Eye of the North Title Tracks - Deldrimor Title Track

Another new Title Track in Eye of the North is the Deldrimor Title Track. Earning Dwarven reputation points increases your progress on the Deldrimor Title Track.

As with the other new Title Tracks, you can gain reputation points by either completing relevant quests, or slaying creatures in explorable areas while under the Dwarven Raider blessing. You can get this by talking to the Deacons of Droknar, who are located next to resurrection shrines in explorable areas.

If you want to quickly boost your progress, repeat the Secret Lair of the Snowmen dungeon. With a proper team setup (I use my main character, two AoE damage Elementalist heroes, a monk healer hero, and the rest are henchies) this dungeon can be completed in around 10-15 minutes, and should yield between 800 and 1500 Dwarven reputation points.

Another good dungeon to try early on to get a quick boost in reputation points is the Sepulchre of Dragrimmar. You should be able to get at least one gold item, well over 1000 gold, and over 2000 Dwarven reputation points.

Once you've gained Rank 1 in the Deldrimor Title Track, you need to talk to Kodan the Dwarven Recruiter, in Gunnar's Hold. Once you've done this and display the Deldrimor Title, you get the benefit of the Stout Hearted status effect:

"Whenever you use a Skill against a Destroyer, it takes 6..15 damage and you gain 6..15 Health."

The Deldrimor Title Track ranks, points needed, and bonuses you get are:

Rank	Title	Dwarven reputation points	Damage / Health gain	Extra bonuses
1	Delver	1,000	6	Required for Stout-Hearted.
2	Stout Delver	4,000	7
3	Gutsy Delver	8,000	8	Required for crafting Dwarven Consumables.
4	Risky Delver	16,000	9	Required for crafting Dwarven Weapons.
5	Bold Delver	26,000	10	Required for crafting Dwarven armor.
6	Daring Delver	40,000	11
7	Adventurous Delver	56,000	12
8	Courageous Delver	80,000	13	Beacons of Droknar stop giving the Dwarven Raider blessing in Normal mode.
9	Epic Delver	110,000	14

There are at least 14 specific skills linked to the Deldrimor Title Track. As you increase in Rank you can gain these skills by talking to Dwarven NPCs, who will hand them out as rewards for completing specific quests. The quests themselves will also give you more Dwarven reputation points as a reward, and if you talk to the Deacons of Droknar along the way you can net even more points.

The current skill list is:

• "By Ural's Hammer!"
  
• "Don't Trip!"
  
• Alkar's Alchemical Acid
  
• Black Powder Mine
  
• Brawling Headbutt
  
• Breath of the Great Dwarf
  
• Drunken Master
  
• Dwarven Stability
  
• Ear Bite
  
• Great Dwarf Armor
  
• Great Dwarf Weapon
  
• Light of Deldrimor
  
• Low Blow
  
• Snow Storm
  

As more players progress on the new Title Tracks in Eye of the North, we should be able to get more information on the further ranks in the Deldrimor Title Track, along with any new bonuses or skills they will unlock.

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Eye of the North Title Tracks - Master of the North

Another new Eye of the North Title Track is The Master of the North. This tracks your progress through the Eye of the North storyline, increasing as you complete quests, dungeons, and explore the Eye of the North map areas.

You gain 5 Eye of the North mastery points for completing a primary mission, and 10 for completing a dungeon quest for the first time. You also gain additional points as you explore and discover areas in the Eye of the North map.

The points you need for each rank are:

• 100 mastery points - Rank 1 - Adventurer of the North
  
• 200 mastery points - Rank 2 - Pioneer of the North
  
• 350 mastery points - Rank 3 - Veteran of the North
  

At the moment, it looks like 316 is the maximum number of points you can obtain:

• 160 points for completing dungeon quests
  
• 55 points for all the primary missions
  
• 101 points for map exploration
  

In case you think I've added those up incorrectly ;-) remember that Fronis Irontoe's Lair and Secret Lair of the Snowman don't give points (as they are repeatable dungeon quests).

As ArenaNet tweak Eye of the North and add new side missions we can expect to see more opportunities to progress the Master of the North Title Track.

