Still no news about GW2 except that they're wont be much news until next year sometime.

The original Guild Wars has had several updates in the last couple days though. They've added "Hearts of the North" the next phase in the Guild Wars Beyond" series which links GW1 to GW2.

For characters that have completed the "War in Kryta" quests there are a new series of quests involving reuniting Gwen (last name unknown) and Keiran Thackery (ancestors of Logan Thackery in GW2). You alternate between a quest finding a clue which points to Keiran's whereabouts and a solo mini-mission in which you actually play Keiran. These mini-missions are supposed to be what your character sees when they look in the Scrying Pool in an attempt to find the missing ranger.

Ultimately Hearts of the North will end in a wedding in the Eye of the North outpost of Olafstead. The wedding is not currently implemented however.

Finding the quests is a little tricky. A scout outside the Eye of the North will suggest searching Kryta. Not really helpful as that's a long section of Prophecies. What you have to do is check the official wiki for where to go to find your first clue. Once you find Embedded Arrowhead you'll be told to go to the Scrying Pool in the Eye of the North. You talk to Gwen and she gives you one of Keiran's Bows. With it equiped the Scrying Pool will give you first solo mini-mission. Completing the mission will send you back to Gwen. You are then on your own in finding the next clue. See wiki again. This goes on like this until you have found 4 clues and done the mini-misions. Finally than you add Gwen the hero to your party and go find Keiran standing around thinking at Anvil Rock. After you get the final quest reward in the HOM. Walk out and back in for the marriage proposal scene.

In real time this takes several hours. In game time, probably several months.

The mini missions feature a new NPC, Miku the assassin who apparently will be the link to the next phase, "Cantha: Wind of Change" as all sins from Cantha. I thought she might be the new hero were supposed to get but the man at Arenanet who is in charge of GW1 now says its not assassin or ranger. So that leaves out Miku or Keiran as the next hero.

I forgot to mention rewards: for finding the clues (and reuniting Gwen and Keiran) you get experience and gold. You can find the clues (and reunite the couple) once per character. The mini-missions are repeatable. Each time a character completes them you get experience, gold and Vanguard reputation points. This is listed in the quest log. Not shown in the quest log are the two Medals of Honor you get the first time only (per character) or the 5 War Supplies each additional time. You actually get the MOH or WS in the missions, so have an empty inventory slot.

For those characters who have not played the War in Kryta story line there is new quest called, get this, "The War in Kryta". Which just gives you direction in how to do the War in Kryta that the rest of us got by reading wiki. They've also changed some of the prerequisites for activating the war quests to make it easier.

One last piece of news: there are now Wedding Costumes available for sale. There are 3 sets which you can purchase individually or for a limited time you can buy all 3 at a special price.

Wedding Couple Attire:
Wedding Finery:
male: red tuxedo (can be dyed)
female: red dress (can be dyed)
Traditional Wedding Finery:
male: black tuxedo (cannot be dyed)
female: white dress (cannot be dyed)
Wedding Headpiece:
male: black top hat (can be dyed)
female: white veil with red wig (can be dyed)

Formal Attire:
Formal Outfit:
male: red tuxedo (slightly different than wedding couple version, can be dyed)
female: red dress (very different than wedding couple version, can be dyed)
Formal Headwear:
male: black top hat (shorter than wedding couple version, can be dyed)
female: red wig with white piece (can be dyed)

Dapper Tuxedo:
Dapper Tuxedo:
male: same red tuxedo as formal (can be dyed)
female: female version of red tuxedo (can be dyed)
Dapper Top Hat:
male: same top hat as formal (can be dyed)
female: female version of top hat (can be dyed)

Dying head piece changes color of the hair not the hat or veil.

If you buy all 3 sets you get 3 different costumes for male character (2 different hats), 4 different costumes for female character (3 different head pieces).

In my opinion the formal dress is better looking than the wedding dress (which doesn't actually look like a wedding dress to me, the traditional wedding dress does). My lady dervish has her formal dress dyed pink, looks good. I did not dye the head piece, pink hair is too much. For my male characters, I'll eventually dye the tux to match their armor color, some will stay red. An orange tux is going to be very interesting. No I wont have a pink one.

Like all costumes once purchased the wedding costumes are available to all your characters, you click on the costume makers in Lions Arch, Shing Jea Monastery, Kamadan or Great Temple of Balthazar. Since you pay real money for the costumes the costume makers do not charge for adding costumes to your characters, unlike the festival hat makers who do charge 10 gold to copy each holiday hat.


Wintersday will be next big event, and this year will feature new costumes. Anet getting big on micro transactions these days.

Thanks Guybrush!

Ana

The Wintersday celebration, which runs from mid December through early January, (with the finale on January 1st) begins this weekend. This year it will probably include Keiran Thackery and Gwen's (family name currently unknown) wedding.

The finale is a battle between Tyrian deities. One wants Spring to come, one wants Winter to last longer. Players decide the outcome which determines which 1 of 2 festival hats or masks will be rewarded. The finale runs several so its possible to get both hats.

That's neat that the players decide the outcome. How do they do that?

There are two groups of circles, red and green/blue. Player characters stand in the red circles to vote for more winter, green/blue circle for early spring. When a town becomes full a new district with the same town is created. Its become the standard to stand in the red circles in odd numbered districts and the green/blue circles in even districts. That way by doing the finale twice in different districts its possible to get both festival hats/masks. Of course there is usually some people who don't know that's the unwritten rule or they don't care, and stand in the wrong circle, but never enough to change the outcome.

