Guild Wars 2

It’s a bountiful week here at the Black Lion Trading Company. Not only are we bringing you Belinda’s Greatsword and the elegant Ceremonial Plated Outfit, but we’re also bringing back a wide array of weapon skins from the past! Read on to learn more.

New—Belinda’s Greatsword

You asked for it, and we’re delivering! Marjory Delaqua graciously allowed us to make replicas of her sister’s beautiful greatsword, which you can now wield in your own battles!

New—Ceremonial Plated Outfit

The most important part of every battle is a good first impression. Dazzle your foes with our new Ceremonial Plated Outfit, which can be worn by any profession and is sure to keep you looking sharp!

NPC Weapons

We’re bringing back some weapon skins that you all know and love: Marjory’s Axe and Dagger skins, Kasmeer’s Staff skin, Rox’s Quiver and Bow skins, and Braham’s Shield and Mace skins. These are back in stock for a limited time only, so unlock them for your Account Wardrobe while they last!

Available Now in the Gem Store!

Log into Guild Wars 2 and press “O†to access the Black Lion Trading Company for these great offers and more!

Source

 

Greetings, Tyrians!

We are pleased to announce some changes coming to the commander system.

With the arrival of the September 2014 Feature Pack, Commander’s Compendiums will transition to be accountwide unlocks. You’ll always be able to use any character you’d like to help lead your comrades!

We’re also happy to announce that once you are a commander, you will have access to a variety of colors. Choose from red, yellow, purple, or classic blue to customize your commander icon!

Up until now, commander tags have been character bound. With the added functionality of becoming account bound and the addition of new colors to choose from, the price of the Commander’s Compendium will be adjusted to 300 gold. Whether you have three characters, thirteen characters, or even more, you will need to make this purchase only once!

Existing commanders will be grandfathered into this new system. If you’re already a commander, please enjoy this additional upgrade.

This new assortment of colors will facilitate a range of tactical uses. For example, in World vs. World, you could select one color to represent an assaulting commander and another to designate a defending commander. In open world events, you might coordinate your efforts with other commanders by tagging up with different colors to help organize groups. Or you can just grab your favorite color to stand out from the crowd!

Moving forward, we’ll be evaluating future possibilities for recognizing experienced and prestigious commanders. Right now, we’re excited to empower commanders with the ability to use all of their characters and choose the color that best fits their needs! We can’t wait to see all the ways this feature is put to use.

Source

 

As our second year winds to a close, another year full of opportunity and adventure opens up before us. To celebrate, the Black Lion Trading Company is putting on a huge 10-day sale! Each day we’ll be introducing a popular item and putting some existing stock on sale for big discounts!

Beginning August 22—Hidden Minstrel Finisher
What’s a celebration without music? We’re bringing back the Hidden Minstrel Finisher – give your foes a fitting end with a soothing serenade. We’re also putting Character Slot Expansions and Experience Boosters on sale for 40% off!

Beginning August 23—Permanent Harvesting Tools
Never worry about breaking or exhausting your harvesting tools again! The Jack-in the-Box Scythe, Thresher-Sickle 5000, and Consortium Harvesting Sickle have all returned for a limited time. Take your pick! You can also pick up the Bank Access Express and Dye Packs for 40% off.

Beginning August 24—Holiday Helms
Starting today and for the rest of the sale, you can buy the Grenth Hood, Phantom Hood, and Stag Helm! Remember that each universal helm skin will unlock access to that look for every character on your account via the Wardrobe! While we’re at it, we’re putting the Riding Broom and Sonic Tunneling Tool on sale for 40% off.

Beginning August 25—Minis 3-Pack (Set 1)
The Minis 3-Pack that started it all! Get a random spread of three Set 1 miniatures, from the friendly Green Moa to the handsome Logan Thackery. We’re also discounting the Ancestral Outfit by 20% and the Guild Shield Finisher by 50%.

