While ArenaNet is working on Guild Wars 2, they still have a team keeping Guild Wars 1 going. And they arent just making sure its still running, but they are adding all sorts of cool things to the game! The newest is
Embark Beach!This
update is huge! The big thing is Embark Beach itself, a new location in the Battle Isles where you can go to find other players to group with. Once a group is formed you can be sent to the outpost where the quest you want to do takes place, so no more hanging out in an empty outpost waiting for people to show up.
At the opposite end of the grouping spectrum, you will now be able to use 7 heroes in your party instead of the usual 3! Heroes are better than the usual henchmen (henchmen are still available for those that haven't unlocked 7 heroes), plus they can be better customized with skills. This is great news for solo players!
Speaking of heroes, they have a new purchase available in the in-game store. You can create a hero out of your other characters. The new hero will have the same look and wear the same armor as your playable character. Kind of a fun cosmetic thing.
They've made some changes for titles. Getting the Drunkard title required drinking lots of booze and was time based, so overdrinking just wasted the booze and you had to sit there and babysit the character for long periods of time. They changed it to a point based system like Sweet Tooth, so chug em if you got em and you'll be a Drunkard in no time!
Another title is the Legendary Defender of Ascalon, which could only be acquired in Pre-Searing by reaching level 20. That would normally not seem like a big deal except you stop earning XP at level 13 or so due to level difference between enemies. The only way to get the title was to level up your enemies by letting them repeatedly kill you, then you could kill them for XP. Obviously this was kind of stupid and convoluted, so now they have added daily quests to Pre-Searing so you can earn the title legitimately!
They also updated the Survivor title track. You had to play a lot and earn a lot of XP without dying. As soon as you died...that was it, you could not progress any further on that title. You had to make a new character and try again. Now, its based on XP earned since your last death. The example they give:
let's say that your character achieves the second rank of the Survivor title before dying. Your title-track progress will still display second rank as your current best. To achieve third rank, however, you'll be starting over again from zero experience. This lets you try again without throwing away a character that you've already put so much into. The amount of experience required to achieve the max rank of the Survivor title has not changed.
Plus in a recent update they totally overhauled the Dervish class, which I totally want to try!
Once I get my video card in I so have to dive back into this game.
