This week in Guild Wars 2

Written by  //  January 4, 2013  //  Community  //  1 Comment

Jumping puzzles as part of the monthly achievement? ArenaNet, why do you hate me so?

Oh, I’ve done a few since the game launched: usually requiring a full support team of guildies to baby-step me through it, reviving me after each fatal fall… but getting a number of jumping puzzles in a month? I know my own limitations too well to even bother trying for that one. However, if you’re not JP-challenged like me, you can probably benefit from this compilation of Jumping Puzzle locations maintained on Hunter’s Insight.

Official Guild Wars 2 news

  • On the official Guild Wars 2 forums, Gaile Gray posted on the topic Bans for Snowflake Jewelry are unfair: “I’ve seen the numbers, and the damage to the economy could have been substantial, if the exploit wasn’t closed down and if these people were allowed to use their ill-gotten gains. People whose accounts were terminated were the worst offenders. I’m talking a lot of ill gotten gains, and a significant risk to the economy.”
  • On the official Guild Wars 2 forums, Colin Johanson posted on the topic January updates – Any sources?: “Just to help provide some clarity on this, we’ll be releasing within the next couple of weeks a high level summary of our big plans for the first half of 2013 to help provide more transparency into our plans with the game going forward. This will include providing more details about our goals for the game, information about the stories and features that you’ll see in the Jan/Feb/March releases.”
  • GuildWars2.com — 3 Day New Years Sale in the Gem Store – New Items Each Day! “To celebrate the dawn of a new year in Tyria, we’re chopping prices in the Gem Store for three days from January 4-6! During each day of the sale, we’ll feature three different items on sale at drastically reduced prices! All sales begin at 12 AM Pacific and last for 24 hours. The cuts are so deep you’ll swear I took a greatsword to the prices!”
  • On the official Guild Wars 2 forums, Habib Loew posted on the topic Update on Culling?: “As you know we’ve been working on this problem for a while but what I think we haven’t ever said before is that our goal is to remove culling completely from WvW. In order to remove culling completely we have to address three issues: 1) Bandwidth out of our servers/datacenter (traffic would increase without culling) 2) Bandwidth in to each client (traffic to each client would also increase without culling) 3) Client performance issues related to rendering (potentially) all the players on a map at once. (Note that we base our performance requirements in this case on min-spec clients. We don’t want to stop anybody being able to play the game after all.) Until all three of those issues have been dealt with we can’t turn culling off because doing so would cause something to break or perform poorly.”
  • Game Update Notes – January 3, 2013. “Wintersday has ended, and the residents of Lion’s Arch are tidying up, humming those bell-choir tunes as they work! They savor their memories of snowball fights, presents, toys, and Toymaker Tixx! And so the Lion’s Arch Council sends one last merry wish that the joy you felt at Wintersday will last all year long! Happy New Year!”

Recent GuildMag posts

  • Guild Wars 2 Named Angry Joe’s Best Game of 2012. “The awards just keep on coming for Guild Wars 2, with the latest being Angry Joe’s ’best game of 2012′. Check out the video below to see this, plus the 9 other runner-up games.”
  • The Bare Bones – The Joys of Jumping. “When I started writing this article, I had no idea what I was going to write about, Between time with the family and the overtime crunch I had to pull at work, my free time, and therefore time with Guild Wars 2, vanished. I didn’t have the normal preparation time I have when I normally write these articles.”
  • Mind Wrack 101: Illusions. “So you look good. But guess what. As a mesmer, you hit that button and *pop* there are two of you for everyone to look at. Hit another one and *pop* *pop* there are even more of you. All looking fantastic. Or, perhaps at some point while playing some other game you’ve come across one of those bosses that summon clones of itself. You don’t know which one is the real one, but you know you’re going to have to kill them all anyway, so you just start swinging. Maybe you’ve wanted to be that boss, and maybe you’ve thought ‘I could do better than that.’”

