THE ANNUA L 2017

2 GUILDMAG #21 | In This Issue

EDITORI ALS

IN K S: R AIDING IN 2017 MMOINKS returns for another Annual to share more raid impressions.

14 LOOKING BACK ON THE PATH Guild Wars 2 streamer Age Nightroa d weighs up the pros and cons of t h e latest expansion .

ART & FI CTION

FEATURED

66 COMMUNITY FA SHION: PATH OF FIRE EDITION Desert-themed outfits straight from our reader’s characters!

31 THRIFTY THRE A DS: PATH OF FIRE Resident fashionista X eroe share s how to unlock all the core Path of Fir e armour sets .

COMMUNITY ART Seven pages of beautiful artwork from across the community - go be amazed!

35 A LETTE R FR OM KOR A SANGBRE LL One Priory archon isn’t too happy about her latest assignment in Elona...

LEGACY The third part of Zachariah’s story con - tinues with Into the D ept hs .

18 GUIL D WARS 2 RELE ASE TIME LIN E All the releases from launch to Path of Fire in one handy timeline.

FIND ING HOPE Stablemaster Unja learns to find hope in her springer companions.

LORE & HISTORY

COMMUNITY GUILD S POTLIG H T Our Sanctuary is an NA guild for the LGBTQIA+ community - but there’s also far more to them...

28 THE HISTORY O F THE SUN S PEARS Draxynnic explores the history of this ancient Elonian order. MATTE RS OF ASCEN SION Augury Rock has returned, but hav e you ever wondered what exactly As - cension is ?

RE AP ING THE WHIRLWIN D Continuing our series on the lore of elite specialisations with the reaper.

06 T HE LAND OF ELONA REVEALED Starconspirator takes you o n a journey of Elona’s evolution from GW1 to now.

fter months of waiting , Path of Fire is now trul y here! It’s been a few months since th e ex- pansion’s release, and in that time we’ve ventu red to the exotic land s of Elona, battled a renegade god of war and witnessed the power o f Kralkatorrik. We’ve also seen th e commencement of Living World Season 4 with the debu t episod e “Daybreak” , and th e release of th e latest ra id the Hall of Chains. All in al l th en, th e l att er hal f of 20 17 w as a hugely busy time for Guild Wars 2 , so what better way to celebrate and remember it than with th e GuildMag Annu al 2017? In m y letter for last year’s Annual, I said that we hoped to make th e next even better and raise even more for a charitable cause. It’s therefore with great pleasure that I’m happy to announce we’ve don e just that! The physical edition of

this magazine helped us raise a total of $500 USD fo r WWF th is time around, which is no mean feat! Over the last 7 years I’ve witnessed GuildMag grow from a fl edglin g fansite to what’s no w the longest-serving Guild Wars 2 web- site still operating, with readers a ll around the world who h elp make what w e do po ssible. S o here’s to each and every one o f you. Whet h - er this is your fi rst experience with one of our magazines or y our twenty- fi rst, I sincerely hope you enjoy our con tent an d con tinue t o support us as we move into 2018 and b eyond. On that note, I’d like to extend my thanks to the content cr eators from across the commu nity w ho have, in some shape or anoth- er, contributed to this magazine alongside our regular team of amazingly talented players. You ’ll fi nd a list of our p artners over

the page, b ut I’d also like to give some honourable men tions to the followin g people not listed: Tauz – As our senior copyedi- tor and IRL friend, you’ve give n up countless hours t o Guild- Mag over the years. Thank you for all your hard work on this issue and all the other s! Harper – The friendliest Romanian swordsman in Guild Wars 2 . Thank you for the hundreds of screen- shots y ou contribu ted! Ponomous, Calum & the rest of our r aiders – There’s too many of you to list, b ut thank you for sticking with GuildMag and the countless hours of fun ! So with all that said, I hop e you enjoy this magazine. Happy reading!

