It’s been another busy week in the Guild Wars 2 community, with the January release of Flame and Frost: Prelude, the first part of the Living Story series. The update was released on Monday, but the first part of the new content didn’t actually start until Tuesday — which lead to some confusion in the discussion forums (and map chat). The new daily achievement rotation is still subject to noisy debate: most players seem to be happy with the change, while others seem to resent having to pay attention to what is required to get the achievement — and the achievement is much more relevant now that it also includes Laurels in the reward package. I did see a few players wondering if the requirement to kill veterans as part of the daily would eliminate solo play — in my opinion (and I’m not a great player) if you’re over level 40 and can’t take on a veteran single-handedly, you may have bigger problems than achieving the daily!

I think every site I follow linked to the Flame and Frost release notes, and a high proportion reproduced most or all of the content in their own posts. To avoid all that duplication, I’ve just linked to the original ArenaNet posts except where the fan site has included significantly more analysis or commentary. (This is what I normally do, but this week had a significantly higher proportion of posts that just repeated the official information from ArenaNet.)

On a personal note, I’ve mentioned several times that I’m not a fan of jumping puzzles. I missed out on January’s monthly due to my jumping puzzle allergy, although I was told I could just get to the start of the puzzle to get the credit. It’s even more difficult to complete a jumping puzzle (and some vistas) when significant parts of the puzzle aren’t rendered on your screen. It was like this: I was trying to finish mapping the Straits of Devastation on my ranger, but there was a vista up on top of a hill that I couldn’t seem to get to. I had two of my guildmates come along to help me (someone’s got to scrape me off the landscape when I fall from a great height). We made our way up the hill, then they both appeared to jump off into mid-air and continue climbing. As you can see from the screenshot, I didn’t see anything there to support them.

They then had to take turns standing exactly where I needed to jump or move while I took the literal leap-of-faith. It worked: I got the vista, but it would have been literally impossible without their help. My thanks again to Zen Nightwing and Greytful Dead for their patience!

Also thanks to ArenaNet’s Community Management team for retweeting last week’s round-up: we certainly noticed a surge in traffic, but (unlike other CM retweets in the past) our site wasn’t taken offline by the fabled ArenaNet laser of death. But do feel free to try again this week ;-)

• Official Guild Wars 2 news
• Fan articles and blog posts
• Videos and podcasts
• Fanfic
• Community events

Official Guild Wars 2 news

• On the official Guild Wars 2 forums, Mark Katzbach posted on the topic Game Update Notes – January 28, 2013: “A mystery presents itself in this first entry in a multipart Living Story series. What could be causing such discord in the foothills of the Shiverpeaks? All those poor homesteaders and ranchers displaced with nowhere to go calls into question if the storms could be that bad — or if there’s something more sinister stirring up the flame and frost. The ground is shaking, and the sky is falling in northern Wayfarer Foothills and Diessa Plateau. Norn and charr refugees, crawling from the wreckage of their homes, are fighting their way to shelter in Hoelbrak and the Black Citadel. Many are in shock and wounded; most have only what they can carry on their backs. A call has gone out for volunteers to assist them in their time of need, when the environment itself seems to have become their enemy.” [Raphia: Supplementary update notes here, here, and here, and one update from Evan Teicheira here.]
• GuildWars2.com — New Rewards and the Achievements System. “Hey, everybody! I’m Matt Wuerffel, one of the game designers on Guild Wars 2. I wanted to take a moment to talk about some of the things we’ve been working on recently: new rewards and updates to the achievements system.”
• GuildWars2.com — Robert Hrouda on Upcoming Changes to Dungeon Mechanics. “Hey folks, I’m Robert Hrouda, a content designer on Guild Wars 2. In the coming months, we’ll make some changes to dungeon mechanics to make them a more fun and challenging experience. I wanted to give you a heads-up on our plans for phase 1 of our dungeons evolution — specifically, the removal of “res-rushing” — as well as a brief overview of our plans for phase 2.”
• On the official Guild Wars 2 forums, Habib Loew posted on the topic Coming Soon: WvW Rating Reset: “In the run up to the end of free world transfers we saw large population changes as people settled in to their home servers. This means that the WvW teams being fielded by many of the worlds are now dramatically different. In recognition of this fact, and in light of the increased population stability that comes with paid transfers, we feel that this would be a good time to reset the ratings of all the servers. A reset at this point will allow the rating & ranking system to more quickly and correctly rate these (effectively) new WvW teams.”
• GuildWars2.com — Temple of the Silent Storm Week. “We’ve been working on PvP features consistently since our last update, and as always, we’ve been watching the forums for feedback and inspiration. So I’m really excited to announce that, based on player feedback, we’ll be testing a new tournament system for PvP from January 28 to February 4 in the Temple of the Silent Storm map! This new system will pit one team vs. another, instead of the usual eight teams needed for a normal paid tournament. Free tournaments will still be available during this test, but we’ll be replacing paid tournaments with this test system for the duration of the week.”
• On the official Guild Wars 2 forums, Mike Ferguson posted on the topic Coming Soon: WvW Rating Reset: “Here’s why we think this is a good thing. As Habib alluded to in his post, we are also revising the math behind the ratings formula. Habib will be explaining the math in a later post, but for now, I can give everyone a glimpse into why we are updating the rating formula and resetting the ratings. Over the last couple of months we’ve seen that when worlds experience dramatic changes in their ability to field a consistent fighting force for whatever reason, it can take quite a while for them to work their way through the ratings until they end up in a match that suits them better. In a lot of cases, some worlds took multiple matches to work their way through a single tier even after a series of blowouts. We really don’t like that, so one of the goals for updating the math behind the ratings is to try and reduce how often we experience the repeated blowouts that can come from that sort of situation and get those teams through the rankings quicker.”
• Relics of Orr — A Shotgun Interview with ArenaNet. “Earlier this month I arranged for an email interview with ArenaNet. We asked ten questions that ran the gamut from lore to game mechanics. With the help of Community Managers Regina and Stéphane we were able to receive responses from three game designers; Matt Wuerffel, Matthew Pennebaker and Leif Chappelle.”
• GuildWars2.com — The Living Story in Guild Wars 2. “Hey, everybody! I’m Angel McCoy, the narrative designer assigned to guide the Living Story in Guild Wars 2. I’m here to give you a little introduction to this content, what it means to the world of Tyria, and how you can get the most fun out of it. We’ve been working hard on it for several months, and we’re super excited to share it with you! The Living Story team (and all of ArenaNet) really hopes you like it.”
• GuildWars2.com — Mandatory Password Change is Coming. “Account security is a very important topic for us. As ArenaNet president Mike O’Brien mentioned in this article on account security, one of the ways we protect your account is by creating a blacklist of passwords that have been used in the past by hackers to scan for accounts. As this blacklist has been very successful for protecting newly created accounts, we have asked all our existing customers to change their passwords.”

