Players are reporting mixed feelings about Guild Wars 2′s dungeons so far. Some think they’re too difficultly tuned and not quite worth the rewards, others think they are just fine, and merely need an organized group and a bit of smart tactics to successfully clear. Yesterday, Colin Johanson, GW2′s Game Director, had a few things to say about the inherent difficulty of many of GW2′s dungeons and how dungeon difficulty in general was approached during the game’s alpha stages as well as in comparison to Guild Wars 1. It’s an interesting read!

Here’s a snippet:

I’ll point out ironically, when we first turned on DoA back in Gw1 the posts you’re seeing in this forum from a few folks about difficulty were the exact same comments everyone had about DoA. It was “impossible, mobs were just tuned to do insane damage and have huge HP, there was no tactics to defeat DoA”, etc. I went back and read through the original DoA launch feedback and it was literally identical to the comments folks on the forums are leaving now.

We made the choice back then to stick with the difficulty, and give people time to learn how to play the dungeon better and overcome it. A few months later, people viewed it as the most fun thing in the game and totally reasonable without us changing anything.

Keep reading for the rest of the quote!

Yesterday on the official Guild Wars 2 forums, one ArenaNet representative said some encouraging words about the type of future content releases they have planned for the game. In the thread in question, players wondered if the company will release most forms of new content in expansions that need to be purchased. Being B2P definitely comes with some interesting options, and most players responded positively, saying that they would be happy to purchase bundles of content, as long as the content is worth the price. Here is what Colin Johanson, the ArenaNet representative had to say:

Gw2 will feature consistent free content updates and in-game events going forward. Our goal is to make it so you get more from Gw2 for free than you get from a game you pay a subscription for.

On top of a large amount of free bonus content, we will be expanding on offerings in the Black Lion Trading Company going forward, as well as be doing large-scale expansion content down the road.

We’ll cover a lot of the details on the kind of support and plans we have in place over the next month or so on the Gw2 blog and with our press partners.

We do appreciate that you’d like to buy lots of new content, but we’d prefer to give a lot of it to you for free, cause that’s what we think a responsible MMO company does!

From the sounds of it, we’ll both be seeing free large content updates as well as expansion-type content updates that can be purchased through the Black Lion Trading Company, similar to the Digital Deluxe Upgrade that’s currently available.

Players are taking this bit of news pretty well, and are looking forward to finding out more information about the types of plans ArenaNet has in store for Guild Wars 2.

As more and more Guild Wars 2 players are reaching higher levels, the playerbase is finding out one very interesting fact about being higher leveled in the game– Waypoint prices can get pretty high. Instead of Waypoint costs being dictated by an area’s level range, they’re dictated by the actual level of the player. And by actual level I mean real level, not adjusted level. This effectively means that doing a large amount of traveling– even on low-level maps– after a character gains a solid amount of levels under their belt can be pretty detrimental to a player’s gold funds.

This discovery has surprised quite a few players. Not only can it make low-level material farming difficult, but it also affects higher-level players who travel with lower-level friends. To make matters worse, the price jump between levels is actually pretty significant, rising to well over 1 silver. Gold in Guild Wars 2 isn’t ridiculously hard to come by, but it can take a bit of farming and careful saving. The ironic part? Sometimes the travel costs seem to discourage farming altogether.

For crafters or salvagers looking for ways to get the most bang from your Guild Wars 2 time, here’s an interesting item to consider: Mystic Salvage Kits. These yellow-quality kits raise the chances of finding rarer materials by 25% and recovering upgrades by 80%. The item recovery stats are the same as the stats on Master’s Salvage Kits, but with an interesting twist– they come in stacks of 250. Yes, 250! Out on a long farming session or WvWvW adventure and often run into bag space issues? Mystic Salvage Kits may be your answer.

There’s a slight catch, naturally. Mystic Salvage Kits must be made at the Mystic Forge, and require the following materials: 1 Fine Salvage Kit, 1 Journeyman’s Salvage Kit, 1 Master’s Salvage Kit, and 3 Mystic Forge Stones. Mystic Forge Stones are available in the Black Lion Trading Company Gem Store, which makes forging these kits a little complicated. Still, it’s an interesting option.

