Guild Wars 2

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/january-2013

Linking for anyone who doesn’t stop by the main page every once in a while!

Gah! Beat me to it!

Just two words: QUAGGAN BACKPACK!

Guesting, Ascended amulets, new infusions, new daily/monthly achivement system, enchanced performance in WvW, UI improvements, side-kicking balancing….

AND A KITTEN BABY QUAGGAN BACKBACK.

Curious to see how it’ll turn out.

Ah! Such a bittersweet teaser. I want to now more!
What will the new achievements look like?
What items can you buy with laurels?
How expensive will the ascended amulets be?
What improvements will we see in the UI?
Will we get a token tab in our collectable storage?
And what the frak is happening in the north? Is it a prelude to Jormag and the first expansion, or will this storyline revolve around the free content primarily? Will we get to fight something big after the 28th? How will all of this play into the big changes that are coming?

Sigh, so many questions, such a long wait.

I predict that many many people will want that backpack

OMG ! Bravo ! Yahoo ! Can’t wait !

Anet.. you pulled this one out of the bag, I take back every negative thing Ive said recently.
(well at least till a week after release, then I’ll go back to being a moaning old git)
Until then.. your my heros again !

Charr and Norn fleeing..hmm? I want to know what’s going on already!

Any1 wearing that backpack in wvw will be the first target by me and my guild!

A big war between Jormag(Frost) and Primordius(Flame)!! :o

Yay…finally building on the foundation while killing weeds that are choking the good parts of the game.

Look forward to the next few months with anticipation and cautious optimism.

Emtiarbi.3281:

A big war between Jormag(Frost) and Primordius(Flame)!! :o

Don’t toy with my feelings…that would be awesome, though.

Vorch.2985:

Emtiarbi.3281:

A big war between Jormag(Frost) and Primordius(Flame)!! :o

Don’t toy with my feelings…that would be awesome, though.

That was the first thing that came to my mind when i read the title

Dear god, quaggan backpack….

I better stock up on gems for the other items before it’s too late.

a baby quaggan backpack? SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!

Mildly interested, but I admit I’m not wholeheartedly thrilled either.

Ascended amulets, okay, fair enough as I knew they were coming. But no discussion of adding existing Ascended gear to other parts of the game, I notice….don’t think we’ve forgotten that promise. If you just add them all to Fractals, expect a fresh new wave of backlash over it.

Still, looking forward to laurels and guesting, and changes to the daily achievements that will hopefully be productive. I’d like to see the monthly system changed to work similarly, so that players can choose which achievements to run every month to finish monthlies.

Emtiarbi.3281:

A big war between Jormag(Frost) and Primordius(Flame)!! :o

That would be awesome, actually, and does kind of fit the name….but I kinda doubt that’s actually what’s happening. Still, I’m looking forward to this multi-month event as it sounds awesome….yet, I have one big concern.

And that concern is this: I’m worried that this entire multi-month event is just setting the stage for the first expansion, and that we’ll have to buy the expansion to get the full story. GW1 managed to introduce entire post-campaign storylines of a fairly significant size and did it entirely for free, so I sure hope GW2 isn’t drumming up this multi-month event for additional drama when they announce the first expansion. That’d be awfully disappointing.

Colin, mind putting my fears to rest, please?

Interesting.
But more interesting and intriguing is the “horse” that appears in the concept art … “prelude” of mounts perhaps? … Let chopping the ball …

Considering that the horses have never been seen in the world of Tyria … until now?

Oh god, a quaggan backpack… now I will have to look at those alien seals everywhere I go.

The Quaggan backpack is from the gemstore. I wonder what happens to liquid karma bottles. Will there be a possibility to get those still or are they replaced by these new tokens?

Quaggan backpack. It will be mine. Oh yes. It will be mine.

I really need to get in there and level my main more so I don’t miss out on too much content this time!

You guys want to carry a quaggan on your back?

Anyways, about the new ascended amulet: Curious to know if this would be a possible reward from a level..fractal 10 daily chest? Or is it restricted to a level 20 daily chest? Or 30 daily chest? Obviously, this would be in addition to the new ways to acquire ascended gear…but just curious how this will be rewarded if you choose to run fractals. Also curious if the time it takes to purchase ascended gear via laurels would be roughly the same as it would be in fractals. Right now, if I run a lvl 10 daily, I have a really good chance at getting a ring in a chest. I got one for two or three nights straight a few weeks ago. Combine that with doing a the daily each night, and you could have yourself 3, 4, or even 5 ascended rings in the span of a 1.5 weeks. Is it going to take a month to farm out enough laurels for these ascended items? I hope the time balance is equal.

