Player vs. Player is always a hot topic when a new game comes out. Arenanet has been talking about their player vs player in Guild Wars 2 for quite sometime and I decided to dive in and start to poke around their matchmaking competitive systems.

In Guild Wars 2 all inter-player battle takes place in a special realm called the Mists. Ironically enough, based on some lore digging and NPC chatter, the Mists are also the after-life (uh-oh). There are two ways to take part in player vs player while in the Mists. They are as separate and distinct from one another as PvP and PvE.

Following in the tradition of other Junkies Nation sites, such as Rift Junkies and Guildwars2 Junkies, TES Junkies is a premiere fansite, run by hardcore fans for all fans. We will be dedicated to bringing you all the guides, news, and up-to-date happenings of The Elder Scrolls Online. The Elder Scrolls Online just began their media campaign and has finally come under public light. The game is set to launch some time in 2013 and we’ll be here to make sure you know all about the game as we find out more about it.

TESJunkies is brought to you by Ryan Raplee and Jason Dodge, owners of Rerollz Media LLC. Rerollz Media is the owner of Junkies Nation and it’s affiliated network of fansites including RiftJunkies.com, GuildWars2Junkies.com, ForceJunkies.com, DefianceJunkies.com.

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Tales of Tyria‘s episode 35 goes over their experience with BWE2 including W3!

This week we take the opportunity to discuss our experiences from BWE #2 while it’s fresh in our minds. We start with WvW and make our way through Structured PvP over to PvE, Crafting, and the Finale event. We also spoke at length about the market system in GW2, and how you can take advantage of it and stop giving Freelancer money

Continue reading to watch the episode.

One of the greatest things about Guild Wars 2 when it comes to character customization is the dye system. Not only can you change colors on the fly, there is a wide variety of colors to choose from; once you collect all of them of course.

One industrial gentlemen decided to collect as many dyes as possible and hunt the Trading Post for anything he had missed. Take a look at the image to the left and you’ll see how diverse the system is. The best part is that this isn’t even a complete list!

What do you guys think, is this enough color! Link up some screenshots of your best looking characters, if you have them, and share your favorite color combinations.

Originally posted by Lindsey Murdock (Source)

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The way leveling XP gain works in crafting is this: For leveling a discipline from 0-400, you will gain 10 levels along the way. By maxing out all 8 disciplines, you will gain 80 levels. That means you could dedicate a character to crafting, feed it all the mats you get on other characters and level it all the way to 80 without ever needing to kill a thing. As hardcore crafters, we think that is pretty cool.

With the BWE2 being over, we are starting to sift through a ton of great videos. Today we find one of Team Legacy spending a ton of gold on Siege Golems and see what the can do with them. The video is incredibly interesting!

Team Legacy (www.teamlegacy.net) on Crystal Desert server bought 100 Golem blueprints, gathered thousands of supply from 3 different keeps over 30 minutes and built an army. Check out our exploits in the final night of the beta.

Continue reading to watch the video.

The Gem Store has seen a facelift of sorts since the first beta weekend event. This past weekend, we saw its new version, now known as the Black Lion Trading Company. A good amount of the items are the same, but there have been a couple significant changes. The store UI itself has been redone, for one thing. The new UI is easier to navigate, and the art is more in-tune with the rest of Guild Wars 2′s UI artistic elements. Most items have new graphics, and some have new names as well.

Among the added items is the rumored character slot expansion, some nifty glasses and sunglasses, a partial Trading Post summon item, a multiple-buff booster pack, and a “Box o’ Fun”. The Style tab, especially, is beginning to expand. Read on for more information!

ArenaNet announced for the second Beta Weekend Event, several features that they have made to the game since the last time players entered the world of Tyria.

One of the items that stands out to me is Improved Overflow Servers. In the first Beta Weekend Event, there were significant problems getting together with friends. According to ArenaNet, they’ve implemented a new party UI that notifies you when party members are in different overflow worlds. This is a great start, doesn’t fully rectify the problem of having people separated to begin with.

A new developer blog has been posted detailing some of the changes to WvW by Mike Ferguson. Along with some updates to squads and seige work, there is a WvW scoreboard from last BWE1. How did your server fare?

On Squads:

The commander system is another area where we’ve spent some significant time. We’ve made it easier to join squads, as you can now right-click on someone’s name in chat and choose to join their squad. And squad chat now works both ways, allowing members to talk to their commander. In another improvement, commanders can now check the followers tab in their contacts panel to see a list of people who are in their squad.

Check out the rest over at Arenanet’s website.

Arenanet has posted a short video interview going over a preview of what to expect for this weekend’s BWE2.

Marketing Coordinator, David Campbell, is joined by Guild Wars 2 Lead Producer, Chris Whiteside to give a preview of the next Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekend Event.

Keep reading to watch the video.

