The Wonderful Gifts of Wintersday

There were several nice reveals today for what's to come during Wintersday.

First there was a video featuring a new jumping puzzle, a massive mechanical golem blimp hovering over various racial cities, Toymaker Tixx, new towns clothing, and a wintery transformation of Lion's Arch.  All in all, it looks incredible.  I'm very excited for the new jumping puzzle, and I am practically begging that it be presented to us in a similar format as the Mad King's jumping puzzle.  I know many had problems with the format, but I personally loved it.  It provided hours of frustration, entertainment, and hilarity, and I think it provided a great sense of community to Guild Wars 2.  We will just have to wait and see though.

Secondly, there are some great quality of life changes occuring in WvW this patch.  While most of WvW changes will be happening in February, these small changes will greatly enhance the experience for most players.   Players will no longer be able to escape death by intentionally disconnecting or closing the game.  This has become a widespread problem in WvW, and I'm overjoyed to see the exploit be exposed for what it truly was.  A coward has no place in WvW.   There's also a feature added to WvW that will greatly aid realms who are severely losing on specific maps.  Essentially an event will start, which a raid-like boss will provide supply and siege weapons against the opposition and will lead the charge to begin aiding the realm's inhabitants to establish a foothold on the map.  When a map is being lost severely, it's very hard to regain momentum on the map, and is overall a fantastic change. I can however see this feature being easily exploited, and being too strong or even too weak, so I hope they have tested the numbers very thoroughly. There are some other relatively minor changes coming to WvW like annoucements, etc.

All information can be found here.



Lastly, the content page for Wintersday has been updated.  There seems to be a huge amount of events planned, and it's very nice to see ArenaNet learning from past mistakes. The final event will be featured over a relatively long period of time, so that all players can participate.  I'm really excited for the Wintersday weapon skins, and I am praying that they will be better than the Lost Shore Skins, which for me were really a bit of a letdown.  Eh, I'm neutral about towns clothing, but I understand that many roleplayers love it, so come what may.  As for me, I would like to be able to wear my clothing both in and out of battle.  I'm excited to see the variety of events lined up for each city over Wintersday, and once again, I am totally ready to tackle the new jumping puzzle.

All information can be found here.

All in all, it once again is lined up to be a great patch.  I'm just hoping that ArenaNet continues to learn from past mistakes, and makes this Wintersday one to really remember.