In addition to the festival hats, wintersday gifts are given. Each gift contains a random reward.

New this year: its two deities who had been neutral in past years have choosen sides. So its now two wanting longer winter, two wanting early spring. Two new wintersday quests, two new Heart of the North quests. And a new hero. Oh and two new costumes available from the in game store.

Two new Hearts of the North quests. First is very very annoying. You have to go around killing specific creatures for the wedding feast. And you do it in Eye of the North, Factions and Nightfall. If you haven't advanced far enough in those you will have to play them out first. Factions is particularly annoying because you cant get to where the Black Moa is unless you complete the quests and missions that unlock the outposts you have to go through on the way. I wasted a lot time because I didn't realize the doors would be locked without doing the Factions quests.

I forgot something very important, to vote you have to have Candy Cane Shards in your personal inventory. You get them doing quests and from Wintersday Gifts.

The two new Wintersday quests are repeatable (old ones are once per character per year), so you can get lots of gifts and tonics quickly.

Edit:
Finale finished. Quests still going and still possible to trade in unused Candy Cane Shards for candy weapons or gifts until Monday. Festival hats this year are halos from Dwayna and demonic horns from Grenth. Don't like the horns but I put the halos on my two monks.

Back to the wedding. I could actually do it on four characters and unlock the new hero for them but doesn't make sense to me to do the wedding before doing the wedding catering quest. And I'm surprised they didn't actually make it required first.

Nothing to do with the wedding, but my mesmer Mystic Master Mind maxed out the Party Animal title, getting Life of the Party title. Now I guess I have to work on Sweet Tooth and Drunkard.

you Party Animal. Titles are so much fun!

In Guild Wars: Factions its Canthan New Year weekend. Doing special quests will get you Lunar Tokens, trade 3 tokens in for Lunar Fortune. You take fortunes outside, don't work in towns, outposts or guild halls, then click on them to see what you get, mostly fireworks, but if your lucky you'll get Miniature Celestial Rabbit. Canthan New Year is based on Chinese New Year. Last year was year of the tiger, next year is year of the dragon. I was lucky only had to use 30 Lunar Fortunes to get the rabbit. I had 253. Most of the rest got me fireworks. A few got me good fortune and a few bad fortune. Nobody knows what the good fortune aura actually does. The bad fortune makes screen go blurry, like when your character is drunk and you start saying strange things.

If not interested in the mini pet, trade 5 Lunar Tokens for a Red Gift Bag. Each red bag contains one of several prizes but not a mini. The best prize is 10 Lunar Tokens. Also slight chance of getting 100 gold.

Sunday every three hours will be the finale to get gifts and a lion mask. The mask is the same every year, only one that doesn't change.

Thanks Guybrush!

Ana

I love mini pets! Sounds like a fun holiday.

Got a second rabbit. I should probably sell my extra celestial ox (2009), celestial tiger (2010), celestial rabbit (2011) and black moa chick (you get it doing a cross campaign scavenger hunt, once per character). The Black Moa Chick is unique in that it is not called Minature Black Moa Chick, because its supposed to be life sized. A moa is a large bird sort of like an ostrich, comes in several types Black being rarest as it appears in only one area in Factions and only one a time and only during or after a particular quest. Wont appear before you get the quest but will after you complete it. Quest is to kill it but ranger charming it works too. White Moas appear randomly in Eye of the North but there is a group of them when they show up.

Actually, I'd rather trade the minis for ones I don't have, but last time I did that I found out later the mini I traded away was considered more valuable than the one I traded for.

During the Canthan New Year Finale (every 3 hours), 5 chefs will ask for ingredients. For each ingredient a player provides the player will rewarded with a Lunar Token. For each dish completed everyone in the district will receive rewards.
0 dishes everyone receives 2 Red Gift Bags
1 dish, 4 Red Gift Bags and 1 Celestial Summoning Stone
2 dishes, 6 Red Gift Bags and 2 Celestial Summoning Stones
3 dishes, 9 Red Gift Bags and 3 Celestial Summoning Stones
4 dishes, 12 Red Gift Bags and 4 Celestial Summoning Stones
5 dishes, 16 Red Gift Bags, 5 Celestial Summoning Stones and 5 Crates of Fireworks

Also if no dishes are completed everyone in the district is turned into a rabbit. I have never seen this happen. Worst I've seen is 3 dishes completed.

After the chefs are done every one receives a Lion Mask. This is the only festival mask that is the same every year.

A Celestial Summoning Stone is used in combat areas to summon a random celestial creature to aid you. There can only be one summoned creature in an area at a time. If not killed the creature last 30 minutes but the person who summoned it cannot use another stone for 1 hour. Summoned creature will have the same level as the character who summoned it. A summoning stone is destroyed when used. (There is a special summoning stone for low level players that has unlimited uses, but still only usable once per hour unless you rezone.)

Crates of Fireworks set off a 10 minute fireworks display in your guild hall. Using one gains you 3 points towards Party Animal title.


There is been a slight hint given about Guild Wars Beyond: Cantha: Winds of Change. It "[i]nvolves the plight of the tengu, the origins of the Ministry of Purity, and the isolation of the entire continent." Never good when a government creates a Ministry of Purity. The tengu are a race of bipedel, non-flyting, intelligent birds. The Canthan empire has a peace treaty with the Angchu tribe of tengu, but apparently its going to be violated as we've been told a future emperor will purge Cantha of non-human life forms. No word when Winds of Change will begin however. Supposedly next major update will improve the Dervish.

