Details on the newest content update to Guild Wars 2 made their way to the official site yesterday with the completion of the Last Stand at Southsun information page. This next phase of the Southsun Cove event will kick off May 28th and bring with it a new renegade villain, a solo story dungeon to put an end to him, and a final onslaught that takes place on the island beginning on June 5th. Aside from the event’s additions, the update will bring players some WvW updates, custom arena updates, and a couple of cool items obtainable through completing achievements on Southsun Cove.

Here is a bit of information on the WvW-specific additions:

New Improved World XP

• We’re improving the way we award World XP to World vs. World players! Now you’ll gain rewards for a much wider range of activities in the Mists – everything from destroying siege weapons, repairing walls, escort missions, and more.

Greater Variety and More Rewards in WvW

• We’re adding new WvW daily achievements to the list you can choose from so you can earn World XP for playing the way you want. And every time you gain a new World rank, you’ll earn a bonus chest packed with useful WvW loot!

Introducing Infusions and Ascended Gear in WvW

• Now you can purchase Ascended rings and amulets and upgrade your WvW abilities with six new Infusions that give your character special WvW bonuses! Just speak to the new Laurel and Badge Merchants on each map.

For more details as well as the usual host of nifty screenshots and a wallpaper, check it out here.

Another Guild Wars 2 content update is right around with the corner with yesterday’s announcement of The Secret of Southsun, a new advancement in the post-Molten Alliance story that takes place in Southsun Cove. Players will be tasked to pair with the Lionguard in order to uncover the secret behind the strange animal attacks on the island. In addition, the update will be adding in a new crab-tossing mini-game and the introduction of supply-removing traps in WvW:

Introducing Traps in World vs. World

Traps are fiendish items that can be purchased from the new Traps and Tricks Outfitters on each WvW map. We’re starting with anti-stealth fields and traps that remove supply from enemy players, but in the months ahead we’ll introduce even more ways to spread mayhem in the Mists!

The Secret of Southsun launches on May 14th. For more details, a wallpaper, and some nifty screenshots, check out all the info on the official announcement.

On April 30th we’re going to be receiving the final update to the Flame and Frost world event, which is being called Flame and Frost: Retribution. Where will we strike our retribution? In a new dungeon! This new Living Story dungeon is called Molten Weapon Facilities and will feature our NPC comrades Rox and Braham as well as an end boss fight that seems mighty intriguing from the looks of the screenshots. We’re also going to finally be able to create our own custom PvP Arena matches and take a peek at matches in progress using the new Spectator mode that will be debuting in beta form with the update.

In addition, we’ll be getting new World vs. World abilities, new guild missions, and guild siege weapons and back banners that can be used during WvW. For more information, check out ArenaNet’s updated Flame and Frost: Retribution information page. There are also a few screenshots of the new dungeon on there, so make sure to check those out as well!

Just in case you haven’t had your daily dose of Guild Wars 2-flavored 8-bit awesomeness, ArenaNet released a little side project one team member had going– Rytlock’s Critter Rampage! Yes, that’s right, the video game the kid in the Super Adventure Box cheesy TV ad is playing can now be played by all of us. It’s a fun browser-based platformer with multiple difficulty levels starring our favorite butt-kicking charr Rytlock. He apparently doesn’t like cute bunnies much. The game also features four different endings. Watch out for Rytlock difficulty!

To check out the browser game for yourself, check it out here. Also be sure to check out the release announcement.

Are you that guy (or gal!) who all your guildmates come to in search of trait, stat, and weapon build advice? Do you consider yourself an expert on your profession and which builds to use when? Have you had experience writing up profession guides? How would you like to share that knowledge with thousands of viewers?

You might just be in luck. Guild Wars 2 Junkies is looking to add a few more enthusiastic, talented volunteer writers to our team. We’re specifically looking for profession experts this time around, but if something else is your area of expertise, you’re more than welcome to drop us a line! All that we ask is that you’re a true fan of Guild Wars 2 and can show us that you know a thing or two about writing. You’re more than welcome to set your own schedule and write whenever your feel inspired. If you do an awesome, consistent job, there may even be opportunities for this to become a paid position.

If you have any questions or would like to apply to become a writer for Junkies Nation and Guild Wars 2 Junkies, please feel free to contact Jason Dodge at dreagon@rerollz.net or Laura Hardgrave at laurah@rerollz.com. Make sure to have a writing sample handy when you contact us!

