Guild Wars 2 MMO News, Guides, and Features at Ten Ton Hammer

The Hall itself has undergone some minor improvements along with the anniversary update, most notably by letting players display their achievements across the entire account rather than by individual characters. The old display option can be toggled on at any time by speaking to Kimmes the Historian, but for those players whose achievements and collections are spread across multiple characters, the new display option is certainly a welcome improvement.

Rather than create a stand-alone event for the celebration, the fourth anniversary festivities instead marked a return of the Shing Jea Boardwalk, including the light-hearted PvP of the Dragon Arena and my own personal favorite mini-game Rollerbeetle Racing. During previous festivals I’ve been known to while away entire weekends racing around the Rollerbeetle track, and the fourth anniversary celebration was certainly no exception!  

What the celebration may have lacked in terms of new event content, it certainly made up for by introducing a lengthy list of game updates across a number of key areas. The most obvious of these is a new zone called the Zaishen Menagerie, accessed through the Battle Isles. Think of the Menagerie as an extension of the Hall of Monuments concept, a key difference being that this is a truly massive outdoor area with a focus specifically on the various types of charmable pets available to characters with a Ranger primary or secondary. Previously, the only way for players to charm a new pet was to travel to one of a handful of locations and speak to a trainer who would free up the slot. Now players not only have a means of charming the same pets again, but can do so at any previously unlocked evolutionary state to boot.

Logging in with my Ranger, I quickly swapped in Charm Animal on my hotbar to take Rover the Raven for a tour of the Menagerie. Speaking with the Saishen Keeper allowed me to add Rover to my collection of pets, as well as view complete lists of every pet type available across the three main campaigns and the Eye of the North expansion, even providing some basic information on where they could be found should I want to attempt charming any of them. From there I scampered off to see where my freshly added raven would appear on the island, a process made much easier thanks to a series of  Master of Winds NPCs interspersed throughout the zone who cast a buff called Windborne Speed when you approach. Normal movement enhancing buffs can also be used here, but I found the NPCs a nice touch considering the overall expanse of the area.