2011 is over, which means we can now prove with science that we are indeed excited for Guild Wars 2. Just look at all the data! ArenaNet has collected the links to the many, many awards Guild Wars 2 has received at the end of the year. So much praise, of which they are well deserving!

Source: http://www.arena.net/blog/link-round-up-year-end-awards-edition

Happy New Year everyone. I hope everyone had a great holiday and you’re all back in heightened anticipation mode for Guild Wars 2 (I certainly am). Here are the articles, blog posts, and videos related to the game over the past week. Update: Added a couple of links that broke just after we posted this article.

• Arenanet blog — Guild Wars 2 Charr Plush. “Everyone needs a little charr in their life! This adorable plush version of Guild Wars 2‘s ferocious feline charr will stand guard as you work, sleep, or play! Made from huggable high-quality material, this 17 inch long plush is as fierce and rugged as a charr centurion.”
• [An update from the Live Team on Guild Wars 1] Arenanet — Elementalist update. “With this update, we are making some changes to Elementalists to improve their viability in PvE. Where relevant, we are also making some changes to Elementalist skills used in PvP in order to address certain powerful options and to provide some new playstyles. This update focuses mainly on improving elite skill options and adding a global change to Hard Mode foes. Even though this update is mostly limited to Elementalist elite skills, we are also addressing some normal skills for Elementalists that we felt could use some changes and a few non-Elementalist skills that have become too powerful.”
• GWOnline.net — Interview with the Live Team Part 2. “Here is the second and final part of the interview we had with the Guild Wars Live Team. Robert Gee talks about the changes we will see to the Elementalist profession in Guild Wars in the near future. This update was originally scheduled to be released before Wintersday, but it got pushed back, so it might not interfere with the festivities. There also has been a “leak” about the changes, so we already know what to expect. We anticipated the update and handed in the questions before the leak, so keep that in mind when reading. Enjoy.”
• Gamebreaker.tv — Guild Wars 2: Can it compete? “Guild Wars 2 does not plan to be a flash-in-the pan MMO. According to Massively Community Manager Rubi Bayer, the developers at ArenaNet will attempt to delve into eSports. However, given the other big MMOs on the market — Star Wars: The Old Republic and World of Warcraft specifically — will a lesser known IP like Guild Wars be able to compete in this market? In a very diplomatic twist, Rubi responds with, “This isn’t the Highlander; there can be more than one.” She goes on to say that there are no MMO police going to break down her door to uninstall her other games once GW2 releases. In fact, given the business model of Guild Wars 2 — no monthly subscription — players have no guilt about “wasted money” for playing one of their subscription MMOs and letting Guild Wars 2 sit for a bit.”
• Conspiracy Theory: Did Guild Wars 2‘s closed beta really happen? ”So did the closed beta really happen? Why act like the closed beta was something anybody could apply to and suddenly say ‘Not open to the public’ right before the end of the year? According to Anet’s community rep they have an ‘Internal selection process’ for closed beta and there will be no public application. What list of potential applicants do they even have to select people from? I can only think of those who signed up for the newsletter or previous Guild Wars 1 players. But then how can they ‘Select candidates carefully’?” [Raphia: Do read the comments ... if the article doesn't have enough conspiracy theory for you, the comments certainly will.]
• PC Gamer — Games of 2012: Guild Wars 2. “As the MMO coalesced into its modern form, quirks that were initially necessary compromises became widely-accepted features. Mute characters that embody utility rather than personality; quest objectives that only relate tangentially to the story that frames them; raid bosses designed to be killed and killed again by the same groups of people. Good games have been made — and are being made — on those principles, but it’s hard to argue that they’re sacred cows. Instead, they’re the elephants in the room that Guild Wars 2 is setting out to slay.”
• Massively — Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars‘ Urgoz’s Warren. “All was quiet at ArenaNet last week as the various members of the Guild Wars 2 team enjoyed a well-deserved vacation. I’m going to consider it a welcome breather after being drowned in so many squee-worthy updates the previous week and take the opportunity to turn my attention back to Guild Wars 1 and another elite area: Urgoz’s Warren. I really enjoy Urgoz’s Warren for a couple of reasons. Obviously, it gives me tons of Kurzick faction, but once you’ve got the hang of it, it’s a fun challenge even without the perks. It’s full of environmental effects and hidden enemies that prevent you from simply charging in and blasting away, so you have to think ahead, be careful, and play strategically.”
• YouTube — Tube Elephant on Guild Wars 2 vs Other MMOs. [Raphia: A nice expansion on the philosophy of Guild Wars 2]