EDITOR’S LETTER

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Valiant SENIOR COPYEDI TOR Tauz SENIOR WRITE R Draxynn ic

WRITE RS Starconspirator,  Vian de Bod COP YEDITORS Kalabajooie, Talus D ESIGN E R X eroe

We’re loo king for new team members! Come join our friend ly team of players: www .guildmag.com/join

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BY S TA RC O NSPI RATOR

or hundreds of years, the land of Elona has been shrou ded in mystery. The san ds of the Crystal Desert, the sulfurous wastes of the Devastation an d the land s of Vabbi last seen in the o riginal game have once again been opene d to the ranks of Tyrian explorers. For those wh o played the fi rst game, returning to the Land of t he Golden Sun has brought with it waves of nostalgia and giddin ess, albeit with a (sometimes starkly) changed landscape under Joko’s reign. While Elona has been sealed aw ay,

its citizens living and dying at the whim of th e und ead king, many of the iconic locations from Prophec ies and Nightfall have undergone some transformations, w hilst others have remained somewhat the same. In th is special edition of GuildMag, we’re going to reveal the extent o f these changes… welcome back to the Elon a of old !

F

During Prophecies , players entered the Crystal Desert to Ascend. There, we met the ghosts of the Elon ian s wh o had o nce tried themselves. On e of their lost cities, Elona Reach, ca n still b e seen today; bleached bones once kept shipwrecks company in the ghost town, but to day these ruins are gone, replaced b y a temple dedicated to Kormir .

Completing the trials of Ascension brought the Chosen t o Augury Rock, where inside the structure they faced a fi na l trial before being deemed worthy to meet th e dragon Glint. Current players of Path of Fire can fi nd their way into Augury Rock once again with Follower Kaidenna, a sylvari studying the ancient Trials.

Palawa Joko’s palace was already centuries old during the story of Nightfall when players fi rst came across it. From the Bone Pa lace, Joko consolidated his power , rallying his undead army to fi ght against fi rst Abbadon’s forces and later the Elon ian s. The Bon e Palace of today has certainly grown in magn i fi cence…

The lake called the Mirror of Lyss was believe d to b e made by Lyssa herself, and played h ost to a fl oating cathedral dedicated to the goddess. The Sun spear heroes once defeated a powerful demon o f Ab ad don that was summoned here to desecrate this place, but no t before the slaughter of the priestesses there - an act t ha t resulted in the def ection o f General Morgahn of Ko urna to the Sunsp ears.

When Abbadon rose u p against the other gods, they struck him down and imprisoned him here, creating the Real m of Torment. The surrounding land has been malignant ever since, twisted by the fallen god’s presence. During the events of Nightfall , the warmarshal Varesh Ossa opened a gateway to the Realm of Torment in her attempt to free Abbadon, and for centuries the vortex h as remain ed intact. Now Balthazar’s minio ns, the Forged, po ur from it.

The main party destination in Elona, the Garden of Seborhin was where the Su nspear h eroes fi rst met the princes of Vabbi during Nightfall, and later returned to cleanse the garden from A baddon’ s in fl u ence. Having narrowly avoided Branding, the celebration con ti nues despite the threat of Branded an d Forged.

MIRAGE

hen it comes to Pa th of Fire , the second Guild Wars 2 expan sion, there were q uite a few expectations stemming fr om it s predecessor Heart of Thorns , such as a stronger story, less of a mas- tery treadmill to do said story, and access to the map regardless of its meta event progress to name just a few. In this editorial for Gu ildMag, I want to look a t each of th e features introduced with PoF and examine how they felt at release, and how well th e expansion is performing a few mon ths dow n the road. The main attraction of any expa n- sion is the story, and Guild Wars 2 ’s story has been gradually getting better an d better over time, care- fully weaving the tale of our char- acters and their companions. In my opinion, PoF ’s story is th e best Guild Wars 2 narrative told so far, which I believe is mainly due to the focus o n character development, especially for our own character, which is somethin g I’ve never really felt before in previous Living World seasons or th e HoT story. In PoF , the story en counters themselves are more interesting with better mechanics to make th e instances and fi ghts more engaging, which is something I totally approve of. As we progress thro ugh the story we learn quite a few things, inclu ding answers to the older burning ques- tions like why the gods left Tyria or what R ytlock did i n the Mists. Spea k - ing of Rytlock, the main NPC charac- ters that join us in our adventures in the desert are himself, Canach and Kasmeer. Ou t of these three charac ters, I was most interest ed in Kasmeer because there was very

