Guild Wars 2

Excelsior comrades!

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If you are reading this, chances are you are a fan of the core concepts of the game. You probably enjoy playing it, you have high expectations for its future, and you hope it will deliver. You are likely waiting for a way to keep yourself interested in the game. Well I have good news for you: you are not alone. The Ascension Project team is taking care of this for you

You may have noticed that many people around here are willing to contribute to make Guild Wars 2 a fascinating experience. These people have met and exchanged views. It appears we all share a common gaming philosophy. We have decided to work together, and with who ever will want to join us, to achieve three ideas:

• Promoting skilful game-play.
  We enjoy “beautiful play”: the display of talent, the clever tactics. We want to see the best players at work and dream with envy while watching them.
• Maintaining creative content.
  There are countless areas of the game left unexplored. We want to get there, and show that we can master them all. We want to be innovative, and come up with crazy ideas.
• Entertaining the community.
  It is all about fun! No one has any personal interest in this. Our intention is to enjoy our time here with the community and for the community.

It is an ambitious project. We have many plans to achieve our goals. More ideas are coming in every day, and they are not getting any less crazy. We are an open team: anyone sharing our philosophy and willing to contribute can join our growing collaboration. Coordination is key in order to achieve our goals without loosing sight on any of our numerous projects.

You are certainly wondering what all this means in practice. Let’s not keep you waiting. The Ascension Project will be set in a yearly time frame. There will be long term projects spanning over the twelve months period as well as timely events. Oh, and as if the fun for doing all this was not quite enough, there will be rewards!

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to present to you:

The Ascension Project involves many daring events designed to test your skills and imagination. They are made for the challenge, for the fun, and for the glory !

(For great justice!)

The first season of the project (September 2013-2014) will host numerous enthralling events. Stay tuned for continuous updates on this dynamic project

Contact Sanderinoa.8065 or Zelyhn.8069 to join our in-game guild (non-representative). Whether you are a contestant or looking to contribute this is the fastest way to exchange ideas with like-minded players!

- lore -

Getting closer to the Gods, seeking their guidance, such is the meaning of Ascension. Many heroes have tried and the tales of those who succeeded are few, for the blessing of the Gods is not bestowed upon the undeserving. Long is road to greater power.The temptation is subjugating, but the path is obscure. We are not prepared.

Whether we believe in the Gods or or not, what they stand for is undeniably an ideal. Even the most unspiritual of the Asuras, that is me, will concur. What ever your faith, or your understanding of the Eternal Alchemy, you must acknowledge the wisdom and the sense of purpose that rests within the pantheon.

How to get there is unclear, but we know that we will have to face trials.
We will have to be on our mettle. Some say the greatest of all challenges may come from within ourselves … This is not something to take lightly. We have done many mistakes in the past. We have been corrupt and false. We have failed repeatedly. But the day will come when we will have our chance, and I hope we will know how to seize it.

For now we must train. We must train for everything. We must be prepared!

1. The Ascension Challenge (permanent project)

Current group challenge: “Embracing the Cold”, 23rd of September 2013,
Kill Frost in Caudecus Manor explorable path 1 (check details below)

Current solo challenge: “On His Level”, the 23rd of October 2013:
Fight and defeat the Berserker Abomination “on his level”

Rewards: eternal glory and prestige with your name on the scoreboard !

Check out the past challenge history

Current group challenge

Challenge master: Emanuel.9781
“Embracing the Cold”, 23rd of September 2013:
Kill Frost in Caudecus Manor explorable path 1

• Melee only, no ranged weapons/summons/minions/phantasms or attacking from range allowed at all, any weapon is fine
• No form of condition removal or -X% condition duration food allowed(Other nourishments are fine)
• Racial Utility/Elite skills only(Healing skills are your choice, only healing skills that also remove conditions aren’t allowed for this)
• No Projectile reflection/absorb skills(Warrior shield/sword block and guardian shield 5 are an exception)
• Must fight him in his spawn-area, no using line of sight to move him away/to ignore rocket turrets

Current solo challenge

Current challenge master: durend.6237
“On His Level”, the 23rd of October 2013:
Fight and defeat the Berserker Abomination “on his level”

• no armor
• no utilities/elite (healing is fine unless you want the extra challenge)
• no tranquilizer guns
• only one main hand melee weapon allowed
• optional: you may have 1 ranged weapon on swap for the berserker states, if so, only auto attacks may be used and it must be swapped back to your melee option within a reasonable time of the berserker state ending (5~ seconds)
• Since Engineer’s lack a melee option, they can use the Tool kit’s first 3 attacks for their melee option and switch to rifle/pistol when the Abomination enters the berserker state.

Good luck!

2. Scoreboards

The winners of challenges and contests on all projects will have their name written here for everybody to admire and praise their greatness. If you are looking for eternal fame, here is the place you can get it!