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Official press release as Eye of the North goes live

(I wanted to repost this Eye of the North Press Release because it contains some good information about the expansion, direct from ArenaNet)

Guild Wars: Eye of the North Goes Live, Expanding Guild Wars World
NCsoft releases the first expansion to award-winning, subscription-free Guild Wars franchise, builds bridge to Guild Wars 2

Brighton, England. August 31st 2007—NCsoft® Europe and ArenaNet® have launched Guild Wars: Eye of the North™, the first expansion to the Guild Wars® franchise of subscription-free, online roleplaying games. Guild Wars players who purchase the expansion can access Eye of the North content through any of the multi-million-selling Guild Wars campaigns–Guild Wars, Guild Wars Factions™, or Guild Wars Nightfall™. The expansion also includes an innovative feature that allows players to take achievements they have earned over the years with them into the forthcoming Guild Wars 2®.

Guild Wars: Eye of the North, continues the subscription-free business model pioneered by ArenaNet. The expansion is now available at the Official Guild Wars In-game Store and at http://eu.plaync.com/eu/, as well as from retailers across Europe and in North America, for an expected suggested retail price of £24.99 / €34.99.

Eye of the North advances the story told in the original Guild Wars campaign, and is set in unexplored areas of the continent of Tyria. One of the highlights of the expansion is the Hall of Monuments, which allows players to preserve armor sets, pets, Heroes, and titles earned while playing Guild Wars, Factions, Nightfall, and Eye of the North, and take those accomplishments with them into Guild Wars 2.

The expansion also contains a host of new features that will appeal directly to veteran Guild Wars players, including 18 multi-level dungeons, 150 new skills across all 10 Guild Wars professions, 10 new Heroes to aid them in their adventures, 40 new armor sets, and more items, weapons, and titles.

“We think fans will find a lot to love in Guild Wars: Eye of the North,” said Mike O’Brien, co-founder of ArenaNet. “Not only do we go back to the original Guild Wars lands and stories to wrap up plots and themes fans have clamored to learn more about, but we’ve also built a bridge to the future through the Hall of Monuments. This will give loyal players a way to preserve what they’ve accomplished in Guild Wars over the past two years, and reclaim the legacy of their favorite characters in Guild Wars 2.”

The Guild Wars franchise recently surpassed four million units sold and is one of the most popular and critically acclaimed online roleplaying game series of all time. Guild Wars 2 is expected to go into public beta in the second half of 2008.

For more information, visit the Guild Wars website at http://www.discoverguildwars.com. The award-winning Guild Wars series of games, including Guild Wars: Eye of the North, can be purchased from retailers or downloaded from the PlayNC store at https://secure.plaync.com/cgi-bin/Store.pl?language=en-gb.

About ArenaNet
ArenaNet, located in Bellevue, Washington, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of NCsoft Corporation. ArenaNet has built a state-of-the-art interactive game network and develops premier multiplayer online games for dedicated game players. ArenaNet’s titles, Guild Wars, Guild Wars Factions, Guild Wars Nightfall, and Guild Wars: Eye of the North, are global online roleplaying games that allow gamers to play with anyone, anytime, and anywhere in the world. More information about ArenaNet can be found at http://www.arena.net.

About NCsoft Europe
NCsoft Europe (NC-E) is headquartered in Brighton, England and is part of Korea-based NCsoft Corporation, the world’s leading developer and publisher of online games. NCsoft has already successfully established itself in North America, Japan, Taiwan, China and Thailand. NC-E began operations on 1st September 2004 and serves as a central hub for all NCsoft sales, marketing and distribution operations in Europe, via its European distribution network. NC-E launched Lineage® II in November 2004, City of Heroes® on 4th February 2005, Guild Wars on 28th April 2005, City of Villains™ on 31st October 2005, Guild Wars Factions on 28th April 2006, Guild Wars Nightfall on 27th October 2006 and Guild Wars: Eye of the North on 31st August 2007. More information about NCsoft Europe can be found at http://eu.plaync.com.