• Ten Ton Hammer — Most Anticipated Game of 2012 Winner Announced. “At the end of November, Ten Ton Hammer asked its readers to vote for their favorite games in each of two categories — Most Anticipated MMOG of 2012 and Most Anticipated RPG of 2012. About 78,000 votes poured in to help us determine the winners and finalists in each category.”
• Dragon Season — Bounty Hunter. “Welcome to Guild Tech! While this has nothing to do with the rest of the column, I figured I would introduce myself and the column to those who have not really frequented my home page theferalengineer.wordpress.com. My name is Feral, I am a fat American (really, I am quite large) who enjoys gaming and basically has been since I was 8. I am now 23. The primary topic of this blog is to cover various systems and mechanics found in both Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. Since I am still learning Guild Wars, it will most definitely be about that most of the time until Guild Wars 2 comes out.”
• Kill Ten Rats — Coming Late to Early Guild Wars. “I am enjoying Guild Wars in a non-focused way. I have not seen much of the game, but I have been enjoying what is around. I feel absolutely no pressure except maybe that I might want some Hall of Monuments points by the time Guild Wars 2 comes out, assuming those do something useful for me.”
• The Feral Engineer — BETA and the lost test. “Many people view beta as a type of privilege where you were chosen to play the game early. Almost as a type of super early access without any permanent character development or progress. In fact, most of the time, people just look at beta as a means of playing their longly waited game. This is a symptom of the times. We live in a society with the internet and everything can be gained instantly to create an era of instant gratification. People just want to play the games they so eagerly wait for so that they can have those experiences, see if they like it, and then move on to the next game they eagerly await. There is definitely many problems with this type of view point and that is because beta is not early access. Beta used to be a privilege to do exactly what beta is, and that was to test. Beta testing has lost the word test and nobody participates in beta to test it. Is there any way to regain that lost word or the sense of honor you got for testing out the game before it was launched? Or how about regaining that sense of participation that you helped make your game a great? Only time will tell to see. Once again, Arena.Net is changing everything up with their approach to beta, so far, it is the only application-less beta in the current market.”
• The Vigilant — Back to Basics. “We’ve had some great info come out of Anet recently, but now with the new year upon us, I think it’s time we get back down to the basics. What are those little things that are going to help Guild Wars 2 stand out from the other mundane MMO’s? In this blog post, I’ll go over some of the key factors which help support Anet’s innovative mind set. “
• The Vigilant — My skillbar goes to 15! ”A lot has been made of the changes to the Guild Wars 2 skillbar in comparison to it’s predecessor. Most of the negative comments have focused on how the first five skills are set by the weapon choice of the player and so they only really have five slot with which to make their build.”
• The Wars of Guilds — HoM Guide to 30. “Hi! Welcome back to the second part of my Hall of Monuments Guide! In this section, I am going to talk about the Heroes and Pets section and the Weapons section, if it doesn’t get to wordy, I will also cover the Titles section since I didn’t end up getting very many of those. Feel free to refer back to Part 1 if you need to!”
• The Vigilant — GW2 n00b Top Ten. “For something a little different, instead of talking about the game or relating a story, I thought I’d try and provide some humour with a list of the ‘Top Ten ways to spot a GW2 n00b’. The assumption here is that not everyone we’ll be playing with has been a rabid fan, following the development with bated breath and latching on to every Facebook post, Tweet or blog entry. This list is how to spot these people in-game. So, without further ado, here we go with ‘How to spot a Guild Wars 2 n00b once we get to play the game’”
• Gamebreaker.tv — Will Guild Wars 2 have endgame? “The rumors you’ve heard are true. According to resident Guild Wars 2 fangirl Rubi Bayer, our most anticipated MMO of next year will have no endgame raiding. What does that mean? Rubi says that the ArenaNet, the game developer, tells her that the whole game is endgame. Huge bosses and world-changing group events start no more than ten minutes outside of character creation, but it doesn’t end there. As you gain levels, your character and the other players he interacts with have an actual impact on the world. The really good content starts right out of the gate, not just at max level. Many gamers follow the sentiments of our host Gary Gannon when he asks, “What am I going to do when I get [to max level]? Am I just going to be standing around?” Shawn Schuster, editor-in-chief at Massively, describes it as a sandbox of themeparks. However, ArenaNet remains quite vague on the details.”
• Arenanet blog — Year End Awards. “It’s that time of year again: when fans reflect on the past year of gaming and look forward to the year ahead. That’s right: time for end of year awards! Let’s look at how Guild Wars 2 did.”