Fan articles and blog posts

• Project Tyria — Updated Lions Arch Comparisons. “I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, but I went out and snapped new pictures of Old Lions Arch. The graphics have improved since the beta, which is what my older pictures date back to, I wanted to take new pictures to show the true beauty of this place. I tried to make them larger and higher res, but blogspot doesn’t care to have them in high res. I’ll go about other ways of getting them up later on.”
• Dragon Season — Personal story – in a nutshell. “When my first toon hit 80 I was struck with an epiphany: her personal story had been left behind, somewhere in the 60-something region. I discussed this with my guildies and I realized it was a very common phenomenon. After playing the game a while longer -with a couple of alt chars- I came to the following conclusion: one’s first character is “the explorer”, one’s second is “the historian” and all the others to follow are and will be “the sprinters”. The thing is, however, that most people wrongly think that after having raised a “historian” they can safely run through the 40+ steps-missions of their next characters’ personal storylines. Obviously they are ignorant of the fact that the way one experiences one’s personal story depends on many parameters – first and most fundamental of which is the race we select for our character.”
• Black Lions Profit — gw2tp.net releases Trading Post API for Guild Wars 2! “I have just received an email from the owner of gw2tp.net announcing that they have just released the first version of their API.”
• Guild Wars 2 Hub — Guild Wars 2 Weaponsmith Leveling Guide 0-400. “Becoming a Weaponsmith allows the player to craft axes, daggers, greatswords, hammers, mace, shields, spears and swords and as a result, compliments many playable professions. Weaponsmiths can also make consumable sharpening stones that boost your power.”
• The Orr Orator — STOP THE VIOLETS
• GuildWars2PC.com — Guild Wars 2 Instant News: Turn Your Guild Bank Into a Chess Board. “Reddit user cawfee – who plays Kynn Snagtooth in Tarnished Coast – shows us how to make a chess board out of a guild bank. The ingenious conversion does not take much, just some minor and major Runes to represent the chess pieces from the lowly pawn up to the all-precious king.”
• Healing the masses — State of my game. “Well my gaming habits really haven’t changed at all this week which is a rather different change. I usually dabble in the side project of getting through my steam library but this week it has been nothing else but Guild Wars 2…Not even any towns of yet which I’ll probably continue with on the weekend.”
• Nerdy Bookahs — Wayfarer Foothills in Shiverpeak Mountains. “I was very happy to find the statue of Jora in the Wayfarer Foothills. I’ve been in that region before, but never actually noticed it. Several NPCs talk about it, though, and tell you that the Sons of Svanir are trying to destroy the statue as it’s a thorn in their flesh, reminding them how Jora killed her brother, Svanir centuries ago (my own Tenedra Yeodo was there when it happened and helped, back in Guild Wars 1 – Oh, the nostalgia!).”
• Black Lions Profit — 10 markets in 10 days: #7. “Snowflake Orichalcum Ring of Winter.”
• Guild Wars 2 Trading Post — You Failing Bro? “Value of Failure. Did you learn anything today? Seriously, you should always answer this question with a yes, regardless of the topic. With regards to playing the trading post, you should be able to identify a lesson learned each and every single day.”
• Inventory Full — One More Time, With Feeling. “Keen has an interesting post up about repetitive tasks in MMOs, wondering why they are fun in one game but not in another. He has some good suggestions why this might be the case for him but me, I struggle to think of any MMO in which repetitive actions aren’t fun.”
• Black Lions Profit — Festive Lionguard leaving Tyria. “I spotted a small announcement on the official Guild Wars 2 website, notifying players that the Festive Lionguard located in Lions Arch will be leaving the game on Sunday, January 28th PST. This means that ugly woollen hats, socks and scarfs will now be unusable until Wintersday arrives next year. This in turn also makes the majority of the contents of Wintersday gifts unredeemable.”
• Guild Wars 2 Trading Post — 4 Stages to Trading Post Excellence. “1. Flip Individual, 1 S to 2 S Profits 2. Flip High Volume, 30-99 C Profits 3. Multiple Steps to Final Product, 1 S to 2 S Profits 4. Multiple Steps to Final Product, 30-99 C Profits”
• Black Lions Profit — 10 markets in 10 days: #8. “Bowl of Cream Soup Base”
• GuildWars2PC.com — Guild Wars 2 Daily News: Golem in a Box No Longer Usable in World vs World. “Better enjoy your last day of Golem in a Box shenanigans! The consumable item will no longer be usable in World vs. World after the Flame and Frost prelude patch goes live tomorrow, according to systems designer Mike Ferguson.”
• GuildWars2PC.com — Guild Wars 2 Daily News: Here’s Why You Can’t Knock NPCs Off A Cliff. “We’ve all felt the agony before: You clear mobs up a mountain path, reach the boss overlooking its steep slopes, and then realize the next minute you’ve been thrown off a cliff by the boss’s knockback ability. You probably die and spend the next minutes cursing at the cruelty of life. The worst part is, you can’t retaliate with your own knockback fatality moves.”
• Black Lions Profit — 10 markets in 10 days: #9. “The Dredge Barricade is a shield crafted through the Weaponsmithing profession, it has a fantastic looking skin which is usable at level fifty.”
• Guild Wars 2 Junkies — Question Box Thingy: Is There Grind in GW2? “One of the recent hot topics on the official GW2 forums has been the subject of grind in Guild Wars 2. What is grind, exactly? The easiest way to define grind in an MMO is to compare it with how we normally think about the saying “back to the ol’ grind.” It refers to work, right? Going to a boring 9 to 5 job day after day, repeating the same, uninspiring tasks. That’s a grind. “