There are many people who want to see tengu added to Guild Wars 2 as a playable race in an expansion pack which they assume will take us to Cantha once we've saved Tyria from the dragons. By GW2 time Cantha is cut off from Tyria and Elona. Presumably another expansion would open up Elona.

Big changes coming to Guild Wars: Nightfall profession of Dervish

These changes have not been implemented as of yet.

I like the battle applications of the profession...fire, fire, and more fire.

Haven't played Guild Wars in last couple of days so I missed the updates. Anyway, dervish update implemented February 17th and some bugs fixed February 18th.

Lots of updates to original Guild Wars today.

Embark Beach
From here your characters can map to any mission outpost they have open without having to go to the specific campaign first.

Zaishen Vanquish
In addition to Zaishen Bounty, Zaishen Combat and Zaishen Mission there is now Zaishen Vanquish. In HM you kill all the monsters in a location to vanquish it. If its Zaishen Vanquish of the day you'll be more likely to find people willing to do it.

Survivor
Dieing once no longer makes it impossible to get Survivor title. Each time you die you start over trying to make survivor. So you could die 100 times then never die again, staying alive until you get 1.5 million xp and still get survivor. Before one death ended Survivor track.

Drunkard
Getting drunkard title no longer takes hours of your character actually being drunk you can just rapidly click on alcohol and each drink consumed gives you its points instantly. Took me 2 years to warrior to 800 drunk points and in a few minutes today he's already at 5,000.

Mercenary Hero Slots
You can now buy from the ingame store Mercenary Hero Slots which allow the character you are currently playing to use one of your other level 20 characters as a hero.

Pre-Searing Prophecies now has a skill trainer.
Pre-Searing Prophecies now has new daily quests to help characters level 10 and up reach level 20.

The pre skill trainer not much use, only has skills you'd get as rewards for doing quests.

I hate the daily pre quests. Took me hour and 35 minutes to complete the first one. And two hours to do today's, because the boss wouldn't spawn for me.

April 1, 2011 updates

I particularly like Avatar of Kormir.

There is a new solo mission available from Corporal Bane at Embark Beach that is for real.

See also Guild Wars 2 topic.

April 28th will be Guild Wars: Prophecies 6th anniversary. Every other year this has meant random drops of birthday cupcakes and reveal of new birthday mini pets. Speculation is that this year may also see the new Guild Wars: Factions content known as Winds of Change, part 2 in Guild Wars Beyond, linking Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2.

Sounds like the developers like to keep players looking forward to goodies. Any word on what the pet may be?

It will be several new mini pets. It character that has a birthday gets a random pet. I had two characters this month with 2nd birthday, unfortunately their presents got two of the same minis. I just hope one of the new ones is a paragon character. Paragon is only profession there is not a mini of. Maybe now that Keiran Thackery is paragon hero there will be a mini pet of him.

The man in charge of updating Guild Wars 1 has hinted that there may be something more than cupcakes and mini pets this anniversary, but he also made it sound like there is still a lot of work to do on Winds of Change so perhaps its not that.

The folks in charge do like to keep the player's interest piqued.

I just reached level 20 in Pre-Searing Ascalon in Prophecies achieving the title Legendary Defender of Ascalon. This is the only way to get the title and once you go to Post-Searing you can't go back to Pre. Only Prophecies doesn't allow going back to training area once you've left it, and only one of the campaigns to have a special title for reaching level 20. Getting the title used to be a lot harder but they added daily quests that give 1000 experience as reward. Some of my guildies think people who get the title now should have an * by it, same with survivor and drunkard since Arenanet changed them too.

Thanks Guybrush and Congratulations. Titles are always fun to pursue and display.

Thanks.

And on another character I just maxed drunkard title, Incorrigible Ale-Hound.

Still nothing announced about 6th anniversary of Prophecies which is tomorrow. I just found a post from man in charge, he's again hinted at something besides cupcakes and 6th year birthday minis for those people who have toons that old but not until the 28th.

So, how is the Anniversary going?

* PvP in Guild Wars is now globally affected by Flux.
* "The Villainy of Galrath" is now available as a Hard Mode quest
* Embark Beach now permits qualified leaders to enable Hard Mode for missions.
* Players who have completed "Finding a Purpose" can now change Razah's profession.
* The Friends List now displays locations for mutual friends.
* Added costume and festival hat vendors to Pre-Searing Ascalon.
* Added the option to use high-resolution textures in outposts.

Not listed on updates list: 6th birthday everlasting tonics. I'm very disappointed that tonics have apparently replaced mini pets because now there will never be a mini pet paragon, only profession for which there is no mini pet. Being everlasting means the tonic never runs out, you can use it many times as you like. The downside is you do not get any party animal points, 1 use tonics do give party animal points.

Birthday Cupcakes dropping as usual.
The boardwalk in Factions is open for the usual festival games.

Flux: every month they're going to add a different effect to characters doing PVP. This month its Lone Wolf: If you are not within earshot of an ally, you deal 10% additional damage, and take 10% more damage.

The Villainy of Galrath is a Prophecies quest which now has two versions. If your character has not done it you get the normal quest 4,000 experience and some free weapons. If your character has already done this version you get a harder version marked "Difficulty: Master" and which gives 30,000 experience and 5 platinum. Apparently you must do the new version of the quest in HM for it to work.

If you have some one in your friends list and they also have you in their friends list you can now see where your friend is currently located in the game. If you have someone in your list but they don't have you, you don't get their location. If someone has your in their list but you don't have them in your list, then they do not get your location. I suspect this is a test for GW2.

