Greetings citizens of Tyria! My name is Linsey Murdock. Some of you may remember me as the Guild Wars Live Team Lead before the lovely and talented John Stumme took up the cause so I could work on other projects. As a game designer for Guild Wars 2, I primarily work on crafting and items, which is why I am here to talk to you today about some exciting new features coming up for items progression that my team has been working on.

As we watch Guild Wars 2 mature in its Live environment, we have found that our most dedicated players were achieving their set of Exotic gear and hitting “the Legendary wall.” We designed the process of getting Legendary gear to be a long term goal, but players were ready to start on that path much sooner than we expected and were becoming frustrated with a lack of personal progression. Our desire is to create a game that is more inclusive for hardcore and casual players alike, but we don’t want to overlook the basic need for players to feel like they are progressing and growing even after hitting max level. Adding item progression is a delicate process normally undertaken in an expansion, but we feel it’s important to strive to satisfy the basic needs of our players sooner rather than later.

We have always worked hard to create a sense of satisfying progression rather than gear grind and this new item progression initiative is no exception. By adding challenging new combat mechanics to end-game content and ways to mitigate those mechanics through gear progression for high-end players, we can add personal progression without making the game feel like an endless treadmill of gear that is just out of your reach. Original Guild Wars fans may recognize that we took a familiar approach to our new progression. The first end game mechanic we will introduce is Agony, which will be encountered in the Fractals of the Mists dungeon, and is mitigated by Infusions.

New Condition: Agony

In the upcoming Fractals of the Mists dungeon, we’ll introduce a new monster condition called Agony.
This extremely dangerous condition ticks percentages of player health away and can’t be cleansed by normal means. Players who wish to delve deep into the Fractals will find that Agony makes progress increasingly difficult, until they reach the point where some defense against this condition is a must. The only way to mitigate Agony damage is by building up resistance through Infusions, a new type of upgrade component that can be acquired in the Mystic Forge.

New Upgrades: Infusions

Infusions are a special new type of Upgrade Component that can only be slotted into special Infusion slots on gear.
There are multiple types of Infusions and Infusion slots. In November, we’ll introduce Offensive, Defensive, and Omni Infusions of Fine rarity from new Mystic Forge recipes. Infusion upgrade types must be paired with their like slot, with the exception of the rare and versatile Omni Infusions which can be slotted into any type of Infusion slot.
For now, Infusions slots can only be found in gear of a new rarity type: Ascended.

New Rarity Type: Ascended

In November we’ll unveil the first Ascended items. This new rarity type falls between Exotic and Legendary on the spectrum of rarity and has slightly higher stats than Exotics.
Ascended gear works a little bit differently than other gear types. The stats and functionality normally added to gear through upgrade components are actually built into Ascended items. Instead of upgrade slots, Ascended gear has Infusion slots, and rarer versions of the items also come with additional Agony Resistance built into them. Players will be able to acquire Ascended Rings in the Fractals of the Mists dungeon, and Ascended items worn on the back can be acquired through special Mystic Forge recipes.

The Future of Items Progression

This is just the beginning. In November, we’re only adding the first level of Infusions and Ascended Rings and Back slots, so that leaves us a lot of room to build upon these levels of Item progression in future content.

As we release more new end game content in the future, you’ll see more Infusions and Ascended item types being added to the game. Eventually, you’ll be able to kit yourself out with a full set of Ascended gear and high end Infusions to help give you the edge in end game content.

You’ll also see more Legendary items in the future and an update to our existing Legendary weapons. Legendary items were always intended to be on par with other “best-in-slot” items. So fear not, all existing Legendary weapons, which are currently on par with Exotics, will be upgraded to be on par with Ascended weapons at the same time that we add Ascended weapons to the game. Thus Legendaries will remain “best-in-slot” items. All Legendary items going forward will be of Ascended power. We also have plans to add more fun ways to acquire Legendary precursor items with a more “scavenger hunt” feel than they are acquired currently.

The new additions in November are just the start of our item progression initiative. We’re going to add tons of new high-level content to Guild Wars 2 in the future. As we introduce the new high-level content, we’ll also roll out complimentary Ascended and Legendary items (to say nothing of the other rewards you can earn by playing the content).
I hope you are all as excited about these new items as I am!

George Osborne: Tories must back same-sex marriage or risking losing like US Republicans

Chancellor George Osborne has told the Conservative Party that ditching its support for equal marriage could cause a catastrophic defeat at the 2015 general election.

Writing in The Times on Tuesday, the chancellor drew parallels between the position of the Tories and the Republican Party in the United States.

Mr Osborne said the Republicans had lost “swathes of voters” last week because of their opposition to equal marriage and abortion rights for women.

Invoking the rhetoric of Margaret Thatcher’s 1979 election manifesto, Mr Osborne urged his party to get in step with people and “how they want to live their lives”.