• Kill Ten Rats — Roundtable with GW2Hub and Massively. “Continuing our Guild Wars 2 round tables, I chatted with Guild Wars 2 Hub’s Lewis B and Massively’s Elisabeth Cardy about something that’s been on my mind as I find myself spending more time in WvW. The balance of classes in WvW cannot be ignored. ArenaNet is talking about balancing area-of-effect (AoE) abilities, which some classes can do better than others. However, it also feels like there are two other abilities that have become critical to WvW, and unlike AoE abilities, these are class-based abilities. I’m talking about stealth (mesmer and thief) and Portal (only mesmer). What do you two think about these two very class-restricted abilities having such a great impact in WvW?”
• The Egg Baron — Wealth Growth in Guild War 2, part 2. “Today I would like to continue my discussion of wealth growth in Guild Wars 2. This discussion was inspired by a post made by John Smith on the forums.”
• The Egg Baron — Last Week in GW2. “Every week on Friday, GuildMag.com rounds up all the community articles into one big post on their site. Here on my site I like to pick out my favourite articles of the week to share with you and add in a couple of my own links. This week this post is coming late due to my internet outage, thus, I call it Last Week in Guild Wars 2. There are some great articles this week which I have linked below.”
• manylaughs — Guild Wars 2: Is it worth it to buy a Black Lion key? (Updated) “Black Lion chests are fairly common drops in Guild Wars 2. While the drop rate has been reduced a little, you still probably get one for every few of hours of game play. Unfortunately, you need a Black Lion key to open a chest, and those keys are extremely rare drops. Over time, you end up with a lot of unopened BL chests. You start asking yourself what wonders await you inside those chests, and you start thinking about buying keys off the trading posts. Should you? Should you spend your real-life cash on gems so you can buy some Black Lion keys?”
• The Orr Orator — AREA MAN ATTRIBUTES YOUTHFUL ENERGY TO HOT SPRINGS.
• The Orr Orator — TRY BEFORE YOU BUY.
• Guild Wars 2 Hub — Guild Wars 2 Armorsmith Leveling Guide 0-400. “Becoming an Armorsmith allows the player to craft heavy armour pieces, inventory boxes and runes. Similarly to the guides before it, this is more expensive than Cooking or Artificing. It’s also possible to recoup some of the initial outlay of money from the weapons you craft, to then sell back to the vendor or to list/salvage on the Trading Post.”
• MMORPG.com — Making Guilds Better. “Guild Wars 2 has a lot going on. You have personal storylines, huge dynamic events, and massive PvP battles. But perhaps the most important part of GW2 is the part where you join other players in the world and create guilds. To me this is the most important part of the game, as it’s in the title. ArenaNet is getting ready to improve the game with several updates, but perhaps there’s more they could be doing to help strengthen the importance of guilds.”
• On the official Guild Wars 2 forums, Shriketalon posted on the topic Reforging Orr with WvW mechanics: “Orr has problems. Between the past horde of bots mindlessly shuffling about slaying mindless shufflers, the severe annoyance of trying to walk any distance without every necrotic abomination within three leagues trying to chew your ankles off, and the absurd competition between players over getting loot tags, there’s nothing remotely resembling a proper war on the entire continent. Orr is lifeless, and despite the poetic irony, that isn’t particularly fitting for this game. I would thus like to discuss a way to add the spark of life to this husk of a continent, and reanimate it into the spectacular warzone it deserves to be.”
• Massively — Flameseeker Chronicles: The open world and you. “When we’re discussing endgame and the long haul in Guild Wars 2, it can be really easy to talk about dungeons and instanced stuff and WvW and other things that can kind of cause you to forget the open world. The open world is cool! Just like there are people who haven’t left sPvP and haven’t left WvW, there are other people who are totally happy exploring every nook and cranny of the wide world. I dislike the idea of the world being neglected as soon as one turns 80, because I’m pretty darn sure that it’s nearly impossible to really see all there is to see before 80.”
• Kill Ten Rats — Just A Small Patch. “It’s kind of a joke, with the 5000+ word patch notes, that Guild Wars 2 just received its small January update. It will pale in comparison to February and March. Is it a fraction of a campaign-size update season? I don’t know, but in my few hours last night the game felt a lot shinier.”
• Dulfy.net — GW2 Flame and Frost patch new legendary weapon effects. “A gallery of the new GW2 legendary weapons effects introduced with the Frost and Flame Prelude patch.”
• Distilled Willpower — The Lazy Legendary Guide – Part 1 – The Prep. “There are plenty of guides out there for the quick and painful ways to get a legendary weapon. This guide is certainly not one of them. This is a guide for people who get bored if they do the same thing for more time than it takes to boil the kettle, this is the guide for people who don’t like tagging along on the zerg-train as the crowd cycles through the same four events to gain karma, or doing the same dungeon path a billion times in a row. This the lazy-toon’s guide to loafing to a Legendary.”
• Dulfy.net — GW2 Laurel Merchant items. “GW2 Laurel merchant and new items introduced with the Flame and Frost update.”
• Black Lions Profit — The Laurel Vendor and what it means for the economy. “So the Flame & Frost patch has just been released and with it comes the new achievement system, where you gain a new currency called Laurels for completing the daily and monthly achievements. These tokens can then be traded in to a Merchant for a variety of different items including dyes, class gear and.. cats.”
• Dulfy.net — GW2 Lost Orrian Jewelry Box guide. “A guide to the new Lost Orrian Jewelry box that was introduced with the Flame and Frost Prelude patch on Jan 28, 2013. These new boxes can be found on various karma vendors around Orr (Straits of Devastation, Malchor’s Leap, Cursed Shores)”
• Dulfy.net — GW2 New Orr temple exotics. “A list of the new GW2 Orr temple exotics with the Flame and Frost Prelude patch. Note that all these new exotics cost 42k karma each and must be unlocked by completing the temple event. Each temple has 4 new exotics, accessory, backpiece, amulet, and ring.”
