GW2/ Wintersday

GW2 Wintersday preview from press sites

dulfy 2 Comments Dec 13, 2012

Summary of GW2 Wintersday preview from selected press sites with information on the kind of activities you can expect for the next three weeks.

Looking for the Wintersday Event guide? Check it out here!

Wintersday Timeline

• Start: Dec 14 (no specific time)
• The Grove: Dec 15 10 am PST
• Divinity’s Reach: Dec 16 10 am PST
• Black Citadel: Dec 17 10 am PST
• Hoelbrak: Dec 18 10 am PST
• Rata Sum: Dec 19: 10 am PST
• Back to Lion’s Arch and Toypocalypse: Dec 20: 10 am PST to Jan 3, 2013

Original articles

• MMORPG
• Massively
• GW2hub

Three new activities in LA (starts Dec 14 and last until Jan 3)

• All three activities can be accessed via the mystic forge in LA, which is transformed into a giant snow globe.
• Winter Wonderland – Brand new timed jumping puzzle, hard but less harsh than Mad King’s Clock Tower. Three different entrances, and frostbite to endure (damage over time, player is kicked out if they take too long). Puzzle is not instanced but the three difference entrances and wide path should eliminate some of the visibility issues with other players.
• Snowball Mayhem – Brand new PvP Map, a capture the flag map. Players grabbing presents and bring them back to base. Players get to pick between three classes: Supporter, Scout and Heavy Gunner, each with unique skills. In addition, each profession also get one profession  specific skill. You get to throw snowballs, freeze other players in place, and use map based power ups.
• Bell Choir: Three players team up to play three part harmony holiday songs or create their own. Players will be hitting notes as indicators come flying at them – i.e. Guitar Hero. Each song starts with a perfect score of 100 and every note you miss detracts from your score. There are several new Wintersday themed songs, as well as the Guild Wars 2 theme, and Fear Not This Night to play.
• Visit Toymaker Tixx in LA once during the three week period to get a special toy that won’t appear in GW2 again.

City Tour & Toypocalypse (starts Dec 15)

• In each city, Toymaker Tixx’s Golem Airship will reveal a special instance called Toypocalypse themed towards the city.
• Every city has their own version of Toypocalypse gets more engaging/harder with each city.
• Each instance will scale everyone to L80, it is a 5m instance that is designed to take 30m to 1hr to complete depending on group organization.
• Tixx will reward players with blueprints unique to that race after instance completion. In addition, mobs will drop the crafting materials required by the blueprint.
• If you miss out on a city, wait till Dec 20 where all the instances can be accessed via Lion’s Arch via a drop down menu.
• Horde mode meets tower defense meets GW2 – you will face waves and waves of runaway toys, pick up resources to set up defenses (i.e. catapults), and keep gift-bearing dolyaks safe.
• Players will have access to unique holiday themed weapons to combat waves of malfunctioning toys trying to assault Tix’s friendly Pack Dolyaks.
• Toypocalypse will be hot joinnable through an activity server (i.e. sPvP maps)

Crafting & misc activities

• 275 new crafting recipes, not all are themed around the holiday.
• Craftable skins that are much more accessible and attainable. Weapons thremed after the weapons used by Tixx’s Toys
• Snowmen to build throughout the world (similar to Pumpkin Carving in Halloween)
• Presents fall from the sky all over Tyria except for Orr – boxes of gifts, goodies, and toy-making materials.These presents will spawn mini events when opened (i.e. similar to haunted doors in Halloween).

Black Lion goodies

• New skins in the stores, different from the craftable ones.

WvW & sPvP

• Siege items themed after Winterday such as ballistae that shoot candy canes.
• sPvP themed finishers.