Fan articles and blog posts

  • Guild Wars 2 – LFG (BETA) “The easy way to find a group”. “Great way to find a group even across different home servers. No need to stand in Lions Arch spamming chat for a group. Quick way to advertise you are looking for a group or find that last needed member.Note: You can group with others no matter what server they are on. You don’t need to be on the same home server. Note, you can only group with those on the same region. So North American and Europe can not group together.”
  • Hunter’s Insight — Magic Find Etiquette. “I wasn’t going to write this post. It’s been sitting in my queue for more than 2 months. The problem was that as time went on it became less interesting and less important. You see, in my guild, a couple of people chose to first acquire magic find gear instead of more powerful gear.”
  • Kill Ten Rats — Yearly Contemplations and Prognostications. “Guild Wars 2 won so many awards, I just nod every time I see a new one. The only other games worth the amount of time/money per metric-unit of fun have been Guild Wars 1, Team Fortress 2, and Minecraft. I have gotten to some “ends”, but I still have a few to go. Many of you would probably be surprised to learn I haven’t killed Zhaitan yet. There’s just been so much I’ve wanted to do otherwise. I’ve also been incredibly waylaid by the holiday content, but I feel I have been pretty much done with Wintersday.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Hub — Ascended Items: For or Against? “Its been a while since the writers of GW2 Hub fought over an issue and the Ascended items, introduced a little over a month ago, certainly stirred up many a discussion. In this installment of the Last Whisky Bar, Innuendo and I go toe to toe on whether Ascended items are a good or a bad thing. To mix things up a little, Innuendo is (less than willingly) in the ‘for’ camp and Lewis is in the ‘against’.”
  • Healing the masses — Guild Wars 2 wish List: Issue 3. “OK so controversy Ahoy on this little wish list post, I haven’t really written about it much because it really doesn’t affect my play but it has been an issue that has been written about to great lengths out on the internets. The funny thing though is that even though it is a huge issue for many, myself included to an extent it hasn’t really been a part of forum discussions. These usually involve “nerf thieves and mesmers” or content X is horrible, or developers aren’t focusing on my needs which leaves these ingrained issues mostly ignored since they are not constantly in your face. And that brings me to wish list number 3″
  • Inventory Full — One Step Forward… “2012 was the year of Guild Wars 2. Beta weekends dominated the spring with the early ones marking particular high spots. I think the first two beta weekends still stand as my own personal high-water mark with the game. The overwhelming sense of a huge, unexplored world just over the horizon was at its peak then and my attempt to reach Lion’s Arch on foot from Black Citadel lives on in my memory as vividly as my first attempt to reach Qeynos from Freeport a dozen years ago. After four months of intense Live play, that particular journey is about as exciting as going to the garage for a pint of milk but much, very much indeed, of the fascinating world of Tyria remains mysterious and unexplored. I still haven’t passed 50% map completion on any of my eight characters and in my opinion the points of interest marked on most of the maps don’t even send you to the most interesting places you could be exploring, let alone show you all of them.”
  • Gamebreaker.tv — Korean Financial Site Predicts GW2 Expansion In Late 2013. “The latest report from Korean securities firm KDB Daewoo has mostly good things to say about NCSoft, particularly regarding the launch of Guild Wars 2 and its first few months of operation. Specifically, Q4 2012 is cited as setting a record in operating profit for the company, with GW2 leading the way to the tune of 118 billion Korean won ($110 million USD). Combined with a 3Q OP of W46 billion ($43 million), that makes for a grand total of over $150 million.”
  • Of Course I’ll Play It — Guild Wars 2 – A Look at the Guardian. “And so it is that Erianna Steele, of Kryta, who traces her ancestry back to the earliest refugees from Ascalon, and in fact considers herself Ascalonian to this day, has achieved the rank of Warmaster within the vigil, and now joins Trahearne, and others from the various orders, in taking the fight to Zhaitan. In short, my guardian is level 55, and I thought I might take some time to talk about my impressions of the class so far.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Trading Post — What Impulse Buyers Actually Buy. “I’ll let you in on a little secret today. Actually, it’s a big secret and I know I’m going to have the usual angry suspects. Sorry in advance!”
