Twitch TV Review

What a packed twenty minutes of interesting new information.  In case you missed it, Eric Flannum and the always-smiling Colin Johanson were on Twitch several hours ago talking about the "end-game."  This is pretty substantial, because up to now, they haven't really addressed this concern in any major way.

I'll try to skip most of the filler information and pounce on the new info that graced our ears. (Hint: Orr scares me.) 

First, Orr. This is one of two highest level zones in the game. Dear God, I never thought Orr would be as could as it sounded. There are no renown's in this area, and what's more the series of zones on Orr are packed with events (an estimated 2x fold increase over normal areas). For starters, they mentioned the first zone in Orr, which was described as "storming the beach in Normandy". There are three massive route's that we are assaulting Orr, by air, by land, and by sea. There's even a reference of catapulting golems from the sea onto the beach. Players will need to succeed on many fronts to continue progressing towards the inner zones. What's even more fascinating is the lore and the implications from it. Orr used to be a holy land, devoted to the six human gods. However, now all of the temples are under Zhaitan's control and have become corrupted. There are little statues all over the zone, and essentially whichever side controls the temples, controls the statues. From the interview, it made it sound impossible (or extremely difficult) to make it to the final dungeon in the game without controlling the temples. Every realm will have to perform to take and keep Orr from Zhaitan's undead army. PvE has never sounded so fun.

Second, OMdsjfoidsjoFsdifosidjG.  There are legen....wait for it.....daries.  And these aren't just oh a shiny sword....no. There's a shortbow that shoots rainbows.  Read that again, rainbows my friends.  Fine, I suppose you want manly gear....There are two legendary greatswords, one that is essentially the daytime sky, and the other shows the nightsky.  These can be combined, and essentially you will have this giant, epic sword that changes appearance based on the time of day.  There was also mention of a massive hammer called the Juggernaut that covers you in metal and drops metal puddles as you walk.  Eh, if that's your kind of thing, I'm soooo going for the rainbow shortbow.  These weapons grant no stat bonuses over other, much easier to get, gear.  At the moment, we know that the time it takes to get these weapons is substantial, and they will be designed to be the "best" looking gear in the game.  Also, they mentioned that most of the items required to make the weapon cannot be bought and sold, and you will have to achieve them yourself (or in a group that achieves etc.)

Third, I'm not sure if this was known previously or not.  I tend to recall hearing something about this before, but I can't confirm where.  Essentially, even once you reach 80, you still have an experience bar that increases.  Each time that bar fills, instead of increasing a level, you gain a skill point.  Extra skill points can be used to buy items from a vendor for use in the newly created Mystic Forge.

Fourth, they stated that they want people to say that "Guild Wars 2 has the best support", in this context meaning the best live development team that creates content post-launch.  That is a hefty feat, especially since the announcement of The Secret World's monthly patches this week.  ArenaNet, in my opinion, is not one to brag, and they usually don't say something unless they are truly confident they can do it.  Time will tell all things, but that is really a statement that makes me pause.  Especially considering this is a buy-to-play game.  So many people have tried to argue that with their business model, they don't have to develop content as fast because there's less incentive to keep people playing.  ArenaNet for the first time is countering this directly, saying no, we will have the best content development you have ever seen.  Damn.

On a side note, holidays have been confirmed.  It should be pretty interesting to see how Arenanet adapts GW1's holidays because of how human-focused they were, and more entertainingly how other races will take to them.