Razah is a hero you get after completing Nightfall. Was originally planned that Razah could change professions to be whatever you wanted it (Razah is neither male nor female) to be. That has just now been implemented. To change Razah's profession you have to goto Heart of Abaddon, WITHOUT Razah in your party, so a different Razah will appear, talk to it. WARNING: changing Razah's primary profession will erase the old Razah from you hero list installing the new one. Remove weapons (and I guess runes and insignia from armor) first or you'll lose them.

Ah here's the thread.

Anyway, Guild Wars: Factions: Winds of Change has begun. Also there's a new costumes for sale in the in game store. The new costumes are apparently connected to Winds of Change but I don't know how yet since I haven't done any of the quests. Customes once purchased are added to character from an in game costume maker and since they exist in Prophecies and Nightfall as well as Factions, Lions Arch and Kamadan will download new files he first time you visit them as well as Kaineng in Factions.

Apparently Winds of Change will have 3 chapters each with its own set of quests. These new quests have two modes, normal mode and hard mode. Completing a quest will change the spawns in the related area but only for the matching mode.

Is it normal for the quests to have an easy and an hard mode?

No its not. That's something they added recently. And only certain quests have two versions. It's normal for missions to be done twice, once in NM and later in HM,after you've completed the campaign once, but this is not normal for quests.

Winds of Change quests (at least for Act 1) come in two types: Ministry of Purity quests and Imperial Guard quests. The Ministry of Purity is new and there is a rivalry between the two groups. The new costumes are based on these two groups.

Right now there are more Ministry of Purity quests, 17, than Imperil Guard quests, 3.

The last MOP quest end with a cut scene that says "To Be Continued". So I'm not going to do it again in hard mode (HM) until they've added the next chapter of Winds of Change in case they add a real cut scene. When collecting the reward you are told to go see the Herald of Purity, who does not currently exist, for the next quest.

Doing Ministry of Purity quests rewards Ministry Commendations. Fifteen of these can be traded for a weapon of Purity. Imperial Guard quests give Imperial Commendations, which were already in the game as rewards for other quests, however another set of weapons will be added later, the Imperial Weapons which apparently Imperial Commendations will be traded for. Right now the commendations can be traded for other things.

I didn't trust the Ministry of Purity when I first read it was coming and although they appear to be doing good, cleaning out the evil forces left behind after the wicked Shiro was defeated, there are hints that the MOP has a dark side. I think they're the White Mantle of Factions. You first meet them you're deceived until helping them out then later will discover they're up to no good.


Oh, to take part in Winds of Change your character has to have completed Guild Wars: Factions, that is done the primary quests and missions. The Winds of Change Imperial Guard quests will not be available until after you've done the first few Ministry of Purity quests. Once you've completed the first MOP quest in NM the HM version is available.

I forgot, one of the imperial guard quests is a solo quest, you go it alone, no other players, no heroes, no henchmen. And it requires that you have a pair of brass knuckles because your skills will be changed to a new set for brass knuckles only. You get the brass knuckle in the Eye of the North at Gunner's Hold. Once you get into the quest you'll have an NPC partner who can die but who automatically raises himself within a few seconds. If you run out of health than you get knocked down and you have a short amount of time to stand up (and be healed) before the quest fails. Its an easy quest in NM. I haven't done it in HM yet.

This is a post from the official Guildwars Twitter account. A hint that Cantha: Winds of Change Part 1 is coming?

And another:


Winds of Change part 2 is definitely on the way.

And yet another (orginally split in two):




No wiki entries for Shen Su, Apep or Wan Ra, guess we haven't met them yet.

The community must be excited!

Some what. Hoping part 2 is better than part 1.





So far Miku is the only character we've met in game. She's part of Hearts of the North and its logical to assume her quote refers to Keiran Thackery.

Ashu Yuudachi is one of the founders of the Ministry of Purity along with Minister Reiko. BTW Ash's family was all killed except his sister disappeared and some of us suspects she's Miku.



That is presumably Soar Honorclaw leader of the Angchu Tengu. Tengu are a race of intelligent birds. Humans of Cantha were at war with the Tengu at one type. The Angchu tribe singed a peace treaty. Other tribes did not. There's already been some hints that the humans may break the treaty.

Note on Facebook says part 2 will start sometime today.

Saturday October 15th from 12 noon to 6pm CST, there will be various events in Lion's Arch International Districts led by Gaming World Entertainment Network and Gamer's Giving Back. The goal beside having fun is to raise breast cancer awarness and money for research. Already made my annual donation.

Pink Day in LA started in 2007 and was repeated in 2008. Did not take place in 2009. During those first two years it was harder to convince people to dye their characters armor pink because to do so required mixing white and red dyes (the 2nd and 3rd most expensive in the game). In 2010 Arenanet added Rosa Salvitas the Pink Dye trader. Now instead of spending thousands of in game gold on white and red dye it costs just 100 gold per bottle. This year the vendor dye was renamed Vial of Rosa's Dye [Pink]. This dye is not tradeable. A second Pink dye has been added which can be dropped by monsters at random. This verion is tradeable. I've only seen it drop once.

Pink dye really doesn't look good on most of my characters so only my female dervish has pink armor. I dyed it last year for the day and liked it so much I didn't change the armor back to purple.

Donations are through Canadian Cancer Society. Those who donate at least $10 may enter a drawing for prizes. There will also be prizes given away online.

I have to work 12-9 so I'll miss the in game stuff.

Sounds like fun! Thanks Guybrush!