ArenaNet put together a pretty awesome April Fool’s joke and corresponding event for Guild Wars 2 this year. How, you say? Take a look at this page. It’s totally 8-bit. Even the video is awesomely 80s, right down to Rytlock Brimstone’s super-cool shades and the grainy TV textures. The event’s name is even pretty cool. Super Adventure Box? Sounds fun– count me in! The greatest thing about the event is that it’s not just an April Fool’s joke. It’s in-game starting today and will last for the entire month of April.

Super Adventure Box, at its core, is an event that lets you explore a whole 8-bit world that was created by an Asura by the name of Moto. In this world there’s a story to follow and three levels of platforms, puzzles, and critters who are bent on slowing you down. As a bonus, you’ll collect Bauble Bubbles along the way which can be used for items inside the 8-bit game or outside in Rata Sum, where Moto’s willing to share a selection of weapon skins and other unique goodies.

For those of us who gamed during the 8-bit era, the whole instance is a trip down memory lane, complete with cheesy dialog, sound effects that sound oh-so familiar, 1-UPs, clay pots to break, hearts that display health, and shopkeepers inside little buildings that want lots and lots of business. They also cheer us along as we wander around and break stuff, which is highly amusing.

Can you tell this event’s pretty much blown me away? I’m a sucker for nostalgia. What can I say? Go check it out! It all starts in Rata Sum. ArenaNet published some answers to common questions regarding the event if you’d like more information and some tips and tricks for getting through the levels. And stay tuned for our weapon skin preview, which will be published shortly.

With a new blog entry this weekend, we find out that there will be new Guild Missions, most aimed at smaller guilds.

An important detail to note is that the Bounty Hunt training mission is automatically available to be built once the guild has researched Art of War Level 3. It costs 300 Guild Influence and 72 hours of research time. Instead of Guild Merits, 3000 Guild Influence will be rewarded. This ought to be perfect for the smaller or less active guild that can’t earn at least 1000 Influence a day.

That’s not all there will be additional content in the form of new targets and new rewards. Find out more at the developer blog entry.

Here is some clarification from the forums:

Origionally posted by AnthonyOrdon (Source)

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I have some clarifications for you guys. The intent of the training mission is to make it easier for your small or less active guild to access other guild missions (or acquire anything else you need influence for). It’s not meant to replace standard bounty hunts or augment influence gain for guilds that can already earn a ton of it. To that end:

• The commendations, rares, and silver are not awarded. That reward is specific to actual bounty missions.
• The training mission can be researched and activated as many times as you like. You can stockpile up to 10. Keep in mind that researching a training mission will tie up one of your research slots and that boosting that research with extra influence will ultimately cancel out a portion or all of your gains from the training mission.

I’m happy to answer further questions, but please remain civil in this thread. Thanks!

Regarding Weapons:

Originally posted by AnthonyOrdon (Source)

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The new weapons are exotics. They have unique skins and are only attainable through guild content.

Ascended weapons may be available from guild content at some point in the future, but that hasn’t been decided yet.

The official information page for the next major Guild Wars 2 update– Flame and Frost: The Razing– is now more than just a teaser page. ArenaNet detailed most of the major features being added in the March 26th update as well as hinted about the new advances for The Living Story that we’ll see as the multi-month storyline continues to unfold. Among the new features headed our way, we’ll be receiving a new progression system in WvW that includes new abilities, a fix to current culling issues in WvW, leaderboards, and new guild bounty hunt targets.

Speaking of features, jump past the cut to find out more info on leaderboards and the new guild bounty targets.

One of the many complaints across the server spectrum is that native residents are being pushing into overflows due to players guesting to servers hunting for chests. Here is a fix from Anet that is attempting to fix the issue.

Originally posted by Isaiah Cartwright (Source)

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In the next release we will adjust the way that world mega bosses award their loot. The current chests will stay lootable once per day per character, but each boss’s guaranteed rare item drop will be moved to a separate chest (visually similar to daily achievement reward chests) that can only be acquired once per day across an account.
Our intention with this change is to keep providing rewarding loot for world mega bosses while avoiding overwhelming participation in boss fights (and overwhelming the economy with rares) from players cycling through each character slot for each boss every day.

There has been an uproar on the forums, you can follow the conversation here.

Here are the scores as posted by Habib Loew as of March 1st. Again not much movement here except we see the expected drop of Sea of Sorrows in to Tier 2 and the rise of Blackgate. If you wish to discuss these scores, you can find the official thread via this link.