• Dulfy.net — GW2 Ascended amulet and utility infusions. “A guide to obtaining the new ascended amulets and utility infusions introduced with the Flame and Frost Prelude patch.”
• Black Lions Profit — 10 markets in 10 days: #10. “Chrysocola Mithril Earrings”
• Inventory Full — Sitting On My Laurels. “”Flame and Frost: Prelude” GW2′s elegaically-named January update arrived last night. ArenaNet tell us it’s the smaller of the two updates they’re working on at the moment and if that’s true then February’s must be a real monster. The official Press Release gives the flavor, the forums have the Patch Notes and Dulfy has the detail. What I have is a few hours of puttering about and a lot of unanswered questions.”
• Dulfy.net — GW2 daily achievements guide. “A guide to the new GW2 daily achievement system introduced with the Flame and Frost Prelude patch. Included below are some tips on quickly finishing each portion of the daily.”
• The Orr Orator — NORTHERN TOURISM?
• The Orr Orator — RISEN RESIDENTS REDUCE WITH RISE IN REFUSE
• Guild Wars 2 Hub — Upcoming Improvements to Dungeons Announced. “If you are dizzy with all the recent changes to the game, allow me to add one more thing to your radar. Content Designer Robert Hrouda hit up the Guild Wars 2 blog to lay out what the studio has planned to make dungeons more difficult, and more enjoyable.”
• Dulfy.net — GW2 Living story Refugee Volunteer events guide. “A guide to the GW2 Living story Refugee Volunteer events and achievements introduced as part of the Flame and Frost prelude patch.”
• Gamebreaker.tv — Massive Guild Wars 2 Update Shakes Up Tyria. “In case you missed it — and we’re not sure how — the January Guild Wars 2 update went live yesterday, bringing us both the Flame & Frost prelude and a whole slew of other changes to the game.”
• The Egg Baron — Post Patch Redposts. “There are some post patch red posts that I wanted quickly take the time to catch everyone up on. Some of these posts clarify how the most recent patch effected the game and others talk of the future. I like to round up all the red posts here every once in a while so you guys can avoid the forums and still get the news.”
• The Egg Baron — Polymock, Mini-pet Game coming? “Okay, so what is going on here? Well it seems if you go to Guildhead.com and look at their achievement sections it shows upcoming daily and monthly achievements as in the achievements for future days and months. One of the monthly achievements is for winning mini-pet games, aka Polymock. This was a popular past time in Guild Wars 1. How Guildhead gets it’s data, I am not sure, but that will determine if it is authentic. There are three possibilities though.”
• Guild Wars 2 Trading Post — Could Unidentified Dyes Actually Spike in Price? “I ran around last night collecting momentos from fallen refugees and reconstructing signs, but haven’t really gotten into all that this patch has to offer yet. Most of my night was spent scouring the auction house looking for any recent changes.”
• Guild Wars 2 Junkies — Flame and Frost Living Story Dev Hints. “In case you haven’t had a chance to check out the new story additions for Flame and Frost: Prelude yet, fear not– the event is progressing in small segments and you have plenty of time to catch up. The story portion, known as Living Story, started out rather subtle. So subtle, in fact, that many players weren’t sure how to begin. The first thing you should do if you’re just getting started is to check your in-game mail. After that, you’ll want to head to either Wayfarer Foothills or Diessa Plateau. I won’t give out too many hints, but as a broad suggestion, make sure to check your map for any markers that appear.”
• Lopez IRL — Tyrian Times: “Flame and Frost: Prelude” Arrives to Guild Wars 2. “Flame and Frost: Prelude, the latest Guild Wars 2 patch, dropped Monday, bringing a few changes and additions to ArenaNet’s MMORPG. I’ve been playing a lot since the patch came out, and I already have impressions of the new achievement system, improvements to Orr, ascended gear in general, and some other stuff in the patch. In short, I’m quite pleased, but I have some lingering concerns.”
• Project Tyria — Progression of the Lions Arch Fountain. “Have you been watching the Lions Court fountain? I have and I collected screenshots for each of its transformations, a personal project I took on. The plan was to put them all together and upload them when the statue was complete again. As I’m sure they aren’t finished destroying the fountain, I’ll continue to take screenshots and piece them together. If you wished to see them all together or haven’t seen all of the phases, I’ve put a collection together below.”
• Guild Wars 2 Hub — Guild Wars 2 Complete Guide to Laurels. “The Laurel system introduced into the game in has allowed players to achieve long term goals on fixed schedules. Laurels are currently rewarded as part of the achievement system, and are a player currency that does not take up inventory space, and is shared across all characters on an account.”
• Hunter’s Insight — Fire and Ice. “Kind of a grandiose title for such a small content patch but nobody ever accused game companies of under selling their product. As it is such a small content patch I don’t have a whole lot to say about it. There are some good fixes, nice changes, and things to work towards. I guess I can’t really ask for more.”
• The Orr Orator — IMMIGRATION REFORM BACK IN THE LIMELIGHT.
• Into the Mists — New Player’s Introductory Guide to Guild Wars 2. “Welcome to Guild Wars 2! Whether you’re new to the MMO genre or a veteran of other games, GW2 isn’t quite the same as anything you’ve tried before. To that end, there are plenty of things all new players need to know to start off right. While the in-game tutorial will teach you the most basic mechanics of the game, there is still much that need more explanation. Now, this guide isn’t going to tell you how to create the most overpowered character, or to be a PvP master, since those are apt to shift every patch. What we will cover is the basics of starting the game and its different modes, as well as a few helpful tips that will allow new players to start off in the best possible position.”