Beginning August 26—Permanent Logging Tools
Get the Chop-It-All Logging Axe, Dreamcleaver Logging Axe, and Frost Wasp Logging Tool are all back in the Gem Store! Use these permanent logging tools to gather every type of wood that Tyria has to offer! We’re also putting Transmutation Charges and WXP Boosters on sale for 30% and 25% off, respectively.

Available Now in the Gem Store!
Log into Guild Wars 2 and press “O†to access the Black Lion Trading Company for these great offers and more!

Source

 

We’ll be using the September 2014 Feature Pack to bring some exciting changes to the megaserver system!

Since first introducing it in the April 2014 Feature Pack, we’ve kept on improving the megaserver system on a regular basis. A lot of those changes were made during regularly scheduled updates and were targeted at improving what we call “integrity†metrics, which are how we measure how well the system works to get you into a map instance with people from your party, guild, home world, and language. Because the evolution was continuous and smooth, you might not have noticed much change, but the metrics got a lot better over time as we kept making the system smarter. We won’t stop there: with the second feature pack, we’re releasing some new systems and working to make the core system more effective!

Global Guilds (New to North America and Europe)

When we released the megaserver system, we told you that we’d be focusing on guilds for future improvements, and now we’re ready to introduce the global guild system to North America and Europe! This system has already been rolled out in China, and we’re very excited to bring it back over to our other regions. Instead of having a separate guild chapter on each world, everything in your guild—your bank, merits, influence, and upgrades—is now global and shared across all worlds. We built this in a way that makes sure that nothing is being lost for anyone:

• The influence and the merits that your guild earned in each world will now be combined into your global guild. To make sure that you’re not losing anything there, the combined merits quantity can go over the normal limit of 250. However, your guild will not be able to earn more merits until the count gets back under that threshold.
  
• Any upgrade you’ve unlocked on any world will be available in your global guild. If you’ve unlocked the same upgrade on multiple worlds, the influence and merit cost will be refunded. Again, the refunded merits will be allowed to exceed the normal limit, but you will be unable to earn more merits while over the limit.
  
• All guild consumables unlocked on any world will be available in your global guild. For this purpose, the number of consumables in stock can go over the usual limits, but you will not be able to build new consumables of the same type before going back under the usual threshold.
  
• Guild boosts that are enabled will be returned to your guild inventory and you will have to reenable them from your global guild to activate them.
  
• The guild vault from the world that had the highest number of slots will become your global guild vault. If your guild had the same number of slots on multiple worlds, it’ll pick the one with the most items. However, the items from other worlds’ banks will not be lost—instead, their contents will be put into extra slots, which will only be available to withdraw from and will disappear once empty.

Guild Missions Improvement

Since the launch of the megaserver system, we’ve improved guild missions by making sure that all missions could be completed by multiple guilds simultaneously. With this feature pack, we’re making getting your guild together for a mission easier than ever by introducing significant improvements to the way guild missions work in the open world. The megaserver system will be extended with a reservation system that is automatically enabled whenever a guild member joins a map to do a guild mission, which will prioritize adding guild members to that map. This system, however, is limited in the number of spaces that get reserved on the map instance, so it’ll work best for small- and medium-sized guilds.
We are working on further improvements that are focused on larger guilds.

Finding Allies in Different Map Copies

As the population on a map changes over time, the megaserver system sometimes needs to close certain copies of that map. It does that by ceasing to add new players to that map (unless they intentionally join to be with their party) and by waiting until that map copy is empty to finally close it. This has occasionally created an odd experience for players left in the map, who will see fewer and fewer companions.

With the September 2014 Feature Pack, we’re introducing a new mechanism to solve this problem. When certain copies of a map need to be closed, the players on those copies will be notified and will have the option to be moved to a different map copy right away. This will help you make sure that there are always allies by your side, and it’ll help us more efficiently manage maps—which in turn makes everyone’s experience better. If you choose to volunteer to move to a new map, you’ll even get a reward in the form of a new effect, the Volunteer’s Blessing, which increases movement speed by 15%, karma gain by 5%, and experience from kills by 10% for 10 minutes. This effect persists if you move to another map, but the movement speed bonus is applied only in PvE.