Community Events

We didn’t receive any community event notifications this week. Hopefully we’ll have some next week.

If you’d like us to publicize your community event, send us the details at community@guildmag.com and I’ll try to get it out to the fan community (given that we only do a weekly wrap-up, try to send the information at least a week in advance). As long as your event is open to everyone in the community, we’re here to help you get the news out.

In the lull between Christmas and New Year’s, some of us spend lots of time with friends and family. Some of us spend lots of time in game. Some folks try to do both. For that last group, here are this week’s news and commentary from around the Guild Wars 2 community:

• GAMEBREAKER.tv — Guildcast: Thief Reveal. “If have not caught the Guild Wars 2 fever yet, then it’s time to get sick. Guild Wars 2 in on the crux of release, and our team at GAMEBREAKER is here to help contract the virus. Our panel consists of MMO experts from all over the genre. Our host Gary Gannon invited Community Manager and Guild Wars expert from Massively Rubi Bayer and MMO PvPer and host of ZAM’s BFF Report Mike B to the show to exchange ideas about the latest Guild Wars 2 news.”
• Flame Throwing — Content Gating Part 2 vs Progression. “I sort of let this go for awhile. I’d like to say it’s because I’ve been mulling over every grain of thought in the realm of content gating. But really: the holidays. Last week I tried to define content gating and give common examples of it. This week I promised to talk about when it is good, and when it is bad. Let’s start with the bad, because I think most people are familiar with the term “content gating” in a negative sense.”
• MESMER.me — To Beta or Not to Beta? “If ArenaNet sent you an invite to take part in the Guild Wars 2 closed beta, would you take them up on the offer? I’ve wondered this myself for the last few days after ArenaNet announced that closed beta would begin on the 16th December. Many would instantly say yes, hit the link and download the client. But having taken part in dozens of closed and open betas, it is unquestionable that your perspective begins to shift. Taking part in the launch of a brand new MMOG, having not played any of the alpha or beta stages, is an incredibly exciting time; a brand new world, classes and archetypes, making new friends and taking part in new adventures. In direct contrast, these feelings dwindle to but a flicker when you’ve already invested countless hours into the game and a character that was deleted several days prior.” [Raphia: Good points here, but I'd certainly accept a beta invite, even though I've worked for many years in the software industry (not gaming software).]
• The Feral Engineer — The Grind. “WARNING: This will most likely come out as a QQ post. Remember when games were so fun that you just played them because you wanted to? Because they were fun? I do. Hell, I can even recall how much fun I was having back when I first started to play WoW. Or even how much fun I was having back when I started playing RIFT. But how come after the cleanest launch to date (I guess SWTOR was pretty clean, but I am not here to argue yet and its too early to tell), how come the game is suffering from a rapidly declining population and the people that still play it are mostly just holding out until the next MMO that comes their way? Honestly, I think there are a