On November 12th, players will literally storm that castle.
The update will focus on attacking the Toxic Alliance’s inner sanctum. Players had been theorizing whether this epic battle would be instanced or open-world. Typically, living story boss battles in Guild Wars 2 have been instanced, personalized zones, but the developers are trying to move away from that and towards more and more big champion bosses in the living world.
So, in this particular patch, the tower is open world content, but there will be small instances within it. That doesn’t really solve the debate. What parts are instances? Why? What’s the future of this type of content? I like the open world zones because I like zerging, but some others would prefer to go it alone. Everyone deserves to know what the new content will hold.
There will be stylish outfits, armor skins, collectibles, and chests full of prizes, but these special treasures won’t be powerful or game breaking. They will be standard cosmetic items and buffs that avid players will acknowledge as normal slightly-new rewards.
During the time before release, ArenaNet is hosting a “Rock the Nightmare” music video contest where players can edit video to go with the new patch’s soundtrack. The prizes are some very cool headphones, a keyboard, and a guitar; so if you have the skills, it really might be worth entering the contest before you fight the undead.