Pirlipat.2479:

I wonder what happens to liquid karma bottles. Will there be a possibility to get those still or are they replaced by these new tokens?

Colin said in a post that you will still get the current daily/monthly rewards, (like the karma jug) the laurels will just be something on top of it to make it more “rewarding.”

Pirlipat.2479:

The Quaggan backpack is from the gemstore. I wonder what happens to liquid karma bottles. Will there be a possibility to get those still or are they replaced by these new tokens?

As far as I understood these new tokens will be in addition to your regular jugs and coins.
Can’t remember where I saw that otherwise I would link it- sorry

critickitten.1498:

Mildly interested, but I admit I’m not wholeheartedly thrilled either.

Ascended amulets, okay, fair enough as I knew they were coming. But no discussion of adding existing Ascended gear to other parts of the game, I notice….don’t think we’ve forgotten that promise. If you just add them all to Fractals, expect a fresh new wave of backlash over it.

Still, looking forward to laurels and guesting, and changes to the daily achievements that will hopefully be productive. I’d like to see the monthly system changed to work similarly, so that players can choose which achievements to run every month to finish monthlies.

Emtiarbi.3281:

A big war between Jormag(Frost) and Primordius(Flame)!! :o

That would be awesome, actually, and does kind of fit the name….but I kinda doubt that’s actually what’s happening. Still, I’m looking forward to this multi-month event as it sounds awesome….yet, I have one big concern.

And that concern is this: I’m worried that this entire multi-month event is just setting the stage for the first expansion, and that we’ll have to buy the expansion to get the full story. GW1 managed to introduce entire post-campaign storylines of a fairly significant size and did it entirely for free, so I sure hope GW2 isn’t drumming up this multi-month event for additional drama when they announce the first expansion. That’d be awfully disappointing.

Colin, mind putting my fears to rest, please?

Arenanet already stated that eventually in the coming months daily/monthly achievements will be changed to where you only need to complete like 4/6 ojectives of them. I believe they stated it is not happening in this next patch, but that it is coming.

Good luck Arena.net and Have Fun to the playerbase. This looks like a very solid expansion, even if not much new content is added (bar the laurels).

Also makes me look forward to february. “Coming soon” can’t come soon enough.

It’s all intresting, but all this wait around a full release of the ascended items is kinda frustrating.
I hope for the next month patch, but for now this little article is not revamping my wish to play.

I’ll admit as jaded as I am it’s starting to look like they’re getting some good ideas. Hopefully adding new content to existing zones rather than making new ones (read: Southsun Cove) will allow them to fix existing issues with broken events since they don’t have to divert resources to new zones. Making the next piece of Ascended gear not attainable from Fractals is also a step in the right direction. Here’s hoping they actually fix the events in this game so we want to go back and run them for the rewards. Can’t get rewarded if the source of them doesn’t function.

critickitten.1498:

Mildly interested, but I admit I’m not wholeheartedly thrilled either.

Ascended amulets, okay, fair enough as I knew they were coming. But no discussion of adding existing Ascended gear to other parts of the game, I notice….don’t think we’ve forgotten that promise. If you just add them all to Fractals, expect a fresh new wave of backlash over it.

Still, looking forward to laurels and guesting, and changes to the daily achievements that will hopefully be productive. I’d like to see the monthly system changed to work similarly, so that players can choose which achievements to run every month to finish monthlies.

Emtiarbi.3281:

A big war between Jormag(Frost) and Primordius(Flame)!! :o

That would be awesome, actually, and does kind of fit the name….but I kinda doubt that’s actually what’s happening. Still, I’m looking forward to this multi-month event as it sounds awesome….yet, I have one big concern.

And that concern is this: I’m worried that this entire multi-month event is just setting the stage for the first expansion, and that we’ll have to buy the expansion to get the full story. GW1 managed to introduce entire post-campaign storylines of a fairly significant size and did it entirely for free, so I sure hope GW2 isn’t drumming up this multi-month event for additional drama when they announce the first expansion. That’d be awfully disappointing.

