Guild Wars: Halloween is Coming!

So, yeah, the Halloween event is coming up this weekend. I'd have to check the festival hats vendor but I'm fairly certain I've never been playing at the same time as one of these has gone down. Being, instead, out of the game or too busy to log on. But for all the complaining I do about the normal weekend giveaways, it's only because the holiday special events are so generally well done. Love 'em. Can't get enough of 'em. I only miss them during those periods where the game and I are on a trial separation or in the middle of a pitched custody battle (We're trying to reconcile right now but damned if work isn't keeping me busy. Guild Wars, girl, you know I love you, baby. But I gots to earn that bank so I can bring you the finer things in life. Now why don't you slip into a sexy little quest for me that I can run through later. Awwwww yeah. $240 dollars worth of pudding, yeah.).

Halloween isn't the biggest one as, in the past, it's lacked things like....I don't know, the Snowball Arena. Yes, I loves me some Snowball Arena and I'm counting the days until it shows up again for the holiday season. Dragon Arena's pretty good, too. Not such a fan of the Roller Beetle races or the boardwalk “games” but the general point remains. Along with all the quests and sparkly new items, the mini-games are something new, something different, that breathe life into the game and renew my interest all over again. Ah, but this year there just might be a little mini-game to captivate me. The Costume Brawl.

Details are sketchy at this point but it looks like you'll talk to an NPC to select a costume. One of twenty pre-defined characters, one male and one female for each profession (Not sure if you'll get to get all tranny with it or there's just one selection per class depending on what gender you are. The presence of similar NPCs like Argo and Cynn, both Fire mages would seem to imply the latter. But then you have things like Lukas, a sword tank, and Devona, a hammer swinger, holding it down for the Wars. So who knows? Here's hoping it's the former while expecting it's the lazier option.). And, it sounds like each of those choices will come with a set skillbar. Something the developers have picked out for you that everyone wearing that skin will be using. Not sure how they're going to handle equipment or things like Death Penalty but I imagine it'll be like the other mini-game Arenas. You'll have a global enchantment taking care of all stat and level discrepancies, there won't be any DP to accrue, and the reward will be trinkets (Which I really have to remember to dump off this time around, my Xunlai account is full of gift boxes and lunar tokens and whatever other not-quite-worthless crap you amass during these things.). Oh, and sweet, sweet, gamer points. I'm only a few hundred from rank four and if you don't think I'm charging hard to get there then you don't realize just how much time I spent snowballing it up to get where I am now.

Provided, of course, the builds aren't horrible and whatever hoops they make you jump through to win a match aren't too dumb. The promise of new arenas and reuse of some HvH maps has me worried this is going to be some kind of lame point capping race instead of pure P on P action. But if it's what I'm predicting – like the Random Arena just with set builds – then it could be amazingly fun. No worrying about the meta or optimizing your bar, you just pick up your favorite toy and go. What an awesome idea that could really help people learn the PvP game. So, of course, it's going to disappear after the weekend. Yeah, I'd expect a rant about that before too long. But, in the meantime, I'm sure I'll have fun just figuring out the twists and turns in each of the 10~20 builds I'll be handed. I am, after all, the kind of player who doesn't like to stick with one role or class very long. I've played almost everything, spending at least a few matches or Tombs runs on each of those professions in that list. Not exactly an expert at most of the game's archetypes (And what I have learned is now, of course, months out of date) but that flexibility, that yen to pick up a new build, and the ability to do it quickly, just might serve me well here.

So, yeah, if you're looking for me this weekend you know where to find me. In the Costumed Ball, trying on the different masks, and trying to kick a few butts while I'm at it.