A Mad Halloween Arena

So, ArenaNet occasionally has gem store sales. A recent sale had the Custom Arena Starter Kits discounted within (what I consider) the impulse buy range. We in the guild have been talking about getting our own PvP arena for awhile now, so the trigger was pulled...

Say hello to the [stfu] arena!

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Posted in: Event,GuildWars 2,Living Story,PvP

A Very Guild Wars Halloween: Part 2

It's October, which means the Mad King has returned!  But what does this mean for the current Guild Wars 2 universe?

We've seen evidence of his influence throughout the world.  We have doors leading into his realm in the Human region of Kryta, as well as mine-able candy corn nodes and pumpkins just waiting to be carved.  There's a new story this year, involving the Mad King's son, Bloody Prince Edrick.

Upon entering the Mad King's realm, we have a few options for activities, just like last year:

First, you can enter the maze and join the zerg rushing to kill bosses, mine candy corn and close doors.  The candy-crazed mob will overtake your mind until you realize you've finally slain the Grand High Viscount of Candy Corn!  You'll want to beware, however, of his sugar-powered attacks.  They can down in you one hit!

The Mad King's Clock Tower is just as evil a jumping puzzle as it was last year.  Fortunately, they did take into account the difficulty, and now other players show up as wisps on your tower, so your view is no longer blocked by every huge Norn.  Despite the difficulty, [stfu] has some members who have met the challenge.

Finally, there's the Lunatic's Inquisition, which was also available last year. You will either be a villager, trying to survive the night, or a ghost, converting the villagers into your own kind.

Some of the achievements from last year, such as pumpkin carving and candy corn eating, have now become daily achievements during the living story.  It's nice to break up carving your hundreds of pumpkins into 5 per day!  It also limits your binge-candy-corn-eating to 50 at a time.

They've also added some new finishers for PvP and WvWvW, one of which you can get from Halloween events, the other being for sale in the Black Lion Trading Company gem store.

Halloween draws near in Tyria, and the Mad King can't hang around once it's gone.  Be sure to take advantage of the festivities while you can, and maybe you'll get your very own candy corn elemental mini pet!

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Posted in: GuildWars 2,Living Story,Screenshots

A Very Guild Wars Halloween: A Retro Take

It's October!  Seasoned Guild Wars players know that this means it's time for the Mad King to return.

Halloween has long been a tradition in Tyria.  Even 250 years ago, before the Lunatic Court failed to break the seals to release him, the Mad King visited Lion's Arch and left chaos in his wake.

The Mad King Oswald Thorn ruled over Kryta in the 9th century AE, but after his death, he was trapped in the Mad Realm and sealed there, permitted to return to the world only for Halloween.  His insanity and tyranny are probably a parody of the latter part of King Henry VIII's reign in England, especially as he is said to have had eight wives, whom he is said to have killed in a variety of gruesome ways.  Eventually his own subjects caught up to him, killed him with a carving knife and burned down his castle.

Since their first Halloween, ArenaNet has done a wonderful job of making sure the Guild Wars universe reflects this change in the season.  Lion's Arch was decorated in a traditionally spooky fashion, down to the moon grinning down upon you.

Before Halloween, quests and new drops would begin to appear around Lion's Arch and Kamadan, and it culminated in the Mad King's grand visit on Halloween proper, where subjects would be rewarded with trick-or-treat bags for obeying his wishes and death for defiance.  Oh, those were the good times, listening to his jokes, playing Mad King Says and watching him pick victims from the audience to play Rock Paper Scissors.  Once he left, you would even receive non-armor head items to wear to celebrate Halloween all year long!

This is an idea of how Halloween has been celebrated in Tyria in the past.  What about now, in the present-day Guild Wars 2 universe?

You'll have to wait until next time for that...