• Kill Ten Rats — Flame and Frost: Prelude – Part 1, The Bouldering. “You know how when you order a nice big steak dinner, and they forget the side of creamed spinach you ordered. They bring it out with apologies. You do not attack the creamed spinach as if it has now become the only item worthy of eating on your plate, ignoring your medium-rare steak, twice-baked potato, and that wedge of fiber, water and bleu cheese they call a salad. You incorporate it in to the rest of your meal. Welcome to Guild Wars 2 Living Story.”
• The Egg Baron — Flame and Frost: Living Story Review. “I wanted to quickly provide a review of some of the new content that I have experienced in Guild Wars 2‘s latest patch, Flame and Frost: Prelude. Specifically I want to talk about the new story elements added to the game. The Flame and Frost story promises to set off some exciting new story lines that will play out over the next couple months. I am excited about the contents of the story itself and the direction Arena Net is taking with content releases.”
• Attached to Keyboard — Communities and Barriers. “For all it’s done to remove barriers between players, Guild Wars 2 has some odd eccentricities that pull people apart in weird ways. Allow me to explain.”
• Guild Wars 2 Trading Post — How Will Laurels Effect the Economy? “Here are two crucial things to consider”
• Guild Wars 2 Junkies — System Date/Clock Affecting Daily Achievements. “If you’ve been having trouble getting credit for your daily achievements, there’s a good chance that the problem has to do with your computer system’s clock, date, and timezone settings. It seems that the in-game achievement reset times are tied to each player’s individual system, which creates issues if the two do not sync correctly.”
• On the official Guild Wars 2 forums, ChyrosNX posted on the topic [Science] 552g worth of GSwords into M. Forge: “Disclaimer: I did this so you don’t have to. And yes, I’m totally broke after this lol.” [Raphia: I really don't like RNG games, so I've only used the Mystic Toilet a few times. ChyrosNX's experience says that you will go broke long before the Djinn gives you anything useful.]
• Inventory Full — The Sky Is Falling! “Pai was ranting, quite rightly, about misleading CGI trailers for MMOs. I feel the same way about over-excited press releases. It’s “under-promise, over-deliver”, guys! You’re all getting it the wrong way round! The opening of the first installment of GW2‘s new Living Story had hundreds of players running around Wayfarer’s Foothills asking each other in Map chat “Where’s the Event?”. Being told that they were standing in the middle of it did little to calm an increasing atmosphere of irritation and disappointment.”
• The Orr Orator — RESTAURANT TO CLOSE.
• The Orr Orator — NOTICE OF FRAUDULENT MAIL
• Tyrian Stories — Player Housing Ideas. “I recently submitted a fairly lengthy post about player housing to the Guild Wars 2 suggestion forums and thought it a good enough post to put up here. I will be using this site for some of my more wild tin foil hat ramblings letting Relics of Orr focus more on news analysis and community events. Below is my design idea reposted in its entirety.”
• Divinity’s Reach — What Real Money Buys You. “Let me tell you a tale. A story about gifts, the power of money, and the ever elusive line of “pay to win”. For Christmas and my birthday, my brother was kind enough to provide an in-game gift of gems. I was growing a little bored of thieves and decided to level up a new profession. Using these gems, I was capable of leveling a guardian from 10-80 in about 7 hours of game time. I then spent a little bit of money on my own, to completely deck my freshly dinged guardian with full exotics. I was able to do this in one weekend of moderate play.”
• Guild Wars 2 Hub — Guild Wars 2 Tailoring Leveling Guide 0-400. “Becoming a Tailor allows the player to craft light armour pieces, inventory bags and runes. The armour created with Tailoring can be worn by elementalists, mesmers and necromancers.”
• Guild Wars 2 Hub — Guild Wars 2 Leatherworker Leveling Guide 0-400. “Becoming a Leatherworker allows the player to craft light armour pieces, inventory bags and runes. The armour created by Leatherworking can be worn by engineers, thieves and rangers.”
• Guild Wars 2 Trading Post — Patch Changes Create Flipping Opportunities. “During these trying times, when markets change from new patches and the whims of the player-base, it pays to have a tool that can tell you exactly which items are profitable to invest in right now. That tool has already been covered on this blog, but in case you haven’t heard it’s called Gold Wars 2.”
• RaidWarning — AMD Catalyst™ 13.2 Beta Driver Improves Guild Wars 2, Skyrim and Borderlands 2. “The only thing that comes close to Christmas morning is when you receive word that your GPU just got a new set of drivers. This time out AMD delivered the goods in spades as this one improves the performance of several graphic intensive games such as Guild Wars 2 and Skyrim! We are pretty sure that you are chomping at the bit to get to those drivers so here are the details which can be found on AMD’s site.”
• Twitter — Doomsinger. “I still kittening love the #GuildWars2 language filter. Some people think it’s bullkitten, but they’re just a bunch of kittens.”
• Added Of Course I’ll Play It — Guild Wars 2 Casual Solo – Armor at 80. “So you’re level 80. Now what? If you’ve been doing dungeons, or participating extensively in WvW and sPvP, you quite likely already know what to do. You’re just going to keep doing what you’ve been doing, and get some great gear in the process of doing it. But what if you’re like me? What if you’re a casual player, that mostly plays solo, who’s reached level 80 purely through the process of just playing along, completing renown hearts and dynamic events, with maybe a bit of crafting?”
• Added PCGamesN — Guild Wars 2 in 2013: Arenanet reveal WvW specific abilities, living stories. “Guild Wars 2’s game director, Colin Johanson, is a very happy bunny. “Things are good right now,” he says, laughing. “We’re having fun.” The reason things are good? Guild Wars 2 is a success: critically, commercially and now, qualitatively.”
• Added Distilled Willpower — Time for the Vocal Minority to Suck it Up. “I made the mistake of venturing onto the official forums earlier today. And BOYHOWDY the bloated sense of entitlement on those forums is absolutely astounding!”