number of things that contribute to this. Personally, and this is highly opinionated, I feel that there is one reason why MMOs these days are failing and the reason is quite simple. I have yet to figure out why developers feel the need for this. But why is there more grind in MMOs these days than at any Starbucks? I have yet to find anyone that finds grinds to be fun, so why do developers do them? Why do they feel the need to stagnant player progression so? To be honest, I find that if developers keep going with the grind, they will be their own downfall.”
• Greibach’s Normal Form — The 2/3 Theory. “It’s been a long time since we first started hearing about professions, going on two years now. A lot has changed between then and now, but one thing that hasn’t is the concept of Guild Wars 2′s version of the trinity — control, support, and damage. They have been consistent for the past two years in stating that their goal is for any party composition to be viable because every profession can operate in each of these three roles, frequently changing on the fly between them via either profession mechanics (kits and attunements) or weapon swapping. No class is relegated to any one role, and in theory all are able to fill all three. Brace yourself for a wall of text few have seen the likes of.”
• Massively — Flameseeker Chronicles: High achievers. “Well, ArenaNet certainly didn’t let 2011 go out on a quiet note. The team had a few last tricks up its sleeve before closing down shop until the new year. We chatted with Eric Flannum about the Guild Wars 2 Mesmer, and the newest ArenaNet blog post contained some exciting talk of combat, achievements, and some tweaking to the Thief class. I loved hearing about the updates to the Thief and to combat because the fact that the developers are talking about fine-tuning says good things to me about the development process. However, it was the talk of achievements that really caught my attention because it’s such a sweeping, game-wide system. Follow along after the jump and let’s take a closer look!”
• Dragon Season — Professions: Ranger. “No, I cannot recall neither when it began nor how. What I do know for a fact is that this is the oldest memory I have. Ever since I can remember myself, I have been surrounded by animals of various species. It is strange, really; I cannot bring to mind the faces of my parents… but I can still see very vividly my first dog’s muzzle! I’ve learned how to walk by holding on to this dog’s ears and I’ve learned how to run by yanking his tail. Hell, I even think I learned how to ride on this poor dog’s back! “
• GWOnline.net — Amazing Guild Wars 2 Music Remix. “Browsing through YouTube I stumbled upon this rather amazing remix of the piano theme from the Guild Wars 2 Gamescom 2011 trailer. Made by YouTuber Matt Visual. “
• Guild Wars Journal — Guild Wars 2: The Year 2011 in Review. “The year 2011 had a lot in store for Guild Wars 2 fans as it not only brought us from only four known professions up to all eight, we also had several big race weeks and a very busy convention season with playable demos and PvP. Here is our Guild Wars 2 Year 2011 in Review.”

Community Events:

No new community event items have come by this week. Hopefully we’ll see more activity here in the new year.

After the massive premiere column last week, this week’s offerings are a bit less weighty (but still well worth your time to check out):

