The festivities of Wintersday have been a long tradition in Tyria and despite the

threat of the elder dragons Wintersday will continue. Tyrian officials have said that

they wish to give people a break from the hardships the elder dragons have pushed

onto their lives and have commissioned the Asuran toymaker Tixx. “Before Tixx

arrives in Lion’s Arch in his massive airship toy workshop, he’ll visit every major

city in Tyria to deliver Wintersday toys and holiday cheer” said the Tyrian

officials and this has help build excitement and anticipation as Wintersday draws

near as more and more have being asking, “What would you like for Wintersday?”.

“I want a quaggan plushie” said one youngster who loves the cuteness of the quaggans.

Others have asked for toy golems, Edge of Destiny figures, Elder dragon figures,

candy, new cloths and many other many things. So with many making lists of things

they would like and others preparing decorations and parties we will ask you, what

would you like for Wintersday?

On a side note we can’t forget about those doing it tough just as this youngster who

said this “My friends have been having a tough time because of those big nasty

dragons and those four legged guys so I’m giving my toys to them”. So with all the

gifts you receive this Wintersday, please don’t forget to give something back.

“I want a quaggan plushie” said one youngster who loves the cuteness of the quaggans.

Others have asked for toy golems, Edge of Destiny figures, Elder dragon figures,

candy, new cloths and many other many things. So with many making lists of things

they would like and others preparing decorations and parties we will ask you, what

would you like for Wintersday?

This teaser from the official website is a taste of the story to come.
Quote:The sky falls and the ground shakes in the lands of the north. Charr and norn

refugees crawl from the wreckage of their homes in the Wayfarer Foothills and Diessa

Plateau, struggling to find shelter in the south. The call goes out for volunteers to

assist the victims in this time of need, when earth and sky seem to have become the

enemy…

Guild Wars 2 will get it’s first big update of the year on January 28th, this update

is the prologue to a multi-stage narrative called Flame & Frost.

Last but not least Guesting is coming. Remember you can’t guest cross region, so if

you need to play with your American or European friends, it’s time to switch server!

From the 28th and forward server transfers are going to have a gem cost.

Besides expanding on the plot of Guild Wars 2, the update also adds several features

to the game.
From January 28th to the 4th of February, the regular eight-team/three-round paid

tournaments will be replaced by two-team/single-round paid tournaments in the Temple

of the Silent Storm map.

The Daily achievements will be update to feature a greater variety, and it looks like

Arenanet also heard my prayers when I suggested and achievement tracker in the UI, so

they are adding that as well!
The new achievement Laurels are also being added to the game. These can be earned by

doing daily and monthly achievements and can be traded in for Ascended gear and

Infusions as well as some new kinds of Ascended Amulets.

The update also makes UI improvements, fixes, rebalances, and tweaks to polish stuff,

which include changes to dungeons, the open world, fractals and dynamic events. A

full list of whats in the update can be found here.

New Daily Monthly Achievement system is now in place where you will be rewarded in

Laurels for completing the achievements and can be traded in for an assortment of

rewards to better suit what you would want as a reward.

As of the 28th of January 2013 Arena Net has made many new additions and changes to

the Guild Wars 2 world and client. This one gigabyte (1 GB) update adds in the new

Flame and Frost Prelude which is the first entry in the multipart Living Story series

which gives the world of Tyria that much more of a living ever changing world feel.

The Living Story part of the update adds new Achievements, events and heralds to

apprise adventurers of the events currently happening in the world of Tyria.

Transferring worlds now costs a gem fee which is determined by the level of players

in the world you wish to transfer to. But for those that do not wish to leave their

home server but just want to jump over to another world to play with friends in PvE

can use the new guesting system.

The update also makes UI improvements, fixes, rebalances, and tweaks to polish stuff,

which include changes to dungeons, the open world, fractals and dynamic events. A

full list of whats in the update can be found here.

While we’re amidst all the fun and festivities of Dragon Bash and the event of the Effigy Lighting Ceremony happening later today in Guild Wars 2, ArenaNet, as always, is making this world event even cooler for its fans with some fun, musical extras available for our viewing– and listening– pleasures.

If you’ve been finding that the Dragon Bash theme song is stuck in your head throughout the day, you can also enjoy it in multiple forms online. For some nifty behind-the-scenes information on the song’s origin and a video about its production, fans can check out this developer blog. Additionally, you can even download and listen to four of the musical tracks from the event on ArenaNet’s SoundCloud page.