Videos and podcasts

• RavenKast 13: Merchandising, Merchandising! Where the Real Money from the Podcast is Made. “With special guest, Ravenkin officer, Zendetta.”
• Chronicles of Tyria — CoTPodcast #32 – TAD on CoT. “On this episode of CoTPodcast, we have Nick and Kaleb from Tyria after Dark!”
• YouTube — Phasestrikes: Guild Wars 2: Chronicles of Fate Episode 26 “Tank Column Huh” “I found that I made a mistake I made this and episode 25 by mistake reversed. So this should of been 25 and 25 be 26 but its ok this works too. You basically get to see why Carys was emo last episode.”
• YouTube — thesparrowsjourney: Guild Wars 2 – The Tribulations Jumpuzzles! “Started as a completion video, turned out as a jumpuzzles one xP”
• Gamebreaker.tv — Say Goodbye To Guild Wars 2 Graveyard Zerging. “The January game update for Guild Wars 2 looms ever closer and one of the significant changes will be the removal of graveyard zerging from the dungeons. In the Fractals of the Mists dungeon, you cannot repeatedly die and use the waypoints to whittle down the tougher encounters and soon the other dungeons will behave similarly. Players have shown concern, however, that removing graveyard zerging may make some of the encounters too difficult. Others have mentioned that the way points in some dungeon paths are scarce, making party deaths painful with long runs back to the action.”
• GuildWars2PC.com — Guild Wars 2 – Loreclaw Expanse Jumping Puzzle. “Brought to you by Midnight Mayhem – midnight-mayhem.guildlaunch.com dr4kun’s walkthrough of Loreclaw Expanse, one of the jumping puzzles found in Guild Wars 2. It can be found in the southeastern part of Plains of Ashford, the starting region of charrs.”
• YouTube — WoodenPotatoes: Let’s Play GW2 (Sylvari) EP26 – Astorea. “Bringing back the LP and on a new character! Couldn’t really talk a lot about the channel today since there’s a lot to establish when on a new race, but will do as we move on!”
• GuildWars2PC.com — Human – Part 5 – The Apothecary (Storyline Cutscenes).
• GuildWars2PC.com — Guild Wars 2 – Complete Lion’s Arch Point of Interest Guide.
• Guild Wars Reporter Episode 45 – A January Patchwork. “Chris and Celeste jump back and forth through all the new changes coming with the January 28th patch.”
• Tales of Tyria #61: New Blog, New Patch, New Hosts! “Lots of new stuff this week. We’re talking all about the new blog post with information about the new patch and we’re doing it all with new hosts this week. We spend quite a bit of time talking about WvW”
• YouTube — wulfheir: Doing my Daily. “This is my submission for a guild video contest.”
• YouTube — WoodenPotatoes: Let’s Play GW2 (Sylvari) EP27 – Aife. “Biiig update today! Kinda got my head buried with it, good stuff. In any case, I filmed this in the morning. Another long episode with little progress, but anecdotes aplenty. Enjoy!”
• YouTube — bogotter: Tyria Talk #49 – Flame and Frost Patch Primer. “Tyria Talk is a vlog-style show dedicated to chatting about the MMO, Guild Wars 2. In episode 49, I go over everything you need to know for the Flame and Frost patch, which launches on January 28, 2013.”
• Guild Wars 2 Junkies — Guildcenter Jan 28th Update ft. Screenager of Afterlife Gaming. “This episode we go over some of the preliminary updates for the Jan 28 Game Update that include some new achievements etc. We also discuss the state of WvW along with some speculation on the future changes coming to GW2.”
• YouTube — thesparrowsjourney: Guild Wars 2 – Curious LA House. “Always wondered about this house at LA and I finally was allowed in :D”
• YouTube — bogotter: Guild Wars 2 – Gem Store Preview: Quaggan Backpack, Riding Broom, Box o’ Fun. “In this video, I preview the Quaggan Backpack, Riding Broom and Evon Gnashblade’s Box o’ Fun from the Guild Wars 2 gem store. These items were added/updated during the Flame & Frost patch during the January 2013 game update.”
• YouTube — Phasestrikes: Frost and Fire Rains Down On Us Review. “Well we are here again a new patch new events and new things to conquer. First off quaggin back yea NO! I however like the broomstick mount even though it does nothing in making you faster. Moving along fractals is revived and so are normal dungeons. With the new Orr loot added to their tables as well. I have not tried guesting yet but as I have said in the past that was a good idea. And if you haven’t left for your favorite server you will be greeted with a hefty fee to do so.”
• Tyria After Dark — Episode #28 – Get In My Backpack.
• YouTube — WoodenPotatoes: Rambling About Laurels. “Wanted to talk about the laurels and in particular the little bits of lore around the new amulets available! What do you guys think of a series called ”Rambling about:”? (or something to that effect). Could maybe justify me putting out long videos like this :D”