Language in Europe

One experience we’ve been working to improve between April and today is the European language diversity. We’ve deployed several system updates to better sort players by language, especially when the population on a specific map is high.

This is an important issue for us, and we’re still working hard on improving the game experience for our European players.

For now, we’ve decided not to entirely separate the different language communities onto unique map copies. While we understand that it might be difficult for some to communicate across the language barrier, we still think it’s important to have maps that feel populated no matter where in Tyria you go or at which hours you play. The megaserver system gives us an opportunity to expand the game world without having to fear that doing so would make some of the older parts of Tyria feel empty to the players who’d still like to enjoy them; splitting the European community by language would hinder that capacity to some extent. Our hope is to avoid doing so, relying instead on systematic improvements to megaservers and our amazingly friendly and awesome community of players.

We are always listening for your feedback, as it is very important for us to make the best possible game for you. Thanks to player feedback, we’ve decided to disable the chat filtering option by default. We had to deploy this system as a shield against harassment, but it was also impairing normal communication. As always, if you feel harassed, please use the in-game reporting tool. We want Guild Wars 2 to feel safe and inclusive, and our Customer Support team takes your reports very seriously.

We will keep on monitoring our metrics, collecting your feedback, and analyzing our data on a daily basis to keep improving the Guild Wars 2 experience for all players from all backgrounds.

Future Improvements

Our work on the megaserver system will continue after this feature pack gets released. We are monitoring the metrics on a daily basis, and we frequently make adjustments to enhance the social environment of Guild Wars 2. We’re working on further improvements to guild missions, language settings for European worlds, better population balance for every map, and more. As we stated in April, this is just the beginning—and we’re always working on making it better.

Source

 

Greetings, citizens of Tyria! If you’re like me, you’ve greatly enjoyed exploring all the different looks available in armor and weapons since the release of the Wardrobe in our first April 2014 Feature Pack. With this next feature pack, we’re making it even easier to stand out from the crowd by updating the wardrobe with even more features!

Improvements to the Wardrobe

Firstly, we’ve added search capability to both the Wardrobe and Equipment sections of your Hero Panel, allowing you to even more quickly find the gear you’re looking for as your collection of options grows and grows. Right at the top of the Equipment grid, you’ll find a text search box that will filter available options by name as you type. The search will even keep your text active as you switch between equipment slots. This really helps narrow down the list when trying to find matching pieces for many different slots.

We’ve also moved outfits to their own section, separate from equipment skins. We wanted to make it super clear whether you were customizing your equipped gear, which costs transmutation charges, or selecting a full-body outfit, which is always free.

In the new Outfits section, you will now see all the possible outfits and be able to preview them on your character. This works for locked and unlocked outfits alike; both will be visible and available for preview, although we always sort the ones you own to the top. We’ve also added corner tabs to the locked icons which will keep you updated when new or limited outfits are available, or when something gets discounted for sales.

Finishers Now in the Wardrobe

“Well, that’s nice,†you say, “but what about finishers?†I have good news: we’re moving them into the Wardrobe as well to acknowledge them as proper character customizations and help you further make your mark on the world of Tyria—and on your enemies!

The Finisher Panel has been completely reorganized to deal with the larger number of options now available and to feel much more like other character equipment options. Just like outfits and equipment, you can now search for a finisher by name and equip it into an active slot!

Best of all, you can now preview finishers in the Hero Panel. When you open the Finisher view, your currently active finisher plays its animation for you to see. Below the search bar, you’ll see a grid showing all your unlocked finishers first, followed by all the locked ones. Every finisher can be previewed as often as you like. Want to compare the Super Explosive to Whump the Giant? Go for it! Dance battles between the Llama Finisher and the Quaggan Finisher? Yes! There’s no more need to search around PvP maps for opponents to test your moves on. The view scales to give you the best view of each finisher. You can rotate the finisher while it’s playing and even preview locked finishers, replaying them to find the ones you like best. I think you’ll be surprised at the variety of options available to you.