  • Healing the masses — Guild Wars Wish List: Issue 2. “This one includes the part of Guild Wars I consider to be the least worked on, the part that is missing basic features, the part that has been badly implemented, and has been mostly forgotten about in regards to updates. I know that is a huge statement right there but it is true to me. Funnily enough it is the part that has some of the most potential and could be destined for greater things but just needs a little love. And the wish here is….”
  • Guild Wars 2 Hub — Guild Wars 2: End of Year Successes and Failures. “With New Years Eve right around the corner and now that Guild Wars 2 has been released for around fourth months, I’m curious to hear your opinions as to what was the best success (or successes) of the game and what was its biggest failure(s).”
  • Lopez IRL — A condition necromancer’s guide to world vs. world. “One of the most exciting features in Guild Wars 2 for me is the world vs. world, and I’ve spent a bulk of my game time taking keeps and defeating players in the Eternal Battlegrounds and borderlands. Now, I think my experience from other games and Guild Wars 2 has given me enough knowledge to write a guide on world vs. world. This guide is entirely built around condition necromancer in world vs. world, not structured PvP.”
  • GWOnline.net — Guild Wars 2 Wins Best MMO in IncGamers 2012 Readers Awards. “Leading up to Christmas, the main IncGamers.com site ran a vote for readers to vote for their best games of 2012 in numerous categories.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Junkies — 2013 Speculation: Guild Wars 2 Expansion? “With 2013 right around the corner, many gamers are setting their sights on predicting the next year’s shifts and exciting entries in the MMORPG world. Among the speculation, one popular prediction is the hope of ArenaNet launching or announcing the first expansion for Guild Wars 2.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Hub — First Four Month’s Year End Review. “I really can’t believe the game has been out as long as it has already. Recently a lot of my writing has been down one some of the systems in the game, but Tyria really has become my home away from real life. Lewis already gave his high point and low points but I want to pause at the new year and reflect on some of my own highs and lows of the game’s infancy as well.”
  • Inventory Full — Room For One More Inside? “My first toe dipped in the GW2 Dungeon pool and I find myself splashing around with a full group of Fractal Virgins. Moreover, not only had no-one ever done a Fractal before, not one of us had more than the vaguest idea how they worked. No-one had even watched a YouTube video or read a guide. Perfect!”
  • Malefic Incantations — My Year of the Dragon in Review. “WordPress sent me an automated year in review report for this blog, which has inspired me to write in about everything that happened this year–and what a great year it’s been! First of all, if you’re reading this–thank you. I’ve said this before but I started writing with only vague hopes of contributing to the Guild Wars community, so I’m humbled to have a worldwide readership. I will admit to trying to get a nod from ArenaNet’s social media death ray and not succeeded, but that’s okay, I’m still pretty new at this whole thing. Something to try for next year.”
  • Healing the masses — Guild Wars Wish List: Issue 1. “The finale is here and my last post for the wish list will be the last of the year. And it will be the bestest most amazingest post EVAH! !. Are you ready?
    oh and sorry for the huge amount of word spam you are about to be subject to which I thought would be wise to contain withing the bowels of the blog.. you know so the crazy obsessiveness isn’t all out and visible to the world.”
  • Kitten Crafting Station — Wintersday on New Year’s Eve. “The end of the year is very near and so is the end of Wintersday. The Christmas time is often very busy and stressful for a lot of people, even though everyone are encouraged to relax with their family. Deadlines need to be met and Christmas preparations made. Wintersday started already on the 14th of December, but back then I had no time to get to know the event or make a post about it. Now, even though there’s only a few more days of Wintersday left, I felt that it’d still be good to cover the Wintersday event in this blog, and decided to sit down for few hours to write down this comprehensive summary of the event from the crafting and trading point of view.”
  • GWOnline.net — Rush’s Guide to Smoother Dungeons. “In this guide, I will be sharing with you my preferred team composition for faster, safer, and smoother dungeon runs. During this guide, you may be all like “Wha? What about this class for this spot”, to which I will reply “Who’s writing the guide, me or you?”. No, that won’t happen, I am too nice to say that, but seriously, keep that shit to yourself for now. We’re going to take a step by step look by shoving our metaphorical microscope into each piece of the “smooth dungeon” pie.”