Update - Thursday, October 20, 2011

The leaves have turned. The air is chill.
Spectral fiends do what they will.
We light a candle, draw the shades,
And hope it's just the light that fades.

Can ancient bonds still hold back doom?
Is there no everlasting tomb?
Should we help break the Mad King's yoke?
Are we a punchline in his joke?

Let's robe ourselves in others' guises,
Dodge the tricks, and seek out prizes,
Risk our souls for passing fame,
And pray that this is just a game.

Halloween Events

Preparations have been made for Halloween 2011.
Costume Brawl has been updated with new hero and villain costumes.
A new challenge mission will become available early next week.
-- from the Guild Wars wiki

There are two new costume available for puchase in the online store. Once purchased any of your characters can get them by talking to the costume maker npcs.

Apparently when first released there was a bug in the coloring. Its been fixed,but in my opinion it ruined The Vale Wraith costume by turning the dark green, which in poor light looks black, into a bright green. The Ravenheart Witchwear went from black to orange. One of my toons still has the original wraith costume apparently the update didn't effect costumes already on characters. Looks great, nice and spooky. I hate the fixed version. I died it blue on my necromancer and it looks better than that gaudy green. But the original mistake version is still the best.

Sorry that they disimproved it Guy

I'm a mummy. When you get a ritualist (which is Guild Wars: Factions profession) to the Bone Palace (which is near the end of Guild Wars: Nightfall) you can get Ancient Ritualist Armor which makes you look like a mummy. By default parts of the armor are gray. Using a tip on the wiki I died the armor a mixture of brown, yellow and silver, to make it look like old cloth. This is the first time I mixed dyes. So my ritualist is now a spirit summoning mummy.

Ancient armor for other professions does not make them look like a mummy. Sorry.

Before this rit was wearing Elite Exotic Armor (Factions armor available only to ritualists and assassins) which looks similar to some other Nightfall armors, which is probably why its considered exotic in Factions. It was dyed blue.

This years Halloween hats are a three-cornered hat,, many are calling a pirate hat (Lion's Arch) and an executioner's hood (Kamadan).

I parked one of my characters in Lion's Arch over night and got 3 hats (and 30 trick-or-treat bags). I trashed 2 of the hats since they can only be worn by the character they're given to. I then showed it to festival hat maker to make copies for my other characters. Waiting for the Mad King Thorn to appear in Kamadan to get the other hat.

People who actively participate in the finales have a change to get up to 30 trick-or-treat bags at one time, people who just put their characters in LA or Kamandan and leave only get 10. Everybody gets the hats.

Due to a power outage in the eastern United States which caused many people to be unable to attend the Halloween finale to get the festival hats Arenanet has added two Halloween Hat Givers who will be available from November 17 to 24, 2011.

Erulis in Lion's Arch will trade 50 Candy Corns for the Tricorne.

Ashtan in Kamadan will trade 50 Pumpkin Cookies for the Reaper's Hood.

Wow Guybrush, that was really nice of Arenanet.

Cool mummy

Black Friday Sale from Friday November 25 - Monday November 28th NCSoft will have the Guild Wars Trilogy for sale for $14.99. This is for download. Eye of the North will be $9.99.

Thanks Guybrush, that's a nice price for lots of playing.

-- from Guild Wars Wiki

Wintersday runs from Thursday, December 15th, 2011 - Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012, noon PST.

Finale, during which festival hats will be given out every 3 hours on January 1st.

Wintersday quests available now.

New costumes available for purchase in online store: Augur of Kormir and Vision of Lyssa. They can be purchased seperately or at a discounted price for both. Or for those who did not buy the previous Tyrian deity costumes there is the Limited Edition Pantheon Pack which contains all 6 costumes.

Ohhhhh Dress up time

Interview with the Live Team leader John Stumme – Part 1, Winds of Change - a small group (three designers [one does PVP], one programmer and two Q&A) maintains Guild Wars 1. An undisclosed number of volunteers test the new builds for the Live Team.

So as it stands right now, there will not be a part 4 to Guild Wars: Beyond, no seeing what happens to Elona (Guild Wars: Nightfall).

Guild Wars: Beyond:
1: The War in Kryta (Guild Wars: Prophecies, Guild Wars: Eye of the North)
2: Hearts of the North (Guild Wars: Prophecies, Guild Wars: Eye of the North)
3: Winds of Change (Guild Wars: Factions)

Part 1 requires completing either Prophecies or Eye of the North.

Part 2 requires completing part 1.

Part 3 requires completing Factions, does not require doing part 1 or 2 however part 3 does feature a character introduced in part 2.

Thanks Guybrush. I'm sorry fans are not going to get to follow Elona.

It could be good news. The only reason they could not have time to do Elona is if Guild Wars 2 is coming out sooner rather than later.

I hope part 2 of the interview mentions the Mad King's court, Stumme's left hints before that there would be more about them but there wasn't anything new added to Halloween or Wintersday.

This year's Wintersday finale rewards either one hood (which can be dyed) if Dwayna wins and spring comes early, or three scarves (one black, one red/white striped, one black/white striped one) if Grenth wins and winters lasts longer.

Who are you pulling for Guybrush?

I did Grenth first and got the scarves, which I think are too big. I said make me look like Tom Baker's Doctor Who, somebody else said "where's Waldo?".

Now I'll park in even numbered district in LA to get the hood, while I go to work.

I'm worried. They're going to "update" the elementalist for Guild Wars 1. I'm worried because the talked about changing "Invoke Lightning" which right now is probably the best elite air skill. I don't want them ruining my favorite skill. They already weakened "Searing Flame" which used to be best fire spell until they nerfed it.