The chancellor said: “It is astonishing that Mr Romney won the election among men by a clear-cut margin of 7%; but it was Mr Obama’s 11% lead among women that won it for the president, even though many of those that voted Democrat thought Mr Romney would manage the economy better.

“President Obama’s high-profile endorsement of equal marriage for gay couples also enthused younger voters.

“But polls found that a majority of all Americans supported him on the issue and voted for it in all four states that held ballots”.

The chancellor, who came out in support of equal marriage on the eve of October’s Conservative Party Conference, added:

“I strongly support gay marriage on principle. Of course in Britain these issues are ones of individual conscience and free votes, but I am proud to be part of a government that will introduce a bill to allow gay marriage.

“It is worth reflecting that in Britain, as in America, a clear majority of the public support gay marriage, and an even bigger majority of women support it. That majority support is just as high in the north as it is the south, and it is equally high among all socio-economic groups”.

We recently had the opportunity to sit down with our friends over at ArenaNet to learn more about The Lost Shores. Not only did we gain some new insights about the world event kicking off this coming Friday, but also learned about some of the new permanent gameplay additions the update will be adding to Guild Wars 2.

While the world event will indeed be a one time, unique experience for GW2 players, there’s actually a pretty sizable chunk of content being added. In fact, The Lost Shores was referred to as a “mini-expansion” more than once during the discussion, and rightly so. Most aspects of the current endgame are expanding either outward or upward in some interesting ways including a new level 80 map, nine new dungeons, a new sPvP map, and even a new item quality level.

Southsun Cove (new level 80 map)
The event this weekend will kick off in Lion’s Arch where players will have to fend off a massive invasion force. Without giving away any major plot spoilers, the event will focus on a new enemy called the karka. It will be up to players to not only push back the initial invasion force, but also learn more about the karka, what caused them to attack mainland Tyria in the first place, and how they can be properly defeated.

This will eventually lead players to a new map called Southsun Cove. During the world event, all players will be able to travel there with lower level characters having their levels dynamically scale up to 80. Following the event, Southsun Cove will become a permanent new map for level 80 characters.

Fractals of the Mists (nine new dungeons)
A total of nine new dungeons are also being added, collectively called the Fractals of the Mists. These will provide a pretty fresh dungeon experience for players, and function quite a bit differently to boot. Here’s a quick rundown of what you can expect:

Fractals of the Mists will be a new dungeon hub featuring 9 dungeons
Each dungeon will take groups roughly 15-40 minutes to complete
Each time you enter, it will be a random dungeon, with 3 dungeons constituting a "cycle"
Following each "cycle" you return to the hub, and your group progress is saved
At the end of 3 successfully completed "cycles" you gain access to a "mega-boss" fight -- think on the scale of the Shatterer
Unlike the current dungeons, Fractals will also allow players to set a difficulty level before entering, so as you continue playing through them you will be able to decide how challenging you want things to be. Due to the randomized nature of which dungeons you'll play through for each "cycle" it should also keep things pretty fresh over a longer period.


Along with the new dungeons, we'll also be seeing some new items hitting the game...

New Item Quality Level - Ascended
While it remains to be seen exactly how many new items are being added in terms of new weapon or armor sets, we do know that a new quality level is being introduced: Ascended. This will be one step higher than exotic quality items, so it will be interesting to see how that impacts gearing up at level 80. As things stand currently, level 80 rares are basically something you only equip while piecing together an exotic set, and from there most people either salvage them for ectos or sell them on the trading post.

Hopefully the ascended gear will be somewhat difficult to obtain, otherwise it might end up greatly devaluing exotics moving forward. New items are also supposed to be hitting the current dungeon vendors, so I'm also curious to see how that will fit into the bigger itemization picture. According to ArenaNet, this new item quality is intended to help give the endgame a more distinct sense of progression, so I'd imagine that there won't be a massive amount of ascended gear hitting the live game right away either way.

It's also worth noting that with the update there will be a new resource to harvest, along with 200 new crafting recipes being added. Presumably these will be focused on the ascended quality level as well, so it will be interesting to see how expensive the new recipes will be to create given the current high production costs on exotic gear.

Temple of the Silent Storm (new sPvP map)
Along with the new dungeons and level 80 map, a new sPvP map is also being added, called Temple of the Silent Storm. As you'll see in the images below, this will be a kodan-themed map located on top of an iceberg. A core mechanic of the new map will be "buff points" that players can meditate on to help their team, with a central point that can reset the entire map.

As you can see below, the new map is also fairly vertical, with a fair amount of both interior and exterior spaces. It will be interesting to see how well the map plays for ranged builds, considering that some of the tighter interior spaces appear to be very melee friendly, but may make keeping line of sight for ranged builds a bit more challenging.

More Lost Shores Coverage to Follow
Be on the lookout for a lot more coverage of The Lost Shores update later this week, including expanded details on the new content outlined above, and a lot more. In the meantime, be sure to leave a comment below to let us know what you think of the reveals so far!