What about Miniatures?

We thought miniatures belonged in the Wardrobe too. Players have been asking for a mini-equip slot for quite a while, so we’re bringing that—and a lot more—to you in September! We’re making a lot of changes to the way minis are collected and stored at the same time to make things even better.

Let’s start with inventory space. All minis can now be treated as account unlocks in the Wardrobe. The new mini section in the Wardrobe allows you to convert any mini in your inventory to an account unlock. Unlocking destroys the mini from your inventory, but once it’s unlocked, that mini is available to all your characters to equip simultaneously for no additional cost.

Double-clicking a mini still works the same way. You can summon and unsummon any mini in your inventory. This does not unlock the mini for your account, however, and does not fully equip the mini. It’s just an easy way to see something in the world before you choose to unlock it.

Collections of Miniatures

Possibly the biggest change with the new account level access to minis was moving the mini collections from the bank to the Hero Panel.

Any minis currently in your bank or bank collection tab will still be in your bank when you log in. You’ll need to take them out individually and choose whether to unlock them for your account or dispose of them some other way. In order to make this easier, all minis of the same type now stack in inventory.

You will no longer deposit minis into bank collections. Once a mini is removed from the bank, the collection space for that mini in the materials area of the bank will disappear. Those collections are being moved to the Wardrobe. New achievements will also now be available for completing Wardrobe account unlocks for the series 1, 2, and 3 minis.

A Wardrobe Full of Miniatures

In the Hero Panel, you’ll find all the options for minis that we have in other Wardrobe areas. Searching, equipping, and even previewing!

At the top of the panel, you’ll find the search box again, which is great for tracking down where Scarlet or the Mordrem are hiding in your collection. Below that, much like equipment skins, you’ll see all minis currently in your character inventory. From here, you can summon them directly or unlock them for your account.

Below the inventory list, you’ll see a grid of unlocked minis from your account. Account-unlocked minis can be equipped and swapped as part of your character by left-clicking them. Once equipped, there is a show/hide check box that summons and hides your currently equipped miniature. When shown, minis will appear next to you in every map you travel to with no further work necessary to deploy them.

Lastly, a full list of available locked minis you might want to preview can be found below your account list. There are a few minis that remain hidden until unlocked, so we’ve still kept a bit of mystery in the world.

Clicking on any mini, locked or unlocked, shows it next to your character on the right-hand side. You can rotate and preview the mini, seeing detail and size easier than ever before. Best of all, any mini can now be previewed from the Trading Post, inventory, and chat links!

We hope you enjoy all the new features of your heroic wardrobe. I look forward to seeing you, and your minis, in Tyria soon.

Source

 

Source

 

Gotta be the laziest post from ArenaNet yet.

 

From September 25 through October 1, you can play Guild Wars 2 for free by registering for a free trial account*. If you played in a previous free trial, we’ve re-activated your trial account so you can come back to experience all of the exciting changes in the game.

For help downloading Guild Wars 2 or logging in please check our Support site.

In addition to the free trial, from September 25 to October 5 we’re chopping the price of both Guild Wars 2 Digital Heroic Edition and Digital Deluxe Edition in half**! Now is the perfect time to pick up this award-winning MMO and experience a constantly evolving fantasy world where your actions make a difference!

Play Guild Wars 2 today and save!

*Free trial access to Guild Wars 2 is open from 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time September 25, 2014 through 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time October 1, 2014.
** Offer applies only to Digital Heroic Edition and Digital Deluxe Edition purchased through buy.guildwars2.com from 12 p.m. Pacific Time September 24, 2014 through 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time October 5, 2014.

Source

 

From bright displays of color to incendiary gathering tools, this week the Black Lion Trading Company is all about setting yourself apart from the crowd. Read on to learn about our two new permanent gathering tools, a brand-new set of dyes, and more!

New—Fused Molten Sickle
If you’re a fan of our Molten Alliance Mining Pick, you’ll love our new Fused Molten Sickle! This permanent tool works on every harvesting node in Tyria, will never wear out, and is guaranteed not to singe any sensitive materials.

