Eye of the North is the latest expansion to Guild Wars from ArenaNet. A unique fantasy MMORPG, Guild Wars has no monthly fees, and requires more skill to progress than the best items or constant grind. Read on for more information about Eye of the North.
Jeff Grub, one of the Lore and Continuity Designers for Guild Wars 2, has posted up a long and detailed article about Dungeons in Guild Wars 2. Dungeons were first introduced in Guild Wars: Eye of the North, and provided a dangerous, repeatable, instanced challenge for players.
Dungeons in Guild Wars 2 build on this and – like Eye of the North - they’re not for beginners, being aimed at characters who have reached at least level 35.
Much like Eye of the North, dungeons in Guild Wars 2 are split into two modes – story mode (where the dungeon forms part of the story arc missions) and explorable mode (which is unlocked once the story mode dungeon has been completed). Story mode also will be affected by which race your character is playing, and which factions you have worked with.
The dungeon story mode tells the tale of the iconic characters—former members of the legendary band of adventurers known as Destiny’s Edge—Zojja, Logan, Rytlock, Caithe, and Eir. At the start of the game, each player gets to know the iconic of their race. If you are asuran, you will cross paths with Zojja; if you are human, you will earn the respect of Logan Thackeray. By about level 30, you are a trusted confidant of the iconic characters, and you realize that they have their own problems, centering on the tragic breakup of Destiny’s Edge.
It’s that time of year when the gates of Shing Jea Monastery are once again thrown open to celebrate the Dragon Festival in Guild Wars. This year the festival runs from Thursday, June 30th to Sunday, July 3rd – and features a visit from the Emperor himself!
The Shing Jea boardwalk is once again open, as are the Rollerbeetle racing games and the Dragon Arena. Special missions, including acting out key events from Canthan history, will be available from Imperial Guard Hanso in Shing Jea Monastery.
As always, the Dragon Festival is a great chance to boost your Hall of Monuments achievements by working on your Luck, Unlucky, Gamer, Drunkard, Sweet Tooth and Party Animal Title Tracks.
One of the most interesting challenges facing players in Guild Wars 2 is exploring underwater. There’s going to be a huge amount of underwater content, so it will be interesting to find out more.
Over at the ArenaNet blog, Jonathan Sharp (a game designer at ArenaNet) has posted up some details on how underwater exploration and combat will work. One of the most interesting things is that all players automatically have a breathing apparatus – when you dive into the water, this will automatically be deployed, allowing you to breathe. Like all gear, players will be able to upgrade and customise their breathing apparatus.
Combat and health will also have some new mechanisms for players to get used to:
When you’re underwater, you don’t need to worry about breathing until your health goes to zero. When this happens you go into a drowning state, which functions like the downed state you experience when above water except with some small ability to move. When you are drowning, you have three ways to recover:
* You kill an opponent, which will cause you to rally.
* An ally can revive you, just as they can above water.
* You reach the surface of the water, where you will stop drowning and regain health. When your health bar fills all the way you’ll be revived.
Intriguingly, there will also be special underwater-only weapons and skills. Different underwater skills makes sense – land based traps or area of effect spells (especially fire ones!) don’t really make much sense underwater. As for the weapons:
We really wanted fighting underwater to be a new experience for the player, so we created a bunch of new weapons that you use ONLY underwater. This opens up a whole new spectrum of skills and tactics that you can use underwater and really distinguishes the feel and pacing of underwater combat from land combat.
You can read Jonathan’s full post on underwater exploration and combat in Guild Wars 2 at Underwater Combat.