Allow me to point out that renown guilds are closely monitoring these projects. The activities here enable for talent scouting, which can lead to exclusive recruitment offers. You’ve been informed

_

Ascension Challenge

Format:
points) name

Guilds
1) rT

Players
1) Agony.3542 Anubarak.3012 durend.6237 Element.5647 Emanuel.9781 Molch.2078 Sanderinoa.8065 Wethospu.6437

_

Champion Solo Contest

Contest ongoing

3. Past Ascension Challenge history

Check out the feats of strength that lie behind the legendary names on the scoreboard!

_

Group challenges

1) “The Slave Driver with tied hands”, 20th of September 2013:
Kill the Slave Driver in Citadel of Flame explorable path 1 with only off-hand weapons equipped in your group.
All skills are allowed for as long as you do not have main hand skills available (so no conjured weapons, no transformations, for example)

Challenge completed by rT on the 21st of September 2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDXFK3STFSE

2) “The Russian rabbit roulette”, 21st of September 2013:
Challenge master: Sanderinoa.8065 [rT]
Finish the Uncategorized Fractal’s champion fight (right after the first set of harpies) by killing the rabbit last.
The fractal level has to be at least 28.
No consumables allowed apart from nourishment.
Kiting the rabbit out of the room is not allowed.

Challenge completed by Emanuel.9781 on the 23rd of September 2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tEC6u4CgDs&feature=youtu.be

_

Solo Challenges

1) “Green, super greeeen”, the 11th of October 2013
Aggro and kill three orrian drakes in Arah explorable
No reflections/absorption allowed.
No movement other that backward allowed! (Dodge has to be backward, movement skills are nor restricted. Basically you should just not press any other normal movement key than backward)

Challenge completed by Wethospu.6437 on the 15th of October 2013
http://youtu.be/tSXsXPo9f2M

2)“Super Thrashmaster”, the 17th of October 2013
Solo the new Aetherblade Assault path up to Ooze escort.

Completed by durend.6237 on the 23rd oc October 2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFbSv_8hyM8&feature=youtu.be

4. Time-specific Projects

Ongoing:

- reserved for future use -

history continued

- reserved for future use -

- reserved for future use -

- reserved for future use -

END

This thread is now open!

Shout out to anyone with ideas, contact me or Sanderinoa.8065
We are looking for people to help us with our projects. All help is highly appreciated!

@Emanuel.9781
Congratulations again! Could you come up with a title for your challenge? Also is it possible to come up with simpler rules, not easier, but clearer?

Time to Ascend, my friends!

Edit: apologies to mods for having opened many thread involving the same ideas. As you can see our projects have grown in scope more than I expected at first, and this is the reason why it took time to settle on a structure. Thank you for your understanding

Kill Bloody Victoria without using a stun break (includes teleports) and without anyone getting downed.

Scrap the other set of rules i posted:

Embracing the Cold: Kill Frost in Caudecus Manor explorable path 1

Rules:
-Melee only, no attacking from range allowed. summons/minions/phantasms that attack at range must be summoned/used in melee if you use them, any weapon is fine
-No form of condition removal or -X% condition duration food allowed(Other nourishments are fine)
-Racial Utility/Elite skills only(Healing skills are your choice, only healing skills that also remove conditions aren’t allowed for this)
-No Projectile reflection/absorb skills(Warrior shield/sword block and guardian shield 5 are an exception)
-Must fight him in his spawn-area, no using line of sight to move him away/to ignore rocket turrets

@Wethospu: Did this with a rather casual group yesterday without downing; all it takes is a guardian or two to aegis occasionally to cheese this almost entirely, so maybe one could add something.

Wethospu.6437:

Kill Bloody Victoria without using a stun break (includes teleports) and without anyone getting downed.

Too easy!

Ok thanks Emanuel

Wethospu if you want to submit a challenge you have to claim the challenge master title first, you sneaky sneaky

The No healing challenge.

Rules-

• Kill any boss without healing skills. This means that everyone’s 6th skill must be empty. This includes Healing Signet, Signet of Malice, Signet of Restoration and Signet of Resolve.
• No cheesing/LoSing.
• Everything else is allowed. Any form of healing other than healing skills is allowed. Including, Resurrection, regeneration, water combo fields.
• Choose whatever boss you want to kill.

Emanuel.9781:

—
@Wethospu: Did this with a rather casual group yesterday without downing; all it takes is a guardian or two to aegis occasionally to cheese this almost entirely, so maybe one could add something.

Aww, thought that Backstab would also be unblockable.

@ Runeblade and Wethospu
Actually, please keep giving us ideas! I am thinking that I will add small-scale challenges, time-limited to weekends. I have quite a few ideas myself and I look forward to hearing more from you

Actually, please keep giving us ideas!

Okay!

