. Did one of the most frustrating dungeon runs in recent memory with Mock. People not listening, rushing in, ignoring strategy, all on a dungeon path we’ve done tons of times. Another typical day with Mock. Allona Forgot to mention last week: I took part in the GW2 Toga Party pre-show, danced with people, won 50 gold, good times! And I finally gave up and made a (non-Tengu) Guardian. Tried roaming in WvW with my ranger for my surviving the mists homework. I am le suck. PVPed with Ultra on Saturday … he was sneaky and queued us up for Ranked without my knowledge! In an attempt to get some of the GW1 10-year holiday stuff done, I streamed a mission on my personal channel. I was so out-of-practice, it was sad. (Sorry to the two people who popped into my stream!) Did two runs of Arah with Spirit, Eric, Hunter, and Cal. And with that I now am a DUNGEON MASTER! Did a quick “fungeon” with MoCK and we were joined by Rune Lockhart. While frustrating for Hunter, it was hilarious for everyone else! (H - I’m glad you take joy in my misery) (A - I really do :) )   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   Ready Up Summary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPqYpcteqac https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/ready-up-core-specializations-summary/ http://dulfy.net/2015/04/25/gw2-core-specializations/ Last Friday Ready Up went through nearly every trait that is receiving significant changes, this took 4 and a half hours. We do not have that kind of time to summarize but we highly suggest visiting dulfy to read her table of changes. It took her all weekend to do. If you do have 4.5 hours to kill, Anet has posted the Ready Up to the youtubes (bonus: it has links directly to each profession!). Also Anet itself posted a brief summary on their own page. H: There is a lot to take in here.  No firm opinions until i actually get my hands on these but a lot will be changing, lots of popular skills and builds taking hits. A: Data usage be damned: I streamed the bulk of this over my phone! Thankfully the Twitch app has an ‘audio only’ option (gads I wish YouTube would implement that). I may have fist-pumped in the middle of the grocery store when they mentioned Time Warp was (rightfully) becoming a glamour!   Mesmer first? (for once) https://twitter.com/guildwars2/status/592720217459011586 Guild Wars 2 tweeted an image of a female caster class wielding a shield. The image has a lot of pink/purple so it seems like a direct clue to the mesmer elite specialization being revealed tomorrow.  They had said the first elite specialization would be released this week, and a tweet by Lewis B of TenTonHammer suggests 8am EST. H: Any speculation on the mesmer specialization allona?  What do mesmers lack that a specialization might help address? A: Previously, I was wondering if it could be mesmer,

Good news everyone! Celeste and Allona moved the live show by one day to be able to talk AAAAAALLLL about specializations (or at least about what everyone thinks they mean prior to Friday's official Ready Up)! Audio Version What We Did This Week   Allona Been doing my homework! Tried TA Aetherpath for fungeons. Gave up. Then Fractaled! Did a BUNCH of personal story over a few alts. Finally joined the Vigil! Made another part of my medium ascended armour: the leggings! Guild missions with Maven! Fractals instead of a show! Popped into GW1. Got a ton of minis as charity from Spirit, Hunter, and Celeste! (totally forgetting stuff) Celeste Made Frenzy - still trying to decide if I want to sell it in order to have assets to work on mawdrey and whatever else I set as my goal afterwards. Did Triple Wurm with an invite from Black Lion Chest on a TTS map. The pro groups really make it super simple and they were surprisingly friendly and helpful. My thief is now level 80 and I’m nearing Rank 30 in PvP. Tried to get my dailies settled up as often as possible. Fractal’d with Hunter, Inks, M, and Allona   Livestreaming Wednesday’s at 9:30pm ET/6:30pm PT 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   We’re Special Snow(Charr)flakes https://twitter.com/Shinryuku_ku/status/591260345752137729 - And today was the day when the entire GW2 community was hit with 25 stacks of Confusion. Duration: 24 hours. https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/specializations-part-one-a-primer/ https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/specializations-part-two-reward-tracks-and-elite-specializations/ http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/473/feature/9624/Guild-Wars-2-Specializations-Define-Roles-in-Heart-of-Thorns.html http://www.tentonhammer.com/news/guild-wars-2/guild-wars-2-heart-thorns-specializations-and-jon-peters-qa tl;dr! (http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/33mhdg/specializations_tldr/) C: I also feel like the Mighty Teapot’s video was really easy to follow for me https://youtu.be/8YDVAK5hYmo Specializations (hereafter referred to as specs bc i’m a lazy typist) are NOT just the different lines that the presentation at pax south had us believe. All the traits, lines and everything is being thrown into upheaval with HoT. TenTon: Why create traits like this? Why specs? Jon Peters: We put out this new trait system last year… “In retrospect seeing it in the wild, we felt like the system wasn’t in the game’s best interest” We’re also trying to build in future-proofing so we don’t make you learn a new system every year. C: This is as close to a backpedal as we’ll ever see. I’m pretty sure of it but for long time players this is unmistakably what’s happened. A: I get why it needs to change but I still really like the premise of the current system. It really didn’t pan out well though. MMORPG: “Specializations seem like a way for roles to be further defined in party situations. Will we be seeing support, crowd control, healing, and all those traditional roles with each different specialization?” Jon Peters: “Yes, specializations tend to fill a specific role.  However, part of us realigning the skill and trait system is that we’re trying to make sure the normal professions—not just with specs—have more specific roles for players to play, and more distinct playstyles to fulfill those roles. ... Specializations are a way for characters to still do this, but to go a bit deeper into the control and support roles in particular to reinforce more of that kind of gameplay with this system, and with the types of new creatures and content that we’re building into the game.” Specs are for people who are just starting a character and elite specs are available at some point on the road to or at 80.