So everyone’s almost in one swift move forgotten about the Super Adventure Box in 3 days (3rd of Sept). That’s because the big news of what patch releases after it was revealed at PAX. That patch, aptly dubbed “The Rising”, hits on the 17th. So, what’s in it?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The ~ Rising~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WvW Season #1 starts: ~all servers in their respective regions (Europe and North America) will get split into multiple brackets -Gold, Silver, Bronze- and fight it out for 7 weeks. Winners in November will get a unique PvP finisher and trophy (?). Oh…let’s not forget bragging rights, because there’s that.~~ Starts October 4th, completely different patch.
- Bloodlust in the Borderlands : ~ Borderlands are going to be getting map revamps for WvWvW. Shown in the Live Stream sneak peak on Aug 23rd, the maps will get a new mechanic similar to the sPvP point capture. There will be 5 new locations added to the maps around the central lake, each being a sort of Boon-shrine that can be captured. Holding 3 or more of them gives your server a similar effect to that of the old Orb mechanics (though full details have not been revealed yet).
- Te’Quatl the Sunless revamp: ~possibly that “GW2 unique version of raiding?”. 80-man, level 65 or higher and well geared, as well as coordinated players required. Mechanics include fields, mob control, debuffing, environmental weapons, damage avoidance, massive AoEs, and extra shielding. Loot table has been revamped to include Te’Quatl specific Ascended weapons, rare mini Te’Quatl, Ascended crafting materials, and just all around good stuff. And, as seen in the PAX preview, it’s very much possible to fail the event (though still obtain loot at certain HP thresholds on the beast). Special note that the developer had mentioned: mobs spawned during the event don’t drop loot, so that way there aren’t purpose fails for the Champions, or people paying more attention to the mobs than the boss.
- Looking For Group tool revamp: Did you know that GW2 has a LFG tool? It’s on a Tab under Contacts, and it’s very simplistic. Well, the new rollout is going to be a 300% improvement over that one, though still in the exact same place. It’ll have a [Join] button, so no more /join or /invite needed. The tool also shows classes in the group, names of the players when scrolled over, and a special message that the original listing person can set (ex. “Need 4 more Zerk Warriors for CoF pt 1, link gear”…..well, that’s a worse case scenario example, but you get the idea). There are categories for all types of gameplay that pools from your entire region [without cross region], but has two exceptions: WvW and Open World under Living World….seeing as how you can’t cross-server the former and the latter is assumed that you’ll be on your server instead of the ol log-out/log-in to guest.
Q’s)
1: Last week on Friday the 23rd of August, Hugh Norfolk revealed that WvW Borderlands are going to get a map update/revamp. This was shown in a new mechanic that’s related to them having 5 Boon-giving capture points surrounding the central lake on the map. Will this map change occur for Season #1 on the 17th or will it happen after that in November?
2: Will the Te’Quatl mini and uniquely skinned Ascended Weapons be tradable, thus sellable on the Trading Post? Or, are they Account Bound or Soulbound?
3: Will the LFG have an automatic delisting for individuals that log-off from the game?
4: Being that tPvP (Tournament sPvP) can give leaver debuffs, will the LFG be locked out of people that are in a match?
5: Since players can put text inside the LFG tool, and KNOWING the playerbase, there are reasonable expectations of a way to report those that write up profane, obscene, prejudice, and racist terms in that section. Yes or no?
6: Te’Quatl is undead. PvE event encircles him. Just him, or zone invasions to every other zone in Tyria? 6.5) And if every zone, is Lion’s Arch -a city that borders the Sea of Sorrows from which Zhaitan’s forces come- be considered a prime invasion location?
So there’s a run down of the upcoming patch as well my questions and concerns related to it. In the mean time between then and now I’ll have a few days left of using Scarlet’s forces as punching bags. And from there it’s on to the enjoyment of World #2 of SAB. Yay! Joy! 8-bit entertainment!
(edited by Siphaed.9235)