New—Fused Molten Logging Axe
We’re rounding out the molten gathering collection with our Fused Molten Logging Axe, which creates an impressive display of fire with every chop! This permanent logging axe will never let you down.


New—Taimi’s Dye Kit
Conventional wisdom may say that bright colors belong in the spring, but true fashion is always in style. Update your wardrobe with Taimi’s Dye Kit, which will grant you one of 25 dyes, six of which are exclusive, brilliant colors!

Leaving Soon
You’ve got until this Wednesday to pick up the Bazaar Quaggan Mini Pack to get a Mini Poowulpi the Persnicketous, Mini Peggellegg the Pirate, and Mini Kookoochoo the Incredulous. Also, this is your last week to take advantage of the introductory price of our Chaos weapon skins!

Available Now in the Gem Store!
Log into Guild Wars 2 and press “O†to access the Black Lion Trading Company for these great offers and more!

Source

 

The Guild Wars 2 World Tournament Series will name a champion this December in China!

It’s our first truly international tournament, bringing together top PvP teams from North America, Europe and China to fight for the title of Guild Wars 2 PvP Champion. Players worldwide who are vying to earn a place among the greats can now look to a date on the calendar and get an idea of what they could walk away with for prizes.

ArenaNet and KongZhong, our publishing partner in China, will host the 2014 WTS Championships December 4 -5 in Beijing.

At stake will be $50,000 USD in cash. The first place winners will walk away with exactly half of that prize pool. The remainder will be divided among second, third and fourth place teams. The tournament selects the top four PvP teams to compete, meaning all participants are guaranteed to walk away with money in their pockets.

2014 WTS Championships Prizing
Rank Prize (US Dollars)
1st Place and WTS Champion $25,000
2nd Place $15,000
3rd Place $7,500
4th Place $2,500

Before any teams can start making travel plans, they’ll need to finish out the current competition taking place in the Tournament of Glory. The Tournament of Glory was an open invitation to anyone who plays PvP in Guild Wars 2 to see if they have what it takes to become a world-class competitor. In round after round of fierce combat, these players have been fighting to survive.

We recently posted an update on the Tournament of Glory qualifying rounds, pointing to some of the teams already making their mark on the WTS circuit. Whether these players can stick around remains to be seen. Those who do will earn a spot in the Tournament of Glory Finals taking place October 11 -12.

The winners of the Tournament of Glory Finals move on to the WTS Invitational Qualifier, scheduled for October 25 – 26. Seeding in the Invitational Qualifier will be based on how teams placed in the Tournament of Glory Finals.

Next stop – China.

The teams who survive the invitational will then get their passports stamped – and travel covered – for an early December trip to Beijing. That’s where they compete for the title of inaugural Guild Wars 2 WTS Champion!

As an added bonus, all Guild Wars 2 PvP players can earn enhanced rewards with new “Call of the Mists†bonuses during the weekends when major tournaments are taking place.

On October 11-12, and then again on October 25-26, we will be granting all players 10% increased PvP rank point gain, +15% reward track progress, and an extra 100% magic find while inside PvP maps. (And yes, magic find works on PvP reward boxes.) Check out the Maguuma Wastes Reward Track to work towards the geodes and ambrite fossils needed for the Ambrite weapons, or just snag a few Zephyrite Keys for your adventures in Dry Top. If that isn’t your cup of tea, you can always work towards the PvP-exclusive Glorious Armor, available only in the Glorious Reward Track.

The competition will only get hotter. Many will fall. Those who rise will be immortalized. Stay tuned.

Source

 

Whether you’re looking for a little extra support in your World vs. World endeavors or trying to show off your fashion sensibilities with a new set of weapons, the Black Lion Trading Company is here for you! Read on to learn more.

New—Tempest Weapons
With the Tempest weapon line, my crafters have taken elegance to a whole new level. With feather motifs and gentle wind effects, the Tempest weapons are sure to impress! Take your Black Lion Claim Tickets, found in Black Lion Chests, to a Black Lion Weapons Specialist to pick up your own Tempest weapons.

