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