Guild Wars 2

On the twitch stream they stated that Aetherblade Retreat and Molten Facility are both coming in at the same time as our choice, so at least three more fractals being added.

Added note saying BotFW ending is based on logic and precedent from the previous two months, not a dev post.

It could be wrong, as stated in the post, but will be corrected once known.

Mastruq.2463:

Is there an actual ArenaNet employee post or news item that clearly states at what date the BotFW living story achievements are removed?

Excuse me for not reading all threads everywhere but each one I followed only had assumptions and conjecture by players, not facts straight from the dev team.

Most of the time possibly important posts are also drowned out by people attacking Anet over not including such details and other rushing to their defense, as witnessed in this thread

No post that I’m aware of.

My date given in my thread is based on precedent, in lieu of facts. Each Living Story team is working on a month’s worth of content. Secret of Southsun and Last Stand at Southsun achievements went away at the end of that month. Dragon Bash and Sky Pirates achievements went away at the end of that month. I see no evidence this month’s achievements are any different.

If anyone can find evidence to the contrary, I will update accordingly. I’ll go ahead and update my post in the CP subforum to state that BotFW’s achievement ending is based on this precedent.

It’ll be interesting if next month we have content that encourages lots of traveling, making waypoint costs very important.

It’ll also be interesting if they add a bunch of items to the BLCs next month, making reduced key costs very important too.

I posted a BotFW/CP deadline post in the new Cutthroat Politics subforum.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/cutthroat/BotFW-CP-Achievement-and-Content-Deadlines/first#post2423978

Is this what you’re looking for? I was tempted to just merge it in the already-stickied Wiki post, and may eventually do that to keep it at the top, but it’s something new and wanted some feedback.

Is this a good format? I can always switch around the information.

I’m also hoping that people will post if they see incorrect or conflicting info (with the links) so I can try and figure out which is valid.

Note: The BotFW end date is now known, this list is now confirmed.

This thread is my attempt to hopefully provide good start and end dates for the current/next release. This thread will be updated as new info is received, and may initially be incorrect. If you find any info that is either missing or not correct, please post in this thread with link to the info so I can update if I haven’t found it myself.

The Cutthroat Politics release will begin on July 23rd. Both Bazaar of the Four Winds and Cutthroat Politics will end on August 6th, although the election itself ends on August 5th. All content from BotFW will be available until the end of CP.

Ending on August 5th at 11:00 AM PDT:

• Captain’s Council election

Ending on August 6th:
Bazaar of the Four Winds

• All Bazaar of the Four Winds achievements, including rewards from meta achievements like the miniature Zephyr Sanctum and Gift of Quartz.
• Zephyr Sanctum and Labyrinthine Cliffs and all content held within.
• Stolen Kite Baskets in mini-dungeons and jumping puzzles (Learn to Kite achievement)
• Sanctum Sprint activity
• Kite baskets around Tyria (Parachute Pilferer achievement)
• Best. Dive. Ever. achievement (as it is off the Zephyr Sanctum)
• Grandmaster of Om achievement (Poyaqui is staying)

Cutthroat Politics

• All Cutthroat Politics achievements, including rewards from meta achievements like the miniature Kiel and Gnashblade.
• Candidate Trials
• Aspect Arena
• Back items from Aspect Arena and Southsun Survival

Permanent Content

• The Like Clockwork achievement may still be able to be completed, as it only depends on the presence of Quart Crystals. (Unknown though!)
• Poyaqui, Grandmaster of Belcher’s Bluff, will relocate to Lion’s Arch. His BotFW achievement will not be available.
• Skyhammer PvP map
• Belcher’s Bluff activity, and all related achievements in the Belcher’s Bluff category. Note that the “Grandmaster of Om” BotFW achievement (noted above) will not.
• Southsun Survival and other activities will continue in a rotating schedule (TBD after election)
• The Zephyr Rucksack and Desert Rose will continue to be sold via the Black Lion Weapons Specialist once the release has ended.

Links to info

• Bazaar of the Four Winds
• Cutthroat Politics
• BotFW end date confirmation
• Cutthroat Politics Patch Notes with end date info
• Guide to Cutthroat Politics with info on persisting content

Here is the GW2 wiki page for the Cutthroat Politics release. The release begins on July 23rd and ends on August 6th. The election itself ends on August 5th.

Cutthroat Politics

Related Pages
Candidate Trials
Aspect Arena
Southsun Survival

This post will be updated as more pages are created/released. As always, the wiki is updated and populated by players for players, so if you are able to update the page further with information related to the Cutthroat Politics content, it would be very much appreciated.