• Arenanet Blog — Guild Wars 2 Year End Development Update. “Hey, there! It’s time for another update on some of the new things we’ve been working on. Jon and I have a lot to talk about this time, so I’ll get started with our achievement system before I hand things over to Mr. Peters, who’ll talk about some more subtle combat refinements as well as recent changes to the thief.”
• Nerdy bookahs and their travel guide — Now that the mesmer’s out: Which class do you want to play? ”Did the reveal of the mesmer change your mind about which class you want to play first? Were you hoping for another class or is the mesmer all you ever wanted? Or are you now hoping your favourite class will make a return in an expansion? ;) In my case, I’d at some point hoped that the dervish will be introduced again but I knew this wouldn’t happen because the scythe wasn’t listed as weapon in the game (we did know which weapons will be in the game before we knew about all of the classes). “
• GWOnline.net — Synthesis: What’s known about the mesmer. “The release of the 8th and final profession — the Mesmer — was accompanied by a deluge of interviews. Through these interviews and the profession page, we have learned that the Mesmer is a magical-duelist who uses his or her illusions, and mental trickery to confuse a foe and setup situations beneficial only to the Mesmer. Although each interview in itself has given us only a brief glimpse into the Mesmer profession, the combination of different interviews gives us a more complete picture than meets the eye at first. So what have we learned about this profession? This article attempts to make sense of all the information.”
• MESMER.me — December Wallpapers. “Today I’ve got 4 mesmerific wallpapers for you. Enjoy!”
• MMORPG.COM — Interviews: Jonathan Sharp. “Last week, Arena.Net announced the final Guild Wars 2 profession, the Mesmer. We recently had the opportunity to sit down to chat with Guild Wars 2 Systems Designer Jonathan Sharp about all things Mesmer. Check it out and then leave us a comment or two.”
• The Vigilant — Exclusive: Interview with Regina Buenaobra. “As the title suggests, we were recently given the honor of our first interview with Arena Net. Specifically community manager Regina Buenaobra. On behalf of the whole team here at Vigilant Fans I’d like to thank Regina and her co-workers for taking time out of their very busy schedules to answer these questions and wish them all a Merry Christmas and a happy new year! The interview in all its glory follows.”
• Massively — Massively talks Mesmer: Our exclusive interview with Guild Wars 2 designer Eric Flannum. “It’s been days since we got the official Guild Wars 2 Mesmer reveal, but the excitement is still running strong through the fan community. Here at Massively, we’re just as excited about it, so we took some time to sit down with game designer Eric Flannum and chat about some of the background and design details of the eighth and final Guild Wars 2 class. Follow along after the jump to see what he had to say!”
• Massively — Flameseeker Chronicles: Why must they starve us then drown us? “Today’s Flameseeker Chronicles title comes to you courtesy of one of Massively‘s livestream team members, echoing the wails of many news-starved fans of all things Tyrian. In a classic case of ‘be careful what you wish for,” we got the Guild Wars 2 Mesmer, two enormous Q&A sessions with the devs, a bit of closed beta news, and Wintersday and new costumes in Guild Wars 1, all in just a few short days. I need to lie down. While I do that, follow along after the jump for a rundown of all the excitement of last week.”
• The Feral Engineer — The Excommunication of the Holy Trinity. “So onto the topic of the day. I think the most frequent comment I hear about GW2 is that they are revolutionizing the industry as far as MMOs go. In all honesty, I cannot say they are revolutionizing anything. SWTOR is in the form of cinematic quests which to me is a terrible idea. But what exactly is GW2 accomplishing that makes it revolutionary? Cross Class Combinations are definitely a step in the right direction. Rather than a quest system they have dynamic events that shape the way you play as you explore Tyria. Their dragons make the Blood Storm of RIFT look like pansies. But how unique is all this? Not really at all. Everything they are doing has been done in some type of fashion. The guild system originated in Final Fantasy XI, Cross Class combinations were seen in Chrono Trigger, Dynamic events work the same way as the invasion system in RIFT with a few minor nuances and badass dragons were seen since the first days of video games and even literature. What I will say is what Arena Net is doing is taking old designs and reworking them into something better.”
• Guild Guardian is a Tumblr blog run by Hizashi Aoi (GW name) highlighting Guild Wars 2 concept artwork and fan-created items.
• There’s also a YouTube channel called GuildWarsCommunity, specializing in posting Guild Wars 2 commentary. Drop by and see what’s on offer.