little character development for her in Livin g World Season Three where here she had to d eal with the huge task of facing down one of h e r gods. As a strong believer in the Six, Kas- meer has a lot of internal  turmoil about what she shou ld d o and it was interesting to see th e steps taken to d isplay how she confronts th is. In Act One she’s still in disb elief that Balthazar gave up on Tyria, but as the story progresses her resolve grows after witnessing th e p ower of the fallen god and his p lan for all of Tyria. While I’m on the topic of charac- ters from the story, one character that I found very compelling was Vlast, another o ff spring of Glint and Aurene’s older siblin g. Vlast sou ght to ful fi ll the duty that h is mother gave him, but ultimately felt the weight of that responsibility ver y heavily and grew more frustrated with his situation as time w ent on ,

in part due t o his discon nect from his caretakers and the races he was defending. It seems like he was fi gh t - ing a lo sing battle as he constantly fended o ff h ordes of Branded, and eventually Balthazar and the Forged , but his sense of duty outw eighed his perso nal feelings. That struggle to en dure and keep fi ghting was what made Vlast so compelling a s a charac ter. As w e transition through th e story, we adventu re through the beauti- ful maps that make up the Crystal Desert. Each of these la rge maps are uniq ue in their own right, wh ile retaining the desert theme and nostalgia from the original Guild Wars trilogy. A sense o f explo- ration is brou ght back as you take di ff erent p ath s to un lock more of the map, or try to fi nd interesting location s, wh ich is made possible due to meta event progress not being map-wide like in Heart of Thorns , but instead focu sed into sections of the map. One of the issues in Hea rt of Thorns was that some of the h ero points were not soloable - something recti fi ed in PoF so you can un lock elite special- izations at you r leisure. You cou ld say ArenaNet went b ack to their roots in terms of the maps, taking inspiration from c or e T yrian m aps that have meta events and hero points in a very similar fashion to

BY AGE N I GHTROAD

W

PoF’s story is the best Guild Wars 2 narrative told so far [. . .] mainly du e to the focus on characte r development .

“

what can be seen in Path of Fire . The PoF meta events, with the pos- sible exception of th e casino coins in the Crystal Oasis, don ’t seem as lucrative reward-wise and probably need to be looked at down the road ; yet the map introduced with Living World Season 4 in N ovem b e r seem s to show that ArenaNet understands this point and can provide smaller meta events with good rewards. While I’m o n the subject o f the map s and rewards, I should cover boun- ties a s well. Boun ties are a bit of a nostalgic feature from the or iginal Guild Wars , replicating the feature of a bounty board fi lled with vari- ous bosses available to take down for a reward. What’s pretty gr eat about b ounties in PoF is that you do n ot need to go pick u p a b ounty from the board to earn credit for a kill; instead, you can random ly join one in progress and receive full rewards. The fi ghts themselves are good because they h ave engaging mechanics where you h ave to pay attention in order t o do damage or even survive. For example, on e mechanic is t ha t t h ere is a blue a ur a that requires players to be standin g in it in order to do damage , with thi s aura fl uctuating between being a ring for range damage and a circle for melee damage. Kills reward a speci fi c currency that can b e trad- ed into an NPC that sells Funerary armor and weapons (which are fan- tastic by the way), b ut each armor piece or weapon is only purchasabl e

after completing its related achieve- ment. It seems w here bou nty rewards are concerned, ArenaNet wants this activity to be the reward system in the long- term. To many people’s amusement, mounts were introduced with Path of Fire through the mastery system established in the previou s expan- sion. There are currently on ly fi ve mounts a player can obtain, bu t the twist is that each has its own strengths and weaknesses for trav- elling across the terrain; for exam- ple the raptor is the fastest land mount, while the springer is the bes t vertical mount and the skimmer is the be s t for t raversing across s u lfur , quicksand and water. Mounts are a lot of fu n to u se, especially in core Tyria, but on e small caveat is that the base mount skins only have one

