ArenaNet devs talk legendary weapons, endgame, and more

Have you always wanted to wield a unicorn bow and shoot trails of rainbows? (We know you have; don't lie to us.) If you have, ArenaNet developers Eric Flannum and Colin Johanson have confirmed today that Guild Wars 2 is the game for you.

The two devs took to Guild Wars 2's Twitch page today to talk about late- and endgame content and progression for the game. To begin with, they talked about Orr, the erstwhile city of the gods, which has recently been turned into the abode of the dragon Zhaitan and his reanimated minions. Orr has no renown hearts, the quest-like activities that have been known to litter the lower-level areas, "because there are generally very few friendly NPCs in Orr." Instead, players' focus in Orr will be on huge events. There are roughly twice as many dynamic events in the Orrian areas as in other explorable zones; many of these are tied together as nets, rather than simple chains. Events tend to have farther-reaching effects than we've seen so far in lower-level areas, putting emphasis more on holistic zone control and cooperation than in the early game. Johanson suggested that players will need to recapture the fallen temples of the old gods and then keep control of those while also pushing deeper into the zone and fighting baddies at the frontlines.

You can't talk endgame without dungeons coming up, so it's a good thing Guild Wars 2 has got some. The game has eight story dungeons, all of which are replayable as explorable dungeons that tend to have about three very distinct branches, meaning that there will be about 25 super-challenging dungeon paths available in Guild Wars 2 at launch. While only some of those are meant for max-level characters, the down-level system in the game means that dungeons will always be challenging.

The last point of great interest in the talk revolved around legendary weapons. While legendary weapons aren't any more powerful than less-rare max-level weapons, their skins are extremely prestigious. Legendary weapons are hard to acquire. They require difficult-to-get components which players have to dedicate time and skill to track down. Additionally, some rare skins can be acquired through the Mystic Forge. Players will be able to trade excess skill points, which still accrue after level 80, for special items to throw into the Mystic Forge to get neat stuff in return.

The Q&A at the end of the stream brought up holiday events in Guild Wars 2, and Flannum mentioned that the Mad King Thorn is getting VO this time around. For the full effect of all those tasty little tidbits, check out the full recording.

TH