  • Massively — Flameseeker Chronicles: Hopes for the new year in Guild Wars 2. “It’s the dawn of a brave new year. Guild Wars 2 is still in its infancy, really — ArenaNet’s work in this year will do a lot to shape the future and lasting impact of the game. With apparently an expansion’s worth of content coming out in January and February, this certainly promises to be an exciting year. I don’t know whether the following things are predictions or hopes, but they can’t be all that much more inaccurate than fondling sheep guts.”
  • MMORPG.com — A New Year, A New Character. “Guild Wars 2 hasn’t been out for a full year yet, but it is here to bring in 2013. For many, a new year means trying new things. I usually don’t participate in the resolution ritual, but I think I’ll make an exception this year. While ArenaNet has packed Guild Wars 2 with loads of content, I think it’s time for me to start a new character in order for me to see more.”
  • The Orr Orator — JOB OPPORTUNITY.
  • Guild Wars 2 Riches — Return To Regular Guild Wars 2 Gold Making Methods. “Hello again! I hope you all had a nice holiday in real life and in-game. I didn’t get to play as much as I’d like over Christmas and New Years and I’m back at work! This means I am certainly going to miss out on some achievements and I know I’ve missed out on some potential gold.”
  • GW2 Guru — Community Server Websites. “As some of you may know, several server-specific community websites started popping up shortly after the game’s launch in late August of last year. With in-game server switches limited to once every seven days, the idea of getting to know who you are able to play with is essential to a successful community. Below you can find a collection of both North American and European server websites, so find yours and check ‘em out.”
  • Reddit — I’ve never spent real money on anything in a game, but I just bought gold from a Chinese farmer to buy an Unbreakable Bell. “I’m not proud of what I did, that’s why I’m using a throwaway account to share this. I’m hoping someone from ArenaNet might read this and better understand why I bought from a farmer, and maybe change how things work in future events so there isn’t such an incentive to do it.”
  • The Orr Orator — FORESTRY LAWS TO BE SCRUTINIZED.
  • Lopez IRL — Anticipating 2013 in Guild Wars 2. “With the amount of content and features in Guild Wars 2, I’m not exactly sitting around and waiting for the next best thing. On any given day, I still have plenty of options on what to do. I still have many cool-looking skins to hunt, I know I can push much higher in fractals, and I’m looking forward to getting a legendary weapon.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Hub — From the Editor’s Lab – Volume Five. “The start of the New Year brings about a minor change to GW2Hub, with Sardu taking a back seat on the site to concentrate on Ten Ton Hammer and a multitude of other side projects. This leaves me and Innuendo leading the charge under the stewardship of Xerin, who’s been with Ten Ton Hammer for many, many years.”
  • Dear Backlog — My Game of the Year 2012: Guild Wars 2. “Guild Wars 2 is not just my Game of the Year for 2012. It’s also the best looking game: art and graphics. Technically speaking, it’s also the best scaling game. It’s also the game that redefined what’s expected from MMOs. It’s also the game with the best developers behind it. It’s also…”
  • Kill Ten Rats — Jump in dee Line. “Most players want to rock that monthly on time. With the New Year came January’s Monthly Achievements in Guild Wars 2. The evergreen monthly WvW player kills achievement remains evergreen, and the fractal completion has continued from last month. Monthly event participation has returned from the early days too. The new monthly achievement is Intrepid Explorer – find the locations of Tyria’s jumping puzzles.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Hub — Snowflake Ban Hammer. “Several hours ago ArenaNet swung the ban hammer on a large amount of accounts that were found to have exploited Snowflake salvaging. Needless to say the official forums and Reddit are alive with stories (and tears) from the innocent, wrongly banned. ArenaNet’s Gaile “the ban hammer” Gray (as I’m now calling her) has issued the below statement, see in this particular thread.”
  • The Orr Orator — SALVAGE PROHIBITION.
  • Guild Wars 2 Junkies — Camera Inertia and Development Insight. “While the official Guild Wars 2 forums have been understandably a little quiet over the holiday break, one ArenaNet staff member took some time yesterday to give players a bit of insight on developer time and how it is used. The subject at hand was camera inertia in GW2, which is basically the “rebound” effect sometimes noticeable when quickly spinning your character or camera around. Most MMOs feature a camera option with no inertia, which makes it easy for practiced gamers to move and turn using the mouse. On the other hand, having no camera inertia can sometimes make camera motions too sudden.”