Colin, mind putting my fears to rest, please?

CJ said that there’d be a more detailed post on the 28th

ColinJohanson.2394:

The highlight notes for the release will be out within a few days.

The detailed line by line notes on the day of the release on the 28th.

Keep an eye on the website, maybe even as early as….tomorrow morning =)

Can I just give a thumbs up for the mystery?! Its a great feeling knowing that something big is going to happen and not knowing what it is!

Holy sweet kitten!

“Expension-worth of free content” is a quote that comes to mind, so don’t fear, a paid expansion 6 months in is unlikely.

Fox Soul.4809:

a baby quaggan backpack? SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!

+1. Glad I saved a few gems, but hopefully it won’t be something absurd like 1k gems x.x

Really interested to see how the laurels play out. Hopefully I can ditch FotM altogether and still get my goodies within a reasonable amount of time. Can’t wait

ExTribble.7108:

Fox Soul.4809:

a baby quaggan backpack? SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!

+1. Glad I saved a few gems, but hopefully it won’t be something absurd like 1k gems x.x

Really interested to see how the laurels play out. Hopefully I can ditch FotM altogether and still get my goodies within a reasonable amount of time. Can’t wait

It should be 2000 gems, this backpack is on par with all deluxe items.

Main question i have – is the “new ascended gear” you get through achievements those amulets, or will rings/backpacks be accessible outside fractals as well? Also, what is “side-kicking balancing”? I though the whole side-kicking idea has been scrapped? Maybe they meant down/upscaling?

Ah cool, thx Kalrisver and Morrigan.

Vasham.2408:

I’ll admit as jaded as I am it’s starting to look like they’re getting some good ideas. Hopefully adding new content to existing zones rather than making new ones (read: Southsun Cove) will allow them to fix existing issues with broken events since they don’t have to divert resources to new zones. Making the next piece of Ascended gear not attainable from Fractals is also a step in the right direction. Here’s hoping they actually fix the events in this game so we want to go back and run them for the rewards. Can’t get rewarded if the source of them doesn’t function.

I just hope that whatever is obtainable via fractal daily chests/fractal vendors, is available via laurel vendors. I would be FURIOUS, with a full stack of MIGHT, and a long standing STABILITY if it turns out like this: We are adding ascended gear to be obtainable from laurels. You will be able to obtain ascended rings via laurels, and the new amulets will be obtainable via fractals.

I will be PO’d to no end if it ever turned out like this, where if you didnt want to run fractals you would need to wait for the next round of acsended to get the previous round. This is speculation of course. But I’ve already posted questions/concerns: If ascended item SLOTS A and B are available from fractals, are ascended item SLOTS A and B available via laurels?

ArenaNet is really stretching it when they say “January Update”. Sure, the 28th is January, but geese, you are cutting it so close it may as well be called the February update. Every time I read “this month”, I cringed.

I’m excited to see what the Flame and Frost update brings, I guess we will have to wait until next month (the 28th of February would be even more hilarious than January).

I really think they’ve missed the mark with laurels. It’s not immersive, it has built in daily limitations (creating pressure to log in daily and limiting how much you can do on a day you might have more time) and it does very little to improve the existing content – it’s just tacked on top of the existing content. I really hope their goals with expanding the open world rewards and improving on it’s design is a lot more ambitious than laurels. More unique rewards from existing chests (like JP chests, boss event chests from chains, champions etc), maybe make them pieces of a recipe for an item that is currently exclusive to RNG buying on the AH. I’d rather tell people about how I travelled all over Tyria killing giant destroyers, solving jumping puzzles and completing a scavenger hunt to assemble my epic weapons, rather than how I farmed CoF daily for gold and ectos, or flipped items on the TP with my spread sheets just to get enough gold to buy the exorbitantly priced mats for these weapons. It would actually involve me exploring the world, playing through content and it’d actually give a story and sense of real and unique achievement to my gear collecting, rather than encourage me to find the most efficient farms or methods of making gold. Dailies are just another way to turn GW2 into what every other MMO is already doing better.

I wonder if there will be any events added to promote the Flame and Frost: Prelude.

@alcopaul I agree.