Check out this video, where Dontain talks about Mystic Salvage Kits.

What do you think– worth the Gems, or no?

Were you part of this three way fight this weekend? If you’re into competitive W3 play, then these three servers are probably worth checking out if you haven’t found a home yet.

World vs. World is a fantastic part of GW2 that is just starting to shape up. The better servers are bubbling to the top; but everything is not hunky-dorey. Queues are killing a lot of people’s will to play. Some players are reporting up to 5 hour queues. Let’s hope Arenanet is working on this issue now.

In other news, GW2 is sold out digitally and at retailers all over the world.

GameInformer published a brief, useful guide for Guild Wars 2 players that are new to the game’s dungeon system. Dungeons in GW2 are a little different than in most MMORPGs that utilize the familiar “trinity” system. Players will need to be a little quicker on their toes, and maintain responsibility of their individual survivability as well as keep group utility in mind. This can take a little reprogramming, but the playstyle can lead to some fun dungeoning adventures!

Here’s a preview of one of the tips offered:

Embrace multiple roles.

Tanking and healing don’t exist in Guild Wars 2 like they do in most MMOs, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t different roles to play and ways to specialize your character. Many dungeon fights throw curveballs at you, from additional enemies spawning mid-battle to bursts of status effects that cripple the party for short durations. Be ready to not only change your tactics, but switch to a different weapon set and embrace a secondary role. Many elite skills, like the guardian’s tome of courage, change your entire skill loadout – learn when those dramatic changes are useful, and capitalize on them. Weapon switches (or attunement changes, for you elementalists out there) are much more useful than just for the occasional swiftness buff. Take a second look at your classes’ skills, and see what might be useful in a party despite being pointless for a solo player. You’ll be glad the first time you turn the tide of a battle by blocking off a doorway and locking out a bunch of monsters with a support skill that does nothing in one-on-one fights.

Good stuff. Check out the full article for all of the tips.

UPDATE: If you’re interested in reading about the speculation on how to craft this, here is a Reddit thread, that goes over some of the details. With the current prices, it seems like this might cost almost $1000 in gems/gold. Yikes!

I have no idea how it’s crafted/forged, but I think everyone needs to check out how badass this things looks. If you’ve got other legendaries you think are awesome, share them in the commends.

Continue reading to see what may or may not be entailed to get your hands on a Twilight.

One of the most enjoyable things about crafting in Guild Wars 2 is the fact that if a recipe calls for materials in a lower level area, farming those materials isn’t necessarily a waste of time. Experience, gold, karma, dynamic events, and map completion all come attached with your crafting goodies. Exploration at any level is encouraged and rewarding.

So, where are some good crafting material farming hotspots? Need help remembering what mobs drop Bone Shards or Vials of Thick Blood? GW2Guru has a pretty awesome list that’s currently a work in progress. Here’s a sample:

Format: Material — Zone / Area — Monster Type — Monster Level — [Area Level]

Vial of Thin Blood — Kessex Hills / Manfire Hills — Skales — XX — [YY]
– Gendarran Fields / Lake Gendarr — Skales — XX — [YY]
Bone Shard — Diessa Plateau / Holystone Caves — Grawl — 25 — [26]
Small Claw — Harathi Hinterlands / Guardian Lake – River Drake — 34 — [34]
Pile of Shimmering Dust – Gendarran Fields / Lawen Ponds — Risen — 28/29 — [27]
Small Fang Diessa Plateau / Holystone Caves — Grubs — 25 — [26]
Small Scale — Gendarran Fields / Lake Gendarr — Barracuda — XX — [YY]
— Harathi Hinterlands / Guardian Lake – River Drake — 34 — [34]
Small Totem — Diessa Plateau / Holystone Caves — Grawl — 25 — [26]
Small Venom Sack — Diessa Plateau / Holystone Caves — Grubs — 25 — [26]
— Kessex Hills / Overlord’s Greatcamp — Fireflies — XX — [YY]
— Gendarran Fields / Cornucopian Fields (east) — Wurm Hatchlings — XX — [YY]
— Gendarran Fields / Vigilant Hills — Fireflies — XX — [YY]
— Gendarran Fields / Overlook Caverns (vista) — 28 — [YY]

Head on over to the complete thread to see the full list.

