Guild Wars Reporter
Guild Wars Reporter Episode 92 - Opinions On Demand (TM)
Celeste and Allona discuss Scarlet and the fembot once more while fending off the advances of the wurm in Bloodtide Coast.
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What We Did This Week
Allona:
Run around house flailing when new patch started downloading
Five attempts at marionette so far (got to 4/5 chains down on the last try)
Two attempts at wurm
Found the secret lair, but need waaaaay more power cores
Hunting thumper probes for said cores (and cheevo)
LOVED the story instance in LA (I mean, who hasn’t loved it, really)
Rethinking the basic ore node for the home instance … Damn you Wooden Potatoes!
Celeste:
CoF P3 – 20 minutes or more spent trying to climb through a hallway filled with bombs
Story Instance – I really loved being able to see all the characters interact that we’ve very slowly gotten to know in-game over the last year. Taimi kind of came out of left-field for me though. She’s interesting but also, I feel like she needs to die and I mean that in a very non-mean way. (Post show update from Allona: Here is where I read the info about Taimi: http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/473/feature/8145/Guild-Wars-2-Changing-What-It-Means-to-Create-Play-an-MMO.html)
Probes – An exercise in who will get there first, perhaps best done in an empty overflow?
Marionette – Argh, why won’t you die?! I did however manage to get in to fight for the chains twice so far.
Wurm attempt – Was in an overflow and the event was about to start, got the prompt that Toast main was open and got transported to an overflow where the event never triggered and was empty. I was a sad panda. I don’t trust the queue system anymore. So far only TTS has managed to get to Phase 2 of the fight. (Yes really.) Decapitated, floppy wurm heads.
Report from Lion’s Arch
Origins of Madness Update
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/january-21-2014/
Wurm is permanent
Marionette is semi (Celeste: I can’t find the article that I remember this from but it was said that the fembot will be available until it doesn’t make sense with the living world.)
Wurm-themed ascended armor, it’s got a green glow-vapor-type effect
As an aside, what do you think of new living world logo and page setups? (Allona: I like the logo. Separates the dragons from the LW in a tangible way.)
Patch Notes
https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-January-21-2014
Twisted Marionette Weapon Test
Completing The Origins of Madness meta-achievement will reward players with a Gift of Sprockets, which will create a new sprocket generator in their home instance. (Allona: YAY!)
Additional exclusive rewards include:
New power, precision, and healing power stat combinations. Includes both exotic (Zealot’s) and ascended (Keeper’s) items.
New Mini Twisted Watchwork Moa (Allona: NEED!)(Celeste: too!)
Triple Trouble
Triple Trouble Rewards
Assisting in the investigation of wurm activity in Bloodtide Coast will give players a chance at new exclusive rewards:
New wurm-themed ascended armor pieces
New wurm-themed rifle skins (Allona: only rifles?) (Celeste: Appears so)
New great jungle wurm minis
New exotic wurm minis
BALANCE, BUG-FIXING, POLISH
User Interface: Various updates have been made to the right-hand side of the HUD to improve its appearance and functionality. (Celeste: It’s pretty!)(Allona: I like the dynamic movement as items slide in and out)
User Interface: Hints have a new arrow that is more visible and animated.
BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
A new 3-pack of masterwork great jungle wurm minis is now available
A new Great Jungle Wurm Finisher is now available
Instant Trait Reset will be removed from the store at the end of January 27. (Celeste: That kind of explains it being added to the BL Chests.)
Deposit All Collectibles no longer deposits miniatures. However, they can still be individually deposited by right-clicking on them. (Celeste: Well, this is handy!)
The Black Lion Chest rewards have been entirely overhauled, affecting all drop rates. Significant changes are below:
Tonics are no longer a dedicated slot in the drop. Instead, tonics will now occasionally drop like all other rewards.
Players will now get two rewards plus a booster from each chest.
Rare minis are now much rarer from Black Lion Chests. (Celeste: WHY?!)
New drops of Endless Mystery Tonics can be traded until they are used once.
The following items have been removed from Black Lion Chests:
Karma Booster
Glory Booster
Heavy Bag of Coins
Name Change Contract
Small Guild Discovery
Medium Guild Discovery
1 Copper (Celeste: Man, having this in the chest was kind of a dick move to begin with)
The following items have been added to Black Lion Chests:
Instant Trait Reset
Communal Boost Bonfire
Essence of Luck (50)
Essence of Luck (100)
Metabolic Primer
Scroll of Knowledge
WXP Booster
Gathering Booster (Celeste: I didn’t even know this was an item lol, now that I know they exist I feel like I need another level 80 to be parked up in frostgorge to gather ori and wood everyday)
Some problems with the new bosses
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1vtopj/how_to_participate_in_the_marionette_encounter/
Being stuck in the wrong instance or not being able to join the instance can be a frustrating experience for every player (Allona: It gives me a sad) (Celeste: I’d been waiting in Toast’s Lornar’s Pass and yall told me to leave to join you and I felt so sad. I’d been waiting for about an hour. [Allona: sorry])
Offering up the ability to create larger raid type groups, (Celeste: I found out that squads are up to 50 people by the way)
Also brought up in this thread, why would you put a “Kick from Guild†option in the party interface. (Celeste: WHY?!) (Allona: I have accidentally kicked guildies at least three times because of this. I would love for the option to disappear from that drop down entirely!)