NCsoft, the interlocking NC logo, PlayNC, Guild Wars, Guild Wars Factions, Guild Wars Nightfall, Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall, Guild Wars: Eye of the North, Eye of the North, Guild Wars 2, ArenaNet, Dungeon Runners, and Lineage and all associated logos and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of NCsoft Corporation. City of Heroes, City of Villains, and all associated logos and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cryptic Studios, Inc. and NCsoft Corporation. Cryptic Studios is a trademark of Cryptic Studios, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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Eye of the North images for forum avatars

Your favourite Eye of the North characters are now available to download and use as forum avatars!

You can download a zipefile from ftp://ftp.guildwars.com/downloads/fansite-kit/gwen-avatars.zip. Once you uncompress it you'll find a selection of image of your Eye of the North characters, including Gwen, Vekk the Asura, Livia, and Pyre the Charr.

The images can be uploaded straight away to use as your avatar on the forum of your choice.

Which Eye of the North character will you choose?

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Eye of the North minigames - The Norn Fighting Tournament

The next Eye of the North minigame you can discover is the Norn Fighting Tournament.

Head on over to Gunnar's Hold - by the time you've reached here you should have progressed far enough along the Norn Title Track to be able to talk to Magni the Bison. You can find Gunnar's Hold easily from the Eye of the North map I blogged about previously.
Magni will give you the Round One: Fight! quest - then talk to Gellir Frostshield and pay 100 gold to enter the tournament.

During the tournament you will face 5 opponents from around Tyria in a one-on-one battle. The 6th opponent you face is Magni the Bison himself.

Defeating certain opponents will unlock some heroes and items for you:

• The heroes Xandra (Ritualist) and Kahmu (Dervish) are unlocked the first time you beat them in the tournament
  
• If you beat Zho and Onyx you will get Zho's Journal, which contains hints on how to get a Black Moa Chick
  
• If you bring Zehtuka's Great Horn and beat The Great Zehtuka, he will trade it for a Zehtuka's Horn
  

The Norn Fighting Tournament is a repeatable quest, and can be a great way to boost your Norn Title Track, as you get the follow reputation point rewards each time:

• 1st opponent defeated: 5 Norn reputation points
  
• 2nd opponent defeated: 10 Norn reputation points
  
• 3rd opponent defeated: 15 Norn reputation points
  
• 4th opponent defeated: 20 Norn reputation points
  
• 5th opponent defeated: 25 Norn reputation points
  
• 6th opponent defeated: No reputation awarded for defeating Magni the Bison.
  

The first time you defeat all six opponents, you receive the following skills and rewards:

• "Finish Him!" "Finish Him!"
  
• A Touch of Guile A Touch of Guile
  
• "Dodge This!" "Dodge This!"
  
• The Bison Cup
  

Having fought your way through the Tournament once, each subsequent time you've finished the quest and beaten all six opponents, you will receive a Bison Championship Token.

One of the opponents you come up against is Gwen - it's quite satisfying to give her the smackdown after her irritating behaviour in Old Ascalon (and throughout the Eye of the North, actually).

As the Arena is in Norn territory, make sure you have your Norn Title Track selected, so you can take advantage of the health bonus it gives you.

While playing this Eye of the North minigame, see if you can spot the Street Fighter 2 references ArenaNet have littered throughout the tournament. Feel free to add any you find the comments section!

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Eye of the North minigames - Dwarven boxing

Eye of the North introduces several new minigames. In a series of blog posts, we'll have a look at them, starting with Dwarven Boxing.

To start on your boxing career, you need to talk to Kilroy Stonekin in Gunnar's Hold. He will initially give you a set of Brass Knuckles to equip, and you can then enter a boxing arena and compete against NPCs opponents from around Tyria.

As well as the Brass Knuckles you'll find your skills have been replaced with Boxing skills. As your adrenaline increases, you'll find extra skills becoming available.

Kilroy will give you a series of quests as well as random opponents. Towards the end of the quests you will be given Thunderfist's Brass Knuckles, a rare pair of inscribable daggers.

Some quick boxing strategies for you to try:

• Brawling Block is a very useful skill, don't waste this on a regular attack. This skill can be useful in blocking more harmful attacks, such as Dismember and Cleave.
  
• When using Brawling Straight Right, avoid using it as a damage dealer. This skill is very useful in interrupting self heals, such as Healing Signet and Lion's Comfort.
  