dye channel wh ile the oth er mount skins, which can cu rrently only b e obtained in the gem store, have more dye o ptions. Lookin g back at HoT and gliders, the only gliders n ot tied to the gem store are the legen d - ary ones via PvP, WvW and fractals, which does raise the question if Ar e- naNet will introduce an interesting reward system to get any in-game obtainable mount skins like the leg- endary gliders. I’ve brie fl y touch ed on elite special- izations being easier to get in PoF due to the hero points b eing solo- able, but it’s worth comparin g them to the ones w e got in HoT . The Heart of Thorns elit e specs were straight up power boosts in one respect or another, bu t it seems ArenaNet wanted those in PoF t o have more of a niche roll. For example, the w a r - rior’s new elite specialization, the spellbreaker, is best played in PvP. Not to say t hat some PoF elite specs can’t be played in multipl e ga me modes, but for the most part there’ s a clear place where they excel. As time has gone on after release, it’s become apparent that some elite specs have a few problems fi n ding any means of use in other parts of the ga me. I n PvP, the HoT elite specialization herald is the more viable op tion for revenant players over its PoF counterpart renegade, which has seen very little to n o use in the mode - contrastingly, condi- tion renegade builds are currently popular amongst many raiders. It’s

important to n ote that HoT had an issue like this with a few of th e elite specs on its release as well, an d balance patches seemed to make things better in the en d, allowing each HoT elite spec t o be viable in each mode to some extent. I expect this trend to fo llow suit w ith Path of Fire , although players might have to wait a considerable amount of time for that to happen which is not ideal . This isn’t to say all elite specs shoul d be great in every mode, but they should be viable to a decent exten t because not every player will h ave every expansion and therefore will not have access t o every elite spec for their profession . Goin g back to my renegade example, if a player wanted to play revenant in PvP but only had PoF , said player would hav e a really hard time. There were qu ite a few features added with Path of Fire but on e new item that could be a bit o verlooked is the new guild hall Wind swept Haven, which is one of the most detailed guild halls out of the cur- rent three available. Sadly, outside of the eye candy value and some new scribing recipes, not much has changed in terms of gu ilds or guild halls. How about the other parts of the game that PoF did not impact beyon d elite spe- cializations,  such as Wv W, PvP, raid s and fractals which are on their ow n release schedule? It was pain fully apparent with Heart of Thorns th at a majority of WvW players did not like the Desert Borderlands and much p refered th e layout of the Alpin e Borderland s; in the same vein, a majority of PvP players did not like Stronghold and prefered the style of Con quest. Are- naNet took the safer approach by not havin g expansion content for those modes, and instead probed the commun ity for PvP and WvW features they w ould like to see and iterated on that feedback accord - ingly. The PvP and W vW devs had

some new forum threads go up in early December askin g players for some feedback o r a nswering fr e- quently asked questions, so it’s very likely that we’ll something signi fi - cant about WvW or PvP in the early months of 2018. Wh en it comes to raids and fractals, the fi fth raid wing Hall of Chains and the new fractal Twilight Oasis were released a t the end of November 2017 and it seem s those mod es will be on a fairly consistent release schedule, which might be throw n o ff at times du e to another expansion. If you h aven ’t yet, make sure you read MMOINKS’ impressions o f the la test raid o n page 40. Perhaps the biggest weakn ess of Path of Fire is in its ability to hold players in the maps for the long term, because currently it does not feel like there is much to do even if that might not be the case. I f Heart o f Thorns has shown anything in terms of sticking potential, it’s generally rewards via the meta events. Grant- ed, there was a rework to improve these rewards in HoT , but rewards are what make players come back, whether that be meta events or farming currency for a legendary . In the November patch, ArenaNet did add an alternate way to make second generation legendaries via the Gift of Desert Mast ery, which requires players to go back t o the PoF maps. Outside of the issues I ’ve out- lined in this arti- cle, Path of Fire is a fairly good ex pansion, providin g players with a much stronger sto- ryline, a sense of exploration in the Crystal Desert maps, challenging bounties and a twist to mou nts th at make them enjoyable to use beyon d a means of simple transportation .