Allona: The trolling mentioned here — while mean — made me laugh: funghii – “… on ROF [Ring of Fire], last night someone said ‘hey guys, press alt-f4 for no lag’ and all of us on overflow magically got in during the next minute.†(Celeste: I’m surprised people did that at all)
CoF Path 1 Changes
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1vs5f9/psa_citadel_of_flame_p1_afterpatch/
OaksFromAcorns – Honestly, they miss some good opportunities for humor here. Like: “Flame legion leadership was displeased that Pact forces use the Citadel of Flame for recreational rock-climbing. They have placed obstacles to obstruct these Pact climbers.”
Allona: Did Anet make these changes on the sly? I think I love stealth updates. (Celeste: It’s not anywhere in the patch notes)
Heart Changes
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1vsdkg/psa_all_hearts_now_fill_graphically_while_you/
Allona: I was unsure if I liked this when I first saw it on the right-side HUD (where you now have both the heart filling up AND a status bar…redundant); but seeing the status of your hearts on the map is amazing! Also being able to easily see how far along your party members are is really nice.
Celeste: I like it too, it’s kinda cool to see if filling up above the NPCs head. Totally unnecessary but cool. (The party member indicator has actually always been there as either full or empty, though does that show progress now too? [Allona: YES!])
Dolyaks with Rockets was part of Scarlet’s Lair
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1vthzo/next_world_boss_courtesy_of_scarlett/
Celeste – I love it!
Allona: Okay, this is a spoiler I can get behind.
All Rewards (Click at your own risk!)
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1vuh2z/scarlets_secret_lair_all_rewards/
Shared for those that might know they won’t get to the end of the story so far. Or those that want a bit of a peek.
Allona: Spoilers! I can’t look!
Celeste: I watched the whole thing, I can tell you there’s not really anything earth shattering here, but the journal could be quite telling depending on where the story goes next.
Nothing is Sacred
http://www.gamerzines.com/mmo/sacred-destroyed-pondering-guild.html
Celeste: I’m going to do something very atypical, you won’t hear a TL;DR on this article. GO READ IT. Also, bonus points for the picture of Mike Z with a maniacal look on his face.
Based on the title I can say that people seem to think this indicates LA. Okay, but why do commenters seem to think this is a trite idea? It’s a major hub and as such will draw ire from whatever flavor of the month enemy we get. Thing is, like we saw with Jubilee, it could’ve been done to any of the other cities and still be effective but also would’ve likely seen the same argument. (You can ignore me a bit, I’ve got angry comment reading syndrome this week. Commentitis? Let’s say, yes. [Allona: Is that worse than macrameitis?)
Ask An Asuran
Are Subs still needed in 2014? http://ca.ign.com/articles/2014/01/21/should-we-be-paying-to-play-mmos-in-2014
I still don’t know if I agree with the other companies saying that they do need a sub fee to remain profitable. I look at the profits that NCSoft is making from the cash shop transactions and, while they aren’t phenomenal for the company (they’ve recently had one of their worst quarters), it’s still pretty good.
Maintaining that the quality of player and content is better in a subscription based game does hold some water. You can see how terrible and toxic a community can be in a f2p game but you also can say that it’s not an isolated behavior in f2p games. As far as content you only need look at GW2. If they’re able to do it do you really ever want to go back to paying for a sub?
Celeste: I know that for me I’m avoiding getting into the hype for other upcoming games because a) I don’t have time and 2) I don’t want to pay a sub.
Allona: Me too. All the props to people who can maintain multiple games. But even if I WERE to play another game concurrently with GW2, highly doubt if I will ever pay a sub-fee again.
Ending out the article on the verdict that a games quality will determine it’s longevity is completely fair. The sentiment that WoW has “warped expectations on the consumer and publisher sides alike†is extremely apt.
Tales of Tyria
Allona: I, for one, welcome our new crazy, megalomaniac, disney-loving, sylvari overlord.
First Marionette fight
http://i.imgur.com/QNWAmJv.jpg
Allona: Bwahahahahahaha! Good times … good times.
https://twitter.com/PaschBlue/status/426247193314353153/photo/1
Allona: I love it when you can tell the Anet staffers and artists are obviously having fun at their job. Cheeky, cheeky fun.
Really cute fanart of a player’s character
http://kylexy8835.deviantart.com/art/Kasumi-Yamazaki-425936066
Allona: This is super good.
Request for community events of the week/bi-week. Send us an email!
If you’ve got a burning question for our Ask an Asuran segment, please let us know!
Contact Info
Email: gwreporter@mmoreporter.com
twitter: twitter.com/gwreporter
site: guildwarsreporter.com
Voicemail: 616-666-6778 (and our new widget on the right hand side of the page)
youtube: youtube.com/mmoreporternetwork
facebook: facebook.com/gwreporter
guild: collegium-gw2.guildlaunch.com
Allona: twitter.com/onebigpear
Celeste: twitter.com/celeookie
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