The updated to dervish made it better for PVE. Some say the weakened dervish in PVP but I don't see how that's the case.

The update on mesmer on the other hand didn't improve the class. Just made it less efficient in using a secondary profession with it.

So they're updates are not always good in my opinion.

I wish they wouldn't tinker with Guild War 1 skills, just concentrate on getting Guild War 2 right.

I feel your pain Guybrush

If the leaked list of changes is correct, they're also ruining my second most used air magic skill. I won't be able to play my first character the way I want anymore.

That's disheartening Guybrush....

Update done and its even worse, not only are my two favorite air magic skills no useless since they always cause exhaustion but the reduced the damage done by 5 ritualist skills. What used to be the best ritualist elite shouldn't even be called elite anymore.

Hmmmmm.....I wonder what their thinking is on this?

If Guild Wars 2 was out I'd say there trying to drive people away from Guild War 1 to it, but it isn't. So that theory won't work.

Found a new build. Replaced "Invoke Lightning" with "Lightning Surge" does slightly more damage but only to one target. Replaced "Chain Lightning" with an Energy Storage skill, "Energy Blast", again does more damage but only to one foe.

Guybrush, I'm glad you found a new build but I know it's hard to relearn your character when you've been playing for awhile.

My ritualist just got Legendary Guardian, the title you get for completing all 3 campaigns in both normal mode and hode mode, with bonuses. My first character to do so.

Woooo Hooo and Congratulations

Somebody goofed. Chinese New Years has passed already so this weekend should have been Canthan New Year in Guild Wars: Factions, but it isn't. Hopefully next weekend. I want my mini celestial dragon.

Hmmmmmmm.......that sounds odd.

A mini celestial dragon is cool...I hope you get it.

They're claiming it delayed because of bad weather in Seattle (where Arenanet is located). Not buying it. Shouldn't be that much to do for Canthan New Year. The only thing that changes from year to year is the mini. Last year it was rabbit. Next year its snake.

Canthan New Year this weekend. Starts Thursday 12 noon PST and ends noon Monday. The finale will run every three hours on Sunday. The mask is the same every year a lion mask. What changes is the mini. This year its celestial dragon, to match Chinese Year of the Dragon.

every Guild Wars: Prophecies cut scene edited together (1 hour, 22 minutes, 44 seconds)

Meet humans and charr, playable races in Guild Wars 2.

The little girl at the beginning is Gwen, she won't be seen again until the Eye of the North and until that expansion was released no one knew whether she lived or died when the charr attacked.

The Trials of Ascension can be done in any order, this video collection shows just one order. There are two cut scenes with Glint. The first comes from completing the mission. The second is only seen if you attempt and fail at the bonus, which is to kill Glint. Even if you do kill Glint to get the bonus, the story assumes you did not.

every Guild Wars: Eye of the North cut scene (49 minutes)

Video quality is better in game than on this compilation.

Meet the asura and norn playable races in Guild Wars 2.

Eye of the North allows the player to choose what order to play out the story, so this video just shows one way to order things.

I have not found similar videos for Factions or Nightfall.

Winds of Change part 3 has been added (see Guild Wars 2 post in this forum for blog about it).

I thought the ending was lame. I knew the Ministry of Purity had to be left in place but I thought it would be more dramatic than it turned out. And apparently our characters are idiots because we leave assuming everything will be good now, even though all we did was take out one power mad maniac and then leave another power mad maniac in her place. He's just a little more subtle that's all.

Anyhow, the final reward is an item that can be turned in for a weapon. Also a new hero is unlocked.

The imperial requisition orders received from quests can also be traded in for different weapons (15) or a lockedbox (3) which when open will leave one randomly generated item behind. Items include at least one mini pet, other weapons or items towards drunkard, party animal or sweet tooth tiles.

I haven't traded anything yet, but think I'll go for lockboxes.

One of the new quests included explosives which could be picked up, replacing skills with just 2 options, hurl it like a grenade or plant it on the ground as a trap, like a mine. This mimics Guild Wars 2 environmental weapons.

In the final quest Reiko the villain of the story, is a mesmer who summons phantasms, like a Guild Wars 2 mesmer.

Thanks Guybrush, I love hurling explosives!

I didn't get any minis from 5 lockboxes, just 3 weapons and 50 point party animal object and a 50 point drunkard object. I'll use weapons on heroes. The most interesting weapon was a parrying dagger to go in off hand instead of a shield for blocking attacks. That too is probably a tease for GW2.

Winds of Change Wrap-Up

Good to see they adjusted the difficulty in response to fan's feedback.

Woot, my Factions warrior Shy Samurai, just got Miniature Mad King Thorn for his 3rd birthday. That's first green (rare) birthday mini I ever got.

Got 4 birthdays in April, would be nice if one them would get the gold White Rabbit.

April Fools Day 2011 Arenanet added a solo quest featuring a commando (joke GW2 profession) from the future who sends you back in time to save Gwen's mother, before Gwen is born, from a golem sent by the charr. For 2012 that quest is back along with a new one, Annilator 2: Searing Day - the charr have set a golem back in time to kill Gwen as a child. You control another golem sent to save her. At one point you'll meet your past self. There are a number of optional encounters which give items needed later for Keiran Thackery's scavanger hunt. Keiran and Gwen eventually marry.

Both quests are repeatable. You just leave Embark Beach and then return to it. Or just change districts.