Where bounty rewards are concerned, Are- naNet wants this activity t o be the reward system in th e long-term .

“

The Lost Shores release brought us Southsun Cove and th e first big attack on our beloved city of Lion ’s Arch.

Super Adventure Box appeared right before Flame and Frost concluded; the start of a beautiful arcade adventure for all Tyrians.

Dragon Bash was an amazing festival celebrating resistance to th e Elder Dragons. Of course, the celebration didn’t end so well for a certain membe r of th e Captain’s C ouncil.

On the other end was the Bazaar of the Four Winds, introducing the Zephyrites and showing that not all sky-farin g peop le are ruthless cutthroats.

The Queen of Kryta celebrated humanity ’s independen ce and strength through a series of fantastically challen gi ng gauntlets!

BY VIA N DE BOD

Launch is probably the most memorable experience for ever y Guild Wars 2 veteran; where it all began.

Flame and Frost was split into four parts and herald ed th e first season of what we now know as the Living W orld.

The two Southsun u pdates in tro duced us to both th e Co nsortium and to the delightfully sn arky Canach.

The Sky Pirates of Tyria was th e introdu ction to a faction that turned th e world upside down. These were the precursors to wh at we no w call th e Aetherblades.

Of c o u rse, that d idn’t stop ou r own grou nd - d welli ng T y r ians f ro m followin g that trend on the political battle fi eld. Finding the voting tokens all over the Zephyrite airships did make for quite a n un usual voting system, though it was still a boat-load of fu n!

Guild Wars 2 is over fi ve years old! Over the last half decade we’ve been throu gh more than 45 major releases; we’re now at the second expansion and things are l o oking very good for our bel o ved franchise, and that’s why I think it’s time we too k a step back and just admire how far we’ve come. T o celebrate th e jou rney from launch to Path of Fire , GuildMag ha s put togeth er a timeline o f all the g ame’s major releases. For the sake of space, we’ve excluded Halloween and Wintersday since they come around every year and we’re all pretty familiar with them an yway. So without further ado, enjoy this Guild Wars 2 release timeline!

Moto returned to teach all the young progeny the importan ce of retro platformers.

The first new dungeon path added to the game since launch brought us the Aetherpath in Twilight Arbor.

We delved in to the M ists to investigate new fractals and uncover th e truth about Tyria’s past and futu re.

We found uncharted grounds in the Mists t o further our ad van tage in the everlasting war! This the fi rst new map added to WvW and is still frequente d by the entire commun ity .

A bucketload of new features for all of us to enjoy! The most n otab le of these were the wardrobe and megaserver systems .

Our epic journey to the west began as tragedy struck our sky-faring friends. The Master of Peace was missing and the Zephyrite fleet burned in Dry Top.

Tequatl’s master is gone and he’s n one too happy abou t it. Players flocked to Sparkfly fen to battle the new Sun less Scourge, n ow stronger than ever.

The Tower of Nightmares rose from the depths for two episodes of Living World, changing the face of Kessex Hills forever and introd ucing us to an alliance of toxic enemies.

We delved deeper into Scarlet’s psyche to fi nd out just what made her tick. In Origins, we discovered her base and read her secret journals to get an idea of how sh e became so tw isted .

This epic three-part chapter marked the death o f old Lion’s Arch. We watched as Scarlet destroyed our beloved city, then rose to defend its remains. In the culmination of this attack, Scarlet met her demise, and we came to learn of the Jungle Dragon ’s existence.

The Zephyrites return to the Labyrinthine Cliffs to share their wares and wisdom.

Unfortunately, our old friend S carlet Briar had other plans for the Qu een’s Jubilee. Chaos ensu ed as the Queen’s new machin es were twisted an d turned again st those th ey were bu ilt to protect.

Rytlock dove into the Mist s and o ur heroes tried to forge allia nces between the natio ns of Tyria.

Our heroes journeyed to a hidden library an d the lair of an old prophet...

The truth was revealed and the past made clear. What were the origin s of the sylvari? And what was the Pale Tree hid ing from u s?

Guild Wars 2 opened its doors to a whole n ew world of players!