• Brawling Combo Punch should be used right before you are about to get knocked out. This is useful, because as soon as you get back up, Brawling Combo Punch is recharged.
  

We'll cover some of the other Eye of the North mini-games in other blog postings.

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Great Eye of the North video

This great Eye of the North video from Nekkara is really well done - the music meshes well with the scenery walkthroughs and battles:



Hopefully this gives you a good idea of the gorgeous explorable environments in Eye of the North.

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Eye of the North introduces the Norn

The second new race to be introduced in Eye of the North is the Norn. As the Norn mission track was the only one you could play during the Sneak Peek weekend, we'll look at them first.

When exploring Far Shiverpeaks you'll find NPCs that give bonuses next to a resurrection shrine. Initially, you have no reputation with the Norn, and they are suspicious and distrustful. When you meet a new Norn, you won't be able to talk to them until you've defeated them in combat.

The Norn have a special skill that gives them the ability to transform into giant bears, yet still keep their weapons and casting abilities. The transformation skill takes a few seconds to cast which gives you a good opportunity to get a few quick hits off.

Once you defeat your Norn opponent you'll gain some Norn Reputation - if you check in your Hero window you'll see the new Norn Title Track.

Once you've beaten the first Norn in an explorable area you'll be given the Norn Hunting Party bonus. For each creature you kill in that area, you gain one Norn reputation point.

For each 25 creatures you kill, you recieve an extra 15 Norn reputation points as a bonus. If you go back to each Norn you've met in the explorable area who hasn't given you a bonus, they will now give you a random number of Norn points - usually 15 or 20.

For each multiple of 25 creatures you kill, any Norn who haven't given you a bonus become more likely to not just give Reputation Points, but also a skill bonus.

The main one is Strength of the Norn, which is an enchantment spell lasting for 60 seconds. When active you recieve +100 health, and after the 60 seconds are up, you're healed for 100 health.

You may also be given extra levels of the Norn Hunting Party blessing, which add an extra amount of points per kill. For example, Norn Hunting Party Level 3 adds an extra 3 Reputation Points per kill.

With diligent exploring and careful planning these bonuses can quickly stack up, giving you a rapid and massive increase in your Norn Title Track. On some of the larger explorable areas it is possible to get over 300 creature kills.

As has been seen with previous race-specific titles from Guild Wars: Factions (the Kurzick and Luxon Title Tracks) you can't interact with any racial NPCs until you have gained some reputation and progress on the Title Track.

In Eye of the North you need to achieve at least level 3 to start talking to the Norn NPCs in towns.

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Eye of the North - getting started details

You can purchase the Eye of the North expansion from within your Guild Wars client by clicking on the Guild Wars Store icon - this will take effect immediately, allowing you to instantly explore the new content in Guild Wars: Eye of the North.

Each main town from the three existing Guild Wars chapters will have a new NPC - you'll need to talk to them to receive a mission which takes you to Eye of the North:

Characters from the original Guild Wars Prophecies campaign wishing to travel to the Far Shiverpeaks for the first time should seek out Len Caldoron in Lion’s Arch and accept the “What Lies Beneath” quest.

Characters from Guild Wars: Factions wishing to travel to the Far Shiverpeaks for the first time should seek out Minister of Maintenance Raiugyon in Kaineng Center and accept the “I Feel the Earth Move Under Cantha’s Feet” quest.

Characters from Guild Wars: Nightfall wishing to travel to the Far Shiverpeaks for the first time should seek out Bendah in Kamadan and accept the “Hole of Istan” quest.

Once you have completed these missions you will find yourself in Boreal Station. You will also notice new purple Asura Gates have appeared on the map - these can be used to transport you direct to Boreal Station in the Eye of the North at any time.

Details have been released by ArenaNet for the 4 new Title Tracks - Asura, Deldrimor, Ebon Vanguard, and Norn - detailing what each level will give you access to:

Rank 3: Access to a special item crafter. Each group has a single item crafter who provides unique and powerful items. You must spend a Skill Point to have these items crafted for you.

Rank 4: Access to an exclusive weapon crafter. Each group has a single weapon crafter who provides unique weapons, such as the Raven Scythe and the Charrslayer Axe.