Also, if you need to catch up on what’s happened so far in the Living World:
Living World Summary

Related Links:
GuildWars2.com Release Page

Thank you.

Debsylvania.7396:

I have been hunting all over these forums for deadline information for the new content.

I have to do these things in increments and I need to be able to plan ahead. It’s very frustrating to have to beg for simple, straightforward information like this every time temporary content is added.

I’ve been looking and haven’t found any deadlines specifically mentioned for any piece of content (Everything is “Begins <Date>”, whereas the fireworks was specifically “June 14-17”.

Therefore, we have to go with the default of “at the end of these two releases”, as that’s the precedent (Flame and Frost was an exception as it was designed to be 4 months long).

So, August 6th-ish, until further notice (IMO…4 weeks after this one was released).

For some reason I love the final word in that story. I don’t know why, but it just stands out for me.

Not having to run 10 minutes to get back to where I was when I die.

I’ve attempted, twice, to get into WvW. I’d run along with a group, looks like it’s going good, but I’m accutely aware that we’ve been running for about 5-10 minutes. We then get slammed by another group, I die rather quickly, the rest of my force retreats…and looking around it doesn’t seem like anyone’s going to be able to fight back to my location, much less spend the “OMG-it-feels-like-and-likely-is-forever” time to rez me from defeated. So I go all the way back to the waypoint and, since most of them seemed to escape, I’m running all by myself all the way back to generally where the force was, feeling like another 5-10 minutes of just running. I get intercepted by another enemy group and, because I’m new, I get slaughtered easily despite being a Guardian.

So I waypoint back and begin running again all by myself…then I stop and have an epiphany. This running back 5-10 minutes thing every time I die…just doesn’t feel fun or interesting or something I begrudgingly want to deal with, and I’ll likely be doing it over and over and over and over again because I’m really not that good at fighting other players (I’m heavily a support-style person).

So I stopped trying to get into it. I don’t go around slamming WvW or something like that and I fully wish you guys get all the fun new content and experiences they can throw at you, but it just isn’t for me and I don’t believe they could make any changes to entice me back for a significant amount of time that wouldn’t also ruin the existing reason why people like to play. So I stick to PvE…I barely have enough time to complete that section as it is.

Maybe some day it’ll click, but not now.

(Note: I never timed the runs back, but that’s what it felt like. And before anyone says anything, yes I know all about the “100% uptime swiftness” and such that makes it shorter. The second attempt, not mentioned here, even used a necro with Signet of the Locust slotted. It still feels long for me, and it’s really not enough. )

Luthan.5236:

Will this be full 1 month until it gets removed(without any new stuff in 14 days)? Cause this seems a lot to do again… would be good if it was like this. Still playing sPvP the new map and have not done anything of the other stuff from Bazaar.

I don’t know, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and say there’s likely going to be something happening in 2 weeks. Plus, just like Dragon Bash, there might be some story instances next week, and then further developments with the mid-month release.

However, until told otherwise, I’m going to go with “yes, the current achievements will be available for the full month.”

Ayrilana.1396:

But technically they weren’t done. So as a completionist, I don’t see how this is desirable.

OP means that a major annoyance was the constant reminder from looking at previous achievements that you didn’t do it (the bar was empty). This helps alleviate that, at least when looking at your achievement panel.

Geneticide.6987:

It might just be my adoration for cantha,

This isn’t actually a snark, despite how it looks, but I think this might be a large part of it for many, and your appreciation may be because it feels like they’re giving you what you want (which has a much more powerful effect than people realize). One of the most desirable parts of Dragon Bash were the weapon skins, which had a very asian/canthan influence. Perhaps anything Canthan related, or even seemingly related even if it’s not, will likely have a relatively favorable initial reaction among a more vocal fanbase purely because it invokes that nostalgia/theme.

I think you also get Quartz from them.

smiley.1438:

Vahkris.6847:

Second point: the map uploaded, as noted above in Smiley’s post, actually IS a better map overall. It was constructed using the tiles API.

These maps are actually not generated by the API/Tile Service. The API uses .jpeg while the maps God Of Fissures created are raw bitmap format extracted from the gw2.dat.

Sheesh, you’d think I’d have better reading comprehension. I saw “tile” and completely forgot that they store the maps in tiles in the DAT file too. Thanks for the correction.

Willowleaf.5721:

First, there are no Sky Pirates in the Gendarran Fields, I should know I’m there, there is no point in changing the map.

Second, even if a person changed the map, the Wiki is there to help and to serve the community, so the person has no right to change it because he/she liked it better that way, when that does not serve the community at large. The wiki is NOT a personal website where people can put what they want, they can get themselves a free blog on Wordpress.com for that.