Thanks Guybrush

Guild Wars 7th Anniversary - kind of bad this week, starting today, is the celebration of Guild Wars: Prophesies 7th anniversary (April 28th), but the Guild Wars 2 Beta Event Weekend will also be running, starting Friday afternoon.

I got my Hounds of Balthazar, ranger pet. This is a tease for Guild Wars 2 elite skill that summons Hounds of Balthazar.

Thanks Guybrush, can the Hound stay with you all the time?

Ranger pet wont show up in towns or guild hall but otherwise it can always be with you. Its first pet that does fire damage. It starts out at level 5 though so needs leveling it. Guild member suggested that before charming it for pet, I attack it so it will fight me and let it kill me repeatedly so it gainx experience. I tried that and all though text turned red meaning it should be aggressive it wouldn't fight back.

The NPC you talk to has 3 other friends that don't do anything. She didn't until now either. So I'm wondering if each year for next 3 years, assuming people still play Guild Wars 1, they're be new pets, one water (cold damage), one air (lightning damage) and one earth.

Anniversary is running through May 8th.

In addition to the normal Birthday Cupcake drops this year consumable items from all holidays are dropping.

For first 5 years a character's Birthday Present will contain a miniature pet unique to that birthday. For 6th year an everlasting tonic instead of a mini. For 7th year the birthday presents are giving presents from previous years.

My oldest characters are 4 years old.

Thanks Guybrush. Have fun

Got another title. Vanquished last area in Prophecies last night.

WooHooo Congratulations...I love titles

In Guild Wars 1 the Dragon Festival is this weekend, starts in about an hour. New this year is a quest the completion of which will allow the acquiring of one hat from either previous years Dragon Festivals or the Day of the Tengu, which was a one time only festival. Unlike other quests which are once per character this one is apparently once per account per year. The reason there doing this is that with most of the Arenanet staff working on Guild Wars 2 they will no longer be able to produce new hats each year so they're making old hats available instead.


Okay: new quest is to get 250 Victory Tokens by doing other festival quests. The reward is an Imperial Mask token which you turn in for a mask. In past years you got a new hat during the festival finale if you had 250 Victory Tokens.

For those people who have been playing since the beginning and already have all the masks there is a Dragon Festival Grab Bag, which (based on what other people have said) will give an items worth 250 drunkard points or 250 party animal points or 250 sweet tooth points.

Apparently something similar will be happening for Halloween and Wintersday. That is if anyone still playing GW1 after August 28th.

Guybrush, I take it Aug 28th is The Day?

After a lot of agonizing over what previous year's mask to take I took the tengu mask, from the Day of the Tengu, a one time only festival that took place in 2006.

I'm glad you got one you liked. Sometimes those decisions are so hard to make.

Yes it was between tengu mask and grasping mask from 2008.

July 13, 14, 15 2012 will be Wintersday In July. There will be Wintersday drops and snowball fights but none of the quests and towns will not be decorated. Last Guild Wars 1 holiday before Guild Wars 2 launch. In September GW1 will have Talk Like a Pirate Day, whether GW2 will I don't know. It may not have holidays at start. The next big holiday for GW1 will be Halloween, but it sounds like no new masks/hats this year.

Speaking of Guild Wars 2, I'll be posting on it later today. I already have news about the soundtrack being available for purchase, but waiting for the blog that's supposed to be posted today on whats featured in the final Beta Weekend Event. Another website leaked the news but I'm waiting for official announcement.

John Stumme’s Guide to the Hall of Monuments - there's a video on the bottom, does he even look old enough to have been working 7 years? That's how long he's been with Arenanet. Right now he's the one in charge of maintaining and adding to Guild Wars 1, although there isn't much adding since the company's resources are being spent on Guild Wars 2.

Forge Your GW2 Legacy with Guild Wars Platinum Edition - Guild Wars: Prophecies & Eye of the North for about half of what it cost 5 years ago.

Thanks Guybrush...that sounds like a good deal.

Kissa Nimbleclaw in Elite Charr Hide Armor (dyed silver) - this is my human warrior that's holding the name for my charr thief to be in Guild Wars 2. Using the name in Guild Wars 1 reserves it for Guild Wars 2.

Kissa Nimbleclaw charr thief - and roughly what the charr version in Guild Wars 2 will look like (I didn't do any customizing for beta but you cant tell with that armor anyway).

Those are neat.

Elite Luxon Armor on Shy Samurai getting this warrior armor and adding it to Hall of Memorials got me the last armor point I needed, taking me to a total of 48 points. Those last two points will be the hardest as all I have left is maxing titles. I need four more maxed titles to get to 49, nine to get to 50.

My elementalist just needs 1 more maxed title to get the Rainbow Phoenix to appear in his HOM. Vanquishing last four places in the Eye oft the North would do it but all together thats over 1000 monsters to kill, in hard mode.

Guybrush, it sounds like you have some great playing ahead to get that Phoenix.

Guild Wars 1 ranger pets:

A GW1 ranger may have only 1 pet at a time (GW2 allows 2 active ones but you can charm all of them and then pick the 2 active ones). Pets either do slashing or piercing damage except for the Hound of Balthazar which is the only pet to do fire damage (its a tease for a Guild Wars 2 elite skill which summons a burning hound).

