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Flameseeker Chronicles: A method to the madness
The June 2nd update is the talk of the Guild Wars playerbase this week -- especially on the PvP side of the community. It was certainly enough to pique my interest, even though my PvP project fell victim to a complete lack of free time this month. (Don't worry on that front, by the way -- I plan to pick it back up as soon as I return from E3.) What really interested me about this update, however, is that it feels like such a response to feedback and the current vibe of the player community. Not that ArenaNet doesn't pay attention as a rule, but so many of the huge updates are focused on the Hall of Monuments and Guild Wars: Beyond in preparation for Guild Wars 2 that it's nice to see one that is all about Guild Wars 1 -- not to mention one that is a pure response to the state of the current game. Follow along after the jump as I look at some of what stood out to me about this latest update!
Guild Wars ups the ante for PvP
"This has been a longstanding problem with our competitive formats," the June Guild Wars dev diary bemoans. "There are a great variety to try, but many people haven't found enough reasons to jump in." Hence the impetus behind Guild Wars' June update, which contains a number of new incentives to entice players into the PvP arenas. Some of the biggest changes include the ability to trade Z-coins, new PvP quests, and additional formats that award Zaishen Strongboxes. Another significant change to Guild Wars is that Alliance PvP formats now award Imperial faction. Imperial faction can be converted to one of three types, depending on the player's need: Luxon, Kurzick or Balthazar. This way a player can fight for one side but earn points toward the other, which should go a long way to increasing the frequency of matches. ArenaNet hopes that these changes will encourage players to branch out into different types of PvP instead of sticking to one format that's tied to specific rewards. There are plenty of other tweaks in this update, so be sure to read the full dev diary to learn about changes to titles, the Codex Arena, GvG emotes and more!
Team Arenas and Hero Battles not the only thing changed in latest Guild Wars update
Devona without "Charge!"? No more Firestorm for Cynn? Abasi has...wait, what did Abasi have before? Who is that, anyway? Regina said a few days ago that Hero Battles and Team Arenas would be removed from Guild Wars this week and that the Sealed Deck/Codex Arena would be added. It looks like the Live Team took care of that, made a few more PvP tweaks, then turned their attention to heroes and henchmen. Our sometimes-trusty sidekicks got quite the makeover. Nearly 70 henchmen skill bars throughout every campaign plus Eye of the North were rebalanced, and the AI for nearly every class of hero, henchman, and Hard Mode NPC was updated. (The AI on Necros and Dervishes got a pass - apparently they used their skills well enough to be left alone.) The full list of changes can be viewed here. The Underworld got some attention too, fixing bugs, streamlining things, adjusting spawns and adding the ominous statement "Something stirs deep in the Underworld, slowly making its presence known." Hopefully we'll find out more about that something when the Halloween events get into full swing. For now, we're going to find out if removing Healing Touch from Alesia's bar has taught her that she's not a frontliner.
