August 6th sees the celebration of the Guild Wars 2 Queens Jubilee.
To celebrate ten years of Queen Jennah’s rule, she has commissioned a new gladitorial arena known as the Crown Pavillion.
Players will also be able to take a hot air balloon ride with dignitaries across Tyria, moving to the capital of the Krytan nation.
A series of events will begin in-game from next week. The hot air balloon will be available from August 6th. The balloon will freely take you to Divinity’s Reach. On the same day, the opening ceremony of the Queen’s Jubilee will take place, showing off the new arena in all its glory. Spectate or take part, the choice is yours. If you take part, you can be named champion of a nation and gain access to unique rewards.
Players will also be able to fight in the Queen’s Gauntlet, a series of increasingly difficult challenges of single combat. There will also be special gambit conditions which will merit rare rewards.
New rewards include the Watchwork Mechanisms and the Mini Watchknight. The Mechanisms can be used in new crafting recipes and as a currency in the Crown Pavillion to buy items like new rune and sigil recipes. Players will also receive a Mini Watchknight if they complete the Queen’s Jubilee’s meta-achievement.
New features introduced in the update include an Account Wallet for Currency. The wallet holds dungeon tokens, coins, karma, laurels, Guild Commendations, Fractal Relics, Badges of Honor, Gems and Glory, making them accessible in one place.
There is also a PVP Solo Queue. This allows you to enter Solo Arena matches without having to wait for team mates. The Solo Arena also has its own leaderboard.
Bonus Rewards for Dungeons will be added. Each day, when you finish a unique path for any explorable or story dungeon, you’ll receive a bonus reward for completion. 1 to 3 gold for explorable dungeons (dependent on length and difficulty) and 50 silver for story dungeons.
Other quirks include Champion Loot updates, a mini-game rotation system, improved effects for the level of detail system, world vs world supply mastery and permanent finisher. Players will now be able to choose their finisher as a default and use them in both PvP and WvW.
Expect to hear more on this update soon.