New—World vs. World Support Pack
Equip yourself to excel in the World vs. World Fall Tournament 2014 with the World vs. World Support Pack! This bundle lets you save big on five Black Lion Weapon Scraps, five Black Lion Keys, five Metabolic Primers, five WXP Boosters, three Utility Primers, one Armor Booster, one Speed Booster, one Strength Booster, and limited-use access to the new Grave Finisher before it’s officially released!

Additional Crafting License Allowance
We’re raising the limit on Additional Crafting Licenses! Now you can purchase up to two, to get access to a total of four crafting disciplines on every character on your account.

Available Now in the Gem Store!
Log into Guild Wars 2 and press “O†to access the Black Lion Trading Company for these great offers and more!

Source

 

[video=Guild Wars 2 - Points of Interest: Episode 7]6912[/video]

Video: Guild Wars 2 - Points of Interest: Episode 7
Category: Free MMORPGs
Uploader: Aaddron

 

As the month plods on and we grow closer to that eerie time when the barrier between our world and the next wanes, the Black Lion Trading Company is showing the Mad King’s influence more and more! Read on to learn more about this week’s treats.

Raiment of the Lich
This year, the Black Lion Trading Company is proud to present the ultimate in vintage couture! Pick up the Raiment of the Lich and partake in a fashion statement last seen in Tyria more than 250 years ago.

Creepy Mini 3-Pack
This year’s spooky mini bundle includes the Mini Glowing Bat, Mini Mad King Head, and Mini Candy Corn Skritt!

Halloween Finishers
Take the spirit of the season with you into Player vs. Player and World vs. World with our returning Halloween-themed Mad King and Scarecrow Finishers!

Available Now in the Gem Store!
Log into Guild Wars 2 and press “O†to access the Black Lion Trading Company for these great offers and more!

Source

 

This holiday season, from November 26 to December 7, we’re chopping the price of the Guild Wars 2 Digital Heroic Edition and Digital Deluxe Edition in half*! Now is the perfect time to pick up this award-winning MMO, for yourself or a friend, and experience a truly Living World™ where your actions make a difference!

Act now and take advantage of the Guild Wars 2 Black Friday prices!

*Offer applies only to Digital Heroic Edition and Digital Deluxe Edition purchased through buy.guildwars2.com from 12pm Pacific Time November 25, 2014 through 11:59pm Pacific Time December 7, 2014.

Source

 

Next Tuesday, December 2, the story of Living World season 2 continues in the Seeds of Truth release!

[video=Guild Wars 2 - Seeds of Truth]7171[/video]

You’ll have two weeks while the release is live to log in to unlock free, permanent access to the story of Seeds of Truth.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel to stay on top of our latest video releases!

Source

 

To accompany today’s Seeds of Truth release, we have big updates to the store that will have you jumping for joy! We’re introducing a new way to customize your character with a unique mail carrier, updating Black Lion Chests with exciting new items, and bringing back some of your favorite Wintersday-themed goodies! Don’t forget that this is your last week to purchase a World Tournament Series Finisher to support your favorite team! Players who purchase the winning region’s finisher before the finals will receive three celebration boosters the week after the tournament’s conclusion.

Griffon Mail Carrier
Introducing a new form of customization: mail carriers! Purchase the new Griffon Mail Carrier, and select it in your Wardrobe to see a glorious griffon deliver all of your sent and received messages. Don’t worry; our mail carriers are trained to wait until you’re out of combat.

Teleport to Friend
Teleport to anyone in your party with our new Teleport to Friend consumable-an uncommon drop in Black Lion Chests. This single-use luxury item will let you skip waypoint fees, asura gates, and long runs by taking you directly to a party member in PvE.

Rare Home-Instance Gathering Nodes
Each Black Lion Chest has a chance to drop rare orichalcum, elder wood, omnomberry, snow truffle, and lotus nodes for your home instance. Use these rare items to unlock nodes in your home instance permanently or sell them to the highest bidder on the Black Lion Trading Post! These nodes can be harvested once daily per account.