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Posted in: GuildWars 1,Living Story,Screenshots

Ascalonian Catacombs Event

Thanks to some of the updates that ArenaNet have been giving us every two weeks, one of the dungeons has become one of the more difficult dungeons in the entire game. The Twilight Arbor dungeon was updated to become a level 80 dungeon as part of the living story. It came with some Aether Pirates and some killer steam creatures,

Before the developers get another great idea to update other dungeons and make them almost impossible, I've decided to make a series of events that are going to cover all the dungeons. Events covering Story and Explorable modes, once those are complete then most of us will have completed Dungeon Master. With that completed then we will have it before other dungeons are updated with added difficulty.

The first event will be Ascalonian Catacombs. We will do all of the Ascalonian Catacombs, that includes story and all of the explorable paths, depending on the number of people in the event we will divide the parties, if there are eight people then it will be divided into groups of four so that each group only looks for one other person.

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Posted in: Event,GuildWars 2

Patch Updates: Blood and Madness

Shortly following the one year anniversary of Guild Wars 2's release comes the first annual event, the Halloween update!

So many of us had been looking forward to this patch because of either the joy we got out of it last year or because it finally offers those of us who missed out a chance to catch up. Here's the official ArenaNet trailer to get you in the mood.

This year the story follows the son of the mad king Bloody Prince Edrick when he awakes from his coffin his father trapped him in for lord knows how long. When he awakens you must throw candy corn at him (his weakness) until he retreats. When I fought him it was possible to kill him with some of my necromancer skills, but doing so would prevent him from retreating, preventing Magister Tassi from giving you the tiny golem relay with the directions on what to do next, so it is strongly advised to NOT kill the Bloody Prince even if you can when you first meet him.

Mad Realm Doors spawn in the regions of Gendarran Fields, Queensdale, and Kessex Hills. Interacting with any random door may throw candy out, spawn monsters for you to fight, or allow you to enter the Mad King's Labyrinth.

Inside the labyrinth map you map warp to the Mad King's Clock Tower, the Lunatic Inquisition, or simply into the labyrinth grounds.

Yes, the Mad King's Clock Tower is back and as hard as it was last year. While the prizes at the end of the puzzle may not be that great, the real reward comes from the sheer satisfaction of finally completing the bloody thing, which I have yet to experience.

Other updates include new Halloween related rewards for various events and better World vs World rewards. New features include combat quality tweaks, trait and tooltip tweaks, a whole slew of class updates and balancing, and the first WvW season, encouraging more activity in your server's battlegrounds. And of course there's a couple things in the Gem Store to get you into the scary feeling.

For more information, visit the official Guild Wars 2 release page: Click Here For Release Page

--Andrew Cyburt (Mystic Thriler)

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Posted in: GuildWars 2,Living Story,patch,update

[stfu]’s Secret Places

On Friday night, [stfu] members Ticker Granite and Chronos Evergreen shared their hidden places with the rest of [stfu].  We leaped, hopped, jumped, and eventually found ourselves outside or above the generally-accessible map!

Afterword, several of us attempted the newest path in the Twilight Arbor dungeon.  We fought, dodged and applied quick use of our wits, but alas the network upgrades were our undoing.  Fear not, brave reader, for we shall prevail!  If you’re interested in participating in our victory, please comment and discuss below.

You probably noticed in the above photos that we were all in pink!  You should look for other guildies during the course of October with special dye colors to to raise awareness of October causes.  Pink is for breast cancer awareness, and green is for depression awareness.  Show your awareness of these devastating diseases and join us with ridiculously bright dye and get the attention of a gamer near (or who just happens to be wandering past in LA) you!

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Posted in: Event,GuildWars 2,Screenshots

The Color Pink and an Event With Spencer

A few notes on October and an upcoming event Spencer is hosting...

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Posted in: Event,GuildWars 2,Screenshots

Guild PvP Tournament

The Special Tactics Fighting Unit guild had our first ever guild PvP tournament on September 28, 2013.

Videos of the matches can be found in two parts:  Part 1 and Part 2.

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Posted in: Event,GuildWars 2,PvP,Video