Guild Wars 2: The Lost Shores - Day One - UPDATED: 3:45PM PST

SEE END OF POST FOR UPDATES.

The first day of the weekend long event has started with the karka strike on Lions Arch. As we waited at the lighthouse, a giant sea monster, the Ancient Karka, launched out of the water, destroying a Black Lion Trading Co ship the process. After landing on the rocks above the shoreline, the creature summons a horde of lesser karka to attack the city.

Hundreds of adventurers gathered at the southern coast of Lions Arch to push the karka threat back. They were met with a handful of egg-laying mother karka, who proceeded to give birth to many baby karka who were so small, and numbered so many that adventurers were hard pushed to keep the swarm back. Karka attached themselves to limbs, biting and hindering the adventurers movements while they tried to defend against the veteran karka that were summoned to aid the egg-layers in their strike.

During the battle, the biology team collected samples of the karka flesh as they slowly dropped, one after another. The battle was hard pushed, the egg-layers nearly invincible behind their thick armour. Many adventurers turned their attention to the lesser Karka aiding the egg-layers, until the karka lost their resolve to fight, giving up the attack and retreating back into the waters for the time being.

Enraged by our resilience the Ancient Karka destroys the lighthouse in Lions Arch. Afterwards a tense peacefulness fulls upon Lions Arch, but not is all well. A call to arms is made to aid in the building of defences against the karka, and the research into the sea monsters, in the hopes that we might find a weakness to exploit. In the meantime, Tyrro of the Lionsguard investigates the Consortium and their strange asura gate that has torn an unstable rip in reality.

Even though the battle was epic, an exciting event, the zone was so overrun with players that it causes the server to suffer from a severe input lag, meaning most players were forced to auto-attack the mobs when their activated abilities continously failed to proc. Many were even unable to heal themselves when the karka dropped AoE poisons.

UPDATES: 3:15PM PST

Karka have started to send waves of attacks against Morgan's Spiral in Caledan Forest. Meanwhile, aid is sort from the races of Tyria in various locations. Including defending the Largos in Viathan Lake (Kessex Hills) from Krait in order to win his loyalty, helping the Hylek Gukumatz create potions to weaken the karka in Michoan March (Metrica Province) and information is being sought from the Quaggans in Stormwreak Deeps for clues on how to deal with the karka threat. The Quaggans ask that we search the depths of the lake for clues to help in the fight.

Unfortunately, many of these events appear to be a bit buggy at the moment, but hopefully in time the kinks will get sorted out and we will be able to proceed ahead with the events.

UPDATES: 3:45PM PST

The Karka have attacked Garrenhoof in Kessex Hills, but something suspicious is going on at the local wizards guild. Adventurers have been sent to confront Canach and discover what exactly he knows about the karka. Lag has also got so bad that enemy mobs to do show up at all now due to too many character models. Unfortunately the event is currently bugged on my server, along with several of the other events so I'm unable to provide details on the outcome of the event at this stage.

Keep an eye on this post and following threads for updates, videos and screenshots as the day progresses.

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Guild Wars 2: The Lost Shores

Roughly three months after the game launched, Guild Wars 2 is set to receive its first major, world-changing update; The Lost Shores. Unlike the Halloween event, this update will leave a permanent mark on the world of Tyria. Players will be welcomed into the new mini-expansion with the scripted events happening each day on the 16th, 17th and 18th of November at 12:00 pm PST (20:00 GMT). During this time the servers will be opened up to trial accounts, allowing every player to invite three friends to play with them over the weekend. All players will also be scaled up to lv80 during the events and while exploring the new zone to allow trial members to play with their friends.

The Lost Shores of Southsun Cove

Players will need to defend the city of Lions Arch from the Karka, a new amphibious race, and as the weekend-long event progresses, push them back into the new island zone, Southsun Cove, where they will find many new dynamic events and challenges to complete, including a whole new dungeon; Fractals of the Mists. In this dungeon players will fight bosses to collect a new tier of gear called Ascended. This artefact gear is graded above exotic, yet below legendary. All legendary items in the game will be getting a bonus to their stats in order to match the new tier of gear, which might for once make the legendary weapons worth getting. Not interested in the legendary weapons, yet want your gear to look amazing? The Black Lion company is releasing a new set of weapon skins through their gemstore for players to purchase over the weekend.

Some might think it unfortunate, but this patch is set to begin Arenanet's first forays into an item progression system, which is strange, considering they were always against it in the past. Personally, I'm happy they have decided to take this direction. To me it means there will be much more to do at endgame, because honestly, I was done with all the PvE content about two weeks after it was released. This shift in direction gets two thumbs up from me.

First glimpses into the Fractals of the Mists

For those of you who would prefer to PvP in the Mists instead of following the event, you will be treated to a new PvP map; The Temple of the Silent Storm. Be aware though, the map is still in beta stages and may be subject to change - it might also be buggy still. Either way, it will make a fresh change to those maps I'm sure you're all tired of doing over and over again.

The trial starts in two days (15th Nov), and I will be there bright and early on the 16th to take part in this world-changing event. I hope to see you all ingame. So with that I leave you with the promo trailer released yesterday by Arenanet's offical youtube channel. Enjoy.

Pictures courtesy of the offical Guild Wars 2 page.





UPDATES: 15/11/2012: After the release of the final patch before the event, activity has been increasing along the shorelines of Lions Arch. The Consortium is making its play, announcing the coming of a new resort destination to be found through their new Asura Gate. We can expect the gate to be active at stage two of the weekend long event.


The harbour has received a new PoI addition, Malcha's Landing, along with the Consortium on the southern short of Lions Arch. There is now an orange star on the Lions Arch map signifying where the event is to start. Once again in the Grand Plaza.

Along with this news is a collection of new NPCs, including a Consortium Gift Shop, but so far it appears they have nothing for sale, yet. Stay tuned at the new PoI in Lions Arch for more gifts and rewards to be discovered in the coming days.

I'm off to investigate the mentioned changes made to the Shatterer event. Will report back with all the juicy details. Read More →