• For German-speaking fans, there’s the Guild Wars 2 section of vanion.eu, carrying discussions about the game. Lead writer King_Dom explains: “Aside from in many cases one of the fastest German news coverage, we in many cases had the fastest or even only translations of GW2 related content, such as interviews, lore and design article from the Anet blog, etc. A current example would be the translation of the dev live chat on Wednesday, which within half an hour after the end of the chat wasn’t just the fastest but is to my knowledge still the only German translation. In addition, we have a Podcast which just released its 9th episode, various commentaries like an article for your last blog carnival, and for its size pretty respectable community discussions on our forum.”
• MMORPG.com — Mesmer – Master of the Mind. “Finally, the last profession for Guild Wars 2 has been revealed! In a way I was hoping for something new, rather than just an old profession coming back, but I must say, ArenaNet sure has out done itself yet again with the Mesmer. Some of the professions are those that are returning from the first game, such as the Warrior, Ranger, Elementalist and Necromancer. What was nice is that all these professions got a much needed facelift, even though they did very well for the old age of RPG games. Guild Wars 2 is focusing on a new way for MMOs to be made and played. But today, we are talking about the Mesmer, so let me tell (and show) what I like about the returning veteran.”
• Guild Wars Insider — GWI Podcast EP10: The Purple Bard. “This podcast was obviously recorded before the Mesmer reveal, as Seven and Gallo have a lengthy debate about how the last profession should have been a Bard… or even an 80′s hairband rocker. Don’t ask… just listen”
• Relics of Orr — Episode 44, Underwater Combat and Environments. “I am joined by Csquirrelrun to summarize Guild Wars 2 underwater environment information so far.”
• MESMER.me — Clone Call. “At present (and despite developer interviews to the contrary) clones strike me as incredibly limited in their viability, for several reasons. The first is their use in both PvE and PvP and how some of their purpose (to distract) simply won’t be possible in PvE (unless ArenaNet purposefully factor in clones for every enemies AI routine) and will be negligible in PvP on the basis that as players, differentiating human from AI in any and all game genres is a relatively easy exercise.”
• Guild Wars Insider — Hey Bookah! ”Hey there, silly bookahs! I am displeased to present another wonderfully mind-boggling rendition of Hey Bookah! I give a half-hearted apology for missing last week’s deadline. There were many experiments to be done and inventions to be invented, and it seems time slipped away from me. Speaking of time, Peter Chan had a great question relative to the subject!”
• MESMER.me — Year End Roundup. “Phew! What a busy years its been for Guild Wars 2 and ArenaNet. Globe trotting, countless conventions, profession reveal after profession reveal (including the mesmer!), the sylvari, iteration after iteration, cinematics reworked from the ground up (complete with lip syncing) underwater combat and an announcement about closed beta.”
• Hunter’s Insight — Year End Progress. “I guess it’s cool to see that Arenanet update us on significant changes in the game from what we’ve seen. It certainly helps fill the voids in between major info dumps. For me though there is nothing particular chat worthy about this particular blog post.”
• Hunter’s Insight — LFG in GW2. “I don’t find group tools to be very useful. I think this mostly stems from bad experiences with Pick Up Groups. Guild Wars did have a basic group tool, but does Guild Wars 2 need one? I can’t recall if they’ve ever mentioned one. I prefer playing with friends. If I stop playing your MMO it’s probably because I didn’t really connect with anyone in it. For that reason alone I’m sure most MMO studios seriously consider a Looking For Group tool.”
• GuildMag — The 8 Professions. “Ever wanted a quick and compiled source of info on all the professions? In video form? I’m Alexridiculous and I’ve been releasing one video a day on each of the professions in Guild Wars 2. Check out the first 4 in my series — the Warrior, Guardian, Thief, and Ranger — after the break!”
• Dragon Season — Unraveling the mysteries of the Elder Dragons and the Expansions. “The following text incorporates information extracted from the original Guild Wars 2 books, Edge of Destiny and Ghosts of Ascalon. It is intended as a synopsis of what we know so far about the Elder Dragons, and a preface of what may possibly be revealed to us in the coming expansions. If you have not read these books and do not wish to have the game’s mystery spoiled for you, please read no further.”
• GWOnline.net — Interview teaser – More Live Team Q&A coming soon! ”I had the chance to submit a set of questions for the Guild Wars Live Team a few weeks ago and GWOnline.net wants to share the rest of the answers of that interview with you very soon. John Stumme and Robert Gee have given us information about the development of Winds of Change that you have probably not read anywhere else yet and will talk about the upcoming Elementalist update too. The following two questions do not fit the theme of the rest of the interview, so I will share them with you as a teaser of “more things to come”.”

