It’s been a good week for The Lost Shores information reveals! Yesterday we received another developer blog update from Leah Rivera, who showed off some details and a cool video about the new dungeon that’s built out of mini-dungeons being added Friday– Fractals of the Mist:

This dungeon is unlike anything you’ve played in Guild Wars 2. It’s built of an array of mini-dungeons, which we call fractals. These fractals are slices of the Mists, fragments of time that have been stabilized by the intrepid asura researcher Dessa. Some of these vignettes from history may be familiar to original Guild Wars players, while others will represent previously unseen events. Because of their eclectic origin, each fractal is built as a distinct, separate experience with themes, mechanics, and art specific to that fractal.

Leah Rivera goes on to explain the fractals system, which plops your party at a central hub every time a mini-dungeon, or fractal, has been cleared. After this point, the party has the opportunity to explore a different fractal, which is completely random and scales in difficulty as your party advances. This new dungeon will be open for players of all levels, since it will scale us to level 80, but it’s definitely meant to be a challenge, especially for lower level parties.

Keep reading to check out the video, which is quite impressive!

Hello, guys. What I wanted to do for the community today is to give you a realistic view of chasing a legendary. This is the view from a person actually chasing it himself. As usual, I’ll get to the point and give you the facts. This is the fastest way to achieve your goals. Let’s go right into it. Feel free to discuss everything listed, and add suggestions if you happen to have any.

Hello, all. Around two weeks ago, I came up with a Guardian Paladin WoW-style build. Some viewed it as a glass cannon. “Can’t possibly live,” some said. Well, they were proven wrong. But I was not satisfied with that build at all. It didn’t have enough sustained healing for my liking, and not quite enough defenses.

So, enter Guardian Paladin 2.0 version. In this version you have more defenses, sustained healing, higher burst crits, and the ability to cancel 8 attacks in a row with skills. Does that sound fun and extremely good to you? Well, let me start with the build. Keep reading to see the stat breakdowns, explanations, examples of it in action, and more!

Act 4: Mad King’s Simon Says

Our final act of Shadow of the Mad King is, well, less mad, and more of a reason to celebrate. The Mad King is now cool with everyone and wants to play a little game. He does a Simon Says-type game he calls “Mad King says” in Lion’s Arch. It’s pretty straight forward to figure out, and one of the rewards for completing the mini-game is a witch’s hat that seems to be offered at silver level participation or above.

For those who are not familiar with Simon Says the game– it’s quite simple. The Mad King will say a random emote, and the player must repeat that emote directly after. If he does not say an emote, then do nothing. Failure to correctly repeat the emotes gets you a flat lining debuff that floors you. That’s about it!

I was not around for the original Mad King events on Guild Wars. From what I hear, they were massive and fun. With that said, so far the Guild Wars 2 version lives up to the lineage of the original event. It comes complete with a festive redesign of Lion’s Arch and plenty of mini-games and goodies in the gem store. There’s also an interesting scavenger hunt with a good story line involved. I went ahead and took the liberty of showing all the key areas in the hunt within a video. All in all, the event is well done– and free, so you can’t beat that.

Keep reading to watch the video!

Yesterday, ArenaNet released a cool video for Shadow of the Mad King, the Halloween event heading our way on October 22nd. It’s worth watching for the baby costumed quaggans alone.

We also found out a little more about the event. Shadow of the Mad King will be a four-act event, with the first act starting on October 22nd, the second on October 26th, the third on October 28th and the final act on October 31st. We don’t know the details of what will change between each of the acts, but it’s safe to say it’s probably worth checking out each of them.

More information on the new event items being added to the Black Lion Trading Company was also revealed:

All kinds of tricks and treats are coming to the Gem Store this Halloween. Costumes that grant spooky skills, tonics that transform you into ghouls and ghosts, creepy crawly minis to follow you around. And don’t forget to pick up your free devil horns before they disappear!

The Black Lion Chest is getting a spooky upgrade for Halloween. Between October 23 and November 5 each Black Lion Chest you open has a chance to give you one of six exclusive Halloween-themed weapon skins!

Free devil horns? Those will look rather silly on my charr main– in other words, a must have!

ArenaNet also released a wallpaper of one of the awesome artwork designs for Shadow of the Mad King. To check out the wallpaper, video, and all the details, head on over to the event’s official page.

The Legendary Sword: Sunrise, was crafting yesterday and we have some videos to show it off. If you want to find out more about the sword and what it took to make you can find the full thread over at Guru.

Today, 2nd October 2012 – after 10 days of waiting for patches – I was finally able to craft the legendary weapon Sunrise. In less than one month two players worked together on puzzling together the recipe and gathering all required materials in order to create one of the most epic weapons in the game.

`This achievement was not gained without sweat and tears. Since day one we set our sights on creating a Legendary and started slowly gathering all the pieces of the puzzle. Funding came from playing the Trading Post, especially volatile trading. No gems were bought with real $$, no exploits were used to farm dungeons, events or gain value, no server switching was used to gather materials. (except to find an unbugged and unlocked temple of Balthazar)

Find the video of the sword in action after the break.

If you’re interested in doing your own Guild or Alliance Spotlight, please check out the instructions here.

Defeating the bosses quickly in structured PVP maps can be a crucial factor in deciding which team will come out on top. But how do you defeat such formidable foes quickly, while keeping yourself healthy enough to survive surprise attacks from the other team? How long should it take to kill Svanir? What skill combination and build will do it quickest and where can you test your build before entering sPvP?

Watch the video after the break.

Now this is a work of art.
Send us any other videos with synchronized emotes and we’ll toss them up on the front page!

There are several similar skills in the game that can allow you to move quickly such as leaps and teleports, giving you the chance to get into – and more importantly – out of fights. The skills have different names and looks for each profession but they work pretty much the same. This video explores the Elementalist skills Lightning Flash (teleport) and Ride the Lightning (which is similar to a leap). Can you teleport into enemy keeps? Can you use them while falling? Will they stop fall damage? When and where will they work?

Continue reading to check out the answers to all these questions in Results Episode 4.

How much can an Elementalist heal? How much more effective are they with combination fields and finishers? How much does gear and compassion (water magic trait points) contribute? Is it worth it to sink points into water magic to improve healing?

Check out the answers to all these questions in GW2 Results Episode 3. And check out ‘Hamburger Hill’ near the end to watch 15 vs. 40+ out in the open!

Keep reading to watch the latest episode.

Guild Wars 2 is an exciting game with a lot to offer. Skill descriptions and theory crafting just isn’t always enough though – sometimes we need to do some tests to determine exactly how things work. In this video series we’ll be exploring the RESULTS of some of these tests. New videos on various topics will be released every Sunday and Wednesday until the start of Guild Wars 2.

Episode #1 – Mesmer Portals

How long do they last? How far can you go? Can you go through keeps? Check out the answers to all these questions in this video where we test Mesmer Portals. At the very least watch the huge jump before the credits (about 3:45) as we reveal something particular about portal ranges…

To watch the video hit us after the break.

Today we get a fifth video discussing all the aspects of Guild Wars 2, and as promised, we get the the last concerning World vs. World vs. World.

Guild Wars 2 Game Designers Matt Witter and Mike Ferguson talk about World vs World (WvW), where three teams battle for control over objectives across four massive maps. Each team represents an entire server, so literally hundreds of players take part in wars that last for weeks. It’s PvP combat on an epic scale!

Hit us after the break for the video.

Ever wonder what Asura children teasing each other are like? Wonder no more! Those clever and humorous devs over at Arenanet have put in some cool “flavor” if you’re willing to wander around and find it.

Check out the video. Your momma’s IQ is so low…

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.