While we’re amidst all the fun and festivities of Dragon Bash and the event of the Effigy Lighting Ceremony happening later today in Guild Wars 2, ArenaNet, as always, is making this world event even cooler for its fans with some fun, musical extras available for our viewing– and listening– pleasures.

For the next couple of days, Dragon Bash will be bringing us new phases of the event that will feature new storylines and missions to take part in as well as new rewards and achievements to grab. ArenaNet published a Part 2 to their first Dragon Bash guide that details the new additions and the rewards offered. Here’s the summary for today’s events:

Available Wednesday, June 19th
A mysterious message will send you to seek out private investigator Marjory Delaqua in the Dead End, a bar in the Eastern Commons of Divinity’s Reach. After her cinematic introduction, head back to Lion’s Arch to investigate. All of the story instances will be single-player.

A message from Marjory indicates that three of the suspects have been located. The ogre Vorrk in Lion’s Arch, the quaggan Morraloo in Bloodtide Coast and the skritt Kasparak in Gendarran Fields.

Talk to Investigator Kiel in the Grand Piazza to enter the Scene of the Crime, a single-player instance. After a scene between Marjory and Kiel, talk to Marjory to obtain an Investigation Kit. With the help of the kit, you’ll be able to exonerate five of the murder suspects.

A message from Marjory indicates that three of the suspects have been located. The ogre Vorrk in Lion’s Arch, the quaggan Morraloo in Bloodtide Coast and the skritt Kasparak in Gendarran Fields.

Upon finding Vorrk’s body, use the Investigation Kit to collect arcane residue evidence. Morraloo and Kasparak are found alive; you should be able to talk them into returning to Lion’s Arch for investigation.

On June 25th, Guild Wars 2 will leap headway into a brand new world event: Sky Pirates of Tyria. It seems there’s a criminal on the loose, and along with Inspector Ellen Kiel, it will be our job to help track down this dangerous criminal and reap the rewards. Pirates always have treasure. To find that treasure, you can take part in the new, secret story dungeon by the name of Aetherblade Retreat, enjoy a scavenger hunt and new jumping puzzle, and track down Aetherblade Caches, which are, of course, hidden around Tyria by the pirates themselves.

We’ll also see a handful of new features in the update, including some upcoming skill and trait changes that are outlined in this developer blog.

For more details on this awesome-sounding event as well as screenshots, read all about Sky Pirates of Tyria here.

On June 25th, Guild Wars 2 will leap headway into a brand new world event: Sky Pirates of Tyria. It seems there’s a criminal on the loose, and along with Inspector Ellen Kiel, it will be our job to help track down this dangerous criminal and reap the rewards. Pirates always have treasure. To find that treasure, you can take part in the new, secret story dungeon by the name of Aetherblade Retreat, enjoy a scavenger hunt and new jumping puzzle, and track down Aetherblade Caches, which are, of course, hidden around Tyria by the pirates themselves.

A murder at the Dragon Bash has thrown lion’s Arch into Chaos! The culprits responsible for

the mayhem have holed up in their hideout. Inspector Ellen Kiel spearheaded the

investigation into the murder, and she’s now gathering teams of deputies to capture the

perpetrator. Better sharpen your weapons and skills—this criminal promises to be a slippery

eel!

June 25 Content Release Notes
LIVING WORLD
Sky Pirates of Tyria
Attention: the skies of Tyria have turned treacherous. A new breed of pirates is descending

upon Tyria! Lethal and precise, they strike from above like a bolt of lightning. The

Lionguard knows little about them, but this violent faction was behind the attack on the

Dragon Bash effigy ceremony and is responsible for a growing swath of murders. With help

from citizens like you, we thwarted their plot to usurp a seat on the Ship’s Council, but

the Lionguard will not rest. Today, all who read this are deputized to join me in

discovering the Aetherblades’ secret headquarters and bringing these killers to justice.
—Captain Ellen Kiel of the Ship’s Council
Aetherblade Retreat

A secret entrance to an Aetherblade hideout has been discovered in Lion’s Arch behind

the waterfall by the Diverse Ledges. A Lionguard is stationed outside of the entrance to

easily route players to Inspector Kiel, who is gathering a squad to infiltrate the secret

Aetherblade lair. This is a challenging story dungeon designed for parties of five that

takes the fight to the Aetherblades. Players will encounter swarms of Aetherblade

cutthroats, the devious asura engineer Frizz, and ultimately, Captain Mai Trin and her hard

-hitting first mate Horrik.