• YouTube — billybones458: GW2 – Cow Racing – Lost. “While other people were fixing signs and helping others, I figured it would be more apt to dress up like a cow and participate in a good old fashion cow race. Unfortunately I lost by a cow patty length to another player nicely named Grilled Steak.”
• YouTube — Phasestrikes: Guild Wars 2: Living Story First Part How To. “A quick run down on how to do the first part of the Living Story Quest. You get a free 5000 karma at the end of it. Pretty simple in doing just use 3 characters or 2 but you’ll see in the vid”
• GuildWars2PC.com — A SPY FOR A SPY – Ep.2 – Part 9 (Charr)
• Relics of Orr Episode 63: Satanic Quaggan Money Launderers. “Shongaqu, Spirit and Christian discuss the Flame and Frost patch, guesting, the effects bots have on the economy and highlight some community events.”
• YouTube — XCalaburD: Guild Wars 2 – Flame and Frost: Prelude (January Patch News). “In today’s video I’ll talk about the recent changes to Guild Wars 2. This patch (Flame and Frost: Prelude) is about to set the stage for big events in the world of Tyria that might change it forever…”
• YouTube — thesparrowsjourney: Guild Wars 2 – After Forgal and Tybalt. “It’s the third time but my heart still can’t take it ;P”
• GuildWars2PC.com — QUICK AND QUIET – Part 11 (Charr).
• The Siege #25: Flame and Frost. “Heello again Guild Warriors. This week we talk all about Flame and Frost and break down all the goodies that come with the new community event. We also talk about the recent developer chat event and bring you all the juicy details of what is being planned for the future and of course your emails.”
• Guild Wars 2 Riches — GW2 Farmer’s Almanac – Onyx Lodestones. “This week we are going to Malchor’s Leap to farm some Earth Elementals for their Onyx Lodestones. This guys will be 2 levels above you most of the time so be careful. They open up with Churning Earth so prepare to dodge or you will be crippled and bled. After a little while, they will receive Magnetic Aura which will reflect projectiles back to you so be careful. Also, keep in mind that these guys are immune to knockbacks, knockdowns and fear so CCing has no effect. Now that you know your foe, go farm up some Lodestones that sell for around 2.5 gold. Even if you don’t receive any lodestones, you should still make around 1 gold an hour.”
• YouTube — UhaneLK: Guild Wars 2 Shenanigans! w/ Uhane Ep. 1. “Guild Wars 2 is a really fun and open ended mmorpg you should all play with us on the world called…..wait whats it called… dammit its something ‘Rest’”
• Burning Locks Podcast — Eps 1: Flames and Frost Preview.
• YouTube — WoodenPotatoes: Let’s Play Guild Wars 2 (Sylvari) – EP28, Gavin. “Today we meet Gavin! Not the most heroic looking of guys but I’m sure he has noble intentions.”
• Gamebreaker.tv — Guild Wars 2 Resetting WvW Server Rankings. “You know all of those hard-fought battles you’ve participated in world vs. world since the launch of Guild Wars 2? Well, that was just the preseason according to ArenaNet with their announcement that WvW server rankings will be reset on February 1. ArenaNet wants to make some changes to the way their ratings and ranking system operates and they feel that a fresh start is preferable to introducing a new system with legacy statistics mucking things up. In the future, they will provide us with the math behind the new ratings formula, but basically they want to see quicker movement up and down the rankings then we do today. Right now, it’s possible to lose miserably for several weeks and not drop down to a different tier.”
• Relics of Orr — Tyrian Times Episode 3. “Check out stefman’s Tyrian Times a short news highlight show.”
• Gamebreaker.tv — Guild Wars 2 – Gem Store Preview: Quaggan Backpacks And More! “The Flame and Frost game update for Guild Wars 2 has introduced two new items to the gem store: quaggan backpacks and riding brooms. The quaggan backpack is a plush skin for your back slot and comes complete with a goldfish zipper, dangling button eye, and rag doll physics. The riding broom is a cosmetic mount that has fun animations, but doesn’t confer any speed increase. The broom is great for anyone who didn’t have a chance to purchase the witch/warlock costume during the Halloween event, but if you already have that, this broom is redundant.”
• Chronicles of Tyria — CoTPodcast #33 – Flames and Frost discussion. “On this episode of CoTpodcast, Lagwyn, Kaysee and Naveen discuss The latest Flame and Frost patch. If you download the episode’s mp3, there’s a special end credit you might want to listen to!”