Rank 5: Access to an exclusive armor crafter. Each group has a single armor crafter who provides single unique armor pieces, such as the Dread Mask or the Magma Gauntlets.

All ranks: The 50 PvE-only skills and passive bonuses provided by these groups become more powerful with each title rank.

Hopefully this information should be enough to help you get started on your way in the Eye of the North.

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Eye of the North - travelling to the Far Shiverpeaks

This is a quick walk through showing how to travel the new area in Eye of the North.

We'll be starting from Kamadan (the main city in Elona, from the Guild Wars: Nightfall campaign). You'll need to find and speak to the NPC Bendah. He gives you a new mission - you need to travel to the cliffs behind Kamadan and investigate a strange new fissure that has opened up.

Once you've spoken to Bendah, an earthquake starts to rock the city, and it continues with rats and ooze appearing and running around. Although in missions these would be monsters, inside the city they behave like normal NPCs and can't be attacked.

Leaving the main gates of Kamadan, you need to head to the left and down to the side and rear of the city. After a minute or so you'll come across a glowing hole in the cliff, labelled Fissure.

Clicking on this will bring up the message "Before you is a massive crak in the ground that leads deep into the earth." Click on the 'Explore the fissure' option to enter the mission, Caverns below Kamdan.

The caverns are very similar to the Catacombs in pre-searing Ascalon (from the first Guild Wars: Prophecies chapter). You'll come across several groups of low-level Corsairs and scouts wandering about, with a few camps. After exploring for a while you should find a group of dwarves, who are led by Ogden Stonehealer.

A short cut scene plays, where it transpires the dwarves are trying to escape from something called The Destroyers, along with their Asura friend. You'll now get a new mission goal, which is to escape through a different portal and flee the Destroyers.

This is timed mission, giving you 3 minutes to escape to the other gate. The Destroyers that are chasing you resemble the Elite Covenant from Halo. As enemies they are quite high level and very fast - if you engage in combat you'll quickly get swarmed and die, and need to restart the mission.

Your only option is to quickly run and follow Ogden and Vekk the Asura. After some frantic running - avoiding the many groups of Destroyers who will appear at random - you should make it to the gate, with around 45 seconds to a minute spare.

Having escaped through the portal, there's a short cut scene where Ogden introduces the Nornthe second new race in Eye of the North. The Norn you meet drop some hints about trouble in the northern lands, and you will then find yourself transported to Boreal Station in the Far Shiverpeaks.

You should find that Ogden Stonehealer has been unlocked as a level 20 Monk Hero. If you examine your map you'll see that next to each main city in each chapter (Lion's Gate, Kaineng and Kamadan) is a special purple town, called the Asura Gate. This allows you to transport straight back to Boreal Station.

You're now in the Eye of the North and ready to start fully exploring this new Guild Wars expansion.

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Eye of the North number 1 in European sales charts

Eye of the North, the first expansion in the award winning Guild Wars series, has had a big take up in Europe, soaring to the top of the PC sales charts in Germany, France, Spain and Sweden in its first week of launch on the 31st August.

Geoff Heath, CEO of NCSoft Europe, said “We are absolutely delighted that Eye of the North, the first true expansion pack in the Guild Wars franchise, has hit such a chord with our fans. It once again proves that ArenaNet’s mix of compelling story, innovative content and subscription-free gameplay is a hit with online gamers around the world.”

On top of this Guild Wars: Eye of the North has reached the number two sales position in Germany's all formats sales chart.

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Eye of the North map and manual

Eye of the North is now live, but before the launch date ArenaNet had a preview - the Sneak Peek weekend.

For all those who bought the pre-release bonus pack, and were able to play in the Sneak Peek weekend, or those who have downloaded Eye of the North direct from the online store, ArenaNet have made available both a map and manual for Eye of the North.

The manual is in PDF format and can be downloaded from http://eu.guildwars.com/images/manual/GWEN/manual-en.pdf

The map is pretty interesting, as previous maps had just shown the area north of the Shiverpeaks, whereas with this final map you can see you will be able to travel to the Maguuma Jungles and the Krytan coast again.

The Eye of the North map, which comes as a poster in the boxed game, can be downloaded from http://eu.guildwars.com/images/uploads/gwen-mapposter.jpg

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