Raids came to the Guild Wars 2 scene with a bang, starting with the fi rst wing of Forsaken Thicket!

The second wing of Forsaken Thicket revealed the order behind th e Spirit Vale bandits: the White M an tle.

Mordremoth’s corruption spread across Tyria in a wave of death and destruction, leaving massive vines and tragedy in its w ake.

An even bigger bucketload of features! This time with an updated Trading Post and a better experience for new p lay ers.

We chased after the Master of Peace in order to retrieve the mysterious Dragon Eg

We were on the Dragon’s do orstep ; there was no more turnin g back…

We took the fight to the Jun gle Dragon in th e largest featu re and story update the game had ever seen!

It’s like a feature pack, but seasonal! This time, we took to the skies in central Tyria and fought an even stronger Sh atterer.

The birth of spring brought the birth of new features! The Heart of Maguum a was updated and HoT owners all received a free level 80 boost!

In the culmination of the Forsaken Thicket storyline, raiders assaulted the White Mantle’s enclave and raced to stop X era’s n efariou s plan...

We journeyed south to the hellish Fire Island chai n in ord er to learn more about the nature of Elder Drag ons.

We cut o ff the head of the snake an d crushed the White Mantle’s attack on Divinity’s Reach! The standalone raid Bastion of the Penitent was also released, where an old foe awaited ...

We revealed a god, met the ancient druids and glimpsed another Eld er Dragon all in one amazin g chapter!

Both Balthazar and Kralkatorrik’s call drew us to the land of sand and adventure! Elona was calli ng...

Moto returned with what could only be described a s the most loved festiva l in Tyria.

The competitive PvP scene got its day i n the sun with the advent of Leagues.

The world stood in shock as a dead race, th e mursaat, came back to life before ou r eyes.

As a nice change after all that heat, Braham lured us north to an especially icy part of the Sh iverpeaks.

Moto was back with his box of platformer goodn ess!

We returned to Orr to chase down Balthazar, th e hu man god of war.

RENEGADE

espite the tragedies of recent events, there have also been opp or- tunities; th e openin g u p of the lands of Elona, and hence the opportu nity t o study them, that h as not been availab le since the con- quest of the region by Palawa Joko centuries ago. With this opportunity , however, comes a dilemma: should the organisations of northern Tyria, including our own Priory, ou tward ly cooperate with the lich king, despite all of the risks that such cooperatio n would en tail? Or sh ould we throw our support behind the factions tha t oppo se him, in h opes of bringing him down an d earning th e ability to visit and study the region with out his restrictions and censorship of the truth? In making such a d ecision, it behooves us to familiarise ourselve s as much a s possible with th e histo- ries and activities of the organ isa - tions and individuals in qu estion. While Palawa Joko’s true origins remain a mystery - probably largely due to his own e ff orts at obfu sca- tion - I believe that w e do have the pieces to put together to u nder- stand one o f the organisations that sta nd s against h i m: t he r e mn a nts o f the Order o f the Su nspears.

The organisation known as the Sun- spears was formed by Queen Nadi- jeh o f the Primeval Dynasty as the Sunspear Guard, actin g as the royal protectors of the Primeval Dynasty. Despite their connections with the Primeval Kings a nd Queens, most of the Sunspear Guard were not interred i n the Tomb of the Primeva l Kings, but instead were buried in a series of crypts south of Fahru nar, the ancien t Istanian capital, in the region that would later be know n as Lahten da Bogs. Even the most ancient of the Sunspears, however, have shown a reluctan ce to pass easily into the Un derworld - some of their spirits remain and could be invoked by their living successors as late as 1078 AE, while others mani- fest in the Tomb of Primeval Kin gs as ghostly gu ardians of th e crypts of their monarchs. When the Prime- val Dynasty was brought t o an end by the Scarab Plague, as the living Sunspears evacuated and sealed o ff a ff ected settlements, yet mor e ghostly Sunspears appeared t o take up an eternal vigil, preventing the living from gaining access to the city and thus protecting the dangero us artifacts of Abaddon beneath the city. With the fall of unifi ed governan ce