I’m more curious how we get “Ascended Amulet (Infused)” than “Ascended Amulet”. Will it cost like 500 of these silly Laurels? Will we be able to get them via Fractals? I really don’t want to have to farm a daily achievement thing every day for 2 months to get an amulet.

I agree about ascended, but they arent going anywhere. Ive made my peace with it. As long as Im not cornered into fractals to get the latest and greatest, I’ll deal.

I agree with laurels being only stepping stone for making Tyria a living breathing world.

What I would love is to have NORMAL sized dynamic events for levels 75-80, in zones such as kessex hills or sparkfly fen or some other zones where there arent a lot of people. Make the rewards worth participating. The lowbies questing would steer clear, and it would give us some incentive to traverse these once traveled lands. Or, as Ive said before, beef up the rewards for participating in DEs in lower level zones. Getting 160 kharma and 80 copper as a level 80 for participating in a level 40 event is a joke. (numbers are just guestimates.)

Shiren.9532:

ArenaNet is really stretching it when they say “January Update”. Sure, the 28th is January, but geese, you are cutting it so close it may as well be called the February update. Every time I read “this month”, I cringed.

Dear lord, you never learned management speak did you?

“This year” means “fiscal year” which usually runs until April. So if a company promises to release something “this year”, they may actually mean April 2014.

If a company says “14 days” it means workweeks of 5 days each, totally 3 weeks.

“Tomorrow” can be anything in a 48 hour timeframe depending on your time difference to Hawaï.

“Next week” means “Sunday of the next full week” which can be almost two weeks if it’s Monday.

“This month” is a crystal clear statement that the patch will be released on the 31st of January at 23:59. I’m actually surprised they managed 28th. But hey, … a.net is different.

Shiren.9532:

ArenaNet is really stretching it when they say “January Update”. Sure, the 28th is January, but geese, you are cutting it so close it may as well be called the February update. Every time I read “this month”, I cringed.

I’m excited to see what the Flame and Frost update brings, I guess we will have to wait until next month (the 28th of February would be even more hilarious than January).

I really think they’ve missed the mark with laurels. It’s not immersive, it has built in daily limitations (creating pressure to log in daily and limiting how much you can do on a day you might have more time) and it does very little to improve the existing content – it’s just tacked on top of the existing content. I really hope their goals with expanding the open world rewards and improving on it’s design is a lot more ambitious than laurels. More unique rewards from existing chests (like JP chests, boss event chests from chains, champions etc), maybe make them pieces of a recipe for an item that is currently exclusive to RNG buying on the AH. I’d rather tell people about how I travelled all over Tyria killing giant destroyers, solving jumping puzzles and completing a scavenger hunt to assemble my epic weapons, rather than how I farmed CoF daily for gold and ectos, or flipped items on the TP with my spread sheets just to get enough gold to buy the exorbitantly priced mats for these weapons. It would actually involve me exploring the world, playing through content and it’d actually give a story and sense of real and unique achievement to my gear collecting, rather than encourage me to find the most efficient farms or methods of making gold. Dailies are just another way to turn GW2 into what every other MMO is already doing better.

I wonder if there will be any events added to promote the Flame and Frost: Prelude.

@alcopaul I agree.

I’m pretty sure the Laurels and what you buy with them are the motivation to go back, since if the Holloween patch proved anything it’s that you can add all the content you want to lower level zones and it’s still not going to draw in players unless there’s something worthwhile to get out of it. Same with Southsun Cove, but that suffers from a major lack of events period, not just poor rewards.

As I read it, the Quaggan backpack will be hidden in an RNG box… please tell me it isnt true? Please?
cries

I’m getting really excited for the new Flame and Frost update of the game.

• New features
• Improvements on the current game
• Not to mention, improvements on the way it works

So anyways, what’s your input in this, guys?

cesmode.4257:

I agree about ascended, but they arent going anywhere. Ive made my peace with it. As long as Im not cornered into fractals to get the latest and greatest, I’ll deal.

I agree, just make them available outside of fractals. And PLEASE, dont put gear with the ascended stats. No more grind |:

I am looking forward to being able to run Fractals. So hard to find a group on the same level, that is coming in this update I assume.