“If you were using the previous map as a guide, just click on the map to go to the map page, and then click on the map just below the current one. It has all the hearts, etc. =)”

As for that, I have no idea what you’re talking about.

Let’s see if I can help.

First point: the Sky Pirates update added a jumping puzzle, which changed the map. If the Wiki wants to stay up to date, we need to update the map on the zone article to reflect this. The actual source of the map can be from multiple places

Second point: the map uploaded, as noted above in Smiley’s post, actually IS a better map overall. It was constructed using the tiles API. A comparison between the two maps will show that you can now see the landscape under the water, as well as at the map edges that were previously obscured. It is, however, missing area names and icons that I know many people want to see, so hopefully another update will be made soon to try and reconcile those issues.

Third point:
Here’s the image article: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Gendarran_Fields_map.jpg

A Wiki will keep all previous versions of any content (text, images, etc) saved, so if you look below the main image you can see the File History section with all the different versions contributors and editors have uploaded. The top version in that table is the current version, and going down the list gets you older and older versions.

The previous version, with all of the icons that you are looking for, can be found in the second row, as it was the immediately previous version. (direct link here: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/archive/b/bd/20130627180219!Gendarran_Fields_map.jpg)

Perhaps someday we can just use the map tiles API to generate the map, and then use a Wiki Extension (basically additional functionality) to layer all of the icons, names, areas, and perhaps even events onto the map, making it very up to date. We thought a recent update would allow us to do that, but apparently the extension itself lost that functionality.

Jemmi.6058:

Vahkris.6847:

Would it help if the Wiki sticky at the top had any info related to this…so we can avoid multiple stickies? Or would that not be as much of a help since the title wouldn’t notify you the info is there?

I don’t mind trying to create a central post out of that thread with at-a-glance info.

I think one sticky thread in the Living Story sub-forum called something like “Start and End Dates” would work. It could be updated at each event with start and end dates for certain achievements.

I was actually thinking at the top of each release because players would be actively looking for the start/end dates of a release in the subforum of THAT release, not necessarily leaving the subforum of a release for the general Living World subforum so they can find those dates. Having it in the Living World subforum would definitely avoid constantly remaking the dates post…but then again it does avoid the post going too long without being updated by that person.

Either way works, but I think the dates for a release being stickied at the top of that release’s subform works best. At least in my opinion.

Lithril Ashwalker.6230:

Question is though: if we get enough AP to unlock a specific armor skin…do we only get it ONCE or can we go back and get several for our other characters?! …. a one time only thing is a bit unfair. unlock iis an unlock…should be like DYE is but for the ENTIRE account

You can get it multiple times across your characters.

Would it help if the Wiki sticky at the top had any info related to this…so we can avoid multiple stickies? Or would that not be as much of a help since the title wouldn’t notify you the info is there?

I don’t mind trying to create a central post out of that thread with at-a-glance info.

The OP has been updated with the new pages from the preview weekend.

I have zero problems if they were to slowly add armor piece by piece over several releases, if it means getting the skins earlier for the ones they do complete.

It was actually never even shown, just talked about.

Well…“leap of faith” in the figurative sense. :P

Satakal.6971:

A couple of holographic walls are one thing, this looks like a bug though. Or just mean. No wonder people are asking for portals. I’m not doing this JP any more.

No, it’s intended, but like someone else said it’s only for the Dive Master goggles. You don’t head up towards the blue platforms for the jumping puzzle.

jweez.7214:

Why does “Four Winds” make you think Tengu? I am interested because I do not know much about them other than they are birds.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Tengu

Modern tengu that live within the Dominion of Winds have long since put aside their differences and now live under four houses – North, South, East, and West. These four houses are named after the winds, and were created to unify the tengu while allowing them to preserve their clans’ unique cultures.

The Tengu basically set themselves up into four houses, named after the winds. i.e. “Four Winds”. Their home is known as the “Dominion of Winds”, so naturally a release with “wind” in the name will bring Tengu speculation.

That’s basically why.

Metatail.1306:

Remove achievement points from dailies and remove these points from total count!

Or cap them, or make sure the reward structure naturally caps them where you don’t need to do years worth of dailies to catch up with those who never stopped doing them.

Here is the GW2 wiki page for the Bazaar of the Four Winds release. The release begins on July 9th. The content and achievements will be available until August 6th.

Bazaar of the Four Winds

Related pages of interest:
Begins July 9:
Bazaar of the Four Winds Achievements
Zephyr Sanctum
Labyrinthine Cliffs
Sanctum Sprint
Quartz Crystal

Permanent Content:
Belcher’s Bluff
Skyhammer (sPvP map)

This post will be updated as more pages are created/released. As always, the wiki is updated and populated by players for players, so if you are able to update the page further with information related to the Bazaar of the Four Winds content, it would be very much appreciated.