Returning Winter Items
Winter’s weapons have returned to the Black Lion Weapon Specialist for two Black Lion Claim Tickets each! Bundle up with the luxurious Fancy Winter Outfit to warm your body, and adopt the adorable Mini Fawn, Mini Puppy, and Mini Arctic Fox Kit from the Wintersday Minis 3-Pack to warm your heart.

Available Now in the Gem Store!
Log into Guild Wars 2 and press 'O' to access the Black Lion Trading Company for these great offers and more!

Source

 

12/02/14 – December 2 Release Notes
Release Notes:

LIVING WORLD

Seeds of Truth

The death of the Zephyrite Master of Peace and Caithe’s hasty exit with Glint’s egg have left more questions than answers. Why did Caithe take the egg? And, more importantly, how do you catch a thief?

Achievements

After completing Seeds of Truth, showcase your tactical mastery as a hero of Tyria by completing challenging, episode-related achievements.

Rewards

• Continue collecting Carapace and Luminescent armor with the addition of heavy, medium, and light boots and leg armor.
  • Earn pieces of Carapace leg armor by completing the Seeds of Truth storyline. Extra pieces can also be purchased for bandit crests.
  • Carapace boots can be found in Lost Bandit Chests. Additionally, players who receive the Boot Requisition Order will be able to purchase boot pieces for bandit crests.
  • Recipes to craft ascended Sinister armor and weapons are now available.
  • Named for the fabled necromancer Verata, the inscription and insignia recipes can be purchased for bandit crests.
  • Recipes for weapons and armor can be found in recipe books in Lost Bandit Chests throughout the Silverwastes.
• New and exciting treasures can be found in Lost Bandit Chests.
  • Players who find the Essence of Time will be able to create the new focus, Eternal Sands, in the Mystic Forge.
  • Mini Mordrem Thrashers and Endless Mordrem Thrasher Tonics may be found.
• Bandit crest collectors have several new offerings.
  • Endless Mordrem Husk Tonic
  • Mini Mordrem Husk
  • Mordrem Fang Extraction Device
  • Bag of Rare Gear
• Complete the Drydock Scratch jumping puzzle to find a Magnificent Chest that contains masterwork and rare gear, empyreal fragments, patchwork knapsacks, jewels, and a chance to find the new welding torch.

NEW FEATURES AND CONTENT

Arenas

• Team and Solo Arena have been merged into Ranked Arena.
  • A party of any size can queue, including solo players.
  • Player statistics from Team Arena and Solo Arena have been combined to create Ranked Arena stats.
  • Legacy Team and Solo Arena stats can be viewed in the PvP panel.
  • Rewards are unchanged.
• Unranked Arena has been added.
  • A party of any size can queue, including solo players.
  • Rewards are now the same as Ranked Arena.
• All maps are available for play in Ranked Arena and Unranked Arena.
  • During the leaderboard test season, ranked play will have a limited set of maps.

Matchmaking and Leaderboards

• Matchmaking will take into account other parameters in addition to matchmaking rating (MMR), such as largest group size and team composition.
• Leaderboards will no longer use MMR as a basis. Instead, players will earn ladder points based on the quality of the matches they participate in.

Match Accept

• Ranked Arena and Unranked Arena matches will now prompt players to accept the match before it can start.
• The client will flash and play an alert sound when matches are ready.
• Declining or failing to accept a match prompt within the time limit will cause players to accumulate dishonor and be prevented from queuing for a short period of time.

Map Selection

• Players can now vote for the map they would like to play after accepting a match prompt.
• The list of selectable maps is randomly generated.
• The final map is picked via weighted roll. The more a map is picked by players, the higher the chance that map will be chosen.