Fanfic

• Foundation — Dusk to Dawn: Act 1, Chapter 6. “The sound of dripping water echoed off cold stone walls so audibly that one would believe the leak to be between their own ears. The airflow was inconsistent, leaving the area humid and stagnate. Every full breath felt as if it had been borrowed by someone else and the putrid green mold that accented the gray wall stones seemed to take hold in the mouth. This was a miserable place.”
• FanFiction.net — Machinations of Terror 2. “By the time Rachit skidded to a halt at the tunnel entrance, the owners of the voices were practically shouting at each other. The tunnel let out into a small round cave that opened out onto blue sky, and framed in the light of the cave’s entrance was a human man scrubbing furiously at the sleeve of his deep purple robes. He seemed quite upset, or so Rachit judged by the expression on his face as he glared off to his left. With the sudden light, Rachit’s eyes were having trouble seeing clearly, and so he could not make out what exactly was being scrubbed at.” [Raphia: Link goes to the beginning of the story. Scroll down to see the new chapter.]

Community Events

• Project Tyria — Contest Time! “Hello everyone! Remember that announcement I promised to make? This is it! Project Tyria will be holding a contest! Ever wanted a collectors edition of Guild Wars 2, wanted to play the game, or just wanted a box with all the signatures of those working at Arenanet? Well, Arenenet has provided me with this autographed Guild Wars 2 Collectors edition to give out on the site in any way of my choosing. (Let’s all give them a round of applause! This is truly is an amazing company that shows they care for their community.)”
• YouTube — MattVisual: Guild Wars 2 Black Lion Chest in RL GIVEAWAY! (Signed Collectors Editions). “Grand Prize (Collectors Edition) is [US-Only] Sorry guys outside of the US…BUT EVERYONE has a chance to win a gem card! The Contest will run for a week!”
• GW2 Guru — Biggest Guild Wars 2 Fan Contest! “With a big thank you to ArenaNet for making this possible, we are glad to announce that we are holding the Biggest Fan Contest for the community! We’ve got three signed collector’s editions of Guild Wars 2 that are looking for new homes. How can you win such an amazing prize? Read below!”
• Bio Break — Win an autographed Guild Wars 2 Collector’s Edition from Bio Break! “Hey guys, how would you like to win something awesome today? How about a copy of Guild Wars 2? How about a Guild Wars 2 Collector’s Edition? How about a Guild Wars 2 Collector’s Edition that’s autographed by the entire ArenaNet team?”
• GW2Guru — Wintersday Workshop. “The awards have been announced in GW2Guru‘s Wintersday Workshop. Congratulations to the very talented winners!”
• Chronicles of Tyria — Guild Wars 2 signed collector’s edition contest! “Hello fellow Tyrians, readers and passing-bys! We at Chronicles of Tyria have wonderful news! We have a Guild Wars 2 collector’s edition, signed by some of ArenaNet’s employees, to give away! Interested? Of course you are! Here’s a video for you to watch and learn how you could win such a priceless prize!”

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).