The Anti-down state challenge- There are players that hate the down state system so much! Try this challenge if you hate it too!

Rules-

• If a player goes down in downstate, he is forever dead. No one can revive him. If he accidentally rally, he must get out of the fight and die without affecting the battle.
• No cheesing or LoSing.
• Complete one dungeon path with this rule.
• Optional: The perma-death rule: If your party member goes down, he/she must leave the party. The party can continue but cannot invite any other party members. This means if the leader goes down, the challenge fails.

Zoo Wars 2 challenge- Who let the pets out? Woof, woof, woof.

Rules-

• Every player must have Sigil of Demon summoning, runes that summon a pet, and all utility and elites must be filled with pets.
• Professions/Players that doesn’t summon more than two pets are not allowed. This means warrior. Exception ares human warrior, then they can summon Hound of Balthazar.
• Players are not allowed to attack themselves. Only pets can inflict damage.
• No cheesing or LoSing.
• Complete this challenge by killing any mob group, it does not have to be a boss.

Pro-Down state challenge- Do you hate the whiners that hates down state? Try this challenge.

Rules-

• Players can only damage in downstate.
• Not all players have to be in down state. But, in order to damage mobs, see rule 1.
• Players can revive(or in this case, heal) players up to keep their hp up.
• Kill any mob group to complete this challenge. Does not have to be a boss.

The Turtle challenge- Runeblade hates LoSing and cheesing. But do you disagree? Well, stacking lover, do you love stacking enough to try this challenge?

Rules-

• You must always stack. Anyone breaking the blob will lose the challenge. This includes moving around while not in combat.
• To break a stack, one character must at least have a full model away from one of the four other players.
• Pets are allowed to break the stack.
• Everything else is allowed, including cheesing.
• Complete one dungeon path while stacked.

I love these ideas.. Time for my downstate thief! I think he has even more dps than longbow ranger

Awesome idea. Do you guys have a guild that people can join so when they want to tackle these they have some sort of network of likeminded individuals? I’d like to join if you don’t mind tossing an invite.

Thanks Runeblade, this is exactly the spirit, and your ideas are awesome!
Rest assured that these will be used in the future, so keep them coming!

We have not created a guild, but we could So far it is mainly a friendlist, add me or Sanderinoa.8065 (he is more online than me) to get in touch.
We appreciate help from anybody willing to contribute. In the future we will need some people with video editing and other media skills, by the way, so let us know if your are interested.

Update: added a bit of lore

@Frost challenge: his icethrower attack does not track, meaning you can simply run around him in circles. Just something to put by.

A guild for contributors and contestants has been created
Come along, like-minded individuals!

(contact me or Sanderinoa.8065 for an invite)

This thread is now sticked.

For great justice!

swiftpaw.6397:

runeblade.7514:

This thread is now sticked.

Ah so this is the new and quality content for dungeon players and hardcores that we have all been waiting for.. Thanks arenanet.

Well sometimes you have to find things yourself if they don’t get thrown at you, next patch includes a new dungeon path, its possibly hard aswell, no use complaining right now, and definitely not on a where you know you’re not going to get constructive feedback.

Questions about this weeks challenge: As an Engineer, with the current rules, no “weapon” can actually be used. Rifle = Ranged, Pistol = Ranged, Shield = 3/4 possible skills are ranged with the last 1/4 being a skill you can only activate after using the reflect. Sounds challenging and fun, but is that intended? Keeping in mind too that our weapon swaps are Utilities and that the Race Utility rule bars kits.

Hey you know, the good thing for us as well is that we are completely free! Anet has a lot of constraints when designing content (not defending anything, just stating this), but we don’t. That’s why we can be as creative and crazy as we want! Just look at Runeblade’s suggestions, you will hear about them in the near future and you are going to love it

Emanuel.9781:

Rules:
-Melee only, no attacking from range allowed. summons/minions/phantasms that attack at range must be summoned/used in melee if you use them, ANY WEAPON IS FINE

I think with this he means your weapons are allright as long as you are in melee range.

Can you range turrets + Golems?

Follow-up if answer is No: So attacks that bounce?

PBag.7450:

Can you range turrets + Golems?

Follow-up if answer is No: So attacks that bounce?

I believe so, I’d avoid bouncing attacks though, they’re not allowed to hit Frost.

Any other questions should be asked to the challenge master, he’s in the ascension guild.

I have an idea for a challenge:

Naked Two-Trick Jester Combatant:

Entertain and Slay the Howling King in Ascalonian Catacombs

Rules:
-No Armor (Yes you may have trinkets etc.)
-No Food Buffs
-Only 2 Skills of your choice [Kits will count as weapons not skills]
-No Auto-Attack unless that is one of the skills you chose
-You must perform a 3 second dance for The Howling King during the fight
-During the fight, you must kill 5 Graveling enemies of your choice without incinerating them

Based on the fight, I’m almost certain this is entirely achievable. With kits remember that each you may not use the full kit, just one skill (or two) from the kit as meets the requirement of 2 skills only. There are no restrictions on traits or sigils so if you want to have swap available, but you don’t want to use a skill from the weapon, you may indeed utilize the buff from swapping. Just as long as you only use two skills the whole fight, you’ll be fine.

