BWE2

End of beta event.

How is it going citizens of Tyria? This is Severin, and I am here to tell you about the Guild Wars 2 beta weekend event number 2, and how well it went. I will also release a series of related blog posts about more specific aspects of this beta, and what I hope to see upon release of the game or the upcoming beta events.  

In BWE2, there were numerous changes since the first beta weekend event.  As you can see in the screen shots, the world map is now square, and the dodge meter is now wrapped above the health sphere.  But that is only the start of Arena Net's changes to the game from a month and a half ago.

Map courtesy of Guild Wars 2 Official Wiki

They have also released a new map, Gendarran Fields, which is a level 25-35 map outside of Lion's Arch in Kryta. This is one of the few maps that bridges the gap between the Shiverpeak Mountains, and Kryta.  The east side is a mountainous region, with the rest being either a marsh, or plains with rolling hills.

The vigil settlement in Gendarran Fields

Along with the Shiverpeaks in the east, to the north east is a Vigil settlement. The only other interesting bit I find about this map is happens in the marsh around here.  They introduce the undead to this game here.  Not ghost, but zombies and creatures from the underworld, including the Aatxe.  Albeit the Aatxes on this map are much easier to kill than the ones in Guild Wars 1, this leads me to wonder, is there going to be another elite Underworld dungeon, much like the one in Guild Wars 1?

Aside from this map, they also added automated tournaments, but I did not play in that at all, so I can't really add to much info about that new PvP mode.  It was down for the half the beta I was focusing on PvP, so I settled with WvW, and the conquest style PvP.  I will say that either 2 handed swords are overpowered,or long bows are under powered, seeing as I got almost all my kills with a great sword, where as I just tried my best to control the players with my long bow, but dealt little damage.  But, afterall, I am more of a PvE guy than PvP, so that may be the advantage.  

In PvP, they added Glory rewards.  At rank 1, rank 2 is after you accumulate 16,000 glory, there are three boxes you can buy with glory.  The boxes are sold for 200, 500, and 1000 each, depending on which one you want.  Each one gives you multiple items, and based off of value, the rarer pieces likely come for the pricier boxes.  I didn't take screen shots of these unfortunately, but you get about 4 pieces of equipment or other assorted items from these boxes.  I even got a dye from one of them.

Am I playing as a Sylvari?

There have been many other changes to this beta event, which I will cover on later, but these were the most major changes I experienced.  So, for now, I leave you with a teaser screen shot.  Enjoy your down time from Guild Wars 2, you won't get much of it after release. Till next time, have a nice adventure!