Also, if you need to catch up on what’s happened so far in the Living World:
Living World Summary

Thank you.

Edit: Added new pages from preview

That’s the holographic mountain this whole thing is in. You should have passed at least 2 of these while getting there. You’re meant to have to take a leap of faith to do the dive.

cesmode.4257:

Jeez, content was just announced and you already have an acronym for BotFW.

Regarding the OP: Curious thought, but Id imagine that allowing alts to harvest this would give altaholics an unfair advantage which is why they make certain design decisions regarding dragon chests the way they do.

Acronyms aren’t hard to come up with (it’s the exact same format as Wrath of the Lich King for WoW…WotLK), but we actually had “BotFW” before this announcement because the release page used it for the next release’s image name.

Ronah.2869:

Where is the new JP?

Gendarran Fields, south of Broadhollow Waypoint (Map chat code: [&BOEAAAA=]), to the west of the portal to Lion’s Arch.

Kryptonite.9376:

I LOVE, this living story temporary content. They work so kitten it.

The jumping puzzle is permanent content, so you have all the time in the world to work it out. You don’t have to try and beat it in the next week.

And I’ll be honest…figuring it out and making it to the end is very rewarding.

Bearhugger.4326:

The raiding thing makes me very curious.

I don’t understand how they are going to make large raids interesting in a game that doesn’t have tanks and aggro mechanics. You can’t really make large raid encounters interesting without any kind of control or structure.

I’m not saying that raids can’t work for Guild Wars 2, I just don’t understand how they’re going to make it work without letting every boss encounter degenerate into “zergs” with a couple of red circles to dodge and where there’s no point to have anyone that isn’t in berserker gear.

I’m very interested.

Simple, don’t design a raid where everyone zergs onto a single mob…like 95% of all raid encounters out there.

Ayrilana.1396:

Hopefully the end isn’t within portal range. Looks like a fun puzzle!

The end is definitely not in portal range, although 2-3 mesmers could probably chain-portal someone up to the top.

The Not So Secret jumping puzzle has now been updated with information. The walkthrough is hidden under a spoiler tag, but the location, tips/strategies and the reward are visible.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Not_So_Secret

ShiningSquirrel.3751:

I agree. when I saw most of them where JPs, that was enough. I do not do JPs, period. I hate them with a passion and believe they are the worst part of the game, they suck, are not fun to do, tedious, lame, boring, did I say they suck? I spent over 2 hours going through a jumping puzzle, 2 hours!, only to have them do a server reset and lose all the progress I made, TWICE! So that was 4 hours wasted doing something I did not like in the first place, only to have them pull the achievement away at the lase minute.
I used to be of a mind set that I wanted to do ALL achievements. The GW2 devs have done a pretty good job of putting an end to that. There are so many achievements that I have no hope of every getting, so why should I even try for any? If I get them, I do, if I don’t, well who really cares at this point?
This is as bad as putting a PvE achievement in a PvP area, oh wait, they did that with the caches as well!

Only three of the seven actually require you to do the jumping puzzle, and two of those can be completely skipped with a mesmer who can…and technically the last one still can be, but takes more effort to do so.

Mad Cache, Vexing Cache, and Blackout Cache require jumping sections if you do it normally. Vexing can be skipped extremely easily by mesmers (and is actually a mini-dungeon, not a jumping puzzle, so the jumping sections are incredibly simple). The others are either a mini-dungeon that does not have jumping (Weeping Cache) or only require you to get near the jumping section, not actually do it (Troll, Shipshape, and Cantle).

See the below link, there’s maps and info on what needs to be done.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Caching_Out

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Marriner_Plaque

Go down the list and check each one. Make sure you read each one again. Check them off as you do. Since there are 11 in Lion’s Arch, and a couple are pretty near each other, sometimes it’s easy to forget you didn’t hit one. Make sure you actually read the statue too since it’s one, and not just talk to Cassin.

Beyond that, I don’t know what else you can do.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

ah, I thought the yellow stars – aetherblade caches are the scavenger hunt O_O

Aetherblade caches are a kind of a hunt, but you’re pretty much directed exactly where they are, and with the exception of one of them it’s almost impossible to miss them if you do the jumping puzzle/mini-dungeon they tell you to do.

The scavenger hunt, on the other hand, has no hints in-game except the statue, so it’s an actual hunt.

