On the latest episode of Points of Interest, hosts Josh Davis and Rubi Bayer were joined by Link Hughes, Jessica Boettiger, and Jon Peters for a look at a guild hall in the game. Rubi and Link began with a tour of the Gilded Hollow guild hall, a massive cavern below the jungle filled with flowing water and mysterious golden ruins.
Link said that while guild halls in the original Guild Wars® were fairly large, ArenaNet wanted to push the idea even further in Guild Wars 2. Each hall is actually a personal zone for your guild, and Link mentioned that there would be plenty of details for explorers to find.
When you first claim your guild hall, you’ll have access to temporary structures while you work on gathering the materials needed to construct your guild buildings. Link demonstrated the process, exchanging makeshift pavilions for the huge completed buildings.
Rubi and Link also modeled the new guild armor sets in light and medium versions and revealed some examples of guild weapon sets that can be created in either of the two guild halls. The shadowy Tenebrous set corresponds to the Gilded Hollow hall, while the ethereal Shimmering set belongs to the lofty Lost Precipice hall. To gain access to both sets, players will need to belong to different guilds to access each of the halls.
Next, Josh, Jessica, and Jon went over some of the changes guild halls are bringing to Player vs. Player. Players will be able to build a guild arena in their hall and customize it to their liking by placing decorations—some of them more lethal than others. Obstacles that can be added to the arena include turrets, line-of-sight-blocking pillars, and lava pits. You can even set the rules to determine whether or not players can be knocked off the side of the arena to their deaths.
While the final number of players allowed in the arena hasn’t been nailed down, it’s currently possible to have forces as large as twenty or thirty doing battle at one time. The terms of engagement are set by default to split players into three teams, but it’s also possible to engage in a free-for-all death match.
Jessica and Jon also expanded on the changes to World vs. World outlined in this blog. Guilds will be able to use the workshop in their war rooms to craft improvements and tactics that can be slotted into claimed objectives in WvW, granting effects to the teams that own them and making objectives strategically important. There are both offensive and defensive improvements available—you can call down an airship strike on Stonemist Castle, turn into a charr car, run through water to gain stealth, and turn towers into sentry posts to expose the enemy.
If you missed this week’s episode, you can check out the recording below!