Yesterday, Reddit set up an AMA for a bunch of Arenanet Developers to answer all of your questions about this weekend’s BWE2. We’ve distilled down all of the questions and answers for you, however if you want the raw feed, you can head over to Reddit right now and check it out. Here’s who was there to answer questions:

Mike O’Brien – President/Founder – MO
Chris Whiteside – Lead Producer – Chris
Mike Zadorojny‎‎ – Content Designer – z
Mike Ferguson – WvW Designer – Ferg
Peter Giuntoli – Programmer – Peter
Jon Peters – Systems Designer – Jon
Isaiah Cartwright – Lead Systems Designer – Izzy
Regina Buenaobra – Community Manager ~RB

Keep reading for the full transcript.

This weekend is fast approaching and Arenanet is now allowing people to do some free World (server) transfers so you can get and play with friends that might be joining the BWEs for the first time.

If you played in our first Beta Weekend Event, you will already have an existing home world. We’ll have a lot more players participating in this second beta, so you may want to change your home world so you can play together with your friends. Good news, everyone! World transfers will be free of charge on June 8 from Noon PDT (GMT -7) until 6PM PDT (GMT -7) on June 9. After this point, a world transfer will cost 1800 gems with a limit of one transfer every 7 days.

What if you need a server transfer after the free grace period expires?
Every beta player will get 500 free gems automatically, and you can get 2000 free gems by entering a valid credit card in the Gem Store. You will not be charged, but your credit card company might place a $1 hold charge on your account. Don’t worry; it’s not an actual charge!

Not only will you be able to transfer, but you get to help Arenanet test out their RMT/Cashshop system. If you wish to read the full blog and get a list of all available servers, follow this link to Arenanet’s homepage.

There is now an ongoing Ask Me Anything on Reddit right now. Jump in and participate and find out what has already been asked. Stay tuned for when the AMA ends and we’ll have a final tally of the whole Q&A for your reading pleasure.

Hi, everyone.
This is Mike O’Brien, and I’m the President of ArenaNet. We’re working on a game called Guild Wars 2. We have a Beta Weekend Event coming up this week from June 8 – 10, and I’d like to take this opportunity to answer your questions about the game and the upcoming beta event.
I’ll also be joined by ArenaNet designers and developers and we’ll be here to answer as many of your questions as we can in the next three hours.
Here’s who will be participating (and our sigs):
Mike O’Brien – President/Founder – MO
Chris Whiteside – Lead Producer – Chris
Mike Zadorojny‎‎ – Content Designer – z
Mike Ferguson – WvW Designer – Ferg
Peter Giuntoli – Programmer – Peter
Jon Peters – Systems Designer – Jon
Isaiah Cartwright – Lead Systems Designer – Izzy
So without further ado, AMA!
~ Mike O’Brien

Eric Flannum, Lead Game Designer, talked to Massively yesterday about the new changes posted in the recent dev blog and here’s what he had to say:

On the newly added Mystic Forge:

Massively: The Mystic Forge that players will now be able to find in Lion’s Arch seems exciting. Will it be random, or will players be able to develop “recipes” of what to toss in in order to receive certain items?

Eric Flannum: The Mystic Forge uses a combination of random and non-random recipes. For example, if I throw four rare swords into the forge, it will return a random sword to me with a chance for that sword to be substantially better. There are also specific items that can be created by throwing four very specific items into the forge with no random involved at all. Players should look for clues hidden around the world and in items for what combinations might work. Another exciting aspect of the Mystic Forge is that it is very easy for us to add recipes, so post-launch, we can continue to add new things for players to discover.

And on the new PVP mini-dungeon:

Massively: How will the new PvE elements feel like they’re intersecting with WvW gameplay, rather than running parallel to it? Will they have any bearing on WvW? Might players find blueprints in treasure chests or anything else to help them feel like they’re contributing to the greater fight?

Eric Flannum: The mini-dungeon we added to the WvW center map was added with PvP specifically in mind. This goes for how the area flows, how traps work, and what reward you get at the end. There are definitely blueprints in the chest as well as other things that WvW players will find valuable.

You can read the rest of the interview over at Massively.

There was a new addition to GW2 for BWE2 and it’s called the Mystic Forge. From the latest developer’s blog we get this description:

On a less dangerous note, the Mystic Forge has arrived in Lion’s Arch. This strange forge actually holds the imprisoned djinn Zommoros, who hails from distant Elona. If you offer the Mystic Forge gifts (like unneeded items and weapons), you will receive a gift in return. Got a pair of pistols that you don’t need? Drop them in the Mystic Forge and see what Zommoros gives you in exchange!

So it appears that the Mystic Forge is some kind of dumping ground for unwanted items. The question is, will this mechanism be better than either salvaging or vendoring items? What kind of items will we see in the Mystic Forge? Will we see crafting materials, different weapons and armor or maybe we’ll see runes and sigils. It appears that Arenanet is all about giving us options on how to get rid of our trash.

One of my personal wishes is to see the Mystic Forge become something like Diablo’s Horadric Cube. Just imagine the possibilities. What would you like to see the Mystic Forge be?