It’s Monday morning and GUILD WARS 2 is live! Now that head start weekend is over, it’s tip to share some knowledge with all you gamers out there.

PRO-TIP #1: If you’ve got a ton of stuff in your inventory and you want to save some of it in your bank, you don’t have to transport all the way back to a city to deposit it! You can gain access to your bank account via any crafting station. This serves two purposes: 1) You can deposit any crafting pieces in your bank when you are finished crafting and bring them out as you pick it back up later, and 2) you can use the crafting station is a pseudo bank teller.

PRO-TIP #2: You may or may not know that every single crafting material is categorized as a “collectable”. Your inventory space may be getting short, so you can right click on any collectable and select “deposit collectable” which puts it in storage. Here’s the best part, it does not use your typical bank slot. Every collectable in the game has it’s own slot in the collections tab. You can store up to 250 items of each type.

So while you’re out gathering and collecting you can deposit them whenever and where ever you are which keeps bag space open.

Let’s take this one step further. Click the gear icon in the top right portion of the inventory window. A drop down menu will appear where you can choose to deposit all collectables. Quick, easy, and efficient inventory management.

If you’re interested in doing your own Guild or Alliance Spotlight, please check out the instructions here.

Defeating the bosses quickly in structured PVP maps can be a crucial factor in deciding which team will come out on top. But how do you defeat such formidable foes quickly, while keeping yourself healthy enough to survive surprise attacks from the other team? How long should it take to kill Svanir? What skill combination and build will do it quickest and where can you test your build before entering sPvP?

Watch the video after the break.

Now this is a work of art.
Send us any other videos with synchronized emotes and we’ll toss them up on the front page!

With the launch of Guild Wars 2 just (approximately) 2 Days, 17 Hours and 34 minutes away, you’re going to want to get ready. There is no doubting that if you are going to be there as soon as the servers are going up, you don’t need any game-day launch strategies from us. You have your maps, your gameplans, your strategies to gain power already set. However, there may be one thing you have considered: Repairing your game client!

Keep reading for two very important tips.

Good scouting will be critical to success in WvW, or you will always end up being one move behind the enemy. But what do the battle markers mean? How far can you see? Do maps show the same range as sight? Who should scout and where? Take an initial look at these and other questions in this episode of RESULTS.

Have you been grinding away through the Hall of Monuments with GW1 for those unique weapon skins, titles and pets? Well, thanks to Naglifar over at Guru we’ve got some preview shots of the weapons that you can get.

In case you didn’t know, HOM or Hall of Monuments, is a series of achievements or points that you can earn in Guild Wars 1. Most players strove for 30 out 50 points, which netted you the majority of the armor and weapons. This feat alone took quite a lot of playing time. But what else were you going to do while waiting for August 25th?

The Hall of Monuments is an explorable area that commemorates acquisitions and accomplishments of a character and/or an account. Available only to accounts that are linked to Eye of the North, it is the only area in the game that is personalized to the leader of the party. Five distinct monuments allow players to show off certain weapons, all miniatures, most heroes and some pets, various prestige armor, and player titles. The hall also serves to kickoff key quests in Eye of the North and for dialogue and quests related to Guild Wars Beyond.

More importantly for many players, filling one’s Hall of Monuments is the only way to unlock a number of Guild Wars 2 bonus items and titles.

Did you get your bonus items and titles?

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This week starts out normally, but after we finish with the news and the mailbag, we jump into a special Game Show format designed to help new players of Guild Wars 2. Each question is designed to reveal a tip for new players that will help them as they journey into Tyria for the first time. So join us for this epic show filled with suprises, even for long time fans!

Watch the full episode after the break or head to the TOT episode page.