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.

Hey folks, I’m Robert Hrouda, a content designer on Guild Wars 2. In the coming months, we’ll make some changes to dungeon mechanics to make them a more fun and challenging experience. I wanted to give you a heads-up on our plans for phase 1 of our dungeons evolution—specifically, the removal of “res-rushing”—as well as a brief overview of our plans for phase 2.

“Res-rushing” is when a player uses a waypoint to resurrect immediately after being defeated in a dungeon and then runs back to the fight, instead of waiting for their party members to resurrect them.

Dungeons were designed to be highly focused on teamwork. The current res-rushing mechanic discourages the type of behavior we intended when a fellow player goes down. We hope that by eliminating res-rushing, we’ll bring dungeons more in-line with our original design goals, which are based around team play and strategy.

Hey, everybody! I’m Matt Wuerffel, one of the game designers on Guild Wars 2. I wanted to take a moment to talk about some of the things we’ve been working on recently: new rewards and updates to the achievements system.
New Rewards—Laurels

Today, Colin Johanson posted a long awaited developer blog that gives us insight into the next six months of development for Guild Wars 2. The main focus of the changes come in the forms of rewards and incentives for players to be playing different parts of the game. Colin breaks down the game into three spheres: sPVP, PVE and WvW. Each portion of the game should see some upgrades to the way players earn rewards. Whether it’s achievements that reward tokens to buy gear or WvW prestige ranks that award new skills and abilities, big things are coming for Guild Wars 2.

Keep reading to find out more.

Today, Arenanet has announced a new progression pathway moving forward. We’ve all seen the complaints from around the community that there really is no progression once you gain a full set of exotic armor. Well, Arenanet has answered that call with new types of items to collect and gear up with so your character can continue to progress.

As we watch Guild Wars 2 mature in its Live environment, we have found that our most dedicated players were achieving their set of Exotic gear and hitting “the Legendary wall.” We designed the process of getting Legendary gear to be a long term goal, but players were ready to start on that path much sooner than we expected and were becoming frustrated with a lack of personal progression. Our desire is to create a game that is more inclusive for hardcore and casual players alike, but we don’t want to overlook the basic need for players to feel like they are progressing and growing even after hitting max level. Adding item progression is a delicate process normally undertaken in an expansion, but we feel it’s important to strive to satisfy the basic needs of our players sooner rather than later.

Players will be able to collect a set of “Ascended” gear which falls between Exotic and Legendary. On top of that, players will be able to obtain Infusions which will be able to be placed into special gear to augment your playstyle.

There are multiple types of Infusions and Infusion slots. In November, we’ll introduce Offensive, Defensive, and Omni Infusions of Fine rarity from new Mystic Forge recipes. Infusion upgrade types must be paired with their like slot, with the exception of the rare and versatile Omni Infusions which can be slotted into any type of Infusion slot.

You can read the full developer blog over on the official website.

Jonathan Sharp, Content Designer at ArenaNet, shared some interesting PvP news in a developer blog published yesterday. Guild Wars 2 is going to have a much larger structured PvP scene, and in the near future players will not only be able to take part in normal (free) PvP tournaments as they can now, but also more competitive, paid tournaments that will offer a different set of rewards:

As the name implies, paid automated tournaments have an entry fee. You’ll need tickets to enter a paid tournament, which you can purchase in the gem store, find in reward chests from free tournaments, and receive when you rank up!

These tournaments reward ALL teams that play in them, and offer better rewards on average than free tournaments. Successful teams can earn excellent rewards from paid tournaments, but you’ve got to be good to finish in the top prize slots. We expect that more experienced PvP players will start to migrate to paid tournaments because the risk/reward is much higher than in the free automated tournaments.

There is also no matchmaking in the paid tournaments. You have to come in with a premade team, which means the teams will ALL be organized teams – you won’t have premade groups fighting pick-up groups as you would in free paid tournaments.

Players will most likely need Tournament Tickets to take part in these tournaments, which are already available in the Black Lion Trading Company for gems.

ArenaNet is also working on a custom arena system, where players can set up a private, password-protected area for friends and guildmates, and use it to arrange custom challenges. The team also has additional PvP features in store for Guild Wars 2 players, but some of those plans are tight under wraps for the moment. Read the full developer blog for all the details.

Arenanet has released a new post regarding Legendary Weapons. There are no new tips or hints on how to build your weapon, but it gives you a general idea of how they are hinted at in game. More importantly we get a short video showing off a few Legendaries in action.

How do you get started? Legendary Weapons are created in the Mystic Forge. We’ve kept the recipe a mystery so the community has a puzzle to figure out, but if you want some hints, many players have been posting their progress on forums. You’ll begin to see some ambitious players wielding Legendary Weapons in game very soon. If you’re more the figure-it-out-yourself type, you can finds hints as to how to craft your weapon in almost every area of Guild Wars 2—WvW, dungeons, dynamic events, crafting, and more—so keep your eyes peeled.

Keep reading to see the video.

Arenanet has published another dev blog, but this time in the form of Video! Keep reading to watch the videos, or you can find them on Anet’s dev blog page.

Earlier in the development of Guild Wars 2 we released our MMO Manifesto video, a high-level look at the philosophy behind the design of the game. As we approach the launch date, now is the perfect time to talk about the outcome of that design philosophy with a look at the core ideas that the game is built on: personal story, dynamic events, combat, and PvP.

The only video missing is for WvW! But Anet is promising that is coming soon.

In the wake of BWE3 we get a new Dev Blog telling us all about how Arenanet tells stories in their world.

The biggest story is the “Story of the World,” which is portrayed on the largest canvas. This is the tale of awakening of the Elder Dragons, and the threat that they pose to Tyria.

At low levels, near the starting areas, this is distant thunder; each race is absorbed within their own problems and threats. Some of these threats are related to the Elder Dragons, but you’re not fighting dragon minions every time you set out from Divinity’s Reach or Rata Sum. Challenges in these areas are more local. As you move into higher levels, the threat of the dragons becomes greater and greater, “…the central theme of the game: pulling people together to face more difficult challenges.”until at last, at the highest level, you reach Orr and the lair of Zhaitan, the Elder Undead Dragon.

Read more over at Arenanet’s blog page.

One more Dev Blog has been released, ramping up our excitement for this week’s BWE. This blog talks about the opening sequences and tells you a little bit about them.

Regarding Humnas:

We wanted to establish several key points in this cinematic: humans were once the predominant race, a people with many kingdoms spread all across Tyria, but now they are in decline; and despite these dark times, they still have faith, even if it feels more distant. Visually, we wanted to show the amazing vistas of Divinity’s Reach and the last great human nation of Kryta.

The second half of the cinematic is set by a player’s choice of social class—is your character a member of the gentry, a hardworking commoner, or do they hail from the streets? The moving imagery in each option is very different, and the writing is designed to convey the mood and give you a distinct feel for each background and setting.

Find out about the Norn and the Charr over at Arenanet.