Why open another topic? …

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/January-2013-Flame-and-Frost-prelude/first#post1263721

Sythus.2396:

Charr and Norn fleeing..hmm? I want to know what’s going on already!

If it doesn’t involve Primordus and Jormag somehow there will be a lot of disappointment! Please get this one right Anet!!!

Vasham.2408:

Shiren.9532:

ArenaNet is really stretching it when they say “January Update”. Sure, the 28th is January, but geese, you are cutting it so close it may as well be called the February update. Every time I read “this month”, I cringed.

I’m excited to see what the Flame and Frost update brings, I guess we will have to wait until next month (the 28th of February would be even more hilarious than January).

I really think they’ve missed the mark with laurels. It’s not immersive, it has built in daily limitations (creating pressure to log in daily and limiting how much you can do on a day you might have more time) and it does very little to improve the existing content – it’s just tacked on top of the existing content. I really hope their goals with expanding the open world rewards and improving on it’s design is a lot more ambitious than laurels. More unique rewards from existing chests (like JP chests, boss event chests from chains, champions etc), maybe make them pieces of a recipe for an item that is currently exclusive to RNG buying on the AH. I’d rather tell people about how I travelled all over Tyria killing giant destroyers, solving jumping puzzles and completing a scavenger hunt to assemble my epic weapons, rather than how I farmed CoF daily for gold and ectos, or flipped items on the TP with my spread sheets just to get enough gold to buy the exorbitantly priced mats for these weapons. It would actually involve me exploring the world, playing through content and it’d actually give a story and sense of real and unique achievement to my gear collecting, rather than encourage me to find the most efficient farms or methods of making gold. Dailies are just another way to turn GW2 into what every other MMO is already doing better.

I wonder if there will be any events added to promote the Flame and Frost: Prelude.

@alcopaul I agree.

I’m pretty sure the Laurels and what you buy with them are the motivation to go back, since if the Holloween patch proved anything it’s that you can add all the content you want to lower level zones and it’s still not going to draw in players unless there’s something worthwhile to get out of it. Same with Southsun Cove, but that suffers from a major lack of events period, not just poor rewards.

Laurels sound as if they are awarded by dailies. What’s to stop people from doing what they already do and just run the easiest dungeon path, do the easiest events, gather in the easiest place and complete the easiest jumping puzzle (read: mesmer portal to the end)? My post isn’t about adding new events or content, it’s about actually integrating (look that word up if you have to, it’s core to the problem of existing content) rewards into unique areas and zones. Rather than tacking on a token token system (both tokens are deliberate) which introduces new rewards but doesn’t truly immerse players in content or integrate the rewards into the content, I’d like to see them do more. Hopefully this is just the beginning and they are going to use the tools the game already has to solve some of these issues better than any token system will.

As far as management speak goes, I know ArenaNet does this kind of thing all the time. When they give a date (read: month, quarter, half, year) they almost always mean very close to the end of that time frame. I was just laughing at how pointless it is calling it a January update, I know they worked hard on it (and what will come later) and I’m not upset, I just think it’s funny that this will be called the January update when the vast 28/31 days of the month went by without it. People will look back on GW2 and read that this stuff came out in January and think to themselves, “I played for almost that entire month and I don’t remember any of that?”. :P

Gord.8654:

Sythus.2396:

Charr and Norn fleeing..hmm? I want to know what’s going on already!

If it doesn’t involve Primordus and Jormag somehow there will be a lot of disappointment! Please get this one right Anet!!!

“The sky falls and the ground shakes in the lands of the north…” Primordious lives underground and could be flame, Jormag is capable of turning into a blizzard so sky and frost?

awwww more info plsssss… a trailer would’ve been awesomesauce T,T

Tosha Daydreamer.9251:

As I read it, the Quaggan backpack will be hidden in an RNG box… please tell me it isnt true? Please?
cries

From Baby Quaggan Backpacks to Riding Brooms to the revamped Box o’ Fun, you’ll find it all in the Gem Store!

Hm, it’s not stated directely. So I hope not, even though I’m not overly interested in bearing Quaggans at my back. I rather want the broom.

“adjustments to side-kicking balancing” Anyone know what this means?

Also, I am very excited for these Quaggan backpacks. This may make me buy something from the gem store for the first time ever. Hopefully you can wear them everywhere, not just towns. Would be awesome to see them in wvw!