Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekend 2

So I've been AWOL I guess. I recently moved into a new place and I didn't have time to setup my desktop. UNTIL NOW. That's right get ready for a non-comprehensive, very small review of my beta weekend.

So what I noticed right off the bat was that they finally included more chat channels to the system. Finally I don't have to let the whole world know that "I left my sandwich on the counter and I'll brb".

The above screenshot is actually from an area in World vs World (WVW from here on out) that requires jumping from various rocks and ledges to reach two chests that contain a key and random prizes. I tried people. I tried for a good thirty minutes. Don't get me wrong, running off a ledge and plunging through a waterfall is awesome. Got that down pat. But getting so far only to fall, swim outside, run up a mountain, jump off that ledge and try again just got old. That's just about as fun as pulling a hangnail. I swear I was awesome at Mario.... I beat the first level so many times it isn't funny. Then again the puzzle jumping it isn't a requirement. Just something fun to do in your off-time.

After that we went full on WvW. That's all I played for two whole days. And I love it. There's not much to say that changed with WvW. They did change how the overflow servers work so you can at least stay with friends in your party when you join. They made Valor vendors give RNG items from boxes you can purchase. I didn't play structured PVP much so I can't comment on that.

I basically just took keeps, and blew up enemies with cannons. There was one occasion where I single handedly held off a group of 10 red invaders (players) from taking a keep with a cannon mounted on top. Had them running for their lives until reinforcements came. But the best feeling came when we (KA) RedKarma Guild for Reddit came under assault in our recently captured stronghold.  They came hard, real hard. We'd fight them off but they kept... coming and coming. After endless waves of pushing back and falling back, off in the distance I spotted my worst nightmare.... A friggin' trebuchet!

Trebuchets have the longest range of any siege weapon in-game

Members of the DarkHaven server trying to defend our keep

Our doors were being pounded... alright alright I know this sounds dirty. Keep your mind outta the gutter. Ahem... pounded by that trebuchet and we couldn't cross the bridge to take it out. Though a fellow player setup his own trebuchet, it was just too close to hit. Furthermore, that tiny bridge was the only way to get across and destroy it. OR WAS IT? No. A guy named False and I decided to do something unconventional. We dropped down and crossed the water to the left of the trebuchet and stayed submerged. We flanked through the enemy supply camp while being careful not to pull the guards. We took the hill to the left and walked onto the building next to the zerg. We switched from our melee weapons to our bows. This is what ensued...

Let me put this into perspective. One single trebuchet costs 16 silver. (Thanks: AcolyteRB) It's not cheap. I don't think I made more than one gold during the whole event.

Simply put, this was epic.... they didn't even know we were attacking their trebuchet. They were too busy focused on our allies attacking their bridge.  Had we not taken it out we probably would have lost the keep shortly afterwards. This was probably the best moment of the whole beta for me. Two allies, driven to desperate measures... overcoming a massive challenge. That's right. We're goddamn ninjas.

We also used this tactic to devastating effect on our enemies however. The key is to defend your siege while pushing with another group.

Using our own trebuchet to down the gates from range

Guarding and spotting for our ally manning the treb

Gate is down!

Killing their keep lord

Running stragglers off the wall

Mopping up the rest

I guess our group was a rogue group. We wouldn't necessarily run with the zerg. We supported them by taking supply camps, and responding when necessary. We did take time to mess around though. We took group photos after sieging keeps like the primadonnas that we are.

Ok.. we took a lot of pictures. To be fair, we also took a lot of keeps. Friday night (the first night) though we got rolled by the first server we got matched up with in WvW. Saturday, we completely wiped the opposing servers. By Sunday night, we just stopped Wvwing. Our score was high enough to relax comfortably and the GM run event was going to begin soon.

Unfortunately however, I was drinking during this time and hitting the printscreen button didn't occur to me. We basically sat around with fun boxes (little boxes that enlarge you, give fireworks, transform you)  waiting for the event to begin.

And then it happened. The sky turned dark, clouds rolled in and as I looked over my shoulder I spotted it.

Basically we were supposed to kill his minions and then kill the dragon. That was the gist anyway. That never came to pass however. The time limit ran out before we could kill enough to trigger him to land. I died right near the tail end of the event to one of his monsters. It changed me into a monster myself! We started to attack our own players which was fun as hell. And then BOOM. Server down. So we really didn't even get to see the dragon on our server. Other servers might have been more successful. All in all it was a fun event. There is one more scheduled before release (date still unknown).

Karma Guild on the Darkhaven Server