We got several folks sending blog and website information to our community@guildmag.com email address — which is great — but not all of the submissions match our immediate needs for linking to recent articles or publicizing community events. A few of the entries above are just links to the main page of some of those sites. I’ll happily post this sort of thing once for a given site, but this column is intended to highlight new, current material.

Community events:

• Ankh Alliance & GW-EN — Ankh Alliance Wintersday Bash. “The Ankh Alliance is up to some crazy fun and will be hosting a crazy bash filled to the brim with music, alcohol, prizes, trivia, free gifts and of course… lots of tofu”

If you’d like us to publicize your in-game event (as long as it’s open to the whole Guild Wars community), please do let us know via the above email.

Ever wanted a quick and compiled source of info on all the professions? In video form? I’m Alexridiculous and I’ve been releasing one video a day on each of the professions in Guild Wars 2. Check out the first 4 in my series - the Warrior, Guardian, Thief, and Ranger – after the break!

Read the rest of this entry »

Guild Wars 2 is, as we all know, still in development, therefore, big changes will still occur. In this new blogpost by Eric Flannum and Jon Peters we get a better look at achievements, changes to the thief profession and also a look at how the combat system has evolved over the course of development.

Previously we were only aware of the achievements ala those which you’ll find in Guild Wars or any other MMO, those that need a certain amount of work within a larger time period to achieve and are account-based. Next to these achievements we also heard of daily feats, which were being implemented to make the border between hardcore and casual players smaller. Daily feats would enable you to do certain tasks that would give you experience (and now they will also reward you with gold) when completed, effectively giving you an experience boost to keep up with those that could spend more of their time. These daily feats are now also incorporated within the achievement system as daily achievements, making it easier for you to see which tasks you can do on each day by just opening up the achievement panel. New to the table however, are monthly achievements, these are mid-term tasks that require you, just like daily achievements,  to complete a certain amount of set tasks to receive a bonus at the end of each month. Oh and, completing any of these achievements now also grants you achievement points which will round-up your account’s achievement score.

So to sum up:

• Achievements are long-term goals with purely cosmetic rewards.
• Daily achievements are short-term, easy-to-complete goals that reward you with gold and experience.
• Monthly achievements are medium-term goals that encourage a variety of play and reward you with gold and experience.
• Titles can be earned by completing certain achievement tracks.

Next up: Thiefs. The steal skill is still being placed under the F1 button, once you steal a skill however, the steal skill will be replaced by a skill that is connected with the item which you’ve stolen from your opponent. This skill is a one-use skill but can be saved until a later time, making it possible to strategically use your skill at the right moment. While previously you would lose all of your normal skills when you stole something, these now stay in place and can be used at the same time as your steal skill has been replaced by another skill. Aside of changes to the steal mechanic, ArenaNet has also placed some skills under the ‘Stealth skills’ category. These skills only show up when your thief is in its stealth state and replace the first skill on the left side of your skill bar. Two given examples are: Stealth Attack and Backstab.

Last, but certainly not least, are the changes to the combat mechanic. While previously reserved for the triplet: Sever Artery to Gash to Final Thrust, animation-blending from one skill to another skill has now been made easy by some changes to the Guild Wars 2 engine and is now able to be applied to almost all skills available. Because of this change, one can now also stop at certain points between the animation to use a different skill instead of completing the one which he/she had previously used.

Making these improvements has been really interesting and fun because it has shown us how our game can feel appropriately action oriented without taking away the familiarity of the MMO genre. We talk a lot about bringing dynamic combat to MMOs, and we have learned that the best way to do that is to retain a very traditional control scheme while letting the skills and their interactions define the combat. We wanted a player’s first impression to be, “I know how this works: I use ‘WASD’ to move, target with tab, and hit skill buttons.” But the more you play, the more you can see how the physics of the world and the nature of the skills create a totally different experience.

Source: http://www.arena.net/blog/guild-wars-2-year-end-development-update