  • Metacritic — The Best Videogames of 2012. “A total of 114 computer games received positive reviews from critics last year, the highest figure for any gaming platform in 2012, an an increase by 13 compared to the total of green-scoring PC games released in 2011.”
  • Essieteric — Let’s Work Together! “On the outset, I sound a bit hypocritical – for a girl who professes the enjoyment of playing games alone, some people may be confused as to why I engage with the MMORPG genre at all, where the most ideal gameplay requires prosocial tendencies. Of course, World of Warcraft is one of these games, and people will notice that, despite playing with one character for over three years, Melysande has remained a stagnant Level 50 dranei hunter for quite a few months.”
  • MMORPG.com — New WvW Maps Incoming? “According to a snippet in a longer thread about World vs World in Guild Wars 2, Colin Johanson let slip that the team is working on new maps. While not much else was said, the quote raises hopes that the team will make significant improvements to the feature.”
  • The Egg Baron — New Year, New Class, New Contest! “Happy New Year everyone! I just got back today, and I will start blogging right away. Today I will talk about the new class I have started playing, the Elementalist. Also, if you continue reading below you will find out how you could win FIVE GOLD!”
  • Kill Ten Rats — The Final PoI. “Like Elisabeth at Massively I am working towards a legendary, and my pace is going to match hers. I am just going to play, bank, and see what happens. Some of the portions of a legendary do require more focus, such as the Gift of Exploration. I am dreading the Gift of Zhaitan I will need, but for now the Gift of Exploration can be done mostly during the leveling process. Who wouldn’t want to complete each map, cries my completionist self.”
  • Hunter’s Insight — Let’s not get Carried Away. “In an interview in December Colin Johanson commented on future updates to Guild Wars 2. It’s his job in these interviews to hype Guild Wars 2, talk big, be energetic about the future and generate excitement.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Trading Post — Minor Sigil of Generosity Still Selling. “HA! And you thought Wintersday items were done selling, didn’t you? Actually, Sigils of Generosity are selling like hotcakes, with a nice little profit margin between buying and selling to boot!”
  • Twitter — Jason Powell. “Wow, why do I not use my bomb kit more often? Its damage makes my Charzooka look like it should say Red Rider on the side”
  • Attached to Keyboard — Attributes and Equipment in Guild Wars 2. “Note: this guide was updated 3rd January 2013 to include the new PvE prefixes and Ascended armor.”
  • Taugrim’s MMO blog — Mana Bars: Good or Bad Game Design? “Mana bars are the long-standing resource implementation for casters in MMORPGs. In this article, we’ll look at the implications of mana bars on game balance and mechanics. But first, let’s consider why mana bars were (probably) created. I’ll use the term “caster” to mean both healers and mages.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Hub — The Mechanic’s Workshop: Monthly Events of Past and Future. “We’re off cycle (thanks holidays) with The Mechanic’s Workshop, but there are so many thing to discuss. This installment I want to look a bit into how ArenaNet has handled the first few monthly events in the game. They’ve done so much right, so it’s worth praising them on just how much dang content the game has seen added, but what could ArenaNet do to improve what have by and large been fantastic events?”
  • Healing the masses — Musings on fun. “What is fun is rather diverse and terribly subjective but the way we talk about it is often very singular, like something completely tangible that everyone knows the meaning of. Even when we hear the word “fun” we inherently take it as our subjective form rather than as interpreting it as the speakers version. It also doesn’t help that most people really don’t elaborate on what they mean by the word fun either, it is just left as an enigma.”
  • Healing the masses — Psychological Warfare: FRV. “Another weekend past, another story from the battlefield. The power of the chatbox is not really thought of these days and people pretty much spout out whatever they want whenever they want. While most of the time with the usually drunk, stoned, or troll posters it isn’t an issue but there is what specific species we affectionately call the weekend warrior who does nothing but hurt the servers war efforts. These people are always the armchair general and very vocal in chat, in a way they represent a good indicator as to the morale of your server, they can be one of your best allies in a sense as they can propel people forward but when things are going poorly they are absolutely one of your worst enemies.”
  • The Orr Orator — FIRST ANNUAL KEG BRAWL TOURNAMENT CANCELED.