Open World

Heralds in all the major cities have been notified of the disturbances caused by the

Aetherblade pirates.
Dragon Bash continues. The Lionguard vows to protect the city during the festival,

despite the Aetherblade threat. All Dragon Bash activities (except the fireworks show) will

remain available until the last day of the festival. This includes, for those who haven’t

played it, the single-player living story that starts with the Memorials on the Pyre

instance.
In honor of the release of the new Guild Wars 2 novel, Sea of Sorrows, follow the

footsteps of Lion’s Arch’s founder Cobiah Marriner to a dozen locations across the city

and Orr; each location contains a plaque detailing its significance to the historical

figure. Talk to the NPC by the Cobiah Marriner statue for more information. For additional

information, his journey can be followed in the Sea of Sorrows novel.
There are widespread reports that Aetherblades are tampering with the hologram

projectors across Tyria. Approach them with caution.
Aetherblade pirates have been spotted guarding caches in select mini-dungeons and

jumping puzzles across Tyria. Pirates have also been spotted around the Obsidian Sanctum

jumping puzzle in the Mists.
The familiar face of Lady Kasmeer Meade can be found in the Grand Piazza enjoying the

Dragon Bash festivities.
Achievements
A new category of Sky Pirate achievements has been added covering the Aetherblade

Retreat mini-dungeon and the appearance of the Aetherblade Caches.
A new meta-achievement, Against the Aetherblades, has been added, which requires players

to complete 12 of 20 of the previous achievements.
The History Buff achievement has been added to the Explorer category for the Sea of

Sorrows scavenger hunt.
The Not So Secret jumping puzzle achievement will become available July 2nd and will be

a permanent addition.

Open World

Heralds in all the major cities have been notified of the disturbances caused by the

Aetherblade pirates.
Dragon Bash continues. The Lionguard vows to protect the city during the festival,

despite the Aetherblade threat. All Dragon Bash activities (except the fireworks show) will

remain available until the last day of the festival. This includes, for those who haven’t

played it, the single-player living story that starts with the Memorials on the Pyre

instance.
In honor of the release of the new Guild Wars 2 novel, Sea of Sorrows, follow the

footsteps of Lion’s Arch’s founder Cobiah Marriner to a dozen locations across the city

and Orr; each location contains a plaque detailing its significance to the historical

figure. Talk to the NPC by the Cobiah Marriner statue for more information. For additional

information, his journey can be followed in the Sea of Sorrows novel.
There are widespread reports that Aetherblades are tampering with the hologram

projectors across Tyria. Approach them with caution.
Aetherblade pirates have been spotted guarding caches in select mini-dungeons and

jumping puzzles across Tyria. Pirates have also been spotted around the Obsidian Sanctum

jumping puzzle in the Mists.
The familiar face of Lady Kasmeer Meade can be found in the Grand Piazza enjoying the

Dragon Bash festivities.

“We’re doing three weeks currently, but now we’re pushing to two weeks,” lead content

designer Mike Zadorojny told Gamerzines. “It’s a marathon not a sprint and we’ve been

getting better with each of our releases, in terms of how we budget, how we plan it out, how

we manage personnel etc. Now we have four full ‘Living World’ teams that are building

these content updates, so that we can stagger releases and make sure that [developers] can

decompress and get the quality time necessary to build a good design document before going

back in and trying to implement it all over again.”

ArenaNet are planning to increase the frequency of their Guild Wars 2 updates. It’s an

ambitious scheme, if only because their current content schedule is already pretty frequent:

with new, and often unusual, patches releasing every three weeks. For instance, there was

that time they built an 8-bit world. Or yesterday’s thing with the steampunk pirates. Going

forward, that three week cycle is set to ramp up to every fortnight.

ArenaNet clearly have good reason to push regular updates. As the always level-headed and

reasonable critics of the game will politely point out, Guild Wars 2 doesn’t have much in

the way of a traditional MMO end-game. Ultimately, though, as long as it can draw people

back regularly enough to run through the additions (many of which are split across multiple

weeks), it doesn’t really need one.

“If we can push this,” Zadorojny continued, “if we can add content every two weeks that

is engaging to the players, then really it’s almost like a TV show at that point. It’s

kind of stay tuned until next week for the thrilling conclusion of… That’s where our goal

is, and it’s really fascinating when you have an entire studio dedicated to pulling off.”