Prohpecies:
Black Bear
Dune Lizard
Lynx
Melandru's Stalker (Melandru goddess of nature's favorite animal)
Moa Bird (sort of like an ostrich)
Warthog
Wolf


Factions:
Black Moa (only 1 appears at a time and only after a speacific quest)
Crane
Lurker (crab)
Phoenix (appears only after completing Factions)
Reef Lurker (two types red and blue)
Tiger
White Tiger


Nightfall:
Crocodile
Flamingo
Hyena
Jahai Rat
Lion
Lioness
Warthog

Eye of the North:
Albino Rat
BLack Bear
Black Wolf
Iguana
Jingle Bear (only available for charming during Christmas and after a quest)
Moa Bird
Mountain Eagle
Polar Bear
Raven
Warthog
White Crab
White Jingle Moa (only available for charming during Christmas and after a quest)
White Moa (appears at random in a flock and runs away quickly)
White Wolf


Exotic:
Black Widow Spider(only available in the Underworld after quests)
Hounds of Balthazar (became available for the Seventh Anniversay Celebration in Zaishen Menagerie Grounds, only pet to do fire damage)
Moss Spider (requires a spider's egg from Nicholas The Traveler to make appear in Zaishen Menagerie Grounds)
Panda (requires Imperial Panda License from Winds of Change Factions quest line to make appear in Zaishen Menagerie Grounds)
Rainbow Phoenix (appears in HOM after maxing 10 titles)

Notes:
1) Most pets can be made in availbe in Zaishen Menagerie Grounds by purchasing (with real money) the pet unlocking kit. Other wise you have to charm them all one at a time and release in Zaishen Menagerie Grounds. Exotic pets are not included in the kit. Black Moa, Jingle Bear,Phoenix, White Jingle Moa also not included.

2) All pets, including exotic ones can be purchased with Zaishen coins or Balthazar Factions at the Zaishen Menagerie Grounds, though doing so only gives you a level 5 version.
Anyone who did not get Hounds of Balthazar during the 7th anniversay can only get it now by using Zaishen coins or Balthazar faction.

3) If you charm a pet in the wild, get it to level 20 and release it into Zaishen Menagerie Grounds you will receive 100 gold and if that pet was not already in your Zaishen Menagerie Grounds it will be now become available for recharming later. Releasing a pet of less than level 20 will not get you any gold. Releasing a pet you got from Zaishen Menagerie Grounds back into Zaishen Menagerie Grounds will gain you nothing it will just allow you pick a different animal to charm.

4) Each player has their own Zaishen Menagerie Grounds, which only the player and their heroes may enter. They don't want people who haven't either bought the animals or earned them playing the game to have access to them.

Guybrush, are the pets battle companions or just decorative?

Ranger pets fight for your ranger character.

There are also miniatures aka mini pets that are just decorative. Longer list of those. Don't know if they're more than decoration in Guild Wars 2 yet.

I just vanquised Bjora Marches, 465 foes. So I think I underestimated how many monsters I have to kill in vanquishing 4 areas in Nightfall.

There is a brand new festival going on in Guild Wars 1 in preparation for Guild Wars 2. From the Guild Wars wiki:

Update - Friday, August 17, 2012
Festival Updates

The spirit of adventure is always moving us forward, but it can be difficult to reflect on the journey while you’re in motion. Recent scholarship has unearthed a festival, once observed by our forebearers, that addresses just this notion. The Wayfarer’s Reverie honors the traveler inside each of us, encouraging revelry and revisitation. The world is yours to explore—again or for the first time. Join the celebration!

For those looking to walk the Wayfarer’s path, festival coordinators have been added to Lion’s Arch, Kamadan, Kaineng Center, and the Eye of the North to offer festival quests for their respective regions.

NPCs will be dropping by the major towns—as well as a few locations off in the wilds—to share their insights during the festival.
Special drops and bonuses will be in effect throughout the Wayfarer’s Reverie, which will run through August 30th.

Wayfarer's Reverie: Tyria

Wayfarer's Reverie: Cantha

Wayfarer's Reverie: Elona

Wayfarer's Reverie: The Far North


Each quest rewards an item a NPC will trade for a gift, but it requires all four items. Since the items can be placed in storage it should be possible to do the quests on different characters than place items in storage and have the one you want to get the gift and the Tormented Weapon it contains take all four items.

There are new NPCs who talk about memories and travel. I think they're named after Arenanet staff members, their names are misspelled though.

And now we know what two NPCs who have been in Embark Beach since that outpost was added are for. Ceira, Sworn to Fire unlocked the hound of Belthazar ranger pet during the 7th anniversary. Fylinn, Sworn to Winds collects Proof of Flames (Tyria/Prophecies), Proof of Waves (Cantha/Factions), Proof of Winds (Elona/Nighfall), Proof of Mountains (Far Shiverpeaks/Eye of the North). And two with no known fuction, yet, Palora, Sworn to Earth and Merrise, Sworn to Seas.


Besides the Proofs the quest rewards are experence equal to the year the part of the game came out ie Wayfarer Prophecies gets you 2005 experience. Each quest gives you 2012, gold, the year Guild Wars 2 comes out.

The Eye of the North quest has you stand on top of a frozen beastie in Drakkar Lake. People thought that was Jormag the Elder Dragon, but Arenanet said no its juat a minion. Later the EOTN quest has you go visit a "strange ridge", I think its a dragon's back.

Halloween has begun (actually its been going since the 19th).

No new hates, instead two quessts to do, 1 in Lion's Arch and 1 in Kamadan, to get hats from past years. Edit: I don't know if its supposed to work this way, but the character in Lion's Arch gave me the quest then gave me the token without my having to do anything for it. Same thing in Kamadan.

Two other new quests will be added October 24th.

Guybrush, are you playing both GW1 and GW2 now?

Very little of GW1. I'll do the new Halloween quests tomorrow.