Videos and podcasts

  • Gamebreaker.tv — Guild Wars 2 Legendary Weapons For Gold? “Legendary weapons have recently been spotted on the trading post in Guild Wars 2 and has caused some confusion and outrage in the community. At first, players assumed this was a bug or a mistake because surely the hardest to acquire items in the game would be account or soulbound, right? Well, that’s not the case. ArenaNet has clarified on the forums that this is not a bug and legendary weapons can be traded and sold until they are equipped.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Junkies — Video Collection: Fractals of the Mists Levels 50+ “Fractals of the Mists offers organized groups a unique chance to gather their wits and challenge the most difficult levels of GW2′s current group content. If you’ve ever wanted to see an organized group in action during the level 50+ Fractals, today we have a set of videos just for you. Captured by The Brainz and Kunst, the following videos showcase Fractals from ranges level 51 through 55. The group stays the same throughout, and is comprised of one Guardian, three Elementalists, and one Thief. Some videos are quite long, while others focus on a particular boss fight.”
  • YouTube — Lzn02: Guild Wars 2 Music Cover – Wintersday. “Guild Wars 2 Remix Orchestra : “Fear not this night” Remixed, ReArranged & ReOrchestrated by me. A full Orchestrated magic version inspired the Piano Melody you can hear on the popular GW2‘s main theme and the song “Fear not this night”. Everything you hear except the “fear not this night” and the GW‘s main theme’s motiv is entirely self composed and meant as as a totally new theme. I’ve tried to add some magical mood and poetry, and show a new perspective on two well loved track, and propose a new piece of music that can stand on it’s own.”
  • RavenKast — RavenKast 9: Azurri & Thieving the Glory Hole. “This is Ravenkast, episode nine, recorded on Friday, December 28th, 2012. On the show today we have… Azurri, Slurms & Zeli.”
  • Gamebreaker.tv — 2012 GameBreaker Awards Show. “The votes are in, and you, the fans have spoken! See who came away with top honors in the 2012 GameBreaker Awards gala celebration, hosted by Gary Gannon and his (generally well-dressed) minions, Scott Hawkes, Jason Winter, and Josh Allen. It’s a nearly clean sweep for one game, but there are plenty of other categories up for grabs!”
  • YouTube — GWOnline.net: GW2 Elementalist – A look back at 2012. “GWOnline‘s Elementalist Forum Moderator Gorani takes a personal look back at 2012 both in game and what was happening on the GWOnline.net forums.”
  • Guild Wars 2 Junkies — Wintersday Fan-Made Remix Video. “As Wintersday winds down and the holidays come to an end, we have one final Wintersday video to share. This one’s a little unique in that it’s featuring a popular GW2 theme– the iconic “Fear Not This Night“, which is part of the official soundtrack– but with a twist. One musician took the theme and made an intrumental fan remix of the tune, made it available for fans, and even created a matching Wintersday-themed video.”
  • YouTube — Raseus1: Guild Wars 2 all Vistas – Divinity’s Reach.
  • YouTube — thesparrowsjourney: Guild Wars 2 – Another Eye! “The personal story goes on as we find another Zhaitan’s eye, eish the guy is hard to find eh?!”
  • Gamebreaker.tv — New Maps In The Works For World vs. World? “As people recover from their holiday-induced food comas and hangovers, it’s time to scour the internet for any small morsel of news to report upon. Digging through scads of customer support red posts on the Guild Wars 2 forums did turn up one shining gem from Colin Johanson.”
  • YouTube — alacritythief: Guild Wars 2 – Bridge Battle Dance Off. “One day while roaming the old lands of Ascalon, three Asurans encounter a group of Humans gathered upon a bridge. In this chance encounter, a single common thought bubbled to the top of their minds: BRIDGE BATTLE DANCE OFF.”
  • YouTube — ShoddyCast: ►GW2 Farmer’s Almanac – Tier 1 Crafting Materials ~ShoddyCast~ “This week we will not be farming for gold. You may receive some gold in the process but we are actually looking for Tier 1 crafting materials. You know, those materials you need to start leveling your crafting professions. Stuff like Jute Scraps, Tiny Scales/Claws/Totems, Vials of Weak Blood and all that jazz. Of course, most of these items can be purchased off the Trading Post for a pretty low amount of money, but I know there’s quite a few frugal people out there that won’t spend money on something they can easily farm themselves.”
  • YouTube — MattVisual: Guild Wars 2: Too Much Games. “I just want to play…”
  • Gamebreaker.tv — Guild Wars 2 Exploiters Banned From ArenaNet. “A new exploit has been discovered in Guild Wars 2 and ArenaNet is ringing in the new year by issuing bans to the worst offenders. Jewelry made from Wintersday snowflakes was being crafted and then salvaged for globs of ectoplasm and other materials. The snowflake jewel, however, was returned around 80% of the time when salvaged, creating an excessively lucrative loop. The exploit has since been closed and a round of permanent bans has been delivered.”
  • YouTube — Phasestrikes: Guild Wars 2 Chronicles of Fate Episode 18 ‘Enter The Shatterer’. “So I decided to side track off the storyline. Mainly hoping for some phat loots (failed). So….I decided to fight the Shatterer with Fate. Just to try it with a true ranged class. Well my take on it is the dragon still looks impressive but fights like a kitten……He needs a buff seriously”

Fanfic

Community Events

  • Mystic Spiral — MYSTathon – There’s still time to win! “Through our efforts (all hail coffee!) and with the help of our friends, we’ve so far raised $528 for Child’s Play; that’s enough to buy a PS3 bundle and Xbox 360 and a couple of games. But we’re not done yet and we want to raise more. Thanks to our friends at ArenaNet and the generosity of our members, we’ve got some great prizes to give away to those who donate $10 or more to Child’s Play through our campaign.”

This section is intended to help you to publicize your guild or alliance event, and as long as your event is open to the whole Guild Wars/Guild Wars 2 community, we’ll list it here. Send us the details at community@guildmag.com and we’ll 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).