Dishonor

• Declining or not accepting a match prompt for Ranked Arena or Unranked Arena will result in dishonor and a timeout.
• Disconnecting at any time during a running Ranked Arena or Unranked Arena game will result in dishonor and a timeout.
  • Players must continue playing the game on reconnect.
• When dishonor is given, an immediate timeout is also applied. During a timeout, Ranked Arena and Unranked Arena are unavailable.
• Timeout duration increases as dishonor accumulates on an account.

General

• Rosters have been removed. Players will now queue with their party.
• Banker, trading post, and laurel vendor NPCs have been added to the Heart of the Mists.

BALANCE, BUG-FIXING, POLISH

General

• Megaserver: Joining a party member while playing on a map in which your guild has an active mission with an ongoing reservation in place will no longer silently fail.

Items

• Gastronom Plikk in Rata Sum now sells the Vintner’s Guide used to unlock the Fine Wining item-collection achievement.
• The Observational Zymology Manual used to unlock the Brewmaster item collection is now available for purchase from many bartenders around Tyria.

Structured Player vs. Player

• The PvP panel stats tab has been reskinned.
• Scoreboard UI has been reskinned.
• Ready Button UI has been reskinned.
• Autobalance UI has been reskinned.

World vs. World

• Fixed an issue that prevented player pets from attacking gates in Edge of the Mists.
• Reduced the radius of the Siege Disabler trick from 450 to 300.
• Increased the skill recharge of the Siege Disabler from 5 seconds to 45 seconds.
• Decreased the duration of the Siege Disabler trick from 45 seconds to 35 seconds. The duration on Siege Golems remains unchanged.

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE

New Items and Promotions

• Glint’s Winter Dye Kit is now available in the Special category of the Gem Store for 125 gems.
• The Black Lion Chest drops have been updated. Keys are available in the Special category of the Gem Store for 125 gems each.
  • Added a new Teleport to Friend consumable as an uncommon drop. This consumable will take you directly to a party member in PvE.
  • Home instance unlocks for orichalcum ore, elder wood logs, omnomberries, snow truffles, and lotuses have been added as very rare drops.
• Winter’s weapons have returned to the Black Lion Weapon Specialists for the price of 2 Black Lion Claim Tickets each.
• The Wintersday Minis 3-Pack, Toy Golem, Toy Soldier, Plush Griffon, Princess Doll, Toy Ventari, and Fancy Winter Outfit have all returned to the Gem Store this year.

Mail Carrier Customization in the Wardrobe

• Mail carriers have been added to the Equipment section of the Hero panel for accounts with a character higher than level 71.
• Once unlocked, players can select the default mail carrier for every character on their account to receive mail from the game or send their mail to other players.
• When sending mail, a one-time mail carrier can be selected from the Compose mail dialog, affecting only the current mail being sent.
• The currently selected mail carrier and additional options can be previewed in the Hero panel.
• A new Griffon Mail Carrier is available in the Upgrades category of the Gem Store for 500 gems.

Improvements

• The Replica Job-o-Tron Backpack will stop talking when the Hide/Unhide check box is unchecked.

Source

 

After putting our very first World Tournament Series event in the books just a few hours ago in Beijing, China, the ArenaNet team, in partnership with our Chinese publishing partner KongZhong, is happy to announce that the next World Tournament Series event will take place in early March at PAX East in Boston, Massachusetts. Just like the tournament in Beijing, there’s $50,000 up for grabs!

In the coming weeks, we’ll provide more information on how you and your team can participate, but for now, it’s time to build those team rosters, jump into PvP, and get practicing! You’ll have plenty of time to experiment and refine your strategy as the qualifying events aren’t set to kick off until early January.

When creating your teams, make sure to keep in mind the following eligibility requirements:

• All players must be at least 18 years of age (or age of majority in their jurisdiction of residence, whichever is greater);
• All players must be able to provide proof of eligibility to travel to the United States (such as an international passport);
• All players must be legal residents of the European Union, Iceland, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey (for the purpose of this tournament, residents of these countries will also be deemed part of the European Union), the United States, Canada, or Mexico; and
• All players must be current residents or citizens of the regions their teams are representing.

We look forward to seeing you and your team on the battlefield!

Josh

Source