Yes, Cassin Hoppal is at the statue and begins the scavenger hunt, although technically you don’t actually need to talk to him to begin it. He’ll tell you about it and the lore behind it and about the book.

More clues are in the novel, actual locations can be found on the wiki, including the text if you want to spoil yourself on the Sea of Sorrows plot, although personally it feels like a real achievement to find them all yourself without help.

Check the wiki link at the top of the forum. Warning, though, I think the plaques have major spoilers on the book.

If you beat it within 15 minutes (meaning Mai is down and you beat Horrik), there should be a new event pop up below the red dungeon text saying “Power the mounted deck cannon with Horrik’s cannon core and shoot down the escaping Aethership” with the remaining time before 15 minutes is up. You just take the core over to the cannon on the airship and you’ll have an option to use it.

If you didn’t get the option or didn’t see the event, it might be bugged…or perhaps you didn’t complete it in 15 minutes. No idea.

I believe it’s the replacement mini for the Helmed Moa Racer mini from the moa races, since the Helmed one is going away after Dragon Bash is over.

Due to that, I don’t believe it’s in-game yet. I haven’t actually checked the moa race merchant, though.

FYI

I added a note and link about the Mystic Fountains to the wiki Caching Out page, although you need to actually go to the Obsidian Sanctum page for their locations. I’ll try to get more detailed info to put it on the wiki.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Caching_Out

Zaxares.5419:

I’m a bit concerned about this too from the point of view of players who do not have the higher level maps unlocked. Most of the JP’s are located in fairly high level maps, and it’s not likely they’ll be able to reach there in time before the event is over.

And let’s not even mention the players who LOATHE jumping puzzles too. I’m bracing myself for the howls of outrage when news of this gets out.

FYI to everyone, the jumping puzzles are only required for Mad Cache and Blackout Cache. Vexing Cache can technically be skipped with a mesmer friend who can do any jumping bits, but actually has very little jumping if you’re patient enough, and wait for the platforms to reappear. Perhaps Mad Cache can be done the same way, but with a lot more portals. The rest have no jumping sections…Troll, Cantle, and Shipshape don’t require you to actually do the puzzle.

I think it’s the giant cage, where the Lionguard weaponsmiths are.

wolfyrik.2017:

At least one of the caches is hidden at the end of a passage filled with veterans and a champion who are all in groups. Good luck to anyone who doesn’t like warrior/guardian…….

If you’re talking about Tears of Itlaocol (Weeping Cache), you can just run past them. They won’t stop you. I ran past all of them on a thief without being stealthed. To be safe, bring condition removal, swiftness if possible (or innate run speed boosts) and any defensive boons and effects you can.

Lemony.9180:

I believe name of the person responsible for the attacks up to now is Scarlet. Before fighting Mai Trin she says: “Scarlet’s gonna have my noggin for screwing up.” This Scarlet woman is most likely Mai Trin’s superior and probably the person behind all the events up to now. Other than that, not much is known about Scarlet. Also interestingly Scarlet has a blank page on the wiki which may prove that she may be an important upcoming character.

“Scarlet” doesn’t have a page on the wiki. A red link means a non-existent page, not a blank page. It doesn’t denote being important later, just that it’s an obvious name and a reference to a NPC we don’t know about yet.

Lothirieth.3408:

I luckily made it through without being attacked, but yes, this was a really, really bad idea. Not just for all the camping/ganking that you’re encouraging with this, but also because PvE people will be taking up valuable spots in EB. Yes, I realise that you don’t need to do this achievement, but as many people like being completionists.. this just was a bad idea.

Obsidian Sanctum is on it’s own instance now, so the only affect it has on EB is while players are moving to the portal.

I need to confirm, but I think the dodge everything achievement is for after Mai is down, not before.

BlueSoda.6297:

I don’t like how if you kill the Male NPC first you don’t get any notification that the mission is now impossible to finish without wiping….

Mai is supposed to go rez him if he dies mid-fight, so there’s intended to be a catch for that situation.

kipz.8701:

One, defiant plays an issue ALOT in this fight. Remove defiant from the game and then it would be a different fight all together.

Two, it’s not the AOE that does damage, its Mai. Try and stand in the AOE while you have aggro and are unable to move out because she will. Her attacks do a lot of damage. Not complaining about that, but again, if defiant wasn’t there then it wouldn’t be a problem.

I’m pretty sure defiant was there since most of my knockbacks and CC’s did nothing. Correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t think I am

She’s Legendary, so she definitely has Defiant/Unshakeable.

BaronSolace.6831:

anet said you get 1g bag EVERY RUN. its not a bug theres no DR in there yet

No, they’re talking about in the same run, AFAIK.