“We’re doing three weeks currently, but now we’re pushing to two weeks,” lead content

designer Mike Zadorojny told Gamerzines. “It’s a marathon not a sprint and we’ve been

getting better with each of our releases, in terms of how we budget, how we plan it out, how

we manage personnel etc. Now we have four full ‘Living World’ teams that are building

these content updates, so that we can stagger releases and make sure that [developers] can

decompress and get the quality time necessary to build a good design document before going

back in and trying to implement it all over again.”

ArenaNet are planning to increase the frequency of their Guild Wars 2 updates. It’s an

ambitious scheme, if only because their current content schedule is already pretty frequent:

with new, and often unusual, patches releasing every three weeks. For instance, there was

that time they built an 8-bit world. Or yesterday’s thing with the steampunk pirates. Going

forward, that three week cycle is set to ramp up to every fortnight.

ArenaNet clearly have good reason to push regular updates. As the always level-headed and

reasonable critics of the game will politely point out, Guild Wars 2 doesn’t have much in

the way of a traditional MMO end-game. Ultimately, though, as long as it can draw people

back regularly enough to run through the additions (many of which are split across multiple

weeks), it doesn’t really need one.

“If we can push this,” Zadorojny continued, “if we can add content every two weeks that

is engaging to the players, then really it’s almost like a TV show at that point. It’s

kind of stay tuned until next week for the thrilling conclusion of… That’s where our goal

is, and it’s really fascinating when you have an entire studio dedicated to pulling off.”

Q: Are there any Hero features that we haven’t seen previewed yet?

Phinney: Yes. We were really happy with the response we saw to Heroes in the Nightfall World Preview Event, but the event, and our own testing since then, gave us some ideas for improvements. And, of course, there were a few things that weren’t quite ready to show during the event. For one thing, each Hero comes with three different armor looks that you can unlock, so players will have a chance to choose a look that they like best.

We’ve also worked a lot on improving Hero AI and refining the controls for Heroes. Heroes are much better now at intelligently managing their Energy to make them better for everyone, and for you control-freaks out there (you know who you are), we’ve added the ability to disable AI for an individual skill. Once you disable the AI for a skill, a Hero won’t use it unless specifically told to do so by you. This can be especially handy for skills like Traps and Spirits, which can require a little extra foresight for determining where and when to use them. You can turn the AI for each skill on and off independently during missions.
Another big addition will be “Hero Skills” NPCs, who can teach skills to you and your Heroes without requiring a skill point or any gold. You will be able to earn these Hero skills by gaining ranks in the Sunspear title and the Lightbringer title, and once learned, these skills are unlocked for your entire account. Unlike normal skill trainers, who only offer you skills that match your profession, Hero skill trainers will offer skills for every profession. We are hoping this feature will be especially helpful for new players who want to change the skills their Heroes use. (Since Heroes can use any skills that are unlocked for your account, people who’ve been playing Guild Wars for a while should already find that they have a lot of freedom to set up their Heroes any way they like.)
Another really big aspect of Heroes is the ability to use them in PvP. Heroes can be unlocked for use by PvP characters either by recruiting them during the roleplaying campaign (just like skills are unlocked when you learn them by playing through the roleplaying content) or by spending faction at a Priest of Balthazar. Once a Hero is unlocked for PvP, a level 20 version of that Hero becomes available for all of your PvP-only characters to use.

Q: Heroes are a big addition to the cooperative game. Are there major PvP features in Guild Wars Nightfall?

Phinney: We mean for Heroes to be a big addition to PvP as well, and are currently working on a new type of PvP called Hero Battles. We’ve tried to design a game type that’s fast and furious, has tactical and strategic depth, and is fun to watch. We’re extremely happy with what we’ve seen so far.

Part of our goal was to make it so players didn’t have to delete and remake PvP characters so often, so we’re also adding a “PvP Equipment Builder.” You can use this Equipment Builder whenever you’re in an outpost with a PvP-only character and make any item you could make during PvP character creation. Unlocked a new rune at the Priest of Balthazar? You can immediately make yourself some armor with that rune in it. Want four full weapon sets? No problem.
But Hero Battles aren’t the only new feature that Nightfall is bringing to Guild Wars PvP. Character templates will be a really big improvement. You’ll be able to quickly save and load whole skill/attribute/profession set-ups for you and your Heroes with this feature. As everyone who played the preview event knows, you’ll be able to change your secondary profession quickly any time you’re in an outpost.

And for everyone out there who likes to play a little GvG, we’ve upgraded Observer Mode to include recent GvG battles by your guild. We’re hoping this will really help players develop their skills in GvG…plus it’s cool to be able to watch a replay of yourself.