@Frost challenge: a d/d ele still has a range up to 600, does this count as melee? Is evasive arcana allowed since it can damage on dodge. Is all condition removal prohibited, like the water traite?

Areann.1304:

@Frost challenge: a d/d ele still has a range up to 600, does this count as melee? Is evasive arcana allowed since it can damage on dodge. Is all condition removal prohibited, like the water traite?

Yes all condition removal is prohibited, no exceptions, its not about skills range, its about how close you are to the boss, its fine even being a longbow ranger standing in melee range.

Wethospu.6437:

Kill Bloody Victoria without using a stun break (includes teleports) and without anyone getting downed.

Just did that fight on way to Frost solo. Here’s my first attempt on Frost ever. I solo’d all of P2 CM to get there. I’ll probably be trying to find a group for it to complete the challenge. Here’s a video of my first failed attempt!

PBag.7450:

Wethospu.6437:

Kill Bloody Victoria without using a stun break (includes teleports) and without anyone getting downed.

Just did that fight on way to Frost solo. Here’s my first attempt on Frost ever. I solo’d all of P2 CM to get there. I’ll probably be trying to find a group for it to complete the challenge. Here’s a video of my first failed attempt!

Interesting, I would like to have emanuel comment on the legitimacy of the try, incase it wouldve worked.

Oh yeah, I also forgot to include Stability.

Anyways would soloing a level 80 Fractal be a nice challenge? I think Snowblind might be doable.

Problem is not many people have access to fractals that high. Surely soloing 48 is enough.

Sanderinoa.8065:

PBag.7450:

Wethospu.6437:

Kill Bloody Victoria without using a stun break (includes teleports) and without anyone getting downed.

Just did that fight on way to Frost solo. Here’s my first attempt on Frost ever. I solo’d all of P2 CM to get there. I’ll probably be trying to find a group for it to complete the challenge. Here’s a video of my first failed attempt!

Interesting, I would like to have emanuel comment on the legitimacy of the try, incase it wouldve worked.

I put my thoughts in the video description. It took about half a second before I failed the challenge. Static shot hit a turret and bounced to him. And I’m pretty sure I broke melee range.

spoj.9672:

Problem is not many people have access to fractals that high. Surely soloing 48 is enough.

You can always party with someone so you can enter. And who wouldn’t want to spend 20++ minutes hearing “your weakness makes me lag”?

Wethospu.6437:

Oh yeah, I also forgot to include Stability.

Anyways would soloing a level 80 Fractal be a nice challenge? I think Snowblind might be doable.

I don’t think ‘might be doable’ is something that fits in this particular thread, try the solo champion thread, the 200g thing. But I don’t think snowblind is particularly skillbased, more than patience based ^^

Wethospu.6437:

spoj.9672:

Problem is not many people have access to fractals that high. Surely soloing 48 is enough.

You can always party with someone so you can enter. And who wouldn’t want to spend 20++ minutes hearing “your weakness makes me lag”?

Finding someone with fractals that high is also an issue. But yeah if people want to try it sure. I just think thats a challenge most people will just avoid.

Comrades, here is the first Weekend Variety Trial !

This is a group challenge. You have until Monday 03:00 GMT to accomplish it. All entries must provide a video. The first group to accomplish the challenge will get the prize.

Prize: 5 golds, to be split between the group members.

Challenge: “Hollywood-style Hacking”
Complete the hacking event in Crucible of Eternity submarine path (with the exploding golems) by hacking the console one level by one level, with no more than 2s in between hackings.
(Since the hacking takes about 20s, the total time of the event should not exceed 1min48). A player can hack only once. This means that all five members of the group will have to hack in turns.

This challenge has a personal value to me, and it is my birthday this weekend, so make me proud!

Good luck

Zelyhn.8069:

A player can hack only once. This means that all five members of the group will have to hack in turns.

What if we wanted to try it 3man?

spoj.9672:

Zelyhn.8069:

A player can hack only once. This means that all five members of the group will have to hack in turns.

What if we wanted to try it 3man?

Then the challenge is to find 2 more friends

Two could change characters and run back there while the instace owner holds the event active.

Do people find this weekend challenge to be too hard?

I just don’t do CoE and have so much gold that i won’t notice 5 more or less.

Dub.1273:

I just don’t do CoE and have so much gold that i won’t notice 5 more or less.

Well we’re not supposed to do it in the first place >.<